Turn with me, if you would, to
Hosea chapter 3. We'll continue our study in this
wonderful book of Hosea. Tonight's message is called Christ
Redeems His Bride. We will see that Hosea goes and
redeems Gomer. She's sold off into slavery. And so Hosea is going to go and
redeem her. And it's a picture of how we
are being auctioned on the slave block of this world, the slave
block of sin. And Christ comes into this world
to redeem us, to purchase us. with his own precious blood,
giving his life for you and I, who are believers. And again,
this just manifests his great love for us, doesn't it? It manifests
how much he loves his bride. He loves his bride so much that
he gave his life for her. It's absolutely amazing. Absolutely
incredible. And so we're looking at this
in chapter three here. There's only five verses in this
wonderful little chapter, but there's so much. within this. And again, this book, Hosea,
brings forth the fact that when the Lord saved us, we were
nothing but bankrupt sinners because we're Gomer. Gomer's
a picture of us in our natural state, dead in trespasses and
sins, bankrupt sinners desperately needing to be saved from what?
From our sins. That's why Christ came. He came
to save us from our sins. See, hell is just a consequence.
A payment would be the wages of sin is death, death, and then
after that, the judgment, and after that, hell. But that's
just a natural progression of sinfulness. But the reason we
don't end up in eternal damnation is because Christ purchased us
with his blood. It's absolutely amazing. Now,
we don't know who the elect are, so we preach to everyone, don't
we? We say, come, come. Come, poor, wretched sinner.
Join we who are but safe sinners. We found mercy, didn't we, Sister
Linda and Brother Brian? We found mercy at the feet of
Christ, by God's grace. We found forgiveness of all our
sins. It's wonderful. Through the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, it's absolutely amazing. Look at Hosea 3, verses
1 to 5. Then said the Lord unto me, being
Hosea, go yet, love a woman, be loved of her friends, yet
an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children
of Israel, who look to other gods and love flagrants of wine. Now, what was offered to other
gods was food and wine. So they're offering up things
that the Lord's given them to false gods. Israel's doing this. And so Hosea says, so I bought
her to me for 15 pieces of silver. He went to the slave block and
he purchased her. And for an omer of barley and
for half an omer of barley. So it cost him 15 pieces of silver,
an omer of barley, and half an omer of barley. Jack Shanks was
saying there was probably someone bidding against him because it
got up to 15 pieces of silver, and they might have bid 15 pieces
of silver and a homer of barley. And then Hosea said, I'll go
even more. I'll go another half. And he
ended up being sold, sold to Hosea. My oh my. And I said unto her, thou shalt
abide for me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot,
and thou shalt not be for another man. So will I also be for thee. Now look at that. I stopped as
I was studying this today, and when I saw the words, so will
I also be for thee. Brother Brian, God's for us.
That's glorious, isn't it? That's glorious. God's for us.
He's not against us. He purchased us Himself. Far
more than 15 pieces of silver and an omer of barley and a half
omer of barley, He purchased us with His blood. My, oh my, he gave his life for
us. It's absolutely amazing. And he's for us. It's just incredible. The God
of the universe is for us. And he's manifested that to us.
God the Father has manifest that by sending his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Christ, who's the word of
God incarnate, has manifest his love for us. by coming and dying
for us. He's manifested that he's for
us by shedding his precious blood for us. And then the Holy Spirit
has manifested that he's for us by coming and regenerating
us and giving us faith to believe in repentance before God, to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, rejoice, God's for us.
This is absolutely amazing. I just marveled at that as I
saw those little words right there. So simple too, right?
So will I also be for thee. And we see all through this book,
you know, Gomer wanders off, goes back into adultery, and
Jose still loves her, doesn't he? Jose still loves her, doesn't
he? His love for her doesn't cease. He's always for her. It's amazing. For the children of Israel shall
abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without
a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without
teraphim. Afterward shall the children
of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their
king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter
days. And this has happened, hasn't it? David was made king. Israel returned unto the Lord.
And now spiritually, Israel, in the latter days, by the grace
of God, we're being drawn to Christ, right? Giving faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we come to him, don't we?
Oh, we do. We run to him. So I pray that
this study tonight, that putting it together was wonderful. This
whole chapter is just about redemption through Christ and his precious
blood. The fact, now think of this, this world is like a slave
market. We're all born dead in trespasses
and sins. And what are we slaves to? Sin. Everyone in this world are slaves
to sin. Now there's some of us being
redeemed from the slave block of sin, haven't we? We still,
we still, now think of this, this is wonderful. We still,
we still have the presence of sin, and we will till the day
we die, but the power's been broken, isn't it, my dear brother
and sister? The power of sin's been broken in our lives. The
penalty of sin's already been taken care of. So we can live,
my dear sister, we can live rejoicing in Christ. We can live rejoicing
in the full forgiveness we have in Christ. And one day we're
gonna be completely delivered from this world, which is like
a slave market. It's a slave market of sin, the
old timers called it. I was reading some of the old
timer preachers, and they were saying, well, this world's a
slave market to sin. And think of this, Christ came
into the slave market of sin and went to the slave market
and purchased us with his own blood from the slave block of sin.
The world, we're being auctioned off. The world's bidding for
us fame and fortune and money and all that. But the world's
riches can't compare to the precious blood of Christ. Can't even compare,
beloved. My, putting this study together,
it just, for me, it just showed us God's work of redemption.
The work by which the Lord Jesus Christ delivered us from the
bondage of our sin. We were caught up in it and we
didn't even have any idea. We were in love with sin and
didn't even know it. That's how it was. But what a
cost. Now, again, we see in verse 2
that Homer paid 15 pieces of silver, and Homer a barley, and
half of Homer a barley. But Christ redeemed us with his
blood. Precious blood. You know what
I found out today? In all my studies through the
year, I never looked at what the Greek word for precious was.
You know what it is, Brother Brian? Costly. When it says the precious blood
of Christ, the costly blood of Christ. Oh my, my heart was soaring,
beloved. My, how precious is Christ's
blood to us. It's costly though, isn't it?
For Him. Oh my! And it's so precious to
us. So precious to us. It's wonderful. So all through this chapter in
this book, this chapter we see Hosea's purchase of his fallen
wife from slavery, as the story of Hosea shows us, is redemption
by the payment of a price. There was a cost. There was a
cost. My. Now we could not pay the
price for our sins at all. We couldn't redeem ourselves
from our sins. But think of this. The blood
of Christ is so precious, so costly, so valuable, that His
one sacrifice, He redeemed all the elect of all the ages. And
we're in that number, my dear brother and sister. My! That's amazing! That's grace,
isn't it? That's unmerited, poured out,
free grace, shown to sinners. Look at verse 1. 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 flagrants of wine. Now marvel at these words here.
God tells Hosea, go show love to your wife again. She's already
his wife. She's obviously went off again
in adultery, and this time she sold herself off into slavery. We're gonna look later on, there's
three ways that you can go into slavery, and one of them is debt.
So obviously she owed a debt. But Hosea has commanded you demonstrate
his love to his wife, Gomer. What a picture of God's enduring
love for his born-again blood-washed people. Despite our unfaithfulness,
he's faithful. Isn't that wonderful, beloved?
So marvelous, this act of love is not merely emotional, This
love is not merely emotional, but we see it involves commitment
and action. What does it reflect? Well, it
reflects the covenantal love God has for his people in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. God loves us as he loves Christ. God loves us with an
everlasting love. Despite our unfaithfulness, he's
faithful. Oh, my. It makes us want to love
him even more, doesn't it? We don't feel like, well, I can
go do whatever I want. We're like, no, Lord. I love
you. You're wonderful. My. And this chapter portrays the
death of our Lord Jesus Christ for his people as it shows God's
work of redemption. When, when Hosea is purchasing
him, purchasing Gomer, that's a picture of Christ purchasing
us. But like, again, I've said, Christ, he purchased us from
the slave block with his blood, not with silver and barley. My. And the Lord, remember, the Lord
delivered us from our, from the bondage of our sins. by going
to Calvary's cross and dying in our room and place. And satisfying
God's law fully is the end of the law for righteousness and
for extinguishing God's wrath that was against us. And he offered
his blood, the blood of the God-man, perfect,
sinless. the only redemption price that
God would accept for the redemption of we sinners. And we say, Hallelujah! What a Savior is Jesus Christ
our Lord! No wonder our hearts fill with
joy! This is marvelous! He delivered us from all our
sins, all of sin's bondage, at the cost of His own life. at
the shedding of his precious blood. And again, this is all
pictured in Hosea's purchase of his fallen wife, right? She's
fallen even lower. And he goes and purchases her.
He still loves her. We see his love hasn't changed,
and then his love is put into action by actually going and
purchasing her. He could have said, I'm just going to leave
her there. And you know, even after he purchased her, by law,
he could have had her killed. But he didn't. Because he's a
picture, he's a picture of Christ. And Christ loved his bride and
redeemed her. And he loves his bride and he
redeems her. My! It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. Now this idea, what this shows
us too, Hosea goes and purchases his fallen wife from slavery.
And again, I'm going to go over this quite a bit by repeating
this. But Hosea shows us redemption
by the payment of a price. Redemption at a cost. It cost him 15 pieces of silver,
an omer of barley, and an afomer of barley. But he loves her.
That's nothing to him. Even though it may have been
costly to him, it's nothing to him. He loves her. He'd probably
pay even more. Christ loves His bride so much,
those given to Him by the Father, so much that He gives His life
for her, sheds His blood, and purges us from the slave block
of sin. It's glorious. It's absolutely
glorious. Now the idea of cost, redemption
at a cost, was taught in the Old Testament. was a principle
of Jewish law that property should remain within a family, if possible,
to the kinsman-redeemer. We have an amazing story in the
scriptures of... Read the book of Ruth. It's amazing.
It's all about the kinsman-redeemer. Boaz is the kinsman-redeemer
of Ruth. It's an absolutely beautiful
picture. Now, to be deprived of property
was to be deprived of your inheritance. So provision was made in the
law of God whereby if a man lost his property, he could receive
it back through the obligation of a kinsman redeemer. And this meant that if the man
fell into debt, oftentimes a man would fall into debt and his
land would be sold to pay for his debt. And the duty would fall on his
closest kinsman, redeemer. Say, Brian, you were my older
brother, and I fell into debt, and I sold all my land. Well,
then the duty would fall upon you, as you're the near kinsman,
if you're my oldest brother, to purchase that land for me. And to restore it, not necessarily
to me, but to the family, to the family. And the man who did
this, if you did that for me and we were Jewish, you would
be the kinsman redeemer. Kinsman redeemer. And the process was a work of
redemption. It's a wonderful picture, a wonderful
example in the Old Testament when Boaz says about Ruth, I'm
the kinsman redeemer. Oh my. My oh my. Because he was the near kinsman
to Ruth's wife and to Ruth's mother-in-law. Or to Ruth's husband,
I'm sorry. Ruth's husband and Ruth's mother-in-law. Another picture of redemption
at a cost in the Old Testament is when a ransom price should
be paid. Brother Brian, I'm going to use you and me again as an
example. Say I had an ox in my field that
got free and he ran into your field and he kills one of your servants.
Say it's a bull or an ox and off he goes and he mauls one
of your servants and kills them. Under Hebrew law, that's a crime for which the animal can be killed
And if I did it on purpose, I could be killed. If I was negligent, then I could
be killed too. But if it was an accident, you
wouldn't forfeit your life, but the animal could be killed. So an arrangement
was made. would be made by me, who owned
the animal, to settle price with the relatives of the man who
was killed. And then I could redeem myself
and the animal by paying that ransom. Well, beloved, we can't pay the
ransom due our sins, can we? See, Christ is both our kinsman
and redeemer, And he's the ransom payer. Because we have a debt that we
cannot pay, can we? I can't pay for one sin, can
you guys? I can't pay for one. Let alone billions that I've
committed in my lifetime. But rejoice, beloved God. Christ
paid for all the sins of all his people one time by the sacrifice
of himself. by the shedding of His precious,
costly blood at Calvary's cross. And He redeemed us all, beloved,
all we who are His people. And there's still lost sheep
out there, isn't there? Oh, He's still bringing them to Himself,
ones that He purchased with His blood. Again, we don't know who
they are, so we say, whosoever will, let them come. Come to
the water of life, come to Christ. Come to Christ. Are you thirsty? Oh, are you about to the point
where you have nothing and you can't do anything spiritually? Flee to Christ. He's the only
hope for we sinners. Let's read verses 1 to 3 again.
Now the price of redemption was the kofar in Hebrew. These words
show that the idea of redemption by price was firmly fixed in
the Old Testament. So what we looked at there shows
us that redemption at a cost is in the Old Testament. Now we're going to see redemption
at a cost is in the New Testament as well. Let's read first though
Hebrews, or Hosea I mean, Hosea chapter 3 verses 1 to 3. 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 flagrants
of wine. So I, here's Hosea saying, so
I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver, and for an omer of
barley, and for an half omer of barley. Then I said unto her,
thou shalt abide, For me, many days thou shalt not play the
harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man. So will I also
be for thee. So again, the idea we saw of
redemption by the payment of a price is in the Old Testament.
It's also in the New Testament. Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20. Now, we're gonna see the word
ransom in verse 28. It's the Greek word
loutron, which is in Matthew chapter 20, verse 28. The Greek word loutron, which
is in verse 28, we see here ransom, it means this. to loose or deliver
by payment of price or to ransom. It is a ransom price paid for
redeeming captives, loosing them from their bonds and setting
them at liberty. We've been released from the
bondage of sin, beloved, and we've been set free. If the Son shall make you free,
you're free indeed, right? It's wonderful. It also means
this, it applies spiritually to the ransom paid by Christ
for the delivering of men and women from the bondage of sin
and death by purchasing us from the slave block of sin with his
precious redeeming blood. Let's read verses 24 to 28 of
Matthew chapter 20. This is wonderful. And when the
ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the
two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him
and said, You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion
over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon
them. But it shall not be so among
you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your ministers.
And whosoever shall be chief among you, let him be your servants. Now, this is the portion where
I get that we who are pastor and deacons, we're servants.
We're servants to the church. We're not to be over you. We're
servants. We're one of you. We're one of
you. Look at that. I'll read that
again. Whosoever shall be chief among you, let him be your servant.
Now here, here's the verse we're going to look at. Look at this.
Why did the Son of Man come? Did He come to be ministered
to? No. Look at this. Even as the Son
of Man came not to be ministered unto. See, in heaven, He's being
ministered unto, right? The angels are falling down before
Him to praise Him and worship. The saints are worshiping Him.
He doesn't need to be ministered to. He's the King of kings and
the Lord of lords. But look at, this is beautiful.
Because remember Brian in Matthew 1, 21, it says, he came to save
us from our sins. Oh, this is beautiful. This is
beautiful. Look at this. But to minister, remember he's
a servant. Look at this. And to give his
life a ransom for many. Now remember what I said that
meant? That delivering us. with a payment of a price in
the Greek, a ransom price paid for redeeming captives. We were
held captive by sin, beloved. And look what he says, I come
to set you free. And praise God, he did it, didn't
he? It is finished. Oh, praise God. We're redeemed,
beloved. Oh my, turn if you would to Titus
chapter two. Titus chapter two, my oh my. So our savior's saying there
in Matthew, Matthew, and look what he says again, but to minister
and to give his life a ransom for many. Do you notice it doesn't
say all, but it does say many. And again, we don't know who
the elect are, we know they're a number that no man can number,
so we preach the gospel to everyone. Right? That's right. We don't limit it. We preach
the gospel. God's the one does the saving He's the one does
the saving Look at this in Titus chapter 2 verses 13 and 14 Again
Looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our
great God and our Savior Jesus Christ Who gave himself for us
that he might what redeem us? He might purchase us that he
might set us free by the shedding of his blood, right, from all
iniquity and purifying to himself a peculiar people, zealous of
good works. Now I'll read Matthew again.
Even as the Son of Man came, not to be ministered unto, but
to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. We just saw
in Titus 2, verse 14, that he came, he came to redeem us from
all our iniquity, all our sin, beloved. all our sin and purify
us unto himself. We're sanctified in Christ, beloved. We're still sinners while we're
in this world, but we're sanctified in Christ. And then turn, if
you would, to 1 Peter. 1 Peter. Oh, so what the Lord Jesus Christ
is bringing forth, and remember, these are His words in Matthew
20, 28. He's bringing forth that He died
for His people. He died for our sins. And here's another portion of
Scripture that's so clear on this, so clear. 1 Peter 1, verses
18, we'll read to 21. Look at this. For as much as
you know that you were not redeemed, all you have purchased, right,
were purchased, but we weren't redeemed with what? With corruptible
things. See, remember in our text, Hosea, he redeemed Gomer
with silver. Corruptible things, things that
will pass away, right? Things of this world. But look at this,
such as silver and gold. Well, he used silver. From your
vain conversations received by tradition from your fathers.
But with what? The precious. That word again,
costly. Costly, beloved. Oh, the costly
blood of Christ is of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
The perfect, sinless, spotless sacrifice. Behold the Lamb of
God who takes away the sins of the world. Behold Him, Christ
upon the cross, redeeming us, purchasing us, beloved, from
the slave block of sin. Oh, it's beautiful. Look at this.
Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world.
He's a lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
Before there was ever a sinner, there was a Savior. Oh, but was
manifest in these last times. Right? He became a man. Who was
He manifest for? For you, for we who are the redeemed,
brother, my, this is glorious, who by him do believe in God. He gives us, the Holy Spirit
gives us faith to believe, right? And that we have one object,
our faith, that's Christ, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your
faith and your hope might be in who? Somebody tell me. Might be in who? Amen, sister. God. And Jesus Christ is God
incarnate in the flesh. Come to redeem his people from
their sins. Hallelujah. What a Savior is
Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, so this very clearly says
that Christ's life and his blood was the cost of our redemption.
His blood redeemed us, beloved. It's precious blood. Again, it
means costly in the Greek. We're bought with a price, the
scripture says, doesn't it? The precious, precious, precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He lived the perfect life, and
then he gives his life for us by the shedding of his blood.
And by shedding that blood, he redeems us from all our sins. This is wonderful news for sinners. I'll tell you. And I pray that
God, if you do not think you're a sinner and you're listening
to this message, that God will show you you're a sinner in desperate
need of Christ. Because that's all he's done
for us. We're no better than anyone else. God just revealed
himself to us by his grace and mercy. And given us a hope, we
see here. Our hope is in God. Our hope
is in he who is God in the flesh. Our hope is in Jesus Christ.
My, the God-man. Beloved of God, the Lord entered
into this world and bought us out of the slave market of sin.
That's what we were in. We're born into the slave market
of sin, beloved. Born into this world. It's nothing
but a slave market of sin. And he came into this, think
of this, he came into this world of sin and death. Entered into the marketplace
of sin and at the cost of his redeeming blood He purchased
us beloved he purchased us oh The cost of his own sinless life
the cost of his precious blood He purchased us you know why
because he loves us with an everlasting unchanging faithful faithful
eternally faithful love Now I know we can't take all
that in, but it's true, beloved. And it makes our heart rejoice,
doesn't it? Makes our heart rejoice. Oh. And remember the Greek word for
redemption, to redeem, was to set us free? What liberty we
have. We've been set free, beloved.
We've been set free from sin. The penalty of it, the power
of it, one day, oh, one day we'll be set free from the presence
of it. And what a glorious day that will be, because we'll be
face to face with Christ then. Oh, it'll be glorious. It'll
be glorious. And he bought us into that glorious
liberty, that freedom that we have with his precious, precious
blood. Now let's go back to Hosea and
look at verse two. So I bought her to me for 15
pieces of silver, and for an omer of barley, and an aft omer
of barley. Now Gomer had left Hosea again,
and we see she had sunk even lower this time. Lower and lower,
until at last she became a slave. Jack's thanks says that she's
sold into slavery in the capital city of Samaria. Now there's
three ways. Remember earlier I said there's
three ways for one to become a slave in this time? Number one is by conquest. So
if the Romans came in and they conquered a land, they would
take so many people, they'd usually take all the soldiers and they'd
turn them into slaves so they couldn't fight. And they'd leave
young men and children and that allows the population to grow
again. But they would take by conquest. You could be a slave
by conquest. Number two, by birth. You could be birthed into slavery.
If your parents were slaves, you were born into slavery. It's
a sad thing, but that's what happened back then. And then,
by debt. The third thing was by debt.
which most commentators say, this is how Gomer became a slave,
by death. So the time came, she's at the
worst of her misery, isn't she? She's at the worst of her misery.
She's being sold on the auction block. Back then, they used to
take women, they put them on the auction block, they take
their clothes off, so the men who were gonna purchase them
could see what she's like. That's humiliating. She's at the lowest of lows,
beloved. Her clothes were removed and
men came and saw her nakedness and bid for her. And again, the bidding was going
back and forth until only Hosea and one man
were left. The man obviously bid 15 pieces
of silver and a bushel of barley, and Hosea said, I'll do another
half homer of barley. Sold to Hosea. Sold. So he's purchased her now. She's his wife. And now he's
purchasing her from the slate block of sin. How long have we
been Christ's bride? from before the foundation of
the world. We came into this world dead in trespasses and
sins on the slave block of sin, beloved. 2,000 years ago, Christ came
and purchased us with his precious blood. Now, we didn't know it,
did we, Brother Brian? We had no clue. We found out,
though, didn't we? Sister Linda, we've been rejoicing
ever since, haven't we? Oh my, it's wonderful. He purchased
us though. Just like, just like, just like
Hosea purchased Gomer, except he, it was his blood. It was
his life. The blood of God. Remember, scripture
says in Acts, we're going to hit there eventually, that God,
God himself purchased the church with his own blood. God became
a man. Fully God and fully man. His
name is Jesus Christ. And when he went to the Calvary's
cross, he went for all his bride, all the elect of all the ages
to purchase us, to ransom us from the slave block of sin.
It's glorious, isn't it? We couldn't pay our own ransom
price, not at all. My, oh my. So at this point,
Hosea now owned his wife. He owned his wife now. And again,
as I said earlier, he could do anything he wished with her.
He could have her killed, and yet he did not. Because at this
point, Hosea's love, which is an illustration of God's love,
burned the brightest for her. He purchased her. Brother Brian,
he loved her so much. She was back into adultery. She
got down to nothing, and he loves her still. He loves her so much
that he purchases her with his own money, with his own food.
So his love is burning the brightest for her. When Christ died on
Calvary's cross, his love for us was manifest the brightest. He's given His life for us, beloved.
What more, how more can He show His love for His people? By redeeming
us with His own blood. Greater love hath no man than
this, than a man lay down his life for his friends. He laid
his life down for his bride, for his people. It's absolutely
incredible. So instead of doing harm to her,
what's he do? He puts clothes on her. He had
her clothed right away. He doesn't want people seeing
her nakedness. He had her clothed. And claimed that love from her
was now his right. Does God love like that? Yes.
Think of this. God steps into the slave market
of sin. And he buys us out of the bondage
of sin and death with his blood. Something worth far more than
silver and gold, as we saw in 1 Peter, right? We're bought
not with corruptible things such as silver and gold and the vain
traditions of men. No, we're purchased with the
blood of Christ. You can't put a price on that,
can you, brother? You can't put a price on the blood of Christ.
It's so precious. Oh my. So, so when we see Hosea standing
in the marketplace under orders from God to purchase this, this
adulteress who's his wife and who's now a slave, he's told
to go purchase her. We see that this is the measure
of God's love for us. See, we're just like Gomer. We
chased after other gods. Little G's. It could have been
self. It could have been we were in
religion. It could have been the fact that we're just rebels
shaking our fist at God. I know I'm all three of those
before the Lord saved me. But it could have been all kinds
of things we were doing. And Paul writes about this whole
list of what folks used to be, and he says, and such were some
of you. But you were redeemed. That's us. We're redeemed. We're
purchased out from under all that by the precious blood of
Christ. It's absolutely beautiful. Oh,
and beloved God, we were Gomer. We're on the slave block of sin,
and the world's bidding for us. Do you know that? The world bids for us on the
slave block of sin. You know how it bids? Fame. You
can be famous. You can be wealthy. You can have influence and power. That's the world's currency,
silver and gold. Fame, fortune, a name. But when all seemed lost, Man's
born dead and trespasses in sin. God sent the Lord Jesus Christ,
his son, into the marketplace of sin, into this world, to buy
us, to purchase us from the slave block of sin. Oh, the auctioneer
says, what am I to bid for these poor, helpless, enslaved sinners? What's the bid? And the world
says, fame and fortune and this and that. And Jesus Christ says,
my precious blood. And the auctioneer says, paid
in full. No one can match that price. Paid in full, sold to the Lord
Jesus Christ at the price of his precious blood. We say hallelujah,
don't we? What a savior is Jesus Christ
our Lord. And as the bids of the world
are worth nothing, fame and fortune are nothing compared to the precious
blood of Christ. And then he purges us with his
blood, and then you know what he does? He clothes us in his
righteousness. He clothes our nakedness, doesn't
he? clothes our nakedness with His
righteousness, with His perfect, spotless righteousness, takes
off our dirty robes of righteousness, which are filthy rags, and robes
us with His pure, perfect, spotless righteousness. Christ says to
his people, so I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver and
for an omer barley, and half omer barley. But Christ's price
was much more than silver gold, so I bought her with my precious
blood. I bought my bride with my precious
blood, Christ says. Oh, praise his mighty name. And
he purchased our eternal souls with his precious, precious blood. Is there someone listening who's
gone down until you're on the slave auction block as a worthless
sinner? That's where he found us, isn't
it, beloved? Oh, are you miserable enough
to desire to be set free? That's where the Lord found us. Oh, if you find yourself in this
state, then flee to Christ. Christ redeems sinners, such
as you and I, with his precious, precious blood. Poor sinner,
come to him now, and you will find that he is able and that
he is willing to buy you, to save you, to clothe you with
his righteousness, because that's all he's done for his people.
He done everything for us. He done everything for us, and
we say praise his mighty, mighty name. Amen and amen. Brother Brian, can you close
us in prayer?