That's a good hymn, isn't it?
Yes, it is. Very good. It went so well with that Scripture
radium. Sally played it well. John sang it well. Difficult
to sing, wasn't it? I hope you pay attention to the
words. Loving kindness. Peter said his
loving kindness is salvation. Someone said that word loving-kindness
is just another word for grace. That's what it is. Loving-kindness. Mercy. Malachi chapter 1. This is a fitting message, word for us. The first days of this new year,
which when actually These are the last days. You're living
in the last days. It's obvious. So very obvious
from Scripture. And the times, our Lord said
that to His disciples. He said, you can discern the
face of the sky. When you see a red sky or whatever,
you can clearly know what's coming. And He said, you ought to be
able to discern the signs of the time. These are definitely
the very last days before our Lord comes back for His people
that we read about. So this is fitting. This was
the last book. Malachi was the last words of
the last prophet before Christ came the first time. Are you
with me? And he was silent for a long
time, 400 years. And they probably said, Simon
Peter said, where is this coming? He's not coming. And we did.
Didn't we? So this is very fitting. The
last word of our Lord before Christ came. And surely these
are the last days. The coming of our Lord draweth
nigh. I want you, every time you see
clouds in that sky, every time you see clouds in
that sky, I want you to think of this scripture. The clouds
are the dust of his feet. But there's coming a time very
soon where he's going to get up from his throne. And he's
coming. So you think of the clouds as
the dust that he's stirring. He's about to come. Verse 1 begins
this way. The burden of the word of the
Lord to Israel by Malachi. The burden of the word of the Lord through
a preacher named Malachi. Burden. A burden is a weight, a heavy
weight that you bear, that you carry, a load to bear. And it says here, this is the
burden of the word of the Lord, which every true preacher carries. Every prophet. These were not
men playing games. These were not men that used
lightness. These were men that had a burden
for the souls of men and women and young people. The burden of the Word of the
Lord. These are not the words of man. that you can take it
or leave it. In fact, you'd be better off
not listening to anything anybody else has to say from here on
out. But you cannot ignore the Word of the Lord. It's a life
or death matter. It's a burden. The low, depressing matter, something
weighty matter pressing down on you. It was to the prophets, it was
to the apostles, and it is to every true God called preacher.
It really is a burden. And it needs to be, and I believe
it is, a burden of every true child of God. I had a brother tell me this morning,
I'm praying for you, the burden of the Word. May the Lord give
us a burden. And I said, Amen. If someone says, and sovereign
grace believers sometimes say this, don't worry about it. Trust
the Lord. It's going to be all right. I
know it's going to be all right for God's people. I know it's well with the souls
of some in this room. You know, like Lazarus. Robin would have gone to be with
the Lord. The best day of her ever. Better than her birth. And now she's back. I've got
to go through some more misery. Some more sorrow. Can you believe
that? I believe it is well with my
soul. I really do. But until Everybody in the sound
of my voice this morning, I'm looking in the faces of young
and old, until you repent and believe Christ and confess Him
and believe His baptism and walk with Him by faith, I'm going
to worry about your soul. And this is not on Sunday. This
is Monday morning and every day of the week. This burden doesn't
go away. If it does, God didn't send me to pray. I believe it's well with my soul.
It does not keep me from begging the Lord to have mercy on my
soul. I believe that I'm a believer,
but it does not keep me from keeping calling on the Lord,
calling on the Lord, forgive me, forgive, repenting. It doesn't
keep me from that. It's daily, day in and day out.
Lord, save me or I perish. Lord, save us. Jeremiah chapter
9. Go over Jeremiah 9. As said, the prophets of old
were not light jokesters playing games. They were serious men. Jeremiah
is often called the weeping prophet. If you've read Jeremiah, look
at it. Jeremiah 9 verse 1. And this
is all through Jeremiah. Jeremiah 9.1, he says, Oh, that
my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that
I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of
my people. And he went on to say, If I could,
I'd get out of here and leave this place. He said, But I have
a burden. And the Lord sent me, Jeremiah
said, He sent me with a burden, and I'm going to keep telling
it until he takes me away from here. Look at chapter 8. Look
at chapter 8, verse 18. When I would comfort myself against
sorrow, my heart is faint in that. The voice of the cry of
the daughter of my people, because of them that dwell in a far country,
far off. Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not
her King in her? Why have they provoked me to
anger with all of this? Verse 20, the harvest is past,
the summer is ended. We're not saved. For the hurt of the daughter
of my people, I'm hurt, I'm black. Verse 22, is there no balm and
gillet, no physician? Why then is not the health of
the daughter of my people recovered? When I was young, the Lord was
dealing with young people. And I'm not seeing that now. Is there no gospel? Is there
no bombing? Yes. Today, just recently. You heard this, didn't you? Today
is the day of salvation. The door of the ark is open.
This gospel being preached. He said, harvest is passed, we're
not saved. Well, what about our daughters
and sons? What about our wives and husbands? If I'm not concerned about them,
I'm no preacher sent by God. If I have no burden for this
Word, like Malachi, like Isaiah, all through Isaiah, burden of
the Word for Moab, for Egypt, for the Valley of Decision, the
burden of Babylon, the burden, the burden, the burden. If I
have no burden for you and yours and others, I am not God's preacher. And if you don't have a burden, it's my responsibility when I
stand in His pulpit, to tell you what God's Word says. To
preach both the warnings and the promises. The Gospel and
the warnings to those that don't. I'm told to comfort God's people.
And I sure enjoy comforting more than I do warning. Now, I want
to comfort God's people. I do. But I'm here to warn people
that are too comfortable. My dad used to say it's dangerous
to make people feel like everything's alright if they haven't closed
with Jesus Christ. If they hadn't come to Jesus
Christ, everything's not all right. And if you're not concerned about
your sons and daughters and grandchildren, I'm concerned about you. I have this responsibility, and
I'm only able to talk with them one day, two days a week. You
have them every day of the week. A greater responsibility lies
on your shoulders. Not all right? It's a burden. It's a weighty
matter. It's a burden. You know, everybody
came in and I started to say I was in such a good mood this
morning. I still am. But you can't preach, say, talk
about this with a smile on your face. You can't. Boy, when people,
when somebody confesses Christ and they start walking by faith,
then I can really smile. And then that laughter has to
turn to mourning again, doesn't it? Why? Because there's others
that want. Abraham's servant, and I heard
Brother Eric Floyd, I told him, you know you've been blessed
by preaching when you want to preach on about ten things he
mentioned in his message. And he did. It was such a wonderful
message. On the love of Christ. But he brought up Abraham sending
his servant to find a bride for Isaac. Don't you love that story? I do, too. It made me want to
preach on it. Well, in a nutshell, that story, Abraham, who represents
God the Father, who sends his preacher to preach the gospel
to the bride of Christ, who is Isaac, the son of Brom. And that
servant sent by the Father, who represents the preacher sent
by God, he had such a burden. He said, well, she won't come. He said, I'm going to send, Abraham
said, God's going to send his angel before you and she's going
to come. So he said, OK, I'm going. But he was not. Brother,
he was not laughing and joking. In fact, they told him, sit down
and eat, brother. He said, I'm not going to eat
until I've told my message. I'm not going to sit down and
play games until this bride for Isaac comes home with me. I can't be happy until she says
yes. And lo and behold, she did. Rebecca, will you go? Will you go? Will you come to
this glorious son of my great Master and marry him, a man you've
never seen before? Will you come? She said, I'll
go. I'll come. Oh, he was happy then. He said,
let's eat. Let's serve a big table. Let's
feast. Like the prodigal coming home. Our children and our grandchildren
are getting older. They're going out in the world. I've got a picture right here. This was taken about 30 years
ago. There are 13 young people in this picture. A couple of them are dead. The
rest of them are in their thirties. Some are in their early forties. Thirteen young people. One of them is Sarah Williams,
who married Austin Groover, who is a faithful, loving child of
God. Raising her children under the
gospel, like she was raised. I believe she knows the Lord.
I have every confidence. Another one is Joseph Parks.
He's eight years old in this picture. And he's sitting there,
got a look on his face like, let me out of here. Lord had mercy on him. But out
of 13, 10 don't count. How does that make you feel? Going out into this world, getting
older, I fear for them. Fear for them. Let me tell you
my story. Young people listen to this.
Some of you have heard it, but if you haven't, let me just tell
you, okay? I want your undivided attention.
When I was 17 years old, I graduated from high school. Born in October,
so graduated in May. I just could not wait to leave
home. I had loving parents who had
me under the sound of the gospel. I sat under the best preacher
in the 20th century. And I couldn't wait to get out
of there. I was determined to get out of there and make my
way, and I wanted to go to the big city. I wanted to leave this
little old podunk, Boyd County, Kentucky, Ashland, old-fashioned. I'd get out of Kentucky. I'm
going to the big city of Orlando, Florida. That's where it's happening. There was no gospel there then.
I'm out of here. I'm going to make my way in the
big city. And I cannot tell you How many times the Lord spared
my life. If the Lord had taken me, and
I could tell you some instances. I'll just tell you one. I was
working construction. I was on scaffolding 60 feet
above the ground. I fell off those scaffolds and
landed on my back. And God spared my life. If He
hadn't, I'd have split hell wide open. Though my father was a preacher,
though my sister was a believer, it didn't matter. I didn't know
the Lord. I didn't care for the Lord. But God apparently was
not through with me. And that didn't have a profound
effect on me. It did not. I almost bragged
about it. Like you, bucked and broken and
all that. I kind of bragged on it. And that sort of thing won't
strike fear in anybody. It's the gospel that convicts
of sin and righteousness and judgment. It's the gospel. But
it was the means of bringing me back to that little town. Back to Kentucky. Back to my
parents. Had to leave the big city where
I almost destroyed myself. Back to this old-fashioned state
of Kentucky of nothing but a bunch of briar-hopping hillbillies,
and I had to sit under that old gospel one more time. Blessed
be His holy name. Now he's got me in a smaller
place than that. Blessed be His holy name. Paul said this, My little children
of whom I travail in birth until Christ is formed in you. You
ladies, when you were having babies, was it a laughing matter?
I remember Mindy. Twenty-four hours she was in
labor. Liz, I went to her. The doctor said, it's only going
to be about an hour now. And I went to her and said, honey,
good news. It's only going to be an hour. She said, an hour?
I can't take an hour. She was in travail. Is this baby
going to live or die? That's serious, isn't it? I wasn't giving birth to it.
She's travailing. You know, we hope in God's mercy
to them. It's not over. Kara said that
to me going out the door the other day. She said, thank God
the door of the ark is still open. Yes, thank God. I really believe these are those
seven days though. Remember, when the ark was finished
and all the animals were brought in the ark? Remember, God waited
seven days. Seven literal days. Isn't He
merciful? Let's just see if one more will
come. Just one more. Wouldn't that be something? None
of them deserve being there. But God. I believe these are
the seven days. The door of the ark is still
opening. We hope in His mercy, don't we? We really do. I'm hopeful. You know, if someone's in their
thirties and forties, God still can save them. Sixties, seventies,
yes He can. But it doesn't happen very often.
And he said, Miss, it doesn't happen very often. It just doesn't. You usually die like you live. Oh, satisfy us early. That's
what Psalm 90 said. Early with our mercy. We might
rejoice in Him all our days. We hope in God's mercy, but we
should not, we cannot presume upon His mercy. We cannot presume
upon His mercy. That's what Israel did. Well, we're the children of God.
Are you now? I mean, let not one single professing
believer in here presume that you're saved. Trust the Lord. Look to the Lord. Are you hearing
me? What did Paul say? He said, I haven't arrived yet. He said, this is one thing I'm
doing. It's a pressing matter to me. He said, I'm pressing
for the mark, for the prize, the high calling. He said, I
don't want to let go of Him until He blesses me, until I'm with
Him. Israel presumed upon the mercy
of the Lord. You've heard me preach or say
what my pastor has said many times, that the Scriptures are
full of warnings lest we presume and promises lest we despair.
You've heard me say that? And that's what I try to do.
That's what he did. I told you that my pastor smiled very little
in the pulpit. He did. You watch him on the
video. Why? It's a burden. pressing
matter. Warnings lest we presume, but
blessed promises lest we despair. And quite often, most of the
time, the Scriptures begin with the warnings. You know that?
Like Genesis 2. The whole Bible begins this way.
Don't eat that tree or you'll die. Doesn't it? You eat that tree, you're going
to die. And they did. And then came the promise. But
the woman's seed is coming. Well, here in Malachi, chapter
1, it begins with a promise. It begins with the good news. Look at verse 2. I have loved
you, saith the Lord. I love you. Verse 2. I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Yet you say, this is to Israel. Who is Israel? Jacob. I love you, God said. Who's He
talking to? He's not talking to the world.
God didn't say that to the world. He never did, did He? But He's
saying it to Israel, to Jacob, the sons of Jacob. And He said
in chapter 3, I don't change. Whom I love, I love forever.
Whom I love, I save my particular people. Whom I love, I sent Jesus
Christ, my Son, to die for, to pay for their sins. I love you. Jacob? What good news! And Jacob says, how? How can
it be that God should love a soul like me? God says, this is how. He says,
I love you, I hated Esau. Sovereign love. Should I say
it one more time? God forbid that I don't. Electing
love. That the world hates, Brother
Gabe said that. Boy, they hate that word, don't
they? The elect love it. Sovereign elect in love. But
don't take that for granted. Don't presume upon it. Don't
take it lightly. Don't lose that. Do you remember when you first
heard of God's sovereign electing mercy and grace and love? Do
you remember when you first heard that, the gospel? That's the
gospel. There is no gospel without God's salvation of the Lord and
choosing the people and Christ dying for them, putting away
their sins and preserving us as saints. It's no gospel like today. And all through Malachi, he denounces
false prophets for no fear of God's name and polluted and perverted gospel
and all that, like today. And it's my job as a preacher,
and I'm going to say it one more time, okay? It's my job as a
watchman to cry wolf when I see one, when I hear one, okay? And
all through Malachi and Jeremiah, you've read it, Jeremiah, he
points out these false prophets. I saw a bulletin board, a billboard
coming home from Wheatlesburg, big billboard that somebody bought
and paid to have this put up there. And it said, big quote, What you do with Jesus Christ
now determines where you're going to be for eternity. That's what it said. What you
do with Jesus Christ determines where you're going to be for
eternity. That's what it said. What do you think about that? That's blasphemy of the worst
sort. That means salvation is not of the Lord, it's up to you.
It's what you do. It's your decision, your choice,
your will, your work, what you do with Jesus Christ. God's going
to be thankful for what you've done with Jesus Christ and He's
going to let you into heaven. The opposite is the truth. By
the way, that was Billy Graham that said that. What Jesus Christ does for us
determines whether we're going to be in heaven or not. One hundred
percent. It's His will, His choice, His
work, His blood, His righteousness. It's His choice, not ours. We're
dead and trespassed in sin. And only if He comes where we're
dead, like Lazarus in the tomb, and calls us by His grace. He
didn't ask Lazarus, what are you going to do with me, Lazarus?
He told him what He was going to do for him. That's why He
said to Jacob, Jacob, this is what I have purposed to do for
you, for my glory. That's the gospel. There is no
other gospel. Any perversion of that is not
the gospel. Is that not what you first heard?
Don't holler, preacher. I'm going to holler louder until this whole world hears
this. Salvations of the Lord! Brother David Edmond said, you
know what's after that? That's Jonah 2, 9. You know what's
after that? He said, a period. Now some of you are nodding your
head and smiling and you love this. The whole world hates this. And I brought up that man's name.
I have to. To warn people, that's not the
gospel. It's a subtle, satanic deception. And all the prophets warned people
of all these prophet after prophet after prophet saying, it's okay. Look at Malachi chapter 2 verse
17. The Lord is weary with what He is hearing today. He said, you've wearied the Lord
with your words, yet you say, how have we wearied? When you
say, everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord.
He delights in them. God loves them. Where is the
God of judgment? He's still on the throne. And
he hears this. And he's weary of it. And I'm
weary of it, like Malachi. Aren't you? Aren't you weary
of it? That's what Jeremiah said. I weep because of these false
prophets. They break in my heart because
people are deceived by them. And hate those that tell the
truth. Hate them. Oh, but let's go back to the
love of God. He said, but I've loved you, Jacob. Jacob didn't
love God. God loved him. You love God? Why? Because He first loved you. Do you believe Christ? Why? Where did that faith come
from? You make your choice. Did you?
You make your decision. You let Him into your heart.
He let you into His. Right, Rahab? Isn't that right? Woman at the
well. There she sits. Woman at the well. There sits
Lazarus right beside her. He came to you, didn't he, brother
John? Dead and trespassed in sin. Didn't ask you anything.
Told you. Raised you from the grave. Why
do you keep saying this? Because it's so! Because God's
people love the truth. Oh, you were just warning us,
preacher. Why warn us? Because God said so. If you live, God's going to get
all the glory. If you die, it's your fault. I don't understand. I do. I do. God left me alone as a governor. Oh, man. He said, I've loved
you. Sovereign elect in love. I was going to go back to Ephesians
1. Read it again, Brother Ron. Don't you love it? Blessed be
God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according as He
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing and heavenly things
in Christ, according as He hath chosen us. Sovereign elect in love. But
do you know when the Lord sent the letters to the angels of
the churches in Revelation? Do you know where He began? Ephesus. Do you remember? You know what
he said to the church at Ephesus? Are you listening? He said, you've
left your first love. You hear in the gospel, Ephesians
1, God's sovereign electing grace. You've heard it too many times.
It's not having any effect on you. He said, I counsel you. You better
buy this gold and try it in the fire. If you ever ask Him not
to let you lose this amazing love, ask Him to not let Ephesians
1 slide. And never quit being amazed by
God's choosing you and revealing the truth to you. Don't do it. You know, I was going to go through
this whole book. Alright, let me close. Look at chapter 3. Here's the message. I've been
preaching the message. But here it is, the sum, the
substance, as I began this whole message. The last book before
Christ came is about the Christ who is to come. And the whole
Old Testament says someone's coming. The whole book from Genesis
3, the woman's seed, to Malachi 3. Look at it, verse 1. Behold, I will send my messenger,
and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom
you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, the messenger
of the covenant whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts." Who's this talking about? Who's this book
about? Jesus Christ. The whole Old Testament. Someone's coming. Someone's coming.
Someone's coming. Well, the Jews were religious
and they claimed to believe Christ and claimed to be waiting on
Him. But when He came, they didn't recognize Him. When they came,
they rejected Him. Said, you're just a man. We'll
accept you as Jesus, but you're not God. We're not going to let
you be Lord until we say so. And that's religion today, isn't
it? No, no, no, no. It's just God who became a man.
He was God before He came here. And He was God when He came here.
And He's still God. He's the messenger of the covenant.
He's the head of the everlasting covenant. He's the second Adam
from above. I need another hour, but I'm
not going to do it. Don't worry. Whom you delight in. The Gospel. Christ who came. Describe Him. Describe Him, Malachi, verse
2. Who may abide the day of His coming? Who shall stand when
He appears? He's like a refiner's fire. Let me read it for you. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, the man named Jesus, in Luke chapter 12, he said this,
he said this, I am come to send fire on the earth. This is what
Jesus said. I am come to send fire on the
earth. He went on to say, suppose ye have come to give peace on
the earth? division. I've wanted to bring a message
from this for a while now and entitle it and feature it on
Sermon Audio and put it where the whole world can see it, that
Jesus divides families. All people can talk today about
family, family, family, family, church, family, church. Jesus
brings families together. He said the opposite. Didn't
he? He said, I have come to divide.
I'm going to set the son against his father, and a mother against
her daughter, and a daughter against her mother-in-law. That's
what he said. Who's on the Lord's side? It's
not, is he on our side? It's who's on the Lord's side. Our God is a consuming fire.
Who's he talking about? Jesus. He said, I am the Lord in chapter
3. I change not. Jesus Christ is saved yesterday,
today, and forever. That's chapter 13, verse 8. And
chapter 12, the last verse, 29, is that our God is a consuming
fire. Who? Jesus Christ. When He came
the first time, a consuming fire. See, He's a just God and a Savior. He's a just God, a holy God.
He came to bring fire on the earth. And by the fire of His
Word, His mouth, to burn up all the dross. Listen to it. When
He came, He burnt up all the facade of false religion and
all the lies of all those preachers everywhere. He had nothing good
to say to any religious leader on earth. Nothing. Not one good
thing to say to any of the priests and the Pharisees, the scribes.
None of them. He said, John said, you're a
generation of vipers. Christ called them hypocrites,
every one of them, hypocrites. Didn't He? And by the word of
His mouth, He consumed all their supposed wisdom, all of their
supposed religion, knowledge of God, He consumed it, burned
it up, obliterated it. And fire, He came as a fire to
burn up, to consume the sins of God's people by being made
sin. The sins of God's people laid
on Him and as our burnt offering, God must have a burnt offering. What's that? Hell. The soul that
sins must go to hell. It's either us or Christ. And bless God, Christ did this
for His people. He was the burnt offering. He
put away sin by the sacrifice, the burnt offering of Himself
on Calvary tree. He went through hell. Don't you
ever say that. I'm going through hell. Don't
you ever say that. That He did. And God laid on him the iniquity
of us all, and God put away the sins of all of God's people by
Christ's enduring hell's fire for them. And now there's no
more offering for sin for God's people. They're holy, unblameable.
When Peter said, Be diligent, you'll be found of him in peace,
without spot and blame. How's that? It's in Christ. Fire. I've got to give this illustration. Where am I? I've got a few more
minutes. Christ is the burn offering.
He said, I'm coming to bring fire. It's going to burn up all
the dross. He's going to put away the sin
of God's people. Fire. Back in the days, where the pioneers
were traveling out west to, you know, to live out west. They'd go through states like
Kansas and the wide open prairies and that grass, prairie grass,
you know. And quite often it would catch on fire, prairie
fires. And, buddy, the wind blows. I've
been out there when the wind, nothing to block it. You've been
there, too. And those prairie fires would just sweep down through
there and burn everything in sight. Well, there was a wagon
train going through there, all right? And they smelled smoke,
and they saw the smoke, and they all were in danger, and a prairie
fire coming, prairie fire coming. And one old wise old pioneer
said, let's do this. And he went out there right before
them and set the grass on fire. And it burnt a big area. And
then the old pioneer said, get the wagons, get the wagons. He
said, move it inside that area there. Move it inside. They moved
all the wagons inside that area that had been burnt. And there
they sat, waiting. Fire is going to destroy everything.
And some young boy, scared to death, trembling, Father, Father,
he said, isn't the fire going to get us? He said, no, son. We're standing on dark ground. Do you see why we've got to preach
Christ crucified every time? Do you see what our hope is for
us and our children? And we've got to preach that
every time, don't we? We've got to. We get to. You get to hear
it. God ought to destroy everybody
in this room, starting with me, the angel at Ephesus. You've left your first love.
Don't destroy me. I've got good news for you. You're
standing on burnt ground. He's like a refiner's fire, fuller's
soap, going to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Isn't that
wonderful? Let me close. Chapter 4, it says this, Now
behold, the day of the Lord comes. It's coming. It burned as an
oven. But he said in chapter 3, verse
16, and I've told you to memorize 2 Timothy, 1 Timothy 3.16, right? The world knows John 3.16. You
know 1 Timothy 3.16. Great is the mystery of God.
Well, you need to learn Malachi 3.16. They that feared the Lord spake
often one to another. Here we are. Here we're back
again. Brother Kelly, we're back again. I started to say Brother Melanie. Brother Wesley. Yeah, we're all
brothers. We're back again, aren't we?
Blessed be His holy name. If it wasn't for His presence,
we wouldn't be here. We'd be anywhere but here. We're
back again. What are we talking about? What
are we going to talk about? What am I going to talk about?
Who? And the Lord hearkened and heard.
And a book of remembrance was written for them that feared
the Lord and thought on His name. He said, They are mine. They
are mine. I make up my jewels on my crown. I'm going to spare them. And
this is a good place to stop. Like a man spares his son that
serves him. Serves his glory. And you that
fear My name, He went on to say, shall the Son of Righteousness
arise with healing in His wings. If you come back Wednesday, it's
going to be full of pity and compassion and comfort. The Father pities those that
fear Him and that love His Son. He pities them. Oh, may the Lord Give us a burden
for His Word. And may the Lord open the ears
and the hearts of everyone in this room. Okay. Brother John,
you come. Number 452.