Boys and girls, if any of you like to draw pictures of something in the sermon, you could draw a picture of a bunny running away from his mother. Later in the service, we might come back to that picture, so keep that in mind, that runaway bunny. Well, like I said, this weekend at the conference, we've been looking a bit at these opening chapters of Hosea. At least for you who aren't the youth, we're jumping in a little bit to the middle of a story. So maybe just a few words of context. Hosea is a contemporary of Micah. I know you've been studying the book of Micah here at Columbus. Hosea is probably just a bit older than Micah, but they ministered at the same time. And Hosea ministered to the northern kingdom of Israel. And remember at this time the northern kingdom was enjoying a golden age of political and economic prosperity, but they were religiously bankrupt, trying to merge the worship of Yahweh with the worship of the Canaanite gods, Baal especially. Maybe you know that the Lord called Hosea to illustrate the relationship between him and his people by having his prophet, Hosea, marry an adulterous woman, Gomer. Just as Gomer had chased and continued to chase after other lovers, Israel had persistently refused the Lord's love and chased after other gods. In Hosea, we see the pain and the dysfunction of Hosea's family in the first two chapters. But also in those same chapters, we consistently see a God who is unwilling to let his bride or his people go. And he continues to be faithful to his covenant and continues to make promises of a glorious restoration. And so with those thoughts in mind, listen as I read from God's word, Hosea chapter three. And the Lord said to me, go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins. So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a lethek of barley. And I said to her, you must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore or belong to another man. So will I also be to you. For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days. Amen, this is God's word. Let's pray for his help as we look at it this morning. Our Father, we ask that you would send down your spirit. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would open our eyes so that we could behold wonderful things in your word. Show us our sin, show us the grace that's offered in Jesus Christ, and lift him up and magnify him by our worship today we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I think that everyone here whether you would like to admit it or not, and maybe there are some 10-year-old boys who wouldn't like to admit it. I think that everyone here loves a good love story. We love a good love story, and what does every love story need? It needs conflict. If it's a good story worth telling, there need to be obstacles for the lovers to overcome. You might think of a story with socioeconomic barriers, where we cheer for the poor stable boy to end up with the wealthy princess, or family barriers, right? Romeo and Juliet, where we cheer for Montagues and Capulets to be able to come together and overcome rivalries and strife. We might think of sort of behavioral barriers where we're cheering for the protagonist to overcome his or her personal demons, realize their own personal goodness, and in the end of the story, get the guy or the girl. We love a love story. But brothers and sisters, we have no love stories like the one in our text. Because in the love stories that we write or that we imagine or that we see on the screen or that we hear told to us, I think that ultimately we're cheering for someone good and beautiful to wind up with someone just as good and just as beautiful. None of us cheer for Belle to end up with Gaston. None of us say, I hope that Prince Charming winds up with one of the evil stepsisters. None of us read and say, I hope Elizabeth Bennet finds true love with Mr. Collins. These aren't the love stories that we tell. No, we cheer for someone good and beautiful to end up with someone good and beautiful. Well, in our text, if we think of the shape of a love story, we do have the conflict. We do have the conflict, the lovely and the unlovely, the faithful husband and the adulterous bride. But we find out that she doesn't have that heart of gold, but a self-serving heart of stone, it would seem. But brothers and sisters, from Genesis to Revelation, this is the love story of Scripture. That our loving God and faithful husband pursues the unlovely and wins us to himself by his grace. And that really, I think, is the call of our passage this morning, to rejoice. That's our response. In a sense, God is telling you, sit down and here's what I'm going to do for you. If you come back this evening, we might look a little bit more at our response at the end of Hosea. But here, your husband, your God is saying to you, listen to what I'm going to do for you. Listen to how I'm going to love you. We're going to rejoice in God's love for His wayward bride. In this morning, we're just gonna look at three aspects. Three aspects of God's love in which we can rejoice. I think they're in the bulletin insert outline if that's helpful. In verse one, we're gonna rejoice in God's pursuing love. In verse two, in his redeeming love. And then in three to five, his restoring love. That's how we'll consider our passage this morning. First look with me at verse one where we will rejoice in God's pursuing love. Verse one says, and the Lord said to me, go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress. In first year, we're gonna look at the bride whom God pursues. The bride whom God pursues. Gomer is a representative, an illustration of the nation of Israel. And as we consider the condition of Gomer, of Israel, and of God's people in all ages, as we look at her, we see a people bent on backsliding. This is the language that God will use later in this prophecy, in Hosea 11, seven, where he laments, my people are bent on backsliding from me. God sees His people and He doesn't just see a people who have sinned, who have backslidden, but who are bent on backsliding. Their inclination is to turn away from Him. It's not just that Gomer has loved another. It says Gomer, a woman who is loved by another, she's currently engaged in this unfaithfulness to her husband. Israel, it's not just that they had committed adultery, but that they are continuing in it and falling into sins against which they had been warned. God sees His people, and He says in verse 1, they turn to other gods. Isn't that the first commandment? It's the first commandment, and Israel couldn't keep the first one, much less two through 10. There are people bent on backsliding. We can see also that God pursues and God loves a people self-serving in their pursuits. Self-serving in their pursuits. Our passage says, they turn to other gods and love the cakes of raisins. This is probably a strange reference to us, these cakes of raisins. Hosea is a convicting prophecy, but I doubt that any of you felt cut to the heart there and said, oh, the cakes of raisins, that's how I've sinned against God, too many cakes of raisins. I think that these cakes of raisins, they represent the bounty of the earth. The bounty of the earth. Earlier, in Hosea 2, verse 8, we can see that Israel had counted grain and oil and wine as payments for her illicit affair with the gods of Canaan. And if you think about a cake of raisin, what do you need? You need flour from the grain, you need fat from the oil, you can get the raisins from the wine, the vineyard. But these cakes, they were offered to foreign gods in really licentious worship ceremonies. We can piece that together from other references to these cakes of raisins in the Song of Solomon and in Jeremiah, where God complains that his people are offering cakes of raisins to the queen of heaven, a foreign god. And so when God says his people love cakes of raisins, it seems that he's saying, in effect, they love the fruit of the earth and what they can get from it. They love the immoral worship of Canaan's gods, but they have forgotten me, the giver of the fruit. They've forgotten me, the one true God. They were self-serving in their pursuits. But as we look at the bride whom God pursues, we also need to see this. As we look at the people of God whom he pursues, we see a people like ourselves. A people like ourselves. As we read the prophecy of Hosea, it is imperative that we remember that the persistent waywardness of Israel, we shouldn't think of it as sort of this unprecedented case of rebellion against God. We shouldn't come to the prophet Hosea and say, my oh my, how could Israel have been so wicked? How could they have fallen so far? Instead, we ought to see ourselves. Derek Kidner comments on this passage. I think it's on the back side of your outline if that's helpful. Derek Kidner comments, the reader of Hosea may find himself confronted by a mirror rather than a window, since Israel's sin is also humanity's and every man's. Do you see that? Hosea is a mirror. It's not a window. We don't look through it on this scene. We look in it. than we see ourselves. And so as we consider the sinfulness of Gomer, the sinfulness of 8th century B.C. Israel, we need to be careful that we not fall into the self-righteous trap of the Pharisee in Luke's gospel. I forget the chapter, I think Luke 18. The Pharisee who prayed in the temple and said, I thank you God that I'm not like other people. Maybe some of us are tempted to read Hosea and say, I thank you, God, that I'm not like Gomer, that I'm a good child, that I'm faithful to you. Oh, brothers and sisters, when we read Hosea, we need to be like that tax collector on his knees and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Have mercy upon me, oh God. Again, Kidner comments, few of us Few of us, remembering the trivialities that we chase, will feel ready to cast the first stone at Israel. We see ourselves. This is the bride whom God pursues. But next we see the God who pursues her. The God who pursues her. And as we look at him, we can see that he's faithful to his love. He's faithful to and in his love. We read in verse one, go again. Love a woman who is loved by another man. The waywardness of his bride, it's no hindrance to his love and his steadfastness. God has sworn to love a people and he is committed to fulfilling that love. God said that he loves his people. And even when his people despise his love, our passage tells us that he'll love them again. He's faithful to his love. Jeremiah 31, three, the Lord has appeared of old to me saying, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you. Brothers and sisters, our passage offers us assurance that although our sins have made a separation, that God is still faithful to His promise, still faithful to call back and to will us and to call us to Himself. He's faithful in His love. But we can also see, not just that He's faithful in His love, we can see that He's willing to pursue. He's willing to pursue. As Hosea records what God called him to do, we see that God begins with an imperative. He says, go. Hosea was to go and show love for Gomer. He wasn't to be passive, but active. It would be an amazing expression of love. If Hosea were to say, I'm willing to receive Gomer if she comes back to me. I'm sitting on my chair and if she knocks on that door, I'll open it, I'll hug her, I'll invite her back into my home. That would be love. But instead, But of course, Hosea is static there, but instead Hosea, picturing God's love in miniature, he pursues his bride and he goes, and how does God explain this? He says, it's just even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, it's just like the Lord's love for the children of Israel. And as we look at this commitment of our God, we note also that God is not daunted by your sin. God is not daunted by your sins. God does not say to Hosea, go and check on Gomer. And if she hasn't fallen too far, if she's not in too bad a way, then we'll see if there's something we can do for her. No, God knows that his people have fallen into sin. God knows that his people have fallen into the same sins again, and he still says, go love a woman. Friends, the testimony of Scripture is that our God is long-suffering and gracious, and that he has committed himself even to loving people who fall into patterns of sin. Abraham, lying about Sarah being his wife and then doing it again. David, taking many wives to himself and then doing it again with Bathsheba. Jonah, disobeying and arguing with the Lord. Peter, who rebuked and denied his Lord. Gomer, in her adultery. Israel, in her idolatry. And you and me, with our besetting sins, God is not daunted by them. But he pursues. Since becoming a father, over the last several years, I've become quite familiar with a great piece of American literature. I think you've probably heard of it. It's The Runaway Bunny. Boys and girls, I wonder, have any of your parents ever read to you from The Runaway Bunny? Do you remember the little bunny telling his mother, I'm going to run away. Does mom say, well, that's too bad, I'm gonna miss you. No, she says, well, then I'll run after you. The bunny says, I'll become a fish in a stream and I'll swim away from you. I'll become a rock on a mountain high above you. I'll become a crocus in a hidden garden. And mother says, fine, I'm gonna become a fisherman and I'll fish for you. I'll become a mountain climber and I'll climb up to where you are. I'll become a gardener and I'll find you in that garden. Boys and girls, there wasn't anything that Little Bunny could do to get away from his mother, was there? And you know what? That's just like our God pursuing His people and their sins. Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel. He says, go again, love a woman. God has pursuing love. But He also has redeeming love. Redeeming love. It's not that He runs after her but then is helpless to help her. No. God can redeem his bride. Verse two, so I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a lethek of barley. We saw under our first heading that Gomer was idolatrous and self-serving and persistent in her sins. But here in verse 2, we see the condition into which her sins had brought her. We see, to borrow the words of our catechism, we see Gomer's estate of sin and misery. Gomer had chased after other lovers. Israel had chased after other gods. And what is the result of these pursuits? What kind of condition do we find God's bride? Gomer seems to be indebted to the point of slavery. She's likely been abused and trafficked and treated with utter contempt by those around her, her clientele, and those with whom she interacted in society. Here we see Gomer near the end of that path of sin, that path that leads from the miseries in this life to death itself and outside the grace of Christ, the pains of hell forever. Paul describes the condition of God's people when they were outside of Christ as being slaves of sin, Romans 6, 17. As we were presenting our members as slaves of uncleanness and ungodliness, we were presenting ourselves as servants of Satan and as servants of sin. And Paul goes on to ask the church in Rome a searching question. A searching question. Romans 6.21 Paul asks, But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. Gomer's sins. Israel's sins. Brothers and sisters, your sins and my sins, their fruit is misery. And their end is death. We need to ask ourselves Paul's question. What fruit have we gotten from our sin? Has sin delivered on its promises even once? Has sin brought you anything other than a wounded conscience, and loss of assurance, and broken fellowship, and ruined relationships, and every manner of misery in this life? What fruit do you have from your sins? The end of sin is death. And here in verse two, we see Gomer on that sinful path and she is on the brink of death. Brothers and sisters, that is where sin leads. Misery and death. But instead of reaping the fruit of her sins, we see Gomer's faithful husband loving her again. He buys her. 15 shekels of silver, and what some commentators say seems to be about 15 shekels worth of produce, that Homer and Alephek of barley. 30 shekels in total, otherwise known as the price of a slave, Exodus 21, 32. Hosea's love, it's not so much seen in the bottom shelf price that he paid, but in the forgiveness and the humility he showed. Can you picture this scene? The holy prophet of God goes into a brothel and he pays to redeem his own wife. It would have been humiliating and humbling. Perhaps Jose was mocked and scorned by those around him. They mocked this prophet of God who was married to an adulterous woman. But I think that this story, it's not ultimately so much about Hosea redeeming Gomer, is it? This is just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel. The humiliating circumstances of Hosea's redemption of his wife, it points us, I think, to Christ's state of humiliation. Christ's state of humiliation. It's one thing for Hosea to go to a seedy part of town and buy back his destitute wife. Certainly a humbling and a humiliating experience. But brothers and sisters, it's quite another thing, isn't it? on a different plane of love altogether for our Savior who is holy, harmless, and undefiled to enter our ugly, sin-sick world to redeem sinners like Gomer, and like you, and like me. Our catechism asks this question. Wherein did Christ's estate of humiliation consist? And it begins its answer with these words, Christ's humiliation consisted in His being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life. Christ loved the church so much that He came down from the happiness and the glory of heaven to redeem us. He humbled Himself and came down. He left the joy of his father's bosom so that he could fellowship with a sinful people bent on backsliding who Isaiah tells us are covered from head to toe in wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. Friends, we should marvel at the love of Christ expressed in the incarnation. Philippians 2, 6 and 7. Christ, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men. And while Hosea paid the price of a slave, 30 shekels of silver, what did Christ pay? You were not redeemed, brothers and sisters, with corruptible things like silver, or gold. You were not redeemed by the blood of bulls and goats. You were not redeemed for 15 shekels of silver and 15 shekels of produce. Our Catechism's answer continues that Christ's state of humiliation also consisted in His undergoing the wrath of God and the cursed death of the cross and being buried and continuing under the power of death for a time. Christ didn't pay 30 shekels to redeem you. He paid his own blood. Peter tells us, 1 Peter 1, 18 and following, you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lame without blemish and without spot. Christ entered this world. He came down and he tabernacled with us and he offered himself on the cross as payment for our sins. Philippians 2.8, in being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Christ not only pursues and redeems his bride, he humbled himself to do it. What we've seen so far this morning, God's pursuing love and his redeeming love. And I think that a question might naturally arise, well, what next? How will God now live with his redeemed people? Maybe fearful questions can creep into our hearts. Is it gonna be awkward? Maybe Christ's gonna treat us with a cold shoulder because of the price that had to be paid. No, certainly not. We'll see God's plan and God's love for his redeemed people under our final heading where we'll rejoice in God's restoring love. Rejoice in God's restoring love in this from verses three to five. And we see in the first place that God shows love and restoration for his bride by refining her through trials. God refines his bride through trials. God says to his people in verse three, you must dwell as mine for many days. Later he says, so shall I be to you. This is good news, this language, it speaks of communion and of a renewed fellowship with God. But we see in verse four that the context of this renewed fellowship is actually exile. where it says, for the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. This list, it represents aspects of the political and the religious life and identity of God's people that he was going to take away from them during the Assyrian exile. But God is gracious. God is gracious in taking these things away. The sacred pillar and the household gods. These are manifestations of Israel's idolatrous worshipping. God says, I'm going to take those things away from you. That's good news. And even the things that might seem good, it's still good for God to take away. For God to take away king and prince. This is for God to, excuse me, to remove the rebellious rulers of the northern tribes and to make a path back for his people so that they could serve his anointed king and serve the Davidic monarchy. for God to take away the sacrifice of the northern priests and the ephod worn by the northern priests. It's for God to remove the illegitimate priesthood that the northern kingdom had set up and to make a way for the service of his appointed ministers, the Levitical priests. These things, they might seem good and righteous, but they were tainted by sin and syncretism with ballistic worship. And so for God to take these things away, it's gracious and it's refining. The exile, the exile of the northern tribes would be a trial. I think you've been being prepared for that by some of your sermons in Micah. The exile of the northern tribes in Assyria would be a trial. We know that from history. We can read awful accounts about it in 2 Kings. But God is showing us that for his remnant people, it will be refining and restorative. In chapter 2, verse 6, a verse the young people and I looked at yesterday. In chapter 2, verse 6, God had promised to hedge in Israel's way with thorns so that she could no longer go down the disastrous path that she was on. And here in chapter three verse four, we can see that the hedge of thorns that God would use was exile in Assyria. God restores his people through exile. But we can also see that God restores his people. God restores his bride by rekindling her love. God restores his bride by rekindling her love. We read in verse five, afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. In the end or the latter half of chapter two, God had promised to allure Israel and to call her back to himself. And I think that in verse five, we see that one of the ways that God allures his people is by making his anointed king lovely in their sight. God is making his anointed king lovely in their sight. Remember that when the northern tribes rebelled against the Davidic line, they did it with these words, 1 Kings 12, 16. They said, what portion have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. But God says he'll make them return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. What an amazing thing. Thus far we have seen Israel seek nothing but her own pleasure and her own satisfaction. But now she sees the beauty of her King. Christ has been made more lovely to her than the idols of Canaan. Do you know that experience where God changes your heart? and the things that you used to run after, the things that you used to pursue, the autonomy of being your own king like the Northern tribes wanted you to say, I don't want that. I don't want to be my own king because God has magnified the Lord Jesus Christ and lifted him up in my heart. That's what God is promising here. that he will so work in his people that while they had been rebels, while they had said, we have no portion with David, we have nothing to do with the son of Jesse, God's saying, I'm going to work in you. And you're going to return. You're going to seek me. And you're going to seek my Davidic king. By the time Hosea prophesied, David had been long dead. These people, they're not seeking a long dead king. The afterword in verse five is future looking. The latter day is in verse five, it speaks of the years of our Lord. We can see installments of this returning to the Lord fulfilled in the New Testament era. We can see it fulfilled at Pentecost where 3,000 of our Lord's countrymen were converted and placed their hope in David's greater son. We see it fulfilled today as the gospel of Christ, a light to the Gentiles is proclaimed among the nations. And the people from every tribe and tongue and nation come and put their hope and their trust in David's Lord. And we can look for it to be fulfilled in still greater measure as the fullness of the Gentiles are called in. And in God's timing, the fullness of the Jews are called back. And what's the final estate? What's the final estate of God's people as we come and seek the Lord our God and David our king? Earlier we looked at Gomer's estate of sin and misery, but here we see the end of the people of God. They shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. This fear is not the servile fear of punishment. It rather speaks of our awestruck response to God's goodness. As we see and as we experience that goodness, we fear and we worship. Well, as we this morning have looked at the third chapter of Hosea, And as we young people have looked at these first three chapters this weekend, we've seen a wayward bride, and we've seen the effects of her sin. And it hasn't been very pretty, has it? During seminary, my wife and I, to be honest, we didn't live in the greatest neighborhood in Pittsburgh. We were very much on the wrong side of the tracks. And if you traveled down the road a few miles, you'd certainly be in some of the more economically depressed areas of the city. And it was by no means common. I think it happened once or twice, but there were a few times where we'd see women who seemed perhaps to be in Gomer's line of work. And it was heartbreaking. It broke your heart to see an image bearer being trafficked and mistreated. And God says that's the illustration. That's the image of a people bent on backsliding away from him. That's the image of people who sell themselves to sin. And what a contrast. What a contrast with the image of a bride on her wedding day. And we can say to ourselves, how can this become this? How can Gomer be made into a lovely bride? Friends, the message of Hosea 3 is that despite our sins and despite our desperate condition, God pursues. And that despite our waywardness, God enters our world of sin and misery and redeems. and he does not leave us as dirty and wounded sinners, but he restores us. Ephesians 5.25, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. that she might be holy and without blemish. Christ is so working in his wayward backslidden people that one day a multitude of pursued and redeemed and restored sinners will say hallelujah for the Lord our God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory. For the marriage of the lame has come and his wife has made herself ready. And one day it will be said of that multitude, and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Friends, this is gospel transformation. This is gospel transformation, and this is certainly cause to rejoice in God's love for his wayward bride. Amen.