A lame man had faith and he stood, leaped, and walked. There are the few out there who must be reached. We know God and we are known by Him. We are a remnant, a few, members of a small group who abides faithful. Let tell the Truth. Some do not turn their heart to Him. (Romans 11:2-6; Song of Solomon 1:13; Job 23:14; Acts 14:8-14; Exodus 7:23)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12376
7:00 PM on 9/21/2022

Here are my unofficial notes of this service: Does anybody know what
Abba means? Andrew, do you know what it means? Daddy. In Aramaic, right. Great to be here
tonight and Cheryl what a good word [testimony]. You should have kept preaching, right? That
was so edifying. So good. Praise the Lord. Wow. Would you like to stand with me for a moment
and just ask your neighbor this question, have you ever talked to anybody about Jesus before?
Go ahead. Ask your neighbor. Have you ever talked to anybody about Jesus? Okay, you may be
seated.

Just for a short message tonight, Romans 11. Turn there and we have a text. We are going to look
at Pharaoh tonight for a few minutes and speak about what this text is saying in Romans 11. That
Elijah thought he was alone in vs. 2. Romans 11:2, he felt he was all by himself. (Prayer). Vs. 3.
Sometimes we feel we are the minority, and actually we are. Maybe we are. Elijah felt that way.
We are the minority. Not simply being a believer but trusting in God day by day, walking in the
Spirit of God. We might feel like people say they are old-fashioned or they might say you are
this or that. And so, we live in a world that is similar to Elijah’s experience which was I am
alone. That is in vs. 3. I am left alone. What do you think? Do you feel that way sometimes?
When we look around, we kind of maybe – we have real convictions in our hearts about life and
about who is God and we love God.

Song of Solomon 1, let me read vs. 13. A bundle of myrrh like sweet frankincense, a fragrance
that you smell between your breasts here on your chest next to your heart. God is next to your
heart. John at the Last Supper was leaning on the breast of Jesus as you remember. And do you
have that in you life and do I have that? I love him. He loves me. I own him.
You know, the women sometimes wear the jewelry around their neck and they have a picture
in one of those little – what are they called? Lockets. A picture of a child, a baby, a friend, a
relative. So, we carry it inside in our heart and then on the outside we have the Word of God
around our neck. We read that in Proverbs 6:21-22. Jesus is sweet to us. We love Jesus. Jesus
speaks to us. We own him and he owns us. He is even near us even in our heart and in our
mouth. Bind the Word around your neck. Put it on the back of your hand. Whatever you do,
you see it, and how you live is a unique life of faith.

How did it start? We’ll look at that in a minute but just to take a moment on this verse. Can we
do it again? Song of Solomon 1:13, I remember Jacob blessing Benjamin and he said God shall dwell – my son
Benjamin, you are blessed. God shall dwell between your shoulders. God shall dwell between
your shoulders. And there are two things between, my heart and my head. God dwells there.
How good that is. What it means to us to have the Holy Spirit make him real for us that we
actually know God. That’s an honor that we know God.

How many know the bridge, the Francis Scott Key Bridge? How many know that bridge? Are
you sure you know the bridge? Are you sure about it? How many know your house? You’ve been in your house. You know your house pretty well. How many know your dog? You know
your dog. Some of you know the dog better than the bridge. How easy it is to know simple
things but the more complicated things are the more difficult to know them. And what’s the
greatest mystery of everything in the universe is God and secondly man. People don’t even
know – we don’t even know each other except by this great work that God promised us that the
Holy Spirit would come in us. If any man love God, the same is known of him, 1 Corinthians 8:3. We
know each other. What a blessing. We know Jesus. He’s right here between our breasts. He’s
right here in our hearts. We know Jesus. We know the Spirit of Jesus. We know each other
even. We know each other. Wow.

So, Elijah had a feeling in his heart that he was alone. Go back to Romans 11:4. I think I just said in
the last five minutes a lot. That if we slowed down and the Spirit maybe wants to say something
to you about this that you are known by God, that you know God, and that we know each
other. Wow! People know their dogs but they might not know their wife or their son or their
friend. Left to ourselves, what do we know?

When we have the Spirit of God and even Christ was surprised when they said show us the
father. He said have I been with you so long and you don’t know if you know me, you know the
father. That’s a little bit of an idea of what we are talking about here. How good it is. How good
it is.

How precious it is to have prayer and the Spirit minister to you. To read the Bible and to have
the Spirit talk to you like Job. To go through a trial and trust God. Though he slay me. Though he
slay me, yet I will trust him. Job 13:15. Isn’t it good? He knows the path that I will take and
when I come forth, I shall be as pure as gold, Job 23:14. How good it is to be known by God.
God knows you. He knows your down sitting and your uprising. He knows your thought afar off.
The word on your tongue before you speak it. God is everywhere. He knows all things and most
of all, halleluiah, he knows you. I don’t want to leave that point. It is so good I think. It is.
Go to Romans 11:4. Like when he said I’m all alone. I don’t have any fellowship. There’s not
another prophet in Israel that I know that is like me that has the Word of God and lives in faith
and can pray and stop it to rain. I don’t know of anybody else and so what did God answer him?
Vs. 4.

So, I have the definition for remnant here. How do I put it up here, pastor? Could we put the
iPad up there? Here it comes. The word “remnant.” I just wanted you to take a minute and
focus on the word “remnant.” We hear it in our Christian faith, God has a remnant. What does
the word mean? A small remaining quantity of something. Like a piece of cloth. That’s
commonly heard. A remnant piece. A piece of cloth or carpeting left over, a surviving trace, a
small minority of people who will remain faithful. God said to Elijah, vs. 4-5. What does he

mean now? Romans was written and this is in the first century and Paul is saying even now
there is a remnant. What does he mean? A remnant of Jews. A remnant from the nation of Israel. A remnant of
Jews like the disciples. Like Simeon and Anna who at the birth of Jesus were there to celebrate
the birth. Outside of the Jews, we have the wise men or maybe they were Jews. At the time of
Noah, you had a remnant and that was Noah and his family. When they went down into Egypt,
there were 70 Jews that went down to Egypt and they came out 2 million. When they went
down to Egypt, they were a remnant but God saved, God kept the remnant.

They multiplied. When they came out of Egypt, the whole nation came out and they went through the
wilderness and there were only two of them that made it all the way to the Promised Land.
That was a remnant. Joshua and Caleb. They went originally from Egypt. They went into the
Promised Land and there was always a falling away and then there was always a remnant
whether it was Elijah or Isaiah, whether it was Amos or Hezekiah or Habakkuk. There was
always remnant. God always has a remnant.

I would say maybe there are times when you really feel that you are the minority. Christ said to
the disciples fear not little flock. You are a little flock but don’t fear because really he is like this
sweet smelling fragrance that is right close to us, who is our Comforter, our teacher, who is our
guide. Who will guide us in a unique way. He will keep us from the path of the destroyer. He
will keep us from the pestilence in Psalm 91. Dashing our foot against the stone. Or heresy or
falling away with heresy that is happening so much in the church age. Because always in every
age there is a time where God is not, God is testing our hearts. Where we are a minority. This is
good for us that I am part of remnant that is called and chosen.

Look at the next verse, vs. 5. They are a remnant according to the election of grace. Have you
ever sat around a table with a few brothers and sisters and said I don’t know why God called
me. I’ll tell ya, I was far away but the grace of God. I don’t know why but I am so thankful that
God drew me. God called. God spoke to us. God did this work of grace.
Turn to one example. Let’s read Romans 11:6 before we go there. This was particularly for the
Jews, that the remnant is called by grace not by works. There are two babies in Rachel when
she was pregnant with Jacob and Esau. One was called the other one wasn’t. One was elected
to grace, not works and that was Jacob. That was all by God’s sovereignty, by his election. Vs. 6.
The Jews – Paul is saying clearly you are a Jew but you will never get to heaven by works. You
must come by faith.

You might say but am I elected? He’s calling you. He is speaking to you. He has given you the
option. It’s your call. It’s a combination of sovereignty and free will. It’s a combination of two
things. We cannot reconcile them in our own minds at this stage in life in the world. We cannot fully understand how they go together but they are both very real. You have election but there
is no value in – there is no love in a universe where there is no choice. If there is no choice, then
there isn’t any love. It’s like a computer room filled with computers. There is no love. They are
just automatic machines that operate without choice.

But when a man is able to make a choice, when you are listening to something and you can
choose. When you hear a word and for some reason beyond us but the Spirit of God does a
work and I am able to make a choice. Now, we have freedom to choose and that means there is
the evidence of love. For love did not make us to be machines. You have a billiard table with
billiard balls on it and you don’t touch it, the balls don’t move. They stay there. They don’t have
any freedom to choose. But if you hit one by the law of physics and it bounces off and hits
another and hits another, it is moving but it’s all by physics, not by free choice.

God did not make the universe to be a pool table. He made the universe to be much better
than that. That’s choice. So, we have now Acts 14 and there will be a rap after in the café with
P. Renaldo and maybe myself, too if you want to talk more about it. This is a simple story. Acts
14:8. There it is. That’s all that happened. That’s all that we know. The man heard Paul speak.
There it is. That’s all.

We have Arlen told me the other night. She said pastor I want to tell you a story. I lived near a
gas station and I saw this man at the gas station and I just felt I had to talk to him. So, I went up
to him and I started to talk to him and I said you know, no matter all the bad things you’ve ever
done in your life, everything you’ve ever done there is only one thing that is more important
and that is to believe in Jesus Christ. That’s the most important thing you could ever do in your
life. This is what she told this direct. She said I felt I had to do it. I didn’t know the man at all. I
told him you must believe in Jesus. That’s the greatest thing you can do in your life.

A few weeks later, that man – she was walking somewhere – that man ran up to her and he said
you talked to me about Jesus. After you talked to me, somebody else came to me and told me
to believe in Jesus and I did. And I am born again. And I did and I’m born again! Okay.
Look at the story. vs. 9. What did Paul preach? What was he saying? We know by the other
messages in the book of Acts how he always gave the gospel. He always talked about the
incarnation, the resurrection. He talked about who Christ is. He told them to believe in Christ.
That was what he said for sure.

Vs. 9. This is Paul in an audience and I think the pastors and preachers could say that they have
had this experience. That out of a whole sea of faces, there are times when somebody is so in
tune with the preacher, they are so in tune with what is said that is it obvious to you. You can
say that guy is totally listening. He’s right there. That’s what’s happening in the story. Where
did the faith come from? The man was not a believer. He’s in a pagan society. He’s in an
agricultural mountain community. Undoubtedly, very poor. Very simple living. The man may be ignorant, illiterate but he listened and Paul said these words with a loud voice. Stand up. Stand
on your feet.

What do we see in the story but an election of grace. We see a work of faith. We see the work
of the Word of God. We see the preaching of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It
also heals people. The man had faith. He heard. He believed and Paul said stand up on your feet
and he did. This is what happened here. He leaped and walked.

I think this is similar to us in many ways in life. I think there are times when God ministers to us
in such a way that we also stand up and we can walk. We get over it. We move on. We heard
the gospel. We heard the Spirit speak. And when Elijah says I’m all alone. I’m the only one and
God answers him and says no you’re not. And when a brother or sister is maybe crippled in
some other way and they are sitting there and they hear the word of faith and the Spirit of God
is saying you are elected. You are able. I am for you not against you. I have called you. I want to
comfort you. I have things for you. I am with you. That is what happens. The remnant that God
is working on in our world today.

I want to encourage you as people that are not afraid to talk out loud in faith with people that
you meet. I want to encourage you to say to people in a kind way just something of faith and
encouraging and tell them about faith and tell them about grace and encourage them and
comfort them and pray for them. I say it to myself. I want to be very relaxed and free in the
ministry and led by the Spirit because these kind of things can happen because – look up on the
board.

There is a remnant. There are people out there that have not yet heard. There are people
around us that need help. There are people that want to meet us and be with us not just once
or twice but be with us and learn about things. The Spirit will work in them and teach them and
guide them. It will help all of us to live a life so we are living above to escape the hell below.
That’s Proverb 15:26 I think. He is with us helping us, leading us, guiding us. That’s it. Amen.
Would you pray with me, please.

May I make one point more. Just three minutes. It’s Exodus 7. I cut it shorter cause I thought that I
should, but now that I think of it I think I need to say something about it. Pharaoh’s heart was
hardened. I’ll put here Acts 14 and then we have Pharoah’s heart hardened. There’s two things
in the story in chapter 7. The staff becomes a serpent. Pharoah saw it and he could care less.
It’s chapter 7:13. Vs. 12. There’s the first one. The rod becomes a serpent and he could care
less. In chapter 7, the second one is the water turns blood. That’s 14 down to 25 of the same
chapter. This is the part in vs. 22. Here it is in vs. 23. Neither did he set his heart to this also.

Why? Why was his heart hardened? Why when he saw these two things it didn’t move him? It
did not move him. Why is there a president or a general or a governor or a professor an atheist,
a publisher, an author, a movie maker, an athlete. Why when they see the miracle right in front
of their eyes. He said he went to his house and he did not set his heart on it. He went home and
he could care less about it. It means nothing to me. It means nothing to me. It means that
somebody could see a miracle and it means nothing. They could be proven many things from
the Bible. It means nothing. They could see a church, conversion, salvation. It means nothing to
them. Why?

I want you to take Exodus 7:23 this week, meditate on it and ask the question. Have it in your heart
that this happens. There are people, it’s almost like can you say they can’t help it? No, because
we understand that these are choices that people make. I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t want
it. I don’t want to hear about it. I don’t want to know about it. Forget it. I do not care. That’s
that group and then on the other hand, there is the elect and they care. They are listening.
There’s a remnant. Okay. Okay. Let’s close.

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