Scripture reading today comes from Hosea, 1st chapter, 3rd verse through the 2nd chapter first verse and the word of God reads So he went and took Gomer the daughter of the Lamb and she conceived and bore him a son and the Lord said to him Call his name Jezreel, who 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 and 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 have no 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 of their God I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen When she had ween no mercy she conceived and bore a son and the Lord said, call his name not my people or you are not my people and I am not your God Yet the number of children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered And then 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, this is the word of the Lord to us The Bible, beloved, is unquestionably and unapologetically in favor of children from the beginning of time when God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply To Jesus when he tells his disciples, do not hinder the children from coming unto me, for such is the kingdom of heaven Children continue to be, they have been and they continue to be precious in God's sight, isn't that what we see? Jesus loves the little children, all the little children of the world, whether yellow, black or white They are all precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world
And most of us know the scriptures that are clear on this in Psalm 127, right? The three the Bible, it tells us the children are a gift from the Lord And the fruit of the womb is his reward, so we love children as all good and faithful Christian churches do And in the Old Testament Israel love their children, love them and we're commanded by God to bring them up in the fear and to nurture them and the truth of God
But we know, don't we? That while children are the sources of our greatest joy, many of us know firsthand that children are also the source of some of their parents, greatest pains No one knows this any more than God, and therefore no one knew it any more than Hosea
We've been studying Hosea, we've been reminded that Israel was an adulterous nation at this time and God had called Hosea as a prophet to marry a promiscuous woman as the text reminds us that he was to take to himself a wife of Horde
And this was in demonstration of Israel's unfaithfulness indeed their Horde with the false gods of the land And yet as difficult as that would have been for Hosea to take this wife to himself, this wife that was known for her promiscuity, God's calling on Hosea did not stop there He commanded Hosea not only to marry Goma but to subsequently have children with her, they are called in the text children of Horde In other words this was not just to be a ceremonial marriage, Hosea and Goma were not simply to be married on paper For you might get the idea that Hosea thinks that he could fulfill God's calling by simply marrying Hosea Goma and his public wedding and then setting her off in the back somewhere And she has her own living quarter than her own servants and she lives her own life and every now and then they go out in public but when they get home they're living separate lives That's not the message God wanted to send, so he not only commends Hosea to marry her but this wedding, this marriage was to be consummated with ongoing evidence relations Not going to take your word for it Hosea was going to make this plain for the marriage was going to show for the fruit of children Now again we don't want to downplay the difficulty of this calling, how difficult it would have been for this man Hosea because we want to understand what God was doing and saying to the nation of Israel at that time In case Israel didn't get it from Hosea's words and from Hosea's marriage God is going to demonstrate it through Hosea's children The fact of the matter is we tend to make light of sin and what God is doing here is going to demonstrate just how awful, just how significant, just how painful sin really is But we tend to make light of sin, we particularly make light of our own sin in comparison to others We're quick, we see the faults and the failures of others but yet we are just curiously slow in identifying and even dealing with sin in ourselves You can easily see what others are wrong, this don't so easily see where we are, this was the case with Israel You can look around at all the heath and nations, see where they had strayed from God, where they were not worshiping the one and true living God They can easily see the sins of the other nations but they too often overlook the sins of their own and they thought God would too But we do know that a reminder that the judgment begins at home, beloved, among the people of God So as bad as it might be in the world and as bad as you might think it is in the hearts of others, God looks in the hearts of His people first, looks at us to examine ourselves This was the case with the nation of Israel, God called Hosea and Gomorrah to have children and these children were to be a self-examination for the nation They would have three children, the Bible says two boys and a girl And no doubt, and no doubt, beloved each one brought joy to Hosea and Gomorrah But at the same time each one spoke to the displeasure of God with Israel Increasingly speaking with the increasing displeasure because of the increasing nature of sin Ended them to name them in order as I like to call them this morning No help, no mercy and no God, no help Bible says in verse four And the Lord said to him, call his name, this is the first born, 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 it into the kingdom of the house of Israel and on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel Lord bless us with five children, our first born was a son and like most men I want to do, Romain First born son there was no question what his name would be, his name would be Anthony, amen That whole day I had thoughts of the same as he envisioned having a family and raising children No doubt he envisioned that one day he would have a son of a player God says his name would be Jezreel meaning that God scatters God scatters for the Lord God was going to send Israel fleeing for their lives God was going to scatter the nation of Israel He's going to scatter the nation of Israel in light matter as Jehu had scattered the house of Ahab The second king chapter 10, the account is given of Jehu who was the great grandfather of Jeroboam who was the king at the time of Hosea's prophecy Jehu had seized the throne of Israel by slaughtering the house of Ahab He slaughtered all those who belonged to King Ahab including Ahab 70 sons severed their heads and sent them to the valley of Jezreel Jezreel became a place known for bloodshed, became a place known for the horrors of death When the bloodshed that was at Jezreel God says now would be visited upon Israel Judgment was coming Israel thought itself in a good position, prosperous, well taken care of and spoken for God says just as judgment came through Jehu upon Ahab and his house So now judgment is coming upon Israel for the sovereign He's in control of all the nations He raised his one nation's up he brings one nation down He uses one nation to judge other nations and then he judges that nation He has many weapons and he has many things at his disposal by way he may accomplish his will Even the will of judgment even judgment upon his people The promise here is that he will strengthen a Syria He will strengthen a heathen nation He will strengthen the wicked Assyrians and bring them and allow them to come against his people So as to judge his people he will allow his people to go into captivity and to experience the harshness and the horror of captivity to the most wicked of all nations the Assyrians When the Assyrians come Israel God says here will have no defense for the Lord will no longer be for them In fact he's going to be with the Assyrians against them And on that day he says in verse 5 I will break the bone of Israel Now this series is going to break it but I'm going to break it in the valley of Israel Israelites had forgotten as many of us do at the strength of Israel unlike all other nations It was not in the size of the army was not in the in the skill of their warriors But the strength of the nation of Israel was in the help of God This is what David said does he not in Psalm 124 of you getting in in verse 2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when people rose up against us they would have swallowed us up alive If it had not been the Lord who was on our side so he says in Psalm 46 in verse 1 God is our refuge and our strength He is a present help in time of trouble the deacons when I grew up they used to get up in the service the first thing in the service And they would have what we did called devotion and I remember well that they were seeing or better yet they were trapped And they would say father I stretched my hands to thee no other help I know if thou would withdraw thyself from me We had no where to go Israel would no longer be able to defend herself and the enemy was going to come in like a flood No help but not only did they not have any help if the name Jezreel was foreboding the second was even more discouraging The Bible says in 1st 6 that she conceived again and bore daughter and the Lord said to him call her name no mercy or La Ruhama I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them no mercy no compassion call her La Ruhama for she is not loved The prophecy beloved goes to a nation it goes to them it goes to them saying that not only will you not be helped but now you are not going to be loved Not only will there be no help for you but in the midst of this judgment there will be no mercy It's one thing to lose a war to another nation beloved it's an all together different thing to lose the mercy of God Israel could have lost the war and still been in the mercy of God they've experienced that before It's one thing to lose to another nation it's another thing not to have the mercy of God to no longer be his beloved to no longer have him be willing to forgive your sins Notice a very important part in this text that is conspicuously absent for in the in verse 3 and speaking of the first child the Bible says explicitly that Israel would be born to Jose verse 3 yet the second child La Ruhama says simply that gomer conceived again and bore daughter remember she was a wife of Horde and he was to have children of Horde The inevitable question then is was the child born to Hosea? Could Hosea truthfully and confidently say that this daughter was the fruit of his relationship with gomer or has another creeped in? The child was born to Hosea the second child is anybody's guess couldn't to go down to the court take a blood test or whatever test they do these days to decide who the father is it says she bore child does not say it was born to Hosea and yet Hosea didn't know all he knew is that her name was to be not loved what an awful name beloved what an awful name who would name their daughter not loved imagine imagine the little girl every every time someone called her name on the playground or in the classroom not locked imagine every time that her mother or father called her in the park or in the marketplace and people heard them and they said is that your child yes but why do you call her not loved? the testimony to the disposition of Hosea and gomer toward the girl do they try to love her that was a glaring testimony of how God would be toward Israel Israel was now marked out as having no this was so important love it because Psalm 136 reminds us that Israel is Israel because of the mercy of God Israel is even a nation we even know who Israel is because of the mercy of God they were redeemed out of Egypt why because of the mercy of God they survived in the wilderness because of the mercy of God they entered into the promise land because of the mercy of God they were sustained and they destroyed and conquered their enemies because of the mercy of God and yet they took as we all want to do took that mercy the mercy of God for granted this is what we do we act as if we deserve the mercy of God we live our lives like we deserve the mercy of God we take the mercy of God for granted whenever we see that God has delivered us and we don't openly acknowledge him for it we take the mercy of God for granted we take as mercy for granted when we understand that we have been redeemed and forgiven of our sins and his lives are not lived in this worshipable joyful acknowledgement that God has been mercy for us we take his mercy for granted we take his mercy for granted when God gives us what we don't deserve and we act like we deserve it we take the mercy of God for granted when God is gracious to us and he's forgiving toward us but we are not gracious and forgiving toward each other there is not or a woman on the face of this earth who is not benefiting this very moment from the mercy of God we are not at this very moment receiving the full punishment for your disobedience and sin it is only because God has been mercy if you did not wake up this morning feeling the pains of hell's fire and the righteous judgment of God against you and it's because God is merciful sin today and you have who are not dead he tells us no more mercy you are going to experience what you rightly deserve for your sins beloved you think about that for a moment you think about that for a moment what do you deserve for your sin for your disobedience for your bitterness for your anger for your lust for your greed what do you deserve right now right now what have God came here and said no more mercy this is your portion and every mile would be shut because everyone would receive just what we deserve can you imagine the child is born until there and nation looks at her name screens and if that was not bad enough it gets worse but the name of the third child was indeed the most distressing of all when she had weaned no mercy she conceived in both son and the Lord said call his name not my people or you are not my people and I am not your God beloved it goes from bad to worse and the first child God says I'm not going to help you you say okay Lord it's not going to help me that's okay just let me know you going to be here okay I might not be able to get some help with this thing but I know you here and eventually it's going to be okay then the second child comes along says not only I'm not going to help you but I'm not going to have any mercy upon you okay Lord that's pretty tough that's pretty hard you know you're not going to help me and as I struggle and as the pain is upon me and I'm sweating and I'm in this trial and I can't overcome it at least I can look there and see you're watching me come on some hope it's going to get all right but then God's not even going to be your God what the low I mean sense not every time Hosea had to introduce this boy to family and friends and neighbors every time they say what's his name he says not my and they said well you know now that you mention it we had heard rumors and we weren't sure so you do and you do know for sure that's not your son no no no no no I don't it is my son along to him and he is not yours not that Hosea didn't want the child that God was going to treat Israel as an orphan to hear the words beloved you are not my people and I am not your God would have hit the nation of Israel like a ton of breaks or from the very beginning this was the promise that sustained them these are the words that spawned them in a nation these are the words that brought them into relationship with God and whenever whatever else of their blessed assurance these were the words of their covenant confidence they could always say no matter what else we belong to God we are God's people our God is the living God for the Psalmist says doesn't he Psalm 103 know that the Lord he is God and we are his sheep what a comfort it is to know we are his people the sheep of his aster what God was doing here to the nation was taking away their comfort taking away their blanket of security it is like Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 and those who said Lord didn't we prophesy in your name didn't we cast out demons in your name didn't we do mighty miracles in your name and Jesus says depart from me so I never knew you if God is not for you beloved this can be a devastating revelation for everything and everybody in the world could be on your side but if God is against you it does not matter because beloved that the security of his promise that God have made to Israel is that if everyone in the world was against you let's see the Israel so that God was against them and they had no help no mercy because they became like the other nations they had no God you read this prophecy here through these children and your heart just breaks for Hosea and perhaps you will think that this prophecy here is simply a prophecy of dread to Israel and yet I am reminded that that was the condition of you and I before we came to know Christ you had no help you had no mercy and you had no God in fact Ephesians chapter 2 reminds us that we were by nature children Iraq we were by nature under the judgment of God and we were by nature to receive the punishment due for our sins and no mercy and we had no God beloved in the worst of worst condition while the wrath and judgment of God reign oration here we have a world to the nation God even while he says that will be no mercy I don't know if you have really contemplated just how amazing grace is or if you have really contemplated just how wonderful and unexpected we were by nature children Iraq this is a prophecy to the nation of Israel beloved but even more than that it is a foretelling of your condition in mind God does not take sin lightly it definitely doesn't take sin in his people lightly and God is not pleased with our idolatry and he does not overlook the fact that we overlook it and so he tells the Israel that the Syrians are coming eventually what they are going to do and God will not defend them and when they come God will not have mercy and when they come God will treat them as if he doesn't know them and the Syrians will bring the chest-tisement of God upon them and it will be a harsh chest-tisement but like any good faithful parent God says tisement is not just punishment God says tisement is correction therefore God's judgment amazingly when it comes upon his people does not put an end to all his kindness or even in the midst of saying he's going to destroy Israel he says but I'm going to save Judah now I'm going to save them not by sword and not by horses midst of his judgment we see his kindness and the unexpected mercy of God where he says yet even though I will not be your God and you will not be my people in verse 10 yet the number of children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured a number in the place where you were said to them you are not my people it shall be said to them children of the living God you are my people you have received mercy here in the midst of so we can wait oh the chest-tisement is come but it need not be the end while the promise of judgment always comes if you would hear it with the promise of forgiveness Israel had forsaken the covenant God will not Israel had trampled on the promises of God God will not break his promises for God had determined even then to take a people who were not a people and make them his people this is the promise of love it not just to the nation of Israel but this is the promise to us this is our story in a people who were not a people God does when he redeems when he redeems people he changes people and you might think that when I say he changes people that he changes you on your outside on how you act and how you talk and where you go and who you hang with and all that is true those things eventually change but I'm talking about those things that change right now your position one time up on the streets left to defend for yourself but now suddenly change your position he changes your condition your condition is different for at one point you stood under the wrath of God he is the love it for once as Peter said in 1st Peter chapter 2 and verse 10 mercy now you do understand that Israel's loss was your gain God said okay I'm going to take a people who are not a people and they're going to be my people and now the promise to you and the promise to me is God saying I will be your God and you shall be my people Beloved you do understand that is not a promise given now the people who live in that small piece of land in the Middle East that is a promise given to all those who are in Christ who are now in Christ you are the people of God I was born in Hosea's family I've been reborn in the God that's why it's my story that's why it's my son I was at one time without help without mercy and without God but now because of Christ the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4 let us go boldly to the throne of grace why because there you find mercy there you find help mercy you are no longer without help I just think the songwriter said I spent in vanity and pride caring not that my Lord was crucified knowing not that it was for me he died at Calvary for at Calvary mercy was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me there my burden so found liberty at Cal we're not my people and not my people you who are not receivers now