That song we just sang, Savior
like a shepherd lead us, in the last line, thou hast bought us,
thine we are. We are a bought people, God's
chosen people, chosen before the foundation of the world by
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He purchased His
people, He paid the full price, His people owe nothing. the penalty
of sin was paid in full. That's what the title of this
message is this morning, Bought with a Price. We are bought with
a price, the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, bleeding, suffering,
dying on Calvary Street, taking God's full wrath for the punishment
of our sin, and he purchased me. In 2 Corinthians, for God
the Father had made God the Son to be made sin for us, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him." The last two
words, in Him, in Christ Jesus, is our righteousness. He is all
my salvation. I stand in what He did, not in
what I did. In 1 Corinthians, for you are
bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and
the Spirit which your gods By His stripes we are healed, for
we are sowed under sin. We are dead in trespasses and
sin, and that sin is against God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And thee and thee only have I
sinned. I have sinned only against God. I want this morning to look
at several of God's saints in the Word of God that were bought
with the precious blood of Christ. And Romans 8, he says, Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he called. Whom he called, he
justified. Whom he justified, he's going
to take the glory and glorify. In the book of Hosea, Hosea means
salvation. He ministers to the northern
kingdom of Israel, the tribe of Ephraim. It's the largest
of the tribes of Israel. Outwardly, the tribe is enjoying
prosperity and growth, but inwardly, corruption and spiritual adultery.
When all is going good in this world, we forget God, like the
rich man in Luke 12. He trusted in his wealth, the
things he had obtained in this world. We attribute what we have
and what we have done with our own hands like Cain did. He brought
the works of his hands, the fruits of his labor. Abel brought the
slain lamb. He brought the blood, and that
represented Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
This rich man, he tore down his barns to build bigger barns to
hold his treasure to this world. And that night, his soul was
required of him. That man met God in what he did. Hosea is instructed by God to
marry Gomer. She's a woman of whoredoms. Hosea
is going to find out in his marriage that it's an accurate description
of the unfaithfulness of God's people. Hosea marries Gomer,
the wife of Horeb. I wonder what we would have thought
if somebody we knew married a prostitute. I wonder what they thought. God's
providence. He says, my thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than yours, and my thoughts than your thoughts. In chapter
one of Hosea, Gomer conceives a son, and the Lord said, call
him Jezreel. For yet a little while, and I
will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. Now Jehu
is the son of Jehoshaphat. There are five men named in Jehu
in the Bible. Elisha anointed Jehu king over
Israel and second kings. And God punished the house of
Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel on her son. Jehu was the king
that exterminated the house of Ahab. He was a wicked king. He did evil inside of the Lord.
His wife was named Jezebel. Elisha had prophesied that Jezebel,
when she was killed, she'd be eaten by dogs. She was a king's
daughter. Jehu said she was dead to bury
her. But all they found was her skull, her feet, and the palms
of her hands. Jehu destroyed the worship of
Baal, but he did not stop the worship of the golden calves
at Bethel and Dan. Now I show you all these facts
in the Word of God to show you God's providence in all things.
He raises up kings and rulers. He raises up presidents. He raises
them up in judgment and mercy, and He decides that. God is sovereign. Now Gomer conceives again, a
daughter. God said, call her Lorohamma,
for I will have no more mercy upon the house of Israel, but
I will have mercy on Judah. Gomer conceived again, a son,
and God said, call him Loahmi, for you are not my people and
I will not be your God. Now in chapter two of Hosea,
Gomer has plagued the harlot. She says, I'll go after my lovers
that gave me my bread, my water, my oil, My drink, my wool, and
my flax. Now flax, I looked up this word. Flax is what was used to make
linen rope and paper. You remember Rahab the harlot?
She had stalks of flax on her roof, and that's what she used
to conceal the men that were sent by Joshua to spy out the
land of Jericho. Rahab had laid the men of the
roof of her house and hid them with the stalks of flax which
she had laid in order upon the roof. God provided her the flax
to cover the roof to make the scarlet line. The scarlet line
was also used to let the men of God down from the wall so
they could go in peace and return to Joshua. The scarlet line symbolizes
the blood of Christ. It represents Christ. Rahab said,
as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt,
and neither did there remain any more courage in any man. For the Lord your God is the
God of heaven above and in earth beneath. Out of all Jericho,
the Lord saved Rahab, her family. The Lord revealed Himself to
Rahab and to no other in Jericho. Rahab was bought with a price.
Chapter six, the Lord said, I have given into your hand Jericho,
the king, and all the mighty men of valor. You shall compass
the city. All the men of war shall go around
about the city once and do it for six days. On the seventh
day, the seven priests, which bear before the ark seven trumpets
of ram's horns, and when you shall hear the sound of the trumpet,
all the people shall shout, and the wall of the city of Jericho
fell flat. except for the part that Rahab
and her family are in. Rahab's portion of the wall was
built on the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone, which is Christ.
First Peter, unto you which believe he is precious. But unto them
which be disobedient, a stone which the builders disallowed,
that same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense. To them which stumble at the
word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. Therefore
thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion a foundation, a
sure foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious stone, a sure
foundation. He that believed shall not make
haste, and that stone is Christ. He says, judgment will I lay
to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. The hell shall
sweep away the lies, and the water shall overflow the hiding
places. Rahab's salvation was in Christ
that she cornerstone. Christ was all of her salvation.
She was a sinner. She had heard of Christ, and
the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to her what she was, a dead dog
sinner, and who He was, the Great Physician, the Savior of sinners. He says, I come not to call to
righteousness, but sinners to repentance. They that are whole
don't need a physician, but they that are sick. The Lord Jesus
Christ had shown Rahab, the only one in the city of Jericho, who
Christ was, and that she would perish without Him. So she fled
to Him. She was guilty, and she fled
to the only one that could save her. She fled to the Lord Jesus
Christ. She was like Gomer, a prostitute. both physically and spiritually.
She knew like Peter knew, Lord, you save me or I'll perish. No one else in Jericho bowed
to Christ. They didn't beg for mercy like
Rahab did. God had provided Rahab all she
needed, the Lord Jesus Christ, like the stalks of flax to hide
the men, the stalks of flax for the scarlet line, God provides
all that he requires. Rahab bowed at Christ's feet.
She was balked. The men of Jericho perished.
They would not bow. They were scared. They trembled,
but they wouldn't bow. They said in their hearts, we
will not have this man reign over us. They believed in their
lives and in their idols. Says, to whom He said, this is
the rest where you may cause the weary to rest. Christ is
the rest. That's where you're going to
rest at. And this is the refreshing. He is the refreshing. Isaiah
28 and verse 12, He said, yet they would not hear it. They
were not going to have it. He said, because you have said,
we have made a covenant with death and with hell are we in
agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through it, It shall not come to us, for we have made
lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. In verse
18, God says, And your covenant with death shall be disannulled.
Disannulled means to cancel, to make void. And your agreement
with hell shall not stand. When that overflowing scourge,
meaning when God's justice and holy wrath pass over you, it
will root you out of your lies and where you have hid yourself
in your own self-righteousness and the scourge will pass through
and you shall be trodden down by it. For the bed is shorter than a
man can stretch himself, and the covering is narrower than
he can wrap himself. That's what your self-righteousness
is. It will not cover you, and you will not be stretched out
on it. When that day comes, the hour, the day of death, when
we see Christ on the throne, and we have made lies our bed
and our covering, he said, and said, we will not have this man
reign over us, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will bow down
at his feet in judgment, not mercy. The overflowing scourge
is going to pass over you and root you out of your lies and
your self-righteousness that you've trusted in." Me and Johnny,
our grandmother told us when she was dying, she said, I'll
die and go to hell believing what I believe, and she did.
She went to God with what she had. She carried to Christ what
she had done. She wasn't resting in what he
did at Calvary. She trusted in her own self-righteousness. And I had another acquaintance
of mine. I was trying to tell him about Christ. He's in his
80s. He said, Tommy, surely it's got a matter of how we treat
people in this world. Surely that matters. This man's
never been to church, never had anything to do with anything,
but he was self-righteous. He's going to take to God how
He treated people in this world, and that's His righteousness.
That's what He's going to go to Christ with. And He's going
to be rooted out of that lie. And that scourge is going to
just overwhelm Him. See, He wasn't a sinner. He was
and he's going to take to the throne of God what he did, like
in Matthew. Many will say to me in that day
of judgment, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in that name,
cast out devils in your name, and done many works? And the
Lord Jesus Christ is going to say, I never knew you. Depart
from me, you that work iniquity. You see, all the Lord God requires,
He will provide. The Lord provided everything
for Rahab, the harlot, and Gomer. Gomer has given credit to all
that she has to her lovers, but it was her husband that had kept
her. Christ is our beloved, and he keeps us. The Song of Solomon
says, my beloved is mine, and I am his. Christ is our bridegroom. He is our husband. He provides
everything for us. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. Song of Solomon, tell me, O there, whom my soul loveth,
where thou feedest, where thou makest thou flock to rest at
moon. For why should I be the one that
turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? We rest in Christ. We labor to enter into his rest.
Christ's sheep are fed in the word of God and by the preaching
of the gospel. He is the green pastures. He
is the living word. He is the bread of life. Gomer
played the harlot, and she said, I'm going to go out to my lovers
that supply me everything. And it was Hosea, her husband,
that had kept her, given her all things. And she had, and
she needed. Like God's people do, when all
things are going good, we're fat and happy. We have need of
nothing, we forget God. We pump out our chest and say,
look at me, like Nebuchadnezzar did. Look at great Babylon that
I have built. And Hezekiah, he prayed to the
Lord and the Lord healed him. And when he healed him, what
did he do? He took the wicked king of Babylon and brought him
into the house of the Lord and showed him all his treasures.
Look at my stuff. We get educated, we get titles
in front of our names and say, look at me, look what I have.
God alone gives life, spiritually and physically. God makes rich,
He makes poor. The Lord Jesus Christ gives life. Y'all remember in Hannah's prayer,
she says, the Lord killeth, He makes alive. He brings down to
the grave and He brings up. The Lord makes poor, he makes
rich, he bringeth low. He lifted up the beggar from
the dunghill to set them among princes, and to make them inherit
the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's, and he has set the world upon them. He will
keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent
in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries
of the Lord shall be broken into pieces, and out of heaven shall
he thunder upon them. The Lord judged the ends of the
earth, and He shall give strength unto His King, and exalt the
horn of His Anointed, and that Anointed is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord gives all things. He
is the first cause of everything. Have you ever looked at the human
body, which I know you have, but have you ever thought about
it? The eyes, the ears, how it functions, how we take in water,
food, and it metabolizes into energy so we can work and live.
And people say we come from a great big boom or an ape. Wow. That's
good. We were made to honor and glorify
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what my existence here
is for. Look at the way the ocean rolls in the tides. He feeds
us from the ocean. He sustains us on this earth.
The sun warms us. It photosynthesizes the plants
for the grass, for the animals, and all this the Lord Jesus Christ
gives to us. And once again, we push out our
chest and put titles in front of our names and say, look at
me. Well, when I look at me, thank you, Lord, I see a wiggling
maggot and a dog. And my heart is overwhelmed with
why and how Christ could ever love me and reveal himself to me. Oh,
what sovereign mercy and grace. He did it because he would. It pleased him. He could have
passed me by. What the meaning of sovereignty
is, is a person who has supreme power and authority And that's
Christ Jesus the Lord. You will never worship the Lord
Jesus Christ until you see Him in His sovereign majesty. Christ
doesn't do anything because it's right. It's right because He
does it. Christ rules this world. He owns
it. He owns me. And whether you know
it or not, He owns you. You'll realize that in sovereign
mercy and grace or sovereign justice and holiness. I know
y'all know what God's chief attribute is. It's holiness. He put His
full wrath out on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for the sins
of His people. You will either bow to Him in
His mercy, or you will bow to Him in His holy justice. You
will bow to Him as prophet, priest, and king, and Lord of lords,
or you will meet Him in your self-righteousness. God's chosen
people, Israel. What did Israel do? They saw
all the wonders and plagues done to the Egyptians. They crossed
over the Red Sea on dry land. He delivered them when they cried
out. And as soon as they were in the wilderness, they murmured.
They complained. They said over and over, would
to God we were still back in Egypt. He gave them water from
the rock, which represented Christ, manna from heaven, which had
the coriander seed and tasted like honey. And what did they
say? We loathe this light bread, and Christ is the bread of life.
So God sent the quail to feed them, yet they murmured. Their
clothes never wore out, their shoes never wore out. God afflicted
them. They cried out for mercy. He
delivered them time and time again. He destroyed a whole nation
for His people. and yet we murmur and complain.
Naaman the Syrian, he had leprosy. In God's providence, y'all remember,
he had a little girl, slave little girl that was in his house. She'd
been captured and she was brought to his house so she could tell
him about the prophet of God, Elisha, who could heal her of
him of his leprosy. And when Naaman, captain of the
host of the king of Syria, A valiant and mighty man went to Elijah
carrying all his gifts and works, money. He was going to buy it.
He went to Elijah. Elijah sent a messenger out to
him telling him, go wash in the Jordan seven times and you'll
be clean. But what did Naaman do? He got
mad. He was like, he didn't even come
out to see me. Naaman was a proud man. Surely
he would at least come see me and strike his hands over me
and heal me from my leprosy." See, Naaman wanted to be healed
in a way that honored him, not God. He got mad, he got angry. His pride, his arrogance, and
his self-righteousness kept him from hearing, but the Lord broke
him. Naaman's servant told him, If
the prophet had told you some great thing to do to be healed,
you would have gladly done it. That's how we are. We don't want
the righteousness of Christ. We want to do something to honor
ourselves. Naaman is basically saying, don't
you know who I am? He was a dead dog sinner who
needed to be healed, and God broke him and healed him. Naaman went down and washed in
Jordan seven times, and when he came up the seventh time,
he was clean. You know what he said after that?
I know that there is no God in our world but in Israel. Naaman
was bought with a price. In chapter three of two in our
text, Hosea says to Gomer, so I bought you. He bought her to
make him for 15 pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley. And he said, thou shalt abide
for me many days and thou shalt not be for another. Y'all know,
I know y'all know about the story about the baby polluted in his
own blood, but I hope you have followed it all the way through
in the scripture. The Lord says, when I passed
by and saw you polluted in your blood, I said, unto you, live. It was a time of love. Christ
spread his skirt over thee and covered your nakedness, and said,
yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into thee with the covenant.
Thus saith the Lord God, and you became mine. I washed you
with water, washed the blood from you, I washed your filthiness
away, and anointed you with oil. I clothed you, I decked you with
ornaments, I put a jewel in your forehead, earrings, and a beautiful
crown. I did feed you, and you were
exceedingly beautiful, and you did prosper into a kingdom. Thou
didst trust in thine own beauty, and played the harlot. Now in
Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 16, this is the best thing in the
world. Nevertheless, God said, I will remember my covenant with
you in the days of your youth, and will establish unto thee
an everlasting covenant, and I will establish with thee my
covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
In Jeremiah 30, 22, God said, and you shall be my people, and
I will be your God. You shall, and you will. God's elect are bought with a
price, and that price was the shedding blood of Christ at Calvary.
He bought his people, paid the full price, took my sins, made
them his, took the full wrath of God at Calvary, and he conquered
death. Aren't you glad God's love isn't
like our love? We throw our relationships away
with the ones we've claimed to love like trash, while all the
other whole time, all we really love is ourselves. God's people
are bought with a price, like Gomer, the infant polluted in
his own filth. Rahab the harlot, Naaman the
Syrian, Noah, Abel, all were bought. Like Paul said, I am
a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Exodus 21, the servant, a
slave, if thy servant shall plainly say, I love my master, the master
shall bring him unto the doorpost and bore his ear, pierce his
ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. Now in closing,
I'd just like to say, flee to the city of refuge. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. And if you won't flee to Christ
and what He did at Mount Calvary, Christ said to the Pharisees
in John 8, But you seek to kill Me, a man that hath told you
the truth, which I have heard of God. Didn't Abraham do the
same thing? Didn't he tell you of Me? You
do the deeds of your father." Then the Pharisee said, We be
not born of fornication. We have but one God, Father,
even God. Jesus said then, If God were
your Father, you would love me. For I proceed forth and come
from God. Neither I come of myself, but
he sent me. What? Do you not understand words?
The reason you don't understand is because you cannot hear My
words. Because you are of your father, the devil, and the lust
of your father, you will do." God's people are bought with
a price. Abraham and Sarah. God changed their name. He changed
Abraham's from Abram to Abraham, meaning father of a great multitude,
and Sarai to Sarah, meaning princess. God has bought all his elects.
He owned Abraham and Sarah. He gave them new names. He changed
the Apostle Paul's name from Saul to Paul. When you buy a
dog or something, and that dog's yours, you name it. Yes, my dog. I'm going to charge his name.
Let's look at Matthew 15, 27. Matthew 15, 27. Well, I'm going to start in 22. And behold,
a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto
him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My
daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered
her not a word. Christ didn't even speak to her.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she cries after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That
didn't deter her. Then she came and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, help me. Help me, Lord. But he answered
and he said, It is not meat to take away the children's bread
and cast it to dogs. And this woman said, Truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat from the crumbs
from the master's table. Jesus answered and said, O woman,
great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even as thy
will. And her daughter was made whole.
If the Lord Jesus Christ firsts you at Calvary, He will head
you about, draw you to Him, root you out of your lies if you've
hid yourself in, and you will bow to Him, and you will call
Him Ishi, my husband, my beloved, my Lord, my God, and my Savior."
Now with that little song we sing, you're not your own, you're
mine. I've chosen you, you're mine. You're bought with a price, the
blood of Jesus. You're not your own, you're mine. Stand with me, please. John, pray for us. Dear Lord,
thank you for binding us to the cross. Thank you for salvaging
these children, nothing in our state will prevent it. Thank you for the outpouring
of your seed, oh Lord. Thank you for worshiping us.
and go without you. Forgive us of our sins.