Good morning. Let's open up this
morning's worship service in the hardback hymnal number 42. Number 42, all hail the power
of Jesus' name. If you could all please stand. All hail the power of Jesus'
name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem. ? Lord of all ? The chosen seed
of Israel's race ? The ransom from the fall ? Hail Him who
saves you by His grace ? And crown Him Lord of all Hail Him
who saves you by His grace and crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe
on this terrestrial ball To Him all majesty ascribe, and crown
Him Lord of all. To Him all majesty ascribe, and
crown Him Lord of all. O that with yonder sacred throng
we at his feet may fall, we'll join the everlasting song and
crown him Lord of all. You can be seated. That's a good hymn. We're not here to make him Lord. God's already
done that. He's Lord over the living and
over the dead. He reigns sovereign over all
men. Men don't recognize it. The Lord
would give us the grace to crown him, crown him Lord, to acknowledge
him for who he is, he said, and I, if I be lifted up, will draw
all men to me. I hope the Lord will be pleased
to glorify himself this morning and draw us to himself. We're going to be in Hosea chapter
14, both hours, Hosea chapter 14. I've titled this first verse,
A Call for the Fallen. A Call for the Fallen. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the accomplished work of thy dear son. We thank
you for knowing that he is our life, our righteousness, our
justification, our redemption, our wisdom, our all and in all. We thank you, Lord, that you've
promised your Holy Spirit for those who ask you and that when
he comes, He leads thy people into all truth, causing us to
say, Abba, Father, knowing that by the miracle of the new birth
and the glorious truth of adoption, that we are the children of God. Behold what manner of love thou
hast toward us. that we, of all people, should
be called the sons of God. Lord, we pray that for Christ's
sake, you would issue forth an effectual call into the hearts
of thy people. Draw us to thyself, for we ask
it in Christ's name. Amen. I have five questions I want
to try to answer from Hosea chapter 14, verse 1. Verse 1, O Israel,
return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity. Who is this call to? That's the first question. The
answer to that question is that the call is to Israel. Israel. Now the scripture makes
it very clear in Romans chapter 9 that they which are of Israel
are not all from Israel. In other words, natural descent,
being a descendant of Abraham, as the Pharisee said, we be the
children of Abraham. The Lord said, if you were the
children of Abraham, you would believe in me. In fact, though
you can trace your lineage physically back to Abraham, you are, rather
than the children of Abraham, you're the children of the devil.
He goes on to make it very clear that spiritual Israel is who
these promises are for. Abraham believed God and it was
accounted unto him for righteousness. Faith doesn't debate the declarations
of God's Word. Faith doesn't try to explain
it. Faith believes it. We have a God who says to us,
thus saith the Lord. We're not giving men's opinion. We're not saying, well, it seems
to me. Israel believes God, just believes
God. That's what faith does. It bows,
crown him Lord. We just sang that, didn't we?
And that's what faith does. It bows to the Lord Jesus Christ
and it believes God. Those who are of Israel, those
who are the princes of God, those who have been called out by His
grace, that's who this promise is for. Oh, Israel. It's spiritual Israel. How do
I know if I'm of spiritual Israel? Well, the Lord made it clear.
He said, my sheep will hear my voice and they will follow me. I thought about growing up with
two brothers and oftentimes we would be out in the yard with
a bunch of the neighborhood kids playing ball and towards the
evening of the day, getting dark, my mother would come to the door
and she would just simply say, you boys, it's time to come in.
Now there may have been one or two of those other boys in the
neighborhood that might have looked around and thought, is
she talking to me? The vast majority of them knew
for sure that she wasn't talking to them. Me and my two brothers
knew exactly who she was talking to. We had heard that voice many,
many times and she was calling us. She wasn't calling the rest
of those boys to come in. What was she calling us to come
do? She knew that we had a need. She had already prepared a meal
and she knew that we needed to eat. She knew that we were dirty
and we needed to get a shower or a bath before we went to bed.
And she knew that we needed our rest in order to restore our
strength for the new day. And so, out of love, she came
to the door and she didn't have to say, Bob, Greg, John, she
said, you boys, come in. You boys, come in. And we, you
know, I never can think of a time, as a child at least, where that
call from my mother wasn't effectual. We always came in. We never ran
the other way. We never said, no, we're not
coming in. We're going over here. We responded to her call. Why? Because we're her children.
How do I know that this call is for me? You've heard his voice. And you know that he's the only
one that can feed your soul with the bread of life. And he's put
a hunger in your heart. You have a hunger and a thirst
for righteousness that you can't provide for yourself. You know
that you're dirty. You know that you need cleaning
up, and you know that you can't clean yourself up. He's the only
one that can do it. He's the only one that can wash
you clean with the water of His Word and with the truth of His
grace. He's the only one that can provide
for you a righteousness before God. And you know all of your
efforts, all of your efforts to try to find some peace in
your soul with God have been to no avail. You need a place
of rest. You need a place where you can
lie down and be at ease and know that you're being comforted. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is our only rest. Who is this call for? It's for
Israel. Are you of Israel? Not natural
Israel. Are you of physical Israel? He knows what we need before
we do. And he has provided everything
necessary, everything necessary for his children. Why? Because
he loves them. Oh, Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God. If there was nothing else in
this verse, If the verse didn't say, for thou hast fallen by
thine iniquity, if the only thing we had was the command of God
to come, that in itself would be sufficient. That in itself
would be sufficient. If you didn't have any other
need. If you didn't have any other problem. If God commands it, then that
in and of itself is sufficient warrant for us to come. The Spirit
and the Bride say, come. Come. Come to Christ. Those of
you that have known of His grace, return unto Him. God commands
all men everywhere to repent. He does. And men will stand guilty
before God for not having repented. They will. They will be, as the scripture
says, without excuse. Without excuse. But men won't
come. The Lord said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. Why? For you're not of mine.
You're not my children. My sheep, my children, my boys,
my girls, they're my boys. When I say come in, they come.
They come. So who's this for? It is for
spiritual Israel. That's who it's for. Now, there may have been a time or
two that me and my brothers lingered in responding to my mother's
voice. And so my father would come to
the door. We never lingered when it came
to hearing his voice. When he said, you boys come in,
we knew that he meant business to come in. How is this call
made? How is it made? Look at the first
word of the verse. Oh, Israel. Now that's not a
pleading, that's not a begging, that's not a God in heaven who's
wringing his hands, wishing men would let him have his way. Oh,
won't you let Jesus come into your heart? No, no, that's not
it at all. But it is a call of love. It
is a call of grace. He's not threatening his children
with the law. He's not scaring them to come
in lest they be punished. He's drawing us with, as we saw
last week, the cords of a man, with withdrawns of grace. He's pulling us to himself. He's alluring his wife to come
into his presence. It is the goodness of God that
leadeth to repentance. It's the love of Christ that
constraineth us. He's not beating his sheep. He's not threatening his children
with the law. He's declaring to them what he's
accomplished in satisfying all the demands of God's law for
them. He's telling them about His dear Son who hung on Calvary's
cross and suffered and bled and died and was buried and rose
again in order to fulfill God's divine justice. In order to say
to His people, salvation is of the Lord. I've done it all. I've
done it all. For by grace are you saved through
faith. How is this? Who's this? Who's
this call to? It's an effectual call. God's
people will come. They will come. He'll make them
willing in the day of His power. He may let them linger for a
while. He may do for them what He did for Lot. The scripture
says that Lot lingered in Sodom. He didn't want to come out. And
so what did that angel do? He went, caught him by the hand,
and drug him out. And the Lord may do that. But
one way or the other, one way or the other, the call to return
to the Lord our God will be heard, and it will be effectual. Our
God's not a frustrated God. He's not trying to save anybody. He has accomplished the salvation
of His people. through the shed blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, that salvation
was accomplished in the covenant of grace before Adam was ever
formed from the dust of the earth. Before time ever began, the Lord
Jesus Christ is the lamb that was slain before the foundations
of the world. What the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
2,000 years ago was just fulfilling in time what God had already
purposed in eternity. And so, it's done. Oh, Israel. Oh, Israel, I've loved you. Our Lord said, I love them to
the end. And that's how he loves his people. He allures his bride with loving
affection. Don't you love the story of Mephibosheth,
the son of Jonathan, the only descendant of Saul left alive. And in those days, if there was
a descendant of a preceding king still alive, that descendant
had to be put to death. Otherwise, they were a threat
to your reign. And so Mephibosheth hides out
in a place called Lodabar. Where there's no bread, that's
what that word means. And he's scared to death that
David's gonna find him out and David's gonna put him to death.
David finds out where Mephibosheth is and he sends his servant to
fetch him. He said, go fetch him and bring
him to me. Don't you know Mephibosheth was
shaking in his boots all the way back to Jerusalem? He thought,
this is it. I've been found out. I'm going
to be put to death. And there's no hope. And David
sees Mephibosheth. And he says, oh, Mephibosheth,
Mephibosheth. He saw the likeness of his father
Jonathan in his countenance. and he provided him a place at
the king's table. He said, you sit down here as
one of the king's sons, and you hide those crippled feet under
my tablecloth, and I'll provide for you all the rest of the days
of your life. And what did Mephibosheth say?
What would the king have to do with such a dead dog as I? Why would you offer me such grace?
Why would you be so kind to me? Why would you provide for me
so abundantly? And why did David? Why did David? Because of David's love for Jonathan,
Mephibosheth's father. And David extended that grace
to Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake. And so it is for his children
today. They're from the loins, just
like Mephibosheth was from the loins of his father, Jonathan. So the children of God are from
the seed of Abraham, from the loins of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And for Christ's sake, he loves his people. He loves them. And
he says to them, oh, Israel, oh, the children of God, come,
come. Can you imagine the tones of
grace that were in the Lord's voice when he said, Adam, Adam,
where art thou? The Lord knew exactly where he
was. But Adam needed to hear the Lord's
voice and the compassion and the love that was in that voice.
When Nathan spoke to David and said, Thou
art the man, David, don't you know he spoke those words with
a broken heart? Here's how the Lord allures his
wife. Here's how he calls her. Oh,
Israel, I'm not threatening you with the law. The law's been
satisfied. I'm not threatening you with
eternal judgment. My justice has been fulfilled.
The blood of Christ has been shed. Sin's been put away. I'm alluring you in love to return
to the Lord your God. Come to me. Come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy
burdened, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn
of me. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. I'll give
you what? Rest for your soul. Rest for your soul. Can you hear
his voice? Oh, Israel. It's not a pleading
voice. It's not a begging voice. It's
not a desperate cry to let him have his way. But it is a voice
of compassion. Our Lord knew exactly what Peter
was gonna do. He told him so. He told him so. Peter said, these all may deny
you, but not me. I'm gonna stand by your side.
And he did, right up to the time he cut off Malchus' ear, the
servant of the high priest there in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And then Peter lost his strength, didn't he? And within just a
few hours, Peter denied the Lord three times. And in Luke, chapter
22, verse 61, the scripture says, after the Lord had been flogged,
after he had been beaten, after he had been put that purple robe
on him and that crown of thorns on his head and a reed in his
hand, after he'd been mocked and beaten and bloodied to a
pulp, what happened? The Lord comes through That area
where Peter's standing by the fire. And the scripture says
in Luke chapter 22 verse 61, and the Lord turned and looked
upon Peter. What do you suppose that look
was? A look of disappointment? A look of condescension? A look
of anger? No. No, it wasn't at all. He looked
upon Peter as one that he loved. And the scripture says, Peter
remembered what the Lord had said and went out and wept bitterly. It's his compassion towards us
that is compelling. It's his love toward us that's
irresistible. It's not the threatenings of
the law. It's not the wrath and the judgment of God. It's not
the fear of hell. It's the love of Christ. Oh,
Israel, who is this made to? It's made to Israel. And in what
spirit is this call brought forth? It's brought forth in a spirit
of compassion, in a spirit of love. You know, when we lose
our temper or get sinfully angry, and I say sinfully angry because
the scripture does say that we are to be angry, but sin not. There are things that we ought
to be angry about, particularly when it comes to man-made religion
deceiving men. There ought to be a spirit of,
but sinful anger, what is it? What is it in your life? What
is it in my life? I'll tell you exactly what it
is. I know by experience what it is. It's a desperate attempt
on my part to get control of the situation. Isn't that what
it is? The Lord's never been desperate
and he's never lost control, ever. under any circumstances. He has no reason to be angry. His anger has been put away.
He's got nothing but grace, nothing but love, nothing but kindness
for his children. And he says to them, O Israel,
don't you love the story of Joseph and his brothers? And Joseph
didn't reveal himself to his brothers yet. And the brothers
thought, boy, we're dead men, we're dead men. And they didn't
know that Joseph could hear what they were saying and understood
what they were saying. They thought Joseph was a Egyptian. And they were lamenting what
they had done to their brother. And the scripture says that Joseph
had to run behind the curtain and weep in compassion for his
brothers. And then he comes out and he
reveals himself to his brothers and he says to them, you meant
it for evil, God meant it for good. Don't worry, I'm not gonna
execute my wrath against you. And even after Jacob died, Joseph
thought, his brothers thought, boy, our father's dead, now Joseph's
gonna get us. And Joseph was moved with compassion
and brokenhearted over the fact that his brothers still thought
that he was gonna punish them. I'm not gonna punish you. I've
already punished you. My punishment has been satisfied.
My wrath's been put away. There's no more, there's nothing
left to punish. Nothing left to punish. All I
have for you is love and compassion. Now that might mean some chastisement,
that might mean some trials and troubles, but every single one
of them will be for your good. every one of them, to lead you
to the peaceable fruit of righteousness, to lead you to Christ. Find all
your hope in him. Who is this call for? It's for
spiritual Israel. It's for those who are able to
hear the voice of God. How is this call issued? It's
issued in a spirit of love and compassion. What are we called
to do? What are we called to do? Now,
anytime there's a broken relationship between us, between men, you
and your wife, you and your husband, you and your kids, your employee,
your employees, whoever, whoever, There's never a time in my experience
where 100% of the guilt is all carried by one person. And so anytime there's a conflict
between you and somebody else, find out what contribution you
made in that conflict and confess that. Confess that. That'll be
the way to reconcile that. Always. If there's a conflict between
me and God, if there's a conflict between you and God, if you have
a broken relationship with Him, you bear 100% of the responsibility. 100%. All the shame, all the
responsibility for that broken fellowship is on the shoulders of the sinner. And all the responsibility for
restoring that fellowship is on the shoulders of Christ. What are we called to do? To
return! Come! He's already paid the price. We often quote that passage in
Malachi chapter 3, I am the Lord and I change not. I don't need to return. You're
the one that needs to return. I haven't moved. You're the one
that's moved. And that's the only reason you
sons of Jacob are not consumed because I'm I haven't moved. I'm in the same place. And the
next verse says, return unto me, and I will return unto you,
saith the Lord. Oh, what a glorious promise. What
a glorious promise. Return. Come. Come. You know, and the more you grow
in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more
you will see how many more times you need to return, how more
often. In other words, the more sensitive
your heart becomes to any Any strain, anything that's between
you and the Lord, you become sent. Perhaps you're like David.
Perhaps the Lord has allowed you to fall headlong into some
grievous sin for a lengthy period of time. Return, return. Perhaps you're like Peter I just
mentioned. Peter was bold and confident. in the Garden of Gethsemane,
and within just a few hours had denied the Lord with cursings
three times. The Lord allowed him to have
that experience, didn't he? But you know, whether it's some
sort of gross, grievous sin, or whether it's just your inability
to stay in touch with the Lord. I don't know any other way to
put it. Just to stay in fellowship with Him, to believe Him, to
rejoice in Him, to delight in Him. You become cold and presumptuous to his blessings
and presence and and your heart becomes cold to the needs of
other men and you and you and you you become attracted to the
things of this world and you put your hope in something other
than Christ and and and the more you grow in grace and in the
knowledge of Christ the more you're going to see of those
experiences in your heart thus causing you to recognize your
need to return more and more and more This call to return
is not just for those who have fallen away in some long, protracted,
grievous backsliding. This is an experience that every
child of God has. And the more you grow in grace
and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more you will
see of your need to keep returning. To return. You know, how many
times have you needed to return in the last 30 minutes? That's
what I'm talking about. You know, you hear and you rejoice
and then within your mind, you're off somewhere else and you gotta
return, don't you? Oh, Israel, return, return. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity? Hmm. He has come to me. I'm your loving heavenly father
that is ready to lavish you with my kisses, put my robe of righteousness
on you, shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel, and
kill the fatted calf. Return, that prodigal needed
to return, didn't he? Who is it that's issuing forth
this call? Who is it that we return to?
How do we return? Oh, Israel, who returns Israel? Return unto the Lord, the Lord
thy God. Two names are given here for
our God, the one to whom we are returning. The first one is the
name LORD. Now when you see L-O-R-D all
in caps in the Old Testament, it's always Jehovah. It's the
name that God, the Lord Jesus Christ, gave to Moses at the
burning bush. When Moses said, whom shall I
say sent me? And the Lord said, tell them
I am hath sent thee. It's his covenant keeping name.
I, I, it's his, it's his self-sustaining covenant name. How is it that
we return? We return because the covenant
of grace hasn't changed. It hasn't changed. Not one bit. It can't change. It's established
in the very name of God. Jehovah. I am. Not I was, or
I will be, or I might be, or I'll try to be, or if you do
your part, I can be for you. No, I am. I am. I change not. You sons of Jacob are not gonna
be consumed because I am a covenant-keeping God. Return to me. Return to me. So I have the willingness
to save. in my covenant of grace and now
what does he say return to the Lord thy God that's the word
Elohim and that has to do with his power with his authority
he's the creator God the creator and sustainer of all of life
what the Lord is telling us here when he says, O Israel, return
unto the Lord, the one who's willing to save, thy God, the
one who's able to save. Now a God who's willing and a
God who's able, there's nothing left. There's nothing left. He's willing to save his people
because he determined it. and purposed it in the covenant
of grace and he's able to save because by himself he satisfied
the demands of the law and put away our sins once and for all. He's God. He's able to save. Oh, that man, that man that came
to the Lord with his, he came to the disciples with his son,
you remember, that was possessed with an evil spirit, and the
disciples couldn't do anything, and the man came to the Lord
and said, I brought my son to the disciples, they couldn't
do anything, and if you are able, that's what he said to the Lord,
if you are able to do anything, help us. What did the Lord say
to him? If you are able, don't call my
ability into question. Nothing wrong with my ability.
If you are able to believe, all things are possible to them that
believe. Oh Lord, give me the grace to believe. Make me able
to believe. That's the greatest demonstration
of our God's power is His ability not only to put away our sin,
but to give us faith to believe something that we would otherwise
not believe. We wouldn't believe Christ. We
wouldn't believe the gospel. We'd be just like everybody else. O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God, for thou hast fallen. Why is he calling us? Why is God calling us to come? I'll tell you why. Because he
sees the misery of our fall. He sees what we're experiencing. And his heart is moved in compassion
to call us to return unto him. We fell in our father Adam. Adam
is the, he's the seminal head of the human race. All of us
were in the loins of Adam. And when he fell, we fell. So
we came into this world dead in our trespasses and sins. We
came into this world fallen in our father Adam. And the Lord
says to Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen
in thine iniquity. Our problem, your problem and
my problem is not financial. It's not psychological. It's not relational between men. We say, I've got a problem in
my marriage. I've got a problem here. That's
not your problem. It's not my problem. Our problem is our iniquity. Your iniquity has separated you
from your God. That's what the scripture says.
That's my problem. What am I going to do about that?
Return Oh Israel unto the Lord thy God for that's fallen due
to thine iniquity He is able to heal He is willing to heal. Oh Hey, he loves his children
You know we We go through life misdiagnosing our problems. Don't
we we're just like a we're like a bad doctor and You know, we
just misdiagnosed what the real problem is. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. That's the rule and the reign
of the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. Don't bring any of your own righteousness.
You don't have any. And all these other things, all
the things that we get so worried about, shall be added unto you
in God's time and in His purpose. Let's take a break. Yeah. Yeah.