God's Extravagant Heart | Hosea 14 | Br. Tim Banna

Well, good evening, beloved Maranatha Bible Church. It is an immense, immense joy to be with you all. So if and if you haven't met me yet, you may recognize my last name. Yes. I am the son of, pastor Daniel and Anya Bena, And this was our home church, my my wife and I, as of a year ago, not too long ago, but then the Lord called us to another local Bible church to serve him there.

And so it's good to be with you all tonight back in this beloved place, this precious place to my wife and I. Would you turn with me to the book of Hosea, chapter 14? The book of Hosea, the prophet, the last chapter, chapter 14. Return, oh Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the Lord.

Say to him, take away all iniquity, accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. Assyria shall not save us. We will not ride on horses. And we will say no more, our God, to the work of our hands. In you, the orphan finds mercy.

I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel. He shall blossom like the lily. He shall take root like the trees of Lebanon.

His shoots shall spread out. His beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow. They shall flourish like the grain. They shall blossom like the vine.

Their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress. From me comes your fruit.

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things. Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them. The transgressors stumble in them. Pray briefly with me once more.

Lord, according to the words of Psalm 85, will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast level, Lord, and grant us your salvation. Let me hear what you, the Lord, will speak. For you will speak peace to your people, to your saints, but let them not turn back to folly. Surely your salvation is near to those who fear you, that glory may dwell in our land.

May this be true of not just this church, but our city and this nation we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I don't know how much, my father or pastor Daniel Batarsa do this much anymore, but there's gonna be a little bit of interaction to start, this evening's message. And so I'm gonna begin with a couple questions.

Who was, and this is gonna actually demand your audible response, who was the prophet Hosea? What do you know about this prophet?

God told him to marry.

Okay. God told him to marry specifically, at least in the ESV translation, and and and there it says, take for yourself a wife of whoredom. So he's given quite a peculiar command. What else do we know about the prophet Hosea? Ria.

Beautiful. That is the heartbeat of the book is God with intention having Hosea do such a dramatic act, to display a sign or a symbol of his broken heart for unfaithful Israel whom he had taken to himself. Any other things? Any other things that we know about the prophet Hosea? Oh, okay.

Go ahead. He listens

to God even though he likes something super impossible, super weird.

Beautiful point. If you turn, you can go with me to Isaiah chapter one, and I'll just show what, our friend just shared. So if you look at Hosea one, I'm just gonna read the first, verses two and three. 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. And so what is his response?

God gives him a command, a drastic command, And as you just said, sister, so he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Command, immediate obedience. Great. Excellent. So Hosea was the first of the minor prophets.

We have 12 minor prophets, in the Old Testament. There are some major prophets as well, like Isaiah and Ezekiel. Then you have all the minor prophets, that are minor just in the sense of being smaller, shorter books. He's described as the son of Biri. And yes, he's called to marry a wife of whoredom, which, in the Old Testament many of the prophets were given these various sign acts.

And what a sign act was, was to do some dramatic act that would be a sign for some spiritual reality or some underlying truth, often to the people of Israel by the prophets. And for Hosea, a preacher of both the judgment of exile and restoration, a preacher of repentance, this meant him taking a wife of whoredom. And just to speak to something that you shared, quite a few commentators don't think necessarily that he married a prostitute, but rather a woman who would become unfaithful, who would become a prostitute, who would become a prostitute, who would become unfaithful, a a whore in that sense, reflecting how Israel had a rather okay start with the Lord and yet turned later. Regardless, this command, the first command given by God to Hosea, take for yourself, oh servant of mine, take for yourself a wife among the godly women of the land who will be equally yoked with you. Now he says, take for yourself a wife of whoredom, and have children of whoredom.

For the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord. There is a purpose. A striking way to invite someone into a prophetic calling, don't you think? Go marry an unfaithful woman. Go have unfaithful children.

Not the most enticing appeal to one called of God for a specific mission in his day. But what we learn very clearly and what we've been already learning so far about the life of this peculiar prophet is that not only was he called to deliver a prophetic message, but he was called to live a prophetic life. And like many other prophets, God would call Hosea to do a seemingly strange act, for the sake of a reality behind it. And the reality is this, though God's people are often unfaithful, God remains faithful. Slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

What we'll discover from the last chapter of Hosea this evening is one, the greatest problem facing us today. Two, God's gracious call, in the midst of it, and God's extravagant heart behind the call which leads us to respond. Our greatest problem, God's gracious call, and God's extravagant heart. Look back with me at chapter 14 verse one. Return, oh Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Return. The call of the prophet Hosea to return was an often repeated command needed for the often wandering Israelites. At least 10 times this word is used in this book to prophesy Israel's return, or to call Israel to return to the Lord after turning away from him to serve other gods. This imperative is a call to repentance. An exhortation to turn away from one way of life and toward another.

It is a call to turn around, forsake sin, and seek the true God. For in Hosea's day Israel was filthy. They, as it says in verse one, stumbled because of their iniquity. Now, the language of stumbling in the old testament is more severe than how we commonly use it in Christian, language for any sin or blunder. It's often associated in the Old Testament with serious failure, defeat, or ruin.

One of the Proverbs twenty four sixteen says, for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity. The righteous falls and rises, but the wicked stumble. They are ruined during hardship. Or compare Hosea four five, where God indicts the faithless spiritual leadership of Israel. Says, you shall stumble by day, God says.

The prophet also shall stumble with you by night, and I will destroy your mother, referring to Israel. My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Stumbling is paired with destruction. And this of course points to what? What does the destruction point to?

The coming. What was the judgment that people were about to experience? What do we call that? Exile. The coming exile.

That's right. And why did Israel stumble? Fall from grace into spiritual ruin and impending physical destruction? Verse one tells us it was because of their iniquity. Now iniquity refers to our twistedness, which incurs guilt.

Now, Israel was facing disaster because of her twistedness. She didn't just happen to fall under God's judgment. Her heart was twisted by her idolatry, which eventually led to her demise. Israel's greatest problem was a heart problem. A heart that was bent toward evil.

A heart that loved sin. In chapter four, graphic language is used to tell of her perversion. It is written, they have forsaken the Lord to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine. Are you seeing a theme here in this book? How many times have you heard this theme of whoredom?

The Bible doesn't shrink back from the very real realities of this universe we live in. The Bible is not afraid to talk about the real, brokenness and ugliness of this world we live in. My people, God says, have forsaken the Lord to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine which take away the understanding. My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles, for a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their god to play the whore. Israel forsook the Lord to cherish Baal worship.

She apostasized to enjoy the drunken orgies of Canaanite fertility rituals. The Lord's case against Israel crescendos throughout the book of Hosea. Hosea four. Israel feeds on the sin of my people. They are greedy for their iniquity.

Chapter five. Ephraim, another name for Israel, the Northern kingdom, is determined to go after filth. Chapter eight, they are incapable of innocence. Chapter 10, their heart is false. Chapter 11, my people are bent on turning away from me.

Chapter 13, they sin more and more. It is said of them, those who offer human sacrifice Kiss calves. Does that remind you of another story? The Israelites back in Exodus worshiping a golden calf. So Israel stumbled.

They royally failed at being God's holy people. Their sins reached higher than heaven. Iniquity inhabited their hearts. Israel's condition is not unlike our own. Israel sought friendship and ungodly alliances with worldly powers, Assyria and Egypt.

We seek friendship with the world when we imitate their ways of thinking and acting, loving the world's entertainment over the presence of God, cherishing sensual, fleeting pleasures over heavenly reward. Israel went through the motions of religious exercise, abandoning the heart of love behind worship. And we too easily fall into comfortable routines of church, ritual, prayer, check the box Bible reading, divorced from deep character transformation, and the first love, intimacy of genuine faith. In prosperity Israel grew proud, justifying her compromises, saying, ah, but I am rich. I have found wealth for myself.

In all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin. When God prospers us and things are going well, we lose our desperate reliance on God's moment by moment mercies and sustaining grace, taking credit rather for our success rather than giving God all the glory. Israel made with their own hands idols of silver and gold imitating the nations around them. And we make idols of political leaders, spiritual gurus, sport teams, most of all ourselves, thinking that our financial security, our self discovery, our maximal fitness, our sexual freedom will make us happy. Our souls ultimately happy.

So like Israel, our greatest problem is our iniquity. Our hearts bent toward evil. Our love for sin. What is the end of this dark reality? The consequences for those who remain in a filthy condition.

The Lord tells us in Hosea ten thirteen and fourteen using the metaphor of farming, You have plowed iniquity. You have reaped injustice because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors. Therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shaman, the Assyrian king, destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle. Mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. Using the very nation that God that Israel foolishly sought to build an alliance with for her own safety, God would judge his wayward people.

Assyria would wage a war against Israel leading to her destruction to the point of women and children brutally being slaughtered. But we know that toward the end of the book of Revelation, no longer a ruthless nation, mighty power, on earth, but the almighty and perfectly just and holy King of Kings, Jesus Christ himself, will come on a white horse. And what does it tell us? He will, in righteousness, judge and make war against all who cling to their sin and do not turn to him. So what is our greatest problem?

What is the greatest problem facing us today? Well, it is that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It is that all of our hearts are bent toward evil. It is that all of us have stumbled because of our iniquity. And the wages of sin, the just payment for our iniquity, is the righteous wrath of a holy perfect God.

No one can escape. No good work will suffice to correct the twistedness of our souls. All of us, apart from Jesus, stand condemned before the Lord. Which thankfully, thankfully, our story brother and sister doesn't end there. Our gospel doesn't end there.

This leads us to our second point, God's gracious call. Though unlike, rather though like Israel, we have sinned time and time again, we have as it were prostituted ourselves by pursuing self improvement, comfort, money over God Himself. Though we as a race deserve only discipline and punishment, hell and destruction, God, the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, the God of Ultimately our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ offers us a gracious call. What is his call? Return.

Repent. Turn to me. As Hosea said in verse two of chapter 14, take with you words and return to the Lord. What does this mean? What does it look to return to the Lord?

To repent from sin and to go to God? Well, we see in chapter 14 that this repentance involves mouth, heart, and hands, or words, affections, and actions. Let's follow through this prayer together. The prophet first he says, Take with you words and return to the Lord. In other words, come to the Lord with a confession, a prayer to God communicating your thoughts to Him.

What should the sinner say? How should one in their filth and stains approach the holy creator of their souls? And what should the saint cleansed from sin yet continually battling a sin nature say to their merciful father? Hosea gives us an example prayer which reveals not only the words of repentance, but the heart and the actions which accompany it. Say to him, he writes in the second part of verse two, say to God take away all iniquity.

In other words, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin as King David prayed. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51. Instead of my twisted heart that loves sin, create in me a right and pure heart that loves You. And notice how he says take away all iniquity.

So ask God to remove all your twistedness, all your guilt, every single area of your life that is marred by impurity, not just some of it. David prayed elsewhere, who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent of hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me.

Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. When God sovereignly keeps David from error and presumptuous sins then he will be blameless and innocent. Now this does not mean sinless. None of us will reach perfection on this side of heaven. But we are to be blameless, to seek a blameless above reproach life without a glaring flaw that would bring shame to the name of Jesus or to his holy church.

Now, of course, we are always growing. We are always seeking, always returning to the Lord for more grace, more holiness, more strength to fight sin and to stand blameless before him. And so we can pray with Robert Murray M'Cheyne as he did often, I believe daily. Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be. Hosea continues in this model prayer.

Take away all iniquity and accept what is good. Receive my faith, albeit maybe weak. Receive my confession, albeit maybe imperfect. Receive me and my brokenness graciously. For you say, oh God, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise.

Accept me according to your great mercy. God doesn't just want a mere repetition of some formulaic prayer, but what is good? A broken, sincere, and a humble heart. For he says earlier in chapter six of Hosea, I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice. The knowledge of God is intimate knowing of me rather than burnt offerings.

And verse two continues, accept what is good and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. Now this seemingly strange phrase recalls, the peace offering of the old covenant. I know it's been a little while since we as a church have gone through Leviticus and all of the different sacrifices and offerings. But in the peace offering, a bull might have been offered by someone out of praise and thanksgiving. And what was unique about this is that the offer would then participate in a fellowship meal with the priest before the presence of God, namely eating parts of that meat that was sacrificed.

This prayer indicates a heart that we will, the the prayer that we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips indicates a heart that yearns to worship God and to fellowship with Him, which is why some translations have it, and we will offer the fruit or the praise of our lips, this worshipful fellowship before God. True repentance consists of words. It consists of a worshipful heart fueling the confession. And it also consists of actions. Verse three.

Assyria shall not save us, and we will not ride on horses, and we will say no more, our God, to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy. This prayer means no longer will we look to outside support for our salvation or depend on our own strength and wealth in adversity. No longer will we make idols of anything or anyone, but worship the Lord alone. No longer will we gash ourselves jumping through religious hoops to implore the mercy of someone like Baal.

No longer will we waste away our resources trying to buy favor from the world. But in Yahweh, God alone, will we seek and find mercy and grace. Unfortunately, Israel did not heed the words of Hosea as a nation in his day. Her lips remained closed. Her heart remained hard.

Her hands remained busy with vanity. And so judgment came. Assyria came, destroyed Jerusalem, exiled the people out of the holy land into a foreign nation of oppression. And in even greater severity, one day judgment will come to us as well. And so friends, God calls us graciously, graciously to return to him.

To repent, to turn, to bring with us words to come with mind, heart, and hands to him. I don't know your hearts. I don't know what besetting sins, brother or sister, you might have. And, if you're in here and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ personally, I don't know what's keeping you from him. But what I can say on the authority of God's word tonight is that every single one of us is called by him to return, and to turn to him, and to pursue a lifestyle of repentance, and a lifestyle of turning continuously to him.

But you may say to me, okay. God tells me I must turn to him, I must repent, but I can't stop. I'm stuck in my sin, I can't help it. And if you're not a Christian here today, then you are right. The Bible says the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed, it cannot. The mind that is set on the flesh, cannot please God. The Bible says that if you are not in Christ, you are a slave to sin and the devil is your master. This is why God in Hosea twelve six adds a crucial phrase when it comes to repentance. So you, he says to Israel, and to all people for that matter, by the help of your God, return.

Hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God. By the help of almighty God, return. By the help of God the father, look to the cross of Jesus Christ. By the grace of God the merciful, call out to the savior for pardon. Humble yourself and by his help, hold fast to Christ.

No one can come to Christ unless the father draws him. And all who repent and trust in Christ will become a new creation. Now Christian brother and sister, you who have been be you've been made a new creation in Christ. This call is to you too, but you are no longer a slave to sin. You on the other hand possess the spirit of power and of the resurrection within you.

The Father and the Spirit have taken up residence within you. The Triune God, omnipotent and ever gracious is for you, with you, and ever gracious towards you. You are not under the law, but under grace, And therefore, sin will have no dominion over you. And God is so jealous for you, for us, and for our holiness. And so, brother and sister, by the help of your God, fight that habitual sin, pursue your God, do not give up, but persevere.

For we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. I can share from personal experience a time when I felt overwhelmed by a particular habitual sin struggle that I felt like I could not be unbound from. I felt, helpless, increasingly frightened, anxious, even despairing, and I felt like I was only incurring more and more of anger from the Lord, and that He was preparing to revoke His saving grace from me. How horribly depressing this condition was. But would you know it that it wasn't until I got a sense afresh of the heart of our God that deliverance came.

A heart that is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. A heart that takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, let alone his precious children. A heart that grieves is broken over the sins that we commit. Not because of any lack or weakness in Him, but because of the magnitude of His fatherly love for us and for our flourishing. And this takes us to our third and final point.

God's extravagant heart behind the call. In the remainder of our text we will see God's heart for you and me. How he is the healer, our healer. How he is the lover, our lover, the lover of our souls, and the life giver. Look with me at verse four.

I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. Now the Lord speaks Himself, and He reveals His disposition, His character, the inclination of His being. God's heart is unlike human hearts, which are fickle and fragile, easily swayed, overwhelmed, and frustrated. God's heart, the essence of his divine being is what we mean by that, is wholly, perfectly controlled, and determined.

What God experiences is not fluctuating feelings like we often do based off of external circumstances, but it is the perfect and holy response to good or evil. And how does the God of the Bible respond to genuine repentance and faith? Well firstly he says I will heal their apostasy. No matter the degree of faithlessness, even blasphemy, no matter the heinousness of the sin, no matter the extent of the backsliding, God will heal the repentant. He will heal the waveredness and the twistedness of every single soul who will turn to him.

Now healing assumes woundedness. Our sins have ruined us. They've wounded us beyond earthly healing. And how does God heal us? How does God heal sinners wounded by their transgression?

Oh you know it. He heals our wounds through the wounds of another. Jesus Christ the lamb of God demonstrated God's love for us and that while we were still sinners he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, he was chastised for our guilt, and with his wounds, finish the verse, we are healed. As blood and water gushed from the side of his spear pierced body. So the healing our souls desperately need flows from his wounds.

So what we know first about God and his heart from this text is that he is the healer. And when you read this book of Hosea, oh, you see how he is not stingy in his healing. He is oh so eager to heal. And if you wanna turn with me to one of the most beautiful few verses in this book, This is chapter 11 verses seven through nine. Hosea eleven seven through nine.

My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all. Seems bleak? Let's keep reading. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? God is speaking.

How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Adma? How can I treat you like Zeboyim, cities that were destroyed? My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender.

I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. That is the heart of our God. Secondly, turning your eyes with me at verse four of chapter 14.

God says, I will love them freely for my anger has turned from them. How will God respond to one's heartfelt repentance? God, the triune, God Christians worship will love him or her freely. He is not reluctant in lavishing his grace and mercy upon undeserving sinners, but eager to do so. Since God is triune, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is a never ending fountain of love between those three persons who share eternally in a perfect unity, harmony, and self giving love.

God created the universe out of sheer delight and in order to share his bountiful love with his creatures not because He needed anything, but simply to display to an unworthy race what? His extravagant heart. Of course, the Bible tells us that God so loved the world in her sin and muck, and that His mercy is over all that He has made, the righteous and the unrighteous. He loves all of us already, And he loved unfaithful Israel even when he poured his righteous fury upon her. But there is a unique love which the Lord lavishes upon those who hear and follow his wooing voice.

That day declares the Lord, the day when you are won over by his love, you will call me my husband. I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land. And I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you. I'll take you to be my wife forever.

I will take you to be my wife in righteousness and injustice. In steadfast love and in mercy, I will take you to be my wife in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. This language of marrying God may seem strange or uncomfortable to some, but there is a richness and a profoundness to this picture that God chooses to describe his relationship with his people. Far more than just a creator with his creatures. Far more than a master with his slaves, far more even than a shepherd with his sheep, a groom with his bride, the lover of our souls, one who allures, woos, and draws his beloved, speaks tenderly to her, wins her heart, and marries her, in order that he alone may enjoy her adoration and fellowship for all of eternity.

And of course, one of the most precious Bible passages in the New Testament, which may have been read at your wedding, Ephesians five. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound. And I'm saying can anyone finish the verse?

That it refers to Christ and the church. Christ it refers to Christ and the church. The mystery of marriage refers to Christ and the church. Ultimately, we are taught that marriage between one man and one woman for life, and the union of love experienced in that covenant points to the eternal true marriage. The new covenant between God, the Son, and his bride, the church, whom he will enjoy forever, and whom he freely loved to the point of his own death.

As the old hymn goes, the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water and the word. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died. Through the cross, we can all now know the free and the surpassing love of Jesus.

For God's anger has turned away from all who are united to him, who have trusted in him, and given themselves fully to him. His wrath has been fully satisfied in that sacrifice on the cross. And so God's extravagant heart flows with healing for the wounded, love for the unlovely. God is the healer and the lover of all who turn to him. And thirdly, in our passage, how will God respond to genuine repentant faith?

He will give life. He is the life giver. Read with me verses five through eight. I will be like the dew to Israel. He shall blossom like the lily.

He shall take roots like the trees of Lebanon. His shoots shall spread out. His beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebonon. They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow. They shall flourish like the grain.

They shall blossom like the vine. Their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. What have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress, from me comes your fruit.

And so here, firstly, God describes himself like due to Israel. Now in the hot summer climate of ancient Palestine, the dew on the grass would offer the only source of nourishment and water for the trees and the grass of that land. Previously Hosea had said in chapter nine, Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit. Israel was dead. But when God grants repentance leading to eternal life, he will be like the dew, the life giving essence for spiritual flourishing.

He will give life to the dead. Now the Jewish people experience this in part when God graciously returned them back to the land. You may remember after the exile, a period of a couple hundred years for, the North Kingdom, and less time for the Southern Kingdom in Babylon. God graciously returned them to the land a remnant. And they experienced, a taste of true worship and faith, a taste of this life with God again, of God the dew.

But only in the coming of the messiah, who is the true dew, the true vine, the life. Are these life giving promises fully experienced. It is through Jesus Christ alone that this depiction of complete fruitfulness, beauty, and richness is fulfilled. It is only in him that we church can blossom like the lily, shine in the splendor of a holy life to this world that knows nothing of true peace, true love, whether it's in the covenant of marriage or in the covenant of brotherhood and friendship. It is only in Jesus that we can take a root like the trees of Lebanon.

Standing strong in faith, deep in love, as Paul said rooted and grounded in love. It is only in Jesus that our shoots shall spread out, bringing life to others who come across our path, to whom we might also provide hope and healing to their wounds too. It is only in Jesus that our beauty shall be like the fruitful olive tree. And our fragrance like the Lebanese cedars, carrying the aroma of Christ wherever we spread the fragrance of the knowledge of him, where we do zealous evangelism. And fruitful, Not giving up discipleship for even the hardest of of, or slowest to learn saints.

Jesus is the life and the life giver, and only by abiding in him can one flourish in this life and in the next. And so brothers and sisters and friends, to sum up all that we've learned tonight or to review what we have reviewed. Our greatest problem is our twisted hearts bent on evil. Though we all deserve an eternal punishment, God offers us today a gracious call. But it is only his kindness, his extravagant heart, his healing, loving, life giving heart that will ever lead us to respond and know true repentance.

To conclude, I want you to hear these words again from Hosea and the book of Song of Solomon as God's personal love letter to you. So if you'd like, you can close your eyes. Just receive this as God's love letter to you, saint of of Christ. And for those that don't know Christ, hear this as what could be yours by repenting and receiving Jesus as Lord. You shall return and dwell beneath my shadow.

Oh child, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. With great delight sit in my shadow for my fruit is sweet to the taste. Let me bring you to my banqueting house. My banner over you is love.

Lord, we thank you. We thank you, Lord of

love and mercy, that you did not leave us in our sins to perish, but that you did not leave us in our sins to perish,

but that you did not that you did not leave us in our sins to perish, but that you in your kindness left your throne in heaven, Christ, so that wretches like us might be forever redeemed, That we might marry you and enjoy fellowship with you for all of eternity. Thank you, Jesus. And thank you for my brothers and sisters here who know your love. Would they all know more the breadth and height, the length and the width, and comprehend your love, oh Christ, that surpasses knowledge and be filled with all of your fullness. And those here who do not yet know, who know nothing of this love, who maybe have gotten a faint glimpse of it tonight, Lord, would it not just be something they hear about now and leave and return to empty cisterns that can hold no water, empty pleasures that cannot satisfy.

But Lord, would you would you grant repentance? By your help, we ask grant repentance to this church and all who would enter into these walls and worship among us. We pray that you would do this not only in this church, but in all the faithful gospel churches in the Chicagoland area and in this nation. Have mercy on us, Lord Jesus. Have mercy on us, Father God.

Have mercy on us, Holy Spirit. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.