Betrothed to Ishi

All right, brother, let's go to Hosea chapter 2. Hosea chapter 2. I was studying for our main message and It deals with Christ being the husband. And I was looking at this in Hosea chapter two, and I just began to be more and more blessed by it. And I realized, I don't think I've ever preached from this verse. I've referenced it a lot.

But we're gonna be looking at what it is to be betrothed to Isha. Betrothed to Isha. Every true believer is betrothed. Does anybody know what that means? Betrothed, espoused, they mean the same thing. It's a little bit like an engagement, to be married, but it's way different. In this text, Hosea is a type of Christ. Hosea means salvation, savior. Christ is the savior of his bride. of his church, his elect. Gomer is a picture of us, the sinner, but chosen of God. God told Hosea to take a wife of Hortums, that's you and me, God's elect.

And God declares in verse Hosea 1, 2, he said, for the land hath committed great Hortum departing from the Lord. That's what we did. We departed from the Lord by our sin, our rebellion. But before time, God had made us Christ's bride. He had chosen his people in Christ. So in Hosea 2, we're gonna hear how Christ betroths us personally.

Like, he did this in eternity. He espoused us to himself in eternity when he agreed to come and save us. But we're gonna see here how he deals with us personally. He had been putting gifts at Gomer's door, and then he took them away, and he's gonna show her her sinful state. And that's what the Lord does for us. He shows us our sin. And then it begins, we're gonna pick up in verse 14.

He says, therefore behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her. As we go through here, I want you to see how often he says, I will, I will. Salvation's by God's will, by the will of our Lord, our Savior. He says, I will allure her by speaking comfortably to her. Christ commands his preacher to speak he comfortably to Jerusalem.

Cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. I've rewarded her double. I've put away her iniquity. So the gospel's being preached, that's the picture here. The gospel's going forth being preached and Christ is doing the work. Verse 15, I will give her her vineyards from thence and the valley of Acre for a door of hope and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. I will and you shall. This is what she shall do.

This is what happens when Christ He gives us a new heart, a holy heart so we can behold Him and hear Him. He gives us Christ the vine, that's what the vineyard stands for. He gives us Christ the door, who is our hope, Christ our hope. And the effect He works is this, we sing and we rejoice in Him. We find all our rejoicing in Christ. And it's like the days of our youth, because we are young again. We're newly born when he does this. And he makes us know he delivered us out of Egypt. He took us and delivered us at the cross from the law, and he delivered us from our sin nature in the new birth.

Verse 16, and it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi, Ishi. It means my husband. my man, and you shall call me no more Bali or Bailey. Thursday night we saw those objections that sinners make to the gospel, accusing God of being unrighteous for choosing whom he will, accusing him of being unjust to find fault with us when we're all gonna do what his will is.

Well, he gives you a new heart and we stop accusing him and calling him derogatory names, and we call him Ishiah, my husband, my savior. And that Balaam was the name of their idol God. You know, the word Balaam means Lord. But he's saying here, when I give you a new heart, you're not going to speak against me. You're not going to call me the master who owned you. you're gonna call me Ishii, you're gonna call me my husband, who loves you, who saves you. And he said, verse 17, I will take away the names of Balaam out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. That was the name of our idols. He said, I'm taking that away. He gives you a new heart.

Verse 18, and in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground. And I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth and will make them to lie down safely.

He gives us peace. He makes us know we're safe in Christ, safe in him. He makes us know that he's ruling all for us. He said, I'll make a covenant for them with the beast of the field, the fowls of heaven, the creeping things of the ground, he makes you know he's sovereign, ruling everything, and he's doing it just for you, who he's called. That's what he makes you to know.

That's safety, that's peace in Christ. He's broken the yoke of the law off of us, the curse, and he's brought us to him, and he's carrying us the whole way. Now here's where I want to focus, verse 19. Here's the troth. This is the espousal, the betrothal. And I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness. And thou shalt know the Lord.

Now, let me talk a little bit more about a betrothal. so we understand this, it was a lawful covenant, a lawful union, the couple was lawfully married. Now, they didn't live together yet, and they had not even had the marriage yet, but during the betrothal, the groom went to his father's house to prepare a place for his bride. and while she waited on him. Our Lord Jesus went to the cross and then he ascended to his father's house. And before he went, he said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, you may be also. That's what he does. That's the picture here.

Now in those days, When you would lose a daughter, that was a pretty heavy financial blow because she worked in the house, she would help in the fields, and so giving her away was costly to the father. And so the groom paid a dowry for her. He paid the father a dowry to compensate for this loss. And paying this dowry, was a legal seal. It meant the covenant was in place. She was betrothed to him. It was a done deal, couldn't be broken. And by paying this dowry, he proved that he could provide all for her. Well, every sinner that Christ saves was poor. We were totally poor. We owed our Father a debt we couldn't pay. And so a price had to be paid to our Heavenly Father. A price had to be paid.

Christ paid the highest dowry ever paid. You were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold. You were redeemed with the precious, costly, highest value, blood of Christ, a lamb without spot and without blemish. And by paying his blood, he sealed the covenant. He lawfully took us and wrote the covenant in his blood.

It's done. That's the gospel. He proved how much he loves his bride, because he laid down his own life for his bride. And he proved that he provided all and will provide all. That's what Christ did. Now, let's hear what he says when he betroths us. This is, he did this before the world was made, when he entered covenant to save us, but when he calls you, this is what his promise is to his bride.

He says in verse 19, and I will betroth thee unto me forever. The love of God, the love of Christ our Savior, is everlasting. It has no beginning and no end. It's forever. Earthly marriages will be dissolved at death, but not the marriage to Christ, where he is forever. He betrothed us to himself even before time existed, and when time is no more, we will still be his. He said, I've loved you. I have loved you, and it's an everlasting love. We'll see that. Righteousness and judgment is next.

He says, verse 19, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment. In righteousness means he never looked to us for righteousness. He provided our righteousness. He's not looking to you and me for righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ came down and by his obedience established his people in righteousness, the righteousness of God in him. He's our righteousness. He comes and robes us in his righteousness.

We've been seeing in Isaiah 61, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bride adorneth herself with her jewel. He covered me. And he says, and I will do this in judgment. That means this marriage is a legal, lawful union that Christ has made to be so.

Our first husband was the law. As long as that first husband was alive, if we're married to another, we're an adulteress. Our Lord Jesus came and took the place of his people, and in Christ we died. That first husband became dead to us, and we became dead to that first husband. And so Romans 7, that's the illustration he gave, and then he said, wherefore my brethren, you also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to him who's raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Our Lord Jesus did this in righteousness and judgment. It's perfect. It is an absolute, perfect, lawful union that he's created. Can't be undone. And then he says here, and I'll do this in loving kindness and mercies. Verse 19, I will betroth thee unto me in loving kindness and mercies. This word loving kindness is, I don't know how the Hebrew, it's hesed. but it's the strongest love in existence. It's the strongest love there is.

It's a loyal, covenant-keeping, unchangeable love. It's what the scripture means when it says, charity never faileth. His love never fails. His love never fails. His love for his bride never changes, and it cannot change. Now you think about what I just said. Who he loved, He's always loved. And who He loved, He will always love.

That's so of the Lord. People say, you know, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. That's not doing you any good for somebody to tell you that because it's not true. We don't know who the Lord loves until He calls them. He will let you know if He loves you But who he loves, he always loved. And he never stops loving. He said, in loving kindness, I will draw you. This was illustrated by Hosea. Gomer became so indebted that they put her on a slave block to sell her for her to be an indentured servant to pay off her debt. But nobody wanted her. And here's the whole point.

It's to illustrate the love of God for his spiritual Israel. Hosea 3, verse 1. Hosea 3, verse 1. Then said the Lord unto me, go yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress. This is us, brethren. This is everybody that Christ saves. This is who he laid down his life for. He said, go, love her, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord, toward the children of Israel. That's his elect, Jew and Gentile.

According to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel who look to other gods and love flagons of wine, he said, so I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver and for a homer of barley and a half homer of barley. And I said unto her, thou shalt abide for me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot. Thou shalt not be for another man. so will I also be for thee. And that's, he said, he said, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore, in loving kindness have I drawn thee.

Who he loves, he draws to him, and he makes us to know. He laid down his life and paid the price of his life for us. That's how much he loved his people. God who is rich in mercy. Here we were, dead, without strength, no love to him, hating him. We were of no value to him at all. But we had to be born again to know him. So scripture says, but God who's rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. You see grace? You take somebody that, if you could think of somebody in the past treated you terrible, hated you, showed you, proved to you they hated you, did you wrong. Would you love them like this? We should. He does.

Because that's what all his people did. For his great love were with, he loved us. He laid down His life for His people, then He came and He called us to Himself. And He betroths us in mercies. That tells us we still have a sin nature, we're still gonna sin, and that's all our sin nature is, is sin. So we're gonna need mercies. We're gonna need mercies. But this espousal is in mercy. He's gonna show mercy.

The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. Same as his love, his mercy is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto the children's children. It's of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. The only reason, even after he's called us, even after he's proven to us his love for us, the only reason we're not consumed is because his compassions fell not. The Lord's mercies, continual mercy, that knew every morning, great is thy faithfulness.

And that's the next thing, faithfulness. He says in verse 20, he says, I will even betroth thee to me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. Now his faithfulness is our security. His faithfulness is our assurance. When you want assurance and you don't have assurance, don't look to you, look to Christ. He said, I've betrothed you to me in faithfulness.

How were we made righteous? We've seen it in Romans 3, by the faith of Christ. By his faithfulness, he did the work and made us righteous. Once he calls us, how do we walk? How are we going to keep walking by faith, looking to him only? What's going to keep us from going back to that first husband, the Lord? What's going to keep us looking to him and having our hearts set on him? Paul said, he said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I. The life in me and the life in you who are born again is Christ. I live by the faith of Christ, by him abiding in you and him leading you.

He said in Isaiah 40, he said they came under a trial and he brought a foreign nation against them and they got panicked and they decided they wanted to run to Egypt and make a covenant with the Egyptians. Now isn't that us? We come into a trial and we start looking to this Egypt, to our flesh and to things below, trying to figure out how we can save ourselves.

And he said, your strength is to sit still and wait on the Lord, because the Lord's our only strength. That's what he's saying. Your strength is just to look to the Lord. And he said, but you wouldn't. They went on to Egypt to make a covenant. You can find all this in Isaiah 30. Now listen, this is what he said. This is how he leads us.

He said, you will not wait. He said, therefore will the Lord wait. His waiting is not him being frustrated. It's not him not doing something. His waiting is him ruling everything that's going on in our life to bring us to the end of ourselves. Everything we're trying to do to get out of the trial is to just put it on a roadblock to where you can't go any further.

And he said, and I will do this until you're like a beacon on a hill. The picture is like a tree that's been hit by a storm and all the branches are broken off of it. massed on a sailboat that had all, it was full of wind and sailing pretty and then a storm came and when it's done, the sails broke and the sails are ripped up and it's just, he said, I'm gonna wait till you're brought right there. He said, therefore will the Lord wait that I may be gracious to you, therefore will I be exalted, that I might have mercy on you because I'm a God of judgment.

I know what's right for you, I know what's best for you. So that's how we walk. He rules everything and sends the storm. And then we look to ourselves. And then he waits till he rules everything, waits till he brings you to the point where you see nothing you've tried's gonna work. You're not gonna get out of this. You don't have any strength.

And then the Lord, He said, and then I will speak into your heart when you turn to the right or the left, and you will hear a still small voice say, this is the way, walk ye in it. And that, I don't know what you're going through, I don't know what you've been through this week, but you come in here today, and I'm preaching this message to you. And the Lord, he's not speaking audibly, but he makes you hear what his word says. And you realize in your heart, My way's not the way. My strength's not the strength.

And he turns you to him, and he sets your heart on him, and he draws you to him. And he shows you, you're gonna be saved by my faithfulness. I'm leading you, I'm guiding you. Sometimes when you're in a trial, you cry to him and cry to him for him to get you out of it. That's not what you need. We don't need for him to take us out of the trial. Paul cried and cried.

He said, the Lord gave me a messenger of Satan to buffet me. The Lord gave him whatever it was. The Lord gave it to him. And that word to buffet me means to beat me black and blue. And he gave him whatever this thorn in the flesh was to bring Paul to cry to him. That was good, but Paul wasn't crying the right thing. He was praying, Lord, take away this thorn. And the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for you.

There's what you need. That's what the lesson's for. My strength is made perfect in weakness. You will see I am all your strength when I bring you to the place where you see you are nothing but weakness. And then Paul said, what he learned from that was he said, now I joy in the trial. I joy in the infirmities of my flesh, in my weakness. Because when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. Aren't you weak all the time? Yeah, but we don't see it. We don't own it. He puts you in another trouble, and he makes you see again. I'm weakness.

He's my strength. And all of this. that I'm talking about is what Paul meant when he said, I live now by the faith of Christ. The same one who loved me and gave himself for me is the one who's leading me. It's a spiritual leading. It's a spiritual guiding through his word into your heart, using everything at his disposal and providence to keep you looking only then.

He said, I betrothed you to me in faithfulness. Scripture says, if we believe not, is that you? Is that ever you? I found myself worrying, and 99% of what I worry about has never come to pass, and I do it anyway. Unbelief, looking everywhere to everyone but the one that I should be looking to.

And he said, if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. You're him, you're the fullness of his body. He's not gonna deny you, because he's not gonna deny himself. He's gonna save his people by his faithfulness. He said, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. And then he promises this, verse 20, thou shalt know the Lord.

This is far more then you have an intellectual understanding of him. This is knowing him and knowing I'm inseparably in union with him. I am inseparably one with him. He's the head, I'm the body, as so of you. We're all members of his body, everybody he's called. Go with me to Ephesians 5. We're gonna look at this passage again in the second hour. Our second message is gonna be right along with this. Ephesians 5, everybody's familiar with this.

This is where he's speaking of Christ being the husband and we being the bride. And look at verse 28. He said, so ought men to love their their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh. Do you see that? Do you see what's being emphasized? That's your body, that's your own body, your wife. He that loveth his wife loveth himself, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh. but nourisheth and cherisheth it.

Now here's the point. Even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. We are one with him. We saw this last week in John 17. God the Father's in him, he's in you, and you're made perfect in one. We're members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. And he made a husband and wife to picture this. He said, for this call shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh.

I don't understand that preacher. Read the next verse. This is a great mystery. But the whole point of this passage is I speak concerning Christ and the church. The point is, we're one with Christ. He's not gonna let anything happen to his body. Not one member of his body, because we're one with him. Absolutely one with him. That's what he means when he says, you shall know the Lord. We heard our Savior declare it last week from John 17.

Father, I will that they be with me where I am. They're one in me. I've made them perfect in one, and I will that they be with me where I am. And he said, if I go prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, you may be also. And he promised in his betrothal, you shall know the Lord. We're one with him. You're gonna know him. He's gonna present his church, his bride to himself. a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. It shall be holy and without blemish. And John, when John was given the vision in Revelation 21 too, he saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared fully prepared, nothing else to be done, as a bride adorned for her husband.

All of this is because Christ entered covenant to do for his elect bride all these things before creation. His bride was the joy set before him, and now he's the joy set before us. That's the point of the passage in Hebrews 12. He endured the cross, despising the shame, for the joy that was set before him, having his bride with him. And he promises, you shall know the Lord, you're gonna be with me where I am, you're one with me. And he's the joy set before us. So when we come through our little crosses, he says, don't look anywhere else, don't look to you, don't look to other thing, he says, Run this race with patience, looking to the author and the finisher, the Lord Jesus, looking only to him.

And he's going to keep you doing that. He's going to keep you doing that. And when we get there and we see him, we're going to know him as he is. And again, that's going to be more than just an intellectual knowledge. We're going to be perfectly one with him. like the picture he made, his husband and wife, but we're gonna be forever one with him. That's his betrothal of his bride. Well, next hour, we'll see more of this in Isaiah 62.

Let's pray, brethren. Lord, we thank you. Father, freely making us the bride of your son, trusting us to him. Lord, what grace, what favor to look to him only. And thank you for sending us this word and for making us know how secure we are in Christ all by his faithfulness. Lord, help us to really believe you. Help us to enter into what you're teaching us and to know you're everything we need at all times and nothing else. Keep us knowing this and make us know it more. Be our strength and be our Be the faithful one that keeps us, Lord. We thank you for being merciful to us, for looking to your son rather than our unbelief.

Lord, make us wait when we need to wait. Make us run when we need to run. But at all times, keep us looking only to our Savior. Lord, we really can't ask for anything else. That's all we really need. Forgive us, Lord, for Christ's sake. In His name we ask it. Amen.

Betrothed to Ishi

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Betrothed to Ishi

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