All right, Hosea chapter three,
if you look at it with me. This is the third and final message
that I've entitled Unconditional Love. I can't get away from that
title when I read this story. Unconditional Love. You could
just as well name it Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace and Unconditional
Love, the story of Hosea and Gomer. This great picture and
illustration of God's love for His people in Christ. Sending
His Son into the world to save us from our sins. We who are
so sinful and undeserving of the least of God's blessings. Brother Stan read in the study
a while ago in Lamentations chapter 3, one of my favorite verses. I can't remember the number of
the verse, but it says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we
are not consumed. And when he read that, I thought
about Gomer, because as I told you, her name, you know a lot
of these Hebrew terms, they can have different meanings, different
shades of meanings, but basically it all comes down to the same
thing, what she is. She is an adulteress, she is
a harlot, she is a spiritual adulteress and a spiritual harlot,
as well as physical. But she's a sinner. She's a sinner,
and all sin deserves death. Her name means failure, but her
name means consumption or consumed, and consumed with sin. And I
thought about that when you read that. It is of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed utterly, because by nature we are sinners.
We are consumed with sin, but God saved us from our sins. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And you think about Hosea's name,
what it means, it means savior. Just like our Lord's name, Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. This chapter
here concludes the actual history of Hosea and Gomer as a husband
and wife. And it shows Hosea pursuing his
adulterous wife, the harlot and going and getting her and buying
her back. It shows how he redeemed her,
all that a picture of how Christ pursued us. He went after his
sheep, he redeemed his sheep, all of those things. And then
in chapter four we begin Hosea the prophet's message as all
of this applies to the nation Israel and ultimately to us spiritually. But look at verse 1, here's Hosea's
pursuit of Gomer. Hosea went after Gomer. Now I
want you to notice in this, Gomer did not go after Hosea. Gomer
did not seek Hosea. Hosea was the one who went after
her. Hosea was the one who sought
after her. And that is a great picture of
how God saved us. Christ pursued us. He didn't
leave it to our own wills, our own so-called free will to pursue
Him or to wake up to Him and to go after Him. He, I love the
way Hannah put it in her prayer in 1 Samuel chapter 2. God reached
down with his sovereign, mighty, redeeming, saving hand, who is
none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the arm of the Lord,
and lifted the beggar off the dung heap. The beggar wasn't
reaching for him. The beggar, and this is us by
nature, the beggar was right at home and even boastful of
the dung heap. We see that in Philippians chapter
3 because Paul called all those things that I boasted in and
thought recommended me unto God, in light of the glory of God
in Christ and salvation by his grace, I counted all but dung.
There was a time when we boasted in that. Not only lived comfortably
there, but God reached down his hand and lifted the beggar off
the dung heap. It's what Hosea is doing to Gomer.
I've used as a sort of a base text to all of these messages
on unconditional love. The passage in the book of 1
John chapter 4 and verse 10, which says, herein is love, not
that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to
be the propitiation for our sins. That's what these first two verses
here depict. The first one here, herein is
love, not that Gomer loved Hosea, but that Hosea loved Gomer. Now,
Gomer did come to love Hosea, but it was a response to Hosea's
love for her, not the other way around. So look at Hosea's pursuit
of Gomer here. It says, Then said the Lord unto
me, Go yet, this is the command of God, and our Savior came to
this earth under the command of his Father according to the
covenant conditions and terms. He says, go yet, love a woman,
beloved of her friend. That word friend there would
be more like a companion. He's talking about her husband.
That's what he's talking about. Go yet, love a woman, beloved
of her husband. Yet an adulteress. One who doesn't
deserve the love of her husband. One who hasn't earned the love
of her husband. This is unconditional love. That's amazing love. According
to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel. Now this
is a picture of God's love to the nation Israel. And I'm going
to talk about that a little bit in just a moment. Israel who
look to other gods. Their depraved hearts, natural
heart just like ours by nature is drawn out towards other gods.
Not the true and living God. and love flagons of wine. What
that is talking about is the celebrations that revolved around
idolatry in that day. They were wine fest. So here's
Hosea. He was called on by God, commanded
by God to love and marry a woman who would prove unfaithful to
him. This love is not the love of feeling or emotion. It's the love of choice. It pictures
God's electing love. It's one whom Hosea chose to
love because God chose her. And that's the way it is in our
salvation, in our election. God chose to love his people
with an everlasting love, and commanded his son, the second
person of the Trinity, to love us, and he chose to do so, and
married us. He was betrothed to us in the
everlasting covenant of grace, just like Hosea was, Gomer was
betrothed to Hosea back here in verse two of chapter one.
when God said, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children
of whoredoms, for the land hath committed great whoredom departing
from the Lord. So he married a woman who was
unfaithful to him. She was a wife of whoredoms,
both in heart and in deed. Gomer was an actual prostitute,
in heart and in deed. She followed her own sinful nature
and sinned greatly against her husband. So there was a marriage
and then there was a separation. She left him and went after her
lovers. And now here in chapter 3, there's a reconciliation.
But it's a reconciliation that is not instigated or established
or begun by the sinner. It's a reconciliation that is
totally of the husband, Hosea. And God tells him, you go get
her. Go get her, Hosea. Don't let
her wallow in her sin and in her depravity. All of this, again,
is to illustrate in the prophet's life the love of the Lord toward
the children of Israel. And then, ultimately, to illustrate
in the prophet's life the love of the Lord towards spiritual
Israel. Now, I know that that can kind
of get a little confusing to you as you read through the prophets.
You know, when he talks about Israel, and then he talks about
Judah, we know there was the divided kingdom. And then when
he talks about a future restoration of Israel, and many times in
other passages, in other prophets, you'll see a future restoration
of Israel that's signified by the union of the two kingdoms
again, Israel and Judah. And ultimately, what he's talking
about there is spiritual Israel. But this is God's love to the
children of Israel. And I want to show you something
about that. Turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 7 with me. Now God's
purpose and love to Israel was not God's purpose and love that
intended to save every individual Israelite. Because let me tell
you something, if that was his purpose, if that was the goal
of his love, then he failed. Miserably. It's like people talking
about God so loved the world. If that's God's purpose and intent
to save every individual out of the world, then God failed
miserably. But that's not what that's talking about, you see.
God's going to save the world through a remnant. Scripture
says his people a remnant according to the election of grace and
let me tell you something God's gonna save Israel the same way
Through a remnant you see God's elect people who were chosen
before the foundation of the world in Christ, who were justified
in Him, who were redeemed by the blood of the cross, that's
made up of a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
both Jew and Gentile. And it's all unconditional love.
Look at verse 6 of Deuteronomy 7. You read this whole chapter
sometime when you get an opportunity. He says, for thou art in holy
people unto the Lord thy God. Now that word holy there does
not mean morally perfect. And this is something I'm going
to deal with in another message in these things, messages I'm
doing on salvation, about sanctification and holy. When the scripture
says, be ye holy as the Lord is holy, it's really not saying
be morally perfect. Now, hold on. Should we strive
to be morally perfect? Yes. Not to be saved, though. Not in order to establish your
own righteousness. But when it says, be ye holy,
that's not what it's talking about. Holiness is not the idea
of being morally perfect. When we say God is holy, we're
not saying God is morally perfect, even though God is perfect in
every attribute of his character. But that would be more attuned
to his righteousness, God's attribute of righteousness. Holy means
this, and get this in our minds, holy means to be separated. That's what holy means, to be
separate, to be set apart. Now certainly, if you ever found
anybody who was morally perfect, they'd be holy too, wouldn't
they? They'd certainly be set apart from us. from the whole world,
wouldn't it? That's why Christ is the holy
redeemer, the holy one of Israel. He was morally perfect, but he
was also separated in other ways. He's God and man in one person.
So he's separated in a lot. What he's saying here to Israel,
he says, when he says you're a holy people, he's not saying
you're a morally perfect people. He's saying I've separated you
out from other nations. Look over at verse one. of Deuteronomy
7. He says, when the Lord thy God
shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess
it, that's according to the promise made to Abraham now, and hath
cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, the Girgashites,
Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou.
See, God separated Israel out. He chose that nation. And it
was according to an unconditional promise given to Abraham. And
then later on, he made a covenant with them through Moses at Sinai
and established them as a nation, and that was a different covenant.
But it was all according to, originally, to the unconditional
promise that God made to Abraham for this purpose, see. And he
says, he tells them, he said, now I didn't choose you because
you were mightier than any other nations. These were seven other
nations that were greater and mightier than you. So it had
nothing to do with anything inherent in the nation Israel. Look at
verse six, for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God.
The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people.
He didn't choose them because they were special, but he chose
them to be special. How so? He was gonna make them
special. And he said unto himself, a special
people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face
of the earth, the Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose
you because you were more in number than any people, you were
the fewest of all the people. In other words, if the, and that
number there, it's not just the number, it's their strength,
it's their power, everything. In other words, it had nothing
to do with them. That's a picture of our election
in Christ. God didn't look down through
a telescope of time and foresee how good you would be or if you
would believe or not or anything like that. It was according to
his sovereign grace. And then he says, it was verse
8, he says, but because the Lord loved you and because he would
keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, Hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and
redeemed you out of the house of bondage, that's a redemption
there not by blood but by power, talking about the nation coming
out of Egypt, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. That's
unconditional love. Now, that love there is not talking
about that God intended to save every individual Israelite. That's
not the kind of redemptive love, you see, that God sets upon His
elect before the foundation of the world. But God intended to
spare that nation. Now, how's He going to do that?
Well, go back to Hosea chapter 3. He's going to do it, as Paul
wrote in Romans chapter 11, through a remnant according to the election
of grace. You remember over in Romans 11?
He made this statement. He said, the nation, they were
blinded, they didn't believe and they were blinded as a whole,
but he said a remnant, there was a remnant of God's people. And you know who they make up
along with a remnant of the Gentiles? They make up spiritual Israel.
That's how God's going to save His people. That's how He's going
to save this world. through a remnant according to the election of
grace. And he said that remnant came
to know Christ, they came to faith by the power of God, and
the rest were blinded, he said. They were blinded. That was God's
judgment. Now look at Hosea chapter 3.
You see, this is unconditional love. And here's what Hosea is
saying. Through his life and that unconditional love towards
Gomer who pictured sinners saved by the grace of God, God will
not utterly forsake his people. Now Israel was cast away, this
northern kingdom here, this northern kingdom was cast away, totally. That kingdom has never been brought
back together and I'll tell you what, I challenge anyone anyone
to prove that they're from you know they talk about well this
tribe and that tribe you know this was the ten tribes the northern
kingdom down in the southern kingdom of Judah you had the
two tribes mainly Judah and Benjamin and I will tell you something
right now there's only one person who could ever be proven from
scriptural testimony that they're from the tribe of Judah and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ Nobody over there today could prove
from their pedigree, hey, I'm from the tribe of Judah, or I'm
from the tribe of Benjamin, or I'm from the tribe of Ephraim,
or I'm from the tribe of Levi. How are you going to reinstitute
temple worship in the priesthood without being proven you're from
the tribe of Levi? You can't do it. I'm going to
tell you who the only priest is. It's not one from the tribe
of Levi. It's one who's in the order of Melchizedek, and his
name is Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the only one who has a right
to be a priest and a king, a high priest and a king. And we can
prove that from Scripture. But they're not gonna be able
to do that. That thing's been obliterated and dispersed, and
yet God has not utterly cast away his nation. Now, how's he
gonna restore the nation? Through a remnant, according
to the election of grace. Now, people can argue. Somebody
says, well, a lot of that nation, a lot of those people who are
ethnically Jews are gonna come to know Christ. That may be so. Some say it's going to be a big
number. Some say it's going to be a small number. I don't care.
I hope it's all of them. But however many it is, it's
going to be a remnant according to the election of grace. God's
going to restore the nation. Not the physical nation in a
physical land, but he's going to restore the spiritual nation.
Under one head, Christ. Now that's what Hosea talked
about back here in chapter 1, verse 10. when he said, the number
of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea. How
else are you gonna say they're as the sand of the sea? That's
numberless. A multitude which no man can
number. Which cannot be measured nor numbered, and it shall come
to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, you're
not my people, there it shall be said unto them, you're the
sons of the living God. How do you become the sons of
the living God? By grace. by the adoption of grace, by
the election of grace, by the redemption of grace, by the justification
of grace, by the regeneration of grace, all of that. John chapter
one tells us that the only ones who have the right and privilege
to be called the sons of God are those who are born from above. And those who are born from above,
they receive and submit to Christ as Lord and Savior. That's what
they do. And so it says in verse 11 of
chapter 1, then shall the children of Judah and the children of
Israel be gathered together and appoint themselves one head,
that's Christ, the one king, the one Lord, the one shepherd. You see, there's going to be
an alliance here, but it's not an alliance of Christians and
Jews. It's an alliance of all Christians, Jew and Gentile.
That's what it is. But it's not an alliance of Christians
and Jews who have rejected Christ. They're going to come under one
head, and that's Christ. And that's what Hosea typifies
here when he goes to get Gomer. Christ going to get his people,
bringing them to himself. And he does it because of his
unconditional love, his free and sovereign grace. Israel was
cast away, the northern kingdom. But God still carried forth his
plan and his promise through Judah. You remember back there
in verse 7 of chapter 1? He said, I will have mercy upon
the house of Judah. And later, Judah was cast away
after about AD 70. But not until the Messiah had
already come and done his great work. Not until Christ had already
come. So how would God's plan and purpose
ultimately be carried out? Through the remnant, according
to the election of grace. Not of works, because that cancels
out grace. but of grace, and that's through
Christ. Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. So we have a remnant of Israel
and a remnant of the Gentiles all gathered together under one
shepherd. One shepherd. Now another thing
you're gonna see here, and we'll see this more as we get through
the book of Hosea, these prophets, they were not social reformers. My friend, they called for repentance
towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what they called for. Now again, notice again, Gomer
did not seek Hosea, but Hosea sought her. Seeking the Lord
is commanded of sinners, but it's never a natural act on the
part of a sinner. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. He won't receive those things
that are freely given by God's grace. When a sinner seeks the
Lord, it's supernatural. It's a miracle of grace in and
by Christ and worked in us by the Holy Spirit who convinces
us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. You see, by
nature, we don't deserve or desire God's salvation. And there's
Gomer to prove it. And just as Hosea, in order to
save Gomer, came to where she was, that's what happened. He
had to go down. Now listen to what it says in
verse 1. Go, yet, love a woman beloved of her husband. Yet she's
an adulteress. You've got to go down where she
is. She's not going to come up where you are, Hosea. That's
the way Christ saves his people. He came down from heaven. He
left his throne in glory. That's what the song says. And
he came down to where we are. You know, the scripture says
that very plainly. That salvation can only come
from heaven. It cannot come from the earth.
And so Christ came to this earth to save us from our sins. Just like Hosea came to where
Gomer was and walked through the haunts of iniquity, the dens
of iniquity where she was. So the Son of God, in order to
save us, came into this fallen sinful world and walked in this
land of darkness. For what purpose? To save us
from our sins. Unconditional love. God sent
forth His Son. And then Christ came of His own
will into the world because He loved His people. He loved unto
the end, unto the finishing of the work. Look at verse 2 now.
Here's Hosea's redemption of Gomer. What a picture this is. In order to get his wife out
of idolatry and adultery and whoredom, you know what he had
to do? He had to pay the redemption price because Gomer had gone
so far, she was in bondage. She was in bondage. Verse 2 says,
so I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver and for a homer
of barley and a half homer of barley. Her pursuit of her lovers
brought her into bondage, slavery, and utter ruin. So the picture
here is that of Gomer, the fallen, no good, unwanted prostitute
on the slave block being auctioned off And you know, the usual price
for the slave was 30 pieces of silver, but Gomer wasn't even
worth that. It only cost him 15 pieces of
silver and then a very, very lower offering. And you see,
we've ruined ourselves. We fell in Adam, ruined by the
fall. put ourselves in Adam in bondage
to sin and to Satan and the law, walking after the lust of our
own flesh on the slave block of sin. And just as Hosea came
down and redeemed Gomer with a legal ransom price, our Lord
Jesus Christ redeemed us by the price of his own precious blood.
That's what the 30 pieces of silver represent. You know, silver
back in the Old Testament is a picture of redemption. Picture
of redemption. You remember, Gomer was under
the bondage of the law. Look back at chapter 2 and verse
2 when he says, Plead with your mother, plead. Remember what
that means? That means bring her before the court, contend
with her, and charge her. She's broken the law. She deserves
death. The wages of sin is death. She had to be redeemed. Hosea
went down to the slave market as commanded of God to redeem
her. You know what redeem means, that means to buy back by the
pain of a price. Now let me tell you something,
now look at this. Before Hosea paid the redemption
price, you know something, Gomer was already his wife. Do you
know that the wife he was to choose was exactly like the nation
of which he was a part, a fallen, sinful, idolatrous nation, and
a great picture of the Lord's elect people, spiritual Israels,
we were given to Christ. She was an adulterous wife, a
prostitute, and here she's reached the lowest point of her life,
sold into slavery. And what Gomer did is what Israel
as a nation did, and what we did in Adam and in our lives
as unregenerate unbelievers, just like that. But he paid the price. And you
know why he paid the price? Two reasons. because the law
had to be satisfied, and because he loved her. That's why he paid
the price. That's the two conditions. Has
to be one who loved her, and you see that has to be one who
can pay the redemption price. You see, that's why when we look
at God's love, it's so amazing. It is unconditional towards us,
but not towards the One who bought us. The conditions were laid
upon Him. You see, God cannot love apart
from His justice and His righteousness. He cannot do it. As I've said
so many times, He must be both a righteous judge who judges
according to truth and rightfully, as well as a loving Father. So
what happened? Well, his love provided what
his justice demanded. Where? In the person and work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it is unconditional to
us, and it's all a gift. That's what Hosea was giving
Gomer right here, a gift. Do you realize that all blessings
from God, all blessings that He gives to His people are the
gifts of His grace? Unconditional love. Everything
we have. Blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved,
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Romans 5 speaks
of the gift of righteousness. We don't establish it or earn
it or work it out. It's in Christ. He is our righteousness. He himself is the gift of God
to his people. And if God gave his only begotten
son to his people, how shall he not with him freely give us
all things? That's amazing grace. That's
unconditional love. Remember he stood and talked
to the woman at the well and he asked her this question. He
said, if you knew the gift of God, then you'd see that water. If
you just knew the gift of God, it's a gift. Salvation, Paul
wrote of in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. Amazing love. And let me tell you something.
Here's something. You know, Hosea did not purchase
gifts for Gomer. He didn't do that. He'd been
giving her gifts all along. You remember that? You remember
when she talked about, I will go after my lovers that give
me bread and water and wool and flax and oil and drink? But Hosea
was the one who'd been giving those to her. He'd been giving
her gifts all along. He didn't purchase the gifts. You know
what he did? He purchased her. And that's what Christ did for
us. He didn't buy gifts for us. He'd been giving us gifts. That
salvation was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
What did He do when He paid the purchase price? He purchased
us, His people. Unconditional love. Just like it says in verse 2,
so I bought her to me. I bought her for me. He didn't
buy us for the world. He didn't buy us from the devil.
You know, some people actually believe that the blood of Christ
paid the devil his dues so he could have, no sir. The price
was a redemption price to the justice of almighty God. Devil
owns nothing. Anything he thinks he owns is
just what the Bible calls usurping. He didn't purchase us from anyone. And he purchased from the justice
of God, and he purchased us for himself, that he might have a
peculiar, purchased, holy people, separated people unto himself
for his glory and by his grace. But you see, Gomer, she had all
these gifts, but she couldn't really enjoy the gifts because
she was a slave. Her fall had brought her into
bondage. Justice had a claim on her. And just like the price
for a slave was 30 shekels of silver, Hosea only paid 15 and
then a poor ration. But my friend, what did it take
to redeem us from our sins eternally? It took the blood, the precious
blood of Christ. You see, He wasn't on that cross
to buy something for us. He was on that cross to buy us. You see, this is the issue. Christ hanged on that cross to
redeem his bride. Gomer's unfaithfulness and sin
didn't end her marriage. Did you notice that? She was
already married. And our fallen Adam did not change
the everlasting covenant of grace. We belong to God all this time. Did you know that? Throughout
eternity. Loved of God with an everlasting
love. I was listening to a message
by Brother Shepard on this and he made these three points. He
said, here's three ways we belong to God. Number one, by creation.
We belong to God by creation. He created us. And I would also
apply that to the church. That's what Ephesians 2 and verse
10 means. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. That's the new creation. That's
his church. And secondly, we belong to Christ
because the Father gave us to him. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will
know why it's cast out. And thirdly, we belong to Christ
because he redeemed us. Hosea loved Gomer because God
commanded him to do so. And that's why we're to love
those whom God commands us to love. Look over at Jeremiah.
Turn over to Jeremiah chapter 31. And look at verse 11, I believe
it is. Jeremiah 31 and verse 11. Look
at verse 10, let's read verse 10 and 11. Jeremiah 31. He said,
hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the
isles afar off and say, he that scattered Israel will gather
him and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock, for the Lord
hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that
was stronger than he. That's what happened when Christ
redeemed us. Redeemed without money, but by
His blood. Israel as a nation was redeemed
by power when God brought them out of Egypt. Later on, they're
going to be redeemed by power again when God brings Judah out
of Babylon. But my friend, those who are
God's children forever and ever, spiritual Israel, both Jew and
Gentile, they're redeemed by both power and blood. The blood
of the Lamb of God. And for what purpose? That we
might receive the adoption of sons. So God will not utterly
cast His people away. He said, back here in Hosea 3,
He said, I bought her for Me. Christ bought us for Himself.
He says in verse 3, look here. Here's His possession of Gomer.
And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for Me, or with Me for
many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot,
thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee. You're for me and I'm for you.
That's what he says. We sing that song, I am my beloved's
and he is mine. I am his and he is mine. He takes
possession of Gomer because Gomer is his wife and belongs to him
even though she sinned and deserves damnation, deserves death. That's
what Christ does for his people when he sends his spirit to give
us life and bring us to himself. He takes possession of us. He
redeemed us. We were already betrothed to
him in the everlasting covenant of grace. But he said it, I quoted
it earlier, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast down. He says, you abide for me and
with me for many days. You won't play the harlot. He's
gonna turn us from our idolatry, from our spiritual adultery,
from dead works to himself. And by his redeeming grace and
mercy, not only are we for him, but he is for us all eternity. There's our security. Do you
know that right there? He said, I will be also for thee.
That's Gomer's security right there. And that's our security
in Christ. Love with an everlasting love.
Well, the last two verses is a spiritual lesson for Israel,
and it carries us on into the rest of the book, but let me
just read it. He says, for the children of Israel shall abide
many days without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice,
without an image, without an ephod, without teraphim. Because
of their sin, they're gonna be destitute. They're not gonna
have anything that they can have confidence in. Like Micaiah's
prophecy to the wicked king Ahab, when he said, I saw all Israel
scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd. You
know, in the time of our Savior's sojourn on earth, what did Israel
say? They said, we will not have this
man to rule over us. They won't have a king. At the
time of his arrival in the flesh, Israel was a conquered nation,
a destitute people ruled by religious and political corruption, religiously
impoverished, didn't have a sacrifice. That's a reference to their spiritual
worship and Israel was unable to have spiritual worship according
to the law of God. They didn't have the Ark of the
Covenant. They didn't have a priesthood to carry, you know, the priesthood
at the time of our Lord's arrival here on earth, and even before
that was a political thing, controlled by the Sadducees, not by the
tribe of Levi. No genealogy by which to establish
the line of Levi. In fact, as I said, the only
person who has a right to the title of high priest in Israel
today is the Lord Jesus Christ, after the order of Melchizedek. But they were also to be deprived
of the things of idolatry, it says here. These things like
the image and the tariff and the ephod, these things associated
with idolatry. Israel would be left totally
destitute and without anything to guide them spiritually or
any of the idolatry associated with Baal worship, destitute.
And so he says in verse five, afterwards shall the children
of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their
king and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter
days. What he's talking about is a remnant of Israel will be
gathered together under Christ. And that remnant will be gathered
together with a remnant of the Gentiles. This is the prospects. This is the ultimate fulfillment
of prophecy through that remnant according to the election of
grace. They will turn to the Lord. They'll
seek the Lord their God. And David their king. Who's that
talking about? That's talking about Christ, the son of David,
who came according to the flesh of the seed of David. That's
the ultimate David. the perfect, eternal David, according
to the royal covenant that God made with David, who would reign
from everlasting to everlasting, not on an earthly throne, but
a heavenly, the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who follow him shall
fear the Lord. They'll worship God and his goodness
in the latter days. Ultimately, when it all comes
to its finality, however it's going to get there, That's what's
going to happen. There's a remnant out of the
Jews and out of the Gentiles that are going to come to Christ
and believe in Him.