FHBC Sermon Notes

Sermon Audio: Click to Listen
Scripture: Hosea 6:1-11 - Listen
What and awesomely convicting passage. This is a word directed so presently to the false versions of the gospel we to often believe and live.

1. A repentance. (6:1-3)
• God is consistent. God does heal.  God is the source of all things of abundance. Psalm 103
• The things they are saying here are theologically correct, but it is incomplete.
• No mention of God's righteousness or God's purity, of their need for repentance. 
• They hope by praying this way, by calling on God's loving nature to treat him as a magic formula. God is loving, so of course he wants to bless us. But if God is just, how can he bless the unrepentant heart.  
• Wow, this hits hard in terms of how we prayer. How often do we do this. God restore us, you are the God of love. 
• They need to acknowledge their guilt before God, repent, and seek His face. 
• They must commit themselves to obedience. 
• This passage really hits directly some of the missing parts of the gospel message that we often hear today. The "God loves you and has a plan for your life" gospel. Void of repentance, void of a real view of sin, and so void of any real possibility of healing.
• Are we motivated to return because we are tired of the punishment and we want to get out of it, or because we truly understand our sin, we truly see that we have become a rejection in God's eye, that is only in repentance before him that we find healing, and only in obedience to his word do we find joy.  I want to live to make God smile. 
2. A rejected repentance. (6:4-6)
• God is saying, you guys don't get it. The problem is with your heart.
• In Israel, during the dry season only gets water from the morning dew cloud, but this is temporary. It isn't lasting.  So is the love from the people that God talks about here.
• Their repentance is inconsistent with God's Word. v. 5
• Psalm 136 - The steadfast love endures forever.  The Hallel Psalm. This psalm is a list of God's actions. The proof of his love to his people.  He his calling him here to do the same thing.
• God's blessing and forgiveness is not a right, but a gift of grace.
• Pseudo repentance will always fail...
3. A abandoned repentance. (6:7-11)
• A true faith changes our lives. It transforms us from whore to bride. More that a change of outer garments. It changes our hearts, our relationship, our source of joy. 
• This is the result of false repentance. God will expose our hearts.
• v.10 God says, "I have seen a horrible thing. Ephraim's whoredom is there; Israel is defiled."
• "When I restore the fortunes of my people." v.11 The restoration is coming, but will we be there with a repentant heart, or will we be left to our own whoredom?