Hosea 5:15-6:11

Order of Service

• Call to Worship
• Hymn — I Am Thine, O Lord (#533)
• Shorter Catechism — Questions 37 & 38
• Hymn — Jesus, Lover of My Soul (#485)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Hosea 5:15–6:11
• Sermon
• Hymn — (#705)
• Benediction — Ephesians 3:17–19

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Sermon Title: Know Your God

Scripture: Hosea 5:15–6:11

I. His Jealousy Convicts You of Waywardness

A. God is a jealous God who will not permit his people to seek satisfaction in or give worship to any other

1. The first four commandments reveal the Lord's jealousy for his own glory and proper worship
2. Hosea 5:15 — God withdraws his special presence until his people acknowledge their guilt and seek his face alone

B. The waywardness of God's people is fickleness

1. Hosea 6:4 — "Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away"
2. Like clouds and dew, their love is present one moment and gone the next

C. The waywardness of God's people is unfaithfulness

1. Hosea 6:7 — "Like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me"
2. Adam's unfaithfulness under temptation has become our unfaithfulness
3. Hosea 6:7–10 — A road map of unfaithfulness from the garden through named locations to the house of Israel
4. Calvin: the human heart is a perpetual factory of idols — where are you seeking ultimate satisfaction?

II. His Desire Compels You to Come to Him

A. God desires his sinful people to return to him — his departure is itself a drawing

1. Hosea 5:15 — "Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face… in their distress they will earnestly seek me"
2. Two different Hebrew verbs for seeking: one a single search for something lost, the second an intense, diligent, unrelenting pursuit

B. God is a God who welcomes his people back

1. Hosea 6:1 — The Lord himself gives his people the words of return: "Come, let us return to the Lord"
2. Matthew 11:28 — "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"
3. He compels his people not with cold commands but with the effectual call of a long-suffering, loving Father — pictured in the parable of the prodigal son

C. God is a God who tears and heals, wounds and binds up

1. Hosea 6:1–2 — "He has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up"
2. His discipline is meant to turn his people from trusting themselves and seeking other loves
3. The full measure of the Lord's tearing and striking fell upon Jesus Christ — Isaiah 53 — pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, stricken and smitten by God
4. Christ takes the fullness of the Father's striking so that all who believe may find healing in him

D. God is a God of patience who brings life

1. Hosea 6:2 — "After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him" — possible allusion to union with Christ in his resurrection
2. The God who raised his crucified Son is the God who gives new life now by faith
3. 1 Thessalonians 4 — Christ's return is certain; the fullness of life before him awaits that day: "We will always be with the Lord"

E. God is a God to be known rightly

1. Hosea 6:6 — "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings" — cited by Jesus multiple times in his ministry
2. Proper knowledge of God leads to right worship — not empty forms, not worship according to human imagination
3. The regulative principle: God alone determines how he is to be worshipped, according to his revealed Word
4. Right knowledge of God overflows in love for God and love for neighbor

F. Come to God in expectant hope

1. Come knowing who your God is, what he hates, what he loves, and what he has done for you in Christ
2. In Christ there is restoration — for affections, relationships, marriages, and desires
3. John 17:3 — "This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent"