with the Lord's help I'd like
to draw your attention to that psalm that we read together and
particularly to base our thoughts this morning around verses 6
and 7 where we read remember O Lord thy tender mercies thy
loving kindnesses for they have been ever of old remember not
the sins of my youth nor my transgressions according to thy mercy remember
thou me for thy goodness sake at my own place. We had our Bible
study and prayer meeting last Thursday morning and I just happened
to, on the spur of the moment, choose this psalm for reading. and these two verses stood out
particularly to me and the matter of remembering seemed to stand
out on the page to me and I just wondered if that was the word
that the Lord had given me for this morning that we might be
brought to remember these words then appear in this psalm all
we are told about this psalm is that it is a psalm of David
we are not told actually when it was written we are not told
how it was written we are not told about the particular circumstances
in which it was written but it would appear that David is here
writing and thinking in his old age or when he is quite a mature
man because in verse 7 he says remember not the sins of my youth
he speaks as if he is one that has passed youth and is now in
either maturity or in old age and he is speaking also about
his problems he says the troubles of my heart are enlarged bring
thou me out of my distresses look upon mine affliction and
my pain and forgive all my sins consider mine enemies and it
may be that David wrote this psalm when Absalom his own son
had risen up in rebellion against him but of course throughout
his life the Psalmist David had his enemies he continually had
those that rose up against him he had taken place in the kingdom
of Saul and Saul's family continued to plague him because they considered
him to be a usurper but he was the Lord's anointed he was the
one who should have been king and was placed as king of the
nation so he speaks in these two verses about remembering
this psalm is constructed quite in a unique manner there are
22 verses in this psalm there are 22 letters in the Hebrew
alphabet and in the original Hebrew when this psalm was written
it was written as an acrostic that each verse commences with
the appropriate letter of the Hebrew alphabet so in our own way we would say that the first
verse would have commenced with the word beginning with the letter
A and so on through the Hebrew alphabet but it is there are
four things I would like us to consider with the Lord's help
and if time permits first of all there is in scripture a principle
of remembering remembering the Lord's goodness remember and
in this case it is the psalmist speaking to the Lord remember
O Lord he is seeking the Lord to remember not just himself
to remember so there is that principle in scripture laid down
of remembering asking the Lord to remember and to remember also
the Lord's mercies to us and then in the second place there
is seeking the Lord to remember his mercies to remember his mercies
that are displayed to us remember how John Newton in one of his
hymns says his loving ties past forbids me to think he'll leave
me at last in trouble to sink whilst each Ebenezer I hold in
review confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through and
then in the third place there is the mention of the blotting
out of sins remember he says, remember not the sins of my youth
nor my transgressions what a mercy it is to know our sins forgiven
and with the Lord's help we'll try and speak a little about
the forgiveness of sins and then in the fourth place there is
the ground of God's remembrance remember thou me for thy goodness
sake God is good God is good what a mercy it is that the God
whom we worship and serve is not a tyrant Karl Marx in one
sense was quite correct when he said man created God in his
own image because you look at the gods of this world you look
at the gods that have been created by man and they are nothing but
a reproduction of the fallacies and the corruptions of men these
jihadist suicide bombers they are promised by the Islamic mullahs
that if they go and kill the heathen that is those who are
not Muslims and murder them and blow them up and do all manner
of wicked things they will be immediately transported into
that Muslim heaven which is nothing but a corruption of sexual immorality
and they are promised these things that if they blow themselves
up in the course of Islam the course of Muhammadism they will
be taken to this paradise in which they can give vent to all
their lusts and and other religions of this world are just reflections
of the corruption of the wicked hearts of man but the God whom
we worship and serve is the God of truth He's a holy God indeed
you just have to look at the Ten Commandments and you see
that God is a holy God, thou shalt have no other gods before
thee and the Lord says that he is one that
shows mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my
commandments there is that the remembrance, the foundation of
God's remembrance is in the character of God the nature of God that
God, the God whom we worship and serve the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ is a God of holiness so in the first place
there is this principle then of remembrance remember you look
in the concordance to the scriptures and you'll find the word remember
and remembrance have a great deal of references too many for
us to even mention and in the small print of my concordance
it was far too small for me to count the references to remember
and remembrance and remembering and other forms of that same
word and there is a two-fold remembrance as I said earlier
there is our remembrance and there is God's remembrance and
for a short while I would like with the Lord's help to look
at some of the things that we should ourselves remember first
of all there is the remembrance of the Lord's Day the remembrance
of the Sabbath you find this in Exodus chapter 20 and verse
8 remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days shalt thou
labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath
of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor
thy son nor thy daughter thy manservant nor thy maidservant
nor thy cattle nor thy stranger that is in thy gates for in six
days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in
them is and rest of the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day and hallowed it but you say to me we don't
keep the Sabbath quite true we don't keep the Sabbath we don't
keep a seventh day Sabbath we keep a first day Sabbath we keep
the Lord's day we keep the Lord's day because it is the day in
which the work of redemption was completed just as In six days the Lord completed
the work of creation. The work of new creation was
completed by the first day of the week when our Lord Jesus
Christ rose from the dead. That's why there was the change
from the seventh to the first day. we're not under the law
indeed the apostle Paul says to the Galatians stand fast in
the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free we're not
we've been brought away from the law and we serve in newness
of life we serve on the Lord's day remember how John was in
exile for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it's there in the
first chapter of the book of the revelation how that John
was there on the Lord's day on the isle of Patmos and he tells
us that he was in the spirit on the Lord's day I was in the
spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice
as of a great trumpet saying I am Alpha and Omega the first
and the last he was there He was there on the Lord's Day,
in the Spirit, considering the things of God, and the Lord Jesus
Christ appeared to him. What a mercy it is if the Lord
Jesus Christ appears to us on the Lord's Day, if by faith we
are brought to see the Lord Jesus Christ, if by faith we are brought
to hear his voice speaking to us. What a mercy it is, and what
indeed is a great experience for us. It is the revelation
of of Jesus Christ. It is on the first day of the
week that the saints gather together in the book of Acts. It is on
the first day of the week that Paul exhorts that the collection
is to be made for the saints of God. There is that change
from the seventh to the first day. And it is the first day. Monday is not the first day of
the week. the first day of the week is the Lord's Day commonly
called Sunday it is a perpetual reminder that the Lord Jesus
Christ rose from the dead and completed the work of our salvation
remember how the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to his disciples there
in the 14th chapter of John's Gospel that final discourse he
gave to his disciples prior to his crucifixion he says, let
not your heart be troubled ye believe in God and he goes on
to say and I go in my father's house are many mansions if it
were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for
you and that preparation was undertaken upon Calvary's cross
he paid the full price of redemption and then on that first day of
the week he arose up from the grave he arose with a mighty
triumph over his foes he arose a victor from the dark domain
and he lives forever with his saints to reign he arose he arose
hallelujah Christ arose we are to remember the Christian Sabbath
the Lord's day and we are to keep it holy the day is not ours
it is not ours to do as we will it is not ours to, as the poor
Roman Catholics do go to the first Mass of Sunday and then
the day is ours to spend as we like Christian people do not
go shopping on the Lord's Day they do not entertain and go
to the football match or other sporting activities it is a day
to be in the house of God It is a day to join together in
Christian fellowship, one with another. It is a day when we
worship and serve the Lord Jesus Christ and enjoy that presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ more so. than we do in the other days
of the week it is a time to draw near to be with the Lord Jesus
Christ it is a day of remembrance of the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ so we remember the Sabbath day and then if we turn back
to Exodus chapter 13 and verse 3 there is a day to remember, the day of
deliverance. Exodus 13 and verse 3, and Moses
said unto the people, remember this day. Then he gives the reason,
in the which ye came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,
for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out, and from this
place there shall no leavened bread be eaten. Remember this
day. and Moses is speaking about the
deliverance of the children of Israel from the house of bondage
for many generations they had been in bondage in servitude
to the Egyptians now in scripture Egypt is a picture of the world
Egypt is a picture of the worldly life and the prophet Moses and
Moses was a prophet and not only was he the law giver but he was
also a prophet and he spoke to the children of Israel remember
this day in the which ye came out of Egypt and he is reminding
the children of Israel that there was a day when they left Egypt
and if the Lord has been gracious to you and if he's called you
out of nature's night into the glorious light and liberty of
the gospel there was a day in the which you were brought out
of the Egypt of this world and you were brought to the Lord
Jesus Christ remember that day remember that work of grace remember
the Lord's dealings with you His dealings with you have been
very merciful over the years have they not? you can look back
to a time when you were lost in sin you can look back to a
time when you had no desire for the things of God when your attendance
on the knees of grace and your attendance at the house of God
was irksome But there was a day when the Spirit of God came into
your hearts and you were quickened. Paul says, and you have been
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. You were quickened,
you were made alive. And then these things became
very precious to you. You can look back to that time
when you were in the world, lost without God and without hope
in the world. and then you were brought to the feet of the Lord
Jesus and then you walked day by day with him I'm sure that
day that first resurrection day that's recorded in the 24th chapter
of Luke's Gospel was a day that would be remembered for many
years by those two that walked on the road to Emmaus Jesus,
it says, himself drew near and went with them and every child
of God has that experience that Jesus himself draws near and
goes with them and they walk with the Lord Jesus Christ day
by day until they are transported and taken into glory no doubt
Paul could remember, he recounts it often enough you can remember
that time when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him on that
road to Damascus remember that day and I'm sure if you're a
child of God you can remember that day when the Lord spoke
to you and called you by his grace it pleased God that says
the Apostle Paul to reveal his son in me well there was that
day and then Moses says remember it was not by your own efforts
it was not by that which you did it was not by anything that
you could do it was not by your observances it was not by your
crying and groaning in the house of bondage no it was none of
those things that brought you out of Egypt it was the strength
of God oh we have a strong redeemer we have a redeemer who has brought
his people out brought out of the house of bondage for by strength
of hand the Lord brought you out from this place the Lord
did that work says the Apostle Paul to the
Hebrews, that has run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And
what does Paul say about the Lord Jesus? He is the author
and he is the finisher he does everything he is the one that
saved us he is the one who paid the price of our salvation and
he is the one who has redeemed us and called us by his grace
says the psalmist when he speaks of his experience and this is
David speaking he said I waited patiently for the Lord and he
inclined unto me and heard my cry he brought me up he brought
me up also out of an horrible pit out of the mire clay and
set my feet or he set my feet upon a rock and established or
he established my goings and he hath put a new song in my
mouth even praise unto our God many shall see it and fear and
shall trust in the Lord the psalmist is saying it is nothing of him
it is nothing that he has done it is everything that has been
done by his God if we are saved if we have been saved by his
grace if we have been called by his grace it is because of
him because of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the psalmist goes
on to say, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. It is by the hand of God that
we are brought out away from sin away from the old life away
to the Lord Jesus Christ it is God that has done it we were
singing earlier about that complete salvation in our first hymn we
have been made participants in that complete salvation through
our Lord Jesus Christ and then Moses goes on to say there shall
no leavened bread be eaten it might seem strange that Moses
should say that but if we turn to Matthew chapter 16 and verse
6 we read these words of the Lord Jesus Christ now what Moses
is saying is that we are not to have leaven in our bread and leaven is a
symbol of spiritual wickedness and the Lord Jesus is warning
about the spiritual wickedness of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees
the Pharisees were a group a sect within the Israelite religion
that ladened burdens upon the people they added to the law
of God they added and added and added and it became known as
the Tradition of the Elders and the Lord Jesus Christ is saying
beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees I speak it not unto
you concerning bread that ye should beware of the leaven of
the Pharisees then understood they how that he bade them not
beware of the leaven of bread but of the doctrine of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees beware of false doctrine beware of false
teaching says the Lord Jesus Christ the doctrine of adding
to the work of salvation for we cannot add to the work of
salvation and then beware of the doctrine of the Sadducees
now the Sadducees were a group also a sect within Judaism that
denied the resurrection of the dead And there were those that
were to come along later who would deny the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the Apostle Paul,
under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, wrote what we
have now as the 15th chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. There were those at Corinth who
denied the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.
but he says, I delivered unto you first of all that which I
also received how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again
the third day according to the scriptures and he goes on to
draw the implications of that resurrection and he goes on to
say, O death Where is thy sting, O grave? Where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, we are
to remember, says Moses, this day. And then we're to remember the
way in which we are led through life. Deuteronomy chapter 8 and
verse 2. And thou shalt remember all the
way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness. And then there is the purpose of God's leading
us. to humble thee and to prove thee
to know what was in thine heart whether thou wouldest keep his
commandments or no and he humbled thee and Moses goes on to say
concerning that remembrance 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 to remember the
way that he leads us I quoted that hymn of Newton's some time
back that his loving times past forbids me to think he'll leave
me at last in trouble to sink and we can look back, do we not?
and see the Lord's goodness to us how the Lord has led us or
we may not see how the Lord has been good to us in our present
circumstances but when we are brought to glory when we are
brought to heaven when this life is over then we will see the
way the Lord led us was a right way indeed it says in the scriptures
that he led them forth by the right way we are not guided by
luck we are not guided by chance but we are guided by a kindly
hand of providence the Lord guides his people by providential mercies
the psalmist speaks at length about the Lord's leading his
people Psalm 77 verse 20 Thou leadest thy people like
a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron and the Lord leads
his people like a flock there is a difference between the eastern
shepherd and the western shepherd the 20th century 21st century
I should say the shepherd of today drives his flock I come from South Yorkshire and
I often in my youth spent time in the Peak District on the Pennine
Moors and you would sometimes see the shepherd with his sheepdog
driving his flock on occasions I would watch the Longshore Sheepdog
Trials and you would see the shepherd without a word communicating
just by whistling and like with the sheepdogs who would drive
the sheep and they would have to be driven but the Eastern
Shepherd and the 1st Century Shepherd was completely different
from that he leads the sheep the sheep were named they were
part of the family they were like pets in the family and the
shepherd would go forth and just call them and they would follow
him and he would lead them from pasture to pasture you know of
course the 23rd Psalm where David speaks about his being a shepherd
he maketh me to lie down in crank pastures he leadeth me beside
the still waters the Lord Jesus is our shepherd he is the good
shepherd and he knows his sheep remember how he speaks in the
10th chapter of John's Gospel about being the good shepherd
he puts forth his own sheep he goeth before them and the sheep
follow him for they know his voice and a stranger will they
not follow but will flee from him for they know not the voice
of strangers he knows his sheep what a mercy it is that the Lord
knows his people he has known them from eternity past he set
his love upon them he gave them to Christ in covenant bond and
every one of them will be called by his grace everyone will be
called out of nature's night into the glorious light and liberty
of the gospel they will be brought to the Lord Jesus Christ and he goes before them he clears
the way, as it were for them to walk and he leads them from
pasture to pasture and he feeds them, he cares for them. I am
the good shepherd, he says. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. And we look back to Calvary and
we see how the Lord Jesus Christ gave his life, a ransom for many,
for Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And he gave
his life's blood that every one of those sheep would be redeemed. Kent puts it like this, there
is a period known to God when every sheep redeemed by blood
shall leave the hateful ways of sin, turn to the fold and
enter in. The appointed time rolls on apace,
not proposed but called by grace to turn the mind, renew the will. and turn the feet to Zion's hill
every one of them will be saved every one of them will be called
out of darkness into the glorious light and liberty of the Gospel
again this psalmist speaks in Psalm 73 about that leading by
the Spirit Psalm 23 the psalmist says and this is
a psalm of Asaph this time and he says nevertheless I am continually
with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand thou shalt guide
me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory held by the
right hand the little child learning to walk puts his hand or her
hand into the hand of the mother or father and they walk they
stagger as it were step by step until they can walk and they
walk with hand in hand with their father or their mother that the
mercy is that the child of God never takes his hand out of the
hand of God he is held safely he is guided by thy thou shalt
guide me with thy counsel the Septuagint translation of the
Hebrew of the Old Testament uses the root word of Parakletos the
one who comes alongside and he is the one who comes alongside
and guides us through this life when we have difficult decisions
to make we're not left to our own devices but the Lord guides
us we receive his counsel how do we receive his counsel? by
looking at his Word by considering the providences and by praying
also that the Lord would guide his people and then this life
says the Psalmist is not the end and afterward there is that
blessed afterward if there was no afterward, I
would be of all men most miserable because of the providential dealings
of God that have happened to me over the last few months I
would have no hope, I would be miserable but I have that hope
that hope of everlasting life and afterward receive me to glory
and there is that glorious resurrection day when those who have gone
before will be united with loved ones that know and profess the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ and hand in hand they will join
together and enter into heaven and they will worship and praise
the Lord Jesus Christ and then through all eternity to thee
a grateful song we'll raise but oh eternity is too short to utter
all his ways. One further remembrance, Psalm
119 verses 49 and 50 remember the
word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope this
is my comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickened me
then verse 55 I have remembered thy name O Lord in the night
and have kept thy law remember the word perhaps you've been
given a word by the Lord perhaps you're looking for a word perhaps
you are looking for some kind of encouragement well says the
psalmist remember that word and if the Lord has been pleased
to speak to us in days gone by and has given you a promise lay
that promise continue to lay that promise before him until
he fulfils that promise and he has promised I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee I remember the late John Chalk he was a
deacon at Providence Chapel at Chichester he was on his deathbed
in hospital dying of cancer and he said you know there are friends
with the best of intentions and they keep bringing me verses
of scripture and he said they are very kind to do so but what
I need is for the Lord in my situation to apply a word of
scripture to my heart remember the word unto thy servant upon
which there has caused me to hope John Knox lay dying he was
in his bed in that house in that building that is called John
Knox's house whether he lived there is uncertain but he certainly
died there there in Edinburgh and as he was dying he said to
the ministerial assistant who was there by his bed read me
the 17th of John for that is where I first cast my anchor
and in all the trials of life through which he passed he still
had that word given to him in the 17th chapter of John's Gospel
that prayer of the Lord Jesus he cast his anchor in that word
God grant that we might each have those promises of the Scriptures
applied to us by the Holy Ghost and that we might indeed cast
our anchor in the scriptures of truth and that we might know
those things for ourselves by the teaching of the Spirit of
God where our time has gone the first thing that I was going
to speak on it was the principle of remembrance and as I said
earlier it is twofold there is the remembrance that we have
the one final word if I may, it's there in the 24th chapter of Luke's Gospel the appearance
of the angels to the women as they attended the tomb it says
there in the 6th verse of that chapter the angels are speaking
to the women and they say he is not here but is risen remember
how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee and then verse
8 and they remembered his words God grant that we might be brought
to remember the words of the Lord Jesus that we might hide
God's word in our hearts that we might not sin against him
and that we might indeed be brought to remember his truth, his person,
his work and his words what words they are we'll go on later on
with the Lord's help this evening to consider something of the
words that are here in these two verses Firstly then, the
remembrance that we have, and then later this evening to consider
the remembrance that God has. Remember, O Lord, thy tender
mercies and thy loving kindnesses, for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sin of my youth,
nor my transgressions. According to thy mercy, remember
thou me. For thy goodness sake, O Lord.
Amen. And the Lord, at his blessing,
for his name's sake.