The salvation that God has provided through His Chosen People Israel, is a remarkable MIRACLE! Today’s message is a continuation from our previous topic which taught us the value of the finished work Jesus Christ did on the cross for all who believe. Our message today will add another layer to our understanding as we discuss “Realization Of The Realities Of Redemption”
Old Testament Scripture Reading: Hosea 3:1 – 5 KJV
Hos 3:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
Hos 3:2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
Hos 3:3 And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.
Hos 3:4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
Hos 3:5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.
New Testament Scripture Reading: Colossians 2:12 – 23 NASB
Col 2:12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Col 2:13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
Col 2:14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Col 2:15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
Col 2:16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day–
Col 2:17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
Col 2:18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,
Col 2:19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.
Col 2:20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,
Col 2:21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”
Col 2:22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)–in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?
Col 2:23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
Main Points To Emphasize:
1) Israel of the Old Testament is portrayed by the Prophet Hosea, as a selected, special people who exist only because God by His promises to Abraham, produced them as a “MIRACLE PEOPLE” for His own possession, in order to show His Love not only to them, but to all mankind:
- A) Have a special people through whom He could give His Law to mankind
- B) Bring Jesus Christ His Only Begotten Son into human existence to give His life as a ransom for sin
- C) To have Jesus His Son to “Fulfill HIS HOLY LAW”
- D) To have JESUS CHRIST satisfy God For The entire world of all who believe the Gospel
- E) To defeat death and the grave for all who believe in HIM!
- F) To cleanse all who believe the Gospel and are baptized into Christ and to fill them with His Holy Spirit!
