The last words before the drought. And how I arrived at this, a
few weeks ago I was sitting around, we're in the Christmas season,
ladies already got their pretty sweaters on and all that good
thing. But I had the thought come to me, what were the last
words God said to us before Christ came? What were those last words? So I sat down and I read the
book of Malachi. It only takes a few minutes to
really briefly skim it. But as I was reading and when
I got through I had the thought, well maybe that wasn't actually
the last thing written. It's the last thing in the Old
Testament but that doesn't necessarily mean that it was the last thing
written. So I did just a few minutes research. And what I
found is nobody knows. There are no dates on these manuscripts,
on these scrolls. So we don't know what order things
were written in. I come across all kinds of different
opinions. Daniel, Malachi itself, Chronicles,
nobody knows. And for those who purport to
know, well, that just says a little bit about them. But after thinking about it,
this is God's holy word. And I believe that when the canon
of scripture come around, only what He wanted is in this word. There were other manuscripts
that they could have added. They're not there. I believe
it was by his will. And since my belief is that it's
by his will, the order that they're in is by his will. So just say
for example, if you read this book like most books, you start
with in the beginning. And you read straight through,
and I don't propose that you do that. But if you do, what
are the last words that you come to? Well, they are in Malachi. So let's turn to Malachi chapter
4. That's where I want to spend our few minutes together this
morning. And as I told you, this is the
last words before the drought. So no exact date is given when
this scripture came about. When Malachi wrote these words,
and Malachi means messenger, we don't actually know the person's
name who wrote these words. But we do know that God wrote
these words. They just used him to write them
down. But this was the last word before
the drought. It has to be for at least over
300 years, God did not speak to man. He did not speak to man,
not on a wide basis for everyone to hear until he sent John the
Baptist and his message of repentance. But let's read here quickly in
Malachi chapter 4. I'll say just six quick verses.
For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all
the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubborn. 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 of the stall. And
ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under
the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith
the Lord of hosts. Remember ye the law of Moses
my servant, which I commanded unto him and Horeb, for all Israel
with the statutes and judgments. And this whole area is the mountain
range in which Mount Sinai lies. That's why that was used here.
Verse 5, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall
turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart
of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth
with a curse. Now, I'm not going to go through
all these verses this morning, but I am going to go over just
a few, most especially the first two, and then just pick up with
one other thing that I want to close with. But over and over
in the Scriptures, we have the sheep and the goats addressed
in just a few short verses. I don't know if you've ever noticed
it, I probably have said something along these lines before, but
you see it again and again in the scriptures. When judgment
is pronounced, blessings soon follow, or vice versa. Another example, and just choose
a scripture that I'm sure everyone here this morning is familiar
with, When I think along these lines, it is the one that always
seems to pop in my mind first, but that's Psalm chapter 1. You
know how it starts. Of course, that's talking about
Christ, but it's also talking about those who are in Christ. Those few verses, six verses
once again, they end, for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous,
but the way of the ungodly shall perish. There in just a few verses,
the first three to the righteous, the last three mainly to those
who will perish, to the wicked. We see it over and over in the
scriptures. Here in Malachi, it's the reverse
of Psalm 1, though, where we start with the proud and the
wicked. And this proud and the wicked, they are one and the
same people. Their acts, they are described
throughout this book of Malachi. Since it's just a few pages long,
turn to Malachi chapter 1. Just look at, I think I've got
three places here that we'll look at. There are a few more, but this
will serve our purposes this morning. Malachi 1 and 4. It says, Now, Edom rejoiced when
Israel was overthrown in a battle, and God punished that nation
for it. But unlike the message that John
the Baptist brought, the message of repentance, they did not repent. They only stubbornly returned
to their ways after God brought judgment to them. They were a
proud people. They were a wicked people. They
remained in that desolate place. The wicked have made their home
here on this earth. It's a barren wasteland. It is
a desolate place. And no matter how high the wicked
go in this life, no matter what they attain, whether wealth,
riches, fame, or they remain in the dung heap, no matter,
when they die, They return to the place that they've started. They remained in that desolate
place. They return to the dust of the ground of which they are
made. That's their bodies, that is.
And that's what they most seem to be worried about. Their physical
being. Most people are that way. But their souls Their souls will
face the judgment of God, and they'll burn. The children of God, just like
the children of Israel faced the scorn and ridicule of Edom,
the children of God, we bear their scorn and their deceptions
and their ridicules as we walk in this life. People make fun
of us, the way we worship, the God we worship. That's why there's
not many here this morning. But we'll have the last triumph.
What's the result? It's given to us right here in
verse 3 of chapter 4, if you've still got your hand there. And
you, and that's God's people, and you shall tread down the
wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.
Where do those ashes come from? It says in verse 1, God is an
oven. He's going to burn the stubble. I should have told you to remain
at chapter 1. It's just a couple verses away. I'll pick up a couple
more verses there. Look at the worship, the worship
of the goats. Everyone's divided into sheep
or goats, and right now we're speaking of the goats. Malachi
1, verses 7 and 8. You offer polluted bread upon
mine altar, and you say, wherein have we polluted thee? In that
you say, the table of the Lord is contemptible. And if you offer
the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the
lame and the sick, Is it not evil? And that's talking about,
you know, you're supposed to bring a perfect sacrifice, a
lamb without blemish, an animal without blemish. The priests
were bringing the lame and the sick and keeping the unblemished
lambs for themselves. Now this statement It's strictly
addressed to the priest as we just read, the priest there in
the prophet's day. But as we know, we read in the
New Testament, it did not change for these 300 plus years, it
continued. But you have to suspect that
the people for whom these sacrifices were offered, they knew what
was going on. and they turned a blind eye to
it. So, in so many respects, they too are liable for these
priest's offenses. These verses speak to the worship
of God, the worship of God in a manner in which He is not commanded. False worship is rampant in our
day. I was going to give you a long
description of something I saw on TV a few weeks ago. I had
a Sunday where I just couldn't get moving and I had a bad headache. I'm going around the TV and there's
a sermon on TV. I'll just put it this way in
just a few short words. I think if you could, instead
of hearing what this man was saying, if you could just write
down the words and read what he was saying, the best you could
say about what he was saying, it was just nonsensical babbling. It made no sense whatever. He
never made the first point, even a wrong point. He was saying
nothing. But yet, he had those people
behind him and those people in the audience. They were jumping
up and down. They looked like jacks in the boxes. I guess they
just wanted to get seen on TV. It made no sense to me whatsoever. I couldn't figure out what they
were up to. It sure was not the worship of God. It was not the
worship of his son because he wasn't mentioned. And I could have put it down
as an isolated incident. But the very next day I get to
church, I get to work, and there they are talking about their
previous Sunday. And one brings up the preacher
he had went to see down near the ocean somewhere. He was down
there for the weekend. He was describing what I saw
on TV, not the exact same preacher. But it was the same carrying
on. So they get to talking around. And I'm listening, I'm in and
out of the office, you know, I'm back and forth all morning
long. And I'm just picking out bits and pieces. But what I gathered,
those folks were there for the show. They're not there for the
message. They're not there for the worship.
They're there for a show and to be seen. I got to have the feeling that
it's like that in most places. With just a couple of instances
that I've just shared with you, and there's been a few more I've
run across lately, but just those two, it looks to me that we've
gone from the worship of God to the worship of man, whether
it's that preacher up there walking around strutting his stuff, or
the worship of oneself. But it is definitely not the
worship of Christ. But how we, how you, worship
God matters. Just to keep it local, to keep
it at home, we have a good time in this place. Just sit back and listen to us
sometime. I have. But just sit back and
listen when we get together after a few days absence. It's like
a family reunion and we've got a rowdy family. That's great. It's wonderful
that we all love each other and care for each other. But that's not why we're here.
We can get together in so many other places. But when you get
dressed up, you get cleaned up, and you come to this place, you
got to be here for one reason and one reason only, to worship
God the Father, God the Spirit, and most especially, God the
Son. If that's not why you're here,
you're better off being someplace else. There's a lot of places with
a lot of shows. You're better off at the picture
show if you're not going to worship God in the right way. False worship
is an abomination to God. Don't fool yourself as I'm afraid
so many people are. Not all churches are equal. And
just because you might be standing in one, it doesn't mean you're
worshipping in a right manner. Be careful. The consequences
are dire. It was for you, Israel, and it
could be for you. Alright, flip over to Malachi
2.17. One more point here on the wicked
and the proud. And you read these words and
study them, and they hit home. They hit home to us right now.
It says, you have wearied the Lord, this is Malachi 2.17, you
have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say, wherein have
we wearied him? When you say, everyone that doeth
evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in
them. For where is the God of judgment? That's where it all, where the
fault begins. Where is this God of judgment?
Because God is long-suffering and doesn't act quickly. We sometimes
allow error. How I say this could be hitting
us at home today as we stand here in what I'm calling home
is the good old USA. But though these words were written
so long ago, they could be written of us today. It's an indictment
on us. The wicked, they're celebrated
and promoted, whether it be sports, entertainment, industry, even
local folks. You know, you hear the cry all
the time. Just high school athletes get
pushed by, by, by, by because they can play good in sports. It's amazing what we put up with.
We allow in our TVs and our magazines and our papers, people we wouldn't
even invite in our house. It's everywhere. And now this country especially
has gone to passing laws that really promotes immoral and perverse
behavior. Marijuana is becoming legal everywhere.
That's nothing but drunkenness, just not with alcohol. And this thing that they now
call marriage, I'm not giving it up, folks. Marriage is between
a man and a woman. Marriage is not for us, it's
a picture of Christ and His bride. And the bride is always a she.
It ain't never been a he. Don't give it up. I'm afraid
that if we do not turn, there's going to be a judgment. This
judgment is here in verse 1 of Malachi 4. 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. Israel became stubble, grass
that has no water in it. Therefore, no life dried up. It was dead. God prophesied its demise through
his messenger. He did as he promised. Israel
lost its freedom. It lost its freedom to the Romans.
The temple was destroyed. And though that nation exists
today, It exists almost not at God's blessings.
Look at what they go to just to live in a daily life. They
have not and will never again reach the glory that they had
under the days of David and Solomon. That country's gone forever. And unless this country changes,
And it's got to start in the pulpits because, like in Israel's
day, the problem started with the priest. Our problem has started
in the pulpits. And unless it changes, this country
is only going to be remembered in the history books. And the
way it's coming, it's going to be a short time before that's
the case. Now let's go to God's people.
We're going to leave the goats, let's go to the sheep. And they're
described, and we'll just keep it here in Malachi 4 for this.
It's here in verse 2. God's sheep are described as
those who fear God's name. Those who fear God's name. I struggle with the description
of the fear which is said that God's people possess. have a little understanding about
it but really not enough to express to you where I think I can make
you understand it that I'm going to try and work on it. But this
fear is not a fear of things that go bump in the night that
make noises when you just can't see them and it's not a fear
of getting a dreadful disease that's going to be your demise
and do you in. To pull out a scripture that
might help us with it To fear God is to know God. To know God. Proverbs 9.10 states,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge
of the holy is understanding. To fear God is to have an understanding
of your place, but most especially His. He is your maker. He's the Maker of all things.
He's the Supreme Being. Nothing beyond God. He has authority over and He
rules all things, including you. You have an understanding of
that. To fear God is to respect Him
or to reverence Him. You respect His attributes, His
holiness, His power, His justice, His love, His wrath, and all
of His other attributes. You respect His laws. You can't
keep them, but you see the goodness in them. You respect His authority
over all things, and you bow down before Him for that. You respect His ways, what He
does. So oftentimes there are beyond
our grasps to understand what He's doing. We see all these
events that occur and we just don't understand why does this
have to happen. But to fear God is to know that
they do have a purpose. They came about because of His
will. And the good news is, when it's
all said and done, they came about for the good of His people. In short, to fear God is to love
God. It's to love God. But to fear
God is also to have a fear of sin. A fear to break His holy
law. But this fear is not only a fear
of its penalty, as verse 1 says, to be burned as stubble in the
oven, but it's also a fear of disappointing or maybe more correctly,
dishonoring Him. You have a fear of that. And
as I was studying this passage, the truth came to me and just
popped in my head, all things come from above. And this was
reinforced to me as I was studying this fear of the Lord. Because you see, this fear, like
any good thing, it's also a gift of God. Jeremiah 32, 40, and I will make
an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away
from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts
that they shall not depart from me. Fear, understanding, respect,
reverence, love of God is a gift from God. One more thing here
on this fear before I move on, and that's this comparison with
Christ. Keep your place here. Turn right
quick to Hebrews chapter 5. My time's doing okay, I think.
Yeah, I'm doing all right. And just one more example to
show you how Christ goes through the same
experience that His people do as we live our lives on this
earth. Hebrews 5, verses 7 and 8. who in the days of his flesh,"
this is Jesus, "...Jesus, when he had offered up prayers and
supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able
to save him from death," this probably most specifically speaking
to that last prayer that Jesus made in the garden the night
before his death. But it says, "...and was heard
and that he feared." Jesus feared pain, he feared suffering, and
he feared death just as all men do. Why? Because he was a man. But look
at the result. It says, "...though he were a
son." I just told you Christ was a man. But the writer of
Hebrews, most probably Paul, tells us, "...though he were
a son." This son is with a capital S. He's expressing to us that
Jesus is God. but as a man, this trial and
this fear that he had, it brought about this result. Yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered." To rightly fear God is to obey
God. to obey God. And all these things
we're looking at this morning, most especially the worship I've
already spoke about. Now let's move on to the rest
of chapter, verse 2 of Malachi 4, if you go ahead and return
there. I'm going to read that one verse to you again. But unto
you that fear my name, unto my sheep, shall the Son of Righteousness
arise with healing in his wings, and you shall go forth and grow
up as calves of the stall." Now when you go to Genesis and you
read in the beginning, God, You are reading about Jesus Christ,
for He is God, and He is throughout this book. And when you read
this last chapter of the Old Testament, He is here also, for
this Son of Righteousness is none other than our Savior. Christ
is here before your eyes. And he is pictured as the rising
sun that takes away the darkness and the cold of the night and
then reveals all things in this light that emanates from him.
What a beautiful picture we have of him here. This world, since
sin had entered in the garden, it was immersed in total darkness.
But now the sun rises and brightens the world with his rays." This
is a picture of what Christ tells us of himself. Y'all, you recall
these words. You don't have to turn to it.
John 8, 12. Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, I am
the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness. that shall have the light of
life." Outside of Christ, like this world without the light
of sun, it is void of life. From the algae in the water to
the plants in nature, without life, they would cease to exist. And in turn, all animal life
would disappear. And lastly, man. The sun in the
sky is absolutely necessary for our existence. Likewise for man's
spiritual life. This sun of righteousness is
also absolutely necessary. Without his appearance, his coming
as a man in the flesh, Without his perfect fulfillment of the
law, without his perfect obedience
in death as we read in Hebrews, there would be no life for a
sinner, for all are dead in trespasses and sin. He's the only hope we
have. Craig told us last week of the
darkness of the deepest caves and how you couldn't even put
your finger to your nose in that type of darkness. This is how most of the world
is living their spiritual lives. They're just wandering around,
stumbling and bumbling, bumping into things, bumping into each
other. Completely lost and clueless. They don't even know it. Why? It's because they're without
Christ. But you and I can't be too hard
on these other folks because we too were once in the very
same state. We were without Christ and completely
lost. But thank God that His Son has
rose. And He has arisen, arisen from
the grave. And He now rules on high. for He has brought so many from
darkness into light. He has taken many out of the
grasp of Satan and brought them into His bosom. And like the man that leaves
the cave in the sunshine of the noonday sun, Christ envelops
His bride in the rays of His righteousness. He arises, as verse 2 tells us,
with healing in His wings. He cures their disease. He cures
the disease of His people. Not just physical ailments, though
He chooses sometimes to do that, sometimes not. But He cures the
disease of sin. And He heals those scars and
those wounds that it makes. He binds their broken heart. Not only that, He gives them
a new heart. He gives them a heart that's not at enmity with God
but now fears God and loves God and desires to serve God. And
He sends the Spirit to them to give them gifts of grace as they
navigate this lost world in which they now navigate as a stranger. In short, Jesus Christ is the
Great Physician and He heals whatever ails His children. Just one more thing to bring
your attention that's revealed through the light that we're
speaking about, this light that is Jesus Christ our Lord. I'll
just give you the verse. It's 2 Corinthians 4, 6. It says,
For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. And
after studying Malachi 4, I don't know that Paul is not only talking
about the first light, the light in creation, but this light that
we're speaking about here in Malachi chapter 4. This light
that was born at Bethlehem. He says, He hath shined in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God,
how? In the face of Jesus Christ. To see God, you can only see
Him through Christ. There's so much talk nowadays,
both from politicians and even more dangerously from supposedly
religious leaders, about this respect of different religions.
I don't know just how many more times we're going to have to
hear about Islam being a religion of peace. I don't know much about
Muhammad. I know all I want to know. I
want to forget what I do know. It's not revealing that they
are a religion of peace. The whole world is in turmoil
and terror right now because of this religion. But that's not the worst of it.
If you pay attention, every once in a while you'll hear a supposed
Christian leader. They'll make a statement, something
along the lines of, we're all worshiping the same God. You
know that's a lost man. We are not worshipping the same
God. We can only see God through Jesus
Christ. And if you're not worshipping
Him, you're not worshipping the God of this Bible. I can't put
it any plainer than that. Why has God... Why was He so long-suffering
to the Hebrews? Because this Son that was to
arise had to come through that nation. He had to come through
the seed of David. He was long-suffering to all
their sin. Why does this earth still exist?
We're as wicked now as we were back then, if not worse. God's Savior is still saving
His people. That's why. Why does God show us any grace
and mercy at all? Because His Son is up on high,
interceding on their behalf, on the behalf of His people.
God is love. But how is that love revealed?
How do you know God is love? It's the death of His Son on
the cross. He suffered the death of His
only begotten Son for the sins of His people. That's love. You will never know God without
knowing Christ. You'll never know God without
knowing Christ. For there is no God without Christ. So to summarize, And I'll just
end it, I've got quite a bit more here, but I'll just end
it right here. What does God tell us in this
last chapter of the Old Testament? What was the last words He wanted
to bring? My Savior, my Savior who will
give life to my people, is coming. So as we get ready to move into
this holiday season, I guess it's already on us, don't lose
sight of that. Though this is not the time of
Jesus's birth, if you're going to think along these lines, keep
your eyes stayed on him and this great sacrifice that he did for
us on the cross. Thank you. Thank you, Chris.