Sovereign, Unchangeable Love

Q: What does the Bible say about the love of God?

The Bible portrays God's love as sovereign and unchanging, demonstrated through His covenant relationship with His people. The love of God is revealed in scripture as sovereign and immutable, rooted in His character. Hosea 1 illustrates this love through the story of Hosea and Gomer, where Hosea's action of marrying an unfaithful woman symbolizes God's relentless affection for His people, even when they turn away. The Bible asserts that God loved us even when we were sinners, as evidenced in Romans 5:8, which states, 'But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' This unchanging love is foundational for understanding God's grace and mercy in the life of the believer.

Q: How do we know God's love is true?

We know God's love is true because scripture demonstrates His faithfulness and actions toward His people throughout history. The truth of God's love is primarily shown through His faithful actions and promises in scripture. In Hosea, God instructs the prophet to love a woman who would be unfaithful, mirroring how He remains committed to His chosen people despite their rebellion. This is not just a narrative but a reflection of God's unchanging nature, emphasized in Malachi 3:6, 'For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.' The infallibility of Scripture reassures us that God's love is not based on our merit, but on His sovereign will, as illustrated in Ephesians 1:4-5, where He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

Q: Why is God's unchanging love important for Christians?

God's unchanging love is crucial for Christians as it provides assurance of salvation and fosters trust in His promises. The significance of God's unchanging love cannot be overstated in the life of a Christian. This love serves as a foundation for our understanding of salvation: it reassures us that once we are truly called and loved by God, we cannot lose that love. In Romans 8:38-39, we see that nothing can separate us from the love of God, highlighting the permanence of His covenant relationship. Furthermore, understanding that God's love is not based on our fluctuating emotions or actions allows us to rest in His grace, knowing that His commitment to us is firm and unfaltering, allowing us to grow in faith and obedience despite our shortcomings.

My subject tonight is the sovereign,
unchanging love of God. Now, if we would know what the
living God is doing in this day, then we're going to have to go
back to the Old Testament scriptures. and see what God has done in
days gone by. Because he said, I am the Lord,
I change not. If we're going to know how, how
God is pleased to reveal himself and to whom, listen to me, The living God is pleased to
reveal himself. We're going to have to go back
to the scriptures, and I mean the Old Testament scriptures,
and find out how and to whom God revealed himself in days
gone by, because he said, I am the Lord, I change not. Who God is, he's always been. What God does, he's always done. Isn't that right? His will is unchanging. He declares the end from the
beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel will stand, I will
do all my pleasure. If we would know this love of
God, and we can talk about it, we can sing about it, and we
can boast of it, but the only one, the only person
who can rejoice in it is the one who partakes of it. That's
right. The love of God. And if we would
know this grace and love of God, the living God, and David said,
as the thirsty deer panteth for the water brooks, my soul panteth
for the living God. And our Lord Jesus, in that high
priestly prayer, he said, this is eternal life. This is what
it is, that they may know thee. the only true God, not a God,
but the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. We're
going to have to study the scriptures. We're going to have to study
the scriptures and learn from the scriptures who God is, and
what God does, and how God acts, because he's the same. The hymn
writer put it like this. God moves in a mysterious way
his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps on the
sea and he rides upon the storm. Deep in unsearchable minds of
never failing skill, God treasures up his bright designs and he
works his sovereign will. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud, the beginning, may have
a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Modern religion
has its God tied up in a neat little package, which makes their
God much like themselves. He only does what they permit
him to do. God said that. He said, you thought
I was altogether such a one as yourself, but I'm not. He said in Isaiah
45, I'm the I'm the Lord, there's none else.
There's no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun and
from the west that there's none beside me. I am the Lord, and
there's none else. I form the light, I create darkness,
I make peace. And I create evil. I, the Lord,
do all these things. Drop down, ye heavens, from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let them
bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it. God's not a man that he should
lie. God's not a man that he should
depend upon anything or anyone. God said, if I were hungry, I
would not ask you. The cattle on a thousand hills
are his. Who is God? What is God, God
pleased to do? This righteousness of God that
we read about, what is it? This justice of God. This grace,
this love of God that people sing about and talk about and
flippantly, carelessly boast about. What is this love of God? Well, I'll tell you this. Who
God is and what God's pleased to do and whom God is pleased
to love and show favor unto must be determined by what he says
and not by what I think. Huh? There's no way of knowing God
except by two books, the book of creation and the book of It's what he said. It's not what
we think. It's not what men have thought.
It's not what people have said. Unfortunately, the average person
thinks he's a pretty good authority on who God is. Turn to Romans chapter 3 just
a moment and let's look at some scripture. Romans chapter 3. But he said, no man knoweth the
Father, save the Son, and he to whom
the Son will reveal it. Isn't that what he said? He said God is the most high
potentate, dwelling in a light to which no man can approach. And here in Romans 3, verse 3,
it says, But what if some did not believe, did not believe
what God says, what God says about himself and about us and
about his Son? Shall their unbelief make the
faithfulness of God without effect? Will it? Does it matter a great
deal what you and I believe about God? We preach a sermon and someone
says, I don't like that. I don't agree with that. My God
wouldn't do that. My God's not like that. I don't
believe that. Does it really make any difference
what you believe? What if some did not believe?
Does that change the truth of God? Some puny, finite, feeble,
fickle, foolish, faulty, fallen, fumbling, reject something in the Word
of God, will that change it? Shall their unbelief make God's
purpose and will and faithfulness without effect? Paul said, God
forbid! God forbid! Let God be true. Let God be true in everything
he says, in everything he purposes, in everything he wills, in everything
he does. true to holiness, true to righteousness,
true to justice, true to grace. Let God be true, and you become
a liar, for that's what you and I are. We're liars. That's right. That God might be justified,
watch it, in his sayings. Let's find out what he says. God may be justified. Let God
be true. Let God be just. Let God be God. And every man a liar. No matter
if he has a degree in theology or whatever, he's still a liar.
And God's true. John 3, see what John says about
this very same thing. This same subject. What if some
did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
truth of God, the faithfulness of God, the character of God
without effect, the purpose of God? God forbid. Let God speak. Oh, the earth keeps silent. John
chapter 3, listen to verse 31. He that cometh from above. This
is John the Baptist talking about the Lord Jesus. He that cometh
from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthy. That's me, that's you, that's
John the Baptist, and he speaketh of the earth. He that cometh
from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen, what he
hath heard, that he testified. And you know, in our fallen,
depraved, wretched, sinful, twisted condition, no man receives his
testimony. They won't listen to him. He's
telling the truth. He that is of the earth speaks of the earth.
We speak in our limited fashion what we know, and that's nothing.
He's from above. He speaks what he's seen and
what he's heard. No man receives his testimony. But I'll tell you this, verse
33, he that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal. He hath declared by his receiving
that testimony. God is true. God is true. Let God be true and every man
alive. That's my confession. I have
received his testimony. Oh, I tell you, this is not up
for debate. This is not up for argument.
And so tonight, I'm going to talk about the sovereign, unchanging
love of God according to God's own testimony. And I want you
to turn to the book of Hosea, the book of Hosea, and let me
read some scripture. Hosea. Now, there are several
chapters in this book, but the gist of it, the heart of it,
the real key to it is found in the first three chapters. And
let me read a few verses, will you? Follow along as I read Hosea
Chapter 1, verse 1 through 3. Now listen, the word of the Lord
that came unto Hosea, and now the word Hosea is a form of Joshua. The word Joshua is a form of
Jesus. The word Jesus means God, my
Deliverer, my Savior, Jehovah, my Savior. The word Joshua, Old
Testament name Joshua, is Deliverer, Savior. The word Hosea is the
same word as Joshua. That makes this, that means the
very name of Hosea is Deliverer, Savior. He is a type of Christ,
he's a picture of Christ the Savior, just like Joshua was
a picture of Christ. And the word of the Lord came
to Hosea, the son of Beriah. in the days of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam,
the son of Joash, king of Israel, the beginning of the word of
the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go,
take unto thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms. Go
to a land where this particular way of life, evil and sin and
lasciviousness and whoredoms is practiced and accepted. And
you marry one of those girls. For the land hath committed great
whoredom, departing from the Lord. So Hosea, Joshua, picture
of Christ, went and took Gomer, the daughter of Debalaim, which
conceived and bare him a son. He did what God told him to do. And then let's look at chapter
2 now. Chapter 2, verse 1. Now the key to this book is found
in chapter 3, verse 2, but you follow with me as we go along.
God commanded Hosea to take a wife of the people of Hordom, go down
to a land where this is the way of life, evil and wickedness
all this type of things acceptable among these people. Married one
of those girls, which he did. He married her, and after the
marriage, she began practicing the way of life of her people.
After they were married, she bore him some children, and then
she began to live this kind of life that she was raised in.
And he says in chapter 2, verse 1, Say ye unto your brethren,
Am I, and to your sister Ruhema, Plead with your mother. Plead. She's not my wife, neither am
I her husband. Let her therefore put away her
whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulterous from between her
breasts, lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day she
was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land,
and slay her with thirst. I will not have mercy upon her
children, for they be the children of whoredoms. For their mother
hath played the harlot. She that conceived them hath
done shamefully. She said, I'll go after my lovers
that give me my bread, and my water, and my wool, my flax,
my oil, and my drink." Therefore, behold, I will hedge
up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find
her paths, and she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall
not overtake them. She shall seek them, but shall
not find them. Then shall she say, Well, I'll
go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me
than now. But she did not know that I gave
her the corn, and the wine, and the oil. I multiplied her silver
and gold, which they prepared for Baal. She thought, she said,
my lover has given me all these things. And Hosea said, I'm the
one that took these things to her and gave them to her and
left them outside her door while she was living in wickedness. Therefore will I return and take
away my corn in the time thereof and my wine in the season thereof,
and I will recover my wool and my flax given to her to cover
her nakedness. And now will I discover, now
watch it, watch it soon. She's going to be brought down
to ugliness, brought down to poverty, brought down to want,
brought down and put on the block and sold as a slave. I'll discover,
verse 10, her lewdness. her folly in the sight of her
lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand. I will also
cause her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her
Sabbath, all her solemn feasts." You see how the Lord in this
scripture goes back and forth between Gomer and us, Gomer and
his children, Gomer and his church? Because Gomer is a picture of
us. Hosea is a picture of Christ.
Gomer is a picture of us. Brother Charlie Payne used to
call himself Gomer Onesimus, the fallen slave. In verse 12,
I'll destroy her vines and her fig trees while she has said
these are my rewards that my lovers have given me. All of my beauty and my happiness
and all of my lovers gave them to me. I'm a product of my own
efforts. My own strength and my own beauty. God said, I'm going to take all
that away, too. I'm going to take all that away. I'll make them a forest, and
the beast of the field shall eat them. And I will visit upon
her the days of Balaam, wherein she burned incense to them, and
decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after
her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord. Well, Hosea still loved her. So chapter 3, verse 1, now here's
the key to this whole book. Then said the Lord unto me. Now
here he went down and married this woman out of a vile land,
and brought her home, and she bore some children, then went
wild, followed the path of her people. And he took care of her
and supplied her needs and brought her corn and oil and flax and
all these things. And she bragged on to her lovers.
She said, they took care of me. Then she went down, down, down,
down. God stripped her and broke her
and humbled her and brought her ugliness to her understanding. And now she's on the slave block.
Now they're selling her. just a common prostitute being
sold on the slave block. And God said, chapter 3, verse
1, Then said the Lord to me, Hosea, Go yet, even now, and
love that woman, beloved of a friend, yet an adulteress. Watch it now. According to the love of the
toward the children of Israel. Who is Israel? Israel is that nation whose God
is the Lord. Israel are those chosen people. Not natural, national Israel,
but spiritual Israel. You go down to the slave block
where they're auctioning her off. And you love her as you
loved her when you first knew her, and when you first married
her. You love her. And you go down and love her
and buy her and take her home, because that's how God loved
you. That's according to the love
of God for his children, look, who look to other gods and love
flagons of wine. So I bought her. I bought her. I bought her to me for 15 pieces
of silver." All right, let's go back now and see this. See, God's saying this is how
God loves. This is the love of God. This
is a picture of the love of God. He takes us here to this man
whose very name is God my Savior. That's what his name is, Hosea.
All right, verse Chapter 1, verse 2. Let's look at it for a little
while. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go
take unto thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms. What
a strange command. What a strange command. Hosea,
man of God. Hosea, prophet of God. Hosea,
picture and type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go down to the
land of rebels. Go down to the land, to a nation
of evil men and evil women, and choose your bride from among
those evil people. Choose your bride. Select your
beloved from among those wicked, evil people. That's exactly what
the Lord Jesus did when he chose you and when he chose me. He
came down to a fallen people, to a rebellious race, to an evil
people. And he chose us from the fallen
sons of Adam and made us his elect. He said to Jeremiah, he
said, Before I formed thee in the belly, before you came out
of your mother's womb, I knew you and I called you in our revenge. I thank God for you, Paul said,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. And he loved us. We didn't love
him. He came down where we were. Hosea
went down there to that evil land, this man of God, and he
loved this woman. He chose her. He picked her out.
Herein is love. We didn't love God. God loved
us. I can't explain God's love for
sinners. I just know that his love for
me and his love for you is based solely on his mercy, not for
any good that he sees in us. And this is what he's showing
us. He's taking Hosea right down into this. There's no worship
of God. There's no recognition of God
in this pagan land. This is a land of just corruption,
a land of whoredoms and children of whoredoms, and he takes Hosea
down there and Hosea sets his affection, not on all of them,
on one of them, and loves her and takes her home. But God,
who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us even, even, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins.
Christ died for us. But God committed his love toward
us in that while, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. All right, now let's look at
chapter 2. That's the choosing of the bride. My Lord's got a
bride. Hosea got his bride out of a
horrible pit. And that's where my God got his
bride. He lifted me out of a horrible
pit. Well, let's see, and watch this
now. He chose her before she entered
this path of rebellion. That's right. You read chapter
1. He chose her and loved her and
made her his bride before she ever fell into this You see,
she was a young girl when Hosea picked her out. She had not put
in practice the evil ways of her people. He brought her home
and she had two or three children by him. And he named them different
names, as God told him to. And it was after this that she
plunged into this pit of sinfulness and wickedness. That's right. It was after this, he said in
chapter 2 verse 1, say to your brethren, am I unto your sister
Ruhemah, plead with your mother, plead with her, she's not my
wife, and I'm not her husband. Let her put away her whoredoms.
You see, when God chose us, it was before we had done any good
or evil, did you know that? It's before the foundation of
the world. That's right. If you'll listen or turn, if
you want to, to Romans 9, where he's talking about Jacob and
Esau, and it's true of every one of the elect, he says in
Romans 9, verse 11, Romans 9, 11, "...for the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of
works, but of him that calleth, before they had done any good
or evil." It was said to her, the elder
shall serve the younger. And God set his love upon us
and upon people of a sinful race before the foundation of the
world. Hosea knew where he found his
wife, and he knew her background, he knew her nature, he knew her
people, and he knew what she would be. But he loved her anyway. And that's when God chose us.
And you say, well, what a horrible woman. What a horrible race. You see, being born of sinful
parents and of a sinful race, we will, as soon as we're able,
give vent to these natures within us. He chose her when she was... I'm not saying that children
are born innocent. I'm not saying they're born without
sin. They're born in sin, and they are sinners. But I'm saying
when God chose us was before we gave vent to this evil nature,
before the world began, before Adam ever fell. He set his love
upon us. And being born of sinful parents,
we will, as soon as we are able, sin against God. That's our nature. The wicked go astray from the
womb as soon as they're born, speaking lies. You see, the creature has fallen
under every condition. It doesn't matter. I hear people
say, well, let's change the environment, we'll change the people. The
only way you change people is God to change their hearts. You
see, in every environment, the creature has failed. In heaven,
the angels fail. That's right. Lucifer was an
angel, and all the third of the heavenly host. In heaven, they
fail. Adam, God created Adam, put him
in a perfect garden with everything he could possibly want, gave
him power and dominion over all these things, and he fell. God
took one man, Noah, and his wife and three sons and their wives
and saved them from a devastating flood, and Noah wasn't on the
ground very long at all until he had desperately sinned against
God and caused one of his sons to fall. lot, God reached down
into Sodom and brought Lot out like a firebrand out of the burning. While he destroyed the whole
city, took him up there to the hill, and it wasn't any time
at all until he was in sin. After God delivered Israel from
Egypt, they weren't out in the wilderness any time at all until
they made him a golden calf. David, under the greatest power
God ever gave to a single king, victory and power and wealth
and glory, and called him a man after his own heart, and David
sinned against God greatly. Solomon, God gave this man more
wisdom than he had ever given any human being living on this
earth, and he still acted like a fool. Judas was an apostle
of Jesus Christ and walked with God himself in human flesh for
three and a half years, and hanged himself and went to hell. Demas
was a sidekick of the apostle Paul, mentioned in the scriptures
two or three times, and then Paul had to say of him, he just
loves the world. I say, you put a man, a woman,
a son of Adam, under the most perfect conditions, environment
and circumstance, and unless God has given him a new heart
and a new nature, he'll do anything anybody else will do. Because
that's his nature. There's no place of safety except
in Christ. There's no righteousness except
the righteousness of Christ. There's no holiness but the holiness
with which we're clothed. the righteousness and holiness
of Jesus Christ. Men and women by nature are men
and women, unfortunately. But thank God He loves us. Thank God He loves us. You see, you see, like the old lady said,
if He hadn't loved me before I was born, He sure never loved
me after I was born. He's always loved her. And Hosea,
he knew what she was, he knew what she'd do, but he chose her. And God, when he chose you and
me in Christ, before we were ever born, he knew what we were,
he knew where we came from, and he knew what we'd do. And you
know the beauty about this thing? All the time she was out there
raising hell, he was providing for her. Yeah, he'd leave corn
and wine outside her door. That's right. He provided for
that fallen bride. She praised her friends and lovers
for all these things and riches and corn and wine and clothing
that she was enjoying, but she didn't know, Hosea said, I was
the one giving it to her. I was the one slipping over where
she lived. And I knew she was hungry, and I knew she needed
something to eat, and I knew if these people take advantage
of her, and she could never provide for herself, so I, and she'd
open the door and there were these fine gifts, and she's my
lover, they're good to me. Isn't that our story? Back yonder, now he loved us,
we're his bride, but from the, we were teenagers and young men
and women, And we didn't love God. We walked our way and did
our thing and talked our language. And yet God loved us. And he
didn't strike us dead, and he didn't send us to hell, and he
didn't strip us. He prospered us. That's right. He gave us food to eat. We didn't
thank him, but he gave it to us. Oh yeah, we did. We thanked
somebody. We thanked ourselves. I'm so
smart. You know, I've done this, and
I've done that, and my dad left me this, and my mom left me that,
and somebody else. God said, a man can receive nothing
except it be given him from above. You can't take your next breath
without God's permission, or eat your next bite, or bat your
eyes. He gives you health. The only
reason you're not a raven maniac is the grace of God. The only
reason you're not crawling instead of walking is the grace of God.
That's right. Old Saul of Tarsus, when he was
breathing out blasphemy and injurious and hating God, Almighty God
gave him the horse to ride down there to kill his people. Almighty
God gave him the clothes to wear, and the brain to think, and the
voice to speak, and the hand to lift in anger against God.
God gave it to him. Isn't that right? Until he was
40 years old. He spit in God's face when he
was 40 years old, and all that time God fed him and clothed
him and gave him breath to breathe. He gave him the breath he used
to curse his name. And you too. And you too. And you too. And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? I see our Lord Jesus sitting
on that whale down in Samaria. there comes a woman. Boy, she's
a character. She is a character. She married
five different men and now she was living with a fellow that
wasn't her husband. She's the talk of that little old town. But he loved her. And all the
time in her rebellion and this and that and the other, he still
loved her. And she came there, no telling.
I wonder how old she was. She'd had five husbands. She
hung around with some of them a little while, didn't she? She
must have been 45 or 50. All that time. Missed nobody
from nowhere. But he loved her. And when she
came there to wear it, he revealed his love to her. But all that
time he took care of her, didn't he? Provided for her. Oh, thank God. Thank God. I tell you, this type of message
ought to give more meaning to our blessings at the table. It
ought to give more meaning to us that they're giving of thanks.
Somebody said, oh, for thanks. Under God, I've got a lot to
be thankful for. Give thanks, Mike. You've got
two hours? All the way back through my life,
he's held me in his hands. and would not let me go. Isn't
that right? And even when I was praising
somebody else, well, what are we going to do with this girl?
How are we going to get her back where she ought to be? How are
we going to get her to acknowledge who her real lover is and to
love him? Well, she's going to have to
be stripped. She's going to have to be broken, that's what he
said. I'm going to take away the corn, verse 9, chapter 2. Take away the wine, take away
the wool and the flax. Verse 10, I'm going to discover
to her her folly, her lewdness. They're not going to deliver
her out of my hand. I'm going to get hold of her. Verse 11, I'm going to cause
the smile to be wiped off her face, her mirth to cease. and her solemn
feast. I'm going to destroy her vines
and her fig trees. All these things that she says
are the rewards of my lovers, I'm going to take them away from
her," he said. This is a difficult experience.
It's humiliating to discover what we are. It's humiliating
to discover what we are. It's humiliating to find out
what we are and where we are, but it must be done. Judgment
has got to precede grace. There'll be no appreciation for
the love of God or the mercy of God or the grace of God unless
a person is brought down. You see, there can be no clothing
with the righteousness of Christ till we're stripped with all
the other garments we cling to. We've got to stand naked before
God. with no covering. There'll be no exaltation till
there's a humbling. Got to be. There'll be no resurrection
till there's a death. There'll be no being found till
we're lost if a person misses this Holy Spirit conviction.
You see, Saul of Tarsus had to be stripped. He had to be brought
down. He had to be blinded. He had to be cast into the dust,
helpless before the power of God. Oh, he thought he was somebody. He was giving the orders, leading
that band of villains down there that persecute Christians, and
God just put his finger on him. And there he lies, wallowing
in the dust, blinded and not able to see. or the frailty of
this flesh. If a man misses Holy Spirit conviction,
he'll miss repentance. If he misses repentance, he'll
miss faith. If he misses faith, he'll miss
Christ. Our fleshly sweetness becomes
bitter, and our fleshly joy is turned to mourning, and the high
must be brought low, and the dignity has got to be turned
to depravity, and we're brought to hate what we love. Gomer stripped,
broken, humiliated, brought to the slave block. This once beautiful
woman, this once charming person, this once the center of attraction
and attention, she stands there probably stripped with her hands
tied behind her, and she stands up on the slave block, and people
are bidding, but nobody really wants her because the bidding
wasn't very high. Fifteen pieces of silk. But David said, when my mother
and father forsake me, my Lord will take me up. He loves me. He's always loved me. He doesn't
love me because of what he sees in me. He loves me because of
his mercy and grace. The cause is found in him, not
in me. I'm ugly. what God is, I'm not. God's light, I'm darkness. God's
good, I'm evil. God's truth, I'm a liar. God's
King, and I'm a spoffer." Well, he goes down there, God
told him to. In chapter 3, God said to me,
Go yet and love her, go yet and love her like I love you. Show my love, show the love of
God toward the children of Israel who have looked to other gods
and who love flagons of wine. Show the love." So he goes down
there and he stands out there in this crowd. I can imagine
him standing there and there she is. He really loves her and he bids on her. What's the
price? 15 pieces of silver, I'll pay
it. What's the price? An omer of
barley, a half omer of barley, I'll pay it. I'll pay it. And you know the one there, I
know all those people around there were amazed that he'd still
love her, but you know who was most amazed that he would still
love her? Her. Her. That's the one most amazed. And
all those ridiculed him, but I bet she didn't. She was so
thankful and fell at his feet to adore and worship him. She fell at his feet. I read
a story one time about a preacher up in Boston, a pastor, years
and years and years ago. His name was A.J. Gordon. He was walking down the street
one day, this was way back there years ago, back before the turn
of the century. He was walking down the street
in Boston one day, it was a smaller town then, in his community,
and he saw one of his little Sunday school boys coming toward
him. As he got closer, he saw the little fellow had a cage
in his hand, a homemade bird cage, had it in his hand. And as he got closer, the pastor
saw that in that birdcage were two little fight-and-feel birds.
They just seemed like they were just shaking, scared, hanging
on to that little makeshift roost that he had put in that little
old homemade birdcage. And Mr. Gordon felt pity and
compassion on those captive birds in that little cage. And he stopped
the little boy and he said, Son, where did you get the birds?
He said, I trapped them. He said, what are you going to
do with them, son? He said, I'm going to play with them. I get
tired of playing with them. I'll feed them to the cat. And the preacher said, would
you sell them? Ah, he said, preacher, you don't want these old birds.
He said, there's plenty like them in the fields. There's plenty
like us in the fields, too, aren't there? Yeah, he said, I do. He
said, I want those right there. I know there's plenty out there,
but I want those. Christ said, I could have these
rocks. raise up children of Abraham. Well, he said, Preacher, they
can't sing. They ain't canaries. I said, I know they can't sing,
but I want them. He said, they ain't worth nothing. Mr. Gordon said, I know there's
plenty more, and I know they can't sing, and I know they're
not worth anything, but son, I want those birds. Now you name
your price." And the little boy said, they'll cost you two dollars,
cage and all. Well, that's a lot of money then.
He dug in his pocket and he got out two one-dollar bills and
handed them to him, and the little boy handed him the cage, and
there stood that dignified pastor with that little homemade bird
cage, no two little old frightened birds in it. And he watched the
little boy walk down the street. And then once in a while the
little boy would turn and look at him and kind of shake his head.
That fool preacher, that fool preacher, throwing his money
away on those old field birds. What on earth does he want with
them? And he walked on by and Mr. Gordon just stood there and
watched him. After a while he rounded a corner. Mr. Gordon held that cage up
and he unwired that little old homemade door and he opened it
and held it up to the sky and he said, I loved you, and I bought you,
and I'm setting you free." And he padded the cage. And one of
them saw that open door, and out he went, and sailed up in
the sky. And the other one saw him go
in the open door, and he said, as I stood there with that empty
cage, I could almost hear those little old birds sing, redeemed,
set free, set free. I can't explain the love of God
for birds like you and me. I just can't explain. I can't
explain, but I do know this. The law held me in captivity
in a cage, in bondage and slavery, and my Lord met the law and justice
and he said to me, that law and justice, I want those birds,
me and you. And law and justice looked at
him and said, you don't want these old birds. They're not
worth anything. They'll break your heart. They'll
break your heart. They'll spit in your face. They'll love seeing and flashing
not you. I want them. Well, it'll cost
you. What'll it cost? The silver of
your sweat and the gold of your blood. And so my Lord, having loved
his own, he loved them to the end, even the death of the cross.
And he went to Calvary, and he bought this old bird. He bought
me. He loved me. He sought me. He
bought me. He brought me to himself, and
he set me free. I was on the slave block, and
you were too. And he took her home. Do you
reckon that all the sin was out of her system? Nope. But he still loved her. That's
right. Our second question. Do you reckon
she ever left him again? Nope. No way. No way. Isn't that a beautiful picture?
That's the love of God. This old silly sentimental emotional
stuff they're talking about in churches today, it ain't worth
time to take a listen to it. But that everlasting, sovereign,
effectual, unchanging, infinite love of my Redeemer for sinners,
that's the good news. Whatever one of us from these
little boys and girls on up, I'll say, Lord, love me like
that. Let's quit talking about how much we love him. We don't
love him like we ought to love him. But he sure loves us beyond
description. Love me like that, Lord. Just
love me like that. Just love me. Because I know
if you love me, and you bought me, then I'm yours, and I'm eternally
yours. all right mike lead us in a heal
me if you would please sir

Sovereign, Unchangeable Love

What does the Bible say about the love of God?

How do we know God's love is true?

Why is God's unchanging love important for Christians?

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Sovereign, Unchangeable Love

What does the Bible say about the love of God?

How do we know God's love is true?

Why is God's unchanging love important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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