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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) |
HOSEA 14:1-9
(Reading: Romans 9:1-33; Hosea 3:1-5)
The God Of Grace
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ...
You could say that of all the words Hosea has used in this book the first word of chapter 14 is the key word.
The word “return” lies at the heart of this prophecy from the Lord.
All that Hosea has been saying and displaying, because remember he went out and married a prostitute to show God’s concern, has been so that Israel would come back to the Lord!
That’s why the meaning of this word “return” in the Hebrew is to “turn”.
Because the northern kingdom had been going the wrong way.
As the Lord in Hosea 11 verse 7 said of them, “My people are determined to turn from me.”
Verse 1 couldn’t make this a more personal appeal.
Israel is told that the Lord is “your God.”
Even right at the end of a book which clearly exposes Israel’s rebellion against the Lord, right at the end of a prophesy where it’s clear they’ve been going a completely different way, the Lord calls out.
Indeed, this last chapter is totally taken up with the Lord going out of His way to lay before them the right way.
Here we definitely see THE GOD OF GRACE.
It is this mercy of God that we will see in the three aspects that make up the text this afternoon.
And the first of these deals with the verses 1 till 3.
This tells us of THE WAY TO TRULY SAY SORRY.
In this first aspect we have outlined four essential parts to this turning around the Lord speaks of through Hosea.
Four aspects that can be summed up by four words beginning with ‘R’.
But, congregation, don’t think now of the three ‘R’s essential for a good education.
These are the four ‘R’s absolutely vital for your present and future existence!
For without them you don’t have a life.
As those Israelites had probably already found out.
Because it could well be that Hosea is addressing them after the fall of Samaria in 712 BC.
The first of these ‘R’s is Recognition.
Verse 1 is clear about this.
After having exhorted them yet again to turn away from their present path, we read, “Your sins have been your downfall!”
This certainly supports the idea this chapter comes after Samaria’s fall.
Regardless of the particular date, however, it is clear that their going against God has got them into some deep strife!
They’re not in a good way.
So in effect Hosea is saying, ‘Can you see it now, you Israelites?’
This is where ‘recognition’ fits in.
Because they have to understand what they’ve done wrong.
In the same way people cannot truly become Christians without realising the magnitude of their sin against God, so Israel cannot return to God without understanding what they’ve done against Him.
They have to know they’ve hurt Him.
You see, when it seemed they were sorry before they really weren’t.
It wasn’t from the heart.
And this is where we come to the second ‘R’ – Repentance.
Because while at other times they may have had regret at what they had done it wasn’t genuine sorrow.
It is like the criminal today who is disappointed that he got caught.
But he’s certainly not feeling guilty.
For that would mean he would feel ashamed.
And if it’s one thing criminals are good at doing is saying how everyone else is just as bad as them – if not worse!
Mind you, isn’t that all of us?
Verse 2 speaks of this repentance.
By beginning with the words, “Take words with you and return to the LORD,” the prophet describes THE WAY TO TRULY SAY SORRY.
Because it’s God’s love driving us to it.
His grace is such that we are overwhelmed by all He is and all we aren’t!
And, especially, here that comes through in the relationship Israel’s broken with her God.
Because while Israel has been unfaithful to the Lord the Lord hasn’t let go.
Even though He had every justification for breaking it off - many, many times! – He held in there!
Hosea 3 verse 1 pictured it so well in what the Lord told Hosea to do: “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress.”
God’s people can come to him.
Their relationship can start fresh all over again!
The way to start this is by saying sorry.
Verse 2 says they need to “take words” with them.
These words are the offerings the Lord loves to receive.
Not the formal offering of animal sacrifices.
This is the Lord saying again what he said in verse 6 of chapter 6: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
From this repentance verse 2 moves on to bring out their Response.
This is the third ‘R’.
Congregation, the fruit of their lips is what’s seen coming from them as they show they’re sincerely wrong.
That means prayers of confession, pleas for mercy, and songs of grateful praise.
Wasn’t this what David clearly showed when he returned to the Lord after his sin?
Psalm 51 paints that scene so vividly.
In verses 14 and 15 there he says, “Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
“O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.”
The return to the Lord comes from inside.
It’s a heart humbled before the Lord.
As David goes on to say in verse 17 of Psalm 51, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you won’t despise.”
While this process may seem to be completely life-changing, there must still be one more ‘R’.
For this cannot stay with any one of us alone.
This cannot be a type of pietism that keeps us separate from the rest of the Church or the Nation.
Here verse 3 comes in.
It says, “Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses.
“We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
Congregation, the fourth ‘R’ is Reform.
For what we have here is a complete redirection in everything they do.
From personal prayer to national politics God is having His way in every possible way!
And it has to be this way.
For there isn’t true sorrow until revival touches every part of us.
Again we see the personal touch with the expression ‘Our gods’ in connection with their man-made idols.
Because what there needs to be is people saying ‘Our God’ to the Lord.
That’s why I believe the verse ends the way it does.
Because some commentators find this unclear.
But, just think, then everything is properly put back together again!
Then, spiritually speaking, the helpless orphan finds comfort and help in the forgiving mercy of God.
There is a parable the Lord told that illustrates this fourth aspect to the way to truly say sorry.
It is the parable found in Matthew 12 where Jesus is addressing Israelites who were still going the wrong way.
There the Lord tells of an evil spirit being cast out of a man.
But that evil spirit cannot find any other place to stay.
So it comes back to that man.
Then the evil spirit sees that while the man has been cleaned out he hasn’t been filled up with good things.
So he takes up residence again, though this time with seven of his mates!
And then the final condition of the man is worse than the first.
Congregation, the only way to stop this happening is Reform.
You don’t rely in any way at all on what’s in this world.
Instead you order the world you live in according to God’s Word – all of it!
This is what happened with those faithful kings in Judah.
Hezekiah, and especially Josiah, put the Lord on the throne of their lives.
And we must do the same!
Now, so far we have seen in verses 1 till 3 THE WAY TO TRULY SAY SORRY.
This has laid out how Israel is to be reconciled to her Lord.
But then in the verses 4 till 8 we have the same thing seen from a different angle.
For now it is about what God will do in this situation.
In the words of the second aspect to this text, this is THE WAY TO BE REALLY FORGIVEN.
The words of verse 4 could only be the words of the Lord.
Who else can say, “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned from them”?
You see, our waywardness is incurable until God heals it.
Until his anger has turned away we’ll keep going the wrong way!
This can only be the work of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 4 describes His redeeming work.
As the apostle wrote in Philippians 2 verse 13, “it is God who works in you to will and act according to his good purpose.”
Thus this is something God does inside you.
But once you are revived like this it also shows up outside of you.
The word pictures in verses 5 and 6 demonstrate that.
From the dew which waters to Israel to the flower that comes from process; from the roots going down that produces shoots you can see; these all show what goes into bringing something out.
The end result will be clearly something that’s of the Lord.
An olive tree and a Lebanese cedar were two of the outstanding results of growth in that age.
Both are very valuable.
Someone has said that this description in verses 5 and 6 is a picture of paradise restored.
And in a way he’s right.
Because here the curse placed upon the land through man’s disobedience is being overturned by God’s faithfulness.
So we see here a glimpse into God’s big picture.
For doesn’t the Bible begin with paradise lost and end with paradise restored?
Don’t we see in the pages of Scripture exactly God’s grace shining through?
It is all from Him and in him and through Him!
His Son’s coming made that perfectly clear.
This is where Romans 9 helps us.
There it is clearly all about God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
A grace which means being ethnically an Israelite doesn’t automatically make you one of God’s children.
In fact, many true children of God will be gentiles!
After proving that we are God’s children by the promise and not by our birth, in verses 22 till 24 of Romans 9, Paul goes on to say, “What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath – prepared for destruction?
“What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory – even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?”
While the situation when Hosea first spoke these words might have been the most inglorious the scene he describes here is the most glorious!
For not only will it show up in His people it will go out from His people.
Verse 7 declares this most emphatically!
“Men will dwell again in his shade.
“He will flourish like the grain.
“He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.”
This is a wonderful, new place where Israel will live in a whole-hearted commitment to the Lord.
The ‘shade’ here represents God’s sheltering hand so that they have the protection needed to flourish.
The land will be fruitful again.
Indeed, so fruitful will Israel be that her reputation goes far beyond her borders.
Just like Australian Red wine and Kiwi white wine, they’ll be known all over the world!
Because then wine from Lebanon was well known everywhere for its quality.
As we go through this second section in Hosea you can see how closely it matches the first three verses.
Here too we see what it is in us, how that changes us, and where that goes too in the world around us.
The only difference is who is saying it.
And we note the same in verse 8.
This closely parallels verse 3.
The great love for Israel by their God means there can be no other gods or idols.
“O Ephraim” is that urgent and yet passionate plea.
It’s the call to them to see there is no-one like Him.
Can they dare say His name in the same breath as those idols?
Can the protection of Egypt and Assyria match His?
Do those other power answer when they call?
Do they care like He does?
When God says He is like a green pine tree and that their fruitfulness comes from Him, He’s clear that He’s the only source of what they need.
He’s the cause of all fruit and life.
Then in the last verse of the book the Lord has an epilogue.
It may almost seem an afterthought but there could be nothing more important the Lord says.
Verse 9 not only powerful affirms the first two parts of this chapter but it also challenges Israel one more time.
In the words of the third aspect to our text, this is about WHICH IS YOUR WAY?
So why this question – WHICH IS YOUR WAY?
Well, consider who verse 9 begins addressing.
For “Who is wise?”
And “Who is discerning?”
Dear listener, I pray that is you!
May the Lord so work by His Word in your heart that you will realise these things.
And may His Spirit so convict you that you will understand them.
You see, you cannot file this away to some dim-distant past.
This is no interesting historical lecture about some obviously primitive people making the silliest mistakes.
God has so shown Himself in this book of Hosea we cannot let it slip us by.
The Word Hebrews 4 verse 12 describes as penetrating to dividing soul and spirit doesn’t let you go!
The Word that judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart has laid you open.
So what do you see?
Derek Kidner notes, “The rightness of God’s ways as revealed in this book is so far above us in both holiness and love, as to leave self-sufficient man without excuse, self-condemned, while those who turn into the way of righteousness find themselves met more than halfway.”
So which way for you?
Have you been turned around and realised He was doing it all along?
Or are you still going your own way?
This challenge from the prophet is not new.
Moses laid it before the people at the end of his ministry in Deuteronomy 30.
Joshua likewise confronted Israel with it in Joshua 24.
It’s the challenge to live by faith alone in Christ through grace alone.
The one who accepts this challenge is never left alone.
Indeed, the one who believes the promise has the most personal and meaningful relationship anyone could ever have.
He has God for his Saviour!
He knows the truth of those words of Paul in 1st Corinthians 1 verse 8.
For he knows the Lord will keep him strong to the end, so that he’ll be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And as the text ends with the rebellious stumbling, let’s not forget what they are ultimately stumbling over.
It’s this the apostle Paul speaks of further on in Romans 9.
There he quotes Isaiah prophesying about the stone that will cause men to stumble.
It is the rock that makes unbelievers fall – and fall in the most eternally devastating way!
For this rock is none other than the ‘Rock of Ages’ – the Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s the gospel making or breaking you!
Because it’s only as you come to believe in Christ’s doing and dying and rising again that you truly come to life.
As Psalm 118 verse 22 declares, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes.”
Dear person in the pew, walk in God’s way and you’ll walk right into glory!
Walk in your own way and you’ve lost the way.
In fact, then you have truly lost the plot.
So, what do you say?
And what are you going to do?
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O God of grace, once again we have heard the truly Good News!
Once more we have seen Your goodness in the land of the living.
For Hosea not only spelt Your Word out he also showed it to us in the strongest possible personal commitment to You.
May we be stirred to do the same.
Through Your Spirit help us to stay true.
Keep us in the narrow way.
Remind us always of the One – Your own Son – who is the way and the truth and the life!
In His ruling Name we humbly pray, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2008, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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