Reality Check (The Day of the Lord (Part 1): Judgement)

A. God, out of His mere good pleasure, from all eternity, having chosen a people to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation, by a Redeemer.

Pastoral Prayer

Health of the Church, Janie, People Exploring god’s will for their lives.

Let us Pray

We are starting the last chapter of Malachi today as he wraps up his prophecy with a foretelling of the great day of the Lord. Malachi is a book disputation where he brings forth a series of charges against Israel and then brings forth the evidence as proof to that charge. These charges should have motivated Israel to repent and to turn back to God but we know from history that they failed to do so.

Have you at any level been motivated to evaluate where you are at in your life? Have any of the charges against Israel come a little to close to home? Well they should, we see all throughout scripture that we are prone to wander and turn to our own ways.

Open you bibles to Chapter 4. Stand as we read God’s Word.

Malachi 4 (CSB)

1 “For look, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble. The coming day will consume them,” says the Lord of Armies, “not leaving them root or branches. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall. 3 You will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the Lord of Armies.

4 “Remember the instruction of Moses my servant, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. 5 Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

In the Hebrew text chapter 4 is not a separate chapter it is a continuation of chapter three. The text is following up on the end of the last chapter.

Malachi 3:13–18 (CSB)

13 “Your words against me are harsh,” says the Lord.

Yet you ask, “What have we spoken against you?”

14 You have said, “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping his requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Armies? 15 So now we consider the arrogant to be fortunate. Not only do those who commit wickedness prosper, they even test God and escape.”

16 At that time those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. The Lord took notice and listened. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who feared the Lord and had high regard for his name. 17 “They will be mine,” says the Lord of Armies, “my own possession on the day I am preparing. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. 18 So you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

The people of Israel had let their desire for material wealth cloud their view of God. They looked at the prosperity of the wicked in contrast to their own prosperity and had concluded that is was worthless to serve God and that they had not gained what they thought they deserved from God. They were acting the part but their hearts were not in the right. But we saw that there was a remnant that feared the Lord and spoke to one another and had high regard for God’s name. God listened to these people and claimed them to be his possession on the day he is preparing. He will have compassion on them and once again it will be crystal clear who is the righteous and who is the wicked.

Chapter 4 continues with explaining more about the day of the Lord.

The Day of The Lord

Malachi 4:1 (CSB)

1 “For look, the day is coming, ...

The day is coming...

Earlier in chapter three we saw that God was going to send two future messengers. We learned that the first was John the baptist and the second was Jesus at his second coming. This is another reference to a future day of the Lord.

The day of lord can be a little confusing since the phrase is used in multiple ways in the scriptures. The prophets used it to foretell of events that would take place in the history of Isreal that we have seen happen and far off events that have not happened. This day is associated with judgement. When we use the word judgement we usually think of people saying “don’t judge me” or “you are so judgmental”. The other way we use it today is in the courthouse. Who here has ever been to a court house and sat before a judge. I had to once for a car accident that I was in. What is the role of the judge they are supposed to take the situation and determine who was right or wrong based on a set of standards. In theory they are not supposed to apply their own biases into the judgement. They are supposed to apply the law.

We see in scripture multiple times that God will sit in judgement over man. But unlike worldly judges, his conclusions will be flawless and will be based on the perfect standard of himself.

One of the future judgments we see is the Judgment Seat of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:10 (CSB)

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Romans 14:10 (CSB)

10 But you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

This is the time where Christians will stand before Jesus and will receive rewards for the good or bad that they have done in their lives

1 Corinthians 3:12–15 (CSB)

12 If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. 14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved—but only as through fire.

The good works that come from a saved person will be rewarded and the bad or better worthless works will lead to loss. We don’t know what the rewards will be or specifically the loss other than the works themselves. We do know that it is not the condemnation of our sin because the Judge Jesus already took on that punishment for our iniquity.

There is the judgment of the Nation Israel

Ezekiel 20:33–38 (CSB)

33 As I live—the declaration of the Lord God—I will reign over you with a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and outpoured wrath. 34 I will bring you from the peoples and gather you from the countries where you were scattered, with a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and outpoured wrath. 35 I will lead you into the wilderness of the peoples and enter into judgment with you there face to face. 36 Just as I entered into judgment with your ancestors in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you. This is the declaration of the Lord God. 37 I will make you pass under the rod and will bring you into the bond of the covenant. 38 I will purge you of those who rebel and transgress against me. I will bring them out of the land where they live as foreign residents, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Here God will remove the rebels from the nation of Isreal. This will bring them under the new covenant of Jesus. The Jews that will be saved will be saved by grace through faith.

Then there is the judgement of the nations seen in Joel and what is called the sheep-goat judgement that is in Matthew 25.

There is also the Great White Throne Judgement in Revelation at the end of this world.

Revelation 20:11–15 (CSB)

11 Then I saw a great white throne and one seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books. 13 Then the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them; each one was judged according to their works. 14 Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

There are others and this verse in Malachi speaks to a judgment that will come to the people of Israel. Which exact judgement is hard to pinpoint but what we do know from scripture is that it will come.

Acts 17:31 (CSB)

31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

This is assured if we believe the bible is infallible.

The issue for Israel and for us today is that many have moved away from the belief that the bible is inerrant. People do not like to think about a God that will actually hold people accountable to their actions. They do not want a God that has standards different than theirs. They create a God in their own mind and then find others like them who think the same way. People also lose patience with God.

2 Peter 3:3–4 (CSB)

3 Above all, be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days scoffing and following their own evil desires, 4 saying, “Where is his ‘coming’ that he promised? Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.”

Israel had redefined God and by redefining God they have moved away from the things of God and violated the covenant of God.

Through the Fire

Once again we see that the day of judgement will be like a raging furnace that consumes. This day of judgement is not talking about those that God has claimed as his possession and written in his book of remembrance. These are those who have rejected God even though they may act like they have not.

And it says

Malachi 4:1 (CSB)

This judgement will consume them. It will consume them from root to branch. How many of you have ever stood next to a fire that was so hot that you just could not be near it. This is the image of the furnace here. I remember as a kid being at one of my dad’s friends houses. They were casting metal belt buckles and the furnace was so hot that it could melt metal. They had just poured the metal into the cast and has left. Me and my brother thought it would be a good idea to go back into the shop and take a look. So my little brother got up on a stool and looked down the hole at the glowing metal. All of a sudden he springs back and has this weird look on his face. I look at him and something doesn’t look right. His eyebrows are white. He reaches up and proceeds to wipe his eyebrows off of his head. The fire was so hot that it turned his eyebrows to ash.

The fires of judgement will burn so hot that everything will be consumed. Those that are not God’s possession will be completely consumed. Now this does not mean annihilation where they cease to exist. The bible does not teach the idea of the wicked just disappearing. just that there will be nothing to stand on at the time of judgement.

They will be consumed from branch to root. If you have ever had a garden then you know that just pulling a weed does not make it go away. You ave to get rid of the root. This will not be a pleasant time. And who will be at this judgement.

For the Arrogant

For the arrogant and those who commit wickedness. Romans put it this way

Romans 2:5 (CSB)

5 Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.

What makes someone arrogant. These were the people that believed that they just did not need God. They have it all figured out and that God is not worth it.

Malachi 3:14–15 (CSB)

God is grouping the Israelites as arrogant as well. They were complaining about who they felt were not following God but failed to realize they were in the same boat. They had come to the conclusion that this is a waste of time, it is a burden, and that it was all in vain. These people are the exact opposite of Paul

1 Timothy 1:15 (CSB)

15 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them.

There is an understanding of the humble that they are nothing without Christ. That they stand before God in his righteousness not their own. These people were living a life that did not need or want God to rule over them. And this belief leads to one thing, living a life of wickedness. This is not the wickedness we think of today because each one of us has a different definition of where the line is between right and wrong. Pick your political party and many define the other as wicked. Put you kid in public school or home school and the other is wicked and damaging their children. This is not how God defines wickedness. Is the inward motive for outward behavior that is not pleasing to God. It isn’t what they were doing, it was why they were doing it. The priests were behaving in a way to gain prosperity not to honor God. The pharisees did the same thing. They were behaving in a way that looked righteous but in their hearts they were doing it for themselves.

These people will be easily consumed like stubble or chafe. The outside of a seed that dries and falls away. easily consumed and used in the bible to define something as worthless as having no value.

Conclusion

What do we take away from this today? It would be wise for us to sit back and take a look and just to make sure we are not decided and acting a part and not actually living for God. This day will be for those that God has not claimed. Each of us should know we are not going to be at this judgement.

We should look at our own motives. We can do everything expected of us in the church and not actually be doing it for Christ. We can give our tenth and come to the communion table. We can even read our bible for our own selfish reasons.

Do you remember the Catechism question we had today?

Q. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

We are free of this state by the blood of Jesus. Amen. We should do everything for the Glory of God not for our own selfish desires and what a fine line that is. Am I doing this for God or myself.

Because of this we must abide in the Son. And live for him.

1 John 4:7–21 (CSB)

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

Let us pray.

Luke 22:19–20 CSB

19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Benediction

Romans 15:5–6 (CSB)

5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.

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