This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] I don't know what comes to your mind when you think about your dad, but I was really blessed with the father that God gave to me. My dad was a man who was, I think, a biblical dad. He loved the Bible and he loved to teach it to his family. And so I saw my dad become a pastor as I was growing up. And then I and my two brothers, we all became pastors, largely influenced by our dad. And he's still passing on what he knows to me today, like this week.

[00:00:33] He sends me an article like, hey, I just found this two decades old article on Exodus is 34. You gotta read this. This is mind blowing stuff. This is like what pastor dads do with their sons. Right. Here's Exodus 34. Check this out. Right.

[00:00:48] And he knows that I love Exodus 34, that we talk about that regularly here at the church. That's the passage where God introduces himself to Moses and God describes himself. It's such a foundational passage for the rest of the Old Testament. I'm like, so I'm. I'm a Bible nerd. I'm a son of my father. I'm like, wow. An article on Exodus 34. This is exciting. But then I was like, now I got to study Hosanna. We're getting Endo's zealots, put that arkell aside. And so I started to get into the Hebrew of our text in Hozier here this morning. I don't know if you ever tried to study Hebrew before. It's a challenging language. I'm not as familiar with it as I am with New Testament Greek. So I'm getting into the Hebrew and it keeps saying this quote right here is exactly like Exodus 34 versus six and seven, three different times in our text. It says just like Exodus. Thirty four. Six and seven. And so I realize this isn't just my earthly dad trying to get me to think about this passage. My heavenly father is now directing all of us here at the church. Grab your Bible and open it up to Exodus 34, because we need to see what Rosetta is going to be referring to, which is how God introduces himself. And I would hope that when you think about the character of God, the attributes of God, somebody asks you the question, who is God? I would hope that Exodus 34, six and seven would be the first thing that would come to your mind. This would be a passage I would encourage you to memorize if you could. And this is how God introduces himself to Moses. So if you were here last week when we started going through the book of OCA and the Old Testament, we looked at the first and great command to love God with all your heart and soul and mind. And that might be the most famous passage in the Old Testament that shimaa Deuteronomy six four to nine. Well, I would say this is the most important passage in the Old Testament. Exodus 34 versus six and seven.

[00:02:45] Now, before we even get that to that, they will go back to Chapter 33 and the giver's 18. Maybe it's there on the same page, maybe got to turn one page back. Here's the setup where Moses said to God, when he's talking to him, please show me your glory. And he got set back to Moses. I will make all my goodness pass before you. And we'll proclaim before you my name, the Lord. Okay. I'll show you who I am and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. You want to see my glory. And I'm going to tell you who I am. I'm going to let you see a glimpse of. My goodness. So now Exodus 34, verse six. Here's God introducing himself. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, your way, your way. A God or the Lord God. Merciful and gracious. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands. Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But who will by no means clear that guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. First thing it says, as God gives his name and introduces himself merciful.

[00:04:10] First thing he says. Gracious. He then says, Often we think of mercy as us not getting what we deserve. God withholding the judgment for our sin that we deserve. Gracious him giving us good things instead. And then it says he's slow to anger long suffering patient. He has a very long fuze with us, many of us. We have spent a long time in our lives sinning against God. And yet he was patient, bringing us to repentance, bringing us to salvation. And then it says here an amazing phrase that he's abounding in. Steadfast love is covenantal love that he has for his people and faithfulness or it's sometimes translated truth.

[00:04:51] And the idea there is that is that God's going to be faithful. He's gonna be true, whatever God has said. That's what he's going to do. If God said it, God cannot lie.

[00:05:01] He always keeps his promises. He's going to do what he said he will do. He's faithful and. God is a God who loves and yet is holding people to the truth. At the same time and it goes on to describe him forgiving thousands. And yet the guilty aren't getting away with it. And the punishment will even go down generations to the third and the fourth generation. Is this how you think of God? I mean, is this do you know your father in heaven to be the one who introduces himself here?

[00:05:33] And I would encourage you, if you haven't spent a lot of time thinking about this passage, if you haven't looked at every one of these attributes and thought, what does that really mean? What should I think about God? Man. Here's a passage I would strongly encourage you to consider. Maybe take a moment today on Father's Day or sometime this week and just think, is this how I think about God on a daily basis when I'm talking to him in my thoughts that are affecting how I live my life? Am I thinking about him this way? Because when we get to Hozier, it expects that we understand this description of God and it's going to start referring back to it. So go to Hosoya, chapter one now with me. This is the book we started going through last Sunday. Our goal is to go through some of the minor profits, as many as we can here at the church, particularly in the summer season. We take a break from our normal study through the Gospel of John. And we want to get into passages that perhaps you've lived an entire Christian life going to church and you've never even read or studied or heard a sermon on some of the minor profit books. Books like Hozier. And so he got into it last Sunday. And now we want to continue where we left off in verse three, a chapter one, verse three. And you'll notice a few references back to Exodus 34.

[00:06:51] And it says, here he went. That's Osier. He went and took Goma to be his wife, the daughter of Deep Lamb. And she conceived and Borum, a son. And the Lord said to him, call his name Jez's real foreign. Just a little while I will punish the house of JQ for the blood of Jesu and I will put an end to the kingdom of the House of Israel. And on that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Chad, Israel. She conceived again and bore a daughter, and the Lord said to him, Call her name, no mercy, for I will no more. Have mercy on the House of Israel to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God.

[00:07:33] I will not save them by bow or by sword, or by war, by horses or by horsemen. Now, what kind of a Father's Day message is this that you've just found yourself in? All right. We got this guy, Hosanna! And if you were here last week, he goes and marries this woman, Gomer. And it's a symbol that this woman, Gomer, is going to cheat on Hosain. Whether she's already done it or whether she does it in the future, it's not clear. But she is clearly by chapter three, referred to as an adulterous. So he is supposed to marry somebody he knows isn't going to be faithful in love with him, is going to go and be with other people because it's a symbol of how God feels the nation of Israel is being that they're not worshiping here and now they're worshiping idols, they're committing sin. Their heart is in for the Lord. They're committing spiritual adultery. They're loving something else besides God. And so God's got Hosoya, his prophet now in this marriage with Gomer, where we know she's going to cheat on him and now it says they start having kids. And it turns out there's three kids that are described here in chapter one, a boy, a girl and a boy. And that's the same in a number of kids in order of kids, their their genders that God has blessed with me with. I've got a ten year old boy and a seven year old girl and a four year old son ripe. And at no point did I ever think I know what I'll name my first born child, a masculine child. All call them jazz real.

[00:08:54] That and that never came to my mind, OK?

[00:08:57] I mean, that would be like in America, naming your first born civil war. That's what it would be like naming them. I mean, the valley of jazz real is would have been associated with in the mind of Israel, a blood bath that occurred when J who who became the king of Israel just came through and anybody who was connected to King Ahab, he just killed all of those people, including Ahab's wife, Jezebel. You might have might have heard of her. Nobody's naming their daughter Jezebel anymore these days.

[00:09:27] Right?

[00:09:27] Well, then you think about your precious daughter. What are you going to name your sweet little girl? How about no mercy? Great name for a girl, right? I mean, mercy actually sounds kind of nice. No mercy, because God is saying I'm done with Israel. It's going to be the end of the House of Israel. No mercy any more for Israel. I mean, these are not the names that you want to give to kids. It's God's painting a picture through Osier and his marriage to Gomer of how the people are leaving him. And so here's now we're starting to get prophecies through the name of kids. So if you want to talk about biblical names for kids right now, you go name your kid Jez's real or your daughter, no mercy. I went for Tyler and Emma myself. That that's what that's what I went for. But I mean, these names are actually prophecies of what God is going to do with the the people of Israel here. OK, so this is what we would call the Jez real prophecy. So let's get back to the map. We started looking at the map. We're getting into some ancient. History of Israel here. So this is the kingdom of Israel.

[00:10:36] And we're hoping to take a trip there next summer. And you could still see a lot of the sites of the Bible in Israel today. Now, the time of Israel, we're studying in the in the minor province here in Osier, Israel is divided into two kingdoms. There is the northern kingdom that we refer to as Israel. And then there is the southern kingdom that we refer to as Judah.

[00:11:00] And there is going to be a quiz on this at some point. So you might want to write that down. You might want to learn what the northern kingdom is called in the southern kingdom is call.

[00:11:10] OK. And Jez Real is a literal place in the northern kingdom of Israel. There is a place called the Jez Real Valley. OK. And Hosanna! Now, after the first born child is the son is named Jez Real, Hosea's starts to make some prophecies along with the names of the kids. So we get right this on your notes. If you're taking notes here this morning, we get the Jez Real Prophecy. And it has four elements to it. The first element is we're going to name the kid Jez Real because of J.

[00:11:43] Who and the blood that that took place, this blood bath battle that happened in the in the valley of Jez Real. So the first thing is in the past we're referring to. And this thing that everybody then would have known about this battle of what J who did in the in jazz real in the Valley. OK. The second part we see of the prophecy is the present day, at least from our perspective and Hozier one, what's happening as this book is written that Hosoya is making his prophecy.

[00:12:13] And he says two things are going to happen in the future. Well, one thing that's going to happen is Israel is going to come to an end. No more mercy for Israel because of jazz, real in the past. There will be no mercy for Israel in the future. I'm going to shut down the mercy to Israel. Then it says, I will show Judah Mercy Judah now being the southern kingdom. So through the prophet Hosanna, God is saying that he's going to end the northern kingdom of Israel. And then he is going to keep the southern kingdom of Judah going by continuing to show them mercy. So that is the prophecy timeline that we're getting now in. Hosain wants a grab your Bible and turn with me to Sicking Kings, Chapter nine. Everybody grab a Bible. You've maybe never read Hosain before. You've maybe never read sicking kings before. Well, it's page three hundred and fifteen.

[00:13:10] We're going to Second Kings Night. We're gonna see now by reading the historical count here in Second Kings, we're gonna see did this really happen like Hosea's said it would in Hosain? Chapter one, One of the great things about the Bible is prophecy. One of the ways that God wants you to believe that this is a book that he wrote. It's actually a collection of 66 different books that has been assembled for us, inspired, we believe, every word of it by God. The Holy Spirit moved men to write the Bible. God wants you to believe the Bible because of prophecy. One thing that God says is you're going to know I wrote this book.

[00:13:48] You're going to know I'm speaking through the men in this book because I'm going to tell you the end from the beginning. I'm going to tell you the future hundreds of years sometimes before it even happens. And so if you're a Bible nerd, if you get into studying scripture, one of the things you love to study is the prophecy.

[00:14:05] And usually where you think about things that have to do with Jesus Christ, where he was going to be born, how he was gonna be born, how he was going to die, that he rises again. And maybe some of us know these prophecies and we hold on to them as one of the reasons that we believe that God really wrote the Bible. Because, look, hundreds of years before he happened, he called it exactly like it was going to happen and then it came to pass. Maybe you've never studied the prophecy of jazz real before. I haven't. I was asking people after the first service you ever studied the jazz real prophecy before, didn't meet one person who was even familiar with what I was talking about. So if you've never read this and if you've never read through Second Kings, if you don't know what's going on. Wait, we're learning something here and maybe this will inspire you to do more research into the scripture. But you can see here in Second Kings, Chapter nine, there's this guy, Jay, who was anointed the king of Israel.

[00:14:58] And before Jay, who to become the king of Israel, he has to kill everybody that's connected to King Ahab, who was the king of Israel. And King Ahab especially has this wife, this evil lady that has really led the Israel astray, Jezebel. So look at Second King's nine, verse 10. Here's a part of what's gonna happen when Jay, who becomes king, he's anointed king, it says, and the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of jazz, real and none shall bury her. Then he opened the door and fled. Well, I would imagine. So you're saying that the queen is going to get killed and nobody's going to bury her? Yeah. I would probably open the door and run away, too, because this lady was wicked. She was evil. But here's a prophecy that she's going to die. And where is she going to die? In the territory of jazz. Real. That's why we're talking about this, because that's the bloodbath that everybody was supposed to be familiar with. And so J. Who? He starts rounding up Ahab's people and he starts killing them. OK. Go to Chapter 10. You can see the heading there. Jay, who slaughters Ahab's descendants? Look at verse eleven. This is Second Kings. Chapter 10. Verse eleven.

[00:16:11] And it says, So Jay who struck down. All who remained of the house of Ahab and Jezebel. So in this valley, it got the people there and then they just started killing them all his great men and his close friends and his priess until he left him. None remaining. So here's war going on within the northern kingdom of Israel, a civil war where they are killing everybody from the old regime to create the way for the new regime. A very bloody. I think it's similar to the civil war. We're glad the North won, were glad the slaves were freed. But it seems like a cringe worthy time in American history to think how many of our own brothers we killed in war. That's what this time is. That's what Jez's rule would have meant in in the mind of the Israelites. Okay, so J. Who. He then does a trick ligate verse 18.

[00:17:07] Then Jehu assembled all the people and said to them, Ahab served. But all this idol that they worshiped their Ahab served by all a little. But J. Who will serve him much. So he starts spreading it around after he gets rid of Ahab's people. He says, Hey, you guys thought Ahab worshiped by all. Where do you see how I worship? All so all the bull, all worshipers come together. And guess what? J who does with them kills. So he's not going to worship at all. He lies. He gets them to come out and then he kills them too. So this guy is just a violent leader who's now become the king of Israel. And actually he got rid of the bar all worship like liquor verse twenty eight second kings, ten, twenty eight. Thus J who wiped out by all from Israel. But unfortunately J who did not do what was right. He did not turn aside from the sins of Jerry Bohm, the son of Niebaum, who was the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel, which he made Israel de. Look how silly this seems. That is the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dhan. Here's the Israelites still worshiping golden calves in the northern kingdom of Israel. And so it says in Hosoya that due to the bloodiness of what Jay who did here, and because Jay, who still worshiped idols, even though God gave him a chance to start fresh in the northern kingdom of Israel, he was still involved, wasn't all, but it was the golden calf idolatry that now there's going to be judgment on Jay, who's kingdom.

[00:18:40] And you can read about how everything happens here and how Jezebel is killed and how she's so destroyed by animals that they can only find her skull and her hands and they can't even bury her.

[00:18:54] And after this sermon in the first service, my 10 year old who was here said, Dad, that second king stuff was amazing. I really need to read that book because he was interested in these battles that J. J. Whose it is awesome soldier. One of the guys is trying to get away. He grabs a bow. He shoots him in the back. The guy dies. I mean, J. Who? There's a lot of violence, but he becomes the king, unfortunately. He doesn't leave the idolatry. Kagan I go to second kings. Fourteen second kings. 14 days. We're building the timeline. That's the past. We got that. Let's put a check next to that part of the prophecy. Now we're somewhat understanding the past and why God is going to judge J. Who? Because J. Who, even though he became the new king, he did not leave idolatry.

[00:19:39] So he's going to have to be judged now here in Second Kings 14. I need you to look at verse 23. Second King's 14, verse 23. It says, in the 15th year of Amazigh, the son of Joe Ashe, king of Judah. That's the guy who's king in the southern kingdom. Jerry Bohm, the son of Joe Joosh, king of Israel, began to reign in Somalia, the northern kingdom, and he reigned 41 years. Why am I having you read that? Because in Hosain one one, it says that Hosoya was a prophet at the time of Gera Bomb, the son of Joe Hash, king of Israel. So if you could write down, maybe even in your Bible next to Second Kings, because you're gonna be back here, you're gonna get inspired, you're gonna want to read it. Second King's 14, verse twenty three. Right. Right next to that verse. Hosanna! Hosanna is a prophet at this time, at the time of the 41 years of the reign of Jerry Bomb of the northern king of Israel. So sometime around second King's 14 is when Hosain is saying, hey, remember what J. Who did it in general? Well, that means there's gonna be an end of Israel. And that means only Judah is going to continue to get shown mercy. So let's put a check next to Hosea's prophecy. That happens right here in Second Kings 14. Now turn with me. The Second Kings. Seventeen. Because you get to the last king of Israel. This guy named Ho Shaya. And it says in second Kings 17, verse six. Look what it says in the year of who share, the king of Assyria captured some Marea. This is now a Syria coming in to wipe out the northern kingdom of Israel. And he carried the Israelites away to a Syria and he placed them in a law. And on the Hobaugh, the river goes on in the cities of the Meades. So here it is, what Hosanna prophesied through his daughter's name. No mercy has now happened that there is an end to the king. The northern kingdom of Israel. Assiri comes in, wipes them out and takes them away. Why? Look at verse seven. This occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord, their God who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, King of Egypt and had feared other gods. And they started walking in the customs of the nation. Why did the name Northern Kingdom of Israel get judged? Because they worshiped idols. Because they were not true in their hearts to God. So they got wiped out. And yet God warned them. Look down at verse 13, second kings 17, verse 13.

[00:22:13] Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet, including our guy Hosanna, and every seer saying, Turn away from your evil ways. Keep my commandments in my statutes in accordance with all the law that I commanded your fathers and that I sent to you by my servants, the prophets. How many times do God warn this kingdom to stop sinning? Stop worshiping idols to turn from those wicked ways to start obeying him. And then there would be mercy. But because they did not obey his commands, the mercy was taken away. Look at what it says in verse 14. Here's the problem. But they would not keyword. What does it say there? But they would not. What?

[00:22:56] They would not listen.

[00:22:59] Here's guy, he's been telling them what he's gonna do. He told them through the names of Hosea's kid. Can you imagine how everybody must have been talking about looking with the Prophet Hosea's doing? He named his kid as real. Why would you do Abia kid Jazzer? His daughter's name is no mercy because he says God's going to end the kingdom of Israel. Can you believe that? I mean, they must have all been talking about. And let me just tell you this. Whatever God says he's going to do. That's exactly what God is going to do, OK? God is faithful. If he says if you worship idols, you will be judge. If you turn to Saint, you will be judge. Then let me tell you what's going to happen when you turn to sin. Judgment is coming. So what we need to learn from the name of the first child, the named Jez's real, is this next to child number one? Put this down. God will do what he says. God will do what he says.

[00:23:52] If he sends you a word that is recorded in scripture and it commands you to live a certain way and you don't listen to God. I mean, that's one of the worst sins you can do right there. Is not listening to what God is telling you because now you're in dangerous territory because whatever God said he was gonna do. He'll do it.

[00:24:11] And if you don't listen and you get on the wrong side of what God has said, I guarantee you there will be consequences for sin if you do not listen to God. And let's just make this real personal. On Father's Day here at this church, let's look at every single dad in the room. And if you are a dad, if you are a husband, let's start there. If you are a husband and you have a wife. You are commanded in first Peter. Three seven to live with your wife and an understanding way.

[00:24:40] And all of a sudden the ladies got really engaged in this sermon. You know, I am been praying for this moment preaching.

[00:24:51] Live with your wife and an understanding why that's a command, that's what God says. Hey, you have the blessing of being married. You're a husband. Well, you better live with your wife and an understanding way. And at the end of that verse, it says so that his prayers may not be hindered. Don't think you're gonna be able to talk to God. If you're not, let your wife talk to you and you're not living with her in an understanding way.

[00:25:14] Don't think it's gonna be okay between you and God when it's not okay between you and your wife.

[00:25:20] What God has said is going to happen. You don't live with your wife and an understanding way. There's going to be problems between you and God. That's how it works. God has said very clearly that fathers are supposed to teach their kids the Bible so you can blow it off. You cannot do that if you're a dad here. You can say I'm not. I'll let somebody else. I'll let the Christian school, let those people down there at church teach my kid. I don't really feel like I'm ready to teach my kid. You can disobey God. Well, let me just tell you, when you don't do what God says, there's gonna be consequences.

[00:25:54] God's going to be faithful to his word.

[00:25:58] So when God tells you to do something, it's not optional. It's not a recommendation, you either obey what God says and you receive the blessing or you disobey what God says and you receive the curses that come with it, because whatever God has said he's going to do based on how you act. I can guarantee you God is faithful. God is true. He cannot lie. He keeps his promises. What God has said he's going to do. And we need to let that weigh heavily upon us that the kind of father that we have in heaven is the kind of father who has when he has said something, he expects his kids to listen to him.

[00:26:34] And the northern kingdom of Israel did not listen to their father in heaven, and so there is no longer in a northern kingdom of Israel here from second King 17 on. Now, what about the kingdom of Judah? What about them? We'll go to Chapter 18 and 19 and you'll meet this guy has a CIA. He is the king there in Judah. You can see that as the heading there in Second Kings 18. And look at verse 13, second King's 18, verse 13. And the 14th year of King has a guya Sinak Carib, king of a Syria. Here comes a Syria. Again, they wiped out the northern kingdom of Israel. Now they're coming for the southern kingdom of Judah. They came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and they took them. So here's a serious sweep in and surrounding the cities of Judah and taking them and has a.

[00:27:22] He is the king of Judah and he prays to the Lord.

[00:27:27] And the prophet Isaiah answers him. And if fulfilling the prophecy in Hosanna, God decides that he is going to save the southern kingdom of Judah from Syria, and God made it very clear he wasn't going to save them by bow, he wasn't going to save them by sword, by war, by horse, by horsemen. It wasn't going to be a military victory that was going to help them win the battle against a Syria here. No, God says I'm going to save them. I'm gonna do it in such a way that everybody knows it's me and it's my mercy.

[00:27:59] And so if you look at Second Kings 19, just getting to the end of the story here. Second Kings 19. Look at verse 35. Here they are. They're surrounding Jerusalem. They're ready to destroy. They're ready to conquer. A lot of the people of Judah are freaking out. They're afraid. And then it says this. And second Kings 19, verse 35. And that night, the angel of the Lord went out and struck down. One hundred and eighty five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. That's a strong army that was against the southern kingdom of Judah. And an angel of the Lord killed one hundred and eighty five thousand.

[00:28:37] And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. One hundred and eighty five thousand corpses.

[00:28:47] Then Sinak Rib King of Syria departed and went home to the capital city of Assyria and lived it in about. Yeah. If one hundred and eighty five thousand of your soldiers died in the night, you'd probably go home, too, you know.

[00:29:00] So who saved them?

[00:29:02] Was it King has a CIA? Was it the army? Was it anything that they did? No, it was the angel of the Lord who delivered them. God, when he speaks, what he says happens, there's going to be no more Israel. But I'm going to show Judah Mercy. We'll put a big check on that. A check on that one right there. That he showed Judah Mercy. So we see the prophecies of Hosain one. We compare them to the history of second kings. And we see that exactly what God said he was going to do is exactly what he did. Now, go back to Hozier, chapter one, because I think the second name is what we want to zero in on now, the name for the girl. We understand maybe a little bit about the named Jeff Israel now and what God was doing there. Well, the girl gets a name. No mercy. That God was going to take away his mercy from the people of Israel. So what is this mercy that God is going to take away? And as you study this word, as you look up the other places where this word is used in the Old Testament, as you get into a study of the Hebrew language, what you find here is that the word for mercy is often referred to in the parental kind of a way, very fitting for us here on Father's Day that the love of father would have for his child.

[00:30:24] That's the kind of idea of mercy, the love that a mother would have for her precious little baby.

[00:30:30] In fact, here's a good Father's Day verse. You could you could write down, this is what we're gonna use for our definition of mercy. This is Psalm one hundred and three, verse 13. And it says the word here as a father shows compassion. That's how it's translated there. Same word in the Hebrew as a father shows compassion to his children. So the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. So we're comparing the mercy that God gives to his people who fear him, the people who know he's going to do what he says, and therefore I better take what he says very seriously. I better listen to him. That's a healthy, godly fear right there. The people who have that kind of relationship with God. They're going to receive mercy. What's something we could compare that compassion, that mercy to? Like how a father loves his kid.

[00:31:18] That's that fatherly love that you have when you hold your baby there in the hospital for the first time, I know for me, what was it going to be like to be a dad? Wasn't quite sure I was excited about how was it going to feel? As soon as I felt my son there in my arms that first time I had a love for him that changed my life completely. From that moment forward, at least that's how it was for me as a father, as I felt something internally in the deepest part of who I am in the bowels of myself, that now this kid's life actually seemed to matter even more than my life, that now what was going to happen, I was going to be bound up in this child's life for the rest of my own.

[00:31:57] That's how God has mercy for his people, like a father loves a child.

[00:32:06] I cannot think of anything worse. And I want you to think about this for a moment right now. If you got the pronouncement that there was going to be no mercy given to you. Can you imagine anything worse than contemplating no mercy?

[00:32:22] I bet if you think about it for a while, I don't think there is anything worse being completely cut, cut off, separated from God as our father. OK, we don't get any of his love of his fatherly love for us. We're we're separated from that. We're out on our own now.

[00:32:40] We're down here in our sin. He's up there and his holiness. And he's not going to give us what we withhold, what we deserve and give us good things instead. No, now we've got to somehow make it by ourself. And he's gonna give to us what we now deserve.

[00:32:55] Can you imagine separation from God with no hope of goodness coming from him to you? Like being abandoned by a father, that kind of pain, that kind of loneliness.

[00:33:08] When you think about separation from God, eventually the thought of that is darkness, because there's no light there. It's just sadness, because there's no joy there. It's just pain because there's no comfort there. It's a place that we call hell. That's what it's going to be like. Separated completely from the love of God. Just a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, it says. And this is what God says he's got for the northern kingdom of Israel because they won't listen to him. There's now no mercy for those people. I mean, think about how horrific that is, that you would have no hope of any goodness that all you would have to look forward to is the judgment for your sins that you know are in your heart. Go to Psalm 51 and let's see a man here who cries out for mercy, who begs for mercy. I hope that you have a moment in your life that you can look back on. Or maybe it will happen today if it hasn't happened already, where you do see God as someone who is true to what he says, as someone who is holy and you see yourself in your sin, that you don't live up to God's standard. You don't always listen to him. And you see that there's a separation between the holiness of God in heaven and us down here on earth in our sin. And when you see that separation, rather than being banished, rather than being apart from God, what you want is you want God to love you like a father.

[00:34:38] You want to receive that mercy, that compassion. You want him to feel about you to where he cares about you. And despite who you are, despite what you've done, you you are so desperate for his mercy.

[00:34:50] That's what we see in song 51, verse one. This is when David scenes, when he committed adultery, when he committed murder to try to cover it up. And then God sent the prophet to speak to David to tell him what he had done was wrong. David cried out to the Lord, Psalm 51, verse one. Have mercy on me. Oh, God.

[00:35:11] According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, you're rich. Mercy, that's the mercy, right? There is the same word in our passage.

[00:35:23] According to your abundant mercy. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.

[00:35:32] When you see yourself as you were born in sin, separated from God, the the way that you reach out to God is you beg him and you cry out to him. God, don't give me no mercy. Oh, God, please give me mercy. I hope you have a moment like that in your life. Or you could see yourself for who you truly worried you could see the distance that existed between you and God and you could beg him to give you mercy. If you come to God and you confess that you are a sinner before God and you beg him for mercy. God will give it to you.

[00:36:06] You listen to him, agree with him about your sin and call out in.

[00:36:11] He gives mercy and it's awesome, I can look back at moments in my life. I remember one one day I was so sick, it was one of those hugging the toilet bowl kind of days. You ever had one of those days, right? Well, you know, my dad often brings up a quote from my youth when I was sick in the bathroom and he heard me shouting, I can't live like this. Why me? Right. He's he's reminded me of that moment throughout the rest of my life. Right. But you have those moments where you think, surely death would be better than this. Right now, some of us get to that place a little bit quicker than others in our in our sickness. Right. And I remember one day hugging the toilet bowl. And being convicted about sin in my life and begging God for mercy and realizing if I don't have mercy, what do I have?

[00:37:08] I have nothing.

[00:37:10] And I hope you have that clarity of seeing that with the pronouncement of no mercy. I will not survive without the mercy of my heavenly father loving me and not giving me what I deserve in years. David, when he is convicted by his sin. He calls out to God. And he begs, Oh, God, give me mercy, there were two men that went into the temple to pray, Jesus says in Luke, 18. And one of them was kind of a churchgoing kind of a guy, a religious kind of a guy. And he says, got to thank you, that you've made me a good guy. And I think you that I go to church and I give money and I do this and I help and I'm glad I'm not like that other guy. So he came to God with a sense that he was good. That he had something to offer God. But then there was another man there at the temple, and he was a tax collector. He was known around town as a sinner. And he wouldn't even look up to heaven when he prayed.

[00:38:03] And he just pounded his chest and he said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus says, Which one of those two do you think was forgiven by God for their sins? The one who thought he was good before God or the one who said I'm a sinner and begged for mercy? Which one did God forgive? God forgives the sinners who beg for mercy, and I hope that you're one of those people. I hope that's something not only how your relationship got with God, started with you begging for mercy, but now as you've walked with him, you've continued to see his mercy in your life. Turn with me to Psalm 78. Turn everybody. Dermott with me, Psalm 78.

[00:38:48] This is our Song of the Day, we read the first few verses. It's a history of Israel, God's led people out of Egypt. They're in the. They're in the wilderness on their way to the promised land. And look at how it describes these people that God has delivered, that he has saved. Verse 37. Psalm 78. Verse 37. Does their heart was not steadfast toward him. They were not faithful to his covenant. So here's now even God's people that he's delivered, that he's got.

[00:39:20] That he's leading. Well, they're not loyal to him. They're still turning to sin. They're still turning to other things. Yet verse 38, he being compassionate because he is a father who loves his people. He atoned for their iniquity. He did not destroy them like they deserved to be judged. He restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flush. It's the story of your Christian life is not only you calling out to God for mercy, because if you're sent to forgive you, to love you from the beginning. But even now, when you know his love and you're trying to walk with him, you find your heart not being faithful there. You find yourself sometimes getting distracted by other things and getting turned away from God. And yet the entire time he is 100 percent faithful to you and he is merciful to you. And once he has set his love upon you, he will not ever leave you or forsake you. He will never take his mercy away from you. And his mercy is completely not dependent based on what you might do or your performance or how you might act before him. It's based only on the fact that he has chosen to love you like a father loves his child.

[00:40:38] I mean, many of us, I'm sure, could testify that when our hearts were not true to the Lord. He was the rock of our hearts and was true to us. Anybody want to say amen to that here this morning?

[00:40:50] That's how it is.

[00:40:52] He's a dad who loves you because he has chosen to give his mercy to you. He feels for you, compassion for you from the inner most part of his heart. That's who our father is.

[00:41:05] That's the relationship that we have with him. Child number two. No mercy as we're studying it actually teaches us. God will not stop loving his kids. Let's get that down for child number two. God will not stop loving his kids.

[00:41:21] If God has responded to your confession of sin and given you mercy.

[00:41:28] And you have that mercy, you can trust that he will continue to love you in that way. And you're saying, well, that's an interesting point to get from the fact that we Hosain named his girl no mercy. We'll go back to Hozier, chapter one. Look at it with me again.

[00:41:43] And let's keep thinking about this because, yes, we called the child no mercy, but yet we still show show mercy to the southern kingdom of Judah. But if you look at verse six where it says her name is going to be no mercy. It says for I will no more have mercy on the House of Israel. And then there's this phrase there to forgive them at all. OK. And that phrase there in the Hebrew is very similar to Exodus 30 forebears seven, where it says that God is ready to forgive the iniquity of thousands of people. So there's some debate. I feel like I need to let you know here in verse six, there's some debate about that translation. Is it saying that God is not going to show them mercy? And he's not going to forgive them? Or is the conjunctive actually, they're a butt where it's saying, hey, they're not going to get any more mercy. They're they're going to get remove their kingdoms, gonna get wiped out. But I will still forgive them.

[00:42:39] Well, how could that be how could they get wiped out? And then God still forgive them later on in the future, we'll look down at verse eleven and you'll see that. I think that's exactly what it's saying. It's saying that some point in the future, the children of Judah, the southern kingdom, the children of Israel, the northern kingdom, they shall be gathered together and they shall appoint for themselves one head there.

[00:43:04] The divided kingdom is going to be reunited. There's going to be one leader, one king, and they shall go up from the land for great shall be the day of what does to say there. The day of what, Jaziri? I thought that was a valley where there was a bloodbath with Jay, who I thought that was a bad thing to name your son.

[00:43:21] Well, here's how deep the jazz real imagery goes, because the word jazz real, which sounds similar to Israel, especially in Hebrew, the word jazz real, the word by itself just means scattered. That's what it means.

[00:43:36] It's like, so we're going out. Somebody's planting their seeds and they just throw their seeds out. They scatter the seeds and then the seeds all grow up and then they come and gather the harvest. That's the imagery here.

[00:43:50] Hey, I'm going to have no mercy on you. Israel and Syria is going to come in and wipe you out. But I'm going to forgive you. In fact, later, you and Judah will be joined together. And what I scatter in judgment, I will gather together in salvation.

[00:44:05] That's what God's saying here.

[00:44:07] I'm going to scatter you, and the reason you're going to be scattered is judgment over your scene. But after I scatter you, I'm going to gather you because I have chosen that the people of Israel will be my children. And once God chooses you as one of his people, once you receive his mercy, he will never stop loving you.

[00:44:26] I mean, you could say that the name and the girl here is unloved. That would be a way you could translate it. Let's name our girl on loved. How terrible. How tragic. How could you call a precious baby girl and name her on loved?

[00:44:39] It's supposed to be shocking because it goes against what we know about God, that once God loves you, he never stops loving you if you're one of your is kids.

[00:44:48] He always does go to Deuteronomy 30, go back to the law and you'll see this scatter and gather concept prophesied all the way back in the law before we even get the prophecy of it here in Hosain one day, yes, God has to judge the northern kingdom of Israel because that's what he said he was going to do.

[00:45:09] And God's true to his word. But because God is merciful, he is still going to forgive them and he has still got a plan for their future even after their kingdom is wiped out by the Assyrians. Look what it says here in Deuteronomy 30. Start with me in verse one. It says, When all these things come upon you, the consequences, the blessings if you obey or the curses if you disobey, which I have said before you and you call them to mind, among all the nations where the Lord, your God is driven you here. You are now in a Syria and you're remembering how you disobey God. And you you've got the consequences of your actions, but now you're thinking about it.

[00:45:47] Well, it says even then, after your scattered, you can return to the Lord, your God, you and your children. You can obey his voice and all that. I command you today, obey his voice. Listen to him now, finally, with all your heart, with all your soul, and then the Lord, your God will restore your fortunes. Then God will have mercy on you and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord, your God has scattered you.

[00:46:13] What an amazing prophecy.

[00:46:14] Hey, I'm going to tell you what you got to do. You're not going to do it. You're going to be judged. But after I scatter you because of the judgment for your sin, I will gather you back together because of my mercy for you, because I've chosen you to be my people.

[00:46:30] One thing that you will never be able to shake in this life if you're one of God's kids, is you look over your shoulder and the goodness and mercy of God will always be following you all the days of your life.

[00:46:44] That's how it works.

[00:46:46] God gives his people mercy, not only the ancient people of Israel, but let's talk about ourselves as Christians, as new covenant people here in the Church of Jesus Christ. Go to a Friesians Chapter two and let's look about how it talks to mercy, to God's people today. People who believe in Jesus and the church. People like us. Do you and I have this same mercy that is promised to the people of Israel that even after they're judged, God will forgive them and unite them together? I still think God has a plan for the future of the nation of Israel based on his promises. Well, what does it say about me? And you receive and mercy here in the New Testament. Ephesians chapter two, verse one. Here's the description of you. When you were born in your sin, it says, and you were dead in the trespass as sense in which you once walked spiritually in your heart. You were dead. You were following the course of this world just like everybody else. You were following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Satan and his evil words were world system. And you were going along with it.

[00:47:54] Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. We were by nature in the way that we were born. We were not children of God. We were children of wrath. Like the rest of mankind, we were born deserving judge men for our sin. That's how we were born.

[00:48:16] And I hope that we don't think we're any better than the people of Israel way back in the Old Testament who didn't listen to God and got judge. I hope I don't think that we were better than anybody else that we know live in today. No, it says we were like the rest of mankind.

[00:48:30] We deserved the judgment of God, not his mercy. But then it says a beautiful conjunctive here in verse four. It says Blood God. And then as it describes God, it says God being rich in mercy.

[00:48:47] One thing you can know, God is never going to run out of for you.

[00:48:52] If you're one of his kids here this morning is he's got enough mercy to go for all of your sin. One of the great things about having young kids is they think that when you're dad, you're rich, as any other dad ever experienced this before, like like we can walk through Target this afternoon. And my dad, he could buy anything in Target. You know what I mean? And then they start looking at stuff and they start thinking, hey, I got Dad with me here. Hey, Dad, let's get this. Hey, Dad, let's get this. Hey, Dad, you can get whatever you want. Your dad. Let's get this right. And I for a while, you're like, yeah, that's right. I am Dad. And I can't buy you stuff. Right. And you should be grateful. Right, that I provide for you. Yeah. For a while you're feeling it. And then you start looking at the price tags on some of this stuff that your kids want to get. And you're like, what do you think, kid? That money grows on trees around here. Like, come on, you know, classic deadline for you there. What do you think? Money grows on trees. Right. Because, no, my resources are limited.

[00:49:47] They're finite, says the father that you have in heaven. He is rich in mercy.

[00:49:56] I don't how much sin you've done in your life. Maybe you feel like you've done too much sin for someone to love you, maybe that's how you feel when you come and you get somebody. Love me. Doesn't feel like maybe my earthly father loved me. Doesn't feel like I deserve love. Now, that's exactly what we're saying. Does it matter how much sin you've done? Does it matter what you deserved, that your father in heaven has chosen to give you mercy instead and he's got enough mercy to cover all of your. He's rich in mercy.

[00:50:25] And here's how he covers your sin because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead and our trespasses. He made us alive. Together with Christ by grace, you have been saved.

[00:50:40] Jesus paid the judgment. Penalty for your sin and God gives you mercy.

[00:50:48] And it says that we now have been raised with Christ verse six, we've been raised up with him, seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

[00:50:57] So that in the coming ages and the ages to come and eternity in heaven, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Sometimes people are like, what are we gonna do in heaven for all of eternity? Well, well, here's one thing we're gonna do. We're gonna talk about how rich our dad was as we think about all of his mercy and all of his grace and the kindness that he gave to us in Jesus Christ. I guarantee you in heaven we will have much more clarity about sin than we have right now here in this world, where it's very murky in our understanding. No, in heaven, we're gonna see our sin for what it was. And we will be overwhelmed with the richness of mercy and grace and kindness that God would cover our sin and forgive us and Judge Jesus the holy and righteous one for our sin instead of us, and then choose us to be one of his kids.

[00:51:51] He treats his own son like we deserved. And he adopts us like we are his kid.

[00:51:59] That's the love of the father. That's what we're going to celebrate in the riches to come in many father's days in eternity. We will praise God for his mercy and still be amazed at how good he has been.

[00:52:12] Was. So how do you respond to the mercy of God? How do you respond to the fact that all you brought to your relationship with God was the sin that he needed to forgive you for?

[00:52:25] And he should have judged you. But instead, as a father loves his children. God chose from the innermost parts of his being.

[00:52:34] He chose to love you, to have compassion for you.

[00:52:39] What are you going to give to God for Father's Day? What do you offer to a king? For all the love that he's shown, we just sang these lines for all the mercy poured over me. How do you say thank you to a dad like the one we have our father in heaven who loves us in this kind of a way?

[00:52:57] Well, it says here and in verse eight of Ephesians two, it says four. By grace, you have been saved through faith.

[00:53:04] It is not your own doing. It's the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. Hey, one thing let's not do is try to act like we just kind of raised ourselves right. Let's not act like those kids who are like, hey, look at this thing I got when really everything we got was given to us by our father.

[00:53:23] Let's give God the glory for being the one to save us. We didn't save ourselves. We didn't earn it. We didn't do anything good.

[00:53:30] Let's not make it about us. Let's give God the glory. But then look what it says here in verse. Stand for we are his workmanship. God's done. His work in us were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

[00:53:45] So now that God has done His merciful work to save us, now he's made us new in Christ. It says, here's what our father wishes his kids would do. What he's created us to do, he's prepared for us some good works that he wants us to walk in.

[00:54:00] I don't want to be one of those kids that's being so loved by my father in heaven.

[00:54:04] And I'm just taking it for granted and spending it on myself. I want to walk in a way that pleases my heavenly father. If he's commanded me to do something, I want to listen to my father and I want to do what he says.

[00:54:17] Are you walking in such a way here this morning?

[00:54:20] Could you say, one, that you have confessed your sin and you have received the mercy of the Lord? And then as someone who is just so thankful for this gift of mercy that your father has given you, that God has chosen to love you like a father. Are you walking in a way that shows your father in heaven how thankful you are?

[00:54:39] Are you showing him how much you appreciate your mercy?

[00:54:43] So we're gonna take a moment right now to take communion here at the church and the ushers are going to get ready and they're going to bring the elements forward. And this is something we do. And this is something that's very serious for us here as Christians is this is the way that we remember how the mercy of God came to us when his son Jesus paid for our sins by dying on that cross and then rising again. And so we consider what Jesus had to pay so that God could give you mercy. Jesus paid for your sin. And you didn't get that judgment. E did you got the love of a father instead. And so we take this bread and we remember the body of Jesus on that cross. We take the cup and we remember the blood of Jesus. And I pray that when you take this, you'll consider the mercy that God has had for you, that God has never said no mercy to you. But he has said yes to your plea for mercy. And I would encourage you to act. Ask yourself to evaluate yourself as a Christian person before we take these elements as we sing this next song. Am I walking in a way that shows the merciful love of God in my life? Maybe there's somebody here, really. This communion thing that we do to remember what God has done for us. Jesus dying for us. It's not really for people who aren't Christians. You can't remember something that you haven't really committed your life to. And so if you're not a Christian here this morning, maybe this is a chance for you to see yourself. God's here and I'm here in my sin. There's a separation between us. I need to beg God for mercy. I guarantee you, if you confess your sin and beg God for mercy here this morning, he will forgive you so will pass out the elements. We'll hear a song and then we'll gather together and take communion. So let me pray for us. God, we thank you so much for this study of who they are, what an appropriate study it turned out to be for this Father's Day.

[00:56:38] God, as we consider you our father in heaven and we consider how you chose to love us, Scott. When we didn't deserve that love, we weren't really your kids. We were over here and our sins. And yet you did not give us what we deserved, God, and you gave us your mercy instead, and now that once you have given us that mercy. You will never leave us nor forsake us. You will love us like a father until we are with you in the ages to come.

[00:57:10] Singing and telling of how rich you are in your goodness and how amazing your kindness in Jesus Christ is to us. So, God, let us remember your mercy on this Father's Day.

[00:57:20] And got make us children who walk in a way that shows your mercy. That shows our appreciation for how you loved us. I pray that if anybody's in sin, that they will call out to you for mercy. Here this morning and then you will forgive them in turn. They will listen to you and turn from their sin. And be renewed in that mercy. We thank you so much. For how you loved us and Jesus Christ, we pray this in his name, Amen.