Return to Me and I Will Heal You

Hosea 14, I'll read the entire chapter as you follow along in your copy of God's Word.

Amen. For in you the fatherless find compassion.

I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger is turned away from them. I will be like 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 grain. 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 answer 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.

You know, we can be slow to go to doctors, can't we, when we know something's wrong with us? There is a lot wrong with Israel. And she was slow to go to the doctor.

God's a doctor. We're going to see that this morning in Hosea 14. And we're going to see encouragements for why sick, sin-sick people should run to the doctor.

Well, you remember then that God married Israel. And Israel played the harlot by turning away from him and going after idols.

It wasn't a one-night stand. She loved her idolatrous ways and refused to repent. And so for 13 weeks now, we have seen the angry storm clouds of God's judgment upon Israel for her sin.

With the sun only occasionally breaking through the clouds with a beam of hope for the future. But now in chapter 14, the storm clouds recede from view.

And once again, the sun is shining now against the blue sky. And so chapter 14. One of the brightest chapters in the Bible.

And we have this sweet encouragement. Or the sweetest of invitations. Coming right on the heels of the most severe announcement of judgment.

You remember, the northern kingdom of Israel will be no more. They'll be cut down by the Assyrian sword. Chapter 13, the last verse, tells us that their little ones will be dashed to the ground.

And their pregnant women ripped open. And with that ends the threats of coming judgment that are sure to fall. And indeed did fall.

But afterward, in the distant future, Jews along with Gentiles will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king.

They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessing in the last days. The last days in which we live from Christ's first coming to his second coming.

They will return to the Lord and to his blessing. Now, the greater part of chapter 14 describes that blessing that they are returning to. So we have two main sections to the chapter.

First, God's call to return. And secondly, God's promise of restoration. And then it's followed by a final word to the hearer of this or the reader of this book.

So first, God's call to return. God's got a gracious invitation to send to his adulterous wife, Israel.

Now, who should deliver the message? Well, the man who pleaded with his own adulterous wife to return to him when she was in the arms of another lover.

Yes, it would be Hosea. He's the man God chooses to be his mouthpiece in calling adulterous Israel to return back to him.

Because Hosea would understand something of the heart of God and would plead with more than words. And so, God's message sent through Hosea is return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.

You have left him to go after other lovers. Now, turn around and come home. This is one of the repeated words of the book.

Return. Some seven times in the book. It's the desire of God's heart for his sinning people. Return to me. And so far, they've refused to return.

They've been stubborn, stiff-necked, no appetite for the things of God, indeed, no appetite for God himself. The sexy world of Baal worship had made the worship of God look boring and out of date.

And is that not always the world that makes the worship of God look boring and out of date? And so they turn their backs to him, not their faces.

And Hosea says, Israel, stop. In front of you is destruction. Behind you is your God.

Now, return to him. And whether you're still lost in your sin, never been saved, or whether you're a believer who has strayed from the Lord, don't miss this wonderful call to return to the Lord.

Now, right away, Hosea puts his finger on the source of the trouble. Your sins have been your downfall.

That's what he tells them. Now, that may seem obvious to us, who've spent 13 weeks in Hosea. But the fact is that most people don't get it. Israel still didn't get it.

You know, people get into a heap of trouble. Their own sins get them into a heap of trouble. And then they blame it on someone else. They think it's bad luck, or it's his fault, her fault, the government's fault, the economy's fault, the weather's fault.

And they don't see that there is a spiritual problem at the bottom. And until you make a right diagnosis, you will not seek out the right remedy.

A false diagnosis can be fatal. You can be putting band-aids and gauze on cancer wounds. And here's Israel.

And the nation is just falling apart. It's disintegrating. It's morality. It's businesses. It's neighborliness. It's foreign affairs.

It's marriages. Society is coming apart by the seams. And they're threatened by stronger nations without.

And they thought it was something that they could cure. So, chapter 5, verse 13, when Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his sores, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king for help.

But he is not able to help you. He is not able to cure you. Not able to heal your sores. No, it's far more serious than any home remedy will do.

Or any king can cure. Because the disease is sin. The disease is sin. The malady is spiritual.

It's nothing political. So Assyria can't help you. You've forgotten God.

You've rebelled against his laws. You know, sin-sick people today are not being told that your sin is your downfall.

A lot of counseling going on in the world today. Schools and businesses, professionals. People can't cope. Marriage is crumbling.

Relationships. Business. Worker-manager. It's all coming undone. And so to the counselors they go and no one's saying, your sin.

Your sin has been your downfall. No, rather it's, well, your genes. It's because of your genes. Or it's because of your upbringing. It's your parents and the way that they ruined you.

Society. And the way that society has given you a bad deal. Israel was blessed to have a faithful counselor say, your sins have been your downfall.

You want to know why it's all crumbling? Your sin. So sin's the disease. God is the doctor. Oh, blessed be God.

He's the healer of sin-sick people. The great physician who specializes in every sort of sin. And then the cure is ever to be returning to him.

If sin's the disease and God's the doctor, then get to him. And so Hosea lays out the way to him. The way home.

Return, he says, and here's the way home. Here's how to return to the Lord. He spells it out. Verse 2. Take words with you and return to the Lord.

When you return, there's something you want to be sure to have with you. And it's not money. It's not gifts. It's not gifts to bribe him or sacrifices to manipulate him.

They've already tried that. Back in chapter 5 and verse 6. Going to him with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord. Sacrifices aplenty to buy off God's favor.

Trying to buy him off with their sacrifices like they did Baal. And God is not impressed at all. No, take words with you and return to the Lord.

You know, when we've sinned, folks, what else do we have to return with but our words? We have no merit to return with.

We have no performance to hold before him. So as we return to the Lord, we take words with us.

He's wanting to hear from us. Words are the way that we communicate with him. He wants relationship with him and he wants us to come bringing words of confession.

Words of renunciation. And so here he tells us very simply what to say. It's like taking a child by the hand and leading them through. What do you need to do?

Here's the penitent's prayer. And again, whether you're coming for the first time or the hundredth time, here's the prayer. It's no magic formula. It's not that if you say this prayer, then he'll forgive you.

No, this prayer is worthless without a broken and a contrite heart. But with your broken and a contrite heart, return to him and take these words with you when you come to him. Say to him, forgive us all our sins.

Now that's confession. That's what it means to confess our sins. And so on your way home to God, first thing you need to do is confess your sin.

Agree with him. About what you've been doing. What you've been up to. That it's against his law. It's sin. You don't make any excuses. You don't rationalize it. You don't justify it.

You own them. And you say, forgive me. Take them away. You want to be rid of them. All of them. It's no half-hearted return that Hosea is holding out to Israel in which sin, certain sins, are kept and coddled.

Oh Lord, forgive me of this and that and the other, but no mention is made of the darling sin. No, that's not what he says. When you come to the Lord in true repentance, you say, forgive us all our sins.

I don't want any of them any longer. Get rid of them. Take them away. It's unconditional surrender. There's no holding out on God.

No pet sins excluded. No bargain being struck with God. Forgive us all our sins. And notice that's the first thing that you say when you come to God.

It's the first thing God wants to hear from you. So in returning to God, we must first face up to our sins. Could it be that that's why so few return to God?

Because they know that if they do, they're going to have to deal with this thing and this idol that's been in their life. No, if you return to God, you can't just ignore your sins.

These sins are the very things that put distance between you and God in the first place. That's the point of controversy. It's the bone of contention that God has with you.

So a servant robs his master of $10,000 and runs away. And a month later, he comes back. He just shows up for work that day and carries on as if nothing's happened.

I'm here to work. Don't you think that very quickly about that $10,000? What about that? Or a wife who's been off with another man.

Six-month affair. Then she just comes home one day and she picks up right where she left off. The laundry. Not a word about the affair. No, no.

These are the points of contention that broke the relationship. These are the things that must first be faced up to as we return to the Lord.

There's no returning without dealing with our sin right up front confessing them to Him. Forgiveness is promised to the one who confesses.

If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, when we come to the Lord and confess our sins, it's recognizing that sin is the problem.

We're telling them, we understand, it's my fault. It's not my parents, society, the weather, the government. It's my fault, God. Forgive me. Forgive us all our sins and receive us graciously.

Receive us. Forgive our sins and receive us. You see, this is a personal thing. When we return to the Lord, God is a person and we are persons and we are returning to this person and we're wanting Him to receive us.

We're wanting Him not just to forgive our sins, we're wanting Him to receive us. We're wanting Him to wrap His arms around us and take us back as His own bride, back as His own children who have run away, back into His arms.

Receive us and notice, it's graciously. We're only pleading grace. We're not saying, receive us because I've not been as bad as she has or receive me it's only the first time or it's receive me graciously.

He's casting Himself upon God's grace, God's mercy. I deserve for you to have you turn your face on me forever, God. But receive me graciously.

No bartering, only humbly pleading for grace. You know, when that prodigal son ran away, as he returned to his father, he too owned that he didn't deserve.

Remember, I've sinned against heaven and against you and no longer deserve to be called your son. But receive me graciously. That's how we come.

We don't deserve it. Receive me graciously. And why? That we may offer the fruit of our lips. Now that's a little strange perhaps to our ears that we may offer the fruit of our lips.

But here's the end, the proper end of our returning. Forgive and receive us that we may praise you. That we may, with our lips, speak words that honor you.

And so Hebrews 13, 15 speaks of offering the fruit of our lips. This very phrase, Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name.

So Lord, if you will forgive us and receive us, then we will offer you the fruit of our lips. Praise you. We'll praise you forever for forgiving us, for taking us back, for every mercy that you give us.

And so the psalmist says, Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. The very first one he mentions, who forgives all your sins. And secondly, who heals all your diseases.

Lord, if you forgive us, receive us, heal us, we will come and we will praise you with the fruit of our lips. Ray Ortlund Jr.

says, Our lives are not to be graves where his blessings go to die, but rather altars where blessings are returned to God in thanksgiving.

I'm asking for the blessing of forgiveness. And if you give that blessing, I will return praise to you, the fruit of lips.

Now there's more to say to God as you're returning to Him. Not only forgive us, not only confession of sins, but there's renouncing of sin. And that's verse 3.

As we're returning to the Lord, we are turning away from our old ways. So I'm pursuing my own way. And if I return to the Lord, I must do an about face. And that means turning from my old ways.

And I'm renouncing them in order to return to the Lord. And so, we're to go on speaking to the Lord.

And these are still the words that we say to Him. We're saying goodbye to the old way of living. Verse 3, Assyria cannot save us.

We will not mount war horses. Now those were the God replacements that they had leaned upon for protection and for help. They had trusted in alliances with Assyria and Egypt.

The nations can help us. So we'll make treaties with them. They'll bail us out of trouble. Or they rested in their own military might and so they would mount war horses.

Okay, so we're in trouble and an evil nation is marching against us. No problem. We've got horses from Egypt. We'll mount those. Or they relied on Baal, the God of fertility, to bless their crops, their wombs, their animals.

So as you return to the Lord, remember you're returning to a sin-hating God, an idol-abominating God, a holy, holy, holy God.

And so we must return with words of renouncing the very things that He hates.

The things we've been up to, the things that have taken us from Him. We will never again say our gods to what our own hands have made.

Never again will I give godlike status to any created thing. I will not give your place, God, to another.

I will not live for something or someone other than you. I will not seek blessing from any other way but through you. I will not but through you.

I was struck when I thought about those words. Never again will I say, my gods, to what my own hands have made. Never again, Lord, will I rely on my own strength to get me through.

Never again, O Lord, will I rely on my own brains and craftiness and ability to get myself out of trouble. Never again will I rely upon my bank account to bail me out when I need something.

My retirement funds. Never again will I rely upon my job. Whatever it is that we make an idol in our lives, we must renounce them.

We don't return to the Lord unless we forsake the things that we have replaced God with. So we renounce all forms of self-help promising to live in dependence on God alone.

God, you are enough and I'm returning to you and if you will have me, that's all I want. I want you. I want you. Do you ever get nervous when that's all you have is God?

What does that say about him? That he's not enough? that you really need something other than just him for your support, for your help?

That he's not quite sufficient, not quite able to be trusted with everything, that we need to look to something else to make up the difference?

never again will we say our gods to what our own hands have made. For in you the fatherless fine compassion, not in Baal, not in Assyria, not in Egypt, not in kings, not in armies, but in you the fatherless fine compassion.

So I'm not going anywhere. I'm coming back to you. and I come as an orphan. Oh, isn't that good? We put ourselves in that position of an orphan.

I am poor and needy. I'm penniless. I cannot fend for myself and I'm not looking to Assyria and to Baal and to myself anymore. You are the one who have compassion upon the fatherless.

So that's how he wants us to return to him. Confessing our sins, renouncing our idols, and returning to him as totally unworthy and unable.

And so not pitied Israel, not pitied, comes to God that he might pity them. And not my people comes to God, returns to him that he might once again take them in as his people under his care as God being their father.

That's how you're to return to the Lord with true repentance, not glib confession. Oh, just forgive me again, Lord, forgive me again. No, we return with a sorrow for sin that is so deep that we turn from it and we renounce it and we surrender our will to God.

We walk in new obedience and we endeavor and we purpose to not return to it by the grace of God. We put God back at the center of all things in our life, whatever the cost.

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Now, when God opens the eyes of a sinner and shows him how holy he is and how sinful they are, they may begin to wonder, if I do return to him, will he receive me?

Will he forgive me? And I find it encouraging that God knows that about us. And he spends the better part of this chapter assuring us of what it will be like if we do return.

We have God's promise of restoration then. We must move quickly. Here we have God's response, what he will do if at any time you return, this is what you will find, this is what's waiting for you.

It's a whole series of I wills. Verse 4, I will heal their waywardness and love them freely. The great physician delights in mercy. He loves to heal. He's eager for new patients.

And what a cure he provides. I will heal their waywardness, that very inward propensity to roam, that inward desire to leave the path and stray off in my own way, that proneness to wonder.

That had been the very problem that perpetually came up with the Old Testament Israelites. So they go their own way and God brings judgments and smashes them and then they cry out, oh God have mercy and God has pity on them and sends them a deliverer.

And it's not long before what? They're back going their own way with their back toward God. And the cycle just goes right on, right through the judges, right through the kings. What's ever going to save them from that cycle?

God says, I will heal their waywardness. You see, they have feet that roam because they have a heart that roams. A waywardness at the core, even from birth, Psalm 58 says, the wicked go astray.

From the womb they are wayward and speak lies. In other words, it says, kids, we hit the ground running the wrong way, that is. We've got wayward hearts and so our feet always take us out of the way.

And until that heart is cured, we'll keep being wayward. And so what does God do? He not only forgives our sins, but He heals our waywardness.

I will heal their waywardness. I'll cure their very sinning hearts. That idol factory that produces the idols, I'll cure that. He doesn't just raid the factory and snatch and clear out the inventory, but He comes into the factory of the heart and He retools the machines so that instead of producing idols, they produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, the fruit of the Spirit.

They put out a different product because He changes the heart. He makes the fruit good by making the tree good. So you have a car that's wayward. Any of you ever had a car that's wayward?

It's clearly, the front end is clearly out of line. It's always wanting to stray. If you just leave it for a second, it'll pull you into the ditch on the right hand.

And you notice the tires are wearing unevenly, so you go get yourself a new set of tires. And you keep getting pulled into the ditch. You see, it's not just a new set of tires your car needs.

It needs a whole new alignment of the front end. That's what God gives. I'm not just forgive your sins, put new tires on for it. I'll heal your waywardness, the very propensity of your life to go astray.

I'll heal that. How can he do that? Well, he's the great physician. He's the great doctor with access to the heart. So he takes out the heart of stone and he puts in a heart of flesh so that we will be careful to walk in his ways.

And he puts his spirit in us so that we will not depart from him. That's what he does for Israel. That's the promise of the new covenant.

The old covenant did not do that for every Israelite. So he makes a new covenant in which he promises to do that very inward transformation for every single one of his people in the new Israel of God.

He performs heart surgery and gives us an undivided heart that will then follow his decrees. Isn't it wonderful to know that there is a doctor who can turn my heart toward his statutes and not toward selfish gain?

There's a doctor who can make my feet to go in the way of his commands for there I find a light. And he doesn't wait to have us heal ourselves and then come to the office.

Isn't that, what kind of a doctor would that be? You all just heal yourself and then come see me. Do you know that's the religion of most today? I'm afraid that's why people are in church today.

They're trying to heal themselves, make themselves better. And then they'll be ready to return to the Lord. Then they'll have something to offer to him. That's paganism.

That's not Christianity. He invites us to come just as we are sick that he might heal us. He doesn't say change your ways and then come see me. But return to me confessing what you are.

I'm a sinner Lord, forgive all my sin. I don't deserve to have you receive me but receive me graciously and my lips will praise you. That's how he wants us. Coming, confessing, renouncing our sin, but coming as sinners to be saved.

Kids, don't think, I can't trust in Christ because I couldn't live the life. Of course you couldn't. Nobody can live the Christian life. But God has supernatural power to heal the heart for all who just come as they are and cast themselves upon him.

And I will heal their waywardness and I will love them freely. Those who are not loved because breaking the covenant will now be loved and at no charge to them abundantly, freely, generously, without grudging.

Why? For my anger is turned away from them. Now it will take the New Testament to fully exegete that phrase. For my anger is turned away from them.

You see, there's a problem here. How can the just judge, whose infinite holiness has been offended and burns with anger against sin, how can he just turn away his anger from them without compromising his holiness and his justice?

Well, the New Testament answers by pointing us to a cross outside Jerusalem. That's how God turns his anger away from any sinner.

For God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. That we in him might become the righteousness of God.

He is the propitiation for our sin. And by absorbing the wrath of God himself, he pacified God's wrath toward us.

He steps in and takes the blow of his anger that there's nothing but love left for us. He takes our sin to the place of punishment and is crushed for us.

Calvary was a place of judgment. Calvary was a place of God's wrath and anger. Calvary is the place where the jilted husband dies for his adulterous bride that loved to roam.

And so see him suffering there. See him suffering the abandonment and anger of God and know that's what I should have had forever. forever. But my husband takes it for me, takes it for me to set me free from God's wrath and to win for me his everlasting covenant love.

This is the power of the cross. Christ became sin for us. Took the blame, bore the wrath. We stand forgiven at the cross and only in this way can God's anger be turned away from us.

Could it be turned away from Israel? Can it be turned away from any person? On February the 19th the guilty tiger woods stood before a television camera and said I have a lot of things to atone for.

But nothing that tiger ever does or could do can ever atone for just one of his sins against God. Nothing can for sin atone.

nothing but the blood of Jesus. What must be the offense against God that our sin gives that nothing can atone for it but the crushing of the only Son of God.

And oh how precious must that blood be that it would have merit to cleanse the sinner from all sin. 1 John 1 7 for the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin.

He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him and by his wounds we are healed.

Strange medicine this. by the killing wounds of our doctor we the patient are healed.

Isn't that good? I'm sin sick and my doctor is wounded and by his wounds I am healed.

Return. Return to me and you will know that. But he's just getting started on what he'll do for them. I only have time to read. He launches into a love song about Israel.

He's singing with joy over his people and he compares it to what what he will do for them if they will return to him a whole transformation of nature.

Remember he had taken away their grain and new wine and ruined their vines and fig trees under his judgments but now he'll reverse it all the curse reversed. Verse 5 I'll be like the dew to Israel.

Dew is as helpful to the crops in the field as some rain is and Israel depended upon the dew for their fruitfulness and God says I'll be that to you.

I'll be that source of life and refreshment to you. How different from the withering east wind that he sent in judgment to wither up their wells and crops and he Israel will blossom like a lily speaking of their beauty and prosperity under God's restored favor like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots his young shoots will grow cedars of Lebanon were world famous trees and I'll make you this grand strong people again.

He's reversing the judgment of the barrenness that he plagued their land with. His splendor will be like an olive tree his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon instead of a thing of horror she will once again be a thing of beauty and attractive and men will dwell again in his shade God will give them influence in the world nations will come and take shelter under their protective shade and he will flourish like the grain he will blossom like a vine and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon such blessings he will know when God again shows favor to his people she will explode with supernatural life and in that day when God becomes her husband again and betroth her to himself forever in righteousness and justice in love and compassion and faithfulness and when he says to the one who was called not loved I love you when he says to the one called not my people you are my people and when he roars like a lion and his children come trembling to the

Lord and to David their king and to his blessing in the end times this is the picture of what it will be like a restored relationship full of life oh Ephraim verse 8 what more have I to do with idols I've had enough to do with idols he says but in that day you will be purged from your idols and no longer will you look to bail for blessing infertility I will answer him I will answer Israel I will care for him not bail not Assyria I myself and I am like a green pine tree your fruitfulness comes from me no major theme of this book as we come to the end has been who is the true source of Israel's blessing remember what she did she took God's gifts the grain the new wine all the prosperity and she thanked Baal for them

Baal is the god of fertility he's the one who blesses crops and animals and so on and wombs who is the true source of Israel's fruitfulness here at the very end God says none of that not yourself not your kings your armies Syria Egypt Baal I am he your fruitfulness comes from me and so on the night of his betrayal our Lord Jesus is with his disciples and he says to them I am the vine and you are the branches and if a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit for without me you can do nothing your fruitfulness comes from me so remain in him and enjoy the fullness of grace the fullness of grace that just keeps flowing one blessing upon another the Lord Jesus is the great physician who heals!

heals hearts and specializes in all kinds of diseases he's never a confused doctor who needs a second opinion he always knows what to do and he has the power to do it therefore go to him return to him that's the message of the!

make use of him life is in Christ nowhere else nowhere else Hosea leaves us with a closing word to the hearer this is you this is this is a word to you you you mean he was writing verse 9 for me yes God was thinking of you when he wrote verse 9 he knew you would be in this place listening to this sermon from Hosea chapter 14 and he's got this word for you for 14 weeks we've soaked in Hosea's prophecy we've seen ourselves in Gomer and Israel and their unfaithfulness we are the runaway brides we've seen God's judgment that must fall upon our sin and we've been pointed to Christ over and over as our Savior the only Savior and the saving grace that is in him now the question is who's wise out there who's wise he will realize these things who is discerning he will understand them what effect will these prophecies have upon you you see the book calls for a response

God is calling you to return to him that's the call of this book return to me return to me and there's no way not to respond it is impossible not to respond either you will return to him confessing your sin and renouncing your idols and pleading his grace or you will refuse to come to him another week you will rebel against him just like that little child in the womb that we saw last week who was without wisdom and when the proper time came would not go to the opening of the womb and so he died who is wise out there he's the one who will return to the Lord now while there is time before judgment falls your response to these prophecies will determine if you're wise do you get it do you get the message of

Hosea does the point come through the ways of the Lord are right his ways define what is right and wrong the ways of the Lord are right the righteous walk in them that's that's the habit of their life they only put their foot down where God's ways are here's my law and they walk it's the habit of their life they walk in the ways of the Lord that's the righteous but the rebellious stumble in them the very commands that the righteous walk in the rebellious who refuse to walk in them stumble in them so there's only two ways to live you either walk in God's way to heaven with him or you stumble in God's ways and go to hell who's wise you know that's the same way

Jesus ended a sermon that we call the sermon on the mount some 800 years later gets done with all he sets before them two ways only two ways to live walking on the narrow way or walking on the broad way and they lead to two different!

destinations! heaven and hell life and destruction now who's wise? Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock and when the storms came it stood and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand and when the storms came the house was destroyed I have set before you life and death folly and wisdom choose life choose life let's pray oh God of great grace we thank you for this book of Hosea we thank you that we have seen ourselves here we pray that we would see more of ourselves here and more of our savior here we would delight in this pure grace all the

I wills that he will do when we're so undeserving make us hunger make us to thirst for this kind of relationship with him so brimming full of life so absent of idols and sins that mar the beauty of Christ in us make us beautiful in holiness thank you that you are the doctor that we can come to in our sin and if we'll just confess them and renounce them we will find mercy thank you for such a promise thank you for such a picture here in Hosea 14 woo us win us draw us to ever be returning to you keep us from straying keep us from falling we ask for Jesus praise amen may!

!! may! may