Acai chapter 2, verse 16, the
Lord God makes a declaration. He says, the Lord God of Israel
declares that he hateth putting away. The Lord God of Israel
says that he hateth putting away. Jehovah, the triune God, The
covenant God of Israel with those words assures his fallen, sinful,
fickle people that his grace is absolutely free, unconditional,
irresistible, and indestructible. Because God, the Lord God of
Israel, hateth putting away. If the Lord God Almighty ever
even once dealt with us as we have relentlessly and constantly
dealt with him, even since we came to know his grace, if ever
once he dealt with us as we've dealt with him, we would be ruined
forever. But bless his name. He hateth
putting away. The cause of all his mercies,
his unfailing love, his goodness, his constant faithfulness to
us, flowing to us from the everlasting merit and efficacy of Christ's
blood and righteousness is just this. He hateth putting away. It's contrary to his nature.
He will not put away his people. Not one. Well, for what reasons? Any. He hateth putting away. He hateth putting away. Because
the Lord God of Israel saith that he hateth putting away,
he thereby assures us that he would have us to know that he
will not put us away. And there are a good many of
fellows who will see the plain teaching of scripture with regard
to the everlasting security of God's elect. the certain salvation
of all who believe on the Lord Jesus. Now, you can't really
preach that to folks. It's not good for people to know
that because then it would cause them to be presumptuous. Oh,
no, no, no. The Lord God, Jehovah, the God
of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. This is no secret
thing. He's I want you to know. Though you are, as Brother Frank
read a little bit ago, as a backsliding heifer to me. Though you are
a sinful, constantly erring people. Though you constantly turn from
me, I'll never turn from you. And I won't let you absolutely
turn from me. Because the Lord God of Israel
saith, he hateth putting away. He would have us to understand
that he rest in his love. He rest in his love. His love. For me. Causes him to rest. His love for you, my brother,
my sister, is that in which God rest. He's never disturbed. He's never uneasy. Oh, yes, he
is that one who declares himself a jealous God, and he will destroy
all who would seek to tear our hearts from him. But he rest
in his love. That's the difference between
God's jealousy and ours. Our jealousy arises from a lack
of rest. His jealousy arises from his
rest. He rest in his love. Oh, for grace to see the cause
and adore the mercy. Were the Lord God of Israel like
me, there would be no place of rest for my soul. But where the
Lord God of Israel rest, there let my soul ever rest. Rest not in the changing circumstances
of time or the vacillations of this world. are the changes and
the vacillations of my own heart, but rather rest in this, the
Lord God, the God of Israel, the triune Jehovah declares that
he hateth putting away. So that no matter how things
change with me, nothing changes with him. The everlasting worth
and the efficacy of my savior changes not. That means his interest
in me never change. And if his interest in me never
change, my saving interest in him never changes. Did you get
that? If God's devotion to me, his
interest in me never changes, my saving interest in him never
changes. His grace is absolutely free,
unconditional, irresistible. Irreversible and indestructible
the Lord God Hated putting away Therefore we read in Zephaniah
the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty He will save
he will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love
He will joy over thee with singing it is impossible to properly
understand that which is declared in Malachi chapter 3 and until
we understand it in the context of this last statement in Malachi
chapter 2 verse 16. The Lord God of Israel says that
he hateth putting away. Now my subject this evening,
the title of the message is because he hateth putting away. Often
the chapter and verse divisions in our English translations of
the scripture are unfortunate in my opinion I don't speak with
any absolute authority in this regard but in my opinion the
translation that we have before us and this division between
Malachi 2 17 and chapter 3 verse 1 is terribly unfortunate Actually
chapter 3 should begin with verse 17 of chapter 2 or even should
just be a continuation of chapter 2 But we're going to take for
our text this evening Malachi 2 17 through chapter 3 and verse
6 Because he hates putting away Because God's grace is indeed
absolutely free absolutely unconditional absolutely indestructible Then
he here tells us what he has done and will do for his people. In Malachi 2.17, the prophet
of God continues to describe the horrid evil committed by
God's covenant people. The horrid evil committed by
these people who are called Jacob and Judah and Israel and Jerusalem. These people who are called the
Lord's priest. These people are called the sons
of Levi. These were God's covenant people
who had profaned his holiness, who had corrupted his altar,
who had acted the part of hypocrites before him, weeping and crying
and slobbering over the sacrifices. No, God says, I see through it
and I won't have it. These people who had brought
him mutilated sacrifices, God now causes his prophet to continue
to expose the evil. The fact is, the faithful prophet always does. He always exposes your sin to
you. He always does what he can to
make you see the horrid evil, not only of your actions and
your thoughts, but the evil of your heart and your nature. Faithful
preachers are not men who come to make you feel good about you
and make you feel good about what you do and make you feel
good about how you behave, make you feel good about your attainments
in righteousness. Oh, no. The faithful servant
of God constantly declares to you your need of mercy, your
need of a substitute, your need of a redeemer, your need of the
righteousness of another, your need of blood atonement. Never,
never bragging on you as though somehow you have achieved something
on your own and you deserve some credit before God. Look at verse
17. You have wearied the Lord. What
a word. We read the Lord. Good Southern
expression. I used to hear often when I was
growing up. My mother said, I'm sick and
tired of you. That's the word we read. Can God be weird? Nobody condescends to speak as
a father, tenderly affection toward his people. And he says,
you've wearied me. You've wearied the Lord with
your words. What words? The words he's been
talking about. The words of resolution and promise
and praise and devotion, words of of determined adoration and
determined dedication, which were just pretentious words of
hypocrisy. You've wearied the Lord with
your words, yet you say, wherein have we wearied him? What have
we done that he shouldn't accept? What have we done that he shouldn't
be pleased with? How is it that our worship and
our devotion somehow is lacking? When you say, everyone that doeth
evil is good in his sight. Oh, look what you brought this
morning. Boy, that's good. Look at the gifts you've made
this evening. That's good. Look at your lame and haught
and blind lamb you brought to the Lord while I commend you
so well. You've done good. Said everyone
that doeth evil is good in his sight. And he delighteth in them. God said, take your sacrifice
to your governance. He'll have it. Take your take your pretended
devotion to somebody else and see if they'll be honored by
it. You deal treacherously with me and with one another. Or they say, where is the God
of judgment? Where is it? How often we've
wearied our God with our broken promises and our resolutions
and our pretentious acts of devotion which we use simply to cover
hypocrisy and to cover the coldness and indifference of our hearts.
And we are often made to have our sin exposed in this regard.
Well, God doesn't see. We try to cover up. This horrid
unbelief. Well, God, God, God, we act as
though God doesn't see what we do. We act as though God doesn't
look on the heart. We act as though somehow we can
hide from him. Where is the God of judgment?
Now that question is suggesting something that very few people
would actually form in words. Very few would. Turn to Isaiah
29. Isaiah 29. Let me read you a
couple of passages on the way. Very few people would actually
say, where is the God of judgment? But about everybody acts like
it most of the time. That includes David Coleman and
Don Fortner. Where's the God of judgment? Listen to this.
Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the
agents of the house of Israel do in the dark? Every man in
the chambers of his imagery? For they say, the Lord seeth
us not. The Lord hath forsaken the earth.
The Lord hath forsaken the earth, the Lord seeth not. In the Psalm,
in the 10th Psalm, he hath said in his heart, the wicked, the
wicked says in his heart, God hath forgotten. He hideth his
face. He'll never see it. He'll never
see it. Now look in Isaiah 29, 13. Wherefore,
the Lord said, For as much as this people draw near me with
their mouth and with their lips do honor me, but have removed
their heart from me and their fear toward me is taught by the
precept of men. Therefore, behold, I will proceed
to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous
work and to wonder for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish
and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe
unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord.
And their works are in the dark and they say, who seeth us? And who knoweth us? Perhaps the
words might have reference to another form of horrid unbelief. As David was in the 73rd Psalm,
We often behold the prosperity of the wicked and the adversity
and the trouble of God's saints in this world. And we say it's
vain to serve God. But where's the God of judgment?
If the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, where is the
God of judgment? Our murmuring against our God
Because with DMIs, we're incapable of seeing the wisdom and goodness
of his providence. That seems to be the intent of
Malachi in this passage. Look over in chapter three, verse
13. Your words have been stout against
me, saith the Lord. Yet you say,
what have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said it is vain
to serve God. And what profit is it that we
have kept his ordinance and we have walked mournfully before
the Lord of hosts? So Malachi here exposes the horrid
evil of these people to whom God says he hateth putting away. These are the people. These are
the people. to whom the Lord God says he
hateth putting away. And then, because he hateth putting
away, because the Lord God is long-suffering to usward, not
willing that any of his elect should perish, but that everyone
should come to repentance and knowledge of the truth, because
he delighteth in mercy, God stands fast by his purpose and says
in chapter three, verse one, behold, I will send my messenger
And he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom
you seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger
of the covenant whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. Now with those words, our blessed
Savior assured his ancient people that he would indeed come. the
woman's promised seed, Abraham's son, David's son, he who is the
one who would crush the serpent's head and save his people at the
appointed time of love in due time. He will indeed come to
save his people, to redeem his people, to fulfill all the blessed
stipulations and conditions of the covenant of grace made with
the father before the world was. Behold, I will send my messenger. And he shall prepare the way
before me. The Lord Jesus said by his servant, Isaiah, behold
me, behold me. And here he seems to say again,
behold, now pause and listen to me. I will send my messenger. I will send one who will prepare
the way before me. That's John the Baptist. And
clearly, our Lord was speaking of him. Mark tells us so. Luke
tells us so. John tells us so. This is talking
about John the Baptist, who is the messenger, the last of the
prophets the Lord God would raise up. This messenger who would
come at last, closing out the old age and bringing in the new. He would come at last to prepare
the way of the Lord. As the prophet said in Isaiah
40, the mountains brought down. low places, the valleys exalted,
everything made even for the coming of the Lord. And with
that, John the Baptist comes and lays the axe to the root
of the tree and destroys, begins to destroy all of the traditions
and the customs and the ways of the religion of Israel that
had long since departed from God, preparing the way for Christ
to come. And that's exactly what every
man sent of God does. He is sent of God to prepare
the way before Christ. When the Lord God is determined
to come to a people and to do a work of grace for a people,
when the Lord God is determined to come to a man or to come to
a woman and minister to that person's soul's everlasting needs,
he sends one to prepare his way, laying the ax to the root of
the tree. He sends one to prepare the way by declaring that which
God demands and that which God alone can do, exposing the sin
of men. Now look at this first verse
of chapter three again. And notice how the Lord Jesus
himself is described. The question was raised in the
previous verse. Where is the God of judgment?
Here, the answer is given the Lord whom you seek. shall suddenly
come to his temple. Even the messenger of the covenant
whom you delight in, behold, he shall come, saith the Lord
of hosts. Now, here are six things by which the Lord Jesus declares
the certainty of his coming and describes who he is, the Messiah,
who would soon come. First, he is called the Lord.
This is not the word, whenever you read in the Old Testament,
you read the word L-O-R-D in all capital letters. That's about
always Jehovah. In fact, I think it is always
Jehovah. The word Lord here is the word Adonai. It speaks of
one who is sovereign. One who has all power. It almost has the idea of basis
or foundation. The one that supports everything. The Lord, that's Jesus Christ,
our Redeemer. He was the Lord when he came. He was the Lord before he came,
and he is the Lord since he came. The Lord Jesus, God's darling
son, did not come here hoping that men would let him be their
Lord or that men would make him their Lord. He came as the Lord
who rules all things, who controls all things, who disposes of all
things exactly as he will. He comes, that one who is the
right hand of righteousness to perform his work. And then Malachi
refers to the Lord Jesus as the Lord whom you seek. Oh, now, that throws you fellas
a terrible, terrible thing into your theological system. That
just, that messes everything up. Say that men don't seek the
Lord and men have no free will by which they choose the Lord
How can you deal with this? Well, let's look at and see how
it's dealt with obviously This is not some kind of a declaration
by God's prophet that is contrary to the plain revelation of scripture
with regard to man's total depravity It is not a suggestion that somehow
man does, after all, have the ability somewhere deep inside
himself to muster a will to seek the Lord. No, no. This is a prophecy. It's speaking about the coming
of the Lord Jesus. And at the time the Lord Jesus
came, I said this this morning because I wanted you to be sure
you didn't miss it when I repeated it tonight. At the time he came,
everybody was looking for the Messiah. Everybody was looking
for the Messiah. All you had to do to figure out
his right time was to count up the number of years from Daniel's
prophecy to that time that he came and you'd look. Man, this
is about it. This is just about right time.
He's got to be right here real soon. And the Pharisees were
all looking for him. They were all looking for him.
They were the fundamentalists of the day, but not just the
Pharisees. Even the Sadducees were looking
for him. They were looking for him to come. John the Baptist
came and said, is that the Christ? Are you the Christ? Look one
way or another. And it was that way for many years before that.
They were looking for the Christ to come. And there were some
among the children of Israel who were true believers. There
were some who were genuine things. Some who had been men and women
of faith in Christ Jesus before he came because the Lord had
revealed the gospel to them. There was an old man by the name
of Simeon who was found in the temple on that day when Mary
and Joseph brought the eight-day-old baby, the Lord Jesus, into the
temple to have circumcision performed on him according to the law and
to offer the sacrifices the law required. And when Simeon saw
the Lord Jesus, he's described as one who waited for the consolation
of Israel. You know what he was doing that
morning, Larry? He was in the temple and he went to the temple
every day. An old man. Every day. Every
day. Because he knew back here Malachi
said the Lord's going to suddenly come to his temple. And when
he saw the Lord Jesus, he picked up that baby and he said, Lord,
Now let your servant depart in peace. Mine eyes have seen thy
salvation. And he spoke in prophecy concerning
the Lord Jesus. He was waiting, expecting the
consolation of Israel. Children of God live today as
Simeon lived of old, standing on the tiptoe of faith, waiting
again for Christ to come in his glory, expecting the consolation
of Israel. There was an old woman. who had
lived 70 years in widowhood, an old woman in the temple that
day by the name of Anna, a worshiper of God, a prophetess, who was
there waiting for the Lord Jesus to come when he came suddenly
into his temple. So these words speak of him. of whom men and women were desiring
and looking for and seeking when he came actually in the fullness
of time. But it is a mistake, a grave
mistake, to interpret these words or any other merely as historic
facts. Malachi's word is God's word
to you and me today. Turn to Isaiah chapter 25. Isaiah
25. When the Lord Jesus comes to
you, when he comes to a sinner in the mighty saving operations
of his grace, he appears suddenly. And he appears suddenly as the
very one you're seeking. as the very one you seek. You
see, God's grace with you didn't begin when first Christ was revealed
in you. God's operations in you don't
begin when first you believe on him. God's operations in you
are those operations of grace which calls you to seek him and
calls you to know your need of him and calls you to know your
guilt and your sin before him. Isaiah 25 verse 9, And it shall
be said in that day, Lo, this is our God. We've waited for
him. You remember? You remember? I will remember. I will remember. I tried everything under the
shining sun to alleviate my guilty conscience of guilt. I tried
everything under the sun to take off from me the heavy, heavy
oppressive load of vindictive justice. I tried everything under
the sun to silence a screaming conscience and nothing would
do until the Lord Jesus appeared suddenly. And lo, this is our
God. I've been waiting for him and
he will save us. This is the Lord. We've waited for him. We will
be glad and rejoice in his salvation. All right, back to your Malachi.
Here's the third thing the prophet declares. The Lord whom you seek
shall suddenly come to his temple. What an assertion this is of
the Godhead of that man, Christ Jesus. The temple of God is here
called his temple. God's house is called his house
so that he is owned by the prophet as God who would come in human
flesh When the Lord Jesus appeared in the temple you remember in
John chapter 2 he came in and saw the money changes there and
Those fellows were buying and selling doves in the temple making
a turning a profit there. They found a good business there
and he Just looked at him And as he walked through the temple,
he got some cords together and tied some knots in them. And
suddenly he stood up. And now you imagine this. Some
suggest this is one of the Lord's greatest miracles, if not the
greatest miracle. One man, a nobody as far as men
are concerned, This man stood up in the middle of a crowded
temple and with a whip in his hand, one man drove him out of
the temple and said, my father's house should be called a house
of prayer. And, you know, nobody stood against him. Nobody defied
him. He's he's imagine if you went
up here on Constitution Square, call it a religious holiday.
during the brass band festival or some of their days when they
have buyers and sellers and traders out there. And suddenly you walk
in there, one man with a whip in his hand and start beating
the fool out of folks and throwing the money boxes out in the streets.
I suspect somebody would say, wait. Oh, no, don't do that. But this one man comes in and
he says, this is my house and I will take over my house. It
should be called a house of prayer. When the son of man comes to
the hearts of his redeemed in saving mercy, he comes suddenly
into his temple. He doesn't knock at your heart's
door begging for entrance. No, no, no. He comes and knocks
the door down, bolt and bar. And the first time you know he's
around, he's already sitting on the throne inside. He suddenly
comes into his temple. He comes and brings his welcome
with him. You have those kind of friends?
You have friends come. Friends come. Knock on the door.
You might be in a little bit of a tizzy. Well, the house is
not dusted. The floors rugs are crooked or
the hair is messed up and not dressed. But friends come. And
they bring their welcome with them. They walk in. You soon
forget about anything else. We said they were friends. When
the Lord Jesus comes into his temple, he brings his welcome
with him. And you're delighted that he's
there. He comes suddenly into his temple. Here's the fourth
thing. Our blessed savior, the Lord Jesus. Is both God of the
covenant, the covenant itself and the messenger of the covenant.
He called here. The messenger of the covenant,
just as John the Baptist is called his messenger, the forerunner.
He's called the messenger of the covenant. Now, some fellows
get real upset with this when we say that Christ is the angel
of the covenant. Oh, Christ is not an angel. The
word simply means messenger. It just means messenger, not
suggesting that he is a created angel, that somehow he is subordinate
and less than God. No, no, no. He is, as our covenant
surety and mediator, Jehovah's messenger. To say he is the angel
of the covenant is like saying he's the word of the Lord. It's
like saying he's the wisdom of God. He's the revelation of God.
He's the messenger of the covenant. That is, he is the one. who comes in saving mercy in
the mighty operations of his grace and reveals the covenant
to us and by his spirit seals all the blessings of the covenant
to chosen sinners. And then fifth, Malachi says
concerning our blessed savior, he is the Lord, even the messenger
of the covenant whom ye delight in. Well, that's not natural. That's
not natural. No man naturally delights in
him. He's called the desire of all nations. He's called the
Lord whom you seek and hear, whom you delight in. If God Almighty creates in you
a need for his son, when his son comes, you will delight in
him. You will delight in his atonement,
in his righteousness, in his power, in his grace, in his mercy. You delight in him. And he will
teach you day by day to delight in him. Rejoice in the Lord all
the way. And again, I say rejoice. Let
your moderation be known to all men. The Lord's at hand. And
then in the sixth statement, Malachi speaks of this thing
as a matter of absolute certainty. So much so that Jehovah, the
triune God, pins his name to it. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. He shall come. And this is the
word from God Almighty who rules everybody and everything. He
shall come. Now, look at verses 2 through
5, remembering what we've already seen. These verses may, I'm sure,
have some reference to the second coming of our Lord Jesus. They
may, and I'm certain probably do, have some reference to the
Lord Jesus coming in judgment at the last day. But that's not
what Malachi chapter 3 is about. Malachi chapter three is about
him coming in grace. It's about the coming of the
Messiah, both his coming in the incarnation and his coming to
centers by his spirit. Because he hateth putting away
at the time of love appointed, the Lord Jesus will come to every
chosen, redeemed center and blessed be his name forever. Before him,
none can stand. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Malachi 3 verse 2. But who may
abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire
and like a fuller's soap, and he shall sit as a refiner and
a purifier of 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. Then shall the
offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord. Now
remember, he's talking about Judah and Judah and the sons
of Levi and the sons of Jacob. There often shall be pleasant
to the Lord as in the days of old and as in the former years. And I will come near to you to
judgment. And I will be a swift witness
against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the
false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in
his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside
the stranger from his right. And fear not me, saith the Lord
of hosts. When the Lord Jesus comes to
a sinner, When he comes in saving mercy,
when he comes to set up his throne in the heart of a man, this is
what he does by the operations of his grace. He causes the center
to fall before him. He always does. Before he heals,
he wounds. Before he binds up, he breaks. Before he sets free, he imprisons. Before he lifts, he abases. Before he fills, he empties.
Before he clothes, he strips. Before he makes alive, he kills. Who shall stand before him? You
can stand before me. You can stand before the most
powerful preaching. You can stand before the greatest
logic and the greatest argument. You can stand out and you can
resist and you know, I will not, I will not, I will not. But when
he comes, when he comes, down you go. There's no holding out
against him. He'll come near to judgment with
you. He'll chasten you sore. to refine
his silver and his gold with fire. Remember, he's seeking
a godly seed, a holy seed. He comes to purify the sons of
Levi that we may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. I was talking to Larry and Alan
this afternoon at lunch, after lunch, I said, for the first
time, when God opened this thing to me here this week, for the
first time, I began, I think, to understand something about
the chastening described in Hebrews chapter 12. Paul says, God chastens
us for our profit, that we might be made partakers of his holiness. Well, now, Joe, you just tell
me how going to the graveyard makes you a partaker of his holiness. Tell me how it is by going to
visit your son in prison makes you a protector of his holiness.
Tell me how it is by watching a husband or a wife die makes
you protector of his holiness. Well, it can't. It can't. But
there is a chastening that does. It's the chastening that comes
in Holy Spirit conviction when God convinces you of your sin
and breaks your stubborn will. and causes you to bow before
him. Then, once you're broken, once
he's purified in the washing of regeneration, the sons of
Levi, the sons of Levi offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness. He comes and purifies with the
refiner's fire and with fuller's soap, fuller's soap. And if you let Y'all don't have
to raise your hands. I know some of you are old enough
to remember Fuller Brush Salesman. Fuller. Fuller Soap. What is a Fuller Soap? Fuller
was a fellow who had the responsibility of taking wool, wool that had
been taken from the sheeps and woven into fabric before they
used it to make a cloth to use for a garment. They'd take that
cloth and they would take fuller soap and cleanse it. Wash away
the filth and the spots in it. The fuller soap, a very strong
soap, made from some kind of an herb. And they washed that
before the garments could be made with the wool cloth. That's a pretty good picture
of what God does in his grace for his own. Then, and only then
can Judah and Jerusalem, the sons of Jacob and the sons of
Levi, who profaned him so treacherously, be consciously pleasant unto
the Lord. Then they shall be pleasant unto
the Lord as in the days of old, as in former years. Can you imagine? Have you ever tried to think
How it must have been with Adam in the garden. As Adam and Eve
walking naked as two newborn babies in the garden. Walking
in the garden with God and with one another. With no sin and
no shame and no embarrassment and no fear. Just pleasant, pleasant. Bless God for his grace, by which
he causes rebel sinners to bow before him when he comes suddenly
into his temple. And he washes us with the washing
of water by the word and by his spirit and regeneration, sprinkling
our consciences with the blood, purging us of dead works. And
now we walk pleasantly with the Lord. Pleasantly with him. Delighted
for him to know all things. Delighted to look him in the
face as Peter did and say, Lord, you know all things. You know
who you are and what you've done for me. And you know what a wretch
I am. And you know what you've made
of me. And you know that I love you. In that blessed day, our God
and Savior takes away the vile idolatry which fallen man is
plagued with and the corrupt ways in which he delights. And
he causes his people to walk before him in truth. He said
to his people by the prophet Hosea, I will take away the names
of Balaam out of her mouth. They shall no more be remembered
by their name you turn if you will back just a couple of pages
to Zechariah chapter 13 I Want you to see that this is
properly interpreting verse 5 And that day he'll take away the
sorceries and the adulteries and the blasphemies all that
Zechariah 13 verse 1 in that day. There should be a fountain
open to the house of David On the day he comes suddenly into
his temple, on the day you can't stand before him, but you fall
before him and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for
uncleanness. And this shall come to pass in
that day, on the day that fountain opened for the cleansing of your
soul, open to your heart. In that day, saith the Lord of
hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the
land and they shall no more be remembered. And also I will cause
the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. Now, one more thing. Look at
verse six. Can you be sure? Is God's grace
really so free? So undeserved. So irresistible. so indestructible, so irreversible
that not one of the sons of Jacob, not one of the sons of Levi,
not one of the chosen sons of Judah and Jerusalem, not one
of the Israel of God, not one of his covenant people shall
ever perish. Will he indeed come to everyone
and turn away the sin and the captivity of everyone? Will he
indeed purify every one of his own as silver and gold? Will he do it? Chapter 3, verse
6. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob, are not consumed. Brother Don, that looks like
God's grace is totally independent of my behavior. It does, doesn't
it? Looks like God's mercy is totally
independent of my goodness or my evil. It does, doesn't it?
Looks like God's grace is no way dependent on me. It looks
that way, doesn't it? It looks that way because that's
the way it is. God says, I am the Lord. I change not. And that's the end of the matter.
That's the end of the matter. But that's not in there. I change not. Therefore, that's
a better word, but in that context, isn't it? Therefore, you sons
of Jacob, you poor, vacillating, constantly shifting, constantly
changing, constantly failing, sinful men, sinful women, the
objects of my everlasting love are not consumed. Amen.