Ron Dunn Podcast - The Heart of God and Forgiveness

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

Sometimes we don’t realize how broken or off-course we truly are until God lovingly reveals it to us. In this message, Ron walks us through how God is continually trying to pour out His mercy—and how often we resist, avoid, or run from it. As we open our hearts to this truth, we begin to see both our need and God’s relentless grace.

that he said final message of the morning and not just final message. There is a difference. I was speaking at a sociational conference down in Tampa, Florida, a few years ago. And I had a series of three messages, I think, it was. And on the last night, before I spoke, they had a custom which they read. read the obituaries, all the ministers or deacons or, you know, leaders that had died that previous year from that association. So he got up and read the bituraries, and then he said, now Brother Dunn will come and bring

his final message. And I felt like they could have arranged the program a little bit better, or his choice of words could have been better. Of course, I don't know if Brother Smith. is Don, yeah, there he is. He may not remember this. But first time I was with him two or three years ago, every night, and I told this all over, but I never did tell who it was. But it's sort of like Brother Jimmy's steering wheel on that Mercury. I don't tell people about that too much. But I, Brother Don, get up every night, and he'd say, we certainly have enjoyed Brother Dunn so far.

remember that and kind of gave me a tentative feeling you know so far he's all right but we don't know about tonight or tomorrow night but so far

well so far I've enjoyed this this week and I hope you have to I want you to turn to the book of Josea chapter 6 we're going to read the first three verses for these three verses actually form the very heart of the message of i of hosea those of you that have not been here these mornings

shame on you i'm not going to tell you what we've been doing no we've been looking in these three morning sessions at hosea god's dealings with these people, how God deals with these people. We talked about the nature of sin, the nature of God, the nature of forgiveness, and that's what we're going to deal with this morning, how God deals with his rebellious people. In the first day, we looked at the sins that break God's heart, and then yesterday we looked at the judgment that comes upon us because of those sins. And this morning, we're going to examine God's provision for forgiveness. And in the first three verses of Hosea chapter 6, come and let us return unto the Lord,

for he hath torn and he will heal us. He hath smitten and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us. in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight then shall we know if we follow on to know the lord his going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain under the earth Now, verse one is really the verse that we want to zero in on this morning, and as we've done each day, we're going to look at several verses throughout this little prophecy, because Jose comes back and forth. That's the way he writes this book. He goes back and forth between judgment and repentance and between discipline and forgiveness.

but verse one, I think, strikes the note that gives us an insight into the character of God, even during the midst, the 14 chapters in Jose, and right in the very midst of this little stern and very hard and plain spoken book concerning the sin of God's people, you have this ray of light and this ray of hope come and let us return unto the Lord, for he had torn and he will heal. us he has smitten and he will bind us up and then over in chapter seven verse one there's another interesting little verse that gives us some insight into the character of god in chapter six god is trying to bring revival and restoration to the people but in chapter seven the people won't let him he says when i would have healed israel then the iniquity of ephraim was

discovered and the wickedness of Samaria for they commit falsehood and the thief comes in and the troop of robbers spoil without. Now what I want you to notice are these words when I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered. Sometimes we don't know how sick we are until we try to get well. And sometimes you never know what bad shape you're in spiritual until God tries to do something for you. You may go in, and I've had friends and you know of occasions, you may go into the hospital for minor surgery. Nothing really amount to it.

And suddenly minor surgery turns into major disaster. They found out there was something wrong. You're a lot sicker, and we thought you were. It's a lot worse than we thought we were. That's what he's saying. He said, when I tried to heal you, that's when we discovered just how sick you. were. That's why I think times of revival, all these times of revelation for a church. Sometimes

you can drift along in your church and think that you're going well and things are going swell and everybody's spiritual, but you try to have revival and you'll be amazed how many people in your church not nearly as far along as you thought they were. And so that's what God is saying. Chapter 6, he's trying to bring them to the place of revival and restoration, but in chapter 7, and they are refusing it. So that's what this theme is. Some time ago, I bought my son a gun for his birthday, and you have to fill out one of these forms, you know,

where they ask these crazy questions, you know. And I think the last question on there is, are you a fugitive from justice? Well, if I were, I'm not going to say yes, I am on there, you know. I asked the man, has anybody ever said yes? of that thing. He said, not that I know of. But I had, I get these urges once in a while, you know.

When I see a wet paint sign, do not touch, I just want to touch it. And, said, are you a fugitive from justice? Of course, I answered no. But I had this almost irresistible urge to put down there and say, no, but I'm a fugitive

from mercy. And a sad fact is that none of us here this morning I'm certain are fugitives from justice, but most of us are fugitives from mercy. God is trying to show us mercy. God is trying to pour out his mercy upon us, and we are running from it. We won't let him do it.

It would amaze us this morning if we had any inkling at all, of how desperately God wants to bless us. His strange work is the work of judgment. The work that he loaves, the work that he hates is the work of judgment. Just as any self-respecting parent, the worst part of being a parent is when you have to discipline the child. I used to say, my dad used to say, my mom you say,

we've all heard it, you know, and they're going to discipline this hurt you more than it does. me i never did believe them and uh but i believe them now it's a strange work that's why it's so easy to spoil a child why because uh you just don't know how desperately you want to have mercy if we had any idea this morning how the heart of god longs to pour out his blessings upon us and love us and just minister to us and shed his mercy abroad in our hearts it would amaze us The sad fact is that most of us are fugitives from mercy. And so God is trying to get us to return to him.

He says, and Jose picks up the plea, and he's appealing to the people. He says, come and let us return unto the Lord. So I want to talk to you this morning for just a minute or two on what it takes to return under the Lord. How do you get back into the presence of God? How do we get back into fellowship with God? It's mighty easy to get out of fellowship with God. I tell you, a feeling that I have, it's a lot easier to get into the far country than it is to get out of the far country.

It's a lot easier to leave home than it is to come back home. It's a lot easier to lose your fellowship with God than it is to regain your fellowship with God. I do not mean by that that when we confess our sins, God does not immediately forgive us and restore fellowship. it's not that easy just to get back into the same relationship with God and feeling the same way and feeling as comfortable in his presence as we once did. It's very easy to get out of the will of God. It's not that easy to get back into it. And so while these people have very easily strayed from the Lord,

getting back, getting back to God, not quite that simple. And so there are several things that I think we have to, realize number one is this we have to first of all before i believe we will ever come back to god we have to recognize we have to recognize that it is god who is the source of our afflictions we have to recognize that it is god himself who is our enemy now there is uh an interesting uh phrase in this first verse of chapter six he says come Let us return unto the Lord, for He hath torn, and he will heal us. He hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

Now, the two things that you need to understand. Number one, he was their enemy. He is our enemy. Notice, he have torn. He had smitten. Now, here are the people of God who are torn to shreds, and they're beaten black and blue, as it were, everything has gone wrong

the corn has withered and the wine presses have stilled and the vineyards have turned to desolate ground and everything is dying and there's no fruit and there's no harvest and they cannot understand it oh there must be a demon somewhere evidently the devil must be

attacking us somehow evidently we must somehow have played with a Ouija board when we were a child, and now the devil has entered into our great binds and won't bring forth any grapes. Well, it's causing all of this. God comes and he says, listen, the truth of a matter is, I'm the one who've torn you to shreds.

I'm the one who has beaten you black and blue. I know we worry a lot about Russia and the communists and all that, but I've got news for you, America's greatest enemy this morning is not America. It's not Russia. It's God. He's our greatest enemy. He's the one that we really ought to be afraid of more than anybody else because it is his nature in order to bring us to a place

where we will repent, he will tear us, and he will smite us. I was reading not long ago over in Genesis Chapter 11, and they had a good idea there. Of course, there are a lot of good ideas that men have that are not godly ideas, and they said, let us build a tower that will reach up into heaven, and this will unite all of civilization and make us religious. Now on the surface, just a casual reading, that sounds like a great idea. Sounds a lot of like what you read about today, about one world and one government, one religion,

and how nice that sounds and how good that would be if there were no separate religions and no separate faith. And we all just believe the same thing. Let us build a tower that reaches unto God. But that's man at his best. That's humanism at its best. But you know what happened? Somebody was fighting against them. Somebody was fighting against them.

Now listen to me carefully. Here is civilization, so far as young as civilization is, here to four is civilization's highest attempt. Their most righteous attempt, their most ethical endeavor and enterprise, to build a tower, to reach into heaven, and somebody is against them, and somebody is fighting them, and somebody is sowing confusion. Who in the world would do such a thing?

Who in the world would take civilizations most ethical and moral endeavor and enterprise and undermine it and submarine it? Who in the world would do that? You know what the revelation is? It is God himself who is fighting. against civilization's most ethical endeavor, and that's the way it always is. And the very first thing you and I are going to have to understand is this, that God himself becomes our enemy when we rebel against him.

The same fire that warms also burns. It all depends on your relationship to it. I'm thankful to God for fire in the wintertime. My, how it is, how good it feels in the ice, cold wintertime, to have central heat. Boy, I like that. I nearly froze to death over in Bradford, England, a couple of years ago. Went over there in December.

And, you know, they don't, I stayed one of these guest houses, these manners, and they don't have the kind of heat that we have. And there was a little steam heat type of thing. A little old iron bar ran across the bottom of the floor. You could have, well, I nearly slept on it. I mean, you know, you know, you lay your hand on it and you almost feel it's warm. I froze to death.

First three nights, I slept fully clothed. When I got in bed I'd put all my clothes. Well, before I got to bed, I'd put all my clothes on, my overthrow on, and I'd get in that bed. And when we didn't have anything to do in the day, I stayed in bed under all the covers

fully dressed, freezing to death. And after about three days, a woman who was running the place, she said, would you like an electric heater in your room? I said, yes, ma'am, I certainly would. I turned that thing up, finally burn myself up in the thing, but it felt so good. It felt so good. But the same fire that can be a blessing, the same fire that warms can also burn. It all depends on your relationship to it. The same water that can quench your thirst and save

your life can also drown you if you're wrongly related to it. And the same God who desires to save us if you're wrongly related to in print, he becomes your enemy. Over the There in James where he says, God resisteth the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The word resist there is a military word, and it means to take a stand against. It's as though God himself takes an active stand against the proud. God puts on a military campaign and wages war against his people when they grow proud, proud in their heart. So the first thing is to recognize that he is our enemy.

To recognize that our affliction has come from him. He's the source of it. But not only is he our enemy, he's also our physician. He says, he has torn and he will heal us. He has smitten and he will bind us up. Well, that's the way God works, isn't it? Isn't that the way God works? He works that way because where you say,

why does he tear us so he can heal us? Why does he smite us so he can bind us? Over in Deuteronomy chapter 8, where Moses there is talking about their time of wandering in the wilderness, he said, and he humble thee and made thee to hunger. And he made thee to hunger. Why would God do that?

It goes on to say, and fed thee with manna, which thou didst not know, and which thy fathers did not know. Why would God make you hungry in order to feed you? That's why God makes you hungry in order to feed you. You take that on the physical realm, in the physical realm, that's the way it is. God gives us hunger pains. Some of you have them right now. I don't. I stopped on the way over and got something, so I'm ready to go for a long time.

But some of you are having hunger pains right now. You know what would happen if you didn't have hunger, hunger pains, you die. Starvation, malnutrition. Every time I fill my car up with gas, I thank God for taste buds. Somehow I just don't feel like at my car, you know, gets a good taste out of unleaded gasoline. You know, it's interesting that we have to take on fuel, but God has fixed us up so it's absolutely enjoyable and pleasurable.

There is a desire created. Why? God makes us hungry. Now, there are times when we wish that we weren't hungry. There are times we wish we could stave off the hunger pains, but it's a gift of God. Why does God make us hungry? So we'll feed ourselves.

You see, if a man's not hungry, he won't eat. Men not hungry, won't eat. Pretty soon it'll be dead. Nobody likes pain. You ought to read this little book by Philip Yancey, Where is God when it hurts? There's a marvelous treatment on the subject of pain. He calls it the gift that nobody wants.

The gift that nobody wants. Now, I don't like pain. I really don't. I'll do anything to avoid pain. But pain is a gift from God. Pain is a gift from God. And do you know, when people have leprosy, and we've always seen the pictures

are in our minds of their fingers falling off and such as this, it's not the leprosy, it's not the disease that does that. It's the fact that the nerve endings die. They feel no pain, and so therefore they will do everything. I read one account where one fellow dropped something into a fire and he just reached in and grabbed it out. And never felt a bit of pain.

Why? It's not the disease that's causing the fingertips to fall off. It's the lack of pain that's causing it to fall off, you see, since you don't hurt. It is a gift. that nobody wants. I don't like to hurt, but I'm glad that when I lay my hand on a hot stole that there's pain and it rushes to my brain,

it tells me to get your hand off that stupid. You're going to burn up, you see. The reason that God makes us hungry is because it feeds us. Now, tell you something else. You know how I know there's bread in the world? Same reason, because I know I'm hungry. God wouldn't make me hungry.

without giving me bread. Somebody said, how do you know there's a heaven? How do you know there is an afterlife? How do you know there is a life of rest? How do you know there is a heaven where you're going to be reunited and a place where your soul is going to be at rest, not asleep? How do you know that there is heaven?

Because God's foot of hunger in the heart for it. Because there's a desire for it. How do you know there is a God? Prove to me there is a God. I can tell you how I know there's a God because in my heart there is a hunger for God. Every time you find a hunger, it signifies God has made provision for that hunger to be satisfied. And so when God wants to feed us, the first thing he does is make us hungry.

That's the reason that real revival is always preceded by a time of absolute misery. Why? Because God is placing a burden on our hearts. Why? So that he may lift the burden. He doesn't burden our hearts. order to mock us. He burdens our heart in order to bless us. But he knows this, that unless he puts a burden on our hearts and a burden on our backs and causes us to be hungry, we will

never avail ourselves of the bread of life. Well, the first thing is this. We must recognize, recognize that our affliction and misery and the terrings and smithings that we have come from the Lord. The thing that is demanded is repentance. of our sins. Not only must we recognize the judgment of God, but there must be a repentance of sin. Now, I want to read three or four verses that just indicate this. First of all, Chapter 14, verse 1. Chapter 14, verse 1, O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. And then in chapter 5, verse 15, chapter 5 verse 15

God says I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge that offense and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early. Now I want us to look at this

for just a few minutes now notice he says I will go and return to my place now that's interesting up until now God's been with them. But God says, I'm going to go and return to my place. Well, now, what is God's place? Where is God's place? Well, of course, we know that God's place is in the heavens, and that's his for him, but that's not really his place. You know where his place is? His place

is with his people. But he said, I'm going and return to my place. Now, what that simply means is I'm withdrawing my blessings from you. I'm withdrawing my blessings from you. I'm withdrawing my blessings from you. I'm withdrawing. Now listen to me, my manifested presence. I do not believe God ever withdraws his presence from us. God never withdraws his presence from us. As a matter of fact, God is even in hell. That's what makes hell hell the fact that God's there. You see, God is in hell. Why? How do you know that? Well, I know that for several reasons. Number one, because God's on the present, he's everywhere. He inhabits the whole universe. God's everywhere. And the other thing is David crying out, said, if I make my bed in hell there, he's talking about the place of the dead,

it can be good or bad. It's Hades, a soul, it can be either good or bad, but he said, I make my bed in hell, lo, thou art there. Psalm 139. He's talking about the everywhereness of God, the everywhereness of God. And you read over in the book of Revelation, when the judgments come that says, let the mountains fall upon us and hide us from the face of him that set up on the throne what was there torment in that punishment it wasn't the fire it wasn't the mountains it was having to look upon the face of him that set up on the throne i'll tell you what will make hell hell throughout all eternity is the fact that god will be there but not in love and mercy and but he'll be there in judgment and rad that's that's what makes it wrong it's just like a child

There are times when he loves to see his father, but there are times when he doesn't want to see his father. There are times when the look upon the face of his father means love and blessing and Christmas time, but there are other times when looking upon that face means disapproval, and it means a trip to the woodshed. Same difference, same thing. And it says that God will withdraw his manifested presence.

Now, God never withdraws his presence from us. He's bound to us by his spirit, but he withdraws that manpowering. manifested spirit, you see. What was it that Jacob said at Bethel? That next morning, he said, surely God was in this place, and I knew it not. I've preached a lot of meetings at Bethel.

I really have. I used to pastor First Baptist Church of Bethel. And you could walk out every day, and you could have said God was in this place, but we sure didn't know it. No awareness, no presence of God. He says, I will go. and return. Lord, how long are you going to stay? How long are we going to put up with this?

Notice until they acknowledge their offense and seek my face. Isn't it amazing? You and I limit the time of our deadness spiritually. God says, I'll go and I'll return to my place, but I'm ready to come back anytime. Oh, I want to come back. I need to come back. I need to come back. I'm eager to come back. But I'm not going to until you acknowledge your guilt. And when you get ready to acknowledge your guilt, then I'll come back. When you get ready to acknowledge that and seek me, and then notice the third thing. And I'm just skipping over a bunch of this. You can work all this out later. He says, in their affliction, they will seek me early. Maybe somebody says, well, God's gone and returned to his place, and he says he's not going to come back and bless us until we seek him.

I'm not going to seek him. God says, oh, yes, you are. Yeah, you'll seek me. No, I'm not going to seek you. I don't want to be spiritual. I don't need revival. Just get along the way we're going on. He said, you will seek me.

In your affliction, you will seek me early. You see, God says, I guarantee you, I'll promise you you'll get to the place where you'll do anything in the world to seek me. So why don't you seek me now? because there will come a time when you will seek me you see he said same thing in jeremiah 29 he said well they shall find me when they shall search for me with all their heart and uh he's not saying if they search for me he's saying when they search for me you better believe it we will seek god we will seek god in their affliction then there's one other verse that i want us to look at in this matter of

repentance and it's in chapter 10 verse 12 and it's basically parallel to what we've just read but there's one thing there that we need to see he says so to yourselves in righteousness reap in mercy break up your follow brown for it is now the king james says it is time to seek the Lord. But in the Hebrew, there's a little doo-waddy there in front of that that literally means it is high time to seek the Lord. It's not just time to seek the Lord,

brother, it's high time to seek the Lord. You see, it's the last hour. To seek the Lord, how long shall we seek him till he comes and reigns righteousness upon you? Notice here, again, you have the process. sew to yourselves in righteousness. Let me give you an outline. That's personal preparation.

You sow to yourselves in righteousness. You prepare your own heart. And then there has to be painful cultivation. He says, break up your fallow ground. You know what fallow ground is? A fallow ground is ground that in the past has yielded a harvest, but because of neglect, thorns have grown up, and it will no longer yield a harvest.

And so you go over that ground that has once yielded a harvest, but no longer yields a harvest because it has been neglected and remained idle and you have to cultivate it, break it up, break up all those clods, throw out all the rocks, and one pound isn't enough. It has to be worked and reworked and reworked and reworked. That's the idea behind the breaking it up. Break up your foul ground, painful cultivation, and then persistent supplication. First of all, recognition that our fiction comes from God. Secondly, repentance of our sin. Number three, God demands righteousness of life.

Righteousness of life. And I'll just read one verse and mention that briefly. He demands righteousness of life. Josea chapter 6 and verse 6. He says, for I desired mercy and not sacrifice. and the knowledge of God more than burn offerings. Now, what's he talking about? What does he mean here?

For I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Well, now, God does demand sacrifice. That was part of the Old Testament ritual, chapter 6, verse 6. And he does want burnt offerings, but notice he says, I desired mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God more than burn offerings. Now let me just put it this way.

Mercy there has to do with the way we treat our fellow man. Righteousness. Righteousness has to do with two things. Now in the New Testament, the word righteousness nearly always outside of the book of James, but nearly always refers to that righteousness which is imputed to us by faith in Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, righteousness nearly always means our right dealings with other men, other people. He said, I want two things out of you.

He said, first of all, I want mercy, and I want knowledge of God. You know what he's saying? He's saying, I want you to have a heart for God, and I want you to have a heart for man. Those two things. I want you to have a heart for God, a knowledge of God. of God, a heart to know God, a heart to learn of me, but not only that, he said, I want you to have a heart for man, have a heart, and show mercy and show compassion. Well, there's one final thing, and we'll end with this. God demands, first of all, that we recognize that he is the

source of our affliction. He demands repentance of our sins and righteousness from our life, and he promises rest and relief from our labor. Notice in chapter 11, verse 4, I think it's one of the most beautiful verses in all the book. You've heard it many a time. Well, let's read verse 1 first. When Israel was a child, then I loved him. Now, here God is picturing himself as the father.

of a nation he said when he was a child i loved him now what that means of course is that he did for israel everything that a father would do for a child i cared for you i fed you when you are not able to feed yourself i have you to learn to walk and when you fell down i picked you up and did all those things that a father does and raising a child and nobody else would do that for a child except the father, except the parents. He said, that's our responsibility. He said, Israel was a child, and then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. But now look in verse four, he said, I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love,

and I was to them as they that take off the yote on their jaws. Now, I like that. and I laid meat before them. You see what God is saying? You know what a yoke is. We talk about the yoke, it goes on the oxen. That symbolizes service.

But you know, I was studying this passage, and I saw that word yoke, and I just immediately, you know, was thinking, take the yoke off your, neck off your shoulders it doesn't say that take a yoke off your jaws man if you want to know how unnatural sin makes a christian it is as unnatural as putting a yoke on the jaw rather than the neck you say you just don't do that sin is as out of place in the life of a child of god as a yoke is when it's put on the mouth instead of on the neck.

That's how out of place it is. But not only that, when you got the yope on the jaw, you can't eat. You can't drink. God says, listen, I drew him with cords of a man, with bonds of love. I drew him, I drew him, I drew him, and when I drew him to himself, I removed the yoke from off his jaws. I gave him release. I gave him refreshment.

I gave him renewal, and then I laid meat before him, and I brought him. him satisfaction and let him eat, meat, meat, until he was full, till he was full. It is amazing to me that God could say in one chapter, you are an adulterer and an adulterresses, and you

are guilty of the sin of hordom, but he said, I love you as a child, and if you come to me, I will remove the yoke from off of your jaws and I will lay meat before you and fill you and satisfy it. Why in the world would anybody want to

a fugitive from mercy. A fugitive from mercy.