Transcription
will matter. Is whether or not your soul has been saved? To me, I know. What did I do before? I turn my brain, but in the Before Lord, my brain. Not my soul. My name is Hosea. Occupation is prophet of the Lord God Jehovah, Amen. My Prophetic Ministry took place in the northern Kingdom of Israel, somewhere between the years of 750 and 725 BC. I have been summoned here today by some of your contemporaries who are part of the Apostolic tradition to give you, from my most unusual biography.
It was after one of my many prophetic crusades on the crest of the mountain called Taba, that I descended. I lost the Heights of Mount Tabor, and as I came down the slopes of that mountain, I was enveloped in Gulf, apprehended. Yeah, I was arrested by some strange invisible presence. Amen. I come to realize that I was standing in the presence of the Almighty God. As I stood there, all tensed, filled with anxiety, yes, scared, afraid, I heard the voice of God riding upon the bosom of the wind, and it said unto me, "Hosea, I must need talk with you. I wanna talk with you, Hosea, about the infidelity of my people. Amen. Hosea, you know the contractual agreement that I have with my people, Israel? They are to be my people, and I am to be their God. Amen. But because of their apostasy, and the cause of their immorality, and because of their idolatry, they have allowed that goodness, like the morning dew, to feed into the darkness of oblivion. Amen. And Israel, Hosea, has dealt treacherously with me. That's right. They have violated my covenant. They have broken their contractual agreement. They have ruptured our relationship, fractured our fellowship. They have allowed idol gods to encroach upon my own private domain."
Well, I stood there and didn't say too much. I just listened because, after all, when God speaks, what can you say? Like I heard the commercial the other day, "When EF Hutton speaks, everybody listens." When God speaks, the record is not even a dog would bark, nor his tail. Plus, out on the storm, and see one day when the cosmic phenomenon was disturbed, and clouds hover low, and storms began to rage, as the wind began to blow, and Jesus was asleep in the helm of the ship. They walked him and asked, "Master, carest that we perish?" And he responded by speaking, "Peace, be still." And everything got quiet. Yeah. Yeah. Plus, out of old says, "When he spoke, I recognized his voice. When he spoke, behold, I made my choice. When he spoke, the fire began to burn. A wheel began to turn." When he spoke. So God spoke to me, and I stood there listening, and I could hear in the tone of his voice, "Be the..." I heard one who was filled with excruciating pain. Pain that comes about only when you have experienced rejected love. Yeah.
And just at that moment, my mind went to my co-prophet, Ezekiel. I remember how he testified that the hand of the Lord was upon him and carried him out in the spirit of the Lord. Yes, and set him down in the midst of a valley that was full of dry bones, and then grabbed the crevices of his mind, so as to teach him a spiritual insight. And God did me, Hosea, the same way. Amen. He grabbed the right on Mount Tabor, but the crevices of my mind, and then took me on a historical flight. Yes, sir. Allowed me to see the history of Israel before my eyes, as though it were a panoramic movie. I saw how God's chosen people, the world, had vacated in their commitment to him. Yes. I saw how they had gone whoring after other gods. I saw Israel, dear, how they bowed their knees before strange and idolatrous shrines. Right. And I stood there and I watched and I listened, and when I came to, behind the devastation I saw, I just knew God would tell me next, "Hosea, I'm going to wipe all memory of Israel away from the face of the earth." But to my other surprise, Amen, he said to me, "Hosea, have mercy upon the last House of Judah. Hosea, I will save her not by sword, not by arrow, not by word, not by battle, but I will save her by the power of my love." And I heard echoing in the wind again and again and again, "I'll save her. I'll save her. I'll save her." See.
Well, I was appalled. I was flabbergasted. I said, "Alright, God, if you're a savior, that's fine, but why do you have to tell me? What do I have to do with this? You're gonna save your people, fine, but what about me?" So, what then? God says to me, "But I need a man. I need a mediator, a go-between. Yes, sir. Somebody who will stand between me and hear what I have to say, and tell my bride what I said. I need a daysman, and you, Hosea, become the best one. Out of every available prophet in the Northern Kingdom, you are my choice. But I've got to get you ready." Ready? The Lord? Yes, I've got to get you ready. What do you mean? Well, Hosea, you're ready, you're not familiar with my universal, cosmopolitan concept of salvation. You too limited and you're too finite and restricted. You're too parochial in your thinking, and you're not aware of how I love Israel. Or you know about the love that exists between a man and a woman. You know about the love that exists between a brother and a sister, but I'm talking about the premiere of love, the epitome of love. I'm talking about Agape, how I, God, love my people. Mine too restrained, and you're not aware of the relentlessness of my mercy. Hosea, I've got to get you ready, and in order to get you ready, I must put you through the crucible of a domestic difficulty. And when I call turmoil in your family, yes, sir, when I allow you to experience how it feels to live in the midst of a broken home, Amen, then you will be ready."
Well, the Lord, if you're gonna get me ready, what are you gonna do? What do I have to do? Well, I want you first of all, Hosea, I want you to get married. Married? Yes. You need to be married. You're not marrying, especially since you have an omniscient and I'm not competent God picking the bride for you. Oh, well, if you're gonna pick the bride for me, that's mine because I know you well enough to know that you put together. No man can put a son and think that you said that, God. You know, I was really seriously thinking about getting married because there's this girl who's a little special to me. I've been looking at her, she's been looking at me, and I've talked with the father. Comes from a strong Jewish Orthodox background. In fact, about the we communicate so well. I mean, we talk and she talks to me, and she's there every time I have one of my crusades. Back to about it, she helps me to pass out my Old Testament tracks, and I'm certain that she'll make me a good wife. And indeed, it needs to have a good wife, and I appreciate you suggesting that to me. Is it alright if I go on and marry her? How about that? God, is that right? Should I marry her?
"Hosea, you're right. She will make somebody a good wife. But that's not who I have in mind for you." When God, I look, you're gonna have problems because I'm such all of the women out who are single and who are available in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and that's not a girl who's in a better off than this one. Are you sure that you want me to marry somebody else? Do I know them? No. You've never met him. No. You've never met him. Oh, God, you want me to meet somebody that I don't know? Marry somebody I never met? You want me to do that? Are you sure that's what you want me to do? "I want you to get married, and the woman I want you to get married to, sit down now because you know we always communicate, but you're gonna have to hold your seat. I want you to know that this woman is not a Jew. Amen. Secondly, she is a pagan. Third thing about her, she is a harlot. That's right."
Now, wait a minute. You said the woman that you want me to marry is not a Jew, and she is a pagan, and then she is a harlot? Yes. And I want you to go and marry her. Well, do I have to tell you how I felt when God told me to do such a thing? Do I have to tell you about how my conflicting loyalties were at war down underneath my skin? Do I have to tell you how my humility was overtaken by my pride? And I really come to find out that I was more in love with Judaism than I am with God. But can you imagine when he told me to do such a thing? I said, "Oh, no. No. It's alright. Never, ever will I do such a thing. I shall never marry one who is not a Jew, one who is a pagan, and then who's succumbed so to being a harlot. Now, never, ever, never, never. Will not disgrace my heritage. I will not dishonor my religion. I will not cast such a slanderous act upon the prophetic fraternity. I will not allow Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Amos, over that Jonah, Michael, whom Rebecca, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi to look at me. Strays. Never will I do that. I'm not allow myself to be criticized and stigmatized and ostracized as a lover of illicit women. I'd rather die in dignity than to live in this place. Oh, God, don't make me. Never, know, never ever, know."
Now, ten times. That's right. When I got to raving and huffing and puffing and cussing and fussing, I heard the still small voice of God saying, as I was saying, "Hosea, I want you to go out. Go. She's not a Jew. She is a pagan. She is a harlot. Hosea, go marry. Go. You do have faith in me, don't you?" "Who are you, Lord?" "You know I got faith in you. I have been with you long enough to have faith. But you know, I, I told us in your word, whatever we do, it needs to be done in your glory and to your glory. And I can't understand for the life of me, what glory will you get out of me, a prophet, marrying a harlot? But glory when you get by joining together promises. Team with the glory when you get by uniting wretchedness with righteousness. What glory will you get coupling the devilish with the divine? What glory would you get back in a cursing the secular with the sacred? What glory will you get caught with me, a puppet, a harlot? The glory can you get by... Florence of good and bad, the celestial with glory when you get the horizontal, the perpendicular? What? Do you get it right?"
Yeah. But that's said to me, "You can't understand, and I will not lie to find admissions, to succumb to the short-sighted scrutiny of human disapproval. Man, you don't know who I am. Your mind is too small, too... in my new to my epic to understand. I'm God. I'm Jehovah. I'm the Father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm all. Ill. Jehovah, Jerome, God. You will never understand the ins of my mind. All your..." "I'm alright, alright, alright, alright. Okay. I'm sorry. Alright, alright, alright. Okay. Alright, alright, alright. That's alright. Whatever you say. I don't like what you're telling me to do, but I'm married. Yes. I ain't crazy about it, but I'll do it. But you know what? When I started obeying God, right? Yeah. And I started doing what I know he told me to do, though I didn't understand. Right then, he started shining light on my understanding. That's the way he operated in 750 BC. That's the way he still operating in 1989. God tells you to do something, and you do it, you may not understand, but he'll start putting light on your understanding. And as you move along, he'll brighten the way as you go along the way. That's right. And I didn't understand, but he started showing. And then one day, when I'm married, it's alright. Hosea, congratulations to you. You've done what I told you to do. Bless you. Congratulations. You've been obedient."
"I'm going to teach you, Hosea, that's right. Three things you'll see. I want you to see number one, that I got always love the unlovely. The second thing I want you to see, Hosea, is no matter how much you bring, you can never have a break God's love. And then the last thing I want you to see is that no matter how far down you fall, and no matter how far away you go, that a man never falls low enough to get outside the reach of God's loving hand."
And and and you all know when I went on and got married to Gomer. My never forget those all those first few days we were married. I mean, she she was so beautiful, and she was such a gorgeous woman. She was so exciting. I mean, I mean, that girl, girl was such an elegant. Yes, sir. That girl, that girl. That good. I mean, you're talking about fine. My wife was shown that fine. I was black and silky like feathers. She had those big long curly locks running up and down her back. Right. Like Black Panther. Yes, in the nighttime, they would glow like pearls. When white, like a flock of sheep. But cheeks were like pieces of pomegranate, and they were like roses. She had lips like scarlet. Her tone was sweet as a honeycomb. She had features like Venus de Milo. Yes, sir. A body like a sculptor's dream. She had a shame like the figure A. When she walked, it was like the gracefulness of an eagle's wings, and she had the lack of peacock. And what it's tell from her lips like poems from shaken stems of lilies. Go was shown up. Time. The game. Was fine.
But you know what? When we got married, and then going down the road, things got a little rough, and we're not together now. I'm not the kind of a man who puts all the blame on the woman to say the reason why we didn't make her fault. She did this, she did that. I'm not that kind of man because if I tell the truth about it, she tried. She tried to make me a bride. She tried to make me the woman she felt would be proud of. One day I was at home, and she'd gone to the marketplace and had done some shopping, and she came home with all these bundles and packages in her hand. And and and I met at the door and said, "What you doing with all of these packages?" She said, "Well, I've been shopping. What you do with your wife bought me a new wardrobe. Yes, because I'm a prophet's wife now, and all those old short skirts, I gave them away. I'm a wife." She tried to tell you. Just tell you the truth about it. She tried to make me a bride. And then she, she, she toned down her lipstick, got a rust that wouldn't souls sparkling, and and there are some new colored blouses and cover up the best, and make sure she had no more milk. She tried to find a new set of friends. And when time came to go to the well, she would go a decent hour, but nobody was at the well but the women. She wouldn't go in the nighttime when men would be at the well, feeling and tumbling. No, she tried. To China. And then people ask me, "Why is it you and your wife are not together?" Why, you see, my wife was caught between a push and a pull. Right. That was always that wall underneath her. She was always at war with her past life. Those old habits, they wouldn't leave us alone. And you know that in each of us, there is at least two of us. Paul talked about at the end of the epistle when he made mention of the old man and the new man. The old man is before you meet Jesus. The new man is who you become after you meet Jesus. And when you're saved, you never lose the old man, and that's all that back and forth tweaks in between, all men and the new man. That's why Paul said, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, not against powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places. We wrestle against satanic amps the day of his hips and whole life was always at war."
And the people in the synagogue would never let my wife forget. Oh, yeah. Where she came from. And because she did not have a real commitment to God, our marriage got on the rocks. And she started going down. She had a spiral downward, progressive digression. She went down. Down. Not all at once. It never happens all at once. When the devil gets in your life, it's not all at once. He does it bit by bit. Little. He starts your or take a little shot. It won't hurt, but he keeps on until you start putting up all the look. He has all the little. "Won't hurt nobody. Take a drive, it'll be alright. Big bait." And she started going down. She got to the place she started playing for food. That just because we had three babies while we were married, I didn't know that neither one of them were mine. And I'm the one who made up the beds, and I'm the one who set the flow, I the one who not the kitchen, I change the diapers, I... the milk. And then she would she would come home at first at the. Do you know, and then she that coming home 9, 10 o'clock, and then she just start coming home at midnight. Yes, I didn't wanna say the wrong thing because when I almost did, she came home, it was almost 10 o'clock, and when she walked through the door and said, "Baby, where you ask me where I've been? My girlfriend is having me a good time. Leave me alone." Then she started to come home at 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock, daybreak. Stay calm two days, three days, a week. Nuts. Yeah. I am the the the the last time I saw her, she got up late one night, and God wanted them to the dresses that had rhinestone wrapped all around. Stop. Jewelry and her cheeks were red. And I haven't seen her no more. I've been waiting for months now, weeks, and they're tired of the year. I've got a lot to read. Head no way. I hear the street talk. I hear gossip. Yes, sir. May gossiping about my wife, and how is he doing some? I'm saying she, she's all ??? now. Amen. That she's standing on the street corner. She's just whining and dining and puffing, and she's having a good time. I know what they're saying in the streets about my way. They talk about, you know, that's the difference in a man who runs around and a woman who runs around. The Godsend is just saying it doesn't matter what the gender is, be it male or female. A woman is no more wrong than a man. A man is no more a woman, but society has a way to label on the different. Whenever a man runs around, he can lay and lay down, lay down, lay there, get up. Society tends to say, "That's a man." Yeah. But when a woman lays, lays, lays, lays there, don't call her no woman. To clean. When I heard them talking about the hold on of my wife, and and what can you do when you have a broken heart? My love, you can take aspirin and BC's for the headache. Take Sals for the stomach. You down. You can take an aspirin and BC's for the headache. You can take salsa for the stomach ache. We've wrapped down with that. So Junior for the muscle ache. You go to a dentist for the toothache. Ain't nothing you can take to ease the pain of a broken heart. My heart was broken. So I remember one morning, I woke up, and and I decided, I gotta get relief. Yes, sir. And the only way I can get relief is in God. So I got up, and I started out my house. May show that the babies fall asleep. Take your time. And I knew that they stay sleeping until I could get up to the mountain and see God. If I could just find God, I can make some sense out of all of this stuff. I got to God. And when I... When I got up on the mountain, that was already there. I said, "God." He said, "All that." I said, "God, let me talk." I said, "Hold it. Hush. I'm let me speak first." I said, "Alright, alright. Go on, go on and talk." "I'll wait till you get to go and talk." And then God said to me, he said, "Hosea, yes, go. Why is gold?" That's why. "Have to ask you what I ain't seen her. I thought you're gonna tell you something about where she is. You told me to go get her." "Hosea, Hosea, Hosea, calm down now. Hold on. Let me ask you one question now. Hosea, yeah. How do you feel?" "I mean, how I feel? I mean, you know, it's a woman who had these babies, and and I'm I'm the husband of all these children, and I know ain't mine. I'm at home all day. She called, can't find her. How I feel? What I..." "Hosea, how do you feel?" "Well, I mean, you know, everybody laughing at me, and they're snickering, and they're making fun of me. And when I, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all those boys see me coming, they hunt each other. Pay day. Day. Isn't you know that I'm embarrassed?" "Hosea, do you feel?" "You know, I don't know, man, like to be, you know, no, but I can't make anybody believe you told me to go marry a woman. Every time I get ready to preach, snickering. That man, I can't feel the spirit no more." "Hosea, I do you feel right?" "Well, Lord, ain't nobody up here with me and you, is it? So tell you. I'll tell you. I love him. What you say?" "I love him." "Didn't I love him? I love Hosea. What did you say?" "I love. I love the woman. I still love her. I can't help that I love her." "So you love her even though she's had babies outside of your marital affairs? You still got the feeling? You still..." "Yes, I, I love the woman. I love her." "What are you ready now to go preach for me? This mountain. Go tell Israel how I feel. You know now because I made an example out of you. Just like my walk off and left you. Walk off and left me, and I need somebody to tell her, I still love her. Yeah. Don't tell me if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, seek my face, and pray, then when I hear from heaven, and I will heal their land."
And Hosea, from that demonstration that God put him through, became known as the prophet of love. So my brother and sister, as I close today, I hope by now you've come to realize that the Bible you hold in your hand is really a divine love story. You can sense and see that all 39 books in the Old Testament, 27 in the New, that in the 1189 chapters, time the 31,173 verses, 773,692 words, I don't know, but a divine love story that is the lover and how the world is below. And so, my brother and sister, that's what the Bible is really all about. About how God so loved the world that... And you see, God met his bride for the first time down in the flesh pots of Egypt. Yes, sir. My God. And when she had become slaves and captives, working for the Pharaoh, and God watched how she had to make brick without straw, and how that Pharaoh would put up on her backs stripes from whips, making her obey his commands. And God watched her for a thousand years. And when he first began to watch her, she was without money in her pocket. Yeah. And she had no clothes to put on her back, and she didn't even have a place that she could call home. Oh, God said one day, after a thousand years had gone by, "It's time now for me to go down there and talk with her, and let her know how much I really love her." Oh, Lord. And but I need somebody to talk to me. And I heard him saying, "Come here, Moses, and I want you to to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh that I said, 'Let my people go.'" And nine times Pharaoh's heart was hardened on that, and the tenth time, I heard God saying, "Well, you go down there and tell them that my death angel is gonna run through town tonight, and the time has come for me to free my right." Is right. Oh, Lord. And you... What happened? God freed them, and when he freed them, he brought him on a cross the Red Sea. Yeah. And then he said, "Moses, bring him here around Mount Sinai. Yeah. I've heard him saying, 'You are my bride, and I want you to know, I'll be good to you, but I got some rules. I got some I got it right down. Yeah. I want you to know first of all that I'm a jealous God. Yeah. I don't want you waking up and blinking it and making an eye at no other God. My God. I want you to come to realize that there is nobody but me. Yeah.' And the first of all, I'm gonna give you now is, 'Thou shalt not have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not bow our knees before any grave and images in heaven above, on earth, or down underneath the earth.' Yeah. And if you'd be faithful to me, I put shoes on your feet, I put clothes on your back, and I'll even give you a house that you can call home." After 40 years of dating and having a good time with his, he finally put her in a house. He ran her to the promised land. That. Yeah. And you know what the Bible says? That time she became settled in the land with a house, a roof over her head, clothes on her back, shoes on her feet, in her pocket, she started winking and blinking and making an eye to the light of God. Yeah. She bowed before the altars of Baal, that and then get up and bowed before all of Jehovah. Yeah. And I got tired of her bowing and worship to God because you can't love two. Is that? And he broke off the engagement, took his reign back, and closed up the heavens for 400 years, and not one word was heard from the Lord. 400 years. That you have what I'm saying. I want... Yes, one day, one day, I don't feel that get in God's heart. That same feeling that the media didn't make man in his own image and give the world a God got lonely one day, and I heard him say, "I want my bride back. Who will go and whom shall I send?" Yeah. "Her Abraham?" The Lord. And Abraham lies too much. He lied down in Egypt and Pharaoh. Sailor was his sister and not his way. He cannot go. Well, I... "How about letting go now?" "No, I got a drinking problem. If I didn't know the first bar he sees, the first he..." "My bride will never get my answer. I'm letting Solomon go. He can't go. He loved women too much, and if I'm not Solomon go, the first dress, tell he sees it, he'll be running off after her, and they'll never get my answer." Yeah. But by that time, that was a rumbling and a tumbling. That was a king and a queen. God to down and young was a land that has been slain since the foundation of the world. I heard Jesus saying, "I'll go." Did you hear what I'm saying? "I know. If I have to go, or by myself." And you know he came down. Don't you? He died. Here, knowing that he died. He died. Yes, he died. Sunday morning. Did you hear what I'm saying? He got up out of a dusty grave. I heard him saying, "There's a rap in my hand." Did you hear what I'm saying? God bless you. I'm trying to stop her, but I got one more thing to tell you. Who was out there in the yard, and somebody came along and said that they got going on the auction block. You better go buy to get rid of the auction her. And winning in that to time he had ran down to the auction and paid the price for and bought her. That's what Jesus did when we stand on camera. He paid the price and brought us back to. Do I have a? That's why I can say today, "I'm saved. I wanna go here. I'm saying. I'm sanctified." And I made that because he bought me back up. Yes, he did. Jesus. Say that I need you to be a slave today. He just wants a wife today. Here, can he count on you? I said, "Can he count on you? Are you willing? Are you ready?" Will you say, "Lord, I'll do." Margo. If I have to go all by myself. I know. The boys in the church are now open for the exception amendments to come by letter. Come by Christian experience. I as a candidate for baptism. That's what the whole plan of salvation is all about. Which means if you're not in the church, not a preacher, I'm not living right, that doesn't matter. But not about our committed murder, rape, drug addiction, incest, just doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that God's son has come to the world, and you reject that. That's the famous statue to have because sin has been forgiven. They're gonna sing for you. God so loved the world, and the doors of the Lord's House is open for you.