Go back to Hosea 14. My text will be the same as it
was for my last message to you in the old year. Hosea chapter
14, verse 4. Now here is God's promise of
grace. These are not my words, these
are God's words. These are not things that I have studied out
and decided that in the light of certain logical consequences,
these things must be so. This is God's word of grace to
every sinner who comes to Him, trusting His Son. This is what
God promises to every sinner who calls on Him in true repentance. This is what God promises. God
Himself declares this to every sinner. Bobby Estes, that means
you and Don Fortin too. This is God's promise. to every
sinner who believes on his side. Are you ready? Are you listening? I will. Not I might. Not maybe I might. Not you can
hope I might. I will. Heal their backsliding. You see, the apostasy of our
souls from God is a plague disease in the heart that has brought
us spiritual death and will bring us eternal death. Except God
do what we can't do and he will. I will heal their backsliding. One of the most amazing things
I ever heard a preacher say in my life, I heard Brother Tim
James say one time, Scripture says he bear our sicknesses Here
he says, I will heal their backsliding. Brother James said, God Almighty
in Jesus Christ is so gracious and compassionate and tender
a father that he looks upon the horrid sin of his people as sicknesses
to be pitied, not offenses to be blamed. And he says, I'll
heal my children. Come on, babies. Daddy will take
care of them. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely. Freely. I will love them. Now, God's love for us doesn't
begin when we come to Him. His love for us doesn't begin
when we experience his pardon and grace. His love for us doesn't
start in time. He says, I'll love them freely.
He loved us with an everlasting love before the world began without
any cause. He loved us freely. But he's
talking here now about the manifestation of his love. So that when Mark
Henson comes to know God loves him, he comes to know that God
loves him freely. If ever you come to Him, you
will come to Him understanding that if ever you are the recipient
of His bounteous love, it will be because of Him and not you. I love them freely. How come? For mine anger is turned away
from Him. My anger is turned away from
the one who comes. But my anger is turned away from
him who died in their stead. My anger is turned away from
him in whom they are represented. In my darling son, I consumed
my wrath upon him and now there's no anger left in me. And then
in verses five and six, the Lord tells us exactly how it is that
he will heal the apostasy of his people by his grace. And
then in verses 7 and 8, God calls our attention to a specific people,
a people who are the objects of his grace, a specific people
whom he has loved with an everlasting love, a people who demonstrate
the infinite freeness of his love. In these two verses, 7
and 8, our great, gracious God declares that the salvation of
sinners is a matter of absolute certainty. I wish you could get
a hold of this. God will save somebody. He will save somebody. There's
no question about that. There's no question about that.
We preach the gospel not with the faint desire that maybe our
word may prosper and God may be pleased somehow, if conditions
are just right, to accomplish what He wants to and save somebody. Oh, no, no, no. We preach the
gospel with this blessed assurance. There is a people in this world
loved of God from everlasting, redeemed by the blood of His
Son, who shall be called by His Spirit because He chose them
from before the foundation of the world, and they shall assuredly
be saved. Look what he says, verse 7. They that dwell under his shadow,
you see it, shall return. They shall revive. They shall
revive as the corn, and grow as divine. The scent thereof
shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, he names them,
Ephraim. Ephraim shall say, what have
I to do any more with I have heard him, and observed him,
I'm like a green fir-tree, from me is thy fruit fast." Now understand
what those two verses mean. There is a people, a great multitude
which no man can number, who dwell under the shadow of the
Almighty, and they shall be saved. We didn't come to dwell under
his shadow. when we first knew it. But we were under the shadow
of his wing from everlasting. He took us under his wing in
covenant mercy. He chose us to be his own. This
verse is talking about God's elect, both those who are saved
and those who are yet to be saved. And he says, they dwell under
my shadow. They shall return. No question
about it. Oh, yes. Though they are scattered
to the four corners of the earth, they shall return. And though
they are a people prone to wonder, even after they come, they shall
return. Oh yes, we fall. But we won't
fall away because he won't let us. Oh yes, we err. Fall seven times in a day,
70 times in a day. But he sees to it that his own
return. He says, I won't give you up.
I won't let you go. They shall revive. I'll call
them from death to life. I will revive their souls. They
shall grow like a vine. Tell you what, if you want to
see something that's discouraging, plant you a grapevine and watch
it grow. You can watch it, watch it, watch
it. I'm not talking about watch it every day. I'm talking about
God watch it year after year and wonder if it's ever going
to grow. It plants you one. Grows slowly, but grows. And God's vine planted in God's
vineyard grows, grows by his grace. And the scent thereof
should be like the wine of Lebanon, this vine. shall possess all
the beauty of Christ the Lord, a sweet savor of Christ before
God. So that God Almighty smells the fragrance of His Son,
Myrrh and Aloe and Cassia and He says these are mine. He accepts
us in His Son. Now understand the Scriptures.
Like Ephraim, God's elect are a people full of iniquity. Full of iniquity. That's all that's in us by nature. We are just like all other men,
children of wrath, deserving God's wrath. Deserving to be
abandoned forever in hell. But they are his people. and they shall be saved by his
grace." Ephraim was full of sin. Turn back to chapter 11. Let
me show you something. Ephraim was idolatrous. Ephraim
was joined to his idols so thoroughly that he would not let them go.
So obstinately joined to his idols that the Lord God told
his prophet in chapter 4, leave him alone. Leave him alone. Ephraim was dead. But Ephraim
was still God's. And I want you to see what it
says concerning him. Verse 8. How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? How shall I give thee up, O Larry
Criss? How shall I give thee up, O Myrtle
Park? Listen now. I will not execute
the fierceness of my anger. I won't do it. Not only me. I won't do it. I won't do it. I will not return to destroy
Israel. I won't do it. For I'm God and not man. Aren't you glad? If I were a man, you'd be told,
Jesse, if I were a man and my sons treated me as you treated
me, I'd kill you in a minute. If I were a man, there'd be no
hope for you. If I were a man, my love for
you could be quenched. If I were a man, My love for
you could be brought to nothing. If I were a man, my love could
be turned to utter hatred. But I'm not a man. I won't give
you up. I won't give you up. Look at
chapter 13, verse 4. God's still talking about the
same people. Describes their iniquity, their sin, their transgression,
their rebellion. They're full of desert of His
wrath. And he says in verse four again, I am the Lord thy God
from the land of Egypt. This is what he's saying, Bob.
I bought you. You're mine. I redeemed you. You're mine. And thou shalt know
no God but me. I won't let you. I doubt if he's
in your heart. You worship your own hands, but
I won't let you know another God. For there's no savior beside
me. Verse nine. O Israel, O chosen sons of Jacob, O covenant
people, O you who are the objects of my love, thou hast destroyed
thyself, my God and soul, but in me is thine help. Read up, verse 14. I will ransom them from the power
of the grave. You hath he quickened, who were
dead in trespasses and in sins. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you're saved. I will ransom them from the power
of the grave. I will redeem them. I will deliver
them from death. Oh, death. Death. What kind of death is he talking
about? Every kind there is. Oh, death. I will be thy plague. Oh, grave. I will be thy destruction. Look at this. Repentance shall
be here. But that's the only time the
word repentance is used in the Old Testament. The only time
it's used. And God says it ain't in me. I swore it! I will save Ephraim! And I'm not going to change my
mind. Repentance is not in me. I'm
not a man. All right, look in chapter 14,
verse 8 again. Here's what God says about chosen
Ephraim. Ephraim shall say, well, what
if Ephraim doesn't decide to come to the Lord? God can fix
that. But what if Ephraim's joined
to his idols? What if he doesn't exercise his
will? God can fix that. But what if Ephraim doesn't choose
to come to the Savior? God can fix that. Ephraim's His. We're talking about God Almighty
and puny, insignificant, nothing man. And when God Almighty sticks
His finger in your heart, He controls your will and makes
His people willing in the day of His power. And therefore,
He says, Ephraim shall say, what have I to do anymore with I? These works of my hands, these
gods that I have made, these gods I have conjured up, these
gods in whom I've taken refuge, these deceivers of my souls by
whom I have deceived myself, what have I to do anymore with
helpless, meaningless, insignificant, contemptible idols? Nonsense. I've heard it. I've observed it. I'm like a
green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. What does he say? Ephraim is
mine. And I've heard it. I always did. I've heard everything he thought
and said. I've heard him all his days. I've heard him. Particularly,
he's talking about exactly what's described in chapter 14, verses
2 and 3. I've heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself. I've heard Ephraim repenting of his sins. I've heard Ephraim
crying out to me, Oh, receive us graciously. Listen to what
he says. This is talking about Ephraim
now, Jeremiah 31, 18. You can look at it later and listen.
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself. That's what repentance
is. It is a man bemoaning himself. Oh my God, I have seen you and
now I abhor myself. I repent in sackcloth and ashes.
I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus. I have heard Ephraim
saying this, Lord God, thou hast chastised me and I was chastised. as a bullock unaccustomed to
the yoke. Turn thou me, and I shall be
turned, for thou art the Lord my God. I've heard it. I've observed it. When I read
those words, I couldn't help but to think of another passage
in Luke 15. The prodigal is coming home.
And the scripture says, while it was yet a great way off, his
father saw him, observed him, had compassion on him, and ran
and fell on his neck and kissed him. The only time in this book God
Almighty, as every picture is getting in a hurry, is running
to meet a sinner, coming to him for mercy, to bestow his mercy. I observed it. He says, I am
a green fir tree. I don't know whether any of you
have ever been in a dense, thick pine forest or not, mountainous
area. Some of you fellows who hunt
probably have. You get out in an area where thick evergreens
are just everywhere. Their branches hang so low to
the ground that anybody standing on the ground can get hold of
it. And the leaves are so thick,
so dense, those pine leaves, they're so dense, so thick, if
you stand under it in a driving rainstorm, you can stand there
and not get a drop of water on you. Hard to imagine. That's what Christ is to his
brethren. I'm so low to the ground, the meat can get hold of me.
And sinners can take refuge under my shadow, and there find safety
from the storm of God's wrath. And it seems strange, the analogy
it makes, because fir trees don't bear fruit. The fir tree being
the nearest thing I can think of representative to it in our
culture and our climate of the past. They don't bear any fruit,
nothing unique. But God says, from me is thy
fruit found, the Lord Jesus Christ, that tree of life, from whom
the fruit of his grace is given, and from whom sinners get the
fruit of his grace. What he's saying is this. Grace
is God's gift. Salvation is God's gift. Repentance is God's gift. is God's gift. If you get it,
God's got to give it, and you've got to get it from him. If you
ever call on his name, it'll be because he called on you.
If you ever come to him, it'll be because he came to you. If
you ever believe on him, it'll be because he wrought faith in
you, because he gave you life. From me is thy fruit found. So
as the Lord God describes his salvation, this is what it says.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God to show it mercy. And since salvation is God's
work, since faith is God's gift, since repentance is what God
performs in a man, there's absolutely no question Ephraim shall be
saved. Now look at verse 9. Here's God's
method of grace. God saves whom he wills. He saves
the most obstinate, undeserving apostate rebels to be found among
fallen men. And he saves them in such a way
that their salvation glorifies nobody but him. And this is the conclusion of
the matter. Who is wise? And he shall understand these
things. Oh, when God teaches you by his
grace, Father, He made you one of the wisest men to ever walk
on this earth. Understand the mystery of God.
Wise. The smartest fellas, most educated
fellas, most refined fellas, most cultured fellas, most well-trained
fellas, walking topside of the earth, can't figure it out. But
the wise, they understand it. Why, sure, I understand how God
saves sinners. I don't know how on earth you
put a man in a little tube and send him to the moon, but I can
tell you how God saves a sinner. Then I told her, I'd rather know
this than that. Prudent. A fellow who uses wisdom
well. He shall know them. The fool
will never. For the ways of the Lord are
right. They're right. Now you listen
to me. If God saves you, it's right.
He won't save you except in a way that's right, that honors his
law and honors his justice. And if God Almighty sends you
to hell, it's right. He won't send anybody to hell
who doesn't fully deserve it. The ways of the Lord are right.
And the just, those who are justified by his grace, those who have
been made just by Christ, they walk it. Ron, we walk in his ways, peaceably,
confident. This is our God. We believe him. Bow into his way. But the transgressor,
the rebel, the unbeliever, shall fall very. He'll stumble over
the stumbling stone and fall into hell. Now, let's go back
to verse four. I want to try to take one sentence
out of this fourth verse and milk it for just a few minutes. The Lord God says, I will love
them freely. Oh, how I love that word freely. Freely. Did you ever notice in
the scriptures how that word is used with reference to God's
saving operations of grace. The very first time it's used
is back in the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 2, before Adam
and Eve ever fell in the garden. The Lord God planted that pear
in the garden, set them in the garden, and he seems to intimate
to them in his very first word to them, I mean his very first
word to the original couple, his very first word to our original
parents, his very first word seems to be a declaration, now
listen to me Adam, listen to me Eve, everything you get from
me is free, everything. Listen to what he says, the Lord
God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden,
thou mayest free me. You didn't earn it, you didn't
do anything to get it, I'm the one who made the tree, I'm the
one who makes the bare fruit, I'm the one who put you here
and you eat it, because I give it, that's all. And thus he describes
for us the whole working of his grace. Our Lord tells his disciples
as he sends them out, freely you've received, freely give. We have freely received all the
bounty of God's grace, freely give it out. we freely received
our daily bread, freely give it out. Romans chapter 3, verse
24, we're justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ. And I like this, he that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? And the Lord Jesus
says, I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of
the water of life. God's grace is free. God's salvation
is free. God's love is free. We talk about
grace, we call it free grace. How come? Because it's free.
It's free. The Lord God says, I love them
freely. This seems to be his answer to
the prayer of the pinnitus center in verse two. Receive us graciously. God says I will. I love a free
man. This love of God being free is
without cause. It's without condition. It's
without measure. It's without beginning. It's
without end. It's free. It's free. You see,
That which is free means there's nothing in us to motivate it.
Nothing in us to merit it. Now hang on. Nothing in us to
influence it. Nothing in us to destroy it.
It's free. There's no love like that in
this world. There just isn't. It ought to be, but they just
didn't. They just didn't. I love that dear lady, but she
could destroy my love. Dearly as she loves me, I could
destroy that love. No such thing as free love in
this world. No, no. Men may brag about it,
talk about it, make you think they got it, but you ain't. You
ain't. John Gill puts it in these words. He said, God's loved poor needy
sinners. as it flows from the free, sovereign
will and pleasure of God in Christ, so it is as freely manifested
and continues upon the same bottom, and is displayed in a most liberal,
profuse donation of the blessings of grace to them. This love is
free in its origin, and is liberal and bountiful in the effects
of it, and makes the objects of it a free, willing bountiful
people. I'll love them freely. Spurgeon said this, he said this
sentence is a body of divinity. He who understands its meaning
is a theologian. He who can dive into its fullness
is a true master of divinity. I'll love them freely. That's
a condensation of the whole gospel. which has been delivered to us
in Jesus Christ. Everything hinges, I mean everything. I started to say everything in
this text. Everything hinges on this one
word, freedom. The whole gospel stands or falls
on this one word, freedom. The whole revelation of God in
its truth stands or falls on that one word, freely. I love
them freely. God's love. God's love gushes out to sinners
like a mighty river from the throne of grace falling down
on this earth freely. You see, there's just no other
way God could love you. There's just no other way. There's
just no other way. This spontaneous love, it's love that flows forth to
those who neither deserve it, nor purchase it, nor seek it,
nor even desire it. I get a little upset. I try to
be a gentleman. I was raised in a culture where
men are supposed to open the doors for ladies, help out older
folks and so forth. Start to open the door. I've
had it to happen. The lady looked at me and I probably
wouldn't call her a lady. She looked at me and said, I
didn't ask you to open that door. And I won't shove it in her nose. Because my love's not really
free. I didn't ask you to love me.
I didn't want your love. Spit on
your love. And God says, how shall I give
you up? I love you freely. Freely. It's the only way God
can love us. Because there's nothing in us
to earn it. Nothing in us to motivate it. Nothing in us to
cause it. Nothing in us to around it. Nothing in us to attack it.
everything to repel it, but nothing in us to cause God to love us.
How can I speak of the freeness of God's love? There are no examples
of it in history. No examples of it given among
men. It can't be found. Even those pictures in the scriptures
designed and intended by God to be pictures of His love for
us in Christ will never adequately describe it. We see Adam's love
for Eve. Like our blessed Savior, he plunged
himself into sin and death and the very wrath of God because
he loved Eve. Hosea loved Gomer. Oh, how he loved Gomer. Like our Savior's love for us.
He loved a woman who was a whore and loved other men. And Christ
loved the people who forever go whoring after other gods,
but loves them still. Boaz loved Ruth. Oh, he loved
that woman, that Moabitess black woman. He looked on her and loved
her and said, I'll make you mine. He spread his robes over her
and said, I'll redeem you. I'll do everything you need.
I'll do it all for you. And so Christ loved us. The Father's
love to the prodigal. He saw him. He had compassion on him. And
he ran and he fell on his neck and he kissed him. and kissed
him, and kissed him, and kissed him. James, the word means he
just kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and kissed,
and kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and kissed. Much
love, freely given, all sin fully forgiven, reconciliation, absolute
and free, fell on his neck and kissed him, just smothered him
with kisses. And so the Lord God falls on
our necks in mercy and grace and kisses us with his love and
continues to do so throughout the days of our sojourn here
and will continue to do so throughout the ages of eternity. But if we would know anything
of God's love, we must behold it in God himself. Go back in your mind to that
time before time was, and understand something of the freeness of
God's love. Before ever the earth was made,
before there was ever an angel in heaven, before God ever flowed
the stars in heaven and made the earth, the Lord God says,
I have loved thee with an everlasting And because he loved us in love,
he predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Because
he loved us, he said, I will be your God and you shall be
my people. I will put away your sins, your
iniquities. I will remember no more. I will
cause you to be mine and I will never turn away from you to do
you good. I will love them. Look away, yonder, in your mind's
eye. Go up to that dark, ugly hill,
Golgotha, and behold the love of God displayed
at Mount Calvary. Herein is love. Not that we loved
God, but that He loved us. And this is manifest, the love
of God, because he died for us. God commended his love toward
us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, love incomprehensible. Behold that man hanging on that
tree, who is God Almighty. He hangs there. dying for a people
who wanted him dead. He bears the sins of a people
who fully deserve his wrath because he loves them. He bears the wrath of God for
a people who lived all their lives with hearts full of enmity
against him. And he bears the wrath of God
for them to the full satisfaction of God's justice. Because he
says, I love them freely. The Lord Jesus Christ died for us. Because he loved us. Knowing. Knowing full well, they'd
say, He would get no love in return
except He created. I will love them freely. I will
love them freely. Particularly, our text is talking
about God's love and grace and mercy manifest to sinners in
conversion. Turn, if you will, to Ezekiel
16. I'll wrap this up. The Lord God begins this chapter
by describing his love for his people. He says, you were like
an aborted, unwanted child, taken out of your mother's womb, cast
out in the desert, and your own blood rotting, polluted. Nobody bathed you. Nobody swaddled
you. Nobody cut your navel. There
you were rotting in your own blood. Nobody pitied you. And
it says, verse 6, when I passed by thee, I saw thee polluted
in thy blood. Nobody wanted you. Treat me like
that. But I wanted you. And I said
unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said
unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. And I debted
you, and I robed you with righteousness, and I called you to be beautiful
with the beauty that I put on you. You've forgotten now. But I never forgot you. That's
what the rest of the chapter is about. Now look at verse 60. Nevertheless, I will remember
my covenant with thee in those days, in the days of thy youth,
and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. Then
shalt thou remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt
receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger, and I will give
them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant." That
is, I'm going to save my people, but not because you do. and I
will establish my covenant with you and you shall know that I
am the Lord that thou mayest remember and be confounded and
never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am
pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done I will love them freely. Now
let me tell you what this means. There's nothing in us that can
ever attract God's love. Pretty as that newborn baby is,
all bathed and full of life. Everybody loves that newborn
baby. I defy anybody to go out and pick one up that's been dead
for a few days laying out in the Not going to happen. Nothing
in us to attract God's love. And just as there's nothing in
us that can ever attract God's love, you say, well, preacher,
can he love me? Listen to me. Oh, this will help
you. This will help you. There's nothing
in us that can ever prevent God's love. Nothing, Merle Hart, in any man
that can keep God from loving him. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. And there's
nothing in us, nothing can be done by us that will destroy
his love. It's free. I'll preach if you tell folks
that. I'll give them a license to see it. Folks who think like
that already got their license. But a free love is the love of
God that constrains us to give ourselves to Him. I will love
them freely. Oh God come now and make no your
free love to sinners in Christ's temple.