Hosea 14:4

Tide, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Hosea chapter 14. I’ll be reading the first four verses. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, where thou hast fallen by these, by thine iniquities, or iniquity. Take with you words and turn to the Lord. Say unto him, take away. all iniquity and receive us graciously and so we will render the calves of our lips. Asher shall not save us. We will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands. Ye are our gods. For in thee, the fatherless findeth mercy. I will heal their backsliding. I will love thee or love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him. God bless to us is sacred and holy word this evening. Our focus this evening will be on verse four. We have worked our way through this book. And it’s a pretty negative book. Every once in a while we got a little glimmer of hope. But here in verse four is a very positive message that’s laid out. Now, you and I don’t like hard words that are spoken against us. And I’m sure Israel, had a hard time with what Josea has said to them. But ultimately, what Josea had said to Israel needed to be said. It was for their good. And they needed to return to the Lord. She needed to see that her own sin had caused her to fall into trouble, deep trouble. the Syrian invasion was coming. She needed to realize that their military and their political leaders were not going to be able to spare her. She needed to turn back to God and true repentance to cast aside the false worship and render praise to Jehovah alone. God has something similar to say to Jesus. you and I when we backslide or we rebel against him. You may resent his words that ultimately you know he’s right. Tonight God provides hope for those who repent, those who return to him. We begin by saying this, God promises you a spiritual healing. I will heal their backsliding. Your backsliding is a spiritual disease. We have the word heal here. God speaks as a physician with you as the patient. Backsliding is a dangerous disease. And the real danger, of course, is that in backsliding, of course, is that in backsliding, is you don’t realize how far you’ve slid when you’re backsliding. Many times we backslide and don’t realize how far we’ve drifted away from the Lord. And that’s a sad situation to be in, a dangerous one. You know, we’re living in the day where there’s a bank crisis, and we’re not sure where the banks are going to, do well or not, they’re in danger of going bankrupt and failing. Now, they didn’t lose all their money overnight. It’s not as though a sudden financial disaster overtook them. Investigations of their accounts have proved in many cases, years of lending practices caused them. them to put themselves in danger. A lot of what they’ve done has been foolish. Backsliding is the same. Years of spiritual practice eventually led to a deplorable spiritual state. If you begin to slip on the side of a mountain, you may be able to prevent yourself from being hurt if you can stop the slide and go no further. That’s just the problem. You can’t always do that. Your footing is not stable. In the same way with sin, you cannot regulate sin. The further you slide, the more difficult it be comes to rectify the situation to establish your spiritual footage. And that’s the problem we see. Also, you know, when one Christian slides, what happens is that they set an example. And others see their backsliding, may go along with their backsliding. And so there can be repercussions in other people’s slides. Your backsliding is a common problem. It’s not rare. It’s more like the common cold. It happens a lot. But perhaps to the nth degree, you know, God forbid that it should be that way. But in initial stages, you can slide. And there is, you know, backsliding that is in thought and heart. There is also backsliding in deed and act. They’re scarcely a believer that hasn’t suffered some form of backsliding. The proper condition for the child of God is to walk in the light as Christ is in the light. and so have fellowship with him. Too often, like Peter, we might follow Christ to far off. You can live in a very limited, even remote fellowship, with the Savior at times. These things ought not to be, but you will find yourself constantly having to be. to fight against drifting away from God. Our nature is such that we still have that tendency. You have to confess with the, if you look at your own life, you know, I remember when my heart was warmed with love to Christ. But it seems my passion has died down considerably. if you’re honest, you can see that happening. But once again, you could have that warm glow of your first love, the passion of your marriage to Christ, not dying out, but being rekindled. You must confess that you have sorrowfully failed in many respects. Backslash, is not beyond you. It is a serious problem that happens. Your backsliding will not be healed, or your backsliding will be healed by God. I will heal, he says here in this passage of verse four. If you have fulfilled your duties of repentance, taken up in verses 1 to 3, then you can expect that God will heal you. Verse 4. There is a consolation in the very fact here that God looks upon your previous sin of backsliding under the image of a disease. It’s almost as if God is saying, my dear child, I know that you’re going. you’re but dusted ashes and you have a thousand temptations and you can soon go astray. But I will not treat you as a rebel. I will look upon you as a patient. I will treat you as a physician with someone who is sick. God, for Christ’s sake, looks upon your loathsome condition with pity. and compassion. God speaks of healing here, of restoring you to your previous spiritual state and that of a healthy spiritual person. God, you know, doesn’t say I will let him or her, you know, alone and see if they will let him or her, you know, it’s alone and see if they will come back. but like this great shepherd that he is, he comes after us. He pursues us in his love. God will notice here, our situation, and watch over us. And there’s certainty in these words, I will. Those who return to the Lord will find God’s healing. This healing, speaks of forgiveness of sin. I will be merciful to their uprightness. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and will, and their sins and their iniquities. Will I remember no more. Hebrews 8, 12 is one of the promises of the new covenant that we have. So God promised us here, spiritual healing. Secondly, God confirms his love to you. I will love thee freely. God loves you freely. Now, when we think something is free, means it doesn’t have a cost. It doesn’t have a priced. There’s nothing we pay in order for us to possess that item. The key word here is freely. And, uh, we should see that God’s love comes to you unmerited, un-earned. You would never make God, you could never make God love you. It’s impossible. When a person is dogged by a beggar in the street, though he eventually, you know, might give him something to get rid of the, this beggar. He doesn’t do so freely. It’s coerced. Remember God’s love is different. The sovereign grace does not wait for you to seek God. The love of God goes out to you to you have put, when you have not even pursued God. When you have been engaged in your waywardness. He still reaches out in love to you. There was a doctor who recounted a story that he was moved by. It was involved the young husband’s response to his wife’s facial surgery. Now, when the physician did the surgery, he had to sever a facial nerve. He had to sever a facial nerve. in doing it. And that controlled the muscles of her mouth. And after the operation, the doctor and the husband stood by her bedside. She asked, shall my mouth always be like this? And the doctor said, yes. The husband looked at his wife, smiled, and said he found her mouth. kind of cute. Then he bent down and kissed her, twisting his own lips to match her her lips and he loved her and was devoted to her. Unconditional love. That’s what Josea had shown his wife, remember, when she lived promiscuously. He had to, he had to, he had to, you know, he had to, search for her, buy her at the slave market, and bring her home, promise take care of her. And God says this is a picture of dealing his dealings with his true people, despite their unfaithfulness to him. It is when you return to the Lord after backsliding that God’s love is once again confirmed. to you. God loves you as a sinner. Who are the objects here of God’s love? Are they such moral people that they are blameless, you know, concerning the law of God? Are they those who walk always observing the truth of the truth of the faith? Without, you know, slipping up once. God invites sinners here. Those who have utterly failed to return to him. Who are the chosen of God? What are God’s people like? Well, listen to those who are in heaven and let them speak for themselves and what they are like. Chapter 1. 7 of the book of Revelation, verse 14, we have washed our robes. They needed washed because they were dirty and made them white in the blood of the lamb. That’s who God’s chosen people are. We appealed to any saint of God that he or she look at her life or his life, or his life, and realize that they are sinners. And how far they have strayed from the Lord at times. And the truth of the matter is, anybody who is honest will realize that we often fail and we often are further away from the Lord than we would like to be. In his old age, Paul said this under inspiration. He spoke of, uh, his waywardness as the chief of sinners, the chief of sinners. But even if you could exceed Paul’s sinfulness in your backsliding, there is still hope. God does not say, here I will have mercy upon those I can have mercy upon, as if they must, you know, meet certain conditions before you. you will have mercy upon him. But God says in His word, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. God here takes upon extreme cases in his sovereign grace. And that is a great blessing to us as his people that he would go that far for us. Thirdly, in a night. God turns away. His anger from you here, for my anger is turned away from him. You are here assured fellowship being restored with God. Instead of dependency upon themselves and what they could do, they must depend upon the Lord and turn to him and turn to him and rejoice. and what he provides. The frown of God’s anger has been turned away. God’s children sometimes have to smart for their sins. But you know what? God’s favor constantly rests upon us, and his mercies are renewed every morning. And so we have to turn to him. And after we turn to him, he shows us mercy. You look at David in Psalm 51. and his cries out of the Lord to forgive him for his sinfulness. You see, the travail of his soul. And yet, if you read the Psalm, you see, he got consolation. His tongue sang aloud of God’s righteousness. His plea, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, was granted by God. The conclusive proof that your restoration has to be. taken place is when you receive joy in the place of mourning. When the morning can go away and a sense of joy overtakes you. I read about a husband who had a very sharp tongue. He alienate his wife. And no matter how hard he tried to restore the relationship, he couldn’t do it. She would never forgive or forgive. forget what he said. And so he tried and that she was too hurt and too, and too angered by what he did. And she would not take his promises. And she was bitter against him. She wouldn’t forgive him. And so he was stuck, he couldn’t restore the relationship as he would like. thankfully the Lord is not like that, but we would never have any hope. But he forgives our iniquity and our sin and he has mercy upon us. So you’re restored to fellowship with God. You are spared the consequences of various judgments by God here. Ephraimites were subject to invasion by cruel tyrants who attacked them. And sometimes you and I live under the rod of God, which is never a pleasant experience. And you may have said, Lord, will you not comfort me? Perhaps the answer is when you fully confess, you’re wondering and forsake your sin, I will. Lord will bring his people back to fellowship with him. If one blow doesn’t bring you back, then others come. God here is willing to take away his temporal judgments when you return fullheartedly to him. close by saying this. Perhaps you resent being told hard things. Never pleasant experience. But in this case, it’s necessary. God lays out before us here our sin. He tells us what we need to do to return. And here he gives us hope that when we return, we will be healed. God promises that if you will repent, you will have a spiritual healing. He will confirm his love to you. He will turn away his anger and his judgment and show you mercy. Let’s close with the word for it. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the promises of your word. Sometimes your word is awful dark and difficult for us to bear. We thank you for these words of comfort. We thank you for that you do provide for when we have fallen. And there’s hope, Father, hope for the future, hope for deliverance. We pray, Lord, you always keep these promises before us in our struggles in this life. In the name of Christ, we have these things. Let’s stand for the benediction. Grace be with all them that love our Lord. Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.