All right, we're going to look
at Romans 9 and verse 25 is where we'll begin this morning. The
Apostle Paul, he'd spoken very plainly, and this is the thing
about these passages here, you know, that people, as we've talked
about how so many preachers who claim to believe the Bible, they
want to avoid passages like Romans 9 because They'll claim, they'll
say, well, they don't understand it, but really, it's not that
we don't understand the basic message here, it's just we don't
like it by nature. We don't like that preachers
don't want to hear that God is in control. I'll never forget,
several years ago, I heard some false preacher on television
who made this statement. He said, many Christians are
operating under a fallacy. And I thought, well, I want to
listen, see what he says. He said, many Christians believe
that God is in control, and he's not. And I thought, you fool. What does the Bible say? The
Bible portrays God as the holy God, sovereign God of this universe,
who's working all things after the counsel of his own will.
I had another preacher here in town, he heard me on television,
this was years ago too, make the statement that the fall of
man was well within the purpose and providence of God, and it
was. How else could you explain to
any satisfaction that Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world? That salvation was given to God's
chosen people before the world began in Christ. And he wrote
me an email and he said, I can't believe that you believe that
the fall was within God's sovereign providence and purpose. And I
wrote him back and I said, well, I can't believe that you believe
that Satan sneaked up on God and took him by surprise. God is not surprised by anything. He's the God of all wisdom. Now
we cannot explain, or as I always say, wrap our minds around these
things, because we're human, we're finite, and especially
we're sinful. But God's in control. And Paul
had explained that. And so, one of the things that
he tells us very plainly is that in God's sovereign purpose, he's
determined to show his glory. both in his justice by destroying
the ones that he calls, in verse 22, the vessels of wrath fitted
to destruction. That's God's justice. It's not
God throwing a temper tantrum. It's not God getting angry and
flying off the handle. It's God's just damnation of
those to whom God charges with sin. imputes iniquity. That's why David said, blessed
is the man whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. God, we're all
sinners, we all deserve damnation, but then there's a group of people
he calls the vessels of mercy, which he had aforeprepared unto
glory. That's the ones to whom God does
not impute. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? That's the ones to whom God imputes
Christ's righteousness to. And that's mercy, that's pure
sovereign mercy. And so he had made that plain
here. And these vessels of mercy, now
what he's going to show us here is this in the next verses. Look
at verse 24, he says, even us, now he's talking about the vessels
of mercy here, even us whom he hath called. Now who are these
vessels of mercy? They are those whom he calls.
Now that's talking about the invincible, powerful calling
of the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the gospel, whereby in regeneration,
he gives life, spiritual life to the dead, and brings sinners
to faith in Christ, out of unbelief, out of darkness, into the light
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, brings them
to faith in Christ. and repentance of dead works.
How do I know if I'm a vessel of wrath or a vessel of mercy?
Have you been called? And you remember in Peter wrote,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. How was I
called? God doesn't call his people under
the preaching of a lie now. The Holy Spirit is the spirit
of truth. And over in Romans 10, we're gonna deal with that
more where he talks about it. He says, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then are they gonna
call on him who they've not heard? John 6, 44 says, Christ said,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him and I'll raise him up again the last day. And he goes
on in verse 44 to show us how God calls his people. And let
me just read this so I won't misquote it. In John 6, 44, here's
how he calls his people. It says in John 6 and verse 45,
it says, it is written in the prophets, they shall be all taught
of God. God teaches them. Now how does
he do that? Well, that's not a lightning
bolt from heaven. That's just a poor old clay pot like me preaching
the gospel. Somehow God communicates the
gospel to his people, and he teaches them who God is, that
he's a holy God, he's a just God, he's a sovereign God. Yes,
he's merciful. Yes, he's gracious. Yes, he's
a loving God. But his mercy, love, and grace
can only be shown and displayed and enacted on a just ground,
and that comes through Christ. People today need to hear it.
Without Christ, there's no love from God. You see a great picture of that
when you see God's wrath enacted upon this earth during the great
flood. All who were on the ark, which
is a picture of Christ and his finished work, pitched within
and without, That's the atonement, and that's a picture of the blood
of Christ. All who were on the ark were safe from the wrath
of God. And all else perished. And I
don't mean to be making light of this or anything, but my old
pastor used to say, could you imagine God putting a bumper
sticker on the back of the ark saying, smile, God loves you,
while they're drowning? There's no love from God outside
that ark. There's only justice. And so,
Who are those who are vessels of mercy? He says in Romans 9,
those who are called, and in John 6 45 it says, every man
therefore that hath heard, blessed are your ears for they hear,
blessed are your eyes. You must be born again or you
cannot see the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. And hath
learned of the Father. How do we learn of the Father?
We learn how God can be just and still justify sinners like
us. How he can honor his justice
and still love sinners like us. And so to learn of the Father,
he says, cometh unto me, you come to Christ. How can God be
just and justify? Through Christ, through his blood,
through his righteousness alone. And if you ever learn of the
Father, you know what you'll do? You'll run to Christ. You'll
believe in Him. You'll rest in Him. You'll plead
His blood and His righteousness alone if you ever learn who God
really is. And that's what people today
need to hear. Well, that's what people in Paul's day, look back
at Romans 9. Now he says in verse 24, this is not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles. And so now what he's doing is
he's making a case that those who are called, these vessels
of mercy which God had before prepared unto glory, that it
includes both Jews and Gentiles. It's not just for one nation.
It's for God's chosen people, God's elect out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation. And whenever the world is used
in the Bible in connection with the atonement, that's who it's
talking about. It's not every individual without
exception. How do you know that? Look at
verse 22 again. 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? It's not for those
individuals, but it's for those who are called. Somebody says,
well, that's not fair, that's not just. Well, go back and read
what we just finished studying in Romans 9. Who are you to reply
against God? Everything God does is just and
right. He never makes a mistake. So
now he goes back to the Old Testament. Look at verse 25. It says, as
he saith also in OC, now that's Hosea. Reason it's OC here is
because that was the translation of Hosea's name in the Greek
New Testament, called the Septuagint. But that's Hosea. And he quotes
here, basically from Hosea chapter two and verse 23, where he says,
I will call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved,
which was not beloved. That's what Hosea said in Hosea
two and 23. And what he's talking about here,
Hosea, now Hosea was a contemporary with Isaiah. Hosea preached in
the northern kingdom of Israel. Isaiah was in the southern kingdom,
mainly Jerusalem, but Judah. But what he's talking about here,
in the first part of Isaiah, his prophecy, which was parallel
with Hosea, God was bringing judgment down upon the northern
kingdom through the Assyrian army, and pretty soon the northern
kingdom was gonna be obliterated and scattered throughout the
nations. And so, what Hosea is doing is
the same thing we're gonna see Isaiah did there. He's showing
them that even though God's bringing judgment down on that nation,
That doesn't mean that God is unfaithful to save the people
whom he chose before the foundation of the world. God's gonna save
his people. They're vessels of mercy which
he before prepared unto glory. Not one of them is going to perish. Those for whom Christ died, those
for whom He shed His blood and made that propitiation, satisfaction,
those for whom He put away their sins, their sins were imputed,
charged to Him, and He paid the debt in full, and He established
righteousness that God has imputed to them, and because of that,
God's gonna send His Spirit to call them, to give them life
and to call them, regeneration, conversion, the new birth. And
that's how you're gonna know who they are, whether they're
a Jew or a Gentile. You see, it's even us whom he
hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.
It's believing Jews and believing Gentiles. They make up the nation
of spiritual Israel. And you remember Paul had said
back in Romans 2, 28 and 29, he said, he is not a Jew, which
is one outwardly, He is one which is one emerald, and circumcision
is not that of the flesh of the law, but that which is of the
heart. What is circumcision of the heart? It's the new birth.
It's when God gives us a new heart, as Ezekiel said. So Hosea
prophesied of this, and you know, if you read the book of Hosea,
it's a really, really interesting book. You know about the prophet
Hosea, where God commanded the prophet to marry a wife of Hortums,
and he married Gomer. That was her name. And then she
left him and prostituted herself out to other men. But Hosea took
care of her. And that's the way it is with
us. God chose us, the bride of Christ. And in Adam we fell and
prostituted ourselves out to other gods. But God was always
in his sovereign providence taking care of us. And one day he brings
us to realize that. In fact, we're gonna see that
in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 53. So because of their
sin, under the Old Covenant, go back here to Romans nine,
he said, I will call them my people, which were not my people,
and her beloved, which was not my beloved. Now under the Old
Covenant law, the Jewish nation were God's people, but now listen,
only in a temporal and temporary way. Because see, that covenant
was gonna be abolished. And Jeremiah said it this way,
he said God's gonna give them a bill of divorcement. So they
were God's people, the Jewish nation, Israel, in a temporal
and temporary way, in a ceremonial way. What I mean by that is through
the ceremonies, the washings, the blood, the animals. See,
that set them apart as God's people only in that way under
that law covenant. But they were not his people,
and he told them this now through the prophets, they were not his
people in a spiritual and eternal way. Because that came through the
Messiah, the promised Messiah, which the prophets continually
I told them to look forward to the coming of the Messiah. The
blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin, but the
blood of the Lamb of God, the Messiah to come, he'll take away
all our sins. And don't seek righteousness
by your works of the law. We'll learn next week when he
talks about this, how the Jews They didn't find what they were
looking for because what were they looking for? They were looking
for righteousness by their works of the law and the law covenant.
They didn't make it, why? Because they sought it not by
faith. They didn't look ahead to Christ, who Jeremiah said
is the Lord our righteousness. So they failed. So understand
now, when you read passages like this, I will call them my people
which were not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved.
Now the Gentiles were not part of that old covenant. They were
not God's people according to that covenant. And so they were
not called his people in that sense. But God has a people out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation according to another
covenant. And what covenant? The covenant
of grace. The everlasting covenant of grace, which will be realized
in time in the new covenant. And he speaks of the future calling
of the Gentiles under the gospel. And so those people who were
not called God's people according to the terms of the old covenant,
they're gonna be called God's people. They've always been God's
people. But they just didn't know it, and we didn't realize
it, the Jews didn't realize it, until they're called by God,
Jew and Gentile. And you know, somebody said,
well, it was tough to be a prophet back then. Well, you know, God
commanded Hosea to name his children accordingly as a prophecy. And
I've got this in the lesson, but his first child was named
Jezreel, which means to scatter or to sow. And Jezreel was a
prophecy of God's judgment upon Israel that he was gonna scatter
them out. He was gonna sow them in different
parts of the world. He was gonna scatter them out.
It was his judgment. And then Hosea's second child
was named Lorahamma, which means not having obtained mercy. In
other words, you weren't a vessel of mercy. And then his third
child was named Lo-Ammi, which means not my people. But then
in that prophecy in Hosea 1-7, God says he's gonna spare Judah,
the southern kingdom. Now, why was that? Well, it's
because Judah was such a better people than the northern kingdom.
No, it's because God had made a promise way back in Genesis
49 through a man named Jacob when he was blessing his children
on his deathbed. And when he got to Judah, he
said, he said, the scepter will not depart from Judah till Shiloh
come. The Messiah was coming through
Judah according to the flesh. But then even after that, Judah
was going to be scattered. After that, they were going to
go into captivity about a hundred years after Isaiah. But God would
bring them back because as long as the Messiah hadn't come, God
providentially and powerfully kept that nation together. And
you think about that. That is a miraculous, powerful
act of God to keep a conquered nation. And you know, after Nebuchadnezzar
and the Babylonian Empire conquered Judah and Jerusalem, they were
a conquered people from then on. That's why I always wondered
about the Pharisees, you know, in John 8, when Christ said,
the truth will set you free. And they said, well, we'd be
in bondage to no man. Well, they were under the bondage
of Rome. They're like people today, they just don't want to
recognize reality. But God kept that nation Judah
together, even under that hundreds of years of captivity, conquering. And only God can do that. Read
history of the world. You don't find any other nation
that went into captivity like that and remained as a nation
intact. But Judah did. Why? Because God had a purpose. It
was to bring Christ through that nation. But after Christ was
brought through that nation, what happened? Well, in AD 70,
they were destroyed. And they were sown and scattered,
just like the Northern Kingdom. So here's the issue, you know.
So what's Paul doing? He's using all this history,
all this prophecy to show them that the only hope of salvation
that any of us have is God's grace through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that was the message to the Jews, that's the message
to the Gentiles. And look at verse 26. He says,
and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said
to them, you are not my people, there shall they be called the
children of the living God. Who are the children of the living
God? See, we're not children of a dead God. The Philistines,
Dagon, he's a dead God. People today who worship Buddha,
Buddha's dead. Confucius is dead. It's a dead
God. But we are children of the living
God. And who are children of the living
God? Those whom God chose before the foundation of the world and
gave to Christ. Those whom Christ redeemed on
the cross by putting away our sins and making us righteous
before God. Those whom God by his spirit
calls under the preaching of the gospel. We're children by
election, electing grace. We're children by adopting grace.
We're children by redempting grace, redeeming grace. We're
children by regenerating grace. And we're children by preserving
grace, because he keeps us. That's the children of the living
God. And so really the message that Paul is giving right here
in these verses is the same that he said back in Romans 9, 6 and
verses, Romans 9, 6 through 8. The children of the promise are
counted for the seed. What is the promise? It's the
promise of the gospel. That God's gonna save his people
not by their works, not by their wills, but by his grace through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through his righteousness alone.
That's the promise. Now, in verse 27, he goes to
Isaiah. That's what Isaiah's here is
Isaiah. And Isaiah also crieth concerning
Israel. And here's what Isaiah said,
though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the
sea, a remnant shall be saved. A remnant. He says in verse 28,
for he will finish the work. Now you might look at your concordance
there and you see the word account. He's going to finish the account.
What's that talking about? It's talking about judgment.
Everybody's going to give an account, the scripture says. You know what my account is?
Well, he's going to weigh your good works with your bad works
and see which one tips the scales. Well, if that's the case, we're
all doomed. What is my account? I stand before
God washed in the blood of Christ. I stand before God in his righteousness
imputed to me. That's my account. That's why
we're gonna be judged out of the book singular, not the books
plural. You see, the books, plural, is
a metaphorical way of God keeping account of all the sins of the
vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. More sins than we can number,
more sins than we even know. That's what we are. And our only
hope is to be found before God in Christ. And that's the book. That's the Lamb's book of life.
whose names were written before the foundation in the Lamb's
book of life. And what did the Lamb do for
his people? He died the death that we deserve,
that we earn. Our sins were charged to him,
and he put them away. And he gave us a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. So he says here,
God's gonna finish the account. Now look what he says now, don't
just jump over this. Though the children of Israel
be as the sand of the sea. That's a lot. But only a remnant
will be saved. And he cites out of Isaiah 10
here. where the prophet states that
though the physical nation of Israel throughout the years now,
the physical descendants of Abraham through all the years will be
great in number as the sand of the seas. In other words, you
can't take a census of them. But even though they'll be great
in number, only a remnant would be eternally and spiritually
saved by God's grace in Christ. You know, over in Isaiah 1, you
remember he makes this statement. He said, except the Lord of Sabaoth
hath left us a seed, we would be as Sodom and Gomorrah. Now
what do you know about Sodom and Gomorrah? God destroyed the
whole kit and kibbutz. Not one person was spared. You
say, well Lot was spared, but he wasn't a Sodomite. He wasn't
a Gomorrahite, I guess that's how you say that. He was a nephew
of Abraham. He was a Hebrew. That's the remnant,
you might say. But he's talking about Israel
here, and look at verse 28, he says, for he will finish the
work, the account, he'll cut it short in righteousness. He
says, because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
Anytime you read about God's short work, you know what it's
talking about? It's talking about his judgment. Now, it may seem
like a long time that God brings judgment, But it's not. God is
long suffering with the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,
but when God has determined to bring judgment down, it's a short
work. It's not like going to Afghanistan
and fighting a war we can't win for 50 years. It's not like Vietnam. It's a short work. And God's
gonna do it. And there's two ways that we
can look at this short work over in the Book of Isaiah, you
might, write this down on your lesson here, because it'd be
something for you, I didn't put it in here, but Isaiah chapter
nine, and verse 13, let me go over there. Got a little bit
of time here. In Isaiah nine, and listen to
this in verse 13, Isaiah 9, 13. It says, for the people turneth
not unto him, that is unto God, that smiteth them. God's punishing
them. and they have not turned to God,
neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. Verse 14 says, therefore
the Lord will cut off Israel head and tail, branch and rush
in one day. And it didn't take long. One
day, God's judgment. So that's talking about God's
judgment on the wicked. But over in the book of Zechariah,
there's something interesting here. The short work also can
refer to Christ's work to redeem his people. Christ went under
the judgment of God. And if you look at Zechariah
chapter three, let's see if I got the right one here. Zechariah
three and look at verse eight. Listen to this. Here now, oh
Joshua, the high priest, you know this is Joshua the high
priest standing before the angel of the Lord. He says, and thy
fellows, the other priests, that sit before thee, for they are
men wondered at, their types, their pictures. For behold, I
will bring forth my servant the branch, that's Christ. For behold,
the stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon one stone shall
be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving
thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity
of that land in one day. Now that's a prophecy of Christ
and the work that he would do on the cross. Putting away the
sins of his people one day. Didn't take long, did it? We'll
go back to Romans nine. Now, and he says in verse 29,
he's gonna make a short work upon, he's gonna, his judgment
upon the wicked, that's gonna be a short work. Because God's powerful. And there's no resisting and
that judgment upon his people through Christ as our surety
substitute and as our redeemer, that's a short work too. All
our sins will be put away and righteousness established. In
verse 29 he says, and as Isaiah said before, except the Lord,
now he's quoting from Isaiah one here, except the Lord of
Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom and had been
like unto Gomorrah. Total destruction. So what's
Paul doing here? He's showing us, look, my friend,
if God ever gave us what we've earned and deserved, it'd be
eternal damnation, that short work of judgment upon us for
our sins. But thank God, he has provided
a way for his people, by his grace, that that same short work
fell upon Christ. who died under the judgment of
God for the sins of his elect, Jew and Gentile, imputed to him,
and he put them away. He brought forth an everlasting
righteousness, and we stand before God by his grace and his power,
whole in Christ, okay.