Hosea: Old Wine and New Makes You Dull

Old wine and new--you've got to decide what you really are. You cannot be both. Anyone in Christ is new. The Word is clear that the old is past, and there's only the new. You cannot be an old and new creation at the same time. And yet, if we look around churches, this is what most Christians are. They claim to be born again and yet look and live the same way they did when they were yet non believers--well at least they've gotten rid of their statues and idols and they're now active in church.

But that's garbage, too, if you're not a genuine new creation getting newer in Christ each day so that you yourself are no longer seen by people but they see Jesus. God's flesh. Yes, God is spirit, but we are his flesh on earth. They should see God in you, and you cease to be seen any longer.

Here's how Hosea put it: "..they've left the Lord in favor of prostitution, to old wine and new, which make them dull (spiritually) and given to idol making and worship (though they are in a born again church). That's the spirit of prostitution; it deceives them to be unfaithful to God so that they keep worshiping the wrong way and always preferring comfy worship places ('where the shade is very comfy')," [Hosea 4.10-13]. My version.

No wonder church people always prefer mega comfy church buildings.

Old wine and new makes you dull spiritually. No wonder many believers today do not get what the Word is really saying. It's something like what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3: a veil covers their hearts so they cannot see. Having that veil removed is the key to reflecting God's glory on us. That's when Jesus is revealed on our bodies. That's God's flesh.

As long as Christians remain being both (new and old creation) they will never understand. Old wine and new makes you dull. They will never have the Lord's glory reflected on them. And revelations says if you remain lukewarm (neither hot nor cold), the Lord will spew you out.

According to Hosea 4.10, if you're an old wine and new believer, you really:

1. are a prostitute.
2. are controlled by the demon or spirit of prostitution which makes you unfaithful to God no matter how active you are in church.
3. cannot be fed spiritually by the Word of God and are actually dying of starvation even if you enjoy good sermons in church and always read the bible. "These people will eat but never have enough."
4. cannot increase spiritually because of your prostitution. Also, though you engage in prostitution to increase in church membership--and indeed physically you may be increasing in number and are even a mega church--you do not increase in God's eyes. Very few, if any, get born again genuinely. You do not have genuine Jesus disciples. All you have are church members.

Prostitution, in Hosea's context, is saying you love God and yet rely on another or have other loves. Or, giving the love and devotion due God to others [1.5 and 8]. This is what church denominations do. They build their own empires, not God's Kingdom. They use worldly systems, not God's supernatural ways. They devote a great deal of time, effort, and money to denominational expansionism and church building, not on God's genuine glorious church which is without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish--and which is without any denomination.

Church denominations are guilty of idol worship. Their denominations and church buildings have become the idols of their hearts. They worship them every Sunday.

Jesus said all believers should be one as the Father and Son are one. That means perfectly one (because the Father and Son are perfectly one), no denominations that have different doctrines and teachings and policies and manuals. Yet, church denominations stubbornly insist on doing things their own ways and keeping their own little empires. That's the demon of prostitution that keeps their members like old wine and new.