THE REMNANT

THE REMNANT

                “And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF TEHSONS OF ISRAEL BE AS THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED; FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD UPON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY.” And just as Isaiah foretold, “EXCEPT THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY WE WOULD HAVE BECOME AS SODOM AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH. What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law, Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the STUMBLING STONE, JUST AS IT IS WRITTEN, “BEHOLD I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

                First of all I want to clear up one term given in the text above. It is the word “Sabaoth.” It looks and sounds a lot like “Sabbath,”, but in fact it means something quite different. It comes from the Hebrew word “tsebha’oth meaning “hosts” or “armies.”

                So here we see Jesus as the leader of heaven’s hosts, or heaven’s armies. We don’t often think of armies in heaven in spite of the fact that the Lord is often described as the Lord of Hosts and sometimes as the Lord of heaven’s armies. We tend to let it pass by that there was war in heaven when the hosts or armies of heaven led by Michael, kicked Satan and his followers out and cast them to the earth.

                But by using this word “Sabaoth”, God sends a clear message through Isaiah that heaven’s armies stood ready and if it hadn’t been for the “Posterity” or the Remnant, Israel would have been dealt with like Sodom and Gomorrah.

                These thoughts crossed my mind a couple of days ago as I watched that interview with a Jewish man in front of the dedication of the altar. There he stated emphatically that the Messiah is coming. He will be a Jew, but he will not be Jesus.

                Friends, Israel is heading into a very precarious situation. First of all as it pertains to the building of the temple and the ensuing ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION that Jesus says will happen there, this acceptance of the antichrist in the place of Jesus Christ, represents the second national rejection of Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

                So let’s make it clear that heaven’s armies stand ready for God’s command and Israel is in a particularly dangerous position because in Revelation 11:8, in direct connection with the building of the third temple and the killing of the Two Witnesses, Israel  is cryptically called “Sodom and Egypt.

                We know that today Israel is rife with two of the sins that God calls “Abominations.” One is the obvious sin of sodomy, and the other is the abomination of killing the innocent or the unborn as if offering them on the arms of Moloch.

                And believe me; the powers behind the scenes that promote abortion do so as a blood sacrifice to their demonic deities and so America stands ready for the judgment of heaven’s armies just as Israel does.

                The “Day of the Lord” as it is spoken of throughout Scripture, represents a time at the end of earth’s history, where all accounts will be settled and heaven’s armies will indeed bring God’s wrath down upon all who have not repented and turned to their only Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

                So, as always, Israel is only symbolic of the precarious position that we are all in. God uses Israel as a physical demonstration of the coming judgment upon the nations as we come face to face with our corporate and national sins.

                There is only one way out of the coming global conflagration that will destroy the earth and that is to repent… to die to the kingdom of this world and to be born again into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

                We take going to church so casually, picking and choosing big churches for their comfort, their entertainment factor and their departure from sound doctrine and prophecy and warnings of judgment. Do we really know what we are doing? Do we not know that we must become a part of a faithful Remnant, whether we are a Jew or a Gentile? Do we not realize that we are in the last few precious moments of our freedom… our last opportunity to bone up on what is happening, before the sudden imposition of a godless, lawless global government descends upon us?

                We have turned heaven’s armies into elves that bring us presents from a big Santa God and we have lost sight of the Lord of Sabaoth. We don’t want to talk about that God, for He doesn’t make for abundant church growth. He doesn’t leave us sitting in our comfort zone. He is the God of heaven’s angel armies and He stands ready to execute judgment upon the rebellion.

                 God warns us through Paul that among the signs that must happen before His return, there is a great apostasy or falling away from the faith once delivered to the saints.2 Thess. 2:3, 4

                I believe that we are seeing that very apostasy or falling away taking place right now. Droves of so called Christians are leaving their small churches where truth was once taught and they are flooding to the mega churches, which in turn are reaching across the gulf to Rome to join Pope Francis in his bid to form a global religion.

                All of this, in coordination with the Mekodeshet (reconciliation) that took place in Israel as all religions came in solidarity to Israel to make peace, tells us that this falling away coincides directly with the building of the third temple and it shows that the world is preparing to wonder after the Beast just as described in Revelation 13.

                But Israel has a remnant that will not bow to the coming antichrist and the church has a remnant that will not bow to this monster or take his Mark.

                We have two different concepts of the coming harvest:

1.       One is that described by Joel, where the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh so that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. In this scenario, we presume that millions upon millions of people will come to the Lord during the final harvest as if almost the entire world is saved.

2.       The second scenario is very different as it show3s us a remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. This group believes in and obeys the entire Bible, and they are Holy Spirit filled and they are being formed into the very image of Christ. (Romans 8:29, Eph. 4:13) They are the wise virgins in Jesus parable… and here we need to understand. The ten virgins are all believers. They are waiting for the Lord’s return. All ten of them fall asleep while waiting, but when the Bridegroom finally comes and they are awakened, only half of them have oil and only half of them are allowed into the marriage feast.

3.       Whatever this means exactly, we do not fully know, but it tells us that about half of those who call themselves Christians actually have the oil and those who don’t have the oil will not make it into the marriage supper of the Lamb. Should this not give us pause? Should this not cause us to search the scriptures and to eagerly seek the infilling and baptism of the Holy Spirit?

                The Holy Spirit is the active presence of Christ sent into the hearts of every person who is born again. IN fact it is the Holy Spirit that makes the new birth possible as HE applies the death of Christ to us and then the resurrection power of Christ to us so that we exit Satan’s kingdom and enter Christ’s kingdom by the power of His resurrection. It is the Holy Spirit coming into us that empowers our new birth and makes us citizens of Christ’s kingdom.

                It is also the Holy Spirit that makes God’s Word” living and active and sharper than any two edged sword.” This is how it is that intellectual scholars can study the Bible and know every detail and talk circles around us with their technical knowledge and yet not be transformed into the image of Christ or even be saved. Salvation is much more than an intellectual collection of facts and doctrines.

                Salvation comes as an act of repentance when we come to the end of ourselves, including our intellect. We humble ourselves before Almighty God, we die to all that we are and we humbly receive into ourselves all that He is and then we live as temples of His Holy Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the flesh and choosing moment by moment to live by His Spirit and His Truth.

                At this level there is no quibbling over doctrine. AS Paul found out and said: “…we are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. And then he went on to say: “Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh… and then he goes on to list his credentials:

                He describes being born a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the 8^th day, a Hebrew of Hebrews and as to the Law, blameless. “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,        and may be found in Him, not having  a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to his death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”  Phil. 3:3-11.

                Christians who are intellect oriented, who place their confidence in the Law and the doctrines and the works of the flesh, have a very hard time falling into the arms of Jesus. Often times their intellectual ego stands between them and receiving the Holy Spirit. They find it almost impossible to transfer their confidence in their doctrine and their intellect in order to place their full faith in Jesus, His death and resurrection and His subsequent outpouring of His Holy Spirit as it manifested on the day of Pentecost. It is pride that won’t allow us to die to self. It is stubborn pride that prevents us from letting go of the rubbish of our intellectual knowledge in favor of the surpassing righteousness of Jesus Christ.

                But as we look to the Jews today in Jerusalem as they prepare to receive the antichrist in preference to Jesus, we see ourselves  and we have to ask ourselves” What am I allowing to stand between me and Jesus? What things remain more important to me than death to self and a new life in Christ? What doctrines do I cling to as my hope in the place of the living Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ? What Law do I place my faith in that makes me think that I am a remnant person?

                Even as the Jews believe that they are God’s remnant people on this earth, they are embracing an imposter. They are embracing the agenda of the New World order and their beast kingdom, simply because Jesus Christ is a stumbling block to them. He is the one Rock over which they are unwilling to fall and be broken.

                In this we should not judge the Jews, but rather we should look to ourselves and ask ourselves the same question: Have I fallen on the Rock and been broken?  Do I trust in my own credentials for salvation?  Is my temple a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit or a library of intellectual facts to which I cling?

                All of us, Jew and Gentile alike, stand on the brink of eternity. We all have the same choices to make. Satan is forming a global government as predicted in Scripture. He is building a kingdom in rebellion against Jesus Christ. We are told that he will require a mark on every citizen by which he may track and control the buying and selling of every person on the planet. Everything, including the technology is in place. Israel stands poised to build the antichrist temple. The globalists stand ready to enforce their global beast government. Even nature stands ready with turbulence and upheavals and mass animal and fish deaths and wildly erratic weather, earthquakes and volcanoes. Laws are being passed left and right that are removing our blood bought freedoms… do you know what time is? Is your lamp filled with oil? Are you ready to meet the Bridegroom when He comes?

                “Therefore also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:9-13.

                “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves…”2 Cor. 4:7