SUDDENLY
Malachi 3:1-3 (KJV)
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
The book of Malachi was written about 400 years Before Christ.
It was the last book of the Old Testament and, would you have guessed it, the message of Malachi is a promise of the coming Messiah.
In Malachi 1:11 (KJV) When He comes the Gentiles will embrace Him
For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.
In Malachi 2:17 (KJV) Before He comes the people will mock and doubt Him
Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
In Malachi 3:1 (KJV) He will send His messenger to prepare the way before He comes
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
In Malachi 3:18 (KJV) He will divide the righteous and the wicked at His coming
Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
In Malachi 4:5-6 (KJV) Before He comes, there will be a ministry of reconciliation
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Malachi is one of the shortest prophecies of the Bible.
It is also one of the boldest.
The confidence of Malachi concerning
· The sin of Israel
· The way of repentance and
· The coming of the Messiah
cannot be ignored.
And then – silence.
Four hundred long years
· Without a prophet to guide them
· Without a man of God to reassure them
· Without even a preacher to rebuke them
These were four hundred hard years.
Alexander the Great cut through Israel on his way to Egypt.
Antiochus Epiphanes defiled Israel by offering a pig on the altar of the Temple.
The Romans trampled on Israel through repeated excursions into Alexandria, Egypt.
Four hundred years
The Jews divided into religious sects
· Some turned religion into their God and became self-righteous legalists
· Some lost convictions in the faith and denied keys doctrines like the resurrection
· Some retreated from the evils of this world and hid in the caves around the Dead Sea
Four hundred years,
and almost everybody forgot the promise of His coming.
Four hundred years and then,
The Lord whom the Jews had sought, came suddenly.
Though there was plenty of announcement, it didn’t go to those to whom they all thought it would go.
It the announcement came
· To a lowly couple preparing for their wedding
· To shepherds watching in their fields
· To wise men miles and miles away.
When He was about 30 years old, John the Baptist once again announced His arrival.
Multitudes heard it, but they were in the desert and not in the major cities.
The Bible warns us that the next He comes will be just as suddenly, just as unexpectedly and with the majority missing Him.
and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come
Did you ever think about how many of the most significant things in life come suddenly?
I. A GIRL BEGINS DREAMING OF HER WEDDING WHEN SHE IS JUST A LITTLE ONE
· She might dress up and pretend
· She might daydream about some boy she met
· She might confide in a girlfriend about her hopes in marriage
· She might pick out her colors and choose a theme.
Maybe sometime in her teens, she begins assembling a hope chest.
Perhaps she has chosen a pattern for the dishes she hopes to have someday.
Then one day she meets this guy, and she knows right away he’s the one.
· A courtship of some sort is arranged
· A proposal is offered and accepted and
· A date is set
Then comes all the planning:
· Invitations must be sent out
· A wedding site must be selected
· Flowers have to be ordered
· Dresses have to be made
· Money has to be saved and
· Parents have to be consoled
For the bride, this wedding has been two decades in the making.
She hears herself say, “I do.”
And suddenly, she is stuck with this man for the rest of her life.
II. MOST YOUNG COUPLES HOPE TO HAVE A FAMILY AND RAISE THEIR CHILDREN
Maybe they think they will just enjoy one another for a couple of years.
Or maybe they choose to start their family right away.
Either way, she has the first indications she might be “with child.”
After a week or two, she figures out how to tell her husband.
And maybe right after that how to tell their parents.
Then come the doctor’s visits.
· The baby is the size of a peanut and then
· They can hear the heartbeat and then
· They get to see a sonogram of the little one – “Should we find out the sex or wait until he or she gets here?”
Next comes months of “name calling.”
· Boy’s name?
· Girl’s name?
And they have to find a place to keep the thing.
· Baby’s first clothes
· Baby’s first crib
· Baby’s first car seat
· Baby’s first burp rag
All of them have to be assembled.
The baby shower.
The guy isn’t invited, and he doesn’t want to be – but he sure is glad someone is giving them “baby’s first diapers.
This whole process takes months.
Someone said the mother goes through the following stages:
· She is excited she is pregnant
· She takes pictures of her “baby bump.”
· She screams, “Get it out of me.”
And then suddenly, there is their baby, and they are responsible for raising this little human being.
I remember the exact moment the nurses handed me each of my children.
When the nurse put Bohannan into my arms, I looked into those beautiful blue eyes and thought to myself,
“What am I going to do now?’
Three days later and he had not stopped crying, I was speaking out loud,
“What were they thinking, letting us take him home?”
Suddenly
III. TRAGIC THINGS HAPPEN SUDDENLY
March 20thbegan as a normal day in our home.
The alarm clock rang at “0 dark 30.”
We might have been tempted to roll over and sleep a minute longer, but we have pets, and they aren’t tempted to sleep a minute longer.
We woke up, cleaned up, exercised, and took time to visit with our Lord.
Anita headed to the church, as she usually does, but this time a few minutes early – she had some extra cleaning she wanted to do in the storeroom.
45 minutes, or an hour later I received a text message from her. “Could you come help me? I fell.”
Suddenly our lives were on a whole different track than they had been only an hour earlier.
· Traffic accidents
· Terminal Illness
· Death and loss of a loved one
IV. SALVATION COMES SUDDENLY
Romans 10:13 (KJV)
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
A person is not born saved
We do not grow gradually into salvation
No one is saved:
· Because they attended church their whole life or
· Because their parents are Christians or
· Because they have always believed in Jesus
The Bible tells us that we are born into this world sinners.
And though we are not accountable for our sin until we reach a state of awareness of our sin, and of its consequences.
We were never innocent.
At some point in every human being’s life, we become aware of the fact that we do wrong things.
What’s more, we choose to do wrong things.
Given the opportunity; the choice to do the right thing and the choice to do what we know to be the wrong thing, very often, we choose the wrong thing.
What’s more, we like it.
Oh, we feel guilty about it.
· We try to hide it
· We sure don’t want to get in trouble for it.
Any normal person begins to wonder why they would do the wrong thing so often.
Those of the world come up with various ways to deal with the issue of sin.
It’s someone else’s fault we sin.
· Our parents
· Our neighborhood
· Our standard of living
Someone else decides the problem must be with education. People would do the right thing if only they were taught to do right.
So
· Philosophers and
· Educators and
· Counsellors
are hired to give people the tools to do the right thing.
It doesn’t work.
Others opt for religion.
Religion is, in effect, a moral code that forces its followers to abide by.
It may invoke a deity to aide in the coercion, but it is coercion.
Especially here in the United States, most people have heard of Jesus Christ.
· They’ve driven by a church
· They’ve tuned passed a Christian radio or TV station
· They’ve read a Bible verse on a billboard
Maybe they’ve even listened to a sermon or encountered a soul winner.
But in their minds, they only see it as another kind of religion.
One day, though, some of them actually hear the message of the Gospel,
John 3:16 (KJV)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And it gives them pause.
“God loves me?”
At that moment, the plan of salvation is clearly presented to a prepared heart.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God
Romans 3:23
For the wages of sin is death…
Romans 6:23a
But God commendeth His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us
Romans 5:8
…the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord
Romans 6:23b
And then there is the good news
Romans 10:13
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
The way to be free from the guilt of sin isn’t to try to quit sinning at all.
The way to be free from the guilt of sin is to ask God to give you His own righteousness.
And suddenly; in a moment, through no effort of our own, we pass from death unto life through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
V. JESUS WILL COME AGAIN SUDDENLY
The disciples of Jesus were about as happy and fulfilled as they could have been.
They had given up everything to follow Jesus, and then He was crucified.
That would have been terrible except three nights, and three days later, He rose again and walked with them, proving Himself alive for 40 days.
They were talking kingdom stuff about this time.
But the Bible says, Acts 1:9-11 (KJV)
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
All of a sudden He was taken up from them and the angels said He would come again “in like manner.”
When will that happen?
We don’t know.
What we do know is that it will be suddenly.
Like a thief in the night[1]
Matthew 24:40-41 (KJV)
Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Jesus said it will be like Matthew 25:1-10 (KJV)
… ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
And therefore Jesus said Mark 13:35-36 (KJV)
Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
Conclusion
There is only one way to be prepared for those things that happen suddenly, that is to prepared all of the time.
If you are not a child of God, saved and sure of it the Bible says to you, 2 Corinthians 6:2 (KJV)
… behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
And to the Christian, the Bible says, 1 Peter 5:8 (KJV)
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Keep your eyes of the blessed hope of the Lord’s soon coming and, 1 John 3:3 (KJV)
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he[2]is pure.
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