The Importance of Remembering

Sovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

April 6, 2022

00:00: If you would, turn in your Bibles to the fourth chapter of the Book of Proverbs.
00:11: You know, they say a tattered and dirty Bible many times means a clean and neat soul, but I've had this one now, I guess, 30 years, and I've glued it about five, six times, and I fear I probably have come to the end of the rope.
00:34: But you get used to a certain Bible, don't you? Unless you're used to using multiple Bibles.
00:46: But anyway, I want to come to Proverbs chapter 4.
00:49: We're going to read, so my intent is to have two messages in chapter 4, and then Brother Keith will come back for chapter 5 and so on, but I want to read in Proverbs chapter 4 from verses 1 through 19 for tonight.
01:02: So, Proverbs chapter 4, Solomon writes this, Hear my children the instruction of a father, and give attention to no understanding.
01:14: For I give you good doctrine.
01:16: Do not forsake my law.
01:18: When I was my father's son, tender and the only one in the sight of my mother, he also taught me and said to me, Let your heart retain my words.
01:26: Keep my commands and live.
01:28: Get wisdom.
01:29: Get understanding.
01:30: Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
01:33: Do not forsake her, for she will preserve you.
01:36: Love her, and she will keep you.
01:38: Wisdom is the principal thing.
01:40: Therefore, get wisdom, and in all you're getting, get understanding.
01:44: Exalt her, and she will promote you.
01:47: She will bring you honor when you embrace her.
01:49: She will place on your head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory she will deliver to you.
01:55: Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of your life will be many.
01:59: I have taught you in the way of wisdom.
02:01: I have led you in right paths.
02:03: When you walk, your steps will not be hindered.
02:06: When you run, you will not stumble.
02:08: Take firm hold of instruction.
02:10: Do not let her go.
02:11: Keep her, for she is your life.
02:14: Do not enter the path of the wicked.
02:16: Do not walk in the way of evil.
02:17: Avoid it.
02:18: Do not travel on it.
02:19: Turn away from it and pass on.
02:21: For they do not sleep unless they have done evil, and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall.
02:29: For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence, but the path of the just is like the shining sun that shines ever brighter until that perfect day.
02:39: The way of the wicked is like darkness, and they do not know what makes them stumble.
02:46: Let's just ask God's blessing again on this word.
02:49: Our Father in God, again, as we come to your word, and it is your word, it's your revelation, it's your disclosure to us, Lord, we pray that you, Holy Spirit, would come and teach us as only you can, that you would enlarge our hearts, that you would open our minds, that you would transform our lives by your word to the end, that we might become more like the Son of God who so loved us that he gave himself for us.
03:14: So, Lord, in this few minutes together, may you do what only you can do, and that is to make your word real in every way possible to us.
03:23: We ask this through and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
03:27: Amen.
03:29: Alright, so I want to start by restating my original purpose in going through the book of Proverbs, and there was two major thoughts that I had in mind.
03:42: One was this, and I want to mention it because it will bear into tonight.
03:47: It was never my intention to try to do a word-by-word commentary on the book of Proverbs.
03:52: That wasn't my intent.
03:54: My intent was, and it still is, is to try to take portions of Scripture, sometimes verse-by-verse, sometimes in larger swaths, if you will, and try to take things out of the book of Proverbs to help us in a practical way, not only in our minds, but in a way that we can see how to put those very things in God's word into practice in our life, and you will see that tonight because I'm going to deal with 19 verses in just a few minutes, and I'm not going to deal with every single verse, but I want to try to keep to my original purpose, which was, again, to try to find practical lessons for us.
04:39: The other main purpose for going through the book of Proverbs was that we would see that ultimately as you work through the book of Proverbs, as you work through God's word in totality, there is this great reality that there is just nothing more than a dichotomy of people, that men, women, whatever way we want to, in whatever way it falls, that there's a dichotomy between just two groups of people, and I've been saying it, and I will continue to say it, the wise person who is the person who fears God is the person who trusts in God, has faith in God, and that person is diligent in his study of God not only in the Scriptures, as God revealed it, but his whole life or her whole life is consumed for the greater part in seeking to know God, and that that person can be assured of the blessings of God, and that's one of the groups that the Bible continually sets forth.
05:42: The other one is the fool, even as the Proverbs say that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God, and that that person is the one who, because of his rebellion, because of sin, because of his lack of care for his own soul, and certainly his lack of care for the glory of God, that he's lazy, he's slothful, he does not consider his own path or the ways of wisdom, and that that person ultimately comes underneath the judgment of God.
06:13: So those are my original purposes, and I'm going to stick to it, and perhaps as Brother Keith goes through his portion of the book, he will have a different principle to pull out, and that would be great also, because certainly the word of God is exceedingly broad.
06:27: But I want to stick to that tonight, and so again, what I want to do tonight, what I hope to do, is to stay with a wider brush, if you will, at a higher level, and to just pull out from these verses some truths for you and I to be able to take home with us and to consider.
06:48: And I would hope that so far we have been able to see that much of what Solomon is saying in Chapter 4 is what he has said in Chapter 3, what he says in Chapter 2, what he says in Chapter 1, and what he will continually set forth in the earlier chapters of the book, all the way through basically the beginning of Chapter 9, where he then starts to delineate or drill down into those very specific proverbs, but they're all based on the very things that he said previous to that, and that you and I would see that he is completely occupied, if you will, in these early chapters with this ardent desire to give out wisdom to his hearers.
07:39: He has this, if you will, he's dripping with sincerity, and he's pleading and crying out to any and all that will come under his words of the many dangers that can befall us if we neglect God's word, if we neglect God's law, if we neglect trusting in God, and of the many blessings that could come to us by taking heed to those words.
08:06: And again, that's just really the reality of who God is.
08:11: God desires that we would prosper, right, and that our souls would prosper even as we prosper in all other things, but the reality is Solomon cannot seem to get past this in the early chapters of this great desire to, if you will, impart wisdom, certainly as it is inspired by God, because that truly is what God desires to do, is to impart wisdom even as God says what? He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that what? That the wicked would turn and live.
08:45: He said, why will you die? Why will you suffer the things that you suffer when I extend to you grace like a river? So just think about that as we go through it.
08:57: So I want to make some comments, and I first want to address, if you will, that very point of the need, if you think about it, we need to have the same truths that are revealed in the word of God repeated to us over and over and over again, and only a fool would say, having heard God's word once say, okay, I got it.
09:26: I don't need it no more.
09:27: I don't need to hear it no more.
09:29: I don't need to be taught it.
09:30: I don't need to hear anything about it.
09:31: I've got it done over, but that you and I would truly understand that there is this great need in our lives for repetitiveness, to be constantly reminded.
09:46: You know, God's word is to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, and if you think about it, if we do not constantly immerse ourselves in the word of God, it doesn't become really part of us, and therefore, if it doesn't become part of us, then it will not become part of our lives.
10:05: It will be just facts in our head, and really, to know what God says is great.
10:13: To do what God says is exceedingly greater, right? To be able to put into practice, because that's really what wisdom is, it's applied knowledge that you and I would consider that it is so important for us not only to be those who hear, but those that do, and one of the great truths is that there's a great need for all of us to hear the truth over and over and over again.
10:43: I thought of the hymn writer who said, remember what he says? Prone to what? Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.
10:51: Prone to leave the one I love.
10:54: Keep me now, my Ebenezer, my stone of help.
10:57: Keep me with undying love.
11:00: And that's so true, because we all have this need of constant reminder of a number of things.
11:07: Certainly, we need to constantly be reminded of our own frailty, of our own weakness, of our own, if you will, our own wanderings, and every one of us wander, brothers and sisters.
11:21: Even those that are immersing themselves in the word of God, how many times, and perhaps it's just me, but I don't think so at this point, that we seem to be all, we'll be thinking of the things of God, or we'll be considering and meditating upon God, and all of a sudden we're I don't know, I wonder what I'm going to eat for dinner tonight.
11:43: Those things enter in, or just a stray thought.
11:48: It's like a cloud all of a sudden forms, and you've got to chase it away.
11:53: And that's because we are prone to wander, and because of the devices of the evil ones, certainly that the desire would be to what? To remove us, to take us as far as he could from the word of God.
12:06: There's this need for constant reminder of our own frailty, and again, Solomon is just, he just can't get away from it at this point in the book of Proverbs.
12:15: There's also the reality, my friends, not only of our wanderings, but of our stubbornness.
12:20: And for those who think they're not stubborn, they're being stubborn by thinking that they're not stubborn.
12:29: Because we're all stubborn.
12:31: We're all slow to learn.
12:32: We're all, even as Jesus said, at times, hard of heart.
12:38: And I thought about it, and Solomon's not just filling space in the book of Proverbs.
12:44: He's not just saying the same thing over and over again.
12:46: He's not just keeps crying out to his son to have him heed the word, because he has nothing else to say, because Solomon certainly has a lot to say.
12:56: Think about it even in the case of Solomon himself, as the author of the book of Proverbs, and yet we read in the life of Solomon that what? He wandered, and he strayed, and he suffered the consequences of the very things that he warned others not to stray from and with.
13:15: So again, no one is beyond that thought of having frailties and weaknesses, and at times wanderings and stubbornness, and there's also another reality of needing to know, needing to have God's word repeated to us over and over and over again, is that we might really sink into us that God is faithful.
13:42: And that God is constant.
13:46: I don't know about you, but it's one of the greatest comforts that I have, is that God does not change.
13:54: That's a glorious promise.
13:57: That's a glorious reality.
13:58: It's an anchor for our soul, that of all the things that change us in this world, and all the cultures, and all the movements, and all the baloney that the world promotes, that God does not change.
14:14: And so again, I believe we need to hear the same truths over and over again for that reason, just like as parents.
14:21: I mean, which one of us, unless you have amazingly spiritual great children, and if you do, God bless you, but how many of us would have to say there were times when our kids were growing up, or as they are growing up, or even still now, whether they be grossed up, that we have to repeat the same things over and over and over, because how many times it almost seems it goes in one ear, and what? How's it go? Right out the other.
14:50: It's just a clear shot.
14:54: And again, you and I need to think about it, and so I believe in that sense, Solomon in these early chapters, even as he lays out in these verses, is constantly seeking to set forth the need of wisdom, and how wisdom is the very thing that will enable us to work through all those different areas in our life, all those different wanderings, all those different tendencies, because again, the reality, and God knows certainly well, that we have a tendency to let our guard down.
15:32: Sometimes when we seem to be on the highest of mountains, the next step is the lowest of valleys.
15:40: You can certainly read of the prophets and of the people and the characters that God gives us in his word, that many times the height of the mountain was one step away from the depth of the valley.
15:53: And so again, there's that tendency.
15:56: So we need constant direction of, if you will, the way of the narrow gate, that we don't just wander off the path, and as I've said many times, and I will say it again, no matter how sincere we are, and no matter how diligent we are, if you and I get on, get off the highway at the wrong exit, and we follow that wrong exit, we will never find, unless we have GPS, and my whole point is once we head down the wrong direction, it's a slippery slope, and many times it's a painful recovery to get back into the narrow gate.
16:40: So again, I hope I've laid that out, that you and I need to consider it.
16:45: Certainly I believe it's a constant principle in the Scriptures.
16:49: I've thought about how Paul in his pastoral epistles to Timothy and Titus, if you remember, much of what Paul says to Timothy and Titus is to remind them, to bring to remembrance the things that he had spoken to them, to, if you will, as the father in the faith, he lays out charges to them, and he reminds them of the need to meditate, and to remember the very things that he told them, and that that enters into these verses tonight, and I want to consider that for a moment.
17:25: Again, like I said, not dealing with the verses until we will spend a few minutes on verse 18 and 19 at the end, but just trying to paint a broad brush of some thoughts that I had as I was working through this.
17:38: And I thought about this, I thought about this whole idea of our need to remember.
17:45: So there's constant repetition that's important, and then there's this need for us to remember the very things that have been repeated to us over and over and over again in God's word to us, and so I decided to look up a couple of verses, and think of a couple of verses where in the New Testament it certainly commands us to remember.
18:09: And I want to remind you, I'm going to remind us of a couple of things that the New Testament teaches concerning remember.
18:19: You don't have to turn to them, I'm just going to read them to you.
18:22: You remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said when he said, remember Lot's wife.
18:28: Well there is a whole lot of meditation in that one, isn't it? You and I need to remember Lot's wife, remember why she looked back, remember the results of her looking back.
18:40: Jesus used that example, and that was an example from what? Centuries before, millennium before.
18:49: And yet Jesus uses that to remind the disciples, remember Lot's wife.
18:58: In the Gospel of John when they were discussing the whole reality of Jesus preparing as the servant of the Lord to give of himself, and if you will, preparing the disciples for his departure, and he says this in John, he says, remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.
19:25: If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.
19:28: If they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
19:30: Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.
19:36: You and I need to be constantly reminded of that, to remember that.
19:40: Again, that is one thing that will help us from wandering in our minds when we suffer persecution for the Gospel's sake, that it's not something that's new, it's not something that just came upon us, it's something that Jesus said we ought to remember, that it will come.
19:55: Persecution will come.
19:56: Trials will come.
19:57: What does it say? It says we enter the Kingdom through what? Much tribulation.
20:01: And that you and I need to be reminded of that over and over again because many times, brothers and sisters, I believe in the heat of the moment.
20:10: As I said.
20:14: That's because I'm left handed and I move.
20:17: This is a right handed microphone by the way.
20:20: In the heat of the moment, usually our emotions respond quicker and reflex is more emotional many times than mindful.
20:33: So we need to be reminded of that.
20:35: Remember the word that I spoke to you about, persecution.
20:40: You remember when he was teaching them about the leaven of the Pharisees and how they had to beware.
20:50: He told them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
20:52: And you remember what they said? They thought he was talking about loaves of bread.
20:58: And here's what he said.
20:59: Do you not understand or remember the five loaves and how many baskets you took up? Again, a reminder.
21:08: And you and I need that.
21:09: We need to remember of the provision of God.
21:13: Especially when we're in want.
21:14: Especially when we find ourselves in a situation where we might think of ourselves as at the end of a rope of some sorts of another.
21:26: To remember that.
21:29: Paul says in Ephesians that we he says this, therefore remember and this one is so central to many things.
21:37: He says, remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh who were called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hand.
21:47: Remember that you were once Gentiles.
21:48: Remember that you were alienated.
21:50: Remember that you were separated.
21:52: Remember that you were not in that great nation of Israel that they would remember and I will bring into focus one or two Old Testament verses to support that.
22:08: But if there's anything that we need to remember it's that we need to remember that we have been saved from sin.
22:16: That we have been redeemed from the slave market.
22:20: Because it's easy for us.
22:22: We have this tendency and we need this repetition.
22:25: We have this tendency after especially for us that have been with the Lord, walked with the Lord for a fair amount of time.
22:33: We begin to forget that but by the grace of God there go I.
22:39: And that when we see things and we see people and we see lives destroyed and that we don't have this tendency to say like the Pharisee, I thank thee God that I'm not like one of them.
22:50: You and I would remember we were dead in sin and trespasses.
22:54: We were alienated in our minds.
22:56: We were children of wrath even as others.
23:00: That we have nothing to claim except the righteousness of Christ.
23:04: That we would remember that we were separated.
23:07: In Timothy Paul says remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.
23:14: That which we now are coming to this time of year.
23:19: Remember the resurrection.
23:20: Friends if we need to remember anything we need to remember the resurrection.
23:24: For if we do not remember the resurrection even as Paul says if there is no resurrection of the dead we are what? Of all men the most miserable.
23:35: Especially when we feel as if things and I use that word feel because again we are by God's grace we are emotional even as God demonstrates if you will in a right understanding emotion.
23:54: That we would remember the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
23:59: In Revelation as the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to the churches.
24:05: He said to one church remember therefore from where you have fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.
24:18: Remember from where you have fallen.
24:23: So I say brothers and sisters again as I read through these opening verses in the book of Proverbs in chapter 4.
24:31: These are the things that came to me and I think they are profitable for us.
24:37: You can never get enough of truth.
24:42: The thing about truth not only is it true because it's an expression of God.
24:46: The great and glorious thing about truth is that it's always fresh.
24:51: It's always.
24:52: It's living.
24:53: Truth is living and powerful because it really is the disclosure of God to us.
24:59: So truth never grows stale.
25:02: You could hear the same.
25:04: How many of us would say that we read the same passages many times and by God's grace when we're truly seeking Him that passage is as fresh and as new and as thrilling and exciting and instructive as it's always been.
25:23: You and I would understand we need this and God is so good to give it to us.
25:30: And God is so faithful.
25:34: I thought about this.
25:35: I thought about even in the Old Testament how it was when God had laid out the law.
25:43: I would say the covenant law for the nation of Israel when he told them to do what? To remember the Sabbath.
25:51: And I'm not going to get into a big discussion about was that going back to creation.
25:55: I don't necessarily believe it was and there was implications there but nevertheless the point was to the nation of Israel that was something they needed to remember because it also taught them something else.
26:07: It wasn't just remember the day but it was to remember what? The redemption from Egypt.
26:13: From slavery.
26:14: There it was again.
26:15: And that's the very thing that you and I so need to remember also that we were slaves and that God in His great mercy and His great power by His sovereign hand released us.
26:27: He brought open wide the sea and let us walk dry shod to the other side and into the family of God.
26:37: So again I thought about since we have been going through the book of Judges and we're going to go back into the book of Judges.
26:43: I thought about what happened with Gideon in Judges chapter 8.
26:48: It says so it was as Gideon was dead that the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals and made Baal Barith their God and thus the children of Israel did not remember the Lord their God who had delivered them from the hands of their enemies on every side nor did they show kindness to the house of Jeroboam Gideon in accordance with the good that he had done for Israel.
27:14: Again that you and I as Solomon speaks these words about getting wisdom and not forgetting and not forsaking and loving wisdom and wisdom is the principal thing and therefore get wisdom and exalt her and how it will be an ornament of grace.
27:34: He's seeking to constantly remind us of this great need.
27:42: There's one passage I do want you to turn to and if you would I want you to look at Psalm 77 a minute.
27:49: Psalm 77 I would have to say this as I grow a little bit older the book of Psalms has become much more precious to me because I see in it so much of experience of life.
28:12: It has really become to me my secret place if you will.
28:18: I want to just read this Psalm to you.
28:20: I think you'll pick up how I'm trying to tie it together with this thought of remembering.
28:24: It's a number of verses and I'll just read it and I'll try not to make too many comments but listen to this Psalm and how he is transformed if you will by remembering.
28:39: He said I cried out to the Lord with my voice to God with my voice and he gave ear to me.
28:46: In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing my soul refused to be confident I remembered God and was troubled I complained that my spirit was overwhelmed Selah you hold my eyelids open I am so troubled I cannot speak I've considered the days of old the years of ancient times I call to remember it's my song in the night I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search will the Lord cast off forever and will he be favorable no more has his mercy ceased forever has his promise failed forevermore has God forgotten to be gracious has he in his anger shut up his tender mercies Selah and I said this is my anguish but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High I will remember the works of the Lord surely I will remember your wonders of old I will meditate on all your work and talk of all your deeds your way O God is in the sanctuary who is so great a God as our God you are the God who does wonders you have declared your strength among the people you have with your arm redeemed your people the sons of Jacob and Joseph Selah the water saw you O God the water saw you and they were afraid the depths also trembled the clouds poured out water the skies sent out a sound your arrows also flashed about the voice of your thunder was in the world when the lightnings lit up the world the earth trembled and shook and your way was in the sea your path in the great waters and your footsteps were not known you led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron this is much like in part what the psalmist says in Psalm 73 where he talks about the prosperity of the wicked and he says I had almost slipped until I went into the sanctuary and I remembered and again I say to you as you read this psalm the psalmist he's in anguish he's struggling and yet the very things that bring him back are thoughts of the truth that he knew the greatness and the goodness and the power of God so again this whole idea of this need of being reminded is so essential I found in the Old Testament a fair amount of times where we were commanded to stop and remember that we were directed by God to if you will pause and remember Israel was given this charge over and over again and mainly had to do with that thought of being redeemed from Egypt remember you were in bondage remember that I rescued you remember the miracles that I performed remember how I brought you through as I said the sea remember the wilderness journeys it's so important for you and for me brothers and sisters that we would when we read in the book of Proverbs or when we read any portion of the word of God that you and I would soak ourselves in it and allow it to soak in us and go over it and over it and over it again and not be put off by it but to be encouraged by it the fact that God has such great desire for us that he's willing because in truth God doesn't need to say anything twice does he? God does whatever he pleases to do but God is condescending to us in the gentleness even as of the Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit of God he comes to us over and over again and sometimes as the prophet says sometimes he's not in the whirlwind and sometimes he's not in the tempest and sometimes it's what a still small voice but yet he comes to us and you and I need to remember it.
33:13: Okay there's only one other point I wanted to make tonight and if you would go back into Proverbs chapter 4 now there will be other times in the book of Proverbs that I'm going to go verse by verse word by word if I can but I do think that we can make use of the word of God in many ways this is my own thought I think that whenever we are presenting a message we ought to consider not only what the scriptures say but what we want to draw out from those various scriptures at a particular point because again you can I'm sure Brother Keith preaches a message on a particular text he's going to preach it in a way that he presents the truth from it but he's going to also have a thought in his mind of some points that he wants to make and sometimes the points are different than others sometimes the emphasis is on one part of it or sometimes the emphasis is on another part of it and so certainly something for us to think about.