We have been spending this month talking about how to have a fresh, renewed faith for the new year. Everyone likes the opportunity to restart. It is one reason we look forward to a new year. It is the chance to have a better year than the prior year. This is a time of year when people talk more about Jesus’ coming. However, there is not much talk about why Jesus came. This morning we are going to continue looking at how we can have a fresh faith for the new year and God is going to tell us how his coming is supposed to achieve that renewed faith. Open your Bible to Malachi 2 and that is page 954 in the pew Bibles. From Malachi 2 we are going to look at how God answers our greatest question.
The Problem (Malachi 2:17)
We have noticed in our study of Malachi that God will make a statement about the hearts and actions of the people. The people will question what God says and then God will give an answer that is supposed to cause the people to change their lives. You will notice the declaration that the Lord makes in Malachi 2:17. God simply says, “You have wearied the Lord with your words.” The people then have to challenge this. They ask, “How have we wearied him?” Notice what the people are saying about the Lord in verse 17. They are saying that God is pleased with people who do evil. They say that God has no problems with our sins and he still delights in them. Now why do the people think this? You can see their thinking at the end of verse 17. They ask, “Where is the God of justice?” They think that God does not have a problem with their sins and with people who do evil because they do not see God doing anything about it. They ask, “Where is the God of justice?” Now this is an interesting perspective to have considering that a little over 100 years earlier God did do something about their evil and about their sins. God had brought judgment on them and sent them into exile for their sins. But now that about 100 years had gone by, they are questioning that God will do anything about evil or sins.
One of the things I hope you will notice is that this is the same thing people say today. People will say that if there is a God, then why is there so much evil? They will ask where the God of justice is. They will say that God does not care about evil or sins and that God is still delighted in them even though they are violating the commands of God. So it has been 2400 years since this prophecy in Malachi was written. Yet nothing has changed in the way people look at the world or think about God. But God says that they are wearying him with these words. So how will God answer their question? How will he respond to the people who say that God does not do anything about sin and evil and he can still delight in us in our sins? Malachi 3 is God’s response.
The Lord Himself Is Coming (Malachi 3:1)
Listen to what God says in Malachi 3:1. God says that he will send his messenger who will prepare the way before his own arrival. This is a shocking promise. God says that his solution is that he will come himself. He will send a messenger to prepare the way for his coming. When we come to the New Testament we learn that John the Baptizer was the messenger who prepared the way for the coming of the Lord. We learn this in Matthew 3:1-3 (cf. Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27). The arrival of John set the stage for the world that the Lord himself was coming into the world. Further, verse 1 speaks to the suddenness of the Lord’s arrival. It was not going to be a clear and obvious time to expect for the Lord to come. But he will come suddenly to his temple and deliver his covenant to the people. If you have not been with us on Sunday mornings, I want to invite you to join us in January because we will be picking up this idea as we look at that the last three chapters of Matthew where the final days of Jesus’ time on earth is recorded. We will get to see the Lord establish his covenant in those final chapters.
The Lord Himself Will Act (Malachi 3:2-4)
But I want you to carefully listen to what the Lord says he is going to do when he comes. Verse 2 begins, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?” This is not the way we typically want to paint the story of the Lord’s coming. Our world has created songs about the coming of the Lord. But I cannot remember any songs that were written along these lines. Here is God saying that I am sending what you think you want, but you will not be ready for it. The people are asking for the God of justice. God says that he himself will come. If you want the Lord to come and deal with evil and sin, I will, but it won’t be what you think. So what is going to happen when the Lord comes? Look at the rest of verse 2.
He will be like a refiner’s fire. He is going to be like a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier to purify his people. The purpose of a refiner’s fire is to take a precious, valuable metal and burn off the impurities from that metal. The silver and the gold are more valuable after the dross and trash have been burned off of that metal. In the same way, a launderer’s soap is not intended to destroy the clothing but to cleanse. The purpose is to make the clothing valuable, returning it to its original condition of cleanliness. The purpose of launderer’s soap and refining fire is not to destroy or ruin. Actually, their purpose is the opposite. Their purpose is to restore and purify what has been ruined. The reason the Lord is coming to purify his people is so that they can offer right worship to the Lord again. God is coming to purify so that the people’s offerings will not be pleasing and acceptable to him again.
Remember what we learn in Malachi 1. In the first chapter we saw that the people gave heartless worship. They did not want to worship the Lord. They saw worship as a weariness and tiresome. The Lord’s response was that he desired someone to have the courage to close the temple doors and end their worship because it was false and useless. But the Lord will come and when he comes he is going to come with a refining fire to purify his people so that their worship can be pleasing to him again.
Now I want us to hear this point. The Lord came into the world so that no one would be the same ever again. The Lord came so that no one would keep living the way they had been living in the past. The Lord came for purification and cleansing of the people. To state this another way, God did not send his Son so that you would keep doing what you have always been doing. God did not send his Son into the world so that you would not make any changes to your life. The whole point of Jesus coming to this earth was to get every person to want to change their ways. Listen to how the apostle Paul taught this point:
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11-14 ESV)
The coming of the Lord is supposed to teach us to be changed from ungodliness and worldly passions to living a self-controlled, upright, and godly life. Even further, Jesus came and gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who belong to him, zealous for good works. This is what Malachi is promising will happen when the Lord came. The coming of Jesus is to make us stop sinning, not continue sinning. The coming of Jesus is supposed to move us toward righteousness because we have been redeemed from our sinful, evil ways. Please do not use this season to think that you can keep living the way you were. Everyone person is to be cleansed and purified. Fresh faith for the new year means we are going to let God change us. We are going let his soap wash off those stains. We are going to let his refining fire burn off all of our impurities.
The Lord Himself Will Judge (Malachi 3:5-6)
Now there is one more picture regarding a refiner’s fire. What happens if you do not put a pure metal into the refining fire? Those alloys are not going to survive the fire. They are going to melt when the intense heat is applied to it. Notice that this is exactly what God is saying in verse 5. When the Lord comes he is going to come in judgment. He is going to be a swift witness against all the evil that people are doing. Look at the end of verse 5. God will be a witness for justice against those who do not fear him.
Now let us take this back to the original question and complaint. The people want to know where the God of justice is. They want to know why it seems that God is not doing anything. God’s response is that he will come to the earth himself and he will act as a purifying fire and cleansing soap. Jesus came to start the fire to refine his people. Jesus came to start burning off the impurities in your life. Where is the God of justice? God is giving you a chance to change. Does God delight in evil and overlook sins? No, God is giving you time to let the impurities burn off so that you are not consumed in judgment. Look at how God ends in verse 6.
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” God came to change you. Please think about how old you are right now and see the grace God has given to you. He has given you this much time to be refined and cleansed. God’s love and faithfulness is why you have not been consumed. God’s justice waits because he is still scrubbing your impurities off of you. If you are having a difficult time in your life, if you feel like you are in the fire right now, I want you to see Jesus trying to purify you. Jesus is scrubbing you now before the judgment of the wicked comes. But we must know that his first arrival proves that he will come a second time.
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:2-3 ESV)
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:8-10 ESV)
God came to warn you and convince you to change your life. God came to redeem you from the worthless things of the world. God came to purify your life so you can see God face to face and see him as he is. You are not consumed because God’s love is faithful to you and he does not want you to perish. God has given you yet another year to come to him because he came for you.