Proratious bone arm. Hosea. Go back to the book of
Hosea. The Lord, where the Lord came
unto Hosea, and He said, Go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms,
and her children will be children just like her. And then in chapter 3, He says,
Go yet love a woman. beloved of her friend that she's
unfaithful. She's unfaithful to him. This is a love story. This is the story of Hosea, a
man named Hosea, who's a loving, kind, gentle, caring, faithful
man. He's a faithful man. He loves
this woman who's a harlot. And I'm very conscious of our
little children in here. sensitive to their delicate ears
and all that, but we do not apologize for God's Word and not say what
it says. And they hear things today and
see things that we need to tell it like God says it. An unfaithful
woman who sold herself for pleasure to anybody and anything. This is a picture of all of us
by nature. This is a picture, a story of
the Lord Jesus Christ, of how God sent His Son, not for everybody,
but for sinners like Gomer, the unworthy, the unfaithful, the
unclean, the wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. is that
way, but they don't know it, they don't think it. This is
for those who know it. This message will only be sweet
and good news to sinners. Like the love of God doesn't
mean a thing to most people. God doesn't love everybody. But
who He does love, He makes them to know and to feel that they
are unlovely, not worth loving. That's who God loves. That's
who He loves. And that's who Christ came for. Hosea represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Lord said that. The Lord
Jesus Christ said that. They are they which testify of
me, speaking of the Scripture. He said, Scripture says, to Him,
that is to Christ, give all the prophets witness. One time the
Lord preached to two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke
chapter 24. They didn't know who He was. He was just a preacher to them.
What a preacher. But boy, they hung on His every
word. And you know what He was preaching? He was preaching Himself. And it says, beginning in the
books of Moses, That's the first five books of both. And the Psalms
and the Prophets, that's the whole Old Testament. He expounded
unto them the things concerning himself. This book, God's book,
is about his Son. And the Old Testament are pictures,
much like we have a scrapbook of The story of our children's life,
that's why God wrote this book, To Him Give All the Prophets
With Him. God wrote this book about His Son, because he that
hath the Son hath life. Salvation is in Christ. Not in
the law, not in works, not in religion, but it's in Christ.
You must see, believe, lay hold of, bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why this book. was written
of God's glory and Christ's glory who came here to do this work,
who did this work of salvation. This is a love story. Hosea's
love for Gomer. She didn't love him first. She
didn't even know him. But God said, go love a woman. Set your affection on her. Set
your love on who? Her. Who? A particular woman. A simple woman. Not a sweet,
kind, lovely, worthy, beautiful woman. No. A whore. She sold herself. She didn't care a thing about
God. That's man. This is the Lord's
love for His people. The Lord's love. Go take a wife.
The Lord said this. In the beginning, God made a
covenant with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and said, go into
this evil world, sinful world, and find that bride that I have
given you. Christ said, all that the Father
giveth thee. shall come to me." Gomer is in
sin and depravity, but Gomer is going to know because Hosea
has come for her. And she doesn't know anything
is going on until much later. This was all in the In the purpose
of God and the will of God, He has purposed this whole thing.
The salvation of this forlorn woman has all been predetermined
and predestined and ordered by God in all things and sure. And
she doesn't know it. She's going to. And she's going
to attribute so many things to other people when they didn't
have anything to do with it. But God did it all. Now, I've
just told you the whole story of salvation. Salvation is of
the Lord. He said, Go love a woman, beloved. Chapter 3, verse 1. Go yet love a woman, beloved,
of her friend. Hosea was her friend. God's people
have a friend. He's sticking closer than a brother.
His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. We are no friend to him, we are
an enemy. Isn't that what the scripture
says? You that were enemies in your own mind by wicked work,
yet but God. I loved a woman, beloved of her
friend, yet an adulteress. She was betrothed to Hosea, who
would be faithful to her all the days of his life, but not
her. She seemed for a while to be
his bride, but then later she ran off, unfaithful to him. And he rebuked her in chapter
2, saying, You're not my wife. You don't act like my wife. But
I'm going to draw you back into it. You see, people, we are not saved
by our faithfulness to God. We're saved by His faithfulness.
We're not saved by anything we do for God. We're saved completely
by what Jesus Christ did for us and does for us, what the
Spirit of God does for us. Salvations of the Lord from the
beginning, from its concept, from its origination, to its
application, to its glorification. It's of the Lord, 100%. Election
by the Father, redemption by the Son, and regeneration by
the Holy Spirit. Salvations of the Lord. You and
I are just the object of that salvation. Before the foundation of the
world, God set His love upon many. Some. Lest anybody argue,
lest anyone say it's not fair for God to love this man, that
man, I agree. God shouldn't love anybody. Anybody. Should Hosea have loved this
woman? That she deserved to be loved.
This is not just a poor, ignorant woman who fought it on hard times.
This is a rebel. Adam and Eve and all here at
Posterity are rebels against God. Romans 1 tells us that.
Romans 3 tells us that, doesn't it? All the whole Old Testament
speaks about Israel whom God chose, and yet they were so rebellious
against Him. provoked him and provoked him.
They weren't just poor ignorant people that didn't know better.
They knew better. When Peter preached that message
at Pentecost, he said, you with wicked hands have taken and crucified
the Lord of Glory. They knew what they were doing. They said, we will not have this
man laying over us. And you know, as we grow up in
this world and we see the hand of God is clearly seen as eternal
power and Godhead, We're not thankful. We don't give thanks
to God. We don't call on God. We feel some measure of guilt
about our sin and what we do, but we don't ask God for forgiveness.
It's against God. We're so selfish. We're so self-centered. We sell ourselves. Our Lord says,
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Anything. Anything. Everything. He'll give
a ticket to the Super Bowl. He'll give a ticket to the Daytona
500. He'll give it for less than that.
He'll give it for a 10-pound bass, an eight-point buck, six-pack
of Bud Light. He'll give his soul. Does man deserve to be loved?
Does everybody deserve a chance to be saved? That's not what
this book says. And if you know yourself, you
know. This woman was a forlorn woman. She didn't just fall on
hard times. She ran away willfully rebellious. That's what Peter said in 2 Peter
3. They're willingly ignorant, not thankful. But she's betrothed to him. She is betrothed to him. She's
been chosen by God and given to Hosea, and so are God's people. She's going to come. She's going
to repent. She's going to be sorry. She's
going to be changed. And she's not going to do any
of it. He's going to do it all. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. A fallen woman. Go love a woman. An adulteress,
Scripture says. A wife of whoredom, selling herself,
body and soul. And that's who Christ came for.
As I said, the Lord said, what? What shall it profit a man who
gained the whole world and loses his soul? What? As if incredulous,
He says that, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
People joke all the time about a man making a deal with the
devil, you know, bargaining with the devil. That's exactly what
every single human being does. Exactly. It's not a joke. It's
not a joke at all. Gomer, you know what the name
Gomer means? Completely ruined. That's what her name means. She's
a completely ruined woman. She ruined herself. Don't blame
it on circumstance. Don't blame it on the environment.
Don't blame it on her mother, her father, her abusive father.
No, no, no, no. This was by choice. Completely ruined. But she's
married. Thank God she's married to a
wonderful man. A man who chose her. A man who
set his love upon her. And he's not going to let her
go. He's not going to forsake her for anything. Though she
runs off, he's going to find her. Though she sells herself,
he's going to buy her back. He's going to redeem her. This
is the story of Jesus Christ. He came for his bride. Not all
men, but his bride. Forlorn women, all of them. Like
that woman caught in adultery. That's one of His precious brides.
Like Mary Magdalene. That's one of His precious brides.
Are you? If you're not like her, you're not one of His brides.
If you're not like Gomer, you're not His bride. She's not even
come to call the righteous. I came to call sinners. Look at chapter 2, verse 5. He
said, your mother's played the harlot. He's talking to Israel
about your mother. She's conceived, done shamefully.
She said, here's what she did. I'll go after my lovers. I'll
go after this world. I'll go after those that love
me. I'll give my bread, my water, my wool, my flax, my wine, my
oil, my drink, my oil, my substance, my whole body, soul, and strength
to this world of things and people of it. I'll give myself to it.
You tell me if there's not one person in this room that has
done that. And if now, if you have any thoughts
of God whatsoever, any need for Christ at all, you tell me, was
that you? But Hosea said, I'm going to
hedge up her way. I'm going to hedge her in. Verse
6, I'm going to hedge her in. I'm going to make a wall. She
won't find her past. Verse 7, read on. She'll follow
after her lover, but she won't find him. In other words, he's
going to start making her feel miserable. And that's the first
thing God does to a person before He saves them. Start making them
miserable. Discontent, indebted. Those men that went to David
in the cave, Adam, 1 Samuel 22. And went to David in that cave
of Adullam, and he became their captain, their leader, like Christ,
the captain of our salvation. He says they were all of them,
three things. They were in debt, they couldn't
pay. They were in distress, greatly
troubled, and they were discontented. And that's all of God's people.
He brings them to that point. makes them discontented with
religion, makes them discontented with themselves, makes them dissatisfied
with their old religion, their old profession of faith, their
old this and that and the other, makes them totally discontented,
and is going to bring them to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ
to behold Him, their salvation. Read on. She says in verse 7,
she said, I'll go and return to my first husband. He's better
with me then than now. Verse 8, she didn't know. Hosea
said, she didn't know I gave her corn and wine and oil and
multiplied her silver and gold. She thought it was her lover.
She thought it was the world. She thought it was people. He
said, I gave her all of these things. What about us? How long did we
go without giving God a thought when God has given us everything?
He said, I girded you, though you didn't know me. brought you
forth from your mother's womb, and carried you, and watched
over you, and done all these things for you all the days of
your life, and yet you haven't given me a thought. You've given
yourself to everyone and everything but me. Now what's it? That us? Some in this very room continue
to do so. But this is all about Chapter
3, verse 1, the love of a man for an adulteress. And so is the gospel, the love
of God, of Christ. The love of God in Christ for
an unworthy people, a forsaken, rebellious woman. We've all seen these stories. We've all witnessed it. Whether
in a book or a movie or whatever, you've seen a young, beautiful
young girl, a little child, the apple of her daddy's eye. And she grows up and she's the
object of their affection and the parents deal with her so
well and do everything necessary for her and love her and treat
her kindly and provide for her and clothe her and feed her.
She never does anything. She doesn't contribute at all,
and they love her wife freely because she belongs to them.
And then she gets to be a teenager. She becomes rebellious and starts
resenting the authority of her parents, that they're cruel to
her. Why should they impose these
unreasonable regulations on me? For your safety, honey. It's
for your good. To keep you under our thumbs,
to keep you from destroying yourself. These rules, these regulations,
these boundaries you've set on me, that's unfair. I want to
be free. If I turn you free, you'll destroy yourself. That's
what these boundaries are for. No is a good thing. Oh no, when she says no, I'm headed
out of here. This was me. I'm out of here,
these cruel people. And so she heads off, or he heads
off, like the prodigal son, and he wastes, she wastes her substance. This once seemingly cute little
girl becomes hardened, she falls into sin, and many of them do
this, they fall into harm, prostitutes. Is she just a victim? She willfully, rebelliously ran
off. And she fell into what she deserved.
Right? Alright, then time goes by and
she's used up. By anyone or everything. And
you've seen them. Have you seen them? Go out on
the street. We saw one the other day at Wal-Mart,
sitting on the corner of Wal-Mart, a young woman. She looked 20
years older than what she was. Sin had ravaged her. She looked
old and haggard. And you go into any place in
America, you'll see them. Once seemingly lovely. Rebels
gone old, ugly. Nobody wants her. So God said to Gomer, you see
that old woman? You see that rebel against me?
You see that one that shook his fist in my face, who hated all
authority, who loved himself and hated everything. Everyone
is good for him. You see that one? Go love Him. Go find Him. Go hedge Him about. Go make Him
understand you've done this to yourself. Don't blame anybody
else. Blame Him. Make Him realize what
He's done. Make Him realize. And only then,
and then only, will He appreciate this love. This love is not for
a woman who's fallen on hard times. It's love for a sinner.
A rebellious sinner. Look at chapter 7. Chapter 7. He said of Ephraim, who represents
all of God's people, he said, Ephraim, verse 8, Ephraim mixed
himself among the people. You can't tell his mind. You
can't tell him apart. He's like a cake not turned.
That's burnt. Burnt up with lust and sin. Strangers
have devoured his strength. And he knoweth it not. He doesn't
know it. Dre Harris on it. He doesn't know it. He's getting
old and haggard. He's going to die without me.
But God said, this is what I'm going to do. This is what I purpose
to do. You see, people, if God didn't
purpose to do this, we won't be saved. Still, now, in my old
age, you say, well, you're a good Christian now. You've learned.
You've straightened up. I didn't straighten up nothing.
I didn't learn, may I use this poor grammar, I didn't learn
nothing. Scripture says in John 6, 45, they'll all be taught
of God. It's God that keeps teaching.
Have I learned everything? Sometimes I don't feel like I've
learned anything. Tell me, some of you that are
older than me, you feel like you're a better person than you
were when you first heard the gospel? No, you feel worse. Not
that you actually aren't worth, but you know what floods your
mind, your heart, your soul. You know you still go after this
world. You know that. You know the things of this world
still appeal to you. You know you don't give God the
praise, the glory, the communion that He deserves. You know that,
don't you? And you don't think of yourself
as a good person. You don't think of yourself as
a lovely person. You don't think, God ought to love me. God ought
to have mercy on me. You think, why would God be merciful
to me? After all these years, after
all that He's done for me, after all He's given to me, and I haven't
given Him that much that belongs to Him. No, I'm not worthy. But that's who He came for. That's who He came for. Because
this gospel, a true preacher never stops preaching this right
here. Salvation of the mercy of God
through the substitution of another to unworthy sinners. He never
quits preaching that. Self-righteous people don't want
to hear it. I made my decision for Jesus years ago. I don't
need to hear that anymore. I've quit my sinning. God's people
don't say that. God's people, the older they
get, the worse they feel. And they need to hear this story
again and again and again. Tell me again about His love
for me. I don't feel like I have much
for Him. Tell me again how He came for me because it seems
like I'm always running from Him. Tell me about what He's
done for me. That's the good news. And I'm
ashamed of what I have not done for him. Huh? Gilbert, you out there? And that's who Hosea came for. And he said, I have betrothed
her to me. She's mine. Look at chapter 3. You'll pardon me if I don't get
real excited about this, but this is my story. You're looking
at the prodigal son. Don't you like to tell your story?
Do you like to tell your story? Have you ever told your story
to somebody sitting there telling your story, how the Lord has
been merciful to you, and you're telling your story, and they
act like they're not interested? Anybody? They kind of, you know,
get it over with. I love to tell the story. It
seems more wonderful, it seems, of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His glory, how He came to earth for me. That's why Paul said,
I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners.
I'm the Word. I don't deserve to be. I'm the
less and the least of the same. I don't deserve to be called
an apostle. He said, I was injurious. I was a persecutor. A blasphemer, he said, I'm the
chief of sinners. And so Paul said, but I'm going
to tell you my story. I'm going to keep telling it to you. And
you know who will receive it? Sinners. They never get tired
of it. Yeah, they'll say, that's my
story. You too? Yeah, me. Chapter 7, verse, I've already
shown you that. He said in chapter 3, verse 2,
So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver. She sold herself. This was a high price. This was
a lofty sum to pay for this lowly woman. And I don't tell everybody, every
human being, Jesus Christ laid down his life for you. No, no,
that precious blood is too lofty, too precious, too wonderful to
throw it out there for people to trot out of their foot. No,
sir. No, sir. It's not for anybody to have
it. No, sir. Pay for a particular price, pay
for a particular people like Gomer. An infinite price paid. Redemption's price. The precious
blood of the Lamb. And not one drop of it was shed
in vain. It was shed for His people. And
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. It puts away sin. All the sins
of all of God's people forever. Because it was a precious price. An effectual price. An eternal
price. And you and I don't accept it,
we just receive it. We're just the objects of it,
like the blood on the door pane. And it said here in verse 3 of
chapter 3, he said, And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for
me many days. Thou shalt not play the harp,
but thou shalt be for me, not for another man. Thou shalt be
for me, and I shall be for you. Salvation is when God says, I
will, and you shall. False religion says, if you will,
God shall. No, that's false. Salvation is
when God says, I will, and they shall. All that the Father giveth,
they shall come unto me. And he that cometh to me, why
do they come? The Father drew them. He said that he that cometh
to me, doesn't matter who it is, doesn't matter how forlorn
they were, doesn't matter how unfaithful they were, I will
in no wise cast out. Isn't that good news? You'll
be for me. And I'll be for you. If God be
for us. For whom He did foreknow, predestinate,
called, justified. If God be for us. You'll be for
me. And I'll be for you. You'll be
for my glory. You'll be for my honor. Not yourself. Not man.
You'll be for my glory. My honor. my praise to the praise
of the glory of my grace, my love, not yours, my love, my
mercy, not your sin, my mercy. You'll be for me, and I'll be
for you. You'll tell others about me,
not yourself. You'll tell others about me,
not the preacher, not the church, not this and that and the other.
You'll tell them about me. You'll tell them how I came to
you. You'll tell them how I loved you, how I chose you, how I died
for you. You'll tell them about me. And
everybody in glory is talking about Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins and old blood. Him who chose us. Him who came
for us. Him who sent His Holy Spirit.
Him who kept the law. Him who is our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, redemption. Can I holler this? He told Isaiah,
lift up your voice. Say it with strength. Behold
your God. Your God will come with salvation. He looked and saw there was no
man, anybody that doesn't understand. This is what the Bible says.
Anybody, and he says, no man, Lord. He says, I am come. Oh, I am come in the volume of
the book it is written of me, to do what? To save my people. Wow! Through the praise of the
glory of His grace. What do you think about that? I don't like it, preacher. Everybody in heaven likes it,
and they're shouting it to the top of their lungs. This offends
our sense and sensibility. But not sinners. It doesn't offend
sinners. Tell us again, preach. Tell it
loud. Salvation's in Christ? Yes! Say
it loud so I can hear it. He brings this woman to herself.
She's broken. She's contrite. He says, I bought
her. I loved her. I came to her. I bought her. He finds this woman
on an auction block. She's finally sold herself to
everything and everyone so many times that nobody will have her
now. And she's on an auction block. And Hosea comes along and they
say, who bid for this woman? And nobody says a thing. Like
Ezekiel 16. Read that! It's a mirror image
of this story, Ezekiel 16. About that child cast out in
the field. The loathing of their person. And nobody had paid attention
to them. But the Lord Jesus Christ came by and He said, I came by.
I came by. And it was your time. He said,
it was your time. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son through the Gospel. It was her time. He said,
it's a time of love. Her love, no, she's despicable.
His love. He said, I set my love on you.
He said, I spread my skirt on you. Let's go over there and preach
that, shall we? I just did. This is the message of this book.
Anyone looking for anything else, go somewhere else. But this is
the message of this book. This is the message for sinners.
This is the message that gives God all the glory. This is the
message that you'll be glorifying God forever in heaven for telling
you. Listen, does this mean anything
to anybody? Your maker is your husband. The
Lord of hosts is his name. Thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel, the God of all the earth, shall he be called. Will the
Lord have called thee as a forsaken woman? grieved in spirit, a wife
of youth, but refused by every one. That for a small moment have
I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." Gomer, what do
you think about Hosea? She's my salvation. He changes her. Go over to chapter
14. Chapter 14, I close in our text. You know what he does? Hosea,
he buys her off that auction block. And he takes her down
off that auction block and removes those chains and those fetters
off of her. And he puts her on his arm. She's still ugly. And he puts that forlorn woman
who everybody's had. And he puts her on his arm. And
he starts walking down that street with that woman. And everybody
looks at her. She's a sinner. And he points
his finger at her and he says, Don't you call her and claim
what I've claimed. This is my bride. Don't you dare
say anything. I'll tell you what Hosea would
have said to them. She's my bride. You're the one
rejected. You're the one that's condemned.
This is the one I came for. And he walked, nothing about
her for him to be proud of, but he's not ashamed to call her
his wife. Isn't that amazing? Isn't he wonderful? All over religion, people are
talking about men and women and man, what he's done for God and
ought to do for God. It's despicable. It's an abomination. But he changed her. His love,
his mercy, his grace, spirit of God, power of God. She didn't
change herself. He changed her. Look at chapter
14, verse 4. He said in the end, about Ephraim,
about Gomer, about all his people, I will heal their backsliding.
I will love them freely. That means forever, without anything
in them that's worth loving. For my anger is turned away from
him. Why is God not angry with us, though we're still sinners?
Jesus Christ. the blood of Jesus Christ. He
said, verse 5, I will be as a dew unto Israel. He shall grow as
the lily, to grow in grace the knowledge of our Lord. Cast forth
his roots as Lebanon, the root of the matters in him. His branches
shall spread. It's not just talking about a
national people. It's talking about God's people.
True Israel. His branches shall spread. The
church, His beauty. His beauty. His beauty. The child in the field, he said,
Thy beauty, you were made beautiful in my comeliness. That despicable
child was covered with his robe. Thy beauty shall be as an olive
tree, like Christ. This smell, that's Lebanon. This
smell, smells familiar. Like the tentacles, like the
song of Solomon. He smells so good to her. His cheeks are spicy.
You know what? She smells good to him. Why? Because he's been hugging
on her. His smell is Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow
shall return. They shall. Read on. You can't
miss this. They shall revive as the corn.
They were once dead, now growing alive. Grows the vine. Christ
said, I'm the vine, you're the grain. The scent thereof as the
wine of Lebanon, the wine of his blood, the gospel. Ephraim
shall say, here's what Ephraim, he was turned to his idols, but
not now. He'll say, what have I to do
any more with idols? I've heard him. I've seen him. Is Gomer going to go back? No. No. Not now. He said, I'm like
a green tree. Green fir tree. New life. Drives to walk in newness of
life. Why? Because Christ said, from me
is thy fruit found. Who is wise? Who shall understand
these things? Prudent? He'll know them. The
ways of the Lord are right. The just shall walk in them,
but transgressors shall fall therein. That reminds me of something
I heard years ago. A poem that depicts this story. About a violin. Charles Ross gave me this. It was beaten to all pieces.
I saw it when he first bought it. And you might imagine what
Brother Charles found. But he worked on it. It reminds me of a story. I was battered and scarred, and
the auctioneer thought it barely worth his while, thought it barely
worth his while to auction off, to waste his time on an old violin,
but he held it up with a smile. And he cried, what's my bid,
good folks? Who'll start the bidding for
me? A dollar? Two dollars? Somebody make it
three? Going for three, going once, going twice, but no. From
the room far back, a gray-haired man came forward and tightened
up the boat. And after he'd tightened it up
in the old loosened strings, he played a melody so fair and
sweet as a caroling angel sang. Wish I could play it for me. Then the auctioneer, in a voice
quiet and low, said, now what's my bid for the old violin? And he held it up with the bow.
A thousand! Two thousand! Somebody make it
three! Going once, going twice, sold
for $3,000, cried he. And people cheered, and some of them
cried, we just don't understand what changed the worth of the
old violin. And he said, it's the touch of
the master's hand. Many a life, many a man, woman,
life out of tomb battered and scarred by sin is auctioned off
toward this foolish world just like that old violin, but the
Master comes. And the foolish crowd, the world,
just can't understand the change that is wrought in a sinner's
heart and life by the touch of the Master's hand. See, the worth is not in the
instrument that's in the microphone, in the worker, in the Lord Jesus
Christ. How about you? That's your story?
Any goners in here? I think it's only a sinner. What number? 474. I hope you
can sing this now if never before. Only a sinner, not have I gotten,
but what I received and the Lord's grace hath bestowed it, and now
I believe. 474. Let's sing.