Episode Transcript
Hosea 13 will be in verse 4 this morning.
While you're turning there, I'll go ahead and update you on our count.
We had 147 Gospel contacts this week that brings your yearly subtotal up to 3,358.
So y'all keep passing those tracts out.
Brother, one of our new online members, the Marithis, brother Marithi reached out to me last week and said, "Where are these sticky tracts and booklets I keep hearing about?"
And I said, "Well, when you come in person, they're on the foyer back there, you can get them next time you come in person.
But meanwhile, we'll mail you some."
So he got them yesterday.
He said he was going to start putting them up.
He was going to start sticking them up at the gym.
So that's a good place to start.
We'll turn the muscle bound into heaven bound, brother.
That's what we're going to do.
Hosea 13, verse 4, don't forget we have a dinner on the grounds after lunch today.
The title of the message this morning is "From the Land of Egypt."
At the beginning of chapter 13, God said the nation of Israel had exalted itself when it put itself under God's authority.
So when it forsook the one true God to serve a false God, that once exalted nation died in their trespasses and sins.
False gods are often referred to in the Bible as Baal, B-A-A-L.
And there were many of these false gods.
Each locality had its own Baal.
And the various local bells all put together were referred to in the plural as Balaam.
After Israel crossed the forbidden line of departing from the Lord to serve Baal, Israel, the Bible says, sent more and more in their idolatry and encouraged its citizens to kiss the idolatrous calves.
That was their Balaam that they worshiped.
In Hosea 13, verse 1 and 2, if you'll look with me, just look up a little bit in the first couple of verses, God said, "When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel.
But when he offended in Baal, he died.
And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of silver and idols according to their own understanding.
All of it the work of the craftsmen.
They say of them, 'Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.'"
Israel increased more and more in their idolatry, giving their allegiance to and putting their trust in their false god, their Baal.
So in this chapter, God told them, "You're increasing your idolatry, Israel."
Look down now in your text in verse 4, "Yet I am the Lord thy God."
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for Your precious Word.
I thank You for those who came here this morning.
I thank You, Father God, that we have a Bible where we can learn Your truth and hear from our Creator and be taught.
Lord, teach us now as all eyes are on You, and we look to You for this understanding.
We ask it in Jesus' precious name, to You be all the glory.
Amen.
God said, "You're increasing in your idols, yet I am the Lord thy God."
Underscore, "I am the Lord."
I am the Lord.
You can make all the gods you want to, Israel, yet I alone am the Lord.
The word "Lord" is Jehovah here, which means self-existing.
I'm so glad that God uses that as one of His names, because that sets Him apart from everything else in this world that we could ever know.
Everything in this world, everything in this universe once did not exist.
At some point in time, everything that we've ever seen or known came into existence by force outside itself.
The Bible tells us that, and even the unbelieving scientists tell us that.
But Jehovah, our God, is self-existing.
He never came into existence.
He simply has always been, and He will always be.
Since He has always been, He is before all things.
All things came into existence, but Jehovah.
Because Jehovah has always been, He is before all things.
Now speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Lord, the Bible says in Colossians chapter 1 verse 17, "And He is before all things."
Isn't that wonderful?
He's before all things.
Why?
Because Jesus is Jehovah.
He's the Great I Am.
He's the one that spoke to Moses.
He's the one that spoke light into existence.
He's the one in the book of Genesis.
Jesus is that said, "Let there be light."
The Bible says, "He is before all things, and by Him, by Jesus, all things consist."
By the power of Jesus Christ, all things came into existence and remain in existence since the fall of man and by their own wicked imagination.
People have made a lot of gods for themselves over the past few thousand years, but the God of the Bible cannot be made.
He cannot be made.
Here's a kingdom true for you this morning.
People make gods, but Jehovah makes people.
People make gods, but Jehovah makes people.
God said, "Yet I am the Lord thy God."
In other words, you've been making gods, but I am the God who made you.
If you want a God that you make yourself, then you can make whatever bell you like.
Evolution can be your bell.
Science can be your bell.
You can choose many of the Balaam of Hinduism, mythology, Satanism, witchcraft, or nirvana, which all have been made by men.
If you want a God that made you, there's only one.
That's Jehovah God, the God of the Bible.
"Jehovah God is not the product of man, for He is before all things, and by Him all things, including man, consist."
God made by you could not have been before you.
Have you ever thought about that?
A God that's made by you could not have been before you, and if it wasn't before you, then it can't remain after you.
Think about that.
Last week, my daughter, Lauren, was preparing to fly out of town with her family.
When my granddaughter, Blair, informed her mother that her imaginary dinosaur friend needed some books to read on the airplane.
Have you ever had an imaginary friend when you grew up?
You had one?
Ain't no one else had one?
I thought so.
Brother Shepherd had one.
Brother Shepherd had one.
He's tough on the outside, but on the inside he's tender.
That dinosaur wasn't real.
It's not real.
It lives only in the mind of the child that created it.
So when my granddaughter's childhood passes away, the dinosaur will pass away.
People give life to the gods they imagine, but God gave life to us.
When idolaters die, their idols die with them.
You take an idol and you've got a piece of wood and you carve out that piece of wood into some idolatrous figurine and you bow down to it.
In your imagination, that's your imaginary God.
But when you die, just a piece of wood or a piece of brass or a piece of gold or silver like Israel made their idols out of.
When our daughters die, their idols die, but when we who believe in Jesus die, He lives on to deliver us from the grave from which we are helpless to deliver ourselves.
God told Israel, "I am the Lord thy God."
Look back in your text from the land of Egypt.
From the land of Egypt.
God is always your God from the land of Egypt.
He will never be your God from any place else.
I'm going to repeat that again.
God will always and only be your God from the land of Egypt.
He will never be your God from any place else.
You let that sink in.
When the Israelites were slaves in the land of Egypt, they were helpless to deliver themselves.
But that's when Jehovah was their God.
He was their God from the land of Egypt.
He was their God when they were helpless to deliver themselves.
Jehovah is different from all other gods in that he is our God from the land of Egypt.
He's the one who delivers us when we can't deliver ourselves.
He is the one.
The Bible says in Romans 5.8, "But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners," while we were yet in bondage to sin and death as they were in bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt, Christ died for us.
That means he was our God from the land of Egypt.
Christ the one who is before all things saved us from our sin while we were yet sinners, condemned to death, and helpless to save ourselves.
Jehovah is your God only one way from the land of Egypt, from the place where you are helpless to save yourself.
Here's a kingdom and truth for you this morning.
God works from a place where we cannot work.
God works from a place where we cannot work.
That's why salvation is by grace through faith and that not of ourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works.
Romans chapter 4 verse 5 says, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
Jehovah was Israel's God from the land of Egypt.
Their salvation from the land of Egypt was before their existence in the land of Canaan.
Are you getting this?
Hosea wasn't talking to the Israelites in Egypt.
He was talking to the Israelites in Canaan.
But when Hosea was addressing the Israelites in Canaan, he was referring to them as the Israelites in Egypt.
He says, "I'm your God from the land of Egypt."
Those people had never been in Egypt before.
But they could have never made it to Canaan had God not first saved them in Egypt.
You see how that works?
Their salvation from the land of Egypt was before their existence in the land of Canaan.
In our verse this morning, God is telling people in the present how he delivered them in the past.
Now hang on to this.
This is important.
God is telling people in the present how he delivered them in the past.
And that's what we do when we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If you're preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ, then we're telling sinners in the present how God delivered them in the past before they were ever born.
None of y'all were on Calvary.
None of y'all were at the cross.
But when we preach the gospel, I'm telling you in the present how God delivered you in the past.
2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9 and 10.
2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9 and 10 says God "hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus when?
Before the world began."
Why?
Because he's before all things.
He's before all things.
Your salvation was before all things.
Your salvation was before the world began.
Your salvation was a promise that God made Jesus, that he would redeem you on the cross, and he made that promise before the world began.
And then he says "but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light to the gospel."
Jehovah is our God from the land of Egypt, and that means the gospel must be preached as a work that was finished before the center began.
The gospel must be preached as a work that was finished before the center began.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 3 says "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world."
A finished work.
The gospel requires us to believe in the Lord our God from the land of Egypt.
You can't believe in God anywhere else.
You have to believe in God from the land of Egypt, the God who works in the place where we cannot work.
To believe that his work of salvation for us was finished from the foundation of the world.
Here's a kingdom and truth for you this morning.
And this is how you know the difference between the true gospel and idolatry.
Salvation is a work in the past that we acknowledge in the present.
Idolatry is a work in the present for what God has accomplished in the past.
Say it again.
Salvation is a work in the past that we acknowledge in the present.
God completed our salvation on the cross.
He promised that salvation before the world began.
It's a work in the past that we, having been told about that work, we now acknowledge in the present.
Yes, it is finished.
Jesus died for my sin.
He has redeemed us by his blood.
We acknowledge in the present what God accomplished in the past.
He delivered us from sin, Satan, and death 2,000 years ago.
So salvation is a work in the past that we acknowledge in the present, but idolatry is a work in the present for what God has accomplished in the past.
Now how can I work today for what God has already accomplished yesterday?
That makes no sense at all.
If I can work for what God has accomplished, then apparently he hasn't accomplished it.
That's how come people working for their salvation today don't believe the salvation God has provided.
They're unbelievers.
Exodus 32, verse 3-4 says, "And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf."
There's their bale.
"And they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."
Isn't that amazing?
The golden calf was Israel's work in the present for what God had accomplished in the past.
You see that?
God had already delivered them from Egypt, and here they are.
Break off your earrings, boys.
Let's make this a mold here.
Let's pour this gold in here.
Let's get a graving tool.
Let's make this gold just right.
And then once they get all that work done, the calf was the work of their own hands.
And once they got that calf done, the work of their own hands, they said, "Now this is what delivered us back then."
Our work in the present accomplished what God did in the past.
That's idolatry.
That is idolatry.
The golden calf was Israel's work in the present for what God accomplished in the past.
When we work in the present for a salvation that God has accomplished in the past by Jesus, we are kissing the calves.
We are bowing to the work of our own hands, and we're saying, "These be my gods, which brought me up out of the land of Egypt."
The calf we make in the desert didn't exist when God delivered us on the cross.
He will be our God only one way from the land of Egypt, from the covenant of redemption that was made long before we were ever born.
So God said, "I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt."
Put down your text, "And thou shalt know no God but me."
Thou shalt know no God but me.
Now that was a command and a law.
But you know what?
It's also a prophecy.
This world will never know any other God except Jehovah as the one who delivered them from the grave.
You'll never know any other God but him because no other God will deliver them from the grave.
The world will experience salvation from sin and death only one way, and that's through the God who abolished sin and death through Christ.
You can make a false God, but you can't know the God you make as the God who made you.
You can't know the God you make as the God who delivered you from sin and death.
Why?
Look back in your text.
God says, "For there is no Savior beside me."
None.
When it comes to religion, you have two choices, a calf or a lamb.
Now the calf was what Israel made.
The lamb is what God provided.
Here they are making a golden calf.
It wasn't a calf that got them out of Egypt.
It was a lamb that was slain in the sinner's place on Passover night.
That lamb's blood was put on the sinner's door, and God saw the blood as we just got through singing about, and he passed over them.
Through that blood, they were delivered, and the Egyptians, first born were slain, and that kicked them right out of Egypt.
They said, "Get out of here.
We can't hold you any longer."
When it comes to religion, it doesn't matter what religion, no matter what religion in the world, whether it's a tribal religion, whether it's Eastern religion, it doesn't matter.
In Eastern religion, you have two choices.
You can either have a calf or a lamb, either a calf you make today or a lamb that God provided in the past.
That makes religion kind of simple, doesn't it?
You can either have a calf you make today or a lamb that God provided in the past.
That's how you know the difference between a false religion and a true religion.
That's how you know the difference between a false gospel and a true gospel.
A false gospel requires you to make a calf in the desert.
The true gospel provided you a lamb in Egypt.
There's so many people today who are saying, "Oh, I'm going to try my best.
I'm going to do my best."
Even people who know that salvation is by grace through faith, the truth is trying to say, "I'm going to try to hang on.
Whoa is me."
You know what they're doing?
They got that old graving tool out and they're trying to work in the present for what God accomplished in the past.
That's idolatry.
Put that graving tool down.
You walk out of Egypt by the power of the lamb.
You go through the desert by the power of the lamb.
You enter Canaan by the power of the lamb.
You remain in Canaan and live victoriously by the power of the lamb.
The calf has no part in it.
Our work has no part.
The gospel, again, a false gospel requires you to make a calf in the desert.
The true gospel provides you a lamb in Egypt.
Here's the kingdom of truth for you this morning.
False gods require present work.
Jehovah provides a finished work.
False gods require a present work.
Jehovah provides a finished work.
If you have a religion, if you're Baptist religion, you're charismatic religion, you're Hindu religion, whatever religion you have, you're Muslim religion.
If you have a religion that's requiring a present work, you have a calf in the desert.
But if you have a religion that's provided you a finished work, then you have the gospel of Jesus Christ.
No other religion like it in the world.
I thank God that my religion doesn't require a present work.
It provides a finished work.
Jesus said, "It is finished."
God said, "There is no savior beside me.
He is our God from the land of Egypt, where Jesus was our Passover lamb and he was slain for us on the cross.
There is no savior beside Jehovah Jesus, not you, not me, not anybody but him.
Our salvation was accomplished by him from the land of Egypt and not by us in the desert."
With that, we'll close and we'll have a word of prayer for our meal next door.
Thank God, thank God that God describes himself as our God from the land of Egypt.
Man, if it was from anywhere else, I'd be lost.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
We thank you, Father, for not requiring a present work for our salvation.
You're not our God, Father, from any place, but from the place where we cannot work.
And I thank you for that, Lord.
You're our God from the place where we're in bondage.
You're our God when we are helpless.
When we were yet without strength in due time, you through your son died for the ungodly.
And Lord, I pray, Father God, that this will be used to distinguish light from darkness in every one of our hearts and be a great relief to any who struggle.
In Jesus' precious name we pray.
Bless this food we're about to receive to the nourishment of our bodies and give us a wonderful time of fellowship together as your saints.
In Jesus' name, amen.
