Some time ago now, I was reading through Luke's gospel. I came to chapter 24, reading about the resurrection of our Lord. But there was one verse that really stood out to me. And it's a short verse. It only contains five words. And it's verse eight. And they remembered his words and they remembered his words. Can I ask, are there words or phrases that you have spoken that you will be remembered by? Maybe a comment you've made in general conversation It may be a phrase that you regularly use in an email, but there's something that you say that sticks in the minds of other people. There was a man called Michael Fish. I don't know why it is that you mention just some name and kind of it triggers. Michael Fish, of course, was remembered as the weather forecaster who gave his assurance on the 16th of October 1986, a long time ago, that there would be no chance whatsoever of gales affecting the United Kingdom, so we could all go and sleep in our beds in comfort. and that very same night, gales hit the United Kingdom, particularly in the south, 100 mile an hour gales, strongest gales we'd had for many, many, many decades, and it caused devastation. We lived in Morden at that particular time in Surrey, And I remember the following morning, my son and I went to the park behind our home. Some of the great trees that were in that park were just flattened. One of our neighbors, who had his car parked, had a oak tree right across the car. It was like a little matchbox. What devastation was caused. But Michael Fish, as long as we live, will be remembered for his words. And you know, you can repeat this many, many times. There was a man called Werner Wright, Professor Werner Wright. Professor Werner Wright was one of the founders of Young Life and United Beach Mission. He was professor of rheumatology in Leeds University. He was a good friend of ours and Professor Werner Wright would always end his letters with these words, onto victory. No matter what was happening, it was always onto victory. So the question comes, are there words, phrases that we use that will be remembered by? Now, it may be good to look back at catchphrases and words that people use, but I think there's a serious side to this. In the Bible, our Lord Jesus Christ used words and phrases regularly, and these words and phrases should be constantly in our memory. in Matthew chapter 17, 21. He reminded his disciples at Caesarea Philippi that he would suffer at the hands of the chief priests and teachers of the law and the elders and that he would be killed and on the third day raised to life again. They remembered the first two parts. They remembered that he would suffer from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes. They remembered that he would be killed. But as we read in chapter 24, they totally forgot that he would rise from the dead. And it was some time later, following his suffering and death upon the cross, The two angels at the tomb reminded them what he told them in Galilee, verse 6. In verse 8, it all came back to them. They remembered his words. In Acts chapter 20, the apostle Paul is giving his farewell address to the elders at Ephesus. And at the end of the farewell address, he says in verse 35, in everything I did, I showed you that by hard work, we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said, it's more blessed to give than to receive. Karen Boller was a senior researcher. And some years ago now, she did one of her widest researches of all. She listed things that people most often forget. And in that list, it stated that 49% of people interviewed forget what was said. Not an encouragement for a preacher, but we'll live with it. But 49% of people forget what was said. You see, we're living today in an age of words. Everyone's speaking. Everyone has an opinion on nearly everything. From the top people in society to the ordinary working class man or woman, we have all got something to say. We all have an opinion on most things. The trouble is, we often speak without thinking. which is like shooting without taking aim. But when it comes to speaking, God is so wise. God is never, ever short of giving valuable counsel. But God never says more than what is necessary. Our Lord Jesus was exactly the same. always speaking words of wisdom, words that would benefit and help people, but he never said more than what was necessary. And likewise, we should be careful in the words that we speak. They may never be forgotten. You see, God, when he created us, showed great wisdom, because he gave us two ears and one tongue. We should be swift to hear, but very slow to speak. And when we were created, God set a double fence before the tongue. We have teeth, we have lips, You put them all together and it's hard to get a word out. God was very wise. And also in the plan of God, man was never permitted to utter the first word. And man will never be permitted to utter the last word. I want now just to make my list. of things that we've been told to remember from our Lord, but sadly, we often forget. And the first is this. We are sinners. How often Jesus told us that truth. Matthew 9.13, I'm going to be roaming quite a bit. Matthew 9, 13. Jesus reminded the Pharisees while having dinner in Matthew's house that he hadn't come to call the righteous. What he'd come to do is to call sinners to repentance. And the Apostle Paul takes up that same theme throughout his letters to the churches. In his letter to the church at Rome especially, he emphasised that fact time and time and time again. In chapter 5 of Romans, he uses the word sin and sinners no less than 13 times. He's really trying to get something across here. Our Lord Jesus emphasized this fact so much in his ministry. And in verse 12, he reminds his readers, Paul does, that death came to all men. Why? Because all have sinned. And he makes it even more clear when he stresses the fact that there is none who is righteous No, not one. And I want to put this point to you, in case you have forgotten, that we can never ever experience God's salvation through Christ Jesus until we acknowledge the obvious, that we have all sinned. We were born in sin. I always often have people come to me and say, I disagree. We weren't born in sin. We may become sinners when we do some wicked act, but we weren't born in it. Well, any parent who is around, can I ask a question? Did you bring up your children and teach them to be naughty? And if you did, please stop me before you go out because I've never met anyone quite like you. The hardest task that any parent has is to teach their children to be decent, good living citizens. Why? Because we were born in sin. We were born with that nature. Jesus and the Apostles constantly reminded people of this fact and urged them to confess their sin, to repent of their sin, and that message has not changed right to this day. There's a second thing that we're told that amazingly we often forget. And that is that we are loved. What does the Bible say about the love of God? Well, I'll just give you two things. Number one, the love of God is not influenced by events or circumstances. God's love is spontaneous. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who was the renowned Victorian pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, was one day talking to a farmer about spiritual matters. And as he was talking, Spurgeon noticed that the farmer had quite a large barn and he had just erected a weather vane on one of the ends of the barn. And on that weathervane, he had inscribed in large letters, God is love. Spurgeon noticed it. And he said to the farmer, what do you mean by having that text inscribed on your weathervane? Do you think God's love is changeable? that it veers about as the arrow turns in the wind?" The farmer smiled and replied, oh no sir, I mean whichever way the wind blows, God is love. Events and circumstances in your life and mine will never ever change that fact. Just look at Israel. What an example of spontaneous love. Deuteronomy 7, 7. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any other people. No. The Lord just loved them. And we love Him this morning. Why? because he first loved us. And I beg you, don't get the cart before the horse. I still meet people who say that God loves us because we loved him. Rubbish! God loved us, and therefore we love him. Romans 5.8, God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. So God's love is spontaneous. But there's a second thing. God's love is eternal. Why? Because God is eternal. He is love. And God doesn't change his character in any way or at any time. And whether we face suffering this morning, whether we face bereavement recently, whether we have unemployment, whether we have a financial crisis, whether we're suffering loneliness, whether we're even being persecuted, whether we're facing death, we are loved with an everlasting love. When did God begin to love his people? Where and when did God's love originate? The love of God was in existence before heaven and earth ever came into existence. You will never, no matter how hard you search, you will never ever find a beginning to God's love. And you'll never find an end to it either. Love has always been there. and it will continue to remain there because God's love is eternal. Let me turn to a third thing, something else that we often forget, and that is that we can be forgiven. You know, to be truly forgiven by a close friend or a member of the family for some misdemeanor that we have done brings us great relief, doesn't it? It's like some burden taken off the back. It brings enormous comfort to us. Yes, we can be forgiven. The problem is But not always is our transgression forgotten. Just some small event can trigger something, and that sin comes back to our memory. But with God, it's totally different. Yes, he forgives our sins. Let's start with that. One of my favourite psalms, if we can have one, is Psalm 103. I love it. And in verse three it says, he forgives my sins. No, it doesn't. It says, he forgives some of my sins. No, it doesn't. He forgives most of my sins. It doesn't say that either. Shall I tell you what it says? He forgives all my sins. All my sins. Sins of the past, sins of the present, sins of the future. Ephesians 1-7, it says, In Him, We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of His grace. You may say, He removes our sins from us. Yeah, I'll go along with that. But does He forget them? Do you know I had recently a lady come up to me She'd be in her middle age. She was a teacher in the church Sunday school. And she came up to me and I was preaching on this similar theme. And she came and said, does God truly forget our sins? And tears started just to roll down her eyes. I didn't say much to her in that sense because I just wondered if there was something in the past that was bothering her, plaguing her, worrying her. But we stood there at the front of the church for about 15 minutes and I was trying to reassure her that God not only forgives our sins, but forgets them. And you know, if God has forgotten them, shouldn't we? You see, I think this is one of the problems that many Christians have. That they just cannot accept and believe that God forgets them. Yes, they'll say, I believe that God does forgive, I have to, but I can't follow that he forgets them. But he does. Hebrews 8.12, I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sin no more. Old Testament verse supports that to the full, Isaiah 43 and verse 25. Just remember this, my friends. God is not like us. He's not like us. When we have come to Him in repentance and we have confessed He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our sins are behind God's back permanently. They are buried into the depths of the deepest ocean permanently. They are carried as far as the East is from the West, never ever to be remembered against us anymore. Have you ever travelled East or West? Well, if you start tomorrow, you'll be still going in the same direction for a thousand million years, because there is no end to East or West. North and South, you come back on yourself. East or West, there is no end to it. So if God's forgotten them, shouldn't we? You know, I think one of the problems is that sometimes our memories are just too good. We remember what we shouldn't. And we shouldn't remember our sins when God has dealt with them. I just want to come to the last point. And that is, we have hope of heaven. We have hope of heaven. Heaven is not some figment of our imagination. And the tragedies in life, we forget God's assurances about our future destiny. Just as earth is a real place where we now dwell, heaven is a real place where God has his throne and where he dwells. Here, we suffer pain. In heaven, no pain. Here, we shed tears. In heaven, no tears. Here we battle with sin. Do you battle with sin? Do you find sin a real problem? Well, I'll tell you this. Join me because I do too. Here we battle with sin. In heaven, no sin. Here we all will have to go through that final battle of death. in heaven there will be no more death. What a wonderful place to look forward to because God will be there and Jesus will be there. But there's one thing that I want to make abundantly clear. Do you know I've only been making this clear in the last five years or so but I want to make this abundantly clear. Heaven is not for everyone. Don't think that when you die, you're automatically gonna go to heaven. We often hear on the media, when someone well-known has died, that that person will be looking down from heaven at the events here. I read that, I heard on the BBC News that when this particular well-known comedian died, it said that he will be looking down at us here and he will be cracking jokes up there. A football manager who died, well-known football manager, said he will be looking down and watching his team play the next match and cheering them on. Now can I say this is all blasphemous? It is utter blasphemy. And I'd love to shake these people. Oh look, I know it brings comfort to them to think that their loved one is up there. But it's untrue. It's just untrue. Who wants to be caught up with earthly things and we're enjoying the wonders of heaven. I'll tell you this, when by God's grace I'm called to go above, I'm not a bit bothered what happens down here in that sense. I'll be just caught up with what's happening in heaven. Heaven is a place, and we've got to get this clear, Heaven is a place that God has prepared for those who have acknowledged their sin, number one. For those who have experienced God's love, number two. For those whose sins have been forgiven, number three. Have you done that? Have you acknowledged your sin? Has God revealed His love to you? Have you asked Him to forgive your transgression? Have you turned to Him alone? Are you aware of what Jesus did on that cross? by shedding his precious blood because of his love for you? Yes, there are words that will remind us of certain people and the occasions they spoke them. And many people may remember the words that we have uttered. So I just say to you in warning, Be careful what you say. Be careful what you say. But the most important thing of all is the words of our Lord Jesus. In John 15, 20, following the message of the vine and the branches, he said, remember the words I spoke unto you. And you know, friends, the words of Jesus can be the difference between life and death and heaven and hell. Remember his words. Let's just pray. Our loving Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning that in our hands is a copy of God's words. The words He and His Son have spoken are recorded for us. Help us to read them. and help us to remember them. Help us to remember what they are saying to us this morning, that we're sinners. Help us to remember that God is love. Help us to remember that our sins, though many, can be forgiven and be completely forgotten. And help us to remember that in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. But I go to prepare a place for you, but where I am, there you may be also. Forever with the Lord. Amen. So let it be.