There aren't many sermons preached
from the book of Hosea. And this is really surprising
because the word Hosea means deliverer. It means salvation. I'm not stretching
a point here, this is true. The word Hosea is much like the
word in the New Testament, Jesus. I shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Hosea is not
a savior from sin, but he's a type of the savior from sin. It's
practically the same word used in the Old Testament, Joshua,
Hosea, and it actually means deliverer. It actually means
salvation. God is my salvation. Now, Hosea
was given this name. The Lord didn't just give people
names to be naming them. This name was given to this man
because he is a type, a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. His
risings at times are difficult to understand. The secret things
belong to the Lord, the revealed things unto us and to our children.
But his writings are full of grace and love and truth. I do not believe there's a book
in all of God's Bible that is a more beautiful picture of redeeming
love and redeeming grace than the book of Hosea. I just sincerely
pray that I'll be able to even partially do it justice tonight.
But let's look at chapter 1, verse 2. Chapter 1, verse 2. 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, or
fornication. For the land hath committed great
whoredom departing from the Lord. Now this is a strange commandment.
Just for a moment, think about this command. Here's Hosea, a
prophet of God, a man of integrity, a man of honesty and truth, as
men go. He'd been called of God to be
a prophet, to be a representative of the Lord God. And the Lord
came to him one day and said to him, I want you to take a
wife. Well, you would think God would
say, Hosea, pick one of the young ladies of your people, of your
tribe, of your kindred, a woman of integrity and purity and honesty
and truth, a woman who believes what you believe, who loves what
you love. But that's not what God said.
And this commandment is so unusual and so strange. that many of
the most noted commentaries on Scripture, Jay, reject it. They're still men. Those fellows
that wrote those books are still men. And Mr. Gill, with whom I disagree very
infrequently, says that Hosea never married this harlot. John Calvin, with whom I disagree
quite frequently, but whom I respect and love, says it was only an
allegory, a vision, it never really happened. It did happen. It most certainly did happen.
Now what these men are doing, they're trying to protect the
ministry is what they're trying to do. They're trying to protect
their puritanical ways is what they're trying to protect. And
they make statements like this, God would never subject one of
his prophets to this type of trial. He subjected His Son to
the cross. Our Lord Jesus Christ did a whole
lot more than marry a harlot. He died for one. He identified
Himself. He became sin. Isn't that right? He didn't just marry us and take
us unto Himself in a covenant way and grace and relationship.
He became one of us. He who knew no sin was made sin. I don't find any difficulty here
at all. None whatsoever. And I tell you this, he commanded
Abraham to kill his son. He certainly did. Abraham took
a knife and would slay his son at the commandment of God. I know he didn't fulfill it,
but in his heart he did. He considered Isaac dead. He
was as good as dead. He was about to kill that lamb
because God told him to. God told him to. So let's just
read the Word like it is. God came to Hosea and he said,
go and marry a harlot, go and take unto you a wife from a tribe
of people, from a nation of people with whom fornication is a way
of life. It's just a way of life. There
were pagan nations, you could go down to the Yucatan and find
that That fornication and this type of thing was a way of life
with those Mayan Indians back when they were sacrificing the
girls in the cenotes and cutting folks' hearts out and feeding
them to cheetahs and buzzards and eagles. They were a bloody
people. They were a vile people. They
were an obscene people. You can see their carvings all
around their temples down there and see that they were very obscene
people. They worship the organs of people. They have them made in sculpture
and put all around these ruins. So this is not unusual with the
Gentile. It's a normal thing. Pagan, heathen,
Gentile. But God came to him and said,
go and marry a woman. Go and take unto you a wife of
the children of fornication. Now that's a strange command,
but my friends, our God is not a man, and he moves in mysterious
ways his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps on the
sea and he rides upon the storm. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Well, human nature wants to know
why. I know God has a purpose in all that he does. When he
came to this prophet and commanded him to go and take unto himself
a wife of whoredom from the children of fornication, God has a purpose. And we don't always understand
his purpose, why he does what he does, but he has a reason
for all that he does. Human nature wants to know why.
I want to know why. When I pick up this scripture
and I read where it says, the Lord came to Hosea and told him
to go take a wife of Whoredom, the first question that comes
to my mind is why? Why? What's going to be accomplished
by this? I know Moses. When he was sitting
out there on the backside of the desert, Moses was raised
in the riches and glamour and glory of Egypt. He was trained
and educated and schooled in the best schools of Egypt. He
was all set to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt when he
was 40 years of age. He told them, God sent me to
deliver you. And they rejected him. They said,
who made you a judge over us? And he left and went out there
and sat on the back side of the desert for forty years, tending
sheep. And I know as he sat there and
picked up rocks and threw them at scorpions or whatever he found
out there, you know, forty years. Forty years out there. This brilliant
genius. This man who knew somehow God
had his hand on him, but here he sat. on the rocks, in the
sand, watching a bunch of bleeding sheep for forty years. I know
he wondered why. He wouldn't be a man if he didn't
wonder why. And I know this, I know Joseph, who had the dreams,
you know, about being a leader of his nation, of his people,
to whom his brethren would bow. And God taught him these things,
and he was a little bit cocky about it, I think. He went out
and told his brothers about it. But I know when he was sitting
down in that jail in Egypt, falsely accused, he hadn't done what
they accused him of doing. And here he sat in a jail, and
his lying brothers, all of them, all ten of them, his lying brothers
were at home enjoying steak around their daddy's table. I know he
wondered, he had to as he sat there in that jail, a companion
of thieves and murderers, chained to a bed. And he knew that his
brothers were living on the fat of the land and it was their
fault he was there. Where is God's justice in all
this? I know he wondered why. And I
know Job, even the Lord himself said to Satan, have you considered
my servant Job? Not a man like him. Well, who
suffered the most? Job. Who paid the most? Job. Who was deprived of the most?
Job. Now, you've got to ask why. If
you've got any understanding at all of these things, you've
got to ask why. John Bunyan. There wasn't a more able writer,
able preacher, or able servant of God in his day than John Bunyan. He spent twelve years in prison
not preaching anywhere. Had a little blind girl. The
mother used to bring the little blind daughter to see her daddy
and she'd cry and beg him to come home. And all he had to
do to go home was quit preaching. All he had to do was tell those
people that he wouldn't preach anymore in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He wouldn't condemn purgatory.
He wouldn't condemn potpourri. He wouldn't condemn infant sprinkling. He wouldn't condemn these things.
He'd just silence himself and shut his mouth. And they said,
you can go home anytime you tell us that. He said, let me out
of here and I'll preach the truth. And he stayed there 12 years.
I know he wondered why Charles Spurgeon, perhaps England's greatest
preacher since the Middle Ages, was sick for about 20 years.
He suffered at times He had to leave the pulpit and leave his
church and remain in Mentone, France in the warm climate there
for months at a time. I know he wondered why. Well,
why did God tell this man to marry a prostitute? Well, look
at chapter 3, verse 1. We're not left to wonder. God
tells us. He's going to show us something.
I hear preachers often, I started to say it myself then, I think
we need to We study the way we say things. God wants to show
us something. God is showing something. God
is doing this. I don't think God wills to do
anything in which He's frustrated. He's showing it to somebody.
He will show it. And He is showing us in chapter
3, verse 1, Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet. Now some things
have happened I'm going to tell you about later. Go yet. Still. Still love a woman. Beloved of her friend, yet an
adulteress, according to the love of the Lord, poured the
children of Israel, who looked to other gods, and loved flagons
of wine. That's why God told Hosea to
marry this woman. What the Lord God is going to
show us is how much He loves us. That's what this is all about.
Why did Moses lift up the serpent in the wilderness? Even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. Why was the Passover blood put
on the door? Because that Passover blood represents
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which God sees and passes over
us. You go, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the
belly of the fish, so shall the Son of Man be three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth. And God is saying
to Hosea, I want you to go down and bring into the most intimate
union with yourself. I want you to form a contract,
a covenant, and become one flesh and marry a woman of prostitution
and from a people of that way of life because I'm going to
show you how much I love you. I'm going to show you how much
I love you. Now watch, this is the way it happened. There are
five points to this message. First of all, First of all, Hosea
went down into this land, wherever it was. I don't know where it
was, but it was among a Baal race, a fallen race, a sinful
tribe. And he took this woman to be
his bride. Now, this is what I believe.
And the picture is so perfect when you see it this way. He
went down and selected a girl, a young girl. probably thirteen
or fourteen. That was the age where they were
espoused to be married back then. Thirteen or fourteen years of
age. She was not in the business of prostitution. That was her
family's and her people, her neighbors. This was a way of
life among them. And this was the style of life,
and this was the way of life. But she had not entered into
that way of life, into that practice. She had not given herself to
it yet. But he selected this woman, 14,
13, 12, 13 or 14 years of age, and he entered into a covenant
with her. He made her his bride. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ, back
before the foundation of the world, chose us to be his people. He chose us and the scripture
says he entered into a covenant with us. Turn to Galatians chapter
1. Now I know what, and this woman's
name was Gomer. That was her name, Gomer. Now
turn to Galatians 1. We know what Gomer will be. We
know what Gomer's desires are and what her her passions are
and what her love is. We know what she's going to be.
Hosea knew what she was going to be. God knew what she was
going to be. She wasn't that in practice yet. She was that
in nature. She was that in the way she was,
in her behavior patterns. But these things had not yet
been lived out. Now watch this, Galatians 1.15.
Paul says in Galatians 1.15, when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. In other
words, when did God enter into a covenant relationship with
His people? Before they were born. Before they came forth
from their mother's womb. That's exactly right. That's
when He chose them. He said we were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. He said, I give thanks. Paul wrote in Thessalonians,
I give thanks to you, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Turn to Jeremiah,
the book of Jeremiah, chapter 1. Listen to this. God's talking
about his servant Jeremiah. Now, we know this. The apostle
Paul says that God chose me and separated me from my mother's
womb. But my dear friends, he didn't follow God from his mother's
womb. He might have belonged to God in a covenant relationship
from his mother's womb, he might have been chosen from his mother's
womb, but from the time he was born till God met him on the
road to Damascus, he was a rebel. He walked his way, he did his
thing, he thought his thoughts. And he had to be conquered. Now
look at Jeremiah 1 verse 5, verse 4, Then the word of the Lord
came to me, saying, Before I form thee in the belly, I knew thee
before thou camest out of the womb. I sanctified thee and ordained
thee a prophet unto the nations before he is ever born." Now,
here's what I'm saying. I'm saying this and I'm saying
it as loudly and plainly and clearly as I can say it. Everybody
who will enjoy the benefits and blessings of the kingdom of God
were chosen for that kingdom were ordained for that kingdom,
were elected by God Almighty's sovereign will before the world
ever began. God came down among a people
of depravity. We're Adam's race. Our sin is
not only fornication, it's pride. It's not only pride, it's hatred.
It's not only hatred, it's envy. It's not only envy, it's jealousy.
It's not only jealousy, it's malice. It's not only malice,
it's murder. It's not only murder, it's thievery. It's not only thievery, but it's
lying. It's not only lying, but it's
covetousness. It's not only covetousness, but the whole book, that's what
we break. The whole table of the law, idolatry. And our God chose us. He chose
us. He chose his people from among
the wicked. He chose his people from among
the rebellious. He chose his people from among
idolaters. God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ loved us and
gave himself for us. So here's the picture. Hosea,
the prophet of God, the chosen one of God, came down among a
people of the vilest of patterns, behavior patterns and principles
and ways. And he chose one to be his wife. He entered a covenant with her.
He made her his own and took her home with him. All right,
what's next? The second thing. In chapter two, verse five, now
she bore him some children. You'll find that in chapter one. She bore him several children.
There was one born, and then another one born, and then another
one that are listed. And then in chapter five, verse,
or chapter two, verse one, say ye unto your brethren, Amy, Ami, and to your sister
Ruhema, plead with your mother, plead, she's not my wife. What
he's saying here is he had her body, but not her heart. She
belonged to him on paper, but not in affections. She belonged to him. You see
what I'm saying? She belonged to him, and she belonged to him
in body, but not in affections and not in heart. Neither am
I her husband. Let her put away her whoredoms
out of her sight, her adulterous from between her breasts. Verse
five, for your mother hath played the harlot. She that has conceived
you hath done shamefully. She said, I'll go after my lovers
and give me bread and water and wool and flax, my oil and drink.
Well, then what do you say? I'm saying this, that Hosea went
down among this people of evil and corruption and chose a bribe. The principle and nature of her
people was in her. She had not gone this way openly. She had not lived this way openly,
but it was in here. It was taught her. It was impressed
upon her. This was the way she loved, the
way she wanted, though she had not given herself to it. And
though he entered into a covenant relationship with her and made
her his and took her home, and she belonged to him physically,
her mind and heart was out there where she was raised. And this
is what I'm saying. This happens so often. God has his, sets his love upon
a person. And that person is born of Adam's
race, Adam's people. And very early in life, we religionists
get a profession out of it. They join the church. They're
7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 years of age and 13, they join the church. You believe in Jesus? Yes, I
believe in Jesus. You like to go to heaven? Yes,
I'd like to go to heaven. Don't want to go to heaven. No, I don't
want to go to heaven. And you live a good life. It's pounded
into us. This sort of thing. Now you walk the straight and
narrow. You got your first paper route. You separate your ten
percent. You go to Sunday school, morning worship, BTU, and all
these things. And it's so that God has your
body. He has your body, but He doesn't have your affections
in your heart. And when you get up about, you wonder why these
young people get up about 18 and 19 and 20, they're gone. And yet when they were young,
they were right here when they were children. But the thing
we need to, and I know many of you think your daughters and
sons are just the finest folks in the world, but now let me
tell you something. There's Adam's sons and daughters. And there's
enough hell and rottenness in your little boy's heart to start
another hell or build another devil if God lets him go. It's
there. And your little daughter, I'm
telling you this, she's not, she's a daughter of Adam. She's
a fallen person. And that evil is there, and that
desire is there, and that want is there. And so often when they
get out from under our care, and get out from under our instruction,
and get out from under our whips, and when they become their own
person, you know where they go, don't you? That's right, just
like she did. Old Gormley went home with Hosea.
She was his embodied. She bore him some children. She
lived with him a while. She made out like a wife. She
played like, did you ever play like when you were a kid? Just
play like Plaque, we used to call it, short. Plaque, you're
this, and Plaque, I'm that. And that's what she was doing,
and that's what many are doing here, they're Plaque-ing their
Christians. Play like. They go through the motions,
and then, but that old evil is here. That old evil is here,
and you don't conquer anybody by getting them down the aisle.
They're conquered when God conquers their hearts. You don't bring
anybody to Christ by taking them into a pool of water. God's got
to take them into the grave and raise them. God's got to kill
them. You don't conquer anybody by
giving him a Philadelphia confession of faith and teaching him some
doctrines. Almighty God has to teach him
the love of Christ in his heart. And that's what happened. I'm
explaining to you what happened to many of you. Some of you young
ladies and men have come to me lately. You've hit 20 or 21 or
22 years of age. And you say, Preach, I made a
decision when I was eight or nine. And I thought I'd say,
I went to church and read my Bible and I did this and I did
that. You did that because your mom
and daddy did that. You probably voted Democrat because
your mom and daddy was a Democrat or Republican. If they'd have
been something else, you'd have been that too. They had your
body, but then you got up at a certain age, and that old root
of sin, that old nature of sin, that old selfish ego that had
been suppressed and lying dormant, it just blossomed and took over. And that's the way Hosea was.
Hosea left the house when she is she is old enough to go her
way she went her way And she went right back and did the same
things that her people did the same thing She was raised in
and born in and brought up in that's what she did And I'll
tell you something else about her look down here Chapter 2
verse 5 the last part of verse 5. She says my lovers My lovers
they give me my bread and water and wool and flax and oil and
drink Well, they weren't either giving her those things. Hosea
was bringing her those things. I believe what she did is got
her a room somewhere or an apartment to entertain her friends and
lovers and have her parties. And every morning, she'd get
up and outside the door, there'd be some corn and wine and flax
and wool, some gold and silver. And she said, well, my lovers
left me that, you know. Well, chapter 2, verse 8, Hosea
says he did it. Therefore, he says in verse,
here it is in verse, chapter two, verse eight. She did not
know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her
silver and gold, which they prepared for Beth. He was the one giving
her these things. He was the one supplying her
need. Now here's what I'm saying. Saul of Tarsus was one of God's
own. He said that God separated me
from my mother's womb. But all the time that he was
living in rebellion against Christ, in hatred of the gospel, in hatred
of Christ, he was putting men and women in prison who believed
the gospel. He despised the name of Christ. But all that time,
who was clothing him, and feeding him, and giving him breath to
breathe? You take a deep breath right
now. Isn't that great? God gave you that breath. You
might be the most hateful agnostic sitting here tonight. God still
gave you that breath. You lift your arm. Everybody
can't do that. Lift that, everybody can't do
that. I'll tell you who enabled you to do it, God Almighty. You
walk by His mercy, you breathe by His mercy, you sit down at
a table, and you may not give Him one word of thanks, but He
gave you every bite you take. Every bite. And that's what He's
saying here. Gomer's out yonder praising everybody
but Hosea. But he's taking care of her. He's taking care of her. Now
you got the picture? Here God entered a covenant with
us. Gomer didn't seek Hosea, he sought
her. She didn't go up to his land
and say, would you marry me? No sir, he came down and got
her. He instituted the contract, he instituted the marriage, he
initiated all of it. And God did the same thing with
us. And Hosea left her. He left her alone. He let her
go her way. And yet he provided for her and
took care of her and supplied her needs and still loved her.
She didn't love him, but he loved her. Can you apply that? We didn't
love Christ. Herein is love. Not that we love
God. He loved us. We love our God. We love our
way. We love our theology. We don't
love him and his word and his way. We go our own way, but he
meets our need he supplies our need Because we belong to him
We belong to him. All right. Look at the next thing
down here in chapter 2 verse 10 and 11 and now Will I discover
her lewdness in the sight of her lovers? None shall deliver
her out of my hand. I Will cause all her mirth to
cease. I her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and
all her solemn feasts. I'll destroy her vines and fig
trees." What's he saying here? God must bring the sinner down. Now here, here Gomer was living
a life of evil. And a life of evil like that
is depressing and destructive. There's no good can come out
of it. But she doesn't know that. She's blind. God's going to open
her eyes. You see, this mirth is a false
mirth. This joy is a false joy. The
scripture says there's pleasure in sin for a season, but only
for a season. This thing walking apart from
God can only bring you agony and heartache and sorrow and
death. It can only bring that. And the life that Homer is living
can only bring her despair, it can only bring her death, it
can only bring her destruction, but she doesn't know that. And before she'll ever love Hosea,
and before she'll ever return to him, before she'll ever be
contented and happy as a wife, she's got to be discontented,
unhappy with where she is. See what I'm saying? Before Dober,
now Hosea, if he'd have gone down there where she was and
ripped open the door and grabbed her by the arm and said, you're
going home with me and be my wife, he wouldn't have accomplished
one thing. She might have gone home, but
he'd have had to chain her to the table or to the chair or
something. That'd do no good, would it? So that's the way we
get converts. We go back and get them by the
arm and say, you're going to be a Christian. You're going
down to the front with me. I don't want to go. Well, you
just better go. You don't go, God'll send you
to hell. Well, I believe I'll go. You
know, I just never had it put that way to me before, you know.
He could have gone up there where Gomer was and put some shackles
on her and drug her to home, but that's not the way. He still
wouldn't have a wife. He still wouldn't have, he'd
still have the same mess he had, the body and not the heart. But
now, if she can become totally unhappy with the way she's living,
if she can become totally unhappy with what she's doing, if she
can become totally dissatisfied with her lovers, if she can become
totally dissatisfied, if she can be hurt and hurt deeply, just might be, she'd be satisfied
and happy with him. So that's what he's doing here.
I'll discover her lewdness. Take away her joy. Turn her joy
into mourning. Turn her happiness into sorrow. Turn her life into death. Turn
her sweetness into bitterness. Turn her honey into the most
bitter taste in the world. Just make her so unhappy she's
near suicide. And that's what happens. And
that's what Holy Spirit conviction is. I wish I could explain it
like I'd like to. God's people are winning in the
day of God's power. You see, God chose us and sent
his love upon us. And we walked our way because
that's the way we are inside. We might have made professions
and joined churches and tried to act religious and live a good
life and so forth, but we weren't happy. We wanted to be, so when
we reached age, we just moved out. But God never took his hand
off of us nor his eye off of us. And all the time we were
driving madly down life's highway, he put an angel on each fender.
An angel on each fender. And all the time we were walking
among devils with pistols and knives, he put a shield of grace
around us. He said, this is mine. I know
he don't look like one or act like one or talk like one, but
he's mine. She's mine. She's mine. But there has to something take
place. And here we find, we find Gomer
brought down. We find her, we find her Stripped
we found look down here at chapter 3 You see you can't taste of
grace till you're weary of sin you can't flee to Christ till
you're convinced of your guilt and So she wanted to go home,
but she belonged to her slave masters. I get a picture here
look at look at Chapter 3 God says alright Then said the Lord
to me verse 1 go yet. Love a woman and Beloved of a
friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward
the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love flagons
of wine. So I bought her. I B-O-U-G-H-T. He didn't bought her. He bought
her. I bought her. Bought his own
wife? Yes, sir. Paid for his own wife? Yes, sir. Paid 15 pieces of silver,
omer of barley, and a half omer of barley. Here's what happened. She couldn't go home with Hosea
if she wanted to because she belonged to a slave master. She
belonged to somebody else. And they owned her. And they
took her down when she was unhappy, so unhappy. She didn't want to
live this way anymore. Her mirth had turned to sorrow.
She was broken in health and broken in heart and broken in
mind and emotions. So they took her down and put
her up on a slave block and stripped her clothes from her and stood
her up there before the gaze of the multitude and put her
up for sale. And God came to Hosea and said,
Gomer's down there being sold. You still love her? I do. You
still want her? I do. Well, now you'll have to
buy her. It'll cost you. And not only
will it cost you the payment, but it'll cost you the shame
of being identified with her and buying her. Can't you imagine
his shame? Here she stands up there in front
of all those people. I bet there's a crowd there.
And here comes Hosea. People nudge one another. That's
her husband. And he comes walking up right into the crowd, you
know, shame, humiliation. And it says in the scripture,
our Lord bore the humiliation and shame of the cross, despising
the shame. He was nailed to a cross under
the gaze of that multitude, stripped and humiliated. They slapped
his face, spat upon him, identified with us. And Hosea walked into
that crowd and they said, she's forsaken. And the bidding began. Somebody said, 10 pieces of silver. He said, 11. And a man standing by him says,
you're going to buy her? After the way she's treated you,
after the way she's lived, after the way she's embarrassed you
and humiliated you and your family, and you still? Yeah, he says,
I love her. That's amazing grace, how sweet the sound. that saved
a wretch like me. Amazing love. You sadists don't
believe anybody can love like that. God did. Christ did. Hosea Gomer didn't do any more
against her husband than we've done against God. Hosea Gomer
didn't walk any more path of evil than you and I have walked
against God, our husband, our Lord, our God, our master. And
yet here he stands. We were owned by the law, we
were owned by justice, and he had to buy us. He had to buy
us with his own blood and his own tears and his own sweat.
And he had to buy us, he had to walk the path of shame and
the path to the cross. Amid the jeers and mocking. He walked around that cross and
mocked him and laughed at him. I thought you was the son of
God. You called on Elijah. Let's see if he'll answer you.
You called on God. Let's see if he'll have you now.
You saved others. Save yourself. Come down from
the cross. And there he hung. There he hung. And he heard every word of it.
He heard the jeers and laughter of the devils and demons in hell.
He heard the jeers and the laughter of the crowd around the cross,
and he turned his eyes to heaven, and there was no word. My God! Why hast thou forsaken me? And old Hosea stood in that crowd
alone, surrounded by a bunch of mocking, laughing. He did
twelve, and everybody laughed. Twelve pieces of silver for that? The man's crazy. Well, love's
a little crazy anyhow, isn't it? God loved us. Thirteen, somebody said, just
to beat him down. Fourteen, fifteen, he said, well,
you can have her. She's not worth one, let alone
fifteen. She's not worth one drop of your
sweat, Lord, let alone a whole bucket of your blood. But that's
what he paid. So he says, look at verse two,
I bought her. I bought her. I bought her. In verse three, and I said to
her, so she came down, she says, and I'll tell you, that was some
meeting. When she looked into the face
of him who had loved her through all of this, and had finally
bought her, and I know When he put his arm around her, she put
her arms around him. And he said, you, verse 3, shall
abide for me many days, many, many days. And you shall not
play the harlot. You shall not be for another
man. So will I also be for thee. And as I see it in this scripture,
he took her home. He took her home. And she spent
the rest of her days happy. so in love with the man that
loved herself, that loved herself. And I'll tell you this, what
can cause a sinner to love Christ? I think this, to be, I think
there's several things. Number one is to be exposed to
his love for us, to realize the depth of it and the height of
it and the length of it and the breadth of it. But the only way we're going
to realize how much he loved us and what he did to redeem
us and how much he paid to ransom us and what he went through to
save us is for us to be brought down by the Holy Spirit and get
a good look at our hearts and get a good look at our lewdness
and for God to turn our mirth to sorrow and our happiness to
despair. Holy Spirit conviction. I know
there are degrees of Holy Spirit conviction. I know everybody
is not convicted in the same way, in the same light, to the
same extent, to the same degree. But I'm sure of this, everybody
whom God saves experiences some kind of Holy Spirit conviction.
God's got to bring us down. And I'm not saying that a person
can't be saved when they're 9, 10, 11, or 12 years old, but
I just wonder I wonder how much at that tender age we know of
the depths of sin. I wonder, I don't know. It may
be, but I wonder just how much we know of the justice of God
in condemning us because of our sins. But now you know, this
crowd to whom I'm preaching tonight, you know something of it. And
when God brings it home to you and makes you realize who you
are and what you are by nature, and the extent of guilt and shame
and evil and iniquity and rebellion, you just, it becomes so distasteful. It becomes so distasteful. And
you say, Lord, if you will, make me whole. If you will, take me
in. If you will, receive me back.
And I believe I can love you. I believe I can find delight
in your presence." Now, when Hosea went down and
got her and brought her to his house, he brought a rebel home,
Jack. Outside, pretty good, but inside,
but when God smote her, I bet he didn't take a rebel home from
that slave block. He didn't take a rebel home from
that place. He took a bought bond slave then. He took somebody
home that was glad to be there. He took somebody home that wouldn't
be nowhere else. He took somebody home that loved
the ground he walked on. Just a difference. He's finding
out who she is and what she is and the results of what she is.
And I just imagine that anybody that tried to take her away from
Hosea didn't only hear from him, they heard from her. I just imagine
that she's glad to be there. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for
giving to me thy great salvation, so rich and so free.