Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / October 4, 2015 | Route 66 - Hosea

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October 4, 2015 | Route 66 - Hosea · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you're visiting this morning, we're in a Route 66 sermon series, taking a journey through the Bible, 66 books, one book per Sunday.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: We've arrived at Hosea this morning.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Before I get into that, however, uh I'd like to just mention two things.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: One, I really love have a personal relationship with that last song we sang called Oceans.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but um I need prayer, I need Bible study.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I need a little bit more.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so music does something for me, as I imagine it does for you.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I will occasionally find earlier this year, it was that song, Oceans, that I just play on a loop for hours in my office as I'm doing other work.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: That last song.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for a song, if you need something to help, I recommend go to YouTube, look up Oceans, and just do what I did.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Keep hitting the reset button.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe some of you are like that as well.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was encouraged this last uh a month or so ago to see that some leading pastors in our world were sharing that they do the same thing.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And the other thing I'd like to say has to do with uh uh the shooting in uh Roseburg.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's a town that's close to our heart.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: A son-in-law comes from that town.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: We spent a lot of time there.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I got a call last night from a pastor in that town that I'm friends with.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've spoken at his church, ridden bikes with him, and so forth.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um he was just he had just come from uh the girls' house who was just interviewed last night on Fox.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and she was just, you know, and and also from the home of a family of whose son got got shot dead.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And Mike was just telling me that the girl had just said, you know, how horrifying it was for a gunman to come in and have them all lie down on the floor and then have them stand up one at a time and and ask, are you a Christian?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if they said yes, he'd say, Well, you're about to meet your God, and he would shoot them in the head.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, she, this girl, uh, though she's a Christian, having seen what happened, she got up, she just didn't say anything, and so he shot her, but not in the head, and she's gonna live.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: But um you can be forgiven for thinking that uh that um it is open season on Christians, and it is disturbing, you know, that you get the feeling that if if uh if the people who are being targeted were, you know, some other religion, let's say, or some other sexual identity or something else, that somehow there'd be a whole lot for about you know about that from from on high in our country instead of just gun control.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: But but uh Mike and I were praying about it, and he, since he's preaching on Revelation right now this morning, Mike was telling me, you know, we were reminding each other this is this is what it's gonna be like, you know, as we come to the end of the world, uh that there will be persecution.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted to speak out and share that story in a way to sort of honor the nine martyrs for Christ who are presently uh, you know, being honored by their Savior in heaven because they were not afraid to say, I am a Christian.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I transition from that to uh to to something quite different, and that is if love and death are the two most important things in the world, then I'm moving from death to love because I want to talk to you uh uh about the book in the Bible that tells an amazing love story.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: My title for the book of Hosea, and this is the first the first uh Bible book south from South of the Border, first Hispanic prophet Jose, and oh my goodness, are you slow today?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's no end.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, I I was wasting time this week and I was writing down some church pickup lines.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about love, and the sermon wasn't going too well.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just like to share with you some church pickup lines for those of you that are looking, you know, for love in all the right places.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, what?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't shake your head at me, Bill.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you walk up to the pew, you look down, and you go, what's a charismatic like you doing in a stuffy place like this?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that bad.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or just hi is this pew taken?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or so do you worship here often?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Or uh I'm curious, what translation do you use?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh how about you and I go someplace for a little quiet time?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are they getting better?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm attracted to you.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Purely in a spiritual way, of course.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Baptist.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: What's your sign?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh excuse me, but I think you may have one of my ribs.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, not that one.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Last night I was reading the book of Numbers and I realized I don't have yours.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And here's one even better.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, my name's Will.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: God's Will.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, I think you're sitting on my Bible.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, okay, don't use those.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: But um listen, everybody in the world is in love with love.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Our favorite books, favorite movies, favorite songs, always about love, and so we should love the love story of Hosea.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: In some ways, it's no different than a thousand other love stories that take place every week on the streets.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Up Topeka, Kansas, Kansas City, Chicago, London.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: In other ways, this story is absolutely different.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: One of the oldest love stories in the Bible, or in the history, in all of literature.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: But it is really amazing.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's a story of a broken love, broken heart, broken home, broken vow, and a broken life.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: It takes place in a town, capital city of Israel, uh, northern Israel.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: The town is called Samaria, not that large a town, beautiful town still today.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh a young preacher by the name of Hosea is the central character, and one Sunday, actually Shabbat, one Saturday, after he preached, he's invited to the home of Mr.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: and Mrs.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Diblayim.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: They invite him home for dinner.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he sits there and it's a nice dinner, good food, and so forth, until he looks across the table and he sees the most beautiful girl in the world.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Her teeth are white, her hair is shiny and black, and her laugh is a tinkle, and when she smiles, his heart stops, and suddenly the food doesn't even taste for him anymore.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when he hears God's voice in his head saying, That there, that's the girl you are going to marry, Hosea thinks he's the luckiest guy in the world.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, not everybody in the town uh agrees that this is a perfect match.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: The whispers start.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Some people say, you know, don't think they're a perfect match.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Gomer's a little more of a party girl, a little flirty, a little heavy on the lipstick.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hosea, he's a young man of God, full of zeal, full of heart, full of passion.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Not quite sure that he knows what he's getting into, but uh, we do know that she's getting herself a deal.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think Hosea thought that at all.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think he thought, well, God's told me to marry her.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And as he walked, you know, as he as he as he took his bride home on his arm after their wedding, I imagine he thought, unlike you, Gomer's such a perfect name for her.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're not thinking that.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: But Gomer in Hebrew means complete or perfect.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I suspect he thought, wow, she is, she completes me.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: She is just absolutely perfect for me.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And since God has brought us together, we're gonna have nothing but but happiness for the rest of our lives.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he was wrong.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, who knows?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe Hosea didn't have enough time to spend with his young, fun-loving wife as much as she would have liked.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: But after all, he had a huge job.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: God had given this young prophet, 750 B.C., a gigantic job to tell his whole nation, the northern kingdom, that even though they were incredibly prosperous, this was the height of their prosperity under King Jeroboam II, caravans always going through, money flowing and so forth, to tell them that though they were prosperous, that unless they repented of their sin, unless they tore down all those Bale idols on the high places and their cult prostitution and the sacrificing of their babies to the idols and all of the false worship that unless they gave that stuff up, he was going to bring the mighty nation of Assyria down upon them to destroy them.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: That was the message he had, and this message took him out of his home, you know, all day, every day, and maybe some nights as well.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so back at home, Gomer, we know wasn't happening.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: We know for sure that she didn't, you know, what he thought was serious, she thought was stupid.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so when he left the house for work in the morning, she used to leave as well and start wandering out and looking for fun.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes then he would come home and she wouldn't be home yet.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then there came times where he would come home and go to bed, and she didn't come home all night.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't stupid, he saw what was happening, and he was a praying man, and I'm sure he must have felt that there were times where he all day, every day, he was doing nothing else but praying for his nation and praying for his marriage.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it seemed then that God answered his prayer.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: For all of a sudden, um, we got a photo of them, by the way, aren't they a beautiful couple?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, uh God, you know, uh that Gomer got pregnant, and they were able to have a little boy, and God told him to call that little boy Jezreel.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: A strange name.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be like a Jewish family calling their child Auschwitz, because Jezreel was this place where blood had flowed not long before, this location where God had judged Israel for their sin.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the chariots had ridden and the spears were thrown, and people cut down people, and there was just all kinds of judgment.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so every time Hosea looked at his son and called him Jezreel, he was reminded, since that name means God scatters, that God had threatened to scatter and judge Israel for their sin.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And still, I'm guessing that Hosea thought, still, that little baby's gonna take one chubby hand, wrap it around her heart, another chubby hand, wrap it around my heart, and draw us together and bring us together, and we're gonna have a home again.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: But he was wrong.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sure that there were times where she came home and she cried and she said, I'm sorry, and she said, I'm not gonna do that again, and I'll never take my love to town anymore, and so forth, but always the marriage would grow cold and stale again and boring, and always she would leave home again.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then God gave them a second child, Lo Ruama, a cute little girl, and her name meant no love, no pity.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: God announcing to everyone who who met this little girl that he was he was no longer gonna have pity on Israel.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: She had sort of crossed the line, that he was gonna bring Assyria down.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's, you know, he's not gonna forgive her sins.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: She just, if they didn't turn, and then a third child, Lo Ami, which means not my people, that I've I'm rejecting you and it's all over.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And here's where here's where something happened that must have made Hosea nearly die.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: He looks down in the crib and he and he and he chants that name, Lo Ami, and suddenly realizes that that's the name God gave, because no, this is not even his people.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Any resemblance between that little face and his own is purely coincidental.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: That that is not his little boy, and that little girl was not his little girl, and it must have nearly killed him, and yet he didn't leave her and he didn't divorce her.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: He determined he'd stay with her, and he loved her.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: But then the hammer fell.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: He came home one day, and maybe there was a note that was tacked to the nursery door, but whatever it was, the piece of paper maybe, and it said, Listen, I'm I'm done.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: I've had all I can take.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to get out and have a little bit of fun.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm leaving the children with you.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Don't try to follow me.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And now he's alone.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you can picture him that night being both mommy and daddy, feeding the children and praying with them, and then tucking them into bed, and then going to his own bed and lying there with his eyes open, crying out why, and thinking of the woman that he still loves.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: On her part, I I'm guessing that Gomer felt the same way that everybody feels in my experience as a pastor who does this.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: She felt like a great load was just fell off her shoulders.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now she can go out and do whatever she wants to.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: She's not chained to that husband, not chained to that career, not chained to those children.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: She can eat what she wants, she can wear what she wants, she can party anywhere she wants, she can have relationships with whomever she wants.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm guessing that the whispers in town went something like this.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody, of course, talked about it.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know how they do.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Pastor's wife has left him.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Hosea's Gomer has gone away.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some people, I'm sure, said, sir, Hosea Wright, he's so busy fixing our lives.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't have any time to fix his own marriage.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: The people that knew Gomer, who knew Hosea, probably said something like this good riddance to bad rubbish.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: He'll actually do a whole lot better without her.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hosea, for his part, didn't feel that way.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: He thought, I love her.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I won her back.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: As usually happens when you have this uh load off your shoulders.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Gomer's life, I'm sure, went straight to the top, like uh, you know, just everything was absolutely perfect, but then you know what happens?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Life always takes a sharp turn, and then she plunged down into the depths of despair, and we read that she got passed from one man to another man, to another man.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And finally she fell into the hands of a low life who didn't even have the money to provide the basic necessities of life for her.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Not enough food, clothing.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Hosea, who had been watching all this time and following the downward slide of his beloved, noticed that she was losing weight and that there was no food and so forth.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so he actually went to find the man.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Said, excuse me, are you the guy who's living with Gomer, daughter of Diblaim?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Man says, What if I am?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hosea said, Well, I'm her husband.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Man braced for a fight.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hosea said, No, you don't understand.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: I love her, but she doesn't love me, and she's not gonna come back to me.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: I just have noticed that it seems like you guys are short on food, and I really am concerned for her.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: If I gave you some money and here he hands some silver and gold, you know, would you mind?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Would you promise me that you'll spend this for necessities for her, that you take care of her and yourself, some food and so forth.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Man looks at him, shakes his head, thinks there's no fool like a fool in love, and he takes it, of course.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's at that point, I suspect that you and I, you know, stop and go, Whoa I was I was with you in this story up till here.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's been realistic.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now you've just departed from common sense.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Who would do that?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody would do that.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't make any sense that a guy would take his own money and support an unfaithful spouse who is who's never maybe even going to know that he gave it and and and just you know from afar to support her and what she's doing.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: It just makes no sense.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly right.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because, as Pascal said, love has reasons that reason does not know.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And Hosea was acting the part with Gomer.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: God has been acting with Israel and with you and with me.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we can see, uh sort of watch as Hosea hides in the shadows, and this man, this lowlife, comes home as his arms loaded with groceries.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Gomer runs out of the household and flings her arms around him and hugs him and thanks him for stuff that true love has provided, that false love offers, and that stupidity accepts.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to look this up, it's in chapter 2 of Hosea, where he says their mother's been unfaithful.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: She said, I'll run after other lovers and sell myself to them for food and water, for clothing, of wool and linen, for olive oil and drinks.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: She doesn't realize, this is Hosea 2, 8, that it was I who gave her everything she has: the grain, the new wine, the olive oil.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: I even gave her silver and gold.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, before you and I get too critical of Gomer, let's remind ourselves that occasionally we're not much different, right?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because where is it that you and I have gotten these clothes that we have on or the food that we eat?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: The car that we drive, the home that we live in, the country that we have, the job, the friends, who is it who has given us those things and yet who is sometimes the very last one to get thanked for those?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, we will thank our friends, we'll thank the bank, we'll thank the government, we'll thank almost anyone else, including our own right arm, for giving us these things.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: When it actually has been God, to whom we owe gratitude.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you say to me, Well, okay, maybe I'm like that, but really are you telling me God's like that?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: I say all the evidence of Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, is that God is exactly like that.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: For long ago, God put metal in the ground, put trees in the forest, he put skill in your mind and in mine, and so man, with his knowledge and with his skill went to the ground and mined the metal, and he went into the forest and he cut down the trees and he shaped that metal into a spike, shaped the tree into a cross, and when that cross was prepared and ready, then God came down and in the person of Jesus Christ hung on that cross, showing his love for the very people who nailed those spikes through his hands, for the people who mocked him at the foot of the cross for you and for me, to forgive us of our sins, to give us eternal life, to give us a home in heaven.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because he loves us and there is no end to the love of God.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: There is no love like the love of our God.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Did you say, well, yeah, that's back there.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's the bread and the cup, that's the cross, but does he still, is God still that way?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Does he still love us that way even after we've accepted him as our Savior?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: I say, really?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to ask me that question.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: In your experience, haven't you ever torn yourself away from the strictures from the tightness of God and religion and church and so and wandered away and started walking down the path just to get away and felt a tap on your shoulder and turned around and heard the voice of God whispering to you, listen, I love you, and it's only for your happiness.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: I all I ever want is your happiness.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you've ripped away from him again and continued running and run up to the through the mountains of pleasure and the forests of relationships and dropped down into the swamps of sin and found yourself eventually in the desert of loneliness and the pit of despair.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And when you've completely given up hope, you feel a tap on your other shoulder, and you turn around and it's God again.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I have pursued you through a shortcut that love knows well, because I will not let you go.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: I love you, and I will follow you to the end of the world, no matter where you go and no matter what you do.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: For that is our God.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: And there is no end to the love of God.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Gomer would not return.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if she ever found out that it was her husband providing those things for her, but she stayed, but then she got passed around to more men and finally fell into the hands of a lowlife who didn't even love her and decided to sell her to see what he could get out of her.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: We know something about slavery in those days.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was an established institution, and we're told that what would happen is that a woman would be stripped entirely naked and put on the stand for everybody to gawk at, and her hair would be cut short, and and then she would be auctioned off.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it was to such a horrible scene that crowds gathered and that Gomer was brought and that God told Hosea to attend.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I imagine the crowd looked around and nudged each other and said, Wow, look who's here.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody else said, Well, Betty's here to see her get her come up, and she hurt him so badly, leaving him with the kids and everything else.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: She's gonna get what she deserved, and he's gonna gloat.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: The auctioneer begins.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What will you bid me for this uh this uh slave?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And somebody finally says, I'll give you 10 pieces of silver.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And someone else says, I'll give you twelve.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hosea says, uh, I'll give you fifteen.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody turns around.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's bidding on his own wife.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody else says, I'll give you fifteen pieces of silver, and and uh I'll give you a bushel of barley.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hosea says, I'll give you fifteen pieces of silver.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: A bushel and a half of barley.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the auctioneer brings the gavel down and says, sold, and Hosea goes up to get Gomer.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the whispers start again.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe he would send good money after bad so simply they could beat her within an inch of her life?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's gonna kill her, who knows?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: But you and I know that Hosea did not buy her in order to beat her.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: He bought her because he loved her.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: He bought her in order to make her pure.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because Hosea was playing with Gomer, the role that God has played with you and me all of our lives.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can see it in some of the most remarkable verses in the book, Hosea chapter 3, verses 2 and 3.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I bought her for myself for 15 shekels of silver and a Homer and a half of barley.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then I told her, You are to live with me many days.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: You must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I'll behave the same way toward you.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Among the things that that means, he told her, Listen, I love you.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I bought you, because I want to keep you for myself and I want you to become pure.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: You say, really?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, really, because God said this.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: He said, go again, show love to a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, Hosea is simply doing with Gomer what God has done with the Israelites and what he's done with you and what he's done with me.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: And when I realized this some years ago and realized that God's love was not only that unfailing, but that emotional.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I came across this verse in Hosea 11:8.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Something broke inside me when I read, Oh, how can I how can I give you up, Israel?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Words from God.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: How can I let you go?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe God would speak like this?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: How can I destroy you?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: My heart is torn within me.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: God speaking, my compassion overflows.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And suddenly, for the first time, I sense, and I hope you sense, that this absolutely unique and amazing love of God is emotional, it's faithful, and it's unfailing.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: There are two lessons that I think that you and I should draw from this.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they are lessons that Hosea shared with Gomer as they got home.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe she said to him finally as they're in the home, and she started weeping.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Why do you still love me?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about me that makes you love me?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm guessing he would have said something like this, I don't love you because of what you are.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love you in spite of what you are.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the way that you and I need to understand finally that the love of God is so permanent and unconditional for us because he doesn't love us for what we are.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's not because we're better looking or smarter or more attractive or he's looking for the best team he can possibly field, you know.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so he looks at us and he goes, Yeah, the rest of the people on that pew I really don't care about, but you know, you're at the top of my fantasy team.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so as a result, you know, he's choosing you.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that way at all.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And neither is it, you know, sometimes we get this bookkeeping idea that if only I have more quiet times this coming week, or maybe put a little bit more in the plate or go to the foreign field, then he'll love me more than he does.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: God could not love you more than he possibly does, because he has never loved you for what you are.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's loved you in spite of what you are, and simply has chosen you and placed his love on you because of who he is.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the second lesson that you should draw from this is as though God's whispering to you this morning, no matter how far from me you go, I am right there all the time watching, waiting for you to wake up and return to me.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: For there is no end to my unfailing love.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Read that with me.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: No matter how far from me you go, I am right there all the time, watching, waiting for you to wake up and return to me.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: For there is no end to my unfailing love.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do you hear him saying that to you this morning?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Some years ago, Haddon Robinson, many years ago, was up, and he told the story of Hosea.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: He shared with us a story that I'd I'd like to share part of with you about a businessman in Chicago, young businessman years ago, who went down to Kentucky for work, and he met and fell in love with, and he married a beautiful girl down in Kentucky, and then he brought her back to Chicago with him.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they had three years of just bliss, of just great marriage up in Chicago, and then she contracted this strange disease and spike this fever that was really high, and it was so high that something went wrong in her head, and she like she lost her mind.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it just something flipped.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: And at her best, after that, she was demented.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: And at her worst, she was a raving lunatic.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he had to leave Chicago, he had to move out to the suburbs because she would start screaming in the middle of the night at times and the neighbors would complain.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: He sat by her bedside time, night after night, trying to nurse her back to help.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: It seemed nothing would work, month after month after month.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Fine.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Doctor, if his family doctor finally in desperation said, you know, if you'll just take her, maybe if you take her back to Kentucky, to her family home, maybe if she sees that, it might jostle something.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Bring her back to her senses.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: So he did.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: He put her in the car and they drove back down to Kentucky and they went to the old homestead and they walked through the home.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: He took her through the home where all of those memories hung in every room, and he looked at her, and no.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Her eyes were still had that wild animal look in them.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he took her out the back to the garden where the violets and crocuses were in bloom, walked her through where she'd grown up, looked at her and still absolutely nothing.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: And in despair, he walked her back to the car and he placed her in the seat and began to drive back to Chicago.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: And something happened as they crossed the state line, began to head into Illinois.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: She fell asleep.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a strange sleep, sleep unlike any of the sleeps she'd had.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not one of those disturbed sleeps.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: It seemed like a calm sleep.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: It just seemed like she was so restful.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: And when they when he drove back in and it was dark into his home, he carefully lifted her out of the car and he carried her up to the bedroom and he laid her in the bed.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then he sat by her bed all night long, just watching her and caressing her hair.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: And when the first rays of sunlight came to the window and touched her face, she woke up.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he looked at her eyes, and they were unclouded for the first time.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: And she looked up at him and she said, I feel like I have been on a long, long journey.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Where have you been?
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: With his heart breaking, he said, Darling, I've been right here all the time.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: I've been by your side, watching, waiting for you to come back to me.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's a way that you and I have of running away from God.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, even when we're running away, we come to a church on a Sunday morning.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: There may be someone here like that, and you're not sure, your question is, where is God with where I am in my life?
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I would answer you that God's answer is, I'm here, and I've always been here.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: No matter how far from me you go, I'm right there all the time, watching, waiting for you to wake up and return to me.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: For you to understand that I love you with an everlasting and an eternal and an unfailing love.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: And there is no end to my love for you.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna celebrate the Lord's table.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: I can't think of a better time to take the bread and drink the cup and think back to the cross where he loved us so much than this time, a time of silence, a time when I would ask you to revisit.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Would you please revisit the love of Christ for you on the cross?
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then would you remember his unfailing love for you, his Hosea Gomer love for you, and repent, perhaps, if you need to, of wandering away from him this last week, this last month, this last year, and return to him?
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let me pray and then give you that opportunity.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, I pray that in these moments, your Spirit would move into these hearts and give people a sense, maybe for the first time, an actual real physical sense of your amazing affection for us.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: The way you will not let us go, the way you will pursue us no matter how far we run from you.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: The way you will provide for us, even when we think it's other people.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Just simply waiting and hoping that we will wake up and return to you.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: May that happen this morning.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.