If you'd like to follow along
please turn to the book of Malachi chapter 4 It is right before
the book of Matthew. It's the last book in the New
Testament Malachi chapter 4. I'm just going to read the first
three verses 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. But unto you that fear my name,
shall the sun 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 they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the
day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. I'm gonna
stop right there. I'm gonna try and preach today
about the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord. Malachi
here is not what you might call the most cheerful of the prophets.
But he's got some really good stuff in here, Walter. You understand,
he starts off in chapter one, yet I loved Jacob and I hated,
who? Esau, Esau. That's chapter one
and verse two and three. You understand, I look, just
to be sure, in the Hebrew, it says that he hated Esau. It doesn't
say that he loved him less. Matter of fact, if you look at
it, it says he hated him personally. That's what the word means, as
an enemy. You understand, that's what we are without Christ. We're enemies of God. And believe
me, folks, you don't want God for an enemy. It never works
out for the enemy. It always works out for God.
But that's how he starts it out. Then he continues on in verse
seven of chapter one. You offer polluted bread upon
my altar. And you say, you understand?
You offer polluted bread, and then you say, what did we do
to pollute? What did we do wrong? We offered
polluted bread. How? In this, that ye say, the
table of the Lord is contemptible. Don't be talking about the Lord's
table. I'm not talking about what we're doing here, although
I am talking about what we do here. You understand? But here's this. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the table, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the showbread
that goes up on that table. He's the bread of life. Don't
ever say that the bread of the Lord is contemptible. And he
went on to tell them worse. He said, can ye offer the blind
for sacrifice? That's evil. And that's what
he said, is it not evil? And if he offered the lame and
the sick, is it not what? Evil. You understand? God has his way of offering and
sacrifice and worship. God has his way of worship. And you better do it his way. Offer it now unto thy governor,
will he be pleased with thee. He said, give it to your boss.
Will he be happy with it? But no, you think you're sneaking
something by God. But you're not. You're not. That's
the way Malachi starts out. And in some ways it gets worse.
But here at the end, oh. Here at the end, well, just for
the, verse five for context. Behold, this is chapter four,
verse five, excuse me. Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before, what? The coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord. That's the day I wanna talk about
today. Because that's what Malachi's talking about. That's the context.
This is the day of the Lord, which is spoken of all throughout
the Old Testament in places. It calls it here a great and
dreadful day. In other places, it calls it
the great and terrible day. Now, before I get too started,
I am not going to prophesy about
days or times. You understand? There's a really
good reason for that. I don't know. And neither does
anyone else. If they say they do, they're
lying. Because Jesus Christ said, no
man knows the day or the season, but my Father which is above.
And guess what? He told nobody anything since.
But here's the point. Here's what we hear, is what
we have about this day of the Lord. You understand? Malachi, Malachi was hard on
the Israelites in this book. He was hard on the Jews in this
book, with good reason. But all Malachi is doing was
telling them what thus saith the Lord. And that's what we
have here in chapter four. Thus saith the Lord about the
day, the day of the Lord. And how does it start out? 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. The day comes, and that day shall
burn. I understand it's not the most
pleasant subject to start off with on Sunday morning, but this
is what we have. But he tells you who. Who is
going to burn? Because this is people that Malachi's
talking about. What'd it say? The day that cometh
shall burn them up. That's what it says. But who
is it? Well, the description we have
is twofold. All the proud and all that do
wickedly. Now that might seem like a strange
combination, but you understand the Lord put them in the same
category. Pride. Pride. Proud. is in the same category
as them that do wickedly. Understand, some people take
great pride in their pride. God says you got nothing to be
proud of. Anything you have, he gave to
you. Anything you know, he's taught
you. Anything we have of any value
whatsoever is a gift of the Lord. He causes the rain to fall on
the just and the unjust alike. He causes the crops to grow for
the just and the unjust alike. There's an old movie, I don't
know, was it Shenandoah, Jimmy Stewart, Praying Before You Eat
Dinner, Walter? Oh, we thank you, Lord. We worked
the field, we plowed it, we planted it, we've tended it, we've grown
it, and we've harvested it, but we thank you for it. You know
what that is? That's pride. That's pride, folks. Now, is there anything wrong
with farming? Well, yeah, sometimes. What is it? What is it? A high look, a proud look, and
the plowing of the wicked is sin. Proverbs six puts it this
way. Proverbs six and verse 16. These
six things does the Lord, what's the word? Hate, hate. No, wait a minute, that's not
enough. Yea, seven are an abomination
unto him. Guess where that list starts?
A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running
to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and here's
one, he that soweth discord among the brethren. You understand? Here's where Solomon, in all
his wisdom, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote down
here, he put a proud look in the same category with what? Those that do wickedly. You can be the most upstanding
citizen in the world and be full of pride about it, and God won't
have you. Because here's the thing, you
understand, those that the Lord Jesus Christ saves, he humbles. He'll knock the pride right out
of you. He will kick your props out from underneath you. However,
whatever metaphor you wanna use, he'll put you in the dirt because
in the dirt is where we belong. You understand, I'm no better.
This is where I was. I thought it was a fine fella.
I found out differently. But this, when Paul wrote that
one thing, such were some of you. Such were some of you. What the Lord hates, he's gonna
burn up. Wait a minute, you said that
was people. Yeah, I did. You know why? Because that's
what Malachi said. He shall burn them up in this
day. You understand. Here, I'll give
you another Malachi chapter two. Verse 17. I read this and it's
like, oh my goodness. Malachi chapter 2 verse 17 ye
have wearied the Lord how with your words Yet ye say wherein
have we wearied him Well you've wearied him when ye say Everyone
that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth
in them. Or, where is the God of judgment? I still get tickled thinking,
I think it was Bruce Crabtree said, he said, well, he says, somebody told him, said something
about the fact of, well maybe God'll strike me dead. And Bruce
told him, yeah he will. Don't get in a hurry. He will,
you understand? I am the Lord, I will recompense. It may look like a lot of people
are getting away with a lot of things in this life, and from
our perspective, they are, but trust me, there will be an accounting,
and I'm not the accountant you have to worry about. It's God. You understand? There are people
out there right now this morning saying, but those who do evil
and they're saying they're good. You mean God cares what we say?
Yes, he does. As a matter of fact, he cares
more than the world knows. You want one? I'll give you one
for free. Have you ever heard this? There's
a divine spark in every man. You just gotta fan it into flames. You're calling those that do
evil to be good. And you're wearying God when
you're saying that. You're wearying God. Oh, the
newer version of that is this. God is in all men. You just have
to let him out. Talk about proud. Talk about
pride. God is in you. God is in every
one of us. Funny, God doesn't seem to say
that in his book. Smile, God loves you. They weary God with what they
say. Because you understand, all that
God has said in his word, all that all his men have preached
over the centuries, All of that. And this is what they come up
with. Smile, God loves you. They weary God with what they
say. And this is the thing, what Malachi
has told us. Thus saith the Lord, they shall
be burned up. And not only just burned up,
he says burn up root and branch. You understand? What's left when
the roots gone and the branches are gone? Ain't nothing left. And they're gonna be burned up
with those that do wickedly. But here's the next thing about
this very same day of the Lord. But. But. You understand? But is a conjunction
that puts these two things together. Now they're different. What happened
in verse one is different than what's gonna happen in verse
two, but they're connected. They're connected by the same
day. 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. This is a continuation of the
previous verse. Again, let me say it. This is
not a different day. It's the same day. Because here's
the thing, there's only one day of the Lord. That's all there
is. The day. But unto you that fear
my name. Now I want to know who that is.
Well, I can tell you who that is. Unto you that believe that
he is precious. Unto you to whom the Son of God,
S-O-N, of God has been revealed. Unto you who believe that Jesus
is the Christ. Those are the ones that fear
his name and nobody else. Nobody else. because nobody else
knows his name. You understand, the son of righteousness,
and it's S-U-N, the son of righteousness rises
with healing in what? His wings. The son of righteousness,
S-U-N, is a person. That's what's gonna happen on
the day of the Lord. The son of righteousness arises. The
son of righteousness is a person and those that know him, those
that fear his name are, guess what? They are not proud and
they don't do wickedly. Now, they're not proud because
he's humbled them. It's not that pride's not in
them, but they're not proud because he has humbled them. He's not
gonna bring you in until he brings you down. That's the way it works,
you understand? The only way before the Father
is to bow your knees to Christ. And we're not naturally not going
to bow until he brings us down. And trust me folks, he can do
it. His arm is not short that he
cannot save. And you understand, if he's got
to take that arm out and knock your legs out from underneath
you, that's what he'll do. If he's got to send you out for
a lifetime, a life of riotous living until you run out of money
and you end up slopping the hogs, wishing you could eat what the
hogs were eating, he'll do that too. He'll do exactly what he needs
to do, and he will bring you down before he ever brings you
up. But bring you up, he will. You understand? When Christ is
bringing you in, he's bringing you up. I like that. Those that know him, he's humbled
them. And they don't do wickedly, not
saying they don't have sin, but they don't do wickedly because
his spirit is within them. You understand? We don't save
ourselves and we don't keep ourselves. They both fear and love the Son
of Righteousness. You know why? They've been waiting
for the Son of Righteousness. He's been promised to come again.
He's coming again, and it's Him we're waiting for. It's Him we're
looking for. I'm not really looking for the
day of the Lord, Walter. I mean, I would like to say that
doesn't concern me, but it does. But you understand, that's not
what I'm wanting. What I want to do is see my Lord.
I want to see, I want to see the son of righteousness. You
understand? That's what Job said. In my flesh, I shall see God,
whom I'm gonna see. Even though this body gets killed,
dies, devoured by worms. Just heard it this morning coming
in. Yet, in my flesh, I shall see
God, whom I shall see, and not another. I'm gonna see him. That's who we're waiting on. And it says here, But for you
that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise. Arise. The word is irradiates. The word is the sun of righteousness
is going to shine. You understand? The sun always
shines, Walter. Sometimes the earth is turned
around the wrong way. We're in the dark, but trust me, the sun's
still there shining. The sun always shines. It's just
some days we don't see it. And I can tell you this, the
blind never do see it. The blind never do see him, the
son of righteousness. There's nothing wrong, the son
of righteousness is there. He's there right now, but the
blind are not gonna see him. And if their leaders be blind
and they be blind, guess where they're both going? They're going
in the ditch. And you know what they're gonna
say while they're in the ditch? What do you mean we're in the
ditch? They weary God with what they
say. This isn't a ditch. Those whose eyes he has opened
will see. They'll see. He shines all the time. I don't get over it. Trust me, as a believer, I don't
always see it. I don't always see him and not
in that way. but he shines all the time whether
I'm looking or not. Whether I wake or I sleep, he
shines. Those whose eyes he has opened
shall see. And here they have been waiting
for him and now Where Malachi is writing here, he has come.
He has come. And guess what? He is all righteousness. This is the sun of righteousness,
the shining of righteousness, irradiating his people. The world doesn't understand
what that means. They don't know this. There is
no other righteousness than the Son of Righteousness. There is
none. None. You understand? That's
what Paul was talking about his brethren, the Jews. And the Jews
aren't any different than any other religious people, okay?
You understand? They're going about, going about, going about
to establish what? Their own Righteousness and They're
wearying God with their words They're wearying God with their
deeds They're wearying God And at best their righteousness
is they may have some wonderful deeds as far as I'm concerned
But the best they are is filthy rags in the sight of God You
understand? Compared to the Son of Righteousness,
we're nothing. And our righteousness is ours
nothing. We need who? We need the Son of Righteousness.
We need His righteousness. And guess what? He is our righteousness. Now
if you haven't guessed by now, the Son of Righteousness is Jesus
Christ. He's the son of righteousness
in him should all fullness dwell and If he is all righteousness
Guess what there is no other righteousness? There's none Jesus Christ the righteous the
righteous But guess what? Don't guess, I'll tell you. He
is our righteousness. God has made him to be unto us
wisdom and sanctification and what? Righteousness. Wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. The son of righteousness
is everything. to the believer. You know why? Because God has made him that. Unto us. We didn't accept him,
collect him, go get him, or even look for him until he found us. The Lord has made him unto us. And you know what? When he comes
in this day, this part With healing in his wings. With healing in
his wings. Oh. The Lord God Almighty, manifest
in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Righteousness,
is our healer. It is he that healeth thee. And you know, this is the strange
thing. He's rising with healing in his wings for those that fear
his name on what? The great and dreadful day of
the Lord. I said, folks, there's only one
day. There's only one day. And you know what? He's covered us with his righteousness.
Our priest said a few weeks ago, a few months ago, there's only
one robe of righteousness. He said there's many garments
of salvation, but there's only one robe of righteousness. And
that's what he has given to us, the one robe, his righteousness,
the son of righteousness. That prodigal son that came home
after God put him through all that, what did the father say? Bring forth the best robe. and
put it on him. He can't put it on, but God can
put it on you. You can't put it on, but God
can put it on you. Oh, behold, the day cometh. Those
that fear his name are those that are in him, and his people
shall see the great day of the Lord. And the great day is a
day of healing For the people of God, there's healing in his
wings. Spiritual healing, yes. Physical
healing, guess what? Also yes. Also yes. Paul wrote it in Philippians
3, verse 20 and 21. For our conversation is in heaven,
from whence also We look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is
able even to subdue all things unto himself. Understand the son of righteousness
is arise. He's gonna arrive with healing
in his wings and This mortals gonna put on immortality This
corruptions gonna put on incorruption And this vile body is gonna be
changed that it might be fastened fast Fashioned like unto his
glorious body And then what happens? You'll
go forth. That's what it says. You'll go
forth. And ye shall go forth and grow
up as calves of the stall. The great and the dreadful day
of the Lord is both great and dreadful. Understand like I said, this
is all one day The day of the Lord is coming For some it will be indeed dreadful
and terrible But For those that fear his name This is a great
day This is a great day This is a great day. And for some,
this day has been greatly desired. The son of righteousness shall
arise with healing in his wings. Those who fear the Lord, those
who know the Lord, those who believe the son, they shall go forth. They're
going to go forward. And what's it say in another
place? And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Understand this Bible starts
with the light. And guess what? It ends with
Jesus Christ is the light. This is the thing, see, there's
only one day of the Lord. Just one day. And guess what? The son of righteousness that
arises with healing in his wings for us, burns up those that are
proud and those that do wickedly. Like I said, it's not always
the most cheerful message in the world, but if you know him,
you know this one thing, Jesus Christ saves sinners. He came to save sinners. And
he says, him that comes unto me, I will raise up at the last
day. This is the word of the Lord
given to Malachi for us. 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 they shall be ashes under
the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith
the Lord of hosts. All I can say is this. Behold
the day cometh. It's coming, it's coming. Be sure his judgment slumbereth
not, but neither does any of his good promises either. His
healing slumbers not also. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
again for this time and this place. Thank you, Lord, for what
you've done for us and are doing. Please come quickly Lord Jesus
We long to see you We long to hear your voice We long for the
the healing of your wings hmm Help us Lord be with Walter as
he comes to preach your word your gospel Give us ears to hear
in Christ name. We pray amen