Tonight's study will be an introduction
to this wonderful book. I've been desiring to preach
this book for a long time, and now the time is right. And this
is just an absolutely wonderful book. When we're studying this
book, we're going to see Jose as a type of Christ, and Gomer
is us. We're going to see the love that
Christ has for us. And I was talking to Norm about
this yesterday. We were talking on the phone.
You ever stop and think that God's love for us has never changed? He doesn't change, does he? And
that his love was set upon us before we were even born? And all through the, and I got
talking to him and I said, man, we were never his enemies. We were always his people. Because
the scripture says when we were enemies in our minds, it never
says we were God, that God was our enemy. Oh my! He's always been for us. Always. And I will never change,
beloved. And we are going to see just
a wonderful picture. And all through this book is
wonderful pictures of Christ in the church. And it pictures Christ's love
for his bride. Think of this. Christ's love
was manifest at Calvary's cross, right? in a way that we can't
even measure. We can't even measure. But His holiness was there too,
by the fact that He had to go and die for our sins. But His
love was what motivated Him. That unchanging love for us. God's our Father. And that Father,
He's a Father not like our earthly fathers. They may have loved
us dearly. They may not have. But His love
is unchanging. And He's always been for us. Isn't that amazing? I just want
to keep bringing that to our mind because we are going to
see, as we go through this study, we're going to see the love that
Christ has for his bride. Let's look at these first two
verses. The name of the message is actually
the word of the Lord. And it comes from the first verse,
Hosea chapter 1. Let's read verses 1 and 2. The
word of the Lord that came unto Hosea the son of Barai, in the
days of Uzziah, Jotham, Asa, Hezekiah, kings of Judah. And
in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. The beginning of the word of
the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Take
unto thee a wife of Hortums, and children of Hortums, for
the land hath committed great Hortum departing from the Lord. So take note of these first words
here. They show us, number one, the
divine authorship of this book. It's the word of the Lord. It's the word of the Lord. The
Holy Spirit's the true author, isn't he? The Lord's the author.
The word of the Lord, what? That came unto Hosea. The word of the Lord that came
unto Hosea, the meaning of Hosea's name in Hebrew is deliverance,
salvation, Joshua, and the Lord saves. Who's our deliverer? The Lord Jesus Christ. Right? Who is our salvation? The Lord
Jesus Christ. Who is our Joshua, which is Jehovah
Saves? The Lord Jesus Christ. And we
know He is the Lord that saves. And we're living proof of that.
We're living proof of that, beloved. His name signifies a Savior.
He was in some things a type of Christ. And prophesies he
prophesies the Lord Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation
by him alone. As we're going to see as we journey
through this wonderful book. And again, we see that the Holy
Spirit is the author of this book. It's the word of the Lord.
He's the author of all the scriptures. And we bend our knee to that. It's wonderful, isn't it? It's
absolutely wonderful. He inspired men to write certain
words, which is the scripture, and we have it here, and we know
for a fact, by faith, by God's divine revelation, that we have
the word of God. And we believe it. That's a miracle
itself, you know that? Natural man don't want to receive
this book. There was a time when we didn't want to receive it,
and now look at us. Oh my, tell me more about Christ. Tell me
about my Savior. I love it. I love it. Oh, so the Holy Spirit's the
author of this wonderful book, is all the Bible, and these words
are the words of the Lord, revealing His mind and His will, which was bought before us by
the Holy Spirit of God and impressed upon Hosea's mind so that he
penned down that which the Holy Spirit wanted him to pen. And it was committed unto him
as it was committed to the authors of the scriptures, the human
authors who wrote the words that these things were committed to
them. But the true author is God, the Holy Spirit. They're
instruments, aren't they? We pick up a pen to write. They're
just an instrument in the Holy Spirit's hand. Isn't that wonderful? We're instruments in his hands. Isn't that wonderful? My, oh
my. So Hosea, his name means Savior. And again, we're gonna see so
clearly how he's pictured, the Lord Jesus Christ is pictured
through this book. It's absolutely incredible. Hosea,
we see, was commanded by God to go down to the red light district,
wasn't he? That's where he was commanded
to go. Go down to the red light district and choose you a wife
of whoredoms, prostitutes. I was reading somewhere, someone
said, oh, that's God telling him to go and do evil. No, that's
not. That's not. It's telling him
to go down and pick a wife. And notice something here. He
used to go choose a wife. Isn't that amazing? Did Christ choose his wife? His
bride? Mm-hmm. We were chosen by the Father
in Christ before the foundation of the world. Look at that. Go and take thee a wife of Hortum's. You know, we're a wife of Hortum's.
We fell in Adam, dead in trespasses and sins, no hope. And here comes
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, come to this world to redeem
us from all our sins. And the scripture says, now think
of this, and Jude, we've talked about this many times, Zane.
The Lord Jesus Christ, and I love what you said that one time,
the joy that was set before him. Do you know the cross was a joy
for him to go to? Because he's gonna purchase his
bride. And then it says in Jude, in
the very end of Jude, it talks about how Christ is gonna present
us faultless, blameless. That's what we are in Christ
right now, clothed in his righteousness. And then it says he's gonna do
it with exceeding joy. He's gonna be happy. You know, isn't grace so different
than religion? We can leave here leaping for
joy. We're saved, not by anything
we do, but by the grace of God. And God in Christ is happy. And God the Father is satisfied. My, so this will be a picture
of us in our natural state right here. Because God didn't choose
us. He chose us when we were dead
in trespasses and sins, didn't he? Way back in eternity. I like
what one old-time preacher said, and I love this. You ever hear
people say, God looked down through time and saw who would choose
him, and then he chose him based upon that? This old preacher
from the 1700s I was reading, I had to read it three times.
It knocked my socks off. He said, he said, God looked
down through time, and all he saw was sinners going to hell. dead and trespasses since with
no hope. And he chose to pardon this one,
this one, and this one, and this one. And you know what the amazing
thing is? We were all chosen at the same
time in Christ. I remember Spurgeon saying that.
The same time God, isn't that amazing, Jim? Spurgeon said the
same time God chose Paul, he chose us in Christ. My! So here the Lord tells him, go
down and get your wife. Take a wife. So he's gonna choose
one, right? He's gonna choose a wife. Oh my. And not just any wife, but someone
who's a prostitute. Someone who's the world will look at as nothing. The last person someone would
want to marry. The last person someone would
want to take home to your mom. But see, God's ways are not our
ways, because there's a picture here. There's a picture of us
in our natural state. And think of this, did we not
commit spiritual whoredom when we were in religion? Spiritual adultery? We're gonna
see that too. She goes back. That's just a
picture of spiritual adultery committed by men and women. Do you know there's more sin
going on on Sunday morning in pulpits around this country than
there ever is on Sunday night? You got people lying on God,
don't you? Oh my. My oh my, I'll tell you. Serious stuff. Serious stuff. Her name, Gomar, means consumption. Consumption. What a picture of
we who are God's elect in our natural state. We're born into this world, dead
in trespasses, and sins, and consumed by sin. Gomer was the daughter of Diabaeum,
whose name means dried or dead. Sounds like our father Adam, in a sense,
because Adam, being fallen, could only produce fallen children,
right? We are the dead children of a
dead father. Dead in trespasses and sins.
When Adam fell, we all fell with him. So we come into this world
dead in trespasses and sins. Enemies in our minds by wicked
works against God. Consumption is again the name of, the definition
of Gomer's name My oh my. Dead. And yet, he picks her. He chooses one who no one wanted. One who was selling her body. And he chooses her. God saw us dead in trespasses
and sins. He said, you're mine. How do
we know that? Remember in Isaiah, thou art
mine. By choice and then by purchase. Oh, I tell you, what a God we
serve. What a God we serve, beloved.
His holiness and his righteousness must be upheld. Christ does it
for us. Willingly, with joy, with joy. Oh my, let's read verses one
and two again. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the
son of Bari, in the days of Uzziah, Johahem, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings
of Judea, in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. So we saw, we see here that he
was within five different reigns of kings. in his life. The beginning of
the word of the Lord by Hosea. Again, the word of the Lord.
Again, stressing that the author of this book is God, the Holy
Spirit. And the Lord said, that's Jehovah,
the self-existent one, right, the one who needs no one, has
no beginning, no end, said to Hosea, Go take unto thee a wife
of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms. For the land hath
committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord. So, Hosea is a
preacher during the reign, as we just saw there, of four successive
kings of Judah, the oldest and the most southern of the two
Jewish states. A lot of commentators think he
had a very long ministry, 50, 60 years, possibly. But we're told nothing about
Hosea's life during those years, except this story. Except this story right here. With which the prophecy begins.
Listen to what Brother Jack Shanks says about this. We see that
early in Hosea's life, God came to him and told him a very difficult
thing. Do you imagine how hard that
would have been? He's a servant of the Lord. Hosea, you will marry a woman
who's going to be unfaithful to you, but to whom you are to
remain faithful. You will love her, but she will
disgrace your love. and you will do this to teach
Israel an object lesson. Because remember, Israel, now
they're off on other gods now. Jack continues on, he goes, you
will play the part of God and the woman will play the part
of my people. She will run away and be unfaithful to show how
my people act in a spiritual marriage which I have established
with them. You are going to be faithful
because I am faithful to Israel, even though she dishonors my
name. You know in the New Testament
it says that when we're not faithful, he's faithful. Norma's telling me that there's
a word in there, it brings forth that when we're faithless, he's faithful. Oh my. Isn't that wonderful? What? Comfort. And what a picture
we see here of the love of God. The unchanging love of God. She's gonna run off. He's gonna bring her back. And his love won't change for
her. My oh my. Without question, the
Word of God plainly teaches us that salvation is altogether
from start to finish of the Lord's. It's all according to God's free
and sovereign grace, isn't it? It's unconditional. Was Gomer
looking, was she looking for Hosea? Hosea found her, didn't
he? Oh my. Found her in Hortums. Where'd he find us? Dead and
trespassing. No different. No different in
our sinfulness. Oh my. We're also going to see God's
effectual and irresistible grace. Oh my. And we're gonna see that
the will of the sinner has absolutely nothing to do with our salvation. Gomer, she went with him, but she's gonna go off again. My oh my. And he's still gonna
love her. And I'm amazed. I'm amazed at
how this brings forth The love of God for us, even before we're
saved, it's everlasting love, as I said at the beginning. It
doesn't change. We change. We fluctuate, don't
we? We can be having a great day,
and then someone can say something to us, and we'll have a horrible
day. Right? Or vice versa. We'll be having
a horrible day, someone just say something to us, and oh man,
Thank you. They don't even know they said
anything. But God's attitude, I guess you could say,
or his, he never changes. He's always for us. If God be
what? Who can be against us? Is God
just like, well, I'm for you now, and then if you mess up,
then I'm not for you anymore? No. He's always for us. And because you were sons, God
sent forth the spirit of a son into your hearts, whereby you
now cry, I have a father. Note that. When did we become
sons? Amen! I love it! Amen! Before the foundation of the
world. We were chosen in Christ. It became real to you and I when
the Lord saved us, but we were already Christ. My! It just gets better and better,
doesn't it? So here he is. He goes and chooses
a wife, right? Out of all the different ones
that were there, he picked her. And she comes along with him,
and they get married. My oh my. Now someone might ask, and we're
gonna see all through this a picture of grace and mercy. The mercy
of God, the grace of God. How many times have before we
were saved we didn't want nothing to do with God? How many times
after we're saved have we wandered in our hearts away from God?
But you know what? His love never changed for us. My! And he always brings us back,
doesn't he? Isn't that wonderful? He's not
going to say, well, Wayne, see you later. He'll let you wander
in that wilderness for about 50 years. No, he won't do that. He won't do that. We may wander
for a little while, but he's going to bring us back if we're
one of his sheep. And I like what Spurgeon said, every backslidden
believer can be taken home to glory. My, oh, my. My oh my, and it doesn't give
us an excuse to go out and, yeah, you guys know that, I don't even
have to say that. So what do we mean when we say
that we're saved by grace alone? What does that mean? Because
we're gonna see God's grace on display as we go through this
book. What does it mean when we say
we're saved by grace alone? What does God mean when he declares
that salvation is by grace alone? This story of Hosea and Gomer
will give us the meaning of grace. Grace is boundless. It's boundless. You can't measure it. You can't
plumb God's grace. Now, our grace can be measured,
right? I'll show grace to this person. Right? That fellow did me wrong. God's
not like that with us. His grace for his people is boundless. There's no measure to it. We're
going to see that as we study through this book. It's free. It's free. He willingly went
there and chose her because God told him to, right? Well, he's
made will in the day of God's power, and he obeyed God's command,
didn't he? It's effectual goodness. God's
grace is the effectual goodness of God towards us, we who are
sinners, fallen sinners, by which he has elected us in Christ before
the foundational world, redeemed us 2,000 years ago at Calvary's
Cross by the precious blood of Christ, and regenerates us We're
born again by the Holy Spirit of God, calls us, justifies us,
we're sanctified in Christ, and then one day He's going to glorify
us, beloved, because all because we are objects of His everlasting
love, and He's always been for us. I'll tell you, that warms my
heart. That warms my heart. Oh my. God does all that. God saves His people for the
glory of His dear Son. And the Son saves those who were
given to Him by the Father, His bride, for the glory of God the
Father. And the Holy Spirit regenerates
us for the glory of God the Father and the Son. They're all glorified,
aren't they? Salvation's of the Lord. And the only way we can be saved,
the only way a sinner can be saved is by the perfect finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we believe on Him, don't
we? We believe on Him. I'm gonna do a message in John
Tomorrow for one of the short messages, but let's go look there
real quick. This is wonderful and Just like
just like Gomer wouldn't or Hosea You know Gomer wandered, but
he wouldn't he kept taking her back, right? Do you know something
wonderful right now beloved Do you believe on Christ then the scriptures here are
going to declare that we're never going to come into condemnation. Isn't that wonderful? Because our bridegroom redeemed
us. Look at this. Look at verse 17 of John chapter
3. For God sent not a son of the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might
be saved. Now we know world there is limited because not everyone
is saved, right? But look at this. He that believeth
on him is what? Someone tell me what that says.
Not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Look at that. Look at that. He
that believeth on him is not condemned. Not condemned. God's people,
because of Christ's eternal love and his perfect sin-atoning work
for us, We will not come into condemnation because the judgment
that was due us fell upon Christ, our Bridegroom. He redeemed us. He ransomed us. My, oh, my. And this grace of
God is only through Christ and Him alone. Someone made this distinction
between the mercy of God and the grace of God. Mercy is God
not giving us what we deserve. Everyone wants mercy, right?
Everyone wants mercy. Grace is God giving us what we
do not deserve. No condemnation. And notice the
clause in that, believes on Christ, whoever believes on Christ. Oh my. I was listening to someone
this week and I kind of got, I'll be honest, I got a little
disappointed. It was a preacher and he said, well I, he says,
I hope I'm not on the Broadway, I hope I'm on the narrow way. And it took me back, guys. It
took me back. It's a preacher. And I'm like, but John says that
we can know that we know that we have eternal life. So I called
up Norm, and I said, Norm, I gotta talk to you about this, man.
And he goes, oh, I've heard some guys say that. It always doesn't
sit right with me. So we dug up, and we found this
verse. We found 1 John. You can know
that you have eternal life. You know what, beloved? I know
I'm on the narrow path. And you know what Norm said?
Because the Spirit of God is in us. He's in us. We're not the same people we
were. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. So whenever people ask
me, well, what does it mean when it says to examine yourself?
I'm going off here. This, are you in Christ? Are you looking
to Christ? Is he your all in all? And we could just look to him
and live, right? Believe on him. It's wonderful. It's wonderful.
Okay. So eternal life in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ is a free gift of God's grace. Anything
short of hell is mercy, right? Anything short of hell is mercy. Now picture, note the picture
here of God's sovereign electing grace is Hosea chooses to marry
Gomer. Look at verse 3. So he went and
took Gomer, the daughter of diblam, which conceived and bare him
a son. So remember the Lord told him, you're going to take a woman
of Hortums and you're going to have children of Hortums. She's
got a son now. She's got a son. Oh my. Hosea married a woman named Gomer,
wife of Hortums. She's a prostitute. What a picture
of God's sovereign electing grace. He chose someone who no one would
choose. Right? My oh my. Isn't that wonderful, when you
think God chose me and you? Oh my, oh my. God told Hosea to love a woman,
not just any woman, but a fallen woman, a harlot. We're dead in trespasses and
sins, beloved, when we come into this world. And not just a particular
harlot, Look at this, so he went and took Gomer. A certain one. There was all kinds of them probably
there. He picked her. Oh my, isn't that wonderful,
beloved? He chose us in Christ. Because
his love set upon us. And we're in that same undeserved,
undesirable situation, aren't we, by nature. As I said, I love what that old-time
preacher said. He said, God looked down through time and said, everyone,
there was no one good. No, not one. That's what the
scripture says, too, right? None that seeketh after God.
And he chose us in Christ. Because remember, he knows the
end from the beginning. See, we can't quite grasp that. Well,
how did he do that? He knows the end from the beginning. His ways are not our ways. His
thoughts are not our thoughts. Oh my, we're living this life. He already knows everything's
gonna happen to us. And then we're gonna be in glory
with him forever. It's wonderful, wonderful. So why did he do this? What was
the purpose of him choosing this wife, choosing Gomer? Well, to
show us a picture of God's grace towards us, towards us. Again, our God has loved us with
an unchanging love. Jeremiah 31 3 says, The Lord
hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. He says that to every one of
his children. The Lord, Jehovah, the self-existent one, the one
who has no beginning or end, says to his people, I have loved
thee with everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
you. It's the goodness of God that
causes men to repent, isn't it? And do you know what repentance
is? People make a big deal of repentance. Repentance is just
a change of mind of God. Why? I hated him in my flesh,
now I love him. Isn't that amazing? Oh, I love
it. Again, Hosea's name, whose name
means salvation, lived at the same time as Isaiah and Amos. And it's from these three prophets
that we learn the characteristics of this age. To some it was the
best of times, and yet to some it was the worst of times. Just
like any age, right? Nothing new under the sun, is
there? No, no. Looked like a good time. It was
an age of luxurious materialism and apparent religious devotion. Freedom and national security,
politics, law, and religion all seemed to play into the favored
people's hands. Now all three prophets show plainly
that it was the worst of times. But to the people, they thought
everything was going great. Because the hearts of the people,
it was the worst times because the hearts of the people were
empty. Religion was just a show. It was shallow. Corruption was rampant on every
hand. Nothing new under the sun, is
there? You know, I don't despair though, because there's always
a remnant, isn't there? God always has a people. We're just a tiny, tiny portion
of that people, beloved. It's amazing. Oh my. God blessed the people. They begin to live for pleasure. They become self-absorbed. They've
abandoned morality. They'd abandon integrity in order
to live for themselves. Again, there's nothing new under
the sun. This has happened all every single
age, hasn't it? And this has been preserved for
us to show us God's great love for his people. But God will also, he doesn't
wink at that stuff. Oh my. So it sounds very familiar, doesn't
it? The times sound very familiar. Hosea's words were written to
those who considered themselves spiritual, while they just gave
lip service to God. Oh my. And most of churchianity
today, I'm sorry to say, is in it. is in it for comfort and
success. What can I get? It's not about
that. We come here to worship our king,
don't we? We come here to hear the gospel, and isn't it amazing? Scott Richardson said, I love
this. Scott Richardson said one time
he was with a bunch of preachers and he said, we tell them they're
a bunch of sinners and they still love us. Like this. But it's
true because we're sinners as preachers too. We're all sinners,
aren't we? You know, fellowship, I like what Bruce Croucher did.
It's a bunch of fellows in a ship and we're all rowing. Through
this world of woe. Oh my, oh my. So, you know, the people thought
it was great, but the prophets, they spoke of a different thing,
different time. Now this story teaches we who
are the people of God that God sometimes leads his children
into situations that are much like this. We live in an age
like this, and so have the saints that came before us. Anytime we're in this world,
we're gonna see this. But God takes us through it,
beloved. He carries us through it. He
never leaves us nor forsakes us. And His everlasting love
is set upon us. Again, if God before us, who
can be against us? Who is He that condemneth? The
God that justifies us, right? We're justified by God. It's
wonderful. Oh my. People today think of
spiritual blessings, they think in terms of wealth and happiness
and success. In fact, if a person's not happy
and successful, there are those who will begin to try to find
out what's wrong. I remember when I was in religion,
you couldn't even get down. Why are you upset? Why are you
down? Oh, I'm having a rough day. I'm having a rough day. Well, you can't be like that.
That's unbelief. No, it's called having a rough
day. Life is messy, isn't it? Life
is hard. But our hope is Christ. Our rest is Christ. Our peace
is Christ. And what peace, what hope we
can have, knowing He's ever with us, and He's always for us. And when we wander away, like
Gomer did, He still loves us. There's gonna be a time in here
when He's given her these gifts, And she thinks it's from our
lovers. The whole time it's from Hosea. Oh, what a picture of
Christ with us. Think of the many blessings we
had even before we were saved. He took care of us, watched over
us. We thought it was us or something.
Oh, that person did me a nice favor. We've given the glory
to the wrong person, weren't we? The wrong place. But now we see it, we didn't
see it then. We didn't have eyes to see it.
Oh my. So God doesn't always lead his
people through a path of joy. Most of the time it's not. It's
hard. It's hard. But what joy we have
inside our hearts, we can have. Again, like I said on the weekend,
we have tears streaming down our face and yet have peace and
joy in our hearts. Because God's for us. We know that we're going through
this situation according to the providence of God. And isn't
it amazing when people around you see you going through that,
they're wondering why you're not freaking out? And you want to
say, well, I was freaking out, like, at the beginning. But now,
like, once I got my eyes back on where I was supposed to have
them on, now I'm doing better. Because don't we all? I don't
know if you guys, sometimes something will happen. I'm like, ah! Right? Get my mind on Christ. Oh, my. Think of this. Think of how the
path is hard, but yet Christ's yoke is easy. Was Christ happy? Yeah. He was filled with joy,
but he's also called a man of soils and acquainted with grief. Was he successful? Not by man's
standards. Not by man's standards. But praise
be to God, He was and is the successful Savior of His people. My, oh, my. He came to save His
people from their sins, and He did it. So here is a great principle
for we who are redeemed of the Lord. God sometimes leads His
children to do things that afterward involved them in great distress. But be assured, beloved, he's
with us and he's for us. You imagine how shocked Hosea
was when the Lord told him to go down there and get a wife
from the red light district? My oh my. God doesn't think or
act like we do. God is sovereign. He's God. Aren't you thankful He doesn't
act like us or think like we do? He accomplishes greatest victories
and brings the greatest blessing to His name by what we would
call bad things. and failures. When I'm weak, amen, sister,
he's strong. So I ask you, beloved, we who
are undeserving sinners saved by grace, is not the story of
Hosea the story of ourselves? As members of the body, which
is the bride of Christ, we are Gomer. And Hosea is Christ, a
picture of him. He married us when we were unclean, dead in trespasses and sins.
And he knew that we would prove unfaithful again and again. The Lord Jesus Christ knew we
would forsake him, yet he loved us. with an unchanging, everlasting
love. And with love, the everlasting
love of God, right alongside the holiness, right? Because
God's justice must be satisfied and his law must be satisfied. Christ fulfills those in our
room and place. And what a manifestation of love
for his people. He redeems us from all our sins
by giving his life for us and shedding his blood to redeem
us from all our sins. And we have a picture right there,
don't we, of that undeserving thief, guilty by the law, condemned
by the law. He says, Lord, just remember
me. Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Oh my, what a
merciful God. Oh, my, oh my, marvel, marvel at
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. It is he who has purchased
us by the shedding of his blood. It's he who has saved us by the
giving of his life. It is He who fulfilled God's
law in our room and place. It is He who satisfied God's
justice that was against us. It is He who extinguished the
wrath of God that was against us. So there's what? Those that believe on Him will
not come into condemnation. Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. clothed in his perfect righteousness,
undeserving sinners are now looked upon by God the Father as not
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5 27. Marvel then,
beloved of God, as the Lord Jesus Christ has done this for his
people. Even though he knew in advance
that we would often prove faithless, that we who are the redeemed
of the Lord marvel at God's amazing grace, showing to undeserved
sinners such as we. Brother Jim, will you close us
in prayer?