Ths Day of Justice - Pastor Tom Loghry
In the conclusion of our Malachi series, covering Malachi 3:13-4:6, justice is promised by the Father. Throughout this short book, the themes of worship and justice have been prevalent.
Transcript:
I don't think we're usually tempted to be like dictators, terrorists, or violent criminals. And while these types do escape justice for some time, that time often runs out and we see them answer for their crimes, at least the ones who are publicly known criminals.
As we turn to these last verses in Malachi, we find that the people of Israel are insolent and arrogant in their ways because they, they're noting what everyone else is getting away with and wondering, why should I bother following God? If we're going to put ourselves in their shoes and hear the word of the Lord for ourselves, we should consider how we may be similarly tempted. What is the lifestyle that does tempt us? Who are the people that never seem to have to answer for anything till their dying day? Who we might be tempted to follow after? So we pick up in Malachi three. Starting in verse 13, as the Lord addresses the Israelites regarding their attitude, it says, you have spoken arrogantly against me, says the Lord.
And you ask, what have we said against you? You have said, it is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.
The Lord begins here by calling out the people for their arrogance and as they have throughout the book of Malachi, they respond by denying it, saying, how have we, what have we said against you that would make you say that we've been arrogant? The Lord says that they've been arrogant in this way. They've been arrogant, they've been Impudent, because they've been saying it's pointless to serve God.
That there's nothing to be gained from serving God. Because while we go through the pains of obedience and being mournful when we sin, having hearts of repentance, while we would pain ourselves to do that, everyone else who doesn't bother following God seems like they're having a grand old time.
Everything seems to be going their way. So what's the point of serving God then? Now, this isn't the first time we've heard this sort of attitude reflected in this book. Earlier we see, we, we heard them talking about how they were observing that the people were getting away with things.
And the basic thing that they're objecting to is that God seems to be letting the people who aren't walking in his ways get away with it. Now, when we think about evil wickedness, just as I started this sermon, we have to think about, well, what, what is evil? What is wickedness? Well, it's very simply this.
It's anything that's outside of God's way, anything outside of God's way. Anything that is pursuing our own way in defiance to God's way. And we see this pattern begin with Satan, that fallen angel who decided that he was interested in seeing himself ascended and glorified being worshiped in the place of God.
And when he appeared in the garden and tempted Adam and Eve in the form of a serpent, he tempted them along the same line saying, you can be your own gods. Make your own way. You don't need to follow the commands of the Lord. He's just trying to keep you down.
That's the kind of attitude we see here reflected by the Israelites. They're saying, what's the point of following all these rules, trying to walk in the ways of the Lord if everyone else seems to be having things going okay for them.
The thing that we have to understand as we think about God's law, God's commands, the rules, is that there's nothing arbitrary about them. God doesn't just make them up for fun. He is our creator and he has designed us in a particular way so that we would, we would flourish only in so far as we are living in accordance with his design for us as human beings.
If I was gonna make an analogy, I would, I would compare it to something like this. Our cars are supposed to run on gas, right? They're not supposed to run on anything else. Well, you might decide you want your car to run on Kool-Aid. Maybe you've got a little bit of gas in the tank. If you put Kool-Aid, I don't know, i've never tried this and I don't recommend you try it. I don't know how long the car will run with a mix of Kool-Aid and gas. Might run for a little while, but it's not gonna run long before it crashes.
This is the case with us as human beings. God has designed us in a particular way so that if we live in accordance with his commands, we flourish as human beings. And so we are to worship no other gods but the one true God. We're to honor our father and mother. We shouldn't be lying to each other. We should love God with all of our heart, with our, all of our soul, with all of our strength.
We should love our neighbors as ourselves. We should do unto others, as we would have them do unto us. If we do these things, we flourish, the car runs great. But sometimes, actually what we do, in fact, is we decide we wanna put Kool-Aid in the tank and in this brief moment of time that we have here on this earth, we see people do that and they get away for it with it for some time. And I think the, the great protest here that the Israelites are making is that they're seeing people get away with this and they go to their graves and it doesn't seem like they've had to answer for anything.
But that's very short minded, and it also fails to appreciate that as those who have been made in the image of God, as mere creatures it is incumbent upon us to submit ourselves to the will of our, our God, to the will of our maker. And this is what makes their attitude so arrogant that they're like, oh, this is pointless.
What's, I just, why don't I just do things my own way?
And while perhaps some of these folks, they're not the most, most evil people that we would imagine. You know, these dictators, terrorists, et cetera. But they have something in common, the root of evil, which has taken root in every human heart of, of defiance, and God sent his son to reckon with that in us.
Now we see continuing on in verse 16 that some of the Israelites, however, respond differently. It says, then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. On the day when I act, says the Lord Almighty, they will be my treasured possession.
I will spare them just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you'll again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not. So even as the Israelites, being tempted towards arrogance, and some of them are just embracing it all together saying, I'm done with this. I'm just gonna do what everyone else is doing. There are those among, among them who say, wait, we know who God is. He's holy and righteous and just, surely he's going to make the wicked answer for what they have done. Surely he will reward those who are faithful to him. And so in talking to one another, what's being implied here is that they're encouraging one another to say, Hey, remember the Lord.
And in response to this, it says, the Lord listened and heard and a scroll, scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. Now, we don't have to imagine that God literally needs a a scroll written with names on it in order to remember his people.
This is a way of communicating the reality to us that God will not forget us. God will not forget us. He will remember those who have been faithful to him, who have loved him, and, and he will also, on the other hand, remember those who are not on the scroll, who've not been faithful, who've chosen their own way.
Both receive their due on the day when the Lord acts. Verse 17, on the day, when I act, says the Lord I Almighty, they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. So there is hope for those who trust in the Lord because we are counted among his children.
Now, to put this in the larger scope of scripture and what we see revealed in Christ, we understand that we are the children of God, not because we are perfect, but because we have a perfect savior who laid down his life for us. And so even while we are serving God, our father, as his sons and daughters, it's appropriate to think of him sparing us because we're not, we're still not perfect, but because we have been made his sons and daughters in Jesus Christ, just as we show great mercy to our own children. So the father shows mercy to us, and we will need that mercy because there's a day coming in which he says, you'll again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
Again, we can define wickedness simply as that, it's failing to serve God, failing to walk in the ways of God, and at the last day, when Christ returns, there will be this divide between those who serve God and those who decide to serve themselves and to serve other gods.
And moving on into chapter four, we see what the judgment will be.
It says, surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evil doer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty. Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who will revere my name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. You'll go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Then you'll trample on the wicked; they'll be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord Almighty. What the Lord is promising is a day of judgment, a day of fire, a day burning like a furnace. Now, in chapter three, we've already seen this imagery kind of brought to the table. In verse two of chapter three, it says, but who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he'll be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap.
So here in the Old Testament, here in the book of Malachi, we have this promise of a day of judgment that will come. When we go to the New Testament, we see it reiterated that there is a day of judgment coming. But now as we're in the New Testament, we understand as it's been revealed that Christ is that judge. Jesus will be that judge.
Paul tells us in Second Thessalonians chapter one verses six through eight, God is just: he'll pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He'll punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Paul gives these words not as a word of warning to us as believers, but as a word of comfort that God is just. For all the trouble that we suffer at the hands of others, that God will make them answer for what they've done. Now, of course, in the manner of Christ, because we've received great mercy, we would hope that those people would repent and receive mercy themselves, that, in fact, that they would become obedient to the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
If they do not become obedient, they will be punished, and the punishment that will fall upon them is that which is described here in Malachi four, is all the arrogant and every evil doer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire. Not a root or a branch will be left to them.
What's being anticipated here is that the wicked are going to be completely destroyed. There'll be nothing left to them. Now, in the Christian tradition, there's, there's different opinions on the final punishment. Some people believe that the final punishment's gonna consist of eternal torment. I think this passage is a pretty good indication that it's actually going to be complete destruction, annihilation. Christ says in Matthew 10: 28, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Regardless, however you might interpret this passage, what's clear is that there's no coming back.
Because you think about when you're in your garden and you're trying to get rid of weeds. If you just cut away the branch, the the top of it, if the root's there, it's gonna come back up again. It'll keep coming back up as long as the root is there. What we see here is that both root and branch are destroyed.
They're not even just cast to the side. They're burnt up.
There's nothing left in them, and that is the fate that's going to fall upon those who are among the wicked, which is simply, again, those who are, have not become obedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And yet as, as we saw earlier, Malachi three, where you have both this imagery of judgment in the refiner's fire, but also redemption. So we see here also it is a day of judgment, but it's a day of, of restoration also for the righteous, for those who belong to God. We have this vivid picture of the sun of righteousness rising with healing in its rays for shining upon those who revere the Lord. Now, we have this sort of imagery alluded to elsewhere in the prophets. In Isaiah 60 verse one through three, it says, rise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. We take that prophecy from Isaiah, along with Malachi, and then we look to the New Testament. We see how Jesus fulfills these prophecies. He is the one who is the sun that rises with healing in his rays, and who draws all people to himself.
In John 12:32, Jesus says and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself, an incredible word of prophecy on its own when you think about it because you think about the time when Jesus said these words, only a small amount of people in the land of Israel knew about him and he, he was saying people from across the globe would be drawn to him, and that is exactly what we see today.
Who could have predicted that Unless he knew what was going on? He describes himself as the light of the world. In John 8:12, he says, I'm the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. In chapter 12, verse 46, he says, I have come into the world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
And so whoever turns to Christ, who is this light of the world, who is this son of righteousness. As we turn to him, we experience his, his healing touch. We experience it spiritually right here and right now, and we will experience it also physically and in every regard on the day of his return.
Pivoting back to the judgment that is going to befall the wicked, but also kind of combined with the joy of the righteous is we see this imagery of how the righteous are described as these well-fed calves who, who go out frolicking. Now, I've never actually seen calves frolic with my own eyes, I had to go to YouTube and look it up.
It's a great, it's a great thing to see cows dancing around and stuff. I, I kind of imagine, it's like when I get home, when we let our dog out of her crate and you let her out. Just, she starts just jumping around, just so full of joy. That is the sort of joy and exuberance we're going to have on the day of Christ's return, the day on which evil is going to be absolutely annihilated, it's just gonna be ashes.
Everything that was looming before you, everything that you are afraid of and we're worried about, we're anxious about. It's all gonna be ashes underneath our feet. Brings to mind the words of Paul, Romans 16:20 says, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. That is the promise that we have, that evil will be destroyed. That wickedness will be no more that we will see justice with our own eyes.
Closing out the chapter, closing out the book, we read in verses four through six. Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He'll turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.
We have this exhortation from the Lord given to the Israelites, that they would remember the law of Moses, that they would be obedient to God, that they would in fact be faithful servants. I mean, it goes right back to the beginning there. There's this question of was there any point in following God's ways? Yes, there is a point. There's gonna be a day in which it's gonna be revealed that that's all that counts.
And so they're urged here, remember the law of Moses. Now, as we try to apply this to ourselves today, we understand that we are under the new covenant of Christ and so we, it's not required that we would follow all the stipulations that were under the old covenant, but it remains the case that we must be obedient to God's eternal law, which is revealed both in old and and New Testament.
We must follow the teachings of Christ and we must be obedient to the end, and this is in fact, what it means to be ready for Christ return. Yeah, being ready for Christ's return doesn't mean you've got the date figured out when he's going to come. Doesn't mean you've got like canned goods in your cellar or you're standing up on a hill waiting for him to descend. Means you are faithful in the business that he's giving you to do as his servant. In Matthew 24, verses 45 through 46, Jesus tells us who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master is put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It'll be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.
The faithful and wise servant has been entrusted with certain things by his master, and he best be doing those things when his master returns.
That's God's call upon us. Are we doing the things that he's called us to do? Are we walking in the way of Jesus Christ? We said, we've, we've said that we are his followers. We call ourselves Christians. Are we walking in his ways? Will we be found walking in his ways when Christ returns?
Now he also says something interesting here, talking about the prophet Elijah. It says, see, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. Now it's, it is tricky to interpret the exact meaning of this.
I've talked before about how John, the Baptist was a type of Elijah. It was never suggested that he actually was Elijah, but he was in the spirit, he served in the spirit of Elijah in preparing the way for Christ. Perhaps this is referring to the ministry of John the Baptist, but it seems as though it that this might be pointing to something that is going to come closer to the day of Christ's second coming.
So some people take this to be a literal appearance of Elijah, because Elijah was taken up an a flaming chariot to heaven, he never died. So that's why he's kind of like, if you're gonna send anyone back, they, they put, put their finger on Elijah. And some look to Revelation 11 as indicating that. But other commentators looking at Revelation 11, believe that that passage is actually talking about the church, and so perhaps it's talking about the church in the spirit of Elijah. I, I don't, I don't make any claim as, as to the exact meaning of this.
The point, however, stands upon who, what we remember about the ministry of Elijah. You remember, if you're familiar with the story of Elijah, that Elijah was a prophet during a time when Israel was going after false gods, Baal, and he felt like he was all on his own. And so, but he was faithful. He was a faithful prophet, and he faced down the false prophets. He faced down the false religions of his time and called the people back to the worship of the one True God.
This is what God is calling for at the time that this word was given to the Israelites and it's, it's a word that applies to our time as well, that we would return to the Lord. When it talks about, these are some interesting verses here also about how he will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, the hearts of children to the parents.
Again, sort of an enigmatic sort of phrase. Seems like it's pointing back to what we can think of the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother. But we also think about Deuteronomy six verses five through nine. This is where the great commandment appears. Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts, impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk, walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
What God was calling for in Deuteronomy six was that the people of Israel, that they would raise their children to honor and serve the Lord with their whole heart. And that of course begins with the parents honoring and serving the Lord with their whole hearts. Now, as the history played out, we, we would see that either the parents would fail at times or the children would fail.
Sometimes it was the children who were faithful and the parents who weren't, and vice versa. It was a whole messy history of parents and children being faithful and variously failing. What God is calling for here, before that great and dreadful day would appear, he's saying that the prophet Elijah would come so that parents and children alike would finally be faithful to their God.
Short of this, says, or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction. Now, that's quite ominous. What God is saying there is that his justice will be absolute. He's saying, if none of you will turn to me, if none of you will be obedient, then everything will be destroyed. So as much as, you know, as we started off here in verse 13 of these people saying, oh, does God really hold the wicked to account? God's saying, yes. And if all of you are going to be wicked, I'm gonna hold all of you to account. It'll be a total destruction.
Now we know in fact that, praise God, there's not gonna be total destruction because Christ has come and he has turned our hearts toward God. He's redeemed us. So we know that there will be a remnant, but the point still remains that God will be absolute in his judgment and he will hold every person to account.
And this goes completely hand in hand with the Messianic anticipation. Yes, as they were anticipating the coming of the Messiah, they were looking forward to salvation and restoration. But that all goes hand in hand with justice, and justice entails judgment. In Isaiah 11 verses one through five, it says, A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; if you know, Jesse was the father of David, king David, Jesus is of the, of the line of David, he's this promised king. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him-- the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord-- and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
A perfect description of Jesus right there. He'll not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he'll judge the needy, with justice he'll give decisions for the poor of the earth. He'll strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness, will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. So here we see the twofold justice. On the one hand, we see those who are poor and needy. Those who have been deprived of justice. Christ will give them their justice on the day of his return. When we're thinking about the poor and needy here, we're not just thinking about people who've been economically deprived. This would include those who are poor in spirit. Think about the Beatitudes, Jesus' sermon on the Mount.
He's taught, this, this would anticipate the believers, the followers of Christ. He will give those who are faithful justice, and he'll give those who have been faithless, who have been wicked, justice with the breath of his lips. He will slay the wicked. When you see the word righteous in the Hebrew, it is very much interchangeable with justice.
So if you're seeing that righteousness will be his belt, you can say just as well that justice will be his belt. That the Ministry of Christ is defined by righteousness, by justice and faithfulness. He's going to be faithful in seeing that justice will be established.
Justice has been thematic throughout Malachi, a call for justice and response to the injustice of the Israelites. What was their injustice? Their injustice was their failure to give God the worship he is due. Worship is the practice of honoring God, glorifying his name with all that we are. The great commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength.
The Israelites fell short of that complete love and in various ways, in the sacrifices and tithes they offered, and in their immoral practices, in their marriages, the way that they treated one another. All of this represented a departure from God's way.
We do not worship God unless we walk in his way. If we do not walk in his way, we walk in the way of evil and wickedness, the way that does not worship God. To be sure, we have fallen short. All of us have gone astray, but now here we are talking to one another. God has turned our hearts to himself in Jesus Christ.
He has covered our guilt. He has spared us so that our lives would be reclaimed by him, so that we should be called the Sons and Daughters of God.
We remind each other justice is coming, our costly obedience, our repentance, the fruit of our union with Christ who saves us, will not be put to shame. We will not look like fools on the final day because on the great dreadful day of the Lord, those who decide to live life on their own terms, who disregarded their God and creator, and even ignored Christ's offer of mercy, the wicked, will face judgment.
They will answer for their lives. They will be destroyed, root and branch, but we will live. We will be healed. We'll experience everlasting joy because the justice of God, his righteousness, will shine on us, encompassing the earth. If we are truly looking forward to that day, we should live like it. Our lives should reflect we're ready to walk into that kingdom, that we're chomping at. The bit that we fully embrace God's way, his righteousness, that we don't want to wait to worship God, no. We want to begin worshiping God with our whole hearts right here, right now, marching right on forward into eternity. From this day on, examine your heart.
Do you really believe there will be a day of reckoning before God? Do you really believe there is a difference between the righteous and the wicked, those in Christ and those apart from Christ? Do you really believe that or do you think there is no real difference? That in the end God makes no distinction, that this is so much religious fluff that doesn't really make a difference in the end. Malachi checks the attitude of the people, and we should examine our own attitudes. If we take the promise of God's justice seriously, we'll, we will be encouraged in our obedience, and we will be concerned for every person who has not turned to Christ, and we will pray for them and we will make overtures to them that they may turn and receive mercy while it may be found, because justice is coming. Let us pray.
Father, we come before you and make our confession.
Whether we confess that at times we've been envious of the wicked, that we've wondered why it is that they seem to have it so carefree and easy, and that perhaps we've coveted to live their way of life.
Father, forgive us for our arrogance.
Help us to see things as they really are, father, that your ways are good, that your commands have been given in accordance with your design for us to live in harmony with you and to experience true flourishing father, true happiness.
Father, help us to remember the reality of your justice which is to come. To be revealed in full on the day of Christ's return.
Let us live in fear of you, father.
Not that we would be afraid or anxious father, but that we would respect who you are even as, as much as we love you, father, and we pray that we would love you with our whole heart so that we would joyfully walk in your ways.
Father, we pray also that you would impress the reality of this day of judgment to come so that we would take seriously this need for those around us to receive the gospel, to turn to Christ. Help us father, not to be apathetic, but that as much as is in our power, father, as much as you've called us to do, and that's all we can do, father, is to do what you've called us to do, that we be faithful in bringing this message of repentance and forgiveness to others, and we pray that you would work upon their hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So that they may turn and become saved in Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you that you are just, we thank you that you are just, that the wicked will need to answer for what they have done and that you have promised to restore this earth and make all things new. We look forward to your kingdom Father, and we give you praise because you're faithful and true. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)