Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Children’s volunteers, don’t forget that we will have a training meeting on August 27th from 9am-2pm.

All children’s volunteers need to be here for that meeting.

Please prepare to partake in the Lord’s Supper next week during the AM Worship Service.

Don’t forget that Discipleship Groups start in three weeks with children meeting in the Activity Room and adults meeting in the Auditorium.

This will be a weekly meeting, every Sunday at 9am that includes intentional discipleship, discussion, and teaching.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the LORD through your giving.

To help you with your giving, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) in-person giving can be done at the offering box at the front of the room—if you give cash and you’d like a receipt for your gift, please place it in an envelope with your name on it; if you give a check, please write it to Grace & Peace.

If you’d prefer to give with a debit or credit card or through ACH transfers, you can do that either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church.

Everything that you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 58)

Our Call to Worship is Psalm 58.

I recognize that it is a long psalm, but I’m sure you’ll notice that if we were to divide it up, it simply wouldn’t make sense.

It is a psalm of David in which he prays for the punishment of the wicked.

David cries out to God to simply enact justice in such a way that people will proclaim God as the God of justice who is righteous.

Please stand and read Psalm 58 with me, I’ll read the odd-numbered verses; please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Congregational Singing

Oh God, My Joy (100)

Beautiful Savior (All My Days) (193)

My Hope is in the Lord (213)

Scripture Reading (Is 40:1-11)

Our Scripture Reading this morning is Isaiah 40:1-11, which is one of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning both the coming the Messiah and the messenger who prepares the way for the Lord.

You’ll notice Malachi making a similar prophecy this morning, which is why I thought it would behoove us to remind ourselves of Isaiah’s prophecy.

Natalie, please read Isaiah 40:1-11 for us.

Sermon

Introduction

If you have your Bible with you, please turn it to Malachi 3:1-7.

We’ve been working through the book of Malachi over the past month or so and thus far, the bulk of our study in Malachi has been focused on these indictments leveled against Israel concerning their sins.

Malachi, speaking on behalf of God—and God have been laying out all the different sins of Israel in a question and answer format where they pose hypothetical questions and then respond to those questions with the specific sins of Israel—they confront Israel for their idolatry and false worship.

They confront the priests for leading people into sin.

And they confront Israel for how they treat one another—their interpersonal relationships and their inability to keep even earthly or human covenants (like their marriage vows).

From this point forward, there is still one more significant indictment against the Israelites, but there’s also a focus on the future and impending judgment.

There are significant statements from Malachi 3 into Malachi 4 about the coming Day of the Lord and what exactly that means for the Israelites.

This morning, we’ll look at the first of these statements sort of interwoven with some additional statements against the Israelites.

Let’s take a moment to read Malachi 3:1-7 together.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two sections: (1) The Coming Messenger and the Purifier (1-4) and (2) The Vindication of God (5-7).

The first section speaks of two different people—the second person mentioned is who the Jewish people would call the Messiah, the first person is the messenger of the Lord that announces the coming Messiah.

We know John the Baptist as the one who announced the coming Messiah; and of course, Jesus as the Messiah.

The second section speaks of coming judgment against the Jewish people.

There is a profound statement being made here in Malachi 3—God didn’t change, the people changed by turning away from God.

If they return, there is forgiveness.

Prayer for Illumination

The Coming Messenger and the Purifier (1-4)

Our text starts this morning by giving us multiple predictions or prophecies concerning the future.

There’s really four different predictions going on in the text—two of them have to do with specific persons who are coming (the messenger and the Purifier) and the others have to do with impending judgment itself.

V. 1 speaks of the two impending people, “Behold, I [this is God speaking] 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.”

The first person mentioned in Malachi 3 is a coming messenger.

This messenger is to come first to prepare the way—most scholars consider this to be referring to the same person that Isaiah 40:3 speaks of when Isaiah says, “3 The voice of one calling out, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

This person is to come before the Lord, Himself.

And this person will be a messenger to prepare the way.

We know from the New Testament, that this prophecy finds its fulfillment in John the Baptist.

Matt 3:1-3 “1 Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, “The voice of one Calling Out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight!’

””

Matthew 3 tells us that John the Baptist is this messenger that was sent to prepare the way of the Lord.

And Matthew 3 tells us what exactly the message is that the messenger proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

This tells us that the message that was used to prepare the way for the Lord was that of repentance—there is a need to repent before the Lord comes.

Why exactly is there a need for repentance before the Lord comes?

He hasn’t told us yet.

The second person mentioned in Malachi 3 is the Lord Himself.

He says that the messenger will prepare the way before Him.

“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.”

Now this doesn’t exactly explain why there is a need for repentance, but it does start hinting towards the reasonings for repentance.

Remember, that we are in a book written to indict Israel for their sins and tell them what is to come.

Thus far, a large portion of the letter has been the reasoning for their indictments—false worship, idolatry, sacrifices that were unacceptable, and just outright sin.

Like I’ve said multiple times now, Malachi isn’t the first warning; it’s the last warning, which is why (in v. 1) God mentions that “the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight . . . is coming.”

Why is there a need for repentance?

Because of the Mosaic Covenant that Malachi keeps bringing up.

They need to repent because of the conditional covenant in which the Israelites were supposed to follow, which they clearly weren’t following.

And remember, from Deuteronomy 11:26-28 “26 “See, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.”

If they obey God’s commands, they receive blessings; but if they don’t obey God’s commands, they will be cursed.

The prophecy from Malachi concerning the coming of the Lord is part of the warning that’s given by the Lord to the nation of Israel.

In v. 2 tells us what exactly the purpose of His coming is, “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.”

The Lord is coming and what v. 2 says is that His coming is not going to be pleasant.

In fact, it’s going to be intense, so intense, that Malachi asks, “who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?”

When the Lord comes, who is described as the messenger of the covenant, the nation of Israel is going to face tremendous difficulty, but this isn’t hardship or difficulty in the same way that we think of it today because when we think of hardship or difficulty, we tend to think of it in terms of consequences from our own sin or suffering, or even the consequences of living in a sin-cursed world.

What makes the coming of the “messenger of the covenant” so difficult?

We see the answer in Vv 2b-3, “For he [meaning the coming Lord] is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ 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.”

Malachi calls the coming Lord, “like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.”

The first illustration might be easy to pick up on because it’s an illustration that we all at least have some idea of what it means even if we’ve never actually seen it in-person.

A metal refiner is a person who uses extremely high temperatures to melt metal down and remove impurities—it is a process that is time-consuming, that involves fire and heat.

And if you think of this in terms of God being the refiner who is refining Israel, you can only imagine then that Israel needs to be placed in extremely high temperatures figuratively for their refinement.

The second illustration might be a little more unfamiliar.

The coming Lord is like “fullers’ soap.”

Fullers’ soap is a specific type of acidic soap that was utilized to whiten clothes.

In some ways, you can say that it was an early form of bleaching clothes that needed to be whitened.

The effect was that the impurities used to make colors would be pulled out from the clothing.

You can see what the point of the illustrations are, to show that refining work of the Lord—God will clean them, He will purify them, He will refine them.

Malachi says that the Lord will act as a refiner and purifier of silver to purify the sons of Levi, “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.

In context with Malachi, it’s clear that he’s speaking of their sins—their false worship, their idolatry, and their unwillingness to offer the sacrifices that God demands from them—the unblemished, first-fruits of their flock.

The result of the purifying work of the Lord on Israel is found in vv.

3b-4, “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.”

After being cleansed by the Lord, after being refined, after having all the impurities burnt out, they will finally bring offerings that are right in the Lord.

They will finally do what is pleasing to the Lord, just like how their forefathers did in former years.

So, Malachi speaks of a coming messenger who will prepare the way of the Lord—then the coming Lord will purify Israel in such a way that they’ll finally worship Him the way that they were supposed to worship Him.

They will finally offer sacrifices the way that they were supposed to offer these sacrifices, but refining Israel isn’t all that the Lord plans to do.

In fact, He continues in vv.