A Call to Repentance
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Context
Context
All of Israel were covenant breakers and idolaters (chapt. 4)
1 Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,
for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
and no knowledge of God in the land;
12 My people inquire of a piece of wood,
and their walking staff gives them oracles.
For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,
and they have left their God to play the whore.
God’s wrath burned against the rebellion of Israel (chapt. 5)
9 Ephraim shall become a desolation
in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
I make known what is sure.
12 But I am like a moth to Ephraim,
and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, even I, will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.
These are sobering words. Words that could lead to utter despair. We arrive to chapter 6, and it begins with a call to repentance. Repentance is fundamental to the gospel.
15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Repent
Repent
return to the Lord
3 Components of Repentance
3 Components of Repentance
A sorrowful mourning over sin.
4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
2. A turning from sin.
Repentance is a change of mind issuing from a change in life. - J.I. Packer, A Passion for Faithfulness.
8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
3. A turning back to God.
The word return means to turn around and walk back in the direction from where we came.
The new direction is a matter of saying good-bye to self-service and embracing the service of God instead - J.I. Packer, Passion for Faithfulness
Will the rebellious repent?
Will the rebellious repent?
Can such a rebellious people repent? Can a people, of whom was said that God would become a moth to and dry rot return to the Lord?
We know people who its hard to imagine being sorrowful over their sin, that they would ever turn from their sin and back to God.
On what basis can we believe that people will repent. On what basis did we repent?
1 Kings 8:46-50.
1 Kings 8:46–50 (ESV)
46 “If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near, 47 yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly,’ 48 if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, 49 then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause 50 and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them
Prayed centuries before Hosea’s prophecy by King Solomon.
God’s people will repent because God is at work in His people.
32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
Now verse 1 is a call to repentance. It does not appear that the people responded to this call. Our expectation of the likelihood of someone’s repentance should not be a factor in our decision to proclaim the gospel to them.
Return
Return
Gracious Ruining (1)
Gracious Ruining (1)
Hosea 6:1 (ESV)
1 “Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
God’s purposes in afflicting His people are restorative.
So the same hands that were tearing and leaving and carrying off but not rescuing are the same hands that will bring about restoration.
This is what the author of Hebrews described:
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
This is the encouragement that Hosea offers to Israel.
Granting Revival (2)
Granting Revival (2)
2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
Possible Meanings
Possible Meanings
the Lord is not slow in restoring life to those who return to Him in faith.
By day two or three, a dead body was clearly beyond the possibility of normal restoration, yet even this condition was no barrier to the sovereign power of God.
A reference to the death and resurrection of Jesus
The testimony of the NT suggests this is a valid possibility
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Where did the Scriptures foretell that Christ would rise from the dead on the third day? Jonah’s three days in the fish? Maybe, but it seems that Hosea’s reference is more explicit.
The reality of the gospel, that Jesus died and rose again on the 3rd day is our hope that we can do what the end of verse 2 says: live before Him.
Godly Reaching (3)
Godly Reaching (3)
3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”
Try to imagine what it must have been like for Hosea to issues this plea.
It us evident that Hosea understood that the grace of God animates repentance. Hosea was grieved by Israel’s idolatry, just like he was grieved by his wife’s adultery.
knowing the Lord & pressing on to know the Lord is an informed knowing. It is knowledge that is based upon truth. Knowledge of the nature of God’s covenant relationship with His people.
Tim Chester
Pursue God. Put yourself in a place where you are exposed to His Word. Meet with His people. Read the bible. Today you can acknowledge the Lord. Acknowledge His as Lord. Submit you life to Him. Put your faith in Him. And with Hosea, I promise you: He will come to you. - Tim Chester, The Passion of God.
Hosea uses another metaphor to express a blessing of God. Just like the Spring and Summer rains restored their crops, so God would restore them to Himself.
