Episode Transcript
Hosea chapter 9 verse 4, the tile of the message this morning is the food of our faith.
The food of our faith.
Now God spoke to Hosea at a time when Israel had abandoned the Word of God.
During Hosea's time some people were worshipping false gods while other people were worshipping God falsely.
I'm going to say that again, this is very important you understand.
During Hosea's time some people were worshipping false gods while other people were worshipping God falsely and it's all the same thing.
You can worship a false god named Baal and you can worship the one true god falsely and there's no difference.
It's all idolatry.
It's all false religion.
Remember Cain was the original person who worshipped God falsely and he was rejected.
And so whether a person is worshipping false gods or worshipping God falsely they are all setting aside the liberating truth of God to serve in bondage to a lie.
In our study of Hosea we've been learning about the terrible consequences of not walking and the liberating truth of Jesus Christ.
And verse 4 continues to tell us about those consequences because Israel had set aside the Word of God.
Hosea said look now if you would in your verse, they shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord.
They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord.
Let's pray.
Father we thank you for your precious word and I pray you'll set aside all distractions this morning.
Fill us with your spirit and feed us with your word we pray.
May all eyes be on you in Jesus' wonderful name Father.
Amen.
They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord.
Now I find this verse quite fascinating.
I have to admit I struggled over this verse when I first came to it.
And I usually get excited when I come to a very difficult verse because God's always been faithful to teach me.
He's always been faithful to teach you which is really what he's doing when he's teaching me.
And he loves you.
And I find this verse fascinating.
I mean if they don't start doing right, they shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord.
I mean how often do you see someone going astray?
Someone you love and you go up to that person, you put your arm around him, you say now you better mend your ways brother.
You better mend your ways son or you won't be able to offer wine offerings to the Lord.
We don't say that do we?
None of us would even think to say something like that.
It's such an awkward thing you better straighten up or you will not be able to offer wine offerings to the Lord.
I'd be willing to bet that none of you have ever received that advice or given that advice to anyone.
Yet one of the consequences of Israel setting aside the truth of God's word was that they would not be able to offer wine offerings to the Lord.
What is God saying here?
When we think of the offerings made to God, we usually think of animal offerings don't we?
Not wine offerings.
We usually think of the animal sacrifices that were made.
But in the Old Testament there were several types of offerings.
And each one represented a particular aspect of the salvation of Jesus Christ.
A particular aspect of the offering that Jesus made when he gave himself for us on the cross.
And in this verse, Hosea is speaking about wine offerings.
And to understand the significance of these offerings, you have to understand what the wine offering consisted of.
Y'all bear with me this morning please.
An animal offering, for example, was slain, divided, and burned.
That's an animal offering.
Lain, divided, and burned.
While an wine offering was crushed, fermented, and poured.
Crushed, fermented, and poured.
An animal was killed and then its parts were separated and then the appropriate parts of that animal were burned to God causing the animal's smoke to ascend up to God.
But with a wine offering, the grapes were crushed.
The juice was fermented to make it an intoxicating beverage.
And then that wine was poured out to God.
So one offering was burned up, the other offering was poured out.
And we'll say it again, very important.
One offering was burned up, the other offering was poured out.
And I think if you think about it, you can see the significance of these offerings and you can see how they relate to one another between the burnt offering that's burned up and the wine offering that's poured out.
Because in both cases, whether it is burned up or poured out, the offering is wholly given to God.
There is no reclamation of an animal after it's burned.
You can't say, well here, if I were to take, we gave some gifts to family when we were up in Indiana because we won't be there during the Christmas season, so we gave some gifts to them.
And I remember I gave one particular gift to someone and they were excited to have it.
And now after they had it, you know what I could have done?
I could have said, well, you know what?
I take that back.
I could just snatch it right back out of his hands.
You know, I take it, I changed my mind.
But now had I burned it up, there's no taking it back.
Once you gave that offering to God and it was burned up, there's no taking it back.
It's wholly devoted.
It's gone.
It's for keeps.
Once you pour that wine out and it pours out, it's gone.
It's for keeps.
It's poured out.
So in this way, the animal was consumed.
The vessel was emptied.
You see, the animal is consumed.
The vessel is emptied.
In either case, it's all gone.
It's totally spent, totally offered to God, whether it's poured out or burned up.
So when you think of a drink offering, think of something being completely poured out to God.
That's a drink offering, something that's completely poured out to God, not sprinkled to God, not dripped to God, but emptied out to God.
Jesus was a drink offering to God.
When Jesus died on the cross, he poured out his soul unto God.
He held nothing back to God.
He poured out his life being obedient unto death.
The vessels emptied.
Prophesying of his coming crucifixion, Jesus said in Psalm 22, 14, Jesus said, quote, I am poured out like water.
I am poured out like water.
He was a drink offering completely poured out.
Jesus was poured out like water.
He held nothing back from the father that he might save us from our sins.
The great hymn writer Charles Wesley, speaking of Jesus crucifixion, said Jesus emptied himself of all but love.
Isn't that beautiful?
And bled for Adam's helpless race.
A wine offering was a drink offering.
It fell into that category of a drink offering.
It was a drink offering because wine is something that's consumed, something that people drink.
One of the earliest mentions of a drink offering is found in Genesis chapter 35 verse 14.
That's just after God spoke with Jacob.
And the Bible says in that verse, and Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone, and he poured a drink offering there on.
He poured a drink offering there on.
So a drink offering has the idea number one of pouring, number two of drinking.
It's not a poor offering.
It's a drink offering that's poured out.
You see that?
You see, both concepts are there.
It's not a poor offering.
It's a drink offering, something that's consumed that's poured out.
Something that's taken in that's poured out.
As the pouring speaks of Christ giving his all, the drinking speaks of Christ on account of him pouring out his all, becoming our sustenance.
You see, with the drink offering that Christ gave, it's the opposite of how you would think about drinking and pouring.
When I was getting ready for church this morning, I had this very wonderful cup that Miss Ann gave me a long time ago.
Did you go in on it with her or just give it to me yourself?
I thought so.
I didn't think she would help you out on it.
Now look, you see what I just did?
I just took a drink.
Before I could drink the water, I first had to pour out the water into the cup.
So physically, before I could drink, I had to pour.
But with drink offerings, the exact backwards of that.
With the drink offering, it first had to be poured out and emptied before you can drink and be filled.
You see?
So watch this now.
The pouring of Christ speaks of Christ giving his all, pouring his all out on the cross.
You think, well, he's empty now.
Well, that's gone.
He poured it all out.
How can we drink it now?
But that's when we drink it after it's the vessels completely empty.
That's when we drink it.
So Christ poured himself out.
That was a drink offering.
Now that he's emptied himself out, we can now partake of what he's poured.
These are sustenance because Jesus was poured out like water.
He became the water of life that we may drink and live forever.
Jesus said once, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
But the only way to drink of Jesus properly is if you drink of him who's been poured out for you.
Hosea is not speaking about a water offering though.
He's speaking about a wine offering.
It's all a drink offering.
Water, wine, whatever.
It's all being poured out.
But here, Hosea is speaking about a wine offering, not a water offering.
It's a wine offering.
It's an intoxicating beverage that's poured out to God.
Numbers chapter 28 verse seven.
Numbers chapter 28 verse seven.
And by the way, not every time you see wine, is it intoxicating in scripture, but in this case it is.
Numbers 28 verse seven.
Look here if you would.
Numbers 28 seven.
And the drink offering thereof shall be the fourth part of an hen for the lamb.
I'm sorry, for the one lamb.
In the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the Lord for drink offering.
Strong wine to be poured unto the Lord for drink offering.
Jesus poured himself out to God and now we can drink of him.
This is a wine offering.
It's strong wine that's poured out to God for a drink offering.
So a quarter of a hen, which is about four cups of strong wine, was poured into the Lord for a drink offering.
Now why would God want intoxicating wine to be poured out unto him as an offering?
How is that a picture of Christ?
What does it have to do with us?
Well in the Bible, wine is a symbol of influence upon the person drinking it.
And it's used comparatively with God in his spirit influencing us over and over again in scripture.
Wine has the power to influence the human heart.
The more you drink of it, the worse the influence.
But it has the power to influence the human heart.
And because of that, wine is consistently compared to the Holy Spirit of God who also influences our hearts with the truth and grace of God's Word.
Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18.
Watch how this works.
Ephesians 5 18.
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
You see how one is compared and contrasted to the other?
As the fleshly body can be under the influence of wine, so the soul and spirit can be under the influence of God's Spirit.
Because we can relate to someone being of the influence of intoxicating beverage, we can then relate to that some outside force having influence upon us.
Don't be drunk with wine.
If you want to be under the influence, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
The Lord Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God when he poured out himself as a drink offering to God in the book of Acts.
When the Spirit of God filled the disciples on the day of Pentecost, Holy Spirit of God has filled the disciples on the day of Pentecost.
They are speaking in foreign languages, giving glory to God.
And the onlooking crowd accused them of being filled with wine, intoxicating beverage.
In the Old Testament, when Hannah, by the Spirit of God, was pouring out her heart to God in prayer, she was accused of being under the influence of wine.
First Samuel chapter 1 verse 13 says, now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved.
Y'all ever pray like that?
Your lips move when you're praying to God, but you're not actually making sound.
You're just speaking in your heart to God.
That's how Hannah was praying.
Kind of helps you know that it's normal to pray that way, isn't it?
Only her lips move, but her voice was not heard.
Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.
You see the relationship again.
And verse 14 and Eli said unto her, how long would thou be drunk and put away thy wine from thee.
It wasn't wine that she was under the influence of.
It was God's spirit.
Verse 15 and Hannah answered and said, no, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit.
I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.
That was a drink offering.
It wasn't wine being poured out to God.
It was the antithesis of wine.
It was God's spirit putting her under God's influence.
And as she got filled with the Holy Spirit, she poured out her soul to God of the influence of God's spirit.
That was a drink offering in truth, a true drink offering, a true wine offering that Hannah was offering.
You see that she was accused of being intoxicated by wine, but she was actually under the influence of God's spirit and being an influence of God's spirit, confused with wine.
She poured out her soul to God.
That was a true wine offering.
That's what the wine offerings in the old Testament were pictures of.
Jesus did it on the cross for us, filled with God's spirit, poured out himself under God like a drink offering.
Hannah poured out her soul to God, asking him to give her a son whom she would in turn dedicate to the temple and to God's service.
You see, now that Israel had put away the truth of God from them, they would have no acceptable drink offering to offer him.
Not anymore.
They could no longer pour out their hearts to him.
They would no longer empty themselves out to God in service to him.
When something is, again, poured out to God, it's wholly dedicated to him, but Israel was no longer dedicated to God because they were no longer dedicated to the truth.
They'd set it aside.
Jesus said the Holy Spirit was the spirit of truth.
So when they rejected God's truth, they forfeited God's spirit.
They could no longer be under the influence of the spirit.
Here's a kingdom of truth for you this morning.
It is impossible to have God's truth apart from God's spirit.
People say, well, I don't know how.
.
.
do I have the Holy Spirit?
Do you have God's truth?
Is God's truth residing in your heart concerning the gospel?
Have you embraced in the truth of Jesus Christ's sacrifice for your sins, becoming your basis of trust for eternal life?
Is that in your heart?
If that truth is in your heart, then God's spirit is in your heart because he is the spirit of truth.
You cannot have one without the other.
Truth comes from the spirit.
The spirit doesn't come from truth.
You don't get the spirit from the truth.
You get the truth from the spirit.
So if you got the truth, you've got the Holy Spirit of God.
It is impossible to have God's truth apart from God's spirit.
It is impossible to have God's spirit apart from God's truth.
So people who claim, oh, I've got the Holy Spirit of God, and they do all that stuff and they're acting crazy and all that, that's not God's truth.
If they act crazy and flop around on the floor based upon false doctrine, that's not God's spirit.
That's the spirit of devils.
It is impossible to have God's truth apart from God's spirit.
It is impossible to have God's spirit without having God's truth.
If you reject the one, you forfeit the other.
Now remember what we just read in Ephesians 5, 18.
Remember it says, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit.
Now if we're filled with the spirit, which is like a picture of us being filled with wine under the influence.
If we're filled with the spirit, that means our bodies are vessels that get filled.
You see?
We are a vessel and God's spirit fills that vessel just like you would fill a vessel with wine.
Then Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding feast.
Do you know what he said?
There were these water pots.
Do you know what he said to do before he turned the water into wine?
He said, you fill the pots up.
Once they filled the pots up, they then poured the pots out and they serve the people at the feast.
But you can't pour out what's not first poured in, can you?
I couldn't drink out of this until it's first poured out into it.
Then I could drink out of it.
We can't drink Jesus until he first pours himself out to God, which is kind of the opposite.
He's poured out to God, but then we get to drink it once it's poured and poured out.
But you have to have that vessel full before it can be poured out.
So Jesus said, fill the water pots.
In the same way we get filled with the Holy Spirit.
Don't be drunk with wine, we're in success, but be filled with the Spirit instead.
The Bible says our bodies are vessels to the Lord.
If you're drunk, then you're filled with wine.
If you're under the influence of God's Holy Spirit, then you're filled with the Spirit of God.
But a vessel must be filled with wine before that wine can be poured out.
And we must be filled with God's Spirit before we can pour ourselves out to God like Hannah did.
How come Hannah could pour out her soul to God?
Because she was filled with God's Spirit, or else she would have been empty.
She wouldn't have had anything to pour out.
The Israelites, if you're understanding this, what I'm saying now, the Israelites had rejected God's truth, therefore they were not filled with God's Spirit, therefore they were empty and they had nothing to be poured out like wine.
Empty vessels.
I think in another part of Hosea it said vessels were in is no joy, or vessels were in there is no good thing.
We taught on that earlier.
There's just empty vessels.
They rejected God's truth, so they weren't filled with God's Spirit, so they couldn't be poured out like wine by God's Spirit to Him.
They can no longer serve Him in Spirit and in truth.
I want to tell you some church, the greatest joy I have is the joy of serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
By His marvelous grace, He keeps filling and I keep pouring out the grace He fills me with.
You see, this is no trivial loss to Israel.
It's all, well, they can't offer wine anymore.
Big deal.
No, no, no, no.
You got to go to the meaning of the offering.
It's everything.
This is no trivial loss.
God is telling Israel, you'll no longer be able to serve Me in Spirit and in truth.
And I tell you what, if I didn't have that, my life just would not be worth living.
It just wouldn't be.
They shall not offer wine offerings to God.
Look back in your text now, back in Hosea, neither shall they, that is neither shall their wine offerings be pleasing unto Him.
They're not going to offer wine offerings to God.
And if they were to attempt to offer some type of wine offering to Him, it won't be pleasing to Him.
If they were to offer a wine offering to God, it would not be accepted by God because it would not be pleasing to God because they would not be pouring out to God what God had first filled them with.
They would not be serving God based on their faith in the truth He had shown them.
Be filled with the Spirit, Paul said.
The only way to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with God's truth.
And then as we're filled with God's truth, this morning, I hope Brother Jess doesn't mind, this morning I got through teaching on knowing the ark in the book of Genesis chapter 6.
When I got through, Jess looked up and he had this wonderful smile on his face and he says, it's all about Jesus.
I said it sure is.
You see what was happening?
Here's what was happening.
Where's Brother Jess?
Did he make it into the second service?
Nope, I guess he had to go.
I know his wife was sick because he went to go take care of her.
We can talk about Jess all we want to now.
Do you know what was happening?
As Jess was looking at the picture I was drawing about Noah's ark, and as Jess was learning how that ark represented Jesus Christ, and as he saw how God shut them and that ark safe once they put their trust in the ark, and how God seals us and shuts us safe into Christ once we put our trust in him, as that truth was entering into his mind and his heart believed that truth, as the truth was coming in, God in the truth was filling his vessel.
That was God's spirit filling Jess.
He was filled with the Holy Spirit at that time.
And then when Jess had the smile on his face and he said, wow, it's all about Jesus, isn't it?
You know what that was?
It was getting poured out to God.
That was a wide offering.
The thanksgiving, the joy, that response of praise poured out to God.
Israel would never be able to experience that because they denied God's truth.
Now they could only be filled with darkness and lies and death.
A vessel wherein there's all kinds of contemptible, corrupt, and deadly things.
I tell you what, I love learning God's truth, and then by faith, responding to it in joy and service to God, they would not be serving God based on their faith and the truth he had shown them.
In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 says, but without faith it is impossible to please him.
And what did God say about their wine offerings if they were to attempt to offer them?
They won't please me.
Why?
They're not done in faith in God's truth.
Without faith in God's word, religion is nothing but dead works that's unacceptable to him.
That's all it is.
Remember, you either serve a false God or you serve God falsely.
Neither are pleasing to him.
Here's the kingdom truth.
The only works that are acceptable to God are those that are done on account of our faith in Jesus Christ.
The only works that are acceptable to God are those that are done based on our faith in Jesus Christ.
Hosea said, look back in your text, their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners.
The bread of mourners.
Unfortunately a couple of our church members lost a dear loved one this week.
And our church members from Arizona, Kelly and John McCormick lost their dad and their mom, I'm sorry, dad and their husband, excuse me.
And here it says that Israel's sacrifices, if they were to offer them, they'll be like the bread of mourners, the food that mourners eat.
Have you had any of y'all after you've lost a loved one and your heart's broken, you eat food just to sustain yourself, but there's no pleasure in it.
Most of us have been through that.
You eat because you know you got to eat.
Now yesterday we were over at my mom and dad's house with family and man, that food was good.
And we were with family.
It was a wonderful time and all of the food was delicious.
And we just had a wonderful time of celebrating family and celebrating the Lord together and enjoying that food.
That wasn't the bread of mourners.
I tell you what, this morning when brother Jess was feasting on the truth, he was learning in Sunday school about Jesus and the smile came on his face.
He said, wow, it's all about Jesus.
That wasn't the bread of mourners.
When he learned that as Noah was shut in that arc safe by God, when he put his trust in that arc, so we who put our trust in Jesus, God shuts us safe in him too, till the storms passed.
That wasn't the bread of mourners.
That was bread of joy on that man's face.
That was bread of rejoicing in Jesus Christ.
It's the gospel.
It's good news.
It's not bad news.
It's good news.
The holy things and the old Testament were not to be eaten in sorrow.
Do you know that the holy things in the old Testament were not to be eaten in sorrow for how can one feed on the truth of what Jesus Christ has done and not rejoice on account of it?
How many of y'all ever hear about what Jesus did for you?
Oh man, we don't do that.
Do we?
We go.
Oh man.
God as a believer can't be sad about the gospel.
So they can't eat the holy things as someone who was mourning the dead.
We don't go around and think about the cross.
We don't go around and think about Jesus pouring out himself, emptying himself of all but love and becoming our atonement, becoming our righteousness, becoming our champion over the grave.
We don't go around thinking or feeding on that, which is the same thing and say, oh, I don't know if I will make it.
We don't do that.
Deuteronomy 26 verse 14 says the people were supposed to be able to say when they were eating the holy things, quote, I have not eaten thereof in my morning.
That's morning as crying.
M O U R N I N G.
I have not eaten thereof in my morning.
Here have I taken thereof for any unclean use, nor given out thereof for the dead, but have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.
So whatever holy food offerings, unbelief being Israel, per took of God would consider them to be as food eaten at a funeral and look back in your text.
All that eat thereof shall be polluted.
All that eat thereof shall be polluted.
So you got funeral food, then you got feasting food, you got festive food.
Man, hang on.
I know we're getting close to 12.
This is good.
You either worship the true God in spirit and truth or you worship the true God falsely.
As a worshiper of God, the doctrine I have can either be funeral food or it can be festive food.
God said the funeral food was polluted.
He wouldn't accept it.
Are you getting this?
God said the funeral food was polluted and he wouldn't accept it.
The festive food on the other hand, the food eaten with joy, the food that he prescribed them to eat, which caused them to rejoice and not mourn.
That's what he accepts.
What we're looking at here in the book of Hosea are the two types of doctrines belonging to the worship of the one true God.
You have the doctrine of worshiping God according to the funeral food.
Food that makes me sad, food that makes me wring my hands, food that makes me wonder if I'm going to make it.
Man, I've talked to so many people who were feasting on the funeral food, the people that write in to know I'm saved dot com for help.
They're eating funeral food.
Their church is preaching funeral food.
It's all polluted and God doesn't accept it and that's how come they write in.
They're scared to death.
They're going to go to hell.
Oh, I don't know if I do this right.
I don't know if I'm doing the other right.
Oh, they're just wringing their hands.
And listen, I'm not making fun of them.
I was there too.
I got fed the funeral food too.
Man, it's tormenting.
Y'all know online it's tormenting.
Some of y'all here know it's tormenting.
That's funeral food.
But you know what happens?
I've watched it.
When I start pointing them away from themselves and what they can do and I start pointing them over to the festive food, I start pointing them over to what Jesus did for them to, oh, no, no, it's not about you.
It's all about Jesus.
Look what Jesus accomplished here.
Y'all Brother Doug's laughing.
That's festive food.
That's what it does.
You just saw it naturally.
And you start telling them about what Jesus did for them and they say, and they get over here in the middle there between the festive and the funeral.
And they say, you mean that I can go to heaven completely on what Jesus has done for me?
All I have to do is accept that.
And they stare at it like, it seems too easy.
And they'll tell me now, if that's true, that's best news I've ever heard.
If that's true, that's wonderful.
It just sounds too good to be true.
I said, man, it's called the gospel.
It is good news.
And I'll tell them sometimes when they just look at the, I don't know, it just seems too easy.
It seems too nice.
It seems too wonderful.
Now, so well, now if you want to, you can go back over here and you can believe the way you were.
And you can remain miserable the rest of your life.
But how's that been working out for you?
And I'll take them back to the scriptures and I'll reassure them with God's word, not explain to them the fuzzy scriptures that have been tormenting them and let them know what they truly mean.
And I keep pointing them back to Christ.
And finally, when they understand what Jesus has done for them, they're like, praise God.
They step out of the funeral and they come to the feast.
Now they're not mourning the dead.
They're rejoicing over the dead who now lives again.
Any doctrine that takes you to the funeral is not acceptable to God.
In truth, the only way to acceptably partake of Jesus Christ is to do so joyfully in faith, in the perfect sacrifice that he's given for you.
That's it.
We partake of him as our drink offering who's been poured out for us.
We partake of him as our bread of life.
We partake of him knowing that he offered himself to God on our behalf as one sacrifice for sins forever.
And by faith in that great truth, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
As the scriptures put it, people who wring their hands afraid of going to hell do so because they haven't done enough for God.
They're unaware of what Jesus has done for them.
Oh, I don't know if I'm doing enough for God.
Well, let me tell you what Jesus has done for you.
Let me tell you what God has done for you in Christ.
Another kingdom truth.
If you're feeding on a mournful gospel, then you're feeding on a false gospel.
If you are feeding on a mournful gospel, then you are feeding on a false gospel.
The bread we eat gives us life and peace and joy for all eternity.
Yes, can I be troubled?
Yes, the Galatians were troubled.
But you know why they were troubled?
Someone started trying to feed them polluted bread.
That's what got them troubled.
And Paul was telling the Galatian church, spit that out.
You don't eat that with the bread of life.
Mournful bread is polluted bread because it is contrary to the good tidings of great joy that has been proclaimed to us in the gospel.
You can call a mournful religion the gospel all you want to, but all who eat of it are polluted.
Look back in your text for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.
Their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.
The bread, the priest ate came to the house of God.
He's told the thief on the cross today, you'll be with me in paradise.
Where's our bread at?
Our bread's in the right hand of God.
Our bread's in the house of the Lord.
Our bread has been crucified, buried, and risen again.
My bread has ascended to the right hand of the Father.
A false Jesus doesn't sit at God's right hand.
God said their bread for their soul shall not come into my house.
Most translators interpret this verse to say the bread they eat to satisfy their natural hunger shall not come into the house of the Lord.
That reminds me of people who come to church with those itching ears.
They come to church feeding on words to satisfy their carnal desires.
They're eating bread that sits at an earthly table.
When we feed on Jesus Christ and him crucified and buried and risen again for our sins, we are feeding on bread that came down from heaven to give life unto the world.
We're eating heavenly bread.
That's sitting in a heavenly table and we're eating at God's house by the light of God's word.
That precious golden candlestick that pawns the way to Jesus Christ that we may eat and drink and live forever and never thirst again.
Israel had set aside the light of God's truth.
Therefore they were eating mournful bread in the darkness with no light.
Bread that will never enter into God's house so they will never enter in with him.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
I thank you, Father, for the wine offerings that you gave us in the Bible.
I thank you for all the wonderful truths that you've given us.
I thank you, Father, that Jesus was poured out unto you.
Because he's emptied himself on the cross, that empty vessel now fills our hearts by our faith in him.
Oh, Lord God, I pray if there's anyone here that had been feasting on mournful bread, I pray, Father, they'll turn to feast on the festive bread of Jesus.
I pray, Father, there's any here, Lord, who have not come to faith in Jesus Christ that they've been trusting in their sinners prayer they prayed or walking in the aisle or getting in the baptistry or some works that they've been doing or something else, dear Lord God, outside of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I pray they will repent.
I pray you'll open their eyes to the truth.
I pray they'll quit wasting their lives.
And I pray they'll live for you who lived and died for them.
In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.
We will see you again next week.
