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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.
Introducing Hosea
Series Hosea
| Sermon ID | 630191359362 |
| Duration | 52:57 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Hosea 1:1 |
| Language | English |
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