Ron Dunn Podcast - Seven Sins Of Malachi Part 6

Episode Date: June 22, 2022

Ron Dunn finishes up his series from Malachi

Malachi 3, verse 13. I would like tonight just sort of bring all of this to a conclusion, hopefully, especially what I've been doing and maybe the conference as a whole, to bring it perhaps to a proper conclusion. I want to read, beginning with the 13th verse, and read through verse 3. No, we'll read through the whole chapter 4. Malachi 3, verses 13 through the sixth verse of chapter 4. And I think it would be good for us to remember these are the last words that God spoke for 400 years.

After this, God went silent for four hundred years. Your words have been stout or hard against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God. And what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts. And now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up.

Yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. Then they that feared the Lord spoke 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 that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels,

and I will spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him. Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that does not serve God. 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, saith 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, and you shall go forth and grow up as calves out of a stall.

And you shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes unto the soles of your feet in that day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. But for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments, behold, I will send Elijah the prophet before you, 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 the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. About ten years ago, nearly eleven years ago now, I resigned as pastor of the MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church. I had felt for some time that God had been leading me into an itinerant ministry of Bible

teaching. And so in 1975 I resigned that church. They have given me a title that nobody understands what it means. They call me minister at large. All I know is that that's how they talk about criminals when they're at large. But I thank God for it because it has kept our tie to the church, and they have blessed us so much and treated us so well. When I was sick a couple of years ago and the doctor said I needed to take three months off,

I was away in a meeting in that old Texaco, New Mexico. I mean, out there in the sticks. And the pastor of that church called me and he said, our deacons met and we brought you before the church and we want you to take the next three months off and we'll pay you your salary, $500 a week, as long as you need it.

I thought that was rather gracious. And so we have this contact and this tie with these great people. But there's a problem in becoming an itinerant preacher, especially in the Southern Baptist Convention, because we only have certain categories into which we place preachers. And so if you do not fit into that category, they put you into another category. And in our convention, it's sort of like this. You're either a pastor, or you're a missionary, or you're a denominational worker, or you're a seminary teacher,

or you are an evangelist. You have four who are regularly stationed, and if you see one preacher who is not regularly stationed at one place, he is either an evangelist or has been defraud. Well, I am not an evangelist or has been defraud. Well, I am not an evangelist. I'm not at all an evangelist in the sense that Billy Graham is or Louis Palau. I am not an evangelist. I am a remnant preacher.

That's what I am. I'm sort of a traveling pastor. And the best way I know to describe myself and my ministry, how I feel about it, and I've never been able to get them to make it official, but I am a remnant preacher. And what I mean by that is this. When I go into a church for a week of meetings, start on Sunday morning, sometimes a church is so large you have to have two or three morning services

to accommodate all the people. Tremendous church. But I know this, that when we gather again Sunday night, half of those, if we're lucky, that were there on Sunday morning will be there on Sunday night. And when I stand before that crowd on Sunday night,

I know something else. I know that on Monday night, half of them will be gone also. And so it goes. And occasionally a pastor will come. I was with one not recently who just apologized all over the place. He was embarrassed. And I understand that. I've been in the same position where I've been in the same position where I've had in somebody that I thought everybody would flock to here and there's just a handful of them so embarrassed, so humiliated.

And that was the case with this pastor. And he just apologized for everybody and the people would come up and apologize. I said, listen, no need to apologize. No need to apologize. I'm just preaching to the remnant anyway. By that I mean that when we gather on a Sunday morning, you have the church, the whole church perhaps,

and I want to tell you something, they're not all hungering after God. They're not all saved in the first place, but a lot of them are saved who are not hungering after the Lord. A lot of them are just downright backslidden. A lot of them are just downright living in sin, just downright cantankerous and evil. And I've been in churches where they were just absolutely dead and evil and carnal.

I want to tell you something. I have never been in a church, I do not care where in the world, absolutely dead and evil and carnal. I want to tell you something. I have never been in a church, I do not care where in the world, I do not care what denomination, of what size, or what deadness it is, that I haven't found at least one or two or three people in there

who had a heart for God and knew God and were seeking the Lord. God always has his remnant. And God has always worked through the remnant. And I think that he still does in a New Testament sense. And many a time on Sunday morning when I preach, I tell the people, I say, now most of you listen to me, we're not going to do a single thing about what I'm saying.

I'm going to ask you to do something in a moment to help this week, and I know that 90% of you will not do it. I say, that doesn't bother me a bit. But I know there's some folks in this church that are right with God and have a heart for God and are seeking God, and those are the ones that I'm talking to and depending on. Always a remnant. It's encouraging. You say, well, that's discouraging remnant. It's encouraging.

You say, well, that's discouraging. No, it's encouraging. Because sometimes a remnant is huge, depending upon the church. But no matter where I go, I've always found at least one or two or three people that when I preached, I could see something in their eyes.

I could see something the way they listened, and I could feel the word going into their hearts. And like Paul said to the Thessalonians, I knew that you were the elect of God because of how I felt when I preached. And I can often tell that they're already left there. There's a remnant there, right? Because I feel how I preach. I know when I preach, it's being received. You can feel it going in, and you know the rem remnant there. Why? Because I feel how I preach. I know when I preach, it's being received.

You can feel it going in, and you know the remnant is there. And that is encouraging because I feel that regardless of how small the size, there's a remnant. And God will do miracles with that remnant.

Anyway, we Baptists say that 80% of the work of the church is done by 20% of the people. And that's about true. So, if I've got 20% of the people here, I figure I'm going to touch 80% of the work of the church. Now, if Malachi

was, in a sense, a remnant preacher, I think most of the prophets were. And I think you have a good description of what the remnant people are as opposed to the others. Now notice in verse 13, we come again to this repeated, monotonous almost formula. First of all, God makes a statement, a charge against the people. They deny it, and God comes back with the evidence.

In verse 13, he says, your words have been spout against me, harsh. They've been hard against me. And yet you say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Now, most Bible scholars believe that here you have one of the instances of genuine surprise, genuine amazement. And I'll show you why in just a moment. These people perhaps, probably, have been guilty of unguarded conversation.

And they've been saying things, and God has heard them. And they have said hard things about them, because in verse 14 he says, You have said it is vain to serve God, and what prophet is he that we have kept his ordinance, that we have walked mournfully before the Lord? Now when it says we have kept his ordinance, really he's saying we have kept his charge.

We have kept his charge, and that saying we have kept his charge. We have kept his charge. And that means we have walked in his commandments, and that was the charge given to the priests. And they say we have walked mournfully. The word literally means we have been wearing black. And what they're saying is this. We've been trying. We've been trying. We've been trying to keep things right. We've kept your charge. We've walked in the commandments, and we've been wearing black all the time. We've been in mourning all the time. There it is.

Next year we're going to do something about this. I've got one I'll bring. But they say, we've kept your charge. We've kept your charge. And we have walked mournfully. For all this uselessness. Now what they mean by that, I think, is sort of this. That they have been so careful and so desperately trying to get everything together

that they have been mourning all the while. That simply, I think the best way to say that is they've just been confessing sin all the time, whether they know they've got it or not. They're just guessing at it, covering every base, you see. If there's anything they haven't confessed, they'll confess it, whether they've done it or not. They don't know.

They just want to make sure that they've covered every base. And so they've been keeping his charge and walking in his commandments, and they've been wearing black in mourning because of their confession and repentance, but they've gotten discouraged and disillusioned, and they've wearied in well-doing. And it may be that they're suffering somewhat because of the drop-off in temple offerings and tithes that we saw today.

And it could very well be that because the tithes had not been given, these priests of Levi were chafing a little bit financially. And so here was the conclusion they came to. This is what the Sunday morning crowd says. And now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up. Yea, that tempt God are even delivered. He's saying, I'll tell you who the real happy ones are.

It's not those of us who are coming down here to church and offer these sacrifices. The real happy people, the real blessed people are those out there living the way they want to, filled with pride. And God seems to delight in them in everything they do. It works. God just sort of sets them up.

And they can even tempt God. They can go so far into sin and judgment and tempt God, and God still doesn't destroy them. Have you ever felt that way? Why doesn't God destroy some of these people? And so there's the Sunday morning crowd. Listen, we're just going to do the very minimum.

We're just going to do the very least we have to do and still stay respectable. But Sunday morning is it. That's it. Everything else is a waste. It's vain, empty, futile. Waste to do that. I can remember as a pastor,

as a young pastor, I can remember on Sunday evening loading my wife and my two children and later three children into the car and leaving the house about 5.30 on Sunday afternoon, especially in the spring and in the summer. And we would be driving off to church to attend church training and to attend evening worship and then perhaps to attend church training and to attend evening worship and then perhaps to attend church council meeting. And I confess to you that as I would drive through my neighborhood, I'd see all these

people out here in their yard in their Bermuda shorts, drinking tea, charcoaling hamburgers, watching Dragnet or whatever, and laughing, having parties and get-together. Beautiful, beautiful Sunday spring evening. Cool, refreshing, and everybody out having a good time. And here I was, on my way, in a suit and tie, driving to church to sit in a room and listen to somebody read some part out of some book. I'll tell you the truth, there were times when I felt it would be nice just to be able

to stay home one Sunday night. You ever feel that way, you just vain to serve the Lord? Sunday morning crowd, but God always has his remnant. And I am just assuming, and I have assumed this most of the week, that what we have here tonight is a remnant from various churches around. Now, I do not mean that not everyone who is absent is not a member of the remnant, but I have an idea of anybody that would come out on a Friday evening in Colorado Springs and listen to three messages and stay this long,

you have got to be part of the remnant. There's nothing else that would explain it. So what I want to do, just in a few moments, just very simply, I want to show you what God says about a remnant. How you can recognize one who is a member of the remnant. It's very simply this way. You notice that they have an unusual reverence for God and the things of God.

They do not take lightly the things of God. They take seriously their position as a Christian and as a child of God. There is about them a marked reverence for the Lord and his work. That's what Malachi is saying when he says in verse 16, Then they that feared the Lord. And again in the latter part in verse 16, Then they that feared the Lord. And again in the latter part of verse 16, For them that feared the Lord. And then again in chapter 4, verse 2,

But unto you that fear my name. All the way through, he is designating these people as those who fear the Lord. Now, I believe that fear in the Old Testament is comparable to what faith is in the New Testament. That the ideal condition that God wanted from an Old Testament believer was this, the fear of the Lord. That was the apex, that was the test, that was the climax of a person's devotion to God.

And that's how God recognized them, and that was their title. They feared the Lord. In the New Testament, it would be more, I think, those who trusted the Lord, or that without faith it is impossible to please him. In the Old Testament, it is fearing the Lord. Now, there are three kinds of fear. There is a superstitious kind of fear, and of course there's nothing Christian about that. That's the kind of fear that you don't want to walk under a ladder. You don't want to let a black cat walk in front of you. Never threw you on a match.

Never a hat on a bed. I was in Paris some years ago and we were flying out of De Gaulle Airport, I believe it was, with a bunch of Christians. And we were waiting for our flight and somebody discovered that the number of our flight was 666. And we almost had a mutiny.

I'm serious. They weren't going to file 666. Personally, I think that's superstitious. I was going to Kansas for a meeting, and a pastor met me, and I unloaded my suitcases, and I had some tapes there. He said, you brought some tapes, didn't you?

I said, yes, sir, I did. He said, don't you have a series on wake up to the supernatural, you know, the devil and demons and all of that? I said, yeah. He said, I want to buy that. How much is it? I said, it's $13. God's truth. He said, could I make you a check for $12 and owe you one? I said, well, I guess, but why? He said, I just don't like to write a check for $13.

I said, what? He said, well, I don't like to write a check for $13. You understand? I said, yes, I do understand. Tell you what, do. Write a check for $14 and let me owe you the dollar. You know what he did? He said, all right. I guess I should have given him the taste. He needed them so desperately. But there is a superstitious kind of fear.

I'm a little superstitious about this Bible. Dr. John Hunter gave this to me in 1969, and I've been preaching from it. I have got notes in here, but I've got pages that are loose. I've got them glued in. I've got them paper clipped in. I brought me another Bible just like this, and I haven't

used it but once. And I start to leave this in the room at night, and it seems to be saying, don't leave me. I'm serious. And I pick it up, and I feel confident. I'm going to tell you something. You think I'm crazy, but I love to smell it.

It's just the smell of it. And when I smell it, all the memories come back of what God has done. Tears, stains are here. And heartaches are here. And I'm a little bit paranoid about my Bible. But you understand that the fear of God is not superstitious fear, nor is it this slavish, servile kind of fear. It's not the kind of fear that cowers before a bully.

It's not the kind of fear that's afraid to walk into a dark alley. We're not holding upon God as somebody we fear in that way and cower before. It's the spiritual kind of fear. It is the fear that literally means awesomeness, reverence, regard, respect, to be in awe of God. Gypsy Smith in his late years was interviewed once by a reporter. Gypsy Smith was an evangelist. And Gypsy Smith was known for his excitement, his effervescence.

And he was now an older man, but he still had retained that effervescence and excitement. And the reporter asked him, Gypsy Smith, to what do you attribute the fact that you still are excited and effervescent. And he said, I've never lost the wonder of it all. I've never lost the wonder of it all. That's what fear is. You haven't lost the wonder. You can't believe it,

but God, that kind of God, has reached down and by grace scooped you out of the pit of hell. And you are in wonder. That is real. Kay and I were driving up here this last week.

I said, do you ever sort of doubt there is a God? I mean, do you ever sort of doubt there is a God? I mean, do you ever just start thinking about it, you know? How do you know for sure? I mean, you know, do you ever just sort of wonder? She said, well, yes, I have at times. I said, well, you know, I have too.

Sometimes it just seems so unbelievable, so unreal, that you almost are forced to the position of some of these fatalists that there is nothing out there but some impersonal, uncaring spirit, some deity, some ghost who cares not a thing, and we're going to die and just turn into ashes, and that's all there is to it. And I tell you, every time I get to thinking like that, there is something in

my heart that says, he is there and he cares for you. I guess that's what Paul means by the witness of the Spirit. I don't know if I could deny it or not. That's why I have trouble when people talk about apostatizing from the faith and falling from grace. You say, well, I knew somebody that apostatized from the faith. Well, personally, I prefer to think he didn't have it in the first place. Saving faith is enduring faith, and that's part of the awe, the reverence we have for God, the respect. And I'll say more about it, I think the reverence is included in the way we worship Him. I believe it ought to indicate the kind of music that we sing. I think it ought to dictate the kind of language we use in the pulpit.

It grieves my heart sometimes to see men who make absolute fools of themselves and talk such language as of the gutter. I shudder at it. You can hang a medallion around your turtleneck sweater and pluck a guitar and talk jazzy talk all you want to, but that's not relating to anybody. And I believe we ought to have a certain holy reverence for the things of God.

You know I don't mean to go around wearing a backward collar and a long face. You understand that. Surely you know me better than that. But there is a reverence and a respect that I miss and that I know ought to be in my own heart. They fear the Lord. So not only do they fear the Lord, they fellowship with one another. Interesting thing here. Notice what it says in verse 16. Lord. So now when they feared the Lord, they fellowshiped with one another. Interesting

thing here. Notice what it says in verse 16. Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another. That's kind of strange. And the Lord happened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. Now I want you to put together these two things, that thought upon his name. Now, I want you to put together these two things, that thought upon his name and that spoke often one to another. First of all, they feared the God, the Lord.

Now, that was their vertical relationship. But there was something else. And there was something that I noticed about the remnant people in the church they always seem to be able to find one another have you ever noticed that they a remnant person may join the church and not know anybody else here

but you give that person a few weeks and they will zero in on the remnant. Isn't that the way it is? They sense where the hot coals are. And they seem to seek out one another and find one another. And you know what they do? They talk often to one another. They encourage one another. They encourage one another.

They comfort one another. They recognize without being super spiritual, God help us from that, without being pious and pharisaical and super holy, yet they realize that their hearts are after God and for God and that sort of makes them a minority and they seek each other out. And in order not to grow discouraged,

they speak often to one another. And discouraged, they speak often to one another. And the reason they speak often to one another is because they think about him all the time. You see, he says, not only them that feared his name, but those that fought upon his name. Now, that immediately takes it out of the mechanical class. I might come up here on Sunday morning and put on a show of fear for God and reverence for God, but you know where you'll discover the real, real faith and fear that I have for God? It's how I think Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It's what's on my mind all the time.

It's what comes out of my mouth when I speak. I'm thinking about it so much that when I speak it just comes out. And I'd rather talk about that than anything. I always know when our hearts are getting cold among our friends that's when we get together for a fellowship and talk about football. Or politics. Or the new carpet. Or how lousy the cars are this year.

Because I know the times when we've gathered together for fellowship and all we wanted to talk about was Jesus. I don't mean now we're supposed to go, you know, that it's not right to talk about other things, but I'm talking about that was just what was up front. That's just what you were most excited about. That's just what you were most excited about. That's just what you were most interested in. There is a thinking and speaking to one another about it. Notice the third thing that he says about them as he describes them.

He says, and I love this, and the Lord hearkened and heard it. Now, I think what that means there is that God hearkened, oh, there's some people that fear me and are getting together. And he heard it as they spoke one to another. As these believers, as these God-fearers spoke to one another in encouragement, God heard it. And he said, I don't want to forget that. I'm going to write that down.

And he wrote a book of remembrance before him. We don't have time to say all of that, but it was written before him, before his face. It had top priority with God. It was a book of remembrance written before him for them that feared the name of the Lord and that thought upon his name. They feared the Lord. They fellowshiped with one another. And they knew they were never forgotten by that Lord. A book of remembrance.

A book of remembrance. You don't find that too often in the Bible. In the book of Esther, you remember the story of Mordecai. And he found out that there were a couple of fellows planning to kill the king. And so Mordecai went to the king and told him about it. And those two conspirators were put to death. But Mordecai was never rewarded. He was never thanked.

No appreciation was ever shown. Years later, years later, another king served. And one day, one night when he could not sleep, he was reading through the Book of Remembrance

because the kings kept the Book of Remembrance. And that king had written down that day what had happened and written down Mordecai's name. And so years later, that king was looking one night on a sleepless night, he was looking for his book of remembrance, and he came across that incident. Mordecai! He never was faint. He never was rewarded for the great work that he did, and Mordecai was remembered and rewarded. I know there are a lot of things you and I do for God that will never get the sinner's spotlight.

I guarantee you tonight that those who stand up here and preach and sing are not going to get as much attention and credit and praise and so forth as those people back there working in the nursery but I want you to know something their names in the book of remembrance their names in the book of remembrance and we ought to realize that we do nothing for the Lord that is lost on him he had that terrific memory several years ago I was going to Barbersville, Oklahoma, preaching a meeting. I was to say at the Ramada Inn. I drove up to the Ramada Inn, and there on the marquee, it had never happened before in my ministry,

there on the marquee, right out there on the main street, Welcome, Ron Dunn. Now, I want to tell you something the lights weren't on but it's just the same as having your name in lights why I pulled up in front of that lobby

with confidence I stepped out of that car and I scrolled my way into that lobby and I saw a big poster over here with my name on it and a big poster over here with my name on it and a big poster over here with my name and picture on it and another hanging right from the desk,

the front of the desk, outside of the desk of the counter was a poster with my picture and name on it. And I went up to the counter and the clerk said, Yes, sir, may I help you. And I made a try for humility, and I said, I believe you have a reservation for Dunn, Ron Dunn.

He said, no. No, I don't think so. I said, well, it's been, I've got the confirmation here in my hand. And he looked and looked and looked and looked and looked. He said, I'm sorry, Mr. Dunn, we don't have a reservation for you. Well, I said, give me a room. He said, I can't, we're full. Well, it came out that my name was registered under a friend's name. I got my room.

But God certainly knows how to let the air out of your balloon, doesn't he? All right, let me just mention one other thing. You go on now. Look at that seventeenth verse. He says, And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him." In that day when I act. Now, one of the problems had been that God wasn't acting. That's why they had lost faith.

But God said, one of these days I am going to act. And in the day that I act, I will make up my jewels. I will make you my special possession. You will be my special possession. Not forgotten by God. And he says, I will spare you as one who spares his son who serves him. And then he moves on into chapter 4. Let me just read it and make a comment. For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, all that do wickedly, shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

Now there is a day coming, and it's going to be a hot day. It's going to be so hot, it'll burn like an oven. And the proud and the haughty and the unfearing will be consumed, leaving not a root or a branch. It'll be so hot. But it will also be hot for the days, that day for those who fear the Lord. But the same fire that warms, burns.

The same water that may drown somebody else may save me by quenching my thirst. And so he says, But unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. Isn't that a beautiful phrase? It's the only time in the scripture he's called the son of righteousness. The son of righteousness is going to arise and he's coming with healing in his wings. And notice what it says. And you shall go forth,

and the King James says, grow up, but it's literally leap. Ye shall go forth and leap as calves let out of the stall. Literally, the word is, you will paw the ground or prance like a young calf. Lay out of the stall. Anybody who's ever had a young calf or a young horse or something like that knows what it means when they're in the stall.

They're impatient. They want to get out there and exercise. They want to get out there and run. they want to get out there and run, they're bound, they can't express the way they feel, they can't experience what they want to feel, they can only hear about it and long for it, and then one day somebody comes

and throws open the door of that stall and that cat leaps out and runs around the yard, around the pasture, pawing the ground, prancing around like a ballerina. He is so filled with relief from prison. He is so happy at once to be able to express what he's been feeling all the time without hindrance, without limitations. And God says that's the way it

will be for us. I tell you, I used to think when I was a young boy and had started in the ministry, I had so many problems. I had so many temptations. And I kept yielding to the same temptations over and over again. I wondered if I would ever, ever, ever get to the place

where I could live a holy life. I used to look at adults in the church and I'd say to myself, boy, I'll be glad when they get their age because everything will be settled then. When they get to be their age, there'll be no temptations. I'll be glad when they get to their age. I'm past their age. I say to you in all honesty, I don't think I'm a bit better than I was 35 years ago. I still have trouble. I still lose my temper.

I still worry. I still get angry at melon-headed drivers. And there are times when I am so overcome with my own feeling of unworthiness and wretchedness and I say,

Lord, I do so want to do what's right. I don't want this. I want to be able to express what is in my heart, but I'm in this stall of flesh, of sinful flesh, and I so much wish that I was set free so that I would have relief and I'd be able to express

the way I want to express my love and my life to Thee. I think that's what he's saying there. I think for all of us someday the Lord will come and open the gate and let us out of the storm that has been hampering us and has been hindering us

and we will begin to leap up like young calves with exuberant joy. I guarantee you one thing. I don't care how smart the Presbyterian you are or how dignified an Anglican or Church of Scotland you may be, I guarantee you this much. When that day dawns

and we step across on the other side and we see Jesus Christ face to face, we're going to be a little bit more excited and simply say, I'm certainly happy to be present on this occasion. Amen. not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions,

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