Last Sunday, we were in Luke
chapter 15, having to do with those three parables of the lost
sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Wednesday night, we
took a little journey in the book of Malachi. So if you turn to the book of
Malachi, we might just run over quickly what those things were
on Wednesday. There are seven times in the
book of Malachi that the Lord is said to put words in the mouth
of the people of Malachi's generation that claim to know God and to
believe Him, to be looking for the coming Messiah. But these
seven statements in the form of a question. Now, there are
a lot of other questions, but these are particular questions
that God puts on our tongues. The first one is in verse 2 of
chapter 1. Wherein have you loved us? What is so special about God's
love? Well, if you ever find out that
God doesn't love everybody, you'll understand. He doesn't prostitute
that love. He loves those people that He
gave to Christ into old, eternal, precious, everlasting cubs. All right, the second question
is down in verse number six. The end of that verse, and I'll
show you the three words, and you say, this is the Lord speaking
through the prophet, to the people of Israel and Judah and Jerusalem,
And he says, and you say, wherein, how have we despised your name? The charge has just been laid
against them that they despise the very name of the God of the
Bible. Wherein have we despised your
name?" And he goes on to answer that question, which we don't
have time for. So if you'll move now to, if I can find my next
one. Let's see. It's in chapter 2
at the very end, verse 17. Is that right? That was, I'm
sorry, before you leave, back up to chapter 1. The second question
is in verse 6, and the third question is in verse 7. And here
it is having to do with polluting God's altar. And you say, wherein have we
polluted you? How did we pollute your altar?
And it tells you in the next following verses. Now we jump
from verse 7 in chapter 1 to the last verse of chapter 2, which is
17. Here's the fourth question. You
have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say, wherein,
how have we wearied Him? And we're going to answer that
question again this morning because we're going to start at that
verse right there. But let me finish my little trick.
Over in verse 7, The last sentence in that verse, we're in chapter
3 now, verse 7, but you said, wherein shall we return? The Lord had said to them just
prior to that, the sentence previous to that, return unto me and I
will return unto you. But the truth is that we will
not return to God until God comes to us first. But anyway, there's
the question. Wherein shall we return? All right. Verse number eight is the sixth
of these questions. Using the words, but you say,
second sentence, but you say, wherein have we robbed you? What is it to rob God? It's called tithes and offerings,
but that's a bit misleading to the mindset of today's religious
person. The question is, how do we today
rob God? And I'm telling you it ain't
about your money. It's robbing God of His glory in Christ, our
substitute and Redeemer. One more, verse 13 of chapter
3, second sentence again. Yet you say, what have we spoken
so much against you? You mean people actually slander
God? Lord, we're born in that state,
ladies and gentlemen, and we don't escape it until we're born
again. And we're still plagued with
it. Our mind, we have two minds. We have a new one and an old
one. And there's a constant battle between the two. And if you don't
have that battle, you don't have Christ. And if I don't have it,
I don't have it. All right, so let's read this
reading now. We're going to start at verse 17 of Malachi chapter
2. I hate to dive in right in the
middle of that list of questions. I guess to my dying day I'll
be trying to figure out how to answer those questions. Verse
17, Malachi chapter 2. You have wearied the Lord with
your words, yet you say, wherein have we wearied Him? Here are
three answers to that question. When you say, Everyone that does
evil is good in the sight of the Lord. You have wearied God
with your words. Number two, and God delights
in these people who are being referred to. And the third answer
is, where is the God of judgment? That's my title this morning. You could just ask it, where
is the God of the Bible? Because the God of the Bible
is a God of judgment. Judgment day is coming, and we're
going to all be there, whether we want to be there or not. And
everything will be exposed for us. Where is the God of the Bible? Behold, I'll send my messenger,
and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom
you seek shall suddenly come to his temple. Even the messenger
of the covenant whom you delight in, behold, he shall come, says
the Lord of hosts. But when Christ comes, Verse
2, who may abide the day of His coming? Or ask another way in
the next phrase, who shall stand when He appears? Who can tolerate
Christ's coming? Not everybody did. The vast majority
did not. Here are some reasons for this.
For he is like refiner's fire that you refine gold or silver,
and he's like fuller's soap. And he shall sit as a refiner
and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi. Christ is our spiritual Levi,
and if we're in him, we are the sons and daughters of Levi. And
purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the
Lord an offering in righteousness. What is a righteous offering?
Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto
the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. And I'll
come near to you to judgment and I'll be a swift witness against
the sorcerers and against the adulterers. And I would especially
remind you in verse five to look at this concerning spiritual
things. What is spiritual sorcery and
what is spiritual adultery? and against false swearers, 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, says the Lord of hosts." Verse 6,
I am the Lord, all capital letters. That means the Lord God Jehovah,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I am the Lord. I change not. Did you know that the God of
the Old Testament is the same God? God can't change. He does not change. Not ever. Not for any reason. He does not
change. Thank God He doesn't change.
Therefore, you sons of Jacob, you sinners like Jacob, are not
consumed. All right, have you found the
place in Malachi 2, verse 17? If God were to see fit to open
my understanding to understand this reference to the God of
judgment, where is the God of judgment? If this had all but
disappeared from the worship of Judah and Jerusalem in the
time of Malachi, What on earth is our state? I mean, the state
of religion in America today. You can't find the God of judgment. God is a loving and forgiving
God. There's nothing about His being
holy and righteous and just. Many years ago now, there was
an ad in the Fayetteville Observer from a church in downtown Fayetteville,
a large, well-established church. Pretty sizable ad, kind of ad. It wasn't a whole page or a half
page. Like this and about like this with a black. And it had
this question on it. Would you come back to church
if we promised not to throw the book at you? Would you come back
to church if we promised not to offend you? Now ladies and
gentlemen, somebody's going to have to be offended if God or
the people You cannot teach and preach this without bringing
an offense. If you try to diffuse the gospel
from its power, you don't have anything left but a shell, and
there's no life in it. And the ad went on to say, we
believe in a God of mercy and grace, and we hope you'll join
us, and some other things they had to say. But they let you
know in no uncertain terms. Whatever's in this book that
we think will offend you ain't going to be mentioned in our
place of worship. Now that's inviting God to take
a height and put the crown of deity on the head of any Tom,
Dick, and Harry that comes in the front door. And if that's
religion, you and I ought to vow we'd rather die than be involved
in awful apostasy. Yet, that's where most of the
world... Read those articles in your bulletin
by Ada, Robert Haldane, and some others. It's a powerful package
of articles. So I'm here to ask you this question.
Where is the God of Judgment? I know one thing for sure. He's
all over the Bible. But where is He in today's life
in supposedly Christian religion in our day. Now here's the way
I want to try to answer that question. And everything is centered
on that one question. Where is the God of judgment?
Now the first answer is in the first verse of chapter 3. Behold, I'll send my messenger
and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you
seek shall suddenly come, now watch this expression, to His
temple. Whoever is coming owns the temple. Now what temple is that? Let me finish verse 2. Even the
messenger of the covenant, Christ is called the messenger of the
everlasting covenant. whom you delight in, at least
professedly. Behold, he shall come, says the
Lord of hosts." Now Malachi is writing like 350 years before
Christ actually comes into this world and take on humanity. This
is the last word from God for three and a half centuries. Why does God wait so long? He's not running out of time.
He determines time. Most preachers today preach God
to be like us, that this is who God is. I'm glad that ain't so. It cannot be so. We want everything
yesterday. See kids getting married and
they want a new house and new cars and a thousand other things
before they ever get started. That ain't my experience. That
wasn't how it was with my wife and me, I'm sure. Now she might
have had plenty of money, I just never found it out. Where is
the God of judgment? In that same verse, In verse 1 of chapter 3, I meant
to say, who is to announce to mankind the coming of Christ? Do you know who the forerunner
of Christ is or was? His name is John the Baptist. You can find this described in
Matthew chapter 11. We won't turn there this morning.
Verses 1 through 15. And John faithfully described
who the Lord Jesus was. Then he got in trouble with King
Herod for telling him he couldn't marry his brother's wife, and
he did anyway. And when that woman requested
John's head, they were on a silver platter. But before that happened,
while John was still in prison, he sent some of his disciples
to ask the Lord Jesus if he were really the Messiah that John
had come to proclaim and had identified at the Jordan River
and baptized our Lord Jesus. And the dove descended from heaven
just like John had heard in this vision or revelation or whatever
it was that he had that gave him such a place. John is the
messenger the forerunner, the announcer of our Lord Jesus Christ. Second question, not only who
will announce Christ's coming, but who is it that comes? Who shall come? Who shall come? Verse 1, chapter 3, Behold, I'll
send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me And
the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple,
even the messenger of the covenant. The Lord who comes to his temple
is the messenger of the everlasting covenant of grace, whom you delight
in, or at least claim to. Everybody that says they delight
in Christ do not delight in Christ. You don't have to spend very
long with them before it comes out. You talk to people, say,
how about reading this tract? I'm so glad to get that. I'll
read it. And the next time you talk to them, it's like they're
talking in a foreign language. You know, nothing that they read
has affected their thought about their religion. They're in a
false religion and don't know it. Behold, he shall come, and
come he did. And my, what a coming it was.
Next question. I hope I can. Where shall the
messenger of the covenant come to? You remember I pointed it
out to you when we were reading? It's in verse 1, chapter 3. Shall suddenly come to His temple. Now you know the Lord Jesus told
the Jews if they tore that temple down, He could build it again
in three days. He's talking about Himself. They thought He was
literally talking about rebuilding the temple. When Christ came,
what good is the temple anymore? Worshipping God through animal
sacrifices and all the rites and ceremonies of Old Testament
Judaism, these things are now passé. They have no business
being practiced anywhere by anybody, let alone people that call themselves
Christians. He shall come to him. Now, I've tried to divide this
up regarding Christ's temple. And I do need you to turn a couple
of times. Let's start off in John chapter
2. John chapter 2. First of all,
the temple is the physical body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ himself is the temple.
I mean everything in the temple. And before that, everything in
the church is Christ. Every last thing. Every piece
of furniture. down to the altar and the mercy
seat and the blood that was sprinkled on it. It all speaks of Christ. Chapter 2 of John, verses 19
through 21, Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this
temple, and in three days I'll raise it up. Then said the Jews,
Forty-six years was this temple in building, and will you raise
it up in three days? but he spoke of the temple of
his body." Now that's plain, isn't it? There's no debate about
that. There's no temple on the face of God's earth. The only
temple since our Lord died on the cross, the only temple in
this world is Christ Him. Secondly, if you go to Luke's
gospel, back to your left just a little, Luke's gospel chapter
2, verses 25 through 28. Now here's
an amazing little brief statement of scripture that just is powerful
indeed, wonderfully so. Luke chapter 2, now there was,
when Christ came, There was, in Jerusalem, a literal temple. It had a roof. It had walls.
It was a real place. It wasn't anything compared to
Solomon's temple. It was much smaller than that.
But that's the big adieu. And our Lord came. Let's read
it here in Luke chapter 2, verses 25 through 28, I believe I've
got. No, I've got 38. I'll have to
read fast then. Verse 25, Luke chapter 2. And
behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the
same man was just, that means righteous, and devout, religious,
waiting for the consolation, the hope, the promised hope of
the Lord Jesus, the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost
was upon him. Now, somehow or another, a lot
of people in the Jewish nation figured out from the writings
of the prophets in the Old Testament that the coming of the Messiah
was getting close to being a reality. Even the Samaritan woman at Jacob's
well in John chapter 4. You know, after she was so dumb
about so many things, she says, well, I know one thing, Messiah
is coming and when He comes, He'll tell us all things. And
there she's talking to the Messiah Himself and doesn't recognize
Him. That's how blind everybody is
by nature. And we can't see until God gives
us sight. And I ain't talking about physical
sight. And the Holy Ghost was upon Him and it was revealed
unto Him by the Holy Ghost or if you want to call it the Holy
Spirit, that he should not see death. Simeon could not die until
he had seen the Lord's Christ. And Simeon came by the Spirit
into the temple. Amazingly, his time to serve
was exactly the time that the Lord Jesus was to be brought
into the temple for the 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 Simeon took Christ up in
his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let your servant
depart in peace. How come? According to your word,
for my eyes have seen yours. Now here is an infant, the Lord
Jesus, an infant. You know how old He was? Forty
days old. And Simeon sees in that infant. That, my friend, takes more than
what man has upstairs or downstairs. It takes God giving us eyes to
see and minds to understand and hearts to believe that this goes
on to say Now let your servant depart, my eyes have seen." And
there's another lady down in verse 36 who's also in the temple. Best I can figure it out, this
woman is something like 104 years old. She's been a widow now for
84 years. And there was one Anna, verse
36, a prophetess of the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age and had
lived with a husband seven years from her virginity, and she was
a widow of about 84 years, which departed not from the temple,
but served God with fastings and prayers night and day, and
she coming in that instant. gave thanks likewise to God and
spoke of Him to whom? To all them that looked for redemption. Therefore, they are looking for
redemption. More people looking for Him than
you would think and less than a whole lot of others. So there
is the literal temple. That's the first time Christ
entered that temple. He was 40 days old. He went there
every Passover once a year and for other purposes and feasts.
But I'm telling you, once the Lord Jesus cried on the cross,
it is finished. Jewish worship is no good anymore. No wonder the Ethiopian went
to worship in Jerusalem and worshiped like he always had in the Jewish
community. And he left in his chariot. And
when Philip found him by the Lord's instruction, Philip said,
do you understand what you're reading? He was reading Isaiah
53. He said, how can I except some
men teach me? Philip got in that chariot. But the main body, our main thought should be, The
only temple there is now, it's not a physical structure. People
who are brought to love and trust and rest meet for worship. It
don't matter what kind of building it is, it can be in the open
air. But if God presences Himself, at least for that period of time,
that, my friend, is a reality. Verses 2 and 3 in chapter 3,
What will Christ do when He comes? But who may abide the day of
His coming? I'm at Malachi 3.2. Or you might
ask it this way, who shall stand when He appears, when Christ
comes, when He appears? For He's like refiner's fire
and fuller's dust. And He'll sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver and shall purify the sons of Levi and purge
them as gold and silver. They may offer unto the Lord
an offering in. Now let me hastily read you a
statement that I'm supposed to already have marked in my Bible
and you won't have to turn it. Let me read you the statement
and then I'll tell you where to find it. Peter writes these
words, If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, to
whom coming as unto a living stone." A living stone. "...are built up a spiritual
house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Now that's the only worship that
can be called New Testament worship. or the worship of God the Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, and for that matter, God the Father and
God the Holy Spirit. All right, the next question,
also in verse 2, in this second verse of chapter 3. Who will
abide the day of Christ coming? Now let's think in a different
direction. when the Lord comes to a sinner
in a way of grace to save him. Look at verse 4 in Malachi chapter
3. He describes it this way, Then
shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the
Lord in the days of old and as in former years. God is pleased
with that. Now there's another coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. He's been down here in the flesh.
He's still here in the Spirit. But He's coming again. And our Lord Jesus is the Judge.
Let's see, look at verse 5, I believe it is, in chapter 3. And I'll
come near to you to judgment, And I'll be a swift witness against
the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false
swearers, and against those that oppose the hireling in his wages,
the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger
from his right. And fear not me, says the Lord."
Let's see, somewhere in the Psalms it says, the fear of God is the
beginning of wisdom. A person cannot rightly fear
God, and then they can't help it. Cannot help it. They do fear Him. They do indeed. All right, one more. Back in
Malachi, part of verse 3, the second part, and all of verse
4. What shall be the result of Christ's
coming? starting with the statement in
verse 3, 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 in Malachi's day, the priest
turned a blind eye, they brought cripple, lame, diseased, animals
to be sacrificed in the worship of God, and for the right amount
of money, the priest would tell you that God has received your
gift, and you're exonerated from your sin. But the problem is
they were lying. "...they shall offer unto the
Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah
and Jerusalem be pleasant, as in the days of old and as you
know it's like we have turned a corner somewhere in the history
of man and it's like we do not really believe that God sees
us everywhere. He sees every thought we think,
every motive of our heart, every deed, good as well as bad. He sees it all. All things are
opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. That's found
somewhere in Hebrews. And only the person who is saved
by free sovereign grace can be saved. My sins are paid for. That doesn't mean I'm supposed
to say we're not. Even when we say we don't, we ain't telling
the truth. Call it quits.