Hosea 14:1-3

We may divide this Chapter into three grand parts. The first, in which the Holy Ghost points out to Israel his fall, and shows what method he is to take in seeking to the Lord for a recovery. The second sets forth the Lord's gracious assurances of pardon, mercy, and peace. And the third represents the blessed effects which take place in the soul, when the Lord hath given grace and faith, and is pacified to Israel for all the evil that he hath done, in the rich salvation of the Lord. These three verses contain the first of those doctrines. The Chapter begins with a faithful account of Israel's fall, and as gracious a call to return. And the method to be adopted is shown in coming to the Lord, with an earnest petition for the Lord to take away all iniquity. Reader! mark this method of every sinner's return, for it is the Lord's own method. We cannot come to the Lord after our fall, until the Lord first come to us. We cannot say anything to the Lord, but what the Lord hath first said to us. If we love him, it is because he first loved us. And how very blessed it is to behold the workings of the Holy Ghost in the heart, when the poor penitent comes to the footstool of the mercy-seat, renouncing all self-righteousness, all the Ashures of created excellency, and laying low and humble at the foot of the cross, crying out, Lord save, or I perish!