If there were not here in London, and spread throughout the world, people like this, who had the heart of Abraham, and the apostles, who were all for Christ; if there were not genuine Christians, however few they might be, the Lord would end the world and bring it into judgement. It is on account of the elect who are being called in, and transformed by Christ, and given this kind of heart that God keeps this sinful world going until Christ finally comes. That's what the final sentiment of the book means. In a sense, we are vastly more significant than we realise. And yet this is how we want to be: all for him.
The prophet Malachi is constantly speaking about the coming of Christ, the age of the gospel, John the Baptist, the nature of the gospel age, its imputed righteousness, its glories, its embracing of the Gentiles. You could not have a more logical, and a more simple book, always working to formula, like Zephaniah: judgement, blessing, judgement, blessing. There will be a judgement, but there will be a remnant and this is how it will be, and the great age is the age of the Jewish, Gentile church before the final judgement. It could not be more straightforward really. Never be afraid of the minor prophets, they are glorious. May God help us in all our thinking along these lines.