The Coming Day of the Lord - Part 3 (Mal 3:16-4:6)

Announcements

Discipleship Groups will start September 4th at 9am, every Sunday. Children will meet in the Activity Room; Adults will meet in the Auditorium.

Church Cookout on September 11th after Sunday AM Worship.

No Bible Study & Prayer on September 21, 2022.

Seeking a new treasurer starting immediately. Must be a member in good standing with the ability to utilize a computer and must be willing to work on behalf of the church with the bank. Contact Pastor Daniel for more information.

Let me remind you to continuing worshiping the LORD through your giving. To help you with your giving, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) in-person giving can be done through the offering box at the front of the room—checks should be written to Grace & Peace, if you’d like a receipt for your cash gifts, please place it in an envelope with your name on it. Debit, Credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or by (3) visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church and selecting Giving in the menu bar. Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 59:11-17)

Our Call to Worship this morning is Psalm 59:11-17. In the first half of the psalm, David prayed for his own deliverance; in this second portion of Psalm 59, he sees the destruction of those who he seeks deliverance from. He ends this psalm by giving thanks to the Lord for being his strength and his refuge. Please stand and read Psalm 59:11-17 with me. I’ll read the odd-numbered verses; please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Psalm 59:11–17 ESV

11 Kill them not, lest my people forget; make them totter by your power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield! 12 For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter, 13 consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah 14 Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city. 15 They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill. 16 But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. 17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.

Congregational Singing

Come, Praise and Glorify (44)

A Mighty Fortress is our God (53)

There is a Higher Throne (119)

Scripture Reading (Acts 17:22-31)

Our Scripture Reading is Acts 17:22-31, which is when Paul is at the Areopagus in Athens and he confronts the idolatry of the people in Athens. It’s really an example of what it means to proclaim the Gospel utilizing apologetics to do so. This passage ends by telling the people of the incoming judgment to those who refuse to repent and believe, which is essentially what Malachi does this morning as well. Natalie can you read Acts 17:22-31?

Acts 17:22–31 ESV

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Sermon

Introduction

If you have your Bible with you, please turn it to Malachi 3:16-4:6.

We are to the end of our time in the book of Malachi and to give you a heads up, after we finish Malachi today, we’ll start a new series next week. I’m very much looking forward to this coming series and I hope you’ll learn from it as well. As many of you know, when we planted our church, we started a long-running series through the Gospel according to John. I did this intentionally because quite frankly, I didn’t know where everyone was when it came to what they knew of the Gospel and what they knew about Jesus. I wanted us to start with the life of Jesus because Jesus is the foundation or cornerstone of our entire belief system.

As you know, we occasionally take breaks from the long-running series just to give everyone a chance to hear from other parts of Scripture, but also because occasionally, it does help to put down one book and focus on another for some time—so we did series on Jonah, Nahum, Christmas, the Resurrection, the Purpose of the Church, and this summer, spiritual gifts and Malachi.

Now that we’ve finished up the Gospel according to John, we need to start another long-running series and when you consider that we spent such a long time working through Jesus’ life, where should we go next? Well, chronologically, what happens next in the New Testament? Next week, we’re going to start an expositional series through the Acts of the Apostles—we’ll see exactly what happens after the Gospels and we’ll follow the apostles laying the foundation for the church throughout the then known-world. We’ll learn a lot about what the apostles preached, what they taught, and how they established the first-century church. And of course, we’ll learn what exactly the record of the early church’s history ought to mean for us today.

For today, however, the end of Malachi is one of great warning that ought to compel repentance and genuine belief in God. What we see in the last nine verses of Malachi is both encouragement for believers and warning towards unbelievers. It wraps up the whole book by calling the people to repent, get back on track, and to believe. This morning, I’m going to give a little bit of a refresher through the whole book while we work through the text for this morning, so that we can learn how to apply the whole book to our lives today.

Let’s read Malachi 3:16-4:6 together.

Malachi 3:16–4:6 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. 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. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. 4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. 5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome 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, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) The Book of Remembrance (3:16-18) and (2) The Great Day of the Lord (4:1-6). The last nine verses of Malachi close off the book by speaking of a different book, this book of remembrance that God has access to and by reminding them yet again, of the coming day of the Lord. The last few verses of Malachi end the book by warning them and calling them to repentance. We could essentially say it like this, Malachi ends by telling them that God is coming, so repent from your sins and believe in Him. The sermon for this morning will focus on Malachi’s call to repentance while still emphasizing assurance for those who genuinely believe in Him.

Prayer for Illumination

The Book of Remembrance (3:16-18)

Our text for this morning starts by almost shifting or panning our view from speaking of the sins of Israel to speaking of what would happen if they repented and what would happen if they didn’t.

Remember, that last week’s text focused yet another indictment from God against the Israelites. God makes it very clear that all the indictments that He had leveled against the Israelites were the result of them sinning and leaving Him, not the other way.

They had sinned and they were experiencing great distance and separation from the Lord because of their sin.

Throughout the whole book of Malachi God has been calling out their sins:

He calls out the sinful leadership of the priests in Malachi 1 and how they were leading the people of Israel astray in their worship of the Lord and their sacrifices to Him.

He calls out the fact that they’re offering faulty or blemished sacrifices to the Lord despite knowing what they ought to be worshiping to the Lord—they know what they were supposed to be doing, but they refused to do what was right.

In Malachi 2, God rebukes the priests and places a curse on them, that if they will not repent, they will be judged harshly for their sins. We also see God pointing out the sins of Israel themselves and He makes it abundantly clear that while the priests were responsible for leading the people incorrectly, the people were responsible for following them despite knowing better.

Despite knowing the truth and despite knowing what was right, Israel was guilty of not following the covenant that they had with God and thus, ch. 3, starts by informing us of the impending judgment that was coming towards Israel before giving them another indictment for their sins.

The indictment in ch. 3 given by God to the Israelites is that they’re sinning against Him by robbing Him of their tithes and offerings. Because they aren’t giving God what He is owed, they’re robbing Him of what He rightfully deserves.

And the whole point that God is driving at in Malachi has been interspersed between each indictment—the Israelites are in sin, they need to repent from their sins, or there will be judgment. Consequently, this is essentially the same message that every prophet in the Old Testament has—you’re in sin, repent from your sin, or face impending judgment (we call it the prophetic formula).

We read in v. 16 what happens to those who hear the words of the indictments against them and respond properly, “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.”

The result of God calling out Israel for their sins—their improper worship, their lack of giving, and their profaning of the Covenant was that some of them actually repent.

When the Bible speaks of those who fear the Lord, it isn’t necessarily speaking of the idea of being afraid of God, but rather having the mindset of reverentially being in awe of God. It’s the idea of recognizing who God actually is and responding properly to the truth.

And because these people had heard the indictments of God against them for their sins and because they rightly understood who they were in light of who God is, it resulted in their repentance.

We know that it resulted in their repentance because v. 16 says that “[God] paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.”

Only those who learn the truth about God and acknowledge their sins and the consequences for their sins respond to the Lord with genuine fear and esteem.

Only those who learn the truth about God and acknowledge their sins and the consequences for their sins respond to the Lord with repentance.

And what we see in v. 16, is that their repentance is acknowledged by God and God calls those who genuinely repent His own who will be spared.

V. 17 tells us that those who repent, “shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, [and] in the day when [He makes] up [His] treasured possession,” He will spare them “as a man spares his son who serves him.”

When they respond to the indictments laid against them by the Lord with repentance, they will be spared from the impending judgment that God has repeatedly warned them about.

Those that genuinely fear the Lord and esteem His name will be His treasured possession and they won’t experience the judgment that’s coming upon Israel for their sins.

The reason for this is found in v. 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.”

There is a distinction that God makes between those who are righteous and those who are wicked; between those who choose to serve God and those who don’t serve God.

This distinction really shouldn’t surprise us, the Bible clearly teaches this distinction throughout the Old and New Testaments—there are always some who choose to follow the Lord and there are always many who choose not to follow the Lord.

And in v. 18, the point being made is that those who genuinely repent, who believe, who are in this book of remembrance because they fear the Lord and esteem His name, will be God’s and they will be spared, and because of their repentance, they will see this distinction between righteousness and wickedness as well.

They will see this distinction between those who choose to serve the Lord and those that refuse to serve the Lord, which also shouldn’t surprise us because Scripture elsewhere points out that those who believe see the world differently than those who don’t.

So while the world thinks what we believe to be utter foolishness, we know the truth; and because we know the truth, we see the distinction between righteousness and wickedness.

Note also, that in these three verses, there is a serious amount of hope packed in. Those who genuinely believe, those who have repented, those who are His can find hope in the fact that they are His.

The idea of a book of remembrance being written in which those who fear the Lord and esteem His name ought to give hope because it tells us that God takes to account our general posture towards Him. He keeps track of those that genuinely believe.

And because He keeps track of those who genuinely believe and have repented and responded in such a way that they fear the Lord and esteem His name, you can have hope that He will do what He says that He will do.

If He didn’t keep track of who believed and He didn’t pay attention to those who feared Him and esteemed His name, there wouldn’t be any hope.

In addition, because He does pay attention to who believe, who has repented, and those who don’t; it is yet another warning to those who haven’t repented, that time is running short. Time is running so short, in fact, that the remaining six verses of our text speaks of what is to come. Let’s look at these verses again.

The Great Day of the Lord (4:1-6)

Malachi 4:1–6 ESV

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. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. 4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. 5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome 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, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

God gives hope to those who repent and believe; and He warns those who refuse to repent, why? Because there is a day coming, (what the Bible occasionally refers to as the Great Day of the Lord) and in that day, “all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble [or straw] and they will be set ablaze to the extent that nothing will be left.

What God describes is something drastic and something terrifying and something absolutely warranting a warning. What is to come to those who don’t repent and respond to the Lord with the fear, honor, and respect owed His name is that of nightmares.

And what Malachi says here, is what Scripture says elsewhere as well, Joel 2:1-3 “1 Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the Lord is coming; Indeed, it is near, 2 A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations. 3 A fire consumes before them, And behind them a flame devours. The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, But a desolate wilderness behind them, And nothing at all escapes them.”

It ought to provoke fear and it ought to cause trembling because what is to come to those who continue in their sin without repentance is that of devastation.

Now, you might hear that and you might think to yourself, how is this right or how could God do this without giving them a chance to correct themselves?

To answer the second question, remember, this isn’t God’s first warning to the Israelites:

This is His last of many. God has repeatedly called on the Israelites to repent, but they chose not to.

As we’re told in 2 Peter 3:9 “9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.”

God has been longsuffering towards the Israelites, but their time for repentance is almost up. The time for them to pay the consequences for their sins is upon them.

To answer the first question, “how is this right?” I think you might have a fundamental misunderstanding of how terrible our sin is.

We tend to justify our sins—it’s just a white lie, or at least I didn’t do something worse, but God doesn’t view sin like that.

All sin is an affront towards God—it is direct disobedience, it is rejection of God, it is rebellion against Him.

And because God is holy and just, it’s only right for Him to hold us accountable for the sins that we commit.

Really, we ought to be thankful that God gives us the choice to repent instead of automatically giving us the consequences of our sins.

The fact that He has warned the Israelites repeatedly show us that He is loving and gracious and kind.

But those who don’t choose to repent based off the warning that God has repeatedly given, nothing is left for them beyond paying for the consequences of their sin. God describes it as them being set ablaze. Those who believe and have repented will be safe vv. 2-3 tells us that those “who fear [His] name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.”

The judgment that’s coming against the wicked is so drastic that all that remains from those who face the judgment will be dust and ashes.

The judgment will be complete and utter and will result in those who do wickedness being trampled as ash under the soles of the righteous.

Now, don’t get mixed up here—hearing that those who are wicked will be trampled underfoot by the righteous might give an impression that the righteous will play some role in the judgment that’s coming for the wicked, but look carefully at the text.

The righteous shall rise with healing, but the wicked, when they’re tread down under the soles of the righteous’ feet are already ashes when the righteous treads on them. God is the judge who enacts judgment upon them. Man doesn’t judge man; God is the judge.

Note how the warning of impending judgment is tied together with hope for those who believe. Those who are wicked and act in unrighteousness will face judgment, but those who have repented, who believe, and seek after God will find healing on the day when God acts.

The remaining three verses of Malachi call Israel to remember what God had already said to them in the Law of Moses, vv. 4-6, “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. ‘Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.’”

What God says in the last three verses is that everything that He has accused them of and everything that He has warned them of in Malachi—none of this was new.

God didn’t figuratively wake up one day and determine that all of a sudden the sins that Israel were committing were sins—no, the sins that they were committing had been written down for them by Moses who was superintended by the Holy Spirit to do so.

God wasn’t being fickle, He didn’t suddenly change His mind after thousands of years, He’s simply calling them out for not obeying what He had already told them was right to do.

This is why He points them to the law of his servant Moses.

To remember is utilized in a different way than how we typically mean it today. In today’s vernacular, we assume that to remember means to have something previously forgotten come back to memory, but the way its utilized here is really more of God calling them to consider the law given to Moses, which they already had and it was made clear in Malachi was something that they were already familiar with.

It isn’t a matter of them being ignorant to the truth, it was a matter of them rejecting the truth and disobeying.

But that isn’t Malachi’s point here, God has already given the indictments. God has already warned them of their sins and their need to repent. In the last two verses, God isn’t calling them to remember the law of Moses to point out their sins again—He’s calling them to remember the law of Moses, because the law of Moses had already told the Israelites that there was a great and awesome day of the Lord coming.

And in this great and awesome day of the Lord, God “will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Now, there is a bit of interpretational difficulty in the last two verses and this is where the interpretational difficulty lies—the New Testament calls John the Baptist Elijah.

Matthew 11:14, Mark 9:11, and Luke 1:17 all call John the Baptist this Elijah that’s to come before the coming day of the Lord. In fact, Luke 1:17 quotes Malachi 4:5 directly.

But then we read in Matthew 17:10-13 “10 And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” 11 And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; 12 but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wanted. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.”

Note that Jesus says that Elijah is still coming and will still restore all things, but he also already come, as well.

And oddly enough, John the Baptist, himself, says that he is not Elijah in John 1:21

There are all sorts of theories on how best to understand all that Scripture had said. Let me help you make sense of all this.

When John the Baptist denies being Elijah, he isn’t denying being a typological sort of Elijah—he’s denying the question concerning whether or not he is Elijah reincarnated.

Note the word that I just used, typological. While John the Baptist denied being the actual Elijah reincarnated, he never denied being a type of Elijah and really, if you read closely what Jesus says about John the Baptist or if you read what Zechariah says about his son John, you realize that they all connect John the Baptist to the prophecy of Malachi, but they never connect John the Baptist to Elijah of the Old Testament—or in other words, they’re all comparing John the Baptist to Elijah as a metaphor.

Ken Casillas, So John the Baptist was Elijah in the sense that he ministered “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” This similarity extended to John’s rustic clothing (Matt 3:4; cf. 2 Kings 1:8). More importantly, John paralleled Elijah in that both strongly urged Israel to repent in view of God’s wrath against their sins (e.g. 1 Kings 18; Matt 3:7-12).” (Ken Casillas, "Was John the Baptist Elijah?” Theology in 3D, May 29, 2018)

Thinking in terms of John the Baptist being a metaphorical Elijah that does fulfill the v. 5 of Malachi according to Jesus, what we see then is a partial fulfillment of Malachi 4:5-6 at the very start of the New Testament.

A metaphorical Elijah did come, but the people rejected him. Nevertheless, what Malachi says will happen in v. 6 will certainly happen.

V. 6 seems to describe a sort of repentance in which both fathers and children will be reconciled as part of that repentance.

And v. 6 ends by describing the coming destruction that is to come, “I [will] come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Now, in the remaining few minutes, I do want us to focus on application. I realize that particularly the last few verses may have been a bit confusing, but don’t let the confusing nature of prophecy prevent you from taking what’s clearly understandable in this text and applying it to your life. I think, the best way for us to understand and apply this text is to take it in one section because really, what we see in this text is that the last nine verses of Malachi, which wrap up the whole text is a realization that there is a time coming in which all will be judged—for those who find themselves in the Book of Remembrance—because they fear the Lord and esteem His name, will find this judgment as a good day filled with healing; but those not found in the Book of Remembrance, who didn’t fear the Lord and esteem His name, will find this judgment as a terrible day filled with destruction.

Application

Keeping all this in mind actually helps us when it comes to our application, especially considering all that God had indicted Israel with and all the sin that God had called Israel out from. The entire book of Malachi has been God pointing out unrepentant sin in the lives of the Israelites—and the call has remained the same throughout the book—this is how you are sinning, repent of your sins, because judgment is coming. Likewise, the call in Malachi is the same for all people today.

You might share in the same sins that the Israelites committed—you might be worshiping God falsely, you might be robbing God of your tithes and offerings, or you might be offering metaphorical blemished sacrifices to the Lord.

Or you might be committing your own sins—you might be addicted to pornography, you might be a compulsive liar, you might be a thief, or you could be guilty of any sort of sin.

My point isn’t necessarily to call out every sin under the sun, but for you to search out your own heart and confront your own sin. Are you in unrepentant sin? If so, Malachi’s call for you is identical to the Israelites:

You’re in sin, repent from your sin, and follow God.

Now of course, this all starts with salvation—and Malachi is certainly a message in which we could easily see a message concerning salvation. If you’re an unbeliever this morning, Malachi is a message calling you out for your sins so that you can repent for the first time—so that you can experience salvation through Jesus Christ.

It’s clear that the message throughout Malachi concerns the fact that there is a coming day in which we will all stand before God and be held accountable for our sins.

For those that have never repented and never believed—for those who have yet to fear the Lord and esteem His name, this day is utterly terrifying because all that is left is for you to be condemned for your sins.

What Malachi is trying to do is wake you up to the reality of your sin, to call you to repentance for the first time.

And really, for unbelievers, that is precisely what the whole Bible does. When read purposefully and understood normatively, Scripture calls the formerly unrepentant to repentance and it calls unbelievers to belief.

It really ought not surprise us that the message of Malachi towards unbelievers is as simple as it is—you are in sin, repent from your sin, and follow God.

How does an unbeliever apply Malachi? You are in sin, so repent, and follow God.

Now, if you’re a believer, which I’m fairly certain the majority in this room and online are, Malachi is still a message of repentance. We know that as those who are under the New Covenant, that we will not experience the eternal consequences for our sins—Jesus has handled those consequences for us on the cross.

However, we also know that this doesn’t give us license to continue in our sin anyways. Paul says in Romans 6:1 “1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” And the answer is an emphatic Romans 6:2 “2 Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

Our freedom from sin and sin’s eternal consequences is not meant to convince us to continue sinning. It simply assures us that when we do sin, Jesus has covered that sin for us. Galatians 5:1“1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 is contextually about those called the Judaizers, they were trying to convince believers to follow the Jewish law despite the law no longer applying the same way, but the idea in Galatians 5 applies to continuing in sin after salvation as well. Christ has set you free from sin and it’s consequences, don’t choose to go back to sin’s yoke again.

In fact, Scripture repeatedly reminds us in the New Testament that if we claim to believe and yet we are still in unrepentant sin, we need to check our hearts to be sure that we are actually believers and not just saying that we are.

Thankfully, our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, but the message of Malachi is still potent.

The sins that Israel committed are all sins that we could still commit—the lack of proper worship, blemished sacrifices, the robbing of God, and speaking harsh words about God are all things that we can commit.

Not to mention the fact that there are many other sins that believers can commit and hold onto and refuse to repent of—whether that’s lying, stealing, manipulating, covetousness, or really any sin that you can throw in this list.

Though we won’t experience the same judgment in Malachi that God says is coming for unbelievers, He’s still calling us to repent of our sins and follow Him.

So, how do believers apply the message of Malachi today?

Understand that your freedom in Christ was not meant for you to continue in sin—salvation isn’t a “get out of jail free card” it is the means through which God reconciles you to Him. It is a big deal, so don’t treat it like it isn’t a big deal. It is a huge deal.

The very face that you have experienced salvation through Jesus Christ is something that you need to be profoundly aware of and thankful for.

It is also something that you need to take utterly serious.

Thus, you should take seriously your sin—Despite being forgiven for sins and having your sins covered by Jesus, that doesn’t give you the license to continue in sin.

Likewise, don’t think that you’ve gotten away with your sin. The Israelites seemed to have that mindset particularly when it came to their improper worship, but God knew and He holds people accountable for their sins.

God sees and knows your heart, He knows when you’re holding onto unrepentant sin. Take it seriously.

And repent—I think sometimes Christians today have a misconception of repentance and they think of repentance as a one-time thing that they did when they first came to believe in Jesus Christ.

Repentance isn’t a one-time event, it is a posture of living. It is the realization that we live in a sin-cursed world and you experience both the effects of sin and the desire to sin and choosing to live by rejecting the desire to sin.

It is a daily turning from sin and turning towards Jesus, it is a continuous choice to not indulge in the temptations that you experience.

Repentance is a continuous process.

And of course, since we as believers know that we’ve been forgiven and our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross, our continuous process of repentance is motivated by something other than eternal judgment.

It’s motivated by our love for God and our desire to be like His Son. We thankfully, do not have to be fearful of any sort of judgment by God for our sins, Jesus handled that for us.

We choose to continuously repent from our sins, because He is such a great and good God who gave His Son as a substitutionary atonement for your sins.

Really, if we continue in sin, particularly unrepentant sin, even after knowing all that God did to reconcile you to Him, you really should ask yourself “do I actually love Him?”

Put simply, Malachi is a call to repentance. For unbelievers, you are in sin, you are going to experience the judgment of God against sin, but God has made a way for you to be reconciled to Him—repent of your sins and believe in Him through Jesus Christ. For believers, if you’re in unrepentant sin, God did for you what you couldn’t do for yourself and yet you’re still choosing to sin. Do you actually love Him? Repent of your sins and follow Him.

There is coming a day when all will be judged and held accountable for their sins. For unbelievers, this is a great day of fear, but for genuine believers, this is a great day of healing and hope. Repent of your sins and praise Jesus for what He has done for you.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

O Great God (35)