Sermons
by Ken D. Trivette
The Book of Malachi
WHAT
A DAY THAT WILL BE
1.
On 4 occasions, Malachi uses the word "behold." Each time it is used
to introduce Divine proclamations (2:3, 3:1, 4:1, 4:5). The word calls attention
to something unique and is used to calls special attention to what is about to
be proclaimed. It is a flashing light that says to watch out, pay careful
attention to what is being declared.
2.
That which Malachi wants us to pay special attention to is the great truth that
the LORD IS COMING! Malachi is saying, "Give me your complete attention.
There is something I want you pay special attention to and be particularly aware
of and that is the LORD COMETH!"
3.
John Knox at one point had to flee Edinburgh for fear of his life. His life was
in danger if he stayed. Hundreds of believers were being hanged and burned at
the stake. Knox hid for a short period of time but decided to return to
Edinburgh. As he was nearing the city, a farmer in the field recognized him. He
began running ahead shouting, "John Knox is coming! John Knox is
coming!" Word began to spread like wildfire so that when Knox arrived
hundreds greeted him.
4.
The great motivation and challenge of our day is "'JESUS IS COMING! JESUS
IS COMING!" If there is anything that this generation should pay careful
attention to and be to be particularly aware of is that the Lord is coming. The
theme of all Malachi's preaching has been a challenge to get ready for the
Lord's return. God's "Behold" has never been clearer, or more urgent
to heed than now. The Lord cometh, and we need to be ready as never before for
His coming.
5.
Malachi describes what that coming will be like for both the sinner and the
saint. Malachi says, "For, behold, the day cometh." The emphasis is on
the word "day." He is not speaking of a 24-hour period. He is speaking
of an event that begins with the rapture of the Church and concludes with the
Great White Throne Judgment. He describes what a day that will be for those who
are lost and those who are saved.
1.
IT WILL BE A DAY OF JUDGMENT FOR THE SINNER!
1.
Often when we think of the Lord's coming we think only in terms of how glorious
it will be. Yet, there is another side of His coming that needs our careful
consideration and that is how grievous it will be. The Lord will come in
judgment.
2.
Isaiah 30:18 declares, "The Lord is a God of judgment."
3.
For many the coming of the Lord will not be a glad day, but a sad day. It will
not be a happy event but a horrible event.
4.
We read in Revelation 6:15-17 "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich
men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every
free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; - And
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of the
Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: - For the great
day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
5.
What will that day be like for the sinner?
A.
It Is A Future Judgment.
1.
Malachi twice says, "the day cometh." It may appear to men and this
world as if God is unconcerned, uncaring, and unaware, but one day, He will move
and act in judgment.
2.
The world has developed the mentality that it can live in sin and anyway it
pleases for God is love. That is true, but what must never be forgotten is that
He is also a God of judgment. His love may be patient now, but one day His
patience will be exhausted and He will come in judgment.
3.
The poet wrote:
Bow
ere the awful trumpet sound,
And
call you to His bar!
For
mercy knows the appointed bound,
And
turns to Vengeance there.
4.
Jack Van Impe wrote a book with a title that is a fitting description of the
days in which we live. The title of the book is "11:59 And Counting."
In the foreword he writes: "Never in the annals of world history have we
witnessed such a proliferation of the signs Jesus predicted to be in effect
immediately prior to His return. No
wonder the scientists who control the famed 'dooms day clock' are moving its
hands ever closer to midnight!" God's judgment is future, but that future
is almost upon us.
B.
It Is A Fiery Judgment.
1.
The language of Malachi is made extremely graphic by the participles that he
uses. As one reads his words one can almost see the flames leaping up and hear
the crackling of the fire. He describes this future judgment as a fiery
judgment.
2.
He says it will be a time when the sinner will "burn as in a oven" and
that the Lord will "burn them up ... shall leave them neither root or
branch." There are two pictures used here by Malachi.
3.
There is the picture of an oven. The word indicates a clay oven or fire-pot. It
speaks of oven in which bread was baked. It was a large hole in the earth, the
sides were plastered, and an extremely hot fire was burning inside. The bread
was placed against the plastered sides and very quickly baked.
4.
Then there is the picture of a field or forest being destroyed by fire. A fire
burns out of control and destroys everything, root and branch, in its path.
5.
The obvious lesson is that God's judgment will be a fiery judgment. Fire symbolically describes the severity of the judgment. Sinners will be
like "stubble" - a handful of dry grass, twigs, thrown into a roaring
fire. Sinners will be like a dry field being swept down by a roaring and
devouring fire. There is not a more vivid picture of the severity of God's
judgment than that of fire. Fire literally describes the source of the judgment.
God will actually judge the sinner by fire. The fires of hell and the lake of
fire are the means whereby God imparts judgment on the sinner for all eternity.
6.
A Methodist preacher named William Elbert Munsey once preached a message
entitled "The Just Necessity For Punishment" in which, as no other I
have ever found, painted a picture of the fires of God's judgment as will be
experienced in hell: "Or it may be an unquenchable lake of fire and
brimstone, surrounded with precipitous shores of black and beetling crags, over
whose surface beat eternal storms, the fiery waves lashing, and dashing, and
splashing, and groaning around all the shores -bubbles dancing on every wave and
swell, and bursting emit fumes and smoke threaded with serpent flames, in whose
ascending volumes everlasting lightning's flash and cross - while the unfettered
thunders of God upon Hell's infernal drums roll the eternal bass in Hell's
uproar, and beat time to the ceaseless groans of the lost."
C.
It Is A Fitting Judgment.
1.
Notice that Malachi speaks of those who face this future, fiery judgment as
"the proud" and "all that do wickedly." The word
"proud" is predominantly used in the Old Testament to speak of those who have
turned their back on God. They act as if they do not need God. They turn a deaf
ear to His commands and warnings. They do their own things without any
consideration of God. The tense of the words is that they keep on doing wickedly
or unrighteousness.
2.
Is it not fitting or only reasonable to conclude that if an individual refuses
God's offer and rejects God's warnings that God has no other alternative than to
judge that individual? IT IS A JUDGMENT THAT IS DESERVED!
3.
Cp. Isaiah 5:4: "What could have been done more to My vineyard, that l have not
done it? Wherefore, when l looked that ft should bring forth grapes, brought ft
forth wild grapes?"
4.
God is just, but never unjust. He will show mercy if one will let Him. But turn
your back on His offer, and you will get what you asked for.
5.
THE LORD COMETH! For the sinner it will be a day of judgment.
1.
It Will Be A Day Of Judgment For The Sinner!
2.
IT WILL BE A DAY OF JOY FOR THE SAINT!
1.
What a contrast His coming is for those who are saved. For the sinner it will be
a grievous day, but for the saved it will be a glorious day. For the sinner it
will be a sad day but for the saint a glad day. For the sinner it will be a
horrible day but for the saint a happy day. For the sinner it will be a day of
retribution, but for the saint a day of celebration. For the sinner it will be a
day of judgment but for the saint a day of joy.
A.
It Will Be A Glorious Day.
1.
The Lord's coming is described as a sunrise, first light, beautiful dawning of a
new day. The night is over and passed and the glory of a new day has dawned.
Malachi says, "But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of
righteousness arise with healing in His wings."
2.
The coming of the Lord for the saint will be glorious because it will be the
beginning of a new day. The Lord's coming will be like the rising of the Sun
with healing in His wings (rays).
3.
There will be no more night with sickness, pain, suffering, disease, heartache,
troubles, trials, and tears. His coming will expel the darkness and bring a new
day in which the rays of His righteousness will bring the warmth of a glorious
healing.
4.
One day, C.A. Blackmore, one of America's pioneer radio preachers was preaching
on the return of the Lord Jesus. He said, "My friend, we have a glorious
hope, the Bible calls it a blessed hope for Christians. The Bible tells us that
one day the trumpet will sound and Jesus will come back to take His children
home! Dear friend, all your suffering and pain will be over, we'll have a new
body, arms and legs that are missing will be replaced - friend, we'll be like
Jesus! You'll have a glorified body someday, some golden daybreak when Jesus
comes back." A few days later, Blackmore received a letter from a woman
listener who had been bed-ridden for years. She wrote, "Rev. Blackmore, the
message you gave on Jesus coming was such a blessing to me, I've been an invalid
for almost 25 years and sometimes I get so discouraged, I can hardly wait for
the Lord to come. To think I'll be able to walk again and there'll be no
heartaches there. Thank you so much for your sermon."
Some
glorious morning sorrow will cease,
Some
glorious morning all will be peace;
Heartaches
all ended, Labor all done,
Heaven
will open, Jesus will come.
Sad
hearts will gladden, all shall be bright,
Good-bye
forever to earth's dark night;
Changed
in a moment like Him to be,
Oh,
glorious daybreak, Jesus I'll see.
Oh,
what a meeting there in the skies,
No
tears nor crying shall dim our eyes;
Loved
ones united eternally,
Oh,
what a daybreak that morn will be.
Some
golden day-break Jesus will come;
Some
golden day-break battles all won,
He'll
shout the vict'ry, break thro' the blue,
Some
golden day-break, for me, for you.
B.
It Will Be A Joyous Day.
1.
Not only does Malachi use the picture of a Sun coming up in the morning but he
also uses the picture of a calf going out to the pasture. "Ye shall go
forth, and grow up as calves of the stall."
2.
The words "'grow up" do not describe growth as we think of. They mean,
"leap for joy, or frisk." The picture is of young calves that have
been shut up in a dark stall for the night, and when the morning comes, they are
let out into the wide open pastures to romp in the field and feed in the lush
green pasture. The image is of them leaping, jumping, running about, leaping as
frisking calves.
3.
You can call it what you may: "Having a spell, getting carried away,
letting it rip, shouting it out, getting happy, etc." But when the dawn of
that new day comes, and we are set free from the stall of this life to enjoy the
heavenly pastures of that celestial land, we will be like frisky calves!
4.
The deaf will be shouting, "I can hear." The crippled will be
shouting, "I can walk." The blind will be shouting, "I can
see." Friends and family will be hugging one another.
C.
It Will Be A Victorious Day.
1.
Christians are often the butt of jokes and the target for criticism by this
world. But we must never forget that we are on the winning side. Malachi said in
vs.3 "But ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be as ashes under
the soles of your feet in that day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of
Hosts."
2.
Malachi looks into the future when Jesus comes back to this earth and His saints
come with to rule and
reign over the earth. Christians may be put down today but they will rule over
one day. It will be a victorious day.
3.
JESUS IS COMING AGAIN! Will it be a
day of Judgment or a day of Joy for you?
4.
One day, James Black, was headed for the Post Office in Williamsport,
Pennsylvania. He decided to cut through an alley to save some time. He had never
been through the alley before and was not aware of its poverty and the misery it
contained. As he walked through the alley, he saw a young girl sweeping the
porch of a ramshackle house. She was dressed oh, so poor, and in her young face
there were already traces of worry and neglect. "Young lady," he
asked. "Do you go to Sunday School?" She replied, "No, Sir, I'd
like to but I don't have anything fit to wear; but Sir, how I'd love to
go!" Soon Jim's wife and some friends had delivered clothing and all of the
things that would be needed to make the young girl happy and feel wanted and
"fit" for Church. Thus began a faithful attendance record for both the
Sunday School and the Epworth league. The little girl, Bessie, didn't miss a
meeting. Each time there was a roll call she was there. But one day when here
name was called there was no reply. Again James Black called her name and still
no reply. Troubled thoughts went through his mind. Maybe her drunken father had
forbidden her to come or perhaps he had taken to beating her gain. After Church,
Black hurriedly made his way to Bessie house, for he knew if she wasn't in
Sunday School something was wrong. When he arrived, he found Bessie very sick.
Realizing that she was serious he summoned a doctor who diagnosed it as a case
of advanced pneumonia. As he walked back to his house, he couldn't shake off the
feeling that had come over him when Bessie had failed to respond to the roll
call that morning. The thought kept coming back to him that someday there will
be a roll call in heaven. Later he sat down at the piano and without any effort
at all the words seemed to tumble from his soul. The tune came in the same
manner. The song he wrote was first sang a few days later at little Bessie's
funeral.
When
the trumpet of the Lord shall sound,
And
time shall be no more;
And
the morning breaks Eternal, bright and fair,
When
the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,
And
the roll is called up yonder I'll be there.