YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!

Here’s the outline for today’s message from Malachi 3:13-4:6.

Option 1:

Point #1 – The Arrogant Boast of the Eternally Evil (3:13-15)

Point #2 – The Faithful Few are the Treasured Elect (3:16-18)

Point #3 – The Fiery Forecast or the Righteous who Revere (4:1-6)

Option 2:

1. Flagrant Desertion (3:13-15)
   • “Your words against me are harsh,” says the Lord. Yet you ask, “What have we spoken against you?” You have said: “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping his requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Armies? So now we consider the arrogant to be fortunate. Not only do those who commit wickedness prosper, they even test God and escape.”
2. Fearful Distinction (3:16-18)
   • At that time those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. The Lord took notice and listened. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who feared the Lord and had high regard for his name. “They will be mine,” says the Lord of Armies, “my own possession on the day I am preparing. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.”
3. Fiery Date (4:1)
   • “For look, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble. The coming day will consume them,” says the Lord of Armies, “not leaving them root or branches.”
4. Final Delight (4:2-3)
   • “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall. You will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the Lord of Armies.
5. Famous Declaration (4:4-5)
   • “Remember the instruction of Moses my servant, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Look, I am going to send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.”
6. Fifth “Demandment” (Commandment)  (4:6)
   • “And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

In part, here are a few of the sources from which this sermon was created:
• The Bible Exposition Commentary by Warren W. Wiersbe (David C. Cook Publishing)
• Malachi: A Commentary by Andrew Hill (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries)
• The Message of the Minor Prophets by John Phillips (John Phillips Commentary Series)