We are in Romans 9 and I need to begin in a word of prayer. So, let me pray: Father, as we begin this study, we ask that You would open our eyes to see and behold the truths in Your Word. We pray that You would work it into our hearts and into our souls that we would be affected both even in our emotions but even in the challenge to our will as a result of these words. And I pray that as we leave in a bit that we will be transformed, that we will leave different even than when we came in. I thank You for these men who are here. I thank You for all who are watching by livestream, I pray Your blessing upon them. And I ask now that You would fill me with Your Spirit and use me to teach Your Word. So, Father, we commit this hour to You in Christ’s name. Amen.
Alright, I want to invite you to take your Bible and turn with me to Mount Everest, to Romans chapter 9, and we are going to scale a bit of Mount Everest again. This chapter, Romans 9, just rises above the landscape of Scripture and points upward to God and in a very majestic way. This morning, I want us to look at verses, just two verses, verses 25 and 26, verses 25 and 26, and the title of this is “Divine Certainty,” and I think it will be apparent why I have called it this.
Beginning in verse 25, “As He says also in Hosea, ‘I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ and her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’ And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there they shall be called sons of the living God.”
What leaps off the page to me is the divine certainty with which God is carrying out His eternal purpose and plan in matters of salvation, and this divine certainty makes our salvation unalterable and unstoppable in the will of God. This truth comes out loud and clear, and I want to draw to your attention if you would look at it one more time in verse 25 when God says, “I will,” and in verse 26, “It shall be,” and again in verse 26, “They shall be.” In verse 27, “That will be,” and in verse 28, which we will look at next week, “The Lord will.”
When God says, “I will,” He will. When a man says he will, I mean, what is it good for? He says he will do a certain thing and he may do it; he may not do it. There may be reasons beyond his control that prevent him from doing what he says he will do or he just may have a change of heart and a change of mind. After having announced what he will do, he may just change his plans and go in a totally different direction, but it is never that way with God. When God says He will do something, God will do it, and there is nothing that can circumvent the fulfillment of the will of God as it relates to matters of salvation. And so, as I look at these verses just by way of introduction, I just love it when God says, “I will,” because when God says, “I will,” He will. God keeps His word and God executes His will and God fulfills His purpose and God saves His elect. And so, that is what we are going to look at. Today, we are going to look at verses 25 and 26, which deals with the salvation of Gentiles.
And I say this by way of introduction, you and I can put ourselves in verse 25 and 26, and that is no stretch of the imagination. You and I, for the most part, we do have one Jew here, who is a converted Jew, Dan. So, Dan, you are next week, okay? You are going to be verses 27, 28, and 29, okay? We’ll get to you, alright? You are at the very tip peak of Mount Everest, okay? But for the rest of us, we are on the upward slopes. But we find ourselves in verses 25 and 26. Your conversion is the fulfillment of verses 25 and 26. You and I are Gentiles who have been called by God out of a strange land into a saving relationship with the Father through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, this should be very personal to you and to me.
So, as we walk through these verses, I have got several headings. It seems like the fewer the verses, the more the headings, but this outline will help you track with me as we go through this. I remember when I was in seminary, the first class I had was a class called “Bible Study Methods,” and the very first assignment that was given to us was Acts 1:8. And, the professor said, “Take just that one verse and come back with forty observations from Acts 1:8. And so, the first ten were very easy, the next ten were a little harder. By the time I got to the next ten, I am shaking my Bible trying to get more observations to come out. But it was a lesson with a purpose. It was to teach us to look at every little detail in the passage of Scripture. There are a lot of teachers and preachers who just hydroplane over the surface. The pearls are at the bottom. The pearls are not floating on the surface of the water. We have to go down into the text. We have to dig them out of the dirt. And so, that is what we are going to do today. We are going to look at a lot of what might appear to be minute observations, but every jot, every tittle is inspired by God and shall be fulfilled. And so, I want us to get down into the text.
So, I have got eight headings that I want to set before you. Yeah, Kent just went, “Ooooh!” So, the first is “The Speaker.” As we begin verse 25, “As He says also in Hosea,” The million-dollar question is, who is the “He”? The “He” is God the Father. It is the One who has chosen His elect. It is the One who has predestined our salvation. It is the One who has sent His Son into this world to die for the elect upon the cross. It is the One who has sent the Holy Spirit into the world to be the mediator of this call to come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, “He,” please note the next word, “says.” I want to draw to your attention that is in the present tense.
Now, Hosea was written thousands of years ago. It was written a long time ago, centuries and centuries ago, but this is in the present tense. And what this tells us is what God said so many, many centuries ago He is still saying today. “The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.” This book is still speaking, and God is still speaking through His Word. So, that is important to draw to your attention. He says even today, this hour, this very moment. The word “also” is important because God is speaking not only in the book of Hosea, He is speaking in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, etc., all the way to Malachi, all the way now to Revelation, every book in the canon of Scripture. So, that word “also” is very important. God’s speaking in this present hour is not restricted to the book of Hosea. He is speaking through every book in the canon of Scripture. And then He says, “In Hosea.” So, what is important is this is not literally Hosea speaking. Hosea is only the messenger. Hosea is only the scribe. This is God speaking “in Hosea.” Do you see that?
So, what will follow is critically important because it will actually be the voice of God that will be speaking to us through this quote from Hosea, and it will be God Himself who will bring to pass what He commands in this verse, and so this voice that we will look at is so powerful. When God speaks, God brings it to pass. And I want you to just keep your finger here quickly, Romans 4 verse 17. I just want you to see this that when God speaks God brings it to pass. And at the end of Romans 4 verse 17, it says that “God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.” When God calls, He raises the dead. When God calls, He brings into existence saving faith that did not previously exist. He brings into existence repentance that did not previously exist. And so, God is not just speaking; God is calling, God is commanding, and God brings to fulfillment all that He says. So, that is critically important.
Alright, come back now to Romans 9. So, we have seen the speaker, which is God, and we should give the most careful attention to whatever God says. Second now, “The Summons.” “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people.'” This is a quotation from Hosea 2 and verse 23. And the “I” is the same as the “He” at the beginning of the verse. It is God the Father. This is God the Father who is the speaker saying, “I will call those who are not My people, ‘My people.'” When God says, “I will call,” this refers to what we looked at in verse 24, “Even us, among whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.” This is what theologians call the “effectual call.” This is the sovereign irresistible call of God that will always be answered when God issues this call. It is the call out of darkness into light. It is the call out of the grave of sin into new life in Jesus Christ.
This call has been emphasized by Paul already. We saw that a couple of years ago when we began this study in chapter 1 verse 6, “Among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ,” Chapter 1 verse 7, “To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints.” And that has already been mentioned in Romans 9 and verse 11, “Though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls.” And then, in verse 27 which I have already just read, “Even us among whom He called.” So, in verse 25, when He says, “I will call,” He is not saying, “Well, I’m just going to name you, ‘My people.'” He is saying, “I will call you to be My people. I will summon you. I will subpoena you. I will arrest you. I will lay hold of you, and I will draw you out of your life of sin and I will bring you to My Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.” So, that’s what this call is.
And, let me just tell you this, if God didn’t call, you would have never answered. If God had not called effectually and irresistibly, you would still be in the world. You would still be living as a slave of sin. You would be imprisoned in your sins. You would have been unable to answer the invitation of the gospel. There had to be more than just the truth of the gospel presented to you. God had to issue a call to your heart and literally apprehend you and draw you to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, that is this “summons.” And this call is not an audible voice. As I have said before, it is much louder than that. It is a call that is so powerful that it will secure the result that God intends it to have in your heart. And He will overcome your resistance, and He will make you willing in the day that He calls you to Himself. And you will not come to Him one day before He calls, and you will not come one day after He calls. You will come in that moment when He calls you to Himself. So, that is “The Summons,” and I want you to not pass that over quickly.
Now third, “The Stress,” and I want to make this a heading unto itself because I want to bring to your attention something here. I still want to look at these first three words, “I will call.” As Paul is quoting this from Hosea 2 and verse 3, in fact just keep your finger here and turn to Hosea 2 and verse 3. And if you have forgotten where Hosea is, it is the first of the minor prophets. It is right after Daniel and it will be before Joel. And then the second chapter is right after the first chapter. So, Hosea 2 and verse 23, I want you to see this because Paul is stressing something here. He is doing something very intentional. And what Paul is doing and you are going to see it here in chapter 2 verse 23, once Kent finds Hosea, Table of Contents, alright. Paul is flipping the verse as he quotes it in Romans 9. He is inverting the order. For example, in the way this is laid out, there is an A line and a B line. Paul is flipping it in Romans 11. He is putting the B line first and the A line second. Why is he doing this? It is to draw attention to what is in the second line, the B line. He is moving it to what we call the “emphatic position” in a text of Scripture, to frontload it and put it at the very beginning. So, we could easily miss this but I want you to see this. So, in Hosea 2 and verse 23, “I will sow her for Myself in the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion. I will say to those who are not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they will say, ‘You are My God!'”
Please note at the end of verse 23 is where we read, “I will say to those who are not My people, ‘You are My people.'” As Paul quotes this verse now in Romans 9 and verse 25, he inverts the order as he is citing this because he wants to draw our attention to the call. And if you still have your finger in Hosea 2 verse 23, you will also note that Paul exchanges a word. At the end of verse 23 he says, “I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people,'” Paul will take out the word “say” and he will insert the word “call.” And writing under the inspiration of Scripture and as an apostle, he has the right now to write as he writes the book of Romans to lay stress on something in Scripture as he cites it from the Old Testament.
And so, in Romans 9 and verse 25, he doesn’t say, “I will say.” He says, “I will call.” “Call” is much stronger than “say,” and so Paul injects, as it were, a steroid of emphasis into the word “say” and blows it up and inserts the word “call” to stress that no one would ever believe the gospel unless God called them to Himself. And not everyone is called. Matthew 22 verse 14 says, “Many are called, few are chosen.” That call is the external call of the gospel, but everyone to whom is extended the internal call God will apprehend them, as I have already said, and bring them to Himself.
So, I am calling this heading “The Stress” because I want you to see what Paul is stressing. He is putting his finger on a very important doctrine and a very important truth here. So, I want you to think about your salvation. I want you to think about your conversion, where you were. What was the passage of Scripture? Who was the teacher? Who was the preacher? Were you by yourself? Were you in a church service? Was it in the parking lot after church was over? Were you at a camp? Where were you when God called you to Himself? Everyone who is in the kingdom of God has been individually and personally called by name. “Whosoever will,” is the external offer of the gospel, but when He calls you into His kingdom, He calls His sheep by name. “Matthew, follow me,” “Zacchaeus, come down. I must dine with you tonight,” “Lazarus, come forth!” He calls us individually and personally and powerfully. So, that is “The Stress.”
Now, number four, “The Subjects,” and it could be “The Strangers.” I go back and forth, which “S” word to use. But we are going to land on “The Subjects.” Who did God call? So, we see in verse 25, “I will call those who were not My people,” where Paul as he writes this, this refers to Gentiles. The previous verse in the context makes this clear to us because verse 25 is not the start of a new sentence. Verse 25 is the continuation of the previous sentence in verse 24 when he was talking about calling not only Jews, but also Gentiles. And when He says, “Those who were not My people,” He is referring to those who are outside of Israel, outside of the commonwealth of Israel, those who were non-Jews, not of the chosen race of Israel. And for Hosea, when he wrote this, it referred to the ten northern tribes of Israel who were taken captive by the Assyrians and carted off to Assyria into exile and into a land of captivity. And there they were in unbelief, there they were in apostasy, and there they were, spiritually speaking, “Not My people.” For Paul, as he is using this, it is a reference to the Gentiles. This has been a dominant emphasis in the book of Romans already.
And I want you to turn back to Romans 1. I am going to do a jet tour here very, very quickly, but I want you to see this, this emphasis on the call being extended beyond Israel but to Gentiles. And at the end of verse 5 of Romans 1, he talks about, “We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles,” and then in verse 6, “Among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.” So, he is calling out not only Jews, a remnant out of Israel, but also Gentiles from among the nations of the world. At the end of verse 13, he says, “Even among the rest of the Gentiles.” In verse 14, he differentiates among the Gentiles, “the Greeks,” that is the upper class, “the barbarians,” that is the lower class. And it is the full spectrum of Gentiles; those who are rich, those who are poor, those who are learned, those who are unlearned, those who are at the top of the ladder, those who are in the basement. God is calling Gentiles out of not only every nation but out of every walk of life.
In verse 16, he says, “Not only to the Jew but also to the Greek,” and so we see that “the Greek” there referring to the Gentiles. If you would come to chapter 2 and verse 10, “Glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Verse 12 talks about those who are “without the Law,” that is the Gentile. In verse 14, “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law,” and in verse 26, “the uncircumcised man,” that is the Gentile.
So, what I want you to see is that Paul is talking here now about those who are “not My people,” he has already laid the foundation for this. I mean, there has been a buildup beginning in chapter 1 in the prologue extending into chapter 2. Now in chapter 9, that those whom God will call to Himself there will be many who were “not My people.” And that refers to those who were unconverted, those who were in darkness, those who were spiritually dead, i.e., that would be you and me that God has extended that call to us.
Now, come to Ephesians 2 very quickly. I know I am taking us to a lot of verses, but hey, this is a Bible study, okay? So, Ephesians chapter 2, I just want you to see this, verse 11. Paul is saying the same thing here in in the book of Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11, “Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who were called ‘Uncircumcision’ by the so-called ‘Circumcision.'” So, he now describes in verse 12 these Gentiles before they were called. Verse 12, “Remember that you were at that time:” Number one, “separate from Christ.” Number two, “excluded from the commonwealth of Israel.” Number three, “strangers to the covenants of promise.” Number four, “having no hope.” Number five, “without God in the world.” In verse 13, “Those who were far off.” In verse 17, “those who were far away.” Verse 19, “those who were strangers and aliens.” That is referring to every Gentile before their conversion.
This was true of us. We were without God. We were without hope. We were strangers to the covenants of God and the Word of God. We were far away from God. And it is these whom God has called. This is so like God because God receives all the glory for going after those who would be the hardest to convert, who are the furthest away. It magnifies His grace and His glory. And you and I are a part of this. You once were not the people of God. Even if you were a member of a church, if you were unconverted, you were not the people of God. Your name may have been on a church roll, but you were not the people of God. You may have even professed Christ, but you didn’t possess Him until you were converted.
So, this now leads to number five, “The Salvation,” and it is at the end of this line, these two words, “My people.” “I will call those who are not My people, ‘My people.'” And what is implied is, “I will call those who are not My people to be My people.” You could just insert, it is implied, the “to be.” And, in Hosea 2 verse 23 it actually says, “You are My people.” It is God Himself who has issued this call, and it is God Himself who has produced the response in the heart.
And to be “My people” means that you have come into a saving relationship with God, that you have been born again into the family of God. You have been sovereignly birthed by His grace and you have been adopted and made an adult son with all of the rights of an adult son in the family of God. And it happened suddenly. It wasn’t a process by which you became a child of God. It happened in a moment, in the moment that God called, just like Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road. It was in that moment. It was just like on the day of Pentecost. It wasn’t “the month of Pentecost.” It wasn’t “the year of Pentecost.” It wasn’t “the decade of Pentecost.” It was on “the day of Pentecost” that there were three thousand souls that God called to Himself, and they immediately responded the moment that call was issued.
It was the same with the Ethiopian eunuch as Philip hopped up into the chariot and explained to him Isaiah 53. And in that moment, God called him and he was immediately baptized. It was the same in Philippi when Paul went to the riverside and Lydia was there and some other women. She was a seller of purple. And Paul explained the gospel to her, and God opened her heart and called her to Himself. It happened immediately. And a church was planted, and it created a riot in town, and they drug Paul through the streets of Philippi and they threw him into the prison cell. And at midnight, God sent an earthquake that threw open the doors of the prison. And remember the Philippian jailer said, “What must I do to be saved?” And Paul said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” And that very night he was called and converted and even baptized that very night.
And so, the point that I want to stress is we become the people of God suddenly, instantly, dramatically in the moment that God calls us to Himself. Like a magnet drawing a piece of metal to the magnet, so we were drawn to personal relationship with Jesus Christ. So that is “The Salvation” and that is your testimony if you are in Christ.
Now, I need to keep going. Number six: “The Scorn.” I want you to note the next line. It says, “And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.'” This again refers to Gentiles who were outside the kingdom of heaven. In Hosea’s day, again it referred to those that were carted off into captivity into Assyria. Paul here assigns it its place here to refer to Gentiles. You will note, when we were not the people of God, we were not beloved. This is a long way again from, “Smile, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” No, He didn’t. You didn’t enter into the sphere of His love until He called you. You were under His wrath before He called you, and we were not beloved. That is what it says. And in verse 13, we see that “Jacob I loved and Esau I hated,” and we were standing in the very same place as Esau stood under the wrath of God, and not beloved, not standing in the experiential love of God in our life. And that was the scorn. In Hosea 2:23, it says, “Who had not obtained compassion.”
So, I think this is very important for us in our witnessing as we are talking to people. They need to understand that, yes, God has demonstrated His love toward us in that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us;” and yes, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” But there is more to the story than just that, that there is what Romans 1 verse 18 says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men.” And so, that is what we see here. “And her who was not beloved,” please note, ‘beloved.’ There was a change in status. There was a change from the frown of God to the smile of God. There was a change from the anger of God toward us to the love of God being placed in our heart and enveloped over our lives. And so, if you are a believer, this is the dramatic change that has taken place in your life. You went from being “not the beloved” to “the beloved.” You went from being “not the people of God” to being “the people of God.” And it was all effected by the call of God upon your life as He called you out of darkness unto Himself.
Come to 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2, and there is the very same quotation that we see here, verse 10, 1 Peter 2 verse 10, “For you were once not a people,” meaning My people, “but now you are the people of God,” meaning My people, “and you had not received mercy.” In other words, You were not the beloved. “But now, you have received mercy.” Now, you are the beloved. There could not be a more catastrophic change in status as well as in experience that occurred when we were called.
Now, look at the previous verse in verse 9, 1 Peter 2 verse 9. He traces all this back to what Paul has been belaboring in Romans 9 to sovereign election. Flowing out of sovereign election is the effectual call which has produced this dramatic change in our lives. So, look at verse 9. “For you are a chosen race,” referring to the believers in the church, “a royal priesthood,” meaning we have direct access to the Lord Jesus Christ now. We do not need a priest. We are a priest. We have a Priest and we have been made a priesthood. “A holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
So, first, there was God’s sovereign election in eternity past before the foundation of the world. Then, within time, at the appointed time, whether you were a teenager, whether you were in your adult years, that call, the effectual call was extended to all who were chosen. And those who were far away now became very near, and those who were “not My people” became “My people.” And those who were “not beloved” became “beloved.” So, even Peter picks up on this very truth that Paul is teaching.
So, come back to Romans 9. So, in Romans 9, I want to look at verse 26 now with you, and I want you to note number seven, “The Separation.” And Paul shifts his focus now from the person to the place, the place where they were when God called them. So, verse 25 focuses upon the person who is called. Verse 26 focuses upon the place where the person was when they were called. So, we read in verse 26, “And it shall be,” and again here I just love this divine certainty. When God says, “It shall be,” mark it down. “It shall be that in that place where…” Now, let us just stop there. When Hosea first wrote this, and this is Hosea 1 verse 10, when Hosea first wrote this, this was a prophecy of the Jews in the ten tribes in the Northern Kingdom. They would be taken captive by the Assyrians and literally uprooted out of their land and dragged back to Assyria to a different place, to live in a different land, to be far away from the Promised Land, to be far away from hearing the voice of the prophets, to be far away from the Word of God, to be far away from the place of blessing which was in the Promised Land. They now have been taken into exile to a different place.
And as Paul, now uses this here, the reference is to you and me, but it is not to a geographical place; it is to a spiritual place. That you and I once were in a place, just like the ten tribes of the north were, we too once were far away from God, and we once too were removed from the saving blessings of God. We once too lived in darkness and we were in captivity and we were in spiritual bondage held in chains of our own sin. And so, when he says, “It shall be that in that place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people.'” Now, the Jew still continued to be the Jew physically, but what God was saying to them in Hosea’s day, “You are living just like the world. Most of you are a part of the world. You are unconverted and you are unregenerate and you are not My people.” Now, there was a remnant within Israel who remained “the people,” but by and large it was an apostate nation that was living in unbelief. And rightfully did God say, “You are not My people spiritually.”
The application as Paul intends it to be understood is for you and me as Gentiles. Even if we were brought up in a Christian family, even if we grew up going to church, even if we were put in a Christian school, if we were unconverted, we were not the people of God. We were just like these tribes living in a faraway place. We were in a place of darkness. We were in a place of sin, even on the front row of the church, until the day God called you out of darkness into the glorious light of His presence. And that is the point that Paul is making here in this monumental chapter of Romans 9. As you now find yourself in Christ, the way you got here is God took the initiative. And God laid bare His mighty right arm, and God opened His mouth and called you. And with His mighty right arm, He brought you out of darkness into the light of His presence. And you may have been unaware at that moment of how God-centered that was, but the more you study your Bible and the more you read of how God operates in salvation, you learn that it is more and more of God and less and less of you until you reach the point where you say, “It was all of God. Salvation is of the Lord, and the only thing I contributed to this was my sin that was laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross.”
So, I have got one last point to put before you and it is “The Sonship.” And that is the second line in verse 26, “There,” and I just can’t go past the word “there” without pausing to reinforce that place where you once were living, that place of spiritual darkness and spiritual separation from God. Paul is using Hosea to focus upon the place where you once were. “There they,” and the “they” refers to those who are elect Gentiles, those chosen by God before the foundation of the world, who are non-Jews. “There they shall be called.” Everyone whom God chose shall be called, and this call again is the effectual, powerful, saving, individual, irresistible call of God. “They shall be called,” and we see what Paul is emphasizing here again is the call as he is cherry-picking out of the book of Hosea just the verses that he wants to weave into the tapestry of Romans chapter 9 to build his argument that salvation is by the sovereign will of God. So, “There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
Formerly, we were strangers; now we are sons. Formerly, we were enemies and now we are joint-heirs. Formerly, we were estranged from God and hostile towards God and God towards us, “You are not My beloved. You are not My people.” But now that God has called us to Himself, His arms were open wide and He received us into His family. He put a ring on our finger. He put a robe on our back. He put shoes on our feet. He gave us a seat at the table. He made us joint-heirs with His Son. He has opened the treasure vault of heaven. He has put His Holy Spirit within us. He has clothed us with the perfect righteousness of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has erased all of our sins and sent them far away. He has put His Word within our heart. He has given us a new mind. He has given us new affections. He has given us a new disposition. He has put us on a new path. He has given us new brothers and new sisters. He has given us a new elder Brother, and He has given us a new life direction and a new life purpose, and He is now preparing for us a new place in heaven where we will live in the New Jerusalem, and there we will be with the Lord forever and ever and ever.
We have been called to be sons of the living God. And the fact that it is the living God, I think in an indirect way is just a hint of this, but is emphasizing it is only the living God who calls. Dumb idols don’t call. Statues of gold and silver cannot call anyone. They cannot speak, but the living God calls strangers to be His sons. And His voice is so powerful that in the day that this living God calls, He brings us all the way into His family.
I intended to take us through verse 29, but the more I was on the bottom of the ocean looking for pearls, the more I saw there is more here than what I saw on the surface. And I wanted us to really extract from this something of the full impact. And I will have to tell you in years past I have just kind of skimmed over those two verses to get to some of the next verses and these verses kind of are in the shadow of the previous verses about the potter and the clay, and Jacob and Esau, etc. These have just kind of, for me personally, have kind of been over here on the sidelines and the others have been out in the middle of the field that drew my attention. It has been good for me to park on these verses and to give more careful attention to this call of God and the divine certainty that it produces in our salvation
As I close this, and then we will do application, I just want to restate to you this is your spiritual autobiography, this is your testimony. I mean, the next time you are asked to give your testimony in church or in a Sunday school class or you are sitting at a table with someone who is not a believer and you are giving your testimony, you could very easily just turn to Romans 9:25 and 26, and say, “Let me tell you my story, because I once was not beloved and I was once not the people of God, but God called me. And when He called, I became the people of God and I became beloved and I became a son of the living God. And that is what I would want for your life, but it is something that only God can do and something that God must do if you are to be a part of His family.”
So, let me stop right here. This has been good for me just to go through these verses.
