me please to the last book in the Bible and the last chapter in the last book in the Bible, Revelation. We'll be reading from the last book in the Old Testament in a few minutes, and I want you to see some differences. Anyone need a Bible, please hold up your hands and the ushers will see that you get one. Revelation chapter 22, beginning in verse 16. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. That's the way the New Testament ends. In a few minutes we'll be reading from the last words of the Old Testament, but in the meantime turn with me please to Luke 1, Gospel according to Luke for the reading out of the epistles. beginning in verse 5. I think you'll see in a few minutes how that ties into what we're finding in Malachi this morning. Luke 1, beginning in verse 5. There was in the days of Herod the king of Judea a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abiah. And his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. They had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. It came to pass that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. The whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense, and there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John, and thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord. and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall turn to the Lord their God, and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Now turn with me please to the last chapter. of the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 4, beginning in verse 1. Well, let's begin in the last verse of chapter 3, verse 18 of chapter 3. Then shall ye return and discern. between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, all that do wickedly, shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked, and they shall be ashes unto the soles of your feet in this day, that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant. which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Will you continue faithful in your love to your wife or your husband, to your parents or your children, to your Lord? How long will you continue faithful? Till death do us part or way beyond that? How long will you continue faithful? The year was 1978. It was late one night. The old man signaled to the nurse to hand him the picture that hung on the wall at the foot of his bed. It was his own wedding picture, and she was there with him, of course, his bride. But she had died in 1928, and now this was 1978, and he'd lived alone. for 50 years, long, hard, lonely years, being both a father and a mother for their five children. Now he kissed her picture and silently handed it back to the nurse, and later on she overheard him, and he was sort of mumbling to himself, well, she's gone now, and I'll just follow her. A few hours later, he died. Fifty years of faithfulness to his bride. I believe that God has written this book of Malachi. He sent this messenger, and that's the meaning of the word Malachi, my angel, my messenger. in order that we would be encouraged to show us how to continue faithful in love through long period of silence and darkness and loneliness and hardship. Between the 400 years that followed the writing of this book of Malachi and then the book of Matthew, which was where direct revelation began. 400 years of silence and of loneliness, of darkness. To warn us how we can gradually lose our first love, there are five steps down away from our losing our first love, at least five, maybe more than that, that he's telling us about here. and to teach us how we can, when there's no direct revelation, the righteousness of the righteous and the wickedness of the wicked, and how can we know that and be aware of it, be sensitive to it, smell it out as it overwhelms us today. And then fifth, to cause us to see the two things that are essential for us to continue faithful in love to Him beyond death. into eternity. It has now been almost 2,000 years of silence till he last spoke to us through the canon, through the scriptures. And we need to learn the lesson that he's teaching us here in Malachi. How continuing faithful in love, how it is that we can continue faithful in love. It may be another 2,000. before there is that return, that direct revelation. It all begins there in Malachi 1, verse 2, where God says, I have loved you, saith the Lord. I have loved you even before I created you. I loved you. That's the basis for all true love in the world, all true love that the world has ever known. And therefore, we can know what true love really is. because He loved us before we began loving Him or before we began loving anyone else. Even when we are unruly and rebellious and unloving, as much so as those Israelites in the days when God's messenger was speaking to them, you unruly Israelites, I have loved you and I still do. with all of your reaction and rebellion, when you keep doubting and challenging and rebelling, I have loved you. As God said that to them through his messenger Malachi there. Have you heard him saying that to you? With all of your rebellions and revolutions and reactions to me, you know I've loved you. Have you heard that? If you haven't, you need to. It's when we're most unloving that we need loving the most. And you need to hear that. Here in this book, God's messenger Malachi explains the sequence, the five steps that move us away from that kind of a love for him. In chapter 1, 6 and 7, we just fail to respect him. We fail to honor him. And it shows up in the fact that we fail to honor our parents. We fail to honor the Father in heaven. Then we're going to begin to dishonor the Father. I don't care what he's been or done. He doesn't say, honor your father and your mother if they're believers. He doesn't say, honor your father and your mother if they've been kind to you and helped you. He says, honor your father and your mother. And when we dishonor him, When we dishonor Him, meaning God, when we just overlook this, fail to respect Him, then that's the beginning of the step away from God. It's the beginning of the step away from the others, our family, and others in position of any kind of fatherly responsibility. Second step down is there in verses 13 and 14, God says, you snuff at my worship. When you doubt my love and fail to respect and honor my name, then you begin to profane my name. Instead of praising my name when you come into my house, you begin to profane it. You'll pretend to worship me. You'll bring to me an unacceptable worship. They'll make me angry. You will break faith with me. That's the second step down. A third step down is there in chapter 2 and verses 10 through 16. And there may be others in here, but these are here, I know. Verses 10 through 16, you've broken faith with me. You have profaned my covenant. Now you'll begin breaking faith with each other. And you will even think of saying to a wife, you know, maybe I ought to divorce you. Or saying to a husband, you know, maybe I ought to divorce you. Break faith with God. And it becomes easy to begin thinking of that way towards each other or towards others. You begin divorcing each other. And the fourth step down, away from continuing in my love, you begin in robbing me of what really belongs to me. That tenth, I've given you everything you have. And the tenth, I've told you, was never yours in the first place. It was mine. I've told you what I wanted you to do with that. I wanted you to bring that into my house. And when you begin not doing that, then that's another step down. in going away from continuing in love to me. And a fifth step down is there in chapter 3, 14, 15. Away from continuing in love, you begin to think that you will always get away with it. You begin to think that I changed and that what I used to hate is sin, I now love. And what I love, I now hate. You begin to think that I've changed. and that there won't be any judgment after all. Your conscience is seared. Righteousness becomes evil, wickedness, and wickedness becomes righteousness. Now this is the sequence, five steps or trends, and God says, if that were to continue in 4.6, then I will return and smite the earth with a curse. I will dedicate it to Satan. That's what the word means there. I smite the earth with a curse, a curse, that which is dedicated to Satan. As I did that with the land of Edom, Esau's land, so I would do it with the whole earth. But it all begins back there in 1-2, when you begin just overlooking my love for you, challenging my love for you. I'll never forget the message that God preached to me through Rich Johnston on this subject. I have loved you, saith the Lord. And when we begin just sort of taking that for granted and putting it aside as, that's good information, and really not taking that seriously, then we're overlooking, overlooking. It begins there, when you doubt my love or challenge my love for you. A little bit like the outline in Romans, the first chapter. It just begins with our failure to acknowledge God as our Lord. This is our failure to acknowledge His love for us. So God gives us over, it says there in Romans 1. And then it goes to the next step, and God gives us over to the next step, and the next step, and God gives us over. It's the same kind of deadly trend away from a continuing love for Him. It's like the the deadly spin of an airplane that stalls out and begins to spin in. And I can't explain that to you in the vivid horror of it when it takes place. It has just stalled out and has begun to spin in. And there is a definite procedure that every pilot is instructed in before that takes place. You ram that rudder in the direction of the spin, and then you whip the stick across in the direction of the spin, and then you give it full throttle. And as the ground comes up straight at you, you're going with the spin and giving it full throttle straight down in order that the plane can begin regaining, hopefully, before it hits the ground. and then come back. God spells out the procedure for pulling out of that spin, that tail spin, that sequence. Guaranteed by the God who said to begin with, I have loved you, saith the Lord. Guaranteed to break that trend and to take you out of that cycle. Each time that plane goes around, it comes around with a little more viciousness and violence. And it's an awesome experience. And each time, one of these other steps is taken here that we've summarized the book of Malachi in. The first step, God says, for recovering from that is to take heed to your spirit. Chapter 2 and verse 16, take heed to your spirit. Watch your attitude. We described that a week or so ago as a BA, a bad attitude, a critical attitude, a yes, but, yes, but. I know God that this is what you're saying to me, yes, but. I can't, yes, but, yes, but, yes, but. That's all the way through the book of Malachi. You see that again and again, the attitude of these people. I know, God, that you want this, yes, but. I can't quite do it. Watch your attitude. Watch your spirit, he says there. And when you find that coming in, know that there's something wrong. That was a good class, but. That was a good class, and God really blessed, and this is the results of it. And I'm rejoicing in that. Same thing for a church service. Second step in breaking that trend, that sequence, that tailspin, return unto me in chapter 3, verse 8. The first step, watch your attitude, watch your spirit. The second step, return unto me, and I will return unto you. The Hebrew word there is shub, shub. It's the 12th most used verb in the Old Testament. Over 1,050 times that verb is used. Return unto me. Sometimes it's translated repent. Turning away from sin and Satan and turning back to God. The first step, check your attitude. The second step, return, repent. God, I've sinned. I've sinned with that attitude. That attitude. Will you forgive me? And the third step, chapter 3 and verse 18, discern between the righteous and the wicked. Know the difference between a person who is serving God and those who don't. Decide whether you will be with me or against me. Discern. Become aware. Because in verses 1 through 3, God says the same fire that will burn the wicked and the proud will, and leave them without root or branch, will bless the righteous, and heal them, and bring such joy that they go out like calves, released from the stalls." Now, it's a little bit hard to see that in the King James there. I think it's maybe more vivid in the Hebrew. But any of you who've done anything with livestock know that after they've been cooped up for a while in the stalls, and then you open the gate and let them out. They can go down across that pasture, kicking their heels, clear up above themselves, jumping and rejoicing in the new life that's there and the new freedom that they have. And he says, not only will that fire burn those who are wicked, who are unrighteous, but that same fire will heal and bring joy to the others. In Genesis 7-1, God says to Noah, I have seen thee righteous. I have seen that you are righteous. I've recognized you as being that." He says that to Noah. And here in chapter 3, verse 18, God says, one more step in this procedure of breaking out of your deadly tailspin against continuing faithful in love and returning to me instead is to discern the difference between wickedness and righteousness. and to find with your own heart an overwhelming joy in righteousness and a continuing development of hatred of that which is wicked. And the last or fifth step in this procedure that God lays out here in this book for breaking out of that tailspin away from a continuing love for him is there in chapter 4 and verse 4. Remember ye the law of Moses. Remember the law. which I commanded him at Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai. But it's more than just the 10 commandments from there at Mount Sinai. God's saying, remember my word, remember my word. After everything else is said and done, remember my word, all of it. In the next 400 years of lonely silence, when no more word will be spoken, oh, there were those who brought up other kinds of writings and tried to say that these were God's words, But it was not God's words. There was silence during those 400 words. Remember, God says, all the word that I've already spoken to you. It's essential to continue faithful in love, to remember my word. That's why there's so much emphasis in this congregation on these studies, on these studies, and why it is that some people don't like those studies. Remember my word, God says. These five essential factors in breaking out of that tailspin, away from continuing in love for Him, take heed to your spirit, watch your attitude, return unto me, repent, return, learn to discern between righteousness and wickedness. I want to say one more thing about that learning to discern thing, because in Hebrews 5.14, God is commending those mature Christians who have learned the Word and have begun discerning the difference between wickedness and righteousness in their own hearts. See, this is why it's so hard to tell that this is taken, because it's some sort of a spiritually anesthetizing influence. And when we're moving away from a continuing love for God, we aren't even aware of it. And so he says, you need to learn to discern. In Hebrews 5.14, God says, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil? Old Dr. F.B. Meyer, whose commentaries keep living on into other generations, prayed this way, Lord, make me quick of scent to smell. Make me quick of scent in the fear of evil. Help me to smell out the evil trends and to avoid them in my own life, and to smell out the righteous trends and to enjoy them, so that when I move into an area, I can become aware of these influences that are breaking around me and on me. Discern, discern, discern. I once was working with a man who said there are rattlesnakes in this area here. I said, how do you know that? He says, I can smell it. And sure enough, we found them. And they're those who are walking through life without much discernment, that has much sense of smell, of wickedness and of righteousness. And he says this is an important factor in learning to come back to me in my continuing love. The fourth factor, God says, is essential in continuing faithful love is remember the word. And how beautiful it is that the last of the prophets would make direct reference to the first of the prophets, Moses and Mount Sinai, the last of the prophets. Remember the first of the prophets and everything in between. And still that's not the end of God's encouragement and instruction for us on this subject in this book of Malachi. Remember the law of Moses, and behold, I will send you Elijah. And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers. And God's messenger, Malachi, reaches back with one long arm over 4,000 years to the Garden of Eden, and Abraham, and Levi, and especially 400 years to Elijah. And then he reaches forward with the other arm across 400 years of intertestamentary silence between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. He reaches over those 400 years of time between the Testaments to another prophet named John the Baptizer, who wore the same kind of clothes and he spoke the same prophecy. that Malachi had spoken? Guard your spirit. Watch your attitude. You can hear that coming out in the message of John the Baptizer. Guard your spirit. Watch your attitude. Repent and return to God. Discern the difference between wickedness and righteousness. Remember God's Word. Remember His book. God refers there in verse 6. to turning the hearts of the fathers to the sons and the sons to the fathers. We find at least four sets of parents or of father-son relationships that he could be talking about. And I would pray that this would help you in making the application for today in this. Abraham's heart, daddy Abraham, father Abraham, the father of the faithful, was certainly turned to the spiritual sons of Malachi. and those of the New Testament day, not only in Malachi's day, but also to those in the New Testament. Jesus said this, your father Abraham, there in John 8, he said, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he sought and was glad. He's showing the relationship between these teachings of the Old Testament and those of the New. So there is a father relationship. between Abraham, the father of the faithful in the Old Testament, and then going straight on down through to the days of Jesus in the New Testament. Abraham rejoiced to see my day, Jesus, and he saw it and he rejoiced in it. And then Malachi was a kind of father, wasn't he, to John the baptizer. I'm sure that John knew all about Malachi and his prophecy. His heart was turned towards Malachi. In spite of the fact that he once said that he was not Elijah, probably meant that he wasn't a resurrected Elijah. And Jesus said that John was the one that Malachi had prophesied. John the Baptizer was the one that Malachi had predicted, had promised would come. So there was a father-son relationship sort of between Malachi and John the Baptizer. And then third, Zacchaeus' heart certainly was turned to his son. Zacchaeus could have had some real resentment toward that son. How many weeks was it? How long was it that he didn't speak a word? He was dumb, not able to speak, only could sign. And he could have resented that son. But when you hear him talking about what his son would be and do, It's more even than just an ordinary father said, now that's my baby son and he's going to do this and that and something else. It was more than that. Because Zacchaeus realized that what he was saying about his son was what the angel had told him would take place. And these are three different sets of father-son relationships that would qualify for what he's saying there when he says, the hearts of the sons will be turned towards their fathers, and the hearts of the fathers will be turned towards the sons. But there's a fourth one, and that is your heart and my heart. As these are turned back to our fathers, our parents, and our grandparents, And then turn forward to our children and our grandchildren. Looking for the time when it becomes more and more realistic when you see your grandchildren that your heart can be turned towards those grandchildren. But then to look for those you can't even see yet. Continuing faithful in love. not only to those who've gone before, but to those who come after. For them, in Malachi and in John the Baptist day, it was 400 years of silence that is without any direct revelation. For us, it has been almost 2,000 years since he was here to speak with us with more revelation. And it may well be another 2,000 or 4,000 years before he returns. But God's formula for continuing faithful in love through times of lonely silence is still the same. Guard your spirit. Watch your attitude towards him and the things of his house, of his worship. Second, repent and return to God. And third, discern the difference Be able to smell out the difference between wickedness of wicked and the righteousness of righteous. And to enjoy the righteousness, as those calves do when they break out of the stall and they're just running down over the pasture. Enjoy the righteousness that He causes you to discern. And then remember His word and rejoice in that. Today I began with an illustration from my own father, who lived 50 years single. And he loved Mother through those 50 years, and I believe still does in heaven for eternity. I close with another true story that may bring you some more application. He was the son of a priest, and she was the daughter of a priest. And their love was God's love for God, and then for each other. Their hopes were high and pure. And as the years wore on, though, there was no baby. 10, 20, 30 years, still no baby. And other men, even the priests, raised their eyebrows and recommended that he ought to think about finding another wife. and they recommended that she would set him free, give him a writing of divorcement. It had been 400 years since they had heard anything more directly from God. They'd had great hopes when they all came back from Babylon, and the captivity, and the new temple, and the new Jerusalem, and the walls. They'd had great hopes. But now these hopes all seemed to be dashed, and somehow or other they were reflected. in this couple who were getting older all the time, and there were no children, Edersheim, the man who really understood the Hebrew life. A man who was converted in his full age in connection with a Scottish Presbyterian minister. He described their situation this way in beautiful words. There were those to whom the bare fact of childlessness rendered separation a religious duty. Elizabeth was childless. For many a year, this had been the burden of Zachariah's prayer, the burden also of reproach, which Elizabeth seemed always to carry with her. They had waited together those many years, till in the evening of life, the flower of hope had closed its fragrant cup. And still the two sat together in the twilight, content to wait in loneliness and love until night would close around them both. After 400 years of silence and growing unfaithfulness in the world around them, there were still those who were thus faithful to God and to each other, continuing faithful in love. They were more than 60 years old when God sent to them the son that we now recognize to be John the Baptist. And now God turns to you and me this morning and he says, since I've kept my promise before, promise that said I would come again after 400 years to make things right, to rescue those who will guard their spirits, return and repent, discern wicked and righteous, remember the word that I've already given to you to do it, then don't you know that I will keep my promise even though it is 2,000 years and may someday be 4,000 years? He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon. And this is the way the New Testament ends. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Father in heaven, with your help, Here, each person now, as he or she would make that personal commitment to you, Lord, with your help, I will guard my spirit. I will watch my attitude. When I come into your house to worship you, I will guard my spirit, watch my attitude. When I go about the business of the home and family, I will watch my spirit, guard my attitude. And I do repent. I do return unto you. God forgive me for the bad attitudes that I found welling up in my own heart and life. God forgive me. For I know that in spite of my vicious reaction to you and my insensitivity to you, you have said, I still love you. God, forgive me. And then, Lord, teach me to discern and to smell out the differences between the righteousness that you want in my life and the wickedness that you want me to have done with. God, teach me to discern, and I would learn to discern between the wickedness of the wicked and the righteousness of the righteous. And now, Lord, with your help, I will remember your word. God bless us this evening as we meet together to begin study of this book, the personal family study of this book. God bless us as we remember Your Word. In Jesus' name we pray it all. Amen.