Well, the book of Hosea is a
fascinating historical account of one of God's prophets, a man
named Hosea, whose name means salvation. It's a derivative
of Joshua, Yeshua, all of that. That's what Hosea means, salvation.
And what we have, what we understand from this book, if we know the
Lord Jesus Christ, is that this is one of the greatest and most
beautiful pictures of Christ and his church in this man, Hosea,
God's prophet, and his unfaithful bride, whose name is Gomer. And we see in this book, as I
read this over and over again, it just brings up a reminder
of the greatness of our sins and our depravity by nature.
and how salvation could not be conditioned on us. This gomer
is an unfaithful bride and represents the church in our nature, in
our fallen nature, our fallen state, and how sinful we are,
how it's impossible for us to do any good, none righteous,
no, not one. But then it shows us the depth
and the richness and the power of God's grace in this man, Hosea,
who represents Christ. He's a type of Christ. And then
another thing we learn here is it wasn't easy to be a prophet
back in those days. Now Hosea was one of God's prophets
in the northern kingdom of Israel. You remember that the kingdom
was divided. You had the southern kingdom of Judah. And in Judah,
at the same time that Hosea prophesied, in Judah there was Isaiah and
Micah, I think it was. Yeah, Isaiah and Micah prophesied
in the south. Hosea prophesied in the north. But much of his prophecy concerned
the southern kingdom of Judah. The first three chapters of this
book is his personal life. And that's what we're gonna cover
chapter one and one verse in chapter two. But it's his personal
life with his bride named Gomer. And then the rest of it is Hosea's
prophecy, prophesying in the Northern Kingdom, but mainly
about Judah, the Southern Kingdom. And the reason that is is because
Hosea is a book, just like every other book in the Bible, it's
a book of Christ. And Christ was prophesied and
determined by God to come into the world through the southern
kingdom of Judah. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah until Shiloh come, until peace come. That's Christ. And so what Hosea is doing, like
every other prophet of God, he's telling the people of Israel
and the people of Judah that, look, we're sinners. We have
no hope of salvation and whatever judgment God brings upon us in
this life, temporally, according to the terms of the old covenant,
we deserve it. We're all deserving of it. And
we have no right to look at other people and say, well, you deserve
hell. My friend, if God gave me what I deserve, it'd be hell.
And so Hosea shows that. But he shows them also that the
only hope of salvation and eternal life and blessedness is in the
promised Messiah who would come through the tribe of Judah, the
royal tribe. Christ was made of the seed of
David, that's the tribe of Judah, according to the flesh. Well,
look here in verse one, it says, the word of the Lord that came
unto Hosea, remember whose name means salvation, the son of Berai
in the days of Uzziah. Remember Uzziah was king in Isaiah's
in the southern kingdom. Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings
of Judah. So he mentions that specifically
because he's showing that salvation will come out of Judah. And in
the days of Jeroboam and the son of Joash, king of Israel.
This Jeroboam, you had Jeroboam I, Jeroboam II, I'm not gonna
go into all that history. But Jeroboam was a king in the
northern kingdom. He came along way after the kingdom
split. And as far as politically and
economically, the kingdom of Israel at that time flourished
for a little time. They were politically and materially
prosperous. but they were very poor and destitute
spiritually. And Jeroboam, he led the people
in idolatry. You know, in the northern kingdom
throughout their history up until the time that they were obliterated
and scattered by the Assyrian Empire, there was no obedient
kings in Israel. You know, there was a few in
Judah, but they didn't last long. And so what we have here in the
nation itself is a picture of sinful fallen humanity in need
of salvation who cannot be saved by the law. That old covenant
that they were under was a conditional covenant and people say, well,
it taught salvation by works. No, it didn't. It taught the
impossibility of salvation by works. That's what that covenant
was for. And so they were very poor and sinful spiritually. But look at, think about it,
as Adam fell into sin and depravity, so did we. So that nation is
a picture of us in our sin and depravity. And if we are God's
elect, God's true spiritual children, we'll be taught of God, of this
very fact. We'll be convicted. convinced
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment as it pertains to
Christ, we'll be convinced that our only hope is salvation by
God's grace through the righteousness of another. And that's what this
is about. Well, look at verse two. The
beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea, so God speaking
to Hosea. We're not told specifically how,
but Hosea got the message. And it says, and the Lord said
to Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of
whoredoms. For the land have committed great
whoredom departing from the Lord. What a strange command. God telling
his prophet, go find a whore, a prostitute to marry and have
children with. Now obviously you see this right
off. Hosea is a picture of Christ. And the prostitute's a picture
of us. His church, his bride, unfaithful
bride, sinful bride, spiritually destitute bride, a bride who
sold herself out spiritually to other lovers who are idols. And that's what we've done. And
so you say, well, why would he make such a strange command?
God is telling Hosea, your life is going to be an illustration
of how God saves sinners. He says, the land has committed
great whoredom, departing from the Lord. And I thought about
this, you know, people in religion today, they'll admit that they're
not perfect. They'll admit that they're not, that they're sinners.
We're all sinners. But how many of them will admit
that we're a spiritual whore? An idolater. But that's what's
being taught here. Do we deserve any blessing that
we've ever gotten from God? The answer's no. Have we earned
any blessing from God? I know we earn our living and
we earn our paychecks, all of that, and we should. Person don't
work, they don't eat, that's what the Bible says, but that's
not earning things from God. You see, our relationship with
God is just like Hosea and this woman named Gomer, look at verse
three. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Debalaim, which
conceived and bare him a son. So he found Gomer, whose name
means consumed or consumption. Here's a woman who's consumed,
but what is she consumed with? She's consumed with lust, with
idolatry, with greed, Isn't that us by nature? Even in our religion? Even those who are eat up with
religion are consumed with ungodly desires,
with self-righteousness and pride. And this man, Deblayim, who is
Gomer's father, I think I put down his name means dried or
dead. You say, well, why'd they name
their kids that? You know, stuff like that. Well, that's what
it means. And so here's Gomer, a dead child
from a dead father. Isn't that what we are by nature?
Adam fell into spiritual death and depravity, and we followed
suit as his children. Death and depravity. So think
about this. Now, as this book describes Hosea's
love, unconditional love, for this woman and her infidelity,
despising his love and his goodness. You'll see later on in the book,
if you read through it, when she left him and went back to
her prostitution, she started growing old later on and she
couldn't sell herself for much, if anything at all, and she was
starved to death, but Hosea would bring food to her door and lay
it at her door. Now what did she do in response? She opened the door, saw the
food, didn't see Hosea, gathered the food up, and she said, oh,
my lovers are so good to me. Think about that. That's what
we did in our unregenerate state. God blessed every one of us,
even before we knew him. Even before we recognized that
he's the God of our salvation, the God of our life, and we attributed
the good things that God gave us to an idol, a false God, the
God of false Christianity. It may have been some other type
of God, but that's what it all falls into. Isn't God good to
us? But we didn't know God. And this
is the way Gomer had gotten. She became so consumed with her
own lust, she forgot Hosea, but Hosea did not forget her. And isn't that a good, doesn't
that give you just a warm feeling? We forgot God, we forsook God,
we turned against God, but God never forsook us. He never forgot
us, even in our idolatry. I love those verses over in Romans
chapter five, where it describes this when it says, verse six
of Romans five, for when we were yet without strength in our weakness,
just like Gomer in her old age, not able to make a living now
by selling herself, and while we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And verse eight
says, but God commended his love toward us. Hosea's love for Gomer
was unconditional. She didn't earn it and she didn't
deserve it, but he gave it to her. And it says here, but God
commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Look at verse 10 of Romans five. For if when we were enemies,
We were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more
being reconciled, we'll be saved by his life. You know, that's
what we are by nature. We're actually enemies of God
by nature. Colossians chapter one, when
it speaks, let me, I'll go over there and read it to you so I
won't misquote it. In Colossians chapter one, it tells us there
that in Christ, It pleased the Father, and this is verse 19
of Colossians 1, it pleased the Father that in Christ should
all fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven. Now this reconciliation is bringing
together of two persons who are enemies. And so it says in verse
20, now God has always focused his purpose, his mind, like Hosea,
in love toward his bride, even though she didn't deserve it.
Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and
sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Well, here in Colossians
chapter one in verse 21, it says, and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.
Now who has God reconciled unto himself? Enemies, not friends. Now, as Brother Shepard preached
during the conference, now God's always been our friend by his
grace, but we haven't always been his friend. We were enemies
in our minds. That's our unregenerate state.
And that's what you see in Gomer here. Look back at Hosea one.
Now look at verse three. She conceived and bear him a
son. And in verse four it says, and the Lord said unto him, call
his name Jezreel for yet a little while and I will avenge the blood
of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and will cause to cease
the kingdom of the house of Israel. Now I'm not gonna go into all
the history of Jezreel, but the name Jezreel means God will scatter. And what he's saying here to
Hosea that this child born, the name of this child is a prophecy
of itself that the northern kingdom was gonna be scattered. And that
did happen. God's people under that old covenant
in the northern kingdom would be scattered by the conquering
Assyrian army. I'll just say this, I've got
this in your lesson, you can read it, but Jezreel refers to
the valley of Jezreel where Jehu massacred the descendants of
Ahab and established his throne in that way. And so God told
Hosea, he said, name your child Jezreel to confirm the promise
that he's going to avenge the bloodshed that was shed there. So it's all God's judgment upon
enemies, that's what he's saying. And this son is a prophecy of
that, and here's what he says, he says, God will cause to cease
the kingdom of the house of Israel, the northern kingdom. Judah was gonna be protected,
we'll see that in just a moment. But look at verse five. He says,
and it shall come to pass at that day that I will break the
bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. Now that's speaking
of God's judgment for past sins, but for present sins too. But
judgment's coming, Our kingdom is going to be destroyed and
the people will be scattered throughout the known world. And
that's what happened. We'll see that. Isaiah prophesied
of that too, that that would happen. But look at verse six. He says, and she conceived again
and bear a daughter. Now Gomer conceived again, bear
a daughter. And God said in him, call her name Loruhamma. Loruhamma. And that name means
no mercy. How would you like to have a
name like that? No mercy. Look at it, call her name Lo-Ruhamah,
for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but
I will utterly take them away. Well, what's that teaching? Well,
it's simply teaching this, my friend, under the law, there
is no mercy. What does the law say? do and
live, disobey and die. No mercy. Oh, man. Now, all of this is, again, it's
another picture, it's another prophecy, that there is no mercy
for sinners under the law. Do you know that? People talk
about, well, we're under the law for this, under the law from
that. I can tell you this. The law requires perfect righteousness. And if you think you can measure
up to that, you're sadly deceived. The Bible says for Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to them that believe. No mercy
in the law, mercy and grace comes to us by virtue of another covenant. Not the covenant of law, but
the covenant of grace. The everlasting covenant of grace.
And that's all conditioned on Christ. Not on us. And he fulfilled those conditions.
The law came by Moses, but grace and truth comes by Jesus Christ.
The perfection of righteousness required by the law can only
be found in Christ as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer.
And this is his righteousness imputed to us in which God brings
us to receive by God-given faith. But look at verse seven. Now
this is an interesting way to put this. He says, call your
daughter, Lorahamma, no mercy on the house of Israel, no mercy
under the law, no grace, but I will have mercy upon the house
of Judah. And I will save them by the Lord
their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor
by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen." He's going to save Judah. He's
going to have mercy on Judah. Now, why is that? Was Judah much
better than Israel? Was the southern kingdom, were
they better? Well, the answer is no, they did. Now, it's true
that in Judah, In the succession of kings, you had some what they
call kings who followed the way of the Lord, led the nation in
the way of the Lord. You can think about Hezekiah,
you can think about, what's the other one? Can't think of his
name right now. But the one who, when they found the book of the
law in the temple, and they brought it to him, there were a few. But there weren't many. And it
didn't last. So basically, Judah was no better,
in that sense, as far as a right relationship with God, than Israel. And so what is he saying here?
Why is he gonna save Judah? Well, you know why. It's because,
why is he gonna have mercy on Judah? Now, later on, Judah was
gonna go into captivity too, to Babylon, and for the rest
of their days as a nation, they'll be under foreign governments.
They were under the Babylonians, they were under the Medo-Persian,
they were under the Greeks, and then they, Alexander the Great,
then they were under Rome, and existed that way until they were
utterly destroyed, and God wrote them a bill of divorcement, Jeremiah
said, all of that. So they were no better than Israel,
but God was gonna have mercy on Judah, this temporal mercy
to keep them together as a nation, because that's the tribe through
whom Christ would come. But notice here, he says, I'm
not gonna save them by bow, bow and arrow, or sword, or battle,
or horses, it's not gonna be their power, it's not gonna be
their goodness, it's not gonna be their works, it's all of mercy. It's all of mercy. And that's
the way God saves his people, eternally, by grace. There's no way. that we can have
any claim on God as if to say we earned that or we deserve
it. It's all of grace. We have no goodness. We have
no power. We don't even have the will to
come to God until he gives it to us. He makes us willing in
the day of his power. Well, look at verse eight and
nine. Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and
bare a son, and then said, God, call his name Lo-Ammai, for you
are not my people and I will not be your God. Now here's another
prophecy in the name of one of Hosea's children. And what he's
saying here is the nature of the law covenant, the nature
of the law, which gave no salvation, no spiritual life or eternal
life, God said, you're not my people and I'll not be your God. Now,
you know, according to the terms of the law, the Lord said this,
he said, you shall be my people and I'll be your God, but that
was all conditioned on their obedience and they failed. The
only way that God can say to any people, you're my people
and I'll be your God is through that marriage union of grace.
Remember Jeremiah spoke of that in Jeremiah 31 when he talked
about the covenant of grace coming and it was conditioned on Christ.
And God said, they'll all know me from the least to the greatest.
It won't be like this law covenant, which they break. And so he says,
you're not my people. But look at verse 10. He says,
yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand
of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come
to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, you are
not my people, there it shall be said unto them, you are the
sons of the living God. Now in the book of Romans chapter
nine, and I've got this, we won't turn there, but I've got this
listed in your lesson and you look this up. Both Paul, in the
book of Romans chapter nine, verse 25 through 26, well, let's
look at that one. I can't, Romans chapter nine. He mentions Hosea by name. And it's another form of the
name Hosea, it's O-C-H-O-S-E-A. If you look at verse 25, now
what's Paul talking about in Romans 9? He's talking about
the sovereignty of God in the election of his people under
grace by Christ, and he's making it clear that it's both Jew and
Gentile, and it's by grace, not by works, And he uses the very
verse that we're looking at there, verse 10 of Hosea 1, and he says
in verse 25, and he saith also in Osea, that's Hosea, I will
call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved,
which was not beloved, and it shall come to pass that in the
place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there
shall they be called the children of the living God. So both Paul
and then Peter in 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10, They apply this verse
as a prophecy of God's people, both Jew and Gentile, brought
into the kingdom by God's grace in Christ, righteous in Him. And also, there's some direct
references to the covenant made with Abraham, too, because God
said to Abraham, he said, you'll be a blessing to all nations.
And that's talking about spiritual Israel. But look at verse 11.
He says, then shall the children of Judah, and incidentally, this
is how we know that he's talking about spiritual Israel. He says,
then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel, the
kingdom that was split, shall be gathered together Talking
about spiritual Israel here, how do you know? And appoint
themselves one head. And who is that head? That's
Christ. That's Christ. And he says, and they shall come
up out of the land for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Great shall be the day of judgment. That'll fall on Christ for the
salvation of the people. Now I included verse one of chapter
two because here's the positive. He says, say ye unto your brethren,
Am I, and to your sister, Ruhamah?" In other words, in light of this
prophecy of Christ, all right, in light of that prophecy, Am
I means you are my people. You remember, Lo-Ruhamah meant
not my people. And then Ruhamah, I don't wanna
make, I'm trying to make sure I don't get that mixed up, but
am I means my people and Ruhamah means, which low Ruhamah meant
no mercy. And this Ruhamah means having
obtained mercy. That's what it is. Sorry if I
confused you on that. But now they're my people under
mercy. And again, that's a prophecy of Christ. And what a picture
there of salvation by the sovereign mercy and grace of God through
the blood and righteousness of Christ. Hosea, salvation. Gomer,
his unfaithful bride. But we'll see later on how he
goes and gets his unfaithful bride and brings her home and
cares for the rest of her life. Okay.