The Deceitfulness of Riches Text: Matt 13:22; Hos 2 I. The Fallacy of the Deceived, when dedicated to the Illusion of Prosperity- Amos 7:10-12 • CONSPIRACY as AVOIDANCE- vs10 • God’s Law is just an OPINION OF MAN- vs11 • Only say what is SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE- vs12 II. The Precaution of Prosperity- Hos 2:3-3 III. The Poverty of Prosperity Hos 2:5-7 IV. The Proper Prosperity A. By Obedience- Josh 1:8 B. By the Process of Punishment- Hos 2:14 Conclusion:

1. The Deceitfulness of
Riches
Text: Matt 13:22; Hos 2
Dan 5:4
4 They drank wine, and praised the gods
of gold, and of
silver, of
brass, of
iron, of
wood, and of
stone.
Matt 13:3
3 And he spake many things unto them in parables,
saying,
Behold,
a sower went forth to sow;
Matt 13:18
18 Hear
ye therefore the parable of the sower.
Matt 13:22
22 He also that received seed among the thorns

2. is he that heareth the word; and the
care of this world, and the
deceitfulness of riches,
choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
When you no longer think of the things of this world as
“thorns”, you have become deceived, one of the deadliest
thorns the Devil cultivates is a thorn with a poison pod
attached called “riches”.
Hos 1:1
1 The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the
son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of
Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Under Jeroboam II Israel enjoyed one of its most happy
periods of political and economic security.
During his forty-one-year reign as king, Jeroboam II
recovered every piece of land that had been lost.
He subdued the king of Moab and captured parts of Syria,
including Damascus.

3. Their prosperity was due to trade with Egypt and Assyria
in corn, wine and oil.
This affluence led to a haughty boastful spirit (Amos
6:13).
Amos 6:13-14
13 Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say,
Have we not taken to us horns
by our own strength?
14 But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O
house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and
they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath
unto the river of the wilderness.
Their pride led to the oppression and exploitation of the
poor. Luxury led to a craving for amusement and the
assumption they had no need for God.
Ignoring God, makes a man Ignorant.
Hos 2:8
8 For she did not know
that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil,
and multiplied her silver and gold,
which they prepared for Baal.

4. Hos 7:9
9 Strangers have devoured his strength,
and he knoweth it not:
yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him,
yet he knoweth not.
Obad 1:7
7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought
thee even to the border:
the men that were at peace with thee
have deceived thee,
and prevailed against thee;
they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under
thee:
there is none understanding in him.
Amos was an outspoken prophet of God. When truth
confronts error, there is no alliance that can be had; one
must bow to the other.
I. The Fallacy of the Deceived, when
dedicated to the Illusion of Prosperity-
Amos 7:10-12
Amos 7:10-12

5.  CONSPIRACY as AVOIDANCE- vs10
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam
king of Israel, saying,
Amos hath conspired
against thee in the midst of the house of Israel:
the land is not able to bear all his words.
 God’s Law is just an OPINION OF MAN-
vs11
11 For thus Amos saith,
Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their
own land.
Amos 7:9 And the high places of Isaac shall be
desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be
laid waste; and I will rise against
the house of Jeroboam
with the sword.
 Only say what is SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE-
vs12
12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go,
flee thee away into the land of Judah,
and there eat bread,
and prophesy there:

6. God cuts through the deceitfulness of riches in clear
definitive words.
II. The Precaution of Prosperity- Hos 2:3-3
Jer 22:21
I spake unto thee in thy prosperity;
but thou saidst,
I will not hear.
This hath been thy manner from thy youth,
that thou obeyedst not my voice.
Lam 3:17
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace:
I forgat prosperity.
Hos 2:2
2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife,
neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away
her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries
from between her breasts;
Hos 2:3
3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that
she was born,

7. Nakedness is when the disguise of self-proclaimed
innocence is removed from the pretender.
Jer 13:22
And if thou say in thine heart,
Wherefore come these things upon me?
For the greatness of thine iniquity are
thy skirts discovered,
and thy heels made bare.
Rev 17:16-17
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the
beast,
these shall hate the whore,
and shall make her desolate and naked,
and shall eat her flesh,
and burn her with fire.
17 For God hath put in their hearts
to fulfil his will,
and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast,
until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
and make her as a wilderness,
Heb 3:8
Harden not your hearts,
as in the provocation,

8. in the day of temptation
in the wilderness:
The wilderness here is the temptation to provoke God.
Heb 3:17
But with whom was he grieved forty years?
was it not with them that had sinned,
whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
Matt 6:13
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory, for ever. Amen.
and set her like a dry land,
Jer 2:6
Neither said they,
Where is the LORD
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led
us through the wilderness,
through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land
of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a
land that no man passed through, and where no man
dwelt?

9. The dry land is the places only God could and did deliver
you from.
Eccl 12:1
Remember now
thy Creator in the days of thy youth,
while the evil days come not,
nor the years draw nigh,
when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them;
and slay her with thirst.
Exod 17:3 And the people thirsted there for water;
and the people murmured against Moses,
and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us
up out of Egypt,
to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
Thirst is the inability to control what you say or think.
Jer 2:25
Withhold thy foot from being unshod,
and thy throat from thirst:
but thou saidst,
There is no hope: no;
for I have loved strangers,
and after them will I go.

10. Amos 8:11
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD,
that I will send a famine in the land,
not a famine of bread, nor a
thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the LORD:
Amos 8:13
In that day shall the fair virgins
and young men
faint for thirst.
III. The Poverty of Prosperity Hos 2:5-7
Hos 2:5
For their mother hath played the harlot:
she that conceived them hath done shamefully:
for she said,
I will go after my lovers,
that give me
my bread and
my water,
my wool and
my flax,
mine oil and
my drink.

11. Hos 2:6 Therefore, behold, I will
hedge up thy way
with thorns,
And these are they which are sown among
thorns…
and make a wall,
that she
shall not find her paths.
Hos 2:7 And she shall
follow after her lovers,
but she shall
not overtake them;
and she shall seek them,
but shall
not find them…
Her pursuit of happiness is always just out of reach.
IV. The Proper Prosperity
Hos 2:7 …I will go and return to my first husband;
for then was it better with me than now.
A. By Obedience- Josh 1:8

12. Josh 1:8
8 This book of the law
shall not depart out of thy mouth;
but thou shalt meditate therein
day and night,
that thou mayest
observe Behold
to do Hear
according to all that is written therein:
for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous,
and then thou shalt have good success.
B. By the Process of Punishment- Hos
2:14
Hos 2:14
14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and
bring her into the wilderness, and speak
comfortably unto her.
Therefore…
When the volume of punishment turned up,

13. it is a divine declaration that
“he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it…”.
Allure her into the wilderness…
God promises, even in punishment, to outperform all idols
of deception.
Hos 5:15
15 I will go and return to my place,
till they acknowledge their offence,
and seek my face:
in their affliction they will seek me early.
Speak Comfortably…
The Grief and Guilt of
rebellion against God
cannot be eased by further…
Perversion,
Prosperity, or
Preoccupation;
Only God’s word can give comfort to the condemned.

14. Conclusion:
Gal 6:7
Be not deceived;
God is not mocked:
for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.
Matt 13:22
22 He also that received seed
among the thorns
is he that heareth the word; and the
care of this world, and the
deceitfulness of riches,
choke the word, and
he becometh unfruitful.
Don’t be deceived by the Devil’s offer of prosperity.
The Deceitfulness of Riches
Text: Matt 13:22; Hos 2
I. The Fallacy of the Deceived, when dedicated to
the Illusion of Prosperity- Amos 7:10-12

15.  CONSPIRACY as AVOIDANCE- vs10
 God’s Law is just an OPINION OF MAN- vs11
 Only say what is SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE- vs12
II. The Precaution of Prosperity- Hos 2:3-3
III. The Poverty of Prosperity Hos 2:5-7
IV. The Proper Prosperity
A. By Obedience- Josh 1:8
B. By the Process of Punishment- Hos 2:14
Conclusion: