Grab your Bibles and let's go back to the old part of the book. Matter of fact, the last book in the old part of the book, Malachi. As we're getting fairly close to the end, but my, have I gotten bogged down? Hopefully, in a good way. In some of these verses in the last part of the book that have such powerful application for us.
In this era, by the way, the entire book. is for us. And it's all for us. Let me say it this way. The New Testament.
was in the Old Testament contained In the Old Testament, is by the New Testament explained. The new was there, and the old contained types, shadows, figures. We kind of look through a mirror dim dim a glass dimly, but it's there. But boy, you come to the New Testament. The old by the new is explained.
And it is. And so we see a lot contained here in Malachi that comes to its fruition, its perfection, its maturity. In New Testament Revelation.
So we'll be jumping over there in a moment. All right.
So we look at Malachi chapter 3, verses 16 through 18. I'm reading now. Then those who feared the Lord, now that's in contrast to the group in verses 13 through 15. who didn't reverence or fear the Lord. Spoke to one another.
Okay. And the Lord gave attention and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord, who esteem his name. They will be mine, says the Lord of hosts. On the day that I prepare my own possession, And I will spare them.
This is pointing to the coming judgment. I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
So, in other words, there's a day coming.
So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked. Between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve Him. The point is things have been kind of murdy. You have all the majority of the nation of Israel claiming to be Yahweh worshipers. Claiming to love God.
Going through the superficial motions of religion, but they're not gods. They're really wicked. and unrighteous. And God sits. There's a day coming.
Well, I'm going to clear everybody this up and you'll know exactly. who the real people of God are. And who the counterfeits are. That day's coming.
Well, we talked about the fact, as I said earlier, that there are powerful, wonderful truths and insights in this old part of the book that. Our hours today in this dispensation. Just call this the church dispensation or the grace dispensation. For example, Romans 15:4, we looked at for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction. Did you hear that?
All that came out of the Old Testament prophets. Writers of Scripture was written for our instruction. And we know that God has a pattern of progressively unfolding things. You think, well, why would God do that? Why did He just come and Genesis chapter 1, just tell us everything?
Because he's God and that's not the way he did it. That's all I can tell you. God began to unfold things progressively as the Old Testament develops. And it's like the first there's a little stem coming out of the ground, and then a little bit later there's some leaves, and then there's a stalk, and then there's a bud, and then you get to the new. Testament, and you have the full bloom of the flower.
Jesus. And the final revelation of him. Recorded for us in the New Testament.
So those things are progressive, and we have a strong picture, a strong type, if you will. Of the New Testament church here in this Old Testament book.
Now, last time we talked about that being the righteous remnant. Remember the earlier three verses, verses 13, 14, and 15. We have this riotous, rebellious-spirited group. This is the great majority of the folks. The great majority of these old Israelites would claim to be gods, but they were debating with God.
They would dispute God. They'd correct God. They'd say, God is not faithful. God has not been good to us. God's at fault.
We're doing pretty good, they would say, but God's the problem. They were literally doing that. And then we get to our text. Verses 16, 17, and 18: and God says, But I have some in Israel that are not like that. They're not a riotous, rebellious group.
They're a righteous remnant. They're truly mine, and that's what we're looking at.
So, we talked about the designation of this righteous remnant, and there are two phrases in verse 16 that designate them. I use the word designates because this all came from God. God elects his own remnant, God predestines his own remnant. We don't know how all that works, but God's behind. These people would not, in their own human virtue and goodness and wisdom, chose to be God's remnant.
God acted on them.
Now we know that from the balance of biblical teachings, not spelled out here, but we know that's true.
So I like to use the word. The elect righteous remnant, or the righteous, elect remnant. Word it the way you want to, but anyway, God designated this group. Two phrases, though, in verse 16 that designate them. Number one, they are those who fear the Lord.
And that doesn't mean a slavish fear, like I'm hunkered down in fear, and I've got to obey him, he's going to smack me. No, that means a awe, a joyous reverence and respect for this one true God. That is part of their designation.
Now, another part is the last part of verse 16: they esteem his name. And remember, we tend to name our babies today because we like the sound of the word or something. That's not the way the old world worked. In the old world, you gave a baby a name because it meant something about who they were. Or maybe something about who you hope they would become.
And God's name means the totality, the composite of his very nature, his very attributes.
So this is a crowd.
Now listen to me, loved God for who he really was. They wanted the prophet, the priest, to open the Old Testament text, teach us the true nature of God, and that's the God we love. And if we don't love him, we want to learn to love him. Are you hearing me, church? And that's why I've got a new word I'm using a lot.
Have you noticed?
Now, I had an old word I used a lot, and I still use that. Are any of you perceptive enough? To know what the old word, I bring it up over and over. Balance You get A plus, you get a hundred. You did it.
Balance. But my new word that I think is I'm going to ride this until I die, and that might be next week. Who knows? It might be 20 years from now. I don't know.
But the new word. Alignment. or realignment. Every week. We come in here to realign our hearts.
To joy in and treasure God as who He's revealed Himself to be. Not the God as we would like him to be. Are you with me? You come in here to kick out To divorce your thinking from what you think God ought to be like and learn to treasure Him for what He really is. That's what these people were pronged to do.
The rebellious, riotous ones of the earlier verses, the rebellious, irreligious ones, they wanted God to be the way they wanted God to be. This group's right the opposite. They fear God and treasure Him from the heart, and they treasure Him for who He really is. That's why there must be strong, faithful, praying, studying biblical preachers so they can keep shelling out the greatness and the attributes and the truth of who God is. And the Spirit of God will take that preaching and work on your heart so that you gradually but increasingly treasure Him for who He really is.
So, how do we know if a person is really a part of God's righteous remnant? Bringing that over to the New Testament? How do we know if a person is really to be a part of God's true church? Not perfect, but a church that's striving to be true to God. Last two questions.
Over time, do they seem to reverence God? And have an awe and respect for him. And do they joy in learning of who he really is and treasuring him for who he really is? There's a big difference in that. and someone that wants to tweak and change things so that church is more fun for them.
Church isn't about you, it's about him. And the grand privilege of letting you get in on that. Not that you prescribe to him. But he prescribes to us. And he enables us to glory in that.
So we realign our minds and thinking with God's purposes, God's person, God's purposes, God's priorities every week. I don't know about you. Are you listening to me? I took my truck in the other day to have some work done on it, and they said, You're. Your front end needs realigning.
Gotten out of line. I don't know that just about every one of you get out of alignment every week. Because you come in here when I look at you, I said they need a realignment. They need one. And all week long I've looked in the mirror.
This book And God said, Pastor, you need some realignment this week, too. I was meditating on this stuff this week. God is my witness. And I said, Lord, how could anybody get paid for how much joy I have in this? Are you guys crazy?
I do this for nothing. You don't have to pay me.
Well, God might discipline you if you don't, but I mean. And that's just the truth, but It's like this is so joyous. Joyce, you know, look, your pastor's not Superman. A lot of you would like that to be the case.
Well, he's just invincible and he's strong. He's our leader. I guess some of that's good, but I want you to know that old. contemporary Christian song really makes a good point. Deep inside this armor the warrior is a child.
Just another struggling, weak child of God. And I have found that in these years that you have different trials and struggles and anxieties and difficulties. And in those weaknesses, God seems to give me my most joy and my best insights. Isn't that just like him?
Well, all this is review.
Okay, let's go to some new material here.
Now we get to Roman numeral 2. The description of his righteous ribnet. He designates them, they fear me, they esteem my name.
Now let's describe, and I guess to go a little further, he's more describing what they do when they get together.
So we have that phrase here in verse 16. Look at it with me. Then those who feared the Lord, and here it is: one, two, three, four words. Spoke. Two, one, another.
Senecto Chevy. Are you impressed? Signeto Che. That's a Word that describes what this is. They spoke to one another.
It means this is just a part of the whole of their fellowship, but it's a part that represents the whole. It's a figure of speech. It doesn't mean literally. They just spoke to one another. It means.
They like to get together. Help each other.
So, this idea of they got together and they spoke to one another does not mean. Just casual conversation. It had some of that. It did not mean merely they were exchanging words, but the verb here comes from the idea of meaningful, purposeful, intentional communication. We don't come to church on Sunday just to get here and talk about how our week was or how the ballgame was.
A little of that's fine. I'm not worried about that. We come to church to go to our small groups and come to the worship service with a purpose and an intentionality to help each other keep on keeping on. In the faith. That's what they're doing.
That's what they're doing. Purposeful. interaction and communication, purposefully, intentionally speaking earnestly about the goodness and the glory of God, purposefully encouraging one another to stand on the promises of God. Purposefully affirming the truth of Scripture one to another because we know each week. We are Weak W-E-E-K-W-E-A-K.
And each week we leak L E A K. And we have to get back in here and get filled back up and realigned. That's what they're doing. In the midst of a Tons of temptations in the midst of the majority of their brethren going AWOL on God. In the midst of them being persecuted and belittled and laughed at and scorned because they don't want to go along with the majority crowd of Israel, they decided we better get together and help each other, and none of us are going to make it.
And that's what the church is. Get amen there. I need the church. You need the church. To yank me back out of the stuff that doesn't last.
And get me back aligned with the people and the things that do matter. And do last. I thought about small groups and We'll talk about that more in a minute, but. talking in small groups, primarily around the Word of God and Teachers, your time in small groups is not necessarily to be John MacArthur Jr. Certainly, not Jeff Knoblett Jr.
You need to be on the practical edge of your exposition. Teaching your class what this looks like in live. How can we encourage each other here? That's what they're doing. When they spoke to one another, they got together and spoke.
to one another.
Now this means they have to meet together. Maybe it'd do us some good to have more persecution. We might want to meet together more. Meeting together might mean more to us. When the world tries to kick our teeth in about every time we go out there just because we're Bible-believing Christians.
Speaking to one another means as the pastor preaches the word, there's a hypnot or an amen. We're taking this truth back and forth to one another, affirming it together each week. And sometimes you're nodding your head because you're saying, sign me up as a repenter. That one got me. But that's what I came for.
is to be more in line with God. Do you need that? I need that.
So, this is a realignment meeting. It's a church meeting. That's what this is. Those who feared the Lord spoke to one another.
So they get together with a strong purpose to help one another. to remain faithful to the faith. Despite the widespread counterfeit religion and unbelief that was all around them, and often the direct. Denigration and attacks of the enemy that would come against them. I've been mixing it up with a lot of people who aren't Christians in the last few days, some good folks, and thank God for the work they do, but they weren't Christians.
And there was just something in me that constantly said, These ain't my people. These aren't my brothers and sisters. They're good folks. Thank God for them. They do well at what these aren't.
This is it in my group. Adrian Rogers said one time he had come home from Washington, D.C., and he'd been put on a panel against pornography, and he talked about the groups that were there. He talked about the Mormons there, some Jehovah's Witnesses there. But he said, you know what I've learned, I'll let anybody help me kill a snake. And that's the way it is in the world.
We can be about common good together to some degree in the world, but at the end of the day, We want to get back with our group. That's what they're doing. The people who feared the Lord got together and spoke. to one another.
Now I've got to hurry on. But this is a fire in my bones because the Word of God is just so good.
So in the balance of biblical truth, with the New Testament being the perfection of the truth, you have God's people, Israel, in the Old Testament, but God perfects that to local churches being his people in the New Testament. No longer It's God's work through a nation. God's work is now through Congregations in any nation. We are not about primarily changing America. Though we should be sought in light in America.
I would be opposed to our church being the church of America. That's what our forefathers got away from. We believe. In the separation of church and state. We do not believe in the separation of God and government.
But the point is, as God's people come to its fruition. The bud blooms in the New Testament, and we see now local New Testament churches.
So, in the full balance of biblical truth, what does it mean to get together and speak to one another? First of all, it means we're going to sing some. We're going to get together and sing. We have the Old Testament picture of that very clearly. David appointed all kinds of Levitical priests to be a part of the music ministry of Israel.
They had singers. They had um musicians playing. But Tom, they had orchestras And they had a chief musician, probably several. Brother Tom is my chief musician. Did you know?
I think he graduated top of his class. We get only smart guys in here. Brother Matt was top of his class. Brother David and I just glanced. We didn't, it wasn't summa cum laude, it was thank the Lordy we got through this, you know.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Brother Tom is our chief musician. And then you develop on into the New Testament, and that structure is no longer important. But the principle is very important.
God made Israel to be a singing people. Then we come to the New Testament. What do we find? Colossians 3. 14 through 16.
But beyond all these things, put on love. Which is the perfect bond of unity? Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts. By the time we've got to have people that love Jesus from the heart, or we don't have anything. It'd be the best musical thing on earth, but if they don't love Jesus, we're bankrupt.
And that's what he's saying here. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, which indeed you were all called into one body. There's the collection again. We're gathered together as a local church in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.
And then from that, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. With psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. That. is biblical solid music ministry.
And I believe we are solidly on that track. And I give Brother Tom a lot of commendation for his conviction. You may know my history that I had a hard time with music guys. And part of that was my fault probably. But uh in our child one of the Should I go there?
The last meeting I attended in the denomination we once formerly belonged to. was a meeting of some high up Muckety Mucks. In Dallas, Texas. No, I'm sorry. Orlando, Florida.
And they're like 35 pastors of very large, quote, influential churches. And you know what one of the hot topics was? One of the hot topics was get ready, guys. There's a new trend, a new fad in music ministry, and all of our music guys are going to do it, and we've got to learn how to adjust to it. Are you kidding me?
I thought, what solar system did you guys come off of to where you're submitting to the latest music ministry fads? God gave you a book, Pastor. to lead your church by. Not the latest fad. In music ministry.
But singing. Righteously, biblically, is a valuable, solid part of us getting together. Are you listening to me? and speaking to one another. Do you do that?
I don't know. I'll just speak. Can I just be honest with you? I mean, I try to come to church ready to preach to you. With my heart full.
But life is life, reality is reality, and some days I'll walk into the service by the time, and I'm just a little too cold. But we begin to sing. And the doctrine in the songs, and the truth in the songs, lifts my spirit. And all of a sudden, I'm better realigned. With what God wants me to be and what God wants me to do, singing.
Ephesians 5.19, well in 5.18 be filled with the Spirit. There you go, the foundation again. You chart, look. Worship in the church is not you sitting back and getting what we present so that you might be blessed. That is not worship, that's performance.
Worship is you strive to minister primarily through your small groups, to hurting people, to challenging people. Caring for them, showing mercy, showing encouragement, sometimes reproofs and rebukes. But you're living out Christianity in the church. You've tried to be a witness to lost people that week. And the trials of it, and the disappointments of it, and the blessings of it are very real to you.
So you walk into this church on Sunday. And that's resonant. You've been worshiping by service all week, and now you're time to sing with other people who are also trying to serve the body in that form of worship every week. And so we are all worshipers. As we come together.
That's what it means when they got together in. and spoke. to one another.
They carried the Lordship of Christ all week with joy and strength. Not perfectly, but they were striving to live it out, and they've got something to sing about on Sunday. Not just come and say, where's the most happening church that has the most happening impacting music program? And don't be like the guy who is more shallow than the thickness of a penny. Who told me one time, this is decades ago, well, you know what?
The music service blesses me more than the preaching.
Well, I don't preach to bless you. I preach to help you joy in Christ. If you get to know him, you'd like my preaching better. We're so upside down at times. We're not singing.
Secondly, another aspect of this They spoke to one another as teaching. That teaching ministry. Explaining Clarifying, instructing one another from the biblical text. This is a well-established tradition in Israel. The priests participated in this a lot.
And that's why in the New Testament, church elders, church leaders have to be able to teach.
Now, that doesn't mean preaching. But they have to be able to take the biblical text and instruct from the biblical text. We know there are many throughout the church who have the gift of teaching, not being a pastor, but. Teaching. And then As we fellowship in the hallways and Out in the mall area and before Our lesson starts in small groups in various and sundry other ways we're talking to one another.
Trying to bring encouragements and insights and instruction from the word one to another. Have you not noticed that you just bump into brothers or bump into sisters and have a little brief conversation, but they encouraged you with something from the word, maybe. Can I say don't make it mechanical? Don't make it too structured. Just be real.
Just be real. Teaching. Now, thirdly. Speaking They spoke to one another, our text says, includes preaching the word. Preaching the word.
The New Testament uses the word caruso sixty-one times for preaching. And that's in contradistin distinction to just teaching. All right.
Now, in ancient Israel, the priest perhaps would be considered preachers in a way. The prophets were certainly preachers. And they are a type, if you will, of the New Testament God called pastor-teacher. The preaching pastor of the church.
Now, in the New Testament, we are not administering ceremonies and ordinances like the Old Testament priest, of course. We are not receiving direct divine revelation like the Old Testament prophets would from time to time. We have the finished revelation of God. And so that's what we preach.
So the word Caruso has the idea of a herald. One who proclaims And one who proclaims with authority, pressing on the hearer to a yieldedness. You need to get that distinction. Three distinctives you might say of preaching would be: it's authoritative. Teaching does not carry that kind of authority.
Now the word carries it. But the act of teaching does not carry preaching authority. That's one unique distinctive. Secondly, that passionate call for yieldedness. Generally, I don't bring you in here to give you a gentle suggestion, but to give you a thus saith the scripture.
Yield to it. The authority, the passionate call to yieldedness. And thirdly, Preaching is foundational and central. because it informs all of the teaching ministry. All of the polity of the church, the structure and the methods of the church.
We have that wheel. That will was preached to you decades ago over and over and over again, at least all the principles of it were.
So that we would learn how we need to function. Here's what I mean. Listen to me. Everything we sing, everything we teach in every area, the way we structure and the way we function in our structures is all downstream from the preaching ministry of the church. If that's not right, nothing else works.
Everything we're about. came from study. Meditation and preaching. First.
So, everything that we're about is downstream from the preaching ministry of the church.
Now, listen. Preaching always contains teaching. But teaching is not preaching. The key difference being the call of God to an office that carries a unique authority. But I do not have the authority.
The word is the authority. And if any time I or anybody else preaches and clearly veers from the sound doctrine of Scripture, they are to be respectfully but thoroughly. Reproved. Amien? And my elders would be responsible for that.
And I would appreciate that. I've shared with you before, I've had a few senior adult men, especially in my younger years, who liked to critique me and give me corrections after I preached. And because they were older men, you know what I always said? Amen. Thank you, sir.
I appreciate that. I don't need to say dang in the pulpit anymore. One man, he just didn't want me to say dang in the pulpit. I'm sorry, I don't need to say it now, but I mean. He helped me.
I don't know about you, but I didn't grow up in a family that spoke the Queen's English all the time.
So I had to learn to better carry with me the dignity of the pulpit. Do you know my wife told me last week that I got a little too loose up here? She kind of said, You didn't stay on your notes too much, did you? And don't get out on the edge out there anymore. Yeah.
But there is the key significant difference between preaching and teaching is the authoritative. Difference. All teaching is helpful. But strong preaching that contains sound teaching is the best of all. Then we come to church.
We sing doctrine and sound music. Hopefully, Brother Tom, with the Holy Spirit helping us. From our walking with Christ this past week. Helping each other. We teach one another formally in classes, but just as we talk in fellowship, that's good too.
And then there's the preaching of the word, and we learn things. God put the wheel up again, and then we have home life discipleship. We take church home with us. We take the realignment home. If Daddy gets in the car and says, You know, that third point the pastor preached on, boy, I had to repent right there.
Your children need to hear that. Your children know that you're in charge at home, but when you go to church, you're under authority. and you're thankful for it.
So, Dad says, You know, I had to repent on that one. My thinking wasn't just right there. And I'll ask God to straighten me out a little bit there. Y'all pray for Daddy. You know, I'm a sinner, too.
And I need a Savior too, even though I'm your daddy. What do I mean? We take it home with us. And not without rigidness or structure or illegalism. We take it home and we try to talk about it off and on through the week, one to another, mom and dad together, mom and dad to the fellows and girls, the fellas and girls back to mom and dad.
We bring church home. That's what I mean by home life discipleship. No structural formal element.
Now, if you do some structure, that's good, but be careful with it. It can end up very easily working out to where the structure is more important than the truth you're trying to get across. God's not going to Bless your structure. He's going to bless your heart attitude. about his truth.
Plus, the Bible gives us a real structure for our meeting together. That's what the word, that's what the wheel does for us. It gives us a structure for the biblical ministry we want to be about.
So, your children have had good formal training at church. When you go home, make it lifestyle, incarnational, natural. As you, Deuteronomy six, rise up in the morning, as you. Walk along the way as you Sit by the wayside as you lay down at night, talk about these things. That's what the text means.
When it says, those who feared God, those who esteemed his name, they. Met together. And they spoke. spoke to one another. How are you doing at meeting together?
How are you doing at speaking to one another? How are you doing about upholding your part? and the local church family are the body of Christ. Pray we'll all do better. And keep on keeping on.
Bell Lord willing. When we meet together, and I cannot tell you how enthralled I am with the rest of this text. Because we're going to talk about God's devotion to his. Righteous remnant. This is as righteous remnant.
A local church should be a righteous remnant. Then we're going to talk about God's delight in his righteous remnant. God, listen to church, God so loves you. Hey. There is nothing God joys in, God delights in, more than you.
We're just going to have A spell next week. Thinking about the glories of that. His devotion to us, he is devoted to us in ways you can't fathom. He delights in us in ways you can't understand. Because you don't have God's heart and God's mind.
Then there's the ultimate protection of his righteous remnant. We're going to look at that. It's as if God puts his foot down. And he puts his fist up and says, you'll not touch my elect. Just try it.
The old tip of protection. God has for his righteous remnant. And then that final unveiling of the righteous and the wicked.
So let me end this morning with that strong, loving exhortation to you again. Are you of the righteous remnant? I'm not asking you, have you gone through the motions? I'm not asking you, do you have the outer veneer of Christianity? I'm not asking you, have you joined a church or walked down the aisle or been baptized?
That great host of Israel here who are rebellious and not of God did all of those things, metaphorically speaking, in their old Jewish religion. Do you know Christ? Are you his? Do you joy supremely in him? Are you resting?
Resting on him and what he's accomplished to keep your old wondering, restless, prone to wonder, sinful soul secure for all eternity. You need to humble yourself like never before, bow your face at the foot of a bloody cross and say, Oh, Christ, my hope is right here. Not in me, because I'll walk out that door and sin before I get to my car. But you can keep the worst of sinners.
So what's a good place for an amien? Because you're the worst sinners I know. Yeah. Other than when I look in the mirror. We're the worst sinners we know.
But Jesus. Oh, Jesus. Jesus is mighty to save. They Feared the Lord and they. Spoke.
to one another.
That's what we do every Sunday.
