Let us turn again to God's words.
Turning now to the book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy chapter 8 and reading at verse 2. And thou
shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these
forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee,
to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his
commandments or not. and he humbled thee, and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know. That he might make thee
know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every work
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy
raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell. these 40 years. I want to take up the theme of
remembrance as we see it here in the opening part of verse
2. These words form our text. And
thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee
these 40 years in the wilderness. This morning we were considering
those words in Psalm 55, the end of verse 19, because they
have no changes, therefore they fear not God. And we sought to
say something with regards to changes, and particularly those
spiritual changes that come to those who have the fear of God
in their hearts. It is a time of changes with
the turning of the year and so forth. Then I was thinking, I
suppose such a time as this is also a period when we remember. There is certainly to be that
looking forward, but doubtless we're also prone to look back
and to remember years of the past. It's a time of remembering
and remembrance of course is spoken of here in scripture we
read those two Psalms Psalm 38 and Psalm 70 and in the title
of each of those Psalms we see that they are Psalms to bring
to remembrance there are things that need to be brought to our
remembrance we observe the ordinance of the Lord's Supper and we Notice,
of course, it is very much the Feast of Remembrance. The Lord
says, this do in remembrance of me. There are things to be
remembered. And so I want to take up that
theme for a short time this evening as we consider these words in
Deuteronomy 8.2, and they shall remember all the way which the
Lord thy God led thee these forty years. in the wilderness. And I'm going to divide the subject
matter into some four points, some four headings. First of
all, the obvious one that we see here in the verses that we've
just read is that we should have a remembrance of God's providence. Well, we need to remember God's
providential government, that the heavens do indeed rain. that our God is sovereign and
does according to His will among the armies of heaven and the
inhabitants of the earth and none can stay His hand or say
to Him, what do us there? We believe in the sovereignty
of God. We believe in a divine providence. God is executing His own eternal
decree. Constantly fulfilling is goodwill
and pleasure. And we do well to remember these
things. And so it is good to reflect
upon that year that has now passed, in fact those many years that
have gone, and how God has provided for us, how God has preserved
us, protected us, And this was certainly the case with regards
to the children of Israel. At this time they've come now
again to the borders of the promised land. Forty years previously
they'd been delivered out of the bondage which was Egypt.
God had brought them to the borders of that land. The spies had gone
forth. But now ten had come back with
an evil report. They spoke unto the people of
the giants and the walled cities. It was just those two faithful
men, Joshua and Caleb, who spoke of their trust, their confidence
in God that He would yet deliver that land to them, but how the
people were full of unbelief. And how God's judgment came and
there were those 40 years of wilderness wanderings and that
old generation passing away, but now God had preserved them
through all of those wilderness years, and again they are now
at the borders of that promised land. Thou shalt remember all
the way which the Lord thy God led them, these forty years in
the wilderness, to humble them, and to prove thee to know what
was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments
or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna which thou knewest
not. Neither did thy fathers know that He might make thee
know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." Here
is providence, you see. Here is that provision that God
had made for them. He had fed them. He goes on to
speak of how their raiment had not waxed old and neither had
their feet swelled during all those years. God himself in his
providence had been watching over them and caring for them. Now, when we read those words
at the end of verse 3, Man does not live by bread only, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord does
man live. We recognize that there is a
spiritual significance there. It's not just our natural bread,
not just the feeding of our body that's important. There is also
the need of our never-dying souls. What is a man profited if he
gained the whole world and lose his own soul, says the Lord Jesus.
or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? And there is that
spiritual sustenance that we have here in the Word of God.
There are those means of grace that God has provided for us. Presently we'll observe that
ordinance of the Lord's Supper. God is mindful not just of our
physical needs but also our spiritual needs. But we're not to lose
sight of what is actually being said here. There is not just
a reference to spiritual food, but also to natural food. These
words, remember, are quoted in the New Testament in reference
to the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ, when after his
baptizing, he's led of the spirits into the wilderness, and there
for forty days we find the Lord fasting and then afterward we're told
He is hungry. The beginning of Matthew chapter
4, Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil. When He had fasted 40 days and
40 nights He was afterward and hungered. And when the tempter
came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that
these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It
is written, Man shall not live by bread alone. but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The Lord Jesus
Christ himself quotes these words at the devil as Satan is tempting
him to turn the stones into bread. Now, what is the significance? Observe what it says there in
that second verse. Afterward, the Lord was hungered. 40 days he had been there in
the wilderness and he had been sustained quite miraculously
by God. Doesn't say he was hungry during
that period, it was afterward that he was hungry when Satan
came to tempt him. There is a lesson and the lesson
surely is that we're to look beyond external means. We're to look to God Himself.
Every good, every perfect gift cometh from the Lord, and cometh
from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness
nor any shadow of turning. It is God. It's not secondary
cause, it's the great first cause. Both with regards to spiritual
things, but also with regards to physical things. we have to
acknowledge God, He can sustain, He sustained the Lord Jesus Christ
in a remarkable, miraculous fashion during those 40 days of His fasting
there in the wilderness. And how the Lord God also sustained
the children of Israel, He gave them bread, He gave them real
food, it was the manner of course that God was pleased to to reign
upon them during those wilderness years and it's mentioned here
in this chapter. Look at the language of verse
15, who led thee, that is the Lord God who led thee through
that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and
scorpions and droughts where there was no water who brought
thee forth water out of the rock of flint, who fed thee in the
wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he
might humble thee, and that he might prove thee to do thee good
at thy latter end." Oh, this was the food that God gave them. Here in verse 3, He humbled thee
and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna. Man doesn't live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. We are
to look to God, the great first cause of all things. Now what did they say concerning
this? Through the gods, reigned upon
them. We read of it back in Exodus chapter 16, they called it manna,
and the margin tells us there, Exodus 16, 15, that manna simply
means, what is it? What is this? That's what they
said when they see it lying upon the ground, what is this? Or,
it is a portion, is another suggested meaning of the word manna. It
was that portion, it was the portion that God gave to them
day by day. The Psalmist tells us, man did
eat angels food, He sent them meat to the full. Oh, He sent them the quails as
well as the manna. But it was God who is acting
without second cause. It's God who is there feeding
His people in an immediate fashion as God is able. And there was
sufficient for each day. You know, they were commanded
to go and to gather it in the morning and they would have a
portion for that day and they were not to store it through
the night. If they did, it would breed worms
and stink. The next day there would be a
fresh supply of the matter. It was a daily provision. When
it came to the sixth day, they were to take twice as much and
that day they could store it up and it would still be fresh
when the seventh day came but there were those who were disobedient
who went out on the Sabbath day and they got judged terribly.
It was that daily provision and the Lord teaches us when we pray
that we are to say in prayer give us this day our daily bread
or give us day by day as it is recorded in Luke's account in
Luke 11 give us day by day our daily bread. And that's true
not only with regards to the spiritual food for our souls
but also with regards to our physical food. It is a daily
provision. And God is the one who is the
giver of every good and every perfect gift. All these things
proceed from God, and we're to recognize that. We're to recognize
the sovereign providence of God. And how remarkable it was that
when they entered into that land of promise, so there was a cessation
of the provision of the manna. When we turn over to the next
book, there in the book of Joshua, What are we told in Joshua chapter
5? Verse 11, They did eat of the
old corn of the land, on the morrow after the Passover, on
leavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. And the
manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn
of the land. Neither had the children of Israel
manna any more But they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan
that year. And then after that, of course,
as they come into the possession of the land, they will sow their
crops, they will reap their harvest, the Lord will supply them in
the usual manner. God is pleased then to employ
the normal means of provision for His people. But we're not
to look, you see, simply to natural things, we're to look beyond,
we're to look to God, the Great First Cause. And it is God, of course, who
grants each year the harvest. Lord, there again in the Psalm,
in Psalm 85, Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good, our
land shall yield her increase. It was a land flowing with milk
and with honey. God preserves His people. And
we're to recognize that, we're to observe, we're to remember
God's providential ways. While the earth remaineth, he
says, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
day and night, shall not cease. For we pass through all the seasons
of the year under the good and gracious hand of a sovereign
God, who so is wise. and we'll observe these things
even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord or
let us remember all the way, all the way of God's providences
to look beyond the means and to give due honor and glory to
Him who is the great first cause of all things who preserves us
in life but then here we see in the second place, that they
were to remember how God proved them, how God tested them. Thou shalt remember not only
all the way which the Lord thy God led thee, and the way in
which God had fed them. No, He led thee these forty years
in the wilderness, it says, to humble thee and to prove thee. to know what was in thine heart,
whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. Oh, God proves His people. Let us not forget that. We need
to remember. And what is it that God is proving? Look at verse 3, that he might
make thee know that man does not live by bread only. There
is a spiritual significance here to the words. We're not just
to take it in that natural sense with regards to God's providences.
How does God prove his children? He comes and he tries them and
he tests them. He reproves them. He chastens
them. All this is the way of God. Verse
5, Thou shalt also consider in thine heart that as a man chasteneth
his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee, whom the Lord
loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
What son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? God will deal
with us. and often deal with us in strange
and contrary ways. When we sin against Him, when
we're disobedient to His commandments, He'll pursue us and restore us. But He does that by the way of
His chastenings. And He's not pleasant. No chastening
for the present seem to be joyous but grievous nevertheless, says
the Apostle. afterward it yieldeth the peaceable
fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby." Or
there's a nevertheless, there's an afterwards. That's what we
need to remember when God is dealing with us in these contrary
ways. When God comes and tries and
tests the reality of our faith. We sing the lines of Joseph Hart
of times, afflictions make us see what else would escape our
sight. How very basic, sinful we are
in God, how pure and bright. Oh God shows us himself in the
midst of all our follies and all our sins. We discover the
truth concerning ourselves. As I say, we read just now those
Psalms, Psalm 38 and Psalm 70, both of them Psalms to bring
to remembrance. And look at what David remembers
there in the 38th Psalm. He says, There is no soundness
in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest
in my bones. because of my sin, for my iniquities
are gone over my head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for
me. My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I am troubled, I am bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all the day long,
for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there
is no soundness in my flesh." Oh, what does David remember?
He remembers that he's a sinner. And how the Lord is the one who
teaches him and instructs him and makes him to feel what he
is. The Lord Jesus himself has told us he comes not to call
the righteous but sinners. Sinners to repentance, that sinner
is a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost that made him so, the conviction
of sin. And how these people are to remember
all of these things, the Lord's dealings with them. Look at what
follows in the next chapter, chapter 9. And there at verse 7, remember
and forget not how thou provokest the Lord thy God to wrath in
the wilderness from the day that thou didst depart out of the
land of Egypt until ye came unto this place. Ye have been rebellious
against the Lord. Also in Horeb ye provoked the
Lord to wrath so that the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed
you. He's speaking of the matter of
the golden calf when God would altogether disinherit them and
cast them off. Verse 24 there he says, you have
been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.
Oh, they're not to forget you see. They're follies. They're
sins. They're disobedience. Then infidelity. This is how the Lord deals with
us. He'll teach us what we are. He'll show us what we are increasingly.
Isn't that part and parcel of real growth in grace? Or we read
of that most gracious king, Hezekiah. What a character was King Hezekiah. What a remarkable man. And yet,
how the Lord tried him. for how the Lord tried him. In
2nd Chronicles we see why it was that the Lord dealt with
him in the way of such trials and troubles. There in 2nd Chronicles
32 verse 31, albeit In the business of the ambassadors
of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the
wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him, that
he might know all that was in his heart. And so God tries his
people. He leaves us sometimes to ourselves. that he might know all that was
in his heart. All we have to come to know ourselves,
what are we? Apart from the grace of God.
We're sinners, we're sinners still. Daily, hourly dependence
upon the grace of God. And yet what does that godly
King Hezekiah come to when he makes his great prayer, his song
of thanksgiving to God there in the 38th chapter of Isaiah,
he says, By these things men live, and in all these things
is the life of my spirit. Oh, we have to remember God's
ways, those strange, mysterious dealings that the Lord has with
his children. He tries us. He proves us. Why we're told, are we not in
the New Testament every man's work shall be made manifest for
the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is that's the way of God He will
have us proved in order that we might come to know ourselves
and to examine ourselves where do we be in the faith or not. We're to prove ourselves, we're
to know ourselves, that Jesus Christ is in us, except we be
reprobate. And presently as the church comes
together around the table of the Lord, are we not there to
come as a people who are examining ourselves? Or let a man examine himself,
says the Apostle. and so let him eat of that bread
and drink of that cup. When we examine ourselves it's
not that we're going to discover something so worthwhile about
self that we can come and we can commend ourselves that we
have something good to bring to God. Oh no, we must come again
as those poor dependents or we must come in faith we must be
found looking on to the Lord Jesus Christ acknowledging our
complete and utter dependence upon Him glorying in His death
for sinners rejoicing that this is the man who receiveth sinners
and eateth with them sinners are high in His esteem and sinners
highly value Him that's how we're to come poor dependence on the
grace of God. We remember then that the Lord
is that one who will ever be proving his children. But then
also in the third place, we have to remember this, that God has
a purpose in the proving of his people. And what is that purpose? What is the end that God has
in view? He will humble His children. Thou shalt remember all the ways
the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness
to humble them and to prove them. That's the purpose of God's humility. How we need it, friends. How
we need it. How there is that pride in us. It's in all of us. And you know
it's at the very root of our sins. Pride, infidelity, unbelief. These are the very things that
we witnessed there in the Garden of Eden in the fall of our first
parents. The rejection of God's truth,
the embracing of Satan's law. What was it that the Serpent,
Satan's instrument, said, when he came to Eve there, ye shall
be as gods. Ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil. Evil is a tree to be desired.
All will be as gods. Why? Were they not created in
God's image and made in God's likeness? Why Was it that they fell in
with the wicked temptation that came from Satan? Strange, really. But that's how it was, was pride. That pride that is spoken of
as the condemnation of the devil. There's that passage of Scripture
that we have in the 14th chapter of the book of Isaiah. Now I
know, historically, the reference is to the king of Babylon. But isn't this also a description
of the devil himself, Lucifer, the Day Star? Thou art thou fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, here in Isaiah 14, 12. Thou art thou
fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, O day star, sun of the morning. Thou art thou cut down to the
ground which did weaken the nations. For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High."
Oh yes, it's a description of the King of Babylon, but there
is a type of the devil, you see. And what is the motivation? Pride.
Pride, the condemnation of the devil. Oh, it is pride, accursed
pride, that spirit by God. Avort! Do what we will! It haunts
us still. It keeps us from the Lord. Oh,
it caused that sad, sad separation there in the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve thrust out of the Garden. No more enjoying that sweet communion
with God. All pride, friends. Oh, the Lord,
you see, has this blessed aim in view. He will humble his people.
They shall remember all the way which the Lord thy God led these
40 years in the wilderness to humble them. And we need it. Or do we pray against it? But
then the hymn writer says, so rightly, against its influence,
pray. It mingles with the prayer. Against
it, preach. It prompts the speech, be silent.
Still it's there. Or we pray against it, and then
we congratulate ourselves. What a wonderful prayer that
was. We preach against it. And then we say, well, that was
a remarkable sermon. It's so wedded to us, you see.
this cursed thing called pride. And we're to grow in grace. What
is it to grow in grace? It's to grow in humility. This is why we deny the very
notion of that progressive sanctification, as if somehow or other we're
able to grow better. The more we grow in grace, surely
the more we feel our sinfulness. The more we feel our complete
and utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace
of God, His growing grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, we need to know more of Him and more
of His grace. God's promise there at the end
of the book of the prophet Hosea is, I will be as the Jew unto
Israel. or the Jew, you see, that causes
the plants to grow and to flourish. I will be as a Jew unto Israel,
he shall grow as the lily, it says, and cast forth his roots
as Lebanon. There's the growth. A little
flower, a pretty flower, the lily, but what of the roots?
He shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon. All those mighty
trees for which Lebanon is renowned. Deep roots. It's downward growth. There must be a great deal of
downward growth before there is any appearance of the grace
of God on the surface. We have to come to that that
we're nothing at all, but venture. to be norns says the hymn writer
and what a venture that is though I be nothing says the apostle
there in 2nd Corinthians 12 to be a nothing a zero, a cipher
that's growth in grace the Lord you see has that purpose in view
he will humble his people Verse 16, who fed thee in the
wilderness with manner which thy fathers knew not, that he
might humble thee to do thee good, it says, at
thy latter end. All better is the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof. Those whom the Lord humbles,
does he not in due time exalt? Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of that you might be exalted in due season. We're
to remember. We're to remember the Lord's
providence. We're to remember the Lord's testings and tryings
and provings and chastenings. We're to remember that great
purpose, that blessed end that God has in view to humble us. to cause us to see what we are
and our complete and utter dependence upon His grace. But then surely,
friends, above all things there is something that we should remember.
We are to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. And in particular, we are to
remember the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. or we're to remember
how he suffered and bled and died. And that's the significance
of the Lord's Supper, is it not? He says twice, this too in remembrance
of me, he says it with regards to the bread, and then he repeats
himself and says it again in regards to the cup it is a feast
of remembrance remembering the Lord Jesus Christ in all his
sufferings God hath made him to be seen for us ununo seen
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and how he was
made sin. In Psalm 38, that psalm to bring
to remembrance, David speaks out of the fullness of his own
heart, he makes his confessions, but the psalm is messianic. The
psalm speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. My lovers are my friends,
stand aloof from my sword. And my kinsmen stand afar off. Is he not speaking of Christ
forsaken? Oh, how they all forsook him
and fled from him. And yet in this psalm how the
Lord is so identified with his people. He was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin. And see how he speaks. Neither is there any rest in
my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities are gone over
my head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. My
wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. Oh,
this is that One, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
made higher than the heavens. But here we see Him, you see.
as that one who is made sin for his people I will declare mine
iniquity against him or the sin that was imputed to his account
when he who knew no sin was made sin for his people it's the Lord Jesus Christ that
we see there how amazing, how remarkable It all is. Thine arrows stick
fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore, he says to his father
in prayer. For when he cries out in all
the agonies of his soul, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? But there is a connection, you
see. The psalm It's true of David's experience, it's messianic, it's
a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a blessed connection
that is. Christ the Head, His Church the
Model. Think of Paul's great desire.
He says that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His
death. or the power of His resurrection.
There's a union there, is there not? Thy dead men shall live,
He says, together with my dead body shall they arise. Because
I live, ye shall live also. Oh, there must first be that,
the power of His resurrection, and then, then to enter into
the fellowship of His sufferings, then to be made conformable unto
His death. It's there in the remembrance
of the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ that we see the awful
reality of sin. That's a wonderful 16th chapter
that we have in the book of the prophet Ezekiel. And when we come there to the
end of that long chapter, the language that we find at the
end verse 61, then thou shalt remember
thy ways and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters
thine elder and thy younger and I will give them unto thee for
daughters but not by thy covenant and I will establish my covenant
with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord that thou
mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any
more because of thy shame when I am pacified toward thee for
all that thou hast done saith the Lord thy God. It's all remembrance,
remembering thy ways and being ashamed, remembering the multitude
of our sins, remembering and being confounded, never opening
the mouth anymore because of shame when God in Christ is pacified
towards us. Lord, and terrors do but harden
all the while they work alone, but a sense of blood-bought pardon
soon dissolves the heart of stone." And there the prophet is speaking
of the covenant and the Lord Jesus is that one who has come
and sealed the covenant by the shedding of his precious blood
as we see in Hebrews chapter 9 Why the testator has died. His testament. It's the same
word that is often rendered, covenant. His covenant now stands. Or it has been sealed with precious
blood. These are the things that we
are to remember. God says he will remember the
covenant. He will never be mindful of his covenant. And so we're
to remember also. Look at the language. Again of
the Prophet. This time there in the 46th chapter. No, must be the 43rd. The 43rd chapter of Isaiah. And verse 26. Put me in remembrance,
he says. Let us plead together. Declare
thou that thou mayest be justified. Oh God would have us put Him
in remembrance. We're to remember. But He would
have us to put Him in remembrance. That's what it says. Let us plead together. Declare
thou that thou mayest be justified. Or where is that justification?
It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our justification. This
is the one then that we are to remember above all things. We
are to remember the Lord Jesus Christ in His person, in His
work, in His blood, in His righteousness. Thou shalt remember all the while
which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness."
Oh yes, remembering of course is that backward look, but there
is also that forward look. Even when we come to the table
of the Lord, there is that anticipation of His coming again. As we come
to the end of the ordinance, it's until he comes it's until
he comes, there's that forward look or we look for his appearing
and as we look for his appearing there is also of course our blessed
upward look we're to be those who would be looking to the Lord
we look to him, the author, the finisher of our faith in all
things we're to remember then our complete, our utter dependence
upon His grace. Oh, the Lord help us then to
be that people who would remember God's providence, God's testings
and provings, God's gracious purpose with us, the passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ, all that He did to secure the salvation of His people. The Lord help us then, and help
us to remember these things. For his name's sake. Amen.