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The
remnant
If
you remember, last week’s topic was the apostasy. We
studied about how a large portion of the people of God
has consciously moved away from His truth, by choosing
to follow popular or beneficial doctrines, and not the
Word of God. We also saw how another large portion of
the people of God has unconsciously moved away from His
truth, by accepting and making themselves participants
in all those doctrines that only serve to drive a wedge
between God and man. Why do I say this? I say this
because it doesn’t matter how beautiful something may
appear to be, or how eloquently it is expressed, if
God’s truth is not being declared, then everything else
is absolutely worthless. As I stated, a large portion
of the people of God has moved away from Him in one way
or another, and it is for this same reason that I stated
that if the things continue like they are, when our Lord
returns for His church, the number of true believers
will be but a few. It is exactly for this reason that
today I want us to learn about what the Lord is doing
and will do regarding all of these things, and what the
reward will be for all who keep the faith. Let’s now
turn to the Word of God.
Jeremiah 23:1-5
- Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter
the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. 2Therefore
thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors
that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and
driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I
will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the
LORD. 3And I will gather the remnant of my
flock out of all countries whither I have driven them,
and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall
be fruitful and increase. 4And I will set up
shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they
shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they
be lacking, saith the LORD. 5Behold, the days
come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a
righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper,
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
As I
always say, in order to reach a better understanding of
the message that God has intended for us today, it will
be necessary to conduct a brief review of history. With
this in mind, let’s get to know this man called Jeremiah
a little better. Jeremiah was born during very
difficult times; it was a time when apostasy, idolatry,
and the pagan rituals flourished in the people of God,
and God’s patience was being drained. This is something
that is very well reflected in
Jeremiah 17:1-4 when we read “The sin of Judah
is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a
diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and
upon the horns of your altars; 2Whilst their
children remember their altars and their groves by the
green trees upon the high hills. 3O my
mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all
thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin,
throughout all thy borders. 4And thou, even
thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I
gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies
in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled
a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.”
Jeremiah ministered to this people for a period of over
40 years, and the messages that he was delivering were
not all popular or encouraging. Look carefully at how
this is very well reflected in
Jeremiah 21:9-10 when we read “He that abideth
in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine,
and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and
falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall
live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey. 10For
I have set my face against this city for evil, and not
for good, saith the LORD: it shall be given into the
hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with
fire.” In this particular point in history, Judeah
was under siege. Judeah found itself completely
surrounded by the Babylonian army. This means that all
trade routes were completely cut off, the food supply
was quickly diminishing, and as if all of this was not
enough, here we have this prophet preaching what appears
to be a message on condemnation. But was he really
preaching a message of condemnation? If we look at the
circumstances with our fleshly eyes, we will quickly
decide that the message was indeed a message of
condemnation. However, if we look at it a bit closer,
and we see it through our spiritual eyes, we quickly
realize that he was not preaching a message of
condemnation; he in fact was preaching God’s truth.
This is something that is very well reflected in
Jeremiah 1:4-8 when we
read “Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
5Before I formed thee in the belly I knew
thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I
sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the
nations. 6Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold,
I cannot speak: for I am a child. 7But the
LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt
go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I
command thee thou shalt speak. 8Be not afraid
of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee,
saith the LORD.”
Why
do we need to know all of these things? These things
are necessary to know so that we can be aware of the
conditions and circumstances that existed at that time.
We must be aware of these things so that we will realize
that the messages that we receive will not always be the
most popular or the best accepted. This was certainly
the truth in this case, looking at it strictly from a
human point of view; Jeremiah’s message was not
encouraging at all, and definitively not very popular.
But the human point of view did not stop this servant of
God; nothing could stop or frighten him because he knew
God was on his side. Keeping all of this in mind, let’s
know continue with our study today.
As I
stated in the beginning, in this small portion of the
scriptures we find three very important points. First,
we find what the Lord will do when it comes to all of
those that are in charge of distancing people from God.
Second, we find what the Lord is doing with His people.
Third, we find the reward that all of those that remain
faithful will receive. Let’s examine now these three
points.
First, what the Lord will do when it comes to all of
those that are causing a separation between God and
man. In the verses that we are studying today we read “Woe
be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep
of my pasture! saith the LORD. 2Therefore
thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors
that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and
driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I
will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the
LORD.” Without a
doubt these verses here speak to every pastor and leader
within the body of Christ. As we all know the pastors
and the leaders are in charge of leading people toward
God’s will. The pastors and leaders are directly
responsible for guiding people to lead a holy life.
Unfortunately, there are a very large number of so
called pastors and leaders within the body of Christ
that lack this conviction. Unfortunately, now a day we
see how a large number of pastors and leaders stop
declaring God’s truth in fear of the consequences.
There are a large number of pastors and leaders that
have stopped preaching and teaching God’s truth because
oftentimes, God’s truth hurts. Brethren, the reality of
it all is that in the majority of times, God’s truth is
very difficult to accept. A great reality is that God’s
truth will cause adversity in our daily life. Why do I
say this? I say it because preaching God’s truth can
cause, and at times has been the cause of a large
congregation diminishing to almost nothing. This of
course, will bring great adversity to the life of the
pastor and leaders; I say this because after all, how
can a church keep its doors open without the support of
its members? And it is for this exact reason that many
abandon God’s truth and adopt doctrines and methods
developed by men, because those will allow them to
maintain a large group or a numerous congregation. For
this same reason many just pretend not to see the sin
that exists in their congregation. But I will have you
know that this way of thinking and reasoning is not
inspired by God. This way of thinking and reasoning
comes only from thinking that what you can have and what
you can lose depends on us. This way of thinking and
reasoning comes when we think that we are the
proprietors of the congregation, but the reality of it
all is that no pastor or leader owns any congregation.
Look carefully how the Lord said this here when we read
“Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away.”
The key words here are MY FLOCK. The problem is that
unless we take care of what the Lord sends us, if
instead of leading people toward His will they are led
toward false doctrines and norms established by men, for
the commodity and benefit of men, then in a very direct
form His flock is being scattered and driven away. And
for all of those responsible for doing this, God has one
word, Woe!!! Tell the person next to you, Woe!! As the
Word tells us in Hebrews
10:30-31
“For we know him that hath said Vengeance belongeth
unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again,
The Lord shall judge his people. 31It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Second, what the Lord is doing with His people. In the
verses that we are studying today we read “And
I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all
countries whither I have driven them, and will bring
them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful
and increase. 4And I will set up shepherds
over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no
more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking,
saith the LORD.”
As I said a brief moment ago, the number of people in a
congregation should never be the principal objective of
any pastor or leader in a congregation. The main
objective must be the salvation of the souls. In these
verses here we see a key word that allows us to
understand what the Lord is doing today. The word is “remnant.”
But what does this mean? According to the
Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word remnant is defined
as “a: a usually small part, member, or trace
remaining. b: a small surviving group -- often used in
plural.” Therefore, as we can see, by definition of the
word, the remnant can never be larger than the whole.
To get a better understanding of what I am saying let’s
look at what the Word tells us in
Romans 9:27-28 when we
read “Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though
the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of
the sea, a remnant shall be saved: 28For he
will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness:
because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.”
In other words, through the messages that call us to
reflect and repent, God is gathering what is truly His.
I firmly believe that we are not here by coincidence; we
are here because the almighty God wanted us to be here
today. How can I say this so confidently? I can say it
so confidently because the truth of the matter is that
none of us would be here today, if He had not allowed
His word to reach us. Look carefully at how this is
very well reflected in Acts
16:6-7 when we read “Now when they had gone
throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were
forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
7After they were come to Mysia, they assayed
to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.”
The key words here are “the Spirit suffered them not.”
In other words the Holy Spirit did not allow them. I
think that this without a doubt lets us clearly know
that nothing happens but for the will of God. We are
not gathered here by coincidence, we are gathered here
because God wanted it this way. The Holy Spirit was the
one that guided us to this place and is the one
responsible for guiding us to where we need to be. It
is like the Word tells us in
Ezekiel 34:11 when we read “For thus saith the
Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep,
and seek them out.” The Lord has recognized us
individually, and is guiding us to where we will best
serve Him. The Lord will guide us to the place where we
will receive blessings. Tell the person next to you,
God guided you.
Third, the reward for all of those that remains
faithful. Here we see that the Word tells us “Behold,
the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto
David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and
prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the
earth.” This is
something that if we just read very briefly, then we
will miss the true meaning. I say this because this
prophecy has been fulfilled. To grasp the full meaning
of what is being said here, we must look at the meaning
of the word “Branch.” This word is translated from the
Hebrew word “tsemach” which means “a) sprouting, growth,
sprout. b) growth (of process). c) Sprout, shoot (of
Messiah from Davidic tree).” Therefore, with this
definition in mind we can clearly see that here the
prophet is not talking about just any normal person.
There can be no doubt that the prophet here is talking
about Jesus Christ. How can I say this with such
conviction? I can say it because for one, Jesus was
David’s descendant. This is something that is stated
very clearly in His genealogy as we find in
Matthew 1:1
when we read “The book of the generation of Jesus
Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
Secondly, Jesus is the only completely just person that
has existed, and that still reigns, and will reign
forever. Christ said it this way in
Revelations 1:8
when we read “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and
which is to come, the Almighty.” Tell the person
next to you, Christ rules. The reward for every person
that stays faithful to God is that Christ will reign in
his life. The reward will be that Christ will be the
one guiding his steps, and will be the one assisting him
in reaching those decisions. The reward will be that
Christ will be the one watching over them, and will be
providing the best that may exist. Look carefully at
what Psalms 23:1-2
tells us “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.” As I have
stated before, we may not always get what we want or
what we think we deserve, but we can be sure of one
thing, and that is that we will get what we need. God
sent His only begotten son so that He would be our just
king, but the reality of it all is that we will never be
able to serve our King if first we don’t live in His
kingdom. The reality is that we can never say that we
serve Him, if He is not the center of everything that we
are, say, and do. Jesus best said it in
John 14:23-24
when we read “Jesus answered and said unto him, if a
man loves me, he will keep my words: and my Father will
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode
with him. 24He that loveth me not keepeth not
my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but
the Father's which sent me.”
In
conclusion. In the verses that we have studied
today we saw that Judea was under siege by the
Babylonian army, and that due to the disobedience and
rebellious nature of these people, God would allow them
to be captured and handed over into slavery. Now as
pastors, leaders and believers we must ask ourselves, is
God talking to me today? Let’s never forget that the
Lord calls us to listen to His voice and to separate
ourselves from this world. This that we do will not be
in vain, we shall have our reward. Look at what the
Lord tells us today in Mark
13:13 when we read “And ye shall be hated of
all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure
unto the end, the same shall be saved.” God is
speaking to us today; God is calling us to listen to His
voice and to be obedient to His Word. God wants us all
to draw near Him, and to keep His holy truth, but He
will not force you to do it. The scriptures tell us in
Isaiah 55:7 when we read
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and
he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will
abundantly pardon.” There are a very large number
of people completely lost in this world because they do
not know Christ, but there are also a very large number
of people in this world that even though they know Him,
they remain lost. Lost in false doctrines, and dragged
away by the evil current that is sweeping this world.
But there is a small group that no matter what happens;
they will remain faithful to God. Now the question you
must ask yourself is, to what group do I belong? Never
forget the words of our Lord in
Luke 12:32 when we read “Fear not, little
flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you
the kingdom.”
© Jose R. Hernandez |
Christian
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