Bethel Baptist Church of Tillamook, OR
May 25, 2025
  • Hear The Call Of The Kingdom
  • I'd Rather Have Jesus
  • I Need Thee Every Hour
  • In Malachi 3:7-12, the prophet challenged the people to be faithful to the LORD in their personal stewardship and obedience. This represented the total commitment of the people to serve the LORD with all they had. The prophet held out the promise of God to them that their land would flourish if they were faithful, that all the nations would call them blessed, for the land would be a delightful land.
    But the people Malachi addressed still had a wrong attitude; they still thought God was not administering things correctly and there was no payoff for them. And so the prophet warned them about this and reminded them that the day of divine vengeance was coming. Their attitudes and actions revealed whether they had faith or not and that would be significant in light of what was coming.

    1. The Attitude of the Arrogant Unbeliever, vs. 13-15.

    13a -- The words that the people have spoken against the Lord are strong, harsh words of criticism, not words of faith and confidence. Their impiety revealed is revealed in their words, their attitudes, and how they spread their discontent. Their reply to the Lord
    13a—this is an insolent reply; they were complaining amongst themselves.
    14 — This pictures the spiritual hardness of the people. They were speaking among themselves, making three claims:
                   Claim #1-It is a futile endeavor to serve God.
    This illustrates the attitude of skeptics, doubting the validity of their faith. Many of these were not committed to the Lord. They had false selfish expectations. Their approach to worship was selfish — their attitude: “What's in it for me?”
                   Claim # 2 - It is no benefit  to keep his charge.
    There is no reward or benefit, there is no return on their investment. Even though they claim to have been walking in mourning before the Lord, these ones are going through the motions but God always inspects the motives of the heart.
    15 -- Claim # 3 - Where is God's justice?
    It seems that the arrogant are called blessed, the doors of wickedness flourishing even to the point of challenging God and escaping judgment or rebuke. This reveals a tragically unspiritual attitude. The conclusion of these unbelievers is that God is either too weak to stop them or uninterested in distinguishing between good and evil. So why be good? Why keep His charge? Why serve Him for no benefit?

    2. The Hope of the “Fearers of God,” vs. 16-18.

    16 - Those who are the fearers of the Lord spoke to one another too but their conversation was very different. These were not words of insolence or self seeking. They loved the Lord, who he is and what he has done but also treated him with reverential fear and obedience and their conversation the Lord listened attentively to them.
    The book of remembrance is figurative language whose imagery stresses this point that God does not forget his own it is action based on the remembrance so God remembers his people and because he remembers his people, he will do for them on the basis of his covenant with them these who feared the Lord who esteemed his name gave proper due to God upon his nature his character and his attributes this is the people who were true believers valuing God is their prized possession and so they will be God's prize possession.
    17- God declares they (the fearers of the Lord) will be his.
    Exodus 19:5 NASB95
    ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;
    Their security is based on the fact that they belong to God as his prized possession. He will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
    18 - When God judges, the real difference will be revealed between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. They will fully realize the importance of fearing and serving the Lord.

    3. The LORD’s Judgment and Deliverance is Coming, 4:1-6.

    4: 1 - These last verses emphasize the theme of the Day of the Lord, His last intervention where He judges the world and sets up His eternal Kingdom.
    “The day is coming" speaks of it being imminent. It is a certain future, characterized as burning like a furnace. The Lord will judge the world by fire and will establish a universal reign of righteousness.
    “Burning like a furnace” speaks of the intensity of judgment; it is all consuming and confined to its intended use (it is not a wildfire) which is to judge all the arrogant, those who are self-sufficient, in no need of God and the fruit of their arrogance, namely the practice of godlessness or living ungodly lives indicated by their living without keeping His law. Every one of them will be like chaff. Chaff is easily consumed by the fire; evil will thus be easily dealt with, showing their worthlessness to God.
    The Lord reiterates the day that is coming will set them ablaze, reinforcing the warning by repetition and the end results there will be nothing left of the wicked when that day comes.
    Listen to what John the Baptist said in Matthew 3: 11-12
    Matthew 3:11–12 NASB95
    “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
    Those judged are the proud and the wicked. The word “proud” must not be trivialized; it refers to those who do not think they need God, who live independently of God without faith or obedience. But their good works, whatever good works they have will not be good enough to enable them to escape the judgment.
    The prophets sometimes linked this judgment of fire with the final great war that will be raging at the time that the Lord descends to the Mount of Olives, Zechariah 14: 3-4
    Zechariah 14:3–4 NASB95
    Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.
    Zechariah 14:12–15 NASB95
    Now this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. It will come about in that day that a great panic from the Lord will fall on them; and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance. So also like this plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps.
    The plague described by Zechariah may be a description of some kind of devastating holocaust that brings human history to a close and be the means of removing the wicked from the earth. The intense heat and fire would be real, but focused as many of the plagues in Egypt were so the righteous will not perish. Through it all the LORD will begin to renovate the earth.
    The wicked may be destroyed at the coming of the LORD, perhaps in a dreadful war, or perhaps by His power. But they will not be annihilated; their spirits will go to Sheol. or hell, and their bodies to the grave, to wait for their resurrection to be judged and finally condemned.
    2 - The contrast is now made for those who are true believers, “to you who fear My name.” These are not arrogant, ungodly people. These are true believers who worship the LORD with reverence and obey His word in fear. This does not mean they live in terror of judgment; they will not be in the last judgment. Their fear is healthy and reverential They draw near to the powerful and glorious God with adoration and amazement, but seek to obey Him because He is also the sovereign God of the universe. They demonstrate the proper response of the faithful to God in all His glory, power, and majesty—all that He is and all that He does.
    They look forward to “the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its (his) wings;” an implied comparison, the coming of Messiah and all the changes that will bring with the rising sun. He will be producing righteousness in the world. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, referred to Messiah as the “sunrise” (dayspring from on high) in his great song, Luke 1: 76-79
    Luke 1:76–79 NASB95
    “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways; To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
    He will bring healing: that is, he will be removing the problem of the presence of evil, its causes and its effects.
    Because of what Messiah does, the picture is of an enthusiastic celebration, believers having been set free from the bondage of the world, sin, and oppression. The righteous will leap for joy at their deliverance.
    3 - Messiah is described in as treading down the wicked in Isaiah 63: 1-6
    Isaiah 63:1–6 NASB95
    Who is this who comes from Edom, With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah, This One who is majestic in His apparel, Marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press? “I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from the peoples there was no man with Me. I also trod them in My anger And trampled them in My wrath; And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My raiment. “For the day of vengeance was in My heart, And My year of redemption has come. “I looked, and there was no one to help, And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; So My own arm brought salvation to Me, And My wrath upheld Me. “I trod down the peoples in My anger And made them drunk in My wrath, And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
    Here the righteous are seen sharing in that great victory. It is the Lord who does the destroying of the wicked, but it will appear that way when they accompany Him in His victorious conquest. Psalm 110
    Psalm 110 NASB95
    A Psalm of David. The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” The Lord will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of Your enemies.” Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew. The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at Your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the wayside; Therefore He will lift up His head.
    The righteous will triumph over the wicked, because they are on the side of the LORD.
    4 - In preparation for that day, they are to remember the law of Moses my servant, even the statutes and ordinances. To “remember” is to obey them, not just know about them. Jesus came, not to annul or destroy the law, but to fulfill it. WE now interpret the Law through the fulfillment of Christ, and learn that the revelation of the law is still profitable for our instruction in righteousness, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16
    2 Timothy 3:16 NASB95
    All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
    Are you looking for Jesus’ Second Coming? Live now in soberness and righteousness, in obedience to Scripture so that you may be found faithful, 1 John 3: 3
    1 John 3:3 NASB95
    And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
    To live daily in expectancy of the Second Coming, watching and waiting, means that we will be found faithful.
    5 - God will plan to prepare his people in a special way before the coming of that great and terrible day of the Lord he will send Elijah the prophet, the debate is whether this is Elijah or one like or in the spirit of Elijah. There seems to be a deliberate ambiguity here. Malachi 3: 1 refers to John the Baptist.
    Luke 1:17 says John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, yet states very clearly in John 1:21, 23, “I am not Elijah”
    Jesus had said in Matthew 11:13 that if the nation had received Him and His offer of the kingdom. John would have been Elijah who was to come. They did not receive Jesus, so Elijah is still to come before that Day of the Lord. Jesus had to make a real offer of Himself to the people to be rejected by them.
    6 - His purpose, to restore the hearts of all His people to each other and to Himself. This is an actual change of heart, a new spiritual relation, implying that there will be repentance and a return to the historic faith.
    The last clause indicates that the people should listen to God’s warnings to be prepared, lest He comes (when they are not prepared) and strikes the earth and everything in it.
    Criticizing and complaining to the LORD harshly is wrong. At best it shows a weak faith that cannot understand and does not like the way that God does things. But as people mature in the faith they learn that the LORD has an eternal plan that He is totally on top of.
    There are times we might cry out, “How long, O Lord?” But that is a prayer, not a murmuring criticism. God’s ways are not our ways. It is up to us who trust in Him not to simply try to understand His ways, but to accept accept what He does as right and wise.
    As those in Christ, we are charged to proclaim the Word of the Lord to prepare people for the coming day, and for the fate that waits all those who in arrogant unbelief reject the LORD and care nothing for His Word. They need to hear God’s warning and His call to repent and turn to Him before it is too late.
    We also need to encourage each other with the truth of our destiny and that the glorious day of our deliverance is at hand.

      • Exodus 19:5NASB95

      • Matthew 3:11–12NASB95

      • Zechariah 14:3–4NASB95

      • Zechariah 14:12–15NASB95

      • Luke 1:76–79NASB95

      • Isaiah 63:1–6NASB95

      • Psalm 110NASB95

      • 2 Timothy 3:16NASB95

      • 1 John 3:3NASB95

  • Who Is On The Lord's Side

      • 2 Corinthians 13:14NASB95

Bethel Baptist Church of Tillamook, OR
revrlcasper@gmail.com
(503) 842-5598
https://bbc-tillamook.faithlifesites.com
20 members • 1 follower