If you would please open your Bibles to the book of Hosea, chapter 1. Hosea, chapter 1. If it helps you any at all, it's the book right after Daniel. Hosea, chapter 1. And we'll begin our reading today with the, well, we'll just read the entire chapter. Hosea, chapter 1. The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Berah, 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 beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms. For the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Debilium, which conceived and bear him a son. And the Lord said unto him, call his name Jezreel, for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall come to pass at that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. She conceived again, I need to get this up here to where I can pronounce this name correctly. And she conceived again and bear a daughter. And God said unto him, call her name Leruhemah, for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. Now when she had weaned Lahoramah, she conceived and bear a son. And God said, call his name Laramah. For ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered. And it shall come to pass that in the place where it is said unto them, ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, ye are the sons of the living God. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel. Let us pray. Dear, kind and gracious Heavenly Father, as we come before you this morning, Lord, we're thankful for this good number that has come out. Dear Father, we thank you for the privilege of being here in thy house this day. And dear God, I would just pray now that you would open our hearts to the wonderful truths that you have within this little book. And dear Father, I pray that you give us understanding to those things that we'll be looking at. And God, I pray if there be one here this morning that's lost, that this will be the very day and the hour that you draw them unto yourself. And Lord, what you'll do for us, we will thank you and praise you for all these things we do ask, in Jesus' name, amen. The subject I'd like to draw our thoughts to this morning is your sins will always find you out. Your sins will always find you out. Now I realize that it wasn't all that long ago that we looked at a series of messages on Sunday morning and generally I try to do that once a year. I look at a book or a thought or something of that nature and run it through for a few Sundays. However, as I was looking at some of the things in some of these books that we as a rule don't look at very often, if ever at all, I began to think that it would be good to do another series. So that's what we'll be doing today, is starting a series on our study of Hosea. I realize it's gonna be hit and miss for a little while for some other things, but we'll get through it. And I trust it'll be a blessing to us. So therefore, we're gonna look at something that is not very often considered. And that is this book is one of those that you know, we have we want to categorize everything and put everything in a little box. And this is one that one of those books that is referred to as one of the minor profits. Now when we call it a minor profit. It's just the same as any of the others that are in To the Mine of Prophets. I don't want us to think that the fact that it's referred to as such is in any way deal with the content, but rather it deals exclusively with the size of the book, not the content. And Hosea is one of those books that is jam-packed with truth. There are wonderful golden nuggets that we can find in this book, a treasure trove that's there. Now, as we see in our text this morning, Hosea ministered during the reigns of many kings. His ministry spanned the reigns of four kings in Judah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. as well as the reign of Jeroboam, king of Israel. I always get tickled whenever I come across Jeroboam's name in the Old Testament, because more times than not, it will always say Jeroboam, who led Israel to sin. They always put that tag on. In fact, he did, in the northern kingdom. But this time, he's just listed by name. And while it's true that most of Hosea's ministry, his writings, was addressed to Israel, that is, the northern kingdom, he also wrote to the nation of Judah. The writings to Judah were largely warnings of the coming judgment if the people failed to repent, if they failed to change their path, if they failed to turn from the ways that they were going, keeping in mind that just as the people of both the northern and southern kingdoms did not get away with their sin, I wonder why it is that most folks today think that somehow we'll be able to get by with our sin. Why is it that we think that our nation will get by with her sins? I don't know if it'll be in our lifetime. I'm not saying that it will be. But you can rest assured that at some point in time, this nation will be held to give account for all the babies that she's murdered. This nation will stand and give account for our open-armed acceptance of deviant lifestyles and trying to force everybody else to believe them. And at the rate we're going now, Our nation is going to give an account before God Almighty on what seems to be and what I feel is trying to force us to accept Islam. You're serving a false God. So, it will come. I don't know when, maybe not in our lifetime, but it will come. You can't get by with it. Israel never got by with things such as that, but neither will we. It just doesn't, God has not changed. It is believed that Hosea ministered to Israel at a time of around 50 years. And it's thought that it ran from approximately 60 to 710 B.C. And as we've already said, there are many, many things that are covered in this book. However, there are a few major things that are dealt with. These include God's love and His faithfulness to His people. the total sinfulness of mankind, and our obligation to always be obedient to whatever it is that the Lord would have us do. And that's true then, it's true now, in every regard. As we look a little deeper, it's interesting, I think, to find, I love to look at names in the Old Testament or in the Bible, because they all mean something, significant. Your name means something, if you ever look it up, But, I mean, to be perfectly honest, most of our names don't mean anything of any significance. We're named after family. We're named after family members. We're named after somebody that strikes our parents. And then we have some names floating around out there that I have no idea what possessed somebody named child. Some of those names are there. Hosea, his name means salvation. And I think that's very telling, for as we'll move through Hosea to see what God had promised that He would do. And as we come to look into this opening chapter, we find that He is addressing the sinfulness of the people, and also the awareness of God regarding their sin. Now, as we consider our text today, I want to refer us back to a statement that was made in Numbers chapter 32 and the latter part of verse 23. And it is there that we find the phrase that is so commonly used, and be sure, be certain, be sure, your sin will find you out. Find in the New Testament the same thought that whatsoever man soweth, that shall ye also reap. And we also find in the scripture the fact that most times what is reaped is worse than what is sown. How do we know that? Because it talks of a people that reap to the wind, or sow to the wind, and they're going to reap the whirlwind. So it's always worse when it comes around. So, with that thought in mind, I want us to jump in to the book of Hosea. The first thing we see is a proclamation of the Lord. God's command. Now, it begins with a very, very unusual command. In fact, as far as I know, it's the only one recorded in Scripture like this. God commanded Hosea. He did not suggest He did not ask, he commanded Hosea to take a wife of whoredoms that would produce children out of the same ungodly acts. Now let that sink in. Normally, God's people have been and are today instructed to make sure that their spouse is a godly person, right? We have the passage, how can, you know, how can, we have to be, how, that were not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. How can two walk together except they what? Be agreed. But here, God has commanded Hosea, you go out and you marry a wife of whoredom. and she's going to produce children out of the same thing. She would go so far as to not only engage in adultery, but she would also engage in prostitution. So you can see that Hosea was commanded to marry a woman who had a soul, whose soul was eternal, You could despise the sin, but you need to love the sinner, right? But this woman morally, well she didn't have any, just to be blunt, to engage in the things that she was willing to do so. Now there are some that you'll read, and I found that tell you that Gomer, which was his wife-to-be, was not engaged in such sinful activity when they first married, but that it was something that she would soon engage in and thereby become unfaithful to Hosea and live a life of adultery and immorality. However, there are just about as many that will contend that Gomer was already engaged in such activity when Hosea married her. I'm inclined to think that's the way it is because God told him to take a woman of whoredoms. So that's my thought on it. However, very clearly we'll discover that Gomer did live a sinful lifestyle and engaged in adulterous acts and did in fact produce children born in immorality. So whichever view is true, Gomer was on a sinful path. And God is never pleased with such behavior as that. He also found God's clarification. God very often commanded His prophets to perform particular behaviors or particular deeds in order to provide a compelling illustration to His people. an object lesson, if you will. Ezekiel, for example, was asked on many occasions to obediently follow the Lord's direction in order to provide an undeniable message of truth. Remember, he was told one time to lie down on tiles, and he was supposed to stay there a certain amount of time. As one of the prophets that was told, you know, your wife is going to die, but you're not to mourn for her. in any way, shape, form, or color. You know, these are, well, let's face it, that's unnatural, isn't it? And if that was what God had commanded them to do in order to drive home a truth that was bigger than the situation that they were. Such is the case with Hosea and Gomer. And having such as going on, and having Hosea take an unfaithful wife God could and did clearly illustrate the unfaithfulness of Israel in regard to God and His blessings to them. They had turned from Him and were going after everything under the sun. Just as an unfaithful wife, God showed through their unfaithfulness of what would happen and how things worked and what it showed so far as the relationship is concerned. He had called them unto himself. God had created a nation that served only the true and living God. And yet that's what they turned from. While receiving God's blessings, God's goodness, God's love, Rather than remaining faithful and serving God and God alone, the people went out and sought other gods and offered their worship and devotion to them. Well, that is the only illustration that we have would be that between a husband and wife to show the degree of what was going on. Next, we see Hosea's compliance. Knowing ahead of time the struggles that he was about to face, Hosea responded in obedience to God's command. He didn't argue with God. He didn't pray multiple times to make sure to see if God would change his mind. He went out and did exactly what God had commanded him to do, knowing exactly what was going to happen. He took unto him a wife by the name of Gomer. Now, as we move through the coming chapters, It was very easy for us to see the unfaithfulness of Gomer in regard to her relationship with Hosea and also in regard to Israel's relationship to God and what was there. Hosea was willing to suffer hardship in order to remain obedient to God. Because I think the latter chapters that we'll get through here will show to us that yes, Hosea was obedient to God's command. But you'll notice God did not command him what specific woman to take to be a wife. Just the group that he was to choose from. And I think the latter chapters will indicate to us that even knowing what she would do, he did indeed love her. And he was devoted to her. Such is God's love and devotion to us. in spite of the things that we do to him and the things that we should be ashamed of. Hosea was willing to lay aside all personal comfort to fulfill the plan of God. Now what kind of physical comfort? Would he still live in his home? Yes. Would he still have the convenience of his home? Again, yes. The beloved home You know something about that word, isn't it? Going home. Home should be a place of warmth, shelter, happiness. In fact, home should be our sanctuary in this world, right? Home is a place that we should be able to go to after we have had the kind of days that we have from time to time and shut the door and get away from it. you know, and just begin to unwind. In a house such as Hosea's, it was going to be a place of turmoil. There's homes today that are nothing more than battlegrounds with war waged on a daily, nightly basis. And folks, it shouldn't be that way. There should be love and there's going to be disagreements. There's going to be arguments from time to time. My goodness, over the last, what, 35 years, Elaine's been wrong. I couldn't tell you how many times she's been wrong. 36. Well, speaking of wrong on that, I mean, whatever. It feels like forever, but anyway. You know, but that being said, it's not a war zone. The overriding emotion there is love, and that's what it should be. So he was willing to set that aside. Now while God, let me get this out here so that there will be no mistaking me. God does not advocate, nor does he condone immoral living. This is just showing a spiritual truth, a spiritual lesson. It's the only reason why this was done. A question I'd like to ask, are we willing to lay aside our desires and our personal comfort in order to serve the Lord according to His divine will for our lives? Are we willing to do whatever it is that He would have us do or are we going to put restrictions on those things? And I will do this, bud, but I'd rather do that or, you know, we're just going to fall in line and serve Him as we ought to. Are we willing to surrender our entire being to Him? Secondly, the prophecy of the children. In verses 4 and 5, we find what God tells us about Jezreel. The firstborn to Gomer of Hosea was a son. And God had commanded Hosea to name the firstborn son Jezreel. Now, the name Jezreel is no different than any of the others so far as important in what they mean in the context of them. His name means God will scatter. God will scatter. That's chilling, really, when you think about it. This was a warning that God was willing to allow Israel to suffer defeat, and He even told them where in the valley of Jezreel, and that they would be scattered throughout the nations after this defeat that would be there. The end of Jehu's dynasty as king was going to come to an end, and it was going to end in utter defeat. Not even a close battle, but an utter defeat because of what he had allowed to go on. This reveals God's hatred towards sin and His commitment to deal according to His righteous nature. Why is it that folks go to hell? Well, they rejected the Lord. That's what the short answer is, and that's right. But the reason why they go to hell is because God's righteous nature cannot condone sin. He cannot be around sin. Sin must be punished. So therefore, that individual who leaves this world without Christ will spend eternity in torment because of his righteous nature. Those who intentionally pursue sin, those who go about with no regard to sin at all, and they reject God's grace, are in tremendous danger of his judgment. We see it time and again in the scripture. He said that was pretty, that was generally to groups of people and it was. But think about Herod, not Herod the Great, but think about Herod. When he spoke and his oration was so spectacular that the people declared that he spoke as a God and not a man. And he allowed them to adore him as a God. And the Bible said he was immediately eaten of worms and he died. So, God can strike down an individual, can't he? Ananias and Sapphira for another. So, beloved, we need to be careful about what we allow to go on in our life, unchecked. We now, if I look at Leruhemah, verse 6. The second child born to Gomer was a daughter, whom God commanded to be named Leruhimah. It's interesting to note, if we look closely, that the Bible only says that Gomer conceived again and bear a daughter. It does not say that she was born unto Hosea. It just says that she bore a daughter. Most agree that Leruhemah was born out of an adulterous relationship which fulfilled the words of the Lord. What He said would happen. And it came to pass. Her name means, no pity. No pity. That's a bad state to find yourself in, isn't it? No pity. God revealed that when judgment came, It would be poured out with no pity. You might be inclined to say without mercy, but God always deals with His people in mercy. But He may not deal with them in pity. Their judgment was going to be severe because their sin was great. And the judgment would come to bring about the desired result, the result that God had in mind for them. And the simple fact of the matter is, whenever grace is rejected, judgment's all that remains. There's no other way, there's no other route. The third child was Loamai, verses 8 and 9. Now Gomer bore a son, whose name was Loamai. And again, there's no mention with him that Hosea was his father. However, he was born into the family. He was welcomed into the family as one of Hosea's sons. His name means not my child or not my people. Now, don't get hung up here. Stay with me. When we are saved, we are saved forever, right? were always God's people. Israel was and has and shall always be God's people, right? That's not changed. The Bible teaches us very clearly that our names have been written in the land's book of life, when? From before the foundation of the world. This is not contrary to that. What does it mean? You gotta go back a little bit here to understand how Jewish people think. What's that got to do with it? If a Jewish child marries outside of Judaism and takes a spouse of a Gentile, and if that Gentile does not convert to Judaism, become a proselyte Jew, then what happens to that child? that child is declared to be dead to them. The Amish do something very similar. But if that child, they go so far as to hold a funeral for that child. And that child, if it's ever thought of, is thought of as a dead person. Their relationship has been severed forever. God, this is within the context of what we're finding here. Because Israel had turned their back on God, because Israel had embraced these pagan gods, then it was the same type of severance. Just as that child in a Jewish home, regardless of what they say, is still their child, we're still God's people when we go into sin. So, does not the Bible tell us that it's our iniquity that will separate us from our God? So don't get hung up on this saying. This was a literal indictment against the infidelity of Gomer toward Hosea. And it was also a humbling warning to the nation of Israel. They were his covenant people, and they had broken their vow to keep the covenant. What a stern reminder of God's refusal to tolerate deliberate sin. Thirdly, the promise of the Lord. The first part of verse 10 talks about a time of growth. While the northern kingdom would be conquered and scattered by the Assyrians, they would not be utterly consumed or wiped off the face of the earth. They were still there and they are still here. Can a Jew go back and trace their lineage today? No. Not all the way, at least. Why? Because when Rome destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70, all records were destroyed. Paul could take himself all the way back, and that was important for the Jewish people to be able to trace their family back. Can't be done now. But be that as it may, the tribes of the Northern Kingdom still exist. They're still here. Just can't really tell who or where they might be. Even in his judgment, God would keep a remnant. In the end times, we are told that two-thirds of the Israelites will be destroyed. Two-thirds. If you want to figure out how many is going to die, sit down with a calculator sometime and just say, for the sake of discussion, there's a million Jews, and take two-thirds of them away. And you'll see what a large number will perish. or look it up on the internet to see how many Jews there are in the world, and take two-thirds of that number. God has always had a remnant. There's a remnant of Gentiles who were saved, right? It's not the majority. The path is narrow, and few there be that find it, the scripture tells us. Even though they were scattered, the people of Israel would remain growing in number as the sand of the sea, which could not be counted. And one day, one glorious day, when the Lord returns, He will gather all of His people together. He will make things right, bring them back to where they should be. Through the lens of grace, we also can see this wonderful promise. Although sin separates and scatters us from God, there is hope in Jesus. His grace is for us each day, isn't it? If you're here this morning and lost, and God has revealed that fact to you, and you feel the weight of your sin, God's grace will take care of that as well. It's a marvelous gift, isn't it? The grace of Almighty God. The Lord is continuing to save His people, even in the midst of this wicked generation in which we live. One day, the redeemed will be gathered around the throne of heaven, and a multitude which no person can number. The latter part of verse 10 is a time of grace. The Lord promised a time yet future when those who were once scattered and rejected will once again be recognized as the sons and daughters of the living God. What a time that will be. What a glorious time. Have you ever thought about as a nation what they're going to feel like whenever the Scripture tells us they'll look upon the one whom they pierced? and understand what they did. You talk about something that will be humbling and breaking to a person, much like what conviction does to a person today when they see their sin. And finally, a time of gathering, the first part of verse 11. While this warning was primarily given to Israel, Judah would also suffer captivity in the bondage of the Babylonians. Judah did not take the warning. Judah didn't seem to grab a hold of the things that they should have. But one day, they will come back. They will unite under the leadership of Jesus as He returns to rule and reign upon this earth. While the immediate future looked bleak, God promised their glory would not be gone forever. Folks, if you're here this morning and lost, your future looks very bleak. You're going through this world alone, you're going through this world without direction, and you're going through this world without hope. If God has revealed that to your heart, you can have direction, you can have leadership, you can have hope, all through Jesus Christ. I think we're going to have some really wonderful lessons as we move through the book of Hosea, and see through what happened with him and Gomer, what can happen between ourselves and God, and what we must be watchful for. Let us pray.