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Please take a seat. As we work our way through the Book of Malachi we're up to Chapter 2 verse 17.

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Hayley's going to come up and read this passage for us. If you're using one of the Bibles provided on the chairs, you'll find it on page 779.

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So please turn with me to Malachi Chapter 2 verse 17.

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You have wearied the Lord with your words. How have we wearied him, you ask? By saying all who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased with them. Or, where is the God of justice?

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I will send my messenger, he will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come, says the Lord Almighty.

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But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.

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He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness. And the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by as in former years.

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So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers. Against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice. But do not fear me, says the Lord Almighty.

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Good morning. Good morning again. Before we get into the text this morning, let us ask the one who gave these words to his church to help us in the doing. Would you please pray with me?

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Father God, we are so thankful that we are able to be here this morning, gathered around these words, inspired by the Holy Spirit and given to your church.

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We ask this morning that your spirit would indeed work in and amongst us and that our precious Lord Jesus Christ would be held so high in our midst that these words of eternal life would draw all manner of people to you.

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We ask for this in the name of our Lord and Savior. Amen.

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I don't know how many of you have been on a long car trip, but you probably know how the rhetoric goes with your children.

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Are we there yet? No. How long will it be? I told you before. He hit me. Stop hitting your sister. This car smells funny. Please be quiet. I feel sick. I'm hungry.

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Are we there yet? Are we there yet? And round and round and round it goes.

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Now I mention this because that's pretty much the attitude of the people towards God in the book that we have with us this morning.

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They were like complaining children that were on a long trip and getting impatient with their father, even though he had repeatedly told them that he was in control, that he was going to get them to where they needed to be.

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And Malachi says it's getting tedious. But even though you keep complaining, even though you keep whining, God hasn't stopped the car and left us to get us to where we need to go.

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No, he's still driving this thing. And there's good news up ahead, wonderful things up ahead. But you have to be patient.

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And so if you have your Bibles with you this morning, let us peer into these wonderful things. Look with me at verse 17.

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A prophet says, you've wearied the Lord with your words. Now, if you've been with us in this series so far, that should be pretty obvious.

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I mean, for the past several weeks, we've seen Malachi bring a series of accusations from God to his people.

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And then his people complain about things not being good enough. I mean, think about it in chapter one, God started the whole thing by saying, I love you.

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And then his people, they audaciously replied with, how have you loved us?

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To which God reminded them that he was there, they were his chosen people, and that against all the odds, he was for them and not against them.

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He was with them and they had a home to prove it. Then in line of that, he pointed out that he'd been grievously dishonoured by their actions,

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to which they replied, how have we done that? How have we dishonoured you?

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Well, they were sacrificing lame animals and in other words, they brewed a culture of giving God second best and keeping the cream of the crop for themselves.

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Was that really best? Then last week, we saw that the people, particularly the men, were complaining like they felt like God wasn't present with them anymore.

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And they asked, why? Why won't you accept our praise and worship?

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To which God pointed out, you've unlawfully separated from your believing wives and are now bringing pagan practices into church life.

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Do you think it's acceptable? Every step of the way, in God's kindness and mercy, he has spoken to his people and reminded them that they're in covenant.

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And they, like many before them, were turning from him and going down a path which would have devastating consequences.

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It's interesting what Malachi says here. You've wearied the Lord with your words.

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And church, can't that be the feeling when we go to that special someone, to that friend of ours, to our children,

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when we can see that their actions are so detrimental to their own health and safety.

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And we warn and even plead that they might think about what they're doing and about the consequences of their actions.

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Many times, we're wearied by seeing our loved ones ignoring sound advice and calls for repentance.

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And we're wearied because we love them, quite simply because we're invested in them and we want their best.

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Well, this is a picture of God's heart towards his people. He points out, he warns, and when his people keep complaining, keep ignoring,

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it's like a father's heart being wearied by his wayward children.

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So this is why what comes next is so saddening. And it really shows just how far the heart of the nation had gone backwards.

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God has been reminding his people of who he is and what they are to him.

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And yet every step of the way, like spoiled teenagers, they've replied with, how have we done that?

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How have you been there for us? Well, surprise, surprise.

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We read in the rest of verse 18 here, after Malachi's challenge that the people respond with, how, how have we wearied him?

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And so our prophet gets right to it, to a particular attitude among the people, replying, it's because you say all who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord,

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and he's pleased with them. Or where is the God of justice?

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So, Church, we might ask, what exactly is going on here?

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Well, it seems that the people were complaining about lawlessness that was going on.

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Maybe it was something happening in their own nation or something that they saw in the nations around them,

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and they were complaining, even insidiously accusing God to one another that he approved of evil actions, which is ludicrous.

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But why might they be saying that? Well, at the time, you might remember, these were people who were living in messianic expectation.

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They had the promises of the prophets, yet they weren't living in a time of fulfillment just yet.

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And so we've seen it, many were disappointed with what they saw around them.

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And as we've seen through the weeks, they'd become faithless and they'd fallen out of love with God.

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And so it seems that out of this bitterness and disappointment that they were now starting to moan about God, not to him, mind you, but to one another.

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We can see it, we can sense it in their attitude here. They weren't happy that God wasn't working to their clocks, that God wasn't doing things to their timing sort of thing.

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And us like impatient children in the back seat of the car on that long trip, they were essentially starting to grumble that God didn't care anymore.

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That he's aloof about all the wicked things going on and that he's obviously given up punishing sin and is even somewhat pleased with it.

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Again, the heart of the nation, it's being exposed. It's being exposed from the abundance of the things coming out of their mouths.

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They were disappointed with God. They didn't feel like he loved them anymore. They were showing that in their actions, but now it's even showing up in their conversations with one another.

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Church, it's vitally important to see what's going on here, as to not make the same mistakes.

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When the people of God see injustice around us, see lawlessness in either our nation or the nations around, when we see vicious and wicked evil actions being played out either in our neighborhoods or society, that we deal with our grievances in the right way.

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That was Israel's sin here. They saw lawless deeds, maybe with their spiritual leaders, maybe with the sexual immorality among the people, maybe with the pagan practices that were being bought into the church.

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But instead of going to where they could have gone with it, they started mumbling, grumbling and complaining among one another.

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It was offensive to God. So in saying that, where could they have gone with all their grievances?

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God has actually made a place for his people to take all of these things. That's before him in prayer.

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You see, we're shown all throughout the Psalms exactly where the people of God can go and cast our cares in a healthy manner.

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That was something that Israel knew that they could do as they sang through the Psalms each week. They would have heard inspired words like this from Psalm 3.

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How many are my foes, Lord? How many rise up against me? How many say of me, God won't save that one?

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Or like in Psalm 5, hear my words, Lord. Listen to my sighing. Hear my cry for help, my King, my God, to you, I pray.

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Or like we sang this morning in Psalm 13. How long, Lord? How long will you utterly forget me?

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How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I carry sorrow in my soul and grief in my heart day after day?

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How long will our enemies triumph over us? Look upon me. Answer me, Lord, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.

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Hear that, Church. Hear the raw emotion of the heart being poured out before the throne of God.

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These are inspired words, inspired prayers given to the people of God as a way to teach us how to approach our God in grief.

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All this to say our God wants his people to go to him. Our Father in heaven wants his children to go to him about every and anything,

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quite simply because we're invited to do so. That's what Israel had missed here. They'd been invited, but they'd faithlessly not taken their grievances to God,

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and they're complaining to one another, wearied him. There's no difference with us.

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Because of Jesus Christ, because of our union with him, we're invited to pour our hearts out to God about all the troubles that we see in this world.

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Church, might I say as we go, as we cast our anxiety, our cares, our worries, our fears before his throne of grace, whatever they might be, be it of national or personal grievances, that our faith in him is built up.

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Because it's there that we find his grace in our time of need.

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The writer to the Hebrews says it like this, since we have a great high priest who ascended into heaven, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

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We don't have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses. We have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet didn't sin.

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Let us then, let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

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And so on the flip side of this, brothers and sisters, when we don't go to God and when we complain and mutter, even if it's to ourselves or to one another,

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it's offensive to God because it shows a lack of trust and hope in that God actually cares for us and the things that are going on in his world.

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Church, might I say God doesn't mind when we address our complaints and questions to him, but he is wearied by our complaining about him.

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Again, this is what's happening here. God's kids were complaining in the back seat yet again.

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But instead of God slamming on the brakes and turning the whole thing around, he again graciously reminds his people of good news coming down the road.

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He again holds out the gospel that will save them all in which he says he not only deeply cares about injustice, but he's going to very much deal with it.

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That's what we're going to see in these next few verses.

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First, God's going to come to his people. Second, he's going to purge evil from among them. And third, he's going to really and fully deal with sin.

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Let's go through that now. If you have your Bibles, look with me at chapter three, verse one.

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I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you're seeking will come to his temple.

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The messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come, says the Lord Almighty.

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So first, God says that there will come a day when he'll personally come to his people. But before he comes, notice it, he'll send a messenger, a person to prepare his way.

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The imagery is striking here. God is a great king who is worshipped in his temple. And like someone who goes before a king and announces his arrival,

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he's saying that there will come a day when a messenger will prepare the way for him before he really does come to his place of worship, where God Almighty will really be with his people.

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If that imagery feels familiar to you, that's a good thing, because the fulfillment of this is seen in the New Testament. In fact, Jesus actually quotes the first bit of this prophecy to his audience in Matthew 11, verse 10.

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He says, John, that's John the Baptist, was the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say, look, I'm sending my messenger ahead of you, and he'll prepare your way before you.

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And this is striking because if we think about it logically, that means that the Lord, that the people are to look for, this glorious messenger of the covenant who will come suddenly to his temple,

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Yahweh, the Lord, is none other than Jesus Christ himself. That's what God is promising his people here. He's promising that he will really come to them,

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and no more clearly do we see that fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. So that's first, God will really come to his people, but then he also tells them second, that when he comes, his ministry will be one of purging the evil from among them.

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Look with me at verses two and three, but who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he'll be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap.

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He'll sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He'll purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. See that?

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God will really come to his people, really come to his temple, but when he comes, it will be to purify and refine them.

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Again, the imagery is striking. Notice it, God isn't going to come to his people and set them on fire so as to watch them burn and then turn them into ashes.

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No, like a master craftsman, he's going to burn off the dross and purify them. Why? Well we see it there in verse four.

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Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.

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And so, church, God will come, but when he comes, he'll bring with him such a ministry that will be like an alchemist taking a flame to a rusty, corroded metal to bring out precious materials so that his people might worship him in spirit and truth.

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And again, don't we clearly see this in the ministry of Jesus Christ? I mean, isn't that what the most blessed gospel does?

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Doesn't it, like a flame of fire from the Holy Spirit of God, take to our hearts so as to expose our sin so that we might call upon the name of the Lord and be purified in his sight by the blood of Jesus?

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Isn't it as we hear and believe the gospel that we're cleansed and sanctified, that we're made into the holy priesthood, as Peter will say later?

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Paul puts it like this in Ephesians 5, though using different imagery. Christ loved the church, and he gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish.

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But holy and blameless. There is good news coming. And Malachi holds out hope to God's complaining backseat drivers. First, he'll really come to his people. Second, he will purify them. Third, he'll really deal with sin fully and finally.

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Verse 5, So I'll come and put you on trial. I'll be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice. But don't fear me, says the Lord Almighty.

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Now I want you to notice something here, church. Things really switch gear. I want you to see it. Sin will really be dealt with. But notice the language in our text. Sin is no longer cast as a them problem.

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Note, we sit here in verse 5. It's a you problem. I will come and put you on trial. In other words, it's gone from a them to a me problem. That's what God is putting his finger on here.

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He says he's indeed coming and when he comes, he's really going to purge his people and deal with the vile wickedness that the people were accusing him of ignoring.

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But this is the thing Malachi is saying. Impurity, lawlessness, wickedness. It's a problem of sin that affects every single person. And God is really coming to judge it.

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He's really coming to judge us. Church, the people complained. They wearied God with their faithlessness and their accusations.

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But again, God answered them by reminding them of good news. He had in no way turned a blind eye to wickedness. Had in no way abandoned his people just the opposite.

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He saw injustice. He saw lawlessness. He could see sin and he was going to come and personally deal with it.

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But when he comes, Malachi rightly asks, who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? The answer is no one.

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Not one will be able to stand on the day of their coming in its ultimate sense. And those who knew the character of God and could see themselves for who they were in light of these promises,

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knew that they needed not their own works to be put on trial that day, but that of the messengers. His works that promised to purify them with fire.

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To put it simply, Malachi holds out the gospel to Israel. And those who saw their sin and looked forward in anticipation and hope and faith to that of the messenger of the covenant,

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to his saving works of purifying and cleansing them, they were the ones that truly understood the justice of God. And that still very much needs to be the case today.

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You see, brothers and sisters, in our Lord's first coming, he indeed came just like he said he would. He came to his people. He came to serve his people.

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He came as the messenger of the new covenant, says the writer to the Hebrews. He came with the gospel of the kingdom and we're told that whosoever believes in their heart

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and calls upon the name of the Lord, they will be saved. And that is very much the case for today. And with looking at what Malachi is ultimately looking at here,

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there will come a day when God will come again to judge the living and the dead, a day when all people will be put on trial and we must be refined and purified, washed clean and made pure,

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made holy and acceptable as no one standing on their own works will be able to endure that day. But this is the great hope here, the messenger of the new covenant, Jesus Christ.

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God in the flesh came and did all that was needed to make us acceptable before God Almighty. Or as Paul puts it here to the church in Corinth,

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God has united you with Christ. For our benefit, God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God. He made us pure and holy. He has freed us from sin.

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So as we end this part of scripture this morning, I just want to say a couple of things. Maybe like Israel, you've been a bit of a backseat driver.

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Maybe you've complained and grumbled. Maybe you haven't taken things to the throne of grace. Maybe you've complained about how God has been working in his world.

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Maybe you've grown impatient and accused God of not caring about the injustice that you've seen around you and that you've felt.

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Well, might I say to you this morning that God delays his judgment because of his mercy. God wants to give people time to repent because he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

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The Apostle Peter reminds us the Lord isn't slow about his promises as some view slowness, but is patient with you, with me, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

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Dear one, since the wages of sin is death, if God visited judgment on people for their sin, no matter how great or small it is in that moment, there would be no time to repent.

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So the reason that God delays the return of Christ and his judgment is so that the gospel may be preached in all the world and so that his people might believe and repent and be saved.

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Might we be thankful that he has been patient with us and given us time to repent? And so please don't fret about what you see, but in saying that, pray.

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Pray that the justice of God might be met. But might the justice of God be met on Christ before it's too late?

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Might we pray for our enemies? Might we pray for those who persecute us? As we've heard today, we can go to God about these things. He welcomes us to do so.

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So in saying that, there will come a day when God will really judge all the peoples of the world. So if you're still relying on your own words to justify yourself before the Lord, might you hear the word that is really being held out to you this morning?

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The Lord came. He really did do everything necessary to purify his people. And the words of the Lord Jesus Christ are plain.

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Whosoever believes in me shall not perish, but have eternal life. And I will in no way reject anyone who comes to me.

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If you believe the gospel this morning, if you confess Jesus Christ as your saviour, then you really have been purified and made clean before God Almighty.

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But if you're here this morning and you would say, no, I don't trust, but I want to know more, I want to know how, then please don't leave this place this morning without coming to speak to one of us after the service.

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We would love to speak to you. We would love to pray with you and talk to you about these things in depth. Would you please pray with me?

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Father God, we thank you for the words of eternal life. We thank you that there will come a day when all grievous wickedness will be put on trial and seen for what it is.

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And we thank you Father that you have sent the messenger of the new covenant with the gospel of peace. That you have snatched us, ripped us out of this world and clothed us in our Lord's righteousness.

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That you have sent us with your spirit that we stand justified before the great throne of grace. That we are invited to come in the name of our Lord Jesus and to cast our cares, our anxieties, our burdens of all that we see.

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All that happens out there in the world, all that happens in our lives personally. And we know that you care for us because you tell us you care for us.

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So we ask that we would be a people that would indeed be walking in what you have purchased for us. In greater holiness, greater purity.

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And that this gathering here in Armidale would be used for your glory alone. We ask for this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.