Sermon #1490 Miscellaneous
Sermons
Title: One More Appeal
Text: Hosea 14:1-9
Subject: A Call to Repentance
Date: Sunday Morning –
Tape
# W-77b
Introduction:
The words of God’s prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 8:18-22) very
much describe the emotions of my heart and the thoughts of my mind this past
week, as I prepared to preach to you today.
(Jeremiah
8:18-22) When I would comfort
myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me… -- 20 The harvest
is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. – (Many of you are yet
without God, without Christ, without hope, lost in this dark, dark world!) --
21 For the hurt of (your immortal souls) am I hurt; I am black;
astonishment hath taken hold on me. 22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is
there no physician there?
Indeed, there is balm in Gilead. – It is
the balm of free grace gushing out to sinners from the throne of God in the
blood of Christ! – Yes, there is a Physician for your soul! – Christ is that
Physician!
I stand before
you once more with a heavy, heavy heart, heavy because I care for your souls.
Oh, yes, there is much, very much, for which I am thankful, thankful beyond
words!
·
Christ! – “Thanks
be unto God for his unspeakable gift!”
·
The Grace of God
Bestowed upon Me! – Oh, the unsearchable riches of his grace!
·
The Manifold Blessings
of God upon this Assembly!
·
The Wise and Good
Providence of Our God!
·
The Goodness and Mercy
that has Followed Me All the Days of My Life!
Still, my heart is heavy, because many
of you who are so very dear to me are yet without Christ, yet under the wrath
of God. Today, as I stand here to preach to you for the last time in this year,
(perhaps for the last time ever!), I want to make one more appeal to your
souls. I believe the Lord has given me a message for you. May he give me the
wisdom, grace and power of his Holy Spirit to preach it. And, oh, how I pray
that he will give you grace to hear it, for Christ’s sake.
(Ezekiel
33:11) Say unto them, As I live,
saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the
wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for
why will ye die, O house of Israel?
You will find
my message in Hosea 14:1-9. The Book of Hosea begins with a great, great love
story, the story of Hosea’s love for Gomer. It is a story intended to portray
the love of God for his fallen people. The first three chapters of the Book
relate that story to us. Chapters 4-13 tell us two things.
1.
We all fully
deserve the everlasting wrath of God.
– “The wages of sin is death,” – everlasting, tormenting death in hell!
– And we have all fully earned our wages!
2.
The Lord God
will be gracious! – God is merciful. “He
delighteth in mercy!” – God will save! God will forgive! – There are some
people in this world, fully deserving the wrath of God who shall be saved by
his grace.
After describing how fully we deserve
his wrath, after showing us how that we have, by our countless iniquities,
earned his holy wrath, treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, the Lord
God speaks in great mercy. Look at what he says in chapter 13.
(Hosea
13:4) Yet I am the LORD thy God
from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no
saviour beside me.
(Hosea
13:9) O Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself; but in me is thine help.
(Hosea
13:14) I will ransom them from the power
of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O
grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. (Compare
Rom. 11:29.)
God has sworn
that he will save, that he will be gracious; and he will not repent! Now, let’s
read chapter 14 together. We will begin in verse 1 and go through the chapter.
I. A Call to
Repentance -- In verses 1-3 the Lord God almighty issues a call
of grace to sinners who deserve his wrath.
It is really hard to tell whether the one speaking in these
verses is God himself or his prophet Hosea. That is often the case throughout
the Book. But there is a good reason for that. It really does not matter.
Whether God speaks to us directly or speaks to us by the voice of his prophet,
it is God speaking to us. So, let us hear what the Lord God says to us.
(Hosea
14:1-3) O Israel, return unto the LORD
thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. 2 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. 3 Asshur 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.
Perhaps you
are thinking, “Is this addressed to lost sinners or saved sinners? Is God here
speaking to those who do not know him, or is he speaking to believers?” – The
answer is “yes.” This is God’s word to you and to me.
A. “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God.”
Will you hear me? – Though we have sinned and
revolted and rebelled against him all the days of our lives, the God of Glory
is still “the Lord, thy God.”
Like it or not, we belong to God, and he will never give up his property. He is
our…
·
Great Creator!
·
Merciful Benefactor!
·
Mighty Preserver!
My
brother, my sister, let us never forget, the Lord God is the Lord our God
distinctly, personally, by his own distinguishing grace. He is our God
by…
·
His Special Choice.
·
His Covenant Grace.
·
Blood Atonement.
·
Saving Operations.
Though we have
sinned against him, though we have fallen by our iniquities, he is still our
God! He is ever ready to be gracious, ready to receive us, ready to embrace us!
Is this
an invitation, or a command? Is it an offer of grace or a promise of
grace? – All the above! The Lord God here calls sinners who desperately need it
to come to the throne of grace to obtain grace.
Yet, these
words might be translated, “O Israel, thou shalt return unto the Lord thy God.” You see, “all Israel
shall be saved.” That’s what the Book says. All who are God’s shall, at his
appointed time of love, return to him.
Read on…
B. “For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.”
Oh, how far we have fallen!
Illustration:
“I’ve seen better days.”
1.
We were made in the
image of God; but we live like beasts.
2.
We were made upright;
but we live like worms.
3.
We were made lovely;
but sin has made us ugly.
4.
We were made rich; but
we are poor.
5.
We were made to live
in the company of God; but we live far off from God.
What is it
that has brought us into this state? – “Thou hast fallen by THINE INIQUITY!”
That is what sin is. It is our own doing. It is our own iniquity. The word
means moral perversity. It refers both to the depravity of our nature and the
debauchery of our behavior.
Look at verse 2…
C. “Take with you
words, and turn to the Lord.”
– Turn to the Lord fully, completely, with all your heart!
The Lord would not have us
merely recite words before him. Yet, he does demand both the confession of sin
and of faith in his Son, as expressions of our hearts before him. – Sin must be
acknowledged. – Repentance must be declared. – Faith must be confessed.
(Romans
10:9-10) That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
(1 John 1:9)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
D. “Say unto him, take
away all iniquity.”
Read on…
E. “And receive us
graciously!”
Receive into grace and favour.
Receive us openly and manifestly. Without question, the love and grace of God
is always the same; but the manifestation of his love and grace is something
else. Our acceptance with him never varies; but the manifestation of it does.
This is a prayer made for
the remembrance of love and grace, for a renewed discovery of it, acknowledging
that our acceptance with God is not in any way a matter of our merit, but
altogether a matter of his free grace in Christ. O Lord God, receive us
graciously…
F. “So will we render
the calves of our lips.”
That is to say: -- “Lord, we are
at your disposal. If you will receive us, if you will be gracious to us, if you
will forgive us, if you will save us, we will worship you, praise you, and give
thanks to you! Draw us, and we will run after you. Turn us, O God of our
Salvation, and we shall be turned!”
Read verse 3, and learn this…
G. True repentance is the giving up of all other
trusts, and trusting Christ alone, looking to God to be gracious only because
he will be gracious, for Christ’s sake.
(Hosea 14:3) Asshur 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.
Repentance is
much more than most imagine. It is…
·
A Change of Masters.
·
A Change of Motives.
·
A Change of Manners.
·
A Change of Mind.
Repentance is turn from all our false
gods and false religion to the Lord our God. It is turning from our sins to our
Savior, from our religion to his grace, from ourselves to him, from our righteousness
to his righteousness, from our works to his blood, from our rebellion to his
dominion.
This is what
verse 3 declares. -- We will no longer look to men, or to carnal strength, or
to the work of our own hands to save us. As helpless, needy, abandoned
children, cast off from their mothers’ womb, polluted in our own blood, we look
to you, O Lord our God for mercy; “for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy!”
“But, pastor,
will the Lord save me? Will God be gracious to me? Will God forgive my sin?”
Read verses 4-6.
II. A Promise
of Grace – Here the Lord God, the God who calls us to
repentance, the God who calls us to seek his grace, promises penitent sinners
that he will give us his grace.
(Hosea
14:4-6) I will heal their backsliding, I
will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. 5 I will
be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots
as Lebanon. 6 His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the
olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
A. “I
will heal their backsliding.”
The word backsliding is far stronger than is commonly
thought. It means, our apostasy, our turning away from God. It suggests a
deliberate act.
1.
That is your
problem. – You have turned away from
God, by willful choice, by deliberate act; and you continually do so.
2.
This is my
problem! – Oh, my God, how I have
turned away from you!
3.
This is God’s
promise.—“I will heal their backsliding!”
B. “I will love them freely!”
C. Here’s the reason for his promise and the
assurance of it. – “For
mine anger is turned away from him.”
God’s anger is turned away from the sinner who comes to him
for grace, because God’s anger is turned away from Him who satisfied the wrath
of God for us at Calvary!
(Psalms
85:2-3) Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. 3 Thou hast taken
away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of
thine anger.
(Isaiah 12:1) And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I
will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away,
and thou comfortedst me.
D. “I will be as the dew unto Israel.” – The dew is reviving and refreshing.
E. “He shall grow as the lily.” – The lily grows gently, gradually, unobserved, until it buds forth in its full beauty.
F. “He shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon.” – Cedars are strong because their roots are deep.
(Psalms
1:3) And he shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf
also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
G. “His branches shall spread.” – Once David was restored, he taught sinners God’s salvation; and when God restores our souls, he causes us to be instruments of usefulness to others. When the Lord God saves a sinners, he plants him as a tree in the garden of grace and causes his branches to spread out to many others.
H. “His beauty shall be as the olive tree.” – The olive tree’s only beauty is its rich fragrance. This is what the text refers to, as the next words tell us. – “And his fragrance as Lebanon.” – “We are unto God a sweet savor of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:15).
But there is something more here. In ancient times olive oil was a very rich commodity. Like petroleum today, those who had olive oil to sell were men of great worth.
By nature, we are worthless creatures. Sin has robbed us, and made us worthless. Oh, how I pray that God will cause you to see your worthlessness before him. That’s a good thing. When we no that we are worthless in ourselves, we will seek worth in another!
Here the Lord God promises to restore value to his people. He promises to take the worthless and make them people of worth, of infinite worth, of worth to God, of worth to men, of worth to the world! – He makes us people of worth by giving us the worth of his own darling Son! – That’s grace, pure, free, undiluted grace!
Did you ask, “Will the Lord receive me?”
Illustration: “Welcome
home, sister!”
Now, look at verses 7-8.
III. A Matter of Certainty – In these two verses, our great, gracious God, declares that the salvation of sinners is a matter of absolute certainty.
(Hosea
14:7-8) 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. 8 Ephraim shall
say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and
observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.
A. There is a people, a great multitude,
who dwell under the shadow of the Almighty, who shall be saved.
This 7th verse is talking about God’s elect. – Both those who are already saved and those who have not yet been saved. They all dwell under his shadow.
· They shall revive.
· They shall grow.
· They shall possess all the beauty of Christ.
B. Like
Ephraim, God’s elect are a people full of iniquity, worthy of wrath, deserving
to be abandoned forever in hell; but they are his people and they shall yet be
saved.
Ephraim was full of sin.
Ephraim was idolatrous. Ephraim was joined to his idols and would not let them
go. Ephraim was dead (13:1-3); but Ephraim was still God’s! The Lord God cries,
-- “How shall I give thee up O Ephraim? – I will not execute the fierceness
of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man!”
(Hos. 11:8-9).
(Hosea 13:4) Yet I am the LORD thy God from the
land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no
saviour beside me.
(Hosea 13:9) O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in
me is thine help.
(Hosea 13:14) I will ransom them from the power of the
grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave,
I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
Read verse 8 again, and hear what God says about his chosen Ephraim.
(Hosea 14:8) Ephraim shall say, What have I to do
any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like
a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.
· Ephraim is mine!
· I’ve heard him!
· I’ve observed him! – “While he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion on him!”
· I am a green fir tree. – This is our God. This is our Savior. This is our all-glorious Christ! -- The green fir tree is a tree with branches hanging so low to the ground that anyone who wants to can get hold of it. – It is a tree with leaves so thick that when you stand under it, even in a heavy rain, it will shelter you from the storm. – Its fragrance is sweet, subtle, not over powering. Yet, any one who touches it smells like it!
Read the last line of verse 8 and learn its doctrine.
C. “From me is thy fruit found.”
Grace is God’s gift. Salvation is God’s work. If we live, if we revive, it will be because he gave us live, because he brought us to himself, because he gave us faith, because he wrought repentance in us.
(Romans 9:16) So then it is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
IV. A Final Appeal – I have one more appeal to make, one more word from God to deliver. You will find it in verse 9.
(Hosea 14:9) Who is wise, and he shall understand
these things? prudent, and 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.
A. God’s ways are right.
B. The just, the righteous, those who are made just before God, bowing to God’s ways in all things, shall walk in them.
C. The rebel, the unbeliever, every sinner who will not come to Christ, shall perish in them.
Application: “O Israel, Return unto the Lord thy God.”
1.
Poor, needy
sinners, come to Christ.
(Matthew
11:28-30) Come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find
rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light.
2.
My brother, my sister,
Come now with me, let us turn again to our God.
(Hosea 6:1-3) Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he
hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 2 After
two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall
live in his sight. 3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know
the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us
as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
(Hosea
14:1-2) O Israel, return unto the LORD
thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. 2 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.
Amen.