Spiritual Israel or Israel of God?

So the title of my sermon today is Spiritual Israel or the Israel of God. Which one is it? I heard even spiritual Israel mentioned at our feast as we were referenced. There are a couple facts I'd like to lay out today though, especially about the nation of Israel. Since the nation of Israel was never spiritual, they were always carnal. That's a historic fact and they existed as a nation from about 1052 to 721 when they were conquered by Assyria. Over 330 years they were a nation. Over 330 years a sinful nation. Israel, the nation of Israel itself after it split from Judah, had 20 kings. They were all wicked, all evil, hard to believe that you couldn't find one good ruler in 330 years. Most feel like today that they like to look up their DNA, find out where they came from, what their roots are. Many are doing that. One company is named 23andMe. You ever heard of that one? Well you better hang on because they're not about they're not about to last. They've lost 99% of their value in just the last two years. About to go bankrupt.

Because people are just not that interested anymore. Because of all the people who came before them that had DNA testing and found out we are a mixed up nation. And even if you go back to England has some and Scotland and Ireland, when you go back from there it's just totally mixed up. So it's hard to really say who you are or where you're from according to the DNA testing. And then my study of DNA, I had a lot of questions about it. And according to the experts there's only about four or five people in the entire United States that can that they use for DNA testing in murder cases. For years they used whatever laboratories were close. But then they found out in these little lines and everything and dots and things that's in history. You have to be an expert. Read it. So I bring that up for a reason because the Bible never mentions the word spiritual Israel. Why do we say it? Why is it still said? It's not in the Bible. And the scripture says don't add or take away. And yet I heard it used in our feast this year. Heard it used many times. I used to use it because I thought it was accepted. I didn't realize it was church speak.

And we or I have tried to be careful I don't use church speak. I try to find the core in the Bible.

But scripture does mention the church as the Israel of God. The New Testament church as the Israel of God. It's in there. If we can go to if you have your Bibles if not we'll have it up on the screen. Galatians 6 and verse 16. Galatians 6 and verse 16. And as many as walk according to this rule you can read about earlier peace and mercy be upon you upon the Israel of God. That is what the church is referenced as the Israel of God. As a matter of fact if that's the that's the New King James version is if you read the new living translation that I have in my hands it actually says that the church is the new people of God. Israel was the people of God in 1052 when when Jeroboam was given the gift of 10 nations. 10 nations. When God was tired of the rulership that was ended with Solomon went into Rehoboam. And so he offered Jeroboam the chance to be as big and greater and richer and everything that anyone could possibly want. Richer greater than Solomon that had to blow Jeroboam's mind because Jeroboam knew Solomon. Solomon hired him. But Jeroboam led them down the wicked road. He had a chance to go where no one else had gone before even William Shatner.

He wanted them to be so prosperous that people would turn around and look at them from foreign nations and say I want to know about your God. Something that's going to be promised to the Israel of God in the kingdom. Where it says people will grab a hold of your sleeve and want to know about your God. That it's always been God's dream to have people follow because they want to follow. The thing we learned from Galatians 6 and you can read it the whole chapter of 6. Well there's a few things we do know about Galatians was written to Gentiles. As a matter of fact they can't find where there might be any Jews in Galatia. And interesting part most people do not even realize that by most theologians and experts Galatians, the book of Galatians, the letter was the first one written by the Apostle Paul. It's the oldest, oldest of all the letters. Why is that significant? Because we realize by that time that God had moved on from the Jews. They were no longer God's people.

That's what he said. They had rejected him. He put them into captivity in Babylon, brought them back out, and in the next 400 years they followed the same rule. And he was frustrated so he sent his only son. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, Emmanuel to this earth, to the nation of Judah. And what did they do? They rejected him and killed him. They just used the Romans to do it. Romans to do it.

And even Paul got frustrated with the Jews when he tried to take it to him. The message of the Savior Jesus Christ. Even you might say dusted off his feet and said, I'm going to the Gentiles. Has God inspired him to do that? And why? Because you realize when you read Galatians and you read those chapters, you realize that it's about faith and not race. It is today. It's one of the most misunderstood parts of Scripture in the church of God even. It's not about race, being born a Jew. Still today they think they are God's chosen people. And they were. But their behavior had him, as we read about in Scripture, he divorced them. He divorced them. And we're going to touch a little bit on that because I won't go through Hosea. But if you needed to know any more. Anything deeper than what I'm going through, just go and read the whole book of Hosea, all 14 chapters, and you'll understand. God was frustrated, done so much, and didn't get anything back. You'll understand that it's about grace, not race. That the Jews never understood. They don't today. They have all this evidence of the Messiah coming and they're still waiting on him. They're still waiting for Elijah to show up on Passover night on their Seder meal. They set a plate out for him. Yet when he came here in the flesh, healed thousands of people, performed such incredible miracles. No, no, no. Three and a half years of preaching an incredible ministry with every miracle you could think of and 120 people showed up.

Thankfully, later 3000, then another 5000. But not really that many. For the God who made all humans to come down in human form. And they didn't even recognize their Creator. We have to make sure that we do not make that mistake as the Israel of God. Because that's who we are. We're the new people. That's what Scripture says. We are those people. So I'd like you to go with me today. I have only nine verses left. I'd like to go through those nine verses that I hope you can enjoy as much as I do. Because I realize it's one chapter. It's the last chapter of Hosea. Hosea had to do an incredible work. Who was called upon to do some things that most of us would say.

No, not gonna do it. Not gonna. But he did it. He did it. Not just to show the people of his day, but to show us how important. Being the Israel of God truly is. And I want to cover those today before we have our Bible study. Before we take a break. Because we're gonna look at some things from the feast. So if you will go with me, I'll be reading from the new living translation today. Just because it kind of explains it.

So if you're reading there, we're gonna have it up here. So in case you go, well, my new King James doesn't say those same words. But I want to go through so we can truly see because this is a translation that breaks it down from the actual verbiage that is used. So I want you to think of this as instructions to you, Dale. Okay?

Making it personal. Because it is personal because the Israel God, how did he... God didn't choose a whole nation like Israel. He hasn't done that today. No, he says, I want you. I want you. I want you and you and no, I don't want you. I want you and I want you and no, I don't want you and you. Only he can look upon the heart because he realized, as he says in Jeremiah 31 33. I could write my laws in your mind and in your heart because I've got to see. I got to see who really wants to follow me with this instead of, look at me.

Yes, I'm important. I'm God's chosen people. He doesn't want that. He wants us to say, yes, I'm blessed. Because God, for some reason, has looked upon me with grace and with love. And he's called me to be a part of his family, to be a child of God. Very powerful. So, if you will, look up. Look up. Hosea 14 verse one.

And we have to look at ourselves this way too. Because even though we're called of God and we try to obey him, we have his Holy Spirit, we use it. We sometimes shock, shock. We distance ourselves from God. Because there's some issues we may have.

But God says, I know you have issues. You're healing. I made you. But I'm going to help you with those issues. Not so you can be great, but because you can help other people. It's all about others. Has been ever since Christ came. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that the entire world can be. Become family.

It's what he wants. So, here we go. Chapter 14 verse one. Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. For your sins have brought you down. We examine that every year at Passover. The weeks leading up to it. We look at ourselves and realize we can do better. We sometimes look at ourselves and realize we really, really need his help. There are some things we haven't conquered yet. And somebody will beat themselves up. Oh, I'm just no good. Well, yeah, God knows you're no good. But he called you anyway. You know, it's kind of like family members.

You can't choose them. You know, we all have black sheep in the family. Some may consider me a black sheep. I'm not a Smith family. I don't know. But we all have those. Well, God has them too. But he's kind of like, oh, no. I'm known as the Redeemer. He's buying us back from the world and ourselves. He's that Redeemer. We're priceless. What he's wanting to do with us. So he wants us to look at ourselves that way.

He wanted Israel to look at themselves. This was their last shot with Hosea. Did they listen to these words? Did they? No. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been gone into captivity and scattered to the ends of the earth. No, they didn't listen. Our home is waiting for us in the kingdom. Will we be there? If we listen. If we'll just look at these nine verses a couple of times a year, it will help us to straighten our lives out, to really realize who we are.

Realizing who we are all goes back to who he is. And once we realize who he is, then we realized, wow, this is big stuff. I've got an opportunity of a lifetime. So verse two, he says, bring your confessions and return to the Lord. He wants us to confess. Confess what? Anybody? Anybody? Sin? What else? Do you confess anything else? Human nature? Rebellion?

Our love for him, definitely. Yes, we confess that we need him. And our love for him. There's some confession to be done. Do we go, well, I don't know what to pray about. Really? Have a bow. Really? Well, I really don't know how to talk to God. Yes, you do. We all do. So we all have issues and problems. We all got something we want to try to do better. We're not Elon Musk. We don't own the world. I think we do. We're not billionaires who don't need anything. I don't think you are. If you are, I'd like to see you after services. We won't be renting if you are. I don't think. So bring your confessions and return. And the Hebrew word is for return, is not just turn away from your sins, but it's the word. And I didn't give David this because it's always in my head because I had to learn this. The word is teshuvah. In Hebrew, teshuvah. And it doesn't just mean to repent, which means to turn and get to a 180. Teshuvah means to turn, like return means, or like repentment. But teshuvah means to return to God. Return to God. So just don't turn away from my sin and okay, and my issues and just go back to where I was. Let's start over and let's see if we can do this. But no, it's return to God. To your relationship with Him, where you start relying on Him a little bit more because every time we kind of step out and try to do something by ourselves, we usually end up stepping in it, as we used to say on the farm. So yes. He says return to the Lord. And then I love this, because you won't find this in many places, even Christ said, they said, teach us to pray. And He said, when you pray, say this. Our Father, you know the drill. But this one is what He wanted them to do. And now this is what He wants us to do, to feel, to be, to live. And say to Him, forgive all our sins.

What is sin? Anybody? Say that again. Transgression of the law. First John, you know your scriptures, don't you? First John 3 and 4, I believe. Sin is a transgression of the law. If you look something else, it has another one. When you don't use scripture, you can look it up and it means to miss the mark. Miss the mark. What does that mean? Miss the bullseye. You shot for a bullseye, and you missed. Okay. You went for the bullseye, you missed. No big deal. You sinned. But it is a big deal because He wants you to repent of it. Yes. There's a bullseye. Can we do it? Now, it says you missed the mark. You missed this very center there.

What is the mark for us? Yes. And what was He? Yes. And what did He show us? An example of perfection. Perfection. That's missing the mark. The mark is perfection. We missed it. I don't know if I've missed it today. By the time I go to bed tonight, I'm probably going to miss perfection.

I've tried not to miss it. I repented this morning. I've been around God's people. Haven't had to get angry. Angry sin not. Feel good. So I haven't missed the mark yet.

But I won't say the same thing about tomorrow. Because chances are I'm going to miss the mark. Because I'm not perfect. What's the word? Yet. Yet. I'm not perfect yet. That is the bullseye. Every day God asks us, try not to miss the mark. Try perfection. And He knows, and Christ knows now because He became flesh so that He could understand us and sympathize with us. So He's the perfect one to say in His name. I come to you guys. Miss the mark. It's not complicated. God was willing to give them forgiveness. All they had to do is, I missed it. My bed. Except sometimes, I don't know about you, but I'll have dots all over the place. But none of them are bullseye. And that's the end of the day. I'll have to go, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is what He wants. From us as the Israel of God. Is to just understand this. It's a brilliant plan. It's a brilliant plan. If you've ever been in, some of you have been in the military. We have, various people have been in the military. You shoot, you miss.

But you know what He wants us to be? He wants us to go to sniper school. He wants us to go to sniper school. Where we concentrate on the target. And the more practice and practice we get, the more bullseye.

The closer we become to Christ. I think it's a beautiful plan. It's just Chuck Smith that goofs it up. So he said, forgive us our sins. Go back to two. And graciously receive us. So that we may offer you our praises. When do we praise Him? All the time.

But we don't do it enough. We saw when we went through Revelation, how those angels come before Him. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. They say it all the time. And there's over a hundred million of them, as Scripture tells us. So He's telling us. Graciously receive us. Thank you, God, because you can forgive us. So that we may offer you our praises. Because we must thank Him for He just cleansed us.

We repent. We are wiped clean. We had some baptisms in the feast this year. I don't know how many. I kind of lost count. And so, as I was explaining to one young lady that I baptized in the Mediterranean Sea. That's where she wanted to be. You're as clean as the day you were born. All your sins have been wiped away.

And that's so unique. And some people begin to cry and others are just so moved. This is how it is for us every day. We can have that same thing. And I'll touch on that because it was touched on at the feast and I'd given a sermon. I'd given this verse three or four times in my ministry and never hit me home like it did when I was at the feast.

So I got to learn something good. But let's go. I'm going to be. Whoa, sorry. I've got to speed this thing up. Okay, so let's go down to three. He's saying, Assyria, can I save us? What was he doing? Because Assyria would conquer them. But you see, Israel, they couldn't get along with anybody. And they had a lot of stuff.

That was given to them by God. And people wanted their stuff. And so here they would even look towards their enemies to come. Rather than turn to God, they would look to enemies and it eventually bit them because Assyria came in and said, why you got all this stuff? We'll just take it.

And they did. So what's he saying to us? Stop looking to other powers to rescue you. When I'm here, I'm here. May look and go, oh, well, we're the United States. We're so powerful. We have the most powerful military in the world. Oh, don't count the worth $35 trillion in debt. And a third of it is to China, our enemy, and the others are to our enemies.

Stop looking at them and look at me is what God says. And so this world's not going to do it. This country's not going to do it. We need to do it. We need to know. That's where we look. So nor Assyria can I save us, nor can our war horses. Our military is not going to save us. If there's a World War three, it's not. Only God can save us. But right now we think we're pretty hot stuff. He wanted to tell them, quit looking to the world. And what's he saying to the Israel of God today?

Quit looking to the world. There's nothing out there for you. Everything you need is here. Important stuff is here. Let's go on down. Never again will we say to the idols we have made, you are our God. That's what he wanted. See, he was telling them because they had other gods. They had idols. I just got back from Greece. Some of you idols everywhere. The Greek culture, idols, gods, gods after gods after gods. We went to the feast on Crete, where the island of Crete, where they believed Zeus, the head of all the gods, was born in Crete.

He was a human that became a god rather than our god who became a human. Hmm. Think they got it wrong? Imagine being Titus having to go start a church in that area. But he did. Never again will we say to the idols we have made, you are gods. No, and you alone. Do the orphans have mercy? Who's the orphans? James 123. Perfect religion before God and is to keep self and spot to the world and take care of what? The widows and the orphans. Orphans are ones that they don't have anybody really to take care of them. Left an orphan. That's why they have orphan ages. But there's orphans in the world. Okay. And in a way, we're kind of those orphans because we're not a part of this world.

The orphans, they have mercy. They find mercy in God. Orphans don't really find mercy in the world, do they? Otherwise, there wouldn't be orphans. Verse 4. The Lord says then, okay, after we've got this mindset, then I will heal you of your faithlessness. And my love will know no bounds. Your faithlessness to the Israel of God. You have faithlessness? Nobody wants to go, me, me, pick me, pick me. Do you have faith? Yes. I think all of us have faith. Do you have faith that Jesus Christ is talking about? Faith to move a mountain? No. Do you have faith to walk on water? No. That's why Diane was a diving instructor. She knew you couldn't walk on water. We have this. This is for us. Then I will heal you of your lack of faith. I need that healing because I need faith sometimes. Sometimes it needs to be way above where I'm at. And God is telling us, the Israel of God, that that faith has no bounds. What would you do if you knew you could not fail? Would your world be forever changed? Yes. But the world around you would be forever changed because they would see this. Faith, incredible faith. Hmm. No bounds, no limits. Oh, I like that. I want, as I can use a poor language, I want me some of that. I do. I want me some of that. Because I need it. Because I need it. Well, it says in verse four, my anger will be gone forever. God's not going to be angry at us ever, never, ever, ever, ever. Because when he says forever, it's gone, it's gone. Isn't that great? Now we, we can sit there and do what? Oh, I remember when that guy in the third grade took my pencil. Can't you? Oh, I remember when Mary said this about me 38 years ago, a year after we were married. I hadn't forgiven her yet.

Just kidding. But I'm giving you that example because God's not like that. When you ask for forgiveness and you mean it and you say, I'm going to try to do better, even though you're going to miss the mark the next day, you ain't miss the same mark the next day. He forgives you and then you come back and you go, no, I forgave you of that. What do you remind me of that for? It's gone. What are you talking about? This is how our mindset needs to be with our God. He's not this vindictive Zeus that wants to come down and rape human women and, and play all these tricks on these low life humans. Well, no, we have a God who's kind, gentle, loving, and he's known by one incredible word, mercy. That's our dad. That's our father. Let me finish this up as I look at my clock. Verse five, I will be to Israel like a refreshing dew from heaven. I will be to the Israel of God, the church now us. I will be like dew comes out of heaven. Well, what good is that? Oh, wait till you spend a hot summer. And it hasn't rained for, I don't know how long. And all of a sudden it gets cooler and at night you get up and there's dew on the ground. And the grass is like, ah, it's looking good. It's feeding it. This is, this is what he, he said, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to bring life back to you. I'm going to give you a reason to get up every morning and go, there's dew. There's life like a refreshing dew from heaven. Israel, the Israel of God will blossom like the lily. Beautiful plant, beautiful flower.

It will send roots deep into the soil like the cedars in Lebanon. You're going to be grounded. It's not going to be, well, had a good day today. Be a bad day tomorrow. Good week, bad week. No, he says those roots are going to go deep. You're going to have my support. Its branches will spread out like beautiful olive trees. Got a chance to see those over there. Got a chance to go to a olive processing plant where they made olive oil. Got to see olive trees outside of where we're staying. It was olive trees. I even had a year that saw those olive trees. As fragrant as the cedars in Lebanon. That means you're not going to stink to the world. You're going to smell good to God as you reflect the world. And find my people will again live under my shade. Mind you, Psalm 91. About the eagle. But this talking about shade because if you've been in the Middle East or you've been in South Florida and we hadn't had rain for a month. And it's hot and it's ninety eight with a ninety six percent humidity. It's miserable. And if you're having to work outside, what do you look for? Shade. Shade.

Incredible tree. Just down from where we stayed. Oh man, would I be running to that if we had that on the farm back when we had no air conditioning. Like we did in the sixties and seventies. And so we would look for shade to eat under shade tree. To just get a little rest. Get out from under the sun. See what God's saying. He's going to be your shade. He's going to be like this for when the world comes down when all the problems are there. He's got you. He's got you covered. This is what he's telling the Israel of God.

They will flourish. Yes, you will. Like grain and blossoms like grapevines. They will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon. We went to a wine tasting. We were there. Wait a minute. We went to a wine tasting on all three islands, didn't we? Three. Three? No, Athens isn't an island. But we still went to a wine tasting in Athens. And I realized because I wanted to hear about their wines. How they crew them. Because the ground looks stubby. But they were growing. So I wanted to know that. And I had some wonderful wines. And so he opened up some. But the smell you could just say, ah, and if you get a really good wine, you smell it. And your mouth is watering like a dog. And I want some of that wine because this is what God is using as an analogy for us.

They will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon. Oh, Israel, stay away from idols. Israel of God. Church of God. United Church, God, and Vero Beach. Stay away from idols. And I'm not just talking about Taylor Swift. There's idols all over the place.

What idol is in your heart? That you need to get rid of. And don't tell me you don't have them. I got them. It's process. Step towards perfection. I am the one who answers your prayers and cares for you. You always tell us you need to pray. Let it go. To me. I work with you. I am like a tree that is always green. All your fruit comes from me. It's always green. You can always go to the tree. God's tree. God's throne room. You can always go there because there's always fruit. And he wants you to have all the fruits you can handle. Physically and spiritually. He wants those fruits of the spirit. Galatians 5 22 to just be falling off his tree to you. Sometimes we need to go and look to the tree and maybe want to grab a little more fruit. Friday says, let those who are wise understand these things. What? The blessings. We need to understand it. And then he says, moves on to almost a different thought. Let those with discernment listen carefully. To what? To what he's about to say. This one beautiful phrase. The paths. Of the Lord are true and right and righteous people live by walking in them. They live.

Righteous people. You see how this was written for us. There were no righteous people in Israel.

But there is. In the Israel of God.

And we need to walk in those paths. Because there's true and right. We know the difference between right and wrong. We know the difference between a male and a female. This is who we are. This is what he's given us. And finally. But in those paths, sinners stumble and fall. Why you say that? Because they don't want these paths. They think some of the things we do are foolish. What are you doing having services? Church services in Miami. We're a mile from a stadium. Miami. Hurricanes are number five in the United States. They're number five in the pole and they're playing Duke. And you're in here doing this. When you could be going to a game. The game of the year maybe. Why? Why would you go to a to a a day feast and send your money and you go to services. Every day. Oh man, there's so much more to do.

But in those paths, sinners stumble and they fall.

God has great expectations for you and for me. For the Israel of God. It is a requirement. He has a belief system. He's willing to do whatever he can to make.

You get this? I'm pausing because I want you to get it. He wants to make your dreams come true. And he can do it.