Break Up Your Fallow Ground
Scripture: Hosea 10:12Devotional Series: The Integrity of God's Word
Teaching: The Integrity Of God's Word pt. 3 (SUN_AM 2021-06-20) by Pastor Star R Scott
We’ve taught on this subject for many, many years, but we’ll refer back to Hosea here in just a moment. I don’t know about you, but it just causes that excitement in me to know that anytime we get serious about seeking God and will break up the fallow ground in our lives, this Word will produce something. Praise God! Amen? When we’re lacking, it’s because our hearts are under the condition referred to as “fallow ground” or crusted over. There’s no uniting with the Word of God. We’ve heard the Word. We’ve stored the Word of God in our memory. Many of us are justifying our disobedience. Many of us just like the Pharisees who found every way possible to not keep the Sabbath. It’s humorous, as you read, some of the lengths they went to in order to make excuses to get around the Sabbath principles that they wanted to put everyone else under bondage. We do the same thing. We find everything possible, some way to justify our disobedience, our preference of self.
So, in this parable, some great things are taking place. Go back to Hosea for just a moment, I want to make a reference before we go on from the wayside ground onto the stony ground. Here in Hosea, Chapter 10, we find that powerful, powerful statement. I was reading over it again this morning, just meditating some, and asking the Lord to give us, as the parable just said, ears to hear. Amen?
Now, one of the greatest hindrances to hearing what God has to say is to sit here and say, “I’ve heard that before.” So, if you want to miss out hearing, just sit and go, “I’ve already heard this.” The Holy Spirit can give you revelation afresh from any verse. Every time you get before God, open your heart and He will give you fresh understanding and promote life within your spirit. Because this Word is alive and it’s powerful, praise God! It discerns between the thoughts and the intentions of our heart. This Word will reveal your heart. No man knows his own heart. This Word will reveal our hearts, praise God! It will reveal our intentions. That’s why a lot of people don’t want to read it because it convicts them. It shows them who they really are. It shows them where they really are.
Tragically, the truth that the Scripture has spoken in numerous times and ways. We’ve referred to it here quite frequently lately. It’s the heart that sits here and says, “I’m right with God. Though everyone else forsakes you, not me, Lord.” “Who was justified?” the teaching asks. The one that stood and proclaimed himself righteous and was so grateful that he wasn’t as this unrighteous publican or the other man not even able to look up into the glory and presence of God, as he was so concerned about the condition of his heart. “Who went up justified?” the Master said?
Where is our humility? Where is our teachableness? You see, we’re living in a society that is promoting this thought process that we, as individuals, know best our own hearts. It’s absolutely contrary to what the Scripture teaches that we alone know what’s best for us. The issue now is not what is right and what is truth, but what’s right for me.” “What do I perceive as truth in this particular situation that I find myself? Because truth is relative. Truth is absolute, but, tragically, if the ground is not good, that tendency toward relativism exists in each and every one of us. We truly believe our perception and our will is truth, unless we’ve died to that old man and been renewed in our minds, as the Scripture says, and put on that new man which after God, after Christ, is created in righteousness and true holiness.
So, in this parable, some great things are taking place. Go back to Hosea for just a moment, I want to make a reference before we go on from the wayside ground onto the stony ground. Here in Hosea, Chapter 10, we find that powerful, powerful statement. I was reading over it again this morning, just meditating some, and asking the Lord to give us, as the parable just said, ears to hear. Amen?
Now, one of the greatest hindrances to hearing what God has to say is to sit here and say, “I’ve heard that before.” So, if you want to miss out hearing, just sit and go, “I’ve already heard this.” The Holy Spirit can give you revelation afresh from any verse. Every time you get before God, open your heart and He will give you fresh understanding and promote life within your spirit. Because this Word is alive and it’s powerful, praise God! It discerns between the thoughts and the intentions of our heart. This Word will reveal your heart. No man knows his own heart. This Word will reveal our hearts, praise God! It will reveal our intentions. That’s why a lot of people don’t want to read it because it convicts them. It shows them who they really are. It shows them where they really are.
Tragically, the truth that the Scripture has spoken in numerous times and ways. We’ve referred to it here quite frequently lately. It’s the heart that sits here and says, “I’m right with God. Though everyone else forsakes you, not me, Lord.” “Who was justified?” the teaching asks. The one that stood and proclaimed himself righteous and was so grateful that he wasn’t as this unrighteous publican or the other man not even able to look up into the glory and presence of God, as he was so concerned about the condition of his heart. “Who went up justified?” the Master said?
Where is our humility? Where is our teachableness? You see, we’re living in a society that is promoting this thought process that we, as individuals, know best our own hearts. It’s absolutely contrary to what the Scripture teaches that we alone know what’s best for us. The issue now is not what is right and what is truth, but what’s right for me.” “What do I perceive as truth in this particular situation that I find myself? Because truth is relative. Truth is absolute, but, tragically, if the ground is not good, that tendency toward relativism exists in each and every one of us. We truly believe our perception and our will is truth, unless we’ve died to that old man and been renewed in our minds, as the Scripture says, and put on that new man which after God, after Christ, is created in righteousness and true holiness.