Psalm 70. Psalm 70. I titled the message, What Do
We Need to Bring to Remembrance? I took that title from the heading
of Psalm 70. to the chief musician, a psalm
of David, to bring to remembrance. This psalm was written to bring
something to remembrance. I think I've got some of those
things that I want to give you tonight. In thinking about this message,
my thoughts went back to when God created Adam. God created a perfect man. Adam
knew no sin. Adam had perfect use of all his
faculties. Can you imagine that? I can't
even begin to imagine what it'd be like to have full use of my
mind and all that God's given me, my senses, to have full use
of them. But when sin came in, when Adam
sinned, it marred all his abilities. Now we don't have full use of
anything. That's so sad. It's so sad. Sin has taken over our bodies,
our minds, our emotions, affections. Sin has taken over all of it.
And now we are so forgetful of those things which we ought to
remember. This is the thought that really stayed with me. I
have stayed away from doing this one
for, what, three weeks at least? And here in the last couple of
days, that word right there, remember. Bring to remembrance. And I thought, boy, there's so
many things I forget, so many blessings, so many blessings. We forget things we ought to
remember, and we remember things we ought to forget. That's just
the way our mind works. But I thank God there is one
who remembers us. God remembered Noah. in that
ark. He remembered the covenant he
made with Abraham. That thief on the cross said,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said,
today you'll be with me in paradise. Listen to these scriptures. In
Ecclesiastes 12.1, Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy
youth. You know, it's just... I can't express how great it is when God saves
a young person, when He saves someone in their youth, and their
youth is not spent in sin and self, but spent in remembering
God. thinking upon Him, knowing Him.
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the
evil days come not." He's not talking about golden years. You
know, the Bible don't talk about the old ages, golden years. It
calls it evil days. Pain of the body and the mind
slips. Everything starts to deteriorate.
You know, the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no
pleasure in them. I have no pleasure in them. Revelations 2.5, "'Remember therefore
for whence thou art fallen, and repent.'" Speaking there to the
church. "'And do the first works, or
else,' he said, "'I'm going to come and remove the candlestick.'"
And then in Luke 22.19, it says that, "'The Lord took bread,
He gave thanks, broke it, and gave it unto them, saying, "'This
is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of
me.'" When I read that, I think it's
so sad on my part that I have to be told to remember the Lord. That I have to be told that.
You know, when the Lord asked Peter if he loved Him, and about
the third time, Peter was... it just broke his heart. It disturbed
him. It should have disturbed him
the first time the Lord asked him. It ought to disturb me if
my wife asked me one time, do you love me? She shouldn't have to, should
she? I should be expressing that love daily. When I read that
about Peter, said the third time, it really just broke his heart,
but it should have broke his heart the first time when the
Lord said, Peter, do you love me? And this is after he denied
him. This do in remembrance of me."
So this psalm is to bring to remembrance. What are we to remember? I'm just going to give you some
things that I think we are to remember. Strive to remember. Strive to keep them before us
constantly. First of all, we need to remember
that God is our God. God, the God of salvation, the
God of creation, is our God. We do not believe in an idol.
We do not believe in a God that does not exist. The very God
of heaven and earth is our God. I'll be their God and they will
be my people. We should keep that in front
of us. We should always keep the being
of God before us, and we should always keep who He is, His character. Not just the fact that He is,
but the character of God before us, holy and just, gracious and
merciful. This is our God. This is our
God. You know, the old saying goes
like this, out of sight, out of mind. That's sad but true,
isn't it? We usually think most upon what
we're looking at all the time. That's what we usually think
of. But listen here to what David said in Psalm 16.8, I have set
the Lord always before me. I have set Him always before
me, because He's at my right hand, I shall not be moved. We
should keep His greatness, His power, His love, and His mercy
always before us. We should live in the reality
of that. You know, it's one thing to hear
these words, but it's another thing to meditate upon them and
to digest them, to take them into ourselves. The greatness
of God, the immenseness of God, the power of God, everything
right now is working by His power. He has the power to make everything
work for your good and my good. He makes everything work for
our good. By His power, He does that. And His love, who can express
the love of God? It's an everlasting love. There's
never a time God did not love me. There was a time I did not
love Vicki because I didn't know her. I didn't know her. I met her when we were just teenagers.
But before that, I didn't know her. But it cannot be said that
there was a time that God did not know me. He's always known me. And I don't
mean just know my existence, but He's known me in a special
way. And the same with you, you who
believe. God has always known you in a special way. He's known
you in covenant. I'm so glad that God is a covenant
God because God Almighty never breaks His covenant. Never! Never
breaks His covenant. We should think upon His mercy.
It's written in Psalm 23 that His mercy shall follow us all
the days of our lives. God's mercy is continually on
us. We should always keep that before
us. And we should always keep the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the author and finisher of our faith, always before us. His
character, His person, the God-man, substitute, high priest. He's everything to us. The Lamb
of God, the atonement, His blood of atonement, His righteousness.
Everything we need, we have in Jesus Christ. Our thoughts should
be upon Him daily, as often as we can, because I know we have
to work and we have to give our thoughts to other things at times,
but He should always be before us. Always. And I know this, the more we
keep God in our thoughts and before us, the more peace we
will have. You want peace? You want peace of heart, peace
of conscience? Think upon the Lord. Keep Him before you. Listen
to this scripture, Isaiah 26.3. Now let me say this, the Word
of God means what it says. I don't get that across to myself. It means what it says. Now listen,
Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. That's a promise of God. If my mind is stayed on the Lord
Jesus Christ, He will keep me in perfect peace. That peace
which comes from above. Not a false peace, but His peace. He said, My peace I leave with
you. The peace that He enjoyed, He
gives to us. And He says here, Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee. There's how
you get it. There's how you get it. Think upon the Lord often. And
then secondly, we need to remember our need of His deliverance continually. I don't just need deliverance
from a place you call hell. I need deliverance daily. I need
deliverance from the indwelling sin. And I know you are just like
me. And I pray. I pray every day. Every time
I pray, I always pray, Lord, help me to overcome indwelling
sin. I know that old nature is still
there. And I struggle with it. And I know you struggle with
it. And the only one who can enable us to overcome indwelling
sin is Christ. So we need to remember our need
of His deliverance. God is the source of our help
at all times. Not sometimes. It's not like
I can walk part of the way, and then when it gets rough, I need
Him. No. I need Him all the way. I need the Lord to carry me.
Psalm 121, verse 1 and 2, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,
from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth. Don't be afraid to say that.
Don't be afraid to say that out there, not just in here. Sometimes
I think we're afraid of sounding like these religionists that
are lost, but don't let them shut you up because of their
foolishness. I know what I'm talking about when I say this.
I know what I'm talking about. My help cometh from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth. Listen to Isaiah 31. Woe to them
that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust
in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because
they are very strong, but they look not unto the Holy One of
Israel, neither seek the Lord." Don't go down. Don't turn to
the world for help. Turn to the Lord. He'll answer. He'll send help in due time.
We just turn to Him. And then thirdly, we need to
remember His mercy and compassion fell not. They are new every
morning. You and I are here tonight. You
know why? Because His mercy and His compassion
fell not. There can be a thousand things
that could have stopped us from being here today, and He kept
them away. Satan, there's nothing Satan
would love more than for you to stay at home. But he didn't
allow it. God didn't allow him to do it.
Believe me, he would throw everything in your way to keep you from
being here. But God didn't allow him to do it. You know, I think
one of the things that would be surprising, probably one of
the most surprising If the Lord opened our eyes to it in glory,
not now, but in glory, if He opened our eyes to how many times
He delivered us from those things we can't see, how many times
our lives have been saved and never even knew it, and He kept
the danger back, and we never knew it. Never knew it. Oh, His mercy. and His compassions
fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is His faithfulness." Boy, that's one of the many things
we can say about our Lord. Faithful, faithful, faithful.
He never fails to be faithful. And then fourthly, we need to
remember His promises. That's the reason that song I
chose, standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises. God cannot lie. Isn't that comforting? God cannot lie. Satan can't tell
the truth, but God can't lie. Whatever God has promised in
this book, He will do it. Because He's honored His Word
above His name. Because if His Word's no good,
His name's no good either. A good name is better to be had
than silver and gold, Solomon said. Our God cannot lie and He will
fulfill all His promises. You and I need to get in this
book and search out the promises of God. They belong to us. They
belong to us. You'd think we'd know them by
heart. You know what? You would think now from Genesis
to Revelation, we would know all the promises of God by heart. Probably can't quote more than
two or three of them. And fifthly, we need to remember
the deliverances that we have received in the Lord Jesus Christ
from sin, That sin nature that dominated us, that reigned as
a king, He's delivered us from its power. Sin shall not have
dominion over you. He delivered us from death. That
second death, that's what I'm talking about, the second death.
That lake of fire, the wrath of God. Satan, we've been translated
out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear
Son. We are in that kingdom right now. I live in His kingdom. I operate in His kingdom. That's
what I'm concerned with more than anything else is the kingdom
of God. That's why I'm here preaching.
I'm preaching to His children who are in the kingdom. The kingdom
of God. He delivered us from the grave.
The grave is not going to hold us. We ought to be able to look
at the grave as just a well-made bed, a comfortable place to rest,
these bodies, until he comes. He's overcome the grave. Not everyone has this blessing,
you know that? Paul said, all men have not faith.
Not everyone has the blessings that we have. In fact, I think
few have it. These are the things that I thought
of that we need to remember. Now let's look at the prayer
here briefly. Let's look at this prayer briefly. And keep in mind,
when David, as he prays here, this is also our Lord, the Spirit
of Christ, praying in David. This is Him speaking. And the
first thing He does, He prays for help. We need help. We need help. Don't be afraid
to ask for help. I know a man, one of the things
he boasts about is that over the years he's never had to ask
for help. Well, I have. Have you ever had to ask for
help? Don't be afraid to ask for help.
Don't be too proud to ask for help. We're needy creatures.
Poor and needy need help. If you're needy, you need help. He prays for help, and our Lord
prayed for help. Now listen, if Jesus Christ prayed
for help, how much more should I pray for it? How much more
me? He prayed for deliverance from
His enemies, and He prays for quick deliverance. We have enemies. We have enemies. It's just that the Lord keeps
them back. He may let them aggravate us
a little here and a little there, but it's His hand, it's His power
that holds them back, or you and I wouldn't be able to live
here. He prays for help, for sometimes
our case is more urgent than at other times. He prays for
the Lord to do so quickly. You know, our Lord did. David
did. And there's times when we need to pray, Lord, help me now.
Help me now. I tell you what, if God ever
puts you through a hard trial, you will. You'll learn how to
pray for help quickly. Quickly. I remember, I won't tell this. I'm hesitant, I'm hesitant. Henry
told us in the preacher school, don't use yourself as an example.
Don't use yourself, your wife, your family. Don't use, because
everybody will think you're the one that, you know, you're the
standard. Christ is the standard. But it's been years ago. I was
probably 20, 23, that's after I heard the gospel, 23, 24. I'd
lost my job. And we were broke. I mean, we
were broke. And at that time, unemployment
was nothing. I mean, it was nothing compared
to what I was making. I was making really good money.
And then, anyway, make a long story short, I remember just,
I prayed, Lord, I need help and I need it now. And that got on
the phone ring just as I was, at the same time I was praying,
the phone rang and I got the help I needed. Urgently. Urgently. Make haste. That's what I was
praying, Lord, make haste. Make haste. And the phone rang
as I was praying. I answered the phone and there
was the help. Don't be afraid to ask God for
speedy deliverance. Make haste, He said unto me.
And then David acknowledges his unworthiness in this prayer. We don't pray because we deserve
it. We don't pray because we deserve
what we're asking for. That's the one thing that you
and I need to know. Every time we pray, we don't
deserve what we're asking for. We don't deserve it. And David
says here, and this is our Lord praying also, I am poor and needy. The Scripture says He became
poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. Needy? He had no place to lay His head. He said the foxes have holes,
the birds of the air have a nest, but the Son of Man has no place
to lay His head. The One who created heaven and
earth had no place to lay His head
on this earth. No pillow. Even though he owned all things,
as a man he owned nothing. He didn't own an inch of ground. I am poor and needy, and this
is how we are spiritually, poor and needy, but thank God you
are, because that's the kind of people He saves, poor and
needy. We need to remember this. We
need to recognize our condition, poor, and we need to recognize
our position, needy. I'm poor and needy all the time.
Every morning I wake up, I'm poor and needy. Think about David is the one
praying here, and the Lord Jesus Christ praying here, the greater
David. And the Lord Jesus Christ owned
all things. He said, I own the cattle on
a thousand hills. If I was hungry, I wouldn't tell
you. David's the king of Israel. He's
the king of Israel. And yet he felt that poverty
of spirit. And I'm telling you this, our
Lord felt everything about us. We have
a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Am I poor and needy? He became poor and needy. He
knows what that's about. And then David also here prays
against his enemies. He prays that they will not succeed
in their plots of wickedness. And this is a prayer of our Lord.
This is a prayer of our Lord. Our Lord said this in the Psalms,
Do not I hate them with perfect hatred? He said, I pray for them,
I pray not for the world. There are people He does not
pray for. He intercedes for a multitude
of sinners given Him by the Father, but there are people He does
not intercede for. And He prays that their plots
against Him will fail. He said, Let them be turned back
for a reward of their shame. Let that be their reward. Let
their shame be their reward. They say, Aha! Aha! which is
a form of mockery. It's like saying, Ha! Ha! Ha!
I told you so. That's what they're saying. Ha!
Ha! I told you so. Right in your face. And this
is what they did to our Lord at the cross. Look in Matthew
27. Look in verse 29. And when they had plaited a crown
of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right
hand, and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying,
Hail, King of the Jews. They spit on him, took the reed,
and smote it on his head. They mocked him. Look in Luke
22. In Luke 22... Let me get there
first. In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22...
In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke
22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In
Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In
Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22...
In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22...
In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In
Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke
22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22...
In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke 22... In
Luke 22... In Luke 22... In Luke And then in Luke 23, look in verse
11. You'll see here how everybody
mocked him. The people mocked him, the soldiers mocked him,
and Herod mocked him. And Herod, with his men of war,
set him at naught, made nothing of him, and mocked him, and arrayed
him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. And then
look in verse 36. And the soldiers also mocked
him, coming to him and offering him vinegar. He says, let them be turned back
for a reward of their shame that say, aha, aha, mocking him. It was a form of mocking. It's
happened to our Lord. He says, I pray that the enemies the enemies of grace, the enemies
of Christ, the enemies of the cross will be put to shame as
their reward. Can you imagine when people wake up, when they
die and they wake up and they face Him whom they mocked and
made fun of? I've had people to make fun of
right to my face of the gospel, the message. And when they die, when they
die, it's going to be, son, remember. It's going to be, son, remember
when you mocked, when you made fun of the gospel. And then David here, listen,
David here, and the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ, prays
for his friends. He prays for deliverance. He
prays for speedy deliverance. He prays against the wicked,
that they will not prosper, that they will be turned back. And
then he prays for his friends. He prays for the spiritual well-being
of his friends. You can see verse 4 has an intercession
of our Lord for us. This is for us. Let all those
that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee,
and let such as love Thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified. Here He prays for their joy, our joy. That's why Paul always wrote,
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. But our
Lord here prays for our joy and our gladness. As we pass through
this life, We pass through the water and through the fire. We
pass through trials and heartaches. But there's a real joy in the
Lord. There's a real joy in Him knowing that all things are of
Him. He's controlling all things.
And in a little while, we'll be with Him. This will be over. This will all be over. And He identifies His friends
here. Now notice. David identifies
his friends as those that love thy salvation. Who are your true friends, really?
Who are your true friends that you want to be with? The ones
that you put forth an effort to be with. The ones that you
are glad to see coming. For every child of God, Here
it is, those that love thy salvation. They love Jesus Christ who is
their salvation. We love the same Lord. We seek
His glory. Peter, he said, Do you love me?
And Peter said to him, Lord, you know all things, you know
that I love you. You know I love you. You know
my heart. I'm glad the Lord can see my
heart. He knows my sins before I was
ever born. But He knows this too. He knows
this. Lord, you know I love you. It's
weak. It's pathetic. But I do love
you. I do love you. Listen, they love the Lord
Jesus Christ who is their salvation. They love the way God saves them
in Christ alone. I love the salvation of the Lord. I love that salvation is of the
Lord from Alpha to Omega. I love the fact that I don't
have to produce anything because I can't. I can't. I love His blood alone. I love His righteousness alone. I love His grace alone. I love
His person alone. And I can tell you this, that love
is expressed in our life, in our everyday living. That love
is expressed. If it's there, it's expressed.
If it's not there, it's not there. And you can't make it be there. And I tell you this, they love
thy salvation, they love the sureness of it. It's sure. It's a sure thing. Salvation in Christ is a sure
thing. It says, He shall not fail. He
shall not fail. And in closing, let those who
love thy salvation say continually, let God be magnified. And it
means this, let His glory continually increase. Is that not our desire? Our desire is not that our riches
would increase, it's not that our reputation would increase,
it's not that anything about me would increase, but that the
glory of my Lord would increase. That He would enable me to preach
His glory as I ought to preach it, beyond my abilities to preach
it. Let Him be magnified. You know when you magnify something,
what do you do? It just gets bigger and bigger, don't you?
You take a magnifying glass, you put it over there, you can
take it away from it like that, and the Word just gets bigger
and bigger. I tell you what, if God, if God Almighty, if the
Lord Jesus Christ is less than when we started, we've got a
problem. We don't have the right one. God today ought to be more
glorious to us Salvation in Christ ought to be more glorious to
us than when we began. It ought to be a lot more glorious
to us than when we began. Let them continually praise Him
from whom all blessings flow. Let them continually be witnesses
to God's salvation of them in the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine the privilege
the blessing of being allowed to be a witness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord said to Paul, I have
chosen you, you are a chosen vessel to be a witness of the
things you've seen and heard. And you and I have the blessing,
the privilege of being a witness of the things that we have seen
and heard. out of the Word of God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing that God would
allow a wretch like me to stand here and do this. Let's remember to give Him the
glory due His name. Let's remember to do that day
by day. Let's remember to do that first
thing in the morning and the last thing at night. Give Him
the glory due unto His name.