please take your bibles and turn to the book of hosanna we in hosanna chapter one who read the whole chapter and inverse one of chapter two but our sermon focuses more this afternoon we'll be on verses 6 through chapter 2, verse 1. This is the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Barai, 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. When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go take yourself a wife of harlotry, and children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblin, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to him, Call his name Jezreel, for in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him, Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow nor by sword or battle, by horses or horsemen. Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then God said, Call his name Lo-Ammai, for you 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 or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there it shall be said to them, You are sons of the living God. Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint for themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel. Say to your brethren, My people, and to your sisters, mercy is shown. Let us pray. Father God in heaven, we do thank you again for your word, and we ask now, Lord, that you would work through it as it is preached, as it has been read, and as it is heard. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to hear your word, that you would strengthen us in our faith. and encourage us, Lord, to glory in Your mercy. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you thought last week the name Jezreel was a terrible name to give to one of your children because of what it meant and what we talked about last week, then even more so are the two names that we hear this afternoon in the passage that we just read. And one thing to note about this passage that I have just read is that when God tells us that Hosea was to go and take a wife and have children, and then when Gomer had that child, it says that she bore him a son, we don't see that phrase being used in these next two children. We see that she bore a daughter and she bore a son, but they were not attributed to Hosea. Likely speaking now of Gomer's participation in harlotry, which represents Israel's harlotry, in their idolatry and departing from the Lord. The names given to these children, Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammai, will be understood by the Hebrews as names or messages that severe judgment is coming. For it is one thing to lose a battle in the Valley of Jezreel and to be judged for that. It is totally another thing for God to say to those who were called by His people, I will have no mercy on you and you will not be My people. I hope you can see that as these names are given, the messages of judgment are growing in their severity. But this is the situation that Israel finds itself in. And God is using family relationships to describe this relationship of His with Israel. God declaring His judgment upon them and also talking about the facts of their relationship. And in reality, their relationship was in name only. There was no warmth, there was no love on their part, there was no true worship on their part of the God that they claim to be born of. And as we have already seen before, names are important in Scripture. They mean things. Not necessarily like the way we name people today. Sometimes we do give names with meaning. But oftentimes in Scripture, when God says, here's a name of this, it has a meaning that comes with it. And today we're going to look at the names of the second and third child that God gives to Hosea through Gomer, his wife of Harlotry. But we're also going to look at a name that is not given here, but is described, and that's in verse 11, the name, The One. And that is the name above all names that we'll see God showing His mercy. So first, we're going to look at the names of judgment found in verses 6 to 9. And then secondly, we're going to look at the name of The One found in verses 10 to 11 and chapter 2, verse 1. The names of judgment in verses 6 to 9, the names are harsh. They are harsh, they speak harshly, they don't speak love and tender comfort, and that is because the sins of Israel were so wicked. And the names fit the accusation that we found in verse 2 of harlotry and departing from the Lord. The first name, Lo-Ruhamah, means no mercy. And when you talk about themes that are in the Bible, as we read in Romans chapter 9, mercy is a predominant theme. Mercy is something that God continually speaks of because it is something that God's people are in continual need of. And mercy has been a major theme in the scriptures ever since the Garden of Eden. There was a time when God did not deal with His people according to mercy, and that was in the Garden of Eden prior to sin. But ever since man sinned against God, mercy has been at the foundation of his relationship with man. We see this in the promise of the seed of the woman in Genesis chapter 3, where her seed would destroy the serpent. That is mercy. In the saving of Noah's family from all earth's wickedness, that was mercy. and God's relationship with Abraham, to call him out of paganism and idolatry, to make him a people. For God, that was mercy." And we could go on and go out throughout different places in the Bible where God takes merciful actions towards His people. And so, that being a prominent theme throughout all redemptive history, to God's relationship with His people, for God to come and say to them, No mercy. That is a severe judgment. That is a severe message that what they are about to experience they have earned and that God will give them according to their merits. That God will deal with them in exactly the way they have acted. To hear The God who has so long been with you, has so long spared you from one thing and another, who has walked with you, has shown miracles to you, who has given you worship, who has given you the sacrifices to take away your sin, to point to that taking away of sin, to now say, no mercy on you. had to be a startling declaration and should have been enough to warn them and to turn them away from their sin. This was not the first time Israel would have known about this situation. In Deuteronomy 4, verses 25 to 28, you don't have to turn there, I'll read them to you. Moses prophesied about this day. He prophesied about this day, when because of their idolatry and turning away from the Lord, what God would do. Verse 25 of Deuteronomy 4, When you beget children and grandchildren, and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly, and make a carved image in the form of anything, which is what they have been doing, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God, to provoke him to anger, and God is angry, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples." Is that not what he said in the word Jezreel? I will scatter you. And you will be left few in number among the nations, where the Lord will drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear, nor eat nor smell. This is what no mercy looks like. God giving up His people to their own desires, to the things they wanted, to the things they loved, to their sin, to the things that they loved more than Him. No mercy. Mercy is one of God's attributes. In that same passage of Deuteronomy chapter 4 in verse 31, Moses says, after saying this prophecy and after saying, but there'll come a day when you will turn to the Lord and He will receive you, Moses says in verse 31, for the Lord your God is a merciful God. It is who God is. He is full of mercy. And so for Him to come and say to these people, no mercy, What a message! What a declaration from God to His so-called people. In the Scriptures, there are about five different Hebrew words for mercy, but they all include the idea of God's compassion and kindness, goodness, and forgiveness to those who are not worthy of it, to those who do not deserve it. That is what mercy is. Mercy is not something that is earned. Mercy is not something that is merited by doing good. And for God to say to them, no mercy was to say, no God for you, I will not be with you. As we read this passage Something should be going on in your mind, something that looks odd, like here God says, no mercy, but then He says, mercy. Here God says, no mercy, but then He says, I will keep my covenant with you. How does that work together? Well, mercy, the no mercy is shaped by what we see in verses six and seven. They go together. And so God here is showing us what we read in Romans chapter 9, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. As we look at verse 6, it tells us that she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him, Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. Exactly what Moses was talking about, and exactly for the same reason, and exactly God's response to them. But then as we take verse 7 with it, we see that God's going to have mercy on Judah. Why would God have mercy on Judah? Because she's good? No. Judah at this time was also doing similar things as Israel was. Worshipping idols, not following the law of God. And so God said He would have mercy on Judah, not because they deserved it, but because they needed it. So, what we see here is the shaping of what no mercy looks like, and in this context, what mercy is. So, no mercy for Israel meant deliverance into the hands of the Assyrians, that they would be judged by being taken into captivity for a time. Mercy for Judah, which is stated here in verse 7, Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by the bow, nor by sword or battle, by horses or horsemen." When the Assyrians came in to take Israel, they were there for Judah as well. They were there for the southern kingdom as well. But God would not let the king of Assyria take Judah, because He was having mercy on them. He was choosing to have mercy on them. They were so much like Israel in that they were worshipping pagan gods, they were worshipping Baals, they were aligning with foreign nations for their protection, even sacrificing their children in the fire to foreign gods. They needed God's mercy. God in His sovereignty chose to show it to them, but not to Israel at this time. What does that tell us about God? That His mercy is His mercy. It is His to decide to show it. It is His to decide to refrain from showing it. Even Judah, while they would be spared from this attack from Assyria, would eventually be captured by the Babylonians. God would deal with them as well. Because it is God's prerogative to show mercy. As we read in Romans 9 and many other places, the scripture tells us, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. But to understand what's going on in verses 6 and 7, particularly verse 7, we need to go to 2 Kings chapter 19, verses 32 to 35. And I'll read that to you here in just a minute. And this is during King Hezekiah's reign over Jerusalem. As Assyria was surrounding Jerusalem and the northern kingdom, Hezekiah prayed for God's hand of mercy and deliverance. And in verses 32 to 35 of 2 Kings 19, we read this in God's answer to Hezekiah's prayer. Speaking of the Assyrian king, he shall not come into the city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor build a siege mound against it. By the way he came, by the same way he shall return. And he shall not come into this city, says the Lord, for I will defend this city, to save it for My own sake and for My servant David's sake." This is a direct connection to verse 7. I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by the bow. In other words, they're not going to even have to give a fight. I'm going to do this for them. I'm going to save them. I'm going to show mercy to the house of Judah. And so he answers Hezekiah's prayer. In the following verses in 2 Kings 19, we read this, verse 36, And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead. The angel of the Lord came in and did this. And this is what is referred to in verse 7 in Hosea 1. I will save them by the Lord their God. They weren't going to fight. It was going to be the Lord doing it in a miraculous way, sending in the angel of the Lord. And who was this angel of the Lord? We notice in Hosea 1.7, there's a little bit of change in language here, where he says, Yet I, I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the Lord their God. When he says, by the Lord their God, it's almost as if he is speaking of someone else. And he is speaking of the angel of the Lord. To understand this part of the passage, we need to go to Micah 5, verses 2 and 6. And this is a well-known passage, especially at this time of year. Many people are reading from this passage to announce and declare the incarnation of the Messiah. And it certainly does do that. As we look in Micah 5, verses 2 to 6, it also speaks to what we're talking about here. Let me read that to you. Where did Jesus come from? The town of Bethlehem. Here in Micah chapter 5 we read, But you, Bethlehem, Ephratah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting This is where the reading usually stops, but it goes on to say, "...therefore he shall give them up until the time that she who is in labor has given birth. Then the remnant of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel, and he shall stand and feed his flock. In the strength of the Lord and the majesty of the name of the Lord is God, and they shall abide. For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth, and this one shall be peace." when the Assyrian comes into our lands, and when he treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princely men. Then they shall waste with the sword the land of Assyria, the land of Nimrod at its entrances. Thus he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land, and when he treads within our borders." Micah was a contemporary prophet of Hosea's. speaking to the people of Judah, and here telling us what happened in that day when God chose to show mercy to Judah through the angel of the Lord, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, spoken of here in Micah chapter 5. It is Christ who comes out of Bethlehem to be the one ruler in Israel. It is Christ who delivers Judah from the Assyrians, and it is Christ who God uses to show mercy to Judah. So in this passage here in verses 6 and 7 in Hosea, we see God choosing to show mercy on Judah but not on Israel, but His mercy is shown through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let us look at the third child, the third name of judgment. Verses 8 and 9, we see the third child is named, Lo, am I, not my people, and not your God. And this name is also an elevation in the weight of the judgment as a name, because now they are not only told they will not be given mercy, but they will have no God. God will not be their God to them, and He will not be their God, and they will not be His people. No mercy from God, and now no God to show them mercy. Again, this idea of you being my people and I being your God is a dominant theme throughout Scripture in the Old and New Testaments. And so to have this relationship taken away was a very heavy judgment. God being the God of this people was part of the covenant promise. In Genesis 17, God says, I will be God to you and your descendants after you. The New Testament picks up on this often. In the New Testament, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6.16, speaking about the Christian church turning away from idols, he says, "...for we are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell with them and walk among them, I will be their God and they shall be my people." To have this relationship and this identity to be taken away should have been one of the strongest warnings that Israel could have ever heard. calling them to repentance and to seek God's mercy. But they didn't. So not only would they be destroyed as a nation, but they would not be God's people, because they did not hear the call to repentance. They did not turn to God and seek His mercy, which was what He was taking from them. Maybe it was because they thought, how many times has God shown us mercy before? Surely, God will show us mercy now. But mercy is God's choice. Mercy is His choice, like salvation, to give to whom He will. Like I said earlier, this judgment, while it's shaped by the actual taking of Israel into Assyria, the actual sparing of Judah, which God showed mercy to them from the Assyrians, was not an end to the covenant itself. The covenant that God had made with His people through Abraham was still in place. And even though Israel and Judah were not faithful to God, God had to be faithful to His covenant. He could not do anything else, for He cannot go back on His word, nor can He lie. In verses 10 and 11 and chapter 2, verse 1, remind us who God is. He is a covenant-keeping God who also does judge sin in His people. And this keeping of God's covenant is based on the One, the name above all names, the Lord Jesus Christ. His name is above Jezreel, His name is above Lo-Ruhamah, and His name is above Lo-Ammi. When we read Micah chapter 5 verse 2 through verse 5, He was called the One. And here in verse 11, He is called the One. This is the same One. The same name above all these other names, the name of the one who is the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that there are some small words in the Bible that carry a great punch, that carry great power. Words like the word, but, in Ephesians 2, 4. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love for which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. by grace you have been saved." That little word, but, is the big turnaround, the big reversal from being dead in our sins to being made alive in Christ. In the same way, here in verse 10, after we see the judgment that's coming upon Israel, we see a little word, yet. In other words, here is this judgment, here is this discipline that I'm going to bring upon the people of Israel, and yet I'm still going to keep my covenant. For in verse 10 we see the words of covenant language. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there it shall be said to them, you are sons of the living God. Yes, God would discipline his people, discipline them severely, yet he was not giving up on his covenant obligations. No mercy for Israel meant deliverance into Assyria's hands. And yet, God will still be faithful to His covenant, a covenant of mercy. Verse 10 calls us back to remember the covenant God made with Abraham. This word, yet, is a statement introducing a mercy that will be shown to God's covenant people, and they will be so numerous like the sand of the seashore, that they will not be able to be counted." When God spoke to Abraham about His covenant and for His descendants, He spoke of them like this, saying, "...the stars in the sky they will be like. You'll not be able to count them. You can't count the stars and you can't count the sand of the seashore." Verse 10 is a declaration of the reversing of no mercy and not my people. You notice in this verse also that God does not say when he reverses his course of action in the future, he does not say, you now will be my people, but he says you are the sons of the living God. God speaks of not a national people now, but of a personal relationship with his people of father and child. Of a people that cannot be counted, of a people that are united together as his true family under one head. And that's how this comes about. That's how this mercy will be shown. That's how this is what it's talking about. Judah and Israel coming together are going to be under one head. Judah and Israel, the true Judah, the true Israel represent the people of God coming together under one head as we have read before in Ephesians 1.22. And he put all things under his feet, speaking of Jesus, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." This one ruler that is coming to make us the sons of the living God is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one. He is the one spoken of in Micah chapter 5. He is the one that is spoken here in Hosea chapter 11. He is the one head. 1 Peter 2.10 says, speaking of those who are God's people who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Peter is thinking of this passage right here. He's thinking in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who were not a people now are God's people. This is what God was talking about when he says you will not be able to number them. He's talking about the whole body of Christ from all of time. From time in the past to time in the future. They'll be united under one head and that one head's name is the Lord Jesus Christ. The one name whereby all men who should want to be saved shall call upon for salvation. We also see here a change in the way that the word Jezreel is used. In verse 4 it was about being scattered God's scattering, the word Jezreel, also means God plants. Now here in verse 11, it tells us, Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint for themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel, great will be the day of God's planting, and the people shall come up out of the land. The one who plants the seed is the same one who's going to be uniting the children of Israel and Judah and God's people throughout the earth. And verse 11 tells us, "...this planting they shall come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel." In verse 4, it meant God scatters. Here, it means God is planting. And this planting of the seed is fulfilled in Christ Jesus. He is coming in the flesh, preaching the gospel, raising up dead people to new life. This One, this One ruler of Israel, this One who brings peace between God and man, He is the One who has been planted in the ground and raised to new life, and He is the One who will raise up all His people out of the land up to new life. He is the Lord Jesus Christ, whose name is above all names. And we see the words, the great day of Jezreel. Great will be the day of Jezreel. This is the day. This is the day that's being spoken of. This is the day when Jesus Christ is preached, proclaimed, and made known to the nations. And now those nations are raised up, people, who are people who have received the mercy of God. Today is the day, the great day of Jezreel. When we come to the Lord's Supper next week, Lord willing, and you see the table, and you see the bread, and you see the wine, you need to think, that's the great day. That's the great day of God's mercy. That's the great day, the great era, the great time period when God has turned no mercy and not my people into mercy and my people. That's what God is declaring here, that He is going to keep His covenant through this one ruler, this one who brings peace, this one who plants and raises up. People are still being saved today. People are still coming to God through His mercy. And so God says to Hosea, say to your brethren, My people, to his sisters, mercy is shown. As we prepare to come to the Lord's table, I say to you, and we should say to ourselves and to each other, there is mercy here and only here. Because it is through the wine and the bread that the broken body of Jesus Christ and His shed blood is represented and it cries out to us, mercy is here. This is the great day of Jezreel. When God will take for Himself a people upon whom there was no mercy. and a people who are not his people, and make them his people. And mercy is at the feet of Jesus Christ. Go boldly to the throne of his grace so that you may obtain mercy and find grace in your time of need. Hebrews chapter four tells us that. When you go to Jesus, Christian brothers and sisters, This week, any day prior to this day, days coming forward, but especially this week, as you prepare to take yourself before the Lord and prepare your hearts to come to the table, when you go to the Lord Jesus with a repentant heart, the Bible promises He will give you mercy in His kindness and in His forgiveness. Listen to Hebrews chapter 8, verses 10 to 12, which quotes Jeremiah 31. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God. They shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." Brothers and sisters, we live in the day, the great day of Jezreel, when God is planting And He is planting for Himself a people, and raising up out of the land a people who have received mercy, who are His people, and He is their God. And the Lord's Supper is a sign and seal of the great day of Jezreel. Those who come to the table are those who are being raised up, who have been planted, who are being raised up by the Lord to new life. So as we leave here today, commit yourself to preparing for the Lord's table by confessing and repenting of your sins and going to Him for mercy. You are committing yourself to the one God who is merciful. Hosea chapter 2 says this, and I say to you, brethren, my people, sisters, mercy is shown. This is all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The names of Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah, and Lo-Ammi are very, very terrible names. They carry great warnings of judgment, but they do not even compare to the name above all names, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. For in Him we are shown mercy, and in Him we become the people of God. Yet, God says, Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall be said of them, You are my people, I am your God. So I encourage you this week as you go to the Lord, go by faith, expecting to receive mercy for your sins, because God has promised it to His people. Let us pray. Holy Father in heaven, we do come to You, Lord, rejoicing, rejoicing that our sins have been taken away through Your mercy, through the one ruler, the one of peace. that You have promised through Your covenant to show mercy to us and to make us Your people. Father, as we prepare to come to Your table next week, as we even live out our daily lives, remind us, would You, Lord, by the Holy Spirit, of this wonderful mercy that has been shown to us. Though we deserve, like Israel, to be enslaved by our sin, You, Lord, have freed us from that. through the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to focus not on our own works, but to repent of our works, those works of sin which trouble us, which trouble our relationship with you, and to rejoice in the mercy that you offer to your people. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen.