“Repentance Brings Restoration”
Scripture Reading: Hosea 14:1-9
Text: Hosea 14:2-4
Sermon Idea: Do we get everything we deserve?
In the movie Les Miserables, the main character a man named Jean Valjean is released from 19 years of captivity for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s family. He wants to forget his past and move onto a future with more promise and hope. Yet he was dogged by society’s attitudes and by a police investigator who wants to send him back to prison.
Jean is given a place to stay by a bishop, but he can’t sleep and leaves. When leaving he takes the silver with him.
This is the end of Hosea’s prophecy. It begins with a call to repentance. It begins with prayer. The people of Israel needed to seek God’s grace and forgiveness, renew their alliance to Him by renouncing foreign alliances. Their own reliance in their military and their self-made images.
In order for God to forgive they needed to understand that they had sinned. Their return must be accompanied with the words that He gives them. When they ask for forgiveness, the Lord will forgive them. Instead of the offering of unblemished animals the Lord wanted the unblemished words from our hearts that offer praises to God.
Israel was not to put any reliance upon the nation of Assyria’s or their own armies ability to save them. She was also once and for all give up her fondness for man-made idols as her god. Israel could be assured that because God had compassion for the orphan He would have compassion for Israel.
In response to Israel’s repentance, God begins to describe the blessings, that He will shower on her. However we are told by the commentators that because they had not repented yet and they would not repent until the “Great Tribulation,” these blessings must be seen as future tense.
We have God’s grace in action. His healing of their wandering. His unconditional love for them. Israel was making commitments to God with their lips but not their hearts and God had pronounced judgement on them and placed them into captivity. Did the Israelites receive all the punishment that was to come their way? God was showing them a picture of what was going to happen in their captivity. They would begin to worship Him through their hearts and it would come out of their lips.
I. Repentance comes from the heart through our lips. (V. 2)
Matthew 12:34b says this “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (NIV). This verse has two distinct meanings in association here. Earlier in Hosea in chapter 8:2 the nation of Israel is using their lips to honor God but out of their hearts are flowing the disregard they have for God. Her prosperity made her forget God.
In this verse two in chapter 14 something different is happening. God is inviting them to return to Him. Yet He asks for a price to be paid. They must confess their sins. Eugene Peterson says this, “No judgment is inevitable. Repentance can radically change the course of events. The moment we turn away from all god-substitutes—become an ‘orphan’ to the world—and return to God, new life begins to flow” (Praying with the Prophets September 30).
Billy Graham tells a story about Georgia Tech and the University of California in the 1929 Rose Bowl. He relates the story to Jonah I would like to relate it to this chapter of Hosea.
A player recovers a fumble and in his confusion proceeds to run the other way. A teammate is able to stop him before he scores a touchdown for the other team. The half ends and all the players go into the locker room. Everybody is wondering what the coach is going to say. The player is in the corner and head hung low covered by a towel, crying.
The team is ready to go back out for the second half and to the team’s amazement the coach announces that everyone who started the first half would start the second. Everyone left except the player in the corner. He wasn’t going to leave. The coach called him again, and saw that tears were streaming down his cheeks. The player said, “Coach, I can’t do it. I’ve ruined you. I’ve disgraced the University of California. I can’t face the crowd in the stadium again.”
The coach walked over and put his hand on the players’ shoulder and said, “Get up and go back in. The game is only half over.”
When we look at this story compared to the nation of Israel and of thousands of people like the nation and even some here tonight. To think that God would give them a second chance! (More Stories for the Heart 37).
Like the football player who was headed the wrong way to score a touchdown for the other team. Israel was headed the wrong way. The player had a teammate to stop him and steer him away from his sure embarrassment which would mean destruction and humiliation for the player. The prophet Hosea was the player bringing the message to stop them on their path of destruction.
The coach represents God in that although the player had made a drastic mistake the coach saw that the player needed forgiveness not damnation, if he was to be any use to the team. God saw that Israel needed to be told that there was “a second half” left to play. Their second half would begin with true
Repentance.
When we begin to make our sacrifices from our lips through our hearts repentance comes. Once repentance comes we can begin to remove the idols of our own making.
II. Repentance removes our idols. (V. 3)
Idols have long been a problem in the worship of Israel. When they came out of Egypt, they built an idol to worship. Here they had put their trust in the nation of Assyria to be their protector. Prosperity was also their savior. The nation had declined morally and religiously. Today is our nation any different? Let’s take a look.
Mona Charen is a commentator for CNN’s “Capital Gang” show. She wrote a commentary entitled Moral Agnosticism Must End. In her article she spoke about what had happened in Littleton, CO and said, it was “not a senseless tragedy.” She wrote about how that phrase was thrown around like a “Good Housekeeping seal.” She wrote of how it detracted from “our understanding” of the incident.
She continued to write about how much deviation was overlooked in the lives of these young men. Overlooked by “parents, school authorities, teachers and society in general.” How these boys in the gang called “Trenchcoat Mafia” were allowed to live in black. They wore black everyday even in class and they wore black sunglasses inside.
There was a period in my life where I wore black sunglasses at night. This was to hide my eyes so that no one could see my eyes. They could not see the state I was in. During this period of my life I was very uncomfortable being in the light.
Ms. Charen asks the question in her article “Why was this permitted?” We can only speculate.
Also in this article a young man who knew one of the boys said he came from a “nice family.” I don’t know too many nice families who allow their children to listen to Marilyn Manson or create web sites that are filled with violence. Ms. Charen goes on in her article to discuss all that will and will not come out of the aftermath. Who will and who will not receive blame. However, she ends her article with a very pointed statement. “Until we confront our moral agnosticism, until parents demand an end to cultural pollution, we will not see an end to the carnage.”
The nation of Israel was experiencing a time of prosperity like our country is. They were acknowledging God with their lips and practicing religion like we do. They had entered into relationships that were not good for them like we have. This caused them to forget God and raise up idols. In the same way we have.
Thomas Carlyle, the great historian and Scottish writer received a letter from a young man asking him to tell him how to be a great teacher. Carlyle replied to his correspondent with this, “Be what you would have your pupils to be. All else is unblessed mockery!” (The Preacher’s Ill. Svc. V. 11, #1, Jan.-Feb. 1998 2101)
God had chosen the nation of Israel to teach the world about Him. They would be, the measuring device that the nations could measure themselves by. Instead of being the teacher they had become the student, all too willingly.
That is exactly what God is showing the nation of Israel here that to be genuine teachers in their worship it had to flow out of the heart and come out of their lips so that all the idols they had built in their hearts would be destroyed.
We too must have the same experience. We must become the teacher that our pupils would be. God is our teacher and He is showing, His pupils, what He wants, them to learn. But it must start with repentance of the heart so that we can tear down the idols of our life. When our lips overflow with our heart love, we can tear down our idols. In the tearing down, of our idols we can remove the wrath of God.
III. Repentance removes God’s wrath. (V. 4)
The nation of Israel had made alliance with Assyria because they were afraid of losing their prosperity and as an alliance in case of war. God had forbidden this. Due to this alliance they began to allow pagan worship into the temple and Jewish way of life. God was on His way to bring judgment upon the nation.
In his article “The Sum of All their Fears” in the January 22, 2000 issue of The War Cry Major A. Kenneth Wilson quotes Winston Churchill; “You may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together—what do you get? The sum of all their fears.”
Major Wilson writes that this was such a true statement that Tom Clancy titled a book “The Sum of All Fears.”
Although the Israelites knew God’s power and how time after time He had delivered them from their enemies, they still were fearful. They were fearful that maybe this time God was not big enough to do what He said He would do. We’ve all been there. Wanting God to change our lives but afraid of what He will ask or require in return.
Major Wilson writes that we operate under the “Principle of Scarcity rather than the Principle of Abundance. Scarcity says: ‘There is only so much of anything to go around and we have to save it, for when it is gone, there will be no more.’ It applies to money, time, energy and even to such eternally significant items as praise, affirmation and thanks.” We think that God doesn’t have enough grace for us.
“Abundance says: My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19). There is always enough of everything, including money, if it is for His glory and not our own.”
Major Wilson tells of one day when he was making a presentation for some funding. One of the questions he was asked was what he would do if he didn’t receive the funds. He told them that his heavenly Father would take care of them in His abundance. Major Wilson says that the “Sunday School chorus has the right idea:
‘My God is so big, so strong and so mighty,
There’s nothing my God cannot do.
The mountains are His,
The rivers are His,
The stars are His handiwork too.
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty,
There’s nothing my God cannot do’” (24).
It is in the abundance of His grace that the nation of Israel was able to repent and return to God and divert His judgment. We too can deflect judgment from our lives. All we have to do is repent.
Let us return to Jean Valjean. He is caught and brought back to the bishop. The first thing the bishop does is to deny the charges then he reminds him of the silver he “forgot” to take with him. The bishop doesn’t pronounce judgement upon him. He reminds him of the promise he made to become a new man. Valjean’s life was to begin from this moment on.
As this film goes on to its conclusion, Jean Valjean has become the mayor of the city that he ended up at. He started off as a worker and worked himself into the position of mayor. He continues to make his life count for something because the bishop showed him mercy and did not give him what he deserved. He deserved to be sent back to prison. Yet because of the bishop’s kindness he was able to help others.
Valjean discovers that another man is being put on trial in his place. This man has been accused of being the parole Valjean who never arrived at the place he was appointed to after his release from prison. Valjean goes to the trial and ends up revealing whom he is. He goes back to his town puts his affairs in order then flees to Paris.
He spends the next ten years in a convent as a gardener. He then leaves to return to society. Here he once again meets up with the inspector who has sworn his life to Valjean’s recapture.
Upon their final encounter the inspector lets Valjean go because Valjean showed this man grace when he had the opportunity to kill him and end his nightmare. It was this act that the inspector could not reconcile to his strict following of holding up the law at all costs. Yet Valjean was ready to die in order that others may live.
Israel in their captivity was going to be shown compassion by God. He would not destroy them, but give them an opportunity to worship Him with their hearts that would come forth from their mouths and lead to the tearing down of the idols they had set up. Due to this God would hold back his judgement on them.
Ted Engstrom has given us a few ideas to help us accomplish some of the three ideas I have spoken of tonight. A couple of ways we can bring repentance through our lips from the heart are, deliberately place ourselves daily before God to allow Him to use me as He wills (Rom. 12:1-2), ask God at a set time daily to reveal His strategy and will for me that day. A few other ways to help us remove our idols could be in this way, through the reading of a meaningful book once a week set and achieve a goal for personal development, work on one point of weakness with the help of the Holy Spirit to correct and improve this weakness. Our final two ways are, take a look at a couple of Bible people who are positive examples and pick out their strong points and try to emulate them, set up a way of measuring positive regular spiritual growth.
Tonight you may not have made a commitment to the Lord to follow Him. I would like to allow for those of you who would like to take that opportunity to do so. As we sing the chorus “Passion,” I ask that you would come forward to receive His offer of grace into your life.
As we sing this chorus, I would like to invite those of you who may just need to seek the Lord for more of a presence in your life. You could be at a point where your relationship with God is lacking for whatever reason. Please come and meet with Him. As you come there will be cadets waiting to pray and counsel with you.
Let’s sing the chorus “Passion” so that we may meet with the Lord.
On the screen will appear another chorus, “Grace, Grace, God’s Grace” Tonight we heard how the nation of Israel was following after the world but still they were unsatisfied. They became captives to the nations around them.
We too have sought the world for our happiness like the nation of Israel. Some here may still be seeking the strength of the world instead of the strength of God in his grace.
As we sing this chorus, the Lord may be calling to you. If that is the case, I would ask that you would make your way to this place of prayer.
Let us sing the chorus “Grace, Grace, God’s Grace”
Works Cited
Chisholm, Jr; Robert B. “Hosea.” The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Downers Grove: Victor, 1997.
Radmacher, Earl, Ronald B. Allen, and H. Wayne House.
Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary. Nashville: Nelson, 2000.
The Spiritual Formation Bible New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999.
Wood Leon. “Hosea.” Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary. 2 vols. Eds. Barker, Kenneth L. & John R. Kohlenberger III. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999.
Zuck, Roy B. The Speaker’s Quote Book. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2000.
