If you'd open your Bibles to Hosea, please. Hosea, we're going to just read a couple of verses for you today in Hosea. This is a book that clearly does establish the love of God. That's why we're singing about it today. And it tells the story of how God really gets ticked off at his people Israel, but in the end, He's going to love them. Now, the first verse of the book sets the historical background, which we're kind of going to introduce to you today. The word of the Lord, which came to Hosea, the son of Bere, during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah and during the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel. So that sets the political background of what we're going to discuss. Now we'll go through the book and we're going to see some real low moments in Israel when she is just being totally blatantly unfaithful to the Lord. But then I want to take you over to the 14th chapter of Hosea chapter 14 I want to draw your attention to verses 4 and 5 of Isaiah 14. I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely. For my anger has turned away from them. It will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily. and he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon. It's a glorious story that we're going to go through today, beginning in this book of Hosea. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of those couple of verses and the exposition to follow later. Will you join with me please in prayer? Open your Bibles, please, to the book of Hosea. We won't be looking at a text proper today. We're introducing the book to you. I think almost every believer has struggled at times with the question of what God's will is for his or her life. What job should you take? What school should you attend? What person should you date? What person should you marry? I think in one way or another we've all been there. I want you to think for a moment about a young man who believes it's God's will for him to go into ministry. He graduates from high school, goes to a theological institution to be trained. Now he's nearing graduation and he's really struggling with the will of God for his life. So because he wants to do God's will with his life and he doesn't know what it is, he decides to come talk to you. He trusts you because he's watched your commitment to the Lord and the Word of God. So one day this young man comes to you and he says, what is it that you think God would have me do in my life? Well, let's suppose you sit down with this young man and said, you know, I've been praying about that. And I know exactly what God's will is for your life. God has actually revealed to me what his will is for you. What he wants you to do is go to a brothel in Nevada, pick out a prostitute and marry her. God's will for your life is go to a house of prostitution, find a prostitute who loves being a prostitute and make her your wife. Now, if that is truly God's will, you'd have to admit it'd be a shocking assignment. Any thinking person would realize there's a lot of baggage that's gonna come with that. Those who are serious minded would challenge that counsel and probably say, have you lost your mind? He'd probably argue, God's will can't be that. And you would say, yes, it is. You would say, are you sure? He says, yes, that is the specific will for your life. That's your assignment. That's what God wants you to do. So the young man begins to think about it for a while. Okay, so what you want me to do is you want me to find and marry some repentant prostitute who's sorry for her sins and wants to be right with God. And you say, no, that's not it at all. God's will for your life is you marry a prostitute who likes being a prostitute and who will actually continue to be immoral even after you marry her. In fact, you'll actually have to go to a brothel and pay money to buy your own wife back. He says that in chapter 3 and verse 1. That's the kind of woman I want you to marry. Now at this point, you're probably saying, this pastor's lost his mind. What kind of story is that? That's the story of the book of Hosea. And in the next weeks, I'd like to take you on a journey through this book. James Montgomery Boyce said that the first greatest story in the Bible is of course, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ coming into the world, his life, his death, his resurrection, that's the first greatest story. But he says, this is the second greatest story. There's no story like it. It's bizarre. In fact, some scholars say it can't be literally true. But when you look at specific names and places that are given in the book, it is quite clear it is literally true. And what I'd like to do is introduce this story to you today by way of asking and answering a series of introductory questions. There are five of them. First of all, why study Hosea? I'm gonna give you four practical reasons. The first one is because this is one of only 66 inspired books that God has given to man. You'll notice how the book opens the word of the Lord. Do you see what's inspired there? The words, the words of the Lord, the word of the Lord is inspired right to the very word. Now, as we've been going through these minor prophetic books, we've discovered that they're neglected in most churches. In fact, someone said they've never even heard any message that's been preached out of the book of Hosea, let alone an attempt to expound the entire text. The sad fact is people who go to church are perfectly content, for the most part, to just drift along through life without a careful study and analysis of God's word, especially they could neglect the book like Isaiah because they don't like it. Derek Kidner, who's written a good commentary on Hosea, said it's rather easy to grow up with a naive idea about God because this book forces you to ask the question, how well do you really know God? Do you know what he likes? Do you know what he doesn't like? Do you know what he says versus what men say? A book like Hosea is inspired by God. It's designed to give us a thorough knowledge of God. So if we leave out this book, we're going to be naive about God. If we leave out a book like Isaiah, we're going to miss one of the major Old Testament books. Now Hosea is the first book of the minor prophets. Hosea is the second longest of what is classified as minor prophet books. Only Zechariah with its 211 verses is longer. Hosea contains 14 chapters, 197 inspired verses, both in the Masoretic Hebrew text and the English text of the Bible. There are 197 verses, many of which are totally unique to this book. In fact, there are a very high number of obscure Hebrew words that are used in this book of Hosea. But there's no doubt it's an inspired book of God. It's quoted by Jesus Christ. We'll point that out as we go through the book. It was found in Qumran cave number four in the Dead Sea Scroll Discovery, and it was also found in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. J. Andrew Dearman said, many fragments of the Hebrew manuscripts of Hosea have been found, which proves this book was carefully copied and carefully studied and was inspired by God. We're going to study it because this is one of only 66 of those rare books God has given to man. The second reason why we're going to study it is because this is a book in which God reveals to his people that no matter how unfaithful they may be, he still loves them. Hosea has been called a book that presents the unconditional love of God. And Dr. S. Lewis Johnson said, when we use the term unconditional love, what we mean is that Hosea is a prophet who proclaims that the love of God for his people is without condition. As you'll see when we go through this book, God's people were corrupt. They were falling into all kinds of stuff they shouldn't be dabbling in. Some of them were involved in gross immorality, some of them were involved in idolatrous greed, and some of them were involved as alcoholic drunks. These were people who regularly went to church, as it were. They went to their worship services, but it was not so they could be faithful to the Lord. And yet, God says, they're my people, and I still love them. In Romans 8, the Apostle Paul makes an eternal security argument that basically says, once you belong to God by election through faith in Christ, you cannot ever be separated from the love of God. Well, this book of Hosea is the counterpart of that. Because this book says in the Old Testament, God will always love his people. He may get angry with them. Because they do bizarre things. He may threaten them. He may discipline them. In fact, you'll see that in this book. But He always loves them. God loves His people even when His people don't deserve to be loved. That's unconditional love. He loves His people when they are a mess. As you'll see in this book, He loves His people when they blatantly walk away from Him and His word and His will. That's certainly the case for Israel. And it's also true for us. Because God loves us even in our loveless, worthless moments. He loves us when our behavior is bad. And the real convicted truth that's revealed in this book of Hosea is that we're all a bunch of prostitutes. You may not wanna hear that, but that's the truth. We're all a bunch of prostitutes who've been unfaithful to the Lord. We've rebelled and sinned against God many, many times, and God loves us and still takes us back. That prostitute named Gomer just kept sinning and sinning, and Hosea was told by God, go get her. Go get her and bring her back. And the reason for this whole story is because that's exactly what God has done and will do for Israel, and that's exactly what God has done and will do for us time and time and time again. As Derek Kidner said, God has pledged himself to a bunch of prostitutes. Because if you're honest today, you'll have to admit you do have a habit on occasion of failing God. If the truth were known about every one of us, we couldn't number the amount of times we've missed the bar since we've believed on Christ. We've all failed the Lord time and time again, and yet what does God do? He brings us right back to Himself because He loves us, and that's why Dr. C.I. Schofield said the whole theme of this book is the redeeming love of God. The word that shows up a lot in this book, 17 times, is the word loveaheb or habah. It's a word that refers to delighting in something, breathing after something. That's the kind of love God has for his people. He uses this word multiple times in this book to describe that he loves his people. He breathes after his people in spite of the fact that they fail him. However, his people need to understand that they don't have the same love for God that he has for them. Because if they did, they wouldn't do shameful things. If they did, they wouldn't do detestable things that would cause the heart of God to be broken. But what is so remarkable about this book is that in the end, God makes it clear, I'll heal my people. I'll freely love my people, no matter how shameful they've been. And this is a book that will show us a lot about what he's gonna do with Israel. how he's going to restore her, how he's going to bring her back to himself. It'll teach us a lot being a prophetic book about the tribulation and what he's going to do in that tribulation to back Israel into a corner where she'll finally have to turn to him. But one day they will experience the blessings of God because of his love. And you know, if you're a child of God here today, you need to know that. You need to know that no matter what you've done or are doing, you can't separate yourself from the love of God. You can separate yourself from the fellowship of God, but not the love of God. And that is clearly brought out in this book of Hosea. And I believe this knowledge that we're loved by God has a purifying effect on the people of God. This book will not motivate you to want to keep plunging into sin. It'll motivate you to want to please God who loves you so much. The third reason why we're gonna study this is because this is a book that clearly establishes that God is a God of an amazing forgiveness and grace to his pathetic people. You know, there's a Psalm. We haven't come to it yet in our study on Wednesday nights, but it's Psalm 136. There are 26 verses in that Psalm. And of the 26 verses, 26 times it is said in that Psalm that God's mercy and loving kindness is everlasting. You can't stop the mercy and loving kindness of God. And God talks about that very mercy and that very love in the context of loving a pathetic people who've rebelled against Him. The whole reason for this book of Hosea was to show Israel and also to convict us just how pathetic we are at times and just how gracious He is. And the reason why God wanted Hosea to marry an unfaithful prostitute is because that's exactly what God did when he pledged himself to any of us. When God entered into a covenantal relationship with Israel as a nation, and when God entered into a covenantal relationship with us as an individual, he linked himself in metaphorical terms to a pathetic harlot. Now most people don't want to get this point. They don't want to admit this point. Because most people don't realize how far short of the glory of God they really are. But when God entered into a relationship with Israel, and when God entered into a relationship with us, He was not entering into a covenantal relationship with a bunch of winners. He was entering into a covenantal relationship with a bunch of sinners. In fact, we're all Gomer-type losers. But God is a God of amazing grace, and amazing forgiveness, and amazing love. And this book of Hosea just clearly shouts that message to us. In fact, God delights in demonstrating His grace and mercy to His people when they turn back to Him. He delights in it, He breathes after it. He delights in forgiving His people, even when they've done horrible, perverted things. God is an amazing God. And when his people who've messed up turn to him, he'll not only restore them, he'll bless them. He'll not only forgive them, he'll use them. So we need to see that about God. We need this side of God. That's why we're gonna go through this book of Hosea. But there's a fourth reason why we're gonna study this book, and that is because Hosea is a book that clearly shows God's people just how much our sin hurts the heart of God. And I promise you this, this point, if you're in tune with God in any way is going to hit you hard. Because it sure does me. When we fail, when we sin against God, it is a horrible act of betrayal to our loving God. A horrible act of betrayal. We need to know this. We need to see that and realize that, whether it's the sin of immorality or greed or gossiping or religious hypocrisy, swearing, lying, stealing, whatever it is, it breaks the heart of God. God takes our sin personally, just as a husband would take the unfaithfulness of his wife personally. As a minister, I've seen the hurt and the heartache in the eyes of a mate who's been betrayed. It's heart-wrenching. And that's what God wants us to know. When we don't obey his word, it's heart-wrenching to him. And hopefully, when we get done with this book of Hosea, it will deepen our commitment not to say things or think things or ever do things that could break the heart of God. I heard a message that was given by Dr. Stanley Toussaint. In that message, he told the story of his good friend whom he went to school with who was Haddon Robinson. When Haddon Robinson was a young man, he was going out one night and his father gave him a curfew, a curfew time that he was supposed to be home. And Dr. Robinson said when he finally decided to go home, it was way past his curfew time and he knew his father would not be in bed. He knew his father would be up, and he also knew he was in trouble. He said when he got home, his father did not lose his temper, but he calmly said to Haddon Robinson, son, I want you to know tonight, you hurt me deeply. You hurt me deeply tonight, son. Dr. Robinson said he turned and walked into his bedroom. He said that impacted him more than anything his dad could have done. He said he walked into that room and he was crushed because he knew he had deeply hurt his father. Ladies and gentlemen, as a child of God, that's what we do every time we fail God. Every time we sin against God, we hurt him deeply. And this book of Hosea will clearly show us that. Now the second question is, who is Hosea? We don't know a lot about him. He's the guy who wrote the book. That's never been questioned. We don't know exactly where he lived. We don't know where he died. We don't know where he was buried. Some think that he was a baker. That's what he did because he has a reference there to making bread. Some think he was a farmer because he knew things about sowing and plowing and harvesting crops. Some think he was a priest because there are references in the book to priests. Some think he was a son of the prophets or some professional prophet who attended prophet school. The truth is we can't say. What we do learn from verse 1 is his father's name was Beri. We don't know much about him. There have been a couple of guesses of that. Some of the older Jewish scholars say they thought he was the son of Berah, who was a Reubenite. Others have said, if you track that to the book of Genesis, there was Esau married a woman named Judith, who was a daughter of a Hittite named Beri. We don't know if there's any connection there. So we don't really know a lot about the guy's ethnic background. One thing we could observe, though, is that you don't have to come from a famous big-name Christian family to be greatly used by God, because Hosea certainly didn't. We do know what his name means. Hosea, pronounced in Hebrew Hoshia, means salvation. It's closely connected to the name Joshua, which means the Lord is salvation. We can assume that he got that name at home, probably from his father Bere, which could suggest that he was raised in a God-fearing home that relied on God for salvation. He apparently lived in northern Israel because over 35 times in the book he mentions Ephraim, And it's possible he was even from that area because Ephraim is a term that often refers to that plush, wealthy area of the promised land that was located in the north. And that's where his prophecies are aimed at rather than south and Judah. It's often a general term used for Israel, but it may be that Hosea was from that very area. If this is true, then Hosea lived and prophesied in an area where he knew the people, the people knew him. And that would make this story even more humiliating. Because they would know he went to a brothel and he married a prostitute. And word would get around town, especially it's an area that you are known. Everyone knew him. Everybody knew who this woman was. And they'd be talking about it, which is exactly the point. God wanted the people talking about it. Because this is an illustration of what his people were to him. Which brings us to the third question, when did Hosea live and write? Well, from verse 1, we clearly get the time frame where he lived. There's four specific Judean kings that are mentioned there. Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. And you have one Israelite king named Jeroboam. Now these four Judean kings are the same ones that are mentioned by Isaiah, which means that Hosea lived at the same time that Isaiah lived. Isaiah was prophesying in the south and Hosea was prophesying in the north. Three of the kings here, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah are mentioned by Micah. which means that he lived at the same time that Micah did. Uzziah and Jeroboam are mentioned by Amos and we just came through the book of Amos so we could say that both of those prophets were alive at the same time and they were ministering to Israel at the same time. Because as we'll see, Hosea is ministering to the north just like Amos ministered to the north. And we know what the background was for all of that. People were enjoying a good life, a luxurious life. They were involved in shallow religion. They were involved in pursuing sensual lust. I mean, they were enjoying their good life, and that's the backdrop of Hosea's prophecy. Actually, even though Hosea's lifespan more than one Israelite king, what I find interesting is he only mentions one Israelite king, it's Jeroboam. That's odd. I mean, he mentions four Judean kings, but he only mentions one Israelite king, and yet he's ministering to Israel. And you have to say, I wonder what that's all about. Because after Jeroboam, you had Zechariah, who was assassinated by Shalom six months after he was king. Then you have Shalom, and he was a rotten guy, murdered by Menachem after one month. Then you had Menachem, who was a killer, And that guy reigned for about 10 years and made deals with the Assyrians. Then you have Pekiah, who was the son of Menachem. He reigned for a short time, and then he was followed by Pekah. And Pekah reigned and was put to death by the Assyrians. Then you have Hoshea. Those were all during that time taken captive by the Assyrians. Why didn't he name any of those guys? And most believe the reason for that is because Jeroboam was the last good king Israel ever saw. He was the last good king who did something worthwhile. All those others that came after him were worthless, evil kings who led Israel into immorality and idolatry. You know, don't be duped, ladies and gentlemen. There are worthless political leaders, and you know it. There are worthless political leaders who do not lead a nation into the right ways of God. They lead them away from God. And when you think about it, in light of the scriptures, they're not even worth mentioning. And when Jesus Christ returns, they won't be remembered. Now, if we calculate the first and the last Judean kings that he mentions, Uzziah began reigning about 792 BC. He reigned for 52 years till about 740 BC. And Hezekiah stopped reigning in 686 BC. So we could suspect that somewhere in that time span between 792 and 686, that's 106 years span, he is obviously writing in that time frame. But we can narrow it down even further than that because Jeroboam's reign was 793 to 753 BC, so we would suspect that it was in that 40-year span, right there, where he names Jeroboam, when he's having a prophetic ministry of announcing just the hurt that Israel had in regard to God. And primarily, it was at that time when he wrote. So our conclusion is, Hosea is a contemporary of Amos, He's ministering in the North. Isaiah and Micah are in the South. He lived and he wrote about the same time they did. In fact, we may remember in Amos, he said that because of her unfaithfulness, when we went through Amos, God said, I'm gonna raise up an enemy and bring them against Israel. Well, Hosea names the enemy. He names the enemy multiple times in the book. It is Assyria. And Assyria would sweep into Israel in 722 BC. And Hosea wrote before that, so somewhere around the years 793 to 753 BC, he wrote this great book of Hosea. And one other point of observation we want to make, and that is, God had more than one prophet out there on the front lines heralding truth that his people were not faithful. and they needed to turn back to Him. And if they didn't, they were going to experience the chastisement of God. He had more than one prophet telling the nation that. There were good prophets who were communicating that if they would turn to the Lord, God would have compassion on His people because He loved them. Which brings us to the fourth question. What's the theme of the book? Well, I think you'll see when all is said and done that When God's people turn away from God, when God's people turn away from the word of God, they deeply hurt God. And they may be punished by God. But God's people can always know that one day they will be completely restored and forgiven because of God's love. That's the theme of Hosea. That's what you're going to see. The book breaks down pretty nicely into four simple parts. The first three chapters deal with the fact that God has a sovereign redemptive plan for his people that's illustrated by the life of his prophet. In chapters four to seven, God's people are often faithless to him, not faithful to him. In chapters eight to 10, God's people are punished for their unfaithfulness. And in chapters 11 to 14, God's people are redeemed and restored because of God's love. But one thing this book will teach every one of us, and that is God can do some wonderful things with people who have lived crazy lives. God can do some wonderful things with people who come from crazy backgrounds. God can save and restore and use people who've sunk to the lowest level of depravity. H.A. Ironside said this book shows that God finds his greatest objects of love. not among the religious and the self-righteous, but he finds as his greatest objects of love the lost, the ruined sinners who've been stained by sin and polluted by guilt. He sets his sights of love on depraved wretches who are unworthy and vile, and he saves them, and he restores them, and he uses them. This book will tell you and teach you that God loves you even when you love some things he hasn't loved. God loves you when you've done some things you shouldn't have done. When we sin, we break the heart of God, but we can never break the love of God. That is the book of Hosea. And there is a text of scripture that is an amazing prediction. of where this love of God is fully manifested. I'd like you to go to Hosea chapter six. Because here is an amazing prediction of where the love of God is found. In Hosea chapter six and verse two, he will revive us after two days, he will raise us up on the third day that we may live before him. Someone would be raised up on the third day. that would make it possible because of the love of God to live in the presence of God. And that someone is Jesus Christ. This book of Hosea, as you will see, will point straight at him because he is the greatest demonstration of the love of God. May we pray. If you're here today and you've never trusted Christ as savior, This is a great, great truth for you to know. No matter how bad you've been, no matter what sins you've been involved in, no matter how corrupt and how far short of the glory of God or guilty you are, the love of God can forgive it all. If you will place your faith in Jesus Christ, you will be saved from all your sins. Right now where you sit, Just pray something like this, God, I know I'm a sinner. I thank you that Christ died for me and right now I invite him into my life to be my savior. For those of us who know the Lord, we have to admit there have been times we've betrayed God. We've been unfaithful to him. Isn't it good to know he still loves his elect? Our Father, we thank you so much for your precious word. We thank you for every single book of the Bible that you've given to us. What a wonderful privilege it is to open up in our English Bibles to this great book of Hosea. We pray that in our days to come, our weeks to come, that you will just show us wonderful things, things about you that we need to know. We pray that you bless our communion service. Lord, it is so fitting that we celebrate this morning that because that is the demonstration of your pure love. In Jesus' name, amen.