Malachi 4:1-6

[0:00] We're going to read the entire last chapter. It's only six verses long of the book of Malachi. There's one or two specific things that are sticking out my mind about it, but we will read all six verses of it.

[0:16] So, Book of Malachi chapter four and verse one says, And all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble.

[0:32] And the day that cometh shall burn them up, sayeth the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.

[0:48] And ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall, and ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I do this, sayeth the Lord of hosts.

[1:01] Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horan for all Israel with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, 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.

[1:29] Again, that's the last six verses of the Old Testament, and there's two things that are brought up here.

[1:40] One is the warning that goes forth, for behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, sayeth the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

[1:59] 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 as calves of the stall.

[2:11] Now this first verse in Maachai chapter 4 is a warning. It's a warning unto who? It's not a warning to those which believe. It's not a warning to those which are the elect and the called of God.

[2:26] It's a warning to those that do wickedly. It's a warning to those, as we would say in the New Testament times that we live in now, the unregenerate person, the person that is not saved, that warning's going out to them.

[2:41] He says there's a day coming that he's going to burn everything up as it's in an oven. He says, and those that do wickedly, they shall be as stubble. What is stubble?

[2:52] That the Bible speaks of more often than not. The stubble is what's left over on the ground after the crop has been brought in, after everything that is useful has been brought in, gathered into the barns.

[3:06] It's been cut, it's been put away for use later. He says that those that do wickedly will be as stubble in that day, and in that day that stubble will burn up, that stubble will be done away with.

[3:22] It was useless while it was here. It was useless while it was in the fire. Oh, she can't use, or it takes a whole lot of stubble in order to start a fire because it burns up so quickly, but God even goes further than that.

[3:38] Here in the Book of Malachi, he says there won't even be the root or the branch. There won't be a trump. There will be nothing left of this.

[3:49] It will be completely and utterly destroyed. It will be completely and utterly done away with. That is the great day of wrath of the Lord, that is the wrath and the fury of an Almighty God that has warned us from the beginning of time that this is how it would be.

[4:09] But in verse two, he says, but under you who fear my name, under you who I have, under you that are with me, the Son of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings.

[4:24] I praise God for the Son of righteousness that was Jesus Christ that is referring to there. The Son of righteousness came upon this earth to do what Paul puts in best.

[4:38] In verse Timothy, he says this is the faithful saying and worthy of all expectation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am cheat.

[4:52] That's why the Son of righteousness came upon the earth to keep us from the day of wrath and fury of the Lord to keep us from being burned up as stubble.

[5:04] Hallelujah to Jesus Christ. The Son of righteousness, he'll arise and when he goes he will have healing in his wings.

[5:15] The Son of righteousness have come. I understand we are quickly approaching Christmas Day. I completely understand that I've never preached a sermon because of what day was coming up or because of what season we were in or any of those things.

[5:30] Hey, I read in the Old Testament where God despised the feast days of the Jews. He despised their new moons. He despised those types of things. I preach what God lays on me regardless of the time of year, regardless if it's Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, or any other day.

[5:49] But folks, the Son of righteousness, he was born into a world. And why was that? The Son that is brought up in America. If you look there, it's filled as you in.

[6:02] What is the Son to us in the physical world? It's something that gives off life. It is something that helps with life. It gives life to plants, gives life to you, gives life to me.

[6:14] It is something that benefits us, that helps us, the Son of righteousness has risen and He has healing. It is ways praise God.

[6:24] The Son of righteousness has already been born. He's already came. The Bible describes him as the light of the world. He read in the first chapter of the Gospel of John.

[6:36] He read where John the Baptist, he came into the world and it says that he was not that light. He was not the light that came into the world but it came to bear witness of that light.

[6:48] The true light, the light that came and it's shown on every man that is born. Every man, whether you're saved or lost, the light has shown in you.

[6:59] If you're lost, it's shown in you and you fled from the light. But if you're saved, hey, when that light showed in your heart, it showed you what a wretch you are, what a sinner you are, how filthy you are.

[7:14] Hey, that's when God can work with a heart. That's when God say you're unworthy. So that's the Son of righteousness.

[7:25] That's the Son that came with healing in his wings. Hallelujah. The Son of righteousness, he's already come. He's already come.

[7:37] There's all kinds of prophecy about him in the Old Testament. This is just one. This is just one of them. The folks, it has been like this from the beginning.

[7:48] It has been like this from the first chapter of Genesis. What does it say? In the beginning, God created the earth, the heavens and the earth and the earth without form and void.

[8:00] And darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved over the waters. Hey folks, that's a desolate picture that the first few verses of scripture paste, but the very next thing, God steps in on the scene and God said, let there be life.

[8:17] And there was life and he divided the life from the darkness. That's what he does between the same and the lost. He divides us from the world.

[8:29] Divides us from that which is dark, that which is bleak, that which is without use to him. The lost people, they are of no use to God.

[8:41] They're of no use to him. Think about that for a second. Don't take my words for a read Psalms chapter one. If you don't believe me, it refers to those that are evil, those that do wickedly, those that wander around and they're sin.

[8:56] It refers to them as chaff. You know what chaff is? Chaff is that thing when they used to do the winnowing with the wheat back in the Bible days. They go up on the hill.

[9:06] They always built the threshing floor up on the hill. Why? Because that's where the wind was the strongest. They built it up on the hill. They take those rakes. They take those shovels. They take everything, the chaff, the wheat grains, everything.

[9:20] They would scoop it. They throw it up into the wind and the wind would blow away the chaff because it was useless and the good stuff. It would fall back down to the front threshing floor.

[9:31] That was the useful stuff. That's the things that people needed. That's the things they could make bread with. That's something they could use to nourish them. But the chaff was useless.

[9:41] They didn't care where the wind carried it to. They didn't care if it blew it this way or that way because it was of no use to them. Those stones that do wickedly are of no use to God.

[9:55] God! Now, we what you saved, do we do wickedly? We sin.

[10:06] We sin. Every day. I don't care if you like it or not. You sin. That's what the Bible teaches. That's what the Bible teaches. I'm a safe sinner.

[10:17] If you're sitting out here unsaved, you're a lost sinner. And that's the only difference between the two of us. Is that I am saved and on my way to heaven and you are lost and on your way to hell.

[10:30] I don't know the condition of anyone's heart here other than myself. I don't know for certain about any one individual within this building now.

[10:40] But I know about me and I know I'm heaven bound. I know that God looked down. He looked down in the blackness that I was in. In the filth I was in. In the muck and mind that I was laying dead.

[10:54] And lopless in and he came down to where I was. Pick me up out of the mire. Set my feet upon a solid rock and establish my goings.

[11:05] Hey, that's my God. That's what he does. That's what the Son of righteousness did for me. If you're saved, that's what he did for you. If you're lost, that's what he can do.

[11:17] Amen. He'll establish you going. Yeah. Folks from the beginning, it was that way. It was dark. It was desolate. It was useless.

[11:27] Really, it says it was the earth was without form and voice. It was useless. There was nothing there. It took God to step in. And it took God to say, let there be life.

[11:39] But fast forward. Fast forward to the time of Jesus. I said, I know we're coming up on Christmas. This ain't exactly a Christmas message. We'll talk about the birth of Jesus for just a moment though.

[11:50] Actually, we'll talk about the prophecy surrounding it. There was an angel came to a man named Zacharias. He was a priest in the temple. And he went in to offer before the Lord, offer up incense before God.

[12:04] He went into the temple. There was an angel appeared to him named Gabriel. Said, I know you've been wanting a boy. I know you've been wanting a child. And his wife, Elizabeth, she was barren at the time.

[12:16] But said, she's going to concede. You're going to have a boy. He said, how's this going to happen? And immediately that angel made Zacharias a mute.

[12:26] He closed his mouth up and the man couldn't speak. And the angel told him how it was going to be. The angel later on prepares to marry and tells her, she's going to have a baby.

[12:38] She says, how can this happen? Because I know not a man. I'm a virgin. I never lain with a man. I've never been in bed with a man. How is this thing going to happen? The angel lays it up for her.

[12:50] She says, be it unto me as God wants it to be done. And folks, a little bit later on, after the birth of John, of Zacharias, prophesied.

[13:02] And he said, hey, this man here, this man child that has been born my son, John, will be a prophet of the highest. He will be a prophet of that son of righteousness.

[13:15] He'll be a prophet of the one that came to be alive in this world. Folks, what kind of news was that to these Jews that hadn't heard from God in 400 years?

[13:30] They finally got word from him. Yeah. They finally got word. But a prophet had not been in Israel for 400 years. And this man said, my son's going to be a prophet of Messiah.

[13:45] My son's going to be a prophet of the highest. And what does it go on to say? In this prophecy that Zacharias talks about, it goes on to say, he came to be alive, to shine as a light, to those that sit in darkness, to those that dwell in the shadow of death.

[14:04] He came to be alive. And hey, that was me, that's shadow and darkness. That was you, that's shadow and darkness. We were all in darkness. We were all in the shadow of death.

[14:16] That prophecy was for all of mankind. Everyone that sat in darkness, everyone that lived in the shadow of death, that dwelt there.

[14:28] Folks, the question is, are you in the shadow of death? Are you in darkness? Because there's a light out there. Oh, it says, there's two main beacons in the word of God.

[14:40] I've already told you about one in Genesis 1. When God says, let there be light. Folks, you flip all the way over to the end of the book. Revelation 22, I believe it's verse 5, if I'm not horribly mistaken.

[14:53] It says, there'll be no need of the sun there. There'll be no need of the moon there. No need of lamps. No need of lanterns. No need of electric lights. No need of any of these things.

[15:05] There'll be no need of fire. There'll be no need of either of these things. Why is that? Because God will be the light of that kingdom. Jesus Christ and His glory will be the light of that kingdom.

[15:16] Folks, it took God to speak it into existence in Genesis 1. And God will be our light at the end of the book. In between all of that, there's over 200 times that light is brought up in the scriptures.

[15:32] This light is important. Jesus Christ is important whether you think so or whether you don't. He is. The eternal state of your soul is at stake.

[15:46] The Son of righteousness has risen and He has healing in His wings. He was born. We all know the story. We know the Christmases of Cabbage, Shepherds were watching their flocks by night.

[16:00] What happened? Angels came down and told them, hey, this day in the city of David is born unto you a Savior. Praise God. That's the Son of righteousness that I've been talking about.

[16:10] That is born this day a Savior. And folks, that was Jesus. That was Emmanuel. That is God with us. That is the Son of righteousness that Maulachai was talking about here in the last chapter of his book.

[16:25] The Son of righteousness had risen with healing in His wings. But those shepherds, hey, where they went to where the baby was, not only did they witness a little human baby laying there in the manger.

[16:37] I don't care if it was wood. I don't care if it was stone. I don't care about any of those things. He was laying in a manger because there was no room for him at the end.

[16:48] But the shepherds, they found it. And what do they see? They saw a little man child, a little baby. But folks, they witnessed life come into the world.

[16:58] They witnessed life, life giving life. They witnessed the Son of righteousness come into existence as far as the human plane is concerned.

[17:12] They saw it. Just laying there. What a hell of a little time it must have been. How wasn't there? I've seen plays and you all have too.

[17:23] Where the shepherds come, they come on eating orderly. And they come and check out Jesus laying there in the manger. I've seen some plays where the shepherd shot with joy.

[17:36] I've seen other plays where they just bow down and worship Him. What happened there, Spencer? I got no clue. I wasn't there. I don't know exactly how they responded.

[17:48] But folks, I can tell you regardless of how they responded, it doesn't change the Word of God. And it doesn't change the purpose for the Son of righteousness coming into the world. It doesn't change the fact that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin.

[18:04] How might I end up in a stable somewhere in the town called Bicklehand? That is fact. You'll never change my mind about it. The scripture teaches it. I believe it.

[18:15] God's Word is forever settled in heaven. I don't care who says what. I don't care what kind of scientific evidence someone wants to try and throw. God said she will be a virgin in the book of Isaiah.

[18:29] And by gosh, she was a virgin in the New Testament. Amen. Period. Well, those shepherds came. They came that witness Lot could be born into this world.

[18:44] That Lot, as I've already said, what does Lot do? Lot, he drives away darkness. Lot illuminates that which is dark.

[18:54] That's why the gospel is so important. That's what the gospel does. Y'all that have heard me preach here for the past two, two and a half years, however long it's been, y'all have heard me refer to this book as the gospel Lot.

[19:08] And that's exactly what it is when this book is preached, when it's read, when the gospel of Jesus Christ is presented. It is a Lot. It's a Lot to the souls of those which are saved.

[19:18] And it's a Lot to the souls of those which are lost. Those which are lost will sit in their seats and they'll squirm all around. But those which are saved, hey folks, it's a reminder of what God saved us from.

[19:31] I don't know your past. You don't know everything about mine, but I can promise you, I know that you were a sinner. And I know that I was a sinner. I know there was a Jesus Christ that died for my sin and for you.

[19:45] He is the Son of righteousness that arose with healing in his wings. Hallelujah. Amen. That's what I know. Folks, the Bible repeats that over and over from about Genesis 3 all the way through the rest of scripture.

[20:02] God is good and you are not. God is good and I am not. God is good and no human being is. The Bible says there is none that seeketh after righteousness.

[20:15] There is none that seeketh after God. No, not one. There is none that seek him. Folks, the only thing that brings God us to God is Almighty God himself.

[20:26] Jesus Christ said that he was the only way to the Father. And he also said that we couldn't come unless the Father drew us. And you're in the fold of Almighty God because God wanted you there.

[20:40] Amen. And for no other reason. It's not your works. It's not your tithing. It's not when you're working the church. It's not you're feeding the hungry.

[20:51] It's not your, it's none of those things. It's not you're saying a kind word to everybody. Folks, they, they's nice lost people out there in the world. I know a bunch of them.

[21:02] I got some of them in my own family. And they're nice. They're good to get along with. That does not get them into heaven. I'm going to heaven because God placed me in that fold.

[21:13] I'm going to heaven because a man named Jesus Christ died in my place. That cross that he, that he hung on, that cross that he dragged up on Calvary's hill, that cross that he bled on.

[21:25] Hey, that was just as much my cross as it was his. It was more so my cross because that man was completely innocent. That man hung there for me.

[21:35] He died for me. He bled for me, but he did it all for me that I could have love and heaven more abundantly. He's the son of righteousness and the son in the physical realm.

[21:49] In the physical realm, we walk outside after service today. We'll see light. Clouds might be covered up that big orange ball up in the sky, but we'll still see light that gives us life.

[22:01] I hope the son of righteousness does the same thing to a sinner that is dead and trespasses in sin, not wallowing around in your sin, not wallowing around in your trespasses, because dead people can't wallow.

[22:17] You're laying there dead and trespasses in sin. You might have walked in the church. You might be breathing. Your heart might be pumping. You might feel like a million bucks for all I know, but if you're lost, you are dead and trespasses in sin, according to my Bible.

[22:35] But according to my Bible, there is life. There was a life that was given on your behalf so that you could have life. The life of Jesus Christ, it was never taken from him.

[22:47] He gave it voluntarily. He done that. Hey, it was the will of the Father that he do so, and he came to fulfill the Father's will. That's why when he was in the garden and he was praying and he said, Father, is there any other way?

[23:01] Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. I don't read in scripture where the cup pass. It was the Father's will that these things came to be.

[23:14] It was the Father's will that a way be made that you and I and all of cursed mankind could be reconciled back to him.

[23:25] Hallelujah. That's love. That is love. That is love. And somebody would do that. And something, somebody would give themselves for me or for you.

[23:40] The Bible says greater men have no love than this. They lay down his life for his friends. John 15, 13. He laid down his life for you. He laid it down for me. The Son of righteousness did this.

[23:51] Folks, think about this for a second. Think about what Jesus did being the Son of righteousness. Being the very one that was prophesied off in Malachi. Being the very one that was prophesied off in Genesis 3 when God told Adam and Eve, Hey, I'm cursing you.

[24:08] I'm cursing you. You're going to have to work for all your days Eve. You're going to have to bear children and you're going to have to do it in agony. But he told the serpent, he cursed the serpent to its belly.

[24:19] But he also made a promise that there'd be a seed that came from a woman that would bruise the head. I'm the serpent. He said, you might bruise the hell of my people for just a little while, but I am going to crush your skull.

[24:35] That was love that happened. And it was a promise that came to be. Now, think about this.

[24:45] Jesus Christ is that Son of righteousness. Jesus Christ is the one that came and bled and died. Jesus Christ, the very Son of God. The very one that could have called legions, could have called battalions of angels to come and take care of business.

[25:03] To come and take care of those folks that were whipping Him. Take care of those that were arresting Him in the garden before the whipping ever came to be. To care of the ones that dragged Him to an illegal trial that He was put through.

[25:19] He could have called every angel of heaven to put those people in their place, but He did not. Why? And folks, He wouldn't even have to have done that.

[25:31] He was God. He could have done it all Himself without calling any angels. And folks, He didn't do any of those things. Why? His love. His love is why.

[25:43] His love, as the Bible says, for God so loved the world, they gave His only begotten sign that the serpent who served was in Him, living in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Folks, that's the love that God had for the world.

[25:54] That love is shown in Jesus Christ, not only in His birth and not only in His life and in His ministry, but especially with His death. The love of God is shown and especially with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[26:10] Three days later, that proved that Jesus Christ was who He said that He was, that vindicated who He said that He was. And then He told that bunch He said, Hey, if you tear down this temple in three days, I will raise it right back up.

[26:24] Hey, folks, that was Jesus Christ saying, I am powered by God because I am God. Amen. He could have called lesions of angels, could have called, could have not even bothered calling the lesions of angels and took care of it Himself, but He did not.

[26:44] He came, why, or what was specific about Him in Malachi? He had healing in His wings. What was that healing for? It was for the sins of mankind. It was for the sins of your nature, your desires, your lust and mind too.

[27:01] I ain't leaving me out of this, folks. I know it sounds like a point of finger a lot of times. Folks, if I point one at you, I got three more pointing back at me. It is for all of us, it is for all of us that Jesus Christ, the light of the world came in to this world.

[27:18] What does the Bible say there in John 1? It says, the light came in and the darkness comprehended it not. The darkness comprehended it not. What's the significance of that?

[27:31] It didn't understand it. It didn't get it. But folks, that did not stop the light from coming in and it didn't stop the light from doing what it was going to. Folks, I don't care how black we paint these walls in here, how black we might paint the ceiling, how we might get black shed carpet in here and black upholstery on every chair in this building.

[27:53] When somebody goes back here and flips that light switch on, there's going to be some light show in here. Now, folks, Jesus Christ, when He came into the world, He wouldn't like us. Jesus Christ said in the sermon on the mount, He said that a city which is set on a hill cannot be hid.

[28:10] He said if a man lights a candle, he doesn't set it under his bed or under a bushel. He sets it up in the house so that everybody in the house can see it. Jesus Christ didn't come in as a city.

[28:21] He didn't come in as a candle. He came in as a light of the entire world. Even right now, on the other side of the world where it's dark.

[28:32] Jesus Christ is still the light there. Twelve hours from now, it'll be dark here. Jesus Christ is still the light. He's still shining. Folks, I understand I'm using physical light to draw some illustrations here, but Jesus Christ didn't come in as any of those things.

[28:51] You think of the most powerful spotlight you've ever seen. The most powerful bright light. That idiot coming at you on the other side of the road at late at night. When you got a little mist of water all over your windshield, they want a bright light.

[29:05] Think about those lights that pales in comparison to the light of Jesus Christ. It pales in comparison to him. You read over in Genesis one when God said, let there be light.

[29:18] He says, and there was light. I hope that wasn't the sun. The sun wasn't created for a couple more days after that. That was light because God spoke it into existence. That was light that came in without any aid of an outside element other than Almighty God.

[29:34] God spoke that light into existence. And that light over in Revelation 22 I was talking about. It's the same light. It's the same light.

[29:46] Jesus Christ and his glory, Almighty God, will be the light of that city. There will be no need of the sun. No need of the moon. No need of any of those things.

[29:57] Now this son of righteousness at Malachi I was talking about, I hope this was a promise. It was a promise made once again to Jewish people, namely to Jewish people here in this context.

[30:09] And folks, it extends on to us because that torch was passed. I ain't saying that the Jews are out of the picture. God's still going to have his day with them. He will still have his day with the Jewish nation.

[30:22] Don't believe me? Read Daniel. Read Jeremiah. Read Revelation. In particular Revelation 12. Read all these scripture. Read Ezekiel. Read about the last third of the book of Ezekiel.

[30:33] God will still have his time with Israel. It has not ended for them. But we the Gentile church, those of us that are saved and born again, we've had this torch for 2,000 years now. We've had this torch of light.

[30:45] Why did Jesus Christ say at the beginning of the sermon on the Mount? He said, Let your light so shine before man that they may see your good works and glorify your Father. Which is in heaven.

[30:56] Folks, that means we go out into the world. It doesn't matter if it's someone that's saved or someone that's lost. Someone black, someone black, someone straight, someone gay, someone Jew, someone Gentile.

[31:07] It doesn't matter. He said, Let your light so shine before man. He didn't specify what man. He said, Let it shine. Folks, and that's a lot of our own.

[31:19] That's a lot of Jesus Christ. I can produce no light. The moon produces no light. The moon reflects the light of the sun. You and I are luminaries of Jesus Christ.

[31:32] We can produce no light of our own. If there's any light whatsoever coming off of you or coming off of me, it's reflecting off. It's what we're reflecting off of the light of Jesus Christ.

[31:43] And that is all that it is. There's too many Pharisees in the church buildings. There's too many Sadducees. There's too many scribes. And too many cheap priests that are saying, Look what I've done.

[31:54] Look what I'm doing. Look what I intend to do. Hey, folks, it ain't got nothing to do with God and God, I done to do with it. It is absolutely useless as far as brothering the kingdom of God.

[32:07] Amen. They're doing it for people to pack their bags and say, Good job. Yeah. Back to verse one in my little chapter four. There's a warning.

[32:21] Those that do wickedly. So we burned up or they'll be a stubble. Yeah. Folks, there's a fire coming. I can't explain it.

[32:33] You can't explain it, but the Bible describes it. Peter says that it will burn the very elements. That means it'll burn the air. It'll burn water.

[32:44] It'll burn the very elements. There is judgment coming that you can't stop and that I can't stop. There was judgment in the Old Testament coming on Israel.

[32:56] Hey, the gears were already turning. It was coming. God had said it was going to come and Jeremiah tried to warn the people. Jeremiah tried. Isaiah tried. All kinds of the prophets, they tried to give some warning and then you get over to the minor prophets and you see them say, Hey, this is going to happen.

[33:16] We need to repent. We need to repent and turn back to God. Repent, turn back toward his way. Folks, what do we read here in Mark, chapter four? The latter half of that chapter, God says, Remember the commandments of God.

[33:32] Remember his laws. Remember his statutes. Remember the law. He says that I gave to Moses and Horrib. Horrib was Mount Sinai. Why did he do that, folks? It wasn't to give us a set of rules to follow.

[33:44] It was to show who God was. It was to show his personality and his strength and what he was capable of. And when Jesus Christ came here and lived on this earth, he followed every law, every God, every title, precept upon precept and line upon line.

[34:05] He followed it all because he was God. And he's still God. They said, Remember, remember the law that I gave Moses.

[34:17] Folks, we remember this was written to Jews. This was the last prophecy as we know, given to the Jews.

[34:28] And God was silent for 400 years. 400 years. No prophets, no writings. Some of you wonder why some of the books were taken out of the Bible.

[34:40] That's why some of those books were written during that 400 years of silence. And they could not have been God inspired if that was the case. Because God was silent. 400 years. God hadn't spoken a word.

[34:52] God hadn't sent any prophets. Nothing. This man named John came along, or this baby, I should say. Name John came along. Give him the birth by Elizabeth.

[35:04] Zechariah was his father. He came to prophesy, to lead the way, not for himself, but for Jesus Christ.

[35:15] When he saw Jesus coming down after they were grown men, John came out the wilderness, saying he was wearing those fancy clothes. Clothes of camels there, eating wild honey and locusts.

[35:30] Had you like a diet like that? But John came out of the wilderness like that. Like a true prophet of old would have. He came out of the wilderness like that. Preaching repentance.

[35:42] And he looked down the riverbank one day and here comes Jesus. But John had given warning before that. He said, the one that's coming after me, because they were asking, are you a prophet?

[35:53] Are you the one that was promised? Are you this? Are you that? I'm one. I'm bearing witness of that one. He said, there's one coming after me of who shoe I'm unworthy to stoop down and undo the latchet on a shoe.

[36:10] He said, I'm unworthy to do that. Folks, I'm unworthy to be called a child of God. And if you're saved and born again, you are unworthy of that. No one is worthy of that.

[36:22] Why? Because we're all sinners. What is a sinner is someone that is rebelled against God. It's someone that rebelled against the very statues, the very laws that God said to remember here in Maachai chapter four.

[36:36] I don't care. Hey, folks, you can say, well, I've never done this. I've never done that. I've never committed murder. How many of you in here is total lie? I guarantee everybody in here could raise their hands. That is an offense against the holy God that has never total lie in his entire life.

[36:52] But we compare ourselves with other people. We say, well, I've never murdered. I've never committed adultery. I've never done this. I've never done that. Folks, we are sinners.

[37:03] The Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That is why the Son of righteousness had to make an appearance on this earth. But praise God.

[37:15] Before Maachai was ever born, before even Moses was born, before Abraham was born, God knew what would happen. That's why he promised a seed of a woman to bruise the serpent's head.

[37:29] That seed is not you and it's not me and it wasn't Billy Graham. And it's not any other preacher that you know of other than the preacher or preachers, Jesus Christ.

[37:41] That is who that seed was. That seed is the Son of righteousness. Salvation is the Son of righteousness. Redemption is the Son of righteousness. All these things is the Son of righteousness that Maachai was talking about here.

[37:55] Folks, he is the light that came into the world. And the Bible says when he came in, that the darkness comprehended it not. What does John chapter three say about the light and darkness?

[38:06] It says that man, they loved their way so much that they didn't care that this Jesus was coming in on the picture. What does the Bible say? It says that man loved darkness rather than light.

[38:20] Folks, that's the way the lost world is right now. It's the shape that they're in right now. They hear the gospel of Jesus Christ preach. They hear salvation. They hear the redemption.

[38:32] They hear the blood, but it offends them. That's someone would call them a sinner. It offends them to say, hey, you need a Savior. They are here and you're lost.

[38:43] You need a Savior. And that Savior is only in Jesus Christ. Men love darkness rather than light.

[38:54] Folks, I know what we've been taught, especially in the American church for 200 years about hell. And I know a lot of us not biblical.

[39:06] I know some of the jokes that I've heard about it. You've probably heard too, people say, I go up and go into hell and we'll play cards with my buddies. We're going to party it up.

[39:18] We're going to hook up with all the women, all the men, whatever the case is. We're going to do this. We're going to do that. Folks, let me tell you, the world started out as a dark place and hell's going to be a dark place.

[39:31] The Bible describes it as outer darkness. I don't even know what that means. I have no clue if scripture doesn't really define it for us, but I know what darkness is. I don't even want to know what outer darkness is.

[39:44] Folks, judgment's coming. Oh yeah, Malachi 401. The Son of righteousness rise with healing in his wings.

[39:55] Malachi 4-2. But that is only for those that fear the name of God. If you are lost, you don't fear Him. Half the church world don't even seem to fear Him right now.

[40:08] They don't seem to have a fear of God. I ain't saying being scared of Almighty God. Now listen, and Roger brought it up and he got up and opened this morning.

[40:19] And I was sitting there thinking, I'm going to be kind of preaching that. He said, fear not man that can destroy your body, but fear God who can destroy both body and soul in hell.

[40:30] Folks, hell is its own separate place of torment. And I believe that there's flames there. I believe that there's thoughts there.

[40:42] I believe we'll have every sense in hell. I shouldn't say we because I ain't going to be there, praise God. But I believe that people that end up there will have every sense that they have right now.

[40:56] Folks, if you read the Bible, you read the book of Revelation. Out there towards the very end of the book, it says that death and hell gave up their dead.

[41:08] And they were cast into the lake of fire. And all those that didn't believe, all those that were not found written in the Lamb's book of life, were cast right in with them.

[41:20] So hell is not the lake of fire. The lake of fire is what hell gets pitched into. Hell is its own separate torment.

[41:31] It's its own separate torment. So it's going to be multiplied once that happens. It will be multiplied. I pray everybody here is saved. I do. Folks, judgment is pronounced first in Malachi 4.

[41:45] And that judgment is coming. And it's coming to those that do wickedly just as Malachi wrote. Save people, yes, we sin. We sin. I sin every day.

[41:56] You sin every day. We don't blatantly, we don't purposely go out and try to sin. We don't purposely try to offend God. If you do, you need to get saved because you ain't. We don't do that.

[42:08] And when we sin, the Holy Ghost shows us that we sin and we repent of that sin. But those that do wickedly, they don't care. They don't care.

[42:21] They're so in love with their sin. And that's why people won't get saved because they love their sin more than they love the forgiveness that's offered to them. They love darkness rather than light like I've already preached, like John chapter 3 says.

[42:34] They're in love with their sin and they don't want to let go of it. And then they'll come to an altar. They'll say a little 10 second prayer and some preacher will say, Aura, you good with God now and they go right back out into the world and they live like hell, like they've done all their lives.

[42:49] Folks, that ain't salvation. Nothing ever took place when that happens. If we have a desire for God, if we have a desire, that's good.

[43:00] That's what we need. Hey, that's for the church. The church should have a desire for God. You don't have a desire for God. Get saved. You don't have a desire for the worship of God. You don't have a desire to read the Word of God.

[43:12] Folks, that's a love letter that is written to us. That whole book is one big long love letter. That's written to you. It's written to me. If you got no desire to read that, you need to get saved.

[43:25] You need to get saved. Period. Because the desire should be there. Desiring the sincere milk of the Word, Peter says. And folks, it is sincere.

[43:37] That's the most sincere word that's ever been penned on this planet. It's right there in that book.