Title: GOD’S PEOPLE IN THE DOCK

Focus: In the courtroom of God’s justice and holiness we stand condemned as sinners. Thank God for Jesus Christ who has atoned for our sins.

Function: to encourage the people to take sin seriously and to repent from it with contrite hearts, appealing to Jesus Christ as our sin bearer and advocate.

Text: Hosea 4:1-19

The delegates of Classis Lake Superior engaged in a short discussion this past week. One church asked for advice from the delegates about what a pastor and the consistory should do when a member of the church who is living together with his girlfriend or fiancée wants to get married in church and asks the pastor to officiate at the wedding ceremony.

During the discussion it became clear that all the delegates assumed that cohabitation before marriage is wrong. But I was struck by the eagerness of the delegates to find a way whereby the couple could be married, without being turned off or hurt by the consistory or pastor for expressing hesitation or refusal to bless the wedding ceremony. The discussion tended to move toward accommodating the couple as much as possible, without getting a segment of the church membership upset about the pastor officiating at the couple’s church wedding. Then it hit me again: why are we so reluctant to call sinful conduct what it really is: sin—a grievous offence in God’s eyes?

When it comes to sinful behavior, we tend to speak in terms of “in a moment of weakness I did this,” or “we made a mistake,” or “I was not thinking clearly,” or “we thought that we did the right thing in our situation.” We fail to express, however, any awareness of the gravity of sinful conduct. Nor are we willing to probe the depth and nature of our sinful behavior.

That’s why we do well tonight to join the Israelites as God’s people in the dock. For it is in God’s courtroom of justice and holiness that we learn the gravity of sin and discover that we stand condemned as sinners.

The scriptures call us tonight to take sin seriously and to repent with contrite hearts from sinful conduct, appealing to Jesus Christ as our sin bearer and advocate in the courtroom of God’s justice. Thank God for Jesus Christ who has atoned for our sins!

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As the prophet Hosea speaks God’s Word to the Israelites and to us, we find ourselves in the dock. We are on trial in the courtroom of God’s justice and holiness. Listen: (vs.1a) “Hear the Word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land:….”

Perhaps you cringe for being in the dock tonight. Lots of people do. A public trial in the courtroom of justice can be a humiliating and nerve wrecking experience. Fifteen years ago, for example, O.J. Simpson was in the dock. Accused of murdering his wife, O.J. was humiliated in the public limelight. And although he was acquitted, O.J has lived under a cloud of suspicion and distrust ever since. Standing on trial is tough. Being in the dock of God’s courtroom of holiness and justice is harder yet. But here we are: on trial, with God’s people Israel.

Listen to he charges against us; they are two-fold: (vs.1b-2) “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land.” That’s the first charge. God couches the charge in the language of marriage or covenant faithfulness. God speaks to us as a husband would speak to his unfaithful wife: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land.” In other words, we are ignoring the relationship of trust and fidelity that God has established with us. We fail to express fidelity to God; we ignore him in our daily living; we pursue our own thing, our own pleasures. As such we are breaking covenant with God.

The other charge against God’s people is one of a failure to obey. Listen: (vs. 2) “There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.” In other words, all the “love-your-neighbor” commandments are being broken. Not one of us has clean hands; we stand in the dock.

Do you sense the gravity of God’s charge? Since God couches the charges in husband-wife language, we feel the weight of our sins more deeply. For infidelity in marriage cannot be dismissed lightly with an “I’m sorry for my mistakes,” or with an “I’ll never do it again.” The trust or fidelity that must be restored calls for a contrite heart, for honesty and deep soul searching. Clearly, we are in the dock of God’s courtroom. This is serious business.

As Hosea continues to speak God’s Word, we notice that God explores with us the blame. Whose fault is it that you and I are in the dock of God? Is it my neighbor? My culture? My country? Our clergy, perhaps? Who can we blame for our transgressions? Well, there is enough blame to go around. That’s for sure, but listen to God: (vs.4) “...let no man bring a charge, let no man accuse another for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest. You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you….”

God has a beef with all his people, including the Levites or priests, the clergy who must lead God’s people in the way of knowledge and faithfulness of God. We learn from the rest of the passage that the people are involved in pagan worship, joining the Philistines in Baal worship. They go up to the high places (instead of Jerusalem, where God’s temple is), and they engage in pagan rites of temple prostitution (instead of offering sacrifices to the Lord their God for their sins). The people do not acknowledge their God; they fail to walk the talk of God’s law; they fail to sing praises to God, and they do not speak the language of covenant love and faithfulness. They are stubborn, says Hosea—like a stubborn heifer, they abandon the Lord their God.

The Levitical priests in Israel are no better. In fact, for a large measure they are also to blame for the unfaithfulness of Israel. When you listen carefully, you’ll notice that God blames the clergy for two particular things:

(1) They fail to teach, and (2) they fail to model obedience.

For example, the priests are responsible for educating or catechizing the people; knowledge of God in the land begins with, continues with, and ends with the work of the priests. They must teach the Law; they must insist on covenant faithfulness; and they must model worship, service and obedience to the people under their care. Listen to God: (vs. 6-8) “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests…The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful. They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness.”

In other words, the priests simply joined their parishioners in conforming to the culture and the practices of pagan worship rites. The ignorance of the priests led to a failure of knowledge of God among the people. In fact, the priests became corrupt in their own hearts. They fed on the sins of my people. How?

Here’s an example: God had instructed the Israelites to bring sin offerings to the priests as a sign of repentance and sorrow. The priests would present these sin offerings to God, but a portion of the sacrifices—whether meat or grain, or treasure—would be for the priests to sustain themselves. In stead of being dismayed about the sins of the people, the priests welcomed their sins—and especially their sin offerings, because the more sins, the more sin offerings and therefore the more treasure and meat and grain in the priests’ pockets.

They feed on the sins of my people. Such things still happen today. Not only by clergy but also by their parishioners. For example, respectable businessmen, stockholders, and corporations will sometime live off the sins of other people.

Using sex models and sexual immodesty, they sell their cars, and suits and alcoholic drinks. Respectable landlords close their eyes to drug lords and prostitutes in their housing projects. Corporate CEO’s and innocent tourists alike will enter gambling casinos and play the lottery; and modest men and women will gossip—that is, eating up the sins of others saying, “Have you heard about so and so?”

Of course, men and women of the cloth are no better. Savvy T.V. evangelists will feed on the sins of the people. The people’s lack of knowledge of God makes them vulnerable to such clergy abuse: faith healers handing out or mailing prayer cloths to people for a small donation of course. And pastors, for example, who emphasize narcissistic worship—“it’s all about me,” and pastors who refuse to call sinful conduct, sin.

And by the way, have you heard about the Roman Catholic Church’s objection in France? Some savvy people in France have set up a phone line called “The Line of the Lord.” The line was set up at the start of the Lent season—a season of penitence and confession of sin for many faithful Christians.

Well, guess what. You can now call this “Line of the Lord” for 46 cents a minute. You simply confess your sins to God over the phone line. The operator at the other end of the line cannot forgive your sins. According to the Roman Catholic Church only Catholic priests may do so. That’s why they are objecting to this business practice. But clearly, this phone company is feeding on the sins of the people. And so it goes.

We are in the dock. And in the courtroom of God’s justice and holiness we stand condemned as sinners. Do we still dare to take sin against God seriously?

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We can learn a few things about God and ourselves as we stand in the dock of God’s courtroom:

(1). Sin grieves God. Sin is a deep offense against God’s holiness and justice. Our sins diminish God’s honor; it also diminishes God’s image in which we were created. Sin breaks our relationship or union with God. God’s sees our sins as a barrier that breaks our relationship with him.

Do you ever remember bringing grief to your parents or spouse—so much that their hearts were broken? Do you remember how that grief affected you? Sin grieves God. Our sins break his heart. We must let that truth sink into our own hearts and minds. Here’s why:

(2) Repentance from sin calls for a contrite heart. And a contrite heart will be ours when we humble ourselves before God, confess our sins, and cry out for mercy and forgiveness. For we stand condemned before God.

A contrite heart also calls for a daily dying to sin and a daily rising to love, service and obedience to God’s Word. We must walk our talk. Faithfulness is the keyword here. Our wedding rings signifies that we have pledged faithfulness to our spouse. I’m my wife’s; she is mine; we are one. The wedding ring signifies to the world that union and fidelity to the world.

So it is also with our baptism. Our baptism signifies our union with the Lord our God; We belong to him because of his claim on us and because of Jesus’ work on the cross. He bought us with a price. We are his. Now we must learn to show our fidelity and faithfulness each day by acknowledging him in all we do and say.

Clearly, repentance calls for a contrite heart, and we show contriteness and fidelity to God by living out our baptismal vows: we live unto Christ, for we belong to him, the Son of God. There is one more thing we learn about ourselves:

(3) We need a sin bearer and advocate. As we stand in the dock of God’s courtroom and hear the charges against us—even today—it becomes clear: we are guilty as charged. No one is able to keep God’s law perfectly; not one of us has clean hands. Thank God, then, for Jesus Christ. Thank God for this wonderful mediator or advocate! Here’s why. Listen (I John 2:1-2) “ My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not (continue to) sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks t the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Jesus is our sin bearer. He paid the wages of our sins; and in him we find life and forgiveness, so much so that with the apostle Paul we can say, (Romans 8:1) “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus….” Thank God for Jesus! For he is also our advocate, who pleads our cause before the throne of God our Father.

Today we shall not despair standing in the courtroom of God’s holiness and justice. We stand convicted. Yes! We have no clean hands. But we do not despair! For Christ is our advocate and Savior. Thanks be to God!

Amen.