Hosea chapter two verse 14 through
23. In addition to what Robert Hawker
said about this chapter, and again I reiterate, the chapter
describes the Lord's gracious dealings with his people in bringing
them from a state of sin unto salvation. Now I will add to
that, yes indeed, and I believe we can sum up the gospel of the
grace of God found in the face of Jesus Christ in one verse,
verse 23. Verse 23, I would like us this
morning to look on this single verse for our use in edification
and perhaps salvation today. God's sovereign power brings
sovereign purposes to effect. Human will can never frustrate
these sovereign purposes. It's almost as though what he's
saying here in verse 23, what God is saying to the church.
It reminds me of Exodus chapter 14. You don't have to turn there.
When the Lord, when he brought, he said, stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. That's what he told Moses, just
stand still. Stand still and you will see
my salvation. Just like Moses heard so many
years ago, we see in this one verse, and we'll just look at
it line by line, four or five areas, the process and actions
of God's free grace to us. Let's look at it. Verse 23, I,
says God, will sow, I will sow. Let's just look at that. I will
sow her. It's talking, her is the Jezreel
in verse 21, which is the church of the living God, which is made
up of each individual elect believer. Notice, as I said before, the
I-wills here. These I-wills throughout this
chapter, and mainly throughout the scriptures when God's speaking,
it shows God is the foundation of this covenant that he has
between him and Christ, Christ and his people, this first initial
action and cause, he's the cause of all grace and mercy to his
people. He's not the secondary cause
or third, he's the first cause, the primary cause of salvation,
of grace and mercy shown his people. He says, I will sow,
he's talking about seed. This is the seed of God, the
Lord's people and his precious seed. He sows his people, he
does the work. He sows them from every corner
of the earth out of every says the scriptures tongue, nation,
tribe, and people. Well, what does he say? Secondly,
I will sow her unto me unto me. It's just like he. He's in total
control of everything. There's no outside, well, if
this happens, I gotta go plan B. If this happens, I gotta go,
that's what people think how God is. God never has a plan
B or C. He doesn't have, he has his plan
and his plan of salvation is foreordained and predestinated
to conform us to his image. And this is how he does it. He,
I will sow, her. I have this precious seed. It's
each and every believer. and I will sow them unto me in
the earth. This sowing cannot fall by the
wayside, like in the parables, it doesn't happen. This seed,
his seed, his people, it cannot be, he cannot fail. As they are
sown by God, they are sown unto him. I like how it's worded,
I will sow her unto me. It's inclusive, all inclusive
for his people. There's no, There's no chinks,
actually, there's no chinks in his armor. It cannot be. They
will eventually spring up unto him. Yes, perhaps, and you can
refer to your own life, perhaps years they lay upon the unfruitful
barren dirt of this world. Maybe he's more interested in
this world than the gospel. When the gospel's preached, he'd
rather be somewhere else. Perhaps you were covered by the
soil and we all were covered by self-righteousness. I have
no interest. I have my own works, my own way,
my own religion. Sin. Sin lies hard. Sin lies at our door. And Satan's
harassment. These are clods that perhaps
10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 70 years, you've lied under this
barren dirt of unfruitfulness. But in time, in time, that's
why I just keep coming to here, coming to here, coming to here.
In time, these seeds will hear the gospel. of the grace of God,
they will believe this one and only truth. Turn with me to Psalms
102. There is a set time for their
germination by the blood and righteousness of Christ, Christ's
righteousness. This, personally, I think the
Lord gave me about this church in Jackson, and I'm waiting to
see it. This is a promise. And you know
how I feel about promises. Oh, that's nice. No, lay hold
of it. Obtain the precious promises.
Take it to your bosom and say, this is mine. This is mine, maybe
for my children, maybe for my, my nephews, my nieces, my, maybe
for my mom, my dad, it could, whatever. Look at this in verse
13, Psalms 102 verse 13. I've got it circled and starred.
Thou, this is speaking of God, Thou shalt arise, who? God, and
have mercy upon Zion, that's his church, for the time to favor
her, yea, the set time is come. That's pretty powerful. That's
what's happening. He says, I'm gonna sow, I'm gonna
sow this seed, this Jezreel, I'm gonna sow her, but I'm not
just gonna scatter. You know, my wife and I, we sow
grass seed in our yard every fall. And we see the results
sometimes in the spring. But when you and I sow seed,
and I'm talking about a garden here, seed, or we put something
in there, we don't just walk away. And I'll come back and
see what, some crops you do that, but a lot of them you don't.
You, even us, we won't walk away, but we water it and we feed it
and we nourish it. And our God is the master gardener.
He does so much better than we can. This guarantees absolute success.
This guarantees life. Life, we'd like to see life.
We would like to see something going on. It's His work. We have to remind ourselves,
it's His work. It's His work here. Let's continue on in verse
23 of Hosea chapter 2. I will sow her unto me in the
earth, and I will have mercy upon her. See, this is all within
the context of a particular group of people. It's the elect. It's
not universal. It's not everybody. I don't know
who the elect are, that's why we preach to anybody we see.
It doesn't make any difference their religious affiliation.
We just tell them what we know. And we know that God will sow
His people unto Himself in the earth and will have mercy upon
her that had not obtained mercy. Now, Hebrews chapter 6 and verse
18, it says in there, it says God, it's impossible for Him
to lie. And that's this writer, he says
this, it's impossible for him to lie. Once he has spoken the
truth, he cannot rescind it, and he does not rescind it. He
will care and hedge about his sheep until they hear, believe,
and receive and trust Christ Jesus to the saving of their
soul. Another way to put this is found in, you don't have to
turn there, Zechariah chapter 13. He says, I will have mercy
upon her that had not obtained mercy. He's saying there's going
to be a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. For those. So I've got in parentheses here,
and I've got two questions. Is there any sinners here today? Is there any unclean here today?
Do you remember? I don't know if you remember
the first time Henry Mahan preached, 1981, in the trailer park. First time he preached, this
is what he said. He sat there and he preached and he stopped
and he says, is there any sinners out here? And I think somebody,
he says, well Christ died for you. Is there any sinners here? If there's a fountain open for
sin and uncleanness, is there any sinners here, children included?
Any unclean here? That thief on the cross, he obtained
mercy, full and free, and as Scott Richardson said, he didn't
move a muscle. He didn't walk an aisle, he didn't
shake the preacher's hand, he didn't do anything, he just believed
Christ. And Christ said, today, you'll
be with me in glory. justice now satisfied, for Christ
to say, I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy.
In order for that to happen, justice has to be satisfied for
all who believe. Mercy flows from Christ and God
to us. Simply look, sinner, look and
live. For this to be said, Will have mercy I who am God
who cannot lie according to Hebrews Will have mercy upon her that
had not obtained mercy and The last at the end of this verse
she knows it. We know it. Well, how do you
know you're saved? You'll know it the fourth point
is I then the next he says I had not that have not obtained mercy
and I will say to them which were not my people I will say
to them which were not my people thou art my people before we
ever apprehended our Savior his power his truth his redeeming
grace apprehends us to give you an example anybody who believes
in the scriptures this is an example Mephibosheth He was lame
on both feet. He couldn't go anywhere. The
king said, go fetch him. The prodigal, he didn't want
anything to do with the father or the father's inheritance.
And then by Holy Spirit conviction, well, my father's got servants
that are doing better than I am. What about King David? We're
not there yet in Samuel, but even in Saul, Saul didn't call
himself. That's an example, but David,
David was called. He was out taking care of the
sheep. Abraham, he got called out of the Irv counties. All
the brethren, I could go on and on. And you, if you were a believer,
you didn't call yourself. God called you. And you heard
the truth. And you followed Christ. Follow
me. This is called sovereign, free,
fetching grace. The shepherd sought the sheep
and purchased them. And in John chapter 15, I love
this verse. John chapter 15 and verse 16. John 15 verse 16. You have not
chosen me, says Christ, but I have chosen you and ordained you,
that you should go forth and bring forth fruit, that your
fruit should remain, that whatsoever you ask in the Father's name,
He may give it. Ask. See, there's prayer right
there. I was thinking about, you know, prayer is everywhere
in the scriptures. And God's sovereignty is everywhere
in the scriptures. And God's predestination is everywhere
in the scriptures. Don't try to figure it out. Just,
if you're a child of God, you're going to pray. You're
gonna pray. That's just, that's just, that's
life. You have life from Christ. And that life returns to Him.
Yes, we follow. Yes, we repent. Yes, we snuggle
up to our Kinsman Redeemer all because, says John, 1 John, He
first loved us. We love Him because He first
loved us. Turn with me to Hebrews 5. I
had never seen this, I knew this, but obviously I do like to look
at words in the Greek and stuff, the tools I have. Hebrews chapter
5, starting in verse 8, speaking
of Christ, Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the
things which He suffered. And being made perfect, Christ
became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
believe, that obey Him. That word, author, is causer. Causer, that means He caused
you to believe, is causer. Now that's different than author
and finisher of our faith. I looked that up. It's a little
different. It's like leader or whatever. But this is causer.
We can take no glory at all. And that's according to scriptures.
Let him that glory, glory in the Lord. Don't glory in your
wisdom or your might or your power, but that we know him.
And how do we know him? He reveals himself to us. This
gospel that we preached, it's not a cart before the horse religion. That's what preaching today is.
You gotta do this, and you gotta do that, and then God does something.
So then you got this cart, and it's pulling the horse. That's
what religion is today, and it's heresy. I'm not gonna say it's
just missing the mark. It's missed the mark. If you
think, as Luther said, if we ought, if we describe anything
to the ought of our, to salvation, to our will, we're deceived. And I'll read you, I love this
hymn by Horatius Bonar, and I ask again, are we personally represented
in this song? Are we personally represented
in this song? This is by Horatius Bonar, love
it. I was a wandering sheep. I did not love the fold. I did
not love my shepherd's voice. I would not be controlled. I
was a wayward child. I did not love my home. I did
not love my father's voice. I loved afar to roam. The shepherd
sought his sheep. The father sought his child.
They followed me over vale and hill, over deserts, waste and
wild. They found me nigh to death, famished and faint and lone.
They bound me with the bands of love. They saved the wandering
one. Jesus is my shepherd is. T'was he that loved my soul. T'was he that washed me in his
blood. T'was he that made me whole.
"'Twas he that sought the lost, "'that found the wandering sheep,
"'twas he that brought me to the fold, "'and it's him that
still does keep. "'I was a wandering sheep, I
would not be controlled, "'but now I love my shepherd's voice. "'I love, I love the fold. "'I was a wayward child, I once
preferred to roam, "'but now I love my father's voice. "'I
love, I love his home.'" It's simple. It's childlike faith,
but that's what we need. That's what we need to be. We
need to be little children. Lastly, this last phrase in Hosea
chapter 2 and verse 23. I will say to them that we're
not my people. Thou art my people. Just that
right there. Just close the book and go home.
What we call home rejoicing. And they. Shall say. Thou art. My God. Thou art my God. Lastly, now,
peace in the conscience, love in the heart, and joy in the
soul. Our feet are swift in our service
to Him who washed us. Our hands, our mind, and our
attitude are filled with rapture and will show themselves in our
daily walk. Our daily walk. There's a lot
of times we do things and people say, I can't tell them that they're
a believer. No, that's true. We still have
this in nature. But because of what He's done
for us, the love of Christ constrains us. Our hands, our minds, our
attitude. And it shows up in daily, our
daily walk. In closing, Paul says to the Corinthians,
all things are of God. Who? God hath reconciled us to
him, self, by Jesus Christ. That's what this is saying in
Hosea chapter two. All things are of God. And he
by himself, through Christ, we're reconciled. And then therefore
we can say, thou art my God. Our hope is without end. Joy unspeakable goes to him who
sits upon the throne forever. May this be our God. May this be our concern. May this be our salvation. Nathan,
would you close us please?