All right, brethren, if you will,
let's open to Romans chapter 9. We look at Joseph and his brethren.
They meant evil to Joseph. And they went on in that evil
for a season. They continued for a while, but
not until they died. They were brought back. The prodigal
son left. He said, you give me what part's
mine. Oh, I've got enough to make it
for a lifetime now. I'm going to head out on my own.
I'm going to be fine." And he left. But before he died, he
went broke, didn't he? He had to come home. He had to
come home. There have been many brethren,
and I'm telling you this from experience. I've got enough wealth
in me. I can make it on my own. I've
got tapes or i've got recordings or i've got books i can read
i can make it on my own i'm gonna go out in the world and do what
i want to do pray the lord keeps them brethren
before they die he brings them back to himself and if he if
they're his they will be brought home top of message tonight salvation
declared and fulfilled That's why they have to be brought home.
The Lord said, I'm going to save my people. I ain't going to lose
a one of them. And that has to be fulfilled. Always has been, always will
be. He's going to fulfill his salvation and his people. Though this written letter to
the Church of Rome that Paul wrote, this book of Romans, it's
a written letter. But let's not forget that Paul
is preaching to them He's preaching to you, and He's preaching to
me. This book of Romans is an evangelical message. It's an
experiential message, and it's an instructive message. What's
those things mean? That's the kind of preaching.
That means it calls out God's people that never heard Him.
It comforts those that know Him, and it instructs those that know
Him. You can't preach the gospel unless all three of those happen.
If you preach the gospel, all three of those will happen. But
our text tonight is so easy to just skim over. I've always been
prone to read something like this, and I say to myself, oh,
I get the gist of that. I know what that means, and just
go on to the next thing, right? What a sin against God. Oh, I
pray, keep me from that. This will be our text tonight.
Romans 9, verse 25. And he saith also in Osi, 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, ye are not my people,
there shall they be called the children of the living God."
We have a great privilege tonight. We have a great privilege in
having these scriptures for us, preserved for us. Chapter 9,
verse 4 and 5 tells us of the privilege that physical Israel
had. The Lord was constantly declared
in picture and in type, in gospel messages from His prophets to
those people, and in His presence being with them. Most turned
away. Most refused Him. But it was
not a waste. The Lord did not fail in doing
this and allowing this to happen. He said there in verse 6, Not
as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are
not all Israel which are of Israel. They're not all Israel which
are of Israel. What's he talking about? You
think he'll go on and explain this to us? Of course he will.
Paul goes on to tell us that the children of the promise not
the children of the flesh, the children of the promise are those
that are counted for the seed. He is a spiritual Israel, spiritual
nation. And from verses nine through
15, we read about the elect, we read about the electing love
of God and his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, how God, the father
chose a people, not a fleshly nation, but a spiritual nation
in Christ before the world was. And he did this for his glory
and for our benefit. It was the reason that we can
say, so we can say, him that glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord. Everything was taken out of our
hands. There in verse 16 it says, so then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. That's where our mercy comes
from. Verses 17-21 we're given a great picture of our condition
in front of the Almighty God. Potter and the clay. We are the
clay. He is the potter. We're molded
lumps of red earth, just like our father Adam. And Christ is
the potter, the most high God, does with us as he sees fit.
He makes vessels of honor and he makes vessels of dishonor.
Who are we to question him? We're just clay. And in verse
22, Paul begins to pose a question to you and me. 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 for
destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His
glory on the vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared unto
glory? The Lord is willing to show His
wrath. His wrath will be shown. because
he is just and justice must be performed. But the apostle here
is asking. I ask you, I ask me, I ask myself,
what if the Lord of heaven and earth is holding off on this
deserved wrath just to make his riches known to his vessels of
honor? All this wickedness around us,
this foolishness that's around us. But we didn't come down and
crush it yet. Why? He has vessels of honor
in this world that He's going to show His riches to. Those
prepared before unto glory. Those He chose before time began. He's going to preserve all this
just to reveal Christ in them. Just to save them. Imagine that. God preserving a whole world
that hates Him. Just to let His child know the
riches of His glory and mercy towards them. Towards an undeserving
people. That's too good to be true. That's
amazing. If I were just presenting an
intellectual idea to you, that's pretty complicated. That's immense,
isn't it? He will save His people. But Paul continues. This question
isn't over. He said, even us, there in verse
24, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles." All of this salvation completed. All of this
earth preserved, though it deserves total divine wrath. Everything
is sustained because Christ died for a people and none will be
lost. All of them will come to know
Christ and they will worship Him now and forever. They will be brought to His feet
to worship Him. And it ends there, verse 24, but also of the Gentiles,
question mark. That's what completes the question.
So I kind of hung on that for a little bit. All of this world
being sustained for the Lord to reveal Christ and His people
to the elect in that physical nation, Israel, those that He
had before, but also of the Gentiles. Now, as far as I know, I preach
mostly to Gentiles. I think mostly would be a safe
bet. We don't have that privilege of the physical nation that Israel
had that we saw at the beginning of the chapter. We're not physically
set apart. We haven't had miracles performed
so often around us. We had the tabernacle that was
literally, inside and out, a picture, everything in it, a picture of
Christ. a picture of salvation by God.
We didn't have these feasts and all these ceremonies that just
told the story over and over, salvations of the Lord. We made
our own traditions, made our own customs, made our own idols,
our own religion and pictures without any knowledge. We try
to keep a law that ain't even a law that's given to us. Making up our own laws and customs
all the while, we're still sons of Adam. Why me? Why would God reveal the riches
of His mercy, His grace, and glory to a poor, self-serving,
Gentile dog like me? Why would He preserve this world,
let this world keep spinning, hating Him out loud, to me, for
me? Why me? The natural heart of
a man hears God's salvation. He hears what all these scriptures
declare, and he says, why not me? That's an old man. Why not me? The child of God,
who's been humbled, who's been given a contrite heart, they
are enabled to ask, why me? Are you ever humbled and brought
low to see a fraction of the evil that we truly are? And do
you ask, why would God save me? Here comes comfort. Moved by
God, the Holy Spirit to write this, our brother Paul continues
to preach a gospel message to us. He's comparing Scripture
with Scripture for the rest of this passage, but we're only
going to look at one of them. They didn't have the New Testament
then to preach out of. He was writing it. That's what
he was writing. But they still looked at the
Scriptures. It says in verse 25, Romans 9, 25, And he saith
also in Osi, I will call them my people which were not my people,
and her beloved which was not beloved. That is salvation declared. I'm going to save a people. They're
not beloved. They're going to be my beloved.
Now here is salvation fulfilled. Verse 26, and it shall come to
pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are
not my people. This is precious. Where sin is
declared and wrath and justice are delivered. In that place,
The place where it said, you're not my people, there shall they
be called the children of the living God. We'll get to this
in a minute. This is beautiful. I pray the
Lord will show this to His people tonight. Let us rejoice in this.
Who's Osi? I come across the name sometimes.
I don't know exactly who it is. I'll catch what I can and I keep
going, right? Osi is Hosea. Well, next week we'll see what
Paul brings out there in just a couple verses down out of Isaiah. But for this evening, let's turn
to Hosea chapter 1 and read where Paul got this text. Just a few
books to the right of Psalms and Proverbs, you've got Ezekiel,
Daniel, and then Hosea. If you've ever read Hosea, you
remember that from just one end to another, It's just a declaration
of the love of God towards His people, towards an undeserving
people. What a picture it is. But Hosea
means, the name means Deliverer. That's the same name as Joshua. Same name as Jesus. And in this book, Hosea is a
picture of Christ and Gomer is a picture of those that Christ
saved, of His children. Now let's keep that in mind.
Stay with me this evening. Hosea is a picture of Christ.
Gomer is His people. Now Hosea 1, we'll begin in verse
2. Hosea 1, 2. The beginning of the word of
the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said unto Hosea,
Take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms, for
the land hath committed great whoredom departing from the Lord."
The Lord said to Hosea, you go take a wife of whoredoms. You
go marry a sinful, undeserving, rebelling bride in a cursed land
that cannot do anything to save herself. One who is completely
in sin. and completely unable to save
themselves, and you go make her complete. You go make her whole. Before man walked this earth,
the Lord said to Christ, you go take a wife of whoredoms,
completely undeserving and unable, and you make her complete. You
make her whole in your body and in your blood, from your person
and your work. You make her whole. Restore her. Now in verse 3, So he went and
took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, which conceived and bare him
a son. God gave Hosea instruction and it says, So he went. And
he took Gomer. And her name, Gomer translated
means completion. She was found to be completely
in sin. Completely unable, but Hosea
will make her complete, make her whole in his ability and
in his love. After he married Gomer, that
union produced life. She bore Hosea a son. Hosea loved
Gomer. He provided for her. He put life
in her and they had two sons and a daughter. They gave a good,
happy home for her. And what did she do in return?
How did she honor such a loving husband? Already brought her
out of the dung heap once, didn't he? She returned to her old ways
and to her old husband. Now remember, Hosea is Christ. Gomer is me. Gomer is his children. Look in chapter 2, verse 2. Says, plead with your mother,
plead. For she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. Let
her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries
from between her breasts. He is saying that Gomer ain't
gonna stop doing what she's doing. She's returned to the way she
was. She's not acting like a wife. She doesn't respect me as her
husband. She doesn't acknowledge that we're married. And she ain't
going to stop going after her desires and her flesh and will
not be faithful to me alone. And it says, plead, pray for,
because going down this road is going to end in death. Can
I cut to the bone and apply it to us? You hear this gospel of
a loving, wonderful husband puts life in you and you run from
it. If you keep going down that road,
and you abandon Him, and you don't act like a bride, and you
don't act like He's your husband, and you run from Him, and you
die that way, it leads to death. Now verse 3, Hosea 2.3, Verse 4, and I will not have
mercy upon her children, for they be the children of Hortense.
All the fruit she's producing is not from me. We're going to
go plant a church and get a bunch of people in with a basketball
team, but we'll change her gospel a little bit. We'll tone it down
so we can get more people in there, and then we'll teach them
later. The Lord's going to not bless that fruit. He ain't going
to hear them children. They're not from Him. Verse 5, For their mother hath
played the harlot. She that conceived them hath
done shamefully. For she said, I will go after
my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my
flax, mine oil and my drink. We always think the grass is
greener on the other side, don't we? I do. Our bellies are filled. Having
a fun time. There's more entertainment. More
productivity, it seems, but it's all mine. My wine, my flax, my
oil, my doing. In my head, it's a wonderful
time. We run and run, thinking what we're doing is just wonderful.
But if we're the bride of Christ, we will not be left to ourselves. It won't be that sin unto death.
There's going to be a returning. Therefore, behold, I will hedge
up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find
her path. And she shall follow after her
lovers, that she shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them,
but she shall not find them. Then shall she say, I will go
and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me
than now. Because Gomer is the bride of
Hosea, He is going to hedge up her ways about her, and He's
going to drive her back to Himself. Child of God that runs off. The Lord's going to hedge up
their way, shut down everything around them, and drive them back
to Himself. Verse 8, For she did not know
that I gave her corn. and wine and oil and multiplied
her silver and gold, which they prepared for bail." This whole
time that Gomer thought she was being fed and took care of and
doing it herself, she thought it was her lovers doing this.
It was not those lovers. It was not herself doing it.
It was her husband, Hosea, one she had abandoned. Now, in spite
of all the shame that this bride has brought, In spite of all
the ignorance this bride had and all of her dishonoring and
despising of Hosea, he looked after her. He hedged her about
and he provided for the bride that the Lord gave him. He made
that bride his responsibility. He said, you're going to provide
for her and you're going to love her. Hosea provided for her and
loved her. The whole time. Hosea goes on
to say there that he's going to stop making it easy on Gomer.
He's going to take away everything that he's been providing for
her and make her see her lewdness, her sin. He's going to make her
understand what she's done. And in verse 14, Hosea 2.14,
Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her in the wilderness,
and I'm going to give her a good whooping. I know what it says,
is it? And speak comfortably to her.
Joseph had his brothers come up there. He didn't backhand
them. He spoke comfortably to them.
That father and son come back. He said, give him a ring. Take
my jacket and put it on him. Oh, he's home. He didn't whip
him. Hosea is going to draw Gomer back to himself through many
means. He's going to speak peace to
her. The Lord's child hears him. A new spirit is put in them and
they depart. They are going to be drawn back
by who knows what means. The Lord does. And He is going
to speak peace to their hearts. Verse 19. And I will betroth
thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in
mercies. I will even betroth thee unto
me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord." This is
the purpose and the providence that our Savior set forth. This
is salvation declared. He was married to his bride before
creation. We ran as fast as we could to
our heart's desire, to our own lusts. And he provided the whole
time, unbeknownst to us. We thought we'd take care of
ourselves. Oh, I'm doing good things, getting along just fine.
Everything's great. And when the time's right in
his time, He will draw us off to ourselves alone in the wilderness,
coming into our heart, just us and Him, a public show, and He's
going to speak peace to our hearts. And all of this is going to be
performed in full righteousness. All judgment will be fulfilled.
It'll be in loving kindness. This ain't just simple obligation
of Hosea. This isn't a simple obligation
of our Savior. Well, this is the job I got to
do. I got to do it. Try to do a good job at it. It's
going to be out of love. And we will know that all this
is done in mercy. I didn't deserve this. I deserve
punishment. He didn't punish me. We will
then be fully betrothed, we'll be fully married, fully committed
to Christ and His faithfulness, and we will know the Lord, be
reconciled to God. But we're going to be brought
down first. We're not going to come back
with our noses still in the air, come back with a haughty spirit. We're
going to be brought down before we're brought home. Yomer was. from the doing of Hosea, from
his adding here and taking away there, him hedging her about,
she got herself in an awful mess. All by her hand. Can't blame
Hosea on that. Well, you hedged me about. Oh,
it's your doing. That's us. Can't blame the Lord for the
situation I'm in. I did it to myself. And she ended
up on a slave block to be auctioned off. Remember there in Romans 9.25, it says, And he
said, Saith also on Hosea, I will call them my people which were
not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved. That's salvation declared. Nothing's
happened yet. Hosea's telling you what he's
going to do. Christ declared this before the earth was what
he's going to do. And boy, we don't look like we deserve mercy,
do we? Don't look like we ought to be gracious, have somebody
be gracious to us. We ended up on a slave block,
sold ourselves because we couldn't afford anything else. When Gomer
was as low as she could get, when you and I are brought as
low as we can get, destitute, and we're under the law, when
she said, I'll be sold, well, the handcuffs go on. Ain't changing
now, you're under. No way to buy ourselves out from
it, from underneath it. All at the full mercy of whoever
will redeem us. I'm up for sale. And in chapter
3, verse 1. Hosea chapter 3, verse 1. Then said the Lord unto me, Go
yet. The Lord spoke to Hosea and He
said, You go back to her. Go again. Love a woman beloved
of her friend, yet an indulgence. Go again, a woman loved by her
husband, but not loving him. You love her, still at enmity,
still at sin, according to the love of the Lord toward the children
of Israel who look to other gods and love flagons of wine. Each
child of God is loved the same way. Every one of us. We chase after the drunkenness
of religion. of our self-pride. We look to
other gods, other Gospels trying to soothe our own souls, rejecting
our husband, but the husband loves the bride. Even us. Not only Jews, but also
of the Gentiles. He says, I will call them my
people which were not my people, and her beloved which was not
beloved. Do I call myself Gomer? I can't be one of your people,
Lord. Look at me. Look inside of my heart, what
I think, what I feel, what I go chasing. I say with Paul, I'm
carnal. I'm sold under sin. I'm on that auction block, naked.
I have no means of saving myself. I'm Gomer, destitute. And I got myself here. It's by
my hand and no other. I deserve to be here. I'm helpless
in myself. But God, but Christ, loved his
bride the whole time that we did not love him. He was committed
to his bride the whole time that we weren't committed to him.
He hedged us about while we were oblivious to it. And when he had ordained us to
be brought low, he purchased us, took us to himself alone,
and spoke peace in our hearts. He planned it. He declared this
is how salvation is going to be, and then he executed it.
It come to pass. Look here in verse 2, Hosea 3,
2. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and
for a half-homer of barley. And I said unto her, Thou shalt
abide for me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot,
and thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee. Salvation was ordained in a people
that were not his people. We were our own man. I always
heard that growing up. Gotta be your own man. Well,
look where it got us. We were loved when we did not
love him. And in his time, he brought us
to know we could do nothing of ourselves. He put us naked on
auction blocks. And then he bought us. And we
gladly and willingly serve him many days for eternity. Now this auction block that Gomer
was on, there was a transaction that took place. Here she stood,
waiting to be bought. Somebody could redeem her, whoever
was able and willing. And a purchase happened. It was
a transfer of ownership. Hosea bought her. Now let's look
back to Romans chapter 9. We saw salvation declared. Salvation
is going to be fulfilled. Romans 9 and verse 26. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people. There, at that place, there shall
they be called the children of the living God." Gomer stood
on that slave block, and it was known by anyone looking on, she
is no one's people. Nobody owns her. But from that
same auction block, when Hosea purchased her with silver and
barley, she became his family. That same place, there, She became
his purchased possession, his bride, one that he could bestow
his love on. Now in that place, there in our
text is in the place where it was said to them, you're not
my people, there shall they be called the children of the living
God. What is this place for us Gomers? Now in this story of
declaration of love of Hosea to Gomer, we see that, the auction
block. What's my auction block? If you're his, what's your auction
block? An unfaithful bride, standing up there. For us, that's a cross
of Calvary. On that hill, Christ our substitute
hung in the place of his undeserving bride and owning our sin and
his body on a tree. God the Father said, you are
not my people. It makes me think. He became me. God the Father
looked on the sin that I am and said, you are not my people.
Get away from me. Turned His back on Him. Full wrath of judgment for our
sin was unleashed on Him. He was forsaken of God. And there,
at that same place, On that hill, on that cross, there shall they
be called the children of the living God. The cross being made
a curse for His people, we were called the children of the living
God. That's what it took to save a
people. What's involved in salvation? Absolutely everything. God had to send Himself, make
Himself a land. Became me. Went on that block
naked. Bore all of my sin and shame. And at the same time, there in
that place, I became a child of God. I was given His righteousness. You hear that message, do you
say, why not me? I ought to be able to do that. I deserve to have Him die for
me. No. You say your sin is being revealed
to you, you see the death that you deserved on that auction
block under the holy law of God, but you were purchased. And in
that place, Christ was declared us, sin. And His bride was declared the
children of God, righteousness, holy. Let's turn over to Isaiah 54
and I'll wrap this up. Isaiah 54. Are you humbled as the Lord showed
you what you were, as He hedged you about, as He took all the
corn and oil that He was giving this whole time from you and
made you see, I can't do nothing but sell myself into slavery?
Has He humbled you to the point where you say, why me? Why would
He save me? And if you're in that position,
why would the Lord go through all this to save me? Are you
afraid? Are you scared that this is too
good to be true? This couldn't be for me. I'm
too bad off. Are you afraid? Isaiah 54 verse
4. Fear not. Fear not, for thou shalt not
be ashamed, neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to
shame. For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt
not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. All that
running around, all that forsaken, it's gone as far as the east
is from the west. There'll come a day when we won't
remember this sin because we'll have no sin in us. Verse 5, For
thy Maker, capital N, thy Maker is thine husband. That's who
loved us. That's who we were betrothed
to. The Lord of hosts is His name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy
One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall He be called.
For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved
in spirit. Is the Lord going to call you
when you feel good about yourself? You going to be happy? Oh man, let's
clap and go get in a kiddie pool. No. The Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit. That's when it will
come to us. And a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith
thy God, for a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great
mercies will I gather thee. You want to run out in the street,
go ahead, but with great mercies I'm going to gather you up, bring
you to me. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, But with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." That's our husband. That's my
Hosea. I'm Gomer. It's unbelievable. Such a low, worthless, rebellious,
heathen that I am. And the Lord went out of His
way I'm going to do everything for you, even when you don't
think I am. And then I'm going to head you
about, bring you right to my feet, and I'll be your husband,
redeemer, and Lord forever. Forever. If a person truly knows,
they're gone. If you're brought down, you're
humbled, you're naked on an auction block, and you say, Lord, why
me? Why would you do this? That's
when it will come to you. He'll speak peace into your heart
that only He can give. Fear not. I'm with thee. You're mine. He'll be ours. We're His. He's ours. That's something. Let's pray
together.