Let us turn to the book of Malachi
again. We were of course considering
verses in this prophecy last Thursday evening at the end of
chapter 3. Those final verses there, verse 16
through 17 and 18. And I sought to say something
with regards to the fellowship of those who were the God-fearers.
They that fear the Lord spake 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. We're looking at those words
then in verse 16 and the following two verses also. But as we turn
again to Malachi this evening, I want to direct you to the words
that we have at the end of the final chapter, the end of chapter
4, and verses 5 and 6. 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. These are the very last
words, the final words, of course, that we have here in the Old
Testament Scriptures. And really, in a sense, we have
to recognize that the Old Testament closes with this promise that
concerns the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The chapter certainly
speaks of the Day of the Lords. There at verse 1, For behold,
the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud,
yea, and all that do wickedness shall be stubble. And the day
that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that
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 ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of
the stall, And ye shall tread down the wicked, for there shall
be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall
do this, saith the Lord of hosts. It's interesting those words
that we have at the end of verse 3. We have mention of the day
that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts, and we observe
that in the translation here in our authorised version they've
introduced that word this. It literally says, in the day
that I shall do, or it might be rendered make, in the day
that I shall make, saith the Lord of hosts. We think of the words of the
Psalmist there in the 118th Psalm. This is the day that the Lord
hath made. We shall rejoice and be glad
in it. What is this day? It is very
much the Gospel dispensation, the day that is being spoken
of, the day that cometh. There in verse 1 it's the day
of the Gospel, the whole period really, between the first coming
of Christ and the second coming of Christ. That whole period
is referred to as the day of the Lord in the Old Testament.
It is of course marked in that it begins with His appearance
in the fullness of the time when God sends forth His Son made
of a woman and made under the law. Oh, it is very much then
a day of grace. And we see that in the language
that we have in the second verse. Unto you that fear my name shall
the sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings. who
is the Son of Righteousness. It's the same one, of course,
that is spoken of at the beginning of Chapter 3, that one who is there referred
to as the messenger of the covenants. Behold, I will send my messenger,
he shall prepare the way before me, That's a reference to John
the Baptist, "...and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come
to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant." These are names
that belong to the Lord Jesus. He is the messenger of the covenant. He's the angel of the Lord. Angel,
of course, simply means a messenger. And he is that one who is spoken
of here in the second verse as the son of righteousness so there's
clearly a reference to that first coming of Christ but surely there's
also some allusion to his coming again, his second coming in the
language that we have in the third verse he shall tread down
the wicked they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet
in the day that I shall do this or in the day that I shall make
saith the Lord of hosts." There will be an end then to this great
day of the Lord's. They are distinct days. There's the first coming, and
there's the second coming, and it's evident time and again in
the prophecies of the Old Testament that when we read those books
we see there are elements of each of those days to be found
in many of the passages. But also, though they are distinct
days, we know that even throughout the Day of Grace, this gospel
dispensation, there is discrimination made through the ministry of
the Word of God. It was so in the day of Christ
himself and his preaching, divisions amongst the people, and it was
very much the case with the apostles, their ministry was to some the
savour of death, to others it was thankfully the savour of
life, and so it will be. Or there is that judgmental aspect
we might say in a certain sense. In all the Lord's ways it is
judgment and mercy. Think of the language of the
second chapter in Joel. Joel speaks very much of the
Day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Ghost and this dispensation
of the Gospel is the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. And what
does Joel say there in the 11th verse of that second chapter?
The Day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can abide
it? Who can abide it? All the language
that we have previously then in that second verse of the third
chapter. Who may abide the day of his
coming? Who shall stand when he appears?
For he is like a refined as fire and like full as soap. And in
the opening words here in chapter 4, Behold the day cometh that
shall burn as an oven. But as we come to the particular
words that I read at the end of the book, verses 5 and 6 here
in chapter 4, we read of Elijah. Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord. So first of all, I want to say
something with regards to this ministry of Elijah that is preparatory
to the coming of the day of the Lord. Now, I'm sure you're aware
very much that historically the reference here is to the ministry
of John the Baptist. It is that sense in which all
of the Old Testament is preparatory to the coming of Christ. from the fall of man in Genesis
chapter 3 all the way through the Old Testament there is that
looking for that one promised even in the account of Adam and
Eve's fall into sin that seed of the woman who would come and
bruise Satan's head even as he bruised the seed's heel Right
through the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus himself says to the
Jews, search the Scriptures, in them you think that you have
eternal life, these are they that testify of mine. And Christ himself, of course,
is the fulfillment of the prophetic office, or this ministry of the
prophets, is fulfilled in Christ. But when we think of the preparation
in the Old Testament, it really reaches its climax with the ministry
of John the Baptist. And John is the greatest of all
those prophets of the Old Testament. We have the testimony of Christ
himself there in the Gospel in Matthew 11, verse 11 following, Verily I say unto you, among
them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom
of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the
law prophesied until John, and if ye will receive it, this is
Elias, the Greek form of the name Elijah, which was for to
come. He that has ears to hear, let
him hear. The Lord Jesus in himself testifies
to the fact that John is the final and the greatest of all
the prophets of the Old Testament dispensation. And What does the Lord go on
to say later there in Matthew? Chapter 17 and verse 12, I say
unto you that Elias or Elijah is come already. He tells the
people. Elijah has already come. And so the words that we have
here at the end in verse 5 has been fulfilled. Behold I will
send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord. As I say, it's a truth that's
referred to not only in this final chapter, but also in that
previous chapter. The messenger there at the beginning
of the third chapter, who prepares the way for the messenger of
the covenant, two distinct people. Behold, I will send my messenger,
and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom
you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger
of the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts." It is not that Elijah is going to come
again. That's not what the Lord is saying,
of course. It's not a literal Elijah. But
he comes, as Christ says, in the Spirit and the power of that
prophet there in Luke 1.17. He shall go before him, it says,
in the Spirit and power of Elias. He goes before Christ, he's the
harbinger of Christ. And we see this don't we at the
beginning of the Gospels, we have it at the beginning of John's
Gospel. What do we read there in the opening chapter of John
verse 6? There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. The same came for a witness to
bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe.
He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that
light. And then, verse 19, this is the
record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from
Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied
not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him,
What then? Art thou Elias? And he said,
I am not. Well, he's not the literal Elijah. Art thou that prophet? And he
answered, No. Then said they unto him who art there, that
we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou
of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. We read those words, didn't we,
there in Isaiah chapter 40, the opening verses of that chapter,
speaking of John's ministry, his preparatory ministry. preparing
the way for the coming of the Christ and so what we have here
in the text is a preparatory ministry and historically we're
to understand it in terms of the fulfillment of this scripture
in the preaching of John the Baptist and the ministry that
he exercises but then also we can interpret the words and understand
the words in an experimental sense because there is a preparatory
work that the Lord does in the souls of his people in order
that they might come to the blessing of salvation he tells us plainly
that he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance
and we know that all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God but by nature All are those dead in trespasses and sins and
have no awareness of their sinnership. And Christ comes to sinners in
a preparatory work by the Lord of Gods. And here we have mention
of the Lord in the context. Verse 4, Remember ye, Remember
ye the Lord of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in
Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and the judgments. Oh, how the Lord comes, you see,
with this work. Back in that second verse in
chapter 3, "...who may abide the day of his coming, who shall
stand when he appeareth. He is like a refiner's fire and
like fuller's soap." Well, this is the day that burns as an oven,
we're told, at the beginning of this fourth chapter. This
is that work that the Lord must do a preparatory work whereby
the sinner is made to feel his great need of the salvation that
God has provided in the person of his only begotten Son. Oh,
we know that what thingsoever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty before God. James tells us They do so
shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point. He is
guilty of all. The Lord makes such demands upon
men that they cannot meet those demands. If they should keep
every commandment in thought, in word, in deed, and then to
have one unclean thought, there is a transgression. and the person is guilty before
God. And yet that law is a holy law,
that commandment is holy, it's just, it's good. Well, there's
no problem with the law, the problem is with that sinner to
whom the law comes. And so it comes to men as a ministration
of condemnation and a ministration of death. We know these things. It's a schoolmaster. That's how
the Apostle Paul explains it there in Galatians 3. A schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. Oh, it brings us to Christ. Christ,
the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Oh, no man can be justified by
the deeds of the law. This is the great message that
we find the Apostles preaching. No justification for the sinner
in the law, that condemns him. All his righteousness must be
found only in Christ, in the person of Christ. He is the Lord's,
our righteousness. He is that blessed Jehovah Sidkenu. And here in the fourth verse,
previous to our text, he speaks of the law which was commanded
the Lord of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto you in
Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. And as we have mentioned here
of statutes and judgments, there is not only reference to the
law that was written in tables of stone, but the whole of that
law in the Old Testament, the ceremonial laws. And of course
all those ceremonial laws in the book of Leviticus point to
Christ. They're all types of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But as Malachi is exercising
his ministry, how these people despise these ordinances of God. How he rebukes them again and
again as the mouthpiece of God. There in verse 7 of chapter 1
he offers polluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say wherein
have we polluted them? In that ye say the table of the
Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for
sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and
sick, is it not evil? Because God required that the
sacrifices were to be the best of their flocks and of their
herds. when they come to offer the Paschal
Lamb it must be perfect in all its parts but they treat God's
table, God's altar with complete and utter contempt and how the
Prophet really makes this so plain at the end of that first
chapter verse 12 he says you have profaned it in that you
say the table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof,
even his meat, is contemptible. He said also, Behold, what a
weariness is it! And ye have snuffed at it, saith
the Lord of hosts. And ye brought that which was
torn, and the lame, and the sick. Thus ye brought an offering.
Should I accept this at your hands, saith the Lord? But curse
me, the deceiver, which hath in his flock a mile, and voweth
and sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupting. For I am a great
king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among
the heathen." How they were despising these things. And so, there's
a ministry here, a preparatory ministry. Yes, historically we
see it referring clearly to John and John coming as the harbinger
of Christ, but also that work that the Lord God must do in
the soul of the sinner, that the man might be brought to the
realization of the greatness of his sin, the conviction of
sin. But in the second place, to notice
here that what is being spoken of in the prophecy is a ministry
that is powerful, and a ministry that is discriminating, We read in verse 6, 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. Again, this is clearly speaking
of the ministry of this prophet Elijah. As I said, that's John
the Baptist. But what are we to understand
by the way in which it's expressed, the language which is used here,
this turning of the heart? Well, when we turn to the Gospel,
and I've already referred to the words that we have in Luke
1 verse 17, but look at what he said in that verse. We quoted
part of it just now, but look at what the verse actually says.
It speaks of our John's ministry is to turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children and the disobedient to the judgment of
the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord that's
John's ministry to make ready a people prepared for the Lord,
and part of that preparation is this turning of the hearts,
to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient
to the judgment of the just. Now, we know that under the law, God
will by no means clear the guilty. when the Lord speaks to his servant
Moses revealing himself there in Exodus 34 that's what he says
I will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
unto the third and the fourth generation which speaks of fathers and children
and children's children but you see under the gospel there is
that forgiveness and there is that reconciliation even through
all the generations it's a work that goes on throughout the day
of grace and that work is a work that God accomplishes in the
hearts of men to turn the heart of the fathers to the children
and the heart of the children to their fathers the reconciling, the proclamation
of all the forgiveness of sins, that great work that God has
done in and through the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
accomplished in the heart of man. This is where God works.
Man looks on the outward appearance. God looks upon the heart. And God sees the heart. God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, we're told
back in Genesis 6. And every imagination of the
thought of his heart was only evil continually. Or the heart deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked, says the prophet Jeremiah. Who
can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try the race to give it to every man according to the fruit
of his doing. This is where the Lord takes
account of men. It's not just a matter of external,
outward behavior. It's the attitude of the hearts
of men. And Christ, in the course of his own ministry, reminds
us how that every evil proceedeth from the heart of man. And when
we consider something of the ministry of the Baptist, John
the Baptist's ministry, how that ministry that he exercised was
a sharp ministry, a cutting ministry, a penetrating ministry. And it's
a ministry that's preparing for Christ. When we read of the preaching of John
there in the third chapter of Matthew, the things that are said at verse
7 following, Here is John baptizing in the river Jordan, baptizing
those who come and manifest works of repentance, confessing their
sins. But then we're told at that seventh
verse when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come
to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bring forth
therefore fruits, meat for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves,
We have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And
then he begins to refer to Christ's ministry. Now also the axe is
laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth
not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that
cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy
to bear. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand, and he will
throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner
but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." How
he describes that ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms
that we have here at the end of Malachi. Not just the son of righteousness
arising with healings in his wings but he shall tread down
the wicked they shall be ashes under the sole of your feet in
the day that I shall do this in the day that I shall make
saith the Lord of hosts and we know how in his own ministry
Christ is ever a penetrating preacher exposing the sins of
the people when he deals with the woman of Samaria, there in
the fourth chapter of John. Oh, how he must go through Samaria,
he must meet with this woman, he must minister to her. And
how he does, and exposes all the sin of her life. And she
has to acknowledge it. She says to her fellow citizens,
come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is
not this the Christ? All Christ exposes things. He
says, Behold, the kingdom of God is within you. This is where the work is to
be accomplished, in the hearts of men. Behold, the kingdom of
God is within you, He says. Not in words, but in power. We
have the Word of God. We make much of the Word of God
rightly so, but it's not enough, is it, that we simply gather
and read the Word and study the Word, but all that that Word
might be brought home to our souls, that it might be indeed
that implanted Word. There's a... James speaks of,
again, how they with meekness receive it as the engrafted Word. able to save the soul. It is a great blessing to have
a real heart religion, and that's what's spoken of here. Because
that religion, of course, is the New Covenant religion. The
very one that's spoken of by another prophet, by Ezekiel,
there in 36. And verse 26, "...a new heart
also I will give you." a new spirit I will put within you,
I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will
give you a heart of flesh. Oh, the Lord turn in the hearts
of the fathers, the hearts of the children also. It is, I say
again, a great blessing if we have a heart religion, if our
heart is in all our religion. It's interesting With the coming
of the Protestant Reformation, the historian, Merle de Beignet,
said that Luther was a third Elijah. There was the prophet,
of course, the prophet Elijah. There's the ministry of John
the Baptist, but de Beignet speaks of Luther as a third Elijah. and again it was said of him
wasn't it that he preached as if he had been in the heart of
a man or that we might know something then in our day of that that
gospel of the reformation how it came then with such glorious
power the Lord is able to do these things when we go back
to the scriptures we read of course of the ministry of the
apostles there at the beginning of the Acts says 120 that's the
number of the disciples previous to the day of Pentecost 120 and
then of course we read of Pentecost 3000 and then in chapter 4 5000
men besides the women when Paul is exercising his preaching on
those missionary journeys. In Thessalonica, what does he
say to those who were brought to turn from their idols to the
living God? He says, Our gospel came not
unto you in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost and
in much assurance. Or that we might encourage ourselves
then in that that the Lord God is able to do. He's done it. And will He not do it again should
He please Him? Should He be in accordance with
His goodwill and pleasure? We have these words, we can plead
and pray over such words. We come to the end of the Old
Testament and we have this promising of John who is the forerunner
of the Christ and that ministry that really prepares the way,
the greatest of all the prophets and then that one who is the
fulfillment of all the prophetic office, even the Lord himself.
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." grant us that grace then to plead his word and to
pray over all his promises. What follows, of course, is what
we have then at the beginning of the New Testament Scriptures,
the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
the son of Abraham. Will the Lord be pleased to to
bless his word to us. Let us, before we come to prayer,
sing the hymn 809, the tune Waldron 633. The contrast between law
and gospel is then the Lord of God untrue which he by Moses
gave, No, but to take it in this view
that it has power to say, by Christ we enter into rest and
triumph over the fall. Whoever would be completely blessed
must trust to Christ for all. 809, June 633.