Episode Transcript
All right, if you'll take God's precious Word and turn to Hosea, chapter 14.
Hosea, chapter 14.
The title of the message this morning is "Words to Live By."
Words to live by.
Isn't that good, Brother Doug?
Brother Doug's already liking it.
We haven't even got into it yet.
We like it.
We left off in Hosea 14.1 last week.
Where God said, if you look in Hosea 14.1, "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity."
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious Word.
And Lord, we thank you for the wonderful time in Sunday school we've already had.
Thank you for those who've come here to hear your Word today.
Lord, I pray all eyes will be upon you.
We look to you, Father, to teach us by your Spirit with your Scriptures.
May all eyes be on you.
May you receive all honor and glory.
In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.
"O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity."
When God said that Israel was fallen, he meant that they were mortally wounded by their sin.
When tragedy strikes, in law enforcement it's not uncommon to hear someone say, "Man down," or "Officer down."
And in contrast, when someone is victorious, it's also common to hear people say, "I'm still standing."
They had been defeated, though, by the devil Israel had.
And if they did not return to the Lord, then their nation would perish.
In spite of their mortality, in spite of all the offenses that Israel had committed against the Lord, God could still save them.
Even though they were fallen, God could still save them, and God still wanted them back.
Being saved from their mortal wound of sin, however, was conditional.
Just because God wanted them back, just because God wanted to save them, didn't mean that they would be saved.
God told them to return.
That was the condition.
To be saved by God, they had to return to God.
God told them to return unto the Lord thy God.
God doesn't change.
That means God didn't go anywhere.
God didn't leave Israel.
Israel left them.
Somewhere down the road, Israel strayed from God by departing from His Word, and they began following a false God.
And they had gone far from the Lord.
They had fallen in their sin.
And now to be saved from sin's mortal wound, they had to return to God.
In verse 1, underscore the word "return."
Return.
Now, underscore the word "fallen."
Fallen.
Don't miss this.
Unless Israel returned to God, they would remain fallen in their departure from Him.
And remember, what God tells Israel applies to everyone.
We are all born sinners.
And unless we return to God, then we will remain fallen in our departure from Him.
Here's a kingdom truth for you this morning.
There can be no salvation without reconciliation.
There can be no salvation without reconciliation.
If God is here and man is here for man to be saved, He must return to God.
They must meet up.
They must come back together.
God does not save by remote.
He saves by reunion.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 5 verse 10, "For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, we were brought back together to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved."
Did you catch that?
Being reconciled, we shall be saved.
You can't have salvation without reconciliation.
Paul said we were reconciled to God.
How?
By the death of His Son.
Jesus' death does two things for us.
Number one, it takes sin away.
Number two, it brings man back.
It takes sin away, but it brings man back.
I hope you're catching on.
God tells us to return.
God told Israel to return, but the only way to return to God is through the death of His Son.
We're reconciled to God that is we return to God by the death of His Son.
The cross of Jesus Christ is the only way back to God.
First Peter chapter 3 verse 18 says this, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, and just for the unjust that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit."
Now, someone may say, "I understand the cross returns us to God, but I'm not sure what to do with that information."
I've talked to a lot of people who were in that position before.
I understand we're saved by Jesus' work on the cross.
I don't know where to start.
How do I return to God?
There are many people who find themselves in that very situation wanting to be saved, wanting to return, wanting to be reconciled by Jesus' death, but unsure of what to do.
For those people who find themselves in their sin and at a complete loss of how to be reconciled to God, the Holy Spirit through the prophet Hosea gives us some very simple, very practical, and very straightforward instructions this morning on how to be reconciled to God.
Hosea said now, if we look in verse 2, Hosea says, "Take with you words."
Oh, wow, I had a good time studying this, Brother Doug.
Take with you words.
In other words, when you go to God, when you return to God, don't go to Him empty-handed.
Please go to Him with an argument as to why He should accept you.
That's what these words are talking about here.
You ever seen someone, maybe you've done it yourself, you've got someone upset at you, you've done something wrong, you've got to restore the relationship, and so you start thinking about, "Okay, now when I go back, how am I going to word this?"
I know I'm going to say, "Okay, sweetheart, I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have done this."
Or "Boss, I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have done this."
Or whatever, and you start thinking in your mind how you're going to go back.
Give something to them to get them in a better frame of mind toward you, something that maybe some argument will have them accept you back.
These words here are not the things that actually bring man back to God.
Jesus' death does that.
But the words here, when Hosea says, "Take with you words," He's trying to give man not a speech to say, but an argument to present.
Take with you words.
Go to Him with an argument as to why He should accept you.
Gospel Luke chapter 15, speaking of the prodigal son, the Bible says in Luke 15, 17, "And when He came to Himself," now remember He was feeding the hogs.
He was in a mess.
He had left His Father.
"And when He came to Himself, He said, 'How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough in despair, and I perish with hunger?'"
In other words, boy did I get myself in a mess.
Listen to Him now in verse 18.
Look what He says.
"I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto Him."
See what He's doing?
"I have sinned against Heaven and before Thee."
But look what He's saying.
"I will say unto Him."
In other words, when I return to my Father, I will take words with me.
I'm not just going to show up and act like nothing happened.
When someone does something wrong, the offended party often says, "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Why?
Because we should be expected to give an answer, to give an account for ourselves, shouldn't we?
The prodigal son knew that he had to give an answer to his dad for his conduct.
The only thing he could say was, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy Son."
Boy, he didn't come back to dad and say, "Hey, Dad, now remember I was always your favorite.
Hey, Dad, remember all the good stuff I did when I was here?
Hey, Dad, don't forget now I'm your blood kin.
I'm your boy."
No, he said, "Dad, I'm a sinner.
I'm not worthy to come home.
I'm not worthy to be called your son.
When you return to God, take with you words.
Like the prodigal son, go to him acknowledging your sin."
The prodigal son had the right idea.
Dad was right and I was wrong.
The only way that we can go to the cross which reconciles us to God is for us also to acknowledge our Father is right.
We were wrong.
We have sinned against him.
We're not worthy to come home.
The prodigal son told the father, "Make me as one of Thy hired servants."
Make me as one of Thy hired servants.
Now look, the prodigal son already had a job before he came back.
He was feeding the pigs.
Now he's wanting a new job.
He's wanting a new boss.
You see what's happening here?
I'm coming back unworthy.
I'm coming back as a sinner and I'm coming back to you having authority over me.
Make me as one of Thy hired servants.
God delivered Israel from their bondage to Egypt.
When God delivered Israel, they were serving an old master.
God delivered them so they could serve the Lord their God.
He took them from bondage where they served in great despair so they could be set free to serve God.
Be set free like God sets us free from our bondage to sin, to Satan, and to death that we might serve Him who we were created to serve.
Take with you words.
Acknowledge your offense against God.
Acknowledge God's authority over you.
No one can believe that Jesus died for sinners if they don't acknowledge their sin against God.
And no one could acknowledge their sin against God without acknowledging God's authority over them.
Isaiah said, "Take with you words, look back in the Scripture, and turn to the Lord."
And turn to the Lord.
Now that Hebrew word translated turn here means to turn back.
To turn back.
This is what we call repentance.
The prodigal son said, "I will arise and go."
Where?
To my father.
Now at one point in the prodigal son's history, he said the same words.
At one point in the prodigal son's history, in his frame of mind, he said, "I will arise and go from my father."
You see?
But now that he has arisen, he has left his father, the Bible says he then comes to himself.
In other words, how stupid was that?
And then he says, "I will arise and go to my father."
You see, it was a change of mind.
The mind that made him leave, he now leaves that mindset behind.
He now changes his mind, and the way he thinks now turns him back toward his father.
He says, "I left with separation.
I don't need to be separated from my father.
I now need to be reconciled to him."
And that's what we do as God's children, as God's creatures.
We realize that as sinners, sin is separated from God, and it's not good to be separated from God.
We must be reconciled to him.
The only way to be reconciled to him is through the cross of Jesus Christ.
We don't go to God.
I ask people all the time when I talk to them about their salvation.
And it hadn't been that long ago.
I was speaking to someone in the study back here.
And I said, "Now, if you stood before God and God would ask you, 'Why should I let you into heaven?'
What would you tell them?"
They'd say, "Well, I would tell them that I've been a good person.
I would tell them I've tried to do this, and I've tried to do that, and I've tried to do the other."
Do you know what you're doing when you're doing that?
You're trying to go to God and bypass the cross.
You're trying to go to God, not saying, "Father, I've sinned against you, and before heaven, you're going, 'Father, I have served you, and shouldn't you let me into heaven.'
I deserve heaven."
The prodigal son didn't deserve heaven, and the Israelites didn't deserve it either.
He said, "Take with you words and turn to the Lord."
The son had gone from his father, but now he would return.
The turning here is not a change in behavior.
It is a change in direction.
You understand?
The prodigal son didn't work his way back to the father.
He didn't take works with him.
He took words with him.
He took words of confession.
He took words of, "I'm a sinner."
He didn't come on the basis of his actions.
The direction is a change of mind.
The Bible says the prodigal son came to himself, meaning he came to the realization that he was wrong.
"Hosea said, 'Take with you words, turn to the Lord," now let's look at these words, "and say unto him, 'Take away all iniquity.'"
Say unto him, "Take away all iniquity."
If you're taking notes, the Hebrew word translated "take away" here, it means to bear.
To bear.
Write that down in your margin.
If you're Bible, I highly suggest it.
The first time that this Hebrew word was used in the Bible was in Genesis 4.13, when Cain told the Lord, "My punishment is greater than I can bear."
Same word here.
What Hosea is literally telling Israel is this, "Say unto God, 'Bear all iniquity.'"
"The king of the scapegoat on the day of atonement."
God said in Leviticus 16, verse 22, "And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited, and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness."
That word "bear" in Leviticus 16, 22 is the same Hebrew word translated "take away" in the book of Hosea that we're studying this morning.
Notice with the day of atonement, with the scapegoat, the goat bears the iniquities unto a land not inhabited.
That's why it's translated "take away" in the book of Hosea.
The two ideas go hand in hand.
How does the goat take away Israel's sins?
By bearing them on himself and by bearing their iniquities, he takes them away from them by having them placed on him.
Hosea is telling Israel, "You go to the Lord.
You take with you words.
Can you tell him when you go back to him, 'Lord, bear all our iniquities?'"
Same thing the prodigal son did.
When the prodigal son came back home, the first thing he said was, "Father, I've sinned against you."
When Israel comes back to God, the first words out of their mouth is, "Lord, bear our iniquities."
In other words, "Lord, we sinned against you."
The only way that we can come to you is if you take them away, if you bear them.
You've got to bear our iniquities, or there's no way we can be reconciled to you.
Speaking of Jesus, in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 11b, God said, "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities."
He shall take away their iniquities.
Take with you words when you return to God, saying to him, "I am an unworthy sinner, Lord, and I can only come to you if you bear all my iniquity."
That's Israel looking forward to the sacrifice Jesus would make.
Now on the other side of the cross, when we come to God, we say, "I can only come to you because he did bear all my iniquity."
Look back if you would in Hosea 14 verse 2, underscore the word, "All."
Boy, is that good or what?
Now this is God's Holy Spirit speaking through the prophet Hosea to me and you.
What God says to Israel, he says to us, "Remember these things were written unto them for iron samples," the Bible says.
So God's Holy Spirit is encouraging us to come to the God that we have sinned against with an argument in our mouth as to why he should accept us.
The argument is this, "Lord, I have one argument, one reason that you should let me be reconciled to you, and that is that you have borne how many of my sins?
All my iniquities, say unto him, 'Take away all iniquity,' Hosea said."
All of it.
We can't come to God on the basis of the smallest good thing that we can do.
We can only come to him if he bears upon himself, if Jesus Christ had laid upon him every single sin that we could ever commit.
Bear all iniquity, Lord, the Bible said the scapegoat would bear all, same Hebrew word, the scapegoat would bear all Israel's iniquity.
Why?
Because Jesus would bear all our iniquity.
Take with you words.
When you come to God, make sure that your only argument for eternal life is that Jesus Christ died for all your sins according to the Scriptures.
Hosea said, "Tell him, 'Bear all our iniquity,' look back in your text now, 'and receive us how?"
Graciously.
The word receive here is the same Hebrew word translated take when Hosea said, "Take with you words."
So receive us graciously is the same as take us graciously.
Take with you words and tell him, "Bear our iniquities and take us graciously."
You see what's happening here using the same word?
God takes us on the basis of the argument we take him.
God takes us on the basis of the argument we take him that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture.
Underscore the word graciously.
When you go to God, you tell him to receive you graciously, to bear all iniquity and receive you graciously.
Why?
For by grace we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
Salvation is based on the fact that Jesus bore all our iniquity and God accepts us graciously on that basis.
If you have any other argument for salvation than that, then you're taking the wrong argument to God.
You're not saved.
We are not saved by our words.
Again Hosea is giving sinners like us an argument that God will never refuse.
Making God the Godfather, make him an offer he can't refuse.
Let me tell you, there's an offer God won't refuse and that's Jesus Christ.
Make him your offer to God.
Take me on the basis of what Jesus did for me.
When we take to him the argument that we're sinners but that his son bore our sins for us, he takes us graciously as his own.
Tell God this, Hosea said, and say, look back in your text, so will we render the calves of our lips.
The calves of our lips.
That's speaking about the offerings we give to God.
They would offer up a calf to God on the altar.
But you know there's a different altar than the one made out of brass.
There's a different altar than the one made out of gold inside the temple.
And that's the altar of our lips.
That's the altar that God loves the most.
The calves of our lips is speaking about the offerings that we give to God.
Not on the altar of brass at the temple, but on the altar of our lips.
The offerings that come in the words we say from our hearts.
The word render here means to give and return.
Take away all our iniquity.
Jesus bore all our sins.
Save us graciously.
By grace we are saved through what Jesus has done for us.
And on account of that, we render the calves of our lips and return to God.
In return, we praise him for what Jesus has done for us.
With that, we'll go ahead and close today.
And I tell you what, I am so grateful for such clarity in the Old Testament.
I'm grateful for such a mighty foreshadowing of the cross of Christ in the Old Testament.
Take with you words.
It's not that we frame the right words to say to God.
It's that we bring the right argument to God.
And that's that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
Here is a song that says, "My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed.
I trust the ever living one.
His wounds for me shall plead.
I need no other argument.
I need no other plea.
It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me.
I'm going to heaven for one reason and one reason only.
That's because I believe that Christ died for my sins according to the Scriptures."
That's the only argument I bring to God.
That's the only argument God will accept.
Father, we thank you for your precious word.
We thank you, Father.
Lord, that we have an argument, Father, that you'll never refuse.
We thank you, Father, that the only words of argument we can say about ourself is, "Lord, we're a sinner.
We need you to take away our sins."
And Father, on this side of the cross, we thank God that you have taken away our sins in Christ.
Jesus bore our iniquities, all of them as your Word said.
And Father, on account of that, we know and we trust that you receive us graciously, because our scapegoat Jesus bore our sins and took them far away, as far as the east is from the west.
And God, that's the only argument we present to you.
I pray if there's anyone here today, Father, who's sitting here who doesn't know if they're going to heaven, who's been coming to church, dear Lord, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday for months and perhaps years and doesn't know they're going to heaven, I pray, dear Father, God, that you'll show them this morning and open their eyes, dear Lord, and let them see that there is a way.
There's only one way to heaven, but there is a way.
And that way is Jesus Christ crucified for them on the cross.
And if they will accept His sacrifice for them, then you will accept them on the basis of that sacrifice.
I pray they'll make that their only argument for eternal life, their only hope for heaven, in Jesus' wonderful name.
