If you wish to follow along,
turn to Hosea again, chapter 3. Hosea chapter 3. We have looked
at Hosea and Gomer. We've also looked at Hosea and
Gomer's three children. Now I want to try this morning
for us to consider this subject, redeeming love. We sang that
song to our Redeemer's glorious name, and the chorus began, redeeming
love. Redeeming love. Let me read first, then I'll
make some more statements. Then said the Lord unto me, this
is Hosea, of course, continuing. Then said the Lord unto me, go
yet, love a woman. Notice that's in the active,
go love a woman. He's calling upon Hosea to do
something. You see it? To be actively doing
something. Then said the Lord unto me, go
yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress. According to, now go love her
how? According to the love of the
Lord toward the children of Israel who love, or I'm sorry, who look
to other gods and love slaggons of wine. So I bought her to me. Do you see the love? Do you see
the love? Was this to be merely an emotion
by Hosea? No, far more than any just emotion,
was it? You go love a woman like I love
Israel. So what did Hosea do? He went
and bought her to himself. So I bought her to me for 15
pieces of silver and for an omer of barley and a half omer of
barley. And I said unto her, Thou shalt
abide for me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot. Oh, what a statement to a woman
like this. Thou shalt not be for another
man. So will I also be for thee. For the children of Israel shall
abide many days without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice,
without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim. Afterward, afterward shall the
children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David
their king. Let me ask you a question. Do you believe the Bible means
literally what it says? I do. I do. But do you believe this
means that David will be reincarnated, the son of Jesse? Do you believe this is talking
about David, the son of Jesse, who had those other sons going
to maybe in the resurrection? I believe this Bible means exactly
what it says, but we best be honest with God and honest with
our own souls. I want to know what God says.
I don't want to be defending what I think. He's not talking
about David, the son of Jesse. He's talking about Jesus Christ
the Lord. That's what he's talking about. Seek the Lord their God, David
their king, and the fear of the Lord and his goodness. When I read that, And I say read
it for the first time. I mean, when I really read it.
I mean, when I read it and God had opened my eyes, that astonished
me. The fear of the Lord, I understand
that a little bit, but then it said, and his goodness. You see, to fear the Lord's goodness? Oh yeah. In the latter days,
I'm not going to assault free will, I guess I already am. I'm
not going to assault free will, anti-Christ religion, with rebuking
a bunch of what they say about God's love. They lie about God's
love. They lie about God's love. The
word of God describes God's love as this. God's love is described as eternal. Love. Amen. That's what it is. Amen. One of the Old Testament
writers, it's put in the English, everlasting, it's the same word,
eternal love. God's love is described as predestinating
love. God's love is described as electing
love. Amen. If you do not If you do
not rejoice in that when you hear it. You hear what I said? If you do not rejoice in that
when you hear it. In other words, if when you hear
that, you hate that description of God's love, then you don't
know the love of God. Our text describes God's love
as redeeming love. Right? This wasn't just an emotion
that Hosea was to have toward Gomer. This wasn't just an emotion. This was action displayed. Do you see it? The love that
God said, I've got a love for the children of Israel. Now,
Hosea, you go love a woman according to that love. So what's he do? Sets up Aaron and just wishes
that woman would just come to him and come back home. Is that
what he does? No. He goes down to wherever
she is, slave market, maybe in the poorhouse. People want to
argue about it. I said last week or mentioned two weeks ago about
this woman being on the slave market, and people want to argue
about that. I don't care if it's the poorhouse.
Somewhere this woman had sold herself into bondage. She was
owned by something or someone or both else. because Hosea had
to go down and do what? Buy her. Buy her. You see, most people want God
just to tell everything like you study in school, go to first
grade and he teach me this little bit, and then go to second grade
and he teach me this little bit. No, what God Almighty does is
he comes and he breathes life into your soul. And when he does
that, he will bring his gospel, because there's no reason for
you to get this. if there ain't gonna be any gospel
around. No reason for it. No reason for it. So you can
just what? What are you gonna do with, if
you ain't got nothing to be about? I guess I've answered the question
I asked you on this one. God Almighty comes where you
are, and He invades your very heart, mind, and soul with life,
and He presents to you the glory of the person and work of His
Son, and He will conquer your soul. And until He does, you've
got no reason to believe God's ever touched you with life or
anything else. I've found myself in days past
because I've defended a doctrine rather than the truth of Christ,
looking at people and saying, for years, boy, I think God's
doing something for them. Four years? And they've not been
bowed to Christ yet? I mean, is God just busy over
here? Well, maybe he purposed it that way. Then show that to
me in this book. God's redeeming love. always
is accompanied by action. Action by himself and action
by the ordained means he has purposed. And you can't love
one and belittle another, either way. One time Mason come to me
and talked to me about Luther. Remember that Mason? You quoted
eloquently to me about Luther and his pendulum. Let me tell
you, God's truth ain't here. It ain't here in the middle.
It ain't over here or over there. It ain't here somewhere. You
know where God's truth's at? With God up there. That's where God's
truth's at. You know how I find it? Not by
finding a place here. Right down here. Bow down in
the dust before God and say, God, teach me your son. Redeeming love. That's my title. I'm not upset. I'm not upset. I see complacency. I see men and
women get used to something for years and it just becomes, Joe,
it's not a common salvation like most people think it is, but
even God's people can begin to conduct themselves as though
it is. You remember the passage. John
sent his disciples and said, go ask him if he's the Christ.
Now why? That doesn't matter. Go ask him if he's the Christ.
And what did Christ say to those men that go back and tell John?
You've seen men raised from the dead. Wouldn't that be a glorious
thing to see happen? You see men whose eyes, physical
eyes were blind and this man could spit, get some dirt, make
a ball of clay, a ball of mud, put it on their eyes and tell
them to go wash in the pool of Siloam. And as soon as they did
and opened those eyes, Joe, guess what? Guess what? I can see. Lame men were able
to jump up with joy and run. And you know what the last thing
he says is? the poor have the gospel preached
unto them. Every time, brothers and sisters,
we hear the gospel preached, it's like seeing God raise some,
and then say, you see results of the preaching. That's not
what he said. Just hearing the preaching is like seeing God
Almighty raise a dead person, a dead carcass from the ground. And I forget that. And you, and
you, forget that. Oh God, renew within us that
God-given, spirit-wrought, gospel-charged zeal. See our text illustrates God's
redeeming love? God's redeeming love is much
more than the astounding bounty of the price paid. Now you understand,
the price that was paid was an astounding bounty that had to
be paid. But most people, even us sometimes,
our minds get caught up in redemption. We think about the one time act
of Christ paying for us. Christ paying for our sins. I am not belittling that. Oh
no. In our text, we're told not to
concentrate merely on that, are we? Look at what and all that
this love does. Now if he'd have just said, so
I bought her for fee, for 15 pieces of silver, for half omer of barley. All right, now chapter four,
verse one, we're gonna talk about something else. Still been glorious. Would it not? that Hosea would
go down to the whorehouse, wherever she was, slave block, the poorhouse,
wherever it was, and buy her out of that hole? Wouldn't that
not be still glorious? But it didn't stop there, Joe.
It doesn't stop there. It's much more than the astounding
bounty of the price paid. It's much more than the one-time
act of payment. And the payment for us was a
one-time act. Now, do not misunderstand me
on it. It's a one-time. Jesus Christ
is not paying for our sins. That's right He's not buying
us back in the long haul the death of Christ was not a Retainer
put down by him so that maybe then other things will happen
later He said when he just before he bowed his head and gave up
the ghost. He said to tell us that Paid
in full That's what Hosea did he went and paid in full. Yes,
sir This was the price it had to be for her. 15 pieces of silver
and a omer and a half of barley. He paid every last bit of it. And that's really all you need
to see in that. This is what it was. This was the price that
was demanded for her. Joe Galucic, Jesus Christ, paid
every single little farthing that God Almighty's justice demanded. God's redeeming love includes
the effects secured by it. God's redeeming love ensures
the effects guaranteed by it. God's redeeming love is unfortably
assuring of redemption, right down to finally that one day
he will accomplish the last part of redemption, and you know what
that is? The redemption of our bodies. The redemption of our
bodies. You see, God's redeeming love
is like this. Here's the effects. It's the
union of the redeemer to the redeemed. Do you read it all
here? It's not just the price paid.
but the price having been paid, the redeemer joins the redeemed
to himself. Now he's already joined himself
to her just by even desiring, purposing, willing to make the
payment. He's already joined himself to
her by going down to the slave block, the poor house, or the
whore house, wherever it was, maybe paying the man that owned
her. I don't know exactly the place, Joe. That don't matter.
People would argue about that. And he pays the price, he's already
united himself to her. But here, whenever he pays that
price, I can see him now, Joe, walking, she's on the slave block,
he walked up there and got her by the arm and said, you are
mine now. We're going home. And folks, it used to be that
way in literal examples. You had somebody sold out on
the slave block, guess what, you went and paid the price,
you were that person's property. Yes or no? Right or wrong? I'm
not trying to defend that practice by men. I'm saying that's the
way it is. That's the way it is. It is union
of the redeemer to the redeemed. But I'd be remiss if I didn't
first state the state of the redeemed. Oh, I know. Just tell
me how wonderful Jesus is. Isn't that what people want today?
And then when you try to do that, they get mad at you. Right? Try to avoid the state of the
redeemed, that is the condition of the redeemed. Let's look at
where the redeemed are. And then you'll see the glory
of the Redeemer. Then you'll see the true bounty and love
and magnitude of the redeeming love when you see the state of
the redeemed. But people get a little upset
with that. So you just try to kind of ease by that one and
go straight to the Redeemer. Tell him how glorious he is.
And they don't want that either. You know why? I ain't on no slave
block. I don't have no pimp owns me.
Huh? Is that a little bit too strong
a language? Huh? I'm not sold out of the poor
house. Huh? No, not me. Oh, that may be great.
He's great, ain't he? But that's not for me. Let's
look at the actual state of the redeemed. Look at, in other words,
let's see redemption's objects. This is me. This is you. By nature. This is all we are
in and of ourselves. This is what we are in Adam. I am Jogalusic and adulterous. Not just a little promiscuous.
And I'm not even, I'm not trying to belittle, belighten that.
Not belittle, of course. No, unfaithful. You see that? My brothers and
sisters, to anyone that hears my voice, to this whole world,
God Almighty owns us. He's our creator. and we owe
him faithfulness and honor and glory, but we don't because we
are an adulterous. We're unfaithful to God. That's
elect, reprobate, I don't care who, by nature, we're all reprobate
in that sense. Our old nature is reprobated
of God, did you know that? He's not fixing it in this life
and he ain't gonna fix it for the next one. He's just gonna
get rid of it and give us a whole new body and then the whole new
body will have nothing but the new nature in it. You say, an adulterer, that's
me by nature. What, an idolater. Ever notice
an idolater is not one who refuses to worship. An idolater got no
problem with worship. They're just not gonna worship
God only. That's what an idolater is. Or, I worship God and something
else. That's still an idolater. You
see it? Well, we preach against them
people, don't worship God at all. No, no, I'm talking about
people who worship God too. And then you worship yourself,
you worship your spouse, you worship your job, you worship
your country, you worship your politics, whatever it is. God's
just another part of your equation of worship. That means that when
I do that and when you do that, that means I'm an idolater. Overindulgent. This is my condition. Love. A little sip of wine. No, that's not the way I am by
nature. Oh no, no. I can't pop the cork and take
a snort and put it back in, sit it on the shelf for a while.
Love flagons. Now you could take that literally
or spiritually or whatever, symbolically. In other words, he's describing
the state of the redeemed. Overindulgent. We're overindulgent
in our religious practices. We're overindulgent in our own
personal righteousness. As a matter of fact, Christ said
that's one of the things that is an abomination in God's sight,
is self-righteousness. And we'll drink up cups, flagons
of self-righteousness, won't we? And let me tell you folks, let
me as a preacher just be honest for a change. I'm being smart
at it now. Let me be honest with you. Even
yet today we love flagons of wine. If God would take his restraint
off of me for a moment, Let me change it. When God has taken
his restraint off of me for a moment, I'll return to the flagons. These
of these kind only are redeemed by love. He wasn't told to go up to St.
Catherine's and get a few of them nice, good holy gals. Maybe not even one good holy
gal, was it? Run down there to the whorehouse. Buy up a woman. Love her like God loves Israel.
Isn't that what he's saying here? You see it? Preacher, but that's
so brash. Somebody says, that preacher's
cocky. Yeah, that's right. That's because I know who my
God is. It's in this, I don't know all
about who he is, oh no. I don't understand it all, but
let me tell you something. It's time we start bragging about
God and his son. Brag about him. These and these
kind only are redeemed by love. Anyone who hearing me this morning
relate to that? Because if you can't relate to
the first part of this, the rest of it won't make a lick of difference
to you. It will be, as Joe said to you, death unto death. Death
unto death, but if you see yourself... Let me stop so I don't have to
rephrase. Let me try to put it in this
light. If you ever had an experience in the past, good or bad, it
really doesn't matter, and there were certain smells or... things
you've seen or maybe lights or circumstances that just really
stand out in that event. And as you go and get older and
you go through life, you kind of forget that. Then all of a
sudden, you're walking along and a certain smell wafts along.
And all of a sudden, you're transported back to that moment, good or
bad, whatever it was. And all of a sudden, all of this
memory rushes in. Let me tell you, if God's ever
saved you by his redeeming love, when I start talking about this
stuff, no, you're not, if God's already redeemed you off the
slave block, you're not on the slave block. But when a man stands
up and preaching about being redeemed from the slave block,
the smell of that nasty place comes wafting back along, and
it reminds you of where you used to be before he laid hold of
you, paid the price for you, and brought you out of that corruption. Think about it, degradation.
You ever been there? Do you remember that? And even
every now and then, God can let us go just for a moment. We begin
to retaste that just for a moment. The corruption. Indulgent of
self. And I'm not even talking about
immoral people yet. I haven't got to the whores and the whoremongers
yet. I'm talking about the religious righteous folk. You hear what
I'm saying? He ain't even got to the horrors
yet. Nah, he's self-indulged, self-willed, not free-willed. I never had a free will. My will
was so bent toward hell, so bent toward self, so bent toward the
devil, so bent toward sin, it wasn't free. I was just like
this woman, sold out on the slave block. I can see her. Now, whether this was literally
true of this, I don't know, but I can see her shackled and naked. And some of you have seen movies
about times in the past. You know, they weren't up there
in three-piece suits dressed up, Joe. Those slaves weren't.
You ever seen the movie 12 Years a Slave? Based upon a true account,
and it's horrendous. It's horrendous what some men
put other men through because of their self-righteousness. "'cause they think themselves
to be superior to another." Now apply that to yourself and God. But I can see me there, Joe,
my hands were shackled. And I was naked before God Almighty. But you know, the whole point
was, at one time, I didn't even know that. Somebody said, preacher, but
everybody's really there. No, no, they're not. You see, at
one time, remember, Gomer was having a great time with her
lovers. Remember that? But God said this in chapter
two, verse five, for their mother has played the harlot. She that
conceived them hath done shamefully, for she said, I will go after
my lovers, and she was. She was. Philip, she wasn't on
the slave block. She's out there just having a
big time. Hosea was bringing her groceries and food and clothes
all the time, and she'd given credit to her lovers for all
that. Offered up the bale. Same thing we did. that give
me my bread, my water, my wool, my flax, my wine. Therefore,
behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall that
she shall not find her pass. Here's the way she was going.
That was her free will. And God said, I'm gonna shut
that down one day. And everything's gonna come crumbling
down on her. and she will find herself, wherever
it was, the whore house, the poor house, or whether she's
on the slave block, and there she is, Paula, shackled up, naked
before the crowds. And now she sees her degradation. Naked before God and His holy
law. Ever been there? Ever been there? You know, I think I may have
to preach two messages on this. I'm not going to get to the second
part. Because we need to be constantly reminded by those smells that
walk through the whole of the pit from which we were digged. Just try to imagine this. And
we're not giving all this account. Of course we're not. But try
to imagine this. Gohmers, there she is. Wherever
this place was, Ellen, she's locked up. She's in bondage,
whatever it is. She's stuck there, and she can't
do nothing about it, no matter how much she might want to. And
I just wondered, did she ever think about old Hosea and how
good he treated her, how good he cared for her? And here she
stands, naked in her degradation. Guess who she sees coming up
the block? And he's got a couple things
in his hands. She don't know what it is. Might be indictments
against her. Maybe it's rocks to hand to the
neighbors. Huh, what would the law cry for? Maybe it's a sack,
couple sacks full of rocks to let the neighbors throw rocks
at her and stone her to death. She sees Joseph walking with
those bags, maybe a bag, maybe a basket, I don't know what.
He is carrying something, Joe. And all of a sudden he walks
and he don't start bidding. Uh-uh, here's the price. There's a bag
of silver. Here's a Omer and a half clunk.
Here it is. She's mine. She's mine. Now beloved, if and when that
ever happens to you, it will change your whole perspective
about Hosea. You'll never be able to get over
that. if and when that really happens
to you. Can you see it? Something like
that had to happen, Joe. Maybe not exactly as I told it
to you, but something like that had to happen, didn't it? Here
he comes. He's not bidding. He says, here's
the price. There it is. Here's the silver.
Here's the barley. She's mine. And I could see him take her
by the hand and begin to walk back home. And I know what I would do if
it had been Walter instead of Hosea. I said, all right, now
woman, let me give you a piece of my mind. Huh? Now come on, folks, some of you
wives, your husband sells him out in such a drastic way, and
you go down and pay, wouldn't you give him a what, four or
two on the way back home? Wouldn't you? Of course we'd
want to if we didn't or not, but look what happens. And I
said unto her, thou shalt abide for me many days. Why? Because Hosea said so. Well, how can you guarantee this
is true? Because this is not just about Hosea. This is about
the God of heaven and earth that does his will among the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And bless God,
if he's bought you, he'll have you. You'll abide for me many
days. Thou shalt not play the harlot,
and thou shalt not be for another man. So will I be for thee. But see, it takes God bringing
you to the end of yourself. Look at it. For the children
of Israel shall abide many days without a king, without a prince,
without a sacrifice, without an image, without an ephod, without
a teraphim. What's that all about? Yes, universally
it's true that we're all corrupt sinners by nature. But only some are brought to
their utter need, to where they no longer have a king, a prince. You see it? A sacrifice, do you
see it? God brought everything to be
nothing before your face. Do you see, that's what he's
talking about. And then people wanna get all eschatological
with passages like this and try to figure out what's supposed
to happen in the future. This is talking about the latter
days. And the New Testament says we have been in the latter days
for how many years now? How many, somebody answer me.
2,000. So whatever's gonna happen 1,000 years from now and 1,000
years after that is gonna be the same thing that's happening
now. Huh? Ain't it? Everybody's looking
like the thousand years to come one day is gonna be just something
totally different than what's now. Men still will be just as
depraved as they always was. Because even, it says, even when
Satan's loose just for a little season and he goes out to deceive
the day, immediately like that, they mass, they unmask against
God Almighty and his saints. Man will still, in that thousand
years, man will still be just as depraved as he ever was by
nature. But it's always nice to talk,
well yeah, that's gonna happen then. and don't wanna deal with
it now. Oh yeah, Gober may have been
on the slave block then, and yeah, maybe Israel or somebody
will be on the slave block right before the thousand years, maybe
during the seven year tribulation, and then God's gonna sovereignly
deliver them. What about right now? What about right now? All of that stuff that was written
before is written for what? Our admonition for when? When? Now, now. Yeah, everything we
once followed. The king, don't you follow a
king? Everything we once honored, don't you honor a prince? Everything
we once hoped in, what's that? A sacrifice. Everything we once
rested in, what's the next one? An image as a support, a pillar.
You see it? Everything we once worshiped,
what's that? An ephod. That's at least worshiped with.
Everything, look, everything we were comforted by. What's
that? A teraphim. Now you know what a teraphim
was, literally? It was that little god that men and women put upon
their shelf back then in those days, and it's called a healer.
That's the actual literal translation of the word teraphim, healer.
And you set it up on your shelf there and said, all right, bless
this house. Yeah, yeah. But you know what God does? He
shuts all that down on you. He stops all that to be of any
value to you. And notice, there's idolatry
mixed with good things here. Right? Sacrifices, ephods, right? God shuts it all. He shuts your
false religion down. He shuts your immorality down.
He shows you what it really is. You can't no longer rest in it.
Can't rest in it. Are there things still to happen
in this world? I believe there are. So don't get me wrong, don't
think I'm swinging one way or this way. I'm going too far to
the left, I'm going too far to the right. You've known me for
30 some years. Get off your high horse. I'm
trying to preach this word to the benefit of the people that
God sent me to minister to. Because when I die, what I say
after that won't mean a lick of difference. God'll have to
raise up somebody. You will not rest on the laurels
of the past years with Walter Pendleton. It will not sustain
you, I'm telling you right now. It won't do it. It won't do it. And if all I'm ever preaching
to you is history lessons about the past, or prophecies about
the future, it will not do you a lick of good. And I hope now
you understand where I'm coming from. I'm not trying to deny
anything, folks. I'm trying to preach what this
word says. in a way that has an application to us because
everything was written, everything that was written back yonder
was written for our hope, our admonition, that we through patience
and comfort of the scripture might have what? Hope. But Paul
also says there are things that are written as our examples to
warn us about certain things too. Remember that first Corinthians?
Those folks lusted after those things. Be careful, be careful.
Oh, Joe, to be shut down by God. to where everything loses its
luster other than our Hosea. Other than our Hosea. Again,
I go back to it. I can't get away from that. Something happened,
Joe. I mean, there's Gomer sold out
wherever she was, whatever that venue really was. And the reason
I say that now is because, you know, you read a few commentaries,
I'm looking for some historical help about this and that, and
then you see that this one, well, was she on a slave block, was
she in a whorehouse, blah, blah, blah, or was it even real? This
is all a metaphor. You know, come on, folks. That's
called obfuscations, trying to get away from the facts. I can
see wherever she was, she sees Hosea there with them goods.
And I know at first she didn't know what it was. Had no, she
even thought that what he was doing for her up to that point,
she'd given credit to her lovers for it. Offered it to her false
religion. And here, here Hosea steps in
and buys her to himself and says, now you're mine and I'm yours. And that's just the way it's
going to be. And I can, I can almost see, got to be a gleam
in her eye, Joe. Got to be a gleam in her, don't
you think so? Oh yeah. You know how I know so? Because
that's what God did for me, folks. And some of you know that so
too, you know why? Because that's what God did for you. Now let
me tell you something, oh God help us not to forget that. I've
got to go on later with this other part. Oh God help us not
to forget that. That pit that we were in, is
not just a dry, cool place. It's like a cesspool. That hole
was where, the hole from which you were digged, I think if you
go back and look at holes, like a lot of them, you know what's
in place? That's where they went and ducted refuse. They're human excrement. That's where they put that stuff.
And that's where I was conceived and born. Daddy, I love you,
but that's how you brought me into this world. And that's how
I brought my kids into this world. And Ellen, that's where I was,
in that nasty, awful pit, and God dug me out of there. And every now and then a smell
comes along, it reminds me of that, but that's good too. Every now and then I misstep.
No, every now and then I sin. But you know what, now listen
to me, that's good too. Because God is plenteous in mercy. Mason, he came to there and bought
me off that slave block. He will have me for his. And he will be for me, mine. Right? Right? Father, oh God,
Working our hearts and minds to stir us up from a complacency. God help us not to get to that
place to where we just, oh God, to where we hold your truth in
utter contempt. Because it is but by your grace
that we do not. I thank you in Christ's name,
amen.