Last Words Of The Old Testament

Malachi's Disputation: Israel's Empty Religiosity 3:40

In Malachi's day, they had a form of godliness. They had a form of religiosity. There was a temple, sure. There were walls.

There were priests. The priests wore robes and shuffled about looking priestly. But so much had been lost. So much had been changed.

The motivation of the people was not what it once was. And although they had sacrifices in temples and priests, and the priests still wore their tall hats and all that, even though they had a form and appearance of religion, an appearance of the faith, the faith had gone MIA. The faith was missing.

And the book of Malachi is God's attempt to take His people by the shirt collar and shake them and say, look, look at what you have done. Look at what you have become. You are not what you have been called to be. It's His reminder to the people, His disputation across six different arguments that He has with the people, His reminder to the people that they are not living as they have been called to live, as people called out from the world, but instead that they've caved in to the world's whims and wants.

For century after century, God had spoken to His people. For century after century, God had laid out His law and His expectations to them. For century after century, God had sent them prophets to remind them how to fly right, how to do what they were called to do. And yet, as we've seen in the past, when God would send them prophets, what did the people do to the prophets?

Well, they killed the prophets and they moved right on. They kept driving down the apostasy highway, irrespective of what the prophets had once said.

The 400 Years of Silence and the Intertestamental Age 5:15

The prophets had spoke, God had spoke, but in 430 B.C., or thereabouts, God stopped speaking. God stopped speaking. Roughly 430 B.C., God went silent, and He would remain silent, so to speak. He remained silent, so to speak, for over 400 years.

You see, today's reading in Malachi 4 are the last words of the Old Testament — the last words in Scripture, the last word God delivered to His people through the prophets. And for roughly 400 years, until the time of Christ, there was a gap, a lack of what you might call special revelation.

Now, in a sense, God still spoke through what people could see in the world around them, through creation and the like. In a sense, the revelation that people have of God through nature in the world around them, it was still there. But the special revelation that they've been granted through the prophets, well, that was gone.

And so they entered into what we call the intertestamental age. And we call it the intertestamental age for obvious reasons because it falls right between the two testaments of scripture. With that said, what you might call the intertestamental age, you might give another name. You could call it the calm before the storm.

Because something was coming. Someone was coming who would uproot, who would change everything that had preceded Him. And the next time God's words were heard, it would bring wholesale changes and wholesale judgment that dwarfed everything that preceded it. The next time God wanted to speak to His people, it would not be through an army of prophets, but rather He would speak to them through the lips of His own Son.

But that said, today's text occurs right before, right before the intermission, so to speak. This morning, we're going to study the last words of the Old Testament, and we're going to see that in these last words, God anticipated that great day that was coming, a great day that was around the bend, that was on the horizon, even in the midst of the darkness of that age.

If you would, look with me now. Verse 1 of today's text, it's printed in your bulletins. We'll read verse 1, then we'll work our way through the passage.

Behold, the Day Is Coming: Judgment on the Proud 7:35

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all 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 will leave them neither root nor branch.”

— Malachi 4:1 (NKJV)

Verse 1. For behold, the day is coming. Behold. This is the first of two times God's going to say the word behold, which we've said in the past should cause you to drop your pen, to pop open your eyes, to perk your ears and say, what's God going to say here?

Behold. Stop the presses. Behold, the day is coming and it burns like an oven. At the end of chapter 3, the people said, such a day is never going to come.

At the end of chapter 3, they said, where is the God of justice? At the end of chapter 3, they said, why would we even bother keeping the law? Well, at the start of chapter 4, God says, behold, the day is coming. The day that you thought would never get here.

It's on the horizon. It burns like an oven. And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. The least of that which is left after a great fire.

That is what they will become. They will be stubble. And the day which is coming will burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, and will leave neither root nor branch. Nothing will remain.

Accusing God: 'You Are Unable or Unwilling' 8:40

You know, at the end of chapter 3, as we just said a moment ago, at the end of chapter 3, you might remember that the people did what they've been doing across the whole book of Malachi. They accused God. It's amazing. It's breathtaking, the gall that the people had.

They consistently looked at God and said, you're either not there, you don't care, you're unfair, you're unjust. Again and again and again and again, against the backdrop of all that He had done for them, including recently, not that long ago, having taken them out of Babylon. God had returned them to the promised land.

The temple had been rebuilt. The walls were there. And yet they said, God, meh, you're either not there or you don't care. They consistently did this.

And at the end of chapter 3, they repeated one of their earlier accusations. They said, why are we bothering with this? They said, what does it profit us to keep His laws? God's given us laws, okay.

We have the Torah, we've got the law that was written on tablets of stone, okay. Well, God gave it to us, but what advantage is there to keeping His laws? Remember at the end of chapter 3, we studied this last week. What profit is it that we have kept His ordinances, that we've kept His laws, that we've walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts, that we've been repenting and praying and doing all the things that holy people do — what advantage has there been?

How better off are we than the pagans just over the border? They said, what does it benefit us that we have done this? And so now we call the proud blessed. For those who do wickedness are raised up.

They even tempt God and go free. In other words, the people are looking at God and saying, God, you're either unable or unwilling to help. Now, is that not what we've seen in our own day? Is that not the one challenge of our age against the concept of a holy and right and a just God?

God, you're either unable to help us or you just won't. And either accusation causes people to turn. People thought that God wasn't on the job. He wasn't doing what they prescribed to Him that He ought to do.

And so they said, why are we keeping your laws when you're not doing what you ought to do, when you're not doing what we think you ought to do? The people had a very short-term outlook, a very short-term outlook. And they said, well, because God hasn't dealt with such and such a person or such and such a situation, and the moment I think He ought to, well, meh, I'm done with Him.

I'm moving on. That was their accusation.

The Patience and Long-Suffering of God 11:10

What the people missed was this. God is patient. God is so gracious and patient and long-suffering. Whether it's the people of Israel or whether it's you and me, can we not look at our own history and say, oh my goodness, given the things I've done, things I've said, the thoughts I've thought, how do I live now to take another breath, given all that?

Well, the answer is this. God is patient. And His desire is not to smite, even though we might deserve it. His desire is to forgive.

And so He allows — for reasons that are His own, in a different form and fashion and length — He allows periods of time, often, to exist between our sinful actions and His judgment, to give us a window, a time to repent, to turn. Lest we were to likewise perish as wicked people have across generations.

God is patient. He calls people back to Himself. And He kept calling the Israelites. He kept calling Malachi's peers.

He kept telling them, look, you must turn and change. There were other prophets of this age as well. There were other godly men. They were all saying the same message.

Turn. And yet the people just wouldn't. They said, we're good enough. We're righteous enough.

Well, they were wrong. They were wrong. God's people had departed in word, deed, and thought. They were not doing what they were called to do.

Apostate Priests: Leadership That Lowers the Bar 12:46

And one of — I guess as an aside here — one of the most frustrating things, if you were to have watched that take place and watched the people's hearts turn, one of the most frustrating things would have been — you would have looked around and said, all right, clearly the people are doing some things that they ought not to do.

Clearly when they approach the altar and they're bringing the three-legged, buck-toothed, lazy-eyed lamb, and that's what they're giving God as a sacrifice, clearly that's not such a hot idea. Clearly, someone's going to step in and intervene, right? Clearly. And you might have looked around and said, all right, let's see.

Let me find a priest here. Find a priest to help bring this to a halt. Because surely the priests are the holy ones, right? They'll get the people back in line, right?

Well, not so much. The priests were at the head of the apostasy parade. The priests, the priests, the priests, the leadership. Those who were in charge, so to speak, of the religious practices were among those — chief among those — who were lowering the bar through the floor as to what the people should do in glorifying God.

So much so, do you remember in chapter 2? So much so that God calls them out. He called out the priests in particular. He says, oh priests, were that I could take the refuse, the dung from the very animals, these very diseased lambs you're putting on My altar — were that I would wipe it in your face.

A stronger admonition than that, I don't know what it is. The priests were part and parcel leading people astray, leading people to do what was wrong. The people were following as a nation, as a generation. In our own present day, we don't need leadership that lowers the bar.

We don't need leadership that causes sheep to act more like goats. We don't need leadership that is intent on embracing and conforming to worldly mores, worldly ethics. We need a man who will open this and say, thus saith the Lord. And every church, every place, steeple up top, cross out front, that is what we are called for.

But that's not what they were doing in Malachi's day.

The Sun of Righteousness: Hope for the Remnant 14:58

“But to you who fear My name the Sun 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.”

— Malachi 4:2-3 (NKJV)

If you would, let's look at verses two and three. Now, verse two and three, we see something interesting here. We see a great warning. We see this talk of judgment.

We see the wicked being trampled underfoot. We see this great and terrible day of the Lord prophesied towards those who are wicked. But then, interestingly, here we see something — a transition, a transition where words are phrased towards the remnant. There's always been a remnant.

Even as generations — even as the nation of Israel went off the tracks — there was always a remnant. Even if you go back to the time of the flood, right? You had Noah. You had Noah who was spared.

He and his family, even as everyone else was destroyed. In the time of Sodom and Gomorrah, you had Lot. Lot and his family. In the time of the exile, up into Assyria and into Babylon.

In the exiles, there was always a remnant. There was always a Daniel, an Ezekiel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the like. God always has a remnant, and He has messages of hope to that remnant. In their day and in our day.

Listen here. Verse 2: but to you who fear My name — to those who honor Me and respect me, those who treat Me as God, not only with your lips and your songs and the like, but with your deeds and your actions — to you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.

I want you to stop there and know this. There's a reason I preach from the New King James and not ESV, and it's primarily because of verses like this. Verse 2 reads entirely differently in the New King James, and more properly, I think, with regards to the Hebrew. Here we see the Son of Righteousness is identified, not with healing in its wings, but healing in His wings.

This is a reference, an intended reference, to the coming Lord, to the coming Son of Righteousness — S-O-N, not necessarily S-U-N — and to the Son of Righteousness. And He shall come and rise 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.

He looks to His remnant, to those who are scared, to those who are anxious, to those who are watching the world around them be shaken. He's watching those and He's addressing the remnant. He says, you have hope because you have trusted in one who is greater than you. This one that you can see out on the horizon, even in the midst of your present darkness, out on the horizon, a son of righteousness is reigning.

You keep your eyes focused on Him, things will go well for you. He will come. He will lead you out like stall-fed calves. And in due time, you shall trample the wicked beneath the soles of your feet on the day that I do this.

Prophetic Telescoping: Christ's Incarnation and Return 17:29

Now, let me explain something about this passage. Sometimes when we come to passages of text that deal with Christ, His coming, His arrival, sometimes we look at it and say, all right, which arrival is this pointing to? Is this talking about His incarnation? Is this talking about Jesus as He would come in the form of a babe in Bethlehem?

Or is this pointing towards His future, His return? Well, oftentimes, and I think this is true in this passage this morning, oftentimes it's talking about both. Oftentimes it's anticipating, it's anticipating both in the prophetic telescopic language that we see here. I think that's what's going on.

With that said, in chapter 4 of Malachi, I think this is pointing both to Christ's arrival, to what would happen, to the changes that Jesus would bring. And truly, as we talked about in recent weeks, when Jesus would show up, everything would change. The sacrificial system, the priests, the temple would all change.

No longer would they sacrifice lambs and goats and doves and sheep and the like on an altar, but there would be one sacrifice, the Lamb of God. One sacrifice that could not be added to. And when Jesus came, the temple would be changed. There would no longer be a building in Jerusalem.

It would be where? It would be within the hearts of the believer. Within the church. Within God's people.

The sacraments, the sacrificial system, the temple, so much would be different once He arrived. And I think these verses anticipate that change that was coming. And yet they also look forward in these verses to something even beyond that. To His return.

When the wicked will be judged, and they will be dealt with. In any case, verse 2 suggests the dawning of a new age. Verse 2 reminds the people of Malachi's day and our day that what you see in the here and now is not forever. Whatever principalities and powers reign in our present day will not always reign.

Whatever sickness and hardship and desolation and desperation exists in the present will not always be. Why? Because on the horizon comes the sun of righteousness. Because on the horizon comes the Son of Righteousness.

And I want you to notice in verse 2 something interesting. That the Son of Righteousness here is spelled S-U-N, not S-O-N. Now, I do believe it's a reference to S-O-N. I do believe it's a reference to Christ.

And this particular phrase, the Son of Righteousness, it doesn't appear anywhere else in Scripture. So why use it? Why does Malachi refer to it in this way? Well, because truly the Son of God is the sun, the bright light of righteousness.

If you go to John's Gospels, what you'll see is that Jesus is depicted as the light of the world. You remember the famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God? Spoiler alert, we'll hear that when I'm done here. In A Mighty Fortress, remember when it talks about the Prince of Darkness, the Prince of Darkness grim?

Remember one of those references, Martin Luther, his references to Satan, to the enemy. They're the same sort of references we see in Scripture. There's darkness and there's shadow. But Christ, it's the exact opposite.

When Christ comes into the heart of the believer or on the face of this globe, He brings light and life. The darkness scampers from His gaze. He brings light and life. The sun of righteousness destroys the darkness and doubts and despair.

He brings light. He brings hope. And when He came in the first century and when He returns, we see that mankind, in a time yet to come, will no longer be confined or constrained by sin and will no longer have to fear the darkness of the tyranny of evil men.

This Present Darkness and the Kingdom to Come 21:13

I don't know about you, but I've had my fill of this present age. Growing up, there's this picture, this ideal that, yes, the world is hard, yes, there's cancer, and yes, there's hardships, and yeah, there's war in some country far away. Yeah, there's all that stuff. But, at least here and at least now, you can carve out your slice, your share, your stake of utopia.

You can have that, even as these other things exist. But here's the thing. Even if you carve out that niche, in time, cancer will enter in. In time, sickness, death, pandemic.

In time, the fabric around you and society will change. Not often for the better. I'm tired of having to lock my doors at night. I'm tired of living in a world where it seems like every other day I'm getting news of someone's new diagnosis that's not good.

I'm tired of hurts and doubts and despair. I hope you are too, because you're supposed to be. Don't get too comfortable here. You're not supposed to be.

Your eyes are supposed to be focused on the kingdom to come. You're supposed to look at the horizon and look to see the sun of righteousness. But realize that here and now we do live in darkness. This is the shadow lands.

But a day is coming. A day is coming. It's closer now than it's ever been. A day is coming when the darkness will be dealt with.

When sin and death will be no more. Where every tear is wiped away from every eye. A day has come when healing is poured out and evil is dealt with finally, completely, totally.

Trampling the Serpent: The Protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 23:09

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

— Genesis 3:15 (NKJV)

Now, what does it mean, in verse 3, to read that believers, in a sense, will trample the wicked? As we think of the judgment that is to come, as we think of promises given towards the believers, what does it mean to trample the wicked? That's an interesting phrase. I'm not entirely sure that we can understand all that this phrase implies, but I do know what it's supposed to remind us of.

I do know what this picture of something being cast underfoot and trampled upon, what it's supposed to remind us of. Who remembers Genesis? Genesis 3. Who remembers the fall?

Who remembers what happened there? Well, Adam and Eve, they're doing their thing. In comes the serpent, more clever than all the beasts of the field. He says, hath God said?

Did God really say such and such? Did God really say it? And did He really mean it? And is it really for your benefit?

And our federal head, our first parents, their hearts were turned. But do you remember what God said then to the serpent? Do you remember what God said? Well, God said this to the serpent.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, capital S. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. God told the snake that when Jesus came, He would trample Satan underfoot. That's the same picture that we're getting here in Malachi 4, verse 3.

Remember the Law of Moses: Blessing and Curse 24:39

Let's look now at verse 4. Remember the law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all of Israel, with the statutes and the judgments. You know, if there was one hallmark or one distinctive of God's people in Malachi's day, It is this, that they did not remember the law or the statutes or the judgments.

They didn't remember. They had the buildings, they had the temple, they had the priests in the fine robes and the tall hats. They had all that. And yet the law was nowhere to be seen.

And if it was seen, it was not applied. So here we see, again, God takes His people by the collar, so to speak, by the shirt tail, saying, Remember. Remember the law of Moses. Don't forget.

Don't lower the bar. Don't cave to what the world is saying, but remember instead my law. Remember the law which I gave to Moses with the statutes and the judgments. The people were called to remember, and yet they had forgotten, and they were doing what is right in their own eyes.

And so for the umpteenth thousandth time, God says, remember. And furthermore, He implies here the same thing He explicitly states. Otherwise, he says, if you do this, if you remember the law, things will go well for you. He says that to you and I as well, as fathers and wives, husbands and children and parents and mothers and uncles and sons and daughters, all these different things.

He says, if you remember the law, if you do what I've told you to do, things will go right. It doesn't mean you'll never stub your toe and it doesn't mean that you'll never be sick and the like. But broadly speaking, whether it was individuals or a corporate body or a church or what have you, if you do what God has prescribed and decreed for you to do, things will go well, generally speaking.

But the opposite is true. If you don't, there is a curse. If you don't, there's trouble ahead. God reminded His people of this regularly.

If you keep the law, if you remember the judgments, things will go well. If you don't, things will go poorly. There is a curse.

The Last Word Is 'Curse' 26:37

Now, speaking of curses, let's look at our final verses now, verses 5 and 6. Verse 5. Behold. Remember what I told you before?

Perk up your ears. Open your eyes. What is God saying? He says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet.

I'll send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. The hearts of the children to their fathers. Lest I come, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.

I want you to remember this. If you forget everything else, the last word of the Old Testament is the word curse. The last word of the Old Testament bespeaks what happens to those who fail to keep the law that was given to Moses, who trust in their own righteousness, who say, I'm good enough, who say, God, you're wrong, who say, you're unjust, I'm righteous, I'm just.

As people, as a nation, the last word is curse. And if that were the last word of the Bible as a whole, how awful would that be? But praise God, there is a New Testament. Praise God, there is a new covenant that is better than the old covenant.

Praise God that that's not the final word spoken to humanity, spoken to you and I, but there were additional words spoken by one who is even greater than all the prophets combined. In days past, I have spoken through My servants, the prophets, but in these days, we see in Hebrews, I have spoken through who?

Through My Son. Through My Son. Verse 5 says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.

Elijah Who Was to Come: John the Baptist 28:31

Now, in this text, there's this reference to the coming of Elijah the prophet. When I was younger, I'd go, what is this? This is fascinating. Elijah's coming back.

Well, how can this be? You look at that and you see Elijah's coming, and you go, all right, well, wow, that's something — something else. My problem when I was young is that I lacked what you would call a proper hermeneutic, meaning I didn't understand how the greater context of Scripture speaks to any one given verse.

I wasn't looking at this verse through the rest of God's Word in order to understand it. If you want to understand any verse in Scripture, it helps to understand, or at least to have read, the rest of Scripture. In any case, the verse that talks here about Elijah's return in Malachi 4, it would one day be clarified who God is speaking about in the book of Matthew, the book of Matthew chapter 11.

Specifically, Jesus is going to say this. He's going to say, for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, until John the Baptist. And then Jesus says this, if you're willing to accept it, he, John the Baptist, is the Elijah who was to come. In other words, Jesus specifically addresses what we're reading in Malachi.

He says, you've been wondering 400 years who's going to show up. And Jesus says, I've got good news. I got good news. I'm going to tell you who this Elijah is.

He says, if you can accept it, you've got ears to hear it — it's John. It is John the Baptist. See, John the Baptist's ministry was very similar to the ministry of Elijah. He had a lot of the same behaviors and attitudes and affections, some of the same zeal, a very similar zeal to Elijah.

And Jesus says that John the Baptist is the Elijah who was to come. And if you're willing to accept it, it is he. Now, would the people in Christ's day accept it? Would they accept this John the Baptist?

Let's think ahead past the days of Malachi. When John the Baptist showed up and he spoke and he taught and he baptized and did the like, would the people believe it? Would they accept it? Well, no. No more than they did the original Elijah.

And this Elijah, John the Baptist, had an advantage that the old Elijah didn't have. The old Elijah could point to Jesus through his words and prophecies, point to the Messiah to come. Guess what John the Baptist could do. How?

He could point. He could point with his finger. He could say, that guy — that is the one. He could look down the riverbank and say, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

But would the people listen? Would the people hear? Would they accept it? Not so much.

The majority of the people of Israel never heeded the words of the prophets, never heeded the words of God, never heeded the words of Christ even when He dwelt among them. And that was Israel. That was God's chosen people. Don't think that the percentage in our day is that much better.

Be introspective. Consider your faith. Remember the law. Lest we fall into the same trap.

The Frog in the Kettle: Redefining Sin as Virtue 31:39

Let me close with one final observation as we're wrapping up our study of Malachi. As we've seen over the past number of weeks, Malachi's contemporaries were just like the frog in the kettle. I assume I don't have to explain that. You all know the analogy of the frog in the kettle.

Well, Malachi's contemporaries were just like the frog in the kettle. And year by year, decade by decade, even day by day, the heat was being turned up on their sins. They were diving headlong, immersing themselves in behaviors that they ought not do, and yet they didn't feel the heat. They didn't feel what was happening and what danger they were in as a result.

In fact, they were so far gone in their sinfulness that throughout the whole book of Malachi, they kept asserting that they weren't even sinning to begin with. If anyone was wrong, it was God. You have got to be really, really far down the road, down the apostasy highway, when you start redefining sin to make it look virtuous, redefining bad practices to seem like they're good, and then when God calls you on the carpet on it, to say, no, it's you, you're the one at fault, you're unjust, you're unfair, you don't care — us, we're doing all right.

That's what they were doing throughout Malachi's day. They redefined sin so that it was external to themselves. Even more to the point, they redefined sin in such a way as to make it look virtuous. I tell you, a hallmark, a hallmark of God's pending judgment across the centuries.

And if you've watched our series on Wednesday nights on the judgments of God, you've seen this. A hallmark of God's pending judgment is this. It's not just when the people sin. That's bad, but it's not only then.

It's when they begin to redefine sin. It's when they begin to take that which is good and call it evil. And when they take something evil and call it good. When you see that inversion in Scripture, look out.

When you see it in the world around you, look out. For the people of Malachi's day, these prophecies, they were like a divine knock on the door. But the good news is that even as they opened the door, and even as they beheld the danger and the circumstances and the potential judgment they were in, at the same time, there was something else on the other side of the door.

And that was God's grace.

Ending Where It Began: From Curse to Grace 34:05

I'll close with this thought. You see, the Old Testament ended just where it began. Take note of that. The Old Testament ended just where it began.

It began with sin. Not in the first chapter, but very quickly thereafter. It began with the sin of the people. It ends with the sin of the people.

With the final word, curse. The Old Testament ended just where it began, with the people's sin and depravity. Fortunately, the Old Testament was not God's final say on the matter. Fortunately, the Old Testament isn't the end of the book.

When the Old Testament ended and the age of the prophets drew to a close, that did not bring an end to God's redemptive plan. But rather, it's as if all of creation took a deep breath at that time. A pregnant pause. An anticipation of what was about to happen.

Who was about to come. To put it in the words of today's passage, even though things were dark — and they were dark then, as I believe they're dark now — although they were dark, we see in these verses, we see throughout the Old Testament, we see this reminder: that on the horizon there still lay hope.

There was still a Messiah in the future for God's people. There was still hope on the horizon. No matter how dark things got. No matter how the ground shook beneath their feet.

No matter how the clouds may have rolled in. Still on the horizon was the Son of Righteousness. Still on the horizon was light and life and hope. No matter how dark things may get in the present or the future.

That remains true. No matter what the future may hold. Either broadly across the world or even in our own unique circumstances. There's hope.

The Son of Righteousness is on your horizon. The Son of Righteousness is on our horizon as a church. There are better days ahead. For the here and now, let us be faithful to His Word.

Let's pray.