When God Makes the Distinction

Malachi 3:16-18 ESV

16 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.

I’m sure that we all have, during our time spent in the workforce, been subjected to some kind of employee evaluation—an annual or bi-annual review at work. Typically, before the evaluation takes place, the supervisor is busy checking timecards and observing who is truly doing their job and who is merely present.

From the outside, everyone may look the same. They all wear the same uniform, they all clock in, they all attend the same meetings, but over time, the supervisor notices a difference. He notices who is merely there and who actually cares about the work and the one who hired him. Often that distinction isn’t made loudly or publicly. It’s written down. It’s remembered. And eventually it shows itself when promotions, trust, or responsibilities are given.

That is very close to what we see in our reading as we close our series of sermons from Malachi, chapter three this morning. In a time of widespread religious apathy—when many people were openly saying, “It is vain to serve God”—there was a small, quiet group who feared the Lord and esteemed His name. They weren’t the loudest. They weren’t the majority. They weren’t outwardly impressive. But the Lord was listening.

The prophet, Malachi, had delivered the word of the Lord to Israel, and it seemed as if everyone who had heard the message had responded with hard words against the Lord. The almost universal response to God’s message to the people was “How?!”. “How have we offended God?! How have we done anything wrong?! We’ve been doing all sorts of stuff for God, yet we still feel neglected!”.

But the reality is that the people had not been serving the Lord, they were trying to do just the bare minimum and couldn’t manage to even do that. What they did do felt like a burden to them, it wasn’t done out of love or reverence for God, and they resented God for it.

So, when God sent Malachi to them with a message telling them to repent and turn to Him, they say, “Turn to You?! We’ve been doing all of this religious stuff that You tell us to do, and honestly, we haven’t been getting much out of it, so it’s more like, You need to do for us!”.

Well, as we already said, though most everyone who heard this message responded in a negative manner, as we close our series of sermons this morning, we do in fact see a positive response to the prophet’s message, though I’m sure that it was a response elicited only by a minority in Israel.

We see this positive response, this obedient act carried out by the minority when we read, “Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another”.

So, the first thing that we observe is the word “then”, which tells us when what follows had taken place. This response was given after the message which the Lord had given through Malachi had been delivered to them. And so, having heard the word of the Lord, and likely having meditated on it for some time, “Those who feared the Lord” responded.

That these who responded are identified and described as “those who feared the Lord” indicates that they received the message of the prophet seriously and took its contents to heart.

They recognized where they were at fault and deserving of God’s judgment. They did not debate with God and accuse Him of unjustly accusing them as the majority had done, but instead, they sought to legitimately repent so that they may rightly love and serve their God.

And in order to do this, we read that they came together and “spoke with one another”. So, obviously, as time had went by, there had been a consensus wherein it was recognized who had scoffed at the message of the Lord and who had received it in humility. And as the distinction had been made, those who responded with humility, “those who feared the Lord” sought community with one another so that they may talk about what the word of the Lord that they had received means, and then encourage one another to respond to it rightly.

We then read that “the Lord paid attention and heard them”.

Now, this is interesting in that the people had been complaining that God does not bring about justice as they cynically asked at the end of chapter two, “Where is the God of justice?!”.

Indeed, they had complained so much that they even went on to foolishly say that the wicked are actually blessed because they are not immediately punished. In saying this, they actually had the nerve to say that while God is sovereign over the world, He doesn’t really care about what is happening in it and He doesn’t even bother to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked.

But when we read that the Lord paid attention and heard them, we know that He doestake notice, He does pay attention, and He keeps record of those who are His and those who are not. We this as we read “a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed His name”.

In this, in God recording the names of those who responded to His word with fear, obedience, and repentance, we know that God keeps track of those who love Him and those who do not. Not only that, but it lets those who feared the Lord know that contrary to what the majority said, God would remember them, and that He does distinguish the righteous from the wicked.

They are defined as “those who feared the Lord and esteemed His name”. And so, we see here an added dimension to fearing the Lord in “esteeming His name”.

When it is said that these “esteem His name” it means that these respect and revere God. They don’t simply see God as the One Who can bless them, Who can make their lives easier, Who is burdensome to obey, but instead, they respect God, they revere God, they love God. These ones, then, as well as now, and in the future, God remembers favorably, these ones, God remembers with love.

And as God remembers those who fear Him with love, He pronounces a blessing over them. we see this as God says, “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”.

Here, in this blessing that God pronounces over those who He has claimed as His, we are brought again to “the day” that was mentioned back in verse two of this chapter. There, we read that that “day” is described as the day of the Lord’s coming, a day when He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.

There, we said that on that “day”, that when those who are counting on the righteousness of their own works attempt to stand before God as those deserving of His mercy and kindness, that they will be consumed in the refining process.

But we also said that those whose righteousness is a legitimate righteousness, a righteous owing to the grace of God alone, that when they stand before the Lord, they will be washed clean, and summoned to enter into “the joy of the Lord”.

God says that “on that day”, on the day of His coming, these ones, these whose righteousness is a legitimate righteousness coming from God, shall be His. This includes those who exhibited repentance at the words of Malachi, and it includes we today who do not scoff at the word of God, who do not grow angry or weary of the word of God, but who embrace, even when it tells us to repent.

These ones, God says, will be His “treasured possession”. In this sense, a “treasure possession” refers to the private property of a king amid his ownership of everything in his kingdom. So, while a king is king over his entire kingdom, still, those things which he personally possesses and holds dear are considered to be his personal treasure.

Well, God says that on the day of His coming, He will gather to Himself those who are among His treasured possession. And so, while God is sovereign over everything, while everything is technically His, He nonetheless possesses those in this world who He considers to be His “treasured possession”.

Those who are God’s “treasured possession” are His own elect people, chosen to a gracious salvation from before the foundation of the world. And so, on the day of His coming, God will gather His elect people, His special, treasured possession, and in so doing, He publicly reveal that He favors them as they publicly receive His favor.

And as He receives them as His treasured possession, He will effectively “spare them as a man spares his son who serves him” from the judgment and wrath that will come upon others, namely those who dispute the Lord and His word, as was the case with the majority in Israel. This means that as we are more merciful, patient, loving, and kind towards our own children than we are to others, so it is with the Lord, Who will deal mercifully and graciously towards those who are His “treasured possession”, while dealing with those who are not His with His fierce judgment.

And so, the Lord concludes by saying, “Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and one who does not serve Him”.

“Then”, that is, on that day when the Lord comes, He says, no one will ever again be tempted to think that “the arrogant are blessed” or that evildoers “escape” the judgment of God.

On that day, people will never wonder again, “where is the God of justice?”. On that day, no one will say ever again, “it is vain to serve the Lord”. But rather, on that day, there will be a clear distinction, a distinction between the righteous and the evildoer, a distinction between the “one who serves God and one who does not serve Him”.

The distinction will be clear as those who are in the “book of remembrance”, who are among the Lord’s “treasured possession” will be the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem, while those who are evildoers, who are far from God, will be cast forever into the Lake of Fire.

As we close this passage, we should feel both a comfort and a warning resting upon us.

The comfort is this: the Lord knows those who are His. In a world where faithfulness often goes unnoticed, where fearing the Lord may seem small and insignificant, God assures us that not a word spoken in reverence, not a sigh of repentance, not a quiet act of obedience is ignored. The righteous are not forgotten. Their names are written, not because God is forgetful, but because He is faithful.

But there is also a warning. This text reminds us that proximity to religious activity is not the same thing as belonging to God. Israel had sacrifices, priests, and ceremonies—yet many did not fear the Lord. And the same danger exists still. It is possible to hear God’s Word, to be among God’s people, and yet respond with cynicism rather than repentance.

So the question before us is not merely, Do I attend? or Do I participate?but rather, Do I fear the Lord? Do I esteem His name? When God’s Word confronts us, do we argue with Him—or do we bow before Him?

The good news is that God does not despise the broken and contrite heart. Those who turn to Him in repentance, trusting not in their own righteousness but in the righteousness He provides, are claimed by Him as His treasured possession. And on the day when the Lord makes that distinction fully and finally, those who belong to Christ will be spared—not because they served perfectly, but because they were graciously made sons.

May we be found among those who fear the Lord, speak with one another, and rest in the mercy of our faithful God.

Amen?