Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Jeremiah chapter 3, and reading
for our text, verse 22. Verse 22. Return, ye backsliding
children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come
unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. Jeremiah 3 and verse
22, where the subject this evening is backsliding and recovery from
backsliding. The children of Israel, the 12
tribes, divided into the 10 tribes, and then the tribes of Judah
and Benjamin The way the Lord dealt with them as a people,
they are a typical people. And in a gospel day, the Lord
has been pleased to give us the Old Testament as having this
typical people set before us as many instructions and teachings
to his spiritual Israel. Now I want to just look at the
background first here with Israel in a literal situation of what
is happening and the types that are set before us here before
then looking at it in a gospel way. Jeremiah is here prophesying
and we have the year about 600 and 27 years before Christ. We are told in the beginning
of this prophecy that he prophesied in the days of Josiah in the
13th year of his reign. Well, Josiah was a godly king
of Judah. He began to reign when he was
eight years of age. And eight years into his reign,
then he began himself to seek the Lord and to cleanse Jerusalem
of its idols. And it was not then until five
years later than that, that they then found the book of the Lord
in the house of God. and there was a real returning,
a real revival, though not long lasting, with the children of
Israel. How much it was actually taken
by all of Judah is very uncertain because we have said before us
here that they're returning but not with the whole heart or fairly. And it's amazing, really, with
the children of Israel, Judah especially, how that, depending
on what king was on the throne, then that is the way that nation
went. The king seemed to have a great
influence, but we cannot help thinking that for the most part,
there was many there, even under godly reigns, that were practising
sin or just waiting for such times as they could do, allowed
by their kings. And it is the same, really, with
any nation, any godly nation, a good nation, it will always
be those that, if they were given the opportunity, would rise.
with wickedness. And so we have this with the
children of Israel at this time. It was a time when there was
to be revival, but dear Jeremiah, he was to actually see not only
the first carrying away, which was to be some 22 years after
this, but also the destruction of the temple. So, if we go back
from this time another 95 years, we would get to when Hezekiah
was on the throne, And that was when the Ten Tribes were carried
away into Assyria and dispersed. And Judah had seen that. They'd seen it in Hezekiah's
day. They saw it since. They saw how
God judged Israel, the Ten Tribes, because of all their wickedness
and their sin. that they turned from the true
and living God and turned to serve idols and to worship idols
and would not listen to the warnings of the prophets, therefore God
sent them away. Judah had seen all of this and
yet she still went on in her sin. And we have told us in this
passage here because The picture that is here is that Israel and
Judah are like sisters. And the Lord says they were married
to him. But instead of retaining to their
husband, they played the harlot and went and had other lovers.
Israel, instead of serving just the Lord, they served idols. They loved them instead of loving
the Lord. So that is the picture that is
here of two sisters committing adultery and acting as a harlot. And the Lord says of Judah that
she was in a worse position than even Israel. because she actually
saw what happened to her sister. We have in verse eight, and her
treacherous sister feared not, but went and played the harlot.
Also, she saw all the causes, she saw all the reasons why God
dealt with those 10 tribes, and she still did the same. What a picture of man's heart. What a picture of how fallen,
how depraved our nature is, that it can actually look at God's
judgments on another and somehow think that though I'm being warned
about those same things, God won't judge me the same. I will
escape it, it won't happen to me. And here, with these tribes
of Israel, the Lord's people, and the Lord uses them as a picture
and how many times we might see the Lord's judgment on another
and his dealings with another person and be told the reasons
why and we see what has happened to them. And then the Lord, through
his word and through his servants, warns us of the same things.
But though we have seen what's happened to others, we still
harden our heart and still go on and still act as if the Lord
would never do that. to us. Well, he did with Judah. He did carry them away and he
did take them to Babylon and he did destroy the temple and
he did come to pass what he said would happen. And so that is
a real warning to us. It is a picture here of the Lord's
people and they were his people. He formed them from Abraham.
He brought them into Egypt. He brought them out of Egypt.
He gave them laws, and they worshipped him, and they were charged when
they came into Canaan that they were not to learn the ways of
the heathen. They were to stay serving him.
They were to fear him and not learn the ways of the heathen,
how they worshipped their gods and served their gods. But they
did. And they turned away. They backslid. from the Lord, from all his laws,
from his ordinances, from his ways. And they went right back
to even worse than the heathen and worse than they had been
even before God formed them into a nation. That is the backsliding
of Israel and of Judah. And that is the path and way
that they had walked. Well, after Jeremiah and after
the Lord through him, tells and reproves Judah for that they
had seen what had happened with Israel but not taken any warning
of it. Then we have from verse 12, go
and proclaim these words towards the north. Here is Jeremiah now,
and he's proclaiming the words in which our text is a part to
those 10 tribes. And this is why we We know that
this is pointing especially to gospel days because the Ten Tribes
were never restored until those gospel days, until there is a
gathering together of the dispersed of Israel, there's a gathering
together of the Gentiles, a gathering together of Jew and Gentile as
Paul sets forth in Ephesians under the gospel, no more strangers
and no more alienated but brought as children in the Lord Jesus
Christ. So the promises they look forward
to, to gospel days and the teaching and instruction is for these
days when we preach the gospel and preach to the people of God. So if we are then looking at
gospel days, then we must think, well, who is this spoken to? In the first place, it is to
the north, to the ten tribes, but it is spoken to God's people. You can't bring a word to a people
that have been backsliding if they haven't backslidden from
something. And the children of Israel once
were not a people, but then they were made into a people, a people
of God, and then they backslid from that position. And so in
gospel days, God has a people which once were not a people,
which were lost and ruined in the fall, strangers to him, ignorant
of the ways of the Lord. And he passes by them and he
bids them live. He gives them eternal life and
he opens their ear and he instructs them and teaches them in his
ways and they walk in his ways. It is a blessed thing when the
Lord does that. no greater blessing than to be
called of God, to be born again of the Spirit. And when the Lord
begins, it often is a real time of love, a blessed time, a time
when the people of God are broken off from worldly pursuits, idols,
and brought to serve the Lord, to obey Him, to read His Word,
obey His Word, and walk in His ordinances and walk in His ways. And so really with the subject
here this evening, we may search and ask ourselves, where are
we in this? If the word is not to us because
we have never been brought into a place to backslide from, then
we need to really consider where are we found? The most important
thing is that we be called, that the Lord puts us amongst his
children. You might say, well, is there
anything to learn or to profit from through hearing the Lord
speaking to his people that he has called and has quickened
and that they have gone back from him and his word is to them,
calling them, who are already a spiritually alive people, calling
them to repentance and calling them to returning? Is there? any message for those who as
yet have not been called, who have not been brought into spiritual
life. You know, the very first promise
that was given of the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's
head, it was really not spoken directly to Adam and Eve at all. It was spoken to Satan. And yet our first parents, they
hearkened and they heard, and they heard that promise that
the seed of the woman should come and should bruise his head
and he should bruise his heel. A beautiful promise of Christ
fulfilled in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Often think
too of the time when our Lord was in the house and the woman
with the alabaster box avoidment and those that were speaking
against her. And our Lord spoke to Simon the
host. He said, you see this woman.
He said, I came into your house and thou has not washed my feet,
thou has not anointed my feet at all. But this woman, since
I came in, she has not ceased to do this. I'm weeping. I'm
washing my feet with the hairs of her head. And he says, I say
unto you that her sins, which are many, are all forgiven. And he's speaking to Simon. This
woman is sitting by and listening, listening to what is being said
about her to someone else. And then the Lord turns to her
and speaks it direct to her. And so there's a great encouragement
that even if we may feel well, the preacher is not directly
speaking to me. and I'm not really in that position,
that we can hearken and listen. There is so much that is encouraging
in this, and in this portion, because it speaks of what the
Lord is, that the Lord is a merciful God, and that he is long-suffering. In verse 12, it says, I will
not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful,
saith the Lord, and I will not keep mine, keep anger forever. And one precious truth for the
people of God is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today
and forever. And for those that have backslidden,
They need to be told the Lord is the same that called them
when they were dead in trespasses and sins, as he is now, and that
if he blessed them when they were yet enemies to him, how
much more will he bless them now? And so there's a message
to those as yet that truly have not yet heard his call, have
not yet obeyed the gospel, have not yet had their heart broken
under the Word, that they are to hear and to listen. And may
the Spirit truly bless that Word and lay it to your heart as well. Because it may be sometimes the
objections by those who are seeking the Lord is because of their
wicked heart, because of their evil ways. And they think that
if they start, how can they continue? As if the Lord would say, wait,
you just listen. Listen to me speaking to my people. God's people do backslide. They do. And that's a warning. Not that we should sin that grace
might abound, but it is a solemn reality. They do. But when they
do that, they are not cast off. They're not deserted. They're
not left. There is a way back. And the Lord is long-suffering
and entreats them and pleads with them and reasons with them
and gives them very clear directions as to a way back. And we may
say, gives them the grace and mercy and blessing upon the word
to bring them back. And so it's encouragement to
those that are seeking to look forward and to see how the Lord
is dealing. perhaps even used it in an illustration
in a literal way. Say if there's a young person
that is studying up to be an engineer or to be in some profession
and they're certainly not qualified yet, they cannot practice, they're
not in that profession, but they read out books about what happens
to those that are qualified, they might, read about those
that have made mistakes, that have had errors, how they've
been restored, how they've been dealt with, and you're learning
about the position that one day you hope that you will be in,
and it's encouragement in pursuing that career. And so if we truly
are seeking the things of God, Whatever is said to his people,
whatever is the message all the way along their life, and especially
when they draw near to their journey's end, and what is provided
for them in heaven, surely those things will really interest us. And not only that, they all the
time are a reminder to us. As yet, in my own conscience,
in my own feelings, I'm yet an outsider, I'm yet a stranger,
I yet have not believed, confessed, I have not that assurance that
I am one of God's spiritual children, let alone backslidden from that. And so we need those things to
stir us up, lest we be filled with apathy, carelessness and
indifference, And especially when the Lord has in the land
those solemn warnings through the pandemic and the things that
are happening, it's a call unto us to acknowledge the Lord our
maker and to consider our souls and to seek for those things
which are eternal, not looking for those things that are temporal.
Seek ye first, says our Lord, the kingdom of God and his righteousness. It is a a solemn call to all
to seek first those things which are eternal. So I want then to
look at this word, a word that then is spoken to a people that
have been called, that have known the blessings of the Lord and
yet now have turned away. They are like the churches in
the Revelation where they have grown cold or lukewarm that the
Lord will spew them out of his mouth. Those that had left their
first love, Christ was their first love. Those who walk in
the way foretold in these last days because iniquity abounds. The love of many shall wax cold. Those who have but little faith,
shall he find faith on the earth? Men being lovers of pleasure
more than lovers of God. If the children of Israel literally
backslid as they did, which they did, how much more shall it be
also in the days of grace when the love of many does? grow cold. One of the churches in the Revelation,
it was charged that they had an aim to live and yet were dead. And the Lord sees this. He sees
what is just religious busyness. And when we think of Martha,
how that she was in the house where the Lord was, and she was
very busy. Busy about the house, about supplying
the needs, the food needs for our Lord, probably to much more
excess than ever what our Lord required or needed. And yet so
busy that she had no time to sit at the feet of the Lord. And you know, we can be like
that. We could be so busy even in religious things, a preacher
can. He can be so busy even in preaching and ministering and
in the things for a deacon, and if a minister has those responsibilities
too, in the house of God, he has so much to do that he never
has close communion time with the Lord. He never has closet
time. He never has time that he actually
has sweet communion and fellowship. It's all the time, whether it
is the next sermon or the next time of gathering together or
something else to be done. And our Lord saw that with his
disciples, much coming and going, no leisure so much as to eat.
He says, come ye apart and rest a while. And they went down. Well, the people saw them. They
sat down. They sat under his word as he
spoke to them. And that's what we need. That's
what Mary felt a need of. She sat at the feet of the Lord
and heard his word. And that's what we need. And
we may ask ourselves, how much are we doing? that is just a
religious busyness, but is not sitting at the feet of the Lord
and hearing his word. Rounds of dead service, forms
and ways, will never comfort a wounded soul, will never really
give that joy and peace to the people of God. So, I want to
then look at three points here. To backsliding people, a call
to return. Our text, verse 22, return ye
backsliding children. Very simply put, a call to return. And secondly, there is a promise
of healing the backsliding, and I will heal your backslidings. And thirdly, there is a response
from the people. Behold, we come unto thee, for
thou art the Lord our God. A call to return, a promise of
healing, the backsliding, and the people's response. And firstly then, there is a
call to return. And we may say, what is it to
return to? And we must say it is a returning
unto the Lord, their God. The God that is speaking to them
is not returning to Forms and ways, it's not returning just
outwardly, but really returning to the Lord, not failedly like
Judah was doing, but truly with all the heart. A call to return,
return ye backsliding children. And we may clearly say here,
this as a type, it is to children. It is to God's children. It is
to those that are spiritually alive. It is to those that have
an ear to hear the Lord as a word to them. And we know that the
Lord will not cast off his children, but will chasten them and correct
them as he did to Israel and to Judah. But the call is to
return. You might say, well, if it's
a return unto the Lord, how is it to be accomplished and how
is it to actually be done in practice? Well, just as an incentive,
first, it is good to remind ourselves again of what we mentioned earlier,
of the character of the Lord. Verse 12, for I am merciful,
saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever. Always to remember this, who
it is that is speaking, who it is that is calling his people. And even in the very call, how
often where we get so far off from the Lord and Satan will
take advantage of it, And he would say, the reason why you're
so far off and the reason why you've so backslidden is because
you never were a child of God in the first place. Well, the
very words of our text, it would reinforce an answer to that. No, the Lord is speaking to backsliders
and he's speaking to them as children, assuring them that
they are still children, though they have backslidden. And he
which hath begun a good work in them will perform it unto
the day of Jesus Christ. And the Lord's mercies are to
be realized afresh and anew in restoring his people. He used
the illustration in the first part of this chapter about, they
say, if a man, and it was the law in Israel, if a man did put
away his wife, she went from him, went to another man, he
was forbidden to take her back again. And yet the Lord says,
that may be the law, and they would not do that, but he says,
I will do that. You've gone after idols, you've
gone after other gods, but I'll take you back again. And what
an encouragement that that is, and it may be. to those of you
this evening that you need such an encouragement and such a word.
You may have thought, how can the Lord restore me? How can
he take me back? How can I have the blessings
that I've known before after the way that I've walked, after
I've turned aside, after I've backslidden, after I've turned
back to those things I thought, I hoped, I'd been delivered from,
set free from, and yet now ensnared and gone after these things,
and to be perfectly honest, I feel my heart still inclined to them,
still so to lust after those things, and confessing before
the Lord what the true state and condition of the heart is.
And yet the Lord says, no, I know. I know your backslidings. I know what they are. But return
ye backsliding children. Well, how? How is it that we
are bidden to return? We have, if we go to verse 13,
it begins with this word, only. And we can't help thinking of
the case of Naaman the Syrian, when he was to be healed of his
leprosy. And he thought that the prophet
would do some great thing. But all he bid him do was to
go and wash and dip himself in Jordan seven times. And he went
away in a rage. That was too simple. So when
you have a call to return from backsliding, and yet the directions
given are only, acknowledge thine iniquity. And we'll open it up
a bit more. Sometimes we think, well, It
surely must be I've so far away, I've so fallen, I've so backslidden,
that it must be some great thing that I must do. And yet this
is the way, and we back it up with the gospel way in a moment
as well. Only acknowledge thine iniquity. Acknowledge it, confess it. that
that truly is my sin and my departure, that this is what I have done. Now it's not just acknowledging
iniquity in a general way. We need to be very careful about
just generalities. Many will say, well, we are sinners.
You ask them, well, where in are you sinners? How have you
sinned? What have you done? Where is your wickedness? And
so here it is actually specific things that are to be acknowledged. Iniquity is really sin against
light and knowledge. It is an aggravated sinning. A sinning where we've actually
known better and yet have done it still. And so it is only acknowledged
thine iniquity that thou hast. And so what is asked is specific
things that have been done. And with Israel here, it is thou
hast transgressed against the Lord thy God. If we think of David in Psalm
51, after he had gone into Bathsheba, after he'd had Uriah murdered,
against thee, the only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mayest be justified. And David is confessing his sin
and acknowledging it before the Lord. And so here it is that
thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hath scattered
thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have
not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord." Transgressed against the
Lord, committed idolatry, and not obeyed the voice of the Lord. And you know you and I, If this
Word finds us out as backsliders, we'll have those specific things
that we'll have to come before the Lord and acknowledge. Own it. Confess. Recognise that this is us, that
the Word has found us out, falling before it. humbling ourselves
before the Lord. Not just saying, well, this is
not my sin. It is not too bad. How is it backed up? In a gospel
way, the same message that runs right through the Word of God. We have the epistles of John, The First Epistle, General, Chapter
1, verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. So instead of with our text and
with what is set before us there in verse 13, only acknowledge
thine iniquity, and her text, return ye backsliding children,
and instead of the word, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,
the word of our text is, and I will heal your backslidings. We have also in this first chapter,
if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And so the path,
again, it is a path of acknowledging and confessing those actual sins. You might say, well, what about
repentance? What about turning from them?
If I can have my back sliding, If I'm going to return, then
it means not walking in idolatry, not walking in those sins, not
walking in those evils. And yet I feel them so strong,
so powerful within. Some of those sins are formed
habits, and those habits, even though I might turn from their
sin, then the habits still lay hold fast upon me. And you can't
really see, and you say, well, where is the power of the gospel?
Where is the blessing of the gospel? And the idea is, in our
mind, if we are going to return, then we will do all of the cleansing
and all of the healing, and we'll make ourselves right in the sight
of God, and then we'll come before the Lord and say, here we are,
I've made everything right, I've cleansed my heart, I'm no longer
backsliding, I now worship Thee and be found right. I've restored
my own soul, I've brought myself into the position where I was
once before. Well, that's not any gospel to
be told to a poor sinner that that is what he must do. It's
bringing ascending to the law. But when we have the way set
before us here, only acknowledge thine iniquity, if we confess
our sins, and is allowing it all before the Lord, is like
the lepers coming before the Lord Jesus Christ and saying,
have mercy on us. And the Lord had compassion on
them, and he sent them to the priest, and as they were going,
they realised that they were healed, And the path that is
set before us here in returning is a returning in confession,
in owning and acknowledging and humbling ourselves before the
Lord as a guilty sinner. Really, in one sense, the returning
has already come about. The returning is unto the Lord. But the sinner returning to the
Lord still feels in all their blackness, their sin, their guilt,
their shame. And yet there they are, confessing,
praying to the Lord. And that is what the returning
is. These children of Israel and
the people of God had been far away from the Lord. They might
think, well, the proper returning is returning as a clean-heeled
sinner. The Lord says, no. And some of
the hymns speak of it, too. If you tarry till you batter,
you will never come at all. We come just as we are before
the Lord. Remember one of the brethren
saying, he's a farmer in Bedfordshire. And he was working on his tractor,
and he was all in his dirty clothes, and he'd been waiting on a call
to have an appointment with the doctor. And he got a call on
his phone in the tractor, and the doctor says, I have an appointment.
It's in 10, 15 minutes time, or whatever it was. And he said,
but I'm right out in the field. I've got all my working clothes
on. I'm all dirty. And the doctor said, just come,
just as you are. Just come to the appointment,
just like this. And it was a real message to
him, that that is the message of the gospel, and that is the
message of returning, that we come just as we are, with all
of our sin, and all of our shame, and our departures, and our habits,
and all that we have to confess. And that is what we do. We come
and confessed. Well then we have secondly a
promise of healing the backsliding which reinforces what the message
of the returning is. Return ye backsliding children
and I will heal your backslidings. Your backslidings when you return
are not healed. And so we have it as well in
the epistles of John, that if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins. God will forgive those sins.
And what will he do as well? He'll cleanse us from those sins,
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that is what the Lord does
with the healing our backslidings. O for faith to lay hold upon
such words as this. You know, if you're like me,
we spend our time busy trying to heal our own backslidings.
And the more we do, the deeper we get, and the more in debt
we get. But we need the power of God,
the blessing of God, and to walk in His way. No poor sinner yet
can heal their own backslidings. But the Lord does it. He gives
the will, He gives the power, He gives the ability, takes away
the love of sinning, gives a new heart, softens the heart. If
ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live. It is by the blessing of the
Lord that the Canaanites are driven out. When the children
of Israel, just to Look at the types again. When they went into
the promised land, the Canaanites had to be driven out of that
land. But the Lord said, you won't drive them all out at once.
You drive them out as you increase. When you're small in number,
you just dispossess those that are enough to give you land to
live on. And then when you grow, then you take out more because
otherwise the beast of the field will increase upon you. There's
not to be left, just a void. Sometimes we can get the idea,
well, if we can deal with all our sins and all our backslidings,
then we're going to be a holy people. But all that you'd be,
you'd have them all gone for a while and there'd be a void,
an empty void. We have the solemn picture in
the scripture that that's more likely to end up a man with seven
worst devils coming and taking the place. But if you push out
those evils with the blessings, then there's no room for those
evils. If you have a child playing with
something that's very dangerous, to try and snatch that from them,
they're likely to cut themselves, hang on to it even more. But
if you set before them something delights them and something that
they like, a counter-attraction, they just drop their hold of
the dangerous thing and go for that which is more attractive.
We need to be drawn with bands of love and blessed with the
love of God she'd have brought in the heart. And then we won't
want the defilement and evil things of this world. When we
see the pearl of great price, then we'll want to sell up all
and have that. When we see the blessing of the
Lord that maketh rich, then we won't want the poor trash of
this world. And so it is to seek those heavenly
things, or in the words of our text, to seek the Lord, and in
confession, and in looking at him and asking him to heal those
backslidings. But the important thing is to
be found with the and delighting in the Lord. So what is the people's
response then to this call to return and a promise, a promise
of the Lord's healings? Behold, we come unto thee, for
thou art the Lord our God. The Lord had called them children,
and they return and they say, that thou art the Lord, our God. The Lord says, return, and they
say, behold, we come unto thee. Amazing thing for a backsliding
people already, there is a walking together, a oneness between them
and the Lord. Before that, there wasn't. Before
that, there was a going after idols, a hearkening to them,
and an acting as if the Lord was not their God or father at
all. And now we have a oneness, even
in this very verse, that the Lord wants them to return and
they say they will. The Lord calls them children
and they say that he is the Lord, their God. What a difference
that there is in that way. And there's some beautiful promises
that we're not only in the promise of healing, but bound up with,
and this is what those returning, they hold onto. It's a blessed
thing to hold onto and plead the promises of God as we return. You have in verse 14, and I always
like this verse, again, turn O backsliding children saith
the Lord for I am married unto you, and I'll take you one of
a city and two of a family and bring you to Zion. When I was
young, I used to look at this bird before I was called by grace,
and I used to really puzzle over him. And as a child, you think
that a family is always together. You'll always be together. And
I used to look at this first and think, well, how can you
have two? of God's people in one family,
but only one in a city, because the family are all in the city,
and it doesn't make sense. If you said that there was the
other way around, maybe it could make sense. But in a way, the
Lord was preparing me for that separation, because just as I
was called by grace, Well, I left home, but I left home because
the family left me. And they moved from Victoria
in Australia to Tasmania. And I stayed at the church there
in Melbourne. And so then I found what it was
to have my father called, and I was called, two of us in a
family, but only one in a city. And then, of course, to move
back over here. And again, that separating. So I always think of that when
I read this verse here, where there can be two of one family,
but only one of a city. But then there is the promise
in verse 15, that I will give you pastors according to mine
heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
part of the bound up with the promises given in our text. And then in verse 17, that the
children of Israel will not walk anymore after the imagination
of their own evil heart. It may be that is what is plaguing
you, the imaginations of your heart. The Lord says he knows
them, they're only evil continually. And yet here he says that he'll
deal with that. that they won't walk in that
way anymore. And then in verse 18, there is
a union, even a coming together with Judah and the house of Israel.
And we spoke of that belonging to gospel days. And so for a
people that are saying, behold, we come unto thee, is with these
promises and this expectation, our eyes looking unto the Lord
and in Hebrews 11, we have those that are strangers and pilgrims,
and one of the first evidences of faith is that they see the
promises are far off and embrace them. I say that to all that
hear me this evening, not only to those that are backslidden
and to be returning, but to those as yet seeing the goodness and
blessing of the Lord the call of the gospel, that see the promises
afar off and embrace those promises. In the very beginning, it is
the promises of God that draw us, that we lay a hold on. All
the promises of God are in Christ Jesus, yea, and amen. And he has promised that he will
give eternal life unto those that come unto him. Ye will not
come unto me that ye might have life. Ask, and it shall be given
you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. I give unto them eternal life,
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of mine hand. Let the wicked forsake his way,
the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. The Lord is a blessed and merciful
God and the Word of God is full of promises and it is a blessed
token for good where the Lord raises up in your heart and mine
that faith to lay hold on a promise and to plead it in prayer and
to rest on it, to hope in it and that the way that the Lord
leads us is towards him towards Him, coming guilty, full of sin,
but hoping in His promises, hoping in His cleansing, hoping in what
He has said. And here is a word for backsliding
children. If you, if I, have backslidden
from the Lord, and we are not now what we once were under the
sweet blessings of the Lord, May the Lord bless us with this
path. Return, ye backsliding children,
and I will heal your backslidings. And may our answer be, behold,
we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. May the Lord
bless us with that language and that returning and that union
with him again. Amen.