Sermon text: Malachi 3:13–18
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Today is the Last Sunday of the Church Year. It is the end of the church year — and next week, with the First Sunday in Advent, we begin again. But today we look back, and we look forward: back on all that the Lord has done for us this past year, and forward to the day when He will come again in glory.
Our Old Testament text this morning is Malachi chapter 3, verses 13 through 18. The Lord says: “Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”
That is the complaint of the people. It is the old complaint: Why do the wicked prosper? Why do the arrogant seem to get away with it? Why does it seem like serving God is a waste of time?
But then the text turns: “Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name.”
God hears. God remembers. God writes down the names of those who fear Him.
“‘They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.’”
They shall be mine. That is the promise. That is the comfort. You are His. You belong to Him. He has written your name in His book of remembrance. And on the day when He makes up His treasured possession — on the Last Day — you will be His, forever.
This is the great distinction: between those who serve God and those who do not. Not a distinction of merit — for we are all sinners, saved by grace alone. But a distinction of faith: those who trust in Christ, and those who do not.
And the promise is sure. “They shall be mine.” God does not forget His own. He does not lose His own. “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
So as we close this church year, let us take comfort in this: we are His. We are His treasured possession. And He will come again, and He will gather us to Himself, and we shall be His forever.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.