open your Bibles this morning to the book of Hosea chapter 2 and we want to continue our study here in this amazing Old Testament book Hosea chapter 2 and I would like to read once again verses 14 through 23 we began this section last week and we'd like to continue on today. Hosea is filled with cycles of judgment on the nation of Israel and then truth about restoration, promises of future hope. And this is a section of future hope following the section in chapter two on judgment. Hosea chapter two verse 14, therefore behold, I will allure her will bring her into the wilderness and bring comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there and the valley of Acre as a door of hope. She shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me my husband and no longer call me my master. For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, and they shall be remembered by their name no more. In that day, I will make a covenant for them. with the beast of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth to make them lie down safely. I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord, I will answer the heavens. and they shall answer the earth. The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil. They shall answer, Jezreel. Then I will sow her for myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy. Then I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people, and they shall say, you are my God. Let's pray. Father, I pray that your spirit will take your word and apply it to our hearts, give us understanding, enlighten our eyes to see, and draw application, Lord, to each of our hearts according to our need. We thank you for the book of Hosea and the word of God. And we pray to learn more about it and to know how it can impact our lives and that we learn to love you and serve you and trust you more fully each day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So God had told Hosea to go and marry Gomer, who would be an unfaithful wife, an adulterous woman. And the prophet Hosea had this troubled marriage, a marriage of unfaithfulness, but it was a picture of Israel's treatment of Jehovah God, Yahweh, and how they were so unfaithful to Him, how they turned to idolatry and abused the kindness and the love of God toward them. They were unfaithful to the Lord, and so Hosea was a living object lesson in his marriage of what Israel was doing to Jehovah God. And God said, there will be a punishment. There will be punishment for your idolatry, for your Baal worship. But he looks beyond Hosea's day in the 700s BC. He looks beyond our day to future hope, future restoration. So we pick up here, but let's review just a little bit. The first part of chapter two, Here is the cycle of judgment. Before we get to verse 14, the cycle of restoration, Hosea tells the children to bring charges against Gomer, their mother, in verses two and three. And the reason in verse two, bring charges against your mother, bring charges for she's not my wife, nor am I her husband. Let her put away from her harlotries from her sight. and her adulteries from between her breasts. The nation of Israel had gone headlong into Baal worship and probably this was jewelry that was worn that would remind them of their allegiance to Baal, that's false and perverted God. So there would be judgment because of that in verse three. And then verses four through eight, Hosea has no mercy on Gomer's children and there would be No mercy at this point for the nation of Israel. In 722 BC, they were carried away as captives, as slaves to the Assyrian country. Israel had depended on idolatrous nations and not on the Lord for help and support. Israel had thought that false gods, Baals, had blessed her and supplied her needs. She looked to the wrong ones, not the Baals, but Jehovah is the one who cared for them. Just like Gomer looked to her lovers and thought they supplied all her needs. Notice what it says in verse seven. She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them. Yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, I will go and return to my first husband for then, It was better for me than now. For she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal." Hosea said, I'm the one who took care of Gomer. She thinks that her lovers did all of this. And she's gonna realize, I'm gonna go back to my first love. It was better then than now. Let me just pause to say, When someone who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior thinks that maybe they should go back to the old life, the old ways, and follow the world, it looks like that's more fun. If they pursue that route, some things will happen. One thing that will happen is God will discipline them. If they're truly His children, He will exert His loving discipline on them. And they will come to the end of that road and realize it was better back when I was zealous for the Lord. That's where life was good. It wasn't chasing the fantasies of the world, the flesh and the devil. Well, that's what Gomer came to realize. And Israel will come to that as well. Verses 9 through 13, Hosea meets out judgments on Gomer. that is Jehovah on Israel, retaking the gifts, exposing nakedness, as speaks to the land being made bare and the subjects being exposed in judgments and the inhabitants carried away in shame as slaves. There will be a ceasing of the celebrations. Verse 11, I will also cause all her mirth to cease. her feast days, her new moons and so on. And then the destroying of the lover's gifts in verse 12, I will destroy her vines and her fig trees of which she said, these are my rewards that my lovers have given me. So I'll make them a forest and the beast of the field shall eat them. I will punish her for the days of the bales to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry and went after her lovers. A picture of Gomer going after her prostitution and her lovers, but a picture of Israel going after Baal worship. And notice here's the whole key, the last part of verse 13. Then she forgot me, says the Lord. There is a reason that we come together in the body of Christ in a local church, Sunday after Sunday, and on Wednesdays, that we come together, that we meet together. It's so we will not forget. There's a reason we observe the Lord's table. Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me, so we will not forget. And we need to be reminded over and over of the word of God. If you are on a journey studying the scriptures, and I hope you are, in the book of Philippians, or if you started your reading through Genesis or you're doing both, you'll probably realize, oh, I don't remember that. And it seems like it's something new and you've read it before, but you need to be reminded. I need to be reminded. We need to be reminded. Israel forgot who God was and what he had done for them. It is a dangerous thing spiritually to forget. the goodness the grace the blessings of the Lord Israel did that so notice it says that the Lord says this the last part of verse 13 then she forgot me says the Lord it's the declaration of Yahweh he's declaring this he's talking through Hosea to his people even though Hosea is talking to Gomer and her children. Well, now we come to the passage on restoration. And follow along in your notes, we'll review the first few points and then press on to new things. In verse 14, he said, therefore behold, I will allure her, will entice her, will bring her into the wilderness. The wilderness speaks of when they came out of Egypt, when they were newly constituted as a people of God. And God is taking the people of Israel back to that sweet time when they were this nation under Jehovah God, under Yahweh. And notice he says, I will speak comfort to her. I love that expression. I'm gonna speak to her heart. I'm gonna speak upon her heart. Tenderly and comfort will be given to her. In verse 15, and notice this repeated phrase, I will, I will, I will, throughout this passage. Verse 15, I will give her her vineyards from there and the Valley of Acre is a door of hope. She shall sing there as in the days of her youth when she had that first love as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. The Valley of Achor was where Achan caused Israel to be led into defeat at the battle of Ai, because Achan had stolen what was God's from the city of Jericho. And he hid those treasures, the Babylonian designer garment, under the floor of his tent. He hid the gold and the silver there. And God then brought defeat on the people of Israel who had been triumphant in Jericho. And now they're defeated. And Achan and his family met death, destruction. The Valley of Achor was trouble. It means trouble. And Achan was punished for causing disturbance and defeat for the whole nation of Israel. And God says, I'm gonna turn the Valley of Achor into a doorway of hope. Tremendous. There is going to be hope. I'm gonna turn that defeat into an opportunity, a gateway for hope once again. Glad hope and expectation come from God. John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress. It has been through the centuries a bestseller next to the Bible. And it's an allegory and the pilgrim has a terrible load on his back. It's his load of sin and evangelist points him to the way. And when he gets to the cross and when he believes this load is released from him. So this troubled load, the Valley of Acre meets at the cross, the door of hope. My friend, Jesus is the answer to our needs, and the greatest need of our heart is Christ as Savior and Lord. And if you have that burden of sin and guilt, I have great news. Come to the cross. There's a door of hope. And you can be forgiven and indwelt permanently by the Spirit of God. a companion who will never ever leave you. You can have a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He specializes in turning the valleys of trouble into doorways and gateways of hope. Praise the Lord. And then we come to verse 16. And it shall be in that day, three times in the passage, we see this key phrase, in that day, It's prophetic, it's speaking in days ahead. It's in verse 18 and verse 21. And it shall be in that day, says the Lord. So we're looking ahead, even beyond our time, to the millennial reign of Jesus on this earth. When Israel, who has turned her back on him, rejected the one that died for them, that was their Messiah. There will be a day Zachariah tells us that they will look on him whom they pierced and there will be salvation in Jerusalem and notice this tender relationship that you will call me my husband. Those involved in this spiritual adultery instead you're going to come back to the one where your first love brought you out of Egypt with such power and you're going to call me my husband. In Hebrew, it's ishi. And that's significant because the next part he says, you're no longer gonna call me my master or this word could also be my husband, but it's the word bali from ba'al or bail. And the E on the end, it sounds like E, ish E, bali, means my. So not my husband, or it is my husband you're gonna call me, and not bali, why? God is gonna remove the bail worship, remove the idolatry. And even though it was a legitimate term for a wife to call her husband bali, He says, I'm going to remove it from your vocabulary. You're going to be restored to me. Notice verse 17. for I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals." You're not even gonna say it anymore. They used to say it in honor, wearing jewelry that honored Baal, offering incense to Baal, and even offering child sacrifice to Baal. And God said, I'm going to restore you, forgive you, and you're gonna have a new and renewed relationship with me. As we said last week, In Revelation, the book of Revelation, the church at Ephesus was a great church, founded by the Apostle Paul. A great church, had many things going for it, but there's one condemnation from the Lord of the church, and it was this. You lost your first love. You lost your first love. You aren't vibrant for me and my word as you were at one time. That's certainly what happened with the nation of Israel. And you know, there are pressures on Christians, Bible-believing Christians in 2023 to dull our love for Christ. Many distractions to take our attention away from His word. Many distractions to take our attention away from what really matters in loving Christ supremely. This world will be a different place when Christians love Jesus with all of our hearts. When we love the word of God and we want to march according to the drumbeat of the Bible and not according to the drumbeat of the world and thinking the world's thoughts after them instead of thinking God's thoughts after him. Loving our first love and believer if you say, you know, that's me. There was a more vibrant day in my Christian life then the invitation is come back to your husband. Come back to the Lord Jesus. Come back to the one who died for you. Paul says it like this in 2 Corinthians chapter five. What an amazing passage. He says, the love of Christ constrains us. It hymns us in on every side. It constrains us because we judge thus that if one died for all, then all died. That's what happened. Jesus died for us. As he sees it, we died with him. But notice verse 15, and he died for all that those who live, that's you, that's me, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him. who died for them and rose again. That's loving our first love like we should. Is there someone, something that we love more than Jesus? Then we are guilty of what Israel was guilty of. pursuing other interests instead of Jehovah God and loving him with all our hearts. God says, I'm gonna restore you. You're gonna call me Ishi, my husband. I'm gonna remove from your vocabulary, Ba'al, not Baal worship anymore. No, you're gonna follow me wholeheartedly. I'm gonna return you to the tenderness of our first relationship together. So believing friend, If we need to go back to a better day in our Christian life, here's how. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Some years ago, I heard it put like this. If you don't feel as close to God as you used to, guess who moved? So we say what happened and we'll know and we go back and we confess and we get back on track and we keep our eyes on Jesus and our nose in the book. A new relationship is now reinstated for the people of Israel. Now let's look at verse 18. In that day, I will make a covenant for them. And we see here this covenant is with nature and with other human beings that God makes. And we'll explore more about that in verse 19. But just notice this, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, with the creeping things of the ground. So God is gonna make a change in nature. And here's what's going to happen. He's going to take nature back to the time of the Garden of Eden before sin entered. And so we're gonna have these Edenic conditions on the earth once again. Remember, God created a perfect world. He created a perfect world. There was no sin there. Even with Adam and Eve, they were all perfect. And God says, I'm gonna take you back to that time and remove the curse of sin, even from the animal kingdom. Now, I like to go to zoos. And this past year, it was my privilege with a daughter and grandkids and my wife to be able to go to the Bronx Zoo for the first time. I've wanted to do that for years. and was able to do it. And I just, I like zoos. And there's a certain part of a zoo that I like. Well, I like all of it, but the one part that I kind of like in particular, but I'm always glad there's glass or something between me and the creature. And that is the serpentarium where they keep all the snakes. Snakes fascinate me, but I'm glad they're on the other side of the glass. I've seen them up close in Texas. We have copperheads that are deadly poisonous in their bite. We've had close encounters with them, very close. We had a clothesline and there was a laundry basket out there and went out in the evening and there was a copperhead in the laundry basket. Not a good surprise for your wife or for anyone in the family. A strange thing I heard, I don't know if this is an old wise fable or what, but I heard that copperheads are always in pairs. You ever heard that? They're always in pairs. Here's the strange thing. I never saw the other one. It made me wonder, is there one in the tree looking down? Snakes are intriguing. I saw a snake climb a tree. I told you about this, haven't I? It was amazing. And my boy said, Dad, there's a snake out here. It was a rat snake, you know, it's a mice control. And the snake crawled over the road, went to this tall grass, went up like this, raises his body up, tested that grass. No, that won't hold me. There was a low branch of a tree. Tested that out. I think that'll work. And that snake from the ground got up on that tree and started climbing up the tree. I never in my life saw such a thing. Amazing. So it gives concern there. Where was that other copperhead looking down at me from a tree when I killed his partner? Well, they're intriguing, but they can be dangerous. But one day that will be removed. And we saw this. Let's go back to Isaiah. That curse of sin will be removed. That venom will be removed from those scary snakes. Isaiah chapter 11. And they have a certain beauty, I have to admit. The design on them is amazing, different colors. There's a very deadly snake, the green mamba. The coral snake, beautiful colors, but attacks the nervous system. Very deadly snake. A missionary friend in Kenya looked up in his office and there was a green mamba snake. deadly snake there in his office but there'll be a day where you don't have to worry about it it's not today notice Isaiah chapter 11 verses 6 through 9 the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb the leopard shall lie down with the young goat the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them lead a wolf and a leopard The cow and the bear shall graze, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. The curse of nature is removed when Jesus reigns here on this earth. Verse 9, they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. God says I'm going to make a covenant with nature and remove the curse of sin even from nature. but stay there in the book of isaiah god also says i'm going to remove the bow and the sword of battle i will shatter from the earth and notice what he's going to do go back to isaiah chapter 2 i just love this he shall judge verse 4 Let's go back to verse three. Many people shall come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. Isaiah 11 talks about that mountain, my holy mountain, they'll not hurt there. Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. Now verse four, he shall judge between the nations. and shall rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. There's only one answer to the war problems, to the conflicts that exist on every level in our world today. And the answer is this, Isaiah 9, 6. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Jesus is the one that gives peace. He will give it in this day, even in the animal kingdom. No need to go to military academy. No need to have the implements of war. They'll be changed into farming equipment and Jesus will reign. as King of Kings and Lord of Lords with peace on this earth. It's coming. It won't be in our day. It won't be manufactured by human beings. And people will be so tired of conflicts that they will welcome the Antichrist who will promise, but not be able to deliver peace. Peace for a time, but not peace permanently. but Jesus is the one who will deliver that. So he says, I'm gonna make a covenant with them, with the animals and bow of sword of battle, I will shatter and will make them lie down safely or in peace. I'm gonna make them peaceful and confident and able to trust. There's another part of this covenant and that's in verse 19 and this is, the betrothal to Yahweh, the betrothal to Yahweh. Notice these words, back to Hosea 2, verse 19. I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord. It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord. Betrothal to Yahweh, to Jehovah. I'm going to espouse you to me. You're gonna be betrothed to me and you will be married to me forever. That's the first part. I will betroth you to me forever. In the Jewish custom, Betrothal was very serious. We see it in the life of Mary and Joseph. So parents, the father of the bride-to-be and of the groom, they would make an agreement and the groom-to-be and his family would pay a price, a bride price to the bride and her family. And there was a legally binding agreement called betrothal. They were viewed as husband and wife from that point on. but they were not living together. The marriage was not consummated. And there was a period of time, and after that period of time was fulfilled, then there would be celebration, and then they would come together, the bride-to-be and the groom, the betrothed wife and the groom, they would come together, they would live together then, but they were legally husband and wife from the betrothal period. It was in that period where Mary was found with child and Joseph wanted to put her away, but God said, no, it's okay. Because as we heard in timeless Christmas, according to the Jewish law, she could have been stoned for being unfaithful to her espoused husband during that time. But God said, no, this is of me. Her child is of the Holy Spirit. So there was a bride price. Well, what is the bride price here? I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness. Here's the bride price from Jehovah, Yahweh paid to Israel in righteousness and conformity to my standards. You are betrothed to me forever. And not only that, but in justice, not injustice, but the betrothal in justice. This is beautiful. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice. Here is the work of the judge, the perfect judge, the God judge of all the earth who always does what is right. There will be a day where indeed there's justice on this earth and it's in Jesus kingdom. It's in this period of time. He says, I'm gonna betroth you to me in justice. And then he says, and I love this, in faithfulness or here in loving kindness. This is that special word that we spend a lot of time studying. In Psalm 23, it's one of my favorite words in the Old Testament, chesed, chesed. It means God's loyal love, his loving kindness, his loyalty, his mercy, all of that grasping to translate chesed. It has the idea of covenantal love. I'm gonna betroth you to me in my chesed. I will be faithful to my covenant. Here's a note from the Ryrie Study Bible that speaks about Chesed. It says, in the Old Testament, communion, deliverance, enablement, enlightenment, guidance, forgiveness, hope, praise, and preservation are all based on God's Chesed, God's loyal love. And so God says, I'm gonna betroth you to me in loving kindness, in Chesed, And then he says, and mercy. And guess what? Here we have Ruhemah, not mercy. I'm gonna call your children low Ruhemah, not mercy. But now he says, I'm gonna betroth you to me in Ruhemah, in mercy. I'm going to show compassion to you and you will be committed to me, espoused to me forever in my tender compassion. There is no mercy, no compassion, no love like the love of God, the love of Jesus for his people. And that's not all. In verse 20, he repeats, for the third time, I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. Steadfastness is the idea. Great is thy faith. faithfulness, the songwriter says. God says, I'm gonna betroth you to me in faithfulness. You know, this is a great truth in the New Testament, Romans chapter eight, the love of God, nothing shall separate us from the love of God. How is that? Because we've been betrothed to Jesus as the bride of Christ in his faithfulness, his steadfastness, he will not cast us off. and then look at the last part of verse 20, and you shall know the Lord. and not just know about him, you shall know the Lord. You're gonna have an intimate relationship with me. You're going to know me and we're going to converse together and commune together. You Israel who have been rebellious and idolatrous, you're gonna be restored and come back to me. You will know me, you'll have a relationship with me. And it's so amazing how this is what Isaiah said back to that chapter 11 passage. In verse nine, they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And in that day, there should be a root of Jesse, speaking of the Messiah, speaking of Jesus, who shall stand as a banner to the people for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek him and his resting place, Throne shall be glorious. The knowledge of the Lord will be present in the land. What a wonderful day is ahead for the people of God, for the church of Jesus Christ. We're reigning with Jesus in this millennial kingdom and the nation of Israel will bow to him, accept him as Messiah and Lord. Isaiah chapter two, come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways. In the meantime, you know what we have an obligation to do is the church of Jesus Christ to teach the knowledge of the Lord. to teach the Word of God. We'll come to it, Lord willing, a little later, but Hosea says, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And what the world needs is the word of God. The entrance of your words gives what? Light. It gives understanding to the simple. And so our culture, our world needs the light of the word of God, the knowledge of the word of God, the knowledge of the gospel, how I can be right with God, have my sins forgiven. Yes, praise God, this day is coming when the knowledge of the Lord will be everywhere. But right now we have a mission is to go and to make disciples, to teach them, Matthew 28 says. To teach, to teach the word of God, to let the knowledge of the Lord to be made known. That's the mission of a local church. Now notice with me the book of Jeremiah and some amazing truths are given here that correlate with Hosea. Jeremiah chapter 31. I came on to a statement this week that I had not at all thought of. Jeremiah, time-wise, would be after Hosea. And this statement was that Jeremiah drew on Hosea. I thought, that's intriguing. Very possibly so. Jeremiah 500, Hosea 700. Jeremiah drew on the prophet Hosea. What an amazing thought. Notice what Jeremiah is teaching us in detail here. We'll just summarize a few things. Verse 3 of chapter 31, Jeremiah 31, 3. Let me start with verse 1. At the same time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Not lo Ami, not my people, but Ami, my people. Verse 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. I've espoused you to me in faithfulness, in chesed, in loving kindness. Notice verse 14, Jeremiah 31 verse 14. I will satiate the soul of the priest with abundance and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the Lord. That's a future day. People are gonna be satisfied knowing me and with my goodness. Look at verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Jesus said a new covenant I make in my blood. He inaugurated this. It will come to its fulfillment during this kingdom. his reign on the earth. Notice verse 34. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they all shall know me. From the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more. Praise the Lord. and idolatrous rebellious people can be forgiven their sins. I can be forgiven my sins. You can be forgiven your sins. I will forgive their iniquity. I'll remember their sin no more. A day when they're all gonna know the Lord. Absolutely amazing. Well, let's go back to Hosea and finish up here. Hosea chapter two, notice verses 21 and 22. It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord. Well, what will the Lord answer? Look at this chain of events here. I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth. The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine and with oil. They shall answer Jezreel. Answers given. So as if the heavens are answering the earth and speaking to the earth, as if the earth were asking of the heavens, we need rain. And the Lord says, I'm going to answer. I'm going to answer the heavens. They're asking for rain. And yes, they shall answer the earth. They'll give rain. The earth shall answer. Here's what they're going to produce. Grain, new wine, oil. and they shall answer Jezreel." It means he sows, God sows. And God is going to sow abundantly in the earth. Jezreel is a key word used earlier, meaning you're gonna be sown or spread abroad in judgment. And they were, they were carried away in captivity. But no, now I'm going to do the sowing and the crops are going to be abundant. I'm gonna richly bless you with these answers. God sows there will be an abundance at this time abundance of food because the curse is lifted and the earth abundantly brings forth. Verse 23, then I will sow her for myself. Jezreel, he sows. I will sow her for myself in the earth, and I will have mercy. This is the reverse of chapter one, verse nine. Then God said, call his name Lo-Ami, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God. Verse six, call her name Lo-Ruhamah. It means no mercy. This is the reverse of it. Instead of no mercy, she's gonna be mercy. I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy. And I will say to those who are not my people, lo ami, you are my people. There will be a great spiritual reunion here and they will say, you are my God. Thomas saw the resurrected Jesus And he bowed before him and said, my Lord and my God. The nation of Israel will be reinstated. You're my people. I have mercy on you. I have compassion on you. And they're going to say, you are my God. That's the point we all have to come to, to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and God. I come to you as I am. Forgive my sins. Give me eternal life. You alone can save. You alone are Lord. You alone are God. So this is a tremendous passage about this spiritual reunion. And let me share these three thoughts once again. God's promises are sure. God made a covenant with Abraham. He promised to bless his descendants. They went into idolatry. They were punished. But God says, I have a future for you, a door of hope. God's promises are sure. We come to Jesus. John 3.16 says, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. Whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Those promises are sure. We believe in Christ, we're saved forever. But God's punishments can be severe, severe. It's the fear of the Lord to walk in wisdom, to walk in a way that honors him when we know Christ. And if as his children, we go astray, he'll spank us, he'll discipline us, he'll bring us back to him because he loves us. And then God's pleasures are surely sweet. Jesus said, I have come that they might have life and might have it more abundantly. There is nothing that fulfills like knowing Christ. Nothing. If you haven't trusted Jesus, believe on the Lord Jesus and be saved. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for your word, for the timeless truth from the book of Hosea, inspired by your spirit. And we thank you. We praise you. Lord, I pray you will apply it to our hearts according to our need. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, is there anyone who would say, I see my need of Jesus? I need him in my life. I see my burden, my load of sin. I need forgiveness. If that's what you're saying in your heart, sincerely, then right now, in your heart, call out to God. Say, God, I know I've sinned. But I believe that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again. And I'm asking you, Lord, to save me. And the Bible says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. In this quiet moment, is there anyone who would say that's exactly what's going on in my heart? And yes, I'm asking the Lord to save me, forgive my sins, give me eternal life. Pray for me. Would you just put your hand up? Acknowledge that. Pray for me. Amen. Anyone else? The promises of God are sure. I would love to just sit down and show you from Scripture how you can have assurance of eternal life through faith in Christ. I'll be at the front here. When we dismiss, and I encourage you to stay back and say, I meant that. I prayed. I put my faith in Christ. Can you help me from the scriptures? Is there a believer who would say, I see a coldness in my heart, a cooling trend From the love that I first had for Jesus, a vibrance that I first had in my Christian life, I see a cooling trend toward the Bible. And I want that to change today. Pray for me. Would you just slip up your hand? Amen. Amen. Anyone else? Our Father, return every believer to our first love. Back to the scriptures. And whatever the roadblocks are, remove them, we pray. And we pray for everyone who may hear this today in whatever form, that they know not Christ, that they would believe on Jesus and be saved. Thank you for the promises of God. Thank you for the promise that when we confess our sins as believers, We were faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. So Lord, may we confess and may we be restored to vibrance in living for Jesus. In Jesus' powerful and worthy name we pray, amen.