Psalm chapter 45. And tonight
we'll be looking at verse 17. The last verse in this psalm. Psalm chapter 45 and verse 17. The title of the message is,
Christ shall be remembered. Christ shall be remembered. The scripture says, I will make
thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall
the people praise Thee forever and ever. Christ shall be remembered. Is it not our human nature to
desire to be remembered? I was thinking of leaders and
the great men of history. These men had either done something
great, or they had ruled over a great people, or they had done
something not so great. And these people are remembered. These people are remembered.
You remember Alexander the Great. You know him. Why? Because he
was given of God to conquer the whole known world in his time. He had done something great.
And he is remembered. We remember people like Abraham
Lincoln. We remember people of great integrity. People who are worthy leaders. We remember David, the king of
Israel. But it's in man's nature to try
to be remembered, to try to leave some kind of legacy behind. They always want to be remembered.
But the thing about man is he never continues. He's never able
to control how he is remembered. Benedict Arnold. We remember
him as a traitor. I'm sure that's not how he desired
to be remembered. And he's only remembered as a
traitor because his side lost. And history records him as a
traitor. You see, he had no control over
his legacy. So some men are remembered for
their greatness, some men are remembered for their treachery.
But I'll tell you what, those memories are not controlled by
them. They have no idea how they're
going to be remembered. And I'll tell you what, we don't
remember them every day, do we? Unless you're sitting in a history
class or something like this where I just mentioned them to
you. I'm sure that was not what you expected to hear when you
came in here. Oh, I can't wait to remember Alexander. No, you
didn't have any thought of him until I brought him up. And I'll
tell you this, Every one of us will not be remembered for very
long. We are remembered maybe for the
generation that follows us or maybe two. If our photographs
linger around for a while, people may pick them up and say, Hey,
who's this? Well, that was Joanne and Gil.
Who? Oh, they were your great, great,
great grand... Oh, okay, put the picture away and never remember
you again. You go out to the graveside and
you read names. What are those names? Who are
they? We don't know. And half the people that knew
them don't know them anymore. They're in the grave with them.
You see, you might as well put on our tombstone, unknown, because
that's exactly what we'll be in a few years, unknown. We will
have lived, we will have died, and we will be forgotten of this
world. We will be. You can mark it down. Scott Richardson said, this life
begins with a slap on the bottom and ends with a shovel full of
dirt in the face. And the only thing in the middle
are bumps and bruises. This life ain't much. This life
ain't much. We will be forgotten. But friends,
there is one man who will never be forgotten. This man will always
be remembered in every generation. He has been remembered in every
generation from the beginning and he shall be remembered in
every generation to the end. Even Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, He will be remembered. He will be. Why? because God
decreed that he should be remembered. Look at our text. I will, God
says, make thy name to be remembered. God says that the name of Christ,
the King, the fairest among men, the mighty warrior and conqueror
of all his enemies, The loving king who rejoices
over his bride, the church. Jesus Christ, the son of God,
will be remembered. Why? Because God said he would.
God said he would be remembered. Jesus was remembered of God from
all eternity. He was remembered of God. He
was known of God. And from all eternity, Christ
was set up to be the mediator of His people. And from eternity,
God remembered Christ in the covenant of grace. Flip over to Proverbs chapter
8. I know you know this, just to be reminded again. Proverbs
chapter 8 and verse 22. This is wisdom which is Christ
speaking. And Christ 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. Go to verse 30. Then was I by him as one brought
up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always
before him, rejoicing in the inhabitable part of the earth,
and my delights were among the sons of men. You see, Jesus Christ
was always rejoiced over by the Father. He was always in the
bosom of the Father from eternity. He was one with the Father, one
with the Spirit. He was God, the everlasting,
eternal Son from the beginning, and God always rejoiced to remember
Him. God always rejoiced in Him. Why? Because He was set up. He was
set up to be the mediator of His people. And then in that
eternal covenant of grace, the Father gave an elect people,
a certain people, a determined people to His Son so that He
would be the surety so that he would be responsible for saving
God's beloved children. When was this? In eternity God
did this. In eternity God remembered Christ,
who took upon Himself the responsibility of us who are His children. You who believe, you who are
believers in Christ, You should take great comfort in this, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. And in Christ, God always rejoiced
over you, because He always rejoiced over Christ. He always remembered
you, because He always remembered Him. When Adam sinned, how did God
come to him? First of all, how did he deserve
that God come to him? God said, In the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. And there was no promise of life
after that. There was no certainty of hope
after he had sinned that there would be any salvation. He had
no word of promise. And so when Adam sinned and God
exposed his nakedness, God came to him not the way he deserved. But he came to him because he
remembered his covenant with Christ. He remembered Christ. And that's how he could come
to him in mercy and compassion. He remembered the covenant of
grace. And therefore, Adam was not consumed. Malachi 3 and verse 6, God says,
Behold, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. It is because God does not change. Because God is immutable. God is unchangeable. And when
God says, I will remember Christ, it is because He always remembered
Christ. Because He always delighted in
His Son. And this is the sole means of
God's long suffering with all mankind. The only reason that
all mankind was not cast into hell was because God remembered
His covenant. God remembered Christ. In the immutable covenant of
grace, unchangeable, God has not nor will not ever forget
the name of His messenger of grace. Ever. Will there ever
be a time that God will not remember Christ and His covenant? Will
there ever be a time? Was there ever a time? We always have to mark eternity
in time, don't we? We always have to say eternity
past, because we have no concept of eternity. But there was never
a time, never a beginning to when God remembered His covenant
of grace. And therefore, there shall never
be a time that God will not remember His covenant of grace. He will
always remember. And He says, I will not. I will make thy name to be remembered. This is God's determinate, unimmutable,
unchangeable will. You want to know what God's will
is? That Christ be remembered. That's God's will. And from the beginning, God has
testified to men of this, hasn't He? From the beginning, God testified
to sinful men, both by two things, by His Word and by tokens of
His grace, tokens of this covenant. When Adam sinned, what was the
Word? What was the word that he gave Adam? The seed of the
woman shall crush the head of the serpent, and he shall bruise
his heel. That's the first witness that
sinful man had of Christ. The first word from God was that
the seed of the woman. Seed of the woman. There's hope.
There's hope. And He also gave a picture of
that, didn't He? By giving them clothes, by killing
that innocent animal and covering their nakedness. He gave them
a token, a picture of how He would come and deliver His people
from their sins. By blood. By blood. By this token, God said there
must be a substitute. There must be a substitute. And from then on, in the Word
of God, God has never left one generation without His Word being
declared among men. Not one from the beginning of
time. God has never left one generation without His man preaching
His Gospel concerning His Son. Not one. We know this, that heaven and
earth are a witness in themselves, aren't they, to men? You cannot look at the... We're
experiencing spring early, and the trees are just beautiful.
They're rich with color, and the birds, and there's life,
and you can't tell me that there was not a creator of these things. Only a fool would be deceived
into that. We know, man knows there's a
God, and man knows that He's just, and man knows that he must
judge sin. But I'll tell you this, man will
never know God by looking at His creation. God did not intend for man to
remember Christ by His creation, or to know His salvation by the
things that are made. How did God determine that men
know Him? Only by His Word. Only by His Word. This is how God remembered Christ
in time. By always sending His man with
His Word at that appointed time. For those particular people,
God sent His Word. And Christ was remembered. Second of all, we see what God
said shall be remembered of Christ. Look at this. He said, I will
make thy name thy name. You see, my son carries my name,
doesn't he? He carries my name. We always say that our children
represent us, don't they? When they go out and they act
a fool, we get embarrassed because they're representing us. They're
showing forth what we believe to be our characteristics that
we taught them. But really, that's not so. We
can teach them all we want to, and really, my name is not going
to be affected by what my son does. My name is going to be
affected by what I do. who I am. So the name of a person
means the characteristics of that person. Who is that person? And what has he done? Those two
things are in the name. Those two things are in the name.
And God says the name of Christ. Will be remembered. His person. His person will be remembered
because of who He is. You see, He's special. He's special. Man thinks that
He's special, doesn't he? Man thinks He's the one that's
special. No. Christ is special. Christ is precious. Christ is
precious because of who He is. He is the only God-man. He's the only one of His kind.
He's the only one in all the universe. He is both God and
man. And this is very good to be remembered
because only God can be righteous. Only God is righteous. Only God
is holy, only God is just. And we're not. But what good does that do us
if God is just and we're not? Nothing. If the Son of God did not take
upon Himself our human nature, there could be no salvation. Why? Because it was man that
sinned and it must be man that suffers. It was a representative man that
brought sin and death into this world, and it must be by a representative
man that sin be removed. Therefore, God sent His only
begotten Son into the world, and He became the God-Man. The God-Man. Jesus is as much
God as if He were not man, and as much man as if He were not
man. He is in person the only God-man. Therefore, He is the only man
that could bring righteousness and forgiveness of sins. He's the only one. There is no
other man. There is no other hope. God purposed that His Son become
the only God-man so that He might merit both righteousness and
suffer for sins. I don't believe that we could
ever wrap our minds around how beautiful that is. How precious
that is. He is altogether lovely and there
is nothing about Him that is not to be praised. God says, I'll make His name,
His person to be remembered from every generation. And He does
this by His Word. Number two, His work. He is remembered
by His work. Jesus being the only God-man,
purposed of God to be the mediator between God and men. This was
His work, to mediate between us. To mediate, to be the high
priest. In our generation, we've never
seen a high priest. In the times of Israel, they
did. Every day, they saw a priest.
Every day, they saw them sacrificing something. They knew that by
their visual that they could understand that they needed a
mediator. That's how God, by His Word,
gave Israel the message of the gospel. But now, we don't ever
see a high priest running around in his robes. I mean, we see
that antichrist walking around in his robes. We need a high priest. Every
man needs a high priest. Every man needs a priest because
a priest is one that intercedes for us with God. And Jesus Christ became that
high priest and He offered the only sacrifice that God would
accept Himself. He offered Himself a sacrifice. This was His work, that He would
come and do what we could not and would not do for ourselves. He came to make an offering that
we could not make. He came to provide a righteousness
that we could not provide. He came to be the sacrifice for
sin. You see, we were born under the
death curse of the law. We were born in bondage to sin.
You know, I never knew a day to be free from sin. Have you?
Have you known a day to be free from sin? You know what that's
absolutely like? I don't know what that's absolutely like.
I've never been a day without sin. Never. We've always been
under the curse of the bondage of sin. And we could never, by our own
strength, make ourselves alive. We could never resurrect ourselves. We could never do anything for
ourselves to make us acceptable to God. This is our hopeless condition
by nature. We could not provide a righteousness
and we could not take off the chains of our guilt. Lord knows we've tried. Lord knows we've tried to remove
our guilt from our conscience. We've tried to hide our sins.
We've tried to cover them, but to no avail. Therefore, the only hope for
sinners is that God in grace would remember his son. The only hope for you and the
only hope for me is the son of God and his offering. And the only way that God will
ever save us is by remembering His offering. God has remembered His covenant
and proclaimed that He will not forget it. Go to Ezekiel chapter
16 with me. Ezekiel chapter 16. Look at verse 59. Thus saith the Lord God, I will even deal with thee as thou
hast done, which has despised the oath in breaking the covenant. That's what we have done. We have broken his covenant. Nevertheless, I like that. Nevertheless, I will remember
my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth. I will establish
unto thee an everlasting covenant. Then thou shalt remember thy
ways and be ashamed. When thou shalt receive thy sisters,
and thine elder, and thy younger, and I will give them unto thee
for daughters, but not by thy covenant. Isn't that great? I'm so glad
that God doesn't remember a covenant that I made with him. Who of
you have made a covenant with God? God, if you'll just do this,
then I will do this. Praise God He didn't remember
that. Because there's nothing in it.
I didn't do it. Whatever it was, I didn't fulfill
it. God says, I will remember My
covenant with thee. Even though you broke the covenant
of the law, yet I have a better covenant and I'll establish it."
I will, God says, take comfort. I have established that covenant
of grace. How? He said, I'll remember the
name of my Son. God made Christ. to be sin for us. We were cursed
by the law, but Christ was made a curse for
us. We were altogether wicked and
unrighteous, but Christ merited our righteousness and has redeemed
us from all our sins. And God has remembered his covenant. God made him to suffer. He made him to bear all our iniquities. In his own body. On the tree, the most precious
being in all the world, the most sinless and perfect being in
all the world, bore the weight and justice and guilt of our
sins because of a covenant that God
made with Him for us, for His people. And because Christ has by His
person and work completely, absolutely, perfectly pleased God, is He not worthy to be remembered? Is He not worthy of this remembrance? I like using my son as an example. I'll tell you, sometimes He does
things and I give Him praise even when He doesn't deserve
it. I'm just glad He didn't do the bad. I'm glad He just didn't
do the worst possible thing He could do. I'm glad He did a little
bit above what I thought He could do. But Christ infinitely satisfied
His Father and was worthy to receive the praise and honor
of God Himself. In Revelation, he is seen as
the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. And
he comes to God, and he takes the book from the hands of God. And God gladly gives it to him. Gladly. He's worthy of it. Which of us could have took that
from God? John wept because there was no
man to open the seals of God's salvation. There was no hope
unless the seals were opened. And there was no hope unless
one was worthy enough to open it. And friends, I am presenting
one before you tonight that was worthy to open the book. and loose the seals of God's
providence and salvation. God says, behold my servant in
whom my soul delighteth. God says, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased and I will make his name to be
remembered throughout all eternity. Now let me ask you, Is there anything that will hinder
his name from being remembered? No. Matter of fact, everything
is moving so that his name be remembered by his people. Well, how long will his name
be remembered? Look at your text, go back. I
will, God says, make His name, His person, and His work to be
remembered in all generations. In every generation that has
been past, every generation in the present, and every generation
in the future of mankind will remember the name of Christ. Even to eternity future His name will forever and ever
and ever and ever be remembered There has never been a generation
that will or ever That has been that is or ever shall be that
will not remember his name now This does not mean that every
man in every generation will remember his name That's not
what it's saying. In every generation, God has
a remnant of people that will remember His name. Now, God always
remembers His name, and God will always exalt His name, but He
will only reveal His name to His people. But His people are in every generation. He has people in every generation. We know that for thousands of
years, the Jews were the only nation to receive God's word
and promises. What about the Gentile nations?
Very few ever heard of a Messiah. Very few. Even after Christ came, there
were many who heard, didn't they? But still refused to remember
His name. Matter of fact, they wanted to
do away with it. They wanted to stamp it out from all remembrance. How'd that work out? How'd that
work out for them? It didn't work out well, because
today and tonight, His name is still being remembered by His
people. He is still being praised. In this religious generation,
there are still men who hear of God's sovereign mercy and
refuse to remember His name. But God's people in every generation,
according to the remnant of grace, will remember. Will remember
His name. Believer, there will always be
someone, somewhere, who believes. Always. You remember Elijah,
when he thought he was the only one? He said, God, kill me, because
there's nobody else but me. Just take me. I'm all alone. Look around you. How many? How many here remember His name? Not many. In that day there were only 7,000.
7,000 out of a nation of 2 million. That's not including the Gentile
nations. There was only 7,000 men that
God reserved to Himself. Friends, it doesn't matter how many, does
it? Sometimes more. Some generations
are more. Some generations are less. But
God's Word is always sure that in every generation, He will
have a people that He will save. He will have a people who will
remember to praise Christ forever. You're not alone. You're not
alone. Don't get the Elijah syndrome. We're not alone. God has a people. God has a people and he will
call them. We who believe on Christ are
part of that remnant. You believe You're part of that
remnant because you remember Him, don't you? Every day. When
do you remember Him? Every day we remember Him. Every
day we believe in Him. Every day we pray to Him. Every
opportunity we worship Him. Isn't that what God declares?
Therefore shall the people praise Thee forever and ever. God's people will always believe. They will always worship. They
will always pray. They will always remember. They will remember Christ. And we will not only remember
him in this world, We will forever remember him in the world to
come. I'm so thankful this is not all
there is. What a despair it would be. If this was all there was. You who are older. You've been through life. Has it not been full of pain
and suffering? Mixed with joy, yes, but really
a burden, a struggle. But one day that'll be taken
away from us. One day the burdens of life will
be gone. All of the burdens of sin removed. And we will forever remember
his name. Worthy is the lamb. To take the book and to loose
the seals thereof. You believe you'll always remember. And I pray that God would comfort
you with this. I pray that God would always
give you a heart of love and affection for his gospel and
his worship. You know, God never keeps his
gospel in one particular nation like he did with Israel anymore,
does he? For thousands of years, God kept
His gospel in that one little nation, and they remembered.
And not all of them remembered, just a remnant of them remembered.
But look what God has done. He set off the gospel in that
small little land of Israel, and then it went out to the Greek
nations. Let me ask you, where are their
churches? Where are they at? They're gone. The light is gone. Why? They neglected to remember. Believer in Christ don't neglect
to remember Christ. It is our privilege, but it is
also our duty to remember Christ. to witness of Christ, to confess Him before men. Don't just remember Him when
you come here. Remember Him every day. He is worthy of our remembrance,
isn't He? I don't remember Him like I want
to. I don't love him like I should. But I'll tell you, he is altogether
worthy to be remembered by his people. I pray God will bless
you. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.