The Loving Heart of God

Passage: Hosea 11

-Recap of last week

The more God blessed the people of Israel the more they misused it and built alters for Baal

We don’t take serious the gathering of believers in worship and community

The tong exist to reveal the heart (calvin)

The focus should be on Jesus transforming our heart more and growing in grace

Whens the last time you wept over your sin?

Your being prideful when you won’t feel the weight of your sin and don’t lose sight of how capable you are to sin.

The best place we can be is in the hands of The Lord. (vs.3-4)

So often we can neglect giving God credit for what he has done and is doing for us. God does so much for us that often we are not aware of, just like the people in Israel that didn’t even know it was him that healed them and took them by the arms.

Often we attribute blessings directly from the hand of God to some other source. We naturally like to attribute blessings to our hard working hands or our ability to make it happen because that is the american way. Forgetting that if God took his hands off of us for one second we would be in trouble.

I love what Voddie Baucham said and quote “Do you know it was His mercy that woke you up this morning? Because His judgement should’ve killed you last night”.

The people in Israel were face to face with the judgement of God but it was always undergirded by the grace and mercy of God. We see in this passage how much God loved his people then and in Christ we see now how much he loves his people.

We now as believers in Christ don’t have to fear the judgement of God because Christ is our propitiation meaning he absorbed the judgement and wrath of God at the cross.

The people of Israel were very much quick to forget the faithfulness of Yahweh.

Look again at Hosea 11:4 “I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.”

We see the tender love and the Father heart of God here. Even in vs.3 where it says “I took them up by their arms”. I think of how it is when are teaching a 1 year old how to walk.

I remember when we were teaching Ezra how to walk it seemed like he was never going to start walking but the one thing I would do was gently hold his hand and lead the way and walk with him while he would try to take those steps.

This is the picture we see painted in verse 4 God leads us and grabs us by the arm and walks with us no matter how ugly the walk looks and how ugly gets. He stays gracious, he stays patient, and he never stops walking with us.

There have been many times in my life where my walk was ugly, a whole lot of wobbles, a whole lot of falling and getting back up and to be honest this the picture of my walk now I can only speak for me yall might be super saved but for me I need God to grab me by the arm and lead the way and to constantly teach me how to walk and to help me get up when I fall.

This is also the way salvation works apart from the saving work of Christ he has to do it all.

Ephesians 2:1 says that you were νεκρος (nekros) which literally translate to ineffective body, corpse, lifeless body.

Ezekiel 37:1-6 “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.””

God is responsible for our salvation and our sanctification we need him in every aspect of the christian life and just like the people of Israel that Hosea is written to we forget very easily.

A friend of mine that host the podcast theocast pastor Jon Moffitt said “God does not trust us to justify ourselves, sanctify ourselves, or glorify ourselves. So he does it for us”.

God is merciful (vs. 8-9)

In verse 8 it mentions two cities it mentions Admah and Zeboiim. These are two of the cities that were destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:24-29 when God rained sulfur and fire from heaven.

Most people know about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah but if you don’t there was blatant sin going on that we don’t have time to go into detail on but God mercifully spared some and lit the whole city on fire. And the way the people of Israel were living deserved the same thing.

We live in a culture where everyone wants justice, everyone wants to ball there fist in the air and fight for there rights and scream for justice. You don’t truly want justice because justice would be God lighting america on fire. You want mercy you don’t want justice.

A good Judge in court seeks justice and has to do whats right no matter what. No one can stand before God with a posture of wanting Justice you want mercy.

This is why the gospel is so good because the justice of God was not placed on the guilty (you and I) the justice of God was placed on the innocent Jesus Christ. Cruxifuiction was always meant for the guilty but when you look at The cross it was the innocent that took the on the justice of God and the charge of the guilty.

This is why the gospel must be preached every week. This is why the gospel is just as much for the believer as it is the lost because we need to be constantly reminded of this truth because this is the only place where we can find peace and rest.

If you don’t know what the gospel is or if someone ask you what the gospel is and you need a quick go to verse well you better run as fast as you can to what the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

This is the beauty of the gospel and the beauty of being a christian because in the christian faith the savior is treated as the guilty and the guilty is treated as innocent. This is why we harp about resting in Christ. Your position as innocent, spotless, holy, righteous, blameless can’t be lost despite your sin because you did nothing to earn it. Jesus paid it all and we rest in that. It is from this place of rest that we can live a guilt free life of constantly pursing to live a holy and righteous life and no matter how much we get it wrong we can get back up again and keep going.

At the end of verse 8 when it says “My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender” that is what should make you fall to your knees because that is the posture of The Father to those whom are in Christ.

Despite the idolatry of the people of Israel God’s heart recoils for them and His compassion grows warm and tender.

Make no mistake about it God has a righteous anger toward sin he hates sin because he is holy. Just as much as he hates sin he loves his people and has compassion towards them and is tender with them.

God has a heart of compassion towards you church. He has a heart for you that is tender and warm despite your sin. His grace and mercy is everlasting for the believer.

Look at verse 9 it says “I will NOT execute my burning anger I will not again destroy Ephraim”. That is mercy I never want to be on the side of things where God’s burning anger is I don’t want that smoke and thank you Jesus that in him I will never have to face that.

Israel because of there sin deserved to be destroyed but God did not wipe out Isreal. He leaves a remnant, and eventually restore the nation.

His mercy always triumphant over his judgement and we ought to be very glad. I love what the apostle Paul says in Romans 5:20 “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,”

We can find rest in Christ because in him there is a infinite fountain of mercy and grace

This thought comes full circle when you look at the end of verse 9 when it says “for I am God and not a man”. Be glad God is nothing like us. I’m petty my flesh enjoys vengeance. The part of be that is still being sanctified is petty is not as nice as God is. We love to remember what people have done and hold it over their heads but God is not like that. We keep receipts of the wrong people have done but the bible says in Psalm 103:8-12 “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”

In Charles Spurgeons commentary on vs 9 listen to what he says here about the many differences between God and man in the matter of mercy and forgiveness:

· Man cannot hold back his anger very long.

· Man cannot bear with others when he is tired, stressed, or annoyed.

· Man will not reconcile if the person who offended him is a person of bad character.

· Man is often only willing to be reconciled if the offending party craves forgiveness and makes the first move.

· Man is often only willing to be reconciled if the offending party will never again do the wrong.

· Man, when he does reconcile, does not lift the former offender to place of high status and partnership.

· Man, when he is wronged, does not bear all the penalty for the wrong done.

· Man, when he attempts reconciliation, will not continue if he is rejected.

· Man will not restore an offender without a period of probation

· Man will not love, adopt, honor, and associate with one who has wronged him.

· Man will not trust someone who has formerly wronged them.

Charles Spurgeon goes on to say that “Suppose that someone had grievously offended any one of you, and that he asked your forgiveness, do you not think that you would probably say to him, ‘Well, yes, I forgive you; but I – I – I – cannot forget it’? Ah! dear friends, that is a sort of forgiveness with one leg chopped off, it is a lame forgiveness, and is not worth much”

3. Keep walking with Jesus (vs. 12)

Despite the state of Israel God still showed mercy and grace. No matter where you are on your grace journey you may feel like you are not where your suppose to be or where you want to be spiritually you can unashamedly and guilt freely walk with Jesus.

The enemy loves it when we are not walking with Jesus because he knows all that we have in Christ.

Charles Spurgeon said in a sermon on Ephesians 2:20 that “We write Jesus name upon our banner, for it is hells terror, heaven’s delight and earth’s hope”.

No matter where you are right now in your grace journey you can keep walking with Jesus. Oswald Chambers said “Jesus Christ reveals, not an embarrassed God, not a confused God, not a God who stands apart from the problems, but one who stands in the thick of the whole thing”.

He is with you family keep clinging to Jesus with him is the best place you can be without worry or judgement. In His sermon titled “The Sparrow and The Swallow” Spurgeon said “He that believes in Jesus is safe forever”.