Marjorie, take your Bibles and
turn with me to Hosea. Hosea, chapter 2. Hosea, chapter 2. The title of this message is,
The Alluring Call of Christ. The Alluring Call of Christ. Hosea chapter two, our text will
be found in verse fourteen. The scripture says, therefore,
behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness
and speak comfortably unto her. I will allure her. Now, this book of Hosea is a
very strange book. It's a very strange book in that
God uses a prophet and sends the prophet to marry a woman
of whoredom, to marry a prostitute, in order to show a great picture. to give the church a great picture
of His relationship between Himself and Israel, between Himself and
His people. If you could see this in verse
2, it says, "...the beginning of the word of the Lord," in
chapter 1, verse 2, "...in the beginning of the word of the
Lord by Hosea." And the Lord said unto Hosea, Go and take
thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms. For the
land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord." Now
this idea of marriage, this institution of marriage, was from the beginning
an earthly picture of an eternal and spiritual truth. From the beginning, marriage
has always been a picture of an eternal and spiritual truth,
the relationship between Jesus Christ and His church. Now, the first marriage that
was made by God was to picture this union, and that marriage
was Adam and Eve. It was the very first marriage. Now Adam being made first and
given dominion over all the things of the earth, he was found without
a helpmate suitable for him. He was found without a mate. Yet according to the hidden wisdom
of God, Eve was always with him from his very beginning. You
think about that. Eve was the one taken from his
rib. Now, when Adam was created, he
always had that rib. That rib was with him so long
as he has had being, that rib was with him. Eve was in Adam
the whole time. It was a hidden thing. Adam didn't
know anything about it. But God did. God knew. Eve was with him, and when she
was created, she was not made from the dust of the earth as
Adam was, but she was made of Adam. She was made of the man. She was in Adam and being created
of God, was taken out from his body, and God gave Eve to Adam
as a wife. And he knew this, that she was
bone of his bone. That's what he said. She shall
be called Eve. She's going to be the mother
of all flesh, for she is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. This is why she is called woman. Because she was taken from man. She was taken from man. And the Scripture says that they
became one flesh. They became one. They became
in union in the sight of God as one flesh. See this, that this is a picture
of God's salvation of His church. God the Father, in great love
for His church, chose His children and placed them in union with
Christ. So as long as Christ had been,
as long as Christ existed, and we know this, that He is God,
a very God. That He is eternal. He had always
existed. And therefore, His bride was
always in Him. Always in Christ from eternity. Jesus had always been the head
of his bride and his bride had always been his body because
we were always in Christ. We were hidden in Christ from
before the foundation of the world. No one knew this. This
was a secret, a mystery that God only himself knew and over
time has revealed it to us. But yet this was a hidden mystery.
This mystery of God was not yet fully clear. You think about Adam. He didn't
know. He was the wisest, maybe the only man, but he was very
wise, a very intelligent man. And yet he didn't know where
God was going to make him a helpmate. He didn't know where it would
come from. And it wasn't until God put him to sleep and cut
him open and took out that rib from his side. and made his wife
out of that rib and presented her to him. Then he knew where
she came from. She knew. He knew. Well, friends,
it was not fully clear how it is that God would manifest the
bride of Christ, which was not only physical Israel, as some
men thought, but also of other men, the Gentiles. But when God
wounded Christ, it was revealed how that God would make His church. It was by the wound of Jesus
Christ. It was by God cutting open His
Son. It was by God wounding His Son
that His bride was able to come forth. that she must be brought forth
by the blood of her husband." Now, this first marriage was
very special in that it had no sin. That's a pretty good marriage,
isn't it? Don't you suppose that would
be a great marriage? There they are. He opens up the
wound in his chest. takes the thing that's closest
to his heart, makes the woman, and God says, Adam, here's your
beautiful bride, the most perfect creation. I took her from you. I made her, and here she is for
you. And they walked hand in hand with no sin. Now, that's
a great marriage. But I'll tell you what, that
kind of mars the picture of the marriage between God's church
and Christ because we weren't born without sin. We were all
born in sin. We were born in sin. We entered
into this world in sin and death by sin because we are products
of our fallen parents Adam and Eve, we are products not of their
their marriage in their innocency. We are products of their marriage
after their fall. And so now, then the picture,
as you read through Scripture and you start reading about as
from the beginning, marriage began to be corrupted, didn't
it? Cain began to corrupt it. He took out and he went out and
he had several wives. Well, that just automatically
corrupted the picture that God had already set forth by the
first two. And over time, it's all kinds
of corruptions that peek into this picture, so to corrode the
picture. And now that sin has entered,
the bride was not born like Eve, but was born corrupt, born sinful. And therefore, it was necessary,
it is necessary for us to see the clearer picture of the marriage
of God and His Son in this book of Hosea. This book of Hosea
describes greatly the union, the love, and the marriage of
God and His Church. One thing about this book, if
you read it, it's not very rosy. It does not speak so highly of
the bride as does the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon
is very poetic. It's very picturesque of how
the husband views the bride and how the bride responds and views
the husband. But no, this is a Rubber meets
the road book. This is where it looks very much
like. Us. It looks very much like us. The
prophet of God, this book is strange in that the prophet of
God was commanded of God to take a wife. And not a wife of great
stature, You've got to understand that prophets in these days were
highly known. They were well-known men. There
were not many of them. And so when you saw a prophet,
you knew who this man was. They were prominent men. And
so you would expect that God would send this man a wife that
was moral, or a wife that would suit his office, at least. No. God said no. Hosea, you go
and take a whore to be your wife. You go take a prostitute and
you marry her, because I have a picture to give my people.
I have a picture. Look at that. It tells us that
in verse 2. It tells us why he tells him
to marry this wife of whoredoms. He says, "...for the land hath
committed great Departing from the Lord. He said, I'm going
to show you a picture of Israel, and I'm going to show you a picture
of myself. God, Jesus Christ, is the husband. He is pictured in this book by
Hosea. And Gomer is a picture of the
church. Gomer is a picture of God's bride, the bride of Christ. The prophet
was commanded to take this woman to be his wife. And one thing about this man,
Hosea, is that God did give him a love for this woman. You cannot
help but see the things that this man does for this woman
You cannot help but see his great love for her. God not only commanded
him to take her as a wife, but I know this, God also gave him
a heart to take this woman as his wife. Now this picture of
you and I, this picture of you and I is summed up in this one
person, Gomer. Now, I studied the word gomer.
Some have said that it means wasted. But more than this, it
means perfect completeness. And I was wondering, what in
the world? Perfect completeness? What does that have to do with
a harlot? Doesn't sound like a name you
would give a harlot, would it? But friends, she was perfect
and full of completeness in sin. She was completely full of sin. This is a picture of you and
I who are chosen, elect, redeemed, and called sinners, saved by
the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. We are by nature
perfect. and completely full of sin. Our nature is that of Gomer. We are completely full of sin. Sin covers our best thoughts. Sin completely destroys all our
works and makes them to be of no value and useless to God and
ourselves. There is nothing that we can
do or will do that is not mixed and fully mixed with sin. This is who we are. This is not
who we become. We do not start out nice and
wonderful children and then become fully, completely full of sin. No, we are from the very conception
of our nature full of unrighteousness. Full. This matter of righteousness
and unrighteousness is a very simple matter. It's an all or
none principle. You are either fully righteous
or you are fully unrighteous. There is no middle ground. Because
if you commit one sin, you have neglected all righteousness,
forfeited all righteousness, and become completely full of
sin. But yet we know this. And we
are not only sinners by birth, but sinners by choice. This woman's
life was one of great sin, because this is what she desired to do.
This is what she desired to do. The Apostle said, in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Friends, I am talking about the
Bride of Christ. I am talking about God's Church. This is something that God's
Church must and will own to be true. That all we are and all
we do is sin. That this old man can do nothing
else. That the thoughts of the imagination
Not even the imagination, but even the thought of the imagination of our hearts are evil continually. Think in your mind's eye of a
tree, of the most twisted, the most gnarly tree that you
could possibly think of in your mind. the most barren and dead
tree that ever existed, because this is how we are by nature,
corrupt and twisted. And we cannot by nature produce
anything that is good for man or God. Think of the most vile and despicable
man you possibly can think of. And there the church sees ourselves. We see ourselves in this woman,
Gomer. Think of this whore who is all used up. There she stands, chained, nude,
and no beauty, no value in her, and yet her spirit is not one
of humility, but one of rebel, one of a vile rebel. Gomer was not an object of desire,
but rather one to be detestable. One who was not broken by her
sin, but reveled in it. Not broken by lewdness, but wallowed
in it. Not an object of desire, but
one to be detested. The only use for such a woman
is to be used up and thrown away. The only value of a woman of
such character is to be used and thrown away. And that's all
they did for her. They used her and threw her away. This is me. This woman is me. I am Gomer and fully, perfectly,
completely a sinner. Now this woman had no claim on God to save her. This woman had no desire for
anyone to come and to take her and to care for her. This woman
was happily content in the situation that she was in and desired only
more. But God sent a man whose name
was Hosea. You know what Hosea means? It
means salvation. God sent a man whose name is
salvation. And God said to this man, you
take that lewd woman, you take that harlot, and you take her
to yourself to be your bride. To be your bride. And this prophet
of God came to the place of the slave market and bought this
one not to be his slave, but in this we see the mercy of God,
he bought her to be his wife. But it was not long until she
left the only one who loved her. Think of that. This man took
her in, bought her off the slave market. Nobody else would. brought
her into his home, clothed her, cared for her, took care of all
of her necessities, gave her three children. And yet, what
did she do? It was not long before she left
the only one that loved her, left the only one that bought
her, left the only one who took care of her, the only one that would be faithful
to her. And she up and left. because
of the lust of her own flesh. The lust of her heart caused
her to leave and follow after her lovers. Look at this in chapter
2, verse 5. It says, For their mother hath
played the harlot, she that conceived them hath done shamefully For
she said, I will go after my lovers that gave me my bread
and my water and my wool and my wax and my wine, my flax and
my wine and my drink. This is a picture of all of us
who by nature go after false gods and false religion. This is a picture of us who go
after sin and leave the only God who would ever love us and
care for us. This is the foolish and shameful
affection of our sinful lusts. Men by nature are so depraved
as to think sin can somehow satisfy them. Sin can somehow fill the darkness
with light and fill the hungry soul with food. When in actuality,
sin is what causes darkness and sin is what causes hunger. If we were to cut out the lights
and we say, well, we want more light. Well, let's cut out the
lights next door. Maybe we'll get more light. Let's
cut out the lights of the city and maybe we'll get more light.
Well, that's foolishness. Yet, this is how we deal with
things. We think that we should sin more and more, and by our
sin, it'll get better. She said, I will go after my
lovers. I will go after my sin. But all who are bought by Christ
and chosen of God will be brought back from such a condition as
this. I'm so thankful for this. You
know the song, Prone to Wonder. Lord, I feel it. prone to leave
the God I love. We are all prone to sin. And the moment we think that
we are above any sin, surely it will overtake us and we'll
find out we're no better than Gomer. We'll find out that we
were no better. But I know this about God's saints. I know this, that God never leaves
one of His saints in this condition. He always fetches us. He always comes after His own. Look at verse 6. Hear what the
Lord does when His wife plays the harlot and goes after other
gods. He says, Therefore, behold, I
will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she shall
not find her paths. And she shall follow after her
lovers, but she shall not 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 it was much better with
me than now. 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." Instead of thanks to God, instead of thanks to God for
all of the provisions that He provides, men use them. in service to other
gods. Behold, this is the beginning
of grace. This is the beginning of grace,
and we all by nature have gone after our lovers. We thought
that our sin would give us pleasure and that our sin would fulfill
us and provide for us. This is the experience of every
sinner that has been pursued by the salvation of God. We all
know this. We've all experienced this. God
is very long suffering and patient to fetch his bride. We all have had our way hedged
about with thorns. You who are Gomer. You who have
been bought with the price. You who have been bought with
the blood of Christ and chosen by the grace of God. And you
who have chastened after your sin. Have you not been hedged
in by God? Have you not experienced that?
It seems like that everything is going all well. Everything
is going well. And all of a sudden these big
walls of thorns pop up on the right and the left. And you can't
go anywhere without running into them. Hedged up. I remember one time
I was lost in the woods. And I mean, everywhere I turned
there were thorns. And every time I turned away
from the thorns to go a different way, there were more thorns.
And I turned and went a different way. And what ended up happening?
I got lost. I couldn't go the path that I
wanted to go. And every time I tried to choose
a different path, pain. came in. Suffering came in. The sin that once pleased me
no longer pleased me. It caused me great difficulty. If any sinner is to be saved,
if any sheep is to be found, he must first be lost. Isn't
that true? I've known men who've never been
lost. I'll tell you this, if you've
never been lost, you've never been found. If you've never been lost, you've
never been saved. People say, well, I've been a believer all
my life. That's too long. That's too long. Because everyone
that God saves, he hedges up their way and he, by providence,
turns them around. Henry was talking about the,
I don't know how you say it in Spanish, but we say piñata. That's
a Texas way of saying it. Piñata. But we know this, you
get that little kid and you spin him around and around and around
and he got the stick and he don't know where in the heck that thing
is. He keeps swinging. He lost! He don't know where he's going.
That's what God does with us. He spins us around and around
and around and we lose our way. What we thought we knew, we didn't
know. Everything became difficult.
Now, I'm not taking that kid, put him in a hedge of thorns,
put a blindfold on him, spin him around. That's how I was
by the providence of God. It just lost, not able to find
my way. If we are bought and redeemed,
if we are the bride of Christ, God will in the providence in
divine providence, hedge up our ways with thorns so that we cannot
turn to the right or to the left, and we cannot find our own paths. We are pressed to find our old
pleasures, but we cannot overtake them. That's what he says next.
I not only hedge her and make her lost, but when she tries
to follow after her lovers, she can't overtake them. She'll seek
them, but she can't find them. And then she'll say, I'll go
and return to my first husband, for then it was better. I know this. When I was hedged
up by the Holy Spirit of God and full of pain, the sin I once
found great satisfaction in, I find no more joy." Find no more joy in sin. Don't think that I didn't look
for it. Don't think I didn't strive to
have it again. I did. But every time I strived,
every time I tried, the Lord just hedged up another thorns
in front of me. And I could not obtain that pleasure
again. It was no longer a pleasure to
me. No longer a joy, only a burden,
a grievous to bear. And it was then that I turned
to religion. Now, is this not the case of
every believer in Christ? When God hedges up the way of
sin, when God in providence causes us great pain and difficulty,
and the pleasures of sin cannot be attained anymore, we become
burdensome with these sins. What do we do? We turn to religion. That's what Gomer's here doing. She says, well, I'll tell you
what, this ain't working out. I'm just going to go back to
my first husband. It's better for me just to go back than to
have to deal with all of this pain. that I'll return to my first
husband. What blessed grace is given to
all the elect of God, that no matter how far we stray, no matter
where we go, no matter how much we have forgotten or forsaken
our God, by the grace of God, he will always bring this back,
that we should return unto him, even because he is our first husband, by the eternal
grace of God. All who come to Christ must come
the same way, by the same calling of grace. And when she comes
back this first time, she comes back to her husband, now what
does she find when she came back to religion? Did she find joy
immediately? Did everything seem to go well
with her after she turned back to her husband? No, listen to
this, for when she did not know is that I gave her the corn and
the wine and multiplied the silver and gold that they prepared for
Baal. Therefore, I will return and
take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season
thereof, and will recover my wool in the flax given to cover
her nakedness. And now I will discover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of
mine hand. I will also cause her mirth to
cease, her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbath and all her
solemn feasts, and I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
whereof she has said, these are my rewards that my lovers have
given me. I will make them A forest and
the beast of the field shall eat them. And I will visit her
upon the days of Balaam, when she burned incense to them, and
she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went
after her lovers and forgot me, saith the Lord." What happens
when someone returns after being gone into sin? God doesn't make
it pleasant. God doesn't make it pleasant.
You see, He must strip the sinner of all that they have. If God is ever going to save
anybody, He is going to do it the same way. He is going to
take away everything they thought they had. He must strip the sinner. All those pleasures that we thought
and we enjoyed in sin. Do you not know this, that God
gave them? Is it not God that allowed them?
If we lied and increased in wealth, is it not because God gave it?
Yeah. We thought we did it. Well, God
gave it. But when a man comes to religion,
he's got to be taken down. So God begins to remove all of
those things and he begins to lose things. You who have come
into Christ, come back to the gospel. Is it not true that you've
lost things when you come here? I know this. When I started seeking
Christ in religion, I began to lose a lot of things. I began
to lose a lot of things. God began to destroy my works. God began to destroy my self-righteousness. God began to teach me that religion
is empty and vain and that I cannot by any measure earn God's favor. You who have been called by the
grace of God, have you not experienced this? When God calls us to himself,
I know this, we must be stripped of all self-righteousness." We
must be stripped of all glory. And He will take away our thoughts
of self-righteousness and our natural worth. And not only will
He destroy the pleasures of sin, but He will show us the vanity
of false religious works and idolatry. I want this to be as clear as
I possibly can make it. Any religious works we have done
before we have believed on Christ, before we have heard the gospel, are to be counted as done. Anything. I've known men who
have come and professed faith in Jesus Christ and then look
back at some religious actions as though that helped. That had absolutely nothing to
do with anything. Nothing. It must be let go. All the fruits and thoughts that
we thought to be good should be eaten by the beast of Friends, I have done no good
in my life. All my works and righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. I still can do no good in my
flesh. God says I will destroy her vines,
her works, her fig trees, Where have she said, these are my rewards
that false religion, my lovers, have given me? I will make them
a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. I will
visit upon her the days of Balaam. In other words, he's going to
cause her to remember her sin. Do you remember your sin? Do you remember your lewdness? wherein she burned incense to
them, and she decked herself and forgot me. Praise be to God for his mercy
to destroy all my works. I'm thankful for that, aren't
you? I'm thankful God has destroyed all my so-called religious works. Praise God to expose all my false
religion to be fruitless in my salvation. I'm thankful that
God has exposed that. Praise be to God for the painful
remembrances of my whoredoms and sacrifice to false gods. The shame of how I deck myself
for other gods and would not give myself to him. It is to my shame how soon I
would leave God, the God of love and peace and joy, the God of
salvation and the bread, God of bread and praise, and forget
him. How often do you forget God? Is he always in your thoughts? Is he always the pinnacle of
your dreams? Is he always everything to you? I tell you to my shame, that's
not true of me. Would to God it would be. But I also know this, that everyone
who is the bride of Christ is not only brought low and exposed,
but they will be called. Look at this. He says this in
verse 14, therefore. Behold, I will allure her. I will allure her. Have you been called to life
and salvation? If you have, then you've been
called this way. First of all, he calls when other
lovers and hopes are gone. Have you any hope in anything
else but God? Have you any hope in anything
else but Christ? You see, God calls only those
who have need of mercy. Do you have some work or goodness
by which you plan to be accepted of God? And he's not called you. But when he calls his bride,
his bride is called with nothing. She is called in her nakedness
and devoid of any righteousness in herself. It is here we see the calling
of God is sovereign. He says, I will. Was there any reason for Hosea
to call Gomer? Would you have called her? I wouldn't have called her. She was not worth calling. But
yet see the grace and love of God in this, that he said, I
will call her. I will. God does not call us
to salvation because of our goodness, neither does He call us because
of our lewdness. I'll tell you, we can be proud
of both, can't we? Isn't that a shame that we can be just as
proud of our goodness and just as proud of our lewdness? Look
how low I am, God! I'm so low you've got to take
me in. No, He doesn't. God's called
us so. He calls whomsoever He will.
He calls us because He's chosen us. He calls us because He's
given us to His Son. He has bought us with the price
of His blood. And He brings us by the power
of His providence and the power of His Holy Spirit through the
preaching of the gospel. How? By mere grace. Mere grace. I will, if you have been called,
you know it's this, because God willed to call you. There's no
other reason. No other reason. Second of all,
the manner of his calling, I will allure her. This word means to
persuade or seduce. Sinners, if God will call you
to faith, it will be by His loving kindness. Is that how we would have called
Gomer? No. We would have called Gomer to
our feet. We would have chained her some wall somewhere to make
sure she wouldn't get out again. But that's not how God called
you. God says, I will lure you with my loving kindness. It is the gospel that is preached
in the hands of the Holy Spirit that draws the sinner to faith
in Christ. This is the attraction of the
gospel, is that the door is opened for sinners. It allures. Draws us in. No man can come
unto Me except the Father which has sent Me. What? Draw him. Not drag him. Not beat him to
submission. No, He gives us a new heart,
a new life, a new willingness to come. And then He attracts
us. Is God not attractive? Is God
not gloriously beautiful in all of His attributes? He is if you
have a new heart. If you have a new eyes to see
Him, He is. But notice where He allures us.
He said, I will allure her to the wilderness. Into the wilderness. As Israel escaped from Egypt,
where did they go? They went in the wilderness.
All who believe on Jesus Christ are glad to be able to follow
our Lord Jesus Christ. And where did He go? When He
came into this world, where did He go? When He was baptized,
where was He sent? He was sent into the wilderness.
And so are you. Go you into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. What is this world but a wilderness? What is this body but a wilderness? God sends his people into the
wilderness, allures us into the wilderness. And so every believer
is allured by God to follow after Christ and take up his cross
daily and follow him. Do you desire to follow Christ?
Be careful. Be careful with your answer.
Because to follow Christ is to suffer. To follow Christ is to lose everything. If any man hate not his father,
and his mother, and his sister, and his brother, and yea, his
own life also, he cannot be my follower. When God allures us, He allures
us into a wilderness full of pain and difficulty. The world
and the flesh are nothing but a barren, fruitless land. And
here we find no comfort. We find no continuing home. But
we in this wilderness look for a city whose builder and maker
is God. This is not my home. Is this
your home? Not my home. He allured me into this wilderness
to follow after Christ. And I'm going to follow after
Christ as long as I'm in it. As long as I'm in it. And notice this, when God speaks
to his bride and lures us into such a place of discomfort, he
speaks to us comfort. He said, and I will speak comfortably
to her. The comfort of the gospel in
the wilderness, the comfort of the gospel in
the wilderness is this. That our salvation is of the
Lord. Your salvation is of the Lord.
From beginning to end. God has provided all we need. It's here through faith we receive
the comforts of the Spirit and His fruits. It's here we learn
of the valley of Achar. Look at that in verse 15, And
I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achar
is a door of hope. You know what the valley of Achar
is? You remember when Achan in Joshua, when he took that silver
from Jericho and he hid it in his tent, and then Israel lost
the battle of Ai, and they didn't know what was going on. And God
said there's sin in the camp. And so they found out it was
this man, Achan. And they brought him out before
all of Israel. And they put that silver out
there. They took all of his family. And Israel stoned that family
to death. And everything he had, they killed
it. And then they put a big pile
of stones there. And they call it the Valley of
Achar. And the Scripture says when Achan was dead, and the
pile of stones was piled up, it says God turned His fury away
from Israel. When Jesus Christ bore the sins
of His people, and God poured out the fury of His wrath on
Jesus Christ, He turned His wrath away from me. He turned His wrath away from
you. This is the door of hope. This
is our confidence. Don't remember hope is not a
wish. Please remember that. Don't think
of hope as, gee, I hope. No! Hope means rock-solid, dead-sure
confidence. This is the door of confidence. That my sin is dead. When Christ died, so did my sin. When Christ was buried, so was
my sin. When Christ rose again, my sin
stayed in the tomb. And Christ rose incorruptible.
And so, therefore, this is the comfort God speaks to us, that
sin has been put away forever. You mean even the sin of Gomer?
You bet. even the sin of this Gomer. This is how God speaks to me.
Is this how God speaks to you? Does He allure you and draw you
with words of comfort? Because I'll tell you what, if
you're being beat, usually that's our own self. Go to Romans chapter 8. Because
I don't know about you, but I beat myself up a lot. I condemn myself. Romans chapter 8. Look at verse 31. What shall
we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yea,
rather, is risen again. who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress,
persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword, any of the
wilderness, is that going to separate us from the love of
God that's in Christ? For as it is written, For thy
sake we are killed all the day long, and are counted as sheep
for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither life, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor power, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Are these words of comfort to
you? Who is he that condemned? It's Christ that died and intercedes
for me even now. Even now. May God allure you
with his loving kindness. May God keep us in this wilderness. Because I know one day He's going
to come and receive us again to Himself, not because we were
good in the wilderness. He's going to do it because of
His own love and mercy. He's going to do it because we
are His bride. And I'm so thankful that God
does it this way, because I deserve the worst, but God gave me His best. I pray God give us comfort in
this. The stand will be dismissed in prayer. Gil, would you dismiss us in
prayer, brother?