“REMEMBER!”
There’s a very interesting verse of Scripture in 1 John 4:16 that, for me, heightens “remembrance”, which I believe should be a part of every man’s reflection upon his/her spiritual pilgrimage, or lack of it, because of the grace and mercy and love of God for ALL mankind –“God so loved the world!” It says: [The New Open Bible Edition, by Thomas Nelson Inc., 1990], “And we have known and believed [or trusted in, relied upon, adhered to, and, yes, reflect upon faithfully!] the love of God for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, AND GOD IN him!”
And I can only ask in beginning this teaching: “In your own life and spiritual pilgrimage, tell me about your journey to the Mountain of Remembrance and your reflection upon your journey as YOU “remember” what Holy God has done in and through others and in your own personal pilgrimage as Holy God unveils Himself in and through Christ as God’s ‘only Door” to reconciliation, restoration, re-birth into His ETERNAL INTENT for you and me before even the foundation of the heavens and the earth?”
AND, I SAY THIS EARLY IN THIS TEACHING, BECAUSE, SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME, THERE ARE THOSE WHO PROMOTE, ‘FORGET GOD AND THE SAVIOR’! In 3 John 9-11 we read: “I wrote to the church, but DIOTREPHES, WHO LOVES TO HAVE THE PREEMINENCE AMONG THEM, DOES NOT RECEIVE US. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren (the truly ‘born-again believers’) and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good (spiritually) is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.”
False messengers harp on one’s mind: “Forget God! Forget the PHONY BOOK CALLED THE BIBLE! FORGET WHAT ‘SPIRITUALLY-POVERTY-STRICKEN-PREACHERS AND BIBLE TEACHERS TELL YOU (!),” while faithful messengers remind and challenge you: “REMEMBER GOD’S WORD AND ETERNAL REVELATION – AND REMIND YOURSELF FAITHFULLY WHAT HE ASKS OF YOU,” because “Man does not live by (physical) bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God!”
It’s evil to forget – it’s good and godly to “remember”! It’s evil to cast doubt on the Word of God – it’s good and holy to partake daily of the Word’s eternal nutrition! It’s evil to promote “my opinion” or assert “This is what I think” – it’s good and godly to “rest in God’s revealed revelation or His Holy Word”! It’s powerless and ‘self-destructive’ to settle into “This is what I think”, rather than, “THIS IS WHAT GOD HAS SAID!”
Don’t you rejoice when you read about Jeremiah saying in Jeremiah 31:3, “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you,” and that’s “drawn you to Myself”?! ?
Two psalms I want to share with you as we journey: First, Psalm 20! It’s entitled in the NKJV “The Assurance of God’s Saving Work”, which I entitled “The Song of Confidence and Assurance”! It says: “May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble; ( and I pray, “Lord, forgive those who stand to preach and teach that to follow Christ is to be free from tribulation or trouble or heartaches or pain!”). May the name of the God of Jacob defend you; (And it is a day of trouble when the “Dream-Buster, the Devil” shows up at your door to defuse the explosive and energetic power of a dream, vision, or eternal reality from God of, yes, the Resurrection Life in you as he did with Jesus, thinking His death on the Cross was its ending, when we know Jesus had just begun His redemptive work! Resurrection was to come!). David went on:
May He send you help from the sanctuary, and strengthen you out of Zion; May He remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice. May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose.
We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of God we will set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Now I know that the Lord SAVES HIS ANOINTED; He will answer him from heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They have bowed down and fallen; but we have risen and stand upright. Save, Lord! May the King [King Jesus for you and me today!) answer us when we call.”[But you’re unsure, unbelieving, or even doubtful of the Name, King Jesus?].
But before we turn to the second Psalm, I think it’s very important for me to share 1 Peter 1 in its entirety!! It says: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocie, Asia, and Bithynia [that’s “scattered former Jews who’ve received “The Truth in Christ!”], elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. [Revelation 1:1-3!]. [AND, is the last time the last days of Judaism and Jerusalem when the city was destroyed in 70AD?].
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls.
Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, (the righteous remnant), searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which have NOW been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven – things which angels desire to look into.
Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober [or ‘serious-minded’], and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy for I am holy.”
And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER.’”
And, I would say, if we have a redemptive remembrance of salvation in and through Christ alone, we have joined with Heaven’s Family in continual “remembrance of what God has done in us and for us through the finished work of Christ alone”!
Second Psalm? Psalm 21! It’s titled “Joy in the Salvation of the Lord”! It says: “The king shall have joy in Your strength, O Lord; and in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! [Just an insert here: Revelation 1:5-6! “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. [Amen, or “so be it!”].
You (God) have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. For You meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of pure gold upon his head. He asked life from You and You gave it to him – {AMEN?!?} – length of days forever and ever.
His glory is great in Your salvation; honor and majesty You have placed upon him.{“As Jesus is so are we in this world!”}. For You have made him most blessed forever; You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence (“Christ in YOU the hope of glory!”).
For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. Your hand will find all Your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate You. [And as a result of that denial of and hatred for the sovereignty of God and His great mercy toward them?].
You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger; the Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their offspring You shall destroy from the earth, and their descendants from among the sons of men.
For they intended evil against You; they devised a plot which they are not able to perform. Therefore You will make them turn their back; You will make ready Your arrows on Your string toward their faces. Be exalted, O Lord, in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your power!”
How awesome do YOU find these two psalms of David, songs of “remembrance”? But their intent, from me in this teaching, is to touch the deepest cords of your heart and mind in true reflection and evaluation if YOU are as deeply moved, convicted, and TURNED truly to full surrender and awesome “remembrances yourself of what Holy God and the Holy Spirit have brought to full fruition in you concerning Christ Jesus as Savior, Lord, Master of your life, living within you, extending His love, expressing the fullness of His Life within you, and proving His power still reigns today – THROUGH YOU?” Follow, as we examine Jesus’ relationship with His early disciples and His intent through them AND US!
FIRST, “REMEMBER” THE CALL AND COMMAND TO REPENT! In Mark 6:7 Christ Jesus called the twelve “to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits,” and then in Verses 10-12, Jesus told them and us, “In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place. And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!” So they went out and preached that people should repent.”
You’ll remember in Acts 2 that Peter obeyed and went out preaching, saying in Verse 36, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ,” and the Word says that those who heard were cut to the heart, saying to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Verse 37, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
In Verses 38-39 of Acts 2 Peter said to them, “Repent, ( which means ‘confess’ and turn away from the old sin nature!) and let every one of you ( as a testimony) be baptized in the name (and honor of Christ alone) for (or because of His remission, forgiveness, cleansing of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. FOR THE PROMISE is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
As Paul the Apostle was writing to one of the churches He saw God raise up through Christ, he wrote in Ephesians 5:8-10, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.”
“The Changed Life” book by Henry Drummond, published sometime between 1889 to 1893, is a powerful little quick-read! He began it with a statement by Aldous(?) Huxley that says: “I protest that if some great Power would agree to make me always think what is true and do what is right, on condition of being turned into a sort of clock and wound up every morning, I think I should instantly close the offer.”
Oh, but then Drummond made mention of the only Holy Redemptive Truth when he quoted Paul’s words in Romans 8:29, “For whom He (God) foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brethren,” with my adding Verse 30! “Moreover whom He (God) predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Glory!
And repentant sinners become justified, sanctified, glorified “saints”, set apart to His honor and glory alone! But later, Drummond, (p.50), declared with biblically authority, “Today men are properly told to confess their sins and to ask forgiveness. But evangelists and pastors are forgetting to tell sinners to repent. Consequently this misinformed age imagines that it can continue in its old ways of life while adding Jesus as a personal Hell insurance for the world to come. Treasures on earth “and” treasures in Heaven. Who could turn down that bargain! Pleasures of sin “and” joys of eternity. That is a good deal! Sinners are not being saddened, as was the young ruler, to learn that they must turn from sin to have eternal life. Yet it is the “sine qua non” of the Gospel promises. Scripture always joins repentance AND remission of sins,” then affirming Truth from Proverbs 28:13, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesses and forsakes his sins (AND SIN-NATURE!) shall have mercy.”
FIRST, THERE MUST BE AN AWARENESS OF, SORROW FOR THE REALITY THAT CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS AND SIN-NATURES, AND WAS RESURRECTED THAT WE WHO REPENT MAY THEN “LIVE FOR, IN, AND THROUGH HIS RESURRECTION LIFE AND THAT ALONE”! Not religion, but a relationship; not a ‘trying, but a trusting’; not improved attempts at godliness by self-effort, but repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ through the Cross and Empty Tomb!
Isn’t this why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:9-11, “Yes, we had the sentence of death IN OURSELVES, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises from the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.” [Dare I say that I believe it was more than their financial support of Paul’s ministry, but the “gift” of willingness to share the Gospel with the lost and needy everywhere they went or where they knew Paul went to minister?].
But the still rampant, resistant, rebellious response to God’s call? Doesn’t Proverbs’ “wise man of wisdom” tell us, even in our modern-day world of much ‘intellectual and fleshly denial’, Proverbs 1: 24-33, the following? “Because I called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies.
For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; BUT whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.”
Are we hearing and “remembering” God’s call to repent or does ‘the spirit of wandering away from His Word, His will, and His way’ have a ‘strangle-hold on our minds, wills, and emotions’ to the point God has to say to the spiritually deaf, blind, and ‘heartless’ toward God Himself, as Jeremiah described them in Jeremiah 14:10, hearing God Himself say: Thus says the Lord to this people: “Thus they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. THEREFORE the Lord does not accept them; He will remember their iniquity now, and punish their sins.” “Holy God, come today to modern-day America and ‘call out’ sinners to repent!”
In Proverbs 28:13 we read: “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses AND forsakes them will have mercy.”
SECOND, “REMEMBER” THE CALL TO MEDITATE, PONDER, AND TO FEED ON THE WORD OF GOD! In Psalm 63:1-5, as David was wandering in the wilderness, assaulted, and having to run from ungodly men, he SANG: “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.
So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.” I would urge you to personally and seriously examine Psalm 119! But let me whet your appetite related to true discipleship and the Word of God as your ‘daily food’! It says:
Psalm 119:9, “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed to Your word.” Psalm 119:11, “Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Psalm 119:24, “Your testimonies are my delight and my counselors.” Psalm 119: 28b, “Strengthen me according to Your word.”
Psalm 119:49, “Remember the word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope.” And it continues to amaze, equip, and encourage one’s “feeding on the Word of God” when in Psalm 119:89 David said, “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven,” saying also in Verse 92, “Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction,” adding in Verse 97, “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.”
In Psalm 119:101-104 the author said (Spirit-enlightened!): “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, THAT I MAY KEEP YOUR WORD. I have not departed from Your judgments, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.”
Two other Psalm 119 words, and then we’ll move on: Psalm 119:105 says: “Your word, God, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Then, Psalm 119: 111, “Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.” [Tell me: How many ‘church-folk’ do you know who are truly ‘faithful feeders’ on the Holy Word of God? Many says, “I’m saved, I know it – nothing else about the Bible concerns me!” Really?].
In Matthew 4:1-4 we read, Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become flesh.’ But He answered and said, “It is written, Man shall not live by (physical) bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
In John 6:53-58 the Lord Jesus declared to the ‘religious and self-serving Jews” the following: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven – not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
THIRD, “REMEMBER” THE TESTIMONY OF TRUE DISCIPLESHIP IS HOLDING ONTO IN FAITHFUL DEVOTION TO THE CHRIST WITHIN YOU! In Galatians 2:20-21a Paul wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live(in old sinful flesh still living), BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God…!” And dare I tell you that the grace of God is strong, enduring, and able to do in us even above all we ask or think!
In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
And I assure you that to live in and through God’s grace reveals to all ‘seekers’ and ‘settlers’ in the Kingdom of God in and through Christ knows the power, the blessing of bestowed grace and continual, faithful victory, because in Him we “are more than conquerors”!
Robert Robinson and John Wyeth wrote the old hymn entitled “Come, God’s Fount”, a hymn I grew up on through my childhood and teen years and into my adult life. It’s found in The American Hymnal, copy-righted by Robert H. Coleman in 1933, published by The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee,. It says:
“Come ‘Christ-Fount’ of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Your grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above; Praise the mount – I’m fixed upon it – Mount of Your redeeming love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer; Hither by Your help I’m come; And I hope by Your good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be! Let Your goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to You; Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it; Seal it for Your courts above.”
Dare I say: “And seal us in Your courts of heavenly power, grace, and love in the here and now”?