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November 3, 2002
24th Sunday of Pentecost
Malachi 3:14-18
Pastor Joel Zank

The LORD Will Have the Last Word!

(Malachi 3:14-18) "You have said, 'It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.'" Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name."They will be mine," says the LORD Almighty, "in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

In Christ Jesus, the Living and Eternal Word of God, dear fellow redeemed,

Do you know anyone who always tries to have the last word in every conversation or disagreement-a friend, a brother, sister or spouse who likes to spar with words, always insisting on getting in the last verbal jab? If so, then you can relate to the Book of Malachi because it records for us what might be referred to as a "war of words." On the attack are the people of Judah, the only tribe left of God's Old Testament people Israel. They've decided to do battle with God, making all kinds of unfair accusations about him, while at the same time trying to deny any and all wrong doing of their own.

Can you imagine anything more foolish or more hopeless than going to war against God, even if it's only a war of words? God's Name is holy. All the saving promises he has made to this sinful world rest on his righteous reputation. For the sake of his name, for the sake of his promises and those who cling to them, God will not permit his name to be ruined by mud-slinging sinners no matter who they are. So the Scriptures remind us today, The LORD Will Have the Last Word-the last word on fairness; and the last word on Judgment Day.

The verse just prior to our text identifies God as the one speaking the words before us today: "You have said harsh things against me," says the LORD. "Yet you ask, 'What have we said against you?' (Malachi 3:13). The debate is on. God says, "You sinned." Judah says, "Did not!" Now God follows up: "You did to!" "You have said, 'It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.'"

Do these charges against God sound at all familiar? Have you ever thought God was somehow being unfair? I've had such thoughts. For example, I have often thought it unfair that sinners not only seem to get away with "murder," but many even seem to profit by their sin, cashing in on lucrative book deals and movie rights in a society that loves to glamorize evil. Why does God let that happen? And while we're at it, why does God let innocent people die at the hands of a deranged sniper? Or let's bring it closer to home. Why do so many things seem to go wrong in my life? Doesn't God see that I'm trying to live for him? Couldn't he make life a little easier for his people? I can sure relate to the psalmist's frustration when he writes in Psalm 73, "This is what the wicked are like-- always carefree, they increase in wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning" (Psalms 73:12-14). Unfair I say. You've said it too haven't you?

But is God really being unfair? Is he going back on some promise that he has made? Not at all. In fact the Lord Jesus himself has told us, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). We can expect this sinful world to throw us some curves, but Jesus says we need not worry because he's in control. He explains that when we perceive him to be unfair, the problem is with our perception and not with his actions. He says in Isaiah 55:8-9, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways....9 As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." And when that beautiful, comforting truth fails to silence our objections, God just comes right out and says, "Be still, and know I am God" (Psalm 46:10). There's the LORD's last word on fairness. He says, "Trust me! I know what I'm doing.

But there's our problem. There's our sin. We do not trust our God. We don't take him at his word. God says his goodness comes to us as an undeserved gift. So when we accuse God of being unfair, we are calling him a liar. For what else are we saying but that God owes us something and he isn't paying up? Like the people of Judah we might as well be asking, "What did we gain by carrying out [God's] requirements?"(v.14). How arrogant we are to think that our pitiful attempts at keeping the Ten Commandments have earned us special favors from God. What hypocrites we are to suggest that impenitent sinners are the lucky ones who have all the wealth and all the fun in life. Our sinful thoughts betray us. We often envy the wicked don't we.

We say that we want God to be fair, so tell me, how should God deal with arrogant hypocrites like us? What would be the fair thing for him to do? I'll let him answer that question with the very words he spoke to his Old Testament people when they accused him of being unfair. God says through the Prophet Ezekiel, "Are my ways unjust...? Is it not your ways that are unjust? Therefore...I will judge you, each one according to his ways" (Ezekiel 18:29-30). It seems the only fair thing for God to do would be to bring us up on charges of treason, find us guilty, and condemn us to death, eternal death in hell. That is the punishment we have earned for ourselves each and every time we have questioned God's fairness. But rather than immediately carrying out sentence upon us, God goes on to say to us in the Book of Ezekiel, "Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall...32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!" (Ezekiel 18:30,32).

When God says, "Repent!" it means he wants us to acknowledge our sin against him and fear the threat of his punishment. There were people in Judah who did just that, people who recognized it was a damning sin to accuse God of any wrong doing. Malachi reports, "Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard" (v.16). No doubt those people talked about their sins, together confessing to God, "We have done what is evil and have failed to do what is good. We deserve your punishment. We're sorry. Please forgive us, Lord. Help us turn away from our sin."

Repentance is the Lord's work. His threats lead people to sorrow over their sin. His powerful promises turn sinners from sin to a new life of peace and hope. By the power of his word we bring our sins to the Lord today, our mistrust, our arrogance, and hypocrisy. At God's own invitation, we plead for his forgiveness. The Lord listens. He hears us. And at the same time he writes our names on a scroll of remembrance, the scroll that Malachi says "... was written in [the LORD's] presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name" (v.16).

This special scroll contains the names of all those who are right with God. It's a post it note, if you will, written in God's own hand-a reminder: "These are the people I'm not going to punish." You can be sure that your name is on that scroll because on the day of your baptism, God placed his name on you, the way we put our names on all those things we treasure, claiming them as our own. In the same way you bear God's name. You belong to him. So he writes your name on this scroll of remembrance as a way of assuring you he's not forgetting about you. He says of all of you right here in Scripture: "They will be mine...in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him."

God's treasured possessions are all those he his gathering right now around Word and sacrament so that they might live with him in heaven forever. You are a part of that group, not because you've earned a place it in, but because the Lord is the God of all compassion. What a comforting truth! The Hebrew word that God uses to describe his compassion is the same word used to describe the feeling that came over Pharaoh's daughter when she found the Hebrew baby Moses floating on the Nile in a basket. Having compassion on that child, she saved him from death by adopting him as her son. God has demonstrated far greater compassion for us by sending his own perfect Son Jesus to actually trade places with us sinners and so make us part of his family.

I suppose if anyone might have had reason to think God unfair, is would have been Jesus. Of all the people who have ever lived on earth, he is the only one to live a perfectly holy life from start to finish, obeying the Father's will in all his words and actions. Even his thoughts were all holy all of the time. But who gets the credit for all that holiness? You do. That's the way God sees it! The faith given you by God's Spirit makes the Savior's perfect life of service your very own. You get the credit for his holiness while he took the blame for your sin. How fair is that? All that arrogance, all that hypocrisy of ours, all our sin landed squarely on Jesus' shoulders as he hung upon the cross. So God sent Jesus to hell instead of us and through his sacrifice considers our debt of sin paid for in full. Jesus was punished so we could be spared. Yes, Jesus is the one who could have cried unfair, but he didn't. Instead he was thrilled to cry, "It is finished" "Sin is paid for! Hell is defeated!" and to prove his boast, he rose from the dead and now lives to bring us home to heaven.

Such a Savior, such a compassionate God could never be unfair to you. He knows you belong to him. He remembers you; and he is blessing you-sometimes in ways you can't imagine and sometimes in ways you don't understand. But that will soon change. A day is coming when it will all be perfectly clear. God says, "And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not" (v.18).

In the mean time, it is enough for us to know that our God is a patient God. He's working in our world using successes, and failures, happiness and sadness to prepare the soil of people's hearts for the seed of his gospel. Don't confuse God's patience with weakness or indifference. Remember, there is no peace for the wicked (Isaiah 48:22), no prosperity for evil doers, and no blessing for the arrogant. The world will tell a different story loud and often, but pay no attention. For the LORD will have the last word on Judgment Day when his command, "Depart from me," will silence of all his enemies, while we on the other hand, God's right hand, will finally see with our eyes what we now cling to by faith-all the wonders of heaven that God has in store for us, for Jesus' sake. Amen.