Hello and welcome to our program. We're in Hosea chapter 2. If you can, have your Bible ready. In this series, we're in a study on what we are referred to as the minor prophets. We're looking at Hosea. First of all, there's no such thing as a minor prophet in God's definition of the term. I don't know who came up with that title, but where it was, was wrong. The Lord has prophets. He doesn't have any minor prophets. It's an interesting thing that the book of Hosea is longer than the book of Daniel, and yet we'd refer to Daniel as a major prophet and Hosea as a minor prophet. No, there's no minor prophets with God. We've seen that prophets are coming in an age when there is apostasy. Hosea 1 and verse number 2 says they were departing from the Lord, and that's what apostasy is when people who call themselves Christians today change their mind, wander away from God, apostasy. The prophets come on the scene at a time like that. They had authority that was given to them from God and their audience was strictly to the believers because the believers were apostate. The response of the believers back here in the Old Testament, we see there was annoyance. They were angry. They said, let us smite Jeremiah with the tongue and not take heed to his words. the annoyance and the anger turned into an attack and in chapter 38 verse 6 of Jeremiah we read they threw him in a dungeon and he sunk in the mire well Ezekiel 2 verse 5 says they and they whether they will hear or whether they will forbear yet shall they know that there has been a prophet among them Well, before we continue in chapter 2, let's listen to this message in song and ask a good question we should ask ourselves in this age of apostasy. Am I a soldier of the cross? Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause, or blush to speak His name? Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease, While others fought to win the prize, And sailed through bloody seas? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? In this vile world a friend of grace to help me on to God. Sure I must fight if I would reign, increase my courage, Lord. I'll bear the toil and endure the pain, supported Well, as we get into the chapter 2 here in the book of Hosea, we need to remind ourselves that Hosea was living in an age of apostasy, and apostasy is when God's people were departing from the Lord. Hosea chapter 1 and verse 2 makes that very plain. Now, as we look at these next few verses, we need to realize, first of all, that it's symbolic, and it has to do with the Lord's relationship with the nation of Israel. He says in verse one, Say ye unto your brethren, Am I? And to your sisters, Rumah, plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, her adulteries from between her breasts lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day that she was born and make her a wilderness and set her like a dry land and slay her with thirst." Now you would think that if God comes along with a message like that, God's people would be listening. They weren't listening. They didn't want anything to do with it. We read in Isaiah concerning the nation in Isaiah chapter 50 in verse number 1, Thus saith the Lord, where is the bill of divorce, your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? And that's what this reference is here. Bleed with your mother. Bleed, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. In Jeremiah 3 in verse number 8, God said, And I saw when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, had put her away and give her a bill of divorcement yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not but went and played the harlot also well it seems like the only thing we learn from history is we don't learn from history Hosea 2 and verse 4 he says I will not have mercy upon her children now he's focusing on the individuals here for they be the children of whoredoms So, as goes the nation, as goes the leadership, so goes the fellowship, the children. We read in Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse number 31, the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so. Her children, the people love to have it so. We can throw all the blame on the prophets and the priests and they need to be blamed, but my people love to have it so. And today, We have the same situation where the Bible refers to those tickling ears. We have a lot of tickle-me-elmo pastors today where they'll tickle the ears to get the congregation to come in, won't say anything needs to be said, get the money out there, pass the offering plates, and let's build a bigger building. No, what we need to do is just get back to preaching like they preached back when these prophets came on the scene, especially in this age of apostasy. Well in verse number five it says, For their mother had played the harlot, she that conceived them hath done shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers that give me my bread, and my water, and my wool, and my flax, and my oil, and my drink. She is praising her lovers for meeting her needs. Well God says down here in verse number eight, For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal." God said, I gave them all to that. What we need to do today is realize if God shut the oxygen off, we wouldn't be getting anything. We heap to ourselves treasures in this age in which we're living, and we think we've done it because we know how to do something. No, it's only by the mercy of God. And so she said, I got this from my lovers. And God said, all right, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Verse six, therefore, will I hedge up thy way with thorns. And for 2000 years, that's Israel's history. She had her thorns. In verse number 9, I will return and take away my corn. Verse number 10, I will discover her lewdness. Verse number 11, I will cause all her mirth to cease. Her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbath, and all her solemn feasts, all these things that Israel had, God said, I'll take them away. Again in verse 12, He said, I will destroy her vines. and her fig trees where if she has said these are my rewards that my lovers have given me I will make them a forest and the beasts of the field shall eat them verse 13 I will visit upon her the days of Balaam wherein she burned incense to them and She decked herself with her earrings and her jewels and she went after her lovers and forgot me saith the Lord Seven times here. God said I will judge them that nation of Israel I will judge her for her sin and when God says he's going to do something he does it and for 2,000 years Israel has been under that curse that they brought upon themselves and Well, in spite of the way we treat the Lord, we see in verse number 14 and 15 what is called here a door of hope. Verse 14, Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards, and from thence, and the valley of Achor, for a door of hope. And she shall sing there as the days of her youth, and as the days when she came up out of the land of Egypt. a door of hope here in what we call the Valley of Acre. Now that word hope has been translated expectations seven times. It's not a case of saying, well I really hope this happens. No, it's a door of expectations. Now the Valley of Acre, Joshua 7 and verse number 5, you remember this story, Israel was losing the battle with Ai in the Valley of Acre. And in verse 7, Joshua questioned God, saying, why did you deliver us into the hands of the enemies? And God wasn't very happy about that, about Joshua's response. He said in verse 10, the Lord said unto Joshua, get thee up, wherefore liest thou upon thy face? Verse 11, Israel has sinned. They have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them. For they have even taken up the accursed thing, and have stolen and disassembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff." Boy, that sounds a lot like what's going on and what we call fundamentalism today. Verse number 12, it says, "...therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed. Neither will I be with you anymore, except ye destroy the accursed thing from among you." Well, what's Joshua going to do? Verse 16, he did what he should have done. It says, so Joshua rose up early in the morning, and you can read the story there in Joshua chapter 7, he dealt with the problem. And there was a door of hope when Joshua dealt with the problem. Well, there is a door of hope for Israel. We read in verse 18, "...and that day I will make a covenant for them with the beast even." He said, even the beast. Now, he says in Isaiah 11, in verse number 6, "...the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid." the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a child shall lead them." That's coming. There's going to be a time when God says, I'll make a covenant with Israel and even with the beasts of the field. There'll be a thousand years here when God says in verse 19, I will betroth thee unto me Forever I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness and in mercy. Verse 20, I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord. He says here, if you read down through these verses, eight times God says, I will do this. I will do this for Israel. In verse 23, he said, I will sow her unto me in the earth. I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy, and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people, and they shall say, Thou art my God. Living for Jesus, a life that is true, Striving to please Him in all that I do, Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free, O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee, For Thou in Thine atonement didst give Thyself for me. I own no other master. My heart shall be thy throne. My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for thee alone. Living for Jesus who died in my place, Bearing on Calvary my sin and disgrace. Such love constrains me, Go answer his call, follow his leading, and give him my all. so so So, Living for Jesus wherever I am, Doing each duty in His holiness. willing to suffer affliction and loss, deeming each trial a part of my cross. Living for Jesus, Throw us a little while My dearest treasure The light of his smile Seeking the lost ones He died to redeem, Bringing the weary to find rest in Him. O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee. For thou in thine atonement didst give thyself for me. I own no other master. My heart shall be thy throne. My life I give henceforth to live. O Christ, for thee alone.