Now if you take your Bibles and
turn back with me to Hosea. Hosea chapter 14. I've entitled this message, A Great
Call to Israel. A Great Call to Israel. I want to preface this by calling
to memory that this book of Hosea, you remember the prophet in the
very beginning of this book was called of God to marry a woman
of whoredoms. To take on children of whoredoms. And he was called for this for
a very specific reason. That it should be a picture.
Because Israel had departed from God. Israel had forsaken God,
if you read that in chapter 1 and verse 2, God said, take a woman
of whoredoms and children of whoredoms forth, because the
land hath committed great whoredoms in departing from the Lord. Now
these whoredoms were not physical, they were very religious people. You talk about the nation of
Israel at this time, they were religious people. So it's not
physical or fleshly whoredoms, but spiritual. They departed
from God. Consider all that God did for
Israel. God chose them as a nation. God delivered them from Egypt. God gave them the land of Canaan
as their inheritance. God established His worship. And consider that the presence
of God was in the midst of Israel. He had done everything for them. And yet they departed. They went
and worshipped false gods. Gods of silver and gold. Gods that they made with their
own hands. Look at chapter 13 and verse
2. After God says, I've done all
this and what did you do? He said this, you've sinned more
and more. You have made molten images of
silver and idols according to their own understanding. And all of them are a work of
craftsmen. They make them. You imagine making something
and then bowing down to it. You made it. You crafted it. You molded it. It can't move
unless you move it. It can't help you. It has arms,
but it can't reach you. It has feet, but it can't come
to you. It has eyes, but it can't see
you. It has a mouth, but it can't
speak to you. And yet they were bowing to it,
after God had displayed His power and His mercy to them for generations. And yet they departed from God. They committed spiritual whoredoms.
And God says this in this chapter 13, He says, Your gods are nothing,
and I'm going to show you they're nothing. They're nothing. They're
like the dew that passes away They're nothing. But I am thy
God, and there is no Savior beside Me. You see that in verse 4, He said,
Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt. Now shall
know no God but Me. For there is no Savior beside
Me. No Savior. As the nation of Israel
was chosen of God, they were called His children. They were given the promises
of God. And yet, they rebelled. And in
spite of all their rebellion, God said this, you're going to
know this, that I am saved. There is no Savior beside Me. And we know this, that the physical
Israel, the nation of Israel, not all of them were saved. God
says, I'm the Savior of Israel. There's no other Savior besides
Me. I decree, I will save Israel. But we know this, that that nation,
not all of them were saved. Now Paul deals with this in Romans
chapter 9 when he says this, is the Word of God of none effect.
God says He's going to save Israel, and yet not all Israel is saved.
Is God somehow mistaken? Is His Word Empty? No, he says. No, the Word of God is not taking
none effect. Why? Because not all that are
of the nation of Israel are of spiritual Israel. Not everyone
born to Abraham is the seed or the children of God. And so then
the spiritual Israel, this book is written for spiritual Israel. These are spiritual things. Who
are spiritual Israel? They are the elect of God. They
are the one chosen of God. And this is the purpose of God
toward His elect, that we should know no other God but Jehovah. And that we should know this,
there is no Savior beside He. That's His purpose. That's the
purpose of God toward His elect. Is that you should know this.
You that are saved, you know this. Isn't this so? We kind of would balk at someone
bowing to a God of their own imagination. Why? Because we
know this. There is only one Savior. Jesus Christ. There is only one
hope for sinners. It is Jesus Christ. This morning,
it's my heart's desire that you should know this, that every
one of you should know this. There is none other name given
among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus Christ is the only
Savior. There is no Savior beside Him. He is the only Savior. Now with
this in mind, that Israel in this text is a type of God's
elect, and God's purpose is to be their Savior, let us then
see in this text the heart of God. The heart of God toward
His elect people. Now, I've got four things. I've got
four things that I want us to see in our text. First of all,
a great call. God who purposed to save Israel
will call Israel with a great call. The second point is a great
fall. Everyone He calls knows they're
falling. Thirdly, a great assurance. We are told by the Word of God
that everyone who comes to God by Christ, God says this, I will
save you. That's an assurance. Why? Because
God said it. If I said it, there's no power
in that. If you said it, there's no power
in it. It could fail. You say something, it could fail. I say something, it can fail.
But when God says something like this, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely and they
shall They shall be as the trees of Lebanon. That's an assurance. And fourthly,
the great effect. The great effect is they abandon
their gods. That's the effect. The effect
is that they grow. The effect is that they believe. That's the effect. So let's see
these things now. I just did the message, so you
got it, right? I want to get up front just in
case you get lost in the weeds somehow if I mess up. All right,
so first of all, a great call. Look at your text in verse 1
of chapter 14. Scripture says, O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God. Now again, this is to a very
specific people. A very specific people. When
God calls a man, it is very specific. He is very particular about His
call. Remember Lazarus? He just said,
Lazarus, come forth. When God saved you, it was a
very particular call. Everyone else heard the same
message, but you heard something very different. You heard God
speak to your heart. You heard it. If you've never heard Him, you've
never been saved. When God calls, it's not audible. It's not something
you hear that way. But it is in your own heart.
You hear Him, and this Word is real to you. You heard it. He calls Israel, and only Israel,
specifically Israel, and I know this, only Israel shall be saved. Only Israel will hear this call. But as a preacher of the Gospel,
I have no idea who Israel is. I just don't. I look at you. Cheryl and I,
she was talking on the way, and reminded me of some event that
happened in the church in Houston about a certain man that was
in the congregation there. We surely, this man, he was a
pillar in the church. And I'm thinking, he went away. All this while, we were sure
that this man was one of God's elect, one of God's called, and
yet, we were wrong. I pray that maybe the Lord would
call him, or maybe he just... I don't know, but it seems pretty
dire. He doesn't ever, ever desire to hear the gospel. Never attend
the saints. So I don't know who they are.
Therefore God does this. He commands us as preachers to
call everyone. Ho! Everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. Come by wine and milk, without
money, without price. Come and be saved without merit.
Come be saved by free mercy. It's in Christ Jesus we make
a general call. Go you into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. Now listen, in this generation
there are many churches. I don't know if you've seen that
or not. You've seen there are many church buildings and there
are many preachers preaching many different things. All using the same book. All
saying the same name. Using the same names of God we
use. Using the same words that we use. Grace. Mercy. Blood. Righteousness. Heaven. Eternal life. They use these same words. But sadly, they do not preach
the same gospel. And I want you to be... God is
very narrow. Very narrow. This generation,
you know, they say, well, God, you're just too narrow. I don't
care. God's narrow, I'm gonna be narrow.
There's only one gospel. That's it. Remember Galatian
church? They believed in Jesus Christ. It is. The whole church. Nobody
had a problem with believing Jesus came and died for their
sins. but some of them would pervert
the gospel simply by adding circumcision. They said, yes, you've got to
believe in Christ. Yes, you've got to believe His
blood and righteousness, but you must also be circumcised. You must obey the law of Moses
in some way. It's the same with religion today. Well, you know, we believe salvation
is by grace, but you've got to, you know, preach the law, keep
people in line. You've got to preach the law
because that's the rule of life. Otherwise, you'd have Christians
out there killing people. If you didn't preach, don't murder,
Christians would be out there killing people. No. No. We have a law. It's just
not the law of Moses. We have a law of love. A law
of faith in Christ Jesus. So they're preaching many things.
Paul said, you know, I marveled then that you're moved from him.
You're not preaching the gospel, you're moved from God. You add
anything to Christ, it is not the gospel. That's how simple
it is. If you add any work you've done to His work, you have perverted
the gospel. There's only one gospel, and
that is salvation by grace. In the Word, grace is everything. It is unmerited favor. Salvation without merit. Salvation
without money. Salvation without price. Free. You know it's the only thing
that's absolutely free? It is. It's the only thing that's
absolutely free. And if you pervert it, it's another
gospel. And all works in free will religion are accursed, Paul
said. He said, if anybody preaches
another gospel to you, let him go to hell. That's how violently
he protested against this. And so then the test of everyone
who preaches the gospel, who calls men, what is our message? It is salvations of the Lord.
100% of God Himself. And so God, His servants are
called to preach this gospel of free grace, salvation without
merit, salvation that has been accomplished by Jesus Christ. And therefore we say, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. All who believe on Christ shall
be saved. We say that with great confidence. We say that with
great confidence, yet we know this, some will believe and some
will not. Isaiah said, Who hath believed
our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? As I preach to you, some of you
will believe and rejoice in this gospel and some of you will hear
it and not. Therefore, Paul says, We are
a saver of life unto the life of some, and a saver of death
unto death to others. So I tell you, come. Come to
Christ. Believe on Him. But I know this
salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. And so as I preach the gospel,
I must preach Christ. He is the sum and substance of
this gospel. He is the center. It is upon
Him the whole of salvation. It's on Christ. He who is God,
very God, became man. for a very specific purpose,
to obey the law of God, to provide righteousness for those who had
no righteousness in themselves. He came to provide righteousness, not
for Himself. That's silly, isn't it, to think
Christ came to provide. He Himself could not be anything
but righteous. His righteousness, His obedience
to that law, His humiliation was for His people. In Daniel
chapter 9 it says of Him, 70 weeks are determined upon Thy
people and upon the holy city. Listen to this. To finish the
transition. To make an end of sin. to make reconciliation for iniquity
to bring in everlasting righteousness. Now let me ask you, when Christ
came into the world, did He make an end of sin? Wait a second, we still sin,
don't we? Yeah, but He made an end of it. You know how? He bore
our sins in His own body on the tree. He reconciled us to God
2,000 plus years ago. He reconciled all of His elect
people because He was their representative man. He honored the law of God. He magnified it. Could you imagine being around
a totally righteous man? That would be hard for us. It
would be hard for us. When He came in the room, we
would have to bow in shame We would bow in shame because
this is how we should have been, and we're not. Yet He did it
for a very specific reason, so that His people should have what
God required, righteousness. Righteousness! And I like that
everlasting righteousness. When He made righteousness, it
was everlasting. It was eternal righteousness. Therefore, Paul
says this in Romans 3, that we are all unrighteous. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that understandeth. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in this sight. For by the laws
and knowledge of sin, that's all the law can do, is expose
sin. It can't help you. Thou shalt not lie. Does that
help you or condemn you? It only condemns you because
you've already lied. It doesn't help you. The law says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall surely die. Does that help you? Not if you're
a sinner. But this does. But now the righteousness
of God without the law. Wait a second, that sounds good.
The righteousness of God without my merits? Without my obedience? Yes. And this was manifest long
before Christ came by the law and the prophets. It was manifest. They told you of this before.
Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ. You see how the righteousness
of God is merited? By the faith of Jesus Christ.
You that are in Christ, you are righteous because He made your
righteousness. Now how much of that righteousness
did He make? How much? How much is yours and
how much is His? You that are called of God, you
know that it's all His. He made every stitch of the robe
of righteousness that was given to us. And not only this, His
blood actually paid for our sin. When God made Him to be
sinful for us, who knew no sin, did no sin, righteous, made Him
to be sin. Bearing our sins in His own body
on the tree, the justice of God was full, without measure, poured
out on Jesus Christ. God exacted justice for every
sin, for every evil thought, every evil motive, every evil
deed of His people. God exacted justice on Him. in your place. And when he was done, when God
was satisfied, Jesus said this, it's finished. The work is done,
the will of God is accomplished. Therefore, he says this in John
17. Go over to John 17 for a second. Look at what Christ says concerning
His death, concerning His righteous. This is the gospel we preach.
This is the gospel. There is no other gospel but
this. Over in John chapter 17, look at verse 1. You can read that just to begin
there. These are the words. that Jesus
spake, and He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify
Thee. That's what happened at Calvary. The Son glorified the
Father in satisfying justice. And you know what God's going
to do to Him? God's going to glorify the Son. Now then, and
this is how. As Thou hast given Him power
over all flesh, for this purpose, that He should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given Him. And we know that Christ
will manifest the name of His Father to everyone that was given
to Him. You're never going to know God
except through Christ. You won't ever know Him. And we know that Jesus Christ
being the High Priest, He interceded He represented and interceded
only for those the Father gave Him. Look at that in verse 9.
He said, I pray for them. Not for the world. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for
them that Thou hast given Me. For they are Yours. They're Yours. You gave them
to Me. And we know this, that all Christ
has redeemed they will believe. We know this. This Gospel I'm
preaching is about a man, is the God-man and what he has accomplished. That's the Gospel. And anything
else that's preached besides that is a travesty and treason. We are called to preach Christ.
We are called to exalt Christ. I want to set Christ before you.
I want you to see His perfect salvation. His perfect salvation. That's the Gospel of Christ.
And I know everyone that was given to Him, they're going to
believe on Him. He says in verse 20, Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them which shall believe on Me through their words. You see, the means, preaching
the gospel is the means by which God calls Israel. Again, I'm preaching it generally.
Any sinners, any destitute of hope of saving
yourself, now that's who I've called to preach to. If you've
got something, I'm sorry, if you've got some hope in yourself,
I've got nothing for you. When God calls Israel, He calls
people that have no hope. That's His people. His people
are without hope. And He says this, they shall
believe. I like that. I always love the definite words
of our Lord. They're without question. They're without doubt. Now, Tia, I promised you I'd
go somewhere this week, and I say, I shall go there! What I mean
is, I hope if everything goes alright, and I have strength,
and I have health, and I have gas, and I have this and that,
a whole bunch of ifs in there, I will do it. God has nothing
like that. When Christ said, they shall
believe, I pray for them that shall believe. You know He's
talking about you? Do you realize He was thinking
of you when He said that? Pray for you. Those that shall
believe. Those that shall believe. And
this is the call. Oh, Israel. You bunch of whores. That's what
He said. You that have abandoned Me. You
that have forsaken Me. The fountain of living water
for broken cisterns. Oh, Israel. Oh, Israel, God calls. his people, return unto me. Return to me. Repent and believe on Christ
as you who believe. You who believe. You know this. It's because God
called you. You would have never believed
Had He not called you, particularly called you, you would have never
believed. You know that. And everyone He
calls, this is the second thing, everyone He calls, they understand
the greatness of the fall. Look at this. Return unto Me,
unto the Lord thy God. Full. This is why you should
return. For thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity, has fallen by thine iniquity. Here is truly the condition
of everyone by nature. God created man upright. God
created man perfect in that he had everything he needed. He was without sin, created without
sin. And yet man in rebellion fell. He fell. He sinned and that sin
separated him from God. That sin separated him from God. But how far did he fall? How
far did he fall? How low and destitute a state
was man after the fall? One man said, somebody said it,
I think it's good, you're wrong on the fall, you're wrong on
it all. You missed this, you missed every other point of the
gospel. False religion would have you believe man is nothing
more than bruised. He fell, he sinned, but somehow
he has still the capacity to come to God. He still has some
spark of life, some dignity left, wherewith he might be able, himself,
by his own will, or power, or work, to make himself acceptable
with God. Now that's religion. That's false
religion. That's most of religion today.
They say, yeah, Jesus has his part. And he's got to provide
me some righteousness. He's got to provide righteousness.
Maybe 99.9999999%. And then I've just got to do
that 0.000001%, which is just make my decision.
That's all you've got to do. Make your decision. Well, that
would be great if you had life. Scriptures are very plain. Wherefore,
as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men. I always like this illustration
that Don used a long time ago. He said there was a saint in
the Roman Catholic Church. And this guy, he had his head
cut off. And the myth is that he picked
up his head and he ran with his head. And John said, you know,
I could believe he could run a hundred miles if I could believe
he took the first step. No, he was damned. He was damned. You see, there is no steps in
there. You have no hope. Man is damned. 100% day. God does not, does by divine
right and command, command you to repent. Yet man has no ability. God didn't lose His right, did
He? When man failed, did God lose His right to command you? No. God didn't lose any right
to command you just because you lost the ability. God commands
everyone everywhere to repent. The problem is you have no power. You have no power. The fall was
so great that man is dead in trespasses and sins. Man's will
is not free. It is bound by his corrupt nature. See a dead fish? And he's floating
along the stream. And you say, man, look at that
fish freely flow down that stream. You see, but can he go the other
way? He can't. Neither can you. Except what? God gives you life. This is how far we have fallen.
This is what God reveals to everyone He calls. is that we have no
ability in ourselves. Our Lord Jesus Christ preached
the gospel. There is no preacher greater than Him. He preached
the gospel to those people in John 6. He preached the gospel
so plain. He said, I am the bread of life. That manna you're talking
about, that pictured me. I'm the bread of life. And whosoever
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, which is simply this,
He said, whosoever believeth in me, that's what He's meaning.
That's what He tells them. They shall never hunger and they
shall never thirst. What gracious words. What wonderful
words. And yet they believed not. He said, you have seen me and
yet you believe not. But he had this confidence, all
that the Father has given me shall come to me. All of them. And Him that cometh to me, when
I call Him, and He comes, and He will come, I will never cast Him out. You come to Christ. You come
to Christ. Have you stopped coming to Christ?
You that come to Christ, have you stopped coming to Christ? You know what He says to you?
I will never cast you out. I don't care how you feel. Believer,
I don't care how you think. I don't care how great your sin
is. You listen to those gracious words. I will not cast you out. Why? I came to do the will of
my Father which He sent me, which is to save Israel. I came to
do that will. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but
raise it up again at the last day. And so then we preach the
Gospel. We call you. But we know this,
only God can really call you. And when He calls you, first
thing you're going to know is you can't come. That's the first
thing you're going to feel. I can't come. I'm not worthy
to come. I have no ability to come. I
have no strength to come. I am hopeless! Good. If God had put you in that place,
good. I remember Donnie Bell telling me a story about a man
that he was called out to his barn and this man's out there
crying. I know I'm trying. I want to believe! I want to
believe. I don't know. I have no power.
I have no ability. And all Donnie says is believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all he said. He walked
around the corner smiling. That's the beginning. That's the beginning of life.
When God calls you, He calls you to repentance. He says, come
to Me, return to Me because you have fallen. How great was that fall? It was
so great to have no ability to come to God. Are you such a sinner
as this? How then can we come to God?
If God calls you and you have no ability because you've fallen,
listen to what He says. He gives you instruction. Look
at verse 2. Look at this. You sinners, listen and pay attention
to what He says. This is how you come to God.
Take with you words. Whose word? Whose word are you
going to take? Yours? No. Not if you're a sinner. God's word to God. Take with you words. Take with
you His. Father, I know who I am. And I come to you as you declare
me to be. Without hope. Come and take with you the words
of God. And when God opens your eyes,
He'll reveal that need. And you take with you the Word
of God. And this is the Word of God. Here it is. Look. Take
away all of me. A lot of people come to God for
different reasons, don't they? They're sick. They're in trouble. They need a new car. Need a new
house. Maybe their family's not doing
too well. They come to God for a whole bunch of reasons. And
I'll tell you, God is even gracious to them and gives them a lot
of what they want. But when a man comes as a sinner,
this is his only need. Take away all my iniquity. Why? Because that's what separates
me from you, my iniquity. Take away all my iniquity. How then should He take away
our iniquity? The only way of taking away iniquity is by blood. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sin. How then shall He take away my
iniquity? What if He takes my life? Would that be sufficient? That's
not going to take away iniquity. That's only giving you what you
deserve. There's only one man who's taken
away iniquity. Christ. He's the only one. Look, He bore our sins in His
own body on the tree and when God exacted justice, they put
Him in a tomb. They put Him in a tomb. How do
you know He was successful in taking away iniquity? Scripture
says He would be. Christ declared He would be successful,
but how do you know? What's in the tomb right now? Nothing. God raised Him from
the dead to prove this, that He took away all iniquity. If God is going to take away
your iniquity, it's only by Christ. So when you come with words,
you come, Lord, take my iniquity only by Christ. He's my only
hope. He's my only hope. It is our iniquity and sin that
separate us from God and only Christ, by the shedding of His
blood, has forever removed our sin from us. Or as that Scripture
said, so far He removed our sin, so far as the East is from the
West, so far hath He removed our sin from us. This is the work of Christ. When
God calls you, who do you come to? You come to Christ. You come to Christ. Sinner, come
to Christ. And listen, pay attention, come
now. from now. The time I was struggling with
my faith, oftentimes unbelief would just
overwhelm my soul. Sin would pour over me, and I
would often doubt, Lord, disappoint, I longed to know. often causes
anxious thoughts. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not? Has He really called me or have
I just been imagining this? Is it all a work of my mind or
is it really a work in my heart? I don't know. I don't know. Brother
Todd came and preached a message called Faith Now. I don't think it ever gave me
any more comfort than that. Faith, ten minutes ago, And faith ten
minutes from now will not help you. Believe now. If all your faith was a lie before
you stepped in this room, believe now. And now. And now. And when you walk out
this door, believe now. Because that's the only thing
that matters. You believe now. Stop trying to look back and
look at some experience you had or something that happened to
you. We have experiences and they're wonderful. I like them.
I love it when the Lord comes and I feel his presence. And
I tell you, when those bad times come and I don't feel his presence,
those are horrible experiences. I don't look at experiences. I take with me to God's words,
His word. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Simple, plain words. Take the few words. Take away my iniquity. And listen, receive us When God calls a sinner and he
knows how far he's fallen, he will always seek grace. Never merit. Is that so with you? You come to
God with merit. Lord, you know, I did do this
for you. Sometimes God's people are arrogant
like that. The apostles did that. They said,
Lord, we forsake it all for you. Oh, what patience Christ had
with those arrogant men. What patience does He have with
us? Sometimes we do bring such foolish things like that to God. But it's not our heart's desire
to bring merit. Receive me without merit. Graciously. Graciously. And what will always be the result
of this calling is this. We will praise you. We will praise
you. We will render the calves of
our lips. That's all we can do. Praise.
And even our praise we don't think is meritorious. But I tell you this, we want
to. We want to praise Him. We want to praise Him. And this
is what they're going to say. Asher shall not save us. We will
not ride upon horses. Neither will we say any more
to the works of our hands. You are our gods. For in Thee,
the Fatherless findeth mercy. This is always the answer to
one who is called of God. I will forsake my religion of
works. I abandon it. Why? It's no hope
there. There's no comfort there. There's
no peace there. There's no joy in action. He's nothing. The God I worshipped
all my life was nothing. Was nothing. Was empty. It was
vain religion. And I gladly give that up. I
gladly give that up. Why? Because in God God, there's mercy. I know I've
gone too far, but I want you to see this assurance. To everyone
who's called to God, everyone who understands their fallen
nature, this is the assurance of God. Listen, I will. Those who bring such words to
me, those who bring such faith to me, God says, I will do something. He didn't have to. Remember,
it's grace. He's doing this out of grace.
And he says, I'm going to do this. I will heal your backsliding. What is this but bringing you
to Christ? All your life was nothing but
backsliding. All your life was nothing but
fleeing Christ. And what does he say? I'm going
to heal that. I'm going to fix that. Did he fix that? When you're
in trouble, who do you go to? When you sin, who do you go to?
Say, I fixed that. You go to Christ. You go to Christ. I like that when the disciples
said, he said, will you go away also? He just said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? See, God fixed that. He healed
that. Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe
and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. God's people never go anywhere
else. He will heal our sins. It's like that leper. Remember
that leper that came to Christ? Lord, if you will, you can. See, he knew he can. The will
was healed. If you will, you can. You know
what he said? I will. There is not one sinner
that ever come that way. He hasn't healed. I will heal
their backslash. I will heal them. This is what he said, David said
in Psalm 103, Bless, O Lord, all my soul and forget not all
of his benefits. What's the first bit? Benefit.
Who forgiveth thine iniquities and healeth thy diseases. the
disease of sin has been healed. Behold, the great power and grace
of the blood of Christ take away our sins. And secondly, he says
this, I will love them half. You and I have never loved anything
freely in our whole life. We always have some merit, some
type of, you know, reason we love. You
love your grandchildren more than others' grandchildren. Why?
Freely? No, because they're yours. They're
yours. God is the only one who can love
you. And so as he calls his people, he tells them this, I love you
freely. Eternally. Unchangeably. Why? Because there's nothing
in you. I don't love you because of you. I love you freely because
of Christ. He has loved us because He loves
Christ. And you're in Christ. You're
in union with Christ. When did God not love Christ? Can you name a time He did not
love Christ? When were you not in Christ? Scripture says before the foundation
of the world, God put us in Christ. So when did He not love you?
He always loves you. How? Freely. Without merit. How long will He love you? I
don't know. How long is He going to love
Christ? Therefore, Paul says, I am persuaded that neither life,
nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love
of God that is in Christ Jesus. Nothing. Nothing puts you in
Christ and nothing can take you out of Him. Nothing in you merited
the love of God and nothing because of you will take the love of
God away from you. I will love them without cost,
freely. Why am I in angers turned away?
Just as satisfied. You know God can't demand twice
payment for sin. Does that not make you happy?
God cannot punish Christ and then punish me. His anger is gone. There is no
anger for those He calls. He chastens us, but not out of
anger. My anger is gone. I will be as the dew unto them, unto Israel. How often is God like the dew
just out of nowhere appears? There you are all dried up, withered, about ready to die and all of
a sudden the dew of mercy comes and your soul is fresh. Why God
said this, I will be as dew. He shall grow as a lily and cast
forth his roots as leaven. Two opposite things here. and those cedars of Lebanon,
two opposite things. Lily is very fragile. It's a
very fragile plant. They don't last very long, do
they? I don't know. I'm not big on
plants. I just know that it's a very
fragile plant. You put that in a desert, without dew, it ain't
going to last long. Without water, it ain't going
to last long. And often God's people in this desert, they wither
on the outside. We pine away because of sin,
because of trouble. But he says this, you're not
only a lily, you have the roots of a seed. Why does this lily continue to
thrive in the deserts of this world and the afflictions? Because
our roots run deep. We are rooted and grounded in
Jesus Christ. The anchor of our soul is not
in ourselves, but in Christ. God says, you're as beautiful
as the lily, but your roots are like Lebanon. His branches shall
spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and he
shall smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow
shall return, and they shall revive as the corn, and grow
as the wine, and the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
Oh, nourishment and joy! Food and wine, as always pictured
in Scripture, is nourishment and joy. Those who dwell under
the shadow of Christ have nothing but nourishment and joy. This is what God gives to those
who call. He causes us to grow. And what's
Ephraim going to say? What are those that are called
going to say? Here's the effect. What have I to do anymore without
Him? I've heard Him. Have you heard
Him? Well, it depends. Do you believe
on Christ? If you believe on Christ, guess what? You've heard
Him. Not only heard Him, I've observed
it. I've experienced it myself. This is why you're a Jehovah's
Witness. You know, you are Jehovah's Witnesses,
not that group of idiots. You're Jehovah's Witnesses because
you yourself have experienced it. Your salvation. What have
I to do with idols? I'm like a green bird tree. Green year-round. Accepted by God year-round. From me. is thy fruit bound."
Who's getting the glory here? Those who are called. What is
always the effect? What have I to do with idols?
All the glory belongs to God. All the glory, all my salvation
belongs to God. He did it. Are you wise to understand
these things? Are you prudent to know them?
The ways of the Lord are right and just, and the just shall
walk in them. The just shall live happily. by faith. This is always the effect. It's
always the effect. The just shall always live by
faith. But the transgressors shall fall.
These same words that are a blessing and a comfort to you are a curse
to those who do not believe. Who's wise? Only those who the
Lord calls, they'll be wise. They'll be prudent. I pray God
will bless this. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.