And I was just a young man pastoring
in Lookout, West Virginia. I was, I guess, 20 years old,
sitting in the backyard with my good friend, Brother Watson
Dufour, who pastored down in Anstead. He was a much older
man. And I was 20 years old. I knew everything. I had the
world by the tail on a downhill pull. And I thought I'd prepare
things early and get everything organized. And I asked Brother
Dufour, I said, Brother Watson, Do you ever try to prepare your
messages well in advance, so you have everything lined up
weeks and months in advance? He said, Oh, I tried it when
I was young, but I found out manna breeds worms. And I haven't
been able to get that out of my mind. I thought when I got
to the office this morning, I've got everything all taken care
of and prepared for Hosea. And I got to looking over my
notes and decided I better hit the delete button and start all
over. So you turn with me, if you will, to Hosea chapter 14. Oftentimes as you read through
the scriptures, you will find the key to a passage at the end
of the book, rather than at the beginning of it. And that's certainly
the case with the book of Hosea. Now Hosea was a prophet who was
contemporary with Isaiah and Amos. He faithfully served God
as his prophet for some 65 to 70 years. He was God's messenger
to the northern kingdom of Israel. He seldom even mentions Judah.
He does so only incidentally as you go through these 14 chapters.
And this is important. You'll remember that it was the
northern kingdom from the time that the kingdom was divided,
which was utterly engulfed in idolatry. I mean utterly engulfed
in idolatry. The practice of idolatry, as
it always does, had brought these people down in utter moral decadence
and debauchery. Hosea, in this book, addresses
the children of Israel, sometimes calling them Samaria, sometimes
Jacob, sometimes Ephraim. And I read through that and I
thought, I wonder why he does that. Why does he refer to the
children of Israel, these who are princes with God, as Samaria,
and Jacob, and Ephraim? Because he deliberately chose
names connected with their sin, their rebellion, their failure,
their idolatry, and their corruption. He deliberately chose names to
remind them that they, by their behavior, called constantly for
the wrath and judgment of God upon them. And Hosea certainly
speaks plainly about the wrath and judgment of God we deserve.
But the message of Hosea is not a message of wrath and judgment. Rather it is a message of God's
immutable grace, his unfailing mercy, and his indestructible
love for his people. Look at verse 4, chapter 14,
you'll see this clearly. The Lord says, I will heal their
backsliding. I will love them freely. I will love them freely, without
any cause in themselves. Freely, unconditionally. I will love them freely, watch
this now, for mine anger is turned away from him. He says, I will
love them freely, for my anger is turned away from him. Hosea, did you mean to say them?
No, he meant to say him. You see, the Lord God loves us
freely. immutably and everlastingly,
because he looks upon our Lord Jesus Christ, our representative,
as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and that one slain
from the foundation of the world, his anger is turned away from
our substitute, who assumed all responsibility for our sins,
and that means his anger is turned away from us. The only way God
Almighty can be gracious to a sinner is if his anger is turned away
from the sinner. And the only way his anger can
be turned away is by the sacrifice of his darling son. Look at chapter
11, verse 7. Again, you'll see God's great
determination of love and mercy for a people who deserve his
wrath. Hosea 11, verse 7. The Lord God
says, My people are bent to backsliding from me. That's a pretty good
description of you and me. Bent to backsliding. Bent to
backsliding. And when he's talking about backsliding
here, he's not talking about it like the religious world does.
He's talking about a people bent on apostasy. Bent on forsaking
God. Though they called them to the
Most High, none at all would exalt him. They're bent to backsliding. Bent to idolatry. And this is
God's response to our rebellion. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Adra? How shall I set thee as Zeboam? Mine heart is turned within me. My repentings are kindled together. I read that again just a few
minutes ago, and I couldn't help but think about the first time
the word repent is used in the Bible. In Genesis chapter 6,
the scripture says it repented the Lord that he made man, because
the thoughts, the imaginations of his heart were only evil continually. And so the Lord God, because
of man's to show his wrath and justice and his anger against
sin, floods the world with his wrath, destroys the whole human
race except for one man and his family, destroys the world in
a flood of his wrath. But here, that same sin that
had only increased more and more since the day Noah came out of
the ark, the Lord God looks at that same sin And he speaks of
what we're going to see here at Hosea, of the judgment we
deserve, the judgment he threatens, the judgment he executes in providence.
And now he repents of anger and judgment and wrath toward his
own. Now, understand, this is merely
an anthropomorphic expression. It is just God accommodating
our teeny brains so we can get some handle on what he's doing.
God didn't change his mind, never has about anything. But his actions
change, and that makes it appear that his mind has been changed.
Read on now. He says, How shall I give thee
up, Ephraim? He says, My heart is turned within
me, my repentings are kindled together. Verse 9, this is what
it means. I will not execute the fierceness
of my anger. I will not return to destroy
Ephraim. How come? because I'm God, and
not man. Because I chose him in the beginning,
because I blessed him with the blessings of Jacob upon the sons
of Joseph, because I blessed him with the blessings of God
by the hand of Moses, I chose Ephraim, and though he deserves
my wrath, I will not return to destroy him, because I'm God,
not a man, the Holy One in the midst of thee, and I will not
enter into the city." Now, turn back to Hosea chapter 1. The
book of Hosea begins with a very familiar story. You're familiar
with it. It's the story of Hosea and Gomer. It describes Hosea's great love
for Gomer, her infidelity, despising his love and his goodness, and
the gracious triumph of his love over her. Now this sets the background
for the rest of the book. What we have in these first three
chapters of the book is a tremendous picture, an instructive picture
of God's great free grace and sovereign mercy toward his elect
in Christ. Hosea's name means Savior, and
he is typical of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was commanded of God
to go down to the red light district and take a wife from among the
harlots down in the red light district. Look at chapter 1,
verse 2. The beginning of the word of
the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go,
take unto thee a wife of Every time I read that, I think
I'd sure like to be preaching to a bunch of preachers who think
they've got everything sewed up, and say, stick that in your
pipe and smoke it. God said to Hosea, you go take
a wife of Hortons, and children of Hortons, for the land hath
committed great Horton, departing from the Lord. He chose Gomer. Her name means consumption. That's us. God's elect are consumed
with sin and consumed by sin. Gomer was the daughter of Dibrium,
whose name means dried or dead. Like Gomer, we are dead children
of a dead father. Gomer also means consummation.
That's us, too. You see, Gomer was the consummation
of all Hosea's desire, the consummation of all his purpose, the consummation
of all he And God's elect, in their ultimate end, shall be
the consummation of all God's purpose, all God's work, and
all his glory. The Lord gave Hosea and Gomer
three children. They also represent us. Jezreel
means seat of God. Leruhamah means no mercy. Loamim
means not mine or not my people. We don't have to guess whether
this is talking about us or not. Turn over to Romans chapter 9.
Hold your hands here, I want you to see it, Romans 9. I'm
not guessing about this, I'm not speculating about it. The
Holy Spirit tells us plainly that this is describing you and
I who were not his people, who had not obtained mercy, but now
are the people of God and now have obtained mercy. That is,
it's talking about God's elect among the Gentiles as well as
the Jews. And this is exactly how the Holy
Spirit interprets these words. Look at verse 25 of Romans 9.
As he saith in 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 that place where
it was said to them, You are not my people, there they shall
be called the children of the living God." Well, Hosea married
Gomer, and one day came home and Gomer was gone. She had gone
back to her lovers. Chapter 2 tells us about her
great fall, and Hosea's purpose of love and grace concerning
her. In chapter 3, We are shown a picture of Hosea's love and
grace prevailing over Gomer as he fetched her home again. Read
verses 1-3 with me, chapter 3. Then said the Lord unto me, Go,
yet love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, Why on earth did God command
Hosea to do such a thing? Read the next line. According
to the love of God, according to the love of the Lord, toward
the children of Israel. Now that's not talking about
those folks who live over yonder across the water. That's not
it. That's not it. They've been abandoned long ago.
What's he talking about? He's talking about God's Israel,
the Israel of God, the church of God's elect. who look to other
gods and love flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for fifteen
pieces of silver, and for an omer of barley and a half omer
of barley I paid the rightful legal price for her. And I said
unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot,
and thou shalt not be for another man. So will I also be for thee."
Once Gomer had proved herself unfaithful, abandoning Hosea,
her husband, abandoning her family, her children, and going after
her lovers, though she proved herself to be a wife of whorehoms,
as she is called in chapter 1, Hosea didn't cease to love her. his love never diminished. Rather than ceasing to love her,
Hosea went down into the haunts of shame and ill repute. He slipped away down to the red
light district, and there he found the object of his love. And he found it in another man's What did he do? Well, the law
says stone her to death. That's what the law says. She's
his wife. By law, his property. What does
he do? Does he stone her? No. Well, just leave her. No, no. Well, I'll take her. She's mine.
He wouldn't have her that way. He wouldn't have her. What man
wants a woman who doesn't want him? He wouldn't have her that
way. What does he do? He loved her. And chapter 2 describes
Gomer's horrible, horrible sin. But it also describes Hosea's
great, incomparable, indestructible love for her. But as I said in
the beginning, this is not just talking about Hosea's love for
Gomer. Hosea is a picture of our Redeemer, and this is talking
about our Redeemer's love for us. Now let me give you several
parallels. Here's the first one. Just as
Hosea took Gomer for his wife, and married a woman altogether
beneath him. A woman totally unworthy of him. A woman who had no regard for
him. A woman who did not want him.
So the Lord God our Savior married us. Here's another parallel. Just
as Gomer forsook her loving husband and went after her lovers, we
forsook God our Savior who married us from eternity and went astray
as soon as we were born from the womb, speaking lies. Just as Gomer's pursuit of her
lovers brought her into bondage, slavery, and utter ruin, you
and I ruined ourselves by our own willful rebellion
against God. walking after the lust of our
own flesh. And just as Hosea hedged up Gomer's
wife, look at chapter 2, verse 6. Just as he hedged up her wife,
so she could not escape from him, so that he might graciously
force her to love him. Folks accuse us all the time,
saying, you folks believe God saves man against his will. Oh,
no, no, no, no, no. What God does is he works on
a man's willing. What God does is he makes his
people willing in the day of his power. Oh, thank God. He forced our will with the omnipotent
constraint of irresistible love and grace. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee." Look here at verse
6, see if that's not what you read. Therefore, what reasoning? How come? Because she won't come
to me. Because she forsakes me. Because
she will not follow after me, but follows after her lovers.
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns. and make
a wall that she cannot 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 shall she say, I will go
and return to my first husband, for it was better with me then
than Again, just as Hosea secretly
provided for Gomer, took care of her when she despised him. The Lord God Almighty secretly
protected, provided for, and cared for us all the days of
our while we lived with our fists shoved in his face and would
have killed him if we could. Jude describes us as being preserved
in Christ Jesus in cult. Hebrews 1 speaks of the angels
of God and says their ministering spirits sent forth to minister
to those who shall be the heirs of salvation. I look back and I could almost, looking back
on the days of my life, show you pictures of angels protecting
me, angels of God keeping me while I did everything I could
to blaspheme his name. How come? Because he said, I've
loved them freely. I will not let you go. Here's
the picture, look at chapter 2 verse 8. Hosea's down here
in the red light district and he finds Gomer. She's in the
bed with one of her lovers. And he slips up and sets a bag
of groceries by the door. She gets up in the morning and
she says, look what my lover's gave me. Oh, this is good. 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
to bail. She didn't understand. She didn't
know. I was the one taking care of
her. And we didn't know. We were totally ignorant of the
fact. who loved us with an everlasting
love, who redeemed us from all our sins, who set his heart upon
us in eternity, all the days of our lives, provided for us
all that which we used in rebellion against him. Again, just as Hosea, in order
to save Gomer, came where she was, and walk through the halts
of iniquity, so the Son of God, in order to save us from our
sins, came down here where we were, and became one of us, and
at last even became what we are, when he was made to be sin for
us. But that's not enough. Christ's
obedience, even his obedience to having sin imputed to him,
could never, ever, ever save us. Something else has to take
place. He must buy us. Buy us out from under the hands
of God's offended justice, by a legal, rightful price. And just as Hosea redeemed Gomer
with fifteen pieces of silver, and half Omer of barley, the
rightful price for the slave she was, the Lord Jesus Christ paid the price. The price demanded
by God's infinite justice. his own life's blood and redeemed
us from all iniquity. Just as Hosea made Gomer his
faithful wife. Isn't that amazing? Look at chapter
3. He made her his faithful wife and pledged himself to be faithful
to her. So our Savior by his omnipotent mercy, by his irresistible
love, by his almighty grace, finds us in our utter debauchery, calls us by his grace, and makes us his faithful bride, and swears he'll be faithful
to us. 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."
The same thing God says in Jeremiah 32, I'll give them one heart
and one way, and they shall not depart from me. Just as Hosea
did everything he did for Gomer. in obedience to the will of God,
because of covenant love. So the Lord Jesus Christ has
done everything as our surety, in obedience to the will of God,
for the glory of God, because of his covenant love for us. And in that day will I make a
covenant for them with the beast of the field, and with the fowls
of heaven, and with the creeping things of the earth. And I will
break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth,
and will make them to lie down safely." Now, I'll give you a
good commentary on that, Romans 8.28. I make a covenant with
thee. I promise you, the beast of the
field, and the fowls of the air, and the sword in the earth, and
the battles in the earth, and all things will only serve your
good, because I've loved you." Read on, verse 18, verse 19.
And I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth
thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment, in justice,
and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth
thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord."
Just as Hosea conquered Gomer's whorish heart by his love for
us, so the Lord Jesus conquers the whorish hearts of
chosen redeemed sinners in the time of his love. Let's just
pick up a few things in chapter 2. Verse 9, here's his word again. Therefore, since she didn't know me, and
since she took everything I gave her and prepared it for Baal,
and said, My lovers gave it to me, What a strange way God reasons. Since she fully deserves my wrath,
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. Oh, I love this. And none shall
deliver her out of my hand. I will also cause all her myrrh,
all her happiness to cease, her feast days and her new moons
and her sabbaths and all her solemn feasts, and I will destroy
her vines and her fig trees Whereon she hath said, These are the
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. Verse 14, Therefore, because
she forgot me, therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring
her into the wilderness." and will speak comfortably to her. I will lure her, I'll woo her, I'll charm her
into the wilderness where she's alone with me, and I'll speak
to her heart. I'll speak to her heart. Verse
15, And I will give her her vineyards, in the valley of Acre, a door
of hope, and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth,
and as in the days 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 my husband, and shalt call me no more Beli, my Lord,
my ruler." when God Almighty takes the sinner
who was utterly terrified at the fact that he is God, and
causes that sinner, looking on him through faith in Christ, to say, My husband, that's my
husband. Everything's all right, that's
my husband. He who rules the universe, he who will by no means
clear the guilty, he by blood sacrifice is my husband. He's married to me. Read on.
For I will take away the names of Balaam out of her mouth. She's
going to quit worshiping her own gods, and they shall no more
be remembered by their Now the rest of the book of Hosea
describes the sins and sinfulness, the utter debauchery of God's
people. Describes the horrible evil Israel brought upon itself. Oh, what horrible evil we bring
upon ourselves by rebellion and But he who loves us with an everlasting
love will not allow so much as one of his elect to bring himself
the evil of everlasting ruin. It cannot happen. You see, our God's matchless,
unalterable purpose of grace and love, his determination to
save his elect, that's the message of the book. Now you might think,
Brother Don, that's an awful over-signification of Hosea's
message. No, it's not. That's exactly
what his message is. In chapters 4, 5, and 6, we see
Ephraim, Israel, and Judah fully deserved and constantly courted
God's wrath. They would not forsake their
idols. Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone. They dealt
treacherously with the Lord. Often they repented or pretended
to. That's what it says. Look at
the very last line of chapter 5. After judgment they will seek
my face, in their affliction they will seek me early. And
they come and they say, Come, let us return to the Lord, for
he's torn, he'll heal us. Let's go back to God, let's turn
to God. Oh, how often in time of terror and fear, sinners pretend
to turn to God. It's all fake. It's as fake as
it can be. Preachers engage in it. Preachers
get folks scared to death. Get them scared to death. Oh,
just scared to death. They're going to go to hell and
talk them into a profession of faith. They're deceivers of men's
souls. That's what they are. But we
pretend to turn to it. So how do you know it's fake?
Look in verse 4. Oh, Ephraim, what shall I do
unto thee? Oh, Judah, what shall I do unto
thee? For your goodness is as a morning
cloud, and as early dew it goes away." Now I can speak from a
little bit of experience. Every time I got in a lot of
trouble, every time I got in a lot of trouble when I was a
boy growing up, I figured a way to get out. was to go rededicate
up, as if I had something to dedicate to start with. Go repent
to God. And do you know how long it lasted? Like a morning cloud, like the
early dew that passes away. Therefore, God says, have I hewed
them by the prophets, and I have slain them by the words of my
mouth, and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. for I desired mercy, not sacrifice,
and knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Yet, in spite
of all their iniquity, in spite of all the wrath they
heaped upon themselves, the Lord God would not give up his own. In verse 10 of chapter 8 he says,
Though they have hired among the They sold themselves as slaves
to iniquity among all the nations. Now will I gather them. Why? Why? Because he will not give
them up. Chapter 11, verse 8 again. How
shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I give thee up? How
shall I give thee up? Why? Why would he give them up? Because of his love for his elect,
it is a free, unconditional, indestructible love. He says,
I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away. Look
at chapter 14, verse 7. They that dwell under his shadow
shall return. wherever they are, wherever God's
elect are found throughout all the earth, whether they're found
amongst the heathen in Mexico, or the heathen in the Ivory Coast,
or the heathen in New Guinea, or the heathen in Danville, Kentucky,
wherever they're found, wherever they're found, I'll tell you
where they are all the time, all the time. Oh, they might
not know it, but this is where they are all the time. they're
under the shadow of the Almighty all the time. And they that dwell
under his shadow shall return. He'll see to it. They shall revive
as the corn, and grow as the vine. The scent thereof shall
be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, of whom God said, Ephraim is
joined to his idols, let him alone! But God said, No, I can't
let him alone, he's mine. Ephraim shall say, What have
I to do any more with idols? I've heard him, I've observed
him, I'm like a green fir tree. Ephraim, from me is thy fruit
found. Oh, Pritchard, I wish I could
repent. From me is thy fruit found. Oh, I wish I could believe
God for me, is thy feet found? Who is wise, and he shall understand these
things, prudent, and he shall know them. For the ways of the
Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them. But the transgressors shall fall
therein. Thank God for such grace, for
such amazing grace, that will not let go the objects of his love
forever. Amen.