Grace and peace to you who believe in Christ’s truth, for whoever hears his word and believes has eternal life and will not be condemned. Amen. (John 5:24)

The courtroom is packed. This is the day that they have been looking forward to for three years. And one man has dreaded it for just as long. Three years earlier, their daughter had been murdered. They went for weeks, months, years, without knowing who had destroyed their lives like this. Then, after two years, someone was arrested and charged with the murder, and now they would find out the verdict. They looked at the man across the courtroom. He had been dreading this day. He knew he had done it, and for two years thought he had gotten away with it. Then they tracked him down, and now here he was, charged with murder. In just a few minutes, he would find out if he had actually gotten away with it, or if he would spend the rest of his life in prison. The jury foreman stood up to read the verdict, and for everyone on the courtroom, three years of waiting was about to come to an end.

For one it would be a day of relief and satisfaction, for the other, a day of sorrow and agony. But for both of them, the day that they knew was coming was finally here.

There’s another day that’s coming, that’s coming for all of us. For some it will be a day of relief and great joy, for others, a day of terror and misery. It’s the day that Malachi talks about in our text for today, from chapter 4, the first 2 verses. "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."

It is of course Judgment Day that he’s talking about. Malachi tells us, the Day of the Lord is coming. On that day, the evildoers will burn like stubble, and the righteous will shine like the Son.

Malachi was the last of God’s Old Testament prophets. In our text he is dealing with a complaint of the Jewish people that God wasn’t fair. It appeared that wicked unbelievers always got ahead, while the righteous believers always got left behind. So what was the point in serving God faithfully?

Look at Bible history. How could a God of fairness let his servant Naboth be stoned to death and robbed of his field by the wicked queen Jezebel? Yet it happened. How could a righteous God allow evil men to triumph over his Son Jesus and bludgeon him to a cross? Yet it happened.

Do you ever feel that way? Let’s be honest. It still seems like there are times when evildoers seem to prosper. Sometimes it seems like the politician who is caught in adultery and lies becomes more popular among the people, while the staunch Christian politician is looked upon with disdain for his beliefs and morality. Who often seems to become rich and powerful? The business CEOs who are padding their pocketbooks at the same time that the poor factory workers are being laid off.

Sometimes we may be tempted to ask ourselves, is it worth it to serve God? We see other people get ahead because they’re ruthless and dishonest, and we Christians are stuck lagging behind because we feel we have to be loving and honest. We could very easily say along with the Israelites of Malachi’s time, "the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape." (Malachi 3:15)

But God reminds us in this text that they’re not getting away with anything. He sees everything that they do, and he will judge them.

"Surely the day is coming," he says. "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." That’s what those who disobey God have waiting for them. They will be stubble in God’s furnace. That day will set them on fire.

God says, "Sinners, you’re living on borrowed time! The day of judgment will come." And on that day, God’s anger will burn hot, not like the crackling flames of a campfire, but like the iron-melting heat of a blast furnace. No unbelieving evildoer will escape that day.

God tells the Jews that he has not forgotten them. He will come in judgment on these evildoers.

The text this morning says that one day – we do not know when – but it asserts that one day the ages of earth will end. It will be a day of wild extremes. There will be a final judgment when God separates the evildoers from those who call on his name in faith. The wicked will be like chaff, swept away in engulfing flames. When the fire is past, nothing remains but ashes, their place before God will be no more. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them."

The idea of a final Judgment Day followed by an eternal heaven or hell seems alien to our permissive culture. Ours is a "three strikes and you’re out" culture, and if you whine a bit, we will give you four or five strikes. We even curve the grades on the SAT’s so that the outcome will look better. Many schools have many valedictorians rather than one because we don’t like to have winners and losers. In such a society, it sounds strange to hear about a final Judgment Day and eternal punishment and burning and pain.

Some might argue that a loving God wouldn’t send people to hell. But that’s missing the point. A loving God must send people to hell. In punishing the wicked, he is demonstrating his love for the righteous. He is showing that there are consequences to actions. The Bible says that God wants all people to be saved. (2 Timothy 2:4) The problem isn’t God. The problem is people.

All God asks is for people to love him and believe in Jesus. But people reject God, they reject his love, they reject his Son as Savior. God doesn’t force people to love him or believe in him. So if people reject him, then he honors their choice. He isn’t going to force people to worship him for eternity. Instead, he will send them to a place where he is not present – hell.

Hell is man’s choice, not God’s choice.

Consider this explanation of hell: Hell is the chosen place of the person who loves self more than God, who loves sin more than his Savior, who loves this world more than God’s world. Judgment is that moment when God looks at the rebellious and says, "Your choice will be honored."

To reject that there is a Judgment Day that precedes heaven and hell is to say that God condones the rebellious, unrepentant heart. To say there is no hell is to portray God with eyes blind to the hunger and evil in the world. To say there is no hell is to say that God doesn’t care that people are beaten and massacred, that he doesn’t care that women are raped or families wrecked. To say there is no hell is to say that God has no justice, no sense of right and wrong, and eventually to say God has no love. For true love hates what is evil.

Hell, then, is the ultimate expression of a fair and just Creator. Let’s face it, people who live a life of hell on earth cannot expect to enter heaven.

When Judgment Day comes, and Jesus promises that it can come at any time, it will be a day of ultimate terror and misery for the unbelievers. God will honor their choice and fairly and justly send them to everlasting judgment in hell.

Hell is scary. You don’t want to go there. So you want to live every moment of your life in fear of sinning and going to hell. However, you also want to live every moment of your life knowing that you are forgiven for your sins through Jesus and you are going to heaven.

Even though on the day of the Lord, the evildoers will burn like stubble, on that same day, the righteous will shine like the warming sun (and we could also spell that S-O-N if we wanted to).

The Bible tells us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. (Ezekiel 33:11) He doesn’t want anyone to perish eternally. That is why he offers the hope and comfort of verse 2: "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." The day of the Lord will not mean disaster of everyone. For those who revere God’s name, it will be a great day!

Imagine having the two weeks of Christmas vacation all rainy and gloomy. You’re depressed because the weather is depressing. The kids are driving you crazy because they’ve been cooped up inside for two straight weeks. The inside of the house definitely looks "lived in." You feel all achy and icky because you haven’t been outside to exercise in days. And then the sun comes out! It is glorious and shining and bright and warm. It brings healing to your aching bones. You aren’t ashamed to run outside with your kids to play. All of you are so excited to finally be outside that you are running and jumping like calves released from their stalls after being penned up all winter. You finally feel good. You want to run and jump just for the sheer joy of it.

That is the way it is with us who accept God’s love and believe in his Son, Jesus, as our Savior. When we get to heaven, we won’t be sick with our sin any more. Our spirit feels good. We want to kick and frolic in God’s Sonshine forever!

A family had recently lost their 7-year-old son to death. They experienced all the dynamics of grief as they dealt with the different stages, listening to the counselors and the experts, trying to do everything exactly as it is supposed to be done. And they felt that they were dealing with their grief in a fairly successful way. Until Christmas came and it was time to put up the Christmas tree. When the family gathered to put up the tree and start hanging ornaments on its limbs, the mother realized that some of the ornaments had been made by their son who was now gone. So as she was putting up those ornaments her tears began to flow. Their older son, whose name was Jim, all of 10 years old, came to her and put his arm around her and said, "Mom, you miss Dougie, don’t you?" She answered, "Oh yes, I miss him more than you’ll ever know."

He said, "Well, mom, Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, isn’t it?" She answered, "Yes, that’s right, Jim. It is." "And Dougie has gone to be with Jesus, hasn’t he?" "Yes, that’s right," she said. "He’s gone to be with Jesus." "Then that must mean," he said, "that Dougie is having more fun than we are." Mom said, "I guess that’s right. He’s having more fun than we are."

Isn’t that exactly right? Heaven is more fun than this earth. And it is certainly better than even one moment in hell. And it is all because of Jesus. In God’s fairness and justice, we deserved for our sins to be punished. But Jesus was willing to stand in our place and receive our punishment. The Bible says, "Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." (Hebrews 9:28) The cross is the only ladder tall enough to reach heaven.

That is what is truly not fair. It isn’t fair that we are forgiven. It isn’t fair that Jesus’ brings salvation. It isn’t fair that we are loved so much. It isn’t fair that we receive heaven because of Jesus’ cross. But that is the way it is. And aren’t you grateful that it is?

The people who go to hell deserve to go there. The people who go to heaven don’t deserve to go there. How wonderful is that?

And that means that we can look at the day of the Lord much, much differently. For us who accept Jesus’ sacrifice and believe in him as our Savior from hell, the day of the Lord won’t be a day that burns like a furnace. It will be a day that brings life. That day will be the first day of our new life, our life free from sin, free from pain and trouble and sorrow and death. Then we will be with God, he will be our God, and we will be his people. What relief and joy this brings to us. Look forward to this day. Amen.

Rejoice in the fact that Jesus "has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself." Amen. (Hebrews 9:26)