Now Malachi, you wonder why it's mixed up on chapters. Well, there's some versions or older translations that doesn't even have a chapter four. It just all flows together and closes out the book that way. But it's taking stock, coming to conclusions. And at some point while living, we all tend to take stock of our life and come to some conclusions, which is not necessarily a bad thing unless The conclusions we come to are based on faulty evidence or flawed reasoning. Then the conclusions drawn are completely irrational. And on top of that, we're incapable of seeing through it. We've decided that our take is right because we have proved it by our measuring standard. We have drawn conclusions based on our own criteria. It's like the scientists who wanted to prove that cockroaches' ears are located in their legs. In front of all his colleagues, he placed a cockroach on the table and then clapped, causing the cockroach to run away. He recaptures the cockroach, rips off a leg, repeats the experience, claps, the cockroach runs away. He continues to do this one leg at a time until finally he places a legless cockroach on the table, claps loudly, and the cockroach remains dead. seated or stationary. He turns to his colleague and states confidently, you see, the cockroach's ears are in its legs. Without legs, it has no ears. It is deaf, and that's why it does not run away anymore when I clap. I say that not because I'm a big fan of cockroaches or insect stories, but I want you to see how easy it is to come to faulty conclusion built upon flawed reasoning based on a ridiculous proof of one's own construction. Because as we conclude Malachi, we're going to see different actors on the stage. We're going to see skeptics. We're going to see the reverent. We're going to see the Almighty coming to conclusions. But sadly, many of those conclusions are based on faulty evidence and flawed reasoning. We begin by hearing from the skeptics. That's verse 13. God throughout this whole book, Malachi, if you remember, his name means messenger, and he has been that messenger. He has not woven his life into the story. As some of the prophets you read, you'll see their life and their emotions. Malachi has been the voice for God speaking. And God has spoken directly to the nation of Israel this whole time. And so here again, God is speaking to him. If you remember last week, he was addressing how harsh their words were to him. with an admonition and a promised punishment. And yet now we come to 13, and God is repeating some of those things, and we're seeing how hard-hearted the people are. Verse 13, "'Your words have been stout against me,' saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?' And you see them push back. We're not saying anything against you. God says, And now we call, that's the skeptics, we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up. Yea, they that tempt God are even delivered." And what we have here are the skeptics, but I want you to understand who and how they look. These are the outwardly religious people. These are the churchgoers. And their conclusion is this, God owes me something. God owes me something. If I serve, obey, and care about God, he had better give me what I want in return." They had a mercenary spirit about worshiping God, and it exposed an uncommitted, and I put in parentheses, an unregenerate heart. So they'd spoken harshly against God. Though when confronted with it, they say we're innocent. I haven't spoken against God. I've done nothing to be hard against him. But it's from just such a heart that we hear these types of conclusions. There is, and I have three of them to look at, no point in serving God. Their conclusion, looking at their situation as they draw, it is vain to serve God. Serving God is a waste of time based on the conclusions that they are drawing from their situation. There's no point to serve God. How many believers today, if you look around there, their life testifies to the fact that they think there's no point in serving God because there is, and they go on, no profit in obeying God's commands. What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance? Where is our gain? We obey God and God does not give us what we want. Their conclusion is that obedience does not matter because it does not result in my demands being met. Ultimately, they come to the conclusion that there is no purpose in caring about God's holiness. They start with this idea that it doesn't matter if you serve God because if you obey God, there's no profit in it. And the final conclusion is there's no purpose in caring about God's holiness. It says they had walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts. There's your question mark. There's no point to serve, there's no gain in serving, and I don't see any point in caring about God's holiness. See, they had outwardly shown grief for sin, but why do that if God doesn't do what you want? I've shown God that I care about sin. I've pretended, I've had the pretense. I don't know if you've had this with kids, how often they pretend to be sorry when they're caught in something. They cry about the harm that they've done. They promise to never do it again. Why do they say all those words? to avoid the consequences. And they seem so sincere. And sometimes his parents were duped, or maybe most times his parents were duped, I don't know. And the second they're off the hook, there is no more grief and there's no remorse. Why? Because all the remorse and all the grief was for show. It was to avoid a consequence. And what you see in the nation of Israel are children who have shown God a remorseful, we've walked mournfully, we've walked around and the image we give to everyone is that we are sorry about sin, but when it doesn't go the way we want, all of our sorrow disappears because there is no real remorse. These people are upset because God has not bought into their act. We have shown you outwardly, God, that we are pious and religious and we care about sin and you have not responded the way we want. What is their conclusion? There's no point caring about sin and the fact that sin is an affront against a holy God. What is their takeaway? What is the conclusion? What is the inventory that they draw? They're going to say, what are we going to move from here? They're saying this. It's a waste of time to serve God. And then they go beyond that to mock God and His promise of blessing for the righteous. Let me read 15 again. Now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up. They're fine, they're established, there's nothing coming to mess with the wicked, yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. You go against God, you put a trial against God, you're fine, there's no point to it all. What they're saying is this, God is powerless. He's a paper tiger, so to speak, and the proud and wicked can do whatever they want. God can't do anything. God doesn't do anything. Why serve this God? And these strong words are spoken against God with an arrogant implication that it should be the new definition of the God of Israel. They're not just saying this as the outskirts of society screaming against God because they've had a bad circumstance. This is a core group of people saying we should no longer define God as all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving. We should never define God that way anymore. He is a powerless God. He is a weak deity. They're literally just throwing it all in. And what's interesting is they turn their accusations against God into their beliefs about God. We accuse God of not acting for us, and now we're going to say that God is defined as a God of no action. We accuse God of not moving powerfully in our situation, and so therefore God is a God of no power. Their new religion was a mocking rejection of God. they've redefined Him. I put here as a question, are we guilty of that today? Do we give God half-hearted, manipulative worship, expecting things to change for us, and when they don't, turn against God, accusing Him of being powerless and a promoter of wickedness? Because that's what they're doing. We look good. I'm going to go back to the church grower illustration. We show up to worship. We sign up for meals. We do everything we're supposed to do, and yet God doesn't move. We come to church and pretend to be passionate for him. We pretend to be worshiping him. But in the end, we don't get what we want. God doesn't do things my way. God hasn't moved. And if you're wondering if their situation was tough, it was. Persia ruled. There's droughts, there's struggles, and their response to their circumstance is God is powerless. I know people that respond with, God hasn't come through for me. And these blasphemous words and thoughts are dangerous both for the one deceived by them and for the potential corruption they can bring in the hearts of God's children. You may not know that or think that thought, but someone articulates that thought and you start hearing that God is powerless, but God is not powerless. That God is not loving, but God is loving. That God lets the wicked get away with whatever they want to do, but God doesn't let the wicked get away with whatever they want to do. And it starts corrupting our own thinking. There's a danger of drawing wrong conclusions from faulty evidence and flawed reasoning. It's crucial in that instance to draw near to God to see everything from His perspective. See, they're not looking at life the right way. They have a faulty heart and they've thrown a test to God that is their own test. It doesn't come the way they want and they're incapable now of seeing truth. They've blinded themselves. What do you do to buffer against that? How do we defend that? And that's when we draw near to God to see things from His perspective. And that's exactly what we see from the reverend here, verses 16 and 17. It's an interesting two verses right here because up till now, we have a nation of Israel that is completely pushing back against God every instance. There's seven where-ins or how, depending on the translation. Well, there's six where-ins and one what in 13. But this how, when God confronts Israel, they've always said, how, whatever, where-in, prove your point, God. So they've pushed back against God in a very belligerent way. And in our mind, we would probably be seeing people, we say, well, the whole nation is this way. Everyone acts this way. And 16 and 17 are actually, I think, ray of hope. This is to show you there's a remnant, and I call the reverent here, 16, then they that feared the Lord. And I want you to remember the judgment God put in Malachi 3, not 315, but 3-5. He lists a whole bunch of judgments against a whole bunch of different types of people that's all summarized by people who do not fear God. Now he's looking at people who do. Then they that feared 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. Just in case you're wondering how to define these people, they feared the Lord. God wants you to see what's critical there. And that thought upon his name, And then 17 is the promise concerning them. So as he says, I'm going to spare them, he makes sure he understands in what emotion is he going to spare them, in what context. Not, well, the poor sap over there, we'll let him get off the hook this time. It's like it's your own child, and that's how you're going to spare him. And really, you can almost use the word rescue, because you're not just going to spare your own kid, you're going to rescue your own child. This is the reverend. Here we find people, and here's an interesting concept, talking about God. How do you draw near to God? Well, you're going to be dialoguing about him. They're conversing together about trusting in the Lord, a conversation which strengthens them in real truth and godliness. The world is out there throwing their world. This is post-exilic Israel. This is the churchgoers. This is the people that you're around all the time. And their statements are, God is powerless. God is unloving. God loves and condones wickedness. You can do anything against God. It doesn't matter. And they're getting together to talk about God in a way that strengthens them in what is real truth and godliness. They're stating by word and action that they will point to the glory of God. Where one side says, I don't think there's any point in serving God, they're saying that we will live life so that we point to the glory of God, and that's your two times stated fear the Lord, and they feared the Lord. This manifests the right perspective of God, the right conclusion about Him, which culminates in righteous, obedient living for Him. If you fear the Lord, you don't fear the Lord and then live a life that is adamantly against the Lord. That's ridiculous. If you truly fear the Lord, it will produce in you a response of obedient, righteous living for Him. As they honored, revered, and respected God, it bore fruit in how they lived their life. Not the show of religion, we have that from the other people. They're outwardly mournful. That means they didn't just say sorry for their sins, they put on sackcloth, they threw dirt in the air, they made themselves all up to be sorrowful. This is a heart change. In the practical side of life, their fear of God bore fruit in direct contrast to those being judged in Malachi 3.5 that did not fear the Lord. Their lives lived within God's commands as He has directed, and so they pointed to the glory of God. Now this decision to fear God, and again to honor, revere, and respect Him, this action to gather and speak of Him causes them to do something, and that's to think on His name, to ponder the magnitude of God. They thought upon his name. This is not saying, I thought the name. I put Jesus in my mind. I put God in my mind. It's thinking about the implications of who he is. They thought on the magnitude or pondered the magnitude of God. It means you esteem his name. You give it high regard. You are focusing your attention on the greatness of God. We see a name, we think just one word, they write name, they mean his whole being. I'm gonna think on God, who he is, what that means for my life, how it changes what I do. This thinking then shaped who they were. It pointed to something, to the value that God was in their minds, that their relationship with God was their most prized possession. And here's what's interesting, that commitment changed and shaped their behavior. That behavior then brought glory to the Lord. And it's very simple, but also profound. As they feared the Lord, honor, revered, and respected Him, it would change how they lived in a practical way. Then they spent energy, desired energy, pondering the magnitude of God, who God is, We're going to celebrate communion after the service and we're going to ponder what God has done for us. It is to result then in us seeing the greatness of God and changes who we are and how we behave. That change in behavior is then what brings glory to our Savior because it all comes full circle. As they feared the Lord and respected Him, as they thought on the magnitude of who He was, then their behavior changed and their life points to the one that they have elevated and magnified. What is the takeaway? This is what's amazing. Verse 17, they shall be mine, saith the Lord. It's not some bold, bombastic statement from these believers. It's actually a very bold promise from their Savior. Their truly committed heart was rewarded because it matters to God, and His promise is this, to spare them as a man spareth his own son. As one author noted, it's God tenderly keeps before Him those that truly reverence Him and think on His name. They not only escape judgment, but in addition are delivered as His dearly loved children, because it does matter eternally if you worship and serve God. This is him rewarding what the other group of people said was a waste of time. It's a waste of time to worship and serve God. There's no profit in serving God. There's no reward because he's a weak God. He's not a God equipped to save us. And those that feared and reverence his name now live a life that says he is an all powerful God. He is able to save and we reverence and respect him. And God's promise is it matters eternally if you worship and serve me. But would we be counted among the reverend? Or maybe the better question is this, do you think, which means esteem, hold in high regard, his name? So we're all sitting here, most of us are gonna say, I wanna be counted with the reverend. I'm definitely not with the skeptics, I'm with the reverend. But do you think on him? Do you take time to ponder his greatness? And I mean, do you stop what you're doing in your day, not when it's convenient to you, but, and notice these people gather together to talk about Him, this is their passion and desire, do you take time to ponder His greatness? And then, and does that thinking shape who you are? Because there's movement here, you can't just pick, well, I got together in a Bible study, so we talked about God, we're good to go now. But does that talking about God change who you are? Does that thinking shape who you are? And does who you are glorify God? You want to be a part of the reverend? Then your life glorifies God. That's what being a part of the reverend is. It's not an affirmation that you're part of the reverend. It's in what your life points to because in the end, the reverend draw a conclusion. Their life will point to glorify God and that it's worthwhile to ponder the magnitude of God. See, the charge from the majority of Israel was that who you are before God does not matter. And by the way, who you are before God is the all of your existence. Because you can dupe all of us here without any trouble. Most of us can sell ourselves well enough to say we look holy, we look righteous, we talk a good game, we get involved in just the right amount of things. we give might be to excess, might be to extra, whatever it is. We can do anything we want to dupe everyone here into seeing us a certain way. But the people that were the skeptics were basically saying, I don't think it matters who you are before God. They're saying it doesn't make a difference how you look to God, and God sees the personal life and the thoughts and the heart, and they're saying it doesn't matter. That God doesn't act against wickedness. They questioned his discernment of right and wrong. God addresses that question in verse 18. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. Now God is coming back around. He's talked about His judgment in Malachi 3.5. He's brought these skeptics to a conclusion, what would be His mercy as He confronts them. Their response is more hard words saying, you're a paper tiger, you're a fake deity, you're no stronger than anyone else. Now God says, you say it doesn't matter that you serve me, I'm saying it does matter. that you serve me. You say I don't do anything. I say I will do and have done." The skeptics accuse God of not distinguishing, and God said He most certainly will and does. You see, the skeptics have ignored Psalm 73, and I don't have time to go all the way to it. I encourage you to read it. It's a song of Asap. He's writing as he wrestles with the point of serving God. And for half of it, he's saying all these statements about the wicked that they get. And back then being fat meant you were rich and luxurious. And so I lived at the wrong time is what I always say. But either way, they are wealthy, they're rich, they get away with murder, basically. And he says he can't see the point in serving God. But Psalm 73 doesn't end there. he comes to a conclusion as he comes into the house of God, as he's confronted with God. So he's sharing his heart. He completely changes. He says, I see that the wicked are sliding into damnation. They're sliding into punishment. Their doom is written for them. So what he couldn't see before as he watched someone live and die, seemingly without any pain, he recognizes after getting near God, that that person had not lived without any consequences, but had lived with the worst of consequences. They have that psalm. This is not something they don't have. So this is a scripture that they should know and they haven't applied it. This topic has been addressed already by somebody and it's in their scriptures, their Bible. They've ignored that. They've ignored that the wicked are headed to eternal destruction But here's what's interesting. These skeptics do not have the final word. Malachi closes his discourse with the direct word from the Almighty. And this is chapter 4, 1 through 6. And you're going to see God pronounce judgment. You're going to see God give some practical advice on how we should live until the end time. And you're going to see God predict again how the end is going to unfold. It says, for behold, which that word is saying, pay attention. The day cometh, and that's the day of the Lord, the day of judgment, it's coming is what he says, that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, Jay, 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, which by the way covers the whole tree. 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. That's animals that are well taken care of. 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. Verse four, the practical side. Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments. Now his prediction again of the future. 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 the curse. And by the way, in the Hebrew Bible, they repeat verse five again because they do not want scripture to end with a curse. but God ends it with a curse or a statement of a curse on purpose and we'll talk a little bit about that. Genesis is the fall of man and we have the curse and it's reminded that there's still a curse pressing in here. Malachi though concludes his burden. He gives the prognosis from God, verses 1 through 3. As one writer notes, it is the eschatological day of God's visitation that brings both disaster and deliverance for Israel and the nations. By the way, it's the same day for both the wicked and righteous, but with a completely different effect. On the wicked it is a burning, but on the righteous it is a healing. He begins by addressing the wicked. Verse 1, God makes it clear, which we mentioned, that the wicked will be completely destroyed. It shall leave them neither root nor branch. There's nothing left. There's no stump to grow more branches off of. It's not going to come back to life. He's burned the tree from the top all the way through the roots to where there's nothing left. As Feinberg notes, the intensity of the heat sets forth the greatness of the wrath of God. Is God bothered by wickedness? And this verse says he's bothered so much he's going to destroy it from the top all the way into the ground. All of their supposed arguments and evidences against God will immediately be annihilated in the face of His righteous justice. But those implication of God coming, right? That's Him coming, the day cometh, His day. And when He arrives, the wicked face this complete burning oven, intense heat. But the implications are completely different for the righteous, verses two and three. He comes as the son of righteousness now. The implication is of healing. There'll be healing instead of burning. As God comes in burning wrath upon the wicked, he comes in healing warmth to the righteous. He links to the sun, which is intense heat, but without the sun, nothing's going to grow, right? He's reminding them of the two effects that will happen. They will be free to enjoy God's ultimate goodness as a calf who is well cared for by its master, a calf of the stall. It's not wild scrounging around for its own grub or needs. It is a well cared for animal. And they will participate, verse three, in the defeat over wickedness. When you look at the world today, what do you often see? The wicked triumphing over righteousness. I read about one organization, they talk about pastors in Muslim countries, and we always hear the drastic tales, right, of people who are murdered for their faith, but there's such a level of persecution that falls in that medium range where I read about a pastor who gets beaten daily in a Muslim village because he's a Christian pastor. And he continues to serve. And there's no way that that pastor doesn't read about wickedness being put under the feet and realize that at that point it is all completely changed. Where wickedness may seem to triumph in our day, where we look out and say, wow, our country is going down the tubes. It's full of wickedness. And we see what's being pushed. And if you take a minute to breathe and not be overly political, you can watch the morality of our nation just has tanked. The things we're arguing about are just utter ridiculousness that they're promoting, that they want everyone to accept. You see, wickedness seems to triumph, but at some point, ye shall tread down the wicked, he says. They'll be under the soles of your feet. That's a very poignant way to show defeat, right? When you're underneath, when the head of your enemy is under your foot, it's over for them. They're not fighting without a sword, they're done, it's finished. And then God follows that promised change, the punishment and the reward by giving practical guidance on living here and now. What do they need to do now? What should you do as we look forward to what God is gonna unfold? And here you get a prescribed practice from God that's verse four, remember, Remember the law of Moses. Now, the word in Hebrew, remember, that's used here. And actually, if you look through most of the Old Testament, the word for remember is always a word of action. It's not just a memorialization of it. It's not just, oh, I remember that time in history. You remember that time in history? We've read about that time in history and we think of it as a fact to regurgitate, to impress our friends in a trivia question game. That's not the type of remembering that needs to take place. This is not a call to memorialize the past, but instead a call to act upon the knowledge by fulfilling the will of God. When he says, remember the law of Moses, he's saying in a very simple way, obey my law. Do my commandments. What do you do? When you're not treading the wicked down yet, when you're looking at that circumstance, remember God. Remember His laws. Do exactly what we saw in verse 16. Fear the Lord, gathering together, pondering His magnitude, a life that is righteous living. So in other words, when he writes to the reverend about what they need to do, they keep doing what they've been doing. Fear the Lord, spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened. And it says, in that thought upon His name, that's what they're doing. Obey God's law and his commands. And then he closes with a prediction from God, verses five through six. We mentioned this last week when you're reading an Old Testament prophet and you're looking at prophecy, they saw the first and second coming back to back. They didn't necessarily see the space in between that's there. But you can see woven into these predictions, these prophecies, what's taking place and what's there. Elijah would come before this day with the intent of converting the heart. Yes, it does have a double implication because John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah before the first coming. But what we see here is Elijah who will be coming in his person before the second coming. He's coming himself. The point is this, he's coming to turn the heart, which implies repentance from sin and towards God. He's gonna switch, we're turning, we're changing direction. Why? Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. And let's be honest, the curse entered this world in Genesis. We see Adam and Eve and we see sin and it's coming in and God in Genesis 3 unfolds the curse and in that moment promises a redeemer, Genesis 3, 15. Malachi ends the Old Testament scripture, and what he's saying is that curse still threatens. That curse is still real, but he's pointing to the one who bore that curse for us on the cross. He became a curse for us. There's a curse coming, and we need someone to turn the heart. There's repentance necessary, and it's only by turning to him and him alone that we can be freed from the curse. So God on purpose ends Scripture right where He needs it in the Old Testament. They don't want a curse, they switch the order of the verses. God says, remember that there is a curse. Here's the reality, the world can doubt God, they can mock God, they can pretend that they are in control. We live in a world that has that. They want to control faith, control religion, control what you think, tell you to think a certain way. They can attempt to do that and pretend to do that. But all of that will never change the truth that God reigns and He rules. The wicked will be punished and His children will be rewarded. Malachi made sure that it was clearly communicated to post-exilic Israel and to us. Here's the question. Are we paying attention? They weren't. But are we paying attention? Do we recognize the reality of God's authority? That He has the right to dictate, that that is the answer? When the apostles are preaching in Acts, and the Sanhedrin says, we told you not to do it, they say, we have to obey God rather than man. They understood the implication of God's authority that He dictates. Do we understand the reality of His holiness? And do we understand the reality of His justifiable judgment? So many people look through the Old Testament and say, God is so judgmental. God is so jealous. God is so harsh. God is so tough. But they're arguing against God's righteousness and God's right to rule and God's justifiable judgment. I put as that kind of closing question for this portion, do we take God seriously? Because that's what he's ending with. Wake up, he's saying, the day comes. I'm not kidding about wickedness and I'm not kidding about righteousness. As we close, I want to ask yourself, what conclusions do you come to? When you take stock of life, what evidence do you rely upon and whose reasoning? And that's a real question because our tendency, our natural movement is to see things from our experience. How have I experienced something? And then I reason within myself on what I'm going to say. But we're supposed to see things God's way and use His reasoning. What evidence are you using and whose reasoning? Do you think like the skeptic, seeing God as powerless and living for Him as a waste of time? Or do you think like the reverent, seeing God as He says He is, trusting Him completely and truly valuing Him above everything else? Because that is the kind of underlying component of fearing God. It's not the sense of trembling, it's a sense of value. Where is He on your scale? And the reality is, He should be the only thing on the scale. The fact is, we need to be listening to the warning and words of the Almighty. The day cometh, that is a fact, but when it does, will you be burned as stubble in the field or healed by the Son of righteousness? Let's pray together. Father, I thank You for this opportunity we have to gather together to study Your Word. As we close out Malachi, Convict our hearts. If we find in our hearts and our reasoning a skeptical view of you, if we're turning to you and saying, you haven't acted, you haven't moved, you haven't done what I've said, I hope that we can be convicted that we are sounding skeptical. That instead of taking you at your word and how you have described yourself and shown yourself to us, we're instead grabbing our faulty experiments. and saying, I see God this way because of how things have unfolded in my life. But we need to see you your way and how you have shown us. Give us your perspective and convict our hearts to fear you, to value you above anything else. In your precious and holy name, amen.