Book of Malachi - Ch. 4, Vs. 1-2 (07/02/2023)

The Faithful Remnant at the End of Malachi 3

Alrighty, y 'all can turn to Malachi chapter 4, but before we get into our final chapter here, I did want to cover one quick note that I didn't have time for last time. So let's see here. At the end of chapter 3, the final verses of chapter 3, we learn about this remnant that has been present the whole time that Malachi is giving his rebukes and his charges and all these things to the majority of the nation.

And then we find out again at the end of chapter 3 about this remnant that feared the Lord, that spake often one to another, as it says in verse 16 of chapter 3. And then it goes on to tell us how the Lord hearkened and heard it.

He had the Book of Remembrance written just for them. And the Lord tells us that they will be his in that day when he makes up his jewels, when he collects his treasure, he will spare them as a man spareth his own son.

And so that's how chapter 3 ends. Well, one thing I wanted to cover. Again, I really wish I had just squeezed it in, gone a couple of minutes after last time, but I opted not to at the time. But one final note as this chapter is now complete is, you know, we've discussed numerous times throughout the book of Malachi, kind of about the reality.

That despite the harsh rebukes, despite the warnings, despite even the curses that the nation as a whole were under at this time, the actions and the attitudes of the majority of the people that would follow, they wouldn't amount to any kind of, you know, revival, if you want to put it in those terms.

In other words, Malachi was doing everything he could from the human viewpoint, from his perspective to get him riled up, get them spiritually active again. And again, we know that that wasn't going to happen because of the roughly 400 years of darkness that was to follow, where God is silent and doesn't raise up any new prophets to speak on his behalf during that entire time.

And then we also know, of course, that the Pharisees were coming and were there by the time Jesus was born. Remember, we looked at chapter 3, verse 14, and we kind of teased the idea that perhaps this was the beginning of the legalistic factions that would become the Sadducees, the Pharisees and so forth.

So we've talked about that quite a few times, right? Well, the legalistic religious leaders, by the time Jesus is born, were not the only ones that were on the scene upon Jesus's arrival. What are some other folks that you guys might be able to think of that were there and that were actually eager and expecting the first coming of the Lord by the time he was born?

Well, so we know that by the time Jesus was born, the Pharisees were all over the place. Legalistic religious leaders and a nation that had been in the dark for 400 years and were not in a great place spiritually.

There were some other folks on the scene, a smaller group, but there were some other people on the scene when Jesus was born. A couple of them we already talked about. John the Baptist's parents, pretty solid people.

Elizabeth Zacharias. Was that John the Baptist's name? His dad's name? It was Zacharias, I think. Really great people. The opening of Luke before it talks about John the Baptist and how wonderful person he was, it talks about how wonderful his parents were.

So they were great. A couple of others, though, the ones that I had in mind were Simeon and Anna. Y 'all recall these two older people when Jesus was born, Jesus was brought to them and Simeon and Anna, they were ready and anxiously awaiting for their Messiah to come.

We know that this remnant that we just read about at the end of chapter three, the last time we were together, this remnant remained faithful. Just as the legalizers in verse 14 sprouted the movement that likely became the Pharisees, it's also likely that the light that this little remnant had, that it carried, is what sustained the following generations through 400 years of darkness.

So four whole centuries between the two prophets of the Old and New Testament. They were able to sustain those generations through that dark period until the day that Simeon and Anna actually got to hold Emmanuel in their arms.

And so they were there. They were ready. They were expecting their Messiah. And it's just a cool thought to consider that, you know, despite years of darkness, there were generations that remnant was able to cut through multiple generations and again, sustain a people that were still faithful, ready and got to see the day of the first coming of their Lord.

Simeon and Anna were a result of the end of chapter three of Malachi. So I thought that was kind of cool. And so again, that's how chapter three ends is with this faithful remnant. And a couple of final thoughts before we start our final chapter here throughout this third section, because not only is this not only was at the end of chapter three, but it was also the end of our third section of the book, which was all about the sins of the people, the sins of the nation of Israel.

Throughout the third section here, it actually spanned from chapter two all the way through the end of chapter three. It displayed, of course, the grievous spiritual state of the nation of Israel as a whole.

A couple of reminders of what we covered in that third section. They profaned the covenant of their fathers. We learned about that in chapter two, verse 10. We learned more about how this profaning took place.

They were divorcing their wives of their youth to indulge in relationships with the pagans, something that was a big time no-no going as far back as you want to go, especially to the time of Moses. We learned about that in chapter two, verse 11, and it fleshes it out even more in verses 14 and 15 of that chapter.

We learned the extent at which God hates flippant divorce in chapter two, verse 16. In fact, it's the number one passage throughout the whole Bible that is referenced in regard to what God thinks about divorce.

We talked about that in detail when we covered that verse. We learn of a theme of the people wearying the Lord with their words and speaking stout words against him. We learned about that in chapter two, verse 17, where they were wearing him with their words.

In chapter three, verse 13, when they spoke stout words against him, we learned of their robbing of God in tithes and offerings in chapter three, verse eight, and that they considered whatever quote-unquote worship they did to be in total vain.

They said it is vain to serve God in chapter three, verse 14. But most importantly, we're reminded on the conditions necessary for them to repair their relationship with the Lord in chapter three, verse seven and in verses 10 through 12, that same chapter.

And finally, as we just spoke about a second ago, we learn of the faithful remnant that feared the Lord and kept a light burning through the four centuries of darkness. It was to come in the final verses of chapter three.

The Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord

So now we begin section four, our final section and our final chapter. And this section will be on the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and it will encompass the entire final chapter, which is only a few verses.

Let's go ahead and read it together. Malachi chapter four. It says, For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. In the day that cometh shall burn them, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

But unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall, and ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.

Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and the judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

That's the final chapter of Malachi. We'll break it down as we go, but Malachi is now shifting his focus back to an event that he's already talked about at least once in this book, specifically at the beginning of chapter three.

If you guys recall, he prophesies the messenger, which is John the Baptist. He then prophesies of a second messenger, that being Jesus himself, and he mentions his first coming. He will suddenly arise, he will suddenly appear in his temple, and then it starts talking about the second coming of the Lord in the context of the purification of Israel, the purification of the Levites specifically.

But this time, he talks about the same event, but he's going to elaborate further on the day of the Lord as a day of judgment by fire. The first time it was a day of purification, this time it'll be a day of judgment.

Same exact event, but two different sides of the same coin. Again, unlike chapter three, verses two and three specifically, which emphasize the purification of Israel, this passage will emphasize the destruction of the wicked.

And it's in that light also that when we read these final verses of this book, the final book of the Old Testament, that we should view them in a somewhat somber way because the time of the Old Testament closes with a promise of a curse.

And it was this final statement of dread upon the unfaithful that the word of the Lord was silent for four centuries until the voice of John the Baptist was heard calling Israel to repentance 400 years later as he paved the way for Jesus's first coming.

Now, the ending of this book is it culminates in chapter four. It is very short. It's only six verses long. The entire chapter, it's abrupt. The patience of the Lord, while it may be long suffering, is not going to last forever.

And the abruptness in the language of this final chapter is kind of a stark reminder of that reality. These people need to be prepared. They need to understand. They need to heed these warnings. And in hindsight, we know that they don't, at least the majority of them don't.

But nonetheless, God gives them fair warning, fair amount of time to preserve their generations to that last day. And so that's what we're about to dig into. Dad, is everything looking good in the chat, audio and everything?

Okay, great. Turn to Isaiah chapter 66 for a second. I believe it's the final. Yeah, it's the final chapter of that book. Isaiah chapter 66. Let's just look at a quick comparison of the same time we're about to dig into in the final chapter of Malachi.

We're just going to read about four verses here, but they are pertinent to our conversation as well as very colorful in the imagery it presents. It says in Isaiah chapter 66, starting in verse 15, for behold, the Lord will come with fire.

It's exactly what we just read at the beginning of Malachi chapter four. The Lord will come with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire.

Keep in mind, remember, as we go through this final chapter, the significance of the fire. Also, as I said, we're presented with some pretty colorful imagery here. It's just amazing to me time and time again.

It doesn't matter how many times you read these passages that elaborate such detail what this day of the Lord will be like, what it'll be like. I mean, like it just never, it never stops amazing me, amazing me how epic this day is going to be in a bad way for the majority of the human race, obviously a wonderful way for the remnant.

And we're going to talk about that as well, because Malachi does not leave that out in his short, brief final chapter. But this is what it's going to look like for the majority of people. For behold, the Lord will come with fire and his chariots like a whirlwind.

It's a really interesting phrase there to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire for by fire and by his sword where the Lord plead with all flesh. What is that prophesying? What is the sword?

It's going to be his very voice as he speaks in the slain of the Lord shall be many. And keep in mind, this is Isaiah's account of this time. But Malachi is using this event to speak to God's people at the time that he is speaking these words and giving this prophecy.

So isn't it interesting that this very warning, this very for the slain of the Lord shall be many is being used as a warning to God's people themselves. Verse 17 says they shall sanctify themselves and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.

This verse 17 is kind of used as a representation of the idolatry of the blatant rebellion of the majority of people doing the opposite of the statutes that God had given them. These are people worshiping in their groves, worshiping who knows what God, but it all comes back to essentially themselves.

Again, it's an idolatrous people. And these are the people that are coming to be consumed by the Lord himself. Verse 18 says, for I know their works and their thoughts. Pretty scary proposition for any of us, but certainly the heathen.

It shall come that I will gather all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my glory. So this is the exact same event that Malachi is about to dig into in this final chapter. So let's go back to Malachi for a second.

We already read the whole chapter. Let's start breaking it down verse by verse. We'll see how much of that we can get done today. Verse one, for behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven. It's really interesting.

Dad was in Midland recently. He made a trip to the oilies or Big Lake more specifically. He reached out and asked if there was any way I could find a sermon that Brother Rocky did on cremation of all topics.

Dad, did you ever listen to that, by the way? Or do you have time? I've listened to about half of it, and it's really interesting. Brother Rocky did about an hour and 15 minute long topical sermon on the biblical view of cremation.

And I was able to find it. It's on the website. It's under Brother Rocky's topical sermon, so anyone can go listen to it. But it's interesting, Dad, because the way he opened it is he opened it by looking at every verse in the Old Testament and a few in the New Testament as well that spoke of God reserving the fire, the consumption of the body for the wicked.

That was the context he was setting for the biblical view of cremation. I've only listened to half of it, so I'm interested to hear where he goes with it. I mean, this verse, Malachi 4 .1 was one of the citations he gave, the significance of God reserving the fire to consume the bodies of the wicked specifically.

For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven in all the proud. Remember our study in Obadiah, and the proud have been referenced a couple of times as well in Malachi. But the proud, these are a people that we see surrounding us all the time.

I mean, literally, and it has become a virtue. We looked at that in detail when we were studying Obadiah. But it can be a very depressing thing to be surrounded by. I mean, the pride of the human heart is gross.

When you do know the Lord, and when you are trying and you're striving to do everything you can in your personal life to please Him, and to do the things that would bring Him glory, bring Him honor, and to strengthen the relationship between you and Him, the last thing you want to do is to have any pride in your heart.

And you know that, and you try to cleanse yourself of that. And yet you look around, and it's what everyone is immersed themselves in. And it can be disheartening. Even if you are doing a good job throughout the sanctification process of removing that from your own life, you still don't want to see anyone because you realize every single person is made in the image of God.

And yet they are taking all the glory for themselves. And they were created for a specific purpose. But rather than giving glory to that Creator, they are immersing themselves in the pride of their hearts.

Finally, when this day comes, the proud, all of the wicked, but he mentions the proud specifically here. They shall be stubble. It says, all the proud, yea, all that do wickedly. So it is all encompassing.

But he took a second to go ahead and point out the prideful, the proud specifically. They shall be stubble. In the day cometh, it shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

Pretty, you know, again, it's all encompassing. It is complete. It is a complete destruction of these people. The fact that God's judgment will burn like a furnace, it emphasizes a couple of things. Not only the intensity of the judgment to come.

We know that. I mean, think about the Isaiah passage we just read. The intensity is inescapable. And it is fleshed out again in vivid color, regardless of which prophecy you read about it. Any of the minor prophets, several of the major prophets.

And then, of course, we have even the New Testament accounts all the way to Revelation. But we so we know the intensity is going to be bad in the burning like a furnace, the burning like an oven speaks to that.

But it also speaks specifically to the purpose of this judgment. It's going to be fire. It's going to be. It's going to be total consumption. It's going to burn like an oven, but it's not going to be a fire that burns out of control.

It's not just some wildfire that is just going around consuming anything and everything that it can grab hold of. Now, this is going to be a very direct fire. This is going to be fire that has direct intention behind it, which is an even scarier reality than an out of control wildfire that's just consuming everything.

This will be specific. It has direct intention will be a focused burn, meticulously targeting the rebel haters of Jesus himself. Those that, as we speak, are walking around doing everything, anything and everything they can to vote in their rebellion, boast in that pride that is in their hearts.

It will meticulously target those rebel haters of Jesus, even emphasizing again the proud in verse one as he returns to his kingdom. Now, I want to note something really quick. I want to note that Jesus's kingdom on earth is technically already established before he leaves.

He tells us that he has been given dominion. He's been given power over all things heavenly, but both in heaven, earth, Paul in first Corinthians chapter 15 tells us that he is reigning and that he has what's the word?

I hate paraphrasing. What is the exact wording Paul uses essentially telling us that he has dominion over heavenly things and earthly things now in real time. And so when Jesus comes, oftentimes, oftentimes we talk about him establishing his kingdom.

The reality is the earth is his now. The kingdom is ready to be is ready to be purified, maybe is a good way to put it. The very place that will be the the holder of his throne is there already. It's just that the devil is usurping it.

And so it's ugly. It doesn't look right. It's not functioning properly. As dad has said countless times in my life, much like the kingdom may be looked when Saul was usurping the authority of David and David had been anointed.

It's an amazing picture. Every time I think about it, it's such a classic story. But every time I think about it, I think, man, how neat is it that we have that real life example to explain how it works now because we can look around and we can be like, you know, we know Jesus is at the right hand of God, the father, as we speak, that he is currently reigning, that he has dominion over all things, that his victory was won 2000 years ago.

But the earth looks so ugly right now. If we didn't have that example of Saul in David, it might be somewhat confusing to us, but it doesn't have to be because in real life, we've seen what it looked like when a righteous king was anointed by the man of God, which was all a picture of Jesus, you know, being established by the spirit and by the father and all that great stuff.

But David was anointed and how I wonder, I can't remember off the top of my head, but how many years was it from that point until he actually kind of took the throne back from Saul, who was just. You know, muddying up everything and really, really messing stuff up, making the kingdom look pretty rough, that's what's happening right now, and there's a purpose behind it, as we know, but Jesus will come back.

So I just wanted to throw that out there. He's going to return and he is going to be returning to his kingdom that has already been established to put it back in order and put it as it should be. The judgment when he returns is going to be so complete that Malachi here analogizes it to a fire consuming, not just the branch of the tree, but also all the way down to the root.

Now, remember, this is not a wildfire. This is a specific fire dedicated and aimed at a specific while it be, albeit a large group of people. And for that group, it will burn them all the way to the root.

Yeah, it reminds me. Yeah, I don't remember if it was Kings and Chronicles, but I was in the section with Elijah, which is funny because he's talked about later in this chapter, where the king was sending his captain and his 50 men to go and get Elijah and bring him back to the king.

Yes. And he said, if I'm a man of God, let fire come down and consume you. And it was that what you're talking about, that targeted comes down and consumes 50 people. And then it's gone. And then it's gone.

Yes. They're just, they're just gone. And then they send another group of 50, same thing. And then the third group of 50, the captain, of course, begs for the Lord and for Elijah to have mercy on him.

And so it changes it. But it reminded me of that whole, exactly what it's talking about here, that's going to happen then, where it's just fire that's consuming the evil and the frightful and all of this.

It's just crazy pictures. The consistency between the Old and New Testaments, the whole of the Bible is so amazing because you'll find consistencies where you weren't even looking. And one of the things that's amazing to me is throughout the Old Testament, you have lots of God doing these unbelievable, miraculous things where the laws of physics are being defied and things are appearing out of nowhere.

And these supernatural things are occurring. You could start from the plagues of Egypt and go all the way through. How many times throughout the Old Testament is fire used in the very great example that Katie gave of Elijah calling it down from heaven to consume this band of men that was coming to capture him.

There are other occasions where, was it also Elijah that soaked the thing? Yes. Okay. And so there are many examples where a supernatural fire is coming from heaven. There are other examples from Joshua all the way through where hailstones are used as this weapon that the Lord uses, brings down from heaven that targets his enemies.

You have all these crazy pictures of that stuff. And now we forget about a lot of God's supernatural work because it was reserved for a time or it was used for a time in history. At this point in our history, that's not happening.

And yet those very same exact weapons are reserved for another time in the future. It's not going to be any different. It's going to be the same hailstones. It's going to be the same direct targeted consuming fire.

And so it's amazing. We will get to see that ourselves, whether we are there, whether the Lord returns in our lifetimes or whether it's us coming back in the clouds with him, either way, we are going to get to see that supernatural fire hailstones in the way in which the Lord works using these weapons that he has reserved for himself is in Job somewhere that mentioned he reserves the hailstones for the wicked.

And so we're going to get to see all that play out ourselves someday. That's great, Katie. Great comparison there. And just like with that band of men, these the wicked, which is going to be on such a larger scale, it's incomprehensible at this time.

They will be totally uprooted. The roots themselves will be burned. Now, here's what's interesting about this, guys. I'm learning all the time about these weird groups of people that I've never heard of before.

But have you got has anyone I know that dad has probably heard of them before, but has anyone ever heard of the concept or the the I don't know what you would call it, but the annihilationist movement?

Have you ever heard of that people? There's a there's a first of all, again, this is new to me, but there are numerous views on the afterlife for the wicked. Specifically, yeah, it's new to me, but apparently this has been something that has been around forever.

There is a there's a movement called there's a group of people that refer to themselves as conditionalists that believe that, you know, every all of Jesus's teachings on hell is allegorical in that really what will happen is when the wicked die, they just go to sleep and they are unconscious from that point into eternity.

And it's only the children of Jesus, the only the elect, essentially, they get to experience an afterlife. And so they use that as a way to get out of the harsh teachings of hell. But then there's the annihilationists.

And this is a proof text for them, Malachi four one, where they believe that when the dead I mean, I'm sorry, when the wicked are killed or when they die, when judgment comes for them, that it doesn't just consume their physical bodies, but it consumes their soul and their spirit and that they are snuffed out completely.

How many times has dad told us if we were God, we would do it one of two ways. We'd save everybody or we'd snuff them out and start over. Well, annihilationists kind of take a little bit of that. And what will happen is it's going to be it's going to be merciful because God is going to take the elect, bring them into heaven to experience eternal bliss with him.

But the wicked, they're just going to be snuffed out. They're going to be non-existent anymore, which will, you know, is merciful because they won't have to experience the torment, which is all just allegorical or whatever.

This is a proof text for the annihilationists here in Malachi four one. And in other words, the cessation of the soul and the spirit as well as their bodies. However, without having time to dig into that and to branch out on a whole, you know, thing on that, because again, this was this was new to me when I when I mentioned it.

We'll just quickly mention a couple of things. We know that for one cannot be backing up any sort of claim such as the annihilationists would make because we know that there will be a there will be an awakening of sorts during the great white throne judgment someday.

Daniel chapter 12, verse two mentions that the dead will rise. And it's speaking of the wicked. They will rise to be judged. And in verse one here of Malachi, it's merely giving us kind of a full image of the complete exclusion of the wicked from God's kingdom.

And Jesus himself reaffirms this in Matthew twenty five forty six. Move over to Daniel for a second. I want to read that verse. It's really interesting. So Daniel twelve two says in many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life.

So it's referencing saints that have passed away throughout history. They will awake some to ever. They will. They will be the ones to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. So we know that the wicked can't be totally snuffed out, both not only bodily, but also spiritually as well as the annihilationists claim that Malachi four one is referencing, because if that were true, they cannot be awakened from that sleep to then be judged and then be sent to everlasting contempt and so on.

Nowhere in the Bible does it even give a hint that souls will go completely out of existence through God's judgment. There's plenty of places where God's judgment is fierce to the point of, again, full bodily consumption.

Their bodies will be totally consumed in the fire, for example, of his judgment. But nowhere does it even give an indication that the soul or the spirit would be likewise consumed. In fact, if that were true, think about phrases like it would be better if they had never been born.

Jesus himself used that phrase at least a couple of times. Once around to the son of perdition, Judas himself, also to those false prophets that cause little ones to stumble, I believe is another place where that a similar phrase is used.

It would be better if they would never be born. That would be a meaningless phrase if the soul and the spirit were consumed and not condemned to eternal fire, to eternal judgment. So also, if you want to look at Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 through 15, it talks again about the great white throne judgment and the wicked being rised to be judged and then to be cast into the eternal lake of fire.

So the soul and spirit are not annihilated. How there are such movements, I'm not sure it's new to me. It'd be interesting to see what their other proof texts are. But Malachi four one seems pretty clear, even in the context it's talking about bodily consumption is removing the wicked so that Jesus can come and restore his kingdom without them there to mess everything up.

All right. Verse two of Malachi chapter four says. But unto you that fear my name, so now it's going to shift yet again, the wicked are totally consumed. It's going to be a devastating day for them. But now it shifts back to those that fear his name, the remnant.

But unto you that fear my name, so shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in its wings, in his wings. Now, what's beautiful about this is we've already talked about the remnant in Malachi. And of course, I believe this is still Malachi from the human viewpoint is still targeting these words to them because that's who he can see.

But knowing that it's the Lord speaking through Malachi and knowing that this is now talking about a future event, we're included in this. And to you that fear my name, that's us as well. Shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall.

It's the kind of verse you could look over somewhat quickly, but the wording and the mental like the the inquiry here, the mental pictures are pretty beautiful. First of all, here in verse two, we're given one of the most clear contrasts in the whole Bible in regard to just how different this same exact event will be for one group compared to the other.

We have vivid passages on the day of the Lord being a day of judgment, a day of consuming fire like an oven. Striking down the wicked. Uh, we have other passages that talk about the beauty of that day for the righteous, for those awaiting his return, being glorified, getting to take part in that glory with him and all these things.

But here we have back to back the same event aimed at two different groups of people. Between verses one and two, it'll be like a fire to the wicked as we covered in verse one, and it will be like sunshine to God's people.

As we see here in verse two, it'll be the wording in human history for the wicked. It will be the greatest day in human history for the followers of God. Now, the phrase in verse two here, the son of righteousness, it's a cool phrase.

It appears only here in scripture, which is interesting because there's been two or three of these in the book of Malachi where a particular phrase, a particular word formula is used. It's not used anywhere else in the whole Bible that we can we can gather some pretty cool information from.