Would you turn back to Hosea
chapter 14? I've entitled this message. Direction. To the fallen. Direction to. The fall. Verse 1, O Israel, return unto
the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Now something that I fear greatly
is falling. I'm just afraid of it. This is a very strong word. It
means to be cast down. To be destroyed. To be ruined. To be overthrown. To fail. To stumble. To be utterly weak. What a horrible thing sin and
iniquity is, and what a horrible thing it does, it makes one fallen. And I fear, I know if the Lord removes the
restraints, I just fear what would take place. I fear falling. in eternal security, and I'm
scared to death of falling. Now, this fallenness, if I can use
that word, that we can get ourselves into, is all our fault. We can't blame anyone, but ourselves. And I want you to remember this.
I want me to remember this. Unless I take complete responsibility
for my sin, I'll never ask for mercy. Matter
of fact, it's impossible to ask for mercy unless it's all your
fault. Then you need mercy. until I take complete responsibility
for my sin. I don't need grace. But when
it's all my fault, how I need grace. Now, what does the Lord
tell this fallen one to do? O Israel, unto the Lord thy God, for thou
hast fallen by thine iniquity." And one of the things I was thinking
about, you've got to fall from something. You know, an unbeliever
doesn't really fall. He worries that all the time.
But a believer can take a fall. He says, you've fallen by your
iniquity, and here's what he says to do, return. Return to
the Lord. You turned away from Him. Turn
back to Him. Don't wait till you get better.
Don't wait till you feel better. Return right now. And notice
the graciousness of this. He says, Return to the Lord thy
God. Do you know, He never stopped
being the Lord your God. Isn't that wonderful? This is
a relationship that cannot be dissolved. It can't be. I was talking to
Andy a couple of days ago, and he made this observation, and
he said, I didn't put myself into Christ, and I can't get
myself out of Christ. That's a good place to be, isn't
it? But could a believer Become so
fallen, yes, but if you're a believer, you do exactly what he says to
do. And here's how we return, because somebody said, well,
what's that? How do I go about this return? Well, he says, return
to the Lord by God. I think this is interesting.
He gives us the words to say. Now, if you're interested in
returning to the Lord God, here's how you go about it. He says,
take with you, verse two, take with you words. Take with you
words and Saying to him, take away all iniquity and receive
us graciously. Here's the way I come. First,
he gives me the things to say. Take with you these words. Say
this. Here's what you need to say. Take away all iniquity. I can't take it away. If you will, you can. This is
totally up to you. I'm powerless in this thing,
and this is the way I come into it. Take away this iniquity. I can't deal with it. I can't
get rid of it. I can't take it away. And I'm
asking you to do this for me. Take away all iniquity. The word is literally, lift off
all iniquity. And here's what's so glorious.
God can do this. God can lift your sin off of
you. Now, when it's lifted off of
you, it had to go somewhere else. In 1 John 3, verse 5, we read,
He was manifested to take away our sins. What a blessed thought. He was
manifested to take away our sins. And in him is no sin. Lord, take my sin away. And in taking our sins away,
we're to pray that he would receive us graciously. Now, the word gracious or graciously
is generally translated good. Receive us as good. Now, if my iniquity is taken
away, you know what that makes me? Good. Now, the only way this can be
understood is in light of the gospel. No other way this can
be understood, but he takes away my iniquity. He lifts it up off
of me to where I don't have iniquity. And he gives me his righteousness. And that makes me good. This is how we must be received. Lift my sins off of me. There's
nothing I can do about it. Take away my iniquity and receive
me graciously in kindness and mercy. Receive me as good for
the Lord's sake. And then he says, so will we
render the calves of our lips. You know, you do this for me.
I'll praise you. I'll render you the calves of
my lips, my thanksgiving and my praise. Now, he tells us something
else to say. Look in verse three. Can you,
first of all, can you take with you these words right now? Lord, take away my iniquity,
lift it up off of me, and receive me graciously. Oh, how I'll praise
you in doing that. Now, look what he says next to
save. Say this. Take with you these words. Asher
shall not save us. We will not ride upon horses,
neither will we say any more to the work of our hands. You
are our gods, for in thee the fatherless find mercy. Now Asher's another word for
Assyria. Assyria is not going to save
us. Men cannot save us. Men can't do anything for us.
We realize that. No man can do me any good at
all. I make that confession. And then
he says, we'll not ride on horses. We won't look to the means as
causing salvation. I mean, horses are a means to
an end. We're not going to look to those
means. They're not going to do us any good. I thank God for
means, but I'm sure not going to make a savior of them. Means
will not save me. Christ saves me. And we're not
to make a savior out of the means that he provides. We can't. We're
not going to ride on horses. Neither shall we say any more
to the work of our hands. You are our gods. We utterly
reject the false gods that we've made. There's a complete rejection
of that which is contrary to the truth. If I was to see who the Lord is, I reject that which is contrary
to him. These false gods won't save us.
And look what he says next. For in thee, the fatherless findeth
mercy. The fatherless are those who
have no way of providing for themselves, and who have no way
of helping themselves. They're all alone. You've heard
that saying, God helps those who help themselves? No, he doesn't.
No, he doesn't. He helps those who cannot help
themselves. Indeed, the fatherless. Find
mercy. Now, can you can you take these
words to the Lord right now? He says, take with you words
you've fallen by your iniquity. Return to me. Well, how do I
go about returning? We'll take with you these words.
Oh, this is such glorious counsel for the fallen. Now, look what
the Lord says in verse four. He says, and this is what we're
going to find in coming to the Lord like this. He says, I will
heal their backsliding or their backsliding. Now, what in the
world is backsliding? I remember when I was a kid,
when people would talk about backsliding, they talk about
people who lose their salvation. They backslid and they've gone
in the wrong way and they've lost their salvation. And it
doesn't have anything to do with what the word means. Listen to
what the word means. Relapse. Relapse. I will heal their relapses. And do you know that's the theme
of the book of Hosea? I will heal their relapses. They're going backwards. They're
backsliding, turning away from me. Now, Hosea, did you know
that, I don't understand why this is the way it is, but Hosea
is the exact same word as Joshua. Savior. The Greek name, the New
Testament name is Jesus, Joshua, Savior. Hosea's name is Savior. Not only is Hosea a great prophet,
Hosea is a great type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look
in the first chapter of Hosea. Verse 2. Israel, as a matter of fact,
if you read through the Old Testament, what is the sin that Israel just
kept relapsing into? Idolatry. Over and over and over
again, it kept relapsing. And I don't think it won't happen
to me or you, apart from the grace of God. I think of what
John said. He said, little children, keep
yourselves from idols. Israel kept relapsing into this
thing of idolatry. Now look in verse two. The beginning
of the word of the Lord by Hosea, or Joshua, and the Lord said
to Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms. Go take a woman whose life has
been that of sexual promiscuity. An immoral woman, a woman who
cannot be trusted, a woman who has fallen. Go take unto thee
a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms, for the land hath
committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord God. So he went
and took Gomer. You know what a name means? Failure. Failure. What a name. And she had found
she failed over and over and over again. So he went and took
Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, which conceived and bare him
a son. Now, Hosea marries this woman,
and he has three children with her. Let's read about these children. Verse 3, So he went and took
Gomer, the daughter of Debalim, which conceived, and bare him
a son. And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel. For
yet a little while I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the
house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house
of Israel. And it shall come to pass at that day that I will
break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. And she conceived
again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her
name Loruhamah. For I will no more have mercy
upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.
Her name was not having obtained mercy, not having mercy. Can
you imagine having a name like that? No mercy. No mercy. And that's all she knew. No mercy. Verse seven. But I'll have mercy
upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their
God, and will save them not by gold or by sword, but battled
by horses, nor by horsemen. Now when she had weaned, not
having obtained mercy, she conceived and bare a son, then said, God,
call his name Moammath, for you are not my people, and I will
not be your God." What a name! You're not my people. and I'm
not your God. Yet, verse 10, the number of
the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which
cannot be measured nor numbered, and it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, you're not my people,
there shall it be said unto them, you are the sons of the living
God. Then shall the children of Israel and Judah and the children
of Israel be gathered, and appoint themselves one head, and they
shall come out of the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel."
Now, Gomer, sometime after having this wonderful husband, relapsed
into her old way of life. She turned away from Joshua. Look in verse 1. Say ye unto
your brethren, Am I unto your sister, Ruma? Now look, their
names have been changed. We read about that earlier. In
the very place where they're called, you're not having mercy,
you get mercy. And the very place where it said,
you're not my people, you're my people. That's God's grace,
isn't it? Now, look what he says to them. He says, you plead with
your mother, verse 2. For she's not my wife, neither am I her
husband. Let her therefore put away her
whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her
breasts, lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that
she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like
a dry land, and slay her with thirst. And I'll not have mercy
upon her children, for they be the children of whoredoms. For
their mother hath played the harlot. She conceived them, hath
done shamefully. For she said, I'll go after my
lovers, and I'll give me bread. That gave me bread and water
and my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. She went after
these other people. And Hosea is watching this all
the time. Now, during this time, he's taking
care of her. She doesn't know it. Look in
verse 8. She did not know that I gave her corn and wine and
oil and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared
for Baal. During this time she was being unfaithful to him.
He was providing for her all that time. Now, look in chapter three. She has fallen so low she's brought
into an auction being sold. She hadn't seen Hosea in a long
time. Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman, beloved
of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the
Lord for the children of Israel, who took to other gods and loved
flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for 15
pieces of silver. And she was already married,
but she'd sold herself into sin, and he bought her once again. Verse three, and I said unto
her, thou shalt abide for many days, thou shalt not play the
harlot, for thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also
be for thee. He took her back. He took her
back to demonstrate the love of the Lord. Now let's go back
to Hosea 14. Remember, this is about And we
see this with Gomer. Now, the Lord says, I will heal
their relapses. I will heal their backsliding.
Now, how does He do that? Same way He did the first time
He saved you. By His stripes, we are healed. That's how he
heals relapses. The same way he heals all sin.
By his stripes we are healed. Look what he says next. He says,
I will love them freely. Now we get a glimpse of this
free love in these two children. Now their names were not obtained
mercy and not by people. Can you imagine going through
life with a name like that? They knew what those names meant.
Not obtained mercy. And you're not my people. And
he said, you are my people. You have obtained mercy, as a
matter of fact, Paul uses this in Romans chapter nine, would
you hold your finger there and turn to Romans nine. Verse beginning in verse 18,
therefore, have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he
will. He hardens. Thou wilt save him
unto me. Why does he yet find fault? For
who has resisted his will? If he hardens whom he will and
has mercy on whom he will, what can I do about that? How can
I be held responsible? Nay, but, O man, who are you
to reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump, to make one vessel
unto honour and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing
to show his power willing to show his wrath and to make his
power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction, that he might make known the
riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared
unto glory, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles, as he said in Hosea, I will call
them my people which were not my people. And her beloved, which
was not my beloved, and shall come to pass that in the place
where it was said unto them, You are not my people, they shall
be called the children of the living God." Now here's the glorious
thing about God's love. There's a lot of things glorious
about God's love. But He says, I love them with no cause in
them. Now that ought to give everybody
in this room some encouragement that God can love you. He said, I love them I'll heal
their backslidings. I will love them freely because
my anger is turned away. How is his anger turned away? Reconciliation. Complete reconciliation. His anger has been turned away.
The Lord is not mad at me. He's loved me freely. He's received
me graciously. He's taken away my iniquity. He's healed my backslidings.
He loves me freely. His anger is taken away. Complete,
total reconciliation. Now, verse five, this is this
is so important. I hope I can express this the
way it ought to be expressed. Now, understand this regarding
your spiritual life and my spiritual life, whatever that means. I'm either growing or I'm backsliding. There's not a neutral position.
I'm either growing or I'm backsliding. And the way to prevent backsliding
is to grow. Grow in grace. And in, oh, you
can grow in grace, can't you? I'm afraid I can't grow. Can't
you grow in grace? Sure you can. It's grace. Grow in grace. and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, in the next few verses,
he talks about growing. And there's some beautiful illustrations
of what true spiritual growth is in this passage of Scripture.
And this is what keeps us from backsliding, growing. And look
what he says in verse 5. He says, I will be as the dew unto Israel. In returning and
taking these words, this is what takes place. I will be as the
dew to Israel, the water that comes in on dry grass overnight. You know what dew is when you
get up in the morning and the grass is wet and it causes growth. Now, like I said, we're either
backsliding or we're growing. And he says, I'll be as the dew
to Israel. I'll cause this growth. And look
at what he says about the growth in verse five. He says, He shall
grow as the lily. Lilies grow straight up and their
growth is quick. You ever seen how quick a lily
grows? Straight up and quick. Because it's a work of His grace.
We grow up toward Him, looking to Him. This is his growth. He'll cause this growth. Now,
here's what's interesting about this growth. You grow straight
up. But look what he says next regarding growth. He says, I'll
be as a do unto Israel. He shall grow up as the lily,
but then he'll cast forth his roots as Lebanon roots grow down. And here's a measure of growth. When you grow, You always shrink. You go down, down, down in your
thoughts of yourself. True humility. If you're growing
up in your own estimation, I guarantee you, you're not growing in grace.
You're growing in something else. You're growing in pride and self-righteousness
is what you're growing in. But when you grow, you grow down
in your estimation of yourself. If that's what growth is, I'm
growing. Now, if that's what growth is, I'm growing because
I see right now my need of Him to do everything for me more
than I've ever seen before. I really do. I'm more dependent
upon Him. I'm more dependent upon His grace. And that's what
it is. You grow down in your thoughts
of yourself. You grow down. The roots go deep.
And look what He says next in verse 6. His branches shall spread
outward." Now, here's growth. First, I grow up to the Lord.
I grow down in my view of myself. And when I grow, my branches
go out to other people. I love the Lord's people. I want to be with them. I want
to be identified with them. That's the group I want to be
in. Birds of a feather flock together. I want to be with the
Lord's people. And we esteem the Lord's people more. We look
at them as the Lord looks at them. How does the Lord look
at you? That's how I'm going to look at you. How does the
Lord look at me? That's how you're going to look
at me. Accepted in the Beloved. Every
one of God's people are special. Every one of God's people are
saints. You know, I love the way Paul over and over in the
Scripture says, Salute the saints. You know, that's more than saying
hi. It means treat with respect and treat with regard. Salute
the saints which are in Christ Jesus. We grow outward in our
love of our brethren and we grow outward in our love of men. I
want the Lord to save the people I'm around and I want to be a
witness to them and I want to be an encouragement in that sense. We grow out in that sense. And look at verse six. His branches
shall spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree. Now, what
is the olive tree? It's the most serviceable of
all trees. It's the most useful and needful of all trees. People
eat from the olive trees. That means you'll be a blessing
to others in this kind of growth. Now, here's the key in returning
to the Lord. And taking these words. I tell
you, you're starting at the bottom, aren't you? And you stay at the
bottom, don't you? You stay at the bottom as far
as your estimation of yourself. But look at the growth that occurs
by His grace. He says, Her branches shall spread,
her beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. His beauty and smell becomes
a blessing to others. You know, smell, once again, In the scriptures, smell represents
memory more than anything else. Smell triggers memory more than
anything else. There's certain smells that you
can smell right now, and it brings up these thoughts of something
that took place in the past. How will I be remembered? Well, I know this. Not much. I mean, that's why when people
say I want to leave a legacy, I'm not interested in leaving
a legacy. I just want to be found in Christ. That's all I care
about. I'm not concerned about this thing of leaving a legacy.
But when folks remember me, would they remember somebody who was
merciful? Somebody who was forgiving? Somebody who was gracious and
kind? Or would they remember someone
who's a hard nose? How will I be remembered? I want to have a good memory
in that sense. When I'm dead, before long, nobody will remember
me. I always like to think of it, you know, people think, how
will people remember me? You'll be gone in a generation.
Nobody will think anything of you. I mean, you'll be forgotten
out of sight. I realize that. But those who
are close to me, how will I be remembered? By them. Her scent
shall be as leaven in verse 7. They that dwell under his shadow
shall return. He's ashamed of them. They shall
revive as the corn. He shall give them life and grow
as the vine. Now, how does the vine grow?
Only as it's on the tree. Only as I'm supported on the
tree do I grow up. This is the kind of growth that
he's speaking of. And understand the importance of growth. The
only way I'm going to keep from relapsing and backsliding, these
words the scripture uses, is by growth in grace. I'm doing
one of those two things. Now, Lord, make me grow. I don't know
what else to say about that. You know, we get so upset about
our growth, and Lord, make me grow. I can't make myself grow.
Cause me to grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. The scent thereof shall be as
the wine of Lebanon. That good smell. And here's what
will happen. Ephraim, verse 8. Now remember
what Israel was always doing. They were always reverting back
to idolatry. But here's what they do in returning to the Lord.
Ephraim shall say, what have I to do any more with idols. We're now repulsed by idols,
false concepts of God, idols of materialism, idols of this
world, idols of pleasure, whatever kind of idols there are. What
have I to do any more with idols? The Lord says regarding him,
I've heard him and observed I am like a green fir tree where you
find shade and nourishment from me is not fruit found. Now, don't
you want to grow and fruit in the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit?
Sure you do. Look at this promise from me is that fruit found? There's absolutely nothing to
fret about. There's nothing to get stressed about because this
fruit, this growth comes from him. Now, verse nine. Who is wise? And he shall understand these
things. Who is prudent or discerning? And he shall know them. Now,
I want to be that person, don't you? I want to have this wisdom
and this discernment, this understanding, this prudence, this knowledge.
Now, here's what they say when we understand these things. Three
things. First, the ways of the Lord are
right. You know, I really don't understand
much regarding what the Lord is doing. I've had people say,
well, what's the Lord doing in your life? I really don't know.
I don't know. But I do know this. Whatever
he does is right. I believe that whatever he does
is right. And I'm not, by the grace of
God, I don't want to be God's judge and say, well, I think
this is right or this is wrong or this is fair. How can he do
this? No, whatever he does is right. And it's right because
he does it. He doesn't do it because it's
right. It's right because he does it. And we believe that.
The ways of the Lord are right. And I find such satisfaction
in that. The ways of the Lord are right. I can rest in that.
I don't need to understand everything. I'm not concerned about it. The
ways of the Lord are right. And I love what Abraham said,
Shall not the judge of the earth do right? And his gospel is a
thing of rightness. He saves me in a right way. And he makes me right before
him. He doesn't make me wrong, he
makes me right. Oh, the rightness of the gospel. The scepter of
thy kingdom is a right scepter. The ways of the Lord are right. And the next thing that we'll
say is the just, the justified shall walk in them. The justified shall walk in these
right ways of the Lord. Now, all this is, is walking
in the gospel. Have your feet in the foundation of the gospel
of peace. That's my shoes. I walk in the... The just do this. They walk in
the gospel. They walk in the right ways of
the Lord, excepted in the beloved. Now, you walk in the right ways
of the Lord, but the transgressors... shall fall their end. They will
reject the gospel. Now, to the fallen, to the fallen, return to the Lord your God. He's still your God. He never
quit being your God. And His hand's been on you all
this time. providing for you whether you
realized it or not. Now you return to him and you
take with you these words. I think that's glorious how he
gives us the things to say. Take away all iniquity. There's nothing I can do about
it. But you can if you're pleased to do it. And receive us graciously. And we'll praise you. And we'll
understand man didn't save us. We're not saved by means. We're
not saved by false gods. We understand that in thee, the
fatherless, find mercy. So, fallen one, return to the Lord thy God. Let's pray.