The theme of the book of Malachi is love. This is illustrated in the first verses when God declares, “I have loved you.” Immediately, the people retort, “How have you loved us?” Through the entire book, God’s love for His people Israel is proved repeatedly while Israel questions His love for them. What is love? How does God demonstrate His love toward His people? God answers this question very specifically. His answer may sound surprising.

Well, turn in your Bibles to the book of Malachi. Find chapter 1, the last book of the Old Testament, not the last book of the Hebrew Bible, which is 1 and 2 Chronicles. But we have Malachi as the last book and I think it's appropriate. But the theme of Malachi is love and it's demonstrated in the very first verse of the very first chapter where you have these four words, I have loved you. That's it.

That forms the whole structure of the prophecy. When God says, I have loved you, then the people respond immediately with a retort, and they bring a counterpoint to God and they say, well, how have you loved us? And then God explains in Four chapters and 55 verses, God's love for His people is proved and Israel's love for God is refuted. Because God is going to rise up and say, no, you don't love me. I've loved you but you don't love me and he brings a definition of love that's very surprising and it's an important matter.

What is love? How do you know that God has loved you? How does he demonstrate his love toward his people? And Malachi answers this question very specifically, but the answer might actually surprise you. We have such warped views of love, And yet in Malachi we get a sense of what true love is, particularly the love of God.

All of this is happening, of course, in a historical context. The people had returned after captivity to rebuild the temple and the walls, and now they're falling into a routine. They were disappointed. The temple was a downgrade. They saw it, remembered the former glory of the temple that Solomon built, which was destroyed, and they kind of shrugged their shoulders and were disappointed in it and as a result they slipped into religious routines.

They wanted something from God that he did not supply them. Their desires, their affections were for things that God did not guarantee. And so it was a time of backsliding, very much like the condition of the Jews during the time of Christ. And you can read about that in Matthew chapter 23. The people were asking, you know, what have you done for me lately?

Malachi identifies this sin, and there are many sins that he identifies that prove that they don't love him, but he does love them. And they despise the marriage covenant, they are robbing God, they are calling evil men good, they are weary in their worship, They're engaging in perfunctory worship. They are marrying pagans and they are divorcing their wives. So all this is designed to prove that they don't love God, but he loves them. And God's love is manifested in a covenant.

Malachi is explaining the nature of God's love in his devotion to his own covenant. And what he's saying is that I kept my covenant, you broke my covenant. Therefore I love you and you don't love me. There are several primary areas that Malachi identifies that we'll engage as we go on in this testimony. But just remember the focus is love.

God says, I have loved you, and they say, how have you loved us? And then he explains it all. The word Yahweh appears over and over in this book, and he is the one who speaks. Let's talk about the author, Malachi. The Hebrew name is Malak and his name means messenger and his name as it has been true with many of the names of the prophets, it explains the meaning of the prophecy.

His name establishes the primary message of the book, and that is that a messenger is coming, and he is John the Baptist. At the same time, there are interim messengers We run across this word Malak in the name of the book in in the name of Malachi itself but then in 2 7 the same word Malak is used for the priests, and in 3, 1, Malak is used for the messenger of the covenant who will prepare the way. And God is going to send another Malachi. Malachi speaks. The priests were supposed to speak, but they didn't.

But God is going to send another Malachi and his name is John the Baptist. So that's how Malachi's name is critical to the whole message of the book. The time of writing is around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, probably 423 to 424 BC. Many of the commentators that I looked at said that Nehemiah and Malachi should be read together. For example, there are many very similar phrases that are used.

In Nehemiah 13 29 you find repeated in Malachi 2 8. In Nehemiah 13 23 through 27 you find the same concepts in Malachi 2, 10 through 16. In Nehemiah 13-10, you find correspondence to Malachi 3-10. And what's happening here is that the issues that Nehemiah addressed are now finally being addressed by the very last prophet of the Old Testament. And this is very important because these things stand as a stake in the ground, or maybe as one commentator called it, a pillar of fire.

They're standing as a rock of remembrance for the upcoming 400 years of the intertestamental period. Because after Malachi, no prophet speaks until John the Baptist. 400 years of silence. And so these things that Malachi is speaking are really designed to guide the people of Israel during this 400 years of silence. And that's why this message is very similar to Nehemiah who's speaking of the condition of the people who have come back and rebuilt the wall in the temple.

In the Hebrew Bible, It's not Matthew that follows Malachi, but it's the Psalms. And it's been proposed that Psalm 1 comes after Malachi to give the message that Christ's love is fulfilled in David. Well anyway, that's some basic time frame information. Again, this is prophecy, the genre's prophecy, and we should always remember the role of prophecy for today. This prophecy is a timeless record for God's people.

The Bible makes that very clear that the things that were written in time past were written for our times as well. In Romans 15, 4 through 6 we learn that very same thing. In 2 Peter 1, 21 we read that the prophecy came from God and holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In 1st Corinthians 10 verses 6 through 12 we learn that these things were written for our benefit to help us not to become idolaters like they were. So when you see the idolatry and the spiritual deadness, dryness that you find in Malachi, use that in order to stave off these same things in your life.

These things were written for us. Here we are in, you know, the 21st century. They were written for us as well. Let's talk about the structure. The message of Malachi hangs on 27 questions and answers.

You know, it's interesting as you read these questions and their answers, you'll find these definitions of the love of God and what it means not to love God. Malachi is a blessing. He teaches you what it's like not to love God. A couple of observations. The last verse in the Old Testament is a curse, but with a hope.

The last verse in the New Testament is a blessing. The end of the Old Testament presents a curse and a coming Savior. The end of the New Testament presents the lifting of the curse and the place where all of your tears are dried and your joys are everlasting. I'd like to point out some words in Malachi because when you read it, look for these words because these words will help you understand the message of Malachi. The word covenant is mentioned five times in chapters 2 and 3.

Covenant is a very important issue in this book. Love is mentioned three times. Honor is mentioned twice. Despise is mentioned twice. Weariness is mentioned twice.

These are very important words to understand the book. Rob or robbing, God appears four times. Messenger appears three times. The fear of God appears four times, but the Lord of hosts, that phrase, appears 24 times. 24 times.

The Lord of Hosts is speaking. You know, this is the name of the Lord of the armies of heaven, the one who controls absolutely everything. Look for the Lord of Hosts. You'll see it just every few verses, okay? Fifty-five verses, twenty-four occurrences of the Lord of hosts.

You kind of get the idea of what the focus of this book is, and it's the holy, magnificent, unquenchable power of God. Key verses are listed there. We can talk about Christ in Malachi and the eighth point in your outline. You'll read in chapter four, verse two of the Son of Righteousness. And this is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Chapter 4 is a prophecy of the coming of John the Baptist and the revival that takes place as hearts experience radical transformations so radical that it goes right down to the depths of family life. It goes right down to the hard attitudes of fathers toward their children and children toward their parents. It's a complete renovation that Jesus Christ accomplishes in the heart of people. And again, you know, this is the beginning of the intertestamental period of these 400 years of silence. The Old Testament ends with a cliffhanger.

What's next? The story is not complete, but there is another episode, and it begins with John the Baptist, who says, prepare the way, and he deals with the idols and the idolatry. Okay, so let's talk about the outline, and let's move into the book, because I want to try to get here as fast as we could. There are two parts to the prophecy, and I think this is the easiest way to remember this prophecy. The first part is how God loves His people, And the second part is how God's people do not love him.

Okay? That's in as simple of terms as I can reduce the message of Malachi. And you have an outline in front of you, but let's move into chapter 1, and we see God declaring his love to a doubting people. Chapter 1, verse 1. The burden of the word of the Lord of Israel to Malachi.

I have loved you, says the Lord, yet you say, in what way have you loved us. Was not Esau Jacob's brother says the Lord yet Jacob I loved but Esau I hated and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness." They're complaining about God's treatment of Esau and they're telling God that he is not a loving God. And God is coming back and saying, no, my love of Jacob and hatred of Esau is a demonstration of my love. My love is unconditional. My love is by grace alone.

And my love is of my sovereign choice. And that is love. And then their proud bravado is communicated in verse four. Even though Edom has said we have been impoverished, but we will return to build the desolate places. Edom, of course, is the place of the dwelling of the descendants of Esau.

God hated Esau because Esau hated God. And Edom is saying, OK, you've judged us, God, but we're bouncing back. We don't care. And they say, we will return and build the desolate places. Their judgment goes right over their head and they don't turn to the Lord.

And then the Lord says at the end of verse 4, they may build, but I'll throw it down. They shall be called the territory of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. So their hardness of heart is demonstrated in their absolute resistance against God's judgment and God's chastisement toward them. This whole idea of Jacob I loved and Esau I hated, it's demonstrated in Deuteronomy 7, 6 through 8 and in Deuteronomy 10, 14 and in Romans 5, 1 through 8. Now this is the doctrine of election.

What is God's love? It is God who loves the undeserving. He doesn't choose you because you're beautiful people, because you're good people. He chooses you because he decided to lay his love upon you. It had nothing to do with you.

And it speaks to the truth that Those who love God, who have an affection for Him, we were not lovable. We were dead. And why did He love us? He loved us because He desired to love us, not for anything that we have done. And that's why we read in the New Testament, in this was love, that God manifested to us his son.

God showed us his son and we desired him and he gave us that desire. That is electing love. Now, they didn't want election. They wanted some kind of preference. Now, they desired riches and comfort, And they possessed the common misunderstanding that comfort and ease are the marks of God's love.

And when things are going just absolutely wonderfully, then this is a sign of God's presence. That was their error. But God doesn't say that his love or his presence is marked by ease or by emotional highs. And you know, we often become so obsessed about the ways that we want to be loved or what some people have called our love languages that we demand these things from God as signs of his presence but God doesn't work that way the lesson here is Don't judge God's love by your circumstances. Don't judge God's love by your feelings.

Don't judge God's love by your religious activity. Judge God's love by His covenant that he's made. God gave his son. You know, is he enough for us? Do we need the bells and the whistles and the baubles of this world to be happy?

Are we offended when our personal love language isn't spoken? But God's love language is this. He rescues the dead. He elects sinners who did not deserve his favor, like Jacob. And this is why God gave his only begotten Son, as an act of grace, as an act of sovereign mercy.

So then in chapter 1, verses 6, all the way to the middle of chapter 2, God is going to explain how Israel has not loved God. And he begins with the priests in verse 6. There was dishonor toward God among the priests. The religious leaders were dishonorable to God. A son honors his father and a servant his master.

If then I am the father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my reverence, says the Lord, to you priests who despise my name? So he begins with the priests and then he explains what they're doing. Well they're offering defiled food, yet you say in what way have we despised your name? Verse 7, you offer defiled food on my altar, but say, in what way have we defiled you?

By saying, the table of the Lord is contemptible. What does that mean? It means to be taken lightly. To just breezily go through the motions. To take it all lightly.

To take everything lightly. It would be like taking the Lord's Supper lightly or the singing lightly or the preaching or the prayers lightly. That's what the priests were doing. They were just going through the motions, just getting it done. And then he gives an illustration.

He says, would you give this to your governor? He says that at the end of verse 8. Would your governor be pleased? Why are you giving this to me? You wouldn't even give this to your governor.

Somehow you're content and proud to give to me. And then he says in verse 10, look no one is stopping you either. Nobody's shutting the doors on you. You're just going to keep on doing this. There's no one to stand in your way.

This is a tragedy of the history of the church when no one stands in the way and says, this is fake. It's really important that people and priests have someone to say, this is fake, and that's what was not happening. And then there's this weariness in their worship. Look at verse 13 in chapter 1. Here's this picture of this weary worship.

They're just kind of dragging their way in. They're just going through the motions. You also say, oh what a weariness and you sneer at it says the Lord of hosts. One of the other translations says this that they were uttering this, oh how tiresome it is. This is just so stressful and tiring and meaningless, but we're just going to keep doing it.

And then he speaks of the poor quality offerings. This is in the second part of verse 13. You bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick." He says, should I accept this? And then in verse 14 he says, "...but cursed be the deceiver, who has in his flock a male and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished." In other words, he's picturing a person who makes a vow to God, who comes up with some highfalutin religious commitment, and then goes and offers a lame or a stolen animal. It's lip service without any heart behind it that attempts to bring anything of quality to God.

He says, but he sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. And then he says this at the end of verse 14, which teaches us something about the fear of God. The fear of God is the theme here, but in this instance of the term fear, we learned that this kind of fake, dispassionate, wearisome worship had a root, and it was rooted in a lack of fear of God. That's why we read, and my name is to be feared among the nations. In other words, you're not fearing me.

If you feared me, you wouldn't do this. So you can sort of calculate your lack of fear of God by how weary some worship is and how poor the sacrifices are. When the sacrifices are poor, it's a sign that the fear of God has gone out of a people. And then we get to chapter 2. Then God curses the priests in verses 1 through 9.

He says, and now, O priests, this commandment is for you. And at the end of verse 2, he says, I will send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already because you do not take it to heart. Now these are the curses that Moses prophesied in Deuteronomy 28. Remember Deuteronomy 28?

If you obey me, blessed shall you be in the city, blessed shall you be in the country. If you disobey my word, then cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country." But notice the very first example of how he is going to curse them. This is terrifying. Verse 3, Behold, I will rebuke your descendants. In other words, your family is going to be rebuked.

Your family is going to be having a resistance from God. It doesn't just affect you when you have weary, fake worship. It affects everyone in your family from then on. Your descendants are affected. That's the curse that he brings.

And then He says, I'll spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts, and one will take you away with it. So there are these curses. And then he speaks of the Levites that had fallen away from the fear of God. Verse five, chapter two. My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that might fear me.

So he feared me. He's speaking of the past. And was reverent before my name. He's hearkening back to a time where the priests did fear God and they were experiencing the peace and the delight. He says in verse 6, the law of truth was in his mouth and injustice was not found on his lips.

He walked with me in peace and equity, and he turned many away from iniquity." These were priests who loved God. They were turning as many as they could away from iniquity. And then he speaks of this function in verse 7. The lips of a priest should keep knowledge and the people should seek the law from his mouth for he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts but you have departed from the way and have caused many to stumble. At the law you have corrupted the covenant of Levi." So Malachi is making a contrast between the priests of old who were faithful.

They loved the law of God and they tried to help the people keep the law of God, but now these priests in the days of Malachi, they're not like that at all. They don't love the law of God. The law is not in their mouths and they're actually causing people to stumble and they're not drawing people back from iniquity. And he calls this corrupting the covenant of Levi. And therefore he's saying you've broken the covenant because you have priests who don't care about my covenant.

And then notice there's a very interesting phrase at the very end of verse 9 because he's speaking of this whole matter of not keeping the law. Listen to this, "...but have shown partiality in the law. What is partiality in the law? Partiality in the law is picking and choosing what laws you like and what laws you don't like. What laws you will seek with all your heart to obey and which ones you would really prefer not to be bothered with.

That's partiality in the law. It's taking one law or one way of applying the law either of a higher or a lower degree. That's partiality. In other words, it makes man the prime chooser. He's the one that determines morality.

You can pick and choose the things that you like from the Bible. You know, often people read their Bibles like this. They look for their favorite verse. Often I've thought, you know, in the 21st century, you know, we have the billion Christians. So many of them are really just part of the church of the favorite verse.

They use their Bibles like that. They want to steer away from anything that might disturb them or change their life or chastise their behavior or their attitudes or what they do with their life, but they really like the warm, sweet, fuzzy phrases that they find in the Bible. You know, they particularly like the Psalms, and they take verses out of context, and they don't really know what they mean, but they just sound so sweet. But read in context, they're not actually as sweet as they think. So this is partiality in the law and this is an evidence that they don't love God.

Next he moves into this matter of marriage. There are two issues that were evidence that they did not love God. The first part was in choosing their wives. They were demonstrating that they did not love God because of the kinds of wives that they chose. And the second part is the keeping of their wives.

They did not keep their wives. They were treacherous toward their wives. These were two evidences they did not love God. Now those who, you know, are in the position or in the trajectory to choose wives or to be chosen and to agree to marry a man need to recognize this is very critical. This is an evidence of either your love for God or not.

You know, is a man so desperate that he'll just choose any woman who has a pretty face? Or is a woman so desperate that she'll just choose any man who somehow shows an interest in her? These are two dangers for men and women. Here, lack of love for God is proven in the choosing. So when you're about to be involved in saying yes to someone in marriage, Remember this passage of Scripture.

Is this marriage connecting you with idolatry or is this marriage connecting you with holiness? And that is the evidence that he brings here. So this matter of idolatrous wives is communicated in chapter 2 verses 10 through 12 and he says this, Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution which he loves. He calls it his holy thing, his holy institution which he loves. God loves marriage.

It is holy to him. Now the word institution in verse 11 is implied. It's not actually in the Hebrew text. The Lord's holy, which he loves. It is so holy that he doesn't even qualify the institution.

He just calls it holy, the Lord's holy institution. It's a correct rendering of the sentence, but the reason that they have profaned, this holy institution, is found in the very next phrase at the end of verse 11. He has married the daughter of a foreign God. Daughters or sons who love the foreign gods, who love the Eastern ways, are the most dangerous people in your life regardless of how much attention they might give you. And then there's the second aspect of this treachery in marriage, and that is divorce.

He says in verse 13, and this is the second thing you do. Now, notice what they're doing. First of all, they are just so into their worship. They are coming in, they're covering the altar with tears, they're crying, they're holding up their hands, they are so emotive in this whole thing. And this is the second thing you do.

You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying, so that he does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands." In other words, you're just pouring yourself out means nothing to me, God says. And they say, why? Why don't you accept all this emotion and this love and these tears? Why? And he answers it.

He says, because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth with whom you've dealt treacherously. She is your companion and your wife by covenant. The treachery is the putting out of the wife. So these are the reasons that they are proving that they don't love God. And then he declares the purpose of marriage.

And this is very important in verses 15 and 16 particularly. But did he not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit, and why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit. In other words, God desires for a husband or wife to come together and to be fruitful.

God desires them to stay together and to have children and to raise children. He desires godly offspring, not just offspring, but offspring that are taught to be godly by a father and a mother. Children need both a father and a mother. They don't need a father and a father or a mother and a mother. They need a father and a mother.

And that's, he's saying you're destroying the whole picture of marriage in this culture of divorce that you've created. And then he says in verse 16, for the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce for it covers one's garment with violence." You know, marriages are often places of violence when they are places of divorce. Another thing that they do is in verse 17 is that they call evil good and God is wearied in verse 17 with this he says you have weary the Lord with your words yet you say in what way have we wearied him and that you say everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord. You know there are powerful personalities, interesting people, highly gifted individuals, leaders who are evil, but everybody's going to give them a pass because they are just so fantastic and so you just call them good. And now we move to chapter 3 after we find the sin of congratulating evil men.

In chapter 3 the prophet tells us that there's another messenger coming, and he foretells a time of reformation. This is a time of Jesus Christ. And here you find the sweetness, the beauty of salvation, of the things that Jesus Christ does for His people. Well, in verse one, we learn that He will suddenly come into His temple, and He is the messenger of the Covenant, And He causes delight. And then in verse 2, the prophet reveals to us that He is like a refiner's fire and like launderer's soap.

He's a purifier. He cleans you. He washes you. He washes you with the water, the Word, and He purifies you as silver. It says He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver.

You know the Apostle Peter picks this up and he speaks of this very reality among the people of God that they're being refined by fire as gold and silver. In verse 4 we find the result. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old." So it's a time of reformation and restoration. And then he judges sin in verses 5 through 6. And we read again of the departure from his ordinances in verse 7 of chapter 3.

Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you. So this is hope for the drifter, the person who walks away from his commandments. He's saying, no, keep them, return to me and I will return to you. And that's the grace of God.

And then he gives them another evidence of why they don't love him. They're robbing him. You find this in chapter 3 verses 8 through 12. Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me.

And you say, in what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. So they're withholding their tithes and offerings. And then God promises a blessing to those who would not rob him in verses 10 through 12. He says, "...bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me this day, " says the Lord of hosts.

If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it, I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground nor shall the vine bear fruit for you in the field." He's saying, if you stop robbing me, I will give you back everything and more, and you won't be able to handle the more that I give you. God is the best lender. He doesn't just pay back a little bit. He pays back over the top. And so he says, don't rob me.

And then the people complain in verses 13 to 15 in chapter 3, he says, your words have been harsh against me, says the Lord, Yet you say, what have we spoken against you? You have said, it is useless to serve God. What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance? And then he identifies another sin in verse 15. So now we call the proud blessed for those who do wickedness are raised up they even tempt God and go free.

This is the congratulating of the proud and blessing those who are wicked because of the success that their pride has given them. And then in chapter 3 verses 16 through 18 we read of a book of remembrance of those who feared God. Verse 16, then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another and the Lord listened and heard them. Their names are written in a book. The reason is they fear God.

That's the reason their name is written in the book. That concludes chapter 3. Now we come to the final chapter of Malachi, and it's a short chapter. And Malachi identifies four ways that God expresses his love toward his people. And he will do this in the future because everything that God intends is for his love and so in the last chapter of Malachi God expresses his love and The first way that he expresses his love is through the coming judgment of the wicked.

Verse 1, Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven. And 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 I will neither leave them root or branch so God is demonstrating his love in his judgment and so in this first disclosure God is expressing his love by making right all the wrongs that have ever been committed. God's wrath is coming. It should be recognized and that the Lord Jesus Christ is a consuming fire toward those that will rebel against him. You know, who will be the fuel to the fire?

The arrogant, the proud, the disingenuous. The ones that he's been speaking of. Peter speaks of this in 2 Peter 3 10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and all the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and all its works will be exposed. He speaks of the very same thing using the same language in 1 Thessalonians 5, 2, and 3, and in Revelation chapter 16, verse 15. These passages of Scripture speak of the exposure of evil and the destruction of it.

The second way that God expresses His love to the world is through the blessings of Jesus Christ. And you find that in verses 2 and 3, but to you who fear my name the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves 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. You know, you have these beautiful images of the Son of Righteousness rising with healing in His wings. It's such a beautiful picture of what God does. He's a healer.

He heals your heart. He heals your relationships. He's your healer. And what happens to you? Well, he gives you an illustration of what happens to you.

You're like a stall-fed calf and you're frolicking in an open field. I don't know if you've ever seen that, but it's a beautiful picture when you have a calf jumping around so happy, bounding through the grass and running. And this is a picture of how Jesus Christ makes people happy. And then they prevail over the wicked. So the third way that God expresses his love in the world is through the remembrance of the law of God.

That's verse 4. Remember the law of Moses my servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and the judgments. Why would this be an expression of God's love? Because the law of God is summarized in one word, love. Every law of God is a law of love.

And so when the law of God rules and reigns, The law of love rules and reigns. And then he saves one of the sweetest aspects of his love for the very last. It's his work in the world all the way down to the smallest level of a family. He says that this Reformation is going to be demonstrated in the smallest unit of society in a family where you have a father and a mother and you have children. And he says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

And verse 6, 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. Well, there's a Reformation that's coming when John the Baptist comes and announces the coming of the Messiah. And it's the transformation of fathers who turn their hearts toward their children. In Malachi 4 we see what is the secret of the reformation of the family. And he is revealing what is absolutely the most important underlying force in a family.

And it's a spiritual revival in the hearts of fathers and children, where fathers' hearts turn toward their children and the hearts of children turn toward their parents. It's a miracle. It's a work of the miracle power of the grace of God. Notice what happens to the heart. The heart turns.

It's interesting that there's this outside force that turns the heart because that too is an act of the grace of God. There's something outside of a child, something outside of a father and a mother that turns his heart. There's no hope for love in a family unless God turns the hearts. It cannot happen any other way. Why did Malachi use this one single fruit of the love of God?

Because there are many fruits of the love of God. There are many evidences of God taking up residence in a person's heart. But he, for some reason, just uses this one single element of life, family life, to be the place where the power of the love of God is demonstrated. It's interesting to me that he would use a family as the example of what it looks like to be enlivened by Jesus Christ. What happens is that your heart turns.

It's a miracle that takes place in your heart as a result of the power of the Gospel. This is the impact of Jesus Christ in a family. While there are many effects of the Gospel in every area of life, somehow Malachi wants us to see the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ working in a family and How a father's heart changes and it turns, and how a child's heart turns toward his parents. It's such a beautiful thing. These last two verses help us to understand the answer to the question, what does the Gospel have to do with my relationship with my father?

Or what does the gospel have to do with my relationship with my children? And the answer to that question is that it has everything to do with it. Because if the heart doesn't turn, the love of God is not unleashed in that family. And so Malachi's prophecy teaches us that the power of the Gospel affects every area of life. As their hearts are turned toward Christ in repentance, then you have a family that has these blessings that he is speaking of here.

Now, I think we should recognize that while you had this beautiful picture, the prophecy ends with a pretty startling statement, or else, or else. Now, when you read the word or else and God is on the end of the else, you should pay attention. And we should be very careful not to miss what's being communicated. Malachi is communicating that Jesus Christ will turn the hearts of the fathers and the children, or else He'll come and strike the earth with a curse. And in this way, Malachi, he's not only prophesying about the beautiful effect of the gospel in a family, but he's also prophesying regarding the curse of a Christless, unbelieving, fatherless society with children whose hearts are surly and rebellious, resistant, literally turned away from their fathers.

And this unconverted populace is a populace without family love, and it'll be a scourge on the earth, and it'll draw the wrath of God, and it will be a curse. And so there's a prophecy of the greatest curse of a family, and that is when the hearts don't turn toward one another. This is the worst thing that can happen to your family right here. But at the same time even though Malachi ends with the curse, in reality he doesn't leave us with the judgment and with the curse because he's announcing a remedy. It's the spirit of Elijah and of Christ that will secure a family reformation.

And we're seeing that happen in our own day. We're seeing the hearts of fathers turn toward their children, and the hearts of children turning to their parents. And it's a beautiful thing. This is the power of God's mercy toward His people. So, let's sort of wind this up.

Malachi is an explanation of what it looks like when God loves his people and that is that he makes an everlasting covenant with those by grace. He has an electing love that's not dependent on performances. On the other hand, he declares what it looks like not to love God. And there are various ways that it's evidenced in your brokenness for your sin and repentance, in true or false worship, in love for your wife or lovelessness. It's evidenced by your choosing, what kind of person you want to marry.

It's evidenced in your tithes and offerings. It's evidenced by how you pay your employees. It's evidenced by whether you are flattering proud men. But I think the bottom of it brings us to the heart of the matter, genuine heartfelt worship toward God. And so we should always be on guard for the creeping coldness in our hearts, our desiring marriage for any other reason except for the glory of God, our selfishness and spending everything that we get rather than giving it in tithes and offerings and robbing God and forgetting how good God is that He'll pour out blessings toward those who don't rob him and what a wonderful thing it is when the power of the gospel is evidenced by a father's heart turning and a son or a daughter's heart turning.

So there's Malachi. God says, I have loved you. And then he proves his love.