Malachi 3:2
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Good evening, church. It's a pleasure to be here. It's an honor to be here. It's an honor to be able to preach God's Word, and I thank you all for giving me this opportunity to do that. This evening, our study is focused on Malachi chapter 3, verse 2. Please turn your Bibles to chapter 3, verse 2, as I read. But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears, for he is like a refiner's fire and fuller's soap. Malachi was the last writing prophet of the Old Testament, written 400 years before the coming of Christ. In summary, this book confronts spiritual apathy, faulty worship, cynicism about serving God, our lack of faith, His judgment and God's faithfulness to those who fear his name.
If we back up one verse in chapter 3 to verse 1, we read, Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way for me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. and we read once more. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire in Fuller's soap. When I read the part about Fuller's soap, it came to my mind that I did not think that they had Fuller's soap back in the day when this book was written. I am most certain the Fuller Brush Company did not exist at this point in time. So I looked it up, as my parents would say, on the Google. And what I found was that a fuller in ancient times was a person who cleaned and whitened raw cloth or wool by removing the dirt from these items.
There you have it. They washed away dirt and they purified. The two points to my lesson tonight are, Number one, Christ will return in glorious judgment, and we know it. Number two, can you endure the day when he returns and refines? Point one, Christ will return in glorious judgment, and we know it. It is certain that Christ will return.
In his first coming, he came to purify God's chosen by the shedding of his blood. We all deserve his full judgment. But the good news promises to us that those that have put their faith and trust in him are completely restored. Those that have not will have a different judgment. They will be fully judged by the righteous king. They will be separated and burned like chaff in the unquenchable fire.
Let me read Luke 3, 16 through 7. John answered them all, saying, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear the threshing floor and to gather the wheat into the barn. but the shaft he will burn with unquenchable fire.
Malachi chapter 4, verses 1 and 2 state, For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when the arrogant and the evildoers will be stubble. The day is coming that shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. Ye shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
This is his judgment, and he will return. In our lives today as Christians, do we resist the Spirit's refinement and our sanctification? Our sanctification comes in many forms, but a few of the hard ones can be through our trials, conviction of sin, and the great stretching of our faith. Do we stand firm in our hardness against him as Malachi pointed out to the Jews?
Or do we submit to the Spirit and grow in our faith and love for him? Let me remind everyone that the one who refines us is the same one who gave up his life for us. Jesus Christ also endured the fire of judgment so we might endure his presence when he certainly returns. This brings me to my second point. Can you endure that day when he returns and refines?
Well, I hope I've not put a gloom on your face tonight, but it is always important to remember that we just don't live a happy life, an ignorant bliss, and when we die we go to some type of happy place. No, we are dealing with our present and eternal lives here on earth. Can you endure when Christ returns for judgment? The answer to this question is quite simple. All you need to do is put your faith no matter the size of it and your trust in Christ and let him take over your life so what is it that we put our faith and trust in well roughly 2 000 years ago God sent his son Jesus Christ the second person of the trinity into the world to save sinners Jesus the perfect and spotless lamb was freely given
to die in our place. On the cross, he bore the weight of sins such as hatred, murder, lies, greed, envy, and every kind of unrighteousness. He was beaten, scourged, pierced, mocked, and despised. The full burden of humanity's sin was laid upon him. He did not come to save the righteous, but the ungodly. Christ died for sinners. people just like us including us though we were not physically present at the crucifixion our sins were and our rebellion we too stood opposed to him yet while we were sinners Christ died for us his sacrifice was fully sufficient covering the sins of the past the present and the future yet this atonement is only applied to those who repent and believe,
who trust in him as Lord and Savior. On the third day, he rose again, confirming his identity as the Son of God, demonstrating his victory over sin and death and declaring his divine righteousness. Salvation is found in him alone. The righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ. To all who believe. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Yet we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And one day we will stand before him and hear those glorious words. You are mine. Our salvation is secure in Christ. And by his grace we will endure when he returns and we stand with him. so what do we do we put our faith and trust in christ alone so i want to talk a little bit more about our faith one of my sons is colorblind we did not know it when he was born of course but it soon became evident when he had great trouble picking out the colors of green red yellow blue and a lot of other colors this surfaced in kindergarten he knew that grass was supposed to be green oops there we go and he called it green but he could not see the true
color of green his view of the world around him is much different than what we see and what we take for granted when he was 20 in early 20s we discovered that there was a pair of glasses that you could buy on the market that you could put on and it would correct your color blindness we kept it as a secret and we bought a pair of them for christmas morning what a christmas morning it was for the whole family he opened the gift and put the glasses on and sat dumbfounded, looking at the Christmas tree for what seemed like 20 minutes. He touched the tree, he touched the lights, he touched the ornaments. For the first time, his eyes were open to a whole new world. He then looked out the window and saw green grass, real green grass, for the first time in his life. He left the house and walked around looking at everything. He kept the glasses on all
day. And the next morning, I woke him from his bed, and he still had those glasses on. He slept through the night with them. As I explained, his eyes were opened for the first time, and he could not believe what he was seeing. For some of that, for some of us, that is what happened when we came to faith. It was instantaneous. A person explained the gospel, and we immediately believed. For others, we heard the gospel for months or years, and then the gospel became very clear in a moment's notice.
But for others, it's a very slow process. For those in the slow process, you have heard the gospel, and you might have a fragile small faith with doubts and it is a faith you think is not enough so what do you do you stand on the sideline waiting for something bigger there is some standard in your mind you must meet on your own to be saved you think that this small faith that Jesus gave you is just not enough. But you're wrong.
Your salvation rests on Christ's strength and not the strength of our faith. Your faith may be weak. It may be small, trembling and imperfect. But if it rests in Christ, it is a saving faith. What do i mean by faith resting in christ well you simply put your trust in him jesus i doubt i have little faith but you gave this faith to me and i'm going to put my trust in you for my salvation and let you work in me in increasing my fragile faith you've probably heard this before but it's kind of like looking at a chair you have faith the chair will hold you when you sit in it but you put your trust in that chair when you finally sit on it you trust my faith that it will hold you
let christ hold you trust in him to grow your small faith put your trust in christ instead of yourself he knows better let the holy spirit work in you his work works every christian in this room tonight started out at some point in their faith journey be it small fragile and weak but we can testify by our own by our sanctification our faith has grown but it is not yet perfect I am a good example by just being up here preaching tonight.
I would have never thought I should or could do this. And it took me almost 50 years in God's grace to get me here. Oh, my faith is not perfect. And it certainly has room to grow. But my trust is in Christ. I have staked my claim at the foot of the cross. And by his sanctification, my faith has grown and will continue to grow until my life ends here on earth. Matthew 17, 20 says, he said to them, because of your little faith, for truly I say to you, if you have faith like the grain of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.
Jesus points out that even small faith, the size of a mustard seed, can accomplish great things. For those standing on the sidelines waiting, I suggest that mountain that needs to be moved is the mountain that stands between you and Christ. Put your small faith in him. Trust him, and that mountain between you and him will be removed by his glorious work, and you will be able to endure on that day when you stand righteous before him when he returns.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for Jesus Christ, death and resurrection allows those who have been saved your treasure to stand righteous before you we pray for those with little faith to put their trust and hope in you and not delay waiting on that perfect faith we pray that you strengthen all of us in our faith in you it's in christ's name that we pray amen