We'll turn to Hosea chapter two for our scripture reading, the reading of the word of God. Hosea chapter number two, and we'll begin our reading at the opening verse of the chapter, and we'll read a number of the verses that are before us. Hosea, after the book of Daniel, Hosea, Daniel, Hosea, then Joel. And so the book of Hosea chapter number two. Let's read from the verse one. Let's hear God's word. Say ye unto your brethren, am I, and to your sisters, Rahamun, plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts. As I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. And I will not have mercy upon her children, for they be the children of whoredoms. For their mother hath played the harlot, she hath conceived them, and hath done shamefully, for she said, I will go after my lovers, that they may give me bread, and my water, and my wool, and my flax, and my oil, and my drink. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now. For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Beal. Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand. I will also "'cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, "'her new moons and her Sabbaths and all her solemn feasts. "'And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees. "'Wherefore,' she has said, "'these are my rewards that my lovers have given me. "'And I will make them a forest, "'and the beasts of the field shall eat them. "'And I will visit upon her the days of Balaam, "'wherein she burned incense to them. "'And she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, "'and she went after her lovers and forgot me. saith the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her the vineyards from Thames and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. And she shall sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Eshi, my husband, and shall call me no more Balai, that is my Lord. For I will take away the names of Balaam out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. And in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground, and will break the bow and the sword in the battle out of the earth and will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto me forever. I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment, and in loving kindness and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. Amen, and we'll conclude at the verse number 20. Let's briefly just engage just in a short word of prayer together. Our gracious Father and our God in heaven, I now pray, Lord, for the help of thy spirit to preach the word. Guide, Lord, throughout the entirety of this message. May there be an ear to open. Master, speak, thy servant heareth, listening for thy gracious word. May that be, O God, the prayer of the hearts of thy people. And, Lord, may be those who gather with us unconverted. Lord, may, Lord, you even speak into their hearts today. May there be a word in the gospel for them. And grant, dear Father, that which is of God, may it carry into the heart and into the soul, and that which is of man, may it fall to the ground. We commit, Lord, all things now to thee. Fill me now with thy spirit and power, for I offer prayer in and through the Savior's great and holy name. Amen. Go more. That woman that we have been reading about in our scriptural reading today was a woman with a reputation that would have made any respectable woman to blush. This woman lived a sinful life, resulting in her having numerous children to different men. The amazing thing is that God told the prophet Hosea, in Hosea chapter one and the verse number two, to marry such a woman. Go, take on to thee a wife of whoredoms. She was of the same trade as Rahab. She was a harlot. She was a woman who was a woman of the night, someone who lived in probably one of the back streets of the city of Jerusalem and engaged in sinful and wicked Now the purpose why God wanted this godly man, Hosea, to marry this ungodly woman, Gomorrah, was really to represent or to picture to the nation of Israel the unmerited grace that he had shown to them as a people in choosing them to be his people, his covenant people. Unfortunately, Gomar's story does not end with her happily married to Hosea for the rest of her life. Because in chapter 2, the chapter that we read, we find that the prophet informs us that Gomar returns to her former life to re-engage with the sinful pleasures that she had once engaged in before she came to meet and then eventually marry her husband Hosea. Her departure from her loving husband was really to picture then Israel's behavior when it came to her relationship to Jehovah. Many times in Israel's history, the nation of Israel turned away from God and pursued after other gods and other lovers to the detriment of the spiritual well-being of the nation. In Gomar's departure from the one who loved her dearly, I believe that we have a picture of our own nation, and more specifically, the church of Jesus Christ, and more specifically, those who make up the church of Jesus Christ. For there are times and episodes in our history whenever countries and whenever churches and whenever Christians, they turn their back on God and they pursue after lesser things. In this service this afternoon, I want to highlight some things regarding Gomar's departure and then her return onto Hosea, her husband. And I want to do that in a message that I've entitled, A Grievous Departure Followed by a Gracious Return. A Grievous Departure Followed by a Gracious Return. Every departure from God however slight in degree, and however short in duration, is grievous to God. And we need to accept that and ensure that if we have strayed from Christ, and if we have left our first love, that then we make a speedy return to Him. In this account in the Old Testament, I want us to think then firstly about the cause of Gomar's departure. The cause of Gomar's departure. Under the glorious reign of King Jeroboam, Israel had become a very prosperous and a very wealthy nation. However, during such a period of wealth, It was one that was also marked by gross and shameless idolatry, self-indulgence, and also the oppression of the poor. We read that Beal, that prophet or that false god that was brought Down in the days of Elijah, reappears within the nation in the days of Hosea the prophet. We read about Baal and about Balaam here in this second chapter. And so there is this reemergence of false religion. And Israel engages in that worship. She leads the worship of the true and living God, and she goes after Baal and after Balaam. In simple terms, the people of God had become unfaithful to their marriage covenant with Jehovah. And yet the amazing thing is that God still loved his people. He loved them so much that he sends them a man, a man with a message to call the people back on to himself. And really what we have in Hosea's life and what happens in his marital home is really a picture of what will happen and what does happen. when a nation first of all departs from God, and then thankfully whenever a church or a people or an individual Christian returns on to God. Now you would have thought that having engaged in such sinful living, and I speak here of Gomar, you would have thought that she would have burnt her bridges with her sinful past. Whenever she entered into this covenant of marriage with Hosea, Not only was she married to Hosea, but God blessed that home with three children. Three boys were born into that particular marriage. And yet despite the vows that she had made and the responsibilities that she had in the family home as a mother, Gomar was lured back to the old sinful way of living that she had engaged in before she had married Hosea the prophet. And really the opening verses of chapter 2, they recount for us the brokenheartedness of Hosea on the account of Gomar's unfaithfulness to him by her return to her former loves. So desperate is Hosea to see Gomar return to the marital home that he employs the services of the children. to confront their mother about her unfaithfulness, to plead with their mother, to reason with her mother that she would come home again. Verse 2, plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife. Neither am I her husband. Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with her thirst. If Hosea cannot get her to return, He engages or employs the services of the children that they might pull, as it were, in the heartstrings of this woman, that she would return to the family home. Plead with your mother. Plead with your mother that she would return. In the departure of Gomar from Hosea, we come to see our own departures from Christ. When we first entered into covenant relationship with Him, in other words, whenever we were saved, we were supposed to burn our bridges with our sinful past. The former things they were to pass away, and all things were supposed to become new. But the problem is that we didn't burn our bridges. And if we did, sadly, we have started to reconstruct those bridges again that has led us back to the world, that place that only brought us misery and trouble in our lives. And in this, we need then to make an amends. We need to burn our bridges with the world. Say in the words of that little chorus, the cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back, no turning back. You see, Gomorrah returns back to her old sinful way of living. And whenever I consider the departure of Gomorrah from Hosea, I find three phases to her departure. Three phases that are replicated in our departures from God. I wonder, If you're wandering today, I wonder which phase are you in. And for those who are walking with God, then we need to be wary and we need to be careful that we don't begin in the first phase because the first is then followed by the second and then by the third. And so this is a warning that's sent even to God's people. What were these phases? Phase number one that led to Gomar's departure, it took the form of a forgetting. A forgetting. Look there at the closing words of the verse 13 of chapter 2. It says there that she went after her lovers, This is God speaking. The forgetting of God is a charge that God puts to Israel as a nation. Now they were warned about that. They were warned about forgetting the Lord. Remember there in the book of Deuteronomy in the chapter number six in the days of Moses, I'll read those verses to you. For God's servant alerts the Israelites to the danger that material prosperity has the potential of causing a person to forget the Lord that had brought them out of the land of Egypt and from the house of bondage. And it shall be. When the Lord thy God shall have brought thee unto the land which ye swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not, and houses full of good things which thou fillest not, and wells digged which thou diggest not, vineyards and olive trees which thou plantest not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full, then beware, lest thou forget the Lord. which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt and from the house of bondage. Sadly, Israel had succumbed to forgetting the Lord. They forgot what the Lord had done for them. And brethren and sisters, whenever days are good, and whenever we find ourselves in material prosperity, and we find our lives going smoothly and calmly, then there is a potential that we forget the Lord. You know there is a possibility that for a couple getting married, they can forget the Lord. All of the industry and all of the energy and all of the focus is getting married and getting wed and having their big day. And there's a potential in the midst of all of that, and we've all been through it and we've all had our big day or some have, there is a potential that you forget the Lord. You forget the Lord in it all. And then the setting up of the family home. We can forget the Lord. We get so engaged in what the color of the walls are to be, or what type of wallpaper we're putting up, or with regard to what carpet we're putting down, or what furniture we're putting into the family home, that we forget the Lord. We forget about Him. In the establishing of a business, we can forget the Lord. all the industry and all the energy and all the thoughts. We go to bed thinking about what machinery needs to be purchased, what marketing needs to be done, and we forget the Lord. We forget the Lord. We forget about His day. We forget about His word. We forget about prayer. We forget about the midweek prayer meeting. We forget about the Lord. And when we engage in our educational studies, we can forget about the Lord. And whenever we pursue a career, we can forget about the Lord. Well, you may say, but it's only a forgetting of the Lord. But it is a spiral, a dangerous spiral, for you to simply forget the Lord. You know, many of our own departures from God can be traced back to this problem that Gomar had. She forgot, she forgot the Lord, or Israel, she forgot the Lord. The world takes a hold of our hearts and we forget the Lord. You know, it's an amazing thing that we could actually do that. That we could forget the Lord. But we do. We forget the one who willingly and voluntarily left the praises of heaven behind. To live in this fallen world on our behalf, we forget the one who was scorned, the one who was smitten, the one who was spat upon by those who sought his death. We forget about the one who hung in naked shame upon the cross in order that he might bear our shame and our guilt. and our disgrace. We forget about the one who triumphed over death and hell and sin and the grave and Satan as our Redeemer. We forget about the one who ever lives to make intercession for us. We forget about the one who daily loads his children with untold blessings and with untold benefits. Have you forgotten the Lord? Have you forgotten the Lord? Brother, sister, have you forgotten the Lord? Have you forgotten what He did for you? Can you not recall? Can you not recall what He has delivered you from? Oh, let me put you to in remembrance of these things. If you've forgotten the Lord, He has delivered you from eternal death. He has rescued you from everlasting punishment in hell. He has forgiven you. He has placed you into His family. He has clothed you in His righteousness. He has pledged to take you to heaven someday. And here you are living in a cold, backslidden state. Because you've forgotten the Lord. You've forgotten Him. Other things have come in and crowded the mind and the heart. Oh, my dear friend, it's time that you recall to your mind what the Lord has done for you and for you to return on to your rest, return on to thy rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee. We thought about that a few weeks ago. She forgot the Lord. Israel forgot the Lord. Have we forgotten the Lord? In the church, have we forgotten the Lord? Have we forgotten that we need the Lord? Have we forgotten it, brethren and sisters? Our prayer meetings should be full. And they're emptying. They're emptying. Fewer and fewer of God's people are coming to the place of prayer. Have we forgotten the Lord? Phase one, forgetting the Lord. forsaking, a forsaking. When we forget the Lord, it's not long until we then forsake the Lord. Now what's very interesting to note is that Gomar does not slip accidentally into a state of backsliding or departure from her husband, but Gomar consciously makes a choice to forget Hosea and then to forsake Hosea and then to return to her sinful life. Verse number five, chapter number two, she says, I will go after my lovers. I will go after my lovers. And that's what she did. She forsook the one who despite her sinful past had set his love upon her and brought her into that loving relationship with him. And she did it willfully. She did it willfully. How tragic to think that we do the exact same. We forsake the one who set his love upon us. Despite our sinful past, that he set his electing love upon us and he brought us savingly unto himself, we forsake him. Like God's covenant people in the days of Jeremiah, God would say, My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and they have hewn out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. I wonder, am I speaking to someone in this service today who has forsaken the Lord? You've not only forgotten Him, but you've forsaken Him. O may conscience speak loudly to you today in this meeting, provoking you to think on your ways and see to your return on to God without a moment's delay. And so she forgot the Lord, and then she forsook the Lord. And then thirdly, the third phase of Gomar's departure, it took the form of a fantasizing, a fantasizing. Yes, there was a forgetting, there was a forsaking, and then there was a fantasizing. You see, Gomer was convinced, wrongly I might add, that her previous lovers were the ones who had given her bread and water and wool and flax and oil to drink. Verse number 5, she says, I'll go after my lovers that gave me bread and my water and my wool and my flax and my oil and my drink. This girl lived in a fantasy world. She lived in a fantasy world. And are there not those among us here today who live in the same world? They live in a fantasy world where they think that if they go back to the world that that is the answer. They think to themselves that the world, a return to the world is the course of action that they should take in their life and they're living some kind of fantasy. They believe that it's going to be easier back into the world. God reminded Israel in verse number eight and reminds Gomar, she did not know that I gave her the corn and I gave her wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. So she's reminded, but she was living now in fantasy, a fantasy. Oh, how many a backslider lives like that? They think that they're going to find in the world what they're looking for, only to find themselves to be bitterly disappointed. The world has nothing substantial or solid to offer us. That's but sheer fantasy. The world and its sin will only fill your heart with sadness and you're home with trouble. And so I would say to you today, stop fantasizing. Stop fantasizing and return to God pronto. Return to God quickly. Here she was. This was her problem. She fantasized. She thought that the world had that which to offer her and that which would satisfy. But she was going to find herself bitterly disappointed. And so that moves us on to a second point today. The consequences of Gomar's departure. The consequences. You see, a genuine Christian will always find that they have to face difficult consequences when they depart from the Lord. Always. There will always be difficult consequences and bitter consequences to face when a genuine Christian departs from God. These are alluded to in the verses 6 and 7. Therefore, behold, God, the speaker here, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, make a wall that she shall not find her pass, and she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them, but shall not find them. And then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now." Over these words, we could write the words of Hebrews chapter 12 and the verse number 6. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Because of her departure from Hosea, Gomer first experienced sharp afflictions, sharp afflictions. Verse 6, you'll know that thorns are a byproduct of the fall. And I'm sure, boys and girls, you know what it's like to get a thorn into your hand. It's a painful thing. It's an uncomfortable thing to get a thorn into your hand. You see, thorns, they cause pain. Thorns, they cause agitation. Thorns cause hurt. The thorn is representative of those times in life that are marked by difficulties and trials and afflictions and heartaches and distresses and troubles and sufferings. And all of these things God can bring into the lives of his rebellious children in order that they might be recovered from their backsliding. I wonder what difficulty, what affliction What trouble, what suffering will God have to introduce into your life to bring you back to God, to bring you to your senses as a wandering and a straying saint of God? The psalmist said, before I was afflicted, I went astray. Now have I kept thy word, Psalm 119 in the verse 67. He confesses that it was affliction that brought him back from his wanderings, from going astray. For the prodigal son in the New Testament, it would be a famine. While for the prodigal daughter, Naomi, in the Old Testament, it would be the death of her husband and two boys that God would choose to bring them to the place and back to the place where they ought to be. I say to you today, if you are a genuine Christian and you have wandered from God, be prepared for God to hedge up your way with thorns. Be prepared. As you drift further and further away from God, You're going to find your way hedged up with thorns. In the second instance, Gomer came up against restraining barricades. Verse 6 again, And this is pictured in this wall, this blocking of the road, causing them to stop and to reassess the path that they are pursuing. See, it's Spurgeon, he said, places effectual stoppages in the road of those whom he means to reclaim. If men break down hedges, his preserving love builds walls so that they may find it hard to persevere in sin. If they break through the hedge, God in his persevering love builds up walls that they may find it hard to persevere in their sin. How does God do this practically? Well, He may do it in a number of ways. God may see to the scuppering of your plans, building up of the wall, the stopping of the pathway. He may scupper your plans. Godly Jehoshaphat. would join affinity with the wicked king Ahaziah, 2 Chronicles chapter 20. The plan was that they would pull their resources together. They would build ships. They would sail those ships to the place called Uphar in order to bring back some of the gold reserves. However, God disapproved of Jehoshaphat's plans because he was joined in affinity with the ungodly, and God scuppered those plans. We read about it in 2 Chronicles 20. He sends a prophet by the name of Eliezer who says, God is able to scupper your plans. He's able to scupper them. He's able to scupper your business plans. He's able to scupper your holiday plans, those educational plans of yours in order to bring you and win you back to Himself. He's able to scupper your plans. God may also see to the severing off relationships. Friendships may have to be severed in order for A return to God to be invoked. You think of the account of the prodigal son. Whenever he found himself in the far country, we read that he had plenty of friends. But there came a time whenever it says that no man gave on to him. Where's all his friends now? They're all gone. And the ending of those relationships, they really triggered in his mind to reconsider the father's house and all that he enjoyed in the father's house. God may well, sever your relationships especially those that take you far from him. He may have to scupper them in order for you to once again consider your relationship with your heavenly father. I wonder back Slater does it seem that the road that you're presently on does it seem that every road that you're that you turn that there's nothing there's nothing but blocks roadblocks in your way I remind you that those roadblocks have been built by divine love, and they speak to you, and this is what they say. Stop. Stop. Consider your ways. Return on to your God. I wonder, will you heed the message and return? Because of her departure from Hosea, Gomar experienced a third thing, bitter disappointment. Verse 7, she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them, but shall not find them. You know, in these words we find that Gomar, she really was seeking for those things that she thought would bring her satisfaction and fulfillment, but her search, it ends with bitter disappointment. She shall not find them. They flee from her like a rainbow would flee from a child. And is that not the case when it comes to the wanderer, the one who strays from God? They aimlessly search for satisfaction in their former lifestyle. They find that they're simply mirages and delusions concocted by the devil. See, the true backsider soon realizes that the former pleasures off the world are but empty pleasures compared to the enjoyment experienced by those who walk with God. Maybe your life today is full of bitter disappointment. That only stands to sense because backsliding is called a better thing. It's a better thing. In the book of Ruth, Naomi testified to her backsliding and what it did to her. And all the bitterness that it brought into her life. And so she says, call me not Naomi, call me Mara. For the Lord has dealt bitterly with me. The bitterness, the bitter disappointment. And Gomar's departure had also resulted in the wounding of memory. The closing words of the verse number seven, then. Then only after all of these things took place, she said, then, she said, I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better with me than now. Her affliction, her disappointment in that gomorrah comes to recall to our minds what it was like previously in the marital home. She remembers the love that Hosea had for her. She remembers the wealth that was lavishly bestowed upon her. She recalls her former happiness and the security that she enjoyed within the home of Hosea. All these are now memory, just memories. But it causes her to make a resolution. She says, in remembering these things, though my memory is wounded with the fact that I have lost out on so much that I once enjoyed, she says, I will go and return to my first husband. Backslider, can you not recall the former days? Those days whenever walking with God was such a delight to you? Those days whenever Prayer was a joy to your soul. When the word preached, it thrilled your heart. When you served the Lord gladly, surely you would have to come to the same conclusion that Gomar comes to, that it was better with me back then than it is now. Having thought about the cause and the consequences of Gomar's departure, quickly let's look at the cessation of Gomar's departure and her return See, Gomar, she comes to realize that the fantasy that she had come to dream up in her head regarding her former lovers, what they could offer her was simply that it was a fantasy that was not grounded in reality. It was a fantasy that was not grounded in reality. And every backslider, they come to eventually realize that. They come to realize that their return to the world and its sin is not what it's made out to be. With this having dawned on Gomar, we read that she resolved to return to her first love. She says, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than it is now. The wonderful thing is that Hosea meets her. In actual fact, it appears that Hosea is the one who comes first seeking her. And we really read that in the chapter number 3. Because in chapter 3, Hosea is given this directive by God, Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who looked to other gods and loved flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces, of silver, and for a hummer of barley, and for a half a hummer of barley. And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days, thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man, so I also be for thee. Isn't that a marvelous thing? Here's a man who marries a woman, That woman in unfaithfulness leaves the marital home. She lives a sinful, wicked lifestyle. And yet Hosea is still willing to receive her back again. He's willing to bring her back into the marital home again. I tell you, this is a picture of grace. This is a picture of how God is so willing to receive us back, having left Him, having shamed Him, having disgraced Him in our wanderings and in our strains, that He is willing to receive us again because He pays the price of our return. Because our backsliding is sin. And our sin was placed upon Christ at the cross. And so with regard even to the sin of backsliding, He has paid the price. He has procured the price and secured the return of those who wander from Him. God is willing to receive us if we cease from our wanderings and our going astray. He is willing to forgive us as Hosea was to Gomorrah. He is willing to forgive us and he is willing to receive us. It's very interesting to note that the word Hosea means deliverer. His name comes from a root word which means salvation. In fact, that word comes from the root word from which we get the name, Joshua. The Old Testament equivalent of the name, Jesus. And so we could literally say that in the person of Hosea, we see that Jesus reclaimed her. Jesus reclaimed her, Hosea. Joshua, Jesus, reclaimed her. And in the person of Hosea, we come to see our Savior, who is willing to reclaim his wife from her wanderings. Here you are today. You could say that you've wandered from God. You would have to admit and say, preacher, I am not in the place Where I should be, I'm not in the place where I was once with God. What am I to do? What am I to do? Well, the answer to that is found in the last chapter of the book, so let's turn there very quickly. Hosea chapter 14, because here's words of counsel for you today. Because let me say that there is a way back to God. There is a way back to God for you. I want you to know that. I don't want you to listen to the lie of the wicked one who would say that there's no way back to God for you. Because there's a way back to God. This is a pathway. This is the way that you must take. Note the opening words, O Israel, Return on to the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words and turn to the Lord, say unto him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, so we will render the calves of our lips. Verse number four, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him. What are the steps that you have to take? Step number one, you must take ownership of your sin. O Israel, return on to the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. You must take ownership of your sin, and backsliding is a sin. Secondly, then you must, having owned your sin, you must then make confession of your sin. Verse number two, take with you words. And what words are you to take? Here they are. Take away all iniquity and receive us or receive me graciously. There is an acknowledgement of sin. There is then a confession of sin to God, and then there is repentance from sin. Because it says in the verse number two, it says, turn to the Lord. That's what repentance is. It is a turning from our sin, our iniquity, and it is a turning on to the Lord. Ownership of sin. Salvation of sin, repentance from sin. That is the steps that must be taken if you are then to be reconciled to God again. And if you take those steps, He says to you today, I will heal. I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him. Isn't that lovely? Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that great? Is that not what you want to hear? Having strayed from God, having wandered from God, having drifted from God, is that not what you would want, child of God? How gracious our God is. How good our God is. Gomar, she wasted many a thing in her departure from God. She wasted her time. She wasted, I'm sure, her money, her energies. And yet the wonderful thing is that she was restored back into the covenant relationship and that marriage bond that was never broken. It was never broken. But here her husband is willing to receive her back. I tell you today, God is willing to receive you back again. He is. Don't make the same mistakes as Go Mermaid. Return to Christ, your spiritual husband. Return now. Will you return? I ask you again, will you return? God waits your response. May today you return. He loves you freely. Let's seek the Lord in prayer. Let's just be quiet just a few moments. Maybe you need to return to the Lord You don't want to be doing that after you get up off the pew because someone will be speaking to you and they'll distract you. So why not do it now? Why not just lift up your heart to God and say, Lord, I'm coming home. I've wandered far away from God. I've drifted. It might be slight. It might be great. My departure might only have been for the last number of days. It may be that I've drifted for the last month, six months, the last year, maybe two years, maybe longer. But you're saying today, Lord, I'm coming home. I'm returning. I can confess that what I've found in the world, I have found nothing but heartache and sorrow and misery. And it was better with me when I was walking with God than it is with me on the 23rd of March, 2025. And I'm going to come back today. Let us know that you have. God loves you. He loves you freely. He will receive you. He will cleanse you. He will use you again. He will give you a part in the work of God. This is our God. This is the God of the Bible. He does not throw away the clay, but He can remake it and remold it. It's time to come home. It's time to come home. May God bring you home to Himself just now. Loving Father, O God, we thank Thee for this picture. God that we have presented to us. And Lord, we have to confess that we're terribly like Gomorrah. We find ourselves a way back in the world. We think that we're going to find there that which will satisfy. And yet, Lord, we'll never find that if we truly know thee and if we have known thee savingly. Then we realize that none but Christ can satisfy. Oh, save us from living a fantasy. Bring us into reality. There are individuals here today, and they can say, Gomorrah, I was Gomorrah. I was this woman, and God has satisfied me, and God has cleansed me, and God has taken me, and God has made me again, and God is using me and filled me, with his joy and gladness and with his peace. And how glad we are of that. Lord, do it for others. We pray, Lord, that we'll cease from our wanderings and goings astray. Lord, that thou will draw us back to thyself. Lord, do it, we pray. Win us, Lord. We think of that which was said, I will allure her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. Lord, do that for some individuals. Speak comfortably to them today. Speak words of comfort. Lord, may those words, Lord, so impact their heart that today, Lord, they'll return to their husband. the one who loved them and set his love upon them so freely at the start. Answer prayer, may thy word live on in our hearts, bless in the open air. This evening, return us to the house of God tonight. May we not be absent, Lord. May we not be, Lord, may our place be filled. Oh God, the pulpit will be filled in the will of God. Pray that the pews will be filled as well. Lord, that you'll give people a real burden for the lost and a burden to hear the gospel. Lord, grant, dear God, days of heaven and earth and the workings of thy spirit among us, not only in this place, but in every gospel endeavor in coming days. We offer prayer in and through the Savior's lovely and precious name.