All right, if you wish to follow
along, turn back again to Romans chapter 9. Now, some of my scripture
readings have kind of been a little overlap from where I was the
last Sunday I was here to preach. But what I want to try to concentrate
on this morning is Romans 9, verses 22 through 26. So let's
read those words. You follow along as I read. 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 Osea, or
that is Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my
people, and her beloved, which was not beloved, and this is,
think about this, and it shall come to pass that in the place
where it was said unto them, ye are not my people, there,
now I'm saying that I'm at, in that place, in that very place,
There shall they be called the children of the living God. My title for this morning is
this, and I won't concentrate solely upon that, but I hope
you will see what I'm getting at as we go through the message
here. My title is this, Relationship
and Union with God. Relationship and Union with God,
one place. one place. Now we've already
looked at, in some detail, at verses 22 and 23, and actually
24. But just to quickly recap, God
has, God does, and God will show His wrath. God's wrath is not something
men force God to do. It is that which God brings upon
men and women in justice because of their sins. As I've said before,
God's wrath's not like a tea kettle and it heats up and it
heats up and it heats up, then the next thing you know, it starts
going off. God's wrath is controlled in
absolute justice. But I thank God that God has,
does, and will show mercy. Were He only a God of wrath,
none of us would have hope. The best among us would have
no hope. And the worst among us would
be likewise as well, because in fact, we've all sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Glory to God's name for His mercy. But as we read here, there are
some, those who God shows mercy, he in fact aforeprepared them
to that mercy. So the question is, right now,
who are they? Who is it that God shows mercy
to? I said who, not why. We were
told why back up here when we looked at Jacob and Esau. The
why resides only in the character and the person and the perfection
of God himself. But this mercy is manifested.
I'm not talking about why, but who. Why does God show mercy? God shows mercy because he will.
He wills to show mercy, period. That's why he shows mercy. But
who, who? According to the Apostle Paul,
our dear brother, he will show mercy to those he calls. Isn't that what it says? Yes,
sir. Verse 24, this mercy, this mercy
that make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
which yet aforeprepared unto glory, even us, But it's a particular
us. It's not just any old willy nilly
can read this Bible and say, oh, this applies to me. Not necessarily. Even us. Whom he hath called,
do you see it? Whom he hath called, no man or
woman has any right to think God has showed them mercy until
after God first calls them. And it does not say we show mercy
because we call on God though call on God we must Call on God
we must We're told whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. But God doesn't show us mercy
because we call on him. He calls us in mercy and brings
us to call upon him. And let's go back quickly, look
at that. You know, you're familiar with this. Romans 8, 28. And
we know all things work together for good. But it is qualified. To them that love God. But that's
even qualified to them who are the called according to his purpose. Not just any kind of calling,
not a religious calling. Not asking men and women to come
to the front of the church and pray some prayer or make some
decision. It's to be called of God according to his purpose. for whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he, that is the son, might be the firstborn among many brethren. And it's a number that no man
can number. I know some people hear us preach
and they think, well, you're acting like it's only just a
couple handfuls. Oh, no. Oh, no, God is merciful to myriads
of fallen sons and daughters of Adam, but he's not merciful
to all the sons and daughters of Adam. That he that is Christ
might be the firstborn among many brethren and he is And he
shall see all of them gathered one day around his side Moreover
whom he did predestinate them. He also what called So you gotta
you have to have been predestinated by God first before you'll ever
receive this calling and Any other calling is of no value
whatsoever, apart from this calling. There's nothing wrong with coming
forward and making a public profession of faith. But that's not how
you get God's mercy. If you ever do that, crying out
to God for mercy, it's because he's already given you mercy
and called you to it in Christ Jesus. Moreover, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, excuse
me, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things, if God be for us, who could be against us? And then
look. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all, this particular us all here. How shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? Well, a man needs to repent.
And if God, if you're the called of God, he will call you to repentance.
And if you're one of God's call, he'll call you to faith in Jesus
Christ. Because what Jesus Christ did on that tree assured that
every other necessity would be given by God. That's what this
says here. We're not denying the necessity,
the absolute necessity of repentance and faith and perseverance and
love and union and desire and obedience. But those things can
only come because Jesus Christ died in our room and in our stead. Aren't you glad for that? But
now, let me give you four main points from our brother Paul.
And the bulk of my message will be on the third and fourth point.
Number one, I'm just gonna make this statement. We'll look at
a couple spots. I'll move through the first two quickly. Gentile
inclusion. Gentile inclusion, according
to the Apostle Paul, was and never is an afterthought with
God. Never is. We just read it, verse
24, 25, 26. Even us, whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. Now notice he
uses the word Jews here, not Israel. Because he's about to
quote from a prophet in which, in that prophet's day, Israel,
the Jews were split into two different nations. The northern
nation and the southern nation. The northern nation of Israel
and the southern nation of Judah. They were all Jews. But even
nationally, they weren't all Israel anymore. One was called
Israel, the other was called Judah. But we'll look at that
more in a moment. Gentile inclusion is not an afterthought with God. And you can read that, Paul,
so let's just know that in Galatians chapter three, if you wish to
read that with me as I, Galatians chapter three. Verse five, he therefore that
ministereth to you the spirit and worketh miracles among you,
doeth he it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith.
Now, we're not gonna deal with the main thought that Paul's
getting at here, but I wanna show you this. Even as Abraham
believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, this
is Abraham now, remember? He preceded the law of Moses.
He preceded the Sinai law and the Levitical laws and the rules
and the regulations and the ordinances. When Abraham lived, the only
law that existed was one, God's holy law and God's own mind and
what God had wrote in men's hearts. But that is all messed up because
of our fallen Adam. But look, even as Abraham believed
God and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. In Abraham's day, in Paul's day,
or in our day. If we are of faith, if we've
been called into the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are
a child of Abraham. Look, and the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before
the gospel unto Abraham saying, now granted it wasn't much detail
about the gospel, But inspired writer himself, our brother,
calls it the gospel. So that makes it the gospel,
even if the details of it was very limited at the time. Saying,
in thee shall all nations, all nations, not just one, not just
two, but all nations be blessed. So then they which are of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. Number one. Now folks, I don't
want to convolute what I'm about to say, but I want to mention
I was born and raised in dispensational theology. Some of you here have
never had that trouble, you've never had that eel placed upon
you, you never was in the Sunday schools, but I was born and raised,
I cut my eye teeth as we say, on dispensational religion. I
don't want to go into that. other than to say this, one of
the main problems with the dispensational doctrine is this, in its most
hyper form, I'm not saying everybody holds this, in its most hyper
form, they actually teach that there were seven, six, seven,
or eight dispensations, I don't remember for sure, and God saved
people in different ways under different dispensations. That's
not so. The first two sinners God saved
are the two he clothed with coats of skins. That's right. OK? The next one we see to save is
Noah, and Noah found what? G-R-A-C-E, in the eyes of the
Lord. Amen. And after that ordeal with
the flood was over, what's one of the first things Noah did
when he got off that boat? Offered sacrifice to God in awe. and on and on, because right
at the get-go of our fall, God Almighty promised the coming
of the Messiah. And that's how every person who's
ever been saved or will ever be saved is by that Messiah. Here's the second problem with
this dispensationalism. They teach that God has two peoples
on the earth. One is the nation of Israel,
and that includes everybody that was born of the loins of Abraham. But first of all, the problem
is Abraham was not an Israelite. There were no Israelites until
Jacob was born, and his name was changed to Israel, and then
his sons came along. They were Israel, but I digress. Quickly, the second problem with
the dispensationalism is this. God has these promises and mercies
and covenants to Israel as a nation. And he worked basically, I know
I'm cutting this short, and I don't mean to build a straw man, because
I'm not here as a diatribe against dispensationalism. but they basically
have God fulfilling salvation to the Jews through sacrifices
and offerings and animal blood and all of these things. But
then that didn't work real well even for Israel, so now God's
got this Israel Gentile thing with Jesus Christ. Now folks,
you may, us here may think that's crazy, but I was born and bred
in that kind of stuff. And Mac, it is still taking me
years and I still have some of that old rubbish laying around.
I still have a lot of that old rubbish laying around that I've
got to keep brushing out of the way. So first of all, Gentile
inclusion never ever was an afterthought with God. Now here's what I'm
going to even criticize myself and some phrases I used to use.
The New Testament church is no unknown gap nor parentheses The
New Testament church is exactly what God ordained before the
foundation of the world to take place at this present time. And
we, as the New Testament church, we know a whole lot more than
some of our brothers and sisters did. We know a whole lot more
doctrine, Joe, a whole lot more of the character of God and who
he is, but we were saved by no less or more grace than Abraham,
our father, was. The same grace, the same blood
of Jesus Christ, the same person called Jesus Christ. The church
is not a gap. I've used it before. You may
go back and listen to some of my old messages. You will hear
me say that. God forgive me for that. Like I said, the rubbish
is still there. But here's number three. God
purposed. He purposed this, a natural absence
of relationship with himself. And that happened through the
fall. We're not going back through that. God purposed a natural
absence of relationship with himself, which all are under
by nature, not just a Jew or not just a Gentile. Paul said
we before proved we're all, Jew and Gentile, we're all under
sin. None of us have a natural relationship
with God. We lost that in our daddy Adam
in the garden. Jew or Gentile. As a matter of
fact, back then I guess we were all just Gentiles. There wasn't
no Jews until Abraham come along. And there was no Israelites until
Jacob come along. So God purposed natural absence
of relationship with himself, which all have by nature, Jew
or Gentile, and God purposed natural absence of personal intimate
reunion with himself, which all have by nature. God purposed
by electing mercy that the called would all be first be brought
into relationship with him, verse 25. Let me get back to Romans
nine. Now turn here with me. Look at
what it says. And as saith also, as he saith also in OC, or Hosea,
I will call them my people, which was not my people, and her beloved,
which was not my beloved. And he applies this to the Gentiles.
As well as the Jews, right? Look at the previous verse, even
us. That's qualified, the us is qualified,
whom he hath called. Somebody says, well, I think
I'm one of God's elect. I think he showed me mercy in
Christ before the world began. Upon what basis? You have no
right to think that until God calls you. And when God calls
you, you're going to start to repent, you're going to start
to believe, you're going to start to serve, you're going to start to love.
Look, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles, as he saith also in OC. And we will look
at it here in a minute. You go back and read OC, OC don't
mention nothing about no Gentiles. But yet Paul applies it to both
Jews and Gentiles. But one thing we will see in
the nation of Jews at that time, they were what? Divided. They
were two separate peoples. When they were brought into the
judgment of captivity, the judgment of God, God dealt with Israel
and Judah separately. And he took the northern nation
of Israel, the northern Jews, and took them into captivity
in Syria. And they were dispersed amongst
the inhabitants of the world. And those 10 tribes were lost
forever. Back then, not in 70 AD when
the temple was destroyed, that northern nation was obliterated. But then you had the southern
part. Judah, they were taken into captivity in Babylon. And they existed for a long time.
And they still had their records. And at times they had their temple,
they had a rebuilt temple after the captivity of Babylon. They
had another temple called Herod's temple that was built for them
by Herod. They had all of those things. And in 70 AD, God wiped
all of that out. He wiped all of that out. As
I said, look, as he saith also in OC, I will call them my people
which were not my people. That's what I mean when I'm talking
about relationship with. To be called someone's people
means what? You have a relationship with that person, right? Okay,
as also, they are all of the called will be brought into relationship
with God. That's the first part of verse
25. But all the call will be brought into personal, intimate
union with God as well, the last part. And her beloved, which
was not beloved, we're not just his people, but we are his beloved. You see that? So you have both
actual relationship, but it's not a natural relationship. And
you have actual intimate union with God, but it's not based
upon a natural thing. It's a Jew or Gentile, either
one. That's not the point. It's a work of God that takes
place for this. That's what Paul's talking about
here. So all of the call will be brought into this personal
intimate union with God. This is no dispensational salvation.
This is the way God's always saved everybody. And even though
the prophet said that it shall come to pass, and we'll look
at that in a moment, and it shall come to pass, it doesn't mean
it wasn't true for every individual God saved from the first one
up until this time. Noah was brought into a intimate,
personal, living union with God Almighty. And it wasn't by law,
it wasn't by conscience, it wasn't by sacrifice, it was by G-R-A-C-E. It was by grace. Here's the truth narrowed down
even further to its most common denominator. This is point number
four. Relationship and union with God is in a certain place. See it? And it shall come to
pass. How is it different now than
it was back then? Back then it was only a remnant
amongst the tribes of Judah. Or maybe possibly a remnant of
Jews amongst the 10 tribes of Israel. Even in Isaiah's day,
God told Isaiah, only a remnant shall be saved. And Paul deals
with that over in chapter 11, doesn't he? He said even so this
present time, there's also a remnant according to the election of
grace. So this relationship and union
with God is in a certain place, verse 26. And it shall come to
pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are
not my people, there shall they be called the children of the
living God. Now turn to Hosea. I've got one
up on you. I have mine marked. It's right after Daniel, but
I have trouble finding Daniel sometimes. Turn to Hosea chapter
one. See, when somebody says, well,
you can't apply that truth to the New Testament church, because
that applies to Israel. Well, they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel, so you can't apply it all to every Israelite,
can you? And he's not a Jew, which is
one outwardly, and circumcision is not that of the flesh, it's
in here. It's in here and that that's not a new doctrine. That's
not a new way of salvation Moses told the Israelites in his day
God's gonna have to circumcise your heart That work was already
been done back then Here's gonna be here's the amazing thing now.
Are you at Hosea chapter 1? Let's read Hosea from our brother
Paul's quote. And I will start for sake of
time in verse six. And you pardon me if I butcher a couple of these
names. I've tried to practice them a little, but I mean, I'm
just, I'm not real educated in that. And she conceived again. This is Hosea's wife, Gomer,
and we're not even gonna talk about, you know the account of
Hosea and Gomer. And she conceived again, barren
daughter. God said unto him, call her name
Lo-Ruhamah. Look at it. For I will no more
have mercy upon the house of Israel. Whoa. Whoa. But I will utterly take them
away. Now every dispensationalist,
whether they like me being against dispensationalism or whatever,
that's just as much true as anything else God's ever said. And when
the 10 tribes, the 10 northern tribes were taken into captivity,
they ceased to exist. They had no more record of who
they were born from. They had no idea who they are.
If one exists today in their May, they can't prove it. And even Judah, which still had
the records. If you know anything about Jewish
history, you know where they kept those records? In the temple. In 70 AD, those records were
destroyed. Okay, I remember. But look, but
I will have mercy upon the house of Judah. Why, because Judah
was any better than Israel? No, Judah rebelled too. She, or he, went into captivity
in Babylon. You see it? But I will have mercy
upon the house of Judah. What is it? God's sovereign in
this thing. He hardens whom he will, but whoever he hardens
is still just because of their sin. And if it shows mercy, no
justice is crumbled, passed to the side. God does this, Paul
done preached it well, that message. It's a prelude, excellent to
what I'm giving you here. But I will have mercy upon the house
of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God, and I
will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor
by horses, nor by horsemen. This ain't about physical things.
It's about God conquering people down in here. Now, when she had
weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived him by her son. Okay, that's
it, she conceived him by her son. Then said God, call his
name Lo-Ammi, for ye are not my people. What? What? What? The only people that are
truly God's people are those God chose in Christ before the
foundation of the world. Jew or Gentile. Israel or Judah. Now look, we're not done yet.
Then said God, call his name Lo-Ammi for you're not my people
and I will not be your God. I mean, can you imagine hearing
that? Yet. The number of the children
of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured
nor numbered, and it shall come to pass that in the place where
it was said unto them, you are not my people, there shall it
be said unto them, you are the sons of the living God. Then, look at it, then shall
the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered
together and appoint themselves one head. There's your place. And that place, I'm here to declare,
is a person. a person. There shall the children
of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together and
appoint themselves one head." They don't have to wait to the
millennium. I'm not throwing off on the millennium, but there
ain't no waiting to the millennium. You either get it in Christ when
you live now or you don't ever get it. whether this day or the
millennium. Salvation's always been by this
one head, but here's the difference. Judah and Israel will come back
together, but they ain't gonna have any idea who's really Judah
and who's really Israel. It don't matter, because in Christ Jesus,
there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, Greek nor poor,
male or female. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Look, they point themselves one
head, they shall come up out of the land, for great shall
be the day of Jezreel. Now let's look at this. One head
for Judah, one head for Israel, in spite of verse six. And in
light of verse six, you see it? In spite of verse six, and Paul
says that the Gentiles, according to chapter nine, verse 23 through
26, are included in that number. The Gentiles who are called are
included in that number. They, all three, Judah, Israel,
the Gentiles, all three shall gather, that is, grasp or collect. They have gathered together,
that is, to unite as one. And they will appoint, which
means to put or commit or to determine or to head up themselves
under what? One head. You see it? one head. But note, for great shall be
the day of Jezreel. We read it, didn't we? Jezreel
is this. Great will be the day of God's
strengthful, mighty planting and sowing. Now turn with me
to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Oh, God help us. There's some
things you can be wrong about and still go to glory. But you
cannot reject the truth of the personal work of Jesus Christ
and think that you will pass into eternal glory with Jesus
Christ. You'll either be made to love him now, and you'll still
love him then, or you'll never love him and you will be condemned
by him, one or the other. Now, 1 Corinthians chapter one,
or three, I'm sorry. First Corinthians chapter three,
verse one. And I, brethren, could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and
not with meat, for hitherto you're not able to bear it. Neither
yet now are you able. For are you not carnal? And what
was their carnality? Now, folks, they had a lot of
carnality in Corinth. But look at the carnality he's
talking about. This ain't about incest. This ain't about drunkenness. This is about bragging on preachers.
You see it? He calls that carnality, bragging
on preachers. Look, for ye are yet carnal,
for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions,
are you not carnal and woke as men? Now you're going to give
it to us. For while one saith, I'm of Paul,
and another, I'm of Apollos, and are you not carnal? God saved me under Paul, now
he's an apostle. Now, Apollos, I know he speaks
very well, he's very eloquent, but I was called under an apostle.
And somebody else says, well, but you know, Paul, he's wise,
man, but he just don't have that, his messages don't have that
oratory power like Apollos does. Well, I know I was converted
because I was under Apollos. I thought, that's carnal. It's
carnal. For while one saith, I'm of Paul,
and another, I'm of Paulus. Are you not carnal? Who then
is Paul? And who is of Paulus? But ministers by whom he believed.
But it ain't because of their power, even as the Lord gave
to every man. If God used Paul's preaching
to convert you, that's because God gave it to Paul for that.
Yes, sir. And if God used Paulus to convert
you, then God determined that too. Even that's up to God. He didn't just send his men out
there to preach and then, like an insurance agent, hope to hit
as many doors as you can, maybe get a few folks in. God's calling
out the exact number that he purposed to call before the foundation
of the world. But look at it. I have planted,
Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. Do you see that?
He gave it. He just gives it. Now let me
tell you, we dare not ever despise watering and planting and watering.
No, sir. But God gives the increase. This
is all up to God. Do you see it? I have planted,
Apollos watered, but God, God gave the increase. So then, neither
is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but
here it is, but God that giveth the increase. Whether it's Jew
or Gentile, Unbeknownst to them or not Israel or Judah even natural
descendants, that's all up to God It's all up to God's never
saved one Jew just because they were a Jew How do I know that go back to
Romans 9 Romans 9 let me read it Verse Let me find my spot, verse
10. And not only this, this is another
illustration, he's already gave a couple more. And not only this,
but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even our father Isaac
for the children, being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that what? Calleth. You
see it? Calleth. And God didn't save
us just because we're Gentiles and we ain't like those filthy
Jews. Because we're nothing but filthy Gentiles. We're all of
the same lump. You see, Paul is, in this chapter,
chapter nine, well actually after chapter eight, nine, 10, 11,
God, Paul is just hammering, hammering, hammering on the free
reigning sovereign grace of God. He's relentless, he won't quit. He just keeps on and keeps on.
He breaks down the Jewish barriers. He breaks down the Israelite
barriers. He breaks down the Judah barriers. He breaks down
the Greeks or the wise barriers. He breaks down the Gentile or
the immoral all over the world. He breaks it all down and says
salvation is by God in Christ. There is no other way. has never
ever been any other way, and there will never ever be any
other way than other by Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, apply
these things to our hearts. Help us to rejoice in them and
find some comfort and strength. In Christ's name, amen.