Bless us together this evening
as we consider his word and assert to the prophecy of Malachi chapter
4 reading verse 2. The prophecy of Malachi chapter
4 and reading verse 2. But unto you that fear my name
shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings,
and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall." I have very occasionally mentioned
to you how a text has come to me. I thought perhaps tonight I would
just tell you how this text came to me tonight to preach from
tonight while I was driving this week in the Sussex countryside
and it was very beautiful and the sun was shining and I thought
naturally I'm sure as many people would what a beautiful day it
is here the sun is shining on the earth and how glorious it
is to view the creation of the Lord God and then it dropped
into my heart well yes that's wonderful but there is something
more wonderful and that is to know the Son of Righteousness
the Lord Jesus Christ And then the thought came to me and it's
a searching thought and I'm sure it'll be searching to all of
us tonight. Because we may wake up in the morning or we may go
about and the sun may burst through and shine and we may think, oh
isn't this lovely to enjoy the sun shining upon us. But would
we be more thankful for the sun of righteousness to shine into
our hearts. Which would we really appreciate
more? And which would we really value
more? And which would we want more?
Putting it in this context, if it was a very grey sky and yet
the sun of righteousness was shining in our hearts, would
we be more thankful and more praising God than for the natural
sun to shine. Well, such considerations were
really quite searching to me as I drove along and I hope by
the grace of God I could say that the Son of Righteousness
is really more glorious than the natural sun. And of course
We must almost realise that the sun of righteousness, if that
shines, if the spirit shines into our heart, it is a shining
that will actually never go out. It'll never sink. There may be
perhaps dullish times, but if the sun of righteousness is shining
into our hearts, that's a light. We've been blessed by the Spirit
of God to receive, which will never go out, it will never fade,
it will never sink. The natural sun, of course, rises
and sinks. It sets. The sun of righteousness
rises and never sets. And so, as we think of that tonight,
may it have a right and good effect upon us. I hope it will.
as it had a good and I hope right effect upon my heart and so we
have this word here before us tonight which addresses certain
people but unto you that fear my name that's the gracious and
God-given qualification unto you that fear my name shall there
is a definite statement Those who do know the fear of the Lord,
fear the name of the Lord, they shall be blessed with his son
of righteousness. And we may enquire as to a qualification,
as to who they are that fear my name. And this again is a
very searching consideration, because in the previous chapter
we have that explained to us. In verse 16 we read, Then they
that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord
hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought
upon his name. So we have a definition there. definition is, to those who think
upon the name of the Lord. Are we amongst those who think
upon the name of the Lord? That our religion doesn't just
exist for those times when we perhaps come to worship collectively,
but to think upon his name. And it would be a great blessing
if there are those times and days in our life when we have
thought upon his name. When there is that concern that
we might think upon his name. I know because we are in the
world and we have to earn our living in the world, there are
many times perhaps when We are occupied with the things of the
world and we do not think upon the name of the Lord. But I'm
sure that we are thankful if God does bring into our heart
those occasions when perhaps we are in the midst of a very
busy scene, that God comes into our minds and we are able to
think upon his name. And I can testify to The truth
of this, that the Lord enables us still perhaps to carry on
with our work in a very able way and yet to still on the other
hand be able to think upon the name of the Lord. Well, it's
a great blessing if we have an evidence in our heart, an evidence
in our life that we do think upon his name. A great blessing
it is. And all my friends, may we know
it. And then, of course, the Prophet tells us another evidence. It is amongst those that speak
one to another. And again, there is a word there
which is often forgotten or missed out. Speak often one to another. What a blessing it is when God
gives us grace and ability and desire. to speak often one to
another. Perhaps we live in a day when
sadly this doesn't occur very often. It doesn't occur as often
as it should do. To have that spiritual conversation
one with another. It may be sadly because we may
not have very much to speak about. May not have very much to speak
about perhaps in our own life, in our own testimony. But that
doesn't stop us speaking once another about the things of God. That doesn't stop us speaking
about the things of our Saviour and what He's done. We may not
be, I feel, very able to speak very much about the things that
God has done for us. We may perhaps be fearful but
nevertheless may be found amongst those who do speak often one
to another about the truth of God, the things of God, the blessed
things of God. Now, we must always realize that
this is something which is not natural to our nature. It's something which we are blessed
with in a spiritual condition. We must also realize that the
last thing the devil wants you and me to do is to speak about
the things of God. And therefore he is a past master
at directing our words to some worldly thing, some trivial thing,
some passing thing. And how easily we fall into that
trap. Now let us not realize that by
being silent we don't fall into that trap. We should be continually
concerned to hear what the word of the Lord directs us to. And
it's a wonderful blessing that we have the Bible to direct us
in this way. And so here we have this God-given
statement, the definition of those that fear the Lord, that
they spoke one to another and the Lord hearkened well we know
the Lord hears doesn't he all our conversation but what a blessing
it is when we have the answer of a good conscience to realize
that we've been able to speak about the things of God and I
believe there is there is a holy satisfaction when this occurs
a holy thankfulness The name of the Lord has been mentioned,
has been spoken about. And therefore to realise that
the Lord's hearken and heard. And then a book of remembrance
was written. Well perhaps we don't write down
very much. Perhaps we don't have very much
to write down about. But again, if you ponder these
things, as there may have been that, and we can say heavenly
conversation, which may have been a help to us, which may
have been enlightening to us, which may have been a help to
our faith, so that we don't forget it, to write it down. Perhaps some of us are very negligent
in this respect. But here we have gracious words
of the Lord to encourage us in this. Because then, perhaps to
look back, perhaps not on a diary as such,
but perhaps just keeping it as a book of remembrance, a symbol
title. Just have a book, a book of remembrance. It might not be physically written,
you can keep it on your computer. And you can keep a record of
these things. A book of remembrance of what
God has revealed as have been those conversations. What a good
thing that would be, wouldn't it? You know, we waste our time,
don't we? So many poor old temporal things
are spoken about. We just perish with the using. But these things are eternal. These things won't fade away.
These things will live forever. These have eternal blessings
with them. So here we have then, this statement
in regards to this then you that fear my name and the blessed
word here is then they that fear the Lord spake often one to another
and the Lord hearkened and heard it And the Book of Remembrance
was written before him, for them that fear the Lord. For them, for their encouragement,
the strengthening of our faith. Sometimes we may get very down.
Perhaps all our evidences may appear dark. We can't really
remember them. Turn up the Book of Remembrance.
Remember what's been spoken. Remember what you rejoiced in
and have been blessed with. For them that fear the Lord and
that thought upon his name. But unto you that fear my name
shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings. Now what a blessing it is if
the Lord Jesus Christ who quite clearly is referred to here as
the son of righteousness in prophecy, how blessed it is when the Lord
Jesus Christ shines into our heart. It is a heavenly light. It is a glorious light. The Lord Jesus tells us, I am
the light of the world. And my friends, there is no other
light like it. when that light shines into our
heart, what joy there is, what a blessing it is, how confirming
it is in our heart, because there we have the evidence of Almighty
God looking upon us, coming to us and shining into our heart,
arising, and when he arises and shines into our heart, there
is that healing, there is that spiritual blessing, there is
that favour. And the truth is that if we are
amongst those that fear the Lord, then this will come to pass. We shall enjoy, we shall be blessed
with in measure The Son of Christ is arising with healing in His
wings. Now, we may perhaps sometimes
expect some great and wonderful shining, perhaps like the Apostle
Paul had when he was on that Damascus road and the sun shone
into his life above the brightness of the midday sun. But it may
not always be like that. In actual fact, it is very seldom
like it. But what it may be, I believe,
is just perhaps a shaft of light. You know what that is, don't
you, in a natural way? When the sun just, as it were, tapes through
the clouds, and we just see a shaft of that sunshine shining perhaps
across the clouds, perhaps onto the ground. And what does it
show to us? It gives us a sight of the evidence
that there is a sun. There is a sun that's shining.
Most of it may be hidden. But then to see that shaft of
sunlight shining upon the earth. Again, that's a good sight, isn't
it? And if it's been a very dull
and cloudy day, and suddenly you see a shaft of sunlight,
well it cheers us up, doesn't it? And surely this is much more
so in a spiritual sense. It may be a cloudy day in our
spiritual life. It may perhaps be overcast, and
we seem to be struggling on. And then it may be that we perhaps
open the Word of God to read it, and that's the greatest antidote
for us. If we're in a cloudy and dark
scene, well, don't just look to yourself. Pick the Word of
God up. Pray, it may be a very simple
pray, it may be just, don't feel like praying. Just a pray very
simply. Lord, speak to me from the word. Then you may then open the Bible. Now let us open it in faith.
You may turn the pages. You may start reading. You may
not find any particular blessing. Maybe tempted to say, well, it's
just, it's no good. I knew it wouldn't be any good
in reading. I knew I'm wasting my time. Read on. Don't give up. Read on. Then perhaps the Lord
will bless you with a shaft of light shining into your heart. And that shaft of light may perhaps
be a description of your spiritual condition. You may be surprised
to read that there's a record in the Word of God that something
describes you. And you come and you say, well,
that's something that describes me. And you'll be encouraged by that.
It may not be a time of wonderful blessing, but it'll be an encouragement
It appears as though that shaft of light shines into your heart.
And what is it? It's the sun of righteousness
that's arising with healing in its wings. And it's come to you. Oh, bless God for His grace. Bless God for His mercy. And
you'll be encouraged by it. You'll be, as it were, lifted
up by it. And the natural day will take
on a different view. Because you'll have had this
little encouragement in your heart. And then perhaps another time
you may be struggling. You may be looking at yourself
and all you see is darkness and blackness. And you may conclude,
well, I really think there's no hope for me. I'm just destitute
and I'm lost and I'm out of the secret. And then, again, as God
may put into your heart, perhaps in a secret place you just go
and open the Bible and pray the Lord will speak to you again. And then it may be This shaft
of light will shine upon the page and direct you to the work
of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will realise
that He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Oh, you
hadn't realised that there was an actual word suitable to encourage
you, to strengthen you, You'll have a little view then of what
the Saviour means. What is it? It's a shaft of light
shining into your heart. The Son of Righteousness has
arisen on your behalf. He's taken your case, your individual
case. He's taken it in hand. He's,
as it were, heard your cries. and heard your groans perhaps,
and come and shone in this wonderful way. Now then, that will be a
blessing indeed. That will make the day different
and make you a different person. Again, it may not have been perhaps
what you've been expecting or hoping for, But let us come back
to this. It's a gracious word and it's
a very important word. A little that a righteous man
hath is better than the treasures of many wicked. We are not to
despise the day of small things. And I would have us all remember
that. Sometimes we tend to pass over
or almost pass over what's our blessings, but our blessings
indeed. Because if the Lord shines upon
our heart in the smallest ray, it's blessing, isn't it? And
it's favour. Unto you that fear my name shall
the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings. And this healing, you know, is
a wonderful thing because the healing will occur. The healing
of our soul The restoring of our soul will occur when you
and I are directed to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Here
we have this statement, healing in his wings. And it is the healing
of our soul that we will so much need, so much desire. And to be blessed then with the
favour of God, looking upon us and we read together in the Isaiah
that 53rd chapter of Isaiah which is so gloriously descriptive
of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he went through and
all that he endured and I believe it's the Spirit of God is directing
you and me to our true condition unworthy of the least favour
and then to have that ray of sunlight, that hope in the mercy
of God, that the Saviour has died, has accomplished our salvation,
to then read as we can in his word, but he was wounded for
our transgressions, our sins. So that's what's separated between
us and our God. It's our sins. They separate. And they do separate. And they
will separate. What a blessing then to know
that the Lord Jesus has taken our sins. He was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him and with His stripes. We are healed. Now just ponder
that. That means the stripes that the
Lord Jesus Christ had, that were placed upon him, were placed
upon him so that you and I might be spiritually healed. That we
might be cleansed. That we might be made clean.
through His stripes. And I believe then as the light
shines upon such a world as this, it will be as it were a shaft
of light shining into our heart and we will then be blessed to
realize that the Saviour endured all these stripes so that I might
be healed, that I might be blessed, that I might receive favour of
God. All this healing then, the Son
of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings and
you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. Well, we read together tonight
that 60th Isaiah, no doubt you can realise why we read it now. Because it speaks of this light,
this sun rising. Arise, shine, for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. And that's
a wonderful statement, isn't it? To just think of that. If
that sun shines, what is it shining? What is it showing? The glory
of the Lord. The glory of the Lord. shining
into our hearts. Oh what light that is to view
that. For behold the darkness shall
cover the earth and gross darkness the people but the Lord shall
arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Isn't
that a humbling statement? to consider the glory of God
is shining upon us. I believe then as we are blessed
with this in our lives there will be a reflection of that
glory to be seen. You think of that. So the Lord
shines into our hearts, shines upon us, something of His glory. And then that reflects in our
life. And that's why we see this statement
here. The Lord shall arise upon me
and His glory shall be seen upon me. It's not something which
is hidden. My friends, the glory of God
cannot be hidden. It's too great. It's too wonderful. It's too powerful. But how humbling
it is to think of this. The glory of the Lord shining
upon us. It reveals Christ to our hearts. It's a wonderful blessing. As you and I receive this blessing,
it may appear to be There's a shaft of light, yet it brings with
it eternal glory, not something which is fading. The glory of
God is so wonderful and great and glorious. And as we came
towards the end of this 60th chapter, the sun shall be no
more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon
give light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting
light, and thy God thy glory. Do we glory in the Lord? Do we glory in what he's done
for us? Do we glory in that revelation
which he's shown to us as that light has shone into our hearts?
You see the Prophet here confirms to us this grand truth. It's not a fading light. It's
an everlasting light. And thy God, thy glory. Oh, so much more glorious than
the sun which we may glory in as we see it naturally. Oh, our
eyes be fixed upon the Saviour and the glory of His redeeming
love, the glory of His sovereign grace, the glory of His matchless
mercy, so we may be overcome by the wonder of it. But the
Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God, thy glory,
thy Son, not a natural Son, thy Son, shall no more go down, it
will never set, to eternal sun and eternal light, neither shall
thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting
light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Well, there will
be sorrow still, when we think of that, the days of our mourning,
when we see no light, here's a light come, here's a light
shone, oh bless God, Thy people also shall be all righteous,
and they shall inherit the land forever, this land of glory. The branch of my planting, the
work of my hands, that I may be glorified. And if one shall
become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation, I, the Lord,
will hasten it in His time. Sometimes We do have to prove,
your time is always, but my time is not yet. For my friends, the
Lord's time will come. The Lord's time, He will hasten
it in His time. The Lord will come, He will bless,
He will give grace and He will give glory. So we can come tonight
and ponder these words and thank God for the glorious light which
shines, but unto you that fear My name, His name, the name of
God, shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings
to heal all our sicknesses, everything whereby we may be ill, and no
doubt we are spiritually ill, when this sun shines. Oh, what
healing there is. It heals our sicknesses. It does indeed. And it shall
go forth and grow up as calves in the stall now this is a picture
of being fat and flourishing calves of the stall those are
there those calves which are there and the picture is not
of a weak and a poor thing but one that is fat and flourishing
my friends we shall only be that in the Lord in the Lord. As the Lord reveals to us more
and more of this Son of Righteousness, as we by His Spirit grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, Surely
there will be this spiritual growth, surely there will be
this desire that you and I will grow, that we will be fat and
flourishing. We may show forth the praises of our God, for He
is worthy of all praise and adoration, for all that He has done in His
great love and mercy to redeem our souls. We have a view of
the wonder of this, to truly understand the favour of God,
the blessing of the Lord. And so as the Prophet says, and
ye shall go forth, there will be a going forth, there will
be a testifying, there will be an exhorting of his great and
holy name, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the
stool. Well, I pray my all tonight desire to grow spiritually. We may not be left in a stunted
condition, one of or one of famine perhaps, but that we may feed
upon the Word and that we may grow and grow up and be fat and
flourishing. You see here the Word is, and
ye shall go forth and grow up. A going forth and a growing up. The Church of God are His witnesses. The Church of God are the evidence
of His great and glorious grace. And the Church of God are there
to show for His praise, for His honour and for His glory. Not
forgetting the cost of our salvation. We've been bought, we've been
purchased, the price, the blood of Christ. Well my friends, may
we have high views of our God. Or may we be humbled as we think
of what the Lord has done. May we praise Him from our heart. Let me bless him with this great
and glorious truth. And so, as we see here, the picture
of the favour of God to his people. Remember, the verse commences
with a but, referring to those who will not be favoured like
this. For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and
all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble,
and the day that cometh shall burn them up. saith the Lord
of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch,
or a very solemn, heart-searching description of those who know
not the Lord. And then he says, but, and oh
may you and I be tonight on the right side of this but, but unto
you, may you and I be one of those, unto you that fear my
name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings
and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. Amen.