Well, our sermon text comes from Hosea chapter 11, verses 1 through 11. When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. 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. They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels. 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. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Adma? How can I treat you like Zebuim? My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a man. The Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. 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. This is God's word. You may be seated. Let us pray. Our Father, you have commanded the church to continue this practice of preaching your word. We have the highest commendation towards that end of standing in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are charged by the Apostle Paul to preach the word. And so we pray for your blessing upon the reading and preaching of your word this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Well, I've titled this sermon, A Tale of Two Sons. Immediately in your mind, you might be thinking of another tale of two sons that Jesus actually spoke of. In Luke chapter 15, he spoke of a story, a parable of two sons. One was rebellious, a faithless son, you might say, who wanted his inheritance early so that he might go and live off on his own and live recklessly, spend on himself lavishly. But he ultimately came to his senses and said, you know, I'm going to return to my father. And he comes and returns and the Father graciously loves him, accepts him, is so excited. And it's a great story of mercy and compassion and forgiveness and restoration. But there's actually a deeper meaning to that story because Jesus is telling it to the Pharisees. And so he speaks of another son actually. The other son was not happy that the son returned. He was not happy that he was accepted. And he said to his father, I've been the faithful son this whole time. You never done what you just did to him. You never killed the fattened calf for me. And Jesus was using that as an illustration, a point to say, you know what? You Pharisees are like this son. Here I am coming to spend time with tax collectors and sinners so that I might find the lost. and bring them back to the Father? And yet here you are, upset, jealous, envious, bitter, self-righteous, proving yourself to be a faithless son. Well, that's one tale of two sons. Jesus was actually fulfilling, in that moment, another tale of two sons. And it's the tale of two sons actually told by the prophet Hosea, which we find in our passage today. The tale of a faithless son, who, yes, squanders all the blessings that he has received, the beginnings of the Exodus, the coming out, the wilderness wanderings, the land, everything, rejected God, the faithless son. And yet this passage in Hosea is gonna speak of this God who is wrestling through this fact that he must punish his faithless son, but it even causes him to send forth A faithful son. So unlike the prodigal son, where the other son could care less about the other brother, this faithful son is going to go after the faithless son and bring him home to the father. And so this is a tale of two sons. We're going to see that this play out in Hosea, it should be fairly interesting as we see this reality. God's heart toward a faithless son sends forth his faithful son. So we see God's heart revealed in two sons. First, the faithless son. And this is in verses 1 through 11. This is the historic reading of this text itself. We're going to walk through it. If you remember last week, the failed prospects of those three images. You had the grapes in the wilderness he found in Israel, the luxuriant vine, and then the trained calf, all that. But they ended so poorly, that actually, I could have done four images because that continues into this same, please. A child, it's the image of a father with his child. I love my child, out of Egypt I called my son, and yet. So sadly, God's love is rejected. So let's look here in verse one. When Israel was a child, I loved him. Out of Egypt, I called my son. The youth of the nation in their sort of needing of someone to guide them along. God loved them. And out of Egypt, I called my son. That is, when they were suffering and in bondage, he called them out. He summoned them out of their slavery under Egyptian pharaohs who make their suffering dreadful and hard, the cries of the people went up to God and he remembered his covenant, called them out to be his son. And that image of a son is something of a responsibility also. Because it says in Exodus 19, now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasure possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. They're giving a holy calling to be God's mediators to the watching world. Well, that's the nouns that he uses, a child, a son. But look at the verbs, I loved, a child whom I loved. We could attach an adjective to that love based on Deuteronomy 7. It's unconditional love. He chose Israel because he chose Israel. He loves Israel because he loves Israel. That came out very clearly, and it sounds very similar to the election spoken of in the New Testament. Unconditional in nature, he sets his love upon and he did that with the nation of Israel. It's not because they were the greatest of nations, they were the smallest. But verse 2 is like, almost like the image of a spoiled, rebellious child. The more they were called, The more I granted favor, they went away. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. And God continues to show how much he had done for them in verse 3. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. This is such a rich image. You think of a parent who's seeing their child kind of stumble and maybe guiding them along a little bit. There's an intimacy there, a love, an excitement. I took them up by their arms, whether it's lifting them up to look at them in the face and give them a hug, or it's guiding them by their arms. We know this through the wilderness. He led them, but they did not know that I healed them. Exodus 15, after the Exodus, Moses says very clearly, God has healed us as a nation because the healing is God bringing them back to himself so they could worship him freely and offer sacrifices to him. And the rich imagery of love and provision continues in verse four. I led them with cords of kindness. This is more like the imagery of a farmer with his animal. Cords of kindness with bands of love. I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws and I bent down to them and fed them. A farmer loves his animals, cares for them, guides them with kindness and compassion. All of this imagery is rich with God's tender mercies, His compassion, His love outpouring upon this people. They had rich blessing, a God who is merciful, loving, and gracing, and abounding in steadfast love. He has continually restored them. He has provided forgiveness over and over again, provided for them Yet, verse two, the more they recalled, the more they went away, they kept sacrificing the bales and burning offerings to idols. Such ingratitude. Such faithlessness. So we move from God's love rejected to God's punishment applied in verse five. The image shifts now. It's like the parent has come to the place now where he's like, I've got to discipline. I've got to. Verse five, they shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. They deserve to go to Egypt. I'm not going to return them there. I'm going to make it even worse, actually. Assyria's king was horrendous, conquering nations. We all saw it last week. What's going to take place with the death of their treasured children? All of it is horrendous. Why? Because they have refused to return to me, he says. They will have Assyria as their king. Verse six, the sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels. That's what they were thinking. You know what? We're in trouble. We need help. We're going to go to Assyria back then to find help instead of the Lord. And so God, in his judgments, turns that back around on them. You wanted Assyria then. Now you're going to get Assyria. He will be your king. And kings don't just sort of become kings of other nations. They conquer. So this is by way of conquest. There will be no way of escape. 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. This will be unlike the Exodus when they were suffering under slavery and their cries heard by the Lord. They have rejected God. They are faithless. And so if they call upon the Most High to sort of ease their circumstances without a changed heart, he will not hear them. And We have the same sort of thing talked about in the New Testament. If we're disobedient, if we are faithless, and yet we seek to have our prayers supposedly answered, God will not hear those prayers. So we move from God's punishment applied, though, to God's restoration promised, verse 8 through 11. He addresses them here. And we see something of the heart of God come out. Remember, this is very human language, though, being applied to God, anthropomorphic. To sort of get the idea that God doesn't know the future from this or that he's like a man, but we are meant for him to see that he's communicating something of what faithlessness within a covenant relationship with God should have us thinking about how God is. Verse eight, how can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboim? Now, Ephraim, northern kingdom, Israel, Admah, and Zeboim, I don't expect you to know where that is, but those are two places mentioned in Genesis 14, two, as cities attached to Sodom and Gomorrah. So Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. How can I make you like them? Well, he does make them like them in one sense. He does destroy the cities and carries them off into exile. But this is getting at, he won't make a total end of them. His heart says, my heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. This recoiling is also used in Lamentations 120. My heart is wrung within me. It's almost as if there's a wrestling here to convey the fact that God doesn't delight in punishing people and his children and bringing about discipline, which is where this is actually going, disciplining them through exile so they might return. His heart is recoiling within him. Verse nine, I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a man. The Holy One in your midst, I will not come in wrath. So when we as humans read the account of Israel, it can be very easy for us to be like, You know what? You need to eradicate the world from these people because they had so much and then they squandered all of it. I'm talking about the covenant nation of Israel at that particular time. But God is not like us. He's different. And you hear that verse quoted in Isaiah 55. all the time. My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. And we're sometimes thinking about like the fact that God does things differently. That context is that he would be forgiving towards sinful people and offer a gospel without price and welcome people who don't deserve it. He's not a man like us who would just destroy and pour out a wrath and anger at this person. He's different. And yet we also sense there's something to this because God is also just. And so if there is sin against him, how can he also be loving? This is the tension, the seeming tension that the Old Testament presents quite often. A God slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love who will by no means acquit the guilty. And so we should rightly feel this sort of tension here. Verse 10 and 11 now, the prophet sort of like vaults into this eschatological or end time kind of vision of this restoration that will come. He says in verse 10, they shall go after the Lord. He will roar like a lion. If you know about a lion roaring, oftentimes that is, Not so much just stirring fear in, but also claiming his territory and his authority. This is a summons here. When he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west. This is divine intervention. The lion roars, his word goes forth, and his people come. In verse 11, 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. Wow. Egypt, already used in Hosea as a metaphorical place for oppression, significantly, you know, that's where they're gonna be in exile in Assyria. Assyria being the location of their exile, and they will return, it could be, physically, both Egypt and Assyria. But we're asking, when does this take place? And the New Testament gives us a window into this restoration. You have God's heart towards a faithless son, yet speaking of a restoration. And we know from the New Testament that that heart towards the faithless son actually led to the sending of the faithful son. And that's what this is about. The covenant of redemption was the Son willingly accepting to go and die on behalf of a sinful people. The Father says, you know what? These people have sinned against us. There's no way they can be reconciled unless someone dies in their place and provides righteousness that they require and it must come from a human. The son, this is all sort of speaking figuratively, says, I will gladly do that. The tale of two sons, the son says, I will go and accomplish this mission. Galatians 4, verse four through five, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. The faithful son comes to redeem the faithless sons. And Romans 8 says this was the whole purpose of our salvation, was that he might be firstborn among many brothers. Brothers? Brothers? Yes, Hebrews 2 speaks of the same thing. That is why he's not ashamed to call them brothers. saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise. The son takes on humanity to come and be the brother and rescue us and bring us back to the father. So this is truly the tale of two sons. Now, why am I saying this so specifically? Because this is what Matthew does with this passage. So we looked at the faithless son in one through 11 of Hebrews, of Hosea. Now we look at the faithful son and we return to Matthew. Matthew's gospel as he quotes this passage. Matthew 2, verse 13 through 15, I'll just read that again. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet of Egypt I called my son." It's quoting Hosea chapter 11 verses verse 1. Now what is Matthew doing here with this passage? What is happening here is Matthew was a disciple of Jesus, obviously, so he had watched him for three years, then after the resurrection, Jesus opened his mind to understand the scriptures, as it says in Luke 24, and specifically that all the law, the prophets, and the Psalms spoke of Jesus. And so he sees from the Old Testament Jesus all over the place, not in every rock and cranny, but in the big grand events of God's people. If God redeemed through an exodus through a Passover lamb, bringing people through wilderness into a mountain and then to a land, the New Testament authors see, well, okay, this is what Jesus actually is going to do again, yet in a spiritual way. And so think about the flow of Matthew's gospel. You have him quoting from Isaiah, that the virgin will bear a son, Emmanuel. You have him quoting from Micah, Christ will be born in Bethlehem. And he also mentions a star, which we know in our studies of the Pentateuch was from Numbers 24, verse 17. I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. It's speaking about a king, but there's also a star associated. And also in that chapter, it speaks of that king. His king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. God brings him out of Egypt. and is for him like the horns of the wild ox. So he's seeing, okay, as he's studying the prophets, as he's putting all this together, Jesus is the fulfillment of all that was spoken of, the promised prophet, priest, and king, the redeemer of Israel. And so we see this developing of this theme of Jesus being the Israel that Israel was supposed to be, Time and time again, they're quoting, saying, he will be a light to the nations. That was applied to Israel. We have Matthew just tracing, retracing Israel's steps. You have him talk about the exodus here. Out of Egypt, I called my son. And then he, what, baptized in the waters of the river, symbolizing the Red Sea? We have the reception of the Spirit, which is this declaration of His Sonship, and that God is pleased with the Son. Whereas God's love was rejected by Israel, here we have the Son embracing God's love. Will He be disobedient? No. He's immediately led into the wilderness for what? To be tested. Whereas Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years, Jesus is in the wilderness for 40 days and he proves himself to be faithful time and time again. And the climax. of Matthew's gospel in Matthew 16 actually shows that the faithful one, though, will still have God's punishment applied. Though he has embraced God's love instead of rejected it, God still applies the punishment. Matthew 16, he says, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, you're the son of the living God. And he says, yes, yes, you're right. But then he says, from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. And on the third day, be raised. And Peter's thinking, wait a second. You're the faithful one, the faithful son. You can't, no, this can't happen to you. And he rebukes him and says, may it never be. Jesus says, you've got your mind on things of man instead of things of God. Jesus has his mind on things of God, and so he will go to the cross where he will receive the punishment that sinful people deserve, which we know that punishment to be exile or death. And so that's why Jesus speaks of it, actually, as where Paul says that everything that you deserve for not keeping the law, you're cursed, but Christ became a curse for us. But in Jesus' life, not only do you see the punishment applied to him, but God's restoration that was promised is actually fulfilled. And so when he says he's going to take the curse or be exiled or die, he also speaks of then being raised, which is actually a picture of restoration. We saw that actually in Hosea 6 earlier. On the third day, he will rise. Well, that was a restoration. And that's a new exodus. So you see how this is going? Jesus actually speaks of his death and resurrection as an exodus, and he says this actually explicitly in Luke 9. Behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, on Mount, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, that word is exodus, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. So Jesus actually is recapitulating the history of Israel in his life, death and resurrection, which is the actual way in which God then restores his Israel. And this is why the new covenant salvation is often talking of in new exodus type of terms, deliverance. Jesus is a paschal lamb suffering on our behalf and we're set free. And this roaring of the lion that we saw in Hosea, where people would come trembling from the West. That actually took place after Jesus' exodus on Pentecost, where the word goes forth and the Holy Spirit comes and draws people from all over. Actually, you could look at the list of nations represented at Pentecost in Acts chapter two, and it's astounding. Some from Egypt, some from Syria, some from other places. But then the book of Acts is this unfolding of the word going forth. Starts in Jerusalem, then goes to Samaria, then goes to the Gentiles. God is drawing his people together. And what's he doing? He turns them into faithful sons. So God's heart towards the faithless son sends forth the faithful son. And guess what? Turns him into faithful sons. This is what Paul speaks of in Romans 9. whom he has called not from Jews only, but also from the Gentiles, as indeed he says in Hosea, those who were not my people, I will call my people, and her who was not beloved, I will call beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. How do we become sons of the living God? It's because we're in the faithful son. Paul says in Galatians 3, for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God. In Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many as you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And now listen carefully. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither no male, female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring. Heirs according to promise. Abraham's offspring, often thinking of physical Israel, but it's actually the heirs of the promise, or the spiritual Israel. Jews and Gentiles together in Christ, who is the true Israel. And so then we become, as the scripture calls, sons of the living God, or true Jews, or the Israel God. Because we are in the faithful son, the true Israel, the prophet, priest, and king, the last Adam. So in your outline there, you have two sons, the faithless son, the faithful son. You could have a third one, but it would destroy my introduction of tale of two sons. The faithful sons, that's you if you're believing in Christ. Well, let me explain that. Faithful sons. How do you become a faithful son? It's by virtue of justification. Because you're in Christ, all that He accomplished becomes yours. His law-keeping becomes yours. His death on the cross covered your penalty. God the Father looks on you as if you live Christ's faithful life. You're faithful sons. But also by way of adoption. He sends a spirit to us so that we cry out, Abba, Father. We're part of the family of God. But then also, We're faithful sons because the Holy Spirit is actually conforming us into the image of Christ. That's what Romans 8 says. He predestined you so that you'd be conformed into the image of his Son and he would be the firstborn among many brethren. We are actually living out faithful sonship. And so you go back through Hosea 11, 1, God has been so gracious to us. He's actually brought about us from our spiritual Egypt of slavery to sin, brought us forth. He's guided us, picked us up in his arms, led us through, given us his law. He's tenderly cared for, provided for you, giving you his law from our new Moses, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's given you the spirit. He's given you the manna from heaven, the Lord Jesus. and the spiritual food and drink through the Lord's Supper, all of it is meant to lead us to not be like the faithless son, but be the faithful son. What did the faithless son do? They were ungrateful. They spurned God and they went after idols. We're to be the faithless son who loves God, who's so grateful. At every moment, we wanna do what he commands. Oh, it's wonderful. He's freed us to actually live a life of gratefulness to him, and I love that catechism. The Heidelberg Catechism, which is set up like this, guilt, grace, gratitude, starts with your guilt. Let's talk about who you were outside of Christ. Let's talk about grace in that in Christ you have the Lord's favor and you have all things accomplished for you in Him. And in the Christian life is but gratitude. What must we do now in light of our sins forgiven, in light of everything being accomplished for us? We live as faithful sons. So gratitude, that's the message of Hosea. Instead of being a faithless son who lives in disobedience and rejection of God's love and compassion, you in Christ, the faithful son who has now made you a faithful son, you live in gratitude. May the Lord make it so in our lives. Let's pray. Our Father, we're thankful that in your grace, you have helped us to understand our identity as sons of the living God. Whereas one time we were not a people, and you might call us no mercy, we are now God's people and have such a tremendous calling, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, chosen and precious that we might proclaim your excellencies. This is amazing. Instead of one time where we were being left in darkness, ignorant to the covenants, we were disobedient children. But now we've been made obedient children in Christ. Would you help us, Lord, live out our calling to be faithful, grateful sons? that that would draw us to your fatherly love and care and always trust in you. As you say in 1 Peter, we cast our cares upon you. So Lord, may this lead us to live differently, leave us to live confidently before you on what Christ has done, but out of our identity as your beloved children.