Here is the recording of the evening meeting yesterday in Coragarry Free Presbyterian Church.
It is hard to believe that it is 52 years from my first mission meetings that gave rise to the formation of the congregation.
“To God be the glory,
Great things He has done!
“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God,” Psalm 9:17.
Preached in Coragarry Free Presbyterian Church, Co. Monaghan, the Irish republic,
The forgetfulness of the wicked stands in sharp contrast to the mind and heart of the righteous. “When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice,” Psalm 63:6-7. The Hebrew word translated ‘when I remember’ is translated elsewhere by a number of words including ‘call to mind’ and ‘think’.
‘Remembering the Lord’ is a distinctive act on the part of our mind and heart. It is a deliberate and conscious process. Yes, often it is the Lord Whose coming to us and communicating with us by His Spirt through His Word that arouses such thoughts. but we must respond to such ‘knocking at the door of heart and mind’, by answering the knock. This simile is used by the Lord in the well known verse: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me,” Revelation 3:20.
From our text please consider:
I. FORGETTING GOD IS NOT A PERMANENT STATE OF MIND
By that I mean, that the human mind is never in a constant state of ‘unmindfulness’ of God. This is evidenced throughout the Holy Scriptures.
Think of the most wicked of men in the Bible and you will find that there were times that they had thoughts about God. That is the view expressed in Psalm 10:4.“The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.” He obviously is in some of his thoughts!
1. Cain, the first murderer, Genesis 4:3.
2. Judas the betrayer of the Lord, Matthew 27:4.
3. The devil, the ancient foe of God, Genesis 3:1, Mark 1:23-24.
II. CERTAIN MATTERS RELATING TO GOD MUST BE FORGOTTEN IN ORDER TO PURSUE SIN
Sin is followed when we, by an act of our will, put away all thoughts of God. “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear,” Zechariah 7:11. Such thoughts serve as a barrier to sin and must therefore be removed before sin can be engaged in!
1. All thoughts of His omniscience. Nothing can be hidden from Him! 1 Sam 16:7.
2. All thoughts of His justice. “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne,” Psalm 89:14.
3. All thoughts of His truthfulness. (Keeps His word) “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away,”Matthew 24:35; Numbers 23:19.
4. All thoughts of His day appointed for judgment. Rev 6:17 - thoughts of that day will return one day!
We cannot dwell on such subjects and commit sin and defy God.
III. IN HELL, CONDEMNED SINNERS WILL NEVER AGAIN FORGET THE LORD.
Their running from God all their days will cease in eternity! There they will dwell in a state of perpetual awareness of God and that to the unspeakable distress of their soul!
1. Their severe sufferings will serve as a reminder of God. How they had striven to put away all thoughts of the pains of hell. That cannot be now! As they weep and gnash their teeth, their pains will loudly speak of God. In eternity the ungodly will constantly, unremittingly think of God.
2. The total absence of all Christians will remind them of God. The presence of Christians in their lifetime invariably reminded them of God and for that reason they sought to avoid them. But now the absence of Christians serves to remind damned sinners of their folly.
3. They will remember because of the total loss of any sense of goodness, comfort and joy. They had believed that joy could only be had by getting away from God. How wrong they were. Hell will teach them that truth!