The Day Is Coming! Series

The Day is Coming!

Malachi 4:1-6

Could I ask you to interact with me a bit? I would like to hear from a couple of you. Briefly, tell us about your best day. Just shout out a date and tell us what happened on that day. Thank you for sharing those wonderful days with us. I won’t ask you to share your worst days but each of you could name several. Some days you wish you could live over and over again and some days you try to forget.

Today we are going to be hearing from God’s Word about a day that is coming that will be unlike any other day ever in the history of the universe. If you have asked Jesus Christ to be the forgiver and leader of your life, that day will be infinitely better

than even your best day. If you don’t have a relationship with God, with Christ, that day will make your worst day seem like a picnic! It will be the most terrible, wonderful, incredible day ever.

We have come to the ending verse of Malachi and to the end of our series on Malachi. For the last nine weeks we have mined the depths of this Old Testament prophet’s words.

We have learned that God loves us and chose us (Chapter 1). That we should give God our best in worship (Chapter 1). That good leadership is essential to Christian growth (Chapter 2). That marriage is a covenant that God designed to be permanent (Chapter 2). That we are to honor God with our finances (Chapter 3). And that we have been called to serve each other and the body of Christ (Chapter 3).

Now we come to the last six verses of the book a Malachi and this morning we will learn about a day that is coming: The Day of the Lord

Turn in your Bibles to the last chapter of Malachi, the last words of the Old Testament...Malachi 4.

In the original Hebrew text, there is no chapter four in the book of Malachi. This division was added later. The last six verses are really a continuation of chapter 3. In the last verses of chapter 3, we have God speaking and He is saying that there will be a distinction between the ones that love God and the ones who only loves themselves (Malachi 3:18).

We find here in Malachi 4:1...

1. A PREDICTION OF JUDGMENT (v. 1)

The term "the day of the Lord" is used 25 times in 23 verses in the Bible. We find this phrase used Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zachariah, our friend Malachi, Luke in Acts, by Paul in 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and by Peter in 1 & 2 Peter.

While these biblical writers use the term "day" it is obvious that they are referring to a period of time rather than a 24 hour date on a calendar.

What is this "day" all about? The great day of the LORD refers to the second coming of Christ when the Lord Jesus will come to judge the world and establish a universal reign of righteousness. There’s a day coming when judgment will be imminent and unavoidable. Many of the other prophets saw this day coming and described it in the most graphic of terms.

The day of the Lord will be a....

Day of dread (Joel 2:11)

The prophet Joel describes this time in terms of fear and terror. "The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?" (Joel 2:11)

Day of darkness (Isaiah 13:10; Joel 2:31; Zephaniah 1:15)

The absence of light is a sign of judgment. Listen to Isaiah 13:10... "The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light.

The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light."

and in Joel 2:31 these words......

"The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD."

Zephaniah 1:15 gives us a further description of this day: "...a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness...."

Day of destruction (Isaiah 13:6; 2 Peter 3:10)

Listen to Isaiah again in Isaiah 13:6:

"Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty."

And Peter in the New Testament writes this in 2 Peter 3:10...

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare."

Day of distress (Isaiah 13:7-8; Zephaniah 1:15, 17)

Isaiah continues in Isaiah 13:7-8...

"Because of this, all hands will go limp; every man’s heart will melt. Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame."