Hosea 14:4

WHICH rings with the more sonorous voice, the knell, "their backsliding," or the marriage peal, "I will heal"? All through the Scripture records there is revealed a vehement contest between man's sin and God's Grace—each of them striving to become more abundant than the other. Sin, like a dragon, pours forth floods from its mouth, and God's mercy, as a shoreless ocean, rolls in greater majesty. Sin abounds, so that none can measure its heinousness or power. But where sin abounds Grace does much more abound. In the text sin abounds—"their backsliding." There is a comprehensiveness in that word, a dreadful abyss of iniquity. But Grace abounds yet more, "I will heal their backsliding." Here is a height and depth of Grace like the God from whom it came—incomprehensible and infinite! I shall ask you, this morning, in order that we may get the full measure of benefit which this text may bestow upon us, under the teaching of God's Spirit, first, to notice the words of the text one by one. Secondly, to consider the blessing of the text. And then, thirdly, if we are led of the Holy Spirit, let us not leave this House of Prayer till we have gained the realization of the text. I. First, then, let us take THE WORDS OF THE TEXT, "I will heal their backsliding." We shall call your attention first, to a word of humiliation, "backsliding." The very sound of it ought to arouse our spirits. And the consciousness of having fallen into it should make us lay our mouths in their dust, and confess that we are unclean. Backsliding is among God's people very common. Not common, perhaps, in its highest degree—God forbid it should be—but in its earlier forms. From its commencement in backsliding—of thought, and heart—on to backsliding in act, I fear the disease is so rife among the people of God that there is scarcely one of us who has not at some time or other suffered from it.

WHICH rings with the more sonorous voice, the knell, "their backsliding," or the marriage peal, "I will heal"? All through the Scripture records there is revealed a vehement contest between man's sin and God's Grace—each of them striving to become more abundant than the other. Sin, like a dragon, pours forth floods from its mouth, and God's mercy, as a shoreless ocean, rolls in greater majesty. Sin abounds, so that none can measure its heinousness or power. But where sin abounds Grace does much more abound. In the text sin abounds—"their backsliding."

I will heal their backsliding - God, in answer, promises to “heal” that wound of their souls, from where every other evil came, their fickleness and unsteadfastness. Hitherto, this had been the characteristic of Israel. “Within a while they forgat His works, and would not abide His counsels” Psa 106:13. “They forgat what He had done. Their heart was not whole with Him; neither continued they steadfast in His covenant. They turned back and tempted God. They kept not His testimonies, but turned back and fell way like their forefathers, starting aside like a broken bow” Psa 78:12, Psa 78:37, Psa 78:42, Psa 78:57-58. Steadfastness to the end is the special gift of the Gospel. “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” Mat 28:20; Mat 16:18. And to individuals, “Jesus, having loved His own, loved them unto the end” Joh 13:1. In healing that disease of unsteadfastness, God healed all besides. This He did to all, wheresoever or howsoever dispersed, who received the Gospel; this He doth still; and this He will do completely in the end, when “all Israel shall be saved.” I will love them freely - that is, as the word means, “impelled” thereto by Himself alone, and so, (as used of God) moved by His own Essential Bountifulness, the exceedling greatness of His Goodness, largely, bountifully. […]