Key Truth: God calls us out of the self-deception and self-destruction of our sin and into the newness of life found in His presence alone.

Introduction:

Q: What difference does God’s presence make in your life when you struggle with sin, doubt, and suffering?

The Indictment and the Call to Return and Wait upon the Lord

Hosea 12:2-6

“We hence see that we ought to seek the presence of God; though he may severely try us, though we may suffer much, though our strength fail, though we may be made lame through life, we ought not yet to shun the presence of God, but rather embrace him with both arms, and retain
him as it were by force; for it is much better to groan under our burden, and to feel his power who is above us, than to continue free from toil, and to rot in our pleasures, as they do whom God forsakes. And we see how much such an indulgence ought to be dreaded by us; for unless
we are daily sharpened by various temptations, we immediately gather rust and other evils. It is therefore necessary, in order that we may continue in a sound state, that our contests should be daily renewed: and hence I have said, that we ought to seek the presence of God, however severe the wresting may be.”

John Calvin, Commentary on Hosea

Q: Have you ever continually waited upon the Lord?

A Lack of Justice: Sin’s Self-deception

Hosea 12:7-9: 

“[The reference to the feast] is a double thrust. First (in effect): ‘Was it for this that I redeemed you? To make you a bunch of Canaanites?’ And secondly: ‘When you re-live the exodus each year, camping out as your fathers did, is it only make-believe? Or is it to re-learn the lesson of those days, that man does not live by bread alone? So, if they will only take it, there is healing and not mere doom in God’s resolve to strip away the comforts that have turned these pilgrims into profiteers.”

Derek Kidner, The Message of Hosea

Q: Do the means of grace regularly unmask your sin and remind you of who and whose you are in Christ?

A Lack of Love: Sin’s Self-destruction

Hosea 12:10-13:3

“The point is that idolatry carries its own punishment: you worship nothing; you get nothing; you end as nothing.”
David Allan Hubbard, Hosea

Q: How have you been changed by worship this past ministry year?

Hosea 12:2-13:3 teaches us that:
- God calls us to return to Him and to wait upon His grace alone for our salvation
- The means of grace unmask our sin and remind us of who and whose we are
- False worship destroys but true worship brings life in Christ