Are You Ready?

Good morning So are you ready? Not for the Christmas party, but are you ready? Suppose Christ was returned this morning or this afternoon. Are you ready to meet your maker? If you're able to stand, would you please do so as we honor the reading of God's Word this morning? We're reading from Malachi chapter 3 verses 1 to 4 the The prophet God says through him Behold I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple And the messenger of the covenant in room you delight behold he's coming says the Lord of hosts But who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears? Well, he's like a refiner spy and like wholus so He will sit as a refiner and purify of silver and he will purify the sons of Levi and Refine them like gold and silver and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years the word of the Lord Father, I stand before you only as a man braille weak and broken But your word is true and you have given it to us this morning Your words purify as our hearts Would it be so this morning for all of us? We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated When I was a young man a young boy growing up in the village There's one thing I really enjoyed and loved doing It was making a traditional bow and arrow for hunting Was my favorite thing to do. It was a very long process for you to make a bow and arrow It's not as easy as going to the store here in America to buy a compound bow that is all made up for you and ready to go shooting The first step for us to make a bow and arrow was go to the woods or as we say back in Kenya go to the forest To find that perfect piece of wood that would make a bow See we use a special piece of wood. It's not just in a tree that makes a good bow It has to be strong and straight so that when you put a string on that thing when you pull the tension It can withstand but it also has to be a piece of wood that you can actually manipulate You can you know dry it up slowly as you're trying to carve it out and make a nice bow So after going to the woods we would come back and then the next step was to find a shot for the arrow So we would head over to my grandma's farm where she grew sorghum and millet now if you've never seen sorghum on millet grow It's like bamboo or sugar cane only the thickness of sugar cane is about the thickness of my thumb or one of my fingers And so we're going to my grandma's farm to find the most straight Stock of sorghum that you could find almost dry not quite dry, but almost dry Would cut it out and bring it home now the reason why you use something like that is because you can easily manipulate to put in an arrow head on to the The stock of the sorghum and then in the same process in the farm we would also find eagles Feathers that had fallen Ego because you need to make an arrow that's that has direction that can shoot straight So what better thing that to find an eagles fat back You could use chicken But eagles sounded more stronger and better But that's not it for me the my favorite part was not just the process of going to the woods and to the farm to make a bow and arrow My favorite part was going to the traditional blacksmith The man who would make for us an arrow head We would sit there in his traditional kiln as he would take just a regular piece of metal put it in the fire and begin traditionally with those two things That I cannot describe to you just spanning the flames for hours and hours and hit the metal until it was red Hot and then he would take it out and then he would start cutting and hitting with the Hitting it with the mallet or whatever it was and shaping it into an arrow at the end of the day We would have a perfect arrow head sharpened and ready for good hunt Isn't that how God works in all lives in a similar way as the making of an arrow As we think of our lives the Holy Spirit who works in us daily to mold us to renew us to transform us into his likeness It is why he sent his messenger to come and prepare us for himself To get us ready by purifying us from our sin And so the first thing that we see in this text in verses one Is that it is God himself God is the initiator Of our salvation. He's the one who initiates to send a messenger to send one who is come to prepare us for himself Look at verses one. He says behold I sent my messenger and he will prepare The way before me and the Lord whom you seek was suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight Behold he's coming says the Lord of hosts now when you read that first verse you realize that God must be responding to something somewhere There must be a question or an event or a comment that has been made by someone that's causing God to say behold I am sending you a messenger because if you go back to Malachi chapter 2 verses 17 The very last verse we read you have worried the Lord with your words But you say how are we worried the Lord by saying everyone does evil does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delights in them or by asking Where is the God of justice? So this is a continuation God is answering his people Because the people have forgotten where God is they don't see where he is because evil continues to grow the people are in fact challenging God's justice on the basis of how evil seems to prosper So much so that they're actually in fact here accusing God as regarding evil as good. That's what they said in verses 17 It's a common objection, isn't it to how God governs the world How many times we often wonder Especially when we look around our world and see how the world The evil seems to be so prevalent in our world and we question if we ask is God really there and if he's there does he really care We watch the events happening in California and wonder where are you God There was a common treat that went out on Thursday in the morning on the New York Times That said God is not gonna fix this

There's a sense of irony in the words here that God is saying you hear those words when they say the Lord whom you seek the Lord in whom you Delight what an irony actually in fact the best way for us to translate those words is the the Lord whom you profess To seek the Lord whom you profess or act like you delight in That is the God that they're really seeking Their hearts are so far away from him see the people are calling upon God to come and act to come and judge the heathens They're looking at the world and saying look at the evil that is spreading out there Why don't you come and judge those people How often we forget many times when we're calling upon judgment upon those people and yet we forget that we ourselves I need of a savior to come and correct us to come and purify us So before we start pointing fingers and other people and saying God right on to come and punish all those wicked people I need to begin with myself because you know why the reason the problem in the world is not them The problem is me I am the one who needs to be purified. I am the one who needs God's forgiveness And so God acts here. He gives an answer to their nagging question by saying and telling them listen I am going to send a messenger and this message is not just going to be anybody I am sending myself God himself will come contrary to their accusations instead of God coming to tolerate or delight in evil in wickedness He's coming to purge evil from among his people not for them but from among his people When you look at this text you realize that there's actually two messages here that scripture is picking off There's one who comes in line one or verses one that comes to prepare the way He what he comes to prepare the way by preaching or declaring repentance but then there's another messenger that comes into his temple He's not the same messenger as the as the one in line one He's called the Lord not Jehovah not Jehovah God but the Lord He comes into his temple meaning he owns it and who owns God's temple God owns his temple and he's also interchangeable with the me remember that we read you know And he will prepare the way before me. He's interchangeable with the me and the me there is Yahweh It is God Himself The first messenger is a prophet He's one that is sent with a message as we read in Isaiah 40 verses three of boys cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make straight in the desert the highway of our God He's in herald of an advent. He's one like Elijah as we read in Luke 117 He's in Elijah figure and he prepares the way as I noted Preaching repentance removing that obstacle that exists between us and God and what is that our sin Our sin is what separates us from God and we know that this first messenger is fulfilled in the message of John the Baptist We read in Matthew chapter 17 and and 12 and we also read in in Matthew 11 and 12 listen to what John the Baptist says he says I baptize you with water for repentance But he who he who is coming after me is mightier than I who send us. I'm not worthy to carry I will he will baptize you with the holiest the holiest spirit and fire his winnowing fork his in his hand And he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn But the chaff it will burn with unquenchable fire That is John the Baptist see we must have repentance first before we are cleansed Must come before God and repentance But it is the second messenger that I want us to focus on this warning He's the messenger of the covenant. That's how Malachi describes him Why because he's the one who comes to fulfill the Old Testament the Old Testament of him being the perfect priest king And profit He's a messenger of God two men. He's being sent from God to us. He's man made flesh who dwells among us And he comes to fulfill this prophecy as a messenger and as a mediator between us and God There's a reason why it's important for us to know and understand that it is God who is initiating sending this messenger Because it's a messenger of promise I'm a promise that God is making to his people if you go back to Malachi chapter one verses one You will see God declaring his promises to Jacob actually it's a very difficult passage for some of us to read sometimes Because it's a message that telling us about reprobation. He says Jacob. I loved in Issaal. I hate it But before then he's declaring his covenant faithfulness His promises that he's made upon the people of God upon the family of Jacob It is God's sovereign free choice to redeem to cleanse to purify his own people It is God here that is speaking no one else not the people seeking him But God answering and God speaking just like his poor creation into being It is God initiating the coming of one messenger who would bring purification to his people Just like in in Genesis chapter three He's the one who is seeking the loss remember when Adam and Eve sin against God What do they do? They run away to hide from the presence of God It's the same thing that we do when we sin when we know that we need God's cleansing We don't go running after him we go running away far from him to hide from our sin But guess what God does he comes to seek us who will loss He comes to find us by sending his true messenger his only son to come and find us to come and purify us Oh God so loved That he gave God so loved that he sent His only son He doesn't just act by sending us his son He sends him for a purpose He sends him that he may come to prepare his people for God The messenger comes to prepare God's people for God look at verses two to three a He says but who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears For he's like a refiner spy like full of soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver See the people had expected like we mentioned for God to come and judge the heathen those who are out there Those who are wicked but the prophet warns that they all themselves are the ones that are being first judged And the question is who can stand the burden of his judgment who can stand the brightness of his presence What I can stand the glory of his of this holy God We read in Psalm 133 if the Lord would mark our transgressions who Would stand the answer is Absolutely no one can stand before this holy majestic God and the people are crying out Bring the day of the Lord. Where is God? Where is his justice? They forget that no one can stand the day of the Lord and by asking the day of the Lord You're asking for a very great day. You're asking for a terrible thing because the day of the Lord is a day of judgment And the question is how can the endure how can the weak that out how can the weak endure such a mighty God How can those who are blind and you are one who is such a lie? How can the frail and you are such power? How can the unclean even there come close to such a holy God He's one who purifies. He's like a refiner's fire And refiner's fire separates the precious metal From wreathies. He's like the fuller's soul. That's how the scripture describes it It's some kind of a washing herb that's used to clean clothes on that on the treading or it's like a carbonate soda if you think of it Because the idea is we have the potential to know God We are made we are like gold and silver. We have the potential to obey and to know God But again, just like gold you need to remove that grass of rebellion and cleanses From those impurities so that we may be pure gold He's in many ways as fire. He says of himself in Luke chapter 12 verses 49 I am come to send a fire upon the earth and what we lie if it be already Kindle John the Baptist said of him in Luke 316 he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire He's the one who kindles in the heart a fire of love which softens that which is hard our wills to obey God That has been hard But I'm too glad that this messenger of God who comes is not like a forest fire because a forest fire comes to consume everything It comes to destroy all things the Bible says it's like a refiner's fire that doesn't destroy indiscriminately But it refines and melts out and separates draws and leaves that which is good Because when Christ appears in his perfection he comes not to destroy you But he comes to purify you he comes to refine you He's a consuming fire the Bible tells us listen to this words Either he must by his grace consume the sin within us or he must consume us with it in hell Do you hear that? Either he must by his grace consume the sin within us or he must consume us with it in hell That's how holy and perfect God is and he's a purifier of silver It's like Ezekiel points out in Ezekiel 36 20 60 says and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I'll put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh Heart has been softened a heart that can obey God Notice how verse three says he will sit as a refiner and a purifier he will sit Listen to God's patience in dealing with us That it it's time consuming that he just he sits It's like being in a smelting furnace where the gold of silver is being heated in in high temperatures until the impurities are all taken out and burned It's a slow a very slow and tedious process that God waits patiently until he sees his very own image God's image reflected on those that he is purifying on those that he's working on That is death on the cross for us is the ultimate purification But that that it doesn't stop there. He doesn't just say well I have saved you and I've died on the cross for your sins But he said that I will continue to transform you to the life that I want you to to be That he continues to heat you up removing the desfiguring Image that you might have to make you perfect Until glad that God is not willing to leave your jealous heart Untouched until glad this morning that God is determined To transform the prideful one into a humble servant you who is now living with pride in your life But you glad that God is willing and more than willing to break your hateful selfish greedy and lastful heart To turn it into a loving generous content and satisfying heart Until glad this morning that God is more than willing to battle with you every single day to subdued everything I mean every single thing that is sin-pointing your heart to reshape you and make you into that which he wants you to be Aren't you glad that he's at work in your life And it's not just a part of you that he just doesn't want to cleanse your hands and your feet So that you may walk and touch the things that are good that he wants to cleanse your emotions your heart your eyes Your everything every single part of your life he wants to change it

Why does it have to be so hard? You ask Why does it have to be so hard then if God is wanting to change you and make you that which he wants to be you know Why because God's requirement for holiness and purity is no joke What do we tell our children every day when they're trying to play with fire? We tell them don't touch that It's dangerous God's holiness is no joke church

It is not something for us to take lightly God's requirement for you and I is to be holy as God is holy it is fire Play with fire Don't play with God's holiness Don't play with God's word that sounds like a warning doesn't it But you know what it's actually a hope for us as John Piper puts it He says this quote the furnace of affliction is always for refinement and not Destruction The furnace of affliction is always for refinement and not destruct and what John Piper means here is this action has a double Meaning here for for affliction He means one one hand all sorts of affliction that come into our life sickness. I am sick this morning You probably can't tell I'm hitting the table so hard, but I'm struggling Poverty any kind of disability that we might have the God brings them upon us for his glory for our purification On the other hand it means deliberate self denial. Have you the one who was the last time you read Matthew 5 If your eye causes you to sin gorge it out

That it is fire against your sin where Christ is disciplining us because Because you know what because he loves us It's not like a pan that disciplines a child sometimes in a good way and other times out of anger God does not discipline us out of anger. He does so out of pure love Because on God's path no pain no gain It is God's work by his spirit Not us not me coming to him and trying to get rid of my sin That's what fire is for now for me to try and get rid of my pride and my selfishness and my hatred It is Christ Jesus Working daily in me and me trusting in his purifying verses that you will make me and refine me The believer Matthew Henry reminds us you do not need to fear You do not need to fear the fiery trials of afflictions that God might bring to you You don't need to fear the temptations by which the Savior refines you like gold Don't we sing together this beautiful hymn how far a foundation especially the last two verses What do they say you might want to sing along with me if you can when through fiery trials your path will shall lie My grace or sufficient shall be your supply the flame shall not hurt you I only design your dross to consume and your gold to refine Because that soul on Jesus has leaned for repose I will not I will not desert to its foes not so though all hell shall endeavour to shake I will never no never no never for sake You will not leave you alone. Why is he purifying us then? Just so that we may be as gold He's purifying us so that as we've been singing this whole morning so that we may be accepted by our heavenly Father It is the only way that the Father will accept us You know wouldn't be a funny thing if If a bride decided that she was going to show up on a wedding day Not in the way a bride should appear Supposed the groom was standing in the altar waiting for his beautiful bride to walk in into the sanctuary And she woke up and decided I'm not taking the shower I'm not going to dress up. I'm not going to put anything on my face to look nice I'm not even going to put on shoes. I'm going to walk in my PJs and show up He may accept me just the way I am I bet you we would not be having a party that day

There's one thing I remember on the day that I was married September 12 2000 and 12 I remember that day as I stood on the altar and I watched for the first time my beautiful Why walking on that eye on that carpet looking so elegant so dazzling so beautiful I had never seen in that wedding dress and that she walked in I felt like I was all of a sudden falling in love for the first time with this amazing gorgeous woman That I felt like this was my first time to set my eyes on And that she walked towards me my body just felt all the emotions. I wanted to break down I wanted to cry. I wanted to sing. I wanted to rejoice and just be thankful. God What have you done to me? This is the best day of my life Do you know how God wants to accept you? He wants you to be that bride that's being purified that's being prepared so that on the day that you show up on that altar on those gates of heaven He sees a beautiful elegant dazzling bride coming before That's why God is purifying us Look at verses 3b and 4 and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver And they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem Be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former days, former years See like we said the primary objects of purification and judgment Are not the ones that the people were complaining about the wicked that were out there They were not it was the people of God He says I'll purify that the sons of Levi are looting here to to the priesthood. That's where it begins

I like what John Calvin says says that the sons of Levi noting how they are especially the priests are supposed to be the ones that are setting the example and teach holiness and obedience to the people holiness and judgment Begins with them and so Calvin notes and says these here are parts stated for the whole for the promise belongs to the whole church The sons of Levi were the first fruit fruits and the whole people Why in the name of that tribe consecrated to God? This is the reason why he mentions the sons of Levi rather than the whole people as though he had said which is a classic Calvin way of saying things that though the church was corrupt and polluted There would yet be a residue which God would save having purified This God coming to set his people apart This purification is all about removing sin removing grass But it's also about correcting Making us see and follow God's way It's about improving on all those whose hearts have been suffering as the Zkill reminds us it is Doing so so that they may offer or they may be a pure sacrifice to the Lord and when they offer their sacrifices to God He might be in purity as we saw earlier the power of fire is twofold we talked about burning and purifying It burns to to remove the corrupt And it purifies as gold and silver Malachi here. I think has both meanings here Because when Christ comes he comes like a fire Christ comes to burn and to consume our field But he also comes to purify you because you belong to him The priests are here purifying why so that they may offer their worship before God worship that's acceptable Worship that would allow the whole nation to also worship God He makes reference of Jude and Jerusalem here which really represents the kingdom of Messiah That's what Jesus says when a reading John 6 and John 10 Jesus keeps on talking about the ones that the Father has given me The ones that the Father has given me I have come for these I have come to purify them. I've come to love them I've come to do Things that they need so that they may honor you And Paul tells us how salvation comes to us it comes through the Jews first doesn't it Before it comes to the Gentile I don't think Malachi here is talking about the mosaic rituals when he talks about offering sacrifices and all those things He's not saying that the sacrificial The sacrifice that will continue are supposed to be maintained in the world as as we are today But I think Malachi is actually using language that is familiar with these audience with the people that he's talking to Been reminded of the sacrifice that they used to make before God in the Old Testament Something that they can actually understand Because we know reading the New Testament that Christ comes as a great and high priest who Satisfies a certain ceremonial laws so that we don't have to make those sacrifices He makes the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf And then he makes reference to as in the days of old or is in former days Are we talking about going back to that? No, it's not going back to that sacrificial time But I think it's a reference to the first temple He's mentioning when the tabernacle was first set up by Moses He's mentioning the times when when God's people are actually doing well in times of David and Moses and others Even going back further to the times of able remember He's one who offered a more excellent sacrifice before God That's what Malachi he's speaking of. I think it's important for us to be reminded to see The already and then not yet as it's reformed theologians like to say that the prediction here has not been fully fulfilled But as we are coming before God every single day of our lives that we're in slow degrees We are offering ourselves we are offering before God spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God So the hope is this for you as a church that if you are in Christ And he is truly at work in you restoring you and making you ready for your Heavenly Father for the day that you meet him The hope is this that we do not go through the motions as the believers just realizing what God has done and just taking it for granted But because Christ has come into his truly at work in your life that he's become our joy and so we offer our thanks Giving and our praise to him listen to Hebrews 13 15 though in him let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips That is the fruit of the lips that acknowledges name do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God So we come to him this morning offering our fervent prayers or lively praises or thankful remembrance of his death and resurrection through this bread and wine that is before he asked this morning To his attentive hearing of his word that is what we offer before him You know why because all spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ There is only one way there is only one truth there is only one mediator between us and God and the only way that God is going to accept our offerings and our sacrifices before him Is only through Jesus Christ No any other way So I ask you are you ready are you ready to meet your maker See this morning you might be struggling because like me You have a little draws maybe not a little you have some draws You have some dirt some blemishes on you That need to be taken away Don't you forget that Christ is working on you See before he returns this is what we're going through We remain in the furnace You feel it You feel the heat we remain in the furnace Because he's renewing us in the whole man after the image of God And we are he and I are every single day Being enabled more and more To die and to sin and to live and to righteousness That's what he's doing I love it Because you know when when he comes back he tells me this I'm gonna have a new body A new and glorious body That will be perfect No blemishes No spots No dirty spots

And then you will do this You'll presently before my heavenly Father You know how guiltless and blameless before you And boy I could you Lord allow us to daily understand your work in us That you were truly helping us To die and to sin And live and to righteousness Pray this in your holy name