WEBVTT 00:00:02.990 --> 00:00:07.330 So we ended the year in our Elpis, Elpis, Olapis. 00:00:07.410 --> 00:00:11.210 I've said a lot of ways over Advent. In the Greek, 00:00:11.250 --> 00:00:13.369 we now go to the Hebrew. Remember good Hebrew? 00:00:13.570 --> 00:00:15.330 You kind of get that in the back of your throat. 00:00:15.369 --> 00:00:17.690 Half of you are phlegmy, so it's probably easier, 00:00:17.989 --> 00:00:22.010 right? Chesed, one, two, three. Oh, that was 00:00:22.010 --> 00:00:24.690 really good. That was very good. Now apologize 00:00:24.690 --> 00:00:27.030 to the person you spit on in front of you. But 00:00:27.030 --> 00:00:31.609 chesed, right, the steadfast love of God. I love 00:00:31.609 --> 00:00:34.310 how the hand, that's not glitchy, that was created 00:00:34.310 --> 00:00:37.090 that way by Mike. It's a trembling hand because 00:00:37.090 --> 00:00:42.090 chesed is an unfailing love of the Father, even 00:00:42.090 --> 00:00:45.630 though we... tend to fail to love him. And that's 00:00:45.630 --> 00:00:47.350 why we're going to look at this first week, a 00:00:47.350 --> 00:00:51.630 love that pursues. Okay? A love that pursues. 00:00:51.630 --> 00:00:52.929 We're going to talk about that in a minute, but 00:00:52.929 --> 00:00:55.229 I have a question. To start our new year, we're 00:00:55.229 --> 00:00:58.590 going to start super joyful, right? Mountaintop 00:00:58.590 --> 00:01:02.109 experiences. What causes you to quit things in 00:01:02.109 --> 00:01:05.359 life? Right? So think about it. Whether it's 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:08.299 a New Year's resolution that you end up quitting 00:01:08.299 --> 00:01:10.799 statistically, really not one I just made up, 00:01:10.859 --> 00:01:13.719 statistically by the first week in February, 00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:18.379 it's usually like 75 % are done. Whether, you 00:01:18.379 --> 00:01:20.200 know, when you think about quitting something, 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:24.560 what causes someone to quit? Again, if you're 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:26.260 a guest here this morning, I like to ask questions. 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:28.159 We have a little bit of interactions, and then 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:30.700 I solely get to judge the answers that are given. 00:01:33.099 --> 00:01:35.060 Frustration, right? Things get super frustrated. 00:01:35.260 --> 00:01:38.540 I just want to quit, right? That's a lot of what 00:01:38.540 --> 00:01:40.980 happens when the Holland donors play any form 00:01:40.980 --> 00:01:44.719 of monopoly, okay? In all of its various forms. 00:01:44.859 --> 00:01:47.239 There's a cheater's monopoly out there. Have 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:49.180 you ever played that? Has anyone ever played 00:01:49.180 --> 00:01:53.180 that? Don't, right? It causes fights. It breaks 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:57.000 households. And so, yes. Anything else? What 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:02.000 causes us to quit? Did someone say salary? Oh, 00:02:02.019 --> 00:02:06.359 no. What did someone say? Discouragement. Sure. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:09.439 Yeah. Discouragement. Absolutely. What else? 00:02:11.099 --> 00:02:13.919 Failure can cause us to quit. I can't do this. 00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:18.719 Right? I failed again. I quit this. Any positive 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:21.060 reasons to quit? I just think about, I don't 00:02:21.060 --> 00:02:22.479 know why. I've never smoked a day in my life. 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:24.719 But quitting smoking. Right? That's a healthy 00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:29.979 thing. What else? Fear. We quit out of fear. 00:02:30.139 --> 00:02:32.449 That's a good one. I think that one's in two 00:02:32.449 --> 00:02:39.349 weeks. Other reasons why we quit? Unfair criticism. 00:02:39.750 --> 00:02:50.870 Sure. Pain? Yeah. Someone asks you to. I'm not 00:02:50.870 --> 00:02:54.349 going to read into that at all. Hang on a second. 00:02:54.389 --> 00:02:57.120 Let me sit on that one. This is the danger of 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:00.419 asking questions. Some are so profound that they 00:03:00.419 --> 00:03:03.539 cause to pause. Way to go, Nikki. Because someone, 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:07.620 hang on, guilt, we'll get there. Because someone 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:11.599 asks you to. All right, I'm going to store that 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:16.800 one back. Guilt, absolutely. Laziness, all good 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:21.379 answers, right? That we can quit for a variety 00:03:21.379 --> 00:03:27.460 of reasons. Let me change it. I'm going to ask 00:03:27.460 --> 00:03:31.919 a similar question. What causes people to quit 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:39.620 other people? Yeah, in the back. Mistrust, distrust, 00:03:39.639 --> 00:03:44.580 absolutely. Broken trust can cause us to quit. 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:48.259 Sure, that was a really good one. Now to go into 00:03:48.259 --> 00:03:52.300 the rest of the sermon. Anything else? Yeah. 00:03:53.740 --> 00:03:59.860 Selfishness. Oh, yes. Absolutely. Betrayal. Trust, 00:03:59.960 --> 00:04:01.659 right? That's a breaking. Absolutely. Anything 00:04:01.659 --> 00:04:08.280 else? Lack of boundaries. Interesting. Randy. 00:04:14.479 --> 00:04:19.519 Randy. For three points. Holy cow. An indifference 00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:26.790 towards. That's the danger. Wow, why am I getting 00:04:26.790 --> 00:04:29.509 emotional about that one? I'm very indifferent 00:04:29.509 --> 00:04:32.709 to that answer. No, that was really good, Randy. 00:04:32.790 --> 00:04:35.149 That's great, great. All good questions. We're 00:04:35.149 --> 00:04:37.029 going to stop there because two have already 00:04:37.029 --> 00:04:39.290 wrecked me. So we're not going to go any farther. 00:04:39.629 --> 00:04:42.949 But it has to do with something usually that 00:04:42.949 --> 00:04:45.649 happens. Something, an event takes place, and 00:04:45.649 --> 00:04:48.189 at some point it's just trust can't be built 00:04:48.189 --> 00:04:51.370 up again. Right? Even though we believe we can 00:04:51.370 --> 00:04:54.209 live unconditionally as people, it's very hard. 00:04:54.649 --> 00:04:59.810 it is almost impossible for us to live unconditionally. 00:05:00.389 --> 00:05:03.610 Because we put conditions on everything. We put 00:05:03.610 --> 00:05:07.870 conditions on everything if we are being honest. 00:05:07.930 --> 00:05:10.810 Whether that's covenantal love of a spouse, right? 00:05:11.209 --> 00:05:14.250 As the one who reads the vows and have them respond 00:05:14.250 --> 00:05:16.290 back, whether they wrote it themselves or we 00:05:16.290 --> 00:05:18.589 use the vows that I have put together, right? 00:05:18.649 --> 00:05:22.939 We verbalize an unconditional love. And I'm not 00:05:22.939 --> 00:05:24.500 going to say that every marriage is a sham because 00:05:24.500 --> 00:05:26.959 that's not true or that we lie in our vows. That's 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:29.560 not true either because the intent, the desire 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:33.459 is there. But we put conditions on everything. 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:36.779 We can put conditions on our jobs. We can put 00:05:36.779 --> 00:05:38.980 conditions on our family, our relationships, 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:41.980 all of those aspects. But what Hosea is going 00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:44.980 to teach us today, what Hosea is going to teach 00:05:44.980 --> 00:05:48.939 us about the chesed love of God is that chesed 00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:51.839 And what we learn from Hosea is that it's a love 00:05:51.839 --> 00:06:00.420 that refuses to quit. Let that sit for five seconds. 00:06:00.819 --> 00:06:03.540 Because that cuts through all of those answers. 00:06:04.699 --> 00:06:10.180 A love that refuses to quit. That if you're in 00:06:10.180 --> 00:06:12.779 a relationship, you are my ride or die. You are 00:06:12.779 --> 00:06:17.120 my person come hell or high water. We are going 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.639 to make it. through together, yet we had 17 different 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:26.120 answers of why people quit. But this is a love 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:29.819 that refuses to quit. If you want to understand 00:06:29.819 --> 00:06:33.560 chesed in just a very easy sense, it's God's 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:39.939 steadfast, loyal, covenant -keeping love. And 00:06:39.939 --> 00:06:43.329 you don't start with... I don't know. You don't 00:06:43.329 --> 00:06:45.290 start with warm feelings. You don't start with 00:06:45.290 --> 00:06:47.350 poetic metaphors. You don't start with poetry. 00:06:47.449 --> 00:06:53.550 This is just refuse to quit, not out of stubbornness, 00:06:53.569 --> 00:06:57.509 but out of a commitment to that love, even if 00:06:57.509 --> 00:07:01.790 it gets down to the one centimeter depth. It's 00:07:01.790 --> 00:07:05.029 a refuse to quit. It begins with a broken marriage. 00:07:05.129 --> 00:07:08.250 It begins with a betrayal. It begins with Hosea, 00:07:08.250 --> 00:07:10.089 one of our minor prophets. Again, we're going 00:07:10.089 --> 00:07:12.550 to go do a flyover of a lot of the minor prophets 00:07:12.550 --> 00:07:16.250 here in this sermon series. Hosea is God's visual 00:07:16.250 --> 00:07:19.490 sermon to his wandering people, the Israelites, 00:07:19.649 --> 00:07:23.310 also us. It is an unfiltered picture of what 00:07:23.310 --> 00:07:26.850 grace looks like when sin has made an absolute 00:07:26.850 --> 00:07:30.689 mess of everything. If you just visualize that 00:07:30.689 --> 00:07:32.649 you're just sitting there and it's just desolate 00:07:32.649 --> 00:07:36.230 all around you probably because of you. This 00:07:36.230 --> 00:07:40.230 is a very, very raw picture of grace. And over 00:07:40.230 --> 00:07:43.970 the next seven weeks, Hosea is setting this emotional 00:07:43.970 --> 00:07:48.189 tone for the entire series. God's hesed is a 00:07:48.189 --> 00:07:52.819 pursuing love. God does not want us to come back. 00:07:52.819 --> 00:07:59.699 He comes after us. Because when we think we can 00:07:59.699 --> 00:08:03.660 do it, we actually put it on us then. Chesed 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:06.740 has nothing to do with us. Chesed has everything 00:08:06.740 --> 00:08:10.000 to do with God's pursuing. That's not only Hosea. 00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:13.160 That's the message we find in one of our confessions. 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:17.790 Right? Our confessions. Let me go to Dan Arsma, 00:08:17.850 --> 00:08:21.430 the three forms of unity we hold. Heidelberg 00:08:21.430 --> 00:08:25.170 Catechism, Belgian Confession, and Canons of 00:08:25.170 --> 00:08:28.269 Dort. And that, the Canons of Dort, is going 00:08:28.269 --> 00:08:30.629 to be our accompaniment over this sermon series. 00:08:31.290 --> 00:08:34.389 That God's grace, you know, the Canons of Dort 00:08:34.389 --> 00:08:37.450 teaches us that the grace is God's initiative, 00:08:37.629 --> 00:08:40.549 not ours. It's God's pursuit, not ours. It's 00:08:40.549 --> 00:08:43.990 God's faithfulness, not ours. Because if it's 00:08:43.990 --> 00:08:48.399 put on us, We don't do it. Right? Our grace has 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:52.759 conditions. We stop pursuing when we're indifferent, 00:08:52.980 --> 00:08:55.220 we're hurt, we're angry, we're tired, we're hungry, 00:08:55.279 --> 00:08:57.960 all of those things. And we're not faithful. 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:02.539 We are faithful -less people at times. That the 00:09:02.539 --> 00:09:04.600 cans of Dort will come alongside of us as a warm 00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:07.200 blanket on a cold night to help us understand 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:11.080 grace. To me, one of the greatest gifts we have 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:14.860 on this earth. As a believer, as a non -believer, 00:09:14.899 --> 00:09:16.340 it's still the greatest gift, you just don't 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:18.940 understand it. And hopefully, if you're a non 00:09:18.940 --> 00:09:20.440 -believer here today or you're watching online, 00:09:20.679 --> 00:09:22.700 by the end of this sermon series, you should 00:09:22.700 --> 00:09:24.919 have a better understanding. So let's dive in. 00:09:24.980 --> 00:09:30.080 The shock of Hosea, that God commands a broken 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:36.000 marriage. Hosea 1, verse 2. When the Lord first 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:38.639 spoke to Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:42.220 to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children 00:09:42.220 --> 00:09:45.600 of whoredom. For the land commits great whoredom 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:49.879 by forsaking the Lord. Biggest word in that paragraph, 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:53.159 and. Just kidding, it's not. But understand, 00:09:53.559 --> 00:09:58.080 this is a weird thing to read in a church. Welcome 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:03.009 to 2026. But this is God first spoke. This is 00:10:03.009 --> 00:10:05.110 Hosea's ministry. His ministry begins with the 00:10:05.110 --> 00:10:09.730 kind of command that any pastor gives this command, 00:10:09.889 --> 00:10:13.690 instantly fired or hospitalized. Right? If this 00:10:13.690 --> 00:10:16.889 is the command that is given, go and do this. 00:10:19.750 --> 00:10:22.710 God tells his prophet to enter into a marriage 00:10:22.710 --> 00:10:28.450 that is guaranteed to fail. Because what he's 00:10:28.450 --> 00:10:32.740 doing, he's teaching Israel and us. That this 00:10:32.740 --> 00:10:35.980 is our own story when it comes to God. Let's 00:10:35.980 --> 00:10:38.740 give some context. Hosea prophesied in the 8th 00:10:38.740 --> 00:10:42.240 century B .C., before Christ, during the reign 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:46.980 of Jobarim II, a time of economic success. We 00:10:46.980 --> 00:10:49.159 see a lot going on. There's political stability, 00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:54.539 but there is moral collapse. Israel is outwardly 00:10:54.539 --> 00:10:57.659 prosperous, but inwardly corrupt. They have aligned 00:10:57.659 --> 00:11:00.000 politically with the unfaithful. They've aligned 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:03.740 with Assyria and Egypt, also known as Gentiles. 00:11:04.179 --> 00:11:07.600 Their spiritually adulterous Baal worship is 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:10.080 running rampant in the church. They're thinking 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:12.299 you can do both, but people are leaning more 00:11:12.299 --> 00:11:14.700 toward Baal. There's a lot of reasons why that 00:11:14.700 --> 00:11:17.620 makes for more of a PG -13 movie or above. And 00:11:17.620 --> 00:11:22.460 they are socially unjust. The poor is being exploited. 00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:24.899 Exploited? That's not a word. What am I trying 00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:28.080 to say? Thank you. Don't laugh at me, Rachel. 00:11:28.659 --> 00:11:31.279 Sometimes I can't talk. The people thought they 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:34.440 were doing fine, but God wants to see truth. 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:40.100 God wants them to see the truth. And he's doing 00:11:40.100 --> 00:11:43.960 that through Hosea. It's their saying, you love 00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:51.379 everything but me, yet I still love you. Put 00:11:51.379 --> 00:11:53.519 that in the context of your marriage or your 00:11:53.519 --> 00:12:00.799 engagement. What if that was you? You love everything 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:05.980 but me. Maybe that's you saying that to your 00:12:05.980 --> 00:12:08.159 spouse. Maybe that's your spouse saying that 00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:10.179 to you or a family member or a deep relationship. 00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:15.980 Yet I still love you. That is covenantal love, 00:12:16.059 --> 00:12:18.659 not contractual love. We've been there. We've 00:12:18.659 --> 00:12:20.299 done that with all the mowing of the lawns for 00:12:20.299 --> 00:12:22.639 millions of dollars. Thank you, Randy. But understand 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:26.200 that that's covenant love. That is what God is 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:30.240 trying to tell the Israelites. Chesed isn't demonstrated 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:34.460 when someone is lovable. Chesed is demonstrated 00:12:34.460 --> 00:12:41.100 when someone is unfaithful. This is what builds 00:12:41.100 --> 00:12:44.659 this hesed word for us. This is a week wrecker, 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:46.840 a month wrecker. Let's just call it for what 00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:52.200 it is, a 2026 wrecker. So, during these sermons, 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:53.720 we're going to go back to school a little bit. 00:12:53.860 --> 00:12:57.860 We're going to go to Grace 101. Grace 101 to 00:12:57.860 --> 00:13:01.779 start. The canons describe God's grace as directed 00:13:01.779 --> 00:13:05.000 not toward the spiritually strong, but towards 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:11.539 those dead in sin, undeserving of... Mercy. Two 00:13:11.539 --> 00:13:15.139 concepts that the canons give us all day, every 00:13:15.139 --> 00:13:18.879 day. Grace 101. So we look at head three and 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:26.480 four. Humanity is corrupt, inclined to evil, 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:33.879 unable to return to God on their own. Ouch. But 00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:37.700 it's true. This is what total depravity means. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:41.379 We are bent against God. Even though you might 00:13:41.379 --> 00:13:44.220 be the strongest Christian in the room, you still 00:13:44.220 --> 00:13:47.320 have a bent against God. There's still a friction, 00:13:47.480 --> 00:13:53.620 your flesh and your spirit, at war always. And 00:13:53.620 --> 00:13:57.419 then we see in 1, line 7, God's love is rooted 00:13:57.419 --> 00:14:01.620 in his free, sovereign good pleasure, not in 00:14:01.620 --> 00:14:05.379 anything he sees in us. Think about that. If 00:14:05.379 --> 00:14:07.500 God looked at you and said, okay, I've got to 00:14:07.500 --> 00:14:11.299 find something I can love, guess what? It doesn't 00:14:11.299 --> 00:14:14.399 happen. Thank God for Christ's righteousness, 00:14:14.539 --> 00:14:18.600 but we'll get there later. Hosea is a living 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:24.019 illustration of a divine initiative. God is initiating 00:14:24.019 --> 00:14:27.620 something. God's love is not a response. It is 00:14:27.620 --> 00:14:33.539 the initiating heartbeat of covenant grace. Guys, 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:37.120 grace is not anything that we can really lean 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:42.299 into. But God's love beats grace for us. That 00:14:42.299 --> 00:14:46.299 is the center part of God's love, is covenant 00:14:46.299 --> 00:14:49.960 grace. Now quickly, we're going to take a little 00:14:49.960 --> 00:14:51.840 bit of a rabbit trail, but they do mean something, 00:14:51.899 --> 00:14:54.919 is the names of the children. Because God's actually 00:14:54.919 --> 00:14:58.019 going to tell us about sin with these names. 00:14:58.120 --> 00:15:00.820 Hosea and Gomer had three children, each named 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:06.179 by God as a prophetic indictment. How many of 00:15:06.179 --> 00:15:08.659 you named your kids with prophetic indictments 00:15:08.659 --> 00:15:12.500 in mind? I hope not. I hope not. That'd just 00:15:12.500 --> 00:15:17.620 be mean. But we have Jezreel. God scatters and 00:15:17.620 --> 00:15:21.220 God judges. A reminder of the bloodshed in Jezreel 00:15:21.220 --> 00:15:24.960 under Jehu. This is all historical. It doesn't 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:28.039 mean a whole lot for us in 2026. It meant everything 00:15:28.039 --> 00:15:34.259 back then. Lo ramaha, no mercy. God's hesed is 00:15:34.259 --> 00:15:40.100 not sentimental permissiveness. That God's hesed 00:15:40.100 --> 00:15:44.580 love means everything. It's not conditional. 00:15:45.179 --> 00:15:47.379 It's not, oh, they're having a good day. I'll 00:15:47.379 --> 00:15:50.539 love them. That's not what it means. God, his 00:15:50.539 --> 00:15:55.960 covenant love includes holy discipline. Right? 00:15:56.200 --> 00:15:58.039 That's what we talk about cheap grace all the 00:15:58.039 --> 00:16:00.259 time. Lord, forgive me for what I'm going to 00:16:00.259 --> 00:16:03.340 do this upcoming Friday. That's not okay. That's 00:16:03.340 --> 00:16:06.490 cheap grace. But what we need to understand is 00:16:06.490 --> 00:16:11.509 that Israel's violence and corruption have not 00:16:11.509 --> 00:16:14.110 gone unnoticed, and his covenant love includes 00:16:14.110 --> 00:16:17.889 a holy discipline. Sure, will they be forgiven? 00:16:18.190 --> 00:16:23.129 Absolutely, when they come on their knees in 00:16:23.129 --> 00:16:28.429 true, pure confession. If we confess our sins, 00:16:28.570 --> 00:16:34.509 he is faithful and just. Lo, am I. Not my people. 00:16:35.009 --> 00:16:37.570 The covenant fractures under the weight of sin. 00:16:37.690 --> 00:16:41.909 This is the covenant lawsuit of a wounded husband. 00:16:44.350 --> 00:16:47.429 He was put into a no -win situation, at least 00:16:47.429 --> 00:16:50.889 from the look of it. This is not God withdrawing 00:16:50.889 --> 00:16:53.889 love. This is God withdrawing comfort so that 00:16:53.889 --> 00:16:58.029 his people would awaken to their spiritual adultery. 00:16:58.429 --> 00:17:02.919 You have worshipped other gods. That's commandment 00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:07.799 one. Right? That's in the first four. And they 00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:11.299 knowingly are going to just worship other things. 00:17:11.859 --> 00:17:14.119 I don't know about you, but there's this binding 00:17:14.119 --> 00:17:17.400 going on in me. That God is withdrawing comfort 00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:20.579 so that his people would awaken to their spiritual 00:17:20.579 --> 00:17:23.980 adultery. This is what church discipline is completely 00:17:23.980 --> 00:17:27.829 based on. But more on that later. Grace 201. 00:17:28.130 --> 00:17:30.930 What do the canons teach us about this? The canons 00:17:30.930 --> 00:17:33.730 teach that apart from God's sovereign initiative, 00:17:33.970 --> 00:17:36.970 this chesed love on the move, we remain blind 00:17:36.970 --> 00:17:41.710 to our sin. Head 3 and 4, 10 and 11. God works 00:17:41.710 --> 00:17:45.369 through the word and the spirit to enlighten, 00:17:45.369 --> 00:17:50.329 open the heart, and make the will alive. Right? 00:17:50.390 --> 00:17:52.509 It's not until we come face to face with the 00:17:52.509 --> 00:17:56.109 ugliness of our sin. That we're going to make 00:17:56.109 --> 00:18:00.769 that turn. Because we love sin. We do. It feels 00:18:00.769 --> 00:18:04.069 great. That's what worshiping Baal was all about. 00:18:04.130 --> 00:18:07.410 Do what you want. Be your own God. And it got 00:18:07.410 --> 00:18:11.150 super dark and destructive and bad. And the people 00:18:11.150 --> 00:18:14.970 who knew Yahweh, whose family line knew Yahweh, 00:18:15.049 --> 00:18:17.869 said, yeah, that looks better than Yahweh. Friends, 00:18:17.890 --> 00:18:20.950 we do the same thing. Whether it's on the computer 00:18:20.950 --> 00:18:23.549 screen with another individual, within ourselves, 00:18:23.869 --> 00:18:28.029 with money, with fame, whatever it is. We can 00:18:28.029 --> 00:18:30.450 see both roads and go, this is what God wants 00:18:30.450 --> 00:18:32.589 for me in this moment, but this feels too darn 00:18:32.589 --> 00:18:35.170 good. I'm just going to fall in that. And then 00:18:35.170 --> 00:18:37.450 what the believer can do is say, because God's 00:18:37.450 --> 00:18:40.349 going to ultimately forgive me. Friend, you can't 00:18:40.349 --> 00:18:42.069 play hide and seek with someone who's omniscient 00:18:42.069 --> 00:18:45.369 and omnipresent. Who's the fool in that sentence? 00:18:45.430 --> 00:18:49.230 It's not God. It's us. It's me. It's you. Just 00:18:49.230 --> 00:18:51.829 as Israel couldn't see their own sin without 00:18:51.829 --> 00:18:54.690 Isaiah's prophetic shock, we cannot see our own 00:18:54.690 --> 00:19:00.369 sin unless God reveals it. Yet we like to think 00:19:00.369 --> 00:19:04.190 we can just put our sin right over here and we 00:19:04.190 --> 00:19:06.890 can just live our life and think that it's not 00:19:06.890 --> 00:19:10.789 under his lordship. Why do you want to live outside 00:19:10.789 --> 00:19:13.630 of God's lordship? If God is the sovereign God 00:19:13.630 --> 00:19:16.250 who created the stars, the moon, the skies, and 00:19:16.250 --> 00:19:20.349 you, Why do you want to hide it from them? Because 00:19:20.349 --> 00:19:23.930 we're scared. Because we don't fully trust. Because 00:19:23.930 --> 00:19:28.349 we can't have chesed love for God, yet he has 00:19:28.349 --> 00:19:34.450 it for us. Chesed includes the grace of truth 00:19:34.450 --> 00:19:38.710 -telling and living it out. Yet God says, I will 00:19:38.710 --> 00:19:41.849 allure her. This is where grace starts to pick 00:19:41.849 --> 00:19:45.390 up some movement. A grace that pursues. After 00:19:45.390 --> 00:19:47.809 the judgment comes one of the tenderest passages 00:19:47.809 --> 00:19:50.549 in all of Scripture. I read this and I'm just 00:19:50.549 --> 00:19:53.990 like, okay, we can make it another minute. We 00:19:53.990 --> 00:19:57.180 can make it another hour. Hosea 2. Therefore, 00:19:57.319 --> 00:20:00.960 behold, I will allure her and bring her into 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:05.299 the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. Notice 00:20:05.299 --> 00:20:08.180 what God is not saying. He's not putting conditions 00:20:08.180 --> 00:20:11.900 on it. If she returns to me, if she improves, 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:15.799 if she repents enough, if she comes to church 00:20:15.799 --> 00:20:19.000 enough, if she says the right prayers, if she 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:22.119 gives the right money, if she volunteers in the 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:24.359 right things, she, he, this isn't just hers, 00:20:24.460 --> 00:20:29.200 this is his as well. God initiates, I will allure. 00:20:29.480 --> 00:20:35.059 I will pursue. Friends, when do we pursue things? 00:20:35.180 --> 00:20:39.059 Keep it clean. When do we pursue things in life? 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:47.019 Anybody? When we love them. Thank you. Austin, 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:50.980 absolutely. When you love them, right? At that 00:20:50.980 --> 00:20:52.140 point, it would have been just, could you just 00:20:52.140 --> 00:20:57.460 go put your arm right over her? Good job. I did 00:20:57.460 --> 00:20:59.720 their wedding. I can do that. Understand that 00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:02.619 when we desire something, when we want something, 00:21:02.859 --> 00:21:06.140 right? Right? When you want something, you pursue 00:21:06.140 --> 00:21:09.559 it. I'm not even going to bring up Carrie and 00:21:09.559 --> 00:21:11.099 I. I'm not going to do that for you. But you 00:21:11.099 --> 00:21:13.140 can understand. That's why Carrie runs so fast. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:17.720 But understand, when you want something bad enough, 00:21:17.819 --> 00:21:21.819 you pursue it. Whether it's that, what is that 00:21:21.819 --> 00:21:23.619 called when you get a better job? A raise, right? 00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:26.329 Whether you want a raise, you pursue it. I mean, 00:21:26.369 --> 00:21:28.509 I don't know how many people just go, second 00:21:28.509 --> 00:21:31.309 day of your new job, I'm going to be the CEO 00:21:31.309 --> 00:21:35.769 next week. And you just sit, right? We don't 00:21:35.769 --> 00:21:38.809 know. If you want it, you pursue it, right? Gen 00:21:38.809 --> 00:21:41.970 Alpha, millennials, remember that. If you want 00:21:41.970 --> 00:21:44.990 it, you need to pursue it. You need to work after 00:21:44.990 --> 00:21:49.700 it. I will allure her. This is language of romance. 00:21:49.920 --> 00:21:52.880 This is language of pursuit. This is language 00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:56.819 of chesed. That is why Randy's comment destroyed 00:21:56.819 --> 00:22:01.200 me and should destroy us. Remember what his comment 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:03.099 was? On this side, what was Randy's comment? 00:22:03.819 --> 00:22:07.039 When you become indifferent. Thank you, three 00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:11.920 people. When you just become indifferent. I mean, 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:13.359 when all of a sudden you're looking at your marriage 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:17.049 and you're like, yeah, that's my wife. Yeah, 00:22:17.049 --> 00:22:19.829 that's our relationship. You want to go on a 00:22:19.829 --> 00:22:23.990 date today? Yeah. You want to watch the Bears? 00:22:24.130 --> 00:22:29.569 Heck yeah, I do. No, wrong time to clap. Wrong 00:22:29.569 --> 00:22:32.710 time to clap. Holy cow. Father, we pray for whoever 00:22:32.710 --> 00:22:35.250 clapped over there. We pray for that marriage. 00:22:36.210 --> 00:22:40.750 I mean, we get it, don't we? What we desire, 00:22:40.970 --> 00:22:44.619 we want to pursue. This is the language of Chesed. 00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:47.160 This is the wilderness of the honeymoon. In the 00:22:47.160 --> 00:22:49.759 ancient world, the wilderness, we see it on display, 00:22:49.940 --> 00:22:52.740 was not simply a place for wandering, but it's 00:22:52.740 --> 00:22:55.039 where covenants were formed. It's when Israel 00:22:55.039 --> 00:22:58.539 at first learned to trust God. It is where God 00:22:58.539 --> 00:23:02.660 provided manna, water, and protection. The wilderness 00:23:02.660 --> 00:23:06.599 is the honeymoon suite for Israelite faithlessness. 00:23:09.400 --> 00:23:11.220 Sometimes we've got to be taken out into the 00:23:11.220 --> 00:23:14.329 wilderness. Quick question, is the wilderness 00:23:14.329 --> 00:23:18.109 comfortable? Not at all. If it was, everyone 00:23:18.109 --> 00:23:21.650 would want to go there. The wilderness is not 00:23:21.650 --> 00:23:23.509 comfortable. It's uncomfortable. That's part 00:23:23.509 --> 00:23:26.589 of the process of God's chesed love. I'm going 00:23:26.589 --> 00:23:28.369 to take you back to the beginning. I'm going 00:23:28.369 --> 00:23:33.109 to remind you who I am. Israelite needed to hear 00:23:33.109 --> 00:23:34.769 it through Hosea. Friends, we need to hear that 00:23:34.769 --> 00:23:38.019 every day. Grace 301. When the canons of Dort 00:23:38.019 --> 00:23:40.539 speak of irresistible grace, they don't mean 00:23:40.539 --> 00:23:43.799 grace that coerces the will. It means grace that 00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:49.880 wins the heart. 3 and 4, 12 and 13, God sweetly 00:23:49.880 --> 00:23:53.799 and powerfully bends the will, making us willing 00:23:53.799 --> 00:23:58.039 to return. Type A's, you can't stand this because 00:23:58.039 --> 00:24:01.279 you believe no one can touch your will. Okay, 00:24:01.339 --> 00:24:03.839 I'll put, no one can touch our will. I'll put 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:06.500 myself in that. I could be type A. I know you're 00:24:06.500 --> 00:24:09.819 shocked. But we don't like that. Our will is 00:24:09.819 --> 00:24:13.940 our will. I created this. This is for me. I get 00:24:13.940 --> 00:24:18.079 to say. And some of us do that. We bang our feet. 00:24:19.019 --> 00:24:22.380 What we need to understand is your will to God, 00:24:22.539 --> 00:24:29.079 I mean, what? That's nothing. God can bend your 00:24:29.079 --> 00:24:34.220 will. Head five, one through three. Even after 00:24:34.220 --> 00:24:37.440 believers fall, God preserves and renews them. 00:24:38.500 --> 00:24:40.900 Friend, this isn't a one and done. This isn't 00:24:40.900 --> 00:24:42.519 like we have to try out like we're in high school. 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:44.579 Where if you do something wrong, you're probably 00:24:44.579 --> 00:24:46.700 on the bottom list. You don't make the cut. That's 00:24:46.700 --> 00:24:49.259 not God ever. That's not chesed love. This is 00:24:49.259 --> 00:24:52.460 what God does with the people in Hosea. Grace 00:24:52.460 --> 00:24:55.400 does not chase us because we are faithful. Grace 00:24:55.400 --> 00:25:01.079 chases us because God is faithful. We can give 00:25:01.079 --> 00:25:03.799 him all kinds of birds. He's still going to chase 00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:08.160 after us. We sang about it. We declared it today. 00:25:09.099 --> 00:25:12.099 And this is when we see God buys back his bride. 00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:18.579 Grace that redeems. Hosea 3. So I bought her 00:25:18.579 --> 00:25:22.500 for 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a lehef 00:25:22.500 --> 00:25:25.079 of barley. None of that really means anything 00:25:25.079 --> 00:25:29.240 to us, and that's fine. Gomer has not just left 00:25:29.240 --> 00:25:32.339 Hosea. She has sunk so low, she is now being 00:25:32.339 --> 00:25:36.960 sold, likely into slavery or some kind of exploitation. 00:25:38.539 --> 00:25:42.079 I think we all know what I mean. And Hosea, representing 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:47.680 God, does the unthinkable. He buys back his own 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:52.460 unfaithful wife. This is the Mount Everest. This 00:25:52.460 --> 00:25:56.240 is the top show of chesed that we have outside 00:25:56.240 --> 00:25:59.440 of Christ on the cross. This moment anticipates 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:03.940 the redemption of Israel from Egypt. It anticipates 00:26:03.940 --> 00:26:08.319 the restoration of exile and ultimately brings 00:26:08.319 --> 00:26:11.859 alive 1 Corinthians 6 .12. You were bought with 00:26:11.859 --> 00:26:16.859 a price. That's for us. We were bought with a 00:26:16.859 --> 00:26:20.619 price. God does not merely forgive. He redeems. 00:26:21.390 --> 00:26:28.630 At all costs. Namely, his son. On the cross. 00:26:28.849 --> 00:26:36.230 For you and for me. Grace 401. Ed 2 .8. Christ's 00:26:36.230 --> 00:26:38.869 death effectively redeems the people the father 00:26:38.869 --> 00:26:43.589 has given him. 3 and 4 .14. God opens the closed 00:26:43.589 --> 00:26:48.190 heart and he softens the hard heart. In a game 00:26:48.190 --> 00:26:50.309 of stubbornness between you and God, guess what? 00:26:50.349 --> 00:26:55.309 You lose. I lose. All day. Every day. Hosea buying 00:26:55.309 --> 00:26:58.430 back Gomer is a living picture of the particular 00:26:58.430 --> 00:27:02.049 love of God, the effective redemption accomplished 00:27:02.049 --> 00:27:05.809 by Christ, and the personal application of grace 00:27:05.809 --> 00:27:09.779 by the Spirit. If you hear anything today, hear 00:27:09.779 --> 00:27:14.079 these things. We do not rescue ourselves. We 00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:19.160 are rescued, we are redeemed, and we are restored. 00:27:21.220 --> 00:27:25.039 So what does Chesed teach us for today? Let's 00:27:25.039 --> 00:27:27.819 land the plane here. If we only admire Hosea 00:27:27.819 --> 00:27:30.059 from a distance, we miss the point. We got to 00:27:30.059 --> 00:27:32.940 get into it. This covenant story Hosea reveals 00:27:32.940 --> 00:27:37.660 is also our calling. To live as people who have 00:27:37.660 --> 00:27:42.740 been loved first. We do not obey to earn God's 00:27:42.740 --> 00:27:46.500 love. We obey because we've been pursued by grace. 00:27:47.259 --> 00:27:49.960 This is the reformed order of salvation, right? 00:27:50.059 --> 00:27:54.740 Grace, gratitude, obedience. We obey because 00:27:54.740 --> 00:27:59.000 it's worth it. And don't try to weigh that in 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:01.039 your mind. Christ went to the cross so we don't 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:05.019 have to. We obey. We live out the call of Christ 00:28:05.019 --> 00:28:08.480 because of grace and our gratitude. If you don't 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:10.900 have gratitude about God's grace, you are dead 00:28:10.900 --> 00:28:13.819 inside. It's probably the best way I can say 00:28:13.819 --> 00:28:17.079 it. That God's grace is so irresistible. If you 00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:19.720 want something else in this world besides God's 00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:26.779 grace, you are a fool. I am a fool. We are called 00:28:26.779 --> 00:28:29.759 to extend chesed to others. Knowing we'll never 00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:31.859 get it perfectly, but it's a good model, pursuing 00:28:31.859 --> 00:28:35.420 love, but not conditional love. If God pursues 00:28:35.420 --> 00:28:37.960 us when we're unfaithful, we cannot withhold 00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:41.619 kindness from those who hurt or disappoint us. 00:28:42.500 --> 00:28:44.839 So this is going to ruffle the feathers of that 00:28:44.839 --> 00:28:50.119 quitting conversation because we ought to forgive. 00:28:51.339 --> 00:28:54.140 Chesed in practice means, ooh, this is tough. 00:28:54.640 --> 00:28:58.839 And I look first here at Jim. Forgiveness when 00:28:58.839 --> 00:29:03.539 forgiveness feels costly. Compassion when compassion 00:29:03.539 --> 00:29:08.259 feels inconvenient. Patient with people who we 00:29:08.259 --> 00:29:14.180 think don't deserve it. And faithfulness when 00:29:14.180 --> 00:29:19.700 others are inconsistent. Third, let God tell 00:29:19.700 --> 00:29:22.390 the truth about your sin. Hosea's children remind 00:29:22.390 --> 00:29:24.690 us honesty about sin is part of God's loving 00:29:24.690 --> 00:29:28.009 pursuit. Repentance isn't punishment. It's the 00:29:28.009 --> 00:29:30.609 path home. It's the going down the sin path, 00:29:30.789 --> 00:29:34.509 the pause. That pause is so important. It's recognizing 00:29:34.509 --> 00:29:37.269 who God is, who we are, and our need for God, 00:29:37.349 --> 00:29:40.589 and then knowing that when we turn, his blessed 00:29:40.589 --> 00:29:44.190 love's already there. We walk in it. We live 00:29:44.190 --> 00:29:50.410 in it. Finally, remember that grace is not passive. 00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:55.599 Grace pursues. Munster Church, as we enter this 00:29:55.599 --> 00:29:58.660 new year, entering a season, and understanding 00:29:58.660 --> 00:30:02.460 grace deeper will mean something. Our understanding 00:30:02.460 --> 00:30:04.500 of grace deepens, that means we need to walk 00:30:04.500 --> 00:30:08.279 it out or we've gained and learned nothing. Grace 00:30:08.279 --> 00:30:12.160 in growth, grace in conflict, grace in building, 00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:16.079 grace in welcoming, grace in disciplining, grace 00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:21.730 in stretching out our faith. Chesed will be your 00:30:21.730 --> 00:30:24.849 guide. What does Disney want to tell us? Our 00:30:24.849 --> 00:30:29.890 conscience will be our guide. Wake up. Our conscience 00:30:29.890 --> 00:30:32.529 will be our guide. That is a lie from the pit 00:30:32.529 --> 00:30:36.589 of hell. Grace will be our guide. We love because 00:30:36.589 --> 00:30:43.529 he first loved us. His love is stronger than 00:30:43.529 --> 00:30:47.750 your failures. Hosea's story ends, not in heartbreak, 00:30:47.769 --> 00:30:50.400 but in a homecoming. If you forget anything else 00:30:50.400 --> 00:30:56.880 today, remember you, I am Gomer. God is Hosea, 00:30:56.880 --> 00:31:00.279 and his hesed is stronger than our failures. 00:31:00.859 --> 00:31:04.880 The canons of Dor declared the same truth today. 00:31:05.519 --> 00:31:11.400 Grace pursues, grace awakens, grace redeems, 00:31:11.579 --> 00:31:17.819 grace restores, and grace keeps us. And friends, 00:31:17.839 --> 00:31:21.180 that grace is not abstract. It is God himself. 00:31:22.119 --> 00:31:25.579 The God who runs towards sinners. The God who 00:31:25.579 --> 00:31:28.900 refuses to let go. The God whose covenant love 00:31:28.900 --> 00:31:33.019 endures forever. Let's pray.