I want you to open your Bibles
to the book of Hosea. Hosea, I'm going to read Hosea
chapter 3, verses 1 through 3. I want you to be, you who are
interested in the gospel, I want you to be much in prayer
that I might be enabled of the Holy Spirit to preach tonight. Preaching is not easy. It is
getting more difficult all the time. Every day it gets just
a little bit more difficult. Not because we don't have a message. We have a message. The well never
runs dry. But because we don't have an
ear to which to deliver it, that's the problem. It's not that we
don't have some good news to tell, or we don't have anybody
that's interested in hearing it, that's the problem. It's
not that we don't have a great God to worship, but we don't
have anybody who needs God today. And it's getting difficult and
more difficult all the time to preach to careless, indifferent,
unconcerned, world-loving, pleasure-loving, vanity-loving people. And I need
your prayers tonight. And it's true not only of the
world, it's true of this congregation and every congregation. There is an inner circle And
then there is the partially concerned, and then there's the vast outer
circle of unconcern in things of God. And if we can get a dozen
ears to hear the gospel who are interested in hearing it, and
a dozen hearts that are concerned enough for the glory of Christ
to wait on the Lord, preaching will become a little more easier. in the book of Hosea, chapter
3, verse 1. Then said the Lord unto me, Go
yet love a woman, beloved of her 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. I bought her
to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an omer of barley, and
a half omer of barley, and I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for
me many days, thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt
not be for another man, so will I also be for thee." Now if you
stand back And look at the book of Hosea. The name Hosea is the
same name with Joshua and with Jesus. It's the same name. The word Hosea means in the Hebrew,
deliverer. And when the word Hosea, the
name Hosea is mentioned in the Hebrew concordance and lexicon,
it means Jehovah will save. And you'll find this name, Hosea,
the name Joshua, and the name Jesus, all meaning the same thing. Redeemer, Deliverer, Savior,
God will save. Hosea is a type of Christ, a
beautiful type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this being true,
it's surprising that we don't hear more messages preached on
Hosea. We hear a great number of messages
on Joseph and Jacob and Abraham and Isaac, and we should. But the very fact that this man's
name is the same as Joshua, which is the Old Testament name for
Jesus, the very fact that this man's name in the Hebrew is the
same as Jesus, that is deliverer Jehovah will save. Then we need
to hear from him. Now his writings are not easy
to interpret. They're difficult to interpret.
But this book is literally drenched. It is literally drenched with
grace. It is literally drenched with
the gospel. It's there. And it's one of the
most beautiful pictures of Christ's work to be found anywhere in
the Word of God. And the key verse is verse one
of chapter three that I've just read here. Then said the Lord
unto me, that is to Hosea, to the deliverer. He said, go yet,
continue. You already love this woman.
Keep on loving her. Go love a woman. She's beloved
of her friend. That is, she's got lots of friends.
And she is a whore. She's a prostitute. She is an
adulteress. She's a woman who sells her body. But all of this is to be done
to picture, to typify, to show forth the love of the Lord. That's why I want you to do this,
God said to Hosea. I want you to do this to show
something, to show the love of the Lord toward the children
of Israel who look to other gods, who are spiritual adulterers
and who love flagons of wine. We go back to chapter one, and
let me give you just a summary of this book. God came to the
prophet Hosea and said to him, I want you to take a wife from
among a people of whoredom. That was their way of life. That was their habit of life.
That was their, uh, the way they did things. They were, they were
heathen. They were barbarians. That's
the way they lived. And God said for this man to
go down, Hosea, and among the people of Hordom, to take a wife
unto himself, which he did. He married a woman. Her name
was Gomer. And after he married her, she
bore him three children. And then during that time and
after that time, she began practicing her way of life. She began practicing
prostitution. She began selling her body. She
went back to the ways, she never left them, for a while she was
married to Hosea, but she went back to the ways of her people.
And she left Hosea for her paying lovers. And then how much time
passed I do not know, but God brought her down. He brought
her down to poverty. He brought her down to unhappiness. He brought her down to lewdness. He brought her down to to depression,
and evidently she became, having been used as she was, she became
an unlovely person. She lost her beauty. And she
was auctioned off on a block. She was auctioned off as a common
slave, not as a beautiful woman. She was auctioned off not as
a youthful woman anymore, She was auctioned off as a common
slave. We find that out from the fact
that Hosea only paid 15 pieces of silver for her, and that was
the price of a common slave. Not a beautiful slave, not a
useful person, not one who someone would want, but she was auctioned
off as a common slave. And Hosea still loved her. He
endured the humiliation, he endured the embarrassment, He endured
the shame of going down to that auction block and publicly purchasing
back his wife. He bought her back. He paid the
price and he bought her back, even as Christ our Lord made
himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a servant,
was made in the likeness of sinful men, and came down to this earth
and purchased us of the slave block of sin. And then Hosea
took her home with him, it says in verse 3 of chapter 3, and
told her that you'll be mine now, you'll abide with me forever,
you'll not play the harlot, you shall not be for another man,
and I shall be for you. Now this beautiful story, this
experience Hosea actually went through this experience. This
is not a parable. This is something that actually
happened. God put His prophet in this particular
situation. He named him the name that He
gave him, Deliverer, Redeemer, Savior. He sent him through this
experience. Hosea lived it. He experienced
it. He actually loved this woman.
in order that he might show us how Christ loved us and how he
gave himself for us. That's what he says here in chapter
3, verse 1. You go yet love a woman. Don't
profess to love her. Don't pretend to love her. Don't
try to show you love her. He says you go love her. And
you buy her back. And all of this is to show the
love of the Lord toward the children of Israel who look to other gods. Now let's go back, let me give
you six points, just briefly, and show you this beautiful type
of our Master. Now go back to chapter one, verse
two. The beginning of the word of
the Lord by Hosea. The Lord said to Hosea, Go take
unto thee a wife of whoredoms, and the children of whoredoms,
for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the
Lord. Hosea went among a people who
were a vile people. Now, I don't know that this woman,
Gomer, whom he married, was already a prostitute. Possibility she
was a very young woman. Possibility they married then
quite young, 14, 15, 16, 17, and it's a good possibility she
was not at that time a prostitute. But she was among a people a
sinful tribe. She was among a fallen people,
and Hosea went down among this fallen people and chose this
woman to be his bride. Now then, you say, how does that
relate to Christ? It relates to Christ in this
way, that our Lord, way back yonder in eternity, before man
was created, our Lord chose a bride. he chose a people. And he chose
that bride and he chose those people from among a fallen people. Just as Gomer, Hosea's wife to
be, had not yet begun her profession, she will begin it. He chose her
from among a fallen people, a fallen tribe, a fallen race. He chose
her from among people who practiced this thing as a way of life.
This was their way of life. And God said, You go down among
them. You go down among all of this this sewer atmosphere, this
cesspool of iniquity, this tribe of corruption, and you pick you
out a wife and you go love that woman. And Christ came and picked
him out a bride from among a fallen, corrupt race. Now turn to Ephesians
chapter 1. Let me show you that. Ephesians,
the first chapter, beginning with verse 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He hath blessed
us, having chosen us, look at it, according as he hath chosen
us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should
be his bride, that we should be holy, that we should be without
blame. that we should partake with him
in his glory, that we should be one with him. He came down
here and chose us. Now look at chapter two, verse
one. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sin, wherein in times past you walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in
the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us, we didn't deserve
His love, even as Gomer did not deserve the love of Hosea. We
didn't deserve Christ's love. She didn't deserve His love,
and we didn't deserve Christ's love. And we didn't love Him. Gomer didn't love Hosea. Gomer
didn't begin to love Hosea until over here in chapter 3, when
he bought her. She didn't really begin to love
Him until he bought her. He loved her first. And herein
is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us. and gave
himself for us. We didn't love him, he first
loved us. We love him because he loves
us. We've got to be brought to see his love. We've got to be
brought down to where this woman was brought before we'll actually
love Christ. Christ said to Simon the Pharisee,
he said to whom much is forgiven, they'll love much. Why don't
people love Christ today? They don't know Christ. That's
why they don't love Him. They've never been brought to
the place of Gomer. They've never been brought to
the place of the fallen woman. They've never been brought to
the place of Mary who bathed His feet. They don't love Him. And this choice which Hosea made,
this choice, when he went down there among these people and
picked out Gomer, This choice was based solely on His mercy,
not from any good that He saw in her, or not that any good
He foresaw in her. God had already told Hosea what
she's going to be like. He said in chapter 1, verse 2,
He said, You go take you a wife of Horeb, and children. You're going to have children
in your household that are produced from her love affairs all over
the countryside. You're going to have children
of Horeb. I'm telling you, God said, what your bride's going
to be like. But you're going to love a woman,
and the choice is going to be based solely not on what she
is, not from where she came, not from what she'll do, not
what you foresee in her. You're going to love a woman
who doesn't love you, and you're going to love a woman who can
produce absolutely nothing. He didn't go down to this land
of whoredom, down to this terrible place, these fallen people, and
look around saying, I believe this young lady is going to turn
out good. I believe this young lady is
going to be different from her father and mother, and different
from her aunts and uncles, and different from her cousin, so
I'll choose her. She's just like them. And she's
going to walk the same path they walked, God said. She's going
to do the same thing they do. She's going to be just like them.
And even so, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7. Now here's what I'm
saying. When God chose you, if He did,
when God chose you, He didn't choose you because you were any
different from anybody else. You were part of a fallen race. When God chose you, it was not
because He saw you were going to be different or do anything
different from what your fathers did. Look at Deuteronomy chapter
7 verse 6, speaking to Israel, the Lord said, Thou art a holy
people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all the people
that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his
love upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number
than any people. You were the fewest of all. But
here's the reason. He loved you. He loved you. He loved you. Christ said, I
thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father, it seemed good in thy sight. God said, Jeremiah,
I have separated you from your mother's womb. I have ordained
you before you were born. I have set my affections upon
you. Paul said in Galatians 1 15,
God, who was pleased to separate me from my mother's womb, revealed
his Son to me. Hosea went down into this land
of evil and picked out a bride based on his mercy and based
on his love. not on her return, and not on
her response, and not on her righteousness, but solely on
His grace. And that's the way the Lord chose
His people. He chose them out of a sinful
people. He chose them out of a fallen
people. He chose them out of a corrupt
race, and He did it because He would. He did it because He loved
them, not because they loved Him. That's the first picture. Let's see the second picture
now. So he chose her, and he said, she's mine. She's mine. And God chose us back yonder
before the world began. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. I don't know who they are. God
knows who they are. But he chose them. He said, they're
mine. They're my bride. He chose his wife. Now then,
so Hosea chose her, and what she do? She did exactly what
God said she'd do. She followed the pattern of her
people. In chapter 2, verse 5, Hosea said to his children, Your
mother hath played the harlot. She that conceived them hath
done shamefully. Your mother hath said, I'll go
after my lovers. They give me my bread, they give
me my water, they give me my wool, they give me my flax, my
oil, and my drink. I'll go after my lover." She
was from a people of corruption, and when she came of age, she
began to walk that path. Now my friends, though God loved
His church, and though God loved His bride, And though God loved
his elect, and though God chose them, and though God made them
his own, just like Gomer, we were born with the seed of sin
and rebellion implanted, embedded, buried within our hearts. Turn
to Psalms chapter 51. There's just one direction that
a natural man will go from the cradle, and that's down. There's
just one path that an evil son of Adam is going to walk, and
that's the path of rebellion. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? No, sir. Can the leper change
his spot? No, sir. Can you do good that
accustomed or born to do evil? No, sir. No way. No way. In Psalms 51, verse 5, David
said, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, In sin did my mother
conceive me. You hold in your arms a newborn
baby. That newborn baby can't talk,
can't walk, can't feed himself. That newborn baby has in his
heart a seed of sin and rebellion and evil against a holy God. And you give that baby time.
I don't care where you raise him, under what circumstance
you raise him, I don't care who raises him, I don't care what
you teach him, that baby's gonna grow up when he comes of age,
and when that age is, I don't know, but when he comes to an
age when he has to make a choice between the will of God and his
own will, he'll choose his will. When he has to make a choice
between Barabbas and Christ, he'll choose Barabbas. When he
has to make a choice between doing for others and doing for
himself, he'll do for himself. When he has to make a choice
between good and evil, he'll choose evil. He'll walk the path
of carnality, the path of evil, the path of rebellion, because
that is his natural life. And he's born without a knowledge
of God. Turn to Psalms 58. Let me show
you this, verse 3. are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
are born. Speaking lies. Now that's because
of the original sin. That's because of the fall of
Adam. You cannot get good fruit from an evil tree. You cannot
get clean water from a polluted fountain. You cannot get a righteous
person from a fallen father. And when God Almighty chose us,
He chose us knowing what we were, where we're from, and where we'd
go. And when Hosea, deliverer, type
of Christ, went down into the land of Hortums and picked him
a wife, he knew what she was, he knew where she's from, and
he knew where she'd go. But he loved her. He loved her. And even so, God Almighty, knowing
what we are, and where we're from, and where we'll go, and
what we're made of, and the very fact from the sole of our feet
to the top of our heads, whether we're infant of one day or an
old, wrinkled, swivel sinner of a hundred years, there is
no goodness in us. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. We walk the path of evil because
we're evil. We walk the path of rebellion
because we're rebels. We walk the path of sin because
we're born sinners. And Gomer just went the way of
her race. She went the way of her people.
She went the way of her tribe. She's not to be pitied, she's
to be blamed. But nevertheless, that's the
direction she walked. Now watch this. Turn back to
Hosea, chapter 2. But watch this now, Hosea loved
this woman. He went down and chose her. He
chose this woman and he loved her. And that love never, never
failed under any circumstances. That love never changed. Now
God looked down in his wisdom and in his sovereign providence
and he chose a bride. He chose a people and he loved
them. with an everlasting love. He said, I've drawn you with
an everlasting love, with an unchanging love, with an unlimited
love, with an infinite love. He loved us. And when we came
into this world and were born of our parents, we didn't, our
first words weren't God. Our first words weren't we love
our Redeemer. Our first words and all the rest
of our words were blasphemy. That's the path we walked. Just
like Goma. She didn't love Hosea. She loved
herself and she wanted to walk her way. But he still loved her.
She was his. And he provided for her. He gave
her. Look at verse 8 of chapter 2. She didn't know. She didn't know. It didn't dawn on her. I gave
her the corn and the wine. I gave her the oil and multiplied
her silver and gold. I gave it to her. She didn't
know that, wouldn't admit it, but I gave it to her. I don't
know how he did this, but somebody said in a sermon one time that
at night or early in the morning, Hosea would find out where she
was. And he'd go, and outside her
door he'd leave oil and wine and some money and all these
other things, and she'd find it the next morning, and she'd
say, I'll still go after my lovers. They give me bread and water
and wool and flax and oil and drink. Look what they've left
me secretly. Oh no, Hosea said, I left And
even so, how good our God is to us. He cares for us all our
lives, even when our steps were walking in paths of unbelief.
He provided, He protected, and He led us in those steps. Even
as we walk contrary to Him, even in our years of rebellion, even
when Saul of Tarsus, who was a... He said, God separated me
from my mother's womb, but it wasn't until he was over 40 years
old that God saved him. He was a religious rebel. Even
when Saul of Tarsus was walking and staining the ground with
the footprints of blood and rebellion and killing Christians and cursing
Christ, God gave him air to breathe, food to eat, clothes to wear,
and a place to sleep. God ought to cut him off, but
he didn't because he loved him. You say, Hosea shouldn't have
taken this woman, this stuff. He loved her. Sure he should
have done it. She was his. She belonged to
him. He loved her. Love needs no explanation. He loved this woman. He couldn't
help but love her. And he'd always love her. And
wherever she was and whatever she did, he loved her. And he
knew she was his forever. And even so, the Lord Jesus Christ,
even though we give the praise to ourselves and to the world,
Hosea supplied her need and God met your need. And all the time
you were walking your paths of rebellion, you were talking about
how you studied hard and worked hard and slaved and earned your
way, God gave it to you. God gave it to you. And you grab
the hand of the people of this world and thank them for promoting
you and thank them for helping you and thanking them for caring
for you and thanking them for doing it. God's the one that
did it. Not your worldly lovers. God did it. And you don't ever
thank Him. You don't ever thank Him. But
that's the way it is. That's human nature. That's this world. That's the way people
are. Just like Gomer here. I'm going
after my lovers. After all, they give me these.
They're the ones that are important in my life. I'm going after them. I've got to keep them happy because
they're giving me these things. They're making it possible for
me to have fun." And she never knew that they
weren't doing anything but dragging her down to hell. That's all
they were doing. That's all. Hosea was the one
helping her. Well, turn to chapter 2, verse
9. Now then, God brought this woman
down, brought her low. Therefore, verse 9 of chapter
2, will I return and take away the corn, and take away the wine,
take away the wool, take away the flax, It's given to cover
her nakedness. I'm going to let her get cold
and hungry. I'm going to let her get weary
and tired. I'm going to let her see just
what she is. That's what God said. Now I'm
going to discover her lewdness. I'm going to let her see what
she is. And nobody can deliver out of my hand. Her life became
a burden. A burden. The sweetness became
bitter. The joy turned to mourning. The
things that she loved she began to hate. She was under conviction. God always, before God saves
a sinner, He brings that sinner to the end of himself. God is
not going to reveal Christ to you as long as you are a self-righteous,
holier-than-thou individual. He's not going to do it. God's
going to have to make you hungry for righteousness. God's going
to have to make you cold and weary with your sin. God's going
to have to strip you naked and stand you before the searchlight
of His law and make you feel the guilt and the fear and the
burden and the hate fullness of your rebellion. You can't taste of grace until
you're hungry for it. If an individual misses this
experience right here, they'll miss Christ. And that's the reason
I believe most religious people have missed Christ. They've missed
Holy Spirit conviction. They don't like to think about
their sins. They don't like to confess their
sins. They don't like to admit their
sins. They don't like to own their sins. They like to think
that they're different, that they're a little better, that
they're just a little higher, that they're just a little holier.
They cannot say with Saul of Tarsus, I'm the chief of sinners. They can't say with the apostle
Peter, Lord, depart from me, I'm a sinful man. They can't
say, with Job, I hate myself. They can't say, with Isaiah,
I'm a man of unclean lips. They just can't do it. But God,
this woman came down, and that's the experience. God chose us.
He chose us from among a fallen people, a rotten people. He chose us from among the most
corrupt of all, and He said, that's mine. And He loved us. made a marriage agreement, a
covenant with us, who became His. But we followed our path. We went our way. We did like
our daddies before us and our daddies before them, and we walked
the path of sin. We thought we was having a good
time. We hated God and loved ourselves and hated righteousness
and loved evil, and He let us go. And then we came to the end
of the road. hungry and thirsty, our souls
weary and fainting within us, and then we cried to the Lord.
We found no city in which to dwell. We saw this is not the
way, like the particle sun. We were broke, and we were hungry,
and we were weary, and we said, back home in our Father's house,
even the servants have better than we have. Even the servants
have better than we have. And verse 7, look at this. And she'll follow after her lovers,
but she'll not overtake them. Verse 7, chapter 2. Chapter 2. She shall seek them, she shall
not find them. Then shall she say, I'm going
to go back to my husband, for then was it better with me than
now. I'm going back. But, here's a
problem. She couldn't go back because
she belonged to somebody else. She couldn't go back because
she was a captive. She was in the clutches and possession
of her masters. She didn't own herself. They
owned her. She belonged to a fallen system. She didn't belong to herself.
She didn't have a free will. You just can't decide, I'm going
back to Jesus. Are you now? What are you going
to do about the law that's got you in jail? What are you going
to do about the justice of God that demands your punishment?
What are you going to do about that? That's like, they said
King Charles was in prison, way down in one of these great big
castles, way down there in the bottom, in the bottom dungeon.
They had him locked up, had him chained to a wall. A lot of steps
leading up, and when you got outside, there was a great big
fence, and when you got outside, there was a great big moat, a
huge moat, a water moat around it. And then beyond that, the
woods, and some of his comrades sent him a note and said to him,
said, King Charles, says, we got some horses over here in
the woods, and we got a boat down here by the bank. We'll
be glad to take you back home if you can get out of the dungeon.
Well, now that's the problem. How are you going to get out
of the dungeon? And here was a woman. She said, things are
bad. I don't like it here. I'm sick
of it. I'm weary of it. I'm tired of
it. I'm weary of the road and tired
of the path and I'm burdened and heavy laden. I'm going home. But she's got to be redeemed.
She's got to be bought. Now who in the world is going
to buy this mass of putrid, used, broken down, ugly, useless flesh,
huh? Who's going to buy this? Who
wants it? Now let's find out. Go to chapter 3. You get down
there in town, and they used to have these slave auctions. And they bring this woman up,
Gomer. She used to be beautiful, but
she's not anymore. She used to, her lovers have
deserted her, they've thrown her on the scrap heap. And here
she comes, she's half her clothes are stripped off, she's dirty
and her hair's stringy and matty and she's barefooted and she
walks up the steps up here on the auction block and she's old
now and ugly and of no use and there she is. And the man with
the gavel hits it. He says, we've got a woman here.
Who wants her? All she's worth is fifteen pieces
of silver and a little bit of barley. Anybody want to buy her? And she's standing there. She's
a slave. She sold herself to this system. She's enslaved and in bondage
to these corrupt masters. And she can't get free. She can't
walk off. They've got to be paid. And somebody
out there says, I'll take her. I'll pay it. And I know the auctioneer
must have looked up in total surprise. And all the people
turned around and there stood Hosea, her husband. And he said,
I'll take her. I'll take her. I'll pay the full
price, the price of a slave. And I'll buy her back. Our Lord
Jesus Christ's bride, which he chose from eternity, and in an
everlasting covenant, entered into a relationship with them.
And we went down to the cesspools of evil. We hated him in our
hearts. We loved the world. We loved
the flesh. We loved the devil. We walked
according to these things that the prince of the fire there
leads us into, and finally we came to the end of ourselves,
and we're bound by the law, and enslaved by the law, and prisoners
of God's justice, and we're on the auction block of sin. We're
of no use to anything and anybody. And Christ Jesus the Lord, whom
we have humiliated, and whom we have embarrassed, and whose
blood we walked under our feet, and whose love we have despised,
and whose home we have departed from, and who fed us while we
praised other gods." He stood out there and again, he said,
I'll take him, I'll take him. All right, she came down from
that auction block and He took his robe off his back and he
put it around her and covered her nakedness. And he planted
a sweet, adorable kiss on her cheek. And he said to her, verse
3, You're mine. I chose you. I married you. And I redeemed you. You're mine. I'm going to take you home with
me. You're not going to play the harlot. You're not going
to worship other gods. You're going to be from me. You
don't belong to other gods. You belong to me, and I belong
to you. I'm your god, and you're my people. Oh, I tell you, he
will keep me till the river rolls its waters at my feet, and then
he'll bear me safely over where my Savior I shall meet. Have
anybody ever seen this? I don't know whether anybody
ever will or not, but if anybody ever sees this, I'm telling you
that woman, when she came down from that auction, she looked
into the face of this one, this infinite love, this undying love,
this compassionate love, this love that'll take on a world,
this love that's willing to go through the pit of humiliation,
through the awful bogs of embarrassment, This love had stayed with her
through all of her rebellion, and he kissed her on the cheeks
and said, You're mine, my soul! Don't you know he wouldn't have
had any trouble getting her to get him a cup of coffee the next
morning? Don't you know he wouldn't have any trouble at all getting
that dear woman to sit at his feet and love him for the rest
of her life. That's what Christ said. To whom
much is forgiven, they'll love much. But if you ain't never
been there, you don't love him. You can't love him. You can't
understand it. If you never have been there,
if you never have walked that route and swam that sea, if you
never have sat in that dungeon, if you never have thrown up your
hands and given up, if you never have gotten weary and tired of
it all, if you never have seen Christ as your purchaser, as
your redeemer, who didn't have to do it, there ain't no way you can love
Him. I don't expect you to. But I'm hoping God will, like
He did to Gomer there, I hope God will show somebody what Christ
has done for His own. And when He does, I'm going to
find somebody and say, Preacher, boy, I've been there and I know
what you're talking about. I know what you're talking about.
Christ is my life and my love and my hope. Our Father, we thank Thee for
Thy love, indescribable, unspeakable love. We thank Thee for Thy grace
in Christ the Lord, Thy long-suffering to us, not willing that any of
us should perish. but that all should come to life,
not willing that any gomer, not one of them, should depart from
thy foe, loving us with an unspeakable, everlasting, infinite love. Lord, show us more every day
our corruption. Don't ever, ever let us forget
what we are. what we are by nature, what we
are by choice, what we are by practice. Don't let us forget
it. Don't let us lose sight of the auction block of sin, of
the chains of the law, of the demands of thy holy justice.
Don't let us lose sight of where we were when you chose us, and
where we were when you found us, and where we were when you
bought us. And we'll praise you forever
and ever and ever. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.