[0:00] This evening's Bible reading is from the book of Malachi. It can be found on page 962 of the church Bibles.! That's page 962. Malachi chapter 3, beginning at verse 13.
[0:20] You have spoken arrogantly against me, says the Lord. Yet you ask, what have we said against you? You have said, it is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed.
[0:44] Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it. Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard.
[0:58] A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honoured his name. On the day when I act, says the Lord Almighty, they will be my treasured possession.
[1:13] I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
[1:30] Surely the day is coming. It will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble. And that day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty.
[1:44] Not a root or branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.
[1:56] And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Then you will trample on the wicked. They will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord Almighty.
[2:09] Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
[2:28] He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents. Or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction. Thanks be to God for his words.
[2:44] For reading, let me add my welcome to David. My name is Andrew. I'm a minister in training here at the church. It's a great joy to be opening up God's word with you. And tonight we're finishing off our series of Malachi.
[2:56] It's been a few weeks, but don't worry, we'll dive into it together. And as we start, why don't we come to the Lord in prayer. Father, as we turn now to think upon your word together, we seek your help.
[3:09] May your spirit be working powerfully amongst us this evening. As we read and speak about it, each one of us would be changed to be more like your son. Protect us, Lord, from letting this be a head exercise only.
[3:25] We long for our hearts and souls to be affected and transformed according to your will. In Jesus' name. Amen. In this world, good people suffer and bad people prosper.
[3:43] Good people suffer and bad people prosper. Those who seek to live as God calls them to live, suffer.
[3:55] And those who couldn't care less about what God has said, well, they prosper, don't they? Time and time again, they win and others lose out.
[4:06] This Christmas, we could think of two well-off families in the West End. Very similar, one Christian, one not. One family this year has lived however they wanted.
[4:19] They've chased after all the very visible rewards that the world has to offer. They've been successful in that. The other family has worked really hard this year to live as God calls them to live.
[4:36] They've given sacrificially to the church building project. They've passed up on a promotion because it would take them out of Glasgow too many Sundays to serve in church. And if we flew someone in to have a bird's eye view on these two lives at Christmas, who would they say is winning at life?
[4:58] Well, visibly, it is the non-Christian family, isn't it? The presents are piled up higher. The dinner is far more luxurious. The TV is bigger.
[5:09] The house is in a fresher state. In a world so obsessed with materialism, with the visible, I want what I can see, what I can touch.
[5:21] Faith, that is trust in the invisible, can be really hard. Everyone else looks like they're winning at life.
[5:33] Those who ignore God seem to get away with it time and time again. And this idea that the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper is not a recent problem.
[5:47] It's a problem for God's people across history. Psalm 73 is Asaph's struggle with it thousands of years ago. And it boots it really nicely for us.
[5:59] It says, For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. This is what the wicked are like.
[6:09] They are always free of care. They go on amassing wealth. Surely, in vain, I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.
[6:21] All day long, I have been afflicted. And every morning brings new punishments. Everything I see tells me I'm wasting my time.
[6:33] Sometimes it feels like I've followed God in vain when I see what everyone else is doing. We can feel that sometimes, especially at Christmas.
[6:45] It's a problem that Malachi's people are struggling with. And as we've been looking at this book, if you cast your mind back quite a few weeks, right at the start, chapter 1, verse 2, God declared, I have loved you.
[7:00] And they turned around and went, How? It doesn't feel like it. It doesn't seem like it. And that same sentiment plays into our passage tonight.
[7:12] Let's dive in together. You'll find three points this evening. They're on the back of the service sheets. Even when the wicked prosper, don't give up on the day, but keep faithfully serving the Lord.
[7:25] Get your Bibles open if you need to. Again, we're still at page 962, if they've fallen shut. And let's go. Our first point, even when the wicked prosper, chapter 3, verses 13 to 16.
[7:39] On our sixth and final dispute of the book, God declares, verse 13, you have spoken arrogantly against me. And yet again, we get the response.
[7:53] How? What have we said against you from the people? Malachi is speaking to people who have returned to the land after the exile, but before Jesus' birth.
[8:04] They're weak. They're poor. They're despised by many. They came back expecting party time. They came back expecting all of God's promises to be fulfilled there and then, only to find out that wasn't God's plan.
[8:23] And whereas in his psalm, Asaph is wrestling in prayer with God over what he sees, well, we're told the people of Malachi's day have just given up. They've stopped trying to match what God promises with what they see and feel.
[8:39] And they've become arrogant. Read verse 14 with me. You have said it is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going around like mourners before the Lord Almighty?
[8:55] But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly, evildoers prosper. And even when they boot God to the test, they get away with it.
[9:06] They say, hey, it's futile to serve God. Let's pack it in. What is the point? Evildoers prosper. They test God and they get away with it time and time and time again.
[9:22] Why carry out God's commands to love him and love our neighbors? Honesty, humility, and integrity are exhausting. Sometimes it feels like they take all the fun out of life and visibly, I get nothing for it.
[9:37] That's their lived reality. Meanwhile, those who couldn't care less just seem to get more and more and more. They don't give God a second thought and they seem to be winning at life.
[9:49] How is that fair? I think Christmas can be a time where as Christians, we really feel that. comparison games can be in full swing between family and friends.
[10:04] What holidays have you been on this year? What gifts have you gotten each other? Where did you go shopping for your Christmas dinner? Conversation can feel like entering a whole new world.
[10:15] And everyone's pretending that life is perfect regardless of what's gone on this year. It can become easy to question, is it really worth serving God?
[10:28] These guys all have better lives than me and yet they couldn't care less about serving him. When it feels like that, we have two options of how to respond and Malachi lays them out for us.
[10:42] We can, verse 14, throw our hands up in the air, declare, it's futile. Why bother? And speak arrogantly against God. Or, even when what we see and what we feel tells us otherwise, we can fear and honor the Lord.
[11:02] Just like the folks in verse 16. Look at verse 16 with me. Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other and the Lord listened and heard.
[11:14] A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. Seemingly, not all of Malachi's hearers have given up on God.
[11:27] There is this faithful remnant left who, when confronted by God with the sin of their nation, have gathered together in fear of him.
[11:40] And verse 16 is largely unique in the book of Malachi. We've been working through six disputes, six charges, where God has accused the people of this and we've been told how they responded and God's judgment on them.
[11:54] But in verse 16, it's as if the camera shifts there's no dialogue, it's not part of a dispute. It's just narrative, isn't it? With a shift in writing like that, we should pay close attention to what's included.
[12:08] Those who still feared the Lord, who recognized that he is the sovereign God who punishes evil, well, they gather together and the Lord listens and hears.
[12:20] and their names are written on a scroll of remembrance before God. After time and time and time again of dispute and condemnation in Malachi, we finally arrived, a glimmer of hope.
[12:37] This slice of narrative tells us plainly that the Lord does see, the Lord does hear, and he does remember. Even when it feels like the wicked prosper and there's no point in serving the Lord, he listens and he hears the scroll of remembrance being written in the presence of God is a certain assurance of a reward for his faithful people.
[13:10] And notice this isn't individuals, they've not all gone running off to hide in their cupboard by themselves and pray, no, they've come together. They've drawn together and they've kept going.
[13:23] When things are hard to understand, when it's hard to match up what God says with how it feels, don't be a lone wolf. Be a part of the flock.
[13:35] Don't scatter, come together. Don't give up on meeting with God's people. Even when the wicked prosper, when it feels pointless to serve God, don't turn away from him or speak arrogantly to him, but turn to him for help.
[13:54] He wants to hear and he does listen. And so here, this encouragement, our second point, don't give up on the day.
[14:06] 317 to 4, verse 3. The faithful remnant haven't taken off their scripture tainted glasses through which they see and understand the world they live in.
[14:18] They know that God is merciful and delays judgment in hope that people will turn back to him. But at the same time, they also know that God does not let wickedness and sin go unpunished.
[14:35] Just because they don't see it doesn't mean they give up on it ever happening. And delayed judgment like this is good news for us as well.
[14:47] For which of us would be in Christ if God's judgment followed hot on the heels of our sin? At that point, there would be no window. If wickedness followed immediately with judgment, there would be no hope for anyone to be saved.
[15:03] We need that delay. But we mustn't forget that judgment is coming. Look at verse 17 with me. On the day when I act, says the Lord Almighty, they will be my treasured possession.
[15:19] I will spare them just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.
[15:33] the Lord Almighty declares there is a certain day coming when he will act. Even though Malachi's people and we don't see the distinction now between the righteous and the wicked, God promises in verse 18 there is one and we will see it, he will make it known.
[15:55] Those who fear and honor the Lord will be his treasured possession, his very own people. as a father, he will spare them.
[16:06] And for verse 1, surely the day is coming. We get this double reassurance for the people. 317, on the day when I act a certainty, not a possibility.
[16:20] And for one, surely the day is coming. For when we see the wicked prospering, we mustn't give up on the day. And the day is speaking of a time where the world will end, when Christ returns, and God will give each person what they deserve.
[16:41] And from there, God will take his people to be with him in the new creation. Keep reading 4 verse 1 with me. God says, it will burn like a furnace, all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble.
[16:57] And that day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty. Not a root or branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays, and you will go out and frolic like well-fed cats.
[17:18] There is a great day of distinction coming. There are two ways to live in life. You can listen to the words of God and return to him, or you can speak arrogantly against him and say you want nothing to do with him.
[17:36] Malachi draws that distinction. Jesus, when he taught on earth, drew the exact same one. Those who reject God, who are arrogant and evildoers, will be consumed with nothing left for them.
[17:50] But those who revere God will bask in his glorious light and the arrogant will receive the judgment they deserve for booting the sovereign Lord to the test and deciding they don't want anything to do with him.
[18:06] While some might seem to prosper here on earth, it might seem like they have it all. The reality is there is no life outside of the living God.
[18:18] And for those who choose to reject him, they choose to reject life. they will be consumed in the fire of God's righteous judgment. It is only those who have faith that are saved.
[18:34] Malachi's people had to trust God's judgment was coming despite their present circumstances. They had to have faith. They boot their trust in God, only seeing glimpses of God's great redemption plan.
[18:49] And so for us, living this side of Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection, getting to see all that we have seen, all that we read about, what Malachi's faithful remnant would have given to behold the Lord Jesus in a manger, born on earth to save them from judgment.
[19:14] What a privilege we enjoy to live this side and to see God's salvation plan. And so we, all of us trusting in Christ as the one who takes the judgment that we deserve, will be like frolicking cows upon sight of green pastures.
[19:36] In Denmark, I found out this week, they have a day where thousands of people go and watch these cows as they come flying out of the barns. They've been cooped up in all winter.
[19:47] they all go charging out and upon sight of these luscious green fields, they jump, they skip, they dance at seeing this glorious place that they have been waiting for.
[20:02] Just think about it, they have been cooped up in this barn for months and months, it certainly stinks, there's probably not that much light, and they have been dreaming about what it used to be like, until finally a farmer comes, and he says it's time, he opens the doors and he encourages them out, and there's thousands of people there to greet them as they come charging out and they see it and they jump and they skip and they dance, having finally seen it.
[20:32] I mean, look at this wee guy's face, he's so excited. Friends, that will be us one day, leaping into the new creation, when the Lord Almighty comes and he takes us to luscious green pastures, oh to be a frolicking cow in the new creation.
[20:52] It will be so good. Don't give up on the day. But maybe you're someone who, if you're being honest, has had a really tough year, and at the end of it, you find yourself here this evening feeling a little disillusioned, with God.
[21:14] Perhaps the great day of the Lord has never felt further away than it does now. Perhaps there's something in your heart that chimes with the declaration that just wonders if it might be right that to serve God is futile.
[21:31] Don't give up on the day. Don't lose sight of what is coming. Think of the glorious green fields that await us. the Lord sees, he hears, he remembers, he will bring justice upon our world.
[21:49] No act goes unseen or unpunished, even if we don't see it punished in this world. Trust it to him, and don't lose sight of what's coming.
[22:03] And that justice applies to each of us as well, doesn't it? the world isn't split neatly into two groups where there's just victims and just perpetrators. No, each of us is simultaneously the perpetrator of much evil and the victim of much evil by others.
[22:23] And so each of us stands condemned on that day, unless we have accepted Christ, of his offer to take that judgment for us.
[22:33] this Christmas, if you have wandered away from Christ, come back to him. Behold, the child born in the manger who takes away the sin of the world.
[22:48] Remember, that day is certainly coming. And so even when the wicked prosper, don't give up on the day.
[23:02] But our third point, keep faithfully serving the Lord. Chapter four, verses four to six. What does it look like to not give up on the day?
[23:13] We've thought a little bit about seeing the world through the lens of judgment day coming. And at this point in our passage, God moves as he speaks through Malachi to give the only direct command in our passage tonight.
[23:28] Read it with me, verse four. Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. Remember is not just to not forget what it said.
[23:45] It's not head knowledge, it's not can you reel off the Ten Commandments to me right now? Have you memorized the book of Deuteronomy? No, it's much more than that. It's to call to mind and to boot into practice.
[23:58] remembering the law is of no use if all that means is head knowledge for them. It's about how they live and relate to God. The faithful remnant are to live it out as they await the great day.
[24:17] Having faith in God looks like responding by living as he calls his people to. And God promises to act.
[24:28] Verse 5, see I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of their parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.
[24:49] The promise of the prophet Elijah coming to Malachi has been fulfilled in John the Baptist Luke tells us that in chapter one of his account. And we know that it's not just that Elijah has come, but the Lord himself has come in the birth and the incarnation of Christ into our world, making possible a way for us to be in right relationship with God to avoid the destruction that he will strike the land with.
[25:22] In Malachi's day, they had these promises to hold on to, but they never saw them even partially fulfilled. They waited in hope together.
[25:34] But we know that Elijah has returned, that Christ has opened this glorious window where all can turn to him, put their trust in him and not perish, but have eternal life.
[25:46] The judgment is delayed. and since one has happened, since John the Baptist has come as the Elijah, we have even greater reason to trust that the great day is coming.
[26:01] Even when the wicked prosper, don't give up on the day, but keep faithfully serving the Lord. May this Christmas time be one where we really remember that the Lord is coming back, that day is coming.
[26:17] Where we look at everything through these scripture tainted glasses that have etched on them, Jesus is coming back. So that whatever we see, everywhere we look, we can't help but be reminded of that reality.
[26:35] And so if at some point this Christmas, you find yourself affronted by the visible materialism of Christmas, don't be seduced into thinking that it lasts, that that is what there is to gain.
[26:52] Whatever it might be, whatever point of the next 12 days where you'll feel jealous or small or insecure, there's so much visible stuff at Christmas that the world screams as this is what you need.
[27:06] Our world is hooked in it, that waiting faithfully for the invisible day to come can feel foolish. And when we're counting the cost of following Christ and seeing the world prosper, it's hard.
[27:23] But we have two choices. We can turn and declare that serving the Lord is futile, that it feels like he ruins our fun and makes every day like a funeral when those who ignore him go unopposed.
[27:38] Or we can remember that the day is certainly coming. We can be like the remnant of verse 16, who gather together, who encourage each other to keep on going, to remember the day is coming even though we don't see it.
[27:53] We considered some of Psalm 73 at the start. This is how Asaph finishes his psalm. I found it incredibly encouraging looking at it over the last couple of weeks.
[28:07] Having wrestled with God at what he sees of people standing up to him and getting away with it, this is how he concludes. He says, Whom have I in heaven but you?
[28:19] And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish.
[28:34] You destroy all those who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge.
[28:46] I will tell of all your deeds. The psalm written by one man boot into the national songbook of the people of God. The worship initiative have a great song based on this psalm.
[29:01] I'd really recommend it. There's much in this world to take our desires away from God. Lots of things to envy. But when the day comes, and it certainly will, as for me, as for us, it is good to be near God.
[29:20] We have made the sovereign Lord our refuge. We will tell of all his deeds. Truly, it is good to be in the presence of God for eternity, much better than whatever our short lives can offer.
[29:34] And we must never stop reminding each other of that. St. Silas, this Christmas, even when the wicked prosper, don't give up on the day, but keep faithfully serving the Lord together.
[29:50] Pray with me. Heavenly Father, gracious God to whom all things are known, we praise you that nothing goes unseen by you.
[30:02] The while it can look to us at points like the wicked prosper and we suffer. You are a God of justice. Thank you for the Lord Jesus, for the way he made that we might be saved.
[30:16] Help each of us this Christmas and into the new year to firmly remember that the day is surely coming. And may that knowledge move us to thankfulness for the birth of Christ and faithful service of you as we await eternity.
[30:32] And for our loved ones chasing after the prosperity of the world, give us opportunities this Christmas to tell of all your deeds to them in Jesus mighty name.
[30:43] Amen. Let me invite you to stand and we'll sing together. All right.