Hosea 4:16 For Israel slides back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place. I. WHEN WE MAY BE SAID TO RESEMBLE A BACKSLIDING HEIFER. 1. When we will not draw in God's yoke at all. 2. When we draw in it only by fits and starts. 3. When we grow weary of the yoke. Weary of performing our duties, exercising our graces, mortifying our lusts. II. THE EVIL AND DANGER OF SUCH A STATE. 1. The evil of it. It is a contemning of God. It is a justifying of the wicked. It is a discouraging of the weak. 2. The danger of it. This is an iniquity which God marks with peculiar indignation. The first symptoms of declension lead, if not speedily mourned over and resisted, to utter apostasy. The misery that will be incurred by means of it will far exceed all that had been endured if no profession of religion had been ever made. Let these consequences be duly weighed, and nothing need be added to show the importance of "holding fast our profession without wavering."Improve the subject. 1. Assist you in ascertaining your state before God. Examine diligently the cause, the duration, and the effects of your backslidings. 2. Give a word of counsel to those in different states. Are you altogether backslidden from God? He invites you to return. Are you drawing in His yoke? Bless and adore your God, who has inclined and enabled you to do so. (O. Simeon, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place. |
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