Rejoicing in God's Remembrance

I'm so glad that you've taken time to celebrate with us this evening. You know, I look forward to this service more so than any other service we do throughout the year. About June or July of every year, I begin to think about Thanksgiving and Christmas, simply because every Sunday in December is all about the celebration of the Christ child. And so, come June or July, I begin thinking about how it is I want to be able to present to you that which is so important for us to understand at this time of the year.

And then when January rolls around, I begin working on Resurrection Sunday, thinking about those high points throughout the year that we can focus in on our Lord in a unique and special way. I'm surprised at the number of churches that don't even have a Thanksgiving Eve service. I'm perplexed by those who won't want to gather together and be reminded of the gratefulness of God and how good He is to us and to celebrate that goodness. Many churches don't even think about having a Thanksgiving Eve service.

But of all the people that are thankful, it's the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who has an opportunity to give thanks and praise to His God. What better place to be this holiday season than to be with the people of God, worshiping the God we say we love and adore. And so tonight, I want to take you through a little bit of a journey through the Scriptures to help you understand something very unique about our Lord that will help be encouragement to you, not just today or tomorrow, but all throughout this holiday season and into the new year as we embark on another year of the Lord's Harry's.

And as you read through the Scripture, you wouldn't necessarily pick up on it right away. It's something that as you're reading, it's just another phrase that takes place. And it kind of goes a little bit like this, and you see it first in the book of Genesis.

Book of Genesis chapter 7, it says in verse 24, The water prevailed upon the earth 150 days. Now we're talking about the flood, right? And as you read through the Genesis flood, you understand how the waters gushed up from beneath and how the rains fell down from above, and God was going to destroy the world with water. And then it says in chapter 8, verse number 1, But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark, and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.

Now if you read through the Bible, which a lot of people do, they read through the Bible in one year, you would read that verse and think, not much of it, except if you were to dissect the phrase, But God remembered Noah. It's hard to just jump off of that and move on. What does it mean that God remembered Noah and all the animals that were in the ark? What is it about God that causes him to remember? Could it be that God was so busy causing the waters to gush up from the earth and to fall down from above that he was so busy doing this that one of the angels had to come around and say, Hey Lord, did you remember Noah and his family?

No, it wasn't like that. Because God never forgets. In fact, this phrase is so important that there's a whole book in the Bible devoted to God remembering. And that is the book of Zechariah. Zechariah's name means God remembers. And in the book of Zechariah, the very first verse of chapter 1 tells us the meaning behind the book.

It says, Now, what does that mean? Well, Zechariah's name means God remembers. Berechiah's name means God will bless. Edu's name means at the appointed time. So in verse 1 of Zechariah chapter 1, you have the theme of Zechariah. That is, God will remember and bless his people at the appointed time. And the whole book of Zechariah unfolds for us how our Lord is going to remember his people Israel. How he's going to, listen, he's going to restore them nationally. He's going to renew them spiritually.

He's going to rebuild them historically. And he's going to cause them to reign victoriously. And that's what the book of Zechariah is all about. That's why the guy's name, God remembers, has a book about how God will remember his people Israel. Now, we know that God doesn't forget. We know that he is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

And so, because God is omniscient, he knows all, he never forgets anything, what does it mean that God remembers? And what does it mean to me as I celebrate this holiday season, as I embark on giving thanks tomorrow, as I gather with my family and my friends, and I celebrate what God has done in our lives, and embark on this beautiful season of Christmas and celebrate the Christ child. What does it mean that God remembers? How does that change my life today? Oh, it should change it drastically. And so, I want to unfold for you how you understand that God remembers.

It's simply a phrase that means to pay very close attention in order to fulfill a promise that was given. In other words, God is faithful to fulfill everything he has foretold. That's what it means when the Bible says, but God remembered Noah.

So, let me give you eight phrases that will help you understand how is it God remembers. When God remembers, first of all, he always reveals his person.

When God remembers, he always reveals his person. If you were to take a journey through the book of Zechariah, you would realize that the Messiah is called the stone. He's called the smitten shepherd. He is called the sovereign king. He is called the stone and the chief cornerstone. He is called several things all throughout the book of Zechariah. He is called the shoot that stems from the root of Jesse. He is the branch that will sit on his throne and act as a priest. Why? Because God, as he remembers, reveals his person to Israel.

Israel cannot afford to forget the identity of their Messiah. So, he's going to reveal to them his person. His person in the ministry and work of his Messiah, for he's God's Messiah. And so, when God remembers, he always reveals his person. In Genesis 8, with Noah, he reveals his faithfulness. He reveals his trustworthiness. When he remembers Hannah, when she was barren, he remembers or he reveals to her his omnipotence, his omniscience. God is always in the process of revealing his identity. So, when the Bible says that God remembers, he reveals his person.

Number two, he evidences his presence. When God remembers, not only does he reveal his person, but he also evidences his presence. If you go to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 16. You know, as you go through Genesis, you have all these major characters. You have Adam and Eve. They play a pretty major role in the history of the world. You have Cain and Abel. You have Noah. You have Enoch. You have Abraham. But when you come to Genesis 16, you have a minor character that steps up and takes center stage.

Her name is Hagar. She was a handmaid. She was a servant girl that Abraham and Sarah got when they went down to Egypt in Genesis chapter 12. Brought her back with them. Well, it's been 10 years when you come to Genesis 16, and there's been no fulfillment of a promise from God to Abraham. God gave the promise that a seed will come from Abraham, and that seed will bless the nations of the world. But 10 years later, the seed hasn't come. And Sarah knows it's supposed to come through her. So a lot like we do today when we ask God to do something, wait for God to do something, and it doesn't happen, what do we do?

We kind of help God alone. We want to take matters into our own hands. We want to kind of push the envelope as far as we can. And that's exactly what Sarah did. She said, Abraham, why don't you go into our hand servant, handmaid, Hagar, sleep with her. She'll get pregnant. And legally, that would become now our child, and that will be the promise God has for us. So Abraham does. He goes in, has relationship with Hagar. She gets pregnant, and all of a sudden Sarah is furious. She's bitter. Why? Because she's barren and Hagar's pregnant.

She's yet to have a child. And she gets so angry and so bitter, she throws Hagar out of the house. And so the Bible says in Genesis 16, verse number 7, it says, so Sarah treated her harshly, verse number 6, and she fled from her presence.

Now the angel of the Lord found her. First time that phrase is used in the Bible. The angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Christ. It's the appearance of Christ before the incarnation in the Old Testament. It's called the angel of the Lord. It's called a Christophany. And so it says, now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness. By the spring on the way to Shur, he said, Hagar, Sarah's maid, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress, Sarah.

Then the angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit yourself to her authority. Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, I will greatly multiply your descendants, said they will be too many to count. The angel of the Lord said to her further, behold, you are with child and you will bear a son and you shall call his name Ishmael, which means God hears. Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. Very important phrase. God has given heed to your affliction. Why? Psalm 92 says that God always remembers the afflicted.

And so it says, he will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand will be against him and he will live to the east of all of his brothers. Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are a God who sees. For she said, have I even remained alive here after seeing him? Therefore, the well was called Beer Laharoi. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. Beer Laharoi means the well of the living one who sees me. You see, what God was going to do was manifest his presence to Hagar.

Because if God remembers the afflicted, he sees her as one who's afflicted. The psalmist would say it this way. Psalm 136 verse 23. He remembers us in our lowest state and rescues us. He remembers us in our lowest state and rescues us. That's exactly what he did with Hagar. So when God remembers, he reveals his person. He evidences his presence. And number three, he manifests his power and his preeminence.

He manifests his power and his preeminence. All the way back in the book of Exodus. Israel is an Egyptian bondage. And it says these words in verse 23 of chapter 2. Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died and the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage and they cried out. And they cried for help because their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God remembered his covenant. What does it mean to remember?

God is faithful to fulfill that which he's already foretold. He is faithful to fulfill that which he's already foretold. And so he's going to remember his covenant with Abraham. And he's going to come down. It says in verse number 7, the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters for I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from the land to a good and spacious land to a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite.

Our Lord remembered his covenant with Abraham. He saw their affliction. He heard their cries. Psalm 92 says he always remembers those who are afflicted. And so what does he do? He simply begins to manifest his power and his preeminence. He's going to come down. We all know about the 10 plagues of Egypt. We all know about Egypt, how Israel fled Egypt. We all know about the situation with the Red Sea and how Israel went through on dry land because when God remembers his people, he manifests his power and his preeminence.

And that's exactly what he did when he remembered the nation of Israel when they were in bondage. So when God remembers, he reveals his person. He evidences his presence. He manifests his power and preeminence. Remember Samson, the book of Judges, when the Lord departed from Samson. Saddest verse in the Old Testament. For Samson did not know that the Lord had departed from him. And so what did he do? After his eyes were plucked out, he said, Lord, remember me. Give me strength one last time. Why?

To show you that the strength of Samson was not in his hair. The strength of Samson, like your strength and mine, is on our relationship with the living God. And God was going to manifest once again his power and preeminence through this man Samson as he destroyed the Philistines. Fourthly, when God remembers, he establishes his promises as permanent and perpetual. He establishes his promises as permanent and perpetual. Listen to what the Bible says in Psalm 105, 42.

He remembered his holy word to Abraham. In 1 Samuel 1, listen to this. 1 Samuel 1, it talks about Hannah. Remember, her husband Elkanah had another wife, Peninnah. So Elkanah was married to Peninnah and to Hannah. And Peninnah was very fertile. She had all kinds of kids. But Hannah was barren because God had closed her room. And so she began to pray and asked the Lord to remember her. And said, Lord, if you remember me and open my womb, I will give this child back to you. And sure enough, as she began to pray, God heard her prayers.

And the Bible says, and the Lord remembered Hannah and opened her womb. And of course, the reason this is so important is because God had caused her to be barren long enough to give her the right child at the right time. Think about it this way. With John the Baptist, Elizabeth was barren. She had no children. And yet God was not going to give her a child or open her womb until it was time for the Messiah to be born. And so therefore, John the Baptist, who was the forerunner to the Messiah, God's saying to Zacharias and Elizabeth, listen, I don't want to give you just another child.

I don't want to give you just another son. I want to give you the son, the forerunner to the Messiah. So now for you must wait until that time. And sure enough, when Elizabeth had that boy, John the Baptist, who was the forerunner to the Messiah, it says in Galatians 4, verse number 4, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. In other words, at the appointed time, God sends forth his son. Why? Because he's going to bless Israel. Remember Zechariah 1.1?

When God remembers, he will bless his people at the appointed time because God is faithful to fulfill everything that he has foretold so that his people will be blessed. That's what it means when God remembers. He reveals his person. He evidences his presence. He manifests his power and preeminence. He establishes his promises as permanent and perpetual. And then next, he magnifies his plans and his purposes. Genesis 19, verse number 29, and God remembered Abraham and saved Lot when it came to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

If you go and you read Luke's gospel, in Luke chapter 1, it says these words, as Mary begins to give her song, he has given help to Israel, his servant, in remembrance of his mercy. Zechariah's song, when Zechariah says that God is going to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. So in Mary's song, in Zechariah's song, when God remembers, he magnifies his plans and his purposes so everybody can see them. So whenever God is remembering, when God is faithful to fulfill all that he has foretold, he's putting himself on display.

He wants people to see that he has a plan. He has a purpose. He had a plan when he remembered Noah back in Genesis 8, verse number 1. He had a plan with Sodom and Gomorrah when he remembered Lot. He had a plan with Hannah when he remembered her and opened her womb. He had a plan with Rachel in Genesis 30 when she was barren, and God opened her womb and gave her Joseph, and then opened her womb again and gave her Benjamin. God had a plan. God had a purpose. God doesn't do things haphazardly. He does things in a very methodical way because he has a plan, like he does for your life and for mine.

So when God remembers, he reveals his person. He evidences his presence. He manifests his power and preeminence. He establishes his promises as permanent and perpetual. He magnifies his plans and purposes, and he bestows pardon and peace. Listen to this, Hebrews 10, 17. Their iniquities and sins I have remembered no more. He bestows his pardon and his peace. There is no peace with God without forgiveness, and yet God is willing to forgive us our sins when we go to him and repent because he's faithful to fulfill everything that he's foretold.

He will forgive all those who come to him and repent of their sins. Remember the thief on the cross? What did he say? Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And the Lord said to him, today you shall be with me in paradise because God would fulfill all that was faithful, be faithful to fulfill all that he had foretold about forgiving the penitent sinner. So God bestows his pardon and peace. Next, when God remembers, he enters our plight and embraces our pleas. When God remembers, he enters our plight and embraces all of our pleas.

In Genesis 30, God remembered Hannah. In 1 Samuel 1, I mean, he remembered Rachel. In 1 Samuel 1, he remembered Hannah. Why? Because he would embrace their pleas. They would cry out to him. He would hear them. He would meet the need. He would enter into their plight. That's why we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses because he was tempted at all points like we are yet without sin. Our God can enter our plight. He can embrace our pleas. That's why it's so important for us to understand how it is that God remembers us and so that we can give thanks to him for the fact that he'll never forget, but he will always, always embrace us and take care of his own.

In Psalm 103, it says, he knows our frame and he remembers that we are dust. Here's a God who truly enters the plight of man and embraces the pleas of man. That's what happens when God remembers. And lastly, when God remembers, he rejoices with his people. When God remembers, he rejoices with his people. Listen to Malachi 3, verse number 16. Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem his name.

And they will be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I prepare my own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him. God is a book of remembrance. Why? Because in that book are recorded all the things that you and I do for the glory of his name. Hebrews 6.10 says that God never forgets all that we do. And for those who fear the name of God, for those who esteem the name of God, Malachi says he has a book of remembrance where he has recorded everything that you have done that esteems his name because he's always going to reward the faithful.

He wants to enter into what it is we're doing. So he rejoices with his people. That's why in Luke 10, it's so important to realize in Luke's gospel that there's only one place that our Lord rejoices in the incarnation, only one place in the gospel that speaks about God rejoicing. And what's he rejoicing? It says, Luke 10, verse number 20, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. At that very time, Christ himself rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit.

In other words, one time, one occasion in his incarnation in the 30 plus years of his life, he rejoiced. About what? The names that are written down in glory. That's what caused him to rejoice. It was a joy that was set before him that caused him to endure the cross, despising the shame. See, that's our God. That's why over in the book of Zephaniah, Zephaniah chapter three, these words are recorded. It says, shout for joy, O daughter of Zion. Shout in triumph, O Israel. Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.

The Lord has taken away his judgments against you. He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst. You will fear disaster no more. In that day, you will be sent into Jerusalem. Do not be afraid, O Zion, and do not let your hands fall limp. The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. When God remembers, he rejoices with his people. So, if that's the case, would it be that you and I remember him this holiday season?

You know, if God never forgets and forsakes his people, it'd be important for us never to forget or forsake him. In fact, this Thanksgiving, this Christmas, I want you to do everything you can to remember him. What does Solomon say? Ecclesiastes 12, verse number 1. Remember your creator in the days of your youth. In other words, don't forget who created you. Don't forget your maker. Always remember him. What did Paul tell Timothy? Second Timothy 2, verse number 8.

Remember Jesus Christ. The son of David, risen from the dead. Why does the apostle Paul have to tell a pastor to remember Jesus? Because we so easily forget who he is and what he's done. Remember Jesus Christ. The son of David, risen from the dead. First Corinthians 11, 24 and 25.

Our Lord said, when it comes to the communion table, this do in remembrance of me. Don't forget me. Very important. The Bible says in Nehemiah 4, 14.

Remember the Lord, for he is great and awesome. Jeremiah 51, 50. Remember the Lord from afar. How do you do that? By keeping your mind, it says, on Jerusalem. It says in Jonah 2, verse number 7. I remember the Lord, and when I did, Jonah says, I give thanks to his name. Psalm 97, verse number 12. Give thanks at the remembrance of his holy name. Listen to Psalm 119. The psalmist says, remember the word to your servant in which you have made me hope. In other words, he says, Lord, remember the word.

In other words, be faithful to fulfill everything that you have foretold, because that's the only thing that gives me hope. And then he says this. I have remembered your ordinances from of old, O Lord, and I comfort myself. When I remember the Lord and remember his ordinances, that's how I receive comfort. And then he says this, verse 55. O Lord, I remembered your name in the night, and keep your law. Over in Psalm 62, these words, I'm sorry, Psalm 63, it says this. When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches.

And then Isaiah 26 says this. The way of the righteous is smooth. O upright one, make the path of the righteous level. And then it says, your name, O Lord, even the memory of your name is the desire of our soul. The memory of your name. If I can just remember your name, name being the character and nature of God. If I can just remember who you are and what you've done, that is the desire of my soul. We need to make this November a November to remember, a November never to forget. How does we remember the God who never forgets us but always remembers us?

My challenge to me and to you is that as we go through this holiday season, we will always remember him because he always remembers us. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word and the opportunity you give us to study your word and to understand it. The very fact that, Lord, you are so faithful to fulfill your commitments. For when you have spoken, you do not lie. You are true to your word. And when you say you remember our sin no more, you never do. You're faithful to your word. When you say you remember the afflicted, you do.

When you say you remember that we are but dust, you understand the frailty of our lives. And Lord, we need you. So I pray for all of us this evening that, Lord, this November and December, we would remember our great God, to give thanks to your holy name, to remember our creator in the days of our youth, to remember Jesus Christ, the descendant of David, arisen from the dead, which is our gospel. Lord, help us never to forget who you are. And Lord, help us always to be grateful for the fact that you remember us.

In Jesus' name, amen.