The Three Children

In the Old Testament, the prophet Hosea will read chapter 1, beginning in verse 1 through chapter 2 in verse 1.! Please stand with me for the reading of God's Word from Hosea 1.

The Word of the Lord that came to Hosea, son of Beri, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, king of Israel.

When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, Go take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery and departing from the Lord.

So he married Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to Hosea, Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel.

And I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel, and that day I will break Israel's bow in the valley of Jezreel. Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.

Then the Lord said to Hosea, Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to the house of Judah, and I will save them, not by bow, sword, or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God.

After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then the Lord said, Call him Lo-Ami, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, they will be called sons of the living God.

The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

Say of your brothers, my people, and of your sisters, my loved one. God married Israel, and Israel played the harlot.

She turned her back on God. She abandoned her undivided devotion to Him and turned aside to idols. And God's relationship to Israel was then to be portrayed on the living stage of Hosea's marriage.

So God commanded His prophet to marry an adulteress and to take to Himself children of unfaithfulness because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery and departing from the Lord.

So Hosea married Gomer, and she became unfaithful to him. And so we learned last week that idolatry is to God what adultery is to marriage.

That when we put something in that place in our heart that only God should have, that we are stepping out on our true husband for other lovers.

Now, there were not only the two, the husband and wife, Hosea and Gomer, but there were also three children in this family.

And they too carry great symbolic meaning about God and Israel. They are living signs of God's judgments upon His wayward people.

And so today we'll be focusing on these three children of this tragic family. First of all, we'll look at their conception and birth.

I want you to notice something in the text. And how these births are announced. Notice verse 3. This first child, she conceived and it says, So he married Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, verse 3.

And she conceived and bore him a son. This son, in other words, is the fruit of their union. She bore to him a son.

Now we jump down to verse 6, where we read, Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Missing is the phrase that she bore him a daughter.

And so with the third child, verse 8, After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Do you see the difference? Only of the first child does it say that it was born to him, Hosea.

Leading us to believe that these last two children she gave birth to were most likely fathered by another man or men. They were, as verse 2 says, children of unfaithfulness.

Or as chapter 2 and verses 4 and 5 say, Children of adultery conceived in disgrace. Now that will prove to be especially painful for Hosea to live with.

There around him, in the home, will be living proofs of Gomer's love affairs with other men.

But that was all part of making him into the prophet who would feel God's pain in Israel's idolatries. And would go to that nation and accuse her of her sin and call her to repent.

Their conception and birth then. That's the first point. Let's look secondly at their names and their meanings. The names of the three children and what they mean.

Now naming your child is an enjoyable thing, isn't it? You may name your children after someone famous. Dabney Owen Cook.

There's that southern theologian and that English Puritan. Way to go. Ben and Lane. Dabney Owen Cook.

Or you may name them after someone in your family. Maybe after yourself. So you call your son Larry or Robert. Or you might name them after some famous man of the Bible.

And so we have right here Joshua and David and Jonathan and Moses and Aaron and Jacob and Nathan and Samuel. Isaiah and Jeremiah. Daniel and Joel. Obadiah and Zechariah.

We have Matthew, Mark and Luke and John here this morning perhaps. And Paul and Timothy and Stephen and Andrew. James, Thomas and Nathanael. Or maybe it's women of the Bible.

And so we have Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel and Abigail and Hannah and Anna and Mary and Phoebe. Or maybe you'll choose classic names like Letty and LeVanche.

Or maybe you'll choose names because of their meanings. And so you get the little baby book and you read through and you see, oh, that's a neat meaning. And you choose that name and you hope and pray your baby will turn out like that.

Once in a while we bump into names that are attention grabbing names. Like the book I have read by Ichabod Spencer.

And I want to know what were his parents thinking when they named him Ichabod Spencer. Well, of course, it's a biblical name and you know the history.

But you know, Homer and Gomer and Hosea were not given that privilege of naming their children. That was all part of the command that God gave them.

Just as much as it was a command that Hosea marry an adulterous woman. He was also commanded what names to give them. And God gave them attention grabbing names.

God gave them names that would shock Israel and bring them to their senses. As to their sin and the judgment of God that was to fall because of it.

So let's look at the three names this morning. Verse four says, then the Lord said to Hosea, call him Jezreel. This is the firstborn. Because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel.

And I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day, I will break Israel's bow in the valley of Jezreel. Now, the etymology, the meaning of Jezreel is God scatters.

Perhaps a symbol of judgment itself that God would scatter them out of the land of the promised land into a foreign land. But this name seems to have been chosen not so much for its etymology as for its location.

You see, Jezreel was a place. It was a well-known city and a valley in the northern kingdom of Israel. Have you ever heard of someone named after a place?

I once knew a dog named Indiana. But here's a boy named Jezreel. Well, we must know right away that what happened at Jezreel.

Tell me something of the history of this place, because that's immediately what the Israelites would have thought of when they heard the name of this boy. Jezreel.

Well, Jezreel, in short, was the place of Jehu's massacre. A bloodbath. Where Jehu became king by shooting and killing Joram, king of Israel.

And then killed Jezebel and all of Ahab's followers. You can read the gory details in 2 Kings chapter 10. But it says, so Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.

Now, Ahab also had 70 royal princes being raised in Samaria. And so Jehu sent a letter to their guardians demanding that their heads be brought to him at Jezreel in the morning.

And so their heads were delivered in baskets the next day. And Jehu ordered them to be put in two piles at the entrance of the city gates of Jezreel until morning.

It was a killing spree. It was a bloodbath. It was a massacre, a bloody stain on the history of Israel.

Now, that's Jezreel. It was known as a valley of blood. A synonym for massacre. It would be like one of you naming your children, your sons, Wounded Knee.

Or Columbine. Or Fort Hood. Or if you were from Vietnam to name your son, Milai.

Or Chinese to name their son, Tiananmen Square. Or German to name their son, Dachau. All famous places for their massacres.

So, Hosea, what did you name your baby boy? Jezreel. Why would anyone name their son, Jezreel?

Well, I'll tell you why. Because the Lord says he's soon to punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel. And to put an end to the kingdom of Israel.

In that day, I will break Israel's bow in the valley of Jezreel. And wherever his son went and he calls him Jezreel, Jezreel, he would have missed no opportunity to explain to the hearers around the meaning of the name.

Now, the implications of this boy's names were downright shocking then. God assigns two prophetic judgments to his name. First of all, I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel.

Now, Jezreel is a conflicted individual. On the one hand, his killing of Ahab's line fulfilled God's prophecy about Ahab's line.

And so he's the instrument of God's wrath upon Ahab's line and the priests of Baal. Well, but Jehu did not, was not activated in his work by a desire for God's glory, whatever he may have said.

His butchery was motivated by selfish ambition. That he would seize the throne for himself. A lust for power. A lust for bloodshed. And so though he slaughters the Baal worshipers, he himself does not turn away from idolatry.

As you can read in 2 Kings 10. So bloodshed will revisit Jehu and his family soon, God says, for their massacre at Jezreel.

And it happened just like that. Zechariah, the fourth from Jehu, seated on the throne of Israel, reigned for six months and then was assassinated.

God had not forgotten. The bloodshed came back to haunt his bloodline. Be sure your sins will find you out.

But there was an even greater judgment assigned to this name. Not only will I revisit Jehu's house for the massacre, I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.

In that day, I will break Israel's bow in the valley of Jezreel. You see, the whole kingdom of Israel was marked by the same violence and bloodshed and idolatry as King Jehu.

The whole northern kingdom was given over to such. And God himself says, I will put this kingdom to an end. Then he uses an interesting phrase.

I will break Israel's bow. Israel's bow is poetic language for her military might. And when you're fighting kids and your weapon is a bow and the bow breaks, it's over.

And that's what God is saying. I will break your military might. And the whole nation will be brought to an end. And that will happen in the valley of Jezreel, the valley of massacre.

Only now those massacred will be the Israelites. And ended will be the kingdom of Israel. And so it was just 25, 30 years after Hosea's prophecy, the mighty Assyrians swept into the valley of Jezreel, destroying the northern territories of Israel, leaving them exposed.

Their bow was broken. And so in another 10 years, Assyria completely obliterated the northern kingdom of Israel. Finished off.

Brought to an end. Scattered in judgment. Now that's Jezreel. And that's the meaning of this firstborn son.

Verse 6. Talks about a child born that was a daughter. And she then was the offspring of Gomer's infidelity.

And then the Lord said to Hosea, call her not loved. For I will no longer show love to the house of Israel that I should at all forgive them.

Call her not loved. Not pitied. Not shown mercy. What a tragic name to give to a daughter.

But the reality of its meaning was even more tragic. Now few things are more natural than a father's love for his own daughter.

And yet here is this father calling his daughter not loved. And every time he spoke her name, God's judgment is sounded upon Israel.

Not loved. Time to wake up. Not loved.

Mercy, pity, compassion on them. What a shocking change to deal with for Israel. You see, she had long lived in the shadow of God's mighty love and pity and mercy.

They can't survive without it. And God says precisely, it's over. It's over.

They had taken his love for granted. They had sinned against his love time and again. They had refused to give up their other lovers and return to him in truth. And to their threats of the prophets who came and says, God's going to judge you.

They said, oh, no, no problem at all. He'll forgive. He always does. And finally, God is saying, that's it.

I will no longer show love to the house of Israel that I should at all ever forgive them. Do you know that God does not owe forgiveness to anyone?

Folks, he owes us judgment. And if any of us get anything but judgment, it is pure mercy.

Amazing grace. Never presume upon the mercy of God. Never presume upon his love. Bertrand Russell was a French skeptic of the last century who blasphemed God all of his life to his very death.

He died muttering. God will forgive. That's his job. That's his job. And sadly, that captures the perverted view of God's love that holds sway in so-called Christian America today.

We can live like hell. And God will forgive. That's his job. That was precisely the attitude in Israel. And God is saying to them in the name of this daughter of Hosea and Gomer.

Not loved. I'm not going to let you go on in your deluded state any longer. I will no longer have mercy on you that I should at all forgive you. Judgment is coming and I will not stop it.

And in that day you will know that I am the Lord. Friends, to be outside of God's love is to be inside his wrath.

To not be forgiven by God is to be condemned by God. And that is the state of all who refuse to repent of their sins and to return to God with true devotion.

You see, God's love is a jealous love. It's not a blind love. It's not this so-called unconditional love as the world is defining it. It's a love that makes demands and demands a response.

And though his heart yearns for your return, he will not withhold his wrath if you refuse him. He will rather say how often I longed to gather you.

But you would not. Therefore, your house is left to you desolate. Only judgment remains for you.

I say it was a shocking thing to consider for Israel that God no longer loved them. But what made it sting even more was the fact that God says, though I will not love you, I will love Judah, the kingdom to the south.

Verse 7. Yet I will show love to the house of Judah, and I will save them, not by bow, sword, or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God.

When judgment falls, it will hit you full force, northern kingdom, and it will destroy you, Israel, because I will not love you, I will not forgive you, but I will love Judah, and I will save her.

And Israel, you must know that this is what your stubborn love of holding to your idols is forfeiting. My love and salvation. And so it happened.

When the mighty Assyrians were on the march, the northern kingdom fell. But as they came to Jerusalem and besieged Jerusalem, and the Assyrians sent a letter threatening Jerusalem, Hezekiah, the king of Judah, spreads the letter before the Lord and calls upon the Lord, trusting in him, not in his own military might.

Lord, come and save us. And the Lord loved Israel and saved them, not by bow, sword, or battle, horses, or horsemen, but by one angel of the Lord that went out in the night and killed 185,000 Assyrians, and in the morning all the dead bodies, and they packed up and went home.

Israel, that's what you're forfeiting. You could have had God act on your behalf, but you clung to your idols and would not return to me, says the Lord.

That's child number two. Not loved. And then verse 8 tells us, after she had weaned, not loved, Gomer had another son, another child of adultery.

And then the Lord said, call him not my people, for you are not my people, and I am not your God. Can you imagine how many times Hosea sat and stared at his son?

Looked at his eyes, his nose, his mouth, his chin, and said, that doesn't look anything like me. Not my son.

Not my son. How it must have tore his heart out. The older he got, the less he looked like him. Not my son.

Not my son. I am not your father, and you are not my son. And so he's given to feel the pain of God, who here speaks directly to Israel, saying, you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Folks, we can read those words and think that they don't affect God. To judge people is if, well, it's no big thing to God to judge his people.

The book of Hosea will not let us go on in such delusion. And we feel Hosea's pain.

Not my son. Not my son. I am not your father. Now, if not loved was a shock for Israel, this had to be the atom bomb.

For so long, the crowning promise of God's covenant with Israel, his marriage bows to Israel, where you will be my people and I will be your God.

And it just goes right through the Old Testament. Over 1,300 years earlier, God had covenanted with Abraham. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Genesis 17, 7. 600 years after Abraham, after that covenant, when Abraham's descendants were slaves down in Egypt, God said to them, Exodus 6, 7, I will take you as my own people and I will be your God.

You remember, kids, when God sent Moses and Aaron to go into the king of Egypt and they announced to Pharaoh on behalf of Jehovah, let my people go.

They're my people. I've entered into covenant with them. This had been their designation as long as they were a nation. They were known as Yahweh's people. Jehovah's people.

They thought of him as their God. And they thought of themselves as his people. That was as rooted in their national consciousness as, let's say, the pledge of allegiance is to our national consciousness.

And we say almost without thinking, don't we? With justice and liberty for all. And then one day, someone comes and says, no, you've got it wrong.

It's with no justice and no liberty for all. And what has happened? I mean, we don't just hear somebody.

We hear someone from the government announcing that is the new pledge of allegiance. And we say, what's happened here? And so it was as Israel was to hear Gomer and Hosea call their third child.

Not my people. Come. Not my people. And they would hear that they were no longer the people of God and he was no longer their God.

This is the very climax of the judgment signs given. Their sins and worship of other gods and stubborn refusal to repent had broken the marriage covenant.

And God is here announcing it's broken. It's shattered. He will not share his people with other gods. And he separates himself from them.

It signals the end of the relationship. It's over. You're not my people and I'm not your God. Chapter 2 and verse 2. You are not my wife and I am not your husband.

Oh, what pain that would have brought to the Israelites. I am no longer here for you to seek in danger's hour. I am no longer here to watch over you and keep you as the shepherd of Israel, as your husband.

You're not my people. I'm not your God. Well, folks, that's the three children in this tragic family. That's their names and that's the meaning of their names and the judgments of God that they represented.

What do we learn about God from this? Well, we surely get a different view of God than what is popular today.

We learn how holy and righteous and jealous is his love. That he will not share our hearts with other gods.

And that his wrath is as great as the fear that is due him. That his judgments are righteous, fearsome, and altogether deserved. And yes, he calls us to repent.

And those calls to repentance are loaded with yearning passion like Hosea to Gomer. But we are never to ignore his calls to repent.

Let none dare presume upon his love. There is a point where patience ends and judgment begins.

There's a line by us unseen that crosses every path. The hidden boundary between God's patience and God's wrath.

Well, where is that mysterious line by which our paths are crossed? Beyond which God himself has sworn that he who goes is lost. How far can one go on in sin?

How long will mercy spare? Where does grace end? And where begin the confines of despair? An answer from the sky is sent.

Ye who from God depart. While it is called today, repent. And harden not your heart. They presumed upon God's love.

And lost. It's over. And then something strange happens. At verse 10, there's a sudden and unexpected change in the tone.

The music has been heavy. It's been cumbersome. And suddenly there's this light music that begins at verse 10. It's like the sun breaking through the dark storm clouds.

Just for a moment before being swallowed up again in the dark clouds of judgment. But not before or without giving hope of the promise of brighter days that are yet to come.

After God's judgments have been demonstrated that he's a holy God. And after he has purged out infidelity, there is coming a brighter day.

And so chapter 1 ends on this bright note of hope of promise. And in this way, chapter 1 becomes a template.

It sets forth a pattern of the structure of the whole book. You have, first of all, Israel's sin. Verse 2. Vilest adultery.

Committed in the land. Their idolatry. You have God's judgment. Verses 3 to 9. All the three children and the meanings of their name. And then you have the future hope of restoration.

Verse 10 to chapter 2 and verse 1. And each of the three major blocks in Hosea's book ends on the note of this hope of future restoration.

Here it just pops through the clouds for a second to put us on notice that more is to come. So listen to the first glimmer of hope in this dark chapter.

Verse 10. Yet. Yet. The Israelites will be like the sand of the seashore which cannot be measured or counted. Now this bright promise reaches back 1,300 years from that day when it was spoken by Hosea.

To when God made a covenant with Abraham and promised that his offspring would be like the stars in the heavens. And like the sand on the seashore. You can't count them.

And here God is announcing to Hosea that he still intends to fulfill his covenant promise. Even though the judgments just announced spoke of the massacre of Israelites in the valley of Jezreel.

Though they have just spoken of the end of the northern kingdom altogether. God will still make good on his word of giving to Abraham a people beyond counting.

Now the other prophets had also spoke of the diminished numbers of Israelites under God's judgments. Amos 5.3. A city that marches out with a thousand strong will come back with a hundred.

A town that marches out with a hundred will come back with ten. Isaiah 1.10 says. Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors. We would have been like Sodom.

We would have been like Gomorrah. Completely annihilated. So the announced judgments will fall.

What God has said in these three children's names will happen. Destruction has been decreed. He will punish sin decimating the greater part of Israel's population in Hosea's time.

But sparing a remnant. And eventually from that remnant making descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Now the New Testament will show us that God has some surprising ways that he will bring this to pass.

There are some surprises ahead. But it's in light of this bright promise of restoration that we find the meanings of these children's names reversed. They all spoke of judgment.

Now they're going to be twisted or put right or reversed to where they will all speak of blessing. A whole different meaning. Put on their names. A whole different destiny.

For Israel. So let's start with the last son. What was his name? Let's see. It was not loved. Or not my people.

Wasn't it? Not my people. Yet verse 10 says. In the place where it was said to them. You are not my people. They will be called sons of the living God.

You see the reversal. Though God may forsake a disobedient generation of Hosea's day. And give them over to judgment. He will not go back on his word. And promise to Abraham.

To call his descendants. My people. They'll be called sons of the living God. Verse 11. Further spells out in greater detail.

This future restoration. It says the people of Judah. And the people of Israel. Will be reunited. And they will appoint one leader. And will come up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel.

In other words. The long standing bitter rivalry. And breach between Israel and Judah. Will be healed. When one leader unites them.

And chapter 3 and verse 5. Will call him David their king. In the last days. Pointing to Messiah. And so there will be this great repopulization.

Of the land. And great growth in numbers. After being decimated. There will be this great. Numerical increase. When they come up out of the land. Perhaps speaking of returning.

Returning from the land of their captivity. But probably more likely. That they will come up out of the land. They will spring up out of the land. Like plants in great abundance. As this word can be used.

To describe. For great will be the day of Jezreel. Now here's the change. Of the name Jezreel. The firstborn son.

It had stood for the massacre. That had happened in Israel. It had stood for the scattering. As it means. Etymologically. To scatter. But the word is ambiguous enough.

And broad enough. That it can also mean scattering. Like a man does. When he sows seed. And that's the meaning. That God lays hold of here. That God is once again. Going to sow his seed in the land.

And they will spring up. Like plants. In great abundance. The massacre of Israel. Is not the end of the story. God will move from.

Scattering them in judgment. And reducing their numbers. To. Sowing them. Planting them. Increasing. Their numbers. In the great day of Jezreel.

In the great day when God sows. So Jezreel ends up. As a symbol of hope. Whereas it starts out. As a sign of judgment.

Then there's the other two names. The children. We've already spoken of one. Not my people. Notice. Verse 1 of chapter 2.

Say to your brothers. Remember the brother. Is. Not my people. Well say to your brothers. My people.

Say that's a change. And say to your sisters. Remember the sister was. Not loved. Say to your sister. My loved one. Just as the name Jezreel.

Is broad enough. To. To. To bear both meanings. So. The names of these children. Are such that with just a stroke of a pen. They can go from being.

Not my people. To my people. And. Not. Loved. To. Loved. And God says. I'm going to affect that kind of change.

Change. Now we're going to run into the same change of meanings of the of the names at the end of chapter 2. Verse 22. It closes with.

They will respond to Jezreel. For I will plant her for myself in the land. And I will show my love to the one I called not my love. And I will say to those called not my people.

You are my people. And they will say. You are my God. So though these names are easy to change. To bring about a different meaning.

To bring about the realities that they symbolize. Will take nothing less than the blood of the Son of God. And the power of almighty grace.

To affect it. So. A word about fulfillment of this prophecy. And we're done. Though these. Prophecies of future restore.

Restoration. Had a partial fulfillment. In the bringing back of the people. From the land of their captivity. Yet what is said about them. Here in Hosea. Far outstrips.

Anything of the reality that was experienced. At the. Coming back from captivity. And rather. It points forward. As we'll see. To the coming of Messiah.

And the work. That he will accomplish. In. Increasing. The population. The descendants.

Of Abraham. Till they become uncountable. And in. Restoring them. To a position of being. My people.

My loved ones. Romans 9. Is one. Passage in the New Testament. That quotes. From Hosea. Paul says.

That God. Made the riches of his glory. Known to the objects of his mercy. Whom he had prepared. In advance for glory. Even us. Whom he also called. Not only from the Jews.

But also. From the Gentiles. As he says. In Hosea. Verse 25. I will call them. My people. Who are not. My people. And I will call her.

My loved one. Who is not. My loved one. And it will happen. That in the very place. Where it was said to them. You are not. My people. They will be called. Sons of the living God.

And what the apostle. Paul tells us. Is that when Hosea said that. And he was speaking. Speaking there in Hosea. About the. The bringing back of Israel. From being. Not loved.

To loved. To being no more. The people of God. To becoming the people of God. Paul says. Here's the little surprise. That God brings to us. In fuller view.

In the New Testament. That that stands for. The gathering in. Of the Gentiles. As well. They were not. My people. They had not.

Received mercy. They had not. Been loved. But in the gospel. They become. My people. In the gospel. They become. My loved ones.

Believers. If you fail. To see yourself. In the book of Hosea. You've missed. The point. Is what Paul. Is saying. You've missed. The point. Paul.

Applies. Hosea's words. To us. Gentiles. Who are just like. Those Israelites. We were made for God. And we walked out on God. And we sought out. Our own love.

And God. In Christ. Has called us back. And made us. Who were not a people. To become the people. Of God. Who had not. Received mercy.

To receive mercy. That's what he said. That's what Peter says. As well. First. Peter. Chapter 2. Verses 9. Through 10. He's talking to anyone.

Who's come to Christ. And been joined to him. You. Are a chosen people. You. Are a royal priesthood. You. Are a holy nation. A people. Belonging to God.

That you may declare. The praises of him. Who called you out of darkness. Into his wonderful light. Once. You were not a people. But now you are. The people of God. Once you had not.

Received mercy. But now you have. Received mercy. He's quoting Hosea. And he's showing. That Hosea's prophecies. Are fulfilled. Through the work. Of Jesus Christ.

And this wasn't. A surprise. To God. It was all part of that. Original promise. To Abraham. For he had promised. Abraham. That he would bless. All the nations.

Through his seed. So. Understand. Then. Paul says. In Galatians 3. That those who believe. Are children of Abraham. Who are these. Multitudes.

Like the sand. Of the sea. Children of Abraham. Paul says. Understand. Then. That those who believe. In Christ. Are the children. Of Abraham. For the scriptures.

Foresaw. That God. Would justify. The Gentiles. By faith. And announce. The gospel. In advance. To Abraham. All nations. Will be blessed. Through you. Believers.

We are the Israel. Of God. We are part of this. Incomparable. Uncountable. Host. Redeemed. By the blood. Of Jesus. But why is there.

Restoration. After sin. And judgment. Why isn't it just. Our sin. God's judgment. And judgment. And judgment. And judgment.

Why is there. Restoration. You see that. That's the mystery here. All sorts of reasons. Are given. For God's judgments. You found it there.

In chapter one. And it's just going to. Ooze through the rest. Of the book. This is why you deserve. Judgment Israel. But no reasons. Are given. As to why God. Should restore us.

Showing. By this. Unexpected. Restoration. Surprising. Restoration. That we owe it all. To the. The sheer grace. Of God. In Christ. Christ. Why.

Why should he. Restore us. Why should I. Gain. From his reward. I cannot. Give an answer. But this. I know. With all my heart.

His wounds. Have paid. My ransom. And this is. Why Jesus. Died. John says. To die. Not only. For the Jewish nation. But also.

For the scattered. Children of God. To bring them. Together. And to make them. One. Fulfilling. The promise. Of Hosea. Because it's. Too small. A thing. God says.

To his son. For you. To be my servant. To restore. The tribes. Of Jacob. And to bring back. Those of Israel. I will also. Make you. A light.

For the Gentiles. That you might. Bring my salvation. To the ends. Of the earth. Folks. It's reached us. Jesus. Has reached us. With his. Restoring grace. Let's.

See where. Hosea is. Bringing us. In this story. He's bringing us. To wonder. To worship God. For his amazing love. In Christ. Father.

None of us. Were your people. None of us. Deserved love. All of us. Deserved. Every judgment. We've read. This morning. And more.

The massacre. Of hell. Should have been ours. To be cut off. From you. Forever. Forever. Was our destiny. What is this amazing love.

That you would give your own son. To take our judgments. That we might know his blessings. Come in. And move us again. And.

Cause our hearts. To truly be amazed. At such love. For us. The unlovely. To make us lovely. Receive our praise. Receive our worship.

As we offer it in that. Worthy name of Jesus. Amen.