I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.
I will be like the dew to Israel, he will blossom like a lily, like a cedar of Lebanon,
he will send down his roots. His young shoots will grow, his splendor will be like an olive tree,
his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
Men will dwell again in his shade, he will flourish like the corn,
he will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.
O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will ask him and care for him,
I am like a green pine tree, your fruitfulness comes from me.
Who is wise? He will realize these things.
Who is discerning? He will understand them.
The ways of the Lord are right, the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.
Thanks very much, Louise.
Well, chapter 14 in some ways is like a summary, it's a conclusion, a wrap-up of the whole message of Hosea.
So as we come to God's Word, let's pray.
Let's ask that the Lord would help us, not only to understand with our minds,
but that we would feel within our hearts, and that God would change us through his Word today.
So let's pray for that.
Father, thank you for this message of Hosea.
A message that speaks to us today.
And Father, our prayer is that you would not only enable us to understand with our heads intellectually,
but that we would sense it, feel it, experience your work deep within our hearts,
so that we are changed,
we are transformed,
and that we become
the people that you call us to be.
Father, do your work amongst us today.
And for your glory we pray this,
and for our good, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Together, they stood at the front of the church.
It wasn't their first time.
Almost five years ago to the day,
they had stood in exactly the same place,
promising to love each other until death us do part.
Friends and family had all gathered together to join in their special day,
no expense was spared,
the finest of food,
the luxurious surroundings,
but their marriage celebration was short-lived.
Within a few weeks,
she had had an affair with a colleague at work
and had walked out of the marriage.
But today was a new day,
a fresh start.
In love,
he had reached out to his unfaithful wife
and proposed to her again.
And there they stood in the front of the church,
ready to renew their vows.
But that's what we have in chapter 14.
Here God is reaching out to his unfaithful people,
calling them to himself.
Renew your marriage vows with me.
Look at verse 4.
God promises,
I will heal their waywardness
and love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.
You remember that Hosea has been a story
about God's marriage to his people.
God's people had been an adulterous wife.
They had chased after other lovers,
replacing God with other things and other people.
And God couldn't ignore their behaviour.
He was jealous for his people.
He loved them.
And he couldn't let them carry on the way they were.
So God had promised to bring his judgment upon them.
The threat of the Assyrian nation would come upon them.
But God was not about to give up on his people either.
He pursued them.
In love, God reached out to them
and gives them that opportunity
to come to him afresh
to renew those marriage vows.
And that is what God is offering to us today.
Because in a sense, we are no different.
We are the adulterous people.
We've rejected his unfaithful love.
We've resisted his kind and generous rule.
We've provoked God's anger.
And he has promised to come in terrible judgment.
But like a broken-hearted husband
who refuses to give up on his adulterous wife,
so God has passionately pursued us.
In love, God reaches out to us today
and gives us that opportunity
to renew our marriage vows.
So today, this moment,
imagine yourself standing
at the front of the church.
As it were, if you were renewing those vows,
a new beginning.
Maybe you've never experienced
a relationship with God.
You've never known that intimacy
with God as father
and a faithful, loyal husband.
Well, today, you can.
Or perhaps your relationship with God
has just grown cold.
You've lost that sense of intimacy.
It's a closed relationship
and you no longer experience his love.
Well, today, you can.
Because chapter 14 gives us that opportunity
to come and meet with God
and renew those marriage vows.
So what will this marriage blessing look like?
Well, let's look at it in two ways.
First, it's a call to return
to our true love.
Look at verse 1.
Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.
Verse 2.
Take words with you
and return to the Lord.
This calling of return
is a call to daily repentance.
I'm sure as you've been to weddings,
you'll hear these vows.
The husband is asked this question.
Will you love her?
Comfort her?
Honor and keep her
in sickness and in health?
And forsaking all others,
keep yourself only for her.
Forsake all others,
keep yourself only for her
as long as you both shall live.
Well, that's what God is seeking
as he's calling his people
to return to him.
Forsake all other loves
and keep yourself only for him.
Now, before we look at how we do that,
this returning,
this repenting,
we need to identify
what those other loves are
that we have.
And to help us to identify,
I'm going to ask us all
just two very simple questions.
So I want us to think through
what is your answer
to these questions.
Here's the first one.
What do I turn to
for my comfort and pleasure?
In life,
what do I turn to
for my comfort and pleasure?
Maybe it's work.
Maybe it's shopping.
Maybe it's porn.
Maybe it's some substance abuse.
What do you turn to
for your comfort and pleasure?
Here's the second question.
What do I look to
for my joy and happiness?
Or sorry,
who do I look to
for my joy and happiness?
Who are the people
that I treasure most
that I want
for my joy and happiness?
Well, whatever your answer
to those questions,
these can become
our substitute loves.
We replace God
with these other loves.
and our calling today
is to return
to our one true love.
Here's how we do that
in three steps.
Here's the first one.
Take responsibility
for my sin.
Look at verse one again.
Return, O Israel,
to the Lord your God.
your sins
have been
your downfall.
The reason that Israel
had run away from God
was not because God
had failed them.
It was because
they had eyes
for other lovers.
God had been faithful
and loyal
and generous
and trustworthy
and kind.
So the only reason
why they turned
from God,
well, it was because
of their own sinful hearts.
And that's what we do.
We look away
from the source
of our true love.
We have eyes
for other loves
and put our hope
in other things.
And that's not God's fault
or anybody else's fault.
We can't point the finger
at somebody else.
It's my fault.
It's not my upbringing.
It's not where I live
or what's happened.
If we turn away from God,
if we look to other things,
it's our own fault.
It's my responsibility.
And I must learn
to take ownership
of my sin.
Look what it says
at the end of verse one.
Your sins
have been
your downfall.
So the first step
in returning
to our true love
is to take responsibility
for my sin.
The second is this.
Seek forgiveness
for my sin.
Look at verse two.
Take words with you
and return to the Lord.
Say to him,
forgive all our sins
and receive us
and receive us graciously.
God isn't asking
his people
to do anything.
He's not asking them
to prove their love
or to pass a test.
No, it's a simple call
to come with words
from the heart
seeking forgiveness.
forgiveness.
This is how our relationship
with God starts
and it's how our relationship
with God continues.
It's so simple.
Forgive all our sins
and receive us graciously.
You see,
there is nothing
too bad
or so terrible
that God cannot forgive.
Maybe you're sitting there
and thinking
that if you only knew
what was going on
in my life
or the things I've done
or what's going on
in my life right now,
there's no way
God could forgive me.
Well, hear this invitation
from our true love
to experience forgiveness.
Say to him,
forgive all my sin
and receive me graciously.
In fact,
the words of repentance
are like our sacrifice.
It's like an offering.
Look at the end of verse 2.
Receive us graciously
that we may offer
the fruit of our lips.
The fruit of our lips,
the words that we speak to God.
This is our offering.
This is our sacrifice to God.
King David understood this
when he sought forgiveness
for his adultery.
Psalm 51 records for us
as he comes to God.
This is what he says.
You do not delight in sacrifice
or I would bring it.
You don't take pleasure
in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit,
a broken and contrite heart,
O God,
you will not despise.
So God is not looking
for your track record today.
He's not looking at the list
of all the things you've done
to prove your love.
He's simply looking
for a broken and contrite heart.
The invitation to us all today
is come with these words.
Forgive all my sin
and receive us graciously.
So,
as we return to the Lord,
take responsibility for my sin,
seek forgiveness for my sin,
and third,
renew trust
in my Saviour.
Look at verse 3.
Assyria
cannot save us.
We will not mount war horses.
We will never again say,
Our gods,
to what our own hands have made.
You see,
God's people
in their spiritual adultery,
as they look to other loves,
they look to other nations,
like Assyria,
to their own military power.
this was going to be their Saviour.
They replaced God
with other nations
and with horses
and with their armies.
We don't need God.
We can live life without Him,
they said.
We can get our safety
and our security
from other things.
And we're no different.
We substitute God
with our work,
our money,
our material possessions
and think,
Well, if I can have that,
then I will be okay.
We replace God
with our children,
our spouse,
our loved ones
and we think,
If I can have this
or if I can have that
in my life,
then I will be secure.
Then I will be satisfied.
Everything will be alright.
But the gods of our making
can never save you.
Israel would discover that.
Assyria wouldn't save them,
they would destroy them.
And that's what will happen to us.
The gods that we make,
the middle of verse 3,
that we have made
with our own hands,
our own thinking,
they will just demand more of you,
they will break you.
But our saving God,
He is the God
who comes to give to you.
Look at the end of verse 3.
For in you,
in God,
the fatherless find compassion.
To run from God
is to become fatherless.
To run away,
to turn away from God
is to be without hope,
without a saviour.
But to return to God,
to renew our trust in Him,
we find our true saviour.
We find a God
who gives His life for us.
A God who will die for you.
A saviour who will never fail you
or trick you
or disown you.
This is what it means
to return to the Lord your God.
It's this daily discipline
of repentance.
Of taking responsibility
for my sin.
Seeking forgiveness
for my sin.
And renewing trust
in my saviour.
As we come to our God
to renew those vows,
it starts with our returning
to Him.
The second thing
that we need to see
as we come to renew
our vows
is that we can have
our relationship
with Him restored,
restored with our true love.
And as we return
to our true love,
God promises us
three things.
I want us to grasp
these three promises
that God brings
to our life
as we return
to Him.
Here's the first one.
Healing
from our past.
Look at verse 4.
Here's God
speaking
to His people
as we return
to Him.
First He says,
I will heal
their waywardness
and love them freely
for my anger
has turned away
from them.
You know,
one of the reasons
why we don't turn
back to God
is because of fear.
We fear that
if we come back
to God,
He's going to punish me
for my past.
He's going to have
a list of all the things
I've done wrong
and He's going to punish me.
But look what it says.
Look at the end
of verse 4.
He says,
My anger
has turned away
from them.
Of course,
Hosea was speaking
of something
much greater
that was to come.
An experience
that we can have
for ourselves
as we trust
in the death
of Jesus Christ
on the cross.
You see,
the punishment
that we deserve
for turning away
from God
is now turned
away from us
and turned
onto
the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's wrath
for my sin
has turned away
from me
and has now
fallen upon
the Lord Jesus.
So when we come
to Him
with our past,
when we come
to Him
with our lives,
we no longer
have to fear
coming to Him
because He
has dealt
with our sin.
He has dealt
with it
in Jesus.
In fact,
He says to us
beginning of verse 4,
I will heal
their waywardness.
I will heal
all their
turning away
and I will
love them
freely.
So hear
this promise
to us today.
in Jesus,
your past
has been
dealt with.
The barrier
of sin
is completely
removed.
There is now
no condemnation.
You can come
freely to God
and enjoy
the love
of God
because
He has healed
your past.
but it
gets even
better
than that.
Here is the
second promise.
A flourishing
relationship.
Look at verse 5.
God says,
I will be like
the dew
to Israel.
He will
blossom
like a lily.
Verse 7,
men will
dwell again
in His shade.
He will
flourish
like the corn.
He will
blossom
like a vine.
The picture
is clear
here.
It is a picture
of a parched
dry land.
It is barren.
Nothing grows.
But then
verse 5,
the morning
dew
comes
that
drenches
and soaks
that dry
land
and gives
the plants
its vital
moisture
and everything
that is
necessary
for it
to begin
to blossom
and flourish.
And so
as the dew
falls,
the lilies,
the corn,
the vines,
it all
begins to
blossom.
It begins
to fulfil
its purpose.
And that's
the picture
for us.
As we
return to
the Lord,
as we
trust in
our true
Saviour,
as we
turn away
from our
false loves
on a daily
basis,
so we
begin to
experience
His grace.
His grace
falls upon
us like
the morning
dew.
It
drenches
our lives,
it soaks
our lives
so that
we begin
to flourish.
We become
the people
that God
calls us
to be.
In fact,
we will
grow strong
and mature.
Look at
the rest
of verse
5.
We will
become like
a cedar
of Lebanon.
He will
send down
His roots,
His young
shoots will
grow,
His splendour
will be
like an
olive tree,
His fragrance
like a
cedar of
Lebanon.
The cedars
of Lebanon
are known
for their
strength
and durability,
their strong
roots enabling
them to stand
strong and
to grow.
Well,
here's this
amazing promise.
As we
return to
our true
love,
as we
put down
our deep
roots,
as we
invest time
with God
in our
relationship
with Him,
listening to
His words,
speaking to
Him in
prayer,
joining
together with
one another
as we're
doing now,
so we
become strong
and healthy
in our
marriage with
God.
We will
have roots
that will
hold us
fast,
so that
when the
trials test
us,
when the
temptations
begin to
lure us
away,
when the
troubles come
and they
bring doubt
to our
lives,
we will
not move
and we
will be
strong and
mature.
Our
relationship
with God
will flourish
and blossom.
So not
only do we
have healing
from our
past,
not only is
our life
going to
flourish,
but look
at this
third promise,
there will
be fruitfulness
in our
life.
Look at
verse 8.
O Ephraim,
which was
another name
for God's
people,
what more
have I to
do with
idols,
or what
more has
Ephraim
got to
do with
idols?
Our
idols,
the gods
that we
make,
are false,
they're made
up,
they give
us nothing,
they leave
us empty,
they leave
us dry,
they don't
satisfy.
But God
says,
verse 8,
I will
answer him
and care
for him.
I am
like a
green pine
tree,
your
fruitfulness
comes
from
me.
Instead
of looking
to our
false gods,
our idols,
we are to
look to the
true source
of our
love,
who is
God.
And God
promises us
a fruitful
life,
just as the
pine tree
is the
source of
its fruit,
it brings
about the
cones on
the tree,
so God
is the
source for
a fruitful
life for
us.
Look back
at verse 5,
the end
of verse 5,
it says,
like the
cedar of
Lebanon,
he will
send down
his roots
and his
young shoots
will grow.
if we
send down
those roots
deep into
the source
who is
God,
so we
will become
fruitful.
The
imagery
is not
unlike what
Jesus spoke
to his
own
disciples
in John
chapter 15.
Keep your
finger in
Hosea and
jump to
John
chapter 15.
John
chapter 15
and verse 5.
So we're
thinking here
of roots,
we're
thinking of
being tied
in to
the Lord,
and from
that comes
a flourishing
relationship
and a
fruitful
life.
So,
as Jesus
speaks,
chapter 15
verse 5,
he says,
I am the
vine,
you are
the branches.
If a
man or
woman remains
in me
and I
in him,
you will
bear much
fruit.
Apart
from me,
you can
do
nothing.
If anyone
does not
remain in
me,
they are
like a
branch that
is thrown
away and
withers.
Such branches
are picked
up and
thrown into
the fire
and burned.
If you
remain in
me,
and my
words remain
in you,
ask whatever
you wish,
and it will
be given
you.
God,
give me a
new car
or provide
for me a
new house
or give
me better
health.
That's not
the kind of
fruit that is
being promised
or talked
about here.
It's the
fruit that
comes from
a relationship
with God
that's nurtured
and nourished.
look at the
beginning of
verse 7.
It says,
if you
remain in
me and
my words
remain in
you,
so this
is about
remaining in
and abiding
in his
word.
That is the
nourishment and
the source for
fruitfulness.
And the
kind of
fruit that
we can
expect,
well,
freedom from
guilt and
shame,
grace when
we feel
weak and
low,
joy in
times of
struggle and
suffering,
assurance when
we are afraid
and in
doubt,
peace in
times of
trouble and
trials,
comfort when
we lose a
loved one,
hope when
facing death,
eternal life
when Christ
comes again.
Verse 8,
this is to
my Father's
glory that
you bear
much fruit,
showing
yourselves to
be my
disciples.
This is
the fruit
that is
promised when
we return to
the source of
all life as
we put down
our roots
deep down
into God's
word and
soak up that
nourishment.
So we
produce a
fruitful life,
freedom and
grace and
joy and
assurance and
peace and
comfort and
hope.
That is the
promise that
God gives to
you today.
we'll turn
back to
Hosea.
As we've
seen throughout
the book of
Hosea, we
have all
broken our
marriage vows
with God.
And the
problem is
we all do
it on a
daily basis.
well today,
this moment,
as we sit
and hear
God's
word,
it provides
us with a
fresh start,
a new
beginning,
right now.
Look at
verse 9.
Who is
wise?
He will
realise these
things.
Who is
discerning?
they will
understand them.
The wise
and discerning
person not
only hears
God's offer
and these
promises,
but they
put God's
word into
practice.
James reminds
us in the
New Testament,
do not merely
listen to
the word,
and so
deceive
yourselves.
Do what
it says.
If we are
to experience
a fresh start
with God,
if we are
going to
enjoy the
intimacy with
him afresh,
if we are
going to
know these
promises in
our life,
then we
must apply
chapter 14
to our
life.
We have
got to
put it
into
practice.
Look at
the rest
of verse 9.
The ways
of the
Lord are
right.
The righteous
walk in
them,
but the
rebellious
stumble in
them.
Here's the
call to
walk in
the ways
of the
Lord.
What's
that going
to look
like for
you and
for me?
Tomorrow
morning,
tonight,
during the
week,
what's it
going to
look like
to walk
in the
ways of
the Lord?
Well,
it's to
simply do
what chapter
14 is
telling us
to do.
When we
fail and
fall,
rather than
run from
the Lord
in fear,
we are
to return
to the
Lord.
Return to
him with
words,
verse 2,
forgive all
my sin
and receive
us graciously.
Come with
that absolute
confidence and
assurance that
Jesus took
upon himself
all our
acts of
spiritual
adultery and
paid for the
penalty on
the cross and
has now
covered us in
his purity so
that we can
be welcomed
in forever.
He heals
our waywardness,
loves us
freely,
for my
anger has
turned away
from you.
Renew
your trust
in the
one true
Saviour,
Jesus Christ.
Receive
these rich
promises.
Live in
the knowledge
that your
past has
been healed.
Enjoy a
flourishing
relationship
with God.
Experience
fruitfulness
in your
life.
Let's
pray for
God to
do that
work in
our life
today,
right now.
Let's
pray.
Amen.
Heaven.
He is wise,