Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across an article titled “Pessimists have been saying America is going to Hell for more than 200 years”.

The author, Maurizio Valsania, quotes from different Founding Fathers to illustrate his point that Americans have always had a pessimistic streak about the direction of the country, and that our current belief that “America is on the wrong track” is simply the latest manifestation of a uniquely American attitude that goes back to the beginning of our country.

In other words, “We’ve been hearing that the United States is doomed since the 1700’s; don’t worry about it...”

But Mr. Valsania’s choice of quotes from our Founding Father’s sounds very different to a Christian’s ears.

He quotes Thomas Jefferson’s words, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever” as an example of Jefferson’s “white guilt”, for instance—but Christians hear those words and understand that Jefferson was saying something thoroughly Biblical and God-fearing.

We do understand that the justice of God is not something to be easily dismissed or ignored: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).

Our text from Malachi this morning falls along the same lines—there are those who think that the judgment of God is no big deal, and there are those who know that judgment is coming, and who in fact are longing for it.

That is the sense of Malachi 2:17:

Malachi 2:17 (ESV)

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?”

The book of Malachi was written about 80 years after the return of the exiles from their captivity in Babylon and Persia, as detailed in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

The people had returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the Temple and the city wall, but their initial enthusiasm for God and worship had waned—God charges them with scorning His love and being bored with Him in worship (Chapter 1), breaking faith with God’s covenant (Chapter 2) and robbing God of the worship and reverence He deserved (Chapter 3).

Here in the verse immediately before our text, God accuses the people of “wearying” Him with their words.

Like the scornful voices around us today, they were saying, “God doesn’t think sin is any big deal—in fact, if He were here today, He would agree with us that these things we are celebrating aren’t sinful at all! God delights in these things!”

And other voices that ask “Where is the God of justice?”—

Either asking ironically: “I don’t see God taking any interest in things down here, we can just do what we want!”

Or perhaps it reflects an earnest cry: “Where is God’s justice?

Why doesn’t He stop the injustice and evil that is being committed every day?”

Whichever sense you read those words, it’s clear that they weary Him—it is tiresome to God to hear people claim that their perversions and wickedness have His stamp of approval, and it’s tiresome for Him to hear people wondering if He has abandoned His justice.

And so God gives Malachi a message for those who think God approves of their wickedness as well as those who wonder whether He has given up executing justice and righteousness.

And as we move through this Advent season with those same wearisome words echoing around us, we have this promise from God’s Word today:

Jesus fulfills God’s PROMISE to PURIFY His PEOPLE

All of the wearisome words of dismissal and doubt would be answered by the arrival of the “Lord who comes to his temple”, the “Messenger of the Covenant”—the final word of God to man, Jesus Christ.

The first thing that God says about the coming of that Messenger of the Covenant is that

I. His ARRIVAL will be SOONER than you expect (Malachi 3:1)

See Malachi 3:1:

Malachi 3:1 (ESV)

1 “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.

The Gospel writers identified that “messenger who prepares the way” as John the Baptist, who we read about earlier in our service.

The text here in Malachi says that the “Lord”, the “messenger of the covenant” would come suddenly to His temple.

Now, the people had been waiting for decades for the glory of the LORD to fill the temple—the prophet Haggai had declared a message from the LORD years earlier that

But here, 80 years later, that “greater glory” still hadn’t been seen.

When Malachi tells the people that the Lord would come suddenly to His temple, it didn’t mean that He was coming quickly—it meant that His arrival would be unexpected—it would be unlooked-for.

And this was first of all a warning

For those who WEARY Him (Malachi 2:17a)

God is warning those cynical scoffers who say, “Well, God must approve of the evil he sees all around—He must be okay with all of this!”

He is warning them that He is coming sooner than they think, and when He does it will not go well for them!

The Apostle Paul makes a similar observation in the book of Romans, when he writes

Romans 2:3–5 (ESV)

3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

In other words, do not mistake God’s patience with your sin for indifference to your sin!

Because when He comes, He will come when you least expect it, and He will come to expose your sin and display His righteousness over you!

And this is exactly what we see happening with Jesus’ first advent, isn’t it?

The Pharisees and Sadducees and chief priests and scribes should have seen Him coming and been ready to receive Him, but they weren’t expecting Him the way they should have been.

And when He arrived, He exposed their wickedness and hypocrisy for what it was.

His coming will be sooner than you think—for those who weary Him by their words they will not have time to change their tune before He arrives because He will arrive when they least expect it.

And in the rest of Verse 1 you see that His coming will be sooner than expected

For those WEARY of WAITING for Him (Malachi 2:17b; cp.

Luke 2:25-32)

For those who are crying out, “Where is the God of justice?

Why doesn’t He answer, when will He come and set all this right?”

we see God’s promise that He has not forgotten them, and He is surely coming!

In the New Testament we see an example of that faithful waiting—Luke’s Gospel tells the story of Simeon, who had been waiting in the Temple for the fulfillment of Haggai’s promise that “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former” and that He would grant peace in that house.

In Luke 2:25-32 we read:

Luke 2:25–32 (ESV)

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

The promise that Haggai and Malachi made about the arrival of the Lord in His temple to bring peace and light and salvation was fulfilled that day when Simeon took the baby Jesus into his arms and blessed God—nobody was looking for the Glory of the Most High God to arrive that way, no one expected the Messenger of the Covenant to appear in the Temple wrapped in swaddling clothes, but God kept His promise to His people to send the One Who would make purification for sins—not only for His people Israel, but for all the peoples of the world!

Jesus’ arrival was the fulfillment of God’s promise to provide a purification that pleases Him—Jesus Christ Himself was the Messenger of the Covenant, the Final Word who came to speak God’s peace to us.

And as Malachi assures his readers that the Messiah’s arrival would be sooner than they think, he goes on to warn that

II.

His RECKONING will be more DRASTIC than you expect (Malachi 3:2; Amos 5:19)

Look at verse 2:

Malachi 3:2 (ESV)

2 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 fullers’ soap.

God gives Malachi two pictures of what His coming is going to look like—a refiner’s fire, and fuller’s soap.

In other words, what is coming is not just a quick touch up—as one preacher put it, God does not say that the Covenant Messenger is coming like a Swiffer mop and a bottle of Febreeze!”

The coming of the Lord of the Covenant to His Temple would be a drastic cleansing!

They didn’t need to be polished a bit to remove a little tarnish--they needed to be thrown into a crucible at 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit and melted down into liquid so that the evil, wicked impurities at their core could be swept away!

They didn’t need “freshened up” with a light deodorizer; they needed to be washed the way a shepherd would wash the fleece that was shorn from a flock of sheep--soaked in fuller’s soap (literally, “whitener’s” soap), a dangerously caustic combination of lye and soda that would destroy the wool if left too long, followed by grinding or thrashing it against a rock and beating it with sticks to drive out the filth and stench of their sin!

(Sermon, Clean Enough, T. Thompson, 2018)

The arrival of the Lord of the Covenant will be a drastic affair

For those who are PLAYING a PART (Amos 5:18-19; cp.

Matt.

7:21-23)

Over a century earlier, the prophet Amos wrote to the pious-sounding Israelites who were putting on a show of their religious fervor for God:

Amos 5:18–19 (ESV)

18 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!

Why would you have the day of the Lord?

It is darkness, and not light, 19 as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.

We see this in Jesus’ first advent, don’t we?

The pious and religiously fastidious Pharisees all claimed that they wanted to see the arrival of the Messiah, that they were waiting for Him to come and “Make Israel Great Again!”—but when Jesus came, His words stung them like lye, He burned them like fire:

Matthew 23:27–28 (ESV)

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.

28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

The arrival of the Lord of the Covenant into His Temple meant a drastic cleansing for those who were playing the part of faithful believers, but who were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

But we see also that His reckoning will be more drastic than expected

For those who are SEEKING to SERVE

The Apostle Paul describes the way that his ministry would be judged by God someday:

1 Corinthians 3:13–15 (ESV)

13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.