medicine that just kind of makes
you loopy. So mine's not all together here. I thought it was this morning.
I was reading and everything seemed to be clicking along and
now it seems to be missing the beat. But just pray for me as
God gives me the liberty to preach to you. That's what I desire,
really not me. I do desire that God, the Holy
Spirit, would bear witness to the truth of his word this morning. A couple of prayer requests. Remember Jill in your prayers.
She's still not doing well and just can't seem to find out what
the trouble is. Pray for her, if you will. One thing I've learned about
sickness is it is most definitely hard to be spiritual when you're
sick. The flesh is constantly crying
out for attention and there seems to be no reprieve. And so to
enter into spiritual things is twice as difficult when you're
sick. And I know the Lord is using
sickness as He does everything else for our growth. for the trial of our faith. Isn't
that the reason? That we are burdened with manifold
temptations. That the trial of your faith,
which is much more precious than gold, that perish it, though
it be tried by fire. If you endure in faith, listen,
who's going to receive the glory? Sometimes you feel like you're
hanging on by the skin of your teeth. It's not true. It feels that way, but that's
not true. Because it's not you holding
Him, it's Him holding you. It's Him holding you. And so,
pray for her as she suffers in this, and others who are sick. Remember Rick and your prayers,
and Sherry. Sherry's not doing well. be in prayer for her. Pray that
it's not the surgery. We've seen that before where
they've gone in and it's been some kind of bacteria or something
and we just pray that that's not the case. Lord bless that
and heal her. Pray for those that aren't with
us today for whatever reason. Continue to pray for Our sister,
she continues to grieve and suffer the loss of her husband. I don't
know if many of you know Carol in Todd's Road Grace Church. He has found out he had throat
cancer this week, and they say it's treatable. It's good news,
but pray for him as he endures this trial and this phase. He's
a very faithful man, a wonderful man. I've known him for a long
time and I'm blessed to know him. I pray for him. And as you pray, not just today,
but in the weeks, days to come, please remember those churches
without pastors. My heart grieves for them. I know that maybe the Lord has
given you the bottom of the barrel, but at least you have one. And
it is a privilege. It is a privilege to be the pastor
of this congregation, and I know it is a privilege for you just
to have one, because that's what God intended. This is how God
intended that His people be fed. People try in all different sorts
of ways, aren't they? The world is trying different
ways. Preaching is not good enough. Trying different things. That's worldly wisdom. That's
not the wisdom of God. Wisdom of God is what men call
foolishness. This is foolish to the world,
what we're doing. It's not entertaining to them.
It's not exciting. Therefore, they think it's useless.
Well, God says it's the wisdom of God preaching. Preaching the
gospel is the only means God chose to convey this message to the
hearts of men. That's it. Anybody choosing a different
means than what God has chosen, they're foolish. It doesn't work. It may make you feel good, but
it doesn't work. Spiritually. Physically it makes you feel
good. But truly spiritually, it's not going to work. That's
not what God determined to do. Preaching. You know, if you find me one
instance of plays, or theater, or sitting around and giving opinions,
you find that in here, let me know about it. It's not in you. It's not in
you. It's made up. That's made up. This is the means. And I know you that believe that.
You know that to be true, because that's your experience. But second
of all, you know you got to fight with the flesh just to do this.
Believe me, when I'm preaching, I got to fight my own flesh.
So I know your struggle. I know it. Well, that's all right.
God knows it, too. He knows it. So let's pray that
God give us the liberty this morning to enter into his word. I hope every one of you identify
with this. I hope every single person can say, yeah, that's
me. Yes, that's him. When you're
done. If you can do that, then that's
the victory. You know who you are, the sinner,
and you know who he is. That's a victory. You understand
what I'm saying? I pray that God will identify
this by his spirit this morning. Let's go to him and pray. Holy
Father, what a privilege, what a glorious example of your
grace that we could call you Father. And Father, we do plead with
you this morning. We have so many afflictions,
so many griefs, so many sorrows. We are strangers in a strange
land, weighed down by our sin and our guilt and our shame And we come again seeking to
be cleansed by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ,
thy Son. And Father, I do plead this day
that you would take the message. Oh, that you would fill me with
your Spirit. And Father, you would pour out
your Word with power. And in power, tear down the walls
of resistance in the hearts of sinners. Command them to live. If you command it, they'll live. Give them faith. If you give
it, they'll have it. I plead, Father, for those that
understand this gospel, know it, know Christ. I plead for
them, Father, that you would be gracious, that the word would
come as a melody to their souls, that they might sing and praise
thy name when the gospel is preached, that they can identify with these
vessels of mercy for the sick. We, as those family members did
long ago, lay them before thee, pleading for grace, pleading that you would touch
their bodies and minds We are confident of your power
to do it. No doubt that you have the power. But Father, not our will be done,
but thy will be done. For you have all wisdom and we
have none. You see all things and we see
nothing but our own selfish desires and will. We know this, that you'll work
all things together for the good of your people. We know it. And we plead that you'd forgive
us our sins, even now, during this time. Cleanse us. And I ask this in the name of
Jesus, our Savior, and for the glory of my Savior, I plead. Amen. All right, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Romans, chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. The text will
be found in verse 25 and 26. Let's go ahead and read. Let's read
verse 22 down there again. He says, What if God, willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,
and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory, even
us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles, as he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people
which were not my people. and her beloved which was not
beloved. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people,
there shall they be called the children of the living God."
I entitled this message, People Beloved and Sons of God. People Beloved and sons of God. Now the apostle has been proving
in this chapter the sovereignty of God. First of all, he proved
the validity of God's Word. God said, I'll save Israel. Yet we see Israel, the nation
was lost, So the apostle clarifies what the intent of God is. Israel
was only a type. The Jews were only a picture
of the true Israel of God. Then he tells you who the true
Israel is, those that were chosen of God from eternity, the elect. And the objection was, is God
unrighteous? God forbid. God said, I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So election is what? It's a product
of mercy. Undeserved, without works, mercy. What about those that are not
chosen? Well, God says, I'm going to
use them. I'm going to use them for my glory, like Pharaoh. I'm
going to raise them up, show my power in them. Then this is
the conclusion, therefore he hath mercy on whom he will, and
whom he will he hardeneth. Then the objection comes, well,
how can he charge anybody with sin if God determines who is
saved and who is not, and even their works? Which he does. How can God be sovereign and
man still be responsible? That's exactly what he's saying.
God's sovereign, and yet you're responsible. What does He say?
Who are you? Who are you to question God or
to bring God into, under sin? What you're doing is you're charging
God with sin. God can't be charged with sin.
He is holy and everything He does is holy. Who are you to
make an accusation? And He said this, this is what
God's going to do. God has vessels of wrath, and
vessels of mercy. He's the potter, he can do with
man as he pleases. He makes one vessel honor, one
dishonor, and what does he do it for? He said the vessels of
destruction are for one reason, to show my hatred of sin. And
the vessels of mercy are for one reason, to show my glory
and grace. And last time we went over how
do we determine whether we have vessels of mercy or vessels of
wrath. One way, calling. Even us, he
said, who are vessels of mercy, even us who are called. Who are called? He said this,
Jew and Gentile. Didn't matter. The spiritual
Israel of God is not made up of the Jewish nation. It's made
up of Jew and Gentile. See, this makes total sense now
when he's talking to Nicodemus. He said, For God so loved the
world. What is he saying? Well, He loved Jews and Gentiles.
Not everybody without exception. He's just saying everybody without
distinction. There's no distinction in His
love. It doesn't matter if you're a male or a female, if you are
rich or poor, if you're a Jew or a Gentile, that doesn't have
anything to do with emeriting God's love. So how do we know? We're recalled. And so again,
he's reiterating what he started at the beginning, that the Jewish
nation was blessed above every other nation. You can't deny
that, that's true. But all of their covenants and
all of their blessings were only typical of true Israel, spiritual
Israel, which is made up of what? Jew and Gentile. Jew and Gentile. So the nation of Israel was a
chosen nation, yet we know this, that they are not all the children
of God. Look at verse 27 of your chapter.
He said, sayeth this concerning Israel, though the number of
the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, listen,
a remnant shall be saved. Now that nation of the Jews was
a very populous nation. It was a large nation. Can you
count how many Jews there were since the beginning of that race? You can't. There are billions. And yet, only a remnant of them
were saved. Only a remnant. Why? Because
salvation did not ever come by blood. And you and I think that's kind
of silly, but that's exactly how the Jews thought. One man came up to a Jew one
time and asked him, what about it? Hell, he said, that's a Gentile
problem. He assumed because he was Jewish
that heaven was his. The apostles tell him, no! Heaven
is intended for only the elect, the true Israel of God. So in our text here, he said
Jews and Gentiles, he says in verse 25, the apostle goes then
to the Old Testament to prove that Israel is not just made
up of Jews, but Gentiles as well. He said, He saith in Hosea, now
if you want to see this, it's in Hosea 2 and verse 23, but
this is what it says, I will call them my people, which were
not my people, and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it
shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto
them, you are not my people, there shall they be called the
children of the living God. This is true regarding the Gentile
nation. They were not the people of God. In the Old Testament, they were
not the chosen people of God in a physical sense. Though the Jewish nation was
blessed above all nations, I want you to understand this. There
was no difference between a Jew and a Gentile naturally. And that's the point I want to
make this morning, is that all men naturally have these three
negative things about us. And I'm going to show you three
negatives in this text, and then I'm going to show you three positives
of the gospel in this text. First of all, naturally we are
not the people of God. We are not the people of God
because of our Father. We are the people of Adam, naturally. Second of all, we are not beloved,
naturally. Why? Because we have a common
trait, sin. We cannot be loved of God because
of sin. Thirdly, we are not by nature
the sons of God. We are not naturally the sons
of God. And then in the gospel, I want
to show you who the people of God are. Because there is a people
of God. I want to show you that there
are people that are loved of God. And then I want to show
you there are sons of God. Who are these? Okay, so first
of all the negative. First, by nature we are not the
people of God because we share a common father. Who's our father? What common father do we all
share? Adam. Adam is our common father. He was chosen of God to represent
the whole race. You understand that? That it
doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter who,
we all, this, I don't know why people like to divide up so much,
but they just do. I guess the Tower of Babel, that's
when it started. When the nations were divided,
people started dividing themselves, and they keep dividing themselves
into groups, don't they? People like to be in certain
groups. I want to eradicate every single
group in this thing. You and I, all of us, are sons
of Adam. You can't escape that. You can't
escape that. We are all sons of Adam, and
Adam was a representative man. He represented all his race. And God made a covenant with
our Father. And that covenant was very simple.
I believe with all my soul, next to the Lord Jesus Christ, Adam,
in his perfect state, was the most intelligent man that ever
lived. You couldn't come up with all
the names for animals, could you? He did. Everything that was, he,
the language came from him. The original language of all
humanity came from this man, Adam. He was intelligent. And
God gave him a very simplistic law. He said of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, this tree right here, this one is
mine. Don't eat it. Now who doesn't
understand? A little child understands, don't eat it. And God gave a very specific
sentence if he did. In the day, in the day you eat,
you will die. And listen to me, this was not
ambiguous to Adam. He understood exactly what God
said. He knew exactly the penalty. He knew what that was. That if
he ate, his whole race would die. Not just him, but his whole
race would die. And you know what happened. Adam
rebelled. Adam loved his wife more than
he loved God. and rebelled against God and
ate. And you know what happened, he
died. I tell you what, often I weep at my small communion
I have with God. I do. I long sometimes for Him
to just walk with me. Our Lord said that you will long
for one of the days of the Son of Man and it's not going to
happen. Adam walked with God every day. He communed with God
face to face. And the moment he ate, what happened? He ran from God. Tried to hide
himself from God. This is what men do. Isn't this
what his whole posterity does now? Try to talk to somebody
about Christ. Just bring Him up. And they'll
try to, like a cockroach trying to find darkness. They'll run
away. They'll want to get out of that
room so fast that they'll make your head spin. Why? Because this is their nature.
This is our nature to run from God. To try to hide our sin from
God. That's exactly what our Father
did. And this sin This sentence was not just his, it belongs
to you and me. You don't escape this. Listen,
Romans 5, 12. You know it very well. Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered in the world, and death by sin. You ever wonder why men don't
like the gospel? I mean, the gospel is just a wonderful message.
It's a message of hope. It's a message of salvation.
It's a message of acceptance with God and yet men despise
it. They got to try to add something
to it. Why would you want to add something? You know, man
will take anything free but this. Offer him something free and
he'll do anything for it. You just call today, you get
a free set of knives. You get thousands of people calling for
a free set of knives or something. Something stupid. And yet, here's
something totally free. And you want to add something
to it. Why? Because you died in Him. Wherefore,
as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
so death passed. Now listen to me. Anybody who
doesn't have any interest in Christ, listen to me. It's because
you're dead. Not just so. You are dead in your sins. You
despise the things of God. That's who you are. That's your
nature. You who believe, you know this
about yourself, that God quickened you from what? From death. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein you walked in according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience. among whom we all had our conversation
in time past, in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others." See, we weren't the people of God.
By nature we were children of Adam, but we were not the people
of God. By nature. Second of all, the second negative
is this, we were not beloved because of a common trait. No man that is born of Adam can
claim to be loved of God because of this. Sin. All of us by birth are sinners. You don't have to learn to sin. You may learn to get better at
it. You may learn to hide it better. But everything that is
in you was in you at conception. We have all fallen short of the
glory of God, which is holiness, righteousness. And none of us were loved by
nature. You know, Jacob was loved, wasn't
he? From before he was born. But
I'll tell you this, at his conception he didn't deserve any of it,
did he? And I'll tell you this, he knew nothing about it until
God revealed it to him. And I'll tell you, when God revealed
his sin, he knew this, I was not worthy of it. And so I know this, we by nature
are not worthy of God's love. Matter of fact, the scripture
says in Psalm chapter 7 and verse 11, God judges the righteous
and is angry with the wicked. How? When? Every day. Every day. Don't buy into this garbage.
God loves the sinner but hates the sin. What a load of crap. Have you ever heard anything
so stupid? As though you can divorce the sinner from the sin. Listen, sin is not just what
you do, it's who you are. You know, when people tell me
that God loves everyone, that's presumptuous. That's presumptuous. Why? Because the Word of God
doesn't ever say anything like that. Matter of fact, in our
text, did it not tell you that He hated Esau before he was born? I know this, that God only loves
those that are called to life and faith. That's the only manifestation
of how you can know if God loves you. Have you been called to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the manifestation, that's
the revelation of love. That's how one may know if they're
loved of God. But because of sin, God is angry
with the wicked every day. And those outside of Christ have
no right to claim God's love. Why? Because of sin. God is of purer eyes than to
behold evil. That's what Habakkuk 1 13. Thou
art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. So you see why we are not his
people. We were sons of Adam. You see
why we were not loved? Because of sin. Thirdly, The
scripture says we are not the children of God by nature, because
we have a common birth. We all have the common trait
of sin, which causes us not to be loved,
common father, which causes us not to be the people of God,
but because of our common birth, we cannot claim to be the children
of God. In John chapter three, that famous
chapter, God reveals three great loves. God's love for sinners. He said, for God so loved the
world. And what he meant, Jew and Gentile. God so loved the world. That's
a great love, isn't it? So great it sent his son to die
for them. Then it talks about the love
of the saints for the light. Don't you love the light? I'll tell you what, it sure is
wonderful when the light of the gospel shines in my heart. It
does reveal my sin. It does expose my guilt. But
it also exposes the remedy for my guilt, which is Christ. We
love the light. But you know what sinners love?
Sinners love darkness. Put on a show for everybody. Hey, look at me. I'm moral. I'm this. It's all a show. What
do they don't like? They don't like the light of
this word because it shows them that they have no righteousness.
That all their righteousness is just pretend. And so what
do they do? They love to hide in the trees. They love confusing religion.
They don't like simple religion. Confusing religion is where the,
you know, nuances. There's no real black and white.
They're just gray. They like that. Now, scripture's
plain. It's black and white. They love darkness rather than
light because their deeds are evil. And I'll tell you this, if you're
ever to be the people of God, if you're ever to be loved of
God, You must be born of God. See, by nature, we were not born
of God. We were products of Adam. And
when we came into this world, how did we come in? We came in
loving our sin and hating God. That's what our common birth...
Listen to what David said. In sin did my mother conceive
me. When were you a sinner? God said this, at conception
you were a sinner. Because you were son of Adam
you were no wise could be claimed to be a son of God. Now this is gloomy. Isn't it? It's gloomy. But I have to tell
you that because that's just so. God says there were people
who were not my people. There were those that were not
beloved, and there were those that were not my sons. But the
gospel comes in, listen, let's read it again. Look back, Hosea
said, I will call them my people which were not my people. Well
here's a positive, the negative is by nature we're not his people.
But God promises this, those that were not my people, listen
what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna call them my people. He said, those that were not
beloved, what is he going to do? I'm going to call them beloved.
Those that were not my children, what are they going to do? I'm
going to call them my children. This is the gospel message. Because of God's will, God's
sovereign will, He has a people. Because of God's sovereign will,
He chose a people for Himself, who by nature, listen, were not
His people. God loved a people who by nature
were not lovable. And God adopted sons who were
by nature not His sons. This is the Gospel. First of
all, Who are the people of God? Who are the people of God? God
says they're by nature, they're not my people. But you know what? I'm going to call them my people.
They're going to become my people. He said, I will call them my
people which were not my. So how does this happen? He's
going to do it by calling, by calling them. All those that have been chosen
of God to be His people were born not His people. They had
no heritage in themselves. They had no covenant of mercy. They sought after a God of their
own imagination. And when God calls them, that's
the first thing they know this. I'm not His people. Now, who
are His people? We named them Israel, right?
That's the whole point of His text, to show that true Israel
are the people of God. True Israel are the people of
God. When Jesus came to the world,
isn't this what He said? Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save, who? His people, from their sin. How then is one who are not the
people of God to be made the people of God? How does that
happen? Simply by the calling of God. How do I know I'm Israel? Because
God's going to only save Israel. That's it. The only way is to
be called of God. God must call you into the camp
The people of God are called. How are they called? Through
the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When the gospels
preach, there you are, you're not the people of God. You're
the children of Adam. You're the sons of Adam, dead
in trespasses and sin. You had no interest in the things
of God, and somebody came and preached the gospel to you. What's
the first thing you learned? First thing you learn is I'm
not Israel. That's the first thing I learned. I'm not His
people. I'm a sinner. I have no hope
of ever earning His favor. That's the first thing you learn. Well, that's good because God's
going to call only those people who are not His people. If you think you're his people
by birth, you're not going to be called. He only calls those
people who know this, that we're not his people. Anybody want to be his people? I do. By nature I'm not, but
I desire to be. How then may I be his people? The same way I became not as
people. It's the same way we become as
people. How did you get kicked out of
being the people of God? Through a representative. I just
told you. Adam represented you. And when he failed, you were
kicked out. The only way then to be brought
back in is by another representative man. Listen to what he said in
that same chapter in Romans 5. He said, For by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners. Not my people. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. My people. Moreover, the law
entered. And why would the law enter?
God says, I'm going to save and I damn by representatives. And
Adam all died. All those in Christ are made
his people. What's the purpose of the law
then? Moreover, the law entered not to help you. Listen to what
it did. The law entered that the offense might abound. See
what the law does? It takes what we know to be sin
and it magnifies it. Sin is a lot bigger than we think
it is. It's a lot worse than we think it is. That's what the
law does, is it magnifies our guilt. It doesn't help us. The
law cannot help you to God. It can't. It can only damn you. That's all it can do. But here's
the gospel, but where sin abounded, grace did much more about. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign, listen, through righteousness
unto eternal life. Where's that come from? Where
does righteousness come from? by Jesus Christ our Lord. Not a combination, not a cooperative
effort. You know, people think it's unfair,
Adam, you know, being a representative. They say, well, you know, what
did I do with Adam? It wasn't my fault. I wasn't there. Yeah, you were. You were in the Adam. Whether
you like it or not. But listen to the good news. just as I was in Adam and died,
even so was I in Christ. Therefore, all my righteousness
was made by another man that I didn't have anything to do
with. I wasn't there, but I was there.
I was in Christ. So you have a common Father.
Therefore, you're not the people by physical birth, but you are
the people of God by spiritual birth. And listen, This covenant
of being his people is a covenant of God. If you are the people of God,
I want you to understand, you are made the people of God by
a covenant. A covenant. Go to Jeremiah and
read this covenant with me. This is one place you can look
at this covenant, Jeremiah 31. See what God says about his people. Look at verse 31. Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant
I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Talking about the law.
That's not the covenant I'm making. which covenant they break. Though I wasn't husband to them,
saith the Lord, but this shall be the covenant I will make with
the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will
put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts,
and will be their God. And what? They shall be my people. We who were not His people. When He calls us, He calls us
according to this covenant. Now He said this a long time
ago. He said, I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
God, it's not a question of, will you be My people? He's not
asking. This is a covenant made by sovereign
decree. Well, who are His people? Everyone
He calls. Everyone He calls. He calls to
life and faith in Christ. You believe on Christ alone.
That's the key. Listen to me. That's the key.
A lot of people believe on Jesus Christ and then they try to add
their works to His. No. Do you believe on Christ
alone? as all your righteousness, all
your wisdom, all your sanctification, all your redemption. That's what
it is to be called. Well, you're the people of God. People of God according to a
covenant. Second of all, the gospel says this, we were not
by nature loved of God, but everyone who is called of God is loved
by God because of a common person. Because of our union with Jesus
Christ, this is the only way we could be loved. All of us have a common trait
of sin and cannot be beloved of God because God hates sin.
But all those that are chosen of God and hear the gospel of
God's grace, what is the message of grace? Is it not forgiveness
of sins? Is it not redemption, payment
for sins? That's the gospel message. This
is the message that is a melody to the hearts of God's people.
It's a song that rings out saying, I am forgiven. Listen to this,
of all my sins. Why? Because that's in that covenant.
He said, I will forgive their iniquities and will remember
their sins no more. What kept us from the love of
God? It was sin. But once we are called of God,
what has he done with sin? Removed it. He's removed it. That's the gospel. He's taken
my sin and he charged it to Christ. made Him to be sin for us who
knew no sin, and punished my sins. I didn't get away with
it. He punished my sins in my representative man. So then the gospel is clear.
All my sin is gone. So far hath He removed our sins. How far? as far as the east is
from the west. Okay, where do they meet? Never. That's how far Christ, that's
how powerful Christ's blood was. That's how perfect His offering
was. Scripture says, but this man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, sat down. What does
that mean? It's done. It's finished. This
is the gospel. And if there is no more sin,
what can separate me from God's love? Isn't that what he tells
us in Romans 8? He says, what shall separate
me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? Nothing. Nothing can separate
me from the love of God. So then, once I was not beloved,
Isn't that what the text says? He said he's going to call them
beloved, who are what? Not her beloved. I want to give
you an illustration of this, because this is beautiful. I
tried to think of an illustration, and I thought, well, why think
of an illustration when God already gives you one? I don't want to try to make up
one. It took me hours. I was sitting there trying to
figure out how to make an illustration. Go to Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel chapter
16. Look at the illustration of God's
love. Ezekiel chapter 16. And look at verse 3. He said, And say, Thus saith
the Lord God unto Jerusalem. Who? My people. See if this does not describe
you who are the people of God. Thy birth and thy nativity was
of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite and
thy mother a Hittite. I don't know exactly how to describe
that, but these are the worst people on the face of the earth. These are the lowest people. I don't know if you can even I mean, the terrorist group out
there that just kill people and hate people. So that's exactly
what these people were like. These people were the worst scum
on the earth. And he said, you know what? That's
your father and mother. And not only that, you were of
two different races, so you were a bastard. You know what they
did with bastards back in those days? They threw them out. They
were useless. For this is thy nativity, in
the day thou was born, thy navel was not cut, thou was not washed
with water to supple thee, thou was not salted nor swaddled at
all, none eyed pitied thee. To do any of these things for
thee, to have compassion on thee, But thou was cast out in the
open field to the loathing of thy person in the day thou was
born. You say, who could do such a
thing to a baby, right? Really? Look at our generation.
Our generation killed a child like that. Yeah, they'd murder a child in
a heartbeat if it got in the way of their career or their,
you know, I don't think that's too far-fetched
from what's happening now, but this is spiritually speaking. This was our birth. We were bastards. We were cast out, polluted in
our own blood, left to die. I know the lost is offended at
this. They say, Oh no, God loves us. God loves everybody. I'm sorry to say, but who did
I tell you He's talking to? My people. He's not talking about
anybody else. And look what God said. He said
in verse 6, But when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine
own blood. I said unto thee, In thy blood
live. Yes, I said unto thee, In thy
blood live. Isn't this true that God didn't
wait for you to get better? He saw you polluted in the blood
of Adam and He said this in spite of that. Live. That's my testimony. That's exactly
what happened to me. I was polluted and he said live. It was not a suggestion. God
said well you might want to pick yourself up there and live. Not
what he said. He said live. You know what I
did? I lived. That's how that works. When God
calls His people, that's how it is. He said this, He said,
I caused thee to multiply, and bud is the field. Thou hast increased,
and waxen great, thou art come in excellent ornaments. Thy breasts
are fashioned, thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked
and bare. He's talking about all the ornaments
of God's salvation. All of the benefits of forgiveness
of sins. Redemption. righteousness, eternal
life, resurrection from the dead, all of the benefits God gave
His people. Look at verse 8, He said, When
I passed by thee and looked upon thee, look at my motive. Look
at God's motive for doing it. Behold, thy time was a time of
love. You could not picture it better.
I was not His people. I was cast out to the loathing
of my own self. I was so full of the blood of
Adam. I was so full of sin that I did
not deserve His love. And yet what did He do? He passed
by and He said, In love live. And not only that, He said, I
spread my skirt over thee, cover thy nakedness. What is that?
The righteousness of Christ. He covered my sin, my nakedness. And then he said, I swear unto
thee. He entered into a covenant with
me. I swear unto thee. Enter into a covenant with thee.
Say it to the Lord. Why? Because you were my people.
You didn't know it, but you were my people. I chose you. Then what did I do? I washed
away. I washed thee with water. Yes, I thoroughly washed away
thy blood from thee. What is this I sinned? He said,
I washed you from your sins. You that have been called, you
are loved. You are loved by God so much
that all of your sins are washed away. They're not just sprinkled.
He said, I washed you. Yes, I thoroughly washed you. So that I will never be charged
with the guilt of my sin again. Never. I will never face the
penalty of my sin. Why? Christ already did it. And then He said, I anointed
thee with oil. He gave us His Spirit. He clothed us with broader
work. Again, a picture of His righteousness. He says in Jeremiah, I have loved
thee. You that were not loved, I loved you. What kind of love does God give? I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Everlasting love. And the last
one is this, we were not his sons by nature. But we who are
called, we are his sons by adoption. By adoption. Ephesians chapter
1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. Where? In Christ. I told you,
union. Love has to do with union. You
cannot be loved of God apart from union with Christ. God's
telling you that your union began long before you knew it. According
as He had chosen us to be His people. He chose us. Christ when
before the foundation of the world Purpose that we should be holy
and without blame Told you we couldn't be loved because of
sin God purposed even before to do away with our sin by Jesus
Christ by Jesus Christ in love Here's his motive in love having
predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself. Adoption. It's one thing to be
the people of God, isn't it? It's one thing to have a king
and you be part of his citizens. It's altogether different to
be the son of a king. Yeah, you're a citizen, but there's
a lot more benefits to be a son than there is just to be a citizen.
Isn't that right? Do you suppose that a king would
treat his son better than a citizen, wouldn't you? God says you're
not just citizen. I didn't just make you my people.
I didn't just love you as a citizen. I loved you as a son. I think of one illustration is
Mephibosheth. Oh, Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth
was a son of Saul. And when David took the throne,
he had every right to kill the sons of Saul. And he did. He killed many of the sons of
Saul so that they would not try to usurp his kingship. But there
was one son of Saul that he spared. And that was Mephibosheth. Why?
Because he made a covenant with Jonathan. David made a covenant
with Jonathan, Mephibosheth's father. And Jonathan said, when
you become king, have mercy on my children. And so when the
time came, old Mephibosheth, he was lame. He couldn't walk. He couldn't run. David sent his soldiers to fetch
him. And there's Mephibosheth in that house of poverty, Lodabar,
and he goes and he fetches these soldiers, come and grab him.
And they take him and they bring him to the king. What do you
think Mephibosheth thought? I'm dead. I'm a dead man. And they threw him down before
the king. And David said, I'm going to
have mercy. Because of your father, listen,
because of your father, not because of you, because of your father,
I'm going to show you mercy. This is the mercy I'm going to
show you. You're going to sit at my table with my sons the
rest of your life. It's one thing to be made the
people of God. You have to be. God only saves
his people. It is important that you be loved of God. Only God
can love those who are in Christ. That's it. You won't love anybody
outside of Christ. But once you are loved and you're
the people of God, this is vital that you keep this in mind, that
you are a son of the living God. That's what he says in our text. He said, you that are not my
people, there shall they be called the children of the living God. We sing that hymn, My Father
is Rich. Do you know how rich God is? Can you measure that? He's rich
in houses and lands. He holdeth the wealth of the
world in his hands, rubies and diamonds of silver and gold.
His coffers are full. His riches unknown. My father's
own son, the savior of men, once wandered on earth, the poorest
of them. But now he is reigning forever
on high and will give me a home in heaven by and by. I once was
an outcast, stranger on earth, a sinner by choice, an alien,
by birth. But I've been adopted. My name's
written down, an heir of a mansion, a robe, and a crown. So a tent
or a cottage, why should I care? He's built for me a palace for
me over there. Though exiled from home, Yet
still I may sing, all glory to God, I am a child of the King."
Now listen, there are times, believer, that you don't feel
like you're the people of God. You feel like you're still outcast. At times, believer, you feel
unloved. And I'll tell you that oftentimes
I do not feel like I'm a child. But I want you to know that my
feelings have absolutely zero to do with the assurance of these
things. Everyone God calls and believes. You may claim these
things regardless of how you feel. Why? Because I'm the people of God
by covenant. I am beloved of God because I
have a representative man who earned everything I need. I am a child of the King by spiritual
adoption and spiritual birth. You know, John says this, it
does not yet appear what we shall be. Isn't that right? It don't appear. It does not appear what we shall
be. But we shall be like Him when
He appears, when He comes. He said, now are we the sons
of God. Now. And it does not yet appear
what we shall be. Now we're the sons of God. It
don't seem like it. But I am. Providence may not
seem like it, but I am. Why, that doesn't have anything
to do with it, does it? Does providence have anything to do with my sonship?
No. I know this, only those that
believe are His people. Only those that believe are loved.
And only those that believe are His children. Is that you? If it is, you are in a good place,
regardless of what you're experiencing. I pray God will bless this to
you. Just stand and be dismissed in prayer. Glenn, dismiss us in prayer,
please. you Thank you. Okay. Thank you.