Hosea chapter 2. Hosea chapter 2 in my text will
be found in verse 19 and verse 20. Verse 19 and verse 20. The Scripture says, "...and I
will betroth thee unto Me..." How long? Forever. Forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in
mercies. I will even betroth thee unto
Me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know The title of my message
this evening is, A Five-Fold Assurance for an Unsure Bride. A Five-Fold Assurance for an
Unsure Bride. Now you remember, I want to first
of all give us the context of this assurance. The context of
these words historical context, then I want us to see the spiritual
context, so that we as believers, to whom this is meant, this is
meant for believers in Christ, to give us assurance. To give us assurance. Now, consider
the historical context. You remember that Hosea the prophet
was sent by God to marry a prostitute. To marry a whore. This woman's
name was Gomer. That means wasted. This woman
was a wasted woman. And God sent this prophet to
marry her as a picture. As a picture, you can see that
in chapter 1 of verse 2, in the beginning of the word of the
Lord to Hosea, the Lord said unto Hosea, Go and take thee
a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms, listen, for the
land hath committed whoredoms departing from the Lord. In other
words, the Lord did this for a picture. He did this for a
type. And so he tells this prophet
to marry this whorish woman, and he does. And they have children
together, and it isn't long, and this woman goes back to her
whoredom. She goes back to her lovers.
She leaves her husband, who loves her, and flees back to her prostitution. And you'll notice in verse 6,
the prophet here historically, he says, I'm going to hedge up
her ways. I'm going to bring her back to me. The prophet in
love with her desires her to be brought back. But there's
a way that he would bring her back is he hedges it up. He starts
taking away the very things that he gives her. He gave her corn,
he gave her wine. She thought it was her lover's,
but it wasn't. It was her husband. And he says,
I want her back, and so what I'm going to do is take away
these things so that she would become destitute and need me. And he said, before she comes
back, she has to get rid of all of her false gods, all of her
lovers that be gone. And so he lures her out and exposes
her, and he brings her back. Now that's the historical context.
Now consider the mindset of this woman. She who was a whore by
nature was married now to a prophet of God. She left Him, and He's
loved her so much, He brought her back. Now, what do you think
such a woman needs? Assurance. She has been horrible to him. What is it that she needs is
assurance that he's not going to leave her. Now that she's
fallen in love with him, now that she's been brought back,
she needs assurance that he's not going to discard her. Because she's worthy to be discarded,
isn't she? She's worthy of it. If he just
left her alone, she was worthy to be left in her whoredoms.
But the prophet here, by the Word of God, gives her assurances. He says, I'm betrothed to you
forever. I'm not going to leave you. I
did this in righteousness. I married you in righteousness,
and it's legal, and I'm binding to this in a covenant. And he
said, I'm not going to leave you. So that's historical. Now,
what good would that do us, but a good story. That's not all
it's meant for. It's meant to be a spiritual
picture, isn't it? What a picture this is! The picture
of how God saves sinners. Surely God is the Husband of
all creation in that He is their Maker. He is our Maker. But I tell you, there is a specific
people that God has loved. that God has chosen to be the
Bride of Christ. And these people are represented
by this whorish woman. It's a picture to us of every
child of God. For we who belong to God were
betrothed to God, married to Him, not only as our Creator
and Maker, but He has betrothed us to Him
in grace. in grace. And I'll tell you,
when we were born into this world, though God has chosen us to be
His bride, we forsook Him. We forsook Him and committed
great spiritual whoredoms. You remember when Satan tempted
our mother Eve. He had said this question, hath
God said? And then He allured her into
this. He said, Yea, the day that you
eat thereof, you shall be as gods. You shall be sovereign. Isn't that the lie of the enemy
from the beginning? You shall be sovereign. Is this not the truth of all
fallen men? That by nature we desire to be
as a god? That we are sovereigns and the
will of God, the decrees of God, the salvation of God rests into
the hands of man. That's the natural way of things. And we took that hook, line,
and sinker. We are all fallen into that very
mindset by nature. And listen, that is nothing but
spiritual whoredoms. This is the heart of all freewill
works religion. And I'll tell you, that's not
another gospel, that's no gospel at all. But it truly is the gospel
we all attune to by nature. And as it is a picture, so is
the real, every one of God's elect, every one for whom God
has chosen and put in Christ from eternity. He has appointed
a time of grace to hedge in our ways, just as Hosea hedged in
Gomer. I tell you, God has purposed
to hedge in His people. He hedges in our ways. He crushes our dreams of self-righteousness
and works religion. If He ever is going to save you,
He's got to crush that. He's going to crush it. He'll
take away our corn, our wine, the pleasures of sin, the joys
of sin. He'll make it hallow and empty
and painful and sorrowful for every one of His chosen people. Now surely this may include the
consequences of our sin, but much more than just consequences,
we begin to feel the real guilt of our sin before God. We begin
to see that the world is nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit. Even because we now are made
to see that this is no light matter. When God calls in His
people, He hedges them in so much that we begin to see that
this has eternal consequences. That our sin has eternal consequences
of God's wrath and God's judgment. And God exposes our nature, our
inclination to such sin. And why does he do this? Well,
just as Gomer said this, I'll return to my first husband, verse
7. He hedges her in. She says, I'll return to my first
husband. That's exactly the inclination of every believer when conviction
comes. We begin to say, well, I'll go
to God. I'll go to religion. Man's conviction is so readily
turned to a God. We're much like that woman with
the issue of blood. You remember, she went to many
doctors, right? And what was the condition? It
got none better but grew worse. I tell you, when God convicts
a sinner, no matter where you go, no matter how hard you try
to cover it up, it grows none better but worse. Goes none better
but worse. We go to all sorts of doctors.
Doctor feel good. If it feels good, do it. Who
hadn't been to that doctor? We go to doctor morality. Well,
you just need to sober up. You need to quit drugs and you
need to do this. You need to be a moral person. You need to
be a better husband, a better child. Then your guilt will go
away. Who's not been to that quack?
We've been to Dr. Freewill. All you need to do
is make a decision for Jesus. Walk an aisle, say a prayer.
Dr. Duncan. Somebody said, all you
need to do is get baptized. That'll just take away all your
troubles. Dr. Goodworks. Well, you just need
to do more. Whatever it is, more. More. And what happens to the
true believer, now if that heals you, then you've never been convicted
by the Holy Spirit. If that heals you, those doctors
heal you, then you've never had an issue of blood, not a spiritual
issue of blood, but God's people, it never heals. They only grow
worse. None of the elect, these doctors,
do. The only doctor for us is Christ. The only doctor that
can heal our guilt is Christ. The only remedy for our sin is
the blood of Christ. And God in grace and love for
His elect, what does He do? Verse 14, He allures us to the
wilderness. He exposes our sins. He exposes our sins to know this,
except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
God. Have you been brought there?
He brings every believer to this place. I was reading about a
very brave, heroic man this week. He was a soldier, one of the
special forces in our country, and he died in Afghanistan fighting
for this country. Fighting for our freedoms, he
was a very heroic person. And He is due honor, there's
no doubt about it. He's due our honor as a country. He sacrificed His life for our
freedoms, but let me tell you something. His service and sacrifice for
our country by no means earned Him one ounce of favor with God. Not one ounce of favor. His death
paid for not one of His sins. If this man was not in Christ,
if he was not made righteous by the righteousness and the
blood of Christ, if he was not born again of the sovereign Spirit
of God through faith in Christ, he is surely in hell with the
most wicked of people. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath life. He that believeth not on the
Son of God shall not see life, not in this life, nor in the
life to come. Why? For the wrath of God abideth
on him. On who? Those that believe not. The wrath of God abode on them
in this life, and the wrath of God will abide on them in the
next. Have you been brought to such
a place? God brings every one of His beloved
bride to this one place that in us is no hell, in us is no
goodness, in us is nothing but sin. If you've never been brought
to that place, it's because God's not called you. God brings all
of His bride to the same wilderness. And what does He do with us there?
Does He leave us there? No, He's not left me there. That's
not the testimony of any of the bride of Christ. What does He
do? He speaks comfortably to us. What does He speak of? Christ! He speaks of the glorious birth
of Christ, how He came in and was incarnate in our flesh to
represent us. He came and He lived a righteous
life in our stead and died for our sins. That's the comfort
of the Gospel. That He is risen again for our
justification and is seated on the right hand of God forever. This is the glorious comfort
of the Gospel. Therefore, we by grace have been
born again. We see the Kingdom of God, don't
you? Do you see the Kingdom of God? Do you know what that is?
The King. To see the Kingdom, you've got
to see the King. Christ is King. Christ is Lord. We bow greatly, graciously before
His feet, suing for mercy. And what do we find? We find
mercy. What did the bride, what did this whorish woman find?
She found mercy. It's a type, it's a picture of
what we find at the feet of Christ. We find mercy. And look what
He says to us in verse 16. He said, You shall call Me Isha. That means Beloved Husband. You don't know what I've done?
Do you not remember what I've done? Oh, I know. But you shall
call me Isha. Beloved husband. Beloved husband. You shall call me beloved husband
because I've given you a new heart. I've sprinkled you with
clean water. I've fulfilled a covenant promise
to you. And because He has, we have come
to Him by faith in Christ. Do you not see that faith is
a gift? It's not some decision people
make. Faith is a gift of God and not
of works. It's a gift of grace. And because
of this grace, we have the right to call Him our Isha, to call
Him our Husband. And so then this leads me to
the question, to you who are believers in Christ,
listen. When Christ restored us, we were
unfaithful, He allured us, He exposed us, we repented, we were
born again and given a new heart, a new nature, and now we hold
Him as our Lord and Savior, His blood's cleansed us. Does this
mean that we are free from sin, trouble, trials, and doubts?
Are you? You believers, is that your experience?
Are you free from all that? Well, I've got Christ now. Everything
is just clear. Oh, it's so beautiful. Every
day is sunny. Every day is like my friend in
Southern California says, every day is sunny. Is that how your
experience is? Every day is beautiful. Did the clouds roll back and
the waters part and the sun continually shine in your heart? Everything
smiles. Is that your experience? You're
all smiling at me because it's not. You know it's not. Not for the child of God, for
our Lord promised us this. Our Lord's no used car salesman.
He promised us this. He said, in this world you shall
have tribulation. Peter, Satan hath desired to
sift thee as wheat, but I have prayed for thee. Satan walks about as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour. The new birth did not destroy
the old man, did it? The new birth did not destroy
the old man. Those who believe have the new
birth. Some people think that the new
birth changes, it rehabilitates. No! The new birth does no such
thing to the old man. The old man is just as vile and
just as wicked and just as evil as he was born. He didn't change. He had to be thrown down and
murdered. That's what he had to be. He
had to be cast off and he has to continually be mutilated. Because he's still in us. Our
foes are real, believers. They're not fictitious foes.
They're not some myth. Our foes are real. Our troubles
are real. Our hardships and struggles are
hard. The way is long. And I'll tell
you, this world is devoid of all comfort for us. Even our own flesh and kin oppose
us to the worship of Christ, and they all seem hell-bent to
drag us down with them. Is that not your experience?
That's just our experience. That's just so for every believer.
And so what does the Lord do for us in such struggles? What
are we to do in such struggles? See, the Word of God doesn't
leave us to question what to do. Isn't that good? He doesn't
leave us... And it's not complicated. I'm
so thankful for an uncomplicated religion. I am. I'm thankful for it. Listen,
it's very simple. You have struggles, here it is. Faith. Faith. In every struggle, you should
believe God. The just shall live how? By faith. Faith! The just shall live by
faith. Believers, see, He has made a
covenant for us. Verse 18, And that day I will
make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the
fowls of heaven and the creeping things of the ground, and I will
break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth,
and I will make them lie down safely. He said He's made a covenant. Listen, God has made a covenant
for you that nothing can touch you. Nothing happens to us by chance. Everything that happens to us
is designed and on purpose. And God says, nothing will touch
you without My permission. Nothing. And nothing I mean to
destroy you. Not a beast of the field, not
the creeping things, not the fowls of heaven. Why? For all
things work together for your good. To them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. Remember, believer,
we are not saved on accident. We're saved on purpose. And so then, in the very teeth
of your trouble, God gives you this assurance. Listen to it.
Listen to it. You, believer, you who are struggling
and doubting and fearing, listen to what God says. And you hold
it. You believe it. You trust it.
You lay down on it. Here it is, I will betroth thee
unto me, how long? Forever. Forever. Now if we can just believe that,
if we can just hold that, how much easier would this life be?
If we could just believe His Word, Believe His Word, I will betroth
thee unto Me forever. Believer in Christ, you are the
bride of Christ because of sovereign will. You are His bride by sovereign
will. Now God's will in Scripture is
sovereign, isn't it? Is it sovereign or is it not?
There's no middle ground here. It's either sovereign or it's
not. Sovereign, the Scriptures are plain. Our God is in the
heavens and has done what? Whatsoever He hath pleased. Is that not plain enough? Well,
because of our frailty, God says this more than once in Scripture.
It's not just one time. It's throughout the book. Psalm
135 verse 6, Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in the heavens
and the earth and the sea and all deep things. Isaiah 46 verse
10, declaring the end. When did God declare the end?
At the beginning. At the beginning, from ancient
times, the things that were not yet done, saying what? My counsel
shall stand. My counsel shall stand. And I will do what? All My pleasure. Now is that sovereign or what?
That's sovereign. And so what is this sovereign
God willed and pleased to do? Marry you. That's what He's pleased
to do. Marry you. He's pleased to marry
you. He said, I will marry you forever. Ephesians 1.11 says, "...in whom
we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will, that we should be to the praise of the glory
of His grace, who first trusted in Christ." Who first trusted
in Christ? God the Father first trusted in Christ. God trusted
Christ with you. He said, I love my people and
I trust you, Son, to bring them home to me. And this is not just for time,
but rather for ever. Believer, our sins, our troubles,
our sorrows surround us. They're deep. But God says, believe
My word. Believe My oath. I will betroth you to Me. Forever. Now is God's Word not
enough? Should be enough. But you know
what God does? He even gives us more. As though His oath was not enough,
yet He gives us more. And I want to give you these
five things for your assurance. You troubled bride, you doubting
bride, God gives you five things to
show you that this betrothal is forever. First of all, He
says, I'll betroth you to Me in righteousness. This is the
first assurance. You see, we can never be the
bride of Christ except we were righteous. Can't be accepted
of God unless you're righteous. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, that hath not sworn deceitfully." Well, we by nature were the whorish
woman. We were defiled ourselves under
every green tree. How can we be the spotless bride? Even because Christ is made of
God to be all our righteousness. I betrothed you to me forever,
even because in Christ you are righteous." You are righteous. You are spotless. You are. The righteousness of Christ,
listen, has been forever imputed to God, to us by God. When God chose us in Christ,
then were we accepted. You not get that? You were accepted
in Him before the world began. You were accepted. How can we be accepted not yet
being born? How can we be accepted seeing
that we would come into the line of Adam in the fall, in the rebellious
state of sin? Even because by the will of God
Christ In Christ, God charged us with
His righteousness. That was His by nature, this
righteousness, that He should obtain it as our federal head,
and His righteousness was charged by God and accounted by God to
be your own. You not get that? That's what
we call imputed righteousness. His righteousness was charged
to you. accounted by God to you. And listen, only God could do
that. Only God could do that. When I count my sin to you, or
my stuff to you, that's blaming you. That's not doing it. There's
no transference there. I can blame you all day, but
I can't give you my guilt. Only God can impute. Righteousness
and transfer guilt. In which righteousness Christ
did perform in the flesh, it says, even the righteousness
of God which is by the faith of Christ. Isn't that good news?
That your righteousness is by the faith of Christ. Bob, aren't
you glad it didn't say that even the righteousness of God which
is by the faith of Bob? I'd have no hope, would you?
We wouldn't have any hope. But now we have the righteousness
of God by the faith of Christ. And that righteousness, it says,
is unto us and to us, which is imputed and imparted. You see, that righteousness was
mine in Christ before the world began, but now, by faith, I see
that it has been imparted to me by a new nature. The very
nature of Christ has been created in us. And so now, I have assurance
that I'm the bride of Christ forever, because I have His righteousness. Secondly, we are betrothed to
Him in judgment. We are married in judgment. Now this testifies to us of the
execution of God's justice against our sins. See, your sins are
real. Your sins were real and they
were against God. And God cannot show you mercy. He cannot give you righteousness
at the expense of His justice. Now isn't this what causes you
the most problems, believer? Isn't this it? Judgment. This
causes you the most problems. Because you still have this old
man continually sinning. This causes us the most doubts
and fears. But God says, fear not. Why? Because I betrothed you to me
in justice. I've taken your sin. And I've
not only imputed to you the righteousness of Christ, I've imputed your
sin to Christ. And now He has paid the penalty
for your sin, for every one of your sins. The sin you know about
and the sin you don't. And not even positive sins of
omission or commission. What I'm talking about is your
nature. Your very nature was imputed to Christ. And He suffered. He suffered for our sins and
died. Scripture says, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Contrary
to us, took it out of the way. Isn't that good? Took it out
of the way. That reminds you of the veil
being rent in Twain? Took it out of the way. So what
does that mean? There's access. There's access
to my bridegroom. The bride has access to God.
Because judgment is passed, there's no more judgment for you. You
know what we're waiting for? We're waiting for the glorification. We're not waiting for judgment
to be passed. Judgment's already gone for us.
When judgment comes, it will just pronounce us clean, righteous. That's all judgment will do for
us. And so, we are betrothed to Him. God did not overlook
our sin, but rather He punished it. And by the one sacrifice
of Christ, it was the will of God that we should be sanctified. Isn't that what is said in Hebrews
10.10? By the witch will, the will of God, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Christ. Once, forever, for all. See, believer, God who willed
you to be married to Christ has done so not only by dismissing
His judgment, but rather satisfying it. Satisfying it. Number three,
you should be assured of His betrothal because of His loving-kindness. Look at that. He says, I betroth
you to Me forever in righteousness, in judgment, and in loving-kindness. What is this but the drawing
of the believer? The drawing of us. This loving-kindness is the experience
of grace toward us in calling us and in continually showing
us His mercies. The first display of God's betrothal
to us was the effectual call. Now, that betrothal was way before
we were ever called. That betrothal was way in eternity.
Now, that betrothal in judgment and righteousness was handled
by Jesus Christ before we were born. But our first taste of
it is when He comes to us in loving kindness. That first experience,
that first instance of faith in Christ, that's when He comes
in loving kindness to us. How can any son of Adam know
his election and redemption? Seeing they were before us. Only
when we are drawn by the irresistible grace of God through the preaching
of the gospel. That's the only way you'll know
your election. That's it. Jeremiah 31, 3. What does it
say? I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Yeah, but what's the manifestation
of that? How do I know He's loving? God doesn't love everyone. We
know that. The Scriptures are clear. Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. In John chapter 17, I pray not
for the world, I pray for them that you have given me out of
the world. So we know this. God has a people that He only
loves them. He doesn't love everyone. So
how do I know that He loves me? Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Has He drawn you to Himself? Have you felt the embrace of
Christ draw you? His love overwhelm you? And faith
enter in before you even know it. That's how faith comes. Faith
comes before you even know it. It comes in. We believe before we even knew
we believed. That's loving kindness of God. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. Have you been drawn? Oh, you should know then. I betrothed
you to me forever. And I showed you by drawing you.
I showed you by giving you faith. And when He drew us, what could
we do but come? Was there anything else you could
do? Was it a choice? It wasn't even a choice. It was
like Lazarus coming out of the tomb. Lazarus, come forth. Okay.
He came out. It was like when God says, when
God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, did the light
have any choice? No. The light shined immediately. And that's what happened when
God in lovingkindness drawed us. We were drawn forth by his
kindness and we believed on Christ. And you know what? How does he
display his tender mercies even today? Aren't you still here? Is that not evidence enough for
you? That you're still here. Peter says that the elect are
kept. by the power of God. You're already saved, but we
are kept unto salvation, aren't we? He that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. Who's going to endure? Everyone
that God draws in loving kindness will endure. I tell you, some people can pretend,
but they can only pretend so long. And this is what God says
in verse 19. He says, I will betroth thee
unto me forever, yea, I will betroth thee, I'm sorry, verse
20, I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness. This is the
fifth one. This is the fifth level of assurance
for the believer. See, we must and do confess that
we are unfaithful. I count even my faith as unbelief. I don't even see it to be worthy
to be called faith. But it is. It's faith. But oh,
how it's weak, how small, how little is my faithfulness and
my love and my... It's not even worthy to be called
faith. But God, who purposed us to be His bride, did not rest
the keeping of us on our faithfulness. He says this, I'll betroth you
to Me forever, and listen, listen, you're going to be betrothed
because I'm faithful. Where does all the weight of
salvation rest? Where does it rest? If you and
I had one ounce of salvation, one ounce of weight in regards
to our salvation, we couldn't bear it. But do you not see that He carries
us? Do you not see He's faithful
to carry you? All the way. You have not made
one step in this journey without Him, without His strength, without
His wisdom, without His kindness, without His mercy, without His
faithfulness. What does the Scripture say?
Great is... Whose faithfulness? Thy faithfulness. His mercies are new. How often? Every morning. Every morning you wake up as
a believer, that's because of His faithfulness. That's because
of His. You see, this matter of salvation
rests completely on Him. Even the faithfulness of God
and Jesus Christ, for He willed it so. He said, I will be your
husband, and you will be my bride, because I willed it so. And just
for your assurance, I did it in righteousness. I gave you
righteousness that you didn't have. I did it in judgment. I paid for your sins. He said, I did it in loving kindness
and tender mercies. I called you and I'll do it by
faithfulness and keep you. And thou shalt know the Lord. Do you know him? Do you know
him? That's not common knowledge.
That's not common knowledge. To know Him is life. Isn't that
what Christ said? He said, that they may know Thee,
the only true God and Jesus Christ. That's not common knowledge.
Now they think it is. The world thinks it's common
knowledge. But we know it's not. We know this. It is given unto
you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But unto
them it's not given. Now how special is that? That's
something only the bridegroom gives the bride. Intimate knowledge. Do you have these things? Then
what troubles you? Why are you unsure? If you're
unsure, it's because you're putting it on you. If you're unsure about
any of this, it's because you're putting something on you. Joshua lived by faith in Him. In Him. And He said, I will betroth
you to Me. How long? Forever. May God bless
you. Give you His assurances. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer.