Messiah's Church Reformed Presbyterian: Sermons

by Brian E. Coombs
Pastor of Messiah's Church

On Hosea's Appeal toward Christ Hosea 6:1-3 On your lunch break you've decided to go and buy a special gift for your spouse. It is not your anniversary, or a birthday, but a day on which you decide to get that 'something special' as a token of your love. The whole day you've anticipated the smile and happiness it will bring to your spouse. You yourself have smiled looking it over, and then buying it. You arrive home with the gift. You go inside. To your surprise you hear giggling. But the children are not home. Your eyebrows alter. Your ears perk. And as you open your bedroom door, you open it to find your spouse in the naked embrace of another.

If you were the sinning spouse, how would you feel? What would be your response? Are words even appropriate?

Welcome to something of God's relationship with Old Testament Israel. Welcome to a small degree of understanding of what sin is before a holy God. And yet welcome to a situation, from which and over which, God showed His faithfulness to a sinning covenant people.

Such is the drama of the book of Hosea, only the adultery has happened again, and again, and again, and again. And the evil deed has occurred not merely with one other, but with many.

To impress this on the soul of one called to confront Israel in her sin, and to call her from her sin, God was going to do an admittedly uncommon thing to get His point across. So in chapter one, the prophet Hosea was told by God to 'take a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry' (Hosea 1:2). He did not marry a then practicing harlot, though, contrary to some commentators. [[The grammar places this one, Gomer, and her children together.

And as the Bible mentions the children being conceived and coming after the marriage, then it is the case that Gomer became a harlot after the marriage. And the children were, properly, 'children of harlotry.']] If Gomer was already a harlot when Hosea married her, then God's case against Israel is utterly weakened. He would have known when he married her that she was a harlot! Why then is He now angry with that? But the truth is, Gomer was a wife who became a harlot, not a harlot who became a wife (see also Hosea 2:7). She later became a harlot, as Israel did after being brought into covenant with God.

Then, in chapter two, Hosea appealed to 'Ammi' and 'Ruhamah,' symbolic names for faithful children, to contend with their prostituting mother. They would let her know that she was threatened with adversity if she remained impenitent; that Hosea would frustrate her in her harlotry, that her lovers would abandon her, that she would be left alone in misery. But also, that Hosea would openly receive her, and richly bless her, if she repented.

But in chapter three, Gomer had closed her ears to all this. She would have none of it. She persisted so long, and went so deep in harlotry, that she had nothing left. It could be that she paid her lovers money rather than receive theirs, just as Judah would do over a century later (Ezekiel 16:34). And if so, what an additionally twisted thing, an unspeakable attitude toward sin, a cheap love toward her husband! And what did it all bring? Bankruptcy. Utter poverty. Rejection and disposal by her lovers. And so she came to what appears as the slave market. There she was - broken, destitute, and still for sale.

And at that lowest point, at the very depths of depravity and sin, God told Hosea, 'Again, go, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress' (3:1). And so driven by love, as the Bible says, he 'bought her for himself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley' (v.2).

But things would not be quite the same. Hosea said, 'You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you' (v.3). The covenant that bound them together would remain intact. They would remain together. But there would be no intercourse, there would be no real intimacy until the 'many days' were finished. As the fruit of repentance became apparent, there would be full restoration (vv.4-6).

That picture - the life and times of Hosea and Gomer - is a picture of God's relationship with Israel under the Old Covenant. Israel provoked God by her harlotry (2:7, 16-17 / 3:1 / 5:7 / 9:10 / 11:1-4). She went deep in depravity (5:2). And although God would be faithful to His covenant, His stiff judgment would come upon Israel for their sins. They would be broken under an Assyrian invasion. There would be 'many days' in which they would not participate in the blessings of the Lord.

And so in chapters 4-5, there is nothing but blistering words of rebuke. And it all culminates at the end of chapter 5, with the Lord saying:

But then there's Hosea, with a broken heart by Gomer, with a broken heart toward Israel, but a pulsating heart under the crushing threat of God; resonating with the desperate need of the people. And he lifts up his voice under the guidance of the Spirit and pleads with them:

Notice Hosea's appeals - there are 2 of them - 'Let us return to the Lord' (v.1), and 'Let us press on to know the Lord' (v.3). Each appeal is grounded on the faithfulness of God, the certainty of His promises, and the coming of His Messiah. Each is founded on the conviction that God will receive those who return with a true sense of their brokenness. It is mercy that triumphs over judgment, grace that covers sin.

As Hosea did long ago, so I appeal to you today to see the relevance of this text in terms of your own relation to God today, especially those of you that are already in covenant with Him. Just because a former owner planted a tree on your property, you have responsibility for that same tree even today. So note the timeless (but yet timely) appeal of God through Hosea to you.

Appeal #1: 'Let us return to the Lord.'
The appeal goes out to those who have strayed. Obviously, if you're 'returning' then you have strayed or gone away from a set point. You're away from where you used to be, away from where you are supposed to be. You are supposed to be with the Lord, but is that where you are?

Indeed, we must 'return.' We must repent of the obvious - sin. And, we must repent of specifics - sins of 'thought, word, and deed' as our Catechism puts it, and still other sins - desires, motivations, and attitudes.

But perhaps there is one here tonight, who much like Israel before Hosea, will have no conviction of the things said. Sure, you might 'come' and 'seek the Lord,' but there is no true turning, no 'returning.' Like Israel, you 'do not acknowledge guilt' (5:15). You come, but not bothered by your sin, not sensing the offense it is against God, and the damnation it deserves.

You may 'come' but you come still clinging to your sins, and like Hosea said to Israel, your 'deeds will not allow you to return to your God' (5:4). Though you 'come' you are not convicted. You're like one who shows up at a royal reception in gardening attire, carousing among the guests without embarrassment. You are like one who tells God a lewd joke using foul language.

And perhaps it is the case, that God has therefore sent affliction after affliction to you. But even this has not caused you to 'return.' He has buffeted you with chastening blows - perhaps even severe - but you still resist. He has ridden upon your back with the ox and plow of His Law, but no furrow has yet been dug into your heart because of all its stoniness.

You walk in the way of Hosea's Israel, 'though their pride testifies against them, yet they have not returned to the LORD their God, nor have they sought Him for all of this…My people are bent on turning from Me. Though the prophets call them to the One on high, none at all exalts Him.' You say as they did, 'In all my works they will find in me no iniquity which would be sin' (7:10 / 11:7 / 12:8).

You are like a shield that deflects the sharp arrows of God's entreaty, a brick wall that quickly bounces back the ball pitched at it, a bullet proof vest before the bullets of God's rebukes.

And what a dangerous thing it would be if you come to this Table of the Lord with devils in your heart! 'He who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord; he eats and drinks judgment to himself!' (1 Corinthians 11:27,29). You would not take in bread and wine for your soul, but hammer nails into the side of the Savior! I warn you, God is not one to be teased. He will not be mocked.

And I would say also that there is a 2nd type of person. He has a conviction of sin, its offense and effects. But he is one whose repentance is strong in word, but insincere in deed. It could be that he knows to repent, does repent, but it is to him an unwanted burden. He regards it as no different than any other chore he is to do! He knows the garbage must go out for tomorrow, but he grudgingly wiggles it out of the basket because the commercials have ended and his favorite show has begun. He is like the one who says, 'Yes, I'll do it' only to get the asker 'off his back.'

Could it be that your repentance is insincere; that there is a great lack of substance in your repentance? We must repent of the obvious - sins of omission (not being, thinking, or doing what we must) and sins of commission (being, thinking, or doing what is forbidden). But we must also repent of the not so obvious. If we're honest with ourselves, we will definitely agree that we must 'repent of our repentance' (per Valley of Vision, 'Continual Repentance'). I'm not saying that you should cease repenting, or that repentance is not something you should do. Clearly I am not saying this. I'm saying that our practice of repentance is often artificial, short-lived, self-centered, and conscience satisfying; but it is not real change seeking.

Do you not find it the case that you commit the same sins over and again? You're conscious of them, you've confessed them, you've pledged to leave them, you've prayed for victory over them, and yet when the opportunity arises you immediately take to them like a fish to water, like a bird to the air, or a kitten to a ball of yarn. So you again confess them, decry them in your heart, pledge to leave them, and pray for victory over them. But then when occasion arises, you not only fall into them, you rush into them. Satan's temptation is the gun that sets you off the blocks like a sprinter to the tape! And perhaps this has gone on for years! You've become exercised in this, and it is easy to you!

But this was God's message to Israel, 'They do not cry to me from their heart when they wail on their bed' (7:14) - imagine that: 'wailing' but not from the heart! 'They turned, but not upward' (v.16). I.e., they would turn from one sin to another sin, or from sin to a false remedy; or to God, but just for a time. They did not 'return to the Lord,' as Hosea called! They did not take the Lord seriously! They were like the mourners of the New Testament who broke out in hysterics when Jesus said, 'she is sleeping.'

Fake mourning! And we can easily do the same, can't we? How often is our repentance a mere exercise - a routine - and not a return to the very person of God! Our repentance often times is not relational, as it should be, but mechanical. It is as though our repentance is a generator that lies dormant until it is absolutely necessary to use it; a last resort! But as soon as the electricity of a livable conscience returns we remove the generator back to the shed!

Is your repentance surface level, and not heart seated? Is it temporary, according to the emotional conviction of the moment; or is it intentional, according to the call of God? We must take to heart the words of Hosea at chapter 14, "Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him, 'Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously in order that we may present the fruit of our lips'" (v.2). I.e., Lord, lead me in that kind of repentance which is not an end in itself, but a means to a greater end; not that which is merely audible, but that which is fruitful! Lead me in that repentance that goes beyond words to a fulfillment of the words themselves!

Let there be no inconsistency between my spoken repentance and my lived repentance! We must have within our repentance a sense that it is not merely of deeds wrongly committed, not merely of repentance insincerely offered, but of a covenant we have violated, a God we have offended, and a relationship we have frustrated.

Brothers and sisters, we must confess the lack of repentance in our repentance, the lack of turning in our 'returning.' We must repent even of our repentance. 'Come, let us return to the Lord!'

But there is no doubt a 3rd group here that genuinely know/heed the appeal to repent, but have been badly broken by sin. You've gone beyond, as David said, 'knowing your transgressions and that your sin is always before you' (Psalm 51:3). You're utterly haunted by it. Pleasant thoughts of God have turned into nightmares! God has shown himself as a lion to you! He has roared at you, chased you, captured you, bitten you, torn you to pieces, and carried you back to His den.

He has not given up on you, but your sin requires a great humbling. You've been struck with the reality of affliction, but forget the possibility of healing. You've grown weary and have given up hope for deliverance. The fatherly afflictions that God has brought on you for your sins are irreversible judgments to you. His admonitions are screams to you. You're easily convinced that you've lost your salvation. You never intend to read Hebrews 6 or 10 again. You're a prodigal son who thinks he'll come home to be the slaughtered calf himself! And your hope is failing.

You 'come,' and 'return to the Lord,' but you're like a thirsty, aching desert traveler stumbling in sandy winds. You come sincerely, but you come weakly. And as you stumble back, with scratched eyes, you are ready to fall. You don't realize that your destination is right in front of you. And because of sin, you have lost the sense of God as a tender Father through Jesus Christ.

Do you know what you need - if that is you? You need to hear Hosea's appeal for what it really is. It is especially designed for you. It does not contain a glimmer of hope for you. It radiates hope for you like the shining of the afternoon sun.

The reason for 'returning to the Lord' is not so much because of the conviction of sin, but moreover because of the promise of mercy! Note that in the text - 'Let us return to the Lord for He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.' Amazing love of God! He who tears is He who heals! He who wounds is He that bandages! God, the lion that tears, is also the physician who cares. 'He binds up all our wounds.' He who was Himself wounded for our transgressions is able to come to the aid of those who are wounded.

But it is through our wounding that we come to cry for His help, is it not? You can say as the Psalmist said, 'I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me' (Psalm 119:75). And you can say as Paul said, 'it is the kindness of God that leads me to repentance' (Romans 2:4).

And what is the substance of the promise, what is the basis of the hope, but the saving work of Jesus Christ, and, our participation in it by faith?! 'He will revive us after two days. He will raise us up on the third day' (v.2). Hosea spoke of the resurrection of Christ! And what does this assume but His death? Paul says that Christ, 'was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures' (1 Corinthians 15:4). He was referring not only to Jonah in the belly of the fish, but to Hosea's appeal to Israel! (He later quoted Hosea 13:14 regarding the resurrection).

Hear it again - 'He will raise us up on the third day in order that we may live before Him.' Was anyone other than Jesus raised from the dead on the third day? Hosea said, 'He will raise us up on the third day.' Did you say 'no'?! Ephesians 2:3-6 - and let this be emblazoned on your heart!:

The power of the gospel, when it comes to 'rubber hits the road' repentance, is that you died and rose with Christ, not merely that Jesus died and rose for you. I say it again…I.e., RECOGNITION OF YOUR UNION WITH CHRIST IS THE STIMULUS FOR TRUE, GENUINE REPENTANCE. 'Apart from Him you can do nothing,' including repent.

Why would you repent unless you had a valid hope that you would be accepted? Hosea looked forward to Christ, and we look back on Christ, but we both consider Christ. Repentance stems from a conviction of knowing who you are in Christ. So, 'return to the Lord' not only because of the sin that drives you to the cross, but because of the promise and fulfillment of life in Christ, of spiritual healing in Christ through the cross. 'Return' not in order to be accepted, but because you are accepted by the Father in Christ.

And so I urge, once again, 'Come, let us return to the Lord.' But there is a second appeal:

Appeal #2: 'Let us press on to know the Lord.'
So you've repented. And what joy there is in heaven over that! But is that all there is? Certainly not. In a sense, it is the beginning. With repentance there is faith. Jesus' call was 'repent and believe in the gospel' (Mark 1:15). Repentance and faith go together like peanut butter and jelly, like milk and cookies. They are like Siamese twins, so intimately joined that to separate them leads to the death of them both. And so note as you 'press on' in faith 'to know the Lord':

First, this appeal signals a different direction. You've walked in the way of sin. But having now turned, you pursue the path of Christ. You walked in sin, and now you walk by faith. You've made a break with sin! Leave it! You have a new master! Resist the former! It is an entirely different direction, a 180 turn. 'So, let us press on to know the Lord' (v.3). Onward Christian soldier, march!

Hosea called them to continue, not to stagnate. Onward from the elementary teachings of Christ, 'let us press on to maturity.' 'Let us press on' on the highway of holiness. 'Let us press on' to 'growth in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ' (2 Peter 3:18). The direction is entirely different. It is a path marked by signs of obedience, not of sin. 'Let us press on.' ILL: The marathon favorite & expected winner discovering he took a wrong turn…what intensity in his new direction!

But as Christian wandered from the path to the Celestial City, know that secondly, this appeal warns of great distraction. The Apostle Paul is one of your guides. He has constructed a billboard for you. It reads thus:

And yet how easily we are distracted from that! We leave our first love! We busy ourselves learning many things. We hear preaching. We read books. We study the Bible. But in these things, do we 'press on to know the Lord?' Or do we press on because, well, we're supposed to press on? Is there no end in sight?

It is possible to know many things and yet not know Christ the Lord. Beware, lest in knowing much, you miss knowing Christ! It will do you little good, in fact it will increase your peril, if you know the Bible, know its theology, know reputable commentaries, Christian writers, and preachers, and yet not come to know Christ. God 'delights…in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings' (Hosea 6:6).

The life in which we have been raised is eternal life. 'This is eternal life,' Jesus said, 'that they may know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent' (John 17:3). 'We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him' (1 John 5:20).

Have you been distracted from the main point? Have you left your first love? Remember - "Big picture, first love." 'Press on to know the Lord' - His awesome character, His saving power, His abounding love, His marvelous works.

So thirdly, this appeal involves great difficulty. It was difficult to return, wasn't it! It will be equally difficult to 'press on!' - the contrary winds because of Satan's loss of you, sin calling your name behind you, temptation running after you trying to take you by the coat and drag you back, the fogs of mental uncertainty, the eerie voices of conscience from remaining sin.

Pressing on to know the Lord involves great difficulty. Satan will try to work all things together for the removal of your knowledge and possession of Christ. It is like Frodo's relation to the ring. All the monstrous creatures tried to take the ring away from Frodo - there was Sauron, Saruman, the Ringwraiths, the Nazgul, the Orcs, the cave troll, Gollum, and even men, whose hearts are easily corrupted. They were all drawn to remove the ring from Frodo. And so, Satan will bring his armies and servants against you so that you lose the knowledge and possession of Christ.

And so then, fourthly, this appeal calls for great diligence. To walk around the nets of sin that so easily entangle you, you must look carefully. To 'press on' means that you must discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness (1 Timothy 4:7), buffet your body lest you be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:27). It takes great spiritual exercise and commitment. It takes daily exercise with the means of grace as your treadmill, Jesus' robe of righteousness as your sweats. But is it not a worthy cause - to know and glorify this One who has loved you with an everlasting love?

But most of all, finally, this appeal heralds great delights. 'His going forth is as certain as the dawn.' Ah - Christ, a dawning sun! Tomorrow morning, light will dispel the darkness of night. Is that not a sure promise of God?

As 'day and night shall not cease,' so shall the presence of the Lord be with you. As surely as the Son of God has 'gone forth' as the Sun of righteousness from the ends of heaven and extended His line into the earth (Psalm 19:6); as surely as He has 'gone forth' from Bethlehem to be Ruler in Israel (Micah 5:2); as surely as He has gone forth for the salvation of His people (Habakkuk 3:13), as surely as He has gone forth into heaven again (Acts 1:10), so surely will you go forth and skip about like calves from the stall (Malachi 4:2). Because He went forth we shall go forth, 'pressing on to know the Lord.' It is a sweet delight that Christ surely will go forth with us. But it is even sweeter that 'He will come to us like the rain.' Ah - the sweet, delicious, fragrant rains of spring watering the ground after a cold winter, bringing forth gospel flowers and fruit from the soil of a cultivated heart! What a sweet delight! Mmmm…the fragrant rains of the Holy Spirit as they cleanse; the sweetness of the warmth and renewal, the beauty of the colors, the songs of the birds of Spring! And so it is with Christ who will go forth and come to us.

What a tragedy it was that Israel did not heed Hosea's call! Loved unconditionally and richly by the Lord, they left Him for sin and idolatry. But eternal praise is what you should give to God - that He has offered, fulfilled, and established you in a New Covenant in the Lord Jesus - an everlasting covenant in which God 'will not turn away from you, to do you good; but will put the fear of Him in your heart so that you will not turn away from Him' (per Jeremiah 32:40).

Brothers and sisters, Hosea's call is the same for you, 'Come, let us return to the Lord…Let us press on to know the Lord.' Will you come? Will you return? Will you press on? And will you do so by faith - embracing God's fulfilled promises in Jesus - to be renewed in His love and grace? In view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ, in view of the gracious, promised welcome of the Father, return. Press on to know the Lord. 'Let us return; and let us press on to know the Lord.'

Messiah's Church Reformed Presbyterian
Telephone: (315) 451-2148
meeting at 700 South Bay Road
North Syracuse Community Center
North Syracuse, NY