Transcript

Let’s go back to Malachi this morning, Malachi chapter four. We’re narrowing in on ending this study. It could be the richest study that I have ever been involved in, to be honest, and that’s a lot because this is the 29th book, I think, that I’ve preached through here. But maybe that has more to do with me than it does just the particular book. Isn’t it very true that very often you’ll hear something, I’ll preach something, and you’ll say, man, that’s the best sermon I ever heard. And I thought, that’s the worst job I’ve ever done. But it’s what you needed. It’s where we are at a certain time that certain things speak to us. But nevertheless, it’s all God’s Word.

We come to chapter four. And just to remind ourselves, the prophet has been circling the field and giving his closing comments to the nation of Israel. And this is post-exilic. They’re back home from a Syrian, Babylonian, Medo-Persian exile. They come back to Jerusalem. They thought everything was going to be glory upon glory upon glory, and it wasn’t. Times were hard. Food sometimes was scarce. Difficulties abounded, and they developed a detestable, bitter, resentful spirit toward God. They would dispute with Him. They would say, God, You’re the problem. God, You’re doing us wrong.

And then we come to verse 16 of chapter 3, and the prophet tells us, but there is a different group within Israel. The righteous remnant. He says in verse 16, “those who fear the Lord, they got together and they spoke to one another”. And the idea is, spoke doesn’t mean that’s all they do, that stands for the totality of this remnant’s fellowship. It’s a local church, it’s a picture of the local church. That’s what we are in this godless, godforsaken world. A righteous remnant. And so God says, I do have a righteous remnant, they fear me. The text goes on to say “they esteem my name”. And the text goes on to say that “they are those that will be blessed immeasurably in times coming”. And that’s what we’re gonna look at today.

So we are down to Malachi 4:1-3. Let’s read it together.”For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff. And the day is coming that all will be set ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch”. Now if you’re a tree, if you’re a tree and you don’t have root or branch, you don’t have anything. Verse two, “but for you who fear my name”, that’s that righteous remnant. “The sun [S-U-N] of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on that day, which I’m preparing, says the Lord of hosts”.

I simply entitled this exposition, it’s the two main points of the outline, judgment and joy. Judgment and joy. You’ve heard the phrase many times, well, he can’t do two things at one time. It’s like I’ve heard that a time or two in my life, especially when I’m preparing to preach or preaching, I can’t do anything else. Just kind of focus and nothing else gets on my radar. But God’s not like that at all. God can do a million things at one time and do them all perfectly. And when he comes again, he’s going to do two specific things. He’s bringing two specific things to the earth in his second coming, judgment, and joy.

And that’s what Malachi bears out here so clearly. The depth of what he’s going to bring, the thoroughness of what he’s going to bring, the greatness of what he is going to bring to earth is really, truly beyond our capacity to grasp. In the broad picture, you might say God has allowed three acts on planet earth. Maybe there should be four or five, but we’ll summarize it in three. First of all, the reveling of the wicked. God has allowed Satan to rule as God of this world. Now he’s under, he’s under God. He’s not out of control, but God’s allowed him to rule as God of this world for a temporal season. And so many men, so many women, so many young people in our world follow the wooings of Satan, and they don’t love God, they don’t join God. Now many of them are religious and many of them jump through some hoop jumps about religion. Some of those are Baptist folks, some of those are Presbyterian, some of those Church of God folks, some are Church of Christ folks. Just wearing an outward veneer but never really loving God from the heart. And they’re all a part of this great massive host of these reveling wicked ones. We saw them, of course, up in the early text, verses 13, 14, and 15, as they’re disputing with God and blaming God, angry that God doesn’t do things their way and the way they want them to happen.

So that’s act one, but really at the same time, God’s doing act two. He’s forming his righteous remnant. He is calling out, the New Testament Greek is ekklesia. translated church, he’s calling out from that big mass group, a few, some, who generally love him, who are genuine believers, who will be a part of this righteous remnant. And then there’s one more act to follow, and that’s the act when he comes again, and he’ll bring to bear directly from his hand, judgment and joy. Now, which one will you receive? Which one will be your lot when Jesus returns? It’s going to be one of the two, judgment or joy.

Well, let’s talk about the first one, judgment. The prophet lays this out very descriptively for us. We get to verse one and we have that conjunctive word “for”. That means he’s connecting it, of course, to the earlier text. And he says, “the day is coming”. “For behold, the day is coming”. It’s the idea of final judgment, but it’s foreshadowed by many smaller judgments really throughout world history, but primarily and particularly for the nation of Israel. Israel went through judgment after judgment, and all of those are a type, a foreshadowing of the ultimate and final judgment that God will one day bring on the earth. And so we have it here again.

“The day is coming”. But that phrase, the definite term there, the day is coming, makes us look beyond those temporal fulfillments of judgment to that final judgment that is coming. Now Malachi uses the phrase, “the day is coming”, but typically in the Old Testament, when it refers to the second coming of Christ and that cataclysmic worldwide judgment, it’s called “the day of the Lord”. So when you see the day is coming here, and typically you see the day of the Lord, that means that final worldwide global cataclysmic judgment that God is bringing on planet Earth.

Then he says, for “behold”, the word behold there means you give this your solemn attention. This is not nothing. This is not a little thing. This is something that God is coming to do on planet Earth. This is going to be a day like no other day. Malachi says “the day is coming”. The day is coming. And it’s a day like no other day. No one has ever seen a day like this. No one has ever experienced a day like this. And afterwards it will never, listen to me, it will never happen again.

Israel experienced the attacks of the Egyptians, the difficulties of the Babylonians, and the Assyrians, and the Medo-Persians, and others, the Philistines. They would go through one judgment, then there’d be another one, there’d be another one, they’d say, well, this is kind of like the last one, a little worse, a little less. But that’s not this day. There’s a day is coming, behold, solemn attention. It’s like no other day you’ve ever seen.

And he says in verse one, he uses the word “fire”, burning like a furnace or burning with fire, you could translate it, same idea. I think the furnace pictures it better because a furnace is a place where you burn up this stubble, the chaff, the leftover stuff you don’t want any longer. A fire or the metaphor of a fire is typical as an agent or a description of God’s judgment. And we said that both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, that the wicked will one day be destroyed by fire. Psalm 11:6, “upon the wicked he will rain snares. Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup”.

And then the New Testament, 2 Peter 3:12. I remember when I was just a very young Christian, I had a liberal man who claimed to be a Christian tell me, well, you know, the Old Testament is about judgment and wrath, but the New Testament, it’s all about universal love and peace and grace. Well, he’s wrong.

2 Peter 3:12 says, “looking for and hastening the coming day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat”. You know, on the table of contents, of what everything is made of, every element will melt under the right temperature. Everything that God has made, he made so it will melt away when he brings his intense judgment. And then so vividly portrayed in the ancient story of Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 19:24. “Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven”.

So, specifically here, as Malachi talks about this coming day, it looked first, I think, at a temporal fulfillment, and that’s probably pointing to 70 AD, when Titus of Rome, of the Roman legions, marched through and destroyed everything in Israel. Might not say everything in Israel, or Jerusalem, rather. But, just like all of those other temporal judgments I’ve been referring to, it is a type, that destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by Titus of Rome was a type and a foreshadow of that more terrifying vengeance that will come when Christ returns. Cowles in his commentary says, and I quote, “Jesus is one day coming to execute full and unmitigated justice on this world against the arrogant and the evildoers”.

Now, two thoughts we need to get from this when we think about this prophecy, this absolute warning, this sure word that God’s coming in judgment. The first thought is this, God rules in absolute sovereignty over everything. I love the concept. Sovereignty has so many aspects to it, if you will. But one powerful aspect of sovereignty is this. God looks to nor listens to no one else. He doesn’t need your counsel, my counsel, your viewpoints, or your ideas. He is sovereign. When he says I’m coming, and I’m bringing judgment, it’s done. It’s done.

That’s one thought. God rules with authority and sovereignty over all things. Secondly, that this expression is a prophecy and a pledge that judgment is coming. That’s specifically how he’s coming in judgment. ‘

Just a few cross-references to remind us how, in the balance of scripture, this comes out over and over. Matthew 23:33, Jesus referring to the religious hypocrites of his day, the Pharisees, which would be parallel to so many that Malachi was writing to, who claimed to be faithful Israelites, but they were not. They were just phonies, just cosmetic Judaizers, if you will. He says in Matthew 23:33, “you serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?” Now that’s Jesus. You’re talking about coarse. You’re talking about brazen. You’re talking about pointed. That’s tough.

And then Job 11:20, “but the eyes of the wicked will fail”. What a picture there that all they looked to and hoped in will vanish away. What their eyes looked to for them will vanish away. “And there will be no escape for them. And their hope is to breathe their last”. Two ideas in that phrase, to breathe their last.

First of all, the judgment of God is so severe, men will hope to die and avoid it. But here I’ve got news for you. Death will not shield you from God’s judgment. After you die, you go to hell if you don’t know Christ. And there you will face God. You see, God’s in hell. He’s there in his wrath. He’s there in his divine justice. Men say, I’ll just go to hell with my buddies and Satan and all the rest of them. No, you won’t. You’ll go there and you’ll run right into God, but not in his love and his kindness and his mercy. You’ll run into God in his wrath and his retributive judgment.

So when these in Job 11:20, and “their hope is to breathe their last”, I thought, what a picture that the man who lives for the ends of the earth, the man who does not know Christ, the man who is not part of the righteous remnant of the true believers and saved ones of God, the only thing he can hope is, is can I get one more breath of this world? Is that not, I mean, that’s the most pitiful, the most fragile, just one more breath. because that’s all he’s got. Except as foolish as he is, he thinks he’ll take that last breath and pass on. No, you’ll pass to the presence of God.

Hebrews 2:3 reminds us “how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was first spoken to the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard”. How could you possibly escape if you pass up Jesus? If you don’t turn your life over to Christ, how could you possibly escape? You can’t.

Then, of course, everything points to what Revelation 20 unfolds. Everything’s focusing on that final event, Revelation 20:11-15, “Then I saw a great white throne. and him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away. And there was no place found for them, and I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds, and the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds, then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire”. There’s a day coming, God’s final act coming to earth. God will come in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ, bringing judgment to this old godless, god-forsaking, wicked world. Oh, but judgment is never God’s last word.

There’s joy coming. There’s joy coming. Another conjunctive word. Look at verse 2, “but for you who fear the Lord”. In contrast, in contradistinction to the earlier group that’s going to be under judgment, there’s another group. And notice how he recognizes them, how he identifies them in verse two. Those who fear my name. He’s already called them that one. They’re those who fear my name. And again, he said they’re those who esteem my name. He said there’s something different coming for them.

Their conduct was different while they were on the earth. Their character was different. when they were on the earth. They lived in a righteousness that was different from the rest of the world. And we know from verse 16, we covered it very thoroughly last time we were together, they would come together and meet with one another. I want to tell you something, folks, are you listening to me? A very strong, true determinant of whether or not you go to heaven is what kind of congregation you’re comfortable with down here on the earth. They got together, the text tells us in verse 16, and they spoke to one another. They communed, they fellowshiped. They wanted to be with their kind of people. If you’re one of these folks who gets to live in the world and live it up in the world and enjoy the pleasures of the world and just give the local church a wink and a nod every now and then, it’s likely you’re not one of God’s. Who you are drawn to. who you love and want to be with when it comes to fellowshipping together as God’s people, it’s a significant, might say revelation, of whether or not you’re saved.

Well, They had a different character, they had a different conduct, they conducted themselves in righteousness, they had a different fellowship they got together with, and they’re gonna have an astonishingly better eternal outcome. It’s going to be wonderful.

Now, there are metaphors in this next phrase that just, pray for me, I hope I can do some justice to it. I can see Malachi writing this Knowing that these phrases, these words are pregnant with wonderful meaning. But I’ll just have to trust the Holy Spirit to help all of us to grasp the joy of all that is here.

He says in verse two, “but for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings”. Good night. What a picture. What a picture. Well, first of all, let’s talk about the word righteous. He’s the son, S-U-N, we’ll talk about that in a moment. He’s the son of righteousness. Now, a good understanding of righteousness, maybe not a fully complete understanding, but a good understanding is you’re righteous when your conduct, your behavior is in keeping with divine justice and all your dealings and all your relations, you function in keeping with divine justice. Gonna let you in on a little secret.

There’s only one who’s ever done that, Jesus. Only one who’s ever walked the earth and perfectly kept divine justice in all his relations and all his dealings and all his interactions with anyone and everyone. Well, he’s righteous. He alone has lived out righteousness. He’s dealt in, he’s fulfilled, he’s lived out holy justice in all of his dealings.

And he’s coming to this wicked, ungodly world. And when he comes into this world, he’s gonna bring to this world, first of all, mandatory righteousness, which means he, by his very character, mandates all his creatures must be righteous. mandatory righteousness. And not only that, he’s coming in punitive righteousness. In other words, he being holy and just himself must punish all unrighteousness. He mandates it and he will thoroughly punish all unrighteousness.

That’s going to be the lot of all of those who don’t know him as their Lord and Savior. But that’s not the context here. In verse two, he’s talking about what it’s gonna be like for his true children. But he comes, the text says, to his own who fear him with not mandatory righteousness, not at this point, not punitive righteousness, but hallelujah, he comes with redemptive righteousness.

Redemptive righteousness, which means, look, listen to me, he has fulfilled all the dictates of holy justice in making you, his child, right before his father. Did you hear that? He has accomplished, fulfilled, honored the complete dictates of holy justice, what it would take in God’s eyes to take a sinner like us and make us acceptable to a holy God. That’s redemptive righteousness.

He didn’t bend the corners. He didn’t just kind of overlook some things. He went to the cross and he dies on the cross and there in that suffering on the cross in our place, our guilt, our condemnation was righteously redeemed, was removed, made right before God. My sin, my guilt, my condemnation is now removed through his righteous redeeming work.

Now, his is not just a redemption, his is a righteous redemption. And by the way, he’s the only one that could perform such a thing. Every other person, every other course, every other plan, idea, philosophy, viewpoint of how you can obtain a right standing with God is rubbish. Only Christ can obtain what we have to have to have a right standing before a holy God.

And since he went to the cross for us, he’s coming again for us. and bringing a bag of joy with him. There’s a key inside in 1 Timothy 3:16. And I can’t tell you the hours, hours I’ve wrestled with this verse. I use it in my training, in my pastoral training class. I may get to it tomorrow night, actually. But Timothy says, Paul says this to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:16. Put it back up there, brothers. Leave it up there for a minute. “By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness”. He’s saying we all agree that it was an incredible mystery of how a man truly becomes an acceptable godly one. I mean, we thought Moses works, 10 commandments, religious ceremonies, bring the sacrifices, do right by your neighbor, love your neighbor, honor your mother and father, on and on and on. These are all the things we thought would make us godly, and we found out none of it worked. Now, it was a mystery, which means it was concealed in the Old Testament, but now in the New Testament, it’s been revealed. A mystery means something that has now been revealed. Wasn’t like a riddle you had to figure out, it just wasn’t clear yet.

Jesus comes and now we see in Jesus, we can become godly ones. When in our own ability, in our own stead, in our own capacities, we could never achieve such a thing. Great is the mystery of godliness. Because you know what, the word godliness, you see it there at the bottom, comes from two Greek word, means true worshiper. There’s only been one true worshiper. Now, the only way to go to God is to go to God as a worshiper. You don’t get to go to God as your buddy. He’s not your buddy. He’s God. But you can go to him as a worshiper. But none of you qualify. I don’t qualify. No one qualifies to go before God and be acceptable to him as one of his and one of his true worshipers.

There’s only been one true worshiper ever walked the face of the earth looking at there in the text. “He’s revealed in the flesh”, his incarnation, Jesus came into the earth. “He was vindicated by the Spirit”. The Spirit bore witness to who he truly was. “He was seen by angels”. He was welcomed in the angelic band among the holiness of God. Only Jesus could do that. He was then “proclaimed among the nations” as the apostles go forth preaching him. He’s been “believed on” all over the world. Then he was “ascended”, he “was taken back up into glory”. And he was the one and only true worshiper. The only one that could be accepted by God, but now we can be acceptable in him, in him. Through what he has done for us, what he has obtained for us, we likewise become true worshipers. Every one of you that know Jesus came in here this morning and sang those songs and God received it because you did it in Christ. You didn’t do it in yourself, you did it in Christ. It’s all of him. And we have become a true worshiper, a true godly one.

Now, moving on, for those who fear his name, those true godly ones that have been made righteous and have a right standing before God through the work and merit of Jesus Christ, verse two, “but those who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings”. Now, it’s S-U-N, not S-O-N, and that’s very purposeful because there’s a powerful figure set forth here that I’m gonna try to unpack.

You see, the sun has those rays that goes out from it, and the sun’s rays permeate everything. I mean, when the sun rises in the morning, its heat and its illumination envelops everything. Likewise, when Jesus comes in judgment, first of all, his wrath will seek out and discover everyone, everywhere, every unsaved, every wicked, and will bring every one of them to justice. It’ll miss nothing. No one will be able to escape. His illuminating wrath will find you, and his illuminating, or his powerful wrath, will destroy you.

So that’s one picture of this sun rising with the rays of the sun touching everything and what it’s going to do to those who are not saved. But number two, for the saved, for that righteous remnant that we saw way back up in verse 16, that feared the Lord and got together when all the rest of Israel were counterfeit and spiritually bankrupt and pseudo in their beliefs. That righteous remnant, those true believers, Jesus comes like the sunrise comes in the morning, and when he comes, he’s gonna touch everything concerning us. He is going to totally and completely saturate our world that we now will have with him with his blessings and his healings, just like the sun covers everything. Every hurt, Every wound, everything the enemies of God inflicts on the church, our own sins will be powerfully burned away by the son of righteousness and beautifully healed by him. As he makes us glorified like himself, so thorough that nothing will be left undone. A thorough healing and eternal healing.

Now he uses the image here of “the sun of righteousness comes with healing in his wings”. The word wings there literally means the edges of the feathers, probably the down that cleans out to the outer edges of the feathers. You ever had a down jacket? I’ve got a down jacket. And you know what, it would be impossible to take that tiny, tiny, fabric, if you will, material that God grows on those feathers of those geese that we make down jackets out of, and spread that out and count every little fiber. You can’t do it, but you know what happens? You put it in a garment, it just fills it, fills it. I think that’s the picture.

Also, he uses the sun of righteousness rises with healing in his wings. So we have like the down of a feather, the light itself is made up of an uncountable number of light rays. I did some research on that, light beams or light rays. Scientists tell us you can put just an incredible amount of light rays inside of every human hair. So how many light rays you reckon it takes to light up the whole world?

The picture here is thoroughness, thoroughness. He leaves nothing untouched when he returns. He’s just gonna pack every crevice of our being with his joy. Every aspect, every molecule of your being is gonna be radically touched, filled, saturated by blessings, healings, and joy. The contrast of how he’s coming for the wicked and how he’s coming for his children is overwhelming. I cannot do it justice. Let me get back to my notes before I run away somewhere. I might go in that house over there and never come out again. So you got all of these tiny light rays, light beams that could exist in a strand of hair. Now expand that out to enough of them to cover the earth, even illuminate out to the far distance of our solar system, and you have an unthinkable number of rays of light. It’s an unbelievable penetration, saturation, and all-encompassing smothering of Jesus’ love and goodness and blessings and joy for us. Oh, I want to just take this pulpit and throw it up through the air. It’s just astonishing the depth the prophet goes through under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to try to tell you, church, what God’s got for you, what he’s got waiting for you.

Not one tiny macroscopic place in the corner of the surface of the furthest planet can hide from the sun when it shines and it’ll be touched and filled by the sun’s rays and like manner when Jesus returns he envelops us the sun envelops the earth, just like rather the sun envelops the earth when it comes up at dawn, and he’ll envelop us, he will smother us, and again, every part of our being will be just smothered in goodness, blessings, healings, and joy. This is incomparable. This is indescribable. It’s unimaginable, and it’s true. It’s true.

No wonder Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2:9, “But just as it is written, things which eye has not seen”. You’ve never seen anything like what’s gonna happen when he comes back for you. “Ears have not heard”, you’ve never heard anything like what you’re gonna hear on that day. “And have not entered the heart of men”. Your heart’s never even contemplated the joy he’s gonna bring to you on that day. “All that God has prepared for those who love him”.

So, there’s been that blazing, blasting furnace of fire in judgment. That’s already happened on the earth. And the earth lay burned and destroyed in ashes. And out of that darkness, Jesus comes up over the horizon with healing in his wings. And unnumberable shafts of love and blessing and goodness just permeate everything.

He’s gonna fill, he’s gonna permeate, he’s gonna saturate the earth in divine goodness, blessing, and in joy. That’s what the word healing in his wings mean. Every single thing you need, he’s gonna have.

Backtrack to us today. Today we live, we breathe, we strive, we fail, we sin, we fall, we serve, but as his children, our total being even today is engulfed safely under the wings of Jesus. Look what the prophet says next. Verse two, “and you will go forth and skip like calves from the stall”. Skipping is a little bit out because I’ve got a bad knee, but I won’t have one then. So he says, you’re gonna go forth, the picture is, you’ve been housed up, you’ve been forced into this little shell of your little remnant church, the people that really love God and you go out into the world and they try to smack you down and run you down and persecute you. In England today, in England today, if you say too much, just scripture on the street corner, you can be put in prison. Canada’s got some laws along that line, I understand. We’ve been given a reprieve under President Trump in our new Supreme Court, it seems like. But on the whole, God’s children were encased and oppressed and pushed out, considered the out-scourings of the earth.

He said, oh, but it’s going to turn around quickly one day. I’m going to burst open the gate. You’ll be like a calf running out of a stall that’s been closed up in for a long time. I worked with cows when I was in high school. No, not people who are like cows, but cattle. And the man I worked for had several hundred head of cattle and he was known to buy calves from these dairy farmers, the little steers. And he would bring them in and they’d still have to be bottle fed. And we’d feed them bottles and everything. And it was just so fun when you get there about daylight in the morning, you open the stall, they’d just kick and buck and jump and they just loved it. And God said, that’s the way you’re gonna feel. When I return. You’re going to be beside yourself for joy. That’s what he’s saying.

Now, here’s one of the beautiful things is, we will have joy, but Jesus is also giving us his joy. You say, well, what’s that mean? I’m not sure, but it’s good. It’s wonderfully good. You see, Jesus has a deep joy in us and a deep joy and satisfaction in his work to reach us, save us, secure us, keep us, and one day glorify us. And that’s what we’re looking at, the glorified state. Hebrews 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy”. We hear a lot of preaching today, and I’m not saying it’s in error. I’m just saying it’s incomplete that when they look at Jesus on the cross, it’s like he had nothing to gain from it. He gave it all up. Not true. He went there because he knew what he was going to accomplish. He was going to have for himself a children out of that work. And for the joy of what he was going to bring forth, us, He endured the cross, despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So we have joy with him. We have joy in him over what he’s made of us eternal beings. John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full”. Remember in the parable of the talents, the faithful servant was to enter the joy of his master. So in one very real sense, you can add up all the joy human beings possibly can experience. And then God said, oh, that’s just a start. I’m fixing to give you all the joy that I know as God.

Y’all don’t get this, you don’t appreciate it, you don’t get it. You don’t get it. You need to tell yourself, I don’t get it. You don’t get it. I don’t get it. But it’s getting me.

That’s what God has in store for his children, that kind of joy. On that day, The children of God will run and buck and kick and play just like a calf let out of its stall. We’ll have a God-designed, God-sized joy. We’ll be literally smothered in it, smothered in divine joy. We’re tasting a little of it now down here, but it’s like seeing through a glass dimly. We’re just getting a little taste. But on that day, we’ll be baptized in a joy of divine quality, divine depth, and divine duration. It will never, ever end. Listen, church, not one tiny trace of care will be there. Not one tiny trace of concern or anxiety or depression or worry. Listen, any and everything that could possibly dampen joy is permanently banished. Gone forever.

I can see two guys talking. And one fellow said, the other said, what’d you do today? He said, man, I run, I ran, and I bucked, and I kicked, and I jumped like a calf let out of its stall. Well, what did you do yesterday? He said, man, I ran, and I bucked, and I jumped, kicked like a calf let out of its stall. What are you gonna do tomorrow? He said, I think I’ll just run and buck and kick and jump like a calf, let out of a stall. Because the joy never ends. Never ends.

But this sermon ends, and it’s about to. But your joy never ends. Look at what he says in verse three. “You will tread down the wicked”, figure of speech, Well, “they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on that day, which I am preparing. Says the Lord of hosts”. Ashes and all of those who hated God and hated us because we love God will be ashes under our feet. Cowell says in his commentary. “The wrath of God smote them, and here their ruins lie, an awful monument to the madness of sin and the justice of God”.

The phrase says, God said, that’s what’s gonna happen “on the day I’m preparing”. God said, I’m prepared to do exactly what I’m telling you I’m gonna do. Listen to me, God says, I do exactly what I tell you I’m gonna do. Literally, that phrase in our text in the New American Standard, the day I’m preparing could be the day that I act. In other words, God’s been patiently sitting in heaven, watching his remnant be built. And one day he’s going to come and act himself on planet Earth. That’s what’s going to happen.

Act one, the reveling of the wicked. I’ve let the wicked go. I’ve been patient and long-suffering, and they’re the dominant force and the dominant philosophy of the world. Even so many who call themselves Christians are counterfeits and pseudo-Christians. All of them make up the revelings of the wicked.

At the same time, act two, I’ve been bringing together my remnant, my true church, my true children.

Then, of course, Acts chapter 3, God himself will return with judgment and joy. When he gets through, here we walk over the ashes of all of those who would not trust Jesus with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Not join in those who departed but join the goodness of our God that he would save us. You see the wicked, the ungodly, the unbeliever strutted the earth in pride and arrogance and now they are crushed to ashes and the righteous remnant skip over their ashes in the joy of the Lord. He’s coming again. in judgment, but oh my goodness, in joy. In joy.