Malachi chapter four, Christ
the Son of Righteousness. What a way, what a way to conclude
this series that I've been preaching on Christ in the Old Testament.
And I think I told you this last week, when I first started this
out in Genesis, I determined that I was gonna preach at least
one message from each book of the Old Testament, but I preached
several on most of them, some of the shorter ones just one.
But here's the one that I'm going to preach from the book of Malachi.
Now, when Malachi arrived on the scene, and he was the last
of the prophets recorded at this time, John the Baptist, we call
him the last of the Old Testament prophets. But by this time, the
people had returned from Babylon. The temple had been rebuilt according
to God's express commandment. Remember, he told them, go back
and build that temple. re-establish the worship of God.
Well, by this time the temple had been rebuilt, but the problem
was the problem as the problem always is. The people. Sinful people. That's our problem,
isn't it? We're sinners saved by grace,
but we're still sinful people. And the problems we have usually
are brought on by our own sin and selfishness, and we can talk
about that. But the people were still in
an unbelief and rebellion. And I've got listed in your lesson,
there are three basic problems that Malachi brought out for
these people. Number one was false professions
of faith with no heart for the truth. And boy, don't we see
that today. People claiming to believe Jesus,
they talk about this, what they call the Jesus Revolution now,
new movie coming out. And there was a, sometimes when
I tell y'all things, I'll repeat myself. That's the product of
getting old. But the way I look at it, it's
not just repetition for repetition's sake. But I told you, I think
I mentioned last week about this big revival they were having
up in Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. And I heard the message
that launched the whole thing. And my friends, sad to say, and
I mean this, sad to say, it was nothing. There was no gospel
there. There's no Christ there. They
kept talking about Pentecost in Acts chapter two. You know
how Pentecost began? Peter, the apostle, preaching
Christ. That's how that began. It wasn't
just stand up and say, oh, we gotta love one another. Now listen,
I'm all for love, don't get me wrong. And yes, we need to love
one another, more than we do. But when we talk about what they
call revival, which little suspect, we talk about rebirth, getting
things going again, it all begins with preaching Christ and the
truth as it is in Christ. And if you don't preach Christ,
I don't care what you feel, it means nothing without the preaching
of the gospel. And so that's what their problem
was. And the problem was due to the
corrupt priesthood. Priests taught the people to
dishonor God's altar, God's way of salvation is what it was.
Because that's what that altar represents, the priesthood, the
altar, the sacrifice. The second problem they had was
compromise. What truth they had, they compromised
it. And they embraced idolatry and
formed alliances with heathen nations around them. And it was
during this period of time when the temple was being rebuilt,
the city was rebuilt, when Malachi came on the scene, you had the
formation of the Samaritans, and out of that came a lot of
compromise, idolatry. So that was the second problem.
The third problem was they robbed God by not supporting the temple
and the priesthood with their tithes. It's in Malachi chapter
three, look over at Verse 8. And you know a lot of preachers
use this to try to bring tithing down on people today. The tithe
was in the Old Testament required to support the priesthood and
the temple. That's the famous verse. You've
read this. Chapter 3, verse 8. Will a man
rob God? Yet you have robbed me, but you
say wherein have we robbed thee in tithes?" And he answers, in
tithes and offerings. So that's how they robbed God.
They didn't support the priesthood. They didn't support the temple.
And that was their problem. And Malachi, now Malachi's name
means my messenger. That's God's messenger. And he
declared God's message of judgment to the people for their sins. And this is just another reminder
in the Old Testament that God will punish all sinners to whom
sin is imputed. Mark it down. It'll come. That's why we need a Savior.
That's why we need the grace of God through the righteousness
of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. But now in verse two of Malachi
chapter four, we have some positive things because in every generation,
Regardless how bad it got, God always had a remnant of people
among the Jews. He also had a few among the Gentiles,
but they especially came in the New Testament, but there were
a few. But he says in verse one, let's read verses one and two
together. 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. In other words, it's a total
burning up. That's the wrath of God against
all sinners to whom sin is imputed, charged. But, verse two, unto
you that fear my name. Now, the majority of the people
didn't fear God's name at all. To fear God means to believe
God. To fear God means to worship God. The Bible says by nature
there's no fear of God before our eyes. But there's only one
way that I can prove to you or you can prove to me that we truly
fear God. Now look at verse two. But unto
you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with
healing in his wings. And you know who that is. And
notice the word sun there is like our sun that warms this
earth, not S-O-N. Well, Christ is the S-O-N of
righteousness. He's the son of God, very God
of very God, the God man, but he's also the sun, S-U-N, the
light, the life, and the warmth of the gospel of righteousness. And I love the way he's identified
here. How can a preacher who claims
to believe the gospel put this issue of righteousness down or
ignore it? The only way any of us are gonna
be saved is when the son of righteousness arises with healing in his wings. The healing heat. So here we
have those who fear his name. That's God's election of grace. That's that remnant of grace
that the Bible talks about all through the Old Testament and
through the New Testament. And so the salvation of this remnant
was never conditioned on them, never by their works. It was
always based on the merit of the promised Messiah, the work
of the promised Messiah, who is the Son of Righteousness,
the Lord Jesus Christ, identified here as the Son of Righteousness.
The book of Malachi concludes the Old Testament and emphasizes
the theme with the prophecy and proclamation of this salvation. This is what's been taught from
Genesis 1, right here. Christ, the Son of Righteousness,
the glorious person and finished work of Christ. Christ, the bright
and morning star. Christ, the light of life. I've
got a string of scriptures there for you to look at, just to draw
your attention to that. And it's as simple as this. I'm
gonna give you a little four-point outline here, and I've got it
in your lesson there. The points of it are in bold, capital and
bold print. But here's the simplicity of
Christ. Here's the simple message that concludes here in the Old
Testament. And that's it, this. Everything
connected with salvation, everything, the light, the life, the righteousness,
the glory of God, the forgiveness, the eternal, everything is found
in Christ. And we can say it's four ways.
Look at this. It's number one found in who
Christ is. See, this is not about who I
am, and it's not about who you are. Now, we are something. We are someone. What do you mean? We're sinners. Saved by the grace
of God. And we are important to God.
He chose us before the foundation of the world, and he wrote our
names in the Lamb's Book of Life before this world was ever created.
Think about that. How do you know my name was written
there? How do you know your name was written there? We believe
in the Son of Righteousness. We look to Christ. But this thing
of salvation is all about founded upon revolving around concluding
in who Christ is, God manifest in the flesh. He's the Son, S-U-N. He's the Son, S-O-N. He's the
Word made flesh dwelling among us, the light of the glory of
God. He's the type of person that
it takes to save wretched sinners like us. He had to be both God and man.
God to give life, man to die to satisfy justice, put it together,
and we have salvation. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. All right, here's
the second point. This thing is about what Christ accomplished
in his obedience and resurrection. It's not about what we do. Now, are we to do some things?
Yes. We're to obey God. We're to believe. We're to repent. But see, salvation
is not about us doing that. That's the product. That's the
result. That's the fruit. Salvation is
about what Christ did in his obedience unto death as our surety,
our substitute, our redeemer, our life giver, our protector,
our preserver. He did all of it. This salvation,
the Bible says in 2 Timothy 1, was given to his people before
the world began in Christ. All spiritual blessings in Christ. And so working out, it's all
about Christ, who paid the sin debt of his people as it was
imputed to him, accomplished our redemption in his death,
working out the righteousness that God has imputed to us and
from which he gives us life from the dead. And that brings me
to the third point. Who Christ is, what Christ accomplished
in his obedience and resurrection, third, what Christ provides for
his people in salvation. You know what he provides? He's
the son of righteousness arising with healing in his wings. And
oh, what a healing. You know, as we get older, we
usually have several problems physically, don't we? Not just
one. And we may go to this doctor,
you know, I tell Debbie all the time, I don't want to add another
specialist to my list. of doctors, but I think I'm gonna
have to, you know, because I'm trying to get rid of this sinus
thing and all that stuff. But there's several problems
that hit us. So we go to this doctor, and this doctor may give
us the means of healing this one ailment. You go to another
doctor, and he may not be able to, or he or she may not be able
to give you the healing on that. But not this doctor, this great
physician here, the healing that he has in his wings. And what
that means, he brings it to us. We don't go to him to get it.
Now, I know we do go to Christ, but we don't go to him to get
it. He brings us to us and gives it, and then we go to him. It's
the healing of every major problem that sin brings to ourselves
and our world. We need forgiveness. We're forgiven
by his blood. We need righteousness. He worked
it out and gave it to us. We need spiritual life. He gives
us spiritual life in the new birth. We need to be preserved,
even with spiritual life. Listen, he keeps us. He brings healing. with his wings,
and look here in verse two, he says, and you shall go forth.
Now this is after he brings healing with his wings. And you shall
go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. That's a metaphor
for new life. I've not been too much on a farm,
but I've seen films of calves being born, and when they come
out, you know, they jump. There's life there, see? And
that's what Christ did. He comes with healing and then
we go forth. It's not what religion says today.
We go to him and then he gives us, no. We're living on the dung
heap of false religion. We're dead in the water, spiritually
depraved and spiritually dead. And he comes to us and he gives
us life based upon the righteousness that he worked out as the son
of righteousness. That's what this is all about.
Who Christ is, what Christ accomplished in his obedience and resurrection,
and he had to die to be resurrected, and what Christ provides for
his people in salvation. All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places. And then fourthly, it's about
what Christ commands. His word. I've got in your lesson
here, the life that we live as sinners saved by grace is to
be guided by the word of our Lord and Savior, not by the words
and opinions of men. And it's to be motivated, not
by law or rewards, because we already have everything, because
he's brought healing with his wings, so we already have everything,
but motivated by grace, gratitude, and love. That's what it's all about. What
are we to do? Whatever our Savior says, whatever
our Lord says, that's what we're to do. Are we gonna do it perfectly? No, not in this life. But see,
our standing before God never changes. Well, look at verse three now.
He says, 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, saith the Lord of hosts. And what he's talking about here,
when the son of righteousness comes, all things will be revealed. Not that it hadn't been in the
Old Testament, because it had, but this is speaking of that
day when Christ comes and institutes the new covenant. And what's
going to happen is his coming into the world will be a great
display of the sinfulness of man in even his best, and the
salvation of his people wherein he is shown to be the best. And
I think about, somebody said years ago, the same sun that
melts wax hardens clay. And I thought about that in John
3, 18 when it talks about how when light is coming to the world,
men love darkness and hate the light because their deeds were
evil. Now, you know, Isaiah preached
that 700 years before Christ. He told the people of his generation,
all your religion and all your so-called goodness, he said it's
putrefying sores. It's nothing but a stench in
the nostrils of God. Your religion. So this is not
new, but there'll be a special revelation of it when the Son
of Righteousness comes with healing in His wings And I think about
the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount when he told them, listen,
you think you've conquered this thing of sin? Well, let me tell
you about it. You think that you've kept the
commandment, thou shalt not kill? Well, let me tell you, just to
be angry with someone, enough. That's murder. You think you've
conquered that sin of adultery? Well, just a lust after another
person is adultery. And you remember when he stood
there on those, speaking to those false preachers, saying, depart
from me, you that worketh iniquity, I never knew you. That's what's
gonna happen here. That's what this is describing.
All the things that men and women by nature esteem, will be shown
to be an abomination of God, and there'll be ashes under the
soles of your feet the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord."
Now, that'll be a stark reality when Christ comes a second time.
Some commentators just say this is talking about the second coming.
I think it's talking about the first and the second coming.
Because when Christ comes again, He's going to Well, we'll say
rapture his people unto himself. I'm not afraid of that word.
He's gonna catch us up, his church. Only one time, though. But he's
gonna destroy this world, and it'll be burned up. Well, look
at verse four. Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which
I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes
and judgments. Now, when you look at something
like, is he saying there, Now he's going to bring us back under
the law of Moses? No, he's not gonna re-institute
the law of Moses. He's gonna fulfill that law and
abolish it by way of fulfillment. But what does it say to do? Remember
ye the law. Well, what was the law given
for? To show them their sinfulness. To show them their need of a
righteousness they couldn't produce. And he's telling this elect remnant
and the Jews later on. Remember what that, it's kind
of like what Paul said. You that desire to be under the
law, do you not hear the law? Remember the law. That was a
condemning law. Paul wrote about this in 2 Corinthians
3. That was a law of death. That
was a condemnation. That could not save you. Remember
that? Well, here's something much better. Here's someone much
better. Here's the son of righteousness that comes with healing in his
wings. And Moses told you that, Christ said in John 5. Even Abraham,
even Abraham before the law, he told you that. He rejoiced
to see my day and he sought and it was glad. So the issue there
is not to be back under the law of Moses, it's to run from the
law to Christ. the son of righteousness, for
healing in his wings. And then look at verse six, or
verse five, rather. He says, behold, I will send
you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord. Now, many of the Jews say that
this is talking about Elijah personally, that Elijah himself
is gonna be sent back. It's not talking about Elijah
personally. This is talking about the prophetic
line which would be capped off and fulfilled by the coming of
Christ. Elijah in the Bible represents
what we call the school of the prophets, the tradition of the
prophets, the message of the prophets. And this prophecy will
be concluded in the line of Elijah, and you know who the fulfilling
of it is? John the Baptist. Look over at
Malachi chapter 3. John is part of the prophecy
here. Malachi 3 and verse 1. He says, 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 you delight in. Behold, he shall
come, saith the Lord of hosts. And you can read the whole thing.
What did John say? Behold the Lamb of God, which
beareth away the sins of the world. He said, I come to prepare
the way, the fulfillment of this prophecy in the line of Elijah.
John and Elijah preached the same message. And it was fulfilled in John.
And you can read all these scriptures. I've got several down here. But
you remember, The Mount of Transfiguration, for example, in Luke chapter
nine, when Christ took Peter and I think, and John, I think
James was there too, I'm not sure. But he showed them that
vision and he spoke with Moses, who represented the law, and
he spoke with Elijah, who represented the prophets. And you remember
what their subject was? They spoke of his decease. which he would accomplish in
Jerusalem. They spoke of his death. And that word deceased
in Luke chapter nine there is the word exodus. Because Christ's
death would be an exodus out of the bondage of sin for his
people. Think about that. So this is
not Elijah personally, it's John the Baptist. And then the last
verse here, Malachi 4, 6. And he shall turn the heart 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.
Well, that last line is kind of negative, but it really ends
on a positive note. And what he's talking about is
the union of families spiritually under the headship of Christ.
Fathers and children. All of that. Now, don't discount
the fact we know that Christ also spoke of how the gospel
would also divide families. So we know that's true too. But
it's also gonna bring God's people, Jew and Gentile, into one family. And I believe the reference there
probably, the fathers, is to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, and Joseph. and the message that they had,
how it's all gonna, the children and the fathers are gonna be
united spiritually in salvation under the headship of the son
of righteousness, who comes with healing in his wings. All right. Oh, and by the way, that last
line says now, it's almost like saying, he that believeth not
shall be damned. He that believeth shall be saved,
he that believeth not shall be damned.