Every time it's my turn to preach, the week is a struggle, and all the other guys that preach can say the same thing. This week was no exception. Let's bow our heads. Father, I sense in my spirit this morning a hesitance to preach the word that you have given us. You are a holy God. and there is only one way of salvation. I just pray, Lord, that you would sanctify my tongue, that I might be faithful and not hold back what you have said in your word. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. If you could turn in your Bibles to Malachi chapter four, that's where we will be some of the time this morning, Before I read the text, I wanna talk a little bit about my dad. Most of you knew my dad. He was a great dad, and I miss him a lot, as many of you do, most of you do, that everyone that knows him, I'm sure, misses him. My dad had many faults. I'm not gonna talk about his faults this morning. When we think of what makes a great father, sometimes we might think of showing up to all his ball games, or he was always there to talk to me. My dad didn't show up to all my games, and that's fine, he couldn't. But you know what, my dad, most of all, I never questioned this about him, and it was the greatest thing about my dad. is that he most of all desired that his children know the Lord. And that was his burning passion. But my dad wasn't better than anyone else. Why was that about my dad? Was it because my dad was a great man? That wasn't the case. The fact is that my dad belonged to a great God. So, Turn to Malachi chapter 4, verse 1. I'm actually focusing on verses 5 and 6, but I'm going to read the whole chapter. It's only six verses. As you know, Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament, and these are the last words that God spoke to Israel for 400 years before Christ. For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and the evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall, and you shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet. on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and the rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the great and awesome day the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. This last part is unexpected for me. I knew this verse. I thought of it kind of like I think of Noah's Ark with all the zoo animals. You know, when you're growing up, you think it's this cute thing, but what does it say? Lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. There's a promise of good news in here, but there's also a very somber warning. Over the past 18 months, no matter where you look, there seems to be an expectation of the coming of the Lord. And as I think, as I was reflecting today about what also my dad was passionate about, he was passionate about seeing the face of the Lord and for his return and glory. Thank you. I needed that. How'd you know I needed that? I've heard a lot of people compare the days we live in to the days prior to World War II, the tension that exists. The expectation of the Lord's return is very high, no matter what your view of end times is. Christians of all stripes are hoping to see the return of the Lord to rescue us and to judge this world. This isn't wrong. It's not a wrong desire to have. But I want to give you a warning today about this. The people of Malachi's day were also looking for the Lord to come. They were looking for his first coming. They longed for their Messiah to come and to bring justice. We've talked a lot about how when Jesus came, they wanted Jesus to kick the Romans out. If you go back 400 years, it was the same thing. except they wanted to kick some other people out. They wanted God to judge everyone else, but not deal with their sin. I want to tell you, God's final judgment is definitely coming, and it's coming soon. But when it happens and how it is going to take place is not nearly as important as this. Are you ready to see him? When he appears, are you going to hide or are you going to have confidence in that day? Okay, so verse five, we're gonna focus on verse five and six. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Why did the hearts of the fathers need to be turned? This was a kind of a burning question, and some of us guys have been studying Malachi. And I'm gonna go through a few of those reasons for you as to why Malachi said this. If you can turn back in your Bibles, maybe you can follow along. I'm not gonna read through the whole book, of course. The main problem that they had is unbelief. They were children of Israel. They worshiped in the temple. They had not stopped worshiping God. They had a form of external religion. And when they came, they covered the altar with their tears. And the Lord talks about this, like, why are you covering the altar with your tears? They had emotion. They had passion. They were there worshiping. But the Lord would not accept their offerings. Why? As I considered this, I thought about, we live near, we live near a farmer's field who grows corn. And every once in a while, After the harvest, some husks will blow into our yard. Those husks are fragile, and they're decaying, and there's nothing inside of any value. This is what we are like when we have an outward form of religion, but we have no reality. And this is what the men of Israel were like. They start out at the beginning of the book The Lord says in verse two and verse chapter one, I have loved you, says the Lord. And what is their response? How have you loved us? Can you imagine saying that to the Lord? Why did they think this? They had a sense of entitlement, like God owed them something. They even said it is vain to serve God. Why did they say that? It was because they saw their ungodly neighbors rolling in money, rolling in wealth while they were suffering under God's hand of discipline. It was very unpleasant. Last week, Dick preached about Mordecai and how the Lord spared Israel from the hand of Haman. This is like maybe a hundred years later. and they need to be saved again. And what is it they need to be saved from? Their own wicked hearts. They had already been saved from the bad guys around them. What good did it do them? They're right back in their sinful misery again. One of the problems that they had was that they had a low view of sin. And this is what led them to this idea that God owed them something. We go to temple, we worship, we're sacrificing our animals, but what kind of animals were they sacrificing? They were sacrificing the lame and the sick and the polluted because they didn't fear God. They didn't think God was worthy of their worship in their hearts. Their external conformity would only allow them to go so far. All they had was a husk. The Lord says, you despise my name. Guys, we need to be very careful when we come into this house of worship, that we're not here just to please people, that we are here because we have been saved from eternal damnation by a God who loves us. That should be our motivation for coming here. And even worse than that, the priests accepted their offerings. The priests knew what these people were giving them, and they still sacrificed them on their altars. And the Lord says to them in verse 10 of chapter one, oh, that there was one among you who would shut the doors, that you would not kindle my fire on my altar in vain. The Lord does not need our half-hearted, ungodly worship. He wants worshipers to worship him in spirit and in truth. Next, they failed to tithe. They wouldn't give money to the Lord. The priests relied upon that in order to eat, and their storehouses were empty. So the priests had to go out and farm themselves, And so what do you think happened to the teaching? They were teaching false doctrine. These guys, first of all, they probably didn't have faith themselves. And second of all, they weren't able to be in the word. So the Lord says, you have robbed me. You have robbed me. And it gets worse. And this might be the worst of all. The men of Israel, even the Levites, were getting rid of their wives. and they were marrying the pagan wives of their surroundings. These women who had born them children, who had grown a little older, they looked at them, they thought, I could do a lot better over here with these pagan women. It was a wicked thing. The Lord calls it an abomination. Not only were they getting rid of their wives, they were marrying pagan wives. Let's, if you could turn one moment to chapter two in verse 10, this is what the Lord says to this. Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah has been faithless and abomination has been committed in Israel. Sometimes we think of abomination as just being things like homosexuality, which is an abomination. But divorcing your wife for the purpose of taking someone that's a little prettier and doesn't know the Lord, that is an abomination in God's eyes. It's been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves. He has married the daughter of a foreign God. That's why he says, have we not all one father? Why are you going to marry someone else who's going to lead you to marry another God? There is only one God. May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob, any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts. And the second thing you do, so here's what they're doing. They're committing this sin and it doesn't just affect their wives. It affects all their children. Who's gonna take care of them? And so they come into the house of the Lord and spread the altar with tears because he won't accept their offerings. What they want is for God to accept their offerings and stay in sin. How often do we do this, guys? How often do we come here and wonder why our hearts are far from him? We wonder why we're not being blessed with joy. It's because we're engaging in gross sin. We need to repent. Many Christians today believe that God accepts worship from other gods. Did you know this? I read this in a survey, in a 2020 survey of evangelicals by Ligonier Ministries, 42% of evangelicals believe that God accepts the worship of all religions, including Islam and Judaism. 42% of evangelicals, brothers and sisters, God's people right now are committing abomination. We need to repent. Not only is it an abomination to do this, the Lord says in verse 16, The man who does not love his wife and divorces her says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence. You know why the best thing about my dad is that he wanted me to walk with the Lord? Because my soul is eternal. Your soul is eternal. The fact that my dad wanted me to walk with the Lord is because he wanted to see me again in heaven, which is, I am gonna see him, which is awesome. We should all be praying for our children. Be on your guard that you do not fall into gross sin. Your children pay the price. Notice that these men thought that they were worshiping God. They thought they were worshiping God. How familiar all this sounds to us. Many churches have turned away from the living God today. I thank the Lord that this one hasn't. Praise the Lord. We are at his mercy and he has preserved us, but we are no better than any other church. How many are attempting today to redefine marriage? How many have accepted that? How many are calling good evil and evil good? How would God turn the hearts of Israel? Only God can do it, but how does he do it? Let's read those verses again, verses four through six of chapter four. Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and the rules that I commanded him on Horeb for Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. The Lord is sending, he sent already. He sent his word through his prophet and then he sent the Lord himself. Turn over to chapter three at verse one. This is speaking about the same thing. So at the end of the book, he's repeating what he said in chapter three. He's chapter three says a little bit more. He says, behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. That's Elijah and he, the Lord whom and, and the Lord whom you seek. That's sarcasm. The Lord, they weren't seeking the Lord. The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. What was the temple that Jesus walked in? It was his own body. This is talking about the incarnation and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Did they really delight in the Lord? This is more sarcasm. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts, but who can endure the day of his coming? In other words, you guys are waiting for the Messiah to come, but who can stand before him? Can you stand? Look what you're doing. What you're doing is evidence that something is lacking inside. You guys think that you're a child of Abraham because you were born into this family, but that is not what makes a child of Abraham. Who can stand when he appears? He is like a refiner's fire and like fuller soap. He will sit as a refiner in a pure, a fire of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi. He will purify the sons of Levi. So even though we have this warning of what they were doing, the Lord is saying, I am going to come and purify you. I will do it and refine them like gold and silver. and they will bring offerings and righteousness to the Lord. No more sick and lame animals being brought to the altar. And you guys are probably thinking, I know what my worship is like. This can't possibly be talking about me. I'm with you, believe me. How is it that we can bring righteous offerings to the Lord? Sinful people like us, there is a way. There is a way. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old and in former years. Then I will draw near to you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely. In the book of Acts, when Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit, what happened to them? They dropped dead. What is that a sign of? The Lord is purifying his people. Does this happen every time someone lies to the Holy Spirit? No, but we should know surely that the Lord is ascended on high and he is purifying his people. He will hold to account those who swear falsely against him and those who oppress the hired worker for his wages. The widow and the fatherless against those who thrust aside the sojourner and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. The Lord will do it. Sometimes, I'm going to read in just a moment, I'm going to read a portion of who this, the preaching of who this messenger was. Does anybody know who Elijah was in Malachi? Anybody want to guess? John the Baptist. Okay, turn to Matthew 17. Jesus had just been transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration. And who should appear with him but Moses and Elijah? So the apostles, the disciples, are thinking to themselves, maybe that's what Malachi is talking about, because Elijah was here. And so the disciples, they're walking down the mountain. As they were coming down the mountain in verse nine, Jesus commanded them, tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead. And the disciples asked him, then why did the scribes say that first Elijah must come? Why don't you want us to tell anyone? This promise was fulfilled, finally. He answered, Elijah does come and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come. And they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the son of man will surely, certainly suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist. So John the Baptist is the one spoken of in Malachi. So how was it, how was it that he would turn the hearts of the men of Israel? I told you that we live near a big cornfield. One of the things that I know is happening in the springtime when my nose starts running, I know that the farmer's plowing his field. He's turning that soil over. He's taking all the stuff that's dead and he's recycling it. Right, Dean? I guess so. The soil needs to be turned up so that the seeds can get underground and can germinate. Otherwise, they just sit on the top of the ground and they don't do much. As Jesus said in Matthew 13 about the sower, the sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. The plowing of the soil is necessary for the gospel to take root. What is it that plows the soil of our hearts? It's the law of God. It also, another thing it does, it uproots the root systems of the weeds so that they can't interfere as much with the good seed. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. If you till that soil, you're preaching the law. It clears the mind so that you can see what you really are. Before the seeds can be planted, the ground must be prepared for the soil to take root. Elijah the prophet, or John the Baptist, was God's plowman. He was preparing the way of the Lord. In verse one of chapter three, which we read, if you could turn back there real quick. Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before who? Before me. This is the Lord speaking. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. He's preparing the way of the Lord. What did John preach? Was he a smooth-talking salesman? If you were sitting there listening to him, would you have said, this guy must have been trained in such and such a seminary. He's an amazing speaker. Your hair probably would have gone backwards if you were listening to him preaching. I'm not going to just talk about it. Let's read about him a little bit. Let's hear what he had to say. Matthew chapter 3. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John wore a garment of camel's hair. He didn't have nice shoes. He didn't wear an expensive suit. He wore camel's hair, just like Elijah. He came in the spirit of Elijah, which is why Malachi mentions that, calls him Elijah. A leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and honey. I considered that for a while, like why would he eat locusts and honey? Well, it was probably all he had to eat, right? I thought about eating locusts and honey to prepare for the sermon, but I decided not to. I'm not too big on insects. What is locusts a picture of in scripture? A plague, God's judgment. What is honey? Sweetness. Isn't that a perfect picture of the word of God? wrath and grace. If you don't hear the judgment and the wrath, the grace isn't gonna make any sense. Why would you want the grace if you don't even know that you're in trouble? Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him. And they were baptized by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins. That was the effect that his preaching had. But listen to this, when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming up to his baptism, he said to them, welcome, take off your shoes. We're so glad you're here. No, you brood of vipers. It's not very seeker sensitive, is it? Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. They thought they had a lot of fruit, didn't they? The fruit they didn't have was the fruit that came out of a regenerated heart. They had the fruit that they looked at each other and thought, we're pretty good. We do this and this and this. But they didn't keep the weighty things of the law, like loving their neighbors. Do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now, the ax is laid at the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. This is another reference to Malachi 3. He is a refiner's fire. I want to put this another way, just to kind of bring it home, because sometimes we think of John the Baptist as living in another planet, you know, in a galaxy far, far away, far removed from us, but he did live on this planet that we live on, and he did preach here. So if you were speaking now, he might say something like this. You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, I grew up in a Christian home. I was baptized into the church. My grandparents founded this church. Don't presume to say that to yourself. I prayed the prayer when I was five. That's me. Anybody can say the words. Look at the verses that I memorized. I memorized the entire book of Romans. Good. Do you have a new heart? Look at how good of a person I am. For I tell you, God is able from the bricks and the drywall of this building to raise up children of Abraham. Even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees. Brothers and sisters, do not depend upon your works for salvation. You must be born again. George Whitfield used to preach, you must be born again, over and over and over. And one time an old lady came up to him and said, sir, why do you always preach that we must be born again? You know what he said? Because, madam, You must be born again. It's true. For so many of us in American Christianity, we have an outward shell, but we have nothing inside. We have a thin veneer of religion. We can fool one another, but God looks at the heart. God's not going to care what people think of you on Judgment Day. We are in the last days. In 2 Timothy 3, the Spirit tells us this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty where people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving God, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having the appearance of godliness. He's not talking about everyone out there. It's people that claim the name of Christ, but denying its power. What is the power? The power is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe through the gospel. God's not interested in your good works to save you. This is hard to hear. These things are meant to plow our hearts, to be ready to hear the good news. The ones that Malachi was speaking to thought they wanted Messiah to come. But the Lord whom they seek will come, but they were not ready to stand before him. I want to ask you today, are you hoping for deliverance? What type of deliverance are you hoping for? This is a test. If the type of deliverance you're looking for is to be delivered from evil politicians, I don't like evil politicians either. I want to live in a free country. But what God is most concerned with is will you be delivered from the wrath of God? How will you stand on that day? Who can endure his coming? That's a rhetorical question. The answer is no one. No one is able to stand. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, not even one. So, what do we do? He's going to turn their hearts, and this time it's going to be final. The Lord brought them to repentance many times in the Old Testament. And you can hear the grief in Malachi in the voice of the Lord. This time, he's going to change their hearts and it's going to be final. How does he do it? We know that he plows our hearts with the law, but the law can't save us, can it? If it could, Jesus would not have had to come and die on the cross. There would be no purpose. Verse two of chapter four says, the son of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. This time, the Lord himself would purify the sons of Levi. Who are the sons of Levi? It's not a trick question. Revelation chapter one, yes, in the Old Testament, they were the priests, but in Christ, We have been made kings and priests unto God. It says that in Revelation chapter one, everyone who is in Christ is a purified priest unto God. Malachi 4.5 says that their hearts were turned toward their children. This is not speaking about attending all their sporting events. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's not talking about giving your children better self-esteem and telling them what they want to hear. And it certainly doesn't mean allowing our children to indulge in whatever sin they want to indulge in. That's not a good dad. He's saying that the fathers seek the spiritual well-being of their children, that they walk with the Lord. He turns their hearts. The reason for this is that their hearts would be purified by the Lord. That is what fathers need. We need new hearts. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, cannot do. I want you to turn with me again, turn to Ezekiel 36. I'm just going to read a portion of this. starting at verse 25, a promise of the new covenant. I will sprinkle clean water on you. You will be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols, I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart. Who gives us a new heart? God does. I got to tell you, One of the things, I probably said this before, I'm sorry I always repeat myself because I don't remember what I say from one day to the next. That's okay. One of the things I really struggled with growing up was, was I sincere enough when I asked Jesus into my heart? Do you know what? Salvation is the work of God. He gives us a new heart. If you trust in the Lord with any degree at all, the grain of a mustard seed, that faith is a gift from God. If you have faith from God, you have a new heart. If you trust in him, he has redeemed you. And he says, I will give you a new heart, a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh. The Lord will do this and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you. Not only does he do that, he causes us to walk in his statutes. That's why the psalmist can say, I delight in the law of God in my inmost being. We can't do that by ourselves. Our hearts are desperately wicked. Don't trust your heart. Trust the Lord. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules. You don't have to turn here, but in Hebrews 8, verse 10, he says, for this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, the days that they came out of Egypt, when God made a covenant with them. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God. There's no condition there. In the old covenant, everything was conditional. So in Malachi, he's telling them, remember all my rules to do them. If they didn't do them, they fell into the curses of the law. Under the new covenant, God has done away with this. God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, cannot do. I will be their God, they shall be my people. They shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, for I will be merciful. This is a declaration from God. Have you guys done anything to deserve this? I know I haven't. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more. And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. It's done. When Christ hung on the cross, he said, it is finished. What is finished? He accomplished everything that the law required for you. And he took all of your sin on himself by his stripes. You are healed. God does not require external conformity. There's no purpose in that. All you're gonna do is continue to heap judgment on yourself. Anyone who relies upon the works of the law for salvation is under the curse. Cast yourself on his mercy. Look to Christ and be saved. Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. How do you do that? By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. You might read that verse and think, oh great, now I gotta walk according to the Spirit, or I'm not saved. That's not what he's saying. Verse nine, you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if, in fact, the Spirit of God lives in you. That's a fact. And God is the one who puts a spirit in you. If salvation was all up to you, none of you would be saved. It is the work of God. The question I put to you today is, are you ready to face God when he comes? He's coming. Are you ready to face him? There is only one way that you can face him. And that is if your hope is in him alone and his perfect righteousness covers you. When I asked the question, are you ready to face God? If you're thinking about all the good things that you've done, if you're thinking back, yeah, I gave to that person, I did this, I did that. If that's what you're thinking, If you think that's your ticket to heaven, then you are not in Christ. You must repent. You must be born again. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. When that verse says that, think about, do you have the evidence that you are a new creature? Do you love what God loves? It's not saying, are you a perfect person? We're all sinners. Do you desire to walk with him? If you are a new creature, you will love what God loves. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. What that means is to trust in him. To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ means do not trust in your own works. It's like if you were in a plane, you've probably all heard this before, and You're falling out of a plane. The ground is quickly approaching. Thankfully, you have a parachute on your back. What are you going to do with the parachute? You're going to open it, aren't you? The Lord Jesus is your parachute. Judgment Day is the ground, and it's coming fast. If you got out of that plane and you grabbed someone's backpack that didn't have a parachute in it, that's like your works. Your works can't stop you. It only is going to make the impact even worse. What do we believe about Jesus? Believe that when he was crucified on the cross, that all of your guilt was laid upon him. This is the message that changes the hearts of men. You want to be a good father? Trust the Lord. Look to him. That is the only way that you're going to have any hope and peace in this life. That is how the hearts of men are changed. I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The gospel is like the words of Jesus spoken to Lazarus in that tomb. When he spoke to him, Lazarus got up and he walked out of the tomb. That is like the gospel to our ears. Lazarus didn't get up and walk out because he was strong. He got up because the Lord commanded him to get up. That is how the gospel works. Repent and believe and you will be saved. I want to read one more passage in Isaiah, Isaiah 55. Starting at verse one. Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. He who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good. delight yourselves in rich food, incline your ear and come to me, here that your soul may live. And I will make with you an everlasting covenant. Salvation's free. There is nothing you can do to earn it. Come without money. Buy and eat. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we just pray that you would open our ears to hear. Let us not think for a moment that we can be good fathers in our sinful flesh, that there's anything good in us, but let us cling to our Savior. who alone is able to save us, whose sacrifice and his blood on the cross is our only hope of salvation. And Lord, I pray for all the fathers here, help us to raise children that fear you and love you. The hearts of the children turn toward the fathers because the fathers have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, sanctify us. Cause us to walk in your ways as you've promised. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.