God's Faithfulness and the Doctrine of the Remnant

I say then hath God Cast Away his people God forbid for I also am an Israelite of the SE Seed of Abraham and of The Tribe of Benjamin God do not cast away his people which he fornew what he not what the scripture say of Elias how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying Lord they have killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars and I am left alone and they seek my life but what say the answer of God unto him I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of B even so then at this present time also there is a Remnant according to the election of Grace. [00:11:55]

The rejection of the nation of Israel is not total it appeared looking at the church that God had finished with the nation of Israel as a nation and as a people and that that meant that he had done so in a full and in a complete manner that God had allog together finished with the Jews with the children of Israel now the Apostle is dealing with that idea which obviously must have been current otherwise the great Apostle would never have troubled to deal with it in this way. [00:02:13]

God does not Cast Away his people whom he forew now in many ways that is the key to the whole of this chapter that's why we spend so much time with it last week because the whole argument is going to be based upon this election of God God do not cast away his people which he fornew and that forew you remember doesn't just mean that he was aware of their existence or a knowledge of them but he has known them in a very special sense they of all the people of the Earth had he known under the Old Testament dispensation. [00:03:58]

The Apostle never bases his ultimate position upon that he he always wants them to see and to know that what he's saying is based upon the authority of the word of God this isn't some novel idea he's saying and that again is the most important Point there's nothing new he says in all this you may be amazed at that but he says there isn't there's nothing new at all about it this kind of thing has happened many times before and he picks out one notable and striking illustration of this very thing. [00:06:21]

The whole object of the Apostle of course is to show the patter he says it isn't the case that I alone am saved and I'm a Christian I am I've quoted myself I myself also am an Israelite but don't imagine for a moment he says that I'm in the position of Elias and thinking that I alone I'm left it isn't the case at all I am one of a great number but there it is God had to teach his great servant Elias that particular lesson he says there's a curious parallel here in the time of Elias there was a real apostasy on behalf on the part of the nation of Israel a real apostasy. [00:12:09]

In the time of Elijah it was only a Remnant that God had reserved unto himself the bulk of the nation as I've reminded you had gone into a state of apostasy but God had reserved a Remnant and what the Apostle is saying is that he has still now reserved a Remnant it looks if you take a very superficial view of the situation you might come to the conclusion that the Christian Church consists only of Gentiles it wrong says Paul I'm in it but not only I there are others there is still a Remnant as there was in the days of Elias there is still a Remnant according to the election of Grace. [00:18:07]

The remant in a sense gives us a kind of guarantee for the nation the remant is after all a part of the nation and because a Remnant is saved you cannot say and must not say that the whole nation is rejected because the remnant is a part of a whole the fact that the part is saved tells us something about the whole now we mustn't press this too far there are those who would say that the remnant as it were at this point constitutes the whole we mustn't say that because that isn't the V's argument. [00:24:20]

The doctrine of the remnant according to the election of Grace should preserve us from pessimism and despair but it should never lead to inactivity and inaction being confident and sure of God's plan and purpose we should exert our every effort to make the truth known and to persuade others to believe it and to accept it well there it seems to me are some of the Practical lessons that we can learn from this particular incident this quotation about Elias in addition to the great theological doctrinal truth on which it is all based. [00:48:47]

We must learn to face every situation in life in a scriptural manner what I mean by that is this whatever happens to us let's not merely look at the thing itself let's not merely apply our own reason to it let's think of it scripturally uh if you like I can put it like this say to yourself well now is anything similar to this happened in the scriptures can I find an analogy in the scriptures that's what Paul was doing he says now but what don't you know what he not what the scriptures say of Elias. [00:39:15]

Never let the devil persuade you that the church is yours don't get involved personally like that that was the trouble with Elijah wasn't it you see Israel was his I alone them left and now they're trying to kill me as if God were not there and as if Israel didn't belong to God it was his concern it was his institution as it were it was his Nation he got involved personally in the wrong sense and so he becomes depressed in other words I've often said it from this Pulpit there is nothing more important for us to remember especially at a time like this than just this simple fact the church isn't ours the battle is not yours but Gods. [00:40:11]

Don't be carried away by numbers don't follow the crowd in the time of Elijah almost everybody was on the wrong side all the prophets were that was true there were Unknown People the 7,000 but as for the prophets they were all on the wrong side but Elijah didn't say well I must be wrong if I can't be right alone and all those men wrong that's what they're trying to get us to say today you know ecumenical movement who are you to stand against this I say thank God for this story of Elijah doesn't matter if the whole world said the other thing don't follow the crowd don't assume that the numbers are all always right remember truth Forever on the scaffold wrong forever on the throne. [00:41:11]

God will keep his church going The Remnant may become a very small one it doesn't matter God's purposes are sure nothing can stop them nothing can frustrate them doesn't matter how many wander away and fall by the way side God will always have his Remnant God will always keep his work going we don't know how but he always will that's the great Doctrine and he always has of course history is full of proofs of this in the word first period of the darkness of Roman Catholicism you had people like the waldenian in Northern Italy and the Brethren of the common life in Moravia and Bohemia and in parts of Holland and places like that God has always had his Remnant always had a people and he's kept it going and he will keep it going. [00:45:58]