Transcript

Well, we’re going back to the old part of the book, the Old Testament, but the last book of the old part, the book of Malachi. About three weeks ago, the book of Malachi jumped on me and wouldn’t let me go. And it’s amazing when you begin to research more thoroughly what a book of the Bible is teaching. I did not know as I studied all that would unfold and all the things that were here and we’ll give something of an overview of that as we’re going to introduce the book today and it will be disjointed there’s a lot for me to do to get ready for the conference.

I’m doing three sessions lord willing and I never know what a conference sermon is going to mean sometimes literally it’s double the study for a regular sermon. Sometimes when you have 45 years of hard study under your belt, those of you who are younger pastors, take this in. There’s an enormous amount to glean from. So sometimes you’ll find two or three sermons from sometimes 20, 30, 40 years ago, and there’s good research there that can help you prepare for a new message. So I never know, but I get away for about 10 days or so and just seek the Lord and try to put all that together. So my point being, we may not get back in Malachi good till after the conference. We’ll see how it goes. We’re gonna introduce it this morning, Lord willing. And we’ll look at the first verse there. The book of Malachi 1:1. And by the way, if you want to find Malachi, you go to Matthew and go back one book, all right? Because it’s the last book in the Old Testament. “The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.”

Roman number 1, let’s talk about the author through which this prophecy comes. Very clear, very obvious, but maybe not so obvious in a way. In these two words “through Malachi”. But the interesting thing is, it’s highly probable that Malachi is not a personal name because “Malachi” means messenger. And it would be used often in the Bible, it’s used for angels, the messenger of God. So it’s very likely this is not a name of a prophet, this is his office or his role. He’s the messenger of God. But now it’s hard to say that every time, so I’ll talk about it like it’s a practical personal name as we go through here. So that’s what this is.

It is interesting that Jewish tradition from the 4th century AD, now that’s about 800 years from the writing of Malachi, but Jewish tradition holds that Malachi was born in Sopha, which is southeast of Judah, that he lived even from his childhood days a very blameless life, and that he was handsome. But there’s not a word of scripture about that, so forget all of that, all right? We don’t know any of that to be true, but that’s what Jewish tradition holds.

But we do know this, he is God’s prophet. He is God’s messenger. You see, the scriptures are self-authenticating. Here’s what you need to know, the scriptures, the Bible is the word of God. Read it while the Holy Spirit illumines your understanding, and it’s self-authenticating. There’s a lot of studies, there’s a lot we could say from a human intellectual perspective about the integrity of the original text, et cetera, but at the end of the day, it’s God’s Spirit verifying God’s Word to our hearts. You sit there, the Word is preached, the Spirit speaks to you, and something in you says, amen. That’s what God is saying.

Well, to be honest, There wasn’t a lot of amen in this crowd that Malachi is preaching to, prophesying to, and they dismissed the word to a great extent, which is nothing new. You study the Old Testament prophets, that’s the general pattern of ancient Israel, getting hardened, becoming just calloused, informal, moribund, a religion. syncretizing the pagan religions of the surrounding nations in with true Yahweh worship. trying to make it look good, even though they were carnal and fleshly and sensual in their worship.

Well, we see a lot of that in evangelical churches today, basically a whole lot of worldly nonsense with some things of God to make it look legitimate or true when it’s really not. So there’s a whole lot of that going on. We’ve talked about that so many times, but we’ll talk about it again. You know why? Because the Bible talks about it again, because I guess we need to hear it again.

So, but isn’t it interesting that here we have Malachi, the last prophet before the coming of Christ. There will be 400 years of silence after Malachi prophesies before John the Baptist hits the scene proclaiming Jesus is here. So he’s the messenger. and he’s the messenger, perhaps God wants you to know it’s so close. It’s the last word before the incarnate Son of God comes, so you don’t even need to think about the person. You don’t need to think about the personalities involved. You just need to know he’s the messenger. The last word of God, 400 years will pass, and then the word of God comes back to us through the New Testament.

So, it is interesting, though, that Malachi clearly prophesies, or has a clear prophecy, if you will, about John the Baptist. Now, in one sense, you could say John the Baptist is the last of Old Testament prophets. I would receive that. because he’s the last proclamation before Jesus comes. He’s the last herald, announcer, messenger before Jesus actually comes. So, the last writer of the Old Testament era, or dispensation, is proclaiming Jesus is coming, and this last writer of Old Testament prophecy proclaims John the Baptist, the last herald, is actually coming.

For example, in Malachi 3:1, “behold, I’m going to send my messenger”, this isn’t Malachi this time, “and he will clear the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple”. That can only be John the Baptist and Jesus. “And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts”. Then, of course, the fulfillment of that prophecy, Matthew 3:1-3. “Now, in those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his path straight”.

So we have Malachi saying there’s one gonna say, get ready, he’s coming, he’s gonna come into his temple. And then that points to John the Baptist who says, get ready, he’s here. make his way straight. So Isaiah prophesied of John, but Malachi also prophesies of John the Baptist coming.

But thinking about the fact that the person is not that important, there’s a balance here now. The Scriptures requires you to honor, respect, submit to, obey, love, and esteem your pastors. But at the end of the day, you hold in balance, but they’re just regular folks like the rest of us too. So Malachi isn’t given, well his name’s not given most likely, just that his title of the messenger is given. It made me think on the truth of all God called men. If you’re a pastor or training to be a pastor, if you’re in the Pastoral Training Institute here, here’s a good insight, I think, for you to understand what I mean when I say local church-centered expositions. When you exegete the text, look for how it addresses things your church may need to hear, your church may need to be reminded of.

I’m going to take this moment, as we’re thinking about a God-called man, the messenger of God who gives us prophecy to talk in general about God calling all men. It won’t take long, but I wanna look at it just for a moment. You might could make six things or eight things out of this, but I just was, in my meditation on the text, thought about four common tenets of all God-called men. Four common tenets of all God-called men, all right? And this is true universally, Old Testament, New Testament.

What we find out, number one, is first of all, they’re just mere men. Ordinary guys. In other words, there’s not some inherent superiority to these guys. They have differing gifts one to another, differing personalities one to another, but they’re just mere men. You think about Moses, just a shepherd. He kept sheep. He had a speech impediment, most likely. He didn’t necessarily have strong leadership skills, though he was to lead the children of Israel. As a matter of fact, we have the confrontation, if you remember, of Korah, who was one of the Israelites who rose up to challenge Moses and challenge Moses’ leadership. And this text tells us that Korah was a man of renown and Korah hung around with a group of men of renown. So these were men who were impressive, men who could probably speak well and command an audience and command respect. And they rose up and Korah, as their leader, speaks and says, Moses, You’re not supposed to be the only guy leading us while we’re more talented. You, that’s not the point. They probably were more talented, but God didn’t call them to lead Israel. He chose just a regular guy, keeping sheep named Moses.

You know the story. Moses basically went to God and said, God, we’ve got a problem here. I didn’t start this. You appeared in a burning bush when I was keeping my father-in-law’s sheep. I was minding my own business. And you told me to lead these people. Now these people don’t want to follow me, they want to challenge me. And God said, get out of the way. He opens up the earth, he swallows up Korah and all the men of renown who challenged Moses. And like my former pastor used to say, then Moses said, now who do y’all think God wants to lead this thing? So here what I want to point out to you, God called men have flaws, insecurities, failures, weaknesses, but it’s the call of God that matters because they’re just mere men.

Well, that leads to number two, not only are they mere men, they are called men and one of the Insightful ways the text bears this out is our New Testament parallel text, Ephesians 4:11, where Paul writing to the church at Ephesus says, “he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists”, and some as, it should be one office, “pastor teacher”, a pastor whose primary shepherding method is to teach the people the word of God. Now, this word gave is the idea of gifts, and it references back in context to an earlier statement in this same chapter where he talks about God gives gifts to men, and then God gives gifted men, men he gifts with spiritual gifts, that is, to help and lead the church and preach the word to the church.

There is a calling of God that is different for the man who’s to be what I would maybe say the senior pastor, the preaching pastor of the church. We’re gonna ordain two men to serve in the office of elder, but we’re not ordaining them to the role of preaching pastor. There is a unique difference there.

I sometimes tongue-in-cheek say that among our elders is a lot of different gifts and gifting because you would not want 12 men in the same room who are all like Jeff Noblit. That wouldn’t work. But I think there’s a sense of vision and leadership and passion for the truth. John MacArthur words it this way, there’s a leader among the equals. All elders are equal, but God gifts certain men in different ways to our different roles.

You have Moses and Elijah among the prophets. You have Peter among the Jewish apostles. You have Paul among the Gentile apostles and pastors. There’s one who stands out to lead. So God’s calling may cover all men called in the office, but there’s a unique calling within the offices also.

So there are mere men, but there’s a calling of God on these men. And thirdly, they are kept men. God keeps them. I used to think when we had a vocal opposition to my leadership at times, I know that’s hard to believe, but we had some of that at times. And sometimes I would literally pray, God, if they can take me down, let them take me down because I didn’t put myself here. And if you can’t keep me, I don’t need to stay.

Now, I wasn’t sure how I was going to feed my family and raise my kids without anything to do. That’s a genuine insecurity pastors have from time to time. But at the end of the day, God keeps His men. Keeps them. And you want me to let you know something else? He keeps them even though they blunder. He keeps them even though they fail.

Now, there’s some reprehensible sins that if a man commits, he should leave the office. Amen? But I mean, he sins and struggles like you sin and struggle. Spurgeon always said that if a man falls into scandalous public sin, like leaving his wife or something, he never was called to start with. I don’t have an exact verse on that, but the longer I minister, the more I believe that’s true. If God didn’t keep him, God probably didn’t call him. God keeps His men.

1 Corinthians 12:9 gives us an insight then and he said to me “my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness most gladly therefore I would rather boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me” here Paul is the context is he’s got this thorn in the flesh I believe it was likely a person who followed him around and just undermined him and scandalized him and lied about him and tried to undermine his credibility everywhere he went. And Paul would say, God, remove this guy from me. It could have been a disease. Remove this disease from me. But God didn’t. God said, no, I’m going to keep you, Paul, just like you are. Matter of fact, I’m going to use this difficulty to keep you humble so I can keep you right, so I can keep you usable. You see, when you prayed for me over the decades, some of you, that God would use me and God would let me be a true man of God, then what you’re praying is God humble him. You know what we found out here at Grace Life? Are y’all listening to me this morning? We found out you don’t need the deacons to humble the pastor. God’s just perfectly able to do that all by himself.

You just give him to God. Do you give your pastor to God? God, if we’ve got to follow this guy and listen to this guy, you told us to love him and hold him in high esteem and obey him and submit to him. If we’re going to do that, God, you better keep him. And God will. You get the kind of pastor you deserve to have in the long run, the one you’ve in a sense earned by your right attitude and humility before God concerning that man.

You know, because pastors, generally speaking, all called men are considered contemptible men. They’re considered men that we can have a vile and worthless disdain for. There’s a lot of people who do that to God’s called men. a vile and worthless, scornful disdain, if you will. Moses had his Korah, and Paul had the opposition of a vile, a disdaining man like Alexander the Coppersmith. And Jesus rather had Judas Iscariot, who viewed him that way. And Jesus himself looked at the leaders of Israel and said, is it your fathers who killed the prophets?

That goes with the territory. If you’re going to be God’s men, you’ve got to be ever aware you’re just a mere guy, nothing inherently special about you whatsoever, but you got to know that you’re called and you better know God will keep me. I want you to know something. I can’t keep me, but God can keep me. You need to know that about yourself too. Amen. God, I’m not up to keeping me. I’m no match for my flesh, but God, you are. So make me usable.

I’ve had this little challenge with my health in the last year or so. Well, it’s been a long time, but it really kind of got worse in the last year or so. Not life-threatening, not life-shortening, but boy, it sure is quality of life-affecting. And it’s been a challenging, and I feel like God has been whispering to me, maybe louder than that, yeah, but this is keeping you humble because I keep my men. Would you ask God, please humble him to the nth degree so he can feel better again soon? I would love for that, but God knows what’s right. I’m not bed sick. Don’t misunderstand me, but I would sure like to get around the corner on this, but God knows what he’s doing.

Fourthly, they must be, and they are, courageous men. Courageous men. But God knows when to give them the grace to have courage. I was in a meeting one time years ago, and I just mean this honestly, I don’t think I’m a very courageous man or strong man, naturally speaking. We were in a meeting, and there was clearly an evil, evil force trying to corrupt and destroy this church. This is really early on now. And there were denials about a lot of things that we knew were lies. Things just kind of came to an end and I just told the men in that room, some of those men are sitting here, I said, I’m going to pray. And I prayed and said, God, somebody in this room is lying and I pray you will kill them. I’ve never prayed that before. I’ve never prayed that since. But the moment I said, I pray you’ll kill them, the guilty party confessed immediately. There’s times when they have to be courageous men. And here’s what’s interesting. Humanly speaking, a lot of these guys are the weakest guys you know, but when God calls them and puts them in places, he will give them the grace to say, I’ve got to stand here. I’ve got to do what’s right here. I don’t know what it’s going to cost, but I’ve got to do what’s right here.

The apostle said, now notice here’s Peter, denied the Lord three times. That’s a pretty weak guy, isn’t it? Denied the Lord three times as he’s going to the cross, and then Peter’s filled the Holy Spirit with the other believers. He’s courageously proclaiming Jesus on the streets. People are trying to kill them for it, literally, at least lock them in prison for it. And they called Peter and some of the other apostles and said, you guys have to stop, call them before the authorities, you’ve got to stop preaching this Jesus. And Peter just simply said, well, we’re going to have to obey God rather than men. There’s times to be courageous.

Well, those are four universal tenets of any God called men. That applies to Malachi, that applies to pastors today.

Number two, not only… the author, the human instrument. Notice the audience and the setting, the audience and the setting of the book of Malachi. First of all, the audience, and that’s a given here, it’s Israel. It’s the word, the oracle, through Malachi to Israel, the text says in verse 1. Now, it’s different now because this is sort of a scattered group of remnant people who’ve come back from captivity now, and they’re back in Jerusalem. Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, Ezra have been instrumental in rebuilding the wall, in rebuilding the temple, and now Malachi comes along more or less to rebuild the social fabric of the country, to get them back on line with God’s Word, to be godly and holy. And we find out if we look at the text, that’s quite a challenge because they’ve been ungodly and unholy.

So it’s a mixture of the southern kingdom, Judah and Benjamin, and the other ten tribes, just a mixture of those who have come home from captivity. First it was Babylon, and then it was Cyrus the Persian. Of course, the Assyrians had taken the ten northern tribes captive earlier on. But nevertheless, in God’s providence, many of them have come back, and it’s sort of a mixture of all the tribes at this point, back in Jerusalem, post-exile, all right? It’s about 400, well, let’s go to B, not only the audience, but the setting now. It’s about 420 BC, maybe later. Scholars kind of disagree, but that’s a rough estimate. And of course, Malachi is the 12th and the last prophet to prophesy before the New Testament era begins. I’ve already told you that, I’ve told you that.

It is interesting to note and remind ourselves that Malachi forms the transition between two dispensations, the Old Testament dispensation and the New Testament. The early church father, Tertullian, said it this way, the book of Malachi is the skirt and the boundary of Christianity. And we do find a lot of New Testament quotations of the Old Testament book of Malachi.

Now, Roman numeral three, not only the author and the audience in the setting, but let’s notice the alarming nature of this prophecy. And I’m going to say the audaciousness of this prophecy. Now, it’s interesting as you look at the first phrase of verse one of chapter one of Malachi, we have the word in the New American Standard, the oracle of the word of the Lord. And that’s, well, that might be more than a little bit misleading because the Hebrew word oracle here literally means burden. And the way it’s arranged in the original text is you just have burden. It’s just that word burden is alone at the top. It’s there for emphasis. The prophet is saying this is a burdensome task. This is an awesome spirit in context of what’s about to go on here. It’s alarming.

That’s alarming on, or rather I should say for two reasons. First of all, it’s an alarming because of the daring, shameless attitude and behavior of Israel. just brazenly bold arrogance in the face of God. And I want you, child of God, I want you, New Testament church, to check your own heart. Are you prone to a shameless boldness when God’s word is clear, as if you’re the special exception? to God’s truth when it confronts your own attitude, when it confronts your own behavior.

So here Israel is in this self-important snobbery toward God. Here’s Israel receiving Malachi’s corrections and saying, we consider that beneath us. Literally, A snotty attitude toward God. Full of themselves. Here they have this dismissive superiority. We don’t need this Malachi, we don’t need this God. Just hard. That’s alarming. That is alarming. Shall we go all the way back to the call of their father Abraham and trace the amazing unmerited goodness of God to them for them to have this snobbish, arrogant, shameless, disobedient, ungratitude toward God. It’s alarming. That’s why he starts with burden. What a burden. Malachi’s saying what a burden to have to deal with these people. I’m not giving them directions to Starbucks. The burden is I’ve got to give them the truth of God. And they won’t even listen to the first syllable of it. They’re so stinking, snobbishly, arrogantly full of themselves.

By the way, that’s why a lot of people will not come hear strong, true Bible preaching. It’s beneath them. Boyce points out, others do too, but Boyce points out seven particular times when they show this brazen, arrogant ingratitude against God and His truth. And it comes out every time with these two words, how have, how have, how have we this? Malachi will tell them, well, how have, well, just show me how we’ve done that. It’s so petty, it’s so childish, it’s so stupid. In chapter 1 verse 2, how have you loved us? What a statement for Israel to make to God, or any of us. Chapter 1 verse 7, how have we defiled you? Chapter 2 verse 17, how have we wearied God? Chapter 3 verse 7, how shall we return? Like, what do you want us to do? Go back somewhere. Chapter 3, verse 8, well, how have we robbed God? Well, he answers that one clear. Chapter 3, verse 13, different words, same idea. Well, what have we spoken against you? All of these are against God. What a burden. Bold first word of the book, burden. What a burden. It’s an alarming thing.

Well, Malachi’d have to deal with this. More than that, it’s an alarming thing for God to have to deal with it. Secondly, not only the daring, shameless boldness of Israel’s attitude, but the bold and shocking words of God against Israel. It’s almost like God’s saying, I’ve got to straighten you out, son. You ever had somebody do that to you? Bold and shocking is the oracle, the burden. It’s interesting that this word oracle that really is translated burden, which stands apart in the manuscript for emphasis, is a word that’s used 27 times by Old Testament prophets where they’re bringing a word of threatening judgment against the people. Malachi is going to bring these alarming, threatening judgments. Because they deny and they dispute that God loves them. Because the priests are functioning on their own authority and perverting the holy order and structure of their ministries. Because the men are marrying foreign wives and mistreating their wives that they have. Because they’re robbing God of tithes and offerings. Because they’re neglecting the needs of the legitimate poor and other things.

So both the sins of the nation, their brazings, snobbery, and arrogance against God, that’s alarming, but also the Lord’s strong, bold, threatening judgments, that’s also alarming. So it’s almost like you say Malachi, the messenger, not refusing his call, maybe like Jesus when he said, Father, if this cup could pass from me, It’s a burden, but not my will, but thine will be done. Maybe Malachi is doing some of the same thing. Lord, this is such an alarming heavy burden because of what these people are and because of what you’re telling me to say to them.

Now, in summary of where Malachi is going to come from is this. Malachi is saying to this scattered remnant from various tribes who’ve come home from captivity, reclaimed the land, rebuilt the wall, rebuilt the temple, ought to be full of enormous joy and gratitude to God. He’s going to say to them, your snobbish, arrogant disregard and ingratitude toward God is not because God has broken His promise to you. It’s not because God has lost His integrity. It’s not because God has failed you, forgotten you, or forsaken you, or turned his back on you. If there’s a breach in the covenant relationship between you and God, you, Israel, have failed. That’s where Malachi’s going.

True for us, is it not? I don’t know where you are with God right now, and I don’t know if you’re put out with God, and I don’t know if you’re frustrated with God. Maybe things are not going the way you would like them to go, but I’m telling you, church, if you and God aren’t close, you have failed a very good, a very faithful, a very loving covenant God. Y’all getting this? Isn’t it amazing how the Bible just speaks to all of us all the time?

They are so undeniably guilty. And yet, like, I always think about these people in the streets who have no logic, no argument, no reason. They just scream and rile and reveal because it’s like the loudest person wins or something. That’s kind of the spirit here. By the way, there’s nothing new under the sun. The same wicked rebellion is always the same. Same basic principles and characteristics are going on. These people are undeniably wrong, they’re undeniably guilty, and yet they bring charges against God. I just want to straight up say it. When you’re involved in choosing moral perversity, how dare you say God made you that way? That’s the same principle. Same type thing. Some of you husbands are not committed to love your wives like, well, God just made me that way. No, he didn’t. Don’t put that on God. That’s what they did. Well, you know, I’d honor my husband and his position as husband and show a gentleness and a quiet spirit. But you know, God just made me different. No, he didn’t. You’re just Jezebel. Well, that’s too convicting.

Let’s go to Romans number four. The authoritative nature of the prophecy. We’ve really talked about this, but it comes out in the phrase in verse one. the word of the Lord. This isn’t the word of Malachi, or Elijah, or Isaiah. It’s not the word of the Sanhedrin, or the committee, or any muckety-muck of some religious branch of something. This is God’s word, and it’s Yahweh’s word. That’s what the word Lord means. It’s Yahweh. He’s the personal covenant God of Israel. That’s what that word emphasizes.

So this word carries his authority. He’s the one true God. He’s the God of the covenant. He’s the God of the descendants of Abraham. He’s the God of the elect of the church today. It is a word from him and it comes with his authority. Once again, parallel truth in the New Testament.

2 Timothy 3:16 through chapter 4, verse 2. Timothy, young pastor from Paul, remember “all scripture is inspired from God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness”. In other words, if you’ll just faithfully preach and teach and enforce the Word of God, you can cover your whole ministry. You can cover your whole ministry. So that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

And you just can’t get any stronger in authority than what Paul does next. I solemnly charge you, Timothy, in the presence of God, that’s a lot, and of Christ Jesus, that’s even more, who’s to judge the living and the dead, that’s even more, by his appearing and his kingdom, that’s even more, more authority, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. I think Malachi would walk through Israel in this context and say, it’s out of season, Lord. It is out of season. Nobody wants this. In season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.

So this is a call from this messenger, this Malachi, to all of Israel that you must listen to this with utmost attention and urgency. It’s an authoritative word. Also, in wrapping things up, we’ll remind ourselves that Malachi is like all of the Old Testament. Malachi is particularly like all of the prophets of the Old Testament, and that is that it all ultimately points to Jesus. It’s all ultimately about him.

Revelation 19:10, the last part reminds us, “for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. You know the Old Testament writers were writing under God the Holy Spirit’s direction because ultimately they always point us to Jesus. That’s the authentication of their prophecy. Christ always comes out in it. Jesus and his future coming is always there. He’s the essence, the cornerstone, the centerpiece, the primary thing in all of prophecy. The Holy Spirit rather testified of Jesus through these prophets.

Isn’t that what Malachi is saying in Malachi 3:1? Behold, I’m going to send my messenger. I think that’s probably John the Baptist. And he will clear away before me. That’s Jesus. Me is Jesus. And the Lord whom you seek. Suddenly he will come into his temple. That’s Jesus. And the master of the covenant whom you delight. Behold he, Jesus, is coming. Who can endure the day of his coming. He’s coming in great authority and fierceness. Who can stand when he appears?

Now this is combining his first and second comings in one package here. For he’s like a refiner’s fire and a fuller soap. He’s come with purging, purifying, and even punishing fiery judgment. But, verse 3, “he will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver”. Look what else he’ll do. “He will purify the sons of Levi. and refine them like gold and silver so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.” Who can take men and purify them so that God will receive their works and labors as a righteous token or offering to him? Only Jesus can do that. You can’t serve God unless Jesus makes you to have the righteousness of himself in you because God will not accept any sort of service from an unrighteous vessel. but Jesus causes us in his merit, in our place, to be righteous before the Holy God. That’s Jesus.

You should wake up on Sunday morning and say, how can it be that I can even walk in the doors of a building that represents you? Then you think, ah, because I have Jesus’ righteousness. That makes me qualified. To come, worship, serve, study the Bible with my brothers and sisters, encourage, edify, show compassion, correct all the ministries we do together. They’re all now righteous because he has made us righteous.

I don’t care who’s preaching this. This is good stuff. 400 years before he came. Malachi’s just full of Jesus. Oh. And Luke 24:44, Jesus says, “all that is written of me in the law, the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled”. My goodness. It’s like the old preacher said one time, I remember being in his church and he said, get out your hymn book. We all went wrestling for the song book. He said, no, this book, it’s about him. It’s all about him. Cover to cover.

So here we have Malachi is the messenger of God. All the Old Testament prophets are the messengers of God. 400 years later, John the Baptist in the wilderness rises up as the messenger of God. And then there’s Jesus, the message of God. He’s the one all the messengers were talking about. He’s the message. He’s, what’s the Bible say? The Word. The actual incarnate truth of God before men because He is God. It all points to Him.

Well, not only does all of the Old Testament point to Jesus? Not only does Malachi clearly prophesy of Jesus, one last thing that we see commonly in Old Testament prophets, and we certainly see here, and that is this, God will ultimately separate the genuine, rather, children from the counterfeit. That is the continual, Dr. Seale, burden of the Bible preacher, is to keep challenging men, do you know you’re saved? It’s a good burden, but it is a burden because I’ve preached to people. I’ve literally preached for people for over 40 years. And I don’t know if you’re saved. Some of you, I just don’t know that you’re saved. And like Spurgeon said, “if God will not save them through the preaching of the word and the gospel, he’ll not save them any other way”. I have nothing better to do. Brother Matt, we can’t put on a show and tickle their fancy and make them happy and that don’t save men. The old truth will save them or they will not be saved. That’s a burden in a way. But it’s a glorious burden to, as a mom or dad, want your children saved, as a small group leader wanting your class members saved, as a pastor wanting your church members saved, whoever you are, it’s a glorious burden because You’re shipwrecked on God and you’re stranded on omnipotence. It’s up to God. And we are astonished that he would even use us in the process. Yet he has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save his children and build his church.

God will ultimately, Malachi points out, Separate the genuine children from the counterfeits. Malachi 3:17-4:2. It’ll be on the screen, I think. Will it? It will. “They will be mine, says the Lord of hosts. On the day I prepare my own possession”. I love being his possession. “I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. So you will again”, in other words, there’s a day coming when this is getting clear. You will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked.

Now right now, in Malachi’s day, they kinda had it all mixed up. They’d redefine what godliness is. They redefined what worship was. They redefined what the church was. We hear that today, we gotta redefine the church. We gotta do church a different way. Who told you you could do that? It’s not your church. You can’t do that. God said, there’s coming a day when I’ll clear all of that, I’ll bring a great clarification, a great clarification.

So you will, verse 18, Malachi 3, “you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him”. Now, the point is there’s a whole lot of them saying they’re serving God, but God says, you’re not serving me. You’re serving your flesh and put a camouflage or a cosmetic of me on the outside. You’re not serving me. I’m charging some of you to get some discernment. Are you listening to your pastor? Get some discernment. There’s a lot going on in churches. Yes, there’s good and godly people in most all of our churches, and I thank God for them, but there’s a lot going on in the churches and the mechanism, the structure, and what they’re doing that’s not of God, though it has the cosmetic of God on the outside.

Ancient Israel did this. It’s always been the case. There’s never been an age when this was not the case. But God said, listen to me, there’s a great day coming when the great perfect clarifier of all things will appear. And I’ll start putting the sheep on one side and the goats on the other. Make it very clear. There’s a whole lot of goats running around here with sheep skins on top of them. I don’t necessarily mean in this congregation, probably some, but I mean in the professing realm of Christianity. Jesus said, when I get back, won’t be any doubt when I separate things out.

He said, Pastor, this kind of unnerves me. Good. I’d rather you be troubled and not sleep tonight yet make it to heaven than go home comfortable and go straight to hell. This is what happens when you let me meditate on text for three weeks. It just gets all over me. How can you not marvel over this? “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant”. Boy, that’s a whole bunch of these guys. Remember what we said at the beginning? Their selfish, snobbery arrogance. “All the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff, and the day is coming that will set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will lead them neither root nor branch”. I will so expose you and pluck you up. I’m going to get the very roots of your being taken care of and out of here.

But for you who fear my name, not you who are perfect, not you who are sinless, Not you who never fail, but in all your imperfection, in all your imperfection, in all your blunders, and in all your sins, you find yourself humbled and desperate and calling for Christ. That’s the kind of people I’m talking about. That’s the kind of people who fear his name.

“But for you who fear his name, the son of righteousness”, oh my goodness, what a phrase for Jesus, “will rise with healing in his wings. and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.” I don’t have a calf in a stall, but I had a Labrador retriever in a kennel last night. And when I opened that door, it’s like he was shot out of a cannon. And I have two feelings when that happens. I have, isn’t that cute and sweet? And then I have that feeling like, I ought to kill you. You’re just so much trouble at times. But the point is, they’re just overtaken with the joy of it all.

That’s us. When he sets us apart and says, no, you’re the authentic deal because I’ve made you this way, you’re mine. But over here, this other crowd, they were in your small group. They sang in your choir. They put on a good show before men, but they were never mine.

Pastor, how can I know? To me, at 45 years of study and praying and examining my own walk in life, I guess one thing comes to my mind. Humility. At the end of the day, you just consider yourself a worthless worm that God aught to crush in to hell. Just humble. Is that there? Is the germ of that there?

Spurgeon used to say that, he said, as a pastor, I have those who come into my church unhumbled. They stay a while unhumbled, Brother Steve. Then he said they leave unhumbled because it wasn’t the place for them. Have you been humbled under the gospel? Do you see the weight, vileness, and ugliness of your heart before this glorious triune holy God? Do you see yourself bankrupt and saying, in effect, if Christ, you don’t save this wretch, I’m sunk. If that’s where you are, I’m confident you’re his.

Don’t start counting up your sins. Well, okay, I had 17 this week, 27 last week, I must be saved. No, that’s stupid. Because you had 1,000,000 in 27 if you saw yourself the way God saw you. You can’t do that. He who compares himself with himself or with themselves is unwise, the Bible says. You compare yourself with God and we all fall short. And then we all hopefully fall on Jesus in humility.