Episode Transcript
All right, if you'd take your Bibles now in Hosea, chapter 8,
God willing, we'll be expounding verse 13 this morning.
The tile of the message is, a lamb without a lamb.
That doesn't make any sense, does it? A lamb without a lamb.
Well, you'll see where we're going this morning as we get toward the end of this message.
And just as illogical and impossible as that title sounds,
you'll see that's exactly what people are doing with religion, exactly what they are.
We're only going to be expounding verse 13. It's a short verse.
I was telling Brother Shepherd last night, but it's an eye-opening verse.
It's a verse that demands, deserves our serious contemplation and ask ourselves, why? Why?
In verse 12, last week, God said, He had written to Israel the great things of His law,
but Israel treated the Bible as something that was foreign to them,
something that was not relevant to their lives.
After so many years of living in prosperity under the leadership of God's Word,
they ultimately set the Bible aside,
and they chased after the religions and philosophies of the godless nations around them.
But setting aside God's Word doesn't always look the way one might think.
When we think of setting aside God's Word today, we think of people who say,
I don't believe that Bible.
Oh, no, that's just a bunch of made-up stuff. We don't believe that.
Or I reject that I once believed it, but not any longer. I no longer embrace the Word of God.
And that's the way a lot of people think when they think about rejecting the Word of God.
But once again, setting aside God's Word doesn't always look the way one might think.
For some people, setting aside God's Word means to reject its central message.
Like I said, I don't believe that.
For others, it means to revamp its central message. See the difference?
If a person rejects the gospel, then they set aside God's Word outright.
They ridicule the holy Scriptures, and they embrace some godless way of thinking.
But if a person revamps the gospel, if they revamp the Word of God,
then they reject God's Word privately while rewording its message publicly.
You see the difference?
Thus, they still embrace some godless way of thinking, even though they're still embracing the Bible.
In Israel's case, they did both.
Some rejected the Bible publicly and sought after false gods.
And some rejected the Bible privately and rewarded its message publicly.
But whether you reject the message or revamp the message, the result is still the same.
You reject the core message of the holy Scriptures and embrace and practice a lie.
Whichever route you take.
Having the Christian background that Israel did,
and don't think Israel didn't have a Christian background, Christianity was ever since Genesis 1.
It was before Genesis 1.
That's all we've ever had.
And you'll learn more about that this morning.
But having the Christian background that Israel did, many of the Jews back then,
they didn't reject the Bible publicly.
They continued the religious traditions that were passed down to them from their fathers.
The problem is, those religious traditions not being grounded in God's Word had lost their biblical meaning.
So having lost their biblical meaning, they lost their biblical spiritual significance.
The tradition of offering sacrifices became to them something like what we do on Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is coming up really soon.
Thanksgiving, even the Word has been reduced down to a lot of people as Turkey Day.
The whole idea historically, spiritually, was that there would be a day, a holy day set aside.
This holiday is holy day.
A holy day set aside that people would get together and remember God's goodness to their forefathers.
And give thanks to God for the blessings he's given them.
That's the whole concept behind Thanksgiving.
But I would dare to say that probably 99% of the American homes that practice Thanksgiving
never give thanks to God on Thanksgiving.
They make sure and have their turkey or whatever they're cooking,
and their football, or whatever tradition they have.
But I seriously doubt any of them sit around and say,
let's give thanks to God on this special day for all he's done for us.
This is going to be a day where we thank God.
And so the idea of a holy day in which Americans have thanks and a feast
and give thanks to their Creator for the grace that he bestowed on them
has turned into a day of trivial entertainment.
Why?
This is what happens when the historical purpose dies, but the tradition lives on.
The sacrifices and holy days that God gave Israel were all rooted in one thing.
You listening?
The sacrifices, all the holy days, the feasts that God gave Israel were rooted in one thing.
The fact that God had redeemed their nation when they were in bondage to Egypt
for the purpose of making them a holy nation,
that would be blessed by God's grace and righteousness in a land of rest.
That's all it was about.
Every single sacrifice, every single thing was all about their redemption and their blessing.
Every sacrifice, every day, every religious ritual performed by the priests
were for the purpose of illustrating, remembering, and celebrating the past work that God had done
and the future promises he said he would do.
But many of the Israelites were no longer interested in the message and purpose of God's Word.
So they set aside the core message of the Bible,
keeping the holy days but discarding the holiness thereof, just like with thanksgiving.
God said, look now in verse 13,
they sacrifice flesh for the sacrifice and eat it.
They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of Mount offerings.
They were still doing that.
They were still offering the sacrifices and they ate the sacrifices.
They enjoyed the holiday meals, but they discarded the holiday message.
You see how that happens?
I'm glad we have thanksgiving here.
I'm glad we have Christmas here because a lot of people do Christmas the same way.
I'm glad not because I care about the holidays as much as I care about the illustration
because every one of us here can relate to it.
They enjoyed the holiday meals in the Bible, but they discarded the holiday message.
They kept the cultural traditions, but they set aside the spiritual truths.
As thanksgiving, the core message of Thanksgiving Day has been lost in the celebration of the holiday.
So righteousness and redemption by the coming sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
which is the core message of God's Word, has been removed from the religious traditions of the Jews.
It was removed from their traditions then.
It is removed from their traditions now.
So God said, yes, they're keeping my sacrifices.
Yes, they're eating the sacrifices.
Their portion of the sacrifices.
Yes, they are participating in these offerings that are given in my Word.
Look back in your text.
Lord accepted them not.
God doesn't accept the offerings that they make.
What a sad state of affairs Israel was in back then.
Israel was offering God worship that God would not accept.
See, does he do that?
Brother Richard, you better believe he does.
They were offering God worship that God would not accept.
They were like Cain, who also offered God worship that God would not accept.
Here's a kingdom truth for you.
The only offering that God will accept is the offering God first offers you.
The only offering that God will accept is the offering that God first offers you.
In Genesis chapter 22, verse eight, when Isaac was inquiring about the lamb that they were going to
offer God when they got up to Mount Moriah, Abraham answered and said,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
So they went both of them together.
God provides the lamb.
God provides the sacrifices.
The first sacrifice made on earth was made by God.
You get that?
The very first sacrifice ever made on earth was made by God.
When God slew those animals instead of slaying Adam and Eve, and he clothed them with the animals,
God slew.
That's the offering that God first offered man.
Hey, guilty man.
I can deliver you. I can save you.
I can cover your guiltiness by slaying an innocent substitute in your place.
That's the offer that God first offered man.
That's why when Cain came along with a bunch of vegetables,
that's not something God offered.
They had already clothed themselves with fig leaves.
They had all the vegetable clothing they needed.
God said, no, that's not how I'm going to save you.
We're not going to cover up sin in the sense of sweeping it under the rug.
We're going to eradicate it.
We're going to deal with it.
We're going to punish it.
We're going to overcome it.
So when Cain brought these vegetable offerings to God,
that was not what God first offered him.
He's offering to God something strange,
something that would be like me going to Lowe's.
I did this a while back, in fact.
It was a little fun.
I was at Lowe's.
I was looking for my Lowe's card,
and I stumbled across a different card.
I don't know what card it was.
I can't remember, but it was to a different store.
It'd be like going into Lowe's with an Atwood's card or something,
or with a Home Depot card.
I said, y'all accept this card here?
Of course, they said, no, we don't accept that.
It'd be like me going in there with a Home Depot card.
Y'all accept Home Depot card.
No, we don't accept that.
Why? I'm making them an offer.
It's sincere.
I mean it.
I mean here, if you'll take it.
But they won't, because it won't pay the bill.
It won't settle the account.
God was going to settle man's account with Christ.
God offered Adam an Eve, an innocent substitute,
and then Cain came along and says,
let me offer you something that you didn't offer me.
I've got a better idea, a bright idea, and God would not accept it.
God offered the animals to them first, and they praise God accepted it.
On Passover night, Moses didn't say,
guys, I got a great idea.
How about we get this lamb and we smear blood on the door?
I bet that'll get us out of here.
That wouldn't have made any sense at all.
On Passover night, Moses didn't come up with a redemptive scheme.
God gave Israel the specifications for the offering they needed,
and those who accept the offer that God offered them
were passed over by God's judgment when he came.
Kingdom truth, God will never reject his own offering,
but he will reject those who do.
And that's beautiful, and that's sad at the same time.
God will never reject his own offering.
There is not one time in the Bible when man offered God,
and offering God first offered him, and God turned that offering down.
Not one time.
But if you reject the offering that God offers you,
then you will be rejected by God.
The Israelites were like Cain during Hosea's time.
They were going through the motions of a sacrifice
that looked similar to the real thing,
but lacked the substance of the real thing.
They were going through the empty emotions of their own
liberalized, corrupted version of religion.
For they had set aside the Word of God,
changed the message that he had given them,
and offered him instead a religion that suited their own godless agenda.
Nothing's changed today.
In short, they worshiped in the name of God,
but they set aside the Word of God.
You get that?
They worshiped in the name of God, but they set aside the Word of God.
And that's not what God offered them.
It was an inert perversion of what God had offered them.
Every false worshipper offers God a sacrifice that God didn't offer them.
I'll say that again.
Every false worshipper offers God a sacrifice that God did not offer them.
They gave God sacrifices, but the Lord accepted them not.
Here's another kingdom truth.
The vast majority of Jews and churchgoers today are just like Israel back then.
They are dedicated to a religion that God has nothing to do with.
I'll say it again.
The vast majority of Jews and churchgoers today are just like Israel was back then.
They are dedicated to a religion that God has nothing to do with.
On Passover night, God told the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb to die in the firstborn's place
and then put the blood of that substitute lamb on the doorpost of their home.
And when God saw that blood, he would pass over them.
Don't see any blood.
He's not going to pass over.
No one to set sacrifice made.
Not going to pass over.
No salvation.
No redemption.
God commended them to sacrifice a lamb every year on Passover day after that
and to eat that lamb with unleavened bread to remember how God redeemed them from Egypt.
Basically, it was simple.
God's going to slay every firstborn in the house.
I'm in there.
My firstborn was Allison.
Let's say that she's going to be slain.
And so I say, here's what I'll do.
I'll take this lamb because God told me I could do this.
I'll kill the lamb and the lamb will die in Allison's place.
I'll then take the blood of that lamb as God told me,
and I'll put it on the door of my house.
Since the lamb died in Allison's place, when God comes through to kill the firstborn in every house,
he's going to see the blood of that substitute animal that died in her place on the door.
He's going to say, I've already got that one.
Allison's already died.
You see?
I mean, you can't kill someone twice.
I mean, that's how come people fake being dead.
You know, when the mass shooters out, they'll fake that being dead because you can't kill them twice.
And so how are they got that one?
So he passes over that house and he goes to the next one.
If there's no blood on there, we're going to get them.
You see?
And so that's what happened.
And when God went through, he slew the firstborn of every house that didn't have blood on their door,
all the way up to Pharaoh's firstborn.
And because of that, they said, get Israel out of here.
We can't take this any longer.
And they forced Israel out of their land, forced them out so fast, so fast,
not some kind of gradual thing.
There wasn't some type of evolution of salvation.
It was so fast that the dough they were making bread from didn't have time to be leavened,
didn't have time to rise.
So they had to eat unleavened bread, which shows how quickly they were rescued
by the blood of the lamb that died for them.
You see?
And so every year after that, God says, here's what you do.
You remember how you were in bondage.
You remember how your parents, your grandparents, your great, great grandparents,
you remember how your forefathers were in bondage in the land of Egypt.
How I through the death of a substitute, redeemed them out with a strong hand.
And every year you slay a lamb to remember how lamb died for them,
which will remind you how one's going to die for you in the future.
You see?
And you eat unleavened bread to show the expediency of the salvation offer you
through an instant substitute who dies in your place every year.
God told him to do that.
That's the Passover feast.
Numbers chapter nine, verse 11 and 12.
This is the word that God gave Israel.
Numbers nine, as numbers chapter nine, verses 11 and 12, God said the 14th day of the second month
at even they shall keep it.
That is the feast and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
So the 14th day of the month, they're going to eat that lamb with unleavened bread and bitter
herbs. Verse 12, they shall leave none of it into the morning nor break any bone of it.
The lamb could not be the lamb had to be slain.
The lamb had to be eaten.
It was eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs and not a bone of it could be broken.
Why? Because when you get to the New Testament, not a bone of Jesus was broken.
According to all the ordinances of the Passover, they shall keep it.
To this day, the Jews consider the Passover feast to be one of their most holiest feasts of all.
But listen patiently with me this morning as I read to you about how the Jewish rabbis
teach their people today.
And you're going to see exactly in living, breathing color what Hosea was talking about this morning.
Listen to how the rabbis explain the Passover feast that they do today,
because they still keep the Passover, the Jews do.
And what I'm about to read to you is taken from the Jewish virtual library.
It's accessed by people in over 300 countries.
It was mainly established to help educate Christians about Jewish religion
and to build unity between us and them because they kind of need us to survive right now.
Now, in the Jewish Passover, we have to understand you're looking at Hebrew words,
and I did change a lot of the Hebrew words and updated it.
I did use their words, though, but I took out some of the Hebrews so I would not overburden your ears.
But I left one in and that's the Seder.
When you hear the word Seder, that's what we would call the Passover, the Passover meal.
Okay. And so they call it a Seder.
So I left that in there because when you hear about the Jews keeping the Seder,
I want you to know what it means. It means the Passover.
Here we go. I'm going to read to you. These are their words.
The content of the Seder is summed up in 14 parts.
Now, when I read to you out of Numbers chapter 9, did you hear 14 parts?
No. The lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs.
Don't break a bone. Don't leave it any of it till morning. Don't let it be let to read it up.
The content of the Seder is summed up in 14 parts.
Sanctification, washing, vegetable, breaking, the story, blessings, bitter herbs, sandwich,
dinner, dessert, grace, song, and closing. That's the 14 parts of the Jewish Seder today.
Now I'll read to you their explanation of those 14 parts. Number one, sanctification.
This is blessing over wine in honor of the holiday.
The wine is drunk and the second cup is poured.
Washing. A washing of the hands without a blessing in preparation for eating the vegetable.
Number three, vegetable. A vegetable, usually parsley, is dipped in salt water and eaten.
The vegetable symbolizes the lowly origins of the Jewish people.
The salt water symbolizes the tears shed as a result of our slavery.
Parsley is a good vegetable to use for this purpose
because when you shake off the salt water, it looks like tears.
Now I want you to watch. We haven't yet got to the fourth part yet.
I want you to watch how they understand that this feast is about their slavery and redemption from Egypt.
But notice how all the symbolism of the parts is about them.
Not about the lamb that dies for them.
Not about how they got out. It all revolves back to them.
Our tears, the bitterness of our slavery and all these things.
Just keep that in mind as we go. Number four, breaking.
One of the three breads on the table is broken.
Part is returned to the pile and the other part is set aside.
Story, the story. Number five, a retelling of the story of the exodus from Egypt and the first
Passover. At the end of the story, a blessing is recited over the second cup of wine and it is drunk.
Do you notice how they're putting parts in that aren't anywhere in what we read in the Scriptures?
They're revamping its message. You see?
At the same time, they're holding the Bible, but they're revamping its message.
Number six, washing. A second washing of the hands, this time with a blessing,
in preparation for eating the bread. Just rituals. Reminds me of the Pharisees saying,
how come they're not eating with the washing hands? Because they had rituals back then,
they had to do too. Just the rituals. You're not keeping our rituals.
So a second washing of the hands, this time with a blessing. Number seven, blessings. Blessings over
grain products and the unleavened bread. A blessing is recited and a bit of unleavened bread is eaten.
Number eight, bitter herbs. A blessing is recited over a bitter vegetable.
Eaten with a mixture of apples, nuts, cinnamon, and wine, which symbolizes the mortar used by
the Jews in building during their slavery. The mortar. Remember how they would have to build
the bricks and put them together and everything? And so now they have fruits, nuts,
and cinnamon, and wine all mixed together in that symbol order they used. Where is that in
the scriptures? It's revamping the core message. Once again, the symbolism goes back to them,
goes back to their experience, their hardships. Number nine, the sandwich. That's not my word.
The sandwich. Rabbi Hillel, who was a very respected ancient Jewish teacher, by the way,
Rabbi Hillel was of the opinion that the herbs should be eaten together with the unleavened
bread and the Passover offering in a sandwich. In his honor, we eat some herbs on a piece of
unleavened bread with some apples and nuts. We do not do animal sacrifice anymore. So there is no
Passover offering.
Rabbi Hillel taught the ancient Jews some of the oldest teachings you can find.
Now when you sacrifice that lamb on Passover, you should put it in the unleavened bread together
and eat them together. What we call sandwich. And they're saying, but we don't offer the Passover
on Passover anymore. So we leave the lamb out and just put the parsley on
a parsley sandwich. Doesn't that bless your heart? Parsley didn't redeem them out of Egypt.
Parsley wasn't put on the door. They literally have a Passover
without a Passover. They have a lamb without a lamb. They have gutted the most significant
thing of their religion, gutted it out, hollowed it out, and packed it full of stuff, meaningless
stuff, stuff that Cain put on his altar. And they're still trying to get God to accept it.
God says, oh, you're offering it. I'm not accepting it.
So I'll read to you again. We don't do animal sacrifice anymore. So there is no Passover
offering. Number 10, dinner. A festive meal is eaten. There's no particular requirement
regarding what to eat at this meal. That's their words. When their Bible says, this is exactly
what you're supposed to eat. They say, oh no, there's no particular requirement.
They're holding the Bible in their hand publicly, rejecting it privately, revamping its message,
and giving out something totally different to the world, gutting all of Jesus out of it.
Number 11, dessert. At least they've got that. There's a little Baptist in everybody.
Number 12, grace after meals. The third cup of wine is poured. By now, at least they're feeling
better about leaving the Passover out. And grace after meals is recited. Number 13, praises.
Several Psalms are recited. A blessing is recited over the last cup of wine and it is drunk.
Closing. Number 14, closing a similar statement that the Seder has been completed.
It hasn't been with a wish that next year we may celebrate Passover in Jerusalem.
That the Messiah will come within the next year.
Wow.
So they conclude the Passover that has no Passover,
praying and hoping that the Messiah will come next year and they'll have Passover with him.
And that's followed by various hymns and stories. To me, this is both very sobering and very
enlightening. 14 things now comprise the Passover meal. Most of which God did not require.
And the only thing missing from the Passover meal was the Passover itself.
The lamb that is supposed to be slain and eaten to remind everyone of how God passed over them
is the only thing they leave out. No wonder they didn't accept their Passover when he came.
They kept the holy day and discarded the holiness. They kept the tradition and set aside the
commandment. The same thing they did in Hosea's time they do today. And because of this Hosea
said, look now back in your text, now will he remember their iniquity.
They say so carelessly, oh we don't offer animal sacrifices anymore.
I mean we know what God said to do.
We're too educated for that. We're too culturally refined for that now.
We don't do that stuff anymore. In other words, they're saying we don't go by God's word anymore.
We don't have to. We've determined that the main part of the Passover is not important to us.
God, instead of eating a lamb, will have a parsley sandwich.
And God is saying I do not accept your watered down corruption of my religion.
God did not consider Israel's sacrifices to be holy. He considered them to be iniquity.
Hosea said, now will he remember their iniquity, look back in your text, and visit their sins.
And whenever the Bible speaks of God visiting sins, it's talking about God
coming and punishing them for their sins.
Do you know why the Jews discard the Passover lamb in their Passover meal?
Because they discard the Passover lamb in their hearts. That's why.
If they focused on a lamb dying in their place, an innocent substitute dying in their place,
and being the means of them being delivered,
they would have to look for their Messiah to do that very thing.
They're doing the same thing every false church is doing.
They're keeping the outward trappings of Christianity while putting away from them
the message of redemption through the sacrifice of Christ.
You can dress up your religion as pretty as you want to.
And they've got it. They've got 14 dressings on it, all pretty.
The wine, the meals, the blessings, the religious washings and all these things.
You can dress your religion up as pretty as you like,
but if it's not founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb,
God counts it as iniquity and he will visit iniquity one day.
You can dress up your religion as pretty as you like, but if you think the truths of the Bible
are too old fashioned, bigoted, misogynistic, and antiquated for people like us today,
God counts your religion as iniquity and he will visit it one day.
God had delivered Israel from Egypt.
Now God says, look back in your texts as we close, they shall return to Egypt.
I got you out how?
By the Passover, by my word. Guess what happened?
They just disregarded the Passover. They just disregarded his word.
Now what happens? They go back to Egypt.
Not necessarily that they'll go back to Egypt physically and reside there.
Egypt wasn't the problem. Egypt was never the enemy.
The enemy from day one has been sin.
And so God's saying, I brought you out of bondage.
Now here we go again. You're going back to bondage.
The God that redeemed them from bondage is going to return them from bondage for Israel had a form
of godliness, but they were setting aside the saving power of God's truth that had delivered
them once out of Egypt in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 through 5.
Because think about it. Think about what we just read about the Jewish Passover today.
It had a form of godliness. They still read the story of the Passover in Exodus.
They still practice the Passover meal.
They just take the Passover and said, we don't need it.
Everything in the Passover but the Passover and a few extra things we threw in.
So they had a form of godliness, but what was the power that got them out of Egypt?
It was the Passover lamb. They had a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.
And this is what the Bible said would happen.
It is what is now happening today. The apostle Paul said in 2nd Timothy 3, verse 1 through 5.
The apostle Paul said, this know also that in the last days perilous time shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural
affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God,
listen to this now, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.
And he says from such turn away, it's exactly what we read that the Jews are doing today.
They have that form of godliness. They deny the power thereof.
And brethren, we need to turn away from that.
I don't care if you've been in a church your whole life.
I don't mind telling people anymore when they write in for help on the website and I tell them
about what Jesus has done for them and they put their faith in Christ.
I say, does your church teach the gospel like this?
As they say, no, they teach A, B, C and D. You know what I say? You need to get out of there.
Get out of there. I don't care how long you've been in a church, your grandparents, your family,
your aunt, your uncle. I don't care if all your friends are there. I tell you what,
I'd rather eat the Passover with a few people than stay and eat a partially sandwich with all
my friends I grew up with. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
I thank you, thank you, thank you, Father, that we have the power of redemptive liberty in Jesus Christ.
We don't have a form of godliness. We have the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all
creation. We have the word that was made flesh and dwelt among us, of whom our forefathers and
the faith beheld his glory full of grace and truth, of whom John the Baptist looked and said,
Behold the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. And now the apostle Paul says,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation.
Lord, we can lose the form, but thank God our faith in Jesus will never lose the power in his name.
