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I was gonna ask a question. And it it's the past few weeks, there's been the thought of my mind about remembering in memory, uh setting up memorials, uh thinking about things in the past. Not in the just in a sense of just you know remembering the good old days. In fact, there's a there's there's actually a warning in the scripture about remembering the good old days as the good old days instead of focusing your attention to, you know, this is the day that the Lord hath made. Uh it's it's not that there are not good memories to have and to be strengthened by. In fact, I want to turn a little bit to that in in fact very two specific examples, uh, but starting with a third. Uh that the uh but that the that the memories that we have uh are given to us uh to use but not to to worship. In other words, in other words, that which we remember, uh, for example, if you uh think about the children of Israel, and if you even think about times in your in your life where you've been delivered, where good things have happened, um, and you want to remember those things to get strength from those memories uh of the good things that have happened. In other words, uh, if you remember a time that the Lord was with you, the Lord gave something to you that you needed in a time of need, uh then that remembering that brings to mind that God does deliver when you need it. But then it's it's the careful part is to not worship that past event and to say, well, you know what, that was such a great time that that's uh I hesitate to even mention this, but if if you're if you're at a certain age, you start might start remembering about like the best times you had. Like as if the best times you ever had are in your past. And that's a dangerous thought because uh quite frankly, the best day you will ever have is yet to come. Uh and I don't just mean in the days that we walk in this life. We look forward to a day. Uh, by remembering the promises of God, we look forward to the best day we're ever gonna have. Uh bar none. And so that that's the the memories that we're given are given in order to remember those things. But uh in two examples, especially, but like I said, I'm gonna go to a third. I'm gonna try not to spend too much time on this third, is a way of kind of introducing the thought. Uh, but there is something that happened in 1 Samuel that is interesting to me. Uh it's very it's very curious. It's not one that I uh it's not an account I turn to very often. Uh but this is when uh Israel decided that they wanted a king. Uh and this is after the times of the judges. Uh, if you read in history, after Israel goes into Canaan's land, uh, and after Joshua and the nation of Israel conquers the land, and many wondrous things occur. Uh they kind of, if you read the book of Judges, you find that they kind of lose their way time and again, as we as human beings often do. And that's the importance of the remembrance. That's the importance of not just remembering, but being in continual remembrance of certain things. But we find that uh Israel forgot. In fact, it it's very clear that after uh after Joshua died, they they departed from the just within that generation, they departed from remembering the things of God. And we find that they they get into trouble, God delivers, they remember to cry out to God, and God delivers them, and when they're delivered, they get they get uh forgetful and then they go away from God again, and that happens again and again in different areas and time after time in the in the books of Judges. And at one point, Israel decides, well, you know what? We want to be just like everybody else. Yeah, I want to set this thought just over to the side. It is not a bad thing to be different. In fact, that's exactly what Israel was set aside for. They were aside, they were set aside to be a different kind of people, to look different, to sound different, to behave differently. They were to eat different things, they were to even to dress differently. And most of the many of the laws were not given just because God likes certain colors or likes certain attire, but it was mainly to set them aside. It was to set them so that you could tell just from the way everybody else was and the way Israel was supposed to be, what that Israel was a different kind of people, but above all, that God's name was found in Israel and that they honored God above all. That's what that's the way it was intended and sometimes was. This wasn't universally bad. I don't want to ever give that impression. Uh but uh but we also find that they fell into the trap. They fell into the trap of they looked around and they saw the way everybody else behaved, and they thought, you know what, why aren't we like that? Because it seems to be working for them. Here's a sudden clue. It didn't work for them. It didn't work for them and it wasn't gonna work for Israel. But they thought it worked for them, and so they saw what was thought was working for them and said, we want to be just like them. We want a king too. And they forgot one very important thing that Samuel tried to remind them of. God is your king. Pay attention to God, things will go well. But they didn't, and they didn't want to, because we by nature, as human beings, like to see something. And they we like to see the effects, we like to see what we're what we're what we're what we want to worship, and that that's a human natural tendency. And even in this day and time, uh they wanted to see a king, they want to see someone who went out to battle with them and for them. They wanted to see it happen, and so they wanted to be just like everybody else. So the if you remember the account, they said that we want a king, Saul said, Samuel said uh no, but God said, you know what, Samuel, don't get upset about this. They're not rejecting you, Samuel. They're rejecting me, and I'll take care of it. But you you go ahead and do what they say. And so they selected themselves out a king, and it turned out to be King Saul to be the first king of Israel. Now, I'm not gonna go into the history of King Saul, but it did not work out because Saul was a man like everybody else, and he ended up rebelling against God. But here is the occasion where Samuel is about to basically turn over Saul as king. This is almost like a coronation, but and it's a it's a the whole chapter of twelve uh the 12th chapter of 1 Samuel is probably worthy to go into, but for the sake of time, I'm not gonna read every account. But what happens is Samuel first goes to Israel and says, Hey Israel, these are my words, hey Israel, have I ever taken anything from you? Have I ever borrowed anything from you? Have I ever uh extorted you? Have I ever done anything wrong against you? And he says, I call you to I call you to witness against me today. Have I ever turned, have I ever steered you wrong, and have ever done anything wrong to you? And then he said, No, you've never taken anything from us. No. You've treated us right. And then he says, Okay, I will call God against you as witness now that you have said, I have never done you wrong, basically. That's my way of saying it. And he says, Okay, yes, God is our God is witness against us, we have it, we've said it. And he says, Okay then, why then are you rebelling against God? This is his final statement against Israel. Because God is your king, but you wanted a king. Why are you not listening to me? And in fact, he he goes to the point of saying, today is the beginning of the wheat harvest, is it not? I'm gonna pray to God that he's gonna send thunder and rain, so you cannot have a harvest this year. And God does that. He sends the rain and he sends the storm, and it frightened them so much that they thought that God was gonna destroy them because he just sends on a sudden onset of a storm. All of this to remind them that even while God is going to go ahead and let them have a king so that he can prove to them what manner of king that they would select out, by the way, the next king, the very next king of Israel, is one that God chooses for them and not themselves. And you know who that king was? King David, a man after God's own heart. A very type and picture of Christ, even though he was still a man. Now, the reason I wanted to mention that is uh Samuel says something here in the midst of these uh of these of the of this uh uh admonition against Israel, against their own uh their own um behavior. And um after after uh the rain and after the the thunder was uh was brought forward uh in verse 20. And again, I would recommend you go back and read uh the the first 19 verses. But verse 20, and Samuel said unto the people, fear not, ye have done all of this wickedness, and by the way, uh I want to make mention, he also reminds them of all the wickedness that was done by the nation of Israel ever since Moses led them out uh from from from the from uh their uh from their worship of the golden calf uh on uh Mount Sinai uh to uh all of the history through uh the judges. So when he says ye have done all this wickedness, he's not saying this generation did all of it. He's saying he's just reminding them of their history of uh of falling away, falling away from God. He says, Ye have done all of this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord. But serve the Lord with all your heart. I want to I want to make mention of something here, and I don't want to dwell on it too much. Maybe uh the time will leave us if I do. But if I if I can get the right words on this. When you are corrected, when you're told to do the right thing, when you say, you know, you're doing something wrong, do this right. You know, we often, and this is my nature too, often you bristle at it. Often we think, you know, like one, uh you know, sometimes you might think, well, who are you to correct me? You know, that that that's that can be a very, a very rebellious thought in our mind. But often we also are brought down. We we think, you know what, I I messed up. I really messed up, and now I feel bad because I'm being corrected. However, that's not the way to look at correction. Uh, even in the New Testament, when the apostle Paul is talking about the correcting rod of God, is that God chastises those whom he loves. He does not chastise those whom he does not love. Uh believe it or not, there are some that God does not love. And you know what? God does not regard them, he does not try to correct them. One big example, he's not trying to convince Satan to give to mend his ways and to fix himself up. No, that that's not that's that is not the relationship between God and and and uh Satan and all of his forces or all of the devil and his angels, as the scripture taught. Uh those that are against God that are full of wickedness, when he when he does not correct them, he is not, he is not not correcting them because he likes them. He has turned them over to themselves. He chastises those whom he loves. Correction is the sign of love because it is a sign of the desire for you to actually behave the way you ought to. Not not just because it is expected of you. And here's the here's one of the points I want to get to is the behavior of Israel and their misbehavior against God and their going against the uh the the way that God has told them. It is not just dishonoring to God. It is. It is them behaving in a way that is contrary to their own their own best interest. It is them uh behaving in a way that is not good. Even as uh a child uh that might reach out their hand to touch a hot stove. Uh if you know it's going to hurt them, you might teach them, uh don't touch that. Or if they reach and touch it, he says, now you know why you're not to touch it. Don't do it again. Because it's in your own best interest. It's not just because you ought not to touch certain things, it's because it will hurt, it will, it will cause problems, it will bring things upon you that are not good for you. And so the Lord, in his uh in his admonition to his people, uh, do not teach us to walk a certain way just simply because he wants us to follow a certain set of rules. His rules are always the best for his people. Uh what Israel was called to do, do you uh you may not realize this, but even the clean and cleanness laws of Israel were on the in their best interest. Do you realize there were times in this is I don't want to get too too far down this road, but there are times where Israel, just because of what God told them to do and behave, lived longer lives and lived in a better situation than all the nations around them because they just simply obeyed the cleanest laws of God. And that's just a very practical thing, let alone one of the most important aspects, is that when they did what God told them to do, they saw the might of God, they saw the power of God, and they saw in the law and in the prophets that were sent to them a tithe and picture of Christ. They saw messages sent to them through the word of God that told them of their deliverance, not just deliverance from the people around them. Yes, they needed that at times. We need deliverance from the things around us. Uh when you're hungry, you need the deliverance of food. When you're thirsty, you need the deliverance of something to drink. That's a very natural thing. And yes, the Lord is uh sees that, and the Lord can give that. Uh, but what we need deliverance even more so is deliverance from sin, deliverance from uh uh from guilt, deliverance from uh uh from the uh from the uh judgment of God, because there is no deliverance from that if God is not gonna deliver us. And so when we see uh in the law, in the prophets, uh even in the the uh even in the sacrificial uh ordinances that were given in the law, uh that uh God was giving them an understanding, a picture, uh, a message all the way back even to Abraham, that God will provide himself the sacrifice, that he will not just provide himself as the sacrifice, he will also do the work of the sacrifice, he will do it on our behalf because he loves us and because he loves us, he will have us, he will uh he's not gonna leave it up to us in order to have have to save ourselves. That's the point of needing a savior and the point of knowing you have a savior. If if God treated us as someone drowning in the ocean, and said, Oh, you're in the ocean and you're drowning, by the way, that's not how it is. How it is, is we've already drowned. That's how it actually is in sin. We've already done the drowning. So we're actually in the ocean without even struggling for life. That's how the scripture describes us. Dead in trespasses and in sin. But even if it were that we were struggling and drowning in the ocean, and God just looked at us and said, Well, keep going. The shore's right over there. Just just I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll point you the way, but you got to get there. That's still no help. Because we're still because the reason why we're drowning is that we can't swim anymore. And even if it were that case, we would be in a bad situation. But it's even worse than that, as far as humanity is concerned. It's because we're already dead in trespasses and in sin. And when, here's the here's the the irony of the scripture. Here's the irony of the truth of God, here's the irony of life in Christ. Is when you are alive in Christ, all of a sudden you feel yourself drowning. Because you're in a body of sin. But that which is born of God in you is perfect. And it's like it's trying to catch its breath. And you start wondering and thinking, what's going to deliver me from this? As the Apostle Paul says, Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? But there is an answer to that. There's always been an answer to that. There's been an answer to that since the days of the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve were thrust out because of their sin. Is that God will provide the righteousness? The beauty of following after God and remembering the works of God is the clarity and the understanding of how he provides that. And here Israel is falling away, has as natural as human beings are. We can't look at Israel and say, oh, you're just such a bad people. We would be so better. Just put your names in the names that are found here, and you'll find how we are by nature. But we see that that Samuel is not chiding Israel. He is not getting on Israel, he is not bringing the rod of correction down in order to punish them. This is their health, this is their welfare, this is their, this is the good thing. And Samuel saying, You wicked people, not because they were wicked, but because they had it in them to obey, and they needed to remember which way to turn. And Samuel said to the people, fear not, ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And turn ye not aside, for then should ye not for oh, excuse me, for then should ye go after vain things. Now here's all of this to get to this point. Here's Samuel's statement. Turn not aside. Because not maybe, but every single time you turn aside, for then should you go after vain things. What are vain things? Which cannot profit nor deliver. For they are vain. The word vain means van or vanity, it means emptiness. Without substance. Now, we all know if you well, if you've ever heard about someone being vain, that they look themselves in the mirror and they smile and think about how pr how beautiful they are, it's because beauty is literally just what you see and interpret as a certain way. One person can look at something and another person look at the same thing, and one has a very different uh point of view of whether it's even pretty or not. And it has no power, there is no substance in something that is vain. It is by its nature unable to profit or deliver. That's what Samuel's using as his understanding here. If you turn aside anything that is away from God, it is by its nature unprofitable, meaning it will add nothing to you. It will not bring that which you need. When you are hungry, it will not be able to bring the food. When you are thirsty, it will not be able to bring the drink. And as far as as the natural things go, I believe that's true. But even more so, the spiritual things. When you are hungry and thirsting after righteousness, the things, the vain things that are not of God cannot profit. It's not that they will profit a little. They are empty. They cannot sustain you. It's like hungering and thirsting for something to sustain yourself. And all you do is fill yourself up with sugar. It may feel like you're eating something, but it will profit you nothing. It will not give you what you need. In fact, it will only hurt you. And that's what that's what Samuel is bringing before the nation of Israel because they have followed after vain things, time after time after time. And he says, even this king, this king that you're going to follow, there's only one hope for you, is if you follow after God. In fact, I skipped it, but one very important thing he says to the nation of Israel is, is not. And maybe I should have read it, but I'm not going to go back, take the time to read it. In fact, I'll give you that as homework. Go back and read this chapter. He says something very important. It is not whether or not the king follows God as to whether they'll they'll they'll prosper. It's whether they follow God if the king prospers. In other words, don't look to the king. Don't look to this man. Don't look to him to see whether or not God will prosper and redeem the nation. God is looking at your obedience, nation of Israel. He's looking at you as a people. Are you gonna follow him? And when you follow him, the king will prosper. And when you don't, then he will fall. So so it's very turned around. What were they looking for uh Samuel to be? A king that will be their leader to lead their nation. And what what Samuel is saying is, you know what? You you still have it backwards. If you want the king to succeed, follow me. And then he'll succeed. So I don't want to get into politics, I don't like that. But if you want to look around the nation, and if you think leadership is in trouble, we do pray for the leadership. But the leadership will never be the ones that lead the people into whether we obey God or not. Guess what? You follow God as to whether you obey God or not. And guess what? It doesn't matter whether the leaders do or don't, but God may just direct them the way they need to go in order to sustain the people that are following him. You understand what I'm saying there? But I want to I want to get on because there are two points. It won't take very much time, uh, but I do want to turn to uh 1 Corinthians. And there is there's a passage here, because there I said there are two key things about remembrance, and and in particular in this message to Israel about uh not going after vain things, because what was it? As soon as you depart from following after God, you start following after vain things. And it's not just because it's more susceptible or you're more likely to follow after vain things when you follow after God. By definition, if you are not following after toward God, you're off the mark. And once you're off the mark, you're going down the wrong road, or you are following vain things. You're following something that's truly not even there in reality. But 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and if you're not familiar with this chapter, this is the chapter that's often, at least in the church, is often uh uh pointed to is uh in uh in the reference to the resurrection. And by and that's the point. The point is the Apostle Paul is reminding them that this is not the first time the church at Corinth heard about the resurrection. He's reminding them, he's bringing to remembrance something because something has happened in the church at Corinth. Something has happened to make them wonder if there even is a resurrection. I wanted you to just, I wanted you to, and this is where I started to ask a question. If you thought, or what do you think, are probably two of the most fundamental things to know about Christ and the church, maybe beyond the fact that he died for your sins. I I two of the most, I don't know if you want to rank them. I'm not gonna try to rank them today, but two of the most fundamental things I think that you probably ought to know and recognize. Almost anybody who says that they believe in Jesus and believe in these things probably should at least arrive at these two fundamental principles. He died and rose again, and he's coming back. Those are two fundamental things that you might think surely no one would ever get so twisted around in their way of thinking to ever doubt whether Christ died and rose again or is coming back. And yet, those are two things that apostles are writing to the church to bear in mind, to keep in remembrance these things, because why? If you don't pay attention to the following of the Lord, if you don't bring to remembrance the things of God time and again, guess what you start to do? You start to follow vain things, and the vain things are out there to do to twist you up, to twist up your way of thinking, to twist up your way of feeling, to twist, to put doubt. And something had come into the church at Corinth. A thought, a a lie of Satan, that was uh just a thought that started creeping into people's minds. Is there any, is there even a resurrection of the dead? And the Apostle Paul, I don't, I cannot pretend to tell you that his mode of mind as he was writing this letter. But if it were me, I would probably have to stop and just breathe a bit and just think, how on earth could it come to this that someone who had not only heard the word of God, but felt the very presence of the Holy Ghost among them, to felt Christ in their very midst, singing praises unto God, knowing that Christ is at the right hand of God right now. Ever wonder whether there is a resurrection of the dead. And so the Apostle Paul writing says, Brethren, I've got to bring you back to remembrance to something. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. Again, not something new. This was not a new message, but this is the Apostle Paul saying, apparently we have to cover this ground again. Now, it's to our benefit to our benefit that the Apostle Paul wrote this. But it was not to the church's benefit that they got into this situation. I think the Lord could very well have supplied a very similar message in a different way. But but in today's day, in year 2026, we are benefiting from this because we benefit from the same correction that the apostle Paul is giving the church at Corinth. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preach unto you, which also you have received, and wherein ye stand. What he's about to lay out is you have to realize if there is no resurrection of the dead, you don't believe anything. It's vain if there is no resurrection of the dead. But if there is a resurrection of the dead, it's very clear you have gone into a vain thought. You have gone into a way that there is no profit and it cannot deliver. Because I can tell you what, knowing the truth of God, there is great deliverance in it. There is great, uh, there is great salvation in it. Be uh uh yes, uh, we are saved by the blood of Christ. Uh that that uh that redemption on the cross and and the the re the uh uh the the uh the uh imputation of his righteousness has saved you eternally. You will never fall before a God in sense of uh uh ever having uh uh been lost from him because of the work of Christ. But but but there's something happening here at the church at Corinth that they need delivered from. They need delivered from a loss of hope and of understanding and knowing that there is a resurrection of the dead, not just of Christ, but of themselves as well. He says, uh uh I preach uh uh wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved. Not this is not talking about their eternal salvation, because they're already, they that they've already manifest the very presence of God in them. They're all that we know that they're children of God. But what is the apostle Paul is saying is it's not uh what the Paul what the apostle Paul says is I am not going to be a good apostle. If I sit here and watch you go down this road, because one, I love you, and two, you need to know that there is that if you depart from the falling of the world, the the Lord, you will follow after these vain things that cannot profit and cannot deliver because we need deliverance, we need salvation today. We need salvation when uh when we're in the darkness of our uh of our depressions and the darkness of our doubts, when we don't know which way to turn, left or right, we need to know God will deliver us today. We need to know that God will uphold us today. We need to know that when uh we've lost loved ones and we have to put them into that grave, or they go on, or maybe we never even see them again, their bodies upon the face of this earth. Uh yet we know that God has all power and he has all glory and he will have his people before them. And Apostle Paul, through the rest of this chapter, reminds them uh that uh first he proves out that if there is no resurrection of the dead, uh we are lost. We are uh our hope is in vain, uh, uh, our our uh uh in uh that we are yet in our sins, and that if if the if the dead rise not, Christ is not risen, and that we are all men most miserable. He says if if this one thought is true, if this vain, uh unprofitable, uh harmful thought is true, then you then there then there is no hope. We might as well just give up. In fact, he even says, uh, why do we yet preach? Why even yet talk about it? Why do we even bring up the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ if there is no resurrection? And that that's that's the that seems so obvious when you say it in certain terms. If there is no resurrection, there is no resurrection of Christ, then what do you believe? And that's what the words of the Apostle Paul are. Then why? What was going on when the Holy Ghost moved upon you at the preaching of the word of the resurrection of Christ, and you felt the hope and the joy of life in him, and you knew that there was righteousness and peace that were bought by the blood of Christ. Where did that come from? If the dead rise not. But thankfully, the Lord, the Apostle Paul says, let me clear up the matter. Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. There is the resurrection of the dead, not of Christ only, but of you. Your bodies will rise from the grave by the same power and the same glory as Christ Himself. Therefore, keep in mind, bear in remembrance, uh, keep your mind and focus on one of these fundamental truths. As Jesus Christ died and rose again, and even as uh uh as you uh in semblance uh set in uh in the baptism waters uh uh confess your belief that in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, you have newness of life, and you even have that in the uh the workings of the inner man now. Uh it doesn't stop there. Even so, your body shall rise forth out of the grave, just as told by Daniel and Job and many of the other uh uh prophets of old. It said that uh with your own eyes and not another you shall see God. Uh that that that is something to bear in mind and to keep in remembrance. Why? Because when you don't keep in remembrance, you you it's easy to start following down the wrong path of even thinking such a contradictory thing. And if they were thinking a contradictory thought in the days of the Apostle Paul, how easy is it when this world is just we we most of us carry a device with us that brings a flood of contradictory thoughts. How easy is it to start thinking, or to, or even just to doubt, well, what if there is no resurrection of the dead? That would be my like me saying, Well, what if I just floated off into space? I mean, that's you might think of how ridiculous that is, but that's that's how ridiculous some of the thoughts are that we then give credence to, that we start putting vain trust in. And it will, and there's only one outcome of that. It will not profit, in other words, you'll get no benefit from it. It will only hurt, and it cannot deliver. And then um the other occasion, and this one, is even more so very pointed by the apostle Peter in the form of bringing to remembrance. In fact, the whole second book of 2 Peter, let me just turn and read that passage in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 1. This second epistle, beloved, if we if you want to know why the Apostle Paul wrote 2 Peter, he says it. I mean, he literally tells us right here, this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by may of by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us by the apostles of the Lord and Savior. And there's a lot that goes followed from this. It may take may be good to go into in another time and another place, but I want to summarize here. But basically, the apostle Peter says, There's a lot of lies, a lot of deceit. There is a lot of, uh, as he uses, uh, those that are willingly ignorant of the word of God. Uh going all the way back to before the considering the flood of Noah's day. He says, these people are willingly ignorant of certain truths of God. To be willingly ignorant is to look at something and see that two plus two equals four and say, no, I don't believe that. Uh I just simply don't believe it. And if you tell it to me, I'm going to pretend like it doesn't exist. Because to believe it means I have to believe the truth. And to believe the truth requires, not only requires for you to be able to believe the truth, but there are consequences of believing the truth. You know what? One of the truths, the consequences of believing that there is an Almighty, all-holy God, one of the consequences of that is that we're sinners. Because we cannot believe in a holy God and judge ourselves compared to it and come to any other conclusion. We have to be willfully ignorant to believe that we're not sinners before God. And that's one of the things of this world. This world says there is no such thing as sin. There's no such thing as right or wrong. That's willful ignorance of the understanding of even of there being a God, let alone of the declarations of the truth of God in the scripture. And so the apostle Peter reminds us of these things. But I want to, and um uh for the sake of time, I'm not gonna take it take time to read it, but chapter one, he also talks about the remembrances of uh of um uh the things that he is bringing to the uh the people of God. In fact, he makes this statement. Uh he talks about a series of things that uh that uh that are to be added to faith, faith to uh add to your faith virtue, to virtue, knowledge, knowledge, temperance, temperance, patience, patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness, charity. He said, makes this statement for if these things be in you and abound. Now remember what I said about what the what Samuel said about uh the vain things, that they are neither profitable nor can they deliver. Well, here the apostle Peter is saying, you know, there's some godly things that I'm encouraging you to add into your life, to to labor in them, to have them as a focus, to to it to continually add these things into you, into your your walk and life. He says, For if these things be in you and abound, they make that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, he says, there's profit in that. There's something that comes forward from that. And part of that comes forward is the continual remembrance of the blessings of God, uh, of as the apostle Paul would say in uh in uh Ephesians, that you are blessed with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places and Christ. And the more that you dwell on these things and realize uh the the blessings of God in your life, that they they bring to mind the understanding, the remembrance of not only just the past blessings, but the uh the encouragement and this and the strength to rely on God for the present need of blessings in your life. So he says that they bring they make that you be neither barren nor unfruitful. There's a whole lot more that can be said about that. But verse 9, but he that lacketh these things, if you go down the vain path, if you if you fall, if you if you go turn away from the black from the truth of God. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was hurt from his old sentence. I don't know about you. But I don't know what I would do if I ever got to the point that I forgot that I was redeeming my cross. Does the forgetting let me ask you this if you have you ever forgotten your keys? Did that make your keys disappear and dissolve into thin air? It may have seemed that way, but it did. Because they were still there the whole time, but you forgot them. You did not know where it was, you didn't know how to get access to it. That's in a similar vein. When when you uh when these things, when you if in the case of this person who is a born-again child of God in this context, but walks in a way that they are uh uh uh uh unthoughtful uh and and not uh not bountiful in these and these uh attributes of God. And that uh he says that if the uh if the these things are uh uh is uh as he says, lacketh these things, that you can become blind to the blessings of God. Uh he says that you can uh cannot see afar off. Uh the the beauty and the uh anticipation uh of that great and holy day. He says uh uh lacketh cannot see afar off and hath forgotten these parts from his old sins to forget, to misplace in your mind and your heart uh the understanding that you are made uh pure and holy and cleansed by the blood of Christ. That that can happen because we uh I I know cases of this situation. I I have a family member, I don't want I don't want to name an age, uh, but I have a family member, uh uh someone who uh grew up knowing the same truths of God that I do, uh, the the same uh blessings of the of the doctrines of grace and the of the the uh finished work of Christ, who in laying one of his brothers in the grave wondered if he would uh if he was burning in hell that day because he forgot uh the the power of Christ and the finality of the work of God uh because he because that brother didn't walk the same way he walked. And so he was full of doubt and went to his grave uh in sorrow, not knowing the power of God than he once knew. You would think that once you know something, you would know it. Well, turn back to the examples of the uh Israelites. No sooner had they crossed the Red Sea. No sooner had They just met the first trouble. And they said, did God bring us out to the desert today? Where there are not graves in Egypt? And we're no different. Therefore, it is important to keep these things in remembrance. Not because it's a lesson that you're gonna have a test on. But because it is for our benefit. He's given it to us to lay hold upon so that we may have it as a firm grasp on what is true and to know these things. And so the the words of the Post Paul, remember I said the two things? Well, if the death, burial, and resurrection could ever be doubted, even in the midst of a church, what about the return of Christ? Could that ever be doubted? Yes, it could be, if we do not keep our mind in focus. And that's one thing the apostle Peter brings to mind here. By this they are willingly ignorant of. Verse 5, chapter 3, verse 5 of 2 Peter. This they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and earth which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. And that's not a formula for us to start trying to figure out, okay, now, now when is the Lord returning? And we can work that out mathematically. In fact, the Peter just goes on to say, it's going to come as a thief in the night. We're not going to be able to calculate that day and time. But he does say this in order to understand one thought. As he says here, but the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but as long suffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So what he's saying is there is there is coming that day of the resurrection. There's coming a day of judge, the day of the destruction of what is seed. Now, there's one more verse I want to read. But he says, This is all coming, but it's not on going to happen on our timetable. It's not according to, like, it's been over 2,000 years since the Lord was born. It's been about 2,000, it's almost 2,000 years since he started his ministry. And it will be about 2,000 years and a few years since he hung on the cross. And so knowing these things, we think, well, it's 2,000 years. Isn't the Lord done yet? Isn't the Lord I mean like that seems like a long time. Is it gonna happen at all? And Peter's saying, patience. Patience. Two things. His time is not your time. It may seem in fact, it's true both ways. Sometimes it seems long to us, just a moment to him. There are some things that seem like a moment to us are forever to him. I can guarantee that the time on the cross was an eternity to the Lord. Because he did an eternal work of suffering on the cross in a matter of hours. We might think, oh, it's just a few hours of suffering. That's not what the Lord bore. The Lord bore an eternal weight of guilt and condemnation on the cross. One last verse. Saying then. And I realize I'm I'm let me let me get on down. Verse 17. The context here is the admonition of the resurrection or the return of Christ. And the resurrection, in fact, of all of uh his people. But uh in uh the return of Christ and the putting away of this present world, and it talks about us looking for new uh new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Uh I will say, verse 14, wherein beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that you may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameness. Uh, that's the apostle Peter bringing them to remembrance, to walk in the way of Christ, because when we remember the works of Christ, and we remember the power of Christ, and we remember the promises of Christ, we also remember that promise that he shall return, that where he is, we may be also, so that he is not he is not slack concerning that promise any more than he was slack concerning any other promise of God. Now, therefore, brethren, verse 17. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also be led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. The closing words of Peter are not, uh not so that you might uh uh first of all, it's not for our own pride and glory, it's not so that you might, you know, uh uh, know these things, memorize these things so you can be the best at biblical trivia. That's not what it's about. It's so that you may understand and grow closer, uh grow to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ, to to be able to recognize that there's a time, even in the in the in natural things, uh uh when you're called upon to do certain things, you you you grow in the understanding of that, you grow in the ability to do it. Uh there's a everyone here uh in in learning to read, uh, there's a time you don't, there was a moment in time, believe it or not, uh I don't even know if Henry's at the point that he or Henry may not even remember now, the day that he would look at a letter and not even know what it meant. Not even know that it was uh meant to be a sound or part of a word, that that it was that that one point in time your mind was such you saw the letter and it was just some shape. But then there was something that that brought meaning to it and understanding to it, and then you learned how to put meaning and understanding together, and there was growing in depth of putting those meanings together. Uh we all understand that that as you grow in thought and in uh the ability to understand and reason, uh, that that your thoughts become more complex. Doesn't mean the simple things are put away forever. Uh, in fact, the more complex it is, the harder it is to put it into simple words. And that's one of the greatest challenges uh uh that you can face in your life is how to make something simply understood, because that's where the true understanding comes. Uh but when you grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ, it's not that you get more grace, it's not that you get just more understanding. You grow in the depth of your understanding so that when you look at something before, and it was just a shape to you before. And then later on, you you said, well, this has some meaning in understanding. There comes a time when you realize the depth of the understanding the thoughts that you have of what God has given you. Uh there, I guarantee you, uh, uh if you if you ever have gone through a communion service and you have partaken of that bread, there's a time when it's just bread. When you don't have an understanding of it. You may be told, okay, this is something we do to honor and observe what Christ did. But then there's a time that you say, Well, you know what, this was very important to Christ. In fact, he's the one that instituted the observance. And when he said, Partake of this bread, he said, Remember me. And so there's that next level of understanding, that depth of saying, Well, you know what, I will remember the sorrows of Christ when I eat this bread. And that's good. That's greater understanding. And then you you come to it, the more you realize he says, Well, this was my body broken for you. And then you come to that even further depth of understanding that as you as he was suffering on the cross, as the breaking of his body was taking place, he was thinking of you in that very moment. And so, what is the desire of his heart? The the command of the partaking of that bread is not just so that you might remember he suffered, that's good, but that he suffered for you, and that you were the first and foremost, and he can do this, he can have everyone first and foremost in his mind at the same time because he's God and he can can accomplish that. Uh, but he had you in the in focus in his mind as he was suffering on the cross. And yet there's something even more in that. Is that you knowing that you are bone of his bone and body, flesh of his flesh, is that as he suffered, as he bled, as he died, as he as he groaned on the cross for your sake, and as he was thinking of you, he not only was thinking of you to redeem you from sin, he was thinking of you to redeem you unto himself. Because when you remember that in the midst of his suffering, he says, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set at the right hand of God. He wasn't just suffering so that you might be free, he was suffering so that you might be free with him forevermore. And then that that's that depth of understanding comes in the great in the growth, in the grace, and the knowledge of Christ. And that's I know I didn't speak about that aspect of it too much, but that is the beauty of remembrance. It is not just the symbol, simple bringing back to mind. Okay. But the whole the whole word remembrance means to bring it to the bringing to the Well not just oh yeah, that is something I say in the mind. Remember, you remember I told you, I don't know. I love you, I'm not sure. I told you, I told you, and you said that. Oh, I told you, and you said that. He's gonna have to return. Has God? Let's remember. Redeem us from the sin, and he will also redeem us from the sin.