Study Notes

I.      Hosea 4:6-One of the main things keeping people bound and getting them destroyed is rejecting the truth and not wanting the truth

A.    Hear the word of the Lord – God’s giving them light to let them see and truth to make them free

1.      John 17:17, 8:32-This is the truth they need to hear and it’s designed to make them free

B.     1-The Lord had a dispute with them and it was because there was no truth in the land, there was no goodness, there was no discernment

1.      The Lord is not okay with His people walking around in lies and deception with no truth

a.    3 John 4-This brings him no joy for His people to have no truth because that means they’re not going to be free, they’re not going to be protected, they’re not going to walk in victory; they’re going to be deceived and destroyed

b.    2 Corinthians 3:17-Where the spirit of truth is there is freedom and liberty

2.      This a place and these are a people who lack light, who lack truth, who lack knowledge

3.      They must have done something to keep truth and the knowledge of God out of the land because God has a dispute with them; if they hadn’t done something to cause this then God would be wrong in having a dispute with them

a.    Your life can get to a place that it is void of truth-1 Timothy 6:5, Ephesians 4:17, Romans 1:21

b.    Can you do things that would cause your life to be void of truth? Are some walking in and getting more truth than others are getting?

1)       Mark 4:24-25 Amplified-If you welcome and receive the truth you’ll get more of it, if you reject it you’ll be cut off

a)  Do you need to pay attention to how you hear truth or how you treat and respond to the truth?

b)  Proverbs 1:7-The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, perception, discernment, sight, light

2)       Romans 1:24,26,28-These people got cut off because of the way they treated the truth and they aren’t getting any additional truth because of their refusal to receive this truth

a)  If you harden yourself to it and close your eyes and ears to it you won’t get anymore truth

c.     You can ensure that you keep getting truth by receiving and responding properly to the truth that God gives you–You want more truth

C.    Why would they be yielding to such things?

1.      What should they be doing with this pull to do these evil things? They should be resisting these pulls and thoughts and temptations

a.    Why would you yield to something that’s going to end up in your destruction? You don’t see it and you must believe that yielding to these things is going to end up for your good; They are yielding to these things because they believe it’s going to lead to good things for them and they don’t see the end

b.    The enemy did not come and possess them and make them do these things; the reality is he tricked them, they yielded to him; The people doing these things are deceived, they are believing lies and the enemy has them bound

2.      2 Corinthians 10:3-5-If something tries to exalt itself against the truth, against the light, against what’s right and you don’t know the truth and you don’t have light, then you won’t know that you need to cast it down and you will end up yielding to something you should be resisting

a.    If you don’t have light & you don’t know the truth then you won’t know what you should be resisting and what you should be yielding to

b.    Something is exalting itself against the knowledge of God and they don’t know it because they don’t have knowledge of God/light

3.      It’s the thought and the feeling that comes to you that this is not true, that is contrary to what God said and Satan is hoping that you don’t notice that it’s contrary to what God said and that you are ignorant of the word so that you don’t even know if it is a lie

a.    We should be able to detect when the enemy is attacking us and when the thoughts and feelings are coming from him and when he’s trying to lie to us; we should be able to pick it up and know that it’s him

b.    The only way you would know what it came from the enemy is by the light of God’s word and by the light of God’s spirit; Only in the light of the truth will we recognize a lie

c.     There are thoughts that can come to that are more deadly to you than poison that would kill you on the spot and they can come so innocently, from your adversary and he’s hoping that you won’t notice that it came from him and this is how he works, very subtly

1)       He wants you to yield to him and not know that you are

2)       You need light so that you’re not thinking wrong believing that you’re right: this is what the enemy wants

4.      If you think the enemy’s attack is going to be obvious you think wrong, because he is subtle 

a.    Genesis 3-He chose the most subtle and this is God’s enemy and they don’t recognize it; Satan’s attack is not obvious, it’s not direct

b.    John 10:1-5-The thief doesn’t come in the front door, why? His attack is not obvious and public and direct, it’s delicate and deceitful

1)       Robber-To steal by stealth-intended to not attract attention, steal in quiet or secret to go unnoticed

c.     Matthew 7:15-The enemy doesn’t approach you like a wolf with fury in his eyes; he approaches you like and innocent harmless sheep

D.    One of the greatest things that you can learn as a believer is what things you should yield to and what things you should resist; without light and truth you won’t know what you should resist and what you should yield to

1.      Ephesians 5:13-The way that you would know what to resist and what to yield to is have light and bring it over into the light

a.    You would know something is a lie only in the light of the truth and you don’t need to be in the dark when the enemy comes to lie to you

b.    This is how you deal with the liar you put the light on him and expose him

1)       John 18:38-The truth is the most destructive thing to the enemy that there has ever been and that’s why Jesus came to bear witness of the truth; When you’re main weapon is lies and the truth shows up, you’re in trouble

2)       1 John 4:1-You examine everything in the light of his word and his truth; Everything you hear, everything you see, every thought you have you need to challenge it, “Is it true?” “How do I know it’s true?” and “What else is true?”

2.      2 Timothy 2:15-Rightly divided the Word of Truth

a.    Just because somebody has verses is not enough; the devil has verses so you need to know what else is true

1)       People get on a truth, but then they try to make that all there is and then it becomes wrong

2)       The word should be rightly divided and you rightly divide and truth with other truths and that’s why you need to say what else is true

b.    Luke 4-Jesus stays in the truth and stays in the light and the devil starts quoting scripture; that’s when you need to not only know what’s true; Jesus said yeah that’s a scripture and that’s true, but it’s also true and it’s also written and Jesus is rightly dividing the word of truth

1)       It’s true God’s given his angels charge over me, but it’s also true we don’t tempt God by jumping off a building for no good reason

3.      EX: Let’s say that there is a couple having marital problems.  The enemy comes to the wife one day and says, “Doesn’t Ephesians 5 say he’s supposed to love you the way Christ loves the church?  Does he love you like that?  He doesn’t love you like that.  Remember the time when he said this and did that.  And think about how you’ve been there for him and you’ve loved him and honored him and respected him and this is the way he treats you and he’s supposed to love you like Jesus love the church.  Does he? He should treat you better than he does and you deserve better than this.”

a.    Without truth and light and knowledge of God she will yield to something she should be resisting

b.    The subtlety and craftiness of the enemy is that what he said to her was true (You need to know what else is true)

c.     The subtlety and craftiness of the enemy is that he picked something that he knew she would like to think on; The enemy knows what she likes to think and they enemy knows she likes scriptures

d.    She is under heavy attack and the enemy doesn’t even want her to know it because he wants her to yield to what she should resist

e.    The big question is what will she do when the light shines and says, “You’re supposed to submit to him as unto the Lord.  The Word says you can win him over with a godly lifestyle.  Judge yourself and you won’t be judged.  Take care of the beam in your eye before you try to get the speck out of his eye.” – She can see the light and say Lord I love the truth or she can close her eyes and say I don’t want that, I want this about him loving me the way Christ loved the church.  If she does the latter deception bondage and destruction will come to that marriage. 

E.     1-There is no truth in the land and where there is no truth we find deception and destruction-2 Thessalonians 2:10-11

1.      3-THEREFORE-This is happening to the land because there is no truth and there is no knowledge of God

a.    6-MSG-My people are ruined because they don’t know what’s right or true

2.      Truth and light have sustaining power and without truth and light stuff starts to dry up and die; the truth/light sustains you, strengthens you, quickens you, keeps you alive and vibrant, full of vigor, spiritually first, then naturally; truth and light give you joy and make you happy; truth and light will make you productive, effective, profitable; truth and light will be life and health to you

a.    3-Languish-Weak, wax feeble, be sick, be exhausted, droop

b.    ERV-So the country is like someone crying for the dead and all of it’s people are weak

c.     MSG-The very land itself weeps and everything in it is grief stricken – animals in the fields and birds on the wring, even fish in the sea are listless and lifeless

d.    VOICE-The land will mourn with grief and even dry up like a desert plant.  Those dwelling in it waste away

e.    CEV-And so your land is a desert. Every living creature is dying

f.      TLB-Your land is not producing; it is filled with sadness and all living things grow sick and die

g.    NIV-Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away

h.     NLV-The land is filled with sorrow.  Every one who lives in it wastes away

3.      5-6-Did they believe it would end up like this? Certainly not, elsewise they wouldn’t have done it; they are deceived

F.     Yes people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge/truth, but why do they lack it? Because they have rejected it, they didn’t want it

1.      According to God whose fault was it that these people lacked knowledge? It was their fault that they didn’t know

a.    The destruction is coming not because they don’t know, but because they had opportunity to know and rejected the knowledge

1)       Romans 1:20-These people were without excuse because they had an opportunity to know and rejected it; The only excuse would be not seeing and not knowing

b.    Destruction doesn’t just come because somebody lacks knowledge; if that were true destruction would come to us all because we all lack knowledge to some to degree; destruction comes when somebody doesn’t know because they rejected knowledge

1)       Innocent people walking in the light they have and receiving and welcoming the knowledge and truth God gives them won’t be destroyed for the knowledge they lack; it’s the ones who lack knowledge because they rejected it and pushed it away

2)       Everybody lacks knowledge to some degree, but the question is why do you lack it?

2.      There are some who hate the truth and find it loathsome and will cast it off and away and they don’t want to see and the reason is simple because it exposes their fault and they don’t want to change because they love what they believe more than they love the truth (Why don’t people want to change? Because they like that way)

a.    Rejected-Despise, refuse, disdain, abhor, loathsome, cast off, cast away, to care little for, regard lightly; Knowledge-Perception, discernment, to perceive and to see

b.    Matthew 13-People are closing their eyes and ears and hardening their heart and they’re not going to be converted and it’s because they lacked knowledge, but they lacked knowledge because they rejected knowledge

c.     Often times it’s not that people don’t know or haven’t seen b/c they do know, they have seen, and God has revealed it to them; the problem is rejecting it and choosing to believe something else

1)       Sometimes you don’t need to hear more you just need to receive what you have heard

3.      People whose heart is right they want they truth even if it shows them up and shows them that they need to change; they love the truth and they want the truth; People’s heart who is not right don’t want the truth and they don’t want to see the truth, they close their eyes and they love darkness and stay in darkness and they will stay under the control of the evil one

a.    The only free people on the planet are the ones in Christ who are walking in the light who love and want the truth

G.   10-12-They have left off to take heed to the Lord – The big key issue here is that they quit paying attention to the Lord and what he was saying and started giving their mind to and listening to other voices, false voices, evil spirits

1.      11-This whoredom (unfaithful to God) took place when they started listening to another spirit

a.    Spiritual adultery is when you listen to and reason with and consider what any other spirit is saying – You’re communing with a wrong spirit when you yield your thought life to what he is saying

1)       12-ERV-My people are asking pieces of wood for advice. They think those sticks will answer them! They have chased after those false gods like prostitutes and have left their own God.

b.    12-A spirit of whoredom has caused them to error – They have gotten off and they were led astray and they are believing lies because they were whoring around listening to a wrong spirit

1)       If you listen to a wrong spirit by yielding your thoughts to what it is saying you’re going to fall into deception and get off and let go of the truth and the Lord and your faith and you’re going to be led astray

a)  10-Left off-Depart from, leave behind, Let go; They let go of the truth and the Lord and their faith

b)  12-Err-Go astray, To be led astray

2.      11-This whoredom and wine and new wine-This is listening to the wrong spirit and yielding to things that intoxicate you and make you unaware of reality

a.    This whoredom allowed the enemy to take away their heart and mind and spiritual understanding; it makes you unaware of reality

1)       Voice-Through prostitution, wine, and new wine, My people have lost their senses;

2)       ERV-Sexual sins, strong drink, and new wine ruin a person’s ability to think straight

3)       NLT-Wine has robbed my people of their understanding

b.    You listen to the enemy and to what he is saying and he will take the territory of your heart and mind-2 Corinthians 4:4

c.     Beware of the new thing