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AY ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. 2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. 5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. 6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. 7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. 8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. 9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. 10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand. 11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. 12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. 13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD. (Hosea 2:1-13)
There is merciful purpose even in the judgments of the Lord as shall be brought out in this Book. The heart of man remains unchanged from Adam’s Fall even until today. The imagination of men’s heart is continually evil. (see Genesis 6:5)The wickedness of Gomer can clearly represent the wickedness of the faithless church of our day. They have invented gospels to satisfy itching ears and fill coffers for filthy lucre.. The buildings, grounds, and bank account of the modern church has replaced a fervency of preaching the Gospel in all lands and all tongues. The Redeemer of the Old Testament Church is the same as that of the New Testament Church. Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORDof hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.(Isaiah 54:4-5)
Many are offended at my constant derisions of the modern Church. If my commentaries are consistent with Holy Scripture, it matters not, for then it becomes God’s judgment and not my opinion only. If they mocked the prophets of old such as Jeremiah, Isaiah and Hosea, I do not feel unfairly condemned for being mocked as a lowly believer.
Our Lord will not allow His Bride to play the harlot as did Gomer. He will rebuke and chasten until repentance and restoration occurs. In the Book of Revelation, our Lord makes reference to the Seven Churches as an example of those which reflect the fullness of His Church. Each has a different character. He finds fault with all but two – Smyrna and Philadelphia. Both of these latter two were not great in the world of finance or politics, but were faithful to God in all ways. The other five were faulty in many ways. Each represents one or another of our churches of today; but two – Ephesus and Laodicea – seem to represent the greater number of churches of the modern era. The first, Ephesus, is described by our Lord in this manner: I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Revelation 2:2-4) This church is like many of our day – respectable in the eyes of the world, but unholy in their remembrance and loyalty to Christ. This is the kind of adultery committed by Gomer in forgetting to whom she was married.
The second, Laodicea, perfectly depicts most other of the modern churches. They are lukewarm. The Lord makes a serious indictment against this church, and churches of like nature: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: (Revelation 3:15-17)Do you know any such churches today? Some of our modern churches fit both descriptions of the Laodicean and Church and that of Ephesus.
Like Gomer and her offspring, the churches are playing the harlot by opting for the politics of man above the truth and beauty of the Gospel of Christ. And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. 5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. 6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. 7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. 8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. 9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. 10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.The big ‘first’ churches of every city have sold out to politics and spawned subordinate churches who are beholding to them for leadership and money; and not only those first churches, but many of differing error who have replaced the truth of God with a spiritualism that defies His Word. As God told the Woman at the Well, we must worship in Spirit AND in Truth.
There is a very interesting passage in Isaiah that describes most modern churches in America. And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. Isaiah 4:1)Have we not reached THAT day when those seven churches of Revelation will attempt to take hold of one Man (our Lord Jesus Christ) for the sake of prestige and dignity of His Name, but refuse to wear His white robe of righteousness or to eat His bread of Heaven? They prefer their own perverted righteousness and their own polluted bread of false doctrine.
And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD. We are approaching that day, or far-spent in it, which Gomer depicts. She burned her incense of worship to the gods of Baal (plural: Baalim). She has forgotten her First Love as did Ephesus.
There yet remain some faithful bodies who worship our lord in Spirit and in Truth, but these are more like Smyrna and Philadelphia – unpretentious, not lifted up in pride, and loyal to their First Love in Christ.
God has His chosen from among the lost tribes dispersed around the world. They are those whose faith, regardless of bloodline, is wholly centered on the Redeemer and promised One of Abraham. Perhaps we will find traces in Europe, in India, in eastern lands, and in the Americas. Wherever faith and loyalty to God are represented in the effectual calling of the Holy Ghost, there you will find the other sheep not of the same flock – And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. John 10:16) God knows His own sheep and He will winnow them out of all pastures. God knows His own and p laces them in the sure hands of His only Begotten Son: My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. (John 10:29)
The offspring of Gomer proliferates in our day, but God is sovereign and shall bring them to kneel before Him even if at great suffering and hurt on their part. It is my prayer that the churches of America will soon repent and turn back to our Lord Jesus Christ before hard judgment is sent in our midst by an angry God.
In comparing your church with the spirit of Gomer and her children, as well as the Seven Churches of Revelations, where does your church fit.
As we go deeper into this study, the more we realize the marks of old Israel and her modern manifestation is plain and clear. God will not leave her soul in Hell.
