Who are God's people? | Sunday Sermon

Who are God’s chosen people?

Key text: Romans 9:25-33

(v.25) As He says also in Hosea:
“I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.”

- quoted from Hosea 1:9-10 & Hosea 2:23

Hosea 1:9-10

Context
- Hosea instructed to take a harlot for a wife (v.2)
- represents God’s “marriage” to Israel
- with the wife being a harlot, the unfaithfulness represents Israel's unfaithfulness
- God will scatter (seen by the term “Jezreel” which means “to scatter”) (v.4)
- God no longer extends pity (as Lo-Ruhamah means “not pitied”) (v.6)

(v.9) The God said:
“Call his name Lo-Ammi,
For you are not my people,
And I will not by your God”

- means “not my people”
- symbolises God’s rejection of Israel
- God has rejected based on their rejection of Him
- “she had weaned” (v.8), a delay of the birth to signify God’s patience
- potentially the bearing of another son represents Israel’s continual rejection of God
- God will not be there God
- the representation is that the child is not Hosea’s, having married a Harlot, the same way many Jews in Romans 9 are children of flesh, but not children of the promise
- God leaves Israel, as evident in the Assyrians siege of Jerusalem and eventual captivity (2 Kings 17 & Isaiah 10)

(v.10) “Yet the number of the children of Israel
Shall be as the sand of the sea,
Which cannot be measured or numbered.
And it shall come to pass
In the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
There it shall be said to them,
‘You are sons of the living God.’

- “Yet” is important word here
- number of children, as with Abraham’s covenant with God (Genesis 22:17 – sand)
- God preserves a remnant for Himself, in Israel and Judah
- Israel claimed back by God into His covenant (In the place)

Hosea 2:23

(v.23) Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;
Then I will say to those who were not My people,
‘You are My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”

- Israel brought back in and restored to favour

Relating to Romans 9:25-26

- in the way that the Jews were out of the covenant with God due to their disobedience, non-believers are outside of the covenant, but have been brought in according to God’s plan
- Paul throughout Romans 9 make the comparison between the Jewish election and Gentile election
- Paul applies the Old Testament principle from Hosea that we rejected Christ, as the Jews did, and God will bring them back to Himself, the way he brings believers to Himself
- Paul also does this in 1 Peter 2:9-10

1 Peter 2:9-10

(v.9) But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light; 

- Paul contrasts the privilege us believers have using Old Testament language
- called us out of darkness, reference to believers

(v.10) who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

- identical quote to Hosea 2:23 & Romans 9
- cements the comparison between the falling away and restoration of Israel and the calling of believers

(v.26) “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

- restoration of Israel, similar to the salvation of Christians

(v.27) Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.
(v.28) For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”

- quoted from Isaiah 10:22-23

Isaiah 10:22-23

Context
- Isaiah prophesies the Assyrian destruction, as mentioned previously mentioned in this talk (v.5-12)
- remember, the reason for this destruction is because of Israel’s rejection of God
- these verses show God’s sovereign use of Assyria (v.7)

(v.22) For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea,
A remnant of them will return;
The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
(v.23) For the Lord God of hosts
Will make a determined end
In the midst of all the land.

- a small remnant will remain in spite of Israel's turning away from God
- this is because of God’s promise to Israel (children of promise)
- not all Israel are Israel

(v.29) And as Isaiah said before:
“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”

- quoted from Isaiah 1:9
- more on the few “survivors” who have remained faithful to God