Isaiah 54 Verse 1, Sing, O barren, thou
that didst not break forth into singing, And cry aloud, thou
that didst not travail with child, for more are the children of
the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the
Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth
the curtains of thine habitations. Spare not, and lengthen thy cords,
and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on
the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the
Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear
not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded. For
thou shalt not be put to shame, for thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood
anymore. For thy maker is thine husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name. And thy Redeemer, the Holy One
of Israel, the God of the whole earth. shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth
when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have
I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee. saith the Lord thy Redeemer. Now we've seen in this study
in Isaiah, the Lord pronounces a lot of woe upon a lot of people
in the book of Isaiah. If you look at the beginnings
of all, most of the chapters through chapter one until recently
in the last few chapters, a lot of them begin with woe unto you,
names various cities, places in the world, different peoples
of the world. And it's usually we saw he pronounced woe for
the same reasons because of pride and rebellion against God and
idolatry. But this chapter begins with
the word sing. Sing. What's the difference between
woe unto you and sing? The difference is he was wounded
for our transgressions. The previous chapter, chapter
53, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his straps we are healed. That will take
you from woe to singing. After chapter 53 and remember
how chapter 53 ended let's look at chapter 53 verse 10 Let's
remember how it ended and then See this first word in the context
of it Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him Christ He the Lord hath put him his son to grief and When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. When Christ died on
Calvary, it wasn't God making an offer to sinners as religion
would suggest and teach. It was the Son of God making
an offering for the sin of his people. Sin, without the shedding
of blood, there can be no remission of sins under the Old Testament
covenant. It was the shedding of blood
and that was picturing, of course, the sacrifice of Christ, the
eternal Lamb of God, which takes away sin. His soul was made an
offering for sin and he shall see his seed. That's going to
be significant in our text tonight in chapter 54. He shall see his
offspring, his seed. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. And there's
no seed, there's no offspring, there's no children without,
verse 11, travail, sorrow, pain, suffering. He shall see of the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied even in We know
that the pain in childbearing was part of the curse in the
garden. The Lord pronounced that. But even that is a picture of
redemption. Suffering, pain, but then life
is produced. And that allegory is used here. By his knowledge, the last part
of verse 11, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many, for he shall bear their iniquities. That's why he had
to suffer. The wages of sin is death. And he suffered unto death
because the iniquities of his people were laid upon him. Therefore,
verse 12, will I divide him a portion with the grave. Therefore, he'll
be rewarded. He'll be praised. He'll get glory. And he shall
divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his
soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. He himself
did no sin, knew no sin, there was no guile found in his mouth,
but he was numbered with the transgressors, and bear the sin
of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Next word,
sing. You see it now, why it says that?
Sing! What shall be the subject of
our song? Of course, it's the Lamb that
was slain. What are we going to sing about?
What are they singing about in glory right now? We don't have
to guess, do we? John, in the book of Revelation,
got a glimpse of it. He was shown what was going on
in glory and he heard them singing, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. to receive power and glory and
blessing and honor and strength. Why? Because you were slain and
has redeemed us to God by your blood. Because you accomplished
redemption for somebody. And so we sing. We sing of Him. We sing of His precious blood.
We sing of salvation and redemption by Him. We sing because we're
alive. We sing because our sins are
gone. We sing because we love Him. We love Him because He loved
us first. That's Isaiah 53, worthy is the
lamb that was slain. And so we sing, we sing of his
love. I thought of some songs that
we do actually sing. We'll be able to sing a whole
lot better one of these days, you know. I'll be able to sing
perfect. But right now, such as we are
able to, we sing songs like this. Could we with ink the oceans
fill? and were the skies of parchment
made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe
by trade. To write the love of God above
would drain the oceans dry, nor could the scroll contain the
whole, though stretched from sky to sky. The love of God. Love is defined. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the redemption, the immediate, the, uh, propitiation. That word, that's
not a word we use every day. What does it mean? Sin offering.
We know what that is. He was an offering. His soul
was made an offering for sin to be the propitiation for our
sins. That's the subject of Isaiah
53. That's what we sing about. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me who caused his
pain? For me who him to death pursued? Amazing love. How can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love. How can it be that thou, my God,
shouldst die for me? So chapter 54 begins to tell
us what Christ accomplished by what he did in chapter 53. We have some of that in chapter
53 itself. By his stripes were healed. That's
what he did. He healed his people. He healed
everyone he died for. He justified many, it says in
chapter 53. But in chapter 54, really what
chapter 54 says is the same truth described in a little different
way. What does it mean we're healed? What does it mean we're
justified? How and why? Well, because of
who He is, because of what He did, but also something else.
Think about this now. Christ can be who He is, the
Son of God that gives life to whom He will, that saves whom
He will. that died to redeem his people and redeemed his people.
He can be who he is and he can do what he did and you still
go to hell. Isn't that right? So what do we want to hear about?
What he did for me. What did he do for me? What relationship
do I have with him? I know he loves sinners because
his death, what he did on Calvary defines what love is. So I know
he loves sinners, but does he love me? People argue and argue
and argue. Does God love everybody? Let's
argue about that for the rest of our lives and write a million
books this thick on the subject. You don't have to do that. Of
course he doesn't love everybody. The scriptures are clear on that.
He hates all workers of iniquity outside of Christ, Psalm 5.5.
He loved Jacob and hated Esau. That's clear in the scriptures,
but here's what's important. Quit arguing about that. You
need to know if he loves you or not. That's what you need
to find out. He can be who he is and do what
he did and you still go to hell, but here's why we sing verse
five. For thy maker is thine husband. The one who did this is vitally,
eternally united with me. He's my husband. He loves me. He chose me. He picked me out.
He united himself unto me. And he's everything that a husband
ought to be. Protector, provider. I don't
care what's politically correct and what stupid people say. A
husband is ordained by God to be the provider, the caregiver,
the protector. The one who is the head of the
house. takes care of his family. Thy maker is thine husband. And
that's a picture of Christ. We know that marriage, we're
going to talk about Ephesians 5 in a minute, and we'll talk
about that. But marriage is a picture of Christ and his church. Thy maker is thine husband, the
Lord of hosts is his name, and thy redeemer, thy redeemer, Everybody
believes that somebody named Jesus died on a cross one day But he's a you redeemer The Holy
One of Israel the God of the whole earth is shall he be called. I'm married to the God of the
whole earth. All believers are called in the scripture the bride
of Christ. And that picture, that beautiful picture of the
husband and wife and that bond that where in the sight of God
two become one. That is ordained for the specific
purpose of picturing and glorifying Christ in His love for His church. And not only is He who He is,
and not only did He do what He did, but His people, those who
believe on Him, are vitally united to Him in an unbreakable bond.
He has vowed Himself to you. Vows are exchanged in marriage.
Christ vowed. He made promises, didn't He?
precious promises to his people in a relationship that is only
pictured by the marriages of sinners. It's pictured by that,
and that's what's described, as I said, in Ephesians chapter
5. This is the reality between my Savior and I, and between
him and all for whom he died, all whose iniquities he bore
and put away on Calvary chapter 53. And this is why we sing,
because not only is he who he is, and he's worthy. Now we ought to praise him even
if he did put us in hell. He's worthy of praise, isn't
he? Not everybody going to heaven, is he still worthy of praise? Job said, the Lord gave me everything
I have and he took it all away. Blessed be his name. Ephesians 5 25 husbands love
your wives Now again think of the context of this. What is
love is that 53? That's how the scriptures define
love Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the
church and I guarantee you Every time you find the love of God
in this book. There's an end and Because his
love is not an emotion. It's not just a fuzzy feeling.
It's action. Read 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
Love is defined by what it does and what it doesn't do. What
did he do? He loved the church and gave
himself for it. There's chapter 53 again. And
then in chapter 54 we have and he's our husband. We're married,
we're united to Christ. Then he gave himself for it,
verse 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word that he might present it to himself,
a glorious church. And you see the picture here,
a bride comes down the aisle, she's wearing white and she's
the star of the show. And that's by design. That's
by design. no spot, no wrinkle, or any such
thing, but that it should be holy without blemish. So men
ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth
his wife loveth himself, for no man ever yet hated his own
flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. You remember Eve was taken. from
the side of Adam. Members of him, for this cause
shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined
unto his wife. The Son of God left glory itself
to be joined unto us. And when we leave everything
and everybody in a sense, don't we? For him. And they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. When he talks about
this thing of marriage, he said, I'm talking about Christ and
the church. That's what it's about. Nevertheless, let every
one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself. And
the wife see that she reverence her husband. Your maker is your
husband. Why sing? Why cry aloud? Why enlarge the place of thy
tent? Why fear not? All these things
are at the beginning of chapter 54. Why shall we not be ashamed
anymore? No remember our reproach anymore? Because Christ is our husband.
Because we're united to him. He loved us and chose us and
united himself to us in eternal unity. Listen to what he said
in John 17, 22. He was praying unto his father
there. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I have given them, that they may be one. Even as we are one,
I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. United to Christ forever. And when did our Lord pray that
prayer? that they may be one in us and with us. He began that
prayer by saying, Father, the hour has come. The hour has come. What hour? He's going to the
cross, Isaiah 53. And what's the result of that?
Oneness, unity with him. It's his high priestly prayer
for us as he came to offer himself. A ransom for us. So you see all
of chapters 53 and 54 together are a declaration of who He is,
what He did, and the result of both. The result is because of
who He is and what He did. There's a definite eternal result. He is, who is He? He's God's
eternal spotless Son. He's God in human flesh. He's
the Lamb of God that takes away sin. He took our iniquities,
so what did He do? He took our iniquities, He bore
them. He bore the wrath of God that was due unto us for our
sins, the sins of His people. And because He did, we are healed,
53. Justified, 53. Eternally married
to the Son of God, 54. And He made us for this very
purpose. Your maker is your husband. That's why He made us. For His
glory in redeeming us and joining Himself to us. Turn to a couple of passages
of scripture. I'll try to be brief tonight, but there's a
couple of passages of scripture that shed a lot of light on this
text in Isaiah 54 tonight. Romans 7, verse 1. Romans 7, 1. This is talking
about marriage, and marriage is used again here as a picture,
as an illustration of something very important in Romans chapter
7, verse 1. Romans 7, 1. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband as so long as he liveth. It's
a legal commitment to one another. But if the husband be dead, she
is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if while her
husband liveth, she be married to another man, she should be
called an adulteress. When you're married to, it's
one man and one woman, that's marriage in the scripture. But
if her husband be dead, she's free from that law. so that she
is no adulteress, though she be married to another man." Now,
what's he saying? Is he talking about, well, he's
talking about marriage and divorce and things like in adultery,
but he's using it for a reason. He's talking about for a reason.
Look at verse four. Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become
dead to the law by what Christ did. By Christ inhabiting the
Son of God, inhabiting a human body, and what He did in that
body, He was crucified. He was made an offering for sin.
And what He did for you, you're become dead to the law. You're
free from the law. The law doesn't bind you anymore.
You're not bound to obey it. Why? That you should be married
to another. We're married to another, even
to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth
fruit unto God. So it's a simple picture. We
were married to the law by nature. We're bound to the law of God.
We're responsible to that law. Every thou shalt and every thou
shalt not will be held accountable for before God. And we've busted
all of them. Scripture's pretty clear on that.
We busted all of them. The Lord taught in Matthew 5
that you even thought about it, you've already busted it. We're
busted. Unless by Christ and what he
did on Calvary, you are divorced from the law, freed from the
law by death. Till death do you part. Well,
there is a death. And there is life. There is a
new husband. There's a new union. even to him who was raised from
the dead." Being married to Christ means being free from the law. Does that mean we're lawless?
Does that mean we just go and sin? No. We're married to Christ. We're not bound to the law, but
we love the law of God after the inward man. We were married to the law by
nature, and this is why woe is pronounced all through Isaiah.
Woe unto you, woe unto you, because you don't measure up to the law
very well, and I don't either, and neither does anybody else. And we saw all of that in Isaiah,
didn't we? Woe unto you, woe unto you. But now we sing, because
we're dead to the law and married to Christ. Marriage to the law
is burdensome and cruel. He talks about that in our text.
Did you notice that? He said, I'm joining to you as
a wife of her youth that is grieved and that's forsaken, that's badly
treated. The husband that we're joined
to by nature is a burdensome and cruel person. The law accuses and threatens. What if you were married to somebody
in physical marriage that all they ever did was point out everything
wrong that you did? That's what the law does. Paul
said by the law is the knowledge of sin. You want everybody pointing
out everything you do wrong every time you mess up? That happens
in marriages. It becomes a scorecard, doesn't
it? Well you did this, but you did this. Don't be like that. There's your marriage counseling
for the evening. Don't do that. Our husband, by nature, all the
law can do is point out how far short you fall from pleasing
God. What a cruel and horrible thing.
How long would you put up with that? Unfortunately, some put
up with it for a long time. The law accuses and threatens. How would you like to be married
to somebody who not only pointed out how bad you are at everything
and what a failure you are, but threatened always to kill you?
I'm going to kill you one of these days. That's the law. You're a goner. The wages of
your sin is death. It may not be today, it may not
be tomorrow, but I'm going to get you. How would you like to
sleep with somebody like that? No thank you. That's the law,
that's what we were married to. You see that we're grieved in
our, that's grievous, isn't it? That's just the truth, but we're
married to another now. And all he does is comfort and
encourage and strengthen and promise protection and provision
and peace and grace. And he's mighty. Look at another scripture where
our actual text is quoted by Paul. Turn to Galatians 4. This
is beautiful. We'll close pretty much with
this. I don't want to be long, but we have another allegory
here in Galatians chapter 4. And in this allegory, Paul actually
quotes our text. And so, of course, we've got
to look at this if we're going to understand what our text says.
Galatians 4.21. Galatians 4 21 tell me you that
desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? There
are those who just insist on being Accepted of God on the
basis of what they do. That's called being under the
law You don't want to be under the law, you just think you do.
Paul is saying here in a rhetorical question, he's saying you that
desire to be under the law, you don't really want to be under
the law, you just think you do. You don't hear the law, you don't
understand the law if you want to be under the law. If you want
to be accepted of God on the basis of your behavior, your
thoughts, your words, your deeds, you don't hear the law. Verse 22, for it is written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a
free woman. You remember Abraham and Sarah,
they were well past childbearing years, both of them, but God
said, you're gonna have a son. And for a while, it didn't happen.
And Sarah, you know, there was unbelief. And she said, well,
going into my handmaid, that must be what God meant. We're
gonna have to help God out because we're not gonna be able to, We're
over 100 years old, both of us. We're not gonna have a child.
What he must have meant by that. When somebody starts telling
you what God meant by what he said, watch out. What you need
is for somebody to just tell you what God said. That's what
we need. Has anything I said been unclear
tonight? This is what God said. This is
not my opinion on it. We don't have to help God out.
He said you're gonna have a child. Remember what we talked about
this morning? With men, it's impossible. That's the only way God produces
life, is when it's impossible for you. The one by a bondwoman and the
other by a free woman, that he who was of the bondwoman was
born after the flesh. In other words, they contrived
to produce a child contrary to what God had promised. But he
of the free woman was by promise. It was just by God saying, you're
going to have a child. Verse 24, which things are an
allegory, an illustration, a story, an earthly story to teach spiritual
truth. For these are the two covenants.
The one from Mount Sinai, the law was given on Mount Sinai.
Moses was given the law and thou shalt, thou shalt not. And under
that covenant, we're goners. But there's another covenant.
The one from Mount Sinai, which gendered to bondage, the bondage
of the law, which is Hagar, Sarah's handmaid. For this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and
is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free. The true Israelites, the true,
remember Paul said, he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly,
he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, a spiritual. Those that have
the faith that Abraham had, that God gave to Abraham, those are
Abraham's true spiritual children. Which is the mother of us all
verse 27 for it is written It is written where in our text
tonight in Isaiah 54 Rejoice thou barren that bear us not
break forth and cry Thou that travail us not for the desolate
hath many more children than she which hath in husband That's
our day. That's part of our text in it
and here's the teaching now we as Isaac was a are the children
of promise. So in other words, we are children
produced not by the connivings and the reasoning and the wisdom
of men, but we are children produced by a miracle of God's grace. That's the picture. And he quoted
our text to show that truth. There's an allegory where children
born by a miracle. Hagar wasn't too old to have
children. That was a natural birth and
we are natural born too, but we're under the bondage of the
law by nature. Responsible before God to perfectly
keep his law and we can't do it. We never have and we never
will. Born under the law, made under
the law, under the curse of the law. But now we are children
born like Isaac was. Born again, he said, you must
be born again. Born of the spirit, not of the
flesh. Born of the spirit. It's like
a natural birth in some senses. That's why he calls it a birth.
He wouldn't call it a birth at all if it wasn't like that. How
is it like a birth? It's life that God gives. It's
life that you don't produce yourself. It's a miracle of God's grace.
Children born like Sarah can't conceive. She can't produce life
and neither can we. We can't produce spiritual life.
The only way Isaac has life is by a miracle of God. And that's
what's true of you spiritually. Being born again, born from above,
born of the spirit of God by a miracle of his grace and his
power. We're free from the law. Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Notice how many times
he said, free, son of the free woman, we are free, we're the
children of the free. Free from what? The bondage of
the law. Because Christ kept the law as
our righteousness and died, listen, He did and didn't do everything
that we should and shouldn't do, but did and didn't. And then
he paid for what we did do and didn't do and should have and
shouldn't have. Does that make sense? Let's shorten
it. He did everything that we could
never do to please God as our righteousness. And then he paid
for what we did do, sin. But with his precious blood,
he redeemed us from our sins. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law being made a curse for us, Galatians 3. Verses 2 and 3 of our text speaks
of how many that shall be born. Notice he said, broaden your
tent, stretch out your cords, and make your stakes firm because
there's going to be a lot of children now. The Son of God
has died. And remember this same allegory
now in chapter 53, it preached the Lord to bruise him, he put
him to grief. Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.
He shall see his seed, his children, his offspring. And he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Religion talks about how the
Lord died on Calvary. He tried to save everybody. He
died for everybody. If he died for everybody, he's
a failure. Everybody not saved. He's going
to see the results of what he did on Calvary, and he's going
to say, I'm well pleased. If half of the people that you
gave yourself for went to hell, would you be satisfied with that?
Way more than half. Scriptures teach that very few
be there be that find the way of life. Broad is the gate and
wide is the way that leads to destruction and many there be
that go in there at. But he's going to look at He's
gonna. He's gonna travail and be in
pain and agony But he's gonna see the life That is produced
through his death and be satisfied Now let's close with this look
at listen to how our new husband speaks to us the picture of the
old husband Is seen here to look at verse 4 in our text, and I'll
be through I'll try to be through Verse four, look at it now, fear
not. This is your new husband talking
to you now. Don't be afraid. You've got absolutely nothing
to be afraid of. The one you're married to now
made the world and everything and everybody in it, and he says
you've got nothing to worry about. I think you can take his word
for it. Neither be thou confounded. For
thou shalt not be put to shame. And I guarantee you, I don't
want to add to the scripture, but you could read it this way.
Thou shalt not be put to shame anymore. Because clearly what
he's saying here is, you're a new husband, not like your old one.
You're not going to be put to shame anymore. Thou shalt forget
the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of
thy widowhood anymore, for thy maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is his name,
and thy Redeemer, the one who bought you with his precious
blood, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth. Wow. That's who we're united to. That's
who loved us, and chose us, and called us, and keeps us. And
the God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath
called thee as a woman forsaken, left destitute, and grieved in
spirit. The law is a grief, isn't it?
I know religious people that they're always trying to please
God. I gotta get rid of my TV because
there's bad stuff on it, you know, and I gotta quit going
to that place that served liquor there. I gotta quit hanging out
with them because they say bad words every once in a while.
I gotta do it. When is it going to be enough? When's it going to be enough? Trying to keep the law, you keep
sticking your fingers in the dam, and every time you plug
a hole, there's three more that pop up. And you don't have enough
fingers and toes. And a wife of youth, when thou
wast refused, you were shamed. Think of the words he's already
spoken here. Your husband before made you ashamed all the time,
and confused, and reproached you. But not anymore. You're not going to have to live
with that anymore. And look at verse 7. For a small
moment have I forsaken thee. I let you be married for a while
to the law. For a little while. Why do you do that? Well, we
know the difference now, don't we? We know the difference. free from the law. Oh, happy
condition. He let us be married. He left
us alone for a little while. But with great mercies will I
gather thee. We were like a woman married
to a husband that grieved us and left us in our misery and
need and wouldn't and offered no comfort or peace or provision.
He didn't provide for us. He didn't care anything about
us. He didn't love us. You remember the Good Samaritan? In the story
of the Good Samaritan, that man is laying in a ditch, bleeding
out. And the Levite, there was a Levitical priest that walked
by. And what did he do? He just looked
over there and kept walking. You know why? The law can't help
you. God's law cannot help you. It looks at you and sees nothing that satisfies it. There's no pity, there's no mercy,
there's no grace in the law. God gave the law, not so people
would know how to act, but to show people how sinful they are. And the Lord says, I left you
in that horrible relationship for a little while. And then
I gathered you. That word means to take or to
grasp with the hand. That's what he did. He laid hold
of us in great mercies. And now we're married to him.
And listen, we were in that terrible, repressive relationship willingly. We weren't victims now. You know
this, and I know this, and I know some people that would illustrate
this, wouldn't you? They're willingly in relationships
that are horrible, just horrible. I'm sure you've heard that sometimes
those who are in an abusive relationship actually attack somebody that's
trying to help them and defend the one who's abusing them. How
wretched can you be? That's all of us by nature now. And here's another picture of
what we're talking about tonight. You remember Hosea and Gomer
in Hosea chapter 3 in verse 1. Let me just read this and I'll
be through. Then said the Lord unto me, Hosea, the Lord had
told Hosea, go and love a woman who is an adulteress. And he
did. The Lord gave, put love in Hosea's
heart for Gomer. And I want us to consider this.
I know we look at this every once in a while, but think about
this in the light of our text where Our husband, our new husband
is saying, you're not going to be ashamed anymore. You're not
going to be grieved anymore. You're not going to be neglected
anymore. And he said to Gomer, to Hosea,
after he had caused Hosea to fall in love with Gomer, and
Gomer went out and cheated on him. And she was an adulteress. She was a harlot, an adulteress. And you can imagine how heartbreaking
and just devastating that would be to Hosea. And after that,
after he had been completely mistreated by Gomer, the Lord
said to Hosea, go yet and love that woman. You go still love
her. And Hosea 3.1, beloved of her
friend, yet an adulteress. What a picture. What a picture. According to the love of the
Lord toward the children of Israel. You go love her like I love you. The children of Israel who look
to other gods and love floggings of wine. And here's what Hosea
says about that. God said to him, you know, you
go still love her. I want you to love her in spite
of it all. And he said, so I bought her
to me for 15 pieces of silver and for an omer of barley and
a half omer of barley. You know how much that is? I
know I've said this to you before, but we know exactly how much
that is. It's what it took. It's how much it took. That's
what our Lord gave on Calvary, what it took. What it took to
redeem my soul was the very blood of God. And then Hosea said in
verse 3, I said unto her, thou shalt abide for me many days,
and thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another
man, and so will I also be for thee. You're mine and I'm yours from
now on. Our husband loves us in spite
of it all. And he says to us, don't be afraid.
You're not going to be ashamed anymore. You're not going to
be confused. You're not going to be neglected. I'm all you need and all you'll
ever want. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. And by his death as our substitute,
we're married to him forever. And have nothing to fear. We'll never lack anything we
need. He runs this world. He runs the universe and everybody
and everything in it. And he said everything is going
to work for your good. I'm going to arrange everything so that
it benefits you. That's our new husband. I wish
I could be a husband like that. I'm glad I have a husband like
that. Let's pray together.