So Lord, may you graciously help
me, I would turn your prayerful attention to the prophecy of
Hosea chapter 14 and the first four verses of this chapter. Hosea 14 and the first four verses. O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God. For thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity. Take with you words, and turn
to the Lord. Say unto him, Take away all iniquity,
and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of
our lips. Asher shall not save us, we will
not ride upon horses, neither shall we say any more to the
work of our hands, ye are our gods. For in thee the fatherless
findeth mercy, I will heal their backsliding, I will love them
freely, for mine anger is turned away from him. Hosea and chapter 14 in the first
four verses. We spoke this morning of this
precious prophecy of Hosea, the background that it was prophesied towards the end of the northern
tribe, just before the northern kingdom, before it went into
captivity. So there was judgment coming
to Israel. And yet the Prophet's great desire
is that Israel would return. Sadly, you see, in reality, in Israel's day,
Israel did not return or turn again before they went into captivity. They were yet to go a long way
down before they would return and would come and would rejoice
once again in their God. You see, they didn't really at
that point realize their sin. They didn't realize that they
needed to repent. They, as I spoke about this morning,
they thought that they were the people of God, that they were
pleasing in his sight, and that nothing was wrong. And yet, you
see, they were all the time in inter-idol worship, worshipping
other things, other gods, rather than dedicating themselves to
the true and the living God. But you see, ultimately, so a
lot of Hosea is given over to warnings, warning Israel that
if they continued, it would be into great problems. And indeed,
they came to pass. But then God has caused Hosea
to write these words of of promise, that though there would be a
carrying away into captivity, though there would be many sorrows,
yet ultimately there would be a return. And his great desire,
you see, is the desire of the people of God today. Let thy
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
And Hosea wanted that turning of Israel. to the Lord. Israel, those northern tribes,
the ten tribes, they went into captivity much earlier than Judah
and for much longer than Judah did. O Israel, Return unto the
Lord. So that's the actual physical
background to this prophecy, but clearly this prophecy goes
beyond just the immediate setting of Israel and the captivity and
the return the return that we spoke of back in October and
I was with you about as a rubble building that temple That was
included in that these people were returning after that captivity
which was close on 200 years for Israel and But you see, O Israel, return
unto the Lord thy God. It's the great necessity, you
see, and that's why we read together Psalm 139. This Psalm of David
where he acknowledges how that God knows everything about him.
He understands his thoughts afar off better than he does himself.
and how God knows everything about him. And he then comes
at the end of that Psalm 139 to those precious words, search
me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the
way everlasting. You see, there's a David in his
right mind when he was spiritually healthy, He wanted God to search
him. He recognized that if he searched
himself, he may come to a wrong conclusion. He may be biased
wrongly to say something was all right when it wasn't. So
he wants God to search him. Search me, O God, and know my
heart. So he wanted his standard to be right with God. And that's
very, very important. You see, some of you children
at this time are studying for MOCS. And what are mocks? Mocks are something like the
real exam, but they're not actually the real exam. They're perhaps
a past paper or something like that, which gives you the idea
of what the exam is like, but ultimately it gives you a foretaste
of it. Now, just imagine if all the
mock exams that you ever took were not not similar to the real
exam and they were just much, much easier. You'd take your
mocks and they were just really easy. You might think, oh, that'd
be really nice if the mocks were so easy. But really it wouldn't
be nice at all. Because what you'd think is you'd
take this mock exam and you'd say, yes, I could do 100% easier
as anything. And then when you come to the
real thing and it's very different than the mock exam, you realize
how little you knew. And if only that mocker had been
honest, it would have made you work and made you realize how
much more you needed to know. And so therefore, to have a wrong
view of the standard of righteousness in God's Word. To have a wrong
view of the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the holiness of God
and the need to be right with God, to be exposed to that is
like a mock exam which is not realistic. And ultimately it
might seem nice that people might come out of their mock exam skipping
and dancing because they've got 100%. But if it doesn't, if it
doesn't tally with reality, if it isn't a true representation
of the real exam, it's but a fraud. And so David says, search me,
O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts.
And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the
way everlasting. See, David wanted to be right
with God. And he wanted God, the God that ultimately will
judge him when he comes to his end, to be the God that now judges
him. And why do we want to be judged
before? Why do we take mocks before? So that if we're not
right, we can prepare ourselves to be right. If we don't know
a certain subject, we can go and revise it and go and learn
it. But here you see, so David wanted
to be right with God. And Hosea here in our text, we
have these words, O Israel, return unto the Lord. A return into
God. Don't keep going further away
from God. Don't keep thinking you are the
people of God when you're not the people of God. But you see
when Hosea was able to have those children that he called not the
people of God, this was to stir Israel up to show that if they
carried on as they were, they would not be the people of God.
But the whole purpose of God's love and mercy was to draw them
so that they would be the people of God. But they first of all
needed to realize that by nature and by their sin and by their
rebellion and by their idolatry, they were not the people of God.
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen
by thine iniquity. This is the word that the prophet
is giving to Israel. Don't think that your standard
is good enough. Don't think that God will accept that. But you
need to come back to God. You have despised the God that
you have been unfaithful to. God is a faithful God, but you
see, we can be unfaithful to him. It's so often pictured,
as I said this morning, as that unfaithfulness in the marriage
bond. It is pictured as the unfaithfulness
of God's people to God. They go off after other lovers.
They go off after other idolatry and worship other things and
worship themselves. O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God. Return, go back. And what does
it mean to return? It means to repent, to turn back. to acknowledge that we were wrong,
to acknowledge that if we continue in sin, we will not obtain the
blessing. If we continue in rebelling against
God, it will be so finally disastrous. For thou has fallen by thine
iniquity. You see, iniquity, sin, that's
what separates between us and God, our iniquities, our sins. And we looked at that this morning
with Achan, his sin, his trespass, his stealing, his coveting, it
ruined him. And you might say, well, that's
just a one off. These are examples. And actually, sin will ruin every
one of us unless it's repented of. So here the prophet in verse
two gives these gracious words, take with you words. We are to speak to God. We're to come back and to he's
encouraging Israel you see to come to God in prayer. And surely
what good advice and an encouragement exhortation that is for us today. Take with you words. We are to
pray to God We are to come back to this one that we have offended,
to come back to this one that we have been so unworthy of and
treated so shamefully. We're to come back to that one.
You see, as we looked at this morning, that valley of Acre
for a door of hope, as we realize there is one that has paid the
price, one that has stood in the place of his people. And
so we need to come to that one. with you words and turn to the
Lord. So we're to turn to this one,
this one that we've offended, this one that we've sinned against,
we're to go back to him. You might say if you've offended
somebody I'm going to keep away from that person as far as I
can, I don't want to go and face them. But here you see we have
to remember that God is a merciful God. You see, if God didn't know
anything of mercy, it would be no point returning to him and
confessing our sins, would it? He would only say, well, you've
now told me and confessed all the things you've done wrong,
then I can book you rightly for doing it. You've acknowledged
all the things you've done wrong. That means that you will certainly
be punished then. But no, the nature of mercy is
we're to come and confess our sins. You see, we read that beautiful
promise in the New Testament, if we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. The alternative
of confessing our sins is to hide our sins and pretend that
they're not there, to bury them and to think that by ignoring
them that they'll go away. Take with you words, turn to
the Lord, confessing. You see, if we confess our sins,
what does that mean? If we confess our sins, we say
about sin what God thinks about sin. So if we say that sin is
not that bad and it's not such a problem and it's not so serious,
then we're not confessing our sin. Because you go to Calvary
and tell the Lord Jesus that sin is not that serious, that
sin doesn't cost that much, that sin isn't that horrible to God.
you see, you go to Calvary and you see the enormity of the cost
to save us from our sins, the seriousness of sin, the awfulness
of it. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord and say unto him, take away all iniquity. This
one who we've sinned against, we are able to come and ask him
to take it away, to remove from us all that sin, to to cleanse us from all of our
iniquity. See, David realized this. In
Psalm 51, he prays earnestly that the Lord would cleanse him,
give him a new heart. Take away all iniquity and receive
us graciously. Not angrily, not in anger because
we've been so far off from God, but receive us graciously. We
have such a picture of that, don't we? in the parable of the
prodigal son is often referred to as that returning son, the
son that had despised his father's house, despised his father's
instruction, had wasted his living with riotous living, wasted all
his substance. And yet when he returned, you
see, he was received graciously. He was received graciously. There's
an encouragement here to come. And of course we have in the
New Testament, Jesus said himself in Matthew 11, come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You see, if you were just coming
to a judge and confessing all the things that you had done
wrong, then without mercy, he would just deal out all the punishments
which were due to that, to break in those crimes. But you see,
this is not the gospel. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord. Turn back to God. Say unto him,
take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. So shall we render
the calves of our lips. You see, in the Old Testament,
there was the giving of the sacrifices, wasn't it? that they had to bring
to the Lord. But if you look at this, so shall
we render the calves of our lips. In Hebrews 13 verse 15 we read,
by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to his name. So you see this is what we're
to do. We're to come and praise him.
Praise him for his love, for his mercy, for his loving kindness. We're to tell it to the generation
following. What a blessing it is that we
have the Sunday School. Tell it to the generation following.
Tell it to those we come in contact with that the Lord is a merciful
God. a merciful God, and He is able
to receive us graciously. But don't ever forget the cost.
You see, every time we receive mercy, somebody else receives
the opposite. You see, when we receive God's
mercy, then the Lord Jesus Christ, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, He received the wrath of God. when he had
done nothing wrong. He received the punishment of
our sin. And as there was that scene that
we looked at this morning with Achan and his family, they were
cursed. They had touched the accursed
thing and they were a cursed family. It's very, very solemn. And yet the Lord Jesus, you see,
he voluntarily made himself a curse for us, so that we might be brought
back to God. And will we be silent? When we've
experienced this, will we be silent? Will we say, well, that's
just the way the salvation is? No, surely it will well up in
our hearts. We have something to praise God
for. This is tremendous. This is something
that we could have never imagined. Take with you words, and turn
to the Lord. Say unto him, take away all iniquity,
and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of
our lips. Praise God. And you see, it's
right that we should praise him. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. And then in verse three, it talks
about the things that won't do them any good. Asher, you see
that Assyria, that is, they trusted in Assyria, in Egypt, that they
would help them and protect them. But they didn't. Asher shall
not save us. We will not ride upon horses.
See, horses were the military strength in those days. And you
see, we can trust in our own strength. We can trust in our
military powers. But It's not going to solve the
problem. We will not ride upon horses,
neither will we say any more to the works of our hands, ye
are our gods. How easy it is to make a god
of the work of our own hands, our own abilities, our own industry,
our own, all that we can do and produce, we can worship that. instead of realising that everything
that we have has been given by God and therefore God is to be
glorified in everything. That does not mean we should
not be industrious, we should. We should use everything that
we have for the glory of God. But He must have the glory. Ye
are our gods, for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. The fatherless. Cus These last
two years, I've become fatherless. And you miss a father, a father's
love, a father's prayer. But in thee, the fatherless,
findeth mercy. We realize that we have a heavenly
father that ever liveth, is always able to provide for his children,
ye, For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. And so, those
of you here that do not have a father, here is a encouragement. For in thee the fatherless findeth
mercy. A way back to God. A way of access. And he is that one who is merciful. And then in verse four, this
gracious promise to Israel, I will heal their backsliding. You see,
God had threatened really to disown them, that you're not
my people. But ultimately, you see, he has in all his correction,
God in all his correction to his people has this in mind,
restoration. He restoreth my soul. And that's
why it's a great privilege if God deals with us and brings
us into those places where we cannot continue in sin. We cannot
sin like the world and get away with it. Because God is dealing
with us as sons. For what son is it that the father
chasteneth not? You see, it's a fatherly hand
that chastens his son. It's the person who has no father
that never is corrected. But you see, as a father pitieth
his children, he also chastens his children, not in anger, but
in love. And sometimes we realize when
difficulties and troubles come in our lives, that it's the hand
of a heavenly father touching us and making us consider, making
a search. Are we right? Are we putting
first things first? Are we right for eternity? And
you see, sometimes when things go difficult in our pathway,
it makes us go back. O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God. Return to God. This is the way
back. There is no other way. Sadly,
Israel, for the most part at this time, ignored this prophecy. And they went into captivity
for 200 years. before they came out, roughly
speaking, in the time of Zerubbabel. And they built the temple again
and all that return of the captivity on that decree that Cyrus had
given. But here's a wonderful promise. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely for my
anger is turned away from him. So here we have the gracious
purposes of God towards his people. Towards those people which were
a far off people, which Israel had moved a long way from God. Prophets had been sent to them
but they ignored those prophets and they went into captivity.
Ultimately God was going to bring them back. And yet there must
have been so many that were in difficulties and were far off. But ultimately, the purpose of
God is to bring his people back to God. And you might say, but
am I one of those people? And you might say, well, some
are troubled about, are they really one of these elect? Are
they really one of the people of God? Well, I think if anybody
had a just reason to think that they perhaps weren't elect, I
would suggest in Matthew 15, of that account of the woman
of Cana, she could have come to the conclusion that she was
not elect. Matthew 15 verse 22, it says, Behold, a woman of Cana
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. So she comes pleading for God's
mercy, pleading. She calls him the son of David,
this Messiah name. But he answered her not a word,
the first discouragement for this woman of Canaan. And the
disciples came and besought him saying, send her away for she
crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Did that include her? Seemed
to shut her out. Then she came and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, help me. You see, she kept coming. She
kept seeking his mercy. But he answered and said, it
is not me to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs.
Surely she might say, well, I've got all the evidence I need to
show that I'm not one of these people of God. But the Lord Jesus
was really just trying this dear woman's faith, and bringing out,
you see, her desire after him. But he answered and said, it
is not meet to take the children's bread to cast it to dogs. And
she said, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from the master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even
as thou wilt. You see here, she comes pleading. And all the difficulties, all
the barriers, if unto Jesus thou art bound, a crowd about him
will be found, attending day and night, a worldly crowd to
din thine ears, and crowds of unbelieving fears to keep him
from thy sight. Many barriers in coming to the
Saviour. Satan does not want you to come.
And everything can be against you, but press on. O Israel,
Return unto the Lord. Oh, but I'm not sent but to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. It's not me to take the children's
bread and cast it to dogs. It might seem that she was outside
of it. But you see, she kept pressing
on. She needed to obtain mercy. And she said, truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs. which fall from the master's
table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. She obtained mercy. I will heal their backslidings.
I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from
him. These are the gracious words
of the Savior. To seek to know the Lord Jesus
for ourselves. You see in those words that we
have in Hosea of being not my people and then my people, that's
picked up in Romans chapter 9. Romans 9 and we look at starting
to read from verse 24 Romans 9 verse 24 even us whom he hath
called not of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles as he saith
also in Osea that's Hosea I will call them my people which were
not my people and her beloved which was not beloved. You see,
there's a change. There's this, it seems, you see,
it's the same with Joseph with his brothers, wasn't it? He loved
those brothers all along. God had given him a love for
his brethren, even though they hated him. He had a deep love.
I seek my brethren. And yet they hated him. They
couldn't speak peaceably to him, but he loved them. And he was
going to draw them. But you see, when they came,
came first to Egypt, he was going to try them. He spake roughly
unto them. It appeared to them that this
governor of the land of Egypt was against them and didn't like
them, but he did really. He turned aside to weep so many
times. You see, this is the way God
draws his people. and draws them to himself so
that they come to truly love him and truly confess their sins. And it wasn't until they'd confessed
their sins, those brothers of Joseph, that he really opened,
as it were, his heart to them and showed them how that a fullness
there was residing in Egypt for their benefit. And we read, a
fullness resides in Jesus our head. and ever abides to answer
our need. You see, there's a fullness in
Christ, but we are to come. O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. And we need
then to come and God to show us our iniquity. You see, by
nature, we think of sin, but lightly. We don't think it's
that bad. We don't think it's that serious. Others do it. So
we can do it as well. But you see, coming back to that
word then in Psalm 139, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me. David did not want
that wicked way you see to bar him from union with his God. He didn't want that to get in
the way of his relationship with his God. and see if there be
any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. He wanted that everlasting way,
that way of union and communion with the church's living head.
That's what he wanted. And he was aware, you see, that
there may be that going on in his heart that was wrong and
he wanted to be searched. He wanted God to search him.
And surely that's a prayer, a good prayer for all of us. Examine
yourselves. to see if you be in the faith.
That's not to, so that we always are uncertain. You see, if you
examine something to find out whether it's true, you then come
to a conclusion whether it truly is true or not, don't you? You
examine it to come to a conclusion. And you see, we are to examine,
to search me, oh God, and know my heart, try me and know my
thoughts. And of course, when there is those found that sin
and things that are wrong, then we come to confess them. And
you see, that's the way forward, isn't it? If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But we've got to
be aware of it. We've got to come to a knowledge of it. Search
me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts.
See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way. everlasting. This prayer of David,
a prayer of all God's people searching, realising, recognising
that they come short and sin is mixed with all they do so
they pray that the Lord would show them and reveal himself
to them so that they can confess their sins and truly flee to
Christ. But I do want to just look also at this two words in
Psalm 139, the last two verses. Because a lot of the psalms you
see are also messianic. That means they're speaking of
Christ. And here you see, I want to think
of these last two verses as the words of the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Try me and know my thoughts.
and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the
way everlasting. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
could pray this prayer to his father and you see, he would
be shown to be sinless. The only one that could pray
this prayer and be sinless. You see, God God the Father could
search his beloved Son and could confirm that this is the Lamb
of God without blemish. A Lamb of God without blemish
and without spot. Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way
in me and lead me in the way of the everlasting. God could
search his only begotten Son and could say he's perfect, he's
complete. But what did the Lord Jesus then
do with that perfection and completion? He used that perfect keeping
of God's holy law to be the righteousness of all his people. He used that
righteousness not to, Jesus said this, I came not into the world
in his first coming to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might have life. He used this perfect keeping
of God's law, not to expose all his people and show them how
far short they came, but to give them an everlasting righteousness.
And you see, he used his perfection to be the perfect one to stand
in their place, the perfect one to receive the wrath of God and
to give them a perfect righteousness. So as we see what the Lord has
done here for his people, and that of course is the grounds
whereby he can say, take with you words, turn to the Lord and
say unto him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. That's
the only way he can take away iniquity. It's because, you see,
if he took away iniquity by just burying it under the carpet,
then it wouldn't be justly done. He would not be just and the
justifier of the ungodly. He would be an unjust judge.
But he's not an unjust judge. He's holy, harmless, undefiled.
And he is a righteous judge. And that judgment has been meted
out. As we looked at, as it was in
the Valley of Achor, there was a righteous judgment against
Achan's sin. And so there is a righteous judgment
against the sins of all his church. meted out on that Lamb of God
who could truly say, search me O God. He had perfection, he
had no sin, he never displeased his father and yet he endured
the sufferings of Calvary so that he could bring in an everlasting
righteousness for his people. take with you words turn to the
Lord say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously
so shall we render the calves of our lips we've got something
to sing about you see the Lord's people have something to sing
about you listen to the world they have lots of singing but
when you analyze the words of what they're singing they're
pretty meaningless they're pretty empty But when the people of
God around that throne with a lamb as it had been slain and praying,
worthy is the lamb, it is not empty worship. There is something
eternally meaningful about what they're saying. There is every
reason to say worthy is the lamb. cast in all their crowns before
him, lost in wonder, love and praise. You see he's done this
for them, he stood in their place. This one that could have just
had this righteous standard and smashed them with all his righteousness,
he doesn't. I came not to condemn the world,
but that the world through him might have life. And this is
the way of life, as Jesus said in his high priestly prayer,
and this is life eternal, that they may know Thee and Jesus
Christ, whom Thou hast sent. And this is what the prophet Hosea is speaking
of in his prophecy, O Israel. return unto the Lord. This is
the one to return to. Not a God that is far off, not
a God that is distant and uncompassionate, but a God that delighteth in
mercy. One that has loved us. You see, we have those, I will
heal their backslidings. I will love them freely, for
mine anger is turned away. God's anger is turned away. And
you see, if you move down to verse 8, Ephraim shall say, Ephraim,
you see, that was part of the ten northern tribes. Ephraim, of course, was the younger
son of Joseph, part of the ten tribes, the northern tribes.
Ephraim shall say, what have I to do any more with idols?
You see, that's repentance, isn't it? Looking back and seeing the
foolishness of trusting in idols, trusting in all the things that
are here below, rather than trusting in the creator, the one that
made us and the one that we are to worship. What have I to do
any more with idols? I've heard and observed him.
I am like a green fir tree, from me is thy fruit found. You see, if we're going to be
fruit-bearing branches, and Jesus said, herein is my Father, glorify
that ye bear much fruit, we need to have union with Christ. And
this is how to have it. It is to be made right with God,
to have our iniquity taken away. Come, confess in our sins, take
him with us words, not silent, but come with those pleading
words, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, to come and stand before
God and confess our sins and to realize that he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I will heal their backslidings.
Backsliding is when the people of God go back. They know the
right way and they go back. Away from God and how we can
backslide. David backslid. Certainly in
the matter of Bathsheba he knew much better. He was already the
sweet psalmist of Israel but he backslid. He turned away from
God but he restoreth my soul.' David wrote that 51st Psalm,
showing the way back to God from the dark paths of sin, showing
that there is truly forgiveness with God that he may be feared. O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God. How does this affect us each
individually? In our individual pathways, as we We need to be
right with God. We need to deal with sin. We
need to truly be cleansed. We need to take with you words.
Turn to the Lord. There's such a simplicity in
these words, isn't there? To come with simplicity and ask
the Lord to do this for us. Take with you words. Turn to
the Lord. Say unto him, take away all iniquity. What a request. Why would he
do that? Because he delighteth in mercy.
See, Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. So
will we render the calves of our lips. We're going to sing
praise. And you see, this is going to be the occupation of
God's people through a never-ending eternity, to crown him Lord of
all. Everything that he's done, every
grace and every favour, May we then be searched by God to find
out those sins, to come and confess those sins, to be made cleansed
from all our uncleanness, and then to live lives that are fruitful.
Fruit-bearing branches, Ephraim, from me is thy fruit found. And
not go into captivity, but go into true liberty of the people
of God, union with Christ, in union with the Lamb, from condemnation
free, the saints from everlasting work, and shall forever be. Amen.