We're looking at Malachi chapter 4 and verses 4, 5, and 6. And we will actually read those here in just a moment. By no means tonight am I going to try and re-preach all the series of messages that we have preached on the book of Malachi. And this has been an enjoyable study, not only to listen to, but to be a part of. And I trust that you feel the same way tonight. But I do want to do a little review and try to capsulize some things in this book. The first part of chapter 1, in essence, God says, you know, hey, I have loved you, but where is your love for Me? And actually what the people in the land of Judah had done is they had accused God of not loving them. Unless we get too harsh on them. It is possible to slip, maybe even momentarily, into a place where you wonder, does God really love me? And can I answer that question tonight? He does. He does. Even when we do wrong, God loves us. God's not pleased with that, but God loves us nonetheless. God's love for us never changes. But the people of Judah struggled with that. They accused God of not loving them. They dishonored God. in their worship. They were really disgruntled and grumbling about their service to God. They had a begrudging attitude about it. Even the spiritual leadership, as we look back in chapter 2, instead of leading people toward God, the spiritual leadership of the day, they were actually detracting from God. They were leading people away from God in the manner in which they worshiped God and otherwise. There were many in Judah who had divorced their wives. They had married foreign, ungodly, wicked wives against God's commands. There were many who had questioned the justice of God. They looked at wicked people They in their minds, they said, hey, God is not judging these wicked people. And they thought more highly of themselves than they ever should have. But in their mind, they're thinking, hey, we're trying to live for God. And they really weren't. But we're trying to do right. And they really weren't. And where's the justice of God on these people? And that's really as we look at that section, I brought out, you know, the The old adage and really out of the Sermon on the Mount of, you know, looking at the speck in someone else's eye when you've got a beam in your own eye and you've got difficulties that you need to look within about. A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Gleiser looked at the section where they were withholding the tithe from God. They were withholding what rightfully belonged to God. And then the section last week that the pastor dealt with was really reiterating some of the same things. They were still struggling with looking at wicked people and wondering, hey, where is the justice and judgment of God? We come to this section tonight. And let's read verses 4, 5 and 6 of chapter 4. And keep in mind as you read this, these are God's last words in the Old Testament. Remember ye the law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments. 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 a curse." In my Bible and maybe in your Bible, this is not inspired, but just down below that it says the end of the prophets. For 400 years, God spoke no more. And the last word that he spoke through Malachi was the word curse. I don't know about you, but that's probably not the way I would have ended the book. You know, I think we would have preferred it probably to be on a little bit more upbeat type of ending, although there's not a whole lot in Malachi that we could probably say is really upbeat. It's pretty straightforward, in-your-face kind of preaching, if you will. But it's probably not the way we would have ended it. But it's interesting to me that God's last words in the Old Testament, and He was silent for 400 years, Exactly. Upbeat and positive. Yet, I think there is much we can glean from this. I've entitled our study tonight, God's Last Words. God's Last Words. You know, I think the last words of people are often significant. I just typed in yesterday, I thought I'd just see how this goes. I typed in the internet, did a search of the last words of famous people. I just give you a sampling of what I came up with. Some of these you'll be very familiar with. I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. That was Nathan Hale. Nathan Hale, 1776, at least attributed to Nathan Hale. This one's interesting. Remember, these are last words of people that they spoke on this earth. How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden? P.T. Barnum, 1891. A bit revealing, isn't it? An actress that I'm not familiar with, I'm sure many of you are, Joan Crawford, 1977, says, Don't you dare ask God to help me. This was directed towards her housekeeper who began to pray for her. Robert F. Kennedy, is everyone else alright? Harry Houdini, I'm tired of fighting. I guess this thing is going to get me. He had a ruptured appendix. Our President William McKinley in 1901 said, goodbye, goodbye all. It's God's way, His will, not ours be done. Those are good last words. And then many of us will remember just these two words on September 11, 2001, Let's Roll, by Todd Beamer, who was on United Flight 93. Last words of people, at least recorded words, on this earth. Sometimes I think last words such as these are well thought out. Sometimes they're very spontaneous. Nonetheless, I think they're very revealing. They reveal character. They reveal priorities. And I think more often than not, they're significant in what they tell us about people. As we approach this section tonight, I think it's significant to approach it with these are God's last words in the Old Testament. And I'll say it again, so you kind of get the context here tonight. And He did not speak again in an official capacity, we might say, for 400 years. 400 years is a long time, folks, that God remained silent. And these were His last words. In stating God's last words, I want us to look at a couple of things here tonight. First off, God declares the importance of obeying His Word. God declares the importance of obeying His Word. He comes down to the end of this book, And He says through Malachi to the people of Judah, to this Jewish nation, He says, Remember ye the law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments. God says, Remember ye the law. If you're following along in your outline, letter A is we should consistently seek God's Word and will in every circumstance of life. Just by talking about obedience, talking about even making the statement, we should seek God's Word and His will in every circumstance in life, most of us here tonight would say, yeah, yeah, I agree with that. That's right. What I want us to do for a few moments tonight is really do some introspection. And not only agree with this, but really kind of look at our own lives and say, is this true of me? God is telling these people, remember, Now, by remembering, we'll look at this a little more closely here in just a second, but I think we at least have to look back, we have to reflect, we have to consider what God says. Now, I wonder how often in life circumstances, as we bump up against this and we bump up against that, and we have decisions to make, our behavior, and how we interact with people, and our relationships, do we regularly, daily, hourly, by the minute, many, many, many, many times throughout the day, do we consider what God has to say on the matter? Do we remember what God has written? Do we consider, do we reflect what God has written? Myself included, I wonder how many times we go throughout a day and we just kind of sail along with maybe not giving a whole lot of thought to what would God say about this? What would God's opinion be on this matter? I think that's entailed in remember, but there's more than that. And we'll get that to in letter B. We should consistently obey God's Word and will in every circumstance of life. Not only should we seek it out, not only should it be in the forefront of our mind, not only should it be something that we consider and ponder in every situation in life, but obey it and do it. Malachi mentions here the statutes and the judgments. These are the stipulations of the covenant On Mount Sinai, and by the way, Horeb is just the ancient word for Mount Sinai, so this is the Sinaitic covenant that God had made with His people. He had given the stipulations. He had given the specifics. God was not vague about what He wanted. God was not ambiguous about what He wanted. He clearly laid it out for them and said, this is what I expect. This is what I want you to do. And by remember, he's not only saying consider and reflect on, but do it. How many times as a parent have you told your child that you remember what I said? Now by saying that, what are we trying to convey? Hey, you need to mentally think about, recall what I've said, and I want there to be what? Some action that goes along with that. It needs to affect your behavior. We're not asking them just to mentally reflect on what we said and then go do something else. We're asking that child to do something with what we have said. And that's exactly what Malachi is driving at here, and can I say, God is driving at, when He says, remember, think about and do what I have told you to do. You know, we have things written on a to-do list. You may have some type of electronic device where you keep track of your task list or your to-do list. I'm still kind of stuck in the paper age and I get on my computer and I just make me a list of things that I need to do in a given day. But we may list certain events, we may list priorities, we may list certain things that come along. And it may be something like July 23rd, 2008. my wife's 40th birthday. You know, something along that lines. Did I mention that? Yes, I guess I just did mention that, didn't I? Yes, I did, yes. And that, you know, you see that on the calendar, you see that on the to-do list, and it's not something that you just say, oh, okay. No, you need to respond to that. You need to do something about that. You need to act on that knowledge that you have. That's what God is driving at here in this section. I've given you some characteristics of true obedience to God. True obedience. The kind of obedience that God is looking for is obeying completely. Obeying without questioning and obeying without complaint. Obeying. Let's see if I can make this comparison here tonight. Let's just say that I was in the Marine Corps. I was in, you know, kind of boot camp. I have a drill instructor and that drill instructor looks at me and he says, look, I want 50 push-ups and I want them now. You know, I get to about 20 and I say, you know, I'm really sorry but, All I've got in me is about 25 today. That's really all I feel like doing today. That's about half of what he's told me to do. It's incomplete. That isn't going to fly, is it? It's not going to fly at all. What if I said, you know, could you explain to me, please, exactly the purpose of why you want me to do these push-ups? I'm a little vague on this. It's a little ambiguous. Could you give me a little further insight? He'd give a lot of insight, wouldn't he? It could be that you ask for 50, you get to about 40, and you just kind of stop and you look up and you say, you know, this isn't really a whole lot of fun. This isn't enjoyable. I'm not liking this. In fact, this is causing me a little pain, a little distress, and you just complain about it a little bit. Now, I want to be careful here tonight. I am not likening God to a drill instructor, okay? The character of God is not like a drill instructor. But I can't make this analogy. The expectation of a drill instructor is obedience. Without questioning. Without complaining. Complete obedience. The expectation of God is complete obedience. Without questioning. Without complaining. That's what God wants, folks. And I think that it behooves us tonight to look within and do a little introspection and just be honest with ourselves and say, where am I? Is my life characterized by being obedient to God or is it not? I think it goes without saying, but I'll mention this anyway, that certainly not talking about perfection, because none of us are perfect. We fail. We fail miserably sometimes. But I'm talking about an overall characterization. Is your life, is my life characterized by one that is obedient to God? Are we doing what God wants us to do? You know, sometimes I think that in our reading of the Old Testament and looking at the nation of Israel, I've recently been reading through the book of Judges, we look at the nation of Israel, and this is my response anyway, these people just didn't get it. You know, why in the world? You know, in the book of Judges, they went through this cycle where they disobeyed, they displeased God, they fell into sin, they eventually kind of repented, got right with God, and they would do the same thing over again and over again and over again. And we read throughout the Old Testament where the nation of Israel failed and they failed and they failed. And sometimes, really, in our pride, in our arrogance, in our own stubbornness, we may kind of look at that and say, What wicked, awful people, you know, what was with them? Why didn't they get it? Why didn't they just obey God? When maybe our own pride and our own arrogance and our own stubbornness and our own rebellion, we're really not much better. Because we disobey God. I believe tonight that probably for every one of us, and I'm just taking a positive slant on this, that we have the desire to obey God. But do we obey God? A desire is not good enough. Where is the action? Are you literally, regularly obeying God? And that's the kind of, I believe, introspection that we need to do tonight. So God, He wants us to obey. He wants us to do what He says. Not new information. Not a divine revelation there tonight with that statement. But are we obedient to God? In verse 5. God declares, Romans 2, the surety of his promises. God declares the surety of his promises. He says, I tell you what, I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet. And I'm going to do this before the dreadful day of the Lord. And Elijah is going to have a specific mission. And as a result of that mission, there's going to be some people who respond to the gospel. Some people who are reconciled to God and they are not going to be a part of the curse. God makes some promises here. He says, I will send you Elijah. Now, hang with me here for just a second. I'm going to belabor this point, but at least want to mention this. All right. There are many commentators, some on one side of the fence and some on the other, who tie this right back to chapter 3 and the messenger that we talked about, the forerunner before Jesus Christ. And they have great arguments on that side. There are many others who believe that this is literally the person of Elijah who will return as one of the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11. And many believe that the other witness that will return to this earth during the tribulation period for the last three and a half years, and for 1260 days, preach the gospel, that the other witness will be Moses. So Elijah and Moses, we don't know that for sure, can't be dogmatic on it, but there's good evidence that that is possibly the case. And whether you land on the side of the fence that this is not really Elijah himself, but John the Baptist, or whether you land on the side of the fence that this is literally Elijah that will come as one of the witnesses, which I personally kind of lean to that second interpretation that God is making a promise which either was or will be fulfilled one day. But I think it makes a lot of sense, and we won't go into all the nitty-gritty details tonight, to look at this as Elijah being one of the two witnesses in Revelation chapter 11. And he says that he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers. If you go with that interpretation of Revelation chapter 11, the witnesses will preach for three and a half years during the last half of the tribulation. They will faithfully proclaim the gospel. And during those 1260 days that they are on this earth, many, many Jewish people will turn to the Lord in true repentance and be reconciled. In essence, this is what is happening. These unbelieving people trust in God. These unbelieving Jews, they trust in Jesus. They trust in God. And they are reconciled to their fathers. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the prophets. There is a reconciliation that is going on that is paving the way, that is preparing the way for the Messiah to return. Because if you follow the timeline of prophecy, the end of these 1260 days, if this indeed is Moses and Elijah, these two witnesses, they are killed. They are in the streets for about three days. They rise from the dead and they ascend back to heaven. And right after that, There are some remaining judgments that God pours out upon this earth in full fury of His wrath, and then right after that, Jesus comes back to this earth to really wipe out any last remaining enemy on this earth. All unsaved people just decimated, and He sets up His rule and reign on this earth. The idea at the end of verse 6, the curse, This word is also used in chapter 2 and in chapter 3, but this is a different word. Same word in our English, but different word in Hebrew, and this word curse is the idea of a ban, or putting under a ban for really complete extinction, that God is going to wipe out these people who have rejected Him. So, Elijah comes, this is the promise of God, because of his ministry and the other witness that many of the Jews will turn back to him, and those who turn back to him have been eliminated from being part of the curse, the judgment of God, one of the final judgments of God on this earth. It's interesting to note that when Jewish people recite these last verses of Malachi, when they come to verse 6, they repeat verse 5. They also do this in the book of Isaiah, Lamentations and Ecclesiastes, because they don't want to end on the idea of a curse. You know, it's interesting that the curse of sin was introduced in the book of Genesis, wasn't it? The theme of that curse is reiterated here in Malachi. And just as it will be one day for the Jewish people, the only way they can avoid this curse is by trusting in Jesus Christ. And the only relief, the only avoidance today for someone to avoid the curse of sin is through Jesus Christ. It's the same as it always has been, always will be, but this is the promise of God. If I can make just some general statements here. Letter A, God makes promises. He made some promises here. I will do something. That's a promise of God. And can I say this? God keeps His promises. By way of application tonight, I just want us to reflect for just a moment that not only does God make promises, But God keeps His promise. You don't have to raise your hand tonight, but probably just about every one of us in this room, if we were honest, at some point in our life, we've made a promise that we have not kept. We have reneged either intentionally or unintentionally on our promise. God never reneges on His promise. He always makes a promise, and He will keep that promise. Can I reiterate, underscore a few of them here tonight? When God says, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. That's a promise. Now, as I alluded to earlier about wondering if God loves you, if you're honest tonight, there may be times where you feel very alone. You're wondering, does God care? Does God really know? Where is He? Where is God in this situation? Where is God in my life? And sometimes we grapple with that a little bit. But according to the Word of God, God said, look, I will never leave you. I'll never leave you alone. I'll never forsake you. I'll never abandon you. And we never forget that. God has made a promise. God will keep that promise. God said, I'll supply all your need according to My riches in glory. I don't know what your need is tonight, but God's made a promise. He said, I'll meet your need. I'll supply your need. And that may be a financial need, it may be an emotional need, it may be a spiritual need, it may be a physical need here tonight, but God said, I'll meet your need. God said, My grace is sufficient for you. Ever wonder about that in your life? I wonder, is God's grace really going to see me through? I know since God's grace, God said in every situation, in every circumstance, my grace is sufficient for you. A promise from God. We must believe it. We must accept it. God said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. What are all these things? Well, right prior to that, most of you know that section well. He talks about, hey, I'll provide I'll provide clothing for you. I'll provide food for you. I'll provide shelter for you." And sometimes those basics come into question. And we wonder, where is God? We put Him first. He said, look, I'll supply all these things for you. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens Me. Do you believe that tonight? Are you wavering on that tonight? God said, hey, you can do all things, All things through Christ who strengthens you. A promise from God. Another tremendous promise is absent from the body, present with the Lord. Isn't that a tremendous promise tonight, folks? The pastor began his series on the eternal state or heaven on Sunday night. And the idea that for maybe a loved one, to bring great comfort, or for you personally tonight, absent from this body is to be present with God. That's a truth from God. That's a promise from God. Another promise. We'll end with this one. If we confess our sin, he's faithful and he's just to forgive us our sin. You say, well, I've confessed the same time, the same sin a bunch of times. That's OK. He's always faithful. He's always just. When we come back, and we come back, and we come back, and we come back, and we say, my attitude was wicked, my behavior was wicked, it was wrong, I shouldn't have done that, God, I see it as sin, I know You see it as sin, help me not to do that. When we confess our sin, He's faithful and He's just to forgive us our sin. Those are all promises that for the most part we are very, very familiar with tonight. But it could be tonight that even on some of these familiar promises, you are wavering just a bit. You're wondering, is it really true? And can I tell you tonight, on the basis of the Word of God, it's true. When God makes a promise, He keeps His promise. And let us see, it's our responsibility, by His grace and by His help, to believe that promise. To rest in it. To trust in Him. To believe Him. To know that it's true. To know that He will keep His end of what He has said He will do. As we walk away from these last three verses tonight, would you walk away with this from these three verses? God wants you and He wants me to obey Him. And God wants you and He wants me to believe and trust in the promises that He has made. I put in your notes tonight Some overarching principles from the entire book is just as we wrap up this study, something we can walk away with from this study tonight. And I'll mention these and we'll be done. Number one, one's view of God must be in accordance with the manner in which he reveals himself in the Bible. You know, sometimes we get a skewed view of God. God gets very much out of focus for us. And what we think and what we feel and what we experience does not line up with the Word of God. And it may be that I'm not sure God loves me, I'm not sure God cares, I'm not sure God is around, I'm not sure I can trust God, and it may be even the fact that we get a little ticked off at God. We get angry at God. Those were much of the things that the people of Judah dealt with. And we have to come back and say, what does God reveal to us in His word about Himself? That must be the basis for which I form a view of God. Number two, disobedient and careless worship dishonors God. The people of Judah, they were bringing sick, nasty sacrifices to God in the name of worship. That dishonors. God. God longs for His children, and that's you and me, if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior tonight, to obey His Word. Don't you see that theme running throughout Malachi? God just wants them to obey. And He summarizes that in what we've looked at tonight. He says, remember the law. And again, like I said a minute ago, I've not been ambiguous. I've not been vague about this. I've very clearly written to you what I want you to do. And tonight, God has clearly declared to us what He expects from us. And as He said to His covenant people, Israel, He said, if you obey Me, I will bless you. I will abundantly bless you. God wants us to be obedient to Him. God patiently, lovingly, and mercifully calls sinners to repentance. Those who do not know Him, those who are unsaved, and those who do know Him and have gone far astray from Him, their sin and their life, He patiently, mercifully, lovingly says, come back. Come back. And you see that throughout the entire book of Malachi. And number five, a day of judgment is coming. God said, it may not be on your timetable, people of Judah, but it's on mine. And I'm sovereign and I'm perfect. And in my time and in my way, it's coming. And we can rest in that promise of God. And that should not only be something that we rest in to know that God will keep his promise, but it's something that should motivate us. This is a day of judgment coming. God's last words. God's last words. Obey Me. Believe Me. Trust Me in the promise that I've made. Let's pray. Father, may these thoughts stir us anew and afresh tonight. May we honestly look at our own heart and our own life and our own behavior and our own walk with You Be honest and say, am I really obedient? Is my life characterized by obedience? Do I have a deep, burning passion to please God? And Lord, as we've looked at Your promise tonight in this passage, and the overarching, general concept of the promises that You make, Lord, may we, anew and afresh tonight, be settled in our belief and our trust in the promises that you make. You're a powerful God. You're a loving God. You're a great God. And Lord, I thank you that when you make a promise, you keep it and we can rest in it. Lord, I pray that we have gleaned much from this book. May it not soon leave us. May we remember, may it settle long and deep in our hearts the things that we have read and studied and learned from the book of Malachi. And I pray in Jesus' precious name, Amen.