"...I WILL LOVE THEM FREELY"
“…I WILL LOVE THEM FREELY”
(Hosea 14:4)
February 15, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
A believer who has “waxed cold”, and is no longer on fire, withering and decaying in his spiritual life may recover and be revived. If we could not be recovered every time we slip back on our climb to the heights of heaven, then we would all surely perish. If salvation were only for those who never slipped back, then none would be in heaven. “If the Lord should mark iniquities, who could stand?” (Ps. 130:3)
The work of recovering backsliders or believers from spiritual decay is an act of sovereign grace, wrought in us by virtue of God’s faithfulness to his divine promises.
Because believers are liable to failures, backslidings and decays, God has given us great and precious promises that we will be recovered if we use the right means to such recovery.
I am persuaded the Apostate Church in the United States of America is backslidden from its passion and fire for its “first love”. Do I mean Eastgate Ministries Church? No! Nor do I mean other churches who thirsty for the sure mercies of David. The government of a nation is a reflection of the soul of the people of that nation.
Proverbs 14:34: “Righteousness exalts a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.”
In Hosea 14: 1-8, God speaks to Israel and gives us an example of His promise to backsliders and to a backslidden nation.
Hoses 14:1: “O Israel, return to the Lord your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord; say to him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods; for in you the fatherless, finds mercy.”
The call was made when the majority of the people were wicked and heading for destruction. God even told them what to say in their repentance and turning to Him. This is the utter simplicity of what a person has to do in faith to obtain forgiveness from God.
The word “calves” indicates sacrifice, so in reality this means: We will offer a sacrifice of praise to God as the sacrifice of our lips.
So there is no time or situation which can prevent sovereign grace doing what it has purposed to do. It can work even in the midst of terrible judgments.
In such a time the true Israel of God, the elect, are apt to be swamped by the sins of the whole nation, and so begin to backslide from God and to fall into spiritual decline. This is what had happened to Israel, though she had not absolutely broken the covenant with God. He still addressed himself to her as “the Lord your God”. Yet Israel had fallen in her iniquity. I believe the United States is now in this fallen state. Times of public apostasy are accompanied with spiritual decay.
Matthew 24:12: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”
When God purposes graciously to heal the backsliding of his people, he not only calls them to repentance, but also enables them to repent and gives them the desire to use the means of healing. This is what he does here. “Take words with you, and return to the Lord”. This is the responsibility of ministers of the Gospel to preach the words of repentance. We should be carrying the anointing to deliver those words under the power of the Holy Spirit.
The pathway to spiritual recovery is renewed repentance seen in fervent prayer. “Take words with you. Say to him…” We must know what we are to pray for. We are to pray for pardon of all iniquity. “Take away all iniquity. Not one sin must be left to be indulged. We are to pray that God will graciously receive us. “receive us graciously”… Graciousness is a characteristic of God toward us. It is written. It is promised. How then could we possibly be less than gracious to one another, if we can ask and receive graciousness from the Lord Our God.
“Assyria will not save us, nor will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods.” Fleshly confidence and false worship were the two great sins that ruined the people, and of these sins God expects a full and free confession so that we may be healed.
Believers must renew their covenant with God, renouncing all other ambitions and expectations; putting their trust and confidence in Him alone. For only in God do the fatherless find mercy. The result of such repentance is praise and thanksgiving: “We will offer the sacrifice of our lips.” When God heals our backslidings he will communicate his grace to us, to the praise of his own glory.
Unless these things are wrought in us in such a way to prepare us to receive mercy, our hearts are not prepared to be partakers of that mercy. God will revive us and save us from our spiritual decays. This work of grace in reviving us is seen in verses 4-8. This healing includes the forgiveness of sins, and a renewed supply of grace to make us fruitful in obedience.
Hos. 14: 4-5: “I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely; for My anger is turned away from him. I will be the dew to Israel. He shall grow as the lily, ad cast forth his roots as Lebanon.”
God is moved simply by love to do this work of grace. “I will love them freely”. The actual means by which we are recovered is the pardoning mercy of Jesus Christ. “For my anger is turned away from him”. The means to restore us to renewed obedience is a plentiful supply of effectual grace. The dew refers to the Holy Spirit of grace who above all things is necessary to our healing and recovery.
The healing of our backsliding and the restoration of our spiritual life to a thriving and flourishing state leads to abundant fruitfulness in holiness and obedience, in peace and love that had never been attained previously.
Through faith, we may obtain this promise of being flourishing and fruitful even in old age.
14: 6-7: “His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and smell as Lebanon. 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.”
All supplies of grace are from Jesus Christ. Grace is declared in the promises of the Old Testament, but is received through the Holy Spirit under the New Covenant. All grace is from Jesus. He has told us that without him, we can do nothing. We can no more bear fruit than a branch separated from the vine. He is our head and all divine communications of grace are from him alone. He is our life and lives in us, so that all our strength for holiness and obedience comes from him.
Gal. 2:10: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
So, if we are “waxing cold”, we must look to Christ alone. Without Jesus Christ, everything else we do is nothing and will produce nothing.
The only way to receive supplies of spiritual strength and grace from Jesus is by faith. We come to him, are grafted into him, and must abide in him by faith to bring forth corn and grow as the vine. He dwells in our hearts by faith. He works in us by faith. We live by faith in the Son of God. If we receive anything from Christ, we must receive it by faith.
This faith concerns the person of Christ, his grace, his mediatory work, with all its results, and his glory in them all. The one thing most needed in our recovery and revival is a steady view of the glory of Christ, His Blood, his person, grace and office, through faith.
This is the only way to be revived and receive such grace as will keep us fresh and flourishing even in old age. He that lives by faith in Christ shall by his spiritual thriving and growth, ‘declare the Lord is upright, and there is not unrighteousness in Him.’
“They looked to him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. (Ps. 34:5). “Look to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa. 45:22). “I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation” (Zech 12:10; Heb. 12:2).
A constant view of the glory of Christ will revive our souls and cause our spiritual lives to flourish. This is what transforms us daily into the likeness of Christ. As we live in constant contemplation of the glory of Christ, power will then flow from him to us, healing our failings, renewing a right spirit in us and enabling us to abound in all the duties that God requires of us.
Faith will fix our souls in Christ. This is heaven on earth in perfect blessedness, for it is the eternal vision of the glory of God in Christ. The more we behold the glory of Christ by faith now, the more we will be seated with Christ in heavenly places.
The reason why the spiritual life in our souls decays and withers is because we fill our minds full of other things, and these things weaken the power of grace. When the mind is filled with thoughts of Christ and his glory, these things will be expelled.
When we behold the glory of Christ by faith every grace in us will be stirred up.
All these thriving, flourishing graces in us will then make us more watchful against the deceitful workings of sin, temptations, foolish attitudes of mind and the vain thoughts which are the causes of our spiritual decays.
Then our Lord’s Prayer for us will be fully answered. “Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me; for you loved me before the foundation of the world. “ (Jn. 17:24).
Hos. 14:8-9: “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 your fruit found.’ 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 there in.”
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. I entered into the labors of John Owen, the Glory of Christ. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Rev. Owen.