March 15

GOD'S PRESERVED REMNANT
by Ray Prinzing

"A remnant shall be saved: for He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth."                    (Romans 9:27-28).

It is in contra-distinction to the trend in the religious systems of our day, to emphasize firstfruits, or a REMNANT truth.  Man is interested in numbers, mergers, ecumenical greatness.  God is interested in a remnant that are drawn out of this world, made partakers of His divine nature, conformed to His image, to become the firstfruits of a new creation species.  Thus, while the world has made "size and noise" their standards for greatness, God has made quality, not quantity, and a silent, hidden work, His present priority.

God would have Gideon lead some men against the Midianites, to deliver His people from their oppression, and when thirty-two thousand responded to the call to battle, God whittled his army down to three hundred men, so that Israel could not boast in themselves as having gained the victory, but they would know that it was GOD in the few that brought deliverance.

Jesus surveyed the multitudes that followed Him for the loaves and fishes, and promptly scattered them by uttering some hard sayings which they could not receive nor digest.  Finally, when they were leaving in a mass exodus, He asked His disciples,  "Will ye also go away?" and Peter answered, "Lord, to whom should we go, Thou hast the words of eternal life." (John 6:68).

Vance Havner once stated, "From Noah to now, God has dealt in remnants.  He is not converting society, but taking out a people for His name, to this present time.  Our Lord had compassion on the multitudes, but He never counted multitudes, nor relied on them. We have paid an awful price for statistics.  It is now imperative that we have a core, just a nucleus who will mean business for God."

This is the harmony with the laws of God's working.  World-wide movements where multitudes are to be gathered in is not in harmony with the laws of growth as shown in the grain of wheat, the little flock, the remnant calling.  But the victory for all lies within the firstfruits of His new order.