THE GREATEST LOVE STORY
Hos. 1:2-3; 2:2,5; 3:1-5
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A college student, between semesters, was home for the weekend, and watched TV from morning till night. His mother finally said, “How about you fold the laundry?”
2. To which he replied, “Mom, I’m much too tired for that! Did you know that my heart beat 103,389 times today; my blood travelled 168,000 miles, I breathed 23,000 times, I inhaled 483 cubic feet of air, I moved 750 major muscles, and I exercised 7 million brain cells? I’m exhausted and I’m going to bed!”
3. Then there was the college student who dropped off his car at the mechanic’s shop because the driver’s window motor went out, and it wouldn’t go up or down.
4. The mechanic called, nonchalantly, to tell him to come pick up his car; the part to fix it would be back-ordered for 2 weeks.
5. The college student was distressed. “You don’t understand,” he said. “Everything I eat comes through that window!”
B. TEXT
1:2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
2:2 “Rebuke…her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. 5 She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’
3:1-4 3 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
2 So I bought her for [6 oz.] of silver and [430 lbs] of barley.
3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”
C. AN OBJECT LESSON
1. The story about Hosea & Gomer(800 B.C.) is the story of a girl who wasn’t satisfied with her lot in life. Many a lady has been out with one guy, but catching the eye of every man in the room.
2. Hosea, a famous Prophet, was told to marry a woman who’d been a prostitute. The purpose of this strange command? God wanted to create a real-life, heart-breaking object lesson, a kind of “street-theater” to illustrate Israel’s unfaithfulness to God.
3. Israel wasn’t interested in hearing a Word from God, but like a lot of people today, they liked juicy gossip and shocking inside stories.
4. Imagine the scandal that this marriage created; “Famous Minister Marries Convicted Las Vegas Call Girl!” People must have talked far & wide. “How can that prophet love that devil-woman?” “How can she love a man who’s got no more self-respect than he’s got?” The real question is, “How can God love people like us?”
5. God wanted this drama played out to demonstrate to them 3 things (and to us as well):
a. The Broken Heart of God over Sin.
b. The Greatness of God’s Grace;
c. God’s Pursuing & Bringing us back to Himself.
6. Title: “The Greatest Love Story.”
I. THE BROKEN HEART OF GOD
A. BETRAYAL
1. For some years Hosea’s home was happy and godly. Two boys and a girl were born. Talk around town stopped, except in reference to the kid’s strange names; “Judgment,” “No more Mercy,” and “Not My People.” Each name was prophetic of Israel.
2. Then tragedy struck. Hosea came home one day to find his wife and all her possessions gone. Word soon came to him that she had gone back to her former profession and other lovers. She began selling herself to whoever could pay the price.
3. Imagine the pain, humiliation and grief that must have tormented this man. Scalding tears must have streamed down his face. He couldn’t sleep, he had a knot in his stomach, didn’t eat, was dejected; it was worse than death.
4. His love and trust (like a flower) had been crushed under her feet. His name was dragged in the gutter. His children were devastated by her abandonment.
B. HOSEA’S STORY = GOD’S STORY
1. Just as Hosea grieved over the sins of Gomer, God grieves over our sins! Gen. 6:6 says, “The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled [KJV – ‘grieved’].” When Jesus was here, He wept (Jn. 11:35), grieved, & hurt. God is a Person, not a force.
2. God basically said, “Hosea, go tell My people how your heart is breaking, how betrayed you feel – because that’s how I feel!” That’s how He feels when we ignore Him and let our desires go after other things than Him. Just like Gomer, we have our own idols & rival loves.
4. We are the Bride of Christ. “As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you” Isa. 62:5. Paul says, “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him” 2 Cor. 11:2.
5. Any person who flippantly says when sinning, “Aw, what is it to God? He just wants to spoil my fun!” should pay attention to these verses. It DOES matter when we forsake God and sin.
6. Jesus says, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first” Rev. 2:4-5.
C. EXHORTATION
1. TO MARRIED COUPLES. I want to talk to the married couples for a minute. Men and women, you have an obligation to one another.
a. You vowed before God to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, till death. Your rings make a statement: “Hands-off Buckoo! I’m off limits!” That should be our heart’s attitude.
b. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. Wives are to love & respect their husbands. Peter said husbands aren’t to frustrate, abuse, exasperate their wives. Neither are called to subjection, but to mutual submission to each other in love.
c. We’re not to deprive one another of marital intimacy – either the man or the woman. So if one of you is punishing the other, I would counsel you to work out your problems and to come together & find satisfaction in one another.
d. A marriage partner is being put at risk if he/ she is not receiving the love, attention, affection, respect, devotion, & fidelity that they need – at risk of something really bad happening.
2. TO YOUNG PEOPLE – You must fall in love and express sexuality ONLY in the bonds of marriage. It’s ungodly to express sexuality on Twitter, Instagram, by Text, etc. It’s God’s will for a man to ask a woman to marry him and love her like crazy.
3. GOD WANTS MARRIAGE TO BE PERMANENT
I know that the Church has traditionally accepted the 3 “A’s” of abuse, adultery, and abandonment as grounds for divorce, but I want to talk about the ideal.
4. HUMOR: MARRIAGE SEMINAR
a. While attending a Marriage Seminar dealing with
communication, Tom and his wife Grace listened to the instructor;
b. "Most husbands don’t know their wife's likes and dislikes. Most men can’t even name their wife’s favorite flower!”
c. Tom smirked and looked confidently at Grace and whispered, "It's Pillsbury, isn't it?”
II. GREATNESS OF GOD’S LOVE
A. HOSEA’S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
1. Hosea must have thought, “Surely the Lord would tell him, Hosea, you did your best. You attempted to give a normal life to this woman. Put the whole sordid mess behind you and go on to a new life & a new relationship!”
2. But that’s not what God said. He said, “Go get her, Hosea. Bring her home. Love her. Restore her. Do whatever you have to do, Hosea, but bring Gomer back!”
3. Why would Hosea ever want her back?
a. She was no good to start with.
b. She’d wronged a good man & 3 kids.
c. She’d gone back into gross sin & worn herself out pursuing it. Why would he want her back?
4. That’s the reaction from any normal man. But Hosea was not a normal man. The truth is, he never stopped loving Gomer!
5. So despite the heartbreak & humiliation, despite the turmoil to the children, despite the marks of sin that covered her body – Hosea loved her!
B. WE ARE THE GOMER! & GOD IS THE HOSEA!
1. No matter how deeply you’ve sinned or how much you feel “God couldn’t love me!”…
2. God has NEVER stopped loving you! He loves you still! He longs to be back in your life! He wants you.
3. Though everyone else has written you off, God still loves you!
III. GOD’S PURSUIT & PURCHASE OF US
A. HOSEA’S SEARCH
1. Hosea’s love was an active one. He began searching for her and searched until he found her.
2. When he found her, she was only a shell of her former self. The auctioneer had just pushed her forward and turned her around, so onlookers could see the merchandise.
3. Some believe she was disrobed, completely exposed before the community, so every lustful eye could see her. Can you imagine the bitter end of her sin?
4. Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you there longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay!
5. Her dull eyes were staring vacantly at the floor. She didn’t care any longer who bought her or what they did with her. She had no value for anyone.
6. Then she perceived a low, husky voice say, “Gomer….Gomer…” She started back to that room. She knew that voice! It had been years. It was her husband Hosea!
7. Their eyes met across the crowded warehouse. Tears began streaming down both faces. Hosea lifted his hand in a tender gesture of love. Gomer began to cry, sobs wracking her slender, sick body. “He loves me still!”
8. Everyone wants true love. Snow White’s Song says,
“Some day my prince will come, Some day we'll meet again,
And away to his castle we'll go, To be happy forever I know
Some day when spring is here, We'll find our love anew
And the birds will sing, And wedding bells will ring
Some day when my dreams come true.”
9. That’s why its important to renew our vows!
B. HE BOUGHT HER BACK
1. He began bidding for her. She, who was already his by marriage, he bought back.
2. And we, who belong to God anyway as our Creator, He has paid the supreme price to secure our salvation.
3. The bidding went high; it mounted up to heaven. But because God loved you He was willing to give up even His Son to die on the Cross to redeem you.
4. There’s no greater love. He has bought you back. Will you not give yourself to Him forever?
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: Story of Punjab & Corcoran Diamond
1. The Corcoran Diamond is a priceless jewel, worth half of the working wages of the entire world. It is part of the British Crown Jewels.
2. It was given to Queen Elizabeth by an Indian Prince (Punjab) when he was 10 years old. The worth of the diamond was largely unknown until the British acquired it, then it was declared ‘priceless.’
3. Many years went by and it was displayed behind bullet-proof glass in the Tower of London. When the Indian Prince grew up, he paid a visit to England.
4. While again visiting the Queen, he said, “I would like to see the diamond.” An envoy was sent to get it from the treasury. It arrived with a contingent of security guards.
5. “I want to see it,” said the Punjab. The envoy held it in front of him. “Place it in my hand.” The envoy, trembling, placed the priceless stone in his hand. No one knew what the Prince would do next.
6. He studied the diamond for some time, then turned to the Queen and said, “When I was young and inexperienced, I gave you this diamond, not knowing its incredible worth. But now that I am a man, I return to present it to you, O Queen, full knowing that what I am giving you is priceless. Please receive this jewel!”
7. Likewise, many of you in childhood gave your hearts to the Lord, but it’s good, when grown, to renew our devotion to Christ.
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you would like to re-declare your allegiance to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world?
2. Your life is like a priceless jewel, but none is more worthy to receive it than the One who loves you with an everlasting love! Let’s invite Him into our hearts.
3. Would all married or engaged couples please stand and come forward. Let’s take this opportunity to renew our vows to each other.
4. Husbands, repeat after me to your wife, “I take you again…to be my wife…I promise to protect you fiercely…to pursue you passionately…and to lead you honorably as we both strive to live as Christ commands.”
5. And wives say to your husbands, “I take you again…to be my husband… I promise to respect your wisdom…to trust in your leadership…and to offer you support as we both strive to live as Christ commands.”
6. Seal it with a kiss. Dismissal.
