← Back to sermon library

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. 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, 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, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.