Let us turn again to God's Word. In the chapter we were reading,
Malachi 3, and I'll read now the last three verses from verse
16 through 17 and 18. Malachi 3, verse 16. 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. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord of hosts, in that day, when I make up my jewels, and
I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth
God and him that serveth him not. But to say something here
with regards to the fellowship of God-fearers, the fellowship
of God's fearers and their fellowship is not only with each other but
of course it's with that one who hears and hearkens and keeps
the Book of Remembrance before him. Considering then this short
portion that we have at the end of the Old Testament Scriptures
You will observe how the text begins with that word then, then,
they that fear the Lord spake often one to another. When was it that the Lord is
taking account of this particular people? We must obviously observe
something of the context of the verses. It was at a time when
there was much wickedness and a great deal of murmuring. We
have very contrasting words in the verses that appear before
the text this evening. There in verses 10 to 15, we
read something of the tender works of God, His tender words
towards this people. He says, Bring ye all the tithes
into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and
prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will
not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will
rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy
the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit
before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts, and
all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome
land, saith the Lord of hosts." Now, God is speaking then His
promises to this people. Very tender and generous words
He speaks. But then we see something of
their violent words in what follows at verse 13. Your words have
been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, what have
we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said it is vain to serve
God. And what profit is it that we
have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully
before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy? Yea, they that work wickedness
are set up. Yea, they that tempt God are
even delivered." And then we have the text, then. It was at
that time, in that situation. that we read of these people
and their fellowship. And they are those who are very
much God-fearers. But how we have such a remarkable
contrast in those previous words. Their words against God were
stout words, it says at the beginning of verse 13. And the word, well,
the margin gives an alternative hard words, or bold words. Literally, they're words that
are very much opposed to God, strong words that are speaking
against God. They were wrestling with God,
as it were, and they were forcing God's punishment upon themselves
by the way in which they were treating those ordinances that
he himself had appointed. And we see, of course, in many
parts of Scripture something of the arrogance and the boldness
of those who are set in the ways of sin. I think of words that
we have back in the prophecy of Isaiah, there in Isaiah 5,
and verses 18 and 19, Woe unto them that draw iniquity with
cords of vanitin, and sin, as it were, with a cart-rope, that
say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may
see it. Then let the counsel of the Holy
One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it. So bold
and presumptuous are they in their sins before the Lord, the
arrogance of the sinner." And then, really, in the words of
the text, we see such a different sort of people. Here we have
that God-fearing remnant. Always in Israel, even in the
days when there was much sin, and we only have to read, of
course, in the books of Kings and Chronicles to see that many
times there were wicked kings, and there were false prophets,
and how the priests failed to do their duties, and yet there
was always that remnant of true God-fearers. And these are the
ones that we read of here. Then they that feared 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 feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. Twice
then we read of them. They are very much marked by
this fact that they are those that fear God. It is by the fear of the Lord
that men depart from evil, says the wise man in the Proverbs.
Oh, that fear of the Lord keeps them from the ways of sin and
folly. That fear of the Lord which is
the beginning of knowledge. The knowledge of God's holiness. The knowledge of God's majesty. It is something, of course, that
brings awe into the souls of these God-fearers. They know
the God that they worship. They stand in awe before Him. He is the Holy One. But that
fear of God isn't just associated with awe and reverence. It's
also associated with salvation. For they know God. They know
God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge. To know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. O, to have that knowledge
of Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us, wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. The hymn writer says, This fear
is the spirit of faith, a confidence that's strong, an unctuous light
to all that's right, a bar to all that's wrong. These then
who are fearing God and the fellowship that they enjoy one with the
other and also with that God that they fear. So to consider
something tonight of that fellowship. And just a twofold division,
I want first to say something of the subject of their fear,
and secondly, the favor of their gods. First, the subject, or
we might rather say the object, of their fear. They fear gods. They fear gods. And where is this fear? Well, look at what it says at
the end of the text. We read of those that thought upon his
name. A book of remembrance was written
before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon
his name. We know that it's out of the
abundance of the heart that the mouth speaketh. The wise man
again says, keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are
the issues of life, the importance of a heart religion. And these
are those who are thoughtful. They think upon the name of God. And we know that God's name is
really the revelation of himself. When God declares himself, he
reveals to us his name. We can think of the words of Moses, back in Exodus 33, after
the children of Israel had committed a great sin in the matter of
the golden calf. When Moses was in the mount those
40 days, and they grew weary waiting for him. And Aaron had
made the calf, and they were going to worship God by means
of an idol, the very thing that God had expressly forbidden in
the commandments. They were not to make any graven
images. And God would disinherit them,
and then Moses comes and stands in the breach, and he's the mediator.
He pleads for them, he prays for them. And what does he say
there at the end of Exodus 33? Remarkable request. that he presents
before God. Show me thy glory, he says. I
beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all
my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And
then we read on in the following 34th chapter and there at verse
6 How the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord,
the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the
guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth
generation. And now Moses then bows before
God and worships the Lord. But now God is proclaiming Himself,
He's proclaiming His name, the Lord. The Lord, He's Jehovah,
He's the God of the covenants. And these, you see, these God-fearers,
they are those who think upon His name. and he meditates in the truths
of his words. I will remember the works of
the Lord, says the psalmist. Surely I will remember thy wonders
of old. I will meditate also of all thy
work and talk of thy doings. The determination of the psalmist
is the same as these who are the fearers of God. Again in the opening words of
the 45th Psalm that speaks so much of the Lord Jesus, of course,
messianic, speaking clearly of Christ, my heart is indicting
a good matter. I speak of matters touching the
King, my tongue is the pen of a ready writer, says the Psalmist,
or thinking upon God and God's works. And of course the Most
remarkable of all the works of God is that great work of redemption. All God's works are wondrous. His work of creation, His work
of providence, but all that work that He accomplished in the person
of His only begotten Son. And this is the one that we are
to seek communion with, that I may know Him, says the Apostle
Paul. and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship, the fellowship of His sufferings, that I may
be conformed to the image of His death. They fear the Lord,
they speak often one to another, they think upon His name, they
meditate in all His gracious works, they speak of those things
that He has done for themselves. It's not just a mere matter of
an intellectual exercise in what God has said concerning Himself,
how God has revealed Himself in Scripture. Now again, we have
the language of the Psalmist there in Psalm 66. Come and hear
all ye that fear God, and I will declare what ye have done for
my soul. It's personal. And these things are written.
The Book of Remembrance was written before Him for them. that fear
the Lord and that thought upon his name. Of course their very
names are those that are written in the Book of Life of the Lamb
from the foundation of the world and are we not told how at the
end all those books are to be opened when we come to the last
book of scripture there in Revelation and the 20th chapter. Verse 12. I saw the dead small and great,
says John, stand before God. And the books were opened and
another book was opened which is the book of life. And the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books according to their works. Verse 15, Whosoever was not found
written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. All the books are opened. And
God has this book, this book of remembrance. And what do we
read in the last verse here? Then shall you return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth
God and him that serveth him not. There will be that final
separation, these different characters. Are those then who think upon
God, they meditate in the works of God? Is that true of us? We desire to understand something
of these things. We want that Spirit of the Apostle
in those words that we referred to just now in Philippians 3.10
that I may know here. Oh, it's the power of His resurrection.
It must all begin there, of course. There must be that new life,
that spiritual life. that new birth, that's associated
with Christ's own resurrection from the dead, that life that
comes into the soul, then the fellowship, the fellowship of
His sufferings, the conformity to Him who died upon the cross
for sinners. But turning in the second place
to the favour that God shows towards them, We're told, aren't
we, how God hears. He takes account. He delights
in all their conversation, in all their fellowship, one with
another. It's His delight as well as their delight. And look at the strength of the
language that uses the Lord, it says, hearkened and heard
it. And the Book of Remembrance was
written before Him. Again, there's repetition as
there's an emphasis upon the fact that they're fearers of
God. That's mentioned twice. But also here we have these two
words. The Lord doesn't just hear, the
Lord also hearkens. And the idea in this verb is
it's God, as it were, inclining His ear. is listening very carefully
and very closely to all that they have to say. How solemn
is that? We have to make a distinction,
don't we? That's what's spoken of in verse 18. Clearly there
we see how there is to be a discerning of things. Then shall you return
and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that
serveth God and him that serveth him not. We're to mark two things
surely here. In this passage there's in one
sense a warning and in another sense there's an encouragement.
First of all there's a warning. Throughout the book we really
see how the ungodly are those who argue against God, always
questioning God. We see it so many times. If you
turn to chapter 1, right at the beginning, the second verse,
God declares, I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say, wherein
hast thou loved us? And God answers, Was not Esau
Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I love Jacob. And I hated
Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness. These are the children of Israel,
of course. It's the word of the Lord to
Israel by Malachi. When God says, I have loved you,
they say, Wherein? Wherein hast thou loved us? They're always wanting to challenge
the Lord God, to question Him. Again, we see it there in verse
6, "...a son honoureth his father, and a servant his master. If
then I be a father, where is mine honour? If I be a master,
where is my fear, saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests
that despise my name?" And ye say, Wherein have we despised
thy name? Or they challenge God in their
arrogance, the arrogance of their sins. And we see it further in
the 7th verse. He says, Ye have offered polluted
bread upon mine altar, and ye say, Wherein have we polluted
them? And we see it not only in the
first chapter, we see it in the second chapter, in verses 14
and 17, and we have it of course in this third chapter, which
we read through. Look at what he says here in
verse 7, the end of verse 7, Return unto me and I will return
unto you, saith the Lord of hosts, But ye said wherein shall we
return? And then in verse 8 God asks
will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me, but ye
say wherein have we robbed thee? How they rob God because they
don't bring their tithes and their offerings as was required
under the Levitical law. And then verse 13, Your words
have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have
we so spoken so against thee? Oh, there's a warning, you see.
There's a warning here. We're not to argue with God. We're not to argue against God,
we're not to question God in His ways, we're to pray for that
spirit of gracious submission to Him in all things. Keep thy
foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to
hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not
that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, be
not hasty to utter anything before God, For God is in heaven, thou
upon earth, let thy word be few. The language of the preacher
there in Ecclesiastes 5. Oh, the danger of our tongue,
lest we utter foolish words against the Lord God. He has put, of
course, a double guard before our tongues, teeth, and lips,
and yet how that little member breaks out, you remember how
James speaks so much about it there in the fifth chapter of
his epistle. Every idle word that men shall
speak they shall give account of in the day of judgment says
the Lord Jesus. There's a warning. There's a
warning in the ministry of this prophet Malachi against those
foolish people who rather than fear God are presumptuous and
speak out against God. But there's also an encouragement
There's an encouragement here. We're not to argue against God,
but the Lord does invite his people to come and to reason
with him. Now he condescends to us. Come
now, he says, and let us reason together. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool. and he invites us, you see, to
come and to reason with him. And we need, you see, to be a
people who are able to discern the difference between arguing
against him and yet at the same time we realize that he's such
a gracious God, he will allow us to reason with him, to speak
with him. He says, take with you words, we're to bring words,
we're to come to him and we're to say to him that He will turn
us and turn us from all iniquity what does the Lord go on to say
in the in the next chapter the final chapter 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 store. Here is a promise again then
to those who are fearers of God, those that fear God's name. The
promise is the Son of Righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is going to arise with healing in His wings, healing in His
beams, that One who is the Son of Righteousness. then there
is encouragement here because God has a favour towards these
who are the fearers of his name. So what does he say regarding
them? They shall be mine. saith the
Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels and I will
spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. He is ever mindful of all their
needs. Thou shalt also be a crown of
glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand
of thy God." Similar words that we have there in the book of
Isaiah, Isaiah 62 and verse 3. A crown of glory in the hand
of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. And so there's comfort in these
words for those who fear His name, those who think upon His
name, those who meditate in all that that name declares, how
He reveals Himself in all His works, the fellowship of these
who are God-fearers. As John says there in that first
epistle, truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 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. And they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I
make up my jewels, and I will spare them. As a man spareth
his own son that serveth him, then shalt ye return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth
God and him that serveth him not. O the Lord God, grant then
that we might be those who do serve him and serve him by our
prayers as we have that privilege of coming and commanding him
concerning all the works of his hand. May the Lord then bless
these words to us tonight. We're going to turn now and sing the hymn 911, which of course
is very much based upon the words of the text. 911, tune and twerp,
383. when saint to saint in days of
old their sorrows, sins, and sufferings told, Jesus, the friend
of sinners dear, his saints to bless, was present there. 9-11-283