a People Who Were No People

Romans 9:25, 26—“As he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.”

We accept the supreme authority of Holy Scripture: every word of it is truth to us.

Yet we attach special weight to words which are the personal utterance of the Lord God; as in this case, where God himself is the Speaker, in the first person.

Still more are we impressed when a divine message is repeated; as in this instance, where Paul writes:—“As he says also in Hosea.”

God “says” still what he said long ago.

Come then, anxious souls, and hear the story of God’s grace to his chosen, in the hope that he may do the like for you.

Observe with attention, concerning the Lord’s people,—

I. THEIR ORIGINAL STATE: “not obtained mercy,—not my people.”

1. They not only were not “beloved,” but they were expressly disowned.

   • “It was said unto them, you are not my people.” Their claim, if they made any, was negatived.
   • This is the worst case that can be: worse than to be left alone.
   • This, conscience, providence, and the Word of God all appear to say to men who persist in sin.

2. They had no approval of God.

   • They were not numbered with his people.
   • They were not “beloved,” in the sense of the love of delight

3. They had not in the highest sense “obtained mercy.”

   • For they were under providential judgment.
   • That judgment had not become a blessing to them.
   • They had not even sought for mercy.

4. They were the types of a people who as yet—

   • Have felt no application of the blood of Jesus;
   • Have known no renewing work of the Spirit;
   • Have obtained no relief by prayer; perhaps have not prayed;
   • Have enjoyed no comfort of the promises;
   • Have known no communion with God;
   • And possess no hope of Heaven, or preparation for it.
   • It is a terrible description, including all the unsaved.
   • It is concerning certain of such that the unconditional promise is made in the text: “I will call them my people.” Who these are shall be seen in due time by their repentance and faith, which shall be wrought in them by the Spirit of God. There are such people, and this fact is our encouragement in preaching the gospel, for we perceive that our labor will not be in vain.

II. THEIR NEW CONDITION. “You are my people.”

1. Mercy is promised: “I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy.” This is absolutely free.

2. A divine revelation is pronounced: “I will say, You are my people.”

   • This is done by the Spirit of God in the heart.
   • This is supported by gracious dealings in the life.

3. A hearty response shall be given: “they shall say, You are my God.” The Holy Spirit will lead them to this free acceptance.

   • As a whole, they will say this with one voice.
   • Each individual will say it for himself in the singular, “You.”

4. A declaration of love shall be made: “I will call her beloved, which was not beloved.” (Romans 9:25.) Love shall be enjoyed.

5. This shall be perceived by others: “There shall they be called the children of the living God.”

   • Their likeness to God shall make them to be called the children of God, even as the peacemakers in Matthew 5:9.
   • Thus every blessing shall be theirs, surely, personally, everlastingly.
   • Reflections arising from all this:—
   • We must give up none as hopeless; even though they be marked out by terrible evidence to be not the people of God.
   • None may give up themselves in despair.
   • Sovereign grace is the ultimate hope of the fallen.
   • Let them trust in a God so freely gracious, so omnipotent to save, so determined to bring in those whom it seemed that even he, himself, had disowned, whom everybody had abandoned as not the people of God.

Notabilia

“Have you ever heard the gospel before?” asked an Englishman, at Ningpo, of a respectable Chinaman, whom he had not seen in his mission-room before.

“No,” he replied, “but I have seen it. I know a man who used to be the terror of his neighborhood. If you gave him a hard word, he would shout at you, and curse you for two days and nights without ceasing. He was as dangerous as a wild beast, and a bad opium-smoker; but when the religion of Jesus took hold of him, he became wholly changed. He is gentle, moral, not soon angry, and has left off opium. Truly, the teaching is good!”—Word and Work.

It will give a kind of exaltation to the saint’s happiness to look down upon that moral depth from which he was taken. A man on the edge of a precipice, at night, cannot clearly see it; but when the morning dawns, he will be able to see the danger he has been in. So the saint cannot, while on earth, conceive the depth of sin from which he has been raised; but he will be able to measure it by the light of Heaven, and he may go down ages before he comes to the place where he once was: and then to think what he is—how deep once, but how high now—it will augment the sense of happiness and glory:—and then to recollect who has been the cause—and every time he looks down at what he was, it will give greater emphasis to the ascription, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father: to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.”—John Foster.

The announcement made by Brownlow North to his old friends of his sudden change, whether orally or in writing, created no small sensation among them. Some thought he had gone out of his mind, others thought it was a temporary impression or excitement, and that it would soon pass off; and this was specially the case with those of them who were acquainted with his previous convictions, and temporary reformation, while, in some of the newspapers, it was even said, after he began his public work, that the whole thing was done for a wager, and that he had taken a bet to gather a certain number of thousands or tens of thousands of hearers in a given time. So little do carnal men understand the workings of the Spirit of God, even when they see the most striking and manifest proofs of it.—From Brownlow North’s Life-story, by Rev. K. Moody-Stuart, M.A.