I want us to turn to Hosea chapter
3. Hosea is relatively easy to find. The big books of the Old Testament
are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea is the next one
along. So turn with me. There is a verse that captures
the essence of this book of Hosea, and it's in Hosea chapter 3 verse
1. Then said the Lord unto me, Go
yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress
according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel
who look to other gods and love flagons of wine. This is, according
to the scriptures, this is a description of the love of God. The love
of God to all the children, the spiritual children of Israel. This is his love towards these
children. We just sang it there about the
love of God. Why does God love his people? He loves them because he loves
them. That's the only answer the Bible gives. He doesn't love
them because of what's in them, he loves them because of what's
put in them. It says, the Lord did not set his love, this is
Deuteronomy 7, 7, the Lord did not set his love upon you, nor
choose you because you were more in number than any people, for
you were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you. and because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, as the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of
the bondman and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So
in this story I want us to see in Hosea these first three chapters
and I'm only going to look very briefly and I trust you will
go away and say I wish you'd said this and I wish you'd said
that and that verse is amazing and you go and read the rest
of the book and you'll find it delightful. But in this particular book we
actually see that the cause of the love of God is in him and
not in us and we see the covenant love and we see electing love
and we see gracious love and we see revealing love and we
see redeeming love and we see rebuking love, we see preserving
love and we see effectual love. Our God says he cannot fail. And yet the characteristic that's
presented before people in this world is that God loves everyone.
And yet that love doesn't secure their salvation. I want to be
loved better than that. And I'm so thankful that the
love of God in the scriptures is so, so different to the love
of God that men have made for themselves in their idolatrous. That's what the Watflagons of
wine are about, aren't they? It's about the idolatry that
comes. It's drinking the wine of the
fornication of the adulterers of the harlot of Babylon. So let's go and look at these
verses. I want us to see first the choosing of the bride and
I want us to then look at the fall of the bride and we'll look
at the bride brought low and the bride bought by redemption
and the bride restored. So I just want us to look at
those things and obviously we'll be brief. And there'll be plenty
of time for more preaching on the love of God when we're finished.
And there'll be plenty of time for you to find wonderful things
in the book of Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, verse
two of chapter one, in the beginning of the word of the Lord to Hosea,
the Lord said to Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of Hordoms and
children of Hordoms, for the land has committed great Hordom
departing from the Lord. What an extraordinary command
to a prophet of God who walked in righteousness and brought
the word of God to the people through all of that period that
you can read about in chapter one. You go to a land, Hosea,
you go to a land of great and open evil and sin. You go to that people and you
choose a bride from that people and you love her. You love her,
and you marry her, and you bring up children by her. And what's
the first three sentences? So he went and took Goma, the
daughter of Diblam, which conceived and bare him a son. You go to
this land. You go amongst those people.
And this is exactly what the Lord did for each of us, all
of the saints of God. We are chosen from the fallen
sons of Adam. This is God's love for us who
have no natural love for him. This is God's love described
in such beautiful pictures. We're all sinners in our Father
Adam and we never rise above our Father's station in our flesh. We are sinners by nature, by
practice, we're sinners by choice, we're sinners by desire, we're
sinners by birth. Only God makes sinners to know
that they are sinners. People will say, well everyone
knows that they're a sinner. Not in the biblical sense they
don't. All the sinners that I've met will find in themselves some
righteousness somewhere. Some righteousness that they
might be able to admit, some change that they can bring to
their own lives. Listen to what the scripture
says about us. Verse two of Ephesians. You hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Dead, spiritually
dead. No love for God, no feeling towards
God, dead, dead. wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. And listen to it, verse three,
this is God's. This is God's description of
all of us, among whom also we all had our conversation, we
all had our way of life, our way of walking in times past
in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as others. You go and find yourself a wife.
You go and find yourself a wife, how so? From that lot. Don't
you love the next verse, the next word? This is the word of
grace, isn't it? This is the word of sovereign
mercy and love, isn't it? But God, Ephesians 2.4, but God
who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us. It's exactly the same story as
Isaiah, isn't it? His great love wherewith he's
loved us. Even when we were dead in sins has quickened us together
with Christ by grace are you saved. And he's raised us up
together and made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
And why is he doing it all? That in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. That's why. That's why he does
it all, isn't he? But God, but God, not that I
changed myself, not that I made myself better, But God, not that
I was better than others and wiser than others and smarter
than others and more judicious than others, but God, that's
salvation, isn't it? But God. This is a great picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ among sinners. He set his love upon
her. He came to her to choose her. She didn't choose him. He came
to her to choose her. Here is the love of God, this
sovereign love, this gracious love. It's not that there's something
attractive about the people and her included. The natural mind
is enmity against God. There is in the heart of every
natural man, every son of Adam, there is no love for God because
there's no knowledge of who he is. There's no knowledge and
there's no love for his ways because we've all been infected
with the poison of the garden, isn't it? You shall be his gods,
knowing good and evil. You will be a sovereign ruler
of your own ways and your own destiny. And how did these people
see Hosea when he came to them? How did they see him? Did they have any knowledge of
him or his mission? It's a land of whoredom and a
people of whoredom. And he sets his love, out of
all that land, he sets his love upon one particular girl. And
in mercy and love he says to her, you're mine. The love of God towards the children
of Israel is a love of choosing. But in chapter 2, and we have
to hurry for want of time, but in chapter 2 we see the fall
of this bride. It seems from the story and the
fact that she's asked, she's been pleaded with by her children
that she had, when she lived first with Hosea, she had lived
in decency and read children with him because the children
are now able to plead with her. And it says in chapter two, verse
two, plead with your mother. For she is not my wife, neither
am I her husband. Let her therefore put away her
whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries between her breasts,
lest I strip her naked and set her 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. And I will not have mercy upon
her children, for they are the children of whoredoms. For their
mother has played the harlot. She that conceived them has done
shamefully, for she said, she said, I will go after my lovers. She'd obviously gone back to
what was natural for her. She now goes back to what her
family roots were all about, wasn't it? See, in the early
days she had no opportunity for the expression of her evil heart,
but now she does. She's returned to live the natural
life of her people. God chose us in Christ before
we had the opportunity to express what we are in Adam. But it comes
out, doesn't it? Listen to what she says. She
says in verse five, I will go after my lovers that give me
my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. She goes after her lovers. She
gives expression to the rebellion that is in her heart. Did God know that we were gonna
fall in Father Adam, in our father? He did know, didn't he? All things
are known unto God from the foundation of the world. Salvation is God's
love and God's purpose and mind. The salvation of God and the
love of God is very broad. It goes from eternity to eternity,
for want of a better expression of what eternity is. that all
of God's children had a being in the mind and purpose of God
before the foundation of the world. Before there was a let
there be light, there was an existence of God's children.
Before they had opportunity to express their rebellion, they
were their chosen. God thinks and it is. That's how God is and that's
who God is. You can read about it in Isaiah 14.24 He declares, he declares the
end from the beginning. God's children, before they fill,
were saved. Before they fill, they were redeemed. She was just a little girl, but
the nature was there, the sin was there. No child needs to
be taught to lie, it's just a matter of time. No child needs to be
taught to blame someone else for their lies. We've seen it
with these politicians in this last week. All of Australia knows
what those women did, and all of Australia will say, well,
I've done exactly the same thing. When you are caught and cornered
in your rebellion, the first thing you want to do is blame
someone else. It's not my fault, I didn't do that. Little kids
do it, our grandchildren do it, from the time they can barely
walk they're blaming someone else and exercising their rebellion. And you've done it as well. No
wonder David said, in sin did my mother conceive me. He wasn't
talking about the act of his conception. He was talking about
the fact that the sin that was in his mother and the sin that
was in his father was in him and it just needed time to have
expression. They are, the wicked are estranged
from the womb and they go astray as soon as they're born, speaking
lies. You don't have to teach little
kids to lie. It's just natural for us. Men love darkness, as
John says, don't they? Because their deeds were evil. There is no place of safety from
sin outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we come to know
what sin really is, we'll see that sin is not just an activity,
but sin is what we are. Sin is a being, and the being
is expressed in the sins that we see. And no matter what environment
you put people in, the sin is there, isn't it? We carry sins
around with us like a snail carries its shell, or a tortoise its
shell. We just carry it around all the time, it's there. She
returned to what she was by nature. But even though she turned from
him, he didn't turn from her. If you look back with me, there
she is in Hordham, living with the other lovers in Chapter 2. But she didn't realize that when
she got up in the morning and she saw all the food that was
laid at her door, the corn and the wheat and the oil and the
wine, she thought it was from her lovers. She thought it was
a reward of her lovers. And what was he doing? It was
all coming from Hosea. Verse eight, for she did not
know that I gave her corn and wine and oil, and I multiplied
her silver and gold, which they had prepared for Baal. See, God
is faithful. Hosea made a promise, and he's
faithful. And this is a picture of provenient
grace, isn't it? The grace that we have is everlasting,
eternal grace. And God's grace, operates in
the lives of all of his people and keeps them and preserves
them until the point which the scriptures call the time of love.
And then grace just continues the same, doesn't it? God preserves
his own until his time of love. You think of your life, you think
of your rebellion in your times of unbelief and wickedness, and
the amazing preservation of God over you. You see, he's watching
over his own. He's watching over them for love.
He's caring for them. She thought that the lovers were
providing all this. She forgot him. She forsook him. But he didn't forsake her. This is the love of God according
to the scriptures. And therefore, she who played
the harlot was actually cared for by him. He is faithful. He is faithful. And look what
he does in verse six, he says, of chapter two, he says, I will
hedge up thy way with thorns. I will make a wall that she shall
not find her paths. That's Provenient Grace, isn't
it? He limits her, that hedge of thorns is the hedge they put
about the sheep and keep them safe at night. And the thorns
work two ways, don't they? You can't get out of the hedge
because of the thorns, and things can't get to you because of the
thorns. As much as you want to live in wickedness and rebellion,
God hedges the way. I love the fact that he hedges
the way of his people. That's his promise, isn't it?
That he will preserve and keep his people until he comes with
that time of love. He hedges our way with thorns
that we feel the bitterness. We feel something of the bitterness
of our rebellion against him. God gives his angels charge over
his people. There is an unseen spiritual
activity going on all the time. And here he says he's going to
take these things away. Verse eight, verse nine of chapter
two, he says, therefore will I return and take away my corn
in the time thereof and the wine in the season thereof and I will
recover my wool and the flax given to cover her nakedness
and now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers and
none shall deliver. her out of my hand. She's brought low. It's absolutely
necessary that God brings us low. He did to Saul of Tarsus
who was a pattern. Always in salvation there has
to be a humbling, there has to be a judgment before grace, there
has to be a stripping by God before he closes. There must
be this work of God, this humbling before He exalts. There must
be a death before there's a resurrection. And she must find out, as all of God's
children will in this world, they must find out what she is
in herself, what she is to herself, and what she is to the others.
Because look at verse 2 of chapter 3. She was so humbled that she
ended up on the slave block. And I can't imagine that she
was a pretty sight. or that she was dressed in any
appropriate way. There she was on a block to be
sold and 15 pieces of silver is half the price for a servant. She's not even worth the money
for a servant. Isaiah strips her. She is brought. Let's just read
from verse 14 down to see how she gets to this point. He says,
therefore, she wouldn't hear the pleadings. of her children
and she wouldn't hear the pleadings and she wouldn't take note of
all the things that had been done for her. And the Lord says
in verse 11, I will cause all her mirth to cease in the feast
days. But she wouldn't believe, she wouldn't respond. And verse
14, therefore behold, I will allure her and bring her into
the wilderness and speak comfortably to her. And I will give her vineyards
from thence in the valley of April for a door of hope. And
she shall sing there is in the days for you, in the days. when she came up out of the land
of Egypt. For I, verse 17, I will take
away the names of Balu out of her mouth, and thou shalt be
no more remembered in their name. God is a covenant keeping God. In verse 18, in that day will
I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with
the fowls of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground
and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out
of the sky and will make them to lie down safely. You can read
about that in Exodus, Ezekiel chapter 34. And you can read
about this story in Ezekiel 16. I will betroth her unto me, yea,
forever, yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness,
in judgment, in loving kindness, and in mercy. I will even betroth
thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. Thou shalt know the Lord. Goma needs to know who she is. Goma needs to be emptied of what
she is. The stripping, the stripping
of the righteousness of all of Adam's children is only a work
that God can do. She had to be revealed as empty.
She was once sought out by lovers and now she's rejected and thrown
on the scrap heap. And there's not even a bidder
for her other than Hosea. She was once beautiful in her
own eyes and now she's in shame. See, this stripping is God's
work alone. Man can threaten, man can conjole,
man can warn and weep, but it's God's special work. to make sinners,
to make real sinners, to strip us of what we are in our nature. Just like the woman at the well.
She had nothing to be proud of, but she was still haughty in
the presence of God. It's remarkable, isn't it? God
alone reveals the sinfulness of sin, the emptiness of sin,
the futility of sin, the burden of sin, and the captivity of
sin. God must bring us to the end of ourselves to reveal Christ
to us. The work is his, the timing is
his, the circumstances are his, the fruit is his, and all the
glory is his. God must empty that old vessel
and create a new one for his grace and for his presence in
which to reside. And here at last we see the bride
bought. Verse two, she's a common slave
on sale, not even a bidder other than Hosea. And as the Lord commanded
Hosea at the beginning, he says, go yet. He commands Hosea at
this point, you go yet. You go. You go, and you love this woman.
You love this woman. and adulterous according to the
love of the Lord toward the children of Israel. Do you love her? Do you still
love her after all that she's done? Yes? Do you still love her after all
the shame that she's brought to you? Do you still love her
after all the hurt that she's brought? No wonder the scriptures
speak of the great love wherewith Christ has loved us. How broad
is his love, how deep is his love. Nothing in these scriptures or
any of the scriptures allow us to think that the love of God
is a universal love and universally God's love is particular. God's
love is drawing. The Lord Jesus Christ brought
his bride. He brought his bride. We were debtors to the law of
God and we were debtors to the justice of God and we were debtors
and slaves to our sin. And look what he does. He brings
her again to himself. Verse 3. And I said unto her, Thou shalt
abide with me many days. And thou shalt not play the harlot,
and thou shalt not be for another man, so also will I be for thee. She returns after his redemption,
she returns into his presence to abide with him. You shall
not play the harlot. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
we're bought with a price. His life for our lives. His blood for our sin. And he says to her, after all
of this, as he says to all of us according to his love, You're mine and I am yours. This is the love of God. It's
covenant love. It's electing love. It's personal love. It's love
that cares. It's love that brings. It's love
that's called. It's love that covers the shame
of Gomer with the robe of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It covers her shame and her guilt
and he brings her home to me. What's Hosea's name mean? I'm
not quite sure why it was translated Hosea. Hosea's name means Joshua. Joshua is the Old Testament name
for Jesus. And I'll finish by just quoting
a few verses out of the very end of the chapter, isn't it? He says in verse 4 of chapter
14, he says, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them
freely. If you're a sinner, they are
the sweetest words, aren't they? I'll heal your wanderings, I'll
heal your blacksiding, I'll love them freely, for mine anger is
turned away from him. All of his anger was poured out
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He has nothing but love for his
bride. Nothing but love. And the book
finishes, who is wise and he shall understand these things,
prudent and he shall know them for the ways of the Lord are
right and the just shall walk in them. The ways of the Lord
are right. I will heal their backslidings.
I will love them freely. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we will pray. that you might enable us, by
your grace, to understand something of the depth and the height and
the length and the breadth of the love of Christ Jesus through
his bride. And make us participants of that,
Heavenly Father. And oh, our Father, help us to
be thankful that the rod of your correction is held by the pierced
hand of love. Help us, Heavenly Father, to
drink of His blood and eat of His flesh in remembrance of Him. For we pray in Jesus' name and
for His glory. Amen.