The remnant church is a movement of those who desire to fulfill God’s will concerning God’s people, as foretold in the book of Revelation, and to prepare God’s children for the closing events of Earth’s history.
God has always had a remnant of people who were faithful to Him. The history of God’s church shows how Satan tirelessly fought against God in the person of His people and destroyed the foundation of faith upon which the church was built.
In our day, this struggle continues, but God grants special advantages to those who heed the message to Laodicea and begin to seek and thirst for what is offered there.
And through the purchase of all the Heavenly goods, God’s people receive a special faith and the power of love, through which they will be able to know God very deeply and closely, allow Him to write His law in their minds, and protect all of God’s children during the time of trouble and trial.
And God will gather all His faithful children under His protection, establish them in truth and love, and entrust these people with a special mission for the last days.
We read in Revelation 12:17: “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” The remnant are those of God’s people who have remained faithful and have decided to obey God’s commandments despite the widespread deception and traditional apostasy.
There was a time when those who believed in Jesus as their Savior testified in word and deed about His love and God’s grace, but at the end of time God will add to this testimony a special message for those living at the end of the ages. And this message is already sounding, but it can hardly be heard. Yet it was foretold by God, and it will be fulfilled in all the power intended by the Most High.
We read this message in Revelation 14:6–12. It is called the Three Angels’ Messages and describes the characteristics of those who will proclaim it. Verse 12: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
Keeping God’s commandments is one of the identifying marks of the remnant people. But the distinctive feature of this obedience is not merely to agree mentally with the truths of God’s law, but to allow God to write this law in the mind and heart, and to be obedient not according to the letter, but according to the spirit.
As long as this law is written on tablets of stone, it will testify against me, and I will continually break it and repent of it, and my life will be like being tossed upon the waves. But if I allow God to write these words on the tablets of my heart, then I become a doer of the law and live in obedience of heart, under grace and not under the law. Grace is given to me not to cover sins, but as power to resist the dominion of sin.
And by keeping God’s commandments, I become very dear to Jesus, for I believe in Him and have His faith.
What determines my faith? It is my ability, during a crisis, struggle, and trial, to rely upon God’s sure word, trusting God completely that He will fulfill what He has promised, fulfill it in my life, and do what has come from His mouth as a promise. God is unchanging in His word, but He is seeking those who will believe Him and, with faith and faithfulness, hold fast to what has been promised, watch, and pray while awaiting the fulfillment of everything that was foretold.
Will the remnant keep the commandment of love? Yes. This is what has been foretold about God’s people. God’s message without God’s messengers loving one another will sound like a verdict, without any opportunity for repentance. And this distinguishing feature of God’s children—their love for one another and their love for God—will allow the Lord to use His Church in all its power to proclaim the final warning. And everyone who knows God and hears His voice will hear it.
We read in John 10:16: “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” These words are in harmony with the message of Revelation 18:4: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,
Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” God will call His people and gather them.
A mission without love is not God’s plan for the last days. Love without a mission is a distortion of truth. Love is God’s convincing power that God exists, that He is at work, and that He will bring to fulfillment everything He has foretold. Faith which worketh by love is God’s driving force for those who love God and obey Him in everything.
For example, how would you receive everything I write in this school if you learned that I break God’s commandments and live in sin? I think that you would first try to discover the reason for my apostasy and the depth of my lawlessness, and then you would try to explain to me that it is not hearers and readers who please God, but doers of His will. And if I heeded these warnings and repented, you would joyfully continue studying my writings, for in them you would find a reflection of my obedience. But if I remained in sin, this would soon become known to everyone, and all my writings would be declared unlawful and contemptuously rejected as misleading. And being aware of all this, I carry out my ministry with fear and trembling. And your prayers and your responsiveness to my love for you support me greatly. By nature, I am a sinner who greatly needs the Savior, but I have allowed God to write His law in my heart, and this has become a power within me to resist my inborn inclinations to sin. And it is not I, but Christ in me and His power, Who gain the victory over the dominion of sin. And I have faith that if I am faithful to God unto death, I will receive the crown of life.
I look with sorrow upon those who speak of their faith in God but do not keep His commandments, or replace them with human commandments and traditions, referring in part to the fact that someone among the early Christians decided to honor God in that way.
But it is written in Romans 13:10: “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
God’s law does not call me to legalism; it calls me to obedience. But obedience without love is the very legalism and fanaticism against which Jesus openly spoke and continues to speak to this day. Love without obedience is adultery, for if I love my wife but am unfaithful to her, then this is not love, but only a name. And I think there is truth in this definition, no matter how I may try to justify myself by the fact that some of the heroes of faith had several wives.
And very soon God’s remnant will stand before the whole world in the most solemn proclamation of the third angel’s message. The messages of the second and first angels are already sounding, and few heed this voice. But when the death sentence is pronounced upon the world and presented very clearly and loudly by those who love one another according to the commandment, then all of God’s children will hear this voice of the Spirit and will leave their fallen churches, never again to support them by their presence, and they will be cast out and persecuted by the wicked and by the authorities of this world.
But God’s people will receive God’s seal and will be safe. Satan will receive full power over those who accept his image. And the remnant church will fulfill its mission and meet the One Whom they love, awaiting His Coming while loving one another.
Homework 204
Please read John 13:34–35; Daniel 7:9–14; Isaiah 1:9; 11:11; Jeremiah 23:3; Micah 2:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Peter 1:16–19; 4:17; 2 Peter 3:10–14; Jude 3, 14; Revelation 12:17; 14:6–12; and 18:1–4 in the light of our lesson. What new things did you learn from this lesson? How do you understand the expression “the remnant”? What do Paul’s words in Romans 6:14 mean: “...for ye are not under the law, but under grace”? Then please read Romans 6:14–16 in its entirety and answer again. By whom were the Ten Commandments given—God or Moses? And who can abolish or change them? To whom was God’s law given in the form of the Ten Commandments? Should we keep it? Does it belong only to the Old Testament? Does God have any other messages for the salvation of the world after the Three Angels’ Messages? Whom does God desire to save when He speaks through the third angel’s message? Why does He call people to attention in precisely this way? Could it not be said more gently? Do you desire to take part in proclaiming this message together with the three angels?