I want you to turn with me in
your Bibles this morning to the book of Hosea, Hosea chapter 3. You would do well to go home
and read all of this book. It may be the love story of all
love stories. Hosea chapter 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 flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for fifteen
pieces of silver, and for an omer of barley and a half omer
of barley. 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. My desire, not only today but
every time I stand to preach, is to magnify and glorify God
in his grace. We preach the gospel of grace. I was just reading in a book
that has been compiled and edited by a man in England of sovereign
grace preachers past and present, something that Brother Mohan
said in a message that is printed in the book. Maybe the best message
he ever preached somewhere in the seventies. But he said that
the hardest thing for men and women to do, yea, even more than that, impossible
for them to do, apart from God's Spirit, is to be saved by grace
alone. Grace alone. I hate the terms that are used
by false religion in our day. One of which is, accept Jesus
as your personal savior. There are more things wrong with
that than I can have time to speak of this morning. But one
thing is for sure, the Lord's people are said to have been
made accepted in the Beloved. It is God who must accept us. And he has already accepted all
his people in the Beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ. But that being the case, nonetheless,
the Lord Jesus does save his people from their sins personally. He saves them by himself. and with himself. And he saves personally. That is, he saves us individually
as well as corporately. This is a personal salvation. And our text is a picture of
that salvation. It is a picture of God's redemption. Do we know anything about redemption? You see, when Hosea went down
to the slave market at the command of God, it was to redeem Gomer. And to redeem as I understand
it in the biblical sense. And that's really the only one
that matters. But to redeem, as we find it,
that word used in the Bible, connected to salvation, to redeem
means to buy back. To buy back by the paying of
a price. That's what it is to redeem. Thus, the very word, redeem. You see, Gomer, if we go back
in scripture and look, Gomer was already Hosea's wife. Look back with me in chapter
1 at verses 2 and 3. Hosea 1 and verse 2, the beginning
of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go
take unto thee a life of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms, for
the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the
Lord. In other words, the life he was
to choose was to be just exactly like the nation of which he was
a part, which is a type and a picture of the Lord's people, of God's
elect spiritual Israel. So he went and took Gomer, the
daughter of Deblahim, which conceived and bore him a son. This is the wife that God appointed
for Hosea. And not only that, she had become
this adulterous wife, and in her adultery, in her sin and
her waywardness, she had been brought to the lowest point. As we say, she had reached the
bottom of the barrel. And she now found herself in
bondage, sold under slavery, and having no value in herself
and no ability in herself to redeem herself. Look in Hosea
chapter two and verse five. It says of her, for their mother
hath prayed 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 fracts, mine oil
and my drink. In other words, she went after
them. thinking that they were the source
of all these things, necessities and other lives that were provided
for her. Verse 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. For she did not know, Hosea says,
that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver
and gold, which they prepared for Baal. 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." We'll show her exactly who the source
of all of this is. And now will I discover her rudeness
in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of
mine hand. I will also cause all her mirth
to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths,
and all her solemn feasts. And I will destroy her vines
and her fig trees, where 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. And I will visit upon
her the days of Balaam. wherein she burned incense to
them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels,
and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord."
That's exactly what this woman, Gunbar, did. That's exactly what
Israel as a nation did, and that is exactly what all of God's
elect did, not only in Adam, but in their own birth, and in
their own course of life, in their own will, each and every
one became just exactly like this spiritually. But what I want you to see first
this morning is that every blessing, and I do mean every blessing
which God gives to his people, they are the gifts of his grace. You say, I know that. Do we? I mean everything from A to Z
and everything in between that they are made to receive, they
have purely, freely of His grace and are altogether a gift. Now I'm going to show you that
again in three verses, if you'll listen as I read them. The first one is Ephesians 1,
and the third verse, where the apostle writes this, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. all spiritual blessings, all
the blessing of God, all in Christ, all given the free gift of his
grace in Christ before the world began. All right, here's another
verse, most important thing, righteousness. Romans 5 and verse
17, Paul writes, for if by one man's offense death reign by
one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the
gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. If you ever have righteousness,
if you are ever counted righteous in the sight of God, it will
all together be through this gift of righteousness, the abundance
of God's grace to you. And then here is the third verse,
lest in any way we think that any part of this redemption,
any part of this salvation is in any measure by human will
or works or merit. Ephesians 2 and verse 8. Paul again, for by grace are
ye saved. For by grace are ye being saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God. Even the faith by which we are
enabled to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Even that faith
is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. So everything that
we receive from God, all spiritual blessings, they are all gifts
of his grace. They are all to the praise and
glory of his grace. Christ himself being the unspeakable
gift. Our Lord standing with the woman
at the well. It says that he said unto her,
if you knew the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee,
give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water. Well, she never asked him for
the true living water. But she received it. Why? Because it is the gift of God. Here's another verse, when a
man sought to purchase something by way of his ability to pay,
to have anything of God. Peter says to a man in Acts 8,
Thy money perish with thee, because you thought that the gift of
God may be purchased with money. not even a spiritual gift, not
even ability to do anything. He says it is everything the
gift of God. And here is the verse that sums
it all up in Romans 6 and verse 23. Paul again says, for the
wages of sin is death. Whatever you and I do to merit
something, it is simply sin. And therefore the wages of sin
is death. But the gift of God, the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In that unspeakable gift Everything
is the gift of God's grace and everything is given freely to
the Lord's people in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, the preaching of the gospel, which is described in scripture
as being good news, is the announcement of that very
thing. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And it is here that the Apostle
Paul in writing to the church at Corinth is telling them how that we have
received the Spirit not of the world, but the Spirit of God. Listen to what he says in verse
12. Now we have received not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
In other words, we've received every regenerated sinner, every
one of God's people in time, receive the Spirit of God, quickening
them to new birth, bringing them to spiritual life in order for
something. That we might know the things that are freely given
to us of God. That we might know what we are
to do? No. That we are to find out some
steps that we are to follow? That we are to discover some
sacrifices that we need to make? No. Wherever the Spirit of God
brings that new birth, brings a sinner to life. It is to bring
them to the knowledge of, the appreciation of, and the reception
of the things that are freely given to us of God. You see that? Could it be any
plainer? That's why it's good news. It
is not a message of do, do, do. It is a message of done, accomplished,
given of us to us of God. And these many glorious gifts
of God's grace and mercy, hold on now, they're never said to
be purchased by Christ. They're never said to be purchased
by Christ. They're always said to have been
freely given to us in Christ. They're always said to be the
gifts of God's grace. You see, He did not have to buy
the gifts of God's love for us. It is all God's grace. It is all freely given to his
people. So, if Christ was not purchasing any
of these gifts for us in his life and death, If all these things are freely
given to us as the gift of his grace, and yet it is said that
he is there on that cross redeeming, what was he doing in his cross
death? He was purchasing. He was redeeming
us. Then you needn't argue with me
on this, because I've already twice taken my computer, that
wonderful search and rescue Bible program, and I've searched all
the Bible. Genesis to Revelation using the
words, redeem, redeemed, redemption. And I can tell you, this is the
way it is everywhere. Even as we read in that Psalm
107, redemption has to do with the redeeming or the purchasing
of some people. Look back at our text. When I read this verse Sometime
back, it hung in the back of my mind. And when I was in Michigan
last week, I got in that motel room by myself, and I couldn't
get this off of my mind. But look at what he says there.
Hosea chapter 3 and verse 2. Hosea says, so I bought her to
me. So I bought her to me. You see, he had already given
her, as we read in chapter 2, he had already given her a host
and a multitude of gifts. And he had purposed at the command
of God to give her a whole lot more gifts. But she could never enjoy them.
Why? Because she was a slave. She had reduced herself to the
most ugly, worthless creature. And she's down there on the market
up for bid to anybody for the price of a slave. As a matter of fact, the price
for a slave was 30 pieces or 30 shekels of silver. And here is this woman who was
bought for 15 pieces of silver and a portion and a half of barley. That was kind of low rations
barley. On the one hand we have a picture
of her worth, her actual worth. She's worth the ration of a slave. But on the other hand, she's
redeemed with a prize. Silver. Fifteen shekels of silver. On the one hand, we have a picture
of what we are worth in ourselves. On the other hand, we have a
picture of the worth and value of the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, this is the message
that is good news to God's people. Christ hath redeemed us. He wasn't hanging on that cross
to buy something for us by way of all these gifts that God had
freely given us in Christ before the world began. He's hanging
on that cross, paying the price, paying the ransom that is necessary
to our redemption. We were just like Gomer. You see, when Gomer fell into
her adulteries, when she left her husband, When she conducted
herself in such a terrible manner. When she became what she became
because of her unfaithfulness in sin. That didn't end their
marriage. The Lord's people are the possession
of Jesus Christ. All of God's elect are the possession
of Jesus Christ for three reasons. Number one, they are his by creation. There was not anything made that
was not made by him. The Word that was made flesh
and dwell among us. Number two, they are his because
the Father in that everlasting covenant gave them to Christ. Just read John 17. And they are
his by redemption. He bought them all, paid the
debt of their sin, and redeemed them unto himself by his cross. death. You see, he still loved
her. You say, now how can you imagine
that Hosea could ever love a woman like this? Because God commanded him to. And we would do well in all our
relationships. We would do well if we loved
those we are commanded to love simply on that basis, not because
of feeling, but because God commands it. He loved her and we know it because
he still provided for her. It would be like someone going
down to the local motel where his wife is, as we say, shacked
up with some other man or something, and he lays money and food and
all these things at the door. That's what he's talking about. And that's the way divine love
is. Divine love finds its reason
in God. God finds His reason for loving
us in Himself. And when she became a slave,
that did not change what God had commanded Him concerning
her. But she could not enjoy any blessing
of Hosea now because she had become a slave. The law had a hold on her. Her fall had brought her to bondage. Justice had a claim now on her. And that's exactly where we fell
in at. Love with an everlasting love. blessed with a covenant salvation
in Christ before the world began, espoused to Christ as his bride
from old eternity. But when we first came in that
man, our federal heir and representative, the one from whom we came, we
fell in him to such a degree that we were enslaved even before
we were born. And we prove it when we are born. We prove it. In the same fashion of Gomer,
when God's elect fell in Adam, when we sinned against God in
him, that did not change that everlasting covenant of grace. Thank God. Everything we have in Christ. All the blessings. All the spiritual
blessings. Nothing is going to last anyway. And this glorious redemption. Paul expressed it like this.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption. that is in Christ Jesus. What an amazing thing is this
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You see, Christ was not
suffering the death of the cross to make God love us. that to
redeem us from the slave market of sin, to release us from the
incarceration of divine justice by paying the dead, by suffering
the penalty necessary for divine justice, to righteously and justly
set us free. He wasn't just standing our bail. He was purchasing us. It wasn't
just the release out of jail. It was the purchasing, the redeeming
of us unto His own self. to redeem us to God who already
possessed us, who already was in relationship to us, redeemed
us from our sins, redeemed us from the curse of the law, redeemed
us to God. We couldn't redeem ourselves. The bankrupt sinners whose sin
had left us like Gomer, wretched and unclean and imprisoned. The psalmist said it like this,
none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give
to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of the soul is
precious. It ceases forever. but the lover of our soul. Oh, how could he ever have loved
us? How could his heart ever have
been drawn out to such unlovely creatures as we are? How could
he ever, in his love, have suffered the death of the cross? to redeem us. That's His good news. He redeemed
us. He came into the world to save
sinners. He suffered and He died for the
ungodly. Peter said he suffered the just
for the unjust that he might bring us to God. Turn over and look at 1 Peter
1. 1 Peter 1 and verse 18. Listen to this now. 1 Peter 1, verse 80, Forasmuch
as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, that silver coin that was taken
from every person in Israel as the price of redemption, Peter
says, you know that didn't actually redeem you. But with the precious blood of
Christ, there's no talking about salvation
apart from redemption. And there's no talking about
redemption apart from the bleeding, the dying, the life-giving of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You're redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
who barely was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you. For you who by him, by his enablement,
by his giving faith, do believe in God that raised him up from
the dead and gave you glory, that your faith and hope might
be in God. Turn over to Revelation 5. Revelation 5. You see, every place you find
redemption in the Bible, it is always particular. Christ is
not hanging on that cross to make redemption possible for
every son and daughter of Adam. Christ is hanging on that cross
to redeem his pride. Just like Hosea, when he went
down to the slave market, he didn't redeem every slave woman
in that market. He went to redeem Gomer. And here they are in Revelation
5 and verse 9. And they sung a new song. saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof,
for Thou hast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood,
listen to this, out of every kindred, and tongue, and
people, and nation. The redeemed will stand in glory
and in harmony. If not on this earth, they're
going to be in perfect harmony in that hour, and this is the
subject and theme of their song, singing to the Lamb, You redeemed
us. You redeemed us by your blood,
by your death, your sacrifice. You redeemed us to God. You redeemed us out of every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. You redeemed us from among me. Look over in Revelation 14. Here they are again. Verse 3, And they sung as it
were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts and
the elders. And no man could learn that song
but the hundred and forty and four thousand. Who are they? That is simply a number that
is given by God to show that the whole complete company of
the redeemed will be there. Just like Israel as a whole,
12 tribes, 144,000, spiritual Israel, all will be
there and none missing. which were redeemed from the
earth. These are they which were not
defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which
follow the Lamb with us wherever he goeth. These were redeemed
from among men, the firstfruits unto God and
to the Lamb." He redeemed us. These, these
he redeemed. The kinsman redeemer that we
have pictured in the book of Ruth, Boaz, who is a type of
Christ. He went down to the gate of the
city, to the seat of all legal transactions. He did exactly
what was necessary, paid exactly what was necessary to redeem
Ruth. Why, for his bride. The Apostle Paul, speaking to
the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, he said, Take heed, therefore,
unto yourself and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own
blood. That means Christ is God. That means that redemption is
by his blood. And that means that the church, which is said to be Zion, which
is said to be Jerusalem, which is said to be his bride, is who he redeems. Here is our Lord in the synagogue
at Nazareth. He opens up where they are meeting. He says, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives. and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." You think Gomer was bruised, battered by her false lovers,
used, abused, cast aside? You see, this is what God-given
faith confesses. We have been redeemed by the
blood of Christ. We have been redeemed by his
death. On the cross our beloved was
purchasing us from off the slave market of sin, whereto we had
sold ourselves, that we might enjoy for all eternity the things
that God has freely given us of his grace. It says he gave himself a ransom
for many. us. Jeremiah, hear the word of
the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the aisles of Pharaoh,
and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him
as a shepherd doth his flock, for the Lord kept the conniver
and supplanter." That's what we are by nature.
Gomer. Jacob. That's what we are by grace,
redeemed by Christ. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob,
and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he. Isaiah. Aroke, aroke, put on
thy strength, O Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city. For henceforth there shall no
more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shed thyself
from the breast, arise and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself
from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith
the Lord, you have sold yourselves for naught. And ye shall be redeemed
without money. You have sold yourselves for
naught. And you shall be redeemed without
money. How's that? With blood. With
Christ. Like the Israel of old, in that
Egyptian bondage, they were redeemed. That's a picture of redemption.
And they were redeemed by the blood of that Passover lamb that
was sprinkled, and they were redeemed by power. God, actually
by his power, brought them out of that captivity. So God the Spirit has to come,
and because of Christ's blood shedding on that cross, and the
satisfaction of divine justice, and the payment of the debt of
our sin, he comes in the power that belongs to God alone. And rests us out of the hand
of the one who is stronger than we are. Delivers us out like
he did those Israelites, making a way when there was no way. And what a God glorifying this
thing is. And what a comfort to sinners
it is. And what good news it is. That when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law. That we might
receive the adoption of sons. Not that we might become sons.
But that we might receive the adoption which is the public
displaying and public manifestation of sonship. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying,
Abba, Father. He redeemed us. Who? Those who believe God. Paul writing to Titus, said, Looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity, and purifying to himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works. Let me show you one more verse
in 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, just as he does everywhere else,
Paul gives instruction in what some people call practical godliness. I'm not sure I like that term,
but anyway, instruction in life. cleanliness in living and such.
That's what he's talking to, especially to these people who
came out of a culture of blatant, not only idolatry, but immorality
and ungodliness of the worst kind. But when he tells them
to free fornication and such as that, he says in verse 19,
What? Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? which you have
of God, and you are not your own. You say, well, I'm my own man. Well, you don't belong to Christ,
then. You'll die. You know what they say about
a self-made man? He's got a fool for a creator. You are not your
own. Why? For you are bought with
a price. For you are bought for a price. Christ did not hang on that cross
to buy something just in case you need it or want it. He redeemed his people. For you
are bought with a price. glorify God in your body and
in your spirit, which are God's. Now in our text verse, this wonderful,
wonderful text verse, he says, so I brought her to me. I bought her for me. Christ bought us for himself. So that the Song of Solomon pictures
for us what I think are wonderful words. Where the bride says, I am my
beloved's and he is mine. Look at this
third verse of Hosea 3. And I said to her, Thou shalt abide for me many
days. This is Christ speaking to his
Redeemer. You will abide for me, for my
glory. for my pleasure many days. I shall not play the
harlot, and I shall not be for another man, so will I also be for thee."
That's what you're going to be for me. And I'm also going to
be for you. That is astounding. That not only by his redeeming
grace and mercy that we would be for him, but that he would be for us for
all eternity. That's redemption. This is Christ. He's not talking about Domer.
He's talking about his bride. Fallen, enslaved, captive by
Satan, held under the curse of a broken
law, bound up at the hand of divine justice as those who have
sinned against God. but yet loved with an everlasting
love, espoused to this Redeemer. He says, so I bought her to me. To me. Our Father this day, grant to us that gift of faith To believe what you say. To believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. To rejoice in his redeeming work. Grace, Lord, that we should be to him
and to no other. and enable us to rejoice in what he has made himself to
be to us. We have no other. We have no other righteousness
except that which you give. Everything we receive is your
grace. your gift. Enable us, we do pray, to look
to him alone and to give you praise and glory for that grace,
for that justification which is freely given by your grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We pray that you would rebuke
the devourer and keep him from stealing away
the precious seed of the gospel. Make our hearts, our minds to be ground that is prepared
to receive that precious seed. Bring it forth to fruit in your
time. And may everything lead down
to the praise of the glory of your grace. For we pray and thank
you in Christ's name. Amen.