Key Truth: God so loves His people that He provides everything necessary for them to flourish by grace alone through faith alone in Him alone.

Introduction:

Q: How do you think God will deal with you in the end based on your life at current?

God’s Call to Repentance and His Provision of the Words of Confession:

Hosea 14:1-3

“For the encouragement of all who feel the burthen of their sins, God has declared, yea has sworn, that “he has no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live:” and the whole Scriptures bear testimony to that blessed truth. But, lest any should be discouraged by the idea that they know not how to approach him acceptably, it has pleased God to prescribe the very “words” whereby he would have them address him. And assuredly, if he had consulted all the weary and heavy-laden sinners in the universe, and had permitted them, or any individual among them, to dictate to him what expressions he should prescribe, the whole world could never have suggested any that were more suited to the necessities of men, or more satisfactory to their minds, than those recorded in our text.”

Charles Simeon, Horae Homileticae, Vol. 10: Hosea to Malachi

Q: What are you depending on other than God that you need to specifically repent of and return to the Lord?

God’s Healing Grace and the Flourishing of His People:

Hosea 14:4-9

“This is the solid foundation of all Christian comforts that God loves freely. Were his love to be measured by our fruitfulness or conduct towards him, each hour and moment might stagger our hope; but he is therefore pleased to have it all of grace….This comforts us against the guilt of the greatest sins, for love and free grace can pardon what it will. This comforts against the accusations of Satan drawn from our own unworthiness. True, I am unworthy, and Satan cannot show me to
myself more vile than, without his accusations, I will acknowledge myself to be; but that love which gave Christ freely, gives in him more worthiness than there is or can be unworthiness in me. This comforts us in the assured hope of glory, because when he loves he loves to the end, and nothing can separate from his love. This comforts in all afflictions, that the free love of God, who has predestined us thereto, will wisely order all things for the good of his servants….”

Jeremiah Burroughs, An Exposition of the Prophecy of Hosea

Q: What are some ways in which God has healed you from your apostasy and displayed His love to you? What some ways in which you are flourishing as a result? What are some ways in which you are further cultivating this newness of life in Christ?

Hosea 14:1-9 teaches us that God cares for His wayward people so much that:
-He calls them to repent and provides the necessary words of confession by faith alone
-He will heal and love by grace alone so that we might flourish in Him alone

“The rightness of God’s ways as revealed in this book is so far above us in both holiness and love, as to leave self-sufficient man without excuse, self-condemned, while those who turn into the way of righteousness find themselves met more than halfway.”

Derek Kidner, The Message of Hosea