The Nature of True Repentance and the Promised Restoration of the Lord.
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Hosea: Return to the Lord and Remain Faithful • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 39:12
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Intro
Intro
We began Hosea with a prophet whose call was to live out his message by being like God. And then we discovered how appalling that really was, as he takes Gomer as his wife. She was persistently unfaithful, treating him like a cuckold with a parade of other lovers. Still, through it all, he loved her, and would, in the end, pay off her lovers and call her to come home and remain faithful to him. Put in that light, we have seen how reprehensible unfaithfulness really is. But we have also seen the persistent love of the husband, who doesn’t write her a certificate of divorce, but instead restores her to His house with great blessing.
In our last chapter of Hosea, we hear the last call of the prophet to unfaithful Israel to return to the Lord to receive His promised restoration. Prompting us to ask, what is the nature of true repentance and the promised restoration of the Lord?
Hosea 14
True Repentance is…
True Repentance is…
Honest confession of Sin
Honest confession of Sin
Notice v. 2, “Take with you words...”
Confession is speaking the truth to God about your sin.
A plea to God for forgiveness.
“Take away all iniquity”
Confession is throwing yourself on the mercy of God by acknowledging that you have sinned and need His forgiveness.
Excursus: Don’t call sin brokenness. Brokenness results from sin and the present reality of life in a sinful world. But brokenness implies it’s not your fault.
True confession must acknowledge guilt. You have sinned and fallen short of God’s holy and righteous standards. You have, and so you must confess it as sin.
“If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:10).
Society has a lot of guilt and shame that it doesn’t know what to do with.
It tries scapegoating, displacing the guilt on to someone or something else.
A white, heterosexual, male being the most guilty.
The only way to avoid this guilt is to virtue signal.
I didn’t vote for him…I have an electric car…I’m a feminist (as a man), girl power…I love drag-queen story hour, how great…justice for Palestine.
The only way to deal with guilt is to bring it to Christ, confess that it is yours alone, and ask if he will take it for you, which he offers to do.
He is the only scapegoat that can actually deal with sin.
A plan to worship.
Confession also includes the plan to worship God rightly. Not with lips service as before.
“accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.”
Meaning we will offer true worship from the heart.
Much of Hosea's message condemns false worship—rituals performed half-heartedly, offerings to Yahweh that mimic pagan practices, or worship that includes other gods alongside Him.
True repentance, includes a return to right worship (regulative principle).
Finally confession is also A promise to put away other gods.
What kind of repentance would it be if an unfaithful spouse showed up back at the house saying she wanted to come home, but her lover is the car and he’s brought his suitcase.
Often in Israel’s case (before the exile) this was a kind of iconoclasm.
1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images. 4 And they chopped down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the incense altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. 6 And in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around, 7 he broke down the altars and beat the Asherim and the images into powder and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
What idols do you need to go chop down and burn in the fire?
As a family…as a church…as a nation.
Because, only the Lord will show mercy on orphan Israel
23 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
The nature of true repentance is a plea to God for forgiveness, a plan to worship, a promise to put away other gods.
With the staggering promise that the Lord will respond.
Promised Restoration is…
Promised Restoration is…
Healing…
Notice v. 4 the Lord’s shocking response to repentance.
If not shocking, you have an inflated sense of self, and anemic sense of sin.
Only true repentance can receive grace, because it recognizes a desperate need of healing.
Like the father running to greet the prodigal son, so the Lord greets penitent sinners.
Notice it is his love that leads him to heal.
Only, because right where that comma is located is Jesus.
He is the bridegroom who redeems the bride, and washes her clean (heals her) with his blood.
His covering turns away God’s anger.
He will heal by being broken.
And what he heals will be restored, not to its former state, but to something better.
Acts 3:19–20 (ESV)—19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord
Restoring…
The Lord himself refreshes Israel, making her fruitful. He is their dew.
Israel grows and spread out and like a fruitful garden, rich with wine and grain.
Its a picture of paradise restored under the shadow of the almighty. (v. 8)
In restored creation twelve trees of life, leaves for healing of the nations.
Image is meant to whet your appetite for the life to come.
False gods promised blessing now, but never paid.
Its not that Israel had too great an imagination but to little (mud pies instead of holidays at the sea).
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Things look bad. Assyria is at the gate, it’s the eleventh hour. We are repenting, but it seems too late. The prophet says there is hope found in the healing and restoration of the Lord.
“Today” if you hear his voice, don’t harden your heart. As long as it is “today” there is hope for true repentance.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The prophets P.S.
9 Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.
Ps. 1 - the Blessed man
Recap message of Hosea: Israel the unfaithful bride of God must return and remain faithful.
Charge
Charge
Since the Lord pardons true repentance, you must confess your sin and return and remain faithful to Him.
