It is widely regarded as one of the best films of all time, Shawshank Redemption was released nearly thirty years ago in 1994. It became an instant classic telling the tale of an innocent man in prison who eventually gains his freedom through a satisfying escape plan. And if watched any TV in the past thirty years or so, you might recognize the image on the screens. It’s a cross-stitch panel hanging prominently in the office of Warden Norton, the warden of Shawshank Prison, where Andy Dufrense serves his life imprisonment. The cross-stitch is really ironic in the movie because it hides a secret safe. Inside the safe and behind the cross-stitch is where he keeps the record of his secret bank accounts, the record of his kickbacks, and embezzlement. So every time the warden puts the records in the safe, he is staring at the words, “His Judgement Cometh and That Right Soon!”
As we continue our study of the book of Malachi, we arrive at a heavy subject, what the Bible calls the Day of Judgment. I invite you to find the book of Malachi 4 with me if you will [page 955 in your pew Bibles]. Too many Christians have done what the warden did, thinking we get a “free pass.”
The ancient Jewish teachers in Jesus' day thought they got a free pass because of their bloodline connection to Abraham (John 8:33). Some of us believe we will receive a “free pass” because of our excuses, our Christian heritage, or our good behavior. We fail to connect the dots between our behavior and God’s judgment when it stares us in the face, just like the warden.
Today’s Scripture
“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. 4:1 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” (Malachi 3:18-4:3).
This is probably the most emotionally distressing passage in the book of Malachi. We must be careful not to relegate the thought of God’s judgment to an antique store or something to be hung on the walls of Cracker Barrel restaurant. The Greek word for “judgment” in our New Testament is where we get our English word “crisis.” For many, this will be a crisis on a scale like no other.
A quick preview: what is the Day of Judgement, why does the Bible’s teaching on the Day of Judgment matter, and how you can personally align your life to the Bible’s teaching on this vital subject?
1. The Day of Judgement
“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” (Malachi 4:1).
The word “behold” is used to capture our attention for an important point. The Lord will return one day, and He will take action against all the wicked.
1.1 A Future Day
Notice this is a future day. The Bible says clearly in verse one: “For behold, the day is coming…” (Malachi 4:1a). The Day is coming but is not here yet. Don’t get the idea that God is fully judging sin now on earth like He will judge sin then. Yes, there is a built-in judgment of sin now. Venereal disease is the consequence of sin. A broken family is often a consequence of sin. Diabetes may be the result of obesity for some. Yes, some are suffering is the consequences of sin right now. But today isn’t that Day, for that Day is coming. Not one-half of one sin will go unpunished: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:19).
1.2 On My Calendars
We have many important days on our calendars. On our calendars, I have a day to go to the doctor, and you may have a day where you are in court. On our calendars, you have a day you graduate from college, and I have a day when I bury my loved ones. And we have regular days on our calendars. On our calendars, I have a day to get my haircut, and you have a day to go out on a date. But I am not just talking about any old day, instead, I am talking about one specific day - the Day with a capital D [pause]. You’ll never have any other day like you’ll have on this Day.
1.3 Your Personal View
I pause and wonder, “How often do you think of the Day of Judgment?” Do you even think about the Day of Judgement? Or is this fantasy like trolls and goblins from a Disney movie? On a 1 to 10 scale, how confident are you that there will even be a Day of Judgement? When you are sitting in traffic or at a stoplight, look around and ask, “How many of these people think there is a Day of Judgment coming?” When you are sitting at a ballgame, ask yourself, “What difference would it make for all these people if there was a Day of Judgement fixed?” And when you are alone with your thoughts at night, pause and wonder, “Are my loved ones motivated by the thought that God has fixed a Day of Judgement for them?” You’ll never have any other appointment as you’ll have on this Day.
1.4 The Day Described in Malachi
You may not be convinced there is a Day of Judgement coming, but Malachi is. Malachi refers to the Day four times in his closing: “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession…” (Malachi 3:17). “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” (Malachi 4:1). “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” (Malachi 4:3). Malachi keeps beating the drum of the day of the Lord.
1.4.1 Burning Like an Oven
Listen and look again at his description: “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” (Malachi 4:1).
Again, this is the most emotionally distressing passage in Malachi and one of the most distressing in all of the Bible. Malachi had used the imagery of a refining fire (Malachi 3:2), but now he speaks of a destructive fire. Malachi describes a day when a tremendous fire will burn. This isn’t a brushfire here. The Bible says, “…burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble…” is really a vivid and disturbing image. The imagery is so powerful that it jars even the complacent. The arrogant and all evildoers who refuse to repent will find no escape.
1.4.2 Only a Metaphor
Some may say, “Well, there’s no real fire here. This is only a metaphor.” Many of you who have fought in war would tell us that you went through hell fighting. You didn’t really go through hell, but hell was a metaphor. Now, if the Holy Spirit in His infinite intelligence chooses to describe our future judgment with a metaphor of fire and the fire isn’t real… … then whatever it is is so bad that fire is used to describe it. I don’t want any part of it. I would highly encourage you to avoid it, whatever it is.
The Old Testament prophets predicted a day so alarming that even those who are religiously careless wake from their moral sleepiness. They frequently refer to it as “that day” when the nations are judged. The Day of the Lord is a day when the Lord takes decisive action, and He intervenes in human history. The truth be told: many people are embarrassed by the Bible’s teaching on hell and judgment. It’s a sensitive subject that each of us needs to take seriously.
1.5 The Day Described by Paul
If you were to skip forward to the New Testament, the Bible frequently tells us that there will be a great and final judgment of believers and unbelievers. And the New Testament refers to it as “that day, “those days,” and “the great day.” Few people have communicated the truth of this more eloquently and with more force than the Apostle Paul. If we go on a whistlestop tour of Paul’s teaching on the Day of Judgement, our hearts pause because of the somber nature of all that we hear. The one-time persecutor of Christians stood in ancient Athens and declared to all: “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” (Acts 17:30-31). The Bible tells us God has fixed a day! This day is fixed like no other day in the world’s calendar and your personal calendar.
Paul tells the church located in what we would call the ancient Las Vegas of the Roman Empire that they need to deal with a sexually immoral man in their body. As Paul instructs the church, he says this: “you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 5:5). The hope is the removal of the ungodly man from the body of Christ will shake him up to realize he is heading on a destructive path ahead of the Day of God’s judgment. The Bible describes the suddenness of this decisive day like this: “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). Some in the ancient church of the Greek city of Thessaloniki have wondered if they missed the Day of the Lord. Paul says, “Calm down, and don’t be deceived.” And then he adds this morsel: “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). Perhaps most chilling, Paul scolds the hard-headed and hard-hearted: “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). Friend, I am not exactly sure what it means to store up wrath for myself. Still, I know this: I don’t want any of it! So if you put all of Paul’s teaching on the Day of Judgment, you arrive at 4 conclusions.
1. Paul teaches us that the Day is fixed on God’s calendar.
2. The Day will come on you suddenly with little warning much like a thief would seek to break in your door at night with no warning.
3. The Day will be preceded by “the man of lawlessness” appearing first so you will know for sure when the Day arrives.
4. You can actually increase the amount of wrath for your personal day by your actions right here and now.
1.6 Your Choice
Again, Malachi tells us that the Day of the Lord will act like an oven. Malachi tells us that evil ones will be stubble on the Day of the Lord. Stubble is chaff, and it is flammable. God is warning you that you can face Him as a Refining Fire or a Consuming Fire. If you are humble and approach the cross of Christ needing God’s grace, you will receive refining fire where your impurities will be refined in the heat of affliction. You’ll come out more pure in your character. If you are arrogant and wicked, you will experience His destructive fire where there’s no hope for you. Which will it be for you, my friend?
1. The Day of Judgement
2. Why God’s Judgment Matters
“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” (Malachi 4:2-3).
Malachi 3:18 says once more you’ll see a distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who doesn’t. There should be no chapter break here because the chapter break interrupts the continuity of thought for the prophet. Verse 1 shows you the ultimate fate of the wicked, while verses 2-3 show you the destination of the righteous. We have seen one side of the Day of the Lord. What makes this passage even more distressing in the minds of many is the fact that the righteous are said to be trampling on the ashes of the wicked. Let’s be careful in how we embrace the Bible’s teaching on hell and judgment. Let there be no celebration on this side of the Day of Judgement for any believer. Any genuine believer knows that if it were not for the grace of God, any of us would be found with the fate of the wicked.
2.1 Fort Worth Zoo & Ecological Balance
Let me offer a word for many of you who get squishy by the Bible’s teaching on hell. Several years ago, when our family was a little younger, we took off for a visit to the Fort Worth Zoo. I found a curious and interesting quote right here in our backyard of Fort Worth around ten years ago. Here it is: “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” Most zoos and children’s museums teach visitors the need to be careful with our world. For example, suppose we eliminate predatory or undesirable animals in an area. In that case, the balance of that environment may be so upset that the desirable plants and animals are also lost — through overbreeding with a limited food supply. The nasty predator that was eliminated actually balanced the number of other animals and plants necessary to that particular ecosystem. Grey wolves were present at the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872. Between 1914-1926, at least 136 wolves were killed in the park despite the Secretary of the Interior “shall provide against the wanton destruction of the fish and game found within said Park.”
Park Managers would regularly kill or poison predators such as wolves, bears, cougars, and coyotes. But soon, the wolf was reintroduced to Yellowstone because they were a keystone species. Without wolves, the elk population exploded, and the elk feed on young aspen trees to the point that few of these trees remain. Scientists call this “top-down trophic cascade” when you remove the apex predator.
In the same way, if we play down “bad” or harsh doctrines within the historic Christian faith, we will find, to our shock, that we have gutted all our pleasant and comfortable beliefs, too. There is an ecological balance to Scripture that must not be disturbed. Neglecting the unpleasant doctrines of the Bible will bring about counterintuitive consequences. Again, we are answering this question: Why does God’s Judgment Matters. I offer you two reasons Why God’s Judgment Matters for everyone here.
2.2 Reason #1: Because Right Matters
“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” (Malachi 4:2).
At the same time, evildoers are burned up, and God’s righteousness will shine forth like the sun! I love the way God says it best: “the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.” Christians are monotheists meaning we believe in one supremely intelligent being who rules the universe from stem to stern. Our God is righteous, faithful, and He is holy down to the very double-helix of His DNA as if it were. Because He is righteous, He has tipped the scales to ensure righteousness wins in the end. His thumb is on the scale to ensure goodness, purity, and holiness are victorious. Anyone telling one lie knows the challenge because another lie is needed to cover the first lie. Right always matters, and the truth is undefeated. By God's grace and for God's glory, do right even in little matters. Right matters now, and right will matter even more in eternity, my friend.
2.3 Florence Chadwick
In 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to the shore of mainland California. She’d already been the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways. The weather was foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam for fifteen hours! Can you imagine swimming for fifteen hours? When she begged to be taken out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat right beside her, told her she was close and that she could make it. Her mother said, "Florence, you are almost there. Don’t give up now. You are almost there.” Encouraged by her mother’s admonition, she continued to swim. As she swam, the cold water's numbing temperature became one of her great adversaries, slowly diminishing her capacity to feel her own body. The sharks that infested the waters were also adversaries. Several times during the course of the swim, the people traveling in the boat alongside her had to take rifles and fire them into the water to scare away the sharks that were swimming with her. But her greatest adversary was the dense fog that enveloped her. She could barely see only a few feet in front of her as she swam. Fifteen hours and fifty minutes after she began her swim they finally gave in to her request and pulled Florence from the water into the boat. After they treated her for mild hypothermia they informed her that when she stopped she was less than one mile from the shore. In fact, she was almost at the point where the ocean current would have helped wash her in. She could have ridden the waves to the beach. It wasn’t until she was on the boat that she discovered the shore was less than half a mile away. At a news conference the next day, she said, “All I could see was the fog.… I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”
All you can see right now is the fog where right and wrong are blurred. But there’s a day out there in front of you where matters. You are not as far from eternity as you might think. Consider her words: “I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.” For believers, that shore is being with Jesus, where He promised to prepare for us and where we will live with him forever. If we can see through the fog and picture our eternal home in our mind’s eye, it will comfort and energize us. When righteousness springs forth in the sky above, you will leap like a new calf with joy coursing through your body. Jesus said, “Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven” (Luke 6:23).
2.4 Reason #2: Evil Must Be Punished
“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” (Malachi 4:3).
Throughout the book of Malachi, the people have been complaining about rampant evil. But the truly wicked will not get away with anything. Again, not one-half of one sin will go unpunished. Yes, our God can and will bring good out of evil. Our God can hit a straight lick with a crooked stick.
2.4.1 Having Your Cake and Eating It Too
Now, the Scriptures say the righteous will trample on the ashes of the wicked on the Day of Judgement. Now, you may not like how God judges evil, but remember that God has been criticized a million times by the question, “How can a good God allow Suffering?”
2.4.2 Jesus Endured Tremendous Evil
Remember, the God-man suffered with evil on Golgotha like no one else. He suffered through the misery of all evil could throw at Him and cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” God is not in perfect Heaven free from all misery. No, He endured suffering on a scale few of us could imagine.
2.4.3 Suffering Is Not in Vain
In the end, evil will be vanquished, and those in Christ will be a resurrection. In Greek (specifically Stoic) philosophy, there was a belief that history was an endless cycle. Every so often, the universe would wind down and burn up in a great conflagration called a palengenesia, after which history, having been purified, started over. Pronounced “pa-len gensis,” Palengenesia is such an important philosophical concept that it even has its own Wikipedia page. In this context, Jesus spoke of his return to earth as the palingenesis. “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). This was a radically new concept. Jesus tells us His return will be on the Day of the Judgement. His return is the Second Coming. Jesus insists that His return will be with such power that the very material world and universe will be purged of all decay and all brokenness. All will be healed, and all might-have-beens will be. We will skip like calves when we see His return!
C. S. Lewis wrote: “They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backward and turn even that agony into a glory.” As the Bible ends in Revelation 21, we do not see human beings being taken out of this world into heaven; rather, heaven is coming down to earth. God will restore this messed-up earth and make it the new Heaven. Ultimately, our God cleanses, renews, and perfects this world.
