Turn with me to Malachi chapter
3. It's always delightful, but there's
nothing, the word of God is so fruitful and so affectionate
and so powerful, so enlightening and so encouraging and so comforting
and produces such joy and peace and I just delight Two things
that I enjoy in this world more than anything else is I enjoy
the gospel, hearing the gospel preached. I don't have to do
it. I don't have to do it at all. But to hear somebody preach
the gospel and to have fellowship with the Lord's people, those
are the two most precious things, the most enjoyable things in
this world. And then when we get done with
this world, that's going to be all we're going to do. Huh? It's going to be all we're going
to do. Dave, that's good song leading.
That's good song leading. Thank you, buddy. Very good.
Appreciate it. All right. Malachi 3. I'm going
to start reading in verse 13. Read down to verse 17. Your words have been stout against
me, saith the Lord. Yet you say, what have we spoken
against thee? Ye have said it is vain to serve
God, useless, empty, nothing to it. And prophet is it. We don't get anything out of
it that we've kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully
before the Lord of hosts. And now here's what we do. We
call the proud, those that's proud, call them happy. Yea, they that work wickedness,
they're set up. Yea, they that tempt God are
even delivered. But then look what he said. Now
that's what God says about some people. And pretty much everybody
that don't know God, don't know Christ, and God don't open their
heart to the gospel. Then, they that fear the Lord,
don't speak against Him, don't say it's vain to serve Him, Don't
say we walk mournfully before him. 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 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'll spare them as a man spareth his own son. The Bible
tells us plainly that the beginning of fear or the beginning of wisdom
is the fear of the Lord. See, it's just the beginning
of it. It's not the end of it, but it's the beginning of it.
So when a man begins to fear the Lord, he's just starting
to have some understanding of what's going on. And fear is
a good, good, good thing. Fear is a good thing. It keeps
people from getting hurt. As you get older, you know, you
don't do as near the things and take near as many chances you
did when you was young. You know, I ain't going to get
up on no 25-foot ladder anymore. And you know, you tell your children,
don't touch that. That's hot. I told you it's hot. I told you
it's hot. And that's what it does, it causes
parents to teach and to protect their children. And fear keeps
people out of danger, keeps them out of danger. And then there's
a positive fear and a negative fear, two sides to fear. And
the other side is that fear is a blessed thing. I mean, it's
a bad thing, excuse me, it's a bad thing. It can be so unreasonable. You know, Spurgeon had a little
old article that says, you know, homemade troubles. He said people
sit around and make their troubles over their own mind. They start
thinking about this could happen, that could happen, another thing
could happen. And they make their own troubles just by worrying
about things and anticipating things. And fear can be a bad
thing. It can be unreasonable. People
can be paranoid. And John said this, fear hath
torment. Torment Job said this that which
I feared the most came upon me that which I feared the most
You know fear can be crippling it can become a phobia Keep people
from doing lots and lots of things But here he says the fear of
God they that feared the Lord They that feared the Lord This
is a fear that's such a blessed thing, such a glorious thing,
such a precious thing, that only God can put in a man's heart.
And you know, when a man begins to fear the Lord, once he starts,
he'll never stop. He'll never stop. Now, in these
verses 16 and 17, I want to deal with the Lord's people, this
blessed, blessed fear I'm talking about. And there's three things
about the Lord's people here in verse 16. I want you to look
at it. It says, then they, that feared
the Lord. And that the, you know, these
three things about the Lord's people, when it says they feared
the Lord, that's the same word as reverence, reverence, holding
in high reverence, the highest possible regard you can. And
they that feared the Lord, feared God, I mean feared Him in this
way, that they was not afraid of Him punishing them, not afraid
of eventual retribution from Him, but it's a fear, it's a
reverence that we have for them that motivates us, causes us,
to honor Him, glorify Him, magnify Him, and address Him as He is,
the way Wayne paid tonight. He began to praise God and bless
God for who He is. And I tell you what, we want
to honor Him, and I tell you, we're no longer afraid of His
presence. Now Adam, when Adam sinned in the garden, the first
thing he did is he went and hid. He had been walking with God
in the cool of the day. And the God that he walked with,
there's only one God that we'll ever see and ever know anything
about, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He came and walked with
him in the cool of the day. And Adam, when he fell, he put
on a fig leaf, him and his wife, and they went over and hid in
some bushes. They said, God won't find us
here. He didn't want to be in the presence of the Lord anymore.
And God went to him and sought him out. God went to him and
made him admit that I'm naked. God made him admit that I fell. God made him admit his sin. God
brought him to the place where he said, oh, I have really, I'm
ashamed. He never knew what shame was
before. And here he was, but he hid from God. And now, beloved,
we want to be in the presence of God and we want God's presence
with us. I pray every service, Lord, come
among us. Come down among us. Come down
and present yourself. Come down among us. And oh, the fear of God, I'll
tell you something, it influences our attitude. and our disposition
in all circumstances. You know, when you're in a situation
and circumstances don't seem to be, they seem to be hard and
you're between a rock and a hard place. You know, instead of getting
aggravated with God and getting wondering why God put me in this
situation, you know what it does? It changes your disposition.
It changes your attitude toward God. You're not going to complain.
Say, Lord, thank you. I know you'll get me out of this.
Huh? We trust God. He read that tonight. Lord, they that wait on the Lord,
I say wait, sate on the Lord. And that's what the fear of God
calls us to do. We'll wait on Him. We'll wait on Him. Tell you something else about
this thing about the fear of God. It calls us to reverence
Him. And it also affects our worship.
It affects our worship. Now I tell you what, you go to
a lot of places and all they're doing is making a bunch of noise.
It's like Moses when he come down off the mountain, he heard
a whole bunch of noise down there at the bottom of the mountain.
Coming down with the law, coming down with God's written law on
the tables of stone. And I'll tell you what, those
folks was having a party. Made them a god out of a gold
calf. And they said, this is the god
that brought us up out of Egypt. And they got, some of them even
got naked and started dancing around that thing. And the night
come down, Moses said, I hear something like war. No, God said,
they're partying. He got down there and he looked
at that bunch and them rocks busted. You know why it busted? Because every single one of them,
no sense presenting them a law that they broke before God even
made himself known to them. And I'll tell you what, it affects
our worship of God. You know, we worship God in reverence. You know, we sit here and we
listen to the gospel, and we listen to it in reverence and
godly fear, Lord, speak to me." You know, and that's why Paul,
you know, in Hebrews 12, 28, he said, since we have a continuing
city, a city that cannot be moved, may we have reverence and godly
fear to worship God. And I tell you, with reverence
and godly fear, we don't meet to see who's the most spiritual.
I've been in service with folks, tried to outdo one another. Who's
the most spiritual? Give testimony. Which was the
most sinful? Give testimony. Who was the worst?
Who was the baddest? And oh, we don't meet to see
who's the most spiritual. We don't meet to see who can
make the most noise. We don't meet to let folks talk
about anything else other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, God's
name, it affects our worship. The fear of God affects our worship.
Our worship. And then look what else it said
here in this verse. They were a thoughtful people.
Look what it says down there in the latter part, last line
in that particular verse 16. And they that thought upon his
name. They were a thoughtful people. They thought on his name. They that think upon his name.
What in this world does it mean to think upon His name? Well,
when you talk about somebody's name, it has something to do
with his character, has something to do with his nature. And when
the Lord, you think of His name, you know, in fact, when the Lord
Jesus Christ was born, they said, His name shall be called Wonderful.
That's the first thing they said about His name shall be called
Wonderful. And then the night he was born, before he was born,
the angel came, told Mary, said, you know what? You're gonna name
this boy. I'm gonna tell you what you're
gonna name him. You're gonna name him Jesus. Why? Because he is gonna
save his people from their sins. And he said, and Peter stood
up and said, let me tell you something. There's only one name.
under heaven, one name under heaven, given among men, whereby
we must be saved, not want to be saved, not will to be saved,
not seeking to be saved, but saved. We will be, must be saved. And then God gave him a name
that's above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ,
every knee shall bow, and every tongue's gonna confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord. And you know why they're gonna
do that? To the glory of God the Father. Huh? Oh my. They thought upon his name. Now
you keep Exodus, I mean Malachi, and turn with me over to Exodus
33. You know, God's name is precious. So precious. His name And people take his name. One
of the commandments is, never take my name in vain. Don't take my name in vain. But
look in Exodus 33. You know, his name is his character. His name is precious. And look
what he said here. Moses, in verse 17, the Lord
told Moses, he says, you have found grace in my sight, and
I know thee by name. Now here we are, we believe that
God knows us by name. You know, he gave us, he calls
us, he knows our name. And we found grace in his sight.
And then Moses turned around after that, God told him that,
and he said, Lord, and this is what we want to do too. After
God saved us and God showed us his grace, show me now your glory. I want to see your glory. I want
to see your glory. I found grace in your eyes. You
know me, but oh Lord, I just want to see your glory. I want
to see how glorious you are, how high you are, how uplifted
you are. I want to know something about
you and your power and your glory and your might. I want to know. And then look what he said. And
God said this, he said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do
for you, Moses. And this is the first thing he said, I'll make all
my goodness pass before you. Oh, there's not a person on the
face of this earth. Now you listen to me, I'll stake
my own soul on this. There's not a person on this
earth that God hasn't been good to. But you know there's only one
people that's interested in seeing His glory. And the first thing
He said comes by, He said, I'll cause all my goodness. And how
good He was to us. He's passed by us in goodness.
Passed by us in goodness when He sent His Son. Passed by us
in goodness when He saved us by grace. Passed by us in goodness
when we fall. Passed by us in goodness in His
patience and mercy and longsuffering. Passes us by in goodness. Oh, how good is God? And then
he goes on to say, and he said, and I'm going to proclaim the
name of the Lord. That's what, if God proclaims his own name,
how much more should we proclaim his name? And here he said, this is what
I'm going to do. This is my name. This is my goodness. This is
the name that I want to be known by. I'll be gracious. I want you to understand that
I'm God and I don't have to do a thing in this world, but what
I will to do. And he said, we'll be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and I'll show mercy to whom I show mercy. And he
said, that's my glory. That's my glory. You have fought,
listen, I love that. Old Maurice Montgomery, you know,
he used to, he was a big old tall Kentucky boy, and he'd get
up and he'd preach, and that's what he'd say, you know, he'd
say, oh my, he said, since the Lord will have mercy, I tell
you what I'd do if y'all, I believe I'd line up right through here
and not line up and I'd say, Lord, since you're the only one's
got mercy, you reckon you'd give me some of it? Line up to get
it, cause he's got it. Line up to get it. And so his
name, you know, in the name of the Lord is a strong tower and
the righteous run into it and are saved. And then his name
is powerful. Oh my. His name has got all the
power in the universe. vested in that blessed name.
You know, when we plead His name, we come to God in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We plead His character in calling
upon Him. Our Lord Jesus says this, He
said, wherever two or three are gathered together in what? My
name. My name. You know what I'm going
to do? I'm going to come down. And that's what we was. We was
today over there in the study, three or four of us. God come
down and met with us. The Lord's met with just me and
my wife, and there's two of us. But that's all I said, we're
two of three. I never will forget, I'm gonna
tell y'all, I'm gonna tell you a story. I'm gonna stop preaching
and tell you a story. There was a, we was in Mexico one time. We were down in Chiapas, and
Milton Howard was still down there. And we was, going out
to this little village. I mean, it was just, it wasn't
even a Pueblo. A Pueblo's a pretty good-sized little place. But
we went out in this village, and then we drove way up this
road through all up in this little, you know, five or six, seven
houses up in there. And we went in this one house. There was a man, a woman, and
a boy. That's all that was in that house.
and they had little old wooden chairs, you know, little bitty
wooden chairs. The man, the woman, and the husband
sitting right here on this couch. Well, we sat down in those wooden
chairs, and Henry Mahan got his Bible, and he went over to 2
Peter and went to, you know, teaching. He just looked, he
looked, and he looked at that man right in the eye, and he
preached to that one man. And preached just like he'd preach
right here in this service tonight. What does it take to preach the
gospel? One. One. And I'll never forget that as
long as I live. I'll never forget that. He sat down with a Bible
and preached to one man. And preached just like he'd preach
here. Expounded the scriptures. I was blessed. I was blessed
by it But that's what he said. He said wherever two or three
or get together. There's Henry me And that man
and Milton Howard and God met with us that afternoon. Oh Hot
hot day, but oh I tell you what and and when we when we describe
God talking about the Lord in his name They that thought upon
his name If I ask you to describe God, how would you describe Him? Oh, that's the first thing, yeah.
Holy. Holy. That's what God said about
Himself. That's what the seraphims and the cherubims and the four
beasts and the twenty-four elders, that's what they said. Holy,
holy, holy. That's the first thing you'll
learn about God. He's holy. Infinitely holy. The second thing
you'll learn about Him is that He's just. He's a just God. But here's the thing about it,
He's a just God and a Savior. How can He be a just God and
a Savior at the same time? How can He do that? Well, you
know, I think I've done it. And that's another thing about
describing Him, in wisdom. Wisdom, God in His wisdom, eternal
wisdom, said, listen, the soul that's in it, I'm gonna give
you a people and they're gonna be as lost and as dead and as
corrupt as anybody on this earth. But He said, I know a way. When
justice said, I cannot no way in the world clear them people,
truth said, yes, I can't let them go. God wisdom stood up
and said, I know a way to do it. Said, I'll tell you, I'll send
my son. And then Christ stands up and
said, I'll go, I'll go. He said, I'll give him to you.
Will you go down there and become their surety, become responsible
for them, for their debt, for their sin, for their shame, for
their guilt? Will you go down there and do
that for them? And the angel stood back, I believe,
in wonderment and awe and said, oh no, surely not. He said, well
how in the world can he go? He's eternal. I tell you what, there's a woman
and I'll come down in the Holy Ghost and I'll hover over that
woman and I'll God himself will be conceived in that woman's
womb and you'll call him the son of the highest. You'll call Him God manifest
in the flesh. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, bless His name. He was the image of the invisible
God. He is the brightness of God's
glory. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He done that by Himself. He purged our sins and sat down
at the right hand of God having accomplished what He did. And I don't mean he didn't make
an effort. He didn't need no help from nobody. Even his own
father never helped him. And I love those three words.
Three words that I'll tell you what I've never got over yet.
It is finished. I never get finished. I never
get finished. You know, I get done with that
and I gotta go over and do this. I get done with this here and
then I gotta start all over again doing that. When Christ said
it's finished, it was finished. Huh? Oh my. What was finished? Salvation was. God was honored. Law was magnified. Justice was
satisfied. Truth was upheld. And sinners
were saved by the grace of God. Oh my. How do you describe God?
Like God describes Himself. How does God describe Himself?
Almighty. I am that I am. I describe myself
as a just God. Describe myself as a righteous
God. I call myself holy. I call myself good. I call myself
gracious. I call myself all wisdom. Call
myself eternal. Call myself savior. He inhabits
eternity. He calls himself by names. He
says, and I'll give my glory to nobody else. Oh my. And then let me ask you this.
Let me ask you this. If I ask you to describe the
Lord Jesus Christ, would you automatically think of some person,
a physical person to look at? Like he's having on these calendars
and having some of these Bibles, you know? Is that the way, when
I ask you to describe Christ, think of Christ and what he looks
like. I don't believe any of you here. would start looking
for this blonde-headed, blue-eyed fellow. I don't believe any of
you do that. But when you think of Christ, you think of a character. You think of how precious He
is, how glorious He is, how gracious He is, how compassionate He is,
how tender He is, how kind He is. You know, and these two blind
men come to Him and they said, Lord, we want to receive our
sight. He said, you believe I'm able to do this? Oh, Lord, we
believe you're able. Go on then. So when we describe Christ, we
describe a personality, a person that has a personality, you know,
and we hug up to him. How can you embrace somebody
without them being there? But we embrace Christ. How can
we bow to somebody that we can't see, but we bow to Christ? How
do we kiss somebody with the kisses of our mouth that you
can't do? But if we kiss him with the kisses of our mouth? I'll tell you something. God
does what he does for his own namesake. And then they had a
testimony. Look back over here in Malachi. Look what it says. Not only did they fear the Lord
that thought upon his name, but back up there in the beginning
of the verse, they that feared the Lord also spake often one
to another. What do they speak to one another
about? What do we talk about? What do we talk about with one
another? What do we talk about today with one another? What
do we talk about when we're on the phone with one another? We
talk about Christ, we talk about the gospel. All the preachers
I talk to, we always talk about preaching, always talk about
outlines and things, you know, we learn from one another. They
speak often to one another. Oh my. And that's what we do. We speak often to one another.
And I'll tell you what, and you know, there's not anything that
we can, anything we can say better than what we talk about Christ
and what He's done. All of us, you know, Norm asked me today, he said,
you know, how did you learn the gospel? When did you come to
the gospel? You know, that's what we want
to do. You know, how did God bring you to here? How did God
bring you to the gospel? How did God bring you? How did
God do something for you? When did it start for you? And
that's what we do. And you read Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress, and that's the first thing they start doing. They
start walking together, telling, well, the Lord done this for
me, and the Lord done that for me. Did he do it for you? They
start, and that's what we do. How in the world did you get
brought to the gospel? How did you get brought to Christ?
How did you learn the grace of God? How'd that happen? Huh? Somebody spake, they speak
often one to another. Huh? Somebody had to tell me. And then let me give you three
things about the Lord, three things about us. They feared
the Lord, they thought upon His name, and they spake often to
one to another. They testified about Christ.
And then three things to the Lord. Now look back over here
in this verse 16 again. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another. And listen to this now. And the
Lord hearkened. The Lord hearkened and heard. The Lord hearkened and heard
what they was talking about. The Lord's listening. The Lord's
listening. He listens to his people. He
listens to his people. Oh, look with me in Psalm 116.
Let's look at this together. Psalm 116. Psalm 116, look what it says
here. He listens to his people. The
Lord hearkened and heard. What did he hear? What did he
hear? Speaking often one to another.
And he said this, I love the Lord. And he said, why? Because he hath heard my voice.
He's heard my supplication. Listen to this. Then he inclined
his ear. Inclined his ear. He inclined
his ear unto me. You know, if y'all ever seen
anybody that's hard of hearing before they ever had a hearing
aid or something, they stick their hand behind the ear and do like that,
you know, try to hear good. That's what God said He does.
He said, I'll cut my ear to listen to what you've got to say. I'll
cut my ear. I'm interested in what you're
saying. I want to hear what you've got to say. I hear you groaning
down there. I hear you groaning. I hear you
crying. I hear your fears. I hear your anxieties. I hear
your breaking heart. I hear. I hear. I hear everything
that's going on. I hear you. I hear you. I hear
you. And oh, listen to what He said.
Since He does me that way, you know what I'm going to do? I'm
going to call on Him as long as I live. I'm going to call
Him. I'm going to call Him as long
as I live. Oh, my. He heard. And I'll tell you something. You know what the first thing
He hears about from us? It's what we say about Himself. What do we say about Him? What
do we have to say about Him? Oh, my. Oh, Lord, You're the
high, lofty One that inhabits eternity. Oh, Lord, You've got all the
power. You've got all the glory. You've got all the right. You're
the judge of all the earth. You're always going to do what's
right. Oh, he hears what we say about him. Oh, my. And I'll tell you something.
I'll tell you something. We can never, ever, ever, ever say from
our hearts what's in our hearts to say. It just never comes out
that way. It just doesn't do it. And then I tell you, not
only does he hear what we say about him, but he hears what
we say about each other. Do you know that? He pays attention
to what we say about each other. He's interested in our words.
You know? Let me show you that. Look over
here at Matthew 12 with me. Matthew 12. This is one of the
things about justification. Matthew 12. You know, he's interested in
our words and what we say about one another, what we say about
him. what we say about one another. And look what our Lord said here
in verse 34, Matthew 12, 34. He said, O generation of vipers,
you know these people say, well we take up snakes and they want
to, you know the worst vipers that there are is human beings. Snakes, they'll bite you, they'll
devour you, they'll spread poison about you, they spread poison
about God. Every time they open their mouth, poison's coming
out. Poison about God. Poison about Christ. Poison about
salvation. When you preach anything besides
free grace, sovereign grace, salvation in Christ alone, it's
a viper. It's a viper. And it'll kill
you. It'll kill you. It'll kill you. And then look
what he says. How can you being evil speak
good things For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth, what,
speaks? And a good man out of the good
treasure of his heart, he brings forth good things. And an evil
man out of the evil treasure of his heart, he brings forth
evil things. Now listen to what he talks about what these fellows
say and what comes out of their mouth, what comes out of their
heart. But I say unto you that ever I have a word that men shall
speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment.
Now you know People think, well, that means us standing around
talking about the weather, you know, and fishing or hunting
or something like that. They say, that's just idle talk,
idle talk. You know, we need to be talking about something
serious. That's not what he's talking about there. You know,
when a man's up preaching free will, that's idle words. You
know, this is a spiritual book and it has spiritual applications
to it. Ain't it? Idle words. And then look what
he says next now. And he says down there in verse 37, For by
thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be
condemned. Now what in the world is he talking about? He already
told these fellows that the only evil things they can talk about.
And all we can talk about, what words do we say about God? What
words do we say about Christ? What words do we say about grace?
What words do we say about salvation? What words do we say about sin?
You know we, what words do we say? What words do we use? And
what do those words mean? And that's what he said. And
that's, I don't want to use, I don't want to get up here and
use idle words about God and about Christ. Oh, and that's
what he says, by your words you're going to be justified. God listens
to words. Words. And then let me go back
over here in Malachi. Back over here in Malachi. Look
what it says now. He hears what we have to say,
and he listens to what we have to say, by our words, by our
words. Then look what else else he said,
and he said, they that, the Lord hearken and heard it, and listen
to this. And then he remembers, he remembers. What'd he do? He
wrote down a book of remembrance. You know, God uses language to
enable us to understand. But he uses that word book a
lot. He had a book of life in Exodus.
And then Paul said, you know, about the Philippians, those
names who are written in the book of life and named off some
people whose names were written in the book of life. But I'll
tell you something, a book of life, that's a book. Oh my, a book of remembrance. Look over here in Psalm 56 with
me. You know, We've barely been preaching
over 30 minutes here, so I got a little bit of time. But look
here at Psalm 56. I think that's what I want to
look at. Psalm 56 and 8. Oh, he's talking about God remembering,
you know, writing a book of remembrance. And it was written before him.
It was written before him. And look what it says here about
what God does about us. He's talking about his book,
he says, Thou tellest my wonderings. And what that means is that he
don't tell us where we're gonna wonder, but he tells us, he keeps
track of our wonderings. And listen to this, Put thou
my tears into thy bottle, and are they not written in thy book?
My tears are written in your book, written in your book. Let me tell you some things that's
not written in his book. Sin's not written in it. God
said there's sins and iniquities. Wallace said, I ain't gonna remember
them ever no more. He won't remember that. He ain't
gonna remember our guilt. He ain't gonna remember our shame.
Oh no, he don't do that. But he remembers. He remembers. He remembers us in time after
having chosen us in eternity. He said, I'm gonna bring a message,
one of these services, the time of love. He said, when I passed
by you, what was it? It was the time of love. And
all He remembers us, He chose us in eternity. And in time,
He said, I remember it's time. I remember it's time to go get
them. It's time to go after them. It's
time to get across their path. My father-in-law never got converted. He's 75 years old. 75 years old. That's something, ain't it? 75 years old, and he attended
service for over 20-something years. And he loved Scott Richardson,
oh my goodness, Henry Manning, he loved them fellas, and just
bragged on them, and just loved them, and loved to have them
in their home. Him, Milton Howard, sat and played the guitar together
and sang. And one day, he stood up, and he said, Donny! I said, what? He said, I heard
the voice today. My sheep hear my voice. I know them! If they go here, he says, what
he said, I said, I heard that voice today. I heard that voice
today. And I'll tell you what, he was
as faithful and as gracious and as kind and loving. It changed
him dramatically. Changed him dramatically. And
oh my. And I'll tell you something.
Here's what most people believe. that he gets out his book, and
when we believe, he writes our name down. And then when we mess
up, he scribbles it out. Then when we get straightened
out again, he writes it back in. No, it's the Lamb's Book
of Life, whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, slain
before the foundation of the world. My name, you know why
God crossed my path? Because it had my name in that
book. Huh? When I believed, he never put
my name in that book. When he gave me faith, he never
wrote my name in that book. I have faith and I was brought
to Christ and given grace because my name was in that book to start
with. And I didn't find out it was
in that until God saved me and I learned the gospel. I didn't
know any of that stuff, did you? Somebody had to tell you. That's
why I said they spake often one to another. Oh my. Oh, he's going
to tell you something else he's not going to do. He's not going
to get out his book on the Day of Judgment and start saying,
you done good, you done bad. You done good, you done bad.
And you know, he's not going to do it like that. No, no. All
the deeds that we've done, oh my, it just, oh, it's gonna be
about him, about him. And you know what I'm gonna talk
about in the book. You gotta see this in Psalm 139.
I hope I ain't wearing you out looking at these scriptures.
I hope, Psalm 139. If I can get there myself. Psalm 139. And look down in verse 16. Look what he says. Thine eyes
did see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy book all
my members were written, everything about me, which were in continuance
and were fashioned when I didn't even have a member, didn't even
exist, when there was none of them yet. He said, I put everything about
you in this book, and you didn't even exist yet. You hadn't even
been fashioned in your mother's womb, yet it wasn't nothing to
you yet. And then he said this, oh, how precious also are thoughts
unto me, oh God. How great is the sum of them,
if I should count them, They're more than I can number than the
sand. And when I'm awake, I'm still
with you. Oh, my. Hey, y'all, thank God he's got
a book, and he put us all in that book before we ever was. And I'll tell you what, God ain't
gonna do away with his book when we get into eternity. Only people's
gonna be there is the people who got their name in that book. But you know, when he opens the
books to judge you, this is the book he's gonna do it. I'm going
to take just another minute and tell you something we were talking
about today. And I believe this, I believe
this, you know, and I'm going to quit preaching and give you
my opinion. How long do you think the judgment's going to take
for the goats and the sheep to be separated? How long do you
think the judgment's going to take? You think God's going to bring
everybody up and put up this great big screen and he's going
to, over here's all, all you fellas that's lost, over here's
all you. All you fellas that's saved, over here's all you. No,
no. You know how long it's going
to take you that quick. In fact, I'm going to, like Norm
said today, judgment's already set. Judgment's already set. I've already been judged. Already
borne the wrath of God. It ain't going to take God, it don't
take Him long to do anything, you know. Ain't you glad he's that way?
Huh? Oh my. And then let me show you
this. And then he's not only as he
have a book of remembrance and he listens to what we have to
say, he hearkens unto us. Then look how faithful he is
in verse 17. And they shall be mine. Listen to this. Says the Lord
of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. We talk about people all the
time and say, boy, they're a real jewel. They're a real jewel. And they
shall be mine when I make up my jewels. He said, all that
the Father gives me, what are they going to do? He said, they're
going to come to me. Why are they going to come to me? Because
my Father gave them to me. Oh, my. And that the foundation
of the Lord stand is sure. The Lord knows them that are
His. Knows them that are His. You
know what He says, they shall be mine. They're mine to choose. They're mine to love. They're
mine to keep. They're mine to be responsible
for. They're mine to feed. They're mine to teach. Their
mind to lead, decide to still what? Their mind to lead, their
mind to glorify. Father, I will, that they whom
thou hast given with you, be with me that where I am, where
I am, that they may behold my glory, which I had with you before
the world was. You reckon that will's gonna
be done? And that song this girl sung
over here tonight, he included me, has a lady in our congregation,
her name's Ruby. And I'll tell you why, she was
this, I remember I have her so precious, oh so precious. And
she was laying just a couple of days before she died, and
that was, she sang, she had this beautiful voice, and then her
voice got weaker and weaker. And went to visit her, And she
starts singing that song, He Included Me. She sang that song.
And we had to bend down, because she was just barely whispering.
Thank God He included me. She was just whispering, but
she was singing it. And we got down and listened to her sing
it. That's the last thing she sang. Then she went on to be
with the Lord. Thank God He included me. Oh, she'd leave the service,
and she'd say, Brother Donnie, Preach that again tonight, just
exactly what you did this morning. Say, that'll work again tonight.
She'd tell me, just say it over again. Just do it again. Do it
again. And that's what he said, when
I make up my special treasure, my jewels, and then the margin
says, my special treasure. You're my treasure. Can you imagine
God saying, you're my treasure? We can't get our head around.
We think we're like everybody else. We think we ain't nothing.
We ain't got nothing. And then the Lord says, but you're
my treasure. You're my jewels. You're my diamonds. You're my rubies. You're my emeralds. You're my gold. You're my jewels. And then look
what he said, and I'm done. And I'll spare them. I'll spare
them." As a man spares his own son that serves him, God did
not spare his son so he could spare us. Huh? So he could spare us. Oh, what
a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. What a wonderful Savior
to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock. or hideth my soul in the depth
of his love, and hideth my life in the cleft of the rock." Oh,
what a Savior. What a Savior. I love him. I need him. I need him. And I want him. I need him and
I want him.