Once You Were Not A People

Introduction

Good evening. I invite you to open your Bibles to the Old Testament book of Hosea. And we’ll be there for just a little bit this evening. Appreciate y’all being out. We are a little sparse this evening on this gray Sunday afternoon. But there is no other place that I would rather be. Throughout the Old Testament, we read stories of God’s amazing mercy and love towards the people of Israel and Judah. His own special people. The people whom through he would bring the Christ to the world. Despite their continual rebellion against them, he continually loved them. And there’s beautiful imagery about God being their God and they being his people. And there are some examples that I’d read to you quickly here. Over in Jeremiah chapter 24, and y’all have to turn anything.

You can say in Hosea if you’d like. But in Jeremiah chapter 24 and verse 7, and this is just scratching the surface, but in Jeremiah 24 and verse 7. I will give them a heart that I am to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. For they shall return to me with their whole heart. In chapter 31 and verse 1 of Jeremiah. At that time declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people. Skipping down to verse thirty one of the same chapter. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. In chapter 32 and verse 37. Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and my great indignation, and I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land of faithfulness with all my heart and all my soul. In the book of Ezekiel in chapter eleven. Ezekiel chapter eleven. Moving on, a couple of books.

Again, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them, and I and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. Chapter 14 and verse eleven. That the house of Israel may no more go astray from me nor defile themselves any more with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, declares the Lord God. And in Ezekiel chapter 37.

Verses twenty-four through twenty-eight. My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They will dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where their fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant, and I will set them in the land, and multiply them, and set my sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And then over in the New Testament, in Second Corinthians chapter six and verse sixteen.

Second Corinthians chapter six and verse sixteen, these same sentiments are echoed. For we are the temple of the living God, as God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Hebrews chapter eight and verse ten. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And finally, in Revelation chapter twenty-one, verses three and four. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, not neither shall they be mourning or crying or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Again, those verses there are just scratching the surface of the relationship that God shows us that he wants to have with his people. And as we especially read those passages that were in the Old Testament, you can clearly see the messianic tones that are overarching in those passages. Those things are pointing, yes, he uses the terms of being towards Israel and Judah, but really it’s about his everlasting covenant with us as his people under Christ. And yet here in Hosea, God is finally saying to the Jews, after all of their rebellion, you are no longer my people.

1. No Mercy and Not My People

You will receive no more mercy. And although they’re pleased later in the book for them to return to the Lord, because of course God in his unending love and mercy would take them back. But as we know, they would continue in their rebellion, and the mercy that God promises in Hosea chapter 2, verses 21 through 23 is ultimately intended for Christians under the new covenant. And so I want to look just briefly here. In the first chapter of Hosea, I’ve always been fascinated by this story because God asked the prophets in the Old Testament to do a lot of really out there things, and a lot of difficult things. And of those things, this has probably got to be one of the most out there and the most difficult.

God tells Hosea the prophet to go out and to marry a harlot, a prostitute, to take her as his wife. That just seems totally contradictory. But of course, it’s incredibly symbolic of what the people of Israel were doing to God.

Committing adultery against him by forsaking the Lord and serving other gods. It says that in verse 2, when the Lord spoke through Hosea, the Lord said, Go take yourself a wife of Horom and have children of Horom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord. And so Hosea takes Gomer, lovely name. I’m not sure why we don’t have more daughters amongst us named Gomer. Abigail’s a little bit prettier.

And so she bears him a son named Jezreel in verses 3 through 5. But then what I want to focus on is the second and third children that she bears to him. In verse 6 and 7, says she conceived again and bore a daughter, and the Lord said to him, Call her name Lo Ruhama, or no mercy. For I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all, but I will have mercy on the house of Judah. And I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or horsemen. And verse 8, when she had weaned no mercy, or Lo Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.

And the Lord said, Call his name Lo Ami, or not my people, for you are not my people, and I am not your God. He says, You know what? Forget about it. You’re not my people. I’ve been trying to get you to be my people, and you and you keep rebelling against me. You keep not having wanting to have anything to do with it. And so he gives Hosea this directive to marry this harlot, to show them exactly what it was that they were doing to him. And as we move on in the story, and we get over to chapter three, Gomer again goes back to her old ways. She goes back to playing the harlot. And what does God do? He does he tell God, okay, well, you know, you made your point, you made my point for me.

I appreciate that. Thanks. No, he says, Go buy her back. Take her as your wife again, even though she has committed adultery against you. And in chapter three, he says, Go again and love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins. So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lehek of barley. And I said to her, You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, belong to another man. So will I also be to you. For the children of man shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.

And afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days. Again, just showing how God asked us to come to him and to dwell with him for many days.

In that day I will answer, declares the Lord. I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on no mercy. And I will say to not my people, you are my people. And he shall say, You are my God. Showing again the never-ending love of God. How even though he gets fed up with us, he is still always willing to take us back and to have mercy, though he said he will not, to call us his people, though he has said we will not, if we are only willing to call him our God.

2. Once You Were Not a People

Peter writes, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may be proclaimed the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Peter now calls Christians a holy nation, a special people there in verse 9. And that obviously has its connotations with Hosea, but the illusion is even clearer in verse 10 when he says, Once you were not a people. What does that sound like? But now you are God’s people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

We as Gentiles never were God’s people. See, Israel had not received mercy because of the hardness of their hearts. And the Gentiles have not received mercy because they never were God’s people. But now, Peter writes, we they had received mercy. And they could be called his children. What an awesome thought that is. That we, though we were not part of God’s original own special people.

A people for his own possession. I think that tells us something about how God feels towards us. When he calls us out. And he had, and we see the picture that he had of Israel and Judah in the Old Testament of them being his special people. They’re so much different than all the other nations around them. And now he calls us his own special people, a people for his own possession. It’s not just that we have God. It’s that he has us. We are his. And that’s how he views us, as his children. And we have been granted this opportunity to be grafted into his family, to be adopted as sons and heirs, although we were not worthy. Turn over also to Romans chapter 11, if you would, for a moment.

3. The Kindness and the Severity of God

Romans chapter 11. And Paul expounds upon this idea a little bit further. He writes about the Gentiles being grafted into this tree. And I want us to note verses 1 through 10, and I might not read all that, but 1 through 10 of the chapter talks about the remnant of Israel. Specifically verse 2, which says that God has not rejected his people whom he for knew. Again, showing that everlasting mercy that he has for his people, the Jews. We mustn’t forget that the gospel is for all, including the Jews, that it was sent first to the Jews, but the majority of them rejected it. But its availability to them shows that God did not give up on him and fulfilled his promises made towards them in the Old Testament.

And then in verses 11 through 14, Paul writes that he basically hopes that the Jews’ jealousy towards the Gentiles being saved will cause some of them to come to Christ. And then in verse 15 through 20. If you pick up with me there, verses 15 through 20. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree. Do not be arrogant toward the branches.

If you are, remember, it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, Branches were broken off, so that I might be grafted in.

So do not become proud, but stand in awe. Paul is urging here Gentile believers, us to remember that it was through Israel that the Messiah was brought forth. And it is because of Israel that the Gentiles are now able to be grafted into this holy olive tree. And it’s that salvation that supports them. Therefore, they mustn’t be arrogant towards the Jews. Because while some of those Jewish branches, so to speak, were broken off, they still have the opportunity to be grafted back in as well. And they should not become proud but fear or have a healthy respect and reverence and awe for God. Why? Verse 21. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. It is possible that once you become part of that nation, that people, to lose our place among them, to fall away.

And so Paul writes in verse 22 note then the kindness and the severity of God. Severity towards those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off. I think that’s one of those passages that I think people in the world like to gloss over and just forget about. Noting the kindness and the severity of God. They want to just pay attention to the kindness part. God’s just this wonderful God of love, and they don’t want to notice his severity. His standard of righteousness.

4. Abstain From the Passions of the Flesh

How awesome it truly is that we have been grafted contrary to nature into this olive tree, this holy nation of God’s own people. It was not. It doesn’t make any sense. I mean, that’s basically what Paul is saying. It doesn’t make things. It’s contrary to nature, that we can be part of this family. And yet that’s exactly what we are. Going back over to 1 Peter chapter 2, and verses 9 through 11, though. What is the result then? How should we respond to being part of that family? It says in verse 10, again, once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. In verse 9, you are chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

So then, in verse 11, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. And keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Peter writes and tells them that because they are God’s own people now, they were too, and we are, to step out of darkness and into the light, verse 9, to keep our conduct among the Gentiles, everybody around us, verse 12, honorable, and to abstain from the passions of the flesh, verse 11. That’s the hard part, isn’t it? All too often we want to be just like everybody around us what are some of those passions that wage war against our souls?

5. God's Standards, Not Our Own

What actions are we tempted to pursue? And that’s a question you have to answer for yourself, but what actions are we tempted to pursue that cause our conduct to no longer be honorable among the Gentiles? Can we, like Israel, rebel against God and be found outside of His mercy? Can we neglect His kindness, forget about His severity, and no longer be His people? These passages we’ve read this evening make it clear that we claim that we can And what really got me thinking about all this was Christians’ definitions, I think of immorality, of being different from the world, of sensuality, lasciviousness if you will our definitions have changed. And not for the better. And excuse me while I get up on a soapbox, I’m not a soapbox preacher, I never get on a soapbox, but excuse me while I do that and go off on a tangent.

But and maybe this comes from me having a daughter now and it’s like hey I see now all the things that I’m up against and trying to raise her in a godly way but among all the different things, and there are many that people’s definitions are changing. What I see taking root amongst many Christians is an acceptance of dancing. I mean, when I was young, it just wasn’t even it was just it was wrong. It just was. You know, I didn’t have any thoughts ever about going to any dance. It was not a temptation. It was not something I had any desire to do. But today, many people, and I’m not talking about people in the dominational world. I’m talking about people in the Lord’s church are now accepting of such practices.

Saying there’s nothing wrong with it. The Bible doesn’t condemn it. What’s the big deal? Well, the big deal is that most of it falls under clearly condemned categories of sensuality, lewdness, sexual immorality, of modesty, and lasciviousness. It’s not something we should associate with, condone. And yet that attitude seems no longer to be prevalent, not only amongst young Christians today, but of their parents either. And I don’t know how that happened. Maybe it’s because no one ever maybe we stopped preaching because we all just thought we knew that. But brethren, we have to get back to God’s standards, not our own.

Because God’s standards don’t change. Though the world’s may. But what I see that’s even worse than that, and not only that, but people are now going so far as to not only just not condemn it, flying right past ambivalence towards it, and straight to praising it as something that is wholesome and pure and right for a Christian to do. And that is loving the world and the things in the world. 1 John 2 and verse 15 through 17. Need we be reminded of Isaiah 5 and verse 20, it says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

We cannot allow our definitions of what is appropriate to be shaped by the world. And what got me thinking about this? And again, dancing is not the far and away, not the only thing. It’s just one sad example. But someone who claims to be a Christian. People who are claiming to be Christians are now praising young Sadie Robertson, 17, of dancing of dynasty fame, going for going on dancing with the stars to share her faith. Using this lewd show as a platform to glorify God. What in the world is going on? And as I read comments that people were making on these posts, and people, brethren that I’m seeing that are commenting on these things and liking them. Liking these posts. Mostly, I think naive females who have no idea what dancing does and moving sensually does in a man’s mind.

But I’m thinking, is this some sort of a joke? Like when I first saw it, I really thought, is this a joke? Like, is this satire? But it wasn’t. It was serious. People were serious. I mean, listen to some of the comments that people made. One headline on a website says this. Duck Dynasty star Sadie Robertson avoids provocative dancing with the stars costumes with Dad Willie’s approvals. Directly below that is a picture of her on the previous evening show, wearing a pair of daisy dudes. And that’s not immodest. Her dad is okay with her wearing that. Another one. Aren’t you glad there are still people like the Robertsons in America who are promoting family values and aren’t afraid to share their Christian faith. It’s so refreshing to see this young lady stand up for Christianity.

This girl is one all of the young females need to look up to. No, thank you. And then this is one of my.

Everything’s just relative. Make up your own rules, because again, God’s standards don’t matter. And then she goes on to say, Well, I’ll be out doing, named a couple of other lewd things this weekend. No, but I might enjoy a spin around the dance floor with my husband. Again, well, there’s nothing wrong with that if you’re dancing with your husband, okay. Or with my sons at the Saturday night youth dance at my church. This is where we are in America today. Churches are promoting these kinds of activities. And finally, someone responds to her. Well, before the same guy, they were kind of going back and forth, said, worldly young Christian women always find excuses for being like the world instead of like Christ. Death to self and alive to God is the message of the Word of God.

Not exhibitionist dancing that glorifies the flesh. And again, he says to her, You cannot glorify God by glorifying the flesh. Dancing with the stars is an ungodly form, and any ways you look at it and jumping and prancing in an immodest attire in front of the world is far more to incite lust in the hearts of men than it does to glorify God. God hasn’t changed his mind about nudity and modesty. That guy gets it. You know, and as I’m reading, and I hate doing, I never read people’s comments on this because it just makes you angry. But anyone who disagreed with all these people who were praising her and made solid biblical arguments were shot down as if they were hypocritical, religious bigots as backwards as West Virginia Hibley that marries his first cousin.

But I guess that’s what we are. And I guess that’s what that makes God, because we’re sticking to his standards and not our own. And there was one other that I finally really liked what he had to say. He said, I’ve watched five of these routines that she’s done in four dress. It said, four of them are not what a seventeen year old Christian young lady ought to be doing. And the fifth is sedate enough, but walks a line, despite what the world thinks. Her outfits do not meet God’s requirements for chaste dress of women, and there are biblical definitions involved here. Again, this guy gets it. I am sore disappointed in her dad and mom for allowing this. She is seventeen. She should be at home not shaking her hips and giving come hither looks to her partner on national TV.

The called out are supposed to be, well, called out. And amen to that. The Christian should have nothing to do with a show. Even if what she was, even if she was covered in a burqa, I don’t care. A Christian should have nothing to do with a show like that. Going on gives tacit approval and lends credence and approval to what is going on, and her involvement gives people an excuse to watch the show and thus view the admittedly worse lewdness put forth by it. Brethren, we who were once not a people, who once had not received mercy, but now have received mercy are to take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, Paul writes in Ephesians 5 and verse 11.

We are a people professing purity and holiness. And we need to think seriously and be very careful about that which we take part in and approve of.

6. Do Not Be Conformed, but Be Transformed

Earlier in 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 14 through 19, we are called to holiness. Peter writes obedient children should not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.

It’s being as far away from it as you possibly can. And yet these lax attitudes are creeping their way into the church. Girls in elementary school wearing shorts so shorts you can’t tell when they put a shirt on that you’re wearing them at all. Elders allowing their teenage daughter to wear equally short shorts. And these are things that I’ve seen in the church. Guys going shortless to the beach with their girlfriends in bikinis. And posting it all over Facebook. Again, I ask, what is going on with their parents? It starts at home. It starts when they’re young. If they’re comfortable at home like that, they’re going to be comfortable in public. If you let them dress like that when they’re little, what makes you think they’re going to feel a need to change the standard later on?

Paul again writes in Romans chapter 12 that we are not to be conformed to the world but transformed. We are to be holy and acceptable before him, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice. We cannot allow the world to change our definitions of what is right and wrong. But stick to the unchanging standards of Almighty God. Do not be conformed, but be transformed. Remember that once we were not a people, and we had no hope of heaven. But now we are God’s people. His chosen race, his children. Once we had not received mercy, but we have received mercy now, and forgiveness of sins, a propitiation for our sins has been made, and we are called to be different, to suffer for being so, and to follow the example of Christ.

One final passage in 1 Peter, following up in chapter 2, verses 19 through 23. For this is a gracious thing, when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure. But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called. Because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. And when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

Conclusion

Again, the image there that we have, though we once not received mercy, have returned, have gone back to God. And he who said, You shall receive no more mercy, has now said, You will have my mercy. You are my people, and I will be your God. We are to die to sin and live to righteousness. We’ve been healed by his wounds. We were straying like sheep, but it returned to the shepherd and overseer of our souls, who offers forgiveness, mercy, and grace. Because we are a people for his own possession. He is our God, and he loves us. Let us never cease to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. If he needs a response to the gospel this evening, why don’t you come now while we stand in sin?