Out of Egypt | Matthew 2:13-15

We're going to be back in Matthew

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 this morning. Now this out of

Egypt

we're going to see this theme of Egypt.

It's actually first in Genesis right

away in Abraham. Abraham has a famine in

the land in Genesis chapter 12 and he

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

flees into the land of Egypt where

there's food where he is persecuted

and then in chapter 13 he comes out of

Egypt.

Later on other patriarchs would go into

the land of Egypt in a time of famine or

in a time of trouble and then God brings

them out of the land of Egypt. And in

this passage, we'll see in order to

escape the wrath of Herod, Joseph takes

Mary and the child Jesus down in the

land of Egypt until Herod is dead and

then brings him out of Egypt.

And he'll quote a scripture from the Old

Testament, Hebrews 11 verse one. And

we'll look at that. And many people look

at this quotation of scripture and they

say Matthew is dishonestly quoting the

scripture because this scripture isn't

talking about the birth of the Messiah.

This verse is talking about the history

of Israel and Israel is compared to a

son that God brought out of the land of

Egypt.

Matthew isn't just quoting it. Matthew

is using a literary device that is his

audience would have been familiar with

in which he wants the first readers to

compare Jesus to the nation of Israel.

There's a pattern. God's son goes into

Egypt. God's son comes out of Egypt.

God's son is baptized. God's son is

tested in the wilderness. And God's son

goes into the promised land. It's a

pattern for Israel. It's a pattern for

Jesus. And it's also a pattern to us.

All of us who follow Christ are called

to come out of a spiritual land of

Egypt, a spiritual place of bondage. And

when we repent and put our faith in

Christ, Christ delivers us from bondage

to sin, to slavery. And when we come out

of the land of Egypt, when we come out

of spiritual bondage, we are baptized

and we enter into covenant with God. And

from there we go into testing. We all

experience testing like Israel was

tested, like Jesus was tested. You will

be tested. You will be tested with

various forms of sin, with idolatry,

with sexual immorality, with grumbling.

And we go through this wilderness of

this world. We go through the test. We

look forward to the promised land. So,

we're going to look at this uh we're

going to look at this how it applies to

Israel. how it applies to us, how it

applied to Jesus. So summed up as all of

God's sons experience in Exodus, all of

God's sons experienced covenantal

baptism. All of God's sons experienced

wilderness testing. And we walk in faith

and look forward to the land of promise.

If you stand now with me for the reading

of God's word, we're going to read in

Matthew chapter 2, starting in verse 13.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Now when they had departed, behold, an

angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in

a dream and said, "Rise, take the child

and his mother and flee to Egypt, and

remain there until I tell you, for Herod

is about to search for the child to

destroy him." And he rose and took the

child and his mother by night, and

departed to Egypt, and remained there

until the death of Herod. This was to

fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the

prophet. Out of Egypt I called my son.

Let's pray. Oh Lord God, we thank you

that you came to deliver us to save us

from our sins. That you came to bring us

into your promised land, to the

knowledge of you, to relationship with

you, and ultimately to be in heaven and

a new earth with you. And we thank you

for that, God. Lord, I pray for us, your

people, that God, you would make us

spiritually wise and circumstance, that

we would walk in wisdom, knowing that

that we are in a world of spiritual

dangers and that we are to sit close to

you and to trust you and to obey you.

So, we thank you, Father, that our

salvation rests in the accomplished work

of Jesus Christ, who was tempted in all

points as we are, yet he never sinned.

and he is v victorious. He's overcome

and we put our faith in him in Jesus's

name. Amen. You may be seated. All

right. So little passage that for years

I would read this and without checking

up Hosea I read this and it ends with

this quotation that this was to fulfill

what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

Out of Egypt I called my son. And I

thought, "Wow, that's really something

that God actually prophesied in the Old

Testament that that the uh that Joseph

and Mary would bring Jesus into the land

of Egypt and then bring him out of

Egypt." So, it's kind of like there's

this prophecy they're waiting to see

fulfilled. And check mark, here's

another scripture that is fulfilled.

Well, critics read this and they say,

"Matthew is misquing."

And It's not honest. In fact, I've heard

rabbis, modern rabbis, complain that

Jesus is uh or that that Matthew is

misquing the Old Testament to make a

point that you can't legitimately made

make by a a normal reading of the text.

And so, you may run into this objection

sometime. And that's why I think it's

worth spending a whole sermon on. It is

what Jesus what Matthew is doing in this

passage is a lot bigger than saying,

well, here's another little prophecy

that Jesus fulfilled. Because if you

read this, you don't even read it as a

prophecy at all. What really is going on

here is Matthew wants his reader to

compare Jesus

to the people of Israel.

Israel made a covenant with God and they

broke that covenant over and over again.

They never lived up to faithfulness to

the covenant that God made with them at

Sinai. The Old Testament ends with a

broken covenant. Whether you're reading

in Chronicles or you're reading in

Malachi, the the Jewish Tanakh ends with

Chronicles. Our Bible reads in Malachi.

Both end in the same way uh with with

failure with the failure of Israel to be

a faithful people. It's like God God had

made a covenant with them and God was

gracious to them and took care of them

and nurtured them and prospered them.

But how did how did Israel return the

good favor and graciousness of God? They

went after idols. They went after the

bales. They worshiped the the uh the

various fornicating gods of the

Canaanites. They fell into the very sins

of the people who had dwelled in the

land before them. They break the

covenant over and over again. And so now

Jesus is the son of God who has come to

keep the covenant that Israel failed to

keep. And by the way, we also are sons

and daughters of God. I would have put

on there sons and daughters earlier, but

daughters just too big for a sentence.

But as sons and daughters of God, we

also fail to keep the commands of God.

We fail. All of us in this room are

sinners. In ourselves, we there's no

hope in ourselves.

Christ alone is the faithful son. Christ

alone kept the covenant. Now, does that

Would you say, "Well, I'm saved by grace

and and therefore I I'm just I'm just

going to live for the devil and hope

that my fire insurance works when I need

it." No. God calls us to be faithful. He

calls us to walk humbly with our God. He

calls us to live in communion with him.

And we need to be aware that just like

Israel fell into these sins, you too

will be tested with idolatry,

promiscuity,

grumbling, complaining, ingratitude.

These are toxic sins that we all face.

Now let's look at our passage starting

in verse 13 again. Matthew 2 verse 13.

Matthew 2:13

Now when they had departed, behold, an

angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in

a dream and said, "Rise, take the child

and his mother and flee to Egypt and

remain there until I tell you, for Herod

is about to search for the child to

destroy him." You remember last time we

were reading, "The wise men come to

Jesus when they find him. They bow down

and they worship him and they give him

gold and frankincense and myrr, which

were very costly treasures." and and

these would come in handy because Joseph

is going to need to move his family into

the land of Egypt and they're going to

need money for this move. And so when it

says, "Now when they had departed," he's

talking about the wise men. And Herod

had instructed them, when you find the

child, tell me so that I also can come

and worship him. But they being warned

in a dream, departed another way because

the Lord was warning them. Herod doesn't

actually want to worship the child

Jesus. Like last time we went into

depth, how Herod was an Edomite. And

just like Esau wanted to kill Jacob,

Herod wants to kill Jesus because he's

seen as a contender to the throne. And

he ends up killing all the baby boys two

and under in the town of Bethlehem in

order to try to kill the baby Jesus. But

Joseph is warned in a dream to leave and

go where? Into Egypt.

go to Egypt and remain there until I

tell you for Harry is about to search

for the child to destroy him. So just

like Abraham was running from a famine

to a place where there was grain to

avoid death, Joseph takes the child

Jesus and the land of Egypt to avoid

death. And later in the book of Genesis,

you remember

uh the same thing will happen when uh

when Joseph will bring his brothers into

the land of Egypt to avoid famine and

death. So we see something interesting

here is is one is that Matthew draws

attention in a couple ways to Joseph's

name. We know who Joseph is in the Old

Testament. Joseph was the one who

remember who was sold by his brother

into slavery. He ends up in Egypt. He

becomes the second most powerful man in

Egypt. And what does he do? He invites

his family into Egypt because there's a

famine in the land. He invites them

there to take care of them and nurture

them while they grow into a nation. So

there's two Josephs. There's a Joseph in

Genesis and there's a Joseph in Matthew.

And I want to make some comparisons.

God spoke to both men by means of

dreams.

Joseph in Genesis receives dreams that

are prophetic. And Joseph here in

Matthew receives prophetic dreams.

Interesting comparison. Both have

fathers named Jacob. In Matthew 1 verse

Matthew 1:16

16, it says, "And Jacob, the father of

Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom

Jesus was born, who was called Christ."

I didn't bring it out when we were going

through the genealogy, but I thought,

"Wow, that's interesting." The name of

Joseph's father, New Testament Joseph,

is the same name as the Old Testament

patriarch Joseph. It's Jacob. That's a

comparison. Now, Luke, Luke has a

different genealogy, and it's believed

by most Orthodox scholars that the the

genealogy in Luke is the genealogy of

Mary. It's disputed. There's other ways

of reconciling these two genealogies

that are rather different, but they are

different genealogies. But Matthew

highlights the fact in the genealogy

that Joseph's father's name is Jacob

just like the Old Testament patriarch's

name is Jacob. Coincidence? No. Divine

plan of God. All right. Uh, also

God used Joseph in Genesis to bring

Israel into Egypt. All right. So just

like Joseph was used to bring Israel

into Egypt in the Old Testament, the New

Testament, Joseph, stepfather to Jesus,

brings Jesus into the land of Egypt.

The final verses of Genesis, when we

finished up the book of Genesis, the

final verses of Genesis are Joseph

prophesying that God will visit you. And

the New Testament, Joseph is there to

name the child Emmanuel, meaning God

with us. So Genesis ends with is

hopeful. You're going to be in the land

of Egypt, but God will visit you and

bring you out of the land of Egypt. It's

very interesting that that let me just

read real quick the Genesis verses and

compare it to what happens in Matthew.

In Genesis 15:24 and 25, Joseph said to

his brothers, "I am about to die, but

God will visit you and bring you up out

of this land to the land that he swore

to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

Then Joseph made the sons of Israel

saying, "God will surely visit you and

you shall carry out my bones from

there." So the book of Genesis ends with

a promise. God is going to visit you.

And throughout Israel's Israel history,

God visits Israel again and again. He he

delivers them when they need

deliverance. He chases them when they

need chasening. But God continual

continually visits Israel. But the

ultimate visiting of Israel takes place

when

in the incarnation. Matthew 1:23 and 24,

Matthew 1:23

behold, this is this is spoken to Joseph

in a dream. Behold, the virgin shall

conceive and bear a son, and they shall

call his name Emmanuel, which means God

with us. When Joseph woke from his

sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord

commanded him. So,

Emmanuel basically means God visiting

us, God with us. Lot of comparisons

between Joseph

of the Old Testament and Joseph in the

New Testament and Another comparison is

to be made in that Joseph will bring

them into the land of Egypt and then God

will deliver them out of the land of

Egypt. And this is done for a particular

reason. Now let's go back to Matthew 2.

I'll tie all this in in a minute.

Matthew 2:14.

Matthew 2:14

And speaking of Joseph, and he arose and

took the child of his mother by night

and departed to Egypt and remained there

until the death of Herod. This was to

fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the

prophets. out of Egypt I called my son.

Now I've even heard Christian apologists

give a list of prophecies that are from

the Old Testament and they say this is

very common ones in Josh McDow Josh

McDow's book more than a carpenter. He

lists all these prophecies and it's like

this is this is like a zip code that or

this is like an address. You know, the

the the nation tells you what nation to

send the envelope to and then the state

tells you what state to send the

envelope to and then the zip code is

what area of that state and then the the

street and the house number. The zip

code gets narrow and narrower until you

know exactly where to deliver that piece

of mail. In the same way, you know,

Jesus was going to be born of a virgin.

He's gonna he's going to live in

Nazareth. He's gonna come out of Egypt.

He's gonna um you go through a list of

prophecies. Now, some of those are very

well taken like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22.

Uh you can use them that way. But

Matthew is doing something else here.

Matthew is quoting Hosea 11:1. and we're

Hosea 11:1

going to look at it and we're gonna see

that's that's not what this prophecy is

doing at all. God is not saying when the

Messiah is born, he's going to be born

in Bethlehem and he's going to go to

Egypt and he's going to come out of

Egypt. That's not that's not what's

going on. Let's look at it. Hosea 11,

this is a verse that Matthew's quoting.

Says, "When Israel was a child, who?

Israel was a child. I loved him and out

of Egypt I called my son. The more they

were called, the more they went away.

They kept sacrificing to the baales and

burning offerings to idols. So Hosea the

prophet is comparing the nation of

Israel to a child that God brought out

of the land of Egypt. Like he he adopted

him. He when Israel was a child, I loved

him and out of Egypt I called my son.

Egypt was my son and God cared for him

and God made a covenant with him. But

what was the response of Israel? The

more they were called, the more they

went away. They kept sacrificing to the

bales and burning offerings to idols.

This verse is highlighting that Israel

has not been a covenant keeping nation.

Israel has been adulterous. In fact, the

whole book of Hosea and Hosea 1 verse

two, God God calls Hosea and he says, "I

want you to go and marry a prostitute

and she's going to be faithful to you

and she's going to be an illustration to

you of how Israel's been unfaithful to

me. You're going to love this woman. And

this woman's going to go after many

different men. And you're going to know

what it's like to have a wife that is

unfaithful. And you're going to be able

to communicate to Israel what it's like

for a holy God to have a people that

loves the world,

that loves pleasure,

that loves sexual promiscuity.

that loves idolatry, that loves false

ideology,

that goes after witchcraft and

horoscope.

He'll address the many different sins,

the many different ways that Israel is

on failure. He tells the prophet to

marry a is the word that's used in

the book to marry a so that it

knows what God feels like. See, the

Bible says that God is a jealous God.

And this is not spoken of as a sin

because It's right for a husband to be

jealous over his wife. It's right for a

spouse to see that the affections of

their loved one is waning and be weaker

and want to get that love back. You see,

if there was no jealousy, if there was

no fervent desire, you just be okay with

the love growing cold. And God's not

like that. God loves his wife and he

doesn't want his wife Israel to be

unfaithful to him. In the same way, a

different analogy is used. Instead of a

wife, in this verse, Israel is compared

to a son. A son, another analogy is

used. Israel, my son, I loved him. I

brought him out of Egypt.

And what happened? Let's look at Hosea

11 verse um verse three. We read one and

two here. The text continues.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim.

is another name for the northern tribes.

It was the most predominant tribe. Yet

it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. You

know, like a father trains his son,

teaches his son to walk. I took them up

by their arms. They did not know that I

healed them. I led them with cords of

kindness with the bands of love. And I

became to them as one who eases the yoke

of their jaw. And I bent down to them

and fed them. They shall not return to

the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be

their king because they have refused to

return to me. The sword shall rage

against their cities, consume the bars

of their gates, and devour them because

of their own counelss. My people are

bent on turning away from me, and though

they call out to the most high, he shall

not raise them up at all. What's he

saying? He's saying, Israel, I I I

taught you to walk. I blessed you. I

took care of you, but you wouldn't

return to me. You're not going back to

Egypt. You're not going back to the

orphanage. Assyria is going to come and

is going to lead you away captive.

That's what's going to happen. This is

written before Assyria invaded the

northern 10 tribes of Israel. And and uh

he says he shall not raise them up at

all. It's interesting that resurrection

and later we'll look at it. The

resurrection on the third day is also

mentioned in the book of Hosea pointing

to Jesus who is the faithful son who

would be raised up on the third day. The

faithful son who does keep the covenant.

The faithful son who does not go after

idols, who does not go after

fornication, who does not grumble, who

gratefully takes whatever the father

sends him even when it's the cross.

There's a contrast being made between

the nation of Israel, the faithless son,

and the new Israel, Jesus, the faithful

son, the beloved son, the son who keeps

the covenant versus the son who broke

the covenant. So, Matthew wants his

readers to go back and read Hosea 11:1.

Hosea 11:1

But it's a common way uh of instead of

saying hey to learn more about this go

read the full chapter sometimes you'll

give the first line back when we used to

use him if you want to look up a how did

you do it well you remember the first

line of the song you go to the back of

the himnel if you can remember the

chorus or the first line of the song it

you go read it in alphabetical order and

it'll tell you the page number where you

can find it in the himnel all right how

did you look up how did you quote a

verse in ancient times

Well, you would say the first the first

line of the psalm or whatever and you go

back and read that chapter.

So here he quotes Hosea 11:1 and he

Hosea 11:1

expects his reader, you know Hosea, go

back and read it again and see see how

Israel was not a faithful son. Tell an

example on the cross. You remember Jesus

says, "My God, my God, why has thou

forsaken me?" That's the first line of

Psalm 22. You go read Psalm 22, it

mentions him being pierced in his hands

and feet. It mentions him being thirsty.

It mentions him being surrounded by

enemies. It mentions him um it also

mentions his victory and ruling over the

world. So when he quotes, "My God, my

God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He's

saying, "Go read Psalm

22.

Go read it." and and you'll see you'll

you'll you'll you'll see that this is a

psalm that prophesies what is taking

place right before you. Matthew wants

them to read Hosea because in the book

of Matthew,

here's a big fancy word. Jesus is going

to recapitulate the steps that Israel

took. Just as Israel came out of Egypt,

Jesus comes out of Egypt. Just as Israel

is baptized in the Red Sea, Jesus is

baptized in the river Jordan. Just as

Israel is tested in the wilderness,

Jesus is tested in the wilderness. So

that's uh if we if we look at

uh comparing Israel to Jesus, we got it

written down here. I did our bullet

points and now they're missing. Both are

brought into Egypt by a man man named

Joseph.

Both ex both exodus from Egypt. Both

Israel and Jesus is baptized

in the Red Sea. Jesus was baptized in

the Jordan. There's a comparison here.

Israel is testing the wilderness for 40

years. Jesus is testing the wilderness

for 40 days. Israel fails to keep the

covenant, fails to return to the Lord

with all their heart and does not get

raised. Jesus prevails where Israel

fails. He is the beloved son in whom the

father is well pleased. He is raised up

on the third day. So Jesus, Matthew

wants his audience to read the book of

Hosea. And as you read through the book

of Matthew, which we're going to do,

we're going to be going through the book

of Matthew, we're going to see the same

pattern where Jesus is the beloved son.

He comes out of Egypt. He's baptized.

He's tested and he prevails where Israel

fails. That's the point is that he wants

us to make a comparison.

So we'll see later on for example

Matthew 3

Matthew will continue this illustration

as part of the narrative. It says and

when Jesus was baptized immediately went

up from the water and behold the heavens

were open to him and he saw the spirit

of God descending like a dove and coming

to rest on him and behold a voice from

heaven said this is my beloved son in

whom I am well pleased. Then Jesus was

led by the spirit into the wilderness to

be tempted by the devil. So, Israel

comes out of Egypt.

New Testament refers to them being

baptized in the Red Sea and then they're

tested in the wilderness. Jesus in this

narrative comes out of Egypt. He's

baptized in the River Jordan and then

he's tested in the wilderness. But

whereas Israel falls into grumbling and

murmuring and complaining and idolatry

and fornication,

making the golden calf, wanting to kill

Moses.

Jesus will go through all of these types

of testings and will prevail in

everyone.

So we can compare Israel, the faithless

son, to Jesus, the beloved son. I also

think it makes a another point that

Jesus is the new Israel of God. But

that's a deeper discussion for for

another day. But not only you may say,

"Okay, well that's interesting.

How does that apply to me?" I'm going to

go to another passage in the New

Testament and we're going to look at how

Paul

uses illustration of us as believers.

Because in 1 Corinthians 10, just like

they had an Exodus, Jesus had an Exodus,

we have it.

And just like they were baptized in the

Red Sea and Jesus was baptized in the

Jordan and made a covenant with God at

Si. So we in baptism, what are we doing?

We are

getting baptized in water like Jesus

was. But we're we're making a public

covenant. I am his. He is mine. I belong

to Jesus. I'm entering into covenant

with Jesus.

But getting baptized isn't the end of

the journey. It's the beginning of the

journey.

As Christians, we're going to be tested.

We're going to go through trials.

We're going to go through doubts. We're

going to go through spiritual warfare.

We're going to have to wage war in our

minds. We're going to be tested in many

ways.

And and what happened to Israel is an

example of what kinds of things we will

go through. So here's 1 Corinthians 10.

It says, "For I do not want you to be

unaware of brothers. We're talking to

believers here. that our fathers were

all under the cloud, and all passed

through the sea, and all were baptized

into Moses and the cloud and in the sea,

and all ate the same spiritual food, and

all drank the same spiritual drink. For

they drank from the spiritual rock that

followed them, and the rock was Christ.

Nevertheless, with most of them, God was

not pleased. So they were overthrown in

the wilderness. So the children of

Israel, they came out of the land of

Egypt in Exodus. God called us out of

the world.

They were baptized. Let me let's look at

how the Red Sea. The Red Sea is an

interesting picture of baptism because

what happens at the Red Sea? You

remember come out of the land of Egypt

and Pharaoh has a change of heart.

Pharaoh says, "Why did I let them go?

I'm going to go after them." So he gets

his army together, starts to pursue

after the children of Israel. And the

children of Israel have Pharaoh and his

army behind them and the Red Sea in

front of them. And they're not soldiers.

They've been slaves. They don't have

weapons. They just left Egypt days

earlier. So they got the Red Sea in

front of them and they've got Pharaoh

behind them. And there's this pillar of

fire that follows them at night and a

pillar or a cloud by day. And God takes

protects them for a while from Pharaoh

and his army with fire. He holds them

back by a pillar of fire. And Moses

lifts up his arms with a staff over his

head, which I think is kind of a picture

of the cross. He's got a stick over his

head and he holds it up over his head

and the waters separate. So they're

congealed. They actually became hard,

not like in the the the movie. Probably

iced over on either side. But he he

causes the wind to blow. They split up

and the children of Israel walk through.

And then as soon as they get through,

God allows Egypt, the Pharaoh and his

army to pursue them and their the wheels

of their chariots start coming off. And

then God brings the water down on top of

them and drowns them in the Red Sea.

How is this a picture of baptism?

Well, we were slaves to sin

and sin is still in pursuit of us. We

put our faith in Christ and and Christ

we we identify with his death for our

sins. his burial and his resurrection.

And legally, God gives us his

righteousness so that we're no longer

the slaves of sin. We become his people.

We become dead to Pharaoh. We become

dead to the world. We're now to live for

God. God has destroyed

destroyed our enemy at the cross.

Baptism is a picture of Christ death,

burial, and resurrection on our behalf.

And baptism is a foreshadowing of that

or the Red and the foretting of that

Pharaoh the old enslaver is dead is

gone. Our old sins are dead to us. God

called us out of the world. He put to

death death on our behalf. Why? So that

we can live with him and for him and

walk with him. However, when they come

out of the Red Sea, what what happens?

Well, uh

many of them, it says, were overthrown

in the wilderness. Let's read next.

with this analogy. Continue verse six.

Now these things took place as examples

for us. Examples. Oh, okay. So, we're

supposed to learn from the Red Sea

crossing and the murmuring and

complaining in the wilderness. Examples

to us. For we might that that we might

not desire evil as they did.

In other words, we read about in the

book of Numbers, we read about all their

testings and temptations. And it says,

"These things were written so that we

wouldn't desire evil as they did." What?

What kind of things? Do not be

idolattors as some of them were. As it

is written, the people sat down to eat

and drink and rose up to play.

Idolatry is still a threat to the

Christian. We have to guard our hearts.

We have to guard our heart. When we come

to the communion table every week and we

remember what Christ has done for us,

it's appropriate if we see something

that we're starting to love more than we

love Jesus. We need to confess it and

forsake it and get rid of our idols.

Time to get rid of idols. We come to

communion table every week. We remember

the covenant that we have with him. It's

time to lay aside your idols. And so

Paul is making an appeal to Christians.

Do not be idoltors as some of them were.

Now what kind of idols did they have?

Well, they had various idols of the

lands that were around them. They uh at

one point they make the golden calf and

they sounds like a big orgy was going on

and they it says rose up to play but you

read about it they were fornicating and

they were eating to to their their false

god. Now it takes on new forms in our

day but the same human nature can fall

into the same thing.

We we want to do what we want to do. We

want to seek pleasure. So what does man

do? He makes an idol that will allow him

to engage in the activity that he wants

to engage in.

Idols become an excuse like, well, I'm

making a god that suits me better than

the god who's revealed himself in the

holy scriptures. And so, for example,

they they start to believe in the god of

evolution, which is an idol. It's an

imagination,

an imaginary god. Chaos created

everything out of nothing. That is an

idol that men use as an excuse to

fornicate. I tell you that because it

was literally said in the 1980s, one of

the prominent evolutionist, I'm trying

to remember his name. I can't remember

what his name was. Very prominent

evolutionist. And he admitted on on

national TV that basically the only

alternative to evolution is creation.

That's ridiculous. And besides, we want

to sleep with whoever we want to sleep

with. That was basically the explanation

given.

They wanted to justify their behavior.

So they created imaginary God that could

create life from non-life and

intelligence from non-intelligence so

that they could live the way they wanted

to live. I should say we because this is

human nature that does this sort of

thing. They created idols even even with

God's presence so manifestly

demonstrated by pillar of fire at night

and pillar of cloud by day. man men will

go to great lengths to excuse doing what

he wants to do.

And so he says, "Don't be idolattors as

some of them were." As it is written,

the people sat down to eat and drink and

rose up to play. We must not indulge in

sexual immorality as some of them did

and 23,000 fell in a single day. All

right? You know that again I I bring

this up again and again that the the lie

that you can have an experience where

you're just forever perfected and you

don't temp anymore. Paul doesn't say

here, "Have you he got that experience

yet?" No, he's warning believers

just because people say, "Oh, if I'm

tempted this, I must not be a real

Christian." No, you could be a real

Christian. Real Christians struggle with

sexual sin.

Real Christians do fall into the sin of

divorce and covenant breaking. Real

Christians do fall into idolatry. It's a

real threat. And Paul is saying, listen,

when we read about these people in the

Old Testament, you need to know that

these are real dangers and you too could

fall into idolatry and sexual

immorality.

It's a real threat to Christians. That's

why he's warning us to walk in

repentance, to walk in holiness, to stay

close to God, to stay in the community,

to come to come to the communion table

with the fear of the Lord, which will

come in the next chapter. He'll be

talking about communion. And how does

the communion passage start in vers 11?

Remember Judas?

The same night which Jesus was betrayed,

he took bread and broke it and said,

"This is my body which is broken for

you." Why does why doesn't he say the

same night that that uh the the the Jews

came with soldiers and took him out of

the garden or or the same night they

sang a hymn on the way to Gethsemane or

or the same night that that John the

beloved said. There's so many things he

could have alluded to. Why does he call

out that Judas betrayed him? It's

because Judas loved something of this

world more than he loved Christ. It's a

warning to us. But let's continue with

Paul's Paul's application here. Verse 9,

he says, "We must not put Christ to the

test as some of them did that were

destroyed by serpents." By the way, who

did who does it say was put to the test?

Yahweh was put to the test. Not here in

the Old Testament. They tested Yahweh by

God bring us out of Egypt to kill us in

this wilderness.

But here Paul doesn't say they put

Yahweh to the test. Who do they put to

the test? Christ. What's Paul saying?

Christ is Yahweh in flesh. He is God

with us. This is a great divinity of

Christ passage if you want to bring it

up to Mormons or or uh or Muslims. Uh

Paul is very clearly saying that Christ

is the one they were putting to test

when they put Yahweh to the test.

as some of them dead and were destroyed

by serpents. Nor grumble as some of them

did and were destroyed by the

destroyers. Grumbling. We don't think of

that being a heinous sin, but it's right

up there with idolatry and fornication

and testing God,

grumbling, being unthankful,

complaining.

You know, it's it's oftenimes the sin

that pursu precedes suicide.

a feeling of entitlement.

God owes me something more than

salvation.

God owes me a good life. Why aren't

things going well for me? Why Why am I

not married yet? Why don't I have a

child yet? Why Why can't I get a better

job? Grumbling, murmuring, complaining.

It's a grievous sin. The God that saved

us, loved us, gave us the gift of

righteousness, put his spirit within us.

He complained that he's withheld from us

some earthly pleasure as they did. It's

a heinous sin that needs to be repented

of. It robs us of joy. It robs our

testimony.

It robs us of our testimony of the world

when we go around complaining and

murmuring and unhappy with a look of

sadness. that that facial expression

that says I'm a Christian and that hurt

bad testimony

but they were written down for our

instruction on whom the ends of the ages

has come. He's making the point. All

these things are examples for us New

Testament believers so that we don't

live like they live.

His application therefore let anyone who

thinks that he stands take heed lest he

fall. No temptation is overtaken you

that is not common to man. God is

faithful and he will not let you be

tempted beyond your ability. But with

the temptation he will also provide the

way of escape that you may be able to

endure. All right. His final application

is first of all be careful thinking you

sin un lest you fall.

We need to be aware that we too can fall

into sin. This will make us less

judgmental of our brothers and sisters

when they fall. When they fall in

instead of shooting our wounded we need

to go and nurture them back. Every

brother sister fall into immorality or

or or fall into they're struggling in

their faith.

Consider yourself lest you also be

tempted. Be careful thinking you sin

lest you fall. Pride goeth before

destruction and a hotty spirit before

fall. And so he's saying stay humble.

Stay humble before God. You the old

saying, but for the grace of God there

go I is a very good saying.

It's terrible thinking you can take heed

lest you fall.

and no temptation has overtaken you that

is not common to man. What's the point

of that? I'll tell you many Christians

suffer temptation alone because we don't

talk about it. Right?

Every every person in this room is

struggling with sin on some level. But

the first thing we do is, "Oh, hey, I'm

so glad you came to church today. Let me

tell you about my lust problem.

Let me tell you about my pride and my

arrogance and how I just love myself all

day long.

Let me tell you about how much I grumble

and how much I complain. Let me tell you

about how much I love entertainment more

than I love God. Nobody does this. So

people will think, man, if I was really

saved, I wouldn't be struggling with

this. Paul wants you to know, no

temptation has overcome you, but such as

his common command.

Well, except for maybe something like

murder.

I don't know.

I don't know. I'm so glad I'm not been

tested with anybody like hurting someone

in my family or somebody I deeply care

about to the degree I want to murder

them. But I can only imagine you see

these crime shows where where uh

somebody's child has been murdered and

they go to the courtroom and the the uh

the perpetrator is smug and smiling on

the day of the sentences.

What do you think, Dad? Think he might

struggle with

think you might want to take the law

into your own hands.

Uh there is no temptation that's

overtaken you that is not common to man.

Blasphemy,

cursing,

vanity,

sloth, gluttony, drunkenness,

sexual immorality,

adultery,

disloyalty.

But with the temptation, he will also

provide the way that you may be.

I'll add homosexuality to that.

There's there's there's all types of sin

are common to man and are are possible

for a Christian to struggle with. And

that's why Paul and so many of his

epistles admonishes us to mortify the

flesh. Walk in the spirit.

We continue to confess our sins,

continue to come to him, continue to if

we're if we're proud thinking we stand,

we will fall. If we humble ourselves and

we come to him, The sheep that doesn't

get eaten is the sheep that stays close

to the shepherd.

The sheep that is the most confident in

himself is the one who goes away from

the flock,

who leads the flock, who goes out, I'm

going to go it alone. I'm going to

worship God in my tree stand. You're

going to get devoured by wolves.

You know, that's that's a nice little

rabbit trail to go on. It's not really a

rabbit trail. Um, God will work. Satan

will work through bitterness and

unforgiveness.

I'm not thinking of anybody when I'm

saying this at the moment.

Please wear it. But if you're in a body

of believers long enough, believers,

real believers who also struggle with

these things, someone's going to hurt

you.

I keep hearing about abusive churches.

Churches are filled with abusers.

They're filled with sinners instead of

abus

at some point.

sinners are going to sin against you.

People are going to say things that

aren't nice about you. And also keep

this in mind in a body of in a body of

this size, there are all stages of

development. There's people that just

got saved.

Don't expect 40 year old maturity out of

a of an infant of just born to save.

There there's going to be there's going

to be there's people in the body and and

there's old people who've been

struggling with the same sins for many

years and and maybe they get uh maybe

they can be mean or judgmental. Satan

Satan has if he can't get you to back

you fly.

If he can't get you drinking drunk with

the drunkards, he'll get you sitting

with the Pharisees. If he can't get you

to go one way, he'll try to get you to

go the other. And that's why boy, we got

to stay humble and we got to stay in his

word and we need but we need the body.

God designed sheep to be in flawed.

And there's a lot of people out there

that are hurt and it's an excuse not to

go to a church because the people there

are flawed like themselves. I'm like,

well, I'm just gonna the church hurt me

so bad. I just can't go into church

anymore. There are millions there. I

don't know how many hundreds of

thousands of people out there in that

exact situation. They used to go to

They're excited about it and somebody

hurts their feelings and because they're

hurt, they use it as an excuse for

disobedience.

So, they're not witnessing new believers

get baptized regularly.

They're they're not hearing the regular

exposition of God's word. They're not

coming to the communion table regularly

for covenant renewal. They're not

serving or doing to one another of

scripture. They don't have to wash one

another's feet because they're isolated

and they're alone by their own choice.

Serpents

are solitary creatures. Sheep run and

flock.

It's part of God's plan to keep us

accountable, to stir up, to stir us up.

It's one of the ways that he makes an

escape for us.

All right?

So, God makes an escape and often times

it's, you know, we we fall. We come to

we come to the Lord's table. We remember

what he's done for us. We give him

thanks for his offering and his

sacrifice. We confess it and we we uh we

ask God to sanctify us.

I want to look at another Hosea

scripture. This is my final scripture

here. Hosea 6. This was the appeal that

God made to backsliding Israel. The term

backsiding, by the way, comes from the

book of Hosea. Like a backsliding heer,

like a heer that's sliding down a muddy

hill, can't get up. He says, "Come,

let us return to Yahweh, for he has torn

us that he may heal us. He has struck us

down and he will bind us up. After two

days, he will revive us. On the third

day, he will raise us up that we may

live before him."

Let us know, let us press on to know the

Lord. His going out is sure as the dawn.

He will come to us as the

the spring that water the earth. Now,

here's a reference to being resurrected

on the third day. Jesus, the beloved

son, was resurrected on the third day.

But this is an appeal. It's like the

Hosea at one point he he writes as a

prosecuting attorney and the language is

the language of a lawyer who's bringing

a case against Israel. And he lays out

for them like in chapter four, he lays

out for them all of their different

forms of idolatry and witchcraft and

their whoredom. calls it whoredom. He

lays it out before them. And now here's

this appeal. I I've I've laid out the

case for you. This is how you're guilty.

You're idolattors. You're mongers.

You're you're into witchcraft. You're

all these things. And now here's here's

an appeal in chapter six. Come. Let's

return to the Lord.

God is gracious. You haven't sinned too

far. You haven't gone too far. You

haven't committed the unforgivable sin.

If your heart stirs you today and you're

like, "The Lord, I'm guilty. I'm guilty,

Lord." He says, "Come back to the Lord.

Come back to the Lord." He will raise us

up on the third day. He'll raise you up.

Come.

What are you waiting for? Return to the

Lord. He will revive us. He wants to

revive you. He wants to cleanse you. He

wants to wash you.

He wants to make you new again.

He wants to clean you. your idolatry and

your fornication and your blasphemy and

your love of pleasure and your grumbling

and complaining and your bitterness and

your all of that. He wants to cleanse

you. He wants to restore you. He

welcomes you. After all, the

illustrations given here are very

intimate. That of a husband and his

wife, that of a father and his faithless

son. In both cases, it's a father that

yearns,

a man that yearns for his loved one to

return to him. And he says, "I will

raise you up. I want you back."

How much more we who trust in the Christ

that has already paid it all, who came

to save his people from their sins, to

deliver us from the land of slavery and

bondage. God is welcoming to us. Come

back to me. Come back to me and I'll

raise you up. So again, in conclusion,

the nation of Israel failed many tests

as have we. Christ alone is the faithful

son. Christ is the faithful son. We're

all covenant breakers,

but Christ is the faithful beloved son.

And we are accepted in the beloved.

We are accepted in Christ. If you are

yet to turn from your sin and your

rebellion and put your faith in Christ,

I encourage you to do it today. We've

all broken God's law, every last one of

us. But come to the Son who welcomes

you, who wants to cleanse you, who wants

to set you apart. He wants to give you a

new name, new purpose,

and bring you into the promised land.

The promised land is more than heaven.

sonic plan and one start

in and our relationship with God. This

is eternal life that they may know you

the only true God in Jesus Christ and

that is

John 17

verse three.

So I invite you to come as God's

children today as we get prepare our

hearts for communion.

Ask God to search your heart

to to cleanse you of your idols and come

rejoice. Give thanks. just means

thanksgiving. We're giving thanks for an

accomplished work.

Giving thanks for the forgiveness of

sins.

We're giving thanks for the comfort of

his spirit. Let's pray. Father, we thank

you, God, that you are a welcoming God.

You know everything about us

before we even come to you. You know

every secret of our heart. There is

nothing hidden from you.

Lord, I I pray this morning for the

person that may struggle with feelings

of

for Satan loves to accuse and to

condemn, to try to persuade people that

they've sinned or gone too far. But

Lord, that's not the voice of the father

who loved us who sent his son

to pay for our sins, to restore us, and

to cleanse us, and to give us new life.

God, we thank you for the joy and the

peace that we have through your Holy

Spirit. We thank you, Lord, that if we

confess our sins, he is faithful and

just to forgive us of our sins and to

cleanse us from all unrighteous.