Well, take your copy of God's Word, turn to the prophecy of Hosea. You'll find it sandwiched in there right after Daniel. If you struggle to find it, that's where it's located. If you must, use the table of contents. There's no shame in that. Book of Hosea, 14 chapters. We're still in the very tail end of chapter 1. We'll look just at the end of chapter 1 and move into just barely move into chapter 2 this evening. But I'm going to read beginning in verse 1 of chapter 1 through verse 1 of chapter 2. This is the word of the Lord. Let's give attention to it even this night. Hosea chapter 1, beginning with verse 1, reading through verse 1 of chapter 2. And there we read, the word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Berei, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the sons of Joash, king of Israel. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take to yourself a wife of Horeb and have children of Horeb, for the land commits great Horeb by forsaking the Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Dibliam, and she conceived and bore him a son. 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, and I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen. When she had weaned no mercy, she conceived and bore a son. The Lord said, call his name not my people, for you are not my people, and I am not your God. 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. Amen. This is the word of the living God. One of the things that is certain within most homes in America, most homes in the world itself, is that parents sometimes, oftentimes, depending on the nature of the child, have to discipline them for one thing or another. one infraction, one violation of the rules in the home, whatever it may be, discipline comes, of course, discipline offered that it might be given in a way that is corrective, a way that seeks to bring into conformity the behavior of the child, for that is what parents do. It's not the only thing they do, of course, but they do it. as they ought, anyway, is an act of love toward the child. The child may not think that, the child may not react that way, but the reality is that is the function and purpose of discipline. That is the root of it. The root of it, of course, is that that discipline might not remain, but that it might be restorative. That it might bring the wayward child, the individual, to their senses and that they might be restored to fellowship, harmony within the home, or in the case of the church, harmony within the life of God's people. Much the same way, what we have here in these opening words of this prophecy, really chapter 1, verse 1, all the way through the first verse of chapter 2, is we have the first side of it, the not so great side, not so pleasant side, the darker side of the issue that is before the people of Israel, before God himself, and that is that he is going to correct them. He is going to discipline them, and that will come, and it does come, of course, in the life of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC, and the Assyrian army comes in and takes them into exile. But, but, even in the face of all of that blackness and darkness of which we've just read, and the words that are there that are striking, and they ought to be striking to any godly Christian, any Christian that knows God's word, in the face of all of it, He continues to extend hope to them. He shows them not only the discipline side of the equation, the difficulties that's going to come to them because of their waywardness, because of their sin, because of their idolatry, but in the face of even that, he reminds them again, as he reminds us again, that he is for his people. that he hasn't abandoned them entirely, that through the discipline, the point of the discipline is that he might restore them to himself, to show himself the faithful covenant-keeping God, and their behavior, their waywardness is not going to change that one bit. You see that in these verses from verse 10 of the chapter through verse 1 of chapter 2. It's a jarring change of direction. It almost seems like God turns right on a hinge and then says these things after declaring to them all of these ugliness that flowed out of the reality of their own failures. Hosea has reminded us of the reality of the holiness of God. in the first nine verses of the chapter. He doesn't use the word, but it's there nonetheless. And that holiness that's been affronted, been offended because of the idolatry of the people. He does this in real living color through this true marriage, not allegorical, but a marriage that did exist, that really occurred between Jose and Gomer. To highlight the adulterous nature of the people, But even in the face of all of this and the words that are strongly offered through the three children that come from this union, God still extends to them hope in the face of their sin. That's what he extends to us. If God were to mark iniquity against you and me, we would all fall flat on our face. We would all be ruined. There would be no hope in the world whatsoever for God's list of our iniquities to be so long you wouldn't even be able to stand it. But he doesn't. He continually reminds us through the course of our lives, through his word, in his worship, through the songs that we sing, and through the many different ways in which God is gracious, that he is gracious to his people. He knows our frame. He knows that we are dust. These people are no different. He continues to extend to us the restoration and forgiveness that comes even in the face of times in which we feel, sense, and know the heaviness of God's hand of correction. We ought not take that for granted. We ought not to move through our days as though that doesn't matter, for it does matter. In fact, eternity hangs in the balance. For if God were to simply leave you to your own devices and do nothing, he would have to deny his son in order for that to happen. He would have to walk away from the covenant promises that he made that I will be your God and you will be my people. I will dwell in your midst. He would have to cease being the God of heaven. Now, what are the chances of that happening anytime soon? Well, there are no chances. God is patient with His church. He may correct her. He may discipline her. It may be severe. It may be even a time of languishing and exile, as these people will eventually find out. But He does not forget what He has promised. The goal is always to restore. And indeed he does, and he holds out that hope to them here in the very early stages of this prophecy. He holds that hope out to them that they might not perish from the face of the earth. And so I want to show you this evening that a holy God loves to restore a broken and sinful people from their own wanderings and gather them to himself. He loves to do this. It's striking, isn't it? A holy God loves to restore a broken and sinful people from their own wanderings, pretty much a picture of every one of us in our lives, at some point, gather them to himself. Two points as we consider, just verses 10, verse 10 through 11 of chapter one, as well as Verse one of chapter two. It is full of positive encouragement, edification. I don't know how else to preach this other than to simply tell you that it's just dripping with the faithfulness of God. Two points. First, we'll consider the end from the beginning, the restoration of God's wicked people. The promise he extends, the hope that he offers to a wicked people. And then we will consider the hope of a restored people. They will indeed receive the mercy of God himself. Let's first consider the end from the beginning, this restoration that seems to turn on a dime in verse 10. That little word that is translated there in your English Bible, yet. That is to say, in light of everything that I've just said to you, the indictments and the condemnation that has come down upon your head because of your waywardness, because of your idolatry, because of the things that you have done in my face for hundreds of years, and the patience that I've extended and extended and extended to the voice of the prophets. In spite of all that, yet, the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea. It appears, doesn't it, as we read those opening words of this verse that God has completely contradicted himself, that he's completely changed his mind. Now you know your Bibles, you know your theology, you know that that's not what is occurring here. What is occurring here is that God is giving to his people that promise, that hope that they need. What promises? Well, the language of verse 10 should sound very much like language of old. Hundreds and hundreds of years before these events, God comes and he gives this promise to a man who is then therefore that root of which we then all count on as far as these covenant faithful promises that God gives, we are its benefactor. Genesis chapter 22. This is a long way away from the days of Hosea. Genesis 22, verse 17. I will surely bless you, he says, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. These words are given in an extremely important chapter in the Old Testament. You know the story. There is God. commanding Abraham to take his son, his only son, the son of promise. Take him on a mountain, Mount Moriah, execute him. Y'all want you to sacrifice him. Okay? Abraham dutifully obeys the word of the Lord. God provides. A picture of the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this vein, in this context, God makes this pronouncement, this statement, that the people will be like the sand of the seashore. A language that he gives, repeats, again, reminds the people again of that covenant promise that he gave to their father Abraham right there in the opening words of verse 10, with the backdrop of all the ugliness that he's just said to them, hanging there. Yet, he says, in spite of all of it, I will remember my promises. It doesn't depend on you, Israel. It doesn't depend on you, Judah. It depends on me. I am faithful. The God who cannot lie has promised, and he will keep it. The God who is faithful to the end, faithful from the very beginning. In that glorious Proto-Evangelion, that first gospel account in which our first parents fell in the garden and through the seed of the woman will come a Redeemer. To rescue sinners, sinners that are idolaters, sinners that give themselves to Baal, sinners that are wayward and wandering away from that which God has said. God is going to be faithful. He is going to do it. He is going to accomplish it. And he says how. And he makes these covenant promises to his church, to his people. He remembers them here. And he accomplishes it. He remembers what he has told them. And he does what he says. Second, not only does he remember his covenant, the promises given, there's five of them here really in the opening words of this verse. Not only does he remember his covenants, he says that they will be called children of God. This is, again, you read the words, children of God, you just said, wait a minute, you just said, not my people. But he extends this hope, this phrase, sons of the living God, as given there in verse... Hold on, I'm working on it. There it is. At the end of verse 10, it shall be said to them, children, the living God. It's important for at least three reasons, at least according to one commentator. Of course, I happen to agree with his assessment of this. It's important for three reasons. First, it obviously asserts that they have regained their status and are now acknowledged by God as His own. It is true, of course, that every person alive is a child of God by creation. That is a universal truth. When people say that God is my father, they may not be referencing him necessarily in that redemptive way, but they could be, and in fact, would be accurate to say they're referencing him in that creative way, because he is the root and source of all things. The way it's being used here, of course, is familial. There's a tenderness. There's a deep-seated compassion. There's this idea that we're not my people because of the way they're behaving, and they're showing forth their behavior as not my people. Now are my people. They are now sons of the living God. We, as Christians today, if we know the Lord Jesus Christ, we are sons of the Most High God. That means he fights for you, he defends you, he protects you, he watches over you. There's not a thing that can happen to you that he is not painfully clearly aware of. Not a hair can fall from your head unless he says so. That is to say, he treats you differently than those who are not his people. It asserts that they've regained, in some sense, their status and are now acknowledged by the God of heaven as his own. Second, this phrase, sons of the living God, this title, living God, often appears in a context of military conflict between Israel and the nations. in this living God virtually means the true God who is able to give victory in contrast to the dead idols that they have been worshiping. Let me give you some examples, just two, in which this phrase, the living God, is referenced in the Old Testament. You don't have to turn there, by now you ought to be able to trust me, but if you want to, Joshua chapter three and verse 10, The people of Israel are about to cross the Jordan River. They're about to enter into the land of idolatry. It's there. They are told to expunge the idols from their midst. They are told to take the land and sanctify it for the purpose of God, and they're about to cross into that land which was promised to them. We read in Joshua 3, verse 10, and Joshua said, here is how you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will, without fail, drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Gigashites, the Amorites and all the Yites, the Jebusites, the Yites of the Bible. And how does that happen? Because of that phrase, which is demonstrated, therefore, in the Ark of the Covenant that goes before them, you shall know that the living God is among you. All of these nations, they're told to drive out, they're all idolaters, they worship foreign deities. God says to them, I am the living God. your living and true God. There's another example of it, again, under the terms of military conflict. It's a story that we've all been told, probably, we all know, we've known since childhood. You find that story embedded in Samuel's words in 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17 and verse 26, we have a battle. It's one-on-one, a little runt against a rather large human being. 1 Samuel 17 and verse 26, you know the chapter, talking about the battle that exists between David and Goliath. David comes out there, no armor, no spear, no sword, against this mammoth of a man who's got a spear in his hand, a sword, and he's got all the armor of war on. And in 1 Samuel 17 and verse 26, we read here that David said to the man who stood by him, what shall be done for the man who kills the Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is the uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? The rest of the story is as you know it. He puts his trust and hope in God. He kneels down, he takes some stones, and the stone hits its mark and kills the enemy, the idolater, the God-hater, Goliath. God extends to us the reality, the hope, the understanding in his promise that he fights for his church, he fights for his people in the face of abject opposition. He will not abandon his church to the devices of the world. He will continue to fight ahead of them as the Ark of the Covenant would go before them as they crossed the Jordan, as David would go out there naked as it were and exposed against all of the forces of evil and still was triumphant. Why? Not because David was a great, he had a great shot or he had good aim, but because God himself guided that stone right where it needed to go. This is the God who extends to his wayward people hope. I am still for you. I am not going to abandon you to the world. Third, this phrase, living God also means that he is Lord of life and able to give life as we see in Psalm 42 verse two, as well as in Psalm 84 verse two. as giver of victory in life, Jehovah will cast out the usurper Baal and regain his family. Now this idea lines up very nicely with the prophecy of Hosea because we're talking about idolatry, we're talking about adultery, we're talking about someone who came in and stole away the wife of the God of heaven, captured her heart, and turned her affections and her passions to dead idols. God says, no, no, I'm fighting for you. You are worth it to me. I'm going to woo you. I am going to be for you. I am not going to lose you. I am the living God. And I will indeed destroy that usurper Baal. and all that he stands for. God remembers his covenant. He calls them the children of God. He promotes and promises them a unity in the future. The unification of the people, it's there given in verse 11, the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together. This whole idea that the northern tribes were lost forever is contrary to the promises of God. It cannot be. God unites the houses of Israel and the houses of Judah under one head. We're coming to that. But he unites them under himself. He calls them a holy people, a royal priesthood. his treasured possession, his chosen people, the apple of his eye, all of this language that God embeds in his word, he shows forth, demonstrates to his people that unity, that they are his, they belong to him, and he does that through fourth, the appointment of a head. You don't think Christ is on every page of the Bible? It's right here. In this prophecy, how is God going to do all of this? How is he going to unite us as a people? How is he going to cast out all of these things that would turn us aside from him? How does he do that? He does it through the work of he who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Look what he says, the children of Israel, or the children of Judah and the children of Israel should be gathered together. There should be a unity. They shall be one. There should be one house again. No more division in my family. and they shall appoint for themselves one head. Who might that head be? Who is it that can truly unite the house of God? Was it David? No. Solomon? No. In fact, under the reign of Solomon, the house of the Lord was split and remained that way even to the days of Hosea Where's this unity gonna come? How is it going to work? How is it going to accomplish all the promises that God has given all the way back in the days of Genesis? How will it be? It comes through that He who is King and Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is He who unites the kingdoms, those two houses of Israel. the house of Judah, and the house of Israel. It is he that brings them together as one people, and he promises here, he extends to them that hope, that though there will be difficult times, though you will be exiled, you will be united to your brothers. There will be a unity of my people, and it will come under he who is king. The true king, not David, not Solomon, not Jeroboam, not Rehoboam, not Josiah, not Hezekiah, Christ the Lord, he will do it. And then fifth and finally, they shall go up from the land. God will gather them to himself. He gathers his people wherever they may be. He brings them to himself in a glorious way. It is he that does it. The means of all of these things are not the people. Look where they are. The train wreck they have made of their life It is not through them that he does this. It is because of who he is. He is the means. He is the one. He is faithful. He's the one who gives promises. He's the one who accomplishes it. It's all him. And that is what he's done for every one of us. At one time, we were aliens and strangers to the covenant promise of hope. At one time, we were distant. At one time, we were God-hating. At one time, we were idolaters. At one time, we rebelled against the God of heaven. At one time, we had no concern for Him. At one time, we were enemies of Him, the God of heaven. But today, we look and we say, that is no longer the case. Why? Because He is faithful. because he has promised, because he has rescued you, because he has appointed to you one head, the Lord Jesus Christ, because he has gathered you to himself, because he has done this. The only response, of course, to any of that is stand in awe of the reality that our God is good and faithful to his people. That leads, of course, to the hope that comes and flows right out of all of these promises. Because that's the design of the promises, to bring hope to a beleaguered people. Notice verse one of chapter two, say to your brothers, you are my people. Say to your sisters, you have received mercy. Say to my family, the family of God, That which I have done. We're taught here that this work of our God is to be proclaimed. Say, he says, don't sit idly by like it's no big deal. Don't passively move through your day like it doesn't matter. Proclaim it from the rooftops. My God is faithful. And if he marked my iniquity, if I were shown all of the things that I have done to offend him, yet he still remembers his promises, what else is there to do but to proclaim it as loudly as I can? to praise Him in His worship each Lord's Day as we come into this place, as we sit here together as people that have benefited from the faithfulness of God. All of us idolaters at one time, maybe now, God is faithful. To sing His praise and to dwell upon His presence and to recognize His kindness and His grace, all of it, we are to proclaim it. To our friends, our family, our loved ones, look what God has done. Look what he has done for me. Look what he has done for you. We are to say it, we are to proclaim it. Because it is given, it is given to us. God, the giver of life, restores. Yes, the discipline is hard. Yes, the discipline will be hard in their future. But he restores them. He restores them through his infinite mercy. It's what he did for you. He didn't turn his back, walk away from you. He knew who you were before you were a twinkle in your parents' eye. He knew who you were in eternity past. In days unmeasurable, he knew you. and he knew that he was gonna place his eternal love upon you. He knew it then. And he didn't abandon you, but he rescued you. That love that's continuing now for you, even in times of struggle, in times of deep sin, he doesn't walk away and ignore you. He may discipline, it may be difficult, but he's always seeking to restore you, and he does. Each of us have at one time in our lives wandered away from the living God. None of you this evening love him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. We fall short of this. We don't love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We know this. The godly, the God-fearing, grieve that truth, but with hope of the eternal promise that one day we will. For some, it grieves you to know of the battle with indwelling sin, day after day. You know how you long for the return of Christ, where he will gather us under one head, and the mercy shown in this life will be expounded and explained for all eternity. What can we remember then from these verses here? Well, first remember that God is your God. If you know the Savior, that one head, he is your God. You're his. He loves you, he will never cast you off. But Pastor, you don't understand some of the things I've done. Maybe I don't. I can tell you, brothers and sisters, you don't know some of the things that I've done. And when I reflect upon this, knowing what I was, only God can do this. He didn't abandon me. He didn't abandon the Apostle Paul. He didn't abandon David and his misery and sin. He didn't abandon his church and his people, and he won't. If you know the Savior this evening, He loves you. He will not cast you off. He may discipline you. He may. That's what a loving Father does. But He does it out of love with the promise to restore you. Second, not only is God your God, He is your Father. It's easy to forget this. It's easy to lose sight of this. We're great about saying, you know, our God in heaven. But Jesus taught us to pray, our Father. Why? Because it's intimate now. There's a uniqueness of that relationship that you have with this God who made heaven and earth. It's familial, you are the sons or daughters of the Most High. As your Father, then therefore you have no reason to fear, even the discipline. He stands ready and able to help you even in the worst of circumstances of life. Third, God is going to unite His people. We look across the spectrum of the church today and we see a fractured church in every way. Denominations upon denominations, upon denominations, upon views on views, on other views and interpretations. God is going to unite His church. They'll all be Presbyterian, they just don't know it yet. He's going to unite us under one head. We will dwell in perfect unity in that new heaven and new earth. Not in Canaan, not in a plot of land that Jacob was restored to, but that glorious new creation in which there will be no more schism or friction or faction. but we will dwell in perfect unity as a lion would lay down with the lamb. We try that today, see what happens. We will dwell there under this one head in perfect unity. This is what Jesus prayed in John 17 in his high priestly prayer, that they would be one even as you and I are one. Think about that. How are they one? Is there a separation of any kind? We will be that one day. It wasn't a wish, maybe it'll happen, I don't know. It was a prayer of hope rooted in the promise of his father who gave to him his redeemed people. Fourth, God has provided. How is this all going to happen? By my abilities and lack of such as a pastor? By yours as a member of the church? Nope. If we're depending on that, we're doomed. No hope. I love you, but I don't trust you. Not in that way. Ought not trust me that way either. No, our trust is in Christ. He has given us the Savior. He is the Lord. He has won the victory. He has stood before Goliath. He has put his trust in the living God, his Father. In an infinite way, he has canceled that debt of our rebellion before a holy God. God has provided the means. And finally, God will rescue. This life is hard. I get frustrated at times when I hear well-meaning Bible teachers and pastors telling his people, telling the church that he'll come to Christ and everything will be just rosy, the sun will always be shining and the skies will always be blue. It is not the case. Life is difficult as we pilgrim in a world that is not our home. It wasn't easy for Jacob as he left his home. It's not easy for us as exiles in a land that doesn't want us. They don't want this message, they don't wanna hear this. But God will rescue us from this place. Just like he rescued the people in Egypt. Just like he rescued Jacob from that land of exile. Just like he rescued Joseph when he was tossed into a pit and exiled into Egypt. Just like he used Joseph to rescue his people there in the famine that was miserable in the day in that day. Just like he brought them out of Egypt with a strong and mighty hand, the living God in the face of the deities of Egypt, brought them to himself at Mount Sinai. Just like he promises to do for these beleaguered people in Hosea, just like he's done for us, God will rescue us. He will not leave his people ever. Ever. He has promised to always be with you. He has promised to gather you to himself on that great, great day. when the Savior returns. Yes, our Father in heaven sometimes disciplines his people. But he does it because he loves his people. He's seeking to restore his people. And in the face of discipline, he extends hope to a wayward people, a hope that we, as a church, must hang our hat. Rest right there in all that God has done and offered to his church. Amen. Our Father, we thank you for your word and all that it teaches us indeed in this prophecy and a people that were very wicked, but yet still you remain faithful. Forgive us, Father, for taking it for granted so often. May we, even in the face of hard times, discipline even, may we remember that you're doing it because you love us, because you are good and gracious and faithful. May you help us to trust you in all that you are doing. We pray for Christ's sake. Amen.