But that was good. That was a blessing good song take your Bibles one final time. We'll get through this passage tonight Malachi chapter 3 13 through 18 Malachi chapter 3 your words have been stout against me saith the Lord you say what have we spoken so much against thee you've said it is vain to serve God and And what prophet is it that we have kept his ordinance 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. Yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. 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. And that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him, then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. You're not home yet, part four, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, we need to hear from you tonight. I pray that you'd work in this service, that you would guide and direct in all that's said and done, that you might be glorified in Jesus' name, amen. We're dealing with the fact that oftentimes we look at the unsaved, we look at those that don't love God and their lives prosper. It seems like everything goes well for them and then you know a Christian or maybe you yourself are going through something tonight and you say, man I'm going through all of these trials and all of these afflictions and I'm just trying to serve God. It just doesn't seem fair. It doesn't seem right. As you go through the Bible, you find many of the major Bible characters struggled with this. Jeremiah struggled with this, and Asaph struggled with this, and Abraham had a wrong view of this, and David, and so many of the Bible characters that they would look at what God was doing and say, why this? And so here, in the time of Malachi, there are those that are saying, you know what, it's vain to serve God. You try to live for God, and things don't go well, and we've tried to do right, and what prophet is there that we've kept his ordinances and we've tried to walk with him? And so we left off last time talking about that our lives are a tale. Psalm 90 says we spend our years as a tale that is told. And God keeps a record of that tale, that story of our lives. Indeed, God keeps a record of everything. So much so that David would say, Lord, if you keep a record of my sins, there's no hope for me. That's what he's saying, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. But he's saying, Lord, if you kept a record of all of my sins, and there's no way to expunge the record, there's no way to get those sins off my record, then I could never stand before you. And so, but we find all through the Bible, Matthew chapter 12, verse 36, I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they should give account thereof in the day of judgment. That's a sobering thought. Every idle word, every careless word, every wrong word. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Luke chapter 12, Jesus said there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed. neither hid that shall not be known therefore whatsoever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops and so God keeps records and God knows who fears him and you should too you should too In Proverbs chapter nine and verse six, we're told forsake the foolish. The fool doesn't fear God. He says forsake the foolish and live and go in the way of understanding. Proverbs 14, seven, go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. We're to go from his presence And I would say not everybody that comes to church fears God. In fact, Paul would say of the Philippian believers, many walk of whom I've told you often, I'll tell you even weeping, they're the enemies of the cross of Christ. And yet, they were involved in the church. He said the enemies of the cross of Christ. John would say they went out from us. At one time they were part of us, but they went out. But they were there for a while, talking the talk and walking the walk. One of Jesus' parables concerned the wheat and the tares. And the tares look an awful lot like the wheat. And so it's important for us to know who fears God. Psalm 36, verse one, David said, the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes. The fact that he can live in open violation of the principles of the word of God, he says I can know that he does not fear God. Proverbs 16, verse six, by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. The fear of the Lord causes us to depart from evil. When we don't fear God, we just live as we please. When there's a fear of God, it changes our life, changes our deportment. Psalm 55, 19, God shall hear and afflict them, even he that abideth for old, Selah. Because they have no changes, Therefore they fear not God There's no change in your life If you're still living like you were living before you took Christ as your Savior, you're not a God fear You may not even be a believer You may have just made an empty profession, but he says because they have no changes I can look at their life and I can know that they don't fear God and And so, God keeps records of all of those things. Proverbs 14, 2, And again, that word perverse, we always put the word sexual with it, but it's not referring to sexual perverseness. It's just referring to anything that's contrary to the right way. It's perverse, it's twisted from that. And so he said, when I walk in my own ways, when I walk contrary to God's ways and the principles of His word, then I despise Him. And like the people of Malachi's day, we said, wherein have we despised thee? Well, they had despised Him. They were walking contrary to the way they should have walked. And you and I in our lives, when we're not walking according to the principles of the Word of God, in a sense, we are despising God. We're not fearing God. We're not living in fear of God. James 4.4, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of this world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. So God said, you can't be a friend of mine and be a friend of the world at the same time. You have to make your choice. If you choose to be a friend of the world, you are the enemy of God. You say, well, I don't consider God my enemy. God considers you his enemy. You want to live in sin? You want to live contrary to the word of God? You want to do what you want? You want to just be a complete hypocrite? God considers you His enemy. You don't have to consider God your enemy. He considers you His enemy. So if you're not a friend of God's, you're a friend of the world, then God considers you His enemy. And so God records all that. He knows every word we say. He knows the hair of our heads. He knows all of those things. And God records our prayers. God records our tears. Psalm 56, 8, "...thou tellest my wonderings, put thou my tears into thy bottle, are they not in thy book?" Psalm 141, verse 1, "...Lord, I cry unto thee, make haste unto thee, give ear unto my voice when I cry unto thee, let my prayer be set before thee as incense." and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Now we might take that figuratively, were it not for what's written in Revelation. Revelation chapter five, verse eight. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and 20 elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. which are the prayers of saints. Back to Malachi chapter three, 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 fought upon his name. Verse 17, 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 spareth his own son that serveth him, I'll spare him. When I make up my jewels, Daniel 12 three, and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. We don't know what all that means exactly. Make up my jewels. We can understand that it's a beautiful and valuable thing to God when we fear him, when we meditate on him, and what it means to shine, all that. We're not really sure, but we know that God holds those people in high regard in the sense that they bring him pleasure. Malachi chapter 3 and verse 18, then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. What's he saying? One day, one day it'll be obvious. One day you won't have any trouble figuring out who really loves God and who doesn't, who served him and who didn't. Now in this life, If we measure by the way we normally measure success and prosperity and happiness, you might be tempted to look at your neighbor and say, wait a minute, he's got a 29-foot boat, a 36-foot RV, his kids are healthy, his job's secure, and he doesn't even love God, doesn't even serve God. Something wrong there. That just doesn't seem to measure up. He said, one day it'll measure up. One day it'll all make sense. One day it'll be clear who's serving God and who's not serving God. In this fallen world, that might be the only pleasure they'll ever have. And that might be the only enjoyment they're ever gonna get, whatever they can get in this life. If they die without Christ, that's it. One day it's all gonna make sense. One day you'll be able to figure out, it'll be very obvious. Psalm 58, 11, so that a man may say, verily, there is a reward for the righteous. Verily, He is a God that judgeth in the earth. Truly, there is a reward for the righteous. Truly, somebody's sitting closer than six feet, I think. Truly, there is a reward for the righteous. Truly, verily, he is a God that judgeth in the earth. Deuteronomy 32, 25. God says, to me, belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. I believe this was the text that Jonathan Edwards used when he preached his message, sinners in the hands of an angry God, their foot shall slide in due time. Right now it seems like they're doing well. You remember Asaph said, until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end. Surely thou did set them in slippery places, thou castest them down to destruction. How are they brought into the desolation that is in a moment? And so here in Deuteronomy he says, their foot shall slide in due time. In the meantime, it may seem like there's a great disparity, a great inequality. It may seem like, wow, they're doing well, and we're struggling along, we can barely pay our bills, and we've got negative reports from the doctor, and why are we going through all this? They say, their foot shall slide in due time. There is a God that shall make recompense. There is a God that's gonna straighten it all out. Why, there's a God that keeps all the books. There's a God, if he records every single idle word that people say, To what purpose does he do that? He keeps the books. He's gonna right the wrongs. It's all gonna make sense one day. One day, you'll be able to discern between there's one of God's children and that person's not. There's someone serving God, there's someone that didn't. But the thing is, you're not home yet. You're not home yet. I remember many years ago, reading about a veteran missionary couple, and we're talking way back in the 20s, the 1920s, 1930s, and they had served in Africa their whole lives, for something like 45 years. And back then, it wasn't very easy to come back home, and you didn't have the methods of communication like we have today, and it was not uncommon for somebody to go and be a missionary, and literally just stay there their whole lives. They wouldn't come home every four years on furlough, and they couldn't FaceTime, and they couldn't send messages and text and have it recorded instantaneously. And so a lot of times, if they would write a letter, it might be many, many, many months before that would even get to the states, and then many, many months before the answer would come back from their sending church. So communication was very, very poor, very spotty. So this couple had spent their entire lives on the mission field, some 45, 47, 50 years, something like that. And finally, after investing their entire lives on this foreign field, they had sent a letter ahead to their church that they were coming home. He was having some health difficulties. He needed to come back to America. They were retiring from the field, and they were coming back to America. And on a set day, they were going to be sailing into New York Harbor. And so they sent the letter off many months ahead of their voyage, and finally the day came when it came time to set sail for America. Of course, back then it took several weeks to cross the ocean. And as they were coming into harbor, they wondered if there would be anybody there to meet them. They wondered if anybody cared. Of course, in the time that they had been on the field, the pastor that had sent them out had since died, and he was not the pastor. Another pastor had come along that did not know them. In the course of 40, 50 years, the church completely changes over as far as the people. The older people have died off. New people have come. People have moved away. Everything's changed. And they wondered, would there be anybody there to meet them? As they got close to the harbor, they could see a huge crowd of hundreds and hundreds of people all seeming together in one purpose, and big banners that said, welcome home, and signs, and the man began to get excited that they hadn't forgotten, and the people were there, and they were there to cheer them on and welcome them home, and he was so excited. As the ship got closer, and his excitement began to grow, and he looked at the banners, and then he began to realize they were for somebody else. It was actually a Hollywood movie starlet that was on the ship, and all of those hundreds and hundreds of people had showed up to see that Hollywood movie starlet. They began to wonder, would there be anybody there for him? So they came into harbor, and they disembarked the ship. They began to search the crowd, and the church had never gotten the letter, and nobody was there. And after almost 50 years of service, The man just hung his head broken. Nobody was there. Nobody was there to welcome him back. There was nobody there to say thank you. Nobody there to say we've been praying for you. Thoroughly discouraged, defeated, he came home and his wife took him by the arm and she said, dear, you're not home yet. You're not home yet. And so it is for you and me sometimes. And sometimes in life, and the way is discouraging, and the way is difficult, and life doesn't go the way it seems it ought to go. It seems like if you serve for 50 years on the field in Africa, never take a furlough, and you give God your life, that there'd be there people that would show up and say, man, it's good to see you, it's good to have you back, but you're not home yet. You're not home yet. So things don't always go the way we want them to go, we expect them to go. But God says there's coming a day There's coming a day, and it'll be obvious, you'll be able to discern between the righteous and the wicked. You'll be able to discern between Him that serveth God and Him that serveth Him not. Because it won't be that him that serveth him not is prospering and doing well, and he that serves God is going through difficult times and hard times. He says, no, in that day when I make up my jewels and when I record and put together this final accounting of those that have served me and those that have feared me and those that have fought on my name, in that day you'll be able to tell. In that day you'll know. There won't be any question anymore about who is serving God. You're not home yet. In fact, the truth is, you've never been home. You've never been home. The song about Beulah Land, kind of homesick. Homesick for a country where I've never been. You've never been home. You were born on foreign soil. You've lived your life in this land of your pilgrimage. Philippians 3 says our citizenship is in heaven. It's not here. It's not here. We're just passing through. We're just journeying through. And don't get your tent stakes. Don't drive them too deep into the ground because one of these days we're pulling up stakes and we're going to our permanent home. But in the meantime, there's going to be some things that happen in your life that don't seem fair. They don't seem to make sense. What's the answer to that? You find some people that will encourage you in the journey. Find some people that look at life the way you look at life. Find some people that fear God. He said, those that don't fear God, forsake the fool. He said, go from the presence of him that doesn't fear God. Go from the presence of the fool. Find some people that you can encourage. Isaiah chapter 41 and verse 6, they helped everyone, his neighbor, and everyone said to his brother, be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with a hammer, him that smotheth the anvil, said just encourage each other, encourage each other. There's a race to be run. There's work to be done. In Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 11, Nehemiah says, So I came to Jerusalem, was there three days. And I rose in the night, I and some few men with me. Neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem. Neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and gates thereof were consumed with fire." And so he's going to gather the people in a time of great distress, great deprivation, and trying to rebuild what they had lost because of their sin. In verse 17, he gathers the people. I said unto them, you see the distress that we are in. Nehemiah was a leader. He could have well said, you guys have made a mess of things. No, you see the distress that we are in. How Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God, which was good upon me, as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work. In a time of great distress, in times they come back to the city and they see the results, the ravages of war, they see the end results of their sin, and the people are defeated, they're discouraged. And Nehemiah says, hey look, Let's encourage each other. Let's rise up and build. We can build this again with God's help. And so Nehemiah 4, 6 says, So built we the wall, and all the wall was joined together under the haft thereof, for the people had a mind to work. Oh, there was plenty of opposition in many different forms. You can read the book of Nehemiah and see all of that. There were plenty of people who didn't think like them. Nehemiah 9, verse 1, now in the 24th day of this month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting with sackclothes and earth upon them, and the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And so they said, you know, let's go back to the way it was. Back when God was blessing. And then so they built the wall. They begin to restore the city. And so we've got to make sure we get sin out of our lives. So we don't suffer God's judgment again. So they begin to make their hearts attender towards the things of God. They begin to get right with God. And Nehemiah chapter 10 verse 28, the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethanims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands under the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, everyone having knowledge and having understanding, they clave to their brethren, their nobles. and entered into a curse and into an oath to walk in God's law. which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God, and his judgments and his statutes, and that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons. And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath day or on the holy day, and we would leave the seventh year in the exaction of every debt. So we're gonna go back and do it right now. We're going to let the land lie fallow like God had commanded us every seven years. We're not going to engage in business transactions on the Sabbath day. All of those things that we did before that brought God's great judgment upon us, we're not doing them anymore. Build up the wall, build up the city, and then the people claimed to one another. They found others that loved God. He said, let's love God, let's serve God, let's be in this together. In Nehemiah 10, verse 32, also we made ordinances for us. Verse 39, for the children of Israel, the children of Levi, shall bring the offering of the corn, the new wine, the oil, unto the chambers where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the porters, and the singers, and we will not forsake the house of our God. So look, we're not gonna repeat those same mistakes. We're gonna encourage each other. We're gonna strengthen each other. And we're not gonna forsake the house of our God. We're not gonna repeat those tragic mistakes that led to this destruction. And they encouraged each other. They strengthened each other. In the midst of people that would oppose what they were doing, in the midst of people that did not love their God, they found each other. Just like in Malachi's day, they found each other. In the book of Judges, the men of Israel, Judges 20, 20, the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel put themselves in a ray to fight against him at Gibeah. You remember the great sin in Israel, saying, we're putting that out of the land. Verse 21, the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, destroyed down to the ground. The Israelites that day, 20 and 2,000 men. That was a great setback for those that wanted to do right. Look at verse 22, the people, the men of Israel encouraged themselves and set their battle again in Array in the place where they put themselves in Array the first day. And God blessed, and they won the battle. But they had some setbacks before they won the battle, but they encouraged each other. They strengthened each other's hands. They said, we're in this together. We're going to stand for right. We're going to do right. We're going to encourage each other to do right. Now, you may find yourself sometime, someplace, in some situation where there's nobody to encourage you. There's nobody who thinks like you do and nobody there that wants to serve God. What then? Some of you men and ladies, my heart goes out to you, go to work, and you work in a place that's pagan, it's primitive, and nobody there seems to love God, and everybody there just wants to revel in their sin and their iniquity and glorify filth, and you can feel beaten down, and maybe in your family, you say, nobody in my family's a Christian, I'm the only one, there's nobody in my extended family, my siblings aren't saved, my parents aren't saved, and I don't even wanna go to a family reunion, it's so Pagan is so ungodly and you're gonna find yourself sometimes in situations that in life where it seems like there's nobody to encourage you And sometimes instead of people being for you, they'll be against you what then? First Samuel chapter 30 verse 1 it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day The Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire. Remember, David's on the run from Saul. Verse two, and taken the women captives that were therein. They slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive. Verse four, then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. David's two wives were taking captive a Hindu in the Jezreel it is and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite It's a tough time it's a tough time Everybody Everybody is against him at this point. He's had the city Conquered the wives and children taking captives and And David's own men are saying they're tired of all this, tired of being on the run, and now they've suffered great adversity. Verse six, David was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters, but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Deep anguish of soul, but he found encouragement in the Lord his God. In verse 7 of that same text, David inquired, or David said to Abiathar the priest, Abimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought hither the ephod to David. David inquired of the Lord, shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. At one of the lowest points in David's life, when everything was against him, we read David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. First Samuel chapter 30 verse six, David encouraged himself. Sometimes in your life, it may seem like there's nobody there for you. Nobody even knows, nobody even notices that you're going through a tough time, and nobody's paying you any attention, and you say, man, where's somebody to encourage me? There's some times in your life where maybe there's nobody to encourage you. You better get alone with God. You better get alone with God. You better encourage yourself in the Lord, your God. Malachi 3, 16, than they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. Thank God for the fellowship of the saints. Thank God for the times we can gather together. Thank God for the times we can encourage each other. But there's sometimes, there's sometimes when maybe you just need to get alone with God and say, oh God, I'm hurting tonight. God, help me. I'm discouraged. God, I don't understand why this happened in my life. I don't understand why this over here happened to me. And if God has blessed you with good fellowship, avail yourself of it. But if not, still encourage yourself in the Lord. Here in Malachi's day, The vast majority of the people, they're just playing religious games. Oh, they're showing up. They're bringing the sacrifices, the lame, the blind, and all of that. They've paid lip service to God, but their heart was far from Him. But there was a remnant. There were some people who said, you know what we're gonna do right? We're gonna fear God. We're gonna serve God. And they found each other. And they encouraged each other. Oh, in a day in which this world does not understand, The day of increasing darkness. Let not your heart be troubled. Find each other. Encourage each other. Encourage one another. Bury one another's burdens. And when there are times come that you say, man, it's just not going well, and I don't think anybody knows, and nobody notices, nobody cares, then get alone with God. Get alone with God. Encourage yourself in the Lord. You're not gonna go through life without having discouraging times. You're not gonna go through life when you say, why am I, I've done all this to serve God, and then this. I've poured my heart into my Sunday school class, and I got less kids coming now than when I started. I've tried my best to minister, to reach my neighbor, and I have a worse relationship with him now than when I started. You're gonna go through a discouraging time sometimes. Somebody's gonna misread your intentions. Somebody's gonna misunderstand your motives. Somebody's gonna incorrectly judge you. And you can get discouraged and mad at God and wanna quit. No, find some people that think like you do. Encourage each other. If you say, well, at this point in my life or where I'm gonna be, maybe you'll be someplace where there won't be a lot of people around to encourage you. You go to work and man, it's just pagans that are there. Encourage yourself in the Lord. If you have people to encourage you, thank God for that. But if you don't, encourage yourself in the Lord. Encourage yourself in the Lord. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened and heard it. The Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that fought upon his name. They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day. when I make up my jewels. What a precious thought. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. In this life at this time, it may not always make sense, but you can know based on the authority of the word of God that one day it'll all make sense. One day the God that's recorded every tear The God that's recorded every word, every prayer. He'll make all things right. He'll make all things new. So be of good cheer, Christian. Take heart. Be encouraged. You'll go through some valleys. You'll go through some difficult times. You'll go through some struggles. But there's a God that'll make all things right one day. Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your word. Dear God, may we be encouraged. May we seek to encourage others. Lord, we thank you for the fellowship that we can enjoy on a regular basis. We thank you for your love for us, your provisions for us. Lord, I pray that you'd bless now in this time of invitation. You work in our hearts. Lord, may we be encouraged in you. May we encourage each other in Jesus' name. Amen.