Dr. Cecil A. Fayard - 2001 Sermons
Sunday, October 14, 2001   

INTRODUCTION: God has and will always have a people. This is His promise; this is the promise of His Word; this is the promise of Romans nine, it is the promise of the scripture passage. We study today (note verses 25-27).

The promise that God has a people guarantees success in evangelism. We preach the Gospel with confidence knowing that He will save lost souls. Psalm 126:5-6: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

God has a people in the city as well as in the country. He has a people among every kindred and tongue, and people, and nation. Christ assured Paul that he would have success in Corinth, that He had a people there (Acts 18:9-10).

1. VERSES 25-26, A PEOPLE CALLED
   1. Verse 25, Paul goes back to Hosea to make his case.
      
      1. “Osee” is the Greek form of the Hebrew word Hosea.
         
         1. In Hosea 1:2, God tells Hosea to marry a wife of whoredom.
            
            1. The moral unfaithfulness of Gomer pictured Israel’s unfaithfulness to God.
               
            2. To Hosea and Gomer are born three children whose names symbolize God’s judgment on unfaithful Israel. Hosea 2:23 deals with the names of the last two, a daughter then a son.
               
               1. Lo-Ruhamah- “not loved, not pitied, not having obtained compassion” (Hosea 1:6).
                  
               2. Lo-Ammi- “not my people” (Hosea 1:9).
                  
      2. God, in Hosea 2:23, the verse Paul quotes here in Romans 9:25, promises that His people would not be permanently forsaken.
         
         1. He promises to bring her (Israel) back to Himself (Hosea 2:14).
            
         2. God promises that she (Israel) will be His wife (Hosea 2:19).
            
         3. Hosea protected Gomer. God will protect Israel. Hosea supported Gomer. God will support Israel. Hosea bought Gomer off the slave block. God will redeem Israel.
            
      3. Paul takes what was said to Israel as a nation and applies it to believing Jews and Gentiles.
         
         1. Yes, one day all that God has promised to national Israel will be theirs (Zechariah 12:10).
            
         2. What Paul says here in Romans 9:25, and what Peter says in I Peter 2:9 is said to believing Israelites and Gentiles (9:24).

   2. Verse 26, Paul again goes to Hosea. This time to Hosea 1:10. This verse as the verse before it is applied to both Jews and Gentiles as seen in I Peter 2:10.
      
      1. Yes, there is a prophetic application to Israel. The prophecy that Israel will one day be restored to Divine favor.
         
      2. This passage also points to a people who were left out, aliens, the Gentiles (Ephesians 2:11-12), but are now a holy nation, a royal priesthood because of the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13-20).
         
      3. How wonderful “in every place- where it was said to sinners, ‘you are not my people,’ they will be called- and will actually be- sons of the living God” (Hendriksen 331).
         
      4. Galatians 3:26 says, “For ye are [Jew and Gentiles] all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
         
         1. This is why we preach the gospel: “Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.”
            
         2. Romans 1:16.

2. VERSES 27-29, A REMNANT, A SEED OF ISRAEL
   1. Verse 27, Paul now goes to the prophet Isaiah and quotes Isaiah 10:22.
      
      1. God had promised Abraham (Genesis 22:17) that the nation Israel would be as the sands of the sea and the stars of the sky. They will be redeemed and a remnant will return.
         
      2. Two things are in view here:
         
         1. Historically, Israel was greatly reduced in number by the Assyrian invasion, only a remnant saved. Also, the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, reduced the nation Israel to a remnant. Then in 70 AD, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people scattered.
            
         2. The second point to be made is that of Israel during the tribulation.
            
            1. Physically only a remnant will be saved as the majority will be killed during the tribulation.
               
            2. The physical remnant saved will also be spiritually saved. The scales will fall from their eyes, and they will see the Gospel (Romans 11:26-27).
               
            3. Those saved during the tribulation will be saved by the blood (Revelations 12:11; 7:14).

   2. Verse 28, God has been patient; He has waited; He has been longsuffering.
      
      1. When the judgment comes, it will come suddenly as a flood. God will finish the work.
         
      2. He will, “cut it short in righteousness.”
         
         1. He does this for the elect’s sake, elect both of Israel and the Gentiles (Mark 13:19-20).
            
         2. He does this for the remnant Jew and Gentile.

   3. Verse 29, Paul here quotes from Isaiah 1:9.
      
      1. “If God had not intervened in sovereign grace, they would have all become as Sodom [in iniquity], and been made like unto Gomorrah [in their damnation]” (Newell 380).
         
      2. “Even the elect nation would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah in depravity and rebellion to God if He had not intervened in sovereign mercy and recovered a remnant” (McGee Volume 4 715).
         
      3. It is God’s grace that will save the Jews, and it is His grace that saved and will save Gentiles.
         
         1. Ephesians 2:4-6.
            
         2. It is all of grace.

3. VERSES 30-33, RIGHT STANDING WITH GOD
   1. Verse 30, When the Gentiles heard the Gospel, many by the grace of God believed on Christ and were saved.
      
      1. These were formally in darkness both morally and spiritually.
         
      2. These had not followed after righteousness before.
         
      3. The righteousness of God that they received was not a righteousness based on their own goodness.
         
         1. The righteousness was God’s righteousness received by God given faith.
            
         2. II Corinthians 5:21

   2. Verse 31, Israel has not attained the righteousness of God they pursued.
      
      1. They believed that if they tried real hard and did good they would make it. Not so!
         
      2. Romans 3:19-26.

   3. Verse 32, Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the Jews (I Corinthians 1:23). If we could be justified by the law, then Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21).

   4. Verse 33, Jesus is the cornerstone of the faith. He is a stumbling stone and rock of offence to the unbeliever.
      
      1. Christ is a stone that causes men to stumble (Isaiah 28:16). Will you stumble at the truth?
         
      2. Christ is the only foundation to build on (I Corinthians 3:11).