this morning. Let's go to Hosea
14. Our Lord says here in verse 1, O
Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen
by thine iniquity. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord and say unto him, take away all iniquity and receive
us graciously. So will we render the calves
of our lips. Asher, or Assyria, 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. And
God says, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely for my
anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel.
He shall grow as a lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His
branches shall spread, his beauty shall be as the olive tree and
his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow
shall return. They shall revive as the corn
and grow as the vine. The scent thereof shall be as
the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, what have
I to do anymore with idols? I've heard him, I've observed
him. I'm like a green fir tree, for
me is thy fruit found. Who's wise and he shall understand
these things? Prudent, he shall know them,
for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk
in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein. Now the first
three chapters of Hosea gives the account of Hosea's love for
Gomer. Brother Ben mentioned it in his
lesson this morning. Hosea pictures Christ, his name
means Savior, and it really happened. What he did really happened,
and it was on purpose. God ordained it to show his elect
that were in Israel, to show them his sovereign, unchangeable
love toward them. That was the purpose for which
he worked it. He said in Hosea 3.1, he told
him, go yet and love this woman who's yet an adulteress. She
was on a slave block. She couldn't pay her debt. She
couldn't do anything for herself. He said, go love her according
to the love of God to the children of Israel. And that's what he's
teaching. The children of Israel who were being idolaters, who
were going away backwards in their sins. And it's about the
love of God towards his people which never changed. So up until
the last chapter, the book is speaking about backsliding Ephraim. That's the ten and a half tribes
of Israel. And he's telling them, and he's speaking to Judah as well,
but he's telling them how that he will save, he will punish
the sins of his people. But throughout, he's scattering
out mercy in the midst of judgment. He says in one place that he
says, oh death, I'll be your plagues. Oh grave, I'll be thy
destruction. Repentance shall be hid from
mine eyes. And that's what Paul quoted, you know, over in Corinthians. He's telling us the gifts and
calling of God are without repentance. That's what he's telling us.
And so now here in our text, he speaks the word of the Lord,
and after all this speaking of judgment and chastening and what
he's gonna do to Ephraim, he says, O Israel, that's Ephraim. He says, return unto the Lord
thy God, for thou has fallen by thine iniquity. And he says
in verse four, I will heal their backslidings, I will love them
freely for mine anger's turned away from him. And Hosea here
wasn't preaching down to them. If you look back in Hosea 6.1,
he puts himself right alongside of them. He says in Hosea 6.1,
come, let us return unto the Lord. He lived there as well. He said, for he hath torn, he
will heal us. He is smitten, he will bind us
up. After two days will He revive us, and the third day He'll raise
us up and we shall live in His sight. That's a foreshadowing
of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. And He's saying
it's for His sake. He's going to save us. Come,
let us return unto the Lord. Now, our text is teaching us here
who this is addressed to. Some might ask, is it to lost
sinners or is it to saved sinners? Is this written to lost sinners
or is it written to saved sinners? Well, it's written to God's elect.
That's who it's written to. It's only God's elect who can
be made to hear this. Is he writing to God's lost elect
or is he writing to God's saved elect? He's writing to both. He's writing to both. To the
church at Ephesus, Remember the church at Ephesus? Let me read
this, if you want to look there, Revelation 2, 4, 5. He said,
I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first
love. Remember therefore from whence
thou art fallen. You know, a dead man doesn't
fall. Only a living man falls. Remember
from whence thou art fallen and repent. and do the first works,
or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick
out of his place, except thou repent. That's what he's telling
us in our text. Oh Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. God redeemed
Ephraim as Christ has redeemed his elect by his precious blood.
He brought him out of Egypt. He brought him out. You remember
who Ephraim was? Ephraim is the, he was the second
son born to Joseph. His mother was an Egyptian. And
in that, he's a good picture of Gentile elect. But he was
the second son born to Joseph. And when Jacob came to give the
blessing, remember, Jacob moved his hands. He put his right hand
on the youngest son, Ephraim, and his left hand on the oldest
son, Manasseh. And Joseph tried to turn his
hands and say, no, don't do that. Jacob said, I know what I'm doing.
Ephraim is the blessed of God. He's a picture of Christ's people
chosen in him, blessed of God from eternity. That's who Ephraim
is in this text. Not everybody in Ephraim, that
ten and a half tribes of Israel, they had revolted, they had rebelled.
Judah also would go into sin with them. He speaks here one
place of Judah being faithful. But Judah there is the line of
the tribe of Judah, and it's only for Christ's sake that we're
found faithful. But he's saying here, this people,
they had been brought out of Egypt, just like Christ has redeemed
his people. He redeemed us by his blood.
He's redeemed us from all iniquity by the blood and righteousness
that is his own. And God describes them here as
being brought out, and that's the case with those that God
has saved in Christ who not yet know they're saved, but it's
also true of those He's regenerated and give us faith to know Him.
We know we've been brought out. God spoke of Him as holding their
arms like you hold a little child, teaching them how to walk. He
spoke of setting meat before them. All these things that He
had done for them, but in ingratitude, Ephraim slid back into idolatry,
into sin. And it typifies both the fall
of all God's elect in Adam, but it also typifies our own sin
and our own backsliding and our own ingratitude towards God. We need repentance. We need cleansing
daily as believers. So this speaks to those that
are not called yet as well as those who are called. Now God
called for Ephraim to be left alone. You remember that? He
said in Hosea, leave him alone. He's given, he's turned to idols.
Well, many in Israel and Judah, God left to themselves. And this
doesn't speak to all men without exception. He left many of them
to themselves. There's many men in this world. God will not,
he will not show mercy. They are bastards and not son,
but not his elect. Those God loved eternally, He
freely in Christ got everlastingly loves and that love never changes
toward his people. He will save us from our sin
beginning to end. It was typified in Gomer after
she went back, Hosea was told to go marry her and he married
her. Now these people were given to idolatry and they were blood
was being shed. They were, you know, it was free
will works for religion is what idolatry is and that's what it
was. And you know they didn't take too kindly to Hosea going
and marrying a prostitute. How do you think they reacted
to that? Well, after she was married a little while, she returned
to her lovers. And Hosea, picturing Christ,
continued to give her corn, wine, oil, wool, flax, laying it at
her door, and she would have supper that night with her lovers,
and they would laugh at Hosea, this fool coming and providing
us this nice meal. And praising Baal, her false
god. And God said, I'm going to bring
her into the wilderness. I'm going to stop giving her
the bread and the corn and the wool. Now will I discover her
lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver
her out of my hand. Therefore, behold, I will allure
her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her."
And that's what God was doing when He said, Leave Eve from
alone. That's what He does with us. That's what He does with
us. He's going to do it the first
hour He saves. He's going to bring you into
the wilderness. And He's bringing His elect into the wilderness
to discover our lewdness to us. To make us see our sin. And none's
going to deliver us out of His hand. And He doesn't stop doing
this. He keeps doing this. He's alluring
us. He brings us into the wilderness
and speaks comfortably to us. It's not wrath. It's not judgment.
It's not breaking out the whip of the law that's going to make
any man do anything. It's the goodness and grace and
mercy and love of God. That's what He's doing for His
people, teaching us over and over. And so look at Hosea 11
and look at verse 8. Though He had said that about
leave them alone, this is what God Himself said. Hosea 11.8,
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How can I give you up? How shall
I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I set thee as Zeboam
and as Adamah? That is, these tales near Sodom
and Gomorrah. How am I going to make you be
like Sodom and Gomorrah? How am I going to pour out wrath
on you? And turn you over? My heart is
turned within me. This is God speaking. My repentings
are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness
of my anger. I will not return to destroy
Ephraim. Why not? For I am God and not
man, the Holy One in the midst of thee. I will not enter into
this city. I'm not going to enter into this
city and destroy it. I'm not man. God wasn't, He's
not, He wasn't changed. He wasn't surprised. He wasn't, He wasn't shocked
when we fell in Adam. And He's not so when we sin as
believers either. He knows our heart. He knows
what we are. He knows what he's going to do
for us. And he's not going to let his children go because he
everlasting loves us. And he's not going to deal with
us as we deal with one another sinfully and shamefully. And
lose, turn our back. He's not going
to do that for his people. He will not. And he's going to
teach us this and make us Be more like Him by showing us
how He's done this for us. It's the only way we're going
to be grown in this. So He says here, this is what He does in
the first hour. It's what He does every time
of need thereafter. He does it for Christ's sake.
He says this to His elect who are regenerate already and believe
Him when we need repentance. He says this to the unregenerate
who He's bringing to Christ. He draws us into the wilderness.
He chastens us. He strips us. He brings us down
just like they were at the Red Sea where there was a rock on
one side, a rock on the other side, the enemy barreling down
and a sea they couldn't cross in front so all they could do
was stand still and trust the Lord and see His salvation. That's
where He brings you. That's the only time we really
repent and trust Him, is when He keeps us right there. The
rest of the time, what we call serving God, is building up our
idols and worshiping our idols, really. And we have to be cleansed
from that every day, every day. And thankfully, that's why we
say this is comforting, because He's speaking to believers too,
thankfully. And so he says, O Israel, return
to the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
Now let's look at this command to return first of all. O Israel,
return unto the Lord thy God. O Israel, that's his people.
That's the name we have in Christ who is Israel. He is the one
who as a prince has prevailed with God for his people. And
we're Israel in him. That's the name God gave Jacob
after he gave him his name. That's His name. He speaks to
you and says, Oh Israel. He says, return to the Lord thy
God. Come to God. Come to God. Not to preacher, not to priest,
not other men. Go to God. Go to God. The issues with God. Go to God. You see, anytime anything happens
with brethren, when I'm preaching to you, I have one goal. My goal
is this, I want to set Christ before you and I'm praying by
the Spirit of God that God will cause you to go to Him. I don't
want you coming to me. I can't help you. I want you
to go to Him. And anytime we're dealing with one another, the
goal is this, the goal is to speak whatever needs to be spoken
and wait on God to bring His child to God. Not to us, to Him. I'm not your Savior. I'm not
your priest. I'm not fine to be a Catholic
priest. And I'm not, I can't help you. You've got to go to
God. You've got to go to God. We can't return to some place
we've never been. He says return to me. How can
you return to some place you've never been before? How can a
lost sinner return if he's never known God personally? How can
he return? We were chosen in Christ from
the foundation of the world. God put us in Christ and we were
in Christ and we fell in Adam and went away backwards. So when
God says return to the lost sinner that He chose, He's bringing
him back to where he was from before the foundation of the
world. And for you and I believer who do know Him, He tells us
returning to the Lord because that's a comfort for us because
we too need that word and we need that word worked in us because
we too go away backwards from the Lord. And we have to be brought
to Him to return to Him. The fault's all our own. He says,
for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. This is in no way to
tell a lost sinner they need repentance. and that only God
can give them repentance. Are we saying by that that, okay,
you're just in your sin to just stay in your sin? No. It doesn't
just, the responsibility's fully on you. Our sins are our own
and we're fully responsible to repent and believe God. But responsibility
in no way means you have the ability to do it. Not at any
point if salvation's all of grace. If Christ is the author and finisher
of our faith, there it means at no point can any of this fruit
be produced by us, it's produced by Him. Every time. The sin's
ours, the grace is His. The shame is ours, the glory
is His. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess
our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we've not sinned, we
make him a liar and the truth's not in us. Now believer, this
is not an excuse for you and I to sin at all. My little children, these things
write unto you that you sin not. Sin is, you know, God, when God
gives you a new heart to seek Christ and really and truly seek
Christ, The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and you
really begin to fear God, and you don't want to sin against
God. And you hate sin, but you don't
hate it. If you're a believer right now,
and you've been in the faith a little while, you don't hate
sin right now like you're gonna hate it 20 or 30 years down the
road. I promise you that. You don't
even see your sin that you're gonna see 20 or 30 years down
the road. But He makes you not want to
sin. Sin is a horrid thing. There's no little sin. It's all
vile, God-hating rebellion. Every bit of it. And every bit
of it will land you in hell. Every bit of it. The thought
you have is sin. And the deeds you do are coming
from that thought. It may not come out in the deed,
but it's still sin in the thought. And we're told not only to repent
from our deeds, but repent from those thoughts and those fleshly works of the flesh. But if any
man sin, here's the thing, we have an advocate with the Father.
Jesus Christ the righteous, and he's the propitiation for our
sin, he's the mercy seeker. He's the place where God can
be just and faithful to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. Are you not thankful for that?
Notice though we have sinned, the God of glory is still the
Lord thy God. He says there, return unto the
Lord thy God. God's elect belong to God and
He won't ever give up that which belongs to Him. Christ purchased
His people with His blood and He's not giving up His people.
Hell can rage against his people. He can fire all his fiery darts
as he wants to. He can try all he can to separate
his child from Christ. It will not happen. It will not
happen. Brothers and sisters, the Lord
God's the Lord thy God. The Lord our God, that's who
he is. You who have called. It's by
distinguishing grace. It's by His choice. It's by His
covenant mercy. His covenant grace. It's by the
blood atonement of Christ. It's by His saving operations. He's ready to be gracious. He's
ready to receive us. He's ready to embrace us. And
He's going to do everything necessary to make sure we come to Him in
repentance. He was raised, Peter said, Christ
was raised that He might grant repentance. And He does it to
those He redeems. Now what does God require of
me if I'm going to return to him and I'm coming to him? Now
this right now is not going to make a big impact on you if you're
sitting here and you're not convicted over your sin. But if you are,
go back and listen to this one day if you're ever there, where
you need mercy and you know if God sends you to hell, he's just
to do it. And you need mercy. And you're
going to want to know what does God require of me? What am I
to bring to Him? He tells me to return to Him,
what am I to bring? Here it is, verse 2. Take with
you words. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord and say to Him, take away all iniquity and receive
us graciously. So will we render the calves
of our lips. So you mean He doesn't want me
to bring Him sacrifice? The Pharisees one day, they stood
and they saw our Lord receiving sinners. They were coming to
Him and He was receiving them. And they wouldn't have anything
to do with those sinners. They might have quoted Hosea.
Leave them alone. We don't have anything to do
with them. But listen to what God said in Hosea 6 verse 6. Christ quoted this. He said in
Hosea 6.6, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Mercy, not sacrifice. The knowledge of God more than
burnt offerings. I'm not interested in you coming
to me with your sacrifices and your religious deeds and what
you've built up and what you've done for God and how you've stood
for this and you hate the Nicolaitans and all the things. I'm not interested
in how you do all that. I'll have mercy. I saved by mercy. I saved by mercy. How did Jacob
prevail with God? Look at Hosea 12 and look at
verse 4. He came out, he took his brother
by the heel and the womb. That means he was a supplanter.
That means he came out trying to get... Jacob came out, this
is a picture of you and me. He came out of the womb trying
to get the birthright from his brother. That's what it means.
He came out of the womb trying to supplant his brother and trick
his brother. That's how he came out of the
womb. Well then, that's not how he prevailed with God. How did
he prevail with God? By his strength. He had power
with God. Oh, you mean he had power with
God by his strength? Yes, he had power over the angel
and prevailed. How did that happen? You remember
what happened, don't you? This is how we're brought to
repentance. We're going along, we're serving God, and we think
we're serving God, and we think God's pleased with us, and we
don't have any conscience of sin. When are you going to know
your sin is your sin? When Christ comes and makes you
know this is it. This is it. He's going to show
you this is it. That's when you know. The Lord
came to Jacob, and He came as a man, as a pre-incarnate appearance
of man. And he began to wrestle Jacob.
He was not wrestling Jacob and Jacob wrestling back with him
and Jacob prevailing by wrestling with him. That Jacob was not
prevailing. The Lord actually saw Jacob that
he was not prevailing. The Lord looks at you and he
sees you, he sees you in your sin, trying to put away your
sin, trying to overcome your sin, and you're not prevailing.
And if you do put away a little bit, then you get puffed up in
your pride that now you're not in that sin anymore, so now you're
better, and now you're just in another sin. And you're not prevailing,
because you're trying to wrestle yourself in your own power and
strength. You're not prevailing. How are you going to prevail?
Christ came to him and pinned him down and put his thigh out
of joint so Jacob couldn't wrestle anymore. God's got to come and
make you see you are a sinner. Nothing. That means nothing.
That means before God you're nothing. It doesn't mean you
sin now, it means you're nothing. God wouldn't miss you if you
went missing, if it wasn't for his grace. Nothing, not going
to add anything to His kingdom, not going to add anything to
anything He's doing. If you serve Him, you just did
what you ought to. We're nothing before Him. We're
dust, we're flea, we're dead dog, we're nothing. And He makes
you see that. He makes you see, yes, that thing
you're doing is sin. But that thing you're doing is
because of what you are by nature. And then all you can do, all
Jacob did was he held on to him and he begged him for mercy. That's it. That's how he prevailed. Now who made who prevail? Christ
made him prevail. Christ makes us prevail. And
he says to us when he comes in the power of his spirit and he
says, now you take, when he makes you see you are nothing. Never
been anything, never done anything. And he says now take with you
words. and go to the Lord and say, Lord,
take away all iniquity. He means turn to the Lord fully,
completely with all your heart from the new heart and take words,
not sacrifice words, true words from a heart that He's made new,
a heart that He's renewed and revived and given you a new sense
of your sin and what you are and you come to Him. First hour
and every hour He brings you to repent. And He's gracious
to forgive His sinful people, but He's going to have us ask
Him for it. We're going to have to come to Him and ask Him. That's
His glory. It's His glory. It's not anybody
else's. It's His glory. We're going to
come to Him because He's the only one that can absolve sin.
He's the only one that can take it away. The confession of sin and faith
in His Son from our hearts. Our sin has to be acknowledged
to God and our faith in Christ has to be acknowledged to God
from a true heart. Repentance has to be declared
to Him and faith has to be confessed to Him. That begins in the first
hour. He said, if you confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus, you shall believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be safe with the heart. Man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That
confession comes out of that heart to God. He knows it. He
put it there. Now you're going to have to say
it to him. John said, if we confess our sin, to who? To Him. He's
faithful. He's just to forgive us our sin
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Say unto Him, take away all iniquity. Well, hasn't He already taken
away in Christ? Yes, He's taken it all away in
Christ for His people. But He's going to have us come
to Him and ask Him, Lord, take away the guilt of it. Take away
the curse of it. Take away the power of it. Take
away the being of it. That won't happen to the end.
But He's going to have you ask Him, Lord, take me from it. Take
it away from me. And receive us graciously. God
receives us by grace. Receive us by your grace. Bestow
goodness is what it means. Bestow good upon us. Be gracious
to us. Receive us into your grace and
your favor. Make it openly manifest to me. God's grace never changes toward
His people. He's not like when we come to
Him and we ask for grace and He suddenly bestows grace on
us and starts to be gracious to us. That's not what He's talking
about. God's grace never changes toward His people. Grace didn't
make Him love us. I mean, nothing in us made Him
love us and be gracious to us and choose us in Christ. Nothing
did. And nothing can change that relationship or change that love
and that grace toward His people. Nothing. He said, I'm God, I
change not. That's the only reason us sons
of Jacob are not consumed. The only reason. But what we're
asking Him for is, Lord, make it manifest to me again. Because
when we're sinning, you're not going to have a good relationship
with the Lord. And you're going to lose that power of His presence
in your heart. And He's going to bring you to
ask Him, Lord, would you restore that grace and favor to me? and make me know it. Because
see, that's what a believer can't live without. That's the constraint
of His love right there is when you have His presence, you got
everything. You can walk on the water in
the midst of the storm and not worry about it as long as you're
looking to Him. It's when you start looking to yourself and
your sin and somebody's just fired, Satan's fired, I won't
say somebody, because we don't wrestle against flesh and blood,
we wrestle against the devil. When you hear somebody say something
against you, stop looking at them and just know, we don't
wrestle against flesh and blood. Lord will deal with the man or
the person, but it's the fiery darts of the wicked firing at
us. And he fires those darts and fires those darts and makes
you weaker and weaker and weaker and you're looking at yourself
and then your brethren doubt you and you doubt you and everybody
doubts you and it just bombards you. What's God doing? He's bringing you to see there
ain't but one person that can save you and that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you've never been there, don't
be so quick to judge people that are. Just mark that down. Because you will probably likely
be there one day. All believers will, to some degree
or another. Maybe not as bad as others, but
we all will. And just know that. Just know
that. But the manifestation of His
love, that's what we need in our heart. And He's faithful
and just to do it because of the blood and righteousness of
Christ. It's free forgiveness of grace that brings us to give
Him all the glory. He says, so we'll render the
calves of our lips. We'll praise You, Lord. It's
that goodness of God. When you see you don't deserve
a thing, and you go a little wild, and you, boy, you've really
done a lot for God. And then you realize, I know
you had. It's all been pride and rebellion.
And he brings you to see him again and you see him a little
better. You know him a little better.
You praise him a little more. It's grace, it's forgiveness
that grows us more and more and more to follow Him along and
hate our sinful works. And here's what happens, you
ask an older believer this, this is what happens. I'm talking
about somebody that's 70, 80 years old. They'll tell you,
I don't do nothing like I used to do outwardly in sin. And I
see my sin way worse than I ever saw it when I was young. and
thought my sin was in his hands. Sin is what we are in our flesh.
We got to get to know that. Asher shall not save us. That
means we repent from looking to the strong and mighty men
that can help us out. Repent ye from man. We repent
for we won't ride on horses. We're not looking at the means
of grace anymore. It's not our church going. It's
not which congregation we're in and which preacher we sit
under and what we've done for God. It's not any other means
of grace. Neither will we say anymore to
the work of our hands, you are our gods. For in thee, the fatherless,
the totally helpless, incapable sinner, finds mercy. He finds what he does not in
any regard deserve at any point in his life at any one second. He finds mercy. Lastly, let me say this. This
is not something I hear people say things like this. Well, I
repented when I was 20 years old. I came to Christ when I
was 40 years ago. That's too long ago. That's way
too long ago. If you ain't done it today, it's
too long ago. We have to be turned from our
sins and our self-righteousness, which are all rolled into the
same thing, really. Antinomianism is legalism, and
legalism is antinomianism. They're one and the same. There
ain't a ditch over here and a ditch over there. It's all the same
ditch. It's only in Christ or out of Christ. But he's going
to have to continually turn us from that because that's all
we are in ourselves and make us nothing. When you're nothing,
you're not going to have a problem with anybody. But I can't do
that in another sinner. And here's the thing he's going
to bring us to see. That ain't your job. You got enough problem
weeding your own garden. He'll work in the heart of his
child. And that's our only hope is that When God's done something
for you, all you do, He just makes you shut up and just sit
still and wait and pray and say, Lord, I pray you'd be gracious
to my brethren. I pray you do this for those
I love. Do this for my enemies. Because
this is the only way I, it's the only way I was brought to
repentance. It's the only way they're going to be brought to repentance.
Lastly, here's this promise. I'll be quick. I know I'm going
a little long. He said, I'll heal their backsliding. I'll
love them freely. My anger is turned away from
him. That's his promise. That's his
promise. God's promise is to heal our
backsliding. Backsliding is a willful act
of turning from God. The word means relapse. You ever
relapse into sin? God promises those who repent,
return to Him. He'll not pardon their backsliding,
though He does that. He says, I'll heal their backsliding. See, grace, the grace of God,
He looks upon backsliding as a disease to be healed and no
longer as a crime for which to execute His child. It's a disease
that you have that's making you get older. One day you're going
to get cancer and you're going to say, well, the doctor told
me I was going to die. Well, God said it to you a long
time ago. You've got the disease of sin. You're dying right now. You've been doing it since the
first breath you took. When you came out of the womb and you
cried, you cried because you was mad because God took you
out of that warm place and brought you into a cold world. And you've
been crying at God ever since. And that's why we're dying, because
that's how we are in our flesh. That's it. Grace looks upon backsliding
as a disease to be healed, and he does heal it. He says, I will
love them freely. Does that mean you're never going
to backslide again? I hope you don't. I hope I don't. But that ain't what that means.
I love them freely. And here is the reason for His
promise. Here is the assurance. He said, I have justified them
freely by my grace. I have loved them freely. There
is no cause in it. He loved us freely. He sent His
Son freely. He gave His only begotten Son
freely. He freely laid down His life
for us with no cause in it. He paid everything for us so
that He freely frees us from all condemnation and all the
debts we owe. It is free. I love them freely. And He has done that. So He says
when He comes to me, I love them freely. Here is why. My anger
is turned away from Him. Now get what He is saying. God's anger is turned away from
Christ. It was once turned upon Christ.
and poured out on him in fury and fullness. And now his anger
is turned away from Christ. And because it's turned away
from Christ, if you can come to Christ repentant and truly
repentant and truly calling on God and knowing you don't deserve
a thing from God, if he has mercy, it's his discretion. If he don't,
so be it. He's just not to. And you can
come to him and fall at his feet and say, Lord, I've never done
anything. Everything I'm doing now, everything
I've ever done is sin. and I need to be turned from
all my sin. What I am, keep me from what
I am. If you can come to Him and say, love me freely, be gracious
to me, take away my iniquity, make me just before your holy
law, don't remember my iniquity anymore, take it away, create
in me a right spirit. If you can do this, it's because
He took His anger away from you in Christ. That's the reason.
And now that Christ, He said, thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin, thou hast taken
away all thy wrath, thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness
of thy anger. And He's not going to deal with
His child in anger. He said, I'll be as the dew unto Israel,
the dew's reviving and refreshing. And this is what He's saying.
When we're backsliding and when our sin, we're not growing. We're
supposed to be growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord. We're
not growing When we're in our sin or our self-righteousness
and we're looking at ourselves and at everybody else and trying
to make everybody else do what we think they ought to do or
whatever. We're not. We're not. Or we're blaming others
to justify our sin. That don't justify my sin to
blame somebody else for their sin, expose their sin. That don't
justify my sin. But God's going to have to bring
us down to see that. But when we're in that, we're
not growing. We're not. When He does this work in us,
though, He comes as due and waters us and we grow. We grow in grace
and knowledge. You can't grow yourself. You
can't. I can't grow myself or anybody
else, but that's how He's growing us. I'll be as the due to them
and I'll grow them. He'll cast forth his roots as
Lebanon, and his branches shall spread. Now this first and foremost
is talking about Christ, because this is what Christ is doing.
He's sending, He's making you grow as a lily that grows gently,
gradually, nobody observes it, and then there it is. And Solomon,
Christ our Solomon said we grow as lily among the thorns. But then he says, and he'll cast
forth his roots as Lebanon, and his branches are spread out,
When he restored David, remember what David said in Psalm 51,
Lord, if you restore me, you created me a right spirit, you
restore me, then I'll teach transgressors your ways. He doesn't just mean
I'm going to teach sinners that never knew you, though he means
that. But when sinners backslide and do what I've done and turn,
I'll teach, I'll know how to be gracious to them. Say what
I need to say to them, not suffer sin on them, but do it in a way
that's going to give you the glory and trust the word to you
and point them to Christ and wait on you. I'll do that, Lord. If you'll restore me, I'll do
that. And what he's doing is, the Lord
by doing that, he's spreading his branches of his tree out
further. He's making it go to this believer,
this one he calls out, this one he calls out, using you who he's
taught. He is using you to teach others and He is just spreading
out His tree. He is spreading out. His beauty
should be as the olive tree. He gives you oil and it makes
you valuable because you have the oil of the Spirit. They that
dwell under His shadow shall return. Now watch this. They that dwell under His shadow,
they are going to return to this tree. But they were under His shadow
when they hadn't returned yet. Did you get that? They that dwell
under His shadow all the time, they're going to return. They
shall return. They're under His shadow. They're
under this canopy of grace even though they're out there backsliding.
They're still under Him. And He's not going to let them
go. They shall revive as the corn and they're going to grow
as the vine. The scent shall be as the wine
of Lebanon. In other words, He regenerates us and gives us life
and He keeps working this and renewing us and reviving us and
keeping us looking only to Him and keeping us saying there's
no point in trusting anything about us. That's what He keeps
doing. And by that he makes you fragrant,
he makes you fruitful, and it's all from him. You're under his
shadow, you're a branch in the vine, he's the cedar of Lebanon,
he's the green fir tree, and you're just branching him and
get everything from him. Ephraim shall say, what have
I to do anymore with idols? I've heard, now listen who's
speaking here, I've heard him and observed him, I'm like a
green fir tree, from me is thy fruit found. That's the Lord
speaking. He said, I've heard Him. He came
to me asking grace. I heard Him. And I've observed
Him. I've worked this in Him. I've observed Him. I'm like a
green fir tree, the Lord said. I'm the cedar of Lebanon. And
for me, all this fruit is found. I'm the one who created all this
fruit. In other words, like that prodigal's
looked at his son and while he was a great way off. The Lord's
not like a He did all this, he instigated all this. He called
Ephraim, he did all this. We were like Gomer, we were gone.
He did all this for us. And he's like that prodigal who saw
his son coming to him and he went to him. He had compassion
on him, he went to him. That's our Lord. For me is our
fruit. Who's wise? Let me end with this.
Who's wise and who's prudent? He'll understand these things.
He'll know these things. God's got to make us wise and
prudent on him. Remember, Christ said he, thank
you, Lord, you've hid these things from the wise and prudent revealed
in the babe. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, there are no wise and prudent
in his church. Where's the wise man? Where's
the disputer? Where's the scribe? Where's the man thinks they end
all, be all of God's church and without him nothing can function?
Where's he at? You won't find him in God's church. Why? He uses nothings and nobodies,
who know they're nothing and nobodies, who know they're not
necessary, who know God can do without them, Because those are
those that He's made wise for making Christ their wisdom. That's
true knowledge. And that's what He's saying.
They'll know these things. They'll understand it. They'll
say, Amen. I hear that. That resonates in
my heart and it's true by the Spirit of God. I hear that. I
know that. I know that so. And He says, for the ways of
the Lord are right. to just shall walk in them. Those
justified by Christ, they're going to walk by faith in Him
and they're going to walk in His way. Christ Jesus. The transgressors,
they're going to fall therein. They're not going to have it.
They're not going to have it. He didn't call everybody there.
He didn't. He wasn't trying to bring everybody
to repentance. He's not trying to bring everybody to repentance
now. He says back over there in Hosea
6.1.3, come, let us return to the Lord. He's torn, He'll heal
us. He's smitten, He'll bind us up. After two days, He'll
revive us. The third day, He'll raise us up. We'll live in His
sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on and know the Lord,
His going forth prepared us this morning. He shall come to us
as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. All
our blessings of Him, all our growths of Him. This is how He
does it. Keep doing it. I pray God will
bless it. Father, thank you for your word.
We ask you to bless it now. Keep us by your grace. Grant
us repentance of faith. Make us truly praise you. And
we do, Lord. We thank you with the calves
of our lips. We thank you, Lord. We give you
honor, glory. Keep us, Lord. In Christ's sake,
amen. All right, Brother Joe.