You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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Thank you, guys.
Thank you, James.
You wrote a beautiful song.
Grateful for that.
It helps us to feel and to see, as this passage will this morning, where the hurt is.
And where the hope is at the same time.
Thank you for that.
Turn with me to Malachi again this morning.
God, through his prophets, has been calling his people back to himself because he's like that, right?
He loves us dearly.
He grieves when we wander from him.
He longs to welcome us back home to himself.
He's been doing it generation after generation through the centuries as we've seen these prophets,
Micah and Zephaniah and Haggai and Malachi, coming with these very similar messages of repentance.
And then even within each of those prophets' ministries, to the same group of people, they've said this thing over and over.
To the same people.
Repent.
A call to repentance.
To renewed relationship with God.
Because we need it.
Friends, we need it again this morning, don't we?
This is a short but powerful passage.
Much as I tried, there's no outline this morning.
We're going to read this passage, Malachi 2.17 through 3.5.
And then we're just going to walk right through it together to understand it and see what God would say to us this morning.
So I'd encourage you to keep a Bible open and follow with me through the sermon today.
That'll be your outline.
First, let's read God's holy, inerrant, infallible word that he promises will not return to him void.
That means that it will work in your heart and in mine today for his purposes.
That's good news.
Malachi 2.17
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?
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.
But who can endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap.
He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.
And he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver.
And they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.
Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old, as in former years.
Then I will draw near to you for judgment.
I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely,
against those who oppress the hired worker and his wages, the widow and the fatherless,
against those who thrust aside the sojourner.
And do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
Let's pray together.
Father, we give you thanks for your word.
And we plead for your help.
We need renewal, revival in our hearts.
Your spirit is the one who brings that and he does it through the word.
And so, Father, do it now in us for your glory.
Amen.
Perhaps some of you like me have had this experience.
You're driving along the interstate with a 70 mile per hour speed limit.
And you're cruising at 75 or 77 or 78 or whatever you've picked.
And all of a sudden, this guy comes just flying past you.
He must be going at least 90 miles an hour, probably 100.
And you think, I hope they catch that guy.
And then maybe the second or the third person that whizzes past you like that, you start to think,
I can't believe these policemen.
Where are they anyway when you need them?
You've felt that before, right?
Well, I suspect some of you have also had it happen where just a couple minutes after those reckless drivers fly past you
and there's nobody stopping them, you look in the rearview mirror and there's blue lights flashing.
And you think, yes, finally, justice.
Someone who can catch the guy going 100, justice will be served.
Except that those blue lights don't whiz past you like those other guys.
They stay right there behind you.
And eventually, you pull off to the side and you think to yourself, I wasn't the one speeding.
And he says, sir, I've got you at 82 and a 70.
And you think, me?
I thought you were going to ask me for the license plate of that other guy.
I mean, I'm the good guy here.
I'm on your team.
We're going to catch the bad guys, right?
What do you mean you got me at 82 and a 70?
You better get going.
They're getting away.
You just honestly can't believe that you're the one on the receiving end of this so-called justice.
I don't know if you've felt that before, but whether it's on the road or anywhere else, we all have this tendency to think that God's justice, his just judgment is for someone else.
Right?
There's somebody else that needs that.
We assume we're the cowboy in the white hat.
We're the good guys.
Right?
Kids, have you ever thought, I'm one of the good kids?
Have you thought that before?
I grew up thinking that, you know, I'm one of the good kids.
Other kids got in trouble at school, but I didn't.
I was especially careful to behave when I was at church.
Right?
Yeah?
You do that?
Uh-huh.
And then I played a lot of baseball.
And so my team played baseball games basically every weekend.
Except, you know, on Sundays I went to church and the rest of the guys on my team played baseball.
So I was really one of the good kids.
Right?
There were bad kids out there and I knew I wasn't perfect, but the bad kids were the other ones and I was a good one.
So if we needed to talk about sin and repentance, if somebody needed to apologize or change, it was somebody else, not me.
If God wanted to come deal with someone about their behavior or have a pastor preach sermons about repentance for weeks on end, I could give him a list of names to talk to.
Here they are, God, you should talk to them, not me.
Someone from another political party, someone clearly less spiritual than I am, someone not at church as often as I am.
God's people have started feeling that way in Malachi's day.
And Malachi wants to warn them.
Listen, it's a warning about the danger of feeling like you're the guy in the white hat.
Of feeling like you're one of the good kids.
There's a danger in that.
That we might miss God's call to our hearts.
It's actually where this passage starts.
It's a warning that God's people have started getting critical, not just of others doing those bad things, but of God himself and how he's handling it or not.
Where are those policemen when you need them anyway?
Verse 17, where is the God of justice?
Jesus.
And we're told the way that some of God's people are acting is wearying God.
That's not a good sign, is it?
When God who is eminently patient and slow to anger and long suffering is weary with your words, that's not good.
What are they saying that's causing that?
They're saying everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord.
God delights in the bad guys.
He doesn't care about us.
Where is that so-called just God anyway?
They don't see justice in the world around them.
The Persians are stronger and richer and they don't even follow Yahweh.
The Jews have worked hard for God on his temple and it's not paying off.
It's not making their city great again.
Some wealthier Jews are even taking advantage of poorer ones and they're getting away with it.
They've had enough.
God, they tell each other, is not as holy, righteous, and on top of things as he says he is.
If he is just, he's certainly not powerful enough or loving enough to show up here and fix things.
And God gets weary of this because we falsely accuse him of unfaithfulness and completely avoid or ignore our own unfaithfulness.
We accuse him of being asleep at the wheel.
We blame God and keep ourselves off the hook.
Now let me be clear on this before we read further.
The Bible is full of examples of crying out to God in the face of injustice.
Okay?
They're all over the place being passionate about it, emotionally pleading with him desperately.
And this is commended.
It's a good thing.
It's all through the Psalms lamenting,
How long, O Lord?
Deliver me.
Bring justice against my enemies.
Oh, that you would come and help me.
And God loves to hear his children cry to him and long to understand him and know him more.
He loves that.
This is not that.
Okay?
This is different.
This is an accusatory complaint.
Character assassination of God in order to relieve ourselves of guilt.
In fact, you'll notice here that the words are not spoken to God, are they?
They're actually spoken to other people.
We could say it's gossiping about God, not crying out to him.
Some among God's people have begun focusing on how God should be acting for me,
rather than how I should be acting for God,
overlooking their own sin and blaming God for what they see in the world around them.
Where is the God of justice?
And chapter 3 opens with a simple response to that question.
It's right here.
Here I am.
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.
I haven't left you.
I'm not unreliable.
I have a plan.
I love that about our God.
Even when we weary him, he doesn't give up to get away from that.
Rather, he comes near to us.
Any delay in the coming of the God of justice is for the purpose that all might repent, that more might know him.
God is not slow, but patient.
Desiring that none would perish, but that all would come to repentance, Peter says.
God's justice is sure.
He is coming.
In fact, not only is the God of justice coming to make everything right,
but someone's even coming to prepare the way for him.
So, two different people in this verse.
The messenger and then God himself.
Let me clarify those for you.
The messenger preparing the way, we learn later, is John the Baptist.
John comes, if you remember the New Testament, and he preaches a message of what?
Repentance.
Turn away from your idols and turn back to God.
Prepare your heart to receive the king.
As the herald running before the king, he's removing obstacles for God to come to his people
and fellowship with them and justice and righteousness and glory.
That's the first person who's coming.
And then the second figure is Jesus.
It's a bit confusing because he is also called messenger.
But messenger of the covenant is not the same as my messenger in this verse,
but rather it's the same as the Lord, the divine figure.
He's the one you will delight in.
He is coming, says Yahweh.
He will come suddenly to his temple, right?
To be among his people.
To dwell with them in relationship.
Which is why repentance prepares the way
so the holy God can even be able to live with them.
God doesn't give up on his people.
Rather, he draws near to them.
But when the God of justice comes,
it's no light thing for anyone.
I'm coming, says God.
But don't presume you're ready.
Especially if you're looking at everyone else's sin
and ignoring your own.
Verse 2.
But who can endure the day of his coming?
And who can stand when he appears?
You have to have clean hands and a pure heart.
For he is like a refiner's fire.
And like fuller's soap.
He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.
And he will purify the sons of Levi
and refine them like gold and silver.
Hey, you with the white hat.
You who think you're the good guys.
Be careful.
He's saying.
Jesus comes to purify worshipers for Yahweh.
And it's a painful purifying.
Two images here for Jesus' work, right?
The refiner's fire and fuller's soap.
The refining fire that burns away the dross
so that the silver is clean
and the refiner can see his image
reflected back to him in it.
It burns.
And the fuller's soap.
You may not be familiar with that.
It scrubbed the dirt off of things like sheep's wool
to make it clean.
Both purify.
And both are painful.
Some of this purification process
will involve removing people
from the people of God for judgment
because they will not repent and worship Yahweh.
Some of the purification process
that Jesus brings
will be for those whose hearts are softened,
for those among God's people
who would worship Yahweh.
But they need clean hands and a pure heart
or they can't stand before him.
And so Jesus is turning their hearts back to him.
That's what Jesus comes to do, right?
That's the work of Jesus.
That's what it's about.
Not hiding your sin,
but running with it to him
so that he can cleanse you of all your sin.
That he can renew your heart
to worship Yahweh again.
Kids, let me explain it to you this way
because those are both confusing images, okay?
What God is saying here
is not that you have to be perfect,
but that you must run to Jesus with your sin
so that he can make your heart clean.
Let me ask you this.
Kids, would you ever eat spaghetti
with a white dress on?
No, no, no.
I hope you would never do such a terrible thing.
But imagine that you did.
You were so hungry
and you were in such a hurry to eat the spaghetti
that you rushed over and you tripped.
And the whole plate of spaghetti
goes all over your white dress.
Oh, no.
It's a huge mess, right?
That's what our sin is like.
Every one of us is as dirty before God
as a white dress with spaghetti all over it.
And when that happens,
you may think like some of us adults,
you know what I need to do?
I need to go hide this dress somewhere.
Mom will never know this happened, right?
Maybe she hasn't seen it yet.
But what happens if you go put that dress
in a corner somewhere?
That stain just sets in, doesn't it?
Deeper and deeper.
And you put it away.
But what happens if you actually run right away
as soon as it happens to mom?
Mom, the fire or the soap
that Malachi is talking about,
it's like goop, okay?
I mean, he didn't say it that way,
but that's what he meant.
Goop, your parents probably have something like this.
This stuff is amazing.
You know what you do with it?
You rub it on the stain, right?
And you scrub it in
and you may have to be rough with it
and it may hurt the fabric some,
but it gets the stain out.
You put it in the washing machine
and the clothes rub
and it gets rid of that terrible stain
on your white dress.
That's what Jesus does with our sin.
He wants us to run to him right away,
even though it might hurt some,
even though it might be hard
and he will cleanse us
and make us new
so that the stain is gone
and we love him even more
for how amazing he is, right?
This thing says it's the ultimate stain lifter.
That's not true.
Jesus is.
Jesus, not just your white dress.
Jesus wants to take that dark stain on your heart
and say, I can deal with that.
Bring it to me.
The big mess you've made,
I know how to take care of that.
I can clean that up for you.
So when I say repent,
it means run to Jesus with your sin,
with your mess,
because he can handle it.
That's what repent means, kids.
And Malachi is telling us this morning,
we all need Jesus' purifying work.
Your leaders are particularly highlighted
as needing Jesus' purifying work.
So we all need to be running to him,
not minimizing our sin,
thinking he needs to go fix others
out there somewhere.
I particularly want to challenge us here this morning.
Listen to this,
or you're missing Malachi's message.
If it doesn't hurt,
you're not near Jesus.
You may say you know him.
Jesus is,
he's just working in my life.
This is what Jesus would have me do.
I'm a Christian.
Of course I'm a Christian.
What else would I be?
Does it hurt?
Because if it doesn't hurt,
it's not Jesus.
It's true.
The ministry of Jesus brings joy
and freedom and cleansing
and healing.
Yes, all those things.
But he does it this way.
He is like a refining fire.
Fuller's soap.
His purifying work burns away the dross.
That's how it happens, right?
It scrubs away the dirt.
It tears away our idols
that we're clinging to.
It's a painful purifying.
Purifying.
Or else it's self-righteous,
self-deception,
believing my clothes were already white
and didn't need it.
It's one or the other.
It's painful purifying
or it's self-deception,
believing you're clean without him.
It hurts, doesn't it?
When Jesus draws you out of the comfort
you find in your financial security
and he tells you to trust him instead
of what's in your bank account.
It hurts, doesn't it?
When Jesus calls you to follow him
in a specific decision
and you have to let go of the approval
of others to do it
and that's an idol that you love
and ugh.
It hurts, doesn't it?
When Jesus shows you
you're not loving someone
but you're using them
in the relationship
to feel affirmed
and comfortable yourself.
I told you a few weeks ago
I was making a running list
in my office of idols
God is exposing in me
through this Minor Prophets series.
Those were three of them
where he's been working repentance
in my heart lately.
It's a painful process
and there are a lot of others.
But I share those with you this morning
to remind you that this repentance
that he's calling all of us to
is not merely for those
who have killed someone
or robbed a bank.
Right?
We think of repentance
sometimes that way.
Repentance is daily
moment by moment.
It's a lifestyle
that's normal
the way we relate to God
and he calls us
to that lifestyle
where our hearts grieve
broken relationship with him
where we're constantly
turning back to him
and then rejoicing
over and over again
that he restores
our relationship.
That's how we relate to him.
It's not just some big sin
you get caught in
but the daily state
of your heart
toward God.
Are you willing
to stop looking
at others' problems
and see where your heart
has strayed from God?
If you are,
Jesus delights
to meet you there
to heal and restore
that relationship
between you and your father.
and that's the hopeful part.
Right?
Jesus purifies us.
He does.
And then end of verse 3
and then after he refines them
and purifies them
they will bring offerings
and righteousness
to the Lord.
They can now
because of Jesus.
The offering of Judah
and Jerusalem
will be pleasing to the Lord
as in the days of old
and as in former years.
As we repent,
he promises to make us
into worshipers
who worship God
from the heart.
That's the hope
of the gospel
offered to us
in the context
of a passage
that primarily
is meant
to warn us
toward Jesus.
That's what will happen
when you find him
and he works on you.
And Malachi ends
this section
with these
sobering words.
Then I will draw near
to you
for judgment.
I will be a swift witness
against the sorcerers,
against the adulterers,
against those
who swear falsely,
against those
who oppress
the hired worker
and his wages,
the widow
and the fatherless,
against those
who thrust aside
the sojourner.
And do not fear me,
says the Lord of hosts.
Y'all,
this is not an exhaustive list
of all the big sins
we need to repent of,
but rather examples
of what it looks like
when people stop
fearing God.
You see that at the end,
right?
The wicked among
God's covenant people
do all these things
because they don't
fear me.
They have a worship problem
before they have
a specific sins problem
in their lives.
And the fact
that their hearts
haven't come back
to love
and trust God
looks like
these things.
Sorcery.
Using God
or other gods
to get what we want.
Manipulating God
by going to church,
looking for the good life
by just being associated
with Christianity.
Adultery.
including that in your heart
where you use
someone else you know
or you don't know
to get what you want.
Dishonesty
in order to care
for yourself.
Neglecting the least
of these
because you're not
where Jesus would be
as Thurman challenged
us last week.
Not reflecting God's heart
because your lives
and schedules
are full,
consumed with other people
just like you
without regard
for the poor
and the refugee
and the voiceless.
Ouch.
God's heart
is for faithfulness,
truth,
mercy to the least
and the left out
are ours
like that.
If you see any
of these struggles
in your heart
and life,
the call is simple,
painful,
but simple.
It's repent.
Listen,
these verses
are trying to tell us
all signs point
towards repentance.
Every verse
in this passage
is saying
repent.
The wearied response
of God
to His people
who focus on others'
sins rather than
their own,
repent.
The preparation
of John the Baptist
to get us ready
for God to come
screamed one word,
repent.
The ministry of Jesus
is one that works
to purify
those who realize
that they're speeding too,
that they have stains
on their clothes too,
that they don't reflect
God's image
or even long to sometimes.
So repent.
And in the warning
of a prophet
God sends
to speak His word
to His people,
repent.
Listen,
if God's pulling you over
this morning,
arresting your heart,
so to speak,
it's not merely
to be a killjoy
in your life.
It's not like you're
driving so fast.
That's not who He is.
He's not out
to get you like that.
Rather,
He's arresting you
to call you back
to Him,
to show you
where life really is,
to remind you
where it's found,
perhaps even
to point you
to this table
where His justice
is poured out
not on you,
but on His Son
fully.
where Jesus
underwent the ultimate
refiner's fire
so that you could
finally and forever
be purified.
Your repentance
may be painful
and may start
with tears.
It usually does.
But Yahweh
sent the messenger
of the covenant
so you would know
that you can walk
into that repentance
because it ends
not with tears
and pain
but with joy
and life.
That's what He
came to do.
It's what He said
to His disciples
even in that painful
moment for Him
on the night
He was betrayed.
Jesus took bread
and what He was
picturing was
going to hurt.
He broke it
and gave it
to His disciples
as I'm ministering
in His name
give this bread
to you
and He said
take eat
this is my body
which is broken
for you
do this
in remembrance
of me
and in the same way
after supper
He took the cup
and said
this cup
is the new covenant
in my blood
shed for many
for the forgiveness
of their sins
but His blood
was going to have
to be shed
and He said
drink of it
and do it
in remembrance
of me
for as often
as you eat
this bread
and drink this cup
you proclaim
the Lord's death
until He comes.
If that's
what you're here
to do
to proclaim
His death
if you come
as a sinner
repenting
of that sin
and saying
I need to run
back to Jesus
who took
the justice
that I deserve
then come
joyfully
weeping
and rejoicing
to this table
if you don't
know Him
if you haven't
thrown yourself
on Jesus
as your only hope
then the call
of God's word
to you this morning
would be not to come
to a table
like this
that pictures
something
that for you
is not a reality
in your heart
but rather
He's saying
to you this morning
come to Jesus
there's no other way
to find yourself
safe
from the justice
of God
and to know
your heavenly Father
we'd love for you
to come
and talk with us
we'd love to pray
with you
we'd love to tell you
more about Jesus
let me pray
and we'll celebrate
together
Jesus for your
sacrifice
for sinners
like us
we are so grateful
Holy Spirit
make us
repentant
sinners
who would come
running
not
with anything
in our hands
to offer
to our Father
but clinging
desperately
to Jesus
remind us
of that
remind us
that because of Him
you welcome us
to this table
that's amazing
grace
give us
delight in that
as we celebrate
in Jesus name
Amen
our host team members
will usher you
to tables
forward and back
we will celebrate
God's love
for us together
for more information
visit us online
at southwood.org