Well we come to the book of Malachi
for one last message in this series on the minor prophets
which began several weeks ago in Hosea. And of course we haven't
gone into great detail but we've got at least one message from
every one and in the case of Zechariah four messages from
there. But I want to look at this prophecy which is the last
one of the Old Testament. We read in 2 Timothy chapter
3 and verse 1, that in the last days perilous times shall come. And is that not the case, that
we are living in what the scriptures call perilous times? In the last
days, we're certainly in the last days, whether you count
that as being just before the end or all the time from when
Christ returned to glory, we're in the last days, but perilous
times shall come. And they certainly are. When
we look at this world day by day, we are more and more amazed
at what we see happening. It's all entirely in accordance
with the plan and will and purpose of God to bring His kingdom to
triumph. But nevertheless, as we see it
happen, we're staggered at the evil, at the lies, at the untruth. Perilous times shall come. What
will we do about it? Ah, we say, we who say that we
are the people of God, the believers of the true gospel, we say, ah,
but we're okay. We believe the true gospel, so
we're all right. These perilous times can come,
as they are doing, but we'll be fine. God's judgment shall
not touch us, and that is absolutely true. God's judgment shall not
touch us, if we're true. If we're true believers, but
beware of presumption. The sort of presumption that
there was in Isaiah's day. In Isaiah chapter 28, Isaiah
28 and verse 14, we read this. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
You see, they were the people that thought they were the people
of God, they were the rulers in Jerusalem. Because ye have
said, you scornful men, you have said, we have made a covenant
with death. And with hell are we at agreement. When the overflowing scourge,
the judgment of God, shall pass through, it shall not come to
us, for we have made lies our refuge." Lies and truth, not
the Word of God, not the truth of God. We have made lies our
refuge. And under falsehood, we hid ourselves. In verse... Verse 18, verse 18. And your covenant with death,
this is what God says to them in return, your covenant with
death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall
not stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. Verse
20, for the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself
on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself
in it. You know what that is saying is, if you think you're
going to be comforted when the chill of judgment or the heat
of judgment comes, you know, you will not have an adequate
covering. Because you see, there is much presumption around. In
2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 5, The Apostle encourages
us to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith. Prove your
own selves. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Prove
yourselves. But I trust ye shall know that
ye are not reprobates, he says to these Corinthians, that you
are true believers. But examine yourself. Examine
yourself. You see, It isn't casual familiarity
with the things of God that is at the core of spiritual comfort. No, not casual familiarity, as
is the mark of so much of modern so-called Christian religion.
No, casual familiarity with the things of God, that is not the
core of spiritual comfort. What is? Proverbs chapter 1 verse
7 and verse 9, sorry, chapter 9 and verse 10. It's the fear
of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge. If you will want to truly know
about life and about eternity and about God and about justice
and righteousness, the place to start is with a right attitude
to God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Respect and honour for the being
and person and truth of God. Respect for God. putting God
in the right place in your heart and your life. We who presume
to live in the comfort of gospel grace in perilous times need
always to be reminded to reverence, to respect, to honour our God,
to honour His Christ, to honour His Kingdom, with our substance
and with our lives. How do we honour God? We do it
with our substance and with our lives, with total commitment
to Him. This is the essence of Malachi's prophecy. The background
to this prophecy is that, as I've said, it's about 400 years
before Christ came. It's the end of Nehemiah. You know, Nehemiah was the building
of the walls of Jerusalem. It was just after the times of
the prophets that went before, Haggai and Zechariah. The return
had happened from the Babylonian captivity. The 70 years prophesied
by Jeremiah were fulfilled. Daniel had been there. His prophecy
took place in that 70 years of captivity. But they'd come back
now. Why had they come back? Because
God raised up Cyrus. whom he said he would raise up
200 years before he raised him up by the prophecy of Isaiah,
to tell them to come back and to rebuild the ruined temple. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the
temple, the Babylonians destroyed it, they destroyed the walls
of Jerusalem, but they'd come back. and they'd rebuilt it.
They'd rebuilt the walls, they'd rebuilt the temple in the days
of Ezra, and then the walls in the days of Nehemiah. Worship
was restored. Outwardly, all looked good. Outwardly, all looked good. The
temple sacrifices were taking place. There was a temple, whereas
there had been none. Jerusalem was secure by its walls
from enemies around. Outwardly, all looked good. But
hypocrisy and presumption were rife. It could easily be said
of them as of so many in our day. Matthew 15 verse 8. These
are the words of Jesus. This people draweth nigh unto
me with their mouth. It's all words. They talk the
talk, but they don't walk the walk. They honor me with their
lips, but their heart is far from me. Do you see that? You
know, the Lord Jesus Christ condemned this hypocrisy of drawing near
with their mouth and honoring with their lips, but their heart
is far from me. They were, as Paul wrote to Timothy,
2 Timothy 3, 4, and 5, they were lovers of pleasure, more than
lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof. Yes, they went through the outward
motions of godliness and temple worship and all the things in
the right place, but their attitude and their hearts denied the power
thereof. What's your reaction to this?
When I tell you this, and it's clearly patently true, and it
applies to so many in our day, you know when Jesus said, one
of you will betray me? to the disciples, what did they
say? Oh, it's not me, it must be him
over... No, they said, Lord, is it I? Is it I? Am I guilty
of this? Is that not what we should do?
Should we not say, Lord, am I guilty in any way? Should we examine
ourselves to see whether we are in the faith, to see whether
we are those who are sincere with heart-faith. Malachi, and
his name Malachi means God's messenger, Malachi poses seven
questions. He points unmistakably to Christ
and he identifies his true people. His true people to use the terminology
of one of the parables, his wheat, his true pure wheat that is mingled
in the field with the tares, the weeds of nominal faith. So
then, after Malachi, there was a 400 year silence from God. No word, no prophet, no word. It just fell silent. You know,
as it says in Amos, there's going to be a famine, not of wheat,
but of the word of God. There was a famine of the word
of God for 400 years until Elijah was sent. Elijah, John the Baptist. Let him that has ears to hear,
hear and understand what is being said. John the Baptist was raised
up in the spirit of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord.
He was the one who would make straight the way of the Lord.
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God, Isaiah 40 verse
1. Make straight a highway for our God in the wilderness, make
straight. He prepares the way of the Lord. And Malachi chapter 3 and verse
1, Malachi, because I'm going to be looking at quite a bit
of Malachi this morning. Malachi chapter 3 verse 1, the
Lord whom ye seek, you see when he sends his messenger, the messenger
was John the Baptist, the spirit of Elijah. And he shall prepare
the way before me. And the Lord whom ye seek shall
suddenly come to his temple. Who's the Lord whom ye seek?
The Lord whom you seek is the Lord who will make you the righteousness
of God in Him. The Lord whom you seek is the
one who shall pay redemption's price from the curse of sin,
from the curse of the law. The Lord whom you seek is the
Messiah, the promised seed of the woman, who shall crush the
serpent's head. The Lord whom you seek is the
Lord Jesus Christ, God become man. he shall suddenly come to
his temple. What's his temple? Well, in one
sense, it's that pile of stones in Jerusalem in those days, the
days of Malachi, the temple just finished. Yes, he certainly come
there, and he did, but he shall suddenly come to his temple,
which is his body. a body God has prepared for him.
He will come to that body. God shall become man. Why would
God become man? Because only as a man can God
pay the sin debt. He can pay the price of the sin
debt of the people that he loved with everlasting love. He's even
the messenger of the covenant, the covenant of grace. He's the
one who applies it. He's the one who speaks it. He's
the one who shows it to his people. He says, I have showed you, or
he said, you're no longer my servants, you're my friends,
for I have shown you all things that the Father has shown me.
He shares this covenant secret with his people. He's the messenger
of the covenant, whom ye delight in. He's the Lord whom ye seek.
Simeon at the temple, when Jesus was born and at eight days old
was taken to the temple. There was Simeon and Anna, the
old prophetess. And what were they doing? They
were seeking the Lord. They knew He would be coming.
All the times and the signs and the prophecy of Daniel was saying
it would be about then when He was born. And here He comes.
The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly literally come to His temple.
But here He is in the temple of His body. coming to the temple
of his church amongst his people, coming to this pile of stones
which was just a picture of it. He's the Lord whom ye delight
in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Can you imagine
that? 400 years before. Think about, we glibly, you know,
on the television you will constantly hear, anything that's less than
100 billion years is not worth bothering about. It's a mere
blink of an eye, isn't it, according to that? No, no, no. No, this
is 400 years, and that's a long time. On our timescale, you think
back 400 years, 1622? 1622, gosh, that is a long time
ago, isn't it? Yeah, that's the sort of timescale
we're looking at. Look what's happened since 1622. Between Malachi and the coming
of Christ, there was that amount of time. But he shall come. He
shall come. It will wait, but it won't wait
indefinitely. He shall come. He shall come
to his temple. He shall come, even the messenger
of the covenant. So he is coming again, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And seven questions are asked
in this prophecy of Malachi. It's been pointed out that the
prophecy of Malachi And I know this is a quirk of the monk who
happened to divide the Bible up into verses and number them
and chapters, but Malachi has 55 verses. I believe it's true
that 47 of the 55 are actually the direct words of the Lord
God by the prophet. Others are kind of scenes and
setting the situation, but 47 of the 55 words are actually
the word of the Lord by the prophet Malachi, God's messenger. And
here are seven questions against which we today can examine ourselves,
whether we be in the faith truly, whether we be truly the people
of the living God. Chapter one and verse two, I
have loved you, saith the Lord, God says he loves his people.
I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, wherein hast thou
loved us? What have you done for us that
you haven't done for everybody else? In other words, they had
lost sight of their privileged, blessed situation as the apple
of God's eye. You know what the apple of the
eye is? It's that most tender spot, you can't even touch it
yourself. That's how God says he regards his people as the
apple of his eye. They had lost their sight of
the fact that they as the nominal people of God were supposed to
be the true people of God. The situation is the apple of
his eye. The situation, as it says in chapter 3 and verse 17,
they shall be mine, these people. saith the Lord of hosts, in that
day when I make up my jewels. He calls his people his jewels. Sinners, but nevertheless what
were made in Christ, his jewels. They'd lost sight of the fact
that they're loved with an everlasting love. If you're in a right relationship
with God, you are constantly conscious that you are the object
of his eternal love. that you, for reasons totally
beyond yourself, you have no goodness in yourself, I have
none whatsoever, you are the object of the sovereign grace
and love of God, unmerited love. It isn't just a cold covenant
transaction. Believing in God and having a
hope of eternity is not just a cold covenant transaction,
but it's based on love, and it's the love of God. It's something
which, if it hits you, it will overwhelm you. The love of God
for His people. And it is a love which is reciprocated
in His people. He has loved His people, and
His people love their God. Do you love God? Do you love
him? This was the indictment against
the Ephesians. You know, the Ephesian church
had a lot good that was going for it. And the epistle to the
Ephesians by Paul is very clear. It's one of the clearest statements
of gospel grace that there is. But look at the letter of the
risen Christ to the Ephesian church in Revelation chapter
two and verse four. He has somewhat, they've done
all sorts of things very good on the basis of a cold covenant
transaction, you might say. But he says, I've got somewhat
against you. What did he got against them? They had left their
first love. They had left it. He said, you're
in a perilous situation, you Ephesians. You've left your first
love. Your first love. Not the one
that you can fit in if you feel like it, or it suits you. You
have left your first love. Jesus asked Peter, didn't he?
Peter, who had been so full of bravado before the crucifixion,
and yet when it came to the arrest of Jesus, he was cowering away
and frightened even of the voice of a maid. I don't know him,
and he cursed and he swore that he had nothing to do with him
and didn't know him. and he's so full of shame, and
he wept bitterly when Jesus looked at him. And then, days, weeks
later, when he meets the risen Lord Jesus Christ by the lake
as they're fishing, and they're having breakfast together, and
Jesus asked Peter three times, Peter, do you love me? Peter,
do you love me? Peter, do you, yes Lord, you
know that I love you, you know I'm very fond of you, you know,
you know all things. God has loved his elect with
an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31 verse 3, I have loved
thee, he says. Are you conscious of this? These
people had lost it. This is a sign of being in a
perilous situation regarding eternity. Not living in the knowledge
and the good of the fact that God has loved his people with
an everlasting love. Is that your experience? Let's
look at the second one, which is in verse six of chapter one.
A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master. See, it's
talking about correct honour. If then I be a father, this is
God speaking, where is mine honour? And if I be a master, where is
my fear? Where is your respect for me?
Saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests that despise my
name. And they say, wherein have we
despised thy name? And the answer comes back in
not fearing the Lord. Reverence for his name. You haven't
reverenced his name. You haven't respected his person.
You've been over-familiar with God. Yes, Jesus said, we're the
friends of God. Yes, Jesus said, go and tell
my brethren that I'll meet them in Galilee. Yes, but don't forget
who God is. God is Almighty God, the Omnipotent
One, the One who is above all things, the Giver of life. In
Him we live and move and have our being. Don't forget who He
is. Yes, salvation is glorious, but
don't be over-familiar. He's our friend, and we will
enjoy eternity if we're truly His, communing with our friend.
But let's not forget, He's the God of the universe. Then the
next verse, verse 7 of chapter 1. Ye offer polluted bread upon
mine altar, and ye say, wherein have we polluted thee? This is
the answer. In that ye say, the table of
the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for
sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and
sick, is it not evil? Offer it now to thy governor.
Go and offer it to the governor of the land. Will he be pleased
with you? No. Who's the governor compared with
Almighty God? He says, wherein have we polluted
thee? They had been content to give God their leftovers. and keep the lambs, the lambs
for the sacrifice. Oh, this one here, it won't make
anything at the market. We'll give him that one. That
one will do. This is what they've done. And this is the indictment
of God against them. They'd been content to give God
their leftovers and keep the choice ones for themselves and
for their human trading so that they could do business with these
things that they should have been giving to God. Do we give
God of our best? or just the leftovers? What am
I talking about? I'm talking about our time and
our resources, our energy, our efforts, all of these things,
the things that God has put into our hands as gifts from Him.
What do we do with them? Do we keep them for ourselves
and for our trading? Or do we use them for His service? David said in 2 Samuel 24 and
verse 24, towards the end of his life, and somebody offered
to give him some animals to offer as burnt offerings, but David
said, I will not offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God
of that which doth cost me nothing. I'm not going to offer it if
it doesn't, I need to have experienced some expenditure of my resources
for the glory of God before I'll give him anything. A true heart
of love for God produces liberality of spirit in all things towards
God, in the things of our time and resources that we're prepared
to give to God. of our time and resources that
we're prepared to give to our fellow man, especially those,
as Paul says, who are of the household of faith. Knowing that
God will honor it. God honors that which we do for
Him. Then, nextly, the fourth question
is in Malachi chapter 2 and verse 17. Verse 17 says, ye have wearied
the Lord with your words, yet ye say wherein have we wearied
him? The words he's talking about
are from verse 11 downwards. Judah hath dealt treacherously,
an abomination is committed. In verse in verse 14. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness
between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou
hast dealt treacherously. Yet is she thy companion, and
the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one, man
and woman, one? Yet he that Yet had he the residue
of the Spirit, and wherefore won, that he might seek the godly
seed? Therefore take heed to your spirit,
and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
away. He hateth putting away. You've
wearied him. Where have you wearied him? You've
wearied him in false judgment. Verse 17 at the end of it. Everyone
that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth
in them. Or, where is the God of judgment?
We don't believe in this anymore. This is just like the spirit
of today, isn't it? False judgment. Calling evil
good. being in support of the vile
morals of the day in which we live, or being condoning of those
vile morals. God is against it. But specifically,
this passage is talking about divorce. Divorce. You know, truly,
divorce is a dreadful thing. Now let me say very clearly at
the start, some have been victims of divorce. It was not their
fault. It's something that's happened, God has forgiven it,
it's in the past, don't go back to the past. But the principle
remains the same, that marriage is for life. Because you see,
there is a literal application of this, with men and women and
their marriage amongst the people of God. This was meant to keep
the line pure from which Christ would come. But there's also
a spiritual application of this. God hates divorce. He hateth
putting away. Marriage As Ephesians 5 tells
us, marriage pictures Christ and the Church, His bride. Marriage
pictures Christ and the Church. It's an unbreakable union. It's unbreakable. Chapter 3 and
verse 6, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Christ never divorces his people,
the people whom he loved in everlasting love. Christ never divorces his
people. No, not at all. I remember when
I was just 19, when I married this young lady to my left, and
we stood in the front of witnesses, many witnesses, to witness the
fact that from then on, 19 years old, we were going to live together
as husband and wife. And I remember as young as I
was saying, Right, this is it. This is it. God helping us, this
is it. We will live together for the
rest of our lives till death us do part. That's what marriage
is meant to be. It's such a blessing. It's such
a blessing. Divorce corrupts the picture,
the picture of Christ and his church. If it has affected you,
as I say, in the past, it is past. As a believer, your sins
are forgiven. But divorce associates with adultery. Where's verse 11? Judah hath
dealt treacherously. An abomination is committed in
Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah hath profaned the holiness
of the Lord, which he loved, and hath married the daughter
of a strange God. They had actually committed evil
against the law of God in marrying strange wives. In other words,
wives of a foreign culture. And from this nation was to come
the Messiah. And they shouldn't have done
it. And you can read about it at the end of Nehemiah and Ezra,
about the false marriages that they'd made and how it was an
abomination in the sight of the Lord. You know, it speaks of
this. But what it says in its spiritual
application is that God's justice is unimportant. It's spiritual
adultery. It's playing with the idols of
this world's false religion. It's saying that Christ's atonement
is not the only way of peace with God. It's saying that the
grace of God is good, but it isn't essential. It is the way
of Cain. It is the error of Balaam who
taught Israel to take false wives and go after the evil idols of
those nations. It is the rebellion of Korah.
Have we wearied God with our espousals to this world, claiming
to be the people of God and yet more espoused to the things of
this world? I must hurry on. In chapter 3
and verse 7, Even from the days of your fathers, ye have gone
away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto
me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But
ye said, wherein shall we return? Do you know what that's saying?
They didn't realise that they had departed from God. Have we
drifted from God and the fellowship of his people? haven't realised
it, haven't realised the seriousness of it. The next one, the sixth
question, verse 8 of chapter 3. Will a man rob God? Yet ye
have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed
thee? In tithes and in offerings they
had robbed him. Ye are cursed with a curse, for
ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. You know the tithes
was an Old Testament thing, and it was for the purpose of the
upkeep of the temple and the Levites, and yet the people were
holding back. They were claiming to be God's
people, and yet not supporting the work of the living God. They were failing to recognize
that everything belongs to God, and that we honor Him and the
work of His kingdom with the first fruits of our resources,
not the leftovers that we don't want, Have we robbed God in holding
back when need was clear to us? Listen to what God says through
Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 30. Them that honour me,
I will honour. And they that despise me by robbing
God in tithes and offerings, and bring that into today, we
don't have tithes today, but God's people give willingly of
their resources and time as God makes the need clear to them,
because He is the one who gives bountifully from heaven. And
when we don't do that, which he tells us to do, we're despising
him. And he says, they that despise
me shall be lightly esteemed. Then the final question is in
chapter three and verse 13. Chapter three and verse 13. Your
words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet you say,
what have we spoken so much against thee? We didn't say anything
against you. What have we said against you? What have we spoken
against thee? We have said that it's vanity
to worship and serve the living God. Look, verse 14. Ye have
said it is vain to serve God. And what profit is it that we
have kept his ordinance? He hasn't done us any good. And
that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts. And
now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness
are set up and they that tempt God are even delivered. You see,
their complaint is, look at the world around, they haven't done,
they haven't deprived themselves of anything, and look how well
they're getting on, and yet you tell us to follow God? Is it
not just like Psalm 73, the Psalm of Asaph, do you remember? Him,
he said, God is good to Israel, but as for me, my feet had well
and I slipped and gone, I was almost lost. Because why? I was
envious at the wicked. I was envious at them. I tried
my best. I'd flogged myself to death trying
to serve the living God. And yet I see all around me those
that pay no attention, no heed to the God of all truth. They're
prospering. They've got healthy, lovely families. They all get on well together.
There's no pains in their death. They have nice, easy. Look at
them. Look at them. And he was about to say something.
He was about to say something. You know, we need to examine
ourselves. Are we like that? Do we acknowledge
that we're guilty sometimes of that spirit, presuming on God's
grace to us while being lax in these issues? Where's the recovery
from this situation, children of God, people of God? Where's
the recovery from it? In Psalm 73, as we're there,
in verse 17, This is it, look, he says in
verse 15, he's having a real whinge down to verse 14, and
he said in verse 15, if I say I will speak thus, behold, I
should offend against the generation of thy children. Ah, there's
a tender conscience there. He doesn't want to offend against
the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this,
that I would offend God's children, you know, what Jesus said, it
would be better that a millstone be tied round your neck and you
cast into a great deep. It was too painful for me. And
what was it that cured him? Verse 17, until I went into the
sanctuary of God. Then understood I their end. When I went into the sanctuary,
when I went into the temple of God, why, what is the temple?
The temple is a picture of gospel truth. It is a picture of how
God redeems the people He has loved from eternity from the
curse of the law, by the blood of the covenant. For without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. And
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. And the blood
of the animals was just a vivid picture of what He, the Lamb
of God, would come and do. No, it's gospel truth and grace. that is the way back to recovery
from this hypocritical, Christless religion. It isn't law and threats. It isn't that examination which
causes us to say we resolve to turn over a new leaf. No, we
don't try to reform ourself by looking at self, but by looking
at Christ. By looking at Christ. This is
where we need to look, as Malachi tells us at the start of chapter
3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple.
He's the one to be looking at. It's in his face, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Run the race that he set before
us, we read in Hebrews chapter 12, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. For it's in His face that we
see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. This self-examination
is only so far as to prompt us to look in the right direction.
Not to get us to try to do reform of ourselves, because that's
impossible and will never work. No. It's Christ alone who accomplishes
the salvation of His people. What does it say there? He shall
purify the sons of Levi. It's in Him that the sons of
Levi shall be purified, and in no one else. It's in Him that
all the seven questions are answered positively. Because you see,
let's take them one at a time. It's in Christ and looking unto
Him that the love between God and His people is fully displayed,
isn't it? Between Christ and His people,
that love There it is. If you would see the love of
God, the love of God for His people and His people for Him,
look to Christ and the redemption He has accomplished. It's in
Christ that the name of God is honored, for He is gracious to
whom He will be gracious. His glory is lifted up in Christ.
He is fully revered and worshipped. We cannot worship God outside
of Christ. I don't care how elaborate your
temple is. I don't care about the robes
and the fancy stained glass windows and all of these other things,
the smell of the incense and oh, what a wonderful place it
is. I don't care about that. You don't worship God if Christ
is not there. It's only in Christ that God
is fully revered and worshipped. Wherein have we not worshipped
you? You've left Christ out of it.
This is the thing. Look unto Him. Look unto Jesus. Behold Him, the messenger of
the covenant. It's in Him and Him alone that
idolatrous religion is banished. Oh, that we have the mind of
Christ. How that clears away idolatrous
religion. God's people know Him and love
Him. God's people are willing to serve
Him. God's people are willing to devote
their resources, their first fruits, to God. Who shall behold
Christ then? You know, behold Him. Who shall
behold Christ? Because for sure, not everybody
shall. Who shall behold Christ in saving grace? Let's turn over
to chapter 4 and verse 2. And to you that fear my name
shall the sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his wings,
and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. Chapter
3, verse 16. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often to one 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. It isn't
servile dread of judgment for sin, this isn't those that fear
the Lord, no. It's that reverence, reverence
and fear of offending that is driven by love. You know, I'm
frightened of offending my wife, not because of the things she
might do to me, but because I love her, and I don't want to offend
her, I don't want to hurt her, and vice versa, both ways. Fear
of disrespecting the name and character of God. That's it. This is the fear of the Lord,
which is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. Though we are
friends of Jesus, and delight in the fact that we are friends
of Jesus, and delight in the fact that we see God in Jesus,
and that we can ask him like Philip asked him, show us the
Father, and he says, Philip, if you've looked at me, you've
seen the Father. That's the relationship. But all the time, all the time,
never forgetting, that He is the Creator, that in Him the
fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, that He is the Judge. He is the One whom John saw in
Revelation. You read those pictures of Him
in Revelation 17, 18, 19, and so on. He is the Judge. He is the Omnipotent and Holy
One. Fearing in the sense that the
Holy Spirit has made us sinners. I quote that often, don't I,
that hymn. A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made
him so. Fearing in that sense that he's alerted us to what
we are by nature as sinners and caused us to see something of
the depth of the pit. You know, he's rescued me from
a horrible pit, says the psalmist. He's rescued me from a horrible
pit. How has he rescued us? He has found a ransom, it says
in Job, the book of Job. He's found a ransom. What is
the ransom? The blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from
all sin. And therefore, looking at God's
holiness and our sin in the flesh and our rescue, we fear God correctly,
in the right way, in the right relationship. Fear as it was
for the Philippian jailer when he cried out, what must I do
to be saved to Paul and Silas in that prison just after the
earthquake? What must I do to be saved? Initially, he feared
as in dread of judgment. What should I do to be saved
from judgment? But when he believed, because
this is what they replied, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
you shall be saved, and all your household, anybody else, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing, he feared in filial
respect, that's the respect of a son for a beloved father, and
honour for his gracious heavenly father, and happily reclined
in the everlasting arms of Almighty God. You see that? That's it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge. Where are you? Where am I today?
Ask yourself the question. Living in perilous presumption
or safe in the full assurance of faith? Amen.