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Good morning, church. It's good
to see you all this morning. I invite you to turn your Bibles
to the book of Malachi. Malachi chapter two, verse 17. We'll be looking at Malachi 2,
17 through first part of verse or chapter three. Now, if you
don't know where Malachi is, it's the last book in the Old
Testament. So if you know where the gospel
of Matthew is, turn there and then go a couple pages to the
left and you will find Malachi. The text is also printed on page
nine in your order of service if you wanna follow along there.
So we're in the season of Advent and our sermon series this year,
Advent sermon series this year is titled, Come Thou Long Expected
Jesus. So we're looking at several Old
Testament texts that look ahead to the coming of Jesus, the Messiah,
the Savior of the world. And this week we're looking at
a passage from Malachi. And the season of Advent is a
season of waiting. And kids, maybe you're waiting
for Christmas morning, and you're excited about opening presents. I'm excited about that, too.
But Advent is bigger than that. And really, the season of Advent
is a microcosm of the Christian life. The whole of the Christian
life is a season of waiting. We live between the two Advents
of Jesus Christ, his two comings. And so here, we look back. And we celebrate that Christ
has come. We remember Bethlehem. We remember
his life and his death and his resurrection. But we also look
forward to his coming again. And we're waiting for him to
come. And we're waiting for him to
come and set the world right. And you know this, that waiting
is difficult, isn't it? And I confess, I don't really
enjoy waiting. I especially don't enjoy waiting
to fill up my car with gas at the gas station. I know that
Costco and Vons have, you know, the prices there are cheaper
than most other places, but I will gladly pay more at some other
station just to avoid waiting in line. I don't enjoy it. But
waiting for Jesus to come again and fix this mess of a world,
that's on a whole other level of difficulty. And on the one
hand, the act of waiting can be really helpful. So if you're
waiting for Christmas morning, the wait can kind of fuel your
excitement, your anticipation. It can get you ready. On the
other hand, waiting can eat away at your hope and your faith.
And so the church has been longing for Christ to come, waiting for
Christ to come for nearly 2,000 years. And the longer we wait,
the greater the temptation is to let go of hope. You know how
it is. And so we're looking at the nation
of Israel and Malachi today. And here in the book of Malachi,
Israel is waiting. Israel is waiting. And they're
losing hope as they wait. So the exile in Babylon is over. It's come to an end. The people
have come back to the land. They've settled down. It really
should be a time of excitement. You know, that God has brought
his people back from exile, just like he promised. But there's
this kind of Malaise that's formed over the people there. They're
disappointed They feel like God has let them down, you know,
in their mind that the exile is over, but they're not free
yet. They're in the land, but they're
under the thumb of the Persian empire. They've rebuilt the temple,
but, you know, as they look at it, some of them remember the
former temple, the first one, and they see this new temple
is just a poor substitute for the first one. And God had made
promises many years before that he would return. And he would
come to his temple once again and fill it with his glory like
in the days of old. And it hasn't happened yet. And they're waiting and they're
wondering, maybe, you know, maybe God's given up. And they're getting
tired of waiting, and doubt is setting in, cynicism is taking
over. Some, if we were to read the
whole book of Malachi, some of the people are living openly
wicked lives, and so the prophet Malachi steps onto the scene
with a message from the Lord. And he's calling Israel back
to the Lord, and he's trying to rekindle their hope, trying
to convince them not to give up hope that the Lord will come. And so let's read the passage
together. Malachi 2, we'll start in verse
17, and then I'll read on through chapter 3, verse 5. 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
and 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 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. Let me pray for us. Our God and Father, we come to
your word today, eager to hear from you. Would you help us to
see the good news in a fresh way this morning? We ask in Jesus'
name, amen. Well, there's three moves in
this text, and the first one, number one, is an accusation,
an accusation. We see it there in chapter two,
verse 17. And the book of Malachi is like
a courtroom drama, okay? So Malachi plays the role of
prosecutor, the covenant prosecutor, and the nation of Israel is sitting
in the defendant's chair. And presiding over this courtroom
scene is Israel's covenant Lord, Israel's covenant Lord, Yahweh.
And so in each of, there's six disputes in this book, six different
legal proceedings. And each one follows the same
script. And so Malachi, he accuses Israel
of breaking covenant with the Lord. And then the nation responds
with, you know, it's not our fault, it's God's fault. They
point the finger at God. And then Malachi answers their
excuses by saying, hey, well, let's talk about this and see
if that's really true. The passage we're looking at
today is dispute number four of six, and you can hear the
accusation there in verse 17. Malachi says to the people, you
tire God out with all your talk. That's the charge he levels against
Israel. You've wearied the Lord with
your words. And Israel's quick to respond. It's like, oh yeah, prove it,
show us. And how have we wearied him? And Malachi lays out his case
here, basically saying, you keep charging the Lord with injustice. You keep pointing your finger
at him over and over again. And you know, the book of Malachi
begins with God saying to his people, I have loved you. And
they say, sure doesn't look like it. And it just goes on and on
like that throughout the book. And here Malachi says that they've,
they're saying that God does not care about right and wrong. You know, He seems to just, you
know, He looks at the evildoers and He's so kind to them. He
pours out His blessings on them. And, you know, what is the point
of trying to follow the Lord? What is the point of being righteous
if the evildoers prosper and the righteous ones suffer? And
they're saying, God, you know, This isn't right. And you can
see there at the end of verse 17, they ask this question, where
is the God of justice? And this isn't a sincere question,
okay? They're not, you know, really
searching, where is he? Where is he? We want to find
him. This is, It's a cynical question. You know, as they watch
what's going on in their society and the evildoers getting away
with their evil, they're like, where is the God of justice?
He's nowhere to be found. And you know, it's different
than what we hear in the Psalms. So in the psalms, you know, the
psalmist cry out, God, where are you? I don't understand what's
going on. But, you know, they're crying
out in pain, but it's a cry of faith. Here, this is, the people
ask this question with a cynical sneer. And this is the difficulty
of waiting. You know, God's delay, or what
seems like a delay to us, it can eat away at our hope. You know, we're Advent people,
we're waiting people. We know what God has done through
Christ. We look forward to what God will
do through Christ. But here and now, today, in our
daily lives, we can't always make sense of things. And we
wonder, God, if you're so good, why did you let this happen?
God, I thought you were powerful. Why didn't you stop this? Where are you, God? It seems
like you don't care. Can I even trust you? And some of you, you know what
these kinds of questions and doubts are like. And we wrestle
with these things. And there's no voice from heaven
shouting out the answer to us. And so we sit here with just
a lot of unknowns, a lot of uncertainty, and the pain gnawing at us, and
disappointment piling up. And maybe you've been there.
And you know what that kind of experience is like. You know,
you can take it for a while, and then you just kind of reach
a breaking point, and confusion gives way to cynicism, gives
way to unbelief, and hope begins to evaporate. And so how do we
find our way back to hope when cynicism sets in? Or maybe you're
not cynical yet, if you're not, praise the Lord. How do you guard
against cynicism? How do you keep hope alive while
you wait? And the answer comes in the next
movement in the passage, chapter three, verses one to four. We
hear an announcement. You know, the people asked, where
is the God of justice? And the answer is, He's coming. That's the announcement. He's
coming. Your waiting is not worthless. That's the message in chapter
three, verses one to four. And it's Advent language. The Lord is coming. So you can
see there in chapter three, verse one, we hear the Lord himself
speak now here in verse one. And he speaks about two different
messengers. Messenger number one, he calls
him my messenger who will come and prepare the way before me. This first messenger is a forerunner. not the Toyota kind, the royal
kind, the royal forerunner. In the ancient world, when a
king was traveling to visit a city, his servants would go to the
city ahead of him and they would drag out the highway construction
crews, they would get to work on the roads, straightening out
the curves, they would smooth the surface of the roadway, all
in preparation for the king's royal procession. And that's
the picture here. As the Lord says, I'm sending
my messenger ahead of me. Israel's Lord and King is returning
to his temple. That's what God is telling them.
That's the announcement. Israel's God is finally coming
to dwell among his people again. And this is Big news. Maybe it doesn't sound like big
news for us. For Israel, this is what they've
been longing for. This is what they've been waiting
for. Not only in Malachi's day, but
even up into the first century, Israel is longing for the Lord
to return to Zion. And you can think of the opening
chapters of the gospel of Luke. And we have these wonderful characters,
Anna and Simeon, that they're in the temple waiting for Israel's
God to return. And so this first messenger is
a forerunner. The second messenger is the messenger,
he's called the messenger of the covenant. He is the Lord
himself. He comes as the covenant Lord.
He comes to inaugurate a new covenant. And so we hear this
announcement. Behold, I'm sending my messenger.
He's going to prepare the way. And the Lord whom you seek, he's
going to come to his temple. That he's going to come as he's
promised. And if you're a Bible reader,
all of this language probably sounds familiar. In fact, we
actually read some of these words a little bit earlier in the service
at the opening of Mark's Gospel. And so in the Gospel of Mark,
he begins to tell the Jesus story, and then he quotes Malachi 3,
along with Isaiah 40, two passages about this messenger who prepares
the way for Yahweh's return. And you probably know this story. Mark quotes this, and then he
points to John the Baptist. And he says, John the Baptist
is that messenger. But then things get really exciting.
If John is the messenger preparing the way for the Lord, that means
Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is the divine Lord returning
to his temple, the messenger of the covenant. And just understand
what the Gospels are telling us. Jesus is the human embodiment
of Israel's God. He is the human embodiment of
Israel's covenant Lord. He's God in human flesh. And so the gospel is open with
this amazing announcement. God's ancient promise to return
is being fulfilled in Jesus. That's the story the gospels
tell. But all of that was still future
for Malachi and his hearers. And so let's jump back into Malachi's
message. What would it look like? Okay,
Yahweh is returning. He's coming back to his temple.
What would it look like when the Lord comes home to his people? And you can see the answer in
verse two, that the Lord is coming to purify his people. He's coming
to purify His people. And so, you know, when He comes,
it's not gonna be all unicorns and rainbows. Malachi, or the
Lord through Malachi, says it's gonna be like a refiner's fire. and like Fuller's soap. And these two images, they're
striking. Metal workers used the intense
heat of fire to burn away impurities from precious metals. And Fuller's
soap, or Launderer's soap, was a strong detergent used to bleach
clothing. And so you would wash the clothing
with this soap and then afterwards you take the clothes and you
lay them out on a pile of rocks and you would beat the clothes
with a broom or a stick. And that's how you got the stains
out of the clothing. And so we hear that when the
Lord comes to his people, it's gonna be like this. And that's
really uncomfortable imagery, right? It doesn't sound pleasant. This purification is painful,
but it's also purposeful. You know, a refiner's fire is
not a wildfire. And we know a little bit about
wildfires here in Escondido, right? We've had our fair share
of wildfires over the years. What do wildfires do? They destroy,
right? They destroy. Maybe some of you
remember the Witch Creek fire back in 2007. That fire tore
through my parents' property, and at the time I had some things
stored on their property, just some collectibles from my childhood. You know, X-Men comic books,
Spider-Man comic books, lots of baseball cards. And they were
stored in this big metal storage bin out at their property. And
that fire just came through. And it consumed everything in
that storage unit. All that was left was ashes. That's what wildfires do. They
destroy. But a refiner's fire, it beautifies. A refiner's fire creates something
pure, something beautiful, something radiant. And that's the imagery
Malachi uses here. And we see in verse three that
God's purifying love, the Lord returns to his people in purifying
love. That love creates a renewed people
of God. We see there in verse three,
this renewal begins at the sanctuary with the Levites. But it doesn't
stop there. Verse four, it extends out to
the people of Judah and Jerusalem. And it says that their offerings,
their sacrifices will then be pleasing to the Lord. And so
it's this picture of God's Purifying love transforms his broken and
sinful people into faithful worshipers. It's a beautiful picture, but
even still, it's still a little terrifying, isn't it? This imagery. And it is. I mean, Malachi says,
who could endure it? Who could stand in that day? How is this announcement good
news? And well, to hear it as good
news, we have to see it in the bigger context. We have to follow
along the story of what God will do and has done through Jesus. And so the people ask, where
is the God of justice? And as you follow the story into
the New Testament, the answer is He's hanging there on a cross.
His arms are outstretched. Love and justice meet in Him. And that self-giving love that
we see in Jesus Christ, it flows out to the world in cleansing
for all who believe. And the reason this imagery is
good news is because Jesus endured the fiery judgment that our sins
deserved. Jesus has already passed through
the waters of judgment in our place. And so in Jesus, God's
purifying love doesn't consume us, it beautifies us. It removes the stain of our sins
so that we reflect God's glory more fully out into the world. This is what Jesus came to do.
This is what we celebrate, that he came to purify a people for
himself, a people who have been cleansed from the stain of their
sins. He's gathering a community of renewed worshipers, a people
who offer their whole lives to God. as a sacrifice, a living
sacrifice. And so we hear this announcement
in Malachi, the Lord is coming. And from our vantage point, you
know, standing on this side of things, we can say, the Lord
has come. And we celebrate it, that forgiveness,
restoration, renewal, it's the new story of our life in Jesus. This is the new reality in which
we live because the Lord has come. And it's good and right
for us to celebrate all of this, but we can't stop there. We can't
dead-end at what Jesus did for us and Too often that's about
as far as we go and it's great. You know, the personal benefits
of the gospel are wonderful Let's sing about them. Let's rejoice
over them, but there's more to the story The good news doesn't
end there. And so in the last movement of
this text, we hear a pledge. So it begins with an accusation,
then we hear God's announcement, and then finally we hear His
pledge in chapter 3, verse 5. And so we have to ask, as we
hear the, as we heard the announcement, the Lord is coming, we think
about what Jesus has accomplished, we have to ask, what about the
world? You know, it's great, we're here
and we're celebrating what Jesus has done for us personally. But
we have to press on and ask, what about the world? I mean,
the world is still broken, isn't it? I mean, you just look around
and it's everywhere. You watch the daily news and
it's just this constant cycle, nations at war. children starving. And the message is again and
again, the world is broken. And we even see it here in our
own city, the city of Escondido. I mean, there's addiction, there's
violence, the exploitation of the weak and the poor. I mean,
you just ask our friends at Alternatives or ask the folks at Interfaith,
and they'll tell you the stories. Our city is broken. So what about the world? What
about Escondido? Where is the God of justice?
And the answer that comes in verse 5 is that he's coming. He's coming again to set the
world right. That's his pledge. He says, 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 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." And so God pledges
he will come again in Jesus. And when He comes, He will judge
the evildoers. And that might not sound like
good news to us, but understand this is God eradicating evil
and injustice from His world. This is God restoring His world
to what He meant it to be. He's setting things right. And you can see here in verse
five, God indicts five specific groups of evildoers, and they've
all got their particular form of evil that they engage in,
but they all have one thing in common. God says at the end there,
they do not fear me. And every one of the sins listed
here, all except the first, every single one is an issue of social
justice. And there's that term. And Craig reminded us last week,
you know, we tend to make a knee-jerk reaction to language like that. And it's unfortunate because
social justice is something near to God's heart. It's something
he cares deeply about. It's something that he calls
his people to care about. And what we see here in verse
5 is God's concern for justice. It's not limited to one little
slice of life. It really touches every facet
of life. You can see here it includes
relational justice. So God, you can see, He calls
out the adulterers for their relational injustice. It includes
legal justice. The text talks about those who
swear falsely. That is, in a legal context,
they commit perjury. It involves economic justice. God talks about those who exploit
workers and widows and orphans. three of the most vulnerable
groups in that society. They really had nobody on their
side, nobody to protect them, and they were easily taken advantage
of. It even involves justice for
immigrants. The text talks about those who
thrust aside the sojourner. And what it's talking about is
denying justice to someone simply because of their status as an
immigrant. And so, God pledges to come and
deal with the world's injustices. And this is both good news and
bad news, okay? It's really bad news if you're
one of the oppressors. If you're one of the people doing
the things God talks about here, we hear that God will stand against
the evildoers as witness, as judge, and as executioner. It's
really bad news. for the oppressors. But it is
wonderful news if you're one of the oppressed, if you're one
of the victims of these injustices. God is saying, I will stand by
you as your defender. I will make things right. And so the gospel It doesn't
stop at our individual salvation. It's bigger than that. It's not
less than that, but it's bigger. It's about God's purpose for
the world. It's about, He intends to rescue
the whole of His creation from the corruption of sin. That's
God's purpose. It's about new creation. A world healed from evil and
injustice. A world where sin and death are
no more. A world filled with the glory
of God as the waters cover the sea. That's what God will do
through Jesus when he comes again. And that's his pledge here in
verse five. And this is what Advent is all
about. We look backward to Jesus' first
coming and we rejoice. We celebrate everything that
he's done for us through his life, death, and resurrection.
We look forward to Jesus' second coming and we long for it. We pray for it. We wait for it. We long for him to come and set
the world right. And then we look outward to the
world. And we remember what God intends
to do through us today. And this is the part we often
overlook. Yes, we enjoy looking back, we
enjoy looking forward, but God also calls us to look outward
to the world and what he wants to do through us. You see, what
God will do for the world one day through Jesus, he has already
begun to do today in the church. And new creation has already
broken in. God is forming us into a renewed
community of faithful worshipers who experience the cleansing
power of Jesus Christ. And our task as a church is to
embody that reality here and now for the sake of the world.
We could even say for the sake of the city of Escondido. See,
God has put Grace Bible Church here in this city for a purpose.
He intends for us as a local church to be a preview of His
promised future, a preview of that new creation. He means for
the church to be a foretaste of it, a witness. And it begins
first with our life together as the family of God, where we're
learning what it means to be the family of God, learning what
it means to be a faithful worshiping community, learning how to live
out this new life in Christ with our brothers and sisters. But
we're also meant to embody this new creation reality in our public
life, in the world. God intends to show the world
what his kingdom is like through the public life of his church. And this really takes wisdom. It requires creativity. I mean,
what would it look like for us individually, but more importantly
as a church, what would it look like for us to embody God's care
that we see here for the poor? What would it look like for us
to embody his care for the marginalized people right here in the city
of Escondido? And I know some of you have been
exploring that and trying to figure out some answers to that,
and we need your insights, we need your leadership, because
God intends to show the city of Escondido what his Kingdom
in Jesus Christ is like through us. And so we we bear witness
to new creation in our life together We bear witness to it in our
life public lives in the world. We also bear witness to it with
our words we come With this good news of what God has done and
will do through Jesus Christ for the sake of the world He
calls us to be good news people And so this question, where is
the God of justice? And the answer we hear is that
he has come in Jesus Christ and forgiveness has been accomplished.
New creation has broken in. He has come. The God of justice
has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ. And he's coming
again to set the world right. And so during this Advent season,
but really in the whole of our lives, we pray, come, Lord Jesus,
come and set the world right. Let me pray for us. Lord Jesus, we do pray that you
would come. Father in heaven, we ask that
you would set up your kingdom more and more in our midst. Help
us by the power of your spirit to embody this new reality of
life in Christ. Would you send out the good news
through us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.
Where is the God of Justice?
Series Advent
| Sermon ID | 121124205456197 |
| Duration | 34:42 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Malachi 2:17-3:5 |
| Language | English |
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