TEXT: Malachi 3:1-4

SUBJECT: Christ in the Old Testament #36: The Answer

Today, with God’s help, we’ll continue our study of Christ in the Old Testament. We’ve been at it for more than nine months now, and we’re getting near the end. One more sermon after today—I think—and we’ll move on to something else, the Lord willling.

I hope the series has helped you see the Lord Jesus more clearly in the Hebrew Bible. But more than that, I hope it has given you faith in Christ and increased your love for Him. No one can believe in Christ too firmly or love Him too dearly. Everything in the world can be turned into an idol. Everything but the Lord Jesus Christ. Only He can be safely "idolized".

May God make us know Him better and worship Him from the heart.

Malachi, it seems, was the last prophet before the coming of John the Baptist. He lived sometime around 400 B.C. And, as I’ve said the last couple of weeks, these were bad times for Israel.

Had a social scientist looked at the people, he would have identified many problems. Some were political—a corrupt leadership. Some were economic—most people were poor. Some were domestic—a high divorce rate. Some were related to labor—the workers were being abused by their bosses. And so on.

But these problems—though real and serious—were not basic. There was another problem of which they were but the symptoms. The problem can be summed in one word:

Israel belonged to God, but they were not serving Him from the heart. They were going through the motions of religion, but that’s all they were doing. They had "a form of godliness", but knew nothing of its "power".

At the root of the problem was ingratitude. They had much to be thankful for, but they were not thankful,

They had forgotten everything God had done for them. This led to many other problems. They disrespected the Lord, for example; they were bored by His service; the priests were lazy and corrupt; the people loved their money, and to top it all off, they were very proud of themselves for their holiness!

The word, Pharisee, hadn’t been coined yet—but that’s just what they were becoming: a Nation of Pharisees!

And remember, nobody is farther from holiness than the Pharisee—the sinner who doesn’t believe he is one. Our Lord once said,

Bible words have become so polite to us. But when first spoken, they were terribly rude and offensive. Our Lord says hookers and gangbangers are more likely to get to heaven than conservative, church-going hypocrites.

For Israel, these were "the worst of times".

If things were so bad, something had to be done. What could be done? What reforms would turn the people back to God? What could the leaders do? What could the little guy do to make things better?

Let’s go through the ordinary solutions, see if they’ve been tried, and find out if they did any good or not.

What if they had better laws? Would that help them? No, they already had the Perfect Law. And, instead of making them better—Romans 7:8—it only provoked them to further sin. The boy who never thought of climbing the telephone pole is just dying to, as soon as his father tells him not to. Better laws were not the answer then—or now. Paul says,

In other words, though there’s nothing wrong with the Law itself, it can only command; it cannot give the power to obey! Better laws, therefore, weren’t what they needed.

What if they had severe threats? Maybe the Lord was too soft on His People. If only He’d threaten terrible judgments, maybe then, they’d be scared straight.

Is that the answer? Many pastors think so, as they assail their churches week after week. But it didn’t seem to work for Israel. The Law was full of threats. Read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 for long and detailed examples. There was even a mountain, Mount Ebal, which reminded the people of the curses that must come on the disobedient. Every year, the judgments of the Law were read from atop that mountain. It’s one of the highest points in a small country. From just about anywhere in Israel, you could look up, see Mount Ebal, and remember,

It’s easy to forget the judgments of God, but Malachi wouldn’t let them do it. His last word, in fact, is a threat of punishment,

Israel knew God’s severity. From the Bible, of course. But also from recent history. Just a few generations before, the whole nation had been butchered, starved, or enslaved. All because of their unfaithfulness to the Lord.

Warnings have their place; they can bring temporary reform, but they don’t make new men. Something more than a warning is required for that.

What about the opposite of warnings? Maybe the people needed to hear more about God’s love. That’s what most pastors think today. If only they could convince their hearers that God loves them, all would be well. Thus, things like sin and guilt and chastening and hell never come up in their sermons.

Is this the answer? It isn’t. Malachi’s prophecy began with a reminder of God’s love—

And not only His love, in general, but His Special, Electing Love,

God did love His People. He loved them "with an everlasting love" said Jeremiah. Yet this knowledge of His love did not bring repentance.

Israel, therefore, didn’t need a better law, a harsher punishment or a deeper sense of God’s love. They needed Something More.

And that is what God promises to send them. He’s given them many wonderful things before—His Law, material blessings, chastisements, good examples, prophecy, holy kings, and more.

But one day, He’s going to send Something Better. He tells us what in 3:1,

Man’s condition is so bad that nothing short of God Himself can make things right! The Ten Commandments won’t make things right. Neither will the Seven Promises or the Twelve Steps. We need something more than laws, promises, or steps. We need God to do something for us. We need Him to personally break into our lives. And to exercise His Almighty power to save us from our sin and misery.

In 1856 a young man preached a sermon on this topic. His text was Psalm 80:19,

The young man was Charles Spurgeon. His sermon was called,

Programs, counseling, personal discipline, journals, prayer partners, and so on, can be good in their place. But they can never have first place. If man’s problem is as bad as the Bible says it is, the final solution has to be God.

Not trying harder, praying more, going to counseling, and the like, but God Himself intervening in our lives by Almighty Grace. That’s how sinners are saved. That’s how believers are made holy. That’s how churches grow in grace and number. It is not what we do; it’s what God does.

He did and does that work through Christ. That’s what our text foresees,

God Himself will come to the rescue. But note how it’s worded. It must have been very hard for a Jew to figure out. God is both Sender and Sent.

The Lord speaks of Himself in the Third Person—"He is coming".

How do you explain this? You explain it in the terms of the Trinity. The Bible teaches there is one God only. But it also teaches that the One God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. People have tried to explain the Mystery, but in my opinion, have only obscured it. There is nothing we can compare the Trinity to. He’s not like Vapor, Water, and Ice. He’s not like Shell, White, and Yoke. He’s not like anything at all! He is simply God.

In some way past understanding God sends God to the world to save us from our sins.

And, unlike other things, He gets the job done.

Our Lord is compared to two men: a fuller and a refiner. A "fuller" is someone who does laundry, a drycleaner you might say. You send dirty clothes to him, and he sends them back clean. He is also a "refiner". This is a gold or silver smith. He takes a clod of iron ore and heats it until the precious metal comes out pure.

Though he uses two figures of speech, Malachi is getting at one thing: Cleanness. Jesus Christ makes us clean. Clean enough for God!

He does it in two ways: By His death, He atoned for our sins, i.e., He takes the punishment we deserve. That means God has punished us—in Christ—so that His justice is satisfied.

That makes our Record Clear, but what about our character? It’s made pure by the Indwelling of His Spirit. What God declares us to be for Christ’s sake, we gradually become.

When the worst sinner believes in Christ, he becomes a Saint (or, Holy One). Now his life is still messed up. He believes in the Lord, but he’s still ignorant and prone to sin. The Lord gives him His Spirit who works in the believer’s life and makes him practically holy in this life.

But that’s not all. When the believer dies, Christ makes his soul perfect. And that’s not all either. At the end of history, the Lord will raise our bodies from the dead and make them perfect as well.

Thus, in the end, the believer will be as sinless as Jesus Christ.

But not because he’s tried so hard or done so well. No, it’s not in the believer; it’s in Christ—"He will purify".

Is the purifying a good thing? Yes, it is. It’s the best thing you can imagine. But "good" is not the same as "enjoyable". Growing holy is not always a barrel of laughs.

It includes unpleasant things like…suffering and confession and the loss of friends and giving up things you really, really want to keep. A "refiner’s fire" makes the gold pure, but not without intense heat. Washing clothes makes them clean, but not without putting them through the ringer.

Never forget this: The Christian life is full of joy, but that joy most often comes in the midst of suffering—"We glory in tribulations". That’s true for now, but not always. One day, "God will wipe away every tear".

A Day awaits the believer—a day when his joy is unmixed with pain, regret, or fear. Can you imagine?

• A happiness that is both perfect now, yet getting better all the time?

• A happiness that is unaffected by the sins and mistakes you’ve made in the past?

• A happiness that cannot possibly be lost?

• A happiness that cannot change, yet never becomes boring?

We have a word for that happiness: Heaven. But not the heaven of the philosophers and pleasure-seekers, but the heaven of Christ—Psalm 16:11.

Every believer should thank Jesus Christ for the purifying work he does in your life. The work doesn’t always feel good, but it is good. Do you do that? Or, are you the kind of person who resents and murmurs against the problems of life—the very things He uses to fit you for heaven?

Every unbeliever should quit trying to "clean up his act". It can’t be done. "Who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin?" (cf. Proverbs 20:9). The implied answer is: No one can do that. He can say it, of course, but he knows better. And God sure does, (cf. Proverbs 16:2),

Self-improvement is a Dead End. The more you improve yourself, the more proud you become of yourself, which is makes you worse, not better.

And so, if Self Improvement gets you nowhere, what do you do? You go to Christ for Real Improvement! Unlike you me, He can get the job done!

The love of God be with you all. For Christ’s sake. Amen.