Malachi chapter 3. The title
of the message this morning is The Messenger of the Covenant.
In our study that we've gone through here through all these
different minor prophets, we've seen how the Lord constantly
sent His prophets to Israel. He sent a number of prophets
to Israel before they were carried away to captivity to Babylon.
The Lord did that, giving His people plenty of space to repent.
The Lord sent us preachers, giving us plenty of space to repent,
so that if we go to hell, it's our own fault. We can't blame
God. Then the Lord sent his prophets to Israel after they'd come back
to Jerusalem. He sent those prophets to encourage
the people to continue in the faith, to continue the work that
God had given them to do. They encouraged the people to
rebuild the temple, to restore the right worship of the Lord.
Well, now we come to Malachi. He's the last prophet in the
Old Testament. He's not the last of the Old
Testament prophets, but he's the last prophet in the Old Testament. John the Baptist is the last
of the Old Testament prophets. We'll get to him in a minute.
God sent Malachi to Israel in the time after the temple had
been rebuilt. The sacrifices were being offered
again. Word of God was being read every week in the tabernacle.
Israel had all the right form and the ceremony of religion.
But everything was not as it appeared. Everything was not
well. It looked right on the outside, but God never looks
on the outside, does it? God always looks on the heart.
He saw the hearts of the people that they were not right. Yes,
they had the right form and ceremony, but it was all outward show.
There was no true worship of the Lord. That shows us that
true worship is a heart matter. Just because we've left our homes
and come here this morning does not mean we're worshipping the
Lord. True worship is from the heart. God's not worshipped from
us having the right doctrine. Now, He's not worshipped apart
from right doctrine, but just because we have the right doctrine
doesn't mean we're worshipping God. Just because we have the
right order of surface, the right form, Just because we act real
serious, you know, religious on the outside, doesn't mean
we're worshipping God. God's worshipped from the heart. God
can only be worshipped from a new heart that he gives in the new
birth. And God is only worshipped in
Christ. God is worshipped when we preach
Christ, when we worship Christ, when we look to Christ. We can
only worship God by worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me
say it again. Salvation's not a what. Salvation's
a who. Righteousness is not a legal
state of being. Righteousness is a person. Eternal
life is not living forever. Everybody's gonna live forever.
Eternal life is knowing Jesus Christ, who the Father sent into
this world. So I'm gonna say it again. I reckon I'm going to say this
as long as God gives me breath. Look to Christ. Oh, look to Christ. Don't look to the right form
of religion now. Look to Christ. Don't look to the right doctrine.
You look to Christ. You look to Christ, you find
Him, you'll have the right doctrine. You know, we speak about the
doctrines of grace, the covenant of grace. Well, it's all Christ. Christ is the doctrine of grace.
Christ is the covenant of grace. I'm gonna show you this before
we end the message, Lord willing, this morning. Not only is Christ
the messenger of the covenant, Christ is the covenant of grace
itself. Christ is the messenger of the covenant. So here's my
first point. Christ, the messenger of the covenant, is someone very
important. God looked to him, now he's very
important. Look at verse one of chapter
three of Malachi. Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall
prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom ye seek shall
suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant,
whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. Now you'd think this goes without
saying, but it has to be said. Christ is the Son of God. He's
the only Savior of sinners. It ought to go without saying
He is very important. Yet God still makes this plain
in His Word. the importance of knowing Christ. You can't have life without knowing
Christ. You can't be saved. You can't have righteousness.
You can't have no blessing from God apart from knowing the Lord
Jesus Christ. And God speaks to us here in
language we can understand. At this time, when an important
king or ruler, and people still do it today, when an important
king or ruler was coming to town, he'd send a forerunner to town
first. Just like we're in this election cycle, you know, these
people running for president fancy themselves as important.
Well, before they go to a town, they send an advance party. It's
a forerunner. That's what they are. They're
a forerunner. And that king would send in a forerunner because
he's so important. Everybody needs to know he's
coming to town. Everybody needs to know He's coming. They need
to clear their schedules so they can be there to see this man
and to hear what he's got to say. He's a very important person.
Well, Christ is the messenger of God's covenant, God's covenant
of grace. And it's so important for us
to hear Him. God sent a forerunner to tell
everyone, Christ the messenger is coming. Prepare your heart
to hear Him. He's coming. messenger who's
the first messenger he mentions here. Behold, I'll send my messenger
who will prepare the way before me. That's John the Baptist.
Malachi, like I said, is the last book in the Old Testament,
but he's not the last of the Old Testament prophets. John
the Baptist is the last of the Old Testament prophets. All the
other Old Testament prophets up to Malachi, they all said,
someone's coming over and over and over again. They said, someone's
coming, someone's coming, someone's coming. John the Baptist said,
here he is. Behold, the Lamb of God was taken
away the sin of the world. And you know why God had to send
that forerunner? Because you and I are so lost
in sin. We would miss the Son of God come in human flesh if
God didn't send a forerunner to tell us, behold, here he is,
look at him. We'd have missed him. And Malachi says that John
the Baptist will prepare the way of Christ. How's he going
to do that? How's he going to prepare the
way? By preparing the hearts of the people to receive Christ.
How's he going to do that? By preaching the message of repentance.
He's going to preach the exact same message as Malachi, a message
of repentance turned to the Lord. John prepared the hearts of sinners
to hear Christ the Savior is coming. And He did that by showing
us our sin, showing us our need of the Savior. Once we see our
sin, once God shows us our sin, shows us our need of a Savior,
oh, our hearts will be prepared to receive Him, to look to Him,
won't we? This one comes, the messenger that comes, a very
important person. Nothing more important to your
soul than knowing this messenger. Sinners must seek this messenger
of the covenant. He says here, whom ye seek, in
the middle of the verse there, the Lord whom ye seek. Now we
must seek Christ. If we're gonna hear from God,
we can only hear from him through the Lord Jesus Christ. God hath
in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. Yeah, He's spoken
times past by the prophets, but in these last days, He's spoken
to us by His Son. In Malachi's day, God spoke audibly
to the prophets, not more. Now he speaks to us by his word,
by the word who's made flesh and dwelt among us. If you want
to hear from God, you better seek Christ, because you're only
going to hear from God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
messenger of the covenant. Now we know, he says here, whom
you seek. Well, we know everybody doesn't
seek Christ, do they? And everybody doesn't seek Christ
because they don't know they need him. Now they do need him,
but they don't know it. They ought to seek him, but they
don't because they don't know that they need him. But by God's
grace, somebody's seeking Christ. Look in Luke chapter two, same
day, same thing in the day of our Lord's birth as is today.
Somebody's seeking Christ. And I know who's seeking him.
Everybody who truly believes they're a sinner. Everybody who
truly believes they need a savior, they're seeking Christ. Simeon
was seeking Christ. Simeon wasn't looking for a baby.
Simeon wasn't looking for a religious miracle. Simeon was seeking a
savior from his sin. I know that by what he said.
Look here in Luke chapter two, verse 26. Well, verse 25, and
behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. The same
man was just and devout. He was waiting for the consolation
of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed
unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before
he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to
do for him after the custom of the law, then he took him up
in his arms. There's this old man taking this
baby up in his arms. And he blessed God and said,
Lord, now let us thy servant depart in peace according to
thy word. for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. See, he was
looking for a savior, wasn't he? He was looking for the savior,
and he saw him. And Anna, Simeon wasn't alone.
Anna was looking for the same savior. Look at verse 36. And
there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the
tribe of Asher. And she was of a great age, and
she lived 107 years from her virginity, and she was a widow,
of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple,
but served God with fastings and prayer night and day. And
she coming in, in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the
Lord. And she spake of Him to all that
looked for redemption in Jerusalem. She spoke of Him, the Savior,
who's the Redeemer of His people. Now, are you a sinner? Are you? If you're a sinner,
then you seek Christ with all your heart. And I say with all
your heart. Scripture says you seek Him with
all your heart. You know what that means? You seek Christ with
everything you've got. Everything you've got. And when
you seek Christ that way, God says you'll find Him. You'll
find Christ because he put it in your heart to seek him. You
know, we read there the Holy Ghost was on Simeon. God put
it in his heart to look for the Savior. And he wasn't disappointed,
was he? You won't be either if God puts
it in your heart to seek him. He shall suddenly come into his
temple. He'll suddenly appear to you.
Now the temple Malachi is talking about is this second temple we've
been reading about in these different minor prophets. Zerubbabel and
Joshua building that temple, that's the second temple, not
Solomon's temple, it's the second one. Christ Jesus himself came
to that temple, that Zerubbabel and Joshua built. Malachi says
when Christ suddenly appears and we see him, he'll be our
delight. And the Lord Jesus fulfilled
this prophecy. One day, we just read about it.
Suddenly, with no warning, suddenly, he came into his temple to be
circumcised. And in that day, Christ was our
delight. You know why he suddenly appeared
that day? To be the law keeper. The law demanded he be circumcised,
he appeared to keep the law. He appeared keeping the law for
his people, to establish righteousness for his people. Oh, he's the
delight of every sinner who can't keep God's law. Then there was
another day, Christ suddenly came to his temple. Remember,
his parents had gone to Jerusalem to observe the feast. They all,
the whole troop, you know, traveled home, family and friends, big
bunch of them. And Mary and Joseph thought that the Lord was somebody
in the family. They went a whole day and they
found out, oh, the Lord's not here. He is 12 years old, just
a boy. Imagine a 12-year-old being a
whole day's journey for him. They went back looking for him.
You know where they found him? They found him in the temple.
He was teaching those doctors and those Pharisees the scriptures.
He suddenly appeared in the temple as the servant of his father.
When Mary asked him, what are you doing, son? What are you
doing to us? He said, don't you know I must
be about my father's business? He suddenly appeared as the servant
of His Father, establishing righteousness for His people. Then there's another day. Look
at Mark chapter 11. There's another day Christ suddenly appeared
in His temple. And He famously cast out those
money changers. And in that day, Christ was the
delight of His people. He appeared on that day as the
object of worship. Mark 11 verse 15. And they come
to Jerusalem and Jesus went into the temple and other scriptures
say before he did he made him a whip with some cords. And he
began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple. He
overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of them
that sold doves. It would not suffer that any
man carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying
unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all
nations the house of prayer, and you've made it the den of
thieves? Christ appeared as the object
of worship. Now I wish men would get this
through their thick skulls. The house of the Lord. We call
this building the house of the Lord, the house of worship. This
is not a place for us to come and get recognition. Christ is all. That's all this building's for.
Christ is all. He's all in our doctrine. He's
all in our preaching. He's all in our worship. Christ is all. Now, if you've
got nothing, He's your delight. Christ is all. Then there was
another day, the Lord suddenly appeared in his temple and he
revealed himself as the delight of his people, as the one who
has all power, all authority to save his people from their
sins. He was still there in Mark 11, look at verse 27. And they came again to Jerusalem
and as he was walking in the temple, there came to him the
chief priest and scribes and the elders. and saying to him,
by what authority doest thou these things? Who gave thee this
authority to do these things? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, I will also ask of you one question. Answer me, and
then I'll tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism
of John, was it from heaven or of men? Answer me. And they reasoned within themselves,
saying, now if we say from heaven, he'll say, why didn't you believe
him? But if we save men, well, they feared the people. For all
men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. So this is
what they answered. And they said unto Jesus, well,
we can't tell. Jesus answering, saith unto them, neither do I
tell you by what authority I do these things. So he showed them
there who has the authority here. It's not them, it's him, isn't
it? And he appeared as the one with all authority to save his
people from their sin. Now sinners delight in that message. They delight in the messenger
of the covenant of grace. Every believer delights in that.
Now Christ is the messenger of God's covenant of grace because
that covenant of grace, God's promise, God's purpose of grace
is all revealed in Christ. God's eternal covenant and purpose
of grace can only be revealed. It can only be believed upon.
It can only be delighted in if we believe Christ in the heart.
Now make no mistake, this covenant here, the messenger of the covenant,
he's the messenger of the covenant of grace. It's not the covenant
of law. Sinners are never saved by them
keeping the law. They're never saved by them keeping
any part of the law, ever. Sinners are saved by grace. And that's what scripture says,
by grace you're saved through faith. Even that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. It's all
grace, isn't it? Well, Christ is the messenger of that covenant
because grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. You know, I
never would have known that God elected a people unto salvation
until he sent his son into the world to save them. I never would
have known that. I never would have known that
God loves sinners unless God sent his own son to die for them
as a substitute for their sin. I never would have known that
God saves sinners through the obedience of Christ. Not my obedience,
not anything I do, it's through his obedience. I never would
have known that unless God enabled me to see the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when I saw him, oh, he became my delight. Christ is my righteousness. I can't tell you how much that
delights me. Because, Dan, I'm a sinner. I
can't do anything. I can't do anything right. I
can't do anything good. I could never earn righteousness
or acceptance with God. But Christ is my righteousness. It gives me such delight. It's
perfect. It's eternal. I delight in the
obedience of Christ to the Lord because He gave it to me. I never
could have been obedient, but I am in Him. Oh, I delight in
that. All men have some sense of sin. Until they get to the point Paul
said their conscience is sealed, they have some sense of sin.
Anybody tells you they don't sin anymore, lying to you. There's
always some sense sin polluted. There's always some sense that
sin's damning us. That's why everybody's afraid
to die. We don't want to go face God in judgment. And I didn't know what all that
big to do was about until I saw Christ. I never would have known
that God puts away sin through the sacrifice of another until
he sent his son to die as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. See,
God sent His Son into the world to be the messenger of that covenant,
that covenant of grace, salvation in grace through the substitute.
We never would have known it until Christ came and revealed
it, wouldn't we? And you know, the sinner's real
joy, our real joy is Christ. Our true joy is not found in
ceremony and form and stuff of religion. Our joy is Christ. That brings me to my third point.
Christ is not only the messenger of the covenant. Christ is the
covenant itself. Look at verse two back in our
text in Malachi chapter three. Who may abide the day of his
coming? And who shall stand when he appeared? For he's like a
refiner's fire and like fuller soap. And he shall sit as a refiner
and purifier of sulfur. And he shall purify the sons
of Levi. and purge them as gold and silver,
that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness."
Now what he says here, who may abide that day that Christ appears? Who's going to stand in that
day that He appears? And what he means there, who's
going to believe Him? Who's going to believe Him when He comes?
Who's going to stand? Who's not going to run away from
Him? Only sinners. Sinners are the only ones who
delight in Christ. And sinners are the only ones
who'll come to Christ because that's who Christ came to save.
He came to save sinners of whom I'm chief. And Christ is the
message of grace to sinners. That's why I say he's the messenger
or he is the covenant itself. But now who's going to believe
Christ? Who's going to believe the message of grace in Christ
that this messenger brings? Who's going to believe it? When
a man, now a man, says, I and the Father are one. Who's gonna
believe that? Who's gonna believe him when
he says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And
him that cometh to me I'll no wise cast out. And no man can
come to me, no man has the ability to come to me, except my Father
which sent me drawing. Now who's gonna believe him?
Who's going to believe in God's electing grace to his people?
Who's going to believe in eternal life through the death of the
substitute? When he says, verily, verily,
I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone. But if it died, it brings forth
much fruit. That's talking about life for
his people through the death of the substitute. Who's going
to believe that? Who's going to believe in the
new birth? All of us are going to be like Nicodemus when we
hear about the new birth, aren't we? We're going to say, did I
go back into my mother's womb a second time before? Who's going
to believe in the new birth? Who's going to believe in union
with Christ? When he says, except you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no
life in you. What he's talking about there
is that vital union with Christ. You have no life. without union
with Christ. Who's gonna believe that? Well,
I tell you, the only people who are gonna believe that, the only
people who are gonna stand, the only people who are gonna abide
that, are sinners who need Christ to be their Savior. The only
people who are gonna believe on Christ are sinners who've
already been cleansed from their sin and the sacrifice of Christ.
Do you believe those statements I just read to you? Statements
of our Lord, do you believe that? then you've been cleansed. That's
why you believe it. And Christ does cleanse his people
from all sin. Malachi calls Christ fuller soap. Now you know what fuller soap
is? Well, at this time, women, they'd wash their white clothes
with fuller soap. They put those clothes in water
and they boil the water, bring the clothes and water, they get
all boiled. And then they take fuller soap
and they just scrub those white shirts and they just scrub them
with that fuller soap. Now fuller soap was harsh on
clothes. It'd take all the stiffness out
of them. I want to tell you, it'd make those whites white.
Oh, it'd make them white. It removes every spot stain.
Makes those white shirts white. Well, that's a believer. That's
how a believer is cleansed in Christ. Every stain of sin is
removed. And when you're washed in Christ,
boy, it takes a starch out of you, doesn't it? When we've been
cleansed in Christ, it takes the pride, the arrogance, the
self-righteousness out and makes us dependent on Christ. It takes
a starch out of us, so we're dependent upon Him. But now fuller
soap, that works for the outside, doesn't it? Well, Christ does
more than cleanse the outside. This is an inward cleansing Malachi's
talking about. When he talks about here the
refiner and the refiner's fire, that's a picture of Christ cleansing
His people inwardly, making them holy by taking their sin away
from them and putting it on Him. When He took the sin of His people,
His body on the tree, He alone went through the fire of God's
wrath. And that white hot fire, God's wrath against sin, that's
the suffering of Christ at Calvary. but he made his soul an offering
for sin. He was going through the fire
of God's wrath and that fire burned all that sin laid on Christ's
breath, burned it up so it does not exist anymore. And God's
elect are purified through the suffering of Christ. Sinners
are purified inside and out in Christ. Look at Hebrews chapter
nine. First of all, we're purified.
by the blood of Christ. Hebrews 9, verse 22. And almost all things are by
the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood
is no remission. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with
these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices
than For Christ has not entered into holy places made with hands,
which are figures, pictures of the truth. But he went into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet
that he shall offer himself often as the high priest enters into
the holy place every year with the blood of others. For then
must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.
But now, once, in the end of the world, hath he appeared to
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Christ has purified
his people in his blood. Remember when David cried, purge
me with hyssop and I shall be clean? What was David talking
about there? Well, hyssop is always used to
apply blood. They would dip hyssop into the
blood of the Passover lamb and put it on the doorpost. God said,
when I see the blood that's applied by that hyssop, I'll pass it
over you. David said, apply the blood of Christ to my heart,
and I'll be purified, clean from every sin. We're purified in
the blood of Christ. Now look back a few pages at
Titus chapter three. Secondly, believers purified
in the new birth. Titus chapter three, verse five. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, But according to his mercy, he saved us by
the washing, the cleansing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ, our Savior. In the new birth, there's a new
man born and he's holy. He's perfect. He can never sin. That's the washing of regeneration. We're purified in the new birth.
Then lastly, Ephesians chapter five. but purified by the Word
of God. Ephesians 5, verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Now
why did he give himself for it? that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. We're purified by the word of
God. David said in Psalm 119 verse nine, wherewithal shall
a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according
to thy word. We're cleansed by the word. Well,
does he mean Christ the incarnate word or the written word? Yes,
he means both. You can't separate Christ from
his word. The written word reveals Christ the incarnate word who
cleanses his people from all their sin. Now you see what he's
primarily saying here. He's talking about God's people
being cleansed from their sin by the blood of Christ, by the
sacrifice of Christ in the new birth. We're cleansed from all
sin by Christ going through the fire of God's wrath for his people. But a believer is also purified
by trial. Now we're not purified from sin
by trial, but we're refined and we're prepared for God's use
through the fire of trial. Trials make a believer more valuable
because that fire of trial burns off the draws, burns off what
is us. and leaves what's valuable, takes
the starch out of us so we're useful. And nobody wants to go
through a trial, but we do. If you're one of God's children,
you're going to be tried. And there's comfort in this verse
for a believer in time of trial. First, God only puts his precious
metals in that vault. Doesn't he? He says, I put my
gold and my silver in there. You don't read of God putting
lead in the fire. He's not putting wood and stubble
in the fire. It's His silver and His gold, His jewels. He
puts what's precious to Him in the fire. That ought to comfort
our hearts when God dries the stubble. He only puts in there
what's precious to Him. And He says here, He'll only
purify the sons of Levi. Well, who are the sons of Levi?
They're the priests, aren't they? That's a priestly tribe. Well,
that's every believer. Every believer's been made a
priest unto God. That's why I said if you're a
child of God, you're gonna go through the fire, because he's
gonna purify the sons of Levi. God only sends trials to his
sons. If you're without chastisement,
you're bastards and not sons. He purifies his sons. And then
when we're put into the fire, our God sits. See that? I sit there. He sits beside the
fire. There are times I might be doing
something. Rarely do I cook, but sometimes
I'll cook. I was frying some eggs the other
day, and I was doing something else, and Janet said, you burn
up these eggs! I wandered off and got doing
something else. She said, you burn up these eggs. When our
God puts His people in the fire, He doesn't want to draw. He sits
right there. He sits controlling the whole
event. He's got his hand on the knob
of the fire. How hot does it need to be? He'll turn it there.
Will he turn it too hot? No. He won't turn it too cold
either. It'll be the right temperature
to burn off the dross. But it's in his hands, under
his control. He's watching it. He's watching
the temperature. He's watching His child so that
it doesn't cause any damage to His child. And He'll be right
there so He knows His child, that which is precious to Him,
won't be in the fire one second longer than need be. I'll show you that. Look at 1
Peter 1. He sits, controlling everything about this tribe.
fire, the heat of it, the length of it, so that we're not in the
fire one second longer than need be. 1 Peter 1 verse 6. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though
now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptation. If we're in heaviness through
manifold temptation, it must need be as long as need be. that, this is the purpose, the
trial of your faith, being much more precious than the gold that
perisheth, though it be tried of fire, might be founded of
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. You'll only be in there as long
as need be, because Christ, he is the covenant. He purifies
his people from all sin. And that's my fourth point, the
purpose of God's covenant, the purpose of all this covenant
of grace is to make his people that he chose whole, to make
them just like his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he does,
look at verse four, he does this to make them holy, to make them
pleasant unto him. Then shall the offering of Judah
and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old,
as in former years, Now, how can a sinner be pleasant under
the Lord? Only if they're holy. And the
only way we're made holy is in Christ. The only way our worship
can be accepted is if it's holy. The only way anything about us
can be accepted is if we're holy. And the only way you and I can
ever be holy is in Christ, being accepted in the beloved. Outside
of Christ, we can't please God. We can't do anything acceptable
to him. But now God has a covenant of grace. And the purpose of
that covenant is to make his people holy. But now God's just. He's a just God. He's going to
make his people holy. He's going to do it by punishing
sin. He'll punish the sin of his people in the person of their
substitute. God didn't punish the sin of
all men in Christ. Christ didn't die for all men
to make salvation possible for somebody to accept it. God, do
you know this? This may be a shock to somebody.
God does not offer grace to anybody. He didn't send the messenger
of the covenant to offer grace to see if he'd accept it. He did not. He sent the messenger
of the covenant to his people to bring salvation to them. He
didn't send him to offer salvation. God's grace is for his elect.
God's grace is for sinners. God's grace is for everyone who's
in Christ. And God's a just God. Everyone
who's outside of Christ, everyone who's depending on their own
doing, God's gonna destroy them. Look at verse five. And I will
come near to you in judgment. And I'll come near to you, my
people. It'll be near you, but it won't touch you. I'll come
near to you, my people, to judgment. And I will be a swift witness
against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against false
swears and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,
the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger
from his right. And fear not me, saith the Lord
of hosts. All those who are outside of Christ, who are not trusting
in Christ, who have not been born again, God's going to destroy
them because he's a just God. But Christ comes as the messenger
of the covenant to bring a message of grace to God's people. He
comes as the covenant itself to make them holy, to make them
righteous, to purify them in himself. And here's the last
point. Christ is the surety of that
covenant. What hope does a believer have
that will be saved from the wrath to come? We just read about this
wrath to come, total destruction for everyone outside of Christ.
What hope does a believer have to be spared from that wrath?
We're just as sinful. Every believer, we're just as
sinful as everyone in hell. That's so. You and I were just
as sinful as Judas. Just as sinful. Peter, just as
sinful as Judas. What made the difference? God's
elect in love. That's the only thing that made
the difference. Well, what hope do I have? When God showed me the messenger,
He showed me His Son, sacrificed for me. And I sinned. I counted it as a light thing. Sunday, I go to church. What's my hope? I'm not worthy. What's my hope? My hope is Christ,
is the eternal, unchanging Savior. Number six, for I am the Lord,
Jehovah, God your Savior, I change not. Therefore, because I don't
change, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. I delight in that, don't you?
A believer finds many reasons to delight in God's covenant
of grace. First, we delight in the eternality
of it. You know, it's eternal both ways,
not just eternal from here on out. It's from eternity to eternity. God has always loved his people
in Christ. God's never been angry with his
people, ever. He's eternally saw them in Christ. God set his love upon them, and
he'll always love them. His love will, not only will
he say, never will he tell his people, I don't love you anymore,
never. Not only we not say that, his love never even wanes or
grows. It's always perfect. That's hard
for you and me to understand because our love changes. It's
variable with the weather, but God's love never changes. We
can delight in that. Secondly, a believer delights
in the sureness of this covenant of grace. This covenant reveals
the sure mercies of David. The sure mercies of the Son of
David, who is Christ, who never changes. That mercy is sure because
He never changes. Thirdly, a believer delights
in the graciousness of this covenant. This covenant of grace tells
me not just how, but why God would not give me what I deserve.
It's because He gave Christ what I deserve. Fourthly, just exactly
what this verse says, we delight in the immutability of this covenant. Now you children, immutability.
That's just a great big word that means it doesn't change. God never changes and his covenant
of grace never changes. It's an everlasting covenant.
David says it's ordered in all things and it's sure. Why is
it sure? Because God never changes. So when we sin, when we fail,
when we're in embarrassment, the believer's not consumed because God never changes. God
is just as unchangeable in His mercy as He is in His wrath. It's sure and certain. God's
going to destroy everyone who doesn't believe in Christ. Hell
is a real place that'll be filled with people, but heaven is too. because God's just as unchangeable
in his mercy as he is in his judgment. I didn't make that
up. I read that somewhere. I forget
where, but it's good. God never changes at the way
he looks at his people. He always looks at them in Christ.
So he's always satisfied. They're pleasant to him because
his son is pleasant to him. God never changes in his justice.
If Christ suffered as your substitute, God will never punish you, because
that would be unjust. He doesn't change in His justice.
He's not going to punish Christ as your substitute, and then
you do. No, He's never changing in His justice. And God never
changes in any of His purposes. I've had some purposes, things
I wanted to do, and I was prevented from doing them, and now I don't
want to do them anymore. I change in my purposes. I change
in those things that I want to do. God never changes. If he purposed to have mercy
on your sinful soul in eternity, before he created anything, my
friend, you will receive mercy because he never changes. He'll see to it. So what's your
confidence? Well, it's not based on our faithfulness,
is it? Our confidence is based on the faithfulness of Christ,
who's the messenger of the covenant. I pray God will enable us to
delight in him. We sure should, shouldn't we?
Delight in him. Let's bow. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. We thank you for this written word and how we
thank you for the incarnate Our Lord Jesus Christ, the messenger
of your covenant of grace, that not only told your people about
grace, but brought grace and truth to the heart. He purified
us, made us righteous through his sacrifice, by his word in
the new birth. Father, we're thankful. Father,
by your mercy, By your grace, by your power, we pray that you'd
make this message of Christ, that you'd make the person of
Christ, effectual to each heart here. Father, reveal Christ to
us and in us, that he might be our delight. Enable us to offer
the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving that are acceptable
to you, because you see us and hear us only in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's for His name, for the glory
of His name, we pray and give thanks.