God's Final Words Series

Prophecy To Our Age

God’s Final Words

Introduction: Malachi 4

The prophecy of Malachi, hence; ends with a curse. After this prophetic message from God, there is no direct message to the people for over four hundred years. With the close of the Old Testament what is found within the text of this message, which warrants our attention or that which holds the power to keep His people for generations to come? God’s message to the people is given in the form of a curse. It’s not a negative form of impending doom but a loving message given to arouse their interest in order that the threatened curse may never fall on them. Let’s look at this message and consider the implications of the truth.

A. The Final Word.

1. Throughout the history of mankind one thing stands clear; man has failed in his relationship with God. God has faithfully stood by his people, loving them with absolute love and shown his untiring compassion.

2. So, from God’s divine nature He ends the Old Testament with a curse. His curse is given in a futuristic statement stating His intentions. This is His last appeal out of love, aimed at diverting calamity, by announcing it as a natural sequence of sin.

3. This final message is not of anger but of infinite love.

B. The final Word then, being a warning not a sentence, is a gospel of His love.

1. The turning of their hearts toward God marks the condition with which the curse may be averted (Malachi 4:5-6).

2. When the people come back to God’s principles and are what he intended them to be; then the curse will be removed and God will shower them with His blessings. That is the Gospel of His love.

3. How is all this to be brought about?

a. The fulfillment of this promise was the coming of John The Baptist.

b. Elijah already had come to the people but there will be one coming that will have the power of Elijah.

c. The reason for his coming was to “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.”

d. He was to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord.

C. The great announcement, “Surely the day is coming.”

1. Over four hundred years will transpire between Malachi and the one who is to come with the power and spirit of Elijah. What is the force of this prophetic message that will retain man’s obedience and stay the course until it’s fulfillment?

2. Notice that within this proclamation is a two-fold statement, which when observed is in actuality one message: “Surely the day is coming: it will burn like a furnace.. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.”

a. God is giving an announcement of future events.

b. He is leaving the people without a prophetic message for over four hundred years, but His final word is that, ‘He will act!’

c. How will God act? He will usher in a new age where he will overcome the evil of the age by a sudden transformation.

d. Today you have set up the wicked and called them happy (Vs. 3:15); however, there is a day when God breaks the proud and reduces the wicked to stubble (Vs 4:1). The wickedness of man shall be the stubble in the Day of God when the Son of Righteousness heals the heart of man.

3. Thus, the Old Testament ends and the voice of Malachi became silent.

a. Malachi has described their condition and relayed the message of God’s infinite love.

b. He has delivered a curse; but that God will not abandon them and there will come a day of healing for mankind.

c. John the Baptist came before the coming of Jesus two thousand years ago, and the hearts of the children were turned to their Fathers by thousands through his message, and I believe that today the signs of the times point to the nearness of the upcoming return of the Son of righteousness.

d. That all our hearts would be turned to the ways of Jesus and that not one of us would be ashamed at the day of his coming, let us all walk in his love and hunger for his truth.

D. Then, how does the message given by Malachi apply to our present dispensation?

1. The dawn of the 21st Century finds our world facing a multitude of crisis. All the medias of news indicate our generation is facing disaster at every turn: Sexually Transmitted Diseases Crisis; Teenage Pregnancy Crisis; Marriages in Crisis; Assault on the Nuclear Family Crisis; etc.

2. Wherever we turn we see lives broken and ravished with pain and guilt. The human heart is consumed by anxieties, abuse, and addictions. Mankind is crying out for the solution that will bring a cessation to their emptiness and relational alienation.