SPEAKER_01: Now, our text for this morning is Malachi in chapter four, and I want to read the entire chapter for us to set the stage.
SPEAKER_01: So would you look down at your Bibles?
SPEAKER_01: Let's begin by reading from God's Word in Malachi chapter four, beginning in verse one.
SPEAKER_01: God's word says this.
SPEAKER_01: For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and evildoers will be stubble.
SPEAKER_01: The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave neither root nor branch.
SPEAKER_01: But for you who fear my name, the Son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.
SPEAKER_01: You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall, and you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The society, known by the simple name Sinna, was led by its indefatigable president G.
SPEAKER_01: Clifford Prout Jr., who appeared on every major television show and newspaper triumphing the cause of his society.
SPEAKER_01: The society intended to be a spearhead for moral reform in American society.
SPEAKER_01: And with its slogan, decency today means morality tomorrow, the society began ballooning as people joined in membership from all over the country, pledging their loyalty to the society, and many sent large and generous donations to demonstrate their commitment to decency and morality in America.
SPEAKER_01: The particular social ill that Cinna sought to cure was evident in the society's name.
SPEAKER_01: Their name was The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals.
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
SPEAKER_01: Sole purpose of Cinna was to clothe indecently exposing themselves to naked animals in our society.
SPEAKER_01: Pets, barnyard animals, and wild animals alike.
SPEAKER_01: Their explicitly stated goal was to clothe any dog, cat, horse, or cow that stands higher than four inches and longer than six inches.
SPEAKER_01: In their weekly newsletter that began to acquire a very large nationwide readership, they had their anthem printed in it, which one of the verses of their anthem reads like this: High on the wings of Sinnna, we fight for the future now.
SPEAKER_01: Let's clothe every pet and animal, whether cat, dog, horse, or cow.
SPEAKER_01: G.
SPEAKER_01: Clifford Prout, our president, he works for you and me.
SPEAKER_01: So clothe all your pets and join the march for worldwide decency.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm detecting from your laughter that you're picking up that this whole thing was a ruse.
SPEAKER_01: From the beginning, the whole thing was an elaborate plank foisted upon American society by an improvisational comedian who posed as the president G.
SPEAKER_01: Clifford Prout Jr.
SPEAKER_01: But he managed successfully to get away with this prank for a couple years.
SPEAKER_01: He was appearing on NBC, he was interviewed by every major talk show in America, even Walter Cronkite.
SPEAKER_01: You have all of these talking heads in American society taking this very sincere activist oh so seriously.
SPEAKER_01: People pledging and joining and sending money.
SPEAKER_01: I think this incredibly crafted, well-executed prank raises uh an interesting question about human behavior.
SPEAKER_01: Why did he get away with it?
SPEAKER_01: How did he manage to sway so many people to believe in what was so obviously a ruse?
SPEAKER_01: But isn't it true that something in human nature just tends to want to believe what it wants to believe?
SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of people we are, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: We are people who we want to believe what we want to believe.
SPEAKER_01: And there's something that feels really good about feeling like I'm right.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing something good, and I'm moral.
SPEAKER_01: It was all too easy, in fact, for him to sway people that if you send money, you can feel right about yourself, and people just want to believe they're right.
SPEAKER_01: You know, this is a basic pervasive reality in human society.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just something that happened in the 50s and 60s, it's very much happening in human nature to the present day.
SPEAKER_01: There was an interesting article published by a philosopher at the University of Colorado in which he tried to plumb some of this human reality that we tend to become pretty irrational when it comes to our beliefs.
SPEAKER_01: We tend to be very skilled at justifying the things that we already wanted to believe.
SPEAKER_01: And your intelligence doesn't tend to help you in this area.
SPEAKER_01: Your intelligence doesn't make it any more likely that you will arrive at true beliefs.
SPEAKER_01: And so this philosopher found that the higher your intelligence, actually, that doesn't help at all.
SPEAKER_01: He says precisely because highly educated people use their education as a tool for rationalizing their previously held beliefs.
SPEAKER_01: The more educated a person is, the larger store of information they have to selectively search for and support whatever beliefs they want.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of people we are.
SPEAKER_01: We believe what we want to believe, and we're really good at cleverly manipulating the circumstances and finding data to support what we already wanted.
SPEAKER_01: But believing what you want to believe or believing what comes naturally to you won't help you.
SPEAKER_01: And it won't actually make you right.
SPEAKER_01: What you need are true beliefs that are internally coherent, true beliefs that also conform to reality.
SPEAKER_01: And the text that we just read in the book of Malachi, the summation of this little prophetic book, is a word that comes from outside of us with some great foundational truths that can ground your life in reality.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the truths that are affirmed in this text are truths that you don't naturally want to believe, I don't naturally want to believe.
SPEAKER_01: Naturally I want to believe I'm right.
SPEAKER_01: And this text comes into my life, this external word from God, and actually emphatically declares, Ryan, you're wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And every single one of you listening to my voice right now, this text declares you're wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to believe in truth, and if you want to have ideas and beliefs that conform to reality, you need to allow this word from God to reshape your beliefs and bring you into agreement with the God who is there.
SPEAKER_01: So the text that we're going to look at this morning is a foundational text.
SPEAKER_01: Two great realities of the truth of God that can ground your life, but they're not especially comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: But if you can get your mind and your heart around them, you'll actually find that they can be far more comforting than any convenient truths that you might persuade yourself to believe on your own.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as we've read through the book of Malachi, we have studied it for the last few weeks.
SPEAKER_01: You've seen this is a prophetic book that God gave to the people of Israel at a period of time in which they had come back from their Babylonian captivity, and they'd been waiting for the promises of God to be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: God had said that he was going to come dwell among his people, restore his people, purify and sanctify them, and then reign over all the nations, and all the nations would flood to Jerusalem and worship God in this worldwide kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And it hadn't happened, and the people were starting to ask, God, do you love us?
SPEAKER_01: Do you do you speak truth?
SPEAKER_01: Are you just?
SPEAKER_01: Can we really believe in you?
SPEAKER_01: And God has sent the prophet Malachi to speak to his people, affirming, yes, every word I speak is true.
SPEAKER_01: None of my words will hit the ground and fall empty.
SPEAKER_01: You can bank on my word.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he even points to, if you remember, at the very beginning of the book, he says, Look at the people around you.
SPEAKER_01: For hundreds of years, I've preserved you, even though you don't deserve it, while the surrounding peoples, their kingdoms have fallen, and yours is still here, and I'm going to still preserve my people and I'm going to fulfill my word to them.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we, on the other side of Christ's coming that we just celebrated in our singing a moment ago, we can actually have even more confidence in this word from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Because God was faithful to his promise.
SPEAKER_01: He did send the Messiah who achieved what was necessary to sanctify a people for him and to bring them into his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: So just as God was faithful to send the Messiah once, we can bank on the reality that he'll be faithful to send his Messiah again.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a world in which we look forward to that day, just as the people of Israel look forward to the day when God would intervene in human history and fulfill his promises.
SPEAKER_01: This text in Malachi that we're going to study this morning is that kind of a text.
SPEAKER_01: It anchors your life in foundational realities.
SPEAKER_01: And the two particular realities that are displayed for us in this text are a hope and a future day, and a call to action in the present day.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to orient our minds around this text through those two big cues.
SPEAKER_01: First, that that day that should orient us towards the future before we get to this day where our action needs to be sincere.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 1, where we are read in verse 1, Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven when all the arrogant and the evildoers will be stubble.
SPEAKER_01: And again, that day is coming, and it shall set them ablaze.
SPEAKER_01: And drop down to the end of verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: There is a day when I, the Lord, will act.
SPEAKER_01: And look over at verse 5, where God says, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The emphatic declaration in this text that there's a day that's coming, a day that God has appointed when he will intervene in human history.
SPEAKER_01: It'll be a day of burning because it will be a day of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: There is a day in which God has promised that he will intervene in human history and bring it to a culmination.
SPEAKER_01: Now that is not a particular belief that we naturally want to ascribe to on our own.
SPEAKER_01: But I think if you follow the prophet's logic in this text, you will see that actually the reality that God is going to bring a culmination to human history should give you great hope for the present and the future.
SPEAKER_01: I want to walk through the text and try to show that to you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: First, let's ask this question: what's the nature of this day that is coming?
SPEAKER_01: If you look at verse one, you see the nature of the day.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and evildoers will be stubble.
SPEAKER_01: That day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, and will leave for them neither root nor branch.
SPEAKER_01: The day that's coming, it's burning.
SPEAKER_01: It's like an oven, it's blazing, and all of the evildoers will be consumed.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's judgment that will bring total destruction and the clearing out of any sin or imperfection in his world.
SPEAKER_01: Just as a forest fire cleanses and renews, so God will bring judgment that will clear the world, and he will restart a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells forever and ever and ever, because God is there.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God is promising here.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why is God going to do this?
SPEAKER_01: And it's pretty patently obvious, isn't it, why God is going to do this?
SPEAKER_01: Because there really is evil in the world.
SPEAKER_01: There really is evil in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And just as I said a moment ago, the biblical truth that there is a coming judgment when God is going to bring a culmination to human history and he'll bring judgment to the earth doesn't naturally particularly appeal to us.
SPEAKER_01: So what this text describes actually has the potential to flip that on its head.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you don't believe in the judgment of God, what kind of a world do you believe in?
SPEAKER_01: You believe in a world in which ultimately there is no accountability.
SPEAKER_01: There is no day when wrongs will be made right.
SPEAKER_01: Most people who do evil in the world get away with it.
SPEAKER_01: That's the reality.
SPEAKER_01: This text though says not so.
SPEAKER_01: There is a God who keeps accounts, there is a God who sees every wrong, and there is a God who is going to come, and with finality, he will bring a climax to this world when he will bring every wrong to light and bring just and perfectly measured justice to this world.
SPEAKER_01: He will clear it of evil, he will burn all evil away, and the regenerated new heavens and new earth will be characterized by the perfection of his own divine righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: That's a great thing to look forward to.
SPEAKER_01: That promises that there is no evil in this world that goes unaccounted for because God takes account of it.
SPEAKER_01: The reality of judgment in this text is it's supposed to be a word of comfort, but that can only be a word of comfort if you're rightly related to the God who's bringing this judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we see in the rex of the text.
SPEAKER_01: I want to look at verses one through three together.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll notice in verses one through three there's two different people who experience this day very differently depending on their relationship to the judge.
SPEAKER_01: You look at verse one, there's one group of people here.
SPEAKER_01: The day that is coming is burning like an oven when the arrogant and the evildoers will be stubble.
SPEAKER_01: Those who are evildoers are going to receive the judgment of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now I think that it's helpful here to just recall before we begin to dissect this a little bit more, the reality that this is in the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: The nature of God is that he cannot dwell with evil.
SPEAKER_01: God is a holy God, he cannot dwell with evil, and so naturally he's going to bring judgment upon evil.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, if you think about this for a moment, it reminds us of Exodus in chapter 34, that text where Moses, do you remember, asked God, show me your glory.
SPEAKER_01: I want to see the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: And God tells Moses, You can't see my glory, it's too much, it would kill you.
SPEAKER_01: But I'll let you see a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: I'll make my goodness pass before you.
SPEAKER_01: So he hides Moses in the cleft of the rock, and his goodness passes before Moses.
SPEAKER_01: And the text says in Exodus 34 that God proclaimed his name, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds really nice.
SPEAKER_01: The goodness of God's passing before him, and it's really good.
SPEAKER_01: We would like God to just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't stop.
SPEAKER_01: He's even better than that.
SPEAKER_01: And so his goodness just keeps going.
SPEAKER_01: And the next line reads, And who will by no means clear the guilty.
SPEAKER_01: He will punish iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in our human categorization, we would like for God to choose.
SPEAKER_01: You can be merciful and let people off the hook.
SPEAKER_01: You can be just, and then maybe we can try and meet your standard and bargain with you.
SPEAKER_01: But God says he defies our categorization.
SPEAKER_01: He is both.
SPEAKER_01: He is so good that he is both fully compassionate and merciful.
SPEAKER_01: And he is fully just and will judge evil.
SPEAKER_01: And this text says that that judgment is going to come upon all evildoers.
SPEAKER_01: Which, if we're honest with ourselves for half a second, clearly that is us.
SPEAKER_01: We have done evil.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's not a very particularly appealing reality again.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to think about this for just a second.
SPEAKER_01: Why is it that when we hear that God is bringing judgment, it's coming upon evildoers, and the Bible says that we're among them, we naturally squirm.
SPEAKER_01: When we squirm, where do we go?
SPEAKER_01: We look for some kind of self-defense mechanism.
SPEAKER_01: We look for some kind of justification, we look for some kind of explanation that no, that's not me.
SPEAKER_01: And where we usually will go is, no, I'm not that bad.
SPEAKER_01: I'm actually not an evildoer.
SPEAKER_01: I'm actually a pretty good person.
SPEAKER_01: And how do you know you're a good person?
SPEAKER_01: Well, my heart.
SPEAKER_01: My heart's not as bad as that.
SPEAKER_01: If God could see my heart, he could see even the bad things I've done.
SPEAKER_01: There were things going on around me, there were some kind of circumstances that would justify it, that would make it understandable.
SPEAKER_01: See, if God just knew my heart, then he would know I'm not actually an evildoer.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible says the exact opposite.
SPEAKER_01: Your problem is not that God doesn't know your heart and doesn't understand you.
SPEAKER_01: Your problem is actually that God does know your heart.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, he knows your heart better than you do.
SPEAKER_01: And when he looks upon your heart, he says this Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.
SPEAKER_01: Who can understand it?
SPEAKER_01: Your heart's actually been deceiving you.
SPEAKER_01: When you look to that justification and say, Well, God knows my heart, the Bible says, actually, you're fooling yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You are not as good as you think you are.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a number of ways that the Bible proves this to us, but one of the ways the Bible proves this to us is this.
SPEAKER_01: In Romans in chapter 2, when Paul speaks of the day of wrath, when God will render to each according to his works, he says, one of the standards by which God is going to judge us is according to our consciences, which bear witness to the law of God within us.
SPEAKER_01: That is, we know that there's right and wrong, and we don't even keep our own standards.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says in Romans chapter 2, verses 15 and following.
SPEAKER_01: So one of the ways you could conceptualize that is like this.
SPEAKER_01: I like to think of it as God's put a bug in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Not a creepy crawley, but like he's bugging phones, he's bugged your heart.
SPEAKER_01: And he's been recording everything going on in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the ways that he could hold you accountable is that every time you say in your heart, you ought not, or you shouldn't, because all of you have moral standards.
SPEAKER_01: I've got moral standards.
SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't lie, cheat, disrespect your parents, you shouldn't commit injustice, you shouldn't be passive in the face of injustice.
SPEAKER_01: We all have standards that we put on other people.
SPEAKER_01: We say you ought not, you ought.
SPEAKER_01: When God pulls the bug from your heart and he reads out the report of what's been going on in your heart, he's going to find incident after incident after incident in which you've been violating your very own standards.
SPEAKER_01: And he would be able to show that to you and see you say, you are an evildoer.
SPEAKER_01: You do deserve judgment.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Lord says, is exactly what he's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: After having said, your heart's deceitful.
SPEAKER_01: It's lying to you when it says you're not that bad.
SPEAKER_01: I, the Lord, am going to search the heart and test the mind and give every man according to his ways, according to the fruits of his deeds.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of judgment that the Lord is bringing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this day can be horrific, final, and terrifying.
SPEAKER_01: Because God is going to expose every secret of our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Or it can be a day in which we are sheltered, and God is bringing justice and vindication and kindness and in fact healing to us, and it depends entirely on how you relate to the judge on that day.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we see in verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: There's a second group of people who relate to the to the judge in a different way.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 2 in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: It says, But for you who fear my name, the Son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.
SPEAKER_01: That's the key.
SPEAKER_01: If the way that you relate to God is that you trust him, you fear him, you reverence him, you respect him, you believe him, then the day of judgment that God is bringing is a day of comfort.
SPEAKER_01: This is fundamental to gospel proclamation.
SPEAKER_01: When the apostles began to proclaim the reality that God had sent his son in the world, who had died on behalf of sinful people, resurrected from the dead, ascended into heaven, they also said, and he's going to come likewise and judge the living and the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And that was good news for all who believed in the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you believe in Messiah, your sins have been paid for.
SPEAKER_01: There is no judgment for you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, you have passed from judgment into life.
SPEAKER_01: And the judgment that's coming is not for you, it's life for you.
SPEAKER_01: And this text says, when that judgment comes for those who are rightly related to the judge, it will be like a sun of righteousness shining with healing in its wings.
SPEAKER_01: What is that sun of righteousness metaphor of?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Deuteronomy chapter 33 says that when God visits his people, it's like the sun is shining on them.
SPEAKER_01: So the metaphor here is of God's very presence among his people.
SPEAKER_01: When God's among his people on the day of judgment, his righteousness is going to radiate forth, and it's going to bring healing to all of his people.
SPEAKER_01: Injustice gone, sorrow gone, sadness gone, the restoration of all that was lost, all things made new.
SPEAKER_01: And the text goes on in the second half of verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Look down at the second half of verse 2 that reads, You shall go out leaping like calves from the stalls.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a farm boy, I don't know exactly what that looks like.
SPEAKER_01: But it sounds fun.
SPEAKER_01: And this word from the stalls is actually an even more specific word.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word for fattening, like you're fattening up an animal.
SPEAKER_01: That happens in the stalls, so it's an appropriate translation.
SPEAKER_01: But that's a really interesting word to use, like fattened calves.
SPEAKER_01: The idea here is of a reversal.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember the problem that the people in this time had?
SPEAKER_01: The problem was that they were looking at the people in the world who rejected God, who ignored God, and it seemed like their lives were better.
SPEAKER_01: You look back at chapter 3 and verse 15, and the people of Judah were saying, we call the arrogant, blessed, evildoers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and escape.
SPEAKER_01: They seemed like those who deny God got off easy, like their lives were better.
SPEAKER_01: And God is promising on that day there's going to be a reversal.
SPEAKER_01: It will be the meek who inherit the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Remember a couple weeks ago, I used the illustration of what God was saying to his people of, imagine a bad cow is kicking all the cows around them and kicking you, and you really don't like this cow.
SPEAKER_01: And you think the farm is totally unjust for allowing that cow to have all of the food and to be so fat and be so much better off than everybody else on the farm until one day you hear the farmer tell his farmhand, give that cow even more food because I'm fattening them up for the slaughter.
SPEAKER_01: That would reorient your perspective.
SPEAKER_01: And this text goes one step further and it says, actually, the fattening is going to come around to you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe not in this life, but certainly in the life to come, you can bank on it.
SPEAKER_01: God is surely going to intervene in this world, and for those who have repented and trusted in Christ, his coming is going.
SPEAKER_01: You see it again in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: You shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.
SPEAKER_01: There will be a reversal in the kingdom that the Lord is bringing on that day.
SPEAKER_01: But there's one last question I want to ask of these texts.
SPEAKER_01: How is God going to bring this?
SPEAKER_01: This kingdom that's coming.
SPEAKER_01: There's going to be a reversal in which the people of God reign with him forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: So the question is, how is it going to come about?
SPEAKER_01: Is it going to come about via your ingenuity or your zeal to bring it about?
SPEAKER_01: Is it your responsibility to come up with a plan, with a strategy to implement the kingdom of God in this world?
SPEAKER_01: Notice who the actor is in these verses.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 2, there's healing coming.
SPEAKER_01: That's passive.
SPEAKER_01: You're receiving healing because the sun of righteousness is rising.
SPEAKER_01: Then verse 2, you're going out because you've been fattened, skipping about because food has been given to you.
SPEAKER_01: That's passive, something you receive.
SPEAKER_01: Now in verse 3, it looks a little bit active, treading down the wicked, but that's only because they have been made into the ashes under the soles of your feet.
SPEAKER_01: That's passive, too.
SPEAKER_01: And just in case you're wondering, and in case there's any lack of clarity in your mind, who is the actor on the day, look at the end of verse 3 where God emphatically announces, on that day, I will act, says the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's doing.
SPEAKER_01: It's God's day.
SPEAKER_01: It's God's vindication.
SPEAKER_01: It's not yours.
SPEAKER_01: You receive it.
SPEAKER_01: This text is announcing that God is going to fight for you.
SPEAKER_01: God's going to defend you.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to vindicate you.
SPEAKER_01: Malachi is speaking to a people who have experienced the reality of unmet expectations, of disappointed hopes, of real injustice, of real wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: And God's announcing that on that day he is going to act and bring vindication to his people who fear his name.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that reality grounds you in such a way that it frees you not to be a person who's characterized by bitterness, resentment, anger, and vengeance, but a person who is freed up to extend love to your enemies, which is exactly what the Apostle Paul tells us.
SPEAKER_01: Bless those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_01: Bless and do not curse them.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that our Lord Jesus' teaching?
SPEAKER_01: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_01: That's what should characterize the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: Fundamental in your heart is you're the kind of person who blesses and does not curse.
SPEAKER_01: What's going to ground that radically flipping society on its head ethic?
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, Paul says, never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_01: For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The reality that God sees all the evil in the world and he will deal with it, frees you to extend love and compassion.
SPEAKER_01: When you ground your identity in the reality that God is my keeper, God is my defender, God will fight for me, then you're freed up in this world, Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
SPEAKER_01: If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing, you will hear burning coals on his head, which I take to be one of two things.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to result in either burning coals on your head is a symbol in the ancient world for feeling shame for wrongdoing.
SPEAKER_01: So it might bring about repentance in the evildoer.
SPEAKER_01: Alternatively, those coals could then just become the wrath of God, who's bringing judgment upon evil that's done in the world.
SPEAKER_01: But either way, you're entrusting this to God's hands, so that you are empowered not to be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
SPEAKER_01: That's the reality that Christians who are covered with the gospel can live in, because we know that there is that day when God is going to come, and when he comes, there'll be a son of righteousness that brings healing in its wings, and every wrong will be made right.
SPEAKER_01: This text calls you to ground your life in that truth.
SPEAKER_01: And if you ground your life in that truth, then it's going to free you up to live, just as we've begun talking about already, in a special way, in this day.
SPEAKER_01: That's the second half of the text that you see beginning in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: So look down at your Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at verse 4 together.
SPEAKER_01: And God in these verses calls us to two things: to follow his word and to look for his coming.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of problems going on in Judah at this point in time.
SPEAKER_01: They're just a little postal stamp of a province in the Persian Empire.
SPEAKER_01: Things aren't going the way they want.
SPEAKER_01: They're thinking, do we need like some kind of really clever governmental strategy to kind of change things?
SPEAKER_01: And God says, here's what you need to do.
SPEAKER_01: You need to look to the book and keep the covenant and do what I've already commanded you.
SPEAKER_01: Trust me.
SPEAKER_01: Do what I have told you.
SPEAKER_01: I'll take care of the rest.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that is really good news.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us have come to places and times in our life when our life is an utter mess.
SPEAKER_01: And the word of God is not that you have to come up with all kinds of different strategies to fix it, or to fix the world around you, or to plumb the depths of your heart and find what's in there.
SPEAKER_01: You need to look outside of yourself to the Word of God and believe the Word of God and do it, and trust that God is going to take care of the rest.
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what he says he's going to do in verses 5 and 6.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, as they come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.
SPEAKER_01: The prophet Elijah, God says, is going to come before that day comes.
SPEAKER_01: So there will be a time in which there are hearts that are changed.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's talk about this just for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: The prophet Elijah, I don't want to rehash everything that we said previously in chapter three, but the prophet Elijah, you'll remember in the Old Testament, is kind of the ultimate prophet.
SPEAKER_01: He's in the book of 1 Kings, and by the time you get to the book of 2 Kings and chapter 2, he's coming to the end of his life, walking across the Jordan River with his disciple Elisha.
SPEAKER_01: And rather than dying a normal death, the text says that chariots and horses of fire swooped down upon him and he was caught up in a whirlwind and taken into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Then Malachi, by revelation of God, says that Elijah is going to come before the great day of God's final vindication and judgment.
SPEAKER_01: What is that Elijah going to do?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the hearts of children to their fathers.
SPEAKER_01: Now I think the basic gist of that verse is pretty clear.
SPEAKER_01: There's going to be some kind of change of heart.
SPEAKER_01: But the particulars, I think, are a little difficult to pin down because the particular grammatical phrase that's used in this text is unique in the Hebrew Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He's turning hearts upon hearts.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean to turn a heart upon another heart?
SPEAKER_01: The closest grammatical parallel I can find in the Hebrew Bible is Nehemiah chapter 5, verse 7, where Nehemiah says that he took counsel with himself.
SPEAKER_01: In the Hebrew, he turned his heart upon itself.
SPEAKER_01: So I think the idea here is that turning a heart upon another heart is just coming to agreement, coming to alignment.
SPEAKER_01: Nehemiah took counsel with himself, came to a resolution.
SPEAKER_01: The idea here is that the prophet is going to come declaring the word of God, and the word of God is going to do a work of a work in the hearts of people that are going to turn the hearts of people towards each other.
SPEAKER_01: So there'll be unity among the people of God, unity with one another, and unity with God, agreement with one another and agreement with God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the work that the Word of God intends to do in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: To change your heart, to bring you into agreement with God.
SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of truths in the Bible that are not natural to you.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that's one of the ways we know that we're not just making this up.
SPEAKER_01: Because this, the ethics of the Bible don't fit in a human culture.
SPEAKER_01: It comes down from above human culture and contradicts every human culture and reorients us and causes us to agree with one another, even if we're from different cultures.
SPEAKER_01: We have a new culture, the culture of heaven, and we have a new standard, the standard of God, who is our king and our father.
SPEAKER_01: That's the work that the word of God does in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the work that this Elijah prophet is going to do.
SPEAKER_01: Change people's hearts so they agree with one another in agreeing with God.
SPEAKER_01: And when God comes in judgment, he will not destroy them.
SPEAKER_01: There will be judgment that comes, but these people who have had the work of the Word of God done in their hearts to bring them into agreement with God, that judgment is going to actually result in healing for them.
SPEAKER_01: So I said I didn't want to rehash all of chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: But in chapter 3, we identified, if you look at chapter 3, verse 1, that God is going to send this messenger who prepare the way before the Lord comes, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight.
SPEAKER_01: That text is picked up in the New Testament over and over to identify this Elijah-like figure who's coming as John the Baptist, who came before the Lord came, because the Lord came in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And the work of John the Baptist was to declare that this messenger, God Himself, is coming into the world, he's intervening, and your responsibility is to turn in repentance and put your hopes and your trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And for every single person who, as the word of John the Baptist has echoed through the ages calling us to repentance and faith in God who has come in the person of Christ, when that work has done its work and that word has done its work in your hearts, and you've come to agreement with the reality that I am a sinner, and Jesus came to forgive my sins, then you're one of these people who the judgment of God will issue forth in healing for you.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we began this study of Malachi chapter 4 by just remembering this basic human tendency that we want to be right.
SPEAKER_01: And we are so good at looking ways to justify ourselves and persuade ourselves that we're right.
SPEAKER_01: But this text says if on that day you want that day to be a day of healing for you and not judgment, the fundamental reality that has to happen in your life is that you agree with the word of God, I'm wrong.
SPEAKER_01: God's right, I'm wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And I need a savior.
SPEAKER_01: I need that savior who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.
SPEAKER_01: I need that savior who humbly went to a cross.
SPEAKER_01: I need that savior who was bowed under the wrath of God, I need that savior who triumphantly resurrected from the tomb, I need that savior who is interceding for me before the Father in glory right now.
SPEAKER_01: I need that savior to come and deliver me.
SPEAKER_01: I need him because I'm wrong.
SPEAKER_01: If that's the fundamental reality that the Word of God has worked in your heart, then the coming judgment of God is going to bring healing for you.
SPEAKER_01: There's one last thing I want to just pull out of this text.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the healing that this text promises is characterized by the new heavens and new earth in Revelation 22 that says that in that day there'll be a new Jerusalem, the heart of God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Through it will flow a river of the waters of life, and on either side of the river is the tree of life that grows its fruit and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.
SPEAKER_01: That's the day when God wipes away every tear from your eye, when every wrong is made right.
SPEAKER_01: That's the healing that's coming.
SPEAKER_01: That's going to come when Jesus comes the second time.
SPEAKER_01: But we got a little foretaste when he came the first time.
SPEAKER_01: Because wasn't Jesus' first coming characterized by healing?
SPEAKER_01: And there's a particularly interesting incident where Jesus in Matthew in chapter 9 receives word that a man's daughter is on the point of death.
SPEAKER_01: And so he stops what he's doing and he pushes through a crowd to go to this man's daughter, and he eventually heals her.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, raises her from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: But along the way, he's intruded upon.
SPEAKER_01: And Matthew relates the account like this.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, as Jesus is pushing through the crowd, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment.
SPEAKER_01: And she said to herself, If only I touch the garment, I'll be made well.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus turned and seeing her said, Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well.
SPEAKER_01: And instantly the woman was made well.
SPEAKER_01: Now we know the story well.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't need to stop.
SPEAKER_01: He could have just healed her and moved on, but he stops in order to demonstrate to others what he's done, and in order to affirm her faith.
SPEAKER_01: You notice the tender way he addresses her, daughter, your faith has made you well.
SPEAKER_01: There's a little detail in this text I just want you to notice.
SPEAKER_01: What did she touch?
SPEAKER_01: What kind what part of Jesus did she get into contact with?
SPEAKER_01: It says that she came up behind him and she touched just the fringe of his garment.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that significant?
SPEAKER_01: Remember in verse 2, it says that in the day that the Lord is bringing, the sun of righteousness is going to rise with healing in its wings.
SPEAKER_01: Now I've seen the sun plenty of times, not as often in Virginia as I would like to, but I've never seen the sun sprout wings.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, the word wings here is just a word that means edges, the fringes.
SPEAKER_01: You could say the rays of the sun, just the outer fringes of the sun is going to bring healing because when God is in that kingdom, when he's present on that day, God is going to radiate his glory and radiate his justice, and it's going to issue forth in total cleansing and total healing for his people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, who, we should ask, is the radiance of God's glory?
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 1 emphatically says that Christ is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.
SPEAKER_01: And when he is in that kingdom, we will see his face, and the radiance of his glory will blast away all iniquity, all sadness, all tears, all disappointments, and will issue forth in fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Son of righteousness will do for his people on that day.
SPEAKER_01: And in this day, Jesus gave us just a little foretaste.
SPEAKER_01: If you can just get to the fringe, just get to the edge, just get to the wing of his garment, you'll be healed.
SPEAKER_01: If that was true in his first coming, how much infinitely more in his second coming?
SPEAKER_01: This text wants to ground your life in that reality.
SPEAKER_01: And if you ground your life in that reality, then you can look at the word of God and you can say, This God is sufficient for me.
SPEAKER_01: No, as we have our canon arranged here in our Bibles, Malachi stands as the last book in our Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: You flip over one page and you're in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: So I think it's worth noting that the way the Old Testament closes for us is with this decree in verses 4 through 6, this call for us to remember the Word of God and do it, and look for the coming of the prophet who will tell us the Lord is on his way.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you look forward in your Bibles to Revelation and 22, the way the New Testament ends is just the same.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 22 says, Behold, the Lord Jesus speaks, I am coming.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same call.
SPEAKER_01: Do the word of God, trust the word of God, put your hopes in the word of God, and look forward to the day when God in the person of Christ comes and he will dawn upon you and bring healing in his wings.
SPEAKER_01: Ground your reality in that and trust the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we thank you and we bless you that the Word of God has revealed who you are and what you're going to do for us.
SPEAKER_01: So as we have studied your word together this morning, as we have sung your praises, Lord, we ask that your word by your spirit would do its work in our lives, that you would bring us into conformity to your will, that our minds would be in agreement with you, that our desires would be in agreement with you, that we would trade our hopes and dreams for your hopes and dreams.
SPEAKER_01: You would command our affections, that you would ground us in the reality, that you, our God and savior, suffered for us, died for us, rose for us, and you're coming again for us.
SPEAKER_01: So help us to put our hope in that great day and live faithfully for you in the present.
SPEAKER_01: We pray these things in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.