book of Hosea. Hosea is a very
interesting book. It was written around the same
time as Isaiah, as Amos, and Micah. And it's a picture of
the bride of Christ and Christ's redemption for his bride. It
begins by the Lord telling Hosea, go take a wife of Hortums. Go marry a harlot. Go marry a
harlot. Now, in our right mind, we would
certainly not do that intentionally, probably, but the Lord commanded
Hosea to do so, and he does. We see that she continually leaves
Hosea, and he must go and recover her over and over and over. He tells her he loves her, he's
good to her, he does that which is necessary of a husband to
gain her affection, and yet, in her heart, burns with lust
towards other men, and she leaves him and goes back, and he has
to go get her over and over and over. During that time, every
time that this would take place, Hosea would be leaving treasures. He would be leaving gifts on
her doorstep. And she would doll herself up.
She would dote herself with nice garments and makeup and whatever
else, perfumes, and thinking the more that she would do that,
the more attention she would be getting from her lovers. It
wasn't her lovers that were leaving the treasures in the presence.
It was Hosea the entire time. Every good thing that happened.
Her name's Gomer. Everything good that happened
to Gomer came from Hosea, not from the ones that she was with,
but her husband. It's a picture of Christ and
his church, and you and I being the harlot, prone to wonder,
was the song we just sung. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Lord, here's my heart. Take and
seal it. Seal it for thy courts above, according to your purpose,
according to your will, because I'm gonna wander off. If you
leave me to myself, the lust will burn in my heart for things
of this world, the cares, And I'll leave you, Lord turn us
and we shall be turned. That's the message here. God reveals why he had Hosea
marry a harlot in chapter three. He said it's because Gomer represented
Israel and Hosea represents the Lord, the Lord himself returning.
Now, as believers, we see our adulterous heart, don't we? Towards
the Lord, towards the things of God, towards spiritual things.
Paul, he said, the things which I would do that I do not, but
that which I would not do, that's what I do. That's what he meant
by that is it's a heart of adultery, leaving our first love, leaving
the God that's been so good to us in mercy and grace. Truly
the new man cries out, Lord, have mercy upon me. The old man
is just wanting to get away from God, wanting to do the things
according to the flesh. And this is the picture here.
The Lord must turn us. We don't realize that all the
gifts around us come from him, come from our Lord, every good
gift. And every perfect gift is from above and cometh down
from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. The Lord is the one that's given
us all these good gifts, hasn't he? We don't even realize the
sunshine that we have, what a need that is that he's given to us.
And yet every need, whether it be this physical building or
even specially spiritual, he's given us every gift. Everything
according to his will by his son is bestowed upon his bride. The Lord is not slack, concerned
in his promise, as some men count slackness, but he has long suffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. Well, who's the usward? Well,
Peter tells us in the first chapter, beloved of the Lord, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God, those who Christ died for. He's
not willing that a single one of them perish, regardless of
what they do or what they don't do. He has long suffering towards
his people, continually bringing them back over and over again. Now let's read chapter one. The word of the Lord that came
into Hosea, the son of Beeri, In the days of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. And then in the days of
Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. The beginning of the
word of the Lord by Hosea. This is the first thing he tells
to Hosea. The beginning of the word. The Lord said to Hosea,
go, take unto thee a wife of Hortums, and children of Hortums. For the land hath committed great
Hortum, departing from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the
daughter of Debalim, which conceived and bear him a son. And the Lord
said unto him, call his name Jezreel. for yet a little while
and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu
and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. Now understand
at this time, Jehu was the king of the house of Israel and he's
saying, I'm gonna cause by Jezreel, I'm gonna cause the house of
the kingdom of Israel to cease. And he goes on to say in verse
five, and it shall come to pass at that day that I will break
the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. and she conceived
again and bear a daughter. And God said unto him, call her
name Lorohamah, for I will no more have mercy upon the house
of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. But I will have
mercy upon the house of Judah and will save them by the Lord
their God and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by
battle, by horses, nor by horsemen, Now, when she had weaned Loruhamma,
she conceived and bear a son, then said, God, call his name
Loami, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God. Yet
the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of
the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered, and it shall come
to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are
not my people, there it shall be said unto them, ye are the
sons of the living God. Then said the children of Judah
and the children of Israel, then shall the children of Israel
and the children of Judah be gathered together and appoint themselves
one head and they shall come up out of the land for great
shall be the day of Jezreel. Now it sounds like that the Lord's
speaking two different things. He's saying, you're not my people,
but you are my people. What does he mean by that? Well,
they which are all of Israel are not of Israel. He's telling
the nation Israel, you're not my people. My people is Judah. It's the promise. My people are
the promise by faith, the faith of Christ. This is what we see
here. And he says, it's all going to come through and by Jezreel. Great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Now, Jezreel's name Jezreel's name means God sows. God sows, just as a sower goes
forth with seed and sows seed. God sows, and if he sows, you
better believe everything that he's purposed with that seed
is going to come to pass. And he will reap that which he
has purposed to reap. Now he tells them, and we see
his anger towards Israel, but yet we see mercy in him leaving
a remnant in Judah. And he tells them, it shall come
to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are
not my people, this is the same place where I'm gonna say unto
you, ye are the sons of the living God. So we see that it's by his
promise. Israel didn't turn back to the
Lord. Israel is still over in the Middle East, going to a praying
wall, a welling wall. They're still trying to keep
the law. They're still trying to do that which is pleasing
in the Lord's sight, rejecting the first coming of Christ, which
has already happened. They believe that his first coming
has not happened yet. And so they didn't return back
to the Lord. So how can it be that the Lord's
gonna have mercy upon them? Well, it's going to be that he
has sown a seed that will bring forth fruit as he has purposed
And the good news is, is his seed cannot sin. That's what
I've titled this message. His seed cannot sin. Was it possible? This is actually
a controversial question, believe it or not. It's not to us, we
know the truth, but I'm gonna ask us anyways. Was it possible
for Christ to have sinned? Was it possible? No, no. Christ was God. Christ is God
and God is holy and God is perfect. And he had his father's blood,
didn't he? It was impossible for Christ to sin. Now understand
this, according to the flesh, he was tempted and he felt that
temptation according to the flesh, but his blood would not permit
him to sin because he was perfect, because he was truth, because
of who he was. All that he produced, all that
he produced was perfection. because he was his father's seed.
Every fruit upon the face of this earth, vegetable or fruit
alike, can only produce the fruit that it came from. Every single
fruit. And I'm getting a little bit
ahead of myself. Let's turn to Genesis chapter one. I'll show you from
the very beginning how the Lord has purposed it. Every fruit
on the face of the earth has the seed of that fruit in it
from the tree. This is why Christ could not
have sinned. He's of his father's seed. Genesis chapter one in
verse 11 tells us, And God said, let the earth bring forth grass
and herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after
his kind whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so.
And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after
his kind and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself
after his kind. And God saw that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the third day. Now, understand
something. Those three verses are the gospel
that we just read. The grass is you and I. Is that
not what the Lord told Isaiah? He said, preach to them. Tell
them. Well, what should I tell them?
Tell them they're grass. Tell them they're grass. That's
what the Lord told Isaiah to preach, wasn't it? And yet we
see that it was the Lord who was the one that's the tree yielding
fruit. You and I can't produce fruit
in and of ourself that's pleasing unto the Lord. We're but grass.
We're but grass. Thanks be to God for the rose
among the grass, the tree that brings forth fruit that is pleasing
unto God. The fruit, it says, whose seed
was in itself. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's a picture of him bringing us unto him, causing the seed
that he's put in us, the new man that he's put in us to come
forth. by the water of His word, by the gospel of His grace. It's
His Son that does it, isn't it? And the seed births forth life.
We have true life in us, eternal life in us by what He has done. And it happened, He said in the
evening and the morning were the third day. It happened on
the third day, didn't it? When Christ was resurrected. He brought
forth all of His people. And the life that we now live,
we live by the grace of God who loved us and gave Himself for
us. That life comes forth, doesn't it? The new man is born because
of Christ being resurrected. Now, because He had His Father's
seat in Him, He could only produce holiness. He could only produce
perfection. He could only produce righteousness.
He could only produce truth. It was the seed that was within
him. Now the seed within you and I is corrupt. Seed that's
within us is corrupt. We have our father Adam's seed,
don't we? We are of our father Adam from
the garden. That means everything we produce
is corruption, unrighteousness. We are unholy. We are unfit. We are unworthy. We are dead
dog sinners, aren't we? Not the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
perfect in every way unto his father. He is the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. So what is our hope? It's found
in John chapter 17, that they all may be one as thou father
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. That the Lord's people would
be one with him, one in Christ, and one in God with Christ. That's
our hope, isn't it? That he would see us in Christ,
not see our corruptible seed, but see an incorruptible seed
that he hath wrought, that he was, that he had bestowed upon
his people. This is exactly how God sees the elect, as in Christ,
as perfect. He don't see Adam's seed, he
sees his perfect seed. I would remind us of the scripture
that talks about being grafted. we're grafted into the Lord,
meaning he's the tree. He said, I am the vine, you are
the branches. Some of you may know about gardening, probably,
if you know anything about gardening, you know more than I know. But
whenever you're raising apples, the reason we have so many different
kinds of apples is they'll take one apple tree and they'll chop
the branches off of it and they'll take the branches from another
apple tree and bring it and they graft them together and it produces
a new kind of apple. You can't do an orange in an
apple. It has to be the same kind of fruit. It's the only
way that it works to my knowledge. So what's that a picture of?
Well, Christ is the tree. And we're these dead branches
that have no life within us. Yet by his finished work, he
grafts us into him. And now we produce the fruit
of his kind coming from his life source. A branch by itself is
not a tree that can produce life. We have to have the roots. And
he's the only one that has a root system that's That's the fountain
of living water coming forth unto his people. That's our hope,
isn't it? Whatever he produces is now what
we produce because of this, because he bore our sin and our shame,
our guilt on the cross of Calvary for his people. He literally
birthed us by his gospel. His death has brought us life.
His death has brought us life. Peter tells us we're being born
again now, not of a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Now we know
there's twofold to that, isn't there? The word of God is a person,
it's the Lord Jesus Christ, but also the declaration of the gospel
is the word of God. So we see that's how he births
his people into his family is by the preaching of the gospel
by the Lord Jesus Christ. I mentioned this before, but
it's important for us to realize that the seed of Adam can only
produce death. Everything that we are can only
produce death. And yet everything that Christ
produces or produced produces life. Everything he's done. This
is our hope that we would be the seed of Christ. John chapter one tells us that
we were born. We were born not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the
will of God." See, that's the hope, isn't it? That he did all
the grafting, that he did all the work, that he did the sowing,
he did the planting. This is what Jezreel's name means,
God sows. And the only way that Israel,
spiritual Israel, has any hope is that God would sow the seed
before the beginning of time that would bring forth life in
time when the gospel goes forth and calls his people. and one
by one brings them. And then you know what he does
after that? Just like Hosea, he keeps going down. When we're
found in our harlotry, whenever we're running away from him,
not even intentionally sometimes, we just do it naturally, don't
we? And he says, seek ye my face, return unto me. He says, live
again. He says, live again. He draws
us back with those cords of love, that everlasting love that he
has. He only has it for his people. We've been begotten by the word
of truth, the scripture tells us, and it's by his will alone. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
13. Matthew chapter 13 is the parable
of the sower. Scripture tells us that they
that sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but
they that sow to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.
Now in religion, men would say, okay, well, you need to be doing
more sowing to the spirit. But if we're spiritually dead,
we can't sow to the spirit. So what is he telling us to do?
Stop trying to sow spiritual seed because all you can sow
is death. Look to Christ and his perfect seed. Look to his
finished work alone for your salvation. That's what that verse
means. And here in Matthew chapter 13,
we see that it's all, I'm sorry, yeah, Matthew 13, it's all the
work of Christ for his people. Matthew 13 three tells us, And
he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold,
the sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some seed
fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them
up. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth,
and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness
of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because
they had no root, they withered away. and fell some among thorns,
and the thorns sprung up and choked them. But others fell
into good ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold,
some sixty, and some thirty. Who hath ears to hear, let him
hear. Now the disciples came and said
unto him, why speakest unto them in parables? He answered and
said unto them, because it is given unto you, unto you to know
the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is
not given. And what is this sower a picture
of? It's a picture of the Lord. It's the picture of His gospel
going forth. It's a picture of the seed that
He hath sown. And all of it's according to
His will. It's according to His purpose. And as the gospel goes
forth, it accomplishes exactly what the Lord intends for it
to accomplish. Sometimes the gospel lands upon the wayside,
it says. And we find if we read on here
in the count that's given by Luke, those are the ones that
the devil snatches up, that's not able to take root. And then
we see some, those are the ones that are left to themselves.
Understand, if men are not the Lord's, they're left to themselves.
Our hope is that the Lord would allow it to fall on good ground,
that he's tilled up the stony heart, which is the next thing
he talks about, the stony places. That's the stony heart that we
have by nature, isn't it? That's the resentment that we
have towards God, the inability to hear unless he calls us to. We need that heart of stone to
be taken out and him give us a heart of flesh. And then we
see that some were fell upon thorns. And if you would read
those accounts, you would find that that's the troubles of the
world, the things of the world. They would be drawn back away
into the world because of the thorns. They would be choked
out. Oh, thanks be to God. He has purpose to give some good
ground to his people. And whenever that seed falls,
it takes root and it is rooted and grounded in that gospel.
It is rooted and grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for
the hope of salvation. And what does that seed bring
forth? brings forth the fruit that the Lord accomplished. It
brings forth the confession, Christ is all. It brings forth
the confession, truth Lord. It brings forth the confession
of all glory and honor and praise to him who is worthy. This is
the picture here. Only the Lord reveals, only the
Lord can reveal himself, reveal his son. Only God can reveal
his son. Meaning the Lord doesn't reveal
other things to us. He reveals Christ, doesn't he?
And that's what the Lord's people want to see. That's what we rest
in. He only reveals himself to those
who are of his incorruptible seed. It's Christ in you, the
hope of glory, isn't it? That's our hope, Christ in us.
He only reveals. He only reveals those who are
his incorruptible seed. In time, throughout all of our
life, everything that's taken place, the Lord calls us circumstances
to happen, but eventually, He drives us, those that are His,
straight to Christ. He has tealed up that ground,
made it soft, so that that seed can take root. And it bursts
forth into life. I've mentioned this, I think,
a couple of Sundays, maybe in a row, I don't know, but it's
just, I think maybe this is why this message was given to me,
because we planted seeds. We have these little seedlings
that are bursting forth. And I had a stalk of corn grow six
inches in like five days. It blew my mind how fast that
thing, a little, a dead seed burst forth life and it was done
by sun and water. And it's the gospel picture there,
isn't it? And this is our hope that this dead seed This dead
seed, the Lord would bring forth life by his seed that's been
put in us before the foundation of the world. Those who the Lord
gave to his son to redeem, he redeemed them and brought them
forth unto eternal life. This is the picture here. In his time, in his time, he
reveals, do you know why? He tells us in verse 11, because
unto you, unto you, it is given to understand the mysteries of
heaven. Now look at Hosea, back to Hosea chapter two. And we see what happens when
he reveals himself, when it becomes time for that life to burst forth.
We see what happens in Hosea chapter two, verse 21. And it
shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord,
I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth. And
the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and
they shall hear Jezreel, the one that God hath sown. And I
will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy upon her
that had not obtained mercy. And I will say to them which
were not my people, thou art my people, and they shall say,
thou art my God. This is a picture of substitution,
isn't it? It's a picture of the Lord looking upon us and not
seeing the wretch that we are, not seeing the dead seed that
we are, that all we can produce is death, but seeing what Christ
has produced. And he said, now you've obtained
mercy because I'm no longer looking to you and your fruit. I'm looking
to Christ and his fruit. And the glorious news of the
gospel is, is when he looks at us now, if we're in Christ, that's
what he sees as his son's fruit. Because of the seed that the
Lord hath purposed, this incorruptible seed, what he hath planted, those
who are bought by the blood of the lamb, his seed remains in
us. It remains in us and he cannot
deny himself. It's revealed in us in time.
It's revealed that he will have mercy upon all of those, all
of those for whom Christ lived. whom Christ died and for whom
Christ was resurrected. The glorious news of all of this
is His seed cannot sin. His seed cannot sin because they're
born of Him, born incorruptible. 1 John 3 tells us, whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin. Now, I don't know if you've
heard in religion, as I did, we have different religions,
I'm sure, backgrounds, whatever. They would use that verse and
say, well, if you're born of God, that means you need to stop
sinning. That's not what that verse says.
It says, whosoever is born of God doth not sin. Do you know
what that means? That means you cannot sin in
his eyes. Isn't that glorious? You cannot
sin is what he's telling us. It's not that you should try
better not to sin. In his eyes, you can't sin because
you're in Christ. whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. And here's how we know that that's
the reason, because it goes on to say, for his seed remaineth
in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. He cannot
sin because he is born of God. That is the best news to dead
dog sinners, isn't it? I cannot sin in his eyes. Why? Because his seed remaineth in
me. That's my hope, that his seed
is in us. That's our only plea before him,
that we would be born not of corruption any longer of Adam,
but in corruption in Christ Jesus, born of God. And if that is the
case, we literally cannot sin in his sight, because his seed
cannot sin. His seed cannot sin. I've already
said this before, but every fruit has the seed within them. The apple has an apple seed.
Peach has a peach seed. Every seed comes from the fruit,
doesn't it? And the fruit comes from the
tree. Isn't it glorious to think that being birthed into the family
of God is a complete act of God's mercy and grace alone, that it's
nothing that we have done or merited, that we produce that
which he has caused us to do so, and he gets all the glory,
that we have his seed as the fruit within us that's going
to bring forth life by his water and by his blood alone, by his
word, cannot sin, his seed cannot sin. Psalm chapter one, David
tells us, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
bringeth forth fruit in, bringeth forth his fruit in his season.
His leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth, it shall
prosper. This has to be the Lord. But
did you know that's the Lord's people as well? We're planted
by the, we're planted by the waters, aren't we? We're planted
by the fountain of living water. And we bring forth fruit unto
him. And it's, that's the most, and that's exactly what men say
in religion. They say, well, what fruit are
you bringing forth for Jesus? What fruit are you bearing for
Jesus? I heard that so many times. What fruit are you bearing for
Jesus? And then what they meant by that was, is how's your life?
Are you walking the Christian life? Are you doing your part?
Are you humanitarian efforts? And humanitarian efforts are
good, but not for salvation, not for righteousness. What kind
of fruit are you bearing? Is the question men ask. I'll
ask the same. What kind of fruit are you bearing?
Well, if you're the elect of God, it's righteousness, it's perfection,
it's holiness, it's goodness, it's meekness, it's temperance.
Why? Because it's the fruit of Christ.
It's not mine at all. It's been bestowed upon me. I
can't bring forth anything in and of myself. We know that to
be true. And yet this seed that he has put inside of us, this
new man does exactly that. It brings forth all of those
things. Christ sees his people. The father sees his people in
Christ. Christ has made us perfectly righteous before him, bearing
the fruit of the spirit. How is this possible? Well, we're
born of his seed, aren't we? His seed or his elect from the
foundation of the world. Now in chapter three, we find
out why God told Hosea to marry Gomer, why he told her to go
fetch a bride of Hortums or a harlot. And it was because Gomer represents
us and Hosea represents the father electing his people, the son
redeeming the people and constantly the spirit bringing us back to
him over and over and over. We see the price that was given.
Hosea brought forth 15 pieces of silver, plus a homer of barley
and a half homer of barley. And if you do the math on all
of that, you'll land about 30 pieces of silver. That's what
Hosea had to buy Gomer for. I'm reminded that our Lord was
sold for just that, wasn't he? It's what the Lord was sold for.
It's the price of a slave. See, the Lord had to be sold
into slavery, become a bondservant for you and I so that we might
be set free. And he had to die the death that
would do no good for us to die. He had to die the perfect death,
pleasing unto His Father. And we see that we should have
been sold instead of Him, but because of substitution, He took
our place. Because of the glorious gospel,
His seed can be brought forth in you and I, that life may be
given. That's the picture here. That's
why it was 30 pieces of silver. We see that God has the ownership
of His people, don't we? We've been bought with the price
by His own blood. begat He us. It was His choice
and He bought us. We are His. He owns us now. I love the thought that the Lord
owns us, don't you? Lord owned me. I want to be bought
by Him. I want to be a slave to Him.
People say, well, if you preach election, you're just saying
everybody's a puppet. Lord, make me your puppet. Lord, don't leave
me to myself. Cause me to do the right thing.
Cause me to say the right thing. Cause me to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ as all, as all of our righteousness. That's our
hope. And because we have been bought
by His blood, because we were in Him when He died, that seed
must, must, must bring forth life. It must, or He failed. It must bring forth life. Every
person that He died for, He hath given His seed to. And they will
bring forth life in time by His water, Scripture says the washing
of water by the word, it's the preaching of the gospel, doesn't
it? That's what brings forth life. Just as Gomer were made to return
in due time, made to repent. Lord, I thought all these gifts
around me was because of what I was doing. No, it's the goodness
and mercy of God. And that's what leads men to
repentance, isn't it? It's what he has done for his people. This
is what we see when he produces life. Lord, I thought the gifts
were from my lovers. The gifts was from my harlotry
and everything that I got was because of what I'd done with
my hands. Lord said, no, if I'd have left you to that. Hell would
be your eternal home. But I interjected with mercy
and grace, and I hath redeemed you, and I have given you all
these good gifts." What's the good gifts? Perfection, righteousness,
true holiness unto Him, truth, justification, sanctification.
This is what He's given to His people as the gifts. We thought
we had all of that in false religion, didn't we? We thought we had
a righteousness before God. Lord, I didn't realize that the
righteousness which you had was a gift that you had given unto
me, and I thought I was getting it by what I was doing. No. No,
it's all by grace, for by grace are you saved through faith.
Isn't that not of yourself? See, it's not your own, it's
Christ's. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. We are dead. Colossians 3, 3
tells us just like a seed is dead. And our life is hid with
Christ in God. We literally died in him when
he died so that we can literally be alive in him now. His death
accomplished something. It accomplished life for his
people. This is what his death accomplished. He alone has the
power to make a life. And when did he do that? The
third day. The Lord said, And the evening
and the morning were the third day, the Lord said he saw what
he had created. He had saw the tree that had
the seed within itself and he saw the grass and he was satisfied. He was pleased with that tree.
He was pleased with the fruit that that tree produced. And
the evening and the morning was the third day. And on that third
day, the Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected, bringing forth all
of his chosen seed unto the father and presenting them as perfectly
righteous. And Lord has given everything
needed for our salvation. Romans chapter 11 tells us, but
if the first fruit be holy, that's Christ, isn't it? The first fruit's
Christ. The lump also is holy. And if the root be holy, so are
the branches. You and I were grafted in. The
fruit's holy and so are the branches now because of his work. He produced
the righteousness in us. He birthed us by his own righteousness
into his family. His seed cannot sin. Now I want
us to see something here in Hosea still turn to Hosea 14. His seed cannot sin. Because
we are in Christ and Christ is in God. And he tells us why we
cannot sin in Hosea 14. And actually will be in Hosea
14 the second hour so. You can know to turn there whenever
we get started next service, but I turned too far ahead. So I'm trying to get back to
where I was. Hosea 14, look in verse eight,
Ephraim shall say, what have I to do anymore with idols? I
have heard him and observed him. I am like a green fir tree from
me. is thy fruit found from me. See, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. From him, our fruit is found. It's no fruit of our own. It's
from him. This is why his seed cannot sin. Everything it is
is produced by him. Now, in closing, I want to turn
to John 15. John chapter 15. John 15, verse four. Abide in
me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
you abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, but without me you
can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he
is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them
and cast them into the fire. and they are burned. If ye abide
in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you. He says, I am the vine, you are
the branches. Therefore we can no longer bear
fruit of ourself, can we? We've been grafted in unto him. And because the root's holy,
and because the vine's holy, now the branches produce holy
fruit, fit for the master, fit for the father, that the father
is pleased with. of his own will he did this,
and he begat us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind
of first fruits of his creature. And this is why not only they,
but also ourselves, which have the first fruits of the spirit,
even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption
to wit the redemption of our body. He did it for our redemption.
He did it for our glorification. He did it because you and I were
born of a corruptible seed and had no hope of eternal life.
So he did everything necessary for you and I to bring forth
fruit from his seed. His seed cannot sin. Cannot sin. It bursts forth as does the planted
seed that we put in the ground whenever we're growing a garden.
It brings forth life by the water and the sun. And this is the
same, it's sun, S-O-N, that births us, isn't it? It's the water
of his word that brings forth life in us. This is the only
way that Gomer, a harlot, can be made pure. It's the only way. It's the only way you and I can
be made perfectly righteous in his eyes. It's the only way because
we bring forth fruit after His kind. No longer are we bringing
forth whatever corruptible fruit we were bringing forth, we're
bringing forth righteous fruit unto Him now, fruit after His
kind, the Father. And He tells us in Revelation
14, these are they which have not defiled with women, for they
are virgins. These are they which follow the
Lamb, whethersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among
men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. You're saying
I'm clean before Him? He views me as spotless, as a
virgin? How can that be? Because you
are not your own. You've been bought with a price.
You've been given the seed of Christ in you, bringing forth
fruit that is glorious unto Him. Praise unto His Father. God planted
the righteous seed in His people, and He reveals it in His calling
of His people. We're born again, new life that
comes forth by what He has done. The glorious news of the gospel
is for all those that were in Christ, they are his seed and
his seed cannot, cannot, cannot sin. That's our hope, isn't it?
Father, we pray that you would cause us to see that you've done
it all and rest all of our hope in you. Bless your word according
to your will and promise in Christ's name, amen.