The scripture reading this morning comes from Hosea chapter three, verse three. 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. You may be seated. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would be with us now by the power of your Holy Spirit, that you would accompany your word with your spirit, and that your people would be edified and built up, and that those who don't know you here, that you would draw them to yourself through the effectual word. We thank you for this time, and we thank you for the book of Hosea. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. Well, this morning I would have you imagine a wedding. Perhaps the wedding is in a church just like this one. The sanctuary is full. Arrangements have been made. There's leaf petals and flowers all over, decorations, stringers, lights. It's beautiful decor. And everyone is looking at one person who's waiting for his bride to walk through the doors, and that's the groom who's waiting at the very front of the sanctuary, and he can't wait to see his bride come through that door. But as they're waiting, there's a murmur of gossip that goes throughout the congregation. And the murmur of gossip that goes throughout the congregation is that the bride has been unfaithful to her husband-to-be. She's actually been with many men who are not him up until this point, and the gossip is true. And word comes to the groom, and the groom hears it from the congregation, and there's a panic, and there's a stir. But all of a sudden, the music starts, and the doors burst open, and in comes the bride, walking down in her white, beautiful, adorning dress, which represents her purity and chastity. And she walks up to the groom, And everyone's expecting that the groom will stop the wedding, call it off, that someone's gonna do something. But the groom is resolved. The groom has a smile on his face, just like any man would, like any man does on his wedding day. The ceremony continues and he asks, will you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? And without hesitation, he says, I do. I do, and he gives himself in holy matrimony to a harlot, to an adulteress. This story, though it is a stark one, a difficult one to grasp, is a story of us. We are the adulterous and Christ is the loving and kind groom who continues to pursue us and marries us even though we've been so spiritually unfaithful to him time and time again. This is the story of the church and this is the story of Hosea. Dear church. And what we're gonna see here in Hosea chapter three is we finish this sign act in chapter three and we continue over the next weeks looking at chapter four through 14 as we unravel the details of what was going on in the life of the Israelites. Chapter three finishes the sign act and here what we see in chapter three is that Christ loves his bride. He loves his bride. And what we see here is there's a description of Christ's bride in three ways, verse one, verse two, and three through five, and that is first, in your outline, that the bride is unconditionally loved, the bride is sacrificially purchased, and the bride is restored forever. Diving into verse one, we'll read it together. And the Lord said to me, that is to Hosea, go again, love a woman who is loved by another man, who is an adulteress, even as the Lord has loved the children of Israel. What we see here is that once again, God is commanding Hosea to go again to Gomer. It doesn't say Gomer's name explicitly, but it is referring to Gomer. So the chronology of chapters one through three don't fit together one, two, three, but actually what we see here is chapter three fits in somewhere in chapter two. And the way the narrative unfolds in the first three chapters is that God calls Hosea, the prophet, to enact this sign act, which many of the prophets did. to enact the sign act where he marries a prostitute, someone who sleeps around and has illegitimate children. And he says, and you're going to have children of whoredom, that is illegitimate children. So he has three illegitimate children, which represents God's relationship to the children of Israel, that is a relationship that's disconnected because of their spiritual idolatry. And through her prostitution, through her continuing to prostitute herself through chapter 2, what we see is that she becomes disconnected from Hosea to the point where she even thinks that the provision that Hosea is providing for her is from her other lovers. but then Hosea says, I will swoon you again, I will continue to love you. And right in the middle of chapter two, there becomes something of a reunion between Gomer and Hosea, and this is where chapter three picks up. It shows us this reunion between Gomer and Hosea, that they're separated, they're disconnected at this point in time. And so chapter three brings us back to the reality that God loves us unconditionally. One of the things that He says here, he says, though they, in verse 1b, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisin. This is the description for his unconditional love. And I had a real crisis moment because I was trying to figure out what to call the sermon, and I was thinking about calling it Stay Away From Raisin Cakes. And if you're looking for application this morning, don't eat raisin cookies. And if you want a further application that's corporate as well, don't bring raisin cookies to the fellowship hall to have fellowship with the church. Bring chocolate chip instead. This seems odd and particular, like in a weird way to us. It seems strange. Why would God say they go after other gods and raisin cakes? They love raisin cakes. Well, there's an irony here in the use of raisin cakes. Raisin cakes here in the ancient Near Eastern world was interconnected with pagan worship. So they ate a part of the raisin cake and then they offered it up to a pagan god. And it's ironic because look at Gomer, this woman who's being pursued by Hosea, giving up a faithful lover. giving up a faithful man who loves her and cares for her and provides for her, giving up all of that for raisin cakes? Really? And it's intended to show us the strange and crazy nature of sin. At this point in time, we're supposed to ask the question, why in the world would anyone leave a faithful husband for raisin cakes? How does it make any sense? And it's supposed to drive us to say, wow, why would anyone leave the God of the universe for idolatry? Why would anyone leave the God who created heaven and earth, who created you, who loves you, who knows you, who sustains you? Why would anyone leave that God for something that's equated to raisin cakes? And yet we do it every day, moment by moment. We're sinners, plagued by sin. And here I want to insert a cultural commentary on the book of Hosea and Gomer. So as we look at Gomer, sometimes we have a tendency to read our 21st century thought into the text. Let me give you this illustration. When we look at any movie, when we watch the movies, or when we read a story, we're putting ourselves naturally into the movie, into the story, and we're saying, how would I feel if I was in that situation? From a 21st century modern perspective, oftentimes this is the case to where when we look at Gomer, we often say, well, what was going on in Gomer's life? and we can remove responsibility from Gomer and say maybe it was her upbringing that caused her to act this way. Maybe it was the social setting that caused Gomer to behave in this manner because it doesn't make sense, right? There must have been some other social construct or setting that caused her to behave this way. Or maybe she has some sort of psychological issue or disorder that's causing her to desire intimacy with a man that's not her husband. In the 21st century, we live in a therapeutic world, a therapeutic day that removes responsibility from the sinner, and instead of speaking in terms of sin and judgment, we often speak in terms of brokenness and healing. This is not the worldview of the Bible. And here's how I'll put it, and this is why it's important. This is so important to us because Maybe unknowingly, when we put a therapeutic reading, a 21st century therapeutic reading on Gomer and on the Bible, we're unknowingly removing responsibility from an individual, which also removes their need for a Savior. They don't just need to have their brokenness healed. They need to have their sins forgiven and paid for by a Savior who shed his precious blood on their behalf. They need justification. And so yes, there may be cultural things happening, there may be family history, but what we see is that those things don't cause us to sin. The reason we sin and are distant and wayward from God is because we're sinners. And when we come to the point when we realize that we're sinners, we realize, like Gomer, that we're in a hopeless situation and that 10 out of 10 times, we'll choose raisin cakes over the God of the universe. And so the question becomes, who will rescue us? Who will save this hopeless sinner? Who will save this unlovable person? Insert Hosea, who is a representation of God. He doesn't love Gomer because of some goodness in her. He doesn't love Gomer because she's beautiful or because she deserves it or somehow she completes him. The point is God's unconditional love. His love is not predicated upon Gomer. His love is predicated upon a promise. It's unconditional. It's not as though Gomer adds 1% and Hosea brings the rest of the 99. It's God who loves 100%, not based on any precondition of man. It's unconditional love. And when we insert ourselves into that narrative, into that story, rather than seeing ourselves as victims of a society, victims of trauma, victims of our upbringing, we see ourselves as the one who is the accuser of others and the accuser of God, who has sinned against God time and time and time again, and yet He loves you and He pursues you. and it's unconditional and it's undeserved. This is so important that we see a biblical worldview and we import ourselves into the biblical worldview and it dictates our relationship to God. We need forgiveness. The way to the peaks of heaven is through the valley of despondence and despair. I know it's hard to see yourself as a worm of a man or a worm of a woman, as a sinner, but it's only through recognizing our sinfulness that we will glory in Christ. Because when we're sitting in the muck and the mire of our sin and depravity, we get to say, there's a God who loves me unconditionally, and I bring nothing. nothing to the table, and yet he loves me anyway, just like Hosea loved Gomer. Dear church, this is so important for us to see, that God loves us unconditionally, and we bring nothing to the table. Oh, dear wayward sinner. You see, in Hosea and Gomer, the arms of Christ are open to you today. The arms of Christ which say, you'll look for love in all the wrong places and you'll never find satisfaction. Your heart will always be restless until you find rest in me. And so through the picture, the sign act of Hosea and Gomer, we see the open arms of Christ. Come to me. You have no money. You have nothing to offer, nothing to buy with. Come and eat and be satisfied. Come and drink and find satisfaction for your soul. Come and engage in the most beautiful, divine romance that ever existed, which all romances are based upon. Come to me and I will love you unconditionally forever. The arms of Christ. are open this very morning to you through simple faith, small faith in Jesus Christ, who died on our behalf and rose for our justification, who continues to rule and reign at the right hand of the throne of God. Augustine puts it this way, dear saint. He says, to fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances. to seek Him the greatest adventure, to find Him the greatest human achievement. This is what we live for, to know God and to fall madly in love with Him in this divine romance. Hosea and Gomer is an invitation to this romance. God loves us unconditionally, and the reason that we know that he loves us unconditionally, according to the New Testament, is because he sacrificially purchased the church. This leads us into verse two here. Verse two, it says, so I bought her for 15 shekels of silver, and a homer and a lethic of barley, And I said to her, you must dwell as mine for many days, and you shall not play the whore or belong to any other man. So will I also be to you. So what we see here is that not only does he love her unconditionally, that's what Hosea is called to do, but then he purchases her. And the image that we're given her is one of a slave trade. So in chapter 2, as Gomer is running as fast as she can away from Hosea, what we see is that her prostitution and her licentious living and her taking risks leads her into the slave trade. And we don't actually know how she fell into the arms of a slave trader, but what we see is that her life led her to this point where she's being sold in something like a public farmer's market, and she's put on a pedestal, and likely in this culture, she's stripped naked and she's sold here, because it's a mixture of pagan culture at this point in time in Israel, and she's stripped naked before everyone says, who wants to buy this woman, Gomer? Who wants to purchase her? God says, go and love her again. So in this public farmer's market, Hosea enters and he says, I will, I'll purchase her. And he purchases her what would be a common purchase of a slave and he purchases her and he says, no more, no more will you be a slave, no more will you be a prostitute. Naturally, when we look at this text, and you could even say, by implication, we're supposed to see this image as scandalous. Like the image portrayed in the introduction, if you saw a wedding and there was a groom standing here and he had just heard that the bride-to-be was an adulteress and he continued to marry her with a smile on his face, you might say, you need a slap to get that smile off your face. It's stupid. Scandalous. disgraceful. It's foolish. So naturally, as we look at the story of Hosea, and perhaps Hosea felt this even as he enacted this sign act with Gomer, as he purchases the woman who continues to have this prostitution lifestyle and has born three illegitimate children and now is in slavery because of her own actions. What we see is that Hosea goes to the extent of purchasing her to bring her back into right relationship as his bride. Let me ask you this question. As we consider ourselves as Gomer, consider ourselves for a moment as Hosea, who would do this for someone? Really? Who would continue to pursue an individual who's known as a whore who hasn't demonstrated any sort of repentance at this point in time? Who would pursue this publicly disgraceful relationship? Who would pursue this foolishness? Who would take on such shame and do such a shameful thing? It's embarrassing, isn't it? Scriptures say He is not ashamed to call us brothers. Scriptures say that Jesus was pierced for our transgression, and He was punishment. He took on punishment in order to bring peace to us, that He faced public embarrassment and harassment and shame and disgrace, for what? For who? For his gomer, for his bride, to purchase his bride. Dearly beloved, as we consider the heart of Christ for his church, the shame which he took upon himself, the disgrace, the public mocking, the foolishness of Jesus's death and resurrection for a prostitute of a bride. Search your heart and open your heart up to receive the grace of God that he loves you unconditionally, not based on anything you've done, but because of his calling, because of his choice, because of his promise. And that he's purchased you, not because of our own worthiness, but because of his love for us. That the grace and the mercy that we receive from Christ is not our own. And as you have your heart in this moment, Consider the seeds of bitterness. Consider the seeds of derision and unforgiveness that you have in your heart toward others. Perhaps toward your spouse that you're sitting next to right now. Perhaps toward your children. Maybe toward a friend. Maybe toward a church member. Maybe toward a family member. And the question becomes in Hosea, naturally, How can we continue to be so unforgiving and bitter and resentful and high and mighty and show derision to others when we've received such great grace? What we see the Apostle Paul say time and time again in his letters, forgive. Dear church, forgive as Christ has forgiven you. Take this opportunity to experience and enjoy the grace of God in your own life and then be willing to have it soften your heart in such a way that you flee to others and say, forgive me. Forgive me for my bitterness. Forgive me for my resentfulness. Forgive me for holding this over your head for the last week or the last year or the last decade. Forgive me because I've been shown so much grace. How can I not give it to you? And in this way, Christian forgiveness becomes an overflow of love and worship to God, honoring and praising him. And again, as you continue searching your heart, if you've never experienced this forgiveness from God, then you've never been able to give it truly to anyone else. And if you're interested in experiencing this grace for yourself and experiencing this true life of freedom in Christ that he's given to us, then make a commitment right now that you're not going to leave this worship hall. You're not going to leave this church until you speak with someone about Christ. Until you get to the bottom of it, how can he forgive me? How can I be forgiven? How can I know Christ? Make a commitment, you will not leave until you speak of Christ. Dear church, not only are we unconditionally loved that we see this relationship between Hosea and Gomer, but we're also sacrificially purchased. This is how we know that he loves us as a church, unconditionally. Not based on any condition that we brought, unconditional, and he purchased us. This leads us to our third point in verse 3. What we see here is that God developing the relationship between Hosea and Gomer, leading to God. God loves us, purchases us in order to restore us. He says, you no longer will play the whore. You will be in a restored right relationship with me. And so just giving you a little sneak peek here, this has to do with sanctification and glorification in the church. But right here, if we zoom in on this idea that Israel will be restored, purchased, What this really looks like historically in their place, in their time, is that Hosea was one of 12 prophets that are considered minor prophets. And these prophets were prophesying and warning the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, which were at one time one kingdom of Israel, but they were separated because of idolatry. And as they're separated, these prophets are saying, come back to Christ, repent. Run to God, because if you don't, there is a judgment coming that you will never expect, even upon the people of God. Come back to God. Repent from your idolatry, from your love of pagan gods. There's something so much better waiting for you. Come back to God. And this is the story of Hosea entering into idolatry, and the people will not listen. They will not repent. They will not leave raisin cakes for the God of the universe. So what happens as they disregard God? What do they need to be purchased from? What do they need to be restored from? Well, Israel, after this, after the message of Hosea, they were actually destroyed and exiled by a kingdom called Assyria. And even till this point in time, those 10 tribes in the north are considered to be the 10 lost tribes of Israel. Unlike Judah in the South, they never actually came back together again. They have no lineage. They intermarried with the Samaritans, which is why they called Samaritans half-breeds, because they were both Gentile and Jews who had married and intermingled together. These are the 10 lost tribes of Israel. Never again, even in the Old Testament, even until now, to have their lineage reclaimed as a nation. Done, God's judgment has been executed upon them. But 150 years or so after this, what we see is the same exact thing happens to Judah. Come back to God, repent, come back to God, the prophets say. They don't. They continue in their idolatry, and so Babylon comes along, and Babylon destroys Judah, destroys Jerusalem and the temple, and brings them into exile in Babylon for 70 years. But if you know the biblical narrative, this is where a part of the restoration starts to come in. That during their times of exile, this is where verse four comes in, they had no king, they had no prince, they had no temple, they had no sacrifice, they had no ephod, which connects to what the priest swore, the priest swore an ephod, they had no household gods. This exile is considered God's discipline of them saying, listen, if you will not repent from your spiritual adultery, I will stop it. I will stop you, and God judges and disciplines his people, Israel and Assyria, Judah and Babylon. No longer can they continue their spiritual adultery. But if you know the story of the Bible, God in part starts to show this restoration, that Judah and Israel will look to a Davidic king. It actually says here in verse five, afterward, the children of Israel shall seek the Lord their God and David their king. David's been long gone for a long time, and David hasn't been the king of Israel for hundreds of years. They've been a separate kingdom. It's been David and Judah, and then there'd been several other kings in the north, in Israel. But what we see is that after Israel was crushed by Assyria, again, the Lost Ten Tribes, the remnant in Israel that wanted to worship Yahweh traveled down to Jerusalem and joined together with the people of Judah. And they were in Judah, when they were exiled to Babylon. And what we see in the unfolding narrative of scripture is that the people come back to Jerusalem, led by Zerubbabel. And who is this Zerubbabel? Well, he has a funny name, Zerubbabel, but he also has an important great, great, great, great, great grandfather, who is King David. Zerubbabel is considered the governor of the people because the king is Cyrus at that point in time, and he is considered the prince in Judah. And the very first thing that they do, the very first order of business is they reestablish the temple in Jerusalem, showing that God's going to restore his people again. Afterward, I'll restore you, and you'll seek David, and you'll be under God again, and they're reestablishing after this disciplinary period, after this exile, the temple in Jerusalem. But when the old men and women see the temple in Jerusalem, do they shout with joy and are they rejoicing, saying, yes, this is the promise of Hosea 3 coming true, right here, right now? No. They weep. They weep with sorrow. Because the glory of this second temple is nothing compared to the first. And they see that they're still remaining under persecution, under the thumb of other governments, under the thumb of other rulers, And this is where the Old Testament ends. They build a wall after they build the temple, and this is where the Old Testament ends. And for 400 years, the people of God receive no word from God until Jesus enters into the scene as the true Son of David, as God with us. And the fulfillment of verse five comes into play that afterward, After what? After the period of discipline and judgment afterward, I will restore you, my people. And I'll bring you to David. I'll bring you to myself. And in those latter days, you will seek the Lord in fear and you'll see his goodness. What I want you to see here in verse five, I'm gonna show you this here in a second. In verse five, when he says afterward and latter days, he's referring to the time period of Jesus' first coming and his second coming. And what we're gonna see here in a minute is that Hosea in verse five, he says, afterward, I will restore. In those latter days, you'll turn to David. You'll turn to your God. He's referring to the time between Christ's first coming and his second coming. This is what this prophecy is all about. And so if you would, turn to the New Testament. I wanna show you some passages that show that the last days for Hosea are our present days for us. I'll put it in another way, our present day, for us, is Hosea's last day, the period from Christ's first coming to his second coming. Look at Luke, the Gospel of Luke, chapter two. I'm gonna go pretty fast through these passages. It says, now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. Okay, this phrase, consolation of Israel, is important. When he says he's waiting for the consolation of Israel, he's looking at a prophecy like Hosea 3, at this promise that though there is destruction and decay that still remains through exile, through political rulers putting their thumbs of oppression upon them and on the temple, the temple is something of a puppet to bring taxes to the Romans. Simeon, this prophet, this man in the temple, he's waiting for the consolation of Israel. This is Hosea 3. Afterward, I will restore. This is what he's waiting for. And how is this fulfilled? The consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. That's the Messiah. That's the son of David. That's the one who will bring restoration. And he came in the Spirit into the temple and when the parents brought him the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law. He took him up in his arms and he blessed God and he said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory for your people, Israel. Christ is the consummation of all things. Christ is the consolation of Israel. Christ is the one who brings restoration, bringing the people to David, bringing the people to God. Chapter two, verse 36, it says, and there was a prophetess named Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She's not Judean. She's from one of the lost tribes of Israel. And what is she waiting for? Verse 38, in coming up that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him, all who are waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. We see an Israelite who's in Samaria, that's their capital. They're not in Jerusalem, that's Judeans. An Israelite of the tribe of Asher, what is she waiting for? Is she waiting for the restoration of Samaria? No, she's waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem, the city of David. where Christ will come, where Christ will rule and reign. And the way in which Christ restores in this present time, that is Hosea's last times, is by dying on a cross, taking the curse for sinners. and defeating sin and death through his life and resurrection for our justification, raising to the right hand of the throne of God where he presently sits on both a heavenly throne and an earthly throne, which is the throne of David. And what he's done in this work, it's called the work of Christ, the person and work of Christ, what he's done in this work is he's brought together one new man through Jew and Gentile. through himself, and he gives the Holy Spirit to the church, which helps us to see Hosea three is referring to the redemption and restoration that we're experiencing right now in the church, and which we look forward to in the consummation of all things. I'm gonna show you this in a few passages. If you continue reading in your New Testament, if you open up to Hebrews chapter one, verses one through two, Hebrews 1, 1 through 2, long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to us by our fathers and the prophets, Hosea being one of those prophets. But in these, what does he say? Last days. In these last days, the author of Hebrews says, he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed to be the heir of all things through whom he also created the world. In Acts 2, if you flip over, Acts 2 16 through 7, Peter is preaching at Pentecost and he quotes Joel, and Joel is a contemporary of Hosea. They're both in the Minor Prophets. In Acts 2 16 he quotes Joel, he says, but this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel, in these last days, Peter says, in these last days it shall be God declares that I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh. 1 Peter 1.20 says, He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in these last times. for the sake of you. What we see is that this is the beginning of the end, that there's a restoration happening afterward in these last days with the first coming of Christ, which will have a distinct ending at the second coming of Christ, and that what's presently happening in the world through the church is the restoration of the people of God. that we're experiencing the fear of God, that we're coming to the son of David, that we're coming before his throne and worshiping him and we're casting off idolatry in the church presently. This is the ministry that the church has. This is the message that the church has, that what we have by faith right now in the last days will one day be true by sight when Christ comes a second time. I want to show you this ministry, Ephesians 2. Verse 13, Ephesians 2.13, again thinking of Hosea pointing forward to afterward, in the last days there will be a restoration. And I'm saying that this is happening now in the church. Ephesians 2.13, That's the work of Christ, the blood of Christ shed. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in the ordinances that he might create in himself. It's in himself, the son of David, one new man in the place of two, not two Jew Gentile, one by faith in Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Galatians 3, 28, give you another passage. Galatians 3, 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, male nor female, you're all one in Christ Jesus. The very purpose of Galatians there is to say that there's one salvation plan for the people of God. Not to say that there's no distinction between men and women, but to say that there's no distinction between any of us, Jew, Gentile, slave, free, male nor female, in terms of salvation and the salvation plan in the church right now, restoring the world through the preaching of Christ. Colossians 3.11, Colossians 3.11. Here, there is not Jew nor Greek, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but all, but Christ is in all, and I'm sorry, Christ is all and in all, speaking to the church. And perhaps most poignantly in Romans 9, 24 through 26, which we've mentioned in the past, In Romans 9, 24, Paul quotes Hosea and gives us an interpretation of what Hosea 3 means. He says, even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles, as indeed he says in Hosea, those who are not my people, I will call my people, and her who is not beloved, I will call beloved. And in the same place where it was said, you are not my people, there will they be called sons of the living God. What we see here is that Christ Jesus is the consolation of Israel and that the promise in Hosea 3 to afterward restore a people and bring them ultimately back to God through the son of David, back to God himself in these latter days is happening now through the ministry of the church. that through the preaching and proclamation of the word from this pulpit and then through your mouth into your neighborhood, into your workplace, we're saying come and be restored to God. There's a God who created you, who knows you, and he has given Christ for the sake of you. So we can go into the world and say, come, be reconciled to God, be restored to God. This is the message that we have, the message of salvation. And this is the message, dear church, that unites us and empowers us and gives us sweet and precious unity to where we can cling to this and love it until we see him in glory. The fact that he's restoring all things now in this present day, in this last day, helps us to see that what we're doing right now in the church is preparing us for all eternity. I'll put it this way, it doesn't really get any better than this. It just grows in glory, that we're gonna be magnifying the name of Christ for all eternity. in perfect harmony with God, that the sin that's depleting in our lives through the work of the Holy Spirit, through sanctification now, will one day be finished because of glorification. When we enter glory together, our eternity begins at the moment of our conversion, that we are wrapped into Christ. And it's an amazing thing, because we had nothing to do with it. It's the fact that we as a church were unconditionally loved. we were sacrificially purchased in order to be restored now and forever, and that the sweet picture that God gives us is that he has made an adulteress his bride, and he's given a wedding dress to an adulteress. Let's pray. Oh, heavenly Father, we thank you for this time, and we ask that you would continue to be with us now as we worship you in spirit and in truth. In Jesus' name, amen.