25 Aug God is GRACIOUS

Hosea 3:1-5

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.” ² So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. ³ And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” ⁴ For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. ⁵ Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

I think one of the most powerful lines in the history of Christian songwriting is the line, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me.” We love grace, don’t we? We talk about God’s grace every single week in this church. Grace is what separates Christianity from every other religion. So, what is grace? I have heard it described this way. Grace is a favour given to an underserving person by an unobligated giver. That’s a beautiful sentence that summarizes grace. It means that we cannot earn grace. We cannot deserve grace. We cannot demand grace. Grace is given according to the pleasure of the giver. Grace, by definition, must be free. If it is not free, it is not grace. That means what prompted God to act for us was not something of us but of himself. But if we can be honest, we often sing with our mouths, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me.” But in our hearts, we no longer think we are wretches. We no longer think we are undeserved sinners. There is a pull in our hearts that makes us think that we deserve grace. Does anyone know what I am talking about? And if we think that we deserve grace, we don’t understand grace. Grace has nothing to do with us or what we have done but it has everything to do with the giver. So, get this. The right understanding of grace leads to more humility, less pride; more unworthiness, less entitlement; more neediness, less independence.

Today we are on our sixth sermon of the series, “God is”. What we are doing is we are looking at one attribute of God each week, and how that attribute shapes who we are and what we do. This is important because when we know who God is, we know who we are. When we know who we are, we know how to live rightly. The attribute that we are going to talk about tonight is grace. What does it mean when we say God is gracious? To do that, we are going to look at the book of Hosea. The story of Hosea is one of the best stories in the Bible for us to understand grace. Let me give the context first. The book of Hosea is written during the best but also the worst time in Israel. It was the best time for Israel because Israel was prosperous. God had blessed them, and they were doing great as a nation. However, it was the worst time at the same time because Israel began to live for pleasure. They forsake God who blessed them and pursued other gods. And to these people, God delivers a very strong message through Hosea.

Hosea’s message is unique. Usually, when God wanted to communicate a message through a prophet, the prophet would speak on God’s behalf. They would say, “Thus said the Lord…” But the message of Hosea is very different. God not only delivers his message through the words of Hosea, but God also wants to deliver his message through the life of Hosea. So, the life of Hosea is the parable of the message that God wants to deliver to his people. There are 2 main characters in the story: Hosea and Gomer. And let’s be clear. I have used this story to preach at a few weddings. And I made sure I mentioned to the bridegroom, “You are not Hosea. And your bride is not Gomer.” Otherwise, it would be the worst wedding sermon ever. Hosea is the picture of God and Gomer is the picture of Israel. Don’t get the order wrong. The same is true for us. We are not Hosea. God is Hosea and we are Gomer. So, this story is about Hosea and Gomer, God and Israel, and finally God and us. And what we are doing tonight is we are taking a helicopter view at Hosea chapters one to three. We won’t go into details of each verse since it will take a few sermons.

So, what can we learn about God’s grace from this story? Here are my three sermon points: the scandal of grace; the tenacity of grace; the cost of grace.

The scandal of grace

Hosea 1:1-2 – The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. ² When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”

“Excuse me? You want me to marry who?” I am sure Hosea is extremely shocked at what he just heard. I imagine myself graduating from Bible college, and the first thing God says to me is, “Yosi, I want you to go to a brothel and find your future wife there.” Think about the awkward conversation I would have with my parents. “Dad, Mom, God told me to marry a prostitute.” I am sure this is not something that Hosea’s parents planned for their son. Nor did Hosea. Hosea is a prophet of God, a man called to represent God. A prostitute is the last person a prophet would want to marry. There is nothing unusual about a man loving a woman enough to marry her. But a marriage covenant between a prophet and a prostitute is unheard of. In fact, the literal translation of verse 2 is very strong. “Go, marry a whore, and bear children with a whore, for the country itself has become nothing but a whore by abandoning Yahweh.” The word whore is mentioned three times in one verse. The point is clear. God wants Hosea to marry a whore. Not an ex-whore, not a will-be-whore, but a whore. Interestingly, lots of commentaries I read have a problem with Hosea marrying a whore. Some commentators argue that Gomer could not be a whore at the beginning of the story since it is unimaginable for God to command his prophet to marry a whore. John Calvin, one of the great reformers, argued that this story was not literal, but a vision God gave Hosea. He argued that marrying a whore and accepting children of whoredom was unthinkable. Fun fact: My sermon on Hosea and Gomer is the sermon that received the most criticism and negative comments on YouTube. And I understand why many people would find this command absurd. But I think they are wrong. The literal understanding of these verses seems to suggest that it is the very intention of God for Hosea to marry a whore.

So, God tells Hosea, “Hosea, I want you to know that your wife is going to cheat on you. She will be unfaithful to you. She will break your heart. But I want you to marry her.” Why did God command Hosea to marry a whore? Don’t miss the point. It is by his marriage to a whore that God would communicate his heart for Israel and us. God is saying to Hosea, “Hosea, you and I are both going to love and give our lives to a people who will betray us. We are going to spend lots of time, money and effort to chase after them. I am a husband whose wife is unfaithful to him. And just like me, you will experience the same thing. My story will be your story. And what you would do will be what I would do. Until you experience having the person you love the most betray you, you don’t understand what sin is. And you won’t understand grace.” This is God’s message through Hosea, and this is God’s message for us. There are lots of images that God uses to describe his relationship with us. There are images of a king with his subjects, a shepherd with his sheep, a father with his children. As important as those images are, they don’t go deep enough to tell us the kind of relationship God wants with us. The kind of relationship God wants with us is a marriage relationship. God wants to be our spouse. He wants to be our joy, delight and trust. But just like Israel, we seek those things outside God. What God desires from us is a deep intimate relationship as husband and wife. But we continue to commit spiritual adultery by seeking our joy in sex, money, family, and other things. Our betrayal breaks God’s heart.

Hosea 1:3-5 – ³ So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. ⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. ⁵ And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.” Gomer conceives and bears Hosea a son, whom God named Jezreel. Every child that Gomer bores has a prophetic meaning for Israel. The first is named Jezreel to remind the Israelites of the fury of Jehu, a former king of Israel, when he killed Jezebel and 70 sons of Ahab in the city of Jezreel. It’s like naming your son Hiroshima or Nagasaki. We straight away think of how those cities were destroyed by atomic bombs. Jezreel is a reminder that God remembers the bloodbath that happened in that city. And the bloodbath that marked the beginning of Jehu’s reign will parallel the bloodbath that will end the dynasty of Jehu in the near future.

Hosea 1:6-9 – ⁶ She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. ⁷ But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.” ⁸ When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹ And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.” Gomer conceives again and bores a daughter. But interestingly, Hosea is not mentioned as the father of Gomer’s daughter. God named her Lo-ruhama, which means “no mercy”. What a strange name. Don’t you feel sorry for her? Imagine going to childcare and having everyone call you No Mercy. “No Mercy, have you eaten? No Mercy, come and play. Stop making fun of No Mercy.” Life would be hard. And we know that every father shows mercy to his children. So, the fact that Hosea does not have the natural affection that a father has for his children seems to indicate that Hosea is not the father. A similar thing happens with Gomer’s third child. God named him Lo-ammi, which means “Not My People.” If life is hard for No Mercy, imagine how hard it is for Not My People. But this makes it explicit. They are not Hosea’s children. Gomer had an affair and conceived two children out of wedlock. God’s prophecy comes to pass.

So, what can we learn about God’s grace from this story? It’s this. God’s grace is scandalous. It is unreasonable and scandalous for anyone to marry someone whom they know will be unfaithful to them. Gomer was a whore from the very beginning and God knew exactly that she would be unfaithful to Hosea. When God chose Israel, God knew exactly that Israel would be unfaithful, but he chose them anyway. The question of the book of Hosea is not why God asked Hosea to marry Gomer but why God chose Israel. Why not choose a people who would be faithful to him and grateful for his love? Think about it. We would not come into a marriage relationship with those we know would be unfaithful to us. Has anyone ever dreamed of marrying a whore? No, right? But what we need to understand is that in God’s eyes, everyone who is not in a covenantal relationship with him is a whore. Paul writes in Romans that “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). This means that every single person on earth is originally a whore. So, here is a bitter pill that we must swallow. We are Gomer. We are a spiritual whore. I know this is very offensive. But until we come to terms with it, we won’t understand grace. Sin is not just breaking God’s commandments. Sin is spiritual prostitution. And sin breaks God’s heart. When a king sees a citizen break a rule, that makes him angry. When a shepherd sees a sheep walk astray, he gets annoyed. When a father sees a child disobey him, he gets upset. But when the person we love the most is putting him or herself in the arms of another lover, that’s on a whole other level. It is the people we love the most that can hurt us the most. That’s what sin is. Sin is us putting ourselves in the arms of another lover, and it breaks God’s heart.

So, none of us deserve God’s love. Therefore, for God to show grace to us, his grace must be scandalous. Another way of saying it is this: God gives grace not based on our goodness but based on his goodness. We do not contribute anything to God’s love for us. It is solely based on who he is and has nothing to do with us. It is all about the giver and has nothing to do with the recipients. It is reasonable to love lovely things. But God’s grace is scandalous in that he makes the object of his love lovely rather than loving the object because they are lovely. In fact, the unloveliness of the one loved only emphasizes the grandeur of the grace expressed by the lover. Listen. God’s grace is scandalous because it does not bring attention to the worthiness of the recipient but to the magnificence of the giver. Let’s continue with the story. Now, the question is, what would Hosea do? What is going to happen to this family?

The tenacity of grace

Hosea 2:2-5 – ² “Plead with your mother, plead— for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; ³ lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. ⁴ Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. ⁵ For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

What we find in Chapter 2 is that Hosea’s voice and God’s voice are becoming one. They are speaking together. Chapter 2 speaks of Hosea’s despair at Gomer’s unfaithfulness to him. At the same time, this chapter also speaks of God’s words to his faithless wife, Israel. Hosea confirms to us that the last two children were conceived out of adultery. And what makes it worse, Hosea tells us that it is Gomer who pursues another lover, not the other way around. Gomer pursues her lover who she thinks provides her with what she needs. So, there are two tragedies in this story. This is the first tragedy: Hosea is Gomer’s husband, but Gomer leaves him and chases after another lover. Question: What would you do if you were Hosea? Let me tell you what I would do: I would give up on Gomer the moment she leaves the house. Not only does Gomer have two children out of wedlock, but she also walks away from the family. I would change all the keys in the house to make sure she could never return. It’s enough. I have obeyed God enough by marrying a whore and loving a whore. I even take care of two kids who are not mine. Surely that’s enough. I have sacrificed enough for her. I am going to stop loving her and I am going to stop loving her children. But the story continues.

Hosea 2:6-8 – ⁶ Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. ⁷ She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’ ⁸ And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

What happens is Gomer falls down the social ladder so much to the point that she is living with a man who cannot provide for her needs. She might have been in an abusive relationship, or it could simply mean that the man she is with cannot provide her with her necessities. If a wife leaves her loving husband for a rich man, that is bad, but it is still explainable. But if a wife leaves her loving husband for a man who cannot provide for her and abuse her, that is terrible. That’s what happens with Gomer. And Hosea heard about it. Hosea heard how poorly Gomer was treated. So, what does he do? He goes to the house where Gomer is. He knocks on the door and a man comes out. “Who are you? What do you want?” “Are you the man living with Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim?” “Yes.” “I am Hosea, Gomer’s husband.” And the man probably expects Hosea to punch him in the face. But what happens next is bewildering. Instead of punching him, Hosea takes out his wallet. “I know you don’t have what it takes to provide for my wife. Here, take this money. Use it to get her everything she needs. I don’t want her to suffer. Take my money.” So, the man takes the money and uses it to provide for Gomer. But he doesn’t tell Gomer that the money is from Hosea. Gomer assumes it is from her lover. Gomer has totally forgotten about Hosea while Hosea continues to provide for her needs. This is the second tragedy: Gomer thinks she receives everything from her lover, but it is Hosea who provides everything for her.

The same applies to Israel. It is God who provides the Israelites with everything they need. But then the Israelites not only do not acknowledge God as the giver, but they are using God’s blessing to worship Baal. Can you imagine how offensive that is? But God refuses to give up on Israel. However, God is a jealous God. He won’t tolerate sharing Israel with anyone else. God says in verse 6, “I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths.” God intentionally put thorns and walls against Israel. Why? Verse 7. So that Israel would say, “I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.” The purpose of thorns and walls is to awaken Israel to the fact that life with God is far better than life without God. So, God let his people experience judgment for their sins, but he never stops loving and pursuing them.

Here is a question for us. If we fall into sin and turn our back on God, will God still love us? If we have a relationship with God but we prostitute ourselves by loving someone or something else more than God, will God still want us? If we look at porn, if we cheat on our spouse, if we steal money from our company, will God still accept us? The answer of the book of Hosea is yes. Because if we don’t deserve God’s grace in the first place, we cannot undeserved God’s grace once we receive it. Grace is always a free gift to the unworthy. That’s why grace is tenacious. It is relentless. It never gives up. Hosea tells us that God knows the pain of being betrayed and rejected. Yet God yearns passionately for his people and their love. He pursues those he loves. And what’s amazing about it is God is not an ordinary person like you and me. The God of the Bible is the God who measured the universe with the breadth of his hand. This is the God who said to darkness, “Let there be light,” and light came to be. And yet he chose to give his heart to people who continuously betray his love. And God does not remain idle when his love is betrayed. God disciplines Israel with thorns and walls because he wants Israel back. Do you see? The reason behind God’s discipline in our lives is not because he is cruel but because he wants us to rest in his love and goodness. In other words, listen. God’s discipline is an expression of his tenacious grace toward us. God’s discipline is a sign of God’s refusal to give up on us when we walk away from him.

Just like Gomer, sometimes we must learn things the hard way. God has to show us the empty promises of the world and the pain that comes with it before we realise what we have been missing all this time and return to God. The reason God allows painful times in our lives is to show he is who we need. His discipline is the expression of his tenacious commitment to us. But sometimes we can’t understand God’s love like a child can’t understand a parent’s love. Do you know what’s a child favourite word is? “Now! I want it now!” No child likes to wait. If a child wants to buy a $20 toy and they know you have the money, but you don’t buy them the toy instead you buy a $2 million house, they will say, “You don’t love me.” They don’t understand that the $2 million house will give them so much more than what a $20 toy could. A loving parent would discipline their kids and not give them what they want because they love their kids. In fact, it would be extremely unloving to the child if the parents always give them what they ask. The same can be said about God’s love for us. Our problem with understanding God’s love is that we often have a child-sized view of God’s love. If children cannot fathom the love of parents, how much more the finite cannot fathom the love of the infinite? And now we get to Hosea chapter 3, one of the most bizarre but wonderful chapters in the Old Testament.

The cost of grace

Hosea 3:1 – 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.”

Gosh, give the dude a break! Hosea did everything he could to keep the family together. He even provided for Gomer’s needs even though she never acknowledged him. He did everything he possibly could as a good man. But God says what? Go again? Love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress? Are you kidding? If you ever experience the pain of being cheated by your spouse, then you would know that there is no pain like it. I am not married but I know the pain of being cheated on. It was extremely painful. It took me almost two years to be able to look at her without wanting to hurt her. If you tell me to get back together with her after what she did, I will crucify you upside down. Yet Hosea is commanded to find Gomer and love her again. This is absurd. Gomer has cheated on Hosea many times. There must have been many nights when Hosea cried out to God for his wife’s unfaithfulness. Hosea had to explain to his children why Mommy was not home. He had to take care of the children without their mother. And now when he is used to life without Gomer, God tells him to get Gomer back. “Hosea, I know you want to get this over and done with. I know you have 10,000 reasons to walk away. But I want you to get her anyway. And not only get her, I want you to love her again!” Absurd command. Imagine marrying a woman you know will betray you. Imagine being asked to forgive her. Imagine having to pay for her freedom. And imagine bringing her back to your home and restoring her as your wife. This is almost an emotional impossibility.

Hosea 3:2-3 – ² So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. ³ And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”

Hosea obeys God. Apparently, Gomer has sunk to the lowest possible level. For some untold reasons, she has become a slave. Hosea knows about it he goes to the slave auction. And if you know anything about slave auctions, slaves are usually stripped naked so that the people can see what they are getting. So here we find Gomer stripped naked in a slave auction, waiting to find out what will happen to her. She is at the lowest point in her life. People begin to bid on her. “5 shekels.” Someone else says, “9 shekels.” Then she hears a familiar voice. “10 shekels.” She looks up and she sees her husband. “12 shekels.” Hosea replies, “14 shekels.” Another says, “15 shekels.” And Hosea says, “15 shekels and a lethech of barley.” “Sold!” For Hosea to get Gomer back, he has to pay the price of a female slave, which is 30 shekels. Hosea cannot afford to pay in cash. But he is determined to get her back whatever the cost. Hosea pays the price for Gomer.

The question is, what will Hosea do to Gomer? Hosea approaches Gomer, covers her nakedness, takes her by the hand and leads her away from the auction. Imagine what Gomer might be thinking at this moment. The man who bought her is none other than the man whom she betrayed and trampled on. There is only one reason Gomer could think of as to why Hosea bought her: revenge. And now, Gomer is Hosea’s property. Hosea paid the full price for Gomer. He can do anything he wants to her. In fact, the Law of Moses allows Hosea to divorce Gomer and stone her to death for her unfaithfulness. But what happens next is absolutely stunning. The Hebrew for these sentences are very complicated. That is why there are many different translations of verse 3. But what Hosea is saying is something like this. “Gomer, I don’t want you as a slave. I want you as my wife. I want to have a life together with you. You will not give yourself to any other man. You will not have sex with any man. And for some time, you will not have sex with me as well. But after that time passes, I will be yours and you will be mine.” So, Hosea acknowledges the pain and the gap that exists in their relationship and the work required to close that gap. Hosea is not naïve, thinking, “God will make everything okay. Everything will be fine.” No. Hosea knows there is a price to be paid for the consequences of Gomer’s unfaithfulness. To restore Gomer as his wife will take a lot of work. It is painful and costly. Yet at the same time, Hosea tells Gomes that he wants her. And not as a slave, but as his wife. So, Hosea is willing not only to pay financially, but he is willing to pay the price emotionally and socially as well. It is extremely costly for Hosea, but he is willing to embrace the cost. What a story. If you think the love story in Korean drama is unreal, try reading the Bible.

Here is what we must understand about God’s grace. Grace is given freely to us, but it’s not cheap. Grace is extremely costly to God. We can easily give up on people, especially those who betrayed our love and trust. But God is different. When Gomer’s sin had worn her out, when she arrived at the lowest level, when she was sold as a slave in an auction, when none of her beauty remained but scars of her sins, God told Hosea, “Go and get her back whatever the cost.” Gomer’s name means perfect which is possibly a reference to her appearance and beauty. But she became an unwanted slave at an auction. Hosea went through an emotional hell on earth because of Gomer. But God told Hosea to love her as God loves Israel. Note carefully. The point of the story is not Hosea’s love for Gomer but God’s love for his people.

It is one thing to forgive one foolish sinful mistake. But it is totally another thing to forgive intentional sin that has been repeated far too often. Gomer did not deserve Hosea’s forgiveness. Gomer did not deserve Hosea’s faithfulness. And Gomer certainly was not worth all of Hosea’s sacrifices. But that’s exactly what Hosea did and that is what God does with his people. He forgives the iniquity of his people. Even when we are faithless and betray him, “he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.” We keep breaking his heart, but God never gives up on us, and he pays the highest cost to restore us to him. Here is the message of Hosea in a nutshell. We can run from God, but we can never hide from God. We can run as far as we can, but we can never outrun God’s grace. The grace of God will find us wherever we are. Where sins abound, grace abounds even more. Grace is free for us, but it is extremely costly to God. And here is what’s amazing. God did not have to pay the price to purchase us. God could have chosen to let us go as a slave or he could have chosen to condemn us and make us pay for all we did to him. But he did neither. Instead, he bought us at a costly price. How? Let’s continue.

Hosea 3:4-5 – ⁴ For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. ⁵ Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

Just as Hosea said to Gomer that there will be a time when they shall not become one, God is saying to Israel that there will be a time when God keeps his distance from Israel. But when that time is over, Israel shall experience restoration and seek the Lord, their God, and David their king. This is strange. Why? Because King David is long dead by this time. Hosea cannot be talking about David. He is talking about the Son of David whom God has promised would come and rescue his people. And his name is Jesus. And this is exactly what happened. The Bible tells us that we were slaves of sins. We were slaves in the slave market. And there was nothing we could do to redeem ourselves. We were incapable of saving ourselves. We did not have the power or resources to do so. We needed someone to purchase and redeem us. And Jesus came and bought us. In Jesus, God came to the slave market, saw us, loved us, purchased us, covered our nakedness with his righteousness, and made us his. We became his bride, and he is our bridegroom. And the price he paid to purchase us is extremely costly. On the night before the crucifixion, Jesus said to God, “Father, I know nothing is impossible for you. You are all powerful and all good. You can do all things. Is there any other way we can show grace to these people? Is there any other way besides the cross? Is there any other way besides this unbelievable cost?” The Father said, “There is no other way. This is the cost.” And Jesus paid the cost. If Hosea gave all he had to buy Gomer, Jesus gave himself to purchase you and me. He did not buy us with gold and silver; he bought us with his precious blood. That’s how he redeemed us. We are Jesus’ bride purchased by his blood. And when we put our faith in Jesus, we can confidently declare, “I am his and he is mine.” Grace changes a whore into a bride.

Do you know what happens when you have Jesus as your spouse? Married couples, do you realise the massive power that your spouse has over you to reprogram your self-worth? I heard a pastor once say that if people in the church come to him and say, “Pastor, you are such a wonderful kind man of God,” he is going to feel good. He is going to be very happy about it. But at the same time, he is thinking, “That person does not really know me.” But if his wife comes to him and says, “You are the best pastor and the kindest man I know,” he will be over the moon. Why? Because a pastor can fool you on Sunday. But he can’t fool his wife who sees him every day. Here is my point. If everyone in the world tells you that you are beautiful, but your spouse tells you that you are ugly, you feel ugly. But if everyone in the world tells you that you are ugly, but your spouse tells you that you are beautiful, you feel beautiful. Your spouse has that massive power over you. Here is where I am going with this illustration, and I am done. The relationship between Jesus and us is ultimately defined as a relationship between husband and wife. But we are a very bad wife. We are Gomer. We betrayed Jesus, cheated on Jesus, and trampled over Jesus’ heart. Jesus knows all our ugliness, but he chooses to love us in spite of all our ugliness. He never gives up on us. He pursues us. He is willing to pay whatever the cost to bring us back. And now that we are his, he whispers to our hearts every day, “I love you, I desire you, and I will never leave you. You are beautiful to me.” If that’s how Jesus loves us, if that’s what Jesus thinks of us, if that’s what Jesus says to us, then why should we care about what other people say about us? Let us pray.

Discussion questions:

1. What struck you the most from the sermon?
2. Based on your own experience, what are some reasons you often forget how amazing grace is?
3. Can you see the tendency in you to use God’s blessing to worship idols? Give examples.
4. Why is it extremely costly for Hosea to restore Gomer as his wife?
5. How does the gospel of grace reprogram your self-worth?