HOW CAN YOU BE SURE?
- Our future can look dismal because of sin
- Our future looks promising through faith
There is about a 400 year gap in between the last book of the Old Testament and the first book of the New Testament. The last Old Testament prophet, Malachi, wrote his book around 400 B.C. (Before Christ) and the book of Matthew, of course, describes the life of Christ. And so if you were to guess what Malachi prophesied about in the very last chapter of his book, you might very well guess that he would talk about the Christ that was to come. Especially if there were to be no other biblical books until the Savior arrived - it would make sense if Malachi ended the Old Testament with a prophecy about Christ’s entrance into this world. And if you were to guess that, you would be half-way correct. Malachi did write about Jesus, but he didn’t write about Christ’s first coming as a human being, rather he wrote about Christ’s second coming as the Almighty King. Malachi finishes his book with a prophecy about Judgment Day and it is the last written words of God that believers were given for four full centuries. The first two verses of the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament are these: “‘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.’”
These are the words that Malachi left the people with to think about and to ponder for almost half a millennium as they waited for Christ to come. And these are words that are left for us to think about and to ponder as we wait for Christ to come because these words have yet to be fulfilled. Judgment Day is still sometime in the future. And so as we consider Malachi’s prophecy about Judgment Day today, the question needs to be asked: what side of the line will you be on when this Last Day arrives? Will you be like the stubble or chaff in Malachi’s prophecy - the casings and throw-away pieces of a head of wheat that are thrown up into the air and blown away? Will you be burned by the fire along with the arrogant and the evildoers? Or will the sun of righteousness shine on you and will you leap for joy at the Day of the Lord like young calves bounding out of an open stall? I would imagine that every one of you would say that you would be among those upon him the sun of righteousness would shine; you would be among those who would leap for joy at the coming of your Lord because he will come to take you to heaven. And I would say the same thing about myself. And if that’s the case, allow me to ask you a follow-up question: how can you be sure? How can you be absolutely sure that what you want to happen on Judgment Day actually will?
Because there are very few things that you can be absolutely sure about in this life. There are few guarantees. You don’t know if your vehicle will get you home today. You’d like it to and you assume that it will, but vehicles break down sometimes. Or there may be glass on the road that punctures your tire. Or someone might run into you on the way back and although you might make it home, it may be in a rental car. You certainly hope that your vehicle gets you home today, but you can’t be sure.
Similarly, you expect that the contracts you sign to be honored. But contracts have loopholes, some of them have escape clauses, and there will always be situations or special circumstances that a contract doesn’t address. Add to that the fact that there are many people on this earth who will break a signed promise regardless of the legal ramifications. And so you can never be sure that a contract will be carried out in the end no matter how important it is to you.
There may even be a very trustworthy person in your life. Someone that you can count on. Someone who never lets you down. Someone who has kept his/her word time and time again. But no matter how spotless the track record of that reliable individual is, you can’t be absolutely sure that what they promise to do will come true every time. There are too many variables; there are too many extenuating circumstances. There are countless things in this life that this trustworthy person has no control of and never will. You might have become used to depending on this person’s words or advice, but you can never be absolutely sure that things will turn out exactly the way they were planned. There are very few things that you can be sure about in this life. And so let me ask you again: how can you be absolutely sure that you will end up in heaven when Christ comes again?
Despite the uncertainty of this life, regardless of the unreliability of people in this world, when the question comes up whether or not the Lord will take you to heaven when he comes again on the Last Day, you can confidently say “yes” to that question - and be absolutely sure about it. You do not have to think about that answer for any length of time. You do not have to be “mostly” convinced or “relatively” confident or “fairly” certain that you will end up in heaven. You can boldly say “yes” without any doubt in your mind because you know what the Lord has promised: he has promised that “whoever believes in him will be saved” (John 3:16). That is a guarantee. And you can fully rely on the Lord’s unchanging Word.
Of course, most people in this world aren’t that sure. There are those people in this life that want to go to heaven and strive to go to heaven and think it’s a pretty good possibility that they will go to heaven, but they really aren’t sure if they will. There are even those Christians in this world who actually do believe in Jesus as their Savior and they will eventually end up in heaven, but as they live their lives on this earth they sometimes aren’t all that confident that heaven will be their final destination. They hope it will be and they’ve been told it will be, but sometimes it just seems too good to be true. Because when Christians look at their lives and they see the way they’ve acted and they are aware of the multitude of sins that they keep committing every day, it doesn’t seem possible that the Lord would accept someone so awful into his heavenly home. Hasn’t that ever crossed your mind? Haven’t you ever questioned the reality of someone like you being allowed into a perfect place where God himself lives?
What are the top five worst sins that you’ve ever committed? If you had to rank every sin that you’ve committed in your entire life, what are those sins that you would place in the one, two, three, four, and five spots? Do any of those past sins ever work their way back into your memory at certain times of your life? Does any of the guilt or the embarrassment of those sins affect your conscience from time to time and make you feel ashamed all over again? When those big and ugly sins are haunting your thoughts, how easy is it for you to be fully assured of your salvation and completely convinced of your forgiveness so that you have nothing to worry about when the Day of Judgment arrives?
And even apart from those really infamous sins, there are those weeks when we are just off-the-charts sinful. We are in the wrong frame of mind the entire time and we can’t seem to do or say or think anything without it being mired in sin. We show up on a Sunday morning and think back at the seven days we have spent in the gutter and we feel almost unworthy to sit in God’s House and even hypocritical to sing his praises. During those weeks of sinful regurgitation, how confident are you of your salvation? On those days when it seems like you can’t do anything but sin and at those times you would probably even describe yourself as the arrogant and the evildoer whom Malachi says will be burned in the fire, how sure are you that heaven really is the place that you should be going to when it is all said and done?
There are times, even in the minds of the strongest of Christians, when salvation and forgiveness and the eternal home of heaven don’t seem as sure as we would like them to be. And every time that happens, every time we begin to doubt or question or wonder about where we might end up on the Last Day, it is because we are focusing on the wrong thing. We are focusing on ourselves. When we start to look at what we have done in this life, when we dwell on the poor quality of our Christian living, when we are truly honest about the ungodliness of our actions and thoughts and words, we will despair. Every time. And if we linger on the extent of our sinfulness and the depth of our impiety it will inevitably fill us with hopelessness. Heaven will never be a sure thing when our sins are all we see. We will never be confident about our future home in Paradise if we look to ourselves - because the confidence and the hope and the certainty of salvation cannot be found in what we’ve done. So don’t bother trying to find proof from your life that you belong in heaven. It is useless to try to convince yourself that you should go to heaven on the Last Day from evidence of your own actions and thoughts and words on this earth. That would be a hopeless endeavor. The only way you will ever be sure that heaven is where you will be for all eternity is if you stop looking at yourself and you start looking to your Savior.
Yes, you have sinned. And so I have. But Christ has shouldered our sin and has placed his righteousness on our shoulders in return. Yes, you have been doing evil things in evil ways for many years. And so have I. But Christ has been doing miraculous things on our behalf for more years than we have been alive. Yes, you have earned for yourself a terrible eternal punishment and a sentence of death. And so have I. But Christ has already suffered that punishment for us on the cross and has broken that death sentence forever when he rose from the grave. Yes, you do deserve to be placed with the arrogant and the evildoers on Judgment Day. And so do I. But Christ has promised to place us among the saints and the angels in heaven forever. Christ has made it possible for us to go to heaven even though we have done everything possible to exclude ourselves from that honor. And Christ has made heaven possible through one thing only: through faith in his name. It is that simple. Those who trust in their good deeds will be condemned. Those who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved.
And that is exactly what Malachi prophesied in the last chapter of the Old Testament. Listen closely again to how the Lord describes both groups of people on that Final Day. “All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire… But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.” Those who will end up in heaven are those who “revere” the name of the Lord - those who believe. They are not required to do anything for their salvation. They are not asked to prove their worth in any way. They are the people who simply believe in Jesus’ name. The sun of righteousness will shine on them. They will leap for joy like calves coming out of a stall for the very first time. Because that which they had been expecting for years will finally be theirs forever.
And you can expect the same thing. You can have that same confidence. Forget what you have done in the past; it is no longer of any consequence. Rid yourself of all those feelings of guilt and inadequacy; they have already been taken care of. Jesus has accomplished what needed to be done. Jesus has died for everyone who should. Jesus has risen when no one else could. And now Jesus has made a promise to you that cannot be broken: you will be taken to heaven when he comes again. There is no debate. There is no question. There is no doubt. You believe in Jesus’ name. You will be saved. And you can be absolutely sure about that.
Amen.
“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.” - Revelation 22:20
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