Episode Transcript
Hosea chapter 9, God willing, will be expounding verses 5 and 6 this morning.
The title of the message this morning is "What Will You Do?
" What will you do?
In our study last week we saw that Israel, because their departure from God, would no longer be able to offer wine offerings to him.
And if they ate the holy things, then it would be like eating food at a funeral.
And the loss of a loved one.
Essentially Hosea was describing the empty and mournful life of a nation without God, which was the life Israel was about to experience.
So life many people are experiencing today.
They were about to be driven from their land and go into captivity.
And once they got there, it would be impossible for them to keep the holy commandments that God had given them, especially concerning the solemn feast days, as we'll see today.
Because those solemn feast days required them to be assembled before God in Jerusalem.
Concerning Israel's inability to keep God's law in those feast days, Hosea asked them, if you'll look now in your text, Hosea 9 verse 5, Hosea says, "What will you do in the solemn day?
What will you do in the solemn day?
" Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your precious word.
Thank you for the wonderful singing.
Thank you for the worship and the fellowship, Lord.
We love you so much.
And I pray, Father, that your Holy Spirit will feed your precious people from your word today.
All eyes will be on you and you'll glorify yourself and edify your people in Jesus' wonderful name, Father.
Amen.
What will you do in the solemn day?
Take your pens and underscore in your Bibles, "What will ye do?
" What will ye do?
This question is the premise of the doctrine in our text this morning.
Many of you all remember the educational television program that used to come on in people's living rooms every week called Cops.
It was a staple in many American homes for many years.
That show allowed the average citizen to do something that they normally couldn't do, couldn't have done before, which was get out and ride along with police officers through their television screens and get a glimpse of what they had to deal with on a daily or nightly basis.
And who can forget that iconic theme song that played at the beginning of every episode?
How many of you all can hear it in your mind right now?
Bad boys, bad boys, what you going to do?
What you going to do when they come for you?
When I was catching "Prolips Gonders" back in the day, that theme song was the ringtone on my cell phone.
One particular day I went out and I caught a parole of "Sconder.
" He had cut off the ankle monitor from his ankle and he fled.
They asked me to track him down and try to find him.
I found him and right as I put the handcuffs on him, brought him back up to his feet and started to walk off to my vehicle, someone called my cell phone.
It was absolutely perfect timing.
What you going to do when they come for you, bad boys?
That fugitive heard the song.
He just put his head down, shook it and started laughing.
What that song was asking the bad boys is the same thing that Hosea is asking Israel in our text today.
What will you do, bad boys?
What you going to do, Israel?
When that parole of "Sconder" cut his ankle monitor off and fled from state supervision, I'm sure that he must have enjoyed not having to meet with his parole officer.
I'm sure he enjoyed not having to be tested for drugs on a regular basis.
I'm sure that he enjoyed being able to come and go to places he was by law at that time forbidden to go to.
Those restrictions were the conditions of his release from prison.
To violate those restrictions meant he would have to go back to prison.
He was enjoying his law lifestyle for the present time, but he failed to consider what he would do in the future time when the law paid him a visit.
All he had to do was follow the rules.
All he had to do was follow the law and he would have remained free, but now because he had forsaken the law, he was going back to prison.
Before he cut off that ankle monitor, before he made that decision to cut off that ankle monitor, I'm sure he asked himself, "What am I going to do when I cut this ankle monitor off?
" But someone should have asked him, or he should have asked himself, "What will ye do in the day, that solemn day, when the law comes to see you?
What will ye do when the law comes looking for you and you have to return to prison where the restrictions are far greater than what you're experiencing now?
" He felt so sure of himself when he broke the law, but he hung his head when the law caught up with him.
In the same way, Israel felt so sure of themselves when they forsook God's law.
But what would they do when they had to face the consequences of their transgressions?
Here's a kingdom and truth for you this morning.
The day of sin comes first with short-lived pleasure.
Then the day of judgment comes after with long-term pain.
The day of sin comes first with short-term pleasure, but then the day of judgment comes after with long-term pain.
It's that way in every instance when you forsake God's law.
Before the parole of sconders cut the ankle monitor off, I'm sure he asked himself, "What will I do in the day when I cut off this ankle monitor?
" And I'm sure his answer was, "Well, I will written myself the law's restrictions.
I will do as I please and I'll have no one to answer to.
" Having considered what he would do in the day of sin, he cut the ankle monitor off and fled the law.
People make decisions like this every day.
They ask themselves, "What will I do in the day of my sin?
" Without considering what they will do in the day of God's judgment.
The sin catches up with them.
Israel considered what they would do when they broke free from God's law.
"Hey, I know what I'll do.
I'll worship Baal.
I'll worship Astra.
I'll do the things that God forbids me to do.
I'll go off into sexual perversion.
I will not have to have the burdens of God's law around my neck anymore.
I will worship the God of my own invention and I will do as I please.
" But they failed to consider what they would do when the law caught up with them.
Like Esau, they were people who considered the short-term pleasure, but they failed to consider the long-term pain.
That's what Esau did with the bowl of soup that he ate.
He considered the day of the soup.
He didn't consider the day of the loss of the birthright, the long-term pain that followed.
Mosiah asked Israel, "What will you do," look back in your text, "in the solemn day?
" In the solemn day.
You see, there's a special day that comes.
It was the sinful day, but they didn't consider what would happen in the solemn day.
The sin you commit one day will come back to haunt you in another day.
It always does.
What will you do in the solemn day when the days change?
Here's a kingdom truth for you.
After you choose to sin, your consequences will not change, but your circumstances will.
After you choose to sin, the consequences of that sin will not change, but your circumstances will.
The Hebrew word translated "salem" here, it speaks of an appointed time when God's people gather together as a congregation.
In fact, the word translated "salem" here is most often translated as "congregation" in the Bible.
What will you do in the congregation day?
What will you do during the congregation?
Hosea is asking them, "What are you going to do on the appointed day when the people of God are supposed to congregate before God at his tabernacle and have a celebration feast?
" That's literally what Hosea is asking.
I'm going to repeat that again.
What will you do, Israel?
On that solemn day, when you are supposed to gather together before God and have a feast of celebration?
Now let that start sinking in.
That's what Hosea is asking.
What are you going to do in that solemn day, in that day of congregation, when you come to my tabernacle, stand before me and have a celebratory feast?
What will you do in the solemn day?
Look back in your text.
In the day of the feast of the Lord, you see the two go hand in hand.
Salem day, you congregate, and in the same day you feast.
You congregate and you feast.
You congregate, you gather together, and you feast.
You celebrate.
Now there were three solemn feast times in the Old Testament when people were supposed to congregate there in Israel.
They're mentioned for us in Exodus chapter 23, verse 14 through 16.
If you want to write this down in your notes or in the margin of your Bible there in Hosea, I'll read it to you, Exodus 23, 14 through 16.
Three times, "Thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread.
Thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days as I commanded thee in the time appointed.
" That's the same word translated, appointed here as translated, solemn in Hosea.
"Of the month of Bib, for in it thou camest out from Egypt, and none shall appear before me empty.
" So, they had a feast and they appeared before God.
Then he says in verse 16, "And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field.
" Now I want you to notice something about this text.
Verse 16, "Feast.
" Go a little bit further down to the third line, "Feast.
" What was in the other verses before?
"Feast.
" These three times, they left their homes, they congregated together in one place before God, and they had a feast, and it was always at the harvest time.
But that's getting good, Brother Andy.
That's getting good, Brother.
And Hosea is asking Israel, "What are you going to do when the time comes for you to gather together as a people before God in the time of harvest when it's time to celebrate and have your feast on account of that harvest?
" A solemn day was a day when the men of Israel congregated in Israel to worship the freedom and the forgiveness that God had given them.
Freedom from Egypt, freedom from sin.
This is why, because of that, congregating there at the tabernacle.
Congregating there in Jerusalem where God placed His temple.
This is why we often see the tabernacle of the Old Testament referred to as the tabernacle of the congregation.
How many of you have ever noticed that before?
You may not have thought much about it back then, but it's the tabernacle of the congregation.
They congregated, they assembled, centered around the tabernacle where God had chosen to place that on the earth.
Hosea is asking them, "What are you people going to do on the day you're supposed to congregate before God in Jerusalem to celebrate your freedom and forgiveness?
" You see, if you're being held captive in another land, then what are you going to do when the time comes for you to congregate in Israel at the temple?
You can't meet where you're no longer at, and you can't celebrate what you no longer have.
Hosea is looking at verse 6, "For, lo, they are gone because of destruction.
" They're not here anymore.
Now, this is prophetic.
They're not here anymore.
They vacated.
They're no longer in Jerusalem because of destruction.
They would leave Israel because the nation of Assyria was going to destroy it.
They wouldn't be around any longer to meet at Jerusalem and celebrate their freedom and forgiveness.
Hosea is saying, "You people better turn away from your sin, or you're going to wake up captive one day in a strange land, and it's going to be too late to fix what you've broken.
" He's saying, "Israel, you're feeling pretty good about your sin now, but what are you going to do then in the solemn day?
" Here's the kingdom and truth.
Unforsaken sin brings unrecoverable damages.
Unforsaken sin brings unrecoverable damage.
Because Israel rejected God's Word when Jesus came, they still can't congregate at their temple on the solemn days.
Temple's not there anymore.
Many of them are not there anymore, and those who are there are having a very rough go right now.
There's a mosque on the Temple Mount where the temple's supposed to be.
How humiliating is that?
You see, what happened?
You got a mosque on the Temple?
You got people that can't even get back to Israel, and the people that are there, they're having a war with Hamas.
Unforsaken sin brings unrecoverable damage.
That's what they're experiencing right now.
They can't get their feast, come together and celebrate.
They cannot.
What will you do in the solemn day is the question every man and woman needs to ask themselves today.
Remember, we learned when we first started studying in Hosea what God says to Israel.
He says to us.
He says to every one of us, "Well, Brother Richard, but we're not Jews.
We don't have a solemn day.
Oh, you are missing it.
Yes, we do have a solemn day.
" You see, we all know that the sacrifices back then, that they were pictures of Christ's death for us on the cross, all the different aspects of it.
But everything in that ceremonial law was a picture of Jesus.
Think about it.
Think about it.
God's people all spread out, and on a certain appointed day, there was a harvest.
There was an end gathering of the people together before God, standing before God.
And there was a feast.
They celebrated their freedom and forgiveness that God had given them.
Do you realize what that solemn day is pointing to?
It's pointing to the day when the greater harvest is going to come.
Every time they gather together to celebrate, there was a harvest.
And one day, there's going to be a great harvest.
You know, Jesus mentioned that.
He said, "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest.
" He'll send forth labors into his field, right?
He said, "Look on the fields that are white already unto harvest.
" Jesus is Lord of the harvest.
All of this in the Old Testament, everything you're reading about, Hosea speaking to Israel about, it is God speaking to us about the greater spiritual truth.
If there's a greater harvest coming, not of wheat, not of barley, but of men, souls that God created, Jesus spoke again of it with the parable of the wheat and the tares.
There's going to be this general harvest, and one is going to be delivered, the other is going to be burned, right?
Judged.
So one day, here's what's going to happen.
One day, there's an appointed time, it's a solemn day, and only God knows when that appointed time is, when that solemn day is.
And when Jesus comes again, there's going to be a harvest.
Jesus is going to reap every person who believes on him as their Savior.
Every person who all the way back from the book of Genesis put their trust in the Savior to come and has been lying asleep in that dust of the earth, all in the graves are going to hear his voice and they that hear shall live.
In those that put their faith and trust in Christ as their Savior, what's going to happen at harvest time?
Same thing happened with Israel.
They're all going to gather together and stand before God.
We're going to meet the Lord in the air, and there's going to be a great celebration.
We're going to be celebrating our freedom and our forgiveness.
Here's a question.
What will you do in that solemn day?
I'll tell you what Israel was going to do.
Israel wasn't going to be around Jerusalem any longer.
That solemn day was going to come and go and they were not going to be able to stand before their God and celebrate.
They weren't.
They were going to remain separated from God's place, separated from God's kingdom, and suffer the consequences of their sin.
So when Jesus comes, there'll be some celebrating and there'll be some mourning, his coming, mourning that day.
What should have been a day of celebration for Israel is going to be a day of mourning for Israel here in the book of Hosea because they wouldn't be able.
They wouldn't be able to come.
They would be forbidden to come to Israel, incapable of offering their sacrifices, feasting, and being thankful for their freedom and their forgiveness.
In Luke chapter 13, verse 24 through 28, it speaks of people who refused to repent and believe on Christ as their Savior.
And it speaks of that solemn day coming and them being unable to come to the kingdom.
Same thing.
Luke 13, 24 through 28, Jesus said, "Strive to enter in at the straight gate.
" In other words, you've got to make sure that if you're going to enter into the kingdom of God, you go through this narrow gate.
There was only one ark provided to save the world from the flood.
Only one.
Build any number of ships or boats or rafts or whatever inflatable devices you can find.
But there was only one ark that would save you from the flood.
God gave the world a narrow gate to enter to escape the flood.
There is only one Savior that God has given the world to escape His coming judgment.
That's Jesus, the narrow gate.
Again, only one.
Jesus had strived to enter in at the straight gate.
He said, "For many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able.
" Israel was not able to go to Jerusalem and celebrate their freedom and forgiveness.
Verse 25, "When once the master of the house has risen up and hath shut to the door and you begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open unto us.
' And he shall answer and say unto you, 'I know you not whence you are.
' Then shall you begin to say, 'We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence and Thou has taught in our streets.
' But he shall say, 'I tell you, I know you not whence you are.
Depart from me all you workers of iniquity.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out.
'" When the Assyrians came and the Jews were dispersed, they were thrust out of God's kingdom.
And when it came time to celebrate, they couldn't enter in to do so.
You see?
That's what Hosea is talking about.
This is the application to me and you.
The only way to enter into God's kingdom.
Man, I am a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
Why?
I have entered that kingdom through the straight gate of the cross of Jesus Christ.
That is the open door.
Jesus said, 'I am the door by me of any man or any other end.
He shall be saved.
' But apart from that, you are separated from the kingdom of God and you belong to the kingdoms of this world which shall surely perish in their sin.
And when the king comes and it's time to celebrate, those who had not entered into the kingdom through the gate of Jesus and his cross will find themselves thrust out from the kingdom.
They will say, 'Lord, open unto us.
' No, it's too late.
The day of celebration has come but only citizens of the kingdom get to celebrate freedom and forgiveness because there is only freedom and there is only forgiveness in the death of Jesus Christ in your place.
Other than that, you are thrust out.
Boy, if you have come to that gate, you are sealed in.
Thank God for that.
You may live for the world today but what are you going to do in that day?
Israel looked to Egypt for their deliverance but Hosea said, 'Look back in your text as we begin to close, Egypt shall gather them.
' Memphis shall bury them.
" They are not going to be any help.
The only thing Egypt is going to do is act as a funeral director.
You know what Hosea is telling us here?
I mean, you have Assyria coming, I know what we will do.
We will escape Assyria.
We will escape the coming judgment of God with Assyria coming upon our land.
We will escape all that by simply going to Egypt.
We will flee there.
A lot of people flee to Egypt in the Bible.
They say, 'Well, we will escape all that.
' God is saying all Egypt is going to do, they are not going to be your deliverer, they are going to be your funeral director.
They are not going to be your help for you.
You are not going to escape my judgment there.
What Hosea is showing us is the world is not the sinner's refuge, it is the sinner's burial place.
There is no institution in this world that can spare you from the judgment of God.
So I am a good Mason, I belong in the sonic lodge.
It is Egypt.
Jesus didn't die for the lodge, he died for his church.
Well I belong to the chamber of commerce, I belong to the lines club, I belong to this religion or that religion, or I am a good Muslim or whatever.
That's the broad gate that leads to destruction.
The Bible says they are gone for destruction.
They left because of destruction.
The broad gate leads to destruction.
Egypt shall gather them up and those who fled the Assyrians will be buried by the Egyptians.
There is no place you can run to, that's what God is saying here.
When Jesus comes again, the institutions that people had put their hope in, that people had taken refuge in, they will hand them over to God for their judgment.
There is no place to escape God's judgment except the cross.
Hosea said, look back in your text, "The pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them.
They shall be in their tabernacles," underscore nettles and thorns.
Nettles and thorns.
You know what nettles and thorns are?
Those are the symbols, those are the tokens of God's curse upon this earth for man's sin.
That's what God told Adam.
And so what's happening is all their pleasant places, the place that they put their treasures in, where they had their houses, they had their treasures, all of those places, the nettles and the thorns are going to overtake them.
In other words, the curse of sin is going to catch up to them.
You can heap your treasures together today.
You can have a big 401(k), you can have a lot of money in the stock market, you can have a lot of land, you can have you a nice home, a nice basement, a safe room in your house.
Safe room is not going to keep your soul and your body from going to hell.
I never seen a safe room yet, I never seen a house yet, I never seen a place yet, never seen enough money yet that can keep a man or woman from dying.
The nettles and the thorns are going to catch up to your dwelling places, they're going to catch up to your treasures.
The only treasure that a man can keep forever is a treasure he has in heaven.
God's curse upon man's sin was going to one day possess all the pleasant places that we once held dear to us.
It's going to overtake all the worldly treasures and occupy all the earthly tabernacles we once took shelter in.
The only shelter in the solemn day is the shelter of Jesus Christ, the rock in a weary land.
The only treasure on that day will be Jesus Christ.
The only hope on that day for sinners will be Jesus Christ.
And if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, here's my question to you, what will you do on that solemn day?
The day to trust Christ as your savior, the day to walk through that narrow gate and say, I believe the record that God gave of his son, I acknowledge that I'm a sinner in need of a savior and that Jesus Christ is the only hope for mankind.
He died for my sins, he was buried, he overcame death for me so I could have hope of eternal life in him.
And I am going to make the decision to walk through that straight gate.
I'm going to put my trust in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he died for me.
He paid a debt he did not owe and that I could not pay.
I trust in him as my savior.
The time to make that decision, to enter that gate and to be a citizen of God's kingdom through your faith in his son is now.
Because when that day comes, it will be irrecoverable damage.
Do not put that off.
And if you have any questions about trusting Christ as your savior and making that decision to have him as your hope for eternal life, I invite you to catch me, your brother Shepard, after service is over and we'll be glad.
I tell you what, brother Shepard, I'd do without all that food and stuff and everything, just tell someone about Jesus and make sure they know they're on their way to heaven.
We have meat to eat, they know not of.
That's kind of nice, isn't it?
What a great way to end the service.
Find everyone as soon as we get through praying, we're going to have a wonderful meal next door.
We have some great cooks.
If you didn't bring anything, don't worry about it.
Come and eat and then we're going to have a white elephant gift exchange.
Sometimes we have extra gifts for those who don't bring them and we do today as well.
So if you're here and you want to participate in the white elephant gift exchange, which is always a lot of fun, only time Baptist get to steal from each other, then we invite you to come.
After the gift exchange, we'll have our defibrillator training in here with Sister Leah training us.
All right, let's go ahead and pray.
Father, we thank you so much for the food we're about to receive.
We thank you most of all for the bread of life that came down from heaven to give life into the world that we have per taken of by faith, believing the record you gave of your son, believing on him.
Therefore, we are not condemned.
We thank you for all you've done for us.
And I pray, Lord, if there be any here today, Father, who have not made reservations in your kingdom through faith in your son, I pray, Father God, you'll convict their hearts of the truth of your word and to put their hope in the only hope for mankind.
In his name we pray.
