WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.080 We're going to turn for a short while this evening to Malachi chapter 4, the last chapter 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:13.880 in the Old Testament as Al Sir mentioned when he read from that passage. 00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:21.480 And that will bring to an end our short study from this last book of the Bible. 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:28.080 We've just looked at each of the chapters consecutively in the last four weeks. 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:32.479 So pray that the Spirit will help us and lead us and guide us. 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:36.920 I feel we will need the Spirit tonight for this particular subject. 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:41.239 And also we'll need the Spirit because it's warm in here. 00:00:41.239 --> 00:00:47.000 And I feel I'll be on a battle just to do my best to keep you awake. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:50.119 But the Spirit of God will deal with that and we'll manage to get through. 00:00:50.119 --> 00:00:51.879 It's that time of year, isn't it? 00:00:51.879 --> 00:00:52.879 January. 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:57.880 A miserable long month. 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:04.079 Anyway, so let's go back to Malachi chapter 4. 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:12.840 I suspect that there are at least two questions we often ask in our lives and at least two 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:18.520 issues that we think about a lot in our lives which may be focused in questions. 00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:23.039 The first being, what does the future hold for me? 00:01:23.039 --> 00:01:28.679 I think we're all interested in the future and our future. 00:01:28.679 --> 00:01:36.359 And maybe not everyone asks this question explicitly but maybe implicitly, very often 00:01:36.359 --> 00:01:42.920 we are thinking about this in our lives, will there be a day of judgment? 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:46.920 So what does the future hold and will there be a day of judgment? 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:50.840 I think clearly we've got an interest in the future. 00:01:50.840 --> 00:01:55.480 We all have an interest in the future, a deep-seated interest in the future. 00:01:55.480 --> 00:02:02.400 We see that in the political arena that we're living in just now, environmentally even, 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:04.520 culturally, politically. 00:02:04.520 --> 00:02:07.760 There's a lot of talk about the future. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:15.120 We hear a lot about the future and personally we think about the future. 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:19.240 But sure whether it changes as we get older, I think probably it does in some ways. 00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:26.680 I think as you get older we maybe think more about our own very personal future and what 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:31.400 it's going to look like in terms of health and in terms of how things are going to work 00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:34.200 out in this life anyway. 00:02:34.200 --> 00:02:40.360 And maybe the younger generation, I may be wrong here, maybe the younger generation are 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:46.080 thinking more about the future of the world as it were, the future. 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:50.600 We've seen that a lot in the way the younger generation have driven the environmental concerns 00:02:50.600 --> 00:02:51.600 that we have. 00:02:51.600 --> 00:02:55.200 The future of this world is maybe more of a passion. 00:02:55.200 --> 00:03:01.000 There's maybe in younger people more of that presumption that their own lives will just 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:03.920 go on and that lies ahead of them. 00:03:03.920 --> 00:03:07.960 But they may be more concerned about the world in which they live. 00:03:07.960 --> 00:03:14.400 When you get to your mid-fifties you start thinking much more about your own personal 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:19.560 decrepitude and what the future will hold. 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:21.480 So we do think about the future. 00:03:21.480 --> 00:03:26.200 But we clearly also think about accountability. 00:03:26.200 --> 00:03:29.200 Will there be a day of judgment? 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:31.640 We all believe in justice, absolutely. 00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:39.399 That's clearly an experience that we have, we may not formulate it biblically, but we 00:03:39.399 --> 00:03:44.359 are hardwired to consider justice in our lives. 00:03:44.359 --> 00:03:49.599 And in many ways we are relentless legalists. 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:54.799 Sometimes we'll put our hands up and recognize that we've done wrong and we're guilty and 00:03:54.799 --> 00:03:56.119 we'll say it's my fault. 00:03:56.120 --> 00:04:03.439 But very often we'll also blame other people or blame God and hold other people to account. 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:12.039 But it's all part of this hardwired reality of judging and recognizing justice and the 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:13.480 desire for justice. 00:04:13.480 --> 00:04:22.259 We often resist its glare, I think, in our lives and often make ourselves the standard 00:04:22.259 --> 00:04:27.480 by which we judge other people and that makes it easier then to justify what we do and how 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:31.639 we live and the choices that we make. 00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:38.279 And even when we recognize we're the recipients of a just judgment, we tend to be very defensive. 00:04:38.279 --> 00:04:44.480 We react badly to it even if it makes sense or if we know it's right. 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:49.439 Someone who's been caught having an affair will often justify their own behavior and 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:55.000 justify their own actions and blame the other person, lack of love, lack of attention. 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:58.519 I was drawn aside. 00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:04.879 Or a more kind of trivial example of maybe a speeding ticket in the city, wow, it's 20 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:07.159 miles an hour. 00:05:07.159 --> 00:05:12.159 The road were quiet, it was late at night, I was breaking the law but it wasn't quite 00:05:12.159 --> 00:05:15.159 so significant. 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:19.600 And it may be little things like that but it was ever thus. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:27.120 But the question that we so often ask, why, that question that we ask why, is a question 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:33.360 which recognizes justice and accountability. 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:40.560 However we ask that question, we want somebody to be held to account to answer that question. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:41.560 Why? 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:43.080 Why has that happened? 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:46.199 Why is that the case? 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:51.120 And every time that question is asked and increasingly people will want to hold, someone 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:53.319 has to blame for everything. 00:05:53.319 --> 00:05:56.919 Someone has to be held to account for what is going on. 00:05:56.919 --> 00:06:03.799 Very often for us in the world is God that gets the blame. 00:06:03.799 --> 00:06:10.360 And that's an interesting consideration for us. 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:16.759 But I think when you're defending your faith as a Christian, when you're standing up for 00:06:16.759 --> 00:06:21.960 what you believe and people question what you believe as a Christian, I think these 00:06:21.960 --> 00:06:25.560 kind of questions are very useful to have with people. 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:34.160 Very helpful to open up sometimes some of the preconceptions, the misconceptions or 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:37.920 the facts that are taken for granted by so often. 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:39.720 What by people so often? 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:42.000 Why do they ask these questions? 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:45.080 Why are people held to account? 00:06:45.080 --> 00:06:46.840 Why do we believe in justice? 00:06:46.840 --> 00:06:53.960 And unpack some of these questions with those who would quickly deny and rubbish sometimes 00:06:53.960 --> 00:07:01.360 even the existence of God and the existence of accountability to Him. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:08.240 So there is this within our DNA that sense of justice and accountability. 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:14.040 And this passage among many others reminds us that that is the case because we are image 00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:16.879 bearers of the divine. 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:19.000 We are made in God's image. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:22.480 We are accountable to God because we are made in His image. 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:24.199 He's made us. 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:32.439 And we are therefore both like Him in seeking and looking for justice and also in being 00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:33.840 accountable to Him. 00:07:33.840 --> 00:07:37.160 That's clearly what the Bible teaches. 00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:43.360 It is God to whom every one of us, every single living being will give account. 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:48.120 Sanctity is five, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one 00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:54.160 may receive what is due for what He has done in this body, whether good or evil. 00:07:54.160 --> 00:08:00.480 The Bible clearly teaches both here, it speaks about the day, for behold, the day is coming, 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:01.480 burning like an oven. 00:08:01.480 --> 00:08:05.560 Later on in this short passage it speaks about the day of the Lord coming. 00:08:05.560 --> 00:08:11.160 And throughout the Bible, the day of the Lord refers to the day of God's judgment, the judgment 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:13.639 day of God. 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:20.240 And the Bible has a beginning, and the Bible has an end. 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:24.439 And history under that umbrella is linear. 00:08:24.439 --> 00:08:27.480 It is not cyclical. 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:33.799 So there is that beginning and there is that end, and the end will be when Christ returns 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:36.319 on that final day of judgment. 00:08:36.319 --> 00:08:43.959 God is on His throne and He will judge all because He has fixed a day on which He will 00:08:43.959 --> 00:08:47.559 judge the world in righteousness by a man who is appointed. 00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:54.079 And this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead, or from revelation 00:08:54.079 --> 00:08:55.079 also. 00:08:55.079 --> 00:08:59.359 This is a slightly longer passage, but you know that great passage when I heard a great 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:05.800 white throne and Him who was seated on it in the presence, earth and sky fled away and 00:09:05.800 --> 00:09:07.879 no place was found for them. 00:09:07.879 --> 00:09:13.120 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:15.159 The books were opened. 00:09:15.159 --> 00:09:19.279 And another book was opened which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:22.879 was written in the books according to what they had done. 00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:29.600 And there is this ongoing and clear emphasis throughout God's Word of a day of judgment. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:37.159 And at the end of the Old Testament, at the end of this book, this minor prophecy that 00:09:37.159 --> 00:09:46.840 Malachi has written to the Old Testament people of God, we have this prophetic forward look 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:49.879 to God's purposes and God's plans. 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:54.879 So can I ask, what can we take explicitly from this chapter? 00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:57.600 What is this chapter saying to us today? 00:09:57.600 --> 00:09:59.600 What was it saying to its original readers? 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:01.559 And what is it saying to us? 00:10:01.559 --> 00:10:10.159 Well, the first thing that I want to mention, and I think this is very important for us 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:14.879 as we sit here this evening representing as it were the church. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:21.439 First thing I want to say, it was written to believers in Invericommas, okay, just imagine 00:10:21.439 --> 00:10:25.480 Invericommas, it was written to believers who didn't believe. 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:27.639 So we remember that, okay? 00:10:27.639 --> 00:10:35.320 So this wasn't God's message for the lost or an unbelieving world out there primarily. 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:39.799 It was written to the Old Testament church as it were, the Old Testament people of God. 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:41.559 And that's significant. 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:45.879 And we've seen that throughout this book, that this is a book that God's bringing a 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:51.059 message to that Old Testament church of His, Old Testament people of His who have drifted 00:10:51.059 --> 00:10:53.079 far away from Him. 00:10:53.079 --> 00:11:00.000 And there's this intercourse between them, this discussion between them. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:07.399 And God is exposing their kind of, you know, this title series for this is questions, because 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:12.279 there's lots of questions in this book that reflect the kind of things they were asking. 00:11:12.279 --> 00:11:14.319 They weren't, for the most time, they weren't great questions. 00:11:14.319 --> 00:11:15.319 They weren't good questions. 00:11:15.319 --> 00:11:20.360 They weren't, they were poor questions, because they were questions that exposed their rebellion 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:23.480 and their lack of understanding of God and their lack of faith. 00:11:23.480 --> 00:11:25.840 How have you loved us? 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:28.720 They said, how have we defiled you? 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:30.519 How have we wearied you? 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:32.399 Where is the God of justice? 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:34.919 How do we rob you? 00:11:34.919 --> 00:11:37.360 What have we said against you? 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:40.680 And these were the questions that come through the book again and again. 00:11:40.680 --> 00:11:47.360 These defensive questions, you know, where God is exposing their lack of love and following 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:48.440 of the living God. 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:50.960 And they're asking these questions, no, it's not like that. 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:51.960 We're religious. 00:11:51.960 --> 00:11:54.360 We're the people of God. 00:11:54.360 --> 00:11:56.720 We belong to a really significant culture. 00:11:56.720 --> 00:12:00.399 Of course, everything's all right for us. 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:06.879 And yet, their circumstances and their life didn't seem to be great as followers of God 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:08.960 and so they were blaming God. 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:11.159 And they thought it was a waste of time following God. 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:13.919 They didn't really understand Him or know Him. 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:18.879 Chapter 3 and verse 14, they basically say, it's vain to serve God. 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:19.879 It's futile. 00:12:19.879 --> 00:12:21.759 It's a waste of time. 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:24.519 Why in earth would we follow God? 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:32.159 And what we find in this book is that God's kind of exposing the fact that they're going 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:36.159 through the motions religiously, they're cold, unbelieving hearts. 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:38.279 They didn't really bother getting to know God. 00:12:38.279 --> 00:12:45.000 They were resting on their laurels and presuming that a few sacrifices they offered and a few 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.199 ritualistic religious things they did now and again, yeah, that will please God and 00:12:49.199 --> 00:12:50.199 will be fine. 00:12:50.199 --> 00:12:55.399 And God's saying, no, you've moved far from me. 00:12:55.399 --> 00:13:01.799 And so He brings this message of judgment, as it were, into their own circumstances first 00:13:01.799 --> 00:13:02.799 and foremost. 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:09.039 And I think that's important for us to remember in the New Testament, 1 Peter 4. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:13.120 Peter says, for it's time for judgment to begin at the household of God. 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:14.120 It begins with us. 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:18.000 Well, then shall be the outcome for those who do not be the gospel of God. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:22.719 And I think that's an important biblical truth is that when God shines His light and when 00:13:22.719 --> 00:13:28.879 God speaks, when God reveals, it's always first significant and relevant in our lives 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:34.240 as Christians before we want to push it out into the world in which we live. 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:41.559 It's significant that we find God's Word tests our own hearts and a self-examination of our 00:13:41.559 --> 00:13:47.919 lives go hand in hand with God speaking to us so that there's a sense of humility within 00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:57.759 us and a recognition that we should be distinctive followers of Jesus who love Him and who serve 00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:00.399 Him from our hearts. 00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:08.720 I think in chapter 3 and verse 18 it speaks about that, there once more shall they shall 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:12.200 see a distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God 00:14:12.200 --> 00:14:14.120 and the one who does not serve Him. 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:19.600 And in a sense, God is bringing this message to them to show them that their lives, their 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:26.159 hearts, their burning passions should set them apart as distinctive. 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:37.399 And should remind them that God first judges our own hearts and our own lives and drives 00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:40.439 us back to Him for grace and for favour. 00:14:40.439 --> 00:14:46.719 So it's important that we see and recognize that God sees the heart and as we worship 00:14:46.719 --> 00:14:54.319 this evening and as we worship in our lives, God sees our hearts. 00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:56.960 That's the really significant reality, isn't it? 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:02.920 That outward religion never saved anybody. 00:15:02.920 --> 00:15:05.360 And we can't simply be content with that. 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:12.879 And He uses His Word to remind us to examine our own hearts, to see where the trust, where 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:15.160 our trust lies. 00:15:15.159 --> 00:15:25.399 And not to be quick to ask ignorant questions of Him, faithless, cheap questions that are 00:15:25.399 --> 00:15:32.039 defensive and not willing to hear what He says about us in our lives. 00:15:32.039 --> 00:15:40.959 We in many ways as Christians are to be the hardest and most honest critiques of our own 00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:48.360 hearts because it helps us then to find the beauty of grace and forgiveness. 00:15:48.360 --> 00:15:51.960 So when we look at a passage like this which is written to the church, which is written 00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:57.440 to the Old Testament church, the question is always with regard to judgment. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:02.080 Well, am I a genuine believer? 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:07.440 And that's not, I'm not, you know, to ask that question to be scary, but simply to be 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:12.160 self-examining because there's plenty of evidence in the Bible, there's plenty of evidence 00:16:12.160 --> 00:16:17.080 of what the true believer is who bears fruit in the knowledge of Christ. 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:23.680 You know, the parable of the Sauron say Luke chapter 8 speaks about those who bore fruit 00:16:23.680 --> 00:16:25.800 and those who didn't. 00:16:25.800 --> 00:16:31.120 And those who didn't bear fruit, they heard the Word of God with their mind, but as soon 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:36.160 as they heard it, it was taken away from them because they didn't allow it to go deep into 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:37.559 their hearts. 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:40.879 And then there was others who did hear the Word of God and who enjoyed it, maybe emotionally 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:46.000 were touched by it, and it went down into their hearts a little bit. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:55.279 But they loved other things more than that, and the roots of the weeds of sin went deeper 00:16:55.279 --> 00:17:01.399 and so choked the Word and absolutely destroyed it in many ways. 00:17:01.399 --> 00:17:09.720 But the understanding of the gospel in people's hearts is when they hear and know the Word 00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:16.119 and are moved by that Word and allow it to penetrate deep into their hearts as we kind 00:17:16.119 --> 00:17:21.000 of looked at it a bit this morning to the point that it affects their will and their 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:25.079 lives and their obedience and they bear fruit. 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:27.400 And fruit bearing Christians is what we're to be. 00:17:27.400 --> 00:17:32.600 We're not all going to be the same, we're not all going to be as fruit bearing as the 00:17:32.600 --> 00:17:34.920 next person. 00:17:34.920 --> 00:17:38.960 Sometimes we'll not bear that much fruit, but we will bear the fruit of grace and of 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:41.240 the kingdom of God. 00:17:41.240 --> 00:17:47.280 So it's important for us, I think, in our lives to allow His loving gaze in our lives 00:17:47.280 --> 00:17:53.519 as Christians first to deal with ourselves as we think about the future judgment of God 00:17:53.519 --> 00:18:03.359 because you recognize that sometimes He brings testing in our lives and difficult times because 00:18:03.359 --> 00:18:12.119 He is getting rid of the stuff that keeps us from Him. 00:18:12.119 --> 00:18:20.920 You know, the testings and the trials that are spoken of in 1 Peter 1, so that on that 00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:27.840 great day our faith will be resting on the Lord Jesus Christ because we've come through 00:18:27.840 --> 00:18:30.320 these judgments and these difficulties. 00:18:30.320 --> 00:18:34.120 But remember what Jesus warns. 00:18:34.120 --> 00:18:39.600 Sorry, no, that's Matthew. 00:18:39.600 --> 00:18:42.120 I think, no, sorry, I didn't have that. 00:18:42.120 --> 00:18:43.120 Forget that. 00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:52.519 But in Matthew Jesus says to those who said, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, did we not do great 00:18:52.519 --> 00:18:53.639 things in Your name? 00:18:53.639 --> 00:18:56.239 Did we not cast out demons in Your name? 00:18:56.239 --> 00:18:58.919 And Jesus says, depart from me, I never knew You. 00:18:58.919 --> 00:19:01.759 Lord, Lord, I went to church twice on a Sunday. 00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:03.239 Lord, Lord, I read the Bible. 00:19:03.239 --> 00:19:04.959 Lord, Lord, I went to Sincere. 00:19:04.959 --> 00:19:08.399 I said, depart from me, I never knew You. 00:19:08.399 --> 00:19:12.359 So there's that sense in which the judgment that He speaks of here which was given to 00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:17.559 the people of the Old Testament to challenge them about their relationship with God is 00:19:17.559 --> 00:19:20.839 something that we must recognize and challenge ourselves about. 00:19:20.839 --> 00:19:25.599 So when we come to speak about the day of judgment, we should never be kind of rubbing 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:28.079 our hands as Christians saying, oh, that's great. 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:30.639 That's wherever we'll get our comeuppance and I'll be fine on that day. 00:19:30.639 --> 00:19:36.559 It's not the attitude that we should ever have to the teaching about the day of judgment. 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:43.279 It should always humble us and it should always make us examine our own lives and humbly return 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:46.879 to the fruit of the cross to where our hope and our future lies. 00:19:46.879 --> 00:19:49.519 So it's the first thing we want to say. 00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:53.480 The other thing, one of two things I want to say as well is that judgment has already 00:19:53.480 --> 00:19:54.480 begun. 00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:59.639 In John's Gospel, Jesus says, whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not 00:19:59.639 --> 00:20:03.440 believe is condemned already because he's not believed in the name of the only Son of 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:04.879 God. 00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:11.040 And there's a reality in which what is spoken of here as the day of the Lord, the day of 00:20:11.040 --> 00:20:17.400 judgment, has a future reference to the final day. 00:20:17.400 --> 00:20:26.000 But also it reminds us that this is a world that is under God's judgment. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:31.840 Romans 6 speaks about the wages of sin being death, so that there's already a judgment. 00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:38.799 The reality of death in this world is a reality of judgment, a separation from love and warmth 00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:43.240 and life and family and joy. 00:20:43.240 --> 00:20:49.399 We should never shrug our shoulders at death as if it's just a natural part of life. 00:20:49.399 --> 00:20:53.759 Spiritually, the Bible makes clear that the wages of sin is death, it's that separation 00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:54.759 from Him. 00:20:54.759 --> 00:21:00.720 So there's the reality of death, but there's also of course already in Jesus there is the 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:08.079 defeat of death, the highly significant reality that Christ has come and Christ has come to 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:14.319 defeat death, and that is part of His great atoning work. 00:21:14.319 --> 00:21:23.000 In this chapter it speaks of Elijah, here it says, behold, I will send you the prophet, 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:26.880 Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, he will turn the hearts 00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:30.680 of the fathers to their children, the hearts of the children to their fathers. 00:21:30.680 --> 00:21:38.039 Now we've already seen that, I think in our study in Matthew, when John the Baptist came, 00:21:38.039 --> 00:21:42.160 there was a link between John the Baptist coming and Elijah, he was going to be the kind 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:49.320 of second Elijah as it were, and that clearly could be a reference here to the coming of 00:21:49.320 --> 00:21:55.680 John the Baptist, but also it could speak of the transfiguration which is recorded in 00:21:55.680 --> 00:22:01.400 Matthew 17 where Jesus is transfigured on the mountain top in a remarkable way, and 00:22:01.400 --> 00:22:06.920 on either side of Him you've got Elijah and also Moses who's mentioned in the previous 00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:10.320 verse here, in verse 4. 00:22:10.320 --> 00:22:16.640 And it's as if the coming of Jesus fulfills everything that Moses speaks about and all 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:23.080 that Elijah was pointing forward to, because as we saw this morning, the center of history 00:22:23.079 --> 00:22:31.559 is the crucifixion, and that is the great work of God's judgment on sin. 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:38.359 Calvary is God's great victory over death and the grave and Satan, because it's there 00:22:38.359 --> 00:22:48.720 that he turns the eye of his perfect justice in judgment on himself, in the person of his 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:52.119 son for us. 00:22:52.119 --> 00:23:00.879 So that cataclysmic divine act of judgment is what is being prophesied here by Malachi, 00:23:00.879 --> 00:23:06.559 this great and awesome day of the Lord, at least in part, because it is a great day of 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:09.919 judgment, the crucifixion that's passed. 00:23:09.919 --> 00:23:17.000 The whole world goes into darkness for these three hours because it's such a deep act of 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:18.000 God's judgment. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:25.599 He does it because he takes the judgment that is our deserving. 00:23:25.599 --> 00:23:29.039 He takes the death that is due to us. 00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:37.440 So that act is as far as possible from being the incidental death of a Galilean, itirian 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:43.799 street preacher at the hands of an oppressive power, as it possibly can be. 00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:48.200 It's not just some random act that happened to be taken on board by the early disciples 00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:50.480 and made into something it wasn't. 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:55.440 This is the whole picture of Scripture from the beginning, right through the Old Testament, 00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:59.839 as it comes to the end of it here in Malachi, which speaks about the day of judgment and 00:23:59.839 --> 00:24:06.119 the day of the Lord and the coming of Elijah and the fulfilling of Moses' law. 00:24:06.119 --> 00:24:11.879 He gave himself into judgment on that day in our place and said before he died, it is 00:24:11.879 --> 00:24:13.519 finished. 00:24:13.519 --> 00:24:14.920 It's finished. 00:24:14.920 --> 00:24:17.440 Divine judgment is finished. 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:25.879 No judgment therefore left for any who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:24:25.879 --> 00:24:30.200 No judgment left for any who put their trust in Him. 00:24:30.200 --> 00:24:38.480 He drank the cup of God's judgment to its dregs, which we remembered this morning at 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:45.920 the Lord's Supper, enabling us as believers to begin to experience the healing and the 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:48.920 freedom that's spoken of in verse 2. 00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:53.759 But for you who fear My name, the Son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. 00:24:53.759 --> 00:24:58.480 You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:03.680 Healing and freedom is what's spoken of here. 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:09.240 So there's that sense in which the judgment of God has come, but also there's the reality 00:25:09.240 --> 00:25:13.000 biblically that this day of the Lord that's spoken, this awesome and great day of the Lord 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:20.279 that's spoken of here also has an ongoing future fulfillment. 00:25:20.279 --> 00:25:26.519 Not only is it fulfilled in Jesus, but it's fulfilled in Jesus' return, where death, 00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:32.000 ultimately Revelation 21 tells us will be destroyed forever. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:39.200 Death and hell, Satan, having been defeated once for all on the cross, will be destroyed 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:41.519 in that final judgment. 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:49.480 But that final judgment, therefore, as it's spoken of here, is a coin of two sides, if 00:25:49.480 --> 00:25:55.160 we can talk about it that way. 00:25:55.160 --> 00:25:58.279 And we must never forget that in the gospel message. 00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:04.119 It's kind of a coin of two sides. 00:26:04.119 --> 00:26:08.720 This chapter begins, behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:15.000 and all the evildoers will be stubble, that day is like the coming shall be, that day 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:18.920 that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that will leave them 00:26:18.920 --> 00:26:20.720 neither root nor branch. 00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:25.059 But for those who fear My name, the Son of righteousness, as we said, shall rise with 00:26:25.059 --> 00:26:27.000 healing in its wings. 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:32.960 And that moves on in a sense to speak of, or at least it refers to the fact that final 00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:40.440 judgment is a double-sided coin, and the gospel message illustrates that. 00:26:40.440 --> 00:26:43.119 Take the phrase that's used here, the Son of righteousness. 00:26:43.119 --> 00:26:50.599 Now if you notice it's spelled S-U-N, it's the sun over at the sun as in this case. 00:26:50.599 --> 00:26:57.399 But we have here's not what we would expect if it's speaking about Jesus which would be 00:26:57.399 --> 00:27:01.959 S-O-N, the Son of God, the Son of righteousness, because it's an illustration of who Jesus 00:27:01.959 --> 00:27:07.439 is, and it's an illustration of Jesus as the blazing sun. 00:27:07.439 --> 00:27:13.799 And that reminds us of the two sides of the coin of judgment. 00:27:13.799 --> 00:27:16.319 So what can I say? 00:27:16.319 --> 00:27:24.919 Rouge or beach, if we take two illustrations of the sun and the sky, you've got, for example, 00:27:24.919 --> 00:27:30.879 what's happening just now, the forest fires in Australia, and the great drought that has 00:27:30.879 --> 00:27:37.039 been caused, and the great destruction that's happening there, and the sun and the sky and 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:47.000 the drought that the sun is exacerbating make worse, is one outworking of that heat of the 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:48.720 sun and the sky. 00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:56.119 But then you go to a beach holiday, paradise, and it's beautiful and warm, and you're lying 00:27:56.119 --> 00:28:03.240 on sunbathing in that with the blue sky, and there's that healing and that beauty of the 00:28:03.240 --> 00:28:04.839 sun on our skin. 00:28:04.839 --> 00:28:13.559 And it's not a completely different perspective of the same reality in the sky, of the same 00:28:13.559 --> 00:28:16.359 object in the sky. 00:28:16.359 --> 00:28:21.839 And there's that reality also of that day of judgment with the Son of righteousness. 00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:28.679 It is spoken of a great and awesome day in verse 5, or a dreadful and great day. 00:28:28.680 --> 00:28:35.279 So there is a sense in which on that day there is a great sense of dread, because justice 00:28:35.279 --> 00:28:37.759 will be done on that day. 00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:46.480 Wrongdoing, not by our own understanding of the courts, of the land, but by the great 00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:54.039 size in heaven, the great heavenly court, all wrongdoing will be dealt with, all pride, 00:28:54.039 --> 00:28:59.319 as the spoken of here will be humbled, and as an ultimate role reversal for all who set 00:28:59.319 --> 00:29:00.639 themselves up against God. 00:29:00.639 --> 00:29:04.440 You don't need God, not interested in God, no time for God. 00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:10.279 God's a figment of the imagination, he's for just the unintelligent and the unscientific 00:29:10.279 --> 00:29:12.599 and the irrational. 00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:20.119 On that day, all those who set themselves up against God in power and significance will 00:29:20.119 --> 00:29:24.679 have to face that divine judgment. 00:29:24.679 --> 00:29:32.119 And so to be out of Christ is a dreadful reality. 00:29:32.119 --> 00:29:37.559 And we need to pray as believers both to examine our own hearts, but to have a great, passionate 00:29:37.559 --> 00:29:43.559 love and concern for mission and for the lost and for the gospel, because we were all in 00:29:43.559 --> 00:29:44.559 the same place. 00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:49.279 It's a dreadful day, but it's also a great day. 00:29:49.279 --> 00:29:56.720 It's a glorious day and an awesome day for those who have already returned to God and 00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:59.440 put their trust in Him. 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:03.799 There is healing in its wings, and we leap like calves from the stall. 00:30:03.799 --> 00:30:11.039 That's a picture of the calves that are born into the cold winter darkness in the shed. 00:30:11.039 --> 00:30:14.399 And then eventually when spring comes, they get released and they jump out and there's 00:30:14.399 --> 00:30:18.920 freedom and warmth and joy and happiness. 00:30:18.920 --> 00:30:25.039 And as we have returned to God and put our trust in Him, what we will recognize on that 00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:28.400 day is the judgment day has already been. 00:30:28.400 --> 00:30:35.680 It's already been for us, because our judgment was in Jesus Christ and He paid the price. 00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:39.920 And God is just, He will never punish twice. 00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:42.519 There will be ultimate healing and freedom. 00:30:42.519 --> 00:30:46.320 Yes, we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, but for those in Christ, it 00:30:46.320 --> 00:30:47.320 will be declarative. 00:30:47.319 --> 00:30:53.079 It will be declaring what we already know is ours in Christ, that we are redeemed by 00:30:53.079 --> 00:30:54.720 Him. 00:30:54.720 --> 00:31:02.240 And that great imagery of freedom and healing will not just be for ourselves as individuals, 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:05.720 it will be for this universe of which we are apart. 00:31:05.720 --> 00:31:11.439 It's a great environmental gospel, as well as a personal one, because God is saying there 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:17.559 will be a complete renewal of the environment in the new heavens and the new earth, complete 00:31:17.559 --> 00:31:18.559 restoration. 00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:21.840 And so in conclusion, how do we react? 00:31:21.840 --> 00:31:27.920 Well, I think one good way to react to this truth of the last day is to ask the one good 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:29.880 question that there is in this whole book. 00:31:29.880 --> 00:31:36.640 Remember we talked about it being a book of bad questions. 00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:42.800 There's a good question in verse 7 of chapter 3, but you say, how shall we return? 00:31:42.800 --> 00:31:46.080 That's the one good question in the book. 00:31:46.080 --> 00:31:49.759 And I think that's always a good question for us to ask. 00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:51.680 How can I get back to God? 00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:57.400 And the answer is always extremely simple, is that we just turn towards Him and ask for 00:31:57.400 --> 00:32:01.080 His forgiveness and His grace and His renewal. 00:32:01.080 --> 00:32:05.360 And ask, if you've never been a Christian, you ask to put your trust in Jesus Christ 00:32:05.359 --> 00:32:08.839 and understand and see what that means. 00:32:08.839 --> 00:32:15.240 Pray against the passive, complacent attitude that sometimes that we have. 00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:20.479 And pray just for a sharper and deeper understanding of the person of Christ, His justice, His 00:32:20.479 --> 00:32:25.439 work, and His great love for the lost. 00:32:25.439 --> 00:32:31.079 He came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 00:32:31.079 --> 00:32:35.919 And experience as we ask that question, the great picture of the prodigal Father with 00:32:35.919 --> 00:32:44.119 His arms open wide, who will take us and will continue to heal us and give us freedom. 00:32:44.119 --> 00:32:51.359 And then as well as that also, can we do what God asks His people to do here, were to be 00:32:51.359 --> 00:32:52.639 those who remember. 00:32:52.639 --> 00:33:00.079 And verse 4 of that chapter, remember the law of my servant Moses, the statues and rules. 00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:03.559 Remember God's perfect standard, that is the Ten Commandments. 00:33:03.559 --> 00:33:06.519 And what are the Ten Commandments? 00:33:06.519 --> 00:33:09.799 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, strengthen the mind, and love your 00:33:09.799 --> 00:33:11.159 neighbour as yourself. 00:33:11.159 --> 00:33:16.399 And remember that that is what Jesus came to do, because we can't do it in our own. 00:33:16.399 --> 00:33:21.759 We can't love God and we can't love others the way He wants us to, because we are spiritually 00:33:21.759 --> 00:33:23.599 dead without salvation. 00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:28.639 But that is the work of the gospel, turning the hearts of the fathers to their children 00:33:28.640 --> 00:33:32.720 and the hearts of the children to their fathers. 00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:37.720 The gospel is about bringing an estranged family back together, first with our heavenly 00:33:37.720 --> 00:33:43.400 Father and then with one another, that we live in unity together, reconciliation at every 00:33:43.400 --> 00:33:49.120 level, turning our hearts towards Him and turning our hearts towards one another. 00:33:49.120 --> 00:33:54.000 That was a great message, and it was a great message going into the New Testament, also 00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:59.319 where in the society and the generation where Jesus lived, children were insignificant and 00:33:59.319 --> 00:34:05.279 unimportant, and weren't cared for and weren't loved, and were aborted and were killed. 00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:10.480 And fathers particularly were poor at their task of being fathers. 00:34:10.480 --> 00:34:16.239 And there's this great sense in which God is saying, we will be completely counter-cultural 00:34:16.239 --> 00:34:25.919 in reconciling families together and healing brokenness that sin has caused. 00:34:25.919 --> 00:34:31.319 My niece was married a couple of summers ago up in Dornach, and I was part... participating 00:34:31.319 --> 00:34:32.319 in the wedding. 00:34:32.319 --> 00:34:39.159 But I wasn't doing the sermon, but one of the sermon bit was being done by my niece's 00:34:39.159 --> 00:34:44.319 brother-in-law who's a minister, Andy Robertson, some of you will know him, he's planting a 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:46.800 church in Charleston in Dundee. 00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:53.440 And the first thing he said when he stood up to speak to the newly married couple was 00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:57.800 statistically he said, the person standing next to you is the person most likely to kill 00:34:57.800 --> 00:34:59.519 you. 00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:05.240 So it wasn't what people were expecting to hear at a wedding, and obviously it was a 00:35:05.240 --> 00:35:07.519 kind of humanist comment. 00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:10.559 And I can't remember his point of... 00:35:10.559 --> 00:35:13.200 As usual, you can never remember the point. 00:35:13.199 --> 00:35:16.199 You can't remember the kind of the joke or whatever, but you can't remember what he 00:35:16.199 --> 00:35:17.199 was saying. 00:35:17.199 --> 00:35:20.879 But it's a right statistic. 00:35:20.879 --> 00:35:28.719 The reality is that sin often is most intensely felt in family first and in community and 00:35:28.719 --> 00:35:30.279 sometimes in church. 00:35:30.279 --> 00:35:34.719 And statistically, that's where most murders happen, I don't know what church, but certainly 00:35:34.719 --> 00:35:37.000 family at that level. 00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:42.480 And so the speaking of the fathers being reunited to their children. 00:35:42.480 --> 00:35:48.800 Was that... just that recognition of turning the effects of sin on its head and grace changing 00:35:48.800 --> 00:35:54.400 our families and changing our churches and changing our communities. 00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:57.760 Please remember that as we live our lives in the church. 00:35:57.760 --> 00:36:05.079 And please remember that for those who reject Jesus Christ, there is no hope whatsoever. 00:36:05.079 --> 00:36:11.639 There was utter destruction for the Old Testament people of God in the New Testament because 00:36:11.639 --> 00:36:16.759 they rejected Jesus. 00:36:16.759 --> 00:36:22.199 Destruction of their land, destruction of their temple and the destruction of their 00:36:22.199 --> 00:36:23.199 hope. 00:36:23.199 --> 00:36:26.719 But we believe and pray that He will bring His people home. 00:36:26.719 --> 00:36:32.279 And a brook like this, as it ends, should always bring us to our knees and give us a 00:36:32.279 --> 00:36:40.440 passion to pray for ourselves, to bear fruit and for our lost family and friends that they 00:36:40.440 --> 00:36:42.400 will come to know Jesus. 00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:43.400 Let's pray. 00:36:43.400 --> 00:36:47.840 Father, help us to know You and love You better. 00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:52.639 Help us to remember that Your salvation is an absolute gift, that we don't earn it, 00:36:52.639 --> 00:36:55.599 we can't make ourselves right before the great judgment seat. 00:36:55.599 --> 00:37:03.200 But that God in Christ took our place, was our substitute and lived the life we couldn't 00:37:03.200 --> 00:37:06.079 live yet, died the death that we deserve. 00:37:06.079 --> 00:37:09.760 Great gift, great hope. 00:37:09.760 --> 00:37:17.800 Great joy that we have when we know Him and know that judgment has been meted out on Himself 00:37:17.800 --> 00:37:18.800 as it were. 00:37:18.800 --> 00:37:24.480 He's born the punches Himself because of His great love for us and His great awareness 00:37:24.480 --> 00:37:29.680 that we couldn't put it right and we couldn't overcome death ourselves. 00:37:29.680 --> 00:37:35.520 So may we renew our trust tonight and may we have a greater and deeper passion for family 00:37:35.519 --> 00:37:40.079 and friends who don't know You and just that we would love them and that we would serve 00:37:40.079 --> 00:37:45.039 them and that we would share Jesus with them in a respectful and gentle way. 00:37:45.039 --> 00:38:05.880 Amen.