That is one of my favorite hymns. I like the imagery. We are in Malachi today, Malachi chapter four. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. So if you know where Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are, just turn left a little bit and you'll find it. Malachi chapter four, this last section here in Malachi, it ends where the very book of Malachi began. Malachi chapter one, verse one, says the oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi, the word oracle there, could also be translated the burden, the burden. This is Malachi's burden for his people and you see see that coming out very loud and clear. I think in this last chapter he is pleading with the people even though it might sound like a condemnation at first or it might have hints of a condemnation. It is being presented to them because he wants them to change. He wants to see Reformation come to the people of God. And so he concludes with a warning, not to fear, a warning not to bring about fear in them, but a warning that there is hope and encouragement to see them change and embrace the God whom they have kind of forgotten about. Let's read chapter four, verse one. For behold, the day is coming burning like an oven when all the arrogant and all evil doers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing and swings. You should go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and the rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. That is the Lord's word for us this morning. Let's pray again. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your word. For your word brings life to those who have ears to hear. Lord, we pray that we would have ears to hear this morning. We pray that the truth of your word would be implanted deep within our hearts, deep within our minds, deep within our souls, that it would well up into everlasting life, that it would be a stream of living water. And so we pray, Lord, that your spirit would be active this morning, piercing us deeply where we need it, but also healing us and assuring us of Your grace and of Your love and of Your mercy. Lord, we pray that Your Word, which stands forever true, would bring to us the hope of eternal life. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. I came across a story this week about a frog that went to see a fortune teller. This frog showed up, took its seat, and the fortune teller began to peer into its crystal ball. And the fortune teller said to the frog, you are going to meet a beautiful young lady. And from the moment she gazes upon you, she is going to have this insatiable desire to know all about you. She will be compelled to get close to you. And she's going to examine you closely and delight in what she sees. And so the frog's mind is just on cloud nine at this point. And he says, well, where am I going to meet her? Will it be at the singles club? Will it be down at the beach, down at the local pond? And the fortune teller looks at the frog and says, no, it'll be in biology class. There's something about the future that amazes us, isn't there? I had the privilege of leading a Koinonia group at Cortlandt School, a group of seventh graders. And our last meeting, right before school was out, I asked them this question. I said, what's next? I said, well, they're seventh graders, and so they gave me an answer. What are they going to do over the summer? They talked about the trips they're going to go on. And I said, OK, well, after the summer, what's next for you? I said, we're going into eighth grade. We're going to go on our eighth grade trip, just like Cortland went on. And they began to list all the things they were going to look forward to doing in eighth grade. And so I said, well, what's next after that? I said, high school. And we're going to go and have all sorts of fun things to do in high school. We're going to go to the prom. We're going to get our driver's licenses. We may even have our first kiss. I said, well, what's next? After all of that, what comes next? And they said, well, we'll probably go to college. I said, well, what about after that? What's next? We'll get married. We'll get a job. Maybe have some kids. Okay. What's next? They really couldn't think anything beyond that. I was a little bit surprised some of them actually were able to get that far in life. But I got to questioning them. Trying to get them to think about their future. What's in your future? Right? What's next for you? What's next in your life? Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11 says, God has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into the heart of man. There's a certain curiosity that we have about what's gonna come after death. What's going to happen to us after we die? So I'll ask you, are you making plans for your future? Are you making plans for eternity? Surprisingly, maybe not surprisingly, A lot of people that don't really think about eternity. Yeah, it's out there. Yeah, there will be something after I die. But the idea of making plans for the future, well, that just kind of misses them somehow. And there are consequences in the here and now. If we're not thinking about the life to come, it's going to shape The way we look at life now. If we're not thinking about eternal life, eternal destinies, we won't be using wisdom to make decisions now. Instead, what will be our driving force, our guiding force, will be our hungers, will be our desires, it'll be our lusts, our greeds. Those will be the things that'll be directing us and compelling us. in this life. See, where there's an absence of consideration for the future, all that is left is the now. And at some point, if all you have is the now, the moment you're living in, without any hope for something in the future, well, life now can look pretty dull. It can get pretty drab. You know, I think of the people that we minister in the nursing home. I think about that. What do they have to look forward to? If they don't have eternal life, well, their life now is what? Almost meaningless? Of course, people don't like to think about their life as being meaningless, right? We want to have some purpose in life, some meaning in life. And so people will try to do away with this staleness, right? They're gonna try to fill their life with something to give it meaning, to give it purpose, or at least something that'll take away that dreariness, that staleness of a meaningless existence. Now we see a lot of people going to church these days, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But we see a lot of people going to church, and they're going to church and they're choosing churches in order to satisfy or to erase that dryness, that staleness. They go to church to have a good time. They go to church because it makes them feel good. They go to church because it's exciting and it's safe. But what happens when your purpose for going to church is the experience of church itself? What happens when such experiences no longer create that emotional high? Well, there's a reason why I think the back door of many churches is just as wide as the front door. Of course, people, when they get burned out on church or when they've never been exposed to the promises, perhaps, that church bring, one of the things other people do is they will look for adventure in life, right? They'll look for things in life that'll take away the dullness. Red Bull was sued not too long ago for false advertising. If you remember the logo or the jingle, the phrase, they said, Red Bull will give you wings. They were sued for false advertising because people were not getting the emotional experience that they thought they were going to get. It turns out it only affects you about like a cup of coffee does. And yet, it's interesting how Red Bull has created this sort of a subculture, right? Look at all the extreme sports that Red Bull promotes, right? And it sponsors people doing all sorts of incredible athletic-y things, right? The whole concept of thrill-seeking, right? Red Bull is right there with them. By the way, I'm not putting Red Bull down. I usually have one every Monday night before my soccer game. But what makes life interesting? What makes life pleasurable, desirable? What affects the choices that we make in life? Why do we go this way instead of that way, right? What affects us in the way we do things? In large measure, I think, what should be directing us is our future, preparing for what is to come. And this is where Malachi is taking his people in his day. There are people that are kind of wandering aimlessly through life. We looked at the whole issue of depression last week, right? Of how these people now thought it was just vain, worthless to try to serve God. It wasn't giving them what they wanted. And so here is Malachi reminding them that the purpose, the meaning of life that you're looking for, it is coming. It's to be found in the day of the Lord. This is what the day of the Lord gives us. The day of the Lord gives us a philosophy of the future. It tells us what to think about the life that is to come, and because of the life that is to come, we can make wise decisions about the life we are living now. If you take away the future, what do you have left? All you have left is the moment and the shallowness of it and the hollowness of it and the hopelessness of it. Right, without hope of a future, change doesn't happen. So Malachi, in working for the reformation of the people of God, he offers them the hope of a future. He offers them a future that is bright, that is good, that is delightful to them. And he expects that such a view of the future would shape who they are in the present. Now, if you had the assurance that tomorrow, right, the afflictions that you're under, that they would be taken away, if you had the assurance, the absolute, infallible assurance that your life tomorrow would be perfect, would that affect the way you live your life today? I'm confident that it would. If we could live with a foot in heaven, I think our life on earth would be radically different. You've heard the expression, he is so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good. I think that's completely wrong. The more heavenly minded we are, the more heaven we bring to earth now. But I think part of the reason people don't make changes in their life today is because all they have is sort of an intellectual concept of the future. I know I should stop doing X, Y, and Z because it's bad for me. I know that if I keep going down this road, it's going to end in disaster for me. And yet, how often do people keep going down that road? Or on the other side, they'll think, oh, I should do this, A, B, and C, because this is good for me. I should start making these plans. And yet, do people really start changing and doing it? No. Oftentimes, our concept of the future is only intellectual. We need something that is infallible, something that is absolute upon which we can stake our futures. We need something that will account for the entirety of our being, for all our desires, all our wants, all our likes, all our dislikes, all our purposes, all our thought processes, all our motivations. We need something in which the totality of our life can be affected upon and staked upon. We need a future that is full of hope. And this is what the day of the Lord is to be. It's our future. We need to consider it. If we're to change today, we need to know about our future. That's where the day of the Lord brings us. That's where Malachi is bringing these people. This is Malachi's final address to them. And so he takes God's people and he places before them the great day of the Lord, a future that is so big, so expansive that includes everything in life. He places it before them. And he says, embrace it. because it'll change the way they live. So what do we know about this day of the Lord? Well, Malachi explains it to them. He explains it to us as well. The first thing Malachi does in explaining to them is he explains the events of the day. He explains kind of what's going to happen on that great day of the Lord, but he does so in terms of what you are going to experience. Our day of the Lord, or this day of the Lord, isn't just something that's going to happen intellectually, conceptually. It isn't just something that's going to happen, we're going to be able to watch it from afar. We're going to be involved in this. It's going to affect us. It will be an experience that we will partake in. And it's going to be an experience in one of two ways. First, he says that the day of the Lord will be a day of burning. The day is coming, verse one, burning like an oven when all the arrogant and all the evil doers will be stubble. That day is coming that shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them with neither root nor branch. Some pretty powerful imagery, isn't it? When you begin to think about fire consuming and what's left when fire consumes something, but ashes. For those who are evil, for those who live life without a reverence to God, without a reverence for Christ, they should expect that one day they will fall under the wrath of God. They should expect that the day of the Lord will mean an experience of terror. for them. Now the language that he uses here is meant to recall the way Israel took over the Promised Land. If you remember, when Israel crossed the Jordan and they went in, they began to conquer the land, God instructed them to devote all the inhabitants of the land. He instructed them, devote them to the band. Destroy them, utterly destroy them. Remove any evidence of their existence. Wipe them out completely. Men, women, children, livestock. Destroy it all. Leave no evidence that they were here. In Amos chapter 2 verse 9, God recalls his wrath. And he says, Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorites before them, the Amorites, whose height was high like the cedars and were as strong as oaks. God says, I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from below. You know, a tree with roots and a tree with branches, right? You look outside and see them all. They're alive, right? They are a picture of what it means to live. There's a response in them to the nature, right? They're growing towards the sun and their roots are out searching for nutrients. There's life in a tree that has root and branches. But if the roots are burned up and if the branches are burned up, the only conclusion is that the tree is now dead, right? It has no ability to respond anymore. It just eventually disappears. It's what God did to the Amorites. They ceased to be a people. They were wiped off the face of the earth. And this is what God is promising is going to happen to the evildoer. They're going to fall under his judgment, under his wrath. And it won't be a temporary wrath. It won't be a temporal wrath. It'll be an eternal wrath, right? The fires of hell. Will never be quenched. This is what God promises to the evil doer, even if they belong to the visible people of God. Turning your Bibles over to Matthew chapter 13. Just a couple of pages to the right, Matthew chapter 13. Verse 47, Jesus is speaking. He's telling a parable here. Says again, the kingdom of heaven is light. So talking about those who are a part of the visible kingdom of God, the visible people of God are like. a net that is thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. And when it is full, men drew it ashore and they sat down and they sorted the good into containers, the bad they threw away. And so it will be at the end of the age, the angels will come out and they will separate the evil from the righteous and they will throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For some people, the day of the Lord will be that experience. They will experience the terror of God. They will experience God's wrath. But there's another side to this coin, isn't there? The day of the Lord also will offer an experience that is the exact opposite. Verse two back in Malachi chapter four. But for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings and you shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. Can you picture it? Can you picture that? Right? The ranch hand comes to the barn and he throws open the gate and the calves that were inside during the night where they were secluded, where they were protected from the predators of the night, now that morning's here, they go jumping out to enjoy the sunrise. They go jumping and leaping in the fields. What joy they have when they are free from the predators. Turn over to Revelation chapter 21, Revelation 21 being the last book, you know, in the Bible. Revelation 21 begins with this, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first earth and the first heaven had passed away and the sea was no more. Right. So it's talking about the world that is to come. What's going to happen to the believer after Christ comes again? Verse three. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man and he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God What God promised to to Israel to to Abraham is now being perfectly realized after the return of Christ and he says this and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and Death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." What great imagery! How would you like to live there now? God, bring that world here! Get rid of the pain, get rid of the sorrow, get rid of the mourning. Lord, wipe away my tears now. This is the healing that Malachi is saying is going to come to some of these people, to the people that don't experience the wrath of God. The only alternative for them to experience is the pleasure of God, the delight of the Father. Instead of being afraid and cowering, there is peace. Instead of there being hatred, there is love. Blessed are those who mourn. Why? Because they shall be comforted. We get that in part now in heaven, that'll be perfect. There's a promise that God gave in Isaiah chapter 63 verse 1 says God will grant to those who mourn in Zion He will give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes the oil of gladness instead of mourning he will give them the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit and they will be called oaks of righteousness the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified and Quite a different experience, isn't it, from the wrath and the terror? And who will get to experience this bright side? Malachi tells us, it's those who fear or those who reverence God's name. It's those who are in awe of God. who humbly submit and declare that He is worthy of glory and honor and praise. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. There's a connection there in the Lord's Prayer between those who call God Father and those who hallow His name or revere His name. People who know God as Father are the ones who are going to revere Him and honor Him. Those who don't know God as Father, well, they're not gonna honor Him and revere Him. So, if you were to summarize Malachi's opening words here, verses 1 to 3, I think you'd say this, those who fear God will experience the joy of the Lord on the day of the Lord. Those who do not fear God will experience the terror of the Lord on the day of the Lord. Do you see the contrast? That's the future that is to come. Joy or judgment, one or the other. And so it's from this starting place, from considering this future, now that Malachi takes his people back into the day, back into their present-day lives, takes us back into the present. And so in light of what is to come, joy or judgment, you need to prepare now for the day of the Lord. And so the second thing Malachi does, he explains how it is that we prepare for the day of the Lord. In order to prepare for the day of the Lord, Malachi says, remember the law. Malachi, that's awkward, right? Malachi, that's odd. Why don't you tell us to remember all about God's great acts of deliverance? Malachi, why don't you tell us to remember all of God's promises? Malachi, why do you remind us of God's law? What is it about God's law that is gonna make us prepare for the future? Well, I think there are two reasons here. First of all, remembering the law will remind us who God is. Remembering the law will remind us of the character of God. Ecclesiastes 12.13 says, the end of the matter is this, all has been heard, fear God and keep his commandments. Why? because this is the whole duty of man. What God expects of us is to fear God and keep His commandments. This is what God created us to do. God created us to obey Him, to fear Him, to reverence Him, to worship Him. It's what Adam and Eve did in the garden. Even when they walked with Him in the cool of the evening, there was still a raw awe and a reverence for God. And the law explained what that looked like. You want to know how to worship God? Well, we can go back into the Old Testament and we can find all sorts of principles on how we are to worship Him. You know, sometimes we fall into this thinking that the law is only an arbitrary list of rules. but it's only a list of do's and don'ts. You can do this, this, and this, but you can't do this, this, and this. We can sometimes think of the law in an abstract way. Take, for example, the fourth commandment. Six days you shall labor, and on the seventh day you should rest, because the day is holy. Sometimes we think that that's just a pattern for society. Well, guess what? It's not. The reason God gave us a seventh day was so that we could enjoy Him, right? So the law God gave to us was meant for our good so that we would be able to constantly, weekly, together as God's people, enter into His presence. God's law is not just a list of do's and don'ts, God's law is a revelation of who He is. Another example, the second commandment, thou shalt not make any graven images, right? You guys remember that? Don't make any idols. Now, why did God forbid the making of idols? You know, if we step back and we simply use our human reasoning, we might think that's absurd. If you want to remember something, what do you do? Tie a string around your finger, right? If you want to honor somebody, if you want to honor our fallen troops, you take a ribbon, you make a yellow ribbon, you hang it up, right? You remember that from Desert Storm. We use reminders as a very practical way to guide our thinking. And so, thinking rationally, you can think, well, if I need to be reminded of God, well, I need things to remind me of Him. And God says, no. Don't do that. There isn't to be idols. You're not to make images of Him. And there's a reason for that. Because in our fallenness, if we make idols representations of God, those representations of God are gonna fall short of who God is. Those representations are going to distort the image of God. And what'll end up happening is we will take pride in our idols. We will take pride in our handiwork. And we will begin to cherish those things more than what they perhaps were originally intended to represent. And what happens is our idols then become a snare. They become a means of deception to us. And we begin to see God in light of the idol and not in light of his revelation of himself. So if you take this second commandment, don't make any graven images. Know what it's really about? It's about God eliminating his competition. God doesn't want to compete. He is a jealous God. He doesn't want to compete for the affections of your heart. He wants your heart to belong solely and completely to Him. And if you have idols, guess what? Your heart is in competition. It is divided. God wants his people all to himself. Would a husband share his wife with other men? Of course not, that'd be absurd, right? That's even offensive to think about. So why would God be any different? That's the purpose of the second commandment. In fact, you take all of God's laws, you can do that with all of them. You can see that all of God's laws are about our relationship with Him. They're about keeping our relationship with Him right and good and just. You remember how Jesus summarized the law? In fact, turn over there, Matthew chapter 22. Matthew 22, Jesus was asked, what is the greatest commandment? We see here in verse 37, Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and the first commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. So if you're going to prepare for eternity in the presence of God, what better way to do it than by conforming yourself to the law that God has given, to the expectation that God has given, to the standard that God has given of what is acceptable to Him. Right? See, now is the time to learn how to love God. Remember Jesus' words, if you love me, you'll do what? You'll keep my commandments. So Malachi says, remember the law, because the law will teach you how to love. That's the first point. The second reason to remember God's law is this. God's law reminds us that God has provided a provision for us when we fail. The law reminds us of why we are to love Him. Not only how, but also why. Throughout the book of Leviticus, there are all kinds of laws and regulations for God's people. Some of them are very odd to our ears today. But if you're reading through the book of Leviticus, one of the things you're going to see is you're going to see attached to all these laws, you'll see the sacrifices that are required if you're to break them. If you do this, well, here is the price you have to pay. Here's what you have to do. Here's the sacrifice you have to offer. You know, we tend to think of sacrifices as a duty or as a performance. that will make up for our violations. We often think of sacrifice in terms of penance. I did something bad, now I have to make up for it by giving something to God, by doing something good, by obeying and offering this sacrifice. You can look at the Roman Catholic Church as an example of this today. Think of their practice of penance. Right? Depending on what sins you committed, you may have to offer so many Hail Marys, right? That was not God's intention for the sacrificial system. The purpose of sacrificing bulls and goats was not to merit God's people righteousness, but rather it was to teach them the principle of substitution. Instead of the violator suffering because of his sin, instead of him bearing the penalty, a substitute could take his place and bear the penalty for his actions. And of course, provided it was a substitute that God approved. If you look in the New Testament, especially the book of Hebrews, what is Hebrews all about? It's all about making the connection between the Old Testament and Jesus Christ. And so in Hebrews 10, verse 4, it says, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Think about that for a moment. How many perhaps billions of goats and bulls and doves were killed in the Old Testament in those 1,000 years of the temple? A huge amount of blood was shed and yet not a single sin was forgiven because of those sacrifices. So why do it? The hardness of man's heart. We need a constant reminder, don't we? That we need a substitute that can actually effectively take our sins so that we don't have to. Because the blood of bulls and goats, they never paid for our sins. And so Hebrews 10 verse 5, consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, right? God didn't desire all the blood of bulls and goats. He said, but a body you have prepared for me. And then a few verses down, it says, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So Malachi says, remember the law. Malachi is not only reminding them of who God is, but he is reminding them of God's grace, of God's promise to provide a provision for them when they failed to live up to what he expected of them. He is reminding them that God is going to provide that perfect substitute who will indeed take away their sins. I think of John the Baptist when he sees Jesus coming to him that first time. He says, behold, the Lamb of God who does what? He takes away the sins of the world. This is why God's covenant with Moses was not a covenant of works. It was a covenant of grace. And so here we find our motivation for obedience, isn't it? God is the only master who will not be satisfied with heartless obedience. God will not accept heartless obedience. God will not accept a divided heart. If you don't love God, you can't obey God. So how is it then that we can rightly love God? Well, 1st John tells us, in this is love. Not that we loved Him, but that He first, what, loved us. Even in our sinful estate, He first loved us and sent His Son, sent Christ to be a propitiation for us and for our sins. You know, God hates sin. It infuriates Him. God cannot dwell with sin. God cannot permit sin into His presence, as it were, into His holy presence. Hence, the wrath that is promised upon those who don't fear Him, right? Because God is just. He hates sin. It ought to be clear as well that the sacrifice of bulls and goats never satisfied God's anger towards sin. However, we see that Christ died once for all. He's not called down to the communion table every week as the Catholics teach. Christ is not offered over and over and over and over again to pay for our sins. He was offered once because that's all it took to pay for our sins. And to those on whom the death of Christ is applied, they are never again going to fall under the wrath and the terror of God. It's not that God won't discipline. In fact, we know he disciplines those whom he loves. But his wrath, his curse, will never fall on them. That's the power of the substitute. That was the purpose of the sacrificial system. That's what Malachi is calling to mind when he says, remember the law. Remember the standard. Remember how far you have fallen short. Remember that if you don't have a substitute, well, the wages of your sin will be that. And so Malachi, in order to prepare for the day of the Lord, he reminds God's people, he reminds them of the character of God and reminds them of God's grace. So if you are going to live in light of eternity. You need to know God's law. You need to know what God expects of you. You need to know where you have fallen short. You need to know what the consequences of your sin are. And you need to know that there is a substitute. Now here's the third thing that Malachi does. He explains the ministry of grace that takes place before the day of the Lord. God promises his people, I will send Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. This is grace. God was under no obligation to send his prophets to his people. They were guilty of breaking their covenant agreement. God could have, at any point, just simply brought down the judgment that they deserved. And instead, He sends a prophet, a minister of grace to them. Now, who is this Elijah? Well, of course, Elijah was the prophet, but Malachi is not looking backwards. He's looking forward. And so we have, in the New Testament, we have Christ referring to John the Baptist. as Elijah, as the one who was going to come before Jesus and warn them and proclaim to them what they needed to know. And what did John the Baptist preach? He said, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. John the Baptist preached repentance. If we are to live in light of eternity, in light of the wonders of heaven that are to then we have to live our life now in light of repentance. And I know this is hard, but listen to this truth. The more we repent, the more we will change. The more we repent now, the more we will change in this life. Those who don't repent are those who don't change. There's a connection between them. Repentance. leads to change. Repentance prepares us for the day of the Lord. Repentance prepares us for our eternal destiny. Malachi, as I said, is the last word in the Old Testament. After Malachi, there's almost 400 years of silence, probably closer to 380 years of silence, right? God doesn't give any new revelation during that time. He's given them his word. He's given him in types and shadows. He's given them the Old Testament sacrificial system, the temple. He has given them truth. And then God is kind of silent for 400 years. And what did the people of Israel do when Jesus finally shows up? all this truth that should have been brewing and boiling up within them to create this expectation of the perfect substitute. What should have been happening, we discover wasn't happening because when Jesus shows up, they don't see him as the lamb of God. They see him as an imposter, a counterfeit, and they crucify him. They say to God, well, God, we don't need you. We don't need your righteousness. We're good enough by ourselves. And the very warning that is found here, the last word of the Old Testament, it becomes true of the visible people of God, of covenant Israel. He devotes them to utter destruction because they did not heed Malachi's word. They did not see their future in the day of the Lord and they were destroyed. You know, God has been silent in a similar fashion for the last 2,000 years in the sense that he has delivered a completed message. He's not giving us new revelation. Everything that we need to know is found here and is found in Christ without exception. Everything is there. And so we find ourselves in the same place today that Israel found themselves in Malachi's day. And so we have to ask ourselves the question, what's next for us? What is your philosophy of the future? What is it that you are looking forward to? Are you looking forward to the day of Christ, to the day of the Lord, to the coming of Jesus Christ? then you ought to be preparing for it. Back in 1903, the president of Michigan Savings Bank warned Henry Ford's lawyer, Horace Rackham. He warned him, you need to protect your money. Don't invest your money with Henry Ford and these automobile thingies. That's just a fad. It's gonna pass. Guy by the name of Lee DeForest. In 1926, he invented the cathode ray tube. Here's what he said about it. He said, theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility, a development which we should waste little time dreaming about. Thomas J. Watson, 1943, Chairman of the Board of IBM. Said, I think there is a world market for about five computers. That's it. Steve Jobs went to Hewlett-Packard looking for a job. And Hewlett-Packard rejected him. Said, we don't need you. You haven't got enough college yet. Lots of people have been very wrong about the future. Covenant Israel was wrong about the future because they did not contemplate the day of the Lord. They didn't consider it. They didn't prepare for it. The day of the Lord is coming. That's the future. That is your future. One day you will have to stand before God and give an account. Now is the time to prepare. Remember the law. Oh, and remember Christ, the Savior of those who fail. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank You for Malachi's grace. We thank You for the words that You gave to him, that he gave to Your people and that he gave to us. We thank You, Lord, that in them is truth. In them is hope for the future. that one day we will be able to enjoy you fully and completely without the hindrances of our sin and our brokenness. Lord, may we have our eyes set on our eternal home. May we long for such a place so that we will prepare for it now. Lord, grant to us a heart of repentance that we can change that we can stop loving sin and start loving You more and more. Sanctify us, we pray, in Your truth. In Christ's name, amen.