Malachi 3:1-5 • Anticipation
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Now, let me ask that you turn in your Bibles to the book of Malachi. If you wonder where that is, it's the very last book in the Old Testament. So where we've been since February is moving through the Bible in a year, and as we're getting ready now for a semester of school, we will start into the New Testament. But before then, we need to say what's happening as the Old Testament concludes its story. Because you've noticed, I hope, as we've gone from Genesis all the way through Malachi, that it was gospel all the way through. From the very first moments, God was saying, "I'll provide for people who cannot provide for themselves. I am going to send a Savior, and the Father in heaven will never leave you or forsake you." That was hard at times as the people turned away over and over again. The last time resulted in there being in slavery again in Babylon.
Now they've come back to the Promised Land. When we look last week, they're rebuilding the temple.
What's going to happen now? Let's stand and read Malachi 3, verses 1 to 5. Malachi 3, verses 1 to 5. As that temple is being rebuilt, what does God say? "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. And the messenger of the covenant whom you delight behold, he is coming," says the Lord of Hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. And they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.
Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years.
Then I will draw near to you for judgment, and I will be swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner. And do not fear me, says the Lord of Hosts. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, a word long ago but sent to us that we might know you have sent the Lord of Hosts to redeem us and to prepare us even for a day of judgment, which we need not fear as we trust in the Lord Jesus whom you sent.
So we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.
Whether you're moving into a new school or a new job, new home, new church, you can anticipate what one of the first questions will be. Where are you from?
Which is not just a question of location.
We recognize if you identify where you're from, you're telling us about background and region and roots that shape you and break you and make you, you.
A poem that's gaining a lot of traction on the Internet right now is a crowd-sourced poem built on the work of George Ella Line, the Appalachian poet, who wrote us a poem where I'm from, and now you get people like Alan Jackson and other country singers adapting it for their purposes.
But it's crowd-sourced. The poem builds as other people from their background and experience add to it online so that it sounds like this. Where are you from?
I'm from casseroles and cantuna.
From wall phones with mangled cords down bedroom hallways. Some of you remember those.
I'm from backyard baseball with wiffle ball bats.
From Sunday night pizza and Friday night football.
I'm from fishing bobbers on ponds and cows and fields. From Saturday morning cartoons and Beatles songs on eight tracks.
I'm from hard work and sweat from grit and respect and discipline.
From words to mad and forgiveness, not enough.
I'm from weddings in May.
From ashes flicked into the tray the ache of divorce and love thrown away.
I'm from starting again and hymns on Sundays. From children's voices and old men's cackles.
I'm from fields and streets and suburbs and cities. From endless steps basketball hoops and baseball hoops.
I'm from the call of books and breathing through struggles.
I am from you sharing the love we once had, still want.
I'm from all the days past and all the days forward until home is where I am from and where I will ever be.
It's a fun poem because it reminds us that where we are from is not just what we remember
but what we anticipate.
That the hope of today which is shaping who we are, our choices, our priorities, that is not just a matter of where we're from backwards but what we anticipate our future will be. We in some very precious ways live in the future based upon what we believe our hope is to counter and build upon our past. What is happening in this passage is the prophet is giving people hope by at least initially reminding them that they must learn from the past to have the future that they want. What are they learning from the past? We look at the first three verses and we recognize that God promises He will send a messenger to prepare the way of the Lord so that He will return to His temple, so that He'll be at home in Israel again and the people will be happy because they recognize God is with them but there is a difficulty. Verse 4, "Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and the former years." Ah, the good old days.
Except the verse has a context.
"There was a day when the offerings were pleasing to the Lord." But what happened to that? We recognize if we go back to the first chapter what is actually being referenced. Chapter 1 and verse 7, the people are responding to God saying they have despised Him.
How have we despised your name? Verse 7, "By offering polluted food upon my altar." But you say, how have we polluted you? "By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil?
And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil?
Present them to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favor says the Lord of hosts and now entreat the favor of God that He may be gracious to you with such a gift from your hand? Will He show favor to any of you says the Lord of hosts? Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the doors of the temple that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you says the Lord of hosts and I will not accept offerings from your hand."
Why not?
Because they're giving Him what costs them nothing.
They are saying, "Oh, we'll bring offerings into the temple. We will give offerings to the Lord, but the one who requires lambs without blemish." What is precious being offered to God, instead they give God what they don't want.
The blind and lame animals, the fruit that is rotten, the food that is spoiled, they're making God into good will, giving Him what you don't want.
And God is saying, "This is a strange gratitude.
I've delivered you from your enemies. I've walked you through the wilderness. I've taken care of you and your gratitude is to give me what is spoiled, rotten garbage."
We think we would never do that. And what God is reminding His people in this very place is what they are called to do is offer something from their hearts that shows loyalty and love for God. And that's not giving Him your trash. That's not giving Him what costs you nothing. It's kind of like, you know, on your anniversary when all the stores have closed that you go to Walgreens and get something off of clearance.
Let me show you how much I love you.
Well maybe not. And it's not just that the gift is inadequate. It's not honoring the relationship.
And so God actually says to people who will not give from their hearts, "You are robbing God." No, it's not you're robbing God because you're taking things away from Him. And the reality is anything that you give Him is His already.
"Here, Lord, let me pay you with your money."
No, God is saying the gifts that you bring are being part of my purpose, is part of my kingdom. And if you rejoice in your love for me, what I'm looking for is a heart that rejoices in my purposes. Do you recognize one of the most beautiful verses on giving is here in Malachi chapter 3. If you'll go in Malachi chapter 3 and look at verse 10, it says, "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test," says the Lord of Hosts, "if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need." Now in our humanity, we suddenly get out of our account book and we turn this all into financial accounting. If I give to the Lord, He's supposed to give to me more, which is what the charlatans preach, right? You give money to God, you get more money back. It's not the wording of the Scriptures. He will give such blessing that your need would be satisfied. In the New Testament refers to this, it says, "God is working all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." That's not just a monetary gift. It's God looking at the world, looking at Christ and saying, "I will bend all of the world, all of creation, for those who love me, who are depending upon me. Test me in this. Test me. You give what is dear to you. You unite your heart to mine in love and dependence in the way that you give. When you watch, you just watch how God will come into your life and provide what you need. And for all persons, that's not just more money.
It's God providing for hearts eternity what they need as we commit ourselves to Him. When that is what we do, that's when joy becomes a giving. Straight talk to my grace family here. You're going to hear a lot about giving over the next six weeks. Why? Because we come to the end of our fiscal year. You know what? We're doing pretty good, but we'll need you to stay faithful.
And then we come, as you may recognize, to paying for this building. Do you recognize?
We are within a whisper of being free of the mortgage so that we can really advance in some of the ministry initiatives that we have. One of those is trying to maintain the broadcasting ministry that goes now into over 80 nations, and you'll hear about supporting that. And you'll say, "Oh, there they go, begging for money again."
Or else you can say, "God, is it working this place?
Look what He has done. Look how He has provided. How can we unite our hearts and His purposes and believe that the windows of heaven opened and the storehouses of blessing begin to come of God's people as they bless Him in order to know independence upon Him? Our hearts are drawn close. Love and loyalty result and are seeing God at work in our place in our lives. But to do that, God is reminding us that it's not just a matter of giving, what the people in the past have done is not just given polluted offerings.
They have cherry-picked His laws.
As God says they will offer offerings in righteousness, it also has a context. Verse 3, He will purify the sons of Levi, purify priests.
Why do priests have to be purified?
Because of the context, chapter 2, verse 8, God addressing the priests, "You have turned aside from the way.
You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says the Lord of Hosts, "and so I make you despised and abased before all people inasmuch as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction." You need to keep all of God's law unless you're rich.
You need to keep all of God's law unless you're related to me. And so the priests are using their position to bless some and to curse others based on their own personal... And the result is people are cherry-picking their way through the law. I like that one. I don't like that one. And getting endorsement by the priests based upon what laws they follow or do not follow as the priests are giving partiality to people and therefore giving partiality to the law. I'll explain it. I'll require it. Just... And here is the good and safe path that God has designed for His people. And the priests are saying you can follow some of that, but don't worry about the other.
How does that happen?
Okay, I can hardly believe it, but I'm going to give you an example from The Bachelorette today.
Not because I watch it, but because of something that happened this season which was put in the face of virtually every biblical preacher.
Some of you already know, a young woman who is supposed to make her choice among the various bachelors who are present for the national TV series began to sleep with a series of them so that she can make her choice. And we watch it for entertainment.
At some point, a young man who was one of the bachelors who claimed to be a Christian and you say, "Why are you on the show?"
Said to her, "If you're a Christian as you claim to be, then you should not be sleeping with this series of guys in order to make a choice of who your marital partner will be."
And some of you know the result.
How dare you judge me?
And with an obscene gesture dismissed him and said, "Jesus still loves me."
Now listen, there's a part of that that you say is wonderful. Here's a young woman on national TV giving testimony of the love of Jesus Christ.
And at the very same moment, ignoring everything that God has established for the union in purity and fidelity of a man and a woman who would know the wonder of Christian marriage as God has designed it. So by doing one thing but denying the other, I will tell you the social media just exploded
with derision of both who claim to be Christians because even the world recognizes hypocrisy.
Even the world recognizes to say, "I will honor God here but not over here," is sure measure of not really honoring God in your heart at any time. That cherry picking of the standards of God is what God is saying He would not allow. And we should grieve about that. I mean, some of you know the stats better than I do. If you just look at all those reality shows that we as a nation watch for entertainment, young people being thrown together in sexual and broadcast relationships so they will be married and virtually none of them lasts beyond a few months of marriage. And you think of all of the pain and the embarrassment that we thrust upon others for our entertainment.
And we should be weeping for what we as a nation and young people are being caused to do to entertain the rest of us without understanding all that God requires. But there are right ways and wrong ways to weep.
And looking back into the past, the prophet Malachi will even deal with that. In verses chapter 2, verses 13 through 16, he deals with one of the most difficult passages in the Bible because he says, "God will be a swift witness against adulterers." Yes, there is one coming. He will come to His temple. And when He comes, He will come not just in goodness, He comes to judge in righteousness.
And that means people who have gathered around the altar and said, "I'm so sorry. God, please bless me. Jesus, please be nice to me."
But that weeping is just crocodile tears.
It will be a problem. Do you know what crocodile tears are?
Sobbing without sorrow.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I have to eat you."
It's tears without change.
And it's precisely what has happened in the past that they're supposed to learn from. Chapter 2 and verse 13.
This is the second thing you do.
You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because He no longer regards the offering, accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, "Why does He not?"
Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth to whom you have been faithless. Though she is your companion and your wife by covenant, did He not make them one with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking?
Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and let none of you be faithless to His wife of your youth.
"For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her," says the Lord, the God of Israel,
covers His garment with violence, says the Lord of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless.
I must tell you, of all the sins that the Lord could point to, I'm not certain why He goes to divorce for ungodly reasons here. And even before I deal with the subject, we say, "Is all divorce wrong?"
The Bible clearly says no. Jesus says the issue is like adultery, and Paul says desertion that's irremedial.
Our biblical standards where one can say, "I don't want to keep going on this."
At the same time, the Bible is saying, "But as much lies within you.
Be at peace.
Work on it. And never be in the position of, "She just doesn't satisfy me. We just don't get along anymore, and so we're just quitting."
Faithfulness to the spouse of your youth. Why does He focus there in this passage so much? I think there's a hint in that sixteenth verse when He says, "The man who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence." In that age and that generation, for a man to divorce his wife was to leave her virtually destitute. The only way she is going to make it in the world, because being married again is probably not an option in that culture, is she's going to be gleaning from fields after the harvest is done or selling herself to other men.
A man who would do this to a woman is doing violence to her. And yet it appears to be common as in that culture men are just saying, "I'm done. I'm not satisfied. She's not as pretty as she used to be. She's not as satisfying." And they just walked away. And it is hurting doing violence to the person. But it is not without concern today as God says, "What was my purpose all along?" She was godly children to recognize that the witness of parents is witness to children. And if you learn in a Christian household what it means to forgive and to work on, you know some of I was just coming from another church and talking with my driver in the way we both said, "How thankful we are that our marriages are not now what they would have been ten or twenty years ago as we've learned so much about ourselves and our spouses, hanging in there, working through. What's happening? How do we forgive?
Learning to adjust, learning to deal with another people, learning to work past sin. And what we're learning in that union is the union of the Spirit.
What God does, how He's working with us, how He's forgiving us, how He's working past our sin and betrayals and faithlessness. And so He's saying, "If there's anything that displays to the world and to your children
the message of the gospel, it is the beauty, the wonder of a man and a woman, not just sexually but over time becoming one in the Lord, forgiving, adjusting, flexing, working
as God works within us to show Himself and His nature." Why so much focus here in this passage? I got a sense of it when I read recently a testimony from a businessman named Ray Johnston.
Where was he from? He says, "I grew up in something of an executive jet-set family where divorce ruled. Everybody got divorced." Listen to this.
We cannot find a lasting marriage in a hundred and fifty years of our family tree.
Add to that my family's raging alcoholism and explosive anger, and maybe you can see why divorce was epidemic and how I grew up convinced my life probably would not feature a lasting marriage. At no time did I ever feel that I would live in a fulfilling and lasting family. Wow, what a childhood. At no time did I feel that I would live in a lasting and fulfilling family. But then in a little church of a hundred people for the first time in my life, I saw couples who'd been married for ten years, or fifteen, or twenty, and even thirty or more years when I read that. "Well, Kathy, I've been forty. What does that make us? Ancient? Dinosaurs? What?" You know?
It makes us blessed as God has worked past our weakness and vulnerability in sin and helped us to see Him better. Now that this man has been married thirty years, he writes, "The couples in that church gave me a great gift.
They liberated me from the expectations that my past would determine my future.
Hope will do that for you. Hope liberates from past failures, from bitterness, from anger, from insecurity, and from the kind of low expectations that keep us chained to the past. Hey, there are people who can make it. There are people who work past the problems. He's now a Christian counselor and pastor, and his own method is to deal with couples and say, "Just list the problems. Let's get it all out. Let's get it all on the table. Just list the problems." And he said, "If through counseling, if I can show people that they are getting progress in just ten percent of the problems, just ten percent, we see there's some change." He said, "Hope begins to grow again." It's what he calls the ten percent solution. If I can just get ten percent change, people begin to believe the gospel's real. God can change things. He can make that person change. He can make my heart change. He can give us forgiveness. He can give us a future. And that reality gives people hope that is their strength, and it's what the prophet is doing here. Having said it, you need to learn from the past.
He at the same time points to the future. He says, "You need to live there.
You need to live in the future with the reality of what is coming." What does the future hold?
A surprise! Verse 1, "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.
And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you join." They've been waiting for centuries, and now they are told the Lord will suddenly appear, and his messenger shall come before him. Well, we don't have to guess what that's about, right? We recognize in the New Testament, Jesus looks at John the Baptist, his cousin who has come before him, and says, "He is the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord." And we learn that John the Baptist is the messenger, so much so that John the Baptist, when he sees Jesus coming down the road, what does he declare? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the messenger who has been prepared that we've been waiting for for so long. When we started with Adam, remember way back at the beginning, and he was not the answer, he sinned and brought the corruption into the world. We got to have somebody else.
Is it Noah as the world has been scourged and wiped clean for the second chance?
No, he sins as bad as the people, and for every thought of the imagination of their hearts was only evil continually. And what we immediately see in the home of Noah is drunkenness and incest.
Who's coming? When we anticipate another? Abraham.
God is teaching it's not the hands of man that will supply their answer, but a man who has faith in me, despite his terrible personal sin, he will be the father of nations and will bless many by faith in what God provides. God's provision is not Abraham. He points toward the future because his children are going to go into slavery and grandchildren,
and then one named Moses comes. Is he the one that we anticipate?
No, even though he gets the people out of slavery on the brink of the promised land, he takes the authority and the status of God for himself. We need another. Is it David, the king who establishes the great nation in the promised land and has the promise of God out of your line will come a savior? Is it David? No.
He sins with Bathsheba and an arrogance, turns away from God at the end of his life. Will it be David's children? No, fighting over the kingdom. They destroy each other and destroy the kingdom, making it vulnerable to nations who take the people of God back into slavery. Isaiah, who say what's coming, said, "There's a reason to hope God will provide another." Jeremiah said to the people, "Even while they're in slavery, God will send another."
Now the people are back.
They are in the promised land.
And Malachi, the very last prophet of the Old Testament says, "He's coming."
And there will be a messenger who prepares the way of the Lord.
Are you going to be ready? Verse 2. "Who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like Fuller's soap." Yes, there is a surprise. The Savior will finally come, but you need to be ready because He comes to give you a good soaping.
What's that about? A Fuller is one who manufactures soap.
And here's the prophet looking at the sins of Israel and all their failures, and he says, "Listen, this is not a spit bath like your mother gave you in the parking lot." Right? You know what I mean? You know, you got to go to church. Oh, how did you mess up?
Didn't you hate that, you know? That little spit bath? And God is saying, "No, no, no, no, no. You're going to get a full soaping, right? I'm going to clean you up." And it's the promise of the gospel that when the Savior comes, He's going to be like one who can wash and make clean. And we recognize that the prophet who said, "Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow." And that's not all of it. He's coming like a refiner's fire. He's coming to make gold and silver that is precious to Him. It's the second half of the gospel. God is not just washing our sins away. He is giving us the righteousness of Christ. He's giving us beauty. He's taking what's polluted and impure, and He's refining it into gold and to silver. He's making us precious to Himself, not just taking away our sin. We go, "Oh man, I still feel so bad." He's saying, "No, you have the righteousness of my child. You are precious to me." Our God, when Savior comes, is not just Clorox. He's Cartier.
He's not just Tide. He's Tiffany.
He's cleaning up and making precious to Himself so that when I say, "God, there's no real reason You should love me. I feel like garbage."
God says, "You're gold to me.
I'm a sinner, but I make You silver.
I'm messed up, but I'll dress You up as my own child.
I failed You, but I saved You."
And so the people of God are prepared for what is going to happen.
Not just a great soaping, but ultimately a great separation.
Verse 5, "I were drawn near to You for judgment.
I will be swift witness against the sorcerers." People were turning to the magicians and the astrologers for answers.
"Against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker and his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, the refugee, bring judgment."
Uh-oh.
Somewhere in that list, if we're honest, we all begin to fall.
Now what?
There will be a separation of sheep and goats.
There will be a separation of the righteous and the unrighteous. There will be a separation of those who trust the Lord and those who do not. And there is a judgment. And then the last words, "And do not fear," says the Lord of hosts.
Wait, how can that possibly be that we would not fear because it is at the end of the Old Testament the fulfillment of the gospel?
All began with Adam, having sinned, he and Eve hide in the garden as the Lord in human form walks in the cool of the day.
Adam, why are you hiding?
Because I was afraid.
It is the statement becomes the match to the gospel gasoline for the rest of the Scriptures. What happens now to a man and a people and a creation that is afraid? God comes to Abraham and says, "Put your faith in me and teach the nations to do the same. I am your shield and your very great reward, so do not fear."
To Moses, as he now takes the people of God to the brink of the Red Sea and the Egyptian chariots are coming upon them, he says, "Stand firm, the Lord of hosts is with you, and do not fear."
Joshua takes the people in the Promised Land. He says, "Lord, we can't go into there. The cities and the people are so large. We're like grasshoppers." And the Lord says, "I will be with you. Be strong and courageous, and do not what?
Do not fear."
David, the king, builds in the Promised Land. His kingdom extends from shore to shore. He has promised the lineage that will go on forever and writes in the Psalms, "God is our very refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore, do not fear." Okay, Baptist.
You have been waiting to say, "Amen," in these services.
Now is the time. You know what's coming. Solomon was bequeathed the kingdom, and he said, "The covenant is now in danger." God said through him, "Be strong and courageous, my son. Do not fear, for the Lord my God is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Therefore, do not fear."
Isaiah prophesied to the people of Israel, knowing the trouble that would come, the nation be divided. He knew what was coming and yet said, "The Lord your God says, I am with you. Do not be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will be your righteous right hand. So do not fear."
Jeremiah, speaking to a people now enslaved, as Isaiah had said, but preparing them to go back into the Promised Land, said, "The God you love says this, I will surely save you out of that distant place, your descendants from the land of their exile. I will rescue you. So do not fear." Is that the end? No, we're at the end of the Old Testament. Yes, Malachi repeats the word. So do not fear, but that's not the end. You know what's going to happen. There's an angel that appears to Zachariah, the son of John, the father of John the Baptist. And the angel says, "You're going to bear the son that's going to prepare the way of the Lord." And the guy says, "I can hardly believe that." The angel says, "So shut your mouth."
But do not fear.
The angel appears to Mary. "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and you shall bear a child, and his name shall be called Jesus, so he shall save his people from their sins." So do not fear. Joseph sees his wife pregnant inexplicably, begins to take measures to divorce her or to go to a different country. And the angel of the Lord appears and says, "This is of the Holy Spirit." So do not fear. And then as shepherds feel, an angel announces the birth of the child, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
But the angel said, "Do not fear."
And then when that child grew and was telling his disciples, "I must go to the cross, be crucified, spat upon, flayed, buried, and three days later I will rise. Therefore little flock, I will take care of you. Do not fear." And the Holy Spirit shall come upon you. His peace will be yours no matter where you go or what you do. He will always be with you. So I will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not fear. And then the very last book of the Bible, all the way at the end of the New Testament in the book of Revelation, the words reappear that are here. As we read, John declaring, "He shall come again.
He shall come with power and glory and declare, I am the first and the last, the living one. I died and behold I live forevermore. I hold the keys of death and Hades. So do not fear." Why not fear? He's got the keys to death and Hades because he's going to lock it against those who love him. "It is not our future. It is not our home." How do I know? Right here in Malachi 3, you know John 3.16. Do you know Malachi 3.16? What does it say? This beautiful promise. The hosts of heaven are described as speaking to one another. Verse 16, "Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and he heard them. And a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him." It's the great expression of our hope.
I go through temptation and trial and trauma now. But this is the promise of God. Our names are written in heaven, in the Lamb's Book of Life, where nothing on earth can erase them. And God says to those who have feared him now, who have respect and regard for who he is, who live in love and gratitude for him, "You will be mine." And as the gates of hell are opened, I will lock them for my people who I will treat as my own child. So when the great separation occurs, you need not fear it. What does it mean? It means we can look past, but live in the future. We know the realities of sin and failure, temptation, trial, trial. Yeah, all real. We know that. But there's my hope. There's my security. Here's where I really live day to day in the reality of God calls me his own, washes me clean, treasures me as his own, and gives me a future that is secure. The great preacher, Martin Lloyd Jones of the last century, medical doctor, then preacher,
but at the end of his life, lying on his deathbed where no medicine would help him and no more crowds would gather to hear his sermons, was asked, "Will you now despair?"
He said, "I never trust the work of my hands, but always rejoice that my name is written in heaven."
That's my future. That's what I know. That's what you know. Praise God. Where are you from?
My heart's home is with him now and forever. As I claim the one who washes me clean, treasures me forever, and calls me his own. Heavenly Father, you have taken such care in your Word to thread the gospel. Help us to hear the beauty and the wonder of it. For those who look at their past and say, "Oh my, that really is me," to recognize you have promised a work through your Son that purifies and refines. Oh, how many need to hear it in our church even today?
God knows that. I can't hide it from him, but he promises to wash me of that and then to make me new and precious.
Lord Jesus, what a wonder. Thank you.
And then every day now, I live in the reality of whatever trial or temptation or trauma comes. I'm secure.
My name is written with those who are of your flock in heaven. Thank you, Lord Jesus.
That reason, that security is not yours. Pray with me right now.
Lord, I need to be washed. You know that.
Lord, I need to be made new. You know that.
I now trust Jesus will do both.
He will wash away my sin, make me new, and hold me for you forever.
That is your prayer.
The Lord bless you and keep you. He will.
He's your home now.
In Jesus' name, amen.