Well, how well do we as Christians know God? I suppose that's a pretty big question, isn't it, for a Sunday morning? A Christian, unlike those around us, claims to have a relationship with the Almighty, don't we? So I wonder, Christian friend, do you know what God is like? But maybe you're not a believer here this morning and you're under the mistaken belief that God is unknowable. Perhaps you consider yourself an agnostic and God is so far above us, he's so mighty and astonishing that we can't possibly begin to comprehend him. Or perhaps you've come here this morning with a negative view of God. Maybe to you he's the bearded old man in the sky and he started the universe into existence but then he just let it go and let it unwind. and he's certainly not really interested in what happens on earth and he's certainly not interested in you, you think. Or perhaps like Stephen Fry and other militant atheists who claim they don't believe in God, perhaps you've got beef with God. You think if there is a God, well he ain't very clever and you'd do a better job. Why does he allow pain and suffering and death and war and destruction? Well look, let me assure you this morning there is a God and He is knowable and He is worth knowing. We as Christians believe in the triune God, don't we? The God of the Bible. We believe there's one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And most of us I hope have a pretty good grasp of what God the Son is like. We have the Gospels, we know what Jesus is like. But God the Father, Perhaps we struggle a little harder to get to grips with Him. Well actually our passage here in Hosea is one of the most revealing passages in the whole of the Old Testament when it comes to the person of God the Father. This passage beautifully illustrates what God our Father is like. And that's the title of our sermon, the question we're going to answer. What is our Heavenly Father like? I recognize I'm throwing us in at the deep end of Hosea. So for context, all we need to know are three things. First thing, at this point in Israel's history, the nation's divided into two kingdoms. You've got the ten tribes in the north, the two tribes in the south, Benjamin and Judah. Hosea prophesies first and foremost to the people in the north, the ten northern tribes. They're referred to as Israel or Ephraim. That's their sort of catch term for them. Thirdly, Hosea's basic message is, unsurprisingly, you're heading for destruction. The Assyrian Empire is going to invade the land and he's going to wipe you off the face of the earth. Well, why? Why would God do this to them? Well, it's that old chestnut of idolatry. The northern tribes have abandoned Yahweh, they've deserted the temple in Jerusalem, and instead they're worshipping a golden calf in Bethel, and they sacrifice to Baal everywhere else. God sees Israel as his child, but this particular son has gone off the rails. So what has God got to say to him? And what do we learn about God the father in the process? What is our heavenly father like? So we got four points this morning and we'll draw our lessons as we go. First thing we find out about our father is that he is a tender father, verses one to four. When Israel was a child, I loved him and out of Egypt, I called my son. God had chosen this little family from among all the people of the earth. He'd chosen Abraham alone, and he said, Abraham, your offspring are going to be my offspring. God had adopted this nation. They'd become his children. And this is why he can't leave them as slaves in Egypt. So listen to Exodus 4 verse 22, God tells Moses, say to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says, Israel is my firstborn son and I told you let my son go so that he may worship me. So dads, if one of your kids was being beaten up every morning on his way to school by a bully, well you'd make sure you met that bully, wouldn't you? And back in the old days, you'd give them a clip round the ear and protect your son. Well, that's what God had done as he rescued his beloved son from Egypt. He'd smacked the Egyptians round the ear, so to speak. Verse 2, the more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Sadly, it doesn't take long for the rescued son to rebel against his loving father. And this is what toddlers do, isn't it? I used to clean up at the Mums and Tots group at Kenton, and there was this lovely little girl, she was called Luna, she was only two. But as soon as I'd cleared enough space in the hall, she would make a beeline for the back room. I don't know what was out there that intrigued her so much, but as soon as she could, she'd get up and start running towards the hall. And Grandma would call out, no, Luna, stop, stop. But the more Granny called out, well, the faster little Luna ran, or she'd get frightened and run even faster. And this is how Israel had acted. As soon as their rescue from Egypt was over, as soon as they entered the land, the promised land, they ran away from their father and they worshipped Baal and they worshipped golden calves. But now look at God's tenderness in verse 3. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up by their arms. Well, my little daughter Ella, who's one, she just started walking this week. And what do you do when a baby's trying to walk? Well, you take them by the hand, don't you? And you just lead them, and they sort of stumble, and they're all happy. And you lift them up, and you're gentle with them. You don't walk them out into the middle of the high street so they get run over. You lead them safely to the sofa. And that's what God had done for Israel. He'd taken them gently by his hands, he'd lifted them up tenderly from Egypt, and he led them to safety. But they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with bands of love. So imagine, little Clive falls off his bike and he grazes his knee. And it's one of those nasty grazes with a grit in it. It's horrible. But what does that do? Well, he picks Clive up, And he carries him to where it's safe. And he doesn't just rescue him, but he ensures that his son's healed. He gets the antiseptic wipe and clears the grit out of it and puts a plaster on. That's what God does. He picks up his children and he doesn't just rescue them, he ensures that they're healed. He didn't just rescue the Israelites from Egypt, he permanently destroyed their enemies. Pharaoh's army and his chariots were drowned in the sea. And He didn't just lead the children of Israel to safety. He led them to Canaan, the promised land. A beautiful land. A land flowing with milk and honey. A land of plenty. A land of vineyards and rivers. A land of rest and healing. But, God says, they did not know that I healed them. They didn't acknowledge me. They took Him for granted. There was no thanks whatsoever. Look at the end of verse 4. And I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them. Now the NIV translates it like this, and I think this is amazing. It says, to them, I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them. Now you know with a baby, what do you do with a baby? Babies are cute, aren't they? So you get your baby, and you just put their little face on your face, and you give them a kiss. That's what I do to my daughter. and you just enjoy them, you enjoy their presence and they grab hold of your little finger and you're welling up inside. A Christian friend, this is how God deals with his people. This is what the Father's like, he picks up Israel and he tenderly puts her to his cheek and he's in an intimate relationship with her. And Christian friend, I think this is really important that we recognise the tenderness of the Father. I think that when I was younger I used to have the idea of God the Father being the angry person of the Trinity. God the Father is so angry with sin, he's going to dish out the punishment. You see in the Old Testament, balls of fire are burning people to the ground. And it's Jesus, he's the gracious one. Maybe there's still a bit of that idea in us today. We imagine God the Father as completely unapproachable and distant. Perhaps you've got the idea that God's like an over-enthusiastic school prefect. So when I was at school, some of the boys who became prefects, the power went to their heads, and they suddenly, they got little gold buttons when I was at school, little gold buttons, and they were suddenly, they became little dictators, and they'd see a little year seven running around with the wrong socks on or something, and they'd haul him before the deputy heads. They dragged these poor little helpless kids off. And is that how we see God the Father? He's cold, he's brutal. As if he's up there saying, I knew that Christian would mess up and now I'm going to smash him. Well understand the intimate relationship we have. with God. Every time I'm handed my daughter Ella, I can't help myself, I've got to kiss her little cheeks and smell her little heads and hold her little hands. I'd do anything for her. And that's how God sees every single one of his children here this morning. You're more precious to him than all the riches of the universe. And one day he's going to reform the universe for us. And look, if you're not a child of God this morning, if you're not a Christian, understand this, God warmly invites you into this close relationship. You can get to know Him, He is knowable. You can have this. Come to the Father through Jesus the Son. Second thing we see is a broken-hearted father, verses 5 to 8. Because Israel has gone off the rails, because the son has gone after idols, there are consequences. And these verses are about punishment then. But the tone is one of sorrow. This is not an angry father who's lost his temper and he's now beating his son. No, these are the groans of a dad who watches his son driven away in the back of a police van. Verse 5, They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they've refused to return to me. The Israelites used to be slaves in Egypt, but they're not going back there, says God, now they're going to Assyria to be slaves. Verse six, the sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels. Little kids often have big plans, don't they? My Harry's always telling me that when he gets older he wants to actually recreate Jurassic Park. He's going to be real dinosaurs and everything. He's got big plans. But the problem with Israel's plans is that they didn't involve their father God. They didn't go to him for advice. They didn't follow his law for guidance. They simply sought counsel from one another. So God was going to bring their schemes to an end. Verse 7, my people are bent on turning away from me. And though they call out to the Most High, He shall not raise them up at all. Well what's going on here? Are the Israelites calling out to their Father and He's simply ignoring them? Is God being mean? He claims to be a good Father but they're crying out and He's just saying no. Well that's not it at all. Harry's quite a character and of late, my son Harry, he's eight. And when I walk into a room now, for a laugh, he'll shout, Stevie, Stevie! And he's calling his father by name, isn't he? And I'll say, hello son, cheeky boy, something like that. Well, the Israelites, they're not calling out to God by name. They're not calling out to the right father. They're not calling to Yahweh. When it says the most high here, they're calling out to their most high, Baal. They're calling out, Baal, hear us, save us, keep us. They're calling out to the wrong master. So the real master, their father, will not come to their aid. If Harry calls out to Dave, well Steve isn't gonna come to help him, is he? And so idolatry has created a rift, a schism, in the relationship between father and son. But as I said, God is not happy with this state of affairs. So look at verse 8. He's broken hearted. And we start to hear the father's anguish. And he begins to question himself. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? You're my adopted son and I love you, but it's like now God's got to take him back to the orphanage. The child's too feral to survive in a normal family. How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zebi'im? Now Admah and Zebi'im were two of the five cities destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. Cities that were wiped off the face of the earth. And now as God sees the northern tribes heading to exactly the same fate, well his heart is broken. Would you remember back in 2011 when Osama bin Laden was tracked down and dispatched by American special forces? And Obama came out onto his standing and he said, we got him. And outside the gates of the White House, well, there were happy and jubilant Americans. They were waving their stars and stripes and they were chanting, USA. It was all good. And they were jubilant because a terrorist had got his comeuppance. Well, is that what God does when sinful people die and are punished? Does he rub his hands with glee when people are sent to hell? Is there flag waving in heaven when someone, even someone as despicable as Bin Laden or an ISIS terrorist is snuffed out? Well, Christian friend, understand this, and this might be hard for us to accept, God isn't like that. God is not like us. In fact, that's what he says in verse nine. He says, for I am God and not a man. He doesn't think like us, he doesn't act like us, and his emotions run deeper than ours. The pouring out of God's wrath is not something he relishes. And you might say, oh, but Steve, what about all those verses in Revelation? When, you know, Jesus is triumphant and he's stamping his enemies beneath his feet. and everyone's rejoicing. Well yeah, we will be rejoicing in heaven because the enemy's defeated and peace will finally cover the whole earth. But actually, that doesn't mean God is happy with the destruction of the wicked. Peace can only arrive when the wicked have been subdued, but God is not cruel. The executioner who pulls the lever on the gallows, he doesn't do so with a massive smile on his face, he's not a sadist. but he's committed to justice. And it's the same with God's. He's a compassionate, loving father. And our sin breaks his heart and he reluctantly punishes those who refuse to repent. And again, if you're not a believer here this morning, if you haven't repented, then you're on a collision course with God's. Don't force him to punish you. He doesn't want to do it. Instead, call out to Jesus and be saved. What is our father like? Well thirdly, he's a merciful father. Verses eight to nine. My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. So as God sends the Assyrians, he recoils, he doesn't want to do it. The father sees what's going to happen to the northern tribes and it hurts him. And again, Hosea paints a picture of a tug of war between the father's pursuit of justice and his need to be merciful. When God sees the punishment that he knows needs to be inflicted, he's conflicted. He says, all my compassion, he's aroused. And parents, you must have had this. You want to discipline your children, so you give them a smack or you take away their PlayStation or whatever. But then you see them broken-hearted, their little faces, it's like their world's falling apart. And your compassion wells up within you and you think, well, have I been too harsh? And you want to bless them, you want to hug them, but you know that for their own good you need to be firm. And verse 9's interesting, isn't it? It says, I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim. Now don't misread this, God is not saying that Israel isn't going to be punished. We know from history that they were. But he says he will be merciful. He's not going to blot out the northern tribes completely. A tiny, tiny remnant perhaps just a few families are going to remain. And I didn't realize this when I prepared this sermon. So 1 Chronicles 9 verse 1 to 3 says this, Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their breach of faith. Now the first to dwell again in their possessions in the cities were Israel, some northern tribes, the priests, the Levites, and the temple servants, and some of the people of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, some more of the northern tribes, and Manasseh lived in Jerusalem. It seems like some of the people listening to Hosea did repent and perhaps they went to live in Judah, they obeyed God's commands and they escaped the Assyrian destruction and their descendants, they were taken to Babylon in exile but eventually they returned with the rest of the Jews. But now back to Hosea, look at verse nine of 11. I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. Ask yourself, why does God show mercy to the northern tribes? Verse nine's interesting, as I said. He says, the reason I'm gonna show mercy is because God is holy. And that's a big surprise, isn't it? We normally associate God's holiness with His purity. We get that. God is pure and we're not. He can't be associated with sin, so we must punish it. But here, God's holiness is marked by His distinctiveness, His otherness. So to be holy means to be set apart, to be different. And as I said, normally we think of that difference concerning holiness and sin. God's nothing like us, we're sinful, he's holy. But here, holiness describes the distinction between our resentment and God's grace. In short, God is nothing like us when it comes to being wronged. That's the point, he says, I am God and not a man. That's why I'm merciful. See, what's our typical response when someone wrongs us? Well, we want to get revenge, don't we? We're ruthless when it comes to getting justice. We always want to get our own back. But the divine response, God's response to being wronged is to show mercy. to be gracious. So listen to what John Newton says, If we had offended men or angels as we have offended our Creator, and they had permission and power to punish us, our case would be utterly desperate. Only He who made us is able to bear with us. All the attributes of the infinite God must of course be equally infinite. As is His majesty, so is His mercy. We often think that God gets angry with people the way we get angry with people. So for example, if someone upsets you, you might give them the cold shoulder, not speak to them for a few months. But eventually, you probably forgot what they've done to you and you start talking to them anyway. And then we go back to normal. But God is much more serious about sin than we are. Sin doesn't fade from his memory. When we wrong him, he doesn't go into a bad mood and have to simmer down. No, God's anger is his constant, continued hatred of sin. But God is much more serious about forgiveness than we are. God's forgiveness is not based on how well you treat him. It's not based on how useful you are to his cause or his kingdom. And it's not based on the passing or passage of time. Gentlemen, sometimes when you upset your wife, you know you need to give her time and space before she forgives you. Let her calm down a bit. But not with God's. The Father is serious about mercy. It's part of his holy character. Thank God that he's nothing like us when it comes to mercy. He's set apart, he's holy. His mercy is reliable and sure. But I suppose that does leave us with an unresolved issue, doesn't it? Because there's a tension. We've got a father who hates sin and he must punish the guilty, even though it breaks his heart every time. But at the same time, we've got a father who, because of his holiness, must show mercy. Well, how does the father balance justice and mercy? Well, the simple answer, which I'm sure you all know, is through his son, Jesus Christ. So listen to Matthew chapter two, verse 13. When the wise men had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt. where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet Hosea, out of Egypt I called my son. We've seen, haven't we, that Israel, the nation, was a disobedient child, constantly rebelling against the father. but God was determined to show mercy. He said, my heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. God says he can't carry on with his struggle, with his rebellious nation, there needs to be a change. So in verse 9 of Hosea 11, he says, I will not execute my burning anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim, I'm God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. So do you see the irony? God says, I'm God, not a man. I'm the Holy One among you. I will not destroy your cities any longer. But in order to keep that promise, well, God has to become a man. And so God the Father sends God the Son. And this man, Jesus Christ, the Holy One, He walks amongst us. He's God who dwells with us. And on the cross, justice and mercy meet. God's people, Israel, you and I, well Israel is punished for its sin but of course the punishment falls on the one obedient son and in doing that God can now show mercy to all of his children. Verse 8, how can I give you up Ephraim? How can I hand you over Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? Christian friend, the father looked at you and I And he said, I can't treat Steve Whitton like Admah. I can't make Aaron and Phoebe like Zeboiim. So instead of destroying us, he poured out his wrath on Jesus. The brother who didn't deserve it. The son who'd done nothing wrong. This is how much the father loves his children. And I think this should be a real comfort for us, shouldn't it? Especially for those whose biological fathers were useless. Tyrants or cowards, that's the category bad fathers fall into, isn't it? Well, if that's you this morning, if your dad, your earthly father, was useless, we'll recognize that you've got a much better father if you're a Christian. A real dad. A father who you will see with your own eyes. A father who loves you more than anything else he's created in the universe. Know that deep in your bones and praise him for it. Finally, fourth point, he's a father who roars, verses 10 and 11. Verse 10 says, they shall go after the Lord. He will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west. They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria. And I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord. Now being a parent, I'm often in play parks and often when the time is up for a family, you will see the parents calling their children. So in Harrow they're quite posh, they say, Sebastian, Maddox, time to go darlings. But because Sebastian and Maddox have never been disciplined a day in their life, they just ignore their mother. They just carry on going down the slide and whizzing down the zip wire, just ignoring their parents. And mum has to bribe them with pieces of dried pumpkin and brie in Harrow. Parents often find themselves ignored, don't they? But, and here's my point, there's no ignoring the roar of the father, is there? His roar is so loud it crosses continents. When he calls, his children have no choice but to return. He says, they're going to come trembling from the west like frightened little birds. From the south in Egypt, from the north they'll return from Assyria one day. And what's the name of the lion who summons them? Well, it's Jesus. Jesus, whose name means the Lord saves. The lion from the tribe of Judah. God not only forgives us through Christ, He gathers us together in Him. He restores our relationship with God and with other people. And of course, immediately after Jesus died and rose again, this is precisely what happened. So Acts 2 verse 5, the day of Pentecost. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at the sound, at this sound, the multitude came together. That's the sound of the gospel being preached. They were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in their own language. And they were amazed and astonished saying, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in our own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia Egypt and the parts of Libya Belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes Cretans and Arabians we hear them telling in our own language the mighty works of gods and All were amazed and perplexed saying to one another What does this mean? Well, it meant, didn't it, that the lion was roaring, that the words of Hosea were coming to pass. God's children from every tongue and tribe and nation, from every direction, were coming back to their Father. And as we close this morning, Christian friends, we have to recognise we've got our part to play in this prophecy. This prophecy ain't over yet, is it? Because every time you share the gospel with a neighbor, a friend, every Sunday school talk you do, or youth club meeting you hold, or open air meeting, well the lion is roaring. The Father is summoning His children home. I think that's good news for us, isn't it? Because we can go into evangelism confident. We can go out with confidence. We know that God's roar will not be ignored. God's true children will respond to the lion. And of course, it's a frightening message, the Gospel, isn't it? It's a message that makes us tremble, but it's a roar that brings people home. Let's sing our final hymn.