Very interesting that the Old Testament ends with a curse showing the impermanence of it. There must be more to come. That word curse was a reminder to Israel that they needed the Saviour who was 400 years later indeed to come. Now the subject which we have today is the subject of the sweet fellowship which there is between God's people in days of declension the sweet fellowship which there is between God's people in days of declension and you will find my text in chapter 3 and in verses 16 and 17 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. And 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. Now obviously Malachi is the last of the prophets of the Old Testament and he is one of three prophets whom we gather together under one general heading of being the restoration prophets. These three are Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. As I mentioned earlier there will be 400 years now from Malachi's time all the way through to John the Baptist and Christ and in those four hundred years there was no prophet, no prophecy. God was silent from the days of Malachi all the way through till the spirit of prophecy was given again to John the Baptist who was the greatest of the prophets, the last of the prophets and the great preparer for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. These three Prophets need to be perhaps distinguished slightly like this. The great work of Haggai was to stir up the people to build again the temple which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian in the invasion of 586 BC. So the work of Haggai was to rouse the spirit of the people. They were sluggish, they were discouraged, they were cast out, they felt that God had judged them and that they were without the enthusiasm to do the work of God necessary to build the temple again. So the work of Haggai was to tell them God will bless them if they put their hands to the work. They must not be dispirited and there is a great lesson in that. It is true that God was angry with them and no doubt in many ways angry with our society. but that's no excuse for us to sit down with our hands folded and putting our heads in our knees and just going to sleep and doing nothing more about it we must promote the gospel all we can and show all the love and all the kindness we can to spread the word of God in every way we may that then was Haggai the next prophecy is that of Zechariah most wonderful little book of 14 chapters and of those three restoration prophets it is Zechariah who was given by God the long term vision and this vision consisted of this he explained how when the temple was built as it would be that God would again be with the people as he had been in the days of old he would again bless the Jewish nation and he would prepare them for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ but then with the spirit of prophecy Zechariah sees that once more the Jews will fall into a state of sin and of apostasy. There is a terrible chapter 11 in which we have the prophecy of the sin of Judas Iscariot betraying our Lord for 30 pieces of silver and how Jesus Christ as the shepherd of the church casts off the Jewish people and consigns them to that blindness and that deadness which was to come upon them at and after his ministry. but then in chapter 12 as I mentioned I think yesterday or recently again in chapter 12 Zechariah sees that the day will come when the Jews will come in again and great blessing will follow to the world as we mentioned more than once already and then he goes on right to the very very end of time looking forward to the second coming and moving from a state of grace in this world to a state of glory in the world to come. So Zechariah of these three restoration prophets has the great long term vision of God's purposes. So what then is Malachi's task? Well his task is to show the sinfulness of the people of his day. He challenges them for the way in which they are so ungrateful for all that God has done. Well we in Britain have that lesson to learn. What mercies God has shown to us in Britain The Bible in their own language for all these centuries. We once had a great empire upon which the sun didn't set, ever. And that was true even as late as 1940, 1918, that period. Kingdoms, our empire was everywhere. And the influence of gospel light went from us and from you all over the world. Literature, books, pure written books, reform books, all these things came in our language and were so easy for us to read. And yet today in Britain, oh the shame, we've forgotten God. Churches are feeble, leaders in church and state, how little are any conception as to the privileges God has given us as a nation and we're busy selling our birthright and casting it away. Well that is exactly what Malachi rebukes. He rebukes the people for their various sins and it is a seasonable thing therefore for us to look at this wonderful text in chapter 3, 16 and 17. Then they that fear 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 fear the Lord and have thought upon his name and 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's spare of his own son that serveth him. Oh what a beautiful text. Let's memorise it. Let's put it into our minds and learn it and meditate upon it all the days of our life. It certainly is the text we need surely for this subject. Sweet fellowship amongst the people of God in a dark day. Could any text be more suited to explain this very point? Now my heading. First of all I want to look at the subject, what do we mean by dark days? Sweet fellowship for God's people in dark days. Now what are the dark days? In some ages, as we have noticed already, God is manifestly at work in the world. Now you see this in the days of the Exodus, when Moses was the leader of the people. God was clearly doing great things. We have ten plagues that came upon Egypt. Then we have God opening up the waters of the Red Sea. We have the people going through. We have the enemies destroyed by the flood. We have God's people in triumph led forward. Now God was manifestly at work, visibly at work. All even those who were most spiritually dead could see that there was a God doing great things in society in the days of Moses that was also true in the days of Joshua because when you come a little later beyond the death of Moses to the ministry of Joshua again God was manifestly at work he opens up the waters of the river Jordan they all go through priests bearing the ark then they come to Jericho and after a certain preliminary walking around the city and blowing a trumpet the walls fall down. All this was God manifestly and visibly at work. But then when Joshua dies and the next generation dies what are we told? In the days of the judges every man did that which was right in his own eyes. So there you have a day of darkness you see you have these bright days and glorious days and then you have these days of declension and days when the course goes low. Now let me give you another example. Take the life of Hezekiah, the king. Hezekiah was a wonderful king, not perfect, but a very great leader among the people of God and he brought great reforms among the people of the Lord. Reforms in worship, reforms in morality, and especially when there was the threat of war from Sennacherib the Assyrian do you remember how they encircled the city of Jerusalem and they cried to the people on the walls in the Hebrew language and there was no point in trying to stage a defense there was no hope look what we have done already look at all the nations we have flattened do you suppose that your God is going to deliver you any more than their God delivered them come down and surrender and will take you to another country and there you can make your home in some other land and Zechariah rather Hezekiah spread it remember before the Lord cried out to God and received this answer from God through the prophet Isaiah that God would rebuke this proud man Sennacherib and all his hosts and 185,000 of the Assyrians were killed in one night and the king went home with his tail between his legs and his own sons that came from his own bowels killed him in the temple of his god Nisrod now that was God manifestly at work in the days of Hezekiah and the people of the Lord rejoiced to see it but Hezekiah's wonderful reign was immediately followed by a long terrible reign a reign of terror by his son Manasseh and in Manasseh's time blood of innocent men flowed freely in the city. So you see that's the difference between a bright time and a dark time, a time of blessing and a time of difficulty. Now what about our modern years and our modern countries? Well in Europe we have the Reformation, that is a bright time. Luther's writings and the theses he nailed up on the Shostakov door in Wittenberg, these writings of Luther, his 95 theses and his treatises they were flying within weeks all over Europe and being translated into French, German, well they were already in German and other languages so that people could read them everywhere they came to Britain had a tremendous effect on Scotland and the reformation began in all these different countries also in Italy and Spain and Portugal for a time until the Catholic Church stamped it out almost totally by killing the people who were the leaders so There was the great reformation followed by in Scotland the Covenanters and in England the Puritans. But lo and behold when these bright and glorious times were over England and Scotland fell into great darkness. Immorality came in again. In Scotland a moderate age was to be seen in the 18th century in Scotland. No gospel to speak of in the churches. bulk of the churches were dead, no power in preaching, no life among the people, poor writings, poor sermons and so on. So you see that's the difference between days of God manifesting himself and days of declension in our own lifetime, at least in the countries that we are familiar with. And when we come here to the United States, you think of the days of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, these marvellous preachers that God raised up and theologians and Whitfield would preach conveniently and easily in the open air to twenty or thirty thousand people. He had a marvellous voice, almost a unique voice. He could be heard easily in a crowd of thirty or more thousand people in the open air. God gave him a voice which is almost unique and a great blessing ensued. When you read the accounts of what happened under Edwards' preaching Sin is in the hand of an angry God, and the revivals that occurred in Northampton and elsewhere, Whitfield preaching in the eastern seaboard of America, crowds gathered, many being saved, churches being built up. That was wonderful, but then what happened next? After that came a period of deadness. Unitarianism of all things sprang up in New England, and that has continued for a long time since. I'm happy to hear that recently the conferences in New England are showing signs of new life and new love for the Reformed faith. But I'm saying these things to show what we mean by dark days. Dark days are days when God is not visibly or manifestly at work. Now, what are the elements within a dark day which make it dark? Let me select five. First of all, when in the churches and in society there is very little love for God, then that is a dark day. When people do not show by their lives, within their families, by relationships of husbands and wives to one another, of parents and children to one another, when children are regarded as goods and chattels and are not brought up with care and love and educated in the things of God. When suburbs are disregarded, when the house of God is neglected, when truth is of no importance, when everybody's eyes are upon the things of this life and nobody's eyes, or very few, are upon the things of God in heaven, then that is a sign of little love for God. You know what Christ says to the churches in the book of Revelation? Thou hast a name to live, but art dead. and to another church that they had many activities and were doing many things and were very busy but they had left their first love, their first love for God. Now the most important thing in religion is love for God. You can have lots of meetings and lots of guilds and lots of societies and lots of things for young people and older people and that's perhaps all very well in its place but the main thing is love for God and love for truth and love for holiness of life. When these things are at the bottom of the list and all the rest is at the top of the list, then that is a sign that people are in a bad state spiritually. It is a dark day. Second, when marriage is disregarded, that is a sign of this dark day that we are referring to. I am not simply selecting these things out of my own imagination all of these points are right here in the book of Malachi in the very first chapter it says that God charges the people and says I have loved you saith the Lord and yet you say wherein hast thou loved us? God says I chose you, I loved Jacob and I hated Esau don't you appreciate that? I almighty God in sovereign grace have loved your ancestors I have made you a peculiar people is that not a small thing in your eyes? and it was they had no little love for God and then a little later on in chapter 2 we are told about the attitude among the Jews concerning marriage that the men were making the women so unhappy in their families The women were weeping on the altar and they were crying out to God because of the unfaithfulness of their husbands. Now of course this is very common in society today. We're in just such a dark age as that. Marriage is at a low ebb and roughly 50% of all the marriages in the UK today are breaking up. I'm not sure if you're better or worse than we are but that's a shocking state of affairs. That is what was happening in the days of Malachi. Marriage vows were not regarded. People were promising to be faithful to one another and then they were ignoring their promises. Now a third evidence of this darkness in society is when the ministry is feeble and the ministry is unspiritual. And you get this right here. Let me tell you the words that Malachi uses by inspiration. speaking in the name of God he says you priests he says and of course in the Old Testament the priests were the ministers you priests he said you dishonour me I'll tell you how I'll punish you says God I'll spread dung on your faces even the dung of your fallen feasts what a thing for God to say dung on the faces of the ministers I will make you contemptible among the people says God to the ministers now that's what God does when ministers are not what they ought to be The glory of the church is holy ministers preaching truth faithfully and honestly from the word of God. Like these great names of old, Calvin and Luther and Spurgeon, Dr. Lloyd-Jones, laboring night and day to bring the riches of the truth unto the people. Now when ministers live lives in which they are only interested in themselves and their reputation and being seen with a microphone in all the photographs and in all the magazines and when they are only concerned about how much money they get, how much popularity they get, how much support they get and applause, that is a sign that the ministry is unspiritual. Ministers are to give themselves to the people, to love the people, if need be to die for the people, as the covenanting ministers often had to do. The people are more important than themselves and are to be regarded as such. One more, and that is when people who profess Christianity do not give of their material goods to the work of Christ, then that is a sign of lack of love for God. And you have it here in Malachi, I think we read it didn't we? You have robbed me, says God. And the people says, where in have we robbed you? In that You have not given me the tithes and the offerings. You have not contributed as a material support of the work of the gospel that you should have done. You have been careless about supporting the work of the gospel of Christ and God charges them for that. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse. that they may be meet in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there should not be room enough to receive it." So there is the evidence of the dark day. When the ministry is weak, when professing Christians live careless lives, then we have this dark day. which is mentioned in the title of my sermon today. Now dear friends, is it not true that in many ways you and I live in a dark day. There is so little love of God to be seen. Great prophets in their day speak about this dark day. Christ went into the temple, the holy place of God. Christ the son of God and he looked round What an ominous thing it is said. Jesus Christ went into the temple and he looked round and surveyed what they were doing. And what were they doing? Buying and selling oxen and sheep. Our Lord came and he overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of those that sold those. He made a little whip and drove them out. Make not my father's house a place of merchandise, he said. This is supposed to be a place of holiness, of worship, of truth, a place of prayer for all nations. Look what you have done with it. Sadly to say, very often the problem in churches is the ministers and the leaders. They have not lived this godly, holy, sober life. And we are all guilty. And the best of us is guilty. And we all have something to repent of. And that's what the word of God brings us here to see. That's my first head. When I put it to your consciences, is it not so that there's a lot of darkness in our day? Where are the revivals? Where are the great movements of God? Where are the eminent men leading us in the paths of righteousness? I say we're all guilty in a measure and we all have something to repent of in dark days. But now turning from that, My text talks about the godly men and women and children who gather together for fellowship in the dark day. I give you my text again, 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 had thought upon his name. And 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. Now the encouraging truth here is this that in the worst of days and in the darkest of days and in the most trying of times God reserves a remnant to himself. God will have a holy people in the worst of times. Now you see this all the way through the Old Testament. No matter how dark the times were, there were some in every age who feared the Lord, and their names are held in great honour and esteem in Scripture. Many of the Jews all throughout the Old Testament were just worshipping false religions, entering into apostasy, but there were the godly, there were the righteous, there were those who feared the Lord in all those times. and it carries over into the New Testament there's a beautiful section you may know in Luke chapter 2 Our Lord was born and Mary and Joseph came with the babe to perform the usual ceremonies concerning him brought the babe into the temple and there was an old woman Anna and an old man Simeon They had been spending their days laboring in prayer with fasting and crying out to God to revive his work in these dark days of pharisaism, sadduceism, superstition, self-righteousness, formalism. Here they were night and day laboring with God in prayer and others with them whose names we may not know. And in came Mary carrying the child. The Spirit of God came upon Simeon and he cried out Oh, this is the child, he said, this is the child we've been waiting for, for all these centuries. Then having lifted up the babe, now let us thus, thy servant, depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, the light that lightens the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And you see how that godly man and this godly woman had spent all these years fasting and praying and yearning for revival, and now Here in his own hands the old man held this precious eternal God-man, this child who would shake the heavens and earth and bring in the kingdom and who is still working his own secret purposes to bring his children to glory. So then these were the godly. Now how are we to explain this? It's because spiritual people are different from others. It's not just that they have been baptised though baptism is important of course it's not just of their church members though that's a very important thing too it's that godly people are different from other people they have a new nature they have been born from above and they love God and they are jealous for his honour and they hate it when they hear God evil spoken of and blasphemed and they don't amuse themselves as others do by talking cheap things about God and religion to them God and the things of God are the most precious subjects in all the world and because they are born again they have hungry souls and when they go to churches or fellowships or anywhere else where they are given bricks without straw or if you like given straw without nourishment when they are given stones instead of bread to feed their immortal souls. They are spiritual people and they know very well that's no use. This is a tragedy which happened in Scotland in the late 19th century. The great preachers of Scotland began to decline and the reason was higher criticism. It came from Germany. Some of the scholars went to Germany to study and you see this is what always happens in churches. The first generation is godly The second generation becomes very learned, they all go in for PhDs and what not, which is all very well as far as it goes, provided you have the experience of grace in your heart. And then the third generation become worldly. It always happens. It happened in a free church of Scotland. Great leaders, 1843, Thomas Chalmers, and the chain had just gone to glory. Andrew Boner, Horatius Boner and a whole host of wonderful men, great scholars and when they went into their graves the next generation were busy undoing all that the first generation had done and the higher criticism came in and the higher criticism said you cannot believe the Bible straight as it is our forefathers were ignorant the Bible contains many errors and our duty is to get rid of the supernatural and to believe the residue and of course the people in the pews they voted with their feet They said, if you can't believe the Bible, then why should we go to church listening to that fellow with a collar around his neck preaching to us? And that's how church going declined. The Lord's people however, those who were true, they simply left the Free Church of Scotland and went into the Brethren movement. And many of the Brethren in the 19th century and 20th century, they were free church people who got no food for their souls in that old free church. That's always the case. The Lord's people have hungry souls. Isn't that true of you? You love the books, not so that you can tell people how many Purim's you've read. There are people like that and that's shocking. We read the books because our souls are hungry for truth. We want to know God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We want to know the things that belong to our everlasting peace and joy. So these born again hungry souls they recognise one another now I don't know the faintest thing about the organisation of this conference nor would it be proper for me to ask but I quite imagine that many of you have never met each other before and yet I imagine as soon as you meet one another you realise you've met kindred souls you've met somebody who's thinking as you think and who believes as you believe and that's what happens you see when we have hungry souls we recognise others who have hungry souls And here's something about the Lord's true people, the godly, those who fear the Lord, here's something about them, they must talk about spiritual subjects. Oh what a shocking thing it is when Christians so-called get together and they talk about the world. I have a dear friend in the ministry of the continuing church in Skye, dear good man, and he had this horrible experience once. he was going to a conference in England and people in Scotland from another denomination they offered him a lift so he got in his car with these people from a different denomination going to this conference in England and he was looking forward to the fellowship so he sat down in the car, the car took off and for several hours all these other people in front of the car could talk about was what kind of car is that? what kind of car is that? what kind of car is that? and he wanted to talk about his soul and the truth and the word of God and theology and spiritual experiences you see the Lord's people must talk about godly things let me tell you an experience I had in the ministry many years ago boys and girls you would understand this I hope ministers have to visit homes you know we go round and knock on the door where we have members and friends and adherents we go in and we talk to the people and ask them questions about their souls and talk about their condition spiritually and this is my experience I went into this particular house and when I sat down I started to talk to the two people who were coming to the church about their souls and about Christ and about salvation what sort of response did I get? stone wall. Nothing came out of their mouth. And they quickly talked about the weather and about something else. So I tried again and stone wall, nothing happened. Now it so happened that there was an old lady sitting by the fireplace, about 93, and she hadn't said a word, she was just hanging her head and listening. But the more I spoke about Christ, the more she woke up. And the more I spoke about Christ, the nearer she came. and in the end she was stroking my face literally, yeah! that is worth stroking stroking my face and I was turning away from these other people to her and we were talking together about Christ and our souls and when I left the house the other two people who were coming to the church they said to me we can't understand it she hasn't spoken for weeks and yet she is speaking fluently to you And of course I knew why, we were talking about the things that matter to her. Nothing mattered but her soul and her saviour and the glories of heaven. Now that's what godly people are like, they recognise one another. Oh my dear friends, when we gather together, let us remember this text. They that fear the Lord speak often one to another. Now, God here gives us rich and wonderful encouragement. to cultivate the spiritual conversation, which is my third heading. It is full of encouragement. Look at this. When we speak one with another, we are not on our own. The Lord hearkened and heard it. If I may be so bold I could put it like this. God hears all conversations, knows what all people are talking about. But our says God they are talking about the world, let them get on with it. Or they're talking about football or baseball, let them get on with it. Wait a minute, I hear people talking about heaven, let me come down and listen, here is a woman, here is a man, they're thinking about Christ my son, they're thinking about glory and about God, let me come down and talk and listen with them. This is a conversation which gives me joy, the conversation of godly, loving people whose hearts are filled with the desire for heavenly things. he hearkens and he hears. Yes and not only that but more. I shall write a book says God. God writes the books which he is going to open in the day of judgement and I am going to write a book of remembrance. I am going to remember these people, hear the people that talk about me says God. They're not all talking about money or the stock exchange or the FT index or what's going on in Wall Street. They aren't talking about the newspaper headlines or about war or Iraq. They're talking about Jesus Christ as God. I shall put their names in my book. I'll write them down in the book of remembrance. You know what strikes me? Isn't it amazing where Christ went when he wanted fellowship? He didn't go where you would expect him to go. He was the eternal son of God, the blessed holy Jesus, our Lord. And where did he go for fellowship? Well, of course, you would expect him to go to the high priest. He was the most spiritual holy man in the country of the Jews. You would expect him to walk into the company of the Pharisees and the high priest. These were the specialists and the experts in the things of the Bible. He didn't go near them. where did he go for fellowship? he went to Bethany to a little cottage there, a little house there and who was in Bethany? Mary and Martha and Lazarus and people like that our Lord goes where he knows they love him where he realises and understands their souls are set upon spiritual things it's one of the best things I can recommend we can export to you from the highlands We haven't got an industry in the highlands of Scotland but there's one good thing we can export to you. And I don't find it everywhere in this world, wherever I go. And the good thing I export to you is this. Get together frequently with other Christians like yourselves and talk about the word of God. Here's the way to do it. You say to your friends, now explain this to me, what does it mean? Where the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. don't know what it means. What does it mean? So then you spend a couple of hours finding out, down come the commentaries, this is what Matthew Henry says, this is what Matthew Poole says, and alright. What does that mean for your own life? Let's discuss it. What is the bearing of that upon our own lives? In other words, cultivating spiritual conversation. I must say I've never met any people like them to compare with the Highland Christians for this exercise. It really is the Puritan practice. This is what they used to do in the good old days. Talk about the Word of God, experiences, sermons, get that theology right. wonderful things about Jesus that we heard yesterday from Mr. Sherman Isbell, these glories of his Godhead, his person, his natures, the attributes of Christ, the way the two natures relate to one another. I know they're sublime, I know they're beyond all our comprehension, but as far as we can let's try to understand them so we can formulate in our minds a pattern of what manner of Christ we have to worship. Well this is what they did, and we're told here, the first thing the Lord puts their names in his book. Now this is a book of remembrance and it consists of all those who in dark days have spoken about God and kept their souls alive. Now here's another illustration boys and girls. Supposing now here we have a fire full of coals, not wood but coals. You know what happens if one of the coals falls out of the fire? I'll tell you. It goes darker until it's black. When a coal falls out of the fire, it goes black. Now that's a lesson that the Highland Christians used to use and this is what they meant by it. If a Christian is on his own, doesn't have the benefit of fellowship with others, he'll go cold. There's only one way to keep your soul alive and that is to be where the people of God are. So you keep the warmth of spiritual life in your souls and you don't go dead. It's the truth. What else is there to encourage us? What else has God here? He says, not only will I write their names in a book, but he tells us more than that. He says, they shall be mine in the day when I make up my jewels. Oh, what a word that is. God has jewels and his jewels of course are not barrels and pearls, diamonds, sapphires and all the rest these things are of no account to God they are like grains of sand what are God's jewels? well they are his children they are his children who love him and want him and hunger for him in this world they are his jewels and in the day of judgment he will make known who his jewels are. That's why the Day of Judgment has got to come. In this life we don't know who the Lord's people are. For all you know I may be a rank hypocrite. You don't know. And I don't know about you. We don't know which of the number of us are true Christians and which are false Christians in this life. But the Day of Judgment is set by God specifically to declare who are His and who are not. And this is how our Lord will do it. He will gather all mankind to Himself. and he will set his jewels on the one side and all the chaff on the other and he will say to the righteous who have loved him and spoken of him and thought of him he will say come ye blessed of my father into my kingdom because I was hungry and you gave me food I was thirsty, you gave me drink I was sick and you visited me and came and prayed at my bedside I was in hospital and nobody else came but you came to my dear people and I was imprisoned for the faith and you did all that you could to pray for me in my trials Jesus Christ you are my jewels and as people will say but Lord I don't remember any of that when did I ever do anything like that I've forgotten it all and you see they are not doing it to gain any reward their motive is not for themselves they are doing it because they love him and they are doing it spontaneously and our Lord is saying as much as you did it to my people I was watching I was listening come you blessed of my Father I will now reward you you are my jewels whom I shall bring to my heavenly crown and set you in the crown of glory to be with me a diadem of beauty throughout all ages to come And we know what he will say to the child. Some of whom thought they were his jewels. But Lord, when did we not do all these things? You didn't do it to my people. You were unkind to my people. You were unkind to my ministers. You were unkind to my preachers. You were unkind to those who loved me. You formalists, be gone. I have no place for you in my kingdom. It is the righteous that are my jewels. And that's what will happen. And the one will go to glory. the other will go to outer darkness so then as I close my dear friends there is such a thing as sweet fellowship in dark days and the darker the day the brighter the fellowship and the darker the night the brighter the stars to be seen I must close with something for the boys and girls forgive me I hope you all the people will forgive my infirmities but I love the children all these precious children living in a vile society boys and girls I'm going to close with something for you it's a famous sermon given in Highlands of Scotland many years ago I think the preacher was Lachlan Mackenzie I'll make it short because my time is coming to an end Lachlan Mackenzie preached a very pictorial sermon like this boys and girls he said there was a great and wealthy man who lived in a big castle and his wife had died and he only had one child a daughter and he loved this daughter with special love you can understand why she was a very lovely girl beautiful girl and she grew up to marriageable age suppose about 23 or something and of course he was very concerned that one day she would get the right husband because she was the apple of his eye and every father loves his daughter with a special love and he loved his daughter with this very special love well one day there came a knock at the door of the palace not the front door but the back door where the trades people go and here was a beggar dressed in rags and the daughter went down and she opened the door and she spoke for quite a long time to this beggar and then closed the door and he went away and she went back upstairs and the father said, my dear, who was that man at the door? Oh father, she said, that's the man I'm going to marry What? he said, looking to the window, that wretched fellow in rags Oh yes father, he's proposed in love to me and I want to marry him But he did everything in his power to stop her, reasoned with her, argued with her, pleaded with her, was angry with her, then in tears with her. Nothing would change her mind. Father, she said, I love him, and he loves me, we must marry him. So the day was set, the year went by, the father couldn't face the wedding day. It was too terrible, his daughter marrying to this wretched fellow. however the morning came for the wedding and about nine o'clock in the morning when they were all dressed the girl in her beautiful robes the father sad but dressed for the occasion there was the sound of trumpets at the gate horsemen appeared white horses and their liveries magnificent they came stately to the door the front door of the house And in the midst of them was this beggar, no longer dressed in rags, but dressed in the most handsome possible clothing himself, his face shining with beauty and with handsomeness. This was the bridegroom. And when the father saw this, of course, what a flux of emotions he had, he said, my dear, how did this man come to be dressed in rags? if this is Emmanuel to Marley I am so happy but why in the rags? Ah she said he came in disguise father to test to see if I would love him for what he really is and I knew what he really is and now father you see him in his glory. Now that was the sermon and of course you know it is horrible Jesus our Lord came into this world in pants so to say our blessed Lord born in a manger in a stable dressed as it were in rags there is no beauty that we should see him as the son of God and we are called upon to love him in his rags if I may use that phrase but when he comes again oh boy when he comes again with all his angels he won't be in his rags then the whole world will fall down before his glorious presence and then the church who have loved him those meek ones who have glorified him they will be caught up into the air to meet the Lord and so shall we ever be with the Lord to be married to Jesus Christ world without end that's why as I close that's why he says they should be my jewels in that day in the book of remembrance is opened the judgment day set my question to you boys and girls and men and women is are you going to be at the wedding? Will you marry that son of God? Well, the evidence is right here. Are you thinking of him? Are you talking about him? Are you enjoying sweet fellowship with him now and with his people? God grants that every one of us may meet again in that happy day. Let us pray.