Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with the hymn from our soft back tendrils, hymn number
35, Sinners Saved by Grace. Let's all stand together, number
35. Let sinners saved by grace Their
songs to Jesus raise Our sins by blood He did erase And we
will sing His praise Our Savior gave us life and He has faithful
been, preserving us amid all strife, His daily grace we've
seen. Oh, in our sin we lay, lost,
helpless, and defiled. God's love and grace had fixed
the day. We must be reconciled. He would not let us die, though
we despised His name. Kept as the apple of His eye,
His love remained the same. And though we wandered on in
sin from place to place, Our steps Christ ordered from His
throne, He saved us by His grace. Now though we're weak and frail,
And prone to every sin, Our Savior's grace and power prevail, And
we're secure in Him. Christ who chose us in love and
bought us with his blood reigns as our surety above and he will
do us good. He will not leave his home. nor let his own leave him. Our Lord will bring us to his
throne to ever be with him. Please be seated. Let's turn together in our Bibles
to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. Good evening. Verse 1. Stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Don't go back to
the law. Now, the heresy of Galatia was
not justification by works, it was sanctification by works.
They would have said, no, no, we're saved by free grace, but
now we have to prove our salvation. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Circumcision
is whatever you do for the hope of your salvation. And then say,
well, I'm not putting my hope in my works. Preach the gospel
to them and see what they respond. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. If you're going to go back to
the law, you've got to do every bit of it, every jot and tittle
of the law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever you are, justified by the law, you are
fallen from grace. You can't have it both ways.
If it is of works, it can no longer be of grace, otherwise
grace is not grace. Can't mix the two. For we through
the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. By faith. looking to Christ,
resting in Christ, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is our righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith,
which worketh by love. That's God's love for us. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave
his son as a propitiation for our sins. Here's the measure
of love, his love for us. He works faith in us by his love. Does he give us a love for himself?
Yes, yes. But we don't, we can't look at
our love to determine the strength of our salvation. We look to
his love. You did run well, who did hinder
you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh
not of him that calleth you. If you're going back to the law,
you didn't get that from God. You got that from a man. A little leaven, leaven at the
whole lump. Only takes a little bit of legalism
to destroy the gospel. I have confidence in you through
the Lord. I'm sure that if you belong to
him, he'll keep you in his grace and he'll rebuke you when you
look to something other than Christ. that ye will be none
otherwise minded, but he that troubleth you should bear his
judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense
of the cross ceased. The gospel of God's free grace
in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ offends men for
one simple reason. It robs them of their righteousness. That's it. It robs them of their
righteousness. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we come
before Thy throne of grace in the name and on the merits of
Thy dear Son. We thank you, Lord, that you've
promised that where two or three are gathered together in thy
name, that there you are in the midst. We pray for your Holy
Spirit to teach us. We pray that you would lift Christ
up in our hearts and cause us, Lord, to have faith to look upon
him. We pray, Lord, that you would forgive us for our many
unbeliefs. We're so prone, Lord, to take
our eyes off of Christ and try to find our comfort and our hope
somewhere else. Lord, we pray that you would
correct us and call us and cause us, Lord, to find our hope and
our comfort in the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in his name
we pray. Amen. Number 291 from the Hartback
Timnel, 291. me through this Feed me till I want no more. Open now the crystal fountain,
whence the healing stream doth flow. Let the fire and cloudy
pillar lead me all my journey through. Strong deliverer, strong
deliverer, Be thou still my strength and shield. Be thou still my strength and
shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside. Bear me through the swelling
current, Land me safe on Canaan's side. Strongs of praises, songs
of praises, I will ever give to thee. I will ever give to thee. Please be seated. I'd ask Tom and Cheryl to lead
us at the end of the service in the hymn Amazing Grace. That's
the title of this message, Amazing Grace. It comes from the book
of Hosea, Hosea chapter 1 and Hosea chapter 2. What a glorious
picture of God's grace toward sinners, sinners, those who are
so prone to wander. Those that are so prone to try
to find their hope and their comfort, their happiness, their
joy, and yes, even their salvation somewhere other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what circumcision is,
and that's what spiritual whoredom is. As you know, the Lord told
Hosea, whose name means salvation, to go and marry a woman that
was a prostitute. And he did. And he bore three
children by her. Now, everybody knows that physical
prostitution is wrong. That's not the message here.
This is spiritual whoredom. This is taking our eyes away
from our husband and trying to find our satisfaction somewhere
else. Look with me in Hosea chapter
one, and the word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son
of Beri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings
of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king
of Israel. Now we know from those names
and from the historical record that we have in God's word that
Hosea prophesied for 70 years. He kept preaching the same message
for 70 years. I think that's interesting that
that's the life of a man. And so he was like Isaiah, you
know, the Lord, Isaiah said, Lord, how long? And he said,
till the cities be wasted without inhabitants and the land be utterly
desolate. You just keep preaching this
gospel. And he preached it all of his life. Pray to God that
he would give us the grace to do the same. the beginning of
the word of the Lord by Hosea, and the Lord said unto Hosea,
go, take unto thee a wife of Hortam, and children of Hortams,
for the land hath committed great Hortam, departing from the Lord. Now that's what God calls looking
away from Christ. He calls it Hortam. It's clear
throughout the scriptures. Now, Hosea's name means salvation. That's what his name means. And
Gomer's name, who's the woman he's gonna marry now, her name
has two meanings. Her name means waste, and her
name means complete. And, you know, she's a picture
of the church. She's a picture of you. She's
a picture of me. Apart from the grace of God,
we are a wasteland. And yet in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we are complete in him. And that's what these first two
chapters just clarify that so much. I want the Lord to do for
me what Hosea did for Gomer. I want him to turn my wasteland
into completeness in the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it's interesting
that the Lord told the Pharisees, the self-righteous Pharisees,
which no question is the greatest sin of all, self-righteousness. And he said that the publicans
and the harlots will enter into the kingdom of God before you.
Now, who were the publicans? The publicans were the ones who
were in league with Rome to rob God by robbing God's people. And then what were the harlots?
Well, the harlots were obviously what you know. Both of them picture
our sin before God. If we left to ourselves, we'll
rob God of His glory. We'll take it to ourselves. We'll
credit ourselves with something along the way of salvation. The
Lord Jesus Christ is not going to be all. He's not gonna be
in all. And in that regard, we're publicans.
And in the spiritual sense, we're all a bunch of harlots. Turn
with me to Revelation chapter 17. Revelation chapter 17. beginning in verse one. And there
came one of the seven angels which had seven vials and talked
with me saying unto me, come hither and I will show unto you
the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.
With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication and
the inhabitants of the earth have been drunk with the wine
of her fornication. He's not talking about sexual
sins here. He's talking about looking away
from Christ and trying to find hope, happiness, justification,
sanctification, righteousness somewhere other than Christ.
And there's a part of us that is constantly prone to that.
the reason why we need to keep hearing the gospel. The old man
is as prone to spiritual prostitution as the lust of the flesh is to
the sexual sins. He just is. He is. Look at verse 3. So he carried
me away in the Spirit, That's the only way you're going to
see this. This is a great mystery concerning Christ and his church,
and the natural man can't see it. Paul calls this, in 2 Thessalonians,
the mystery of iniquity. Man can't see that what he's
looking to for his righteousness, God says, is iniquitous. It doesn't
measure up. And the Lord calls it the mystery
of iniquity. And this is what spiritual whoredom
is. This is what the Lord is calling
this woman. So he carried me away in the
spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet
colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads
and ten horns, and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet
color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having
a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness
of her fornication." What a picture of man-made religion. What a
picture of what man does in order to try to dress himself up and
make himself look good, compete with his peers over his own righteousness. And upon her forehead was the
name written, Mystery Babylon, the great mother of the harlots
and abominations of the earth. And she's going to be destroyed. She's going to be destroyed.
Everything about her is going to be destroyed. And at the end
of this chapter, the Lord says, come out from her. Don't have
anything to do with her. Get away from her. Oh, that the
Spirit of God would convict us every single time that we are
prone to look away from Christ and find our hope and our happiness
somewhere else. No man can serve two masters.
He just can't do it. Oh, but the mammon of this world
and the tendency of our own pharisaical thinking would cause us to commit
this sin. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter
five. Proverbs chapter five. This spiritual prostitution is
an attempt to pay God for his favors. That's what it is. It's paying God for his favors
and the truth is that the only way that we can have the favor
of God is to be found in Christ. The full and only acceptance
that you and I can have before God is found in the person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all our righteousness,
and anything else is harlotry. Anything else is circumcision. Oh Lord, keep me from it. Keep
me from it. Bring me again and again, like
Hosea did for Gomer, bring me back to Christ. In contrast,
in contrast, the church is called the chaste bride of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And only by his grace can we
be described that way. Only with hearing ears and seeing
eyes and believing hearts can we say, yes, Lord, that is harlotry. Yes, that is fornication. Yes,
that is circumcision. Yes, that robs you of your glory. And I don't want anything to
do with it. And the new man rejoices in knowing that he is a chase
bride. He's never done that. The new
man in the Lord Jesus Christ has never done it. He just never
has. He's perfect in Christ. You have your Bibles open to
Proverbs chapter 5, look at verse 1. My son, O child of God, attend
unto my wisdom and bend down thine ear to understanding. Understand
what I'm about to say to you. This is so important. This is
not a father speaking to his teenage son about staying out
of the house of prostitution. That's not what he's talking
about here. He's speaking to you and me, as the children of
God, to have understanding, that thou mayest regard discretion,
and that thy lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman
drop as a honeycomb of her mouth, and it's smoother than oil. Isn't
that the way, isn't that the way works religion is? Isn't
that the way, man? Oh, it'd just creep in everywhere,
won't it? Oh, we have, where the accuser of the brethren will
say to us, well, if you hadn't have done that, you know, you
hadn't thought that, how could you be a child of God? That's
fornication. That's, that's, that's, that's,
that's harlotry. That's denying what the Lord
Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. Or if you'll do this,
you'll have the blessings of God. And I hate when people say,
well, we're not trusting our works for our righteousness before
God or our justification, but we still have to do good works. And they take notice of them,
don't they? They take notice of them. The
Lord said in the day of judgment, when he separates the sheep from
the goats, that he will look to the goats on his left hand
and saying to them, I was hungry and you did not feed me. I was
naked and you did not clothe me. I was in prison and you did
not visit me. I was a stranger and you did
not take me in. And what do they say? What do
they say? What does the goat say? Lord,
when did we see you like that and not do that? Well, we've
been doing that all our lives. We spend every day trying to
do good deeds to help people. in that you didn't do it, to
the least of these my brethren." I mean, he's not talking about
doing those kind of works. Because then he looks to the
believers, the sheep on the right, and he says, I was hungry. You
fed me. I was naked. You clothed me.
I was in prison. You came and visited me. I was
a stranger. You took me in. And what do the believers say?
The same thing the unbelievers say. When did we see you like
that and do that for you? In other words, I said they say
the same thing. They're responding in the same
way. Lord, we don't take notice of that. And yet that's what
believers do in that they are part of the gospel. And as the
gospel goes out, the hungry are being fed, the naked are being
clothed, the ones in prison are being delivered, the strangers
being taken in. And we don't take, the point
is that the believer doesn't take notice of what he's doing.
The unbeliever's constantly taking notice of it, trusting it for
his righteousness. And so the lips of the strange
woman drop as a honeycomb. Look at verse four. But her end
is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet
go down to death, her steps take hold on hell, lest thou shouldst
ponder the path of life. Her ways are movable, that thou
canst not know them. There's always something different
with every religious persuasion. I was talking to a man yesterday,
72 years old, said he was an agnostic. And I said, well, George,
if you're an agnostic, then that means that you are searching
for the truth, right? You're interested in the truth.
You want to hear something about it. He said, well, I guess I
would be. He had a Hindu background, and so I told him, I said, you
know, there's no difference between Hinduism and Islam and Catholicism
and Presbyterianism. It's named a bunch of religions.
He said, oh yeah, that's right, we're all going to the same place.
I said, no, that's not what I'm talking about. I said, every single one of those
religions depend upon you to do something to earn favor with
God. Every one of them. And the only
difference between one and the next is what their specific list
of do's and don'ts are. And he said, well, yeah, I guess
you're right. I said, well, there's a message
of salvation. that doesn't have anything to do with what you
do or what you don't do. It has everything to do with
what's already been accomplished by God for you. Their ways are movable. Always
changing. Hear me now, therefore, O you
children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove
thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house,
lest thou give thine honor unto others, and thy years unto the
cruel. Don't give your honor to another
man. Don't give your honor to yourself. Give all honor and
all glory and all praise and all righteousness to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the only one worthy. And
that's what the Lord is giving us in this story of Hosea and
Gomer. He tells Hosea, who represents
the Lord Jesus Christ, his name means salvation, to go and take
a harlot as his wife. And that's exactly what the Lord
has done. Because by nature, that's what we are. And we still
see it in the old man, don't we? He's still there. He hadn't
completely gone away. Thank God for the new man. Thank
God for faith. Thank God for perfect righteousness
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And hear this story, now come
back with me to Hosea, because this story tells us how the Lord
deals with his wife. That's what he's doing, he's
dealing with his wife. And this is a great mystery, as Paul said
in Ephesians chapter five, concerning Christ and his church. Here's
how the Lord Jesus Christ treats his wife. Verse three, so he
went and took Gomer, the daughter of Dibleon, which conceived and
bare him a son, And the Lord said unto him, call
his name Jezreel for yet a little while and I will avenge the blood
of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and will cause to cease
the kingdom of the house of Israel. Jezreel translated means scattered,
scattered. So here's the result. The Lord
gathers those whom he has scattered. And so that's what he's doing
now. He's scattering his church so that he can gather them back
together. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will
break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. And she conceived
again and bear a daughter. And God said unto him, call her
name Lo Rehama. For I will no more have mercy
upon the house of Israel, but will utterly take them away.
Now, Rehama means mercy. And Lo means no. And that's gonna be significant
in just a moment. So her name means no mercy. And that's what we deserve. That's
what we deserve, we deserve no mercy. But, I will have mercy upon the
house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and
will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses,
or by horsemen. I love that. The Lord's not gonna
save you by anything that you do. He's not going to save you
by the strength of man's hand. Salvation is of the Lord, from
beginning, from before time ever began. God chose a people, placed
them in Christ in the covenant of grace. That's where he set
his love on his people. He sent His Son to redeem them. He sends His Holy Spirit to regenerate
them. He keeps us and presents us faultless
and causes us to experience our full glorification. It's all
of the Lord. It's not by horse. It's not by
might. It's not by power. It's not by
anything you do. Don't look to anything you do.
God will bless you in your doings if you look into Christ. If you
look to Christ, God will bless you in your doings. You start
looking at your doings. I love what Spurgeon said one
time. He said, when I look to Christ,
the dove of peace flies into my heart. And when I look to
the dove of peace, he flies away. When I look to my feelings, I
look to my experience, I look to my doings, I lose all confidence,
I lose all hope. But if I look to Christ, I put
all my hope in Him. So now, Gomer's had two sons,
two children, Jezreel, which means scattered, and this daughter,
Lo-Rohamah, which means no mercy. Verse eight, now when she had
weaned Lo-Ruhoma, she conceived and bare a son. Then said God,
call his name again, Lo, which means no, Emi, for you are not
my people and I will not be your God. So Emi means my people. Lo-Emi means you're not my people. Now this passage is quoted twice
in the New Testament where the Lord said, I will call them my
people which were not my people. So now these three children represent
our state outside of Christ. We're scattered, we have no mercy,
and we're not the people of God. We're strangers to the grace
of God. What's God gonna do? What's he
gonna do? Yet the number of the children
of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured
nor numbered. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, you are not my people,
there it shall be said unto them, you are the sons of the living
God. I'm going to take those who aren't
my people, those who were guilty of their mother's sin of whoredom,
those who were the offspring of that. That's what we are.
It's how we come into this world. Adam did it, and all the descendants
of Adam did it. We come into this world robbing
God of his glory. And the Lord says, you're scattered
from me, you have no mercy, and you're not my people. I'm gonna
gather who I scatter, I'm gonna show mercy upon those who are
not worthy of mercy, and I'm gonna make them my people, which
weren't my people. Now that's grace. That's amazing
grace. Look what he does. Then shall
the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered
together and appoint them one head. One head. Who is that one
head? You know who it is. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Where
is boasting then? Is it by works? No, it's by faith. There's nothing to boast in.
We were scattered. We were not objects of God's
mercy. We were not worthy to be called
the children of God. And yet, He puts us into the
body of Christ and gives us one head and makes us His bride. It's all my grace. Now, Hosea
is gonna do this. Hosea is gonna pursue Gomer until
she's fully redeemed back into his home. I mean, we're not gonna
get to it, but she ends up on the slave block. She wastes herself
away with whoredom, and Hosea goes and buys her back to himself,
brings her back into his home. Isn't that what we do? And they shall come up out of
the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel. Look at verse
one of chapter two. Say ye unto your brethren, am
I? And your sister, Ruhamah. Now it's no more, the low has
been taken off. Now it's no more, no mercy. and
you're not my people, now it is, say to your brother Mercy,
say to Jezreel, the one that's been gathered back, say to the
one who is my people, to speak to their mother. And that's what
we're doing right now. We're speaking to the church.
We're declaring the gospel to the church. Plead with your mother,
plead, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. Let
her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries
from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked and set her
as in the day that she was born and make her as a wilderness
and set her like unto dry land and slay her with thirst. God's
people hear this, and they say, I don't want to be a part of
that. I don't want to be a part of my self-righteousness. I hate
my self-righteousness. I hate my sin. I want God to
gather me. I want Him to have mercy upon
me. I want Him to call me a child of God. What love the Father hath bestowed
upon us! Behold how glorious it is that
we of all people should be called the children of God. Do you stand
amazed that God would call you one of His children? Do you stand
amazed that He would do that? There's only one way He's going
to do it. He's going to do it. And you're
not going to have any part in it. No part whatsoever. He's going to do it all. And I will not have mercy upon
her children, for they be the children of whoredoms." And what
the Lord's saying is, if you continue in this, then you're
not going to be a part of me, if you don't hear this message. For their mother hath played
the harlot. She that conceived them hath done shamefully, for
she said, I will go after my lovers that give me my bread
and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. My works, my works is what gives
me comfort. I mean, I can't tell you how
many times I've heard people say, well, I just like doing good
things because it makes me feel good. Makes me feel good. And they're getting their flax
and their oil and their comfort in the things that they do. This guy I was talking to yesterday,
this Hindu guy, one of the nicest guys I've ever met. I mean, he
just, he just do anything for you. Nice, nice guy. Therefore, Behold, I will hedge
up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find
her paths. I'm going to frustrate your attempts
to satisfy my law by your works. I'm going to hedge you up. And
if the hedge of thorns don't work, I'll use a wall. But I'm
going to stop you. I'm going to stop you in your
path of self-righteousness. I'm going to bring you to Christ.
I'm going to make you willing in the day of my power. Isn't
that glorious? And he knows exactly what to
do for each one of us. And the primary means that he
uses to accomplish the wall and the thorns is what we're doing
right now. What we're doing right now, preaching
the gospel, declaring the truth of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is and what he's accomplished for us. That's what stops us.
And I hope right now in our hearts, each one of us are being stopped
from our whoredoms. And we're being turned by the
Lord to put all our hope in Christ. She shall follow after her lover.
There's just something about it. Our hearts are prone to spiritual
adultery, continually running after idols.
But here's what the Lord says. Every time you do it, you're
gonna meet with nothing but sorrow. You're gonna meet with disappointment. You're going to meet with vexation
of spirit. You're going to meet with discontent.
You're never going to be satisfied. Now how is it that the religious
man, the unbeliever, can be completely, perfectly content in his good
works, in his religion? He's not bothered by it at all.
Matter of fact, he's emboldened by the things that he's doing.
And every time a child of God begins to look in that direction,
the Lord builds up a wall, the Lord puts a thorn around us,
and he causes us to realize vanity of vanities is all vanity. How do we know that? Because
we've experienced it. We experience it every day. Every
day that we look away from Christ, try to find our hope, our peace,
our comfort, our satisfaction somewhere else, and we just come
up empty, don't we? Why is, the Lord has to do that. You won't be empty with the things
of this world or with the things that you pursue or the things
that you do unless the Lord makes you that way. And that's what
he's saying here. Look at verse seven. For she
shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them.
Oh, I'm so glad. You see, the truth is we're so
prone to this every day. We follow after our lovers. We
pursue the things of this world. We try to find our hope in the
worldly manna. And the Lord says, you're not
going to overtake them. 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 for me
than now. The Spirit of God reminds us
when we try to find our satisfaction outside of Christ, the Spirit
of God brings to our memory those sweet times of fellowship that
we had with him, and we just want to come back. Now the Lord said, if you seek
after me with all of your heart, you will find me. But what he's
saying here is that when one of my children seek after something
else outside of me, they won't find it. They're not gonna find
it. They're gonna come up frustrated,
empty, dissatisfied, vexed in spirit, they're just not gonna
find it. Why? Because I'm gonna build a wall.
I'm gonna keep them from being able to be content with that.
They're never gonna be able to be content there. Oh, Lord, keep
me from being content. How many people do you know that
are just perfectly content with their whoredom? They're robbing
Christ of His glory, they're trusting in their own righteousness,
and they love it there. They love it there. What the
Lord's saying here is, I won't let my people enjoy that. They're gonna do it. They're
going to do it, but they're going to come up empty every time.
And then they're going to be brought back to me. For she did not know that I gave
her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold,
which they prepared for Baal. I was the one that gave her all
those comforts. 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. I'm gonna strip her. I'm gonna
humble her. I'm gonna convict her. I'm going to discipline her.
And I am, just as I said Sunday, I am, I am certain that the Lord
knows how to take care of his children. We've all made so many mistakes
in raising our kids, and we continue to, don't we? We do our best,
well, we don't even do that. The Lord's never, ever made a
mistake. He guides them with his eye.
He tenderly disciplines them. He brings them back to himself.
He's never lost a child. Not a single one. He's never
had a rebellious child fall away. He knows what to do and how to
do it. And he's the one that you need
and he's the one that I need. We don't need each other cracking
the whip over us. We don't need the law condemning
us. We need a living savior to be
our guide. And that's what he promised he
would do. And that's what he's saying here. I'm going to take
care of her. She's going to rebel. She's going to keep going back
to her whoredoms, but I'm going to keep bringing her back to
me. And now, verse 10, well, I discover
her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver
her out of my hand. Oh, that's where I want to be. No man can snatch you out of
his hand. You can't move yourself out of his hand. I'm going to
discover her lewdness. I'm going to expose her sin to
her. I pray that he's doing that right
now for you. He's been doing that to me all
day while I've been thinking about this. That he's exposing the lewdness
of your whoredom, of your self-righteousness. and causing you to come in a
spirit of grace and repentance back to Christ and plead for
His mercy and say, oh Lord, the gifts that I've get from you
are so much better. I will also cause all her mirth
to cease. her few days, her new moons,
her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I will destroy her
vines and her figs, where if 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." I'm going to cause what she does
to try to, and how much effort and energy we put into trying
to create for ourselves a life. And the Lord says, I'm going
to frustrate you in that until you come to see that I am your
life. I'm your life. I'll provide for
you what you need in this world. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all these other things will be
added unto you. And what do we do? Oh, we get up and then we
seek the worldly things. And then we run to God and, oh
Lord, teach me. Teach me to seek Thee first.
And keep breaking me from the grip and the desire and the lust
that I have for this world. And I will visit upon her the
days of Balaam, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked
herself with earrings and her jewels, and she went after her
lovers, and forget me, saith the Lord. Is this your experience? I have to say to you, this is
my experience. It's so easy for me to forget
about the Lord. And if he doesn't prod me and
cause me to keep coming back, Therefore behold, I will allure
her. Now here, Hosea's got a wife
that's out on the streets being a harlot and he said, I'm gonna
provide for you and I'm going to allure you back to me. And
that picture is not near as evil and wicked as what you and I
do every day. Doesn't compare. The Pharisees were doing spiritually
what the publicans and the harlots were doing. And the Lord said,
they're going to come into the kingdom of God before you. Lord,
don't let me commit spiritual harlotry. Therefore, behold, I will allure
her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her.
Oh, have you had the Lord do that for you? Have you had Him
just allure you with His still, small voice, His tender love,
His grace and His mercy, and take you out into the wilderness,
away from everything else, and just give you His time, and speak
to your heart, and comfort you with His grace, assuring you
that everything necessary for your salvation and for your life
is in his hand. You don't have to do it with
your strength. I'm not gonna save her with horses
or with spears and bows and arms. I'm not gonna save her that way. I'm gonna provide for her. But
I'm going to see to her, see to it, that she understands all
those provisions are coming from me. This doesn't negate responsibility. It doesn't negate working. You
see, this is a hard issue, isn't it? This is acknowledging the
fact that everything we do and everything we have is by God's
grace. And I will give her vineyards
from thence and the valley of Acre for a day, a door of hope. Now what we won't go back. We
don't have time tonight, but if you go back to the book of
Joshua and read the story of Joshua bringing down the walls
of Jericho and then they were, they were so They were so rejoicing
in what God did in destroying Jericho. And the Lord told Joshua,
he said, everything that comes out of Jericho, all the spoils
of that city, all the gold, all the silver, everything was to
be dedicated to the Lord. Why? Because he did it. He brought
those walls down. He destroyed that city. And so they did, and then they
moved on to the next town. It's called Ai. And Joshua's
commander comes to him and he says, you know what? He said,
this is a small city. He said, we don't need to all
go take care of that. We're strong now. They've been
emboldened by what God did, forgot the Lord did it. And they went
to Ai. and took, I think, 3,000 men with him and were routed
by the men of Ai. And Joshua goes before the Lord
and says, Lord, if the world finds out that we've been defeated,
everybody's going to turn against us. Your name. And the Lord said,
there's sin in the camp. There's someone in Israel that
took what was to be dedicated to the Lord from Jericho to himself. It was Achan. It was Achan. And when Joshua identified Achan
as the one that had done it, What did Achan, what was Achan
caught with? A Babylonish garment. What is Babylon? It's the great
whore, it's the harlot. What's the, he was caught with
this Babylonish garment that he had stolen from Jericho because
it was so beautiful. What's the spiritual picture
here? wasn't trusting the robe of righteousness that comes from
the Lord Jesus Christ, putting on a Babylonian garment and thinking
that that was going to make him better. Silver and a wedge of
gold. And the Lord had Joshua take
Achan, his wife, his children, his ox, his cattle, his tent,
everything that he owned, took it to the Valley of Achor, stoned
them all, and then burned them on top of that. And then built
a heap of stones up on top of that. All for the sake of reminding
the children of Israel that this sin of harlotry, this sin of
robbing God of His glory, this sin of looking away from Christ,
this sin of not committing everything that He has given to us back
to Him. Lord, that's, that's, I don't
want to be a part of that. And the Lord's saying to us,
the Valley of Achor is going to be your door of hope. I'm
going to show you what I did to deal with that and deliver
you from that judgment. And she shall sing there. She's
not going to fear wrath and judgment. Why? Because her faith, though
her old flesh is so prone to all these things on a daily basis,
her faith is that God's going to keep me. He's going to keep
bringing me back. He's going to credit me, charge
me, if you will, impute to me the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ so that I can say, amen. This is my hope. I can sing, I can rejoice, I
can say, amen. to God be the glory. Salvation
is of the Lord. She shall sing there in the days
of her youth and in the days when she came out of the land,
as in the days when she came out of the land of Egypt. And
it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call
me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Bailey. You're gonna call
me your husband, not your master. The Lord said to the disciples,
no longer will you call me Lord. And we do, we don't, we're not,
this is not a, but no, but I'll call you my friends. Why? Because
a friend doesn't know what his master's doing. You know what
I've done. You know what I've done. I'm
your husband. I'm your friend. I'm your savior. You don't have to fear me. Do you know what he's done? You
know what he's done? He's done everything necessary
for our salvation. Everything. Nothing left to be
done. He's done it all. It's finished. It's done. And I will take away the names
of Balaam out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered
by their name. And in that day will I make a
covenant with them, with the beast of the field, and with
the fowls of the heaven, with the creeping things of the ground.
And I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out
of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely." They're
not going to raise their fist in rebellion against me. I'm
going to cause them to beat their swords into plowshares. And I will betroth thee unto
me forever. You're gonna be my wife. And I'm gonna continue to allure
you. I'm gonna continue to treat you
tenderly. Oh, if the Lord would give me
that experience. Lord will enable us to treat
our wives that way. I'm sure that there's a direct
relationship. I'm sure there's a direct relationship
between our relationship with him and our relationships with
one another. I will betroth thee unto me in
righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in
mercy, and I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and
thou shalt know the Lord. You're gonna know me. You're gonna know me. Do you know him? Ask him to reveal
himself to you. You know, I fear so many times
the people that come, they hear the gospel and never come to
Christ. And it shall come to pass in
that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens
and they shall hear the earth. No one's ever cried out for mercy
that he didn't hear. Ever. Now, if you just want a
quick fix and get out of trouble that you're in, you know, that's
one thing. But if you want salvation, if you want to know him, cry
out to him, Lord, this is me. I'm like Gomer. I'm so unfaithful
to you. And I need your mercy. I need
you to save me again and again and again. And the earth shall hear the
corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel.
Those that are scattered are gonna be brought back. And I
will sow her unto me in the earth, and will have mercy upon her
that had not obtained mercy. And I will say unto them which
were not my people, thou art my people. And they shall say, thou art my God. Can you say
that? Oh, he's a God to serve. He's a God to love. He's a God
to bow to. What a glorious God we have.
Amazing, amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm
found. Was blind, couldn't see this,
but now I see. Let's stand together. Tom, you
come please. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, But now I am
found, was blind but now I see. was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come. Tis grace hath brought me safe
this far, and grace will see me home. When we've been there ten thousand
years, bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing
God's praise than when we'd first begun. Thank you very much.