Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Isaiah. Old Testament prophet Isaiah
chapter 10. And what I want to talk about
this morning is the title of the message is the remnant of
Israel. The remnant of Israel. I take
the title from verse 20 where Isaiah wrote, and it shall come
to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel and such as
are of escaped of the house of Jacob shall no more again stay
upon him that smote them. In other words, their minds will
not be fixed upon the one who brought judgment upon them as
far as God's instrument, and we'll talk about that in a minute,
but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel in truth. Ultimately, he's talking about
a mind and a heart a fixation on Christ, prophetically. And we'll talk about that. But
this idea of the remnant of Israel. Now, let's understand what remnant
means. A remnant is a leftover amount
from a larger portion or piece, whether it's food, whether it's
material from which a garment is made in fashion, or even a
group of people. If a crowd of people, a remnant
of those people would be a small portion, a small percentage. And although remnants could be
looked upon as worthless scraps, I remember going into carpet
stores and people asking, is there a remnant? You know, because
they don't want to buy a whole piece, they want to get it off cheap.
So get a remnant. So although remnants could be
looked upon as worthless scraps, many times God assigned high
value to those of his people whom he'd set aside for a holy
purpose, a purpose to glorify himself. And the value was not
in themselves. Understand that. We talk about
the worth of a soul, for example. The worthiness that we have is
not in ourselves if God saves us. The worthiness is in the
glory of God. And our song is what? What's
the song of the redeemed? Revelation 5. Anybody remember
it? Worthy is the Lord. The worthy is the Lord that was
slain. Our worthiness is Christ. And
we have no worth apart from Christ. We need to understand that apart
from the grace of God. So, but God set aside remnants
and he labels them as remnants in several places in the Bible.
To begin with here in Isaiah 10, what he's talking about here
is, you remember the kingdom of Israel was divided into two
segments after Solomon. The northern kingdom was Israel,
known as Israel, consisted of 10 tribes. The southern kingdom
was known as Judah, consisted of the tribe of Judah mainly,
but also the tribe of Benjamin. Well, in the northern kingdom,
all through their history, there was not one godly king who reigned
over them. They were all evil kings. They
rejected the worship of the temple in Jerusalem And they built their
own temple in Samaria. And it was idolatry. And there
were terrible things going on in Israel. And being under that
old covenant now, you remember that old covenant was a conditional
covenant. And Israel failed. But don't
get highfalutin now on it and say, well, I wish that had been.
No, we'd have failed too. That's what that covenant was
given for, to show man's failure and need of salvation by grace.
So Israel failed. But God was going to bring judgment
down upon the Northern Kingdom and the instrument of His judgment
was the Assyrian Empire and the King of Assyria. And He brought
judgment down upon them and He destroyed the Northern Kingdom
and He scattered them throughout. But now God is prophesying in
Isaiah 10 that His judgment is going to be upon the King of
Assyria. And He says, look in verse 12, of Isaiah chapter 10. He says, wherefore it shall come
to pass that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon
Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the
stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks.
So even though God, now think about in his sovereignty, used
Assyria as an instrument of his judgment, It was not in the minds
of the king of Assyria and the Assyrians to be used as instruments
of God's judgment, it was selfishness. They wanted more territory, they
wanted more power, they wanted more riches. Their idea was selfishness. And
now God's gonna bring his judgment down upon them. And he continues
this, look at verse 17. He's gonna bring his judgment
upon the king of Assyria for his pride, and his self-righteousness. And look at verse 17, he continues,
he says, and the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his
holy one for a flame, and it shall burn and devour his thorns
and his briars in one day, and shall consume the glory of his
forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body, and they
shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth. When the standard-bearer
faints and falls, that means you're defeated. So he's talking
about the destruction of Assyria, he's talking about the destruction
of the Northern Kingdom, God's justice, God's judgment, and
oh, that's what we need to understand. When we read these passages of
God's judgment, we need to think in terms of how truly blessed
we are that God doesn't bring judgment on us. Christ dealt
with that in the book of Luke, chapter 13, when he talked to
those people, those self-righteous people, who would look at people
who had been judged by God. He mentions those who had brought
sacrifice to the temple and Pilate's army slaughtered them. He talked
about those who were slain in a natural disaster when a tower
fell on them. And he asked him this question.
He said, do you suppose that those people were more sinful
than anybody else? Have you ever heard anybody say,
well, they're just getting what they deserved? I remember when
the hurricane came through New Orleans years ago. And I'd see
preachers on TV saying, New Orleans deserved that. That's such a
wicked city. And that's what Christ was dealing with, that
kind of attitude, that self-righteousness. Do we deserve anything less than
what they got? Because we're all sinners. And
that's when Christ said, except you repent, you'll likewise perish. We all deserve God's judgment.
We all have earned God's judgment. And that's why salvation is by
grace, friend. It's not what we earn or what
we deserve. We're no better off than the
Assyrians. We're no better off than the
northern Israel. And Isaiah, now he prophesied
in the southern kingdom. And really what He's reminding
them here is you in the southern kingdom, you're no better off
now. And He tells them later on, judgment's going to come
upon you too. And it did. But then God relates
how His people will eventually turn back to Him as a result
of this tremendous display of His judgment, His strength, His
power. his utter destruction of Assyria. And over in, look
at verse 19 or verse 20. Now this is our main text. He says, it shall come to pass
in that day that the remnant of Israel, the leftovers, what's
left of them, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob,
shall no more again stay upon him that smoked them. In other
words, they're not gonna fear the King of Assyria. They're
not gonna be fixed on him, but shall stay upon the Lord, the
Holy One of Israel in truth. And look on, he says in verse
21, the remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob unto
the mighty God. he says in verse 22, for though
thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of
them shall return, the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness,
justice, perfection. For the Lord God of host, now
that means the Lord God of an army that cannot be defeated,
invincible, shall make a consumption even determined in the midst
of all the land." So there's going to be a remnant. A remnant. Now this is biblical. This is
biblical all the way through. But you have to understand that
when you look at the nation Israel under the old covenant, which
is over. Now you understand the old covenant
is abolished. We don't live under the old covenant.
We live under the new covenant. The old covenant was a bilateral
covenant between God and Israel and its blessings were conditioned
on the obedience of the people and they failed. And that's a
testimony that any time God deals with sinful human beings in a
bilateral covenant, a covenant conditioned on us, it's going
to fail. The new covenant and salvation,
the gospel covenant, The everlasting covenant of grace is not a bilateral
covenant, it's a unilateral covenant. It's all conditioned on one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it cannot fail. It's a covenant
of grace. But when Isaiah's speaking here,
talking about a remnant, God is telling them that even though
he's going to destroy the northern kingdom and eventually the southern
kingdom, there will be a spared remnant of people. And the first
application of that is to national Israel under the Old Covenant.
But that's not going to last forever. Eventually, the whole
nation was going to be destroyed and scattered. That didn't take
place until after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ
in AD 70. And they were all scattered.
And I know people don't like to hear me say this, but I'm
going to say it anyway. You know me. God is through with
the nation Israel, the physical nation, as far as his plan of
redemption is concerned. Now that doesn't mean that there
are no Israelites individually who will be saved, and we'll
talk about that in a minute. But let me get you this idea
of the remnant. Turn back to Isaiah chapter one. This idea, the point of the remnant
as pertaining to the old covenant. is this, that even though God
was going to destroy the majority of them, he was gonna keep a
minority of them together to preserve the nation, especially
the tribe of Judah until Christ came. You remember what God promised
through Jacob when he was blessing his sons and Jacob came to Judah
and he said, the scepter will not depart from Judah until what? Until Shiloh come, that's Christ.
and then he'd be through with them. But over here, look at
verse 9 of Isaiah 1. Isaiah says here, except the
Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should
have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
What he's saying here, in this case, is that in the nation Judah,
in the southern kingdom, that the vast majority of the people
were made up of self-righteous, idolatrous religionists who went
through the motions of the temple, but they didn't believe the true
gospel that the temple represented. They didn't look forward to the
coming of the Messiah who would be the righteousness of His people.
They thought that their motions, their participations in that
religion of the covenant, the sacrifice of animals, the bringing
of oblations, was their salvation. And they turned that covenant
into a wicked system of salvation by works. But Isaiah said, there
is a small remnant of true believers. A small remnant. But you know,
it's always been that way. In the history of mankind since
the fall. There are other remnants, even
though the word remnants is not used. Think about it. Remember
back In Genesis chapter 6, when God said, the whole world lieth
in wickedness, but he saved a remnant, a man named Noah, eight people. Noah what? Was Noah better than
the rest of them with that remnant that he saved? Were they better
than the rest of the world? No. Noah found what? Grace in
the eyes of the Lord. You can think about Noah and
his family were the remnants saved out of the millions on
the earth before the flood. Genesis chapter six. Think about
Sodom and Gomorrah here. Only Lot and his two daughters
survived the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. A very small remnant
indeed. Now does that mean that all the
whole remnant was saved eternally? Not necessarily. But there is
a remnant of grace that we're gonna talk about. You remember
when Elijah the prophet despaired that he was the only one in Israel
who'd left and not bowed down to idols? And God told him, he
assured him that he'd reserved a remnant 7,000 whose knees have
not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed that idol.
A remnant. You know, we think about 7,000.
Boy, I'd like to see 7,000, wouldn't you? God's sovereign choice as to
whom he will save can also be seen in the New Testament. Now
these passages, this passage in Isaiah 10, the remnant of
Israel, God the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to move that
forward in its prophetic truth to show that the true remnant
of Israel is not the nation under the old covenant, that's a failure.
They're gone. And even most who call themselves
Jews today don't believe the gospel. But the true remnant
of Israel is His chosen people in Christ. His chosen people
in Christ. If you will, turn over to Romans
chapter 9 with me. And really, this is the import
of what Paul's preaching in Romans 9, 10, and 11. Look at verse 27 of Romans 9. He quotes from Isaiah here, are
the very passages that we're looking at. He says, Isaias,
that's Isaiah, also crieth concerning Israel, though the number of
the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant
shall be saved. And he goes on to say, for he
will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness. Now
what's the work? that he cut short in righteousness.
That's the work of Christ on the cross. In order to be saved, we have
to have a perfect righteousness which no sinner can work, can
achieve. That's why we need grace. That's
why we need a substitute. That's why we need a surety.
And he says, because a short work will the Lord make upon
earth. Think about the time that Christ lived in his earthly ministry. He lived to be 33, probably 33
and a half years old, but his earthly ministry was three and
a half years. And then the time that he hanged on that cross,
not very long was it? It was a short work. But in that
transaction, Christ brought forth by the shedding of his blood
as the surety of his people, What does that mean? That means
our sins were imputed, charged, accounted to Him, our debt. And
as the substitute of His people, God manifest in the flesh, giving
His body as a sacrifice. And as our Redeemer, shedding
His blood to satisfy justice and pay that debt, He worked
out a perfect righteousness that would ensure the salvation of
the entire remnant of spiritual Israel. And that's what Isaiah was prophesying
of as he comes through this. It's always been a remnant. And
so, if only a remnant was to be saved, then what does that
tell us? There's three things about this
remnant you need to know. Stay there at Romans chapter
nine. Number one, this remnant is a remnant of grace, not works. Look at Romans chapter nine,
look back at verse nine. Paul begins to make this argument.
He said, for this is the word of promise. Now, first of all,
he's established that this remnant of Israel is not national Israel,
but spiritual Israel. Look at verse six of Romans nine. He says, not as though the word
of God have taken none effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. Now, what does he mean by that?
Well, if God says this, if he says all Israel is going to be
saved, And we look back into the history of that nation and
see the current state of that nation, the vast majority are
in unbelief. The vast majority, even those
who came out of Egypt, they perished in the wilderness, perished in
unbelief. Well, does that mean God's promise failed? Does that
mean it's taken none effect? And he says, no. He says, for
they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. What does he mean
by that? Well, they are not all of the
remnant of Israel, which are of the nation Israel, verse seven,
neither because they are the seed of Abraham, that is naturally,
are they all children, but in Isaac thy seed shall be called. Now, what does that mean, Isaac?
What do you know about Isaac? He was the child of promise.
The promise given to Abraham and Sarah. He was not a child
of the flesh like his brother. And all of that coming through,
showing that everything that God does for the true remnant
of Israel is by promise, and the promise is a promise of grace.
Not works. God doesn't look at you and me
and say, now I'm gonna do this for you if you will do this for
me. You understand that? In fact,
in Jeremiah, chapter, what is it, 31, I think, around there,
he says, I'm gonna do this and they're gonna do this. It's not
a covenant of saying, I will if you will, It's a covenant
of saying, I will and you shall. That's God's covenant of grace.
That's the promise. And he promised Abraham that
salvation to be justified before God by grace, by promise that
would come through Christ. And what is it to be justified
is to be forgiven of all our sins on a just ground. And what is the just ground?
The blood of Christ. To be justified is to be declared
righteous in God's sight on a just ground. And what is the just
ground? The imputed righteousness of
Christ. So he says in verse 8, look at
Romans 9 verse 8. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, that is physical Israel, these are not the children
of God. Now there is a sense in which
people will say, well, we're all children of God. but we fail
and now alienated from God by nature. He's talking about children
of God here. The children of the promise are
calling for the sea. That's those who believe the
gospel, the promise. Do you believe the promise? That's
what you got to consider. Now, if you claim to believe
the promise, here's the next thing. What is the promise? Well, God promised me if I'd
walk an aisle and accept Jesus as my Savior, I'd be saved. You
will find that in this book now. God promised to save all whom
He chose in Christ, gave to Him, sent Christ to die, be buried,
and arisen again, and whom He would send the Spirit to give
a new heart and bring the faith in Christ. So this is a remnant
of grace. And let's go on, verse nine.
For this is the word of promise, at this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by want, even by our father Isaac. Now listen
to this, for the children be not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil. So this is not based upon God
looking down through the telescope of time and seeing who'd be good
and who'd be bad. He says, before having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, and as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. Now God's hatred
is his justice against sin. The Bible teaches that God hates
all those to whom sin is imputed. That's why David said, blessed
is he to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. He imputes righteousness. But let me ask you this question.
Did Esau deserve God's hatred? Answer's yes. Did Jacob deserve
God's love? No. You see, it's grace. And he goes on, he says, as it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unfair? God forbid. He saith to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll be compassionate
on whom I will be compassionate. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. So what do you know about this
remnant? It's a remnant of grace. And
look over at Romans chapter 11. Paul makes this argument about
this remnant in Romans 11 in verse 1. He says, I say then,
have God cast away his people? In other words, because the majority
of national Israel rejected, does that mean God cast them
away? He says, God forbid, for I also am an Israelite of the
seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, but God hath not
cast away his people, which he foreknew. Now in the Bible, this
foreknowledge is not just an awareness of the future. God
is not looking down through a telescope of time. It is not God is a genie
in a bottle or anything like that. For know, for knowledge,
is for ordination. That's what the word means. And
he says, what ye not, or know ye not, what the scripture saith
of Elijah, how he maketh intercession to go against Israel, saying,
Lord, they've killed thy prophets, they've digged down thine altars,
and I'm left alone, they seek my life, but what saith The answer
of God unto him, I've reserved to myself 7,000 men, a remnant,
who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so, now
listen to this, even so then, at this present time also, there
is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if it's by grace, then it's
no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work
is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for. Now, what was Israel seeking
for? Well, over in Romans 9, Paul tells us that Israel, the
nation, the physical nation, was seeking for righteousness
by their works. They didn't make it. Neither
would you. Neither would I. But he says,
but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Who are the election? The remnant
according to the election of grace. So that's number one about
this remnant. It's a remnant of grace. And
grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Without Christ, there is no righteousness. Without Christ, there is no forgiveness. Without Christ, there's no godly
love, no salvation. Now the second thing that you
need to remember about this remnant, this remnant of Israel, spiritual
Israel, is what we've already read. It's made up of God's elect
out of the Jews and the Gentiles. It's not restricted to one nation. It's not restricted to one race.
It's for both male and female. It's for anybody who wants it. Do you hear what I said? This
grace now, it's for anybody who wants it. Here's the problem. Nobody by
nature wants it. By nature we don't want it, we
want it our way. Old man wants salvation, he wants
blessings, he wants good, but he wants it his way. But God, this remnant, they'll
want it God's way because God changes their heart, their mind.
He convinces them of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
He convinces us that the only way that we can be saved justified,
blessed, and live forever with Him is by His grace through Christ. That brings me to the third thing
about this remnant. This remnant is any and every
sinner who believes the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
don't have to run around and wonder, am I elect? Am I chosen? Am I a remnant? Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the scripture says.
Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And here he's talking about the
end time before the second coming of Christ. And how so many will
be judged under condemnation because they love not the truth. And God sends strong delusion
as a result. But he says in verse 13 of 2
Thessalonians 2, But we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit, that's the new birth. The Spirit brings you under the
Gospel and gives you life in the new heart and belief of the
truth, whereunto He called you by our Gospel. to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The most blessed remnant is that
of the true church of the living God. And you know the word church
in the Greek means called out. And how are we called out? By
the gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, For it is the power of God and the salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, it came through
the Jews first, but to the Greek also, the Gentile also. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith, that is from knowledge
that God reveals to us, to faith, that is knowledge that we receive
by the gift of faith. For it's written, the just shall
live by faith. How many people do you know that
would call themselves Christian today who really understand that
concept of the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel? What is that righteousness? That's
the merit, the value, the worth of all the obedience unto death
performed for the people of God by Jesus Christ alone, shedding
His blood, satisfying justice and bringing forth an everlasting
righteousness, the perfection of justice for His people that
ensures that they come to faith in Christ and be preserved under
glory. That's the remnant of grace.