How does God go about forming the True Israel? By calling Gentiles, and preserving a Jewish remnant. The implications for God’s people are staggering: We are the People of God! We are Beloved! We are sons of the Living God! God is saving a remnant and preserving a posterity! All glory to His Name!
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God’s Way of Forming His True Israel
Romans 9:24-29
Throughout Romans 9, Paul has a particular group of people in mind. In verse 6, he calls them “Israel.” But they are not Israel after the flesh. They are not the physical descendants of Abraham. They are the true Israel, to whom the promises of salvation apply. He also calls them “children”, “children of God” and “children of the promise” in verse 7 and 8. In verse 23 they are called vessels of mercy. These children of God, children of the promise, and vessels of mercy constitute the True Israel of God. They are the ones to whom the promises of salvation apply. But how does God form the True Israel? How did a person become part of the True Israel? That’s the subject before us today.
Let’s review what Paul has told us in this chapter already. He told us that God chose Isaac and passed over Ishmael, by bringing him into existence through a supernatural birth, just as Christians today are made new creatures and heirs of God through a supernatural birth. Jacob was chosen and Esau was passed over through God’s Purpose, Choice, Call, and Love. Paul tells us in verse 16 that the fact that one receives mercy and not another is not dependent on a man’s choices or actions, but rather on God’s sovereign freedom alone. He has mercy on whom He desires and He hardens whom He desires. His freedom is like that of the Potter who has a right to make from the clay whatever he wants. It may be a beautiful vase to display on his mantle, or a sewage pipe. None can answer back or question His decisions as God. Paul tells us that all people are either vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, or vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand for glory.
That brings us to verse 24. Who are these vessels of mercy? Who are the children of God, the children of the promise? Who is the True Israel? They are those who are called from Jews and Gentiles.
In 9:25-29, Paul reverts back to his main argument of 9:6-13. He had chased a bunny trail in verses 14-23 to answer two objections that he knew his readers would have. The first is “Is God unjust to choose some and not others? The second was “Is God unjust to condemn those He hardens?” Having dealt with those two objections, he returns to his main argument, which is how God forms the True Israel.
So, how does God fashion a person into a vessel of mercy? How does he include a person in the True Israel? He calls them. This takes us back to verse 11 where Paul says, “for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who CALLS, it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” The call of God is that all-powerful operation of the Holy Spirit whereby He shows them the hatefulness of their sin, and the beauty of Jesus Christ, so that they embrace Him as their Lord, Savior and Treasure. It is an inward call that works upon the heart, and overcomes our natural sinful resistance. It is an effective call, because it brings about what God has purposed.
Paul has brought up the Patriarchs to illustrate God’s sovereignty in salvation in 9:6-13. Now he brings up the Prophets to prove God’s sovereignty in salvation. Here Paul says the way He forms the True Israel is through the calling of the Gentiles, and the preserving of a Jewish remnant. He deals with the calling of the Gentiles in 9:25-26, and the preserving of a Jewish remnant in 9:27-29. In order to show us the calling of the Gentiles, he quotes the prophet Hosea. In order to show us the preserving of a Jewish remnant, He quotes the prophet Isaiah. Let’s look first at the prophecy of Hosea, and then that of Isaiah.
1. The Calling of the Gentiles (9:25-26)
Original Context of Hosea 2:23. If you were to go back and read Hosea chapters 1 and 2 you would discover that the prophet was talking about Israel. Israel had rejected God’s rule over them. They had given themselves to other gods, and so in judgment, God had sent them away into exile under the Assyrians. At that point, they were not God’s people. Rather, they were under judgment. But Hosea prophesies that at a future point, God will restore them to His favor, and make them His people and beloved. So Paul picks up on the principle that God can take a people who are far from God and make them His people, and applies that principle to the calling of the Gentiles in his own day.
How Does God Refer To These Gentiles He Has Called?
My People. Prior to their calling, the Gentiles could make no claim to be God’s people. They were not God’s people. In fact, the Jews looked on them as the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. But in the New Testament, they are referred to as “a people for His own possession” (Titus 2:14). All people in the world are God’s people by creation. But only these people are God’s people by redemption.
Beloved. Of course, to be called “Beloved” only makes sense if God loves these called Gentiles in a special sense different from His love for all men. To be beloved of God in this sense applies only to God’s covenant people, to His children, to the vessels of mercy. They are specially loved by God in a way not all people are. The title “Beloved” harkens back to 9:13 where Scripture says, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Sons of the Living God. This is the third way Scripture refers to these called Gentiles. They are the sons of the living God, harkening back to 9:8 where Paul says, “That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.” Everywhere Paul uses the phrase “sons of God”, he is referring to Christians.
Romans 8:14, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Galatians 3:26, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 2:14-15, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”
How Do These Expressions Apply To Us Today?
My People
This specific promise – “I will be their God and they shall be My people” occurs 14 times in the Bible. This promise first comes up in Genesis 17:8 where God was entering into a covenant with Abraham. He says in verse 8, “I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
This is the signature promise of the New Covenant. When Jeremiah describes the blessings of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34, the greatest of the blessings is described at the end of verse 33, “I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” It is the greatest of all blessings to know that God is our God. It is great to know that He is God. It is great to know that He is the God. It is great to know that He is the true and living God. But this is even better. We know that he is our God!!!
This promise surfaces again in the 2nd to the last chapter of the Bible. In Revelation 21 we have a description of the New Heaven and the New Earth, and there in verse 7, God says, “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”
This promise provides satisfaction. Brothers and sisters, if God is your God, what else do you need? Nothing! It is the same as what Paul says in Romans 8:31, “What shall we say then? If God is for you, who is against you?” His attributes are for you. His power is for you? His wisdom is for you. His grace and love are for you? His generosity is for you? It’s like what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:22, “all things are yours?” Why? Because God is yours. There is nothing better in all the world than knowing that God is your God and you are His people. There is a covenant bond between you and God that nothing can break.
This promise provides intimacy. It is like a man saying, “She is my wife.” I have a relationship with that woman that is more intimate than any other relationship I have. This is the language of covenant love. It is like saying, “I am her husband, and she is my wife.”
This promise provides protection. If I am a member of His people, what can Satan or man do to me? He is my God. I am His child. Psalm 84:11 says, “The Lord God is a sun and shield.” If the Lord is a shield, and I am His, then nothing can come into my life unless He allows it. He shields all that He knows is not good for me. In fact that same verse says, “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread.” When Satan wanted to sift Peter like wheat, and when he wanted to harm Job, he had to get permission from God. And if God gives permission for Satan to attack you, He has a very good and wise reason for it.
My friend, is He your God? Are you His people? Can you say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want?” A lot of people can say, “The Lord is the shepherd” or “The Lord is a shepherd.” Are you in covenant relationship with Him. Then rejoice, for there is nothing greater!
Beloved
Romans 9:25 is quoting Hosea 2:23 when it says, “And her who was not beloved, will be called ‘Beloved.’” Now, isn’t that interesting?! It speaks of “her who was not beloved.” Evidently, there are some who are not beloved, and some who are. If it is true that God loves every person in the world in exactly the same way, then Romans 9:25 and Hosea 2:23 don’t make any sense. Because there, some people are described as “not beloved” and some are described as “beloved.” Paul had spoken of this earlier in this chapter in verse 13, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
So, what is the difference between these two? God has a Creator love for all His creatures. But He has a saving love for all His children. And the second love is so much higher and deeper and greater, that the difference between the two is like the difference between “not beloved” and “beloved.”
What are some examples of God’s general Creator love? God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life. This is love of the Creator for His creatures. It is a love of pity and compassion. But most of these people fall into the category of “not beloved”? Why? Because they are not the subjects of God’s great love.
Let’s take a few minutes to do a quick survey of the New Testament teaching on the special love of God for His own.
Paul says in Ephesians 2:4, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). This great love, does not simply offer salvation. It saves. It actually makes the dead sinner alive together with Christ and saves by His grace.
This is the kind of love described in Ephesians 5:25-27, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” This is the love of a husband for a wife. If I told Debbie that I loved her exactly the same way I loved every other woman in the world, I don’t think she would take that as a compliment! I might get a frying pan clubbed over my head. Why? Because the love a husband has for his wife is very different from a general love a man has for all people. It is an intimate love. It is a covenant love. It is a special love. And in our case, it is a saving love. The love described here actually cleansed us that we might be presented holy before Him forever.
This is the kind of love that Paul describes in Colossians 3:12, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved…” Notice the three descriptions of the church – chosen, holy, beloved. Those who are chosen and holy are the ones who are beloved.
Romans 1:7 says, “to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints.” Again, those who are beloved of God in Rome are not every person in Rome, but those who are called as saints. God shows His great love for His people by calling them, and setting them apart to be His holy ones!
Romans 8:35, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” Well, who is the “us” Paul is referring to who are loved by Christ? If you look at the context they are those called according to God’s purpose (28), those who were foreknown and predestined (29), those who are called and justified and will be glorified (30), those whom God is for (31), those to whom God will freely give all things (32), God’s elect (33). This is not talking about every person in the world, but the elect of God.
1 Thessalonians 1:4 says, “knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” Being beloved by God is linked with His choice of us. How do we know He has chosen us? When the gospel came to us, it didn’t just come in word only, but in the power of the Holy Spirit and full conviction. In other words, we know He has chosen us, because the gospel transformed our lives. Again, Paul is showing this great, wonderful, saving love of God toward His own.
2 Thessalonians 2:13, “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.” Who are those beloved by the Lord? Those God has chosen from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. What does Paul tell the Thessalonians to do? Give thanks to God. Why? Because they are beloved by the Lord and chosen for salvation. Evidently not everyone is beloved by the Lord and chosen for salvation, and that’s why they should give thanks to God.
Jude 1:1, “To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ.” Jude tells us that those who are beloved in God the Father, are those whom He has called, and those who are kept for Jesus Christ.
So, I hope that this survey helps you to appreciate the love of God for you! You are not only the people of God, you are beloved! You are beloved in a way that not everyone is. If you are a Christian, God has set His love upon you from all eternity. He has chosen you and called you, and is keeping you for Jesus Christ. Last time I taught from Romans 9, Jerome went away marveling that he was a vessel of mercy. Well, I want you to marvel that God has set His wonderful great saving love upon you! Enjoy His love. Bask in it! Marvel at it! And let that love motivate you to love Him in return through obedience. “We love because He first loved us.”
Sons of the Living God
The third phrase that describes who we are is “sons of the Living God.” We are sons in two different ways. We have been adopted into God’s family and we have been born into God’s family.
Adopted. To be adopted by God into His family means that God has taken someone who has no natural right to be in His family, and Has taken the initiative to legally make him His own son, with all the rights and privileges of a natural born son. Ephesians 1:4b-5 says, “In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.”
Galatians 4:5-7 says, “so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” First God redeems, then He adopts, then He sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Then we discover that we are His heirs!
Regeneration. Not only have we been adopted as sons, but we have been born into God’s family by the power of the Spirit. It is not just a legal reality, it is a living reality! This is what John was talking about in John 1:12-13, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” This is what Paul was referring to in Ephesians 2:5 where he speaks of us being “made alive together with Christ.” We are sons of the Living God by new birth. His power has brought us alive from spiritual death. We have been born of the Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, do you appreciate the fact that you are a child of the Living God? Not all people can say that. 1 John 3:1 says, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.” Here again we are brought face to face with God’s great love. How so? He has called us His children. Yes, all people are children of God in the sense that they are His creation. But only believers are children of God through redemption, and that’s what Paul and John are talking about here.
Tell yourself, “I am part of the people of God. I am beloved. I am a child of the living God!” Every day preach that to yourself. Let the truth of who you are in Christ flood your soul until it overflows in joy and love and worship and a sense of security. He is your Father, and you are His child!
2. The Preservation of a Jewish Remnant (9:27-29)
Here Paul quotes the Prophet Isaiah in 10:22-23 and 1:9. What is the point in this passage? Just this. God has saved a remnant. God has left a posterity. Unless God had stepped in and saved and left some vessels of mercy, the entire Jewish nation would have been consumed in His wrath. When we read of the Lord executing His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly, it is referring to the word of God’s judgment. If you go back and read Isaiah 10:23, this is referring to God bringing wholesale destruction on the land of Israel. Isaiah was probably referring to the destruction that took place when the Assyrians destroyed Israel and took them captive and into exile. Paul’s point is that God did not allow all of the Jews to be cut off. Instead, He saved a remnant, and preserved a posterity. If God had not stepped in and taken the initiative, all of Israel would have been wiped out.
What relevance does this have for people today? I believe we can make a parallel between Israel and the world. Israel had rebelled against God and gone a whoring after other gods. The true and living God responded by decreeing a destruction through the Assyrians. But in wrath He remembered mercy. The same is true for all mankind. This entire world has rebelled against God and has gone a whoring after other gods. Paul says in Romans 1 that men have exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. In other words, people have turned up their noses at their Creator and worshiped what He has made. So, how will God respond? Judgment! Wrath! Vengeance! This is how Paul puts it in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9, “the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”
So, does that mean God is going to bring judgment and wrath upon everyone and send all people to Hell? Well, He has every right to do so, but in wrath, He remembers mercy. No, He has formed some into vessels of mercy which He has prepared for glory. If God had not chosen some to be vessels of mercy, the entire human race would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah were utterly consumed in God’s fiery wrath because of their evil. The same would be true of every person in the world, if it weren’t for God’s sovereign choice to save a remnant, and leave a posterity.
This ought to make you fall on your face with gratitude and thanks and joy and pour out your love to the living God who has saved you and made you a part of His remnant, His people, His beloved, His sons!
Conclusion
Brothers and sisters, let’s conclude our time today with a song of praise. And let’s allow this song to be our response to His Word, and our preparation to receive the Lord’s Supper. Oleg is going to play “Hallelujah! All I have is Christ!” Let’s stand and worship Him!
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