God’s Sovereignty and the Remnant (Rom. 9:24-33)
Let us bless and greet one another, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” The title of today’s message is, “God’s Sovereignty and the Remnant.” Especially after today’s worship, there will be three people who will receive baptism. Just like the title of today’s message, these are those who remain by God’s grace. These are people who have received the gospel, accepted Jesus Christ, and received salvation who are receiving baptism today. The Bible tells us that God has chosen us from before the creation of the world, so this means it doesn’t have to do with our actions; it is completely God’s selection, and in this age, God has given us an evangelist to hear the gospel and save us.
1. Vessel of mercy
1) Whom he called – Gentiles (Rom. 9:24)
For those whom God has called, He calls them righteous, saying they have no sin. Then, the Bible says He will take us to glorification, which is when we go to heaven. However, people ask the question, “Why is God not fair? Why is it that, some people He saves, and some people He does not save?” When Adam and Eve sinned against God, it led all humanity to be apart from God, and now the Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” If you acknowledge this, then your walk of faith can mature correctly. However, if we place our standards on the behaviors, actions, and the righteousness of people, then we cannot live our walk of faith. At one point, I was completely corrupted, separated from God, under sin, Satan, and death, and that’s why I have no hope other than Christ. That’s the reason God sent Jesus Christ to earth, to make us His children. We call that the “Vessel of Mercy.” There is a “Vessel of Wrath” and a “Vessel of Mercy,” and among this Vessel of Mercy, even the Gentiles have been called by God. God did not just call the Jews, He also chose and called the Gentiles.
(1) Call them ‘my people’ who are not my people (Rom. 9:25)
That is in today’s scripture, in Romans 9:25, “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people, and I will call them ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one.” So, what God is prophesying through the prophet Hosea is, even though they are not Israelites or the chosen people of God, God has still chosen them and called people outside of the Israelites.
(2) Call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one (Rom. 9:25)
(3) Not my people – Children of the living God (Rom. 9:26)
Rom. 9:26, God says, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called children of the Living God.”
2) Prophet Hosea
The prophet Hosea is from the Old Testament. During the time of Prophet Hosea, even though the Israelites were the chosen people of God, they worshiped idols, other than God. That is like spiritual adultery, they threw away God and they worshiped other gods instead. God gives His Word through the prophet Hosea to the entire Israelites through Hosea’s family.
(1) Adulterous wife – Give birth to adulterous children (Ho. 1:2)
God told Hosea to marry the most promiscuous woman in the land, and then to have promiscuous or sexually immoral children.
(2) Israel (Ho. 1:4) – Meaning scattered
So, they had three children, and the first they named Jezreel, and the meaning of the name “Jezreel” is, “to scatter.”
(3) Lo-Ruhamah (Ho. 1:6) – Not loved
The second child was named, “Lo-Ruhamah,” and this means, “Not loved.”
(4) Lo-Ammi (Ho. 1:9) – Not my people
The third child was called, “Lo-Ammi,” which means, “Not my people.”
3) Called the Gentiles
(1) Not people of God – People of God (1 Pet. 2:10)
This means that God will save people among other people, so this family is representing the state of the Israelites, and God is saying, “I will save people who are not considered my people.” Then He is saying, “There will be a great number of Gentile people who are saved,” and then at the end, He will save the Israelites.
(2) No mercy – Received mercy (1 Pet. 2:10)
These are the words fulfilled among the Gentiles in 1 Peter. 2:10. It says, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” So, the meaning of the three children that God had given Hosea is now being fulfilled through the Gentiles’ salvation.
(3) A royal priesthood – Declare the praises of him (1 Pet. 2:9)
Then, for the people whom God had chosen, He says, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood. You have been called to declare the praises of His wonderful light.” Who are we? We are the chosen people of God, we are the people who belong to God, a royal priesthood. We have this tremendous identity, and we have been called as the ones who will declare this light. If we have a spiritual state that is able to declare this light, then God will use us; however, if our spiritual state is not ready for that, then God will wait. So, originally, we must have and enjoy and restore this spiritual state.
2. Vessel of mercy
1) Jew – Remnant
(1) Number be like the sand by the sea – Only the remnant will be saved (Rom. 9:27)
In Rom. 9:27, it says, “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.’” So the first are those who remain among the Gentiles, and the second group is those who remain among the Israelites.
(2) Captive by Babylon – Return
The number of Israelites is over millions, and God made them captive to Babylon. Among the millions of people who were taken captive, God will save and bring back only those who will remain. The ones who remain who are saved, that is what we call “salvation.” The Israelites were taken captive to Babylon and lived there for 70 years. They had to get a Babylonian education and raise their children in Babylon. Then, after 70 years, they were told to go back to Israel, and most of them did not want to. The majority of the first generation of Israelites had probably passed away, and the next generation of Israelites were growing up in Babylon. They didn’t know the Israelite land or culture, they were dating and marrying Babylonians, and they were saying they don’t want to return to Israel. Who are the only ones who returned back to the land of Israel? It is the small minority of people whom God had left behind, they are the remnant, those who remained.
Why is it that this small minority of people, the ones who remained, wanted to return to Israel? Even though they had all of their livelihoods, they had purchased homes in Babylon, why would they want to uproot their whole lives to go to Israel? Because they were certain in the covenant. They knew that the Jerusalem Temple was there, and they must worship. Only the people who were centered on that covenant returned to Israel. They knew that, through this promise and, the promised Messiah Jesus Christ would be born, and only those with that covenant returned. There were about 42,000 Israelites who returned to Israel with that covenant. There was a second and a third wave of people who left Babylon for Israel, totaling about 50,000 people. These were the people who were awaiting the Messiah, the people who were able to worship God. God gave those people grace and allowed them to return to Israel. But when they came back, they had been living in Babylon for 70 years, all of Israel had been destroyed, and now they had nothing and they needed to build a Temple. So, now the small number of people who returned back to Israel are having to build everything from the ground up with their bare hands.
The thing that is amazing is the political decision to let the people return back to Israel was made by the Babylonian king, King Cyrus. At that time, Daniel was in the kingdom of King Cyrus, and Daniel told King Cyrus, “This is what the LORD has told me about the future.” Then, God gives King Cyrus the grace to believe, “Wow, this is the prophecy that your God has given, and this is the reason why I was raised up? So this is my mission,” so God gives Cyrus the grace to believe. Daniel said, “In exchange for you letting the Israelites return to Israel, God will give you three powerful nations.” In other words, God will return three powerful nations to the empire of Babylon. In exchange for giving those three nations, let the Israelites return to Israel. So, when King Cyrus heard this, it sounded like a great deal, because the Babylonians had never conquered Egypt at the time, and, “If I return the Israelites to their land, then I can have Egypt and two other powerful nations? That’s a great deal.” So, not only did King Cyrus tell the Israelites to return to Israel, but He said, “You have to rebuild the Temple, and you have nothing,” so he told the people remaining in Babylon to give money and goods to the Israelites to build their Temple. God even uses nonbelievers. So, if you and I are within God’s will, then God will use any means necessary to fulfill His will. The really important point here is that we don’t realize we are living within God’s plan and will, so I’m limited by my own weakness.
Why is it that only a small minority of those who remained returned to Israel? Because they had to remain in Israel, build up the temple there, until Jesus Christ could be born in that land. So, God raises up and uses the remnants because Jesus Christ must be born in Israel and be spread to all the Israelites to save them.
(3) Word is fulfilled and carried out – Promise to Abraham (Rom. 9:28)
Rom. 9:28 says, “For the Lord will carry out His sentence on earth with speed and finality.” In order to fulfill the promise God had given to Abraham, of Jesus Christ, even though everyone should have been destroyed, God will save the people He needs to fulfill His covenant.
2) Why only a small number?
But there are some people who object to that, “Why must it be a small minority? Isn’t God evil? Why is it that He had all of these millions of Israelites, and He made them through Abraham, but He’s only going to save a small fraction of them?”
(1) Not left us descendants (Rom. 9:29)
The answer to that is in Rom. 9:29, that, unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah.
(2) Like Sodom, Gomorrah (Rom. 9:29)
In other words, if God had not left us this holy seed in the land, then we would’ve been struck with disasters like Sodom and Gomorrah. So, based on our knowledge, we try to interpret everything based on whether it is fair or not. The very fact that we are saved is not fair. How is it that a sinner is saved? We never did anything good to God; it was never based on our actions. The fact that we are saved at all is unfair to begin with. That’s God’s sovereignty, so we should be thankful for being saved. Humans are totally corrupt. We must acknowledge this in order for Christ to really hit our hearts. We all need to know our own personal state and the state of our family line and realize, we have no hope to live if not for the Christ. But most Christians just receive salvation by God’s grace, but this Christ is not their answer, because they are misinterpreting the real problem. People keep on saying that mental problems are a problem, but Jesus did not come to earth to solve your mental problems. People keep talking about addiction, but Jesus did not come to earth to solve the problem of addiction. There are some people who say, “I need Jesus because I’m so powerless, or because I’m so financially poor,” but that’s not the reason Jesus came. But if they’re trying to apply Jesus to these other problems, then of course, Jesus will not be their answer. We keep on giving Jesus these problems that are not problems, saying, “Why aren’t you fixing my financial situation?” The reason Jesus Christ came to earth is to solve the problem with my sin.
What is “sin”? It is not believing in God. My current state is in a state of sin that does not believe in or trust in God. I have this disbelief that is invisible, but that will result in visible sins. There is a difference between sins and transgressions. Everything this world is talking about is transgressions, but the sin the Bible talks about is the sin of not believing in God. But as a result of not believing in God, my spirit dies. In that state, Satan takes over my spirit and soul. Jesus came as the Christ to solve this very problem. So, my problem is not a mental problem; it is a spiritual problem. My problem is not financial; it is spiritual. But people get so fixated on the financial problem, they say, “Why is Jesus not helping me?” That’s why the gospel is not an answer for them. Even before the financial problem, it’s that I do not believe in God, and upon that sin and disbelief, Satan starts to work, why? Because the god of this world drags us to live for the pleasures and the pride of this world, and the pride of life. Instead, this gospel must become my answer. Yes, we understand the gospel, but is it the answer to your life? That, I’m not so sure. Then, it means that person is living a religious life, holding onto the wrong problem as the problem. God is powerful, but we don’t believe that; that is the real problem.
That problem is called “sin,” and Satan begins to work through sin. There is no solution to that problem other than the Christ. Christ has finished that problem on the cross. Now, He lives with me as life. Through the life of Christ, everything is resolved. But instead of using that Christ, we use our own methods. My thoughts and my heart must be one-on-one aligned with Christ, and that alignment is what we call “prayer.” Our thoughts and our heart are all so deeply rooted in the greed of the flesh in the world and the pride of life, but instead, I need to align whatever is inside of me to be aligned with Christ. That is the prayer of seeking God’s will and plan, but if the gospel is not my answer, our prayers become incorrect, and if our prayers are incorrect, then of course, evangelism becomes even harder. Whatever situation you’re in, God can take care of it. God is with me, my thoughts and my heart must be aligned with the fact that God is with me, then no problem will be a problem to me. God raises up the people who have this spiritual state and uses them for missions and evangelism. Especially for the people who are receiving baptism today, if you are able to understand this accurately by the working of the Holy Spirit, then everything is finished.
The problem is not the depression; it’s because we are separated from God and seized by Satan. That’s why there is no solution other than Christ. The scars of your past are not a problem. The real problem is that we lose hold of the fact that God is with us in the midst of those scars. It is the scar without God. If God is with me as life, then even the scars are bound to crumble; they cannot hurt me. We are so afraid of the future because we know we lack power, but if we believe God is with us, it overcomes the fear of the future. We resolve everything through the life of Christ, that’s why we must live by faith, and we receive faith by listening to the words of Christ.
(3) Disaster (Gen. 19:24-25)
3) Jews
Why is it that Jesus came to the Jews but the Jews rejected Jesus?
(1) Pursued the law as a way of righteousness (Rom. 9:31, Gal. 5:4)
The reason is in Romans 9:31, the people of Israel pursued the law as a way of righteousness. They were trying to be righteous and earn righteousness by keeping God’s law.
(2) Not by faith – By works (Rom. 9:32)
(3) Stumble over the stumbling stone – Jesus Christ (Rom. 9:32)
For them, they don’t need Jesus, so that’s what it means, they stumbled over the stumbling stone, they were tripped up because of Jesus. If Jesus becomes a stumbling stone inside of your heart, then you cannot live your walk of faith. This means that people who are very legalistic or centered on the law, they reject the gospel. This is very important, these are not words you already know. If you quietly concentrate and listen by the grace of the Holy Spirit, then you will be able to understand. We keep placing our standards based on our actions, “I’ve done this, I’ve done all of that, because my mom did this to me.” For people who live their walk of faith with the foundation and standards based on human actions cannot continue. It is the grace of Christ that there is no hope other than Christ. Even my parents have no hope other than Christ. Even for me, I have no hope other than in Christ, then how can I receive the grace to believe in this Christ? I wasn’t even able to believe myself; God gave me the grace to believe. This is incredibly important; do you know why it’s important? Because when you face a problem, you think of your actions, “Oh, it’s because I did this or that.” You keep on thinking of the other person, “Oh, this is happening because they did this or they did that.” There is no God there, so you really don’t believe. That’s called sin, and Satan burrows into us using sin; he completely makes our spiritual state similar to a nonbeliever’s.
That is why, by the grace of God, we must believe God is with us, that, within God’s absolute sovereignty, He has allowed this problem or circumstance. Why is it that God is allowing this to happen even though He could stop it? So that He can allow me to believe in Christ and raise me up. Some people say, “Oh, I’ll believe in Jesus later, why can’t He solve this problem first?” If you were a parent, would you do that to your child? If your child said, “Just give me all of your money first, I’ll take care of you guys later, just give me all of your money now,” there’s no parent who would do that. It’s not about the money, the child just has no ability to manage money yet. Then, why would the parent give the child money? God is the same way. Our spiritual state—is Christ our answer? Christ is everything. Why? Because He is my life, He is with me, He is guiding my life as my Master, and He is working. God is allowing these problems in your life so you can become somebody who makes these confessions.
Then, from that point on, God will use this person because this person has “only Christ.” But there are other people who talk about Christ but really, whatever they have comes out. What comes out? The greed of the flesh, the greed of the world, the pride of life that Satan has imprinted in us from the entire world comes out of us. In order to change what’s inside of us, God is allowing these problems. Job says, “There is nothing God cannot do,” and, “There is no one who can block God’s plan,” but this God is with me. Do you believe in that? If you don’t believe in this, everything looks like a problem and we continue to live in disbelief. If my spiritual state is in disbelief, then of course, the darkness enters, and what does that look like? The darkness will work based on the stream of my family line. Everyone has the stream of their family line. For me, my father is very naive, and even though he is very naive, when he drinks alcohol, the evil spirits go into him, and his anger becomes very explosive. When his anger explodes, everyone around him has no choice but to run away. Then, what do you think it was like for me? I was the same way as him, and it’s not because I wanted to. There is a spiritual stream in the family line. Do I seem like that to you? But I know that when my anger becomes explosive, evil spirits work. There is no solution other than the Christ, do you understand? Whatever your problem is, it is a problem that is coming through the background of your family line, and it is a problem that is fundamental from Adam and Eve, all the way around. And if Christ is not with you as the life, then you have no choice but to be swept up in that same stream.
Do you know also, I have this unnecessary stubbornness. I took my daughter to Northridge for an interview, and I asked her, since it was raining so hard, if we could wait inside, and she said, “No, because I want to make a good first impression; you can’t come inside,” and it really hurt my pride and feelings. So, that means I have to wait outside in the car for 30 or more minutes at 5 pm, so I had to just wait for her. What would you have done in that situation? You would have just waited for her, but not me. I said, “Then you can finish up your interview and walk back home on your own two feet; I’m out of here,” because that’s how I was raised. Where do you think my parents got their personality from? That came directly to me, so that means, I’m trying to control my child based on my pride and my personality. What I learned from my parents is showing people, “Hey, this is who I am, and if you don’t submit to me, you will taste the heat of my wrath,” and Satan began to work upon me with my pride and my stubbornness. Then, what do you think my daughter would feel? I’m sure she would be shocked and get scarred. I’m a pastor, too, so what do you think my daughter would think? “A pastor? Don’t make a joke. I’m a pastor’s daughter, and your messages are so great? I’m your daughter,” she must think to you guys, “You don’t know what he’s like at home.” And I’m sure she can’t even hear this as a message because she’s seen this as reality.
However, when she understands the spiritual stream of her father’s family background, then she’ll understand me.
So, I was driving home in a fury, and I was battling in my own thoughts, “Oh, there’s a message I am giving on Friday,” and on the other hand, “How can I show her I’m leaving?” And I left it there, because if it were my old self, I would have just come back to LA and she would have to call me, crying, asking for me to come back in order for me to come back. That’s the characteristic of my family background, but I’m saved, and I have God’s grace. She’s a child of God, so for her, I knew I had to wait. It’s such a fine line. So, I came back and I saw she was doing her interview inside, and I was praying for her, “God, in this interview, if this will help her in world evangelization, allow her to experience you working.” I was driving around the block for God’s Kingdom to be established in this region, and after she finished, she called me, saying, “When did I tell you to not come inside?” Because she could see on the GPS tracker that I was there, and nothing really happened, so I told her, “This is a problem I’ve been battling with my family line, and there is no other solution other than the Christ,” and if I didn’t know this spiritual fact, I would have relayed it right to her.
Even after receiving salvation, if we lose hold of the fact that God is with us right now, we start to act like this. That is why our thoughts and our heart have to align to God. Then, of course, the forces of darkness and evil that work in my family line will run away. So, I told her, “I was watching you do the interview from outside of the window, and this is how I prayed for you,” and she was so happy. What might’ve happened otherwise? Let’s say instead, I had gone down to LA, and she had to call me crying until I went to pick her up, then it would take more money, take more time, and we would both have been hurt. That’s the family background I come from, but in that moment, my thoughts were aligned with God’s Word, but if that alignment had not happened, I could have gone right into the stream of my family line.
You all have something like this. Maybe I told you in a little too much detail. Some people might say, “Oh pastor, I don’t live like you,” but you have something that’s different for you. For some people, they act the same way while being nice. Some people smile at other people and treat their children differently. There are some people who pretend they’re not like this on the and then let it all out inside their home. Or, there are some people who might try to endure it and grin and bear it three times, and the fourth time, they explode. That’s why we need Jesus Christ. Only by the life and the power of Christ can we be led. Then, that spiritual state gets relayed to your children. That’s what I’m telling you. What an incredible blessing this is. So yes, there are many pros, but people have their weaknesses. I’m telling you things that I didn’t tell in the first service; I only gave a small glimpse into this in the first service, but in the second service, I tell you everything. If by my story, even one person can live. What I’m telling you is that every person is the same, there is no difference among us. “Oh, it’s just my family”? No, they’re all the same, that’s why it must be the Christ. Because it’s the same problem, it is a spiritual problem, the problem is not with my children; the problem is my spiritual state. After I told her she could walk home, she said, “Okay!” and she got out of the car. So she has a fierce temper and stubbornness as well, because she said, “Fine!” and then she left. That’s the characteristic of our family, and we need to make it so that these characteristics are used for God. She needs to instead say, “Okay, fine!” and then follow the will of God, so it must be a character that is used for God’s will, so if God tells her to go, she says, “Okay,” and she goes through with it. And we need to make it so that when God tells her something, she says, “Okay,” and fearlessly goes, because God gave her this characteristic. Then, we need to help her to be obedient and to submit to God.
3. Vessel of mercy
1) Gentiles – Remnant
(1) Stumbling stone, rock that makes them fall (Rom. 9:33)
(2) Jesus Christ (Is. 28:16)
(3) Believer – Will never be put to shame (Rom. 9:33)
Those who have faith will never be put to shame.
2) Gospel
(1) Gospel – God’s righteousness (Rom. 1:17)
(2) Righteousness that is by faith (Rom. 1:17)
(3) Righteous – Live by faith (Rom. 1:17)
3) Those who know the reason of the Gospel
(1) My problem – Fundamental problem (Sin, death, Satan)
(2) Christ – Answer
(3) Faith
For us, we are the ones who remain, we understand the gospel and it has hit our hearts. That’s why it must always be the gospel, always the life of Christ. That is what we live with.
Conclusion
1. Vessel of mercy – Remnant
2. Those who know the necessity of the Gospel
3. Those who proclaim the Gospel
Then, God’s guidance and works will be revealed. If I’m within God’s plan, then God’s power comes and finds me. If my business or my work is within God’s plan, then God’s works of world evangelization follow me. We are called as the remnants, may you and I enjoy this covenant throughout the week and have victory. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Message Prayer
Let us pray, holding onto the Word we have received.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Blessing
God, we thank You. We were dead and yet You have given us Your grace and made us children of God through Christ. Allow us to always discover the reason why we must have Christ, allow us to live with the life of Christ. We give back Your material blessings as offering. Everywhere this offering is used, may the economy of light cast out darkness. We pray You will work with the economy of light to do world evangelization upon the hands that have given the offering. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Announcements
1. Baptism, communion: 11/16
2. 11/23 Thanksgiving Sunday.
3. RCA 11/25-11/29, Washington D.C.
4. Offering can be given to the church venmo: @Antiochmissionchurch
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be upon the heads of all the people of God, the people of all nations, and the future generation remnants who are the ones called by God’s sovereignty to remain, and those who are called as the royal priesthood by their baptism today, be with them now until forever always, amen.