God's Wedding Vows 2.0

Good morning.

It's so good to worship Jesus with you all this morning, and uh I'm excited to turn back in our Bibles to Hosea chapter 2.

Hosea 2 · chapter mention

Our text is verses 14 through 23.

As we've learned the last couple weeks, the first few chapters of Hosea, chapters 1, 2, and 3, um, are about describing a relationship of a faithful husband and an unfaithful wife.

Hosea 1 · chapter mention

God uh commands his prophet Hosea to take a wife to himself, and this woman was a known prostitute.

After they marry and have three children, she walks and she goes back to the red light district in Samaria, and Hosea's commission to pursue her again and again and bring her back.

And this, of course, was an object lesson comparing God's relationship with Israel, the nation to whom he had been married for some time.

Over the last few weeks, the themes have been very dark.

But this morning, I'm thankful to say, uh, the dark clouds of adultery, of idolatry, of God's condemnation of Israel's activity has light breaking through in this text, uh, the light of God's promises of restoration, of reconciliation, and of eternal marital bliss that he has in store for his people Israel.

Let's read our text.

Hosea chapter 2, verse 14.

Hosea 2:14

Therefore, God says, Behold, I will allure her, speaking of wayward Israel, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her, and there I will give her her vineyards and make the valley of Acor a door of hope.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as of the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband, and no longer will you call me my Baal, for I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.

And I will make for them a covenant on that day, with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things on the ground, and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety, and I will betroth you to me forever.

I will betrothe you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.

I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.

And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord.

I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel.

And I will sow her for myself in the land, and I will have mercy on no mercy, and I will say to not my people, you are my people, and he shall say, You are my God.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Hundreds of years before Hosea was written, God rescued a damsel in distress, an enslaved nation of Israel from Egyptian bondage, and he effectively entered into a marriage covenant with her.

Numerous times throughout the Old Testament, God would liken his relationship to Israel as that of a husband to a wife.

And so it's very fitting that God would use this analogy of Hosea and Gomer to depict this relationship.

In Deuteronomy 28, right before Israel went into Canaan, Moses reiterated God's covenant with Israel.

And this was essentially God's marriage vows to his bride Israel.

In these marriage vows, we would find, if we're going back to Deuteronomy 28, some 15 to 20 promises of blessing for Israel, if she would remain faithful and true to her righteous husband.

But these wedding vows of blessing were also accompanied by numerous, in fact, even more, warnings of curse and desolation should she turn from her husband, who, unlike mere human grooms, was also her creator and her savior and her sovereign Lord.

Israel, of course, if you know much about Scripture, about Christianity, Israel broke covenant with God and worshipped idols, which was spiritual adultery.

And she brought upon herself all the curses of those marriage vows that she had agreed to by flagrant and persistent spiritual adultery and worshiping the pagan gods.

I heard a story about this guy who got married, and the marriage eventually fell apart, and sometime later he got remarried, and he he actually asked the best man in his first wedding to be the best man in his second wedding.

Well, um, unfortunately and imprudently, the best man, when he gave his speech, began by saying, Well, it's good to see you all again.

In a way, that's exactly what we're doing here today.

We're here again hearing uh the reiteration of God's marriage vows as he marries once again.

Except he's not marrying someone else, he's actually remarrying, as it were, renewing his vows with his adulterous wife, Israel.

And I get to be the best man.

Or maybe Justin is, or someone, I don't know.

John the Baptist said, Hey, I'm just glad to be the one pointing you to Jesus.

So that's what we're doing this morning.

He said, In that his joy was fulfilled, and so is mine.

I'm gonna title this message God's Wedding Vows 2.0.

God's Wedding Vows 2.0, because although God is renewing his wedding vows, the wedding vows are very similar in terms of the blessings that he promises Israel, but they are conspicuously lacking any reference whatsoever to curse, to warnings, of judgment.

All we have included in these wedding vows, this renewal of marriage covenant between God and Israel, are confident and compassionate promises of restoration and redemption and eternal marital bliss with God.

God's wedding vows 2.0.

Look again at the text in Hosea chapter 2, verse 14.

Hosea 2:14

God says, Behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her, and there I will give her her vineyards and make the valley of Acor a door of hope, and there she shall answer in the days, as in the days of her youth, as of the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

This is God's first vow, which if you um you'll find in this text some 14 statements where God says, I will, I will, I will, 14 times.

And if we really analyze it and break them up into categories, there's really five main categories of promises or vows that God is making here.

Here's our first one it is a vow of pursuit in verses 14 and 15, a vow of pursuit.

Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness.

In these first two verses, we see that God sort of reaches under the bed and pulls out a shoebox of Polaroids of their early relationship.

He makes allusion to them going into the wilderness, which was what Israel did after they were delivered from Egyptian bondage.

They crossed the Red Sea, went into the wilderness.

He also mentions giving her vineyards, which of course he promised her the first time when she went into Canaan and she partook of these vineyards that she didn't plant that were loaded with fruit.

He also mentions making the valley of Acor a door of hope.

He pulls out that one.

There's that picture of them going through the valley of Acor, which is where Achan sinned against God and against his brothers and sisters by taking forbidden gold and some garments and hiding them in his tent.

And then when Israel went into battle against this tiny little city of Ai, they lost the battle and men lost their lives because of Achan's sin.

God says, I'm gonna take that terrible memory.

Maybe that was the first fight or something, right?

And I'm gonna make it a door of hope.

Instead of that being this sad memory of what happened in that valley of Acor, I'm gonna make it into a passage into paradise.

And then, of course, he mentions her coming out of the land of Egypt.

This is referring to the mighty Exodus and her deliverance from slavery.

With these references, God is taking his adulterous bride by the hand and tenderly, as he says here, tenderly leading her down memory lane, strolling hand in hand, as they did on their honeymoon, the very same steps he is retracing with them.

As if to say, Remember when we used to, remember when we sat on this rock, honey?

Oh, and see that olive tree over there?

Look, here are our initials.

God plus Israel forever.

Holding her close, he whispers, Do you remember our former love?

Our latter love will be greater still.

This is how God was speaking to his adulterous wife.

I will allure her.

He pledges here to pursue her with affection and tender love.

As I was studying this, um, I thought I would be remiss if I didn't, as a husband, call upon my fellow brothers as husbands to talk to your wife like God talks to his wife.

To allure her instead of just ordering her around.

To speak tenderly to her instead of complaining and critiquing.

God says, I will speak tenderly to her, which literally means to speak to her heart.

Not just at her, not just to her, not just to get her to do something, to speak to her heart, to target who she really is and what really makes her tick.

God says, I will speak to Israel's heart.

Some actually translate this to speak onto her heart, as if to make an impression on her heart.

One commentator put it this way.

God is acting as if his history with Israel and all these curses and disobedience and everything.

It's as if he's thinking, since the rough ways of terror and judgment, of leaving her to her own destructive devices will only ensure her run, I will take another more mild and gentle tact.

Instead of threatening and terrifying and punishing, I will allure her back into the wilderness, persuade and entice.

I will give her loving words and winning language.

But scripture actually shows us that God speaks to the heart.

He didn't just change the behavior, he doesn't just change the destination or the direction, he changes our hearts.

He brings his wife not only to the point of obedience, but to trust and to hope and to love willingly in the day of his power.

We also see, of course, in this reference, maybe you already noticed it, if he's speaking onto her heart, this is actually a beautiful glimpse of the promise of the new covenant in which God, by the Holy Spirit, writes his laws upon our minds and writes them upon our hearts, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, writing his laws upon our hearts, speaking in such a way that our hearts are changed.

This first vow implies something about Israel, it implies something about us, namely our story and God's story where they meet, this beautiful collision, as one songwriter calls it.

We have walked away from God, but he vows to pursue us in tender love.

We have walked away from God.

This is what this first vow means.

If he's pursuing us, it's because we have ran.

If he is coming after us, it's because we have left him.

But he vows to pursue us in tender love.

I wonder if this is how you and I relate to God.

When we open our Bibles, if we read in the text and hear the heart of God pursuing us tenderly, pursuing our restless hearts to bring us back to himself.

When we pray, do we try to commune with God as if he's an old man, sort of with borderline personal personality disorder, ready to snap on us?

Or is he like the lover of our souls whose anger has been forever appeased, even though we have failed him time and time again?

That's the first vow.

Now, if God has committed himself to pursue his wayward bride, we might ask, what is his objective?

He's gonna pursue her, he's gonna speak tenderly to her, he's gonna take her along this memory lane to bring her back to himself.

But what exactly is his objective?

I think we all know that guy who's able to sweet talk a woman, a girl into dating him, but he really doesn't intend to marry her.

He's just along for the ride.

By the way, don't be that guy, you single guys.

God is not that kind of guy.

God pursues Israel tenderly in order to make her his bride once again.

We see this intentionality in the second vow he makes in verses 16 through 17.

A vow of partnership.

A vow of partnership.

That is a promise of a renewed, intimate relationship.

This is why he is pursuing us.

Verse 16.

And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband, and no longer will you call me my baal.

For I will remove the names of the bales from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.

He's gonna cause her, he's gonna treat her so well, she's gonna forget her old boyfriends.

Right?

You never want to be married and your wife thinking, man, I should have stayed with the first boyfriend I had, right?

God's gonna treat us so well that we forget the names of the old boyfriends.

The name Baal actually means Lord, and so apparently is in the syncretistic form of religion, as they were trying to kind of hold on to Jehovah and then worship the pagan gods, they would actually refer to God as Baal because in generic terms it just means Lord, while they were also actually worshiping Baal, the pagan god of fertility and rain.

God says, I'm gonna treat you so well, you're not gonna refer to me as Baal anymore, as Lord anymore, as master, you're gonna call me husband.

God insists that we call him husband, which is a term of affection rather than stern authority.

They feared Baal.

They were afraid if they didn't sacrifice the chickens, and if they didn't even sacrifice their children, that Baal wouldn't give them the rain or they wouldn't have more children, this god of fertility.

But God says, that's not how we're gonna relate.

That's how your old boyfriend related to you, not me.

You're gonna call me husband.

I don't have to tell you how tragic and horrifying the prostitution industry is in our day, and has been probably since the inception of time in a fallen world.

So-called sex workers are often held against their wills by threats of physical violence, or by maybe the hope of love or acceptance, or by the supply of drugs that their pimp wields to keep them in check.

58% of female prostitutes report being violently assaulted by their clients at some point.

The homicide rate of prostitutes is 20 times the rest of the population, and over 90% of them report wanting to get out of the lifestyle, but they lack food or money necessary to survive without the work.

Does it not strike you as uh forcefully important that God uses Gomer, a Jewish prostitute, to give us a picture and insight into where her sins landed her, the cruel masters that treated her poorly, that enslaved her?

Look, Gomer, or uh Hosea later in the book of Hosea actually has to buy her back off of the slave block, the common prospect of being sold like a common slave.

This is the picture God used to depict our sins and where they landed us.

And it's not just Gomer's story, is it?

It's our story.

Our story and God's story is this that our sins have enslaved us to harsh lords.

But God is rescuing us back into intimate marriage.

We've been serving Baal for so long, and God is rescuing us back into an intimate marriage, telling us to call him husband.

I probably don't have to convince you that our besetting sins, whatever they may be, in our particular circumstances, um, they're just cruel masters, promising us high-paying modeling and acting careers.

If we'll just get on the boat, if we'll just hop on the plane, and then when we arrive where our sin takes us, we realize we've been duped and enslaved.

There's so many cruel masters that catcall us, that whistle to us, that cause us to stray from the lover of our souls.

But this morning, I hope you hear his voice calling you back to his warm embrace.

A couple of examples.

I was trying to think of it.

Well, let's just be really practical.

College football.

Jesus is going to be better to you than an unhealthy obsession with fantasy football.

Jesus is better to you than pornography is.

Jesus will treat you better than the fleeting pleasure of a shopping addiction.

Jesus is better than gorging ourselves on too much food or drink.

He's a kind husband.

He doesn't leave you high and dry in the gutter.

He doesn't use you.

He's no cruel bale like so many other things can be in our lives.

He invites us to experience true love.

This brings us to God's third vow.

Having vowed to pursue his bride, having vowed to renew their intimate partnership, we now see in verse 18 that God renews his vow of protection, that nothing may harm his beloved.

A vow of protection.

Verse 18, and I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground.

And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.

Can you imagine what that would sound like if you've been sleeping on the street?

If you've been experiencing the cruel tyranny of Baal, to hear that you will finally lie down in safety.

I mentioned briefly before that God's first wedding vows in Deuteronomy and some in Exodus included not only promises of good, but also curses if they rebelled.

Well, two of the many curses that God included in that initial marriage covenant were the very things he speaks of here: harm by wild beasts and harm by Israel's warlike neighbors.

Deuteronomy 28, verses 25 and 26 says this, as God enters into covenant with Israel.

Deuteronomy 28:25

No one can make a threat like God.

Pretty gruesome.

But remember, this wasn't God just using his imagination to try to scare Israel.

He was actually prophesying what would happen to them by the Assyrian and Babylonian assaults and captivities on the northern and southern tribes.

God was telling them what would happen if they left him.

By their own self-created sin.

And these curses of harm, they relate to us as well, apart from God's grace.

We might say it this way: our story and God's story is this.

By nature, we are under a curse, and all creation is against us.

But God is reconciling all things to himself for our good.

That's our story.

You are born as a human in the fallen world, born into a world in which all creation is against you.

That's why when you walk in front of a truck, you die.

That's why when you fall too hard, you break stuff and you can die.

That's why you get pneumonia, that's why death happens.

That's why relationships break up.

That's why there's disorder at every level of our society and of our own hearts.

By nature, we are under the curse, and all of creation is against us.

But God is reconciling all things to himself, and it's for our good.

Here God vows that no wild beast will harm his beloved, no enemy will destroy.

And this echoes actually numerous prophecies throughout the prophets.

I'll just read one.

In Ezekiel 34, 25, God says, I will make with them a covenant of peace and rid the land of wild animals, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest.

That's quite a marriage vow.

Would you want God to make that vow to you?

I'll remove the things in your life that would do you harm, and either I'll take them away or I will turn them for your good.

Without a doubt, the fullness of this promise, because We still live where some of you probably have cancer in your body, some of you may know it, some of you may not know it yet.

There's trouble on every level in this very room.

It's obvious.

I don't have to convince you that this promised utopia of peace, safety, and prosperity is yet to be realized for God's people in full.

Its accomplishment began, the new covenant, when Jesus came and he defeated demonic powers and he healed diseases and he preached the gospel and he raised the dead.

But it will not be complete until after his second coming, when all of creation is renewed.

The prophet Micah, too, describes a day when the nations shall beat their swords into plowshears, because they don't need the sword anymore.

And nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

Can you imagine a world without war?

Without violence, without a need for a military, without a need for firearms, swords, mad martial arts skills?

God can imagine that because he's going to bring that to pass at the end of this age for his beloved.

And until then, we must be content knowing that in contrast to the curse that is against us that we deserve, God is working all things together for the good of those who love him.

Even the painful things.

To those who are called according to his purpose.

Some of you wives thinking, yeah?

And your first impression, well, that's good.

And your second thought was, how long is this gonna last?

Or maybe your wife was gonna start being more punctual.

And you thought, yeah, yeah, how long is this gonna last?

When we think about God's vows of his blessings, he's sweeping amazing vows, promises of blessing.

Maybe in your heart you're thinking, how long is this gonna last?

How long is this gonna work in my life?

Well, God answers that that question with his fourth vow in verses 19 and 20, where he makes a vow of permanence.

A vow of permanence.

This is not something that's fly by night.

These are gonna come to pass forever.

Verse 19, and I will betroth you to me forever.

I will betrothe you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.

I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord.

In these next two verses that we just read, we we see explicitly the language of a marriage contract, right?

Notice the repetition of I will betrothe three times.

Some have even stretched out to say it's Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

It's gonna be marrying us.

Who knows?

Or maybe you're just scratching your head thinking, wait, what does betrothed mean again?

Well, to betrothe means to enter into a formal agreement to marry.

It's a promise to marry.

It's like getting that engagement ring.

I will marry you.

I'm going to prepare a place for you.

I will come again to take you into myself, as Jesus promised before he went back to heaven.

Here, God promises that this marriage will be according to righteousness, justice, steadfast love, mercy, faithfulness.

And these words in realities, as one commentator made note of, are nothing short of a marriage dowry.

These are the things God is going to do to purchase his wife, to win her.

This is exactly what we see on the cross of Jesus, don't we?

The righteous indignation of God against our sin was poured out upon the sin-bearing Lord to satisfy God's justice because of God's steadfast love and mercy and faithfulness to not only us but to himself.

That's the story of the cross, and it's our story.

Left to ourselves, we would never return to God.

Would you say amen to that?

If left to yourself, you would never return to God.

And if left to yourself, you would never stay with God.

But God's love is effectual and eternal.

In fact, all those scripture tells us that are predestined by the Father before time began, Jesus came and redeemed actually and fully and forever on the cross by one sacrifice to purchase us back to God.

And those who were predestined and purchased by Christ shall be effectually drawn to Christ, our husband, by the irresistible, winning work of the Holy Spirit.

And we shall be kept by the power of God until the end.

Because God made this vow of permanence, betrothing us to Himself forever.

Now, for spiritual prostitutes like ourselves, that is quite a relief.

That this whole thing, this whole salvation, this whole renewed marriage covenant is not based on how strong we are, how wise we are, how worthy we are, but on the initiative and the staying power of God Himself.

The Spirit finds us in the filthy brothel of our own depravity.

He washes us, he gives us a new heart, and he clothes us in the righteous robes provided by our husband.

This is expressed so well in the 18th century hymn by Count Zinzendorf.

He wrote this, it was translated into English by John Wesley.

He said, Jesus, be endless praise to thee, whose boundless mercy hath for me, for me a full atonement made and everlasting ransom paid.

Oh, let the dead now hear thy voice, now bid thy banished ones rejoice.

Their beauty, this, their glorious dress, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness.

The most beautiful thing about Gomer was not Gomer, but Hosea's covenant love with her and for her.

And the most beautiful thing about you and me is not us, but Jesus' love for us.

Our beauty, this, our glorious dress, Jesus' blood and righteousness.

God has betrothed this to himself forever.

And nothing can or will separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

Amen?

And now God's fifth and final vow in verses 21 through 23 is a vow of provision.

These actually sound like pretty standard wedding vows, right?

Vows to protect, to partner, to pursue, a vow of permanence, and now a vow of provision.

This God is the ultimate husband.

Verse 21.

And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel.

Jezreel was the name of Gomer and Hosea's son.

And I will sow for my and I'll sow her for myself in the land, and I will have mercy on no mercy, which is one of their daughters, and I will say to not my people, which is their other daughter, you are my people, and he shall say, You are my God.

So here he actually mentions at the end of this passage the three children of Hosea and Gomer.

Jezreel, which means to sow a seed, which play on words.

Earlier in chapter one, God mentions he will scatter them.

Thus name your son Jezreel.

I will scatter you among the nations.

But the same word that means to scatter can also be to sow.

So God is saying, I've scattered you among the nations, but I'm gonna gather you and I'm gonna sow you in this land.

He's gonna change the meaning of these names.

And your two daughters, no mercy and not my people.

I'm gonna change their names to those who've received mercy and those who are my people.

Here the heavens plead with God for blessing, as it were.

And the earth pleads with the heavens for rain, and the soil pleads with the rain for moisture.

And so Jehovah promises to answer and send abundant provision.

In that first set of marriage vows in Deuteronomy 28, God warned this if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, then the Lord will make the rain of your land powder.

From heaven, dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

Here in this renewed wedding vows, there's no mention of that, but the promise of rain and provision.

Now, in contrast, this renewed vow promises that God will cause the earth to bring forth the fullness of its fruit for the good and joy of his covenant people.

I want you to look again at the verse 23, the last verse in our text.

He says, And I will have mercy on no mercy, and I will say to not my people, you are my people.

If at any point in this message you've wondered how you and I today, as Gentiles, thousands of years after this was written, can actually apply this to ourselves and say this actually belongs to us.

These promises are ours, then I'm glad you asked that question.

How can we legitimately make application of this passage to ourselves instead of interpreting it historically related to Israel in Hosea's day, sort of time-bound to that era and that people?

Is this passage for us?

Or is this just a history lesson?

The answer to this question, I think, is found, at least in part, in how the Apostle Paul quotes this very verse in the New Testament in Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

And I'm going to ask you to turn there in your Bible.

I think it's going to be worth turning there.

In Romans chapter 9, we find the Apostle Paul quoting this very verse and applying it in such a way that I think will cause you to be thankful.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 9, verses 22 through 25, the Apostle Paul by the Spirit said, What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make his power known, has endured with much patience those vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles, so far as the good.

Romans 9:22–25

He gives us a big panoramic view of history.

God, why didn't he destroy the wicked every day?

Why doesn't he just demolish us when we sin against him?

Well, because he has plans.

To the wicked, he's bearing with long suffering, because one day he will judge them and vindicate his name and his glory.

But for those he's chosen in Christ, redeemed by Christ, drawn to himself in faith and love, he's forbearing with us and he doesn't destroy us because he has prepared us for glory.

To demonstrate not only his wrath in the justice against the wicked, but his glorious grace in the salvation of undeserving people like you and me.

Not only Jews, but also Gentiles.

So far so good.

And now he quotes Hosea.

As indeed he says, in Hosea, those who were not my people, I will call my people, and her who was not my beloved, I will call beloved.

Not just Jews, but Gentiles.

Not just those people in Hosea's day, but people in Paul's day, and people in our day, you and me, we who were not his people, we who had the name, not God's people, are now called the people of God.

There's a lot of theology in this, and if you want to turn back earlier into the same chapter in Romans chapter 9, we find why this makes sense.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

How Paul can take Hosea and apply it to us?

Well, there's a reason why.

In Romans chapter 9, verses 6 through 8, Paul reasons, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

Romans 9:6–8

And not all the children of Abraham, because they are his offs, not all are the children of Abraham because they are his physical offspring.

But rather through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

Remember, Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael.

But only in Isaac was the promised seed.

So just because you're a descendant of Israel, just because you're an ethnic national Jew, doesn't mean you have God's redeeming grace upon you.

And just because you're a Gentile doesn't mean you don't.

This means that, he continues, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

Children of the promise.

Now, how does someone become a child of the promise?

Because the nation of Israel to whom God spoke this covenant, not all of them were actually recipients of that covenant.

Not all the Israelites were part of true Israel.

Not all the physical descendants of Abraham were true descendants of Abraham spiritually and savingly.

But God spoke to Israel in Hosea's day so that through Israel all the nations would be blessed.

He says in the very last couple verses of Romans 9, what shall we say then?

What's the conclusion of this matter?

Here's the conclusion: that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness, they didn't have the law, they didn't have the priesthood, they didn't try to pursue it intentionally, they've attained it.

That is a righteousness that is by faith.

But Israel, that is national Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, they did not succeed in reaching that law.

Why?

Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.

In other words, what makes someone a participant in the promises of God to Israel, through Israel, and to the nations, it's faith in Jesus Christ.

Regardless of whether you're a male, female, bond-free, Jew, or Gentile, true Israel.

The beloved partakers of all the promises of God purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ are those who've been brought personally to trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

The gospel practice is this.

Hear these tender promises of God to Israel and to you, and turn in faith to Christ, our groom.

Hear these tender promises and turn to Jesus.

In conclusion, the final vision we have of true Israel that Scripture leaves us with in Revelation chapter 21 is this incredible vision.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

John looks up and he sees the city of Jerusalem, which is a picture of the people of God, all the redeemed, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And he will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be any mourning or crying, no more pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

All the curses are forever done away, only God's blessed vows continue, and we as the people of God receiving all the blessings for eternity.

Do you not yearn to be a part of that bride this morning?

When you hear God's tender words of effectual love, do you not leap within yourself with an impulse to go all in with such a God?

We've all heard these marriage vows of our true and eternal husband.

Will you respond in faith this morning?

My prayer is that by God's grace you will confess I do.

May God bless you, is my prayer.