Mercy Flows from the Father through Christ JESUS to us!

"I will sow her unto Me in the earth, and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy: and I will say to them which were not My people,Thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art our God." -Hosea 2:23 [KJV]

Declarations of grace depend not on the will of the flesh for their accomplishment. Sovereign power brings sovereign purposes to effect. Human will can neither forward nor frustrate them. So the Lord raises up and forms a people, for His glory on earth, and the Redeemer’s crown in heaven. See the process of it. 

(1st.) “I will sow her.” This alludes to the word Jezrael in the last verse, which signifies the seed of God. God’s people are His own precious seed: He sows them in the earth. 

(2d.) “Unto Me.” As they are sown by Him, they spring up unto Him. Though they lie long under the clods of nature’s darkness and corruption, and for a while spring up only to the world, the flesh, and the devil, yet there is a set time to favour them; a fixed day of power, to come upon them. Men do not sow their precious seed, and care no more about it: neither doth the Lord. 

For, (3d.) “I will have mercy upon her who had not obtained mercy.” His eye of care preserves, till His day of mercy comes. It is as impossible for an elect, redeemed soul to perish without mercy, as for the truth of God to fail. “It is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18.) The truth of God is the joy of faith. St. Paul, though exceeding mad against Christ, obtained mercy from Him: the thief on the cross obtained mercy at the last hour: your soul, mine, and every soul that is called, converted, and justified by the faith of Christ, obtains this from mere mercy, just in the same way. Because justice is satisfied with Christ, mercy flows from God through Him to us. 

(4th.) “I will say to them which were not My people, Thou art My people.” God’s voice of love comes to us, His grace challenges us, His power apprehends us, before we apprehend Him. We are children of wrath, by nature: we are at enmity against God, and fly from God. But the good Shepherd seeks us: He claims us as His own sheep—as the gift of His Father—as the purchase of His blood: He manifests Himself to us, and gives us faith in His name. 

Then, (5th.) “They shall say, Thou art my God.” My God—O, how much is contained in this! Now, there is peace in the conscience, love in the heart, and joy in the soul. The sinner can never be happy, till he thus appropriates the Lord to himself. Then, the soul is inspired with a holy, loving fear, and excited to a cheerful walk: a hope, full of immortality, is in the heart: this is ever in the eye, “All is of God, Who hath reconciled us unto Himself by Jesus Christ.” -II Corinthians 5:18.

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)