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…
• A Prostitute
• A Thief
• A Liar
• A Murderer
• An Adulterer
• A dope addict
• A drunk
They have truly repented of their sins but they live each day still regretting these terrible sins they committed.
GOD HAS FORGIVEN THEM BUT THEY CANNOT FORGIVE THEMSELVES!!!
But something we should never FORGET is what the Lord Jesus has done for us.
Paul never forgot what the Lord had done for him.
We see . . .
I. HE REMEMBERED THE PAST
Paul remembered the past for a reason that I will show you in the moment.
Look at verses 13 through 15, we read, “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
When the Lord saved Paul on that trip to Damascus road, Paul never forgot what the Lord had done for him.
In these verses he listed all the things the Lord had saved him from.
But if you had known him when he was frolicking around the country persecuting the saints of God, you never would have dreamed that he would have become one of, if not the greatest servants of the Lord to walk on this earth.
Illus: In a lot of high school yearbooks, they have a section for the seniors that deal with:
• Best personality
• Best dressed
• Most attractive
• Most likely to succeed
If you had known Paul before he became a Christian, you never would have thought that one day he would become the successful Christian we see in the Bible.
Many times when people acquire success they forget where they came from.
Illus: One of the things many people liked about Elvis Pressley was that he never FORGOT WHERE HE CAME FROM! In the entertainment world he is probably one of the most successful entertainers to ever live. But Elvis always seemed to remember where he came from.
Paul never forgot where he came from:
Look at verse 13, we read, “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.”
HE REMEMBERED THE BAD THINGS HE DID
(1) HE WAS A BLASPHEMER
(2) HE WAS A PERSECUTOR
(3) HE INFLICTED PAIN ON THE BELIEVERS
Paul remembered the terrible things he did. Paul was not proud of these things; he was simply stating the facts
Illus: Sometimes when people talk about their past sins they have a smile on their face and they seem to be proud of their past sins.
They remind me of children sitting around bragging about their evil deeds. When one tells how evil they have been, the other says, "That is nothing…let me tell you what I did!”
They are bragging about their evil deeds like it is something to brag about.
I can assure you that when Paul was talking about his sins, HE WAS NOT PROUD OF BEING CHIEF OF SINNERS, he was simply stating the facts!
Paul does not cut himself any slack, in this letter he tells us that HE WAS CHIEF OF SINNERS.
WHY WAS HE TELLING THIS TO TIMOTHY?
Because Timothy was a young pastor and he was having some very difficult times in the ministry.
In effect, Paul was saying, “Listen Timothy, if God can take the chief of sinners and use me the way he has, he can certainly use you.”
Paul remembered:
• The life of sin that God saved Him from
• The life of hopelessness that God saved Him from
But also…
B. HE REMEMBERED THE DECEPTIVE LIFE HE LIVED
His only defense for what he had done is given in verse 13. “…I did it ignorantly in unbelief.”
He was saying he did all those terrible things, but he did them ignorantly, he did not realize what he was doing!
We all have done some terrible things due to ignorance. When you do not know…YOU DO NOT KNOW!
Illus: I use to wonder why God did not strike people down when they sin. But the reason He does not is because he knows they are walking in the darkness of sin. THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY IGNORANT!!!
Think about it, a man that will gamble with his soul headed toward a burning hell is not a smart person!!!
We find ignorance today in many places.
Illus: We see a lot of ignorance in Washington, DC. For example:
There are a lot of folks who can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in America.
• Well, there's a very simple answer. Nobody bothered to check the oil supply. We just didn't know we were getting low.
• The reason for that is purely geographical. All our oil is in Alaska, Texas, California, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
• All our dipsticks are in Washington, DC
A lot of bad things have been done due to ignorance, and Paul is saying, HE WOULD HAVE NEVER DONE WHAT HE HAD DONE HAD HE NOT BEEN IGNORANT ABOUT SIN!
When you do not know…you do not know!!!
Illus: Life is filled with things that we simply DO NOT KNOW, such as:
• If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how would we ever know?
• Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?
• Why does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?
• Why does "fat chance" and "slim chance" mean the same thing?
• Why do we sing "Take me out to the ball game" when we are already there?
• Why are they called "stands" when they are made for sitting?
• Why are a "wise man" and”wise guy” opposites?
• Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
There are a lot of things in life that we are ignorant about…WE JUST DO NOT KNOW!
Paul told Timothy that he was a persecutor, a blasphemer and he brought a lot of pain and agony to the people of God, BUT HE WAS IGNORANT AND DID NOT KNOW WHAT HE WAS DOING!
The Bible describes the lost people in this manner.
Look at 2 Cor. 4:4, it says, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
The Bible says they are BLIND SPIRITUALLY!
Illus: When Anna Nicole Smith was living, she was a beautiful woman and went everywhere flaunting the beauty that God gave her. She became very wealthy!
But then the news came on television that she had died.
She lived a deceived life, but I can assure you that only a split-second after she died, she realized how ignorantly she had lived her life.
SHE DID THE THINGS SHE DID BECAUSE SHE WAS IGNORANT OF THE THINGS OF GOD!
I am sure today, knowing what she now knows, if she could return to this life she would not live the way she lived when she was here.
Illus: Those who are walking in sin are like a man standing on the edge of a cliff, and they have no idea of the danger that they face.
THEY ARE IGNORANT OF THE FACT…
• They are only one step away from a burning hell
• They are only one breath away from a burning hell
• They are only one heartbeat away from a burning hell
• They are walking in ignorance because they cannot see what they are doing to themselves and to the Lord Jesus who died to save them.
• Paul said he did what he did in ignorance, he isn’t making excuses; he is simply stating the fact.
But the reason he talked about his past was to tell Timothy if God can use him as CHIEF OF SINNERS GOD CAN CERTAINLY USE HIM!!!
We see HE NEVER FORGOT HIS PAST and -
II. HE NEVER FORGOT THE PRESENT
Paul wrote this to the Corinthian church.
Look at 1 Cor. 6:9-11, we read, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
Paul was not proud of what HE HAD DONE, but he is thrilled at WHAT HE HAD BECOME!
For example, Paul, in 1 Cor. 6: 9-10, lists a group of people he said would not go to Heaven.
That is, absolutely, positively, beyond any doubt these he said would not enter heaven
This group consisted of fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners.
Paul does not beat around the bush. He said those who think they can be a Christian and can live this life-style are deceived.
He says in verse 9, “Be not deceived.”
But after these have come to the Lord for salvation, he says, “And such were some of you.”
Christians no longer live this way, because now we are WASHED, SANCTIFIED, JUSTIFIED!
Justified means when the Lord saves us by His precious blood, He set us aside (sanctification) and then we appear before God AS IF WE HAVE NEVER SINNED. (Justification)
Paul was once a:
• A BLASPHEMER
• A PERSECUTOR
• A TERRORIST THAT INFLICTED PAIN ON THE BELIEVERS
But he told the Corinthian church that we are NO LONGER THESE THINGS.
Look again at what he said to Timothy, in 1 Timothy 1:16-17, “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Paul recognized that he was no longer a lost man because of two things:
• God had mercy on Him
• God saved Him by His marvelous grace
Some here tonight can say:
• I was once a liar, but I am no longer a liar by the grace of God
• I was once a drunkard, but I am no longer a drunkard by the grace of God
• I was once a thief, but I am no longer a thief by the grace of God
Paul was not PROUD OF WHAT HE HAD BEEN, but after the Lord saved him, HE WAS PROUD OF WHAT HE HAD BECOME!
Conclusion:
A lot Christians have “Spiritual Alzheimer’s disease”:
• They have forgotten what the Lord saved them from
• They have forgotten WHO THEY ARE NOW!
The two things that made the Apostle Paul one of the greatest Christians that ever walked on this earth are:
I. HE NEVER FORGOT THE PAST
II. HE NEVER FORGOT THE PRESENT
