Malachi Lesson 8: That Day is Coming :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: June 30, 2021 by RR7

Chapter 4:1-6

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘That will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. 3 You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,’ says the Lord of hosts.

4 ‘Remember the Law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. 5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 6 And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.“

I hope that many of you began a book of remembrance, and if not, maybe you just took a few minutes to truly thank God for His many blessings. We here in North America and most of the Western world are blessed beyond all we could ask. We have fridges and freezers full of food; we have closets full of new clothes; many of us have more than a dozen pairs of shoes; we have heat for the winter, air conditioning for the summer, and a gas station on every corner, it seems. In my lifetime, other than the gas shortages in the early 1970s, which did not really affect me, I have not seen real shortages of just about anything in my lifetime.

We live in a wonderful time. We live in a blessed and privileged time. We live in a time of abundance and overflow. However, we are about to explore God’s last statement to the people of Israel from Malachi. This message would not really apply to them; all of them died before it was fulfilled. But they, the Jews in Israel, were warned that a day would come – a day that the world would never forget, a day when the wrath of God was going to be in full display, a day when men will have no doubts as to who God is and His power.

Once again, we see that there are two very distinct people in the world—those under God’s wrath and those under God’s protection. There are only two kinds of persons ever at any time on the earth. Those under God’s wrath and those under God’s protection. Which category do you fall into?

The Day of the Lord, verse 1

That day is promised—a day when God will pour out His wrath on the world. For the better part of 4,000+ years, we have lived under grace. In Genesis 6-9, the then world experienced the global wrath of God. The death of every breathing creature except the 8 persons and animals alive and preserved in the Ark that Noah built. That day, the day of the flood, had been promised in the birth of Methuselah. His name means ‘when he dies it shall come.” And wow, the grace of God is shown in that He allowed Methuselah to live the longest of the pre-flood people, some 969 years.

We were promised another day in Genesis 22:8. We are promised a day when the Lord will provide Himself as a sacrifice for man. That day did come. Jesus was born, lived, and died some 2,000 years ago. And He, God in the flesh, became the Saviour of the whole world to those who would receive the salvation He offers. The next day that is promised here in Malachi is no less sure. That day will come. I do not know if it will happen in my lifetime, but it will happen. Like the example we saw with Methuselah, the Lord is gracious and longs for all mankind to be saved. See 2 Peter 3:9.

One of the subjects that many seem to avoid in modern churches is the wrath of God. Yes, the Lord is gracious; yes, He is merciful and kind. But He is also the God who calms the storms and sends the storms. He is the God who has storehouses of hail (Job 38:22-23) and storehouses of snow. God is able to kill people just by blowing on them (2 Thessalonians 2:8). God used Babylon to judge Israel, and when He was done, He sent another army to judge Babylon (Isaiah 51:1-4). God invented earthquakes in Numbers 16:28-32 to vindicate and secure Moses as the leader of Israel in the wilderness. Yes, God invented earthquakes. Nothing like it had ever been seen before.

Too many see God as a wimpy Being pining for us. He is God; He is self-sufficient; He does not need us. He is Holy, Perfect, Righteous, and Spotless. As such, He cannot stand by and see evil and do nothing. His loving nature tends Him to grace, mercy, and kindness; but sooner or later, He has to confront evil. He is the God who can tame the dragons mentioned in Job 27 and 41? In 2 Kings 19:35, the Lord sends an angel to kill 185,000 soldiers in the Assyrian army in one night. He did not need an army, just one angel. God is powerful, and the same God who is the one who gives life is the one who takes life.

Too many today, even in the Lord’s churches, cannot imagine the God that is full of wrath. They don’t teach about Hell; they say a loving God would never send anyone to Hell. But they are wrong. People choose to go to Hell. Salvation has been provided for all. Hell is real, God’s wrath is real, and The Day of the Lord is coming.

The Promise of Protection, verse 2

In Genesis 18:23, Abraham asks God a rhetorical question, “Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?” The answer is no; God would not do that. He preserved Noah. He went ahead and preserved Lot and his daughters, and He will preserve us as well. While the world is being dished out the wrath of God, those of us that fear God, that love Him and have humbled ourselves to trust in His sacrifice for our sins, will be blessed and cared for by Jesus, the Sun (Son) of Righteousness. He will bless us when the others are being destroyed. He will protect us when the earth is being punished, and He will help us when the rest of the world will be feeling the full force of God’s wrath.

There are many, some dear friends of mine, who teach that we will be here for the first part of the Tribulation. A cursory reading of the book of Revelation beginning in chapter 4 tells a harrowing story of what will be happening here on earth at the time of the Day of the Lord. When we see the accounts of the flood and the account of Lot’s rescue, we can clearly see that the righteous were removed to safety before the events of God’s wrath were executed.

God promised to provide safety for those that ‘fear Him,’ have reverence and love for Him. We are promised healing and that we will all grow fat. Wow, a lot of people are not going to like that they spent their whole lives on a diet just to grow fat in God’s care. But what that really means is that we will have the best of all God has to offer. While He is destroying the wicked, He will be blessing those that fear Him.

The Holiness of the Law, verses 3-4

There are many today who pass on even teaching from the Old Testament. They say it is irrelevant, we are in the new covenant, and it is a waste of time to study these old stories. During His earthly ministry, Jesus quotes from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Amos, Jonah, Micah, and Malachi. In total, in just the Gospel accounts, He references the Old Testament 78 times and the Pentateuch (Gen to Deut.) 26 times. The apostles quoted the Old Testament 209 times in their writings. It would seem that the Old Testament is still pretty important to God.

The world will be judged because they broke the law of Moses. They knew right and wrong; they chose wrong, and there are consequences that follow choices. Choose to fear God and live; all of your sins will be covered in the blood of Jesus, and you will be saved. Choose to defy God, and your uncovered, unforgiven sin will call for the wrath of God.

Everyone knows the law of God; it is engrained in us. Every culture, for the most part, teaches at least commandments 5-10, the moral code of human behavior. These laws are passed on from one generation to the next. But our modern world is seeking to outlaw good and call evil good. We encourage rebellion to parents, we encourage and even reward lying about your neighbor, we encourage envy and greed, we encourage murder, and we encourage adultery. We defy God. God’s grace is great, His mercy is long-suffering, but soon He will stand for righteousness.

Now, in the text, God is specifically speaking to Israel, but as we read through the book of Revelation, we see that the whole world will suffer under the Day of the Lord. Millions will die, disease and death will be commonplace, people will still defy God and hate Him even more rather than repent. Money will be gone, the food supply diminished, the oceans and sea harmed, and the seasons will change. At one point, ALL of the islands disappear (I am from Barbados); that is not a good thing to happen. The thing that God will do will make the imagination of Hollywood and Disney pale in comparison. For the first time, mankind will understand what real horror is.

God’s standards of holiness have not changed one bit, not even a hair. His perfection is still perfect, and no human law will negate or make God’s law obsolete. His laws will be the final standard for all judgment. Just maybe we need to be teaching the Old Testament so that we truly understand God.

The Prophet Elijah, verses 5-6

We know that Elijah was one of the two men who did not see death in the Bible. Enoch, we are told in Genesis 5:24, was taken alive by God to Heaven. In 2 Kings 2:11, Elijah was taken up in a chariot into Heaven. We do not see Enoch after this, but we hear of Elijah a lot in the Bible, especially in the New Testament.

John the Baptist is called Elijah; he came to prepare the way for Jesus. He introduced Jesus to the world in John 1:29 and 36: “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” In Luke 1, Zechariah, John’s father, is promised that John would have the power of Elijah; and in Luke 1:17, that ‘he would turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people for the Lord.” This was a precursor to the Second coming, that Day of the Lord.

In Jesus’s first coming, He did not strike the earth with a curse; rather, He took the curse of death and killed it (1 Corinthians 15: 55-57). We then meet the real Elijah just before Jesus is crucified in Luke 9:30. There as Jesus is transformed into His glory – for a little bit – Peter, James, and John get to see Moses and Elijah in the flesh. Real people, talking and walking with Jesus. This was shortly before the crucifixion. But in the book of Revelation, we are told that two witnesses will stand in Israel in the Temple Mount and cry out against the evils of the world, and they will be indestructible for a time, even calling fire down to kill their enemies. We see them in Revelation 11; they have awesome power. Eventually, they are killed, then resurrect, and then the full wrath of God is poured out on the earth.

You can read the Revelation for yourself; you should. As I understand and have studied, one of those witnesses is Elijah; the other may be Enoch.

These men never see death on this side of the Tribulation, but they both see death in the Tribulation. Thus, like all men, they die. John the Baptist, called Elijah by the angel, came to announce Jesus; Elijah, the actual prophet, was there just before Jesus’ death, and it would appear that He will be here to call down the wrath of God on earth.

God keeps His promises. He never falters. He never fails, and He never has to issue an apology for not coming through. Are you ready for Jesus’ Second Coming? You are either a child of wrath that is about to see the awesome and scary power of the Living God or, in Jesus, you and I are protected by God. We will never see His wrath. We are not appointed unto wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10); we have obtained salvation in Jesus.

Have you obtained salvation in Jesus? Today is the day of salvation.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Malachi Lesson 7: Looking Back Gives 20/20 Vision :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: June 22, 2021 by RR7

Chapter 3: 13-18

“Your words have been harsh against Me,’ says the Lord, ‘Yet you say, ‘what have we spoken against You?’ 14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts? 15 So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.’ 16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; So, a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name.

17 “They shall be Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’ 18 Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”

Thank you for your emails, and we are actively praying as a church for the persons that you have mentioned. I have a prayer request of my own. We have a ministry in Pakistan that has been using our materials and has been reaching out to us for help. We are a small church, and we do what we can. We have sent some materials, and we are in the process of getting some Bibles, or maybe just the John/Romans books in Urdu. Please pray for these folks; they also serve a household of orphans, and we have got pictures here. If you had told me 12 years ago when we began this teaching ministry that we would have people in Pakistan using the material, I would have shrugged my shoulders and laughed it off inside. BUT GOD….

Today we are going to tackle another conversation that God has with the people of Israel. This remnant that had been preserved through the captivity in Babylon is now back in the land, and as in many cultures, there are the believers and the doubters. Today, God is going to take on the doubters head-on, and we will see if we can listen in and glean some knowledge and wisdom for us here in 2021.

What is the point? Verses 13-15

What is the point of serving God? What is the point of obeying these laws and performing these sacrifices? And if you recall the last lesson, what is the point of giving to God financially? There is no benefit to serving the Lord; why? The wicked and evil men are the ones prospering, and we, the ‘righteous’, suffer and are poor. If you were to take a look at Psalm 73, we find that Asaph, one of David’s chief musicians, had the same questions. He writes in Psalm 73: 1-9,

“Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For there are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride serves as their necklace; violence covers them like a garment. Their eyes bulge with abundance; they have more than heart could wish. They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth.”

Asaph asked an honest question: What was the point of serving the Lord when the wicked seem to prosper and have everything in this life? They don’t seem to have the same troubles as other men. And if I may make an observation, they seem to live long and healthy. I think of the Queen at 95 still working, in her right mind, and then see my mom, a woman who served the Lord all of her life, and she is stricken with Alzheimer’s and laid up in bed. I think of the many faithful preachers that have suffered from various diseases, many of who never became rich, never even owned a home, and their children lived with hand-me-downs for a long time. It seems that many wicked people live to ripe old ages, they live in relatively good health, and they have a lot of money.

The people in Israel in Malachi’s day had the question that many generations, and I think ours today, are asking. What is the point of serving God when the only people that seem to prosper are the wicked?

It would seem that the way to get God’s favor is to be wicked. Sadly, we have a generation of people raised in churches that only equate God’s favor with money or fame. They cannot imagine any other kind of favor. Nowhere in the New Testament are we promised riches, but we are promised enough. We are promised that when we take stock, we will see that God has given us all we need and often more than we need. We have been fed that the life of leisure is the goal; retire early and play golf to the end. But in the Kingdom of God, we are called to serve Him to our dying breath. We are to give ourselves wholly to Him.

In 2021, we see this same phenomenon that was happening in Malachi’s day. We see the evil men prospering around us, the Gates and Bidens of the world, the Winfreys and Putins of the world. We see the financial prosperity of false preachers and their mega-churches; we see their books everywhere, see their homes, their cars, and their lifestyles.

It is easy to come to the conclusion as a conservative Baptist preacher that has to work a secular job, whose wife works a lot to keep the bills paid, and who at times had to sweat about money and still does sometimes, that serving the Lord and preaching/teaching the truth is not worth it. I can live better as a false teacher; I don’t have to compromise much, just a little, and the book offers may come, and we can live better. I can see how the folks in Malachi’s day and how Asaph came to ask this question.

If the proud prosper, what is the point of humility? Verse 15, Psalm 73:6

If God resists the proud, how are they doing so well? Once again, we in the Lord’s churches have been conditioned to equate riches with God’s blessings. But riches wrongfully acquired are an abomination to the Lord; just read about any chapter in the book of Proverbs. Just because someone is rich does not mean that they are blessed by God. The Devil can bless you as well; if he knows that the money will keep you from God, he will make sure that you get all you want and more. There are many people who are legitimately rich; no evil was done and no deceit; that is just life.

We see there in Malachi’s day, in Asaph’s day, and now today that those riches lead to prideful living and attitudes. The idea that because they are rich, they have something to offer the rest of society that we need. They have some piece of wisdom that if we would just listen, we would prosper as they. This is the same argument that false Bible teachers offer – all of you could be rich as well; just get my book, my teachings, and voila, riches will fall into your lap. Many rich people have a hard time with Jesus because He was poor; not just poor, very poor. Jesus made this assessment about the rich in Matthew 19: 16-23,

“Now behold, one came and said to Him, ‘Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?’ So He said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said to Him, ‘Which ones?’ Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

The young man said to Him, ‘All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.'”

Money was this young man’s god. He has kept the commandments, or at least he was sure he had kept commandments 5-10, but he did not keep the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20: 1-3). While we see prideful people prospering here in this life, we are to read the scriptures and trust that God hates the proud, He resists them, and their end will be destruction. All of these prideful ‘all knowing’ persons that we see on TV will one day all bow their knee to the Jesus they despised, and they will be humble and silent in His presence.

Look back and see, verses 16-18

The ones who feared the Lord, the ones who had respect and loving regard for the Lord, spoke up and gave testimony to God’s faithfulness and that we should hold on and see that while these prating fools prosper but for a while, the Lord will truly and eternally prosper those that love Him and that He loves.

These folks wrote a book of remembrance to help them and the following generations see how good God is and was. Do you have a book of remembrance? A journal that helps you to see the past so that you can clearly see the future. I was reading not too long ago about the teaching of some modern preachers that encourage people to always look ahead and forget the past. But here in Malachi, we are encouraged to look at the past so that we can make good decisions and have discernment about the here and now and the future.

Let me offer a journal of remembrance of our own from my wife and me.

Twelve years ago, when we met, we were both living in the basement with our respective parents. We had lots of stuff, but the value of which past sentiment was nothing. She had 2 kids, and we got married and moved into our own place. Paying rent was hard and expensive here in Southern Ontario; we had to pull the kids out of the Christian school as the monthly fee was more than our rent. We struggled, pastoring and working; she worked 2 jobs trying to make ends meet.

Soon we had kid number 3; that year was a hard year. Marny had a high-risk pregnancy and was off work for 16 months. We still had to pay rent and the bills, but God did a thing. The company I was working for was bought by a bigger, better company, and things began to change slowly, but change they did. We found that we could take a vacation; we did at a lovely place in Florida provided by the Lord through Marny’s side of the family. We had a blast; I saw old friends, and we loved it.

A few years later, I was moved to a different division in this company. Again, I was worried, but not even 2 years at the new location, the Lord opened a door for us to buy a newer van, then a home, and now here we are. Along the way, our older daughter was married, I now help pastor a second church, and God took this ministry from 9 people to where we are reaching people on just about every continent on the planet. Hindsight helps you to have 20/20 vision. God is good all the time. He is faithful all the time, and when we take a look at what He has done, it helps us to have the right perspective in the now. Just this week, God provided my wife with free summer clothes.

No joke, we were given a bag of designer clothing for her to try on, and she fits most of them, plus our housemate was able to get some free new clothes, our daughter has some clothes here waiting for her, and even my 8-year-old got a few pieces out of it. We are blessed. God is good. Most of these clothes still had the tag on them. When we appreciate what God has done in the past, we can clearly see what He is doing right now, and we can rejoice that His promises are true, real, and secure.

God, we see in verse 17, is merciful to those that fear Him, that hold Him in high regard and thank Him for His faithfulness. Look back, take an account of all that God has done, rejoice, call out His name in gratitude and bask in His goodness; there is nothing like being cared for by the Highest.

One last thing. Asaph had a sobering moment when he considered the future of these rich, prideful fools. Psalm 73: 16-20,

“When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me—Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awakes, so, Lord, when You awake, you shall despise their image.”

These folks will all die, and without Jesus, their riches mean nothing in the next life. The things that made them rich here are the building materials of the new Jerusalem. Gold for the paving of the streets and jewels for the gates. The riches of the rich mean nothing in the next life, and they will all get there. The Queen will die, the Gates and Winfreys will die, and their riches will mean nothing when they meet Jesus. If you have Jesus, you are already richer than the Gates, Winfreys, and the monarchies combined. You have eternal life with Him, and them eternal life in Hell. Their riches may help them in the 80-100 years here in this life, but your riches in Jesus are eternal.

If you have enough for this life, rejoice; write down how good God has been to you, look at it, repeat it, thank God line by line for His goodness, His faithfulness, and that He is the God we can trust.

Look back and see God is good; hindsight is 20/20.