Malachi 4:1-6

            {Prayer}

            Last week when my family headed to Nebraska to celebrate my previous congregation’s 100^th Anniversary, I saw on an offramp a semitruck. We’ve all seen them there, right? They will sometimes line the offramp as drivers take a moment to rest.

            But here’s the thing … this semitruck wasn’t surrounded by other trucks. This semi didn’t even have a driver. No, I didn’t go up to and peek through the windows. I’m know there was no driver because it was only the shell of truck. The interior, the engine, the tires, the cargo in the trailer and most of trailer had been burned. Only thing left was warped, blackened metal. A shell of what previously was.

            Around here, we see the same kind of devastation when a combine catches on fire out in a field. One spark, one leak, too much chaff or dust around hot components and in minutes, it’s all over. All that work, all that value, reduced to nothing but warped, blackened metal and ashes.

            Malachi 4 says, “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace” (4:1). The day is coming, says the Lord. What day? A day of fun and excitement? Ehhhh … not quite. A day of judgment? Well, if there is burning like that of a furnace involved, then I’m assuming there is fire. Just guessing here, but I’m thinking that’s the kind of day Malachi is warning of. A day of judgment is coming where the Lord says, “All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble” (4:1b). A day is coming when nothing will be left.

            And why? Simply put … Israel’s sin. Because of Israel’s sin, because of their rebellion against God, their neglect of the widowed, the poor, and the orphaned, because of their selfishness, their pride, and their greed … God’s judgment was coming. God’s judgment on this day will be like that of fire. It will destroy all the face façade and expose their sins, it will consume their pride. Nothing will endure. Everything will be laid to waste. All there will be is a pile of ashes.

            But it’s not just Israel’s sin that brings judgment. It’s the sin of those around Israel. It’s the sin of people today, of you and me. Our sin is flammable. Our pridefulness, our selfishness, our rebellion against God … all these things are fuel for God’s holy fire. We confessed earlier, “Lord, we need Your rescue.”

            We need God’s complete and total forgiveness because this sinful problem we have, this brokenness we live … it doesn’t bother God a little and eventually He’ll get over it. No! Our sinful problem and the consequence we deserve is deserved. Nothing unholy can stand in the presence of a holy God. And God’s justice is holy and we rightly deserve it.

            But there is something to remember … not all fire destroys. Some fire purifies. God’s fire in Christ doesn’t exist to annihilate us, but to transform us. God’s fire is to burn away what’s false and reveal what’s true.

            Take gold for example. When gold is refined by fire, the heat isn’t meant to destroy it. The heat is meant to reveal its worth. The impurities rise to the surface and are skimmed away. This one dirty, thought to be worthless metal now shines brightly all because of what the fire has done.

            This is God’s desire for us. God’s fire is not reckless or random. God’s fire is a refining fire. The Holy Spirit, who came as tongues of fire at Pentecost, now comes into our hearts through the waters of baptism and by the gift of faith. The refining fire of the Holy Spirit burns away pride, selfishness, and sin so that the beauty of your faith can shine.

            Sometimes that fire comes through struggles, through loss, through moments when life feels like everything is burnt away and reduced to ashes. Even then … God is at work.

            You see, those charred fields and burned machinery can give rise to new growth. When the flames die down … something happens we can’t see. The soil begins to heal. Those ashes enrich the ground which will then cause new, visible life to sprout again. What looks like the end is often just the beginning of God’s renewal.

            The same way God works with that field, God works within you and me. God purifies us in Christ. We may not realize it, others may not see it, but God is at work.

            The prophet Ezekiel says God’s people had become like metal full of dross, full of impurities, unfaithfulness, and weighed down by sin. So, God takes them, puts them into the furnace, not to destroy them, but to refine them. And then God makes this promise … “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you.” This what God does in Christ. The fire of the Holy Spirit doesn’t burn us up! No! Instead, it burns within us, changing us from the inside out. That’s the miracle of grace, God doesn’t throw us away … He remakes us. You are a new creation in Christ, the old has been burned away!

            This is all done through the work of the cross. On that cross, Christ endured the blazing fire of God’s wrath in our place. Jesus stepped into the fiery furnace of God’s wrath to purify you and me of our sin. Out of the ashes of Christ’s suffering and death … new life emerges. New life emerges as Jesus literally sat up and walked out of the tomb, purified, glorified. Our old sinful heart that Jesus bore has been removed and is still there in the depth of that grave. We have been given a new heart! Parker in her baptism has been given a new heart!

            In this new heart is a flame. The Lord through Malachi says, “But you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings” (4:2a). This flame of faith given by Jesus burns and glows. As Christ’s people, you and I reflect His warmth and light to the world.

            A field fire, a forest fire clears the ground of what is rotten, decaying, and dead so that new life may sprout and grow. God’s grace through Jesus, clears out our hearts so that we may do good works. You and I are made holy by Christ, not to earn our salvation, that we can never do. We are made holy so that we can boldly and confidently show Christ’s love in our lives to others.

            But what about this day of the Lord talk? Well, it’s going to happen. One day Jesus will descend from the clouds with angels and trumpets. For those who don’t believe … it will be a day of judgment, a day of fire and destruction. But for you and me, for those who confess with their mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and who believe in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead will be saved (Romans 10:13).

            Our bodies will undergo a total refinement, a total transformation. This dead, rotting, sinful body will one day be placed into the ground … but because of Jesus, because of His saving work through His life, death, and resurrection and by your faith in Him, you will one day rise up in perfection. You will rise up and be made new and live with Jesus forever.

            Looking forward to the Day of the Lord, we pray the final prayer recorded in the Bible … “Amen, Come, Lord Jesus.” Amen.

            The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you, God’s very own people, now and forever. Amen.