We are trying to sort it out, so please bear with us. I'm not sure if it's the Baltic in the front and Bahamas in the back. I have no idea, but we are trying to address that this morning. Hopefully it will not distract you from the Word of God as we come now to the Word of God. If you have a copy of the Word of God with you, I do invite you to turn to the prophet Hosea. Hosea chapter 1. If you're like me and you're used to trying to find these minor prophets, and you wonder, if you find Daniel, then you'll find Hosea. He's just next to the prophet Daniel. You'll find it on page 892 of one of the Pew Bibles, or one of the Bibles there in the seats. If you're visiting with us this morning for the first time, we want to particularly extend to you, I would say, a warm welcome in our hearts. It's maybe not such a warm welcome in the building, but hopefully that will change. But it is good to have you here this morning, and we are beginning a new series this morning in the prophet Hosea. We're simply going to read one verse. Hosea 1, verse 1. This is the Word of God. word of the LORD, that came to Hosea the son of Beri, in the days of Uzziah, Jopham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel." Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we have gathered this morning with the express purpose of bringing honor and glory to your great name. We have gathered as your people in the name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, because we believe that he alone is the only Savior from sin. We confess him to be our Lord, and we desire to come to you, O God, through him, because you have come to us in him to make us your own. And we gather this morning recognizing that you are the one true and living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and you have revealed yourself to us in the Holy Scriptures. We ask now that as we turn to your Word, that you would give us the help of the Holy Spirit, that, Father, as we launch into this new series of study in the prophet Hosea, that we would learn of you, that we would learn of Christ, and that we would be transformed by the power of your grace into the likeness of your Son, that our lives, O God, would be lived in honor of you. Bless your Word to us now, Father, we pray, help us in our weakness. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. The whole of the Scriptures are Christian Scriptures. That is, the Old Testament and the New Testament are Christian Scriptures. However, for many of us who are Christians, the Old Testament is at best confusing and at worst closed, perhaps, to us. The distance in time the difference in cultures, the difference in customs, the variety of genres that make up the Old Testament, make it challenging for us to study and to understand. Yet it is vital that as Christians we study understand and benefit from what God has revealed to us in the Old Testament Scriptures. This morning, as I've mentioned, we're going to begin a study in the Old Testament by turning our attention to the prophet Hosea and to the book that bears his name. writings of the prophets make up a significant part of our Old Testament. And they have much to teach us. Whether it's the major prophets, as they're called—the longer books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel—or whether it's the minor prophets, called the Twelve, The prophets are all worthy of our study, and they demand our attention and careful consideration as the people of God. I had the joy last year, as you know, of having a sabbatical, and during that time I determined that I would spend all my devotional reading in the Twelve Minor Prophets. And so there is a sense in which you are now getting a little bit of the fruit of that as we come this morning to give attention to the prophet Hosea. I simply want this morning to introduce you to Hosea, and encourage you, if you haven't already—I know some of you have, and I'm grateful for that—but if you haven't already, begin to read through Hosea. Get ahead of me in the reading, in the thinking about this book. In introducing Hosea to you this morning, I have four main points that I want us to look at. And in these four points, I simply hope to establish a frame of reference that will help you understand what God is saying to us in this book and help us as we traverse through the book together. In these four points, I also hope to give you help to understand Hosea's message, not only to Israel and Judah in his day, but also to the church in our day. The preacher Sidlo Baxter called Hosea the prophet of persevering love. Isn't that a wonderful thing to consider? This truth is going to point us to the God of persevering love—a love that we're going to see that is deep, a love that is wide, a love that is committed to the good of all those whom God chooses to be his people. As we begin to consider the ministry and the message of the prophet of persevering love, Realize that we are going to come face to face with the God of persevering love—the God of relentless, persevering love for his people. gonna see that this love of God is an eternal love, a love that is faithful, a love that goes after the wayward and draws them back. We're gonna see that this God of love desires to have a relationship with sinners who are unworthy and who are undeserving. And so, come with me as we launch into our introduction this morning, and consider with me these four introductory points that I trust will help us as we move through the book in the weeks ahead, Lord willing. The first point I want us to consider this morning is the role of the prophet in the life of Israel. the role of the prophet in the life of Israel. If we're going to come to consider a prophet of Israel in our Bibles, we must then consider the role of the prophet. Now, when I say prophet here, the role of the prophet in Israel, I'm not referring only to Hosea—we'll think about him in more detail a little bit later—but I'm thinking about all of the prophets whom God raised up to be prophets to his people. We cannot understand Hosea until we first understand what's a prophet. What do prophets do? Where do they come from? What's their background? And I simply have two aspects that I want us to consider under the role of the prophet in Israel this morning. First of all, we need to spend a little bit of time considering the origin of the prophets in Israel. The origin of the prophets in Israel. Whilst it's true that Abraham is called a prophet in Genesis 20, verse 7, And in a certain sense, we might even establish that Adam himself in the garden was created with a prophetic identity. It's really not until the time of Moses that the office of prophet truly arises amongst the people of Israel. Now, to see this, I want you to turn back in your Old Testaments and your Bibles to Exodus chapter 3. Exodus 3. And I want you to read with me a few verses there with regards to Moses being called by God to be, if you will, a prophet in Israel, to speak to the people. I want you to notice from verse 10 of Exodus 3 these words. God's speaking, and he says, "'Come, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.'" But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? He said, But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you, when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. Then Moses said to God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is his name? what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, Say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, Say this to the people of Israel. And this is important. Don't miss this. The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites. Here God calls Moses to be his—now notice—mouthpiece speak his words to his people and to lead them up and out of slavery to the land of the Canaanites. Turn with me, then, to Deuteronomy chapter 18. to understand that this is Moses being called. Then Moses leads the people of God out. You've got all the events that take place in Egypt and then into the wilderness. Now they're on the plains of Moab. They're very close to the Promised Land. And God comes again, and he's speaking to Moses. And here, in Deuteronomy 18, verses 9 and following, we read these words. you come into the land that the LORD your God has given you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD, And because of these abominations, the LORD your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations which you are about to dispossess listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen. Just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, or see his great fire, any more lest I die. And the LORD said to me, They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among your brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I have commanded him. And whoever will not listen to my words, that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him." This is the origin of the prophetic office in the history of Israel. God speaks through Moses regarding what God will then do in the future. And we see, then, that Moses is really the first prophet in that sense. And Moses then speaks of other prophets who will come in the future with regards to God's relationship to his people. That brings us to consider the second element. If the origin of the prophetic office is in Moses, what is the function? What was the point? we got something of it here in Deuteronomy 18, 9–22. He is to speak to them, a word from the Lord, and he is to speak to them of events that the Lord is going to do. His word is to be direct from the Lord. Thus says the Lord. And he's to speak also of events that God has revealed will yet come to pass. His word may speak command, his word may predict event. Both of those realities are true of a true prophet. Now, as Israel asks, well, how are they then to know if it's true? If it comes to pass, it was true. If it's not, he was a false prophet, and God had very serious sanctions for false prophets. So in understanding the role of the prophet in Israel with regards to his origin and his function, it's vital to realize that his whole identity and his whole ministry as a prophet is inseparably connected to God's purpose with his people. We might even go further and say God's covenant purpose. You notice back in Exodus 3, I said to you, remember this? What did God say? Speak to the people and remind them of what? My covenant relationship with them through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The prophets' responsibility in Israel was not merely to speak a command from God to the people or to predict an event of what God was yet going to do amongst his people. Rather, it was more than that. It was to call them afresh to remember their covenant relationship with God. and their covenant relationship to God and their covenant responsibilities before God, all of the prophets were essentially covenant mouthpieces, coming to the people of God to remind them again of who God is, of what God is like, and of what their relationship with God was based upon and what their responsibilities were in that relationship. So what's the application? I mean, this first point, that you must see the role of the prophet in the life of Israel as we think about it regarding Hosea. Well, here it is. Understanding the role of the prophet in the life of Israel will help you understand the life and the ministry of Hosea. Everything that we're gonna look at in Hosea has a covenantal element to it with regards to what God is saying to his people. Prophets were mouthpieces of God, raised up by God, sent by God, to give God's Word to his people to remind them afresh of the relationship that they had with God by way of covenant. There are many who claim to be prophets today. They're not like the prophets of the Bible. except that they may fall into the category—should I say may, I would say they do fall into the category—of false prophets. Their words are not directly from God. The events they speak of have not been predicted to them from God, and therefore we should not listen to them. We see that this has happened at other times in history. One of the great world religions claims their leader was a prophet from God. His name was Muhammad. He was a false prophet. One of the great American religions claims that their leader and originator was a prophet out of Salt Lake City—Joseph Smith. He was a false prophet. Not prophets biblically defined that speak, thus says the Lord, directly from God regarding God's covenant relationship with his people—that's a true prophet, but false prophets. We must be clear on this. We must be certain on this. We must be aware of this. And so, when we come to understand the book of Hosea, we must understand the role of the prophet Hosea in the life of Israel in regards to the backdrop of the role of the prophet in the history of Israel. there's a second important point, isn't there, tied into this? The role of the covenant in Israel. The role of the covenant in Israel. Because we can't really think of the role of the prophet in Israel without considering the role of the covenant in Israel. You see, the God of the Bible The God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Creator and the Sustainer of all things, the one true and living God, he is a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God. It is vitally important, if you're a Christian, that you understand that. It's vitally important, if you're not a Christian, that you also understand that. Because if you're not a Christian, you're out of covenant with God, you're a covenant breaker in Adam, and you need to come into covenant with God through believing in Jesus, who is what? The mediator of the new covenant. We'll get to that. There is no relationship with God for mankind apart from God's covenants. This is vital to understand in general, but specifically important when studying the prophets. And again, I have two aspects here for you to consider under the role of the covenant in Israel. First of all, we need to understand the nature of God's covenants. The nature of God's covenants. God's covenants—and there are many in the Bible. designed to define the boundaries and the expectations of the relationship between God and man. They can have conditional elements, they can have unconditional elements, they can have both together. Now, we don't have time in one sermon to to do any real justice to the whole wide revelation of God with regards to his covenants. But let me quickly run you through the organic relationship of God's covenant revelation in the Scriptures. God's Word begins with God establishing man in a covenant relationship with him. Right back there in Genesis chapter 2, you have what we call the Adamic covenant—the covenant of works. You may say, well, this is all very new to me. That's fine. Don't worry about that. You've got a whole lot of glorious theology to study the rest of your life, and you won't exhaust it. I've been studying it for over thirty years, and I still never get bored of studying it more, drilling down deeper, understanding God and how God relates to us in grace. Now, that's where it all begins, right there in the garden, of all the trees of the garden. Adam, you may eat. except of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that you must not eat. For if you eat of that tree, the moment you eat of it, you shall die." There was a promise there, wasn't there? Which is at the very heart of God's covenant dealings with us—a promise. It was a sobering promise. If I eat of that forbidden fruit, I'm gonna die! Implication? If I don't, I'm gonna live! We didn't do it, did we? Our first parents fell, and so in them we all fell. That's why we're in this catastrophic mess of sin. God could justly have just let it all perish, but God had a greater purpose, a greater plan than he had determined. In order to bring about that purpose, he made a promise in Genesis 3, 15, that the seed of the woman would come. He spoke to the devil, and he told him straight, You've influenced man, you've brought it all down, but I am not finished. I'll send the seed of the woman. You'll bruise his heel, but he'll crush your head." And that promise A promise would be continued to develop and unfold all the way through the Old Testament, through the covenant with Noah, where God promises never again to destroy the world by way of a flood, giving stability to the world for his covenant purposes to be worked out. Every time we see a rainbow, we are not reminded of equality. were reminded of the glorious God who tells the truth and who promises never to flood the world again. And that covenant with Noah established the framework in which God then came to a man called Abraham and brought him from a foreign land of the Chaldees into the promised land of Canaan. And what did God do with Abraham? He entered into covenant with him. covenant that was the basis for the establishing, ultimately, of the nation of Israel in the covenant with Moses. And attached to that covenant with Abraham, which was the covenant of circumcision, what do we find? A promise. O Abraham, through your seed all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. And so Moses is raised up, as we read, part of that covenant community of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God comes at Mount Sinai, and what does he do at Mount Sinai with Moses? He gives his law, and he establishes the nation of Israel. They enter into covenant with him, and they are promised to be a priest unto God—kingdom of priests—to serve him. go at the heart of that covenant with Moses is quite simple. Obey me and be blessed. Disobey me and be cursed. Obey me, you'll enjoy the land flowing with milk and honey. Disobey me, and I'll put you out of the land. And it's into this context that Hosea comes. there's another covenant that's running parallel with the covenant with Moses, which is based on the covenant with Abraham, and it ties in, and it was the covenant God made with David. God promised David that one would sit upon his throne, establish an everlasting kingdom and give him an everlasting inheritance. And that covenant promise runs parallel with the covenant with Abraham and the covenant with Moses and finds its fulfillment, as does the covenant with Abraham, in the one of whom it spoke, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came not to abolish the law but to establish it. to fulfill the covenant with Abraham, to fulfill the covenant of David, to sit upon the throne of Israel, to establish an everlasting kingdom, and to bring that great redemption that God promised back in Genesis 3–15 to fulfillment and consummation. And it's vitally important that we understand that this is the unfolding way the Bible speaks. God's purpose. Paul speaks of it this way in Ephesians 2. The covenants of promise that were given to Israel were preparatory for that glorious, everlasting covenant that we call theologically the covenant of grace established by Jesus Christ. And when we come to Hosea, and when we think about the prophet Hosea, when we think of the role of the prophets, we must also think of the role of the covenants in the life of Israel. What was the second element I wanted to mention here? It is this. The purpose of God's covenants on all of this. As God organically unfolds his purpose down through redemptive history, what is the purpose of God's covenants? Well, as I mentioned, Paul, in Ephesians 2, 12, speaks of these covenants of promise. They were designed for God to establish a relationship with mankind, but always in the Old Testament to point forward to that which was final and glorious and permanent and coming in Jesus Christ. God's final covenant has been established. in the person and work of his Son, the Lord Jesus. All of the Old Testament points forward. It promises that which God would do when he stepped into time in the person and work of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam lost it all. God in Christ gives us it all back, and much more. Much more. God came to Abraham and promised his seed would be that blessing to the nations. God raised up Moses and protected his promises the nation of Israel, giving them their place in redemptive history, giving them their messianic hope through the promise even to David. But it wasn't till Jesus came that everything was fulfilled—fulfilled by a way of God dealing with his judgment against sin and God accomplishing his redemption from sin through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. as we think of Hosea, we're gonna see this. As we study Hosea, we're gonna see this. And so, what is the application for us as we think of the role of the covenant in Israel? It is this. Understanding the role of the covenant in Israel will help you understand Hosea's life and ministry. He ministers in a context that is important for us to understand. He ministers with a specific perspective in mind that we have got to see. We're going to look at a man who is living in the time of promise, not the time of fulfillment. He was living in a time of the old covenant, not the new covenant. These truths will have a bearing on how we understand him, how we interpret him, how we understand what he is saying, and how it applies to us. the new covenant people of God. Israel is God's people under the old covenant. God is in covenant with them. The nation is responsible before God for its conduct. God will be faithful to his covenant, and he will hold Israel responsible. And we're going to have to think that through as we come to listen to the words of Hosea. God has given Israel the oracles of God, and God has promised salvation to them. But there's some serious judgments have to go on before that happens. these perspectives must be borne in mind by us as we listen to Hosea, as we seek to understand Hosea, as we seek to apply what Hosea is saying. So, we've seen the role of the prophet. We've considered the role of the covenant. Let's look thirdly, then, at the role of Hosea himself in Israel. Over the next number of weeks, we're going to dive into the text, and I want to encourage you to be reading through it and praying over it and asking the Lord to help you, taking notes, asking questions. But in this first verse, We simply have three elements that we need to see—his name, his family, and his time. His name is Hosea. What else do we know about his name? Nothing. That's it. Derek Kidner says this in his commentary, his name has suffered a little in its journey into English via Greek and Latin, as often is the case. Right? With Old Testament, New Testament names. Latin, his name was O.C. I've forgotten most of the Latin I ever learned at school. I wish I hadn't, but there you are. Michael Heaton was admonishing us that we should keep up our Latin. So, children, if you're learning Latin, keep it up! I wish I had time to get mine back. I only remember a few of the endings now and a few of the fun sentences. But with regards to Hosea, it would be better, Kidner says, to call him Hosea. Just like the name of the last king of Israel, 2 Kings 17.1. The name originally borne by Joshua, like Jesus. It is derived, rather, from the verb to save. Yahweh saves. That's essentially Hosea. His family, we only know he was the son of Biri. We have no idea who Biri was. Simply means, my well or my spring. Some commentators suggest the reality of calling him Hosea, the son of Biri, is simply to delineate him as a different Hosea from the number of other Hoseas that turn up in the Bible. So that's helpful. But what about his times? When did he live? Well, the kings are recorded in our text, and they identify the time for us. There are four southern kings mentioned, which is interesting, because his prophecies were essentially to the northern kingdom. There's one northern king mentioned, and all of these together, they cover a period—if you were to add them all up, end to end—from 790 B.C. to 686 B.C. Now, that does not mean that Hosea lived all that time. Indeed, he obviously didn't. prophesied over a period of time in the eighth century B.C. that was very, very significant in the history of Israel. Why? Because Israel would go from prosperity and affluence to decline and degeneracy and eventually exile. Israel would disappear off the face of the earth. Only the southern kingdom would be left. John Calvin says this. If we wish to ascertain how long Hosea discharged his office of teaching, we must take notice of what the sacred history says. And we would amen that. The only problem with Calvin is he thinks that Hosea preached for some sixty to seventy years. I think that's too long. More modern commentators, like J. Andrew Dearman, he argues for a ministry covering some thirty years. including just towards the actual invasion of Israel by the Assyrians. And he bases that on the fact that in the book of Hosea, as we'll see, there's no mention actually of Hosea living through the actual invasion but predicting its coming. That doesn't mean that he didn't live through it. It doesn't mean that he died. It's quite likely and possible even that he went to the south with a number of the refugees who also took his writings with them, and then they compiled his actual book, his writings, if you will, in exile in the South, specifically for the benefit of this other nation who were not yet fully apostatizing from the Lord. But what we're going to see is this. Hosea's life was lived during a tumultuous period of Israelite history, witnessing a decadent, wicked departure from the Lord. And in the midst of all of that, we're going to see particularly a man who had a very hard domestic situation. Hosea's marriage to Gomer will play a significant role in our consideration of this book. We're going to see that the prophet's love for a wayward wife And the prophet's pursuit of a wayward wife is gonna function as a very helpful metaphor for us to understand God's love for a wayward people and God's pursuit of that wayward people. We're gonna see the persevering love of the prophet reflecting for us the persevering love of God. And we're gonna benefit, for sure. So what can we say by way of application here as we think of the role of Hosea in the life of Israel? Here's the simple application for you this morning. Begin to familiarize yourself with the prophet and his work as we launch into his study. Here's a little suggestion. Read one chapter a day. Pastor Chuck told me he read the whole book last night. There you are, what a standard. Bang. He read it out loud. Great idea, by the way. But I want to encourage you, read it. Take it in small bites, take it in bigger bites. Maybe you even can sit down 14 chapters and read right through it. Set yourself some time to read it. Familiarize yourself with it. And ask the Lord to help the preacher and to help you Learn from Hosea what the Lord would have you to learn as we get into this prophet of persevering love. It brings us, then, to the fourth and final point I want to make by way of introduction this morning—the role of Hosea in the church. The role of Hosea in the church. It's possible you're here this morning as a visitor, and you're not a Christian, and you're asking yourself, why in the world is a Scottish guy standing in Sacramento amongst a group of twenty-first-century Christians, opening up an ancient book and looking at the works of an ancient Jewish prophet called Hosea? You might be asking that. That's a reasonable question to ask. I'm not insulted by that. In fact, if you're thinking at that level, I'm actually really encouraged. What possible benefit, you might ask, can a bunch of 21st-century Californians—whatever that means—gain from spending time studying a Jewish prophet who lived 2,700 years ago in a land far away at a very different time? That's a good question. Right? Boys and girls, you should be saying that. What's the pastor preaching on Hosea for, Mom and Dad? Great. You're thinking. thinking about the relevance of such an exercise in our lives, well, you need to understand something, first of all, about what this book is—the Bible. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the Word of God. All of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the Word of God. God has given us his Word through men who he inspired by his Holy Spirit to speak his truth. He did it over 1,500 years—a period of 1,500 years. And in these 66 books that make up our Bible, which is really just another word for a library of these 66 books, God reveals himself to us. But God also reveals us to ourselves. And he reveals his Son to us, that we might believe in him and be saved by him. We could not know the true and the living God savingly through his Son if it were not for the fact that we have the Word of God. Now, you may say as an unbeliever, Well, I don't believe that! And that's your problem. Your unbelief is taking you to a place of eternal punishment before your holy Creator. Your intellectual pride, your academic prowess—it really doesn't matter what it is—ultimately boils down to this, your moral aversion. the truth of the Word of God. It causes you to say, Well, I don't believe that. And as a result, you don't know God. As a result, you're not believing in Jesus Christ. As a result, you're still standing in your own sins before a holy God, whom you will have to then pay the penalty for your sins before him. But I want to suggest to you, if you listen to the prophet Hosea, gonna learn about God. You're gonna learn about yourself. You're gonna learn about Jesus. You might yet come to believe in him and be saved by him and know him. And so, in regards to Hosea's role in the Christian church, here it is. Hosea reveals God to us. That's the first thing we need to see. He reveals God to us. We're going to see God in his covenant faithfulness, God in his covenant love, revealing himself to us as he warns Israel of his judgments upon their sins, and as he calls them to repentance to turn from their sins, and as he speaks to them yet of his covenant purposes to come in Jesus Christ. Turn for a moment to Hosea chapter 2. Hosea 2, 21. We'll get to this eventually. I just want you to see it as an example. in that day I will answer, declares the LORD, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land, and I will have mercy on no mercy, and I will say to not my people, You are my people, and he will say, You are my God." We're going to have some interesting study of the children of Hosea. You're never going to want to call your children what Hosea calls his children. But they're going to speak to us about God and his purpose and his relationship with his people, and also of what he will yet do. And here is what he will yet do. He will have mercy on no mercy. He will say to not my people, you are my people. He will say, you are my God. God speaking about his purposes in judgment, about his purposes in redemption. We're going to see God in this book. We're going to see his love. We're going to see his justice. We're going to see his righteousness. We're going to see his grace. We're going to see his mercy. With all the misconceptions and all the misunderstandings about the character of God that exists in our modern day and in our lost culture, it's vital It's vital that the people of God know their God. And to know our God, we must listen to him as he reveals himself in his Word. And Hosea is gonna play that role amongst us in the weeks to come. Hosea stands in the Christian church as a teacher of God to our souls. And then he reveals ourselves to us. And this'll be uncomfortable. There's gonna be a few weeks you're gonna think, well, that was not the most pleasant thing for the pastor to have to tell us! Not only will Hosea reveal God to us, but he will reveal ourselves to us. Turn to Hosea 4, verses 1–3, and I'm simply whetting your appetite. Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. I'm going to tell you about that controversy when we get there, but listen to what he says. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land. is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, committing adultery. They break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed." You'd think he was talking about Sacramento! You'd think he was talking about America! Well, he is, and we're going to see that. We're going to see ourselves here. We're going to see ourselves not in Hosea. We're going to see ourselves in the Israelites. their unbelief and their disobedience and their idolatry and their sinfulness, and it's going to expose us. But that's okay. That's okay. It will not be pretty at times, but that's okay. It's vitally necessary and wonderfully necessary for us as the people of God. It's vitally necessary, because if we do not see our own sins before our holy God, you know what you'll never do? You'll never confess them. You'll never turn from them. No one ever confessed sins that they couldn't see. No one ever turned from sins that they couldn't see. Spiritual blindness is a deadly disease of the soul. And we need the light of the Word of God through the prophet Hosea being shone into our hearts that we might see ourselves truly before our God. wonderfully necessary because it's in the seeing of our sins that we are enabled to confess them and turn from them and trust in the God who saves—the God of relentless, persevering, scandalous love who saves us when we repent and we trust in him through his Son. We're gonna learn to identify sin. I trust by his grace—and you should be praying for this—we're gonna learn to hate sin, and we're gonna hopefully learn to forsake it in order to then pursue God in righteousness and obedience. Seek to see yourself in Hosea not in terms of the prophet but in terms of the Israelites. Be willing to examine your heart and your life as God's Word to Israel through Hosea comes to you through the preaching. through your own personal reading of the book. And then thirdly, Hosea—and this is going to be beautiful. It really is. He's going to reveal Christ to us. He's going to reveal Christ to us. See, if you were to consider how to summarize the Bible in two words—one way you might do it. And I say one way, because it's not the only way. Though I like it. It's a good way. If you were to summarize the Bible in two words, you'd do it this way. Promise, fulfillment. Old Testament, promise. New Testament, fulfillment. That's it. There you are. That one's for you. You can take that one home. Promise and fulfillment. And it's when we look at the promise, the various promises that are going to be made through Hosea to Israel, that we're going to see something of Christ. Turn to Hosea 3, the shortest chapter in the book, and listen to verse 4 and following. For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar. Yeah, they're gonna be in exile. It's gonna be pretty miserable. Without ephod or household goods. Verse 5, "'Afterwards the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king, and they shall come in in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.'" Yes, there's judgment in Hosea, but I tell you this, there's a lot of hope. There's a lot of hope here. And as we meet these different examples of it, we're going to see Christ. We're going to see Christ by way of that which is promised, and we're going to then translate it into that which has, as we know, been fulfilled. Hosea will reveal Christ to us through the lens of prediction and promise. He will reveal Christ to us 750 years before Christ actually came into the world. He will reveal Christ to us in regards to his person and his mission and the effects of his coming into the world. And we will be caused to rejoice and glory in the fact that Christ has indeed come, and we are his by grace. because God has loved us and given himself for us. And so, as you study Hosea, expect to hear Christ speak to you through his prophet. Expect to hear of Christ, expect to see Christ, expect to learn of Christ through his prophet. You'll see him promised you'll be able to consider him and serve him as the one who has fulfilled his promises. Hosea's the longest of the twelve minor prophets, one of the earliest. Like all the prophets, he was raised up by God to call Israel to repentance from sin and renewed covenant faithfulness. Like all the prophets, he warns of God's judgment against sin but also speaks of hope and through God's Savior. Above all, Hosea will help us to see this vital truth—God is love, and that God, in his love, his relentless love, pursues those whom he loves. And so, brothers and sisters, Come expecting to hear from this loving God, through His prophet Hosea, that you might know Him, that you might see your sins and turn from them, and that you might rest all of your hope in His Son, the One who has loved us and given Himself for us. Amen. Let's pray.