Book of Malachi now. I'm going to cover a lot of ground. I'll try not to keep you long. But then again, let's hope the
Holy Spirit keeps us a while. This book is so relative to our
generation. Correlation between times of
Malachi in our times is amazing. This is further proof of God's
wisdom, God's judgments, the omniscience of God, His wisdom,
and it testifies of the depravity of man, how it never changes. is just as depraved and sinful
now, he's not getting better. And this book is a clear prophecy
of the coming of Christ. For those who look for him, he's
coming in salvation, but for those who just pretend to do
so, or those who do not look at all, this book is a clear
prophecy of the judgment of God against false religion and false
professors and those who make no profession. This was written
about the year 455 BC, 455 years before Christ. Malachi, his name means my messenger,
my messenger. And do you know that no one knows
anything about Malachi? Nobody knows anything about him.
Where he came from? who his parents were or anything
about it. There's nothing written. He's another voice in the wilderness,
isn't he? Another voice in the wilderness that cries out against
the evil of this day and that which is to come. The evil of
his day. And this is to be the faithful
ministry of every true watchman and preacher of the gospel now.
The same message is to issue forth from the pulpit. Let's
look at it. the burden of the word of the
Lord to Israel by the hand of Malachi. Now, this is the true
burden of a man who has heard and understood and believed the
word of God. This is the true burden of a
man who knows something of the holiness of God, the sovereignty
of God. This is no false prophet. This
is a true prophet. How do you know? Because it's
consistent with the rest of the word of God. Says much the same
thing. You're going to see striking
similarities to what Jeremiah said in chapter seven. And that's
what Isaiah said in chapter eight, wasn't it? To the law and to
the testimony. If they don't speak according
to my word, if it's not consistent with the rest of God's word.
Then they're not true prophets. And that holds true today. I
don't care what new doctrine or what belief that men expound
today, if it's not in keeping with the doctrine of Old Testament
scripture, it's not the doctrine of God. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word. Now, this is not the
feigned burden that the false prophets in Jeremiah said they
had. Oh, we have a burden. You remember
that? Jeremiah 23, where the Lord said,
don't you say that anymore. I'm tired of hearing you say,
oh, the Lord gave me a message. Lord, I've got a burden for you
people. That's a lie. And you hear that today, don't
you? Oh, I love you. You people. And they turn on
the tears. God spoke to me. I've got a message
from the Lord from you. You're a liar, man. And God said
to them back then, don't say that anymore. But this is a man with a true
burden for the people. Now, it's clear. How do I know
this is God's word? And how do you know it's God's
word when a man preaches? How do you know a man is a true
preacher of the gospel? It behooves us to find out. How do you know? Well, it's clear that this is
God's Word here in Malachi, even though we don't know anything
about the man. That adds to the truth of it. Not much is said
about the man. But it's clear that it's God's
Word because it glorifies God. And it has nothing good to say
about man. You know, that makes it the canon
of Scripture. He condemns man, has everything
good to say about God and glorifying the God, but nothing good to
say about man. He says in verse two, I've loved you. God says,
I love you. Who? Who does God love? Huh? What does the word of God
say? Well, go on, he says, you say,
where in hast thou loved? Who do you love? Everybody? No.
Jacob had a brother. Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated
Esau." Now, God is love, yes. Thank
God he is love. Thank God he does love a people.
as the sands of the seashore and the stars of the sky. Thank
God his love is unconditional. Thank God his love is eternal. Thank God he does love the people.
If it were not for the love of God, there would be no one saved.
It's the love of God that causes God to save the people, and he
does love them. But who does he love now? Where
is the love of God found? He loves his people. I want to
apologize for that. He said that in Romans 8, verse
39, the love of God, who shall separate it from the love of
God? Shall this and that and the other? No, the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. God loves his son, who
is altogether lovely. And the wrath and the anger of
God is upon the wicked, as it should be. But those whom he
chose for himself and elected and put and chose to save them
and put them in Christ, he considers them in Christ and loves them.
Loves. Does it not say here in verse
three, I hated Esau. Huh? Now, we'd be not as many, as
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 17. He said we'd be not
as many which corrupt the Word of God. Or as Peter said in 1
Peter 3, which twists the Word of God. They which are unlearned
and unstable do wrest the Scripture of their own destruction. We're
not as many which corrupt the Word of God and make, verse 3,
say that God loves Esau less. That's not what that term means.
Even a child in here knows what hate means, right? Verse 3 goes
on to describe that. This is his hatred. He shows
it. He proves it. He laid his mountain and his
heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Is that less
love? No, God does love a people, but
he loves his people. He had to choose to love them.
He had to elect to love them because there's nobody worth
loving. OK. All right, now, verses four and
five, he said he does love the people, but he loves them in
Christ and his wrath and his anger and his hatred is reserved
for some people. Verse four and five, whereas
Edom says, well, we're impoverished. We will return, we'll build the
desolate places. Thus saith the Lord of hosts.
They'll build, but I'll throw them down. They'll call them
the border of wickedness. Call them by their own name.
They'll call them free will churches, is what they'll call them. The
people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. And
your eyes are going to see this. And you'll say the Lord will
be magnified from the border of Israel. Now modern Edom. You get that word Edom, that
name? You know who that is, Edom? Those
are the descendants of Esau. Okay? Edom. They are the Arabic
countries today, which claim to be God's people, just like
the Jews do. The Arabic people, they even
admit that their descendant, their descendancy comes from
Ishmael. Everybody that knows that story
knows that Ishmael was an illegitimate child. He wasn't God's chosen
seed. Isaac was, right? Son of the
promise. But they trace their origins
back to Father Abraham. Do you know the Muslims worshiped
Father Abraham or pray and call him their father, the father
of their faith? Yet the Lord has magnified the
border of Israel, hasn't he? In spite of attempts worldwide
to annihilate the Jewish race, it has backfired, hasn't it?
It has grown instead. But spiritually speaking, what
this is talking about here is God's chosen people. God's chosen
people, the church, they've been despised and attempts have been
made to eradicate this new way they started in the beginning,
didn't they? When they first heard the gospel preached, they
tried to get rid of it and they tried to kill them. But it just
like a corn of wheat that fell in the ground and died, it burst
forth bringing fruit. They thought they did it in when
they killed their leader, Christ. That got the job done. They thought
they did it when they murdered the martyrs and the prophets
and so forth. It just spread like wildfire
until people see, hey, God has magnified the borders and spread
his gospel throughout the world through his people. Now, let's
go on. Now, all of this applies especially
to false preachers. What we're going to read applies
especially to false preachers and religionists. Yet, I want
you to examine yourself now. I don't want you to sit here
and think about Jimmy Swagger, or think about Oral Roberts,
or think about First Methodist Church, or Saginaw, or whatever. Examine yourself, because it
applies to us. If you read with me Jeremiah
7, you can take that all personally, can't you? We're not one whit better. than
these people. We just have grace. We've just
been given grace. We've just been shown mercy.
Verse 6, now he said, Now a son honors his father, and a servant
his master. A son honors his father. Everyone
claims the universal fatherhood of God, don't they? Don't all people, especially
religions, claim the universal fatherhood of God, especially
religion? Where's his honor? If he's truly mastered, he said,
if I be a master, where's my fear? Most men fear their bosses more
than they do God. Don't they? They fear making
a bad impression upon their boss. They fear losing their job rather
than they do their salvation. Don't they? If I be a master,
capital M, where's my fear? He said. If God is truly God,
King, Lord, where is the fear of the Lord today? Verse 6, he
says, O priest that despise my name. The preachers today despise
the name of God, even though they have it on their lips. And
they say, well, what are you talking about? I love Jesus. Don't they? That's what they
say in verse 6. Well, how do we despise your name? You don't
preach it. You say it, you say God, but
you don't preach me as God, do they? They say Lord, Lord, but
they don't preach Him as Lord, do they? They turn around and
totally deny everything they say by saying, now you make Him
Lord. Well, then He ain't Lord, is He? Philippians 2 is a lie. If He's not already Lord, Philippians
3, they despise my name. They despise
his name by not acknowledging his name, by not preaching him
as God, or at least not telling people to just trust in him.
All right? Verses 7 and 8. And they offer polluted bread
upon my altar. Polluted bread upon my altar.
And you say, well, how have we polluted thee? Well, you call
the table of the Lord contemptible. Verse 8, in other words, you
come to worship me very reluctantly. It's very hard. You have to make
yourselves. Verse 8, he says, you offer the
blind for sacrifice. Is it not evil? If you offer the lame and the
sick, is it not evil? This is a picture of man's religion,
isn't it? And a great deal of it is a picture
of our own religion. Each one of us, really. I'm preaching
at you, I'm preaching to you, with you. This applies to me. This is a picture, basically,
of man's offering up his own self-righteous works to God and
saying, look what I've done for Jesus. Look what I've done for
you, God. Surely God will take notice of this. I've never drank
or smoked or chewed. I go to church all my life and
I'm a good Christian and I witness for Jesus and one's soul and
so forth. And God says, You're polluting my table. I've offered
one sacrifice per cent, one way for you to be accepted, and you're
polluting it by adding your works to it. Isn't that what he said
time and time again, Terry? He said, make an altar, but find
stones that have already been made. Don't make your own. Don't hew out stones. Find natural
stones. Don't hew them out. Don't make
them the way you want them to be. I've already laid a stone.
a sure stump, a corner stump. Christ, the only way a man can
be saved is by looking to, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don't add your works to it. Don't add your abstinence or
your temperance from alcohol. Don't add that to it and think
God's looking at it. Don't do it. That's polluting it, he said.
Polluted. Polluted with pride. There's
nothing but pride in that for a man to say, I never drank,
never smoked. There's no glory to God in that, is there? That's glory to the man. I go
to church. I've gone to church every day.
I get a Sunday school pin. Where's the glory to God in that,
Stan? Huh? That's glory to man, isn't
it? God says, I'll not share my glory with another. Rip off
those Sunday school pins. Tear your clothes down the middle.
Come naked. Say, this is what I am before
a holy God. And men and women offer their
polluted worship, sinful, covetous motives, thinking God's pleased
with their nominal religion, their lip service, and we're
the same thing. We do the same thing time and
time again, don't we? We come in here just because
we have our bodies in here, we think we're doing right, when
our hearts are far from God, and God says, it's an abomination
to me. Don't offer that to me. Don't come if your heart's not
in it. And you say, why? Where have
we polluted people? Listen to this. He says you offer
the blind and the lame, the sick. Men pollute God's gospel and
God's worship and God's house by adding their works to it.
Men are blind to their own sin. They come in thinking that they're
good Christians, you know. They're blind to their own sin. And don't repent of it in worship.
You know what worship is? It's repenting of our sins. God,
you're holy. We're nothing. It's coming in
with your head. covered with ashes and your body
wearing sackcloth spiritually before a holy God. But men that
don't do that are blind to their own sin and lame. They offer
lame excuses for true worship. Men offer very lame excuses for
true worship or lack of it or not coming to worship. Very lame
excuses. And the whole head is sick. He
says they're sick with ridiculous notions of God. Not true. He said, don't look at look at
verse eight. He says, if you offer offer,
this is not evil. Look at the middle of verse eight.
Offer it to your governor. Will he take that? Do what you do at work. Will
you keep your job? Be as faithful as work as you
are at the house of God. Offer up unto the gifts you give
full of pride and your leftovers and so forth to your governor,
your boss, or your president, or whoever. Will he accept that
little pittance? Will he accept your persons and
count it a great thing that you offer unto him? Huh? That reminds
me of this Lord's acre sale. many times referenced to it,
you know? Men and women baking their little
cookies, giving their hand-me-down clothing
that they don't want, doing God's work, the Lord's Acre. I said it before, a man want
to be in the Lord's Acre, he ought to sell an acre and give
that money to the church. David said one time, you remember
when David came into the threshing, was going to offer a sacrifice
unto the Lord, 2 Samuel 24? Remember when he came in to offer
a sacrifice to worship God? And a man said, Oh David, great
David, our King, I've got a place you can offer it, a threshing
floor. Come in here, offer the offering here, and I'll just
give you this threshing floor to do it. David said, Oh no,
you're not going to give me anything. for me to worship God. Shall
I offer unto the Lord that which cost me nothing? Shall I give
the Lord second best? Shall I give him hand-me-downs?
Shall I give him part of my time? Part of my heart? Shall I give
him my rummage goods? Shall I give him a carrot cake? Take a carrot cake to President
Clinton. Will he think you're a great
and notable person? Men and women do it to God, don't
they? Look at verse 9. This is what
he said to verse, and men and women's half-hearted attempts
at worship. Would God accept that? No, he sees everything.
Verse 9, he says, I pray you. Now he's talking through Malachi
here. Beseech God that he will be gracious unto us. I pray you
to see it. We need to preach man's real
need, don't we? What is it? Grace. Preach grace. Get up and preach
grace and don't preach anything else. Don't preach on abortion.
Don't preach on the ills of society. Preach grace. That's what men
need. Men and women need. Sovereign,
free. Preach grace is grace now. Sovereign, free, effectual, eternal,
unmerited grace. You preach grace, you have to
preach man as a beggar. Right? Charity case. That's what
man is. Man's a beggar. He needs a handout.
Preach it. Man's blind. He needs the Lord to give him
eyes. Preach it. That's what the Lord said to Malachi there.
For beseech God that he'll be gracious undone. Because what
you've done, what you're into, the mess that religion's in today,
say it to the Lord above. All right, look at verse 11 and
12. Read on. He said, from the rising of the
sun even to the going down of the same, my name shall be great
among the Gentiles, and every place incense shall be offered
unto my name. That is prayers unto God. You
remember that article in our paper bulletin not too long ago? No, I didn't put it in there.
I'm going to put it in next week is what it is. One of the old writers
said, you know, everybody prays like a Calvinist. Ain't nobody prays like an Arminian.
You ever hear anybody say, now, Lord, hopefully men will accept you
as their personal savior. Hopefully, Lord, now, you can't
do anything, Lord. And you've done all you can do
and now it's up to us. No, they don't. Lord, save us.
Lord, they pray like Calvinists. They pray to God to save them.
They turn around and deny it with their message notes. In every place that prayers are
to be offered unto my name, it better be pure," verse 11, pure
offering. "'My name shall be great among
the heathen,' saith the Lord of Hosts." You're going to take
that name on your lips. You're going to come to worship
in the name of this God. You're going to take that name,
Jesus, on your lips. You better be a Savior. He better
be an effectual, sovereign, successful Savior, hadn't he? Don't take
the name of Jesus. It'll be great. It has to be
great. Oh, I could expound on that,
couldn't I? How men have desecrated that name and polluted that name,
Jesus. A name which is above every name.
And they've made it beneath every name. The one who's more powerful
than any other creature or any other being, they've made him
less powerful than all the creatures. Now, verse 12, you've profaned
my name, though, he saith. The table of the Lord is polluted,
fruit thereof, even his meat, even his meat. The table of the
Lord is polluted. You've polluted it. Cursed be
the deceiver. Look at verse 14. Cursed be this
deceiver. which hath a male, a male of
the flock, and boweth and sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupt thing,
I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts. My name
is dreadful among the heathen." Oh, they call him king, don't
they? King Jesus. He's merely a figurehead in religion. And cursed are these fellows,"
and he says they had a male among their midst, "...cursed are these
fellows who have the true gospel at their fingertips, the glorious
gospel of God's Son, the only real man who ever..." Now, they
make him out to be less than a man, don't they? I mean, they've
got a male, a man that they can preach, sovereign, effectual,
savior to the priest, but they don't do it. And they're cursed,
they're deceivers. All right, chapter 2. Look on
down, chapter 2. He says in verse 1, now to the
priests, O ye priests, preachers, this commandment's for you. It's
for you. Look down to verse 7 through
9. The priest's lips should keep knowledge. Verses 2 through 6
are a type of Christ there, very good, Levi. But Levi also was
supposed to be the high priest. And those that were descendants
from him profaned it, the office. Verses 7 through 9, the priest's
lips should keep knowledge. They ought to keep knowledge.
They should seek the law at God's mouth. They ought to seek a message
from God. He's the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Yet, the
Scripture says they're ever learning and never come into a knowledge
of the truth. They ought to have some knowledge,
but they don't. Remember that passage in Jeremiah
that said they hand the book to the prophet and the priest
alike, and nobody knows what it's saying? Verse 8, you're departed out
of the way. You're not preaching the gospel.
You've caused many to stumble at the law. Preaching the law,
maybe, or not preaching the law, or preaching a mixture of law
and grace. And ain't nobody knows or has
any idea what you're saying. You've corrupted the covenant
of Levi. You never take the word covenant on your lips. For that
matter, sayeth the Lord of Hosts, verse nine, therefore have I
also made you contemptible and base before all the people. Preachers
are laughing stock in our generation, aren't they? People are laughing
at them behind their back. You know, these fellows have
little smiles and, you know, they seem so pious and holy and
people say, hello preacher, you know, and they're talking about
him behind his back. Aren't they? Sure they are. They talk about their preacher
behind his back, because they ought to. It's all he's good
for. The Lord said it'll happen. I've
made you contemptible base before all the people. Instead of preachers
being sons of thunder, born to Jesus, they're sweet little preacher
boys, you know, you have over on Friday for chicken. And they
fold their hands a certain way, you know, and everybody just
laughs at them. They're the basest sorts of people
in the world today. Basest people. Like my neighbor
said to my wife, I'll just go ahead and say, he said, what
does your husband want to go and be a damn preacher for? I agree. He's an undertaker.
He's seen all kinds coming and going. He's seen no charlatan.
Every preacher coming and going, praying, you know, crying over
the loved ones and laughing the minute he gets out the door.
Like it fell up. It ain't funny. It really not. You know, because I am a preacher.
And I'm flat embarrassed of people that introduce me as a preacher.
I'm not embarrassed of this office. It's the highest calling on earth.
But I'm embarrassed and ashamed of what preachers in our generation
have made this office out to be. They've made it the most
base and contentable sort of occupation on planet earth. And
it ought to be the greatest. You know, preachers used to be
the government leaders, too. Samuel. Everybody came to Samuel. Not only to hear the word of
the Lord, but to see how to live their lives. He had the most wisdom,
how to deal with everything. God invested him with that wisdom,
not these jerks. In verse 10, they say, in verse
10, and not all we one father. In other words, you call Abraham
your father. Why don't you follow Abraham's faith? Hath not one
God created us? Hath not one God we deal with?
But why do we deal treacherously, every man against his brother,
profaning the covenant of our Father? Read on. Read on. They departed out of the way.
Verse 11. Profaned, Judah hath dealt treacherously. This is
the type of the church here. An abomination is committed in
Israel and Jerusalem. Judah hath profaned the holiness
of the Lord, which he loved, he ought to love. Holiness. They've
got holiness down to reduce to not doing this or not doing that. They've got God down to reduce
to where he's not holy at all. They profane the holiness of
the Lord, which ought to be foremost in their minds when they preach
God. His holiness, not his love. His holiness. That's what men
ought to be preaching. But they profane that. And they
married the daughter of a strange God. Remember that old song,
that old coal mining song of sixteen tons and what do you
get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter, don't you
call me because I can't go. I owe my soul to the company
store. And these Fellas owe their livelihood,
and their living, and their occupations, and their houses, and their cars,
and everything to men and women, so they're doing and saying what
they will to pacify and keep their jobs and all that. Married the daughter of a strange
God. They've made him up a little
God. They've got him a sweet little Jesus, because that's
what everybody wants. The Lord, verse 12, He said, He's going
to cut them off. Thank God, boy, I wish he would do it real soon.
It's amazing, though, how you get rid of a Jim Baker, and what
do you get? You get a Benny Hinn in his place.
You think you got rid of a Jimmy Swaggart, and what do you get?
You get a Robert Tilton instead. Evil men and seducers shall wax
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceiving. The Lord's going
to cut them off. He is. The sooner the better
for me. The Master and the Scholar. See that? D.D. Fiddle D.D. Dr. Divinity. Out of the tabernacles
of Jacob. Him offering an offering unto
the Lord of hosts, or says he does, in verse 13, Crying out insomuch that he regardeth
not the offering any more, receiveth it with good." He's not even
listening to you're talking about the blood of Jesus. They're talking
about the gospel. Now listen, that's just words,
isn't it? Just words. Look down at verse 17, that's
what he says. He says, You've wearied the Lord with your words. Turn on your TV to this religious
channel, it's on cable, and watch them. Just sit and watch them.
Words! They weary you with their words? God said you wearied him with
his words. They say, well, how have we wearied
him? This is how you wearied him? When you say everyone that
does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, that God loves you. Rick, that's the most vulnerable
thing that men are saying today in the ears of God Almighty.
They're weary in Him. He's weary of hearing this, isn't
He? Don't you know he's weary of hearing men tell everybody
everywhere God loves them? Homosexuals and people that are
perverse and wicked, especially religionists that are full of
self-righteousness, they're worse than homosexuals. And preachers stand up and say,
God loves you when they're so full of pride, and they don't
love God, they love themselves. God says, this is wearying me,
doesn't it? And God loves you and has a wonderful
plan for your life. He delights in you. Where is
the God of judgment? You know what it says, verse
seventeen? Where's the God of judgment? When's the last time
we've turned on the TV and heard a man preach about the judgments
of God? Not just against homosexuals,
but against religion. Hypocrisy. False gospel is being
preached. Paul said, I wish he'd go to
hell, every man that preaches that false gospel. Look at chapter
3. Behold, I'll send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way
before me. Who's this? John the Baptist. Now, this went on for thousands
of years. The Lord said, I'm going to send somebody. I sent
prophet after prophet after prophet. He didn't hear it. That's what
we read in Jeremiah. I'm going to send a man. Somebody's going
to hear him. They're going to hear him. He's
going to prepare the way before the Lord. He's going to knock
down all this religious rubbish, isn't he? Didn't John get past
the religious facade? Looked at those self-righteous,
pious religionists that came to him to worship on Sunday morning
and said, Snake? Oh, I'd love to stand up in every
pulpit today and say that to the mother Israel there, the
deaconess, the president of the bus committee.
Snake? I'm serious. Generation of vipers? Sneaky snake remember that song
that's what they are sneaky snake. Not on your barstool and drink
your beer but creep into your church and steal your money.
Steal God's glory. Steal the word of God Jeremiah
said. They'll steal the word of God. They'll tell you that
they're preaching the word of God and they ain't quoted a verse.
And if they do quote one they'll misquote it. Take it out of context. John the Baptist came preaching,
didn't he? What'd he preach? What'd John the Baptist come
preaching? Hmm? Repent. Isn't it? Repent! That's the
first words out of his mouth, wasn't it? Repent! Where's that
message today? Ed, there's no talk about sin
anymore. God loves everybody. Why do they got to worry about
the sin? Oh, God loves me. Christ died for me. What does
it matter if I'm a sinner or not? He loves sinners. He hates
her sin, they say, but he loves sinners. So there's no repentance,
is there? No fear of God, no fear of a
holy God who will not acquit the guilty, is there? Well, everybody's just accepting
Jesus and the fire escapes to heaven and they're going to heaven.
John came preaching repentance, preparing the way of the Lord.
And he says in verse 1, the Lord whom you seek, or at least say
you seek, he's going to suddenly come. And he did do it, Joe. He suddenly came to his temple. What is that? To his people. He didn't come to the Pharisees.
He didn't come to the public at large. He came to his people.
He said, They'll hear my voice. They'll repent. What did Christ
come preaching? Huh? What did Christ preach? Love! Is that the first words
out of Christ's mouth? Love! No, he preached repentance,
didn't he? The kingdom of heaven is in his
hands. The king's here. Who has the keys of hell and
death at his side? Bow! Worship! Fall down! The king's here! The king's here! He said, cry from the mountaintop,
Behold your God! That's what the angel said with
a loud voice, didn't he? Go over to God in the house.
The King's here, not just Jesus. Bless God his name is Jesus,
Savior, but that wasn't his first name. His first name was King,
Jesus, Lord, God, Almighty, Dreadful. And the sooner the better that
this generation falls down and repents and worships before a
holy, just, sovereign King, the sooner salvation and revival
will come to this land. Blessed are your ears, you hear
that? Does that hurt your ears? Maybe
my volume does. It's not nearly like Don Fortner's
would have. But man, that ought to be shouted,
shouldn't it? Can you think of any other way
to say that? I can't. If I could say it louder, I would.
The King's coming. That's what John said, and that's
whatever message you're saying now. The same thing. The message
is the same. It hasn't changed a bit. The
King's coming. It's what the prophets of old
in the Old Testament said. Somebody's coming. And you ain't
going to make Him nothing. He is something. MacMitchell,
His name is exalted. He is Lord, you don't make Him
so. All you do is bow, believe, call
out for mercy, for grace, to help you, to save your soul.
The prophet said, He's coming. The apostle said, He's here.
He's here. And the epistles say, He's coming
back. The same one. Jesus Christ the
same. Yesterday, today, and forever.
Immutable Lord. That's what He said in verse
6, I'm the Lord, I've changed nothing. The same God that wiped
out 30,000 Israelites for playing religion is going to do the same
thing again. Isn't He? The Lord said when he went into
that temple and said, Forgive me, I'm not this generation. Take this message out there.
I wish this was a more public place. I'm not preaching at you. Blessed are your ears, they hear.
Your eyes, they see. Blessed is this place. The blessing
of the hand of God Almighty is in this place. I don't, I don't,
I won't hesitate to say that a bit. Because the glory of the
Lord is shining forth in this place. And the Lord whom they seek shall
suddenly come to his temple. Verse two, who shall abide the
day of his coming? This God who changes not. He's
like a refiner's fire. He's a consuming fire, isn't
he, Rick? Revelation 1 describes him, doesn't
it? His feet like fire that burns
in an oven, isn't it? Like fine brass. His face is
the sun that shines in all its strength. And they got these little pictures
on their wall, you know, of Wild Bill Hickok kneeling down behind
a rock, looking at his aces and eights. Don't they? That ain't Jesus
Christ, the Lord of Glory. This description that we... If
we want to have a picture on our wall of Jesus Christ, paint
you a picture of Revelation 1, if you can. And even that won't
describe Him. You wouldn't be able to come
in and look at it if you had to fall down dead, wouldn't you? He's like a refiner's fire. Christ
will either consume, Terry, he'll either consume everybody by the
word of his mouth, or he'll refine them. That's what this gospel preaching
does, doesn't it? Why do you yell? Fire, have you
ever been burnt? It hurts. You know, in order
to burn away the dross, or the raw piece of ore, it's got to
be a fire heated ten times hotter than what you burn in your furnace.
to burn away the dross. You know, for a man or woman,
for God to get rid of the religious baggage and rubbish and dross
that a man or woman comes up with out of 30 or 40 years of
religion, we've got to be shouted at a few times, don't we? Huh? We've got to be called slakes
every now and then, because we've got this religious notion that
we're good men. You know, he's a good boy. We've
been told that since we've grown up. And she's a good girl. And
she grows up thinking she's a good girl. When God says, no such
thing is good, none righteous. And we might be shouted at a
few times, aren't we? And then we get these notions
out of our head, the dross is burnt away, and we become naked
as a piece of clay, John, in the hands of the potter. And
then he says, now, I'm going to mold you and make you and show you how you ought to
be, you're going to be like Christ. How's that? Somebody? No, meek
and lowly, a nobody, a worm, no man. And it says he's like a fuller's
soap. You know, he'll wash your mouth out, won't he? You older
folks, ever had your, Nancy, ever had your mouth washed out
with soap? That's what the Lord does to
his people. Didn't he say, whenever the word of God comes to you,
it shuts your mouth. First thing it does is it shuts your mouth.
You'll find out you don't know so much. Whereas you were bragging
on your religion, your faith before, you're ashamed of it
now. You want to retract everything,
don't you, John? You want to retract everything
you used to say about yourself and about your religion, about
this Jesus. You're ashamed of what you used to say about the
God of glory. He washes your mouth out with
soap, doesn't he? He's also soap, but he's not
ivory. Fuller's soap, whiter. Fuller,
that's the whitest of white soap. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
from all sin. He just doesn't try to save now,
thank God. Thank God I don't have this Jesus. We don't worship him. How could
you worship him anyway? We don't worship this silly Jesus
who tried and failed. That doesn't do my sins any good.
My sins are crimson, aren't they? They've died deep through me.
They're all the way into my heart. I need somebody with some soap
that'll get the job done, with a salvation that'll get the job
done. I need a blood that'll cleanse me from all my iniquity
and do it from now until eternity. All my sins, past, present, yes,
and future, I'll wake up in the morning having need of mercy,
having need of grace, having need of the blood before the
Lord, having need of that perpetuatory sacrifice. Not just my one-time
profession. I'll get more wicked in my own
eyes after I make it. And those that make a profession
of religion and go on to sin, they're worse sinners than they
were to begin with. They sinned against light. You need a stronger
dose of blood then, don't you? Huh? You read that article in,
what bulletin it was? It said, that man said, don't
preach all this talk about the blood of Christ and all this
talk about a Savior. Preach Him as an example, as
a teacher and all that. And the preacher said, you want
that? Now, all right, do as he said in 1 Peter, who did no sin. There's your example. He did
no sin. The devil said, well, well, well,
I can't do that. Then he said, your first need
is a Savior, then, isn't it? Don't you need the blood taught
to you first? Not an example? When you get that down, Pat,
we'll talk about what you ought to do then. Talk about the Word, and he said,
table manner. It doesn't take long to tell you about table
manner. to correct your table manners, but I tell you, you
sure need to be fed. All right, read on. He says,
verse 6, I am the Lord, I change not. Oh, we can pause there and
camp there a while, because we have. I preach from that. Look
on down now. I want you to see this. Verse
16, Then they that feared the Lord, bless his holy name. All that is within me, bless
his holy name. He's not left himself without a witness. He's
not left himself without gospel preachers. Bless God Almighty
for Tim James, for Henry Mahan, for Donny Bell, for you just
keep naming them. Bless God Almighty for Don Fortner.
Bless God Almighty for these men. Bless God Almighty for raising
up little works here and there, little churches here and there,
people that fear the Lord, where the Lord's truly preached in
all his glory, and they speak often one to another. They get
together. They don't forsake the assembly of themselves. They
get together to hear this same message over and over again.
And the Lord hearkened. The Lord hears their prayers,
and he meets with them right in the middle of it, doesn't
he? At times in power. And a book of remembrance was
written before them. Bless God for his holy word.
And it's for them that fear the Lord, not for everybody. You
know, the Bible's not for everybody. That's what men make it, isn't
it, Terry? They take verses, you know, out
of context and apply it to anybody, and everybody comes down to pie.
And it doesn't. It doesn't apply to them. It's
for God's people. You know that? This is God's
Word, and it's written to God's people. Yeah, there's some judgments
against, but it's mostly judgments, isn't it? The Word of God's written
mostly for His people. His people, He said, because
it's for them. For them that feared the Lord
and that thought upon his name, they'll be mine, he says. I like
to say it for the Lord of Hosts, in that day, that great and dreadful day that's
coming. Jesus Christ is coming back to
this earth just What is sure? I say just as sure as I'm standing
here, that's not sure enough, is it? He is coming back to this earth.
Young people, there's one called Jesus Christ that came down here
for some reason, and he went back to heaven, and he's coming
back to this earth again, and it's calling me over. It would
behoove you, you'd be the smartest child on earth to find out who
he is. Get to know him. You know you're old enough to
sin willfully. You're old enough to pay the
consequences. Huh? Huh? Sure. But those, he says, that they'll
be mine. I'll have some people. And I'll
make up my jewels. He's making up his jewels. His jewels. His special spiritual
treasure. His people, his church, he's
making his church up. Jewels, he calls them. I'll spare
them. They don't deserve to be spared.
Doesn't everything I said this morning, some of it at least,
apply to all of us here, including this man? Yes, it does. He said,
I'll spare them, though. I'll spare them. He is spared,
not his own son. That's the only reason he can
spare you, Joe Park. And he'll spare you, though, buddy, as
a man would spare his own son that serves him. Sparry's own son. He said I'll
never kiss you again. You're my boy. You're my daughter. Book of Remembrance. Got their name in it. And then you'll return. and return
and keep coming and keep coming. You'll discern between the righteous
and the wicked and him that serveth God and him that serveth not.
That also talks about Christ, I believe, doesn't it? Verse
18, that he'll discern. He knows. He'll separate the
righteous from them, righteous. He'll separate the true religious
from those that play in games. He'll separate the sheep from
the goats. He'll do the separating. Wheat
from the chaff. And that great day. God help me be a chaff,
a wheat, a sheep. and a righteous man, or that
is, believe in Christ. Behold, how long could you spend
on chapter four? Behold, the day cometh, shall
burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, all that do wickedly
shall be stubble. The day that cometh shall burn
them up, saith the Lord of hosts, and shall leave them neither
root nor branch, but unto you that fear my name." Maybe you ought to carry that
on, Terry. Preach from that, that the Son of Righteousness,
unto you that fear his name. See, the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of worship, too. It's
the beginning of salvation. It's the beginning, and the middle,
and the end. You that fear my name shall the
Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and you'll
go forth. You'll go with him. You'll grow
up as calves of the stock, tread down the wicked. Those are prophecies
of God's judgment. Now you remember. Verse 5, Behold,
I send you, Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord. Now that talks about John the
Baptist coming, and he did, he came. And he'll turn the heart
of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children
to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. And God Almighty has not left
himself without a witness today either. Men that come and have
much the same message, he's coming again, he's coming again. This
is the last time, the last time. Today is the day. Today while
it's called today, because tomorrow it may be yesterday, the day
of salvation. You say, I remember when. And
for some people it's unremembered. It's a remembrance that they'll
dread. All the opportunities and the gospel messages they
shunned and cared not for and didn't heed. But for God's people,
it'll be a wonderful remembrance. A book of remembrance will be
made. He said, in Isaiah, God's preachers are called remembrancers.
Isn't it? The Lord's remembrancers. Son,
remember. Remember. And I would ever be
reminded you. of the seriousness of this thing.
I don't get up and crack a joke first thing out of the pulpit.
This thing's too serious for that. Somebody may leave this
room going out into eternity. I'm not being alarmist. I'm being
factual. We don't know. What if the last
message I preached to you, Henry, if you died on that operating
table, what if the last message I preached to you had been on
abortion? Is that preparation for eternity? I ought to stand up the next
time I face you, the priest from Malachi 1 through 4. So their message is the same
today. Behold our King, all flesh is grass. Repent, bow down to
Him, trust Him, come to Him, He'll save you. He'll save you.
The Son of Righteousness will rise and heal in His wings. Get in the rock. There's safety.
You just stand before it. If not, the stumbling stone will
crush you and roll over you. All right, stand with me now,
just a minute. All right.