As we continue into chapter 9 of Romans it is emphasizing that there is physical Israel and there is a spiritual Israel…Paul begins by making reference to physical Israel.
Originally [v 25-27] was written to the Israelites who were captured by the Assyrians in the 8th century.
25 ’“I will call those who were not my people my people, and her who was not beloved ‘beloved.’”
26 And it shall be in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there shall be called ‘sons of the living God.’
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.”
God has always had a physical remnant.
Noah – [Gen. 7:12-13] – for 120 years Noah preached the gospel…then rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights” On that same day…Noah …Noah’s wife…his three sons and their wives entered the ark…”…only eight people were saved from the Flood.
Moses preached God’s commandments to over two million people who left Egypt yet only two entered into the Promised Land.
Lot – [Gen. 19:12, 13, 15] – Lot preached the gospel to the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah…Then the angels said to Lot…get …out of this place… Take your wife …two daughters…for we are about to destroy this place…only he and his two daughters were saved. Even his wife perished.
Elijah – [1 Kings 19:10, 18] –“…the Israelites have abandoned Your covenant, I (God) will leave 7,000 in Israel that have not bowed to Baal”.
Ezekiel – [Ezekiel 5:12] tells of the devastation–“One third …will die by plague and famine…one third will fall by the sword…one third to every direction of the wind…BUT…[6:8] –“I will leave a remnant”.
[Isaiah 10:22] “For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return.”
THREE THINGS:
FIRST…The gospel has always been rejected…and will always BE rejected.
SECOND…God will always be in pursuit of His people.
THIRD…there will always be a remnant that will worship and obey God.
Go back to verse 25…who did God call?
I will call those who were not My people
Originally this verse was written to the ten northern tribes of Israel taken captive and carted off into Assyria in the 8th century…they were in unbelief…they were in apostasy…that’s why they were captured…God’s patience had run out and God scolded physical Israel…the people.
The Lord removed his name from them so that they were of the same status as unbelieving Gentiles…Israel had become indistinguishable from the Gentiles …they were, physically speaking, “Not My people.”
Paul quotes Hosea 2:23 to confirm God’s commitment that one day He will restore the exiled northern ten tribes of Israel.
Then Paul incorporates this same idea from Hosea to the Church…Paul in writing to the Gentiles…US…introduces the idea that just like with physical Israel there is the physical Church…using the same wording in [24 ] “Those who were not My people,”
You and I can put ourselves in verse 25 and 26…your conversion is the fulfillment of verses 25 and 26.
I will call those who were not my people
You and I are Gentiles who at one time were not God’s people…BUT…having been called by God into a saving relationship with the Father through His Son we are part of the physical Church.
Peter, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, re-enforces Paul’s assessment regarding God’s promise to the church which includes Gentile believers.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy [1 Peter 2:10]
Both apostles recognize the fulfillment of Hosea’s promise to include Gentiles who once were not the people of God and had not received mercy…but are now receiving the promise and fulfillment of God’s promise in Hosea 2:23.
Again…proof that God knows the beginning to the end…He’s already there…
He foresaw the need to provide redemption to all people everywhere.
When God speaks…God brings it to pass…God is not just talking to fill pages. God is calling…God is commanding…God brings to fulfillment all that He says …that is critically important.
Look at how commanding God is:
…verse 25 God says, “I will,”
…in verse 26, “It shall be,”
…again in verse 26, “They shall be”
…in verse 27, “That will be,”
These two verses confirm that.
Those who were not my people I will call my people
of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Both these verses use the Greek word ‘call’ (καλέω 2564) which means to summon or invite…here it refers to “an invitation” …God inviting men by the preaching of the gospel… then you have the responsibility to answer that call… you can accept the call or reject it…an invitation that can be refused.
Here’s the objection…Calvinists say that you do nothing to aid in your salvation …that way you can’t say that you helped in your salvation by selecting God… BUT…you do have to do something…Bible says so…you accept or you resist that call…here’s the importance in that.
If God hadn’t called, you would have never answered…if God had not called… you would still be in the world…you would still be living as a slave of sin…you would be imprisoned in your sins.
On your own you would have been unable to answer the invitation of the gospel …God had to issue a call to your heart.
You accepting the call in no way implies you had something to do with your salvation by answering the call…it simply means you came to the realization of who God is…and you decided to join Him by answering that call.
But because we allow ourselves to be influenced by shaky theology like predestination we adopt ‘tunnel’ vision and have a tendency to say… ‘Well there it is in black and white’ [15 & [18] God picks and chooses who He wants:
He has mercy on whom He desires and he hardens whom He desires
What does this verse mean? …first of all…God does have mercy on everybody because the Bible says so: John 3:16…Eph. 2:18 …Romans 10:13…1 Tim 2:4 …all confirm that God does desire that not any should perish but all would come to a saving knowledge of who Jesus is.
Paul…using the example of Pharaoh [17] …demonstrates how God works in those vessels fitted to destruction.
God foresaw what was in Pharaoh’s heart and knew that whatever He did Pharaoh was determined to reject God’s mercy and tells Moses the reason why:
For this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate My power in you
God gave Pharaoh the opportunity to repent but instead Pharaoh resisted God and hardened his own heart….goes back to [v 22]…the fault is not with God but with Pharaoh.
God was not unrighteous in His dealings with Pharaoh, because He gave him opportunities to repent and to believe…Pharaoh refused.
Pharaoh was determined to reject God’s mercy and therefore God would end up withdrawing His softening grace from Pharaoh’s conscience so Pharaoh became more and more blind and dead to God’s voice….God works the same way today.
Some believe Romans 9 tells us that God has pre-determined the fate of every person and has determined where they will spend eternity before they were ever born.
That God has sovereignly elected some people for salvation before the foundation of the world…that is a twisted interpretation of Romans 9.
Paul in quoting Hosea isn’t trying to teach us why God condemns certain people and saves others so to insert this into the text is to miss the meaning.
God’s call for salvation is unlimited…it goes out to every person…this is where the phrase “you were called” comes in.
And those whom He predestined He also called…
What does this mean?
Goes back to the Greek word ‘call’ (καλέω 2564) which means to summon or invite…here it refers to “an invitation” …God inviting you to join Him in eternity…a call… you can accept or reject…an invitation that can be refused.
God has known you from eternity past…at a specific moment in time God’s grace comes into contact with our lives…God’s purpose for you occurred before time began…but your calling occurs in time.
There is a time in the life of every human when we are drawn to God…making us WANT to come to God and enabling us to have faith in God…everyone is called.
Where were you when God called you to Himself? …everyone who is in the kingdom of God has been individually and personally called by name.
The confusion comes in with the addition of Matthew 22:14… “Many are called, few are chosen” …that call is the external call of the gospel to everyone …it is God’s extended internal call to everyone…God would have all men to be saved. (I Tim. 2:3) But…only a few will accept the call and be saved.
Again…the verse that says…He has mercy on whom He desires and he hardens whom He desires…says two things:
ONE…God has nothing to do with NOT allowing people to hear or make a decision to become a Christian…Scripture declares that it is Satan who blinds the minds of unbelievers [2 Cor. 4:4].
That is why many people will hear the gospel, but they will not listen…as a result only a few will be saved.
TWO…the misconception that God hardens the conscience of those who reject His mercy and hardens their will against Him…last week I explained how this works…there are two types of people:
[v 22] vessels of wrath fitted to destruction
[v 23] vessels of mercy which He had prepared to glory.
In [22] those fitted to destruction…that phrase in the Greek middle voice means that the subject does the acting…and receives the action…people initiate the action and receive the consequences of their own actions…what happens to them is their own fault…God doesn’t choose or cause it to happen.
In [23] those He prepared to Glory…notice God is not mentioned in [verse 22] God doesn’t do anything to those fitted to destruction…the people themselves are doing it because it’s the individual doing the action.
In [23] Paul refers to vessels of mercy which ‘He (God) prepared beforehand’ …God is the one doing the preparing.
Then…Paul begins to split hairs and concludes that (within physical Israel) there is a spiritual Israel…a smaller subset of physical Israel made up of Jews who believed in Jesus as the Messiah.
God’s promises were not meant for Abraham’s physical descendants (National Israel) but to Abraham’s spiritual descendants (True Israel) those who share in Abraham’s faith.
God is calling that subset of physical Israel who have trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior…spiritual Israel…not all those born in Abraham’s bloodline are his descendants.
That is the meaning of [9:6]:
not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
The Church is no different… there is a smaller group within the big church that really is regenerate and knows the Lord…just like with spiritual Israel there is the spiritual Church…so…not everyone in the church is saved.
Within the physical church there is a spiritual church…that includes those who are serious about living a Christian lifestyle as opposed to those who are Christians by association.
Think about this…this verse is validating that thousands of years ago God looked into the future and made provisions for our salvation…and knowing in advance who would make the decision to become His followers He gave us a promise. [1 Peter 2:9]
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called (2564) you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Let me explain how important that word ‘chosen’ (ἐκλεκτός) is…in the Greek it means selected…as a subset…chosen out by God for the rendering of special service to Him.
This word is like the Greek word ‘call’ (καλέω 2564) [25] I will call those who were not my people…which means to summon or invite…“an invitation” to join God in eternity…BUT…you have the responsibility to answer that call… you can accept the call or reject it…it’s an invitation that can be refused.
This confirms the idea that God has ‘called’ you and ‘chosen’ you personally for a special service that only you can fulfill.
Those in the physical church think they are saved because they have an understanding of who Jesus is…BUT have never truly committed their life to Him.
God is calling all Christians to become part of the spiritual church.
Hosea was written thousands of years ago…what’s important is it’s not literally Hosea speaking…Hosea is only the messenger…Hosea is only the scribe.
This is God speaking in the present tense…here’s what that tells us…what God said so many centuries ago He is still saying today…this book is still speaking… God is still calling those who were not His people to be His people.
It’s easy to focus on those who are not believers…and claim that this whole message is directed to those who have never accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior and offer up an invitation to do so….this message is making that offer.
BUT…the invitation goes deeper than that…it’s demanding that as Christians we leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity [Heb 6:1] not being content to just be members of the physical church…but that we become part of that small remnant, the spiritual church.
That can only happen when we determine to be more committed to being members of His spiritual church.
The Church that will last throughout eternity.