Sermon Tone Analysis

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Today’s passage in Malachi begins with an accusation.

Malachi said,

(CSB) — 17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.

Yet you ask, “How have we wearied him?”

When you say, “Everyone who does what is evil is good in the Lord’s sight, and he is delighted with them, or else where is the God of justice?”

(CSB) — You have wearied the Lord with your words.

There are two accusations here.

(1) They performed evil deeds and said that they were good in the Lord’s sight.

And (2), they were functional atheists in that they did not see God’s justice—certainly, the cried on the alter and did not get a response.

Words are wearisome.

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When was the last time you were lied to?

When was the last time someone made you a promise that you knew they couldn’t keep?

Those kinds of words are always wearisome.

But, sometimes words are wearisome, not just because of their content, but because of their volume.

There are people who talk at you not to you.

And they go on and on with their agenda without listening to a word you say in response.

And that wears you thin.

It’s wearisome.

And some words are wearisome out of shear ignorance.

They talk and talk about things they know nothing about.

Malachi told Israel that they wearied the Lord with their words and their response was,

Malachi said that these two issues wearied the Lord.

(CSB) — “How have we wearied him?”

That’s ignorance.

They don’t even know what they said to weary God.

So, Malachi told them.

1 “See, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me.

Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple, the Messenger of the covenant you delight in—see, he is coming,” says the Lord of Armies.

(CSB) — When you say, “Everyone who does what is evil is good in the Lord’s sight, and he is delighted with them, or else where is the God of justice?”

Literally, “Here I am.”

The Israelites believed that they were in God’s favor strictly because they were God’s people.

So, then, even if they lived immoral lives, they said God delights in them, that they are still good.

It’s like when you go to a funeral for someone who lived a really bad life and someone says, “But, I know his heart was good.”

The Jews wearied God with their words and then complained that God wasn’t present with them.

‘My messenger’ is a reference to Elijah who was present through John the Baptist.

John is the original messenger of the New Covenant if, in fact, Jesus Christ is the one who establishes the covenant.

This is a promise that the messenger is coming and in fact, the Messiah is coming.

And then, they were adding to that the accusation that God wasn’t present with them.

In other words, We’re so great and holy, so why have you removed your presence from us!?

The word suddenly speaks of swift judgment.

Swiftness is oftentimes associated with condemnation, the swift hand of the Lord.

2 But who can endure the day of his coming?

And who will be able to stand when he appears?

For he will be like a refiner’s fire and like launderer’s bleach.

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And I fear that many Christians live right there today.

There is a very common and I believe harmful teaching in our churches today that the way you become a Christian is by accepting Jesus into your heart.

You are told that you need Jesus because your life is falling apart around you and that he will come in to you to repair all the damage that has been done in this life and in eternity.

If you just say this prayer to accept Jesus into your heart, then you can be saved from everything that haunts you.

This verse speaks to the reality of the human condition.

No one can endure the day of the Lord’s coming.

No one can stand before God.

The Lord comes as a refiner’s fire, to purify a people for Himself.

He comes as a launderer’s bleach or fuller’s soap (ESV) to make white, blood stained garments.

These are not words of condemnation, but speak to the sanctification Christ brings upon His people by the presence of His Spirit.

It is a swift sanctifying that is in mind in verse 1.

So, you say the prayer and maybe start going to church, and you no doubt begin to pray, but you find out that nothing changes.

Your incantation and new religious habits have done nothing to fix your circumstances.

And so you weary God with your words, Where is the God of Justice?

Where is God when I need Him?

Where is God in all this pain?

3 He will be like a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver.

Then they will present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.

The foundational issue with this approach to Christianity is that we don’t tell God where He can go.

Jesus will enter into whom he wills.

He does not enter because we invite him.

Read the Gospels and you’ll see that the demons never asked permission to enter a person.

How much more powerful is Christ, then?

He doesn’t need your permission for you to receive him.

Notice the wording of ,

Verse 2 speaks of any person, but 3 speaks of the priests.

Where in ch. 2, they could not present offerings to God, now being purified by the Spirit, offerings are made and accepted by God.

(CSB) — He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

4 And the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord as in days of old and years gone by.

We did not invite Jesus’s Spirit into us, but the Spirit of God came into us through Christ.

If you are a Christian, the Spirit of Christ was placed in your heart and Jesus does not need your permission to live there.

As in the early days of Israel, when Judah was righteous, their sacrifices will be pleasing to the Lord.

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See, when you teach someone to accept Jesus into their heart, you are working on the assumption that Jesus is going to do what you invite him to do.

Saying a prayer to be saved, inviting Jesus into your heart is not assurance of salvation and it is not assurance of the indwelling of the Spirit of God.

In fact, I believe it is rarely the case that the a person is saved—receives the Spirit and is justified—at the time that they first profess Christ.

5 “I will come to you in judgment, and I will be ready to witness against sorcerers and adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who oppress the hired worker, the widow, and the fatherless; and against those who deny justice to the resident alien.

They do not fear me,” says the Lord of Armies.

Incantations, like saying a prayer do not result in the Spirit.

Even rituals like baptism do not result in the Spirit.

What the scriptures teach is that the Spirit comes into a person when they becomes loyal to Jesus Christ.

The Spirit comes when a person chooses no longer to live for themselves, but to live for Christ.

And that’s how salvation occurs: loyalty.

The promise of sanctification is not, however, universal, for all Israel.

In the judgment that results in the purification of many, comes the condemnation of others, namely the sorcerers, adulterers, liars, oppressors of servants widows and orphans, and those who refuse justice to foreigners living among them.

But, we don’t tell people that.

We don’t tell people that following Jesus means complete abandonment of everything that they are.

Well, I do.

But most Christians don’t.

Whether you realize it or not, the accept-Jesus-into-your-heart Gospel, communicates that Jesus is something you add to your life.

He’s another charm on your charm bracelet.

He’s a patch on your uniform.

He’s meant to take who you are and elevate you to be something better.