We'll be in the book of Hosea
chapter 14. The book of Hosea chapter 14. Hosea's name means salvation. Salvation, and we see the picture
of Christ's salvation for his bride all throughout Hosea. In the first hour, we mentioned
about how Hosea married a harlot by the command of the Lord. And
then the Lord shows Hosea that the harlot is his people, and
Hosea represents the Lord constantly bringing them back to him. In
chapter one in verse 10 of Hosea, it says, it shall come to pass
that in the place where it was said unto them, you're not my
people, there it shall be said unto them, ye are the sons of
the living God. And he tells us how this can
come to pass in chapter 14 in verse four. He says, I will heal
their backsliding. I will love them freely for mine
anger is turned away from him. The only way that the Lord can
cause us to be saved is he'll have to do all the doing of it.
He's the one that'll have to heal our backsliding, our turning
away from him, our harlotry, if you will. And he'll have to
have mercy upon us and give us grace at the same time. And he'll
have to love us freely, not by anything that we have done, but
freely. Now let's read chapter 14 of
Hosea, it's just nine verses. It says, O Israel, return unto
the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by that iniquity. Take
with you words and turn to the Lord and say to him, take away
all iniquity. and receive us graciously. Literally,
he's saying, ask the Lord to take away your iniquity, because
you're not gonna turn from it, and ask the Lord to save you
by grace alone. That's what that's saying right
there. Receive us graciously, so will we render the calves
of our lips. Asher shall not save us. We will
not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work
of our hands. Ye are our gods. For in thee
the fatherless findeth mercy. Is this not what men do by nature? They find the works of their
hands to be their own gods. Now, I don't mean that they literally,
some people literally have graven images, not really realizing
that's what they have. But most of the time, it's the
work of our hands that we believe produces the righteousness that
God would see. Those who don't know the goodness
and grace of God believe that they can work righteousness with
their hands. And he's saying here. We're no
longer gonna look to the work of our hands, we're gonna say,
you are not our gods. For in thee, the fatherless find
mercy. And he goes on in verse four
and says, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely, for
mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew into
Israel. He shall grow as the lily and
cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, his
beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell as Lebanon.
They that dwell under his shadow shall return. They shall revive
as the corn and grow as the vine, and the scent thereof shall be
as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, what have
I to do anymore with the idols? I have heard him and observed
him. I am like a green fir tree, for
me is thy fruit found. Who is wise, and he shall understand
these things. Prudent, and he shall know them,
for the ways of the Lord are right. and the just shall walk
in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein. I have titled this message, I will
love them freely. I will love them freely. Now,
who is he talking to? I will love them freely. He's talking to his people, isn't
he? He's talking into spiritual Israel. He's saying, I will love
you freely because my wrath has been turned away, my anger. has
been turned away. I will heal your backsliding
because you can't heal your backsliding. Now, I was very pleasantly delighted
to find that there is five definitions of the word freely in Merriam-Webster's
dictionary. And I love each and every one
of those definitions, and we're gonna look at them today. The
Lord said, I'm gonna love you freely. What did he mean by freely?
Well, there's five definitions. I would remind us that as we
went through numbers, the number five is the number of grace,
isn't it? And I believe that that's very not happenstance,
if you will. It was purposed that they would
be fine. We're going to look at all five of them this morning.
I will love them freely. The first word freely definition
means not under control of another. It's as he wishes. I will love
them and no one can control it. It's how I wish to love them. of His own will begat He us,
begat He His people. The Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit entered into a covenant. The Father willed the Son to
redeem His people of His own will. He loves His people freely
because of the work that Christ has done. The Son agreed. Now understand something. Salvation
is free to you and I. But it cost the Lord something,
didn't it? It cost the Lord something. It wasn't free in that it didn't
cost anything. It's free that it doesn't cost
us anything. He can only love freely the way
that he wishes and it not be in control of anyone else because
of what he done. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. That's what the scripture tells
us. Blood had to be spilled in order for you and I to be set
free. And it was shed on the cross of Calvary for his people.
Price had to be paid. And understand, God judges justly. God is the just judge. He judges in truth. There is
no mercy. There is no grace in wrath. There's just wrath. And either
we are going to stand before him in wrath, or we are going
to stand before him in mercy and in grace. So what is our
hope? That he loves us freely. That he loves us according to
his will, not our will. According to his work, not our
work. that he paid the price we could not pay. See, in the
court of law, as you know, the idea is that if you were being
accused of something, you would want to be found innocent. The
verdict would come forth after the trial took place. All evidence
is brought into account and the verdict is then given. Are you
innocent or are you guilty? It's determined by the judge.
And the judge says, I find you innocent or I find you guilty. And no judge, even in earth,
even in their unrighteous judgments, no judge will acquit the guilty. If you're found guilty, you must
serve the punishment. Is that not true? So what is
our hope? that when the Lord looks at us,
Christ Jesus took that penalty for us, for his people, so that
we are found innocent before his judgment. This is the only
way he can love us freely, that his anger was appeased. As we
just read in this chapter in verse four, my anger, my anger
will be turned away. He had to do it all by himself.
Isaiah 48 tells us, for my name's sake will I defer mine anger,
and for my praise will I refrain thee that I cut thee not off.
See, it's according to the good pleasure of his will. God did
it all. In order for his anger to not
fall upon us, it pleased the Lord to bruise his son. He loves
his people freely, not under the control of another, not limited
by anyone. He loves his people freely as
he wishes. Now, the second definition of
freely is without restriction or interference. It's based upon
nothing we have done, nor we are doing. I preached a message,
I guess, couple Wednesday nights ago, I believe it was, neither
constrained nor restrained. And that's exactly what this
word is right here. Whenever he says without restriction or
interference, we can't constrain his love, nor can we restrain
his love. It's all by grace and mercy.
Peter tells us, which in time past we were not a people, but
now are we the people which have not obtained mercy, but have
now obtained mercy because his anger, his anger has been turned
away by his choice, by his doing, by his finished work. Now he
loves his people freely. And the good news is, is he's
always loved us freely. There's never been a time that
he's not loved his people freely. It's because we have always been
seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. I find comfort in knowing that
even the law, see, the law can't restrict the love of God. The
law can't interfere with the love of God because His banner
over His people is love because of what Christ has done. Nothing
can interfere. Nothing can restrict the love
of God that is in Christ Jesus. Isaiah said, and in that day
thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee, though thou wast
angry with me, thine anger is turned away. and thou hast comforted
me. How can that be? Because he looks
upon his darling son and he pardons his people because of what Christ
has done. Hosea asked this question in
the last verse, who is wise? Who is wise? And he shall understand
these things, prudent, meaning having understanding, and he
shall know them. For the ways of the Lord are right and the
just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall
therein. The wise and the prudent are the ones that walk in his
ways of truth. Well, you and I both know we
do not have understanding according to the Lord and his sovereignty
and his holiness and who he is. He's other than we are. We need
understanding, don't we? Lord, give us understanding.
Lord, I don't have any wisdom. Give me wisdom to know you. That
says the cry that the Lord gives to his people. And that's what
he gives to his people because he loves them freely. because
he is not restricted in any way. He can love them freely because
of what Christ has done. Only those who have no wisdom
are wise. Only those who have no wisdom of their own are wise. You understand what that means,
don't you? Only those who don't have any wisdom of themselves
are wise because Christ is their wisdom. Christ's been made into
us our wisdom. Isn't that not true? Only those
who'd have no understanding are prudent. They're the ones that
have understanding. Lord, I believe, but help thou mine unbelief.
I want to understand. I want to know the truth because
the truth is the only thing going to set me free. Lord, show me
that you love me freely because of the merits of Christ alone. First Corinthians chapter one,
verse 18 says, for the preaching of the cross to them that perish
foolishness, foolishness, but unto us, which are saved, it's
the power of God. See, we don't understand the
things of God we must be made to, and we don't see the preaching
of the cross as foolishness. We see it as our only hope before
Him because it's the only way He can love us freely. If Christ
Jesus merited this love alone, and He did, He did for His people. Our only hope is to hear what
He said. I will hear their backsliding. I will hear their backsliding.
I will love them freely. Without restriction, there's
nothing to restrict it and there's nothing to interfere with it.
That's what freely means. Now the third definition of freely
is openly and honestly. Christ Jesus hung naked before
the entire world for his people. He was open about his love for
his people, about his work unto his father, to satisfy his father,
to please his father in the redemption of his elect. He was open about
that love, wasn't he? He hung naked before the world. He was also honest in his love.
No greater love hath any man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends. He was truth, truth of God. The
Lord Jesus Christ himself had to die bearing our sins. He was honest about his love. If he would have said, I love
you, he would have said, I love you from everlasting and yet
you go to hell. What kind of a love is that? What kind of an honest love is
that? It's not, is it? His love couldn't accomplish
anything then, but it did because he honestly loves his people.
He openly and honestly loves his people freely. He honestly
loves us. He truly loved us and gave us
the greatest display possible in the salvation of His people,
being hung upon the tree, being cursed for His people upon the
tree, shedding His blood, His soul being made an offering for
sin. This was the display of His love. This is the token of
affection that we have for Him. Righteousness, justification,
sanctification, glorification before the Father. This is what
the Lord Jesus Christ did for His people. He did it openly
and He did it honestly. Men might say, if He loves us
freely, that means it doesn't cost anything or I don't have
to do anything. Well, number one, it did cost something. It
cost the Lord Jesus Christ His life for His people. And second
of all, it is true that we don't do anything to merit this love
at all. But here in His love, not that
we love God, but He loved us and sent Christ to be the propitiation
for us, the one that appeased the wrath of God. So now, what
is in your heart towards the Father? It's love, isn't it?
It's love towards the Lord Jesus Christ. He hath first loved us
and we are begotten by love. We are begotten by the word of
truth, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore our hearts
cry out unto him, Lord, I love you. Help my unbelief. I want
to love you more. That's what we do, isn't it?
All because he loved us freely. He loves his people freely. Now to be clear on one subject
in particular, God does not love the sinner and hate the sin.
God hates the sin, God hates the sinner, and he loves his
son. And the sinner must be found in Christ. Men in religion say,
well, he loves the sinner, but he hates the sin. That is not
true. Only the love that God has is towards His, the only
love that God has is towards His Son. The good news of the
gospel is, is He's put His seed within us, as we heard the first
hour, isn't it? That's our hope, is that He loved us freely because
of the merits of Jesus Christ alone. Not that He looks upon
me and He loves me because of what I've done, but He looks
upon me and loves me because of what Christ has done. That's
our hope. That's how He loves us freely.
God commendeth his love towards us and that why we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. That's not that we loved him. It's not that we had any interest
in loving him. If he would have left us to ourself,
we'd have loved ourself. But he freely loved us in the
Lord Jesus Christ when we were unlovable. when we were unlovable. As far as the world's concerned,
if I was to describe what we are viewed as in God's viewpoint
by nature, we would be unlovable. We don't love maggots, do we?
That's how we're described. We don't love mangry mongrels,
dogs that are rabies infested. We don't have love. Now, you
understand what I'm saying? Unlovable creatures. And the
Lord committeth his love towards us when we were like that. When
we were sinners, Christ died for us freely. freely offering
up himself unto his father that you and I could be set free from
the law of sin and death by his grace alone. He says, in being found fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. And on that cross, he took our
transgression. He took our trespass, trespasses. He took everything that we are
and he put them away so that you and I could be loved freely.
You and I can be loved freely, openly and honestly loved. The fourth definition of freely
is in copious and generous amounts. Now I did not know what the word
copious meant. I'm from East Tennessee. I'm
a little undereducated. So I looked it up. Copious means
abundant in supply or quantity. Boy, I was glad I looked that
up. Abundant in supply. and in quantity, and he gives
it in generous amounts. This is how he loves his people
freely, with an everlasting love, everlasting, never having a beginning,
never having an end. And it's immeasurable, isn't
it? Who can measure the love of God? There's a song that says,
and I hesitate to say this, but I think it'll be okay. My wife
and I, while we were dating, I knew the lyrics to this song
and I wrote a letter to her because I knew it would woo her. Now,
I didn't know anything about what I was really writing compared
to the love of God. But the writer says that though
the sea be made ink and the sky a parchment, I could drain the
whole ocean dry and not describe the love of God, nor could I
write the whole though stretched from sky to sky. I thought, I'll
just send that to her and she'll fall in love with me even more.
And it happened, it worked. We've been married 18 years.
But the truth of the matter is, the love of God is innumerable,
isn't it? It's unmeasurable. Unmeasurable. It can't be measured. Though the ocean was drained
and the sky was the parchment, it's unmeasurable, isn't it?
He loves his people with this abundant love, this everlasting
love, generously, generously. It's all because his people have
been reconciled to him. In Ephesians chapter two, he
says, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by
the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Now the enmity means
being actively opposed or hostile to something. See, when we were
dead in trespasses and in sin, if we are seen outside of Christ,
let me put it that way. If we're seen outside of Christ,
then God is actively opposed and hostile towards us. But in
Christ Jesus, he hath put away that enmity, he hath slain that
enmity so that you and I can be loved freely by his grace. The good news is, is God cannot
be for us unless Christ died and our said, but if God be for
us, who then can be against us? If God loves you, he's always
loved you. and there's nothing you can do to get out of it.
I love that. I can't mess it up. I can't compel
God to love me and I can't prevent God from loving me. He loves
his people really. He does it in copious and generous
amounts, abundant in supply, unmeasurable. I like the thought that the Lord
has a storehouse. We often go and buy things at
a a market, but a storehouse was a little bit different. You
can think of like a grain silo that you would just go to and
get grain out as you needed to feed the animals. It would store
it for the harder times. I like to think of the Lord's
grace and mercy of being the storehouse that just never, never
goes down a bit, does it? No matter how much you take from
it. And he says, come and take. That's the invitation. You can't
drain it dry. This fountain of living water
is forever. It's forever flowing from the throne of God. This
is the good news is that I'm gonna love them freely. I'm gonna
give them grace. I'm gonna give them love. I'm gonna give them
mercy. I'm gonna give them righteousness, all good things, all good things. I'm gonna love them freely, unmeasurably,
all because he's reconciled us back to him, having made peace
through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things
unto himself. By him, I say, whether it be
things in earth or things in heaven, By the death of the cross,
by the death of Christ, we have his abundant, abundant love freely. He can save to the uttermost
because of this love. It doesn't matter what you've
done, what you haven't done, or what you're going to do. It's
all based upon his grace alone. And if he loves you, he's loved
you freely by his grace. It's because He blotted out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, was contrary
to us, and He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.
Now the handwriting says, love, peace, rest. Rest in His love, because that's
all that's written towards you now. There's nothing against
you anymore. There is no handwriting of ordinances. In the court of
God's law, the just and true judge of the world, there is
nothing but love towards His people. innocent, perfectly righteous,
justified. That's what's written towards
you now. This is what His love accomplished. This is what's
given to us freely by His grace. We're written in the Lamb's Book
of Life, aren't we? That's where His people's found. That's what's
written is their name in the Lamb's Book of Life. Those that
the Lord saved. There is no handwriting of ordinances against us any
longer. The law does not say anything contrary to the Lord's
people. It has nothing to declare except
perfectly righteous. By his death, he gave his people
life to ensure that he could love them freely, unmeasurably,
abundantly. I like that it's everlasting
love too, don't you? Never had a beginning, never
had an end, but it's eternal. It's going to be forever and ever
and ever and ever. Now fifth and finally, freely
means willingly and readily. Willingly and readily. God is
willing to love you. God is willing because of the
merits of Christ to love his people. That's the only way that
he could have been made willing to do so. It's by what the Lord
Jesus Christ did. And he's ready to love right
now and right now and right now because of what the Lord Jesus
Christ did. He loves us freely because he is willing. He is
ready to love us because of what Christ did. And Peter. 2 Peter 3, I think I quoted this
the first hour, but it's fitting. It says, Now understand, his
love truly accomplished something. When he says, I love you freely,
it's not just that he's trying to do something.
When I said that he loves us, he's willing to love us. He's
always loved us. I want to say this the right
way. He's ready to love us all the time. He does love us all
the time. He never stops loving us all the time. He's willing
to love us all the time. And it's all, I'm saying the
same thing in different ways is what I'm trying to do. God's
love is constant. It's consistent. It's always
been found in Christ and for all whom Christ died and not
a single one of those. People, not a single elect of
God will perish. He's not willing. He's not willing
that any should perish. That's what the willingness of
God accomplishes. When he wills something, it's going to happen.
When he says, I'm willing to love you, I will love you, is
what he's saying. I love you now and I will always
love you. I will love you because of what Christ did. I'm glad
that nothing can change that, aren't you? And I want us to
see that in closing in Romans chapter eight. And as many times
as I've probably quoted this, you could probably quote it by
now, but when we stop for a moment and realize that God really loves
a creature such as I, you can't hear it too many times. We want
to hear it again and again and again. Romans chapter eight,
verse 31 tells us, what shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? 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? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yet rather
that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us? Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
as it is written, for thy sakes we are killed all the day long.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God. which is in Christ Jesus. He
said, because I love you, I'm going to freely give you all
things. And what's going to separate us from the love of God? He literally
gives all these circumstances that could do it. And then he
gives all these things that could do it. And he says nothing. That's
the conclusion the believer has to come to. Nothing can separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. His love
is to usward because we are in Christ Jesus. It is readily available
and it can never change. Being justified freely by his
grace. And you'll notice I've mentioned
freely give us all things. And now I just said freely justified.
Why? Because he loves us freely. Being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. See, by his death is how he's
going to heal his people's backsliding. And that's how he healed it.
And by His choice, He's going to love us freely. And that's
how He's going to put away His anger is by His death as well. When the Lord Jesus Christ died,
anger and justice was satisfied. We are now freely justified by
His grace. We are now freely sanctified
by His redemption. We are now freely made righteous
by His blood. We are now freely glorified,
glorified in Him because we're loved freely by Him. He loves
his elect freely. We have his word of truth that
rings peace in our heart that he loves us freely. He loves
us freely, not under control of another, but as he wishes.
He loves us freely without restriction or interference. He loves us
freely openly and honestly. He loves us freely in copious
and general amounts. It means it's abundant in supply
and it's unmeasurable. He loves us willingly and readily. God truly loved and loves and
is going to love his people forever and ever and always has. Do you
know why? Because he said, I will love
them freely. I will. And when God says, I
will, it will come to pass. He does, he loves his people
freely, doesn't he?