• This is why we all want to leave behind a good legacy of ourselves so that our family and friends will remember us.
• That is why when we die and people attend our funeral service the minister can remind people of the godly life we lived.
Memory is a wonderful 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 loved 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 because he was such a part of my life and still is through memory!!!
Memory is a wonderful 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 wonderful gift from God, but, like other good gifts it can be used in a bad way.
For example, Satan tries to turn the blessing of having a good memory into a curse of making our life miserable.
How?
By reminding us of sinful things in the past of the sins we committed.
Illus: When we read about the apostle Paul’s life before he was saved he persecuted the Christians.
I am sure he had some horrible memories of what he participated in as an unbeliever.
He is guilty of doing three things, such as:
1. He was a blasphemer
2. He was a persecutor
3. He inflicted pain on the believers.
These are horrible sins that Paul committed before he was saved.
But Paul was not going to allow Satan to destroy his life of happiness in Christ by remembering his past sins.
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.
Yes, I am sure Paul deeply regretted the things he did in his past life before he got saved.
The Bible teaches us that Satan is the “accuser of the brethren”.
Illus: If we let the devil he will take our past sins and beat us over the head with our past sins every day of our life wanting to destroy our happiness as a child of God.
He deeply regretted these sins he committed and he repented over them!
But our past sins are like SPILT MILK and there is not anything you can do about the past except put it in the past where it belongs.
HOW DOES GOD DEAL WITH OUR PAST SINS!!!
Illus: Many of us have heard preachers and teachers say, When God saves us he puts our sins in the sea of forgetfulness NEVER TO BE REMEMBERED ANYMORE!
That really sounds good, doesn’t it!
BUT WHAT IF I TOLD YOU THAT IS NOT TRUE!!!
The phrase sea of forgetfulness is not actually in the Scriptures.
The nearest thing to that can be found is in Micah 7:19: “He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
• God has never promised us that He would FORGET OUR SINS!
• He has promised He would not REMEMBER THEM ANYMORE.
There is a difference between FORGETTING AND REMEMBERING!
So, we cannot say GOD FORGIVES SIN AND FORGETS SIN that is wrong!
Why?
BECAUSE THE SCRIPTURES TEACHES GOD IS OMNISCIENT…. that is He knows everything! There is not ANYTHING HE DOES NOT KNOW!!! And if He did not know our PAST SINS, HE COULD NOT BE AN OMNISCIENT GOD.
HOW DOES GOD DEAL WITH OUR PAST SINS?
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 sacrificial system of the Old Testament, in which sacrifices were continually made for sin OVER AND OVER!!!
• Unlike the New Testament Jesus paid for sin once.
• I Peter 3:18 we read, 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
• Romans 6:10 for in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
These scriptures signifies that Jesus’ death was a sufficient sacrifice to cover all sins, meaning that there was no need keep sacrificing animals like they did in the Old Testament.
That is the precious blood of Christ when He saves us HE SAVES US AND GIVE US ETERNAL LIFE and there is no need to get saved over and over again.
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 for their sins a bunch of times every time they claim they got saved.
• Because 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 claimed God has saved him; he had better had truly gotten saved one of those times because Christ is only going to die for sin ONE TIME!!!
His precious blood was sufficient. We do not have to be like the people in the Old Testament that kept offering sacrifices for their sins.
HE SAID ON THE CROSS IT IS FINISHED!
That sin debt has been paid IN FULL!!! And there is not anything we can do to save ourselves because the DEBT FOR SIN HAS BEEN PAID!!!
HOW DOES GOD DEAL WITH OUR PAST SINS?
Does He forget them?
No, He forgives them and chooses not to remember them anymore.
REMEMBERANCE and FORGETFULNESS are not the same.
Illus: We as Christians REMEMBER some of the horrible things that have happened to us. We cannot FORGET THEM BUT WE CAN CHOOSE NOT REMEMBER THEM.
But God has created us in such a way, Even though we cannot FORGET THEM we can choose not to REMEMBER THEM.
That is why He tells us in Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
• 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.
WHY?
They were once…
• A Prostitute
• A Thief
• A Liar
• A Murderer
• An Adulterer
• A dope addict
• A Homosexual
• 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 THROUGH BAD MEMORIES THEY CANNOT FORGIVE THEMSELVES!!!
But Paul is dealing with his past sins when he says, “FORGETTING THOSE THINGS…”
But something we should never FORGET is what the Lord Jesus has done for us on Calvary.
Paul never forgot what the Lord had done for him. NEVER!!!
We see also. . .
I. HE REMEMBERED THE PAST
Now after saying Paul refused to live in the past with his past sin, I am going to say something that makes me sound like I am contradicting myself.
I need to take a few minutes to show you HE REMEMBERED THE PAST
Why?
Paul remembered the past for a reason and I will show you in the moment why he remembered the past.
Look at verses 13 through 15, we read, “Who was before a (1) blasphemer, and a (2) persecutor, and (3) 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.”
In these verses he listed all the things the Lord had saved him from.
But if you had known him when he was rambling 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 the student was:
• 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.
Illus: They remind me of children sitting around bragging about their evil deeds. When one tells how evil they have been, and 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 (ME) 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 sinned. But the reason He does not is because he knows they are walking in the darkness of sin. THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY IGNORANT!!!
Illus: Some people knowingly know they commit sin. That is, they were raised in a Christian home and attended a Bible preaching church in their childhood. When they sin they know they are sinning!
But there are others that do it IGNORANTLY!!!
Paul was a devout Jew and he knew what Judaism taught but he was ignorant about who the Lord Jesus was.
Paul’s only defense he did what he did ignorantly!!!
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 a few years back.
• 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 WHOM CHRIST WAS!
• He rejected Christ because the Jews did not know He was the Savior of the world.
• But we have those in this congregation YOU KNOW THAT JESUS IS THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD AND STILL YOU REJECT THE LORD AS YOUR SAVIOR.
But Paul as a Jew did not know. 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!
Illus: Being a very devout Jew he thought he was doing the will of God in wiping out these Gentile believers that believed in Christ.
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.
They claimed she had the most beautiful face of anyone woman ever lived in Hollywood. She was gorgeous!!!
And everywhere she went flaunting her beautiful face and body that God gave her. She became very wealthy!
But then the news came on television that she had died on May 19, 2023 and her death it shocked everyone at the age of 39 years of age.
She lived a deceived life, but I can assure you that only a split-second after she died, she realized in a burning hell how ignorantly she had lived her life.
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 only one step 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.
WHY WAS HE TELLING TIMOTHY OF HIS PAST SINS?
The reason he talked about his past sins was to tell Timothy if God can use him as CHIEF OF ALL 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.
Everyone here finds themselves in this list of people who will not enter heaven
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
(1)WASHED IN THE BLOOD,
(2) SANCTIFIED,
(3) And JUSTIFIED!
Justified means when the Lord saved us by His precious blood,
• He set us aside (sanctification)
• And then we appear before God AS IF WE HAVE NEVER SINNED BECAUSE WE NOW HAVE HIS RIGHTEOUNESS(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.
Paul recognized that he was no longer a lost man because of two things:
1) God had mercy on Him
2) 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:
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
HOW IS YOUR MEMORY?
