Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you… I. THE STATEMENT OF THE TEXT IS NO EXAGGERATION. Look at the Jewish nation. The whole nation was a school, and the law was their schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. But it failed — utterly failed — to accomplish this. The enmity of the human heart came out amongst the Jewish people. II. SOME OF THE ENDEAVOURS MEN MAKE TO RECTIFY EXISTING EVILS. Emphatically this is an age of progress; of progress in many things that have rendered man wiser, and the world happier. Philosophy takes a higher range of thought. Literature is nobler and healthier in its tone. Art is purer than Grecian art. Science is not atheistic. Many run to and fro, and knowledge is multiplied. We recognise this progress thankfully; it is all good, though not the highest good. It is all capable of being turned to spiritual advantage. But by it society is not regenerated: there arc social questions of the deepest importance that are not yet settled. There are forms of ignorance most appalling, developments of ignorance most deplorable, and a general spirit of scepticism widely spread. Man has done, and is doing, his very utmost to set the world right, and yet the world continues wrong. III. THE GOSPEL ANNOUNCES ITSELF AS SUFFICIENT TO MEET AND TO REMOVE ALL THE MISERIES OF HUMANITY. 1. It is this which distinguishes the Gospel from all other schemes. Many things are palliatives, but you can find nothing that pretends to do all the work that man requires to have done for him but the Gospel. Then indifference to the Gospel is the most fearful proof that could be presented to the mind of my voluntary ignorance and sin. 2. We may with confidence say that the Gospel not only professes to do this but has done all this. It has proved itself the great salvation. (W. G. Barrett.) Parallel Verses KJV: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. |
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