Malachi 4
FortnerMalachi 4:1-6
SERMON #18. “BEHOLD, THE DAY COMETH!” Text: Malachi 4:1-6 Subject: The Day of the Lord Date: Sunday Evening — February 7, 2010 Introduction: We come tonight to the last chapter of the Old Testament. The prophet of God, it appears, stands before us upon the very tiptoe of faith and expectation, looking for the Lord Jesus to appear for the salvation of his elect. Malachi has assured the Lord’s people that the Lord God has A Book of Remembrance in which he has recorded the names of all who fear him, speak often to one another of him and think often upon his name (Malachi 3:16). These, God’s chosen sons and daughters, his elect shall be his in that day when the Lord Jesus comes to make up his jewels. “And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.” — In the Day of Redemption — In the Day of Grace in Regeneration and Conversion — In the Day of Death — In the Day of the Resurrection — “And I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (Malachi 3:17). Then, in Malachi 3:18, the prophet assures us that there is a day coming in which all men, both the righteous and the wicked shall know and clearly discern the everlasting distinction of grace by which the Triune God separates the human race. — “Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.” Now, let me show you how God the Holy Spirit inspired his servant Malachi to describe that day. You will see my subject in the opening words of Malachi chapter 4. — “BEHOLD, THE DAY COMETH!” Let me begin by directing your attention to the opening word of our text, — “For.” That little word is very important. It tells us that there should be no division or separation of this verse from the last three verses of the previous chapter. The day Malachi is describing in chapter 4 and the day he has been describing in the previous chapters is the same day. It is “The Day of the Lord,” “The Last Day.” The day the prophet is describing is not a literal twenty-four hour day, but a specific time frame. We often speak like this, with regard to previous days, referring to specific eras of history. We often refer to… Washington’s Day Lincoln’s Day Luther’s Day Calvin’s Day, etc. No one ever imagines that we are talking about a literal twenty-four hour day. Luther’s Day was the whole era of Luther’s life and work. So, too, the Day of the Lord refers to the whole of this Gospel Day, which began with our Savior’s first coming and shall end in the great consummation of all things “at the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” As we look at these six verses together, by which the Lord God closes the Old Testament Scriptures, it will be apparent to you that the Day the prophet here describes speaks of both the second coming of our Lord Jesus at the end of time and his coming in grace. Proposition: Looking forward to the end of days, the Lord God declares by his servant Malachi, “Behold, the Day Cometh when I will make up my jewels and spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him, the day when I will distinctly separate the wheat from the chaff and the sheep from the goats.” BURNING First, in Malachi 3:1, the prophet tells us about the climatic end of this great day, the end of time, commonly referred to as the Day of Judgment; and tells us that it shall be a day of terrible burning. (Malachi 4:1) “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” The Day of Judgment is said to be a day that “shall burn as an oven” (2 Peter 3:7-12. Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:8). (2 Peter 3:7-12) “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (Revelation 20:11-15) “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 21:7-8) “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my Song of Solomon 8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” In that great and terrible day everyone shall be judged according to his own works, and shall be justly rewarded accordingly. Is that what we read in Revelation 20:13 and throughout the Word of God? — “They were judged every man according to their works!” The reprobate and unbelieving shall be judged according to their own personal works, which are all wickedness. The believer, God’s elect shall be judged according to their own personal works, too, the works we have performed in Christ our Substitute, Surety and Representative, which are all righteousness and perfect holiness. BLESSED SUNRISE Now, look at Malachi 3:2-3. Here’s the second thing the Lord God tells us by his prophet. — Before the end comes, before the Sun of Righteousness sets to rise no more, the Day of the Lord, this Day of Grace shall be for many a blessed Sunrise. (Malachi 4:2-3) “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. (3) And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.” What a blessed prophecy this is of our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus! Christ Jesus our Lord is “the Sun of Righteousness.” He is the sole fountain of light, and life, and heat. He is the life giving, life sustaining, life reviving Light of the World. In how many ways, and by what a vast variety of means, the Lord Jesus appears as “the Sun of Righteousness” to his people, I cannot imagine, let alone declare. He is all this, and infinitely more, from the first moment of conversion, through all the intermediate stages of grace, until grace is consummated in glory. — “So that”, as Hawker wrote, “they all go forth under his blessed influence, and advance in the divine life with strength, and an assurance of firmness, as calves of the stall fattened and fed with constant attendance.” Peter speaks of this rising of the Sun of Righteousness in 2 Peter 1:19, a “a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.” And what is “the day-dawn, and day-star,” arising in the hearts of God’s elect, but Christ Jesus the Lord, “the dayspring from on high, visiting us”? Is not the Lord Jesus “the bright and morning star, the light and the life of men?” Of course he is. He is “the Sun of righteousness arising with healing in his wings!” And when he arises on our dark, benighted souls, he arises as “the day-dawn, and the day-star, as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings!” All was darkness in the creation of God, until Christ arose. His coming was as the breaking forth of the morning, the Sunrise of Grace, sure herald of a bright and blessed day. He was “the day-dawn, and the day-star,” in the light of redemption, before the world was formed. In the council of peace, as man’s light and salvation, he arose, at the call of the triune God, in the beginning, before ever the earth was made. In due time, Christ arose in the earth and throughout all the days of his eventful life and ministry upon earth, the Lord Jesus was “a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of his people Israel.” And, today, our blessed Savior still arises as the Sun of Righteousness, “the day-dawn, and day-star” of all the promises, with healing power and virtue beneath his omnipotent wings of grace! Until we see Christ in the promises of God they are nothing. It is he who makes them all “yea and amen.” He is “the day-dawn, and day-star” of all ages. His word, his providence, his grace, his ordinances; all are dark, until “The Sun of Righteousness” arises to give us light. — Blessed Sunrise! — When he shines in upon them, all is clear and bright! When he withdraws his light, nothing can be seen, nothing can be read, nothing can be understood. And what is this blessed Sunrise the Lord promised by Malachi, if not that which takes place in the hearts of chosen, redeemed sinners, converting them from darkness to light, and from the power of sin and Satan to the living God? — The Sunrise is the Lord Jesus shining by his Holy Spirit in our hearts, bringing us to the knowledge, love and enjoyment of himself. O my soul, what a blessed Sunrise, what a blessed day that was! It is a day forever to be remembered, when God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shined in upon my heart. On that day of grace the Lord Jesus, “the Sun of Righteousness,” arose in my soul to give me “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ!” O glorious Light and Life of my soul, ever continue the sweet influences of your grace, morning by morning and evening by evening, until, after many dark dispensations, and wintry days of my blindness, ignorance, and senselessness, in which will renew me, in the precious discoveries of your love, I am carried through all the twilight of this poor dying state of things below. Then I shall awake to the full enjoyment of your fulness in glory, to see you, my blessed Savior, in one full open day, and to be made like you in the kingdom of light, and life, and happiness, forever and ever. — “Then shall I be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness!” (Psalms 17:15) Look at Malachi 3:3 and rejoice in the blessed conquest that is ours in and with the Lord Jesus, who has made us more than conquerors with himself! — “And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.” Who are the wicked that we shall tread down as worthless and harmless and despicable as ashes beneath our feet? —— (Relate this to both conversion and the end of time.) Satan (Romans 16:20)! The Wicked of this World! Babylon, the Great Whore! Our Own Sins and Sinful Natures! THE LAW (Malachi 4:4) “Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.” When the Sun of Righteousness arises in the soul of a man, he arises to make ransomed sinners free from the oppressive yoke of the law. — It is written, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth” (Romans 104). So why does the Lord here tell us to remember the law? The law was a ministration of death? Why does the Lord God tell us who live by his grace to remember the law? The law was our school master, to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24; Romans 7:7-13). — The sinner upon whom the Sun of Righteousness has arisen, has been slain by the law. (Galatians 3:24) “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Romans 7:7-13) “ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” We remember the law, with joy, because Christ has fulfilled the law for us, we have fulfilled the law in him; and the law of God, fully satisfied, demands the everlasting salvation of our souls! And we are commanded of God our Savior to remember the law, that we might rest in Christ and call the Sabbath of Faith a delight (Isaiah 58:13-14). (Isaiah 58:13-14) “If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” Here the prophet of God, with the inspired vision of prophecy, looks beyond the carnal, Jewish sabbath and sees in it a picture of Christ, who is the true Sabbath, and the blessed rest of faith in him[2]. [2] This becomes obvious when we observe that Isaiah’s exhortation - “Call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord,” should read, “Call the sabbath a delight the Holy One of the Lord.”When can we, when do we, “Call the sabbath a delight.” — We can and do call the sabbath a delight only when we are brought to the blessed rest of faith in Christ, who is our Sabbath, — when we keep the sabbath of faith, ceasing from our own works and resting in Christ alone for our entire acceptance with God. When a person turns from his way, from his sin, from the pleasure of his depraved heart and from this world to the Lord Jesus Christ, finding rest in him, he finds that Christ, in whom he rests, is a delight, a luxury and that faith in him is an honor. Indeed, all who trust Christ delight themselves in him, triumph over all their foes in him, and shall at last obtain the full heritage of the heavenly Canaan, called here “the heritage of Jacob.” “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” CHRIST OUR SABBATH We can and will call the sabbath a delight only when we understand that Christ is our Sabbath. We do not observe a literal, legal sabbath day, because Christ is our Sabbath, and we rest in him. I know many who pretend to keep a literal sabbath day. Many try their best to delight in legal sabbath work. But I do not know a sabbatarian in the world who really delights in his attempts at sabbath keeping, not a single one. Every sabbatarian I know finds the yoke of their legal observance oppressive and galling.
It is a spiritual flagellation they feel they must perform in order to be holy.Sabbath keeping, like animal sacrifices, was a part of the Old Testament law. It has nothing to do with New Testament worship. I know that the sabbath day is frequently mentioned in the four gospels and the Book of Acts, during that transitional period in which the church of God passed from the Old Testament era into the New. However, it is always mentioned in connection with the Jews and Jewish worship in the temple, or in their synagogues. But it is mentioned only two times in all the Epistles (Romans through Revelation). In Colossians 2:16-17 we read, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Here the apostle Paul forbids the observance of legal sabbath days in any form. He does so on the basis of the fact that in Christ God’s elect are entirely free from the law (Romans 7:4; Romans 10:4). In Hebrews 4:3-4; Hebrews 4:9-11 the sabbath that remains in this gospel age is called “rest.” Here the Apostle shows us that all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ keep the sabbath in a spiritual way. That is to say, they and they only truly keep the sabbath by faith in him, by resting in him. WORK We can and will call the sabbath a delight when we realize that our all glorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator, has entered into his rest, and his rest is glorious, because he has finished his work (Hebrews 4:10; Isaiah 11:10). Our Savior’s rest in heaven is glorious and it is his glory — “His rest shall be glory!” As God rested on the seventh day, because his work of creation was finished, so the God-man our Mediator has entered into his rest in heaven, because he has made all things new for his people, having finished his work of redemption (Romans 8:34; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Hebrews 10:10-14). Behold our exalted Savior! Do you see him seated upon his throne in heaven? There he sits in undisturbed and undisturbable sovereign serenity! His rest is his glory (John 17:2; Philippians 2:9-11). That exalted God-man, as our divinely appointed Representative, has fulfilled all the legal sabbath requirements for us, even as he did all the other requirements of the law. Now, in heaven, he is keeping an everlasting sabbath rest (Isaiah 53:10-12).
And his rest, which is his glory, tells us that he has finished his work (John 17:4; John 19:30), the salvation of his people is certain (Hebrews 9:12), and all his enemies shall soon be made his footstool (Hebrews 10:13). There is no more work to be done. Christ did it all! And when all the work was done for us, our blessed Savior entered into his rest. Now, all who find rest in him call that sabbath a delight! SABBATH REST All who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ keep the sabbath by faith (Hebrews 4:3), because we have entered into his rest; and we call this blessed sabbath rest of faith in Christ a delight, the delight of our souls. We do not yet keep the sabbath perfectly, because we do not yet trust our Savior as we should. We do not yet trust him perfectly. But we do keep the sabbath truly and sincerely by faith. Our sabbath observance is not a carnal, literal thing. We do not keep a sabbath day. God forbids that (Colossians 2:16-17). We keep the sabbath spiritually by faith. Remember, the sabbath day was ordained by God in the ceremonial worship of the Jews in the Old Testament as a symbol of God’s rest after creation and as a reminder of the Jews redemption out of Egypt. The essence of sabbath observation was self-denial and consecration to God. Anything personally profitable or pleasurable was expressly forbidden (Isaiah 56:2; Isaiah 58:13; Ezekiel 20:12; Ezekiel 20:21). Sabbath observance was, in its essence, an unconditional, all-encompassing, self-denial. It was a renunciation of self and a dedication of one’s self to God. That is exactly the way we observe the sabbath spiritually by faith in Christ, not one day in seven, but all the days of our lives. The believer’s life is a perpetual keeping of the sabbath! The Lord Jesus Christ gives rest to every sinner who comes to him in faith. He says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Are you laboring and heavy-laden under the load of sin and guilt? Do you long for rest? In your inmost soul do you struggle hard with sin, longing to find peace with God? Will you hear what the Lord Jesus says? “Come” — That is: believe, trust, rely upon me. “Come unto me!” — Not to the preacher. Not to my church. Not even to my doctrine. But “Come unto me, and I will give you rest!” When a sinner comes to Christ, he quits working for God’s favor, because he rests his soul upon the finished work of his Substitute (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). Yet, this sabbath of faith involves more than a ceasing from our works and the remembrance of our redemption by Christ. It also involves, in its very essence, the consecration of our lives to our dear Savior (Matthew 11:29-30). We keep the sabbath of faith and find rest unto our souls as we willfully, deliberately, wholeheartedly surrender to Christ as our Lord. If we would keep the sabbath, truly keep the sabbath, it will take considerably more than going to church on Sunday and reserving one day a week for religious exercises! We keep the sabbath by putting ourselves under the yoke of Christ’s dominion, submitting to his will in all things,, learning of him what to believe, how to live, and how to honor God. As we do, we find that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. When we submit to Christ’s dominion, when we bow to his will, we find rest for our souls and “call the sabbath a delight!” Believing on the Lord Jesus, resting in him as our Savior, we remember and honor the law of our God. ELIJAH AND HIS WORK Go back to Malachi 4, for just a minute. Here in Malachi 3:5-6, the Lord God declares that he will send Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord. (Malachi 4:5-6) “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: (6) And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” There is no question that this refers to John the Baptist. The Lord Jesus plainly tells us this in Matthew 11:13-14. (Matthew 11:13-14) “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John 14 And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.” When the Day of Grace is about to dawn upon the soul, God always sends one of his prophets to proclaim the Gospel, to prepare the way of the Lord. And that prophet’s work, when made effectual by his grace, is a work that restores dignity, worth and meaning to fallen humanity, turning the hearts of fathers to their children and turning the hearts of children to their fathers, bringing them to be of one mind, judgment and faith, causing them to have a true and sincere love to one another and to the Lord Christ. — That is to say, the preacher’s work is to bring Christ to the sinner and the sinner to Christ, lest the sinner be smitten of God in wrath with the curse he deserves. I cannot send you home without calling your attention to the fact that this chapter and the whole volume of the Old Testament closes with the word “curse;” but the very first sermon our Lord Jesus preached proclaims “blessed” are those sinners saved by his blood and grace (Matthew 5:1-12). — Out of Christ everything is a curse. — In Christ everything is a blessing! Application How very solemn an account is here given of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, so often spoken of in Scripture! It is a day that is certain and rapidly approaching. How terrible shall the judgments of that day be which will then overtake the ungodly. — “For if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear.” — Oh, what paleness, horror and everlasting dismay, will then seize every Christless soul, when appearing before the Judge of all the earth without an Advocate to plead his cause! — What torments shall seize you who are void of all righteousness to justify you, you who have no cleansing for your souls! While this Day of Grace continues, it is my prayer that the Sun of Righteousness will arise upon your benighted soul, with healing in his wings. Blessed Lord Jesus, dearest Savior, our Light, our Life, our Righteousness, arise upon our souls now and forever. Oh! be for our souls the one great source of our peace, confidence, hope and joy! — As you were made a curse for your people, so make chosen redeemed sinners the righteousness of God in yourself. — Arise, O Sun of Righteousness and shime upon our souls, with heaing in your wings. O blessed Sun of Righteousness, Arise, spread forth Thy wings, Dispel the darkness of my soul, The death I feel within! I try, but cannot lift myself, Or cheer my troubled heart. Spirit of God, Jesus reveal, Fresh grace to me impart! The bones that You have broken, Lord, The wounds that You have made, No hand but Yours can heal again; Father, behold my need! This darkness, that o’erwhelms my soul, Is caused by my own sin; The fault is mine! Purge me with blood, Restore and make me clean! Helpless, I wait for grace, my God, In pity look on me; Your covenant remember, Lord, Revive and set me free! O blessed Sun of Righteousness, Send forth the healing ray, Arise within my gloomy soul, Bathe me in light today! Amen.
Malachi 4:2
SERMON #19. CHRIST THE SUN OF Text: Malachi 4:2 Subject: Christ Cming Compared to Sunrise Date: Sunday Evening — March 21, 2010 Introduction: Malachi closes his prophecy by comparing the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to the rising of the sun, calling our blessed Savior “The Sun of Righteousness.” That is my subject tonight. — CHRIST THE SUN OF . Our text will be Malachi 4:2. “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” (Malachi 4:2) God the Holy Spirit here gives us five pictures of what the coming of Christ signifies. He inspired Malachi the prophet to use five vivid metaphors to teach us what the Lord Jesus does for those who are awakened by his grace and taught to fear the Lord. — “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” When Christ comes to chosen sinners… He comes as a rising sun. He shines with beams of righteousness. He arises with healing in his wings. He breaks stalled calves out of the stall. He makes the freed calves of grace to be leaping like calves in the open field. RISING SUN First, The Lord Jesus, the prophet tells us, comes to his people as the rising sun. — “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise.” Peter speaks of this rising of the Sun of Righteousness in 2 Peter 1:19, a “a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.” And what is “the day-dawn, and day-star,” arising in the hearts of God’s elect, but Christ Jesus the Lord, “the dayspring from on high, visiting us”? Is not the Lord Jesus “the bright and morning star, the light and the life of men?” Of course he is. He is “the Sun of Righteousness arising with healing in his wings!” And when he arises on our dark, benighted souls, he arises as “the day-dawn, and the day-star, as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings!” All was darkness in the creation of God, until Christ arose. His coming was as the breaking forth of the morning, the Sunrise of Grace, sure herald of a bright and blessed day. He was “the day-dawn, and the day-star,” in the light of redemption, before the world was formed. In the council of peace, as man’s light and salvation, he arose, at the call of the triune God, in the beginning, before ever the earth was made. In due time, Christ arose in the earth and throughout all the days of his eventful life and ministry upon earth, the Lord Jesus was “a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of his people Israel.” And, today, our blessed Savior still arises as the Sun of Righteousness, “the day-dawn, and day-star” of all the promises, with healing power and virtue beneath his omnipotent wings of grace! Until we see Christ in the promises of God they are nothing. It is he who makes them all “yea and amen.” He is “the day-dawn, and day-star” of all ages. His word, his providence, his grace, his ordinances; all are dark, until “The Sun of Righteousness” arises to give us light. — Blessed Sunrise! — When he shines in upon them, all is clear and bright! When he withdraws his light, nothing can be seen, nothing can be read, nothing can be understood. And what is this blessed Sunrise the Lord promised by Malachi, if not that which takes place in the hearts of chosen, redeemed sinners, converting them from darkness to light, and from the power of sin and Satan to the living God? — The Sunrise is the Lord Jesus shining by his Holy Spirit in our hearts, bringing us to the knowledge, love and enjoyment of himself. O my soul, what a blessed Sunrise, what a blessed day that was! It is a day forever to be remembered, when God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shined in upon my heart. On that day of grace the Lord Jesus, “the Sun of Righteousness,” arose in my soul to give me “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ!” O glorious Light and Life of my soul, ever continue the sweet influences of your grace, morning by morning and evening by evening, until, after many dark dispensations, and wintry days of my blindness, ignorance, and senselessness, in which will renew me, in the precious discoveries of your love, I am carried through all the twilight of this poor dying state of things below. Then I shall awake to the full enjoyment of your fulness in glory, to see you, my blessed Savior, in one full open day, and to be made like you in the kingdom of light, and life, and happiness, forever and ever. — “Then shall I be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness!” (Psalms 17:15) (Psalms 84:11) “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” “The Lord God is a Sun.” The words of both Malachi and the psalmist might be rightly applied to all three Persons in the Sacred Trinity. But our text speaks specifically of our Savior Christ, the Second Person in the glorious Godhead, Immanuel, God with us. He is compared to the sun, as it rises in the morning in the eastern sky, blazes across the earth’s midday sky. — What a beautiful representation it is of the Lord Jesus Christ. CENTRAL — The sun is the center of our solar system. It is only by the attraction of the sun that the earth is kept in its orbit. Without the sun the earth would could not even exist in its present form. Everything would be chaos and darkness, confusion and an empty void. So the Church has no existence apart from Christ. He holds her in her orbit and draws her to himself by his own attractive influences, just as the sun attracts and draws the earth. — “Draw me, we will run after Thee.” — As the sun is the center of our solar system, Christ is the Center of all to his people.The Center of God’s Decrees The Center of His Word The Center of His Church The Center of our Worship The Center of our Hearts When the sun arises light appears, where all was darkness before. When Christ comes to his chosen, he brings light where all before was darkness. And when you have light, you can see. Christ arising in our souls causes us see things like they really are. He makes sense out of things. Our Savior said to Pilate, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” And Pilate mocked him and said, as though he were living today, “What is truth?” That is the tragic and cynical cry of our age: What is truth! Not because there’s a passion for truth, but because there is so much skepticism that any such thing exists. And the effect of this skepticism and relativism is moral and intellectual and personal and social bankruptcy. Why do many families come apart? Because they have no anchor of truth. The husband and father and wife and mother have no clear vision of why they and his children exist. And so all they can do is pass on a few tips about making money, staying out of jail, and staying healthy. And the emptiness gets deeper and deeper with each unbelieving generation. But Christ is the light of the world. He brings sense and meaning out of absurdity. He shines light upon us and in us, and causes us to know and understand… Ourselves God’s Word God’s Salvation God’s Judgments God’s Providence God’s Judgments When Christ comes he comes as a sun. He is light in the darkness of confusion and ignorance and skepticism. He gives a fixed point of truth in a world where every standard seems to have come unglued. And in doing this, he guards us from destroying our lives and keeps us safe. The sun is but a creature — a dead and lifeless creature. Christ is the Creator. The sun shines only by divine command, and exists only by divine sustenance. Christ shines in the rays of eternal Deity, and will continue to shine when the light of the natural sun is quenched. But as without the light of the sun the world would fall into desolation, so without the light and sustaining influences of the Son of God the Church would fall into nothingness. As, too, the sun gives light to the whole earth, “his going forth being from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it” (Psalms 19:6), so our Lord Jesus gives light to all his believing people. There is not a ray, nor a sparkle of divine light in the soul which does not come out of his glorious fullness. But was not the sun made to shine? Is not this its appointed office? When the creating voice of God set that glorious orb in the sky, was it not placed there by Omnipotence itself that it might shine forth in countless rays of blazing splendor? Thus we may say that in shining the sun only fulfils the office which God gave it to perform; and the more brightly and gloriously it shines, the more does it accomplish its appointed work. So we may say of the blessed Lord Jesus. He is the Sun of the church; and when God set Him as the great High Priest over the house of God, at His own right hand, in the heavenly places, He put Him, so to speak, as a Sun in the spiritual skies; that, as the natural sun gives light to the world, so Christ might give light to the church. — “The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory” (Isaiah 60:19). We read, therefore, of John the Baptist, “He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:8-9). Does the sun wait until it sees some light previously kindled on earth before he begins to shine? No! It rises at the appointed hour; and when it bursts forth from his chambers in the east, it gives forth his bright beams without waiting for any previous light to be kindled. So it is with the Sun of Righteousness. He rises to give light at the appointed hour; and until he arises in the soul no light can be found within. — All is darkness! Is it not so? You try to elicit some light from the depths of your own heart; you search its inward recesses, hoping to find in them some cheering beams of hope, some rays of divine comfort. But what heavenly light can you find in that fallen nature of which the apostle said, — “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing”? To look for light in ourselves is to look into a dark cavern for sunshine. It is not there! But when Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, rises upon the soul with healing in his wings, He brings light with him; and in his light we not only see him, but every other object upon which he shines. — But sometimes the sun is obscured. Sometimes it is eclipsed. When the day is cloudy, the sun’s bright beams are veiled from sight. We have light enough to see one another and things around us by its light; but the sun itself we cannot see. It is hidden behind the dark, heavy clouds. Yet, the sun is the same. It has not changed. All that has changed is that which is below, on earth and in the earth’s atmosphere. So it is in grace. The Sun of Righteousness does not always shine brightly in our souls. We do not always feel the Lord’s presence gladdening our hearts heart. The Sun of Righteousness is sometimes hidden behind thick, heavy clouds. Yet, the Sun still shines. The light in which we walk is not as bright as it was the day before, but the light in which we walk is still the same light. It is his light! We walk in the light of the living. As the sun sets in the evening, it sometimes appears that the Sun of Righteousness sets, too. Sometimes it seems that the Lord is gone from us, and gone forever; but the Sun of Righteousness arises again at the appointed season. Then, what rejoicing, as he said to the disciples, “I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you” (John 16:22). WARMTH — It is the shining sun that gives warmth and heat, too. It is not only the fountain of all light, but the source of all heat upon the face of the earth. So Christ Jesus is the source of all divine warmth in the soul. How cold, how frozen, our hearts often are — faith, hope and love are often locked up in blocks of ice in our hearts. In those wintry seasons we find it impossible to raise up one living affection towards the Lord of life and glory. We cannot produce a single glow of warmth, or the least melting heat.
Our very souls seem frozen! We long for, but cannot melt ourselves into contrition, brokenness, godly sorrow for sin, weeping and mourning with and over a suffering Man of sorrows, any more than the earth can thaw itself into softness, or frozen stream can melt its own ice and flow freely. The chilled earth and ice-bound stream need the sun to shine upon them and into them. But when the sun’s beams burst forth with heat upon the earth and stream, more is done by them in five minutes than without its warmth they could do for themselves in five centuries. So it is in grace. We try to pray, read and meditate, and thus seek to warm our cold, icy hearts into love, submission and obedience. Our efforts are utterly fruitless. We remain frozen, until Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, arises and shines upon us and into us by his grace! Then… What Melting! What Weeping! What Rejoicing! The shining in of the beams of the Sun of Righteousness puts gladness into the heart. What joy and gladness His presence creates in the soul of a downcast sinner! — “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness” (Psalms 30:11). LIFE — And, in a certain sense, the sun is the source of all life. In winter all creation seems buried in death. But when, the sun climbs to its springtime height and its beams again warm the earth, the earth is revived, the tress bud forth, the flowers bloom and the birds are again heard singing the praises of their Creator. So it is with the Sun of Righteousness! When the Sun of Righteousness arises, our souls are revived with life. When the Sun of Righteousness rises in our sky, he revives our souls with life. Then our prayers, our preaching, our hearing, our singing, our meditations, so dull in soul’s winter, spring with new life! This made David cry, in Psalms 85:6, “ Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” — “After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight” (Hosea 6:2). — The sun causes fruitfulness. Where would the harvest be without the sun? Again, so it is with the Sun of Righteousness. We are utterly unable to bring forth any fruit to the honor and praise of God except as that gracious Sun of Righteousness is pleased to our souls it fruitful in every good word and work! It is he who makes his church a fruitful garden. He says, “From me is thy fruit found” (Hosea 14:8). — “Without me ye can do nothing,” is the testimony of Holy Scripture and the express declaration of our Savior. Have I described the experiences of your soul? If I have, you know what David meant when he sang, “The LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” — Another thing implied by his being a rising sun is that our blessed Savior brings security where there was danger. When it is dark, there is more danger because you can’t see the path in front of you. You might fall off a cliff or trip over a log or bang your head against a branch. When the sun rises, you can move with security. That’s the way it is with Christ. He is the way. He puts us in the way. He keeps us in the way. And he points out the way before us, again and again. He shows up the danger and the foolishness of many choices before we make them. He guards us from many evil forces that only have power in the dark. Beams of Righteousness I have to hurry; but I want you to see the other suggestions in our text. “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” (Malachi 4:2) With the rising of the Sun of Righteousness in our souls beams of Righteousness appear in the bitter-sweet work of Holy Ghost conviction (John 16:7-11). (John 16:7-11) “ Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” When the Lord Jesus comes to chosen, redeemed sinners in the mighty operations of his saving grace, he makes things right. He makes the sinner right with God… By Blood Atonement — Satisfaction. By Free Justification — Imputed Righteousness. By Regeneration — New Creation — Imparted Righteousness. And in the end, he will make right all the wrongs that his people have suffered in this world, so that we do not have to carry the burden of indignation and revenge. He will have the last word in all matters and about all matters. Healing Wings This Sun of Righteousness rises with healing in its wings. Did you ever watch the sun rise across the rim of the ocean? A thin line of orange and red appears along the water. Then it intensifies, brighter and brighter, and you see the brightness focusing more and more on the center of the line, until the flaming ball surges up out of the water. And then you watch it rise up, and in a sense it brings that whole red line on the rim of the water up into the air as though the sun had wings. When Malachi saw that, God told him: the coming of the Messiah will be like that and the effect of his coming will be healing. The Lord Jesus Christ, our great Savior is the great Healer, the great Physician. — “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases” (Psalms 103:3). All Temporal, Physical Healing — “The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness” (Psalms 41:3). All Spiritual Healing Everlasting Healing (Revelation 21:4) “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Breaking Out of a Stall Next we are told that, when the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in his wings, —”Ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” Those words speak of freedom. When Christ comes to the sinner in saving grace, all is freedom. Bondage is over. When the Sun of Righteousness rises with healing in his wings and we are set free from the stall of bondage, we will not merely walk, or run; we will leap like calves. — “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed!” The word translated “stall” comes from a root word that means “tied up” or “yoked.” When the Sun of Righteousness arises in your soul, he breaks the yoke of bondage. The young calf breaks out of the stall into freedom. Freed from the Curse of the Law Freed from the Bondage of the Law Freed from Religious Tradition All who are born of God are born free! LEAPING CALVES The Lord Jesus not only breaks the stalled calves out of the stall, He breaks stalled calves out of the stall, — He makes the freed calves of grace to be leaping like calves in the open field. The words translated “grow up” mean “leap around,” or “become frisky.” Malachi is saying, “When the Sun of Righteousness arises in your souls, you shall break out of the yoke of bondage and frolic about as young calves in the open field. — You shall be free!” — “Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy!” (Luke 6:23) — “By thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall” (Psalms 18:29). I say, give the calves room. Let them leap for joy! Amen.