I would have you turn with me once again to Hosea this morning. Hosea, our text being chapter 6, verses 1, 2, and 3. We'll back up a little bit and re-read a portion of chapter 5 through the third verse of chapter 6. Once you've found that, would you also, I failed to indicate it in the bulletin, but also turn to Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. In that chapter, there are three parables. The parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, the parable of the lost son. And I just want to read a few verses from the parable of the lost son. One we know well, we call him the prodigal son. You know the story about the younger son who wanted to take off, live in the world, lost everything. I would like to pick it up at verse 17 of Luke chapter 15 and just read through verse 24 in connection with our consideration of Hosea 6, verses 1, 2, and 3 this morning. So Luke 15, beginning at verse 17, hear now the Word of God. When He, that is this younger son, came to His senses, He said, How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am, starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired men. So he got up and went to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For the son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. Hosea chapter 5, beginning at verse 8. Sound the trumpet in Gibeah, the horn in Ramah. Raise the battle cry in Beth-Avon. Lead on, O Benjamin. Ephraim will be laid waste on the day of reckoning. Among the tribes of Israel I proclaim what is certain. Judah's leaders are like those who move boundary stones. I will pour out my wrath on them like a flood of water. Ephraim is oppressed, trampled in judgment, intent on pursuing idols. I am like a moth to Ephraim, like rot to the people of Judah. When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his sores, Then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king for help, but he is not able to cure you, not able to heal your sores. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away. I will carry them off with no one to rescue them. Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face. In their misery they will earnestly seek me. Now our text. Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us. He has injured us, but He will bind up our wounds. After two days, He will revive us. On the third day, He will restore us, that we may live in His presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord. Let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear. He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. may god add his blessing to the reading and the preaching of his word this morning beloved in christ the lord a few years ago as we were on vacation we decided to go through the black hills of south dakota to see mount rushmore i hadn't seen mount rushmore since i was a very young child and really i guess from a child's perspective didn't really remember what it was all about i just kind of assumed that once you get close to the black hills uh there stands mount Rushmore higher than all the other hills clear to see even from a distance but if you've been there you know that's not true you have to drive into those black hills proper before you can even get a glimpse but as we were driving closer to Mount Rushmore every now and then as you come around a bend and you see you know the hills separate you you look up ahead I remembered you get a glimpse of that unique mountain you get a glimpse that that whetted our at least my appetite for the unbelievable sight that was in store of standing at the base of that mountain taking it all in. Well, I submit to you that's what we have with this text this morning. You see, from the beginning, you know that this has been a story of judgment, God's judgment. Something very difficult to hear. But it's also a story of love, of hope because of His love. Now we're going to stop and pause this morning on these three verses. And just to let you know, I'm going to pause until after the first of the year, after the holidays, before we come back to Hosea. We're going to stop, especially this morning, on these three verses for two reasons. First, because we need to. We're ready to. Because of all the judgment that we have seen so far and even re-read in chapter 5, this is heavy stuff. We have considered Israel's sin, her spiritual adultery, and been reminded, really, of our own spiritual adultery. And also, we have seen God's judgment again, yet never have we considered it without hope. In light of that, we need to hear these words. And secondly, because as Israel needed to hear these words, so do we because of their beauty. Because of the hope and the comfort that this Word of God has for us. This text, beloved, is a song calling, inviting Israel to repentance with the certainty that God will hear. On the one hand, you see, I think it's like getting a glimpse of Mount Rushmore on the way as you come around that bend, as the hills separate a little bit and you look up ahead. But it's not, in that sense, standing in front of that mountain with that full view because if you read ahead one more verse, you notice in verse 4, it sadly teaches that Israel is not one bit ready to truly repent. And therefore, these verses again are like looking up ahead, just getting a glimpse, looking forward to the glorious chapter 14, which I can't wait to get to, where we have the glory of both Israel's willingness to repent by the grace of God, but also their restoration. But on the other hand, if we pause on these verses and consider them as we're going to do, it is, I think, like standing right in front of Mount Rushmore to see fully the glory of that incredible work of art. It's like that because with these few verses, beloved, we gaze upon the loving heart of God. And indeed, it is a loving heart, a heart that desires proper repentance and a heart that promises powerful restoration. now it begins of course come let us return to the lord and there are some who take this to mean that that it is israel who is speaking here that it is israel encouraging itself encouraging one another to return to repent but because then of verse four the lord shows that it's not genuine repentance and and therefore the claim is that it's offered with a wrong attitude with wrong motives it's It's not sincere. It's not real. It is without, they say, a real confession of sin. And it is without a serious promise to change their behavior, some say. It could be. Others say that in the face of chapter 5, which we learned last week, it teaches that God would bring to repentance through judgment, and then especially verse 15, then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt and they will seek my face in their misery. They will earnestly seek me. Some say in that light that it is Hosea speaking on behalf of the people. You see, there is hope in that verse 15. Until. And so they say that Hosea is speaking on behalf of the people, that he is now appealing to them with words that ought to be their very own. That He is showing them that this is to be, in the light of what God has said, that this is to be their response to God's lion-like judgment. I happen to take that view, that this is Hosea speaking. And that's how I will proceed. But either way, let me say that these words lay before them, and they lay before us that loving heart of God that, first of all, desires proper repentance. Come, let us return to the Lord. What a beautiful invitation which calls for a U-turn. Boys and girls, you know what a U-turn is. If you're heading down Broadway to the north in your car with your mom or dad, and all of a sudden you turn around and go down Broadway south, that's a U-turn. You've gone from one direction and turned to go completely the other direction. And that's what conversion is. It's a U-turn, which involves repentance and faith. The word return here has the idea of to abandon, to give up, to turn away from a course, a path that one is on, and to go the very opposite way, a U-turn. And in this case, for a specific purpose, come, let us return to the Lord. So the idea there is to be reunited with someone that they had once been with, like the prodigal son. I will go back to my father. Israel had turned away from her covenant God to Assyria. And now she is being called to turn away from Assyria to return and go back to her covenant God. The sinner, Adam, when he fell into sin in all of his posterity, you and me alike, the sinner in sin is speeding away from God as fast as he or she can. And the sinner is called to do an about face, to turn around. and flee to God. And of course, we know this is possible only as the Holy Spirit gives one new life, gives new life to a dead heart. Conversion will not happen apart from regeneration, which is necessary because proper repentance acknowledges oneself. It knows oneself. It knows my sin, but also acknowledges my sin. now boys and girls and young people it's this time of year at the beginning of our catechetical season that you are being reminded some of you for the 5th, 6th, 7th time of those beautiful questions and answers that begin our catechism what is your only comfort in life and in death that I am not my own but belong body and soul in life and in death unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ who has fully paid for all my sins and the answer goes on beautifully and then the second question what must I know then to live and die in the joy of this comfort. Three things. First, how great my sin and misery are. That seems strange, doesn't it? But that's what we must know. We must know ourselves. We must know our sin. We must know how great, how terrible they are. Hosea leads in this. He leads in confession of sin and guilt. Return. That very word, you see, is a confession that they had forsaken, that they had turned away from God and His covenant. It's a confession of their sin. And along with that, he says, let us press on to acknowledge. And that points to the fact that they had not known the Lord, nor had they demonstrated in their lives or in their worship that He exists. Knowing oneself and acknowledging oneself includes a confession of sin. That's the teaching of Scripture. What did the prodigal son say? I have sinned. I have sinned against heaven and against you. The tax collector said, God, have mercy on me, the sinner. The thief on the cross said to the other thief, we deserve what we're getting. You see, that points to the fact that not only must there be a confession of sin, but a recognition that my sin deserves punishment. Israel was to recognize that that because they have turned away, He had torn, He had injured, and we are wounded. I believe we can see that as a recognition because they are being led to return to the very one who had injured them because they deserved it. And along with confession and recognition, there is to be an admission of a need for healing and bandaging that we cannot go on. We cannot survive like this. And Assyria can't do it. There's only one who can heal. Proper repentance, beloved, includes seeing the truth of man's plight and along with that, the truth of God's power. And you can only know yourself then in the light of a true knowledge of God. You see, proper repentance not only includes acknowledging oneself, but acknowledging God. Verse 3 begins, Let us acknowledge the Lord. Let us press on to acknowledge Him. We've talked about this knowledge of God in the past couple of weeks. His knowledge, what I mean is knowledge of Him alone is to be desired and it is that knowledge that is to be sought. Israel was being called to pursue Him and to make up for what was lacking. My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. by faith we are to know Him and to understand that He is God. And there is none other, there is no other God. A lot of pretenders, but there is no other God. That He is sovereign over all things, that all things are under His command, all things are under His control. He is omnipotent, all-powerful, present everywhere, independent of all that He has made. He is sovereign. But also we must know that He is holy and righteous and pure. That's His very nature, His character. That He will not share His glory with another. And that sin is offensive to Him and sin separates one from Him. Knowledge of Him by faith remembers what He has done, His redemptive work. Israel was being called to remember God's redemptive work on her behalf, all that He had done. Read your history books, Israel. It's there. it's been passed down. And we too are to remember God's redemptive work on our behalf through Jesus Christ. Read the history book. It is so clear. It is so powerful. And also knowledge of Him by faith knows His ways and His purposes and knows His loving requirements of His law and knows His promises. And you see, proper repentance acknowledges God also in the sense that it is His right alone to punish. It's His right. He has torn. He has injured. Because He is the offended one. And He alone remains faithful to His Word. Israel said, Far be it from us to fall away from you. We will do everything they said to Moses. We will do everything they said to Joshua. We'll be obedient. But God is the only one who is faithful to His Word. He said, I will punish if you fall away. And none deserves salvation. Not one, not you, not me, not one deserves salvation. Yet, proper repentance acknowledges, beloved, that it is His power alone to save. It is His right alone to punish, but it is also His power alone to save. And He will. He will heal. He will bind up, He will revive, He will restore. Second, I must know how I am set free from all of my sin and misery. It is God alone. Hosea was convinced about this. There was no doubt about it for him. Why? Because of God's very own promise. In Deuteronomy chapter 4 we read, beginning of verse 29, but if from there, and this is in the context of Moses foretelling that they would fall away. And because of that, they would be punished. They would be sent into exile. He says, But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul when you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, when in later days you will return to the Lord, you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers which He confirmed to them by oath. And what a powerful reminder, beloved, that God's punishment until Judgment Day, until eternal hell, God's punishment is for the purpose of calling one to repentance. And if it is His will, bringing that one to Him who is the only healer. God's purpose and punishment until Judgment Day is to get the attention of mankind. And that's necessary because one cannot remain in sin, cannot remain loving sin and desiring to continue on that path away from God and at the same time be acceptable to God. Those things do not go together. We need healing. Cannot stay as we are, the sinner must understand. You see, a proper confession is that we are sinners. and that God's judgment is just, but that He alone saves. You see, notice here, and Israel was to notice here, that God does not require some great work by you or me to be done to pay for our sin. He doesn't require us to go out and do some extraordinary thing in order to prove our love and our loyalty to Him. Israel thought that they just had to bring plenty of sacrifices. That all they needed to do was go through a lot of religious motions. They'd be okay. But there's nothing that we can do that will satisfy God for sin's offense to Him and sin's guilt against us. That's not one work, no matter what, will do. He has provided the only sacrifice sufficient to pay our debt of sin and to remove our guilt. And that sacrifice, we know, is Jesus Christ, His Son. Our beloved, the loving heart of God calls us to come with contrite hearts, hearts that are truly sorry for our sins. Boys and girls, not just being sorry that we got caught, but truly sorry for our sin and sorry that we have offended him, humbly confessing our sin, trusting in the only Savior, Jesus Christ, and desiring to be changed by his Holy Spirit. It's all the work of the Holy Spirit. He has provided all that we need, and for those who truly repent, he stands, beloved, with his arms wide open, ready to receive. As in the second place, he promises powerful restoration. You see, Hosea's confidence was not in the judgment that God would send, which points to death, but it was in the rescue that he offered, which points to life. And what a comforting promise that God hears and responds. Let's read verse 15 of chapter 5 again. Then I will go back to my place until, that word until is packed full with hope that he would not stay away. until they admit their guilt and they will seek My face in their misery, they will earnestly seek Me. And Isaiah 54, verse 8 says, In a surge of anger, we think of a power surge, a flash going through our electric lines, in a surge of anger, I hid My face from you for a moment, but notice, but with everlasting kindness, ongoing, never-ending kindness, I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. he promises powerful restoration to forgive. He will heal. He will bind. Hosea was convinced that not only was God able to do this, but he will for those who come to him in repentance and faith. That's God's desire, you see, to forgive. In Ezekiel 18.23, we read, the Lord says, Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Sovereign Lord? Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? And Paul in Acts 17.30, God now commands all people everywhere to repent. God desires man to repent because He desires to forgive, to pour out His love and compassion. And forgiveness is God's benefit, one of His great benefits. In Psalm 103, we hear these beautiful opening words, Praise the Lord, O my soul, O my inmost being. Praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Notice the first one. He who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. Forgiveness is God's great benefit. He removes the sin which would have barred us from His favor and from His presence forever, and He makes us fit to come into His very presence, clothed with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, beloved. That's what we need, and that's what He does. You don't do it. I don't do it. God does that for us. And what ought to be the believer's response? In Psalm 130, verse 4, the psalmist says, But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared. Feared. How can we not be in awe? How can we not be amazed at what God has done for us through Jesus Christ? The response is to be a higher reverence for God. It points to a relationship of love and worship and service to God. And it points to the fact that the loving heart of God does not stop with forgiving. He doesn't just forgive and then walk away, but also to give. He forgives and He gives life. We cannot miss the resurrection idea here. The exile pointed to separation from God, which we know meant death. And a release from exile pointed to new life in fellowship with God. The words revive and live in the text can simply mean to heal one from some sort of a sickness, but they can also be used to express meeting a need that is as desperate as Ezekiel's valley of dry, dead bones, or Paul's diagnosis of man who is dead in sin. As we said before, it is the Holy Spirit of God who gives new spiritual life that is needed in order to repent. There is no repentance apart from a new heart, apart from regeneration. But that regeneration that leads to repentance and faith by the grace of God includes a resurrection of sorts to a new life lived. Not just a new heart, but a new heart in action. A new life lived that desires to live in God's presence, that finds it to be a delight to be in God's presence. Israel desired to live in Baal's presence. We know that Israel offered prayer to God, but that prayer was nothing more than bowing their head and folding their hands and closing their eyes, but there were no words, nothing from a true heart. That's not prayer. You see, beloved, true prayer is entering the very throne room of God where Jesus Christ entered first on our behalf. And therefore, in prayer, we have God's full attention. And living in His presence means living before His face, living before His watching eyes, not being embarrassed by what He sees, but instead delighting in His rules for living. His rules that He has given to preserve me. And living in His presence means living in contact with Him through His Word, by His Spirit, reading His Word today, tomorrow, the next day, every single day, sitting under the preaching of His Word, meditating upon it, and responding in prayer. And living in His presence includes not running away from Him again. And He also gives life, beloved, that presses on to acknowledge Him. Demonstrating thankfulness to Him for my salvation throughout my whole life. Israel was being called to do what she had failed to do. Pressing on to acknowledge Him means knowing Him more and more, knowing the glory and the majesty of His being, knowing that as He reveals it to us in His Word. And that Word then which becomes like eyeglasses, spectacles, through which we see more clearly His general revelation, His power, His glory in creation and is able to see His wisdom, for example, in the laws of nature and in the laws of the human body and in His wisdom as He uses the world and sinful man in our lives for our benefit. We're reminded of that. Think of Jerry Vanderbile this week. The device that has been implanted in it. We don't know if it was Christians who developed that. We don't know if it was believers who operated on him or on Steve. We don't know. But yet God uses them. He uses sinful man. He uses the technological abilities he gives to them for our benefit. It's all part of God's wisdom. But also we are to know more and more the wonder of his saving purpose. And there's nothing more wondrous than his saving purpose. But along with knowing Him, pressing on to acknowledge Him means also making Him known. Making Him known in my life, making His presence in my life clearly visible that His Word, that His will is my standard for everything, that I depend on Him. And also standing up for His honor. Pressing on to acknowledge Him, beloved, points to a growing relationship with God and knowing Him by faith is the content of eternal life. That's what Jesus said. In John 17, verse 3, he says, Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. And beloved, then his restoration is a full restoration. He restores fully. Like the prodigal son, his father, boys and girls, did not lower the son's status. He did not make him feel inferior. He did not degrade him. He did not say, you go live with the servants until you're able to prove yourself. He clothed him. He celebrated his homecoming. He restored him fully. In Jesus Christ, God has given to us the status as sons of God with all of Christ's saving benefits. And that powerful restoration comes then also with a guarantee. You see, just as judgment for sin is certain, God must punish sin, either in the sinner or it's found in another. Just as God's judgment for sin is certain, so is His promise of restoration. And notice it's timing in verse 2. After two days He will revive us. On the third day He will restore us, that we may live long in His presence. Now, some believe that Hosea here is prophetically pointing forward to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There's no real proof there of that. Some think that Jesus had these words in mind as he was explaining to the disciples with whom he walked on the road to Emmaus that he had to die and that he would rise after three days or that Paul was thinking of these words in 1 Corinthians 15 when he talked about the same thing, that Christ was put to death and that he would rise again on the third day. Maybe, we don't know, but I believe it does point to a set period of time. Israel would suffer exile for a set period of time. It would be there. It would start, but it would also end. It would come to an end. Now some, and we don't understand why, but some God brings about slowly to see their need for God's forgiveness and the beauty of His love, like Israel in exile. Maybe some of our loved ones for whom we have been praying for a long, long time. For some, He chooses to bring them around slowly. But once they have that knowledge of faith and that comfort by the grace of God, they can't help but to press on. Because never again do they want to be separated from Him, even for a moment. But notice also its timing. I mean, its picture. The picture of this guarantee. Verse 3, As surely as the sun rises, He will appear. He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. What a beautiful picture of the certainty that the Lord will come to the aid of His people as the sun. Boys and girls, there is nothing more regular, nothing more certain than the sun rising to usher in a new day. Even if you can't see it because of clouds, you know it's there, otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the clouds. It comes up like clockwork. We're told by the newsman what time we expect the sun to rise. And the rising sun will not stop. It will not cease until the end of time. That points to the certainty of the Lord coming to the aid of His people, but also as the winter and the spring rains. And I believe this has the idea of, first of all, the early rains that would help make the hard and the dry ground in that part of the world plowable and plantable. Without the moisture, it was rock hard. And you combine that with the latter rains, Right before the harvest, those latter rains that would come, the farmers enjoyed that because as those rains came, that only increased the crop yield every day. It meant there was going to be a more bountiful harvest. With these things, what a beautiful picture of the certainty of the life that God gives. In Psalm 91 we read, He will call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver Him and honor Him. With a long life I will satisfy Him and show Him my salvation. And you know, of course, the ultimate picture is Jesus Christ. When the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under the law. Beloved, the loving heart of our Heavenly Father goes out with the promise of 1 John 1.9. And if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. These are not just empty words. He has proven the seriousness and the certainty of His Word in Jesus Christ, who is God's greatest promise ever kept. Oh, Satan would have us believe that every access to God is shut up tight. That there is no admittance to you and me. It's a lie, it's a lie, it's a lie. Because the only way to the Father, and there is only one, the Bible says it's a narrow way, yet that way is wide open through Jesus Christ, Who has taken all the sin and shame of those who would believe upon himself. He has opened the way to return to the Lord. And he is proof, brothers and sisters, that man does not return to God in vain. It's not a waste of time. God will not tear his people to pieces, but restore them completely in Jesus Christ. And there is no sin to grieve us. Maybe you're here this morning more out of guilt thinking, well, it's not a bad thing to do. I've sinned too bad. God can never forgive me. Or maybe you think it's not only too grievous, but maybe you've sinned too much. There is no sin too grievous. There is no quantity so great that God cannot and will not forgive of those who come to Him in faith. Christ's blood is sufficient to pay for all of it. And like the father of the prodigal son for those who come to Him in the name of his Son, our God's arms are wide open to embrace you, to forgive you, to restore you, and to receive you into his presence forever. And even as believers, when we sin, and we do, and God disciplines us, and he will, in Jesus Christ, ours is the confidence of the psalmist that his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may remain for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Beloved, God will not turn away those who come to him in repentance and faith for Jesus' sake. And what a message to proclaim. What a message to proclaim to our sons and daughters, to our loved ones, to our neighbors, to our co-workers, to anyone with whom God gives us the privilege to have contact with. What a message to proclaim, to say, let me tell you what the Lord has done for me. How great is the love of God. Oh, beloved, let us gaze upon the glory and the beauty of the loving heart of God, rejoicing in the words of Jesus, who said, All that the Father gives me shall come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. Amen. Let's pray. oh father we come before you humbled yet filled with joy at your holy word indeed oh lord in our selfishness and arrogance we sometimes don't want to acknowledge the truth of ourselves but we thank you that empowered by your spirit we can't help but to do that only to have our eyes raised to the glory of Jesus Christ and what we have in him and father help us to walk day by day as sons and daughters of the most high God as those who know you and as those who by Your grace and the strength of Your Spirit give a demonstration of that knowledge in our lives. Help us to be more faithful and obedient servants of the Most High God, for You have given to us every reason to be thankful and to show that thankfulness. May we rejoice in all that You have done for us and rejoice to be used of You if it is Your will to bring those glad tidings of great joy to those who have never heard. Father, we praise your name that you hear our prayer, that you hear every word, that you acknowledge us for Jesus' sake. Amen.