For our Scripture reading this morning, turn with me to Malachi 3. Malachi 3 as we read together verses 13 through chapter 4, verse 6. Malachi 3, verse 13 through chapter 4, verse 6. Our text this morning being Malachi 4, verse 2. This morning and tonight, the Lord willing, as well as next week, Lord willing, we give our attention to the coming of Christ and various aspects connected with the coming of Christ. A little bit of the context here, as it is stated in some of the added headings in my Bible, include that Malachi is giving admonition for priests, talking about Judah's unfaithfulness. The day of judgment, robbing God, as well as the day of the Lord. We begin reading at verse 13 of chapter 3 as we give our attention to the Word of God. You have said harsh things against me, says the Lord. Yet you ask, what have we said against you? 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. Surely the day is coming. It will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble. And that day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty. Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked. They will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things, says the Lord Almighty. Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. or else I will come and strike the land with a curse. The second verse of chapter 4 once again, But for you who revere My name, the Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, what a way to close the door of the Old Testament. Of course, you know that this is the last book of the Old Testament in our Bibles. As well, it is believed that Malachi's prophecy, even though Malachi was most likely a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah, it is believed by many that Malachi's prophecy indeed was the last prophetic word of God to his people before Christ was born about 400 years later. And in this four-chapter prophecy, in the first two chapters of Malachi, he describes the sin and the apostasy of Israel And then in chapters 3 and 4, he points to the judgment that will come upon the unrepentant sinner as well as the blessing reserved for the repentant saints. So Old Testament Scripture closes in the midst of the darkness of the night of sin and death. Yet, God's people have their eyes directed to the east, expectantly looking on the horizon for the rising of the sun of that new and everlasting day. And with regard to that day, the prophet announces that it will be a time of joy for God's people, even as the psalmist says in Psalm 30, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. And it's no secret that the night of sin and death had spread its dark wings over the world, yet the dawning of the new day was the promise of the day of everlasting righteousness. And beloved, the dawning of this new day, which was foretold already in the early chapters of Genesis, The dawning of this day must be seen in the birth of the Christ child in Bethlehem's manger, as well looking for His coming a second time in glory on the clouds of heaven. We consider this Word of God this morning, the coming of Christ, to remedy the darkness of life. As we consider, first of all, the participants in this remedy. Secondly, the purpose of the remedy. And then finally, the prognosis of the remedy. Now, the text speaks of two participants. The first being those who need the remedy, but also the one then who brings or is the remedy. And those who need the remedy are, as the text says, those who revere my name, or those who fear my name. Now, this is in contrast, of course, to those who speak harsh words against the Lord, as chapter 3, verse 13 tells us. But revere, or fear here, is not talking about a slave-like fear where one is afraid or terrified, but it's talking about a reverent fear. It's talking about godly fear and true piety which honors the glory of God and acknowledges His sovereignty, His authority, and His dominion over all things. This is fear that is intimately connected with love and hope. And therefore, this wonderful promise is for the godly. It is for God's elect children. Psalm 85 verse 9 says, Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him. You see, God's people are given a wonderful promise of healing in the midst of so much spiritual sickness. So much rejection of God's covenant had taken place. So much apostasy lived in the hearts of Israel. We get a little bit of a taste of that in chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. 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. We need to understand, beloved, that Malachi was preaching to a discouraged people, to a disillusion to people because of the glorious promises of the prophets who had come before. Their idea of the Messianic age, we could say, had not materialized in their hands. What they thought it was going to be all about. They were suffering drought. They were experiencing famine. They were suffering economic adversity. And therefore, Malachi was preaching to a skeptical people, those who were skeptical about the promises of God because they didn't see them come to pass as they thought they should, and therefore they were not committed to living as they ought. They were not committed to living according to those glorious promises, worshiping and serving God with their entire heart. There was an epidemic of spiritual sickness. But for those who fear God's name, and therefore those who fear God Himself and His very being, there is a remedy, And that remedy is provided by the other participant, the sun of righteousness. Now, of course, when we think of the sun, first of all, we think of light. The light of the sun, we know every morning, ushers in a new day. And boys and girls, you know that even on a cloudy day, it's not totally dark because the light of the sun, even though that light may be filtered by the clouds, that light still manages to get through so that we have what we call daylight. But light has always been an important part of the believer's life. And Scripture is clear that spiritually speaking, light is a reference to God and that which is good, while on the other hand, darkness is a reference to Satan and that which is evil. Isaiah says, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light is shined. And then of course, those very same words are applied to our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 4. Psalm 43, verse 3, gives those beautiful words, Oh, send out Your light and Your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy hill. God's light alone leads to salvation. In fact, God's light is salvation. As David says in Psalm 27, verse 1, The Lord is my light and my salvation. And then in Psalm 119, verse 105, we find those familiar words, Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. And I encourage you, beloved, to take up a concordance and look up the references to light that you find there. And so many of them, if they're not talking about the physical sun or the moon or some light bearer in that way, is a reference to God, His Word, and the truth. And then, of course, we must think of Isaiah 60, verses 1, 2, and 3, which is an important passage in this context. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people, but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. And of course, we know that all of this light talk then is talking about Jesus Christ, who said of Himself, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. In congregation, light is a reference to the presence of God who calls His people out of darkness into His marvelous light. And Jesus Christ is pictured as the sun that shines in the sky, that sun which lights up the earth. The sun in the sky we know is the source of light and then the moon and the stars all reflect the light of the sun. And He is called the sun because without Him there is only darkness and we can only wander and go astray. And apart from His light, the narrow path is dark and we can't find our way. But there is no darkness when He is near. And just as the sun rises in the morning, we know that really the sun stays in the same place, but the earth rotates, but according to our perspective, the sun rises in the east in the morning in the same way the text says that this sun will rise. And beloved, this was a promise that He would appear. He would break out and shine. And then His shining would be characterized by His righteousness. He is the Son of Righteousness. Now, boys and girls, righteousness, we could say, means to be right, to live according to that which is right. To be right means to be molded and shaped and to follow a certain standard of righteousness. And the standard of righteousness for man is the will of God. To be perfectly conformed to and to be in harmony with the will of God is to be righteous. And that describes Jesus Christ. Even as He walked this earth, there was nothing defective in Him or about Him, and He perfectly revealed the righteousness of God. And throughout His earthly ministry, The clear and bright sunlight of His righteousness brilliantly radiated from Him in the darkness of this life. Even those who were with Him, those who experienced Him face to face, could not miss this. What did Peter say? Depart from Me, for I am a sinful man. As he recognized his unholiness compared to the holiness and righteousness of Christ. But to the church, Jesus Christ is the bright and morning star that ushers in the eternal day. He is the Son of Righteousness, God incarnate, who was born to set His people free by healing His people lost in sin. And that's then the purpose of this remedy. The text says the Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. Now the wings of the sun is talking about the rays of the sun. And we can gain an understanding of this if you're familiar with a bright, sunshiny morning when the sun is first coming up and you see a sunrise, you're familiar with the rays of the sun as they shoot forth. Oftentimes, in our walks, if we are bold enough to go up Sheridan, up that hill from Broadway, when we get to the top of that hill and you see the hills out there as the sun is coming up, if you're there right at the time the sun pops over, the rays shoot out across the sky. They fan out like wings. In Psalm 139, verse 9, the psalmist talks about taking or riding on the wings of the morning to the east as with the speed of light. And he is referring there to the rays of the sun. But the concept of wings in Scripture is indeed a comforting idea. The wings of an eagle are a picture of strength. Even as Isaiah 40, verse 31 says, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Also, the wings of a mother bird are a picture of comfort. In Psalm 91, verse 4, it says of God, He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge. And when Jesus wept over Jerusalem, He said, How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Boys and girls, about a year and a half ago or so, I attended a funeral and the minister at that time preached the funeral sermon on that very verse from Psalm 91, verse 4, talking about that God shall cover His people with His feathers and under His wings we find refuge. And he told a story which he claimed was true that there was a barn that burned down. And as the people were going through the rubble of that barn, they found a mother hen that was charred, but her wings were out like this. And she was dead. She was burned to death. But when they lifted her feathers, her baby chicks were still alive. Now, if that's true, even if it's not, that's the kind of picture that we are to get from our Heavenly Father. The protection that God's people receive under His wings. In this text, wings are a picture of the comfort of healing. The healing power of the righteousness of Christ restores God's people to righteousness. Christ's righteousness heals. His righteousness restores. And His righteousness characterizes life in His kingdom. And as the Son, Jesus Christ not only shows the way to heaven, but He Himself paved the way to heaven through His perfect righteousness. And beloved, Jesus Christ is our righteousness. And the purpose of His work was to remove the darkness of our sin and make us partakers of that righteousness. Paul speaks of that in different ways, in different places, but especially in Philippians 3 when he speaks of not having his own righteousness that comes from the law, but having righteousness from God that comes by faith. He stands robed in Christ's righteousness. And Jesus Christ removed our sin by becoming sin for us as the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And on the cross, congregation, the light of the world was completely shrouded in the darkness of God-forsakenness in order to bring us from night to never-ending day. Yet through His resurrection, through His resurrection, the Son of Righteousness shone bright. That Son shone bright as His Heavenly Father, through the resurrection, confirmed His righteousness by approving of and accepting His work as sufficient. And it is His righteousness through which those who believe on Him, by grace through faith, enjoy justification in the sight of God. You see, the healing of Christ's righteous wings includes the wonderful truth that payment has been made for all of our sins. It includes that we are forgiven for our sins forever. It includes that God renders us not guilty for the sake of Christ's righteousness. But the purpose of this remedy includes more than that. It includes more than just the verdict not guilty. It includes more than just sanctification to life. Not less than that, but more than justification to life. It also includes the sanctification of life. Christ's righteousness also cleanses us under righteousness. through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Son of Righteousness shines into the darkness of our hearts. He regenerates us unto righteousness by His Spirit removing our heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh. And He delivers us from the pollution of sin and of this dark world and He renews us after the image of God. You see, beloved, all of this is included in His healing. His healing doesn't simply take away the symptoms for a little while. His healing isn't just temporary. It's complete. It's perfect. He fills our hearts with the light of life so that we are set free from the shackles of sin and death and therefore walk in the blessed freedom of children of God. Beloved, this darkness of life is transformed into the light of new life. Even as Paul says in Ephesians 2, God made us alive together with Christ. And then, of course, beloved, this healing is to be something that is very real for God's people. Very real for God's people. Those who are born again are conscious of God's renewing grace. Must be conscious. If you and I are born again, we have to be conscious of God's renewing grace. It appears that in Malachi's day, some were not. And therefore, they were skeptical of God's promises. They didn't see things as they thought they should be. And therefore, they didn't have the desire to live a committed life to the Lord Jesus Christ, worshiping and serving Him with their whole heart. But the truth is, those who are born again, those in whom the Holy Spirit of God has begun that good work, are conscious of God's renewing grace. I trust we would all agree that sometimes the bright sun, the bright shining sun in the sky gives us much joy. It makes us feel good. Most of us, I trust, prefer a sun-shiny day to a gloomy day because a gloomy day oftentimes makes for a gloomy spirit. But with the light of Christ shining in our hearts, we are new people. With a new outlook on life. With a new set of directions and principles. With a new standard of living. with a new commander-in-chief. One minister said it beautifully, a little bit of a lengthy quote, We are spiritually blind and cannot see the kingdom of God, but by the healing rays of the Son of Righteousness, our eyes are filled with the light of life. We are deaf, so that we cannot hear the Word of God, but through the healing power of the Son of Righteousness, we hear and heed. We are unclean, covered with spiritual leprosy, but the penetrating rays of the Son of Righteousness cleanse us from pollution, and heal our wounds. We are by nature filled with enmity against God and against one another, full of the lie, pride, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, debate, deceit, and many other spiritual germs consume us unto eternal death. But in the powerful rays of the Son of Righteousness, these germs cannot survive even for one second. And what is more, they fill us with a new energy, the vitality of eternal life. That's what God's people enjoy, but you know what? We enjoy even more. God's people also enjoy healing with regard to the difficulties of this life. We know that the rays of the sun spread light and warmth over the earth for the growth and maturity of plants and other living creatures. And in the same way, the sun of righteousness covers us with the light and warmth of contentment and peace, which bring healing to the hurts and the wounds of life. And therefore, more than having all of the difficulties of life removed, God's people enjoy God's grace, which is sufficient in our weakness. It's true that that which this healing of the Son of Righteousness does not guarantee is deliverance in this life of all of the difficulties and troubles of life, not from those things. But the guarantee that we do have from the Son of Righteousness and His healing is that we are delivered through the difficulties of this life. Beloved, the purpose of this remedy is that the Son of Righteousness provides healing for those who fear God. And then the prognosis, and then what is the prognosis of the remedy? Now boys and girls, prognosis basically means outcome. How are things going to turn out? When one is sick, they will ask the doctor what the prognosis is. In other words, will I get better or won't I get better? What can I expect throughout this process? Well, the prognosis of this prophecy of healing by the Son of Righteousness, of course, is stated in the text when it says, and you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. I said this morning that as people, we don't usually like to be compared to calves or to cattle. Last week, of course, I compared us to sheep and someone got after me saying I'm having too much enjoyment out of this but we don't know what we'll be compared to next week. Guess we'll just have to wait and see. But that's the example that Malachi gives and it's a wonderful example. It's a good example. This is good news. Because when calves have been cooped up in a stall or in a pen, then they are let loose in the pasture. They run around. They hop around with a newfound freedom And this is to point to the fact that healing indeed is a sure thing. Also, it points to future satisfaction and joy. And skipping calves points to strength and youthfulness and usefulness. And some Bible versions translate this as stall-fed calves, which as well then points to prosperity. And ultimately, congregation, this points to Christ's second return and the glorious new creation. That which Isaiah prophesies about in Isaiah 65. Please turn with me to Isaiah 65 as we read a few verses from that chapter. Isaiah 65, where he talks about the new heavens and the new earth. Verses 17 through 25. Isaiah 65, beginning at verse 17, Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years. He who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth. He who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people. My chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune. For they will be a people blessed by the Lord. they and their descendants with them. Before they call, I will answer. While they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord. And as well, Revelation 21 reminds us that this healing, this healing will be so complete that there will be no more death, or nor sorrow, nor crying. There should be no more pain, for the former things will have passed away. This is the glorious promise for those who fear the name of God for Jesus' sake, but not so for the wicked who reject the saving grace of God. The day of everlasting light for believers will also be a day ushering in the eternal fire for unbelievers. Even as Malachi 4, verse 1 says, surely the day is coming. It will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble and that day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty. Not a root or a branch will be left to them. Congregation, those who despise God will perish. But the godly will find healing and joy. Christ's birth, which ushered in His work, secured that healing and joy. And His second coming to judge the living and the dead will complete that healing and joy. And what a glorious promise that for those who turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, healing is sure. It's a guarantee. No longer will the believer lie in the midst of sickness and death as our Lord says, Come to me, all you who weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. God's grace restores us to life as He heals all your diseases and redeems your life from destruction. And this, beloved, is to be our motive, our incentive to heed the words of Hebrews 12, verse 28, which says, Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Congregation, have you received that eternal remedy unto eternal life? It is my hope and prayer that each one of us here may not be skeptical when it comes to the glorious promises of God. some of which have already been fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ, in His sacrificial death, that each one of us may recognize His promises as sure, as a guarantee, and therefore we would give our lives to Him, committed fully to worship Him and serve Him with all our hearts. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, again we come before Your throne of grace in Jesus' name. We thank You, Lord, that as we who live on this side of the cross, that as we look back at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we are reminded so fully of His work accomplished on the cross. He has said it is finished. He has done it. And we thank You for His continuing work even at this time as our Lord continues to gather together His church through the power of the Spirit and as He continues to sanctify our hearts and our lives through the Spirit's influence as well. Father, may we rejoice in the coming of Jesus Christ, in His first coming, for what He came to do, in His second coming as we look forward to that, to take His people to eternal glory forever and ever. Thank You for this comfort. Father, may we live humbly in the joy of this assurance. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.