I invite you to turn tonight to Romans chapter 9, Romans chapter 9, and we are looking at a shorter section tonight, which is really verses 24 through 29. I confess up front, this will take a little bit of extra brain power tonight. This is a little bit complex of a section. If you can stay with me, I think you'll see the beautiful truth that is revealed here. But I'm going to ask you to also keep your Bibles open because we'll need to go back to the book of Hosea to understand it. And if you can have your Bibles open to Hosea, that will be a real help to you as we're going to be going there for a couple passages tonight. So after Daniel, then there will be Hosea. So, Okay, let's begin at verse 19 tonight of Romans chapter 9. Our text will be 24 through 29.
"You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Well, what is molded? Say to its molder, why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory. Our text: Even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. As indeed he says in Hosea, those who were not my people I will call my people, and her who was not beloved I will call beloved. And in the very place where it is said to them, you are not my people there they will be called sons of the living God; and Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay And as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.
There will end the reading of God's Word tonight. And again, we'll be looking at Hosea 1 and 2. That's found on page 892 and 93.
Well, tonight is really a crucial section in this development of the thought of the Apostle Paul, one that I think often gets overlooked, one that I think we kind of pass over because it just seems to have a string of Old Testament quotes and we never quite know what to do with those. But this is very important to his argument that he has been developing. And you remember in Romans chapter 9, he has had one great aim looking at it as he does Romans 9 through 11. And that has been to address the problem of the unbelief of national Israel. Maybe this isn't as important to reform folk as it would be to some dispensationalists. This would be intensely interesting tonight to dispensationalists, I think, if you wouldn't offend them. But for reform folk, I don't know. It seems a little off. We're not quite as interested in all the prophecy stuff of national Israel. But if you have any understanding of what's going on in the evangelical world, this is a big subject. This is a very big subject. And it may be because we have a little bit different understanding of the place of national Israel in God's big plan. And we don't share a sort of what you might call some Zionist impulse of that all the Old Testament promises were just speaking of national Israel. So this is, again, very important tonight because this is where the Apostle Paul is aiming.
And you have to remember how much this burdened him. It burdened him greatly. These are his people. These are his kin. These are his countrymen according to the flesh. And he said up front, "I would give myself to die and face the judgment of God so that they could be delivered." So it really burdened him about his people that this unbelief of national Israel happened to this degree.
And this is a big subject I have to say also, because for Reformed churches, we have been categorized by the dispensational sort of Baptist world as those who believe in a replacement theology. David Hawking was one of the great ones who, of modern times, coined that phrase all over the airwaves. I don't know if he made it up, but what essentially that says is that Reformed folk believe in this idea that the church has replaced Israel in God's plan of redemption, and we protest that. We do not believe anything was replaced. We believe that the church is the fulfillment of all of the promises made to Israel. That's what we're going to look at in this very passage tonight that's really important.
But that's the great question: Who is Israel? We've been seeing surprising things about this. Paul already said in Romans chapter 2, "A true Jew is not one outwardly. A true Jew is one inwardly, whose circumcision is that of the heart and the spirit and not of the letter." So he's made distinctions already for us.
And I have to say, this, for some Christians, is a cardinal doctrine and has caused a lot of division over time. So we're looking at this great truth tonight, and here we're looking at the great question of what do we do then with God's chosen people? What do we do with all the promises made to Israel who were the apple of God's eye, as we hear? who tell us that, as we even heard in our time, that if we do not support national Israel, this gets very political. As a nation, we will be a doomed nation. We hear these things.
Well, tonight it's going to take a little work, but I don't think it's unclear of what's happening here. Please stay with me, and I think if we listen to the clear teaching of Paul in these few verses, it's very illuminating what's going on here. It's very shocking in some ways for how the apostles looked at the Old Testament and how they applied the Old Testament, not in the way that people think. And that's what we're looking at tonight. There's nothing that sort of mysterious or unclear. Now, it is called a mystery in Ephesians 3, but it's not that it's unclear in what the scriptures had always planned and purposed of God, including the Gentiles, into this great program that he had from the beginning.
So I want tonight to look at this question this important question about national in Israel, and then with the goal of the identity of the true Israel. And Romans 9 through 11, as I said, is helping us to think through this. And throughout this chapter, God has been helping us by the inspiration of the Spirit to explain this deeper mystery to us. And he's done this answering the dilemma by helping us understand this through the lens of the doctrine of election.
That's why this particular section of Romans 9 is probably the strongest teaching on election because there are many people shaking their fist at God. And so you get the sort of stronger statements about election: "Who are you, O man, to reply against God?" If you're going to push him on this, he's going to remind you, "You are simply a little clay figure that he made. You are not God. You are made out of the dust of the ground."
So his answer to this great dilemma, has God failed the national Israel? the answer to the great dilemma is that, simply put, as we've been looking at so far, Paul answers, "He has not lost one of his elect. Not lost one." That's a positive teaching. He's not lost one of his children whom he called. He's not going to lose one. He shows mercy to whom he will, and whom he wills, he hardens.
And he said clearly, "Not all of Israel are the true Israel." So he makes that he's made that. distinction for us, and he's helped us with that. The true Israel are the children of the promise. The true Israel are those who are the children given to him of whom he has exercised his mercy on in this life.
And we ended last time in verse 23 that God was in a shocking verse, it was sort of a question to challenge those who would call into question election, that what if God is, think of the truth here: God is really being patient with this sad world of unbelievers who are called vessels of destruction with the great purpose that he might demonstrate his mercy on the vessels of mercy. That's his people. That's why this project's going on.
Now, after all this, hopefully we've made some progress in the doctrine of election. He says something startling tonight. Something that gets overlooked, you could read right over. God, he says, is demonstrating his mercy on the vessels of mercy. Then in verse 24, notice it carefully: "Even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles."
Whoa, you should say. He just spoke of election. He's called us too, Gentiles! You have to remember how radical statement this was for many of them to hear this. The vessels of mercy of his electing love are Jews and Gentiles.
Now, this has been a problem because Paul has been so favorable to the Gentiles. He's been charged with a message that God has failed with regard to national Israel. And so now he answers this great concern. And he applies this by looking at the teaching of Hosea.
Notice verse 25. So you put this together: "Even us whom he called, not only of the Jews also, but also of the Gentiles." In verse 25 we read, "As he says in Hosea, That's interesting. So Jews and Gentiles, as he says in Hosea, I will call them my people who are not my people and her beloved who are not my beloved."
So that's quoted from Hosea. Would you ever have gone back to Hosea and said, "Oh yeah, that's all about the Gentiles"? Paul just did. It's shocking. "Even us whom he called, not only of the Jews, but also the Gentiles, as it's written in Hosea."
The question is, how do you square that with Hosea? And that was the issue. And this gives us principles for understanding interpretation, I think, that are really important. So we need to go back to Hosea, turn over there, and as you're going there, just a moment of history.
Hosea prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel, which would soon be carried off and destroyed in the year 722. No one can forget in Hosea 1 the famous scene the controversial scene in Israel, the shocking scene when God comes to Hosea and he tells him to take a wife of harlotry, whoredom. This woman would be an unfaithful wife to Hosea. And the Lord wanted this to be a visual demonstration of how Israel was an unfaithful bride to her husband. "Keep going after her, Hosea. Keep going after her. Again and again and again."
So if you read in Hosea 1, if you have Hosea 1 there, and you look at verse 2. It says, "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. So he went and took Gomer. She conceived and bore a son. Now you have three children of whoredom that were born. The first is Jezreel. It's a strange name. It meant "God scatters." God was going to scatter Israel into the nations. So there's the first sort of prophecy in Hosea by this first child.
God's going to scatter Israel into the nations. Then look at verse 6 of Hosea 1. "She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, call her name now it's Lo-Ruhamah, call her name No Mercy. For I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all.
Whoa, it's done. But I will, notice this: "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. I will not save them by bow or sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen."
So she weaned when she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, "Call his name not My People. Another important name, Lo-Ami, not my people, Call him not my people, for you are not my people, and I am not your God."
Whoa, broken covenant! Remember, the essence of the covenant was: "You are my people, I will be your God, and you will be my people." They are not my people, I will not be their God. This is serious stuff in Hosea.
So these three children of harlotry, the message was clear. Put it together: Israel will be scattered in the nations, they will receive no mercy, and they will not be pitied nor loved. They are not my people, I am not their God. What a horrible scenario at the beginning of Hosea. And that raises all sorts of questions, doesn't it? I mean, what about God's promises?
Here's the fact: Didn't God just declare through Hosea that there would be a time when Israel would no longer be his people? And the answer is emphatically yes. Seems like Israel forgot about Hosea. This is a rather hopeless situation.
What does Paul do here? Well, this is interesting. Paul says, "Not just of—" again, you stay in Hosea, but coming back where he says, in, "Even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles, as indeed he says in Hosea."
Okay? So if you look at what's quoted back in Romans 9, in the next verse from Hosea, here's what's read. And you can stay in Hosea, but here's Romans 9: "Those who were not my people, I will call my people. Whoa, reversal all of a sudden. And her who was not beloved, I will call beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God."
Okay, so I said you need brain power for all this, right? He just cursed Israel. And in the darkest book of the Old Covenant of whoredom and curse, Paul grabs the two promises in the book. He cites two verses out of Hosea. Now remember the principle of the New Testament: When the writers put an Old Testament verse in the middle of a passage, that is not something just to read right over. It's like we do. He says, "I want you to go back and I want you to look around it and I want you to read and consider the context of it." And that's what I want us to do.
So that verse is quoted in verse 25 is from chapter 2. So turn back to Hosea 2 and go to verse 21. The verse that's quoted is found in verse 23. But let's start in verse 21: "And in that day, I will answer," declares the Lord. "I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth. And the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil. And they shall answer. Now here's the first child, Jezreel. Now what was the name meaning? Scatter. And I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy. And I will say to Not My People, third child, you are my people. And he shall say, you are my God.
Well, Jezreel scatters; he says we will sow. The next one, "I will have mercy on No Mercy," that's lo ruhamah, no compassion, I will have mercy." And then he says, this is what Paul quotes: he quotes this verse: "I will say to Not My people. lo ami, you are my people, and I will say, to not "You are my people, and they will say, You are my God. You are our God. Everything's reversed.
Now, Paul puts those promises right in Romans 9, and he links it with Hosea, next verse 1 verse 10. Now, turn there. Told you, brain power. Let's start at verse 10: "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. Now remember, it just ended by saying, you're not I'm not your God, you're not my people. Then he says, yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, "You are not my people," it shall be said to them, "Children of the living God.
That's what Paul quotes. "And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and they shall appoint for themselves, now here it is, one head. And they shall go up from the land for great shall be the day of Jezreel."
Okay. Paul puts these right in the middle of Romans 9. They shall be all gathered together in this great day under one head. A day of sowing. A day when the peoples will say, "We are your people and you are our God."
Who is he talking about? And when would this be? And you'll notice here, it's in the very place where they were scattered. Where it was said, "You're not my people anymore. In that place where they had been scattered into the Gentile nation, they will say, you are our God
Well, that's why I had to sing Psalm 27 on the mount stands Holy mount stands the city he founded. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, oh city of God. Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon. Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Cush. This one was born there, born again there. They say, and of Zion it shall be said, "This one and that one were born in her, for the Most High himself will establish her. The Lord records as he registers the peoples, the nations. This one was born there. Singers and dancers alike say, all my springs are in you.
Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, those are Gentiles. Where were they born? In Zion. If you were to take the shortest psalm in the Old Testament, and you took Psalm 117, the shock of that psalm: "Praise the Lord, all Gentiles. This is in the Jewish altar. Extol him, all peoples, for great is his steadfast covenant love to us. And the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever, praise the Lord." The Jews saying that.
Well, think of this beautiful truth here. There will be a time when the nation of Israel, here, let me put it together tonight. There will be a time when the nation of Israel will cease to be his people. Lo Ami, not my people. I'm done with dealing with national Israel on those terms. And God will scatter them into the nations in judgment. And Israel will no longer be his people. The Jews would be scattered to the ends of the earth and become just like Gentiles.
But then you say, "Well, how does God fulfill his promise to Israel? How does he fulfill his promise in love?" Hosea says the day will come when it's all reversed. When the children of Israel will be under one head. Who are the people? Verse 24: Jews and Gentiles together who are the called of all the nations, wherever they are, there would be a time when God would cease to deal with Israel on national covenantal terms in that special way as a nation, and they would no longer be the unique people, the only people of the Lord in the earth, nationally of bloodline, of circumcision.
That would be done, and God would no longer be found in one nation on the earth. Think about this, on one mountain, on one hill, in one temple. But God would scatter Jews to all the Gentile nations who were not his people. And in that place where all these people call upon the name of the Lord, God would raise up a special nation under one head, Jesus Christ, that would be made up of Jew and Gentile together who would be the Israel of God. That's what the New Testament teaches.
And this is what Pentecost was all about. I don't know how you miss it where you're quoting Old Testament passages and you have entire histories here coming together where all these Jews and Gentiles are coming together on the day of Jezreel, on the day of sowing, under the reign of the gospel. And the distinctions between national Jew and Gentile are obliterated in the New Covenant, aren't they? I mean, we see this across the board. They're obliterated. The distinctions are gone.
This is what the problem the apostles had to deal with in Acts when Cornelius was brought in, remember? And they said, the Jews came to him and said, "You did what? You went into that uncircumcised Italian guy's house?" And Peter said, "Well, God gave them the same gift as us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was I that I could withstand God?"
When they heard these things, they became silent, and they glorified God, saying, "Then God has granted to the Gentiles repentance to life." And you see, this is, you've been studying in the adult Sunday school Ephesians, that God has tore down this middle wall of separation, and he's made the two one, and he's brought those who were far off, they've been brought near, and he himself is our peace. And he's made Jew and Gentile one and broken down that wall from listen, one new man forming from the two.
That was always the design of the promise to Abraham.
So has God cast off Israel? Well, he says, to close this out tonight, no, of course not. He always said there'd only be a remnant. That's the end of this. He always said there'd only be a remnant of Israel of of the people of Israel. As Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay."
And then he adds in verse 29 a citation from Isaiah 1:9. We won't go through all that tonight. You can do that. "Unless the Lord of the Sabbath had left us a seed, we would have all become like Sodom. We would have been made like Gomorrah."
God said there will be a remnant. Has God cast off his people? Well, isn't it interesting that Paul begins Romans 11, and he says, "Of course he's not. There's a remnant right now of Jews calling on their Messiah, remnant according to the election of grace."
Jeremiah 31: "For thus says the Lord, sing with gladness for Jacob and shout among the chief of the nations. Proclaim, give praise, and say, O Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the ends of the earth.
God didn't have to do this. Unless God had decided to spare a remnant, the whole thing would have been wiped out. But tonight, I think the amazing thing for us is, as Gentiles, look what he's done for us. He's brought us in, where the wild olive tree grafted in, to fulfill the Israel of God, to fulfill the plan that always was: that in Abraham, in that seed who is Christ, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
And so you are his Israel. It says that in Galatians 6, "You are the Israel of God." You are his people. That same covenant of grace that was made with Abraham and that went throughout the Old Testament when they said, "You are, he said, you are my people and, you know, you are our God. That covenant formula is the same for us today. We are not "not the people." We are the people of God. He's called us out of darkness into this marvelous light. And he's called us sons and daughters of the living God.
How wonderful he's been to us. We are the fulfillment of the plan. It's a great plan, and when we get to heaven on that day, we're going to see in Revelation 7. I always like to remind people of this because we always think the kingdom of God is losing and not much is happening. "I looked up in heaven, and I saw a multitude no man can number, worshiping God of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Praise God."
Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your great plan that is unfolding. Take away our dimness and help us to see your great work. Thank you for including Gentiles into these promises who are us. Thank you for tearing down the middle wall of separation. Thank you for creating from the two one new man. Thank you that we are a holy priesthood, a special chosen people. Of all those promises made, we are the fulfillment.
And we thank you, Lord, in this late hour of history that you are continuing to gather from all the lands, north, east, south, and west, to fulfill your promises, to have a people who know their God, who worship you in spirit and in truth, who are born again in the heavenly Zion. We give you our praise and thanks. In Jesus' name, amen.