chapter 2. A text will be found in verse
14. Hosea chapter 2 and verse 14, the Lord says, Therefore,
behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness
and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards
from thence, and the valley of Achar for a door of hope. And she shall sing there as in
the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up out
of the land of Egypt." Now here in the book of Hosea, we see
that this prophet's calling, the calling of this prophet is
very unusual. Very unusual circumstance in
which the Lord commands His prophet to go and take a wife of whoredoms. To take a prostitute. A woman
of ill repute, a woman that has sold herself to many lovers. And now God commands that His
prophet should take this woman, most unworthy woman, and buy
her and marry her. This woman was to be taken and
bought by Hosea, to use her as other men did,
but rather to love her. And as you would read this prophecy,
you would realize the love of this man Hosea that God gave
him for this woman was great. Not to use her for lust, but
rather to love her as a wife. And the whole purpose of this
commandment God reveals to us is a picture. God uses this man
and his life. to picture His gospel. Now, if you want to know how
important this gospel is to God, He uses men to picture it. Whole
lives of men, whole generations of people, God uses for His gospel. And look at this, He gives us
the reason for this in verse 2 of chapter 1, in the beginning
of the Word of the Lord to Hosea. And the Lord said unto Hosea,
Go and take thee a wife of Hortems, and children of Hortums, four. This is the reason. The land
hath committed great Hortums, departing from the Lord. See here that the historical
truth of this, the historical truth of this is that Israel
had left God. Israel, who was chosen of God,
given the law and the prophets, And the covenant promises, the
land of Canaan, and even though they were given all these blessings,
they forsook God as this harlot. He likens them to this harlot,
this woman. And yet for all the mercies and
blessings and deliverances of God, they committed whoredoms
and were spiritually guilty of spiritual idolatry. They left the worship of God.
They forsook the only true God for false gods. In chapter 2
and verses 4 and 5, the Scripture says, And I will not have mercy
upon her children, for they are children of whoredoms. For their
mother hath played the harlot, she conceived them, hath done
shamefully. For she said, I will go after
my lovers. that give me my bread, my water,
my wool, my flax, my oil, and my drink. In other words, this
woman Hosea that married Gomer, he married her, he loved her,
they had children together, and you know what she did? She forsook
him. She forsook him and went back
to her whoredom. She went back to her lovers and
forsook her husband that loved her. He said, God said, that's
exactly what Israel has done to me. That's exactly what you've
done to me. You've forsaken me. And this is a historical truth.
We know this to be true all throughout Israel's life as a nation. Over
and over again in the history of Israel, they did this. And yet now has come their full
rejection because of their rejection of Christ, hasn't it? That nation,
that people that God had chosen historically is now scattered,
no more people. Why? Because of their fulfillment
of this in that they had rejected Christ. The Lord had left to
their house desolate. Desolate. And yet we know that
nation of Israel is not true Israel. We know that. They are
only a picture and a type of the elect of God. If you go over
to Romans chapter 9, Paul makes this very clear. In Romans chapter
9, he tells us about this nation, this historical nation of Israel. He says, In verse 7, "...neither because
they are they the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in
Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are of the
children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the
children of promise are counted for the seed." And so in this
book, what I want you to understand is there is a historical prophecy
that's being fulfilled here. There's a historical prophecy
being fulfilled. And yet this prophecy of physical
Israel is only a shadow and a picture of the true Israel of God. These
who were Abraham's seed in the flesh are not all the children
of promise. And we see that clearly. Remember
in Isaac, shall thy seed be called? But how many sons did Isaac have?
He had two sons of the same womb, and yet only one of them was
chosen. Only one of them was chosen,
and that was Jacob. And so we see this as the sovereign
election of God. Therefore, in order for the Old
Testament Scriptures to be relevant to us, we cannot just see them
as historical prophecy fulfilled. In order for the Old Testament
Scripture to be relevant to us, God must couch in the history
of these pages a picture of the church for every age. In the Scripture, if the Scripture
only spoke of fulfilled prophecy and unfulfilled prophecy, which
is past and future, but never spoke of the believer's present
experience or personal dealings, then the Word of God would be
nothing to us. It would be meaningless to us.
But I tell you that this book that was written some thousands
of years ago is most relevant to you. God intended that this
Word be directed to us in this very age. This Word is sharp
and living and powerful because it speaks to us of present fulfillment
of prophecy. This Scripture is being presently
fulfilled. This is a type and a picture
of every believer in Christ in every age. It's a picture of
you and me. It's a picture of you and me. Therefore, in order for it to
be effectual, though, the spirit must apply it to the heart. Therefore,
for the perishing, for those who are outside of Christ, that's
why the Scriptures are meaningless, because they have no experience
in it, they have no interest in it. It speaks nothing but
past prophecies or future prophecies. It doesn't speak of any present
experience. But to us who are born again
of the Spirit of God, this book, though written thousands of years
ago, is powerful. It pictures our hearts concerning
our sin. It heals our souls as it speaks
to us of Christ. It comforts us. It soothes us. It cures our doubts and fears
and causes them to flee, and it sustains us. This Word is
very living to those who are living. To those who are living,
this marriage of Hosea to this woman some thousand years ago
is not meaningless, but it is very relevant because it is a
picture of us. Because we can identify with
these characters. We identify with these people
because Gomer is us. We are the sinner. We are the harlot by nature. Matter of fact, you know what
gomer means? It means wasted. And that is what we are by nature,
wasted. Wasted. Even so, in this place, in this
text that I've read to you, every true believer surely sees that
we are pictured here. We by nature have sold ourselves
to every lust and sin and wickedness of the heart. We by nature were
against God and not subject to God's law, neither indeed could
be. We could not receive the things
of God because we were spiritually discerned. Yet, even while we
were in our whoredoms, God in love sent His Son, pictured by
Hosea, to buy us out of our whoredoms. He was sent into the world to
buy us, to redeem us from the chains of our sin. He was sent
to break the iron bars. He is sent to break the gates
of brass and to cut and sunder the iron bars of our sin and
set us free. Therefore, in verse 10, God says
this, I will now, I'm sorry, in verse
10, He says, Yet the number of the children of Israel shall
be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered. it shall come to pass in the
place where it is said unto them, you are not my people, there
it shall be said unto them, you are the sons of the living God. Though you have sinned, though
you have committed whoredoms, this is true, the number of my
elect is without measure. Though My people have sinned
against Me, though by nature they are not My people, yet I
will say to them, You are My sons. It shall come to pass that when
it is said, You are not My people, which speaks to us of our depravity,
our Adamic nature, Our lost natural condition in which God finds
each elect sinner is a son of Adam. And yet herein God promises
there. There, in that day of conversion,
in that day of grace, when I come in power and demonstration of
My Holy Spirit, when I come in creating them a new heart and
new nature, then they shall who were not My people by nature
shall be called the sons of the living God. You who are born
again, listen, you by nature were not the sons of God, but
now, You have a right to be called the sons of God if you've been
born again. You are my sons. Are you the
son of God? Are you a son of God? Can this be said of you? It can
if you've received Christ. Have you received Christ? As
many as received Him, to them gave He the right to be called
the sons of God, which were born, not of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, nor of blood, but of the will of God."
By faith in Christ, we receive Him. But remember, faith is the
fruit and offspring of the new birth. No man can come unto Me
except the Father which has sent Me draw him. As it is written,
they shall all be taught of God. And he that cometh to me, he's
taught of God. If you've come to Christ, if
you've come to Him, how is it that you've come to Him? Because
God told you. Because God gave you life. And listen, there is a great
number of these people who believe. There's going to be a great number
of them. Isn't that comforting? It's going to be measureless.
You look around and you see so small a group, you see so small
in our age, but God says it's going to be without number. Without
number. There'll be many. But in this
day and age, we don't see many. There are many people who believe
that the call of the Holy Spirit is something you can resist.
Don't they? They believe that the Spirit's
calling everybody and that all you've got to do is just submit
to Him. You've got to allow Him to do
something for you. That it's resistible. Yet the Word of God testifies
that all those elect were predestinated to be called, justified, and
glorified. How then shall anyone resist
that God has decreed to justify, to call and glorify. Surely the
word of God does not call all men, but all he calls most surely
will come to Christ. And all that the Father giveth
Me, Christ said, shall come to Me. The Lord said, Let there
be light, and there was light. The Lord said to Lazarus, Come
forth, and Lazarus came forth. And so it is true of every one
of God's people. He's purposed to save. They will
come to Him, and they shall be called the sons of God. They
shall be called the sons of God. Now that we have the picture
of this promise, He now reveals to us, in our text of that chapter,
the very experience of it. Here it is. He said, Hosea, go
marry Harlot. We, by nature, are the harlot.
Christ is the one sent to marry us, to buy us. He will be successful
in calling and marrying His bride. But I tell you, Everyone that
is called of God will have an experience of grace in their
hearts. And God lays out what this experience of grace will
be. And I'll tell you, I don't have
the same experience as Paul had, the Apostle Paul. I didn't see
the Lord Jesus Christ shine out of heaven. I didn't fall off
of a horse and I wasn't blinded. So my experience in the flesh
wasn't the same. But I tell you, my spiritual
experience was the same. I can identify with his experience
because every one of us had that in our own selves. And everybody
will have this experience. Look at your text again. Therefore,
because I purposed to marry you, even though you've been in sin,
because I purposed to call you to myself, this is therefore,
behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness
and speak comfortably to her. When God calls a sinner to life
and faith in Christ, He will first call us to the wilderness. Now what is this wilderness?
What are we to understand by this wilderness? Surely there
are two things that may be seen, and if God enables us, I pray
that He does, And if you're a believer, you should see this very clearly.
First of all, it's the world. The world is a wilderness. To
every believer, this world is a wilderness. And secondly, our
own heart is the wilderness. Is a wilderness. Every child
of God knows both of these to be true. Now let us, before we
begin to see the spiritual, we surely have to understand the
literal, don't we? We have to understand what it
literally means, the wilderness. First of all, a wilderness is
a place where no food grows naturally. Isn't that so? A wilderness is a place where
it's natural for it to be barren. That's because either of the
climate or natural environment, no grain grows naturally there. And secondly, the wilderness
is a place where no food can be grown. No matter how much
a man digs and plows and works and sweats in the wilderness,
he can work as hard as he wants, plant the best seed he can, but
nothing will grow. Nothing will grow there. You take the Arabian desert.
See that vast wasteland full of sand? Now nothing grows there
naturally. Now you take a man and you go
out there with the best seed and all the equipment you can
get and you dig up that sand and you try to water it and you
know what you're going to grow? Nothing. You can't, it doesn't
grow naturally and it won't grow by work. And thirdly, the wilderness is
no place to settle. It's no place to be settled.
This is why people that lived in that area were nomads. They had to roam from place to
place because you cannot build a foundation on sand. You just
can't do it. Believers, is this not the world
such a wilderness to us? To us who are allured of God,
taught of God, we see that this world is a barren wasteland.
Now to the worldling it's not. To those who are lost, this world
is pleasurable, it's plentiful, it's prosperous. Sin is good
to the worldling. So this world, when I tell them
it's a barren wasteland, they mock, they laugh. Why? Because they love this world.
They love everything in it. They love their family, their
friends, their jewels. But to us, none of these things
can satisfy or feed our souls. Nothing naturally grows in this
world to feed the souls of men. To feed the flesh, yes, but not
the soul. Nothing. Nothing in this world
can satisfy or make our acceptance with God. And nothing we can
do or earn in this world or work for can grow acceptance with
God. And this is why men shift from
religion to religion to religion to religion to religion. They're
never settled on one thing. We were just talking about this
last night. In this world, there is no absolute truth. Everybody's
truth is just as good as somebody else's. You see how shifting
that is? Well, that sounds good. Well,
that sounds good. And shifting. So there's no building
here. There's no foundation upon which
a man can build his soul in the world or its religion. But the
greatest picture of the wilderness is not the world, it's rather
our own hearts. Our own hearts are a wilderness.
When God calls a sinner, He first must expose that our own hearts
are a wilderness, which can by nature grow no righteousness. You know that your heart by nature
grows no righteousness. None. It grows no righteousness. Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. Therefore, no man by nature, no man by nature can receive
the things of God. And this is why they are foolishness
to him, because he's spiritually discerned, he's judged, he's
condemned, he's barren. And let this be, see this is
true, that no matter how much you work on this heart, it doesn't
grow anything. Now, it doesn't grow anything
naturally, and I'll tell you, no matter how much work you put
into it, you still will grow no righteousness in this heart.
You can work all you want to. Work as hard as you want to.
Dig as deep as you want to. Be as religious as you want to.
You cannot produce righteousness. Jesus said, if the tree, if the root is corrupt,
If the tree is corrupt, the fruit will be corrupt. And you see,
our hearts are corrupt. And this is the first thing God
reveals to the sinner, to his people, is that our hearts are
barren and can by no means produce righteousness. Matter of fact,
isn't it true, the more you dig, the more sin you find? The more you try, the more you
see your failures. God said in Jeremiah, my people
have committed two evils. They've forsaken me, the fountain
of living water, and hewed out for themselves, worked hard to
do what? Build broken cisterns that can
hold no water. Therefore, the heart is also
no place for a building or a foundation. And our heart is always a shifting
sand being moved by time and circumstance. Isn't that true
about us? That it doesn't take but one
circumstance to shift us into a whole other mindset. We are tossed about like a tiny
vessel in the midst of the ocean on a stormy night. We are tossed
And so you can't trust the flesh. You can't trust the heart. It's
a wilderness. And so, what does the Lord mean
here? He said, our hearts. He said,
I will lure her and bring her into the wilderness. He will
expose our sin and barrenness. But notice this. He says, I will
allure her. This is strange. You know, when
you're courting, if you were courting a woman, you would not
allure her to a desert. That just doesn't make any sense.
If you're wanting to show affection, you would bring her to a nice
place. You would bring her to a good place. Not a wilderness. But yet God says, I'm going to,
by my love, allure you and expose you. Now, we know the work of the
Holy Spirit is done out of love. It is done out of mercy that
God purposed from eternity. Therefore, this work of God is
an allure of His love. But the experience of it to the
sinner doesn't feel like love. It doesn't feel like love. It's
painful. It's painful. For by love He
allures us in order to show our barrenness, our unrighteousness. He sends forth His law to hedge
us up in our way. Look at that in verse 6. Therefore,
behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall
that she shall not find her paths. Does that sound pleasant? I will
hedge you up with thorns. Isn't that always the way the
law comes in and power and reveals our sin and we can't turn to
the right? We can't turn to the left? Everything
is painful. Our sin is painful. It's tender
to our souls. The work of God is to allure
us into this place, to bring our hearts under conviction of
sin. And yet the more we try to throw it off, the more barren
and more painful sin comes. Sorrow and pain begin to grow
in the man's heart. And so the man turns to religion. Look at that in verse... Verse 7, And she shall follow
after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. She shall
seek them, but she shall not find them. Then shall she say,
I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better
with me than now. What does she do? She turns to
religion. Isn't that what we all did? We all turned to some
kind of religion. When the Lord convicted us of
our sin, we turned to something. We had to go somewhere. We couldn't
throw it off like we normally did. We were like Samson with his
hair cut. He normally threw those things off, but then with his
hair cut, his shame exposed, he could not throw off their
chains. And we found out we couldn't throw off our sins. And so what
do we do? We turn to religion. But God, and God removes His
kindness from us, and the joys of sin. He removes the joys of
sin. That's painful, isn't it? Painful
to the flesh. He exposes our nakedness. He
said in verse 10, Now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of
her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand. I will also
cause her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her
Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I will destroy her
vines and her fig trees. Therefore she hath said, These
are my rewards that my lovers have given me, and I will make
them a forest, and the beast of the field shall eat them."
What is he saying? I'm going to destroy your religion. I'm
going to destroy all your false works religion. All that religion
you think you built up, I'm going to tear it down and show you
it's nothing but a wilderness. I'm going to lay you so low in
the dust that you can't even look up. Oh, see that God must bring us
to this place. Go to Lamentations. I want you
to see, this is totally opposite of how men think God calls people,
isn't it? You think God calls people with
His love, and then they have this flowery, emotional experience
of joy and peace, and there's nothing that bothers them? No,
if you ain't ever been brought to the dust, you've never seen
mercy. Lamentations. Let me find it
myself. Lamentations. I'm getting there.
Lamentations chapter 3. Look at verse 28. He sitteth alone and keepeth
silence, because He hath borne it upon Him. What does God do
when He allures us to the wilderness? He puts us alone. He brings us
to Himself alone. And then, He putteth His mouth
in the dust, If so be, there may be hope. See there, if God
doesn't ever put your mouth in the dust, there's no hope for
you. You see why it's love? He must
put you in the dust. He must show you that you have
no hope or glory in yourself. If there's hope, He'll have to
allure you to the wilderness. God reveals His kindness, He
destroys everything else. See that God does this out of
love, though painful for us, He does it to humble us. He separates
us to be alone with Himself and shuts our mouths in the dust. Has God allured you to such a
place? Has He shut your mouth to all
your excuses? Has He caused you to plead like
the publican? Remember that publican, he could
not so much as look up to heaven. And he said, Lord, be merciful
to me, thee, sinner. The Pharisees saw everyone as
sinners. The publicans saw himself as
the sinner. Have you seen yourself the sinner? I praise God that He does not
close the book when He brings us to the wilderness. But notice he says in our text,
"...and bring her to the wilderness and
speak comfortably to her." There has never been one of the elect
left in the wilderness. There's not been one. There's
not been one left just to see their sin and go off into hell. Not one of the elect. Because
God brought you there, brought you low, in order to speak comfortably
to you. Comfortably to you. God's purpose
was not to leave you in despair of your sin, but rather to expose
His grace and love to your heart. Surely one exposed before the
justice of God, one guilty of sin, would expect the wrath of
God. Didn't you expect it? When God
brought you to the wilderness, did you not expect to be left
there? But that's not what He did. He brought you there to
exchange something. To make an exchange. To give you beauty for ashes. to give you the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
There's an exchange that takes place in the wilderness. Has God made you low? Then behold
His words of comfort to you, even Jesus Christ, because that's
the comfort that He speaks. To us who are barren in ourselves,
the only comfort and joy for us is Christ. Christ. Look what he says. Look at the
words of comfort he gives to her. He said, I will give her
her vineyards from thence and the valley of Achar for a door
of hope. Well, what in the world is a
valley of Achar? Go over to Joshua. Joshua chapter Joshua chapter 7. Valley of Achar. How does this
speak comfortably to us? Well, you remember in Joshua
6 they had fought the battle of Jericho and God had won the
victory without their help. They just marched around the
city and God knocked down the walls, God gave them the victory,
and because God gave them the victory, He said, you're not
allowed to take anything out of this city. I gave you the
victory, it's my glory, and you don't get any glory for this.
But there was one man that sinned against God, and his name was
Achan. He took a spoil of the victory. He took a spoil of the victory.
And look what God says in verse 1. But the children of Israel
committed a trespass in the accursed thing. For Achan, the son of
Carmi, the son of Zebediah, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of
Judah, took of the accursed thing, and the anger of the Lord was
kindled against The children of Israel. Wait a second. If
Achan is the one that took it, how then did God accuse the whole
nation? He said the whole nation sinned
when Achan sinned. What is this but a type and picture
of Adam? When Adam took the accursed thing,
when Adam took the glory and robbed God of His glory, he sinned
and we all died in Adam. We all died in Adam. This man Achan is a picture of
Adam. And we all died in Him, but notice in verse 24. Look
in chapter 7 and in verse 24. And Joshua and all Israel took
him, that's took Achan, and the silver, and the garment, and
the wedge, and the gold, and his sons, and his daughters,
oxen, his asses, sheep, and his tent, and all that he had, and
brought him into the valley of... Where? Achar. Now here's the
door of hope. and Joshua. And they stoned this
man Achan in the valley of Achar. Verse 25, And Israel stoned him
with stones, and burned him with fire. See now, Achan is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. All our sins, all our sins, were
laid on Him, and God killed His only Son in our stead, so that
there may be hope." See, God's going to deal with
you in a representative. Either He'll deal with you in
Adam or He'll deal with you in Christ, but He'll deal with you
at the representative. Who's your representative? To
God, to those who speak, God speaks comfortably to. The valley
of Achar speaks hope. Christ is my hope. His death, His death for my sins
as my representative man. By one man came sin. Even so,
by one man came righteousness and life. Behold, sinner, Jesus
Christ is the door of hope. Jesus said that, I am the door.
If any man enter in, he shall find rest. He shall go in and out and find
pasture. For in Christ, we who are barren, a wilderness, God
gives to us vineyards. Isn't that what He said? I will
give to her her vineyards. Her vineyards. Which surely pictures
to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. All that the Father allures
into the wilderness, exposes sin, He reveals Christ, and He
gives them righteousness. Now vineyard, that's a fruitful
place, isn't it? That's nothing like the wilderness. It's a fruitful place. It's a
place that naturally grows things. You know, when God creates in
us a new nature, do you realize that is the very image of Christ
Himself? It's the very image of Christ.
Righteousness. And so now to us who are hearts,
our flesh is a wilderness, but because of the blood and righteousness
of Christ, because he's humbled us, he has given us a new heart. And you know what? We are acceptable
to God. You're acceptable. You are in
Christ, you're acceptable. And the result of this, look
at this, and she shall sing as in the days of her youth. You
know, when she was, when, when Gomer was young, she was, she
was a virgin. She was pure. And you know what
God says to us? You shall sing as though you
are pure, pure as Jesus Christ. This is our hope. This is our
glory. is to be found in him, as in the days when she came
up out of the land of Egypt." Remember when Moses came up out
of the Red Sea, what did they do? They sang. They sang glory
to God who delivered us, who has cast both the horse and the
rider into the sea. You see, God has cast our sins
behind His back. Because of Christ, our sins have
been gone. They're put away forever from
the presence of God. Oh, has God brought you in to
see the wilderness of your own barren nature? Your fruitless works in religion. If He has, may God speak comfortably
to you and point you to the valley of Achor, Jesus Christ, the door
of hope. And only those who enter in by
Christ can sing and rejoice because our sins have been forever taken
away by His sacrifice. You see, I identify with Gomer,
don't you? I identify with this because
this is the experience of grace in my heart. This is what God
has done for me. And He does it for every one
of His people. Every one of them. without exception. I pray that God give you comfort
and blessings from this.