Hosea: The Prophet and His Unfaithful Bride

Text: Hosea 1:1-2:1

Preacher: Thobi Sithole

Transcript

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The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beri, in the days of Hosea, Jothem, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the king of J the son of Joash, the king of Israel. Hosea's wife and children. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go and take yourself a wife of Hodom and have children of Hodom, for the land commits great Hodom by forsaking the Lord. So he went and took Goma, the wife of Deblaim, 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 bough 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 more 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. I will save them by the bow or by the sword or by the war or by the 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 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, You are not my people. And 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 to 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.

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Babuingwale, Heavenly Father, we thank you for first and foremost who you are. You are a holy God. You are worthy of all praise. We adore you, Lord. Not only that, Lord, you are a just God, you are a merciful God, you are a jealous God. And Lord, we ask you, Lord, even this morning, as you confess, Lord, some of these things are hard for us. Hard for us to comprehend. A God who is angry, as it were, a God who shows righteous anger. Some of us even struggle with the idea of a God who judges. So, Lord, we pray that you help us. Help us, Lord, to submit ourselves to the authority of your scripture, your word. For your word is akin to your authority and who you are. Uhhold the universe by the word of your power. Lord, we pray for humility as we learn from you. As you shape us through this journey of understanding your loyal love. That Lord, your love is faithful. Your love is forever. Your love is steadfast. Lord, we pray that as we hear your word today, our hearts may be convicted. Help us, Lord, to lean in with humility. In the name of Jesus Christ. Also pray for myself, Lord, that Jesus Christ may be exalted. That I may decrease, He may all the more increase. And Lord, I pray for every heart here. People wrestling with doubt. Wrestling with whether this is true or not. Pray that, Lord, by the power of your spirit and convict their hearts. It's therefore prayed, Lord. Only you can turn a man's heart. Only you can take a heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh so that they may have affection for you. Ask all these things in the mighty and precious name of your Son Jesus Christ. Amen. Wow. Over the next couple of weeks, 12 weeks to be exact, week one is today. We're gonna be uh just walking through slowly this book of Hosea together. And um as I was working on this, 5,000 words plus. I usually preach 2,500 words, and it's long. People are like, oh, 45 minutes, so I don't know what's gonna happen today. Are we gonna be here for 90 minutes? I don't think so, but uh the Lord help us. Anyway, we're gonna be journeying through this book of Hosea, and our series is mainly titled Loyal Love. Uh, the idea that kind of like God refusing to let us go, God refusing to give up on us. And I hope you kind of get that sense as we journey together that there's a beauty of a relationship that God explores or God shows us in terms of us relating to Him is a covenant people. And there's a beauty that kind of like will undo or do away with our assumptions, as it were. Even our self-righteousness. And and the reason behind just this text is just that continual uh view of God's pursuit of us in spite of us. And that's what we're gonna be journeying through, as it were. And I hope that and pray that that shapes us, shapes how we relate to each other, but also shapes how we view God's beauty and holiness and how God takes seriously the weightiness of sin. Yeah, that's that's my that's my prayer. And and and today we're gonna be kicking it off here. But I want to read this quickly um biographical point here, that verse one of Hosea, it says, the word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beri, in the days of Useah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. So a bit of biography here is that this Hosea guy is doing a ministry about like 40 years, a span of 40 years, mainly in the north of the kingdom. So the kingdom is divided into the north and the and the south, the south being Judah and the north being um Israel. And and the whole premise of this, just to make this account, that he's called then to be a prophet to that nation. Uh around about his ministry, around about like from 7275 BC all the way uh to uh to around the time where actually his prophecies are fulfilled, the fall of Israel in 722 uh BC, the fall uh of the north happens. But there's somehow a ministry that happens even towards the or uh sayings or poetry that happens that refers then to the south, to to Judah. And and I'll stop there for today because I really didn't want the series to be a lecture, an old testament lecture, but I want us to really grapple with with the heart of the book. And and the start where it starts is basically, I'd say from verse 2, and and this morning's text is kind of gonna ask one main basic question. Why would God tell a prophet, a man of God, to marry an unfaithful woman? I mean, we are only in chapter one. Look at it in verse 2. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go take to yourself a wife of whoredom, and have children of whoredom. For the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord. He's telling his prophet, his man of God, as it were, go, I'm commissioning you. Your call is to marry a woman who will break your heart. And and and friends, we we we often soften that that that punch. And in history, um I mean across uh many, many years, uh, I'd say a span of a hundred years, theologians have have been wrestling with this whole book, actually. Why why would would God call a man to marry a woman as a metaphor to picture his relationship with the nation? Doesn't sound fair. Surely this is a parable, surely this is uh only but a vision. Surely the the the God of holiness would not ask his own servant a man. He he'd not ask his own servant to do something so scandalous and so painful. For centuries, friends, careful readers have tried to find ways around this this verse, too. Go marry a woman of Hordom. But friends, there's no way around this. God said it. God said it, God meant it, and and he had a reason. And that reason, friends, is is specifically to paint a picture that man, Hosea, your family life is gonna be a sermon to Israel. Your kids are gonna be a sermon to Israel. Your your your wife and your relationship with the wife is gonna be a a sermon to Israel. That Israel has broken my heart. Israel has committed great whoredom. So for before friends, we are done, we will uh actually return to that question. Why would why would God do this? Why in the world would God do this? And and and I I structured the sermon in terms of like a play, you know, Shakespeare, because it's it reads like a play. Uh kind of like act one, scene one, you know what I mean? And and act one is basically this a polished city with a with a hollow heart, which is gonna give us context of what is where is Hosea, why is Hosea, and what is happening in that context. Number one, picture a city, that this polished city with a hollow heart. Picture a city at the height of its power. The eighth century, uh, before eight centuries, as it were, before uh Christ arrives into the scene. The northern kingdom of Israel is under a king called Jeroboam II. By every visible measure that that city is living in a golden age. That that city is is successful, that that city uh has its borders expanding, that that city is actually in cahoots, in affiliation with the Syrians. The economy is is booming, the the market of Syria is full of of business and imported goods, and and uh the houses there are paneled with ivory. Think about waterfall. If you walk those streets, you you would have felt the energy of a nation that believed that, man, we have arrived. Look at us. And if and and and friends, if it feels distant, I wanna I wanna describe a bit of this city and liken it to the north of Johannesburg. Cafes that are that are watching over manicured lawns, the the glass towers of Saturn that that catch the afternoon sun, the the supercars at Melrose Arch. The rooftop restaurants in Bryanston, the the Lushy and Lush Streets and Parkhurst, as it were, the relentless harm of people building careers and dreaming bigger dreams. After all, friends, this is Chauteng. And you know what that means. It's the city of what? Of gold. And friends, yet beneath all the shine, beneath all these, these, these, the, that shines, beneath all this beauty, beneath all this, this, this glam, the coffee shops and the the hotels and restaurants, beneath all of this, friends, something is deeply wrong. And this is what exactly uh Josea is speaking into. And he's speaking to us as well. Because many of us know, friends, that what what what is finally uh at reach for us, what is what is finally uh at the out other side of the success, at the other side of that next car, Ferrari Benz or whatever, at the outer side of that is a hollow heart, a deeply unsatisfied life. You you discover that when you get that promotion, when you get that extra degree, you you keep wanting more. It just doesn't satisfy the promotion comes and goes, and you still want more. The relationship begins, but you are not satisfied. The degree is earned, you are not satisfied. There's always what's next. The business succeeds, the the apartment is upgraded. The followers on your on your Instagram or TikTok increase, but the egg still remains. Is there more, Lord? Our age friends tells us that the meaning of this egg is is is highlighting the fact that friends, none of this success, none of the things we pursue will ever buy us freedom. None of the things we pursue, none of our self-expression can afford us freedom. Hosea dares friends to suggest something far more uncomfortable for all of us this morning. What if the emptiness is not because we have failed to find the right thing? What if it is because we have been looking for ultimate things in things that were never built to be ultimate in the first place? What if beneath all our restlessness is a deeper homelessness, a separation from the God for whom we were made? And friends, the the idea of this text or this book of Hosea is that Hosea or the people of Israel of the north thought they could dupe God. They equated their success and their uh privilege and opulence to favor from God. So what they did was, okay, we're gonna do this, we're gonna, we're gonna have an affair, we're gonna do all the right rituals, we're gonna come to church every Sunday, we're gonna worship, we're gonna do all that is expected of us, but we're gonna worship the very things that we long for. We're gonna worship the money, we're gonna worship the fame, we're gonna worship the cars, we're gonna worship the sex, we're gonna worship everything else that is contrary to the God we say we love. And yet still come and do the things that we think God expects of us. Hosea is not first a religious lecture, as I said earlier, it's a diagnosis of our restlessness, the restlessness we already feel. That a promise that that that that it's pointing to is friends, that it's pointing to not some things or things, but it's pointing to someone. Look closer at Samaria, friends, you'll see that behind the prosperity, the poor were being crushed. While the rich grew richer, the poor were being oppressed. The temples were full, but the worship was empty. The people performed the rituals while their hearts ran elsewhere. And most of all, friends, a comfortable delusion had settled over the nation. God is blessing us, man. Life is easy, life is smooth. We have the favor of God. Surely God is pleased with us. And here, friends, then God calls Hosea to say, marry a whore. To illustrate the fact that my relationship with Israel has never been about rituals but about covenant. My relationship between Israel was never a business arrangement, a contract. It was a marriage. To feel this, you have to feel the whole sweep of the story, as it were. God promised Abraham he would be his God and God and the God of his children at Mount Sinai in Exodus. He he took an entire nation to himself like a husband taking a wife. And he spoke the words that that become the heartbeat of the whole Bible. I will be your God and you will be my people. You are mine and I am yours. That covenant formula, friends, runs from Abraham through Sinai in Exodus 19 and 20 through David all the way forward. And remember it, friends, um, because in a few minutes we are going to watch God tear up, as it were. Tear up was as it were, describe the betrayal of those vows. So when Israel turned, friends, to the Baals of that time, the fertility gods of Canaan, the whose temples were places of ritual prostitution, prostitution, who who promised good harvests and full wombs. She was not merely breaking a religious rule. She was breaking her marriage vows. She was continually committing adultery. A bride giving herself to other lovers. Taking the affection that belonged to her husband and lavishing it on dead wood. You know the heartbreak songs. You know resentment. You know Adele's anthems. You know the lament. You know the buzzwords there, the the cheating, the unfaithfulness, the betrayal, the whoredom, the the covenant betrayal. And God takes it a step further. The cosmic relational treason. Friends, Israel's sin was not first a broken rule, I repeat. It was a broken heart. God's broken heart. That this uh book becomes like a poem, becomes like a the like a song. This this is the the broken heart of God. This is the God who heard her groaning in Egypt, heard the groaning of Israel in Egypt, and and came down to rescue her when she could not rescue herself. This this is the God who who split the sea, who fed her with bread from heaven, who carried her through the desert as a father carries his child. After all of that, the wife keeps running. Hear the heart of God in this, he is not a magistrate filing a complaint. He is a husband who has not merely experienced disobedience, he has been over and over again cheated on. Over and over again, friends, experienced unfaithfulness, over and over again experienced betrayal, over and over again experienced adultery, whoredom, as it were, I said, this relational treason. Over and over again. God grieves, friends, because he is jealous. Not with the petty jealousy of insecurity that we hear on songs like Boys to Men and whatever the songs are, but but with this fierce jealousy of a love that refuses to share the beloved with things that are destroying her. That's the big problem in Hosea, is it's not that Israel is is becoming religious, friends, or irreligious, as it were. It is that she is becoming an unfaithful word that God uses in verse 2. She forgot that God is the one who had loved her first. But she went away and played what the words in verse 2 say. Act two, friends, the command that stopped everything. Then the word of the Lord came to Hosea go take to yourself a wife. Of whodom and have children of whodom for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord. Someone is like, why do you keep repeating that verse, Fundis? So narrative preaching, you have to retell the story over and over and then land with the principle, right? You're gonna hear that now. God is telling his holy spokesman, the man whose life is meant to testify to the covenant, to marry a woman known for unfaithfulness, to bind himself to someone who will betray him, to set himself up for all with open eyes for the deepest heartbreak a human can ever experience. It's with open eyes that he's telling him to do this. And friends, what my my my point is this: you you need to see what God is doing here. God is not asking Hosea to do anything that he has not done himself. God has loved a faithless bride. God knows what it is to give everything to someone who gives themselves to others. God has loved a faithless bride. And friends, Hosea's marriage is that living sermon. His broken home will become the pulpit, his grief will become the very voice of God. And so what does Hosea do? Like a true man of God, he obeys. Look at verse 3. So he went and took Goma, the daughter of Dablaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Oh, wow. 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. Hosea obeys friends. Perhaps at first there is this real tenderness, this real pursuit. Oh, she doesn't look that bad. Maybe Hosea is attracted to his wife. I mean, maybe she comes from a decent family. Okay, let me, I'll marry her. And maybe the honeymoon phase goes on and they they she bears him a son. Perhaps it's a hopeful season for Hosea. An ordinary home, the small joys of a new marriage. And then Goma conceives and bears Hosea a son. And God tells Hosea what the name of the boy is. Jezreel. Judgment. Jezreel, the name lands like a stone, as it were. Imagine Hosea carrying this new baby boy, and through the streets, the neighbors are leaning in to ask the child's name, and Hosea having to say it. Jezreel, God scatters. Jezreel, God will scatter you in 722 BC. The scatter is is looming. This is a name, friends, of judgment. As they walk away in shame, as as Hosea and Goma nurse this baby, there's an idea that the bow of Israel will be broken. The dynasty will fall. The opulence will fall apart. And here the covenant echo in the language of Deuteronomy 2, to be scattered was the greatest curse, friends. To be torn from the land, from the temple, from the very presence of God, that was the greatest curse. And the northern kingdom, as I said earlier, suffered through that. They fell to the people they were in cahoots with, the Assyrians. And when the capital city fell of Samaria, there was a sense of like a siege, a great siege. There was great blood and they were captured. Hang in there. Look at verse 6. Call her name Loruhama, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all. But I want you to look at verse 6 again, comparing it with verse 4. No, verse 3. Look at verse 6 compared with verse 3. Are you guys there? She conceived again and bore a daughter. Look at verse 3. So he went and took Goma, the daughter of Dabliim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Do you see the difference? She conceived again and bore a daughter. A daughter is born. That's not the difference, but it is, but that's not the difference. She conceived again and bore him a son. She conceived again and bore a daughter. If the first name made the neighbors uneasy, this one made them fall silent. No mercy. Notice what the verse does not say. It says Hosea was told to name her, but it never says he was her father. The silence in the text is deliberate, friends. And in it, friends, the sermon was being preached. Can you look at this little girl and be sure she belongs to you? Can you look at Israel and be sure that she still belongs to God? The word behind her name reaches down into the womb, friends. The tenderness of her mother for the child of her own body. That is the love that God says He is withholding. I'm withholding mercy from you. I'm not even sure that you are mine. Feel his anguish, friends. This is not indifference, it is a wounded love drawing a terrible line. I'm not gonna have mercy on you. Third child. This is where we're gonna camp, friends. You are not my people. Look at verse 9. And the Lord said, Call his name not my people, for you are not my people, and I'm not your God. They are, you are not mine, and I'm not yours. That's the worst judgment in the whole passage, friends. Not the bloodshed of Jezreel, not the lost battles, not even the coming exile. The worst judgment is separation. To be cut off from the living God and left alone with the bales, the dead gods. And this is precisely, friends, our modern egg. To be left with everything except the one you were made for. The career cannot save you. The money cannot save you. Your bank balance will not save you. That relationship, those applause will not save you. That a house that is in the lushy streets of these suburbs that I mentioned will not save you. When God withdraws, friends, you are left clutching at dead things. You are left clutching at temporary dead things. So the three children grow up, friends. Grow up, they they walk the streets of Samaria carrying their names like banners. Jezreel judgment is coming. The sermon walks around in the city on these small feet, like this young boy walking up here, crawling up to us. Me. Friends, you cannot look away from it. And you cannot help but ask, are they all his? Careful. Loami is not Oloami. Friends, you cannot look away. When that judgment is happening, you cannot look away, but you cannot look away from these kids in light of the sorrow that Jose is experiencing. Are these his children? Are these God's people? And friends, I want to go into Act 3, the weight of the Word. Before the Word. And we need to linger here a bit in Act 3. Because, friends, what is happening here is that I would define it as Keller would in his framework, idolatry. I want the weight of the word to land with you this morning. That we need to linger a bit here in these three names, that are a descent, a deliberate dismantling of this covenant relationship and everything Israel was, everything that defined Israel as Israel. And underneath this, this framework that I want to mention, friends, that this is not a cold God uh processing a violation. This is a husband whose wife has left. A father who has watched his children turn from him again and again and cannot stop loving them. And here's the passage, friends, where we need to turn our eyes on this point to say, man, Israel's idolatry from a safe distance is not something we can lean and be comfortable with. We need to actually lean into it and understand how this applies to us. This collapse, these kids, how does this apply to your life? Perhaps you're thinking, man, I don't worship Bal. I don't have a wood in my house. No one in this room would admit to that. No one in this room would say, I have an idol in my bedroom of fertility, of double double. But everyone builds their life around something. Everyone builds their life around something. Something we look to and say, if I had that, then I'll finally be okay. For some it is money. For others, it is romance. For others, it's a career. If if only I had that or a family or a reputation, if only I had uh that, that influence, that that that endless thing of saying, man, I want to be that project that is famous and self-expression uh should be my name. I should I should be known for me and my thoughts and ideas. If only I had that, then I'd be okay. Friends, that is your power. That is your idol. Keller's framework in counterfeit gods, he puts it like this: if anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life and identity, then that's your idol. Can I say that again, friends? Keller in counterfeit gods, it's my favorite book, actually. If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life and identity, then it is an idol. That's the point, friends. The Bible calls these things idols not because they are evil, but because they make terrible gods. A good career is a gift, a career as your God will devour you. Romance is a is a gift. A person made into your salvation will be uh crushed under the weight of your false expectations. They can't carry your expectations. That guy can't be your savior, he has no capacity to. They collapse beneath the weight of your expectations. And that's the point, friends. If you're a professional, a student, or simply unsure of what you believe, you you need to kind of grapple with the fact that the next achievement is never meant to deliver rest for you. It is never meant to deliver freedom for you. It's never meant to fix what what is aching in your heart. Because you are made for something, or dare I say, someone more. God. The trajectory of a wandering heart is a heart that is far removed from God. That's where the fulfillment is, that's where full life is. That's who we are meant for. We are meant to enjoy all these other things under his sovereign will and authority and teaching and guidance for his own glory. But once we make a God out of the gift, no matter how good it is, in and of itself, it's a ball. Wow. If if if I was to say, okay, let's pray, no one would come back. Because there's no gospel there. Right? But here's here's the gospel. I wanna I wanna push you on this one. That the the word is about to come to us, but here's the point here. How can a holy God remain just and still restore an unfaithful bride? How can a holy God remain just and still restore an unfaithful bride? How can covenant breakers like myself, like you, ever become covenant children without God ceasing to be God? One illustration. It would be amiss of us to expect Madranga to overlook corruption as a judge. He's a righteous judge. It would be aware of us to expect a judge to be what? Corrupt. How can God not judge? How can God not judge sin? How can God not judge covenant breakers? Because if he he if he if he overlooks that, then that would imply that God is what corrupt. How can God be corrupt at number four? Oh man, I'm glad I'm here. Verse 10. Yet solo li how I love so to you. Le Hawley Jualo. In spite of friends, yet, that's the word today. That's that if if you if you want to learn to anything today, man, man, I'm a sinner, but yet I have broken God's covenant, but yet, man, this is this is heavy stuff to look into. Look at it, verse 10. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. 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. What is that word yet? One word, friends, that changes. It's like the the door was shut in our face. You are judged. You are not my people. I'm not your God. I will have no mercy on you. The door was shut in our face. And God says, yet. Yet. Learn to hear the word, friends, because I'm gonna say it over and over. It's it's the rhythm of the whole Bible, yet. You are guilty, yet there is mercy. You are you you have rebelled, yet there is grace. You you deserve exile, yet there is a road home. You earned every one of those three terrible names, yet it is the hinge on which the story of the redemption turns, friends, on the yet. And where does God reach for the foundation of a hope like this? From where does God base this yet? It's not in us, it's not in Israel. There is nothing left in Israel to build on. He he reaches all the way back to his own promise. He says, like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted. In other words, he goes back to his promise he made to Abraham in Genesis 15. God, friends, is faithful to his own promise. The promise rested not on Abraham's faithfulness, but on God's character. So now, friends, with the covenant in ruins, God reaches back past Israel's failures to the covenant, as it were, a covenant of grace, to his own faithfulness, to his own ancient word, to the promise that holds us, friends. Not because Israel held on to God, but because God held on to his promise. He refuses to let go. Now look again, friends, at verse 10 again. It's moved from the soil of you are not my people. He says, on that very ground where it was said, you are not my people. He says, You are children of the living God. We can't rush past this, friends. You are not merely a restored people, you are children. No, not just readmitted to the covenant, but adopted into the family. And notice that the name God uh chooses for himself, he says, You are children of what? Of the living God, greater than your dead idols. You you are children of the living God greater than your your idols, but but I'm stuck on this question that I asked in this act. How can God move from not my people to you are now children of the living God without any justice? How can a holy God do this and remain just? And verse 11 gives us the clue. 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 shall for great shall be the day of Jezreel. One head. For 200 years the kingdom had been torn into two: the north and the south. Now we see a picture of a kingdom that that is that that is under one head. A king. This is the next beat in the covenant story, friends. The promise God saw to David, that one of his sons would reign forever and gather the scattered flock into his fold. Abraham was was promised a people. David was promised a king. Hosea now binds the two together. The scattered people will be regathered under one promised king. The problem of Loami cannot be solved by an apology. It demands a king, one who can satisfy God's justice and bring the dead covenant back to life. And here's the tension, friends, almost unbearable to listen to. I would leave it here and be tense with it and mule over that. But Hosea makes this promise that the Hosea cannot fulfill it, but there is one who will. So, friends, the promise of verse 10 hangs over the whole of the rest of the Old Testament. Like a question, no prophet, no king, no priest can answer. Who can bear the judgment of Jezreel? The mercilessness of Loruama, the abandonment of Loami, satisfy the justice of a holy God. Who can do it, friends? Act 5. The faithful bridegroom. For 700 years the question waits. And then in the fullness of time, the answer is born. A child in Bethlehem, a son of David, a true king, a faithful Israel, a greater than Hosea. Hear me clearly, friends, this morning, that especially this morning to understand that the Christian message before anything is about this one fact, friends. It centers around this child, this one head. The whole Old Testament has been asking how can a holy God take back an unfaithful people without ceasing to be holy? The New Testament answers it. Jesus. He loves the Father perfectly. And yet he does not come only as the faithful son, he comes as the faithful bridegroom. The better than husband. The God who was betrayed did not abandon his bride, friends. He put on flesh and walked into the far country of her rejection to bring her home. Now, friends, we follow him to that one place where the question of this book is finally answered. Would you stand with me at the foot of the cross? Would you stand with me at the foot of the cross and see Jesus take on himself no mercy? Would you stand with me at the foot of the cross and see Jesus take on himself just real the judgment of God? Would you stand with me at the foot of the cross and see Jesus say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Would you stand with me at the foot of the cross and see Jesus take on himself lo armi? Jesus bore the name. Jesus bore those three names on himself, friends. And that's the gospel, friends. Christ, in the place of our unfaithfulness, he's bearing their names so that we can bear his. God never overlooked the sin. He dealt with it on his son Jesus Christ. So that Paul in Romans 9, 25 to 26, reads Hosea with a Christological covenant view. He actually saw that this reaches further than any dream. Right into a church of Jews and Gentiles, he he reached straight back into Hosea, friends, to the promise that those who are not God's people would be called sons of the living God. And he said it, friends, and this is happening in Christ. It is happening in Christ that Gentiles too are now the Israel of God. That you are no longer a scattered people, but you are a people belonging to Christ. We have X6, but time is up. If you're watching series, they're like, uh wait till the next episode, right? We're not gonna do that, are we? Let's look at X6. Friends, in light of all of this, maybe you're hearing me shouting. Why is this guy so passionate? I want to ask you this question. How do you then live now? In light of that. You've heard the RB songs, like I said. Your I never wanna see you again. Your I wish I wish death upon you and whatever. You've you've heard how people respond to betrayal. And perhaps you have experienced it. But God relentlessly pursues you. He relentlessly pursues you, friends. Now, my question to you in light of that, how are you gonna live? In light of the beloved? Friends, the Christian life is not how we earn the name, it is how we live from the name we have already been given. What follows flows downhill from a point of grace. It is never the engine, but it's the it's the fruit. What is the fruit of living in light of a God whose love is loyal, whose love is never ending, whose love is steadfast, whose love never gives up on you. The prostitute, the unworthy one. I like the fact that Jesus went to the cross knowing very well that we are the Goma. He didn't go there knowing that no, I'm dying for people who deserve to be died for because they're living perfect holy lives that are pleasing to me. No, he went there for Goma like you and me. Unmerited favor, unconditional kindness of God expressed through the intentional sacrifice of Jesus Christ on that cross. He died a sinner's death. He he bore the names that we were deserving to bear, and he gave us his name. He gave us his name. First friends, in light of that, we you you can stop negotiating your identity. The deepest reason we run to the bales of our city is that we are not sure of who we are or whose we are. Our image, our our applause, we we want to gain identity from those things. But the Father has already spoken your name in his Son Jesus Christ. You are a child of the living God. You you do not earn it in the boardroom, you you do not defend it on your timeline, you do not rebuild it after every failure. You learn to return to that name when the city tries to give you another name. Number two, friends, repentance is not like groveling and like uh groveling and coming home, as it were. Like it's it's it's not groveling in the sense of oh pity party, no. It is actually coming home. Jose I used the word return again. He keeps using that again and again, friends. Return, return, return. Because, friends, the the whole movement of the book is about that. It's in Christ returning, is not walking toward a magistrate to be sentenced. It is the prodigal rising in a far country, walking toward a father who is already running to him. God is already running to you. Would you repent? Would you come home? Perhaps you've been in those muddy waters and those the those that pig sty of of trying to gain identity through money, success, uh, uh, all these things that the city wants to give you names for, identity and seeing you, and you're like, man, I'm tired of this. I want to go home. The father is running to you already. Come home, repent. And lastly, the grace of God creates a people. The the reversal of the names is not only something God says over us, it is something we begin to say to one another. Look at how the passage ends in chapter 2, verse 1. Say to your brothers, you are my people, and to your sisters, you have received mercy. Friends, this church is meant to be the place where Loami comes. Who who who who has be who has spoiled a life in in looking for identity in other places and forsaking God. This church is saying, There's mercy. There's grace at the foot of the cross. There's one who bore that name to give you a new name, to call you his bride, and no longer the other name. Would you be that voice? Would you be that voice to those people and say to them, you are God's people, you have received mercy in Christ? As I close, friends, at quarter to one, why would God tell a prophet to marry a prostitute? If if I'm guessing you've been listening for these 50 minutes, why would God tell a prophet to marry a prostitute? Because, friends, number one, God wanted his people to feel what they had done to him. Number two, he wanted them to see embodied in one man's broken life the thing he had been doing since the foundation of the world. Loving a bride who would not love him back, pursuing a people who kept running from him, refusing against all reason and all dignity to let go. Hosea married Goma. And later in the book, we will watch him go down to the slave market where her unfaithfulness has finally taken her. And guess what? Hosea will buy her back. She's never spoiled goods. You are never spoiled goods for Christ to deal with you, to buy you back, to redeem you, and for him to call you my beloved bride. You are never a waste to him. He'll keep pursuing you in the gutters of the city. He will rescue you there. Because his love is loyal, because he's a faithful God, because he's a faithful king who has gone all the way to the cross to bear our mess. Father, we thank you for your kindness. We thank you for your grace, Lord. Lord, we know that we deserve the judgment.