Redemption is explored through Old Testament types and New Testament doctrine, emphasizing that Christ's sacrifice paid the price for our sins and secured our freedom. The sermon begins by establishing the authority of God's Word, then uses the creation of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 to illustrate the institution of marriage and the origin of humanity. The narrative shifts to Noah and the dove in Genesis 8, symbolizing the Holy Spirit returning with a message of hope after judgment. The core of the message focuses on 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 and Galatians 3:13, explaining redemption as a purchase made with Christ's blood, a power that frees us from the curse of the law, and a perfection that loosens the cords of sin. The paradox of being redeemed yet lost if one rejects Christ is highlighted, urging a commitment to Him as Lord and Savior.
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I suppose that I was a little more amused and amazed at the statement, is not so bad as it was last year. There's two or three ways you can take that. That's a little ambiguous. I'd like to say something about marriage. I don't know that I've met the couple. If I've met the couple, I didn't realize, I suppose, that they're getting joined together this coming Saturday. But one little word about marriage from my point of view. The way that I would change my marriage if I had the key that would unlock the door to change would be that I would start it sooner.
I'm a firm advocate of marriage. It is the great God and our Savior that instituted it. There are some wonderful pictures in the Old Testament about marriage, and I'd like to share just a couple of those, if I may, this morning. in connection with the message. I was listening to the hymns that were being sung as we worship together. I was listening to the words that were being spoken by two or three. And I found that the word redeemed came out several times this morning, so I purpose to take up the subject of redemption with you, and more of a teaching way than a gospel preaching way, though I do want to stress the gospel. If you'll turn in your Bibles to the Book of Genesis, I'd like for us to note something there that I think is excellent.
The second chapter, when we come to the Bible, let me say that we come to the very authority of God on earth. Someone say, I believe it's in the Lord Jesus. I believe it's in the Holy Spirit. I believe it's in the church. There's all kinds of answers. But may I say to you that the authority of God on earth is his word. And you'll find the Holy Spirit to be in complete agreement with that, and he takes the word and ministers that to us. Whether we are saints or lost sinners, either way you want to look at it. It is the word of God that the Spirit of God takes and brings both to the one who is not the child of God and the child of God.
The word of God is his authority. He's magnified his word above all his name. Now, I do not like to hear anyone put down the Word of God. I've heard people scorn people for loving their Bible. They say, well, those people just love the Bible. Well, you know, can you think of anything better? Huh? You said, well, it's the Lord Jesus. Just a moment. Do you ever notice in Hebrews chapter four, verses twelve and thirteen that you cannot separate the written word from the Word incarnate, the living Word Himself? For the Word of God is alive and powerful. and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even, to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intent of the heart, neither is there anything that is not naked before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Him. See the point? You'll get it. When you read those two verses together, you see the beautiful divine transition of going from what we take to be the written word and obviously the word incarnate. And they blend most beautifully in a divine way together. So what I'm trying to say is this. Don't try to put down one and exalted another. God has exalted his Son, given him a name which is above every name. Highly exalted him. God has exalted his word above all his name. So let us remember that that which is so tangible on earth that we can touch and see and be affected by is the good word of God. Tell you what the Bible, whatever you do, you stay with the book.
Don't let anybody lure you off into anything else that's not the word of God or in keeping with the word of God. Now, reading from Genesis chapter two, and that's the easy chapter to find, As a matter of fact, the second one in the Bible, we'll notice these words in verse seven. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. That's very humbling, isn't it? Right out of the dust we came. Someone had said scientifically that every ounce of man chemically is found out there in the dirt. Isn't that so true? I'm sure of it. Because God said he formed us of the dust of the ground. Why should it be no different? No profound discovery.
God said it hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Now, and he says he breathed into his nostrils, or many breathing places, the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Then it says in verse eighteen, the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help, comma, meet for him. or as before him, or commensurate to him, or fitting him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them, and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam it was not found in hell, meat for him. This was a sad experience. Everything had its counterpart, but Adam. The Lord God caused her deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh and said thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She should be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.
Before Adam ever had his bride, he had to go into a deep sleep, and he slept. It was not a sleep. The Bible calls it a deep sleep. And the Lord Jesus, for forever he could have a bride, went into the deep sleep of his cross experience. And you remember that the guard, the Roman soldier who came to break the legs of those who had been crucified, and in Roman crucifixion they had found that the most excruciating part in the finality of the death was when they would break the legs because the bones in their jagged condition would plunge down into more of a flesh, and the excruciating pain would radiate and send such impulses to the brain that finally they would gas their last breath and die.
And they found that the Lord Jesus was dead already, and they didn't break a bone. They didn't realize they were keeping the divine word of God. God had said no bones to be broken. But you see, beloved, his side was opened up. They just couldn't resist doing something to him. So the soldier took a spear and opened his side. And praise God the blood came out, and his bride was purchased. You see, now he has a bride. Hal had to get his side open. Never had one till his side was open. Adam never had one until his side was open. And there we have a picture of the Lord Jesus. Where's Adam's mother? Therefore, verse twenty-four, shall a man leave his father and his mother?
Jesus left the father above, came to earth beneath, and while nailed to the tree on the little hill, he said, Well, and behold thy son, and to the son he says, Behold thy mother, he left his mother. And here you have a picture of the Lord Jesus. Genesis chapter eight. We were not there. We did not see the Lord Jesus die, nor did I see George Washington become the first President of the United States, but let me tell you I believe it. And I would presume, it might be a little presumptuous, but I would presume that about ninety-nine and forty-four one-hundredths percent of us here believe that George Washington was the first President of the United States of America.
I believe that. With my heart I did. As a matter of fact, I think I've only met one person that didn't believe that. Why do we believe George Washington was the first president? That's simple. We receive the witness of men. Isn't that right? First John chapter five, and the scripture says there, in verse ten, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. In verses nine and ten, he constructs the reasoning for faith. Now, if we receive the witness of men, God says the witness of God is greater. And this is the witness of God which he's testified of his son. And so we can find that even though we didn't see the Lord Jesus die on that cross, on that little hill, one day nearly two thousand years ago, we can surely believe it.
Now in Genesis chapter eight, we find that the floodwaters have come and the floodwaters are now going. It says in verse six, that it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark, which he had made. And he sent forth a raven which went to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Now you know that the raven by nature, by nature, can feast upon the dead carcasses. How many times have we driven down the highway and seen the raven as they're feeding upon the dead carcasses? It's very standard with them, you know, and here the body's floating on the water of all those hundreds of thousands of people and carcasses of animals, and that raven could put his deer bone and have a toothpick in his hand and really have a feast.
Isn't that right? But notice, also he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. But you know, a dove just doesn't feed on that. Do you ever watch one? It's weed seed. Various types of seeds. It's a seed-eating bird. A very different type of bird. And we have clearly in Scripture from Matthew chapter three that the Spirit of God is pictured in the form of a dove coming down and lighting on the Lord Jesus. The Spirit coming upon him. The Spirit testifying to him, and God the Father from above speaking, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And there you have all three persons of the one God.
Now, don't forget the dove. Here is a type of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. So, dear brother Noah, sends out the dove from him to see if the waters were baited from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest for the soul of her foot as she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand and pulled her, took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days. And again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came in to him in the evening, and low in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
Beloved friends, there's a beautiful picture of the death of our Lord. Though I was not there, Though I did not see the Lord Jesus die, the Holy Spirit came back with a message from a tree and said the storm has passed and judgment is over. The dove goes out and when finally she can find that the waters of judgment have abated and are fully gone and it's safe now, she plucks off an olive leaf and she comes back with a message from a tree. Deloved, here we have the message from a tree. Yonder on Calvary's Hill, nearly two thousand years ago, God exercised the greatest redemptive love ever known to humanity when there the Lord Jesus was nailed for our sins and crucified.
There he died. And the Holy Spirit has written out the message from the tree saying to you and I, the storm has passed. Judgment is over. And all who cleave to him as their Lord and Savior have their sins forgiven. and their soul is saved forever. That's the message from the tree. And that's what God is telling us about in Genesis chapter eight. And now this morning I want us to take up the subject of redemption. So would you go with me in your Bibles at the book of first Corinthians chapter six? First Corinthians chapter six. Do not forget that when you're studying Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, One of the primary overtones of those books, as well as the Book of Acts, is historical evidence.
Historical. Now within those books we get a lot of doctrine, but one of the basic purposes of those books is historical evidence of the life of our Lord incarnate here on the earth, God in flesh, and then in Acts that same Lord working in the lives of those of his own. Then in the letters we have didactical. That is, primarily we have a teaching source, though there is some history and beautiful history it is. Yet one of the primary overtones of the letters is didactical or teaching. So in the Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, those books we get a primary function of historical and the others we get didactical.
And so we have a beautiful balance in the New Testament. What a wonderful book we have. Looking now at First Corinthians chapter six, and verses nineteen and twenty for the sake of time. What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God. I would like to give you my personal outline on the subject of redemption. Number one, the price. Number two, the power. Number three, the perfection. And number four, the paradox. We'll look at it like that this morning.
The price, obviously, is clear to every child of God. We're told in the book of Leviticus chapter seventeen and verse eleven that the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I've given it unto you, upon the altar, for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul. Now get the picture. The life of our Blessed Lord in all of his perfect law-keeping obedience to God the Father is viewed when the blood flows out. It was not the sinless life of Jesus Christ contained in his body as a good man that saved anyone, but rather It was his life poured out in sacrifice. There had to be the blood. Without the shedding of blood is no remission.
God demanded it, and the type is seen clearly in Genesis chapter three when God took coats of skin and covered Adam and Eve. Some innocent victims had to die for those who were guilty, and God was teaching the divine principle that he demands an absolute innocence and perfection if there's ever going to be a righteousness that endures. You and I were born in sin. To anti-date that we were conceived in sin. And beloved, every one of us here who has any degree of honesty at all must admit we have a nature of sin. We were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Ephesians chapter two and verse three. It's just as normal for you and I to sin as it is for a fish to swim.
As a matter of fact, we can hardly do anything more normal than sin. As a matter of fact, our being is so sinful that even in our subconscious, our intellect is filled with violence and corruption. Don't you deny it. You know it's true. We are so totally depraved that God should say, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leper it is fought? Then may ye who are accustomed to doing evil do that which is good. And the obvious answer is no. I am as incapable of doing good as a leopard is changing his spots.
Can't you just view the leopard sleeking through the jungle? He sees a beautiful, we'll say tiger. There are tigers, aren't there? Yes, right, tigers. Okay, I want to be sure. As sleeking through the jungle, he sees this wonderful looking tiger with all those nice rolling stripes going right down his side. And he thinks to himself after he's been to the pool of water that was very still and looks in and sees the spot. My, I'm so spotted. And then he sees that tiger and says, I kind of think I would like that, you know, get some stripes on me. Now you say that's ridiculous. Not anymore than people thinking they could do good and please God. There's no difference.
The Apostle Paul says between the Jew and the Greek. He makes it clear. There's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that understand us. There's none that seek us after God. They're all gone out of the way. They're together become unprofitable. There's none that do it good. No, not one. No, not one. We are as totally incapable of changing ourselves and doing good as the leopard is changing his spots or the Ethiopian his skin. We're depraved. We're dead in our sins. And yet the Word of God says we were bought. Bought with the price. What was the price? The precious blood of Jesus. I do not believe for one moment that you could go yonder to the hill called Calvary and find any thread of evidence of hema blood.
I don't think you can find it. And if you did, I don't think you'd do you a bit of good. I do not for one moment believe that God had anybody catching that physical blood. I do not believe that. God viewed that life. God saw that life. It was perfect before Him. And the Lord Jesus willingly gave it. He said, No man takes my life from me. I lay it down on myself. I take it up again. This commandment have I received to my Father. And all the demons of hell could not have taken his life. And even when they had purposed to stone him to death, they were unable to do that. Strange they stoned. One man named Stephen, didn't they? And doubtless they stoned others, but Jesus, they did not stone. And John, very wonderfully. divinely says his hour was not yet come.
Every demon of hell and every bad angel and the devil and all the forces of wickedness and darkness could have amassed at one place and could not have taken one cell from his body until he's willing to give us his life. You see, they really didn't kill him. He dismissed his spirit. James, verse two, twenty-six. For if the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. You see, death only comes when the Spirit separates. I don't care if the heart does stop. She ain't dead yet. Many hearts have stopped. Don't care if they don't breathe. Many have stopped breathing. But it's only when the Spirit departs that death has come.
Father, into thy hands, I commit my spirit. And you die. Bought with a price. Oh, I wanted to bring this morning, but my failure to remember so well, I left it in the car. There's a writing, I may read it tonight, by a medical doctor who tried to perform an autopsy on the body of the Lord Jesus from the biblical record. Some of you may have read it. When I first read it, I could not hold the tears back. The physical sufferings of our Lord exceeded even my imagination.
I found I couldn't really bear a thunder emotionally in a stability that I wanted. I broke. I thought, oh my God, what did my Lord go through to save me? It was beyond my comprehension. But then I'm forced to come back and say, oh God, as horrible and as wretched as that seems to human intelligence. to take a body and do it that way. Yet his suffering by sin was infinitely worse. No one will ever know what that's like. Doctors may perform an autopsy of the records that are left. Doctors may analyze. Humans may conceive and perceive.
But no one knows what he went through. And the hymn writer, Will, could say none of the ransoms ever knew how deep were the waters crossed, nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through. There he found... this sheep that was lost. We don't know really what he went through, but one thing we can do, beloved, we can believe it. We can believe it. You're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit with your God. That happens to be the word agorazo. The word agorazo is the word for market. I stood on Mars Hill two years ago. That's between the Acropolis and the ancient city of Athens. It's still continuing on this day. Up on the top, Acro means high, and Polis means city.
Acropolis is what we call today in English, Acropolis. It's a little different, but anyway, it serves the point. And up here is the high city, the federal-type city. Down here is the normal, regular city. And halfway between was Martial, where they reasoned in philosophy. They displayed their gods. And there's where a lot of argumentation took place. Paul steps up on Mars Hill one day, being able to see below and being able to see above, he gives them the message about the God they don't know about. And I just wondered, standing in that position, if he wasn't looking at what I was able to see when I was over there two years ago, one guide pointed out to there, there's the agoraz, that is, there's the market, right down there. And that word, agorazo comes from the word agoraz, meaning marketplace, where you redeem.
Some have supposed the difference between redeem and bought, but there is none, because when you look the word up as God the Holy Spirit gave it, it's all one and the self-same word. So you're redeemed with a price. Secondly, we'll look at the power of redemption. Galatians chapter three. Galatians three. We'll have to hurry. Verse thirteen. is the key verse we want to use, but in verse ten we're told, those who are under the works of the law are under the curse. Why? Because there's no one that's ever completely obeyed or fulfilled the demands of the law, except the Lord Jesus Christ.
And yet, even though he was not properly under a curse, he put himself under a curse being nailed to a tree. Verse thirteen. Christ. has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for it is rich and cursed as everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now here we have the same word that we had over in First Corinthians chapter six and verse twenty. Exactly, precisely the same word only prefixed and compounded by one little preposition, X, meaning out of. Now notice we were bought, and that emphasizes the price in First Corinthians chapter six and verse twenty. we're bought out of, and that emphasizes the power out from which we've been bought when the Lord Jesus died on the cross.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. That is, Christ has bought us or redeemed us out of what? The curse of the law. God had said in Romans chapter three, in verse nineteen, what things shall be the law says? It says to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Though I was never as you, though I was never under the law, I find myself having a law written in my heart and whether I was under a physical Ten Commandment law or one in my heart, I find myself to be in the crowd of all the world that all the world may become guilty before God. I was guilty and you were guilty.
And, beloved, we find that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. The law cursed everyone. Everyone. who ever had any link with the law, whether the law written in the heart or a Ten Commandments, is cursed. Why? Because we've not followed what we know to be right. Every time I've asked someone, did you ever do anything, say anything, and then to your own self, not out loud, to your own self, why did I do that? Oh, I wished I hadn't have done that. And everyone I've ever asked that question has indicated he or she has had that experience. That's enough to tell us that something's wrong. We have violated our own conscience and moral codes. Therefore, God has found us all guilty, and the universal indictment is clear.
We're all under the law in that sense of condemnation. That is a principle that indicates if we violate our conscience, violate the law of it in our hearts, or the Ten Commandment law, we're guilty, and all are guilty. What is the power? You say, Donald, the second dimension of redemption here is power. What do you mean power? Yes, it took a real power to get us out of the curse, and only Christ could do it, and he could only do it when he went into the curse for us. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Being made a curse for us. He became a curse for us. Cursed is everyone that hangs on the tree. What an ignomy. Oh, what a tragedy from one point of view, but for the real Christian, no tragedy of victory.
Don't think of Jesus' experience on the cross as a tragedy. Do not believe that. I don't care what theologians say today. I learned a while back. I certain preacher in a certain denomination said that Jesus made a mistake when he went to the cross and further denied the existence of heaven or hell. He's a blasphemer, and he's of the devil. And you might be amazed if I name the denomination he's connected with. And he's not the only one. The devil's got his crowd, and according to Second Corinthians, he's got his own preachers. And there's plenty of them preaching. And when the Lord Jesus shouts, let me tell you, they'll still be here preaching. Still be here preaching. Thank God. Those of us who have been redeemed and saved are destined to go up to meet our Blessed Lord in the air.
No clogs busting, no opening of ceilings. That's ridiculous. When the Lord Jesus appeared in the upper room, there was no hole in the wall where he came through, and we'll just silently get out of this world to be with our Blessed Lord. Won't that be wonderful? He's redeemed us from the curse of the law. So that exercise is a tremendous power. No one else could get us out of that. There we were, down in our sin. Ah, but look at a third dimension. Titus. We could use several other passages, but we'll use these quick, three easy ones, and then I want to go to the Old Testament. I may run overboard this morning, brethren. Hang on. Titus chapter two, verse eleven.
Titus two and eleven. For the grace of God that brings salvation to all men, and that's what grace does, it extends salvation to all men, has appeared. It finally appeared. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly. We should live how else? Righteously. How else? Godly. Where? In this present world. looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. Now in verses twenty of chapter six of first Corinthians and thirteen of chapter three of Galatians, we have the same Greek word agorazo and yet it's compounded in Galatians.
So it's the same root word. It means to purchase, buy or redeem. However, here we have a completely different word and it was used of our Lord when he told his disciples just before he went into the city of Jerusalem for the last time, go in the city and there you'll find a coat. tied by its mother, the foal of an ass, and said, loose it, bring it. The word loose is the same word here, same root word. Luro. Get the picture now. Those of us who are saved, we're looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might loose us from all iniquity. Loose us.
It's the same word. What do you mean, Lucis? Would you hold your place here and turn with me to the book of Proverbs chapter five? There's quite a picture there that I believe will give you a good answer. Verses twenty-one and twenty-two. Proverbs five, verses twenty-one and twenty-two. For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord. and he pondereth all his goings. His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. Oh, dear friend, let me say this.
Regardless of what you think about your own powers and your repressive powers and your energies, you are bound up in your sins, unless you're born again, and you cannot extricate yourself. You cannot get out. You cannot loose yourself. It's not in your power. And if it was, Jesus did make a mistake. But we're told that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried. He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. So he redeemed us with the price, his precious blood. He redeemed us with the power out from under the curse of the law. And he redeemed us, notice now, with the perfection. How is it? He loosed us. Perfection? Yes.
With the idea of completing the job. So often we start something and we don't finish it. But let me tell you, God never started anything. He didn't finish. And how beautifully he finished it. There we were, holding with the cords of our sins, and we couldn't get loose, and the Lord Jesus died and redeemed us and loosed us from the cords of our sins. He redeemed us from all iniquity. Why? That he might purify himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Then I want you to notice a little Old Testament picture, a little Old Testament typology. The Book of Hosea, if you'd like to turn, if you find it difficult to find it, just I'll read it. Next door to Daniel, Hosea, Joel Amos.
So it's between Joel and Daniel. Hosea, chapter one, is significant that in Leviticus twenty-one, God had forbade a priest ever to marry a whore. He said, what are you bringing that up for? Well, it's connected. We'll read it. But he had no instruction about a prophet. In Leviticus twenty-one, you can read it for yourself. A priest could not do in marriage what a prophet could do. But in Hosea chapter one, the word of the Lord, that came unto Hosea, the son of Beirai, in the days of Isaiah, Jonathan, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joach, king of Israel. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said unto Hosea, Go take unto thee a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom, for the land has committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.
So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblium, which conceived and buried him a son. God has given his prophet an unusual request, a command. He says, go take a wife of Hortom. Where's he going to go? Well, he has to go where they are. And so some deny it. Some say there's not so. And I'll leave that with them. But I believe what it says. It says to take a wife of Hortom. And I think you'll see in the second chapter the reality of what he really took for a wife. The day came when going out to fulfill God's command. This man, Jose, I saw a woman named Gomer, and he loved her, and he wanted her, and he married her. And he started a little family. She first bore him a son. And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehue, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
And it's going to come to pass at that day that I will break the bow of the valley of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. That's really a valley of slaughter, and a battle is going to take place there real soon, I think, that called the Battle of Armageddon. Verse six. And she conceived again and bear a daughter, and God said unto him, Call her name Lora Hema. For I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them, but the Lord their God will not save them by bull, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. So when she had weaned Lora Hema, she conceived and bear a son. Then said, God, call his name Lora Hema, for you are not my people. And I will not be your God. So here he's obeyed the command of God.
He took a wife of whoredom. She's born in three children. This takes quite some time. The family is now growing. Hosea loves his wife. Hosea loves his children. A nice little family unit is coming up. And I'm sure that home had a great deal of happiness. One day tragedy stuck. His wife took off for some other men. Chapter two. Say ye to your brethren am I and to your sisters Rahima. Plead with your mother. Plead, for she is not my wife, neither my husband. Let her therefore put away. Her whoredom is out of her sight, and her adultery is from between her breast, lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the days she was born, and make her a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. You know what he's doing?
He's talking about Israel. I will not have mercy upon her children, for they be the children of whoredom. For their mother has slayed the harlot. She that conceived them have done shamefully, for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, my flesh, my oil, and my drink. And Grommer was gone. She took off her other men. She wasn't satisfied to live with her husband. It crushed him. His heart is broken. No man that loves his wife is not crushed by the leaving of his wife.
What a tragedy. Do you love your husband, wife? Suppose he left you for some other woman. Husband, do you love your wife? Suppose he left you for some other man. Wouldn't it just crush you in the very fiber of your soul? Well, Hosea was a man of like passion, just like you and I, and one day his wife left him and took off with other men, and he was crushed. We'll not be able to measure the sorrow that he endured. There was a man who had an unusual command of God. He obeyed. Started a little family. Had love and joy, and one day it seems to all be crushed. How many years transpired until the next chapter? I do not know.
I'm not able to say. But suppose, suppose it was quite some time. And I have an idea. It probably was. The day came when God said to Hosea, Go yet love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress. in whoredom, in fornication prior to the marriage. Now she's been married to Hosea. She's gone off, and now it's adultery. Go yet love a woman. Beloved, he didn't say go love one. Go get you another one. He said, go yet love her. And can't you just see Hosea? He said, well, Lord, where will I go? I do love her. I do want her. I will continue to love her. But where can I find her? One day, Hosea was moving around in his daily order, and he came upon a place where they were auctioning off slaves.
And up on the slave box, perhaps, now I don't know, it wasn't there, but I'm supposing, up on the slave box or up on the slave podium or up on the block itself or on the stump or whatever they used to put them up above the crowd so the crowd could see the individual and cast their bid for that person. Jose walks by. He sees a woman. Perhaps she's all leather-faced and marred. Oh, it's Gomer. I want to get the bidding. That's my wife. So the Scripture says, I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, verse two, and for a homer of barley and for an half-homer of barley.
There she is. Well, that's my wife, and they're selling my wife. I want her fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half-homer of barley. I'll take her, sir. You have the full picture of redemption there. You have the price, fifteen pieces of silver in a home or half of barley. You have the power. He didn't leave her there in the auction block when he bought her. He brought her out of the market. And then you have the perfection. He loosed her because the slaves had to be bound or they'd run away. He took away those bindings. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, for home or half of barley. And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days.
He had to lose her before she could do it. Thou shalt not play the harlot. And thou shalt not be for another man. So will I also be for thee. So there we have the prize. We have the power. We have the perfection. And it's what the Lord Jesus accomplished for you and I. And let me tell you, beloved friends, we were infinitely worse than Gomer. But here's the paradox. Get it, and I'll close with this. Second Peter, Chapter Two. Second Peter, Chapter Two. First one.
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who probably shall bring in damnable heresies, or literally destructive sex. Even denying the Lord that Boston... and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of, and through covetousness, they shall with fain words make merchandise of you, whose watch now judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damn nation slumbers not. What is the paradox, Donald? Tell us, I'll tell you, to think that Jesus would redeem all mankind.
Pay the price. And someone would say, no, I don't want to be freed after the die of my sins. What a paradox. Redeemed but lost. And dear friend, that's your case. If you reject Jesus as your Lord, he paid for you. He is the propitiation for our sin, not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. But even though he redeemed you, you could die in your sins. Now that's got to be a paradox. It's got to be. I plead with you this morning. Turn to the Lord. Once for all, receive him as your Lord and Savior.
I'm not talking about simply intellectual assent. I'm talking about a commitment to a person who went into death for your sins and came forth out of the dead to justify you, to declare you righteous. And if you'll receive him this morning, you'll be saved forevermore. And if you reject Him, you'll be in the paradox. Redeemed, but lost. And through the halls of hell, throughout eternity, your message might be, I remember. I remember. He bought me. He redeemed me. But I turned him down.