← J. Vernon McGee - Thru the Bible - Old Testament - Bible Studies - Book by Book
J. Vernon McGee - Thru the Bible - Old Testament - Bible Studies - Book by Book
39_Malachi_03-04
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J. Vernon McGee - Thru the Bible - New Testament - Bible Studies - Book by Book - TTB.org - 39_Malachi_03-04
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Now will you listen to God's answer? Chapter three, verse one. Behold, I will send my messenger. He shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple. Even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Now here in one verse, we have the two messengers. The first one is John the Baptist. The second is the messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the messenger, the first one that is to go before and prepare the way, is John the Baptist. And it's quoted in all four of the Gospels as applying to John the Baptist. So there's no guesswork here. But the messenger of the covenant is never quoted anywhere in the Gospels. You know why? Because this messenger, the covenant here, is the Lord Jesus. Well, it doesn't have anything to do with his first coming. He didn't come the first time to judge, remember? He even said to this man who made me a judge over you. And he hasn't come yet to judge. He came to save. He came to bring grace, not government. He came as the one that is the Savior, not the sovereign. And so it's not quoted, I say, that is one of the remarkable things about this. I just like to turn to these passages that refer to John the Baptist, and I'm going through them rather hurriedly. The first one is in Matthew, the 11th chapter, verse 10. Let me read this. The Lord Jesus, you remember, said concerning him, verse 9. But what went ye out for? To see a prophet. Yea, I say, and unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it's written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before thee. Now that's in Matthew. Now you go over to Mark, the first chapter, even verse two. And it reads as it is written in the prophets. Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before thee. And then go on over to the Gospel of Luke, the seventh chapter and the 27th verse. And let me read this. I'd like to read more, but just this verse. This is he of whom it's written. Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Luke quotes it. And then over in the Gospel of John, and in John 1:23, he said, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord. As said the prophet Isaiah. And Malachi had that to say also. And here again is the answer. God will send him first as a sacrifice Savior, because he's gracious and he wants to save, but that doesn't end at all. He's coming again as the messenger of the covenant that is to execute justice and judgment on this earth. May I say to you very candidly, if you could convince me today that God does not intend to judge sin. Sin. And that he intends to let the injustice that's being done to let men get by with that, then I say very frankly, I'd turn my back on him if he intends to do that. But he's made it very clear he doesn't intend to turn his back on it. God intends to judge mankind, my friend. If you won't have him as your Savior, you're going to have him as your judge, whether you like it or not. He said that the Father hath committed all judgment under the Son. And in the book of Revelation, which we'll come to next, you're going to see a great white throne, and he's on it. And those that are the lost, both rich and poor, high and low, great and small, they're going to stand before that. You don't get by with it, my friend. I don't care who you are, you're not going to get by with it. Now, when it mentions the messenger of the covenant, a great many have thought that it was the new covenant in the New Testament. And actually it had no reference to the first coming of Christ. And it is the covenant that God had made with these people. And it's extremely expressed in several places. For instance, Leviticus, the 26th chapter. And let me read beginning at verse nine to you. And I think you'll find this as the covenant. The messenger of the covenant God says here, for I will have respect unto you and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store and bring forth the old because of the new. And I will set my tabernacle among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondman. And I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you to go upright. This is the covenant God made with him. And you'll find that he confirmed it in Deuteronomy, because Deuteronomy is a confirmation of the law and their experience with it after 40 years. And in the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, verse 23, I read, Take heed unto yourselves Lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you and make you a graven image or the likeness of anything which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. And of course, they had done that very thing, even turning to the occult and all this section deals with that. In other words, we find the messenger of the covenant is coming someday to make good this God will dwell in their midst. And that's the reason that we add in that first of the chapter, the cleansing and the purify. Because God would not walk among them unless they were obedient unto him, unless he had cleansed them and purified them. And that, of course, is true, I think, today for any work at all. And he says, the Lord whom ye seek, and this will be the Lord. He's God, if you please, manifest in the flesh. He shall suddenly come to his temple. Now, that doesn't mean he'll soon come to his temple, mean that. But when he comes, it'll be sudden. A man says, you know, you talk about the Rapture, that the Lord will take the church out of the world. Well, he says, when that takes place and he removes the church and I see him leaving, I'm going to accept Christ then. And I said, you know, it's interesting that'll be too late, because the reason he's taking the church out is because it's completed. So you wouldn't be able to. Then you could accept Christ and go through the great tribulation. But. Well, I think you're a fool to wait till then. Well, will you notice, he shall suddenly come to his temple. And the interesting thing is he's called the Lord and this is his temple, and he's the messenger of the covenant. So this is the Lord Jesus Christ. The one that we know in the New Testament is the Lord Jesus Christ is the angel of the covenant in the Old Testament. Now, will you notice we know he refers to the Second Coming? Why? Because it's judgment here. Will you listen? But who may abide the day of his coming? That's the second coming of Christ, who shall stand when he appeareth. For he's like a refiner's fire, like fuller's soap. He intends to purify, and he intends to clean. Purify and clean, you know, there's not going to be any pollution when he establishes the millennium on this earth. And he shall sit like a refiner and purifier of silver. And he shall purify the sons of Levi. He's going to cleanse. You see those that enter the millennium and purge them like gold and silver. And the two processes, cleansing and purifying. Cleansing is the use of soap as it's used here. And also the fire is used for testing. That's another way God has of purifying us, testing us, that he may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness that we might indeed be able to see Christ as our Savior. And that those in that day now, verse four. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord. The Lord will take great delight in it. Why? Because the ones that are offering it now are cleansed and purified. God's not interested in you going through rituals until your heart is right, friend. Until you have forsaken your sin, you've turned from it. You can get into sin, but if you stay in it, God's not accepting that type of thing. And he says here, then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord. As in the days of old, as in former years in the time of Solomon, there was a period when these people served God in such a way that they witnessed to the entire world. Verse 5. And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers. Now again through these mixed marriages of marrying heathen and pagan women who worship idols, why sorcery was brought in the occult, demon worship. And that is the thing to fill this great vacuum that is in our country today. Multitudes are turning to the occult. That explains the reason they exorcist was so popular. Believe me, it's a reflection on the church. The church certainly hadn't filled that void or that vacuum at all. And he says, I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers, these that had made the mixed marriages, divorced their wives, married these foreign heathen women, and against false swearers, I.e. liars, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right. In other words, they were not witnessing for God. And the stranger in that day that they should have witnessed to actually turned from God and did not fear. God, saith the Lord of hosts. Verse 6. For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. But he's a gracious God. God is a God of judgment, but he's also gracious. The reason that they hadn't been absolutely obliterated as the Edomites were, was because of his grace. Because God is gracious and he's gracious because he never changes. And thank God for that. God today is still a God of judgment that's a terror to the wicked. But he's also a God that never changes in reference to his grace. And that is a comfort to any that will accept the grace of God. Now we come, friends, to the sixth one of these very smart, eloquent retorts that these people give to God. There are eight of them and we've had five of them. And now we come to the sixth one. In other words, they are, as it were, putting God on a quiz program. God makes a statement and they ask him to prove it. They want to know the answer to it. And God brought eight incriminating accusations against the nation. And they countered by asking eight very impertinent and presumptuous questions. And he answered them politely but emphatically. And in other words, he was attempting to detour them from the destruction they were headed toward. Now, to interpret these questions, I think that it might be well to pause here again to understand the generation who asked them. You see, after these people had been in captivity 70 years, a remnant returned. Reluctantly and half heartedly. They set about restoring the city and rebuilding the temple. They had known the rigors and suffering of slavery. Like their fathers in the brickyards of Egypt. They were certainly groaning. But on returning, they endured hardship, severe persecutions, discouragement. And believe me, they thought when they returned that everything would be happy and nice and. And easy for them. But that was not the case. These were God's methods to discipline was a form of correction, and it did not have the desired effect, because discipline will either soften or harden you. They became hardened and embittered under the yoke which galled them. These people, they became as hard as nails. They're like an inmate, a prison. He's released, but not reformed. They had come out of slavery, but apparently had not learned the lesson. Actually, there's not much more that God could do for them. Even God, he exhausted his infinite arsenal of correction. It was out of the soil of this generation that there grew the poisonous plant of Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes, scribes that were in existence at the time the Lord Jesus came. Four hundred years later, what was a temple of rebellion against God in the time of Malachi, it was just a scratch on the surface of the nation. It became, at the time of the Lord Jesus, an internal cancer. And God tried to stem the spread of the virus at the cauterize it. And he brought these eight charges against them. And their response reveals their attitude. They pled not guilty to every one of them, and they expressed surprise that God would even suspect them. They affected an injured innocence. They feigned hurt feelings. They assumed ignorance. They played the part of being highly offended. And with a wave of the hand they dismissed the charges as unworthy of them. And we come now to a little different division that we have here. And we find that the people are now rebuked for religious sins. And this is this six sarcastic question that the people give to God's penetrating charge. God's going to call on them to do something. And we find that in verse seven, and we are through this little parenthesis that we had the prediction of the two messengers. Now will you listen? Even from the days of your fathers, ye are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye say, in what way shall we return? Oh, what smart alecks they were. They said, well, now you say we should return to you. We didn't know we'd gone away. We've been going up to the temple to all the services. We don't miss them. We tithe to a certain extent. We'll see that next time. And we are doing this, that, and the other thing. But we want you to know that. How can we return when we haven't even left you? They were so far gone that they did not realize their true condition. And I would say that that's pretty much the picture today of the church. Ritualism has been substituted for reality. Pageantry has been substituted for power. The aesthetic is substituted for the spiritual form, for feeling. And even in the orthodox, conservative and evangelical circles, they know the vocabulary. But the power of God is gone. They're satisfied with the tasteless morality, and they follow a few little shibboleths. And they feel like that everything is all right. And God says, return, you've departed from me. Now what does he mean by return? To him he means repent. And that's what repentance is. And I'd like to take a moment or two because this will be our last opportunity in the Old Testament. Because we've had this before. And God has only said to those that are his people, as he says here, you repent, you return to me. You see, the unbeliever can't quite fulfill that song where it says, lord, I'm coming home. You haven't even been home. You didn't even have a home. You see, the prodigal Son had to leave a home before he could come back to his home. He was a son all the time. But he left home. He had to repent. He had to change his mind. Now, repentance actually means that. And you do not get the full meaning of repentance till you come to the New Testament. Metanoia, the Greek word, means to change your mind. It means to be walking in one direction and you find out you're going the wrong way, and you turn right around and go the opposite way. Ms. McGee and I went over to Glendale here in Southern California. It's right next to Pasadena. And we asked for directions to get to a certain place we wanted to go. And a girl gave us the wrong direction. She said, turn left. And we turned left and we ran right up against the side of the mountain. And I said to her, I think the girl told us wrong. So what did we do? We turned around. We had to return back to where we turned off. And then we went the other direction and found out that the other direction was. Was the right direction. That's repentance. When I turned around, I found out it's wrong. Now I want to go the right way. That's repentance. Now, God speaks to his own. Now, the interesting thing when you get to the New Testament, that it's always to believers that God says, repent. To those that have been his children, supposed to have been his children, he says to them, repent. And to all of the seven churches, God has one message in Revelation. We're going to see that when we go to Revelation next. And we'll see that to five of those churches, God said repent. But to the Martyr Church of Smyrna, he didn't say that they were dying for him. And so he wouldn't say that to them. And to the church in Philadelphia which was holding to the word of God, he did not say to them, repent, but to all the rest of them, including Laodicea, his message to the church is repent. Now, we've got the notion today that we tell the unsaved they're to repent. Well, what are they to repent of? To change their direction, sure. But wait just a minute. That's not the message to the unsaved. That's the message to believers to repent. And my feeling is that that message of repentance that's being given over the heads of believers to unbelievers is falling on deaf ears, naturally. And the people it should be given to that are sitting right down in front are the ones. You should say repent. That's what he says. Even to the church in Ephesus. Repent. That's what you're to do now. It means to be going one direction, turn, go the other direction. Somebody says, you mean that the unsaved, when it comes to Christ, is not to repent. All the repentance he's asked to do is in the word believe. You say, how do you know that? Well, consider the message to the Thessalonians. You remember Paul, who had a marvelous ministry there? He said, how ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven. Now, when Paul went into the city of Thessalonica, he did not preach against idolatry. It was running right, but he didn't preach against it. He didn't preach against alcoholism. He didn't preach against those things. And, friends, that's the reason I don't follow that pattern. Only when the word of God touches on these things do I touch on them. Because our message to the lost world is what Paul gave to the Philippian jailer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in the word believe is all the repentance you need. Notice that one to the Thessalonicans, when Paul went there and preached, what did he preach? Repentance? No, he preached Christ. And he says, how you turn to God from idols. They were going one direction. Paul says, I want to tell you about Jesus Christ who died for your sin. And they turned to him. But when they turned to him, they turned away from idols. And that turning away from idols is repentance. They turned around, you see. But it's in the word believe. You've got to have something to turn to, friend, just to say to a man, repent. Well, you can weep your eyes out. I went down to an altar as a little boy. Nobody talked to me. I just wept, that is all. And I wept because the boy next to me wept. And his mother was a shouting Methodist, and she wept. She started it all. And we wept. And the fellow across from me jumped up and said, he's prayed through. I don't know what he meant by that, but whatever it was, that didn't do it. Nobody presented Christ to me. I was ready to repent because, well, I wasn't the best boy in the world. Let's say all of my mother thought so. But I could weep for my sin, but I needed Christ. And when you turn to Christ, you'll turn from these things. But Many of God's children, like the prodigal son, they get in a far country. And he says, repent, come home. That's the fellow that should come home. And a lot of believers. Oh, I know from the letters I get a lot of believers I'm speaking to today, you need to come home. And he's not talking about the unsaved fellow down the street from you. He's talking to you. He says, come home. What are you doing in that liberal chair? What are you doing today? As I read the letter the other day, the man said that he was guilty of adultery. Have you given it up? He says, come on home. Turn around. Come on home. We're speaking now to believers, and these are God's children. And he says, return unto me and I'll return unto you. Well, that prodigal son, he didn't get a whipping when he went home. He got a whipping in a far country. And if you think that pig pen was delightful, you are wrong. Any Christian that gets into sin will testify that it's not near as much fun as you thought it was. And I think many of us could say that. But the important thing is get out of the pig pen. And friends, if you don't get out of the pig pen, there's not but one class of living creatures that like pig pen, that's pigs. They're the only one. Sons just don't like them, and they're going to get out of it. And God says here, they deny that they need to return to God and need to repent. And there are a lot of folks in our churches today. They think everybody else needs to repent. They don't. But they need it, my friend. We need to return to God today. Now, these people had a pretended innocence, of course, which was not true. It revealed their hypocritical condition. And God asked them to return to him to repent. And they acted as if they hadn't even been anywhere. They said, why, we are going to the temple. The temple is crowded, and we're going through the ritual. And what do you mean, repent? What do you mean, return to you? We're already here. Here we are. We haven't gone anywhere. God says, you have. You may be going through the ritual, but your heart is far from me. And I very frankly believe that's true even of many conservative churches today, that people go through a little ritual that we conservative folk have. We have a vocabulary and that sort of thing. And a great many people know when to say praise the Lord and hallelujah but our hearts are far from him. And the thing is, he's asking us to repent. And that seems to be the most difficult thing for anybody to do, is. Is to repent, Especially a Christian. Don't know why it should be. We ought to be the easiest people in the world to repent. I heard of a church several years ago where one of the officers got up and suggested to the board that the board was finding fault with everything, including the pastor, apparently. And he said that he felt that the officers needed to repent. Did you know that they rebuffed that man and insulted himself? That it apparently brought on his debt the way he was treated, or even suggesting to a group of officers that they needed to repent? This is quite true, that they said, in what way shall we return? How can we repent? Well, we are the people. We are the beautiful people. We don't need to repent. The crowd outside needs to repent. Now they ask, in what way? And believe me, does he open up the wound here, and this will hurt. And very frankly, this is a place where some of you may want to just tune me out today because this is not going to be pleasant here. And I don't think this book has been very pleasant. But I enjoy it because I think he's talking right to me as well as to you or anybody else. And believe me, friends, we need to be talked to like this. When I go to my doctor, my cancer doctor is a very wonderful doctor and he treats me rougher than anybody I go to. I try to get him to give me an encouraging word every now and then. He won't do it. I try to get him to give me a prescription, you know, for easing pain. He won't do it. He just lays it right on the line. And you know, I love the man, and I love him because of the fact that. That he tells it like it is. And I tell you when you had cancer and you may still have it in your system, you really want to be told the truth. You want somebody to tell you the truth. And in spiritual matters that have to do with my eternal soul, I want somebody to tell me the truth, even if it hurts. And believe me, God doesn't mind telling you the truth at all. Now they say, how shall we return? He's going to tell them verse eight. And now we come to the seventh sarcastic remark that these people made. You see, eight times these people return God a flippant answer. Eight times. They dismiss the charges like petulant children. Eight times they evade the facts by affecting ignorance eight times. They avoid answering by pretending that they are pious. Will you listen to this? Will a man rob God? I think instead of probably pronouncing the benediction in some churches, the thing that should be given is this, stop thieves, you've been robbing God. And they have to say, my, you don't mean us. We put a generous offering in. Did you let me read this to you? Will a man rob God yet? Ye have robbed me. But ye say, how have we robbed thee? And here it is in tithes and offerings. That's what God said, in tithes and all. God says, you robbed me. Now, if you think that God is a shylock of the sky that was trying to take something away from these people, what God was doing, actually, God was blessing them and says, I'm going to let you have 9, 10, and you return to me 1 10. But there are several things that we do need to correct here, and I would like to do that because I think it's rather important. To begin with, the people did not give just one tithe, as some people seem to think. If you will examine it carefully, and I'm not going into a great deal of detail here today at all on this, but I do want to mention it, and I'm indebted to Dr. Feinberg in his excellent book on Malachi in which he mentions this, he says, and I'm quoting now him, the offerings in Israel were the first fruits, not less than one sixth of the corn, wine and oil. You find that in Deuteronomy 18:4 there were several kinds of tithes. Now, I have always taught on this program that there were three ties. Definitely. Well, Dr. Feinberg, who is a Hebrew scholar, he's found four. That's one more than I did. Now, will you notice number one, and I'm still reading from him, the tenth of the remainder after the first fruits were taken, this amount going to Levites for their livelihood. Now that is number one. And now number two, the 10th paid by the Levites to the priests. And I should give you the scripture for number one. It's Leviticus 27, 30, 33. And the tenth paid by the Levites to the priests is numbers 1826-28. And then the third. Now the second tenth paid by the congregation for the needs of the Levites and their own families at the tabernacle. And that's Deuteronomy 12:18. Now there was the fourth tithe. And this, by the way, I would say, is a rather important one. Another tithe every third year for the poor. Now that is something that's found in Deuteronomy 14:28 and 29. And I think that probably I ought to read that one to you, because that is one that I feel today should be observed. I recognize the government has done so much to help the poor or to help the bureaucrats. It's a question of who gets the money that's allocated for the poor. But the thing is that the church certainly ought to have an emphasis on this, and I want to say something about it. But first of all, let me read the scripture that you have here for this Deuteronomy 14:28 29 and I'll read that now. Deuteronomy 14:28 29 at the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shall lay it up within thy gates. And the Levite, because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come and shall eat and be satisfied, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest. So that every three years there was this extra tithe that was given so that when you say that God required a tithe, what do you mean by there were several tithes that were given? Now that is one thing that we wanted to straighten out. Now another thing that we need to straighten out is this, that we're living in the day of grace, we're told. And the giving of believers today, very frankly, is on a different basis altogether. We are to give, but on a different basis. I do not think that the church is under the tithe system as a legal system. Now that doesn't mean that some people couldn't give a tenth to the Lord. That may be the way the Lord would lead them to give. And here is the way the early church gave. Paul used the Macedonians as an example when he wrote to the Corinthians. And in second Corinthians, the eighth chapter, speaking of Macedonia, he says in verse two how that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in into the riches of their liberality. Though very poor, they gave generously for to their power I bear record yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves. Now they gave way beyond and can't that didn't even enter into their thinking. They just gave because of their love for the Lord and because of what praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. You see, giving is fellowship, and it's part of the fellowship of the church and part of the worship. And this they did. Now listen to this. Here's the background. This they did not, as we hope, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. Now, and I say this very candidly, and that's the reason from time to time, I make it very clear, and I'd like to today, if you are an unsaved person, not a Christian, we don't want you to give to this program to begin with. It couldn't be a blessing to you. And it wouldn't, I don't think, in the long run ever be a blessing to us. God asks his children to give. Have you ever noticed that the Ark of the Covenant was carried on the shoulders of the priests? Now, the Lord could have called in somebody from the outside to carry it, or he could have had a cart to carry it, because the cart carried some of the other things, but not the ark that speaks of Christ. Now, if you're going to carry forth his message, and his message is about what he's done with for us, it has to be carried on the shoulders of those that are priests, those that are heads. And he's not asking you to give if you're not a Christian. And everybody says, McGee on that program, all he does is ask for money, which of course I don't. But suppose they say that this is an unsaved man. I say to him, we're not talking to you. We don't want you to give. I'm speaking to God's people and I want them to. To be the ones to have part in this. And I believe they could have a part. And Paul says this here in verse 8. Now of chapter 8. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love. And this proves your love of Christ. You see, he doesn't ask you to give that song that says, I gave. I gave my life for thee. What hast thou done for me? That is as unscriptural as anything can be. He never asks you that. He never asks you that if you love him. He says, keep my commandments. Now he says, verse 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. That you through his poverty might be Rich. Now, he says you to give hilariously, joyfully, by my gracious alive, it's like they told me in Israel, they showed me the new government buildings, and one of them was the Internal Revenue, where they collect the taxes. And this Jewish guide, very wryly and with a smile, he says, we call that the new Wailing Wall. Well, let me tell you, when they take the offering in church, it's the Wailing Wall. Oh, my. We're going to have an offering. And my feeling is that that ought to be a joyful part. And if you can't give joyfully why you ought not to be giving, it won't do you a bit of good, I can assure you that. And he goes on in this chapter and even in the next chapter, 9 of 2 Corinthians, I'm not going into that today, but that is the basis on which Christians are to give. Now, my feeling is that Christians are to give. Actually, I think most of them in this affluent society ought to be given more than a tenth. Israel gave more than a tenth, that's for sure. Four tithes. Now, when I was pastor in Texas, this during the Depression, I had an elder in my church, and I'm not going into detail because our program goes into that area now, and I do not want to spotlight any individual. Was a man in the church, and he was the only one that was in a business that was really making money. And he had a ranch, and I used to hunt on his ranch, and I also used to fish. The river went right down through it. And he and I were in his boat one day fishing, and he said to me, preacher, why don't you preach more on the tithe? I said, I don't believe in the tithe. And he did, by the way, and he gave that way. And so he just kept after me. Every time he and I'd get together, he want to know why I didn't speak on the tithe. And finally I gave him this. And I said, you know, there are a lot of Christians that today ought to be given more than a 10. And I gave the example. Now, I said, here in this place, among our best people, I would say you are probably making more money today than any other individual in the church except the doctors. We had five doctors. They did well. But the point was, this man was really making money during the Depression. Now I said, I think you ought to give more than a tenth. And I looked him right straight in the eye when I said that. He winced a little. And, you know, he never did ask me after that, to preach on the tithe. Why? Because he was glad to give the 10th and ease his conscience and feel like that's all he ought to give. A lot of folk ought to be giving more than the 10th, friends. But when I say ought to, I say it. Jesus says, don't do it, brother. Unless you're giving it because of love for me, because you really want to get the word out. This is terrific. I think that the Lord Jesus, he says, will a man rob God? What do you think? Why, as I say, instead of having the benediction at the end of the church, why, they ought to let the people start out and then somebody yell out, stop, thief. And there sure would be a whole lot of thieves that if they didn't want to be caught, would take off running to get away. Why? Because they've robbed God. How did they rob God? Well, it all belongs to him, to Israel. He said, you just keep 9, 10. But I want you to give me the other to recognize me. And it's been amazing how some of the great men of the past that are familiar to us in business today were Christians who gave to God and gave to God generously. Hershey is one of the Hershey Chocolate Company. And Wrigley, I'm talking about the founder. Now, not by this present generation, but Wrigley gave generously to the Lord. And Penny. You see these J.C. penney stories started by a preacher's son. His father died and he was a boy, and he had to go out and get washing that his mother had to take in because nobody helped her. And that man said that when he got bigger, he was going to make money. And he made it. And he has a big village down in Florida where preachers can live. And I think there's one in Indiana some other place. May I say to you, God has blessed these men in the past that recognized him. And I believe that it's still true today. But, my friend, you'll have to do it out of love for him. That's the only way he accepts it. Now, verse nine, he continues on this line. He says, ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me even this whole nation. Now, the question, of course, arises here, would this be applicable to the church? Well, we made it very clear, I trust, that we are not under the law today. And the tithe is not required today. In fact, under grace, God wants you to give as you're able to give. And for some people, it would be less than the tithe, and for other people, it would be more than the tithe. And I'm of the opinion a great many today in this affluent society ought to be giving more to God. Now, if you want to know actually how this thing works out here in Southern California, there are the headquarters or semi headquarters of three of the major cults today. And one of the things that they do is put people back under the law and they have them keep the law and they urge the people to give tithes. That's part of the system. You're going to belong to it, you're going to give a tithe. Those three cults are the richest that you've ever seen. Why, this little operation we have here, we think it's great and it is. We thank God for it. But my friend, we are actually Mickey Mouse when you put us down by the side of these organizations where millions of dollars are just rolling into them. Why? Because even on the tithe, the old legal system, look how much would come in. Now, doesn't that tell you something? Doesn't that tell you that God's people today under grace are sure not giving as they should? I think it reveals very clearly that God's people are not giving to the Lord's work as they should give. Now, that's one of the reasons that I feel there's not the blessing that should attend God's work today. Many churches have a minister who's teaching the word of God and they don't seem to be moving very fast, not going anywhere. Well, I would say that God still is making it clear that this is something that he looks at and that is your giving. And if a church is not giving or an individual is not God is not promised to bless them at all. Any person who's devoted to God, I think God's going to bless them, not necessarily with material things. We're told today that we're blessed with all spiritual blessings and in the heavenlies. And therefore God in a very gracious manner will bless those that are generous with him. I believe that that's a great principle that runs through the entire word of God. And that one of the reasons many churches that actually were Bible churches just dried up, they died on the vine. And I think it can all be traced to the fact that that the people were not giving as they should unto God. And if we open our heart to him, he's promised us spiritual blessings, blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly. Now, God made good this to his people. Back in the time of Hezekiah was a time of revival. And in 2nd Chronicles 31:10 I read. And Azariah, the chief priest of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, since the people began to bring the offerings unto the house of the Lord, we've had enough to eat and have plenty, for the Lord hath blessed his people, and that which is left is this great store. In other words, they were giving more than enough. And actually, at the time they made the tabernacle, Moses asked for offerings, and he had to stop the people from giving because they were bringing too much. And that's the only case on record I've ever heard of stopping people from giving. And they did it in that day. Now he goes on to say in verse 10, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in mine house, and test me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Now, again, I would remind you we are not under the tithe system today. I don't think that is the thing God is requiring of believers. As we've said before, there are many humble believers today with blessings. Very little income that a tenth, I'm confident, would be too much. Then there are others today that God has blessed in such a wonderful way that they could give as much as even the government will allow. Give that to the Lord when you have a certain income. So that today, friends, we find very few that are giving like that to the Lord. And I'm of the opinion that the tithe is certainly a yardstick that you can measure yourself by, but I don't think that it's legal at all. And then to bring it into the storehouse. Now, there are many churches in some denominations that have said the storehouse is the local church or it is a denomination. And frankly, just as the tithe is not for the church today, well, the storehouse isn't either. The storehouse was in the temple in that area. They had many buildings around it, and those buildings were storerooms. And when people brought the tithe, they brought it, and it was stored away. So you find in Nehemiah, that took place right before this period. Nehemiah, when he came back to Jesus, Jerusalem found Tobiah, the enemy of God, living in one of the storerooms that had been cleaned out. And why it was cleaned out was because people weren't given generously. So they made him an apartment there. But Nehemiah cleaned up the place because he took Tobiah's things and pitched them out the window and told him to get out of town. And then the people began to bring their offerings and fill up the storeroom again. Now, there's no such thing today as what's called storehouse giving. I don't believe that at all, because that's not quite the way we give today and produce. That's the way Israel was giving. In fact, if you've noticed the law concerning the offerings, God gave a certain part of an animal to the priest, and always he said, you are to eat it there. You have know why he said that? Because they didn't have any frigidaries. They didn't have a great big ice box to put it in to meet. And in that warm climate, why, it would go bad in a hurry. And so God says to them, you eat it right there. You don't store that away. If you did, you'd be in trouble. And so that is the picture that we have here before us now, verse 11. God says, and I will rebuke the Devourer for your sakes. Now, when they were generous with God, he said, I'll open up the heavens and pour you out a blessing, and I'll rebuke the devourer. Well, the devourer evidently means the locust that had a ravenous and insatiable appetite. That was the locust. He'd eat everything that was ahead of him. He was a regular gourmet on green salad. And so he just took all the green stuff that was ahead of him. Now God said, and many of the plagues came like that. God says, I'll rebuke the Devourer for your sakes. Judgment comes from God on a nation today when they reject God. I think that explains the fact that we are having a shortage. Not only an energy shortage, but a shortage in so many areas today. Our supermarkets for years were groaning. The shelves were. Well, my supermarket still does pretty well, but there's some things that are absent there. And you can't get the cut of meat today that you'd like to have. And even if they have it, you can't pay for it unless you mortgage your home. My, no one seems to be interpreting these things today as a judgment from God. That is a warning, I think, a warning of that which is to come in the future. In other words, I don't think we've seen anything yet. Now he goes on to say, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, Saith The Lord of hosts. In other words, your vineyards will produce abundantly. And then he says, and all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hopes. Now when they were right with God, they became a blessing to the other nations of the world. And you see honesty with God, and you couldn't have holiness without a little honesty with it. That was the thing that made them a blessing to all nations. And by the way, I think probably I ought to just drop back to Zechariah. We just finished that a short time ago. And in the eighth chapter of Zechariah at verse 13, let me read that. And it shall come to pass that as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you. And ye shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong. Now that's looking forward to a future day. But God said at that time, I will make you a blessing to the nations. And when Israel is serving God, it becomes a blessing to the other nations. Now let me read verse 13. And we come now to the 8th and the last sarcastic remark they make to God. We have seen seven of these sarcastic statements they have made to God in response to his statement. Now he says in verse 13, your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord, yet ye say, what have we spoken so much against thee? Well, we don't recall that we said anything against you. Well, in each one of these he puts it right on the line. He says, ye have said, ye have said, it's vain that is empty. It's a vain thing to serve God. And what profit is it that we've kept his ordinance and that we've walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? They said, well, what good is it for us to serve God? It's an empty thing. And for them it was an empty thing because their heart was not in it. And since their heart was not in it, God had not blessed them. And so they blame God for the situation. They say, well, it's not worthwhile to serve God. Well, the way they were doing it, it's not worthwhile. And I want to make a very strong statement right now. Actually, there are some people today who are attending church that very frankly, I think they'd do better if they just take a drive on Sunday. Their heart's not in it. They go there to criticize. Or someone says, some people go to church to eye the clothes and others to close their eyes. Nice place to get a nap if Your heart is not in it, friend. If you don't love him and you don't want to praise and serve him and worship him, well, it's no value. And that's true today. We are on a marvelous, wonderful plane. The Lord Jesus said to that woman at the well, why woman, believe me, the hour is coming. Now is true. Worshipers will not worship God in this mountain. And believe me, they're still offering bloody sacrifices at that mountain. Nor yet in Jerusalem. And Jerusalem. Jerusalem is not a place to worship God. You've got every form of so called Christianity there. And most of it is as far from the message of the Lord Jesus and the early apostles as anything possibly could be. And he said, you're not going to worship God here in Jerusalem. But true worshipers, they're going to worship God in spirit and in truth, they're going to love the word of God. They'll want to serve him, they'll want to obey him, they'll want to worship him, they'll want to praise Him. Man said to me, he says, well McGee, I guess you think I'm going to hell because I play golf on Sunday. And I said, no, you're not going to hell because you play golf on Sunday. You're going to go to hell because you've rejected Jesus Christ. Golf hadn't anything to do with it. And I said, I know a lot of church members, I wish they'd go play golf on Sunday, get them out of the church because they're troublemakers and they're not worshiping God in spirit and in truth. May I say to you all this outward religion, it's no good, friends. It's the condition of your heart and your relationship to Jesus Christ. Now we've had this before us back in Zechariah, and this is something that continued on. Even we see it in the time of the Lord Jesus when he came to to this earth. They were going through a ritual and a form. There were the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians and the scribes, all going through a form of religion, a form of godliness, but denying actually the power thereof. Somebody has raised the question with me. Well, could you give a definition of what is real worship? Well, well, we have a good one given in the scripture, Isaiah in the Old Testament, and It's in the 58th chapter, beginning at verse three. And I'm going to take the time today to read this. He says, wherefore have we fasted? Say they, and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge. Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure and exact all your labors. Now you see, the same problem was way back in Isaiah's day, they fasted and they afflicted their souls, and God didn't do anything about it. Now will you listen? Verse 4. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate. Just want to have a religious argument and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on high. God says, I don't care about your fasting. And going through all of that and wanting to debate religion and have so much zeal. And I just like to pause right here to say we get well, I suppose There comes to my desk a about five times a week, a letter, a very fat letter. I can always tell by looking at it, even the way it's addressed, that it's someone that won't stand into controversy with me or straighten me out. Well, I generally open the letters until I get acquainted with the name and I start in and it's somebody wanting to argue. And there's generally 15 or 20 pages there, sometimes closely typewritten, and I couldn't even read it even if I wanted to. So may I say to those folk listening in, I never read your letters. I'm sorry. Maybe I'm missing something, I don't know. But whatever I'm missing, I'm glad I'm missing it. I just put them in a wastebasket. Every now and then my secretary will read one and tell me what it says, and we just put it in a wastebasket. Now we're not getting anywhere, are you? And you can differ with my interpretation. But may I say, if you believe that the Bible is the word of God, you just pray for me. If you think my interpretation is wrong, and it could be, by the way, and you ought to test it, don't try to straighten me out. Because you know, there have been experts that have tried that, and they just haven't gotten anywhere. I'm rather stubborn, I guess. Now, will you notice he says here, verse 5. Is it such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness? Now here's real worship to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke, Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? And that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh, Then shall thy light break forth forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee. The glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. Now, what he's saying is this. When you come in to worship God, make sure that you got a life to back it up. Because that is pretty important. In fact, God wants a life, but that will back up what you have to say. So here's an Old Testament definition of what is real worship. You have to have a life to back it up. The ritual itself has no value unless the heart is right before God. This is something we need to keep before us. Now will you listen to Him? Verse 14. Ye have said it's vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we've kept his ordinance and that we walk mournfully before the Lord of hosts? The Lord said as far as he was concerned, it was vain and empty for them to worship him. But the problem wasn't with God. The problem was with them. I went to see a man in the hospital here many years ago. They told me his wife outside the door said that the doctor says that he's dying. I went in to see him and have prayer with him and say a word not only of comfort, but that his wife might have the assurance of his salvation. And he said to me, he says, Dr. McGee, he said, I'm about to freeze to death. He said, would you get that blanket over and put it on me? And I did. And I thought, did you know that that room was hot? Oh, it was warm. And the man was freezing to death. Now he blamed it on the room. He said, they just never keep these rooms warm. Well, it was overheated. There are a great many people say the church is cold. They go to now, are you sure that the church is cold? Or maybe you are cold. It might be well to check up the problem here. It was with the people, wasn't with God at all. Now verse 15. And now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up, yea, and they that test God are even delivered. Why, they can tempt God and get by with it in that day. And it looked that way. But habakkuk found out God was moving and moving in the life of the nation and was going to judge them. I'm of the opinion that if we could see back of the sins and and see the wheels of God that are moving today, we would cry out to God to have mercy. Because I think he's moving, but we don't seem to recognize it. Verse 16. Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another. In other words, there was a little remnant that loved God and they met together and they feared the Lord and they spoke one to another. It was fellowship they were having. And the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. Now, running all the way through Scripture, there is this idea that God keeps books. Now, if you think that. I think he's got a book up there that he's writing, and I don't think so. God never forgets and he doesn't need that book. And I don't think he even has an IBM computer up there. I don't think he needs that at all. If he has anything, I guess it would be a computer. But what does it mean here that a book of remembrance was written before Him? Now we're going to find out. And when we get to Revelation, there's a danger of it being rubbed out. That mean you can lose your salvation? I don't think so. Now, very frankly, that's one of the difficult passages, the book of Revelation, to understand. When he goes on to say that he is apt to erase their name. I'll blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father. He that overcometh, he shall be clothed in white raiment. I'll not blot out his name. Now I'm going to make a suggestion today because of what we have here. If you feel like that God has a set of books up there that he's keeping, I don't think so. But very frankly, the only way you and I can understand this is because of that figure of speech. I can understand that he puts down in the Book of Life those that are saved. And I can understand that he can put down in a book those that receive a reward, some recognition. It makes it clear to me. But I don't believe that God has a literal book up there. He may have. We're told in the last part of the book of Revelation when the lost abroad, that the books were open and there were several of them there, and there was the book of those that were saved. Now I want to put it like this, that it's more or less like a report card that I used to get in school. You get a report card if you're a student. That's all the requirement. All you had to do is enroll. Now you get in the Lamb's Book of Life by accepting Christ as your Savior. And that will never be removed. Now in that report card that he has of you, you're now in the Lamb's Book of Life. You're enrolled. Now you're going to start making grades and he's going to put down, how are you doing about your Bible study? What is he giving you on that? Are you making A's these days? Are you failing the course? And then how is your life? How is your service? For him, I think all of these things he takes note of and that they are recorded. Now I believe that when he says their names are removed from the Book of Life to the church in Sardis, that their names blotted out, that it has to do with service, because that's what he's talking about there. It's the service that they render. And I think that many of us will get a report card and we're going to get one. But you know, some are going to be a failure in the Christian life. Paul put it like this, that our works are to be tested. Now he says it's to be tested by fire. Now, if a man's works, wood and stubble and all consumed by fire, will he be saved? Paul says, sure, he'll be saved. So as by fire, there'll be a lot of people in heaven going to smell like they were bought at a fire sale and they were bran plucked from the burning, if you please. And they did nothing. Nothing was put on the report card. So that what we have here, that book of remembrance, God just doesn't need to remember things because he is the one who really has a computer mind. It's all there. And that is what I think that he's talking about here. A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name. In other words, the record now is of their works, their service, their love for Him. Those are the things salvation is freed. It's by faith, never by works. Now, after you've been saved, your works really begin to count. That's when they really begin to count and they become all important. So that's the reason that I have dwelt on that, because this book of remembrance is A very beautiful and wonderful thing. Now, you find that it's mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament. You go back to Psalm 56, and it's verse 8, and I'll read it. And this is a lovely verse. Thou tellest my wanderings. The Lord knows exactly where you've been all the time. Maybe your neighbors don't know, your church members don't know, and the pastor doesn't know. God knows the darkness is light to him. He knows where you've been. He knows what you've done. Thou tellest my wanderings. Put thou my tears into thy bottle. And I think that's one of the loveliest things, my friend. When I think of that godly mother that's weeping because of a wayward child. God put those tears in a bottle. Can you imagine it? How wonderful he's taken note of that. And this man that has served God and then has been disappointed by his brethren the way they've treated him, and he swept tears of it. God says, I put those tears in a bottle. And then he says, here, are they not in thy book? You see, there's a book that records our life. Friends, I've always felt that it probably is going to be sort of a movie. I think that he'll run the movie through for us. You'll see your life from birth to the death. It'll all be there. It won't be what the preacher said at the funeral about how wonderful you were and what a great church member you were. He's just going to run it just like it was. And I don't know about you. I don't want to see mine. But I guess we'll have to take a look at it someday. Now let me read. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts. In that day when I make up my jewels. Isn't that a lovely way? God's going to make up his jewels, and the church is going to be there. The church is the pearl of great price. Israel never valued pearls very much. Gentiles always have. And so the pearl of great price is the church. God's going to make up his jewels. Someday there'll be a lot of them. And I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. This remnant during this time. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. We're living in a day as they lived. And it will be at the end of the age. You won't be Able really to tell the righteous from the unrighteous. And it's difficult today to tell who really are the saved. Now we come to the fourth chapter here and I want to get into this. And it's very brief. Actually. The fourth chapter is not in the Hebrew Bible. It's the fourth chapter. It's just the end of the third chapter. And so in the translations, this was made a chapter only six verses. And I personally never really found out just why. Now you have in this fourth chapter the prediction of the day of the Lord and of the Son of Righteousness who ushered it in. Now this first verse is a vivid description of the great tribulation period. For behold, the day cometh. What is that? The day of the Lord. We've certainly been talking about that that shall burn like an oven, all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. In other words, consumed. We're going to see that in the book of Revelation. At one fell swoop, one fourth of the population of the world will be wiped out. And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, shall that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. Now this hasn't anything in the world to do with this doctrine today that at death, death ends it all for the unsaved, that it's annihilation. Well, the Bible doesn't teach that the body goes into the grave, lost and saved, and you go into eternity someplace, friend, your soul and spirit. Now this doesn't teach that. It just teaches the fact that they are to be judged in the great tribulation and removed from the earth scene. Now he says verse two. But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness rise with healing in his wings. And ye shall go forth and grow up like calves of the stall. The Son of righteousness in the Old Testament is the same person who is the bright and morning star in the New Testament. And Christ is never called the Son of righteousness in the New Testament. And he's never called a bright morning star back in the Old Testament. And there's a reason for that. Verse 3. And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts, that is, when he comes to this earth to establish his kingdom, then the wicked will be put down. He will break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. That is the language of scripture. And it's just too bad if you don't like it verse 4. Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb, for all Israel with the statutes and ordinances. And now Israel is going to move into a period in which heaven goes off the air. God will not be broadcasting. And there will appear another Zechariah 400 years later serving in the temple. Luke tells us about it when the angel Gabriel appears to him and announces the birth of John the Baptist. The silence of 400 years is broken. Now, in the meantime, they are to remember the law of Moses. That will be their life. That will be God's word for them. They were under the Mosaic system. Now, verse five. Behold, I'll send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. Now, there are two witnesses that appear in the last days. We'll see that in Revelation. Now, I'm almost sure that one of the witnesses is Elijah. And at the Passover feast in the Orthodox Jew's home, a chair is put at the table. No one sits in it. That's for Elijah, who shall come. And when John the Baptist appeared, they thought he was Elijah. But John the Baptist was not Elijah in any sense of the word. And it does say could have been, but he wasn't. That's the important thing. That's an iffy question. If Christ had established his kingdom, then John the Baptist would have been Elijah. You say, how could that be? I don't know, because it didn't happen that way. That's an iffy question. Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. John the Baptist was not that because he was announcing the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He said, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. That's a little different than announcing the great and terrible day of the Lord that was coming. But I do not know who the second witness is, but I'll make some suggestions when we get to it. In Revelation, verse 6. 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. And. And the Old Testament closes with a curse. Now, the curse came when Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden disobeyed God. And God said the ground would be cursed and the curse would rest upon them. The curse was sin, and it's in the human family today. And all you have to do is to look about you. And my friend, if you are living in a place today, where you do not have snails or termites or some kind of blight that's eating at what you're trying to raise, whether it's vegetables or flowers or trees, then you must have moved into the millennium. And if you're living in a community where there's no sin, I would say you've already moved into the millennium. But I'm of the opinion that as we look about us today, we can recognize the the curse of sin is upon the human race and upon this earth. But that's a very doleful way to end the Old Testament. It's been a book of expectation, though, and I think the emphasis should be back on verse two. But unto you that fear my name shall the Son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. And ye shall go forth and grow up like calves of the stall. Now, the Old Testament just doesn't close with a curse. It closed with a great hope. The sun has gone down and it's dark. It's very dark, if you please. But there's coming a new day. And we are now living in the night of sin. And the world is dark. It seems like we're at the darkest moment today. But there's coming a day when the Son of Righteousness will rise and light will break on this little planet. And I mean spiritual light. Now, that Son of Righteousness is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want to look at this for just a few moments because I think it's very important that we do that. And we have here the bright and morning star and the Son of Righteousness. Now I want to call your attention to something that's remarkable. In the Old Testament, Christ is presented as the Son of righteousness. In the New Testament, he's presented in a different way altogether. He's actually presented there to us as the bright and morning star. Listen to him. Revelation 22:16. And this concludes Revelation. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and offspring of David. That means he's king who's going to reign on this earth. But he's something else. And the bright and morning star, that's something new, by the way. Now, astronomy is the oldest science that's known to man. But like many other sciences, it had its origin in the occult and superstition, in the mythological and the mystical. That is the background of it. And we have here, for instance, the other sciences had that kind of a beginning. Chemistry, for instance, was first. Alchemy. Alchemy. And it was attempt to transmute baser metals into precious metals, like gold, for instance. Now, astronomy as we know it today actually had its origin in astrology, that which is filled with superstition. And you think, well, that was way back yonder in the dark ages, and men were very superstitious then. But today we've improved. Have we improved? I want to say that first of all, probably right now there are more people in this country that are interested in the horoscope and the star they've been born in under than they are interested in the Bible or the word of God or anything else for that matter. May I say, those that are so well acquainted today with the zodiac and want to know what star you've been born and under, well, may I say to you that that is something that borders on the occult. And we are seeing today the worship of Satan as we've never seen it before. It's quite interesting that a few years ago only 6% even believed in God, and only 3% back in that time believed in a personal devil. And they tell me that now that the percentage goes something like this, that 37% to 48% believe and are convinced that there's a devil today. And actually, apparently some of them are not convinced that there's a God that they're responsible to, but they at least believe this. And may I say to you that the heavenly bodies today are being observed. And at first they were observed with the naked eye. It was curiosity and the beauty of the heavens. And now the mechanical eye came into existence. And at first it was pure science, but now the scientists are making a greater study of the heavens than they've ever made before. I can remember when I was in college, they were hoping that they would find water on the planet Venus. They believed it was there. Well, they've had a telescope and a TV camera that went by Venus, and it was rather disappointing. And the same thing was true of Mars. They thought they might have water. And believe me, Los Angeles is sure interested in a new water supply. And if they had found it on Venus or Mars, why, we would have sent up a tanker to bring back a load of water instead of maybe a load of gasoline, because we need water down here. But those two places are very dry today. And the fact of the matter is that scripture does turn man's attention repeatedly to the heavens. Psalm 8 reads, When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him. And the answer to that question is man happens to be the astronomer. He's the one that can view all of this today and can give praise and glory to God. For the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. And God said to Abraham, look now toward heaven. See if you're able to number the stars. Now the Old Testament closes with God directing man to look to the heavens. And it's well that man looks up. And here in Malachi, where it closes with a thud, lest he come and smite the earth with a curse. And the curtain comes down before the human story is over. The play is not over. The darkness closes in on man. And there are the good guys and the bad guys, and the good guys haven't won yet. God says, look up at the heavens. Don't miss it. It's important that you see it, friends. But unto you that fear my name shall a son of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. And ye shall go forth and. And grow up like calves of the stall. That's a promise of a sunrise. There's a song they sing. World is waiting for the sunrise. And I believe it is. The church is waiting for something else. And Kipling, you remember, has a poem that's been made into a song. The sun comes up like thunder out of China across the bay. And when he comes, the Son of righteousness, that's the way he's going to come out of the East. And he'll come up like thunder when he puts down all unrighteousness. So that, as we've said before, the Old Testament is expectation. In one sense, it's the most disappointing book in the world if it stands by itself. But it points to the heavens and it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of righteousness. And that's a fitting figure for him, because he comes to usher in a new day and in the night of man's sin. And the day of the Lord is coming, and his kingdom will be established upon the earth. And God is called a son in the Old Testament. Let me pass on to you Psalm 84:11. Listen to this, because it's very important. For the Lord God is. Is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. That's Psalm 84:11. And then in Isaiah 60, 19, the sun shall be no more, thy light by day. Neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee. For the Lord shall be unto thee. An everlasting light and thy God, thy glory. What a picture that we have there. But in the New Testament. The New Testament is realization, and it closes with a little different hope. By the way, as we have already read the verse, and it's a marvelous verse. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I'm the root and the offspring of David, and that's his. He's the Son of righteousness there, but he's also the bright morning star. Now, there's something that's quite interesting. The New Testament does not open with the Son of righteousness. That's not the way it opens. The first public announcement was made privately to Zacharias. And then there was a promise of a coming of a forerunner, John the Baptist. Forerunner of which one? Well, the Messiah who's coming, born of Mary. And wise men came to Jerusalem, seeking what? Well, they said, we've seen his star in the east, we've come to worship him. And by the way, that's not an Eastern star. If they had seen an Eastern star, they would have ended up in China. The star was in the west, and they came that direction. Isn't it interesting that the sun comes up from the east, but the star was in the west? Interesting. By the way, now we have here, how did they associate the coming of Christ with a star? Well, certainly not from Malachi. Well, you have to go way back to the Book of Numbers. And at that time you will recall a heathen prophet in the east, in Moab, he made this prophecy, O Balaam. Now in numbers 2417, he says, I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and, and destroy all the children of Seth. And always the star is separated from the scepter, the star is separated from the sun. And we'll see that the star is the sign of the coming of Christ to take his church out of the world. And the sun is the sign of his second coming to the earth to establish his kingdom. This same Jesus Christ, he told those Jewish apostles, this same Jesus that's going into heaven shall so come in like manner. And we've already seen in Zechariah, his feet shall touch the Mount of Olives. The star therefore, is the sign of his first coming to take his church out. But he doesn't come to the earth. And the entire mission of Christ is wrapped up therefore, in A star when he came before, and not as a son of righteousness. The emphasis is not on his birth, but rather on his death. And it's interesting he never asked anybody to remember his birth. He says, though, to remember his death, he says, you under. When he established the Lord's Supper over that Passover feast, he took the dying embers of a fading feast. And on it he says, now this do in remembrance of me. The death of Christ is in that star as well as his birth. Not only where he was born, but why he died. The star tells out who he is, why he came. And he said, lo, I come in the volume of the book, it's written of me. The star points to a manger, but it also points to a cross. It speaks of the fact that he came to bear your sins and my sins upon the cross. A little boy was walking with his father during World War II. And they were going down the street, and the little boy was noticing that every now and then there was blue stars in many windows. But every now and then there'd be a gold star. And that meant someone there had given a son to die but for this country. And they came to a vacant lot, and it was in the early evening, and the evening star was just appearing above the horizon. And little fella said to his dad, he said, look, dad, God gave his son. Yes, God gave his son. And the star speaks of that. The little fella was right, by the way. And certainly in two world wars. Nothing was won in any war we fought since then. And we were going to make the world safe for democracy. And every president we've had, from Woodrow Wilson down to the present, is going to bring peace in the world. Free men from dictators, make the world unsafe for dictators. And yet today, over half of the world is under dictators. We won the war, all right, but we sure lost the victory in the war against sin. He died to bring man life and to free men from sin and to bring a victory over grave and the death. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? And the future is not in the stars. Shakespeare has someone say to Brutus, it's not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings. Your future is not in stars out there, neither is your present. And if you want help from the present, may I say that you need to learn to live victoriously. For Jesus Christ, he says these things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have trouble, but be of good cheer. I'VE overcome the world. Are you defeated and discouraged? No help in the stars for you, friends. You're nothing in the world but a pagan and a heathen. If you believe that type of thing, look to Jesus. It's not some magic formula, it's not lady luck, it's not chance, it's not fatalism, it's not superstition. If you're defeated by life and it's too much for you and you're overcome by some habit, drink, dishonesty and temperous sex materialism, and you're cold, indifferent to spiritual things, May I say to you, he is the answer to you. Somewhere beyond the stars is a love that is better than fate. And when night unlocks her bars I shall see him and I shall wait. Hope for the future, O my friend. The morning star. The bright and morning star appears right before the sun comes up. In my bedroom where I sleep I can look out and see the sun come up. I have four windows along there and in wintertime it's at the extreme right, in summertime it's at the extreme left. And I watched the sun as it marches back and forth from one window to another. And back in April I was watching in fact in March and April, my the bright and morning star. About nearly an hour before the sun came up, there it was. The bright and morning star appears first, then the sun comes up. And so today we are waiting for that bright and morning star to appear. And he is that bright and morning star for the church today. That's important to see and he's spoken of as the bright and morning star for the church today. I'd like to just turn over to second Peter 1:19 and just let you hear this verse for just a moment. Let me read this to you. He says, here we have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart. That day star speaks of the rapture of the church, when he will take the church out. And that could take place at any moment. There are no signs for that at all. John Wesley put it like he will appear as the day spring from on high before the morning light. Oh, do not set us a time. Expect him every hour now he is nigh even at the doors. Way back yonder Job says the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy and then sin entered God's universe. But the day is coming when that day star shall appear and he'll take the church out. And that's the signal. The sun will be coming up soon. And that sun is none other than the son of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my friend, we leave now the Old Testament. The hope there is the coming of Christ to the earth to establish his kingdom. That's the hope of the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, we ought to be wise men. They were looking for the star. We are still looking for the star, the daystar to appear. And he'll take his church out of the world until then. May God richly bless you, my beloved.