The Incomparable Love of God

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The Incomparable Love of God
Hosea 1:1-2:1
January 3, 2020 - FBCG
How do you live in an age of great wealth and prosperity?
If you do not have great wealth and prosperity, how do you live in a culture that is certainly preoccupied with wealth and prosperity?
How do you live in an age where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?
How do you live in an age where technology is advancing faster than you are able to gain wisdom to manage it?
How do you live in an age where it is okay to be spiritual and have faith, as long as it is kept private and never shared?
How do you live in an age where politics is so tribal and so full of fighting?
How do you live in an age where the corruption of religious leaders hits the headlines almost every week?
Now you may be wondering why I am asking these questions
The fact is, while I just described our current cultural context it was also Hosea’s.
Hosea ministered in the northern kingdom of Israel, aka: Samaria or Ephraim.
These were the problems he dealt with as a prophet.
However, the people were not wrestling with the questions about how to obey God, they had actually already walked away from their covenant relationship with God.
Where is our culture right now.?
Statistically, we have walked away from God.
By percentage we are NOT a Christian nation.
By percentage the residents of the United States of America no longer believe in 1 God
By percentage the residents of the United States of America no longer worship, serve, or obey God.
This is the cultural context that God called Hosea to preach repentance.
This is the cultural context that God has called us to preach, teach, and live out repentance by faith, leading to obedience to the ONE true God.
Hosea’s life and ministry was a hard one.
We might even say it was an R-rated one.
Let me give a word of caution to parents of small children.
There will be some words many young children will not understand.
We will even encounter some vulgar words in this book.
There is no way to sanitize the language.
So, you will want to explain to your children what they are hearing and reading in Hosea and the significance of the message.
The fact is, the Bible doesn’t stray away from hard issues.
It does not beat around the bush.
It gets straight to the point.
Gets right in our face and confronts us with the truth.
So, let me introduce you to Hosea.
READ chapter 1
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel.
2 When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, He said this to him:
Go and marry a promiscuous wife
and have children of promiscuity,
for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity
by abandoning the Lord.
3 So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the Lord said to him:
Name him Jezreel, for in a little while
I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel
on the house of Jehu
and put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
5 On that day I will break the bow of Israel
in the Valley of Jezreel. m
6 She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter, and the Lord said to him:
Name her No Compassion,
for I will no longer have compassion
on the house of Israel.
I will certainly take them away.
7 But I will have compassion on the house of Judah,
and I will deliver them by the Lord their God.
I will not deliver them by bow, sword, or war,
or by horses and cavalry.
8 After Gomer had weaned No Compassion, she conceived and gave birth to a son. 9 Then the Lord said:
Name him Not My People,
for you are not My people,
and I will not be your God. t
10  Yet the number of the Israelites
will be like the sand of the sea,
which cannot be measured or counted.
And in the place where they were told:
You are not My people,
they will be called: Sons of the living God.
11 And the Judeans and the Israelites
will be gathered together.
They will appoint for themselves a single ruler
and go up from the land.
For the day of Jezreel will be great.
2 Call your brothers: My People
and your sisters: Compassion.
First of all, we do not really know much more about Hosea’s background than is mentioned in Hosea 1:1.
He was the son of Beeri.
Hosea’s name means Salvation.
Hosea is actually the shortened version of Joshua.
Joshua is also the Hebrew version of Jesus.
From the beginning of this book we learn that names have very important meanings.
They always do in Hebrew culture but here it is particularly significant. The connection of Hosea’s name to Jesus is no accident.
Hosea is the prophet that is preaching about the incomparable saving love of God.
This is the same message that we have to be sharing within current culture.
I cannot share the gospel in a different culture.
v. 1 says the word of the LORD came to Hosea. Verse 1 uses God’s covenant name, Yahweh, and that sets the tone for the whole prophecy of Hosea.
Verse 1 also tells us that the word of the LORD came to Hosea in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
The four kings of Judah that are mentioned give us a span of about one hundred years.
What are we going to see in Hosea?
God called Hosea to marry a prostitute and he married a woman named Gomer.
Hosea’s life and ministry are a picture of God’s covenant marriage to the people of Israel.
Gomer bore Hosea children who represented God’s judgment on the people.
When you read this book you may wonder how God could call Hosea to marry a prostitute?
Jesus got in the trenches with His people.
He died on the cross for our sins and He was raised from the dead to purchase eternal life for His people who are spiritually adulterous.
The book of Hosea teaches us that God disciplines His people for their sin but He does not break His covenant promise to save them even after they break their promise to Him.
When I first realized that I was a sinner as a child, I had lied to my parents, I had coveted toys that my friends had, homes that they had, swimming pools that they had, I had stolen a candy bar from the grocery store.
Those are just a short list of the sins that I was aware that I had already committed.
Those sins are disobedient to the commands of God
Because of my sinfulness I deserve discipline.
My parents would discipline me with various things
Early bed time
No tv time
No video games
Maybe not outside play time
Or sleepovers at friends homes
Spankings
Time in my room to stare was the ceiling
Many forms of discipline were used
Those were the judgements carried out for the crimes I had committed.
God’s judgement is different
God’s righteous judgement does not take TV time away
God gives Grace to those who have believed in Jesus and repented of their sins
God gives Hell to those who have not believed in Jesus - that’s worse than taking tv time away or taking away your video game system
On a Sunday in January of 1988 I repented of my sins
I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins
I prayed and believed that Jesus is the son of God
I believed that Jesus died and rose again for my sins I confessed Jesus to be my Lord and my Savior
And the bible says,
you believe in your heart resulting in righteous
confess with your mouth resulting in salvation
But then I did something else
I promised to live for Him the rest of my life
I did not keep the promise
I failed that promise time and time again
Hosea is teaching us that God He does not break His covenant promise to save them even after they break their promise to live for Him.
Hosea is teaching/preaching that God keeps His covenant keeps HIs promise to His people even when it is at great cost to Himself.
It teaches us that God loves is an incomparable love that is displayed through Jesus Christ death on the cross and by His resurrection.
1. God choses a painful means for the salvation for His people (v. 2)
2 When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, He said this to him:
Go and marry a promiscuous wife
and have children of promiscuity,
for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity
by abandoning the Lord.
The beginning of v. 2 starts off pretty good.
It sounds like a typical call of God on the life of a prophet.
He was to marry a woman who was steeped in prostitution.
It was her operating system.
It was where she was most comfortable.
Hosea’s marriage to a prostitute was showing the drama between Yahweh and His people.
Israel had played the prostitute and abandoned God for idols.
They had abandoned God for pleasure
Abandoned God for convenience
Church
America has abandoned God for idols
For Pleasure
For Convenience
And guess what so have Christians
By their sin, Israel had become the harlot.
By their sin, American has become the harlot
By their sins, some Christians have become the harlot
Hosea’s marriage to Gomer was the drama of Yahweh’s marriage to Israel.
It is the drama scene between God and the Christian
2. Those who forsake the promise of God find only bloodshed (vv. 3-5)
3 So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the Lord said to him:
Name him Jezreel, for in a little while
I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel
on the house of Jehu
and put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
5 On that day I will break the bow of Israel
in the Valley of Jezreel.
Hosea obeyed the word of the LORD and he took Gomer, to be his wife.
Then we get nine months of time in the second half of the verse. She bore him a son and just like Hosea’s name is no accident, the name of his first-born son is no accident.
The LORD told him to name him Jezreel.
Before you think Jehu was a good guy, he was not.
In the beginning, Jehu opposed worship of Baal and worked to remove the pagan religion but then he went back to worshipping Baal.
He began to build pagan temples and led the people into sin.
His reign would meet the same bloody end because of his unfaithfulness to Yahweh.
So, in v. 5, Yahweh says Jehu and all of Israel will be judged for their idolatry and again it will happen in the Valley of Jezreel.
So, to drive Yahweh’s point home, He had Hosea name his firstborn bloodshed.
This child’s name preached a sermon on judgment.
Think about it, anytime anyone said or heard said Hosea’s son’s name—Jezreel—they were reminded of the coming judgment.
Friends, this was not only the verdict for Israel’s sin but it is the judgment of all of our sin.
Your sins my sins will be judged
Hebrews 9:22 says, “. . . without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
Someone is going to have to pay for sin and it will be paid for by the shedding of blood.
3. Those who forsake the promise of God find no mercy (vv. 6-7)
6 She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter, and the Lord said to him:
Name her No Compassion,
for I will no longer have compassion
on the house of Israel.
I will certainly take them away.
7 But I will have compassion on the house of Judah,
and I will deliver them by the Lord their God.
I will not deliver them by bow, sword, or war,
or by horses and cavalry.
The names of Hosea’s children seem to go from bad too worse and we are only on the second one.
Again, we have nine months in one verse. This time Gomer give birth to a daughter and Hosea names her Lo-Ruhamah.
Lo” is the Hebrew word for “no” or “not.”
Ruhamah describes tender feelings of compassion.
The ESV translates the daughter’s name No-Mercy.
The HCSB translates the daughter’s name No-Compassion
I have heard of girls named Mercy but never No-Mercy.
We have Mercy Hospitals, but I don’t think I would want to check in at No-Mercy hospital.
Essentially what we see in v. 6 is that Yahweh’s patience had run out.
So, while Yahweh is slow to anger and long suffering, His patience will come to an end and it had come to an end with Israel.
Yet, v. 7, says He will show mercy to Judah.
It may seem strange that Yahweh would show mercy to Judah when they had not been much better.
However, the bottom line is that Judah is the nation through which the promise of salvation was going to come.
If there is no mercy for those who forsake God’s promise, how can we find any hope of salvation?
The only way to understand why Yahweh would save anyone is to look to the cross.
There is a time coming when Yahweh will execute judgment without mercy and mercy without judgment.
Those who receive mercy without judgment are the ones who have trusted in the shed blood and resurrection of the True Hosea, Jesus Christ.
Those who receive judgment without mercy are the ones who reject the shed blood of the True Hosea, Jesus Christ.
Those who reject Christ will be in the ultimate Valley of Jezreel when Jesus returns.
4. Those who forsake the promise of God are disowned (vv. 8-9)
8 After Gomer had weaned No Compassion, she conceived and gave birth to a son. 9 Then the Lord said:
Name him Not My People,
for you are not My people,
and I will not be your God. t
The name of Hosea’s third and final child brings full circle the cycle of judgment.
First is bloodshed, then there is No Compassion, and the final result of judgment is that Israel is not my people or Lo-ammi.
In other words, Israel is no longer the people of God.
Judgment has now worked God’s promise to God’s people in reverse.
This is what sin does.
It destroys, it corrupts, it kills, and it has now severed Israel’s relationship with God.
Instead of Yahweh making a promise of blessing He has promised judgment.
Instead of Him setting His love on Israel, He has removed His love and now instead of Him saying, “I am your God and you are My people.”
He now says I am not your God and you are not My people.
This is Hosea’s version of Romans 1 where the Apostle Paul says
21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
24 Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts
Let’s apply vv. 2-9.
Hosea’s life and ministry remind us that there is an ultimate judgment coming.
Assyria was a drop in the bucket compared to eternity in Hell.
Hosea reminds that there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood.
This means if we miss the Ultimate Hosea then we will be the ones to pay for our own sin and there will be no compassion for those who are not God’s people.
Christ calls to you to come to Him so He can lead you to safety.
He calls you to find satisfaction in Him alone.
Do not wait.
Let today be the day of salvation for you.
5. Good news! God keeps His promises even to those who can’t keep theirs (Hosea 1:10-2:1)
10  Yet the number of the Israelites
will be like the sand of the sea,
which cannot be measured or counted.
And in the place where they were told:
You are not My people,
they will be called: Sons of the living God.
11 And the Judeans and the Israelites
will be gathered together.
They will appoint for themselves a single ruler
and go up from the land.
For the day of Jezreel will be great.
2 Call your brothers: My People
and your sisters: Compassion.
When we get to these last three verses there is a shift.
The narrative firmly shifts from Hosea, his marriage, and his children to Yahweh and the restoration of His covenant relationship with His people.
In fact this shift happens often in this book.
Yahweh is angry and grieved over the unfaithfulness of His people yet, He loves them - He loves us.
Even in our sin, Yahweh has tender compassion on His chosen people.
Even though we have sinned over and over again, He keeps His covenant - the New Covenant established by His blood.
These last three verses are tremendous news for us!
God keeps His promises to those who cannot keep theirs.
This is the best news of all because as we work through Hosea we will find ourselves in Gomer, Jezreel, No Compassion, and Not My People.
If you came here this morning, and you struggle to forget your failures in the past and you feel like you don’t measure up in the present because of your sin and you fear what you are capable of in the future, then Hosea will feel like drinking from the deep well of cool water of God’s love.
God keeps His promises to those who cannot keep theirs.
God’s love is incomparable church
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