Reason to rejoice. There's no
life in you. It's finished. It's all done. Law's been satisfied. Salvation's
been accomplished. That's the only hope we have.
I've been thinking about that passage in Romans where Paul
said, you're not under the law. You're under grace. Sin shall
not have dominion over you because you're not under the law, you're
under grace. Grace is the only power against sin there is. I
want to read a passage from Hosea, if you'll turn with me there.
Title of the message tonight, which will be from another text,
is a marriage made in heaven. A marriage made in heaven. And
as you know, the passage of scripture in Hosea is a type of Christ
and his church. And Hosea being the faithful
husband and Gomer being the unfaithful wife, and yet he pursues her
and woos her to himself. That's the way it is, isn't it? We'll begin reading in Hosea
chapter two. And I actually have a reference
in verse 10, if you want to mark some of these little Old Testament
prophets are hard to find sometimes. So if you want to leave something
in the Hosea passage for later reference, it might be helpful.
Verse 17 of Hosea chapter two. For I will take away the names
of Balaam out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered
by their name." What a glorious promise. You know, sometimes
people will talk to me about religious experiences of the
past, and it genuinely, the longer it takes, the longer time laps,
the more it seems to me like it was just a different life.
You know, I don't believe in reincarnation, but I do believe
in the new birth. But it seems something like a
past life that we had. It takes them out of their name. They remember them no more. And
in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beast of the
field and with the fowls of heaven and with the creeping things
of the ground. And I will break the bow and the sword in the
battle out of the earth and will make them to lie down safely.
Their swords will be beat into plowshares. They'll no longer
be at enmity with God. And I will betroth thee unto
me forever You're going to be my wife. I'm going to marry you.
Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment
and in loving kindness and in mercies. I will even betroth
thee unto me in faithfulness. Thou shalt know the Lord. 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, and the earth shall hear the
corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel. There's going to be great rejoicing
in the earth because of what I do in marrying her. And I will sow her unto me in
the earth, and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy,
and I will show to them which were not my people, thou art
my people, and they shall say, thou art my God. Chapter three,
verse one. Then saith the Lord unto me,
go yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress,
according to the love of the Lord towards 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 a homer
of barley, and a half-homer of barley. And I said unto her,
Thou shalt abide for me many days, thou shalt not play the
harlot, thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be
for thee. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that your grace reaches into the very pit of hell to bring
your adulterous wife to thyself. We thank thee, Lord, for your
persistent pursuing and effectual grace that causes us to come
to thee and to agree in this marriage with thee. We thank
Thee, Lord, that You've caused us to forsake those false gods
and false husbands. We thank Thee that the law's
been satisfied, that we've been married to another. we are under
thy grace. We ask, Lord, that you would
take your word now and convince us more surely and fully of that
great truth. Speak to our hearts, draw us
to thyself, grow us in your grace, increase our faith, and deepen
our love. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. number 374 from the Hardback
Temple, 374. We'll begin tonight in Isaiah
chapter 54. Isaiah chapter 54. For a marriage to be happy, both
parties must be in love with one another. And what great joy
there is between two people that are in love. We often say about
that marriage, is made in heaven. Well the scripture tells us about
a marriage that literally was made in heaven and Paul makes reference to it in
Ephesians chapter 5 when he gives some very helpful and wise instructions
as to what the husband and wife's joys and duties are together,
but he concludes that passage, remember, by saying, however,
I speak concerning a great mystery of Christ and his church. That's the focus of our attention
tonight. And my hope for you and for me
is that we will grow to love our husband more. and that our
marriage union with him will be more fulfilling, more happy,
more joyous, more satisfying as a result of what God has said
about his love for us in his word. I preached the wedding for Ryan
and Savannah and I'm taking the four points of that wedding ceremony
And I want to elaborate on them in a little bit more detail tonight. But the four points are covenant,
union, love, and forgiveness. Covenant, union, love, and forgiveness. Now those things are true in
a believer's union together in marriage, but they find their
real truth and their foundational truth in the union that Christ
has with his church. And if the Lord's pleased to
reveal to us his covenant love, our union with Christ, and the
forgiveness of our sin, then we'll be rejoicing in that spiritual
marriage that Christ has with his church. It is a mystery.
The world can't enter into it. They can't understand it. They
know nothing of the covenant grace of God. They know nothing
of having union with Christ. They know nothing of the love
of God. They know nothing of the forgiveness of sin. It's
a mystery that must be revealed. And when God speaks of a mystery,
he's not talking about something that's mysterious or something
that's hard to understand. He's saying you can't understand
it. He's talking about something that has to be revealed to the
heart by the Spirit of God. And if he's pleased to do that,
then we'll find ourselves falling in love afresh and anew with
our husband. And that And that union will
become the joy of our life. It'll become the hope of our
salvation. And it'll become the foundational truth of everything
else in our life, whether it be the marriage union that we
have with our spouse, our friendships, whatever it is. It'll all grow
as a result of understanding this mystery concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ as the bridegroom and his church. Now in Isaiah chapter 54 and verse 1, sing, O barren, thou
that didst not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou
that didst not travail with child, for more are the children of
the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the
Lord. Now, the Lord tells us what that
verse means. In Galatians chapter four, that
verse is quoted and it is likened to the woman that's married to
the law. And you remember the passage
about, well, let's just go there just a moment, Galatians chapter
four. Verse 27, For it is written,
Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou
that travailest not, for the desolate hath many more children
than she which hath a husband. Now that's in response to the
previous verses which talk about the law. Look at verse 21. Tell
me ye that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the
law? For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid and the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondmaid
was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Now you want a synonym for covenant,
it is the word promise. When a man and a woman come together
and exchange their vows they are making a covenant or a promise
to one another. This mystery of Christ and his
church is made by promise. And the promise is set in contrast
to the law. Look at the next verse, which
things are an allegory for these are the two covenants. This whole
book is about two covenants. It's all about two covenants.
There's only two covenants in the whole world. There's the
covenant of works where God says, I promise to give you life. If
you'll maintain perfect faithfulness to the law. And the other covenant, which
what we just sang about, it's finished. The Lord Jesus Christ
satisfied the demands of the law and put away the wrath of
God through the sacrifice of himself on Calvary's cross. And
he has made his bride to be willing in the day of... This is the
covenant of grace. And so he's saying there's two
promises, there's two covenants. One is a promise of life in Christ,
the other is a promise of death if you don't keep the law. And
so now he's saying, you that want to go back to the law, why
would you go back there? The law can't do anything. The
law is like, this passage is talking about being married to
the law versus being married to Christ. And he's likening
that first marriage to a harsh husband. A husband that can only
find fault with you. A husband that can only criticize
you. A husband that's always, you
know, don't you hate to be around somebody that's always just,
all they've got something to say about you is critical all
the time. We make those complaints to one another in our marriages,
don't we? Well, you never say anything positive. You're always
complaining about, you know, that we just do that. We all
do that from time to time. You know, and that will destroy
a relationship, won't it? If the husband is critical of
the wife, or the wife is critical of the husband, what he's saying
was that you were married to the law. And that law was a harsh,
merciless husband. As a matter of fact, not only
was he critical, but all he ever said to you was, I'm going to
kill you. Now how would you like to be married to somebody like
that? Married to a man who every day you wake up, he looks at
you and he says, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. You can't satisfy me. You don't
fulfill my requirements and my demands. Now that's a harsh husband.
That's a husband you don't want to be around. And once you get
divorced from that husband, you don't want to go back to him.
And that's what he's saying here. He's saying, you were married. Oh, barren, rejoice. You've been delivered. Not only
has God given you a divorce, but that husband's been put to
death. You've been set free. He no longer reigns over you. Look what he says. For this Hagar, I'm sorry, verse
24, which things are an allegory for their two covenants, the
one from Mount Sinai at which gendereth the bondage, which
is Hagar. So that's the, that's the woman
that, you know, she's cast out the bond woman. She's not of
the promise. Look at verse 30. Nevertheless, what sayeth the
Scriptures? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. The son of the free woman was
married by promise. The son of the bondwoman was
the law, was Hagar. That's the two covenants. One covenant kills. One covenant
puts us under impossible demands. The other covenant sets us free.
Look at verse 31. So then, brethren, we are not
children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Oh, stand fast in
the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. And be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't go back to
the law. He's a harsh husband. He's got
no pity. He's got no understanding, no
grace, no mercy. He's just a harsh, harsh man
who threatens every day to do nothing but just kill you. Verse 25, for this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which now is. Now
what he's saying there is, what is Jerusalem? That's man-made
religion. That's man-made religion. The Jerusalem that now is, is
caught up under the law. It is in bondage with her children. People in religion are in bondage.
If you're under the law, you're in bondage. You've got a harsh husband and
he won't cut you any slack whatsoever. But the Jerusalem which is from
above, the heavenly Jerusalem, the true
city of peace, the one whose maker and whose foundations are
God, this is the city that we look for. This is the husband,
this is the covenant. And then he says, for in light
of this, as it is written, rejoice, you barren. You were barren under
the law. You couldn't produce life under
the law. You couldn't give yourself any
life under the law. And all you did in trying to
get other people to become like you was that you made them twice
as much the sons of the devil as you were yourself. We did
that, didn't we? We traversed land and sea in
order to make one convert and turned him into just a servant
to the law under the bondage of Satan. Go back with me to
Isaiah 54. This marriage that Christ has
with his church is not based on the performance of his wife.
It's not a covenant of laws. It's a covenant. It is a covenant.
It's a promise that God made according to his own good pleasure
and his own will before the foundations of the world when he chose a
particular people in the Lord Jesus Christ to give to his son
as his bride. That's what he did. And that's
what he's saying here. Look at verse 2 of Isaiah 54. Enlarge the place of thy tent,
and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitations.
Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. Enlarge
your house, you're going to have more children. He's speaking
to the bride, to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church
universal. There's going to be life given
through this bride. The wife who was married to the
law, she could never bring forth life. But now with a new husband,
under the covenant of grace, now there's life. There's life
in your soul. There's life in the message.
There's life in those who come and hear and believe. There's
life. It's not death anymore. Our husband
is not threatening to kill us. Death has been satisfied. No,
to the contrary, what is he doing? He's promising life, not death,
but life. Look at verse three, for thou
shalt break forth on the right and on the left and thy seed
shall inherit the Gentiles and make desolate cities to be inhabited. Oh, this city was desolate. This
city was desolate under the law until Christ came and took his
habitation in our hearts, we were without life, we were without
truth, we were without light, we had nothing. All we had was
a harsh husband who every day threatened to kill us. Now what's
he say? Verse four, don't be afraid anymore. Your husband has nothing hard,
nothing bad for you. Everything your husband's gonna
do for you now is gonna be good. Don't be afraid of him. Don't
be afraid of him. Embrace him. Flee to him. Love him. He's gonna provide
for you in every way. Fear not, for thou shalt not
be ashamed, neither thou be thou confounded, for thou shalt not
be put to shame, For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth,
and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more." You
know, isn't that just what the Lord just said over there in
Hosea? You're going to put away your gods. You're not going to
go back there. You're not going to remember
that anymore. It's going to be like a past life. You're married to
another. Oh, this new marriage is so much
better than the old one. You were married to Sinai. Now
you've been married to Calvary. You've been set free. The law's
been silenced. You're dead to the law. Dead
to the law. The law has nothing to say to
us. That husband's been put away. For thy maker is thy husband. Thy maker is thy husband. The Lord of hosts is his name. He's the Lord over the living
and the dead. And he's pleased to make himself known to those
that God chose in the covenant of grace to give to his son. Father, thine they were, and
thou gavest them unto me. thy Redeemer." The Lord didn't make an effort
to redeem, He accomplished the redemption. This was part of
the covenant. This is the covenant that God
established with God before the foundation of the world. God
the Father chose a bride for His Son and the Son committed,
promised the Father in the covenant of grace to pay the dowry price
for that bride. And that was nothing less than
his precious blood. I'll lay my life down for my
bride. For greater love hath no man
than this, that he lay his life down for a friend. No longer
do I call you my servants, I call you my friend. A servant doesn't
know what his master does. Your friend, this is a marriage
union that we have with Christ the Lord. He's redeemed us. He's bought us to Himself. He's
paid the full ransom, just like we just read about Hosea going
and paying that price to get Gomer off the slave block. She
had gone so far into depravity that now her Her life of a harlot
ended up, she was a slave. She was being sold as a slave.
And Hosea had to go to the slave market and buy her. You know,
that's exactly where he got you. And that's where he got me. And
he paid the full price necessary in order to redeem his wife to
himself. And when he redeemed her, he
said to her, like Hosea said to Gomer, you're going to be
my wife and you're going to be faithful to me from now on. Thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth
when thou wast refused, saith thy God." Now here he's likening
our first marriage to a woman who's cheated on, who's refused. You know, that's what the law
did to us. The law refused us. The law looked at us and said,
you're not fit to be my wife. You remember when Ruth went to
Boaz's field and she gleaned there and Naomi told Ruth, he's
a kinsman redeemer. Go to him. He'll not stop until he redeems
you. And when Boaz saw Ruth and fell
in love with her, he said, there's one more kinsman nearer to thee
than me, and I've got to go reckon with him first. And Boaz went
to the city gate and reckoned with that other kinsman that
was nearer to Ruth than was Boaz. He had to be reckoned with. And
you remember Boaz said to the near kinsman, he said, if you're
going to redeem her, redeem her. But if you're not, then she'll
be mine. And the one that was nearest to Ruth said, I can't
redeem her. If I redeem her, she will mar
my whole family name. She's a Moabite. I can't redeem
her. That's the law. That's our first
husband. And he looks at us and he says,
I can't redeem you. You're not fit to be my wife.
All I can do is kill you. But there is a redeemer. His
name is Boaz. And he's reckoned with that nearer
kinsman. A wife that's been refused. Our first husband refused us.
We couldn't satisfy him. And he refused us. And he beat
us. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee. The Lord's saying, I let you
have a union with her for a while. With him. You know, I've noticed
over the years, that most of God's people, he lets them go
through some form of religion or another before he calls them
to himself. And I think it's for the purpose
of teaching us the gospel by contrast. You know, when the
Lord saved Saul of Tarsus, he took him to Arabia and taught
him the gospel for three years, sitting at the foot of Mount
Sinai. And he taught, who's clearer on law and grace than the Apostle
Paul? And he taught him the truth of the gospel in light of that.
And the Lord's saying here, I, for a little while, I let you
be married to that man so that you could appreciate better what
you have now. with a faithful husband, a husband
that loves you, a husband that's committed to you in a covenant
that goes all the way back to eternity past, a covenant that
can't be broken. For a small moment I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies have I gathered thee, or will
I gather thee. In a little while, in a little
wrath, I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness Well, I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of
Noah unto me. For I have sworn that the waters
of Noah should no more go over the earth. So have I sworn that
I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains
shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall
not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace
be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. This marriage now that we have
with Christ is a covenant promise that God Almighty made before
the world ever began. God the Father, coveted to give,
promised to give his son a bride. The son promised to the father
to redeem her, to purchase her unto himself. And you know what
else happened? The Holy Spirit entered into
that covenant and he said, I'll go make them willing so that,
so that they will gladly enter in to this covenant. by promise
as well. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to Genesis chapter 24. Genesis chapter 24. Verse one, and Abraham was old
and well stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham
in all things. And Abraham said unto his eldest
servant of his house that ruled over all that he had, put, I
pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear
by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that
thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the
Canaanites among whom I dwell. So now Abraham takes his servant,
Eleazar, and he says to him, he says, you're going to go get
a wife. And his servant's a picture of
the Holy Spirit. Abraham's a type of the father
here. And Isaac is Christ. And Rebecca now is going to be
the bride that's going to be willing. And he says, I'm going
to send you. And you're not going to take
her of the Canaanites. He's not going to have a pagan
wife. He's going to have a wife that's related to me, a wife
that's related to me in the covenant of grace before the world began. And look what happens in verse
four, but thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred
and take a wife unto my son, Isaac. And the servants said
to him, peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow
me unto this land. Must I needs bring thy son again
to the land from which thou camest. What if she's not willing? Then
should I go get him a wife from the Canaanites? And Abraham said,
no, whatever you do, don't get my son a wife from the Canaanites. You're going to get her. And
look what he says. Verse six, Abraham said unto
him, beware that thou bringest not my son thither again, the
Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house and
from the land of my kindred, and which spoke unto me, and
that swear unto me saying, unto thy seed will I give this land.
He shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife
unto my son from thence. Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. God had made him a covenant promise
that his seed was going to inherit the earth and that the Messiah
would come through him. And so Abraham just believed.
I don't know how God, you ask me a question, what if she's
not willing? She'll be willing. God's going to send his angel
because that's the only way his covenant can be fulfilled. And
I know he's going to fulfill his covenant. You know, that's
just what faith does. Faith believes that the covenant
that God has made will be fulfilled. God's going to do it. And you
remember the story? The servant goes, and he goes
to the well, and Rebecca's there, and he goes to her house and
deals with her father and her brother. And look at verse 39
of that same chapter. And now he's recounting to Rebecca's
father all of these events. And in verse 39, he says, and
I said unto my master, peradventure, the woman will not follow me.
And he said unto me, the Lord before whom I walk will send
his angel with thee and prosper thy way, and thou shalt take
away from my son of my kindred and of my father's house. That's
the only place the Lord gets his children from, from his house.
from his kindred, from his people, promised to him in the covenant
of grace before the world began. And so the servants recounting
this, and look at verse 57 of the same
chapter. And they said, now after he's
told them everything, they said, We will call the damsel and inquire
at her mouth. And they called Rebekah and said
unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will. I will. I will. You know, our salvation is not
because we have a free will and we choose God and all that kind
of stuff that goes on in religion. But when He makes Himself known
to us, we say, I will, I will. We're a willing participant in
the covenant of grace, and He makes us so. That's what the
Spirit of God said in this covenant that was established before the
world began, the covenant whereby God chose a particular people
and Christ redeemed them. The Spirit of God said, I'll
go and I'll take this message and I'll declare it through preaching
and your bride will hear it and they'll believe it and they'll
bow willingly to it. This marriage union that Christ
has with this church is founded in a covenant, in a covenant. And you remember when the Lord
created Adam, he said, it is not good that man shall be alone. I will make a help meet for him,
suited for him. And the Lord caused a deep sleep. scripture says to to to go on
to Adam and and then while he was in that deep sleep he opened
up his side and removed from him a rib yeah that's just so
amazing to me God didn't take a piece of Adam's foot to make
Eve under him he didn't take a piece of his head to make her
over him he took a rib peace nearest to his heart. And I'm just certain it's the
same rib that that spear went between on Calvary's cross when
God once again opened up the last Adam's side and pierced
his heart with the sword of his justice in order to redeem his
wife. And Adam said what? This is now bone of my bone and
flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman for
she's been taken out of a man and the two shall be one flesh. One flesh. That's the union that
we have. God doesn't see any difference
between Christ and his church. He sees them as a couple. joined
together as one. And he loves the bride just as
much as he loves the bridegroom. You know, if you're going to
have a relationship with me, you're going to have to have a relationship with my wife.
If you don't want anything to do with her, then, you know,
I'm sorry. And that's the way the Lord is.
Every relationship that he has, he has with his wife. And the
most precious of all relationships is the one he has with the father.
And he has that relationship with his wife. So that as he is, so is she.
He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all as
one, so that he's not ashamed anymore. Not like the law. The law was ashamed of us. We
could never measure up to the standard of our first husband.
He was ashamed of us. Look at her. She's so filthy. She's so dirty. She can't, she
can't measure up. She deserves to die. And now
what's he say? He's no longer ashamed to call
them his brethren. No longer is he ashamed. Why? Because He has imputed to us
His righteousness, and He's made us one with Himself, so that
now we're accepted before God in the Beloved, in Christ. There is now, therefore, no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
not after the law, but after the Spirit. They're no longer
engaged in that first marriage. They've been set free from that
man. They've been united to another and now they walk by the Spirit.
They walk by faith. They don't walk by the law. God
didn't give the law because faith wasn't working. Plenty of men
had faith, women had faith before the law was ever given. Just
read Hebrews chapter 11. God gave the law for the lawless.
God gave the law to simply restrain the outward behavior. And, you
know, the law only aggravates real sin, which is of the heart.
It might restrain outward behavior, but it just makes you more lawless
on the inside. We're not under the law. for
the law of the spirit of life in Christ has made us free from
the law of sin and death." What's the law of sin and death? That's
the law. We have the spirit of life in Christ now. We're dead
to that first husband. We're free to marry another and
we have. If the Lord's been pleased to
make us his Paul said in Romans chapter 12
verse 5, we being many are one body in Christ. For as in Adam
all died, even so in Christ Jesus, the last Adam, shall all be made
alive. Our first husband, all he did was threaten us, criticize
us, Now we're live. Just as the Lord put the first
Adam into a deep sleep, so he put the last Adam into the sleep
of death and opened up his side. And out of his side, the scripture
says, flowed blood and water. Justification, that's the blood.
Sanctification, that's the water. We're justified before God and
we're made clean before God through the opening up of our
husband's side. Covenant and union. The third word is the word love.
Love. Three things I want to say about
love. First thing is that God's love for his church is an everlasting
love. He has loved us, Jeremiah said,
with an everlasting love. There's never been a time. And
it's so hard for us to even talk with eternal language. Because
when I use verbs like never been a time, we're talking about time. But there's never been, in all
eternity, a time when God didn't love. His bride, when Christ
had not been slain, He's the Lamb that was slain before the
foundation of the world. We say when God chose, but there
wasn't ever a time when God didn't choose. We've been chosen in
Christ from eternity. Never been a time that He didn't
love us. Oh, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us. That's why the Lord says in that
passage in Ephesians chapter 5, husbands love your wives even
as Christ loved the church and did what? Gave himself for it. This love is not only everlasting,
but this love is particular. Jorge, I used this example in
your wedding a few weeks ago. I said, Jorge, you're here to
commit yourself, your love to Janelle. I said, now, just imagine
that you said to her, Janelle, I love you with all my heart,
and I love every other woman in the world the same way. That
just wouldn't work, would it? Wouldn't work. No. Love to be
love has to be particular. This idea that God loves everybody
is just, it's perversion of the nature of God. Jacob, I've loved. Esau, I've hated. He laid his
life down for the sheep. He gave his life for the church,
for his bride. And he's loved her. Oh, with
a love beyond our comprehension. Herein is love. Here's the definition
of love. Not that we love God. Don't define
love by the depth of your love. Your love is so frail and so
fickled. Herein is love. Not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and gave his son as a propitiation
for our sins. That's the definition of love. It's everlasting, it's particular,
and it is effectual. It is effectual. I ask you to
mark your Bibles in the book of Hosea. Turn with me there,
if you will, to Hosea chapter 11. Oh, Gomer thought that it was
her lovers that were leaving gifts at her door. It was Hosea
the whole time. He was just persistent. He was going to get her back
to himself. And that's exactly the way that
God is toward his bride. It's the way Christ, he's not
gonna let her go. She's not gonna be lost. And look at chapter
11, verse one. When Israel was a child, then
I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. As they called
them, so they went from them. And they sacrificed unto Balaam
and burned incense to graven images. Oh, in spite of the fact
that he loved them, we played the harlot. We exchanged him
for another God. We made ourselves to be God.
We set ourselves up on the throne of God. We willingly engaged
in a marriage to the law. We were beaten by that law willingly. I taught Ephraim also to go,
taking them by their arms, but they knew not that I healed them.
I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love, and I was
to them as they take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid
meat unto them. I took the yoke of the law off
of them. Oh, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, come unto me. My yoke is easy. My burden is
light. I'll give you rest. I'm not like
that old husband. I'll treat you with kindness
and with love, with affection, and I'll take care of the... I'll silence the law for you.
I'll shut his mouth. He won't have anything to say
against you. You're going to be mine. And I'm going to impute
to you my righteousness. His love is everlasting, that's
particular, and that's effectual. This marriage, this is a mystery. The world can't read. They don't
see it, do they? They can't enter into it. It's
like somebody in a bad marriage looking at a really good marriage
and wondering, I wonder what that's like. And they just can't
even relate. They've never seen it. They've
never experienced it. It's a covenant. It's a union
based on love and forgiveness. Forgiveness. He has separated
our sins from us. You know, if a marriage is going
to be successful, there's going to have to be a lot of forgiveness
in there. It's hard enough for a sinner
to live by himself, isn't it? I mean, if you've been made to
be a sinner, you'd know what Paul meant when he said, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? You
know how difficult it is for you to live with yourself, and
what a contradiction you are to yourself, and how much you
disappoint yourself all the time. You put two sinners together
in the same house, and you got double trouble, don't you? And
when two sinners are living together, they've just got to be a lot
of forgiveness. Where's that forgiveness come
from? Where does it come from? Be kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
thee. That's where it comes from. He
separated my sins from me as far as the East is from the West.
I'm that servant that owed a debt I couldn't pay. Who am I? to hold over the head of my servant
a debt." Forgiveness comes from the forgiveness
of God, doesn't it? What great forgiveness we've
been given. And he said, I remember them no more. And somebody told
me recently, said, well, I forgave them, but I'm not going to forget
it. I can't forget it is what they said. I can't forget it.
Usually what that means is I haven't really forgiven. I just hadn't gotten over it
yet. He said, I have forgiven you,
I've separated your sins from you as far as the East is from
the West, I've sewed them up in a bag, I've buried them in
the depths of the sea, I've cast them behind my back, and I remember
them no more. That's forgiveness. God gives
you the grace to forget, and then you know you're forgiven. For marriage to be happy, both
parties must be head over heels in love with one another. He is with us, all that he would cause us to
be with him. and that we would be able to just rejoice in this
covenant union that He has lovingly brought us into, forgiven us,
made us one of His. I want us to close in prayer.
I saw that Rinaldo came in. right before we started. And
you all know that Laura's father passed away this week. And Laura's
back with you, Renaldo. She came back with you. They
had an opportunity to speak to him at length about the gospel,
and he listened and gave them indication that he
believed the gospel, and I'm so thankful for that testimony. That's what we prayed for when
they went down there, that the Lord would give them an opportunity
to speak with Laura's dad. continue to pray for Laura and
her family as they go through the process of grieving this
loss. So let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we're so very thankful that you gave to your son a bride,
that he redeemed her to thyself. We thank thee for your Holy Spirit
who opens the eyes of your children, your bride, and causes them to
see the love of their husband, and brings them, like Rebecca,
willingly to Isaac. Lord, we pray now that you would
just minister grace to our hearts as we reflect on this glorious
truth, and that you would give faith to believe in Christ to
those who have yet been given that faith. Lord, we pray for
Laura, and we ask, Lord, that you would continue to comfort
her heart. We thank you for the time they were able to have with
her dad and for the testimony of his faith. And we pray, Lord,
that you would just bless them with grace and peace as they
trust you in all things. For we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Tom? Number 80 in the South Back
Temple.