Well, brethren, it's truly a joy to be here with you again this morning to worship our God together. It's hard to believe it's been almost a year and a half since the last time I was in the pulpit here, so time sure does fly, but the Lord has been very gracious to us, very gracious to the church in Armstrong, and we're just thankful for your prayers and your continued support of all that's going on up there. You can turn your Bibles this morning to the book of Hosea, Hosea chapter two. Hosea chapter two.
This morning we're gonna look at verses 14 through to verse 23, but I will read the entire chapter so we understand the context of where we're picking up in verse 14. So Hosea chapter two, beginning at verse one. Sorry, we'll begin at verse 2. Bring charges against your mother, bring charges, for she is not my wife, nor am I her husband.
Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked, and expose her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, I will go after my lovers who gave me my bread, and my water, and my wool, and my linen, my oil, and my drink. Therefore behold I will hedge up your way with thorns and wall her in so that she cannot find her paths She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them. Yes, she will seek them, but would not find them Then she will say I will go and return to my first husband for then it was better for me than now For she did not know that I gave her grain new wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold which they prepared for bail therefore I will return and take away my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season, and I will take back my wool and my linen given to cover her nakedness. So I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall deliver her from my hand.
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbaths, all her appointed feasts. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, these are my wages that my lovers have given me. So I will make them a forest and the beasts of the field shall eat them. I will punish her for the days of the bales to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry and went after her lovers. But me, she forgot, says the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness and will speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there and the valley of Acre as a door of hope.
She shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the days when she came up from the land of Egypt. And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me my husband and no longer call me my master. For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, that they shall be remembered by their name no more. And in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the birds of the air and with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth to make them lie down safely. I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord. and it shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer with grain and with new wine and with oil, and they shall answer, Jezreel, then I will sow her for myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy, and then I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people, and they shall say, you are my God, amen.
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we do come before you now and we appeal to you for the power of your Holy Spirit now, Lord, that you would be pleased to tabernacle among us, that you would aid and assist in the preaching of your word, that you give clarity of thought and of speech. Father, we pray that you aid in the hearing of the word, that you would open our hearts to receive the truth and the glorious gospel that we find contained in this passage here, and that you would edify and encourage your people here on this day that they would leave here rejoicing in God our Savior. Lord, we pray that if there be any this morning who are with us who are not in Christ, that the Spirit would shine brightly into the dark hearts and illuminate them and give them, show them the Savior, and that they would run in faith to Him, and crying out for salvation and finding that salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.
So Father, we pray that you would be glorified now, and it's in Christ's name that we ask this. Amen.
Introduction
Well, the book of Hosea is one of those minor prophets that we're probably a little bit more familiar with and maybe perhaps only the first three chapters of the book. simply because in it we find this very unique story, relationship between Hosea and his wife, Gomer. And after that, perhaps sometimes we may lose interest in the book, because then after that, God goes on for about nine chapters, indicting the Israelites for their sinfulness. But this intriguing story between Hosea and his wife, Gomer, And we see what happens, just to give a bit of a recap, there is Hosea is instructed to take Gomer, his wife, and he does that, he brings her into his household, he provides for her, and things start off well, but then she cheats on him with other lovers, and she has children as a result of those illicit relationships. And what happens then is that Hosea divorces her, and that's what we find in what we just read in the first 13 verses, It's a court case, a divorce case happening, and he divorces his bride.
But then we'll find out in chapter 3, which we're actually going to look at this evening in chapter 3, where God instructs Hosea, take back your bride. And it's a very dramatic story that's playing out. But what we learned from Hosea is that this relationship is actually teaching, is there to teach the Israelites about what they had been doing to God. They were Gomer in the picture.
God had taken Israel, he had brought them, had chosen Israel as his bride, brought her into the promised land of his glorious kingdom, but they cheated on him, as it were. They followed after other gods. They worshipped the Baals primarily, also the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up, but they committed spiritual harlotry. So, as a result of that, God was going to divorce them.
God was going to exile them out of that land, but then he also promises that he's going to take them back to be his bride again, that he's going to plant them back in the land. They will be returned from exile. The way is going to be made for them to come back. to this promised land. But we have to understand, the analogy does not stop there.
It's not simply Hosea and Gomer pointing us to Israel and we're just to look at this as if we're looking through a window and watching how God is interacting with Israel. We have to realize that this is a mirror. We need to read this as a mirror where we are looking at ourselves, where we see how God is interacting with us, with mankind, his image bearers. Because God had created us Mankind for the purpose of dwelling with him dwelling with him in a in a in a paradise of The in the Garden of Eden is where we is where this all started there He was he was placed Adam was created remember Adam was created in the dust of the wilderness outside the garden Genesis 2a I believe then God created the garden and planted man in that garden with him there in that in that abundant life that he had and Adam was to be faithful to his Creator.
He was supposed to live according to the knowledge of good and evil that he had written on his heart. He used to be faithful to that. He had that intimate knowledge of God. Simple terms, he had the law of God written on his heart.
He was to live in obedience to the law of God. But he was not faithful. Adam and Eve, they were not faithful to the terms. And that relationship, because they violated the knowledge of good and evil that they had, the relationship was broken.
And they were exiled out of the garden, cut off from the life that they had in the garden. God sent them back into the wilderness from which he was taken. And he said, you were made from the dust, you're back in the dust and you're going to go there. and return eventually to the very dust from which you were taken. Now this is not just indicating that he was one day was going to physically die and his body would decay, but indicating that he has now been separated from God.
He's already been cut off, but eventually that's going to lead to eternal separation from God, eternal death. And that's where every single human being finds himself, because it's not just Adam and Eve who violated the law of God. Every single one of us has violated the law of God. Every single one of us has been exiled, that relationship has been cut off.
We've been divorced, if you want to use that language to keep the analogy. They're cut off from the Creator, on the path to eternal death. Now, dying, you shall die. That was the curse, and that's where every one of us finds ourselves, apart from Christ.
And that's the important thing to note, is in Genesis chapter 3, this whole story that takes place. We have a promise given to us as well. Adam and Eve sinned. Adam and Eve were exiled.
They were sent out of the garden. But there was a promise that one day life again would be offered, that hope of having the relationship restored by this one, the seed of the woman who would come to crush that serpent and make that way and free them from his grasp and make that way back to that relationship with their creator. And that's what we find in our text today, of the Lord Yahweh's way of reconciliation with his bride. And there is a lot in this section, and we're going to look at several verses, 10 or 12 verses here, and there's a lot going on here.
So we're going to do sort of a high-level flyover, and we're going to see how we'll see the gospel according to Hosea here, this whole picture of how God deals with us in the restoration of that relationship to him. So in the first part of chapter two, we saw how Israel was going to be, they would be cut off because of that unfaithfulness, and they were gonna be cut off from the abundant life that God offered them. God, they had abundant life in the land, wine and oil and all these blessings that they had. It was such abundance there, but they were cut off, and it was going to become a barren, lifeless wilderness.
And that's where we pick up today, then, with God beginning that process of restoring His bride. Now, for us, maybe before we get going,
Old Testament Marriage Background
we should understand, it's going to be helpful for us to understand what a marriage process looked like in the Old Testament. Similar to what we do today, perhaps, but there are some things that we need to understand here. a man would court his bride. And what that looked like was that he would, or his potential bride, we might say, he would do so by making a proposal of what he could offer her. He would propose what type of, what he could provide for her, what kind of abundance he could offer, what kind of life he could provide for this woman.
And if she accepted that offer, then they were betrothed. They became legally, Legally husband and wife there was a legal ceremony vows were taken vows were made legally they became husband and and wife But then he would leave And he would go and he would go to prepare that abundant life that he promised and that he offered he would prepare that life who prepare his household his his kingdom we might say and once that was prepared he would come back and and he would return for his bride. And then he would take her and he would bring her home into his household. And then, at that point, the relationship was consummated.
And that's what we see here in the text today. In verse 14 through 15, we have the courtship. And then in verse 16 through 20, we have the betrothal. And verse 21 through 23, we have consummation.
So we'll begin in verse 14. He says,
Courtship: The Proposal of Eternal Life
So we begin in the wilderness. Wilderness is barren, lifeless wilderness. The state of death we might compare it to. That's where we begin.
And God says, I will give her her vineyards from there, from the wilderness." Now, we have to understand, the word translated in verse 15 as give, that's the typical translation, but according to the Hebrew lexicon, it also can be used to set forth, to display, or to exhibit. So from the wilderness, he's going to exhibit her vineyards, where she's in the wilderness, but he's displaying vineyards for her and the valley of Acre as a door of hope so this the the valley of Acre was the valley that the Israelites entered into the promised land when they when they first possessed it having come out of Egypt that was where the the sin with Achan took place and where after they had captured Jericho remember Jericho was the first city they captured as they entered into that valley which then led them into the promised land here so so God says that they're in the wilderness, they're cut off from God still, but yet He's going to give them a look at the life that He can offer them. They can have a look through this door of hope, and they can see the vineyards, and they can see the abundant life that He's offering to her there. The life that they had lost by their unfaithfulness to Him, and He shows her that he's willing to offer this life again to them and they can see, they have a glimpse, they have the proposal is given there, look at this life that I can offer you, abundant life in this land again.
Is this something she would like to return to? Or is she happy to stay in the wilderness and in the slavery house of her oppressors? What's her answer? And in the middle of verse 15, she will sing there.
I think this is a poor translation. Actually, I think if you have an NASB in the margin notes, it says the word simply just means to answer. She will answer there. She will respond.
God offers this, His bride, the opportunity of this abundant life in the land, and she responds. From the wilderness, she responds to Him, and it says, as in the days of her youth, as in the days when she came up from the land of Egypt, And if we go back to, this is like, she responds back like she did in the affirmative, we might say, back when they first entered into that marriage covenant, when God rescued them out of slavery in Egypt. And then he entered into that marriage covenant with them. And they, that's Exodus 24, verse seven, God had given them the law.
God had shown them the covenant. This is the terms of this relationship that we have. He told them about this land of plenty that he was bringing them to and it flowed with milk and honey And and he would give it to them and they would dwell with him there and they answered They responded all that the Lord has said we will do and we will be obedient to that they accepted that they accepted the terms of that covenant, they desired that. We want you to be our God, Yahweh, and we will be your people.
That would be their response here as well. Now, we have to see, we have to notice, and we'll come back to this in a minute, but there's no giving of the law here. Very, very interesting. We'll flesh that out in a minute.
There's no giving of the law here, but the idea is that they will answer in the affirmative. God is going to make this proposal. Do you want this abundant life that I can offer you back in the land? and they will accept it. And we see how this relates to mankind.
We've all sinned. We're all in the spiritual wilderness apart from God. We're all dying, about to return back to the death, and being cut off from God forever. But God offers abundant life.
He offers eternal life. And he offers that to everyone, everyone who is in the wilderness, in spiritual darkness, who is cut off from God, he makes the offer, this is what I can give you, this is what I can offer you, abundant life, eternal life. And what is required of us? Nothing's required.
Just to simply respond, to answer, to accept that offer. That's what faith in Christ is, accepting the offer of abundant life that He can offer to us and that He's made available for us. We know that God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus said, He said that I've come that you might have life and you might have it abundantly.
That's what Christ offers to us and we are simply to, all is required of us is to receive that, to accept that offer in faith. Now, I intentionally skipped over a line in verse 14 and And it says in here that I will bring her into the wilderness and I will speak comfort to her. Literally, it says I will speak over or I will speak to her heart. And that's very significant, very significant.
Effectual Calling and the Heart
Now, I'm not gonna, we're not gonna get into, you know, spend a lot of time on this perhaps here, but God says, he says here, I will speak over her heart. I will ensure that she's going to accept this offer of eternal life. This is what we call in theological terms, we call the effectual call. The gospel call goes out to every single person, but God's people, those who are His, God speaks to their heart, as it were.
He makes them willing to accept that offer. They willingly accept it. They willingly receive what Christ is offering, but they've been made willing. God has spoken to the heart.
The confession says it this way. He affectionately draws them, yet they come most freely, being made willing by His grace. So that's an important bit of information here. So we see, so God woos his people, we might say.
He calls them out, he calls them, he draws them with the offer of eternal life. By giving them a glimpse through the door of hope to see the abundant life he can offer. And he makes them willing. And he doesn't do so with romantic charms, but he does so by changing their heart, making them want to leave that slavery behind that they're enslaved to. in this spiritual wilderness and to desire to join this glorious kingdom of life.
Betrothal: Justification by Faith
Then comes the betrothal, the legal ceremony. Verse 16, and that day says the Lord that you will call me Ishi, my husband, and no longer call me Be'ali, my master. Ba'ali. So we always think in terms, when we think in terms of Baal, we're always, most often, almost always thinking in terms of the false god or gods of the Canaanites there.
But what the word actually just means is master, lord, owner. It's very similar meaning to the Hebrew word Adonai, which we often translate as, or always translate as lord or master. as well, very similar. So why is she not going to refer to him here as Ba'ali, as my master, my owner, anymore? Well, because a lord or a master, an owner, is someone whose laws you must obey in order to maintain that relationship.
Husband, on the other hand, is one whom the bride entrusts herself to for safety and for provision and for providing everything necessary. She entrusts herself to the nurture and to the care of her husband, and he loves her. Not based on her obedience not based on her performance in any way that's and and that is Important in the Old Covenant that Mosaic Covenant God made with Israel Israel said Bali my master We will obey you we will we will do those things so that we might have this life in the land But in the renewed relationship after they violated it and they were exiled in this when the relationship is restored They're not accepted by their obedience to him anymore. No longer is it Ba'ali, my master, but it's my husband.
It is entrusting themselves into his care and his provision and his love for them as their husband. Well, it's the same thing for us. Our relationship to God, we, by virtue of being an image bearer of God, we were to obey his law. If we had wanted hope of eternal life, we had to obey his law.
Well, every single one of us didn't. We broke that law. We violated that law. But how can we have that relationship restored?
By trying to obey the law? Again, by trying to earn and be obedient to him? No, we simply call him our husband. We trust, we entrust ourselves into in faith to his mercy and his provision of salvation from where we are at and the provision of eternal life that he offers us.
We don't earn our salvation by obedience. We simply accept it by faith. Now, that doesn't mean that we don't need to live in obedience to God's law. That's not what I'm saying here.
But remember, we're in the betrothal ceremony, the legal ceremony, where they legally become husband and wife. This is the legal part of this. In theological terms, we would say this is justification. Justification is that legal transaction whereby we become... that relationship is restored and we become united with God in this marriage, covenantal relationship here.
And then he goes on in verse 17, I will take from her mouth the names of the bales that they shall be remembered by, and they shall be remembered by their name no more.
Freedom from Bondage to Sin
So God says here, while we're talking about the bales, you know, about owners, about masters, you won't call me Ali anymore, but neither will you mention the names of the bales and remember them by their names, he says. Remember them by what their name means, master, owner. You won't be owned by them anymore. You won't be enslaved to them anymore.
I'm going to free you from the bondage that you're in. We know that's what, I didn't touch on it too much, but we know that's what happened when Israel sinned against God. They went after the gods of the nations, the foreign gods. But what happened when God said, you're not mine anymore?
And he let them over and he removed that mercy. Remember, Hosea's children were named Lo-Ruhamah, no mercy, Lo-Ammi, not my people. When God said that to Israel and God removed that protection, what happened? All those illicit lovers that she wanted, they turned on her and they enslaved her.
Assyria did that to the northern kingdom. Babylon did that with the southern kingdom. And they enslaved them, they turned on them. But God says here, no longer will you say of them, Baal, you've been freed from that.
You have been released from bondage. Well, that's what each one of us, we're enslaved to our sin. The very thing that we desired, the very thing we went after, enslaved us because of that. They turned on us as it were, but God says, I will free you from that spiritual bondage that you're in.
We're going to look again, we're going to see that in chapter 3 this afternoon in more detail.
God's Guarantee of Security
But there's one more thing God promises here in verse 18 as part of this betrothal. ceremony. He says, and that day I'll make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, birds of the air, creeping things of the ground, and bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth to make them lie down safely. So this is rooted in the creation narrative and then the dominion mandate that we find in Genesis. Now we don't necessarily have the time to to go in detail through all of this here, and do a real study on the biblical theology of these animals that are listed here, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground.
But suffice it to say, we have to understand these are creatures that all inhabit the wilderness. These are all wilderness creatures. These are all creatures that are contrary to comfortable life, to the comfortable and abundant and prosperous life that Yahweh offers to his people. We see these animals, sometimes they're referred to as lions or bears, wolves, locusts, flies, snakes, scorpions.
These are all animals that are contrary to abundant life, contrary to what God is Offering these are the animals that took over the promised land once and made it a wilderness and made it an uninhabitable place when God exiled his people out of there in verse 12 of chapter 2 we see that the the vineyards turn into just a jungle of forests and the beasts of the field will eat them and they will take over and that promised land. But God makes a promise here. He always says to them that He says, I will ensure these creatures will not harm you when you go back to live in this kingdom again. He's guaranteeing to them that nothing will come in the way of this abundant life that He offers.
Nothing can hinder that there. And he tells them that bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth and make them lie down safely. Nothing is going to be able to overcome them. Nothing is going to prevent them.
And he is guaranteeing that he will carry this plan out there. Now, again, a lot more could probably be said about this, but this is a reminder for us that when we have faith in Christ, when we have faith in Christ to save us from the situation we're in, to save us from the spiritual bondage that we are in, and we look to Christ, and we accept that offer of abundant life, and we legally become his, and we join legally as his bride, He guarantees that nothing will happen to us. Nothing can separate us from his love. That's what Paul says in Romans chapter eight.
You can see, you can turn there if you want a reminder of that. This is a good reminder for us again, especially in times when we see such wickedness around us, such evil in the world. He said, you can look at verse 38 of Romans chapter eight. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Nothing, nothing can hinder us when we believe in Christ.
When we become His, nothing can hinder us from receiving the eternal and the abundant life that He has promised to us. This is the Christian hope. This is the Christian hope. The Christian hope is not a subjective, I hope this happens, I hope that when I die that this turns out to be true.
No, the Christian hope is, this is guaranteed to you, this is what you're looking forward to. And nothing can hinder that. We're not hoping this turns out to be true, but we have absolute confidence in our God that He will not lose us, and He will bring us to this eternal and abundant life that He is promising to us. That's the beauty of understanding our God is the Creator.
There's nothing that can hinder this. Paul gives this list here in Romans chapter 8. death, life, angels, principalities, powers, the spiritual forces of wickedness. But what does he say at the end? Or any other created thing.
That's the important reminder here, that everything that exists is creature, except for our God. He's creator. And when you belong to the creator, you don't need to fear the creature, no matter how powerful the creature may seem to be. You do not need to fear Him, and God is guaranteeing that He will bring you into this abundant life that He has promised.
The Bride Price: Righteousness and Mercy
Turn back to Hosea again, verse 19. And I will betroth you to Me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, and in loving kindness and mercy. And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.
So this is the bride price. I think I failed to mention at the beginning there, but the bridegroom would pay a price to what we call redeem, redeem the bride for himself. He would pay a price. And this here is the bride price.
Yahweh, this is what Yahweh is going to give for his bride so that she can be his and she can dwell with him. he's going to purchase her for himself in, or with, is maybe a better translation, but in an act of righteousness and justice, and an act of loving kindness and mercy, and combined as this act of faithfulness, of commitment, we might say, of that faithfulness to his people, an act of righteousness, and justice, but also an act of love and mercy. Well, we know that brings us straight to the cross, doesn't it? That's the cross is where God's perfect justice was and his perfect righteousness are put on display where all the sin of his people is paid for in full. The sin has been paid for.
Remember, God said that in the day you eat, you will surely die. Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death. So if we've sinned against God, justice demands the payment be made. Well, that's what happened on the cross.
The sins of all those people were paid in full. And it's an amazing act of loving kindness and mercy. Why? Because on the cross, it was not those people paying for their sins.
It was not them hanging there. On the cross, it was He Himself paying for the sins of His people. He makes that payment to satisfy His own justice through the death of the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. When He assumed human nature upon Himself, went to that cross so that He could bear the sins of His people, and pay it in full, righteousness and justice being upheld, but loving kindness and mercy where in my place condemned he stood and sealed my pardon with his blood.
What an act of faithfulness, as it says in verse 20 here. That's how God's people are freed from the bondage of sin, and that's the payment for their redemption. And again, we're going to flesh that out more in chapter 3 this afternoon, where we really see that taking place. So, to recap, Then to where we are so far, God proposes eternal life to his people.
They come in faith. They accept that offer, that gift of eternal life. Then he betroths them to himself. He pays the bride price and he guarantees that nothing will break that relationship.
Nothing can inhibit his plans for eternal life. But then he also promises that he will consummate that relationship. He will come back. excuse me, he will come back and bring his people into his household, into his kingdom to dwell with him. That's the end of verse 20.
And you shall know the Lord, knowing the Lord. That is the way that the Hebrew Bible uses the word no to indicate intimacy of a marriage, of a marriage relationship here, the marriage bed. And that's the language being used here. But we have to understand there's nothing sexual going on here.
Let's not mix categories here. It's that intimate knowledge that man will have with Yahweh when he enters glory to be with him, when he perfectly knows Yahweh again. And he experiences God to the fullest, and he dwells with God in his household, with him forever. Then the relationship has reached its apex, and its final, and it stays there for eternity.
It is a forever relationship after that time. So God promises, this is coming. You shall know the Lord.
Consummation: Dwelling with God Forever
And then we get to the actual consummation then, verse 21. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will answer, says the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and then I will sow her for myself in the earth. So remember what I said, after the betrothal ceremony, the bride, the groom, sorry, would leave. He would go back and he would prepare his kingdom.
He would prepare his household for his bride. He would ensure that everything was in order to welcome his bride, that he had everything he promised the bride was ready. And when it was all ready, then he would go back and he would get her and he would take her home and he would bring her into his household where she would come and dwell with him forever. Well, that's what Yahweh promises to the nation of Israel here.
Remember, the land, as part of the curse, the land had become barren. It was a wilderness, but God was promising That it would be, that he would give them abundance, abundant life. And he says here, I will call out to the heavens. and the heavens are going to send rain on the earth and the earth is going to respond with with with beautiful crops of grain and and Vineyards and all of yards and you're gonna have grain and oil in abundance And and it's it's it's this glorious kingdom that I promised you and I'm he says I'm going to make it I'm going to build it for you. He's going to he's going to to have everything ready that he promised there and then you will see it, end of verse 22, and they will answer, Jezreel.
Jezreel is the Hebrew, is a name, but it means the Lord sows, the Lord plants. So the bride will see it and they will say, wow, Jezreel, the Lord. He has he's done just what he what he said He will do he's restored what we once had and we lost because of our infidelity and our unfaithfulness But he has restored it. He's given us exactly what he promised and then verse 23 a He will take you and he will plant you in in that life of abundance, that eternal abundant kingdom, he will plant you in there with him in glory.
And then he says, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy. And I will say to them, you who are not my people, you are my people. And you shall say, you are my God. This is the consummation of that relationship.
This is where, this is the end where it reaches its goal. God takes his bride and he brings them into the kingdom that he has promised. This kingdom of abundant and eternal life where they dwell with him forever and he lavishes his his love upon him, his care, and his compassion, and his nurture, and his protection. Everything that's bound up, that's all bound up in that word, mercy, that we find here.
The love of a husband for his bride, and he lavishes that upon her. He says, you once who were not my people, you once who were cut off, and I had exiled you. You are now, again, you are my people, and you have this mercy and this love. and he says, and I will plant you in the land. We go to be with God when we die.
We go to be with Him in glory. The wonder of that, the amazement. Think about that. We had totally ruined everything.
We had that at the beginning. We had the life in Eden, but we ruined it. We violated his law. Not just Adam and Eve, every single one of us has done that same thing.
We followed after the footsteps of Adam and Eve, our father, our head. Chapter 2 verse 4 indicates that actually for us, this is a bit of an aside, but in chapter 2 verse 4, I will not have mercy on her children. Hosea says to Gomer, or God says to Israel, because they are children of harlotry. The Hebrew word there does not mean they're children who've been born by harlotry, born of harlotry.
Chapter 1 verse 2 uses that language. She's going to have children who are born of harlotry. Here it is children of harlotry, meaning they're doing the same thing. Hosea's children had followed after their mother and done the same thing.
Well, that's exactly what every single one of us has done. We can't blame it on Adam and Eve. We have followed right in the same footsteps as Adam and Eve, and we have violated that law, and we have committed spiritual harlotry. We've ruined everything, but the wonder, the amazement, we can have this back.
We can have it restored, and we can have this, we have the promise that this is, that we get to go to dwell with our God and eternity, and we can say forever, you are my God. This is amazing. Eternal life, the abundance, it's coming to us, brethren. This is what we have in our future.
And this is not floating on fluffy white clouds for eternity. This is reality. This is the earth, renewed, recreated, restored, and we are planted In the earth and we get to dwell with our Savior We receive our glorified bodies back and the veil is removed and we can lay eyes upon our Savior As real as you and I are sitting here looking at each other now where we will get to see our Savior in glory in this glorious new creation heaven of the new heavens and the new earth and God and man dwelling together for eternity That's in our future. Right now, we have the glimpse through the door of hope.
We can see what's in store for us of this abundant, eternal life. Christ is gone. He's gone back to prepare a place for us. Turn to John 14.
That's where he tells us that explicitly. John chapter 14, verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself.
For where I am, there you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know.
Application
So take courage, brethren, be encouraged. We're in the betrothal stage right now. We legally, we belong to him. Legally, we are under his care and under his protection.
We have, and the relationship has been restored, but we're not yet with him, but we're going to be with him. Be encouraged. Take courage. He's not going to flake on us.
He's coming back. He's promised that he will do this. He will take us to be with him in glory. There's a day coming.
The bridegroom, he's going to arrive. He's going to arrive. The sound of trumpets. And he's going to bring his bride home to be with him.
And he's going to plant them. in the world, in the world that he is renewing, in this glorious Eden-like paradise, the veil will be removed and we will know the Lord in the eternity of bliss in his presence. Be encouraged, be excited as well, be excited. Imagine a bride, think of a bride who's betrothed to a husband. He's made the proposal of what he's gonna provide for her.
She's accepted, she's excited about this and they're betrothed and he goes away to get it all ready for her. Well, imagine the excitement, imagine the excitement of a bride like that, the love and the anticipation as she looks forward to what to receiving all this and to being with her husband when he comes for her, the excitement that she would have. Are we like that, brothers and sisters? Are we excited to know that our Christ is coming and he's coming for us and we have the anticipation of that?
Or have we lost our first love? Maybe you used to be excited. You used to be excited to serve him, but now that relationship, it feels cold maybe, and it feels kind of lifeless. Well, we know the problem's not from God's side in that relationship.
God never changes. His faithfulness never changes. It does not wax, and it does not wane. He remains faithful.
He remains loving. The problem then is with us somewhere, the coldness there. In chapter 2, we read it this morning. At the beginning, Hosea says to Gomer, he says, put away the harlotries from your sight and the adulteries between your breasts.
Put them away. There, maybe we're like Gomer. If we've lost our first love, we're like Gomer. We have something still clutched between our breasts, something that is some sort of adultery that's taken place, the place of our Savior, and we have it clutched between our breasts that we'd rather have. than him?
Are we like that? That maybe we're flirting with someone else. We're betrothed to him, but we're flirting with someone or something else other than our betrothed bridegroom, trying to find some sort of satisfaction in this lower world that might bring us some joy. But rather than bringing us joy, it sucked the joy out of our relationship with Christ, and we've lost that excitement. of belonging to the Lord.
But I hope that today we can have, again, take another glimpse through the door of hope here, and see what Christ has offered, and what he's done to guarantee that. And I hope that that encourages us, and that kindles that love again, rekindles it, or maybe fans the flames and gets it burning again, where the joy and the excitement returns there. And maybe I'll take it a step further, is that every Lord's Day, we come to meet with our maker, our husband, Every Lord's Day, and can I say this without sounding weird? Every Lord's Day is like going on a date.
Every Lord's Day, it's going on a date with our betrothed husband. The veil is still on. The relationship is not consummated yet. But we get to come.
We get to spend time with our betrothed husband. We get to come and learn more about Him and to hear from Him through the preaching of the Word as He speaks to us and as we speak to Him and we sing His praises. That's where the fire is rekindled if it's burning low. Anyone who's married here understands the importance of spending time together and going on a date where you are not distracted maybe by kids or anything like that, but you can have that time together to learn again about one another and to increase that love.
Well, that's what a church service, that's why we have church, that's why we're given the Lord's Day where we can It's a small taste of what's coming. It's a small taste of the eternal rest and glory that we have, where we get to come, we get to sing to our Lord. He speaks to us through the preaching of the word so that we can get to know him better and so that that love can be and the excitement and the joy can return and can increase. So don't neglect that means of grace.
Don't neglect that. That means that God has given for the increasing of the knowledge of our Savior growing in love. And be encouraged as well by this, brethren. Isaiah 54 verse 5, Isaiah says to the people, your maker is your husband.
The Lord of hosts is his name. And I'll flip it backwards. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He's the God of the whole earth.
Think of what he's saying here. The one that you're betrothed to is your maker. The one that has redeemed you is the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth. Be encouraged.
When you're betrothed to this one, your Creator, like the psalmist says, whom shall I fear? Whom shall I fear? As Isaiah also says to Israel, your God reigns, O Zion. Your God reigns.
Don't be alarmed. Take courage. Press on till he comes to take you home. He has guaranteed that he's going to do that.
He's guaranteed that nothing can thwart that. So be encouraged. Don't look at the evil in this world, and it's evil. We know that.
We've seen that more and more, increasingly more. Don't let that discourage you. Don't let that make you anxious and worried. Nothing can thwart God's plans.
Nothing can take you out of that relationship with Him if you are in Christ, if you're a believer in Him.
Call to the Unbeliever
But if you're not a believer here this morning, you need to listen carefully. You saw the offer. God has made the proposal again this morning. You've seen, you've been given a glimpse through the door of hope to the abundant eternal life that God can offer you.
You've seen it again. Abundant, eternal life, as opposed to what? The wilderness, barrenness, destitute of anything good. What's coming your way is the terror of eternal separation from God.
But he can rescue you from that. He's given the way. You saw the way today, clearly. It's not through serving him as master.
It's not by trying to obey his laws and try to earn his favor again by your obedience to him as your bail, your master, your owner. That's not the way. It's not through your tears. It's not through your humility.
It's not through your best attempts at keeping his law. It's simply entrusting yourself into his care and trust yourself into his protection, into his love, that he alone can and will save to the uttermost, that he will take back all those who come to him in faith. He will save them to the uttermost, all who come to God through him, through Christ. That's what faith is.
Believe in him. It's accepting that offer of eternal life as made possible by the work of Christ. And then you too, if you believe on Him, you too join this glorious kingdom. You become legally His, legally part of His household, and He will watch over you, and He will bring you then into that eternal bliss of glory with Him.
Do not delay, but believe on Him. Well, let us close there in prayer.
Closing Prayer
Father in Heaven, we are so thankful for your Word. We're so thankful for this book of Hosea that gives us the Gospel, Lord, the way of salvation. Father, we thank you for the encouragement, again, that we belong to not one God among many who may be overthrown at some time, but we belong to the Creator, our Creator. And we have nothing to fear.
Whom shall I fear? Father, I pray that this would be a time, this would be a means for the encouragement of your people here, that we would leave here excited to know, to be reminded that we belong to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, that we would be excited to meet Him in glory one day and to dwell with and at the thought of living with you, Lord, for eternity. I pray that that would spur us on and drive us on as we go through this life, as we deal with trials and heartaches and disappointments. Lord, that we would continue, we would have our eyes upon our Christ, seated in glory, and knowing that He is preparing this home for us.
And that would cause us to press on, press on through the difficulties of this life. Father, I pray that we would not be anxious by the evil that we see around us, but to know that we belong to the King of Kings. So Father, bless each one of us now, and it's in Christ's name that we pray this. Amen.