The Remnant

Isaiah 1:9

I have a dear friend whose business is remnants. He buys remnants from factories at bargin prices, because they are useless to the factories. And he sells them to thrifty housewives at bargin prices, because thrifty housewives are always happy to use what wealthy people throw away. With men, a remnant is something left over, for which there is no plan, purpose, or use. Remnants are a nuisance which must be disposed of. But my friend only deals in remnants. He is always seeking remnants. Remnants are his treasure. He built his house with remnants.

God is very much like my friend. He seeks a remnant. He only deals with a remnant. He builds his house with a remnant. His treasure is a remnant. Let me show you five things about the remnant.

1. THERE IS A REMNANT ACCORDING TO THE ELECTION OF GRACE (Rom. 11:5). God has not chosen to save all men. But there is a remnant, chosen from among the ruins of Adam's fallen race who must be saved (Eph. 1:3-6; John 10:16).

2. EVERYTHING GOD DOES HE DOES FOR HIS REMNANT. All men benefit from God's goodness to his remnant. His benevolence, rain, sunshine, peace, and pestilence, draught, darkness and war come upon all men alike. But they come for and belong to the remnant (I Cor. 3:21).

3. GOD IS LONGSUFFERING WITH ALL MEN FOR THE SAKE OF THE REMNANT (II Pet. 3:9). Were it not for God's elect remnant, he would have destroyed the world in his wrath long ago, like Sodom and Gomorrah. God's elect are truly the salt, the preservers, of the earth. As God spared Adam for Abel's sake and Sodom for Lot's sake, God spares the world today for his elect's sake, that they all might be saved.

4. GOD'S REMNANT IN THIS WORLD IS ALWAYS SMALL AND FEEBLE (Isa. 16:14). In the end they will be a great multitude. But in this world, God's people are always a very small minority.

5. GOD WILL SAVE HIS ELECT REMNANT (Rom. 9:27, 11:26). Not one of that great remnant, for whom God made, rules, and disposes of this world, shall be lost. God the Father loved them. God the Son redeemed them. God the Spirit calls them. And God, by his great grace, will preserve them unto life everlasting.

Don Fortner