Episode Transcript
Hosea 11.
Hosea 11.
God willing we'll be expounding verse 12 this morning.
Hosea 11.
Verse 12.
The tile of the message is lying or ruling.
Lying or ruling.
In this morning's verse we discover a great truth that comes by contrasting the great difference between Israel and Judah.
If you look with me now in Hosea chapter 11 verse 12 it begins by saying God says Ephraim compasseth me about with lies.
Ephraim compasseth me about with lies.
Let's pray.
Father we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you Father for all you've done for us.
Thank you Lord for giving us the scriptures and the understanding of them.
And I pray Lord God I thank you for the wonderful time we had in Sunday school this morning.
And I pray dear Lord God that you will teach these precious people with your spirit.
May all eyes be on you as we open your word.
Glorify your name and edify your people in Jesus name.
Amen.
Ephraim compasseth me about with lies.
Now remember at the time Hosea gave this prophecy.
Israel had had a falling out among themselves politically and they had divided themselves into two kingdoms.
The kingdom of Israel which was the larger northern kingdom and the kingdom of Judah which was the smaller southern kingdom.
And Israel the larger northern kingdom was also referred to as Ephraim in this book of Hosea.
So it's one of the same thing.
So Ephraim is a larger northern kingdom and Judah was a smaller southern kingdom.
Ephraim departed from the Lord and began serving other gods much more quickly than Judah did.
Judah remained true to God especially during the reign of King Hezekiah longer than her northern sister kingdom of Israel or Ephraim.
They were the same race of people.
They descended from the same man Jacob but the two kingdoms not only went in two political directions but they also split into spiritual directions.
And now God is saying of Ephraim.
He says that Ephraim compasseth me about with lies.
What does God mean when he says Ephraim compasses him about with lies?
As I began to say this I believe God showed me what it meant by going back to the story of Joseph, Joseph in the book of Genesis.
Joseph was a dreamer if you'll remember and one day Joseph told a dream that he had dreamt to his brothers saying in Genesis 37 7 he said for behold we were binding sheaves in the field and lo my sheaf arose and also stood upright and behold your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Now when he said your sheaves stood round about my sheaf and they made obeisance to my sheaf that standing round about means your sheaves compasses my sheaf about.
In fact that's the same Hebrew word that's translated round about in Genesis that's translated compasseth me about here in Hosea.
So Joseph is saying your sheaf compasses my sheaf and so his brother's sheaves compasses his sheaf about and what they do they made obeisance to it.
They worshiped his sheaf they bowed down in submission to Joseph's sheep and I believe that God is saying that Israel was doing him the same way that they were compassing him round about and making obeisance to God.
The problem is they were bowing down to God but they were doing so with lies.
Falsely, hypocritically, yes they can pass me about, yes they gather around me but they're doing so in lies.
They claim to worship God but it was a lie.
God said Ephraim can pass him about with lies looking down further in your text and the house of Israel would deceit, deceit.
Again house of Israel and Ephraim were one of the same.
He's using the words interchangeably.
The northern kingdom of Israel can pass God about as if they were gathering to hear his word and bow down to his authority but they gathered around him with deceit.
They were not sincerely seeking to know and do the will of God and people are no different today.
They gather around God's name but they do the opposite of what God tells them.
It's absolutely astounding to me at the number of churches that we have where people will gather on a Sunday morning in the name of God as if they're coming to hear God's word to worship God.
I heard a woman preacher the other day, I don't know if anyone else heard this besides me, but I heard this woman preacher the other day preaching and she was saying that if Jesus was teaching the Sermon on the Mount today then he would possibly say blessed are those who terminate pregnancies.
Can you imagine?
Can you imagine?
They gather around his name but they do the opposite of his word.
They're gathering around him in deceit.
It's all a sham.
It's a big lie.
These people don't care about the truth.
They're doing just what Israel did at that time.
They gather around God's name each Sunday making obeisance to him but they have no desire to know and obey his word.
They want to do their will in God's name and call it Christianity.
That's what they're doing.
And when they do this they're compassing God with lies.
They're gathering around about him in deceit.
Now pay close attention.
God said Israel, the northern kingdom can pass his name in deceit.
Look back in your text now.
But Judah yet rule with God.
Judah yet rule with God.
Now if you would take your pen underscore the word rule and now go back up underscore the word deceit.
And now go back up and underscore the word lies.
Do you see this contrast?
It says but Judah yet rule with God.
In other words he's contrasting.
He didn't say and Judah rules with God but Judah rules with God.
In other words there's a contrast, there's a difference made between the lies in the deceit and the capability of ruling with God.
That's what he's showing here.
There's a contrast between Israel and Judah.
Israel is lying but Judah is ruling.
Now if you have the choice which would you rather do?
Would you rather be lying or ruling?
I'd much rather be ruling.
I'd much rather be ruling in truth than be ruled in lies.
Now there's an important implication being made here.
Namely if you're lying then you're not ruling.
In fact if you're not ruling then it is because you are lying.
You are walking in a lie.
At that time Judah still ruled with God.
They had still dominion over the place that God had put them in because they were still walking in the truth that God had given them.
Israel on the other hand had forsaken the truth therefore they were forfeiting their dominion to the enemy.
And all of this was a national picture of a spiritual problem that men face today.
We read in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, "And God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Let them have dominion over all the earth."
The word dominion here in the Hebrew it literally means to tread down with your feet.
Tread down with your feet.
Man when I go outside in my backyard I don't look around both ways to make sure I'm not going to get caught trespassing.
I walk out there on that backyard like I own it.
You know why?
I do.
And I just walk like I own the place.
And so everything under my feet is under my control.
I'm ruling it.
And I can do with my backyard as I please.
So that's the idea here with dominion.
It means to tread under your feet.
In other words wherever you walk, wherever you place your feet, that land is under your authority as long as you remain under God's authority, the truth.
Man was created to rule on earth in the power of God's authority in heaven.
So as long as man was under God's authority then the world would be under his.
I'll repeat that again.
As long as man was under God's authority the world would be under his.
Here's a kingdom truth for you this morning.
As long as we are under Christ the enemy is under us.
As long as we are under Christ the enemy is under us.
So Adam was given dominion wherever he walked he ruled.
But one day Satan came into the garden of Eden to try and take that dominion from Adam.
Now remember the contrast between Judah and Israel.
Israel was lying, Judah was ruling.
Here's another kingdom truth for you this morning.
God's authority is known and exercised in God's truth.
Thus it is forgotten and forfeited in the devil's lies.
I'll repeat it again.
God's authority is known and exercised in God's truth.
Thus it is forgotten and forfeited in the devil's lies.
Satan didn't come to the garden of Eden with a sword and attack Adam and his wife.
You know what that sword would have done?
It would have done nothing at all.
Adam and Eve did not have the capability of dying at the time.
He didn't bring a sword to come attack Adam and Eve.
A sword couldn't have harmed Adam at all.
Adam walked the earth and the authority of God and therefore death was under Adam's feet as long as Adam remained under God.
So when Satan came in what did he do?
He didn't bring a knife to a gun fight.
He brought a lie into the garden of Eden.
He lied to Adam and Eve and when Adam and Eve embraced that lie they lost their authority.
Instead of ruling they were lying.
They were walking in the lie that they bought into.
They went from ruling to lying.
They went from walking in truth, in light, to walking in darkness and a lie.
And now instead of Adam treading on the enemy, the enemy began treading on him.
Sin, Satan and death now had dominion in the earth.
Men rule by truth.
Men are ruled by lies.
I'm going to repeat it again.
Men rule by truth.
Men are ruled by lies.
When God promised Abraham that he would bless the world through his seed and God would restore that blessing that was lost, he would do it through the truth.
He would do it by reinstituting the truth back to the world and that truth would restore dominion back to man.
Listen to what God said to Israel as they were preparing to go into the Promised Land under the authority of Joshua.
Joshua chapter 1 verse 3 through 7.
Joshua 1 through 7.
God said, "Every place the soul of your foot shall tread upon."
Now you're putting the connection together.
What did dominion mean there in Genesis?
It meant to tread upon.
And now here comes the seed of Abraham and they're about to come tread upon some enemy land.
And as they treaded upon that enemy land, what would be happening?
It would God be placing that land under the dominion of his people and the only way they could have that land put under their feet was if they were under God.
The first people, the first generation that tried to go in, they couldn't do it because of unbelief.
Unbelief kept them from putting that land under their feet.
You know what unbelief is?
God gave them the truth.
Unbelief means they didn't walk in the truth and since they didn't walk in the truth, they could walk on the land.
The truth puts dominion back into man's care and it puts the world under man's feet.
But because of unbelief, they rejected.
They would not walk in God's truth and not being under God's authority.
The world could not be under theirs.
But the new generation would.
Every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you as I set into Moses from the wilderness in this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
All the land of the high tithes and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast.
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.
As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.
I will not fill thee nor forsake thee, be strong and of a good courage for unto this people shall thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them.
In other words, I'm about to put this land under your feet.
Be excited about it.
Be of good courage.
Know it's going to happen.
But here's the catch.
He says, only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded.
They turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whether so ever thou goest.
In other words, yes, I'll put the land under your feet as long as you stay under me.
That's the catch.
Every place the sole of their foot treaded upon was given to them by God and the only way their foot could tread upon their enemy's land was if they were exercising dominion over it, ruling over that land and the power of God.
But God warned them that they must observe his law that they may prosper where they tread.
Otherwise, the enemy would soon be treading on them.
And eventually, they did.
If we walk in truth, then we rule in truth.
And Israel walked and ruled in the truth for a good while, but only Judah was walking in ruling at the time that Hosea wrote this.
God said Judah was still ruling with God.
Literally, he was saying their feet were still trampling with God.
Their feet were still treading with God.
Eventually, Judah walked away from the truth and the enemy treaded over them too.
But at this time, God said Judah was still ruling, look back in your text, and is faithful with the saints, faithful to walk in the truth, so blessed to still be ruling in the truth.
The reason we struggle in life today with so many unconquered enemies, and man, there are people that are struggling with so many unconquered enemies, had a man write me this week, had two or three people write me this week, but one in particular had such troubling, troubling things to say.
And it just grieved my heart listening to them, because all those troubles were completely unnecessary.
God's word, it had people just simply yielded to God's word.
All those problems would have gone away.
But the reason we struggle in life today with so many unconquered enemies is because the world does not walk in God's truth.
And because it did not walk in God's truth, they are ruled by the enemy's lies.
Those who embrace the truth of the gospel, those who walk in the truth will soon rule in the truth over their enemies.
We can't experience that right now.
Everywhere you turn, every time you turn the television on, you're hearing lies, lie after lie after lie.
Lies about God, lies about politics, lies about whatever.
It's all a lie.
In the world, we'll never ever be able to conquer its true foes until truth is returned back to the world.
Right now, as the scripture says, truth is fallen in the streets.
It's died there.
But one day, we will rule in truth over our enemies.
The gospel isn't just about taking away our sin.
The gospel is also about restoring our dominion.
I want that dominion returned.
It's about causing us to tread upon the ground that God has given us on this earth with all things being under our feet.
By becoming a man, that's one of the things that Jesus accomplished for us.
He came as a man so that having conquered sin and death, he could then return as a man.
You see, the gospel is still going to continue.
The gospel will never stop.
The gospel didn't end at the cross.
The gospel didn't end at the empty tomb.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is going to come back and finish the job.
Thank God it didn't end where it's ended now or else we'd all be sitting here still having funerals the rest of our time here on this earth.
Thank God we can still say, "Well, when Jesus comes," right?
When Jesus comes back, the first time he came, he put himself under God.
If you'll understand it this way, when Jesus came the first time, he put himself under God.
Remember, the world is under us as long as we're under God.
The first time he came, he submitted himself to God's truth.
He put himself under God, obeyed the law, was obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
The second time he comes, he who put himself under God will put the world under him.
He didn't put the world under him the first time.
We were reading this morning in the gospel of Luke where Jesus was tried by Pontius Pilate, where Jesus was tried by the Sanhedrin court.
Jesus told that court, he said, "This is your hour and the power of darkness, but after this you'll see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand, the power of God."
In other words, this is your time to rule right now in darkness, in lies.
But when I come back, I'll be the one ruling you.
I'll be the one who's the judge, you'll be sitting in judgment, and I'll be judging you.
The first time Jesus come, he put himself under God, but when he returns, he will put the world under him.
By becoming a man, when Jesus comes back, he will rule, he will exercise the dominion that God originally gave Adam.
When God said, "Let them have dominion," Jesus is going to come back.
He did what Adam didn't do the first time.
He submitted to God.
He's going to do what Adam didn't do the second time he comes to.
He will exercise the dominion that God originally gave Adam, and Jesus will rule on our behalf as a man so that we may tread the earth in his authority again.
Isn't that the coolest thing?
1 Corinthians chapter 15, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 25 and 26.
Speaking of Jesus says this, "For he must reign."
You getting that?
Jesus had to die.
Jesus had to suffer.
Jesus had to be betrayed.
Jesus had to rise again from the dead.
Jesus has to come back.
Jesus still has work to do.
Jesus has done what it takes to put away our sins, but he has not yet done what it takes to restore our dominion to us.
So the first time he came, he had to die.
The second time he comes, he has to reign.
He says, "He must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet."
In other words, he's going to tread on every one of them.
He's going to put every enemy under his feet.
Now if Jesus is a man and he puts his enemies under his feet, you see what's happening?
Adam let the enemy put his feet on top of him, and we all suffered in that, and now the enemy is treading on us.
But when the second Adam comes back, he's going to put the enemies under his feet, and in so doing, he'll put them under ours.
We'll exercise them in his power again.
"For he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
That enemy will never tread on us again.
We will be treading on that enemy because we'll be walking under the power and truth of God.
Again, once Jesus, God's truth, puts all things under his feet, then the members of his body will tread the earth again in the power and truth of God.
The book of Genesis showed us how we lost our dominion in Adam.
The book of the Revelation shows us how we regained that dominion back in Christ.
Revelation chapter 3 verse 31.
Revelation chapter 3 verse 21.
"To him that overcometh," Jesus said, "I will grant to sit with me in my throne."
Don't let those words go past your ears without paying close attention to them.
"To him that overcometh will I grant," what's he going to grant those of us who overcome?
He's going to grant us to sit with him.
Where?
In his throne.
He's going to rule, and guess what's going to happen with us?
We're going to rule.
We're going to sit with him in his throne.
"Even as I also overcame, Adam sat down with my father in his throne.
Jesus went under the Father, therefore he reigns with the Father.
We get under Christ, therefore we reign with him."
How did Jesus overcome the world?
By getting under the Father and walking in his truth.
How do we overcome the world?
By getting under Christ and walking in his truth.
That's why there's therefore now no condemnation, thus, who walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh.
Jesus overcame for us and ascended to his throne, and when we then overcome through him and we sit on his throne, he overcame through his obedience.
We overcome through his blood.
So the Bible says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
Jesus is how the truth is restored and how our dominion is regained.
In him, when he comes again, the enemy will never tread on us again.
With that, we'll go ahead and close.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
We thank you, Father, for the book of Hosea.
We thank you, Father, for showing us, Lord, that when we're lying, we're not ruling.
The devil would rather give us a glamorous lie and have us be ruled by that lie and trampled under the feet of our enemies.
You would rather give us the truth, Lord, that's far more glorious and have us rule in that truth and trample over the feet of them that wish to destroy us.
God, make us wise.
Help us not to walk in foolishness and darkness, dear Lord God.
Lord, we thank you, Father, you've delivered us from the lies of the devil.
We thank you for the truth of the gospel, and I pray, Lord God, that as we walk in the truth of the gospel, so we'll continue to grow and abound in that truth more and more, putting more things under our feet as we get under Christ.
In His precious name we pray.
Amen.
