that you have been very concerned
for me. Many of you have called and expressed
your concerns, and I appreciate it more than I can tell you.
but I really am doing very well. I feel good. If the doctors didn't
tell me I was sick, I wouldn't know I'd been sick, but I have
been, they tell me, and I'll find out, uh, the Lord willing,
in a couple of weeks, well, actually about another month, find out,
uh, how successful the cyber knife was. But, uh, we don't
expect anything other than good report. And, uh, very thankful
for that. And I appreciate your concern
for me. It's always a delight to be here. Always a delight to see you and
to see God's blessings upon your labors together in the cause
of Christ. How I thank God for his goodness
to you and his goodness to me and making me part of this assembly,
a part of your family. How do we begin? Well, a sovereign
grace Bible conference. Let's begin with grace. That's
my subject. That's my hope. That's my joy. That's my delight. Without question,
the word of God plainly teaches, so plainly that it cannot be
mistaken except deliberately. that salvation is altogether
the work of God's free, sovereign, unconditional, effectual, irresistible
grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. Neither the works of man nor
the will of man has anything to do with God's salvation. What you do, good or bad. What you choose, good or bad. What decisions you make, good
or bad, has absolutely nothing to do with God's grace upon sinners. The universal testimony of Scripture
is this, salvation is of the Lord. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And
God has mercy on whom he will. That's the way it has always
been. It was that way from the beginning when God said, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And it is that way today. God
has mercy on whom he will. Your only hope is that God might
have mercy on you. Oh, terrifying thought. If God
leaves you to yourself, if God leaves you alone, you'll wind
up in hell. Oh, may God have mercy on you.
By grace, we're saved. By grace, we're saved. Justified freely by the grace
of God through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. God,
our God and Savior, hath saved us and called us within holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. All of God's saints, every heaven-born
soul, All true believers gladly confess with the Apostle Paul,
by the grace of God, I am what I am. But what do we mean when
we say that salvation is by grace alone? More importantly, what
does God mean when God declares that salvation is by grace? Sometimes
things are better understood by seeing a picture than by hearing
or reading definitions and explanations. So if you'll turn with me to
Hosea chapter 2 verse 14, that'll be my text, and we'll look at
the first three chapters of this great prophecy by God's servant
Hosea. Let me give you a picture of
God's grace, God's free saving grace. When you get to Hosea
chapter 2, just hold your Bibles open. We're going to stay there
for a little while. The story of Hosea and Gomer
illustrates the meaning of God's grace beautifully and clearly. Grace is the boundless, free,
effectual goodness of God towards sinners. That goodness by which
God has chosen and redeemed, regenerates, calls, justifies,
sanctifies, preserves, and glorifies all the objects of his everlasting
love. Here in Hosea chapter 2, the
prophet of God was inspired of God to describe this woman, Gomer,
and her terrible fall, her adulteries. her harlotry, her idolatry, her
sacrificing to Baal with her lovers. And then God uses a very
strange word, verse 14, therefore. What a strange statement. Therefore,
therefore, because she's fallen, because she's dirty, because
she's ruined, because she's doomed, because she has ruined herself,
because she has doomed herself by her willful transgressions.
Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness
and speak comfortably unto her. Our story begins with a very
strange command given by God to his prophet. Back up to chapter
1. The word of the Lord came to
Hosea, the son of Beriah, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Now, if his time of prophecy
began with the last year of Uzziah's reign and ended with the first
year of Hezekiah's reign, that's all that's included. No more
of Uzziah, no more of Hezekiah. That means this man did the work
of a prophet in Israel for 70 years. For 70 years, he prophesied. Read on. And in the days of Jeroboam,
the son of Joash, the king of Israel, the beginning of the
word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go,
take unto thee a wife of Hortums, and children of Hortums. For
the Lord, for the land hath committed great Hortum, departing from
the Lord. What a strange, strange command.
God's law forbade that his priests should marry harlots because
the harlot was by law declared to be unclean. The harlot was
profane, but here God commands one of his prophets to go marry
a harlot. Why would he do that? Look at
chapter 3, verse 1. He'll tell you why. This is what the whole picture
is about. Then said the Lord unto me, go yet love a woman,
beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress. According to the love of the
Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love
flagons of wine. So the whole purpose of this
divinely arranged event, the whole purpose of the story being
given to us by God, the Holy Ghost, and recorded for us by
divine inspiration in the book of God, is to show us something
about the love of God for our souls. That's what the whole
story is about. The love of God for sinners,
beloved and chosen of God. His love, like Hosea's love for
Gomer, was altogether undeserved. Back in chapter one, verse three.
God said, Hosea, go down to Red Light District and get your wife.
So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblil. Hosea, the
name is exactly the same as Joshua. It means savior. He's presented
in this story as a marvelous pictured type of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He was commanded of God to go
down to the red light district and marry a harlot. Her name
was Gomer. That's the woman he chose to
marry. Her name means consumption. That's a good picture of us by
nature. God's elect, like all other men,
are consumed with sin and consumed by sin. But her name also means
consummation or completion. In ourselves, consumption. In
ourselves, corruption. But we who are nothing but sin,
you who are loved of God, saved by God's grace, are the consummation
of his love, the consummation of his purpose. Everything God
has ever done, Everything God is doing, everything God shall
do, that means everything that is, has been, or shall be, God
has done just for you. Just for you. Just for you. Gomer was the daughter of Diblim,
dried, dead. That's her father's name. That's
us. The Lord gave Hosea and Gomer
three children. They are also representative
of God's elect. Those three children were Jezreel, means scattered, or the seed
of God. Lerubimah means no mercy. Loameh means not mine or not
my people. And we know that these children
of Hosea and Gomer refer to us, God's elect scattered among the
nations of the earth, because God, the Holy Spirit, tells us
exactly that in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Romans. He says,
this is what this is talking about. God's talking about you,
his people scattered to the four corners of the earth, whom he
calls by his grace and saves in his appointed time of mercy.
Here, they're described as no mercy, lo ruha ma. And not my
people, Lueme. When you get to chapter two and
you start to deal with God's grace, they're described as Ruvima,
mercy. Eme, my people. That's what God's
grace has made us. God's grace has made us the recipients
of mercy. God's grace has made us his people. We were not his people. We had
not obtained mercy. Now we are his people and we
have obtained mercy. After Hosea and Gomer were married,
married for many years apparently, they had three grown children,
Hosea came home one day and Gomer was gone. She had gone back to
the red light district. She had gone back to her lovers.
Chapter two tells us about Gomer's great fall and Hosea's purpose
of mercy, love, and grace concerning her. Chapter three tells us how
that Hosea bought her and fetched her home again. The whole thing
pictures God's grace. Let me give it to you as simply
as I can by giving you some characteristics of grace. These are characteristics
that are always true of grace. And all who know the grace of
God know these characteristics to be true. Number one, the grace
of God in Christ, that grace by which we are saved, is sovereign
electing grace. God has not ordained us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ the Lord. God chose you
to salvation through sanctification and belief of the truth. Our
Savior says to his disciples, you have not chosen me. You never
would. And you did not. And you could
not. But I have chosen you. And the
only reason you now choose me is because I have chosen you
and made you willing in the day of my power. Back here in chapter
one again, verse two. The beginning of the word of
the Lord by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take unto thee a
wife of Hortums, and children of Hortums, for the land hath
committed great Hortum departing from the Lord. So he went and
took Gomer, the wife of death, Dibliam. God told Hosea, to go
love a woman, not just any woman, a fallen woman, a harlot, a street
walker, a whore, a prostitute, and not just any harlot. Hosea
went and took Gomer. What a picture of the love of
the Lord toward us. Remember too that Hosea means
savior. Gomer, this woman he chose, was
the object of Hosea's life. She was the delight of his heart,
the focus of his mind all the time. Everything he did, he did
for Gomer, everything. how we ought to rejoice in God's
election. There are many people in this
world to whom God is not gracious and will not be gracious. I know
people like to talk about God's grace and call it common grace
and special grace. Folks who talk about common grace
talk about common nonsense, common blasphemy. There's nothing common
about God's grace. God's grace is special. It's
special. He's always had particular objects
for his grace. The Lord Jesus said, I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed
them unto babes. Let me tell you who here tonight
will never believe the gospel. Let me tell you. Let me tell
you who in this world will never believe the gospel. Those to
whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that
believe not. Our translators translate that
word in 1 Corinthians 4, or 2 Corinthians 4, with a little g. Our Savior
said, God, my Father, thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent. Salvation is God's work. And the destinies of men, all
men, is God's work. Nothing happens by chance. There
are many in this world who have never heard the sound of a preacher's
voice. Not a gospel preacher. Many to
whom God never sends his word. Many to whom God will not allow
his service to preach. Paul said, I was getting ready
to go. God said, nope, you don't go
over there. You go over there, he shut him up. God's grace is
special, sovereign, electing grace. He chose us. And every sage sinner gladly
bows before his throne, confessing, "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for, Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hadst thou not chosen me." Here's the second thing. The
grace of God by which we are saved is free, undeserved, undesired,
unconditional grace. Gomer was a common whore. She wasn't looking for a husband,
she didn't want a husband, and she didn't deserve a husband. She was just a prostitute. She
was just a prostitute. You drive downtown, almost any
large city, and see them on every other corner. She was just a
woman who sold herself for what she could get. She wasn't looking
for a husband. She didn't want a husband. She
didn't deserve one. You see, God's grace toward us,
like Hosea's love for Gomer, is altogether undeserved and totally undesired. He wants mercy. No, he doesn't.
He wants his turns with God. He wants to pull God down on
his level. He wants God to do what he orders him to do. Nobody
wants grace. Go ask them. They'll tell you
they don't need it. Tell them, I don't need that.
Who needs that? Only sinners. Only sinners made
to know themselves sinners because of God's grace. The grace of
God by which we are saved is totally free. Unconditional. Are you listening
to me? Listen to me now. There are no
conditions for you to meet before you come to Christ. Come to Him
right now. Oh, God help you right now. Believe
on the Son of God. Trust the Savior right now. Don't
say a prayer. Don't utter a word. Don't move
your feet. Just come to Him. If you can,
it's because God saved you by His grace. Grace is free. God doesn't need
anything from you, and God won't accept anything. He won't receive anything from
these polluted hands. He won't accept anything from
this corrupt mouth. He won't accept anything from
this vile heart. God will only accept his son.
Come to God believing on his son. God accepts his son and
accepts you in his son. Here's the third thing. The grace
of God by which fallen, ruined, helpless sinners are saved. always
begins in the experience of it with what we might call prevenient
grace, preparatory grace. There is within all of us a tendency
to want to look back to an experience. And somehow or another, when
we get to feeling real rotten, and we get to feeling just like
heaven's brass, and where our hearts are steel, and we wouldn't
know God if he came down here and patted us on the shoulder,
we'll go back, oh, but I remember! Don't do that. Don't make an
idol out of your experience. Don't do that. We don't know
when God's grace began working with us. Sometimes, sometimes,
with Paul on the Damascus Road, sometimes with Lydia, whose heart
the Lord opened by the seashore, sometimes we can identify a specific
time when God gave us faith in Christ. But God's grace began
with us long before we ever came into this world. God's grace
is prevenient. Preparatory grace. What do you
mean, preacher? It is that grace that goes ahead
of grace and prepares the way for grace. Psalm 107 is all about
it. David sang of it in the 23rd
Psalm. He said, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. Brother Russell, you still raise
your dogs? He raised dogs. I used to go hunting with my
uncle. We used to go coon hunting at
night. It's a common sport in the South. Clay's granddaddy
was a coon hunter. mostly went just to hear the dogs holler
when they hit a coon's trail. There's just nothing like it.
But they'd hit the trail, and they'd follow that trail, and
follow that trail, and chase that coon, and chase that coon.
But when they got him treed, that was another song. You could
tell a mile away they'd got that coon treed. Of course, they had
treed the coon. That's just exactly what David
says about God's grace to me. God's grace been nipping at my
heels. all the days of my life for one purpose, to drive me
into the tree of heavenly glory. Goodness and mercy shall pursue
me all the days of my life, and when it gets done, I'll dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. Oh, wondrous prevenient grace.
Look at it here in Hosea 2. You see, God's people are described
as those who are sanctified by God the Father and preserved
in Jesus Christ and called. Hosea 2, verse 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 and my wool and
my flax, mine oil and my drink. Therefore, behold, I will hedge
up thy way with thorns. See, I'm going after my lovers.
God said you can't get them. I'll hedge up your way with thorns. I'll hedge up your way. I won't
let you have your way. I won't leave you to yourself.
I'll hedge up your way with thorns. And I'll make a wall so that
she cannot find her paths, verse seven. And she shall follow after
her lovers. She'll keep chasing them, but
she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them, but shall
not find them. Then, shall she say, when she's
destitute, empty, she can't find her way, she can't get over the
wall, she can't get past the old ditch, she can't find her
lovers, I'll go and return to my first husband. For then was
it better with me than now. For she did not know, poor woman,
that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver
and gold, which they prepared for Baal. God sovereignly sets his elect
in the homes where they're raised. Some of you were raised in the
home of a faithful pastor and his wife. Some of our friends
who were preachers were raised in whore houses. Some were jacked
up by the hair of their head on the streets. And God set every
one of us precisely at the very best place we could be, setting
us in the homes where we were raised, in the environment in
which we were raised, with all the struggles and the faults
and the falls and the scrapes and the fighting and everything
by which God graciously, wisely formed our personalities, our
minds, formed us into man, the woman he would make of us to
use for his glory. And then he provided and protected
us. The angels of God are ministering
spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be the heirs
of salvation. Angels of God, ministering spirits
constantly watching over and protecting God's elect until
the day of their calling, kept by God, preserved in Christ Jesus,
and then called. And God is pictured here in Hosea. Hosea went looking for Gomer. She probably saw him often, hid
from him, and the Lord found out where she was staying. Hosea
found out where she was staying. And every night while she's in
her rented room in the arms of her lovers, Gomer is there enjoying
her filth and her ungodliness and her rebellion and her hatred
of Hosea, loving every minute of it. And Hosea sneaks up with
a bag of groceries and he provides her with her corn, in her oil,
in her wine, and she gets up in the morning and says, look
what my lovers gave me. All the while, providing for
her. All the while, Hosea could have
gone at any time and taken her. You see, by law, she was his
property. I'd like to preach that on the
streets of New York City sometime. By law, she was his property.
She was married to him. He could take her anytime he
wanted to. For that matter, she had become
a harlot. He could legally have her stoned
to death anytime he wanted to. Or he could go down and get her
and bring her home. And he was determined to bring her home.
But he wouldn't have her until he had her heart. He wouldn't
force her. Well, he did force her. But he
wouldn't force the way men think of forcing. He wouldn't have
her until she was compelled by his grace and made glad and willing
to go home with him. You see, the book says, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Causest
to approach unto thee. What's that talking about? Just
what you think it does. Here, you go over here. I've
done this a lot, I'm a big fella. You go over here, out that door.
Yeah, this way you go. How you gonna do that? Watch me, I'll show you how I
do it. I'll shove him out the door. Well, he don't wanna go.
He's fixin' to walk, too, I'll tell you that. He's fixin' to
walk, too. He'll be glad to get out of there
by the time I'm done. Even so, God Almighty graciously
forces sinners. into the arms of his son, makes
them tickle to death that he forced them into his arms. This
is called receiving the word on good ground, good ground,
not stony ground, not stony ground, good ground that's been broken
and turned upside down and inside out and thoroughly plowed, ground
that God has prepared to receive it. When you get home tonight,
read the 107th Psalm and read about how God graciously causes
sinners to be hungry and thirsty until they cry to Him. to do
business in deep waters until they cry to him, to be in bondage
until they cry to him, to be in a wilderness place, a desert
place, until they cry to him. When they need mercy, they will
be tickled to have mercy. Gomer was a harlot. She ruined herself, but Hosea
loved her. Hosea loved her. His heart was set upon her. He was determined to have her.
And so the grace of God prepares the way for grace. He watches
over the prodigal all the time he's roaming in his rebellion
and ungodliness. How do you know that? I know
the father was watching over that prodigal son, because when
he came home, it was no surprise. He already had a fatty calf ready
for him. He's getting ready to throw a party. He had everything
planned. So it is with us. The Lord God says to his own,
as we make our man rush to hell, hitherto shalt thou go, and no
further. And God steps in your way, and
God stops you by almighty grace, and you're delighted. Here's
a third thing about God's marvelous grace. God uses reason. and the reason is strange. He
says, therefore, therefore, what a strange, strange statement. Four times in the second chapter,
he uses these reasons. In verse two, he says, therefore,
because she's a harlot, let her leave her lovers and
return to me. Put away her whoredoms out of
her sight, and her adultery is from between her breasts. Verse
six, he says, therefore, because she's gone after her lovers,
because she's determined to destroy herself, therefore behold, I
will protect her from herself and from them, and I'll force
her to come to me. Verse nine, therefore, because
she will not return to me, I will return to her. Read this with
me. Therefore I will 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. And now I will
discover her lewdness. I'm gonna embarrass her real
good. I'm gonna take away her veil. I'm gonna make everybody
see what she is. Most important, I'll make her
see what she is. I'll do this in the sight of her lovers. None
shall deliver her out of mine hand. I will also cause all her
happiness, her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons,
her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feast. And I will destroy her
vines and her fig trees, whereof she has said these are my rewards
that my lovers have given me. And I will make them a forest,
and the beast of the field shall eat them. and I will visit upon
her the days of Balaam. My dear friend, from whom I learned
so much, Brother Harry Graham, pastor at Sunlight Baptist Church
in Asheboro, North Carolina, once said to me when I was just
a young man, about 19 years old, sitting on his hearth, and we
were talking about God's grace, and he said, Mother Dog, I'm gonna
tell you something. If you could see how God deals
with his elect when he's about to save them, you'd look at them
and say, I wouldn't treat a mad dog like that. He said, God would never take
anybody to heaven until he first takes them to hell. And that's
a pretty accurate statement. I'll come and take away her happiness.
I'll take away her security. I'll take away her peace. I'll
take away everything she finds satisfaction in, so she's got
nowhere to look but to me. Verses 14, 15, 16, and 17. Therefore, because she has utterly
forsaken me, because she's completely forgotten me, I will never forget
her. I'll make her willing to return
to me. I'll conquer her. Look at verse 14. Therefore,
behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness,
watch this, and speak comfortably unto her. God commands his prophets,
speak ye comfortably to my people. The word is, I'll speak to her
heart. I'll speak to her heart. I'll
allure her. I'm going to bring her out here
where there's nobody, just me and her. And I'll speak to her
heart. And I will give her vineyards
and fields and valley of acre for a door of hope. And she shall
sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when
she came out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be at that day,
saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Isha. I get done, you
call me Isha. The word is my husband. or even
more personally, my man, my man. I can't help but to think this
is referring specifically to our Redeemer who became man.
God became a man that he might be married to us. Call me no
more, you call me Isha, my man, and call me no more Bela, which
is master, Lord. Oh, she doesn't forget he's master,
Lord, but this is my man. He loved me. He redeemed me.
He made himself mine. God graciously prepares the people
for whom he intends mercy. He brought Gomer down. Gomer came to poverty. She got
old. She was outcast from society.
The good folks despised her and the younger harlots mocked her.
She was helpless, worthless, good for nothing, worthless. She attempts to sell herself
into slavery. Maybe somebody would take her
into bondage and servitude. Maybe somebody would have her
to clean their houses and empty their slop jars. Nobody loved
Gomer. Nobody wanted Gomer but Hosea. And he shows it to us as a picture
of God's saving grace in its distinctive efficacy. The grace
of God that brings salvation is always distinctive and is
always effectual. Everything Hosea did, he did
for Gomer. He's walking in the streets one
day and he passes by the slave auction. Gomer? Is that you, Gomer? She looks
up and bows her head, hopes not to make eye contact with him.
And he's not interested in anybody else. He didn't want anybody
else. Just Gomer. So he bought Gomer. We're told in chapter three,
verse two, I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver, for
an omer of barley and a half omer of barley. And Hosea went
over and took that filthy, broken, skinny, with back bowed harlot. I can see him pick up her chin
and he kissed her. And he took her hand put it under
his arm, and walked proudly down the streets, taking Gomer back
home. I'd like to have been in the
Parsonage that night, wouldn't you? He brought me into his banqueting
house, and his banner over me was love. Stained me with flagons
of wine. Told him I'm sick of love. There'd never been love like
this. Nobody's ever known love like this. And let me tell you
one more thing about God's grace. God's grace is costly, redeeming,
sin-atoning grace. I bought her to me for 15 pieces
of silver, for an omer barley and a half omer barley. Before
Hosea could have Gomer, he had to redeem her. He didn't buy
all the slaves. He didn't want all the slaves.
He didn't care about the other slaves. He had his eye on Gomer,
but he couldn't have her except to buy her. And our Lord Jesus
Christ pictures himself here, says, I'll make you mine in righteousness
and in judgment, in faithfulness and in truth. I'll make you mine
by righteous deeds and by justice satisfied. I bought you with
the silver of my sweat and the gold of my blood. And having
bought her, Hosea took her home. And the Lord Jesus, if he bought
you, he gonna carry you home. If you're his, he'll get you. He'll get you. We don't have
to pull any tricks. We don't have to play games with you.
He'll get you. He'll get you. I started to say if he has to
turn the world upside down, he doesn't have to. But if he's
determined to turn the world upside down, he'll get you. He'll
get you. I have a friend who's right now
somewhere over in the Far East, in the Middle East, in danger
zone. Some of you know Brother André
Gillet. He said to me a couple of years ago, when he was visiting
us in Danville, he said, I don't really know why we went to war
with Iraq, except I know why. It's because it was there that
somebody handed me a sermon by you. And God called me by his
grace. Do you hear me? God says, I gave
Egypt for you. I gave Ethiopia for you. How
gave Seba for you? How give people for you and nations
for your life? Everything and everybody in this
world exists only to be helpers to God's elect, only to be helpers
in the hands of God by whom he brings his redeemed to himself. That's called providence. Our
Lord Jesus bought us. We're justified freely, I began
by telling you, freely by His grace, but justified through
the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. I can't think of a stronger
argument by which to reason with you for your immortal soul. than the grace of God I know
by experience. Look here. Look here. Look this
man over close. Look him over close. What God
has done for me, God can do for you. And if he does, he'll do it justly. because his son redeemed you
with his blood. I can't think of a stronger argument
in the world for you, my brother, you, my sister, to give yourself
in utter consecration to the son of God every morning with
every breath through the day. And as you lay down at night,
then this, you're not your own. you've been brought with a price.
So glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Amen.