And I'm gonna read the first
three chapters are all about this woman and God's dealing
with her through Hosea, which is a picture of Christ. Hosea
chapter one, the word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the
son of Berei, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah,
kings of Judah. In the days of Jeroboam, the
son of Joash, King of Israel, the beginning of the word of
the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, go
take unto thee a wife of Horeb and the children of Horeb for
the land hath committed great Horeb departing from the Lord.
So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Deliah, which conceived
and bear him a son. 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. And it shall come to pass at
that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of
Jezreel. And Gomer conceived again and
bear a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her
name Loraima, for I will no more have mercy upon the house of
Israel, but I will utterly take them away. But I will have mercy
upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their
God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle,
by horses, or by horsemen. Now when she was weaned, Loraima,
she conceived and bear a son. And God said, call his name,
Lomai, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God. Yet
the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of
the sea, which cannot be measured nor 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, ye are the
sons of the living God. Then shall the children of Judah
and the children of Israel be gathered together and appoint
themselves one head, that they shall come out of the land, for
great shall be the day of Jezreel. Say unto your brethren, am I,
and your sister, Rumah, plead with your mother, plead. Gomer,
for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. Let her therefore
put away her whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries
from between her breasts. lest I strip her naked, and set
her 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 them and done shamefully. For
she said, I will go after my lovers. and that gave me my bread
and my water and my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. Therefore, behold, I will hedge
up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find
her pass. And she shall follow after her
lovers, but she shall not overtake them and shall seek them and
shall not find them. Then shall she say, I will go
and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me
than now. For she did not know that I,
I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver
and gold, which they prepared for Baal. 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. And 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 all her mirth
to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and
all her solid feasts. And I will destroy her vines,
her fig trees, wherever she has 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. And I will visit upon
her the days of Balaam, wherein she burned incense to them, and
she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went
after her lovers. and forget me, saith the Lord.
Chapter 3, verse 1. Then said the Lord, Go unto me,
go yet love a woman beloved of her friend. This is still talking
about Gomer. yet an adulteress, according
to the love of the Lord towards the children of Israel, who looked
to other gods and loved flagons of wine. So I bought her to me
for fifteen pieces of silver, for a homer of barley and a half
homer of barley." Now, the father of the bride is supposed to do
this, but apparently he didn't care about her either. So, Hosea
has to bring in and do this stuff. And I said to her, thou shalt
abide with me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot,
and thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee. And the children of Israel shall
abide many days without a king, without a prince, and without
a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without
tariff. Afterwards shall the children of Israel return and
seek the Lord their God and David their king, and shall fear the
Lord and his goodness in the latter days. Today we will consider
this woman called Gomer, indeed one of God's children. We, if we are one of God's children,
we are like this woman. We by nature are as this woman
is described. We, from birth, conduct, and
practice, are spiritually as wicked and deceitful and corrupt
as she was naturally. This is like Paul says in Galatians.
This is allegory. This is a true story, but it
has more than a historical reference. It has a spiritual application.
So I ask the question, As I was sitting in bed, I asked myself
this question, who is this woman? Who is this woman whose name
is Gomer? Well, there's some words that
describe her that I asked myself as I thought about Gomer this
week. I said, can I be this bad? Spiritually, I've never done
some of the things that is listed here about her characteristic.
Can I be this bad? Can I believe that I am a spiritual
adulterer in my own eyes before a holy God? Is this me from birth,
practice, and enjoyment before God was indeed merciful to my
soul? Can I identify myself? Because we get, you know, we
get politically correct, we get, you know, there's so many precious
things, so many good things, as it were, about the believer
and his God and the relationships. We were talking about this, Melinda
and I were talking about last night, Rahab the harlot. Isn't
she mentioned like that? Isn't that her name? Why isn't
the scriptures just say Rahab? She's a believer. And I made
a comment months ago, it would be like, I pick on Bruce. I call
Bruce in a lie, Bruce the liar. Every time I meet him, every
time I introduce him, Mom, I want you to meet somebody, good friend,
Bruce the liar. Now, I mean, wouldn't it kind
of, you know, okay, knock it off. We are to remember the pits
as the scripture from which we've been done. I'm not trying to
offend anybody, I'm not trying to be mean-spirited. If anything,
this was more for me. I just thought, am I? Is this
me? Well, let's look. The first thing
she's called is a wife of whoredoms. In chapter 1, verse 2. This word
literally means an adulteress and an idolater. An adulteress
and an adulterer. I know this is not a subject
brought up much in church today, but God uses the term to describe
us in our lost estate, hoarders. We cannot describe in spiritual
terms us as bad and as rotten as we are. We have grown politically
correct even in the pulpit. No, we need to come to grips
with terms used by God, the Holy Spirit, in a full and an open
description of our own depravity. That's just the truth. That's
just the truth. We cannot forget, as I said before,
the pit from which we've been brought forth. We're constantly
reminded of what we are and then we're so constantly thankful
for what He's given us in Christ. So she, this is the first word,
just to describe, who is this woman? A wife of whoredoms. Chapter 2, verse 2. Plead with
your mother. Plead. She is not my wife, neither
am I her husband. Let her therefore put away her
whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries. Adulteries is
another term to describe this woman. We go astray willingly. Willingly desiring other gods,
other doctrines, other false forms of worship, all with our
eyes wide open. Oh, I didn't mean to do that.
Yes, we did. In this thing of worship God
and spiritual applications, we know if God has shown us the
gospel, we know what the gospel is not. But before that, we sinned
as an adulteress, naturally we sinned spiritually with our eyes
wide open. Like whoredoms, like an adulterer. Fulfilling the scripture says
in Ephesians, we fulfill the desires of the mind and the lust
of the flesh as everyone else did. Or we have forgotten, we
become too sanctimonious. I would never do that. I remember it like yesterday.
I listened to a message by Henry 20 something years ago. He said,
David and Bathsheba, I'd never do that. And he said, you've
never seen Bathsheba. Yeah. And the believer knows
his areas of weakness. And I just warn you, be careful. We're not as strong as we think
we are. And that could be jobs. That could be recreation. That
could be other things. If you know you have a weakness,
don't go there. Because it's our natural tendency
to be hoarse. It's our natural tendency to
be adulterous. Chapter 2 verse 3, lest I strip
her naked as in the day that she was born and make her a wilderness
and like a dry land Naked. That's another description. Before
God, before the presence of God, we do not have the necessary
righteousness that God demands. We're naked. He says we're naked
before Him. We can't hide from Him. He's
omnipresent. He's omniscient. He's everywhere.
He knows everything. We cannot hide. He uses the term wilderness and
make her as a wilderness and like a dry land. destitute of
saving grace, helpless, hopeless. The scripture says without God
in this present world. That's what we're like spiritually.
We may be the best person, we may be the nicest neighbor, but
we're without God, we're destitute of the grace of God. We're in
a wilderness. This is what we've come from. This is what we've
come from. Chapter 2, verse 5. For her mother played the harlot. She conceived them and had done
shamefully." The word harlot means in Hebrew, wanton. Isn't it? We thought we were
okay, yet we lacked any goodness. We served idols rather than the
true and living God. We were wanton. What do you mean
I'm wanton? I've got plenty of food, I've
got plenty of clothes, I've got a good job. If you don't know
Christ, you are wanton. We're wanton. That's why we need
grace. That's why we need grace. Chapter
2, verse 10, and this really got under my skin. And now I
will discover her lewdness. Now if you have a margin, that
means folly or villainy. But what it means in the Hebrew, properly, disgrace. You ever hear that anymore? Oh,
that was disgraceful. You don't hear that. The absence of grace, and that's
us. We're lewd. Lewd. Which we do not possess by our
own doings, our own works. We're without grace, which God
uses to save sinners. We from birth are graceless. Graceless. That's a good disgrace. Lewd. And I'm looking at all
this, and before I looked all this up, I'm just laying in bed,
and I'm going through this because I knew the story. I didn't know
these many terms about her, to be honest with you. I had to
look those up. But just the basic, just whoredoms, that was the
one that got me. It has to be. Not the middle
son. Not my mom's middle son. Yes. And it just got all over
me. I may be uncomfortable. I don't
want to make anybody uncomfortable here. But that's the beauty about
the Gospel. It makes your flesh uncomfortable. And it should. And it should. Chapter 2 verse 13, what's going
on here? And I will visit upon her the
days of Balaam wherein she burned incense to them and decked herself
with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers
and forgot me, sayeth the Lord." What we have is what's going
on in churches today, will worship. It doesn't make a difference
to the denomination. They come in, preacher says a few things,
makes them feel good. It doesn't matter. There's no
order. It's a theater. Just do what you want. God will
accept it. The bottom line is, we went after
lovers and forgot God, our Creator, our Sustainer, our Redeemer.
We'll worship. Don't be deceived. Whether we
think so or not, all people worship something. This is why to me
atheism is just a joke. Because they worship themselves,
or they worship their work, or they worship their boyfriend
or girlfriend, everybody, we were created to worship. And
so everybody, whether they say they're free of religion and
the tanglements of it, everybody worships something. Either God
in grace, the God, or a false God, or themselves, or things. Everybody will worship. This
is what's, don't be deceived. Whether it's God in grace by
faith, or self, sin, false God, to our own destruction. So this is her, this is you,
this is me outside of grace. Now I ask you, I pause right
here before I have a few concluding remarks because I'm just going
to read it, it's just so good. Do you meet the criteria in Hosea? Do you meet the criteria and
the conditions of Gomer? You know you do or you know you
don't. I don't understand it, I'm not paying attention, I fall
asleep, whatever. Do you meet the conditions, the
criteria of this shameful, lewd woman? If you meet this criteria, if
this woman, Gomer, is like you spiritually, if you fit the testament
and conditions that this sinner shows forth, then look at verse
14 forward. This is for you. This is for
me. Therefore, therefore, therefore, I will allure her, says God,
and will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her." That doesn't make any sense. To the unbeliever, grace never
makes sense. We saw this in Galatians. It's
from above. Grace is from above. It's not
of this earth. It's not earthly. It had to come
down. You can't do anything for it.
All you can do is believe what God's record says about it. This
doesn't make sense. We're still talking. He's still
talking about Gomer. Yes. Verse 15, I will give her
her vineyards from thence and a valley of acor 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. And
it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call
me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Beliai. That is, I'll call
you my husband and not my Lord, the mean dominating Lord. Can you call him that? Are you
Gomer? Can you call him the Lord? your
husband? For I, God, will take away the
names of Balaam out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered
by their name." I think about how I was raised
in Methodist church. I can't remember a whole lot
about it. I just knew it wasn't with grace.
It just kind of takes it away. And now you're concerned about
the gospel, the God, the faith, the baptism. And in that day will I make a
covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the fowls of
heaven and the creeping things of the ground and I will break
the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth and will
make them to lie down safely. How can this be? We're talking
about the God of the Bible. We're talking about this woman
named Gomer. His ways are not our ways. He
delights to show mercy to a thousand generations. That's what Deuteronomy
7 verse 9. He delights to show mercy to
a thousand generations. Thank God in the person and the
accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has covered my shame,
my sin and wanderings, and he set me among his dearest ones
whom he foreknew. He's done it all. I, verse 19, will betroth thee
unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness, in judgment, in lovingkindness and mercies. I will even betroth thee unto
me in faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord." I don't know. I believe I love Him. I believe
I love Him now, but I don't know if I'll love Him to the end. He'll betroth thee unto Him in
faithfulness. He will. It can be tough, but
you'll be faithful because He's faithful. And it shall come to
pass in that day that I will hear, sayeth the Lord, I will
hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth, and the earth
shall hear the corn and the wine and the oil, And they shall hear
Jezreel, and I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have
mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy. And I will say unto them
which were not my people, thou art my people. And they shall
say, thou art my God." I can't believe it. Laying in bed, I
said, am I Gomer? I said, yes, I'm Gomer too often.
But I identified. And I'll take verses 14 through
the end of the chapter as promises that He will never leave me or
never leave you or forsake you. Right into the core. Poor, adulterer,
lewd, naked, wilderness, disgusting, vile. Yes, we are. But that's
what Romans says. That's who He came to save. Not
good people. Not righteous people. He came
for sinners. Are you a sinner? Am I a sinner? Am I? That's why I titled it,
Gomer and I. Never get away from it. Never
get away from it, no matter how politically correct and how,
you know, I don't think these kids are going to have to go
to see a psychiatrist and going to have to talk them down off
this kind of nonsense. No, they've heard the truth.
And I don't care what kind of truth it is. If it's the truth,
what does the Scripture say? It will set you, me, free. Now I just preached the truth.
I preached the depravity of man, and I haven't preached the depravity
of man this direct and this bold and this hard, you know, for
a long time. It doesn't matter. It's truth. And if it's truth
seen, if it's truth believed, if it's truth rejoiced in, it'll
set you free. Because I know one thing about
somebody who's in trouble. They're going to seek help. And
we see the only person who can do that is the Lord Jesus Christ
and everything He did to satisfy God's requirements on our behalf. May the Lord honor and bless
His word. And just think about it. Just
think about it. What we are. Like John Newton,
I'm glad I'm not what I used to be. I'm glad He's showing
me His grace. It's amazing grace. How sweet
the sound that saved a wretch like me and like you. His people whom He foreknew. Nathan, would you close us?