So, you never like to get one of those phone calls about 5.45 in the morning, and we got one of those this morning, or some of you know our daughter Jessica lives near us and yesterday, she lives on a feeding tube and her feeding tube busted. It's a normal thing, it's a regular thing, and if she, when she was living with us at home, her feeding tube breaks, mom pops another one back in, 10 minutes, she's good to go back to work, everything else is normal. But at her house she has to go to the ER, and so she went to the ER last night, and they called us at about 5.30 this morning that she had just gotten back after all night, and it wasn't right, she had to go back again. So about 15, 20 minutes later, there's another call from the hospital, yes I'm her dad, yes you're allowed to do this, yes please do that. So then we're going back to bed again, and then there's another call on my cell phone, I'm going this can be good, and it was Jim Fitzgerald with a migraine headache, so pray for your brother, who was not well today, if some of you have suffered from those things, it is debilitating, and I would rather be doing this than doing what he's doing now, suffering with a migraine, trust me, always glad to share God's word, always ready to do that, sometimes you're like more than an hour is notice or so, but fortunately after so many years you've got a file that you can go to, my hope is that I haven't done this here yet, I don't think I have, I look through and kind of went back from 2006 back, I don't think I've talked about this passage, but interestingly the last time I was scheduled to preach here, back in July, I had an unscheduled one in December, but the last time I actually preached here, I preached from Hosea 10, we were in the middle of a series on the 10 commandments, and Jim was traveling or something, and so I did a talk, a sermon there on Hosea 10 about the need to pursue righteousness, I know your all are, yeah I remember that, I know I can see it in your eyes, you remembering that sermon, I can see it, and so I thought well let's just pick up with that series in Hosea and, so if you got a Bible turn to Hosea 11 this morning, we're in the middle of a series on the seven deadly sins, and I don't want to interrupt what Jim has been doing, he was going to be preaching today on envy, and he will pick that up next week God willing, but I thought this morning real quickly after he called me, what can I do to be consistent with the series but not jump into his series technically, and I thought what are the what are the opposites of the seven deadly sins, what are the the things that are the virtues instead, and of course it's easy that these the answer for that, for most people been to sunny schoolmuches, you know that above all these things put on love, love is the love is the answer for greed, it's the answer for envy, it's the answer for yes, there are other things like humility is the opposite of pride, and generosity is the opposite of greed, but overall these things is love, and our best picture of love is God's love, and so I wanted to look at five different aspects of God's love this morning from Hosea, chapter 11, so pray with me, would you please, let's pray one more time, God we ask that you would speak to our hearts, we ask that the Lord Jesus would be lifted up and exalted, we ask that you would help us to see ourselves in the light of who you are, in your magnificence and in your love for us, we ask this in Jesus name, little context, I don't think I did this back in July because we took just a very pointed passage in chapter 10 about righteousness and pursuing that, but context for chapter 11 the whole book of Hosea is framed around this prophet and his life and the message that God gave him, think about if you were in a church, this is completely theoretical, and the pastor comes to the church and he brings to the church as a new wife, a woman of ill repute, and even her children who are products of that lifestyle are broadly and they live in the mance, they live in the pastor's house next door of the church, I mean for our western and cultured American Christianity that would just be scandal, be complete scandal, and yet that's the context of the book of Hosea, isn't it? The pastor was called to Mary Gomer, a known woman of ill repute and they brought into his house her children who are products of that lifestyle and imagine after she's there she starts to run around, she didn't completely recover and get better, she starts to run around even when she's married to the pastor in the church, and that's the illustration God is using in Hosea to talk about his bride, he's the pastor, he's the husband and Israel is the bride, and she has been unfaithful to him, and so he used a living metaphor with the leader of the congregation to say, here is one whom you must accept because it's you, and let me show you how I will love, let me show you, let me show your people through your life how I love you despite yourself, and it's a message that we need, it's a message of love that we need.
Let's start right at verse 1, and the first thing I want us to see is that God's love is a choosing love. Look what he says, when Israel was a child I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son, but the more I called Israel the further they went from me, they sacrificed to the bales, they burned incense to images, but see what he's saying he's saying, when Israel was a child I loved him, I chose him out of Egypt I called my child my son, this goes all the way back to the Exodus, doesn't it with the Jews? Do you grasp how odd it is? I mean we're so used to the stories that we miss how odd it is that God chose the Jews. Okay, there was nothing particularly virtuous about them, there was nothing particularly magnificent or glorious about them as a people, as an ethnic group, they were enslaved to the Egyptians, the Egyptians were the power of the whole Mediterranean at the time, these were rather unknown, unattractive, un-everything group of people, and God chose them out of all the other peoples.
I know it's not real, technical, but I find it almost compelling, apologetic for the very existence of God that the Jewish people are still here today, because God has chosen them in some sense as his own, and so there, you don't see many hit-tights today, do you? I mean when was the last time you read about an Amrite, or a Jebius site, okay? The Jews are still there, despite the fact that so many people want to rub them out and make them disappear, God has chosen them, He's called them, He's placed His love upon them, and why is He do that? This is my refrain over and over again, because God loves to do things in the ways that we would least expect it. He works for the people you would least expect to work with, He chooses a marginalized and the disenfranchised and the weak and the broken why, so that when He does something amazing with them what? He gets the glory, because everybody says, man, sure can't be those people, there are a bunch of losers, has to be their God. And I kind of like that, because we kind of look like that here, don't we? I mean I'm not trying to get personal here, but you know we kind of fit that profile, don't we? And when God shows up, people say, boy, I can't be those people, we know those people, they can't pull much off, it must be their God. That's our hope, brothers and sisters, that's what we rely upon is God's goodness, God's strength, God's glory, not our own, yes? He chooses us as His own, and then He chooses to magnify Himself through us despite ourselves. And it just baffles me how, why He does that. But it's because of His four ordained plan to glorify Himself and build a people for Himself and a kingdom for Himself in ways we would just never expect Him to do it. It's not through the political power houses, it's not through the the magnificent multi-level networking of, it's through the least expected, the small, the humble, the marginalized, the relatively invisible people, the God inhabits and works and shows His glory. And that's what He did with Hosea, and I believe that's what He does with us. He calls us out of darkness, He makes us His own, He makes us part of His church, He draws us to Himself, and then He shows us who He is. I remember hearing a story, I may have said this before, but it's compelling that when Helen Keller was introduced to the gospel, they say that in her kind of odd voice that she had developed beside, you know, despite being deaf and unable to speak, when she finally was able to vocalize and was taught about the gospel, it's reported that she said, I knew Him, I knew Him, I just didn't know His name, and if you've been called by God, if you have trusted in Him, it's because He drew you to Himself, He called you out of darkness to Himself, and then like Moses, He reveals His name to you. I remember Moses at the burning bush. When I go back to them and they say, who sent, what's the name of the God who sent, what should I tell, because Moses didn't know God's name, and God tells us His name, and then most fully in the Lord Jesus, we know Him. So the question is, have you been called? Have you been called out? Have you been chosen? Has God placed His love upon you? Do you know what I'm talking about here? I hope so. It's like coming home, I mean, sometimes you come home, you come into a place you've never been before, and you say, wow, this feels like home. That's what it's like when God calls you to Himself. Your home in a place you've never been before. That's being chosen. See, as Lewis said, continue to seek Him with seriousness, unless He wanted you, you wouldn't be wanting Him. And so if your hair's seeking Him, I would encourage you that you're seeking Him because He first is been seeking you. You wouldn't want Him unless He wanted you. So continue to seek Him. He chooses us, but it doesn't stop there versus three and four. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms, but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of humankind, with ties of love. I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them. It's an instructing love. It's a teaching love that God displays to us. It's kind of makes some people nervous, but there is a feminine quality here to God's love. It's a nurturing love. He takes us in his arms. He takes us by the hand. He instructs us gently with compassion, loving us. And that's especially true, isn't it? As you grow up, where do you go when you're hurt? You usually go to your mother, don't you? You usually don't go to the father, right? You know, the mother's the one who's going to bind you and fix the need. The dad's going to go, come on, get tough kids. We watch it off. God nurtures us. He cares for us. He binds us up. He loves us even through the difficult things and especially through the difficult things, yes? He teaches us in ways he couldn't teach us when we're comfortable. And that's God's teaching love. That's God's instructing love. Elizabeth L.A. had some sermons that she's entitled, Suffering is not for nothing. And that is true, but I could, I would expand that to say nothing is not for nothing. Everything is significant in God's providence. No experience that we go through is lost when we're in God. And when we're his, he uses everything for our good and for his glory. That is hard stuff, isn't it? That's hard teaching. Some of you are going through tremendously difficult, unrelenting challenges in your lives. God works through that. God shows up in the midst of that. He teaches us right there, right then in ways he couldn't teach us in comfort and security and happiness and peace and quiet. Those are all good things, by the way. We all search for those things. We all desire those things. God teaches us the most through the difficult things. And that's why he says, I lifted the yoke from their neck, bent down to feed them. That's symbolic of the fact that you're bent over with the burden. And God comes down to you there in the midst of that and teaches through that. There's that illustration that's kind of common about the shepherd and sheep, right? Sometimes you see Jesus pictured with a little sheep on his shoulders. When would a shepherd put a sheep on his shoulders? It's not a happy tale, is it? When the sheep would stray too far from the flock and be in danger of being eaten alive by the wild animals to save the sheep from his own folly, what would the shepherd do? Break his leg. The shepherd would break his leg and carry the sheep on his own neck until the leg healed enough so the sheep could walk on his own. And then the sheep won't stray. That's hard teaching right there, isn't it? We don't kind of like that, do it too much. But it's the shepherd's love for the very life of the sheep that causes him to bring brokenness out of which come security. So God has an instructing love for us. And it's a harsh love. Look at verses 5 through 7. Will they not return to Egypt? Will not a Syria rule over them because they refuse to repent? Swords will flash and their cities will destroy the bars, their gates, and put an end to their plans. My people are determined to turn from me, even if they call to the most high, he will by no means exalt them. There is a choosing love and there is an instructing love but love cares enough to get angry sometimes. My kids have to forgive me. I use my kids too often as illustrations but your mom's and dad, you know these things, how this works, you know? I've had to tell my kids sometimes I'm being harsh with you because I love you. If I didn't care about you, I'd let you do whatever you want to do. I'd never discipline you, I'd never spank you, I'd never punish you in any manner, I'd just let you do whatever you want to do. But because I love you, the hands got to come down, the hammer's got to fall, because I love you. It's hard love, it's harsh love, isn't it? God's big and scary, he's not to be trifled with. He says, my people will turn from me, they will not repent and look what's going to happen, swords will flash, plans will end, but God will have his way. I often tell people, if you've come face to face with God and not been shaken up, then you probably haven't come face to face with the God of the Scriptures because he is big and he can be hard. And we have to take that with the loving and the motherly instructing love of God. You can't have the one without the other. He's holy and we're not. John Stott put it this way, he was talking about Ephesians chapter 2 that said, we were by nature children of wrath, children of wrath, what does that mean? Children of God's wrath, children deserving of God's wrath. We were by nature children deserving God's wrath, but God who is rich in mercy out of his great love with which he loved us. Stott says God's wrath is not incompatible with his love. Paul moves from the wrath of God to the mercy of God and the love of God without any sense of embarrassment or anomaly, he's able to hold them together in his mind because he believes they were held together in God's character. And I believe he's right. You can't have parts of God, you have to take all of the God of the Scriptures. Why is he harsh because we don't learn otherwise, do we? That's just, we know ourselves right and sometimes God's got to be harsh force to learn. Sometimes, you know, we'd love it if we could hear his voice in the wind and see his voice in the beauty of the child and but sometimes God has to scream at us through suffering, through pain, through discipline. Lewis again, though our feelings come and go, his love for us does not,
it is not weird, God's love for us is not weird by our sin, it's not weird by our indifference and therefore it's quite relentless in its determination that we should be cured of those sins at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to him. You hear that? God's love for us is relentless in its determination to rid us of our sin no matter what it costs us and no matter what it costs him. That's harsh love sometimes but that's God's desire. What we go on and we see in verses 8 and 9, how can I give you up F from? How can I hand you over Israel? How can I treat you like Adma? How can I make you like Zebawim? My heart has changed within me. All my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fear saying or nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim for I am God, not man. The holy one among you, I will not come and wrath. Do you see the turn here? We saw at this morning some thirty that judgment lasts for for the night but joy comes in the morning, wailing is in the night but hope comes in the morning. God's wrath does not stay on those he loves and we see it here. My heart is changed within me. It's a changing love. Some people in our circles have a little problem with the idea that God can change. There's an idea of the impassibility, the unchangeable nature of God. He's the same yesterday today and forever therefore he can't even have emotions but maybe this is that technical use of God using metaphors of humanity to describe himself but sure sounds like God saying my heart has changed. My compassion is aroused. He's a parent who loves his children and it's a changing love for us. Well finally there's a future love. Look at the end of the verses here, verses 10 and 11. They will follow the Lord. He will roar like a lion and when he roars his children will come trembling from the west. They'll come trembling like birds from Egypt, like Doves, Missouri. He's now covered all the points of the compass and I will settle them in their homes, declares the Lord. If God loves you now this is saying he will love you forever. If God loves you now he will love you forever. DL Moody was famous for saying if when I die you read in my obituary that I'm dead don't you believe it. He says I will be more alive than than ever before. And that's true. That's the essence of Christian hope isn't it? That yes we live in this life but when we leave this life we don't die. We die to this world and we are alive in a whole new manner that we cannot imagine or comprehend. That's good news. We've been adopted into his family. We've been made his forever. That's a good news. His future promise on us, his hold upon us is much much greater than our grasp will ever be on him. And fortunately it's not our grasp that makes the difference is his grasp, his covenant hold on us that makes the difference yes. He loves us with a future love, the promise of eternal love into the future, to take us home. This world is not our home. We have to remember that we are pilgrims passing through too often we get way too comfortable here. I was just telling some people this morning that you know I never thought I was going to be in Florida for 18 years but my feet have kind of sat down little roots into this sandy soil that I never thought would go that deep but I like to be reminded this is not my home. Florida is not as good as against. Praise the Lord.
It's not bad in early February on a day like today. It's a beautiful day and I thank God for it right? But this is not as good as against and he is going to take us home to a different place. Spurgeon said that it's always a disconcerting to read an article and get to the end and see a little line that says to be continued. For some reason for him that was very disconcerting and it was ominous and he says yet these words are of good cheer if applied to other matters. What comfort to be remembered that the Lord's mercy and the Lord's loving kindness is to be continued. As much as we have experienced in the years of our pilgrimage and for some of us it's been brief you're new to this church or new to the things of Christ. For some of us it's been many years. As much as we've experienced in the years of our pilgrimage we have by no means outlived eternal love. Spurgeon says Providential goodness is an endless chain, a stream which flows and leads us to the place where he is who was once the babe in Bethlehem and all the volumes which record the doings of divine grace are but part of a series to be continued. Isn't that great? All of his doings with us are like an endless stream that is flowing us, taking us home and it's all part of a multi-many endless volume series to be continued. That's the grace of God. It's a promise he intends to keep with you and with me who trust in him and we'll see him. We'll see him face to face. The reformers had that little saying to live before God in a way that was as if you're living in his presence, Korim Deo. And that's a hope. That's a goal we have to live as if we're before God's presence every day. Then in God's future love we will be face to face. There will be nothing. It won't be through a glass and darkly. We will see clearly. We will know as we are known. We will love as we are loved. That's the future hope, the future love of God and that's a good thing. Do you know this love? I've known a lot of you. A lot of years and I know you know this love. Some of you have only known a few weeks or months and some of you I've not had the privilege to meet yet in this room. Do you know this love? If you feel like you're seeking him, know that he was seeking you otherwise you wouldn't even be interested in seeking him. This is the virtue of the God manifests for us. This love, this unrelenting, this nurturing, calling, harsh, teaching, eternal and future love. This is what God demonstrates for us in Christ. While we are yet sinners, God demonstrates His love for us because while we are yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly and that's me and I know that's all of you and so we say trust in Him. Find your hope in Him, settle in to the hope of a home and a future with Him in heaven and it makes all the difference in the harshness and the difficulty of today, doesn't it? Amen. Let's pray together. Our Father, we our compel to admit that you have been good to us beyond what we deserve. If we stop and think yes, things have been difficult, yes there's been illness or loss or difficulty or uncertainty or fear but you have been good to us beyond what we deserve. You have loved us by calling us as your children. You have loved us by instructing us through your word, by holding us by our hands, by taking us into your arms. You have loved us by taking us through difficulty, even discipline. Father, help us to trust that your love for us goes on beyond today and tomorrow, beyond next week or next month, beyond whatever we might do, keep us in your love we pray. Magnify yourself through your love for us and through your church we pray. In Jesus' name