How Is Your Spiritual Memory?

Memory is a GIFT FROM GOD!!!

Illus: Dr. Odell Belger tells how that his youngest brother had died and he still is able to remember him and the good times they had together.

He can still remember…

• How he looked!

• How he talked!

• How he was the life of the party!

• How he love to tell jokes and make people laugh!

• How he had a different walk from most people!

• How they played together as a child!

• How he always attended church after a hard day’s work!

• How he love to give to the Lord’s work.

He said, even though he is not here today on earth I thank God for these precious memories of him!!!

Memory is a GIFT FROM GOD!!!

We cannot survive in life without our MEMORIES.

Illus: Suppose I stuck my finger in a wall socket and it shocked me! And suppose I did the same thing the next day and it shocked me! If I could not remember I would keep making the same dumb mistake over and over.

Memory is a gift from God.

Memory is a wonderful gift from God, but, like every other good gift it can be used in a bad and a harmful way.

For example, Satan tries to turn the benefits of memory into a curse, by reminding us of sinful things in the past about ourselves.

Paul said in Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.

You know that Paul deeply regrets the things he did in his past before he got saved.

But Paul was not going to allow Satan to make him live in the past regretting his past sins, he said, “…forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.

The Bible teaches us that Satan is the “accuser of the brethren”.

We should regret the sins we did, but it is SPILT MILK and there is not anything you can do about the past.

There are several passages in the Bible that indicate that God forgives and forgets our sins.

Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

Hebrews 10 explains how Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for sin was a once-and-for-all sacrifice.

• Unlike the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, in which sacrifices were continually made for sin, Jesus paid for sin once.

Illus: Today we have people who claim that they have been saved a bunch of times.

Listen, if they got saved a bunch of times that means Christ had to die a for their sins a bunch of times.

The Bible tells us emphatically that Christ died for sin ONCE and He is not going to die for your sins a bunch of times.

Illus: So out of that bunch of times that a man claim God has saved him; he had better got saved one of those times because Christ is only going to die for sin ONE TIME HE SAYS!!!

His payment was complete.

Look at Hebrews 10:14-17 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this.

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is “no longer necessary as it was in the Old Testament where they continually had to offer up sacrifices for their sins over and over again!

He said He would forgive sin and forget sin.

It evident from God’s Word that God does not remember our sins.

However, God’s “not remembering” is not what we usually think of as forgetfulness.

God is omniscient. He knows everything, and He forgets nothing.

He could not be an OMNICIENT GOD if there was something He did not know!!!

However, He can choose not to remember something.

Illus: To forgive someone, we must often put painful memories out of our minds. We don’t actually forget the sin, and it’s not that we are unable to recall the offense, but we choose to overlook it.

Forgiveness prevents us from dwelling on past troubles.

When God forgives us or our sins we need to put these things in the past where they belong.

Illus: There are Christians today living a miserable life. They were once…