All right, take your Bibles now
and turn with me to Psalm 45. Psalm 45. We will be looking tonight at
the last verse of this chapter. Entitled this message, The Remembrance of Christ. The
Remembrance of Christ. And we know that this scripture,
this text, is God speaking of a good matter. It is the matter
of Jesus Christ, His King. It is the matter of His condescension
of becoming a man so that He should be the fairest of men. And that as a man, grace was
poured into His lips so that He should declare the Word of
God. He came to do a work, a mighty
work, and that was to deliver His people, to ride prosperously,
the scripture says. To conquer His people. And God says of Him, Thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. That Christ did die, and He did
rise from the dead, and He is ascended into heaven, and He
is now seated on the right hand of the Majesty on High. And we know that His garments,
His robes of righteousness, His robe of His high priestly office,
that's what verse 8 is speaking of, those garments, those priestly
garments were anointed in that very special anointing oil made
up of these three these three cents. Christ has been anointed
as our King and our High Priest. And we read in verses 9 through
verse 16, this is what is the accomplishment of what Christ
has done. It is the holiness of His people. He has made us King's daughters,
honorable, pure, holy, He has made us. We are as a queen of
heaven His church is. Dressed in His righteousness,
robed in His holy righteousness. We know this, that all of us
shall be brought to Him. Verse 14, She shall be brought
unto the King. Weren't you brought unto the
King? Didn't He bring you to Himself? And we have this promise
that he will eventually, we all will be brought into his presence
forevermore. And with gladness and rejoicing
shall they be brought. Didn't you come kicking and screaming? Is that how he came? I know this
before I came I was kicking and screaming. But after he called
me, I was no longer kicking and screaming. I was glad. We were brought unto him, we
were made glad. We were brought unto the king's
palace. Instead of thy father's house,
instead of thy father shall be thy children, whom thou mayest
make princes in all the earth. Are we not kings and priests
unto our God? That's what he has made us. He
has made us. You know, I wasn't looking to
be a king or a priest in the things of God. I wasn't looking
for it. I was looking to be king of my own life. I was looking
to be king of my own world. I wasn't looking to be made a
king or a priest under God. But that's what He made me. That's
what He's made you. Kings and priests under God.
Now in this last verse, let's read this together. This is a
decree of God now concerning Christ. He said, I will make
thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall
the people praise thee forever and ever. I was thinking about this, the
remembrance of Christ. What all do you remember, just
concerning your own life? There are very little things
that we remember from our past, isn't there? Joanne, you probably
remember more than anybody else I know, but even that, there's
been a long span of time, and even out of that, there are very
few things that we remember. But listen, God has determined
this. God has decreed this. That the
remembrance of His Son shall remain forever. This is a decree
of God. I will make thy name to be remembered. Christ's name is to be remembered. That's the first point here.
The decree of God that Christ should be remembered. And so
we see that God says I will make thy name. The name of the king,
the name of the one he has been talking about in this psalm,
the name of the fairest among men, the name of the mighty warrior,
Jesus Christ, who has conquered his enemies. He will make the
name of this loving king who rejoices over his bride. He will
make the name of this king and his, of his son. to be remembered forever. Now Jesus, I want you to understand,
was always, has always been on the mind and heart of God the
Father. Always. Before there was anything,
the Father remembers the Son. Always. We go to Proverbs chapter 8 in
the analogy of wisdom. We know this is speaking of Christ.
Proverbs 8 and verse 22 it says, the Lord possessed me in the
beginning of His way before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, wherever the earth was. The Lord had begotten
me. That's what it means, possessed
me. When? In the beginning of His way.
When was the beginning of God's way? We can only have this, when
we say eternity passed, is that something you can grasp ahold
of? It's the only way we can make it fit in our mind. There
is no past in eternity. We have to say it that way because
that's the only way we can rationalize it. When there was nothing, before
there was anything, Christ says, He begot me. I was set up. He was determined
to be the Christ from eternity, wherever the earth was. Now look
at verse 30. Then was I by him, as one brought
up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always
before him. When did God remember Christ? Well, he has always had him in
remembrance, always. Christ was set up from eternity
always to be the surety to take full responsibility for the salvation
of his people. So when Adam sinned and God having
compassion on him, he did not consume him. He did not destroy Adam, nor
did he put his race in chains of darkness as he did the angels. Why? Why did God not come in
vengeance? Why did he come walking in the
cool of the day with such gentle words toward Adam? Adam, where
art thou? Is that how he came to the fallen
angels? No. He came to Adam this way because
he remembered his covenant that he hath made with Christ. He
had remembered Christ. Behold the reason God spared
Adam was his immutable covenant of grace. Malachi 3.6 it says, I change
not, therefore, because I don't change, because I always have
him in remembrance, because I always have his covenant in remembrance. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. The sole reason for God's mercies
and long suffering of this sinful race was because God's immutable,
unchangeable will was never to forget his son. Even as Christ was from eternity
set up to be the surety of God's covenant toward his elect, so
also God had purposed that his name be remembered throughout
the generations of man. Therefore, from the beginning,
God testified to sinful men about what? What was his first testimony
to Adam after his fall? It was to testify of his son. The seed of the woman shall crush
the head of the serpent, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Two
things in that prophecy are very clear. His person and His work. When God would decree that His
Son should be remembered, these two things concerning His Son
are always remembered. His person and His work. And then what did God do? God
not only gave them a word, but he gave them a token, a picture. What was the picture? You remember
the picture that he gave after he had made the prophecy? The
scripture says he took animals, he took skin of animals and he
clothed their nakedness. He made an offering. By the sacrifice
of an animal, their skin, their nakedness should be covered. He was testifying of how Christ
should cover our sin, our guilt and shame. And from that moment on, from
that time forth, I like in Ezekiel, He comes up to the tabernacle.
The angel had brought him through that water and brings him back
up to the source, right? There's a source of this water
coming out of the tabernacle. Just a little trickle coming
out. And he follows it along and it
gets bigger and deeper and deeper and pretty soon it's over his
head. Remember that prophecy, that vision? That's a picture
of the Word of God. It starts out as a small trickle.
Little stream coming from God's throne. And as the years go by,
this prophecy gets bigger and clearer and clearer. Until when? Until Christ comes. Until Christ
comes. And so from that moment on, God
had never left Himself without a witness concerning His Son. that in every generation God
had raised up men to declare his gospel. And so we know this according
to the word of God, according to the prophecies we have in
our hands. God has always, in every part of this book, determined
that you remember one thing, his son. The whole of this book,
the whole of creation, the whole of His Word and His glory is
this, that His Son should be remembered. And listen, if you're
ever going to know Christ, if you're ever going to know Him
so that you should remember Him, it is going to come from this
Word. God will manifest His Son through
this word. It is by the word that he is
made manifest and made to be remembered. I like the way Peter
put it. In 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 10,
it says, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. For if you do these things, you
shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, whereof I would not be negligent to put
you always in remembrance of these things. though you know them and be established
in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet as long
as I'm in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in
what? Remembrance. You see, this is
what we're doing tonight. I'm just putting you in remembrance.
Why? Because God decreed that you,
his people, should remember him. always remember him. We do this
through the preaching of his word. Now then, the second thing,
what is to be remembered about Christ? We are to remember Christ. God had decreed to remember Christ. He had always remembered Christ.
He has always sent his gospel into the world so that his people
should remember him. But what is to be remembered? Well, the scripture says his
name. I will make thy name to be remembered. The name of the only begotten
Son of God, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This, again, constitutes
his person and his work. When we say the name of Jesus
Christ, we're talking about his authority, his position, and
his work. First of all, Jesus Christ must
be remembered in this way. He is the only God-man mediator. I know you understand this, that
a multitude of millions of people, even to this day, believe that
there are more than one mediator between God and man. This happened
during even the Apostle Paul and some of the prophets. Remember
that man, he said, I believe it was, was it Simeon? I think
it was. I don't have it written in my
notes, but you know, he was found out to be a liar. He just wanted
the gift so he can make money off of it. You know what he said
to Paul? Pray for me! Intercede for me! Paul was no mediator. Christ
is the only mediator. I'm not a mediator. You're not
a mediator. The only mediator between God
and man is the man, Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse
5. There is one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ
Jesus. You'd think that that scripture
was so plain it'd destroy that religion, don't you? You suppose
that that should just destroy any religion that has more than
one mediator. But we who believe on Him, we
remember Him as this. He is the God-man. This is important
because only God could provide a righteousness that God would
accept. Only God could provide an offering
that God would accept. But we know this, that it must
not only be God, because only a man could be made a federal
head and a substitute for men. That's very clearly described
in Romans chapter 5. The apostle makes this very clear,
Romans chapter 5 and verse 18. He says, therefore by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one, the free gift upon all men to
justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. God always deals with men in
a federal head. He always deals with men in a
representative. He dealt with us first in the
representative of Adam. When Adam sinned, we all died. And it doesn't matter how people
feel about this. They just don't. That was just so. Wherefore,
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death
passed upon all men, for all have sinned. But this is how
life comes. So as we remember Christ, we
remember him as the only God-man mediator, the only one who is
able to make a righteousness acceptable to God and only one
to offer himself as a sacrifice for sin. Friends, God could not bleed, yet the God-man could. Didn't the apostle tell us in
Hebrews, without the shedding of blood is no remission? No remission? I like that word. I was talking
to Patrick this week and we were discussing that word remission.
You know what that means? Liberty. There is no liberty
without the shedding of blood. There is no forgiveness without
the shedding of blood. There is no pardon. There is
no freedom without the shedding of blood. The Lord told us this
in Leviticus chapter 17 and verse 11. For the life of the flesh
is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make
an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that maketh
atonement for the soul. The only way that we could ever
be saved is by the God-man. The God-man. Even so, God has
caused his person to be remembered. His person. Let us therefore rejoice in remembrance
of his office of his person as our great high
priest and mediator. Secondly, his work. When his
name is to be remembered, his work must be remembered. Jesus
being the only God-man was purposed of God to be the only mediator
between God and man, that he alone could both touch God and
man. He alone could satisfy God. and
represent man before God. Wasn't this in that eternal covenant
of grace? According as he had chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him. In love having predestined
us on the adoption of children, listen, By Jesus Christ. How are you going to be made
holy? By Jesus Christ. How should you be adopted? By
Jesus Christ. How should God love you? By Jesus
Christ. It's the only means. It's a very
narrow means. He alone could satisfy and represent
us. This was his work that he was
sent to do. A work that we could not and
would not do. Could we give ourselves life? What can man do to give himself
life? We know this in the physical
realm there's nothing you can do. How much more true is it in a
spiritual sense? It is impossible for men to give
themselves life. Could they make an atonement
for their sins? Is it possible? Is there anything
that you could offer God? Is there anything that God would
accept of you as a sacrifice for sin? There is nothing. There is nothing in us. And listen,
even if it were possible for us to do it, we wouldn't have
done it. Our nature was set against it. That's why He, in our text, is
said to ride prosperously. He must have ridden prosperously
to save. He had to work. The Son of God,
the God-man, the mediator. The surety of the eternal covenant
had come down to earth and he had come to do a work, a work
that no man could do. He came to save his sinners,
to save his people from their sins. He came to accomplish their
salvation, their freedom, their pardon, and their righteousness. Yet we know this concerning all
of those he came to save. We were born sinners. We were
born under the curse of death, under the bondage of sin and
the law, and we could not by our own strength give ourselves
life or obtain righteousness. What can I do to break these
chains or air throw off my load? Things impossible to man are
possible to God. These things that we had, it
was impossible for us to break these chains to satisfy the justice
of God. Therefore, God in grace had remembered
his son. He remembered the covenant of
his grace. Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 59 says, For thus saith the Lord,
I will deal with thee as thou hast done, which has despised
the oath in breaking the covenant. Is that not what he truly did
with us in Adam? Did he not deal with that according
to what we had done? Nevertheless. That verse scared
me. When I read that, that verse
said, whoo, I'm gonna deal with you after what you've done. Notice this, nevertheless. I
will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth,
and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. 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, I'm not going to do it because
you made a covenant. How many people make covenants
with God? Oh, God, if you'll do this, I'll do that. God doesn't make covenants with
us after ourselves, after our covenants. Listen, he said, I
will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that
I am the Lord. Isn't that amazing? In another part in Ezekiel he
says, I don't do this for your sakes. I do this for my own namesake. God established a covenant with
us. And I'm reminded by that, the picture of that in Mephibosheth.
Aren't you? That covenant was made between
David and Jonathan. And when he remembered Jonathan,
he had mercy on Mephibosheth. The same with us. God will show
us mercy because of the work and the covenant He had made
with Christ. And what is His work? It is to
deliver us from the guilt of sin. Deliver us from the curse
of sin. How should the Son of God deliver
us from the curse of sin? Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. In Galatians 3 it tells us that
He was made a curse for us. You see, God purposed. Take your
sins and make them Christ's. He was made sin for us. I can only grapple with that.
I can't grasp it. I just can't. I can't fully grasp
and understand. God doesn't punish an innocent
man, does he? He wouldn't be just. Yet Christ was without
sin. The only way I can reconcile
it, it was my sin made his own. We were under the curse, but because of God's remembrance
of Christ, he sent him to be made a curse for us and bear
our sins in his own body on the tree. He was made to suffer so
that he should propitiate our sins. And so that his righteousness
should both be imputed and imparted to every elect sinner who believes. because Jesus Christ has by his
person and his work completely, absolutely, and perfectly pleased
God. Listen, he alone is worthy to
be remembered. He alone is worthy to be remembered.
Why do we spend so much time talking about him? Why don't
I spend a lot of time talking about you? No? No? You don't? Scott, you want me to spend some
time talking about you? Why? He's worthy to be remembered. His work was so glorious, so
amazing, that he actually saved his people. When he said it's finished, you
know what? It was finished. It was done. My salvation is done. What did I do? I didn't do a
thing. It was done before I ever knew
it was done. That's how great his work was. It is so perfect that he shall
never fail to bring one of his people, not one of his people,
shall be missing. I tell you what, I can't go down
the road without missing something. Isn't that right? Do you plan
to do something? How often do you just forget
things? I don't want to skip ahead of
my message. How often do you forget Him? I'm saying this because I don't
want to forget it at the end of the message. I want you to
get this. I want you to get this and hold
on. Your salvation really doesn't depend upon you remembering Him. It really depends upon Him remembering
you. Remember that thief, what he
said, Lord? Remember me. Remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. We forget him often. But that's
why God has decreed that his name should be remembered. And
we should constantly be made to remember. This is why we do this, isn't
it? Isn't why we gather together? To remember him? Because we are so prone to forget. And what are we remembering again?
We're remembering His work. We're remembering how glorious
His person is. It was so glorious that God had
decreed that His work be remembered forever. How many people have
tried to do away with the work of Christ? How many? How many
kings and emperors have tried to stamp out His name? It only proves the foolish, the
vanity of it. God said, I will make thy name
to be remembered. And you bet it. His name, His
person, and His work will always be remembered. And that's my
third point. How long will it be remembered?
It will be remembered forever. It will be remembered forever. I just told you this, he had
always been remembered from eternity and he will be remembered in
every generation until eternity future. Again, I gotta use language
that don't make any sense, but it's the only way we can rationalize
it. See, God had put him in remembrance from eternity past and all the
way through time. I want you to know this, that
Christ had always been put in remembrance and in the eternity
future he will always be remembered. There has never been a generation
that has come that now is or ever shall be that the remembrance
of Christ will be neglected. Now this does not mean that every
generation will remember the personal work of Christ. We know
that for thousands of years only a small remnant of people were
given the word of God. We know that the Jews were just
a remnant of those. But God did, for those thousands
of years, always have himself a witness and leave a testimony
of his coming son. While billions of people had
lived and died and never seen or heard of the Messiah, And
even after Christ had come and men had heard of Him, after they
had heard His person, His work of redemption, they still would
not retain Him in their hearts and minds. So it is with this
religious age. God declares by His men the successful
work of Christ, of His salvation, of His forgiveness of sins, His
eternal life, without works. That's what we declare. Salvation
without your help. Salvation without any need of
anything from you. And yet, they only remember his name to
mock it. But God has in every generation
a remnant according to his sovereign election that will always remember
his name. He's talking about you when he
says, I will make thy name to be remembered. Who's going to
be remembering? His people. His people throughout
every generation will always remember his name. They will always believe on him.
for all their salvation. How does this remembrance of
faith then come to man? How is it that you come to know
and remember and adore Him? We know this, it is always through
the preaching of this Word. Always through the preaching
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. And as we read from Peter, he
says, I'm a minister for this purpose to put you in remembrance
of these things. Now then, I pray there is nothing
new that you have heard tonight. You're just remembering. I just
put you in remembrance. That's all it is. We don't try
to come up with something new or novel. That's not our purpose. I remember Brother Walter Groover
used to come in every year at our church and preach. And he
had a tough time. He only spoke in Spanish when
he was down there, and he'd only come to America once a year,
and then he'd try to preach in English. And bless his heart,
it was tough. But you know what? He preached
the same message every year. You know what? It was just as good as it was
before. Why? Because it was about Christ. It didn't change, did it? He
wasn't trying to come up with something new or something novel. He preached Christ. He exhorted
Timothy, Paul exhorted Timothy to preach the word. Wait a second, isn't this thing
already written? I got to come up with something
new? No, no, just preach this. Just preach this. And what do
you do when you preach this? You just put people in remembrance.
Why? Because that's what God decreed.
God said, I will make thy name to be remembered in every generation. In every generation, God has
an elect people and they shall always believe. Sometimes it's
fewer, sometimes it's more, but all of God's people will hear
his name and they will remember him. We believe on Christ, our remnant,
according to the election of grace. We believe who he is. He is the God-man. We believe
his work of grace, his perfect, successful work of redemption. We believe that the Spirit of
God is sent into our hearts to give us life and faith. Therefore,
we shall never leave off remembering and praising Him. And that's the second part of
this. Look at this. Therefore, what's the result when you remember
Him? Look at it. What's the result?
Look at your text. Look at your text. I will make
thy name to be remembered in all generations, therefore shall
the people, what? Praise thee. When God brings his name up to
your mind, what do you do? You praise him. You give thanks
and you praise him. We shall never leave off praising
him. How? How do we praise him? Is
it just by shouting, hallelujah? Is that how you just, I mean,
is that praise, is that what that means? I mean, well, can
be, I guess. You can shout hallelujah and
praise him. But really, are you praising
him without faith? How can you praise him without faith? Without
faith, it is impossible to please God. How do we praise him? We
praise him by believing him. We praise him by believing on
his name. We praise him by worship, by
the hearing of his word, by the study of his word, by remembering
him. We take the Lord's table. What
did the Lord say about that table? As often as you do this, do this
in what? Remembrance of me. So what is
that? What's that ordinance for? It
is a remembrance. What is preaching? It is a remembrance. That's what it is. Constantly
being reminded. We worship him through prayer,
by communing with him. By communing with him. By daily
putting off the old man and his deeds, by daily setting our affections
on things above. That's how we praise him. What
about Thanksgiving? Isn't that a sacrifice of praise?
And what? Thanksgiving. I don't know. Do you murmur? Because I do. I do. You know why I murmur? Because
I'm not thankful. You can't be thankful and complain. otherwise not really being thankful. That's how we praise him, by
giving thanks. For what? For Jesus Christ. I know this about us believers.
Many times our faith is weak. The exercise of grace is low.
We often find ourselves disturbed, disrupted by the things of this
world, and we leave off our praise, our worship, and our prayers
of Him. We leave off being thankful, and we murmur. So then let us who have left
off remember Him. Because by remembering Him, our
love is stirred. What keeps you from sin? What is it that would constrain
you from sin? What does the Word of God testify
concerning sin and keeping us from sin? What is it? It is the
love of Christ that constrains us. It's not my determination. It's not my willpower. It's not
my holy, righteous living. That's not what constrains me
from sin. It is the love of Christ, not
my love for Christ. That doesn't constrain. That's
defeating. If I look at my love for Christ,
that's defeating. If I look at Christ's love for
me, That constrains me. To what? Praise Him. And I'm so thankful that we,
God has not only left His name to be praised in all generations,
but I know this. His name shall be remembered
and praised for eternity. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
and has redeemed us to God out of every nation, kindred, tongue,
tribe, and people. His name will be remembered for
eternity. Isn't that just what our text
said? Did not God tell us it was going
to be remembered forever and ever and ever and ever and ever
and ever? What's going to be remembered?
Thy name. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ
shall be remembered. His person, His work, His offering,
His sacrifice, His righteousness, His love, His mercy, His grace,
His blood, all shall be remembered. And what is the response? Thy people shall praise thee,
how long? Forever and ever. As long as
His name will be remembered, His people will be praising. And listen, this is just gonna
happen. I don't care what men do. God decreed it. Who's gonna stop him from his
name being remembered? You think these men could stop
his name from being remembered? How vain is man and his imagination
to think he could thwart the purpose of God. I'm so thankful. Aren't you thankful
for these remembrances? I hope, pray you are, I hope
God would give this to us and we could stir up our hearts to
remember him. Let's stand.