God's Unfailing Love -- 3/11/07 (Eternal Realities)

Sunday, March 11, 2007

GOD’S UNFAILING LOVE
Hosea 1:2; 3:1-5

Before I begin, let me give you a heads up. When I finish, I predict that some of you are going to be thinking something like this: "Ron, it’s like you haven’t finished the sermon. There is so much more that could be said." And you will be exactly right. So I suggest that you sit down with your Bible and an open heart and let the Lord finish the sermon.

For about nine months we have been looking at what I have called "Eternal Realities." We began with the glory and holiness of God. Then we looked at the condition of man, and it wasn’t a pretty picture. Because of man’s sin, there are severe consequences, primarily separation from God and eternity in hell. But praise God that He intervened and provided a way back to Himself through His own Son Jesus Christ, who became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus is the one and only way into the presence of God. Our part is to repent and trust Him completely with our lives. However, there are plenty of false prophets who through their words and their lives are leading millions to believe that there is a much broader way that leads to God and to true life. But Jesus makes it clear that this broad way which so many travel leads to destruction.

It was at that point that we began to deal with the subject of deception. Considering the fact that we started out to deal with the great eternal realities, it would seem that we have spent an undue amount of time and study looking at this subject of deception. We looked primarily at Matthew 7 and the little letter of I John. In Matthew 7 Jesus warns of the false prophets and then gives us those stern words He will speak to those who are fooled by the false prophets: "I never knew you; depart from me, you who work iniquity" (Matt. 7:23). In I John we were confronted by the tests of life. It is there that John uses three basic tests to give assurance to those who have eternal life. On the other hand, these tests of belief, obedience, and love are not intended to give assurance to those who do not truly have the life of God within. We have spent a great deal of time and trouble dealing with deception, because deception is so pronounced in modern American religion. We know that our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (I Pet. 5:8). What we often forget is that his main weapon in our religious society is not intimidation, but it is deception. Though he is as strong as a roaring lion, he most often masquerades as an angel of light (II Cor. 11:14).

Then the last two Sundays we dealt with the stern words of I John 2:15-17…
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

We looked at other scriptures along with that passage, especially James 4:4, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

No doubt, some of you were offended that I would suggest you were guilty of spiritual adultery and idolatry. Some of you thought it was a wonderful message for other people you know. I didn’t come this morning to apologize for those two messages. On the contrary, I want you to know that those messages were not for other people you know; they were for you. That’s right, for you. Not for weaker brothers and sisters in the congregation, but for you. And for me. As I have shared with some of you, our great problem is that we don’t realize how conformed we are to the world. We are not only conformed to the world, but we are largely blind to that truth. We are like the church of Laodicea. They thought things were great, when in reality they were wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked (Rev. 3:17). I didn’t come to soften the last two messages. If anything, I would impress them upon our minds and hearts again and make them even stronger. We desperately need the hammer of God’s Word to wake us up to the reality of the deception in our lives.

Now having said that, I bring you good news this morning. There are two aspects of this good news. First of all, the messages I shared with you the last two weeks are good news in themselves. God tells us the truth about ourselves and brings correction because He loves us. That is good news. When the time comes that God let’s us go our own way, that’s bad news. As long as He rebukes us and seeks to bring correction, that is good news; that is evidence of His love.
The second aspect of the good news is this: despite our weakness, failure, worldliness, and unfaithfulness, God still loves His own. God loves us with a love that is beyond our understanding. This morning I am speaking to you who are truly sons and daughters of the living God through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

Introducing Hosea

Now let me shift gears for a minute. David Bagwell and Jake Turnbull have agreed to let me pick on them. If you would stand here by me, guys. If you don’t mind, please stand right up here beside me. Both Jake and David are 18 years old now. That’s hard to believe, isn’t it? They have known the Lord for a few years now. Jake has graduated from high school, has some college under his belt, and is currently working full time. David is finishing up his schooling at this time. Neither of them knows what the future holds, but they long to do the will of God, whatever that may be. I get excited when I look at young man like David and Jake, who are young and idealistic. They haven't made some of the mistakes I’ve made. They are free to go and do whatever the Lord calls them to do. Praise God for them and other young men in this congregation who are eager to do the will of our Lord.

Let’s suppose that the Lord revealed a bit of His will to one of these young men. However He chooses to do it, the Lord makes it clear that he is to go and marry a particular woman who will become a prostitute. If some of you younger ones aren’t familiar with the term prostitute (or harlot), let me give you a simplified explanation. A prostitute is a woman who isn’t satisfied to have one husband, but she throws herself at many men, even though she isn’t married to any of them. Suppose the Lord told one of these young men to marry such a woman. (Thank you, Davidand Jake; you may sit down).

Isn’t that a terrible thought? If God wants these young men to be married, they would long for a pure and godly woman who will continue to seek the Lord all her life. Isn’t that what every godly young man wants? The last thing he would desire would be to marry a woman who would prove to be unfaithful. Surely that would prove to be a hindrance to whatever ministry the Lord calls him to. Surely we would view it as a great tragedy.

Now let’s come to the Word of God and read from the prophet Hosea. Read Hosea 1:1-3:5… (NKJV)

Hosea 1. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. 2. When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: "Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord." 3. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4. Then the Lord said to him: "Call his name Jezreel, For in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel." 6. And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him: "Call her name
Lo-Ruhamah, For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,
But I will utterly take them away. 7. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, Will save them by the Lord their God, And will not save them by bow, Nor by sword or battle, By horses or horsemen." 8. Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9. Then God said: "Call his name
Lo-Ammi, For you are not My people, And I will not be your God. 10. "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 in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are
not My people,’ There it shall be said to them, ‘You are sons of the living God.’ 11. Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, And appoint for themselves one head; And they shall come up out of the land, For great will be the day of Jezreel.
Hosea 2. Say to your brethren,
‘My people,’ And to your sisters,
‘Mercy is shown.’ 2. "Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, And her adulteries from between her breasts; 3. Lest I strip her naked and expose her, as in the day she was born, And make her like a wilderness, And set her like a dry land, And slay her with thirst. 4. "I will not have mercy on her children, For they are the children of harlotry. 5. For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.’ 6. "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, And wall her in, So that she cannot find her paths. 7. She will chase her lovers, But not overtake them; Yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, For then it was better for me than now.’ 8. For she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, And multiplied her silver and gold—Which they prepared for Baal. 9. "Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time and My new wine in its season, And will take back My wool and My linen, Given to cover her nakedness. 10. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, And no one shall deliver her from My hand. 11. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, Her feast days, Her New Moons, Her Sabbaths—All her appointed feasts. 12. "And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, Of which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’ So I will make them a forest, And the beasts of the field shall eat them. 13. I will punish her for the days of the Baals to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry, And went after her lovers; But Me she forgot," says the Lord. 14. "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her. 15. I will give her her vineyards from there, And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; She shall sing there, As in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. 16. "And it shall be, in that day," Says the Lord, "That you will call Me
‘My Husband,’ And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’ 17. For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baal, And they shall be remembered by their name no more. 18. In that day I will make a covenant for them and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, To make them lie down safely. 19. "I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; 20. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the Lord. 21. "It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer," says the Lord; "I will answer the heavens, And they shall answer the earth. 22. The earth shall answer with grain, With new wine, And with oil; They shall answer
Jezreel. 23. Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on her who had
not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were
not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!
Hosea 3.. Then the Lord said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover
and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans." 2. So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. 3. And I said to her, "You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you." 4. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim.
5. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter day

A Very Difficult Command

We’re not going to try to go through that large amount of scripture this morning, but I did want us to get the whole picture. We needed to get a feel for Hosea’s situation.

Think with me for a moment. How would the Lord call a man to be a prophet? Think of Isaiah. Remember his words which recount his call from God, words we have looked at in depth. Is. 6:1, "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple." He heard the words of the seraphim, as they cried out, "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory" (6:3). Or consider the Lord’s call to Jeremiah: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" (Jer. 1:5).

What glorious experiences for Isaiah and Jeremiah, as the Lord called them to do His work. It wasn’t that way for Hosea. Let’s read it again in Hosea 1:2, "The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD." No, this is not what we would expect. Instead of some splendid revelation of His glory, God gives to Hosea a heartbreaking command.

Down through the years, Bible students have differed in their interpretation of that command. Some have seen this as only allegorical, only symbolic. In other words, Hosea didn’t really marry this woman Gomer at all. However, there is absolutely no basis in the text for understanding it that way. We read in verse 3, "So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son." So if this command is indeed to be taken literally, what can we make out of it?

While many believe that Gomer was a prostitute at the time when Hosea married her, others do not take it that way. The Lord may be speaking of Gomer as a woman who would become a harlot and bear children of harlotry. That is the way I understand the command. Perhaps most important is the parallel between Gomer and unfaithful Israel, as we will emphasize. Let’s take a moment and go over to Jeremiah and see what the Lord says about His relationship to His people. Read Jer. 2:1-3…
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2. Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. 3. Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.

The Lord reminds them of a time when He first took them as His people, even as His wife. At that time they were "holiness unto the Lord." However, if we were to continue to read from Jeremiah 2 and the later chapters, we would find that God’s people proved to be unfaithful. Nevertheless, in the beginning they were "holiness unto the Lord."

It seems to me that the parallel is preserved much more accurately, if we see Gomer as being pure at the time of their marriage but proving to be unfaithful later. Perhaps there were indeed tendencies toward unfaithfulness, but these had not surfaced when Hosea married her.

If that is the case, another question comes to mind. Did Hosea know that she would prove to be unfaithful? Again, some would say, "No. Hosea didn’t know it. Hosea thought she was the woman of his dreams. He didn’t have a clue that she would be unfaithful to him." If so, then it would go something like this. Hosea, writing later and looking back says: "When the Lord told me to marry Gomer, He was actually telling me to marry a woman who would become a prostitute, though I didn’t know it at the time."

I suggest that it is much simpler to take God’s command more literally. In other words, God literally commanded him to marry a woman who would become a prostitute. Not only is this the most natural way to take the text, but it also preserves the parallel of the relationship between God and His people. Did God know that Israel would prove to be unfaithful? Of course, He knew it. Let’s read what God said to His people Israel through Moses in Dt. 4:22-29…
But I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan: but ye shall go over, and possess that good land. 23. Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. 24. For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. 25. When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger: 26. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. 27. And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you. 28. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29. But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

Notice that it isn’t if you do these things, but when you do them. The Lord knew that His people were going to be unfaithful, but He took them on anyway. And then even when He spoke these stern words to them, He still could say, "But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul."

So now Hos. 1:3, "So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son." Hosea was obedient to the Lord and went and took Gomer to be his wife. Then we read immediately that she conceived and bore Hosea a son. That isn’t the end of the story. After speaking about the meaning of the son’s name "Jezreel," then we read in verse 6, "And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away." And then again in verses 8-9, "Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. 9. Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God."

Notice two things about the birth of the second and third children. First of all, they bear very tragic names. God tells Hosea to name the daughter Loruhamah, which means "not having obtained mercy," or "not loved." Then the Lord tells him to name the son Loammi, which means "not my people." Both are representative of God’s attitude toward His people. They had forsaken Him to the point that there was no reason for Him to have mercy upon them or call them His people any more.

The second thing I want you to notice is the difference between what we find in verse 3, as opposed to what we find in verse 6 and again in verse 8. Notice in verse 3 we are told that Gomer bore him a son. Do you see that? But in verse 6, it is only, "And she conceived again and bare a daughter." It is the same in 8, "…She conceived, and bare a son." We are not specifically told that these latter two children were Hosea’s children. It has long been believed by some that these were not even Hosea’s children. In light of the context, that may well be the case.

Another Difficult Command

Now come to 3:1, "Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel…" Who is this woman that Hosea is to go and love? Is it not Gomer, his wife who had become unfaithful? The King James word "yet" simply means "again" or "still." Hosea had loved her before, and now he was to go and love her again. But this would not be easy, because Gomer was now an adulteress. We are told specifically that she is now "a woman beloved of her friend."

Let’s turn back to Jer. 3:1, "They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD." Do you see that word "lovers"? That is exactly the same word that is translated "friend" here in Hosea 3:1. Gomer has found her another lover, perhaps the father of her third child, or second and third child.

Can you imagine how difficult this would be for Hosea? How could he do it? He could do it, because this is what the Lord told him to do? But how could the Lord tell Hosea to do such a thing? Because that is exactly what God Himself would do for Israel. The Lord is commanding Hosea to paint a stunning picture of His own love for His people. 3:1, "Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel…"

Hosea obeyed. 3:2, "So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley." When Hosea went to find Gomer, he found her in the slave market. We are not told why she had become a slave. Perhaps her lover dumped her and she was forced to sell herself into slavery. Or maybe she became a temple prostitute in the religion of Baal and when she had been used up, they sold her into slavery. Can you imagine the humiliation for Hosea? Those who knew the whole situation must have thought he was absolutely crazy. Nevertheless, he obeyed the Lord.

The Real Story

Enough about Hosea. This story is not really about Hosea’s love for Gomer; it is about God’s love for His people. Hosea’s love for Gomer is only a picture of God’s love for His people. Here’s the point. No one would ever expect a man to do what Hosea did. He had every reason to give up on Gomer and wash his hands of any further relationship with her. Surely to go and love her again, buying her back to himself, was to only invite more trouble.

Do you see? This is what God has done for us, for those of us who truly belong to Him. We are like Gomer. We are like Israel of that day. You may wonder why verse 3:1 does not follow immediately after 1:9? In between, we have the story of how Israel forsook the Lord. In verse 4, the Lord calls the Israelites children of harlotry. The Lord blessed Israel with corn and wine, and oil and multiplied her silver and gold, but Israel took those things and used them for Baal (verse 8). Listen to what the Lord says in verse 7, "And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but 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." The Lord was her first husband.

You say, "We’re not like that. We have never forsaken the Lord for idols." The reason we say that is because we are blind. To those of us who deny our unfaithfulness, the Lord says, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (Jms. 4:4). Like the Christians at Rome, we are guilty of being conformed to the world. That is why Paul said to them, "Be not conformed to this world." Literally, "Stop being conformed to this world" (see NIV). If these charges had been brought against the church of Laodicea, its members would have flatly denied the charges, but they were guilty. And so are we. We understand something of the seriousness of the sin of loving the world, but we are largely blind to our own guilt.

But praise God that our guilt is not the end of the story. Praise God that He "commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). But even that isn’t the end of the story. Even when we have been unfaithful to the Lord, He has loved us again, and again, and again. Just as Hosea’s love for Gomer went beyond any reasonable explanation, so is God’s love for us.

Sometimes we say, "How could God ever love me?" That is not a bad question. His love for us makes no sense. It defies logic. God forbid that we should ever look within ourselves to find the reason God loved us. If I ever think I find within myself the reason for His love, I am deceiving myself. Hosea did not love Gomer because he looked deep within her and saw something worthy. No, never. He loved Gomer because God told him to go and love Gomer "according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods…" (Hos. 3:1). Do you see it? God doesn’t keep on loving us because we are lovable. He loves us because God is love!

Conclusion

You may say, "Ron, you are not painting a very nice picture of us." No, I’m not. That isn’t my purpose. My purpose is to help us see the picture God has painted of Himself in His holy Word. It’s easy for us to read, "God is love." Here in Hosea we see some of the fleshing out of that love. This is what the God who is love is like.

So when we behold this picture, is it bad news? How can it be anything else when we compare ourselves to Gomer and unfaithful Israel? Hear me, and hear me well. This is good news. This is the best news. God’s love for us doesn’t depend upon us; it depends upon Him and what He has done in and through His only begotten Son. If God’s love depended upon me, I would be in big trouble. And I’m afraid I would be so paralyzed with fear that spiritually I would be "all thumbs."

Here is the good news. I can’t earn God’s love, but I don’t have to earn His love. He has chosen to love me in and through His Son Jesus Christ, whom He made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor. 5:21).

Some of you have been a bit dismayed at the messages you have heard in recent weeks. They have seemed so stern. I challenge you to take a good look at the writings of the prophet Hosea. Go to chapter 4 and just start reading. What stern judgment God pronounces through the prophet Hosea. But don’t forget who it is that is pronouncing this judgment? It is the God of love, the God who loves His people despite their unfaithfulness. God can speak directly and even rebuke them because He loves them so deeply.

And the Lord speaks through the prophet who has been touched by his heart, as He has obediently spent himself on behalf of Gomer, his wife of harloty. We look at this and tend to think that God was cruel to Hosea. How could God put Hosea through such a thing, and just so he could preach an effective message. But don’t you see it? Through this gut-wrenching experience God shared His heart with Hosea. How blessed was this prophet, as He was given the privilege of sharing the sufferings of His Creator. What greater blessing than to share the heart of God! It surpasses the blessing of a wonderful marriage. What could ever compare with sharing the heart of God! That is the man who spoke the stern words to Israel.

How shall I respond to such a loving God? When I truly see His love, how can I do anything else but fall on my face and adore Him? And when I get up, how can I long for anything except the glory and honor of this One who has loved me with this kind of love?

Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade…
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure; how measureless and strong.
It shall forever more endure the saints’ and angels’ song.

Sing: For God So Loved the World