Malachi 2:17-3.5

Malachi 217, and then we’re going to read through the first five verses of chapter 3 as well. You have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say wherein have we wearied him? When you say everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them. Or where is the God of judgment? behold I will send my messenger he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in behold he shall come set the Lord of host but who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fuller soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer under the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant under the Lord, as in the days of old as in former years. and I will come near to you to judgment and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers against the false swears and against those that oppress the hirling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless and that turn aside the stranger from his right. And fear not me. Seth the Lord of Host. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word. This evening, the Jewish humorist Sam Levinson tells a story about a driver who happened to ram into a parked car with his vehicle. He got out of the car and surveyed the damage that had been done to the parked car, but he noticed that there were a lot of people watching him at that point. So, he quickly wrote a note and placed it under the windshield of the damaged car and then he drove off. It looked like he was doing the honest and right thing. Certainly the people that were there actually thought so. But what the note said was this. I’ve just smashed into your car. The people who saw the accident are watching me. They think I’m writing down my name and address. I’m not good luck. Those addressed by Malachi were complaining that God was not fair. It wasn’t fair to them. They didn’t like how God’s providence was governing the affairs of this life. To their way of thinking, the prosperity of Israel and its people was long overdue. After all, Were they not the people of God? And did they not have a covenant relationship with Jehovah? Why was God holding out on them? Why was God blessing? It seems their heathen neighbors with prosperity while they were still struggling with financial matters. But these Jews were just like the man who wrecked into the park vigils. vehicle outwardly. They want to look like they’re doing the honest and the right thing as if they were upright citizens when it comes to serving the Lord. But they were in reality only going through the motions of worship was we’ve already considered. They were doing evil themselves, as verse 5 certainly indicates to us of this chapter. Chapter 3. They needed to realize that they were guilty before God and only by repentance could they find God’s blessing in their life. There are many perhaps who professed to be Christians today who think why don’t God judge the wicked? People need to be careful what they wish for because as Israel will find out he’s going to judge the wicked and here today if people would think about it maybe they would be more cautious about wanting God. to judge the wicked. They need to look at themselves and make sure where they stand before the Lord. Let me begin by saying this. You should be careful about questioning God’s justice. Unfortunately in the Bible chapters and the breaks and the verses and things like this are not inspired. So this is a bad place to put verse 17 here chapter 2. Actually, it should belong to chapter 3. It should go along with the response in chapter 3 that we have. But we have here you have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say wherein have we wearied him when you say every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of judgment? You can be guilty of charging God with injustice. In his question and answer style, Malachi now opens up a new subject. He had to question and answer style also in chapter 1, verse 2, and verses 6 and 7 of that same chapter. When he charges them here with wearying the Lord, the people asked just, how have we done this? Malachi gives two answers to that. You are claiming that evildoers are actually good in God’s sight and he’s pleased with them. They’re looking at their heathen neighbors and saying, look how they’re being benefited and blessed and prospered and so forth. And we’re not. And then he says, you think that God is unfair because he has not personally appeared to meet out justice. Where is the God of judgment? Where is he? Self-righteously. They were saying to themselves, How dare God withhold his blessing from us? Think about that. It’s those wicked people out there that should be judged by God. Why are we suffering? They looked at their prosperous heathen neighbors considered their own difficulties, and there’s a sense in which they seem to be bitter toward God and angry that he hasn’t done anything about the heathen around them. So God, so God, you’re unfair. You really love the wicked. You must not love us. You must love the wicked. After God has already remember God has already laid out that he loves Jacob. He hates Esau earlier, but their thinking is still that he loves, you know, he loves Esau, but he hates Jacob. They’ve reversed it. Of course these charges are monstrous. Nothing short of blasphemy. that God himself curses those who would reverse good and evil according to Scripture. You know, when we think about this, God tells us in the book of Isaiah chapter 5, verse 20, wo unto them that call evil good and good evil, put darkness for light and light for darkness. Don’t do this. And yet here they are doing it in this particular case. Now, these Jews weren’t righteous. Why, they were just as evil as their heathen neighbors. We’ve already talked about the fact that their worship was an empty charade. They were bringing the blind and the sick and the deformed animals, and maybe they thought, if God’s not going to take care of us, that’s what he deserves. I don’t know what they’re thinking. Maybe that’s how they felt about the matter. Their spiritual leaders were corrupt and leading people astray. Their covenant relations, with God was being violated because they were being unfaithful. Their marriages to heathen, wives, angered the Lord, and their divorcing of their own wise provoked the Lord to anger. They were calloused and unconcerned about them. Now, today, we could talk about the people of God who think, you know, people who profess to be people of God. And what they think about, where’s the God of justice? Why didn’t God judge the wicked? Well, look at the churches today, the so-called churches today. Look at the broad acceptance of homosexuality by these so-called churches. Look at women usurping the headship, taking leadership roles as elders and deacons in the churches. Look at the forms of worshiped that are being used that are not approved by God. They’re certainly not following the regulative principle of worship. They’re doing whatever is pleasing in their sight. Look at the fact that the Christian Sabbath is discarded in many churches. Here, I have Saturday night church case you’re busy on Sunday. You can come Sunday night and you don’t have to worry about Sunday morning. You don’t have to worry about the Lord’s Day. The day isn’t important. We have abortion being tolerated as a woman’s right to choose in these so-called churches. And we have divorce for any reason. It’s acceptable just so you do it legally. Just make sure you do it legally through the state. And yet, are we going to say, why don’t you judge the wicked? If God judges the wicked, you’re on the first. You’re first on the list. Now, it frequently happens that God is charged with injustice. You find it in the Bible a lot. that people think God is unfair in his dealings. Your ways are unequal. God says, my ways are not unequal. Your ways are unequal. In the beginning, Adam and Eve sinned. Remember, God came walking in the cool of the day, and he confronts Adam and Eve. And he asked him, hast thou eaten of the tree? Where and I have commanded not to eat. I told you not to eat. off that tree. How did you know you were naked, Adam? And what did Adam say? The woman whom thou gavest me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And what did the woman say? The serpent beguiled, or deceive me, and I did eat. We see that Adam and Eve are both shifting the blame, but who is actually being charged with the wrongdoing in this case? Adam hints here, at least, that this whole thing is God’s fault. The woman you gave me, look, if you hadn’t given me this woman, this would never have happened. Eve, although she points the finger at the serpent, was ultimately blaming God. Who made the serpent? Who let the serpent have access to the guard? Every attempt to excuse yourself when you sin in the final analysis ends up in an attempt somehow to blame God. you’re saying as Martin Luther said in his commentary on Genesis he accused Adam of saying thou Lord has sinned, it’s your fault. What or who is to blame for your misfortune? Is it circumstances? But you know and I know God controls those circumstances. God brings that into your life. Is it other people? Who made those other people? Who brought them into contact with you? Was it not God that did so? So if you need a scapegoat, and people often do, they often blame God. But I can assure you this. When your case comes up before the judge of all the earth in his lawsuit court, it won’t hold up under screwed me, and you will be condemned. So you can be guilty of charging God with injustice. You can wear out God’s patience with your compliance. said, you’ve wearied the Lord. I suppose that one of the wonderful attributes that our God has is he’s a God of patience. He’s long suffering according to Scripture. And we’ll find from various passages, if you look them up in Scripture, you see, if it wasn’t for the fact that God was long suffering, where would we be? When you see how patient God was with the wayward characters, of Scripture. Jacob, for example, Lott, even Peter, let’s say in the New Testament, it is simply amazing. Malachi, however, claims that these cynics have actually succeeded and exceeding the marvelous patience of God by their complaints. Now, it is true, the everlasting God, fainting is weary, according to Isaiah 4028. We have to acknowledge that. So when he says this, he’s speaking in human terms. It’s not that God ever really gets weary, but he’s putting it in terms that human beings can comprehend and grasp. He said, you’re trying my patience. This is a dangerous situation, because God has unusual patience. And what happens here is when we reach this point where God’s judgment falls when we’ve tried his patience. The point, he says, enough’s enough. From this, we must understand the extreme nature of the situation. God is going to judge them in his wrath. They’re right for judgment. Complaining against God is never going to end up being a profitable exercise. It’s going to end up in judgment, or at least in the Christian’s case, chastisement. Who are you to question God’s determinations? I reminded of Paul’s response in the book of Romans chapter 9 when he says, But neo, man, who art thou that repliest against God? Why are you criticizing? Why are you complaining against God? Does God have to submit his plans to us for our approval before he brings them to pass? That’s not the God of Scripture. God has managed a universe quite well. Before you and I are even born, and he will manage it quite well once we’re gone from this earth. He has no problems whatsoever. He is the one that raises up nations. He puts them down. He imposes judgments on individuals through the inevitable outworking of sin in their own lives. Eventually, he punishes the sin of the wicked and cast him into hell. And he brings the redeemed to heaven. God does this perfectly. He doesn’t need any help from man. He doesn’t need our input. While injustices do occur in this life, because sometimes it seems that we could do prosper. Sometimes the wicked seem to get the advantage of the righteous and harm them and mistreat them. God in the end tells us he will execute justice. So how dare you and I try the patience of God by questioning his justice? So you should be careful about questioning God’s justice. Secondly tonight, notice God’s response to your complaints about justice in chapter 3, verses 1 to 5. And the first is this, the Lord will personally come to the earth. Verse 1. Behold. Now this is something he’s saying, you know, take note of this. This is astonishing. Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in behold he shall come said the Lord of host there are actually two messengers that are spoken off here the one messenger is the messenger who prepares the way in the ancient Orient when kings would visit various towns or villages they would send out their messengers ahead of time so that the village would be prepared for the arrival of the king. They would help the towns and villages make those necessary preparations. In the same manner, God’s coming would be announced by a promised forerunner. Now it’s interesting that Malachi’s name means my messenger, but he’s not the messenger that he’s talking about here when he talks about my messenger. He’s talking about someone else. He’s thinking. He’s thinking, I believe here in light of the prophecy of Isaiah. Now, of course, God often gave the same revelation to different prophets, the same message, the same different prophets. I don’t know if Isaiah here was a passage that he would also be fully aware of. He certainly was certainly written well before Malachi. was. But this is given by inspiration of God. So we take it as a revelation to Malachi and this is what he is supposed to tell us. And so he gives the same type of message that we find in Isaiah chapter 40. If you want to look there real quick, we see the message there. I take you the Isaiah passage because it’s more frequently quoted in the New Testament. and we definitely have an individual who is named as the fulfillment of this passage. Let’s look at Isaiah 40 verses 3 to 5. The voice of him that cryeth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted. Every mountain and hill shall be made low. And the crooked shall be made low. And the crooked shall be. shall be made straight and rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Now, if I read that passage, you automatically think of the quotes in the New Testament and it’s speaking of John the Baptist, isn’t it? And that’s exactly what Melachi is referencing here with the words my messenger. Matthew’s Gospel, in 11th. 10 of Matthew. He seems to link Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3 one together when he says this, for this is he, speaking of John the Baptist, of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before me. The word prepare carries the idea of building a road. And we have talked about this in the past, the leveling of the ground, the removing of the boulders, the filling in of the valleys. It’s like if someone’s putting a road in in a new area, and they, you know, you have to go maybe through hills and things like this. If you look around 79, you know, it’s these big hills on both sides, and the road goes right between them and so forth, go over bridges over the valleys and rivers and things of this nature to prepare the way for the cars. Here we’re preparing the way for the Lord. the Baptist spiritually prepared people for the coming of the Lord. We know that from the New Testament very clearly. And then we have the Lord spoken of as the messenger of the covenant. So here what? We have a second messenger here. And this time it’s the Lord himself that is spoken off. God promises to personally come to earth and visit his people. people. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and are converts with righteousness. The scripture says. And so Jesus is the messenger of the covenant. He is the mediator of the new covenant according to Hebrews 1224. And as Matthew 2628 indicates, this is the blood of the new covenant shed for many. So he is the one who is the messenger. of this covenant. Please notice that the Lord and the messenger of the covenant are one. And therefore the indication to us is that Jesus Christ is God. That he is divine. That he is equal to the Father. And therefore, he’s declared to be God. God. He is God manifest. in the flesh, as the scripture tells us. The word suddenly means unexpectedly rather than immediately. It’s going to be over 400 years they’re going to go by before this actually gets fulfilled. But the idea is that Christ is going to arrive unexpectedly and he’s going to catch the nation off guard and they’re going to be unprepared to receive him. Thus God did indeed come to earth. as he promised, and he did so in the person of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to fulfill this promise. Now this passage, as we considered it, obviously is speaking about the first coming of Jesus Christ. But if I could make application of this to our own day, I would say this. Perhaps you are complaining, where is the God of Justice? Where is the promise of His coming? As we read in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 4, why doesn’t God come and straighten out the mess? Where’s Christ? Why are the wicked prospering and the believers are being harmed? God’s answer is still the same. He says, I will come personally to earth. The day of the Lord will come. Jesus promised in John 14. 3, I will come. again. Now he will come suddenly in the sense of being unexpected. Peter says he’s going to come as a thief in the night. He will come unexpectedly upon people. The God of justice is coming, and you must be patient for the one day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. So while we will see this really is fulfilled in the first coming of Christ, there’s a sense in which we could make application to the second coming as well. Notice here, he says the Lord will refine his people in verses two to four. Let’s look at those verses. But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth, for he is like a refiners fire and a fuller soap. He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He shall purify the silver. He shall purify the sons of lea and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old as in former years. We see here the refining work of the Messiah here. And this is important to us as we look at this. You’ll notice in verse 1 that he’s going to suddenly come to his temple. Temple here, I don’t think it’s so much the Herod’s temple, the physical temple. It is true that Jesus Christ cleansed the temple twice when he was here and came to the earth. But I think he’s referring to God’s true temple because the refuncted the temple twice when he was here and came to the earth. work that takes place takes place in the people as we see from verses 2 to 4. So the people of God are called His Holy Temple in Ephesians 2. Or as Peter puts it in verse Peter 2 5, you also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house. The Jews demanded the coming of the God of Justice, but were they able to face this God? could they endure today? It’s one thing to demand justice. It’s another thing to entirely realize that God is going to start with you. You remember what scripture talks about. The judgment has to begin. Where? The house of God. Right? If the righteous are scarcely saved, what will happen to the sinner and the wicked? They have no chance whatsoever. When Christ came and was manifest in Israel, they couldn’t bear the doctrine that he brought. This is a hard saying. Who can hear it? His teaching about being equal with the Father. His character and mission is the Messiah. His spiritual kingdom, one that’s within people, were difficult for. for the people of Israel to receive. They were thinking too much in terms of carnal kingdoms and so forth. When he spoke about the sovereign grace of God in salvation, the reality of hell, the wickedness of the scribes and the Pharisees, who could bear it? Indeed, did not Christ say that he didn’t come to bring peace but a sword. Christ came to clean up the worship of the Jews, make it acceptable in God’s sight. Now, his work is described here under two symbols, soap and fire. We have the idea of the laundry, the washing and bleaching, and we have the idea of metalworking, where you take the various metals and put them in a pot that’s really hot and heat it up and melt the metals down, and all the impurities come to the top and they’re scraped off so that, the metal gets refined. Those are the pictures that we have here. On one hand, Christ was a fuller. It was an alkaline soap, made dirty garments white. As you go through this life, your garments get spotted by the world. Sin stains us. We need a cleansing. And on the other hand, Christ as a refiner of precious metal, we have here the idea of the purestores. of people, the removing of sin from their life. And that is what the Messiah came to do, the purify and refine the faithful, his people, his true people, the Israelites, indeed. And he would begin with the spiritual leaders. He starts with the Levites here. He mentions them. Plus, to restore acceptable worship, he has to begin with those who are in those positions of leadership among the nation. Now, Christ in using this language here and this phraseology that we have here is using Old Testament language to really, to really, I think, lay before a spiritual truth from the new text. Testament. Because when Christ came, we find that God is looking for people that will worship him in spirit and truth, not just in ritual and in ceremony. Obviously, there’s a reference to the revolutionary, I think, transformation, that the Old Testament religion into the New Testament religion, there’s going to be radical changes. The place of worship. No longer will Jerusalem be the center. as Jesus tells us in John chapter 4. The day of worship will be changed. because with the resurrection, we have a new day. It’s the Sunday that we are going to worship the Lord. the ceremonial law and all the aspects of it are going to give way to the New Testament realities. Someone asked to you, you still have a high priest? Yes, I still have a high priest. Is the nation still a nation of priest? Yep. We believe in the priest. priesthood of all believers. Do we offer sacrifice to the Lord? Yes, we offer spiritual sacrifices. We have one sacrifice of blood atonement. That’s all we needed. And Christ provided it. And so when we look at these things, we see the reality of these things in the New Testament. So Malachi is expressing this great change in terms, I think the Jews of his day could comprehend. although it’s going to be a vast change that’s coming. He speaks in terms of purification of the priesthood and the bringing in of righteous offerings by Jerusalem and Judea, not just the Levites offering properly, but the whole nation offering properly. Well, Jesus Christ is the great high priest. He offers the righteous sacrifice once and for all, which totally dealt with the sins of his people. believers today are the new royal priesthood, who offer up acceptable sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to God made acceptable by what Jesus Christ has done. So this is, I think, what we would see as the fulfillment of these words here before. So the refining work of the Messiah. Now, the refining work of Christ is something that also we should see in the New Testament here he’s constantly refining his people. He’s continually doing this as we go through this life. Those who want justice need to realize that they have to abide the day of his coming because we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ on the last day. We’re all going to have to give an account before the Lord. Now, if we want to be prepared for that day, then we have to be washed by the soap of God. We have to be bleached. In other words, we have to have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb like we read in the book of Revelation. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you had your sins forgiven? Through faith in his sacrificial death? Do you see the need of his imputed rights? righteousnessness and there’s a test of fire that the Lord puts us through. The trying of your faith the Bible talks about. Like solar, tried in a furnace of fire. There is a sense in which we get refined through all the trials and tribulations and difficulties of this life. So God is going to refine his people and he does so today. He’s, Christ continues. The refining work. The Lord will punish, though, the wicked. Verse 5. And I will come near to you to judgment, and I’ll be a swift witness against sorcerers and against adulterers and against false swears and against those that oppose the, oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, said the Lord of host. Trouble with them. the scoffers and their complaint is that they don’t fear God. This is why they make these accusations. They’re so blasphemous. Their involvement in these sins prove it. They feared God. They wouldn’t be involved in these sins that are mentioned in verse 5. So while complaining that they’re not pagans and deserve God’s blessing, the truth of the matter, God says you’re guilty of all these sins. You’re no different than the pagans. you’ve unwisely said where is the God of justice? And now I’m going to come near it. I’m going to give you justice. I’m going to be a witness against you. You’re involved in witchcraft, sorcery of some sort. The occult. We might even talk about astrology and so forth. You’re involved in these things. Adultery and lying or false swear. Forbidden in the Ten Commandments. But you’re brought. violating the commandments of God. You’re cheating the laborer out of his wages. This is theft. You’re not paying him what he’s supposed to get. You’re taking advantage of foreigners, widows, even orphans, in the courts and so forth. You remember when Jesus Christ came, you recall what John the Baptist said about him in Matthew chapter 3. You want to flip over there. We’ve looked at this. same type of phrasing in the book of Luke, but let me just refresh your memory here in chapter 3 of Matthew 10 to 12. He says, and now also the axe is laid under the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth not good fruit is ewn down and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water under repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire whose fan is in his hand. And he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. You want Christ to come? Here’s what’s going to happen when he comes. Judgment. X is now laid to the root. This is a present reality to this. Christ is at hand here. He’s about to begin his public ministry. John the Baptist is handing over the baton, so to speak here, to Christ, to let him carry on. And we know there is an awful judgment that fell upon the nation of Israel. And that judgment would end up casting many of them into hellfire. That’s where they perish, and they perish eternally. Yes, their nation will perish, but they are going to perish. as well. The judgment fell upon them. They crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said this generation will not pass until this judgment falls upon them. The days of vengeance. And God, your call, reuses the Romans to bring great judgment, harsh judgment upon them. I’ve been talking about this in the book of Revelations. I’m not going to be labor the point tonight. If any of you’ve ever read Josephus, the eye witnesses, it gives eyewitness account of what happened to Israel and how devastating it was devastating it was for the Romans to march through there and slaughter them. Slaughter them by the thousands. Kill them just not sparing, sometimes not even wiser children or anything. Just killing them all. Outside of the city of Jerusalem, they were crucifying 500 Jews a day hanging them on crosses. there. Judgment’s coming and this judgment is going to cast them ultimately into hellfire. The punishment, the wicked at the second coming of Christ, is similar. When you think about it, this is the ultimate judgment to come. When you ask, where is the justice? Why aren’t the wicked getting what they deserve? Well, they will. When Christ comes, he’s going to meet out justice. There’s going to be a great judgment. He’s going to come in flaming fire. scripture tells us, taking vengeance on them that know not God, that obey not the gospel, and they shall be punished with everlasting destruction. Second Thessalonus chapter 1, verses 8 and 9. There’s going to be a final justice. A final writing of all wrongs that have ever been done. Who of those are going to perish? Those who have no fear of God before their eyes. I find it interesting that the list that’s provided here in Malachi 3-5 is similar to the list that we read of those who are cast into the lake of fire. In the book of Revelation, chapter 218, we read, but the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable and murderers and horomongers, the sexually impure, and sorcerers and idolers and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Yes, there was going to be judgment in Christ’s Day. The final judgment is going to be similar. and it’ll have the same result in the sense that there will be a separation of the righteous and the wicked for all eternity. Well, let us close with the word of God.