Let us now turn to Hosea 2, verse 19. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. I will betroth thee unto me for ever and so on. The Gospel according to Hosea. I'm sure that the Bible is all gospel. But there are certain places and certain parts which we call particularly gospel, because these show forth the grace of the measuring, the earth-reaching love of God towards sinners. And that is what we have in the gospel according to Hosea. This is gospel. Not a sanitized gospel or a tamed or domesticated gospel. This is raw gospel. This is the love of God shown forth in its rawness. Here we have this amazing parable. Most unusual thing, a parable or a type or an object lesson we might call it. Most unusual and rather startling. And I'm sure you know the story that we have this record of Hosea having been commanded to marry a woman, an adulterer, and so on. We'll come to that in a moment. You might first of all ask the question, why this parable? It is to illustrate the amazing love of God towards his people. The amazing love that rescues them. and that even restores them when they backslide, and that never gives up, and heaps upon them blessing upon blessing, makes them rich with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, in heavenly bliss. He heaps it up, he piles it on. That is God's outreaching and all-powerful and all-overcoming love. That is the Gospel according to Hosea. That is the Gospel of God. Now Hosea was commanded to marry an adulterous woman, or any kind of arm's-length relationship, or any platonic relationship, but he was to marry her, and he was to have children to her. And we have that in chapter 1, her name was Gomer, and there we have a graphic illustration of what God does when he saves a sinner. He betroths them to himself. He loves them and he cherishes them. And their sin, or the depth of their sin, or the repulsiveness of their sin in his eyes, is not an obstacle. The amazing love of God towards sinners, not to the righteous, to the clean, to the unstained, if there were any, certainly not to those who think themselves so. but to the guilty, to the corrupt, to the damaged, to the stained, and to the revolting. So I said to you, the gospel in Osea is not a sanitised gospel. when we come to this book and we are really looking to read something of the love of God towards the nurse, then we have to be prepared for what we have here. And we must see that it fits with ourselves, with every one of us, none of us was an attractive proposition for God, but that every one of us was stained, damaged and revolting in his sight. Then Gomer leaves him. After him taking her, and all his goodness and all his love poured out upon her, she leaves. She goes back, returns to her old ways, to her old lover. But he doesn't let go. God doesn't let go. God reaches out. God perseveres. God does not surrender. And as Hosea does here, he goes farther, brings her back. But of course she does that in a certain way. This is God's work. What does he do? Well, he works. He is able to do all things. And he is able to make us miserable in our sin. That's what he does to her, makes her miserable. inner sin. The very place where she expected to find enjoyment, satisfaction and happiness, she finds misery. That's God's work in the sinner, making him or her miserable in their sin. He is all-powerful and he is able to do that. And all the time he is drawing with his loving kindness, proving that he has loved with an everlasting love, not a love that's easily quenched, but a love that's unquenchable. And he loves with an everlasting love, and as he says, with loving kindness, how I draw Her misery was the loving-kindness of God. And he brings her back and she comes back and Osea receives her. Without going into the details of that, that's really later on. What we have to look at when we look at this parable, let us be careful about this, careful about all our interpretations of parables and types in the Bible. In all these object lessons, let us not seek to tie up every loose end, because if we do that, we'll lose it all, we'll lose the message, we'll lose the main thrust. The main thrust here is clear. This of course is addressed to Israel, the northern kingdom, called Ephraim, very often called Ephraim because Ephraim was the largest tribe. And with all her sins, he through her back, and through her back, and through her back, and restored her, and He re-establishes her in every possible way, doesn't hold back in His love, but does it all for her. So is God's love towards the redeemed. to his, indeed, everlasting love. That is what this book is about. That's why I call it this. I'm not the first person to call it that, as you know. The book, The Gospel According to Hosea, is about God's amazing love to sinners. God's unquenchable love, God's undiscourageable love, God's invincible and unconquerable love. That's what we have here. This is of course only possible through the work of Jesus Christ. We shall look at that later on, if time permits. But it's obviously clear that a holy God cannot just embrace sinners, except through Jesus Christ and through His finished work. God's betrothal is in love. His seeking is in love. His chastening is in love. His making us miserable in our sins is in love. It is all in love. It's a love which is not like our love, not according to our standards of love. But above all our standards and above all our thinking, it is indeed difficult for us to imagine to get our heads round a love which will not, will not, will not be discouraged. So very dear, I will betroth thee unto me forever. This betrothal, we have to remember that betrothal was a lot more than our engagement. We must never equate the two, because betrothal was a very, very real and deep and serious commitment. so serious that to break that covenant was classed itself as adultery. God betroths us to himself with biblical betrothal, with all its commitment, and says here it is forever. God means what he says. God always means what he says. I will betroth thee unto me forever. What God says to you, child of God, that's what he says. I will betroth thee unto me forever. God's love is unwithdrawable. He has given his word. He has put his covenant in place in such a way that it is impossible for God himself to go back on it. That is what covenant love means. I say that with fear and trembling. That is what I read in the scriptures. It's depicted we have in Genesis 15. God's commitment in the covenant, which is all noner at stake if one thing of it fails on his side. This book makes it clear that this betrothal forever is true even in the face of that sliding phrase of even serious backsliding. This is in the true child of God. This is not in the pretender or in just the professor of religion, but one who is truly God's child. This love is betrothed forever Continuous, even in backsliding. Is that important? Is it important to you and to me? Or do you say, I have never backslided? Do you not backslide daily? I do. It is like a continual backsliding. I make my vows, I make my determinations, I make my promises. And I fail to keep them. Is that not the way it is with us? Remember this. We tend to look on backsliding as open and visible and public backsliding. There's a lot more to it than that. We can backslide quietly. quietly and respectfully and decently, as far as outward appearance is concerned, give themselves to idols and to time God. God hates two-timing. This betrothal, secondly, is in righteousness. Isn't that wonderful? How is it in righteousness? How is it that God does this without bending his righteousness, without compromising his righteousness and his holiness? Well, he has put it all in place. He has laid on his own beloved Son the iniquity of us all. There is no compromise in God. When God says, I will betroth thee in righteousness, He means imperfect righteousness. The great thing about the Gospel, that is why we love our wonderful doctrine of justification. The amazing and wonderful thing about it is that the sinner is saved by God in righteousness. He is not only saved or salvaged, but he is justified in the sight of God, justified in the face of all of God's law, because it has been fulfilled on his behalf, perfectly, perfectly, by Jesus Christ. And that righteousness is for the sinner. Close the sinner. This betrothal is incomplete and perfect righteousness. There is no compromise in it. There is no bending. There is nothing here that is unworthy. There is nothing here but perfection. The perfection of the righteousness of God is all fulfilled. It all holds together all the way through. even when he embraces the revolting sinner. He demands, necessarily, his righteousness demands, that all debts must be paid in full. That's what happened. There is no residual debt. There is nothing left over. There is nothing unaccounted for. It is all paid. As the old song says, Jesus paid it all. All to him I Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. Thirdly, it is in loving-kindness. Now this is a very important word in the Scriptures, a word that we translate in the authorised version, we translate it loving-kindness. And in nearly every case when you see that word, it translates a very important Hebrew word. It is a word which speaks of God's covenant. Now, I'm going ahead of myself here, but I'll keep going and come back. that number four, that is loving-kindness. This word speaks about a kind of love which we find very, very difficult to get our heads around. Not as the love that we are speaking about, but in terms of its commitment. God in his loving-kindness has committed himself unto us. God has sworn by himself. Ever wondered why it says in Hebrews, cause he could swear by none greater, he swore by himself. That's a reference to that all important chapter in Genesis 15. It is – it amounts to that – God swearing by himself. That is his commitment to sinners. That is why salvation will never fail, will never come short. It will ensue. Every single believer is saved and saved to the uttermost. He betroths in loving-kindness. Then going back, it is in judgement. Does God judge the saved people? Yes, and he must do. We must remember that he is the judge of all the earth. And although we have the assurance that our sins will not be called into question at the final judgment, nevertheless, we must remember this. God is not pleased with the sin of the believer. Indeed, the evidence of the Bible is that God is more angry with the sin of the believer than he is with the sin of the unbeliever, because he burns with jealousy, burns especially when there is idolatry. We are giving ourselves to things and edging him out. Peter says, judgment must begin at the house of God. He said in the Acts, and if it begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel? Remember the first part. Judgment must begin at the house of God. And there is no question at all that God seeks and loves holiness in his people. And God judges his people whom the Lord loveth he correcteth. The Lord loveth the chastened, because he is a loving Father. He is a good Father, and he is angered. He burns with jealousy when there is too timing. betroths in mercy. We have spoken recently about the mercy of God. And we made it clear that unless we accept mercy, we shall never be saved. Let us never ever think that we can be saved and still look on ourselves as some way above mercy. Because it means a great stepping down for man to accept that he or she needs mercy. That's the way to be saved. That's the way to be right with God. It is of mercy. Our need is of mercy. And if we do not have that need continuing, then we have to ask ourselves some questions. Confessing our need of mercy is a big step for man, and a difficult step. But a step that must be taken, because man needs mercy. And there is mercy with God. I will betroth thee unto me in mercy. Then, Finally, it is in faithfulness. The commentators come to the conclusion that this is a mutual faithfulness. As well as God being faithful to us, God makes us faithful to himself. God ensures our faithfulness. Now, how does he do that? Can he change our hearts? Oh yes, and he does. But how can he ensure our faithfulness? Well, it's all in the New Covenant. Jeremiah 31, in Hebrews 8, We haven't exposed it. It has these words in it. I will write my law upon their hearts. I will put my law in their sacred hearts and write it upon their hearts. It makes us love obedience. What enabled David to write Psalm 119? this love of God's law and this love of obedience, God's wondrous work. God hath betrothed him to himself in faithfulness, in a wonderful mutual faithfulness. The bottom line is this, and thou shalt know the Lord. Now the time is going and really have to just be brief. We shall know the Lord. What does that mean? It's more than just knowing and being acquainted with. There is in knowing the Lord surely an appreciation of him. When we read these words we read tonight, When we think about this wondrous gospel book, we should have no difficulty at all in appreciating God, in appreciating His provision, in appreciating His wondrous remedy for such. We should know Him, through his knowing us. We shall love him through his loving us. And we shall surely in some measure, however small, have an appreciation of him One of the things that Jonathan Edwards said about David Braynard. I love to read these diaries of David Braynard. He said about him, he was speaking about appreciating God, not only for what he has done, but appreciating him for what he is in himself and loving him for what he is in himself. And he said about David Brainard, I saw that manifested. He says more in David Brainard than I have ever seen it in any man how wonderful to love God, to appreciate God simply for what he is in himself. Thou shalt know the Lord, God of love unmatchable, of love unimaginable for us, a love unparalleled anywhere else, a love unconquerable, the love of God. Do we take to this book Do we take to the gospel as it is portrayed for us in this book? I hope we do. I hope we do not recoil from it and say it's too much. Because it is not too much. The real truth is that words cannot express it all. Words can never be enough. to express the love of God in Christ Jesus for sinners. Let us pray. Our gracious God, we pray that thou wilt quicken us, O that thou would send us thy Holy Spirit, or that he would come, take the things of Christ, and show them unto us. Show them unto us in a way that shows us the love of God for sinners. What it really means that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Or that we might know the fullness of what these words mean, that so often, so easily, they trip off our tongues. Remember us, Lord, in the rest of this day. Help us to enjoy it. Help us to delight in it. and help us to love Thee in it. Forgive our sins, in Jesus' name. Amen.