Out of Step with God — E.A. Johnston

The Minor Prophets Reveal the Heart of God

I believe we can learn much about the heart of God by studying how he dealt with his people in the books of the Minor Prophets. I wonder how many of us are really familiar with these power-packed books of the Bible.

Amos and Hosea as Contemporary Prophets

Amos and Hosea were contemporaries, and I'm going to draw a little wisdom from both of these books to date this evening, friends. You can turn in your Bibles now to the book of Hosea. We will be in chapter 14 of that book, which is the last chapter.

Hosea’s Picture of God’s Broken Heart

The book of Hosea is a story about a broken heart, and the heart belongs to God. He is heart-sick over his strained people, and he calls his prophet Hosea to try and reach these backsliders with warnings and wooings, with the personal example of the People of God's infidelity to God lived out in the marriage of Gomer and Hosea.

You read this book, friends, and you'll find it is a heart-breaking romance story, better than anything you can pick up in the romance fiction aisle of so-called Christian bookstores these days. There are many lessons to be learned from the book of Hosea, and we will look at some of these aspects this evening.

The Misery of the Backslider

My message is about the backslider. In every church, on every corner, if you look hard enough, you will bump into a backslider. You may even run into him in a revolving door as you meet yourself. The backslider is a miserable person.

Everything in life is sour to the backslider. He or she is critical about most everything and most everybody in the church. The backslider walks into a room full of joyful believers and sucks the pleasant air right out of the room.

Like I said, the backslider is a miserable person. The book of Proverbs describes the backslider this way. In Proverbs 14, 14, we read, The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways. And that's it in a nutshell, friends.

The backslider is miserable because they are eaten up with their own ways, and those self-absorbed ways can't make room for God. Hosea describes the backslider to a heifer. Hosea 4 .16 states, For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer.

That's a young cow that will not be kept within bounds, but breaks through fences and enclosures much to the dismay of its owner. Like the Jews transgressed the laws of God, it would not be restrained by them.

A young cow is not accustomed to the yoke. It will not submit to it, but try to wriggle its way out from it. Just like the disobedient Jews who transgressed the laws of God, it would not stay under them.

Being Out of Step with a Holy God

So a backslider is full of his own ways. And this person is miserable because they are out of step with God. The title of my message this evening, friends, is Out of Step with a Holy God. Let me pull a verse from Hosea's contemporary Amos, for it fits my message like a glove.

It's Amos 3 .3. Can two walk together except they be agreed? What do you think the answer is? Listen friend, the backslider is a miserable person because this person is out of step with God. I wonder, do we have any backsliders here listening to this message?

Oh, you'll probably deny it at first. Me? A backslider? Well, I'm the chairman of the deacons. But even though the backslider is miserable and full of his ways, stubborn like a young cow who bucks the yoke, there is good news for the backslider tonight.

God Heals and Restores the Backslider

And that good news is this, and it is my first point of my sermon. God desires to heal the backslider and restore him back into a vital walk with him. We see this in Hosea 14 .4. I will heal their backsliding.

God’s Desire for a Restored Love Relationship

I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him. And that brings me to the second point of my sermon. The reason God desires to heal the backslider is because God misses the love relationship that existed prior to the infidelity.

I will love them freely, God says, like a spouse who is the injured partner, where infidelity is made a breach in the relationship. First there is anger, for mine anger is turned away from him. Then there is contrition in the guilty partner, and reconciliation is made.

Trust is re-established. Eventually, love comes again. There is harmony back in the relationship. This is played out in the book of Hosea. Between the injured prophet and his unfaithful wife, Gomer, God tells Hosea to go buy her back from her prostitution.

So my second point is this, friends. God desires to heal the backslider because he misses the love between them. The heart of God is seen in the death of his son on Calvary's cross. Reconciling sinners back to him by the spent blood of his dearly beloved son, and it is seen in Christ's willingness to die for sinful man.

God’s Call to Intimate Fellowship

The love of God is clearly seen here in Hosea. I will heal their backslide and I will love them freely. And this brings me to our last point in my sermon, friends, and that is, God wants to heal the backslider.

God misses the love relationship, and God wants to restore the backslider to an intimate love relationship once more with him. Listen to all the pleas throughout Hosea, calling the backslidden people of God back to him.

Hosea 14 .1 declares, O Israel, return unto thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. It's the imagery of two walking together, one strong, one weak, and the weak one falls and can no longer walk.

The stronger picks him up and dusts him off and cleans up the mud and dirt from his companion so they can walk together in harmony once more. God desires for his children to walk in obedience to him and to share an intimate love relationship with him.

The Promise of Return and Restoration

God calls the backslider to him because God loves him. God says in Malachi, return unto me and I will return unto you. Dear friend, if you are away from the heart of God by sin, if you are out from under his will for you, which is his best for you, then return to him now.

He is like the father in Luke's gospel who yearns to see his prodigal son again. He looks for him every day, hoping for his return. His father heart breaks up from the lost love and the broken relationship.

Return to God, dear friend. You know you are miserable without him. Don't hesitate any longer. He is waiting with open arms. Let us pray.