Well, let's take our Bibles and
go to Malachi, if you would. It's where I want to start anyway.
Malachi chapter 3. And as you make your way to Malachi
chapter 3, just a reminder that Wednesday evening, after the
message, we'll have the Lord's Supper. And then we'll have some
fellowship in the back, food and fellowship. And I'm assuming
that all these pieces of paper are filled out with various foods
that you ladies, and maybe some of you men as well, are going
to bring. We look forward to that. And thinking about that, we need
some of you guys to set up tables and chairs after the service
this evening. So we appreciate your assistance
in helping with that. Well, I want to start here in
Malachi chapter 3. This is about 400 years. before our Lord Jesus comes into
this world. And here's what God says by the
prophet Malachi chapter 3. He starts off with the word,
Behold. That's always said to get our attention. He says, I
will send my messenger. The Lord says, I will send my
messenger and he shall prepare the way before me. Here is God the Son. He speaks,
saying to his people, saying through the prophet, I will send
my messenger. Now who's the messenger? Well,
just kind of hang on to Malachi 3 and go to Matthew chapter 11. Let's see who this messenger
is. Matthew chapter 11. Matthew 11, look at verse 1. It came to pass when Jesus had
made an end of commanding His 12 disciples, He departed thence
to teach and to preach in their cities. Now when John, John the
Baptist, when he heard in the prison the works of Christ, he
sent two of his disciples and said unto him, Are thou he that
should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said
unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear
and see. What did they hear about? What did they actually witness?
Well, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the
poor have the gospel preached to them. Our Lord's a gospel
preacher. He's a gospel preacher. He preached
the good news concerning Himself as He broke open the Old Testament
scriptures to those who listened to Him as he set forth the glad
tidings of his coming and of his substitutionary death, of
his sacrifice for sin to satisfy God. The Savior said, and blessed
is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. And then those
disciples went back to John. And as they departed, Jesus began
to say unto the multitudes concerning John, what went he out into the
wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? A reed that blows with the wind? Did you expect to see some preacher
that he was willing to blow, to bend to whatever the whims
and the wishes of men were that they wanted to hear? Is that
what you expected to hear when you went to hear John? He says,
but what went ye out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? He says, behold, they wear soft
clothing that are in the king's houses. But when went he out
for to see a prophet? Yea, I send you in more than
a prophet. Now watch verse 10. For this
is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. So back
over here in Malachi chapter 3, the Lord Jesus is speaking
of himself. And this shows His pre-existence
before Bethlehem's manger. After all, He is God over all,
blessed forever. He is Himself the eternal I Am. When the earth was brought forth,
He brought it forth. When all creation was spoken
into being, He's the one who spoke it into being. He is the
great God Himself. And He speaks and He says, Behold. Now listen up. Let me have your
attention. That's what the word behold means.
I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before
me. I will send John the Baptist. Indeed, hundreds of years went
by. There was no fulfillment of the
promise. And as the years went by, and
as one generation of believers died off, as they spread the
gospel, and another generation of believers came onto the scene,
and God miraculously taught them the truth as well, all of these
folks said, I wonder when it's going to happen. When is the messenger coming
who will precede Messiah? When will He come? Then he says,
and the Lord whom you seek, the Lord whom you seek, the Master,
the Lord whom you seek from your heart, the Lord whom you seek
from glory, the Savior you seek, the Redeemer you seek, the righteousness
you seek, the one who saves sinners by his substitutionary death,
the one that you seek shall suddenly come into the temple. Even the messenger of the covenant. He's the messenger of the covenant.
Isaiah says he's the covenant himself. For God says I will
give him for a covenant. And here he says the messenger
of the covenant. He's the one who tells us about
the covenant. The Bible says He is the surety
of the covenant. In old eternity, God gave to
Jesus Christ a people. He stood as our surety. And all
of the debts that we would incur against God's law, they were
all charged to Him. And God looked to Him for full
payment of all of our sin debt. He stood as our surety. He said
to the Father in effect, you can exact this from me. I stand good for all of those
people you give me in this covenant of grace. I will save them, I
will redeem them, I will forgive them, I'll make them righteous,
and I'll glorify them and someday present them unto you a glorious
church, not having spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing.
I'm the surety of the covenant. That's who He is. He is not only the surety of
the covenant, He is the mediator of the covenant. He is the mediator
of the covenant. And in this covenant of grace,
God's everlasting covenant was sealed with His own blood. He is the mediator of the covenant. He is the one by whom God comes
to us and He is the one by whom and through whom we come to God.
So there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. And here he says he's the messenger
of the covenant. He's the prophet. He's the prophet. He would come to the world, even
the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. And I know
that most of Israel in those days had no delight in the Lord. Israel had fallen into idolatry. They despised the sacrifice of
God. They had no use for salvation
by grace. But there were a few folks who
delighted in Him. God always has a witness in this
world. He always has some people. Oh,
they may be few in number, And he says, feared not, little flock,
but even back in these days of darkness, these days of spiritual
apostasy, these days of great error, the Lord had his people. And
he said, that one, the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight
in, is going to come into this world. And then listen to the
promise of God. And isn't this the message of
every prophet of the Old Testament? Behold, he shall come. You go from Genesis to Malachi. In every book of the Bible, every
page of the Old Testament Scriptures, every prophet of the Lord, every
evangelist, they all had this message, Behold, He shall come. He shall come because God ordained
for Him to come. He shall come for He must save
His people. Those people God gave Him in
the covenant of grace, He must come and redeem them from the
curse of the law. He must come and do something
about the sin problem. He must come. He shall come,
the Lord says. He shall. Don't you love the
Lord's shalls? His shalls! And when God says,
He shall come, you can mark it down, He shall come! They didn't
know when He would come. So they waited. And they waited. And they waited. But He was coming. Look at verse 2, But who may
abide the day of His coming? or who may receive, that's a
good word, abide, who may receive the day of His coming. Or here's
another good word, who shall comprehend the day of His coming. Who would comprehend the reason
for His coming? This little infant born in Bethlehem's
manger, who among all the people would understand the reason that
he was born that day in Bethlehem? The reason that God sent him
through a virgin. Who would appreciate the magnitude
of that event? Here is fulfilled that Old Testament
promise. The seed of the woman is coming. Who will bruise the serpent's
head. He is coming. He is coming. That is what Moses
said. That is what all the prophets
said. He is coming. He is coming. He shall come.
Who shall comprehend it when He comes? Who shall comprehend
the reason for His coming? And we just two days ago was
Christmas. And I ask you of all the people,
you see the manger scenes, you see all this adulation about
this baby Jesus who came into this world. How many of these
people in America comprehend why He came into this world? They have floats in the Christmas
parade. It's Baby Jesus this and Happy
Birthday Baby Jesus. How many people comprehend, appreciate,
understand the reason that He came into this world? He came
as the Savior. He came as the Redeemer. He came
as the Great Reconciler. He came to do the work of redemption
that God the Father assigned to Him in the Covenant of Grace,
which He voluntarily took that responsibility upon Himself. And when He came into the world,
He said, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. The prophet says, who shall comprehend? Who shall receive the day of
His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner's fire
and a fuller's soap. And He shall sit, He shall dwell,
He shall come down, literally, as a refiner and a purifier of
silver. And He shall purify the sons
of Levi. He shall purge them as gold and
silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. He'll purge them how? With His
blood. That's how He purges sinners.
That's how He washes sinners. Let's have defiled sin, blackened
sinners, are made white and beautiful in God's sight through His sacrifice,
through His blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That we might offer an offering
unto the Lord in righteousness. in righteousness. Then shall
the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as
in the days of old and as in the former years. He's coming. He's coming. This is what the
prophet of God says. Back in chapter 2 and verse 17, The Lord says, it's Malachi 2.17,
ye have wearied the Lord with your words, yet ye say wherein
have we wearied him? When ye say every one that doeth
evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in
them, or where is the God of judgment? Where is the God of
judgment? Literally, where is the God of
righteousness? Well, just wait, he shall come.
That's what the prophets said. They said, where is the God of
righteousness? Where is the God of judgment?
Just wait! He's coming. He's coming. And He shall suddenly, He shall
suddenly come into His temple. Now go back to that passage in
Luke chapter 2 that brother Bill read to us a little bit ago.
And here's the fulfillment of what Malachi had to say. He shall
suddenly come into his temple, and we're going to see right
here, here he comes. Here he comes. You know, Luke sets before us
several witnesses as to the identity of this special, special infant
born in Bethlehem's manger. He calls on several witnesses
to identify. First of all, he brings forth
an angel of the Lord who speaks for the Lord. Go back to Luke
chapter 2 and look at verse 9. Here is the witness, the testimony
from the Father. Luke 2 and 9, And lo, the angel
of the Lord came upon them, And the glory of the Lord shone round
about them. The Lord is manifesting His glory. His glory, that Shekinah glory. And it shone round about these
shepherds, and they were greatly afraid. And the angel said unto
them, Fear not. For behold, listen up. There's
that word behold again. I bring you good tidings of great
joy. which shall be to all people,
all kinds of people, rich people, poor people, educated people,
uneducated people, people from every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue. For unto you, unto you, unto
you sinners, unto you rebels, unto you fallen sons and daughters
of Adam. Unto you worthless, worthless,
wretched worms. Unto you is born or has been
born this day in the city of David a Savior. A Savior. Who is He? He's Christ the Lord. He's the anointed one. He's the
Messiah. He's the Lord of glory. Come
down. And the angel said, and this
shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly, and now
Luke gives other witnesses. He brings forth other witnesses
that testify of the glory of this one who's been born. And
suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts,
and what are they doing? They are praising God. And they are saying, Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace. Good will toward men. This is what the angels are saying.
And these angels, they are symbolic of all of God's preachers. After
all, in Revelation chapter 1, the messengers of God are like
an angels. Hold your place. Look at Revelation
chapter 1. Let me make good on that. Look
at Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. Look at
verse 16. This is when John saw the glorified
Christ. He has been wounded for our transgressions
and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. With His stripes we were healed.
He died for our sins. He has been raised again from
the dead. He has ascended back to glory. And some years later,
John has this vision. of Him, of the glorified Christ. He's been glorified, He's been
exalted as a reward for the successful work of redemption He accomplished. And John hears His voice and
then he sees Him and he describes Him. For the sake of time, I
just want to read this verse 16 first. And He had in His right
hand seven stars. And out of his mouth went a sharp
two-edged sword, cuts both ways. And his countenance was as the
sun shineth in his strength. Now look at verse 20. The mystery
of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the
seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels
of the seven churches, the messengers, the preachers. The seven candlesticks
which thou sawest are the seven churches. Let me tell you something. God's angels, God's preachers,
they exist to bear witness to the Son of God. That's the only
reason we exist. And our only message is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. We have no other message. We
are commanded to preach this message. Furthermore, we love
to preach this message. We delight to preach this message
of Christ only, of His blood and of His righteousness and
salvation by God's free grace through the blessed Redeemer.
That's our message. And we're like these angels back
over here in Luke chapter 2. These angels that preach glory
to God in the highest. And isn't that what we preach
every time we get up? Glory to God! We preach glory
to God. He gets all of the glory and
we give none of it. We get none of it. We deserve
none of it. We don't want any of it. The
Lord said, I am the Lord, that's my name. My glory will I not
give to another. We seek to give Him the glory.
Every time we gather together. That's what we do. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God for
who He is. In all of His attributes. In
all of His characteristics. In the magnificence of His being. Glory to God. Glory to God for
all that He is. Glory to God for all that He's
done for us poor sinners. What has He done for us? Everything. If it's good, He's done it to
us. And it's all by grace. Glory to God. He is the highest. He is none higher than God. He
sits on His throne of universal sovereignty and authority. He
does His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, what
doest thou? He is the God who is in the highest. And on earth peace is going to
be peace, not peace between people. This is not worldwide peace.
This is not peace between nations. This is peace between us and
God. Made by the peacemaker. And He
make our peace by the blood of His cross. The blood of His cross. And you know what? It's all due
to God's goodwill toward us. It's goodwill. I tell you, God's
will is always good. Isn't that right? It's always
good. Whatever God does is good and it's right because He can't
do wrong. And in His eternal will, He purposed
the salvation of His elect by Christ Jesus the Lord and the
Spirit of God will quicken these. He'll bring them back from the
dead and show them Jesus Christ is all. And he finished the work
of redemption. The angels, they witness as to
who this one is. He's very special. So there's
the witness of God through the angel, through the angels. Then
there's the witness of the shepherds. Luke is giving us witnesses who
attest as to who this one is. In verse 15, it came to pass
as the angels were gone away from them, Into heaven the shepherds
said one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see
this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known
unto us. God has got to make known unto
us Jesus Christ and who He is and what He came to do and why
He came to do it. He's got to make it known to
us. If He doesn't make it known to us, we won't ever know. We
won't ever know. These things are hidden from
us. It's a mystery that's hidden. Thank God He reveals it to sinners. And I tell you, when He sends
His messengers and the Spirit of God opens your eyes and opens
your heart and opens your ears, and when Christ is made known
unto you, you'll come with haste. That's what it says in verse
16. They came with haste. And they didn't come to see Mary.
They didn't come to see Joseph. They came to see that babe lying
in a manger. And when they had seen, look
at verse 17. When they had seen with their
own eyes. Have you seen Him? Have you seen
His glory? Have you seen Him in His brilliance,
the wonders of His person? Have you seen Him? When they
saw, the word it is italicized, when they saw, they looked into the same face
that Simeon looked into. They looked upon the same one
that Anna looked into, into the same face Anna looked into. When
they had seen, they made known abroad the saying which was told
them concerning this child. It's the peacemaker. The Messiah,
He's come. They went out to tell Him. I
tell you something, if God does something for you, if God opens
up your mind, opens up your eyes, and if He gives you a new heart
to believe Him, you've just got to tell somebody. Let me tell
you what I know now. Let me tell you what God's taught
me about salvation by sovereign free grace, salvation by substitute,
salvation by the satisfaction of Jesus Christ the Lord. Let
me tell you. I well remember when I learned
the Gospel and I was so excited. And there were some people in
my family, I just couldn't wait to tell them. And I just knew
what I had heard and what I had learned, what God had taught
me, the good news that had just wrapped itself around my heart,
I just knew it would be good news for them too. I just had
to go and tell somebody. But you know what? It wasn't
good news to them. In fact, it kind of made them mad.
Not good news for everybody. Who Jesus Christ is and what
he did and why he did it and where he is now, that's not good
news to everybody. But it is good news to somebody.
So we'll just keep preaching the gospel message. God will
make it to be good news to somebody. Maybe He'll even make it to be
good news to you. Wouldn't that be something? Wouldn't it be something if God
made this message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified to be to your
poor old soul the best news you ever heard in your life? He may
do it. He's able. He's able. The shepherds, their witnesses. And of course, Mary and Joseph,
their witnesses as to who He is. After all, the angel came
to them, Gabriel came to Mary and then later to Joseph and
told them, is this the Savior? Gabriel said to Mary, this holy
thing that shall be born in thee, He's the Son of God. He's the
Son of God now. The Son of God who never had
a beginning and who'll never have an end. Our Lord Jesus,
He became what He wasn't before, but He didn't cease to be all
that He was before. No wonder we read in 1 Timothy
chapter 3, the words of Paul, and without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. It is a mystery in it. God with
us, Emmanuel, God with us, Joseph and Mary, they attested
as to who He was. And notice in verse 20 about
these shepherds. The shepherds returned glorifying
and praising God for all the things that they had heard and
seen as it was told unto them. They went away glorifying God.
In verse 21, when eight days were accomplished, Mary and Joseph
brought their little baby, Mary's baby, to be circumcised. That's eight days after his birth,
which was according to the law. He was made under the law. To
redeem them, they were under the law. Let me tell you something. He was made under parental law
and obeyed it perfectly. He was made under civil law and
obeyed it perfectly. And He was made under God's law
and obeyed it perfectly. So here He is, born under the
law to redeem them that were under the law. When He was eight
days old, He circumcised, sign of the covenant. And they officially
gave Him His name. Jesus, which was so named of
the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And then when the
days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished,
and she was considered to be ceremonially unclean for seven
days, and then another, a total of 40 days, she was ceremonially
unclean. When women bore a male child,
they were considered to be ceremonially unclean for 40 days. And she
had to stay away from the place of worship. And it signified
being cut off from God. That's what we are by nature.
We're cut off from God. And by the way, if she bore a
female baby, it was cut off from public worship for 80 days. Just
double that. So when we get down here to verse
22, when the days of our purification according to the law of Moses
were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him
to the Lord, as is written in the law of the Lord, every male
that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. It's
40 days after he's been born. Forty days. And they came to
offer us sacrifice. Isn't it amazing how the Bible
keeps sacrifice before us? Blood before us? Substitution
before us? It always keeps that subject
before us because sin's got to be dealt with. To offer us sacrifice
according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair
of turtle doves or two young pigeons. And behold, listen up
again, Let me have your attention. This is what Luke the Physician
is saying. There was a man in Jerusalem.
His name was Simeon. His name means one who hears
or one who hearkens. The same man, look at the description
of him, was just. He is a justified man. He is accepted by God. He's just. He's devout. He's serious. He's serious about
the things of God. You know, we enjoy one another's
company and every once in a while we'll have a laugh and every
Tuesday as many men as want to go, We'll all go out to eat breakfast
together. And by the way, you're invited
if you want to come. Tuesday we'll meet right here
at 715. We'll go eat. We just have the
best time together. There's a time to fellowship
and there's a time to enjoy one another and have fun and laugh
together. But when it comes to the things
of God, now we're devout. And we're serious. Because we
are talking about serious matters. We are talking about the soul.
First of all, we are talking about the glory of God. You cannot
get any more serious than that. We are talking about the Lord
Himself. We are talking about salvation.
This is what Simon was. He is devout. He is serious about
the things of God. He is not playing games. He doesn't
just dabble in religion. He's devout. He's devoted to
the things of God. He's devoted to the gospel. He's
devoted to the Lord. There's a devotion in his heart
toward the God of glory. He is a justified man. Let me
tell you something, people who are justified by God's grace,
justified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, justified
by God's imputed righteousness, the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, when we are made aware of the fact that we are
justified by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, we get serious
about the things of God. Don't we? We are serious about
worship now. And watch it, He is waiting. And I drew a line in my Bible
from that word waiting in verse 25 up to the word looked in verse
38. And she's looked, she spake of
him to all that look for redemption in Jerusalem. Because essentially
they're the same word. He's looking for the consolation
of Israel. He's waiting for the consolation
of Israel. He who will comfort his people.
After all, God is the God of comfort and the God of consolation. And the Holy Ghost was upon him.
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should
not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. I tell you, all of God's elect, all of the Lord's redeemed ones,
They're not going to see death, they're not going to experience
the death of this body until they've seen the Lord's Christ.
All of them without exception. These sheep that were given to
the shepherd in the covenant of grace, they'll be found by
the shepherd and will look by faith into his face and say,
Thou art my Savior. Thou art my God. Thou art my
Redeemer. Thou art my righteousness. Simeon,
you're not going to die until you see the Lord's Christ. And
he came by the Spirit into the temple. And remember what Malachi,
what the Lord said through Malachi, the Lord whom you seek shall
suddenly come into his temple. His temple, it's his. It's his
temple, a place of worship. He came by the Spirit into the
temple, led by the Spirit. And when the parents brought
in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law,
then took he him up in his arms and blessed God. And he said,
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to
thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Thy salvation. He wasn't looking
at a plan. He wasn't looking at some facts.
He's looking at a person. He's looking at somebody. I know
it used to be we'd talk about God's simple plan of salvation
back in my Arminian days, back in free willism. In fact, we
used to give out tracts by the ton. I'd give them out. I'd give
a fistful of tracts. I'd take them to the factory
where I worked, Bassett Furniture Company, J.D. Bassett Furniture
Company, in the summer of 1969. I'd take all those tracts, God's
simple plan of salvation. I'd pass them out every Friday. I'd preach there, free willism. I may have told you this before,
but I had a black fella came up to me one time after I preached,
and he said, I want to tell you something, young fella. I said,
what's that? He said, God don't love everybody
like you said. And Jesus didn't die for everybody
like you said. And the Spirit of God is not
trying to save everybody like you said. Well, I just shrugged
him off and I figured he was just some old fool. He didn't
know what he was talking about. I tell you, one of these days
I hope I get to meet him in glory and hug his neck. So you're exactly
right. You're exactly right. But I'd
say salvation is in a plan. Salvation's in somebody. Somebody. My eyes have seen thy salvation. which thou hast prepared before
the face of all people. He's a light to lighten the Gentiles,
and He's the glory of thy people. He's the one who enlightened
us. He enlightened our darkened minds, and He's the glory. He's our glory, isn't He? We glory in the Lord. We glory
only in Jesus Christ the Lord. And Joseph and his mother marveled
at those things which were done. They just marveled. Simeon blessed
them. And he said unto Mary his mother,
Behold, this child is set. You know what that word means?
Appointed. Destined. This is fixed. He is fixed. He is appointed.
He is destined. He is set for the fall and the
rising of many in Israel. I tell you, He causes us to fall
before Him. He brings us down and then He
raises us up. That's what He does. He kills
us and then He makes us alive. He strips us and then He closes
us. The fall and the rising again
for a sign which shall be spoken against you. Yea, a sword shall
pierce through thy soul also that the thoughts of many hearts
may be revealed. And there was one Anna. She's
a prophetess. It doesn't mean she was a foreteller
of things that would happen, but she was a foreteller. She
would tell to those around her the gospel. She's the daughter
of Phenuel of the tribe of Aser. And she's an elderly lady. She
lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And
she's been a widow a long time, 84 years. She's over 100 years
old. And she didn't depart from the
temple. She went as far as she could go into the court of the
women. But she served God with fastings
and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant,
when Simeon held that baby, she gave thanks likewise unto
the Lord. And she spake of Him to all that
looked for redemption in Jerusalem. all who look for redemption,
all who are waiting for redemption. I tell you, we don't wait for
redemption. Redemption's already happened.
We've already been bought. And what was the price? Precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they had performed all
things according to the law of the Lord, He fulfilled the law,
didn't He? He fulfilled the law. And He
was obedient unto the law, even unto His death. When they had
performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they
returned into Galilee to His own city. May God bless His Word
to our hearts. cause us to fall in love all
over again with the mighty Savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, buddy, let's sing a closing
song.