Thank you, Sherry. Some of those old hymns are a
little difficult to sing, but they sure are good hymns, aren't
they? A language we don't speak in
yet. Beautiful. Go back to Malachi
now. Malachi 4. Read verse 2 with me of Malachi
4. It says, 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 stock. Son of Righteousness, S-U-N,
Son of Righteousness with healing in His wing. That should warm
our hearts just thinking about it. It did mine when I first
thought about it, as I told you after a conversation with our
sister, S.W.O.R.D. But look at who this is written
to before we get into the depth of this, the comfort of it. It
says, unto you that fear my name. unto you that fear my name. This
could not be more relevant or more important. Unto you that
fear my name. In a day when there is virtually
no fear of God before anyone's eyes. You know it's so. You know
it's so. For the name of God is being
mocked and blasphemed as no other time in history. I believe that.
I've never read about or heard about a time when both the irreligious
are mocking and blaspheming, and the religious. I think religion
mocks His name and blasphemes His name more than even the irreligious. Don't you? I do. All that they're
lying are saying about Him and lying on Him. So this could not
be more relevant, could it? This is unto you that fear My
name. What does that mean? This is
unto you that fear My name. There's some comfort. There's
real comfort. There's peace. There's good news
to those that fear His name. But unto the rest, a dreadful,
fearful looking for of judgment, the Scripture says. Fear. Fear, the word, I looked it up,
it means to revere. We use the word reverence, don't
we? And Psalm 111 verse 9 says, that's
his name. Holy and reverend is his name. He's to be revered. I don't know
when men start taking that term reverend. Do you? But it's wrong,
isn't it? It's just dead wrong. It may
have been about the time when Arminia started really taking
hold. Men started being called reverend.
But reverend is his name. That means fear. Someone who
is to be feared. We don't fear men. Fear not man. The word fear means to be afraid. There is no other way to look
at it. To be afraid of. The word fear means dread. Dread. Dreadful. We saw that in the text of chapter
3. Dreadful means terrible. Terror. He said terrible. His name is
terrible. Think about that. Strike terror. You want to strike terror in
someone. Just his name. The mention of
his name. The name of the Lord. God. Name of the Lord. God is who He is. When I mention
someone's name, That's anybody's name. They mention Sherry Anderson. You immediately think of this
person, don't you? Her characteristics, her attributes,
all that you know about her. And when I mention her name,
well, the name God is who He is. It's how He is. It's His character. It's His
attributes. It's His person. His person. Now he says, unto you that fear
my name. That is, when you hear my name,
it strikes something in you. When you hear my name. When you
hear, when I hear, well, when you heard Sherry's name, those
of you who love her, you certainly don't fear her, but you love
her and you admire her. She doesn't want to hear this,
but it's so. You think loving thoughts toward her, don't you?
When you hear Sherry, it evokes an emotion in you when I say
her name, doesn't it? But when you say the name of
God or Lord, it evokes emotions too. Emotions in His people quite
different from the people of this world. People of this world
don't know Him. They use His name in such a flippant
and careless way, in a way that they would not use anyone else's
name, not anyone they love, would they? So this is unto you that
fear His name. I want you to just look real
quickly back through Malachi, how many times he talks about
His name. And this is just a little book, Malachi. And I did not
look it up, but do you know how much His name is spoken of in
Scripture? How important this is? Malachi 1. Verse 6. We'll just browse through here
briefly. Malachi 1.6 says, A son honoreth his father, a servant
his master. If then I be a father, where
is mine honor? If I be a master, where is my
fear, saith the Lord of hosts unto you? People talk about God
as their Father. God is our Father. Well, where,
he says, is my fear? To a great degree, I feared this
man growing up. Didn't you, men? You feared your
father, didn't you? He was a man of such power and
authority over you and a man you respected and you feared
him, didn't you? You didn't want to cross him. You didn't want
to disappoint him. You certainly didn't want to
bring dishonor to him, did you? And you didn't want to rebel
against him either. You would suffer the consequences. Fear.
Fear. How much more, God? Fear. Read on. Verse 6. He talks
about the priests, or those who are supposed to be his priests,
that despise my name. The despiter. Verse 11, down
in chapter 1, verse 11. The rising of the sun to the
going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles.
In every place incense shall be offered unto my name, a pure
offering. For my name shall be great among
the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts. But you have to profane
me. The Lord is jealous for his name. Verse 14. Cursed be the
deceiver which hath in his flock a male, and boweth and sacrifices
unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king, saith
the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.
Chapter 2, verse 5. He's speaking of Levi. my covenant
with him of life and peace. I gave them, that is my covenant,
commandments, to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and
was afraid for my name." See, the Levites, this was when Moses,
you know, received the law from God and they saw so many Great
and dreadful, yes, dreadful and terrible things at the hands
of the Lord. And the Levites, who were the leaders of the people
in worship and praise unto the Lord and offering the sacrifices,
they saw who this was. They were approaching and they
conducted themselves accordingly. They knew who this was. They
knew something of His fear. And so they regulated everything
they did in the fear of the Lord. And we should be no different.
He's made us kings and priests before Him. I'm a priest not
in the sense of, you know, someone you confess to or someone even
offering sacrifice, but ministering about the things of the Lord.
And everything I do and we do should be tempered with fear.
Fear. If we know Him. We know Him.
And what does that say about religion today? Read on, verse 17. Go down to
verse 17. You've 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.
Or in other words, God loves you. And he delighteth in it. Where is the God of judgment? That's a God to be feared, isn't
it? The God of judgment. But these so-called preachers
are not preaching this God. There's no fear of God. They
don't preach Him as God to be feared. This is the beginning
of wisdom. I believe I fear the Lord. Not
like I should. But I do believe I fear the Lord.
Do you? See, this is the mark. This is the mark. If you ask
me, well, don't ask me, what does Scripture say? The number
one, the first, the chief, way or evidence of the child
of God is the fear of the Lord. Chapter 3, look at verse 2. Who
may abide the day of His coming? Who shall stand when He appeareth?
He's like a refiner's fire. That's a consuming fire. Hebrews 12.29. Our God is a consuming
fire. When you think of God, when you
hear His name, do you think of Him as that? Yes, you do. Because you hear these Scriptures,
and you know Him. You know Him. Verse 16. Go down
to verse 16, chapter 3. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard,
and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that
feared the Lord and that thought upon His name. with fear, with reverence, with
glory, with praise, with thanksgiving, when the name of God is mentioned,
when the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is mentioned. What do
you think? What goes through your mind?
Fear, reverence, respect, thanksgiving, love, honor, glory. Huh? Is that right? Is that the
way it is with you? Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord, He is flesh and blood and revelative. For they
that fear His name, there is a book written for you, a book
written for you, those that think on His name. And then here in
our text, verse 1 says, The day of the Lord cometh that shall
burn as an oven all the proud. You can't fear the Lord and be
proud. You cannot. You see all these celebrities
and these well-known people and these athletes and all this that
are so proud, and yet they talk about being Christian. You can't
be proud of being a believer. You can't fear the Lord and be
proud. And so the Lord says that that day when Christ comes, He
shall burn them up. Burn them up. And let me just
read this, and then we go to our text. And you can't read
these things too often. These things cannot be repeated
enough in this day. They need to be shouted from
a housetop. They need to be repeated more
and more as we see the day approaching, the great and dreadful day of
the Lord. Because many, so many do not know the Lord and the
fear of the Lord. It's the beginning of that knowledge.
And in 2 Thessalonians 1 it says, to you who are troubled, rest
with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with His mighty angels. That is the Lord Jesus. Not Jesus,
but the Lord Jesus as He is in flaming fire. taking vengeance
on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.
But He'll be admired, glorified in His saints and admired of
them that believe in that day." Now, these things can't be repeated
enough in this day of no fear. So, unto you that fear my name
shall the Son of Righteousness, S-U-N, of Righteousness arise
with healing in His wings. Alright, let me have your attention,
okay? This is to you. The Son of Righteousness. Those
that fear His name. The Son of Righteousness. When you hear righteousness,
how does that make you feel? Some of you are smiling. That's
good. You ought to. If you're a lover of righteousness,
it ought to make you smile. This One who came and who's coming
again is our righteousness. He said, don't think of righteousness
as something you don't have because you do. It's in a person. The son of righteousness. Righteousness
is all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all
that is lovely, all that is clean. Do you like that? All that is
good. All that is wholesome. As opposed
to. Everything that's evil, sinful,
ugly, wicked, unclean, perverse, filthy, unjust, perverted, wrong. He's righteous. Everything about
Him. The Lord our Righteousness. The
Son of Righteousness. Do you have a desire to be righteous? Most people don't. If you have a desire to be righteous,
you love the Lord, your righteousness. You love His righteousness. Everything
about Him. David said this, he said, I will
behold thy face in righteousness, and I will be satisfied. when
I awake with thy likeness." I want to be just like Him. And I want
to dwell, do you want to dwell in a place wherein dwelleth righteousness
forever? Would you like to be done with
this world of sin and darkness and evil and corruption and perversion
and filth? Would you like to be done with
it? Does it vex you? Does it vex your righteous soul
a lot? Do you want to dwell where righteousness
dwells? Well, that's where Christ dwells.
That's where He is. The Son of Righteousness. I love
the thought of that. His righteous person. Righteousness. Holy, just, pure. He says He's separate from sinners. Though a friend of sinners. He's
not like us. Everything about us is wrong
and unrighteous. We're full of iniquity. He's
just. He's holy. He's righteous. The
Son of Righteousness. And this Son of Righteousness
came to impute, to charge, to reckon, to give, to impart His
righteousness to us. Here's the good news. He has
made unto us righteousness. Wisdom, righteousness. He's made
unto us righteousness. When the Lord said, make His
face shine upon you, that means you see Christ, your righteousness,
the Son of righteousness. Isaiah said this, Surely shall
one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength, and to Him shall
men come. Well, here's one. I have no righteousness. But I believe the Lord Jesus
Christ is my righteousness. And I believe I will behold His
face in righteousness because I beheld the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'll be satisfied and won't
be satisfied until I wake with His likeness. How about you?
I want to be like Him. To a real sinner, To see and
hear the Lord Jesus Christ, their righteousness, is a wonderful
thing. A blessed thing. Like looking
at the sun. Be healed. You know, the Scripture says
things like this. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. Go with me to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. Go over there.
John chapter 3. And let's look at these verses
as they go together. John 3, most of the world only
knows verse 16. It doesn't know the rest. It
doesn't know what came before. It doesn't know who's speaking,
to whom he's speaking, or the subject. It doesn't know what
came before or what comes after. But you do. You know who was
speaking. You know to whom he was speaking.
And you know what he was speaking of. But let's read it for the
blessing that it is. Verse 16, God so loved the world,
not just Jews, but of people out of every tribe, kindred,
nation and tongue under heaven, that He gave His only begotten
Son an unspeakable gift, the Son of His love, that whosoever
believeth in Him, it's not up to them, you know that, faith's
not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, but whosoever means Jew,
Gentile, black, white, old, young, male, female, whoever, whosoever,
Believeth, not worketh, believeth in Him, should not perish." A
multitude of people are going to perish for the same sins that we've
committed. But then why won't we believe? Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, not perish, but have
everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world. He came with healing in His way.
He came the first time with healing in His wing, not to condemn the
world, but that the world through Him might be saved. You know
He didn't save the whole world, but He saved the people out of
it. Saved the people out of it. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned. I believe on Him. I do. I believe. Lord, help my unbelief,
but I do believe. I do believe. Do you? He that
believeth on him is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already. He's not under the love of God,
he's under the condemnation of God. See that? Verse 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Hath it, not shall have. Hath. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life. The wrath of God abides upon
him. Not the love, but the wrath.
You know that. But here's the blessing. He that
believeth on him is not condemned. Don't worry about how men abuse
these verses. Get the blessing out of it. He
that believeth on him is not condemned. But he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. His name. Here we are again.
The Lord. The Lord God. The Lord our Righteousness. And this is condemnation, you
know. Light, that light is coming to the world, the sun. And men
loved darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds were
evil. People, our Lord said, people
do what they do under cover of darkness. That is, they think
it's a cover of darkness. But people love the darkness
because that's when they do their deeds, their evil deeds. But
verse 20 says, But everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
People don't come to Christ. They don't come to church, so
to speak. They don't come to hear the Word, which is a light,
because their deeds are reproved. And they want to continue. But he that doeth truth. Verse
21. He that doeth truth. How do you do truth? How do you do truth? What's truth?
Christ is the truth. His Word is the truth. How do
you do it? Well, here's the works of God,
that you believe on Him. That's what it is to do, the
truth, to believe on Him. He that doeth the truth, he that
believeth Christ, cometh to the light like a bug to a light bulb. You're drawn to Him, even though
you're sinful, wretched, vile, sinful. You come to the light
that your deeds might be made manifest. I just read in Psalm 86 today. Somebody wrote me a letter recently,
and I didn't quite catch it, but I did now. And he said, that's
me. Psalm 86 is me. And it talks
about God's mercy toward him, God's compassion, God's longsuffering,
God's mercy in his truth. My, my, we come to the light
to have Him reveal the sin that's in us. We want to know. Psalm
139. Do you love Psalm 139? Lord,
search me and try me. See if there's been an evil way
in me. We know there is. But like David said, keep back
thy servant from secret sin, things I don't know about. Keep
me from presumptuous sin. Lord, reveal my sin to him. How
does He do that? He comes to light. In the light
of His Word, we come to Christ. When we see Christ, we see His
beauty, we see our ugliness, we see His holiness, we see our
sinfulness, we see His justice, we see our unrighteousness. But
we come to Him anyway, don't we? And that our deeds might
be wrought in God, that God's done this, to see that God has
really done this work in us. We come to the light. So that's
what our Lord said. Come to the light, like the sun,
drawn to the sun. The sun, S-U-N, and I'm going
to wrap this up. The sun of whom the Lord Jesus
Christ is likened to, or the sun is likened to Him. The sun
is everything to planet Earth. And that Psalm 19 says that,
that in the heavens and the firmament, God hath set a tabernacle for
the sun. He's the principal figure in
all the universe and everything revolves around the sun. And
modern man thinks there's other suns. Then the Lord said, the son,
not a son, the son. The lion says he's like a bridegroom. Why did the Lord liken the son
to a bridegroom? Because that's right. A bridegroom
coming out of his chamber. Rejoicing is a strong man to
run a race. His going forth is from the end
of the heaven. It circuits to the end. There's
nothing hid from the heat thereof. The whole world is under the
dominion of, the rule of, the heat of and dependent upon the
S-U-N. And our Lord said, that's Christ. I put that in the sky to remind
all you earthlings that Jesus Christ is all and in all. Christ is the light. Christ is
the light. There's only one source of light.
You read that. Read this with me in Luke 1.
Sammy read this in Luke chapter 1, which is quoted. He quotes
Isaiah 9. But in Luke chapter 1, this was
wonderful. I'm so glad you read this. Luke
1, look at it. This is quoting Isaiah 9, and
it says in verse 78, through the tender, well, verse 77, to
give knowledge of salvation unto his people. His people. He shall save his people from
their sin, by the remission of their sin. Through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the day spring, the day star, The
bright and morning star, that's the sun. From on high have visited
us, the sun, to give light to them that sit in darkness. The
people that sat in darkness, Isaiah said, have seen a great
light. If we didn't have the sun, would
there be no light? None. Zero. No light. No light. Do you like light or do you like
darkness? You like daytime or you like
nighttime? I know night has its use, just sleep. But daytime,
healing, light, it's the only source. Christ said, I am the
light of the world. I'm the light. If you have any
light, any understanding, any knowledge, anything, of anything,
you must know me, Christ said. I am the light which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. If he has any light, he's
got to get it from me. I'm the light. I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. That's the next thing. Son, S-U-E-N
is life. There would be no life on this
planet without the Son of Man. None. There would be no life.
This planet, there's life on one planet in this solar system,
in the universe. One planet has life on it, Earth. It's under the light of the sun.
And Christ is our life, eternal and temporal. In Him we live
and move and have our being, and more abundant. He said, you
know me, you'll have life more abundant. Life is better in sunny
places. We were just down with the Jellits
in Florida, and if I wasn't pastoring here, I'd just believe I just
might move somewhere where it's just sunny all the time. Wouldn't
you? Well, more abundant. Life more
abundant. Joyful, cheerful. There's some
warmth in the sun. The sun, and there's so many
things we can look at, but the sun brings with it warmth. Warmth. Comfort. Comfort. It will literally get rid of
many things. Sadness, depression, despair,
literally, the sunshine. This is what prompted this message.
Roberta said to me, she's feeling bad. She likes to go outside.
And she said it would do people good to just go out and sit in
the sun. And that's true. Brother Don
Bell, told me that Mary has her best days when she can go out
and just be in the sun. Go out in the garden, enjoy the
garden, sit in the sun. There's a healing quality to
the sun, literally. And that's by design. That's
by design. I'd like to tell people that
sit in their dark houses with their blinds closed, I'd literally
like to tell people to open those blinds, let the sun shine in.
Better yet, go outside and feel the warmth of the sun. But more
than that, I would like to tell people who are going through
so much sin and darkness and depression to come and hear the
gospel of Christ, the Son of Righteousness. Come sit under
the sound of the gospel. There's healing. There's healing. for the sin-sick soul. The Gospel
drives away gloom. The Gospel drives away despair. The Gospel drives away hopelessness. The Gospel drives away sadness.
Those of you who know Psalm 130, you know that it's one of our
favorites in it. It says, My soul waiteth for
the Lord, and in Him I do wait. In His Word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than
they that watch for the morning. Everything's worse in darkness,
isn't it? Everything's worse at night time. Sickness is worse. Time is slower. Goes by, seems to drag, doesn't
it? Your troubles are heightened up. Your fears are greater. Your
depression is deeper. Your doubts are greater. Huh? Isn't it so? But when the sun
comes up, Just a ray of light peeps through
your window. There's hope in there. There's
hope. You think maybe it's going to
get better after all. Maybe my sick child is going
to get better. Maybe there is hope. Right? Sadness
and loneliness is deeper in the darkness. The sign of righteousness
is Christ Himself. It's the Gospel of Christ. How
I'd like to tell people that need it so badly to come sit
in the sun. I'm not trying to be clever here. I'm telling you the truth. How
blessed you are, we are, if we come and sit under the sound
of the Gospel and are those who need it desperately and don't
avail themselves of it. He will cheer the fallen, heal
the sick, cleanse you, warm you. The coldest heart will be warmed
under the sound of this Gospel. It says he has healing in his
wings. That's the sun rays, the rays
of the sun. How many rays of sun are there?
How many rays of sun are there? Oh my, how large is the sun? You men have seen that picture
I have on my wall of all the planets compared to the sun? There's a reason I have that
up there. You know, the earth is about that big and the sun
is big. It's healing in His wings. All the infinite beauties and
glories and attributes and works of our Lord Jesus Christ is healing
in just one ray. Just think on His mercy, great
healing. Think on His grace, His healing.
Think on His justice, His justice, His healing. Oh my, but think
on His righteousness. Think on His sacrifice, His healing
in His wings of the rays. And it says His wings because
the Lord said this, He said, How oft would I have gathered
you as a mother hen doth gather her brood, gathered under His
wing, under His wing. Now, He gathers His people. He
gathers His people under His wings. That means He gathers
them together. Where two or three are gathered
together, there's healing. There's healing. You come to
this place to hear of Christ. You come to be with those who
are just like you, who have the same problem. And we huddle together
like sheep in a fold, and we hear of Christ. And we get warm together, don't
we? We get warm together. We get
comforted together because we all have the same problems. We
all have the same fear. We all have the same sins and
doubts and troubles and all that. And so He gathers us like a mother
He had to gather her brood under His wings. There's safety there. And read on and I'll close with
it. And there's so much we can say about the Son, but I'm not
going to take the time. And He'll go forth. and grow
up as calves of the stall. What do you do with a calf of
the stall, Mac? You dote on that thing, don't you? You feed it.
You just keep feeding it and feeding it and feeding it. You
want it to grow quick, don't you? You want it to grow up quick. And that's what he said we'll
do as we sit under the sound of the gospel, grow in grace
and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And verse 3 says,
you'll tread down the wicked, there'll be ashes under the soles
of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord.
When it's all over, all of this is going to be under our feet.
Sin, Satan, it's all going to be like bad memories that we're not going
to remember. Here's the sense of it. The Lord
says, they trod underfoot the blood of the covenant. The way
men and women think nothing of it, just walk all over it and
don't care anything for it, like you would walk over a cinder
path and not give it a thought. Nothing to it. That's the way this old world
and everybody and everything is going to be to us. Just a
forgotten thing. Ashes under your feet. Gone.
Have not come to mind, but come to remember it. And the day that
I do that. Christ came. He arose from His
throne. with heave in his wing. He arose
from his throne. The Father sent him from his
right hand and came to this earth to seek and to save that which
was lost." And he did it. He healed his people. He was
made righteousness for them. And he hung on Calvary's tree
and was made sin for them. And then he was buried and then
he rose and went to the right hand of the Majesty on high,
and he sat down again. And there He sits right now.
And the Scripture says He was going to arise one more time.
The Lord is going to get up one more time with healing in His
wings. And He is going to destroy this
world with the brightness of His coming like a consuming fire,
call His people out of the graves, and those that are still alive
and remain shall meet the Lord in the air And so we shall ever
be healed, no more sin, and go to be with Him in a place wherein
dwelleth righteousness, where Christ Himself dwelleth." Okay,
stand with me.