A Sermon

Preached by Rev. NEIL MACINTYRE, Edinburgh.

“Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord and thought upon His name” (Malachi, iii. 16).

THE name Malachi means “my messenger.” Malachi was God’s sent messenger to Israel. He was the last of the inspired prophets and lived about 400 years B.C. The prophecy is entitled “the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel.” It was a burden because of the judgments the Lord was threatening to bring upon them for their sins. The prophecy begins by reminding them of the Lord’s love to them. “I have loved you, saith the Lord.” But they replied, “wherein hast thou loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau.” This showed God’s free and sovereign love. Esau and Jacob had the same father and mother so there could be no difference between them by nature, but God loved Jacob and hated Esau. The prophecy closes by giving a vivid description of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. It is to be a terrible day for the wicked but a glorious day for the righteous, somewhat similar to the pillar of cloud by which Israel was led. It had a bright side to Israel but a dark ominous side to the Egyptians. That day shall burn as an oven and the proud and wicked shall be as a stubble. It shall leave them neither root nor branch. All their hope of being saved, and their privileges and invitations shall all then come to an end. Amidst all the blasphemy and backsliding that were taking place, there was a remnant left among them who feared the Lord and thought upon His name. It is of these the prophet speaks here. Notice:—

1. Their character: “They feared the Lord and thought upon His name.”
2. Their conduct: “They spoke often one to another.”
3. The Listener and the record: “The Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written.”

I. Their character: “They feared the Lord and thought upon His name.” First: “They feared the Lord.” 1. The first indication we have of fear in the history of this world is when Adam sinned. When he heard the voice of God in the garden he hid himself among the bushes. He was afraid because he was conscious of being guilty. Fear arises from an apprehension of danger or trouble which may be either real or imaginary. Adam, no doubt, expected that the Lord had come down to execute the judgment he had threatened. “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” He was, therefore, afraid and hid himself. That fear has followed the guilty race of Adam till now. There are different kinds of fear. There is (a.) The fear of devils. “They believe and tremble.” They believe that God is holy and just and has power to punish them. But that fear only stirs up their enmity and malice against God’s glory, His cause and people. (b.) There is the fear of the wicked which is just of the same nature as that of devils. It arises from guilt and the fear of punishment. Adam had no fear while in a state of innocence. Holy angels have no fear. They have a reverential fear, but there is the greatest difference between reverential and guilty fear. The wicked, while they fear not God, are terrified of death, knowing in their conscience that they are not prepared to meet their God. That fear, like the devil’s, only raises bitter thoughts in their minds against God and make them wish that He did not exist. They say, like Balaam:—”Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his.” But no, as we live so shall we die.

1. There is the fear spoken of here. “The fear of the Lord.” What is this fear? (a). It is not “the fear of man which bringeth a snare” (Prov. xxix. 25). The more the child of God fears Him the less he fears man. This was seen in the case of the three young men in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury threatened to cast them into the fiery furnace unless they would worship his golden image. But they were not afraid of the king’s wrath and said: “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us . . . . be it known unto thee, O King, that we will

not serve thy gods.” They would face the fiery furnace rather than sin against God. The fear of God will give strength and boldness in the face of the severest trials and persecutions. “In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and His children shall have a place of refuge” (Prov. xiv. 26). The child of God will often be afraid if called upon to suffer for Christ’s sake that he will not have the strength and courage to stand. But, if called upon to do so, his God has promised: “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” (b) The fear of the Lord implies the fear of sin. The fear of sin springs from love—love to God. “If ye love me keep my commandments.” “Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.” It is the abominable thing which God hates. When the Lord’s people view sin not only on account of the misery it brought upon themselves, but more especially when they consider what Christ had to suffer when “He was made sin for them,” how can they but fear and hate it? They are more afraid of sin than of death. As one of the Reformers said to Queen Mary when she asked him was he not afraid in her presence? “There is only one thing,” he said, “of which I am afraid and that is sin.” Unless we hate sin it cannot be that we fear God. (c). In this fear there is holy awe and reverence. That reverential fear comes from a sense of the majesty and glory of God. We see the wonderful effect of awe and reverence that glorious vision had on Isaiah which he saw in the temple. “I saw the Lord sitting upon throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.” “Then said I, woe is me for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.” That sight of the glory and majesty of God cast him down as an unclean sinner in the dust of self-abasement. The more they know God the more they love Him and the more they love Him the more they fear and reverence Him. (d). Those who fear the Lord are afraid of His judgments. Moses lay on the ground forty days and nights because he was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure of the Lord, wherewith He was wroth against Israel to destroy them because of their sins (Deut. ix. 18, 19). Now in these days of blasphemy and rebuke the Lord’s

people are afraid of the threatening clouds of God’s anger that are hanging over us and the nations of Europe ready to burst at any moment. If they do break, as they may, unless the Lord will prevent it in His infinite mercy, woe to the inhabitants of the earth. The sad and alarming things is that our rulers and nation do not acknowledge God neither in confessing our sins nor in seeking His help and guidance but like Israel we go down to Egypt for strength and look to men for deliverance rather than to the God against whom we have sinned and who alone can deliver us. (e). Those who fear the Lord are often afraid that they are void of it. Eternal things were made great and solemn to them and when they come to the touchstone of God’s Word they find themselves so unlike those that fear Him, and oh! how terrible to be separated from Him eternally.

Secondly.—“They thought upon His name.” 1. This clearly shows their religion was not on the tip of their tongue. It was deep down in their hearts and minds. Though their tongues were taken out by the roots that would not take away their religion. There is often more grace in their thoughts than in their actions. They never got to serve God as they desired in their minds. It was well for David that it was in his heart to build a house to the Lord. His thoughts were as great in the estimation of God as was Solomon’s temple. 2. They thought upon His name as the only refuge in their extremities. The flood of wickedness had risen so high that unless the Lord would turn it no power on earth could, but they believed He could if that were His will. The same is true today. The flood has risen to such a height that no power on earth can turn it. Our only hope is to cry like the Church: “Turn us again, O God of hosts.” 3. They thought upon His name, the name Jesus, as their only hope for eternity. They were convinced by the Spirit that “there was no other name under heaven given among men whereby they could be saved.” His name was as ointment poured out, therefore, they loved Him. What is He to us? Is He “the chiefest among ten thousand,” or is He “as a root out of a dry ground in whom there is no form nor comeliness?”

II. Their conduct: “They spoke often one to another.”

1. That they spoke often one to another implied that they must have known each other. You would not converse much with one who was an utter stranger to you, much less would you open your mind to him. But grace has an affinity for grace. If there is another within reach they will find him out, not that we claim infallible discernment for them, for they have often been deceived. How do they come to know each other? They may meet one with great gifts, much knowledge, and able to quote passages of Scripture very glibly, yet there is something about him that repels them whereas, on the other hand, they meet one who can scarcely put two sentences correctly together, but there is something that attracts and binds them to him. What makes the difference? Probably they cannot account for it. It is simply that grace has affinity for grace. We see in the case of Elisabeth and Mary—”When Elisabeth heard the salutations of Mary the babe leaped in her womb.” Matthew Henry says that the Lord’s people are knit together in their troubles and temptations more than in their grace.

2. They spoke often one to another when perhaps thousands of miles intervened between them. They visit in their minds this one and that away in some foreign country and think if they were privileged to get into their company what a lot they would have to speak about, but if they, in the providence of God, met they found how little they had to say about what they intended to speak of. Not only that they converse in their minds with the saints on earth but also with those who have gone to heaven and who were perhaps their bosom companions while in the world. We do not mean that they are spiritualists, that doctrine of devils that is spreading over the land like wild fire. No, but they often call to mind the days of old and the sweet fellowship they had with those who are now gone to their eternal rest and they themselves left as sparrows on the house tops.

3. What were they likely speaking about. (a). They would, no doubt, be speaking of God’s love to guilty perishing men.

That “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” That God should provide a Saviour for such rebellious sinners in the Person of His own Son will be a wonder to the redeemed Church of God throughout eternity; (b) They would be speaking, we may be sure, of the wonderful love and sufferings of Christ. As Paul says: “The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead.” It was of this wonderful Person the two going to Emmaus were speaking when that Stranger came into their company and expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. His words caused their hearts to burn within them. (c). They spoke often one to another regarding the gracious operations of the Spirit in His own people. They are afraid that it was not the Spirit that began a work in them and would like to hear others whom they believed that truly fear the Lord speak of how the Lord dealt with them and often they were strengthened and encouraged when they heard from brethren, experiences which were similar to their own. The late godly John MacIver, Scorraig, used to say when speaking to the question: “When I am at home in the lonely Point where I live I get so dry and dead, and come to the conclusion that I have no grace: but when I come to communions and hear ministers and men coming over the very things I experienced myself, I conclude, well, if you have grace I have grace also.” (d). They spoke to one another about the troubles and temptations they suffered. Some of them were ready to conclude that they had temptations of which the Lord’s people were ignorant and, if they had grace, that they would not have such blasphemous and atheistical thoughts, but “there hath no temptation taken you but such as it common to men” (I. Cor. x. 13). How surprised they were to meet with others who had just the same troubles and temptations as themselves. (e). There can be no doubt but they spoke about and mourned over the state of the Lord’s cause and it was low indeed in the days of Malachi. But now in our own day the cause of Christ is low and if we are not concerned for the affliction of Joseph we are not worthy

of the name of Christians. When you see and hear how God’s inspired Word is denied and torn, His Sabbath desecrated, how we are departing from Reformation attainments and going back to popish and heathen idolatry, how can we but be sad and mourn. Not only that those people spoke of these and other things when they met but they met purposely to speak of them.

III. “The Listener and the record kept.” The Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before Him.” First. The Listener: “The Lord hearkened and heard it.” 1. The Lord hears and sees all things. He says concerning Israel that “He hearken and heard but they spoke not aright.” There are many idle, filthy words spoken by men of which they must give account to God. Amidst all the words and sounds that reach His ears there is one particular sound that is sweet music to Him and that is the sighs and groans of the poor and needy prisoner—”A broken spirit is to God a pleasing sacrifice. 2. What these people spoke one to another was spoken in private and probably they did not think what they said was worthy of any notice being taken of. But that was not the mind of the Listener. “He hearkened and heard it.” The Lord might be compared to a kind physician at the bedside of a weak patient who could only speak in whispers but the sympathetic doctor would put his ear to his mouth so that he could hear. So the Lord hearkens to the sighs and groans of His people—”At length to me He did incline.” Secondly. The record kept: “A book of remembrance was written before Him.” 1. What is recorded in a book is not for immediate settlement. A housewife goes into a shop and orders her goods and walks away with them. If you did not know business you would readily conclude that she had no intention of paying, but all she got was put down in a book and at some future date she would come and pay her account. She did business on credit. Another entered and paid for all she got. She did business with ready money. Now the Lord deals, as it were, with His people on credit but with the wicked with ready money. It is not in this world that He is to reward His people for what they do and suffer for Him but in heaven;

but all the good things the wicked get they get in this life. It is told of a communion held at Scourie that great hospitably was shown by the people to the strangers who gathered that the godly men held a prayer meeting on Monday evening to plead that the Lord would open the treasurers of the sea to help the poor people who showed such kindness. The eminent Donald Sutherland, Durness, prayed and said: “Lord thou and thy people will eternally be reconciled for anything they did in connection with thy cause in the world, but those who will not give thee credit pay them with ready money.” The fishermen went out that night and came back next morning with their boats loaded. There was great rejoicing but the godly Robbie Mackay began to weep. When asked the reason he replied, “Did you not hear what Donald Sutherland said in his prayer, that those who would not give the Lord credit that He would pay them with ready money and I am afraid that this is all we are to have. The Lord tries His people’s faith in dealing with them on credit—”That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire.” 2. It was customary for kings to keep records. Ahasuerus kept a record and it was a good thing for Mordecai that he did for he reaped the reward of what he did for the King. Now, the Lord keeps a book in which is recorded all that His people do for Him and every injury they suffer for His sake. He has a book for their sorrows and a bottle for their tears. They also keep a book but their book does not correspond with His. In their book there is nothing but “black strokes,” their sin, but He has blotted all their sins out of His book. In His book there is nothing but what they did for Him—”I was hungered and ye gave me meat, thirsty and ye gave me drink.” But they say that must be wrong, there is nothing of that in our Book—”When saw we thee an hungered and fed thee?” But the King answers: “It is in my book” and it is this that must stand—”Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me.” “Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, come ye blessed of my Father inherit the

Kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world.” He keeps a book for the wicked and hypocrites and they keep a book also but the two books don’t agree. He says: “I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat.” But they reply: “That is not true.”—“When saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger.” He replies: “Inasmuch as ye did not to one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me.” “Then shall He say to them on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” That will be a solemn day, the great day of the Lord, when a complete separation will be made between the sheep and the goats, “Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.” The great and solemn question for us all is on which hand shall we be found—on the right or on the left.