We are continuing and more than likely will not finish Chapter 9 today. I say that not as an apology, but just as the way that the end of Chapter 9 actually should probably be a part of Chapter 10. So we're ending Chapter 9 and beginning Chapter 10. So it's a new beginning next week, but we're not officially probably finishing Chapter 9 today. We are in chapter 9 of the Book of Romans, written by the Apostle Paul to a church located in Rome, in the center of all that was in the Roman kingdom at that time. And Paul has a desire to go to that church in order that he might go on even further to Spain. And he rides to a conflicted church made up of mostly Gentiles and a minority of Jewish believers. We've discussed, as Paul has, one of the main ideas of this letter, in the midst of all of its beauty and all of its depth, is that the kind of mundane ideas that are causing conflict within this church are drowned out by the glory of what they have in common in their union with Christ. And then he will go on to tell them of the righteousness of God that they've all needed, even though there was this idea of never needing it with the Gentiles and already having it with the Jews, but now completed in the fact that they have union with Christ. And he's going to give a long description of this in chapter 8. And in chapter 9, we've talked about election and sovereignty of God. And we're going to go in reverse a little bit today and go back some verses we've already covered, verses 24 ending in verses 29 today. Originally, I had slated to go to 33, but I changed my mind on Friday. The purpose of this being that, have one idea in mind. Do you, when you think of yourself, do you think of yourself in a manner that the scriptures describe God thinking of you? When you think of yourself, do you see yourself as someone who has been adopted into God's family, cleansed of guilt and sin, while yet a sinner righteous in God's eyes, while one who is deserving of wrath, an object of God's mercy. So I want you to think about that today because it has implications on the Christian life. Do I view myself in a manner, in the similar manner that the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit has described how He views me? has implications on how we view others as well. If you are an object of mercy, and you can be fundamentally described as God does earlier in chapter 9, an object of mercy, are you living a life that portrays that? To your family, to your friends, to your neighbors, your co-workers, object of mercy. adopted son and daughter of God, one who is given God's righteousness, and given all of these things for one purpose, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Not a simple thing, I think, if you're honest with your own life and your own thinking. So let's read here, as we will, the completion of the verses we'll cover today, 24 through 29. Paul, as he's describing God's sovereignty in choosing and using the patriarchs as an example and using Pharaoh as an example, and then finally using this example of wrath and mercy, and then goes into three quotations, two from Isaiah, I'm sorry, four, two from Hosea and two from Isaiah. We're gonna talk about that today. After I finish reading the Scriptures, we'll go into a time of silent prayer. We'll kind of plead for God to open our eyes and our hearts to the truth of His Word, be illuminated by the Holy Spirit. I'll pray for us corporately, and then we'll enter into the time of the Word, starting in 24. Even us whom he has called not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles as indeed he says in Hosea Those who are not my people. I will call my people and her who was not beloved I will call beloved and in the very place where it was said to them you are not my people They will be called the sons of the Living God. I 27 and Isaiah cries out concerning Israel though the number of the sons of Israel Be as the sand of the sea Only a remnant of them will be saved for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay and as Isaiah predicted If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. Please take this time to pray. Prepare yourself for God's word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and the truth of who you are found in it. God, I pray that through the power of the Holy Spirit that's been given to the church to understand who you are, to be regenerate, give a new life in Christ. Lord, that your word may transform our minds and hearts, moving us to action to further and further resemblance of the one who has saved us, Jesus Christ. I pray, Lord, that those here that are outside of Christ and have not tasted of the goodness of his salvation, I pray, Lord, that your word and spirit have called and drawn them to this time for the purpose of saving faith in Christ, repentance and turning of dead works and being clothed in the righteousness of the one who has saved them. Lord, may your word, which is enduring and true, guide us this day. In Christ's name, amen. In the Christ Conversation last week, we met at four from 5.30. There was a handful of us, about seven or so. We met out there at the couches, and we talked about the subject of election, because that's kind of been a major portion of chapter nine. It's something that is a major division within the church for centuries, starting early in the third and fourth century, and then kind of raising itself up again after the Reformation. And it's kind of been a constant fighting point with people in the church. Election being the idea that God has, of His own discrimination in mind and in His own counsel of Father, Son, and Spirit, chosen certain people from all people of humanity to be born again anew in Christ and saved and redeemed and ransomed in His blood. And that Christ's death was particularly for them. therefore making it effective. This is a dividing thing. One of the things we talked about, though, is that really the primary point that we're supposed to get from it? Is that the extent of the argumentation that we have when reading this? Because it seems to be that Paul is using this idea of election for other purposes than the surface of it, meaning when he points out to them earlier in 18 and 19, and he's talking about being an object or a subject of God's mercy, when in reality you were or should be an object of His wrath because of your rebellion and your sinfulness, that that should cause something in the person. It should cause the person to look at the One who has molded them and created them and set them apart and made them an object of mercy. It should make the recipient of that mercy fall on their knees and say, not by anything I've done, Lord, but only through You. There should be an innate humbleness and humility and the person who believes and understands the idea that they have received mercy, not out of any act that they have done, not by their ethnicity, not by their history, not by their keeping of the law, not by being better than the person sitting next to them or behind them or whoever it might be, simply based on the fact that God so determined to put His mercy on them. And it's with that idea, as Paul is driving it home, where he's going to take specific verses from the Old Testament, that if you were just a reader of the Old Testament, you would say, well, Paul interpreted that incorrectly. Definitely took it out of context. No, Paul gets to interpret it however he wants to. He's Paul. That's a general rule of the New Testament, reading the Old Testament in light of the New Testament, particularly in light of how the New Testament authors interpret it. So Paul is going to use verses here dealing with judgment, and he's going to point to the midst of the judgment the mercy that God shows. And he wants his audience. And it may not seem as good as an argument as in chapters, say, 1 and 2, where he points to the Gentiles. In their idolatry and all these things and yet God had mercy on you when obviously you you are condemned or pointing to the Jews in chapter 2 and saying you you hold to the law and your traditions these traditions of men over the Word of God and then he'll continue it in four and Understanding that that it's the seed of Abraham who was Christ who is the recipient and the giver of all this glory to men women children of all people groups and And then as you continue through those passages, see that it's not a new thing, but that God was always intending that all people, from all people groups, He would draw sons and daughters whom He has adopted to Himself. And how they've all misunderstood His mercy. And so as we look here, I want you to remember what I asked in the beginning. Do you view yourself as God sees you, as one who is adopted, yet a sinner made righteous in Christ, bathed in his blood for God's own glory and purpose, a recipient of mercy, and now called to a life of that as your very identity? And then asking the question, how do I live? Let's go into these verses here. This is coming off of an argument of mercy and wrath, God having the ability to mold objects of mercy and wrath in order that the riches of His glory, meaning like showing that wrath is the normative response for sin and rebellion, but the fact that any receive mercy shows the glory and the grace and the power of God. And then he's going to say, even as whom he has called, not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles going to take these verses from Hosea specifically to Israel. And saying that it's not just for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles, because look who God, what God says, those who are not my people, I will call my people. Now, if you know the background of these passages, he's talking to Israel and telling them. You are not my people, I will call my people. And her who was not beloved, I will call beloved. In the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, they should be called sons of the living God. Talking of Israel's disobedience and proving themselves by the worship of high places and all these other things that they were not his people, but he was going to draw them to himself. And in some future time, they were going to be called his children. This idea of adoption. Paul says this is for Jews and Gentiles, meaning that now you're reading it in light of the reality of Christ and the reality of the Gospel going to the Gentiles, where in the church it was seen as, oh, what is this new thing? You can even remember in Acts, Peter being surprised as being told, eat whatever you want, showing this vision he's given of all these unclean animals. Never would I do that, Lord. And the idea that God is showing them, no, this was always part of God's economy and salvation is that he had in mind all people from all, I mean, people from all people groups that would come and he would call his children. So taking these Hosea verses and giving and showing them to this church in Rome, this kind of another piece, again, as he's talked about in 9 about how his heart is set on, or even he would give up if it were possible, using that kind of an argument where you take a opposite point and take it to its most absurd end. Meaning that he says, if it were possible, which it's not, I would give up my own position in Christ, my own salvation, if my kinsmen in the flesh, as he calls them, the Jews, would come to Christ. Because what they're seeing in the church is that when you read the gospels and Christ is crucified, You're supposed to read it as the collective, the collective nation of Israel has rejected their Messiah. And while individuals would later come to Christ who were Jewish by birth, the collective nation or identity of Israel had rejected their Messiah. And so Paul, looking in that sense, as there was always a very corporate idea of who Israel was, it's why you see when all of Israel is punished for the sins of the high places and things like that, you read it particularly in exilic works where they're in Babylon already. And Nehemiah is praying to God. How does he begin his prayer? He begins by asking forgiveness for all of the idolatry of all of his descendants that have come before him. So there was this collective idea of who they were, and they have rejected Christ. But then Paul's going to tell them, but there's a time coming when that will not be the case. And so he starts narrowing things down here in Hosea. And if there's one thing to take away from him, taking these Old Testament passages that were given to Israel and then saying, these apply to the church, is to say that Paul is opening up the idea. It's not a change in theology or something like that that you need to worry about. There's nothing to worry about. He's showing the church, again, what was one of the main reasons he's trying to address here? is the conflict in the church, is that all of these blessings, you are all, remember what it was? In the beginning you were all sinners, and you were all in need of God's righteousness, chapter 1, 2, and 3. But yet none of you, I'm sorry, chapter 1, 2, chapter 3, and yet you have all fallen short of the glory of God. and what you need to understand and you're still in need of the righteousness of God, which comes through Christ. And Christ is the one that Abraham was being shown by God as he was saying, look at the stars, they'll be your descendants. And the word means descendant, one who is Christ. And the descendants of Abraham are those who have the faith of Abraham. So He's letting them know, it's all of you. You've all received this, God's righteousness. You've all received His... You've all been justified before Him. You are now being sanctified, chapters 6 and 7, in this life of struggle with the flesh. And in 8, here are all the benefits of that. And then you have this future glory, where Christ will return and that sinful flesh will be gone. And now 9, He's going to say, you all, Jews and Gentiles, according to Hosea, are beloved, even though once you were not. And now you are an adopted people. called the sons of the living God, and that was synonymous with the idea of adoption. God has taken you, one who was unnaturally outside of his family because of sin, and placed you in his family through the righteousness of Christ. And now all of you who are fighting over the historical issues you have, Jew and Gentile, you are all recipients of mercy. objects of mercy, objects of wrath, he's letting them all know, irregardless of the past, irregardless of the history, you are all objects of God's mercy. And you are all united, again, in that singular idea of union with Christ through this aspect of being objects of mercy. What are the implications of that on a church? A couple thousand years removed from the writing of this letter. We don't know anything about conflicts between Jews and Gentiles. But every church, no matter where you go, no matter what denomination you might be a part of, what is it that we see over and over again? Conflict, infighting, pettiness. And God is calling us to more than that. there's an idea of that a church can become too still or almost paralyzed because of the idea that they can't get outside of the idea of how do I view myself properly? Become bogged down in our own self-recrimination and our own view of ourself, things that kind of push away and push down all that God is calling us to be. What has He said about just these believers here in the book of Romans? Recipients of God's righteousness that they didn't deserve? Union and communion with Christ, which overrides anything that we see differently? And here, objects of mercy. Objects of mercy who God has loved, calls them beloved, and has also included them into his family. Now, moving on to 27. Isaiah cries out concerning Israel. Though the number of the sons of Israel be the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. And as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. These particular verses are another judgment verse. When you actually read chapter 10 in Isaiah, it's dealing with the idea that this northern kingdom is being threatened by a foreign country called Assyria. And Assyria was cruel, and their practices of destroying other nations was particularly cruel, as they would come into a nation, utterly destroy it, and then take the inhabitants and move them forcibly all throughout these other countries that they had conquered, and then they would take people groups from those countries and bring them and transplant them into the newly conquered nation. The idea being in a couple of generations, the line that lived in that nation will no longer exist. That was why they did it. It was that so anyone who had ever been an enemy to Assyria in a couple generations time would no longer exist. And so what we have here, though, is Isaiah in the context of the passage, he's going to call Assyria his rod of judgment, meaning he's calling them in order to judge Israel. And so when Isaiah is crying out, it says, concerning Israel, the number of the sons of Israel will be the sand as the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. Excuse me Saved is actually in the Hebrews probably closer to say to be returned. It was the idea what he's talking about here originally is that Israel is about to have judgment come on them and the destruction and the death that is about to occur is going to be of such a magnitude that only a small portion will remain and when this judgment happens and It will be unlike anything they've seen before. This will be when the 10 tribes of Israel of the Northern Kingdom will be brought into exile and seemingly destroyed or done away with. And then the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay, just as Isaiah predicted. The reason that he's using this verse has puzzled theologians and commentators for thousands of years, because Paul leaves a kind of an ambiguous statement, meaning that he doesn't quite explain just as he does in Hosea. And so what he says, Isaiah crying out concerning Israel, though they are very numerous, They will soon be small. And that's something to take away. Though they are everywhere, there will soon be this small portion of Israel. For the Lord will carry out His sentence fully and without delay. This is in 28, another passage that fully and delay, or depending on your translation, it's not quite what it means. It could be like the sentence upon the earth would be like there would be completeness and it would be cut short. And so the idea being that this judgment on Israel that Isaiah is crying out about will leave only a remnant And the idea was that it was going to be quick, it was going to be complete, and that it was going to, the cut short aspect is tied to the idea of remnant, that there would only be a small group left. And the interesting part about Paul using these passages, as he points then to Isaiah again, Lord of hosts had not left us offspring or a seed, he would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. And this is where this whole portion of 9 through 11 is difficult because really the idea that he's expressing here in 9 It's going to be one of those moments where Paul brings it up again in the beginning of 11. And so I make an excuse why it doesn't, maybe it doesn't sound like it fits. No, it's so he's making this argument to show this remnant aspect idea of Israel. He's going to pick up again in 11 is to explain the idea of why there is such a small amount of Jews who have come to faith, but he's going to apply it to the whole church. In a theological aspect, or a theological sense, that's Abraham's seed, the same idea that he uses in chapter 4, 16 through 18, I believe. The seed of Abraham being the offspring, being particularly the Messiah or Christ. If the Lord of hosts had not left us an offspring, we would have been like Sodom and like Gomorrah. Paul is pointing now to all, Jew and Gentile, receiving this letter. As you are objects of mercy, as He's called them, as He's given them as an identity. He also gives a stark reality that if it were not for Christ, if He had not left us seed or offspring, we would all be like Sodom and Gomorrah. If you're unfamiliar with Sodom and Gomorrah, I bet you've probably heard the word, the names before used in some type of explanation. Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked nations. There are wicked nations that lived in the valley in the time of Abraham. Abraham has a foolish nephew who lives in one of those cities, Lot, and now his wife is also famous for looking back when they're told to flee, and it describes the destruction of these wicked cities. Now, the difference between Sodom and Gomorrah, there was only these righteous couple, and again, you struggle with the idea of, and you shouldn't. After chapter 9, if there's one thing people struggle about is when you read the life of Lot, And then later in Hebrews, it talks about Lot being righteous and you go, okay, whoever the author was, Hebrews was, did he have a different translation of Genesis when you read about Lot's story? No, it fits right in, right? Where does Lot's righteousness come from? It doesn't come from his actions. It doesn't come from his deeds. It's because God chose him as despicable as he was for his own purpose and his own glory, just like all of us. And so in that, these nations are destroyed. Part of the line of Abraham is kept with Lot. And then Lot escapes. But being like Sodom and Gomorrah, meaning like If it were not for the restraining hand of God, if it were not for the fact that He has made us as objects of mercy, we would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Meaning, this goes all the way back up to what we've done a couple of weeks ago in chapter 9, and God's sovereign purpose in calling who He will, and using the illustration of clay, and objects of mercy, and objects of wrath. If it were not for His great mercy, we would all receive and be objects of wrath. And so church Christian man and woman, since the beginning and the writing and the receiving of this letter, the idea and the point that Paul is making here is that when we think on God and we think on this idea of our own salvation and the own application to it in our own life, we're to be reminded over and over again of one principle thing. By nature, I'm an object of wrath. By nature, if it were up to me, my sin and my rebellion to God would be ongoing and infinite until the time that I die. Because by nature and by choice, I'm a sinner. And left to my own economy, my own ability, I will always sin. I will always rebel. It's what Paul's writing in chapter three. It's why this overview of union with Christ through Romans is presupposed after he, or it's something that you always, when you sit down after he talks about union with Christ and righteousness of God in Christ in chapter one and two, you're supposed to read the rest of the letter with that in mind at all times. If it were not for my union with Christ, and continue on. I would be like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. In my heart, despicable, depraved, rebel, God-hater. And that's who I was until such a time as God, in His sovereign mercy, who had already made me an object of mercy, redeemed me by faith in Christ. I turned and repented of dead works, not of my own ability, because of the ability that God had given me through the power of the Holy Spirit. And now I live a life as one who is an adopted son and daughter of the Most High God, who gave His Son, the second person of the Trinity, also God. to be sacrificed for my sins, His adopted sons and daughters whom He molded in eternity past as recipients of that same mercy. I now live in the reality of it in this life on this side of eternity by a recipient of that mercy which is shown by the seal of the Holy Spirit And now I live a life whose one purpose is to be. that object of mercy in the life that I've been given, in this vapor of a life, the quick, the life going by as something the sun dissipates in the morning, the quickness of which life goes. I've been given now as a recipient of this mercy, one who is to live his life out or her life out in the reality of that, meaning there's implications in how I deal with other people as a recipient of mercy. There should be no place of, say, interacting with unbelievers, or someone outside of this, or at this point in time who remains an object of wrath. There should be no place for arrogance. There should be no place for this idea, this terrible idea of removing yourself from unbelievers and kind of making what you would call a safety Christian bubble in your life. The idea that you are not interacting with people who are objects of wrath and have not received mercy, and being an instrument of mercy in their life, being one who is there to share the Gospel and tell them and show them and say this. When you have an opportunity to share your faith and you're telling them about what God's done to you, you're literally fulfilling the very identity of your person. because God has made you a recipient of his mercy and an object of his mercy so that you can tell that to other people. So the unbelievers in our lives and the ones that aren't in our lives yet, there's an ability for you to love them and show them the love of Christ through the way that you interact with them and how you talk and how you act. Not as putting on an act because you really believe, I'm an object of mercy. By my own mind, by my own design, I should be an object of wrath, as should we all, but God has done different for me. And now certainly then, as objects of mercy, interacting with other objects of mercy, meaning other believers, certainly the way that we talk and act and interact with each other and love on each other should be of a magnitude that the unbelieving world should not be able to comprehend. And you want to know how I know that? Because that's how the church was defined in the book of Acts. They just keep meeting. In the early opponents of Christianity were saying, look how they love one another. Look what you're reading in the book of Acts. Meeting together. Meeting each other's financial needs. Meeting each other's spiritual needs. Making sure that the church was growing in the teaching and the wisdom and the knowledge of God. And then they were spreading that gospel. Even the tiniest churches with no money or no anything, they'd send a person, oh, I hear there's problems in Corinth, which was a massive church. we're gonna send our big guy, probably the main elder and minister at the church, Titus, in a much smaller church in Crete, we're gonna send it to Corinth because we heard they're having problems there with false teaching. There's this idea that it went without saying that that which could define the church of Jesus Christ more than anything was the love that they showed one another. Why? Because we're all in understanding that we are objects of mercy. Objects of mercy that are still sinners and still fail. and still hurt, and still do all these things, and yet we are brought together in union with Christ. And Paul's reminded us now over and over again for the year that we've been going through the book of Romans. You are fallen and yet raised up. You were once unrighteous, made righteous, and you're here for one thing. You've all been put in union with Christ. And this idea is supposed to be what defined the church. Look how they love one another. So my charge to all of us today is let's live and really believe the idea that we're all objects of mercy, both loving and caring and admonishing when needed each other here in our small church, but also being objects of mercy in your life outside of these walls on Sunday. where you're working, where you're at in your neighborhood, where you're just randomly going, wherever it might be, you never are ever separated from the love of God in Christ because the Holy Spirit dwells in you and you are a temple of the living God. If there was one thing that was understood in the reading of this and all the Jewish and Gentile and all the application of the Old Testament to the New Testament, a very few short years later, The temple in Jerusalem is going to be destroyed by Rome. And it's going to be laid waste. And millions of Jews will be murdered and killed. And the whole city will be burned to nothing. And so with that temple gone, now this understanding made more vivid that the temple of God now dwells and walks along the world. You, who have received the Spirit, are called, by Paul in another book, the temples of the living God. And so when you're an object of mercy, a temple of the living God, and you're out there in the world where you're supposed to be, interacting with people who are outside of this, you are supposed to be living in such a way and speaking in such a way that just like Peter writes, the unbelieving world looks at the church and goes, where, and the individual Christian, where do you get your hope from? Let me tell you where it comes from. I am just like you. I am an object of wrath. Okay, maybe I need to work on my evangelism a little bit. Songwriters do better, right? You were once lost, but now I'm found. The idea that I was broken and a rebel of God, and so are you. And yet he calls all people to himself through Christ to repent of dead works. And the salvation that does or doesn't happen is all of God's working. But let us not get so inward focused and so dishonest with ourselves, with our ability to continue in wanting our own way and not thinking of others enough, and all these things that can trap us where we lose the joy that Christ rightly wants us to have and that Paul wants this church to understand. Objects of mercy. Recipients of righteousness. Sons and daughters adopted into God's family and bound together through the union of Christ. Take these truths and live them out and remind yourself of them daily, moment by moment, remind each other of them, the reality of who you are, a recipient of mercy. The God of the universe has made you a member of His family and a recipient of mercy so that you may go out and live in a manner that sees that as a truth. For the good and the glory of His name, putting others before yourself and death to sin in your own life. It's the life that any professing Christian is supposed to live. I say this understanding the reality of the sin in all of our lives. And that at all times, we are trying to deceive ourselves, and at all times, we are trying to, in the flesh, fight against this reality. But that's what Paul's reminding us of over and over again. The One who has called you, the One who has put you aside, is the Creator, and the Lord, and the Giver of mercy. And in the end, He wins, and you win, and we're waiting on that final victory parade when Christ returns, and with that blessed hope live your lives for my glory. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for its truth. We thank you for. Being confronted. By the implications of the gospel and being comforted ultimately. Through that same gospel. Lord, we know you are about your glory, and may we, the recipients of mercy, be about your glory. God, I pray for the church, not just our church, the church universal. Recipients of mercy called to go out into the world, proclaim that same mercy, God, may your church continue to grow through saving faith in Christ and may it continue to grow in wisdom and knowledge of who you are, leading to hearts that are changed and lives that live it out. And Lord, we pray, God, for the unbelievers amongst us, Lord, that you would call them to a saving faith. through your magnificent gospel. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. Please stand. So technically, we finished nine. Technically, I'm saying, like, because we're starting 10 next week, but anyway. Now may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. You are dismissed.