Malachi 2:17-3:

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 146
• Hymn — Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin — from Psalm 51
• Assurance of Pardon — Psalm 51:17
• Scripture Reading — Luke 2:22-38
• Hymn — All Glory, Laud and Honor
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer
• Hymn — Come, Thou Almighty King
• Sermon
• Hymn — O God, Our Help in Ages Past
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Lord's Coming Brings Judgment, Pure Worship, and Salvation

Scripture: Malachi 2:17–3:6

I. The Lord's Coming Brings Judgment Within Israel

A. The disputational method in Malachi: declaration, rebuttal, and response

1. Israel accuses God of allowing evil to run rampant in the land
2. Israel accuses God of failing to bring justice

B. Israel's accusations reflect their assumption that God's judgment is directed outward — at Pagan rulers — rather than at themselves

1. They still labor under Persian rule and see no powerful display of God's presence in the temple (cf. Ezekiel 43)
2. God's response: his judgment will begin with his Covenant people and their leaders, not with Pagan nations

C. This pattern holds in the New Testament: Jesus's public ministry is marked by judgment on Israel and especially Israel's leaders, not on Roman governors

1. Parallels Malachi written ~400 years prior — nothing has changed among Israel's leaders
2. Like a mother who corrects her own child regardless of what others do, God holds Covenant people to Covenant standards
3. Application: Is your house set in order for the day of the Lord's visitation? (Deuteronomy warns repeatedly of God's judgment on disobedient Israel)

II. The Lord's Coming Purifies Worship Within Israel

A. Two messengers appear in Malachi 3:1

1. The first messenger prepares the way — identified as the eschatological Elijah (Malachi 4:5); fulfilled in John the Baptist (Matthew 11:14)
2. The second messenger is Yahweh himself, coming to his Temple — the language evokes a theophany

B. The theophanic fire throughout Scripture points to God's visible presence

1. Genesis 15 — God appears to Abraham as a flaming torch
2. Exodus 3 — God appears to Moses in the burning bush
3. Exodus 19 — God descends on Mount Sinai in fire
4. Wilderness wanderings — pillar of fire by night

C. Irony: Israel delights in Yahweh's coming, yet his coming brings judgment and refinement

1. Parallel: Jesus's triumphal entry — the crowd waves palm branches in delight, yet his first act is to cleanse the temple
2. The Court of the Gentiles (some 35 acres) had become a marketplace rather than a place of prayer for the nations, contrary to the vision of Malachi 1:11
3. Jesus's cleansing of the temple removes the obstacle to right worship for the nations, fulfilling the Abrahamic Covenant that all nations would be blessed
4. The old Covenant system is ultimately consumed when Christ himself bears the wrath of Yahweh at the cross, ushering in New Covenant worship in spirit and truth (John 4)

D. Illustration: William Tyndale

1. Tyndale worked to put the Bible into the hands of the English-speaking people; many were burned at the stake for possessing it
2. Tyndale himself was burned at the stake; his dying prayer: "Lord, open the eyes of the King of England"
3. Two years later, King Henry VIII ordered Miles Coverdale's Bible (based on Tyndale's work) placed in every English parish church
4. False shepherds had to be judged and removed so that right and true worship could spread — the same pattern seen throughout the prophets and in Jesus's compassion for sheep without a shepherd

III. The Lord's Coming Accomplishes Salvation for the Remnant Within Israel

A. Refiner's fire and Fuller's soap are agents of separation and purification (Malachi 3:2-3)

1. Fire burns away dross from ore; lye separates dirt from fabric
2. Yahweh separates true Israel from false Israel — the circumcised of heart from the merely circumcised of flesh

B. Malachi 3:6 belongs with this section: God's immutability (unchanging nature) has two sides

1. First side: God does not change in his righteousness — he will bring the judgment Israel accuses him of withholding
2. Second side: God does not change in his covenant faithfulness — he will not utterly consume the children of Jacob; the remnant will be refined and preserved

C. Within a fallen world, God can only bring salvation through judgment — the two cannot be separated

1. Noahic Covenant established after and through flood judgment
2. Abrahamic Covenant established after and through Babel judgment
3. Mosaic Covenant established after and through Red Sea judgment
4. Davidic Covenant established after and through King Saul's judgment
5. New Covenant established after and through the cross of Calvary

D. The cross is the climactic fulfillment: Christ bears the judgment of God so that the law written on stone (which brings only condemnation) is now written on the hearts of his people by the Spirit, as promised in Jeremiah and Ezekiel

1. Christ's resurrection and ascension accomplish judgment over sin and death
2. The cross is the supreme symbol of the immutable God faithful to both his justice and his saving purposes

E. Christ will come again: the fire of God's wrath not exhausted at Calvary will be poured out on all not united to the Son; his people will be fully purified, glorified, and ready for everlasting worship in resurrected bodies

1. Application: let us soberly and genuinely cry out — Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20)