Scripture text tonight is from Malachi. Malachi, starting at chapter 3, verse 13, and we'll read to the end of the book of Malachi. And as you're turning there, I just wanted to say that if you're confused about why I keep jumping around in the Bible when I preach, It's because I was assigned to preach on various parts of the Bible as part of my internship. So if you think that I've basically just chosen blindly random passages every night that have nothing to do with each other, kind of correct, but also It's a good exercise for me. So thank you for bearing with these passage selections, and let's read now from Malachi, Malachi chapter three, starting at verse 13. Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord, but you say, how have we spoken against you? You have said, it is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in morning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evil doers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape. Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers 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 sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall 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 rules that I commanded him at Horeb before 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. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would work mightily in your word to encourage us and admonish us as Christians. May we see Christ more clearly and love you more deeply through the Spirit. In Christ's name, amen. So we had a small garden in our backyard as I was growing up in the Atlanta suburbs. And there we would grow all different kinds of vegetables, tomatoes, and bitter melon, and other Chinese stuff. I remember that my dad and my grandmother would work very hard to keep the garden going. I was useless in that regards. But early on, when we first started growing the garden, we didn't have much experience growing in America. And once the vegetables and the fruit got ripe, the deer and the squirrels and the rabbits got to it before we got to it. And of course, when that happens, you feel like all of the work that you put in for many months was futile. You just fed the rabbits in your neighborhood, and you probably don't need more rabbits in your neighborhood. Now, sometimes our Christian life feels the same way. We work very hard many times, but then there's no fruit. And then we ask ourselves, Did we serve the Lord in vain? And perhaps this is the question that every new generation of believers has to answer for themselves. Why do we serve the Lord and is it all for nothing? And that was the complaint of many of the Israelites in Malachi's day. But our passage tonight shows us that we do not obey God in vain. Our passage shows us two reasons why. Firstly, because God will ultimately judge the wicked. And secondly, because he has already reconciled the righteous. Firstly, because he will ultimately judge the wicked. And secondly, because he has already reconciled the righteous. But before we jump into these two reasons, let's first take a closer look at the complaint of the Israelites. So just a small little background on the book of Malachi. Malachi is composed as a series of accusations from the Lord to Israel. The Lord accuses Israel about something and the Lord kind of says what Israel is thinking in their hearts and then accuses them once more. We see that in this last accusation of the Lord to Israel starting in verse 13 of chapter 3, and it goes until the end of Malachi. Verse 13 says, your words have been hard against me. That's the accusation. And then the Lord says, but you say, how have we spoken against you? And then the Lord says, you have said, it is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? Now this is quite, quite a bad accusation. They're saying it's vain and empty to serve the Lord. They're saying that there's no profit, there's no gain, there's no reward for keeping God's charge. Their hearts have become unconvinced in the merit of serving the Lord. And not only that, but they go on to say, from now on, they will call the arrogant blessed. From now on, they're gonna call good evil and evil good. That's not a good thing. They actively start opposing God, but why do they do all these things? Why do they decide today is the day I'm going to think that it's futile? Well, because they look around and they see that evildoers are prospering. They test God and they get away with it. Of course, the Israelites likely aren't saying this out loud. They're saying it in their hearts. They were, in a sense, a passive-aggressive people. They were a people who said in their hearts, you know, I'm not gonna really obey God. I'm not gonna think that it's good to obey God. But on the outside, they looked kind of okay. We all know kind of what this is like, right? One day you're fine, and then the next day you start to frown, start to be unhappy, and someone notices it because you're kind of off. They're like, what's wrong? You're like, oh, nothing's wrong. I'm just fine. What do you mean? Well, the Israelites' hearts are like that. They've slowly turned against the Lord. They've become passive aggressive, but they won't say it. And perhaps the best antidote to passive-aggressive behavior is communication, is talking about it. And so instead of ignoring the problem, because the Israelites won't bring it up, Malachi, and God through Malachi, brings it up to the people. We need to talk about it, even if it's painful. And so the Lord confronts the Israelites, and some of the people actually respond with repentance. the only time in the book of Malachi that we see some form of response of repentance of the people of Israel. They speak with one another and the Lord sees that and now the Lord responds to their complaint and gives them two reasons why that serving the Lord is not in vain. So let's take a look at the first reason, that the Lord will judge the wicked and deliver the righteous. So why do we not serve the Lord in vain? He's gonna judge the wicked and deliver the righteous. But if it is true that you are concerned about the problem of evil and why evildoers are sometimes rewarded in this life, the Lord wants to assure you that he will make a distinction. He will make a distinction between the wicked and the good. But who are the evildoers? Perhaps we, like the Israelites, want to think of evildoers as people who are not like us. People who don't support our political party or the evil authoritarian governments of the world. Those are the evildoers of the world. And God is gonna make a distinction between those people and the good people, the people that are like us. But notice that God says the distinction is gonna be between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him. Or chapter four, verse two, it is for you who fear my name. God makes a distinction between those who fear God and serve God and those who don't fear God and don't serve God. The ultimate distinction in the world is not between those who support your hot-button political issue and those who don't, or those who agree with your economic policy and those who don't, or those who agree with your theological nuances or your parenting philosophy. Ultimately, God looks into our own hearts. And God wants you to see that he's going to make the ultimate distinction between those who serve him and those who don't serve him. You can get all of the right things, like choose the right theological stance and support the right economic policy and the right political issue, but you cannot fear the Lord. Or the other way around, you might get wrong some of the things of this world, but you fear the Lord. Think about the Apostle Peter. He compromised on the issue of circumcision. Remember that? And in Galatians, we see that Paul had to confront him and remind him that what truly he should be holding in terms of circumcision. But Peter didn't lose the faith when he held to that position, right? You can serve the Lord, but get some things wrong. And you cannot serve the Lord, but get everything right, in a sense. So the question that Malachi and God poses is the same question that Joshua posed. Whom will you serve? Will you serve God? Or will you not serve God? Will you fear the Lord, or will you not Fear the Lord. For the righteous, for those who fear the Lord, the Lord has good news and only good news. Look at verse 16. The Lord will write your good deeds in his book of remembrance. He will remember you on the last day. It's like the book of life in Revelation. He'll see your name written in the book of life. He will spare you on the day of judgment because he is your loving father. And then chapter 4 verse 2 says that the sun of righteousness will rise upon those who fear God. God the judge will arise like the sun and judge the world. But for the righteous, it will be a time of healing. It will be a time of rejoicing. God says that we will be like calves leaping from the stall. Now, if you don't know what that means, a stall is where cows are confined during the winter. And so when the springtime comes, the calves are let out. And of course, they're really happy to not be confined in a small little stall. So they leap around and run around. If you haven't seen it, you can go look up a video of it later. It's pretty amazing. Or if that metaphor doesn't really work with you, how about a young child who finally gets to go outside after the COVID-19 pandemic? Or a dog who's really excited that their owner came back from a long trip? This is an image of rejoicing, of joy, of happiness. the Lord will bring joy, healing, redemption to his people on the last day. But the hope that the Lord provides us here is not only that those who fear him will be redeemed, but also that those who don't fear him will be judged. The son of righteousness that brings healing to the righteous will be the fire that consumes the arrogant and evildoers into stubble. And the leaping calves of the righteous will also be trampling down the wicked under their feet. Revelation 14 shows a similar image. Evildoers are being trampled over as grapes of wrath in the winepress of God's wrath. Now perhaps this image of God's wrath doesn't sit well with us modern people. We wonder, how can anyone feel any hope when they see this image? But I want to remind you that there are many Christians in different parts of the world that see and experience active evil against them, day by day, against their churches. They're persecuted, put under intense pressure, They are threatened with their lives, and they cry out to the Lord day and night. How long, O Lord? For those Christians, what a great hope it is that justice will be rendered, that evildoers will be punished at the end. But at the same time, this image of God's wrath should sober us. Because the ultimate distinction between good and evil is between those who fear the Lord and those who don't fear the Lord. We can do many good things, and the Lord can say, I never knew you. Because salvation is not by works, but by faith. And so this image of God's wrath must make us feel for our friends and our family, our neighbors, and those far away, those who don't know Christ. We should not sit complacently and say, come again, Jesus, and don't remember the fact that when Jesus comes, he's judging the wicked. We should seek to evangelize to our friends and neighbors before Christ comes. And we were reminded, helpfully reminded by this, this morning, Dr. Curry's message to recover our hearts for Christ's cause. We must have a zeal and a passion to preach Christ because Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead. But in response to this complaint of the Israelites, God gives the ultimate hope of justice and vindication, but he also gives us something for right now. Because the Israelites were probably asking, okay, cool, this stuff is happening in the future, but what are we supposed to do now? Just supposed to sit here and wait and wait and wait? And our third point, in the last three verses of the book of Malachi, we see that God gives us a hope before the last day. God gives us a hope for right now. Remember that Malachi is prophesying after the exile. The people of Israel were redeemed from Babylon. But when they came back to Jerusalem, there was no return of a Davidic king. that God promised. There was no return of the Lord's presence when they finalized the building of the temple. And they were told to wait longer for the Messiah. But what about now, Lord? In this period of waiting, Malachi says first in verse four that the Israelites needs to remember the law of Moses. And really this whole book of Malachi is really about how God's people have forsaken the covenant of Moses. So Malachi calls them back to their relationship with God as they wait for the coming redemption. But the second thing Malachi wants them to know is that God will send Elijah before the great and awesome day. And Elijah will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. This is an image of reconciliation. People will live in harmony with each other. Generational divides will be bridged. But it's not just a horizontal reconciliation that Elijah brings. There's a vertical role. He will not only bridge generational divides among humans, but also reconcile us to God so that God does not completely and utterly destroy the land. And the word for utter destruction here is the same word that's used in Deuteronomy and Joshua to talk about the decree of destruction against the pagan nations that the Israelites were conquering. So this is a redemption from something complete and utter. Yet Elijah will bring reconciliation so that God won't do that. Malachi says to Israel in their waiting, remember Moses, await Elijah. But when you turn to the New Testament, we see that it's fulfilled. Luke chapter one, an angel appears to Elizabeth and says her son, John, will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. and disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. John the baptizer preached a gospel of repentance and made ready for God a people for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ himself said, Elijah does come. and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. And when Christ said this, he was talking about John the baptizer. John's baptism was a symbol of restoration, of a new beginning for Israel. However, I think all of us John included, I feel like there's something a little off about how John the Baptizer fulfilled this prophecy. Perhaps this is why John didn't want to be called Elijah. So that one passage in the gospels that we read earlier in the service, we see John the baptizer, he's sending some of his people to Jesus, just to double check he got the right guy. John did all of his stuff, he prepared a people for God, for Jesus, but where's the restoration of Israel? Where's the fulfillment of Malachi 4? Where's the judgment upon the wicked? How did Jesus respond? Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, leopards are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me. When Christ came, he came as a son of righteousness, with healing in his wings. The blind, the lame, the lepers were healed. The poor have good news, but he did not bring the final judgment. For the Old Testament prophets like Malachi, they saw one future day of the Lord. The righteous will be delivered. The wicked will be judged. But when Christ came, he brought redemption and said that the final justice upon the world was still to come. Instead, what did Christ do? He went to the cross and suffered the ultimate justice and punishment for us. The wrath of God for the sins of the people. And in his death, perhaps many of his disciples thought the same thing that the Israelites thought. Well, we followed Christ in vain. And Paul himself acknowledges the same thing, that if Christ stayed in the grave, our faith would be in vain. But what happened? Christ rose from the dead. Christ accomplished the ultimate redemption by triumphing over sin and death. Christ's resurrection shows us that our faith is not in vain. Jesus Christ has accomplished the redemption of his people. So in some sense, it is true we are like the people in Malachi's day. We look around and we see evildoers getting away with what they do. We await the last day. We awake the work of the Lord and the judgment of the wicked. But we have hope because Christ has come. Elijah has come. and pointed to Christ. So instead of Malachi saying, remember Moses, await Elijah, Christ tells us, remember what I did for you. Remember Christ and his new covenant. And because of Christ's resurrection, we know our faith is not in vain, because Christ has accomplished our redemption. And so now when we see evil prospering, we are also reminded of 2 Peter 3, which reminds us that the Lord has not come to judge the world yet, not because he just feels like waiting, not because he wants us to suffer more, but because the Lord is patient. The Lord is still applying his work of redemption. The Holy Spirit is still bringing God's sheep into his fold. And so if you have not accepted Christ, God still calls you today to accept him as your Savior. You can escape the judgment of the world by believing in Christ and his work on the cross for your salvation. And for those of us that have accepted Christ, do fear the Lord and remember Christ and his work for you. Be assured that your service to the Lord is not in vain because he has already accomplished your redemption and he will ultimately vindicate you on the last day. Amen, let's pray. We thank you, our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you have sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to take our punishment so that we may have the blessing of eternal life. We thank you for the hope of heaven and the last day, and we pray that you would help us to believe in Christ's name, to remember Christ's work for us. We pray this in Jesus Christ's name, amen.