Episode Transcript
With that we'll go ahead and start into our message this morning, Hosea chapter 14 verse 4.
And we'll begin, if you'll look with me in verse 2, reminding you where we left off last week.
Hosea told Israel to come to God, they had backslidden from God, they had turned away from God to false gods.
And Hosea said, "Now when you come to God, take with Him word, take with you words to God.
Bring these words to God and say these things to Him, chapter 14 verse 2.
He said, "Take with you words and turn to the Lord and say unto Him, 'Take away all iniquity,' and we learned that means bear all iniquity, and receive us graciously, why?
For by grace are we saved through faith and that not of ourselves.
And we will render the calves of our lips."
In other words, we will give you the praise, the offerings of praise from our lips, for you saving us graciously and bearing our sins.
Verse 3, "They said, 'Asher shall not save us, not the help of men.
We will not ride upon horses.
We don't need help to be saved.
We need you to save us.
Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, 'Ye are our gods.
There will be no other God but you, nor other Savior but you.'
Why?
For in thee the Fatherless findeth mercy."
And we learned that salvation comes by mercy.
It's received as a child who has nothing to give but just to come to God as an orphan child and receive the mercy of God that He's given us through His Son.
Now, what we see this morning is God's response to Israel.
If Israel comes to God on the basis of God's mercy, if Israel comes to God on the basis of their faith in Him and His promise, receive His mercy, turn away from their false gods, turn back to the one true God and the mercy He provides, this is God's response.
Look here if you would in verse 4.
God says, "I will heal their backsliding."
I will heal their backsliding.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word.
I pray, Father, from my mother this morning.
I pray, Lord God, that You'll give them wisdom on if they should stay home or go to the hospital and help her, Father, to recoup her sense of balance and dizziness.
I pray, dear Lord God, I thank You for the wonderful time we had in Sunday School this morning, and I pray for each and every one of those class members.
And I pray, dear Lord God, for our time in Your Word today.
Thank You for those who came.
Thank You for the Marithes being able to be here in person this morning and bringing their loved one.
We love You so much, dear Lord God.
Teach us in Your Word, we pray, and may all eyes be on You, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
God says of Israel, "The nation I will heal their backsliding."
Now, we're looking at backsliding here.
We've looked at it before.
We'll look at it in a little different sense this morning because of the particular context we're in.
But the first time that we see the Hebrew word translated "backsliding" here used in the Bible is concerning the flood of Noah.
How about that?
This will be a way you'll never forget backsliding.
Genesis 8.3.
Genesis 8.3 says, "And the waters returned."
That's the same Hebrew word translated "backsliding" here.
"Backslidden water."
How about that?
The waters backslided.
They backslid from off the face, I'm sorry, from off the earth continually, and after the end of the hundred, in fifty days, the waters were abated.
So the waters backslided off the earth after the flood was finished.
Okay?
So backsliding is the act of returning back to where you came from.
Returning back to where you came from.
Israel came from the land of Egypt.
They came from a land of bondage, a land without God.
And they were in bondage to serve until they died in that bondage.
And that was a picture of you and me being born in bondage to sin, Satan, and death.
And so God delivered them out of that bondage.
They leave as a nation.
They come to the land that God had promised them.
And then as generations go by, new people are born, and they don't have the faith of their fathers that came into the land of Israel.
And so spiritually speaking, those children in the land of Israel return back to the land of Egypt.
Make sense?
They didn't physically go back, but they went spiritually back in their hearts in the sense that they are now going back in bondage to false gods, in bondage to sin, Satan, and death, and having been rejected, God, in living without Him.
So they were returning back to where God had redeemed them from.
Make sense?
If in Hosea chapter 7, just to remind you, if you'll flip back or look up here to Hosea chapter 7 several months ago when we were in that chapter, God said of Israel, "They return," see that word "return"?
"They return, but not to the Most High.
They are like a deceitful bow.
Their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue.
This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt."
And we learned then, they didn't literally go back to Egypt, but in their heart, they turned from God and returned back to the former condition they were in when they were in the land of Egypt, in bondage.
Now, Hebrews chapter 6 says, in verse 4 through 6, "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, and they shall fall away."
See those words "fall away"?
That's apostasy.
That's the same idea of returning back in that sense.
It's apostasy.
"If they shall fall away," he says, "to renew them again into repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves and the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."
The idea of apostasy, and by the way, this Hebrew word that's translated backsliding here, that is the definition, apostasy.
Have you all ever heard the word "apostasy" before?
To some, it's a new word.
Apostasy is just like we described.
Here, you know about God, you then turn from God, and you go back to the lies that you were taken from.
That's apostasy.
That's being backslidden, that's falling away in a sense, but there's different types of apostasy.
We're going to be looking at that this morning, because when you look here in Hebrews, it says, "If you fall away," after you know the truth, "if you fall away, then it's impossible to renew those people to repentance, seeing they crucify themselves, the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."
We'll look at that here in just a moment.
And so because of that, because God says that apostasy, or falling away, is unforgivable, a lot of people believe that if they have ever rejected God before, if they have ever denied the salvation of Jesus before, then it's too late for them to be saved.
They can't be saved.
You ever heard anyone being afraid of that before?
Sure.
You ever been afraid of that before?
You've been there.
You lived it, didn't you?
And you know what?
You all turn around and look at Chris.
You all point at the cameras at Chris, can you?
He's a beautiful man.
Now seriously, I like what he just said.
He said, "I lived it."
Chris knew about God before.
He then rejected the knowledge of God.
He then became an atheist.
That's apostasy.
And then later in life, he did some soul searching.
He then learned, relearned the Bible.
He told me he had to unlearn everything he learned, because what he'd been taught was wrong.
He learned the truth about God.
He learned the truth about the gospel.
And now he accepts Christ as his Savior.
Right?
Do you know what God did when he made Chris a believer in Jesus Christ?
He healed his backsliding.
That's encouraging, isn't it?
You all turn the cameras off at him now.
I want the people online to see.
That's a living testimony of God's promise that he will heal your backsliding.
If you're listening to this message this morning and you're thinking, "Man, I've rejected God in the past.
I turned from what I knew.
I turned away from God.
I started living like the devil and I rejected the truth.
I could have been saved and I didn't.
I rejected it.
I turned it away and now, oh, dear God, it's too late.
I can't be saved."
God says, "I will heal their backsliding."
What an incredible promise God is making here.
How can God say in some parts of the Bible that it's impossible to renew someone to repentance, or it's impossible for someone to have their mind changed about Christ?
Then, on the other hand, say, "He'll heal their backsliding if they turn away from them."
That's what we'll be looking at this morning.
The word translated "fall away" in the book of Hebrews chapter 6 that we just looked at, it's made up of two Greek words.
One of the Greek words means "to land."
"To land."
The other Greek word means "on."
When you put them together, it means "to land on."
"To land on."
"To fall away" means "to land on."
Now, I want to show you a real practical way.
This was beautiful, Brother Shepherd.
I stumbled on it by the providence of God.
I want to show you a beautiful, practical way that these two words are used in conjunction with one another in the New Testament.
The Gospel of Luke chapter 8, the parable of the sower.
Watch this.
Jesus says in Luke 8.5, "A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it."
Here's this picture.
Every time I read something like this, I think of me feeding my chickens.
My chickens come to me, they want treats.
I got a big old five-gallon bucket full of wild birdseed.
They love that stuff.
I'll reach in there and I'll grab that, and I'll go out and I'll throw it like that.
Some falls where I want it to.
Some falls maybe over on the concrete or something, but it falls in different, just wherever it lands.
When it says, "Some fell by the wayside," "fell by" are the two words that make up the one-word "fall away" in Hebrews 6.
It's where they land.
Some fell by.
Some landed on the wayside.
Some landed not on good ground, but over here on the wayside.
It's where they landed, and that's what matters.
What matters here in the book of Hebrews 6 is not what you're contemplating.
It's where you end up landing on your decision concerning Jesus Christ.
You see?
At some point in time, the Israelites decided to turn from God.
But God says, "If you'll come back, I'll heal your backsliding."
On the other hand, if they land on their decision and become firm in it, there can be no healing of that backsliding, because the only way to get healed is to come to God for that healing.
So like the seed and the peril of the sword, the whole problem with the person who falls away is where they land concerning the gospel.
I don't know if you all have this problem, but my wife and I will get out into our sunroom, enjoy that air coming through the screen with the windows open.
We'll sit down to eat our meal, and I'm telling you, if there's one fly, there's three.
I don't know what it is.
If you see one fly, there's going to be three of them.
You can whack, whack a couple of flies, but there's that one fly that just won't land.
They'll buzz around, buzz around, and you'll be waiting.
If you would just land on something, if you just land somewhere and give me a second, I'm going to smack you.
The idea here with these people who fall away, they're not landing on a particular decision.
They're in a period of this indecisiveness, if you will.
When someone's indecisive, they're floating ideas, but they're not landing on one.
A person who falls away, as the book of Hebrews describes, is someone who has landed on rejecting the gospel.
That's their final answer, as Regis Philman used to say.
That's their final answer.
Backsliding is going back.
It's like the waters receded back to where they came from in the book of Genesis after the flood.
Falling away is decisively landing on something other than the gospel, like the seed landed in the peril of the sower.
If it didn't land on good ground, it can't bear root.
If you don't land on Jesus, you can't have fruit in an everlasting life.
You've got to land on the gospel of Jesus Christ in your decision to be saved.
He that goes back can always come back, but he that lands has made a decision, and he will never change his mind.
That's why the Bible says, "Someone who crucifies to themselves the Son of God afresh, it's impossible to renew them again into repentance."
What does that mean, to crucify the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame?
Well, in the New Testament, when Jesus was here, you had priests, you had Pontius Pilate, you had people who knew better.
They knew who Jesus was.
They watched his miracles.
They knew, as Pilate said, "I'm innocent of the blood of this just man."
He knew he was just and crucified him anyway.
I believe those people knew he was the Son of God and crucified him anyway.
The Bible says, "All those Pharisees believed, but they would not continue in his word.
They rejected."
So they crucified him.
They made their decision.
That decision could not be taken back.
Once he's dead, he's dead.
They crucified him.
In the book of Hebrews, someone who crucifies the Son of God afresh, they're doing in their hearts today all over again what the people did back then.
They know the truth of Christ.
They know he's the way, the truth, and the life.
They know that the Gospel's true, and they decisively, just like the devil, the devil knew all about God.
The devil knew all about God's Son in heaven when the devil was there.
Knowing what he knew, he rejected God anyway, and he'll never come back.
It's impossible for him to.
Someone who knows what they know.
Here's the thing about Chris.
Chris said, "I had to relearn the Bible, basically, because the things that had been taught before were wrong."
Do you know what that means?
That means he did not reject the truth before, because he had been taught the Bible wrong.
He rejected one thing.
He rejected the Bible in a sense.
He rejected God in a sense.
But when he was exposed to the truth, what happened?
He then embraced the truth.
You see the difference?
So in the book of Hebrews, you have people who had tasted the heavenly gift, made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and they were actually enlightened by the Holy Spirit of God, shown the truth.
Had Chris come back?
Had Chris gone through the Genesis of Jesus course?
Had Chris said, "You know, I am absolutely convinced that everything in here is true, but I reject it anyway."
He would not be sitting there, yet he'd never come back.
There's a difference.
God says, "If you'll come back, I'll heal your backsliding."
Say, "Well, how do I know if I can come back?"
Do you want to come back?
If you do, you can, because whoever lands on the decision to reject Christ is on that decision permanently.
They'll never come back.
If they did, they never landed there.
You see what I'm saying?
They haven't fallen in that "where the chips fall," so to speak.
Their decision hasn't fallen there.
God can heal backsliding if people return, but God cannot heal a decisive and permanent rejection of Jesus Christ.
Why?
Because it is the sacrifice of Christ which they reject that God uses to heal them.
If they reject the sacrifice that God heals people with, there can be no healing.
They're backsliding.
Heart cannot be healed.
Now, let's look back in your text here in Hosea 14.
God says, "Not only will He heal, they're backsliding."
By the way, I want you to notice that the backsliding here has to be healed.
The backsliding here is a mortal wound.
Do you see that?
The backsliding here is a mortal wound.
He says, "I will heal their backsliding."
So it has to be healed.
Let me get you a particular scripture here, if you would.
When we think of backsliding, if you'll think of leaving God, going back from God, then what happens is you receive a mortal wound.
Recently we had a little granddaughter born prematurely.
The placenta had separated from the uteral wall.
When that happens, the placenta dies because it's cut off from its source of life.
That baby's got to come out and live on its own then.
When we reject God, when man rejects God, God breathes into Adam's nostrils the breath of life.
If you reject the God who gives you life, then you reject life.
So the rejection of God is a mortal wound.
God says, "He'll heal it."
Isaiah 53, verse 5, there we go.
I think I've given those guys a run for their money this morning.
I apologize for that.
Isaiah 53, verse 5 says, "But He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed."
I will heal their backsliding.
How does God heal our backsliding?
With the stripes of Jesus.
By Jesus dying in our place, that's how we are healed.
So again, if you're listening to this message this morning, you're afraid you may have committed the unpardonable sin, then you need to know that God says if you'll return to Him, He'll heal your backsliding.
So look here if you would now in the next portion.
God says, "I will love them freely."
Those who accept Christ as their Savior, God says He'll heal their backsliding.
He'll heal our nation's backsliding.
He's talking to Israel as a nation here, but in doing so He's also talking to the individual.
You know, we backslid from God a long time ago.
We rejected Him.
We told our kids that God didn't exist.
We told them they came from monkeys, that they were the result of a big bang.
We told them that there is no God and that only weak-minded religious people invented a God to have some way of coping with life.
And in so doing, we slid back from God.
The nation was founded upon the knowledge of God, and then that nation rejected the knowledge of God.
And you know what?
We have suffered greatly because of it.
We have a lot of wounds.
We have mass shootings, are as normal as the common cold now.
And it's very, very sad.
But you know what?
If we'll return to God as a nation, if we'll start seeking God's face, God will heal this land.
So, well, it's too close to the return of Christ.
I'm telling you, God did not put an expiration on His Word.
If you'll return to God, this nation will return to God and people will start seeking God's face.
God will heal the bruises of this wounded land.
And for those who accept Christ as their Savior, God says, "I will heal their backsliding."
Look back in your text, "I will love them freely."
Now, it's amazing enough that God would love backslidden sinners.
But it's even more amazing how God loves backslidden sinners.
Notice the adverb.
He didn't just say, "I will love them."
He said, "I will love them how?"
"I will love them freely."
And that word translated freely here in the Hebrew, it doesn't mean free of charge.
It means spontaneously.
Spontaneously.
How could that mean spontaneous?
"I will love them spontaneously."
That's the kind of idea of free love that we're seeing here.
You see, when you do something spontaneously, then you're doing something on sudden impulse.
It's not pre-planned.
If Brother Doug said, "Brother Richard, I tell you what, if you will do A for me, then this coming Sunday I'll do B for you."
And now, let's say that I do A and then Brother Doug does B.
Would Brother Doug be doing B spontaneously?
No.
But what on the other hand if Brother Doug just thought, "You know, I sure love Brother Richard."
And he just does B.
Just because.
Just because he loves me.
That's what it means to love freely.
That's the Hebrew word here.
It's not pre-planned.
It's not quid pro quo.
It's not, "You do this and I'll do the other."
It's this, "If you'll come back to me and you'll put yourself into position of being my child, my creature, and me being your God, I have so much love I want to bestow upon you.
I have so much I want to do for you.
I have so many ways I want to bless you."
But you've got to put yourself into position to receive those blessings.
The prodigal son couldn't get anything from his father when he was away from home.
And we can't get anything from God when we run away from him.
You have to come back for his mercy.
Sometimes I have a sudden impulse.
I'll be at work and I'll think, "You know what?
I want to put on some nice clothes and just take my wife out to eat.
I just get that sudden impulse."
It's just because I love her.
I drew a heart.
I think it was on the screen of her vehicle a little while back.
You know how a little film of dust gets on there?
I could see a little film of dust and I drew a heart with my finger on there.
It took her a long time.
The other day she says, "Did you draw that?"
I said, "I did."
She finally saw the heart.
We say, "I love being married to my wife.
I love to spoil her.
I love to love her freely."
That's the kind of love, if everyone will be honest in here, that's the kind of love everybody wants, right?
That your husband or your wife would do something wonderful for you, not because it's your birthday, not because it's Christmas.
I tell you one thing, I can't stand.
One thing I can't stand are these men and women who want it for some reason.
On Valentine's Day, Brookshire's grocery store will set up a tent for desperate men.
That's what it is.
It's a tent for desperate men.
Those men, last minute before they go home, they've got to pull in there and grab something or the wife's not going to be happy with them.
They pull in there because it says so on a calendar.
They've got to do it or the wife's going to be mad.
They pull in there, they pull out their wallet, they do this, they find this, they then go home, they give the wife something, the wife then is not going to be mad at them.
Wouldn't it be better if it wasn't a holiday?
If it wasn't a holiday.
You know what I did a while back?
On the way home, I pull off the side of the road spontaneously.
I go out and I start picking wildflowers with my wife sitting in the front seat.
I just picked her a bouquet of wildflowers.
I just gave them to her.
Ladies, be honest.
What would you rather have?
Would you rather your husband, on the way home from work, pick you a bouquet of wildflowers?
Or would you rather him wait until Valentine's Day, pull in the tent and grab you something and bring it to you?
How many of you would rather have the wildflowers, hands going up everywhere?
Why?
Because it's not out of obligation.
It's out of freedom to love, not out of obligation to love.
God is not obligated to love us.
But God is free to love us because God is love.
And God says, "If you'll come back to me, this is how I'm going to love you.
I'm going to give you showers of blessing.
I'm going to heal your land.
I'm going to heal your home.
I'm going to let you know just how much I love you.
If you'll just come back."
That's what God wants to do with our country.
He loves us.
That's what God wants to do with you.
If you're here this morning, and I'm telling you, I marvel at how people can come to church and still not act on the truth they hear.
Let me tell you something this morning.
If you're here this morning or if you're watching online, and you don't know if you're going to go to heaven when you die, you don't know if God has forgiven you of your sins.
God promises you this morning if you'll come to Him, the way He's telling Israel to come, if you'll come to God on the basis of His mercy and His love for you in Jesus Christ, if you'll come to God and have God accept you on the basis of Jesus dying for your sins alone, God will accept you.
You can know you're going to heaven, not because of what you do.
If I've ever asked you before, do you know if you're going to heaven and you say, "I'm trying," you can try all day long.
You can't get there.
But if I say you're going to heaven, you say, "I'm trusting.
I'm trusting what Jesus did for me."
That's the way God's given you.
He's given you Jesus.
If He'll accept what Jesus did for you, God will accept you on account of it.
He wants to heal you.
He wants to love you freely.
Do you know that God allowed for us to love Him freely too?
Do you know that?
It's neat.
We can love God just out of our own free will.
Exodus 35, now you're going to learn a little something about the Old Testament.
The Old Testament sacrifices.
There are all kinds of different sacrifices in the Old Testament, and not all of the sacrifices were for the same thing.
You could have a sacrifice for sin.
Then you could have a sacrifice, if you did something wrong, to make things right.
You could have a sacrifice just because.
Watch this now.
Exodus 35, 29, "The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord."
Do you see that word willing?
"They brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses."
The word willing here is the same word translated freely in Hosea.
No obligation whatsoever.
If I'm going to the tent to get the roses, I'm under obligation.
The wife's going to be mad.
I've got to do this.
It's not because I just think, "Oh, I love my wife so much."
What can I do to make her happy?
So God gave sacrifices in the Old Testament that people could do with no obligation whatsoever.
Just one of these things that they could make an offering to God where they would say, "You know, God's been so good to me.
I love God so much.
I just want to show him my love."
They could do what was called a free will offering.
An offering under no obligation, no commandment.
If they didn't do it, God was fine with it.
But they could do it just to show him how much they loved him.
God worked that in there for us.
We can serve God freely like that by his grace.
Yes, there are things we are obligated to do for God.
God says, "Thou shalt not do this, and thou shalt do that."
But there are other things we can do for God and show God our love freely.
This is a free will offering, and that's how God loves us.
Everything God does for us is a free will offering from him.
You know what that teaches us?
It teaches us God wants to love you.
God loves to love you.
God wants to bless you.
Sometimes when I feel like I've disappointed God, and I feel like I've gotten away from God, Brother Doug, God will come down and shower me with some kind of spiritual blessing.
You know what I'm talking about?
And you know what happens?
I feel so humble.
And I thank God I didn't deserve that.
I don't deserve that.
How did I get here, Lord?
How can I get in this position of you loving me like you do?
No obligation from God is just how good God is.
That's how much God loves you.
And a God like that deserves for you to come to him and acknowledge him as your creator.
God said, "I will love Israel this way."
Look back in your text, "For my anger is turned away from him."
"For my anger is turned away from him."
Now when we return to our place in regards to God, his wrath returns to its place in regards to us.
Fascinatingly, the Hebrew word translated "turned away" here is the root word for backsliding.
Isn't this amazing?
Israel backslides from God, and then when Israel returns to God, God's anger backslides from them.
It goes back to its place.
Israel comes back to God, and they come back to where they belong.
I've got a friend.
His garage is immaculate.
You've heard of a place for everything and everything in its place.
This guy, his garage is immaculate.
Everything he does, he uses a tape measure, a ruler, just to put where his toolbox and everything is.
It's incredibly symmetrical.
You and I were created to be in place with God.
We're created to be in union with God.
When we come back to God and we get in our place with God, the wrath of our falling away from God, or rather departing from God, that wrath returns back to its place because God doesn't naturally have anger toward us.
It's unnatural for God to be angry with us.
The reason we experience God's unnatural anger is because we get out of our natural place.
When we get back to our natural place, God's anger returns back to its place, which is no anger at all toward us.
All we get then instead of anger is that free love.
That's what God wants.
God is saying his anger is turned back to the place it came from.
Remember Genesis 8.3a?
It says, "And the waters returned from off the earth continually."
The waters didn't belong on the earth.
Remember, God, during the creation, He separated the waters from the waters and He let the dry land appear.
God put the water in its proper place.
He put the land in its proper place.
But when man got out of his place with God, the water got out of its place with man.
See how that works?
God separated the water from the water.
He put water above the firmament, water below the firmament.
He gathered the waters into one place.
He let the dry land appear.
So the waters He called seas, the dry land He called earth, and the water stayed in the seas and the earth stayed in the earth.
But when man got out of his place with God, the water got out of its place with man.
And then when God's wrath was satisfied, the waters returned back to their place because there was no reason for them to be angry anymore.
And when we come back to God through the cross of Jesus Christ, God's wrath was satisfied at the cross just like it was satisfied through the slaying of the guilty during the flood.
So when we come to the cross, God's wrath is satisfied and His judgment goes back in its place because we get back in our place with God.
Here's the kingdom and truth for you this morning.
God created everything.
So when we are out of place with God, everything is out of place with us.
God created everything.
So when we are out of place with God, then everything is out of place with us.
Because of man's great falling away from God, the Bible says in Genesis 7, 11, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, in the 17th day of the month, the same day where all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, they were broken up, the fountains of the deep, where God had put them.
But when God destroyed the wicked and earth again, His anger returned to its place, so the water returned to its place.
We were never created to receive God's wrath.
We were created to receive God's love.
It was our sin that brought God's wrath upon us.
But when our sin was laid upon Jesus, His wrath fell on Jesus.
And like the water fell on the sinners of Noah's time.
Now when we return to God through Jesus, God's anger returns to its place, and we are saved from wrath through Jesus enduring that wrath on our behalf.
The Bible says in closing, in Romans 5, verse 9, "Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him."
Amazing passes of Scripture.
If only people will return to God, they'll experience the free love He has for them.
One day when Jesus comes back, God made a place for everything, and when Jesus comes back, He's going to put everything in His place.
There'll be no more wrath on earth, no more anger, no more sorrow, no more tears.
It'll be nothing but the free love of God forever for those He created.
Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word.
I thank You, Father, for the promise that You'll heal our backslidings.
What a great comfort that is to people, Lord, who fear, Lord, that maybe You don't want them to return, when here You do.
Father, we pray, dear Lord God, that those who have been damaged, Father, from their fall from You, those, Father God, who have not come to You through faith in Your Son, that they will accept Jesus as their Savior and accept Your free love for them today.
