The Gentiles and the Remnant

Well, we're starting into a section here which is really interesting, as with all of God's Word. So I've labeled this section 25 through 29, the Gentiles and the remnant. And you actually, you know, in looking at this section on those verses, you could almost say just the remnant. But in looking, and I've read through this many times, you begin to say, well, wait a minute. Why is Paul quoting this and telling believers about this? Well, it seems he wants to make some comparisons between the Gentile salvation and the remnant salvation.

So that's kind of where I'm headed with this today. Okay. So as background, I'm going to go back and look at Background 20, I'm going to look at 22B through 24. And the reason I kind of started in a strange place, this is a question, this is one long sentence, 22 to 24.

But in this question, and Mike covered this last week, he talks about two aspects, the vessel of wrath and the vessel of mercy. And we're going to see that he's been talking about the vessel of wrath. You know, you could say Pharaoh was a vessel of wrath. But Paul doesn't want you to get the idea that God arbitrarily is saying, you're a vessel of wrath, you're a vessel of mercy, you're a vessel of wrath, you're unsaved, you're saved. God's not doing that. He never, that'd be contrary to his character.

So I'm gonna do this kind of in block diagram form. So let's start at God, and that's implied from the previous part. God endured, or to bear, to bear under, bear up under, How did he bear up under with much patience or long-suffering? So the first part of this is about God, 22b. God endured or bared up under with much patience and long-suffering.

So we see, as in all the scripture, God is slow. He's careful. He's loving. He can't violate his character. But what happens is a vessel of wrath shows up. unbeliever, basically, a one who does not want to submit to God's will. So what does this unbeliever do, or this vessel of wrath do? Does God say, well, you're not believing on me, so I'm going to zap you? No. The person does it to himself.

And the verb tense, and Mike kind of covered this last week a little bit, there's a couple possibilities, but I like, the best one to me that fits with the context is a middle voice which says, you could translate it, having prepared themselves. So think about Pharaoh. You know, God gave him six plagues, and probably a lot longer. And then after six plagues, things changed. But God gave him a time for him to change his mind. But at some point, he decided that he was going to go his way. So in a sense, he prepared himself He prepared himself for destruction.

And be careful in scripture, I like Vine's definition of destruction. It's the idea, it's loss of well-being, not loss of being. People, as we know, unbelievers will not evaporate. They don't cease to be. They will go and stand before the white throne judgment. So destruction will be, is not annihilation. So anyway, so it's a vessel of wrath, having prepared themselves for destruction. So a couple of comments.

So the main idea again is God is enduring with this long suffering. He's incredibly patient. year after year, and look in the Old Testament. What do you see in the Old Testament? Page after page after page of him pleading with Israel to change their minds. Why are you doing this?

And a new king comes up and he does the same thing as the old king. It just keeps going on and on and on. I can remember reading that with my kids. They said, Dad, this is the same story we read a couple days ago. It's the same king and he's doing something bad too. Does it ever get good? I said, well, I don't know. No, it doesn't.

When Christ comes, it gets good. So when we got to that part of the Bible, it was really good. Anyway, so the vessel of wrath are responsible for their own actions. They have rejected divine grace. That's what's happened. And then, so God is not causing the action. He's not causing them to become a vessel of wrath. He's responding to their unbelief, and He responds in His righteousness and His holiness. Okay, so that's 22b. So let's go to 22. So now we switch from the vessels of wrath to the vessels of mercy. So let's start out again. And he did so. So what follows this will be the purpose.

Why did he, you could say there are probably many reasons, but in this context, what's the reason he was long suffering to the vessels of wrath? He did so to make known the riches of His glory, basically who He is. He wanted to show who He was. And I heard, I read or wrote down a note that says, the way, and maybe this is about people too, how a person or God responds to people that hate Him is a wonderful indication of how he responds to people that love him. So God responded to the people that hated him with mercy and grace. So for us, it's even better. The riches of his glory, who he is, upon the vessels of mercy, to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which were prepared beforehand for glory. So the riches are upon us.

And I always like this verse, you know, I remember my daughter asking me, I can't love God. I can't love God. And you know, I never really answered that well and it's kind of. To this day I still think about that. I'm hoping one day to talk to her more about that.

And the verse in 1 John, we love because He first loved us. We can't within ourselves love God. He has to love us first. The same way here. He takes the action, He shows who He is, and He wants us to respond to that. And so the contrast is between man, from the previous verse, man preparing himself for destruction, versus God preparing man beforehand for glory. So wonderful contrast. Then we move on. The reason I'm doing this, this is kind of a build up to kind of show you that both Jew and Gentile are in view here. And the next verse does that.

Even us, whom he also called, not from among the Jews only, but also from among the Gentiles. So I put even us, believers, whom he also called, called as Kaleo, it's used as a divine calling to partake in the blessings of redemption, not from among the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. So, and we know this verse in the church age, we see that it's neither Jew nor Gentile, there's neither slave nor free. man, there is neither male or female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. So what we're going to see here, and Merriman kind of points it out, the Gentiles in this whole discussion about vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy, they will be part of these vessels of mercy, and God's mercy will be displayed upon them. And Paul's going to argue And he's going to repeat verses that were given to Israel by Hosea. We're going to see next by Hosea and by Isaiah.

And he's going to show how the Gentiles are included in this in his argument. Okay, so let's go here. So a little outline from Macaulay here. So the two, the section for today, like I said, we have the prophecies of Hosea applied to the Gentiles, 25 and 26. And part of the reason we know that is because it's quoted, Paul quotes these verses from Hosea, and Peter also quotes these verses from Hosea. And then there's a prophecy of Israel concerning the remnant in 27 and 28, I mean 27 and 29, through 29.

And then next week, we have two cool sections here. You know, the righteousness relationship with God can only be obtained by faith. This is just, you know, we know this, but here's where we get a chance to think about it and see that this is where Israel went astray. They did not want to operate by faith. And then secondly to that, Israel stumbled over the stumbling block, the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't want to approach God by faith, and they stumbled over the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that's coming up next week. Okay, so for today, so here it is, here's these two sections. I'm not gonna read them, I'm just gonna show you that 25, 26, there's actually two quotes there from Hosea. 25 is one, 26 is one, and then Isaiah, we have two different quotes. One time he cries out concerning Israel, and then another time he foretells us something about Israel. So we'll see all this as we go through here. So, okay, Hosea. Think about that. How many have read Hosea recently? Raise your hands. I knew I wouldn't get anybody. Nobody, okay. Well, I haven't read it either. Unless I had been studying this, I probably wouldn't have read it. But as you know, it's an incredible book. And I listened to Macaulay a little bit yesterday with Vani.

And he said, this was the end of the road for Israel. When Hosea started talking, this is it, Israel. We've come to the end of the road. It's gotten that bad. You've gone this far, it's this bad. And so the story of Hosea, you know, God's going to tell him, and I'm going to read it here.

He's going to tell him to do something which seems incredible for God. You say, well, God can't God can't sin, but he's going to judge Israel through Hosea's life and his family. So Hosea 1, before we start in here, Hosea 1 verse 2 says, When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go take to yourself a wife of harlotry, and have children of harlotry. For the land of Israel commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.

So that's how Hosea starts. And so it's 14 chapters of that. But there's some incredible statements in those 14 chapters, especially the first two chapters. We're going to see some of those. And we're going to see that God's going to show his relationship through the names of their children, the children of harlotry. Some of the names are God Scatters, No Compassion, Not My People. And that's what we're going to see right here, Not My People.

Okay, so Paul's going to take, he's going to quote this section from Hosea 2.23, and he's going to quote it, and he's going to show some connections to Gentiles here.

So it starts off, 25b, which is a direct quote out of Hosea 2.23. I will call those who are not my people, my people. And you have to read that carefully, underline the not in there, because you read it and it sounds like it's doublespeak. So let's talk about the not my people part.

And that's what Hosea was about, that God had come to the place where Israel were not his people anymore. But we're going to see that God did not forsake Israel. He said, I have a remnant that's going to be brought up, And that's going to be my people. So that's kind of the good news. So let's look at the not my people part. And in saying that, I want to go back to the names. And where that name comes from is from Hosea 1.9a.

The Lord said, name him, this was his third child I think by Well, I'm not sure. Whose husband of Gomer? There's some question about that. Anyway, he calls it a child of harlotry. So your name, loa mi, for you are not my people. That's what that name literally means. But I found another part, and that's why I kind of separate it, 29b, and he says, let's read the whole thing together, 29a and b.

And the Lord said to him, name him Lo-Ami, for you're not my people, and I'm not your God. But literally what that means is, I am not I am to you. I'll say that again, I am not I am to you. Now for you good students, remember when Moses back in, we read the topic earlier, remember when Moses He didn't like to talk much, and he said, well, what should I tell the people of Israel?

Who should I tell has told me to do this? So what did God tell him to do? He says, tell them, I Am has sent you. And this is to be a covenant name throughout all generations. So God's, he's saying, That's done with. I am not I am to you. I mean, I just, actually, that was more important, I thought, than the A part. I said, wow, that's, and Constable's the one that got me onto that. So that's incredible. That shows how bad things had gotten with Israel, with God. But the good news is, he hasn't given up on them.

Okay, so the Lord declares, Israel are not my people because of their forsaking him and their harlotry. And so now we're gonna see that, now the Gentiles, in parallel to that, think about this. The Gentiles were once not my people, right? Remember when the Lord said this in Matthew 15, 24? But he, Jesus, answered and said, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So throughout the whole gospel writings, what happened? The people outside the nation of Israel, even the ones that were part Jew, they were not Israelites, they were not my people. They were separated from God.

So there's a parallel there. So now, the good news is, Paul declares that Gentiles now can be called my peoples, just like the remnant will be called my peoples. Okay, so that's, and there's one more thing I wanted to share about this. Okay, well, actually, I didn't get the second part of the verse. I'm sorry, I gotta have myself here. Okay, 25c. 25c says, and I will call her, so it's a feminine gender, that's why her is there. I will call her, who is not my beloved, my beloved. Another kind of double speak kind of thing. The inner linear had it really good, I thought. And the one. not having been loved, having been loved.

So the verb tense is what makes us interesting. So we says the one by Paul's declaration now includes both the remnant of Israel and the Gentiles. And here's the interesting part. Having been loved occurs twice. There's a one not having been loved, which is a participle, and then having been loved. And both participles here are perfect passive. And perfect passive is past completed action with abiding results implying a state of permanence. So keeping that in mind, and it's for love, agapio. So Paul is saying, the one was in a permanent state of not having been loved. That's a not having been loved person or a nation. But now the one is in a permanent state of having been loved. It kind of hurt my head a little bit.

So God, that's just like He declares that you're not my people, the relationship is broken, but because he's a loving God, that cannot, he comes back and says, no, I will make a portion of you my beloved. Anyway, hopefully that makes sense. And I just thought about this for the believer today.

Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we'll be holy and blameless before him in love. He chose us. It's a permanent possession of every believer. Okay, so now let's go on to one more thing about 25. And this is where Peter kind of confirms Paul's statement. It's in two parts.

First Peter 2.9 says, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. so that you may proclaim the excellency of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

And then he quotes Hosea 2.23.

A little bit different phraseology, but still the same thought. For you once were not a people, but now you're the people of God. You have not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So pretty interesting. So Paul in his argument wants to show the Gentiles are in a similar spot. They're not being God's people and now they're God's people. With Israel, they worked themselves into not being God's people by their own devices, if you will, but God in his mercy makes them his people.

Okay, so that's gonna be, no, it's got one more. So Jose is still talking here. So Hosea again prophesizes in Hosea 1.10 and applies it to the Gentiles here too, I think.

Okay, so he says again, you are not my people, they shall be called the son, I'm sorry, let's go back and read the whole thing. And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they shall be called the sons of the living God. So he's not making a contrast. You were called, you were not my people, but now you'll be called the sons of the living God.

So here again, he's going to focus on this remnant of people. So a constable says here, Paul saw an analogy between God's present calling of the Gentiles and his future calling of Israel, the remnant. So I thought of a fact that we're called believers of today. Gentiles are called the children of God. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believed in his name. And then lastly here, kind of restating this concept here, Paul extracts a principle of divine action. Gentiles who had never been a people of God, hence no claim on his covenant mercies were acknowledged as the sons of God. So even in God's judgment of Israel, the remnant will still be considered as will be considered the sons of the living God.

Pretty interesting. Okay, so now we're going to move on to Isaiah. So Isaiah, so this is pretty emotional, if you will. He cries out. Isaiah cries out. And cries out in krodzo, an impassioned utterance, mostly an inarticulate cry. It was a cry on behalf of Israel. And it says, you know, Isaiah is speaking for God. God is crying out through Isaiah.

So Crosso is also used in a verse I covered back many months ago. Actually, many months ago. Let's try many years ago, back in Galatians. Actually, we covered Abba Father in Romans too. In Galatians 4, 6b says, God has sent forth the spirit of his son crying out into our hearts, crying out Abba Father.

So this is an impassioned cry. So Isaiah is moved by this. So, okay. And here's another verse that kind of, we're going to see it down the road here, maybe in a month or so, in Romans chapter 10, 21. But as for Israel, Isaiah says, all the day long, I stretch out my hand to a disobedient and obstinate people. So I think this really expresses God's compassion, His desire for Israel to come to Him, to repent and come to Him.

But the bottom line is, only a remnant will come by His grace. Okay, so here's what he's gonna cry out about. It's gonna be, this is Isaiah's cry about Israel. Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sands of the sea, it is a remnant that will be saved. Okay, so let's look at that first phrase there. Okay, so one question is how many, so the Sands of the Sea, that's a big number. So people, this is Newell. Newell wrote his book in 1945. He thinks it's 20 million. I googled it on my phone. I got 15 million. It's a big number, right?

So he's going to make a comparison. He says, we got a huge number of Israelites, but only a remnant will be saved. It's a comparison. We've got this big number, 20 million, 15 million, but only a few of them will be saved. So the last part is a contrast with the first part.

And it says, literally, the remnant will be saved. Just incredible. God makes a flask, the remnant will be saved. So let's look at that a little bit. Remnant is the idea of what's left over, a remainder, a smaller part. It's future tense. And so I know, to my thinking, by the end of the tribulation, you know, that's it.

There's no more time left. So there, we know it's 144,000 will be saved for sure. So it's 144,000 plus compared with 15 or 20 million. That's not a lot of folks, sadly. But I've heard something, I know, I've heard, I'm not sure who's speaking, they thought that the largest number of people would be saved from the tribulation.

I don't know. I hope that's the case. That'd be wonderful. I guess I don't know. I've heard people say that. So if that's the case, we're going to have maybe quite a few more Israelites. So anyway. So this is a couple of comments by Constable. Israel's election as a nation. So we studied that a couple of weeks ago and Mike carried it on. They were elected.

That was his chosen line through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Did not preclude judging unbelievers. His mercy and faithfulness are observable in his sparing a remnant. So he judged, even though he chose them and they did not respond, they could not continue on with him.

Okay, so that's 27. So 28. So now we kind of move into kind of looking to the future. This sounds like almost a verse that would be talking about the tribulation period. For the Lord will execute his word on the earth thoroughly and quickly. So it's a quote from Isaiah 10.23. So he's gonna execute his word on the earth.

So I just kind of did, and I like to do this, you know, me. Subject, verb, direct object, you know, pretty simple. Boom, boom, boom. Okay, here we go. Subject is the Lord. And what follows, the verb tells you what he's gonna do. He's gonna execute, to work, to do, to accomplish his word on the earth. And it seems like it's gonna, you know, it's gonna be in the earth. Man's gonna be involved, right? He's gonna execute his judgment. with this word on the earth.

So it reminded me of this verse, just a wonderful verse. I like this verse for thinking about salvation of loved ones or salvation of anyone. When you share a verse with a person, so will my word be which goes forth from my mouth, it will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. Just incredible. God's word has power. It will succeed. It will accomplish what he has in mind, whatever the word, whatever passage it might be.

So the last two words, it says thoroughly and quickly. Thoroughly is to accomplish, to perform, and quickly to bring to an end, speedily. And so actually, I like the amplified rendering of this last section. It will be completely, without delay, rigorously cutting it short in its justice.

And that's what I thought about the, you know, we think about the end times and Christ basically said in Matthew 24, 22, unless those days, the tribulation, had been cut short, no life would have been saved. So if he didn't, cut it short, and this verse seems to be speaking to that. So he's kind of trying to show, you know, if I hadn't stepped in and preserved a remnant, Israel would have been wiped out. There would have been nobody there. It would have been a goner, so to speak. And then 29 is kind of a very somber note. And then Isaiah foretold, unless the Lord Sabioth had left us a posterity.

So this is gonna be kind of the thought process that is from Isaiah 1.9. Talking about, he calls it posterior. Posteriority, is that right? I'm sorry. Thank you. I can't read my own. Posterity. Okay. I'll call it the remnant. I want to avoid pronouncing it. Okay, the remnant. Okay.

Anyway, unless God has stepped in or accept the Lord of hosts or Sabaoth. Sabaoth is a transliteration of the Hebrew word which denotes host or armies. So, and it was used in Septuagint as Lord of all sovereign, Lord all sovereign. So that speaks of the God of the host, God of power.

If he hadn't left, and it's a fact, it's Aristante, if he hadn't left to us a seed, a posterity, a remnant, spermia, sperm, So the next part tells him what would have happened if he hadn't done that, if he hadn't had a remnant, this is where Israel would have gone.

It would have gone down the path of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is pretty, pretty hard stuff to swallow. So I thought I'd just review quickly the word Sodom and Gomorrah. Not pretty, not your best, not your nice word study you'd like to do. We would have become like Sodom. So the verb here is we would have, it's come into a new state of being. So you would, into the state of being like Sodom. And Sodom is the word for burning, literally burning. It's history of one of great wickedness and terrible punishment. And then point two, we would have resembled Gomorrah. And this is to be made like Gomorrah. Gomorrah meaning submersion. One of five cities in, destroyed in the wickedness of that valley. So a couple of verses here. And what I noticed is that whenever you have Sodom, you have Gomorrah, they kind of get a package deal. You get both there as a package deal.

So we have 2 from 2 Peter. if, 2 Peter 2.6, and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashens, having made them an example to those who would live their lives ungodly thereafter. And then in Jude, just as Sodom and Gomorrah are cities and cities around them, since they have, in the same way as these indulging gross immoralities and went after strange flesh, are exhibits as examples in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire." So he's saying that basically if he hadn't stepped in, if he hadn't preserved a remnant, then this is where Israel would have gone. Pretty sobering thought here. Okay. So to wrap it up here, let's go back to 1982. Mike had one from 1982 as well. Hal had a series in 1982, Hal Molloy. So these are four summary points he made.

It is God's sovereignty that saved any Israelite down through the centuries and also for the Gentiles. God's immutability, his faithfulness is emphasized in these verses, which we just covered. God is faithful to promise on preserving a seed, a remnant to fulfill his promise to Israel. Again, we see the compatibility between God's sovereignty and man's volition.

God's extends mercy to the Jew. Some respond positively. Kind of a sad and if you unfortunately look at our world God extends right now this moment to all men in the Holy Spirit's constantly Convincing them a sin righteousness and judgment, but Some respond. Very similar, you know, I begin to see the very similar pattern. God says, I'm going to do, I'm going to be, if I'm gracious to Israel, I'll be gracious to the Gentiles in the same way.

But only some respond. And that's, that's the sad part. All right, let's close. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for its accuracy and for its telling it like it is. And we thank you that we can study it and understand it and praise you for it. In Christ's name. Amen.