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Doctrine of the Remnant - Part 2
A.W. Tozer

A.W. Tozer (1897 - 1963). American pastor, author, and spiritual mentor born in La Jose, Pennsylvania. Converted to Christianity at 17 after hearing a street preacher in Akron, Ohio, he began pastoring in 1919 with the Christian and Missionary Alliance without formal theological training. He served primarily at Southside Alliance Church in Chicago (1928-1959) and later in Toronto. Tozer wrote over 40 books, including classics like "The Pursuit of God" and "The Knowledge of the Holy," emphasizing a deeper relationship with God. Self-educated, he received two honorary doctorates. Editor of Alliance Weekly from 1950, his writings and sermons challenged superficial faith, advocating holiness and simplicity. Married to Ada, they had seven children and lived modestly, never owning a car. His work remains influential, though he prioritized ministry over family life. Tozer’s passion for God’s presence shaped modern evangelical thought. His books, translated widely, continue to inspire spiritual renewal. He died of a heart attack, leaving a legacy of uncompromising devotion.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher talks about a young man who is preaching in a church. The preacher notices that the young man is using certain techniques to captivate the audience, such as smiling and using gestures. However, the preacher also questions the sincerity of the young man's preaching and wonders if he truly understands the message of God. The preacher then reflects on his own life and expresses his belief that even if he fails in his work for God, no one can take away the fact that he has dedicated his life to serving Him. The sermon emphasizes the importance of genuine faith and devotion to God, rather than relying on superficial techniques to impress others.
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In the book of Romans, the ninth chapter, verses twenty-seven and twenty-eight, Jesus Christ, which is Isaiah, also cried concerning Israel, O the number of the children of Israel, be as the sand of the sea. Only a remnant shall be saved, for you will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, for the short work will the Lord make upon the earth. Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. I began last week a two-sermon series, this was finished last night, on the doctrine of the remnant in the Bible. And it's not my intention to give an exposition of the ninth chapter of Romans, a very heavy and difficult chapter. But the twenty-seventh verse is not difficult. It says simply that regardless of how many there may be, what the population of the nation of Israel may be, only a remnant shall be saved. So, the doctrine of the remnant is a doctrine not only applying to Israel, but as I said, it applies to all mankind and to the Church. It is simply this, that in our blind, fallen, cynical world of mankind, at any given time, the vast, the overwhelming majority of the people are lost. Alienated from God, their sins untruthened, their souls unforgiven, their hearts unrenewed, even without hope and without God in the world. That's true of the majority at any given time. But somebody said, Mr. Chaucer, what is the percentage? Don't crowd me because I can't tell you. And since the Bible does not tell me, I will not try to tell you. I only know that the word remnant means a small fragment. I only know the word remnant means a surviving trace, a remnant you had a hundred dollars in your pocket, but you spend it here, you spend it there, and you spend it the other place, and you have a dollar thirty cents. A small fragment, a surviving trace of what you originally had. I don't give that as percentage. Now, that's what the doctrine teaches, and that it's true. It was true, I pointed out, among the nations. It's true in Israel, it's true when Christ came the first time. The Bible teaches it will be true when he comes back the second time. Church history shows that it has been true all down the years. That of the multitude who named his name, only a remnant, a surviving trace, a small fragment were saved. Now, I make the devil mad by saying this. The devil doesn't care how religious he's found, and he doesn't care how many people crowd his church and listen to lovely phrases. Phrases about the laughter of his children, and on and on and forth. That's what the devil doesn't care. In fact, I think the old boy likes it. But when we dare to deal with things that disturb him, then we hate this, and he hates this. And so, here's the way he works. He works to whisper to the listener, that man is a bigot. A man who would dare say that is a bigot, for a bigot is one who imagines that he and his religion is all there is, and that man is a bigot. He is strange that a bigot like that could have anybody listen to him in this day. And so, he clowns out. But I didn't originate this doctrine of the remnant, my friends. In fact, I didn't originate anything that I preach, and if you can discover anything that I originated, please for God's sake reject it out of the hand immediately, and for good because nothing that I ever originated will stand the test of the judgment day. The fires of God will burn anything I have originated in one quick flash of flame, and it's over. But this doctrine of the remnant, this teaching, that at any given time in Israel, in the church, among the nations, that is in Christendom, there are large numbers of people who name his name by the surviving trace that actually know his goodness. A small fragment that'll really know his grace. That'll make you mad, and not you, maybe, but some, and it will turn some people away. They'll go away in stinging anger and not come back, and I can't help that. But that's in the book, my friends, that's here. Now, I told you that I would talk tonight on where is that remnant? Where is the remnant? Elijah didn't know where it was in his day. There were 7,000 that hadn't bowed beneath the veil, which I showed you was about one-tenth of one percent of the people of Israel in that time, and Elijah didn't know where they were. He didn't even know where the preachers were, the prophets hidden in caves. He didn't even know they were there. They were. I don't know they were doing in caves, but maybe I do know what, and that's worth still. But, they were hiding in caves, and Elijah didn't know it. So, I don't know where the remnant is, but there we inquire where the remnant is. Now, as soon as we bring this subject up, immediately all of the half-saved, and the one-percent-saved, and the backsliders, and the borderline, and the church members, and the professors, and those who have not the witness of the Spirit to their redemption, they begin to squirm and quote scripture. And one scripture they quote is, Judge not that ye be not judged, and they say that that man stands up there, the old digger, and he judges other people's religion, and he judges me. What right has he to judge me? Does not Jesus say, Judge not that ye be not judged? And does not the Bible say that the love thinketh no evil? And if that man had love, he would not think evil about anybody. He would accept these. He would accept everything that is done in the name of the Lord, and he would not dare to say, Only a remnant shall be saved. He would accept and believe in the good religious people that go and give of their pennies, and he would believe in them. But he's not a man of love, he's not a loving man, he's a severe, harsh man. Now, my brethren, I wonder if when Jesus said, Judge not, and when Paul says, Love thinketh no evil, and when Christ said we should love one another, lay down our lives for each other, and all this that's said in the scriptures, I wonder if that was intended to end inquiry and silent rebuke. I wonder if Jesus meant when he said, Judge not that ye be not judged, that his prophets were not to go forth, his apostles and his preachers, and speak truth to the church. I wonder if he meant that they were to go forth like the three monkeys on the what-not shelf, see no evil, think no evil, hear no evil, and get the permanent smile on their faces which never will rub off till they die, and believe in everybody and everything and everyone who says, Lord, Lord, accept him into the kingdom of God, forgetting that the same Holy Ghost who said, Judge not through the lips of the Savior, said a remnant shall be saved, a small fragment, a surviving trace. Well, we have in our audience tonight a friend of mine, Dr. Elder Teitel of Columbus, a fine Christian physician whom I knew when he was a little lad in Georgetown, and I don't want him to think I've chosen this illustration because he's here for the simple reason that it's one of my favorites. But do you know what we need in the Church of Christ now? Do you know what we need? We need diagnosis, and do you know what diagnosis is? It comes from two good, hard requests, meaning to know all the way through. That's what we need in the Church of Jesus Christ, but they quote, Judge not. As soon as a man of God gets up and starts in, they say, Judge not. Well, now my illustration is this. Suppose that somebody isn't feeling up to par and goes to see a doctor. The doctor, I feel as if I had a mitten in my mouth when I get up in the morning. My head just bothers me, and I don't have the energy, and I just don't feel good. And the doctor says, All right, stick out your tongue. I said, What? He said, Put out your tongue. I said, What? He said, Put out your tongue. Well, I can't understand why you should want me to put out my tongue. Well, the doctor said, I've got to know you. I've got to know you through. I've got to diagnose you to get to know you through. He said, It's an improper thing to do, and I beg your pardon. And, All right, tell me, how is your appetite? Well, I don't see why that's any of your business. Doesn't the Bible say, Don't ask questions about people. He does not, we be not just. Love everybody, and think no evil, and don't stick your nose in other people's affairs. What do you have to ask of me about my appetite? Well, how do you sleep? The difference is you how I sleep. I came for help. Don't you love me? I came for help. I want you to help me, but don't you love me? Yes, but I want to be asleep well at night. None of your business stuff. Absolutely not. You're a terrible man. The Scripture said, Love everybody, judge nobody, love, think no evil, and love suffers a multitude of the poor. Don't you read your New Testament? Ask me how I sleep. Well, what do you eat? Well, none of your business. I want you to understand I'm no glutton. Well, let me take a look at your blood. My blood? Yes. What do you want of my blood? I want to know you. I want to know you I came for help to you. I want encouragement and inspiration. I don't want you to give up your mother. I don't give them blood. Well, but I can't know you until I get to your blood. Oh, you're terrible, and you're a radical bitch. Why should you want to know about my blood? Well, let me at least take your blood pressure. What do you know about my blood pressure? None of your business. Do you not realize that the Bible says thou shalt not judge him if you take my blood pressure. You'll be judging me. What kind of a crazy business is that? Even Satan would hold his belly and laugh in hell, and yet they demand that that's the way we preach it to their congregation. They demand that that's the way to preach it to the congregation. I want to tell you something, Matthew. We are beating the drum for revival, and we are getting thousands of people to pray into the night for revival. We might as well jump up and down on the altar of Baal and cut ourselves and cry, Baal hear us, Baal hear us. We won't submit to Moses. We won't let God find out what's wrong with us. We won't let God know what's true and true, and we won't listen to the man who tries to find out the ministers who are in need. We go to the preacher for inspiration and encouragement and confirmation in our backslidden ways, and as soon as he opens his mouth, if he prays half the night for his congregation and would give his life for it, we shut him up. I'll ram the effects in his mouth and say, don't you dare judge anybody. The man says, I'm a Christian, you've got to accept it, otherwise you might be breeding the Holy Ghost, and we shut up the mouth of the man who's trying to find out what's wrong and how we can cure it. Well, if this is true, that I am only to stand up and preach love, that I'm only to stand up here and tell you from the book of Ephesians how wonderful you are, if that's true, then all the prophets who the world began were all wrong, beginning with Enoch. Enoch who said that the Lord cometh with all his saints to take judgment on the ungodly for all the ungodly deeds they have ungodly done. It doesn't sound very much like inspiration and courage and moving on to prophecy. It sounds to me more like a little diagnosis, somebody getting into it to find out what's wrong. Well, if I don't dare do it and you won't let me do it, then all the prophets were wrong, and Christ was the greatest transgressor of all. For there was nobody that could look you through and make you feel like two cents devaluated. Nobody could do it as well as our Lord Jesus Christ could. And if that's the way it is, and all inquiry must be ended and all mute silence, then the apostles also were great sinners, and also great bigots and Pharisees. For if you don't believe it, read what Paul wrote to the Corinthians, read what he wrote to the Colossians, read what he wrote to the Galatians, read what Peter wrote to the Generals of the Christians scattered abroad, read what Jude wrote about the people that crept into the church, read what John in his first epistle and all his epistles have said, read what James said. Were these men not heard to text? Judge not that you be not judged. Sure they'd heard that text, but they knew what it meant, and these others don't. Had Paul not heard to text, love thinketh no evil when you wrote to the Galatians and said, you're circumcising yourselves, I wish you'd cut your throat? Now, understand, he didn't say that. You just read a little letter and dig around a little bit and see whether he didn't say what amounts to that. He said, I wish you'd cut yourself clear off. He said, you lovers of Jewish circumcision who are always trying to make Christians or the Pharisees, I wish you'd get clear cut off. He said, get rid of yourself, get out of the church. He was the man who wrote this text which said that love thinketh no evil, and love, love, love, he said, was the greatest thing in the world, and then he told the Galatian teachers, get out of here and cut yourself off. Well, if I'm not supposed ever to diagnose, to inquire, to search, to get at blood and take blood pressure, then I ask God to tell you that the mystics were all wrong, and the Reformers were all wrong, and Luther should have been in jail, and Phineas should have sent a pervert to in jail, and all the men who have moved the world for God all should have been in jail. Well, in this fact too, it's also impossible to obey the scriptures. If I do not, if I cannot, if I dare not exercise moral justice, if I dare not stand up and look at a thing and decide in the light of God's word whether it's right or wrong, so wrong, then I cannot obey the scriptures. The Lord has given me a commandment which I cannot obey. Be well-robed, he says, with scum and cheap clothing, dreams and loving pussycats, as the theologians say. Don't judge anybody, but accept everybody at his own fake value, and be loving as the Savior was. All right then, when the wolf comes along dressed in a sheep's fleece, what do I do? I say, good morning, sheepy, and I don't allow myself to believe that he's a wolf, even though I see his slobbering fangs. I have got to be loving and not judge him. Why, the Lord is using him. Why don't you be quiet, dear brother? I would be afraid, and you know there's nobody who can get quite so effusively lovemaking as these blind men who are afraid to face the truth. Be loving, dear brother, and they call you, and call you dear brother with their white hands. My dear brother, if I am not to be able to tell a wolf when I see him, then how am I going to keep the wolf out of the fold? Then I'm afraid to do it. He said, beware of wolves, and if I can't tell a wolf when I see one, how can I beware of that which I don't identify? Tell me. Then he says, by the proof he shall know them. Now, I go out to an old run-down gardener's orchard, and I start looking for sheep-nosed apples, the kind we used to raise out in Pennsylvania. Sheep-nosed apples. I told them to change their name, and tell them now, view house-wise, but there were sheep-nosed apples to us, and I go looking around for sheep-nosed apples, but all I can find is a crab-apple, and a corn-apple, and a sour, dried-up degenerate apple full of worms, and I go looking for sheep-nosed apples. Somebody says, what are you doing, Reverend? I'm out here judging fruit. I'm out here looking for fruit. Well, but you're not supposed to. Why? Well, I would say, judge not. And you're not supposed to judge fruit. You're not supposed to enjoy it. Why, if it isn't loving, doesn't Paul say, loving is no evil? And that you should judge not, and you shall not be judged, and you love everybody. Now, that poor crab-apple's doing the best it can, and that corn-bag there, as big as a small marble, that tries to look like an apple, that's a sheep-nose on the way up. And if you would only believe it, why, you find all the Lord loves of your things. Why should you be so hard on them? So, I got through sneaking away. I don't even dare know the difference between a great, big, gorgeous, juicy, sheep-nosed apple and a crab, because of a dual judgment. You can't obey the scriptures. The Lord's given us proof we can't obey here, but there are proofs you shall know them, and if you can't exercise moral judgment, and criticize, and discriminate, then you can't obey what you've been told to do. Since John says, "'Try the spirits, whether they are of God.' And if I can't and don't dare try the spirits, I've had people, you know, I don't scare easily. That's one strange thing. I was afraid of everything when I was a kid. Afraid of winds, afraid of dogs, afraid of everything. But in the kingdom of God, I don't scare easily, and they come to me and say, "'Now, don't push, I'd be afraid to say what you've said.'" My sister said, "'God bless her, she's a wonderful Christian.'" Mildred's a doctor. My sister Mildred's a wonderful Christian, but she sat up at my house alongside of me on a bench, and she, like all other soldiers, talks a lot, you know, and she asked me about somebody currently in the public eye, and I gave a little appraisal. And she said, "'Oh, watch it, watch what you say.'" Oh, I'd be afraid to judge. Afraid to judge when God's almighty sent me to do it. Afraid to distinguish a crabapple from a sheep's nose when God sent me to do it. Afraid to look at a wolf and say, "'You're a wolf,' when God said, "'Without the wolf.'" Afraid to try the spirits when God said, "'Try the spirits, whether they be of God.'" God isn't going to send me out to do something and then damn me for doing it. He's not going to send me out and say, "'Now, you go out and judge the truth,' and then damn me for judging truth. I approve all things and hold fast to that which is good, and if we can't exercise moral judgment, I want to know how we can know good from bad. If anyone that's called a brother commits fornication or does any of these other deeds, I adore him ere I say, "'Don't eat bread with us.'" That is, don't have communion with him at the Lord's house. Well, we say nowadays, we don't dare do a thing about this. We say, "'Dear the Lord, dear children, all mean well, and therefore don't say anything.' But Paul said we'd better say something, and all our churches have died the same way. They've died by getting infections in them that they couldn't get rid of and didn't get rid of, and pretty soon the infection flared up and destroyed their whole body. They all die the same way. Well, I think I've made my case, I've convinced myself anyhow, and I trust I have you. Where is that remnant?" Somebody says, "'You don't dare ask that question, Jesus. You don't.' There's a very small remnant that is praised even in this day. Sixty million Christians are members of church now, many Christians are American members of church. Sixty million Christians alive in the earth today. You know what would happen if there were sixty million Christians in the earth in America today? There would be a doxology that would bring the sickness down. There would be a doxology that would rise to heaven and send up such a glorious wave of music that the stars would pause to glisten. But there's no body can get me to believe that. Though there were children in the earth, there should be in numbers the sands of the sea. Small fragments shall be saved, a surviving trace that yet remains. So it was in those days, so it was in Israel down the years, so it was when Christ came the first time, so it was when he comes the second time, so has it been in church history, and so is it today. And we are where we are because we have silenced the creatures who dare to find out what's wrong with us, who dare to inquire where is the remnant or is there a remnant. So you say, then, what are we to do? And I answer, first let's beware of something. Let's beware presumptions and self-righteousness. This is the snare of all cults and the sectarians and the Pharisees. Let us beware of the spirit that says, I am right, judge yourself by me. The wonderful thing about a right man is he doesn't want to talk about it. The wonderful thing about a godly man is he doesn't know he's godless. The beautiful thing about a holy man is that he's the only one that doesn't know it. As soon as we begin to talk about how holy we are, we're not holy anymore, as we ever were. If somebody else says a man is holy, I'll listen. But if he gets up and says he is, I'll close my ear right there because I don't want the decibels to disturb the atoms inside my eardrums, because I know he's not telling the truth. A good man doesn't know he's good, and a holy man isn't aware he's holy, and a righteous man thinks he's miserable. He says, oh, I'm such a poor wretch, I love my Savior's soul, I'm a happy god, but when I think of myself, it makes me sick. So, remember, look out for presumptions. Save me, said the holy man, save me from presumptions. Save me from self-righteousness that says, stand apart, I'm holier than thou. No, no. We want this church to have a standard as high as the New Testament, but we never want anybody in this church to be so good that he can't help a drunk man up the stairs and get him seated and sit beside him and do what he'd like to do with it. We want everybody in this church to be as pure as the blood of the Lamb can make them, but we don't want a woman in this church that wouldn't be willing to help a harlot painted off the street, and help her in her hair, and try to lead her to Christ. Self-righteousness. You don't have to be self-righteous, brethren, and you don't have to be bigoted and presumptuous. What, then, is the right attitude? The right attitude is, refuse to compare yourself with anybody else. Compare yourself with Jesus. I remember hearing dear old William Jennings Bryan, when he had turned preacher. You know, he did in his old age, and was a better preacher than 99 percent of the preachers who were supposed to be preachers. I heard him preach when he was quite an old man, just a little while before he went to heaven, and he said the difference between evolutionists and our Christian is this. He said an evolutionist goes out Sunday morning to the zoo, stands in front of the crazed Jesus monkey, and congratulates himself upon how far he has sprung from the days that he taught. But he said a Christian goes to church Sunday morning, and sits wherever he can, listening to the preacher preach, and looks up and bemoans how far he has to go yet before he's heaven-fostered. And if you could have heard him say it, although it's old and toned, it was beautiful to hear. But this is the point. The man who belongs to the remnant isn't asking if he does, and he isn't inquiring. He is hoping and believing and trusting and seeking and longing, and he's comparing himself not with somebody else, but with the Savior. Compare yourself with somebody else, and you'll be proud as Lucifer. Compare yourself with Jesus, and you'll be as meek as Moses. So, the thing to do is not to look for the remnant. The thing to do is to beware presumption and self-righteousness, and to compare yourself only with Jesus. And then when you've done that, say, I am an unprofitable servant. When I was younger, the Ecclesiastical Bible was my alma mater, you know, and I got my degree there, my theology, and I still like it in terms of it all, although I don't think all the notes I'm taught in the same sentence text is taught. That shocks some people, but it's still true. But when I was busy with Pittsburgh, I was seriously wondering about when I became mayor of five cities, and I could preach on the five crowns of the Christian, right out of the note. Five crowns of the Christian. Crown of life, crown of righteousness, crown of the children that love the crown. And I remembered about the fight, rule over five cities. Well, I don't speak rightly. Somebody's going to rule over five cities, but now I know not who it will be, but I know who it won't be. It won't be I. I remember when I actually believed that I would have a starry crown. We used to sing far, far away beyond the starry sky, and about the crown we would wear. I hope so, but I don't know. That I am saved, I know. That I live in the heart of God, I know. That I walk with the Savior, I know. That I wake in the night and say, Holy, holy, holy Lord God, all night and fall back to sleep, I know. That I carry a hymn book in the Bible everywhere I go, that I know. And that the Lord is literally, literally becoming nearer and dearer as the years go by, I know. That I am his child, I know. That my name is in the Lamb's book of life, I know. But further than that, don't push me, because I don't think that I'm going to have much of a crown. In fact, I've had an understanding with God about that, and if he surprises me by giving me a little crown, I'll be the happiest man on the holy plain, because I don't expect it. I've been too mean, I've been too sinful, wasted too much time, been too lazy, too cowardly, too everything for a man to have a crown. So, I'm not expecting, and I'm not trying to be humble, so you'll go away and say, Oh, Moose Christ, that dear, humble man, brother, there isn't a humble Adam in my body. The old Adam made me as proud as hell, and it's only the cross of Christ that can save me from the effect of it. I'm only just testifying, and I've got a right to do that. And tell you that I don't expect much of a reward. No, I like to have understandings with God. I go to God and have understandings with him. I go to God and talk it over, and settle things, and say, Now, God, where was I? I think on the train. I like to take a roommate that costs a little, but it makes an office for me, and I've got no work. So, I shut the door and get down and carry an old pair of training pants, get down on my knees, shave my tooth, and I get down there and lie for hours and hours. My Bible opens, and I told God something the other day that I just like to pass on. I said, God, I know where I belong. I belong in hell. I know. I know. I belong in hell. So, God, I want to tell you something. If I go to hell, you'll have one man in hell. If I go to hell, you'll have one man there singing your praises. If I go there, you'll have one man that won't keep his mouth shut, but will run all around over that dark place, telling how good God is, and how wonderful is the blood of the Lamb. And I had another understanding with God. And it is this, that if I have, in my life, failed so completely as a Christian, that I'll have no reward for what I've done. There's one thing not even God can take away from me. The boys that write in and say, Brother, I went to a new Bible institute, I was going to Northern Baptist, I went to this and that seminary, or I was there with the government, I went to your church. Oh, how God enlightened my heart. Nobody can take that away. Satan can't rob me of that. Don't suppose that'll be a reward enough. Won't it be a reward enough to see somebody there? Is there because you live? I think that'll be a crown, and that's nobody can take away from me. Under no circumstances can I rob you of that. And I get letters as I do, saying, Oh Brother, I just read something, you know how God has blessed me. Nobody can take that away. If you've prayed and God's answered the prayer, you've given a dollar to God, you've worked in some source and paid. If you've, if you've taken a bold truth in the name of Jesus, nobody can take that from you. But the point is, you're going to have to come to Him in meekness and humility, and not say, I am holy, stand thou aside. But say, Lord God, I trust that by thy grace and the power of the blood of the everlasting covenant, I may have some little reward there. But I'm an unprofitable servant. Now, I want to show that by telling you this, it is my opinion, I believe it more than an opinion, I believe it's insight. Evangelical Christianity as we know it today, Gospel Christianity as we know it today, is almost as far from God as liberty. Its nominal creed is biblical, but its orientation is worldly. The modern evangelicals, the holiness people, the Pentecostal people, the Bible people, the Bible-loving people, the blind people, we who claim to be evangelical and traditional in our Christian faith, our orientation is toward the big businessmen. You know, Jesus never got along with any big businessmen in his day, and we view them as our mother. Our orientation is around the banquet hall. Where did I hear that a certain church has a 6.30 supper every Wednesday night? Then they hurry through their meal, and at 8 o'clock they have a prayer meeting, and the 6.30 supper has a mob, and the 8.30 prayer meeting has a pitiful handful. People love to eat, and the evangelical church's orientation is around children's share. Well, I can always tell, and I smile to myself and pray that God will awaken my spirit. When I hear a young man leap to the platform, as I do in these schools where I go and can't even complete it, I know where he's been. I know where he's been brought up. He leaps up just vibrantly. He's been home teaching, and he's an emcee. He learned that from Stephen. He knows how to do it. He smiles that green smile that he puts on his paddles, and he drags that damnable thing into the church, and leaps up and mounts the meeting. Now, Jim Smith, Mabel Kershnicker did, and Harry Jones, who's in that photo, all right, did. I know where he's been, and I think I know where he's been. Mike Smith? No letter, no aloes, no cashier, no fragrance of heaven, do you know? I smile. I know where he's been. His orientation is TV and movies, but he's got a Bible as big as a cedar chest under his arm, and he carries it down the road and says, I'm preaching a sermon of five blocks long, carrying my Bible five blocks. When he upsets the sermon, as soon as he arrives at church, by acting like a whore, and we're orientated to play and to respect this person. Respect this person. It's big week. Religious big week. I don't know whether there's too much difference between the princes of the old church. Princes. God bless you, old faggots. Princes. I don't know whether there's too much difference between those old bachelor princes that wear all that mess of finery, and a lot of this big shoddism that we got in the church of Christ today. You know, James said, if anybody comes into your church and he doesn't have on a nice robe, don't tuck him behind the pulpit somewhere and get him out of sight. Said some brother comes shooting him, going down the aisle of Eustis, put a letter calling for an office boy to come and get this, and phoning somebody to go do that, and carry that thing to church with him. And the pastors, the poor little knights, they accept him in his own value. Could I tell this old man again? Peter Cargill, first before, and he was preaching, and Stonewall Jackson came in, leaned against the tent pole, and the little seminary preacher who was there, Peter, Peter, brother Peter, watch what you say, Stonewall Jackson, he said in a big boomy voice, who's Stonewall Jackson? He's under the tent, gobbled, done him just as quickly as he woke up, pop and pop, and went on to his sermon. And after it was over, the little seminary preacher said, oh my old brother Peter, you'll be worthless tomorrow morning. He said, that's an awful man, that man Stonewall Jackson, he's terrible, he's a general, he'll be worthless. Well, the next day, the big old square-shouldered Peter, going down the street, and saw the general. The general said, well, you know, I heard your sermon yesterday. Peter braced himself, said, put her here. He said, if I had a hundred generals who had your courage, I'd soon win this war. But we're a mountain, and a chimney, and when a big guy swaggers down the aisle, it'll pick a leaf and salute us. I've got a word for you. There isn't a man in Chicago high enough in society, or deep enough in debt, or owning enough property, or having enough bank accounts, or able to write a big enough check to shut my little old mouth. Not one. And he may be a prince of this, or a cardinal of that, or a bishop of the other. He may be the uncrowned kubar of fundamentalism, or the self-appointed, without portfolio, and back-the-door of modern-day government. But I'll preach what God wants me to preach. Amen. Now I'm about done, and I guess it's about time. But what is our job? What is our job? What is our job? Well, it's to seek to become a part of the remnant. It is not to judge unkindly. It is not to withdraw in self-righteous pride. It is not to be unloving. But it is to seek to become a part of the remnant. A remnant, shall we say, is to seek to become by returning to New Testament living. You see, a Christian is one who lives according to the New Testament. It's a return to New Testament living. In the Book of Romans, the ninth chapter, verses 27 and 28, Jesus, which is Isaiah, also cried concerning Israel. So, the number of the children of Israel, he is the sand of the sea. Only a remnant shall be saved. You will preach the work being cut short in righteousness, for the short work will the Lord make upon the earth. So, the number of the children of Israel, he is the sand of the sea. A remnant shall be saved. I began last week a two-sermon series on the doctrine of the remnant in the Bible, and it's not my intention to give an exposition of the ninth chapter of Romans, a very heavy and difficult chapter. But, the 27th verse is not difficult. It says simply that, regardless of how many there may be, what the population of the nation of Israel may be, only a remnant shall be saved. So, the doctrine of the remnant is a doctrine not only applying to Israel, but as I said, it applies to all mankind and to the Church. It is simply this, that in our blind, fallen, cynical world of mankind, at any given time, the vast, the overwhelming majority of the people are lost, alienated from God, their sins untruthened, their souls unforgiven, their hearts unrenewed, even without hope and without God in the world. That's true of the majority at any given time. But, somebody said, Mr. Joseph, what is the percentage? Don't
Doctrine of the Remnant - Part 2
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A.W. Tozer (1897 - 1963). American pastor, author, and spiritual mentor born in La Jose, Pennsylvania. Converted to Christianity at 17 after hearing a street preacher in Akron, Ohio, he began pastoring in 1919 with the Christian and Missionary Alliance without formal theological training. He served primarily at Southside Alliance Church in Chicago (1928-1959) and later in Toronto. Tozer wrote over 40 books, including classics like "The Pursuit of God" and "The Knowledge of the Holy," emphasizing a deeper relationship with God. Self-educated, he received two honorary doctorates. Editor of Alliance Weekly from 1950, his writings and sermons challenged superficial faith, advocating holiness and simplicity. Married to Ada, they had seven children and lived modestly, never owning a car. His work remains influential, though he prioritized ministry over family life. Tozer’s passion for God’s presence shaped modern evangelical thought. His books, translated widely, continue to inspire spiritual renewal. He died of a heart attack, leaving a legacy of uncompromising devotion.