Our theme in worship this morning is remembering, and the message is entitled, Some Things to Remember. Most of us remark from time to time about losing our memories as we grow older. Perhaps Ben Franklin had the best advice for all of us when he said, Don't worry if you start losing your memory. In fact, just forget it. Memory loss is not just the result of the aging process. It is in part the result also of sin.
Human beings easily forget what we should remember, and we remember what we should forget. God warns the nations, for example in Psalm 9, He warns the nations that forget Him that they will be turned to Sheol, that is the realm of the dead. The nations forget that. Again, the psalmist in Psalm 50 says, and those who forget God should consider this fact that there is none to deliver, none to deliver them. But people forget that as well as God.
Even we who are God's people easily forget our blessings, don't we? The psalmist confesses for ancient Israel, and by way of application perhaps for some of us or all of us from time to time, in Psalm 106, they quickly forgot His works. They forgot God their Savior who had done great things in Egypt. But the apostle Paul sets it straight when he says as he does in Philippians chapter 3, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.
That should be the direction of our lives, and yet too often don't we reach back to what lies behind and we forget what lies ahead. If you and I want to live for Jesus Christ, and I trust that is our great motive for living, we must get our memories activated. There are some things that we must remember. God's Word gives us those things to remember, and I'd like for you to look into God's Word with me this morning at these.
If we remember these things, then we will walk with God and be enriched in that walk with Him. First, turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2, where the apostle says in verse 8, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David according to my gospel. He tells us here to remember Jesus Christ, and as we look in the broader context of this verse, we see that he is writing to soldiers. He says, for example, in verse 1, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
In verse 3, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Some of the Lord's soldiers today are weary and stressed out. Others are surrounded and feel defeated, overwhelmed. Some are wounded and bleeding. To those who are the Lord's soldiers, he says, remember the grace of Jesus Christ. It is good for all of us to be reminded that spiritual warfare is not a war game.
It is something that is very real, the pressure, the obstacles that confront us, the opposition that is there that we face. Spiritual warfare is very real whenever an individual desires to grow and to advance for Jesus Christ. Hardship comes, and he tells us to suffer that hardship. We are incapable though of facing it in our own strength, our own wisdom, our own cleverness. We must call upon the Lord for His grace. We need His grace. This is God's grace given to enable.
It is His supernatural enablement given to the soldier freely. It is available from Jesus Christ, the one who is said here in verse 8, who has died and has been raised from the dead. The one who is victorious in his own battle. The one who joined with humanity and experienced as we experience opposition and suffering. He suffered hardship because he was of the seed of David, a descendant of David. But he was victorious though he suffered death.
He rose from the dead, and he lives today to minister grace to his people. Do you need His grace today for what you are facing? In your family, in your personal health, in your job situation, in your Christian fellowship, do you need grace? Remember the grace of the risen Christ. It is grace that He is able to minister to you in your time of need.
When you and I are in the battle and we feel as though we just cannot continue on any further, it is time then to remember the grace of the risen Christ, which is available to all of us if we will but appropriate it. You say, well how do I appropriate it? How do I experience that grace? I need that grace today. The very first thing we have to do is to acknowledge to the Lord our need for it. We have to humble ourselves and say, Lord, here is the way I am today. I am weary. I am discouraged.
I am disappointed. I am wounded. I am bleeding. Tell Him how you feel. Then after you have acknowledged that need, say to Him, Lord Jesus, you give me the grace that I need right now. In that act of asking and appropriating by faith, that grace will begin to minister to you in your life. Do not forget this. If you forget this, you will fall in the battle. There is no hope for you. You will not be able to gain victories.
You will not advance unless you remember the grace of the risen Christ, for it is only in that grace that we can move forward. It is only in that grace that we can stand and suffer the hardships that confront all of us. There are some things that we need to remember today that will enrich our lives and give us victory. The first one is to remember the grace of the risen Christ. Now if you will turn to the book of Hebrews in the thirteenth chapter, we will see something else to remember.
Hebrews 13. Look at verse 3. Here, remember the prisoners as though in prison with them, and those who are ill treated since you yourselves also are in the body. Here we are told to remember the bond with suffering saints. None of us ever suffers persecution isolated from other believers.
Those who today are languishing in prison camps in Russia or in other parts of the world where there is totalitarianism, or those who lay down their lives in a terrorist attack, whether it be in the fields of South America or Southeast Asia or Africa, no one who suffers persecution for Jesus Christ suffers alone. We are told here that there is a bond between us and them, but isn't it true that too easily are they out of sight and out of mind?
The apostle uses two striking phrases here to remind us of how significant that bond is. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them. He says imagine yourself in the same cell, or to put it differently, in the stocks with them. We don't have stocks anymore. That's cruel and unusual punishment I'm sure. We used to in the early days of this republic, and of course they did in biblical times. In Acts chapter 16 we have an example of what Paul is talking about here.
When he and Silas were thrown into the inner prison and there the two of them were put into stocks. They were suffering, they were bound together. A stock of course is a heavy wooden frame into which the feet were placed, or sometimes even the hands in order to secure a person. Today we would call it handcuffs. So if we put this in the vernacular of our day, he is saying to us, remember the prisoners as though you were handcuffed with them. We are to be mindful of them.
In fact, we are to be as passionate regarding their situation as we would be as if we ourselves were there. In Colossians 4-8 the apostle pleads with the believers in Colossians. He says to them, remember my imprisonment. Remember as he wrote that epistle, he was in prison in Rome. He said, remember my imprisonment. I want to say to you today that there are multiplied thousands of believers who are suffering for Jesus Christ.
I receive a bulletin every quarter from an organization that publicizes the names and often the pictures of those who have been incarcerated, particularly in Russia, for the simple reason that they have preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to remember those people. We are not to forget them in their suffering. But he goes on to say, also remember those who are ill-treated since you yourselves also are in the body.
He is not talking here about imprisonment necessarily, but he is talking about mistreatment or maltreatment, perhaps the loss of what they own or the inability to get a job to provide for their families or the denial of an education because they choose to believe in God. Of course, that happens in our world, mistreatment. It happens in more subtle ways even in our own nation. Back in chapter 11 of Hebrews in the 37th verse, he uses the same word and it gives us something of a context.
He says, they were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with a sword. They went about in sheep skins, in goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And he inserts in there, of whom the world was not worthy. The world counts believers sometimes in some situations as absolutely irrelevant or sometimes worse than that, they look upon believers as being the enemy, as being a scourge.
But God's evaluation is of whom the world was not worthy. But nonetheless, they suffered. And the people to whom this was written were told, remember those who are ill-treated. If you see a believer who is ill-treated, how do you remember them? If you see a believer in Jesus Christ who is suffering persecution in your office, do you identify with him or with her?
Or if there is a believer in Jesus Christ who is publicly held up to ridicule because of his stand or because of her commitment to Jesus Christ, do you seek ways in which you can stand beside that person and remember them? Remember something. You too are in the body. Just as no member of your body can suffer without the other members of your body being affected, so there is not a believer who can be mistreated without the rest of us in some sense, in some way, being affected by that.
So remember them. Pray for them. Publicly identify with them. If it's within your power, seek to help meet their needs. If you and I would be enriched in our spiritual walk today, we have to remember the bond with the suffering saints. And then if you look down a few verses here in Hebrews 13, you come to another statement that tells us to remember the example of godly leaders.
Hebrews 13 verse 7, remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Of course, the readers of this book were being tempted to return to their former religion of Judaism. They were being enticed to turn aside in unbelief, to apostatize. They were being tempted to forsake the better provision, the final provision that God has made for sin, and to go back to the old and incomplete and shadowy system of sacrifices.
They were being drawn away because of trials they were passing through. And so to them, the writer gives a series here of important statements. And among those, he says, remember those who led you. He is saying, remember the example of godly leaders. One significant qualification is given here, though. He says, considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. You know what he's saying? He is saying that their lifestyle validated their testimony.
Remember those who led you, who spoke to you the word of God, who were faithful, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Mimic them. It is good for you and for me when we are passing through temptation, when we are tempted to turn aside from our walk with God, to bring to mind the example of godly men and women that have had influence in our lives in the past. It may be a parent, or it could be a pastor in our early years.
It could be a youth leader that meant so much, or that person who put his arm around us at that critical point as we were facing a tough decision. But as you and I pass through the trials of life and we are tempted to turn aside from the Lord, he says, remember the example of godly leaders who have influenced your life, those who spoke the word of God to you. And he says, considering how they lived, considering the outcome, the full result of their life, their manner of living, imitate them.
Imitate them. Imitate them in what sense? In sticking with it, in persevering, in going on and not being turned aside. Godly leaders come and go, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and yes, forever, he says. He is the great example. Sometimes we need someone down here on earth to look to who is able to live out in flesh and blood before us, an example that is worthy for us to follow. He says, remember those examples when they come to you.
I can look back in my life and name a score of people who have had an influence upon me, who at critical times, God brought into my life. When I might have turned this way or that, but they were there and they spoke to me the word of God and they left an example for me. And their manner of life was such that it validated their claim to faith. There are times in my life when still I look back to those people who have influenced me and I mimic them. Remember the example of godly leaders, he says.
Then moving ahead into 2 Peter, this time, the third chapter. He says if our walk with God is going to be pleasing to him and if we are going to enrich our lives, we need to remember some things. Through Peter we are told to remember the nature of the last days.
Second Peter and the third chapter beginning in verse 1, this is now beloved the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. What is he saying to these suffering saints? He is saying to them remember the nature of the last days.
By the last days, keep in mind, he is talking about this whole age, the time of Christ's sacrificial work until the time that he comes again. This whole age is the last days. However, what he says about the last days seems to be intensified in the last days of the last days. In other words, they were already in the last days but he seems also to point ahead to some days that were yet coming. The apostle Paul does the same thing. In one sense the last days is the whole age.
In a special sense the end of the age is the last days. He says remember the nature of the last days. He says to us that this age will close with mockers. Verse 3, know this first of all that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts. He is saying to us here that things considered sacred will become a joke. Jesting will become about those things that are holy. Mockers will come, he says. They will not consider the things of God to be relevant to them.
They will not take them seriously. Now the motive for this is not actually one that is intellectual but is one that is moral. For he says following after their own lusts. In other words, the reason for the mocking is not that they have investigated intellectually and found these things to be false. But the reason they mock is that they choose to follow after their own lusts.
It is their own passionate and depraved desires that motivate them to make mockery of the things of God, hoping and so doing that somehow they will escape what God has warned about in his word. Now he says their mocking specifically will be regarding the coming of Christ. Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.
When they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water through which, by the way the word which here is plural. So he is not only talking about the water but he is talking about the word of God in the same verse. Through which, that is through what God said and through the water, the world at that time was destroyed being flooded with water.
Now isn't it interesting that as you read religion pages and other articles that deal with religion, two things that are especially held up to ridicule in our day are the idea that Jesus Christ is coming again and the idea that God ever sent a flood on the earth in the days of Noah. Those are two particular points in our day of jesting and making fun. The apostle says that we can expect that. Don't be discouraged he says. Remember the nature of the last days.
They will involve mockers who will come in their mocking being motivated by their own lusts so that they can continue their own sinful lifestyle that they have chosen. They don't want to face up to that. Therefore they will mock any thought of divine intervention whether it be through the flood in days of old or the second coming of Christ in days of the future. They will want to deny that because they wish to continue in their sinful lifestyle patterns.
But he says also that the last days or this age will close with a denial of historical evidence of divine intervention, specifically mentioning the flood. In verse 5 it says they maintain this, when they maintain this it escapes their notice. That word escapes means this, that as an act of their will they choose to overlook this fact. A very scholarly Lutheran by the name of Alfred Waywinkel wrote a book a number of years ago now entitled The Flood.
In that rather brief book he lays out the evidence of the flood that exists in the world today and explains the disappearance of dinosaurs, the deposits of coal, the deposits of oil in the world, all in the light of a global flood. You bring that subject up to a geologist or paleontologist who has been trained in the universities of our world and they will laugh you to scorn. In other words what we have in our world today can be explained by a universal flood.
But that is absolutely ruled out before the discussion even starts. Why? Because they refuse to acknowledge the fact that God does, can and will intervene in human history. Rather they choose to talk about uniformitarianism. Everything continues on like it always has been. We can expect the last days to involve that. But he also tells us here the age will close not with mocking, with denial, but with judgment.
He says in verse 7, the present heavens and earth by his word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. How is this time going to end with judgment? And he tells us that there is going to come a time upon the earth called the day of the Lord, the end of that time, when the earth as we know it now is going to be destroyed but not by water the next time.
Just as by God's word it was destroyed by water the first time, so in the last days, the end of the last days, it will be destroyed by the word of God and fire, which God says here has reserved and kept for that day of judgment of ungodly men. As you and I look around us today, we could become anxious at the direction of human events. We might be tempted to compromise with a very powerful world system around us. We may be enticed to enter into a lifestyle like the ungodly.
But Peter says before you do that, remember the nature of the last days. The judgment is coming, but everything is moving in the direction which God has assigned. And one day again He will intervene. And so he says in verse 14, therefore beloved since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace.
Not anxiety, not worry, not upset at the direction of politics and the direction of human events, not upset by the predictions of people, but in peace, and then spotless and blameless. Holy lives. Remember the nature of the last days, and as we do that, we will remember that God is in control, we can be at peace, and that because everything is moving toward final judgment, we want now to be living lives that are spotless and blameless.
And should we become curious, perhaps even doubting, because it seems the Lord is delaying His coming, He says regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation. Does it seem as though the Lord has delayed His coming to you? Perhaps He has. There is indication that He did so in the days of Noah, delayed the judgment. Then if it is so, understand that that is simply the patience of the Lord, and the result of that is the salvation of more. But be sure of one thing, the end is coming. Remember that.
And then if you'll turn to one other passage, we'll close with Revelation chapter 2. We're talking this morning about some things to remember. Revelation chapter 2, verses 4 and 5. We come into the middle of a letter that Jesus dictated to the pastor of the church at Ephesus. In verse 4 it says, But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Remember, remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first, or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Jesus sends this personal letter to a group of Christians in the city of Ephesus who could be described as sincere, busy, hardworking, and even disciplined. What we would observe is this, that one can be all of these things and in the midst of them lose his first priority, that of loving Jesus Christ.
Thirty-five years before this letter was sent by Jesus to the church, another letter was penned by the Holy Spirit through Paul. In that letter, the first chapter, he commended them for the love that they had. What happened? What happened in thirty-five years? A church that was once well known for its love, now thirty-five years later rebuked by Jesus because they had left their first love. Well, it would seem that what happened was that another generation had come.
The generation that was alive and in leadership in the days when Paul wrote had passed off the scene. And now the church was populated by a second generation of Christians. These had adopted the doctrinal purity of their fathers. They had maintained the same faithful pattern of service. All of the outward things were in place, but internally there was a problem. They lacked devotion to Jesus Christ. And this was not accidental. This was the result of a choice that they made.
For when Jesus says, you've left your first love, he doesn't mean somehow you have accidentally stumbled away from it. The word there means you have forsaken. It was an act, a choice on their part. You have forsaken, he says, your first love. They chose to leave that behind as they pressed on in other things. And so to them, Jesus says, remember. Remember from where you have fallen. He says, look back.
Do you recall, he says, that intensity, that zeal, that burning of love that was present in the church a generation ago? He says, then repent. That is, change your mind about it. Deal with this sin, he is saying. And that going through the motions is not enough. It is good to be just as they were, busy, hardworking, sincere, disciplined. They judged false teachers. They took a stand. Those things are good.
But without the heart of love for Jesus Christ, it doesn't mean anything as far as the Lord is concerned. He says, you need to repent. Change your mind. And then he says, do the deeds you did at first. What does he mean by that? Well, I believe our Lord is here calling upon them to make a clean break with their attitude of presence. He is telling them that their affections had to be changed and redirected to His own person.
Then He tells them that their deeds need to be deeds of devotion, not deeds of duty. I believe that's what He means by the deeds as at first. They were doing the same thing really that was being done at first. It wasn't the kinds of deeds that had to be changed. It was the motive for the deeds. They needed to continue on being hardworking and faithful. They needed to deal with false teachers just like they had been.
But He is saying, go back to the point where those things are motivated out of a sincere love for Me and not out of simply routine or habit or duty. It is from the devotion of this first love that the outward acts will flow in a way that it pleases God. Frankly, He delivers a very stern warning. He says, or else I am coming to you. Here we have another coming of Jesus Christ, not His second coming, but another coming preceding that. This is not a coming for salvation.
This is a coming for judgment to this church. He says, or else I will come and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. He warns them that if they do not look after the heart problem, He will come and remove the effectiveness of their testimony. That's serious. Jesus could not have said anything that should have caught their attention more than this. He is saying, I will remove your witness from the city of Ephesus.
He says, Lord, look at all the good things we are doing, but your heart is not a heart of love for Me. Because of the lack of that devotion, I will come and I will remove you from having any influence of light in that community. Does it seem striking to you that Jesus is saying that the city of Ephesus would be better off without any light? The light from Christians who had no heart for Christ? Does that strike you as it strikes me? So He says, remember the danger of spiritual apathy.
Jesus would rather have no church in a community than a church that is going through all of the right motions but has no heart of devotion for Jesus Christ. What a warning. If you and I on this Memorial Day weekend want to live for Jesus Christ in a way that pleases Him, if you and I want to experience an enrichment in our walk with God, there are some things that we need to remember. We've talked about them this morning and now we need to respond. As we remember, what will we do? Let's pray.
This is not simply the result of the aging process. It's the result of the age-old problem, sin. We need to remember the grace of the risen Christ. Christian soldier, you, the one sitting there weary, wounded, worn, will you today remember that grace of the risen Christ and appropriate it? Tell Him how you feel and ask Him for a fresh endowment of grace, of supernatural enablement for your battle. Remember the bond with the suffering saints.
If you have forgotten them, will you remember them today? Will you stand with those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake? Are you ready to give up, to turn aside? Will you remember the example of godly leaders who have influenced your life in the past? If you're anxious about the direction of our age, if you're living a life of compromise, will you remember the nature of the last days? Will you be reminded that judgment is coming, that God is in control?
Then will you remember the danger of spiritual apathy? Perhaps you need to come to the Lord right now where you're seated and say, Lord Jesus, I'm like the church at Ephesus. I'm going through motions, but the emotion, the devotion of love, is lacking in my heart. Will you repent? I pray that today, as we have heard some things to remember, we will allow our minds to be stirred up. We like the people of Israel of old are forgetful.
Like them, we forget God, our Savior, and we forget the mighty works that you have done. Today we are reminded of some important things. I pray that you will apply these thoughts to our lives, and may the result of that be that we will walk on with you, be devoted to you, and be looking for the coming of Christ. Thank you for these reminders today. In Jesus' name, amen.