The Lord Redeems His Wife (The Church)

Introduction

Imagine you just got married. It’s supposed to be a time of joy and hope, your heart is full, your future is bright. But not long after the vows are said, your spouse begins to fall away from your love.

You notice the late nights, the empty promises. Eventually, the truth comes out: they’ve given themselves to someone else.

Not once, but again and again.

Not only that, but has even begun selling themselves to others.

This is a horrible and painful situation for anyone.

The pain this would cause is beyond me

But that’s the heartbreak at the beginning of the book of Hosea.

God tells His prophet Hosea to marry a woman who will be unfaithful to him.

Her name is Gomer, and she becomes more than just Hosea’s wife, she becomes a living symbol of Israel’s and our relationship with God. As Gomer runs after other lovers, Israel has run after idols.

Israel has trusted in alliances with other nations instead of her covenant with the Lord. What should be a covenant of love has turned into a trail of betrayal.

Hosea and Gomer have children together, and even the children’s names tell the story. One is called Jezreel, a name tied to judgment. Another is Lo-Ruhamah, meaning “No Mercy.”

The third is Lo-Ammi: “Not My People.” Imagine naming your own child that.

These names show how broken the relationship has become. Israel hasn’t just wandered; she’s rejected the very One who saved her.

And yet, God doesn’t give up.

In chapter 2, God says something remarkable, and Rick spoke on it last week.

God promises to lead Israel into the wilderness. not just to punish her, but to speak tenderly to her. The God who has been betrayed again and again still pursues His people. He doesn’t just want obedience, He wants their heart.

And that brings us to Hosea 3.

Gomer has gone so far that she’s now in bondage, either enslaved or trapped in another man’s household. And once again, God speaks to Hosea. “Go again,” He says.

Go love her. Go pay the price to bring her home.

Hosea, who was horribly wronged, goes and redeems her.

Why? Because this is a picture of how God loves His bride, the church.

Hosea’s costly love reveals the heart of God, who redeems His people, not for what they have to offer, but simply because of who He is. This is the love that defines the church.

This is the love that sent Christ to the cross. And this is the love that still redeems broken people today.

Main Idea: Hosea’s costly love reveals the heart of God, who redeems His people not for what they offer, but because of who He is, and this should bring forth reverent loving obedience from the redeemed.

We are going to see this pursuing redemptive love that brings forth a reverent response with three main points

I. The Command to Redeem in Love (v.1)

II. The Cost of Bringing Us Back (v.2)

III. The Purpose of Redemption: Relationship Restored (vv.3–5)

I. The Command to Redeem in Love (v.1)

Hosea 3:1 ESV

1 And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.”

God gives Hosea a shocking command:

“Go again, love…”

Not just, “Go find her,”

Not go force her home and force her to stop bringing shame upon herself and your family…

but “Go love her.”

This isn’t a one-time act of mercy.

It’s a call to yet again go and love His bride.

You see, Gomer hasn’t changed.

She’s still committing adultery.

Her affections are elsewhere.

And yet, God tells Hosea to go again and love her, to act in love, not because she deserves it, but because that’s what it means to Love as God Loves.

I want you to see here that Hosea isn’t told to feel love.

He’s told to choose love.

This reminds us that true love, biblical love, is not based on emotion. I am not teaching against emotions here

Feelings of love are good and important.

But if our love is based upon these feelings, our love will be fleeting and fade.

The love you see here however is a deliberate love of action, even when it's painful.

So why is Hosea called to do this?

Because this is exactly how God loves His people.

The second half of verse one says,

“even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods…”

In other words, Gomer’s unfaithfulness mirrors Israel’s spiritual adultery.

Gomer has run after other lovers in the form of men

Israel has run after other lovers in the form idols.

Israel has forsaken God’s love in pursuit of sensual, shallow substitutes.

But lest we think ourselves any better than Israel, do we not do the same?

How often do we,

even those of us who know the goodness of Christ,

see the temptations of this world and choose the fleeting pleasures of sin over the Glory of God?

The text describes these substitutes as “cakes of raisins,” a reference to indulgence in pagan worship that focuses on self fulfillment in material things over fulfillment in the Glory of God.

How often do we too see the pleasures of material things and decide to put it over the pleasures of our Lord?

How often do we put work over our time with the Lord?

How often do we out rest over time with our Lord?

How often do we out education over time with our Lord?

Now Hutong, I’m not preaching against these things by themselves,

but when we begin to put our jobs,

education,

sports,

and even our families before the Glory of God,

we are no better than Gomer.

Our worship and love for God must be at the forefront of our lives.

But what do we mean by the word love here? The text uses the word love several times .

It is interesting Here that the Same Hebrew word for love is used for Hosea’s love,

God’s love,

the lover’s passion,

and Israel’s love for idols.

And Although the same word is used, their meaning could not be more different.

One love is pure, redemptive, and costly.

The others are distorted, selfish, and hollow.

And yet, through all that distorted false love, God still loves us in a pure agape love.

What is more, he says to go love AGAIN.

The word “again” stands out here.

This is not God’s first act of love, and it won’t be His last.

His love is persistent.

He doesn’t wait for us to change ourselves before loving us.

Too often, people think before they can come to God,

they must on their own change their life,

as if they can make themselves worthy before God.

But that is not what happened in my life,

that is not what happened to the apostle Paul,

and that is not what we see happening here and throughout scripture.

His love comes first.

HIS LOVE initiates.

HIS LOVE pursues.

HIS LOVE redeems.

His love reaches out while we are still running away.

Let’s put this love in perspective here.

Imagine Hosea’s shame and heartache here.

His wife has betrayed him, not once but repeatedly. And now she’s so far gone she’s been sold off. She is trapped in her sin and has no way out on her own.

And God says: “Go again. Love her.”

The pain must have been unbearable.

But Hosea obeys.

And in doing so, he gives us a glimpse of the suffering love of God.

A love that doesn’t walk away when it’s wounded.

A love that redeems even when the cost is deep.

This is a great marriage story and it teaches us of the selfless love needed in a strong Christian home. but it is also so so much more than a marriage story.

It’s a gospel story.

Can you see Hutong how Hosea’s love for Gomer is a living picture of how Christ loved us.

Romans 5:8 says,

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ didn’t come because we were worthy, He came because we were lost.

His love cost Him everything, and yet He came willingly.

Hutong, don’t miss this: No one is beyond God’s reach.

No failure is final.

No sin is too deep.

If you belong to Christ, then the same redeeming love that reached Gomer and pursued Israel is the love that Christ has for His Church.

And if God has loved us in this way, then we are called to reflect that love.

The gospel calls us to love like Hosea, because we’ve been loved by a God who went farther,

suffered more,

and paid everything to bring us home.

But just as all things with value, it came with a cost.

This is Whitney’s wedding ring. I desired to buy Whitney a nice ring when I proposed to her, but I couldn’t just go into the store, pick it out, and leave with it.

It came with a cost.

Mr. John told me about him buying his current car. he didn’t just take it, no, it cost him.

Hosea’s redeeming Gomer wasn’t free, it cost him much.

In the same way, God’s redeeming of His Bride, the Church, cost something as well.

My point here is that God’s love doesn’t just pursue, it also has a cost.

That brings us to our second point that We see this in verse 2.

II. The Cost of Bringing Us Back (v.2)

Hosea 3:2 ESV

2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

Hosea doesn’t just forgive Gomer.

No, He goes and buys her back.

Gomer had sunk so low that she could not free herself.

She had become someone else’s possession.

And Hosea,

her husband,

the one who had every right to walk away,

pays the price to bring her home.

Fifteen shekels of silver.

A homer and a lethek of barley.

Together, this equals the value of a slave in ancient Israel.

It appears that Hosea did not have had enough silver to pay the full amount, so he adds barley to make up the rest.

That detail matters:

It shows us this was a costly, personal sacrifice.

He gave all his money and then more.

He gave everything he had and paid for what was already his.

And this is where we see just how deeply his love mirrors the love of God.

God’s love is not cheap.

He does not simply overlook sin.

He pays the price to redeem it.

Except He did not pay with silver or barley, but with the blood of His own Son.

Titus 2:14 says,

Titus 2:14 ESV

14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

God bought us back, not when we were seeking Him, but when we were bound in sin, helpless to change. The cross is the full price of our redemption.

But notice something else in the verse.

Hosea says, “I bought her for myself.”

Again, I love the providence of God because just 3 weeks ago, we saw this in Ephesians .

Do you remember us reading together in Ephesians 5 that Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her?

Jesus is Gomer paying the price to redeem His Bride, the church. Over a thousand years before Jesus was born a Human,

Hosea is giving a clear picture of Christ to us.

Now, for generations this was a mystery hidden from them,

but now the mystery has been revealed and we see the love of Christ paying the price for us on the cross.

HE PAID THE COST FOR US ON THE CROSS!!!

The purpose of this purchase was relationship.

God doesn’t just save us from sin, He saves us to Himself.

The church isn’t just a group of forgiven people.

We are the redeemed bride of Christ,

Bought with a price.

You see Hutong,

He didn’t just clear our debt;

He brought us home.

This is the heart of the gospel.

Just as Hosea paid for His Bride,

God paid with His blood to bring us out of slavery to sin and into a loving relationship with Him.

So let me ask you:

has that truth shaped how you see yourself?

Has it shaped how you worship?

Has it shaped how you love others?

We were bought with a price.

This knowledge should bring us to a place of Worship and obedience,

Because the story doesn’t end with what it Cost God, it continues in verses 3-5 with a purpose.

III. The Purpose of Redemption: Relationship Restored (vv.3–5)

Hosea tells Gomer in verse 3, “You must dwell as mine.”

This is a statement of belonging, but it is also a call to obedience.

You see, Gomer is not just being brought back home,

she is being called to faithfulness.

He tells her “You must not be a prostitute or belong to another man,”.

Hosea’s love doesn’t overlook Gomer’s past,

It doesn’t ignore her sin

It doesn’t justify her previous lifestyle

No, quite the opposite because it calls her into a new way of living.

You see, Redemption demands change.

Not a change that comes from our own willpower but change that is only possible after we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ

It was the same with Israel and it is the same for us today.

God’s redemption of Israel is not merely about rescue;

it is about a change of heart and obedient worship to God.

In verse 4, Hosea shifts from the imagery of His wife to directly speak to what will happen to Israel:

Hosea 3:4 ESV

4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.

there is great teaching here on Israel being in the betroth period, but Rick taught us well on that last week.

So now, I want us to see how God is stripping away every false source of authority and worship,

whether political,

religious,

or pagan from Isreal. this is often the way it is for us today is it not?

The goal of this is to lead His people back to Him alone.

We see this in the first part of verse 5.

Hosea 3:5 ESV

5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God,….

That is the purpose of redemption: a people who turn to seek the LORD our God.

Israel will no longer seek blessings alone but rather they will seek the LORD and find their blessings and joy in Him alone.

But then we see in the second half of verse 5….

….and they will submit to “David their king”.

This is a clear reference to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ,

the Son of David and true King of God’s people.

Those who once ran from God will now seek Him. Those who once bowed to idols will now submit to Christ.

Does this not describe each of us whom God has reedeemed?

We were dead in our sins,

in open rebellion against God,

yet His loving Grace was poured on us, changing our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.

We see more on how they come to the King in verse 5.:

“They will come trembling…”

This is the fear of the Lord.

Not terror, but reverent awe.

It is the response of hearts that finally see the goodness of God for what it is:

holy,

undeserved,

and overwhelming.

Hutong, this is what redemption is meant to do in us.

God doesn’t just buy us back, no, He also calls us to reverent obedience.

He doesn’t just save us from sin, no, He also calls us to fear Him rightly,

to live in awe of His mercy,

and to seek Him with our whole hearts.

That is the result of being forgiven and redeemed.

A life of worship,

reverence,

and joyful submission.

This is what Hosea points us to.

Israel's story is our story.

We were unfaithful, but we were redeemed.

And now,

because we have been redeemed,

we are called to respond to that redemption.

But What does responding to His salvation look like?

It means we seek the Lord,

It means submit to our King,

and it means we walk in fear and wonder before His goodness.

So let us examine our hearts today.

Has God redeemed you, or are you still living in your sins?

Have you recognized that you are a sinner in need of a savior?

If not, I can not encourage you enough to come talk to me,

Rick,

Korrie,

Kelsie,

Ennia,

Tony,

or so many others in this room who would love nothing more than to take you aside after service,

or even during the coming prayer time

and walk through what it means to be saved from our sins and have a relationship with our creator.

For those in the room whom Christ has reedemed,

whom Christ has made a new creation,

to you I ask…

Has your redemption led to reverence?

Has it produced obedience?

Are you seeking the Lord, not just with your lips, but with your life?

Examine your life right now,

because if the answer is no, be honest with yourself. Come to me, Rick or someone you can trust and let us help you come back to obedient reverent worship.

This is important because Hosea 3 ends with the hope and promise of transformation, or being changed into a new creation.

In the same way Gomer was transformed,

In the same way Israel was transformed,

So is Christ transforming our hearts today.

so let us go before God,

responding to His teachings in prayer. we will do our prayer time a little different today.

We will start first in private reflective prayer,

and then go into corporate prayer. So for the next couple minutes,

I want us all to pray alone in our seats,

repenting of our sins.

Seek Him who is faithful and just to forgive us and pray for His power of victory over whatever sins you are struggling with.

now I want us to go into a time of group prayer. if you would rather continue to pray alone,

feel free to keep your head bowed and I ask everyone to respect that. but for the rest of us,

let’s have a time of

1) worshiping and thanking God redeeming us, even while we where still sinners.

2) praying for a heart of obedience as a response for what He has done, knowing that we are a new creation.