Pastor: We have the privilege again to consider God's living and active word. We have been making our way through the book of Malachi. We are going to look at Malachi chapter 2, beginning in verse 17, and reading through chapter 3, verse 6. Malachi chapter 2, beginning in verse 17, reading through 3:6. Before we read the word of the Lord, let us go to the Lord again in prayer. Let's pray.
Pastor: Our heavenly Father, we thank you that you do speak to us, Lord. We know that the heavens are declaring your glory, but Lord, we come to your word, and not only do we hear of your justice, but we also hear of you, the justifier. Lord, I pray that you would soften our hearts, help us to see our rebellion against you, but help us to see your great love, by which you have loved us, by not destroying us, but giving us your very Son, who would die in our place, who would live the perfect righteous life, who would give us His Spirit, Lord, that we might be pleasing in Your sight, not because of our own righteousness, but because of His. Lord, I pray that You'll be merciful to Your people as we come to consider the truths of Your Word and who You are. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Pastor: People of God, hear God's word for us this morning from Malachi 2, beginning in verse 17.
Pastor: [17] You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say,“How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” He who has ears, let him hear the word of God. Please be seated. There's a prayer that just about every Christian in every generation has prayed.
Pastor: Lord, come, come, Lord Jesus, come and put an end to evil.
Pastor: Judge the wicked. Make the wars cease. Wipe away every tear from our eyes. Vindicate your people.
Pastor: Come, Lord, and make all things right. This is a good prayer.
Pastor: It's a biblical prayer. Jesus taught us to pray, "Your kingdom come. One of the last things recorded in the scripture at the end of the book of Revelation says, "Amen. That is truly come, Lord Jesus. Every Christian longs for that day. We long for that day when every injustice will be made right, when every tear will be wiped away, when Satan will be finally crushed, when death dies, and righteousness fills the earth.
Pastor: This text, though, makes us pause and ask a question: Are you sure you're ready for that day? Are you sure you're ready for the Lord's coming? Because whenever the scriptures tell us about God drawing near. That never pictures people casually entering into the presence of God. Remember Moses on Sinai removes his sandals because he is on holy ground as he stands before the burning bush. Mount Sinai itself shakes and trembles under thunder and smoke, and the people of Israel even ask Moses to have God stop talking, lest they die. Isaiah has a vision of the Lord high and lifted up, and he proclaims, "Woe is me! I am a man undone.
Pastor: Peter falls down before his Savior, and he says, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. John, in the book of Revelation, the beloved disciple sees the risen Christ and his vision, and he falls down. John says, "I fell down as if I was dead. The problem that Scripture presents is not convincing God to come near. The main problem that Scripture presents is what happens when He does. What happens when the holy, holy, holy God appears in our text, the people of Israel are complaining about the justice of God. They are complaining about the apparent lack of justice of God, really. And I think many of us too might have voiced this or have felt this. God, how can you let abusing, lying, dangerous, dishonorable, greedy, backstabbing people get away with it? Why don't you do something? Where is the justice?
Pastor: If you are truly holy and righteous, why are they, the evil people, prospering when life looks so difficult for us, your people? You remember too.
Pastor: in the context of Malachi, the people have come back to Jerusalem, but yet they are still under Persian rule. Their crops are failing, and their economy is very weak. They remember how the prophet spoke about a day of of glory coming back to Zion, a day when when the nations would be streaming in, and they look around and they say, "This isn't it. It's nothing like the days of David and Solomon. You say you love us and you care about us, but when we look around at our lives, we just don't see it, God. Rather than viewing their circumstances through the lens of God's promises, they have started to view God's character through the lens of their circumstances. But what I want us to see this morning, as we will consider that God is indeed just, but also thank the Lord that He is also the justifier of sinners.
Pastor: In verse 17, God tells them,"You have wearied the Lord with your words. Now, the Lord doesn't physically get tired, does he? No, of course not.
Pastor: Isaiah tells us in chapter 40, he neither faints nor grows weary. What's happening here?
Pastor: This language that the Lord is giving out in a in a complaint against the people is covenant language. It's the language of a father who has listened to the same false accusations over and over again. Imagine a child who continually tells his father,"You don't love me. You don't care about me. You're not fair, and yet this father has faithfully provided for this child every day, clothed him, fed him, protected him, disciplined him in love and sacrificed much for him. Yet the father faces accusation after accusation whenever that child is disappointed and dissatisfied. And eventually, the parent might say something like, "I love you, but I'm weary of the constant grumbling and complaining, and that's the picture here, and that's what God is saying. But the people of Israel, they don't see it that way. They they ask how, how, how have we wearied you? What have we done? And God responds, because you're saying everyone who does evil is good in the.
Pastor: Sight of the Lord, and He delights in them. Or by asking,"Where is the God of justice?
What I want you to notice here: what they are saying, and what they're also not saying. They are not merely saying, "Lord, we don't understand what's happening around us. They are saying, "God, you approve of evil, God. You delight in wickedness, God. You are not just. Those who do the worst things, they seem like they are the best off. God, you bless evil. Now there is a difference between lament and accusation.
What I want you to notice here: The scriptures of Habakkuk and the Psalms and Job-they ask very difficult questions of God. They are full of laments and believers crying out, "How long, O Lord? And God indeed welcomes honest lament and hurting faith.
What I want you to notice here: But that's not what is happening here in our text, their question is not, "Lord, we don't understand. Help us to understand we believe, but help our unbelief. Israel's declaration is essentially,"Lord, we are going to be the judge now, and we are going to put you on trial, and we have already reached our verdict: guilty. God, you are guilty of not governing the world justly.
What I want you to notice here: You are unjust.
What I want you to notice here: What we see here is the creature seeking to stand over its creator, the clay evaluating the potter. And we too have done this in the same way in different times, when suffering and hardships enter our lives, when there are prayers that we pray that just do not seem to be heard, when injustices continue, do we not whisper in our hearts,"If I was God; it would look different. I'd make things right because God has really failed to do it. Do we not say something like that in our hearts when things are not going our way?
What I want you to notice here: When we face disappointments and real suffering, do we not think, God, you're failing, you're messing it up, and maybe I need to step in. Let me step in, because I need to do what you're doing. I need to be God, Lord.
What I want you to notice here: The the wicked, the idolaters, the the liars, the oppressors-they're looking around, and there's there's no judgment happening, and they are even being encouraged in their sin, isn't that true? If you know you're driving, and you you might drive a little bit different. If you know that there's a police officer right behind you, versus on an open road where you know there aren't any police officers, might you might the foot get a little bit heavier around that time?
What I want you to notice here: Because there's no fear of judgment, there's no fear of consequence, and that's what they're saying. Lord, people are just being encouraged in their evil because you're not doing anything. The wicked are being encouraged in their sin, and the righteous we are discouraged in our obedience. Where is the God of Justice? Now God answers their accusation. He doesn't give a long defense, but makes a declaration in chapter three, now verse one. He says, "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple. And the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. Behold, listen. You want the God of justice? Well, guess what? He is on his way. He is coming. It says, "God is coming in His perfect and complete justice and judgment. God is sending His messenger. It says a forerunner to prepare the way before His arrival. Now, in the ancient world, when a king was on his way, messengers would be sent ahead of the king to prepare the way to make the road straight. You think about a motorcade of the president. You know how you know the president is coming, and there are motorcycles and officers that go before him to clear the path to stop traffic from getting on the road. They are clearing the way, and Malachi here is one of the motorcade motorcycles who has already gone ahead, declaring to the people and declaring to you that the Lord Himself is on His way. Because not too far after you see the motorcade and the motorcycles, right behind it is that person that's important.
What I want you to notice here: And here it's saying it is the Lord who is coming, and that's an encouragement here. The fact that we do not yet see full justice does not mean that there is no justice. God sees; He's not turning a blind eye, He's not calling evil good. He is coming. He says, yet things shift here in in the next verse, and that makes us question our our question if we really do want the God of justice to arrive. Because look at verse two. Oh, the other thing too. I don't did I say this? Malachi literally means my messenger, and so the messenger Malachi is one of the fulfillments here too. We'll we'll talk about another messenger yet to come.
What I want you to notice here: But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he's like a refiner's fire in a fuller's soap. He's like a refiner's fire, the gold goes in the crucible with the hot fire. All the impurities rise to the surface; they are scraped off and cast away. The fuller soap, a harsh alkaline, is used to scrub deeply and remove the stains and the dirt from the clothing. It strips away filth, and the point here is that in God's coming, when the God of justice arrives, there will be no more impurity in His sight.
What I want you to notice here: There will be no uncleanliness allowed. He does.
What I want you to notice here: He deals with it all. All sin will be dealt with. Now, you might think the people would say, "Now, God, you know, when we talk about the wicked people, you know, we mean them out there, right? The you know those wicked people out out there, God, not here. But look at verse five. What's it saying? Does it say then I will draw near to them? Because when we think about evildoers, isn't always those guys, them, they out there? But what does verse five say? I will draw near to You for judgment. God is not going only to deal with those who have sinned against you, but He's also going to deal with you and every one of your sins. God is not simply going to sit as judge. He tells us He will be the very witness against you.
What I want you to notice here: Every command that you have broken in your thoughts, words, and deeds, He will be the witness that you have broken them. He will be a witness to every pastor and elder who has led empty and hollow worship. He will be a witness against church members who do not bring their best to God. Verse 5 says, "I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. This is not a comprehensive list, but it is showing you and the people various ways they have sinned against the Lord, and they are guilty of breaking his covenant, breaking his commands. You have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Do you want the God of justice to arrive? But there is hope. Verse three, he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold, and they will bring offerings and righteousness to the Lord. Now, who are the sons of Levi? They were the priests. And what were the priests doing here in Malachi? Well, they're leading the people in sin. They're the ones that are allowing the people to bring their one-eyed, three-legged, sickly lamb, and they haven't corrected the people. They're they're encouraging the people in their false worship of God, but yet he said, God is coming, and He's going to make them pure. He's going to refine them, not to consume them, but to refine them. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old and in former years. God is saying, "I'm not going to destroy my people. I'm going to restore you to joyful and." Acceptable worship-that we should be longing not simply for justice but for justification.
What I want you to notice here: You remember back in Genesis, God allowed a taste of His judgment to fall upon the world.
What I want you to notice here: He He looked at the world and all of its injustice and corruption and violence.
What I want you to notice here: Injustice came and pretty much wiped the world clean, didn't he? He flooded the world, only preserving Noah and his family in the ark. And when Noah stepped out of the ark, did God say, "Now things will be better.
What I want you to notice here: I finally have a righteous people who are going to honor me and love me, and they're not going to sin against my commands. No, immediately after Noah gets out of the ark, God will say, "Man's intention of his heart is evil from his youth, and if God allowed His justice to fall then upon every act of injustice in the world, He would be flooding and destroying the world relentlessly, endlessly. If God of justice came any time evil was committed, there would be no life, there would be no breath in this earth, there would be no opportunity for repentance and salvation. So what did God do?
What I want you to notice here: He made a covenant, and He placed the rainbow in the sky as a sign of that covenant, and when we see the rainbow, it should be a reminder that there is an opportunity now. That rainbow was put in the sky.
What I want you to notice here: God's promise that He wouldn't flood the earth again; that He is going to withhold His judgment for a time. Now, the rainbow did not mean, and the rainbow does not mean there will never be judgment again.
What I want you to notice here: When we see the rainbow, it should be a reminder that there is still yet judgment to come, but it is being withheld for a final day of judgment when God will destroy the earth not with water but with fire. Now most of the sinful consequences of maybe our own lives and other people's lives around us-they are delayed, but not because God has grown lax about sin, not because He no longer cares about justice, but because He's working salvation out for his people, he's allowing today to be the day of salvation for you, that you might not die, but that you might live, that you might repent, and that you might believe. You know the irony is, ever since God put that rainbow in the sky, mankind has used his patience as evidence to accuse him of injustice. Where is the God of justice? Why isn't he doing anything? Yet we are living under the very mercy that restrains his judgment and allows an opportunity for sinners like us to repent and believe. Look at verse 6. For I, the Lord, do not change.
What I want you to notice here: Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. You know, think about after everything God has said, after exposing their empty religion, after warning of the this coming judgment, after describing the the fire of His holiness. You almost expect the next sentence to be, "For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore, you are done.
What I want you to notice here: You are finished. But he said he says, "Therefore, you are not consumed. And no, you're not consumed because you've finally figured things out and you've gotten your life together, he says. "You're not consumed because I do not change. Our hope rests not in ourselves, but entirely on the character of God and His covenant faithfulness to His people. Notice it says, 'O children of Jacob! Remember Jacob again, the deceiver, the manipulator, the younger brother who deserves nothing. Yet the focus of my covenant mercy, my electing grace, my unchanging love on Jacob and his offspring, those who believe by faith. Now
here comes the crucial question: How can God be just and not consume all of us? How can He be just and not consume guilty sinners? How can we remain? The answer is found in the one Malachi points to. Jesus is the Lord who will suddenly appear in His. Temple, John the Baptist was the forerunner, and Jesus came to the temple in Jerusalem as a baby. He was recognized by Simeon and and Anna, and he he later came with a whip of cords to cleanse the temple, and and ultimately he came as the true temple, the place where the glory of God would dwell among us, and he would go to the cross. The judgment that you and I should have been consumed under fell upon him. The curse that belonged to those who called evil good fell upon the one who is good. At the cross, God did not ignore sin. He judged it fully, even when it was on His Son. Because Christ was consumed in our place, the children of Jacob are not consumed. That is why there is no condemnation in Christ, or for those who are in Christ, not because God has become less holy, not because He's lowered His standards, but because Christ fulfilled every standard we could not, and He took our place on the cross, took the judgment that you and I deserve.
here comes the crucial question: God is not guilty. We are guilty, and thankfully, God doesn't give us what we want.
here comes the crucial question: Bring justice now. He gives us what we need. He gives us Jesus.
here comes the crucial question: We don't need another chance, you know, like Israel, Israel-they were exiled and they're brought back into the land, a new temple, almost a clean slate. But they fail again, and much even quick, more quickly than their fathers. And so, so it is with you and I. We don't need another chance. We would fail the same way as our fathers have, we don't need a clean slate. What we need is a savior. What we need is a righteousness that is not our own. Jesus comes, the righteous one, and He gives that righteousness to us.
here comes the crucial question: He gives us His Spirit and He refines us, not consuming us, but refining us, that we might now, by the power of His Spirit, be able to live and worship Him as He intends us to, as Israel was intended to, and He's still refining us, not to destroy you, but to purify you, not to consume you, but to make you shine until His own reflection is seen in you. Lord, come.
here comes the crucial question: Lord, come. He says He is coming. Are you ready? Are you ready for his arrival? He is just, and every sin will be judged. Every sin will be judged, and you will either be judged in all of your sin, and you will be consumed, or the judgment that you deserve has fallen on Christ, and your only hope is repentance and faith-to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Today is a day of mercy. Still, the hammer has not yet fallen. Believe and be saved. He is coming. Do not take it for granted. Run to Christ, rest in Him, be pardoned. Let's pray.
here comes the crucial question: Our heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us Your Word, Lord. We do pray that You will help us to have a right assessment of ourselves, to not simply see evil out there, but within the enemy within. Lord, I do pray that you will forgive us, that you will pardon us.
here comes the crucial question: Lord, we plead the merits of Christ on our behalf. Our only hope is in Christ and in Him alone who took our judgment, that we might have life. Lord, we do pray for those that do not know the gospel that they will embrace it this day. That today is a day of salvation. Still, the doors of the ark are still open; they have not yet been shut. But Lord, you will come quickly, and it could even be today. So help us to be sober-minded. Let us be wise.
here comes the crucial question: Let us be warned. Let us kiss the sun, lest we perish. But blessed are all who take refuge in Him. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.