God's name is presented as an eternal memorial, as revealed to Moses with the declaration "I AM THAT I AM." This divine memorial is further illustrated through the story of the twelve stones taken from the Jordan River's bed and placed on the bank, symbolizing Israel's passage through the floodwaters and their deliverance from God's wrath, mirroring Christ's sacrifice. Mary's anointing of Jesus for his burial, an act of profound love and devotion, is also highlighted as a memorial that will be proclaimed throughout the world. Finally, the Lord's Supper is established as a memorial of Christ's death, a practice that believers observe to remember his sacrifice and love until his return.
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Thirty-one and a half minutes. Well, I really thank the song leader very well for paying a little attention to me. And I also wish very sincerely that Brother Jeff Dunn was here well enough to take the meeting as we had arranged. But we pray that the Lord will bless him and restore him to us very soon. Now we're keeping Memorial Day in mind for the thoughts for tonight. Shall we turn to the twenty-sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew?
Matthew twenty-six. And we read it verse six. Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment. and poured it on his head as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman?
for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For you have the poor always with you, but me you have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached, in the whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her. Now I'd like to turn way back in the Old Testament to the book of Exodus and chapter three.
This is one of the great three sixteenths. Exodus chapter three. at verse thirteen. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers have sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am, hath sent me unto you.
And God said moreover unto Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you. This is my name for ever. and this is my memorial unto all generations. We trust the Lord will bless these few thoughts we have. And so we find that right early on in the book of God, the Lord Jehovah has thought in his mind of a memorial.
And when I look at that, I think of the majesty of his person. I think of the great God that he is. And many times as we look out on his hand in creation, we wonder how he ever thought about us. We wonder, like David, what is man that thou art mindful of him? But then, as Moses was describing to the children of Israel, some of the power and some of the might and some of the majesty of his God and of their God, he said, this is my name and this is my memorial.
to all generations. And so the Lord Jehovah was very jealous of his name. That mighty name with which Moses went into Egypt. That mighty name that confounded the magicians of Egypt. That mighty name that was given to Israel to trust in that mighty one that brought them out of the land of Egypt and into the promised land. They had before them that one thought that God had said to them, This is my memorial, and this is my name to all generations.
I wonder if many times We approach the throne of grace. We kneel down in prayer, as we do, I'm sure. But we wonder at the majesty of his person. We wonder at the great God who gives us an audience into his presence. That he is the God who said, I am. that I am. This is the name that confounded the men who came to take the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He said to them, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he used that name. He said, I am. And they fell backward to the ground for the very force of the majestic name of Jehovah God. This is my memorial, he said, to Moses. This is my name to all generations. Now I'd like us to think of the time when Joshua took the children of Israel over the Jordan River into the promised land.
And we must always remember that the Jordan River is ever and always a type of the death of Christ. And here we have Joshua at the bequest of God as their leader coming to the banks of the Jordan before he crossed over into the promised land. But... The river was in the state of flood. It was overflowing its banks. And he must have thought in his own heart, Oh, we have to take this people over.
The river is in flood. What shall we do? He would look back to the time at the Red Sea, where the Lord opened the Red Sea for them, and they went through. But now... He stands before the river Jordan in its flood stage. According to the word of God that he trusted and he knew the power of the name of Jehovah his God, he knew that he would take them safely over.
Have you ever heard the saying about someone who was a little in doubt about something, put your feet in the water. It simply means go ahead and trust the Lord. And that's what they did. The nation of Israel went forward through the Jordan River following the ark of God until they were safely over on the other side. That's not exactly what I want to talk to you about. As mighty a miracle as it was, we stand amazed when we think of it and when we consider the hand of a great God for a nation.
We have been thanking God for our own nation, thanking him for his great hand upon us as a nation. But then here's the nation of Israel going through the Jordan River, which is a type of course, as I've said, of the death of Christ. And there they go through on the dry ground and come up on the other side. But there's something very precious about this that the Lord said to Joshua, When you go through that river, you take twelve of your best men.
And each one will take a stone out of the bed of the river. And he will carry it up unto Gilgal, to the place where you're going to make camp tonight. And you will build those twelve stones on the banks of the river Jordan at Gilgal as a memorial to the fact that the nation of Israel went through the Jordan River and God rolled the waters back. And they went through as they did on the Red Sea on dry land.
I want you to take those twelve stones out of the bed of the river, because twelve, of course, is the number of the twelve tribes of Israel. I want you to set them up for a memorial upon the banks of the Jordan. But he said, I want you to take other stones and I want you to set them up on the bed of the river Jordan and that Joshua did as the Lord had asked him then when the nation had gone through the Jordan and everyone had passed over and the Ark of the Covenant had gone off onto the dry land.
The waters returned in the river Jordan and it was there in its flood stage once more. The Lord had covered it up. But now he had covered those twelve stones in the bed of the river. And he had directed that the twelve stones that came out of the bed of the river should be set up on the river bank as a memorial. So here we have two memorials, one on the dry land and one underneath the flood.
This is very precious in its type setting because those stones in the bed of the river picture to us the wrath of God as it passed over the Lord Jesus Christ as he bore the judgment of our sins and on the other side those stones that were set up picture the believer who had been delivered from the judgment hand of God on account of sin because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ now think about those two just for a moment or two two memorials one that you could not see you would look down into what was then the murky waters of the Jordan And you would know instinctively that underneath that rushing water were twelve stones.
They were symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel. And they were also symbolic of the wrath of God as it overflowed its banks on account of sin. And you and I, as we would think of those, We would think of the waves and the billows of the wrath of God that passed over the Lord Jesus Christ, when he said, All thy waves and thy billows have passed and gone over me. But then with grateful hearts we would look out on the other side and we see the stone set up there, twelve of them for the twelve tribes of Israel.
And we would think now that God's people had been sheltered from the wrath of God. They had been delivered from the judgment hand of God. They were now through the waters and safe on the other side. And we would think, would we not, of Calvary, of which? that Jordan River speaks with its rushing waters and we would think that all our sins were laid upon him Jesus bore them on the tree God who knew them laid them on him and believing I am free or would we not thank God as we look down into the rushing waters and thought for a moment well There is the stormy waters over the stones.
There was the memorial to the death of Christ. Here is the memorial to the salvation of God through the crosswork of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the things we can look in the Word of God and see and remember them on Memorial Day. Then the beautiful story in Matthew twenty-six that we read. And the Lord Jesus Christ is in the house of Simon the leper. Well now we think and we're pretty sure it was Martha and Mary's home and yet it is called the house of Simon the leper.
We think that Simon the Lepper was Martha's husband, of course. He had passed away and the two sisters were left there. But how they ministered to the Lord Jesus Christ. How Martha opened the home to him and gave him all the service that she possibly could because she loved him. And this book says Jesus loved Martha. and her sister Mary. And the Lord Jesus Christ before the Passover time was in this home in Bethany.
Mary had saved up her money over days and weeks and maybe years to buy an expensive alabaster box appointment. The Scripture says it was very precious. We know that it was very expensive. We know that it was close to her heart. We know that she intended that that alabaster box would be broken only for the one that she loved. And here is the Lord Jesus Christ in the house at this time with his disciples.
And as he sat at meet, Mary brings this alabaster box of ointment, breaks it open over his head, and it went right down to his feet. And the whole house was filled with the odor of the ointment. The Lord Jesus Christ said to those that would find fault with that, He said, she did this for my burial. The anointing of the faith was one thing, but the anointing of the head right down to the faith was an anointing that was done for her burial.
Mary loved the Lord Jesus Christ with all her heart. Mary knew instinctively in her heart that she would never have another chance to do this. that this man that she loved that was in the home was on his way to the cross. Here's the disciples. They were gathered in there and the one finding fault with the waste that was supposed to have been done there. They knew nothing in their hearts of what was going on, but Mary knew that the Savior was going to the cross. Mary knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was going to die and be raised up again because he had told them that.
And she believed it in her heart, and she loved the Lord with all her heart, and she broke the alabaster box of ointment over him. And the scriptures have said that wherever this gospel is told out, In the whole world, it will be remembered as a memorial for her. What she did in her love for the Lord Jesus Christ was a memorial to her affection, her love, her wonderful character, and her trust and faith.
in the Lord Jesus Christ we know that when the women came to the sepulchre to anoint the Savior Mary wasn't one of them we know that because she had already anointed him she had done it for his burial and what she did is known throughout the whole world as a memorial unto her love and devotion for the Saviour. If we go into the Acts of the Apostles in chapter ten, we see another memorial there and it is in the form of prayer.
We have a man called Cornelius there And the scriptures say concerning Cornelius that his prayers and his arms have gone up for a memorial before God. Imagine that. Imagine a man, a Roman centurion, that was not supposed to be caring about anything to do with God or his son. that that man's prayers and his arms giving went up to God as a memorial for him.
It would be nice, wouldn't it? If you and I can say that our fable prayers and supplications to God were up there in his presence as a memorial for us, wouldn't it? but this man prayed this man gave and you know I think in my own mind I've got a right to think that it might not be right of course everything I think isn't right I'm sure about that but I think that this was the centurion from the cross that said this man was the son of God it might not have been I like to think that it was.
But he wanted to know what it would take for him to hear words whereby he and his whole household might be saved. He wanted to know the gospel. He wanted to know the truth of God. He wanted to know the way of salvation. And Peter came all the way from Jobba to tell him of the Lord Jesus Christ, that same one that died on Calvary's cross. about whom that centurion said, Truly this was the Son of God. This was the one who died for the sins of Cornelius. Oh, yes, his prayers had gone up to God for a memorial for him.
But he needed to know the way of salvation. He needed the gospel. He needed to have the word of God proclaimed to him. He needed to know how he should be saved. And you know, we might have people in the room tonight. They know all about that. They know all about salvation. They know all about the fact that the Savior died on the cross. They know what Cornelius knew. But have they ever come to the Lord Jesus Christ and taken him as their own personal Savior?
They hear words whereby they might be saved. They know, just like the dear man this morning said, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. These are the words you need to hear. These are the words you need to take notice of. This is the offer that you need to take advantage of and receive it into your own heart. Cornelius did that, of course, and was gloriously saved by the grace of God.
Then I want to speak about two other memorials just in closing. And the Lord Jesus Christ is sitting with his disciples in the upper room. He's on his way to the cross. Very soon he would come out of that upper room. He would go down and on his way to the Garden of Gethsemane. Past the brook, Kidron, with all its darkness and filthy ways. And there he was on his way to Gethsemane.
There he was on his way to be apprehended. Those wonderful hands of his that had dispensed the grace of God so bountifully were going to be tied. And he was going to be led to the place of execution. But before that, when the Passover had been finished he took bread and gave thanks for it and passed it to each one of them and then he took the cup and he passed it to each one of his disciples And these two were the emblems of his passion, of his death, of his going to Calvary, of his shedding his blood, of him giving his body to be maltreated for us.
And he said, I want you to do this as a memorial to me, not in those words. He said, this do. in remembrance of me. We might say this due for a memorial unto me. And this morning we had the opportunity here in this building to sit around and remember the Lord, to take the bread and the cup and to show forth his death until he comes. This was a day of memorials, not only as we remember them as a nation, but as we look at them and take them from the word of God and the God who has said that his name was his memorial unto all generations.
But just as we we take the bread and we show forth his death until he comes and we do in effect what mary did we pour out our love to him the one who died for us the one who went to calvary's cross for us there we see the memorials of the lord's supper every lord's day sweet the feast of love divine broken bread and outpoured wine. Sweet memorials till the Lord call us round his heavenly board. Some from earth, from glory some, severed only till he come.
What a memorial we have left to us from the Lord Jesus Christ. Shall we pray? Our Father... We thank thee for these few simple thoughts that you've given to us. We thank thee for this memorial day. And O our God, we thank thee for the memorial stones that were overcome in the flood. Thank thee that speaks of our blessed Savior as he died beneath the billows of the wrath of God. The door, our Father, we thank thee for the opportunity each one of us have to receive him as our own Saviour and know him as our Lord.
We give you thanks now in the name of the Lord Jesus.