Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The old hymn goes, Let's listen in. This is part three of a message first preached on April 23, 2023 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Forgetfulness led people to wander from God, and this is what Peter was trying to keep them away from.
Let's talk for a minute about the drift and the disaster of not remembering. Those of you who are over 40 may remember a gentleman by the name of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Exactly 40 years ago, he gave a momentous speech, a Templeton address. It was May 10, 1983.
There's a lot of you in here that don't even remember those days. Solzhenitsyn was a part of the Soviet Union, and he was dismissed from the Soviet Union because of his descent. And he came to America.
This is 1983, so this is before the Soviet Union had collapsed in 1989. And here's what he said, Men have forgotten God. That's why all this has happened. Since then, I've spent well nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution.
In the process, I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause for the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat, Men have forgotten God. That is why all this has happened. You look around at our culture today, you look around at what's going on, and some of the nonsense that is happening, there it is. Men have forgotten God. That's why all this is happening.
Church, listen to me. Let's not participate in that. Let's live as people who remember.
That's what Peter is calling his people too, the Christians. When you don't remember, you lose context. We're seeing that happen in our culture today. When you don't remember, you lose context. Remember the driver? He doesn't know where he is. He doesn't know where he's going. And when you lose context in life, you lose history. When you lose history, you lose identity.
And when you lose a grasp of your identity, you lose a grasp of reality. That's what happens when you don't remember. Years ago, Andrew and I remember watching a show, a movie about a particular woman.
I don't remember the name of the movie. The main character was played by Meredith Baxter. But it was a show about this woman. She was a younger mom, and she was experiencing what's called early-onset Alzheimer's. She was really battling with her memory and struggles.
It was getting so bad, it was so frustrating. One day she's walking down the hall, she looks in the mirror, and when she looks in the mirror, she says, get out of my house. She didn't even recognize herself in the mirror. So Andrew and I joke with each other sometimes. If something happens, like we forget something royally, we just look at each other and say, get out of my house. But this is what happens. Now, practically, in the day to day, what happens when we lose our memory? Spiritually speaking, when we forget God, what happens? We become motivated primarily by immediate gratification. We become fools. And what does a fool do?
A fool acts with no thought of future consequence or impact on others. We become fools. And we live by lies. We believe lies when we forget.
Let's look at some examples from Scripture. Israel forgot, didn't they? Israel forgot. Remember when they were headed toward the Promised Land? Israel forgot.
And what happened when God sent spies in? They forgot who God was. They forgot how he had delivered them. They forgot his faithfulness. Israel forgot.
And what happened? They wandered for 40 years, and a whole generation died off. And later on, when they were a nation, they forgot God again, and they were scattered in oppression and exile. The disciples in the boat forgot. And what did they do?
They panicked. Peter forgot. What did he do? He denied Christ. Because he forgot. In the moment of crisis, he forgot.
What do we do? What does it look like for us if we forget God? Titus, Paul says to Titus, chapter 1, verse 16, he talks about people who profess to know God, but by their works they deny him. You know, it could be that you come in here, you read Scripture, you sing praises, you listen to a sermon, and then the next day at work, you have completely forgotten. God does not apply to your work.
You treat your colleagues with disrespect and disdain, and it's all about me and promoting me. Profess to know God, but in works they deny him. John said something similar, 1 John, chapter 1, verse 6.
If we say we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. What happens when we forget God? We start living like practical atheists. We live as if we don't even know God.
That's tragic. Now let's turn the page here, because we were just talking about the drift and the disaster of not remembering. Now let's talk about the delight of remembering. The delight of remembering. I love to remember that I'm married. It would be disastrous if I forgot. Andrea loves that I remember that I'm married.
Okay? I mean, think about the consequences, right? I love going home. Sometimes Andrea will go visit family, she'll be away for a week or two, spend with family, a new baby or something like that, and when she's away, I go home, it's just a house. But when Andrea's home, it's home. I love remembering that I'm married. I love the companionship. It comes with meals. But what happens if I didn't remember that I was married?
I'd be going out dating other women. You see how that works? If I didn't remember. The delight of remembering, what we get from the text here, first of all, number one, is it provides stability. For you as a child of God, as a follower of Christ, remembering provides stability to keep you from wandering. Verse 10, therefore, brothers, be all more diligent to confirm your colony election, for if you practice these things, you will never fall. And you look at chapter 3 and verse 17, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
You want stability in life, confidence? It comes from remembering who God is and what He has done. Secondly, you will grow in the character of Christ, and that's God's will for you. He has predestined you to that. You will grow in the character of Christ. Chapter 1, verses 5 to 7, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love.
What is that? That's the character of Christ. Grow in that. You're not going to do that if you're not actively remembering who God is and what He has done. Number 3, you will live meaningfully with impact. When you remember God, you will live meaningfully with impact. This is why Peter is writing this letter to the first century Christians who are experiencing oppression in the Roman Empire, disdained from the Roman people.
This is why Peter is writing this letter to the first century Christians who are experiencing oppression in the Roman Empire, disdained from the Roman people because they're followers of Christ. Now, I want to challenge you as I close this morning, I want to challenge you in your devotion to remember. Are you devoted to remember? When we are called to remember, it's not just, hey, you know, all of a sudden it comes to, no, no, we are called to actively remember. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on Weekdays at 10 a.m.
