You can hear this story about
how Hosea, the Lord spoke to him, his prophet. And he said,
this is his spokesperson, the southern part of Israel. And
he said, you go take a wife of whoredoms, go marry a prostitute. And you say, whoo, poor Hosea. You think you're Hosea. That
name means Savior, Redeemer. That's Hosea. If you hear this
story of how God's prophet had to go marry a harlot, and that's
too nice of a word, a streetwalker, a worthless lady of the night,
and you say, oh, what a wonderful story. It's good news. I have zero complaints. You see
yourself as Gomer. You see yourself as gone. But
I think this message tonight will go very well with our message
this morning. We saw about those prophets of
old, how they earnestly sought the Lord. They wanted to know
more of Him. How the angels in heaven gather
around the local assembly of God to hear, to learn of His
gospel, to learn more of Christ. And how do I? I got in the car, and I thought,
what are we having for lunch? When's that new show come out? Wicked,
ain't I? I feel horrible. I failed. I no more got through telling
that message to you, preaching to you. And... Right down. We're weak, aren't
we? Some people look here at Hosea
2 and they say this is a good plan, this is a blueprint how
to reconcile a marriage. The practicality of this. I want to tell you something
and I hope you pay close attention to me. What we're going to read
in Hosea chapter 2, this is a holy conversation between God the
Father and God the Son. We get to listen in. There's
going to be two responses to that. I give. I don't want to hear
nothing of it. I want something else. Or let me listen. Oh, let me listen. I want to
hear what He has to say. We're going to see tonight how
God Almighty saves sinners. Do we know we're going to meet
Him? Every man, woman, and child that's ever walked this earth
is going to meet God one day. We want to be saved in His grace
and His mercy, looking and smelling and robed just like His Son?
Being accepted to Him? Or do we want to stand with Him
alone? We don't want to do that. I pray
the Lord will be with us tonight. Let us see what He has to say
to His Son and what His Son had to say back to Him. It will be
a great comfort to you. It will be a great comfort. Last
week we looked in Chapter 1, that wedding announcement. This
bride was chosen before the fall. God the Father spoke to His Son
and said, you take a bride, that gomer, consumption, death, wife of whoredoms and her children
of whoredoms, everything that's a proof of her occupation, her
offspring, you bear it. You take them. And that wedding
was fruitful. They had three children. end
up being three grown children. They were together, wed together,
and then Gomer fell. What we'll see is the decreed
plan of God, of holy God towards his people. This is how he saves
his people. For those that He's already touched,
those that He's circumcised your heart, His words have pierced
you and given you spiritual life. Whenever we fall, after we know
Him, this is how He comes to us. This is how He deals with
His children. Now silly people, they say that
a believer never acts like an unbeliever. Oh, they were saved. A saved person wouldn't act that
way. or that the trial that they're going through is a very odd trial,
a unique trial, or a very severe trial. Oh, that doesn't happen
to a child of God. That doesn't happen to a good
Christian, does it? How silly, how foolish. You remember those
miserable comforters that came to Job? What did it tell him?
What did you do wrong? You must have done something.
That's preaching a reactive God. God doesn't react to things,
He acts. We react to Him. He bends us,
doesn't He? Imagine Hosea, this man, because
this physically happened, his prophet, he marries this wife
of Hortum's, he marries a prostitute. And they have children together,
they have a life together, and his wife leaves him. walks out
on him, and not in a good way. She didn't walk for something
better, did she? Is that a believer? Is Hosea, did he remain his prophet?
He did to death. Adam fell. Adam was morally innocent. Didn't even know what sin was.
He didn't have a need to know what sin was. He was in the garden,
given one commandment. He fell, didn't he? Noah, he
was saved from that flood. Him and his boys and their wives. The whole earth perished. They
were the only ones that made it. Boy, now he's going to walk
a good Christian life now, isn't he? Be a good soldier, isn't
he? Got drunk. Passed out. Ruined one of his sons. He fell.
Lot was brought out of Sodom. Two angels came into Sodom. Took
Lot out of there. perched him up and he saw that
whole city burn to the ground. He fell after seeing all that. King David, that great and mighty
king, fell in love with his best friend's wife, had him sent off
to war to get him killed so he could take his wife. He knew
the Lord and remained the king, remained God's prophet. Solomon,
that wisest man that ever lived, that prayed for understanding.
Lord, let me understand your scriptures. Give me an understanding
heart to judge this people. He lived like a fool sometimes.
Wisest man that ever lived. Calmer fell physically. And Christ's
sheep, we fall in sin. Every one of us. Now we're going
to read here, chapter 2, but I want us to remember that starting
in chapter 1, verse 9, the Lord begins to speak. This is God
speaking, and He doesn't stop speaking until the end of the
second chapter there, verse 23. So, Hosea chapter 2, verse 1, Ammi, and to your sisters, Ruhamah,
plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife, neither
am I her husband. Let her therefore put away her
whoredoms, her idolatries, out of her sight, and her adulteries
from between her breasts." God the Father is speaking here,
and He says, preach the gospel. preach the gospel, so say unto
your brethren, am I, that means my people, say unto your sisters,
Ruhemah, having obtained mercy. He says, you tell my people that
have obtained mercy, tell my elect that I've revealed it in
their hearts to plead with your mother, plead with your fallen
mother, plead with the ones that you came from. You plead with
that people that, those people that have been shown mercy, you
plead with where the Lord found you, where he found every one
of us. Go to your mothers, go to your
fathers, your family members, those you work with, every fallen
child and Adam. Go to them. Plead with them.
Those that have obtained mercy of my hand. Plead with sinners. Why? Forty days. That's what Jonah told them.
He walked through Nineveh shouting forty days and the Lord is going
to tear this city to the ground. Repent. Believe. Look to Christ. But God must remain holy. Gomer
fell. I fail. Every one of us have
failed. He must remain holy. The punishment
for sin is death. That willful disobedience must
be punished by death. Look here in verse 3. Lest I
strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born,
and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land,
and slay her with thirst. And I will not have mercy upon
her children, for they be the children of whoredoms. For their
mother hath played the harlot. She hath conceived and hath done
shamefully. For she said, I will go after
my lovers that give me my bread and water, my wool, my flax,
my oil, and my drink." God said, you go preach the gospel
to them or they're going to perish. I've chosen a people, I've assigned
a people before time, given to my Hosea, my Redeemer, my firstborn. My gomers have been put in Him,
and they have failed. They've ran from the Lord, preached
to Him, or destruction's coming. Forty days. That city of Nineveh will fall.
He said, I want to deal with sin. And when we get to verse
6, Does Hosea the prophet say, okay,
here's my game plan? He doesn't speak, does he? No. Physically, God's speaking to
Hosea. What transpired on this earth is that God the Father
is speaking to Hosea and saying, here's what you're going to do.
But, here's what God the Father just told us in the first five
verses. Starting in verse 6, this is Christ's response to
God the Father before this world was made. Before time was created,
he responds to his father. He's convincing. I can't convince
anyone in their heart. I can talk some people into doing
some stuff. I can have some tactics and do
some tricks. You can train a dog to bark every
time you say election or something. chalkboards up all the way down
this wall and all the way down that wall and I could have one
of the most detailed theological dissertations on what this book
means. Or I could sit down with a child
with one piece of paper and a crayon and say, all flesh is grass.
The word of the Lord remains forever. That's how God saved
sinners. Christ did it all and it's finished.
Neither one of those is effectual unless the Lord speaks to the
heart of His people. He has to do the work. It's not
the work of this physical prophet Hosea, it's the work of Christ
our Hosea. God's holy sovereignty and His
providence in all things displayed here. Christ is speaking to the
Father concerning His elect, putting Him before the foundations
of the world. And we'll look there in verse 6. Therefore behold, I will hedge
up thy way with thorns. and make a wall that she shall
not find her paths. And she shall follow after her
lovers, but she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them, but
shall not find them. Then she shall say, I will go
and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me
than now." She's going to chase them. She's going to seek after
those different gods. What's that? You name it. If
it ain't Christ, it's a different God, isn't it? It's a strange
fire. It's a different lust. Something
that's different. She's going to seek after them,
but she ain't going to overtake them. She's going to diligently
seek them. There's going to be some earnestness
here. This isn't just pretend. There's going to be some commitment.
There's going to be some bloodshed maybe. Spend some money doing
it. Conviction. But she shall not
find them. And then she'll say, I'm going
to go and return to my first husband, for it was better with
me than now. God hedges us about. The whole
time we think we're running wild, there's hedges all around us.
And then there's no satisfaction in those other things. There's
no peace. They say peace where there is
no peace. There's no peace in those things that we think are
good for us. And He turns us. Verse 8, we're unaware of His
providence this whole time. Verse 8, for she did not know
that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver
and gold which they prepared for Baal." This whole time, she's
out chasing. She's hedged about. It was the
Lord's providence and His plan for His church the whole time.
We're out chasing different divers' lusts and manners, isn't it?
And the whole time, the Lord's given us corn. He's given us
substance. That word wine there means new wine. That's daily
wine. He's given us food and drink,
given us oil, preserving us, protecting us the whole time,
and multiplying silver and gold. All that chasing the false gods,
it cost money, didn't it? We had to keep the power on while
He was doing that. We had to keep the kids fed,
keep them in shoes. Where'd you get that money? Oh,
it worked hard. God gave you that money. He preserved it. Gave you something to do. All
which we prepared for Baal. Every bit of it was for a false
god. God reveals His sovereignty and
His people and their lives. And He removes their robe of
righteousness, showing us that we ain't nothing but nakedness.
Look here in verse 9. Therefore will I return and take
away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof,
and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness
in the right time. in the right season. When's that?
I don't know, but he does. If I had to go take my corn and
my oil from somebody, I don't have any anyway, but it would
be the wrong time and the wrong season. In his time, in his season,
he takes his corn, his oil, his flax, his wool. It's all his
at the right time. All those things that covered
our nakedness, he exposes it. revealing His sovereignty. Then
in verse 10, And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of
her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand. God makes
us discover that He's discovered our sins. This isn't a surprise
to me. This isn't a shock. He reveals
Himself, makes us discover He's discovered us in sin, right in
the midst of it, when we were at enmity with God, right in
the act. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for the ungodly. You don't get better and quit
your wicked ways and then you learn something about God. He
shows you you are wicked. That's where He meets us. Right
there in that. And there will be no running
from the mountains and praying that the hills fall on you. When
the Lord exposes sin, there's no hiding from it. be in a crowd of a thousand people,
and He'll meet you right there where you are. Without a word
spoken, without an eye batted, He'll meet you right in the heart,
right in the middle of idolatry. In verse 11, I will also cause
all her mirth to cease, all her entertainment, all her enjoyment.
I will cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new
moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. Now all of
a sudden, all those things we thought were good, enjoyable,
all those feast days, all this year's worshiping God,
all those Sabbaths. I keep a Sabbath. Look at me,
I don't walk, I don't use an oven, I don't watch TV, nothing. all those solemn feasts, and
all those new moons, all that over-religion. That's what superstition
means in the Scriptures. Overly religious. The Lord's
going to make that to cease. He's going to stop all that foolishness.
Believers are taught that all of our righteousness are filthy
rags. All of our trees, that we think is barren fruit. Look
at all this fruit we have. We feed the homeless. We say
our prayers, we do good things, been good boys and girls. Make
our children memorize scripture and we do all these wonderful
things for people. Buy Bibles for the homeless.
All that's going to be chewed up, that fig tree and that fruit
tree of ours is going to go away. Look here in verse 12. And I
will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said,
these are my rewards that my lovers have given me. and I will
make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them."
Lord, look at all these demons we cast out in your name. I never
knew you. Lord, we've done many wonderful
works in your name. That blends in right with the
rest of the forest, and it ain't nothing but feed for the swine.
Hogs are going to destroy it. They'll go through the forest.
Verse 13, and I will visit upon her the days of Balaam, wherein
she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with earrings
and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot
me, saith the Lord." All of those good religious times we had,
worshiping a false god, and all those earrings and jewels. You
know what that is? They were sincere. She sought
after them, didn't she? They were willing bond servants.
They pierced their ear. Oh, I'm a child of God. Look
at me. Look at all the crowns, all the
jewels of my crowns. Get a new room in my mansion
in heaven." God said, I'm going to bring that into remembrance.
I'm going to crush you in it. You're going to regret those
days when you thought you were just doing so good outside of
me. It ain't happening. It's all going to burn. Trying
to help that other God. All of that, He says, all those
things, what we are in us, what we are outside of us, every bit
of us, all of that was forgetting the true and living God. That's
not serving God, that's forgetting Him. I'm keeping all these feasts. I'm keeping all these Sabbaths.
I'm doing good. You're forgetting God. You forgot me. That's the end of a paragraph.
I don't know if that annotates in your Bible. Christ began speaking in verse
6 and He ended in verse 13. That's the end of a paragraph.
If the Lord exposed all of our sin, all the false religion we
think is just wonderful, great things in this world, all of
our hope, all of our filthy rags, and He did nothing else, if He
left us there, we would be consumed with depression. We'd be consumed
with regret and we would just shrivel up and perish, wouldn't
we? An eternity of hell and damnation and separation from God would
just begin now. It would just start early, wouldn't
it? But when the Holy Spirit convicts men and women of sin,
God the Father said, preach to them. Tell them destruction is
coming. What did Christ say? I'm going
to go to them, hedge their ways up, and I'm going to convince
them to plumb tea totally. That's all they are is sin. You're
going to leave them there? No. When the Holy Spirit convicts
His people, in the heart of sin. He convicts them of righteousness
and judgment in Christ. He continues. He doesn't stop
there. Look in verse 14. Therefore,
behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness
and speak comfortably unto her. That real bad one? Yep, that real bad one. Every
one of them real bad ones. Bring him right into the wilderness.
Allure her. That means majestically and powerfully
drawing someone in attractiveness. Allure. He's going to powerfully
call his people and he's going to draw them into the wilderness.
Allure. Does that mean we've got to worship
God out in the desert? We've got to go out 30-40 miles
where ain't nobody around? No, alone in the heart. Be a
crowd of 10,000 people and the Lord speak to you and you're
the only person in that room. You real quick forget about everybody
else around you. He gets them in the wilderness and He speaks
to their heart. A Hebrew word, speak comfortably,
is to speak to the heart. Speak comfortably to their hearts.
That's effectual. What happens after this effectual
comforting? After the Lord convicts of sin
and then convicts of righteousness, who He is? speaks comfortably
to their hearts. Verse 15, And I will give her
her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door
of hope, and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth,
as in the days when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Now you have some fruit-bearing trees." Before, she had her own
vines and her own figs, didn't she? The Lord consumed them.
Beasts of the field are going to eat those. And He says, you
know what? I'm going to give you a vineyard. I wrote down, mercy
fruit. What kind of fruit? What kind
of apple was that? What kind of fruit was that?
Mercy fruit, that's what it was. He's merciful to her. You know
what kind of fruit she's going to bear for her? Mercy. If he's
gracious to her, you know what kind of fruit she's going to
bear for her? Graciousness. Long-suffering, she's going to bear long-suffering.
That branch is the same as a vine. That tree is the same as a root.
Just as he was to Gomer, to us, to me, that's the same as I'm
going to be to somebody else. Whose tree is it? It was this
mercy fruit tree. Says, I will give her her vineyards
from thence. Is that a typo? Every time I
type something up, I got handwritten notes tonight. Every time I type
something up on Word, if I put the same word twice, he said,
do you want to remove this double? You think that's on accident?
He said, we'll give her her fruit trees. She possesses them. They're his. He created it. It's all from him. He's our possession. That Root of David's our possession.
And so she'll sing in her youth. She's going to return to that
first love. I broke that down, but you know,
she's going to return to the one who first loved her. Her
first love there physically was Hosea. She wasn't much of a bride
to him, but she's returning to the one who first loved her.
Nobody loved her before that. from the time the Lord said,
you go take Gomer, Hosea loved her the whole time. She returned
to her first love and she sings. And it says, same as the day
she came up out of the land of Egypt. Same as that day we were
first released from bondage. That's the first time a sinner
hears of Christ. He speaks to their heart and
they run to Him and they sing. This is great news. You have
to be holy to stand before God and Christ is my holiness. I'm
His and He is mine. That is great news. What happens
when we fall? And we forget God. We get so tied up in so many
other things in this world. He allures us, gets us by ourselves,
gives us our fruit, makes it our own. And then we rejoice
in Him, same as the first day we were saved. Christ is merciful
to sinners. He reminds us we're a sinner.
Every time. When the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts, then, verse 16, and it shall be at that day,
saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Esha, and shalt call
me no more Belial. What those words mean? He's saying,
in that day, when you rejoice, when you see me, you know me,
you see what I've done for you, in that day, you're going to
call me Esha. That means husband. And no more are you going to
call me Bailey. That means master. You will call
me husband and not master. What's that mean? Salvation typically,
in a great majority of people in this country, is 18 inches
away. They know doctrines of grace
up here, but they don't know the God of grace right here. They know things about Christ,
but they don't know Christ. They don't love Him. People say, well
God's sovereign in all things, versus, that's my husband. That's my kinsman redeemer. He's
the Lord of the universe. It's not a fact we state no more,
is it? It's a person. It's a husband. He said, you
ain't going to just call me master while God rules everything. He does.
You can call me husband. Forward because this will be
forever. It will be forever secured because
there in verse 17, For I will take away the names of Balaam
out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their
name." It says the names, plural. The names of Balaam. Balaam means
plural Bales. Multiple false gods. All their
names. It's going to be removed out
of the mouth. Does that just mean you ain't going to say that
word no more? No, that means there's a correction in the heart
done. Now out of that heart, it'll no more possess out of
the mouth. God wants to do stuff. That ain't gonna come out of
your mouth no more. It'll be corrected when it does. God doesn't
want for anything, does He? Christ tries to save people.
No, that ain't gonna come out of the heart no more. He's gonna
take that out of your mouth. Verse 18, And in that day will
I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the fields, and
with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the
ground, and I will break the bow and sword and the battle
out of the earth and will make them to lie down in safety."
Whenever he does that heart work, there's a covenant made with
all the things of this earth. Now what in the world could that
mean? I ain't going to have you turn nowhere tonight. We're going
to just keep you by with any Latin Hosea, but I'm going to
read you something out of Isaiah real quick. Isaiah 54, 17 says,
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. And every
tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn."
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And their righteousness
is of me. Put that in there too. Saith
the Lord. You're His. You're the bride
of Christ. And He's saying here in verse
18, You're going to call me husband. You're going to be my bride.
And no one is going to lay a hand to His bride. I'm still kind
of young and I'm still kind of big. Within the capabilities of me,
ain't nobody going to lay a hand on my bride. This time I'll come
off on her. My husband, my kinsman redeemer,
the ruler of heaven and earth and all of creation forever,
he says, that's my bride. He ain't going to touch her.
We're secure in him. How long is that going to last?
It only lasts if you're a good boy or girl until you fall. No,
that's forever. God says, I've changed. Look
here in verse 19. And I will betroth thee unto
me forever. That's how long it's going to
last. Yeah, I will betroth thee. It means marry. I'm going to
betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving
kindness and in mercies. He says, I will betroth forever
you to me in righteousness. What's righteousness? That's
the outward act of a holy nature. Who's holy? Christ is holy. Where's
our righteousness going to come from? Christ. I will betroth
you to me forever in judgment. What's that mean? Oh, He was
just in the justifier. All of God's holy laws been satisfied. No more condemnation. It's gone
forever as far as east is from the west. Where did that happen?
In Christ. made righteous in Him, all judgments satisfied
in Him were married to Him, being made one with Him. And it says,
in loving kindness and in mercies. What's loving kindness and mercy
for Him? What love that the mercy reserved for thousands in Christ
is reserved for me? That's being wed and loving kindness.
Loving mercy. How do we know if this is for
me? How do you know if this is for you? All that sin exposed
and all His promises and His will working in the lives and
hearts of His people, is that you? Is that me? How am I going
to know? Look here in verse 20. I will even righteousness like
that wasn't enough. Judgment satisfied for eternity
in Christ. loving kindness, betrothed in
mercies, and on top of that, I will even betroth thee unto
me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord." In faithfulness. We will be given the faith of
our husband. given the faith of our husband.
That's the faith of Christ. We're given His name. We're given
His righteousness. We're given His wisdom in Him.
We're given the judgment that He satisfied in the law. His
perfect walk in this world, that's counted to us. Everything's found
in Him. You think faith's somewhere else?
I don't want my faith. I want His faith. He's the one
that satisfied the Father. He said, His faith's like a flint. Our husband, in His eternal marriage
covenant, gave us His faithfulness. And we will know it. He's not
going to hide us in a closet somewhere. He's going to make
us faithful, those that are His. And it says there, we shall know
the Lord. That's capital L, capital O,
capital R, capital D. That's the Lord of hosts. We're
going to know the Father. We're going to know that triune
God. After a fall. If we fall in this
old sin flesh, never heard of the Lord, and now all of a sudden
we hear of Him. Or if we've known Him for a long time, and we stray,
we forget the Lord for half a second, or half a year, or ten years.
And you hear this, He's telling you, I'm going to love you forever,
I'm going to give you my righteousness. Does that make you want to turn
from yourself to Christ? Does that make you want to repent
from you to Him? and love Him. Verse 21, And it
shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord,
I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth. In
the day that someone turns from their selves, Christ's work in
their heart is completed in this earthly flesh, and we know Him.
The Lord said, He will hear the heavens. What's that? We just
read this morning. The angels rejoice over one sinner
that repents. Saints in heaven celebrate when
a sinner comes to Christ. God said, I'll hear it. I'll
hear what they say. Verse 22, And the earth shall
hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear
Jezreel. Our story here is told on this
earth. They're going to hear the corn,
the wine, and the oil of what the Lord provided for us. Now
where I grew up, telling others of what the Lord did for you
many times turned into competition. Who sinned the biggest? Oh, I
was way worse than you. I used to do this. And next thing
you know, it's just a group of folks telling bad stories, trying
to see who can one-up the other one. That's not what he's talking
about. This is a true admission of who, who brought the oil,
who sustained my life through all that. Who gave me drink through
all that? Who gave me that oil of preservation
through all that? Money to do it all. Christ kept
me in my rebellion because I was espoused to Him before time by
the Father. He kept me through all of that
and then He showed me my sin and He saved me and He said,
I'm going to keep you forever. That's a story that all the earth is
going to hear from His people. And they shall hear Jezreel.
We saw there in chapter 1, Jezreel was a firstborn. He said, that's
my seed scattered. That's my Israel scattered. We're
going to hear the Son. We're going to tell everybody
what Christ did for us. And now for the first time, we're
going to hear Christ. He's going to be our focus. Now
all that, that's what happens on this earth. when the Lord saves a sinner
and teaches them about Christ as a work in their heart. This
is what happens on this earth. Whenever a sinner falls, one
of his believers that he's already saved, we fall again. That's
what the Lord does with us. What about when we die? That's
coming, isn't it? Every one of us. Something's
going to be different. We are sowed in this earth when
we die, aren't we? Look at verse 23. And I will
sow her unto me in the earth, And that day comes. Those will
take us home. And I will have mercy upon her
that had not obtained mercy. We were born without mercy. We
were that second born to Gomer and Hosea, weren't we? No mercy.
That's their name. Those that haven't obtained mercy.
And He says, I'm going to have mercy on you. I brought you home,
I'm going to have mercy on you. And I will say unto them which
were not my people, that's the third born, you're not my people.
I will say unto them who are not my people, thou art my people. And after he tells us he's going
to be merciful to us and we're his people, what are we going
to respond with? And they shall say, thou art my God. Amen Lord, you're my God. You're my Lord. You're my husband. That's what we'll say to them.
In chapter 1, we saw that marriage announcement. Before time began,
God spoke to His Son. He said, I've got a people that
will make them just like you. They're wicked. They're in whoredoms. Go marry one. Bring forth me
a people. In chapter 2, we see this marriage
covenant. This is the promise. God's sovereignty
in action and saving His elect people, keeping them forever.
And that's not harsh, is it? He allures us, shows us our sin. That's brutal to us sometimes.
He allures us in the wilderness, speaks comfortably to our hearts
and promises everything He has done for us we'll keep forever.
And when that day comes and He takes us home, we will be His
people and He'll be our God. What a blessing. So hopefully
next week we'll see chapter 3. And that's going to be the marriage
ceremony. That's when the dowry takes place. It's official. It was official before that,
wasn't it? That's just when we get married. I hope the Lord
is with us until then. Let's pray together.