Malachi chapter 4, let's read
the first three verses. And I want to look at verse 2
mainly. For behold, sit up and listen. Behold, it's an attention grabber. The day comes that shall burn
as an oven and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly
shall be stubble. And the day that comes shall
burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave
them neither root nor branch." But, there's a huge contrast
there, but, unto you that fear my name, we'll stop there, look
up at chapter 3, and verse 16. These are the same folks that
he's talking about in chapter 3, verse 16. 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. 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 spares his own son that serves him. Then
shall you return and discern between the righteous and the
wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves Him not."
These are the same people. That word feared in all three
sections means reverence. From birth, when we're born,
Whatever hospital or whatever midwife we're born to, we are
born in sin. Because if Adams fell in the
garden, he's our federal head. He represents all of mankind,
men, boys, women and girls. He represents us all. We fell
in Adam. We fell in Adam. We do not reverence
God. We despise Him. We despise the
mention of His grace. We would not have Him reign over
us. We do not want to talk about
Him. We'd rather be outside doing
something, doing anything other than hearing the Gospel. But
there are those whom the Lord has touched the heart by His
free and sovereign grace, opened the heart, swaddled the child,
He found us in our blood, says Ezekiel 16. He looked at us and
for reasons only found in His eternal sovereign purpose, He
specifically said to us, live. You're dead, live. And then He
took us and swaddled us, cut the umbilical cord and says,
clothed us, washed us, and put stuff on us, decked us. Well,
He says here that in that day when I make up My jewels, they'll
be part of My jewels. I'll spare them. So these are
those who... this but, verse 2, "...but you
that fear My name, shall the Son of Righteousness arise with
healing in His wings." So He's talking about a person. this
Son of Righteousness, and you shall go forth and shall grow
up as calves of the stall." I have three simple points. Who
is this Son? Did you notice how it's spelled
in the Bible? It's not S-O-N, it's S-U-N. Who is this Son of Righteousness?
Secondly, how He arises. How He arises. And thirdly, what
are the expected results? Who is this Son of Righteousness?
Well, the word Son in the Hebrew means brilliant. Brilliant. Well, this is none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously. This is none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. For He is our Son. He's the only Son. Now if I start
talking about Son, S-U-N, even the kids here, even the youngest
children here, if I talk about the Son, you know exactly what
I'm talking about. As far as we're concerned, on
this globe, there's one Son. It's the one that's shining right
now. There's no question. You know what I'm talking about. He is our only Son. The Son. Look at what He says. But unto
you that fear My name shall the Son. The. It's particular. The Lord Jesus Christ is particular,
peculiar to all His people. He's as the light. And in Him,
the Scripture says, there's no darkness. He is, as the Son, in exposing
sin. That's why we preach Christ.
That's why we constantly preach Christ. Because if you get a
glimpse of Him, in His brightness, if He enlightens you, you'll
see yourself. And, woe is me, said the Prophet,
I have unclean lips. That's what we'll say. We'll
quit pointing the finger. This guy, that guy, all this. No, it'll just go like this.
I'm guilty. I'm the guilty one. Exposing
sin wherever it is, be it if it's in us. He is as the sun
in its cleansing power. He is as the sun in its healing
power, which he goes on to say. Growing power. nutrient power,
directing power, life-giving power. And I went back to my
college days in botany and was thinking about when we would
do experiments, we would put, you know, the bean, grow the
bean, and you'd have that sun, or the light was as the sun. And we did all sorts of experiments.
And it's called, plants are called positively phototrophic. That
means if you're putting it right there, it's gonna go like this.
If you go like that, it's gonna go like that. It goes over here,
it's gonna follow. Just like the roots are positively
geotrophic. They're gonna go down. You try
that, you flip them upside down, you got the roots up here, and
then everything is going down, and then that top is gonna come
towards us. And that's what we should be
like. And there's nutrients. The sun has nutrients. But I
will say, all those who will not have Christ reign over them,
the sun can be destructive. Anybody here ever been out at
Gulf Shores, let's say, and stayed too long out in the sun? A little
crispy? Burned. to all those who will not have
Christ the Son of Righteousness reign over them. He was a destructive
force as well. Secondly, how does it say He
come? Unto them that fear His name
shall the Son of Righteousness arise, go forth with healing
in His wings. Healing in His wings to all His
people that have been graced to fear or reverence Him. He
comes to us with healing. And it's not a one-time thing.
We continue to come to Him and we continue to be healed. We
confess our sins. He's faithful just to forgive
us our sins. Let me read you something here by Mr. Philpott. The very things, poor, exercised
soul, that most try your mind are the very things that make
such a Savior, the Son of Righteousness, suitable to you. You are dark. This makes the sun of righteousness
exactly suitable to enlighten you. Perhaps you are cold. This makes you want the sun to
warm you. Perhaps you are cheerless and
cast down. This makes you want the sun to
gladden you. You are burdened and unfruitful
and lament that you cannot bring forth fruit to God's glory. You
want the sun to fertilize you. You are at times very dead in
your feelings and can scarcely find any inclination to pray,
meditate, or read the Scriptures. You want the Son to enliven and
revive you. Are not then these very trials
and temptations necessary to make you and I feel the Lord
Jesus is the very Son we need?" And that's exactly right. It's
just like a shepherd. You talk about Christ being the
shepherd, and we the sheep, and all the characteristics of a
shepherd to his people. All the characteristics of the
sun, fertilizing, enlivening. I remember, you know, just going
out and laying out in the sun and closing your eyes and feeling
the warmth around your face. There's something soothing about
such things. Does He not apply His precious
blood as ointment poured forth as the Son of Righteousness,
Psalms chapter 1 verse 3? Does He not robe us with His
clean character and wash all our sins away as stated in Isaiah
61.10? Or even He says in Isaiah 53,
by His stripes we are healed. removing our very plague of leprous
iniquities, all that we are, removing our transgressions,
release the healing ball of Gilead into our impotent wounds. This
is what He is. He arises unto us with healing. And He bathes us and cleanses
us and swaddles us, as Ezekiel 16 says, evermore. I would say
from this text and from Scriptures based upon the Word of Grace
that those whom Christ arises to heal are indeed healed to
the uttermost. Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 25. Wherefore He, this Son of Righteousness,
is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing
He ever lives to make intercession for them." That passage that
Matt read about the light, he lightens
his people. but now is made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who hath abolished death
and hath brought life and immortality to light." How can He bring such
things to light? Because He's the Son of Righteousness.
He Himself. Turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter
23. 2 Samuel chapter 23. from the last words of David.
Look at what he says. 2 Samuel 23, verse 2, The Spirit
of the Lord spake by me, and His Word was in my tongue. The
God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spake to me, He that
ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And
He shall be as the light of the morning. when the sun rises,
even a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing
out of the earth by clear shining after rain." This is the Son
of Righteousness. He arises with healing in His
wing to those whom He has called, chosen. Psalms 84. Psalms 84
and verse 11. Psalms 84.11, for the Lord God
is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will He withhold
from them that walk uprightly. Them that fear. Psalms 84.11,
there's promise right there. No good thing. Why? We could
go back to last Sunday, for our times are in His hands. I'm going
to stay on that one. I'm going to build on that foundation. My times are in His hands. Your times are in His hands. Isaiah 60, verses 1, 2, and 3,
speaking of how He comes to His people, the Son of Righteousness
with healing in His wings. Arise, shine, for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. He arises
with healing in his wings. For behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness to people. But the Lord shall
arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to
the light, and the kings to the brightness of thy rising. These are all descriptions of
Christ. Luke chapter 1. There's Luke
and there's John and there's Matthew. There's all these references
to Christ as the light of His people. Luke chapter 1. And we'll start in verse 68. This is the birth of John the
Baptist, and then the prophecy of Zacharias about the birth
of Christ. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for He hath visited and redeemed His people. So he's speaking
of Christ. And hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in
the house of His servant David. Look at verse 75. In holiness
and righteousness before Him all the days of our life, and
Thou, Child, shall be called the prophet of the highest. For
thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way,
to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission
of their sins through the tender mercy of our God. Whereby the
day spring, the day spring, that's the morning star, the day spring, whereby the Dayspring from on
high hath visited us to give light." There we go. It's the
Son of Righteousness. "...to them that sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of
peace. And the child grew and waxed
strong in spirit and was in the desert till the days of his showing
into Israel." The Lord our God. To lighten. There's only one
light. As we mentioned, there's only
one Son to us. I thought there was only one
sun in the Milky Way, and I thought I'd better check that. And I
asked Melinda, we asked Google, and there's 1,500 or more. So
I was like, OK, we'll talk about the sun. We know what we're talking
about. I'm not going to try to get all NASA on us. But we know that. We know that,
and we speak of the grace of God, and we know there's no other
grace. In Romans 11, it's either grace or works. So we speak of
Christ. The Son, the Son of Righteousness
arises. He goes forth. He comes to us. He came down to us. We couldn't
go up to Him. They tried that once. We tried
Babel. It didn't work. No works of man
are ever adequate to heal. Healing in His wings. Healing
in His wings. There's no Son like the Son. Our Son, God's Son, and there's
no healing like His healing or savings. It's not a partial healing
or temporary healing, but permanent. permanent. And you know, we're
so smart in this 2022 day of an age of social this and phones
and find everything at the drop of a hat. You better be careful
with some of the stuff we find because it may not be true. But
when I was growing up and Linda, she said the same thing when
she was growing up, you know, my mom put she hung the clothes
out. on a clothesline. Is there any
kid here who knows what a clothesline is? Very good, very good. Hung the clothes up on a clothesline,
and I thought it was just to dry them. My mom said, no, it
cleanses. It bleaches, and it does dry them. And I'll
tell you what, the dryer's fine, I remember as a kid, there's
no better smelling items that are hung out on a clothesline.
You just kind of bare your head, you know, you're an adult, you
look around, make sure no neighbors are watching you, and you do
the same thing as you did when you were a little kid. Because
it smells good, and it's fresh, and you know it's clean. I was
reading a bunch before this morning,
before the message, and I was reading, I think it was John
Trout. And he said, back in the day, he's in the 1600s, 1700s,
they knew a few things. He said the sun is used to dry
up the rains and the puddles, and it takes that nasty water,
and it pulls it up, We call it transpiration. We have a name
for it. We know what that is now. They knew so much more than
we thought they did and it purifies and it filters and it comes back
to the earth clean. Isn't that what the new nature,
isn't that what God is doing with his people? He's the son
of righteousness. He arises with healing in his
wings and we still need No, we don't need to be regenerated.
We don't need to be re-quickened. We need to, like the disciples,
wash your feet. Your feet are in the world. You
go to work. You go to your neighbors. You
do things off and on. We gather together. We gather
to the Son of Righteousness because He has healing in His wings.
But what are the expected results? Christ doesn't suffer, bleed,
and die, and do nothing. He does something for His people.
He honored His Father, honored His law, that we couldn't, but
He does something for His people. What's the expected result? Well,
verses 2 and 3, the end of verse 2 and 3. You, we, the one who
is healed, shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. Now this phrase, grew up as calves
in a stall, everybody I read, the Hebrew, it's kind of like,
if you're out in the country and you see little calves and
they're jumping and they're kicking, they look excited, this is what
the believer is. Yes, yes, we've got to go tomorrow
and go back to work and do these different things and struggle
with the world. Wrestle with the world and wrestle with not
against flesh and blood but with principalities and powers powers.
Yes, we do but in Christ Those who are healed and are those
who fear his name those who reverence his name There is a joy like
Christ the joy that was set before him despised a shame There's
a joy we go forth. We don't hover We go forth We
don't hide this candle under a bushel. We go forth and we
grow. There's growth in grace. We go forth or we'll make it
to Canaan's shore, to Emmanuel's land, to heaven, our glory. We'll
go forth. We're going to make it. We're
on a journey. We're in a sojourn. We're in a pilgrimage. We're
running a race. And the prize is set before us.
The prize is already captured. The prize is already secured
for us. Grow up as calves in the stall.
Go forth. And then he says, we, the same
ye as in verse 2, shall tread down the wicked and they shall
be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall
do this, saith the Lord of hosts. It seems like the wicked And
we say, us older folks say, it's worse than it was. Well, the
older folks before us said the same thing. I remember Maurice. Oh, you know, Maurice Montgomery.
Oh, I didn't do this. It's always right here. It's
always about ready to burst. It's always about ready to pop.
Every generation. It's worse, worse work. No, it's
the same. There's nothing new in what the
scripture says. There's nothing. Look at the history. Look at
the history. Especially grace history. The
complaints. We started reading John Flavel,
God's method of grace. First introductory comment. He said, you know, this is 1600s.
He said, oh, England is so cold, their heart is so cold, it's
black. That was three, four hundred
years ago. It's no different. We just can
get information real quick. But these same ye's in verse
three, we were tried and underfoot, but now we shall tread upon those
who hate the God of heaven. And in final victory, we shall
for sure. It may not appear now. David
said, I was so upset the wicked were gaining or getting money.
They're buying and selling or getting gain. They're wealthy.
They don't have trouble like other men. Their eyes stick out
because they're so full. And then he said, I came to the
sanctuary. Then I came and I heard the gospel of the Son of Righteousness
with healing in His wings. Everything was set in order.
Why do we gather together? For perhaps that one reason.
There's more. There's a lot more. Glorify Christ,
obviously. Glorify God. But, as Bruce says
so many times, it gets you back in line. You just realize, you
know what? It's not as bad as I thought it was. And you know
what? God is sovereign. And you know what? My times are
in His hands. So, it gives you peace. The final victory will be ours. It's guaranteed by Christ. And
this is all of the praise of the glory of His grace. Let us
therefore comfort one another with these words and with these
promises found, found in the Word. And I know everybody discounts
this book. Let them discount this book.
As for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. Amen. Matt, would you close us?