Episode Transcript
If you take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Hosea, chapter 11, Hosea, chapter 11, God willing, we'll be expounding in verse 8 this morning, Hosea, chapter 11, and verse 8.
My entire life I've read about Israel's backslottings and so have you.
All the Old Testament stories were book of Judges, the Kings, the wilderness wanderings.
They're always getting it wrong.
You know, they'll have a time of revival and then this thing, you know, they'll just go right back to where they were.
And we've been reading about that our entire lives, or most of us have.
And I've known about Israel rejecting Jesus as their Messiah.
I've heard about that my entire life as well.
And we've known about the afflictions that they've endured as a nation because of it.
The past several months we've been reading about their rebellion against God and the prophecies that Hosea has given concerning God's judgment against them.
Over and over again every week we've come here and we've learned about what God says about them, what they've done wrong, and what He's going to do about it.
In the same way some people believe the Old Testament no longer applies to the New Testament church because there's a lot of people who believe that.
There are some people who believe that the nation of Israel is no longer a part of God's future plans for the world.
They've rejected the Messiah.
God's judged them.
They're Christ killers.
The church now replaces the nation of Israel.
That's the way some people believe.
This doctrine is called supercessionism.
Have any of you ever heard of supercessionism?
Not supercising.
That's McDonald's.
We're not talking about that.
We're talking about supercessionism.
Another term for it is called replacement theology.
So we should be aware of supercessionism or replacement theology.
It's the belief that the church supersedes or replaces the nation of Israel in God's future plans.
After all, the nation of Israel no longer follows God's Word and represents Him to the world as they once did.
That's the church's role now, right?
The church is teaching God's Word to the world.
Hasn't the church replaced Israel?
Has the New Testament replaces the Old?
No.
Who said no?
No.
That's exactly right.
No.
Thank you for saying it over there too.
This is the question we'll be looking at this morning.
We need to know why they're not being replaced by the church.
God suddenly this morning, He changes His tone.
I think I'm missing my windsock here.
I keep hearing wind.
Missing my windsock on this expensive microphone.
But God changes His tone.
Look here if you would.
In verse eight, he goes from condemning.
Israel, you got a windsock?
Thank you.
Hey, how about that?
Better?
Much, much better.
Thank you, brother.
In Hosea chapter 11 verse eight, it says, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?"
Now remember Ephraim is another name for the northern kingdom of Israel.
He says, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?"
Less, because of the condemning words in Hosea's prophecy, Israel feared that God had given up on her and would abandon her for good.
God speaks to Hosea saying, "Israel, how shall I give you up?"
My kids may hate me.
They may turn against me.
They may do wrong.
They may do things that I strongly condemn.
But though I would never approve of anything wrong that any of my children did, I would never give my children up.
Neither would you.
Is there a parent here who would contemplate selling their children to someone else and getting rid of them?
Anybody?
Me either.
Jacob's heart was broken when he thought he lost Joseph.
When he thought Joseph had been torn by an animal, Jacob was devastated.
When I was a young parent, I remember one of my greatest fears was someone kidnapping one of my children.
I would see people on television saying, "Please, we just want them safely home.
Please return them.
Please drop them off somewhere."
I'd think, "Oh, I feel so sorry for those parents going through that."
I just thought, "I don't know how I could make it if I knew my child was out there.
I would never, ever, ever stop looking for my child."
As a parent, we'll never give up their children, so God will never give up the nation of Israel.
We discipline our children, but we never give them up.
God asks, "Look back in your text, 'How shall I deliver the Israel?
How shall I deliver thee?'"
How could it be possible for God to give up the nation of Israel?
Underscore, if you would, in your text, "Give thee up."
"Give thee up."
After saying, "How shall I give thee up?"
He's now saying, "How shall I deliver the Israel?"
Don't be confused by that language there.
This is not the type of deliver, as in delivering someone from harm's way.
He's not saying, "How shall I deliver you?"
in the sense of delivering you from their enemy.
But as you have, "Give thee up," it would probably have been better translated, "Deliver thee up."
This is not speaking about delivering Israel in the sense of rescuing them.
It's talking about delivering Israel in the sense of delivering them over to their enemies.
God asks, "How shall I give you up?"
And now He's asking, "How shall I deliver you up?"
Genesis chapter 14 verse 20.
Genesis chapter 14 verse 20 says, "And blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered," same Hebrew word here, "delivered thine enemies into thy hand."
So it's not deliverance in the sense of rescuing, but in turning over.
Here's a kingdom truth for you this morning.
"God will punish Israel for a season, but He will never give them up for good."
God will punish Israel for a season, but He will never give them up for good.
God asked, look back in your text, "How shall I make thee as Adma?"
He's literally asking, "How shall I give you as Adma?"
That word "make" in the Hebrew means to give or to put.
"How shall I give you up as I gave Adma up?"
God is giving us a historical example of what He's explained to Israel here.
Adma was a city in the plains outside of Sodom and Gomorrah.
When God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone, He didn't just restrict it to Sodom and Gomorrah proper, but to the areas of the plains around them.
So they weren't the only two municipalities, if you would, that were destroyed.
So Adma was a city in the plains near Sodom and Gomorrah.
We're going to look at here in just a moment, and He's saying, "How shall I give you up the way I gave Adma up?"
He asked, look back in your text, "How shall I set thee as Zeboam?"
How shall I set thee as Zeboam?
Well, Zeboam was another city of the plain near Sodom and Gomorrah that got destroyed in God's judgment.
So God is asking when He says, "How shall I set thee as Zeboam?"
That word "set" means how shall I appoint you as Zeboam.
The Bible says it's appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment.
In the same way, it was appointed to Zeboam to suffer the wrath of God.
And God's saying, "Israel, how can I appoint you to permanent destruction like I did Adma and Zeboam?"
The first time we see this word in the Bible that's translated "set" here is when God put Adam in the Garden of Eden.
So God appointed Adam to dress and to keep the garden.
That was God's will for Him.
That's His designated spot.
And in the same way, God appointed Zeboam to be destroyed by fire and brimstone as he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
Write this down in your notes and your margin, Deuteronomy chapter 29.
Deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 23 says, "And that the whole land thereof is brimstone and salt and burning, that it is not sown nor beareth any grass, I'm sorry, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Adma and Zeboam, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and in His wrath."
So God overthrew Adma and Zeboam just like he did Sodom and Gomorrah.
He overthrew them to the point that now nothing can even grow there.
It's not farmland anymore, and no grass grows therein, seeds not sown therein.
When God got through with Adma and Zeboam, there was nothing left of it.
You can still go there to this day and find brimstone in that area.
It wasn't too long ago I was watching a video of them in this very area, and they were pulling brimstone out of the ground and setting it on fire with a cigarette lighter, and it was burning, just like God described here in His word.
Those cities are finished, they're done, they're through, and they will never rise again.
And God is saying, "Israel, I will indeed judge you.
Israel, I must judge you because I'm a righteous God, but I will never, ever give you up for good."
Here's the kingdom truth for you this morning.
Why would God never give them up for good?
Because He had made a covenant with Abraham to give them the land for how long?
Forever.
Forever.
Now, the only way you can have something forever is if you live forever.
So all that included the resurrection, it included forgiveness from sin, it included taking the curse away so that He could bless the world through Abraham, so we would not perish but have everlasting life.
Here's the kingdom truth for you this morning.
When God makes a covenant with someone forever, He never gives them up.
When God makes a forever covenant, He never gives you up.
God has spoken to Israel in His great anger, and He has judged them in His great wrath.
History shows that.
They're still dealing with God's judgment now.
That's why they're still in wars and battles with Hamas and all.
That's why it's still chaotic and they have to depend on America.
God's spoken to Israel in His great anger.
He's judging His great wrath, but God, through Hosea's prophecy, is telling them now, look back in your text, "My heart is turned within me."
My heart is turned within me.
God had a change of heart.
Speaking as if He was a man, even though He's not, my heart's turned within me.
Now this doesn't mean God changed His mind.
God never changes His mind and His plans like a man does.
God's always right, but He turned His heart toward Israel.
I'll explain that to you here in just a minute.
God is saying, "Israel, I'm no longer angry at you."
Now remember, Hosea was a prophet.
When God is saying, "My heart is turned," when He's saying, "I'm no longer angry," He's not talking about during Hosea's time.
He's speaking about a future time.
This is a prophetic utterance here through Hosea, speaking about God's attitude toward Israel in the latter day.
He says, "I no longer have the same attitude toward you as I did before.
I have turned from having anger toward you to now having compassion toward you."
That's going to happen in a future time.
God's going to finally say, "Enough is enough.
I'm coming back for my people.
I'm going to rescue them from this world.
I will bring them back to me and I will rule and reign on the throne of David as I promised him."
Being a prophetic book, God is speaking of a future time when His wrath toward Israel turns to compassion in the end.
When God said in His heart that when He says His heart is turned, He means His heart has turned from one way of thinking to another way of thinking, which is why God continues saying, if you look back in your text, "My repentings are kindled together."
The word repent doesn't mean to change your lifestyle.
It means to change your mind.
And the word repent here in the Hebrew literally means to be sorry.
I feel good about what I'm doing at the time.
This is justice.
I'm executing my vengeance upon wicked people.
But then once that happens for a time, God now changes from feeling righteous indignation to now feeling sad for what His people has gone through.
When I was a little boy, I can't remember what it was, but I did something to make my dad angry.
He got mad.
When he got mad, I knew by his response that I was in trouble.
So he had me go to his room and he opened up the closet door.
And that's a sign something bad is about to happen because there were belts hanging in that closet, brother Doug.
And I can still remember my dad expressing his disapproval of what I did.
I can remember how it made me feel as he grabbed a belt out of his closet to spank me.
Like I said, I can't remember what I did, but I can promise you this, that I got away with more than what I got caught doing.
And whatever I did, I am certain I was deserving the correction.
So he pulled the belt out of his closet and he gave me a few lashes.
And then he went back to the living room.
He sat in his recliner.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
And when he left the room, I stayed in the room and sat on the bed because he was angry at me.
And I didn't feel comfortable being around us.
I'm like, well, my dad doesn't want me to be around him.
You know, he's angry at me.
So I just, I felt bad.
I just sat on the bed.
I thought, just staying here, you know, didn't know what else to do.
So I just, him being unhappy with me, I stayed by myself.
But after a few minutes had passed, I heard my dad call for me from the living room.
And this time he had a very cheerful voice.
Now, before he had a very angry voice at what I did, but you know, now my punishment's over.
Now the correction has been administered.
Justice has been served.
And ultimately it's not about the justice.
It's about the father-son relationship, right?
That's what the justice is all about.
And so now his voice had changed, his demeanor had changed.
And I remember hearing him say with a very cheerful voice, "Hey Richard, there's a good movie on.
Why don't you come watch it with me?"
Well, that's all I needed.
That's all I needed to know.
Hey, my dad's happy with me now.
I can go back in the living room.
We can cut up.
We can be together, enjoy fellowship, just as we did before.
He was the same dad that punished me and I was the same son who deserved that punishment.
But although I needed the punishment at the time, my dad's goal was not to cast me away forever, but to correct me for the time.
And after he corrected me for the time, that correction ultimately so we could enjoy a better relationship in the future.
That is exactly what God is speaking to Israel about right here.
I'm correcting you for the moment, but I'm not correcting you to cast you away forever.
I'm not correcting you because I don't love you, because I'm going to destroy you, because I'm done with you.
Like God, my dad's heart turned within him from anger, which he once righteously felt toward me at that moment, to sadness.
Having gone to his chair and realizing I'm in the bedroom alone, sulking, he now turns from anger to compassion.
God's anger is right.
But you know what?
After that justice is served and the people have their hearts have turned, then God's sadness is right too.
It's right for my dad to have been sad that his son was sitting in the room sulking.
It's right for him to be angry when he was.
Incited by his covenant with Abraham, after Israel suffers for reaping what they've sown, then God's heart is going to, in the future, turn to compassion as a father's heart does to the son that he chastised.
One day God's chastising heart is going to change from wrath to compassion for Israel.
God will never abandon Israel.
God will never give them up.
God will never change his mind about the eternal plans he has for them.
Write this down in your notes and your margin.
Romans chapter 11, verse 26 through 29.
Romans chapter 11, verse 26 through 29, which says, "And so all Israel shall be saved."
There's going to come a time when we'll never say, "Well, Israel doesn't accept Jesus as their Messiah.
They will be known for accepting him as their Messiah."
As it is written, "There shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness for Jacob."
You realize Paul is quoting an Old Testament prophecy where God says there is going to come out of Zion, there's going to come out of Israel a deliverer, that's Jesus.
And that deliverer is going to turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
Jacob is Israel.
Verse 27 in Romans 11, 27, "For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins as concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sakes."
In other words, at this time, concerning the gospel, Israel is not your friend because they reject the gospel.
And they were persecuting the church at that time as Paul once did.
Then he says, "But as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake."
In other words, yes, for now they're the enemies of God, but in the end, all Israel shall be saved.
God has elected them to do so, and they are going to be saved.
Verse 29, "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
God will never change his mind concerning his gifts and his callings.
What he gives Israel, he never takes away, ultimately.
And what he calls, he never sends away.
Here's a kingdom truth.
The church does not replace Israel, it completes Israel.
The church does not replace Israel, it completes Israel.
All Israel shall be saved, including the Gentiles who are of Abraham's seed according to the promise.
"In Isaac shall thy seed be called."
The church doesn't replace Israel, it completes Israel.
Even as Eve did not replace Adam, she completed Adam.
It's not good for man to be alone.
And it wasn't good that Israel should be alone in the kingdom of God.
So he brought us in as well to make us also in the bride of Christ.
So here's what God is saying is going to happen.
God said the Savior would come from King David, and the Gentiles would rest in him as their Savior.
And then after the Gentiles are added to the kingdom of God, and this is very important, God will perform a second deliverance of Israel from Egypt.
This is very important.
Now if you'll remember a few weeks back, we've looked at a couple of places here in the book of Hosea where God tells Israel, "Because of your sin, I'm sending you back to Egypt."
And then in another part of Hosea, God clarifies.
He says, "Yes, I'm sending you back to Egypt, but I'm not sending you back to Egypt geographically.
I'm not sending you back to Egypt literally.
I'm sending you back to Egypt spiritually and metaphorically."
When they went to be captured by Assyria or Babylon, that was all the same as them going back into Egypt because they were going back into bondage again.
They were going back to the condition they were in when God found them there in Egypt.
And remember when we got to the book of the Revelation, the Bible called Jerusalem, Egypt, and Sodom.
And so in their hearts, because of their rejection of God's word and going to serve the false gods of the nations around them, Israel had gone back to Egypt metaphorically and spiritually.
And as God once delivered them out of Egypt geographically and nationally where they were literally in the land of Egypt and God literally brought them out of Egypt and put them in the Promised Land, as God brought them out geographically with the first deliverance from Egypt, God's going to have a second deliverance from Egypt.
He's going to bring them out of Egypt spiritually.
Okay, so keep that in mind here.
There are two deliverances of Israel from Egypt in the Bible.
If you don't understand that, it'll be confusing for you.
One is literal, the other is spiritual.
One has Pharaoh as the head, the other has the man of sin as the head, the son of perdition.
Now if you'll look here in the scriptures, if you would, turn to Isaiah chapter 11.
Isaiah chapter 11, as you're turning there, to this day, Israel is scattered all across the world.
But after the Gentiles have had their time in God's kingdom, right now this is our time.
This is what the Bible calls the times of the Gentiles.
Right now, we are the ones standing up.
We are the ones who are preaching the gospel.
We are the experts in God's word, so to speak, as compared to the Israelites, the Jews.
Right now, we're the ones sending out people all over the world to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So the Jews to this day, even though they have a small remnant there in Israel, they're still scattered all over the world.
And God, through Isaiah, said that God would call Israel out of Egypt a second time, which is going to be the final time, but this time, God will not deliver them out of Egypt with Moses.
He will deliver them out of Egypt with Jesus.
Isaiah chapter 11, look with me now in verse 10 through 16.
"And in that day, there shall be a root of Jesse."
Now we've already seen the root of Jesse is Jesus.
Jesus is the branch.
Jesus is the root.
He was before Jesse.
He come after Jesse.
Before Jesse, spiritually, because he's God eternally.
And after Jesse, he becomes the branch because he springs forth from David's lineage.
"In that day, there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an end sign of the people.
To it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious."
Now you see what Isaiah is saying?
Isaiah is saying that in the end time, a root is going to stand for an end sign of the people.
He's going to stand as the standard barrier.
He's going to stand as the symbol of God's kingdom, his righteousness, his salvation, the token of his covenant.
We're talking about Jesus Christ, and the Bible says, "To him," or "to it," that end sign, "shall the Gentiles seek."
What are the Gentiles doing now?
We have been seeking Jesus Christ ever since.
He came.
Israel rejected him because they were in, have been in rejection since the time of Hosea.
So they continue to be in rejection when Jesus came, but God said the Gentiles would seek him.
Isn't it interesting that Isaiah did not say, "To him shall Israel seek.
To him shall the Jews seek."
No, he said, "To him shall the Gentiles seek."
And so the fact that all these Gentiles were in this church this morning, reading together from an Old Testament book in Isaiah, do you realize that we are the fulfillment of that prophecy we're reading?
Is that the coolest thing or what?
"To him shall the, or to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious."
Why?
Because Jesus said, "Come unto me all you who are weary and are heavy-laden, I will give you rest."
He is our Sabbath rest.
He is our rest because we which have believed, the Bible says, the book of Hebrews, have entered into rest.
We're no longer laboring under the law of Mount Sinai.
We're laboring in the rest of Mount Calvary.
Now listen to this in verse 11.
Watch this now.
Verse 11, "And it shall come to pass in that day."
That it shall come to pass after we seek the Lord, after we the Gentiles gain the rest, it shall come to pass in that day.
"That the Lord shall set his hand again."
Look here now, if you have your Bible open, underscore the second time.
Man, is this good or what?
"He shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Kush, and from Elam, and from Shannar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea."
In other words, all the places in the world are scattered.
Moving on to verse 12 now.
"And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel."
He's going to gather Israel back together in the end.
Watch this now.
"And gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
All the places the Jews have been scattered because of their disobedience to God and their persecution from the nations around them.
After the Gentiles seek the Lord, after they gain the rest of the Gospel, the times of the Gentiles are going to come to their end where we're in the limelight right now as far as the kingdom of God is concerned.
And then God's going to say, "Okay, I've got to keep my word to Abraham.
I want to gather all of his seed, this dispersion of all across the world, and I want to bring them home because I'm going to give them this land forever just like I promised."
Verse 13, "The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off.
Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim, but they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west.
They shall spoil them of the east.
Together they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod."
This sounds like when he opened up the Red Sea for them to go across the first time, doesn't it?
This is a spiritual deliverance here.
Verse 16, "And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria," watch this now, "like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."
It was Moses the first time.
It's going to be Jesus the second time.
God's heart will turn toward Israel as my dad's heart turned toward me, and as my dad called me to come to him in the living room, so God's going to call Israel to come to him to Zion, and there they shall live forever and forever, the second time around.
Father, we thank you so much for the second birth.
We thank you so much for the second deliverance of Israel.
We thank you so much for the second recreation of this world.
There will be a new heaven and a new earth.
The former things will be passed away.
We thank you for the second Adam, Lord, who came by doing what the first Adam didn't do, undo what the first Adam did.
We thank you, Father, for the great prophecies of your word which tell us how things are going to be and confirm to us why things are the way they are at this time and assure us of how they're going to be in the future.
We thank you, Lord.
We rest upon your promises in your word, and we put our hope in the inside that you've given us, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we trust.
In his name we pray.
Please bless the food we're about to receive for our body next door.
In Jesus' name, amen.
