Hosea 11

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Isaiah 55:6-7
• Hymn — My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less (#521)
• Westminster Shorter Catechism — Questions 49 & 50 (Second Commandment)
• Hymn — The Sands of Time Are Sinking (#564)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Hosea 11:1-11
• Sermon
• Hymn — Amazing Grace (#460)
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Love That Brings You All the Way Home

Scripture: Hosea 11:1-11

I. The Lord Calls

A. His calling is adoptive in character

1. The exodus redeems Israel not merely in location but in status — from slaves to the Lord's adopted son
2. The calling draws distinctions, singling out the covenant people as his own
3. Illustrated by Jean Valjean's redemption and adoption of Cosette in Les Misérables

B. His calling is according to his love, not Israel's merit — Hosea 11:1

1. Deuteronomy 7:7-9 — Israel was not chosen because of size, loveliness, or righteousness
2. Verses 2, 5, and 7 show Israel's continual rebellion and unfaithfulness
3. The Lord's foreknowledge in Romans 8:29-30 means fore-love — election is grounded in his love, not foreseen faith
4. Calling to faith brings adoption as joint heirs with Christ with all the rights and privileges of sonship

II. The Lord Cultivates

A. He cultivates as a teaching and tender father — Hosea 11:3

1. The image of a father patiently teaching a young child to walk
2. The Lord is personally and closely engaged in bringing his people to full maturity

B. He cultivates as a restraining and nourishing farmer — Hosea 11:4

1. The Hebrew imagery of cords and leather straps guiding a farm animal
2. The farmer is not harsh but guides, provides, and eases the yoke; he bends down to feed
3. Together the two metaphors portray a God who deeply cares and works to bring his people into their fullness

C. This cultivating work is sanctification

1. Forming new habits, desires, affections, and attitudes — conformity to God's holy law
2. Paul says Christ is being formed in the believer (Galatians 4:19)
3. Means of grace: faithful preaching of the Word, proper administration of the sacraments, corporate prayer, the fellowship of believers, and church discipline
4. Hebrews 12:6 — the Lord disciplines those he loves and chastises every son he receives

III. The Lord Keeps

A. He keeps through the full measure of his unceasing love — Hosea 11:8-9

1. Admah and Zeboiim are cities destroyed alongside Sodom and Gomorrah for sin
2. Israel deserves the same total judgment, yet the Lord's heart recoils and his compassion grows warm
3. This language is anthropopathism — God describing himself in emotional terms for the benefit of his people; Scripture must interpret Scripture; God is immutable and unchanging
4. As Derek Kidner notes, this language never takes the warmth from love, the fire from anger, or the audacity from grace
5. The burning anger Israel deserves is not withheld forever but is poured out fully on Christ — the call is to come to him and cling to him in faith

B. He keeps toward the full maturity of his people — Hosea 11:10-11

1. The final metaphor: the Lord as a roaring lion — powerful, commanding reverence and worship
2. His roar does not drive his people away but draws them; it is a fear that woos and humbles
3. His people come as trembling birds — small and fragile — responding to the call of the lion
4. Growth in grace means growing in the knowledge of who we are (fragile birds) and who he is (the roaring lion)
5. Sin tempts us to fancy ourselves the lion of our own lives; maturity strips that away

C. The destination: the Lord brings his people home

1. The promise to return them to their homes points beyond the land of Canaan
2. Hebrews 11:16 — a better country, a heavenly one; the Promised Land was always a type of the eternal home
3. He calls, cultivates, and keeps — fitting his people for that home all along the way