We are going to be in Hosea chapter 2 this morning, but just by way of recap, in Hosea chapter 1, as you recall, and I have messages, there's two messages prior to this one that are on our website if you want to go back and listen to them. We have an introduction and then we have a covering of chapter 1.

By way of recap, Hosea is preaching at a time when Israel as a nation is experiencing, as the northern kingdom now, not the southern kingdom, but the northern kingdom, is in a very strong monetary and military strength. They were in good shape at this point in time, but not spiritually. They were very, very far off spiritually. 

But at the time of King Jeroboam II, Israel was very strong. He was the last of the really strong kings in the northern kingdom, and he was the third generation from Jehu, and Jehu was given a promise that after he had wiped out the house of Ahab, that he would have four generations to sit upon the throne of the northern kingdom. Jeroboam was the third, and I believe it was Zechariah was the fourth, and Zechariah only lasted for six months before he was done. 

But Hosea prophesied in the beginning, the Lord tells him to go take a wife of harlotry and to have children of harlotry, and then explains the reason why, and he says that I'm going to visit the bloodshed of the house of Jehu. I'm going to visit the bloodshed on him, and God tells him to name his children. 

The first child that he has is Jezreel, he names him Jezreel, which means God sows or God scatters, and he makes it known that he is going to scatter, he's going to bring judgment upon the northern kingdom of Israel. He's going to bring judgment and he's going to scatter them throughout the nations, they are going to go into exile, and that's kind of the promise. And so his first child is named Jezreel for that reason, and then he says on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. 

We talked about that valley of Jezreel being such a very good military place, everything comes together in such a powerful way in that valley, and it is there that Assyria attacked and destroyed the northern kingdom. After taking the valley of Jezreel, it was just a very short walk into Samaria where he sacked the entire city of Samaria, and from there tried to move on to Judah. 

This is in the days of Hezekiah, the king of the southern kingdom, and as you recall, God says in chapter 1 of Hosea, he says, in verse number 7, I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the Lord their God and will not deliver them by sword, battle horses, or horsemen. 

And so it's a fascinating thing because here God destroys the northern kingdom, the king of Assyria comes to fight against Judah and makes very loud boasts against the Lord God and against the people, and God, excuse me, Isaiah instructs Hezekiah to be silent and take it to the Lord, and so he does, and it's amazing what happens as God fights for the kingdom of Judah. When you put your trust in God, he will fight for you, and in that one night, God wiped out the Assyrian army, 185,000. 

One angel wiped out 185,000 people in one night. Such an amazing thing because Judah had put their trust in the Lord their God. And so when we looked at this last time, we kind of took all of these prophecies and we looked at how they were fulfilled, and that's one of those ones that's amazing to me. 

But he had two other children. One was to be named Lo-Ruhamah, which means no compassion, wouldn't you like to have that as a name? No compassion? Because God said that he would no longer have compassion on Israel. And then a third, which was a son, and that one was to be named Lo-Ami, which means not my people. 

And these children, this marriage and these children would serve for about 50 years as a prophetic message to the people of Israel that judgment was coming, so that they could make time to prepare, to repent, and to turn back to the Lord. That's the whole plan and the purpose. When God pronounces judgment, he wants to turn people back. He doesn't want to bring judgment. 

And so for 50 years, the house of Israel had these living sermons walking amongst them in Hosea's wife and children, and they didn't get the message. So that's kind of where we're at. We come into the second chapter now, and I have for you on your, I actually have points for you. I don't do that very often, but I have four points on your outline this morning. 

First of all, plead with your mother. Second, judgment. Three, promise of restoration. And four, I will have compassion. Okay, now, one thing I want us to understand, and I want us to go and look at this for just a quick minute, because it's good to know the history of things. Let's go to, if you go with me to 2 Kings, 2 Kings chapter 17. 

And in 2 Kings chapter 17 is the final fulfillment of what Hosea was prophesying, and not only Hosea, but Amos also had prophesied this, and I believe Jonah even at some point had prophesied concerning the destruction of Israel. But in chapter 17, beginning at verse 6, it says this: In the ninth year of Hosea, now Hosea is not Hosea, Hosea is the name of the king of the northern kingdom, not the prophet. 

In the ninth year of Hosea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods, and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. 

The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. They set for themselves sacred pillars and ashram on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there they burned incense on the high places, as the nations did, which the Lord had carried away to exile before them, and they did evil things, provoking the Lord. 

They served idols, concerning which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.” Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments, my statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through my servants the prophets.” However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. 

They rejected the statutes and his covenant which he made with their fathers, and his warnings with which he warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them. They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an ashram, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven, and served Baal. 

Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him. So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from his sight. None was left except the tribe of Judah. 

So there's the final fulfillment of what Hosea had prophesied, and the reason why was because of their idolatry, their forsaking the Lord. They had turned away from the Lord. And so chapter two then opens with this appeal: Say to your brothers, Ami, and to your sisters, Ruhama, contend with your mother, contend, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. 

And let her put away her harlotry from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts. So it opens with an appeal for the faithful few who were remaining to contend with their mother, to contend with the northern tribe, to contend with Israel, to turn back to the Lord. 

And we can see, if you recall from 1 Kings chapter 19, beginning at the 14th verse, we're not going to go there, but is the story of when Elijah, the prophet Elijah, called together all the prophets of Baal and had that showdown, that incredible showdown between the Israel God, Yahweh, and the prophets of Baal. 

And as you recall, they were dancing, the prophets of Baal were dancing, they were shouting, they were cutting themselves with stones, they were trying to get Baal to do something, he would not respond. And so Elijah says things like, hey, maybe yell a little bit louder, maybe he's sitting on the toilet, maybe he's not hearing you, so get a little louder. 

And so they did, and blood was gushing and everything, and no response whatsoever. And then Elijah says a very simple prayer when it's his time. He has them, first of all, cover the whole sacrifice with water until the water was flowing. And then he's made a simple prayer to ask that the Lord God would show the people of Israel who the Lord God was. And God answered with fire, licked up all of the water, took up the sacrifice, and all the people fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.” Remember that? 

But right after that, he falls into this depression, and he goes off and he kind of runs away because Jezebel has brief threatenings against him. And so he runs into the wilderness and hides, and God finds him and says, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” And Elijah says, “You know what, I'm the only one left. Of all the people of Israel, there's nobody left, I alone serve you, and they're all against me, and there's no one left.” And he kind of whines, and God says, “Get up, Elijah, get going, for I have 7,000 people who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 

So these are the people that I believe that Hosea is talking to, to these people who remained faithful to the Lord in the northern kingdom, because there were, there's always a remnant. And as we'll see later on, there's always a remnant. And so he's speaking to this remnant, and he's saying to them, contend with your mother, contend. Now is the time, speak out, speak out. 

Did you ever, do you know that you are your brother's keeper? Did you know that? Remember, Cain said, “Who am I, am I my brother's keeper?” You are your brother's keeper, in fact, you're your mother's keeper. The children of Israel, these faithful ones were to call Israel back to repentance, to remind them of what God had done with them, and to encourage them to come back to God. 

Contend with your mother, he says, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. And let her put away her harlotry from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts. And so that's where we find this. 

Now, one other little interesting thing that we need to know about Israel that I want to just touch on real briefly, and that's found in Deuteronomy chapter 4. So let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 4 quick. And I know that we're looking at Old Testament scriptures, and we, as we know, do not live under the New Testament law any longer. We are, we have been made to die to the law, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit. Amen? Praise God for that. We love the New Covenant. 

But there's something that God says to Israel here in Deuteronomy chapter 4. And he says, where am I at here, yeah, beginning of chapter, verse number 6 says, “So keep and do them for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the people who hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ What great nation is there that has a God so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on him? Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today? 

Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen, and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life, but make them known to your sons and your grandsons. Remember the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’ You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens, darkness, cloud, and thick gloom. 

Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you saw no form, only a voice.” And that's something that's really important to understand when you're dealing with the children of Israel. They were given something that no other nation ever in history has been given. They were given a direct revelation. They were given a direct word from God. 

They were assembled at the bottom of Mount Sinai. God descended upon the mountain and audibly spoke to the people, but did not show them any form, anything. He said, remember that you saw no form, you saw nothing, you only heard the voice. And that's to be a reminder to them that they don't walk in idolatry, that they don't make images and things like that. 

Well, we see that they failed in that many, many times. The fact that they heard his voice and saw no form, they were to know that God is not like any of the gods of the nations, nor like anything in all of creation. 

When God brought the 10 plagues upon Egypt, each plague was a judgment upon one of their gods. They served so many gods in Egypt, they served so many, and each judgment was a judgment upon one of those gods. And so God demonstrating his judgments upon the gods of Egypt, now he's saying to the children of Israel in Ezekiel chapter 34, he's saying that they too now, as they enter the promised land, are to exercise judgments upon the gods of the wicked nations that are in there before them. 

Next in Exodus chapter 34, verses 10 to 17, then God said, “Behold, I'm going to make a covenant. Before all your people, I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations. And all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you. Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day. Behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 

Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. But rather you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their ashram, for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods. And someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods, and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. You shall make for yourself no molten gods.” 

So that was the instruction before they ever got to the promised land, that God said, you are to drive them out. Just as God destroyed the gods of Egypt before the sons of Israel, so the sons of Israel now were to destroy the gods of the Canaanites, and the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and all of the other Perizzites. They were supposed to get rid of all of them, and that was the plan. But they failed in that, and we find that in the book of Judges chapter 2, and verses 11 through 17. 

This is what happens in the book of Judges. It says, “Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals. And they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them. Thus they provoked the Lord to anger. So they forsook the Lord, and served Baal in the Ashtoreth. 

The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them. And he sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had spoken and as the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed. 

Then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord. They did not do as their fathers.” 

And so here you see, God has given that command, they have fallen, they have failed. And here we come to the days of Hosea, 50 years before the northern kingdom is destroyed. And we see that he's saying to them to put away their harlotry from before her face, and her adultery from between her breasts. So I want to just take a quick minute and look at these. 

Now, who are these gods to which the Israelites are bowing? Just by quick lesson, there are three prominent ones in the land of Canaan before they came. The first one is kind of the supreme god of the Canaanite people, who is known as Baal. And Baal had many different names. But the worship of Baal, excuse me, Baal, the name Baal means master or lord. And he was the most powerful of all of the Canaanite gods. 

Baal was a god of fertility and storms, and he was well suited for the agrarian societies in the Middle East. In particular, to the peoples of the promised land prior to the coming of Israel. The worship of Baal included animal sacrifices, temple prostitution, and self-mutilation as seen by the prophets of Baal in the showdown with Elijah. So you have the children of Israel are bowing down to Baal, a wicked god. 

The second of these gods, in this case, is the goddess Ashtoreth. You might recognize her by names of Ishtar, Isis, Astarte, Asherah, Aphrodite, Artemis, also known as Diane, and is considered the queen of heaven. She also is a god of fertility, of motherhood, and of war. The worship of Ashtoreth included burning of incense, food and drink offerings, and bizarre sexual rituals. And these are the things that God said to stay away from. 

The third was the god Moloch, and there's a lot of uncertainty surrounding Moloch. But many believe that he is the one known as Baal Hadad, and he was worshipped widely by the Moabites and the Amorites. The worship of Moloch included sacrificing live infants in a burning furnace in the belly of a statue of a creature with a human body and the head of a bull. And that's what the...one other verse on that will be in Jeremiah. And then we'll get to the main crux of this in just a minute. 

Jeremiah chapter 32, verses 30 to 35. “Indeed, the sons of Israel and sons of Judah have been doing only evil in my sight from their youth. For the sons of Israel have been only provoking me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the Lord. Indeed, this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and my wrath from the day that they built it, even to this day, so that it should be removed from before my face. 

Because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their leaders, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they have turned their back to me and not their face. Though I taught them, teaching again and again, they would not listen and receive instruction. But they put their detestable things in the house which is called by my name to defile it. They built the high places of Baal that are in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I had not commanded them, nor had it entered my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Israel to sin.” 

So there's the worship of all of these gods and they were disgusting rituals in each and every one of them. The most heinous to me is the sacrificing of live infants to these gods to get them to do whatever they're hoping to have happen. What a horrible thing. All of these, the worship of all of these gods was for the increase in power, position, and wealth. 

That is what their whole purpose was. And we see it in the secular world today, don't we? Look at Wall Street. You know what's standing out in front of Wall Street is a statue of a bull, right? When they talk about the market, they say if it's a bull market, that means it's a good market. Everybody's getting rich. 

They're increasing their wealth and when it's bad, it's a bear market. But we see it all over. We see it all over the religious world. In this day and age, we see this kind of idolatry in the health, wealth, and prosperity movement within the, quote, church. I say quote because it's not really the church. But this health, wealth, and prosperity message gospel, just accept Jesus and everything is going to be just fine. 

You're going to have all the nicest cars. You're going to have the nicest homes. You're going to have riches untold and physical and spiritual health. And that's the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, which does not even come close to the gospel. It's such a false gospel. It's a disgusting gospel. But it's a gospel of idolatry and getting what I want, what I can have, more power, more prestige, more good things for me. 

And let me tell you something. If you came to Jesus on those terms, I think maybe you've learned by now that that is such no true, not true. In fact, the promise of Jesus was that all who would follow him are going to suffer persecution. We can look at the lives of all the, and we're not going to look at that now, but anyway, we have the first few verses there, contend with your mother and contend for she is not my wife and I'm not her husband. 

Let her put away her harlotry from her face and her adultery from between her breasts. Next, we have the pronouncement of judgment, that's verses 3 to 13, and let's read those. 

“For I will strip her naked and expose her as in the day when she was born. I will also make her like a wilderness, make her like desert land and slay her with thirst. Also I'll have no compassion on her children because they are children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has acted shamefully for she said, ‘I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ 

Therefore behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns and I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths. She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them. She will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband for it was better for me then than now.’ For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil and lavished on her silver and gold which they used for Baal.” 

“Therefore I will take back my grain at harvest time and my new wine in its season. I will also take away my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And then I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her out of my hand. I will also put an end to all her gaiety, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths and all her festival assemblies. I will destroy her vines and fig trees of which she said, ‘These are my wages which my lovers have given me.’ 

And I will make them a forest and the beasts of the field will devour them. I will punish her for the days of the boughs when she used to offer sacrifices to them and adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry and follow her lovers so that she forgot me, declares the Lord.” 

So the first thing that we see here is that Israel is exchanging the truth of God for a lie. Does anybody remember Romans chapter 1? What happened in Romans chapter 1? It says, of all of creation, it says that God made himself known to them. He made it obvious. He made it known to them. And it says that they rejected, they suppressed the truth. 

They turned away. They suppressed the truth. They tried to hold it back. And that's exactly what has happened in our generation, in this world right now. Men constantly suppressing the truth of God. My son has a bubble head friend, he's, I can't remember what he is. He's a scientist of some sort. He works in making vaccines and stuff like that, a biologist of sorts. 

And I've had conversations with him, and one of the last ones we had, we were talking, because he just, he sees absolutely nothing wrong with, he doesn't believe that there, he says he doesn't believe there's a God. And I told him, I told him, “Brett, you're a liar.” And he's like, “You're calling me a liar?” And I said, “Yeah, I'm calling you a liar, because the scripture says that you know the truth. You're only suppressing the truth. You're holding it back. You're pushing it down. 

You're, instead of embracing the truth that there's God, but you don't want to believe in God, because if you believe in him, then you are responsible to him.” And he was silenced. He had no more, no more argument on that point. But Israel exchanged the truth of God for a lie, just like all of the Gentiles have done. And that's kind of what Romans is getting at, the book of Romans in that first chapter is the guilt of all of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles. 

And she says, “I will pursue my lovers.” Israel believed at this point in the time of Hosea, Israel was believing that it was her idols that had provided for her all of her needs. And that's what she says. For their mother has played the harlot, she who conceived them has acted shamefully, for she said, “I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my oil and my drink.” 

And so we see these people who have had such an incredible revelation from the living God turning to these idols and saying, “These are the things that have given me all that I have.” How many of you have heard, you know, “All of my hands have gotten me all of these things. I worked hard for these things.” 

All of these things are because I did this. And we forget oftentimes that it's God who has given us everything. And she was attributing to the idols, all the things that God had blessed her with. And at this time, remember at the time of Hosea's proclamation here, there was, they were in strong economic, they were in a strong. economic state and they weren't willing to accept this thing. 

No, they were saying I'm going to go after my lovers who have given me these things. I've gotten these things from, not from God, but from other places. And then he says, “I will, but he says in verse number six, therefore behold I will hedge up her way with thorns and I will build a wall, build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.” 

There is an enduring principle here of and I'm gonna share just my own personal experience and what I'm sharing here, I'm not proud of. But after many years of serving the Lord, I had, we'd moved up to Mercer and I didn't have fellowship and I had slipped into my old ways. God had delivered me for some pretty tremendous things and I had served as a pastor. 

In fact, I had started the church and but I had fallen into a backslidden state when I got here. It was, it wasn't good. I had gone back to drinking and I'd taken a couple of years and I just, I backslid horribly. If you had met me at that time, you would never be able to accuse me of being a Christian at that time. It wasn't that I forgot God completely; it's just that I had been burned and I just, I just wanted to distance myself from all of that. 

And so I turned back to drinking and all the problems that it caused. It caused problems with my family, you know, between my wife and I. It was a horrible time. But all of that time I was looking to, for some kind of comfort, some kind of something to carry me through. Rather than looking to God, I was looking to my old manner of life and trying to grab comfort from that. 

But do you understand that God puts a hedge of thorns around us and builds a wall so that we can't get through? Has anybody ever walked through thorns before? Oh my goodness, that hurts, doesn't it? You get all ripped up, your flesh is all torn up. It's, it's miserable. And let me tell you something, going back to that old manner of life is a miserable thing. And it does not bring comfort, it does not bring anything but sorrow and grief and pain. 

And if the thorns aren't bad enough, he builds a wall so that if you were able to get through those thorns, you're gonna smack right into a wall. And I smacked right into that wall, and it was miserable. And I, I finally, you know, the Lord was gracious to me. And through my youngest son, he stayed my, my ignorance, my stupidity, my, my sin, and said, “Dad, I want to go back to church.” Like, wow. 

All these years that I have been neglecting my job, I'm supposed to raise him in the fear and the admonition of the Lord. For 18 years, those kids never saw me touch a drop of alcohol. Then all of a sudden, they're having to pull me out of a vehicle and pour me into bed. I failed. I failed as a father. I failed as a husband. God builds a hedge around us. 

He's a jealous God. Do you understand that God is a jealous God, that he loves you, and that he doesn't want to share you with anybody else? He wants to be your everything, your all-in-all. That is his desire. He will not allow us to find peace and fulfillment apart from him. That is the absolute truth. We will never find fulfillment and peace apart from him. 

And that's, uh, that's what God says he's going to do. And so then she says in verse number seven, she will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them. She will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say, “I'll go back to my first husband, for it was better for me then than it is now.” And that's where I came to the place in my life where it's like, you know what? It was better for me when I was walking with Jesus. And I need to go back. I need to go back. 

That hedge of thorns works, folks. It really does. Revelation chapter 2, you don't have to turn there, but I'll read it for you. Revelation chapter 2 verses 1 to 5 says this, “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands says this, ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance and that you cannot tolerate evil men. And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not. And you found them to be false, and you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary. 

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.’” 

Now as I read this letter to the Ephesians, I'm struck by so many things. First of all that they were so good at so many things. I mean, he says that they are good at so many things. They can't tolerate evil men. They put to the test those who call themselves apostles. They found them false. They have perseverance and have endured for his name's sake and have not grown weary. All of these great things this church of in Ephesus does. 

But God says, “But this I have against you, that you have left your first love.” And you know, God has, you understand how blessed we are. Having someone like John, like Pastor Krenz before him, and John now. We are blessed beyond degree for all of the good things that God has given to us and provided for us. We ought to be thanking God daily for this fellowship of believers that we have. 

We are so blessed. This is so unnatural in the world in this day and age to have this depth of teaching and this depth of but we can have all of these things and yet walk away from our first love. And I did that. I had walked away from my first love. 

And he said, and listen to something about the church of Ephesus. Did you know that they had some of the greatest teachers ever? They had the Apostle Paul, of course. They had Timothy. John, the Apostle John at one time was a pastor of theirs. I mean, talk about a rich history, a very rich history for a church. And God says, I have this against you that you left your first love, therefore repent and return or I will remove your lampstand from you. 

And sadly, if you go to Ephesus now, there is no church. There is no church in Ephesus now. Why? Because they left their first love and they wouldn't turn around. Beloved, if you're in a place where I, like I was, in a backslidden state, turning your back on God, repent. Just repent. That's not a bad word. 

Repent simply means turn around. That's it. That's what it means. It means turn around, do an about-face. So instead of turning your back to God, turn around and face him and walk back. Because that's where healing starts. That's where life begins is right there. Amen. 

So and then it says it is I, God says it is I who gave her these things, the children of Israel. He's the one that gave her the silver and the gold. He's the one that gave her the grain at harvest time and the wool and the flax and all of these things. God was the one who provided all of these things for her. She didn't know it. She wouldn't acknowledge it. And she took it and she used it for her idols. She sacrificed them to the balls and to the Asherim and to the Amalek. 

All of these wonderful things that God said that he would give to them. Then he says I'm going to take them back. I will take them back. And that's what ends up happening. Now we get to the good part because this is where you begin to see the gospel in the book of Hosea. I love this. I love this. The promise of restoration. This would be the third point on your outline. 

The promise of restoration. The gospel always begins like it did in the book of Romans. It begins with the bad news first, right? Bad news. Because you really can't fully appreciate the good news until you understand the bad news. Well, the bad news is that Israel failed and they failed miserably and they suffered the punishment for it. But there's the promise of restoration because God is kind and gracious. 

And let's read it verses 14 to 23. “Therefore behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her. Then I will give her her vineyards from there and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. It will come about in that day, declares the Lord, that you will call me my Ishi and will no longer call me my Baali. 

For I will remove the names of the balls from her mouth, so that they will be mentioned by their names no more. In that day I will also make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the sky, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land and will make them lie down in safety. 

I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in loving kindness and in compassion. And I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord. It will come about in that day that I will respond, declares the Lord. 

I'll respond to the heavens and will respond to the earth. And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine, and to the oil. And they will respond to Jezreel. I will sow her for myself in the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion. And I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people. And they will say, you are my God.” 

So in this section here, we have the beautiful picture of the new covenant. Remember the new covenant. In Jeremiah chapter 31, I will take away your heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my laws within your heart. I will cause you to walk in obedience to my statutes. I will remember your sins no more. All of those precious promises in Ezekiel chapter 36, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in obedience to my statutes. 

The glorious new covenant that is us, and we see such a beautiful picture of it here. And so beginning verses 14 and 15, we have the wilderness. Now, when I think, when we think of wilderness in a biblical context, we need to be careful of what, because when I think of wilderness, I think about what we have around here. It's so beautiful, glorious, beautiful. I love the wilderness. I love to go out in the woods, and I like to walk in the woods. 

But this isn't what he's talking about when he's talking about wilderness. When we think of wilderness in biblical times, we should be thinking more of dry, barren, lifeless places. And I believe that this is the reference to the Arabian desert through which God led the children of Israel when he delivered them from their bondage of Egypt, which is a picture of our spiritual bondage to sin before our regeneration. 

The wilderness is where we learn utter dependence upon God for all of our needs. You know that? That is the purpose of the wilderness. Perhaps you're in a wilderness place today. Maybe you're in a dry and thirsty land. The whole purpose of that is for you to understand that you are completely and totally dependent upon the living God. That's the purpose of the wilderness. 

And the wilderness should be a place that we should embrace. The wilderness is also the place of preparation for ministry. Remember, John the Baptist grew up in the wilderness and was in the wilderness all the way up to the time when he began his ministry. Most scholars say that his ministry only lasted six months. But oh my goodness, what six months as he prepared the way for the Lord to come. 

And Jesus said there was never a greater prophet than John the Baptist. Do you understand? But his training was in the wilderness. We see Moses. Remember, Moses was in the wilderness in Moab tending sheep when God met him in that place. Jesus, immediately upon being baptized, was led into the wilderness and was tried and tested there. 

The Apostle Paul, after his conversion, he went to the wilderness for three years to learn directly from the Lord Jesus Christ the gospel that he preached. So the wilderness ought not to be, when we think of a wilderness, we should be thinking of that dry, lifeless, barren land. But that lifeless, barren land teaches us to depend for all of our needs upon the living God. 

And that's what he's saying here. I'm going to allure them. What a beautiful word, allure, isn't it? God is, this sinful, horrible people, he is going to allure them. He's going to entice them to come back. Just like he did with me, he enticed me to come back. 

And he says, and bring her into the wilderness, he says, I will speak kindly to her. That word literally means to speak upon her heart. That was God speaking upon the heart of a harlot people, upon a people. I love that song this morning, Diane, the song of Gomer. She can't understand, where's this love coming from? Where is it coming from? I don't deserve this love. Look at me, look at my life. 

Yet he brings her and he speaks kindly to her, he speaks upon her heart. That's what his promise is, I will speak to her and I will speak upon her heart. I believe that's really the call of God that has led each and every one of us to Christ, was he spoke to our hearts. He spoke upon our heart. Amen. 

Okay, then he says this, he says, “Then I will give her her vineyards from there in the valley of Achor as a door of hope.” Now this is a reference to Joshua chapter 7, and we're not going to go back there, don't worry, we're not going to go back there, but let me just give you a synopsis. Jericho is located in the Valley of Achor, and the word Achor means trouble. 

And if you recall, when Joshua led the children of Israel over the Jordan River to begin to take possession of the Promised Land, their first stop was Jericho. And in Jericho, you know, they marched around the city seven times, the walls fell, they took it over. But something happened there in Jericho that had a profound effect upon Israel after that. 

A man by the name of Achan had taken some of the things that God said don't take. He didn't want them to take any of the things that belonged to those people, they were to destroy them, put them under the ban, and destroy them. But Achan saw a gold bar and some lovely clothes, and he decided to keep those, and he hid them in his tent underneath, in the ground underneath his tent. 

And their next stop from Jericho was Ai. And you remember, they got to Ai, and they only, it was a small town, so they only sent 3,000 people to fight against Ai, and Ai whooped Israel's butt bad. And they went, they went back to Jericho, back to Joshua, and Joshua was tearing his clothes. He's like, what's going on here? Lord, you know, you're not with us. 

And God says, get up off your, get up off your knees, Joshua, and deal with the issue at hand. Because, you know, and told him that what had happened, that they had plundered some of those things that they were told not to. And so it became the valley of trouble to Israel. And so once they repented, once they turned, then they went back to Ai, and overthrew Ai. 

And just south of Ai is the valley of Eshcol, where, remember the spies took those grapes, you know, the grapes that they carried? It was just south of Ai a little ways. And so it was from there that God gave them their vineyards. From there, from that place of trouble. 

And a valley oftentimes speaks of difficult times in our lives. And we should never allow those valleys to cause us trouble, but we should embrace them. And because there are places of failure and humbling. That's what the valley of Achor was. It humbled the people of Israel. It humbled them. And it reminded them that there is, there's, their need is for dependence upon God. 

And so when they come to that place of humility, the door of hope is opened. And that should be for you in your lives. The valley is, that valley should be a place of an open door for you. And next we come to the betrothal. In that day declares the Lord that you will call me Ishi, and will no longer call me Baali. The name Ishi means my husband or my man, all right? 

And the word Baali means master. Now Ishi is a term that would describe and express marriage and love, whereas Baali is a term of mastery and fear. We serve the Lord not out of fear, but out of love. Amen? But it says my Ishi, my man, literally, who is our man? We have one man, the man Christ Jesus. Amen? 

He is at the right hand of the Father even as we speak. But he is a man, and he is my man. Glory to God, he is my man, he's my husband. I am in a love relationship with him. And God is saying to the children of Israel that he's going to bring them out, he's going to speak to their hearts, and they are going to embrace him again as their husband. 

And this is going to happen, this will happen. But we serve the Lord not out of fear, but out of love. And that's such a glorious thing. But then we have the betrothal. I will call you, well, let me just explain just quickly about betrothal. We won't be too much longer, I promise. 

Betrothal in the Old Testament times is when a marriage was arranged. The one who wanted to marry the woman would go to the father and would pay a dowry for the woman. And then once the terms were accepted for the marriage, then the man would go and would leave and go back to his father's house. And because most of them couldn't afford their own homes, they would go back to their father's house and they would build for them, for their new life. 

He would add on to that place so that they could have a place to live. And that reminds me of John chapter 14, where Jesus said, “I go and I prepare a place for you.” We have been betrothed to the Lord Jesus. Alright, let's look at that just real quick, John chapter 14, verses 1 to 3, because that really is the picture of betrothal in the Old Testament. 

“Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” 

Praise God. So Jesus has come, he has purchased his bride, his bride-to-be, and has gone to prepare a place in his Father's house so that where he is, there we may be also. Glory to God. What a thought that he is going to come back for me. He's going to come back for you. It could be today, it could be any time now, but he's going to come back and he's going to come back and get us. 

So that's betrothal in the Old Testament. And we see that with Jesus now going to his Father's house, back to the Father's right hand, and there preparing a place for us. Glory to God. So that's the betrothal. And then finally, number four, the blessings reinstated. Verses 21 to 23, it will come about in that day that I will respond, declares the Lord, I will respond to the heavens and will respond to the earth, and the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine, and to the oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. 

I will sow her for myself in the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion. And I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people. And they will say, you are my God. 

Now, this is good news for you and I. Because most of us here, if not all of us, are Gentiles. We were strangers to the covenants and the promises. We had no hope. We were without God in this world. We didn't have the things that the sons of Israel had. But the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 9 quotes Hosea two different places. 

Chapter 1, verse number 10 and here, verse number 23, where he says, you know, I will have compassion on her who had no compassion and I'll call them who were not my people, my people. Remember that the promise given to Abraham in chapter 12 of Genesis, the promised seed was going to be a blessing to all the nations. 

It was always in the heart of God to have mercy and compassion on all the nations. And so it's through the rejection and the failure of the Jews that salvation has come to us Gentiles, amen? And then in chapter 11 he says, if their rejection and their failure is riches for the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 

And so we pray, we pray for the people of Israel. We stand with the people of Israel. We don't condone everything that they do in Israel. In fact, Israel is one of the most godless nations right now. The atheism in Israel right now is astronomical. I believe they said more than 90% of the people don't even believe in God in Israel. 

And yet the scripture says that God's going to bring them back and that he is going to do something that at the end all of Israel will turn. And Romans chapter 11 talks about how they're all going to turn at one point. But their rejection and their failure is the blessing for us. Praise God, because now we are included in the covenants and the promises. 

Now we also can walk with the Lord Jesus. Do you see the gospel in this little section here of Hosea? I hope you do, and I hope you take it and you study it for yourself. I just find it's such a beautiful thing. We'll stop there. Let's have a word of prayer.