Well, let me add my welcome to
Marx. It's good to see you here this morning, and especially
our guests. We're glad to have you with us,
and pray the Lord will bless us. We're going to be looking
again in the book, The Prophecy of Hosea. So if you would turn
to Chapter 2. And I've titled this message,
The People of God. And you'll see in a minute why
I've chosen this title. And in developing this lesson,
Saw that I wasn't gonna be able to get it all in one message.
So this is part one of a two-part message from Hosea chapter 2
title the people of God God made this promise to Abraham
in Genesis chapter 22 in verse 17 He says this that in blessing
I will bless thee I And in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore.
And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemy." In actuality,
God made two promises here to Abraham. The first one was to
multiply his physical seed innumerably. Who can number the sand of the
sea or the stars of the heaven? God had said before in Genesis
chapter 17 verse 5, Abraham, a father of many nations, have
I made thee. Out of that number of which no
man can number, a remnant, according to the election of grace, shall
possess the gate of his enemies. Who's he talking about here?
This second promise was to remove the guilt and defilement and
ultimately to destroy the presence and influence of Satan over his
people. We know that at the cross, Jesus
removed the guilt in condemning power through his death on the
cross, but he will ultimately destroy Satan's power over us
to influence us in any way. That's how he will possess the
gate of his enemy, which is Satan. It is Christ who will determine
over whom Satan's power and influence would reign based on his finished
work to redeem his people. You remember what Jesus said
in John chapter 6 in verse 39. Of all that God hath given me,
the Father hath given me, I should lose nothing. So what about this
promise that God made Abraham? Well, we know that it's sure
and certain based on the one that made the promise. And it
is to him to whom the Father assigned the accomplishment of
this promise. This promise is such, think about
this, that if it were possible that one of those promises, this
possession, should fail to own it, it would undo everything
said and done and everything yet promised by God to be done. Satan would possess his own gate,
not Christ, if this promise could fail in any degree. But everything
God is and will, do yet pivots on this promise fulfilled he
made to Christ. His glory, Christ's preeminence,
and our salvation is inseparably connected to his promise. And
every sinner for whom Christ died shall, as Paul wrote in
2 Corinthians, behold his glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
Not one person for whom Christ died shall fail to behold the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And in the second chapter
of Hosea here, we see how this promise is executed in type.
We have a picture of how God's going to do everything that he
promised to do. God truly does work in mysterious
ways his wonders to perform. And the wonder of all wonders
is how a holy and righteous God can justify an ungodly sinner
like me and still remain just when he does it. How can an ungodly
gomer, that we'll see in a moment, how can she receive the benefits
and blessings of a righteous and holy God? Well, the answer
is simple. God so loved the world he gave
his only begotten son that Gomer might have everlasting life and
believe. And every one of us who are Gomers
can enjoy the same blessings of a holy God. God's love is
such that it provides what his holiness and justice demands.
He so loved Gomer and the gomers of this world, that he sent Christ
to accomplish everything all the gomers of this world need
and will presently and individually reveal those needs satisfied
by Christ to every gomer for whom he died. Jesus said this,
I have manifested thy name, Father, unto the men that thou gavest
me. Everyone that God has given to Christ shall have his name
manifested unto them. So we see these truths unfolded
in the life of Gomer, which is a type of the church redeemed.
In the previous message, I talked about Gomer, a type of the church
fallen. But here, God is speaking of
Gomer as a type of the church redeemed. And she experienced
what all that remnant, according to the election of grace, received. In her example, God shows us
why election truly is of grace. In Hosea chapter 2 in verse 23,
God makes this statement, thou art my people. Well, who are
the people of God? What distinguishes the people
of God from the world? Am I one of God's people? How
can I know? I submit three evidences from
Hosea's prophecy here that will help us to understand the answers
to these questions. The people of God. The people
of God are exercised, first of all, by the chastening of the
Lord. Has God chastened you? Are you
being chastened by the Lord? This is an evidence of the people
of God. Secondly, the people of God are
extended to comforts of the Lord. He chastens us, but then he comforts
us. Have you received the comforts
of the Lord? Thirdly, the people of God are engaged in covenant
with the Lord. So we're gonna look at these
evidences this morning, at least the first two, and we'll look
at the third one at a later date. So let's look at, first of all,
the people of God are exercised by the chastening of the Lord. The question comes to mind, how
can chastening, which according to Hebrews 12 and verse 11, for
the present seemeth not to be joyous, but grievous. Why is
it such? It always, how is it beneficial
to God's people? The latter part of this tells
us, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness
to them that are chastened thereby, or exercised thereby. Chastening is an exercise which
yields that peace established, which is based on righteousness
imputed and established. It identifies those who are the
sons of God. The scripture says, for whom
the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son. And
he also says, if you be without chastisement, whereof all are
partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. The peaceable fruit
of righteousness is an assurance of sonship with the Father, based
on Romans 5.25. Romans 5 and verse 5, where the
writer Paul says, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which
is given unto us. The Holy Spirit's presence in
our lives is evidence that Christ, our peace, has made satisfaction
to law and justice. The scripture says that he came
and made peace through the blood of his cross. So God uses Israel
here as an illustration or a pattern of his exercise in chastening.
And that's what I want us to look at here for a few moments.
You know the story. God chose the Hebrew nation and
made a covenant with him to be their God. And he said, you'll
be my people. And we know the story of their
sojourn in Egypt, 420 years or 440. I don't remember one or
the other. and God's miraculous deliverance
out of the bondage of Egypt for this people, and their 40 years
of chastisement in the wilderness of sin. Because of unbelief,
most of those who experienced the exodus from Egypt perished
in the wilderness, and God raised up another generation that would
possess the land that he had promised to the nation Israel.
But the story doesn't change there. We know that though the
generation that inherited and possessed the promised land were
just as rebellious as the generations before them, and though they
possessed the promised land, they refused to enter into the
rest of God, which is Christ himself. They being a part of
that number which no man can number, perished in unbelief
as most of Israel did. But the people of his seed, You
remember the promise God said, and thy seed shall possess the
gate of his enemies. That seed is Christ and those
that are in Christ, which includes the church, both Jew and Gentile. This remnant, according to the
election of grace, they do own and possess the rest of God.
They have entered into God's rest and they see that their
hope is in Christ alone and nowhere else. They see that rest bought
and paid for by the precious blood of God's dear son and freely
imputed to all for whom he died. The problem is that even the
elect of God, by nature, I didn't know that that rest
was mine for many years. And God has to show us that he
has provided a rest for his people. They lack a wilderness experience.
I lack the wilderness experience to teach me that God in Christ
is my hope and my rest. So in Hosea chapter two in verse
14, we're gonna look at this in just a minute. God begins
to show his work through chastening to reveal the children of the
seed, which is his church. And how does he accomplish this
transformation? Look at Hebrews two. with me at Hebrews chapter
two, verses two and three. We've looked at this before,
but I need to go over this to refresh your memory about God's
commandment to the nation of Israel. Listen to what he says
in verse two of chapter two. Let her put away her whoredoms
out of her sight and her adulterers from between her breasts, lest
I strip her naked as in the day she was born and make her as
a wilderness and set her like a dry land and slay her with
thirst. God's commandment to all is to
put away your whoredoms. He can't command anything less
than that. A holy God can't command anything less than holiness from
his people. So he says, put away your whoredoms.
And for those who refuse, God leaves them to themselves to
perish in their unbelief. But the objects of his love,
now that's another story. God says, you put them away or
I'll take them from you. And we thank God that he does,
little by little, day by day, he takes these things that rival
Christ and his righteousness imputed from us, those things
that we think, even as justified sinners, we find ourselves falling
into thinking things and saying things that are not true about
God. And God commands us to put these
things away. And if we don't do it, he takes
them from us. His procedure to accomplish this is spelled out
in Hosea chapter two, verses nine and 13. And we talked about
this the last time. So I'll just say that on this
taking away and the chasing of us, that he likens this to a
wilderness experience. And look at Hosea chapter two
in verse 14 now, and we'll look at our scripture here. Therefore,
behold, God says, I will allure her, Gomer. the church. I will allure her and bring her
into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her. God calls
chastening a wilderness experience. A wilderness we know is a barren
place without life. It won't sustain life. It's a
place of death. It's a place where God brought
the children of Israel out of Egypt into a wilderness. to chastise
them for their unbelief and to make them ready, a people, to
possess the promised land, his rest, Christ. So we can see from
this that even the lives of all of us by nature is a spiritual
wilderness. Paul said this, that is in my
flesh. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. We are all dead in trespasses
and sin. We are truly in a wilderness
before God saves us. Israel left Egypt, if you remember,
with nothing but the clothes on their back and a few possessions
that They borrowed from the Egyptians, is the word the scripture used.
The Egyptians were glad to give them the gold and the silver
to get them out of their way because they wanted them out
of Egypt. But they left with nothing but
the clothes on their back and the herds and the flocks of sheep
and goats and things that they had to make sacrifices to God.
And during that 40 year in the wilderness, their clothes gave
not away to age. They wore the same sandals for
40 years. The clothes didn't deteriorate.
God supplied them with manna from heaven and water from the
rock. And though God provided their
physical needs, most of them died in unbelief, a spiritual
and a physical death. They failed to see in the law
of Moses the types in the sacrificial system the pictures in the shadows
of him that was to come and put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself or his people. In other words, they would not
put away their whoredoms. They insisted on being justified
by something they did and not by what the law and the tabernacle
and the priesthood and all that pictured and typified the Lord
Jesus Christ and his work of redemption for his people. They
would not put away their whoredoms. They've insisted on justification
by works. And what does Paul write in Romans
320? Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. The law can only reveal our sin
and curse us in it. It cannot propitiate for sin. That's the work of Christ alone.
And that's what God does in chastisement. He takes these things away that
we desire to hold on to and points us to Christ and show us that
he's our only hope. And that he leaves his children
with nothing of which to boast before him based on anything
they do except the Lord Jesus Christ and his word. Hosea chapter
two in verse three describes a nation in Israel which perished
in the wilderness because she would not put away her hoarder. She was stripped naked. Lest
I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born,
and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land,
and slay her with thirst. That's what God said. He stripped
her naked. In other words, all her works, all of Israel's works,
all of Gomer's works, all of my works, before justification
in life, was aimed at meeting God's standard based on something
that I could do. And God stripped me of that just
like he stripped Gomer of that. All her works of the law she
thought would recommend her to God were rejected by God. And her house built on the sand
fell like all houses built on the sand do. Israel was as a
wilderness without life and unable to produce life or sustain life. Gomer had nothing to recommend
her to God and no way to produce. what she needed. He said, I'll
strip her naked and set her in the day she was born like a baby.
What can a baby offer? Nothing. He can only receive.
A baby can offer nothing. And that's the way we are. We're
helpless to please God based on anything we can offer to God. We're like that wilderness. Therefore, God set her forth
as a dry land and slew her. with thirst. Think about this. He who was a well springing up
into everlasting life left Israel, for the most part, to reap the
wages of sin, which is eternal death. But, Romans chapter 11
verse 5 says this, even so then, at this present time also, in
other words, as there was then, so there is today, there was
that there is a remnant according to the election of grace. There
is a people of God who will escape the wrath of God and the end
that Israel found themselves in. Though rebellious as was
Israel and deserving of God's wrath as was Israel, the elect
are loved of the Lord and ordained to eternal life. They too That
includes us, who are God's elect. We're brought into the wilderness
and stripped of our whoredoms, thinking that something we do,
or are unable to do, or something God does in us, recommends us
to God. We've been given a covering,
a royal robe of righteousness that satisfies God's demands
against us. It's a covering of God's choosing.
It's not our righteousness, it's his righteousness. And he made
us willing to receive, to lay aside our filthy rags of righteousness
and receive his, and thereby escape the wrath of God. What is chastening to the elect
of God is a condemnation and judgment upon those who reject
and are rejected of God. So this wilderness experience
that we all go through at times from time to time, they're never
pleasant, but they're necessary to those whom the Lord loves.
They are beneficial because they always strip the center of those
legal desires he must let go and yield the peaceable fruit
of righteousness to those that are exercised that way. Chastisement
always leads us to look and to lean on Christ and his righteousness
alone for all our acceptance before God. It yields. that righteous fruit of peace,
which is the only real peace. So God's people are exercised
by the chastening of the Lord. Secondly, God's people are extended
the comforts of the Lord. Look back at Hosea chapter two
in verse 14. He says, therefore, behold, I
will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak
comfortably to her. I thought about this as I was
studying a lure. A lure is an object that appeals
to the senses of its intended victim and is sometimes detrimental
to its victim. And we're all influenced by lures. Every commercial, every billboard,
every newspaper, every TV commercial is focused on encouraging us
to some product. to try some product. And a lot
of times these products are inferior. How to tell the best from the
worst becomes a priority. And we're bombarded on every
side from that. And especially in spiritual matters, how do
you tell what's the real McCoy? Because Satan is also a tempter. Remember, he's the liar and the
father of all liars. and many come to his advertising. But the word allure in the Hebrew
is a word that means to persuade by conclusive facts of truth. And that's what God does for
us, for his people. God allures his people with the
truth. Second Thessalonians chapter two and verse 13 says this concerning
the truth. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. God has set apart a people
unto the truth. This truth is specific. None
of us will ever know all truth, but all of us who are people
of God will know one truth, and that's how God can be just and
justify the ungodly. The psalmist knew it. The Psalmist
knew this truth. Look at Psalm 85 verse 10. What
is that truth that every justified sinner will know? He'll know
how mercy and truth are met together. And he'll know how righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. How can this be? How can unholiness
be invited in by holiness? That's the question that the
scriptures, the gospel answers. And the answer to this question
is the most profound. It's the most misunderstood.
Most people don't even know what the question is, let alone what
the answer. And yet it's the most comforting to those whom this truth is revealed. Well, look with me at Isaiah
chapter 40 in verse 1 and 2 and see what this Truth is that mercy
and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. In Isaiah chapter 40, verses one and two,
the prophet Isaiah wrote these words. Comfort ye. God speaking
through Isaiah says, comfort ye. Comfort ye my people, saith
your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sin. Three ways here that God identifies
and comforts his people. He shows, first of all, that
her warfare is accomplished. How is this so? Jesus said, come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of
spirit, and you will find rest for your soul. My warfare is accomplished. My
struggle to be accepted before a holy God is ended. For 50 years,
I sought to be accepted before God based on my works, based
on my warfare against Satan and the wiles of the devil. God showed
me that I have an unchangeable standing based on what Christ
has done for me and Christ alone. It's fixed and it cannot be moved. God has justified me based on
the union of mercy and truth and that by the cross. That's
where justice and mercy and truth met at the cross. John chapter
one, verse 17 says this, for the law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The law demands death
where the least transgression is charged. Mercy satisfied that
demand in the Lord Jesus Christ, the person of the God-man, who
according to 1 Peter 2 and verse 24, in his own self, bear our
sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should
live under righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. Righteousness
and peace with God kissed at the cross when both were established
by Christ's death, which made it right. for God to justify
the ungodly. Mercy and truth meet only in
Christ. He is our mercy seat. He is our
perpetuation. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. Mercy and truth. He is the Lord,
our righteousness. He is our peace. He accomplished
our warfare. So my question to you, is your
warfare accomplished? Or do you still struggle? Are
you still trying to appease a holy and righteous God based on works
that you do. I remember as an eight-year-old
child the time of day and what I was doing when the announcement
came that the Imperial Japanese Army surrendered to the Allied
forces on August the 15th, 1945. Now, most of you might not remember
that. A lot of you don't because you
wasn't even born. I remember that day, and the
reason I remember it, because I was an eight-year-old, and
they kept talking about the Japanese might invade the homeland, and
it scared me. And I was glad to hear that the
war had ended. But, you know, a greater news
came to me about how Christ had ended the warfare for me against
Satan. I don't have to fight that battle
anymore. We don't have to fight it. It's been won. And I can
do, as Paul admonishes us in Ephesians chapter 6, 11, put
on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil. We fight a battle, but the war
is ended. Christ is the victor of the war.
We fight a battle daily when we stand against the wiles of
the devil. Though the warfare is accomplished, we fight the
good fight of faith. We fight from victory, not for
the victory. That belongs to Christ. The cry
from this pulpit right here is, tell Jerusalem her warfare is
accomplished. That's what we preach. That's
what you hear from this pulpit. How is it accomplished? Well,
look at Luke chapter nine in verse 30, in verse 31. This is the story of Jesus on
the matter of transfiguration with several of his disciples.
And he says, and behold, there talked with him two men, which
were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spake of his decrease,
which he should accomplish in Jerusalem. How can a decrease
accomplish anything? Well, Jesus would, as Daniel
chapter nine in verse 24 prophesied, finish the transgression. and
make an end of sins and make reconciliation for the iniquity
and to bring in everlasting righteousness and seal up the vision and the
prophecy and anoint the most holy. Our warfare is ended. Jesus accomplished
that by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the
dead and his ascension to the right hand of the father. So
tell Jerusalem her warfare is accomplished. This is comforting
news. as it was to that Japanese soldier. You remember that story? 29 years
after the war ended in 1945, there was a Japanese soldier
and his company who had been preparing and readying for war
for 29 years after the war ended and he finally got the news that
the war ended. And I thought, you know, I was
in false religion. preparing, fighting for 50 years
before God told me, showed me that my warfare has ended. I
don't have to fight that war anymore. So tell Jerusalem that
her warfare is accomplished. Secondly, tell Jerusalem that
her iniquity is pardoned. This is the second way that we
speak comfort to God's people. Based on the satisfaction Christ
made the law and justice by his death on the cross, righteousness
is established. and peace is made between God
and man. And God's people are comforted
when they learn of this accomplishment, like I did. This is accomplished
in us when we see how God is not only just, but he's holy
and righteous, and when he justifies ungodly sinners, such as we are.
We have peace with God when we see our iniquity pardoned by
the blood of Christ. It is here. Righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. You know, a kiss is a consummation
of the union of a couple in marriage. Righteousness and peace, the
scripture says, kissed each other. It's not a one-way deal. You
don't have righteousness without peace. You don't have peace without
righteousness. They come together. Based on
Christ accomplishing righteousness and peace, Christ's bride, the
church, which Hosea 2.19 says, is that people, I will be truth
to myself forever in righteousness. They will kiss the sun. Look
at Psalm chapter two and verse 12. The church, where righteousness
and peace have kissed each other, the church will kiss the sun
lest he be angry and we perish from the way when his wrath is
kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. Our iniquity is pardoned, and
we see it in our engagement to Christ, our bridegroom. So, tell
Israel thirdly that she has received of the Lord's hand double for
all her iniquity, all her sins. Not only is her sin pardoned,
it is put away. So complete is the sinner's forgiveness
by the embrace of righteousness and peace that no one can lay
anything to the charge of God's elect. Christ's death so put
away sin that pardon from the penalty of and purification from
the pollution of sin is complete in Christ. We cannot be charged
with either. Christ has already paid the debt.
A good illustration of this is when Jesus washed the feet of
the disciples. You remember Peter's response,
Lord, you're not gonna wash my feet. What was Christ's response? Peter, if I don't wash your feet,
you have no part with me. And Peter said, Lord will wash
me all over then. He said, you don't need to be washed all over.
You're clean, but you need your feet washed. And of course, this
is a picture of the purification, the daily
purification and cleansing of the sinner. It was given those
in Christ Jesus before the world began purification from the pollution
of sin is an ongoing process. We're only purged, our sins have
only been purged, can only be purged one time. And that took
place at the cross. But daily cleansing and the purification
of our sin is something that goes on daily. The old song,
rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee, let the
water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be
of sin the double cure. save from wrath and make me pure.
That water, that blood, is to purge us of our sin. That water
is to cleanse us daily from the pollution of our sin. Let the
water and the blood from thy wounded side which probe be of
sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure. What
a comfort to know that my warfare is accomplished, my iniquity
is pardoned, and I have received from the Lord's hand double pardon,
and purification. Well, these are not the benefits
of the lost, the non-elect, and neither are the gifts which God
bestowed upon his elect. Look at Hosea chapter 2 and verse
15. These are some of the benefits
of God's people. He says, I will give her her
vineyards from thins. You know, God took away everything
Gomer had. We read about that in verses
9 through 13 in our last lesson. He says here, he gave her her
vineyards. She had no vineyards before.
The vineyards that she had was that of her lovers, her idols. But he said, I've given her her
vineyards. And notice the word plural, vineyards,
many. What is a vineyard? That's where
you get wine. What is wine a symbol of in the
scripture? the Holy Spirit. Christ called the Holy Spirit
the Comforter in John 14, 6. And Paul wrote, be not drunk
with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.
So what God is alluding here to is that he has given Gomer
the gift of the Holy Spirit without measure and plenty. And the scripture says you don't
put new wine in old wineskins. In other words, the Holy Spirit
cannot indwell only those who are in Christ
Jesus, a new creature. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. So the Holy Spirit is given to
all those who are born again of the Spirit of God. And God's
first visit to his people is with the Holy Spirit, which will
guide us into all truth. Secondly, he gave her the valley
of Acre. I will give her her vineyards
from thence and the valley of Acre for a door of hope. What's
he talking about here? If you remember the story of
the Israel entering into the promised land, they took the
city of Jericho. In seven days, they marched around
it and the wall fell down. And then they went to the little
city of Ai. And they fought a battle there.
and they got themselves whipped pretty good because one man,
Achan, took of the spoil and he hid it in his tent. And so
God's wrath was kindled against Israel because of that. And God
told Joshua, destroy Achan, his family, his wife, his children,
his herds, his flocks, everything, burn it. So Achan's whole family
suffered for the retribution of his idolatry. And it reminds
me of a verse over in Romans, by the offense of one, Achan,
judgment came upon all Israel to condemnation. By the offense
of one, Achan, judgment came upon all Israel to condemnation.
Therefore, by the obedience of one, the obedience of Joshua
in executing God's wrath against Achan, many in Israel were spared. And
you know, this is the way we are. Gomer, the church, is guilty
of the sin of Achan. You and I are guilty of the sin
of Achan. God's elect have taken the spoils
of war Christ conquered by his death and hid them in our tents,
in our hearts. These are stripped from us by
God's chastening. What was potentially for Israel
a valley of death became a valley of acorn with a door of hope,
an escape from God's wrath. When law and justice were satisfied,
when Joshua executed law and justice against Achan, God spared
Israel. Well, we know that's what happened
to us when God punished Christ for our sins, we were We were
spared from the certain death that comes from breaking God's
law. The wages of sin truly is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. We took the spoils of AI and Christ died for us. And then
it says he gave Gomer a door. A door has two functions. It
shuts in and it shuts out. In other words, it opens the
way to God. Jesus said, I am the door. of the sheep. And it
shuts the sinner into God. Of all that thou gavest me, Christ
said, I've lost nothing. Christ is both. I am the door,
he said. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved, and he shall go in and out and find pasture. And then he gave her hope. Look
at verse 15. And I will give her her vineyards
from thence and the valley of Acre for a door of hope. Now,
what is this hope? It's not a wish, it's not a prayer,
it's not a vain presumption, but a certain expectation of
and a firm belief in final glory in heaven based on nothing but
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ received
by faith. Our hope is built on this and
nothing else. And he gave her a song, verse
15. What is the song? It's the song
of the redeemed. Revelation 5, 9, and they sung
a new song saying, thou art worthy, O Lord. And then last of all,
he gave her a husband. Look at verse 16, 17. It shall
be in that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi,
and shalt call me no more Bailey, for I will take away the names
of Bailey out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered
by their name. Every blessing. God bestowed
upon Gomer, she attributed to her lovers, for their mother
hath played the harlot. She that hath conceived them
hath done shamefully, for she said, I will go after my lovers,
that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flags,
mine oil and my drink. of the God who is both just and
justifier and is love for and passion and provision for his
people, Gomer automatically attributed the blessings that the true and
living God was giving her to her idols. But God takes away
those things from us, little by little, day by day. And he
shows us that we have a husband, someone who loves us in spite
of our idolatry. And in the day of his power,
God makes us willing to acknowledge and confess and repent of forsaking
him for our lovers, our gods. The truly justified sinner shall
have no other gods before him. He literally and truly does change
God. It is this absolute conviction
that Christ, righteousness imputed, is the sum and substance of all
my justification before God and my willingness to give him all
the praise and glory for that glorious work of redemption he
accomplished in me in all his delay. It is here we find comfort
and nowhere else. Look with me at 2 Corinthians
1. Paul writes to the church at
heart, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies, and the God of all comforts, who comforted
us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. Where do you find your comfort?
Is it in a finished work or is it in a fatal walk? One more verse. Look at Isaiah
chapter 65 and verse 10. To the people of God alone he
extends his comfort. To them alone is the gospel comforting. Only those stripped need or want
free grace. Isaiah 65, 10. And Sharon shall
be a fold of flocks, a lot of flocks, and the Valley of Acre,
a place for the herds to lie down, for my people that have
sought me. Well, my prayer for us is that
we might lie down in the Valley of Acre, where law and justice
has been satisfied, being comforted with the comfort whereby God's
people are comforted. The people of God are exercised
by the chastening of the Lord. The people of God are extended
the comforts of the Lord. And next time we'll see how the
people of God are engaged in covenant with the Lord. May the
Lord enable us to see and receive his chastening and comforts as
gifts from a loving father upon his people. Mark, come and lead
us in the closing hymn.