Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Hosea, chapter 1. Hosea is the first of what we
call the minor prophets. They're not minor prophets because
their message is minor or because they are less important than
those men we call the major prophets. Their message majors on Christ,
so nothing about them is minor, is it? We call them minor because
the books that they have written are smaller. And this little
book of Hosea has a wonderful message, a message of love, a
message of Christ. It's a message of Christ's love
for his people. Hosea makes it clear to us. Christ's
love for his people. It's eternal. It never changes. It's indestructible. You can
do things to make someone else not love you. You can't do, if
Christ loves you, you can't do anything to make Him not love
you. His love is indestructible. His love is certain. And the
love of Christ means something. If Christ loves you, He will
save you and He will have you for His own. You know, the salvation
of God's elect is not just a legal transaction that had to be done. There was a legal transaction
that was done, no question about it. But the salvation of God's
elect is an expression of such great love and compassion. We can't comprehend it. Let me
give you the Reader's Digest version of the story of Hosea
and Gomer. God commanded his prophet. Hosea
was a great prophet in Israel. He was a prophet for many years,
longer than I read than any of the other prophets. And he commanded
this well-respected man to take a wife, not of Israel, but from
of the heathen nations around them, to take a wife from a people
who were known for whoredoms, who were known for fornication
and adultery. And Hosea married a woman like
that. He chose this woman named Gomer to be his wife. She was
young. She hadn't yet begun to act out
in that lifestyle. And he took her and he married
her. But when she got a little older, after a little while,
she followed her nature. She did just what her nature
would dictate that she do, and she left Hosea. She became a
common street harlot. And that must have lasted for
a little while, her living in that lifestyle. But all that
time, when she was living in such open rebellion, you know
what Hosea did? He provided for all of her needs.
And she didn't know it, but that's what he was doing. And finally,
Gomer got a little older. She lost some of her beauty,
some of her attractiveness, and she was brought to poverty because
her lovers didn't want her anymore. And she was to be sold on the
auction block as a slave to help pay off her debts. And nobody
wanted her. Nobody. She's used up. Who would
want her? Nobody wanted her except Hosea. He went down to that auction
block and he bought that rebellious woman, this woman who was his
own wife. He humbled himself to buy her,
to buy her back from the auction block. And he took her home with
him so that she would never leave him again. Now this story, that's
a nice story. But this story is given to us
as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hosea's name is the same name
as Joshua. His name means Savior, Deliverer.
And Hosea's love for Gomer is a very unusual love. Men typically don't love someone
like he loved Gomer. But this love is a picture of
Christ's love for his people. There in chapter three, verse
one, this is the key to understanding the whole book. according to the love of God
toward the children of Israel who look to other gods and love
flagons of wine. You see, this shows Hosea's love
for Gomer shows God's love for his people. He used to love her
as Christ loves his church. So I want us to look at this
story, some of the particulars that we see here and see the
gospel in it. The title of the message is Salvation
in Love. Here's my first point. God's
saving love. is for sinners. Sinners are the
only people who need a loving Savior. Who did Hosea take to
be his wife? Look at chapter one, verse two.
The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord
said to Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children
of whoredoms, for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing
from the Lord. Now Hosea took him a wife from
a culture of prostitution. Women selling their bodies was
not only commonplace, it was just accepted in that society.
And God told Hosea, his prophet, you go take a wife from them.
You go take a wife from that sinful, corrupt nation so that
you can be a picture of God's love for his people. The end
of verse two shows us the spiritual application here. He says, for
the land hath committed great whoredom departing from the Lord. We have committed great whoredom
in departing from the Lord. We've left God and we've sold
ourselves to anything and everything that comes along. We've sold
ourselves to false religion. We've sold ourselves in the service
of idols. We've sold ourselves to sin and to self. We've sold
ourselves to the law. The sin of false religion is
so serious, God calls it spiritual adultery. God calls it whoredom. leaving God to have union with
idols. And that's what all of God's
elect are by nature. That's what all mankind is by
nature and God's elect are included in that. This is what we are
by nature. But look at Romans chapter five. This is an amazing statement.
Despite what we are by nature, God loves those sinful people.
Romans 5 verse 6. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet perventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God committed his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God loves sinners. His saving
love is for sinners. Second, God's saving love is
a particular electing love. Now this story of Hosea and Gomer,
it's not a parable. This actually happened to real
people. Verse three, Hosea one. So he went and took Gomer, the
daughter of Diablum, which conceived and bare him a son. Now Hosea
was a real man and he chose a real woman to be his wife. You know,
Hosea, he didn't choose a nice, good, religious girl who was
attractive. You know, if he married her,
guys, let's face it, when we get married, we've added something
to ourselves. I mean, our wife, she's pretty, she's gorgeous,
she adds so much to our life, right? Not Hosea. He didn't choose a woman like
that to be his wife. Hosea chose a girl from the worst,
heathen nation in all that surrounding area. Because that's a picture
of who God chose to be the bride for his son, the worst of the
worst. And Hosea went down there and
he chose a particular woman to be his wife. Gomer, that's going
to be his wife. That's a picture of the father.
He chose a particular people to set his love upon, to betroth
to his son, to give to his son to marry. Now, Hosea didn't go
down there and love many different women. He didn't go down there
and offer himself to many different women, did he? He went and chose
one and took her to be his wife. And that's God. Now, God does
not love everyone. God does not love everybody who'll
have him. God's not putting his love out there to see how many
people might accept him. God loves his elect. He has a
particular people he loves. Later on, when Hosea goes down
there to that auction block to redeem Gomer, he didn't pay the
price for many different women, did he? He paid the price for
one woman because he loved her and he's going to have her. Now,
who did the choosing here? Gomer, she didn't say, you know,
I'm going to try to upgrade my situation and I'm going to try
to get to choose Hosea. I'm going to try to be married
to the prophet and, you know, improve my social standing. She
probably didn't even know Hosea. Hosea chose Gomer. And you and
I didn't choose God. God chose us. You and I didn't
love God. He loved us. Now we love him,
but it's because he first loved us. We didn't seek God. God sought
us and found us where we were. Hosea did the choosing. And he didn't choose Gomer because
she's any good, because she wasn't any good. You know what Gomer's
name means? Hosea's name means Savior. You
know what Gomer's name means? It means consumption. It means
waste. See how she's a picture of God's
elect? We're consumed by sin. We're wasted by sin. Hosea did
the choosing. And when it came time to choose
a people, God's the one who did the choosing. And he didn't choose
a people who could add anything to him, did he? You know, Gomer
couldn't add anything to Hosea. Even when she did bury him children,
she didn't add anything to him. You know what their children's
name means? They mean not pitied and not my people. That's what
we are by nature. We're not pitied because of our
sin. And we're not born the people of God. Where are we born? We're
born in Adam. We're the children of rebellion.
We're not the people of God. But what does God say about those
people who are not pitied and who are not his people by nature?
Look at verse 10 of Hosea 1. Yet the number of the children
of Israel should be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured
or numbered, and it shall come to pass that in the place where
it was said unto them, you are not my people, there it shall
be said unto them, you are the sons of the living God. They
will be the sons of the living God because God chose them and
God set his love upon them. Now look in Ephesians chapter
one, this election of God, God choosing a people is an absolute
necessity if a dead sinner is going to be saved. In John chapter
15, the Lord told his disciples, you've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you. They were just out there fishing
and sitting under a tree and the Lord came by and called them,
didn't he? The election of God is an absolute necessity. And
the election of God is a great act of love. His love is electing
love. Ephesians 1 verse 4, according
as he has chosen us in him, in Christ, before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. God's saving love is a particular
electing love. Then thirdly, God's saving love
for His people is long-suffering. You know, Hosea went down there
just like the Lord commanded him. He took a wife from this
awful people. And one day Hosea came home from
work. He'd been over to study. He came home from work and Gomer's
gone. She left him. Now, when Hosea
married Gomer, she was pretty young. She hadn't yet started
acting like her people yet. But she will eventually, because
that's her nature. That's what's in her. And sure
enough, she did. Eventually, Gomer showed her nature. She
left her husband to chase after other men. She left her husband
to become a harlot. Now, I don't know how long that
time of rebellion lasted, but I think it's a pretty good while.
I bet it was years. Because the story doesn't end.
Gomer, a young woman when she left Hosea, The story doesn't
end until she's lost all of her beauty, she's used up, none of
her lovers are attracted to her anymore, nobody wants her anymore,
and more than likely that took a while. And all during that
time, Hosea was long suffering, long suffering. He still loved her. Now there's no reason for that
love to be found in Gomer, was there? Oh, she didn't deserve
to be loved. The only reason for such long-suffering,
caring love is found in the character of Hosea. God chose a people. He chose a people to save before
he ever created the world. And all of God's elect are just
like Jacob. We were chosen by God before
we did any good or evil that the purpose of God, according
to election, might stand. He chose a people before the
world was ever created. And we're born into this world
and we think, well, there's a cute baby. Well, I grant you the baby
looks cute to us. But in that baby, there's a seed
of sin. That baby is born from sinful
seed. And sooner or later, that nature's
gonna manifest itself. We don't come into this world
with the opportunity to fall. We come into this world already
fallen. Sooner or later, that nature
is going to show itself. Nobody here taught your children
to lie. Nobody taught your children to
steal and take what doesn't belong to you. Nobody here taught your
children to covet what somebody else has. It just comes naturally
to us because that's our nature. That's what Gomer did. She just
acted according to her nature. And our time of rebellion will
last a pretty long time. Usually it's gonna last years,
isn't it? But all that time, God's long-suffering to his people.
He still loves his people in their sin and in their rebellion.
And there's no reason for that love can be found in us. We're
not lovable, are we? We don't deserve God's love.
The only reason for such long-suffering love to sinners is found in the
character of God. God is love. His love is long-suffering. Now it's so long-suffering that
nothing you can do can make God stop loving you. Now, we didn't
do anything to make God start loving us, did we? And we can't
do anything to make Him stop loving us either because all
the reasons for His love are found in His character, not in
ours. Look at 2 Peter chapter 3. I'll
show you how important this long-suffering love is. When David described
the love of God in Psalm 86, verse 15, he said, Thou, O Lord,
art a God full of compassion, gracious, long-suffering. His love is long-suffering. And
look here at 2 Peter 3, verse 15, what Peter says. And you
count that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. We can't be saved without this
long-suffering love. Even as our beloved brother Paul
also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written
unto you." That's the message of all the prophets, of all God's
preachers. God's love to his people is a
long-suffering love. And fourthly, God's love for
his people is a supplying love. You know, all the while that
Gomer lived as a harlot, Hosea is the one who supplied all of
her needs. Chapter two of Hosea, verse eight. For she did not
know that I gave her corn and wine and oil, and I multiplied
her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. At Gomer,
she left her husband, Hosea. Now most of us, if our wife left
us and she became a harlot, we'd wash our hands of her and move
on, wouldn't we? Not Hosea, no. Every night he
put them kids to bed and he snuck out and he left money, he left
food, he left supplies on Gomer's doorstep. Gomer gets up in the
morning, she goes out and there's food, there's money, there's
things that she needs. She didn't know Jose left it.
She thought her lovers left it. She thought that she was getting
those things because she's so wonderful. She deserved all these
gifts she's getting from all her many lovers. Now you think about this situation.
Gomer left Hosea with three children and he still supported her. Gomer
embarrassed Hosea. I mean, this man's the prophet
in Israel. He's a respected man. In front
of all his neighbors, everybody looking out the window. No one. This woman left her husband,
became a harlot. Yet he still supported her. Gomer
gave all the credit to everything she received to her lovers. And
they never gave her a thing. Hosea was doing it all the time.
He was the one supplying everything she needed, but never one time
did she give him credit. Never one time did she say, thank
you. And Hosea kept it up. God chose a people. He chose
a people to make his own. He chose them in his great love.
But they left God. We left God in Adam, and we left
God in all of our own sin and rebellion, running as far away
from Him as we can. Yet all the while, God supplied
their need. We live on God's earth. We got
air to breathe. We got something to drink. We
got something to eat. We got clothes to wear. God supplied
their need abundantly. If you don't think God has supplied
your need abundantly, Look under the Christmas treats in your
living room. God supplied our need abundantly. Some of them
he even made rich. Hosea, he didn't just give her
money, he multiplied her money. Just how abundantly he gave to
her. And God's elect to thank all
this is just to all of the needs that we have. It's either luck
or it's a product of our hard work or something our idol gave
us. We'll say it came from anywhere
but God. And never one time say thank you. Never one time give
God the credit. Yet you still have air to breathe.
You still have water to drink and you still have food to eat.
God keeps supplying their need anyway. God's love is a supplying
love. And fifthly, God's love for his
people is a faithful love. Look at verse 20 of Hosea chapter
2. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness and thou shalt
know the Lord. God is faithful in his love to
his people because God's love is a covenant love. God, you
know why he's so long suffering to his people? Because his love's
a covenant love. God's love is based upon the
covenant of grace that's established between the Father and the Son.
God's love is based upon what Christ has done for His people,
not what we've done. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7.
God is faithful because His love is a covenant love. Deuteronomy 7 verse 7. The Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number than
any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because
the Lord loved you, and because he would keep an oath, a promise,
which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house
of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know therefore
that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God. which
keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his
commandments to a thousand generations. God's faithful because he's a
covenant God. He will keep his word. The father
is long suffering with his, with the sin of his people. You know
why? Because God took all that sin
that offends him and he put it under the blood of Christ. That's
why he's long suffering. The father is long suffering
with his elect, not because anything good they've done, but because
he sees them in Christ, in his righteousness, washed in his
blood. God's love is a faithful love.
And then six, God's saving love for his people is a convicting
love. Now we began to look at this
matter of Holy Spirit conviction in a lesson this morning. God's
elect, They're born in Adam. They're born with Adam's nature.
So they're born not loving God, but hating God. They're born
not serving God, but sinning against him, rebelling against
him, and going as far away from him as they possibly can. Yet
God loves his people. And because he loves his people,
he'll not let them go. He'll not let them go as far
as they want to go. He'll not let them continue in
their rebellion. He's going to have them. God
will bring his people to himself. And the means that God uses to
bring his people away from sin and away from themselves to him
is through Holy Spirit conviction. And that conviction's painful
to us. There's no way about it, it's
painful. But I'm telling you, it's an
act. Holy Spirit conviction is an act of great love because
this is the means that God uses to bring us to him. God has to
bring us to the point that we hate ourselves. That's contrary
to our nature, isn't it? Oh, we love ourselves. But if
we're going to be brought to hate ourselves, we're going to
go through something mighty painful. We've got to be brought to hate
our life. We've got to be brought to hate
our religion. We've got to be brought to hate
our self-righteousness before we'll ever turn from it and look
to Christ. A sinner's got to be lost before
he's saved. He's got to be brought I mean
to the bottom of the barrel before he can ever be lifted up. He's
got to be stripped before he can be clothed. Now this matter
of conviction is important. Brother Henry says this, to miss
conviction of sin is to miss repentance. To miss repentance
is to miss faith. And to miss faith is to miss
Christ. Look at John chapter 16. The misconviction is to miss
repentance. To miss repentance is to miss
faith. And to miss faith is to miss Christ. See if this isn't
what our Lord says in John 16, verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It's expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart,
I'll send him unto you. And when he's come, this is what
he'll do. He'll reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. Of sin, because they believe
not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my father and
you see me no more. Of judgment, because the prince
of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say
unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Albeit, when he the
spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth,
for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak and he will show you things to come. He will
glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto
you. All things that the Father hath
are mine, therefore said I that he shall take of mine and he'll
show it unto you." Well, this being shown Christ, where did
all that begin? It began with conviction, didn't
it? It began being reproved of sin. And we've got to go through
this very painful process of conviction of sin the same way
Gober did. Look back here at Hosea chapter
two. God's got to strip us of everything
that we think is good or everything might cover our sin. Chapter
two, verse two. Plead with your mother. Plead
for she's not my wife. She's not acting like she's my
wife. She's not acting like I'm her husband. Let her therefore
put away her whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries
from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked, and set her
as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness,
and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst." That's
what God's God do to us. He's got to strip us naked before
Him. He's got to strip everything
away. God's got to make us see we don't deserve mercy. Verse
4, And I will not have mercy upon her children, for they be
children of ordinance. God's got to make us see because
of our sin, we don't deserve His mercy. God must shut us up
to Christ. So we can't go anywhere but to
Him. If God leaves us an avenue to
go away from Christ, that's where we'll go. So He's got to shut
us up to Christ. He's got to hem us in. Look at
verse 7. And she shall follow after her
lovers, but she shall not overtake them. And she shall seek them,
but she shall not find them. Then shall she say, well, I'll
go and return to my first husband, For then it was better with me
than now." See, she's got to be brought to that point. She's
got to chase after her lovers, but she can't catch them, because
God won't let her have what she wants. She's got to try to go
all these other ways until God hems her in, so she's got no
place to go but Christ. That's got to happen to us. God
must make us see that everything we hope in is all useless. Verse 9. She says, therefore,
will I return and take away, or this is what Hosea says, I'll
return, I'll take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine
in the season thereof, and I'll recover my wool and my flax given
to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of
my hand. She's got to be brought to the
point that she's got no hope anywhere but Christ. And God's
gotta give us the full bitterness of this conviction of sin. Verse
11, I'll cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days and
her new moons and her Sabbath and all her solemn feasts, I'll
cause them all to end. So that we see there's no true
joy in our sin. And when conviction has done
its work, the sinner is brought to Christ. When conviction of
sin has done its work, then and only then can we enjoy the tender
love of the Savior. Look at verse 14. Therefore,
behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness
and speak comfortably to her. After conviction has done its
work, the Savior courts His people. He draws her to Him and He speaks
friendly to our heart. Well, what's the friendly message
that He gives us? Your sin that's caused all this
trouble, the sin that you're being so convicted of, is all
been blotted out under the blood of Christ. After conviction has
done its work, then God gives His people hope in Christ. Verse
15, And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of
Achor, for a door of hope. And she shall sing there as in
the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out
of the land of Egypt. I'm going to give her hope. And after conviction has done
its work, we've been stripped of everything. Then Christ reveals
himself to us as our husband. Verse 16. And it shall be at
that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi, and
shalt call me no more Balai. Now this word Ishi, it means
more than a husband. Sometimes the word used for husband
has to do with Lord, like the one that we are in submission
to. And certainly that's part of the meaning of the word husband,
but this word here, it means more than that. It means my man. Now you ladies, you use that
as a term of endearment. If you're all happy with your
husband, you say, that's my man. That's this word, is she? My
man. The Lord Jesus Christ actually
became a man. There's an article in the bulletin
today about do I celebrate Christmas? Well, if you mean do I celebrate
December 25th as a religious day, no. There's no religious
significance to that. But why confine celebrating the
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son became a man? Why confine
that to one day? I celebrate that every day. He
became a man like me. He became bone of my bone and
flesh of my flesh so that I could be joined to Him. I could be
married to Him forever. Oh, that's tender love. That's
my man, my husband, my love. Look, verse 19, it was this tender
love, this husband speaking to his bride. He says, and I will
betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness and in judgment and loving kindness and in mercies.
Oh, what loving, tender love God has for his people. But now
there's a problem. You and I got a sin nature. We've
got a nature that's contrary to God. God became a man so he
could be joined his people, but we've got a nature that's contrary
to him. He's perfect. We're imperfect,
I mean, what's the, I mean, imperfect's not, we're rotten, we're horrible,
there's no goodness, he's perfect, there's no goodness in us. He's
righteous, we're unrighteous. We belong to a fallen race, and
there's a price on our head because of sin. Hosea loved Gomer. He said, you're my wife, I'm
gonna have you. But she belonged to a fallen system. She'd sold
herself into slavery. So here's my seventh point. God's
love for his people. is a redeeming love. Chapter
three, verse one. Then said the Lord unto me, go
yet love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress,
according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel,
who look to other gods and love flagons of wine. Now, Gomer had
been brought to the end of herself. She was on the auction block.
She was gonna be sold as a common slave. She was used up. Nobody wanted her. There was
nobody there bidding on her. Now that humbled her, don't you
imagine? I mean, don't you think she thought, my lovers have been
giving me all these things. They're gonna come and buy me.
They're not gonna let me go into this horrible state. But none
of them showed up. And if they were there, they
weren't bidding. She had to wonder why. She was humbled. And the
prophet Hosea, the respected man of God, he humbled himself. He didn't send a servant or send
a friend to be his representative. No, he went himself. He humbled
himself to go down there to the auction block and to make a bid. He had to stand there in humility
and bid on his wife. His own wife! The wife who had
left him and embarrassed him and been a harlot for years.
had humiliated Hosea. She cast off his love. He went
down there to that horrible nation and brought her to Israel. And
she just cast it off like it was nothing. She cast off his
love like it was meaningless. But he humbled himself to go
where she was and identify himself with her and pay the price of
her redemption. Redeeming love. Gomer had committed
adultery. You know what the law said? The
law said, Hosea, you can stone her. Stone her to death. But
instead of stoning her to death, he bought her and gave her life,
redeeming love. Now there she stood on the auction
block. She stood there in her ugliness. That's the result, the end, the
product of this occupation that she was in in her absolute ugliness,
the effects of that occupation, the drugs, the alcohol, everything
that goes with it. She didn't have her teeth. And
what teeth were there? Probably black and just rotten
out. Her skin looked bad, looked all
full of lines and splotchy and ugly. Her eyes were red and just
there she stood in all of her ugliness. And Hosea said, I'm going to
redeem her. What's the price? Well, even
the price he paid humbled her. 30 pieces of silver is the price
of a slave. Gomer is so useless, nobody else
is bidding. He paid half the price of a slave,
15 pieces of silver. He threw in a little bit of grain.
John Gill said it wasn't worth much. He paid by half the price
of a slave. He bought her. He redeemed her.
And Hosea took that ugly, worthless woman into his home to be his
wife. He took her into union with him. Everybody in town's whispering
about it. Can you believe what Hosea did? He didn't care what
they said. He didn't care what they thought.
He loved her. And he's going to redeem her,
redeeming love. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done for his people. In love, he came down,
the son of God, the glory of heaven. Scripture says that in
the new creation, heaven's not gonna need a son. Christ is the
light thereof. The glory of heaven came to this
earth and humbled himself to be a man with all the limitations
of a man so that he could identify himself with his people. He went
to the cross to be numbered with the transgressors. He identified
with his people. And they're worthless people.
They're not worth anything. They got a price on their head. And the price on their head is
far greater than what they're worth. They're worthless. And
he's got to pay a price to redeem them? They're worthless. And
the redemption price, the Christ bride, not silver and gold. The redemption price that Hosea
paid That humbled Gomer. It showed her she wasn't worth
much. The redemption price of Christ's bride will humble you.
Not because it's not very valuable, but because of its infinite worth.
The Son of God shed His blood to redeem His people. He gave
His blood. He suffered. He didn't just cut
Himself and let blood come out. No, He suffered. untold agony. His body was broken. His body
was bruised and pierced and blood came out of his body. He shed
his blood and he died to redeem his bride from the curse of the
law. And then he comes where they are and their sin and their
shame and their rebellion. And he says, this was mine. And the law says, you sure about
that? You're not worth much. He's not worth anything at all.
Look at him. He's all used up. His teeth are all gone. His skin's
splotchy and ugly. He lived a life of shame. You don't want this one. And
the Savior says, yes, I do. I bought him. He's mine. I'm going to have him. He's going
to be in union with me. I'm taking him to be with me. What love? Redeeming love. And then lastly, God's love for
his people is an effectual love. After conviction, after the Lord
reveals himself to a sinner, and that sinner's born again,
brother, everything's different. All things are made new. She's
not gonna go off and play the harlot anymore. Verse three,
and I said unto her, thou shalt abide for me many days. Thou
shalt not play the harlot, thou shalt not be for another man,
so will I also be for thee. He's going to take her home,
and she's not going to leave him again. She's not going to
play the harlot again. His love is effectual. Makes
a difference. Look back at chapter 2, verse
17. He says, for I will take away the name of Balaam out of
her mouth, and she shall no more be remembered, or they shall
no more be remembered by that name. She's not going to acknowledge,
she's not even going to remember that old religion anymore. She's
with the Savior. And she's going to abide with
him forever. Yes, he won't leave her. Yes,
she's going to stay with him because of his power. But now
she's not going to leave him. She's got a new heart and she's
head over heels in love with him. She says, this is my issue. This is my man. This is my husband. And she loves him. She loves
him and she loves his love for her. She loves that his love
is a love for sinners like her. She loves his electing love.
God chose me? Oh, I love that. She loves his
long-suffering love. He bears long. She loves his
supplying love. She sees all along he supplied
her food and her water and her air to breathe and her clothes
Now she sees that he supplied every spiritual blessing she
needs because he is that. He is her righteousness. He is
her sanctification. He is her cleansing. He is her
salvation. Oh, his supplying love. Oh, she's
grateful. She loves his faithful love.
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. She loves his redeeming
love. He redeemed me from all my sin,
redeemed me from the curse of the law. And she loves his effectual
love. Love that caused a new nature
to be born so I won't leave him. She loves him. That's the kind
of love it took to save a sinner like me. God's love and salvation. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
this, your word that reveals something to us of your great
love for your people. We're humbled, we're grateful
that you set your love on such people like we are, sinners lost
and ruined in Adam. That you not leave us to ourselves,
that you not leave us to go our own way. for that you hedged
us up, you shut us up to Christ, that you're so patient, so patient
with us, that you redeemed us from all our sin, redeemed us
from the curse of the law, and you took us home to be with you,
to be joined to your darling son. Father, we're thankful. Cause us to be grateful. Cause us to be faithful to Thee
as You've been faithful to us. Give us a heart that's faithful
to Thee with our heart worthy. In the precious name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we pray and give thanks.