Hello, I'm Tony Carter, Lead Passive East Point Church. For the past eight years, we've called the City of East Point our home as we've sought to point people to Christ through the preaching of the gospel. And during our time here, we've shared church space and met in civic centers and in schools. But now, God has given us a gracious opportunity to have a place that we can call our own. Currently, we are under contract for a church building and our raising funds for the down payment. And normally, we don't ask for donations in this matter, but this is a unique and a wonderful opportunity for us. And so, if you are so inclined, we ask that you would partner with us in the pursuit of our vision for a permanent home for East Point Church. If you would like to give, we invite you to visit our website at epointchurch.org. And there you will find a tab directing you and how you might be able to give and support of us raising the funds to obtain this church building. Thank you for this opportunity and thank you for partnering with us in advance.
The preach word this morning comes from Hosea chapter 3. Hosea chapter 3. And the word of God reads his follows. And the Lord said to me, go again, love a woman who was loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins. So I bought her for 15 shuckles of silver and a homer and a lead tech of barley. And I said to her, you must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore or belong to another man. So will I also be to you? Where the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or filler, without ephod or household gods. Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. I don't have you wondered many of us have because many of us know but those of you who have not have you ever wondered what life would be like without video, without movies. How life was before the television, smartphones and the internet. Some of us have lived in that existence but most of us have not. And yet this was the life lived in the world of the prophets. It was a life without all of those modern advancements and communications and modern luxuries that we have today. And we tend to take these advancements and indeed these advantages for granted. Because like fish and water, we swim in it. We live in it. We breathe it. It is hard to imagine life without video. Today if we want to know something or we want to learn something or we want to teach someone something, what do we do? We send them a video. We say here, plop in this DVD and watch this in the sense. Beloved, that's what the prophets are. The prophets are God's video. When God wanted the children of Israel to know and learn the love he has for them, he sent Hodea. And he said, watch this,
watch this live and in living color. It's chapter three of Hodea. Showing forth the matchless and comparable and indeed inexplicable and undeniable love of God for his people. Chapter three is just five verses as we've read. Very short chapter. And yet it contains in microcosm if you will the whole of their prophecy and God's word to his people. In this short chapter, we have chapter two through chapter 14 enacted for all of Israel and for us therefore to see it as a drama most remarkable. And it's played out in three stages as the hymn writer would say, redeemed, restored and for given as the nature of our God's love. Redeemed, restored and for given. By the time we get to chapter three, Gomer is gone. She's gone. I mean she's gone, mentally she's gone, spiritually she's gone physically. However you want to take the word, the word gone to mean she is gone. We have seen in chapters one and two, Ozea's marriage to Gomer has spiraled
out of control. And even if it did start and maybe it did start in a good place by the time we reached chapter three, Gomer's unfaithfulness and infidelity has become the scandal of the land. She has forsaken her covenant with Ozea and is now living in open rank sin and perversion. Her adultery and sexual prostitution has become well known. She has left Ozea, you might remember and the children. And now she is the full-time property and perhaps even the sex slave of another man. Nothing could be more shameful. Nothing could be more demoralizing for Ozea. And yet Gomer's actions as we understand is but a miniature reflection of Israel's infidelity to God amen. And like Gomer Israel has prostituted herself to other God. She had indeed sold herself into idolatry. Her sin was well known among the other nations. Her spiritual adultery was both sickening and shameful. But she had indeed also like Gomer forsaken her covenant with God. And like Gomer had become an unfaithful wife. She had left her husband and hurt the shame. And yet it is into this context, beloved, into the context of this inexcusable infidelity that God again sends Ozea. And like a videotape, he sends Ozea to the nation and to us this morning and says, watch this.
Watch this. Threefold aspects are so unmistakable throughout the scriptures are summarized for us. Needs five verses. God love is redeeming. God love is restoring. God love is forgiving. God love begins. See that in verse one, don't we? And the Lord said to me, speaking to Ozea. Go again and love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other God and love cakes of raisins. See here, beloved, at the outset that is from remarkable things about the love of God. And the first one is that in this love being forgiven, it is forgiving because love says again, again. The first thing that God said to Ozea is go again and love a woman. Go again. Now again is important. Again is important because again reminds us that there has been an offense. Something has gone wrong and it says to us that God nor Ozea is blind to the offense. It says to us that there has been a hurt. There has been a severing of the trust. It says to us that there has been a hurt in this offense and that God nor Ozea is ignorant of the offense says that we are not talking about ignoring sin. We are not talking about sweeping sin under the rock. Again says that this is a place we have been before.
Again says that there were lessons that apparently were not learned. And yet again says then that forgiveness is necessary. Again says you've loved before. You can love again. Again says that you've trusted before you can trust again. Again says that there was a time when love was rich and devotion was true. Again says love can again be rich. Love can again be true. Again says you've loved once you can love again. It's so important. Because if you have never heard God say again you have been listening. You have not been listening. How many times I have learned the Lord say to me in my sin Tony you've done it again. And how many times have I heard the Lord also say son come again come again to my grace for my grace is greater than all you're saying. We haven't again God. That's what he's saying. Every Sunday he says come again to the table. Come again and taste and see that the Lord is good. Come again to the water. Come again to the waters and drink freely of them. Come again without money and without price. Come and be satisfied in my love and forgiveness. Come again
again to the promise because love says again and again and again and not only does it say again that love that says again takes action doesn't God not only says to hold there to love her but he says go and love go go go notice he tells hold there to go and love gomer there's no sitting around and waiting for gomer to get right. Hold there you go and get gomer why because gomer is too far gone. She is too far gone. Beloved this is not some momentary lesson judgment here. This is not some one night stand. This is not just some fleeting motion of passion but the Bible says that she has given herself over to sin. She was in the possession of another and this activity was an ongoing present reality here that God loves moves toward the beloved. God loves comes. It doesn't wait for the beloved to move toward him as you can and true love therefore is the aggressor it always is the aggressor. How do you know who truly loves? They are the aggressor
and true love doesn't sit back and wait to be loved. Produces love. If you and I waited for God to love us before oh wait wait if God waited for us to love and waited for us to love him before he loved us there would be no love. Love it. He waited on us there would be no love. Here's the love that produces love. That's what true love does. What the Bible says. For God so loved the world that he gave. He didn't say oh wow the world so loved me let me give Jesus. For God so loved the world that he gave. That would Roman chapter 5 or 6 through 8 cents. For while you were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly for one will scarcely die for a righteous person. Though perhaps a good person would dare to even die but God showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us while we were yet in abundance to sin Christ died for us while we were yet dead in our trespasses and sin Christ died for us. In this the Bible says is love first John before in 10 not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. The song I learned when I was a young boy and I still love to sing it
says there is a name and I love to hear and I love to sing its word. Sounds like music in my ear sweetest name owner. Oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus because he first me redeeming love is a forgiving love God loves forgive and it says God delights the love again
it doesn't just forgive it also then redeems you see that right in verse 2 the Bible says well they have said so I brought her for 15 shackles of silver and a homer and a leadach of barley. I love it the depth of gomers the gravity and art is shown here she had not just fallen into sin she was like Paul says in Romans chapter 7 and verse 14 sold under sin like you and like me sold under sin God says hold there go and buy when Hosea was told to go in love he understood with that myth that going by that meant going purchase he had to go and find her and when he found her he was to give whatever was necessary to have her back every cause you pay you had to go and he had to find her cause love to love simply with eyes and to love simply with heart but never with hands is a questionable love at best oh there's love for gomers it's going to cost because true love all way does oh it does no love is more true than redeeming love redeeming love is costly for them with fire back and that was a price to be paid gomers had to be purchased purchased her sin had led her to debt her sin had led her into bondage and the debt and bondage she was in she had no hope of escaping from herself we're not told we're not told in the text to whom the payment was made perhaps it wasn't pimp perhaps now she was in the possession of a pimp who was selling her out in order to get her out from under him Hosea would have to pay him perhaps it was the temple perhaps she had become now a temple a prostitute and there at the temple sacrifices and offerings were being made in order to have their way with her in order to get her from the temple then sacrifices and offerings had to be made up perhaps she had been pulled into the possession of one now had her at his own concubine in an order to get her released from him there was going to have to pay all that he had invested in her welfare and her clothing in her case whatever the case the point here is that the one to whom the debt is paid is not important what is important is Hosea scraping together whatever he could find a little silver heat some some some grains of barley there whatever he could find scraping together until he had enough to pay the price for his beloved really don't know what the price really was can't really tell but whatever the price was Hosea was willing to pay for his beloved because she owed a debt that she could not pay and in love he paid a debt that he did not owe the debt of her son was much more than she could bear she had no way of extricating herself out from under it and here is the amazing and even awful reality of it the longer she lived the more indebted she would become until that debt would be too much and it would ultimately kill her
clear isn't it will purchase with a price first feeder after one in eighteen says you and I were ransom not with perishable things such as silver gold or barley or raisin cakes but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without spots or blemish do you understand that the church of Jesus Christ throughout the ages is a church that has been purchased bought redeemed ransom from up under a debt that we could never pay that revelation chapter five and verse nine the bible says that the Lord Jesus by his own blood ransom the people of God from every tribe language and people and nation is what God says I have blotted out your transgressions idea 44 and 22 like a cloud and your sins like miss return to me for I have redeemed you I have redeemed you to the reason Jesus came into the world he came to redeem us he came to buy us back he came to give his life as a ransom for ours but he cancelling Paul says in Galatians chapter two and verse 14 cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands nearly them to the cross this is love this is the love of God on the cross love came on the cross love came and purchased on the cross love came in what Adam lost Christ regained and what sin caused Christ has fully paid imagine gomer walking out with Jose realizing Jose you paid it all you paid all I hope and then been in mind that not the song we shall sing throughout all eternity Jesus you paid it all at all to you I owe Lord my sin had left a crimson you watched it that's what love is now then just forgive it redeemed you see in the last movement here that this love also restored restored this is the work of God in the lives of his people he doesn't just forgive them of their sins he doesn't just redeem them from their sins but ultimately the goal is restoration restoration and I said to her as Jose you must dwell as mine for many days you shall not play the whore belong to another man so will I also be to you and he goes on to say afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days Jose are here my brothers and sisters does not just buy her back but he also brings her in
back into relationship with him he buys her from sin and he doesn't just leave her out in the street he brings her back into it household her licences and lustful living will stop for Jose will guard her Jose will protect her no more will she play the harlot no more will she give herself to another whole they will be with reminds us verse 4 what God would do with the children of Israel minds us the God would strip them of everything good and bad they would have no kings no would they have any more sugar daddy they would have no more sacrifices foreign and no more sacrifices faithful God would strip them of everything except often beloved we don't realize that God is all we need until he brings us to the point where God is all we have gomer didn't realize that Jose was all she needed until she came to the point where she realized that Jose was all she had Israel would realize that God is sufficient I am left to wonder in the question this morning when will you and I ever come to realize that God's love is love enough God's love love enough this is why our lives go sideways beloved our lives go sideways often time is because we don't realize that God's love is enough seeking and wondering I for love in all the wrong places in all the wrong way in all the wrong times every time and every time in God's graciousness he brings us back to the reality God's love is as we learn discuss this week in our home the fellowship group God is not hiding he's not hiding his love behind his back he has displayed his love for all the world see Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God because God desires his people to know him he desires his people to be where he is and he's not hiding he's not hiding Israel so seek the Lord and when they seek him guess what's going to happen they're going to find him David said in Psalm 34 verse 4 I sought the Lord and he answered me honestly seek the Lord that will find him Jeremiah 29 in the verse 13 you will seek me and find me forgot that you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart I'm by you he said and when you do you know what's going to happen I'm going to restore your fortunes why because God is not hiding you seeking tell your whole heart and you seek him in the right places you'll find him he will be found by you and he will restore you redemption really is beloved it's really a restoration project for this the restoration project I've done restorations before I've restored a kitchen table you see it now you wouldn't believe what it looked like before professional these hands some of you have restored homes you know what it is to restore cars and furniture and cabinetry God he restored lives God restored soul however however we talk about salvation beloved however you want to talk about it do you know ultimately it comes down to God's restoration what was lost is now found what was blind now see what was broken is now fixed what was dead he has now brought to life that's what he does we storage because God is in the restoration
this is the message of old land it is simply that don't play hide and seek with God play return and seek return and seek at which scenes irreparable beloved by the grace and mercy of God can be repaired relationships that seem irreconcilable by the mercy and grace of God can be reconciled those situations that seem like they are beyond restoration that they have rotted and gone and been left to themselves too long in the mercy and grace of God restoration is possible God loves you would return and seek it you know how God restores the love do you know how God restores he restores in such a way that people will hardly know that there was ever ever you come sit at my table you would not know what that table looked like before I have been in homes that have been totally restored and they show you pictures of before and afterwards and you cannot believe you are standing in the same place if you knew me before the Lord began restoring my life you would not believe you were looking at the same person I know marriages I have counseled and sat before and after the first session I said to myself there is no way they are done forking that one Lord I have seen those same people walking hand in hand in love in the restoration of God I know a man beautiful man Christian man highly respected his wife got involved with an extramarital same sex relationship small town everybody knew it she would leave his home and go to this other woman's home they'd be seen around town and every night she'd go back to his house and everybody knew what was happening and it was the gossip and the talk of the town and he wouldn't leave her he wouldn't put her out every time she'd go eat welcome her back someone asked him once how do you do that he said that's my wife and I love to get away from it all they moved they moved to a city a bigger city and perhaps and we got all the jobs and perhaps this would be in their past but low unbehold it wasn't every opportunity she got she went back to that small town and spent days with that woman and every time she would come back and every time she'd come back to my amazement he would welcome her back oh this went on for love it for several years
to the prayers mercy and the grace of God began to break that woman and to begin to restore her love for her husband as she's seen the love he had for her throughout those years last December November I think it was they celebrated 54 years of marriage and you look at him and you would have never known because what God restored he restores he's still in the restoration business there is no life here that has gone so far that God can't restore there is no relationship here that has gone so sideways that God can't restore there is no mind or heart here that is so given over to sin that God will not welcome you back and restore you to write relationship with why we sing the song don't we redeem restored for given through Jesus precious son there's other throne in heaven all praise is what he does he redeems he restores and he forgets he delights to do that this morning let's go