Key Truth: God longs for us to know Him as our redeeming savior so that we would flourish in resurrected newness of life.

Introduction:

Q: What kind of life are you cultivating?

A Redeeming Savior or A Beastly Tyrant?:

Hosea 13:4-9: 

“…in the passage before us, the prophet, having represented the ten tribes as increasingly shameless in their idolatries, declares from God, that they shall pass away like the morning cloud, or early dew, and that, like chaff from a threshing-floor, or smoke from a chimney, they shall be scattered as with a whirlwind over the face of the whole earth. But still, as though God repented of denouncing so heavy a judgment against them, he addresses them with tender pity; “Yet I am the Lord thy God
from the land of Egypt; and thou shalt know no god before me; for there is no Saviour beside me:” that is, “I can never forget the relation which I bear towards thee; and I am as willing as ever to bestow on thee all the blessings of salvation, if only thou wilt banish from thee those rivals which have provoked me to jealousy.”

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

Q: Would you prefer to deal with God as a redeeming savior or as a beastly tyrant? Which are you cultivating with how you currently live? What role are the means of grace playing in this process?

A Fruitless Death or Flourishing in Resurrected Newness of Life?:

Hosea 13:10-16: 

“The sum and substance of all is this, Though Ephraim has been an unwise son, and has delayed his returning unto (God), yet his impenitency and security shall not retard or disannul (His) faithfulness
and truth to (His) people, (God) will never repent of those gracious promises which (He has) made to them, but will certainly fulfill them. Let not therefore (His) chosen, penitent ones despair as if there were no hope, no help for them; for, (God), their Saviour, will redeem them from the power of all their enemies, and cause them to rise from death (which had power over them through sin) to the glory of eternal life. So that now they may begin their triumphant song, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

Jeremiah Burroughs, An Exposition of the Prophecy of Hosea

Q: Would you prefer a fruitless death or flourishing in resurrected newness of life? Which are you cultivating with how you currently live? What role are the means of grace playing in this process?

Hosea 13:4-16 teaches us that:
-God will deal with us either as a redeeming savior or a beastly tyrant
-our lives will result in either a fruitless death or flourishing in resurrected newness of life