Good morning, we're in Hosea chapter number one this morning, Hosea chapter one, the Bible
reads.
The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Bari, and the days of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king
of Israel.
The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea.
And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of hordoms and children of
hordoms, for the land hath committed great hordom departing from the Lord.
So he went and took Gomor, the daughter of Deblayim, which conceived and barren with
son.
And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little while, and I will
avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom
of the house of Israel.
And it shall come to pass it that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley
of Jezreel.
And she conceived again and buried a daughter.
And God said unto him, Call her name Luruhama, for I will no more have mercy upon the
house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.
But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their
God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor
by horsemen.
Now when she weened Luruhama, she conceived and buried a son.
Then said God, Call his name Lohami, for ye are not my people, and that will not
be your God.
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea,
which cannot be measured nor numbered, and it shall come to pass it in the
place where it was set unto them, ye are not my people, there shall it be
set unto them, ye are the sons of the living God.
Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered
together and appoint themselves one head, and there shall come up out of the land,
for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Let's pray to the Lord God, thank you for this church and for our pastor.
Please just be with them now, fill in with your whole spirit.
I'm helping to preach your word of boldness and help us to be edified.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Okay.
We're in Hosea chapter number one, and the time of my sermon this
morning is a wife of hordoms.
A wife of hordoms.
Speaking straight from verse number two that says, the beginning of the
word of the Lord by Hosea, and the Lord said to Hosea, go, take unto thee a wife
of hordoms, and children of hordoms, for the land hath committed great
hordom departing from the Lord.
Now the book of Hosea is a very unique book amongst the minor
prophets because of its metaphorical usage of this phrase hordom.
What we would essentially use today as being prostitute, right?
This is what it's referring to here.
And you know, here we have this really unique case where the Lord is
commanding his prophet to marry a literal prostitute because of the
fact that he wants to illustrate how he views the nation of Israel in
light of their inordinate idolatry.
And so he compares them to a prostitute, to a whore, and he talks
about their hordom throughout the book of Hosea.
Now here in the book itself, the first three chapters are only
dedicated to the relationship between Hosea and his wife, Gomer.
Chapters 4 through 14 really give the application to Israel.
So this sermon is going to be broken up into three parts.
The first part is going to be the immediate application to Israel.
The second part is we're going to look at the timeless application
to Jesus Christ, and then the third will be the future
application to believers slash churches.
Now who is Hosea?
Well, Hosea is actually a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel.
And if you've been here on Thursday nights, we've been talking
about we're going through the book of Isaiah, and he is a
prophet of the southern kingdom known as Judah, specifically
of Jerusalem.
Well, Hosea is actually a contemporary of Isaiah.
So while Isaiah is preaching to Judah, he's preaching to
Jerusalem, those of Judah, simultaneously, Hosea is
actually preaching to the northern kingdom of Israel,
specifically their capital known as Samaria.
Now if you've read your Bible for any length of time, you know
that the northern kingdom is way more wicked, far more evil,
and abominable than the southern kingdom.
The southern kingdom of Judah is pretty bad.
There's instances where they're involved in idolatry.
They do things that are not pleasing in the eyes of God.
But we would say like the northern kingdom is like
the apostate nation.
They're far away out there.
They've departed from the Lord.
And when you read the preaching against Israel, it's way
more severe than it is towards the southern kingdom of Judah.
We'll get into that later on.
So God commands Hosea to marry a literal prostitute.
Her name is Gomorrah.
She bears three children unto him, and each of those
children essentially have or possess a special spiritual
significance to them of a message the guy was trying
to get across to Israel.
And because she's a prostitute, she's out there
selling herself to her lovers.
And the illustration here is that Hosea is going out to
purchase his wife back.
And so really the overarching illustration or the spiritual
truth, the principle of the book of Hosea, is that the Lord
has this unwavering love towards us as his people and is
willing to do anything to get us back when we stray from
the paths of the Lord.
Now let me just mention something that has nothing
to do with the sermon itself, but it's just worth
mentioning.
And I'm not being facetious here.
I'm not trying to be funny, but it's important to mention
this because for sure there's going to be someone out there
that will believe this.
And that is that this is not a template on how to find
your wife.
Because someone will be like, oh, God's approving of
Hosea marrying a prostitute.
Therefore, I should marry a prostitute.
And I'm not saying that it's even out there, but it's
important to mention that because you just have people
out there that take things too literal.
So this is not a template on how to find a wife, but
let me also say this that it's not a condemnation of
marrying a former prostitute.
Obviously, the Bible and God specifically condemns marrying
a prostitute.
We see in the book of Leviticus chapter 21 that he
specifically tells the sons of Aaron, who are the
priesthood, not to take, not to marry a whore, someone
that is profane.
And it would apply to us today in 2024 as well as
Christians because of the fact that if someone is
marrying a literal prostitute, they're marrying someone
who's making adultery their profession.
That is their literal occupation.
And so they are out there committing abominable sins,
committing adultery, which is a crime in the eyes of God.
And it's a crime that is worthy of death, according to
the Bible.
And so God is definitely against that.
But he's not against, obviously, marrying a
former prostitute.
God can change people's lives.
And he can reform them.
And the word of God is powerful.
And so I just want to mention that, lest anyone
should get any ideas towards the latter or the former.
Now, let's talk about this particular story regarding
the wife of Hortoms.
Let's talk about the immediate application to Israel.
Because before we get into the spiritual application,
the New Testament, what is God literally telling the
children of Israel here?
Well, first and foremost, look at chapter 2, if you
would, we see that Gomern, who is the wife of
Hosea, represents the idolatrous nation of Israel.
Look at verse number one.
It says, Say ye unto your brethren, am I, and to your
sisters, Rahuma, plead with your mother.
Plead for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband.
Listen to this.
Let her therefore put away her Hortoms out of her sight.
And I want you to notice this last phrase here, and her
adulteries from between her breasts.
Now, hold your place there and go to Proverbs chapter
number five, if you would.
Proverbs chapter number five.
What is God, or what does Hosea, what does he mean by
that, when he says for her to put away her adulteries from
between her breasts?
You may think to yourself, wow, this is very coarse
language, is God being vulgar here?
What is he implying when he says to put away the
Hortoms or adulteries from between the breasts?
Well, in Proverbs chapter five, we find warnings
against adultery, warnings against fornication.
But obviously, we also see the writer of Proverbs
reinforcing marriage.
And in fact, look at verse 16 of Proverbs chapter five.
This is where he reinforces it, encourages it.
He says in verse 15, drink waters out of thine own
sister and running waters out of thine own well.
This is referring to marriage.
And this is not a necessary sermon on marriage, but this
is just referring to the fact that you should be
satiated with your spouse.
You should be happy with your spouse, only with your
spouse.
Drink waters out of thine own sister and out of thine own
well.
He goes on to say in verse 16, let thy fountains be
dispersed abroad and rivers of water in the streets.
Let them be only thine own and not strangers with thee.
Let thy fountains be blessed and rejoiced with the wife
of thy youth.
Verse 19, let her be as the loving hind in pleasant
row.
And I want you to notice this.
Let her breast satisfy thee at all times.
And be thou ravished always with her love.
Now, you may think to yourself, man, is this the
kind of sermon you want to preach on a Sunday
morning pastor?
It's getting kind of crazy right here.
Well, here's the thing is that when he says, let her
breast satisfy thee at all times, what does he mean
by that?
Because we see the similar language in
Hosea chapter 2.
But he actually tells us what he means by that in
verse 20.
He says, and why wilt thou my son be ravished with
a strange woman?
And I want you to notice this, and embrace the
bosom of a stranger.
So when the Bible says to be satisfied with the
breast of thy wife, it's in conjunction with verse 20
where he says to not embrace the bosom of a stranger.
So the satisfaction of the breast of thy wife means you
should only hug and embrace your wife.
Because obviously when you embrace someone, their bosom
or their breasts are pressing against yours.
You're hugging them.
You're embracing them.
So the instruction here is that you shouldn't be
hugging other men's wives.
You shouldn't be hugging any other woman but your own
wife.
You should be satisfied with only embracing your
spouse.
This is what the teaching is here.
Now with that in mind, when we interpret Hosea chapter 2
in verse number 1 and 2 in that library, he says, put away
your adulteries from between your breasts.
What do we see here?
We see that Israel is committing spiritual adultery.
Why?
Because she's embracing false gods.
She is bringing to her bosom, Molok and Baal and all
of these false gods.
She is embracing everything but the God of the Bible.
So the adulteries from between her breasts
is referring to the fact that she is going apostate.
She is embracing.
She's accepting.
She's being ravished with false gods of the land.
Go back to Hosea, if you would, chapter number 2.
And of course, her that's being spoken about here
is referring to Israel, illustrated by Gomer the
prostitute.
Look at verse number 4.
We see that Gomer is going to her lovers for gain.
It says in verse number 4, and I will not
have mercy upon her children, for they
be the children of Hortoms.
For their mother, listen to this, have played the harlot.
She that conceived them have done shamefully,
for she said, I will go after my lovers that give me
my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil
and my drink.
So this is implying here that Israel
is going after false gods for what she can get out
of those false gods.
Thinking that worshiping Moloch and Baal and these false deities
can provide resources, can provide riches,
can provide wool, flax, oil, and drink.
Look at verse number 6, if you would.
We see a biblical principle here that sin
can never truly satiate us.
It says in verse 6, therefore, behold,
I will hedge up the way with thorns and make a wall
that she shall not find her paths.
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.
What is the same?
It's saying that Gomer is seeking the wrong things
and the wrong places.
She's giving herself over to prostitution
in order to accumulate flax, water, wool, oil, and drink.
But then at the end of the day, she's not happy
with those things.
So even when she does get wool and flax and oil
and all the luxuries that come with sin at the end of the day,
she's still not happy with those things.
And the spiritual application here is that Israel,
even though they're worshiping false gods,
they're worshiping Baal, they're worshiping Moloch,
they're doing these things that are not pleasing
in the eyes of God, they're committing idolatry
for what they can get out of it,
when they obtain what they think they're gonna get,
they're not happy with that.
And you know what, that's exactly how sin is, my friend.
Sin is pleasurable for a season, the Bible says.
And sometimes sin has the ability to deceive you,
to deceive me into thinking, well, if I just have this,
if I just do this, if I just go here, I'll be happy.
I'll be satiated.
But folks, the Bible tells us,
blessed are they that hunger and thirst
have to righteousness for they shall be filled.
Truly the only thing that can really satiate
a believer are the things of God, okay?
And you'll notice that the Bible tells us
that bread stolen in secret is sweet,
but afterwards the Bible says,
thy mouth shall be filled with gravel.
So you take the bite out of sin,
you take the bite out of adultery,
you take the bite out of fornication,
you take the bite out of drunkenness, out of drugs.
And yeah, you may enjoy it for a season,
but folks, let me just remind you
that your mouth, spiritually speaking,
will be filled with gravel.
It doesn't taste good, okay?
You'll notice that it doesn't satiate you,
and you'll also notice that it'll
begin to destroy your life.
You'll suffer the consequences of your actions
for the wages of sin is death, the Bible says.
You know, when lust has conceived,
it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished,
the Bible tells us, bringeth forth death, okay?
So sin can never satiate.
Look at verse eight, it says,
for she did not know that I gave her corn
and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold,
which they prepared for bail.
What is he saying here?
He's saying, you know, Israel,
obviously is not taken into account
that the things that she's looking for
I've already provided.
The happiness that she's looking for
I've already given to her.
She's out there selling herself
for water, wool, flax, oil and drink,
but she doesn't have to sell it,
so she can literally just receive it
from the hand of God and be right with God, okay?
Righteous living is always satiating, my friends.
Obviously, sometimes it's harder,
sometimes it's more difficult,
it requires more discipline,
it requires you living a life that's not involved in sin,
but hold on a second,
the result of that is a clear conscience.
How about that?
The result of that is God's blessing.
The result of that is God's hand is not against you
for evil, for disobeying his commandments,
and the result of that is that
you get corn, wine and oil.
You know, this is important,
especially for young people
who in this day and age,
they can't seem to wait for marriage,
and they want that physical relationship,
and so they allow themselves to get involved
in relationships where potentially they commit fornication,
they do that which is not pleasing
in the eyes of the Lord,
and you know what,
they think they'll be satiated by that fornication,
but folks, all that brings is trauma,
all that brings is hurt,
all that brings is pain,
all that brings is bad memories,
all that brings is death.
Not realizing that, hey,
once you get married,
you can be satiated in a proper way,
and you can still be right with God.
Marriage is honorable in all things,
in the bed undefiled,
but fornicators, hormongers and adulterers,
God will judge, the Bible says,
and Hebrews chapter 13.
Righteousness is always satiating, my friends,
and you know what, you think to yourself,
well, you know, come into church
and read the Bible,
it just doesn't really call my attention.
We'll do it till it does.
Some of us need to just change our appetites
for the things of God,
and some of us just have too much of a deep appetite
for the wrong things,
for sin, for the wrong activities,
and God wants to change your appetite
for the right things,
because it's not only beneficial to you,
but it actually does satiate in the long run.
Look at verse 13,
it says in verse 13,
and I will visit upon her the days of Balaam.
Balaam is a false God,
obviously it's referring to Satan,
Baal, Beelzebub, Belpior,
wherein she burned incense to them,
and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels,
and she went after her lovers,
and forgot me, sayeth the Lord,
therefore behold, I will allure her
and bring her into the wilderness
and speak comfortably with her, unto her,
and I will give her her vineyards
from fence in the valley of Acor,
for a door of hope,
and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth,
as in the days when she came up
out of the land of Egypt.
What does it say?
It's basically saying, you know,
Israel is putting her best foot forward for a false God.
She is decking herself with earrings and jewels,
all for Baal, all for Satan, right?
And, you know, the Bible tells us
that when people are involved in sin,
according to Romans chapter six,
that they go from uncleanness into iniquity,
unto iniquity,
but now God expects us to live
from righteousness unto righteousness.
In other words, you know,
you should put your best foot forward
for the Lord.
Just as zealous as you were for the world
and for sin and for the things of the world,
you know, you should transfer that over
to the things of God, okay?
Just as loudly as you sing your Taylor Swift songs,
you should sing, God rest ye merry gentlemen, amen?
As loudly as you sing,
whatever songs popular out there,
I don't know who's popular,
I just know Taylor Swift
because I always hear about Swifties, you know,
hopefully we got no Swifties in our church, you know?
But I hope you're Swiftie here
and slow to speak, amen?
You know, just as passionate as you are about sin,
you should be passionate about the things of God.
You know, you put your best foot forward for sin,
put your best foot forward for the things of God.
Whether that be reading your Bible, coming to church,
you know, the zeal of thine house,
the Bible says, have eaten me up,
we should also be the same.
Go to chapter four, if you would,
chapter number four of Hosea.
Putting your, you say, why do you guys wear a suit
when you come to church?
Because I'm putting my best foot forward
because we're going to the house of God.
Going to the house of God to hear the preaching
of God's words, to sing praises unto the Lord,
worshiping the God of the Bible.
We are emphasizing the fundamentals of the faith.
We're upholding soul-winning and evangelism.
This is the greatest work on the face of the planet.
Why not put our best foot forward
when we come to the house of God, right?
Look at verse 13, or I'm sorry, verse 12, if you would.
As I mentioned, the adultery of Gomer,
the literal adultery of Gomer,
represents the idolatry of Israel.
From chapters one to chapter three,
it's expressed regarding Gomer and her actual sin,
but now from chapter four and on,
it really focuses in and hones in on Israel's idolatry.
Look at verse 12.
My people ask counsel at their stocks
and their staff declare it unto them.
For the spirit of hordoms have caused them to err
and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
By the way, don't be offended at that word whore, whoredom.
That's a biblical term, amen?
And sometimes, if churches don't utilize these words,
they begin to lose their meaning
and thereby lose their power, okay?
And then Christians become offended at biblical words
because they're not being utilized.
But this is a biblical term
that should be used on a Sunday morning, amen?
To express the fact that it's not only referring
to the physical adultery,
but spiritual adultery in the eyes of God
when a person worships false gods.
That's what it means when the Bible talks
about playing the harlot, playing the whore,
it's referring to the fact
that they are worshiping false gods.
Look at verse 13.
They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains
and burn incense upon the hills,
under oaks and poplars and elms
because the shadow thereof is good.
Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom
and your spouses shall commit adultery.
What is the same?
It's referring to the fact
that when the leaders are not on par,
it'll have a trickle effect downward towards the followers.
You know, if a person who's a leader
makes excuses for idolatry, adultery and sin,
the followers will also follow suit
and be involved in those sins as well.
This is in verse 14.
I will not punish your daughters
when they commit whoredom
nor your spouses when they commit adultery
for themselves are separated with whores
and they sacrifice with harlots.
Therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall,
though thou Israel play the harlot,
yet let not Judah offend
and come not ye unto Gilgal,
neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear the Lord liveth.
Now what does he mean by verse 15?
He's saying, you know, Israel,
you're in really bad condition.
You are idolatrous, you're involved in whoredoms,
but do me a favor, don't influence Judah.
You know, don't get involved with Judah.
Don't allow your idolatry to go down into Judah.
And this is a good principle for us as Christians
that if you're backslidden, don't take people with you.
If you're a backslidden Christian
who is not excited about the things of God,
you are involved in sin.
Don't take people with you.
Don't affect Judah.
Don't allow your influence to be over them.
You know, if you're backslidden,
you become backslidden.
And I hope you get right with God.
I hope you get right with God.
I hope that you repent and get right with the Lord.
I hope you start reading the Bible.
I hope you get help.
But let me say this, don't drag people down with you
in your sin and try to get people to be just like you,
to think like you, to accept sin like you.
That's wrong to do.
Don't be an Israel to Judah, okay?
And so what the Bible's telling us here is that Israel
obviously is involved in spiritual hordoms.
Now what happens to Israel ultimately?
Because we see this throughout biblical history
in the Old Testament,
that Israel is just a spiritual whore from the start,
especially when they're in the wilderness,
they're worshiping false gods,
they have a hard time just kind of following
the commandments of the Lord.
What ends up happening with them?
Well, you have a couple of kings.
Of course, you have Saul, you have David,
then you have Solomon.
And after Solomon, you have Rehoboam.
Rehoboam, the kingdom of Israel,
ends up getting split into two under the leadership of Rehoboam.
And 10 tribes of Israel
actually end up going to the north with Jeroboam, okay?
So Rehoboam stays in the south,
Jeroboam goes to the north with 10 tribes.
And it's at that point that Israel
is known as the northern kingdom,
but then you have Judah as the southern kingdom.
And Judah, Jerusalem, which is the capital,
is far more favorable in the eyes of God than Israel, okay?
You know, that's where Jesus comes from.
Just put it that way, right?
Whereas Israel over the years
just excessively becomes apostate,
they're worshiping false gods,
they have an apostate religion.
I mean, they are strained from God
more and more as the years go by.
So what happens to them?
Well, ultimately, those 10 tribes
known as the northern kingdom of Israel
actually don't even become Israel anymore.
They become so mixed in with the heathen,
the heathen, you know, the gods of the heathen
that they're worshiping,
they become so mixed in with them
that they're actually not even identified
as being Israelites anymore in the New Testament.
And in fact, Jesus Christ,
when he is commissioning his apostles
and his disciples to go and preach the gospel,
he tells them not to go into the way of the Samaritans
but only into the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Well, here's the funny thing about that
is that the Samaritans are referring to those 10 tribes,
those 10 mixed tribes, the 10 lost tribes.
So even Jesus himself doesn't even consider them
to be Jews.
He doesn't consider them to be Israelites indeed.
He calls them Samaritans because they have mixed in
with the heathen, the foreign nations,
and therefore they cease to exist,
whereas Judah continues to exist, okay?
During the time of Jesus Christ.
And so they become mixed in.
Now, go back to Hosea chapter one, if you would.
Hosea chapter one.
Now, why make that point?
Well, because it's actually foretold
in the book of Hosea that stuff like this
would happen, okay?
Because obviously in the time of Christ,
Jesus wants his disciples to mainly focus on
in the immediate to the house of Israel, okay?
He wants the gospel to be preached to Jews,
to the Israelites, and ultimately go out to the Gentiles.
Now, the Gentiles are not the plan B, by the way, okay?
God's always wanted Gentiles to be saved.
And in fact, in the Old Testament,
Gentiles were being saved.
Throughout the Bible, Gentiles are being saved.
He's just referring to the proximity of the gospel
which start first in Israel, or Judah,
and then essentially make its way out
to the uttermost parts of the world, okay?
And so it's not that God didn't want Gentiles to be saved.
He's always wanted, he wants all men to be saved, right?
But here's the thing is that when Jesus Christ
died on the cross, he brought about
what we would call the New Testament, the New Covenant.
And with a New Covenant comes new conditions
upon what it means to be the people of God.
In the Old Testament, the people of God
were the physical nation of Israel
that were essentially placed into Israel
through the physical act of circumcision
of that Old Covenant.
Whereas in the New Testament,
you can become the people of God,
not by physical circumcision, but by spiritual circumcision
which equates to believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
So if you believe on Jesus Christ,
if you place your faith in him for salvation
according to the Bible,
you now become the people of God, okay?
The child of God, the people of God.
Look at Hosea chapter one if you would.
And by the way, since you're the people of God
that means that the physical nation of Israel,
that condition rests upon them as well.
So if they choose not to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
then they don't get put into that New Covenant, okay?
Meaning that they're no longer the people of God.
Well, I thought they're physically of Israel though.
Yeah, but the New Covenant states
that in order to be the people of God,
it has nothing to do with what ethnicity
or what part of the world you're from.
What's required is your belief in Jesus Christ.
So if you have someone who's born in Israel,
they grew up in the synagogue,
they have the little box of scriptures
on their forehead and on their arm,
they have their phylacteries, they have all these things,
but they reject the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sorry, you don't get grandfathered in
to the New Covenant.
I don't know, that sounds kind of weird,
but it's clearly stated even in the Old Testament though,
okay?
Look at Isaiah chapter one, verse nine,
it says, then said God, call his name,
lo am I, referring to the sun, for you're not my people,
and I will not be your God.
Now hold on a second.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I thought the children of Israel were always God's people.
Well, there's instances even in the Old Testament
where God said, you're not my people,
and I'm not your God.
Now why is that controversial
if the children of Israel are worshiping false gods?
If they're following and worshiping false gods,
it's justified for God to say, I'm not your God,
because God doesn't share his deity with anybody else.
And if he's not their God, guess what,
they're not his people.
And this is why he's telling Hosea, name him lo am I,
because ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
Look at verse 10, yet the number of the children of Israel
shall be as the sand of the sea,
which cannot be measured nor numbered,
and it shall come to pass that in the place
where it was said unto them, ye are not my people,
there shall it be said unto them,
ye are the sons of the living God.
So you look at it and say, oh okay,
so they got a chance, you know?
Because right now they're not the people of God
in Hosea's timeframe, but according to this prophecy,
there's gonna come a time where he's gonna say unto them,
ye are the sons of the living God.
Okay, well hold your place there
and go to Romans chapter number nine, if you would.
Romans chapter nine, and go to verse 25
of Romans chapter number nine.
If you're new here, if you have a new person
sitting next to you, please help them navigate
through the Bible there, so they can find it.
Romans chapter nine and verse 25.
Romans chapter nine, verse 25 says,
as he saith also in Ossi, by the way,
Ossi is just the New Testament pronunciation of Hosea.
So Hosea in the Old Testament is pronounced
in the New Testament in Greek, Ossi, okay?
So he's quoting Hosea.
He says, as he saith also in Ossi,
I will call them my people, which were not my people,
and her beloved, which was not beloved.
Now the first thing I want you to notice here
before we get into the reindeer of the passage here,
is that here he's addressing someone who's not his people,
okay, and we can collectively say that the Gentiles
in the Old Testament were not the people of God.
But it says here that he's gonna call them his people.
He's gonna call them beloved at one point.
Look at verse 26, and it shall come to pass
that in the place where it was said unto them,
ye are not my people, there shall they be called
the children of the living God.
Now who's the they?
Well, the they's referring to verse 25,
those who are not the people of God,
referring to the Gentiles, those who are not beloved.
You say, well, then who specifically is this referring to?
It's referring to us.
Gentiles just in general.
Well, I think that's a stretch.
Well, hold on a second.
Who is this being written to?
The Romans.
Are Romans Jews?
Are Romans Israelites?
No, Romans are obviously Gentiles.
He's writing to Roman believers,
and he's telling them, you're the beloved.
You're my people.
You're prophesied in Hosea chapter one.
You know, you're not low, am I?
Okay.
He says in verse 27, as Zaius also cries concerning Israel,
though the number of the children of Israel
be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.
Skip down to verse 30.
What shall we say then?
That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness,
have attained to righteousness,
even the righteousness which is of faith.
So it's saying that the Gentiles were able to attain
to this status of being the children of God,
not because they were righteous into themselves,
but because they obtained the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
You understand?
When we believe on Jesus Christ,
the Bible tells us in Romans chapter four
that the righteousness of Jesus is imputed unto us.
Okay.
Look at verse 31.
But Israel, not referring to Gentiles,
which followed after the law of righteousness,
instead of this, have not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore, because they sought it not by faith,
but as it were by the works of the law,
for they stumbled at the stumbling stone.
So essentially what this is teaching
is that the children of Israel,
Israelites in general,
sought to be the people of God by their works,
by keeping the law, by being of Abraham,
by things that come about their own merits,
by their obedience to God's word.
And guess what, folks?
That's not how you get saved.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to his mercy,
he saved us, the Bible says.
The Bible tells us that he became sin, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God and him.
And it says here that Israel,
they didn't seek it by faith,
and they also stumbled at the stumbling stone.
What is that referring to?
The stumbling stone is referring to Jesus.
So when Jesus came in the first century AD,
he showed himself to the Israelites,
they stumbled at that.
In other words, they didn't believe on him.
He said, what do they do to crucify them?
I mean, talk about extreme.
Not only did they not believe on him,
they crucified him and murdered him.
Verse 33 says, as it is written,
behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone
and a rock of offense,
and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
And mark it down, folks,
Jesus Christ is the rock of offense.
He's the rock of offense to all religions out there.
He's a rock of offense to Buddhism, to Hinduism,
to Jehovah's Witnesses, to Mormons,
to every false religion that exists in this world.
He is an offensive to them
because he says I am the way, the truth, and the life,
and no man cometh unto the Father but by me.
That's offensive.
What does he mean?
He's saying no one's going to heaven without me.
He's not saying me and someone else.
He's not trying to kumbaya
with all the false religions of the world.
He's basically saying all the religions of the world
will take you straight to hell.
And the only path to heaven
is through your faith in Jesus Christ only, okay?
And so we see here that Israel became a wife of Hordoms.
Because why?
Because she's playing the harlot,
worshiping false gods and folks,
it's the same today in 2024.
Israel does not worship the God of the Bible.
They worship a false God.
And you say, well,
they say they believe in the God of the Bible.
Then tell them, then ask them, is that Jesus?
And if they say no,
then say liar, liar, pants on fire.
Because the God of the Bible is Jesus.
It's not controversial.
Jesus Christ is the God of the Bible.
He's the God of the Old Testament.
And in fact, he said I am.
Before Abraham was, I am, he said.
Referring to the burning bush
where Jehovah, by the way,
revealed himself to Moses as the I am that I am, okay?
Because the Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe
that Jesus Christ is Jehovah, but he is Jehovah, okay?
So Israel became a wife of Hordoms
who left her husband as Jeremiah 31 puts it.
I was a husband unto them,
but of course Israel fled, worship false gods,
no longer became the people of God
and suffered the consequences
because of that the kingdom of God was taken from them
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
That is what the Bible teaches.
Go to Hosea chapter three, if you would.
Hosea chapter three.
So that is the application to Israel.
Israel became the wife of Hordoms,
but now let's look at the timeless application
to Jesus Christ.
And I've already kind of talked about this
in the first point.
Gomer represents the idolatrous nation of Israel,
but really, Hosea represents God or Jesus Christ
who purchased us.
Because look at Hosea chapter three in verse number one.
It says, then said the Lord unto me,
Go ye, love a woman beloved of her friend,
yet an adulteress according to the love of the Lord
toward the children of Israel,
who look to other gods and look to flagans of wine.
Listen to this.
So I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver
and for an Homer of barley
and a half Homer of barley.
And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide before me many days.
Thou shalt not play the harlot.
Thou shalt not be for another man.
So will I also be for thee.
Go to second Corinthians chapter 11.
Second Corinthians chapter 11.
We're gonna go into different portions of scripture
in the Bible, but make sure you have a bookmark
in the book of Hosea.
That is a point of reference there.
So just as Hosea purchased Gomer unto himself,
in like manner, the New Testament teaches
that we are also purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ.
The Bible tells us you're in second Corinthians.
I'm gonna read to you from first Corinthians chapter six
and verse 19.
What know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God
and ye are not your own.
Listen to this.
For ye are bought with a price,
therefore glorify God in your body
and in your spirit, which are gods.
Now what is it saying?
It's saying that when we believed on Jesus Christ,
our, obviously our spirit belongs to the Lord,
but according to the Bible,
our bodies belong to Christ as well.
He purchased us way more than a Homer of Barley,
by the way.
He purchased us with the eternal blood of Jesus Christ.
Okay, that no amount of money could buy
the precious blood of Christ that was shed
in order to purchase us.
But he purchased us holistically.
The Bible tells us in Isaiah, excuse me,
in Ephesians chapter one verse 13,
in whom ye also trusted after that,
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after that ye believed,
ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance
unto the redemption of the purchased possession.
So the Bible tells us there
that when we got saved, you know, our spirit revived.
Our spirit was dead in trespasses and sin,
but it was quickened.
The word quickened means be brought back to life.
It was revived through the Holy Spirit,
and now our spirit is living within us,
but our flesh is still dead.
Okay, we have this carnal, corruptible flesh,
but it's still purchased by God, though.
And, you know, here's a really simple way to explain.
It's like our body is on layaway right now.
Okay, because it's purchased.
Maybe that's not the best one.
You know, I don't know what illustration
I can use in that regard.
It's purchased, but he hasn't redeemed it yet.
Okay, so it's like he bought it,
but it's still, you know, stored away in the back
until the day of redemption.
And what that means is that at the resurrection,
he's gonna give us a glorified body
and essentially complete that process of glorification,
whereby our flesh no longer struggles with sin.
It's not tempted by sin.
Now that's an important doctrine.
It's important for people to understand
what aspect of your being is actually saved.
Because the aspect of our being that's saved right now
only is our spirit, not our body.
How do we know that our bodies aren't saved?
Because you still struggle with sin, that's why.
You're still tempted by sin.
You still sin.
For all have sin and come short of the glory of God,
there's not adjustment upon earth
to do with good and sin if not.
The Bible tells us that there's none to do with good
and no, not one.
There's none righteous, no, not one.
If you say you have no sin,
you lie and do not the truth, the Bible says.
Now why is it that you constantly sin?
Why is it that I constantly sin
because we have this corruptible flesh?
But one day it shall be redeemed, glorified,
whereby we're no longer tempted by sin.
It'll be Bruce Mehea 2.0, you know,
Gio Francischini 2.0.
We will have a major upgrade
where sin is no longer even a thing to us, okay?
The point that I'm making here though
is that in order to even obtain that promise,
we have to be purchased by God.
And luckily the purchase has already been made,
but the deal is complete
and confirmed once you believe on Jesus Christ, okay?
But with that being said,
we are not to be a wife of hordes in this regard.
Look at 2 Corinthians 11, verse number one.
It says,
Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly
and indeed bear with me,
for I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy,
for I have espoused you to one husband
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear, let's by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ.
Now, we're not gonna read the entire chapter,
but what he's implying here is that,
you know, if there are people
who are believing in another Jesus,
hearing another gospel,
believing another message,
you know, embracing another spirit
that's not of the Bible,
the Bible considers that to be like adultery,
okay, spiritual adultery.
And the apostle Paul is basically saying,
you need to be doctrinally sound
because I've espoused you to one husband.
I want you to be as a chaste virgin to Christ
and essentially implying don't be a whore,
don't be a prostitute who just believes
in other spirits, other gospels,
other Jesuses out there,
because wouldn't you agree that there's a lot of people
who claim to be preaching Jesus
and they're not the Jesus of the Bible?
Yeah.
Some people believe that it's a Jesus
who was crucified on a pole,
on a stake that Jehovah's Witnesses.
That's not the Jesus of the Bible.
The Catholics believe that Jesus was a six foot
Caucasian male with long hair, right?
In a dress with blue eyes.
It's like that guy does not look Middle Eastern at all.
Wavy long hair in a dress,
but that is another Jesus the Bible says.
And so the apostle Paul is just like,
I want you to believe the right gospel,
believe in the right Jesus, have the right spirit
because I've espoused you into one husband
as a chaste virgin to Christ, not to anybody else.
And this is why it's important
that churches talk about doctrine.
This is why it's important for us
to address who Jesus Christ is,
what the gospel is, who this Holy Spirit is,
what the Trinity is.
Why? Because we are to spiritually remain
as a chaste virgin, as a church,
as believers unto Christ in a spiritual manner.
Go to 1 Peter chapter one.
1 Peter chapter one.
And of course it all begins with the gospel.
You know, there's a lot of churches out there.
They claim to be Christian,
but they muddy up the gospel presentation.
They muddy up salvation, right?
They constantly talk about,
oh yeah, it's by Jesus,
but you know, if you don't have the works,
then you don't really have the faith.
Or you know, if you get out of church,
then you were never safe to begin with.
And.