Let's turn with me to the book of Hosea, chapter one. Follow along as I read verses three through nine. Hosea one, three through nine. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to him, call his name Jezreel. For in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.' And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him, call her name Loruhamma, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses or horsemen. Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then God said, call his name Lo-Ami, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God. I want to speak with you on the subject of the Christian's worst nightmare. There are many disturbances in the Christian life that cause us much pain. For example, persecution, death of an unsaved friend or a loved one, illness, fear, worry, unbelief, loneliness, a lack of assurance of salvation, backsliding, broken relationships and friendships, and bitterness. All these things cause Christians emotional pain and spiritual grief. Some of them would be considered among the most painful things that can happen to us. But in my opinion, the most heart wrenching distressing of all of them is not even on this list. It's something we must deal with from time to time. No, in my opinion, and I believe this is the conclusion of the text presently under consideration, the Christian's worst nightmare is when God separates himself from his people. Now, let me hasten to add one qualification. Those who are truly converted, God will never forsake his people. He will never completely separate himself from them. And as we go along, I'll explain exactly what I mean by that. But let me alleviate any concern you may have from the beginning that might suggest that we can lose our salvation. We cannot. or that God will never again return to us in love and power if we have for even a long period of time backslid from him in fellowship. Now, besides the prophet Hosea that is mentioned in verses one and two, there are five other people that are named in verses three through nine. And their very names, the meaning of their names, God has seen fit by the inspiration of his spirit to represent God's message to the nation of Israel and to bring out the major theme of Hosea in the very meaning of the names of these five people. The names are Gomer, verse three, Jezreel, verses four and five, Jehu, verse four, Lo-Ruhamah, verse six, and Lo-Ami, verse nine. All of these names teach us something about God's burden for Israel, God's concern over his relationship with them. Now you remember that this was the darkest period in Israel's history. Hosea was written during a period considered to be the culmination of Israel's long moral decline through the centuries. Within 150 years of the writing of this book, Hosea, both Israel and Judah would be carried away into captivity because of their sins. their prolonged persistence in sin, in spite of hundreds of years of warnings that God had given Israel, enormous space to repent. Through the prophets, he exhorted them and warned them, but not only had they rejected his warnings, but they killed the prophets. After Judah's return from captivity in Babylon around 500 BC, There would be a period of about 500 years leading up to the birth of Christ. This 500 year period from the return from captivity to the birth of Christ. This 500 year period is commonly known as the intertestamental period and continues to be Israel's worst nightmare during this period of time. The most painful of all chastisements Which is what? Well, during this 500-year period, God separated himself from Israel. He kept his word. These horrific prophecies of judgment against Israel that are made here in Hosea 1 and in many other places, sprinkled throughout the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all 12 minor prophets, God kept his word. And we see that word of judgment fulfilled during this 500 year period. What took place during the intertestamental period? What evidence do we have of Israel's punishment and the fulfilled prophecy? Well, the evidence is seen in the prophetic word being completely removed from Israel during these 500 years. The priesthood and leaders of Israel would become completely corrupt and politicized with very rare exception during these 500 years. And a huge body of traditions, eventually called the Talmud, which were many books of written traditions compiled over these 500 years by rabbis and scribes, that were apostate and had very little light and revelation. They would replace the regulation of Israel's life, the regulation of Israel's spiritual life by the Word of God with the Talmud, with these oral and written traditions. And the Word of God, that is the Law of Moses, The wisdom books, the three major sections of the Old Testament that the Jews divided the Old Testament up in, the wisdom books, the Law of Moses, and the Prophets would be usurped by the Talmud. During this period, this intertestamental period, a major shift took place, probably imperceptible to most of the Israelites, The emphasis in the Old Testament Scriptures was on the need for the knowledge of God in a personal and an individual way. The prophets hammered away over and over and over again. The faithful priests hammered away, bombarded the people. with the fact that God wanted a personal relationship with his people. He was not content with the people of God paying lip service to him when their hearts were far from him. That theme comes up over and over and over again. And if the people of God did not listen to God, if they did not respond to God's warnings, to keep their hearts pure, to keep and maintain their inner life and fellowship with God, sanctified, eventually, no matter how orthodox and faithful they may be in observing external creeds and rituals and ceremonies, however accurate their observance of them may be to the ceremonial law in the Law of Moses, God would chastise and punish his people until their hearts And their inner person were completely surrendered to God once again. Now is this a theme that is pertinent and relevant to the church today? Is it? It is. And it comes up over and over and over again in the New Testament. It never goes away. Why? Because everything that defines salvation is based on this primary axiom of relationship. And there are a multitude of metaphors in both the Old Testament and New Testament that describe this relationship. marriage, landscaping, the vine and the branches. And over and over and over again, we have metaphors to describe it. So this shift that took place from a heart knowledge of God to a focus on the externals, God was very hurt by that. He was grieved greatly. And his judgment in the form of blindness caused a shift in activities that would draw Israel's attention away from the knowledge of God to four external activities that would dominate and regulate their life as a theocracy. as a religious nation commanded to observe religious commandments and rituals. There was this shift based on God's judgment, which was spiritual blindness. And the shift went from the knowledge of God, first of all, to focusing on man-made traditions. as seen clearly in the Talmud. It went from the knowledge of God to synagogue life. Many who are brought up in the church know all about what takes place, for example, in the Bible Belt, where the church becomes a place of communal activity. where friends and family get together rather than it being a place where we worship God and the focus, primary focus being on that. The idea of the synagogue was created during the intertestamental period. The Jews could not return to Jerusalem to worship in the temple where, which was the location God commanded them to worship and offered the sacrifices, where the priesthood headquarters was located. They were in captivity. So they developed the concept of the synagogue, which required 10 families. You had to have 10 Jewish families to start a local synagogue. Nowhere in the Bible does God command the Jews to start synagogues. The temple was the center of religious and spiritual life. That never changed. But when they went into captivity out of convenience and practical circumstances, they created the synagogue. But of course they were in a very bad way in terms of experiencing God's judgment during the 500 years between the Testaments and the concept of the synagogue you assert the primacy of temple worship. And they just continued to keep the synagogue as the primary center for their their community and local family and lives. The third thing was religious rituals versus worship from the heart. And the fourth was a changed identity. The Jewish identity changed from this concept of God in a spiritual relationship with a very large group of individuals to a modified identity drawn from symbols, holidays, and culture. The Jews during the intertestamental period since they were separated from this inwardness, this oneness with God that was renewed by the Holy Spirit and by the Word of God. All they could do is look outward to affirm their identification, rather than inwardly having the peace of God, the spirit of adoption affirm within their hearts regularly that they are the children of God. They look to their symbols, the Star of David, and all these external symbols that they drew, the Shema, the Jewish motto, which is based on Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, As soon as I could think, as soon as I could speak, that was one of the first things my parents had me memorize. At a very, very young age, five years old, six years old, I couldn't even write English, let alone Hebrew, and I had that memorized because that was the Jewish motto that identified me as a Jew. So their national life was reduced to mere symbols and holidays and cultural gatherings where they developed their own cuisine and their own unique cultural identification. And to this day, most Jews throughout the entire world, including in Israel, which is predominantly secularized, find their identity in culture, symbols, and holidays, rather than in a personal relationship with Jehovah God himself, the Messiah, Yeshua Hamashiach, Jesus the Messiah. And every other religion in the world is basically the same. They identify themselves as a certain religion because they were brought up that way, because it's their culture, as expressed through symbols and holidays and so forth, right? But God wants none of that if there's no spiritual substance in the inward man. Symbols are given only and meant only to express a living relationship between God and his people. But if there is no relationship and no substance, do the symbols mean anything? What do they mean to you? And this is a struggle within Christianity as well. So Hosea spoke to Israel during a time when it was in very swift decline. And this story that we find in Hosea 1 is of a great tragedy in Hosea's domestic life between himself and his wife and children, which reflects the greater tragedy between God and Israel and their broken relationship all the fault of Israel. And all the prophetic statements in the book of Hosea are colored by this fractured relationship. Okay, this brings us to our first point, which is the first name of the five that we find in chapter one, which is Gomer. The name Gomer is only found three times in the Bible. The first two times it's found is it names a man. The only feminine name of Gomer is found right here in Hosea 1.3 where we read, so he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. The name Gomer basically means complete or completeness. But it specifically means completeness in terms of the wrath of God. Let me give you examples of what I mean by the completeness of God's wrath. Israel is at the very end of their domestic national life. Their sins have come to a point where they are completely full. The cup of sin is full. And God has given this woman the name Gomer to show forth that Israel's national life, God's relationship with Israel is now at such a terrible point, God's anger and His wrath towards Israel is full. And He is about to judge them in a way and chastise them unlike they've ever seen. And that judgment will last right until the second coming, till just before the second coming of Jesus Christ. The Bible, I believe, teaches in Romans 11 and in other passages that Israel will be restored because God never chooses a people on an individual level or a national level that he does not restore even at their worst, when they are at their worst, when they have wandered from God completely. So the worst kind of judgment that any of us can experience individually in terms of God's chastisement, or the Jews as a nation, will never, never be greater than God's mercy in restoring us, in restoring us. The Bible says clearly in that same text in Romans that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. And he's talking about the national restoration of Israel in the context. All of the Puritans, almost to a man, except maybe Richard Baxter, but I think he agreed with his brethren, believed that the Jews would be restored. Spurgeon and many other leading figures and pastors and well-known theologians, including Calvin and Luther, all believed that Israel would be restored in the end times. This echoes the message of hope that we find in verses 10 and 11 of Hosea 1, which we'll look at next week. This is a reflection of the character of God. This fact teaches us much about the character of God, that no matter how angry and grieved he may become because his people sin against him, he will be faithful to himself. He will be faithful to his own promises for he cannot deny himself and he will restore his people to a place of love and fellowship with God. There's a couple of examples we see that describe the completeness of God's wrath. In Matthew 23, 31 and 32, we read this. Therefore, Jesus says to the Pharisees, you are witnesses against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt. Now, there's not only a very short time span describing this word of condemnation against the Pharisees, but you may not realize it, but this prophecy goes back many, many years to the prophets, hundreds of years previously where The prophets proclaimed God's judgment against them if they did not repent. The two captivities, Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, were major shocks to Israel of chastisement, but that wasn't the end of God's wrath. During the intertestamental period, he weaned Israel from spiritual desire and communion with God and they had become so blinded and deceived they had sat on an ash heap of contentment with symbols and rituals but God's judgment was not complete yet Jesus says that his judgment against them will ultimately be fulfilled when they reject the Messiah finally, which would come up in just a few days or a few weeks from his prophecy here. That their guilt from their fathers on until his day would be filled up when they finally reject their very Messiah sent by God. And then in 1 Thessalonians 2, 15 and 16, the Apostle Paul tells of the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us that is Christians and they do not please God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved watch so as always to fill up the measure of their sins but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost the wrath of God perhaps more than any other people. in the history of the world was poured out upon his own people, the Jewish nation. You look at certain periods of persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes, the Greek king in 300 BC, who came into Jerusalem and erected a pig in the temple as an idol, and there was a great war between Antiochus and the Jews and God gave them victory and there was a Jewish holiday created to commemorate that victory called, I'm not going to tell you, I forgot. But in, of course, in 70 AD, another momentous time when God poured out wrath upon the Jews was the Romans coming up in 68 AD, destroying hundreds of villages and cities along the way, finally arriving at Jerusalem and having a two-year siege against the city, destroying in 70 AD the city and killing millions of people over a two-year period, millions of Jews. and the remainder was brought back to Rome as slaves, sold as slaves. Then, of course, who can forget the persecutions in Europe by Russia and going back 2,000 years during the medieval times in many other places around the world, the Jews were persecuted and genocide again took place here and there. But, of course, the most famous in recent decades is Hitler. The six million Jews who were murdered by him during World War II. Not to diminish many other millions who were murdered by Hitler and Stalin, but we're talking about the Jews right now. So God's wrath was certainly filled up against the Jews all these many years, but God's wrath and anger towards them is coming to a close very soon. His anger started with a prophecy in Isaiah 6, which said, they will have eyes, but they won't see. They will have ears, but they won't hear. Make the heart of this people dull, make their ears heavy and make their eyes dull, their ears heavy and fat, lest they see with their eyes, understand with their ears and their heart and be converted and I heal them. That prophecy will remain in effect for about 26, 2700 years from when Isaiah first gave it until the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which I believe he's coming soon. I don't know exactly when, no one knows the day nor the hour, but we all agree upon the general signs of the times. I think most of us do anyway, that he's coming soon. I don't know if it's a year, 10 years, 50 years or whenever. But there's no mistaking the changing of the times and seasons that Daniel chapters 7 and 9 describe as well as 2 Thessalonians 2 and the book of Revelation read from chapters 7 through chapters 18 and you'll see that the end times Just before Christ comes again, we'll experience major changes in the political and spiritual principalities and powers. They will call evil good and good evil. There will be wholesale changes in every political realm concerning moral values that have been honored by 6,000 years of time and every major civilization in the history of the world. This is a very unusual and extraordinary period of time. We're seeing moral values that have been held and honored by unconverted kings and heads of state for 6,000 years now dishonored by those same kings and heads of state and political leaders. Something unique and unprecedented is happening in this world like we've never seen before. And you better be on the right side when the Lord Jesus comes again. You better not be sitting on the fence. Because some of us will suffer more punishment in hell who end up becoming false Christians or counterfeit Christians because we have seen the signs before our very eyes take place. So the name Gomer means completion. That is the filling up of the measure of idolatry or the rightness of consummate wickedness on the part of Israel. Israel's name was indicative of the wholesale adultery and idolatry that they had refined to a science. They were professional hypocrites. Their conscience had become so weakened and seared that they could commit the worst forms of idolatry, bowing down to wooden idols on hills, committing adultery with temple prostitutes, and then later on the same day, dress up in the most holy external Jewish garb and go through the motions in the temple to the letter. And that is the level of double mindedness and hypocrisy and contradictions that professing Christians can devolve to. True Christians, yes, we all struggle with hypocrisy from time to time, but not prolonged hypocrisy on that level because true believers have the Spirit of God in them. And the Spirit of God will not allow them to countenance such a double life for a long period of time. And so Israel's name was indicative of adultery and idolatry. And these five names indicate that in Hosea 1. As a wife of whoredoms, this prostitute who God identifies as the northern 10 tribes as the kingdom, is regarded as an idolatress and which has become a symbol of the people of Israel. This symbol of an idolatress, a prostitute, is now the metaphor, the symbol, even the byword among the nations of God's people. The church can be reduced to such a level herself, and I think we're almost fully there. The evangelical church today, listen to me my friends, has prostituted herself with the world and is using the methods and entertainments of the world to try to build God's kingdom. But they're trying to build God's kingdom using sensual devices in the churches that appeal to sensuality in people. through the movements of music, through the entertainments and machinations of the flesh inside our worship services. And they have become whores and harlots, many of them. And there is rarely a church that strives. There are few pastors which strive to maintain a pure and a holy church as God's representatives in this world. upholding the standard of purity and holiness which we learn in scripture and which standard God wants the world to see. as a holy God who lives in a holy people who is worshiped by a holy church so that the world will see this major huge contrast between that which is holy between that which God loves and blesses and uses for his glory and what is a harlot the whore as represented by the woman on the beast in Revelation the false church the prostitute church, the harlot church, the idolatrous church. Does this not grip you, my brethren, this message in Hosea? Oh, may we never be so comfortable with the world and compromising with the world and love the world, even secretly, that we are reduced to this level in the eyes of God of prostituting the holy things of the Lord It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. There is a secondary meaning of Gomer, which is pollution, which of course works hand in hand with the completeness of God's wrath. Pollution, moral pollution, is the cause. The completeness or fullness of God's wrath is the effect. Now Gomer, Like I said, this is the only time found in the Bible in the feminine form, and she represents a prostitute. Well, that makes sense, and God represents, or her husband, Hosea, represents God, who is holy. The holy prophet represents holy God, and Gomer, the prostitute, represents the harlotrous church, or Israel. So, in scripture, then, We see the principle of severe chastisement upon the people of God. His restoring mercy notwithstanding. And we're going to flesh out all these details as we go along. This dualistic tension between wrath and mercy. We see both in God's heart. The depths of God's unfathomable being are occupied by justice and mercy. And in the cross, justice and mercy become best friends. Because when the Lord Jesus Christ died there, he satisfied the demands of God's justice, keep the law always. But he also displays his mercy and his compassion and his love. So Jesus in the end is the answer. The worst form of chastisement then can be described in the following ways. Two ways. I've laid out several things that cause us great pain in the Christian life, great grief, things that may be used by God to chastise us, but the separation of God from his people, that's the worst form of chastisement. It's the Christian's worst nightmare. when God will no longer come to you in fellowship at your beckoning. When you rub your lamp and use God as a genie, picking him up and laying him down when you want to, and rub the magic lamp, so to speak, he doesn't come anymore as fast as you would like. The separation of God from his people I've defined in two ways. First, it is the removal of God's presence. We read in Psalm 106, turn to Psalm 106, verses 12 through 15. Speaking of God's people, Psalm 106, verse 12, picking it up. Then they believed his words, they sang his praise, but they soon forgot his works. They did not wait for his counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tested God in the desert. And he gave them their request, but he sent leanness into their souls. You remember the incident when the Jews were in the desert and they weren't happy with the manna. They complained to Moses and God said, okay, you want meat? I'll give you a meat. And he sent. A flock of quail, so much so that it says that they ate quail until it came to their nostrils. But then it says he sent leanness into their souls. He gave them the meat. He satisfied the externals, but they were weak in faith. They doubted God. They lost their heart for God and whatever they had left, God took it away and replaced it with leanness. They lost their appetite for God in the process. Isaiah 10 and verse 16 says, Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts will send leanness among his fat ones. Under his glory he will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. This is the picture. of the people of God who were once spiritually fat. They were close to the Lord, walking with God, exuding the peace and love of God, the fruits of the Spirit, frequently enjoyed and experienced. Yet, when he punishes his people, in my view, the worst kind of punishment is to remove the comforts, the fruits of the Spirit, and replace it with deadness, with leanness, so that When the things of God come to mind, you have no mind for it, no appetite, no heart for it. This is a very, very, very great judgment. Actually, this is the epitome of what hell is like. The worst aspect of hell and the lake of fire is not necessarily the physical torment and punishment, but it is the very separation from God from all eternity that will cause people in hell more suffering and more torment than anything else, when they realize that they will never ever ever again have an opportunity to know God, to walk with God, to trust in Him, and that He will never ever ever be with them. They will have no mercy. They will only have punishment and torment. and judgment forever and ever now certainly the people of God do not have that we're saved and praise God the scripture says that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus the condemnation is removed the wrath of God has been diffused upon the head of the Lord Jesus Christ when he died on the cross He paid my debt in full. When Jesus said it is finished, among many things, it means this, that Christ bore God's anger and wrath in his own body for my sins. I should have been judged I should be paying for my own sin but as my suffering loving substitute Jesus bore my sin and was punished for my sin in his own body on the cross he shed his blood offering his body as a sacrifice for sin in my place so that I don't have to be punished and judged and be cast into the lake of fire. Again, the lake of fire, which is the permanent place of punishment. There's no rehabilitation there. It is purely designed to extract punishment and torment. What a statement about the justice of God that needs to be satisfied. All those commandments he's given us, they must be satisfied. Otherwise, there's a hell to pay and there's a lake of fire. as well. But mercy is given to us through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the most fearful horrible, unthinkable punishment possible. It is the element of separation from God, our Creator. The one who made us, the one who defines us who we are, the one who put needs inside of us, the need for love, the ability to give love, the need for relationship, both as friendship and otherwise, the ability to give it. Everything about us exudes and oozes relationship. God wired us that way. And we have this empty chasm inside of us, both in need of having a physical companion called a husband or a wife, as well as a spiritual companion forever called the Lord. We have these huge needs inside of us, both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. God put them there, and they are only fulfilled in the context of relationship. And so here's the problem. The Lake of Fire speaks about the fact that God cuts off the possibility ever of having this spiritual relationship with him or with anyone else. Relationship is gone. What we were created and designed for is gone. It is purely a place of non-rehabilitative punishment called the Lake of Fire. There's an echo of that in here. Even when God judges his own people, the worst possible punishment that, I don't know about you, but that I can experience as a Christian, is when I long for God, when I hunger for his presence, when I seek the joy that comes in walking with him and in communion with him, and I don't experience it for a long period of time. To me, there's some kind of separation going on there, right? That's the worst judgment, the worst punishment that God can give me, or I believe, any child of God. Oh, let me get a broken arm. Let me get paralyzed from the neck down. Let me experience any kind of punishment as a Christian. But Lord, take not thy spirit from me. Renew unto me the joy of my salvation. Amen? Oh, what is our prized possession then? What is the greatest gift we have? It is this salvation, this treasure in earthen vessels. It is the Lord Jesus Christ whom we experience through the means of a relationship with God Himself. Do nothing, therefore, to hinder that relationship. If there's any message that we will receive from Hosea, this is the message that the greatest punishment is any kind of diminishing, any kind of weakening, any long-term interruption in our relationship with God. Because when you are ready to seek Him, when you come to your senses and have not experienced his closeness for a long time, you may not be able to find him right away. The Bible describes God very often in human terms. We call them Anthropomorphisms, that's a big theological word to describe that God uses human features like a hand. He lowers his hand to lift us up. He has eyes. God doesn't have eyes and ears. He's a spirit. But the Bible talks a lot about God weeping, having a broken heart, being grieved. His spirit is grieved. He has holy emotions which are perfect. Therefore, we can hurt him more. Our emotions come in seed form. They're defective. But God's are perfect. And every time we hurt him, we hurt him deeply. But Israel was hardened in their heart. They cared not about God's feelings, God's concerns. God's heart, God's issue, God's feelings. We read about Saul, again, this great judgment. I don't believe Saul was converted. But either way, we read of him, but he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. He experienced, that is King Saul, the first king of Israel, He experienced the presence of God. He even prophesied. Some of them said, does even Saul, is even Saul among the prophets? He experienced and tasted of the heavenly powers and gifts. But there was a place in his disobedience where the spirit of God left him and never returned. Now that cannot happen to a true Christian. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. Thank God. but we find occasions in the scripture where the Spirit of God departs. Sometimes he comes back in power and will stay for the rest, but other times he leaves and never comes back. When he never comes back, we see this, of course, in the lives of professing nominal Christians who care not about the issues that relate to their spiritual happiness and contentment and well-being in their life. All they care about is external religious matters. The true Christian cares about our relationship with the Lord even though we may be forgetful and hypocritical from time to time backslide even for long periods yet in the end the true Christian cares much about how God feels and about nurturing our relationship with him. Amen. Like I said, David, the king said, don't cast me away from your presence. In his repentance, in Psalm 51, David was saying, I care more about my relationship with you and the joy I had in walking with you than any other chastisement, however embarrassing and humiliating it was when he, for example, when he was deposed temporarily by his son Absalom and When the people of God suffered a plague because he numbered the people, or his own family affairs were greatly in upheaval, the worst judgment I think we could see from David is God taking his presence from him. So this is a picture of the believer once in close fellowship who has lost his appetite for the presence, love, and fellowship of God. The believer has become numb for whatever reason. Are you numb? Your trials, your struggles have made you numb. You're so much struggling that you really don't even care about your relationship with the Lord that much anymore. You may for a moment, for an hour, maybe during a sermon, you're awakened to these issues, but you quickly go back to sleep. And on Monday again, you hit the ground running in your schedule, in your lifestyle, busy, busy, busy, busy. You've lost your heart for God. That's called the removal of God's presence. That's the first part of the worst judgment. The second part is unrepentant sin separates the believer from close fellowship. Unrepentant sin separates the believer from close fellowship. Remember what Isaiah said in 59, 1 and 2. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is it heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated you from God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear." It's not that God doesn't want to hear and answer and bless you and walk closely with you and give you answers to prayer, but unrepentant sin will cut that blessed exchange off, right? So we need to repent of our sins. But if we don't, we understand why we've lost assurance of salvation, joy, peace, and all the rest. Unrepentant sin. And 2 Corinthians chapter 7 defines the nature of repentance and how deep you and I need to go inwardly to make sure we've discovered with God's help and wisdom all of those sins. And of course he supplies sorrow and grief and a spirit of conviction that cannot easily go back the other way. So we see then this very terrible picture of God's relationship with Israel ending through the name Gomer. The second name is Jezreel, verse 4a. Jezreel. Then the Lord said to him, call his name Jezreel. And of course, Jezreel represents the justice of God. The larger issue going on with Jezreel in the end is God's justice needs to be vented. Now, he may hold back his hand of chastisement for a very long time, but it's only because of his mercy. Some people will think, well, because I'm still alive, and I'm still blessed, and I'm not sick, and nothing's been taken from me, and it's been 15 years since you did this, that, or the other thing, and nothing's happened. Well, I guess God forgot about it, or he's not aware of it. No, from the moment that sin took place, God is very upset about it. He doesn't sweep anything under the rug. But the 10 years or the 15 years since we really repented of that sin, he's mercifully given us space to repent. He's held back his wrath. His wrath is a strange thing. People cry, oh God and wrath, remember mercy. And usually, God comes down on the side of mercy because that's who He is. He's a merciful God. He's a good God. He's gracious, full of pity. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him. For He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. And so often He holds back His hand of chastisement against His own people because He's merciful and gracious. He waits and He waits and He waits and He waits. to see if we'll seek him for grace. You say, well, I don't have a repentant heart. I don't have what God requires. Oh, don't get hyper-Calvinistic on me now. God requires you to seek him even though you don't have the grace to seek him. Just start praying. As cold-hearted as you may be, start praying. Have mercy on me, Lord. Have mercy. Because even the smallest faith, the mustard seed faith, which requires you to start praying for the things that you don't even have yet, or that you need to pray or write, God will see that. And eventually God says, if you will return to me, I will return to you, says the Lord. Jezreel means justice. So the first child that Hosea and Gomer had, you remember Gomer's a prostitute, She had a child or two and then left her husband and is living with a man. So they have a son and God tells Hosea, call him Jezreel, which means God sows or God scatters. That seems contradictory. How can you sow and scatter? Well, you see, there are two opposites to each one of the three children's names. Jezreel means God sows and God scatters. no mercy and mercy and lo ami means you're no longer my people and you are my people and that's what I mean when I described earlier there's this tension it's a sanctified tension in the nature of God concerning his relationship with his people that no matter how bad things get with us in the end we will always have mercy we will always have mercy his mercy will lead us to repentance The goodness of God leads us to repentance. And the name Jezreel is used three times in verses four and five. Now Jezreel was a city in the tribe of Issachar. This city is associated with the drastic judgment, the punishment that Jehu poured out upon the family of Ahab. Now we read probably the longest text of scripture ever in the history of the scripture reading part of our worship service in Christ's Bible Church. We read about 45, 50 verses. I asked Brian to read that passage deliberately because I wanted you to get some of the history of what's going on because Hosea 1 and verse 4, 5, and 6 brings up a historical event that happened about 100 years before this was written. when God anointed Jehu the king of Israel. And one of his main missions was to punish the house of King Ahab, who about a hundred years before, not a hundred years, who had killed a lot of people. And the blood of those innocents that Jehu killed, that wasn't supposed to be killed, cried out from the ground, God remembered. and God was bringing forth justice. So through the birth of Jezreel, God announced that he would avenge the blood that was shed by Jehu and put an end to Jehu's dynasty in Israel. Now you remember when Brian read, God commended Jehu. And he said, because you did what I told you to do, your sons will reign on the throne of Israel to the fourth Well, now in Hosea, the fourth son is reigning and he's about to die. And no longer, no longer will Israel have mercy. The trap door's gonna open up after the last of the four sons of Jehu reign, because he obeyed God in that one thing. Doesn't mean he did everything right, but in that one thing, he obeyed God, and God blessed him and allowed four of his sons the next four kings to reign who were sons of his, but now the trapdoor is opening up and the bottom's falling out. And Israel is going to be judged in a huge way. And this was fulfilled in 752 BC when Zechariah was assassinated, the great grandson of Jehu, and the last of his dynasty to reign. But like I said, God also was announcing here that the whole kingdom of Israel would come to an end with the defeat of the army, which occurred in 724. So we're going to talk a little bit more about Jehu right now. Number three, the third name, Jehu. We learned about Jezreel, justice, God is bringing forth justice. But Jehu represents zeal without knowledge, which often the people of God are punished because they have so much energy and zeal, but it's not based on truth. It's not based on knowledge. It's not based on wisdom. Sometimes true Christians act like a bull in a China shop with all this activity and all this work, but so much of it is based on a lack of wisdom. and they go forth in a sensual, fleshly, carnal attitude and spirit, and the works that they do that they think are glorifying God are not glorifying God. It's doing just the opposite. That's the picture of Jehu. He did a few good things and God commended him for the good that he did. But now we read in verse 4b, for in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu. The city and area where Jehu killed all these people was Jezreel. Was Jezreel. And Jezreel now represents the justice of God avenging the blood of Jezreel, where these innocents were slain, and it continues, bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. That geographical location where this blood was shed, there would be a battle that would take place in that area where the bow of Israel, a bow represents a weapon, you know, the bow and arrow. The bow represents the strength of Israel's military might. It will be destroyed. at that battle in the area of Jezreel where a lot of innocent people were killed by Jehu. And that will culminate the height or that will bring about a culmination of God's judgment at that time. Now Jehu was very zealous to purge the land of Ahab's evil descendants. that he murdered far more people than the Lord had commanded him to murder, including King Ahaziah of Judah and 42 of his relatives. Now, if you read through that passage again that Brian read in 2 Kings chapters 9 and 10, you'll see that when When Jehu is commanded to destroy people, he is limited to Ahab's descendants. But Ahab went way overboard and killed Ahaziah and his sons as well, and other people. And that the Lord was not happy with. So it is true on the one hand that Jehu was acting in response to the prophet Elisha's command from the Lord. and was commended by the Lord, as I said. But we read in second Kings 10, 29 through 31, second Kings 10, 29 through 31. However, Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabot, who made Israel sin. That is from the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan. And the Lord said to Jehu, because you have done well in doing what is right in my sight and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in my heart, your son shall sit on the throne to the fourth generation. God commends him for that one thing that he did right. That's it. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart. for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam who made Israel sin." Basically, Jeroboam was a false believer and he was an idolater. He continued to worship idols and he caused Israel, just like his father Jeroboam or his relative who was a King Jeroboam, to sin as well. He had a lot of zeal but without knowledge. So God was not happy. with Jehu's idolatry and constantly instigating Israel to sin. On the part of King Saul, who didn't go far enough, remember when Samuel told King Saul, wipe out everything, everybody, even the animals. King Saul stopped short He wiped out the people, but didn't kill the animals. He told Samuel, oh, we're going to use them. They're good animals. We're going to use them for worship and sacrifice. And he told Saul, well, has the Lord delight in burnt offerings more than obedience? To obey the Lord is better than to sacrifice. But we see Jehu in the other extreme. Jehu went too far. Jehu is the epitome of overkill. So both extremes are sinful. Compromise on the one hand, which King Saul represents, and worldly wisdom and violence on the other hand, which Jehu represents. We see an echo of that in the Crusades during the medieval period, when the Roman Catholic Church, in the name of Christ, killed all these Muslims and all these Turks and millions and millions and millions of people. Hundreds of years the Crusades were conducted in the Middle East and up to the edge of Europe. And that's an example how in the name of religion, in this case Christianity, the worst sins can be committed, right? Jehu is representative of that. It does matter that we walk the walk as well as talk the talk. And so Jehu so acted, as the rest of his conduct showed, not out of obedience to God as much as out of ambition. And so his act was wicked, mostly. How many people in the church act in such a manner, but behind their actions are selfish ambition, a cloak of religiosity, a heart devoid of the grace of God and the love of God. Paul said, brethren, in chapter 10 of Romans one and two, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be safe. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. And the church can easily degenerate to that same condition, having a zeal without knowledge. God wants both zeal and knowledge. Behind the Pharisees' zeal in putting their own Messiah to death was ignorance, blindness, covetousness, envy, malice, and selfish ambition. They had a zeal, they thought they were doing the right thing by crucifying their Messiah, but underneath it all was wickedness. The Bible says love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. You know, it's said of Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul before his conversion, concerning zeal, persecuting the church. There's a lot of zeal, there's a lot of energetic people in the church, but I fear so much of it is misguided. The same Apostle Paul said to the Galatians, they zealously court you, referring to the Pharisees. the Judaizers, but for no good. Yes, they want you to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them, but it is good to be zealous in good thing, in a good thing always. In other words, it's not good to be zealous in bad things, not using wisdom. It's good to be zealous in good things, and for the right reasons. All right, Lo-Ruhamah, I'll end this quickly. Number four, the fourth name is Lo-Ruhamah, which means no mercy. Hosea 1.6, and she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him, call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel. What words? I've read these words many times. Each time I read them, I wince in my heart. No mercy for Israel, but I will utterly take them away. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, or battle, or by horses." Israel had gotten to the place where they relied upon the nations of the world and their pagan kings for help during times of need instead of trusting in the Lord. Israel had reached bottom in that area, relying upon people, relying upon the world. Judah, though, was still doing okay. They had not gotten to that place yet, But 150 years later they will be in that place even though God promises to have mercy on Judah and save them by his grace not by the arm of the flesh. In verse 8 we read, now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah she conceived and bore a son. So Lo-Ruhamah means I will not have mercy anymore again. There's this element of separation. It's the worst form of chastisement. It's been a long separation, 2,500 years between God and Israel. That's a long time. He's kept the nation alive. In 1948, when Israel was made a nation again, I think that was the spring, Israel's springtime, leading up to the second coming of Christ. when finally the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout. And as we read in Zechariah 10 and 12, the Jews will see the Lord coming in the air and they will say to him, what are those wounds in your hands? And he will say, those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. And then their response, having their eyes finally open, Their blindness completely taken away, scales falling from their eyes. It says they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son. That will be a day of national restoration and repentance. And the nation of Israel will once again be in fellowship with God. But of course, as Gentiles, we'll all be on equal standing. There'll be no blue-blooded Jewish Christians versus the rest of us, or you, I should say. But no, we're all one in Christ. God's love is certainly unconditional, but our enjoyment of that love is conditional. It depends on faith and obedience. Now I'm not saying we're sanctified by works, but we must do what God commands us to do, God determining that he will channel grace to us if we are in that place of grace. All right, lastly, Lo-Ami, verse nine, then God said, call his name Lo-Ami for you're not my people and I will not be yearned at God. Can you imagine saying that to your child? I disown you, you're not my child anymore. Some children can get their parents so upset that they will disown their children. Have you known a parent to do that? I have. Oh, he's not my son anymore. He said such and such to me 10 years ago and I haven't forgiven him since, I've disowned him. Right? Some of you've heard words like that from parents who get so upset at their children. Now, transfer that analogy to God's relationship with Israel. God is so grieved with his people. He says, you're not my people anymore. Nope, you're not my people anymore. Even though biologically they are, for lack of a better term, he's not going to cast them away. but God is saying he's not permanently disowning them. Temporarily, they are not his people. He will not resume their relationship like he did in the past until 2,500 years later or so. It'll be a very long separation. Lo-Ami was the third child, a son, and his name means not my people. It's like a man divorcing his wife. turning his back on her or like a father rejecting his own son. Oh, my friends, I don't know if we really understand the implications of what God is teaching here. We never want to presumptuously sin and rely upon God's mercy presumptuously and just go on doing Our own thing being double minded living a double life thinking well I'll just repent when I want to return to God and he will have mercy on me. That's satanic logic. Shall we sin that grace may abound. Shall we do that to the Lord. The most important thing is when you sin my brethren. Repent immediately whether you feel like it or not, because each moment that goes by grieves the heart of God a little bit more. Repent immediately before you cross over that line where God may resort to using the instrument of chastisement. That is our worst nightmare. Long term withdrawal of his presence, though he is still with us. He's still with us. He has not left us nor forsaken us. And I'm not saying we walk by our feelings. We walk by faith, not by sight or sense. The Spirit of God will never leave a true Christian. But it means that professing Christians may be influenced by the spirit but never receive the spirit permanently as a seal or an earnest of salvation. These are scary things to consider because when we experience separation from God and fellowship we have so many more doubts about our salvation than we would otherwise. It causes us a lot of grief that we don't need and don't want. So what's what's the solution. Well the only application I have is that the ultimate purpose of chastisement including this one is to learn the lesson God is teaching and prevent this level of severe discipline from ever happening again. Believe me when returning to God when recovering from a fall or a long period of separation and close fellowship is no longer within your control like it may have used to be. And the longing and the yearning gets deeper and deeper and deeper in your heart and God still does not return to you with the joy and peace that you so wonderfully have experienced before. You're going to get to a level of desperation You're going to return to him in a way of praying to him, even fasting, searching, exerting spiritual discipline on a level that you haven't done in months or years, and that's what God is wanting you to do, and stay there after he pours out his grace upon you again. For some of us, it's not going to be until we get to that place of desperation, where we rearrange the priorities of our life and say, well, I'm just gonna have to seek the Lord with all my heart using the means of grace, reading the Bible, meditation on the scripture and prayer and faith with all my heart until he restores his grace in me in a full measure. And all of his gifts and my salvation is confirmed, doing away with all the doubts and despair, evaporating all the question marks, giving way to the love of God again, being shed abroad in our hearts. That's what's going to be required of us. And some of you are there, I know. Some of you are there right now. Right now. But God's message to you is this, 1 Corinthians 10, 6 and following. Now these things became our examples. to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they, the Jews, also lusted. And do not become idolaters as some of them." Idolaters? Theme of Hosea? As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. American dream? nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did and in one day 23,000 fell nor let us tempt Christ presumptuous sin as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents nor complain. as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. They experienced the severest form of chastisement, the worst nightmare for a believer or professing believer, so that you and I would see their example and maybe experience something of the pain and the place of destitution it is to be without fellowship with God for any length of time and take heed from that. Are you in such a situation? Oh, my Bible says, last verse I'll read. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12. Verse 1, Hebrews 12, 1, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. He's the one we look to now. the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him, Jesus, who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons. Here it is. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord. nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." Well, I'm suggesting the greatest chastisement is the withdrawal of God's presence, having us wander without his blessing of joy and love and peace and assurance for a long period of time, filling the space of those with doubts and fears and many other distressing thoughts. But the Lord says, don't despise it because whom he loves, he chastens. Learn from it. Go back to the Lord Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Look to him. He's reaching his hand out to some of you today who are miserable, miserable. You want God's presence to return to you. You're tired. and you're sick and tired of sick and tired. You've been struggling, spinning your wheels every day, not having the wisdom, the strength or the knowledge to figure out how to get back to a close walk with the Lord. He has seen this. He has seen our ways. He will restore comforts to us. He will return to us. Trust in his son. Go to the Lord in your weakness. Cry out to your high priest and mine, the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell him you love him. Tell him you're sorry. Repent of the sin. Trust in him to pull you up out of the my every clay. He will, he will. And keep seeking him until he restores comforts to you. And don't leave that place again. When you sense weakness coming back in, fly back to him right away. Walk with him every day. Let's pray. Father, thank you for being patient with us. Your infinite long suffering, your patience is beyond description. Please help that brother or sister today who needs to be plucked from the quicksand and paralysis of long-term chastisement and separation from fellowship. Lord, we don't go by feelings. We know you've been with us. even in a very severe place of chastisement like that is. Because you have a way of sending us tokens of encouragement or messengers, little silent messengers that you're still with us. But Lord, we want to live the abundant life. You came to give us life and to live it more abundantly. We want more joy, more oneness, more love, more of your presence in our life. Though these are not the defining things that make us Christians, Christ's death on the cross is and nothing more. His sacrifice alone and not what we feel and not what we are. Yet we love you and want to know you more deeply and don't want to go down to our grave and our gray hairs.