The NECESSITY For GODLY FATHERS-II—Malachi 4:5-6(:4-6)
Attention/Need:
Dad’s Surprise
A mother & a daughter are shopping in the mall, when the mother eyes an expensive fur coat.
The mother turns to her daughter & says, “This year, I think that I’m going to buy my own present. That way you won’t have any pressure on you & dad to come up with an idea for me.”
The daughter nods in agreement before the mother continues.
“And that fur coat is exactly what I want.”
The daughter protests, “But mom, Some poor, helpless creature has to suffer so that you can have this.”
•Mom replies,“Don't worry honey, your father won't get the bill for a couple of weeks.”
Fathers, you may think yourselves to be ‘poor, helpless creatures’ sometimes, even in your own families!...
But the biblical testimony is that Godly Fathers are absolutely necessary for a family to be what God wants it to be.
Godly fathers are a vital part of God’s design!!
The prophet Malachi linked the importance of godly fathers to a positive outcome for mankind’s very existence.
Godly fathers are vital to our existence.
What makes godly fathers so vital for our existence?
3 validations that godly fathers are vital for our very existence.
Previously we found that...
1—Godly Fathers are vital as Those Who...
REMEMBER GOD’s WORD & WILL(4:4)
Today we’ll explore the truth that...
2—Godly Fathers are also vital as Those Who...
APPLY WHAT THEY REMEMBER(4:5)
:5—“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great & dreadful day of the LORD.”
YHWH God promises to “send” “Elijah the prophet”, sometime “before” the last days. Or rather send a person ‘in the prophetic style & function’ of “Elijah.” This “Elijah’s” overall purpose will be to warn Israel of the immediate approach of “the great & dreadful day of the LORD”(See :6).
Lk. 1:16-17—““And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.””
Luke 1:76-79—shortly after the birth of John the Baptist’, his father, Zacharias, prophesies of his son,—“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, To give knowledge of salvation to His people By the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness & the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
OT prophecies fulfilled from: Mal. 3:1; 4:5; Jer. 31:34; 33:8; Isa. 9:2-6; Isa. 11:1-2; Jer. 23:5-6.
Jesus directly equated the coming of “Elijah” with the ministry of ‘John the Baptist.’
•So this prophecy of Malachi is a warning signal to God’s people, that ‘the last “day” will not “come” until God FIRST brings warning to His people, thru His “prophet.”
Regarding the appearance of “Elijah”...
Jn. 1:19-27—“Now this is the testimony of John[the Baptist], when the Jews sent priests & Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, & did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD,”’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”[Isa. 40:3] Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. “It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.””
•Mat. 11:7-15—“As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, & more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’[Mal. 3:1] “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, & the violent take it by force. For all the prophets & the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Mat. 17:10-13—“And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus answered & said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first & will restore all things. “But I say to you that Elijah has come already, & they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.”
“Elijah’s” appearance was well known & anticipated in Jesus’ day. And it was even proffered by those spiritual heads(scribes & Pharisees) who refused to recognize Jesus as Messiah.
“Elijah”—hyla ay-lee-yaw'—Elijah or Eliah = “my God is Jehovah” or “Yah(u) is God.”
“Prophet”—aybn naw-bee'—1) Spokesman, speaker, prophet. Strong—A prophet or (generally)Inspired man.
“Before”—hnp paw-neh'—Strong—The face(as the part that turns); used in a great variety of applications(literally & figuratively); also(with prepositional prefix) as a preposition--Before, etc..
“the great & dreadful day of the LORD.”
This speaks of a specific “day” or time that will be noteworthy(“great”) when compared all other “days.” It will outpace & outshine all other “days.”
•In that “day” YaHWeH God will finalize His design on this current earth, to the relief of those who are faithful to Him.
•However, for the faith-less, “the day of the LORD” will be overwhelming & “dreadful”, & will bring the certainty of absolute life-altering calamities with fear.
Joel 2:28-32—““And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons & your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants & on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the heavens & in the earth: Blood & fire & pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great & awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion & in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the LORD has said, Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.”
•The arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, recorded in Acts 2, was the initial sign of the fulfillment of the Joel 2 passage.
Rev. 6:15-17—“And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave & every free man, hid themselves in the caves & in the rocks of the mountains, & said to the mountains & rocks, “Fall on us & hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne & from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, & who is able to stand?””
•They ask the prophesied question “Who is able to stand”(Rev. 6:17) & “who can endure the day of His coming”, & “who can stand when He appears?”(Mal. 3:2).
Isa. 13:9—“Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath & fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it.”
Isa. 34:8—“For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.”
Zeph. 1:14-18—“The great day of the LORD is near; It is near & hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the LORD is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble & distress, A day of devastation & desolation, A day of darkness & gloominess, A day of clouds & thick darkness, A day of trumpet & alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers. “I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the LORD; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse.” Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In the day of the LORD’s wrath;...”
“Great”—lwdg gaw-dol'—Adj.—1) Great. Strong—Great(in any sense); hence, Older; also--Insolent.
“Dreadful”(See 3:16— “feared”; 4:2)—ary yaw-ray'—Verb—1) Fearing, reverent, afraid. Strong—Fearing; morally, reverent.
Argumentation:
Lev. 18:30—“‘Therefore you shall keep My ordinance, so that you do not commit any of these abominable customs which were committed before you, & that you do not defile yourselves by them: I am the LORD your God.’”
Ps. 119:11—“Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!
Luke 9:23—“Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, & take up his cross daily, & follow Me.”
1Jn. 2:15—“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Php. 3:7-14—“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, & count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ & be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him & the power of His resurrection, & the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind & reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Zeph. 2:3—“Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the LORD’S anger.”
1Thes. 5:1-9—“But concerning the times & the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace & safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light & sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch & be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, & those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith & love, & as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
Godly fathers trust God’s revelation about the prophet “Elijah” & his association with “the day of the LORD’s wrath, & then such fathers act accordingly!
Illustration:
We all learn how to do certain things from our godly fathers in the context of God’s will. Think of some good things that your Dad ‘taught’ you, or something that you ‘caught’ from your Dad—
•How to work hard, by putting your heart & soul into it; How to fish; How to work on a car/truck/motorcycle, How to fix--whatever; How to approach another man by looking him in the eye, & the importance of having a firm handshake; How to be confident, & proud of your work; How to tie a necktie or bowtie, How to shine your shoes; How to grow food for yourself & others; How to make a profit without being greedy...
•How to--just ‘fill-in-the-blank’, in order to be a godly man.
*These are all things that relate to APPLYING God’s truth to the practicalities of life!
*OR--Maybe you didn’t grow up within a godly Christian context...You don’t have to live an ungodly life! Don’t let others make that choice for you! YOU can be the one to ‘break the chain’ of ungodliness!...
You don’t have to live life the way your grandfather did, or how your mother did, or within the bounds of your family’s reputation. I urge you to ‘break the chain’ of ungodliness, & turn instead to Christ Jesus, in order to receive the proper direction for your life!
Application:
?Are YOU Meeting the challenge of APPLYING WHAT YOU REMEMBER to your Children/Family?
?Are YOU committed to being a Christ-honoring Godly Father?
?Will you be a GODLY example for your entire family?
CONCLUSION:
Action:
Godly Fathers are vital as Those Who...
2. APPLY WHAT THEY REMEMBER(4:5)
1. REMEMBER GOD’s WORD & WILL(4:4)
Pt# 2-only! Presented 06/18/2023am to:
Salem Baptist Church
1618 Salem Rd.
Bennettsville, SC 29512
