Today, for our Bible study, I
would encourage you to turn to the book of Hosea, the book of
Hosea, and find chapter 2, and we'll begin reading at verse
13. Hosea, chapter 2, verse 13. And we read here, she went after
her lovers and forgot me, saith the Lord. Therefore, behold,
I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and
speak comfortably unto her." Now, in the book of Hosea, we
have a marvelous love story of Hosea, whose name means Savior,
and his rebellious wife named Gomer. Her name means failure. God told Hosea to go marry this
woman. She was a harlot. and provide
for her. Hosea, God's faithful prophet,
did as he was instructed. Gomer, his wife, began to walk
after the sinful ways of her heritage, leaving Hosea for others. Soon her wicked ways overcame
her and she was reduced to poverty and shame and was sold on a common
slave auction as a slave. When Gomer began to seek after
her lovers and forgot the goodness of Hosea, God instructed his
prophet to love her, allure her, and bring her, and speak comfortably
to her. Now one naturally would have
thought to divorce her, condemn her, and find another woman,
find another wife. Hosea, faithful to his covenant
with her, found her, bought her. He found her on the auction block
dirty and poor and naked and starving. He found her and he
bought her and received her back into his home. Now all of this
story, and it's a marvelous love story of Hosea and Gomer, all
of this is a glorious picture of God saving, redeeming, sovereign
grace to guilty sinners. Now I want to point out this
morning to you from this love story of grace. It's a story
of Christ and his church, Christ and his bride. Now I want to
point out five things to you here in this message. The first
thing is a marvel of sovereign grace. One naturally would conclude
when it was said, she forgot me. Therefore, naturally, we
would have thought, well, I'll abandon her, I'll divorce her,
I'll forget her. God's thoughts and ways of mercy
are infinitely above ours. We read in Ephesians 2, God who
is rich in mercy, for his great love were with, he loved us even
when we were dead and in sin. That's a marvel of sovereign
grace. God commend his love toward us
while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Nevertheless,
and notwithstanding all we are, all we have done against God,
we've sinned against God. God says, I will have mercy. Therefore his reasons for such
mercy are all found within himself. And the only reason for grace
is grace itself. Grace and mercy and salvation
to the guilty is found in the reason of grace and the reason
of mercy is found in God himself, not found in us. We can easily
see 10,000 reasons piled up against us to condemn us. The wages of
sin is death. But the only reason of grace,
the only reason of forgiveness and pardon is all piled up in
Christ. God saves us and loves us and
forgives us because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now consider this,
talking about the marvel of sovereign grace, God even takes the reasons
against us, our sin, and turns it into reasons for us. God delights
to show mercy to sinners. Paul said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. Christ gave himself for our sins,
we read in Galatians 1, verse 3 and 4. Christ never gave himself
for our righteousness, we don't have any, but for our sins. Our sins, which is a reason for
judgment, is by divine grace turned into an argument for mercy.
You see the marvel of God's sovereign grace. We're not deserving of
grace. We're deserving of judgment.
But God is pleased to find mercy and the reason for mercy is in
himself. He delights to show mercy. Secondly,
we see the power of grace. He says, I will allure her. Now, if you read the rest of
this chapter, notice how many times this is used here where
God says, I will. I will bring her. I will betroth
her. I will call her. Our shalls and
wills are impotent. And a lot of times they're impractical. But God's shalls and wills are
omnipotent. When God says, I shall, It shall
be done. When God says, I will, mark it
down, my friend. He never speaks in vain. It will
happen. Surely, as God has spoken, it
shall be accomplished. He said, I've purposed it. I
will do it. I've spoken it, and it shall
come to pass. And this is covenant language.
I will. and they shall." Now if you would
look in Hosea chapter 2 verse 23, you'll see what I'm talking
about here, and this is the language of grace. This is the power of
God's Word, His truth, His covenant language. 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. I will and they shall, says God. That's the power of God's grace.
It's not impotent. It's powerful and almighty. Thirdly, we see the allurement
of grace or the persuasion of grace. He says, I will allure
her. Now this is the same word that's
used in other places and translated entice or persuade. God will
use loving words and a winning language The gospel of grace
in Christ to draw us to Himself. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of God's power. He has chosen a people and He
will cause us by His grace to draw nigh unto Him. We read in
Jeremiah, God said, I have loved thee with everlasting love, therefore
with loving kindness will I draw them. And that's a very powerful
word. I will bring them." You see,
the allurement of grace. Again we read, no man can come
unto me except the Father which sent me. Draw him. We're drawn
unto the Lord Jesus Christ by the loveliness of His person.
He's altogether lovely. We're drawn unto the Lord Jesus
Christ by the beauty of His work. He redeemed sinners from their
sin. We have pardon in Christ. We're
drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ by His love for us. Here it is
love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His
Son to be the sacrifice for our sin. So there we see the allurement
of grace, the marvel of grace, the power of grace. Now, fourthly,
we see the work of grace. We read here in the text, I will
bring her into the wilderness alone with God. Think of it,
separated and made to differ by God's electing grace. And
that's who has made us to differ. God had loved a people and chosen
a people from all eternity, gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He died for them and they shall be saved. Called and allured
with the gospel, brought out of bondage into the wilderness
of grace, into the place of grace and taken care of by God through
the provision of the multitude of mercy in Christ Jesus. And
we see this illustrated. Those 40 years that Israel wandered
in the wilderness, God guarded them, fed them, led them. In the wilderness they had nothing
but God, dependent upon God, and complete in Christ. That's the life of the believer,
depend upon God. He's able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by Him. He's able. We're dependent upon
God. Complete in Christ. In Him dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we're complete in
Christ. God blesses us according to the
abundance of His mercy in Christ Jesus. That's the work of grace.
God has done a work for us at Calvary, and He does a work in
us by regenerating grace. Fifthly, we see the comfort of
grace. Speak to her, speak to her with
the comfort of grace. The gospel language is not distressing
to the believer, but rather most comforting and encouraging and
enlightening, speaking to us about salvation in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's the message of salvation. That's the message we have in
Christ Jesus. He's the only advocate for sinners. John said, when you sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. That's
a comfort of grace, knowing that we are sinners, knowing that
we have no righteousness of our own, knowing that the Lord Jesus
Christ is made unto us all that we need. He is our righteousness. He's called in Scripture the
Lord, our righteousness. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. That's the comfort of grace.
That's the language of grace. Speak unto her with the gospel
of God's saving grace. We have an advocate. We have
a mediator. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men. That is the man, Christ Jesus. He's the only mediator with a
suitable sacrifice, with a suitable righteousness. That sacrifice
He gave is His own blood. We're redeemed not with corruptible
things, but with the precious blood of Christ. The Lord Jesus,
as our High Priest, Substitute, Surety, and Mediator, did not
bring the typical animal sacrifice. He brought His own blood, having
obtained eternal redemption for us by His own sacrifice. We have an Advocate. We have
a Mediator. We have a Surety. We have a High
Priest. all things provided for us in
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a language of grace,
and this is a comfort of grace. Our salvation is always determined,
dependent, and accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, freely
given, freely imputed to us by His sovereign grace. And that's
the comfort of grace. And that's the message of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation by the grace of God.
It's God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to God's own purpose, God's grace
which was given in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Well I pray the Lord will give you an encouraging word reading
over the book of Hosea and remember this is a love story between
Christ and his church. He loved the church and gave
himself for it that he might present it to himself without
spot and without blemish. He's able to keep us from falling
and to present us faultless before the presence of God's glory with
exceeding joy. Now if you would like a copy
of this message, I have it for you free. You can call me at
631-9053 or you can write to me at Church 6088 Zebulon Highway,
Pikeville, Kentucky.