The Son will arise
Malachi 3:16-4:6 07/09/06
This is the last of our study in the book of Malachi. I pray that you have learned something that down the road will be a blessing to you. Malachi was the last of the Old Testament prophets and therefore he had the last word in the Old Testament.
Regardless how dark and dismal the day, God has always had a people. It doesn’t matter how bad you have read things are in the Bible and how far people have drifted from the teaching of God’s Word, God has a people that love Him and obedient to His Word. It doesn’t matter how bad you have read things are in the Bible and how far people have drifted from the teaching of God’s Word, God has a people that love Him and obedient to His Word. You can move into the book of Revelation and find a time like has never been nor ever will be; a time when it seems the entire earth is against God, yet you find two witnesses who are serving the Lord. What I am telling you is folks; there has never been a time when God did not have His remnant. Even when the earth seemed to be at its worst, there was Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives who loved the Lord.
Now in our text this morning, you find in verse 16 the word “then.” In the way the language is worded, the then is a change of tenor. If you have been coming and listening to the words of God in the verses prior to verse 16 of chapter 3, then you know that God has been pleading with a people who fear not the Lord. When God would appeal to their heart, they would say oh really? Then when you come to verse 16 of chapter 3, you notice that now God is talking to a people who fear Him. So there was one group of people, no fear of the Lord. Another group of people who fear the Lord. So, here we have a message for the people who fear and love the Lord even in the dark and dismal day in which we live. So, what I want you to understand in your heart this morning is are you a part of His remnant?
God says some wonderful things about His remnant. The first thing I notice in our text about God’s remnant is YOU ARE REMEMBERED. God promises in verse 16 that you will always be remembered. Here is a picture in these last days of God’s people coming together in church and prayer groups talking about the things of God. They are coming together and encouraging one another. Actually one way you can tell if you are in His remnant is if you are an encourager. Worldly people, lost people will always do all they can do to discourage you in serving the Lord. We ought to be encouraging one another out in the battlefield of life. I don’t have much time for those who never encourage but are all time complaining. You say I don’t like that. Well the devil doesn’t either, so categorize yourself.
I want to encourage you by telling you all over this country there are people talking about the Lord as we are this morning. In verse 16, the Bible says that God harkens to their voice. That means that He bends over to hear. God is pleased to hear His children talking about Him and their thoughts upon Him. Then the Bible says that “a book of remembrance was written”. God is taking minutes of the meeting this morning. There is nothing that goes on in the meeting that He doesn’t know.
I think about the baby book. Sometimes they may give you a baby book when you leave the hospital but if not most parents buy one. When the baby burps the first burp, you put it down in the book. When the baby spits up on your new dress, it doesn’t matter, that goes down in the book. Everything that the baby does, we keep a record of it.
Well, God is keeping record. There is nothing that you do or say that the Lord doesn’t keep a record of. Every time you cry over a lost soul, God puts it down in His book of records. When you go out to visit in His name, God puts it in His record book. The only thing that is not in His book is your sins you committed before you came to know Him as your Savior.
I want to tell you not only are you remembered but YOU ARE RAPTURED.
Now I know that when Malachi says the day of the Lord, he is talking about the day when the lost will come for judgment. Not to see if they will make it to heaven because that has already been decided before the day of the Lord. For before the day of the Lord, there will be a rapture of the Saints. Verse 17 says, “They shall be mine saith the Lord of host, in that day when I make up my jewels: and I will spare them.” There is one thing I am interested in missing and that is hell. Here the Lord calls the child of God His jewels. Jewels are precious things. You are precious to the Lord.
But also I want you to see in chapter 4 verse 1 that He is talking about the lost. He says the lost will be like stubble and chaff. I know that you have heard about fuel for the fire. When you look at this verse that is what He is talking about. The lost will be fuel for the fire always dieing but never dead.
But you see there it also says that the Lord will leave the lost neither root nor branch. It is just as same as if they were never born as far as their remembrance goes. Never to be heard from again is an awful thing but that is the results of a godless life.
You are remembered; you are raptured but also YOU ARE RELEASED.
When you read the rest of the chapter 4, you find that the Lord is coming one day with healing in His wings. One of these days if you know Him as your Savior, you will be released from the very influence of sin. The sin problem here will be no problem in heaven. Do you know Jesus?
