As representatives of God himself in the home, school, government, and church, it is our right and our responsibility to discipline those who sin in order to bring them to repentance and to correct their attitudes and behavior.
Proverbs 29:17ff
17 Discipline your son, and he will give you peace;he will bring delight to your soul. 18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.19 A servant cannot be corrected by mere words; though he understands, he will not respond.

Now, there are many ways to discipline those who need it. We don’t have time this morning to go into great detail about all the pros and cons of the various ways that people exact discipline. I will list just a
few with no comment on which is most effective or which I would suggest.
For example: Some parents discipline their children by yelling at them, scolding them, spanking them, sending them to their room, withdrawing privileges, or refusing to wash their clothes or cook their meals until they change their attitude.
The government disciplines people by fining them, putting them in jail, withdrawing certain rights, putting people on probation, or in some cases capital punishment.
It would be a long, involved, and perhaps fruitful discussion to explore all the methods of discipline that have been used throughout time and to evaluate the effectiveness and purpose of each. But we
don’t have time for that right now.

I would like to focus on one form of discipline, however, that God himself uses with great effectiveness. Keep in mind that this is not the only method of discipline he uses.

In our text from Hosea 5:15, what did the Lord say he would do to discipline his people who were notorious for the
Material prosperity and spiritual bankruptcy which characterized the time under Jeroboam II (782-753)?

Then I will go back to my place
until they admit their guilt.

The Lord was going to withdraw his love and the demonstrations of his love from them. The Lord Disciplines Sinners by Withdrawing from Them.
1. He does this so that we will recognize the seriousness of our sins.
2. He does this so that we will turn back to him.
3. He restores those who do return to him.

Hosea was an Old Testament prophet who lived in Israel about 700 years before Jesus. He had a tumultuous home life. His wife, Gomer, had been unfaithful to him. (This illustrates how the people of Israel had been unfaithful to their God.) Even so, Hosea had forgiven his repentant wife and she
was allowed to come back to him. (This was a picture of how God let his unfaithful people return to him.)

Hosea warned the Israelites that God would remove his presence from them which is indeed what the Lord did. In 722 BC God allowed the Assyrians to destroy Samaria, the capital of Israel, and many of
its inhabitants were exiled. God has left them. He did not protect them, did not prosper them, he did not let his grace shine on them.

This was a form of discipline that God still uses today at times. At times God removes the evidence of his love from those who have turned their backs on him. He disciplines us by withholding blessings.
This was a very common method of discipline in biblical times. One example that is used is found in Malachi 1 when God warns what he will do to those who are stingy in their offerings:
6“I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are
robbing me. 10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out
so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. 11I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. 12“Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

Lesson: Those who continue to sin against God and refuse to repent will forfeit earthly blessings and will eventually forfeit the blessing of heaven. God will punish those who have rejected him by
banishing them to hell which is the ultimate withdrawal of his favor in a very real and painful place.

Illustration: We see a slight example of this type of discipline when a school withdraws privileges from students or parents don’t let their children play certain things because they are disobedient. The congregation which is intent on disciplining its members will also do this by refusing impenitent sinners
access to the Lord’s Supper or when the church does not pronounce forgiveness on them.

Why does God discipline in this way? It is not because he takes delight in holding back. In fact, he is more ready to give than to not give. But he does this because he realizes what effect not blessing
someone can have on someone who needs correction. He does this so that the sinner will recognize the seriousness of his sin.

Jesus illustrates this in the Parable of the Lost Son. That young man had wasted his father’s possessions and subsequently had nothing. In his poverty (which illustrates a life impoverished by a lack of God’s blessings) he realized what a sinner he had been and confessed his sin.

Lesson: God will directly or indirectly withhold his blessings from us at times. Those who are not generous and in turn are missing out on blessing from God should realize the connection that God himself has made and realize they are robbing God. Those who disobey their parents and have parents who restrict their activities should realize its time they obeyed their parents. The member who refuses to darken the door of the church for years and then wonders why the church isn’t there for them should
make the connection that it was because of their own negligence.

Transition: But just recognizing the seriousness of our sin isn’t enough. Even Judas recognized his sin of betraying Jesus. God wants us to confess our sins and . . .
2. Turn Back to God

15 Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me.”1 Come, let us return to the LORD.

Elsewhere the Lord commands us in Isaiah 55 and about 20 other passages to
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found;call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts.Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

Again we have the picture of the Lost Son who turned back to the Father on whom he had previously turned his back. We have Peter who had denied Jesus but then who sought his forgiveness. We have the tax collectors and sinners who turned to Jesus. We have the thief on the cross. We have the man in
Corinthians who had been expelled from the congregation but who then turned back to the Lord.

Application: If you are experiencing a temporary withdrawal of God’s blessings right now because you have been disobedient and have turned your back on the Lord, use this discipline to recognize your sins, confess them to the Lord, and return to him with humble and penitent heart.

Transition: For those who return to him, the Lord promises to forgive and to restore his favor.

3. He restores those who do return to him.

He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us;
he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us,that we may live in his presence.
3 Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear;he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”

I hope that those who disciplined you in love have shown the same forgiveness when you have learned your lesson. I would think that if your parents had withdrawn privileges from you, that you did get
them back. Think about that just a little bit in case you doubt that God doesn’t love those whom he withdraws from. Did your parents still love you even if you were sent to your room? Isn’t it true that they still loved you even though they disciplined you in this way as they though best? Of course it is.