Hosea, chapter 1, the word of the Lord that came to Ozea, son of Barry in the days of Uzziah, Jotham Ahaz, and Hezekiah, King of Kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, King of Israel. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take to yourself a wife of Hordam and have children of Hordam. The land commits great Hordam by forsaking the Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblem, and she conceived and bore him a son. And 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 have no mercy, no more mercy, have 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 sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen. When she had weaned no mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, call his name, not my people, for you are not my people. And I am not your God. Yet 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 together 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. This is the word of the Lord. Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your word, for Hosea, for this name, salvation, and pray that you would open our eyes to sea. Even as we began to study some of the minor prophets of the summer, bless us. Thank you for this in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. I invite the little ones to raise their hands. They would like a zest quest being passed out. Again, I want to say happy Father's Day to all the fathers and grandfathers who are with us today. It is a great thing to be a father. And the greatest privilege that a father has, and I'm saying something that's true, absolutely, there's nothing greater than this, is to teach their children the word of God. There is no greater privilege, no higher calling than for fathers to teach their children the word of God, the proof text for that comes from Deuteronomy chapter 4, chapter 6, verse 4, listen as I read, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. Listen carefully, you shall teach them diligently to your children and she'll talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as front as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. And right now as I read those words from Deuteronomy, fathers begin to slump. The sweet cards that their children and grandchildren gave them earlier were given later today, suddenly are met with a discouraging reality that I'm not doing that well in that area of teaching my children. And then dads do this, they begin to look around and they assume that the other fathers sitting next to them are this father standing here in the pulpit are doing it so much better. And the shame of making commitments to leading the family devotions to walking the family perhaps through the devotion that's in this each week or the one year Bible or simply saying once a week we'll do something together spiritually as a family has kind of vaporized. In the last service I said that and I saw a few children on the front row is jabbing their dads like yeah well to those children and to all the men who feel that I want to remind you of a few things by way of introduction. The first is this there is no greater privilege than teaching your children the word of God. Fight me on that if you want but you will lose. There is no greater privilege for when you teach the word you're telling them the story of rescue from beginning of end to what God has done and there's no greater privilege than teaching them the word. Secondly you will fail. You will. Most fathers on Father's Day do celebrate what it means to be a dad but because many of us men are driven we kind of think but here's what I'm not doing it so well. You will fail. In fact list all the ways you failed and I'll tell you that you're worse than that. All of us are. We will fail because we're not perfect but we have a savior who is. He's capable. He's done it all. Thirdly though we fail he sustains even in the midst of an enemy. It did interesting that many men can lead huge corporations. They can lead staffs. They can have brilliant ideas and be on boards of huge organizations. Much much complexity. When it comes to just simply teaching the word of God it's like asking me to run you know an Iron Man thing whatever that is. Not gonna happen. Not gonna be pretty if it did. This is not that complicated but because we have an enemy who doesn't want us to do it it's the hardest thing you will ever seek to do. You have an enemy that does not want the word of God to be on your heart and not on the hearts of your children but just as we have that savior who sustains. There's victory. He has defeated ultimately that enemy. Live in that reality. Fourthly we have a fiscal audience. Our children do not see us break open our Bibles and say children it's now time for the family devotion and they don't come running with I can't wait. I've got a pen and a highlighter and I'm ready to spend time deep in your word. Instead even at the youngest of ages they roll their eyes and we pick them up from camps and we say how was it? They say fine and they begin to text the people they just said goodbye to five minutes ago. It's a fickle audience but what you're teaching is the only thing you will ever teach that is sharper than a double-edged sword and able to penetrate to the soul of that child. It's God's word. It says it that way. Fifth, you are your child's father. God knew that. He made you for that. It's your privilege. It's your responsibility and he will give you everything you need to do that. Your kids what does it they need most from you? You would love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. That's what they need most and when they see that in you it will begin to be absorbed by them. By way of introduction to Hosea I share that and here's why. One of the main themes of this little prophet, this little book, is that they no longer had the knowledge of God. You see it as you read through this little bitty minor prophet, they no longer had the knowledge of God. So it's important for us as men and women as believers in Christ to have the knowledge of God. In our identity statements as a church, there are five of them. The second one says this that we know and live the word of God. It's not simply enough to have knowledge of God. The people of Israel had knowledge of God but they didn't know him. They had no true knowledge of him because they weren't living that which they were learning. Well that is what Deuteronomy is calling us to. It's that kind of knowledge and Hosea speaks of that being absent. Now we're going to start a series on the minor prophets. It's a three-year series only in the summers. Our summer reading for the next three summers will be the minor prophets. That's called planning ahead and Lord willing that's what we're going to do. Why? Because most of us have no real handle on the minor prophets. Even in Presbyteria when young men are coming to be ordained for gospel ministry, they're being asked questions from all over the room and there's one Presbyter in particular, one pastor who always loves to try and stump guys on the minor prophets. And when you see this man stand up, you just hope for the man being examined that he can say the prophets in order and that he can then give a word or two about the theme of the prophecy, above the prophet. Well that's what we're going to be doing over the next three summer. This summer, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah. It's a survey. We're not going to go chapter by chapter, but you're going to learn the great themes of each of these books. And in them what you're going to see is this. You're going to see the sovereignty of God, the holiness of God, the call for God's people to obey and a love of God that makes no sense. A love of God that makes no sense that has you and will have you to play a saying, and can it be really? And that's how this prophet starts. Hosea, the name means salvation. And here, this prophet called like all prophets to proclaim the truth is given a very difficult task. Did you hear it when Pete read it? Did he kind of bristle with the descriptive language that's not watered down in the translation of the ESV? Let me read it to you again. Hosea, chapter 1, verse 2, this is what it says when the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take to yourself a wife of Hortam and have children of Hortam for the land commits great Hortam by forsaking the Lord. Well, this is what God's doing. He is calling Hosea to do something that is unbelievable. This is not simply an allegory. This is not simply an analogy simply saying that this is what the people of Israel are like. It is what the people of Israel are like. They are horrors. And he's calling this prophet to pursue a woman who is going to be unfaithful. The Jerusalem Bible translates it in a way that's really close to the Hebrew and is very graphic. Listen as I read, Hosea 1, 2 from the Jerusalem Bible, go marry a whore and get children with a whore. For the country itself has become nothing but a whore by abandoning Yahweh, three times in one verse that graphic language of unfaithfulness is presented. But in the Hebrew there's actually four roots. The Lord is serious and describing the horrific nature of what this spiritual adultery looks like. And he's calling Hosea to do something that has beyond any of our imagination. You know, fathers like to joke about the things that they will say to a young man when he comes one day and asks for his daughter to go on a date. And when my daughters begin to date around the time they're 30 or so, I have considered the things that I'm going to say. Simply I think what I want to do is invite them to come into my office. And then I'm going to sit down for a little bit and not going to say a word. Just going to sit there for a little while. Knowing that the silence will be awkward and we'll probably reveal much about the young man's intentions. And then finally when it begins to speak I'm just going to say, and I'm going to look him dead in the eye and say, son, I am willing to go to prison. Are you willing to die? Those jokes have existed forever. But I've never heard a joke. And it may be out there but I've never heard a joke about what a father would say to a young woman that his son would bring home. I've never heard a joke like that. But listen to the woman that God himself is calling Hosea to pursue a horror. It's graphic. God is serious about sin. He is serious about a people that's unfaithful. He is serious about a people that have been unfaithful because he himself has been is and will always be faithful. And so using this prophet he calls him to this task. The focus of this chapter really is the naming of the children. In this first chapter it is the children that must capture our attention. We all know as fathers the thrill of naming a child even this morning little Lucy. I wonder what you went through as you discussed. What's the name going to be? Names have meaning. Sometimes we name just because we like a sound of the name. But in the Old Testament throughout the New Testament names had great significance. People respond to the significance of a name. My mother-in-law for example had strong opinions on what we would name each of our children. And oh it irritated me greatly. Without even giving us any sense you say oh no you can't name the child that. I don't like that. Well it's not your child. It's your grandchild. But it's not your child. In fact one time she was visiting about a year and a half ago and our fifth child was soon to be born. And I remember listening to names that we had thrown out and seeing her reaction. So before she arrived I decided that I would put on a refrigerator a top 15 list. And what I had done is I'd written names that we would never name our child. Names that most people would never name their child like LeBron. And I put those names on there. And I loved it when she walked into the kitchen, nosing around. And there she looked at it and leaned in. And her body did this kind of conniptions as she saw the names. Well there was no name on that list that compares to the reaction that people would have to the three names that God told Hosea to name his children. I'm just going to briefly mention them this morning. And next week we're going to pick up on this theme. But I want you to begin to read because it's powerful. Look with me again chapter 1 verse 3. So Hosea went and took Gomer the daughter of DiBlam and she conceived and bore him a son verse 4. And 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 and the valley of Jezreel. Well to understand what this name means. We have to understand a bit of the Old Testament. Some of you are very familiar with it. But what's happening here is a reflection that goes all the way back to the wicked king Ahab. Jezreel is a well-known town and valley in the northern kingdom. And this is the place where Nabith had his vineyard. And their king Ahab wanted that vineyard for himself. And so he went and he offered Nabith other land. Nabith refused to receive that other land. And then King Ahab brought money. And again he refused. Nabith didn't want it because of the family having the land. And then King Ahab's wife Jezreel planted the seed that perhaps what needed to happen was to murder Nabith. And he did. King Ahab murdered Nabith. And in that moment God pronounced doom on Ahab's family. And the fulfillment of that doom came with King Jehu. The problem was that Jehu in seeking to rid the earth of this king's family went too far. And there was a bloody massacre that took place that was well beyond the prescription of what God had declared. And done with the spirit of selfishness and bloodthirstyness. And so the Lord there said that judgment will also come in the valley of Jezreel on Jehu had gone too far. That's what's taken place here. The word Jezreel actually means scattered. And so when someone would hear this word or this name for a child they would think that's so offensive. Why would you name your child that because it has to do with judgment and scattering? The name would actually be pronounced Jezreel. Well the story goes on in verse six we are told that she conceived again and bore a daughter. But this time we're not told that Hosea was the father. There's a different grammar here which leads us to believe that this child actually wasn't physically Hosea's. But it was the fruit of her horing acts. And the Lord said to him call her this daughter no mercy. For I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all. Now immediately we think how can that be? God tells us that he is a God of mercy. Well in his mercy, in his love, in his compassion. Is there a time that the Lord simply says you want to walk away? Walk away. You want to pursue other gods? Pursue other gods. You want to pursue those things? It'll be to your destruction. And in his mercy there is no mercy. He lets people go. Much like the father of the prodigal whose son then in destructive living came to himself and returned back home. So this is what the Lord is indicating here. You were to call her no mercy. Well gomer weaned the child in verse eight. And then she conceived again outside of her marriage to Hosea and bore a son. And the Lord said call his name not my people. Can you see the parallel? Hosea knows this is not his son. And the Lord is saying to the people of Israel you are not my people. A people who have heard from the covenants early on I am your God. You are my people. Now I have that God saying you have abandoned me. You have been unfaithful though I have been faithful and named this child not my people. For you are not my people and I am not your God. Next week I'm going to show you in chapter four where it specifically details the sin of the unfaithful people and what it looks like for us as a people as well. But then is God's word continuously does? There's a conjunction. There's a moment where grace enters in and you simply look at it and say and can it be? And can it be that this God who has described this people who has been so unfaithful? Can it be that he is actually leading and going towards these people again? Is it possible that he is pursuing them when their faithfulness has been so real? And that's why he uses this word or it's graphic we can't get around it. And the gospel story is true. This isn't just for the people of Israel. It's the people of Park City's Presbyterian Church. It's the people of Dallas are city. It's the people in this state and country and around the world who have abandoned God's word who have not been faithful but he has been. And so we see in verse 10 this grace ushering in yet the number of the children in Israel shall be like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered. What does it sound like? The promise to Abraham doesn't it? 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. She'll be the day of Jezebel. And then verse 1 of chapter 2 say to your brothers you are my people and to your sisters you have received mercy. And it's because of that mercy it's because of that love which comes out of an incredible justice towards sin that we find ourselves in a place in and can it really be? Would God really call a prophet to pursue a wife of Hortam and to have children of Hortam? Yes. Because that is what he did in sinning us his son. Not people who were good in faithful and deserving but God who was so faithful that said the way for my wrath to be satisfied is for my own son to receive the penalty do all of those horse. That's the gospel. We're worse than we think. The flowery language that we might give ourselves about our sinful condition is scraped away with this one word. We have been adulterers. We have been the whore and God has sent his son to save us and can it be and can it be and can it be? Yes it was yes it is and yes it will be to him be the glory. He, O sayer, salvation, Jesus.