Episode Transcript
The title of the message this morning is "The Fierceness of His Anger."
Last week we learned about replacement theology or supercessionism, as it's also called.
And that false doctrine teaches that the church replaces or supersedes the nation of Israel.
And we learned last week that God is in no way finished with the nation of Israel.
We're going to learn, and that's going to be more affirmed to us this morning in our text, and praise God to us as believers as well.
Isn't it great?
Remember what God says to Israel, He says to us, "If God is never finished with Israel, then as a believer in Jesus Christ, God is never finished with you."
Isn't that good?
Man, you're never just learning about Israel, you're always learning about you, and you're always learning about His church.
So we learned in verse 8 last week that there will be a second deliverance of Israel out of Egypt.
And I found that absolutely fascinating, by the way.
It is going to be a deliverance that's not going to be performed by Moses physically, but it's going to be performed by Jesus spiritually.
We learned that in the end, Israel will return to God as a nation and will receive Christ as their Savior.
And when the second deliverance happens, that's going to take place, so God is not finished with the nation of Israel.
In fact, God said in our text last week that He could not give Israel up for good like He did the cities that were destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah, that will never be brought back again.
And so now in the next verse, in verse 9 this morning, we're going to be enlarging upon that wonderful assurance for Israel and for us.
As God says in Hosea 11.9, "I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger."
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word.
I'm so grateful, Lord, to have a Bible.
I'm so grateful to have a church, Lord, who's hungry to hear it.
And I pray Your precious Spirit will fill us today and feed us with the bread of heaven.
To Your honor and great glory and to our edification, in Jesus' precious name, amen.
God says, "I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger."
God had a righteous anger that was caused by an unrighteous nation.
And to execute that anger would be for God to carry out a righteous judgment upon them.
Nevertheless, God said He would not execute the fierceness of His anger, the fierceness of His anger against the nation of Israel.
Now remember, the Bible says that Christians are the seed of Abraham.
This is very important.
So the promises that pertain to Abraham's seed pertain to those who accept Christ as their Savior.
Galatians 3, verse 29 says, "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
So whatever promise you see God giving the nation of Israel, you just incorporate yourselves into that promise.
People who say, "Oh, now that doesn't pertain to the church, God's talking to Israel there."
"If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, brother Doug, and thus you are heirs according to the promise."
The covenant of Abraham is the covenant of the church.
So what God says to Israel, He says to us, and God is saying this morning through Hosea that He will not execute the fierceness of His anger against us.
What does it mean when God says He will not execute the fierceness of His anger against us?
Well, in the Old Testament, God told Israel that after they got into the promised land, they got all settled into the promised land, He told them to completely destroy the Amalekites.
In Deuteronomy chapter 25, verse 19, Moses told Israel, "Therefore it shall be when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, and the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, thou shalt not forget it."
In other words, don't you forget to do that.
Once you get to the promised land, once you're settled in, you go after those Amalekites and you blot out their remembrance so no one even remembers them anymore.
I mean, there's nothing left to remind them.
Now listen carefully, because later on, after they did get settled into the promised land, King Saul went to go do just that.
He went to go fulfill this commandment and to wipe out the Amalekites like God had told His forefathers back in Deuteronomy.
But listen carefully now to the orders that God gave Saul to carry out.
1 Samuel 15, verse 3, God said, "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."
Now the key words in the verse that we just read, still up on the screen, the key words are, "utterly destroy all."
And the other set of key words is, "spare them not."
Now that's pretty plain, isn't it?
You're going to get rid of everybody and everything so that there's nothing left to remember anybody that the Amalekites were ever even here.
But Saul didn't execute, or he didn't carry out God's Word as God commanded him.
1 Samuel 15, 9 says, "But Saul and the people spared Agag."
Now God said, "Spare them not."
But they spared Agag, they spared the king, and they spared the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
So God said, "You destroy everything, utterly destroy all, spare not, they did not utterly destroy all, and they spared."
Now listen carefully to why God said Saul would be punished.
Obviously that is a violation of not carrying out God's specific orders, right?
But listen to how the Lord described the offense that Saul committed.
It's in 1 Samuel 28, verse 18.
"He was going to be punished," God said in 1 Samuel 28, 18, "because thou obeyeth not the voice of the Lord, nor executeth his fierce wrath upon Amalek.
Therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day."
In other words, he was going to take Saul's kingdom away.
So to execute the fierceness of God's wrath is when God utterly destroys and spares not.
You all see that?
To execute the fierceness of God's wrath is for God to utterly destroy and to spare not.
So when God tells Israel that he will not execute the fierceness of his wrath upon them, God is telling them, "No matter what you do, no matter how bad and how far away from me that you get, I will never utterly destroy you, but I will in my mercy spare you as a nation."
Now if God tells Israel that as a nation, and we're Abraham's seed and errs according to the promise, then God tells that to us as individual believers.
If you be Christ and you're Abraham's seed, your heir is according to the promise.
So if I go away from God and I stray from God, guess what?
God's going to discipline me.
God's going to punish me, but God will never utterly destroy me.
God will by the mercy and blood of Christ spare me.
And that is a great comfort that we have.
As we can say with absolute authority that God is not finished with Israel, that God will in the end deliver and secure Israel as a nation, we can say with that same confidence that for the believer in Jesus Christ, God will never utterly destroy them.
And in the end, even though they disobey him on this earth, he will ultimately spare them by the mercy and blood of Christ.
Here's a kingdom truth for you this morning.
God corrects Abraham's seed, but he will never utterly destroy them.
God corrects Abraham's seed, but he will never utterly destroy them.
Write down in your notes in your margin, Jeremiah chapter 30.
Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 11.
Listen to how God described this to Israel.
God said, for I am with the say of the Lord to save thee, though I make a full end of all nations, whether I have scattered the, yet will I not make a full end of the.
But I will correct thee in measure.
It will not leave the altogether unpunished.
You see how that works?
God says, I'm with you.
And what he's telling Israel as a nation, he's telling us as individual believers.
God's saying, I am with you.
And though I make a full end of everybody else, though everybody else is destroyed.
Yeah.
Well, I never make a full end of you.
I will correct you in measure.
What does it mean to correct in measure?
Well, to utterly destroy is to correct utterly means he's going to wipe you out.
To correct in measure means he's going to punish you, but it will be in measure.
There will be a reserve on that punishment to where God will not utterly make a full end of you.
He said, I will correct the measure.
It will not leave the altogether unpunished.
He can't do that.
God's going to say, not God's not going to say, well, Jesus died for their sins and they can just go live how they want to.
And there'll be no accountability to me.
That's not going to happen for Israel.
It's not going to happen for us.
I don't want it to happen for me.
I want to please God.
And if I get out doing wrong, I want God to whip me back into where I need to be.
What God says to the nation of Israel, he says to the individual believer in Jesus Christ, because we are heirs of the promises that God gave Abraham.
We can rest assured that God will correct us when we are wrong, but he will never make a full end of us.
We shall not perish, but we shall have everlasting life.
God said, if you look back in your text now, I will not return to destroy Ephraim.
I will not return to destroy Ephraim.
Now, remember Ephraim is talking about the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
Last week we learned that God would deliver Israel out of their bondage to spiritual Egypt through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And now God is saying that after he delivers them, he will not return to destroy them.
See how that works after he delivers them.
He will not return to destroy them.
Now, in verse seven, a couple of weeks ago, Jose 11, seven, we studied about backsliding.
You remember that?
And in Jose 11, seven, God said, my people are bent to backsliding from me.
And when we studied that verse, we learned that the Hebrew root word, that word backsliding comes from, it means to return to the place you came from.
In other words, God brought Adam from the ground.
He's going to return to the ground.
That's the same Hebrew root word.
Well, the word translated return in our verse nine this morning is the same root word from which backsliding comes from.
God says, I will not return.
I will not backslide in a sense to destroy you after I have delivered you.
I'm not going to go back to that same place of destruction.
We're not going to go back to that again.
And so it's the same word God used again when he said Adam would return to the ground.
So Israel will return.
God says they're bent to backsliding.
Israel will return to their rebellion against God, but God will not return to execute his anger against Israel.
That's a wonderful principle.
After God delivers them, he will not return to destroy them.
Now, how did God deliver us?
He delivered us to the cross on the cross.
God's destruction against his people was made.
And having destroyed them, he's not going to return back again to do it again.
He's not going to destroy us twice.
He's not going to place the believer in Christ in danger of double jeopardy.
You can't be tried twice for the same crimes.
God says, I have punished you.
I have scattered you.
I'm going to deliver you.
And after I deliver you, I'm never going to return again to destroy you.
That deliverance is done.
After God delivers them, he will not return to destroy them.
Israel was bent to going back on God, but God would never go back on them.
God will never go back on us.
Man, I'm so bent.
I think it was Martin Luther that wrote that hymn, "Prown to wonder, Lord, I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I love."
That's the way I am too.
That's the way you are, because our flesh is backslidden.
It is prone to go back from God, and it's that struggle between the inner man that's been redeemed and the outer man that is perishing every day.
It is working its way, entering its way back to the dirt that we came from to slide back into the ground that God pulled us out of and to separate itself from God until Jesus comes.
God will never go back on us.
He said, if you look back in your text, "For I am God and not man."
Oh, man, man will backslide.
Man will go back on God.
But praise God, God's never going to go back on man.
My wife and I were talking about someone that I sold something to a while back.
You all have seen this happen before.
You sell somebody something, you let them make installment payments on it.
You say, "Well, just pay me out as you can."
And this person paid me out, paid me out, they get almost done.
That's the way a lot of them will do.
They'll make one or two, but they'll get almost done, and then the payments stop.
And I knew that was a possibility, and I was willing for that to happen, so I don't sweat it.
But I told my wife, I said, "I just watch and see.
I don't mention a word, so I want to see that person's integrity.
I want to see if they've got that integrity or not."
But see, that's what man will do.
They'll go aways with you.
Wasn't it, Mark, that went aways with Paul?
And then he decided, "No, you know what?
This is getting a little rough for me."
So he goes back.
Man will go a little ways with you like that.
They'll continue on with the deal, and then when things get to where it's not going their way, it's not convenient on them, they'll go back.
But God will never, ever, ever go back on us.
"He who began a good work in us will be faithful to performing until the day of Jesus Christ.
He will never go back on the child of God."
He said, "For I am God and not man."
Man is bent to going back, but God is not.
Man may go part of the way with you and then not finish the course, but God will never go back on you.
He always finishes what he starts.
That text that I just quoted is Philippians 1.6.
Philippians 1.6.
"Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you," that good work in you is faith in Christ.
"He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."
Praise God.
He'll never go back.
And what God says to Israel, he says to us, so as God will not go back to destroy Israel after he delivered them.
So he will never go back to destroy us after he delivers us.
I hate talking to people who say, "Well, I trust in Christ and I know I'm justified by grace through faith, but I'm afraid that in the future I'm going to do A, B, C, and D."
After God delivers us, he never goes back to destroy us.
The cross was God's deliverance.
God will never go back on the cross.
He will never take the cross back.
He takes us back through the cross.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 11 verse 29, Romans chapter 11 verse 29 says, "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
That means when God calls you to the cross, he never changes his mind about it.
When God gives you the gift of salvation, it's without repentance.
It means he never has a change of mind about it.
He doesn't say, "Well, here, I'm going to call you to my son Jesus.
I'm going to teach you that you're a sinner.
I'm going to show you what Jesus did for you.
I'm going to draw you to the cross and cause you to cast your hope upon him for eternal life.
I'm going to give you some encouragement that by grace you have been saved through faith and that and that of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
And then I'm going to repent and I'm going to change my mind about that gift and about calling you to the cross to begin with."
The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
God will never go back on his promises to the saints of God.
For God is, if you look back in your text now, God describes himself as the Holy One in the midst of thee.
God is the Holy One and he is in the midst of you.
Now, you talk about some reiteration here.
If God tells...
Folks, I hope you're making the connection.
If God tells Israel that he is the Holy One in the midst of them, and if what God tells Israel he tells us, the church and the New Testament, then we should be able to expect that if we are in fact the seed of Abraham, and there's according to the promise that God gives Abraham seed, then we should expect that if God is in the midst of Israel in the Old Testament, that he's going to be in the midst of the church in the New Testament.
Because what God tells Israel, he's telling us.
Now, man, y'all are probably already making the connection here, aren't you?
Man, it's a beautiful thing.
I am the Holy One in the midst of the...
God is in the midst of his people, and being in the midst of his people, that means he has forever identified himself with those he came to save.
So where he is, there they'll be also, right?
Where they are, God is.
Where God is, they are.
Now, if God is using this, he is the Holy One in the midst of us, for God to send believers in Christ to hell, and he is in the midst of those believers, where would God have to go?
You see?
That's the beauty of God being in the midst of us, where he is, we are.
As safe as God is, is as safe as we are.
As sure as God is, is as sure as we are.
Ezekiel chapter 37, verse 26.
Ezekiel chapter 37, verse 26.
Listen to this, incredible prophecy.
"Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them."
Now, that covenant of peace is the gospel.
Remember what the angel said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men."
When he's saying he's going to make a covenant of peace with them, he's talking about the gospel.
"Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them.
It shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will place them and multiply them," watch carefully now, "and will set my sanctuary," there's my tabernacle, "in the midst of them," for how long?
"Forever."
Now, Jesus Christ is the tabernacle of God.
The Bible says in the book of the Revelation, I don't have this in my notes, but it says the tabernacle of God is with men, and he, he shall dwell with them and be with them.
Jesus is the tabernacle of God.
So God is saying through Ezekiel, I'm going to make a covenant of peace, it's going to be an everlasting covenant, I'm going to set my sanctuary or my tabernacle in the midst of my people forever, which is why Jesus said where I am, you'll be.
Now, the covenant of peace again is the gospel, so if you accept Christ as your Savior, then God is in the midst of you, and he will continue to be in the midst of you forever.
The gospel is an everlasting covenant that joins the believer to the Savior forevermore.
God sets his sanctuary in the midst of his people, the sanctuary that has the mercy seat in it, the sanctuary that has the sacrifice, the sanctuary that has the priesthood, the sanctuary that has the everlasting atonement and the presence of God.
This is God's promise to the church of Jesus Christ, which is symbolized in the book of the Revelation, the church is symbolized by seven golden candlesticks.
Brother Shepherd was teaching on this just the other day in Sunday school, the church is symbolized by seven golden candlesticks.
Why is the church symbolized as candlesticks?
Because Jesus said ye are the light of the world.
Because we shine forth the glorious light of Jesus Christ.
God's Spirit through us, as Brother Shepherd was teaching in Sunday school, man, if you miss Sunday school, you're missing some good stuff.
God's Spirit in Christ's witness through us, shining the light of the gospel.
Now listen to this, this is God's promise to the church concerning Jesus Christ, symbolized by the golden candlesticks, Revelation chapter one, verse 12 and 13.
The apostle John says, "And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks."
That's the church.
"And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man."
That's God's sanctuary set in the midst of us forever.
As true as it can be, you see God in the midst of Israel in the Old Testament, now you see God in the midst of the church in the New Testament.
Because the two, it says in the book of Ephesians, have now become one.
"To make in his body of twain one new man.
The Son of Man clothed with a garment down to the foot, and gird about the paps with a golden girdle.
God said to Israel, if you look back in your text now, and I will not enter into the city."
He said, "I'm not going to return to destroy you, and I will not enter into the city."
Why?
Because he's in their midst.
He's in their midst, so he's not going to enter the city to destroy them.
For if God came against the city, that he's in the midst of, that he would be coming against himself.
Again, God is forever identified with his people.
Jesus is not only the Son of Man in the midst of the golden candlesticks, but he is the head of the church, and we are his body.
He is in the midst of us, just like my body's in the midst of itself.
My head is in the midst of its body.
We're forever identified, unless we run into ISIS or something, but God will fix that in the future.
But we're identified with each other, so for God to go against that city, he would be going against himself because he is the tabernacle and the king in the midst of that city.
God will never enter the holy city of his kingdom, the church.
To destroy it.
Because how could he come against us without coming against Christ?
God the Father has put his Son Jesus in the midst of his people.
Man, you look at ISIS over there, you know what they do?
They try to make sure that they're in the midst of a hospital.
They try to make sure they're in the midst of a school or something like that so that America won't bomb them for the sake of not bombing the people.
They're in the midst of.
God put his only begotten Son in the midst of the believers in Jesus Christ.
He'll never turn and come against us because Jesus is there as their head, and they are his body, and they're forever identified with him to destroy us is destroy him.
Christ came for us.
Therefore, God will never come against us.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
We thank you, Father, that you have given us the promise on the cross, Lord.
You executed the fierceness of your wrath.
And you put the victim of that wrath away.
You slew him on a tree.
But in slaying him, you delivered us.
And having delivered us, you'll never return to destroy us again.
Once saved, we are forever saved.
Once in our midst, he is forever in our midst.
Thank you, Lord, that you will not execute the fierceness of your wrath against your people.
Thank you for setting the tabernacle in the midst of your people.
Thank you for the Son of Man being in the midst of the golden candlesticks.
And thank you, Father, that one day where he is, there will be also.
And we ask this in Jesus' precious and holy name.
Bless these people as they go about their day.
May your word just sink deep into our hearts and give us incredible comfort that you, our God, will never go back on us.
You'll correct us in measure, but you will never utterly destroy us.
You will spare us through Jesus.
In his name we pray.
Amen.
