for the whole blog and the lord now we're in an election year but i won't tell you something there anybody that can win the white house let's go that's the whole for the country the whole country is the lord now i don't know who i'm going to vote against and i hope you'll vote against her too i said her all right from seventy-eight we'll look at a passage in this uh... fall and then passage and fall one oh three psalm seventy-eight now this fall was a rather long song with seventy-two verses and it's what they call a historical falmer it kills about uh... various things that happened in the in the uh... uh... history of the people of israel And in the midst of talking about these things in verses 38 and 39, the Bible says this concerning the Lord, but he being full of compassion, aren't you glad about that? But he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not. yea many a time turned he his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath for he remembered that they were but flesh a wind that passeth away and cometh not again notice that expression he remembered that they were but flesh and then notice in Psalm 103 Verses 13 and 14 in this psalm, the scripture tells us, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Now notice especially verse 14, for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. I'm going to speak to you for a little while tonight on the subject, remembering what God remembers. Now, Father, would you help me please tonight to preach in the fervor, power, and unction of the Holy Spirit Help me to say what needs to be said and not to say anything else. I pray that you might take the Word of God as it goes forth from the pulpit and that the Holy Spirit might apply it as needed. I pray that you'll help me to be a blessing to somebody tonight. If there's anybody with us who's never trusted Christ as Savior, I pray that they might be saved. I pray for your people especially, that those who are saved, that we might get hold of the truth that is set forth in these passages and that we might learn to apply the truth the way that we need to. Please help us, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. An interesting Bible study for you to conduct sometime would be a study on God's memory. Years ago I preached a series of Sunday morning sermons on various characteristics, various qualities about God. I'd preach one Sunday on the faithfulness of God and the next Sunday maybe on the love of God and then the mercy of God and then the grace of God and then the omnipotence of God and then the immutability of God. And I won't go on, but on all of these qualities, all of these characteristics about God, but one of the sermons that I preached was on the memory of God, and this is a very interesting study to study God's memory. The Bible tells us that God remembers some things and that He forgets some things. Now, somebody says, well, is God senile? Can He only remember certain things? No, that's not it at all. Let me illustrate. I was at the First Baptist Church of Hammond. It's been years ago. I hadn't been there since Brother Howells went to heaven, but before that I was there one Sunday and Brother Howells was talking about a conversation he had had with his wife And he said that he had asked her, do you remember? And then he mentioned some bad experience that they had faced in the past and he said, do you remember that? And she said, no, I don't remember that. And he said to her, you have a bad memory, don't you? And she said, no, I don't have a bad memory. I have a selective memory. Now may I say to you that that's the way God is. He has a selective memory. He chooses to remember some things and He chooses to forget some things. And by the way, the fact that God forgets something doesn't mean He's not aware that it took place. It means that He doesn't hold it against the person. So he chooses then to remember some things and he chooses to forget some things. The Bible tells us, for example, that God remembers His people. In the first place, He remembers the problems of His people. Genesis chapter 8 and verse 1, and God remembered Noah. Now at the time that that verse is talking about, Noah had been on the ark for many, many months and maybe after all these months he had begun to wonder, has God forgotten about me? Has God forgotten about my family? But no, God remembered Noah and he remembered Noah's problems. Now, child of God, you may be facing burdens. You may be facing heartache. You may be facing hardships. You may be facing difficulties. But let me tell you that God won't forget you in your problems. He remembers the problems of his people. And then he not only remembers the problems of his people, but the Lord also remembers the prayers of his people. Genesis 19 and verse 29, God remembered Abraham and the conclusion of that is that he sent Lot out of Sodom before he destroyed Sodom. You see, Abraham had prayed and God remembered that Abraham had prayed and so he delivered Abraham's nephew Lot before he destroyed the wicked city of Sodom. Genesis chapter 30 and verse 22, God remembered Rachel and as a result of remembering her, He granted her a child. He remembered how burdened Rachel was to have a son and how she had prayed, if not audibly, at least in her heart, that God would allow her to have a son, and so God remembered Rachel and enabled her, gave her conception so that she had a son. And then 1 Samuel chapter 1 and verse 19, the Lord remembered Hannah. Hannah was in a similar situation to what Rachel was in. She wanted to have a child and had not been able to have a child. And so she prayed and asked God about this matter and God gave her the child and that child became the prophet Samuel. The Lord remembered Hannah. He remembered how she had prayed so fervently that her lips moved and no words came out. She had been at the tabernacle and had been praying and the burden of her soul was so great that her lips moved and nothing came out. But her lips moved and the high priest at the time, a guy named Eli, thought she was drunk and rebuked her. And she told him, no sir, I'm not drunk. I have a burden in my heart, a burden in my soul for a child. And Eli then blessed her and told her that she would have the child. And she did, the child Samuel, because the Lord remembered Hannah, child of God, may I suggest that you not quit praying? You may have a burden and you're praying about it and it seems like that God's not listening. It seems like that you're never going to get the answer. Well, don't quit praying. God remembers the prayers of His people, so He remembers them. the problems of his people, he remembers the prayers of his people, and then he remembers the performance of his people. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 10, For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And so God is not going to forget the good things that you do in his name and especially when you do something in his name that's a blessing to other people. You know, it seems that one of the curses of humanity is that we have a tendency sometimes to forget those who have been a blessing to us But let me say that God doesn't forget. He remembers the Christians who serve Him. He remembers those Christians who work on a bus route. He remembers those Christians who work in the Sunday school. He remembers those Christians who give sacrificially. I'm saying that He remembers the performance of His people In Malachi chapter 3 and verse 16, a day of terrible wickedness in Israel, the Bible says, "...then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name. God has His book of remembrance which contains the good deeds of His people. And so then I'm saying that God remembers His people And then let me also point out, thank God he remembers his promises. In Genesis chapter 9 and verse 15, there the Lord, after the flood, put a rainbow in the sky. Believe it or not, the rainbow didn't represent homosexuality. The rainbow, God put it in the sky and in doing so, he said, I will remember my covenant. You see, the Lord had made a promise, a covenant, with the people of the earth not to destroy the entire earth with a flood again. And so He put the rainbow in the sky as a reminder to us of His faithfulness to that promise specifically and to all of His promises in general. And if you haven't noticed it, the world had been destroyed since then by a flood because God remembers His covenant. And we get all the way over. It was in the first book of the Bible that God put the rainbow in the sky. But then you go all the way over to the final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, and it shows God's throne in heaven, and the scripture tells us that God's throne in heaven is encircled with a rainbow. It's simply an eternal reminder that God remembers His promises. Now somebody says, Preacher, how do you know for sure that you're going to heaven? I'll tell you why. Because God remembers His promises and the only thing that we have really to go by in the matter of knowing that we're going to heaven is the promises of God. He made a promise in Romans chapter 10 and verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." That's the promise. He said, you call upon me for salvation, then you'll be saved. And on March the 24th, 1976, over 40 years ago now, when I was 18 years old, I called upon the Lord for salvation. And in order for him to be faithful to his promise, he had to save me and he did. That's why I know I'm going to heaven because God remembers his promises. And incidentally, I'd rather have that than to have a tingle in my spine, you see. The Lord remembers his people. He remembers his promises. But then let me say on the other side of the coin that God also remembers the perverseness of the unsaved, Hosea chapter 7 and verse number 2, and they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now in that particular case, he's talking about the people of Israel, but dear friend, if you look at the Bible as a whole, what you'll find is that an unsaved person, God will remember every sin that that person committed when the day of judgment comes and the Lord brings judgment. Revelation 16 and verse 9, concerning the judgment of the anti-Christ, anti-God, one-world system of religion, politics and economics, that's called Babylon in the end time, and the verse says, "...Great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath." And so then God remembers all of these things that I've mentioned, but now, praise His name, the Bible tells us that there is something that God doesn't remember. there is something that God chooses to forget, and that is the sins of a person who trusts Jesus Christ as Savior. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 17, the Lord says, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now, it's always been something of interest to me that in the Bible, I'm not sure how I want to put this, but the prosecuting attorney in the Bible, it's a type of the devil, the accuser of the brethren. If any of you are prosecuting attorneys, I'm sorry to tell you that, but that's what it is in the Bible. It's Satan who's the prosecutor, who's the accuser of the brethren, and who's constantly accusing Christians before God when the Christian sins. And I've often pictured it in my mind that Satan comes before the Lord and says, Lord, you remember Kurt Pigeot? Remember how he used to be on dope? And the Lord says, no, I don't remember that. And the devil says, well, God, you remember that Kurt Pigeot, how he used to be immoral? And the Lord says, no, I don't remember that. And the devil says, well, Lord, surely you remember how Kurt Pigeot used to drink? And God says, no, I don't remember that. And in fact, the Lord doesn't remember any of our sins when we sin provided that we know Jesus Christ as Savior. Thank God He chooses to forget our sins when we trust Christ and put our sins under His blood. But the point that I want us to consider tonight about God's memory is what's emphasized in the verses that we read in Psalm 78 and in Psalm 103. Both of these passages teach the same truth And that is that God is merciful to us because He remembers something that we oftentimes forget. Psalm 78 and verse 39 puts it this way concerning Old Testament Israel. God remembered that they were but flesh. Psalm 103 and verse 14, For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. You know, this is something that I try to keep in mind when some Christian goes off the deep end and messes up. I try to keep in mind that there may have been extenuating circumstances And hopefully that helps me to be a little more compassionate with people. Now, I'm not talking about trying to justify some sin that somebody committed who has no interest in God and in the things of God, but I mean that somebody who, you know, they have a heart to do right and they want to do right, but they mess up. Kind of a description of all of us, isn't it? But I try to keep in mind the person's background and their environment and things that they've been through and that sort of thing, not to excuse the wrong, but to try to understand them and then to hopefully be able to try to help them get back on track. Now, this is what these verses are talking about and are telling us. God does that same thing. He remembers that with human beings, listen, there is always an extenuating circumstance, and that extenuating circumstance is that we're flesh, we're dust, and God keeps in mind that we're weak, frail, sinful creatures. I mentioned the devil, the accuser of the brethren. and how that he'll go before the Lord and hurl accusations against God's people. He's the prosecutor, but thank God we also have an attorney for the defense. His name's Jesus. And when I sin, Jesus, my advocate, goes to God the Father and says, Now Father, I died for that sin, so don't hold it against him. And the Father says, I want some. I know that he is dust. I've been asked about various people. Why does God use somebody and bless somebody even after they may mess up terribly? Well, the reason is because he remembers that we're dust. God understands that he is never going to get sinlessness out of a human being, and so therefore, he keeps in mind what we are. We're dust. We're flesh. I mean, God says, Abraham, you lost your faith and got out of my will for a while and tried to fulfill my promise in a sinful way, but Abraham, I'm not going to forsake you. I remember that you're dust. I remember that you're flesh. God says, David, you committed adultery and had a man killed, but I'm not going to forsake you, David. I'm still going to use you because I remember that you're dust. I remember that you're flesh. The Lord says, Simon Peter, I heard you curse and swear and deny my Son, but Peter, I'm not going to forsake you. I'll still bless you. I'll still use you at Pentecost because, Peter, I remember that you're dust. I remember that you're flesh. God says, John Mark, I saw you on that missionary trip with Paul and your Uncle Barnabas. I saw you how you got homesick and quit the mission field and went back home to mama and left Paul and your uncle out there on the mission field. But Mark, I'm not going to forsake you. I'll still bless you and I'll still use you to write the gospel of Mark, because Mark, I remember that you're dust. I remember that you're flesh. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you tonight that we need to remember what God remembers. We need to remember that human beings are flesh, that human beings are dust, and if we'll keep this in mind, it will help us immensely in our Christian life. Now, I'm not a fan of bumper stickers. I don't have any on my car, and if you give me one, I won't put that on my car. I may put it somewhere else, but I won't put it on my car. I just don't like them. But every once in a while, I'll see a bumper sticker that I really like. They used to have a bumper sticker that said, my son or daughter, whichever was the case, is an honor student at so-and-so high school. I didn't particularly care for that one, but I did like the one somebody came out with in response to that, which said, my kid beat up your honor student at the school. That was a good bumper sticker. And another one that I have seen on occasion that I like is one that says, Christians aren't perfect, and they meant by that sinless. Christians aren't sinless, just forgiven. And that's true, and we need to remember that. We are dust. We're frail. We're weak. We're sinful. Now let me make two or three applications. Let me say in the first place that we need to remember this fact about ourselves. I'm not just saying that you're dust and you're flesh. That's true of me as well, and more flesh than used to be the case, by the way. But I'm saying apply it first of all to yourself. Remember about yourself as God does, that you're dust, you're flesh. Now, if we'll remember this fact about ourselves, it will help us in at least three specific areas of the Christian life. In the first place, if we'll remember it, it will help us in the area of humility. You know, it's difficult to be lifted up in pride when you remember that you're simply dust. I mean, when we consider that we're made of the same dust as the lowest gutter bomb on Skid Row, when we remember that we'll die and our bodies will corrupt away just like everybody else's, when we remember that if somebody digs us up a few weeks or a few months after we die, that they'll find maggots infesting our body that's rotting away, just as is the case with anybody else. I'm saying that it's difficult to be proud when we consider these things about us. ourselves. I suppose that's why it's so sickening to see somebody lifted up in pride. I mean it's sickening to me. I can't even imagine how God must think about it. But study your Bible and what you may find is that the main sin rebuked in God's Word is the sin of pride. It's what led to the fall of Lucifer when he became the devil. And as Brother Coral likes to say, if being lifted up in pride made a devil out of Lucifer, wonder what it'll do to us. You know, Muhammad Ali died, I think, what, two weeks ago, I guess? And so he died. Guess what? He was flesh. He was dust and he died. I remember reading about him being on an airplane one time without having his seat belt buckled and the stewardess, well, you can't call them that anymore, that's sexist. You don't know the half of it. At any rate, the flight attendant, now they called him, came by and noticed that his seatbelt was not buckled. And she said, would you buckle your seatbelt, please? And he said, Superman doesn't need a seatbelt. And she said, Superman doesn't need an airplane. And so I'm talking about the matter of pride. One preacher was speaking at a luncheon, and after the luncheon was over, the fellow that was in charge of it handed a preacher a check, and the preacher said, oh, no, I can't accept this. And the fellow said, well, how about if we put it in our special fund? And the preacher said, "'Ought to be fine. What's the special fun for?' And the fellow said, "'So we can get a better speaker for next year's luncheon.'" And so I'm saying that if we'll remember that we're dust, that we're flesh, it'll help us in this matter of having the proper humility. But then a second area of the Christian life that we'll be helped in as long as we keep in mind and remember that we're nothing but dust and nothing but flesh is the area of temptation. If we remember that we are dust, just frail, weak, sinful flesh, that will help us to be careful about putting ourselves in the place of temptation. Do you know why Christians put themselves in the place of temptation? Well, one reason is because they forget what they are and forget that they will be tempted into sin if they put themselves in that situation. Did you ever notice how Jesus told us to pray when he gave what they call the Lord's Prayer? He's among the other things that he told us to pray. One thing that he said we need to pray is this, lead us not into sin. No, that's not what my Bible says. What he told us was to pray, lead us not into temptation. You see, we're to pray that the Lord does put us in a place where we're tempted, not that we go run and jump in a pool of temptation and then pray for God to get us out of it. You follow? Now, that's what most of us probably do, you know. And some tempt old God, help. Well, some of us just jump into it. But even Christians that want to do the right thing oftentimes pray in this fashion when temptation arrives. they start praying for God to deliver them. And by the way, God will. There's no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, and also with the temptation will make a way of escape. So if temptation is there, pray for God to get you out of it. But the best thing is to pray, lead us not into temptation. See, if I'm not tempted, I know I'm not going to sin. And so, by the way, don't take that to mean that I practice this perfectly, because believe me, I don't. But that is the ideal. Young person, unmarried person, rather than dating alone and going out to the lake in the car alone and then trying to resist the temptation to become physically involved, best thing to do would just be not put yourself in that situation. Don't put yourself in that position. Now, once you get married, if you want to take your wife out to the lake and have a smooch fest, have at it. It would do some of you good. Seriously. But I'm simply saying, if we remember that we're dust, if we remember that we're nothing but flesh, it'll help us in this matter of temptation. You know, it's sad, and not only sad, it's downright silly, the way that human beings oftentimes deal with temptation. Teenagers do this, adults do this. If over here is sin and over here is doing right, here's how a lot of Christians traverse the pathway. Now guess what's going to happen before long? I'm probably going to fall, and when I do, I'll probably fall in that direction. fellow that was going to go to a hotel up on top of a mountain and the only way of getting there was to travel up this narrow, twisting mountain road. And so he decided that he'd find a driver And he wanted the best driver he could find and so he put the announcement out, driver wanted. And as people came to apply for that position, he would ask them. He asked the first one, how close can you get, do you think, to the edge on this mountain trail that we have to drive? How close do you think you can get to the edge without going over? And he said, oh, I'm a good driver. Why, he said, I can get within a foot of the edge without going over. He said thank you and dismissed him. The next fellow came in. He asked him the same question. If you're a good driver, how close do you think you can get to the edge of the mountain trial without going over? And he said, oh, I am a good driver. I can get within six inches. of the edge without going over. He dismissed him. The third one came in and he asked him, if you're such a good driver, how close do you think you can get to the edge of the mountain trail that we'll be traveling without going over? And the fellow said, sir, I have no idea how close I can get. My objective is not to get as close to the edge as I can but to stay as far away from it as I can. And the fellow said, I found my driver. Now, you would too, but if we remember that we're dust, if we remember that we're nothing but flesh, it'll help us to stay as far away from temptation as possible. It'll help us in the area of temptation. So it'll help us in the matter of humility. It'll help us in the matter of temptation. And then thirdly, let me say that if we remember that we're flesh and remember that we're dust, it will help us in the area of discouragement and despair. If we'll remember that we're dust, it will help us not to despair when we sin as Christians. Boy, I remember when I got saved in the zeal and so forth of newfound faith I thought, and I even promise, I hope God's forgiven me for it because I didn't keep the vow. And by the way, it did put me in a place where I'm very hesitant to make a vow. But, I mean, there were times I'd tell the Lord, Lord, those things I did before I got saved, I will never do them again. You ever done that? I'll never do it again. But guess what? After a while down the line, I found that I did again the things that I'd told the Lord I would never do again. Why? Because I'm flesh. Because I am dust. Now, there were times, you know, I'd commit some sin and it would take me to the place almost of despair but I had to remember I'm dust, I'm flesh, I'm going to fail sometimes, and so I have to get back up and go on again. See, that's why Proverbs 24, 16 says, the just man falleth seven times. Now, that's always been an interesting statement to me because if I had written it, I would have probably said the just man doesn't fall. But the Lord said the just man falleth, and not just once, but seven times. And if you understand Bible numerology, you know that seven is the number of completeness and fullness and that sort of thing. And so the idea is the guy falls an indefinite number of times. Or look at it like this. There's a time for him to fall one time a week. seven times, all seven days. But the difference in this just man, I'm talking about Proverbs 24, 16, because it also talks about the unjust man, the wicked man. And the difference is not that one of them falls and the other one doesn't. The difference is, it says, the just man falleth seven times and riseth up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. The idea is the wicked man falls and never gets back up. He just stays where he fell. But the just man, though he falls again and again and again and again, yet he always gets back up and goes on. And so I'm saying then that if we remember that we're dust, if we remember that we're flesh, if we apply this first of all to ourselves, it'll help us in the matter of humility. It'll help us in the matter of temptation. It'll help us in the matter of despair. All right, now a second application. We should first apply this to ourselves, but then secondly, let me say that we should remember this fact that we're dust, that we're flesh, about Christian leaders. You know, I've known people to be absolutely devastated when a Christian leader did wrong. Well, listen, dear friend, you know why he sinned? Somebody said, so and so sinned. Well, you don't have to tell me. I already knew that. I may not have known the specific sin they committed, but I knew they sinned. You know why they sinned? You know why you sinned? Because you're a sinner. Same thing. Now, if you trusted Christ, you're a sinner saved by grace, but you're still a sinner. And so is every Christian leader. I remember Brother Howells came under attack from different people. And, you know, the good night, that's been 20, almost 30 years ago now. But honestly, now by the way, the stuff you hear, the people that said it don't know what they're talking about. So, and he's still all over the, been dead 15 years and all these losers sitting at the computer spreading garbage that they don't even, never knew him, never heard him preach, don't know anything about him except what they heard some other jerk say. But the interesting thing about it is that human beings and a lot of Christians seem to be cut from the cloth that people are guilty by accusation. You know, somebody accuses somebody, well, they had to do it and that person couldn't be lying, could they? Or talking about something they don't know what they're talking about. But when he was under attack, a lot of people that were his friends forsook him based on accusation. But somebody asked me about it and I answered them like this, I never expected sinlessness from the man, so it didn't destroy me when I found out that he was a sinner because I already knew that. And so, you have to keep it in mind that A person is flesh. A person is dust. Apply that to ourselves. Secondly, apply it to Christian leaders. And then thirdly, we need to apply this to others in general. It will help us not to be overly disappointed when other Christians fail. It will help us then also to be forgiving when the Christian who failed wants to come back and get on the right track. apply this thought to them. Their flesh, they are dust. One Christian had done another Christian terribly wrong. Years went by, And finally this man who had done the other wrong was reaching the point in his age that he began to think about some of these things of the past and he decided, I ought to go and ask that fellow to forgive me for what I did. And so he tracked the guy down. And now remember it had been years since he had done this man wrong. Tracked him down and he said to him, my brother, I wanted to find you and come to you. And remembering how I did you wrong so long ago, I just wanted to come and ask for your forgiveness." The other Christian looked back at him and said, My brother, you don't have to ask my forgiveness. I forgave you years ago when you did what you did. Now you know why he did that? Because he remembered this fellow's just dust. He's just flesh. He's going to do the wrong thing sometime just like I do. And so the Bible tells us, and praise the Lord, that he remembers that we're dust. He remembers that we're flesh, and we should remember what God remembers and make application of it to ourselves, to Christian leaders, and to other Christians in general. Father, thank you for the passages that we have considered tonight. thank you that you remember our frame you remember that we're dust and flesh that we're frail and weak and sometimes even though we don't want to we sometimes do wrong now i pray that you'll bless this simple thought and message to the hearts of your people our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed in a moment we're going to stand and