I'd like to start reading in
verse 13 of chapter 3 if you don't mind. These are the words of God. This
is a sermon of Malachi's which finishes the Old Testament. He
says, your words have been stout, your words have been harsh, your
words have been proud, your words have been hard against me, says
the Lord. Yet you say, what have we spoken
so much against thee? And then the Lord who knows all
things, looks into their hearts and hears the words that they
are probably not going to speak to men, but what they really
have in their hearts. It is vain to serve God. And what profit is it that we
have kept His ordinance, that we have walked mournfully before
the Lord of hosts?" They haven't kept one of His ordinances. And
they haven't walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts, they've
walked with pride and not mournfulness. This is the ninth, I think, or
the tenth of the questions that they have before him. And the thing that's interesting
that I'd like to point you to is that often in the rest of
Malachi there's a warning and then there's a promise. And so
in verse 7 he says, return unto me and I'll return unto you.
And then in verse 10 he says, bring all the tithes into the
storehouse that there may be meat in my house, in his temple,
and prove me now herewith, said the Lord of hosts, and if I will
not open you the windows of heaven and pour out, pour you out a
blessing, and there shall not be room enough to receive it.
But here there is nothing. It's almost as if those who were
looking on were fearful and trembled at the words of God. The words
that God spoke against these proud and wicked people. Then, verse 16, Then they that
feared the Lord spoke often one to another. And the Lord hearkened
and heard it, and a book of Remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. And then
he has a wonderful description of his children. They shall be
mine, says the Lord of hosts, and that day when I make up my
jewels and I will spare them, I will set them aside for precious
use, for special use, as a man spares his own son that serves
him. Then you shall return and discern
between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves
God and him that serves him not. For behold, The day cometh that
shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, all that do wickedly,
shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall
burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them
neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name,
the Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings,
and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall, and
you calves of the stall shall tread down the wicked, for they
shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that
I shall do this, said the Lord of hosts. Remember ye the law
of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb at Mount Sinai
for all Israel with statutes and judgments. Behold, I will
send you a lie to the prophet before the great and dreadful
day of the Lord. And he shall turn the hearts
of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children
to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
And God was silent for 400 years. Not a word. Not a word. We looked last week at that amazing
verse, didn't we, that day spring from on high has visited us.
Before he comes, all in creation, all in our experience is darkness. Even what we thought was light,
was in fact darkness. Jesus Christ, He arises, the
bright and morning star, the life and light of men. And until we see Christ in the
promises of God, until we see Him as yes and amen in all those
promises, this Word of God, these promises mean nothing. And these people, these religious
people, they rob God and they speak harshly against Him. And
such is their darkness that even when God rebukes them and speaks
the truth that's in their own hearts, they say, where? How? In what way? When the Lord Gives
light, there is light. When the Lord withdraws light,
there is darkness. There is terrible, terrible darkness. But His people will reign, won't
they? What a remarkable word to say. And you shall tread down the
wicked. for they shall be ashes under
the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, said
the Lord of Hosts. of this world of wickedness and
depravity, in the midst of this world where Satan reigns and
rules over the hearts of everyone who is not a believer. I remember
Rupert Reichenbach saying that he was in a conference at one
time and he actually said in conversation with the people,
he said, Everyone who is not a believer is demon possessed. And he wasn't talking about the
demon possession, the Pentecostalism and all that sort of nonsense,
but really what he was doing was just quoting what Ephesians
Chapter 2 says, isn't it? The prince of this world has
taken people captive to do his will. They're slaves. blind slaves, the worst sort
of slavery possible. They're slaves, but they don't
know that they're slaves. But to the just, in that world,
in that world, his people shall tread down the wicked. There's
so much wickedness, isn't there? Satan, of course, is the wicked
one. There are, of course, the wicked
ones of this world, demons and those taken captive to do His
will. There is the wickedness of Babylon,
all force, free will, works, religion. There is, of course,
the wickedness of our own sins, and then there is what's in us,
our flesh. the God of Peace. When it comes
to Satan, what's Romans 16, 20 say? The God of Peace shall bruise
Satan under your feet, shall crush Satan under your feet shortly. You see, we can walk in this
world. What does Romans say of us? We
are more than conquerors. No evil shall happen to the just,
to the righteous, but the wicked shall be filled with trouble. The God of peace will bruise
Satan under our feet. He's made a mockery of him on
the cross. And what's his great weapon that
he can bring against you, brothers and sisters? His weapon is the
law of God, isn't it? And he can say to Norm Day and
to all of the rest of us, this is the sins. These are the sins
that you have committed. These are the sins that you are
committing now. And our Lord Jesus has done the
most remarkable thing, hasn't he? He's made us alive and he's
blotted out He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us, which was contrary to us. He took it out of the
way, nailing it to the cross. Having spoiled principalities
of power, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in
it. a triumph over Satan, a triumph
over sin, a triumph over the world. There is no law to bring
against God's people. There is no law. There are no
sins that can be held up against God's people. Satan is a disarmed
foe. He rages, But the God, it's a
remarkable word isn't it, the God of peace shall crush him,
shall bruise him under your feet shortly. The great enemy of the
souls of men, Satan's great religious activity. is to remind us again
and again of what he said to us in the garden, that horrible,
horrible thing that's infected all of humanity. You shall be
as gods. You will make the decision. You will rule. You will decide. And when it comes to religion,
you can choose. You can make the decision. You now, by your activities,
can choose life. You, by your activities right
now, can save yourself. Now under Babylon it's called
the Great Hall. It's all man-centred. Satan created religion. Any mixing of works and grace,
anything that mixes the covenant of works with the covenant of
grace, is evil. There is no place for
the works of man, no place in the covenant of grace for man's
ability before he comes to salvation, during his time here, or afterwards. There are no works of his that
he can take to heaven and boast about before God and before men. All spiritual blessings, brothers
and sisters, come only in the Eternal Covenant, and all spiritual
blessings glorify the Triune God. He describes this, doesn't
he? according to the working of His
mighty power. To believe you need His mighty
power, in fact you need a mighty power which is equivalent to
the power He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. That enemy, that enemy of Babylon
will be crushed, will be trodden down. Our sins, as I said, are
taken away. I will be merciful, says the
Lord Jesus. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. And our flesh, our flesh will
have a day when it ceases to be there as a living enemy against
the spirit that's in us. It lusts against the Spirit,
and the Spirit lusts against this, and you cannot do what
you want to do. We'll be talking more, Lord willing,
about that on Sunday. Salvation is a remarkable thing,
isn't it? For if the righteous scarcely
be saved, what shall happen to the ungodly and the sinners? And see, the wonderful thing
is that it's God's activity, brothers and sisters. It's God's
activity. In the day that I shall do this. It is not our job. It is His
job. And it will be perfect and it
will be justice. It will be wonderful. He is the
Lord of hosts. He is the Lord of armies. what Mr Hawker says, what paleness,
horror, everlasting dismay will seize every Christless sinner
when appearing before the judge of all the earth without an advocate
to plead his cause and void of all righteousness to justify
his person. They who think they can come
before God and say the words that these people have said here,
we have kept His ordinance. We have walked mournfully before
the Lord of God, flooded His altar with their tears. You might
wonder why, but after all of this, in verse 4 he says, Remember
the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in
Horeb. For all Israel, all Israel was
involved in that commandment. All Israel signed up to that
covenant with statutes and judgments. You see, the Lord's judgments
will be in accord with strict justice and perfectly in accord
with His law, with His holy law. This law is to remind these people
of the covenant that they are under. The law is a ministration
of death. And it's remembrance is very
proper with Christ's coming. It's interesting, isn't it, when
we hear that someone's sort of about to come to our place, what
do we do? Do you do what I do? Immediately
what do you do? You run around the house and
you clean things up and you make sure everything's neat and tidy
when you hear things are coming. The Lord Jesus is coming, brothers
and sisters. Running around trying to tidy
up this house is a vain activity. We cannot do it. We cannot clean
our hearts and clean our souls with the dirty mop. of our own
works. We can't do it with these hands. We can't do it with this will. And the law is there to remind
these people. It's a schoolmaster unto Christ. But its remembrance is necessary
and very proper with the coming of the Lord Jesus. The law is
holy. holy, just and good, because
it defends a holy, just and good God. But the law sanctifies no
one. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. It's a just law. but it justifies
none. It's a good law, but it imparts
no goodness to men. God alone is the justifier. and God alone is our sanctifier. Christ alone is our righteousness
and Christ alone is our sanctification. I love what Romans 5 says, by
one man's obedience many are Isn't it a lovely thing to think
that God in the Lord Jesus Christ has made you righteous, made
you perfectly right? Not by your works, by His work
alone. God's goodness comes by grace. Look at these people here in
Malachi. What on earth have they been
to survive all of this, all of this treatment of God? What did
they deserve? God's people amongst them, they
that feared the Lord, they're recipients of grace, recipients
of mercy, recipients of His love. You sons of Jacob are not consumed
because he doesn't change. His counsels are fixed. is not there to show these people
how righteous they can be. The law is there to show these
people how unrighteous they are. It's to turn them to another. It's to turn them away from themselves
and away from their works and to look, to look to the God of
Abraham, to look to the God who took David's sins away. What
did the law say of David? and Bathsheba. Simple, wasn't
it? Take him outside of Jerusalem,
stone him to death. That's what the law said. No
wonder David prayed that great prayer and cried those great
things in Psalm 51. You see, the law must be satisfied
by God. The law is the transgressor's
adversary. It stood there as a sword over
David and Bathsheba and with perfect justice should have slain
them. It makes the sinner's crimes
appear exceedingly sinful. As David said, he'd murdered
Uriah brought death and destruction to his family and to his nation,
and he cries out in Psalm 51 and says, against you and against
you only have I sinned. You see, it makes the crimes
appear exceedingly sinful. It delivers the sinner to the
judge. Here its power is sin. The strength
of sin is the law. As Romans 4.15 says, the law
works wrath. So the law is strong to destroy,
but never to save. It neither gives righteousness,
life, hope, health, or strength. And the law is spiritual. It reaches the thoughts of men's
hearts. To be angry is to murder. To look lustfully is to commit
adultery. It reaches to the spirits, to
the wicked souls, to the devils themselves, for they're all under
that same curse. The law is one. The law can't
be broken up into little bits and pieces. James 2.10 says if
you break one, You have broken all of them. And if you obey
one, to obey one, you have to obey all of them. It's a package. Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things which are written in the law
to have done them. It reaches back to all that you
have done. The law is not of faith. No man is justified by the law
in the sight of God. Turn to Galatians chapter 3. I trust all of this is a reminder
of how glorious our Lord Jesus is. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them, to have done them, it really
says. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall
live by faith, And then this remarkable verse, and the law
is not of faith, but the man that does them shall live in
them. See, it's a curse, isn't it?
It brings a curse. For Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. Brings us, keeps us captive and
causes us, causes fearful sinners These ones that are described
there, they feared the Lord. They feared the Lord and they
thought upon His name. Christ is where they are driven
to. Christ is where they have gone. Christ is that one place where
you can hide from that fiery law. The revelation of wrath
kindled in God's anger shall burn to the lowest hill, which
is why they are said to be ashes under our feet. Not when we do
something, but when God does something. What a wonderful word
Passover is. Christ is our Passover. And in that fire, in Psalm 22,
that fire melted his heart, melted Christ's heart like wax. You see brothers and sisters,
we remember the law and we need a hiding place. We need a cover,
we need a shelter from that tempest. And in Christ Jesus is the only
refuge from that fiery storm. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? There is none on earth that I
desire besides Thee. My flesh and my heart fail, but
God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. You see
brothers and sisters, God's children can now look at that law. And
what did the Lord Jesus say in Matthew? He came not to destroy
the law, Matthew 5, 17 I believe it is. He says, think not that
I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come
to destroy but to fulfil. He's come to complete it. There's only one person who's
ever walked this earth who has ever kept the law of God. Anyone
else that ever says to you that they have in the tiniest little
way thought that they have kept God's law is lying. They're lying
to you They may be sincere in what they say about themselves,
but they are lying to you and they are lying to God. Isn't it wonderful that we look
at the law and as Romans 8 says, there is therefore right now Right now, no condemnation for
them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. condemned sin in
the flesh. Sin was condemned in His flesh
and condemned perfectly and completely. That God's justice is satisfied. That, this is the result of it,
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
we have fulfilled the law. The righteousness of the law
has been fulfilled in us. We walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. The law of the Spirit and life
has set us free from the law of sin and death. The Holy Spirit
gives this law of the wise, as he says, and it's the fountain
of life. It's the law of faith. that excludes
all boasting. What boasting these men had! It's vain to serve God. What
profit is it that we have kept His ordinance? They believe that
we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts. No wonder
there's not an answer from those that feared the Lord, nor an
answer to them from God except in judgment. this Lawgiver who brings every
blessing from Heaven, this great and glorious Holy Spirit. He
testifies of the Lord Jesus. He glorifies Him on a throne,
on His throne, this Kingdom that stands in His word of promise,
and these rules of life are drawn in the peace and joy that He
brings, the God of peace. He commands us simply. Simple now, aren't they? Believe
and love one another. His commandments are not burdensome.
It's a light burden. It's an easy yoke. It's a place
of rest for your souls. Learn of me. And what is he when
he comes, his son of righteousness? To his people he is meek and
lowly in heart, and he teaches his people." And Malachi finishes with these
words. He calls on his people to remember
the law. It was the covenant of works
that they were under. It provided temporal blessings
to them. But in all of those temporal
blessings, they were driven, those who had God's Spirit in
them, they were driven to look beyond that law and see only
their sin and they were to look to that Atonement, they will
look to look to that Mercy Seeker, they will look to look to that
Passover, they will look to look to He who is the Sabbath and
He who brings rest. And then he finishes, this sermon
finishes, Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The Son of Righteousness
is to arise with healing in His wings and His light is to dawn
in this world. and in the souls of His people.
He sends a forerunner, He sends a prophet to proclaim the Gospel,
to prepare the way of the Lord. What a great day, what a great
day when the Son of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings. What a dreadful day when the
Son of Righteousness arises in judgment. Obviously this Elijah
is John the Baptist. The Lord Jesus says of him, for
all the prophets prophesied unto John. And if you will receive
it, he is the Elijah to come. And in that Gospel, in that response
to that Gospel, he'll turn the hearts of fathers to the children
and the hearts of children to their fathers. lest I come and
smite the earth with a curse." Turns the hearts of children
to their fathers. Where there was enmity, now there
is peace between those who truly love the Lord Jesus. They have
one mind, they have one father, They have one husband, they are
in one family, they have one faith, one baptism and God over
all. In Acts chapter 2 there is a
great description of the Church of God in verse 44. The Son of
Righteousness arose with healing in His wings, and He drew these
people to Himself. They saw by God's Holy Spirit
the depths of their sins. They had crucified the Lord of
Glory. They were justly under the sentence
of eternal damnation before a just and holy God, and yet they were
saved. in Acts 2.44, all that believed,
all that received that grace gift of trusting the Lord Jesus,
they were together, fathers and sons, and sons and fathers, and
they had all things in common. They were together and they had
all things in common. And for those outside of that
gathering, outside of that reconciliation, he'll come and smite the land
with a curse. A curse that we talked about
a few weeks ago. A curse which is almost too shocking
for us to contemplate. but a curse that is just and
right and proper. He says in 2 Thessalonians 1, He glories, verse 4, in you in
the church of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions
and tribulations that you endure. which is a manifest token of
the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer, seeing it is
a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them
that trouble you. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We are accused again and again,
brothers and sisters, of making the Gospel distinct and clear
and purely about the Lord Jesus and His work. It is remarkable,
isn't it? He will punish people who obey
not the Gospel. Therefore there is a Gospel which
can clearly be stated and clearly understood and therefore there
is a Gospel that can be obeyed by the grace of God, but there
is a Gospel that can be disobeyed. He'll come in flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, that obey not the Gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory
of His power. when He shall come to be glorified
in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe, because
our testimony, our Gospel testimony about Him and what He does and
who He is and how He saves, among you was believed in that day.
Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count
you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure
of His goodness, and the work of faith with power, that the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and
you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Old Testament rightly under
that law covenant finishes with the word curse. The New Testament
begins with the word gospel. The word gospel means blessing. May the sun, may that sun of
righteousness arise with healing in his wings again and again
and again brothers and sisters in all of our lives let's pray