The Great Day Coming

Psalm 98 / Mal 3:13-4:6

John 3:16–17 “or God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Judgment / Justice

Malachi 3:13–15 “Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ 14 You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? 15 And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’ ””

Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”

Elijah’s Ministry

Warning

Malachi 4:6 “… lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.””

Repentance

Malachi 3:6–7 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’”

Malachi 4:4 “4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.”

Galatians 3:24 “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”

…to restore [sinners] through a Mediator to unfeigned obedience to the holy Law, is one great end of the Gospel - Article 12 (Of the Harmony of the Law and the Gospel ) 1833 NBCF

The Law is never to be an end to itself, but only a boundary for the inflated human ego and a pattern for the common good - Richard Rhor “The Tears of Everythng”

Malachi 4:6 “6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers…

So as in the days of OT Isreal, and the early days of the NT Church, we today should not jettison or ignore the Law of God, but rather allow it to point us through repentance to a right and closer relationship to our God and savior

Witness

Malachi = My Messenger

Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”

Matthew 17:11–13 “He answered, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. 12 But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.”

Mark 1:1–4 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ” 4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

As Elijah was God’s Witness and Messenger in Israel in the days of Ahab (nearly a millenia before the birth of Jesus), and as John was God’s Witness and Messenger telling of the coming Messiah - Jesus, so too today it is our place as the churches and people of God to be witness and messenger to tell of the return of Jesus in Glory, and Judgment, and Vindication of God and His People.

The Great and Awesome Day

Vindication of God

Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”

Matthew 7:22–23 “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

Vindication of God’s People

Malachi 3:16–18 “Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.”

Born of a virgin, Jesus lovingly entered our world as our substitute whose life and death satisfied sin's just condemnation. While this saving work required justice, His heart's desire was truly one of rescue, mercy, and love. Similarly, the Great Day of the Lord will certainly include divine justice, yet its deeper purpose is to supremely glorify God and eternally exalt all who are in Christ!