All right, back here in Malachi.
I want you to look back here in Malachi with me. And I want to talk about a most
blessed, blessed fear. God is speaking. He reproves
a lot of people in this book of Malachi and encourages his
people in the most wonderful way. And he says there in verse
13, your words have been stout against me. You have some pretty
stout words towards me, saith the Lord. And then they say,
well, what in the world have we ever spoken so much against
thee? What have we ever said? Here's
the difference. God knows exactly what you say.
They say, well, when have we done that? And you have said
it is vain to serve God. And what profit, what profit
is it? What am I gonna get out of it that we've kept his ordinances? And that we've walked mournfully,
oh, walked in black before the Lord of hosts. What in the world,
what's the profit that we ain't getting nothing out of it? And
now we call the proud happy. Oh, when a man's proud, well,
he's so happy. And yea, they that work wickedness,
you set them up to run things. Yea, They that tempt God, even
they are delivered. You save them, you do something
for them. But then look what a change.
Then, then, they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened, and he
heard it. We didn't use stout words. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord. and that thought
upon his name, and they shall be mine. They shall be mine,
said the Lord of hosts, and that day when I make up my jewels,
I'll spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him.
You know, it says they that feared the Lord, and the book of Remembrance
is written for them that feared the Lord. You know, fear is a
very, very good thing. It's a healthy thing. Fear is
a healthy thing. You know, it keeps people from
getting hurt. It causes parents, parents afraid
for their children, what they'll get into and what they'll do,
especially from the time they're able to start crawling around.
You know, you watch them and you teach them and you protect
them and you try to keep them out of danger. And there's a
positive side of fear, and then there's a negative side of fear.
John says, you know, there's a fear that has torment. And
I tell you, a fear is a bad, bad thing. You know, the wrong
kind of fear is a horrible thing. There's some people that they're
in torment all the time because they have phobias. There's people
afraid to go outside. There's people that's afraid
to go certain places and do certain things. And there's people that
are paranoid, you know, and it can become crippling. Fear can
cripple people. You know, Job said this about
himself in Job 3.25. He said, that which I greatly
feared came upon me. He said, evidently he had something
that feared him. He was greatly afraid of and
he was feared for it. He was afraid for it. He said,
that which greatly feared me has come upon me. It's happened. It happened. But then there's
a fear that's a blessed fear, a fear of God, and that's a blessed
fear. The wise man said that wisdom
is the beginning, fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And
when a man begins to fear God, and fear the Lord, he's just
starting to get just to some sense right then and there. And
I'll tell you, there's a fear that's not good and there's a
fear. Here's a blessed fear. Look what it says. They that
feared the Lord spake often one to another. I want to talk about
three things here about the Lord's people. Three things about them
in this verse of scripture. First of all, they had reverence
for God. When you look at that word, they feared the Lord, you
go in there and get Vine's expository words, and look at those in the
dictionary words, and it always, when it talks about fear of the
Lord, it talks about a reverential fear. It's not a fear that God's
gonna punish us. I'm not afraid God's gonna punish
me. I'm not afraid of the judgment. I'm not afraid that God's angry
with me. That's not the kind, we don't
have that fear. We don't have that kind of fear. But I'll tell
you what, you know, it's a fear that motivates us. to honor Him,
to glorify Him, say the right things about Him, and a fear
that keeps us from wanting to embarrass Him, to shame Him,
and dishonor Him in any way. We're not afraid of what He's
gonna do to us. I'm not afraid that He's gonna come and do something
bad to me, because He's untold me that anything that ever happens
to me, it's got to be good. He's untold me that. So when
we're talking about the fear of the Lord, it's a reverential
fear. It's like, you know, we want to honor Him. We want to walk upright before
him. We want to bless his name. We
want to live a life that will not bring reproach on him, bring
shame on his name. We don't want to do that. Oh,
no, no longer afraid of his presence. You know, Adam feared the Lord,
and the first thing he did, and here's the difference between
the right fear and the wrong fear. Adam feared the Lord, and what
the first thing he did? He hid himself from the presence
of the Lord. But you know where the safest
place to hide from God is in God. The best defense you'll
ever have is to be in God. And that's the most wonderful
place to be. And I'll tell you something else
about this fear of God. It influences our attitude. Our attitude toward God. Our
attitude toward the Bible, our attitude toward one another,
and everything about it. And when we get in certain circumstances,
it influences our, our fear of God influences our attitude.
How are we going to react in any circumstance that we're in?
We want to do that. Because we trust God and whatever
He puts us in, He's going to see us through it. And oh, listen. Not only does it affect our attitude,
but it affects our worship. It affects our worship. Oh yeah,
look over here in Malachi 1.6, look what it says over here.
What he said here about these people. We worship God in reverence
and godly fear. Here he said a son honors his
father and a servant his master. If then I'll be a father, where's
my honor? And if I'll be a master, where's
my fear? Saith the Lord of hosts, unto
you, O priest that despise my name. And you say, where in have
we despised thy name? So I tell you what, the fear
of God affects our worship. We worship God. You know, when we're standing
in the presence of an infinitely holy, righteous God, We're in
the presence of holiness. We're in the presence of God,
that the universe, I mean, the universe is in Him. Everything
about Him, and you think about that. Hebrews 12, look with me
in Hebrews 12. Look in verse Hebrews 12, 28.
Look what it says over here. We're not here to impress anybody. We're not in here to make, you
know, and see who can make the loudest noise. We're not here
to see who could be the most spiritual among us.
Those things don't enter our mind when we gather to worship
God. They don't enter our mind. We're here because we come to
listen to what God has to say to us. We come to worship Him.
And look what it says here in Hebrews 12, 28. Wherefore, we
receiving a kingdom, which cannot be moved, let us have grace,
whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Godly fear. So it affects our worship, this
here fear of God. Back over in our text now. Not
only were these people feared the Lord, blessed fear, glorious
fear, a fear that causes us to reverence and worship Him. And
then look what else it says about Him, down in the last line of
the thing. And then they feared the Lord
and they thought upon His name. Not only did these people fear
the Lord, but they were thoughtful people. You wonder, think about,
thought about God. thought about his character. You know, when he talks about
they that thought upon his name, that's what they're talking about,
they thought upon his name. You know, when you think upon
God's name, and a name stands for a person's character, You
know, when you mention certain men or women's name, people automatically
think of them and their character. Not their size, not their stature,
not the color of their hair. that none of that enters into
it. When you think of people's names off, immediately you think
of their personality and their character, how they carry themselves,
how they worship God, how they are towards one another. And
you think of their character. Well, that's what we do. They
think upon His name. And when we think upon His name,
the first thing we think about His name, how precious His name
is. I mean, His name is precious.
And you know one thing we'll never do with the name of God.
God helpin' us, we'll never take it in vain. Oh no, we will not
use the Lord's name in any other way but in a God-honoring, Christ-honoring
way. His name is precious, it's His
character. Moses said to the Lord, he said,
Lord, I'm not gonna go up with this people unless you go up
with us. He said, I'll go, I'll go with
you. He said, well, how will I know
that I found grace in your eyes? He said, Moses, you know you
found grace in my eyes, I'll call you by name. And then after
God told him that, you know what Moses said? Lord, show me your
glory. And you know what his glory was? I will. First thing about his
glory is, I will. I, my will is what's done in
this world. I will have mercy on whom I will. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. And he said he calls the goodness
of the Lord to pass before him. And I tell you what, that's the
first thing we know about God. His name is precious, because
He says, I will, and when He says, I will, that's all that
matters. When we find in the Bible what
God says, that's it. People say, I believe it, and
that settles it. No, no, it settles it whether you never believe
it or not. God ain't never gonna change His word. And I tell you
that the name of the Lord is a strong tower, and the righteous
run into it. And not only is his name precious,
and we thank upon his name, but his name is powerful. You know
how powerful the name of God is? You know how powerful it
is? His name is so powerful that
when we call on him, and we plead his name, we plead his character,
and everything about him when we call upon him. We say, oh
Father, we come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
we come in your name. Your name's got so much power
to it. And oh my, and I'll tell you
it's got so much power to it that he says, you just get two,
two or three people together. And if they gather in my name,
Just gather in my name. If there's just two or three
of them, I'm gonna jump right in the middle of them. And how many times have we been,
Lance and Robin Heller was with us overnight and the other day. And I tell you what, the Lord
would come among us and there was just two or three of us sitting
there, four of us talking. And the Lord would come and bless
us. Why? Because we're thinking on his
name, talking about his name, talking about what he's done
for us, how gracious he is. And I'll tell you, they said
this when their daughter was so sick and they thought they'd
done give up, say, Lord, they'd done give up and say, Lord, if
you take her, we're more than willing for that. She was that
sick, they thought she wasn't gonna make it. And then they said, Lord, we're
ready, because she'll be a lot better off than where she is
right now. They come to that place, and they said, because
we know God, and because we know God, and we know that He will
do just exactly right for her, and me, and Robin, and the rest
of our family. We know He's gonna do right.
And there's the most blessed peace in knowing that. The most
blessed, he said, that was the most blessed peace come upon
us. We know what God would do, and if He did it, we was ready
for either one of them. You know why you do that? Because
you know God. You know the power of His name.
The power of His name to uphold you. The power of His name to
protect you. And all listen, let me ask you,
how do you describe God? Huh? You know, how does God describe
himself? How does he describe himself?
Calls himself almighty. Calls himself holy. Calls himself
righteous. Calls himself just. Calls himself
good. Calls himself gracious. Calls
himself wisdom. Calls himself power. Calls himself
eternal. Calls himself savior. And what do we say about him?
He's sovereign. He's God. He's eternal. He's holy. He's righteous. He's
just. He's blessed. He's everything. And he listened, oh, bless his
holy name. And I tell you what, that's what
he says here. You know, he said this, David said this in Psalm
23 and three, he said, the Lord leads me in the paths of righteousness. Why? For my name's sake. What in the world does that mean?
I'm gonna keep you in the paths of righteousness, not because
I have to do that for you, but my name's at stake here. My name,
my honor, my glory's at stake, and you're mine, and I'm gonna
make sure that you walk in the paths of righteousness, and I'm
gonna do it for my name's sake. I've gotta keep my glory. I've gotta keep my power. I've
gotta keep my promises. So listen, I'm gonna make you
step, there's the path. You're walking in it, and you
know why? Because for my name. Gotta honor my name. And that's
a wonderful thing to think about, ain't it? Huh? That's why we'll
never be lost. That's why God won't never let
us quit. That's why God won't never let us go. You know why?
If one person went to hell for whom Christ died, God would lose
his glory, his honor, and everything with it. But you think He's gonna
let that happen? If He leads us in the path, and
how many places does it say, for His name's sake, for His
name's sake. Oh my. And then not only did
they think upon His name, but look what it says there in verse
16 again. Then they feared the Lord, spake
often one to another. Oh, they speak often one to another.
Oh, my. Those who love Christ, those
who love God, those who love Christ, they love one another.
And I want you to look with me in Psalm 66 and verse 16. Look over here with me in Psalm
66 and verse 16. You know, Look with me, verse 16 now here. Oh my, they speak often one to
another. You know, I got a couple of preachers
that I talk to and a lot of people I talk to. And even over there,
we're at the gym where I work out. I talk to people over there,
you know. Get a chance to get every once
in a while, get an opportunity to say a little something. But
look what he said here in verse 16. They had a testimony. Look what it says here. Come
and hear, all ye that fear God. And I will declare, I got something
I want to tell you. I want to tell you what he hath
done for my soul. You know, it's like that Gadarene
maniac. They couldn't, nobody tamed him.
Nobody tamed him. The Lord come up there in a boat,
and they was going into the Gadarea, and there was that Gadarene maniac
out there, naked. Oh, he had bruises and cuts where
he was running over them things, and they had to put him in chains,
he'd break the chains. Well, the Lord Jesus come up
there, said, what's your name, legion? Why? I got so many of us in here.
Well, he cast out all the demons out of that man. And the next
scripture says that he was sitting clothed in his right mind. And the Lord Jesus was fixing
to go ahead on. And he said, Lord, let me follow
you. You know what he said? Go back to the house. Go back
where you're from. Go back where they were scared
to death to even own you. Go back to your mom and daddy.
Go back to your brothers and sisters. And you tell them what
great things the Lord has done for you. Go back and tell them. Oh my. Now let me rest three things
about us. Now here let me give you three things about the Lord.
Look what he says. There in verse 16 again, then
they that fear the Lord, that spake off at one to another,
and listen to this, and the Lord hearkened and heard it. You mean he heard us talking?
Heard us speaking? He heard and he hearkened. He heard what we said, so I'm
gonna listen to him for a while. I'll just listen and see what
they're gonna say. He listens to his people and he hears them,
oh my. I got a couple places I want
you to look with me, you know, that he heard and he listened.
Look over in Psalm 9, 94.9. Now, Psalm 94.9. Look over here
with me. Oh my, listen to this. Talking about the Lord, he said,
oh, the Lord heard of space. Take off from one to another,
they that fear the Lord. Thought upon his name, the Lord
hearken. He's listening. They're speaking
about me. Oh, my. He rebukes some people, said,
you ain't said the right things about me. But look what he said
here in verse nine. He that planted the ear shall
he not hear. He that formed the eye shall
he not see. He formed you here, you reckon
he came here? He formed I reckon, you see?
Then look what he says over here in Psalm 116. Somebody read this,
I believe, back in the men's meeting here a couple of weeks
ago. And I remember Scott Richardson preaching from here one time.
And these first two verses, look what he says here. I love the
Lord. I love the Lord. Well, there's a reason I do,
he said. Because he hath heard my voice. Heard my voice. My voice. You all hear my voice
all the time. God says, I hear his voice. I
hear his voice. And my supplications. My supplications. And listen to this. Because he
hath inclined his ear unto me. Huh? You know somebody that's
just getting real faint and their voice is real, real soft and
you know sometimes you have to get down real, real close and
say, say that again, say that again. That's what God's saying
here about him. He said, I'm gonna cut my ear
and I'm gonna get down there and listen to what you got to
say. He shows us how precious we are to him, how much he loves
us and cares for us. He listens to us when we're speaking
about Him and thinking about Him and on His name. And then
look what He says, therefore I'm going to call up on Him as
long as I live. I want to do that as long as
I live. I want to spend the rest of my life calling on the Lord,
calling on the Lord. You know, calling on the Lord.
Oh, he hears what we say about himself because they said what
they thought on him and what he said about him. I tell you
something else he hears. Not only does he hear us and
hear our voice, but he hears what we say about one another.
He hears what we say about one another. Oh, I tell you, be very,
very, very, very careful what you say about one of God's sheep.
Be very careful about it. You know, you may tell the truth,
but still yet, maybe the truth is not what ought to be said. You know, be very careful about
that. But God's interested in our words. He's interested in
the words we speak. He said, they just speak often
more than us. He's interested in our words. You know, Over
and on, and Matthew says this, by thy words thou shalt be justified,
or by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Now what does it mean,
your words justify? What it means is that your words
will justify what you think about God, and what you think about
yourself, and what you think about his word, and what you
think about sin, and what you think about salvation, and then
he says your words will condemn you. If you ain't thinking right
about me, speaking right about me, and considering me and what
I am and what I do, then everything comes out of your mouth gonna
be wrong. Gonna be wrong. And oh my, out of the boldness
of the heart, the mouth speak. And God listens to our words.
Oh, if we really believe that, I believe our words would be
a little less. Be a little ass, huh? And then look what else,
not only did he hear us, but look what it says there, the
Lord hearkened and heard, verse 16, and then a book of remembrance
was written. He said, I'm gonna remember what
they said. I'm gonna remember what they
said about my name. I'm gonna write down a book.
I got a book and I'm gonna, you know, and here's the thing about
it. This don't, you know, he just using language for us to
get and understand it. A book that he writes down. He
wrote a book of remembrance. It was written before him that
feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. You know, the
scriptures mention several books. There's a book of life. Paul
talked about in Philippians 4 or 3, he says, whose names are written
in the book of life. He had confidence in them because
of their love for Christ and the way their lives were and
how they walked before God and the grace of God had given me.
He said, these people's names are written in the book of life.
Oh my. And I gotta show you this, I
gotta show you this. Psalm 56, you got to see this. Psalm 56.8. 56.8, I better get
over there. Oh, you just got to see this. Let's see, is that where? 56.8.
Yeah, yeah. Look what he says down there. Thou
tellest my wonderings, thou put my tears in a bottle. Are they not in thy book? Oh,
oh. The Lord said, take your tears,
put them in a bottle. And he said, and then we'll write
in a book, we'll write in a book. Oh, I'll tell you some things
that are not in this book of remembrance. You know, I'll tell
you some things that God don't remember that's not in this book
of remembrance. Sin's not in it. He don't remember that. He said,
there's sins and iniquities, I remember them no more. You
think about the Old Testament saints. You look at Lot. Well,
start out with, yeah, with Noah. He got off that. and I don't
know how long, he did off of it long enough to raise some
grapes, make him some wine, and get drunk. But when you find him in the
Scriptures, the Lord Jesus says, as in the days of Nair, he always
referred everything in the New Testament, all the things that
they did wrong in the Old Testament, there's not one mention of all
the sin in the New Testament. Lot! Oh my, what a, he was a,
he had lost his testimony to his children, his son-in-laws,
and everybody in town. And you know what God says about
him in the New Testament? Righteous lot. You go through the Old Testament,
and you find them people, but when you find them in the New,
under the blood, righteousness of Christ, everything Oh, he
believed God. He feared the Lord. He offered
a more excellent sacrifice. Oh, God's not ashamed to be called
their God. Oh my. And I tell you, He remembers
us in time. He chose us in eternity and He
said, I remember them. Now it's time. It's time. Time for me to cross their path.
Time for me to call them. Time for me to Bring him out
of darkness into the light of my blessed son. Oh my. And he isn't going to get out
of his book. And I tell you something he's not going to do. He ain't
going to get out of his book and start reading all the good things we
did and the good word we spoke and kind deeds we did. No, no,
he's not going to do that. Not going to do that. Uh-uh.
No, no. No, no. He wrote a book of remembrance
because we speak about him. We think on his name. Think on
his name. And I'll tell you what, and this
is it right here to me. Look what he says in verse 17. He said, he hearkened to us,
wrote a book of remembrance of us, and then look what he says,
and they shall be When I make up my jewel, they
shall be mine. Mine. Mine. They shall be mine. The Lord said he's mine. They
should be mine. There'll be mine to choose. There'll be mine to love. There'll
be mine to save. There'll be mine to keep. There'll
be mine to feed. There'll be mine to teach. There'll
be mine to lead. and they'll be mine to glorify.
He said, Father, I will that they be with me, that they may
behold my glory, which I had with you before the world was.
Who's he say that about? They're mine. They're mine. Having loved his own, which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end. And then not only did
he say they're going to be mine, but look what he says. I'm going
to get up all my jewels one of these days. I'm going to get up all my jewels.
And you know what kind of jewels he would have that belongs to
him? Can you imagine the jewels that God says that they're his? Can you kind of imagine what?
Ain't a jewel in this world like what one God would make. But
you know what he says? He said, when I make up my jewels,
that's diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls. Oh, listen to what it says there.
And I will spare them. I'm going to spare them as a
man spares his own son that serves him. Now, here's the difference. He spares us, but He didn't spare
His own Son. And because He didn't spare His
own Son, He can spare us and do it right. Do it right. Oh, our Father. Oh, Lord. Consider who you are. Oh, consider
how great and glorious. How mighty and how powerful and
how blessed you are. And yet you look at us. Us. People that have nothing but
what you gave them. Know nothing but what you taught
them. And Lord, you said, they're mine.
They're mine. They're mine. They tell the angels,
they're mine. They tell the eternity, they're
mine. They're mine. Oh Lord, thank
you. Blessed be your holy name. Thank
you for meeting with us tonight. Thank you for your precious,
precious word. God bless these dear saints as
they go their way. and keep them and preserve them,
give them a good night's rest for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. You know, when the Lord Jesus,
they come to take him in the garden, a big crowd come to get
him, had his disciples who said, if you want me, let these go. You know why? They're mine. They're
mine. They're mine.