If you'd like to follow along,
please turn to Malachi chapter three. That's the chapter right before
Matthew. I want to begin reading in verse
16 of Malachi chapter three. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened and heard
it. 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, saith
the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels and
I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth
God and him that serveth him not. And I'm gonna stop right
there. I'm gonna read you something.
I got this out of one of Tim's bulletins. Faith is necessary for salvation,
but we do not look to our faith to save us. Rather, in faith,
we look to Christ. Repentance is necessary for salvation,
but we don't look to our repentance to save us. Rather, in repentance,
we turn to Christ. There are graces which God works
in us as he saves us, but they are not the object of our trust.
I like that. I like that. Joe Terrell wrote
that. All that God works in us is used
to, look to, trust in, submit to, and to lay hold of Christ. Now today, from Malachi 3.16
mainly, I wanna speak to you of the assembly. Because it's here, in Malachi
3. There's a wonderful passage here. And it's a wonderful passage
of hope and of the work of the Lord in those that fear the Lord. Because that's my first point.
I got like eight things here about the assembly. Because who
am I saying is the assembly? The assembly is those that fear
the Lord. If you don't fear the Lord, you've
got no cause to think you're a part of the assembly. Psalms 1 and 11 and 10 says this,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding
have all they that do his commandments. Proverbs one and seven puts it
this way. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
But fools despise wisdom. And not only wisdom, they despise
instruction. Psalms 19.9 puts it this way,
and I really like this one. The fear of the Lord is clean. It's clean. There's absolutely
nothing wrong with the fear of the Lord. There's all kinds of
things wrong with me, but there's nothing wrong with the fear of
the Lord, it's clean. And what else does it say? Forever. Forever. Because those that fear
the Lord know the Lord. And those that don't fear the
Lord don't know the Lord. I know that sounds simplistic,
but that's because it is. In this case, it is. If you don't
fear God, you don't know God. That's as plain as I can be about
it. Because to know God, the one, what did Christ say? Christ
said that. Jesus Christ, sweet little Jesus,
meek and mild. Fear him that can cast body and
soul into hell. He can destroy body and soul. Fear him. But if you know him, you also
love him. Oh my, now, let's be plain. This is the Old Testament. But
it's full of, this is actually a New Testament prophecy in a
lot of ways. But I will tell you this, right
here. The assembly are those that fear the Lord. This goes
for the assembly in the Old Testament. This goes for the assembly in
the New Testament. Whether you want to call it the church, the
congregation, whatever you want to call it. There's only been
one assembly. and it's always been those that
fear the Lord. Old Testament, New Testament,
it's always been this way, and it will always be this way. Now, the second point about the
assembly is that the assembly assembles. The assembly gathers. I know, it's simple, but that's
what I got. I got nothing new this morning.
I got absolutely nothing new. But the assembly, now in the
New Testament, it's called what, the ecclesia? What does it mean? The called out ones. Now you
understand though, we are called out of the world. We are brought
out of the world. We're in the world, we're not
of the world. But here's the thing. We are
brought out to be together. We are brought out to be together.
We are to gather together. The fellowship requires that
the fellows get together. Otherwise you're not gonna have
any fellowship. Our fellowship is in Christ.
But it's also with each other. The assembly will assemble. Well
it says it, you know. They assemble to speak to one
another. Now, I understand nowadays we can do that long distance.
You couldn't do it long distance back here. This is where you
get together in person with each other. If you can't, you get
together on phone. I know people who Skype. I know
a couple people that used to do that, long distance for a
while. But then, there is just something
about the fellowship of the saints where you want to be where the
saints are gathered. You understand? If you fear the Lord, you're
gonna wanna be with his saints. If you are one of his saints,
you're gonna wanna gather with his saints. Why? Because you all have the same
Lord in common. I wanna talk to people who know
the same Lord that I know. That's how Walter and I got started
years ago. I was looking for somebody to
talk to. That's why I came to church. You know, before God
ever got a hold of me, I was more than content to stay home. I was more than happy to stay
home. I was ecstatic. Not that I disliked the people
that I was there, it's just I didn't want to go there. I didn't want
to gather with those people. I wanted to go walk in the woods.
That's what some people, I go. I go out in the woods and I go
fishing and I see the glory of God. You don't see nothing. You
don't see nothing about God. You see his handiwork and you
can be happy with his handiwork because his handiwork is beautiful
except for where we've messed it up. But that is not the gathering
together of the assembly. You can go through the whole
thing. Walter went through it. The difference between private worship
and public worship. And there's nothing wrong with
private worship. It is necessary. We'll get to that a little bit
later. It's necessary. It's great. It's glorious. But it's not the same thing as
the public worship of the gathering together of the saints of God.
Hebrews 10 verse 23 through 25 ends with this. Do not forsake the assembling
of yourselves together. Together. As the manner of some
is. Even so more as you see the day
approaching. The later in the day it is, the
more you need to assemble. Because we don't stand by ourselves.
You understand? There's no way I can stand by
myself and I know you can't stand by yourself. because his book
says so, and my heart tells me so. Well, his spirit tells me
so. My heart tells me I can do anything
I want. But I try not to listen to it. But this is the thing. We need the support of each other. It's not that we're stronger
together than you are apart. Well, yeah, I guess we are. But
here's the thing. Jesus Christ said, don't forsake
the assembling of yourself together. It's good for us. I still remember Peter on the
Mount of Transfiguration. He got a little carried away
with it, but what did he think? It's good for us to be here. Now he
wanted to make tabernacles and they said, no, no, no, it's not,
you know. I like Moses and Elijah too,
but they ain't the same thing. But it was good for him to be
there. It was glorious. And he wasn't
there by himself. and we are never alone. I realize that in Jesus Christ
and his Holy Spirit is always with us, but there is a gathering
to be made of the saints of God. The assembly assembles. And the
assembly assembles for a purpose. According to the word here in
Malachi, it says the assembly, then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another. I like that. Often. How often
are you together? As often as you can. There are
hindering causes, we all know that. We've all had them. I had
one last week. It was my head. It betrayed me, Walter. I was
betrayed by my body. I wanted to be here. I wanted
to be at your house Saturday, Paul. I was betrayed. I don't
control any of that. But as often as I can be here,
I want to be here. And when I was at home, I wanted to be at your
house, and then I wanted to be here with you guys last week.
Debbie wanted to be here with us today, but she couldn't make
it. There are others that couldn't make it. The thing is, We are to assemble
often, but here's what it says, to speak one to another. We're not just supposed to sit
around like lumps. There's a purpose to the assembly of the saints. There's a purpose, and I like
how this is phrased, where it says, we speak one to another. Now is this individually, speaking
one to another? Or is this a group, like one
speaking to a whole group? Yes. That's one of my questions,
I like that. Yes, it's both. It's both. Psalm 34 and 11 says this. Come
ye children. Come ye children. Hearken unto
me. What's that mean? Assemble just
a little bit. Assemble just a little bit. What
do you say then? I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. How about that? The fear of the
Lord is not natural to man. And we are to speak one to another. Now what does the assembly speak
one to another? Wrong question. Who does the
assembly speak of? Who does the assembly speak of? The who comes first, then you
can worry about the what. Because there is a what. But
it's the who comes first, it's Jesus Christ. Our Lord. Our Lord. Hell, let's do it now. Excuse me. Verse one. Because
this third chapter of Malachi goes from John the Baptist to
the return of Christ. Actually, you have John the Baptist,
then you have Christ coming the first time, then you have him
coming the second time. But here in verse one, he says, behold,
I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before
me. Who's speaking here? This is
the Lord speaking. Now he's talking right there,
that's John the Baptist. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
But then it says, and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly
come to his temple. Even the messenger of the covenant. Whom ye delight in, behold, he
shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. That's Jesus Christ. That's not John the Baptist.
John the Baptist was not the messenger of the covenant. He
was the messenger to prepare you the way of the Lord. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, he's gonna prepare the
way before me. And the Lord whom ye seek shall
suddenly come to his temple. That's who we are to speak of
in the assembly. The messenger of the covenant,
because you don't understand what he said, Paul wrote it in
Hebrews. It's written in other places.
Where he called, where Jesus Christ said a new covenant I
give you, he made that first covenant old. Now that first
covenant was actually the second covenant, because the second
covenant, the New Testament, was what was set up between the
Father and the Son before the foundation of the world. But
it's newly revealed. And here we're in the Old Testament,
talking about the New Testament. And guess what? You get in the
New Testament, you're gonna talk about the Old Testament. You can't separate
Christ. He's in the Old Testament. He's
the message of the New Testament. They speak one to another about
the Lord. Remember, these are the people
that fear the Lord. They fear the Lord. Each and
every single one of them fears the Lord. So when they gather
together, when they assemble together, who do you think they
gonna talk about? And that's the problem sometimes
I have with some gatherings. You can go all day and never
hear a word about Christ. And that's why I like to come
here. This is why I like to be with you. Because here, I'll
hear the word of the Lord when that man over there preaches
it to me. I'm gonna do my best here to preach it here while
I'm here. And then afterwards, we usually
talk a little bit about the Lord. And this happens often, but not
often enough as far as I'm concerned, Walter. But as often as we can. Fourth thing. The Lord pays attention
to his assembly. What does it say? That they that
feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened. The Lord
hearkened. The Lord hearkened. And what? Heard it. He heard it. That's what happens when the
Lord hearkens. He's gonna hear it. Where two or three are gathered
together, there I am in the midst. In the midst of them. In the
midst of them. You understand? Christ is here.
among us, not over top of us looking over, which he is too,
I guess. But you understand, there I am
in among them. God bless it. That's God's blessing. I don't understand it, I really
like it, but I don't understand it. Why would God hang out with
a bunch of people, nothing personal folks, like us? I'm gonna put
myself in there too. Why? Because we're his people. You understand? He's gonna say
it here in just a minute. This is his assembly. It's not
mine, it's not Walter's. It's not even Sovereign Grace
Chapel's. This is his assembly or it's no assembly at all. and
the Lord pays attention to his assembly, he hearkens to them.
You understand? What a glory this is. He knows
where they are. He knows what we are. He knows
when they are assembled and when they're not assembled. Or when
they have a smaller assembly of two or three. And he pays
attention to his assembly wherever it is, whether it's in Walter's
living room or out in Paul's patio on his deck. Isn't that
just a glorious thing? That whether two or three are
gathered, now that's it, in my name, in my name. And it's not
two or three gathered for foolishness or whatever. But I'm gonna tell
you something, and Walter and I did this years and years ago,
we're getting really old, we can't do it now. between his
hip and my knee, we can't do anything anymore. But here's
the thing, we were shooting basketball gathered together in Christ's
name. Now sure, it was his basketball
and his basketball goal, and he whipped me, but that's okay.
Now you find out why we don't play anymore. But we had a good time, and we
were shooting the basketball and talking about Christ. I mean, what's wrong with us
that this is what we like? No, what's wrong with you if
you don't like it? That's the question, that's the problem.
If you don't like talking about Christ, you don't know the fear
of the Lord. If you don't like talking about
Christ, you don't know Christ. because he is a much, much bigger
subject than my little problems to talk about. And I spend way
too much time talking about my problems anyway and thinking
about them. But the Lord not only hearkens
to his assembly, he hears his assembly. He hears his people,
he knows them all by name. He's called them all by name.
Guess what? He gathers them together by name. He knows who's here and who's
not. He knows who's supposed to be here. You know who that
is? Everybody that's here. He knows, I don't. When they assemble, he's among
them, and I'll tell you this, he hears our prayers, and he
knows our fears, even when we don't say them aloud. He's among us. He is in the midst
of us. Right now. And this is one of
the things that got me, Walter, this next one. The Lord pays attention to his
assembly, he hears his assembly, and the Lord had a book written.
Isn't that something? And a book of remembrance was
written before him. In front of him. I'm gonna tell
you this, by him. I'm telling, just plainly, this
is the scripture we're talking about here, okay? This is the
word of God, the Old Testament, and now the New Testament. The prophecy came not by the
will of man, but holy men of God spake, and I'm gonna tell
you this, and wrote, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. I believe this book to be God-inspired
and God-breathed. And if you don't like it, that's
okay. You're not hurting me, folks. If you don't, well, I
don't believe the Bible. Well, pretty much we know. I
mean, that usually leaks out on you. But I'm gonna tell you
something. If you don't like his word, you
don't know him. Because this is the only way
we can know him. Everything we, when we speak
one to another about our Lord Jesus Christ is coming from here
where it's nonsense. And believe me folks, there's
a lot of nonsense out there. All you gotta do is change the
channel if you're watching on TV. And sometimes you don't have
to change the channel, just wait till we get off the air. I don't even know who's on after
us, it doesn't matter. I'm not worried about them, I'm
worried about what I'm saying. And here's the thing, this book
is God's word. Because he has not left his people
without his word. His prophets, his historians,
His poets, his psalmists, his apostles have written before
the Lord and they are recorded here for our learning, our education,
our admonition, our approval and rebuke. You know why he says
that twice, approval and rebuke? We usually need rebuked a lot
more than we need educated. There's a lot of stuff you gotta
get knocked out of you before you can put something in there
sometimes it seems like. You know what he calls it? A
book of remembrance. God doesn't need to remember
anything. God knows. But Lord knows we need to remember. And we don't remember. Any words,
everything I have to speak, one to another, one to another, Any
words, any examples, any illustrations, if they don't come from this
word, referencing this word, they're just nice stories or
bad words. Because all we can speak is of
our Lord Jesus Christ from his word, one center to another center. That's all we can do. And then it says this specifically,
a book of remembrance was written before him for them. For them. Who's them? Us. Those that fear the Lord, is
what he says. For them that feared the Lord. So I know some people, and I
didn't look a whole lot, but there are some I think that like
want this to be the book of life. It's not, okay? The book of life
concerns us, whether your name's written in there or not, right?
But the book of life is not for us. Whose book is that? That's the
Lamb's book of life. It's not Joe's book of life,
it's not Mac's book of life, it's not Mason's book of life.
It's the Lamb's book of life. That's for him. Now like I said,
it does concern us, you know? Yes. Why? Because our names are
written there if we are those that fear the Lord. But this book is a book of remembrance. We have it now in English. We
have it in English. This was one of the points of
the Reformation. Sola Scriptura. The scripture
solely is the authority, the final authority on earth that
we have. And I'm gonna tell you something,
any revelation, any dream, any prophecy that anybody wants to
make, if they don't agree with this book, it's a lie. That's
all I got to say about that. because it's either true or it's
not. More than we can ever know is
written here in this book. I don't need any outside prophecy.
There's more in here than I could ever learn. And I know the people
say they've got the whole Bible memorized and good for you. Do you know what it says? Do
you know who it's about? Do you know who is speaking to
you from this book? Because the book doesn't save
us. The book is about the one who
saves us. This book is written for the
assembly, but it's his book. It's written before him, and
he gave it to us. It's for them. And the last thing
is the assembly thinks upon the name of the Lord. That's what
it says. A book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. Guess what? Guess what? This book of remembrance is about
his name. It's about his name. It's about
him. It's about Him. Where are your
thoughts? That's a valid question, okay? Who are your thoughts concerned
with when we assemble? Where are your thoughts when
we speak one to another? Those that fear the Lord think
upon His name. because his name, watch that
last week, his name's who he is. It's who he is. Jehovah, Yahweh, Elohim, Theos. What was that? El, God. You know what theology means?
From two different words, Theos, God. and Logie speak. That's what we're supposed to
do when we assemble. We're to speak about God. One with another. Whether it's me to all of you,
or all of us together just talking away. Over potluck, Walter. They think upon his name, his
person, his work, His love, His grace, His graciousness, His
power, and His glory. Because He is the Lord, and we
are to think upon His name. And please, I try to think before
I speak one to another. I recommend it. I don't always
get it right sometimes. Sometimes I speak before I think.
But you understand, this is a gift of God to his people. What? Thinking upon his name. The world don't care. They don't
know and they don't care. That's where we're at, folks.
And you know what? We're the oddballs. We're the
strange ones. That's okay, I'm used to that.
And I'd rather be an oddball about this than anything else
in the world. I'm an oddball about several
other things, but that doesn't matter. This is the only part
that matters. I wanna speak of my Lord. And
I wanna hear from you about my Lord. I'm selfish that way. And if your Lord's my Lord, it's
gonna be a good day. How does all this happen? Come unto me and I will teach
you of the fear of the Lord. Just for a second, look at verse
three of Malachi three. Now this is talking about the
Lord who's gonna come, suddenly come to his temple, even the
messenger of the covenant, Jesus Christ. and he shall sit as a
refiner and purify our silver and he shall purify the sons
of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer
unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. He's gonna purify the sons of
Levi. Who are the sons of Levi? That's
the priest. What do the priests do? They're
the ones that offered the sacrifices and the offerings. In the Old
Testament, in the tabernacle, they're the ones that killed
the animals, burned them, followed all the instructions. They were
in charge of making these offerings. Everything except for the Day
of Atonement, that high priest did by himself. But it says he's
gonna purify who, the priests? What does John call us twice
in the book of Revelations? He has made us. We didn't used
to be, but we are now. He has made us kings and priests
unto God. Unto God. We're not kings and
priests to each other. I don't have an offering to make
to you, Walter. He's made us kings and priests
unto God. And that's a very serious, serious, serious position. But here it is. He, Jesus Christ,
shall purify the sons of Levi. He purifies his priests. And
now, why? That they may offer unto the
Lord an offering in righteousness. Now, let's be real, real clear
here. He didn't say that they may offer a righteous offering. There's a world of difference
there. There's only one righteous offering. And Jesus Christ, here
in Malachi, was coming to offer that offering. And that offering
was unto God, and that offering was by our great high priest,
Jesus Christ. But we get to offer an offering,
what? In righteousness. Now granted,
that's not as good as a righteous offering. But it's far better
than we deserve. It's definitely not something
I've earned. Because the only offering in
righteousness, Jesus Christ is my righteousness. Jesus Christ
is your righteousness. When you ask anything of the
Father, what? In my name. That's an offering
in righteousness. You do it in Christ's name. And
we are those that fear the Lord that what? Think upon his name. We serve God by fearing the Lord,
by speaking to one another often. And we serve God by thinking
upon his name. But most of all, don't ever forget,
what he said, he's the one that purged the sons of Levi. We serve God by the working of
his mighty power. How is all this possible? The
Lord has blessed his assembly by his son, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is he that has made us and
not we ourselves. Heavenly father, thank you again
for this time in this place. Lord, your blessings to this
assembly have been numerous and wonderful and glorious and help
us to actually see that. Be with Walter as he comes to
preach your word, your gospel, and give us ears to hear and
the desire to understand, a heart that can understand. In Christ's
name we pray, amen.