Good morning. Let's open this
morning's hymn with hymn number 70 in the hardback timbrel, number
70. Holy, holy, holy. Let's all stand
together. Number 70. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning our song
shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty. God in three persons, blessed
Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Cherubim and Seraphim falling
down before thee, which wert and art and evermore shalt be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. holy holy holy lord god almighty
all thy work shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons,
blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Good morning. You'd like to open
your Bibles with me to Malachi chapter 2. Malachi chapter 2. We'll go before the Lord and
ask his blessings on our time together and I would ask you
to Remember our daughter, Jennifer, she's having surgery on the 12th
of December at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. And most of you
all know Ryan Hardman's grandfather, Daryl. Daryl's been in the hospital
for this week and he has some kind of infection and has had
some difficult days. Ryan just told me he's not out
of the woods yet, so. Pray for pray for Daryl and pray
for Jennifer. Let's go. Let's pray together.
Our Heavenly Father, we're so very thankful for your mercy
toward us. We. We want to. Say amen to the hymn that we
just sang. Truly thou art holy. Lord, the very essence of your
holiness is completely beyond our understanding. And yet we
come before thy presence with thanksgiving and thy courts with
praise. And we acknowledge, Lord, that
we're not anything like you, that we're completely dependent
upon you for life and for salvation. We thank you for your mercy toward
us and we know Lord that all that you do for your children
is good. Lord, we. Want to? Join our hearts together
and. Lifting up. Thanksgiving to you
for Jennifer and ask Lord for your mercy toward her and toward
us and pray that you would direct the physicians and. Lord, your
hand of healing and strength would be upon her. And Lord, we. Thank you for Daryl
and Joyce and pray your blessings on them as as they wait on you
to restore Daryl in his strength and health. We ask it in Christ
name. Amen. The last part of Malachi chapter
two. Is a warning to believers against
apostasy? apostasy, forsaking the gospel,
walking away from Christ, and denying everything that's true
about God's grace and His mercy and His work of salvation. Now,
the context is that of divorce. I sympathize with those that
have suffered the consequences of divorce, and no one knows
that better than those who have gone through it. But divorce
is not the unpardonable sin. This sin is. This is the sin
unto death. This is the blasphemy of the
Holy Spirit. This is the act of rebellion
and unbelief against God for which there is no return. And
that's how it must be heard and understood. And every child of
God, when being warned of apostasy, cries out, Lord, keep me. Lord,
don't let this happen to me. Don't let me be the one to fall
away. Well, let's begin in verse 11
and read through the rest of chapter 2. Judah hath dealt treacherously,
and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for
Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord, which he loved,
or which he gave a profession of loving. Now, what the Lord's
saying here is the same thing that that the scriptures tell
us about those who make a profession, they hear the gospel, they say
they believe it, they give a lip service to the truth of the gospel,
but in the end they commit an abomination, they turn completely
away from the gospel. and hath married the daughter
of a strange God. Now that's the important thing
to understand here. They've embraced an idol. They've not just done an abomination
in their home. They've turned their hearts towards
the idols of this new wife that they now have. The Lord will
cut off the man that doeth this. Now that word cut off is to be
apostate. It's to be anathema. It's to
be condemned and judged to eternal separation from God. So we know
that the rest of what's being said here about divorce has to
be understood in the context of being cut off from God. The master and the scholar out
of the tabernacles of Judah and him that offer an offering unto
the Lord of hosts, it doesn't matter who they are. It doesn't
matter if they have stood in a pulpit and preached or if they've
sat in a pew and listened, if they have forsaken the gospel,
if they denied Christ his glory in salvation. they've married
the daughter of a strange God, then the Lord is warning them
to say that they will be cut off. They will be cut off. Now we know, we're not talking
about a person who's saved and now they've lost their salvation.
We know that this person who walks away from the gospel never
truly believed the gospel. John makes it clear when he says
they went out from us because they were never of us for had
they been of us they would have remained. They would have remained.
God doesn't lose any of his children. But this is a warning, and you
know the scriptures are written for believers. This isn't a condemnation
against the person who doesn't care about the gospel. This is
a warning to every child of God to make them more dependent upon
God's mercy and more dependent upon God's grace knowing the
propensity of sin in their own hearts. Lord, if you don't keep
me, I know what I can do. I know how I can forsake you. Lord, I'm more dependent upon
you now than I've ever been before. And that's what growing in grace
and in the knowledge of Christ, the older we get. I've thought
about this a lot lately. I'm getting a little older, and
some of you are getting older, and our senses are getting dull,
our physical senses. But I hope that as our physical
senses become more dull, a little bit harder to hear now than it
was before, but the voice of God seems much more clear now
than it's ever been before. A little harder to see now than
it was before. But oh, to be able to set our
affections on things above and to see the truth of the gospel
in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That eyesight's
a whole lot better, isn't it? It's a whole lot better. You
know, we lose our sense of smell as we get older. Oh, but the
aroma. of his grace, the aroma of Christ
becomes much more sweeter. It's a savor of life to those
who are alive. I was thinking we become more
attuned to our own sin. It's like a microscope. If you look at the inside of
a body with the natural eye, all you see is the big veins
and the arteries. But if you look at it under a
microscope, you'll see that every cell of the body is being fed
by a capillary. The blood is coursing through
every single cell. And that's the way it is. As
we grow in grace, we see more and more of our own sin. our
vision becomes clearer and we see that every cell of our body
is infected with this issue of blood that we have. So, this
is particularly encouraging to the older, more
mature child of God who sees their need for grace more now
than they've ever seen it before. But it's also, and I wish that
every young person could hear this, because it's also a warning
to the young person, how many times we've seen young men and
women grow up under the gospel and meet an unbeliever and be
drawn away from the gospel by the God of a strange, The daughter
of a strange God. Young people. This gospel is
everything. It's everything it's it's. There's
no hope apart from the gospel of Christ. Be very, very careful
about who you choose. To spend your life with and. I remember hearing Henry Mahan
say one time to young people, he said, it's a whole lot better
to find somebody who loves Christ before they loved you. And that's
so true. That's so true. It doesn't always
work that way. but don't be unequally yoked
together with an unbeliever. Your life will be a life of misery
and be trouble. You'll either be taken away from
the gospel and this apostasy will be for you or you will live
without any fellowship, without any comfort in that union. what fellowship hath light with
darkness. So this is a word of encouragement
to the elder believer and it's a word of warning to the younger
believer to make the gospel everything and make who you fellowship with
and who you unite with everything in the gospel. For the Lord will
cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar out
of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering
unto the Lord of hosts. And this hath he done again,
covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and
with crying out, insomuch that he regarded not the offering
any more, or receiveth it with goodwill at your hand. If you forsake the gospel, it
doesn't matter. how religious you become. It
doesn't matter how much you cry out to God. Apart from the gospel,
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, we have no access to the throne
of grace. He's the only way into the holies
of holies. Verse 14, yet you say, wherefore? What are you talking about? What
have I done? I'm good. How many times we've
seen people forsake the gospel and they have no concern. They're happy. They're content.
They don't need the gospel. Wherefore, what have I done wrong?
I'm happy. I'm doing well. I'm still religious. I still believe in God. Because
the Lord hath been a witness between thee and the wife of
thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously Yet is she
thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. Now, dealing treacherously
with the wife of thy youth is a horrible thing. Being unfaithful
to the covenant of marriage is a sinful thing, and the consequences
of that are, well, they're far-reaching, aren't they? but here's talking
about that covered with this issue some of the cut off all
those things are forgivable uh... you may have to suffer the consequences
of those acts all your life uh... but those things are not going
to keep you out of heaven they're not going to keep you from god
uh... this is a breaking of the covenant
of grace and the lord has has observed he seen so let a man
Let a man lie to himself and lie to others all he wants, God
knows, God knows. And did not he make one? Yet he had the excellency of
the spirit. He once sat under the truth. That word residue is the word
excellency. He had the excellency of the
spirit. The spirit of God is only where
the gospel of God's free grace in Christ is preached. There's
no spirit of God anywhere else. The Lord, you know, I hear people
say, well, You know, God can save someone through a false
gospel. No, he can't. He won't. He won't. There's no spirit there. The
spirit of God is not going to convict the world of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment through a false gospel. Unless
Christ is being preached, men are not going to be saved. And
so what the Lord is saying is you had the excellency of the
spirit. You sat under the preaching of
the gospel. How could you trample? This is
the same warning that's given to us in Hebrews chapter 10,
which we're going to turn to in just a moment. But let's finish
these verses. Yet in verse 15, and did not
he make one? There's only one gospel. There's
only one God. There's only one church. There's
only one truth. There's not many. There's not
many. I mentioned this last Sunday.
There's no mention of denominations in the Bible. Christ is not divided. Every child of God believes the
same thing. They believe the same gospel.
They believe the same truth. They believe themselves to be
great sinners and Christ to be a great savior. They believe
that salvation is all of grace. They believe that God chose his
people in a covenant of grace before the foundation. They all
believe that. They believe that Christ actually accomplished
the salvation of his people. When he bowed his mighty head
on Calvary's tree and said, it is finished, everything necessary
for their salvation was accomplished. They believe the law was fulfilled
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I did not come to destroy
the law, I came to fulfill the law. Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Every child of
God believes these things. See that Lord says, this is not
one. Is this not what the spirit of God has taught you? Yet had he the excellency of
the spirit, and wherefore one? Why is there one that he might
seek a godly seed? He's not talking about the children
that come as a result of marriage, although that's understood. But in light of the gospel, turn
with me to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. Verse 16, now to Abraham and
his seed were the promises made. He say, if not, and to seeds
as of many, but as of one and to thy seed, which is Christ. There's one seed, one seed. So you're not talking to Abraham's
seed as the descendants of Abraham. That's what they all said. We'd
be Abraham's descendants. Abraham's our father. And the
Lord said, if Abraham was your father, you'd believe me. Your father is the devil. You
can call yourself descendants of Abraham all you want. God
can raise up from these rocks children up to Abraham. So the
seed of Abraham is not many, One, one, the seed of Abraham
is Christ and all the promises of God are in Christ. Yay and
amen in Christ. All the blessings of God are
in Christ. We don't look for God to bless
us for something that we've done. We look to God to bless us for
Christ's sake. For Christ's sake, he's the seed. So why is there one? What was
the purpose of the spirit? That you might have a godly seed,
that you might know Christ. And outside of Christ, you have
no life. But what have they done? Go back with me to Malachi. They've married the daughter
of a strange God. They've embraced a false gospel
after having heard the truth, after having seen the work of
the spirit, after having maybe even made a confession of faith,
they've forsaken the gospel and married the daughter of a strange
God. The last part of verse 15, therefore,
take heed to your spirit The child of God, the most mature,
God-fearing child of God is, Lord, I need to take heed to
my spirit or you're gonna have to keep me. I see more of my
sin now. I see that this issue of blood
courses into every cell of my body. And I realize that in me
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Lord, I need you
more now than ever before. Take heed. Here's the message.
Take heed unto your spirit. Take heed unto your spirit. And let none deal treacherously
against the wife of his youth. Don't deal treacherously with
the wife. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it. She's the weaker vessel. Provide
for her, protect her, love her. And she'll she she'll have no
trouble following you under those circumstances. And if you're
struggling in your marriage and thinking about don't do it, don't
don't get divorced, don't. It's just not. It's just adding
trouble on trouble, aren't we? Aren't we? But here in the context
of what's being said, and I've struggled over this passage a
long time, thinking about what is the, because the Lord says,
I'll cut you off. Is he talking about just divorcing
your wife and marrying another woman? No, no. He's talking about being treacherous
against the wife of your youth. Being unfaithful, forsaking the
gospel. The truth. What the Lord has
revealed to you by his spirit is the only hope. Only hope. For the Lord, the God of Israel,
sayeth that he hateth putting away. I said that it's the Lord
saying I hate divorce. For one covered violence with
his garment, puts on his self-righteousness and he said, well, I'm, you know,
not my fault. Therefore take heed to your spirit
that you deal not treacherously. Take heed to your spirit. Be
careful. You have wearied the Lord with
your words. Yet you say, wherein have we
wearied him? When you say, everyone that doeth
evil is good in the sight of the Lord. It's all right if I
go away from the gospel, forsake the gospel. These are good folks
over here. They're good people. I can join
myself to them. And God's calling that evil.
If what we preach and what we believe and what the Spirit of
God has revealed to us and what the scriptures teach is true,
then that's evil. It's evil. And to go and embrace
yourself to an evil religion and say, this is good. The Lord
says, I hear what you're saying. This is good on the side of the
Lord. God's pleased with these folks. These are good people.
They treat people right. They do right. I'm all right over here. God delights in them. God's not
going to judge them. They're not going to go to hell.
There's no judgment for those good folks over there. I can
embrace that as well. Take heed to your spirit. This is this is the sin that
John spoke of when he said. Pray for those who are overtaken
in a fault. I do not say that you should
pray for them. Who have committed a sin unto
death? This is the sentence of death.
This is the unpardonable sin. This is forsaking the gospel
and embracing a false gospel and saying, God's pleased with
that. It's just as good. Now go with me to Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews chapter 10, we'll begin
reading in verse 23. And let us, let us brethren, child of God,
this is for us. Let us consider one another. To provoke. Encourage unto love
and to good works. Let us support one another. Let
us talk to one another about Christ and about the preciousness
of the gospel. For we're all tempted. And if
the Lord lets any of us go, will any of us him fall away? Not forsaking. Not forsaking
the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some
is. Now, this doesn't mean you missed
church on Sunday because you had something to do or whatever.
It's forsaking the gospel. And you can see that in the rest
of this passage. It's walking away from the gospel, walking
away from Christ, and embracing a false gospel. saying that what's
good, what's evil is good, and God's pleased with it, and God's
not gonna judge it, and it's the wife of a strange God. Not forsaking the assembling
of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another. That's what I'm trying to do
right now, is to encourage you. And we need to encourage one
another to remain faithful to the gospel. and encourage our
young people. Nothing grieves our hearts more
than for a young person to grow up under the gospel and to forsake
the gospel. Exhorting one another, and so
much more, so much the more, as you see the day approaching.
Time's short. Time's short. Your life is a
vapor. 30 years old, 60 years old, 80 years
old, what's the difference in those? Couple years, couple years,
that's all. As you see the day approaching,
this becomes, you see the older you get and the closer you get
to the day of His coming, the more important this becomes,
isn't it? The more critical this is. For if we sin willfully after
we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins. Now every sin that you and I
have ever committed, we've done it willfully. So the Lord's not
talking about just acts of disobedience here. He's talking about the
sin of apostasy. He's talking about forsaking
the assembling of yourself with God's people, embracing a false
gospel. And he goes on to make that clear.
There's no more sacrifice for sin. But a certain fearful looking
for the judgment of fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries,
he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three
witnesses of how much sore punishment suppose you shall be thought
worthy who have trodden underfoot the Son of God and have counted
the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing. You say you were sanctified by
it, but now you're calling it an unholy thing. You're trampling
the blood of Christ underfoot by saying what is evil is good. God's pleased with it. And there's
no judgment against that? And it's okay if I brace myself
with it because I don't fear the judgment of God? This is
exactly Malachi. You see the correlation here?
Malachi chapter 2 is exactly what the Lord is saying to us
here in Hebrews chapter 10. He had done despite to the Spirit
of grace. See, you had the Spirit. You
had the Spirit of God revealing to you the glories of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the finished work of Christ, the accomplished work
of redemption of Christ, the blood of Christ, and now you've
trampled underfoot the blood of Christ and you've called the
Spirit of grace a common thing. In other words, what that means
is you're saying that they've got the Spirit just as much as
we've got the Spirit. He's common to everybody. You
know, the Holy Spirit's doing a certain work over there, maybe
doing a little bit differently, may have a different emphasis
on doctrines, but, you know, he's over there too. There's
a church right across the street. It's got a dove and a big flame
of fire. That's about, that's a good symbol. The Spirit of God's going down
in flames. You know, that's about the, That's, but you know, that's
their, that's their, that's their picture. They believe they've
got the spirit of God. They see that tongue of fire
as a symbol of the Pentecost. And they see the dove as a spirit
of God coming down and anointing. They believe they've got the
spirit of God. And if you and I were to walk
away from here and go over there and say, yeah, this is good.
This is good. That's what this warning's for. For we know him, verse 30, that
hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith
the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge
his people. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of a living God. Lord, keep us. Keep us. Cause us. To hear. To believe. To fear, fear your word. Keep
us from embracing. The daughter. Of a strange God. Thank you for your spirit. Opens the eyes of our understanding,
reveals to us the truth of Christ. All right, let's take a break.