Come Back - Part 2 of 2

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise! Thou for His love, my God and King, Thou triumphs of His grace!

This is L'say Bradley, Jr., welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. He leadeth me, O blessed thought, O words, with heavenly comfort fraught! What e'er I do, where e'er I be, Still tis God's hand and leadeth me! He leadeth me, He leadeth me, By His own hand He leadeth me, His faithful Father I would be, For by His hand He leadeth me!

Sometimes this seat of the best room, Sometimes where Eden's flowers bloom, My water still more troubled see, Still tis His hand that leadeth me! He leadeth me, He leadeth me, By His own hand He leadeth me, His faithful Father I would be, For by His hand He leadeth me! For I would last thy hand in mine, Forever her glory mine, Content whatever thought I see, Since it's my God that leadeth me! He leadeth me, He leadeth me, By His own hand He leadeth me, His faithful Father I would be, For by His hand He leadeth me! And when my task on earth is done, Led by Thy grace the victory's won, In death's home way I will not sleep, Since God's new joy hath leadeth me!

He leadeth me, By His own hand He leadeth me, His faithful Father I would be, For by His hand He leadeth me! We continue with the message today entitled Come Back. Repeatedly in the book of Jeremiah the message is return, return, return.

You've strayed, you've wandered, but come back, come back. What an encouraging message when you're made to realize there has been faltering and failure, but the message is come back. Write and let us know if the message is a blessing to you.

The address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. God's people sliding back, turning their back to the Lord and not their face. And then when trouble comes, when the stock market falls, when the economy is in trouble, when the financial problems, when there's a rumbling of war in some part of the world, all of a sudden people decide we need the Lord.

I remember the time of the last conflict in the Mideast when our soldiers were going to war. And that weekend the churches across America had a tremendous upsurge in attendance. Say, well it's good that people turn to the Lord, but isn't it sad they wait until the hour of crisis to turn. God's message is to you today.

How is it that you can turn from Him, ignore Him so often and yet ask for His help in the moment of difficulty? Old generation, see ye the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel, a land of darkness? Wherefore, say, my people, we are lords, we will come no more unto thee. Have I been darkness to you, says the Lord? No, I've given you light. Have I been a wilderness to you?

No, I've prospered you. How then can you say, we're lords, we're in charge, we're going to do what we want to do. We're not going to come anymore to the Lord. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire, yet my people have forgotten me days without number. How many times does a day go by and you have not prayed, you have not meditated, you have not consulted the word of God, you've not given thought to how you might please Him and honor Him and serve Him, and that day passes and another day passes and another day passes and another day passes. That happens as far as coming to the public worship services. You miss one weekend and you feel just a little bit out of pocket. You miss two in a row and you feel totally disconnected. I'm not really a part of what's going on over there.

I'm here, I'm there, I'm elsewhere. Days pass and they refuse to be ashamed. Chapter 3 verse 3 says, Therefore the showers have been withholding, and there hath been no latter rain, and thou hast a whore's forehead, thou refusest to be ashamed. You know there was a time that if a young woman would be exposed for having been involved in sensual sin, it would be revealed that a woman had betrayed her husband. It would be terrible humiliation. It was looked on with disdain by society itself.

Now it's totally accepted for people to live together without the benefit of marriage, totally acceptable in the eyes of many to be involved intimately without the marital commitment. No thought given to sin being an affront to God, not ashamed. Rag about it. Bold and defending an ungodly sinful lifestyle. What about you? Oh, you say, preacher, you're not hitting me.

I'm not involved in any of these things. But have you forgotten what he's talking about essentially here? That whoredom is idolatry. Having something in your heart that means more to you, it's bigger to you than God is.

You're more interested in it, you're more committed to it, whether it's self or whatever else. God says it's idolatry and he calls on you to return. So there is to be a confession, an acknowledgement of sin. But when you see this, you are to come back. If a person does finally reach that point that they're convicted, the word of God has come down upon you like a hammer. You've been broken in pieces. You see, I have sinned. And no longer do all of the excuses satisfy you. Friends might come to you and say, Oh, listen, you shouldn't be upset about those things.

Hey, we all live that way today. But this doesn't satisfy you anymore because you understand you have offended God. It's not just a matter of being found out. It's not just a matter of having your sin exposed.

If nobody else ever knows, God does and your heart is broken with a deep sense of sin. And he says you're to come back. What does he say at the end of verse 1, chapter 3? Yet return again to me, saith the Lord. Verse 12, go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful.

Oh, that's good news. See, you can't preach mercy to somebody who doesn't think they need it. When a person is defending their sin and say, I'm as good as anybody else, I don't need mercy. I just want justice. See, if all you're looking for is justice, you don't understand you're a sinner yet.

But when the Lord shows you what you are, how far you've missed the mark, how you violated his law, what a corrupt, vile sinner you are, then you say, oh, tell me about mercy. That's what I want. I want mercy. I want grace.

That's what I need. And that's what the Lord is promising here. I'm merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever. Some people are very skilled at keeping anger. I mean, they get mad and they stay mad. I mean, they can tell you people they've been mad at for 20 years. You know, many of us don't have a memory that's that keen that we can even remember what happened 20 years ago, much less who you're mad at.

But some people are very skilled. I mean, you just mentioned somebody's name. You know, anger flies up again. I mean, they're really ready to let them have it. They've been harboring this on the inside. They're still mad, angry.

And this is one reason we have such difficulty understanding this mercy of God, because all of us have at least some taint of that in our nature where we tend to hold on to anger. Wait a minute here. Talk to me about forgiving this person. You don't understand how great their offense is. Look what they said. Look what they did. Look how they hurt me.

Look how they harm me. Does that begin to compare with how big your sin is against God? Oh, you see, when you understand God's mercy, you realize you must be merciful to others.

But he says, only acknowledge thine iniquity. This returning to the Lord is not coming back and, well, you know, I haven't done such a bad job after all. I might have slipped up a little bit, Lord, but, you know, everybody does. No big deal.

No, sir. This coming back to the Lord is in true repentance. It's with genuine confession. It's acknowledging I have sinned. I have gone astray. I have done wrong.

There have been many idols in my heart. I didn't see them at a time. I didn't see my own pride. I didn't see my own self-love. But, Lord, I see it now.

You've shown it to me. I acknowledge it. I repent of it. So often we try to excuse ourselves in a particular pursuit and say, oh, well, this is justified. I've got to do this and this and this because we say, well, I've got to provide for my family and therefore it's all right if I make an idol out of my job.

You do have to provide for your family but you don't have to make an idol out of your job. You see, we try to excuse and justify what we really want to do. Acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree. You didn't just sin under one tree.

You sinned under every tree. And ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you. You've been an adulterous wife. You have strayed. You have turned your back on me.

You've gone after your lovers but I'm married to you. Now return and I will take you one of a city and two of a family and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you pastors according to mine heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. Now that's the kind of pastor that God gives. If you're not learning something, if you're not gaining understanding and knowing more the word of God, you're not being properly shepherded. But God sends shepherds or pastors that will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Look at the 22nd verse. Return ye backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings.

The whole we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God. Return, return, return. Come back, come back.

Oh that's good to hear isn't it? God doesn't say go away and I never want to see you again. He says come back, come back. If you're saying I haven't been anywhere that's another problem. But if you understand I've gone astray, I've sinned and God says come back.

That's good news. The Lord says return, return. But acknowledge thine iniquity. Yet I'm merciful, I'm merciful. Oh our hard hearts, our judgmental spirit, our attitude towards somebody else that's done wrong. You know that's the reason we have such a difficult time understanding the ways of God. You look at somebody that has committed a great sin. And you might be so indignant about their sin. Of course there's a tendency to excuse and justify your own. But you're indignant about somebody else's sin and you say I'm not going to ever feel just right about that person.

I'm going to always be somewhat aloof. I'm not going to ever receive them. Let's see how God handles the matter. Look at Ezekiel chapter 18. Ezekiel chapter 18. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins. This is verse 21. Ezekiel 18, 21. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him. All his righteousness that he hath done, he shall live.

Isn't that good? Oh my, when you become convicted of your sin, you mention it every day. You bring it up constantly. You beat yourself with your own sense of wretchedness and unworthiness. What a miserable sinner I am.

How terribly I've come short. Would the Lord ever forgive me? Sometimes when I've preached on various topics of godly living, a person will come to me and say, Oh, I'm so deeply convicted. And I thank God every time there's conviction under the sound of the preaching of his word. But particularly in the messages we've delivered here and elsewhere on the Christian hall, people will come and say, Oh, I wish I had heard those messages 30 years ago. I see I have come so far short, so many things I should have done as a parent that I did not do. Well, I wouldn't want you to hear those messages and just slough it off as though it wasn't significant.

But here's the good news. You look back at your life, you see so many failures. If you've really got clear vision, you see a lot of them. You see wasted time. You see sinful actions. You see things that you did that at this moment with the attitude you have, with a heart that's sensitive to sin and desiring fellowship with God, you say, I can't believe I ever did that. How could I have done it? How could I have allowed myself to have sunk into that sin? How could I have allowed the anger, malice, revenge to be in my heart that's been there? How could I have been so self-righteous, so judgmental of others? How could I have been so full of pride, focused on me, not thinking about God, not thinking about others, thinking about me?

How could it have been? Then these messages are preached about parenting and I see I've miserably failed in many of those areas. And I've wasted so much time. Have you ever thought if you'd been a diligent student of the Word of God all your life, where you might be today in your spiritual maturity, if you'd have spent as much time reading the Bible as you've spent reading novels and magazines and looking at television and doing other things, where would you be today? What kind of a strength would we have in this church if all of us had been as diligent in serving God, praying, reading His Word, committed to Him as we ought to have been? And you see, sometimes when that conviction is exceptionally strong and the sense of God's holiness is so great and the view of our own sinfulness is so vivid, we can almost be driven to despair and say, Lord, I am such a sinner. I guess I ought to just throw up my hands in despair, give it all up.

There is no hope for me. But look what God says, all His transgressions that He has committed, they shall not be mentioned unto Him. Now some of your enemies may sometimes bring up your past. And you are sometimes your worst enemy because you bring it up frequently. And you go down into the pit of despair thinking about what's been done. But God says, I'm not going to mention it to you because I'm forgiving you. I'm forgiving you. Isn't that wonderful?

You know, we talked in the beginning about the experience of Hosea. Even after his wife had taken all that he had given her and used it to purchase lovers and had reached the point that she was sold into slavery. Here she is. She's lived such a wretched life. She's sunk to such a low degree.

Time has passed. Now nobody wants her. Her beauty has faded. She's on the auction block.

She's getting ready to be sold. Guess who shows up? Hosea.

Guess who's the highest bidder? Hosea. He redeemed her. He paid the price. He bought her back. He took her home and says, you're mine. You're mine.

I still love you. You say, preacher, that's too much for me. Friends, that depicts how marvelous the grace of God is. In spite of our sin, in spite of the fact that we're on the auction block ready to go down the tube, by His grace, He purchased us with His own precious blood. And He says, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all righteousness. Oh, somebody comes along and says, He'll cleanse you most of it.

No. He says, all of it. All of it. The blood of Jesus Christ covers every sin. Isn't that good to know? Oh, what hope that gives to sinners. Now, that doesn't mean a thing to Pharisees. Pharisees say, well, I don't need any of that.

I'm doing a pretty good job of my own. But I'll tell you, old corrupt, bankrupt sinners love this message of grace. Nothing else will reach their case.

Nothing else will do them any good. In the 103rd Psalm, this is brought before us so beautifully when he says in the 8th verse, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Isn't that good? The Lord is merciful. He's gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. Not just a little bit of it.

Not just passing it out in small degrees here and there. Plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Do we not all have to say that here today? Suppose the Lord had dealt with us, sin for sin, every detail of our life had been immediately, the penalty had been meted out and implemented upon us.

Where would we? What kind of shambles would our life be in today? Oh, how good the Lord has been. You can say, well, I failed in so many areas, but oh, how I thank God that He's given me a heart's desire to be here today in this worship service.

I've made many mistakes and failed as a parent, but yet whatever consequences might have been suffered are not nearly as bad as they could have been if I had been dealt with according to my own failure. How good is the Lord? When you stop to think about the fact that if God dealt with you according to your sin, you would be in hell right now. You just stand in amazement of His sovereign mercy.

You see, there's no reason to complain, there's no reason to murmur. Just thank God and praise Him every day for His mercy and grace. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. Now how high is that? Can you explain that to me? How high is the heaven above the earth?

So great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west. Now you measure that. How far is the east from the west? You start going east and you just keep on going and you'll never get done. You'll just keep on going east. You'll never get to your destination.

You can just go east forever. And He said, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. He doesn't overlook sin. He doesn't excuse sin. But He forgives sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When He's talking about all of the marvels of His grace and what all He's done for us and what all He's given us in Christ in Ephesians chapter 1. Speaking of our position in Christ, it says in verse 7, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.

The forgiveness of sins. Come back. Come back. If Satan attacks you to the point that you say there's no need to come, I've strayed so far God will never take me back. My sin is so black.

My failings are so many. My heart is so hard. I need not come. He says come back. That prodigal was far from home. And he said I'll arise and go to my father and say I've sinned. No doubt there was great apprehension, wondering would my father take me back.

I don't deserve it. He didn't come back and say father I need a loan till payday. He didn't come back to say I've just run into a little temporary trouble here. Can you pull me out? He said I've sinned against heaven and of thy side and I'm not worthy to be called thy son.

Would you just make me one of your hired servants? But he could hardly get out the confession because the father was so delighted to take him back. He was having the servants put his robe on the boy's back. He was hollering in there telling him get the kitchen going friends.

We're going to have a feast tonight to surpass everything we've ever had on this place. Put my shoes on his feet. Put my ring on his finger.

That's a reminder of our relationship. Put him down at my table. Oh what a happy time that father welcomed the prodigal home. He'll welcome you as the wandering prodigal today. Come back.

Come home. Return, return is the message of his word. We have brought you the concluding part of the message come back. I'd appreciate it if you'd let us know if the message has been a blessing to you. Our address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217.

If you'd like to make a donation you can also go to our website at BaptistBibleHour.com. Till we greet you next time this is LeSara Bradley Jr. beating you goodbye and may God bless you. This is my story.

This is my song. Praising my Savior. Praising my Savior. Praising my Savior. Oh, what a day long.