Sunday PM Sunday, May 1, 2022
Hosea 2
Hosea 2
Service Outline & Sermon Notes
Service outline and sermon notes automatically generated from video content.
Order of Service
- Call to Worship — Psalm 96:1-9
- Hymn — Holy, Holy, Holy (#100)
- Westminster Shorter Catechism — Questions 29 & 30
- Hymn — Just As I Am (#501)
- Prayer of Invocation
- Scripture Reading — Hosea 2:2-23
- Sermon
- Hymn — The Love of God (#252)
- Benediction
Sermon Title: The Faithful Husband and His Faithless Bride
Scripture: Hosea 2:2-23
I. Separation: The Faithful Husband Parts from His Unfaithful Wife (Hosea 2:2-13)
A. The separation is purposeful — aimed at restoration, not mere punishment
- The purpose clause in v. 2: "that she put away her whoring" — separation is so Israel will return to Yahweh alone
- Parallel to New Testament church discipline: 1 Corinthians 5:5 — deliver to Satan "so that his spirit may be saved"; 1 Timothy 1:20 — handed over to Satan "that they may learn not to blaspheme"
B. Israel still maintained outward religious observance while chasing Baal
- They still kept feasts, new moons, and sabbaths — Yahweh's name on their lips
- They believed they could have both Yahweh and the Baals
- God removes those empty rituals and gives them fully over to what they actually desire
C. The imagery of being stripped and returned to the wilderness (Hosea 2:3)
- Israel brought back to the wilderness condition — where their covenant relationship began at the Exodus
- Literal fulfillment: the Assyrian exile of the northern kingdom (722 BC)
- Baal, meaning "husband" in Hebrew, was the god of fertility — yet separation from Yahweh brings only barrenness, not lushness
D. Baal is a faithless and cruel husband
- Israel pursues her lovers but cannot find them (Hosea 2:7)
- Baal worship involved cult prostitution — satisfying lusts, but offering nothing when hardship comes
- Every false god is a taker; only Yahweh is a giver
- Israel did not know it was Yahweh who gave the grain, wine, and oil (Hosea 2:8)
- Modern parallel: progressive communities that celebrate individuals only as long as they serve the movement's agenda
II. Betrothal: Yahweh Recommits to His Unfaithful Bride (Hosea 2:14-23)
A. The lush land is restored in the wilderness
- God speaks tenderly in the wilderness and restores vineyards (Hosea 2:14-15)
- The Valley of Acor ("trouble") becomes a door of hope
- Jezreel — previously a name of judgment (Hosea 1:4) — now means "God sows," signaling grand reversal
B. This is a universal, eschatological salvation
- Heaven and earth become recipients of God's grace (Hosea 2:21-22) — new creation imagery
- John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness fulfills Isaiah's prophecy: Matthew 3:1-3
- Matthew 5:5 — the meek inherit the earth
- Ephesians 6:2-3 — "live long in the land" (Greek: eretz / earth) expands the promise universally
- Christ's ascension: all authority over heaven and earth given to him; Acts 1:8 — gospel goes to the ends of the earth
- Already inaugurated in Christ; awaiting consummation in the new heavens and new earth
C. This is a monergistic marriage — God goes all the way
- Not synergism (God and man each meet halfway) but monergism — God is the sole active agent
- Hosea 2:19 — "I will betroth you to me forever… in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and mercy"
- Fulfilled in the Son of the new covenant:
- Christ, the head of the new covenant, is adorning his bride — Jew and Gentile — with holiness
D. The monergistic marriage produces faithfulness from the bride
- Hosea 2:17 — God removes the names of the Baals from her mouth
- Hosea 2:23 — "He shall say, 'You are my God'"
- God's sovereign act involves internal heart transformation — stony heart made flesh, regeneration, new birth
- Israel's deepest need was never political deliverance but a redeemed heart that beats for Yahweh alone
- The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever — all other relationships flow from this restored relationship