Turn, if you will, to the book
of 2 Peter. 2 Peter. The name of the message
is remembrance. Now, in our lives, we remember
a lot of things, don't we? We remember childhood memories.
Sometimes we'll get together with our brothers and sisters
in the flesh, and we get to talking about things that we did as kids,
and those memories will come flooding right back in, won't
they? Just like they were yesterday. And sometimes we can get together
with friends who we grew up with, and we start talking with them.
And next thing you know, it's like we're right there again.
And we remember those things. And then we remember different
people who came through our lives through the years. And we remember
the joy that we have with one another as fellow believers in
Christ. And we cherish that, don't we? Well, today I'm going to bring
forth a topic that you all know, but I'm going to do what Peter
says and bring this to remembrance. And actually, this is something
that gospel preachers do every week. We're going to see in the
text today how important it is to have this brought forth before
us. In this wonderful epistle written by the Apostle Peter,
he brings forth that all who have obtained like precious faith,
and we've obtained it, we didn't earn it, right? In no way did
we merit it. It was given to us. By the grace
and mercy of God, it was given to us. We've obtained it. It's
a gift. When someone gives you a gift, you just receive it,
right? That's all. And they give it because they
love you, and they care for you, and it's a manifestation that
they care for you. We've obtained like precious
faith, and again, like precious faith. The faith that we have
is the same faith Abraham had, the same faith the Apostle Paul
had, the same faith Peter had, the same faith John had. We all
have the same faith. We who are true, born again,
blood-washed believers. So people say, well, look at
David, he had such strong faith, or Abraham, he had such strong
faith. It's all the same faith, though. Now, I might have weak faith,
and you might have strong faith. according to the measure of God's
grace. But it's still saving faith, isn't it? If it has one
object, then that's the Lord Jesus Christ. If it looks to
Him alone, as Sister Kathy's saying, He's our only plea, He's
our only need. It's the same faith, though. Oh my, and we've been given that.
It's a gift from God. And we are also to make our election
and calling sure, which we see in verse 10 of this chapter.
Now there are countless people who profess Christ, but they're
not born again. They confess to know Christ,
but they're not born again. In the Lord, our master said,
you must be born again, right? He said those words. Those are
not the opinion of man. Those are the words of God incarnate
in the flesh. And he said, you must be born
again. You must be born from above. You must be born by the
Holy Spirit of God. And that's a spiritual rebirth,
isn't it? That's regeneration, we call it, right? The circumcision
made without hands upon our hearts. And there's countless people
who profess Christ, but they've never been born again. So we're
to examine ourselves. Scripture tells us to examine
ourselves whether we're in the faith, whether Christ is our
only plea, whether he's the only one we're resting in. Because
I'll tell you what, if you're resting in just a pinprick of
something you did, you're not saved. The believer rests and
trusts wholly in Christ and him alone, nothing else. His work,
what he has done, So we're to examine ourselves with diligence,
which means to use speed and to prompt or earnest. And also,
people sometimes say, well, I can come to Christ whenever. The
scripture says now is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation. Today. We don't know if we have
tomorrow. This is why the gospel preacher,
we say, flee to Christ. Don't wait till tomorrow, because
tomorrow might not come. We don't know. We don't know
what's on tomorrow. Now, God knows what's on tomorrow,
right? Remember that rich man who made all them plans and built
a bigger barn, said, oh, I've got all my stuff, and I'm going
to just load these barns full? And said, thou fool. He didn't take things concerning
his soul, did he? He took things concerning wealth
and prosperity. but he ignored the state of his
soul, and he perished that night in his sins. So now is the accepted
time, now. And every true believer trusts
in the complete, perfect, sin-atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's my hope, is that when Christ died on that cross, that
death of his was so perfect in the eyes of God, it satisfied
all that was against me. It satisfied the law, and His
death, when He died on that cross, He extinguished the wrath of
God that was against me. Is it so for you? Amen. That's our hope. That's our plea.
And you know what? In glory, we'll be singing, worthy
is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.
receive glory and honor and praise and blessing it all goes to him
beloved he gets all the glory so with that in mind let's read
verses 1 to 15 here of 2nd Peter chapter 1 Simon Peter a servant
and apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained look
at that we have it right now We've obtained, what? Like precious
faith, God has given us as a gift, faith in Christ Jesus our Lord,
faith to look to Christ. We've been saved by the grace
and mercy of God. When did we receive that faith?
After we were regenerated. We didn't believe and then we're
born again. No, we were born again and then we were granted
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that shows that it's
a work of God, not of man. That's very important. That's
very important. Look at that. Receive like precious
faith with us through what? The righteousness of God. Who's
the righteousness of God? The Lord Jesus Christ. So we've
received this grace and mercy through our Lord. The righteousness
of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace. No,
grace always precedes peace. No grace, no peace. Grace always precedes peace.
Grace and peace, what? Be multiplied to you. And it is. Every day, isn't it? Every day. Unto you through the
knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus, according to his divine
power, look at this, so there's no power of man going on here,
right? According to his divine power, hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness." Look at that.
He's provided for us for our whole life while we're here on
this earth. He keeps us. He strengthens us. By His grace,
He carries us. Right? Because otherwise, we'd
just wander off. This is how carrying—our God
is not indifferent. The gods of the Romans and the
pagans, their God was Well, they hoped that he'd listen to them. Of course, they were praying
to stone, so there's nothing going to come. But our God is
right with us. He says, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. That's how close he is to us.
He knows every single heartache, every single thing we go through,
everything. And he's right there to comfort
us, right there. Oh, what a great God we have.
through the knowledge of him that called us to glory and virtue.
Look at that, who did the calling? God called us, didn't he? Oh,
what mercy that is. God called us. God called we
who are his people. Remember he called Lazarus, come
forth? He called our name in the preaching of the gospel,
didn't he? Oh my. And what did we do? We came forth
like Lazarus did out of the deadness of our sin, didn't we? We were
dead in trespasses and with no hope, no ability to save ourselves.
And he called us by his grace. Oh, he redeemed us from the slave
block of sin, beloved. We were slaves to sin. We were
chained up by our sins. He cut us free, beloved, set
us free by his death upon the cross. by His divine power, whereby
are given unto us, again, it's given unto us all grace. We just
see grace upon grace upon grace here, pressed down and overflowing,
don't we? Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all
diligence, add to your faith virtue into virtue knowledge,
into knowledge temperance, into temperance patience, into patience
godliness, into godliness brotherly kindness, into brotherly kindness
charity, which is love. For if these things be in you
and abound, they make that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh
these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten
that he was purged from his old sins. Look at verse 10 here. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
give diligence to make your, in that speed or quickness, to
make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things,
you shall never fall. For so in the entrance shall
be ministered unto you abundantly to the everlasting kingdom of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherefore, I will not be negligent
to put you always in remembrance. Here we go. There it is. Always put you in remembrance.
Paul is not going to be slack. He's not going to be carefree
in putting you, putting these, or Peter I mean, is not going
to be slack and careless in reminding, reminding the people he's writing
to, and the people he's preaching to, the great things that God
has done for them. And he's just going to keep on
saying, look at this, put you always in remembrance of these
things, though you know them, even though you know these truths,
I'm going to keep preaching to you. That's what Peter's saying
to them. And be established in the present
truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle,
to stir you up by putting you in remembrance." There it is
again. So twice now he's talked about putting the readers of
this epistle into remembrance. Knowing shortly that I must put
off my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shelt me,
moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decrease,
have these things always in, again, remembrance. So he's saying,
after I die, Peter's saying, after I die, I want you to have
this in remembrance. I'm gonna preach it to you, and
I'm gonna preach it to you, and I'm gonna preach it to you to
keep you in remembrance of the great things Christ has done.
And see, the amazing thing with we preachers, we have so much
material to preach from, right, in the scriptures, but the message
is always the same, isn't it? It's always about what Christ
has done for us, whether we're preaching in the Old Testament
or the New Testament, whether we're preaching shadows or pictures
or whether we're preaching the substance. It's always about
Christ. A Christless sermon isn't even
worth speaking. It isn't even worth speaking.
There's a story that Spurgeon used to tell that this old preacher
came here, this young preacher, And after the preacher was done,
he went down and said to the old fellow, he said, well, what'd
you think? What'd you think? And he says, it'd be better if
you never even spoke that sermon. He says, well, what do you mean?
He says, you didn't even talk about Christ in it. He says, you need to start your
sermons with Christ, you need to sustain your sermons with
Christ, and you need to finish your sermons with Christ. And
he says, when you learn that, you get back in the pulpit. That's
pretty harsh, right? But he's just telling the truth
though, isn't he? Because this is what we preachers do. We proclaim
and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We like to
put you in remembrance of the great things Christ has done.
Now we see here in verse 10 that we're to examine ourselves whether
we're in the faith. I ask you this, do you believe
that you're saved by Christ alone plus nothing? I mean absolutely
nothing, nothing added to that, only Christ and him alone. True
believers believe that. They say, yeah, I believe that. Do you believe that only the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ will make you acceptable
before God and not anything you do at all? A true believer says, yeah, I
believe that. If you listen to some of the modern preaching,
there is hardly any talk about the righteousness of Christ.
You know why? Because they're going about to
establish their own righteousness. And I'm talking modern religious
preaching. That's why we grace preachers
key so much on the righteousness of Christ. That's why it's so
important. because the righteousness of Christ is the only thing that
will make us acceptable before God. And in Romans chapter one,
it says that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God, which
is Christ. That's how important it is. It's very, very important. It
must be spoken of. And then I ask you this, is Christ
everything to you? Is he your only plea, as Sister Kathy's
saying? Is he your only rest? Is he your only hope? Is he your
city of refuge? That's what true believers believe.
We cast aside any strength of ours, any doing of ours, and
we say, it's all rubbish. If I'm to be saved, I'll be saved
by Christ and Him alone, period. And see, it's not It's not an
examination of ourselves, because if we start to examine ourselves,
our sinfulness, we'll be down on the ground going, how can
I ever be saved? See, it's about what we think
about Christ, who Christ is to us. It's all about Him, beloved.
We're just receivers of this grace and mercy. See, religion tells you, well,
you're not doing this, and you're not doing that, and you're not
doing that, you're not doing this, you're not doing that,
you're not following our checklist, you're not, you're not, you're
not, you're not. And Christ says, look unto me and be saved. He'll straighten us out, won't
he? And he does. He does. He corrects us as his people,
doesn't he? As I said this morning, sometimes we get right between
the eyes when we're listening to a message. He'll straighten us
out. And we believe what the scriptures say, too. That's another
thing, too. Do you believe what the scriptures
say? Do you believe God at what he says? Do you believe that
Christ, the scripture says, he's the word incarnate. Do you believe
that? God's people believe that, don't we? We believe what, we
might not understand it all, and we know we're due. We're
just scratching at the surface, even in a whole lifetime. But
we believe whatever he reveals to us, we believe, don't we?
And how do we believe? By God's grace. By God's mercy. See, it all circles back to Him,
doesn't it? It all circles back to Him. Now, we believe that
salvation's all of God and that faith and repentance is a gift
to God, don't we? And we believe we've been saved. If we're saved,
we're saved by the divine power of God. It's all by Him. the
life-given power of God, all alone, according to His mercy
and His grace, which was bestowed upon us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. Now, we don't understand that
all, do we? When the Lord saves us and we start to learn more
about the fact that He's loved us from eternity, my goodness. We can just barely grasp that,
can't we, really? But it's true. The Word proclaims
it and we're true, we're chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Why were we chosen in Christ? Because God loved
us from before the foundation of the world. That's incredible.
Think of the love that we feel from our spouses or from our
family members and how that warms our hearts, right? But that's
nothing compared to how much God loves his people. Oh, it's amazing. And when we
hear the gospel, we're reminded of what Christ has done. When
we partake in the Lord's Supper, it says right here, right? This
do in remembrance of me, in remembrance of Christ. So when we take the
Lord's Supper, we're remembering what Christ has done for us.
When we hear the gospel, it's a constant reminder of what Christ
has, and remember this, what he's already done for us. What
he did 2,000 years ago for us, he saved a wretch like me. Mine. And if you're a believer, he
saved a wretch like you, too. Some people say, well, don't
call me a wretch. John Newton penned that way,
didn't he? We were chained up by sin, weren't we? We were slaves
to sin. We were in a wretched situation. And the Lord saved us and delivered
us, beloved. Oh my, what a great God. And then when the baptism's done,
we're reminded that the Lord Jesus Christ was buried and rose
again for us. Oh, it's wonderful. And notice
how Peter's bringing forth that we are to put in remembrance
the things that he's bought forth so far. The preaching of the
gospel is the proclamation of the wondrous work of redemption
that Christ has already completed. It's already done. It's already
done. And he accomplished that work
of redemption in our place. What caused him to do that? His
everlasting love for us. His everlasting love caused Him
to do that for us. Let's read verses 12 to 15 again. And remember, the Lord's brought
us here each week to have this brought to our remembrance as
believers. It says, wherefore I will not be negligent to put
you always in remembrance of these things, though you know
them, and be established in the present truth. So even though
you're established in the truth, Peter says, I'm going to keep
preaching this. I'm going to keep preaching this. Yea, I think
it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by
putting you in remembrance. He's saying, I'm not going to
preach anything but Christ and Him crucified. Isn't that wonderful? He says, I'm just going to keep
bringing Christ before you. As long as I'm alive, I'm going
to bring Christ before you. By the grace and mercy of God,
I'm going to bring Christ before you. And I'll tell you what,
that's the heart of every preacher. That's what we desire, just to
keep bringing Christ before you. Just keep bringing him before
you. Knowing that shortly I must put off this, my tabernacle,
even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. Moreover, I will
endeavor that ye may be able, after my decrease, to have these
things always in remembrance." He's saying, even after I die,
I hope that you still have these things in remembrance. And the
Lord just raises up preachers, right, to keep His people in
remembrance. Do you ever think of that? He
just keeps raising up preachers all through the generations just
to keep us in remembrance, beloved. Oh, He's so merciful. He's so
merciful, beloved. So merciful. And why do we need
to be constantly reminded of what Christ has done for us?
Because we forget so soon. The cares of this world start
to squeeze in. Things going on in our lives start to squeeze
in. And we're so quick to forget.
And we're to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's only by the power of the Holy Spirit. And how does
he do that? Through the preaching of his word. Through the reading
of his word. He teaches us. He grows us in
grace. And why? Why do we need to be
established in the truth? Well, so we're not shaken when
someone who comes and says this or that about the gospel falsely. We're not shaken then by that.
We're firm in the gospel. were firm. I know someone who
recently they were talking to somebody and the person they
were talking to doesn't believe in, well they say they believe
in God, but they don't, they haven't trusted Christ as their
Savior. So they're what we call, Vicki and I call, God people.
They say, well I believe in God, but There's no regeneration. There's no life. And the person
that was a believer said that they were able to firmly present
what they believed. And they felt confident in what
they believed. And I said, well, you've been
established in the truth. That's God establishing you in
the truth. That's God giving you a foundation that can't be
shaken now. And see, that's why we want to grow and learn more
about Christ. Not to boast, not to boast at
all, except to boast in Christ, right? Not to boast in what we
know, but to be established in our faith, to be able to say,
no, that's wrong. And I'm going to believe the Bible even if
you don't. And I believe by the grace of God what it says it
means. And even if the person is someone
who you love dearly, you can say to them, no, I love you,
but I'm going to believe this word over you. I'm going to trust what God says,
because the scripture says every man's a liar, right? But God's
not a liar. Not at all. This is truth, beloved. This is truth here. And never
forget. Never forget that the preaching
of the gospel is a proclamation of the wondrous works which Christ
has brought out. And never forget that the preaching
of the gospel is a reminder for us of the complete, perfect,
sin-atoning work of Christ, that it's done. That salvation is in no way dependent
upon us at all, not even a pinprick. It's all based upon what Christ
has done. And we say hallelujah as God's
people, don't we? We praise His mighty name for
that. You mean it has nothing to do with anything that I do?
Nothing! We just by faith, God-given faith,
receive Christ, don't we? And then we rejoice! With joy
unspeakable and full of glory, yeah, we praise His name! And Peter says, yeah, I'm just
gonna keep preaching this. I'm gonna keep reminding you
what Christ has done for you. And we need to be constantly
reminded because there's many false teachers out there. There's
many false teachers out there. And someone can come and shake
you, but if you're established in that truth by God's grace
and mercy, You won't be shaken, because here keep you. Now, some
people say, well, I don't always have the words to say, Wayne.
Just tell them what God's done for you. That's all. Someone wants to argue with you,
say, I don't debate God's word. This is what it says, and I believe
it. See, these are statements of
facts. They're not up for debate. The scripture's not up for debate.
We don't debate the scriptures. We just present it. Someone else
wants to kick against the pricks, well, sometimes they have to
do that. Paul did that, right? The Lord said, how long are you
going to kick against the pricks, Paul? Well, he found out real
fast who the Lord Jesus Christ was. He was persecuting Christ
and he didn't even know it because he's persecuting the brethren.
He's persecuting the body of Christ. That's how intimate of
a relationship Christ has with we who are his people. That when
you're persecuted, they're persecuting him. My. And Peter is going to address
false teachers in chapter two. We see here, let's look at verse
13 here. Peter brings forth that as long as he lives in this tent
of flesh, that he will stir up the born-again blood-washed saints
of God to faith and godliness by preaching Christ and Him crucified.
Look what he says here. Verse 13, Yea, I think it meet
as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you
in remembrance. He's going to stir up the saints.
And that will happen by the power of the Holy Ghost, won't it? And he says, as long as I've
got breath, I'm going to preach Christ. I'm not going to stop. And we know that. We know that
they tried to shut him up, didn't they? In the book of Acts. And
they just rejoiced after they were released from prison. They
just rejoiced and they went out. What did they do? They just kept
preaching Christ. Because they said, it's better
to fear God than men. Oh my. And look at verse 12 again. I will not be negligent to put
you always in remembrance of these things, though you know
them and be established in the present truth." Now remember
who the true author of these words are. It's God the Holy
Spirit. It's God the Holy Spirit who's
the true author of these words. So being put into remembrance
of what Christ has done is pretty important, isn't it? See, we have to remember it's
not Peter's just an instrument. The true author is God the Holy
Spirit. And we know the Holy Spirit is
all-knowing and He's fully aware of who has been established in
the truth and who hasn't. Because they're established in
the truth by His power, aren't they? They're regenerated by His power. So He knows who's a false professor
and who's a true professor. He knows. And because it's he
who reveals the glorious gospel to us. And we have the salvation in
Christ and him alone. Now Peter's moved again by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God to write these words of caution
to the believer. And he's writing to the saints
of God of the importance of keeping our minds set upon Christ. That's
what he's doing. It's so important to Peter, and
again, It's the Holy Spirit having authored these words. It's so
important for we as believers to keep our minds set on Christ,
to be in remembrance of what he has done, that it's written
down in these words for us. To tell us what Christ has done
for us, to be put in remembrance of that great salvation. When
we hear the gospel, we're told of our wonderful savior. who lived a perfect life in our
place, which we could never do. We're told of that. Then we're
told that, and he went to Calvary. And there they put nails in his
hands and his feet, hung him upon the cross. And he was as silent as a lamb. He was the silent, suffering
Savior. And we're told that they pierced
His side with a spear, and blood ran forth. And we hear of the wondrous Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid the ransom price for all the
elect of all the ages. once when he died at Calvary's
cross, that his blood is so perfect, so spotless, that it purchased
the eternal souls of a number that no man can number. And the work is finished. How
do we know that? Because he cried on the cross, it is finished. And then the scripture says,
he gave up the ghost. He willingly died. Again, he could have called enough
angels to wipe out the whole world. Just as he hung there
on that cross, he could have done that. And think of this,
in his weakness, at his absolute weakest point, he saves one of
his sheep beside him and says, today thou shalt be with me in
paradise. That thief was railing with the
other thief. Little did that thief know, here's Christ dying
on the cross for his sins. And then the Holy Spirit starts
to do a work on him, doesn't he? And he says, we're here justly,
but this man, he's done nothing wrong. He says, Lord, just remember
me when you go into your kingdom. And he said, today thou shalt
be with me in paradise. That's our Savior. That's who
we hear about when we hear the gospel preached and proclaimed.
And then we hear that he died paying all that God demanded
for our souls and he was buried in a tomb. But death could not hold our
Savior, beloved. Death has a claim on you and
I, right, in our natural state, but it has no claim on Christ.
He's sinless, He's perfect in life and death. And He rose from
that grave, beloved. And He ascended into glory. And
He's raised for our justification. And we're reminded of that, eh?
Every time we hear the gospel, we're reminded of the great things
that God has done for us. And you know, that's all we're
to do, to tell other people about what He's done for us. He saved
my soul. He went to Calvary's cross and
died in my room and place. He rose for my justification. And praise God, I'm clothed in
his perfect spotless righteousness. So in the preaching of the gospel,
we're reminded of all these wonderful things that Christ has done for
his people. Because we're so prone to forget
again. and in remembrance of what he accomplished for his
people, we will rejoice. We may be down and out, going
through something just so hard and so painful, but to hear about
what Christ has done, to hear about his perfect sinatoning
work done for me, my, how that lifts my spirit. And
that's why Paul wrote, to set your mind on things above. See,
the writers of the scripture are all in agreement that we're
to set our eyes upon Christ. Isaiah says, look unto him and
live. Paul says, set your mind, your
heart upon things above. That's Christ. And Peter says, here, I'm going
to keep you in remembrance of what Christ has done for you.
And who he was, God incarnated in the flesh. What he did, he
redeemed sinners at Calvary's cross. And where he is right
now, well, he's risen, and he's in glory, isn't he? Seated at
the right hand of the Father, interceding for us, interceding
for his people, the King of glory. It's absolutely incredible. And
God sends forth his preachers, And we have a concern for God's
elect, we have a concern for God's people. And we see this
very clearly as Peter says, I'm going to put you in remembrance
of these things. I'm going to stir you up by preaching Christ
to you. And Peter knew his departure
was close. He knew, look at verse 14, knowing that shortly I must
put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has
showed me. Now, that's true for all of us.
We don't know when we're going to die. God knows. He knows. And our life is like a vapor,
isn't it? But here's the joy, and here's the peace. When we
die, we are instantaneously with the Lord, just like that. We're in his presence. I remember a dear friend of mine
passed away and I was just broken up and called Norm. And Norm
said, you're going to miss him. He's a big part of the work out
in Oregon. And he said, you're going to
miss him. He's very dear to you. But I'll tell you what, he's
not worried about you right now. That really helped me, though.
It helped me to realize he's rejoicing. He's in the perfect
situation. You know, I have a picture in
my study still of him. I think about him almost every
day. He was so dear to me. I lost my grandparents years
and years ago, and he kind of stepped into that place, and
he treated Joshua just incredible. And you know, this is what happens.
We get close to God's people, don't we? And it's hard when
we lose them. It's hard. I always say it's
bitter and sweet. It's bitter for us because we're left behind
and we have sorrow, but it's sweet for them. It's sweet for
them. But Peter here, he knew his departure
was close at hand. And even though he knew that,
he said, I'm going to still keep preaching Christ to you. I'm
going to keep preaching Christ to you till the day I die. And by God's
grace, I'll do the same. And I know every gospel preacher
feels that way. Only God knows the time of our
departure from this world. It's an appointed time, but we
don't know when it is. So Peter says, as long as I have
life, as long as I have life, I'm going to preach Christ. You
know why? Because it's needful. It's needful for you, it's needful
for me, and it's needful for other people who God may call
through that preaching. It's needful for us, isn't it? Sometimes we feel overwhelmed
in life. Sometimes just times are hard. And we need to hear about our
wonderful, merciful Savior. We're forgetful. And it's something
these saints were forgetful too. Because why else would you need
to be put in remembrance of something? Because we're prone to forget. The true gospel of God's amazing
grace bestowed upon hell-deserving sinners through the perfect work,
redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ, is so profound, it is
so profound, beloved, that the worldly wise, they stumble over
it. They do not understand it. And we wouldn't understand it
unless God had revealed himself to us. And that's the only reason
we understand, because he's given us an understanding, and he's
revealed himself to us. And by his grace, he's establishing
us now in the truth. He's establishing us in the truth.
Some people are ever learning and never coming to the knowledge
of the truth. Some know doctrine in their heads, but not in their
hearts. But when a sinner is born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, here are some things they embrace. They embrace Christ
Jesus as Jehovah God. Is God incarnated in the flesh?
We embrace that. Because the only way we can be
saved is by God, right? And the scripture says we're
a people saved by Jehovah. And Christ is God incarnated
in the flesh. He's Jehovah in the flesh. And
we embrace that truth, don't we? We say, I'm only saved by,
I'm saved by Jehovah. Meditate on that sometime. Just
spend a half hour meditating just on that fact. We are a people
saved by Jehovah. I'll tell you what, it'll bless
your soul when you start thinking about that. It'll bless your
soul. That's what the scripture says.
Remember, we looked at it a few weeks ago? A people saved by Jehovah. My God saved me. Jehovah himself. So we embrace that. Only he could
deliver us from the curse of the law. His own law, too. And we embrace Jesus Christ as
the one who walked in perfect obedience to God the Father.
the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, walking in perfect obedience,
because He was establishing the perfect righteousness that we
would be clothed in. We embrace that, don't we? We
believe that. And we embrace that Jesus Christ
is our blessed Redeemer, who purchased us with His own precious
blood. He bought us. We're bought with
a price. We embrace that. And that price
was His life. His blood shed for us, for the
redemption of our souls. He is the perfect, spotless Lamb
of God. And we embrace Jesus Christ as
the exalted God-man. He's the exalted God-man right
now in glory. Right now. King of kings and
Lord of lords. And we embrace the Lord Jesus
Christ in all these precious truths taught in scriptures.
And as we grow in the knowledge In grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we have no problem believing them, do we? We wonder how we live without
Christ, don't we? Well, you know what? We were
never without Him. I used to always say that. How
did I do it without Christ before I was saved? He was with me all
the time. And He was with you if you were a believer even before
you were saved. Because he's loved us from eternity,
hasn't he? It's we who are restrained from him. It's we who fell in
Adam. But we find out after he teaches
us and regenerates us that he loved us before we ever loved
him. Oh, it's incredible. We have no problem believing
in the divine work that each member of the Godhead performs
in union, in union. The Father chose us in Christ,
the Son redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit regenerates us, and
we have no problem at all believing that, do we? No problem at all
now. And we're taught by the Holy
Spirit of God, and we embrace the work, work of God in our
salvation. We say salvation is of the Lord.
And see, the preaching of the gospel brings this into remembrance
for us. It constantly reminds us of these
blessed truths. And those who are taught by the
Holy Spirit of God embrace the work of God, the Holy Spirit.
We were dead. We were graveyard dead in trespasses
and sins. We were like Lazarus. We were
in the tomb. That's how we were. With no hope. And he cried our name. Come forth! And what did we do? We came forth,
didn't we? Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. And that's an effectual, invincible call. Who can resist
God? I ask you, who can resist God?
If God calls you, can you say, no, I don't want to be saved. Number one, none of us would
ever say that, eh? I'll tell you what, if God calls you, you're going to come running. You're going to come running
to Christ. You're going to come running to the one who you never
thought you'd run to. And you're going to cling to
him for the rest of your life. And we've got a whole lot of
folks here, we can testify of that. We could testify that that's
absolutely true. And he keeps us, doesn't he?
He keeps us keeping on, doesn't he? Oh, he does. We're kept by
the power of God, the scripture says. See, he gets all the glory.
We were dead in sins, dead in trespasses and sins, and he gave
us a new heart. He regenerated us. He gave us
faith to believe. He gave us repentance before
God. He gave us that, beloved. And these are the things that
we need to constantly bought to our remembrance. The believer
in Christ says, tell me more. Tell me more about Christ and
just keep telling me about him. I don't want to hear nothing
else. Just keep telling me about Christ. Is there anything else
that's beneficial to us other than Christ? Now there's things
we can do in this world, right? But I'll tell you what, true
joy and true happiness only comes through Christ. Now, are we like this in this
world sometimes? Yep. Yep, we're going like that. We ebb and flow, don't we? But
who's the constant? Who's the constant in our life?
The Lord Jesus Christ. And as we're going like this, He's just carrying us through
all that. Keeping us. We're in His hand, beloved. We're
in his hand. He's bought us with a price.
He's purchased us with his own precious, precious blood. He's
not going to let us go, is he? We're kept by the power of God.
What mercy? We don't get what we deserve.
What we deserve is hell. We don't get what we deserve. We get to go to glory. and spend
eternity with He who has loved us from eternity. Oh my. Rejoice. Rejoice, you who are born again
blood-washed believers. Rejoice that Christ has purchased
your eternal soul. Rejoice that you've obtained
like precious faith. Rejoice. Not everyone has that. Rejoice, because it's all by
the mercy and grace of God. And Lord willing, As He gives
me grace and strength, I'm going to keep putting you in remembrance
of that. I stir you up. And I get studying, and I get
listening to the sermons. I get so stirred up, sometimes
I want to call you all on Tuesday and have a service right then.
I'll tell you what. You just get excited, eh? It's
wonderful. So if God saved your soul, rejoice,
beloved. It's so precious. He's so precious. He's had such mercy upon us.
Let us remember that this week. And let us ponder, as I said,
let us think this week upon, we are a people saved by Jehovah. Just think about that this week,
in your week. Just ponder that truth, mull
it in your mind. A people saved by Jehovah, and
I'm one of them. Oh my. Oh my. Glory to his name. We're going
to sing that. Because we're going to give him glory, aren't we?
We'll give him glory as long as we have breath to breathe.
And then when we go to heaven, we're going to give him glory
in a perfect way. Oh, what a Savior. What a Redeemer. It's Jesus Christ
our Lord.