Alright, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Malachi chapter 3. Malachi chapter 3 and I want to begin with verse
13 of Malachi 3 and go to the end of the chapter. The title
of the message this evening is the Lord's special treasure. The Lord's special treasure. Now in this passage, the prophet
Malachi, as he's inspired by the Lord to bring the word of
God to the people of Jerusalem and Judah, he's seeking to bring
about repentance, calling them to repentance from their wicked
ways, wicked ways of worship, wicked ways of service, their
selfishness, their unbelief, their idolatry in every way. And in doing this, he brings
forth the mercy of God in the salvation of what he calls the
sons of Jacob, what the Lord identifies as the sons of Jacob.
We read that over Malachi 3 and verse 6. For I am the Lord, I
change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And
the reason that the sons of Jacob, and that's speaking of spiritual
sons, that's speaking of believers, that's the elect of God, both
Jew and Gentile, because it's connected with the coming of
the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his doing his great work.
And as he continues on to the end of this prophecy, he brings
forth here in the descriptions of men the two divisions or the
one division rather of the two sides the two classes of people
that exist here on earth and he's speaking of those who are
sinners still lost in their sins in fact from verses thirteen
through fifteen that's how he describes the wicked the children
of disobedience sinners still lost in their sins And then from
verse 16 on, he describes the children of God, sinners saved
by the grace of God in Christ. The righteous, the wicked and
the righteous. Listen to his words in verse 13 as he describes
the children of disobedience, the wicked. He says, your words
have been stout against me, saith the Lord. They've spoken hard,
hard words. They'd spoken words of pride
against the true and living God, the Lord who changes not. And
they asked this question, yet you say, what have we spoken
so much against thee? How have we spoken hard, stout,
self-righteous words, proud words against the Lord? And then in
verse 13, he says, you have said it is vain to serve God. It's worthless to serve God. There's no profit. What profit
is it that we have kept his ordinances, his commandments? Now the ordinance
there refers to the old covenant, the whole old covenant. And especially
the laws of service, the laws of ceremony, everything that's
connected with the house of Levi and the temple and the services
there. You remember they weren't keeping
the Sabbath. That was brought forth. The Sabbath, that great
type of our rest in Christ. They weren't adhering to the
stipulations and the instructions and the details that God gave
them for bringing sacrifice. They were bringing blemished
sacrifices, showing their contempt for God, their contempt for His
promise of salvation. That's what happens there. You
know, when Cain brought the works of his hands to the Lord in order
to be accepted, what he was expressing there is, I'm not that much of
a sinner, I don't need grace, I don't need Christ, I don't
need the seed of woman, I don't need the Messiah, I don't need
his righteousness and his blood because I'm better than that.
And that expresses contempt for Christ. It expresses contempt
for the glory of God. So they said, what prophet? What prophet is it to keep his
commandments and that we have walked mournfully before the
Lord of hosts? In other words, they had, instead
of being happy and joyous, they were like mourners because of
their situation. They were in a drought. They
were not being blessed in their land. And of course the reason
goes back to their sin. It was the results of sin, the
consequences of sin. And then verse 15, look here,
it says, and now we call the proud happy. Now they looked
at other nations, other people, whom to them seemed to be prospering. You know everybody's better off
than we are, aren't they? That's human nature. And they
said, well, we're the people of God, but they're not, they're
proud. But they're happy. We're mourning. We're the people
of God. We deserve this. We've earned this. That's the
hard, stout attitude of an unbeliever, a self-righteous sinner. God,
why have you done this to me? I don't deserve it. And you look
at that immoral idolater over there, and they're in the lap
of luxury, healthy, wealthy, all of that. And that's what
they were saying. Verse 15, yea, they that work
wickedness are set up. That means they're built up.
We're being torn down, they're being built up. Yea, they that
tempt God are even delivered. Now that's the problem. What's
going on here? It's murmuring, it's complaining, it's unbelief,
it's pride, it's self-righteousness. They think they're wiser than
God. And we all do by nature. You know, we see things happen
we don't agree with, and we say, well, I've got a better way,
I could do it better. And then they had an evil motive. There's
no profit in serving God. What's in it for me? That's the
kind of... In other words, serving God not because of His glory,
not out of gratitude and love and thanksgiving motivated by
grace, but serving God because of what you think you can get
out of Him. What profit is it? You see, that's legalism. That's
not a child of God. You see, that's not a willing,
loving, bond-slave of Christ. That's a mercenary. That's exactly
what that is. That's what most people are today,
even those who claim to be Christian. There was a fellow who told a
man in our church, he said, well, earned reward. He said, that's
the reason I preach. Is that the reason? Oh, I tell
you, God delivered me from that. I hope that's not why I'm preaching.
I hope I'm preaching for the glory of God. I hope I'm doing
it just out of gratitude. I hope I'm doing it just because
it's right to do it. I want to honor God. I want to
thank Him. I want to see sinners saved for the praise of the glory
of His grace. And that's what's going on here.
You know, I read over in Hebrews 11. Chapter 6. Did you see that passage? Let
me just read it to you again. Hebrews 11. Now, he's talking
about faith here. And that's what Hebrews 11 is
about. Faith. Well, what is faith? Faith is
believing God. Faith is serving God. Faith is
resting in Christ for all salvation. It's grace. It's mercy. You see,
what I have that by way of blessing from God is not what I've earned
or what I deserve. It's grace. And you tell me that
doesn't inspire a person to to serve the lord to preach the
gospel my goodness and here's what he says in verse six but
without faith without believing god without resting in christ
for all salvation without being washed in his blood and his righteousness
it's impossible to please god the only one that that that uh... the only ones that please god
are those who uh... appear before god in his son
This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And then it
says, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. Now
that's more than believing that God exists. And the reason I
know that to be true is because of what he said back up here
in verse three. When he said, through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word of God and that which the
things which are seen were not made of things that do appear.
In other words, it's talking about the power of God. He's
talking about the glory of God in creation, not by evolution.
The things that we see today are not the product of things
that came before them. They were created by God. And
so he says, you must believe that he is. What that means is
you must believe that God is who God says he is. That's what
it means. He's the creator. He's the redeemer
of his people. He's the Lord who changes not.
Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. In other words,
God is not like I naturally think him to be. He's not like you
naturally think him to be. Brother Ronald, you read there
in Acts 17, that's what they were doing, the unknown God.
They thought God was one such as themselves. They were manufacturing
a God of their imagination. that that was limited and and
uh... now he's very powerful but he
had his limitations but he's like man they worship the sun
they worship the moon they worship the trees you say but that's
not you must believe that god is who god says he is if he says
I'm a holy god And the only way you're going
to come to Him and be accepted is to recognize His holiness.
And if you ever see His holiness, what are you going to do? You're
going to run to Christ. You're going to say like Isaiah,
woe is me. I'm undone. I'm cut off. I'm
a man of unclean lips. I don't have any right. I don't
have any merit before God. Oh, that God would look upon
me and show mercy. If he says he's a sovereign God,
then we believe he is a God of sovereignty. He's the God who
works all things after the counsel of his own will, and 90% of it
we just can't figure out. Ain't that right? Job had to
learn that issue, didn't he? He had to learn that lesson.
Hard lesson to learn. If He says He's a God of love
and mercy and grace in Christ, what are we to do? We're to believe
Him. What does that mean? We come to Christ. We plead Christ,
like Abel. You see, we come with the blood
of the Lamb, the Lamb of God. And so he says, for he that cometh
to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. God, see now they're asking the
question over here, well what, there's no profit in serving
the Lord. Oh no, you gotta believe that those who serve the Lord
are gonna be rewarded. And they are, every one of them.
Now it's not the reward of earned earned merit. It's not because
you earned your way into the kingdom of God or earned your
position in the kingdom of God or earned your mansion on such-and-such
street. It's not because of that. It's
the reward of grace. You've got to be convinced by
the Holy Spirit that all who come to Christ shall be saved. that all who come to Christ shall
have the reward that Christ himself and him alone earned for us by
his obedience unto death on the cross by his blood and his righteousness
alone and that's what he's talking about but now back here they're
reasoning well because uh... because we're going through all
these problems then we uh... we don't have any uh... any reward
at all there's no profit in serving God we want profit You know,
that's what most preachers today promise people. You give your
money and you'll get a profit, you see. If you don't get the
profit, then why give? That's what these fellows are
doing. That's the murmuring. That's the complaining. That's
the children of disobedience. That's the wicked right there. The moment we think that way,
we're thinking wickedly. Well, why do it if I don't get
that return or whatever? And so they weren't bond servants.
They weren't servants of the living God. They were mercenaries. That's what they were. They were
ungodly, wicked, unbelieving mercenaries. And that's what
we all are. That's man by nature, isn't it?
That's us by nature. We still have to fight that kind
of attitude, don't we? Don't you? I do. You do. Because things will happen to
me, and I'd say, well, I didn't deserve that, or this or that. But we
have to fight that. That's part of the warfare of
the flesh and the spirit. And then in verse 15, they'd
lost their perspective on things. You see, we're to view things
scripturally by the word of God. That's how we're to, our perspective
on life. is to be set by the word of god
not by circumstance not by a site we that's what it you know that's
what it is to walk by faith and not by sight it's it's the you
have your perspective on things on yourself your relationships
uh... the world your job your family
everything set by the word of god god tells me how to see things
and when i go out on my own and try to figure them out i always
get in trouble how about you? you will don't you? And so that's
what they said. Well, we call the proud happy.
Now, there's a fellow there who never goes to church, never reads
his Bible, has no interest in Christ and the things of God,
and yet he looks to me like he's in the lap of luxury. Now, how
am I to perceive that? Well, you know, you remember
in Psalm 73, I won't read the whole thing, but I dealt with
this a couple messages ago. on Psalm 73 where the psalmist
was asking these questions about the heathen, why do the heathen
prosper? And why do some, and listen now,
it's not that God's people don't sometimes prosper. Now, we do. I mean, we live in an affluent
society, don't we? And we're not all too bad off,
you know? I mean, there's some better off
than others. But think about it in terms of the parable of
the rich man and Lazarus. Here's the rich man in the lap
of luxury. Here's Lazarus outside the gate,
hungry, and the dogs licking his sores. You say, how do you
perceive that? What is the perspective that
we should have on that? And that's what he's asking here
in Psalm 73. The psalmist, this is Psalm of
Asaph, And he says, I'm wondering, he said, I see the evil of evil
men, they're corrupt, he says, they speak wickedly, and yet
they're doing well. That's how I perceive it. And
he says in verse 15 of Psalm 73, if I say I will speak thus,
behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
When I thought to know this, when I thought to figure this
out, he said it was too painful for me. It was labor, that literally
means it's a labor to my eyes. You can look at it and try to
figure it out and you'll never get it figured out. Then he says
in verse 17, until I went into the sanctuary of God and then
understood I their end. There's the perspective. When
I go to God, when I seek wisdom from God, when I seek the Word
of God, then He tells me how I'm to see these things, you
see. And I walk by faith, believing
in God. Well, that's what they had lost
over here. Because they had corrupted the worship of God. They didn't
believe the Gospel. They didn't understand the grace
and mercy of God in Christ. They'd lost sight of that. That's
the wickedness, you see. and then he comes in verse sixteen
to the righteous now who are the righteous? well there are
those who are better than this other bunch no there are those
who've worked hard to get that you know as the old country song
said we're working hard to get to heaven no that's not going
to do it either who are the righteous in the bible? who are the just
in the bible? the justified? well what did
he say? he said i'm what he said i'm
sending christ i'm sending the messenger of the covenant Now
why is he going to send the messenger of the covenant? He's going to
purge you like refiner's fire. He's going to cleanse you with
fuller's. Why do I need that? Because I'm not righteous. If
I were already righteous, I wouldn't need the purging of the gold. I wouldn't need the cleansing
of the fuller's. I wouldn't need Christ. I wouldn't
need the grace of God. Christ said I didn't come to
save the righteous. The physician doesn't come to
heal the well, they don't need healing. Why do we need grace? We need it because we're sinners.
So whoever the righteous are here, what does he tell us? Go
back. Malachi 3.6, I'm the Lord, I
change not, therefore you sons of Jacob, you sinners, chosen
of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ. Called out by the
Holy Spirit, naturally dead in trespasses and sins. Naturally,
none righteous, no not one. None good, no not one. I'm the
Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
These are the folks who aren't consumed. Now why aren't they
consumed? Because somebody, in Malachi's
day, somebody was gonna come and be consumed for him. In our
day, somebody's already come and has been consumed for us.
the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's who they are. So what's
he telling? Look at verse 16. He says, Then
they that feared the Lord spake often to one another. Now the
fear of the Lord, what's he talking about? He's talking about faith.
Look at Hebrews chapter 4. This fear of the Lord, you know
what it is. You've been taught well on that subject. The fear of the Lord is, he's
not talking about legal fear now, is he? Legal fear is unbelief
and pride. Legal fear is the kind of fear
that motivates a sinner to trying to establish a righteousness
of his own rather than submitting to Christ and the righteousness
of God in him. That's what legal fear is. That's
natural fear, isn't it? That's what calls Cain to bring
his best effort. I better get busy and work hard
because if I don't, I'm not gonna please God, I'm gonna incur His
wrath. But now this fear, look at verse
one of Hebrews chapter four, he says, let us therefore fear
lest a promise, this fear here is based on a promise. Now what
is the promise? It's the promise of God to save
sinners by grace through Christ. You see, God never promised anybody
salvation based on their works. He never promised that. You won't
find that promise. I had one fellow tell me that
he promised that to Adam before he fell. Oh no, he didn't. Adam,
before he fell, didn't need salvation. Now, he promised Adam a continuation
in the garden based on his obedience, but that wasn't salvation. And
we know that was an impossibility anyway. But this is a promise
of grace. This is the promise of God that's
in Christ, yea, and in Him. Amen. This is the gospel promise. And he says, being left us of
entering into His rest. His rest. What's His rest? It's
Christ and His finished work. It's resting in His blood for
the forgiveness and payment of all my sins. Jesus paid it all. You believe that? Did he pay
it all or just part of it? Most people believe he paid his
part. Now you've got to pay yours. That's profit. That's mercenary. That's legalist.
No, he paid it all. All the debt I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it gray, off-white,
eggshell. No, he washed it white as snow. His righteousness alone. I'm
telling you, I need no other righteousness but His righteousness
charged, accounted, imputed to me. Because that righteousness
there gives me life within. When we talk about Christ for
us and Christ in us, Christ for us is the ground, Christ in us
is the fruit. One brings about the other. You
can't, listen, if He died for you, you're gonna have life because
from His death comes life. And so he says, lest any of you
should seem to come short of it. In other words, you have
a profession, but not true faith. And he says in verse two, for
unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, talking
about Israel in the wilderness. But the word preached did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard.
They heard it, but they didn't believe it. That's what Malachi,
that's what's happening over here in Malachi with those first,
that first group. They heard it, but they didn't
believe it. But now he comes in verse 16 there, then they
that feared the Lord, Those who believe God. Now did they believe God because
they were more cooperative or they were less rebellious or
less obstinate than the other bunch? Oh no. And I'll tell you
how I know that, because they fear God. You don't fear God
unless you come to really know yourself. And you don't know
yourself unless God the Holy Spirit brings you to conviction
and reveals yourself to you. reveals myself to me. That's
what that's all about. And so it says in verse 16, they
trusted in the Lord. That's what it is to fear the
Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The
beginning of knowledge. Isn't that something? Fear Him. Worship Him. That's what that
means. It means to reverence God. Respect Him for who He is. There's none like God. None beside
Him. None that you can compare Him with. Worship God, serve
God. Serve him with gladness, not
because of what you think you might get out of him. Serve him
with love. That's what God, we talked about
a couple weeks ago, like giving. God loveth a cheerful giver,
not one who's taxed. You see what I'm saying? And
he says, they spoke often one to another. You know what that
speaks of? That's not just talking. That's fellowship. They're in
unison here. They're one of heart, you see.
Trusting Christ. They have one hope, one faith,
one baptism, one spirit, one hope of salvation. Whatever differences
we may have in other areas, we are all the same in this area. Christ is our only hope. Isn't
that right? And that's how we speak. That's
what we're doing here tonight. We're expressing our fellowship,
our unity in the faith. and that speaks of their edification
we try to build each other up not tear each other down that's
what he's talking about because i know with whatever whatever
problems we have we still have only one hope and that's christ
and him crucified and risen again and none of us not there's not
one of us in this building tonight who deserve it or has earned
it folks we're in the same boat
In that sense. And it says, and the Lord hearkened
and heard it. God hearkened. God listened. And he heard it. Isn't that something?
That God heard these people. He hears the prayers of his people. Though he draws near and they
draw near unto him, they have communion with God. They have
an audience with God. You have an audience with the
king. The King of Kings, and it's an audience of grace. The
Bible says that we have a great high priest and we come unto
God. We come unto the throne of grace.
We have an audience. He hears us. He tells us what we need to hear
in His Word, what we need to live in His Word. He gives us
what He deems best for us. We may ask Him for things, and
that's okay. We can bear up our petitions
to the Lord. But He's wiser than all of us
put together and He knows what's best for me and you. But He hears
us. Why? Because of our great high
priest who's passed through into the heavens. That's Christ who
did a great work. And so we come to Him pleading
His blood and righteousness when we pray. We plead the glorious
person in the finished work of Christ And we say, Lord, thy
will be done, because his will's always the right way, always
the good way, always the wise way. And then it says in verse
16, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. Now, there's
two ways of looking at this. I guess you could say it's one
of those little minor controversies in translation. Some people would
read it this way. Now listen to what it says. It
says, and a book of remembrance was written before him of them. Instead of saying for them, some
translate it of them. In other words, what he's talking
about is a book of remembrance that the names of the children
of God are written in. And that God has recorded this. Well, if that is the case, I
can tell you exactly what it is without any failure at all. and it's the Lamb's Book of Life,
written before the foundation of the world. It's not as if
God is some kind of a secretary or clerk up in heaven watching
you and recording when you do something good and when you do
something bad. That's not what it's talking
about. Anytime that it speaks of a book of remembrance in that
sense, it's talking about the Lamb's Book of Life, chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world. That's the redeemed of the Lord.
That's the ones who are called out by the preaching of the gospel.
And so this is not a tally of good works versus bad works or
anything like that. In fact, let me show you this.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Anytime that's brought up to
me by anybody, I always turn to this passage here. in Hebrews chapter 10. Now you
know what this chapter is talking about. It's talking about the
finished work of Christ, which put away all our sins. For by
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
And it tells us here in Hebrews chapter 10 it says now now now
look here it's in verse 14 read look at verse 14 for by one offering
he Christ hath perfected completed finished forever them that are
sanctified he he fully redeemed us by his precious blood and
he says whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us in other
words the witness of the Holy Spirit is of the person in the
finished work of Christ After that it said, before this is
the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord, I'll put my laws into their hearts and in their minds
will I write them. And listen to verse 17, and their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. No remembrance of that. They're wiped clean. Our sins
are wiped clean. They're not there in the book
of God's remembrance. Doesn't mean God knew about them
and then he forgot them. He just simply said he does not
record them. He does not hold them against
us. So whatever he's talking about
in this book of remembrance, it's not a tally of good versus
bad, good works versus bad. Our sins are washed away, born
away. You remember the picture of the
scapegoat back in the book of Numbers? When they had the goat
that was slain and then the scapegoat that was led out into the desert
by a fit man, that's one chosen of God. Did they ever see that
scapegoat again? Was it brought back in and say,
now look here, look what happened last year? No. It was gone. And I'll tell you, I wish that
we could get that sealed in our minds. That God has no remembrance
of our sins. They were born away at Calvary. Our sins were charged to Christ
and He put them away. And so we're washed white as
snow in the blood of the Lamb. We're clothed in a perfect robe
of righteousness. But back here in Malachi 3 now,
that could be talking about Depending upon how they translate it, the fact that God takes notice
of His people, that He hears us. But I believe that, and what
I believe it's talking about here, is a book of remembrance
written for God's people. And I believe that it's talking
about God's Word. We have to be reminded all the
time. That's why we have worship services.
That's why we meet together. We meet to worship God. But to
remind ourselves, be reminded by God of what we are, who God
is, and what we are, and who Christ is, and His Word. His Word to remind us of His
grace in Christ. The Word of God. To partake of
the ordinances. Especially the Lord's Supper
after, that is a memorial ordinance. This do in remembrance of me. To think on these things. Remember
Paul in Philippians chapter four, verses eight and nine, he said,
think on these things. And he talked about those graces
of the spirit that we're inspired to do as Christ works in us to
do his good will. Think on them. We need to think
often. We need to be reminded of them. I think about the thief on the
cross. When he spoke to the Lord, he said, remember me when you
come into your kingdom. That's God's remembrance of us,
but we're to remember him too. And we have to be reminded. I also think about that song
you sing, James, quite often. The Lord remembers me. Isn't
that something? Well, look at verse 17 of Malachi
3. He says, and they shall be mine,
and the saith the Lord of hosts. And I think, you know, as I study
the word of God, I'm constantly amazed by little phrases that
sometimes I have a tendency just to read over and not stop and
think about it. But I thought about this one
because of that verse 16. It says, those that thought upon
his name, thought of his glory. And here's what he says, and
they shall be mine. What's he talking about? He's
talking about redemption. There's a price to be paid. And
somebody's going to pay the price. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it says, saith the Lord of hosts, the Lord that cannot be
defeated. And he says, in that day when
I make up my jewels. And I read that and stopped and
said, God's jewels. In your concordance, it's special
treasure. That's why I entitled the message,
The Lord's Special Treasure. And do you realize who he's talking
about there? Well, if you're chosen of God
and redeemed by the blood and called out by the Spirit, he's
talking about you. There are people who may not
hold you as precious or as valuable as that treasure. People may
not hold me as that precious and valuable as a treasure, but
God does. And isn't that all that counts?
God calls me and you who are in Christ now. This is not all
without exception. I'll tell you who God's special
treasure is. It's those that He takes full
possession of. He said, they'll be mine. They're
not going to end up condemned and damned forever. These are
the ones who He redeemed. He chose them. He redeemed them.
He'll call them. He'll give them life. They're
His special treasure. They're His jewels. Now, a jewel
has value. What value do we have? In ourselves,
no value at all. But in Christ, the value is totally
His. Look over at 1 Peter chapter
1 with me. Our value is determined not by
ourselves, not even by our gifts. Some of y'all are really gifted
in a lot of different ways, but that's not your value. The value
is totally wrapped up in the glory of God in Christ. There's
the value. There's the worth. Worthy is
the Lamb. Look at verse 18. 1 Peter chapter
1. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ. There's the value. As
of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who barely was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God
that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in God." There's the value. There's the
value. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter
3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I preached
on this passage about a week ago or so. Listen to this in verse 11. He's
talking about the church and he's talking about God building
his church through his preachers preaching Christ. pointing sinners
to Christ and he says in verse 11, for other foundation can
no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Think
about a building that has a faulty foundation. What value is it?
What would you pay for a building like at a house like that that
has a bad foundation? It's worthless. It's going to
fall. It's built on sand. Maybe. And it's worthless. So the value of the building,
the value of the house is determined by the value and the worth and
the power and the solidity of the foundation. Well, for other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, Jesus Christ.
And remember he says here in verse 12, now if any man build
upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, you know who
that is? That's the children of God who follow Christ. That's
the gold, the silver, the precious stones. That's God's jewels.
That's the Lord's precious treasure. Sinners saved by the grace of
God to the praise of the glory of His grace. And then he says,
wood, hay, and stubble. You know what that is? That's
those who follow men rather than following Christ. Paul, I thought
about this. Paul never told anybody to follow
him for salvation. But you know some men did anyway.
Some of them said, I'm of Paul. It's human nature. Don't follow
me. Don't follow any preacher for
salvation. You follow him as he points you
to Christ, you'll follow Christ. You see what I'm saying? Go back to Malachi 3. And he
says this is the Lord's special treasure. And he said, I will
spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Now
here's the kind of service, see, remember what they said back
up here in verse 4, where there's no profit in serving God. That's
mercenary, that's somebody you hire to serve you. Alright? But here he's talking about service,
but it's not the service of a mercenary, it's not the service of a hireling,
it's the service of a son. The son of his father. You see? And that's just another way.
You know, how does the Bible describe the service of a child
of God? Bond slavery. He's not serving to pay his debt.
His debt's already paid. He's serving because he loves
his master. And sonship. He's not serving to become his
father's son. He's his father's son no matter
what. And that's what we are, children
of God. Look at verse 18. Then shall you return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked. Now here's the issue.
He says between him that serveth God and him that serveth him
not. Now what are we? Are we hirelings? Or are we God's
special precious jewels, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb? I've
thought about this, I won't go there, but you know that the
two little parables in Matthew 13, the parable of the treasure
hid in the field, and the parable of the pearl of great price.
Now normally, and I've preached them this way too, normally when
you hear those preached, you'll hear us talk about how the gospel
and Christ himself is precious and valuable to a believer. But
I believe if you look at that, those two little parables, what
that really is showing is Christ himself and his treasure, which
is his people. Let me just read it to you and
I'll close. Matthew 13, 44. Listen to this. Again, the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field. And you understand
this is right after the parable of the sower and the seed and
all that. All right, he's going out, what
does he do? He casts forth a seed and he brings in his good hearers,
the good ground here. It says in Matthew 13, 44, it
says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in
a field, that which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for
joy thereof goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth
that field. Now, who bought the field? Christ
did. What was the price? His own precious
blood. Who's the field? They're talking about his people.
And then look at verse 45, that's the pearl of great... Again,
the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly
pearls who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went
and sold all that he had and bought it. Who bought it? And
he bought it with all that he had, his very life. He that spared
not his own son, how shall he not with him freely give us all
things? That's the Lord's special treasure.
Now, how do we discern between the two? Well, he shows us here.
His special treasure, his people, they fear him. They fear him
and they love his word. And they serve him. Not as mercenaries,
not as legalists, but as sons. Willing, loving bond slaves.