It is so neat to remember the Lord at His table. Our brother pointed out that the Lord so greatly desired it, continues to desire it every time we gather, and how much is included in that great remembrance.
The thing that touched my heart about that gathering that night was when our Lord Jesus gave thanks. When He thanked His Father for the bread and for the cup, that was not a table grace.
He knew the infinite significance of all that was about to take place, and He thanked His holy Father God for the privilege of dying for us. It was such a thanksgiving, and we need to remember. He does so desire to meet with us.
As we come, brothers, to the Word, there is a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable: total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit.
I am going to ask you to turn to Ephesians 1, just to set our hearts in the right direction as we apply that indispensable principle. These precious verses are in Ephesians 1, beginning with verse 16.
We do not cease to give thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.
Then he tells us what he longs that we see. That word revelation is the Greek word for unveiling. One of the prayers I pray very often, as I apply this indispensable principle, is that the Lord would take the veil away.
On the earthly level, in order to see, we need three things: a healthy organ, an eye; light; and something to look at—an object.
That is exactly the reality here. The eyes of your heart—that is the organ. The spirit of revelation—that is the light. And the knowledge of Him—that is the object, that we might know Him.
So let us ask the Lord to take the veil off our hearts and shine His light upon Him, in order that we might behold Him in a fresh way. Let us pray.
Our Father, once again we thank You for Your provision in Christ Jesus, that we might go forward in a heart knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We would ask You, Lord, to take the veil away. Enable us by Your light to see our Lord Jesus Christ.
We know He is the living Word. We know the Bible is also the Word of God; it is the sword. But it is the sword of the Spirit, and You must wield that sword. So we would ask You to take this written Word now and, by Your goodness and by Your grace, unveil the living Word to our hearts.
We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, brothers, we come now to our last look at our wonderful Lord Jesus through the book of Malachi.
In my heart, I have prayed in my preparation, and while here, the verse that is at the top of the notes I handed out: Psalm 139:23-24.
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
When you quote that and when you pray that, do not forget to finish it. Otherwise, you are going to get into some morbid introspection. “See if there be any wicked way in me.” Period? No, no. “And lead me in the way everlasting.” All of that searching is positive. It is that He might take us forward in the everlasting way.
Very little review—we have some ground to cover this morning. In this book, God sits His people down and, in a very personal and intimate way, begins to discover to them some dangerous whisperings that had been going on in the depths, some stirrings that had been going on in their deepest hearts.
When a person, or a corporate group, goes for a season—for a time, for a long time—without hearing from the Lord, and when at that same time there are no outward pressures, there is the temptation to slip, to drift, to cool, to become legal and formal and regimented, and to depart from the living God.
That was the situation in Malachi’s day. They had experienced the Lord, but that was a long time ago. They had not heard from Him in quite a while, and so, in the depths of their hearts, as they went through the motions, they began to hold God’s love in suspicion.
They began to grow weary with His work. They began to have problems in relationships with one another, with the brothers and with the sisters. They began to question the ways of the Lord, presume upon His faithfulness, and not regard His glory.
God heard all of those things. They did not say them with their lips, but they said them with their hearts. God, who searches the hearts, heard that, and He did not want to close the Old Testament until they had very clearly seen those most precious things.
It is very important to God that you know He loves you—very important to Him. It is very important to the Lord for us to know that it is His work and that He does the work. It is very important for us to know that God has made us one and that we are to receive one another as God in Christ has received us.
Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.
No matter how weird, no matter how strange, no matter how rebellious, we have got to have our hearts open.
In the book, God took His people aside, discovered to them these secret whisperings, proved to them that it was so, and then gave each of them the perfect answer in each case.
There are three more whisperings that we would like to touch this morning: the ways of God, the faithfulness of God, and the glory of God. It is almost criminal to crowd this into one message, just the topics themselves.
My normal method—I do not follow it always—is to state, illustrate, apply, and clinch. I do not always state, illustrate, apply, and clinch, but I try to do that. This morning, because we have a lot of material, let me state and clinch.
By way of introduction, the next two whispers of the heart—the ways of God and the faithfulness of God—are intimately connected. They are organically connected. They both have to do with money and material possessions, though in each case there is a slightly different aspect.
Because they are connected, I want you to mark 1 Timothy 6. I understand 1 Timothy 6 to be God’s full statement of the Christian’s relationship with material things. Every principle is included in that wonderful chapter.
In these two heart whispers in Malachi, God takes those seed-form whispers and, in 1 Timothy 6, gives us His full explanation. We will see it in seed form, but I also want us to see it in fully developed form.
Turn back to Malachi 2:17 through Malachi 3:6: the inward thoughts of the heart concerning the ways of God.
They had whispered about His love. They had whispered about His work. They had whispered about the people of God. Now, verse 17:
Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied Him?
In that ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them;
or where is the God of justice?
I will not get on one of my hobby horses, but this is one of the unfortunate chapter divisions in the Bible, in my thinking one of the worst. There are plenty of bad ones. Praise God for the one who did the chapters—they are very helpful—but every now and then, oh my.
What is this whispering, this inner murmuring that made the Lord grow weary? Do not read Malachi 2:17 and think that it is a problem of ethics. It is not a problem of ethics. It is not a matter of morality.
They are not saying that evil is good, good is evil, or that it is good to sin. They are not endorsing sin. The heart whisper is more serious than that. They are whispering against the Lord Himself—against God and against His ways.
When they say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them,” and when they say God is unjust, what they are saying in effect is this: “It looks like, with these eyes, just by observation, that He favors the evil. It pays to be bad. He seems to be blessing the unjust.”
“It looks like He delights in them more than He delights in us. He sets His favor on the ungodly.”
As we get into this, we will see that they are judging by outward prosperity. They are looking on the outside, on material blessing. It is very much like Psalm 73. Asaph looked out and saw the arrogant, the prosperous, and the wicked in the world.
He said their eyes bulged with fatness. “I look outside and see them. They are always at ease. They are increased in wealth.” His heart became envious when he saw how the ungodly were living so ungodly, and yet things seemed to fall in place for them.
And we are the children of the Lord, yet it was not the same way for us. They said, “It seems like it pays to be bad. It looks like God is blessing the evil.” They began to entertain the notion, the idea, that this was not right—that God was not right, that His ways were not right.
God heard that whisper: “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord. He delights in them.” That is the essence of their whisper—that God is blessing the unjust and not blessing His own children.
Had He not promised in Proverbs 3:9-10 that if anybody honored the Lord, their barns would be filled and their vats would overflow? They had not understood the spiritual nature of that prosperity promise.
They looked at their barns and their vats. It was not that they were empty, but there was barely enough. God was providing their needs, but just about. Then they looked out their window and their neighbor had ten barns. That was the problem.
Their vats flowed like a river. They looked at that and said, “That is not right. These ungodly people do not care about the Lord or how they live. How come they get all the breaks?”
It is not that God was not providing for them. They had a car, but their neighbor had three cars and a yacht. That is what was going on here. It looked like He was blessing the evil. It looked like He was delighting in them.
Brothers, this inner sigh is not uncommon to the people of God. Way down deep, we get the idea that it is just not right. The godly struggle and struggle and barely make ends meet, while the ungodly seem to have everything fall into place.
God gives the perfect answer in Malachi 3:1-6. If the Holy Spirit enables us to face this honestly before Him, it will put out that whisper like water puts out a fire.
The key to the passage, I believe, is in Malachi 3:1:
The Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple.
Apart from the context, that is also a principle: the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple.
Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me:
and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple;
and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He cometh, saith the Lord of hosts.
But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth?
for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
and He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,
and He will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver,
that they may offer unto the Lord offerings in righteousness.
Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers,
and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless,
and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not Me, saith the Lord of hosts.
For I, the Lord, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
Those who study these verses have noted that there seems to be a blending of all the comings of the Lord. Some say it is a passage on His first coming, His incarnation. Others say it is a passage on His second coming. Others say it is a passage on His spiritual coming whenever He comes as we study the Bible and He appears.
You can look at Malachi 3:1 and see John the Baptizer preparing the way before Him, and that is His first coming. Then He suddenly comes to His temple. Is that when, as a little baby, He surprised Simeon? Is it when He went into the temple and cleansed it? What is He talking about in these wonderful verses?
Do not get sidetracked with, “Is this the first coming? Is this the second coming? Is this a spiritual coming? Is that John the Baptizer? Did that happen in Simeon’s day? Was that when He cleansed the temple?”
Get back to the heart whisper: “God is not fair. That is not right. They are being blessed, and I am not being blessed.”
The truth presented here, no matter what position you take, is this: when the Lord Jesus comes, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven, that revelation brings with it a purification.
In the light of that purification, you will understand that He is not unjust. When Jesus appears, you will be changed. When you are changed, your heart whisper will no longer say, “His ways are not right.” You will begin to understand.
He will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver,
that they may offer unto the Lord offerings in righteousness.
Everything is measured by this transformation, this change, this holiness. We sang before, “That is what I want—holiness. That is what I need—righteousness.”
The key to all of this is the Lord whom you seek, who will suddenly come to His temple. Let me make it very simple: this passage deals with two things—righteousness, which is produced by a revelation of Jesus, and riches, material things, mammon.
Let me ask you this, brothers: when you came to the Lord Jesus, did He promise to save you from sin or from poverty?
I tell you, God is not in the business of saving people from poverty. He has set Himself to save His people from sin, to make us like the Lord Jesus, to make us holy.
The whole issue in this heart whisper has to do with righteousness or riches. Can a Christian have both? He can have both, but he cannot seek both.
The Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple.
He may have both, but he cannot seek both. That is the hard answer God is giving us.
These things the Gentiles seek, Matthew 6. Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things. The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come. We must seek Him—His kingdom, His righteousness—and all these things will be added unto you.
You cannot make material things your goal. Your goal must be Him. Your heart must be set on His kingdom, His righteousness, and being transformed into Him. When He comes, when He suddenly appears, you will understand all of this.
These dear saints had gone such a long time since they encountered the Lord that they began to look out the window, see others, and grow envious. “They are prosperous, and I am not prosperous. His ways are not just.”
Brothers, let the unsaved have their riches. It is all they have. That is all they have. Let us set our hearts to seek the Lord.
Turn to 1 Timothy 6. I just want you to see it there.
But godliness with contentment is great gain:
for we brought nothing into the world, for neither can we carry anything out;
but having food and covering we shall be therewith content.
But they that desire to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts,
such as drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil:
which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness.
The whole idea here is: What are you seeking? What is your goal? Where is your heart? If He is your treasure, seek Him, and all these things will be added unto you.
As I said, God may engineer your life so that you have both, but He will never allow you to seek both. You cannot seek God and mammon. You have got to set your heart to seek the Lord, pursue righteousness, and take hold of eternal life.
The cure for this whispering is the revelation of Jesus. The Lord whom you seek will come. Once He comes, once you see Him, and once He changes you, you will not look out your window and say, “I envy that.”
You will say, “I was like a beast beforehand. When I went into the temple of the Lord, when I saw that…” May God help us with that.
This is closely connected with that. They also had inward whisperings about the faithfulness of God.
This is a wonderful passage of Scripture, and I am so sorry that it is so familiar. This is probably the most familiar passage in the book of Malachi: Malachi 3:8-16, the passage of the book of remembrance. People know about that. They know about the sun of righteousness and Elijah at the end.
This passage is so familiar because it is the passage on tithing—what they call storehouse tithing, even though there is no storehouse in the New Testament. But the main point of this passage is not tithing. We need to see the heart of God and the principle here.
The last heart whisper had to do with money and seeking it as a goal. This is also a heart whisper. In each case, God seems to dig down deeper and deeper, and man is shocked. He denies it: “I would never do this. This could not be in my heart.”
God begins in Malachi 3:8:
Will a man rob God? yet ye rob Me.
But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee?
In tithes and offerings.
Just for interest, has anybody here ever been robbed? Quite a few.
The first day I ever set foot in Chicago, I was going to be a student at Moody Bible Institute. I arrived at the Greyhound bus station. I had no clue where I was—I get lost coming out of my driveway.
I was in a blue suit, carrying my suitcase, a Bible student, trying to find Moody Bible Institute. I walked up Clark Street. If anybody knows Chicago, it is not a good street. Some guy said to me, “Hey, come here.” That was it.
They hit me. I was all over the place. They opened my suitcase, threw everything all over, and took my thirty-five cents. I got to the school all beat up, with my suit a mess, and they handed me a handbook that said, “Do not go down Clark Street.”
We got robbed in Newport, too. We had a little house right across from a housing project, and there was a gang over there. They were on drugs, and the neighbors could tell when they were on the prowl. They kicked our door in so many times.
One time they kicked it in, and when we came back home, they had gone through the house. They should have known the first time that there was nothing there, but they probably thought it was well hidden and they were going to find it.
The house was upside down. Everything was turned over—the dressers, mattresses, pictures off the wall. You cannot picture it.
I was following Lillian up the stairs, and she was all shook up because they had broken into our house and robbed us. When we went into the bedroom, the bed was upside down, the dresser was down, and the drawers were everywhere.
The policeman turned around and said to Lillian, “Did they do this?”
She said, “No, this is the way I keep house.”
Anyway, the shock of God coming down to people and saying, “You robbed Me. You robbed Me.”
You can understand the response: “How have we robbed You?” How is it possible to put a gun in the ribs of Almighty God and rob Him? And of what? He does not need anything.
Let me give you the full development of it. Turn to 1 Timothy 6 again. I believe everything God says about a Christian’s relationship to material things is in this beautiful chapter.
If I am reading it right, a Christian will only ever have two problems in all his life in terms of material things. One problem we already looked at: the problem of setting our heart on material things as a goal—seeking them.
But there is another problem. Look at 1 Timothy 6:17.
Charge them that are rich in this present world, that they be not highminded,
nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches,
but on God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
The first problem has to do with desiring riches. The second problem has to do with trusting riches—putting your hope in the uncertainty of riches.
Do not seek it. And if God gives it to you, do not trust it. That is the great issue. Sometimes, I honestly think God’s people are more plagued with the second one than the first one: trusting it.
Now let us get back to Malachi. After God works the miracle in their hearts not to seek it, He listens again, and there is another heart whisper.
When we read, “How have we robbed You?” and He says, “In tithes and offerings,” tithing comes to us as such a radical thing. But back then it was not radical. They had heard of it forever. That was the talk of their ancestors, going all the way back to Melchizedek.
Evidently, this—or something close to this—was the situation. If you are getting a thousand dollars a week, tithing is not an issue. That is easy. “All right, I will set it aside. I can take a portion of that.”
But if you are getting ten dollars a week, you have a problem. You have responsibilities, a testimony as a Christian, bills coming up, and all kinds of things you anticipate. “Does God expect me to tithe one dollar when I have another problem?”
I think that was the issue, because remember the context. The devourer had come. God had sent in the devourer, and it had eaten the funds. The people said, “All right, so what are we going to do? God’s faithfulness has not seen us through, so we will have to trust the little bit we have.”
That was the idea: “God let us down.” But you know, He does not let you down. That is the idea of God being unchanging. He is faithful. He is not going to let you down. If He failed you, He would lose a whole lot more than you would lose. He is not going to fail us. He is faithful.
Now, you need to understand the principle of the tithe. God is not saying, “Ninety percent belongs to you and ten percent belongs to God.” He does not need your ten percent. He does not need your dimes, nickels, dollars, or mine. That is not the point.
This is a principle written all through the Scriptures. Our confession is that every day is the Lord’s. God said, “All right, I will tell you what. Let us take one day and set it aside in a special way.”
Your profession, your claim, is that every day is His. “I will give you an objective test so that you might know. I do not need it; you need it. I will give you a test so that you can tell Me: Is every day Mine? How do you spend the one day?”
Then He had another law: the law of the firstling. You have a little animal born in your barn, and God said, “Give Me the first one.” He did not need the first one, but He wanted them to dedicate the first one because their claim was, “All my animals are God’s. They are all His.”
He said, “All right, let us see if that is true.” It is so easy to say, “I am surrendered. It is all His.”
Then they had the law of the firstfruits. You go out in your garden and there are the first fruits. God said, “Give Me that. I want that. Give Me the first fruits.” You would get the first carrot, the first bean, and the first potato, and give it to the Lord, because your claim was, “All my fruits are the Lord’s.”
Then they had the law of the firstborn. In a special way, you take your firstborn and dedicate your firstborn. Why? Because He loves the firstborn more? No. Because your confession is, “My family is the Lord’s.” The whole family, all the kids, everybody.
The principle of the tithe was the principle of surrender. It was the principle that everything belongs to the Lord. It was an objective test designed for the person, that he might know he was not just speaking unreality, but that his confession was real when he said, “I am surrendered, and it is all His.”
God says, “You have robbed Me in the tithe. You claimed you were surrendered. You claimed that everything belonged to Me.”
Brothers, everything belongs to Him. We are not our own. Every moment is His. That is why you are to pray without ceasing. Everything in your life is His by gift, and that is why in everything you are to give thanks.
Every duty, every responsibility, and every act of your life is His. That is why you are to do all for the glory of God. Every person who ever comes into your life, every relationship—by blood, by covenant, by appointment, by choice—it is all from Him. Everything comes from Him. Every task is under His government.
They began to whisper, “God is not faithful. He has not provided. I do not know what I am supposed to do. I have only got a little bit.”
God says, “You are robbing Me.” I do not know why it is so hard to understand that God is faithful in everything. But we divide our lives up: “This is my spiritual life, and this is my physical life. God is going to provide everything spiritual, but I am going to have to work for the physical side, the material side, and all that kind of thing.”
That is a fundamental error. In the Old Testament, God laid down the principle time after time and taught His children that He wanted to be trusted for everything. He was faithful in everything—not just spiritual things, but everything.
That is the idea of Deuteronomy 8 and the manna. He provided the manna in order to test them and teach them that man shall not live by bread alone. That is His plan. That is His desire.
God says, “You robbed Me.” Did they take His money? Did they take His gold? What did they take from God?
I will tell you what they took from Him. He wanted to be their provider, and they stole His privilege.
God wanted to be the One who would meet all of their needs, and they robbed Him. They took away His right, His privilege, His honor. He said, “I wanted so much to be your Father, to provide all of your needs.”
“You robbed Me by lack of surrender.” That is the tithe—not merely your ten percent, but lack of surrender, because you did not surrender to Me.
Then He gives this perfect answer: “I am faithful. I want to provide.” Watch this perfect answer in Malachi 3:10.
Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My 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 shall not be room enough to receive it.
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,
and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground.
That is the full answer. God says, “Stop robbing Me of My privilege. Try Me. Test Me. Trust Me for everything—not just spiritual things, light, guidance, support, and grace, but physical things.”
Trust Me for your rent. Trust Me for your health. Trust Me for your groceries. Trust Me for the fuel in your car. Trust Me for everything.
It does not rule out that we work, or man’s part, or all that kind of thing. God says, “I want to be trusted in everything. I am faithful. If you will trust Me in everything, test it. Try it. I will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing.”
That first part, where He says, “I will pour out a blessing that you will not be able to receive,” is spiritual blessing. You say, “How do you know?” Because the next verse talks about physical blessings: “I will also rebuke the devourer. I will also provide physical blessing.”
But first He talks about this: if you would only surrender, if you would only trust Me for everything and not put your faith in the uncertainty of riches. Do not seek it. Do not trust it. Trust Me, and watch what I will do.
Stop robbing Me of My privilege of being your provider.
Oh, Malachi is a marvelous book, and God’s heart is so burdened because He wants them to know He loves them. He wants them to know He will do the work—it is His work. It does not have to be a burden; it can be a joy.
He wants them to know that if they are right with Him, there will be beautiful unity in the body. He desires that they know His ways are right and just. He desires to be the provider. He says, “Trust Me. Watch what happens. Test Me with full surrender.”
Do not answer this, brother, because it is not my business. It is between you and the Lord. Have you ever tested Him with full surrender?
I tell you, He will open the windows. He will rebuke the devourer. Stop robbing Him; it is breaking His heart.
He longs to be your provider. He longs to be faithful. He is not hurting you. He is not against you when He withholds. He just does not want you to seek that. See Him, and watch Him open the windows of heaven.
God gives the perfect answer once again: “Look at My Son. Let Me do the work. Get right with Me. Seek Me alone. Trust Me. Let Me be your provider.”
One final whisper will wrap it up. May God help us. This is the whisper against the glory of God, in Malachi 3:14.
Ye have said, It is vain to serve God;
and what profit is it that we have kept His charge,
and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?
Let me get right to the problem. They had altogether lost their focus. “What profit is it for us?” That is the idea. “What do we get out of all this serving the Lord?”
“It seems so empty. I should have happiness in serving the Lord. There should be contentment. There should be joy. There is so little in it for me.” And they began to whisper.
This is a little different from when they complained about God’s work. When they complained about God’s work, they had taken God’s work to be their work, but it was still their work for God. It was still in that direction.
But now it is a little deeper, and the whisper is more subtle. Now it is all about me. “Why should I serve the Lord? I do not get much out of it. I am not very much appreciated.”
“I have to stand alone in my school, on the job, in the neighborhood, and sometimes even in the fellowship of God’s people. I just feel like I am so alone. I am standing all alone. It is not worth it. What is it all about? What am I getting out of it?”
Let me show you God’s perfect answer. As He comes to the close of the book, He becomes more and more gentle. That is one of the things you observe as you go through Malachi: each time He deals, He gets more and more tender.
If that were me—I speak as a fool—and they said, “It is not worth it. What am I getting out of serving You?” I would say, “Dear child, it is not about you. It is about Me. What is wrong with you?” That would cut me. Oh, He touched me. That is how I would have handled it. God does not deal that way.
Watch as He unveils His heart in Malachi 4:1. He will finally come to the truth that it is not about you. That is the idea. It is about Him. It is about His glory.
For, behold, the day cometh.
Stop there. The first thing He tells them is this: they are saying, “It is so vain to serve the Lord. They seem so happy. What are we getting out of this? It does nothing for me to serve the Lord. There is so little appreciation. I do not see any fruit. What is the point of all of this?”
And He begins, “The day is coming.” It is not now. It is down the road. The day is coming. You are looking for a fulfillment of your ministry and your service.
But unto you that fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings;
and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall.
And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith the Lord of hosts.
You say, “I do not get anything out of it.” Hang in there. The day is coming, says the Lord. When that day comes, you will frolic like a calf out of its stall. You will gambol like one of your sheep in the field and just bounce around.
You may not even believe in dancing today. The day is coming when that is all you will believe in, man. You are going to dance. The day is coming.
That is the first thing He says. That is part of His perfect answer.
Not only is the day coming; look at Malachi 3:16:
Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another;
and the Lord hearkened, and heard,
and a book of remembrance was written before Him,
for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name.
He gave a fresh word. Their complaint was, “Nobody is listening. Nobody regards. Nobody pays attention. Nobody cares. Nobody appreciates it. It is vain to serve the Lord. What is the point of the whole thing? I am not accepted.”
No, you are not, because the world hates you. What do you expect?
I remember going to a Bible conference at Sandy Cove, right after September 11. There was a dear sister there—an aged saint, one of those who knows Jesus. You just want to get close to her because she is touching Him. She was such a sweet, sweet Christian lady.
She was stronger than I am and a little bigger than I am. When she saw me, she ran to me, hugged me, and embraced me. It got embarrassing because she would not let me go.
I am so stupid; I did not know what to do. So I whispered something in her ear. I said, “There is a lot going on in our world.”
She grabbed me by the shoulders, put me out in front of her, shook me, and said, “It ain’t my world, honey.” Then she grabbed me back again.
I will tell you: it ain’t my world.
I will show you my world: Malachi 3:16. “Those that feared the Lord spoke to one another.”
Do you see the difference in this book? Up until this time, they had been speaking back to God. They are not speaking back to God anymore. There is a new world now.
I know this is going to sound stupid, but play along with me, please. Turn to your right and turn to your left, whoever is on your right or left. Look at them. Usually we just look at people, but I want you to look in that brother’s eyes. Just look in that brother’s eyes.
Turn the other way and look in that brother’s eyes. Unless you are in the back row, turn around and look at somebody’s eyes.
That is your world: the body of Christ. That is the saints.
Do you understand what He is saying? They are saying, “It is in vain. Nobody is listening.” He says, “Hang in there. The day is coming.”
“Everybody is rejecting me.” No, not everybody. Look around. This is your new world now: the people of God, the body of Christ. That is your family.
That was so precious. They did not pray together. They did not study the Bible together. It says those who feared the Lord talked to one another. That is all they did—they talked to one another.
God looked down from heaven, and He wrote it in His diary. It was so precious to Him just to see Christians fellowshipping together that He wrote it in His diary. He wrote it down in His book of remembrance.
Then He says, “It is not about you.”
“What does it pay to serve the Lord?” Hang in there. You wait; that day is coming, and you will know.
“Everybody is against me.” No, they are not. You have another world. That ain’t your world, honey. This is your world.
Then He says in verse 17:
And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts,
even Mine own possession, in the day that I make;
and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
“It is vain for us to serve the Lord.” It is not about you. It is about Me. In that day, they will be His jewels, His possession, and real ministry will be unto Him, a pleasure to His heart, and a satisfaction to Him.
He quiets that whisper by reminding them that there is a day coming. It is not now; it is later.
There is a new family now, and those who fear the Lord ought to gather together, and more so as the day approaches. Brothers, it is getting close. Encourage one another, lift one another, and speak to one another.
Remember, it is not about us. It is all about Him. All of these whispers, as I understand it—this is the message of the book.
Let me close the way He closes, in Malachi 4:5-6:
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers;
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
The book closes with a principle. God promises to send His Malachi, His messenger, to prepare for His coming.
I prayed before I got here, and I pray now, that in some small way I have been the Lord’s Malachi, to prepare the way for Him. He has promised that He would always send a messenger before He came.
There is a perfect answer. Let me summarize the perfect answer. I think Malachi 4:2 is a perfect clincher for the whole book. This is the all-inclusive, perfect answer to every whisper He has mentioned, and every whisper that will ever rise in your heart or mine.
But unto you that fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings.
That is a present foretaste of future glory. He is promising a new day.
I do not know how you were when you arrived here, or what whispers were going on in your heart, but He has promised that the sun of righteousness—S-U-N; the S-U-N is the S-O-N—the Son of righteousness will rise with healing in His wings.
I am not sure what that mixed metaphor means—probably swiftness; that is my guess. The Son of righteousness is so anxious to heal you that He comes with wings. Maybe it is comfort. I do not know what the wings are.
But I have this idea: it is His desire to rise on each brother as a sun with healing in His wings.
The doubt that you are loved by the Lord—may the Son of righteousness rise and heal you of that.
Have you struggled with the work of God? Has it been a big burden to you? May God turn your eyes to the One who does the work. May the Son of righteousness rise and heal you of that.
Have you got a problem in a relationship? May the Son of righteousness rise with healing in His wings.
Have you got problems with the ways of God? May the Son of righteousness rise with healing in His wings.
Do you think He is not faithful—that He does not know your problems, your debts, and your hardships? He can be trusted. He challenges you: “Bring the whole tithe. You watch what I will do.” Do not rob Him. He wants to be trusted. May the Son of righteousness rise with healing in His wings.
It is His glory. It is about Him. It is not about you.
When the days are short,
And the green hills snow,
When the dews are frost,
And the north winds blow,
When the branch is bare,
And the streams do not flow,
Son of righteousness,
Shine on me.
Shine on me till the healing ray breaks through.
Shine on me till my heart is refreshed anew.
Shine on me till the Savior is all I view.
Son of righteousness,
Shine on me.
Melt the mantle that winter has thrown on me.
Let the fresh buds burst; set the flowers free.
Let the songbirds sing in festivity.
Son of righteousness, shine on me.
When my heart is cold, my spirit is dry;
When my doubts control and I question why;
When the storms of life only terrify,
Son of righteousness,
Shine on me.
Shine on me till the healing ray breaks through.
Shine on me till my heart is refreshed anew.
Shine on me till the Savior is all I view.
Son of righteousness,
Shine on me.
Come and visit us with a quickening rain.
Drive our winter gloom by Your light away.
Spring will come, I know,
When He is on display.
Son of righteousness,
Shine on me.
Father, thank You for this book of Malachi, for all that You have inspired it to be. We know the perfect answer for every whisper of the heart is to have the Son of righteousness shine on us.
We pray that every brother here would leave this fellowship, this conference, this retreat, in a brand-new day, with the Son of righteousness shining, and leave with perfect healing.
We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.