beginning of a sermon series that had been prepared by Reverend Winston Bosch from the Jubilee Canadian Reformed Church in Ottawa. A series on Hosea. So we'll be looking at Hosea 1 to the first verse of chapter 2. But before we get into the Bible itself, we're going to set a bit of the historical stage. For Hosea was a prophet in the Old Testament in the 700s, in the time of the split kingdom. And Hosea is in the north, The people of God, especially in the north, they are not following God. In fact, for generations, they've been serving idols. But in Hosea's time, they are feeling fine about this, because for them it's a period of wealth and prosperity for the nation. The surrounding nations are rather weak, and they've been safe, and they also had a strong king. But the times are changing, for Assyria to the east is growing in strength. and militancy. And we know from history that in about a generation or so, the kingdom of Israel would be extinct, destroyed and exiled by the Assyrians. So Hosea, he's the last prophet, hammering the nails in the coffin of the northern kingdom, telling them that soon they will be destroyed. But before we get into the first chapter, Let's look at the last verse of the book of Hosea. For there it says, whoever is wise, let him understand these things. Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the way of the Lord are right, the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. And this is added because it is a difficult book to understand. And we need to be wise. We need to ponder it, to chew on it, to use discernment in order to understand what this book is about. So let's look at Hosea 1. The word of the Lord came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take to yourself a wife of Hortum and have children of Hortum, for the land commits great Hortum by forsaking the Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblam, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him, call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, call her name no mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen. So when she'd weaned, no mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, call his name, not my people, for you are not my people and I am not your God. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, it shall be said to them, children of the living God. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel. Say to your brothers, have received mercy. Well, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is a pretty strange piece of scripture, isn't it? God tells Hosea, the prophet, to go and marry a whore, a prostitute, to have children with her. And then he's supposed to give these children some really strange names. I'd like to imagine Hosea's face when he gets the instructions from God. Say what? You want me to marry who? Well, I was thinking about that nice girl at church, but you want me to marry who? And then later on, when he has kids and God picks the names, I could imagine Hosea sort of stammering. What was that name? Could you spell it out for me? I don't think they're going to accept that name at the registration office. It's not easy being a prophet. Now, people have written books and made movies based on the story of Hosea's family life. And maybe you've read one or watched one. But here's the thing, is that we shouldn't get too caught up in the family details and what it must have been like for Hosea and his wife and his kids. Don't make Hosea's family your focus. For the whole point of this chapter is that Hosea's family life, it's a living lesson. It's a living parable about God's relationship to his people, Israel. Hosea's strange family life is supposed to teach a lesson. And it is this lesson that is important. And so we want to concentrate on that. And so pay attention to what God is saying in verse two. Go marry a prostitute who will bear illegitimate children. Conceive through prostitution because the nation continually commits spiritual prostitution by turning away from the Lord. The fact that Gomer is a whore or a prostitute, it is a living image. It's a parable, a real life metaphor for the people of God. In Hosea 4, verse 12, we read, my people inquire of a piece of wood, an idol. They have left their God to play the whore. And in Exodus 34, the people are warned not to whore after other gods. And so prostitution is being used as an image for idol worship. So Hosea is told to take Gomer the prostitute. the unfaithful. And this was designed to be a living image of how the people of God have been unfaithful to the Lord by serving other gods. You can imagine what would have happened. Word gets around that Hosea has married a woman who is obviously cheating on him. In fact, she's prostituting herself for money. And what's more, Hosea knows all about it. And whenever it comes up in conversation, Hosea would say, yeah, that's right, she's a prostitute. But you know what? So are all you who are worshiping other gods. For generations, you've been whoring after other gods. You're all spiritual prostitutes, unfaithful to the Lord our God. And that is what's happening in Hosea's life. And immediately, there's some application for our own day. First of all, the image of idolatrous prostitution gives us a way to think about our own sin. Oftentimes we think of sin just in terms of doing bad things or breaking a rule or a commandment. But the Bible teaches us that sinning is much more than that. Sin is often idolatry, which is when we trust in or put our faith in things instead of God, or in addition to God. Idolatry is when we seek our happiness and find our security in something other than God. And that might be material possessions, in family, or in money, or sex, or power, in our own abilities or in our own reputation. And when we do that, when we trust and find our identity in something other than God, it's not just that we're breaking a command or disobeying a rule. We are being unfaithful to our divine spouse. We are serving other gods. We are prostituting ourselves, turning our back on God to sell ourselves to someone else. Hosea is going to use this image through this book, and it is a bit of a shocking image, but it is also a very helpful way to think about our sin. For when you put your trust, your hope, in something other than or in addition to God, then you are prostituting yourself by running after, whoring after other so-called gods, other people or things or ideas. And then that also helps us to see things from God's perspective, doesn't it? For God is saddened. He's offended. He's angry at our sin, at our idolatry, like a husband who finds out that his wife is cheating on him. I have a friend who told me that early on in his first marriage, he suspected that his wife was cheating on him. And one night after coming home from a work trip, he could smell another man's cologne on his pillow. He said it was just devastating. And I know someone else whose wife cheated on him while on their honeymoon. And I sat and listened to the sobs of someone who's just discovered their spouse was a serial adulterer. Sadness and dread, the sick feeling in the pit of the stomach, the offense, the anger, and the frustration that life is just disintegrating. Now this isn't pleasant to think about, But this does help us to begin to understand how God feels when we sin. Scripture says that the Lord our God is a jealous God. He is loving and therefore a jealous husband. And he does not like rivals. Jesus does not want to share us his bride, us the church, with other guys. And so the story of Hosea and Gomer, it is meant to make us think and ponder these things. This is a book that stretches our neat and tidy theological ideas of who God is. God, the jealous husband, Christ, the jealous bridegroom, and us, the cheating wives, the prostituting brides. And so that's Hosea's wife. Should we talk about their kids? First, their oldest. So we'll look at verse four and five. And the Lord said to him, call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while, I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel. And I will put to an end the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. So, Jezreel was a name that everybody knew in Hosea's day. Jezreel was the name of a city in northern Israel, and it was also the name of a valley that that city was found in, the Valley of Jezreel. And both the city and the Valley of Jezreel, they had a long history of bloody violence. Well, the city of Jezreel was the scene of the phony trial of Naboth, who owned a vineyard near Ahab's palace. And he was murdered by Queen Jezebel for his refusal to give up his land. That's found in 1 Kings 21. And following this horrible act, a man named Jehu, that speedy charioteer, was chosen by God to punish the wicked house of Ahab. Jehu does, as God commands, but he goes way overboard and is filled with a lust for blood and violence. And in 2 Kings 10, he orders that the heads of Ahab's 70 sons be cut off and placed into two huge piles at the gates of Jezreel so that everyone there could see them. You can imagine that's not something that people would forget. And the valley of Jezreel that surrounded the city was also the scene of various important battles. The victory of Barak over Sisera in Judges 4. The victory of Gideon over the Midianites and the Amalekites and their allies in Judges 6-8. The victory of the Philistines over Saul and his sons in 1 Samuel 31. And the Egyptians' victory over King Josiah in 2 Kings 23. They all happened in this valley, and so the city of Jezreel and the valley of Jezreel, they were historically soaked in blood. And the name Jezreel was a well-known name that was synonymous with violence, bloodshed, and war. And so you could imagine people asking Hosea, Why did you call your kid Jezreel? That's kind of a strange name for a child. And Hosea replying, well, I named him Jezreel because God is going to bring bloodshed and violence on you, the people of Israel. He is going to break your bows and your arrows. He's going to defeat you in war in the valley of Jezreel. And we do know from history that only a generation later the armies of Assyria would march through the Valley of Jezreel and that they would mercilessly destroy the northern kingdom. It would all come true. But maybe today it would be a little bit like calling your child Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the two cities on which the Americans dropped the atomic bombs in World War II. And then when people would ask you, why'd you name your son Hiroshima or Nagasaki? You could say, because God is going to drop a nuclear bomb on this church for all your sin, that's why. Well, after Jezreel, Gomer gives birth to a daughter. Now you can see in verse three, it says she bore him, Hosea, a son. But in verse six, it just says she conceived and bore a daughter. We don't know for sure, but many Jewish and Christian scholars think that the wording here tells us that this daughter is not Hosea's biological child, that she is a child of Gomer's unfaithfulness. And so a daughter is born. And the Lord tells Hosea, Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all. No Mercy, what a terrible name. It's one thing to have God to bring the terror of war on the Valley of Jezreel and to send his people to Assyria, but it is quite another thing for God to say that his compassion has finally run dry, that he will have no mercy, that he will not forgive. That's terrifying. Verse seven says that the situation for Judah would be different, that mercy would be shown there in miraculous ways. But with Israel in the north, the time for mercy was finished. Think about that. What does it take for God, the God of love and compassion, the God of mercy who was slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, to finally say, enough, no more mercy. In Israel's case, it took generations of whoring after other gods, belligerent, deliberate, idolatry without repentance. God is slow to anger. He is abounding in steadfast love. But brothers and sisters, God is not a fool. He knows when he is not wanted. Jesus himself looked over Jerusalem in Matthew 23 with what must have been tears in his eyes, saying, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often have I longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left desolate. there is a moment when mercy runs out. Scripture says God is patient, and that is very true. He gives time for the unbeliever to repent. But that time, that patience, that mercy, it does not last forever. It comes to an end for sure when we die, and it will come to a final end once and for all when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead. That's true for you here this afternoon, if you do not believe. For God is patient and he is having mercy on you right now. But when you stand before him on the day of judgment, that time of mercy will be over. And that should make you think. But verse eight continues. When Gomer had weaned no mercy, she conceived and bore a son. Again, it does not say that this is Hosea's son, just a son. And the Lord said, call his name not my people, for you are not my people and I am not your God. You can imagine, Hosea looks at this boy that Gomer has given birth to, a boy that's probably not his own biological son, and he calls him, not my people. By this time, you can imagine maybe the neighbors are like, hey, Gomer's pregnant again. I wonder what they're gonna call this next kid. They're all wondering, and this last name, it is the worst of all. Jezreel meant the people would be destroyed. No mercy meant that God would not forgive. But not my people? This is the worst, and here's why. When the Lord appeared to Moses in Exodus 6, he promised the people that they would be his people and that he would be their God. That phrase, you will be my people and I will be your God, it's repeated in various places in the Old Testament to describe that covenant relationship between God and his people. And here the Lord is saying that when it comes to the northern tribes, for all intent and purpose, the covenant is over. The people have rejected it. They have broken it. And so he, the Lord, will give them what they seem to want. He will no longer be their God, and they can't be considered his people. You don't get a free entry ticket because you're born into the covenant. You need to be born again by the renewing work of the Holy Spirit. You must repent and believe. Israel did not do that. And so God says, fine, for you the covenant is over, not my people. That's horrifying. And so here we have a prophet with a prostitute for a wife and three children, three kids with three strange names, each building on each other in a crescendo of holy judgment. Hosea's family was a living billboard, a warning of imminent destruction for God's people. So imagine that we get a new pastor here in Sardis, and his name is Pastor Hosea, and you have a meet and greet coffee social for him and his family. So there's Hosea and his wife, Gomer, and their three kids. And you show up at the coffee social to meet him. And you see the pastor's wife hanging out in the corner, and she's obviously and very inappropriately flirting with all the men in the room. And so with some embarrassment, you mention this to Hosea, and he says, yeah, that's my wife. She's actually a prostitute. Like, not was, but she actually is still a prostitute. Just like you all are prostitutes, spiritually unfaithful to the Lord your God. How's that for a conversation starter? Maybe more like a conversation stopper. But Pastor Jose is not done yet. Oh, he continues, here are my three kids. This is my oldest son, Hiroshima. I named him that because God is going to nuke you all for your sin. And here's my daughter, No Mercy. When you hear her name, remember that this church will receive no mercy from God. He will not forgive you. And here's my second son. I called him you are not my church because that is what God says about you. You are not his covenant people anymore. It's done. It's over. You aren't his church, and he isn't your God anymore. Imagine that. That was Hosea's life, a living parable of judgment. Hosea's ministry was about sounding the death knell and hammering the final nails in the coffin of the northern tribes. So there's a few pregnant women here in our church still. I hope that none of you will name your children Jezreel, or no mercy, or not my people. Please don't do that. For the judgments in the book of Hosea, they speak of ancient history. The judgment of these verses came true in Hosea's ancient historical context. The nation of Assyria came and destroyed the ten tribes of the north. They're sometimes called the lost tribes of Israel. because they do not come back from exile. So these verses of judgment, they do have an historical context. But at the same time, they also remind us of the character of God, that we serve a holy God, a jealous husband who will not tolerate any rivals. The Lord our God is a loving God, but he is no fool. He is a patient husband, a merciful husband, but his patience and mercy will come to an end. Maybe you could say it like this. God will not forever tolerate the smell of another man's cologne on his pillow. Idolatrous prostitution by the covenant people will not be tolerated. Jesus is the loving, forgiving Christ. But every Sunday we also confess him to be the Lord who comes to judge the living and the dead. Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. Those are the words of Jesus in Matthew 7 verse 13. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned. John 15, verse six. And whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16, 16. So this is really serious stuff. But here's what you really need to remember. If you're going to forget everything that you've heard this afternoon, please try and remember this. Jose isn't just a prophet of judgment. He's also a prophet of grace. And that's because God is not a God just of judgment. Above all, he is a God of grace. Now it's true, most of the book of Hosea is about judgment. And he's really hammering away at those nails of the coffin of Israel. However, interspersed within this book are seven absolutely beautiful passages about God's grace. Seven beautiful passages about the covenant love and faithfulness of God. Here in Hosea are some of the most beautiful passages about love in the scriptures. And in the next sermons in this series, we will look at each one of them. And right here in Hosea 1, we have that first one. So have a look at Hosea 1 verse 10. Yet, in spite of everything we've heard so far, yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. This verse, it's like. It's like a beautiful flower pushing up through the charred and burnt soil after a forest fire. In the middle of darkness and judgment of God, we also hear him speak of grace. God remembers his covenant with Abraham in Genesis, where he promised that his descendants would be like the sand of the sea, like the stars of the sky, which cannot be measured or numbered. This verse is like a beautiful flower pushing up through the charred and burnt soil after a fire. The sin of God's people cannot and will not ever stop God's plan for his church and his world. The sin of the church will never ever stop God's plan for his people and for the world. When we are faithless, scripture says that he is faithful. His purposes His covenant plans for his church, they will come to pass. In Hosea's day, Assyria is about to wage war. Israel is about to be destroyed and judgment is coming. But in the middle of all this, Hosea proclaims that there still is a future, a future that sounds like an impossible dream, but it is so very real. So let's hear it again. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, it shall be said to them, children of the living God. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel. Say to your brothers, you are my people, and to your sisters, You have received mercy. Yes, indeed, flowers sprouting up after a forest fire. These verses burst on the scene with amazing grace. Words of reversal, verses that blossom with new names and changed hearts, of restoration, of family reunion. Wonderful words of covenant faithfulness. It is a future. where a little girl named No Mercy gets a new name, You Have Received Mercy. A future where the horrifying name Not My People will become You Are My People, and banished children become children of the living God. Sinners are saved and prostitutes are presented as brides without spot or blemish. Hosea isn't just a prophet of judgment, he is also a prophet of grace. Because our God is not just a God of judgment, he is above all a God of grace. If you were to trace biblical history, you would find that these words do find partial fulfillment in the times of the Old Testament. Because after Israel in the north is destroyed, and Judah in the south is exiled, they do return to Judah in 1 Chronicles 9. And we also see that there are a few members of the northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh who also come to settle in Jerusalem. But that is just a foretaste of things to come, because the majority of this prophecy is speaking about something far ahead into the future for Hosea. The New Testament authors tell us clearly that these beautiful words at the end of Hosea 1 are fulfilled in the church of Jesus Christ. We read it in 1 Peter 2, speaking to the church Peter says, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." You see what Peter's doing there? He's quoting Hosea 1 to say that the Gentiles entering the church of Christ is the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy of God's grace, that the children of Israel and the children of Judah are gathered together into one church. The Apostle Paul says the same thing even more explicitly in Romans 9, for in there he talks about how God shows mercy to those whom he chooses, and we read the following. What if God, desiring to show his wrath to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory? even us whom he has called, not from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. As indeed the Lord says in Hosea, those who are not my people will be called my people. And her who was not beloved, I will call beloved. And the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. Hosea pronounces judgment and grace, and it's here, right here in this Church of Christ, that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ flows as the children of Israel and Judah, the elect of God scattered across the earth are gathered in, and as we are gathered and called the children of the living God. This is indeed the good news. Hosea himself may have not understood it clearly, but this prophecy has his eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. Jesus, the one head, the new king, the appointed and anointed one. Hosea's sons and daughters had names of judgment. But God's son had a different name, a name of grace, Jesus, for his name means Savior, Jesus who transforms the day of Jezreel from a day of bloody judgment to a day of bloody redemption on the cross. John 11 and 52 says that the joy that drew Christ to the cross was to, through his death, gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad. And so Jesus the Savior hangs, cursed and forsaken, and he takes on himself the Jezreel judgment of God so that he can show grace to the church of God. On the cross, Jesus receives no mercy so that we can receive mercy. On the cross, Jesus is suspended between heaven and earth, and he becomes not my people, so that you and I could become children of the living God. So brothers and sisters, perhaps you've been a spiritual prostitute in the past. Have you been unfaithful to your God? Whoring after other gods in your idolatry? Have you been putting your trust into things, into stuff, in people, in yourself? Does your sin deserve no mercy? Yes, it does. Does your idolatry earn you the title, not my people? Yes, it does. But has Christ taken on your Jezreel judgment on himself? Yes, he has. So believe and find comfort here. By grace, through faith, Christ has changed your name. have received mercy. You are his people. You are children of the living God. You are the bride of Christ. You are his spotless people, clothed in the righteousness of Christ by grace through faith. Our God, he is a God of judgment but much more than that, he is a God of grace. Hallelujah and amen.