just to reiterate what Jeff said at the beginning, there was a little,
medical issue at the beginning, at the end of last service.
And that's why we got, just holding people off.
So thank you for your patience.
And, I think everything's going to be all right.
But if you think about it, just just put a man named Mark
in your prayers this week, that, he continues to walk.
And I think what what God intervened in,
in a good way. So,
we're in Romans nine,
and we're going to we're going to we're going to unpack Romans nine.
But before we do, I need
to let you know that, Sean, I got really good news this week.
And yesterday our third grandson was born, which is really cool.
They named him Randy after my dad.
And, he is perfect and precious.
And at the.
I leave today to go to Portland to run the Discovery Center till Wednesday
of church planters and a bunch of planters from Ukraine
that were coming over to so I can go do churches there.
And then we
leave on Friday after I get back to be in Idaho
with our family for a few days, which is going to be a lot of fun.
Our eldest grandson gets to play in his first flag football game,
which is exactly as God intended it to be,
although there is still sin in the world
and he has to be on the Patriots team, which is
really unfortunate.
In chapter nine.
Most people who have read the Bible,
when it comes to Rome and say, I love the book of Romans,
what I've discovered is what they love is chapter eight
on love the book of Romans.
They love chapter eight because we love the idea.
There's no condemnation in Christ. I love that
God works all things together for good.
I love that nothing can separate him from his love.
I love that I have no clue what's at nine, ten, 11.
The way the book is, is structured verse chapters
one through the first part of chapter three is about the wrath of God,
and that we're separated from God by sin.
The last part of chapter three
all the way through chapter eight, is about the grace of God.
And that's what people love from nine, ten, 11.
Those chapters is about the plan of God
specifically as it relates to the Israel nation.
And then 12 through 16 is about the will of God
and how we live this out in the world as apprentices of Jesus.
And so we finished the section on the Grace of God last week,
and we enter this section about the plan of God
specifically as it relates to the, the, the Israel nation.
And so most people, when they read this like, what does this have to do with me?
There are so many parallels
and so many truths that we can gain
from the study of nine, ten, 11 as God relates to his people
and how he relates to those who are not Jews, in other words, called Gentiles.
Chapter nine is about his rules past.
Chapter ten is about Israel's present, and chapter 11 is about their future.
And so there is there's a lot for us in this.
But before we get into it, I need
I just need to give it a little bit of of,
insight as to where this where chapter nine is headed.
It Paul talks a lot about the Jews
and the Jews he talks about are Jews
ethnically those born Jewish
and religiously those who obey Jewish.
So it makes sense.
And then he talks about Gentiles.
That's just a fancy word for non-Jews.
And so biblically, the whole world is divided, been Jews and Gentiles.
We I haven't checked your DNA, but most of us are Gentiles, okay.
Just non-Jews.
And then as in unpacking
what he does in chapter nine about the grace of God,
Paul goes back to Jewish Hebrew Old Testament, had deep history
because he wants to drive home
the fact that though the Jews have been called, God shows, right?
Anybody here that God's chosen people, the Jews.
You heard that even though they're known as God's chosen, they're God's chosen.
Not because they merit it, not because they're good,
not because there's something valuable innately in them.
They're chosen because of God's grace.
Just like anybody who has a relationship with the father
is not because we've done something to merit it.
It's because of God's grace.
And so Paul goes back to the Old Testament, deep in the Old Testament
to say, these people are mine, but not because they're so special.
I chose them now because I chose them.
They're special, but I didn't choose them because they're special.
Same thing with us.
And so he goes all the way
back to talk,
to talk about the history of Abraham, and then talks about the history of
Ishmael and Isaac, the two sons of Abraham.
And then he talks about Esau and Jacob, the two sons of Isaac.
And then he talks about Moses the liberator out of slavery in Egypt.
And he talks about the Exodus and the golden calf.
Exodus 31 3233 and then he talks about the prophet
Jeremiah, Leah and Hosea, and Isaiah, and he uses all of this stuff.
This is a deep dive in Old Testament.
Here's part of understanding the Bible.
We cannot understand the New Testament, Matthew through revelation
if we don't understand the Old Testament that came before it.
And so Paul is writing to those who understand Old Testament history,
the Romans, and in Rome, right to Judah.
They understand Old Testament history.
So he draws on all this Old Testament.
So we're going to take a deep dive into the Old Testament
as you go through chapter nine. You okay with that?
Okay. This is what I love about our church.
Like we don't mind getting in the weeds of the Bible.
And I love the fact that we're becoming Bible students.
And so if that's already you, you're going to love this.
If this is newer to you, you're gonna be like, wow, that was a whole bunch.
But we'll make it through it.
And so,
Paul has just got done and through these first eight chapters,
making the case that everybody,
Jew and Gentile alike, are separated from God by sin.
And what has repaired that relationship is not
the Jewish law of do's and don'ts, but what's repair?
That relationship is faith in Jesus because of God's grace, not our own doing.
And so he spent all this time saying, look, I know that you have the law.
I know you've tried to be good, but your religion has failed
because religion cannot make that.
It can't fill in the gap.
The only thing that is faith in Jesus is what he did on the cross
because of God's grace.
And so the natural reaction to those statements
from the Jew is, well then what good is being a Jew,
right?
I mean, if non-Jews get what we get, we're supposed to get what good is earned?
Meaning, what good is all this?
Does it even matter?
And Paul's point is that, oh, it matters greatly.
Greatly.
And so to that end, verse one two and three, he says this I'm speaking.
Just follow along. Back there on the computer.
I am speaking the truth in Christ.
I am not lying.
My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit
that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
For I wish I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off
from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.
Here's what he's saying.
He's saying God loves the Jews so much, and I do, too, that if I could
trade places with those who have rejected Jesus, I would trade places with them.
I would choose to be cursed and damned to hell if,
my brethren, the Jews, could come to faith in Jesus.
Can you imagine? That's what he's saying.
I remember I read this when I was in high school
and I thought, you have got to be kidding me.
Like when you understand what hell is.
To say, I'll take that so someone else can be in heaven.
Let me just tell you, I don't love any of you all that much.
I don't know that.
If you understand.
Hell, that's a profound statement.
If you understand hell, you want to do everything
within your power to make sure that those
in your heart all know Jesus.
And Paul isn't just simply being altruistic here.
He is going back to the Old Testament Exodus,
chapter 32 verses 31 and 32.
Let me set the stage.
He knows Old Testament history, and he knows that when Moses
was up on Mount Sinai and met with God, and God downloaded to him
the Ten Commandments chisel them out and stone Moses.
God's like, hey, Moses, something's going on in the camp down the hill.
You better get that he's Moses gone for 40 days.
And so Moses goes back down and finds all the
Hebrews.
What would be the Jewish people just living in debauchery and sin?
And they'd taken all the gold
they got from leaving Egypt and melted it down and made a golden calf,
and rejected God, who had been so good of them and liberating them,
and started worshiping a golden calf and God's like.
I'm done with these people.
I'm going to kill them all.
I started without them.
I'll kill them and start over with some other people.
And Moses says,
he says, alas, this people have sinned a great sin,
and they've made for themselves gods of gold.
Look what he says.
But now, if you will forgive their sin.
But if not, please blot me out of your book that you've written.
He's saying, God, you chose these people.
You've chosen them when they didn't deserve to be chosen.
You said you'll be faithful to them.
And if you're not going to be, then white me out of your book.
Moses has said
the same thing that Paul said Moses said about God's people
when they were running away from him in the desert.
So this isn't something new.
This is profound.
And Moses is reiterating, I'm sorry.
Paul is reiterating what Moses had said generations earlier about God's people.
I wish if they could just come, I would sacrifice my eternity for them.
Now, the good thing is that God doesn't operate like that.
There's one who did sacrifice herself
for the saving of many, and that was Christ and Christ alone.
But they do understand Paul's heart here.
You feel his heart.
He's got such a love for his people.
Now look at verse four.
They are these these people.
They are the Israelites. They are Israelites.
And to them belong the adoption, the glory,
the covenants, the giving to the law, the worship and the promise.
What he's saying is these people are special, not because there was
something innate in them to begin with, but because God chose them,
and God chose them to reveal to the world God's plan.
And he starts from them, from the Israelites, from the Jews
comes the adoption. Now,
earlier when Paul talked about adoption,
we understood that as when a benevolent
person sees something of value that's in peril,
adopts them into their family, wipes out all of their bad past, and gives them
all the rights and responsibilities and identity of the adopted family.
And that's what God has done to us Gentiles.
He's a doll.
He saw something in us. He paid a great price for us.
His son and adoption shown that we are co-heirs with Jesus, his son.
Now Paul says that same adoption first happened with the Jews.
Here's why.
Because when God started this whole thing, he didn't have a special people.
There was Adam and there was Eve.
And out of Adam came Noah and all these others, all
before Abraham, everybody was
they were just people.
And it was with Abraham in Genesis 12 that God says, I will call you out
and take you to and out of you will come, my people.
So even the Jews were adopted by God.
And the reason why God adopted the Jews,
Abraham's offspring is not because they were worthy,
and not because they were credible, and not because they were special.
They were the least of all the people on the earth.
And God said so that I can look good.
I'm going to choose someone like you
as my special people, and I'm going to put my specialness on you.
Do you understand?
Israel is one of the names of God,
and the people of God bear his name.
Those who struggle with God, that's what it means.
So he put his name on them, not because they were special,
but because he chose them because of his grace.
Same thing with me in you.
He has sought us.
He has called us not because there's something innately
good and special about us, but because of his grace.
Do you understand God?
And the moment we respond to that grace,
then he pours his special ness on us.
So we are special and chosen, but not because of who we are.
And Paul saying, yeah, the Jews are important
because it's through them first that the adoption came.
So any Gentiles been adopted into God's family is only there
because God adopted the Jews first,
the special because God means so,
and then he goes through this ordeal and the glory.
It's through the Jews that the glory of God was revealed.
The glory he's talking about is the Hebrew word, Tina.
It's the presence of God.
The presence of God was shown to the world in his glory
through the desert, by a pillar of fire at night, and a pillar cloud in the day.
And then when the tabernacle was set up
in the ark of the covenant, all this Old Testament things, God's
glory rested on the ark of the covenant, on the mercy seat.
It was the mercy of God that expressed and held the presence of God.
His glory is said.
It's through the Jews that you even are aware of the glory of God
and the covenants,
the covenant of land through Abraham, the covenant of law through Moses,
the covenant of the Messiah, of a kingdom through David,
the New Covenant in Jeremiah
31 of a new law written on our hearts that we celebrate in communion.
The covenants, he said, have all come through the Jews.
God chose them.
The giving up the law, the law that that was intended to express,
our inability to keep it and foreshadow the one who would keep it for us.
That all came through the Jews, the worship,
all the worship elements that had to take place through the Jews,
the sacrificial system, the washing of everything.
So one would be able to come into God's presence,
foreshadowing the one who would be the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus.
All of that came through the Jews
and the promises.
God has made special promises to the Jews
specific to that nation that he will fulfill.
And what Paul is saying is, God has chosen you people.
So and he's placed his his love, his choosing of you on him,
not because you're special, but God has placed the revelation
of who he is to the world through you
because of his grace,
not just for you, but for the world.
And then and then Paul says this, and this is a big deal.
Verse five, to them, to the the Israelites,
the Jews belong the Patriarch Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And from their race, according to the flesh
is the Christ who was God overall blessed forever.
Amen.
This is the strongest statement of the divinity of Christ
that Paul makes in all of Scripture.
And what we mean by the divinity of Christ is this truth
that Jesus was fully God and fully human.
It's called the hyper static union,
the only one in all of history
to be fully God and fully human.
Jesus had to be fully both
complete deity in flesh.
We used to call it back in the day, God in a bad.
And he had to be that.
Here's why.
Because for sin to be forgiven, it required a perfect sacrifice
and the only perfect eternal sacrifice is God Himself.
But so you and I can't make a charge
against God said, you don't know what it's like to be me.
You've never been me.
Jesus had to also be fully human.
So Jesus can say, oh yeah, I do.
I was tempted in every way like you and yet without sin.
So Jesus had to be fully both to understand.
So this is Paul strongest statement of the divinity of Christ in
you, saying that this
God has placed his specialness on you
not because you deserve it, but because I've chosen you.
Look at verses six and seven,
but it is not as though the Word of God has failed,
because you made all these promises to the to the Jews.
For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,
and not all are children of Abraham, because they are of his offspring.
But through Isaac shall your offspring be name.
Let me just explain what's going on.
He's saying, God's made all these promises to his people,
the Jews, and most of them reject him.
So what good are his promises?
Did God fail?
He chose them. They rejected him.
Doesn't seem like a success, right?
Here's what he's saying.
He said that the rejection by the majority
does not negate his promises to the minority,
that there will always be some of his people who believe
and what he says here.
For not all who descended from Israel belong to Israel,
and just because they were born a Jew doesn't mean they're God's.
Not all are children of Abraham because they're his offspring.
Through Isaac, your offspring will be named.
Now look at verse eight.
This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God,
but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.
Before Abraham had any sons, God told Abraham, you're going to have a son.
And he and his wife sure were really old.
They couldn't do it.
And so they were waiting and waiting, waiting for the promise,
the grace of God to bless them with their son.
They got tired of waiting.
And so, like we they said, I'm going to do it on my own.
Obviously God's taken too long.
I'm going to do it on my own.
He gets this other gal pregnant name, Hagar, and he has a son named Ishmael.
So that's the son of the flesh.
Later, God fulfilled the promise
through his wife Sarah, and she had a boy and they named him Isaac.
And what Paul is saying here is, just because you're
of the flesh of Abraham doesn't mean you're descendant of him.
Only those who are sons of the promise, which is the grace of God.
So every one of us, though Gentile,
are related through the promise to God.
Do you understand?
I'm saying that's Israel, that's spiritual Israel.
So even Gentiles are spiritual Israel
because we're children of the promise.
Some may choose to follow God through the flesh.
The law, the Jews.
It doesn't work.
Those of us who choose to follow God through the promise
spiritual Israel have the relationship with the father.
You follow, you follow.
God's promise, are still to his people.
He's made other promises to spiritual Israel
who believe through the promise, not through the work of the flesh.
Look at verse.
Let me jump down to ten.
Oh, let me just say that.
Let me just say this.
Just because someone claims the name Israel,
the name of God, doesn't mean they're people of God.
Similarly, just because someone claims the name Christian
doesn't mean they're like Christ.
That's the point Paul is making.
Israel was the part of the.
The L was the name of God is is that to wrestle with?
And so they claim the name of God, but they're not God's.
Just like how many I how many people claim, yeah, I'm a Christian.
Sure.
Without ever having a relationship.
And so
what Paul saying here is look what Christian means.
It was a derogatory term that means little Christs.
And the early followers of Jesus were made fun of
by calling them Christians.
Because why would you want to be, Why would you want to be
like a poor itinerant preacher who was crucified?
That's shameful.
So they made fun of them because it was identity with Christ.
What it means to be a Christian is an apprentice of Jesus.
That as I an apprentice of Jesus, I walked so closely to him
I get the dust of his footprints on my clothes.
So though one claims to be a Christian
but doesn't walk as an apprentice
isn't in relationship, that's what Paul saying.
You follow.
So although I may claim the name, when you look at the dust that's on me,
I have the dust of the culture, but not the dust of the Messiah.
I don't act like
I don't date, like I don't post, like I don't talk like an apprentice
and claim the name all you want, just like the Jews do.
I mean, there's a relationship.
You follow
jump down to verse ten.
And not only so, but also when.
Rebecca, this is a whole nother Old Testament thing had conceived
children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they they the babies,
though they were not yet born, had that nothing either good or bad,
in order that God's purpose of election might continue
not because of works, but because of him who calls.
She was told the older will serve the younger.
As it is written, Jacob, I've loved Esau.
I've hated.
That sound harsh?
Yeah,
it sounds harsh, but let's understand what he's saying.
He's saying Rebecca had these,
had these two babies in her.
And God chose one over the other.
Though they had done nothing yet.
Good or bad,
they were in the womb.
And God chose one over the other,
Jacob over Esau.
And God says, I'm doing it differently.
Normally, the younger would serve the older.
I'm switching it. And here's why.
Because God, in his omniscience
and foreknowledge, knows how these lives are going to go.
He knows the nations
that will come from them, because each will bear nation in them.
And he says, because I know how this is going to go, though I will call both.
One will respond, Esau is going to reject
me, and his people that eat him will reject me.
Jacob will choose me.
So because I know he's going to choose me, I'm going to choose him.
You follow.
And so when the Scripture says, is Jacob, I've loved Esau.
I've hated what he's really saying is not love.
Hey, like I don't like him.
God loved Esau still because he
I mean, he blessed him incredibly, but he didn't choose him for the promise.
What God is saying is, I have chosen one for the promise.
I have rejected the other for the promise.
It's not a love hate like I don't like you.
It's a rejection of the promise.
Because he knew in his foreknowledge that Esau was going to reject him.
So here's what election looks like.
We make the choice to follow God, and we step through the door
and knock on the door.
Behold, if anybody hears my knock and opens are all come,
and we open the door and Christ comes in and we think, yeah, I chose him.
And then we look behind us and we see written on the door, yeah,
but I chose you first.
Do you understand?
And chose not.
My God hated. He saw.
He loved him, but he knew that he was going to reject him, which he did.
Before they done anything,
just like us, we can't do anything to make God love us.
He just offers the invitation
to be his, to receive the promise,
not the work.
Verse 14.
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part?
By no means.
For he says to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom all have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I'll have compassion.
So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.
Again, Paul's going back to Old Testament
and way back in the Old Testament and Exodus 33 verse 19,
When Moses comes down from the mountain, sees the people
getting stupid, throws the law on the ground, breaks the law.
What he's saying is,
in that Old Testament scenario, God had just downloaded his law.
This is how you walk in step with me.
The moment he gave that law, the people broke it,
which was symbolized by Moses breaking the statute, the tablets on the ground
and the moment that happened, God said, Moses, I told you,
these people are stiff necked rebellions, and they keep rejecting me.
I'm going to wipe them out and start over.
And that's what Moses said.
But if you do that, kill me first.
That's a no, no, no. Okay, fine.
I'll have compassion.
God, then 3000 people died.
There was consequence for breaking the law.
No consequence, because that's what the law does.
We can't keep it. We always break it.
And because we break the law, we stand as law breakers, condemned to death.
And in that, in Exodus 33, 3000 people died.
But here's the correlation.
This is what we don't later
in in acts two,
verse 41,
the Holy Spirit is given
by God's grace.
When the law came, was broken.
3000 died. In acts two.
When the spirit was given by grace, 3000 came alive,
3000 were saved, and God was painting this picture.
Listen, the law,
you're going to break it.
And the consequences. Death.
That's what Paul talked about in Romans 123.
But the gift of God by his grace is the spirit of life.
And when you make yourself open to that,
you're no longer dead.
And what God said to Abraham back then is, I will have compassion.
God does say, everybody deserves death.
Everybody. Why?
Because everybody sinned.
Everybody deserves death.
The amazing thing is not that that some die.
The amazing thing is that God had compassion on most.
You do understand that.
And so God says, yeah, my initial reaction
was, I'm done with these people, but I will have compassion.
I will have compassion.
And you know what he says over me and you.
Now your sin deserves death,
but I will have compassion,
I will.
It's a promise.
And watch this.
Verse 17.
For the Scripture
says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I've raised you up,
that I might show my power in you,
and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
So then verse 18, he has mercy on
whom whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
Again, Paul's going back to Pharaoh in the book of Exodus.
And favorite one.
And God had this real interesting dialog ongoing.
And God says, fair.
I set you up so I can show the world how great I am.
But Pharaoh kept rejecting God and rejecting his work.
And in the Bible there are Pharaoh and God.
And sometimes the Bible says Pharaoh hardened his heart.
And sometimes the Bible says God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
So. So his heart gets hardened.
Targets are sometimes it's Pharaoh's choice.
Sometimes says God does it.
Does it make any sense?
Is it just for God to condemn someone
when God's the one who hardened his heart?
Now, yeah,
most of you don't want to answer because we're in church
and we're supposed to say the right thing, but it's
here's the difference.
There are two words used for hardened between Pharaoh and God.
One is the word.
I'm making the choice to reject you.
The other is I am confirming your choice to reject me.
And so when Pharaoh hardened his heart,
Pharaoh made the choice.
God, I've heard your law.
I've seen your work, and I am choosing to reject you and do my own thing.
And so God confirms his choice of a hardened heart.
That's how God works with me.
And you.
When we've heard the word, when we've heard the truth,
when we understand the standard, when we get it, it's faith.
Because of God's grace.
And we say, God, no, I'm going to do my own thing.
I'm going to live my own life.
I'm going to make my own standard.
That is you, me choosing a hard heart.
And God will confirm your choice.
That's why the more we say no to God, the easier
it is to say no to God.
Conversely, when I say God,
my heart is soft and open and tender, and I will respond,
that's my choice.
And God hardens that choice in me.
And the more you and I say yes to God, the easier it gets to say yes to God
to understand.
And that's what he did with Pharaoh.
It's interesting.
God worked through both Moses and Pharaoh.
Both were sinners, and both were murderers.
And one chose to harden
his heart and one chose to soften it.
God confirmed both.
And he will, and you and me to.
Know.
Look, I realize I'm three minutes over already,
and I got verses 19 through 33 to get through.
And so I'm to do my best to go fast.
Verse 19.
But you will say to me, why does he, God still find fault?
For who can resist his will?
Who can resist God's will?
But who are you?
Oh man, to answer back to God, well, what's molded say to its molder?
Why have you made me this?
Like this.
Verse 21 has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the
same lump one vessel for honorable use, another for dishonorable use.
Here's what he's saying.
He's going back to the prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah chapter 18, verses one through six.
God tells Jeremiah his prophet, go down and watch this potter make some call.
Make some pots out of clay.
So Jeremiah goes to the potter's house
and he sees the potter making clay.
And in this one pot he's got this real hard
like knob of clay that he just can't work out and mold what he wants to mold.
And so the Potter digs in.
It's like he digs in and he removes that hard piece of clay,
and it puts more water on and keeps molding and molding and molding
and makes out of that clay that's marred and scarred,
that vessel that he wants.
And he's saying, this is what I do with my people.
I'm the potter,
and I can make it out of my people what I want to make out of my people.
And sometimes they get real nasty, hard stuff stuck in them,
and they won't let me mold them.
And rather than cast them away and throw them out in the potter's
field, just broken and cast off, I dig that out.
And there might be scars there, and but I dig that out,
and so I can put the water of my spirit on them and keep molding them.
So what right does the pot have to say to the potter?
I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm going to make out of you
something that's crafted by me, not because you're a worthy piece of clay,
but because of my grace.
Because my grace is greater than your hardness.
You get it.
What if God is trying to show wrath visible?
Verse 22.
What if God designed to show his wrath
and to make known his power has endured with much patience?
Vessels of, of wrath
prepare for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory.
For vessels of mercy which has prepared beforehand for glory.
Look at Paul gets hard to understand.
I get it right so much.
You're like, what are you talking about?
I don't even know what you're like.
Let me explain. You're seeing.
He said some vessels are prepared for wrath.
Not that God made him for wrath.
They prepare themselves for wrath because they kept saying no.
So God confirmed their decision.
Say no and they prepared themselves for wrath.
But what if God allowed that to happen so he can show them how impatient he is?
Hasn't God been really
patient with some of us?
I mean,
look, God already knows what a knucklehead we've been, so let's just smile about it
and admit it. We've been knuckleheads
and we prepared ourself for wrath.
We kept saying no, and God's confirmed that decision.
Yet he's still patient
and he's still merciful.
He says, I will still make out of you an object of my grace
if you let me.
So that you can be shown as a vessel for mercy.
And then watch this.
He goes back to Hosea, even as us whom is called
not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles,
as indeed verse 25, he quotes this passage from Hosea,
those who weren't my people, I call my people those who were never loved.
I called, loved the very place where is written of them.
You're not my people.
They're going to be called sons of the living God.
Here's what he's going back to.
Hosea,
if you know the story of the prophet Hosea, Hosea had a really tough ministry.
Hosea was a prophet.
And God said, Hosea, I want you to go marry this name,
this girl named Gomer, okay, that's strike one right there.
Like if you're never going to have a baby like don't name her Gomer.
That's I don't know if there's anybody named Gomer here I apologize.
But that's just like really like
here's the problem.
Gomer is a prostitute.
So God said marry this woman.
She's going to start hooking.
Like way like I
when I wanted to be a pastor I didn't want to be that kind of like this. No
he said not only is she going to be a prostitute,
she's going to keep prostituting herself. You're going to marry her.
And she was going to have all these babies from all these other men,
and you got to raise them.
Not only that, she's going to go back to the house, to prostitution,
and you got to go there as an average John and buy her out of prostitution.
She's already your wife now.
You got to go pay for her as a prostitute to buy her from her pimp.
So anybody want to go to ministry with me?
Anybody?
No, I wouldn't want to do that.
I'm like, you got to get somebody else.
But here's what God was saying.
We are not Hosea in the story.
We're Gomer.
Because spiritually we keep prostituting ourselves
to disobedience
and rejecting God
when he has loved us and committed himself to us
and continues to come back to us time and time and time again.
Those spiritually were whores.
So much so, we bear fruit of sin
and he comes back to us and pays our price.
Not because we were worthy.
Gomer wasn't worthy.
But because he's faithful.
Second Timothy 222.
When you are faithless, I remain faithful.
And God says, I will never divorce you.
I will always choose you.
You don't deserve it.
But I love you and I've chosen you, and I've called you my.
Because my grace is greater than your affair
with sin.
You get it?
You just go quickly.
He then goes to Isaiah
and he says, though the number of the sons of Israel
be as the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved.
What he's saying is what we said in the beginning.
The majority have rejected, but the rejection
of the majority doesn't negate the promise to the minority because God is faithful,
not because they deserve to receive his blessing, but because he is
gracious and full of mercy.
Let me jump to
30 and 31 and 32
says witness by faith.
But that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness,
did not succeed in reaching that law. Why?
Because Israel didn't pursue it by faith based on works.
They stumbled over the stumbling stone.
But when it's through the law, the Jews tried that.
They missed faith and they tripped over Jesus.
The Gentiles had no idea about the law.
We're just dumb and happy, had no idea about God.
And then we hear the message of Jesus
faith by grace and we receive it by faith.
Beautiful.
And Jesus.
The Bible says
in verse 33, he's he's quoting in Isaiah, behold, I'm laying in Zion
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
and whoever believes in him will not be put.
So look, Jesus is offensive to the Jew.
It's just he's just offensive.
Because how does the how does the Messiah, the chosen one, how does God himself
come as a, as a as a,
a homeless
cross?
It's just shameful.
And they look at that and they think, there's no way.
And God has said it is so simple.
It's not about your religious behavior.
It's not about who you are.
It's about what I've done and the simplicity of faith and grace.
Don't trip over this.
See, and that's what the Jews have done, not all of them.
And God's still faithful to the minority.
Don't trip over this,
as those who don't understand the totality of God's law were like,
well, yeah, manifest through Jesus. Fine. Give me Jesus.
Don't trip over it.
So because I'm going to take these vessels
and I want to share and bear the name of God.
You follow.
He is so good.
And so
choose a soft heart
and a responsive heart.
And let God confirm that in you.
Otherwise,
what will be confirmed is your hard heart.
And I want to warn you about that.
Let's pray.
God, thank you.
Thank you for your faithfulness to your people.
Thank you that down through the air
so we can see how you have chosen those
who weren't worthy to be chosen
as objects of your mercy and your grace.
Thank you that you confirm the choices that we choose
about you.
That those who would choose a soft.
That's right. You confirm that in us. Thank
that repentance.
What?
So, dear friends, I invite
to turn a no into a yes
and say father.
God, I agree with your word
that apart from Jesus, I'm separated from you
and I cannot solve that problem on my own.
So give your promise
of both forgiveness and eternal life
through Christ.
As I make the decision to say yes,
confirm that decision in my heart
so that it becomes easier to say, all of you who would so choose this,
I encourage you in this moment, you are profound.
Help us to live in that truth.
Help us live in that truth.
Bible.
You're going to read chapter nine this week, and as students of the Bible,
you're going to read chapter ten and get ready for next week.
This word is profound, man.
It is life changing, a life giving.
And I want us all to experience that.
I love you, it's been good to be here today.
We got one song right. Let's stand up and sing.