Breach where this morning will come from Hosea chapter 14 verses 1 through 9. It's Isaiah chapter 14 verses 1 through 9. Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, where you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with your words and return to the Lord. Say to him, take away all iniquity except what is good and we will pay with bulls and boughs of our lips. A serious shall not save us. We will not ride on horses. We will say no more our God to the work of our hands. In you, the orphan finds mercy. I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely for my anger has turned from them. I'll be like the due to Israel. He shall blossom like the lily. He shall take root like the trees of Lebanon. His shoots shall spread out. His beauty shall be like the olive and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow. They shall flourish like the grain. They shall blossom like the vine. Their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress. From me comes your fruit. Whoever is wise, let him understand these things. Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. I have quite a few older brothers. A couple of my older brothers have been in and out of trouble for many years of their lives. In fact, one of them has done a couple of stints and prisons for various offenses.
And today, despite them being older than me, and despite them being in and out of trouble with the law and with various members of the family today, today, they are back home living with our mother. And when I heard about that, I thought to myself, well, by the vine, or I guess it is true. You can always go back home. No matter where you've been, or what you've done, you can always go back home. Well, I know that is a general saying now, and we do understand that that is not always the case, actually, that some of those bridges have been too badly burned, and there are times when you can't go back home. However, beloved, it is always true with God.
With God, you can always return home. There are no bridges that are too badly burned, that you can't cross back over. And with God, come back home. In fact, this is the hope and the love that we find, as we conclude the prophecy of Hosea. We see in these final words of the prophecy to the nation of Israel through the prophet Hosea, God saying to his people, come home. Come home. Come home. Hosea, indeed, has been a dramatic and oftentimes graphic description of Israel's sin. Of her idolatry and her spiritual adultery of her unfaithfulness and apostasy. And if you've been here with us for any length of time and sat in on any of these messages, you know that it has been dramatic and it has been graphic at times, but even more dramatic and even more graphic has been the description of God's justice. Of God's mercy, of His loving kindness, of His grace and His love and faithfulness to His people. And as we find ourselves at the conclusion of Hosea, this is exactly what we see as these, as this prophecy climaxes, we see in chapters 13 and 14, the end of Hosea is the message that has been the message of Hosea from the very beginning, as we saw last week. At the beginning of 13, God faithfully called Israel out of Egypt and He led them and lovingly led them and He was their savior and He was their God. And yet God says in chapter 13 and verse 6 that despite of all this, despite of them lovingly leading them, despite of them of them saving them graciously, faithfully saving them out of Egypt and leading them in verse 6, it says, chapters 13, they became fools. They were filled and their hearts and their heart was lifted up therefore they forgot me. They forgot me. And as we saw last week, what happens when you forget? You fail. And Israel, beloved, was a case study and failed faithfulness. And death and destruction therefore would be their portion and death and destruction would be their end unless God was compassionate. For the says in verse 12 of chapter 13, Israel had stored up sin. And it says in verse 16 of 13, Samaria was undeniably guilty. The nation had stored up sin. There was no doubt about her guilt. She had been unfaithful. She had grown away from the path of God had given her. She had been wayward. She had chased all the gods. She had entered into unfaithful relationships. She had broken her covenant with God. And yet despite her waywardness, despite her disobedience, despite her forgetfulness, despite her unfaithfulness, God was willing and wanting to do as he had in the beginning, commanded Hosea to do with goler. And that is to go and love an unfaithful woman.
Beloved, God loves the unfaithful. In fact, if he did not love the unfaithful, he would have no one on earth to love. And we see God love as Hosea concludes in chapter 14 where it begins with the wonderfully loving and encouraging precious plea of the heart of God. What God says to his people, return, O Israel, return O Israel to the Lord your God, return, return. Love the idea of returning is a prominent and frequent theme in the Bible. It is particularly evident in the prophets as they speak on behalf of God to God's people. It is a common theme in June, chapter 2 and the verse 13. The Bible says, in your hearts and not your garments, return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abound in instead fast love. And he relents over disaster, returns. Return to the Lord your God. Jeremiah chapter 24 in verse 7 as the prophecy, as the prophet is given the prophecy of the coming new covenant and what God would do in his people. The Bible says, God says, I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. Lamentations, chapter 3, in verse 39, why should a living man complain? A man about the punishment of his sin. Let us test and examine our ways and return to the Lord. Return, return. It is a prominent theme as God is speaking to his people. It is not just an Old Testament theme. The New Testament picks up on this and these James picks up on this as he's speaking to God's New Testament people. In chapter 4 and verse 8 he says, draw near to God. It is the same idea of return. Returns to God. Draw near to God and you know what you will find is that God will draw near to you.
This is what the prophet Hosea giving to the people the words of God. God says in verse 1, return, return all Israel to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words, return to the Lord, return. Return, beloved is nothing more than repentance. This is what repentance means. Repentance means a turning. Turn, turn, turn back. Turn again, turn around to whom do you turn? You turn to the Lord. From what do you turn? You turn from your sin. You turn from your iniquity. You turn from your wayward ways. As in front of you, the road that you're going down is the road of destruction and pain and disaster. Turn. Turn from what is in front of you and turn to see what is behind you and what is behind you. God, ever pursuing, ever loving, ever caring, ever compassionate, ever forgiving. There is God having turned from His wrath against you and pursuing you with loving kindness and faithfulness and goodness. So there, let's turn and take these words with you. Turn Israel, return, turn and when you turn, by the way, take these words with you. In other words, ask God these words. Verse 2, take away all of our iniquities and other words turn and ask the Lord to give our sins on. Ask the Lord to forgive your sins. Turn and ask the Lord to accept your good. In other words, turn and ask the Lord. Lord, let us worship you again. Let us worship you again. Take away our iniquity and let us worship you again. Accept our sacrifices, Lord. Love it. Do you know that it is not our sin that keeps us from God? It is our hypocrisy that does. It is not your sin that keeps you from God that may God not accept your worship is your unwillingness to acknowledge that you are a sinner. The only worshippers of God have in the world are sinners. The problem comes when they try to worship Him without acknowledging that. And I refuse it to admit it. You don't have to be sinless to worship God because that was the case. No one could. What you do need to do is admit that you are sinful and acknowledge our need. It is hypocrisy that keeps us from worshipping the way we should and from God accepting our worship. It is hypocrisy. It is our refusing. Now it's us thinking that we are worthy of worshiping Him. It is not the woman caught in a dough tree who is not unable to worship Jesus. It is those who take up stones who perceive themselves better than her. That's the task you will worship God when he cries out. God be merciful to me a sinner. It is the Pharisee who perceives himself better than the pastor. It is the hypocrisy of it all. God knows you and I are sinners. He knows our hearts and our minds and the intentions of our hearts better than we did. All he asks is that we acknowledge that we admit that we are weak and neutral, that we admit that we are sinners in need of a Savior, that we turn and ask the Lord, Lord, forgive me of my iniquities and now accept my worship. That's why the songwriter is right. That not conscious. Make you linger. Nor a fitness, family dream. All the fitness he requires is that you sense your need of Him. That's all God asks. Is that you sense your need or return to the Lord? Here's the grace of it all. Here is the marvelous, indescribable grace of it all. Is that God says return and that He gives you the words to say upon your return? He gives you the words to say. You don't have to sit around and think about it. Flavable, beloved. You can return to the Lord and the Lord gives you the words to say upon your return. See that in the verse three, right? God says, tell God that you have come to realize that you have no Savior but Him. That the serious can't save me. I have come to realize I have no Savior but you, that you will no longer trust in horses and chariots, in my own power, in the things that I accumulate, in the things that I am able to do. I am no longer going to trust in what I put before people and how they perceive me. I am lame myself, Savior, but Him. Tell Him that you are no longer trusting in horses or chariots. Notice what He says, tell God that you have put away the idols and you have no other God but Him. Tell Him I'm done with finding satisfaction in anything but you God. Tell Him that I'm done in finding contentment and fulfillment in anything or anyone but God. Tell Him that in this world you feel like an orphan, like you have no family, like you have no friends and know that with the Lord even the orphans find mercy as the psalmist says in Psalm 27. Even when my father and my mother I know then that the Lord will take me in. Tell God and believe it. When you tell God that when you return to God and say to God the words of God gives you to say to God, you find returning to God is gracious. You find that returning to God is fruitful. You find that returning to God is what our text says this morning. Returning to God is fruitful and it is gracious beloved. It is so gracious. The reason it is gracious beloved is because returning to God is possible only because God is willing and ready for you to return. God wants your return more than you and I do. Said in the verse 4 and I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely. God says I will heal their apostasy and I will love them. Beloved, true repentance always gets God attention. Always, always, no one has ever truly repented and can say that they've been ignored by God. No, no, no, no. God may not be pleased with your sacrifices and your blood offerings. God may not be pleased with your financial offerings and your worship songs and your vows and your empty promises
but he is always pleased. When his people genuinely for these the Bible says are the sacrifices that delight him. Psalm 51 verse 17, a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. God always delight to me. So he says, I will heal them. I will love them freely. I will love them without reservation. I will love them without hesitation. Why? Because there is no sin that God will not forget. You are willing this morning to admit to your sin? There is no sin that he will not forgive. You have been unfaithful. God says we can deal with them. You have been lustful. God says we can handle them. You have been prideful and thoughtless. God says we can handle that. You have been hateful and greedy. God says we got something for that too. God says I can deal with all of sin. You are willing to admit and mourn. It was hard. I know it was hard for our legalistic minds to get around the amazing truth that is found in the Bible but it is clear as the nose on your face. Romans chapter 5 and verse 20 were sins great. Grace is even greater. Now you don't believe that. We don't believe that. We don't believe it and that's why we don't return. But listen, believe it. I don't fully understand it and I don't fully walk in it all the time and we don't treat each other the way that the pastor says we should. But the truth of the matter is whatever you have done, God's grace is greater than us each other. I'm forgiving. I will heal them and I will love them freely. There will be no bounds for the grace you receive and you return the God. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord. Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary's mouth out pour. There were the blood of the Lamb. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all our sin. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace, that is greater than all our sin. Returning the God is gracious. He will love you. Graciously. It's not only gracious. Beloved it is fruitful. It is fruitful. But God not only wants us to return but he wants the world to know that we have returned. He wants the world to know that we have returned and therefore he gives us a testimony of everlasting life up on our return. See that in verse 5. Is what he says what he will do when Israel returns? I would be like the due to Israel. He shall blossom like the lily. He shall take root like the trees of Lebanon. His shoots shall spread out. His beauty shall be like the olive and his fragrance like Lebanon. Returning to God is life giving. It is life giving. Be unplugged from God. When you are unplugged from God, that is death. Because in God is life. Apart from God is death. This is what happened with Adam and Eve in the garden. When they sinned the Bible tells us in Romans that Adam brought death into the world for now all have died in Adam. Why? Because sin unplugs you from God. Does unplugged all of humanity? No wages are sent. The Bible says therefore but being reconciled and being reconnected and returning to God is life because everything that God touches lands. He is the God of the living. You understand that? He is the God of the living and therefore those who are reconnected and connected with God do not die. Speaking about that this week. When brother wrote main past into eternal, Paul's read, mind it, our God is the God of the living and therefore remained it and died. He said transition. God of the living because all in God. When you return to God there is an infusion of life says he will water Israel. You know it takes water to flourish. That's why your grass is not growing. You're not watering. That's water to flourish. And God says I will water Israel and see what flourish the imagery that he gives her and how she will flourish. They shall blossom. They shall take root. Their soup shall spread out. They shall be beautiful. They shall be a luscious and sweet fragrance. Beloved this is not simply for Israel. This is for others to see. This will see their blossoms. Others will see their soup spreading out. Others will see they are beautiful. Others will smell the sweet aroma of God on them. Why? Because beloved life begets life. And our returning to God is not just for us. Our returning to God glorifies God in our encouraging us. What God is what Jesus said to Peter. Jesus was telling Peter who was going to be crucified and Peter said no Lord is not going to happen to you. And Jesus says the Peter and Luke chapter 22 and verse 32 Simon, Simon behold. Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you turn again, you do what? You strengthen your brothers. Why? Because your repentance is my strength. And my repentance is your strength. We get strength from one another when we turn to God.
Never too late to turn. It is never too late to turn and be fruitful. Never too late. Notice what it says. This is, I just discovered this this week. In reading, going over this, I just discovered verse 8. This is beautiful. God said, I am an evergreen Cypress. I thought about that. I am an evergreen Cypress. From me come your fruit and evergreen Cypress. I grew up in the north where we have real seasons. Winter is winter. Spring is spring. Summer is summer and fall is fall. And you can tell the difference. But you know what is not affected by the evergreens. And there are a lot of and they are always green. Winter, spring, summer and fall. The evergreens are always the same. That's how God is beloved. He is over a season in which He will not forgive you. I love Him for you. Come to me and I will not be green for you. For you. It is never too late, beloved. Twilight is never too late to return to God because God is ever ready, ever willing to glorify Himself through us. Never too late to, you know, beloved, that it is never too late, whether it is also never too early. It is never too early, beloved. Young people, I say that to you this morning. It is never too early to return to God. The world and the devil will tell you that youth is for pleasure, middle ages for business, and old ages for religion. But God says it quite differently, beloved. Cleviastes, chapter 12, and in verse 1 He puts the plain, remember also your creator in the days of your youth. You are never too young for God to bear fruit through your life of repudence. You can turn now. It is never too late and it is never too soon. You can turn. In fact, when you turn your real life, it is really the only wise course of action and turning the God is wise. It is wise. In the face and the fact of God's grace, beloved, it is the food who refuses to turn. See what it says in verse 9, whoever is wise, let him understand these things. Whoever is the surname, let him know them. You know what is painfully clear throughout the whole prophecy of Hosea is this fact that we are sinners. Evidence on every page. It has been evident in every chapter. It has been practically in every line. And yet there is something even more clear in the prophecy of Hosea. And that is that God loves us despite it all. Despite our way witness, despite our unfaithfulness, despite our walking out on him, despite our chasing after other gods. And it is the food who misses this. The food who refuses to acknowledge God. And therefore, to trample underfoot the grace and the mercy of God. The Bible says, does it not, in Psalm 14, that the food has said in his heart that there is no God? In the saying that there is no God, what the food is saying is, therefore, that I am no sinner. That's when you refuse to acknowledge God, you refuse to acknowledge that you are a sinner. Therefore, it is the food who looks at the cross of Jesus Christ and calls that folly. It is the food who looks at the cross of Jesus Christ and calls that unnecessary. And rather than seeing the hope and the joy and the only resource, per reconciliation with God, the food says. And I will trust in voices. And I will trust in cherries. And I will trust in my own wisdom. And I will trust in my own wisdom. Do you know, beloved, the smartest man in the world is a food if he refuses to repent?
And the simplest man in the world is wise when he turns and repents this whole God. In fact, beloved, I am convinced that the wise is words ever spoken by a human being in the scriptures found in Luke chapter 15 and verse 8 where a prodigal son said, I will arrive. I will arrive and go to my Father. And will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. It doesn't get any wiser than that. Not just the foolishness of his ways, but wisdom was turning around and going home. You may not always be able to go to Mama. You may not always be able to go back to Daddy. The job that you ran out from may not take you back. The school out of which you got kicked may not let you back in. That husband may not be willing to take you back. That wife may not be willing to reconcile with you. But with God, you can always come home. Why? Because if I might borrow from Tom Baudet, God leads the light on for you. There is a country song by Trace Atkins. You don't know anything about this. There's a country song by Trace Atkins,
which he's speaking to his wife who is walking out on him. He tells his wife that,
I'm going to leave the light on just in case you ever want to come back home. And she smiles and said, I appreciate you doing that. And he said, but so that you don't misunderstand what I'm saying, when you leave and you look back, every light in the house is on. The backyard bright as the crack of dawn. The front wall looks like a runway light. Kind of like noon in the day of night. Every light in the house is on. Just in case you ever get tired of being gone. Every light in the house, beloved with God. Every light in the house is on. Just in case you ever get tired of being gone. Every light in the house Christ Jesus, the glory of the light of the gospel shines in his face and says to all people, you can come. I don't care where you've been. I don't care where you've gone. You can come home. You who are weary, come home. Softly and tenderly. Can you hear the Lord calling? Calling, poor, because at Calvary, you left the light on for you. Let's pray.