Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. This is like, there is a report card for your life.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador assuring justification of the believer means just as if you've never sinned.

Brett Meador: As a kid, I hated when report cards came out. But as a Christian, I love it because our report card is going to be good if you've been washed in the blood of Christ and had your sins nailed to the cross. He blots out your transgression, and your report card is going to come out looking good because he's merciful.

Guest (Male): Malachi brings the Old Testament to a powerful conclusion, underscoring the justice of God. As Pastor Brett Meador delivers the final study in the last of our series on the prophets, he reflects on a call to believers to live faithfully, trusting that mercy will ultimately prevail and righteousness will reign, looking forward to the return of the Lord in today's word.

Brett Meador: We saw, first of all, in chapter one verses 2 through 5, the denying of God's love.

Guest (Male): Wherein did you love us?

Brett Meador: And they were acting like God didn't love them. But also in verses 6 through 14, we saw number two, the defiling of God's table. They defiled the worship service in the temple. They were bringing defiled offerings, and it was abomination before the Lord.

And the third part of this book, the devaluing of God's word, and that's chapter two. Number four, Malachi now calls them out for the deserting of their wives to keep my D's going here. The deserting of their wives. Well, that brings us to the fifth section. So not only were they devaluing God's word, deserting their wives, but number five, distorting the Word of God. Just kind of tweaking it to fit their fancy.

Take a look here in verse 17, and it goes on, by the way, into chapter three, all the way to verse six. That's where we get the answer, the solution, but verse 17 is the problem. It says, "You have wearied the Lord with your words."

Guest (Male): Yet you say, "Wherein have we wearied him?"

Brett Meador: When you say, "Everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he that delighteth in them." Or "Wherein is the God of judgment?"

This is where there's that distortion of the word. It's like what Isaiah 5:20. This starts to make me think of Isaiah 5:20. "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."

But he goes on in chapter 3, verse 1. "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts."

When the world gets to that place where good is being called evil, and evil is being called good, the solution, well, there's two messengers that are mentioned here.

Guest (Male): Now, this gets interesting.

Brett Meador: The distorting of God's word is sort of the last straw it seems before God says, "I'm going to intervene." I believe that's true both when Jesus came the first time, but it's going to be even more true when he comes in the Second Coming.

But what's interesting here is there's two messengers. Do you know who these messengers are? The first one, verse 1 of 3, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me." We probably know who this is. Right?

Guest (Male): Who's the one that prepared the way for the Messiah?

Brett Meador: John the Baptist.

Guest (Male): John the Baptist.

Brett Meador: We know that. By the way, there's some really interesting stuff about John the Baptist that I think fits in with this Malachi passage. Matthew 11:9-10 says, "But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, more than a prophet. For this is he of whom is written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before me." Here, Jesus is quoting from Malachi, referring to John the Baptist. So, we know this is really the messenger being talked about in chapter 3, verse 1.

Now, all that to say, with the people of Israel during Malachi's time, they got to that pinnacle of problems when they distorted God's word to mean things that it didn't. So, the Lord says, "That's when I'm going to send my messenger. He's going to prepare the way for messenger number two." At the end of verse 1, it says, "Prepare the way before me, the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant."

Guest (Male): Which messenger do you think that is?

Brett Meador: Jesus. Right. So, the first one is John the Baptist. The second one is Jesus, and he's bringing the new covenant, which is the New Testament. The dedication there in the temple. By the way, if you remember Luke chapter 2, verses 25 through 40, there were two people that recognized Jesus as the Messiah there when he was dedicated in the temple. Simeon, the old guy, and Anna. Anna was also in her 80s, and they were waiting to see the Messiah. Those that seek him will find them, the Bible says. And these people saw this fulfillment here of chapter 3, verse 1, there when Jesus was brought to the temple.

But back to point number five here, the distorting of God's word, the answer is to have Christ come, the living word and be the answer. And it goes on in verse 2. "But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire and like a fuller's soap."

Now, this is where we have to discern. Are we talking about Jesus's first coming? Was there a gap between verse 1 and verse 2 when suddenly we're talking about this coming where no one's going to be able to stand when he appears? Most scholars believe now we're talking about his second coming. Remember the Old Testament Jews, they didn't look at it as multiple comings. They thought it was just one coming of Jesus. But it was actually his first coming being prepared by John the Baptist, but his second coming is going to be very different than that, where people won't be able to stand. It'll be like a refiner's fire. That's the second coming.

Verse 3 goes on, "And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old, as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, and against the false swearers or liars. Against those that oppress the hireling in of his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts."

This is all what Jesus is going to do in his refining fire, second coming. Things will be purified during the Second Coming of Christ. Notice this list here. There's quite a list. First of all, sorcery. You've got adultery, liars, oppressing the employees, you know, people that work for you and not paying them well. Hopefully, that's none of you. Orphans and widows, turning aside of a stranger and not really fearing God. Those are the seven things the Lord's going to set right, the Jews during the Millennial Kingdom. When he rules and reigns, he's going to wipe out all that stuff, and he's going to bring in righteousness.

And look at verse 6. It says, "For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed." The only reason you guys aren't wiped out right now is because I don't change, and I've made a promise that I keep. That's what he's saying. Aren't you thankful the Lord never changes?

Guest (Male): Yes.

Brett Meador: You can trust God. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." I love James 1:17. "Every good gift, every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of Lights." Check this out, the last part, "With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." And I love that. There's no variableness, no shadow of turning with our God. He's always the same.

So, so far in Malachi, we see the denying of God's love, chapter 1, verse 2 through 5. You have the defiling of God's table, the devaluing of God's word, the deserting of their wives, and the distorting of God's word, and that brings us to number six, the depriving of God's house. This has to do with the worship, and the Lord says, "You've deprived my house."

Take a look verses 7 through 12. They were depriving the house of God with their worship, especially in their tithes and offerings. That's verses 7 all the way through verse 12. We looked at that in depth. So, that's the depriving of God's house, verses 7 through 12. We looked at that.

Number seven, the degrading of God's work. That's verses 13 through 18. Let's read. He says, "Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet, you say, what have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, it is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?"

"And, verse 15, and now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up. Yea, even they that tempt God even are delivered." Interesting, they're basically saying, the people are like, "Serving the Lord is a waste of time." And that's just kind of a secular, worldly, godless sort of perspective.

"Why do you guys go to church on a Wednesday night?" You could be sitting at home, watching TV here, going to your kids' sporting events. What a waste of time. Well, that's what the world says. That's what these Jews were saying during Malachi's time. Serving the Lord's a waste of time, degrading God's work, and anybody who was doing God's work or serving the Lord. You know, they were making statements like in verse 15. Here it says, "Be prideful, and you'll be happier if you're prideful." And if you're into sin, you'll be all hooked up with money and popularity. That's kind of what it's saying here.

Does this remind you, remember the Psalmist, I think it was Asaph who wrote the Psalm, Psalm 73. He talked about, you know, the wicked prospering. The Lord, "Why do the wicked prosper? You know, here I am serving you, but they're the ones who are, why are Hollywood elites being blessed? Why do people that are corrupt and sinful make all the money and live in fancy houses?" Why do the heathen rage, he said?

But then in the middle of that chapter, Psalm 73, he said, "When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their end." And then he said, "Oh, man. Once I understood their end, they might be living large with yachts and fancy houses now, and wealth and popularity, and fame and fortune."

"But then I understood their end." And he said, "Oh, I'm wicked to have even thought that way toward them." He should have been compassionate toward those people knowing that they were going to go to destruction. You know, the Bible says there is pleasure in sin for a season. Hebrews 11:24, "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter," living large in Egypt, "choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, slaves, rather than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season." That's what Moses saw it as. "I could live large in sin and have pleasure just for this short time." But he said, "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of reward."

You know, right now there's all kinds of people that are successful, but the Bible says their end is not good. There is pleasure in sin for a season, but the end leads to destruction, is what it says. Well, back to point 7, in verse 16. "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. In that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."

"Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." There's coming of a day where the Lord's going to break out the book of remembrance. As it turns out, the Lord is scrapbooking. There's a book of remembrance.

I don't have time to go into this to the fullest, but the question is what kind of a book of remembrance do you have? For the unbeliever, it's a book of everything you've done wrong, and it's detailed with horrible pictures and memory of all the bad things you've done. But if you're a believer and you're a Christian, then your scrapbook that God has is only the good things, the good things that you did. It's just that simple.

There's scriptures that talk about this, like in Colossians 2:14, "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, the laws that went against us, which were contrary to us, and he, the Lord, took it out of the way when he nailed it to the cross." Isaiah 43:25 says, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and I will not remember your sins." So, this is like, you know, there's a report card for your life.

I don't know about you guys, but when I was in school as a kid, I hated when report cards came out. I lived in total fear. Especially those ones they'd mail to your parents, you never really knew when they were going to show up.

Guest (Male): Oh.

Brett Meador: But as a Christian, I love it because our report card is going to be good if you've been washed in the blood of Christ and had your sins nailed to the cross. He blots out your transgression, and your report card's going to come out looking good because he's merciful.

But what else does the Lord collect, by the way, in his scrapbook? There's interesting things when you really read the Bible. Psalm 56, verse 8, "Thou tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears in a bottle. Are they not in thy book?" The Lord in his scrapbook remembers your tears and your suffering and the hurts and the pains that you go through. The Lord says, "I'm going to remember those." He remembers your hurts and your sufferings. He doesn't forget those things.

Well, all that to say, they said, "Whatever, we don't care what God's work is. What a waste of time it is." And so, that brings us to the last and final chapter of the last and final book of the Old Testament. And it's only six little verses long. And it says this in Malachi chapter 4, verse 1. "For behold, the day cometh."

Guest (Male): What day do you believe that's probably speaking of?

Brett Meador: The Day of the Lord. "For 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."

"But unto you that fear my name shall be the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. And he shall go forth and grow up of calves of the stall." Interesting, they will burn. Stubble burns quick. The stuff that's evil and wrong in the Day of the Lord, it's going to burn out quick and hot. That's what it's saying here.

Verse 2 talks about the Lord's going to have healing in his wings. And there's a phrase you and I don't recognize. When it says, "You'll go forth and grow up as calves of the stall." That's an idiom that the Jews would use to talk about a healthy, well-fed cow, or cattle that's in the stall that's healthy, is the idea. The Lord's going to take good care of you.

Verse 3, "And he 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." So, you know, rule and reign is what he's going to do.

Verse 4, "Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb, for all Israel with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord."

Now, we already read a little bit about this thing, and when did Elijah come? When did Elijah come? Has he come? Will he come? Is he going to come in the future? The answer is yes, yes, and yes. Well, first of all, you have to remember, did Elijah ever see death?

Guest (Male): No.

Brett Meador: No. How many times is it appointed for a person to die? The Bible says once, it's appointed for a man to die. Now, Jesus dealt with this, John the Baptist dealt with this, but there's some interesting, seemingly contradicted answers. Let me just go over this really quickly. This is kind of a fun thing about John the Baptist.

In Matthew 11, verses 12 through 15, it says, "And from the days John the Baptist till now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent taketh it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John." This is, by the way, where Jesus basically calls John the Baptist the last of the Old Testament prophets. That's why we don't have prophets in the New Testament. These guys are done. We have a word of prophecy that can be given by any of the Christians in the New Testament. First Corinthians 12 talks about the manifestations of the Spirit, and a word of prophecy is different than these guys of the Old Testament. So, J the B, he's the last of the prophets. They prophesied until John.

And, check this out, verse 14, "If you will receive it, this is Elias, or Elijah, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." So, man, Jesus is talking about how John the Baptist somehow is Elijah. Would you agree with that?

Guest (Male): Yes.

Brett Meador: Yes. But check out this in John chapter 1, verse 19 through 23. "This is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou? And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then art thou? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Art thou that prophet? He answered, no. Then they said unto him, well, who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? And he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord as said the prophet Isaiah."

Then Jesus said this mysteriously in Matthew chapter 17. His disciples asked him saying, "Why then say the scribes that Elias must come first?" They were teaching that, by the way, from Malachi, the Hebrew Bible. And Jesus answered and said unto them, "Elias truly shall come first and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise, also shall the Son of man suffer of them."

"Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist."

Guest (Male): Huh?

Brett Meador: Is he or isn't he Elijah? Here's what basically, if you put it all together. Elijah never died, he was taken up into heaven. But it seems that John the Baptist perhaps had the spirit of Elijah upon him in some sort of mysterious, spiritual way. That's why Jesus like, "If you have ears to hear and if you, if you're heavy enough to really understand this, John the Baptist was Elijah, but Elijah said, 'I am not Elijah.'" But he had the spirit of Elijah in him and upon him.

But it says he's going to come at the end and restore all things. Did John the Baptist do that? No. But Elijah's coming again. Did you know that?

Guest (Male): Hmm.

Brett Meador: And we read that, by the way, in Revelation. In fact, this is just part of the story, Revelation chapter 11, verses 5 through 6. If these two witnesses are going to come. And check out what happens, one of them I believe is Elijah. The other probably Moses.

So, in the Tribulation period, these two prophets from the Old Testament are going to be on the scene. "And if any man will hurt them," the scripture says, "fire will proceed out of their mouth and devour their enemies." Does that sound like Elijah?

Guest (Male): Kind of.

Brett Meador: Kind of. He was into fire and killing people.

Guest (Male): That's it.

Brett Meador: And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. So, barbecue. "These have power to shut heaven that it rain in the days of their property."

Guest (Male): Who shut the rains of heaven down?

Brett Meador: Elijah. "And also have power over the water to turn them to blood."

Guest (Male): Who was that?

Brett Meador: Moses. "And to smite the earth with all the plagues as often as they will."

Guest (Male): Moses.

Brett Meador: Moses. And the story goes on. If you read through the rest of the book of Revelation, in the Tribulation period, the world hates these guys, but nobody can touch them. But eventually, finally, they will be killed in the streets of Jerusalem, and their bodies will be left there for days, and the world's going to celebrate their death. And they're going to be like, "Merry Christmas, the two prophets are dead," and they'll give gifts one to another. In the Tribulation, they'll be so happy these two guys are dead. They'll start giving gifts and celebrating.

But then the guys come alive again as they've been laying in the street for three days. They're going to rise up and they'll say, "We're back." No.

Guest (Male): They're back.

Brett Meador: I just made that part up, but they will come back to life. Maybe Moses and Elijah. I wouldn't die on that battlefield. Some people say Enoch. And the reason Enoch was a last days' prophet, and he also didn't see death. There was mysterious circumstances around Moses's death if you recall. There was a contending for the body of Moses between Michael, the Archangel, and Satan. Remember that whole thing in the book of Jude?

Guest (Male): Yeah.

Brett Meador: But that's a whole another story. But he says in verse 6, as we end, "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

What's the last word of the Old Testament?

Guest (Male): Curse.

Brett Meador: Curse. And it really is because the law of the Old Testament is shows that we cannot be good enough, and that we are cursed with sin. What's the last phrase of the New Testament? I'll just tell you. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." I like that.

But without the heavy Old Testament, the New Testament won't be appreciated nearly as much as it could be. It's the black backdrop of our sin and depravity, and the curse of sin, that makes the New Testament come alive with joy and that we're going to see just the joy of God's plan to save. Like, you know, the Old Testament to a real solid Bible-believing Christian is not an old, passed-away has-been book. It's the first part of the story, and the New Testament is the next part that is connected to and joined together with the Old Testament. We need to see the connection. It's not the end of the old and the beginning of the new. They connect together.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador draws an end to our series of the prophets, and of the book of Malachi, closing the Old Testament with the promise of hope, pointing forward to God's future redemption and the coming of the Lord. And I trust you'll still stay right there as Pastor Brett has some final thoughts in the book of Malachi.

Today's word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church just south of Portland, Oregon, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link locations. Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link locations.

Well, I have Pastor Brett with me now, and we've just concluded the last of the minor prophets, Malachi, which also happens to be the last book of the Old Testament. Brett, what would you like to leave our listeners with today?

Brett Meador: Well, Kurt, I'd say this, Malachi ends the Old Testament with great expectation and anticipation. You know, he talks about the coming of Elijah pointing to John the Baptist who would prepare the way for Jesus. But the message underneath all of this is God hasn't changed. In Malachi 3:6, "I am the Lord, I change not," which is such a great word of comfort in a changing world. I find that as I look around, you know, what's going on in the world, you can be easily shaken by uncertainty, but God's the same yesterday, today and forever. And if you feel distant from God, Malachi would say, "Return to him, and he'll return to you." The Old Testament closes with anticipation, and then the New Testament opens with fulfillment of that in Christ.

Guest (Male): Yeah, that really is an encouragement that whatever we're facing in life, we serve a God who never changes, and we can count on that. Thank you, Pastor Brett, for that closing word from the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi. And as we prepare to jump into the New Testament here on Today's Word, I want to remind you that if you've missed any portion of Pastor Brett's messages, you'll find all of his studies online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will begin one of the most exciting books in the New Testament as we look at the Acts of the Apostles.

Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.