Verse by verse teaching - Hosea 9:3 "Returning to Egypt"

The tile of the message this morning is, returning to Egypt. Returning to Egypt. In the previous verses last week, God said Israel would suffer the loss of two of her main agricultural products, which was corn and wine. And the reason was, is because she had been looking to her false gods to provide them for her. Israel had abandoned the one true God. And metaphorically speaking, that's kind of like if you abandon the one true God, the one who is the creator and provider of all things, and you create a false God that you worship, one that does the rules that you lack and goes by how you, whatever you envision religion to be, and you create a false religion and you begin worshipping that false God that you created to provide you corn and wine, that's kind of like a homeowner abandoning the power pole outside his house so that he can plug into a totem pole he created outside his house. It's the same thing. It's no difference. If you unplug from the power pole, then you can expect the electricity to fail, right? It doesn't matter how much you believe in the totem pole. It doesn't matter how dedicated you are to the totem pole. The totem pole is something you made based off false gods, and you can believe in that totem pole all you want to, but you're going to be left in the dark. So in the same way, the Israelites had unplugged themselves from God, so they could expect the corn to fail. They could expect the wine to fail. No matter how much they believed in their false gods, they would be left without corn and wine and many of the other blessings that God provided for them, which Hosea speaks about in our verses this morning. Totem poles don't make power. False gods don't make corn and wine. Not only would Israel be losing their corn and wine, as we read last week, but Israel would be losing their country too. Look now if you would this morning in our text. This is Hosea 9 verse 3, They shall not dwell in the Lord's land. They shall not dwell in the Lord's land. Let's pray, Father, we thank you so much for your precious word. And I pray this morning that your Holy Spirit, Father, will fill me and fill the people here, that your word will go forth in the power of your spirit and all eyes will be on you, that we will be people who seek truth. We ask it in Jesus' precious name. Amen. The Lord, I'm sorry, they shall not dwell in the Lord's land. So here's a question. Who provided that corn and wine to Israel? God did. So when they abandoned God, they abandoned the blessing of the corn and wine. Here's another question. Who brought Israel into that land to begin with? God did. God delivered them from their bondage to Egypt. He brought them through the Sinai desert and he brought them into the land of Canaan, which is now modern day Israel. So when they abandoned God, they abandoned the blessing of their land. It's like a child telling its mother, I wish you weren't my mother. And then suddenly the child gets its wish. And everything the child received from its mother is gone. The child's food, shelter, love, wisdom, even the child's very life is gone. The child should be thankful for its mother and people should be thankful for their God. For every good thing we have came from him. Hosea said they shall not dwell in whose land? The Lord's land. I've been seeing on social media lately with all the conflict over the land of Israel right now between the Palestinians and the Israelis. They were called Israelites back in the old government. They're called Israelis today, but I've been watching the conflict there and the people posting and some of the posts I've seen is Israel owns that land. No, they don't. That's God's land. That's the Lord's land. Genesis chapter 2 verse 8 says, And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed. God planted the garden in Eden and in that garden, that land in Eden was created by God. God owned Eden and he could do whatever he wanted to with Eden. God put the man in Eden whom he had formed. God made that man just like he made Eden. He made Adam so God owned Adam so that means God could do whatever he wanted to with Adam. It's the same way with Israel and the Promised Land. God made the land of Canaan so he could do whatever he wanted to with it. God chose to make Canaan the place where his prophecies would be fulfilled, where his son would come and die for the sins of the world. God made the Jews also. He could do what he wanted to with them. And so because of that God put those Israelites, those Jews in the land of Canaan. Just like he put Adam and Eden. Yes, God did give the land to the nation of Israel. He gave it to them. But we learn through in the book of Job, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. How does that work? Well, here's how it works. God put the devil in heaven. His name was Lucifer. This is before Lucifer rebelled. So God put Lucifer in heaven. God put Adam and Eden. God put Israel in Canaan. But the devil rebelled. Adam rebelled. Israel rebelled. And because of that God put Satan out of heaven, Adam out of Eden, and nice put Israel out of Canaan. That's how it works. It's God's land. Through the blood of the Passover lamb, God had redeemed Israel who is Ephraim. Referred to as Ephraim in this passage. It's the same thing. God had redeemed Israel from Egypt by the blood of a Passover lamb. Took them out on that Passover night. Led them across the Red Sea through the Sinai desert. Put them in the land of Canaan. Look back in your text. But Ephraim shall return to Egypt. Look at that. God delivered them from Egypt through the blood of a Passover lamb. But God says now they're going to return to Egypt. The generation of Israelites in Hosea's time rejected the God who brought them out of Egypt through the blood of that Passover lamb. Who redeemed them from their bondage to Egypt. They were slaves in Egypt. They rejected the God who brought them into that Promised Land. So they could be a holy nation and walk according to God's word. And manifest the glory and power of God. They rejected him. But when they rejected their God. They rejected his Passover. They rejected his redemption. They rejected the very foundation and purpose for which they were put in the land of Canaan to begin with. With no God. They have no redemption from Egypt. They have no power over their enemies. They have no purpose in that land. So now God says they shall return to Egypt where they came from. Now returning to Egypt. Appears to be a metaphor not not not a historical return to Egypt. But a metaphorical return to Egypt. We're going to see that here in just a little bit. So they weren't going to they weren't going to literally return to Egypt. As slaves and live the way they they were before God delivered them out. But they would return spiritually to Egypt. And we see that theme throughout the Bible. Even all the way into the book of the Revelation. So they're going to spiritually return to Egypt in the sense that they would return to the bondage of this world. And I have to explain this to you so this all this will make sense. When the people of Israel historically were physically in the land of Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh and in bondage to the Egyptian Kingdom. That was an Old Testament picture for us. A living historical Old Testament picture of us being in bondage to Satan in this wicked world. So Israel historically was in the land of Egypt. They were slaves there. They did build for Pharaoh. That's recorded there in the Bible. But when they were there, God used their bondage to Pharaoh and that Egyptian Kingdom to illustrate our bondage to Satan and the godless world kingdom that were born into as they were born in bondage to Pharaoh and Egypt. We're born in bondage to sin Satan and death. And there's nothing you can do about it outside of Jesus Christ. It's just the way things are. We live. We sin. We die. That simple. Everyone does. And so the only way. That Israel could get out of bondage to Pharaoh into Egypt was if God brought them out that bondage and delivered them out. The only way that you and I can get out of bondage to our sin and death, which is the result of our sin, is if God delivers us out. Every city in the world has cemeteries that show that we're in bondage to sin and death. And unless there is some great power that can overcome the sin and death and bring us up out of those graves so we can live again, we're all doomed. Our life has no hope. But to exert our energy, do the best we can and then get old, get sick and die. So God delivered them out. How did God deliver them out of Egypt? He delivered them out in the book of Exodus to the blood of a Passover lamb. He had them take an innocent lamb and let the lamb die in their place. They put the blood on the door of their houses. It's a long story. It's a beautiful story. But through the blood of that Passover lamb, God brought them out of Egypt. And to this day, the Jews still observed the Passover. They just observe it incorrectly as we looked at a few Sundays back. But they still observed the Passover because of that history that their nation has gone through. And as Israel left Egypt through the blood of a Passover lamb, so Christians have left their bondage to this world through the blood of a Passover lamb. The Bible says Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. He was the true lamb that died in our place, that we could go free, that as He was raised from the dead on the third day and overcame death, came out of that grave, so we will be raised from the dead and overcome the grave one day when He comes again. Outside of that resurrection, there is no hope for mankind, no hope at all. But to live in a world where they're fighting and stealing from one another and then die and let the worms get you. There's no other hope, no other hope at all. As God delivered them out with the Passover lamb, He's going to deliver us out with the Passover lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as Israel left Egypt in a large group of people, they estimate about two million people, two million Jews came out of Egypt when they left. They left in a large group of people. And as Israel walked out and left Egypt behind in a large group of people, that was a picture of the Church of Jesus Christ, who through the blood of the Passover lamb, Jesus Christ, would walk out free from this world at a large group of people and walk out of bondage of sin, Satan, and death. The word church in Greek is ekklesia. Now, if you look there at that exit sign, ekklesia, church, the word church means to be called out. We are the large group of people that Israel was a picture of back then. When God brought them out of Egypt to the blood of that Passover lamb, it was a picture that He was going to build His church and bring them out of this God forsaken world and bondage to sin, Satan, and death, and bring us out of that bondage. We are called out, just like they were called out of Egypt. We've been called out of sin, Satan, and death, liberated. So keep that in mind as we're going through here. When you think of Israel living, serving, and worshiping God in that promised land, when you think of the church living, serving, and worshiping God in the Kingdom of God, that's what we do. We are the Kingdom of God and Jesus Christ is our King. It's a wonderful thing. The name Israel means a prince of God because they were supposed to rule in the power of God in the land of Israel. You remember what Jesus said? All power is given unto me, go ye therefore. We're the true Israel now. We're the true Israel. But when Israel rejected God as their King in the land of Canaan, and they started serving false gods instead, they became a nation with God's name, Israel, living in God's land, Canaan, that was no longer following God's word. See what happened? A people with God's name, Israel, living in God's land, Canaan, who were no longer following God's word. Can you see how Israel was then? So was the church today. That's what Hosea is about. God didn't write this to Israel through Hosea for Israel's sake alone. He wrote it for our sake. Remember what God says to Israel, he says to the church. Okay? With all that in mind now, in Romans chapter 9 verse 6, the Bible says, and look at the underlying portion up here, if you don't have a Bible with you, it says, they are not all Israel which are of Israel. And if you have a Bible, please look at your Bible. I'm glad you have one. But if you don't, they are not all Israel which are of Israel. In other words, that may be Israelites in the flesh in the sense that they descended from Abraham. They are not Israelites in the spirit in the sense they don't believe God. They had God's name, but since they rejected God, they were not God's people. They had Abraham's DNA, but they did not share Abraham's faith in God. Make sense? Here's the kingdom truth. Christians are defined by what they believe, not by what they're called. Christians are defined by what they believe, not by what they're called. In Hosea's time, the nation of Israel descended from people who did believe in God, but that generation of Hosea's time did not believe themselves. In the same way, the church today descended from people who believed God and believed His word, but many churches today do not believe themselves. Like Israel, they bear God's name, but they don't believe God's word. They're Christians in name only. Paul said they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. In the same way, they are not all the church, which are of the church. Does that make sense? Having rejected their God, Israel would return to Egypt in the sense that they would return to the bondage of their sins, to the bondage of the false religious world system, which their bondage in Egypt was a picture of. How does this apply to the church today? The church of Galatia was a Gentile church. We're Gentiles. Are there any Jews in here? I'm curious. Anyone Jewish in here? Okay. I did a DNA test on Jimmy Dunklin, by the way, because his family told him he descended from Pocahontas. It was all in the family. It's not true. There's no Indian in his family at all. No Indian in his family, but he does have some Jewish DNA, which he was glad to see. There's no Jews in here so far as we're all Gentiles. The church in Galatia was a Gentile church just like us. Now, listen to this. Before hearing the gospel, being Gentiles, before hearing about the one true God, the people in Galatia, they served and worshiped false gods. But one day they heard the one true God. In Galatians chapter four, verse eight, Paul told them that when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. In other words, when you didn't know the one true God, you were serving, worshiping, manmade false gods which aren't gods at all. But listen to what happened after the Galatians learned about the one true God. Paul went on to say in verse nine, but now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage. The Israelites were in bondage to Egypt. The gods tell them, you're going to go back to Egypt. You're going back in bondage to again. That's what he says in Hosea. And now here we have this Galatian church. Before they heard the gospel, they were serving and worshiping false gods, pagan gods. They hear the gospel, they embrace the one true God, they embrace his son Jesus Christ as their Savior. And then false teachers come. False teachers are like, oh, here's a church right here. Let's go in here and teach them our way. And so false teachers come in and say, oh, now hang on. You people, you were told that you could be saved by trusting in Jesus as your Savior alone and believing the gospel. Oh, no. Yes, you need to do that, but you also need to do these things too. And they added some extra stuff in there. If you'll notice, that's what the false churches do. Oh, yeah, we believe Jesus died for us sins, but you can't just be saved by faith in Christ as he said, whoever believeth in him shall not perish from everlasting life. Oh, no, that's not true. You also have to do A, B, C, or D, depending on what false church you've got. Church of Christ, you've got to be baptized, you've got to keep working, you've got to keep doing seven-day Adventist. You've got to go to church on this Saturday right here, and you've got to do that. You've got to do this over here, or that would get you. And I had all these rules in there. United Pentecostal. Can't say, Father, Son, Holy Ghost in the Baptist, or you won't go to heaven. You've got to say, Jesus only. You've got to have all these rules. All this is true. All the stuff I'm teaching is true. It's what they believe. And so Paul says, how do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements wherein to ye desire again to be in bondage? So what weak and beggarly elements was Paul talking about? Before they heard about the one true God, they were serving false gods. Something happened. The Galatians learned about the one true God. But then these false teachers came in. And if you'll remember back with the nation of Israel when they were in Egypt, they were a picture of that Galatian church too. They were a picture of the Gentile church. Do you remember when God saw Moses the burning bush, and God says, I'm the Lord, God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. I'm going to deliver my people out of Israel. Do you remember what Moses asked God? He said, what's your name? So I can go tell them who you are. Israel had been caught up in that pagan religion. There's some believers there. But they'd been in that pagan system for so long, Moses had to ask God what his name was. He could go tell them. So sad. Then they learned about the one true God. Then God redeems them out with the Passover lamb. And then now they're free from Egypt. But now they're going to go back to Egypt. And in the same way, Paul told the Galatian church that after knowing the one true God, and after trusting in Jesus that Passover lamb for their salvation, they're about to go back into bondage too. He says, how do you turn back to the weak and beggarly elements where unto ye desire again to be into bondage? In other words, if you want to go back to the weak and beggarly elements, then it's going to go right back into bondage again. What weak and beggarly elements is he talking about? Well, Paul's telling the Galatians, be careful, Galatians, or you'll return to Egypt. You see what he's saying? In verse 10, Paul tells us what these weak and beggarly elements are that they wanted to go back to. He said in verse 10, ye observe days and months and times and years. You're going back to these Old Testament rituals like the Seventh-day Adventist, oh, it's got to be this day here, but you've got to do this over here. For them, it was days, months, times, years. That's what they were adding to the gospel. You've got to go back and follow these Old Testament rituals or you're not going to be saved. They were serving Old Testament rituals instead of resting in the New Testament reality of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament was a picture of Jesus. The cross is the reality of Jesus. This, Paul said, was to return to bondage. They were going back to Egypt, you see, by going to this religion that demanded something other than the cross of Christ. Do you see what the Bible is teaching us here? Serving the Old Testament pictures of Christ after Christ has come is all the same as serving a false pagan god. Bondage is bondage is bondage. If you're in bondage to Egypt, you're in bondage. If you're in bondage to what you say in the baptistery, you're in bondage. If you're in bondage to having to live a certain way and do a certain thing and keep up your good works, you're in bondage. You're not free from sin, Satan, and death because no matter how hard I try to serve God in my flesh, you know what I want to find out? I'm still a sinner. I'm still a sinner. I'm still in bondage. The only thing that can deliver me from the bondage of my sin is the righteousness of Jesus Christ who lived and died for me. So no matter how religious you are, apart from the cross of Jesus Christ, you're nothing but an Israelite in bondage to Egypt. The Gospel of John chapter 8, verse 31 through 34, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Jesus had disciples. That means he had people following him when he was teaching. He says, you keep following me. I keep teaching you. You're going to learn the truth, and then you Jews are going to be free. They answered him in verse 33, Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, you shall be made free? By Jesus telling them that they'll be made free by the truth they learned from him, Jesus was implying to them that they were in bondage at that time because they didn't know his truth. Remember, Christianity is defined by what you believe, not by what you're called. Jesus answered them, verse 34, verily, verily I send you, whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin. You're in bondage to sin. That's what you're in bondage to, sin. Here's the kingdom truth. We are either serving God in the freedom of the cross, or we are serving in bondage to something else. God's message to Israel and Hosea's time is God's message to the professing churches today, churches that have cast aside God's word in order to follow after their own religious systems. Namely, they may call themselves the children of Israel, but they may call themselves the children of Israel, and they may call themselves the children of Israel, namely they may call themselves the children of God. We have churches all over the place that call themselves the children of God, but they're actually the bondservants of sin. Look back in your text, they're not only going to go back to Egypt, not only going to go back into bondage because they've rejected my word. He says, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. They shall eat unclean things in Assyria. Spiritually, they would return to Egypt, but they would literally be taken to Assyria. That's where they'd be in bondage, that was Assyria. But God's all calling it Egypt. You're back in bondage again. It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter what name you're called, even being Israelites. The Israelites that were taken from Egypt no longer believed like their forefathers. They now put God away from them. Now they're going right back into bondage again. Churches today, that by the grace of God, their forefathers, like Martin Luther, who nailed the thesis to the door and rejected any salvation outside of grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone. You find me a bunch of Lutherans that believe in that today. You're going to be hard pressed. They still called Lutherans. They don't always follow Lutherans, Luther's teaching. Why? Because they rejected God's Word. You take people who are called Christians, but they've rejected God's Word. You've got the Pope that's supposed to be the holy Catholic Church, which means the Catholic means universal, universal church. And you've got the Pope telling people that now the church can bless same-sex unions. When that is cursed by God's Word, God calls that an abomination. The Pope calls it a blessing. And they all call themselves Christians. Christianity is defined by what you believe, not by what you're called. What are those people? The Pope and all these people that have rejected God's Word but still called by God's name, what are they? They're in bondage to sin, to Satan, and to death. Why? Because they've rejected the truth that can set them free from it. You can't be free from sin if you're celebrating it. You can't be free from sin if you're blessing it. That'd be like Israelites saying, oh, we love Egypt. We don't want to go from Egypt. Please don't take us away, God. They're not free. You've got churches today. They put aside God's Word. They turn into entertainment centers. So here they are. They're going back to Egypt spiritually, and they're going to be eating unclean things spiritually. What is that talking about? Once again, it's a metaphor. It's a metaphor. Unclean things is speaking about things that were deemed unclean according to God's law and thus were not fit for clean people to eat. Why would they eat unclean things? God was saying they're going to be unclean people. They're going to be in bondage, and they're going to be unclean. Because they had forsaken God's Word, the Israelites were now in danger of three things in this verse. Number one, God said they won't dwell in my land. Right? So that means they weren't welcome or they were unwelcome. Number two, they would return into Egypt. Right? So they will not dwell in my land. They're unwelcome. They will return to Egypt. They're in bondage, and they would eat unclean things, which means they're unclean. This means Israel and every church that has forsaken God's Word are unwelcome in God's Kingdom and bondage to Satan's Kingdom and unclean in their sins. That's what we learned from Hosea's verse this morning. Every church has forsaken God's Word. Listen, by God's grace, till I take my last breath, me and Brother Shepherd, I know he'll say, Amen, with me. By God's grace, we are going to stand on every precious Word in this book. I get my life from what's in here. It tells me the story of Jesus, who came to free me from my sins. It gives me the hope of eternal life. By overcoming sin, Satan, and death through the blood of my Passover lamb. I believe it. I stand on it. And by God's grace, I want to continue to do it to the end. But those churches that have taken this precious book, who still call themselves children of God, and they've said, Well, that was for those people back then. God's changed now. He's changed his views now. God's not like that anymore. Let us tell you now what God blesses and what God agrees with. They have forsaken God's Word. They're Christians in name only. They are unwelcome, in bondage, and unclean. That was a hard pill for Israel to swallow in Hosea's time. It's a hard pill for churches to swallow today. But that pill's got to go down, because the pill is true. With that, we'll go ahead and close, and God willing, take back up in the next verse in Hosea next week. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your precious Word. I thank you, Lord, so much for the visitors who came today. I thank you, Lord, for the Sunday School class we had this morning. I thank you, Lord, for giving us a Bible that you've handed down to us from the past generations, Lord, of believers, and giving us your truth, telling us, Lord, like it really is, so we'll know how to live and believe in hope of eternal life here on this earth. So we'll have explanations of why the world is the way it is and what we have to look forward to in the future. And, Lord, I'm grateful for all of that, and I pray each and every person here today, Lord, will be hungry for the truth, seeking your Word, seeking to know you, Father, and to be free, as Jesus said, in His precious name we pray. Amen.