Wonderful. Good morning.
It's such a delight to be with you this morning.
Thank you for the warm welcome. We indeed feel like family and
not just visitors. We bring greetings and
encouragement from Common Ground Bloberg Church and it's just
wonderful to to be here. The last time we were here was
almost I was towards the end of last year when Eric and Zuki
were ordained. What a significant moment that
was and it's wonderful to come back and see what God is doing
in and among you. I must say, when I got the
invite to come and serve you in this way, I was really excited.
Then I opened the WhatsApp message and I look at the Bible
text that I was going to preach from and I see this name,
Malachi. I almost was tempted in that
moment to write back to Eric and say, hey, Eric, I sure didn't.
You mean Matthew or Mark or something?
But in all seriousness, I love this.
It's beautiful when God's people do not just stay in the
seemingly comfortable parts of the Scripture, but commit
themselves to walk through the whole council of God's Word,
even the parts that searches, that challenges, that stretches.
In fact, that's what Paul encourages and writes and
reminds the church in Romans 15, verse four.
And he writes them and he says to them that everything that was
written in the past or in the former days was written for our
instruction that through endurance, through the
encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.
So it's really my privilege to join you as your journey through
the book of Malachi. Our main text this morning is
from chapter 2, verse 17 all the way to chapter 3, verse 5.
If you've got your Bibles, please, please turn to Malachi
chapter 2, verse 17. And I'll be reading.
If you don't have your Bible, you can just follow on the
screen. I'm sure the Bible, the the
passage is going to be put up on the screen for us to you follow.
I'm sure by now you now know where Malachi is.
Wonderful. I'm going to read for us.
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? I will send my messenger who
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.
But who can endure the day of his coming?
Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiners
fire or a launderer soap. He will sit as a refiner and a
purifier of silver. 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 offerings of Judah and
Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in the days gone
by, as in the former years. So I will come to put you on
trial. I'll be quick to testify against
the sorcerers, adulterers, pejurers, against those who
defraud labourers of their wages, who oppress the widows in
the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice.
But do not fear me, says the Lord Almighty.
This is God's word. Let us pray, Father, we thank
you. We thank you that you are the
same God who spoke in the days of Malachi and you speak to us
this morning. God, we open our hearts, we say
come and be our teacher. Come, God, and lead us into
truth. Come and reveal yourself,
yourself to us. Oh Lord God, we pray in your
love and mercy, in your kindness.
Holy Spirit of God, when you speak to us this morning, thank
you that you know where each and everyone of us are at, and
you're a God who meets us at our point of need.
We pray, Lord God, as you speak to us, be glorified in this
place. Come and take your rightful
place. Oh God, we pray this in the name
of your son, Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
So one of the privileges for Jolene and I is to be parents to
our two boys. We love them dearly and it's so
heartwarming to see how they love and care for one another.
But truth be told, they know how to press each other's buttons.
If you have kids or if you're a sibling, you know exactly what
I'm talking about. And there's no there's nothing
better than for little kids to be the one who has to go to
their sibling and say to them, dad or mom says come here and
you better come right now. It's amazing how much authority
and satisfaction can get packed in those in that little
statement, especially when it's not you who's on the receiving
end, especially when it's not you who the hammer is about to
fall on you. By the way, I'm just using
hammer as a figure of speech. In case you're wondering what
kind of parents There's there's, there's people are, but equally
there is nothing that our boys do not like.
Then when it seems like their brother is getting away with
something, especially when they feel so hard done, especially
when the when they face the injustice perhaps of a toy being
snatched from their hand, that it seems like mum and dad are
taking no action at all. But the reality is that that
instinct for justice does not just disappear when we get
older. In all of us, there is a sense
in our hearts where we want to see justice done.
We want to see wrongs made right.
I mean, all of us, you look around the world we live in, I
think there's a sense in which we all think and see that things
are not where what they should be, that things are not right.
I mean, you hear of what's happening perhaps in Ukraine or
in the Middle East, and you see innocent people that are caught
up in the violence and the suffering caused by powers far
bigger than them. You scroll on your cell phones,
you read the news. It just feels like corruption is
rampant. And there's it's just getting
out of hand. I think of the story of what
happened at the hospital in Tambisa where money, supposedly
billions of rands that was meant to provide medicine for people,
get stolen for what? For other people to go buy this
big expensive cars and mansions. And when somebody who actually
cared enough to say, hey, there is money being stolen here, she
gets shot and murdered as she's dropping her daughter at school.
And it's almost, what, five years?
Doesn't seem like justice is coming.
And as you hear this, perhaps you're thinking to yourself, I
hear you. But right now, I'm not even
thinking about what's happening, Alfie.
Just think of my life. Perhaps you're in that place
where you're feeling great injustice, wrongly accused,
overlooked and fairly treated, and something in your heart
cries out, where is justice? In a sense, that's the kind of
question that the people in Malachi are asking.
They look around them and they see bad people doing bad things,
and it seems like they're getting away with it.
And not only that, they're getting away with perhaps their
lives are much easier and they seem to be getting ahead.
So God's people start speaking, but they start speaking in a
kind of way that causes God to say in verse 17, 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. Oh, where is the God of justice?
I'm sure if you have been married long enough or if you
know people well enough, you begin to realize that sometimes
questions are not just questions.
By the time the question mark is put at the end, a point has
already been made that it's actually a conclusion and not a
question. Just to be vulnerable, I must
confess that I find myself doing that very thing.
I think of times at home when I ask who left the front door open
and it's only Jolene and I in the room.
Please do not try that at home. But.
But I must say, to be fair to me, since we're talking about
justice, I've also been on the receiving end.
Please don't ask from who when I hear the question, who left the
cupboard doors open? Well, if you know us, if you
know our family, you know that there's only one person who
leaves cupboard doors open, and that's the person that's
speaking to you right now. For some reason my brain is very
good at telling me open the cupboard doors, but it never
gets to tell me to close the cupboard does.
So when I hear that question I know it's not just an isness in
question. This is my character under
question, and that is what's happening right here.
When the people of God ask where is the God of justice?
They're not just asking as innocent suffering bystanders,
they're beginning to accuse God, the beginning to accuse God of
sleeping on the job. The kind of attitude that we
have when the service is not on point at a restaurant, or
perhaps we're frustrated sitting in a queue at the post office or
the bank, and we ask, is there a manager in this place?
But they're not only accusing God of sleeping on the job,
they're beginning to accuse God of siding with the wrong doers
when they say all who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord
and he is pleased with them. Friends, the people of God have
moved. They've crossed the line from
frustration to something far more serious when they do not
only ask where is God, but they begin to say that God is siding
with evil doers. Clearly they've lost sight of
the God of the rule, God that the psalmist reminds us of in
Psalm 5 verse 4 when he says he is not pleased.
He does not take pleasure in wickedness, nor does evil dwell
with him. Please hear me well.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with longing for justice.
In fact, that reflects the character of God himself.
But there's everything wrong to think that God is not just
because justice is not happening the way we want or when we want
it. Can I just make myself clear
that there is absolutely nothing wrong with bringing questions
before God? I know that here this morning.
Perhaps there is some. We're going through a tough
season. There is some here.
Life hurts right now and you've got questions.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with bringing your questions
before God. In fact, if we read through the
Psalms, we see these heartfelt, raw questions that the psalmist
bring before their God. But can I say to us this
morning, yes, bring your questions, but do not let your
questions be the final word. Brothers and sisters, examine
your questions. Am I bringing my pain to God or
have I begin to question God? It's human to be frustrated.
But in our frustrations, brothers and sisters, let's ask
ourselves, is my frustration leading me to lament, or is it
leading me to accuse? Because there is there is a
difference between lamenting and accusing.
Lamenting, says God, I do not understand this.
God, I do not get this, but God, I trust you.
Accusing, says God, I do not get this.
God, I do not understand this. God.
I cannot trust you. God, I do not understand this.
God, you cannot be trusted. Of course, as good believers as
we are, we are not going to come on a Sunday and say I want to
give my testimony. Just want to let you know that
God cannot be trusted. We're not going to do that
right. But we can begin to do that in a
quiet way by the decisions that we take.
We begin to do it quietly and how we steward our finances in
our marriage, in our singleness, in our work.
Can I say to us this morning that the big issue here is not
what was happening around them, but rather what was happening in
here? By the way, this is not the
first time that God's people begin to question God.
If we go back to Malachi chapter one, verse 2, God says to them,
I have loved you and their reply, how have you loved us?
And that kind of sets the tone for the whole book.
I find helpful what Bible scholar Peter Adam says.
He says that doubting God's love naturally LED or leads to other
sins, and you can almost kind of see it how a doubt for God's
love moves into doubting God's judgement.
When the love, when God's love is in doubt, it doesn't just
stay there like cancer, it begins to spread into other
parts of our lives. Doubting God's love is the very
foundation upon which other doubts are built on.
And if we can be honest with ourselves this morning, perhaps
some of us, if we peel the layers of our questions, if we
peel the layers of our frustration, and if we really
get beneath it, we begin to realize that what's actually
happening is that we're beginning to doubt.
God's love? Does God really love me?
If God really loved me, would he let this and that happen to me?
So what does God do when his people bring accusations to him?
Does God say thank you very much?
It's so helpful. Sorry, I just got sidetracked.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
You know, things are very, very hectic in heaven.
Just give me two minutes, Earth, I'll come back to you.
By the way, it's not as if God had not shown to them before
that he's a just God. If we go back to Exodus 2 and 3,
we see or we are told of how God saw the suffering and the
injustice of his people under the tyranny and the hand of
Pharaoh. And we are told that God not
only saw their suffering, he heard their cries.
And God came and he instituted justice.
And God frees his people. By Exodus 14, God frees his
people from injustice. But God does not only do that in
Exodus 20. God gives them his law to teach
and to shape his people what justice really looks like.
Do not murder. Do not steal.
Do not commit adultery. God shaping the hearts of his
people into what justice, what it means to live with integrity,
what it means to honor one another as you honor him.
So the issue is not that God has not shown who He is.
The issue is not God's track record, but it's how God's
people are beginning to see God in these circumstances.
So one of the things that you get to realize easily about me,
even if you don't know me very well, is that I have issues with
my eyes. This is not a fashion piece.
I'm short sighted and what it means for me practically is that
sometimes I enthusiast enthusiastically wave at someone
from a distance and only when they get near me, I realized I
don't even know this person. Or times I get accused of
ignoring people, somebody says, hey, you know, I waved at you
and you ignored me and I'm like, sorry, I didn't even see you.
So every year maybe like Eric, I have to go to the optometrist.
And it's such a humbling thing to sit in the optometrist chair.
It's almost like you're back in Grade 1.
The optometrist make you sit on this chair and there's a chart
in front of you with letters and numbers.
And as they flip lenses, they ask you to if you see is it
better on lens one or is it better on lens 2?
But you know what's amazing and all that is that no matter how
much, how many of the different lenses you're looking through,
the numbers in the letters in the chart remain the same.
And that's the same with God. He does not change.
But perhaps what starts happening, brothers and sisters,
is when we go through pain, when we go through suffering and
disappointment, we begin to filter our sense and our vision
of God through what we are experiencing.
We begin to trust what our feelings are telling us more
than what the Word of God says about God.
In those moments, we begin to reshape what is true about God
to fit how we feel. Just because I feel hard done,
God must be unjust. We begin to bend what is true to
fit with what we experiencing. Just because other people seem
to be getting away with doing bad things, God must be siding
with them. The lover of God, God is just.
He's always been just, will always be just.
So the question is not is God just?
But perhaps, what does God's justice actually look like?
So Malachi shows us chapter 3 verse one.
I will send a messenger who will prepare the way before me.
Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple.
The messenger of the covenant of the covenant whom you desire
will come, says the Lord Almighty.
But who can enjoy the day of his coming?
Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiners
fire or a launderer soap. You will sit as a refiner and a
purifier of silver. He will purify the Levites and
refine them like gold and silver.
Then the Lord. We have men who will bring
offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and
Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord.
As in the days gone by, as in the former years.
So I will come to put you on trial.
I will be quick to testify against the sorcerers, the
daughters, perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of
the wages who oppress the widows, the fatherless, deprive
the foreigners among you of justice.
But do not fear me, says the Lord.
Notice how God begins in chapter 3.
I will send a messenger. Surprising, isn't it?
Because when we expecting justice, we are thinking come
now swiftly, perhaps fire and brimstone.
I will send a messenger. In fact, Malachi tells us not
only one messenger, but two messengers.
The first messengers comes to prepare the way.
And if we go to the New Testament, we realize that that
first messenger was actually John the Baptist.
And Jesus confirms this in Matthew 11, verse 10.
Speaking of John, he says this is the one about whom it is
written. I will send my messenger ahead
of you who will prepare the way. But here's the surprising part.
The second messenger is not just any other messenger.
The second messenger is Jesus. The second messenger is God
himself in the flesh, the one that Malachi calls the Messenger
of the covenant. Why?
Why would God send not only one, but two messengers?
Why would God himself choose to come in the flesh as a
messenger? Why?
Because God does not just throw the rule book.
It is people. God does not just throw the
hammer at his people. God invites repentance before he
brings judgment. Michael Eaton puts it way better
than me and he says this justice is on its way, but for the
moment mercy is on offer. It's funny how people say why
does God tolerate evil and in the same breath they say why
does a loving God send people to hell?
Beloved God, only a loving and they just God would offer mercy
before judgment, and He does that time on time again.
We see that with Noah before the flood.
We see that with Jonah and the people of Nineveh.
We see that with Israel. He sent prophet after prophet
before he sends his people into exile.
Again and again God warns. Again and again God gives space
for repentance. Again and again God calls his
people. Mercy is on offer.
Peter picks up on this in two Peter 3 verses 8 to 10 and he
says but do not forget this one thing dear friends with the Lord
a day is like 1000 years and 1000 years like a day.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand
slowness. Instead, He is patient with you,
not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to
repentance. But but the day of the Lord will
come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with
a roar, the elements will be destroyed by a fire, and the
earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
What looks like delay is mercy. Peter goes on in verse 15 and
says, bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation.
So God's patience equals salvation.
I don't know about you, but I am so grateful that yes, justice is
coming, but mercy found me first.
I don't know where I would be. I don't know what would have
come of me. Mercy not found me first.
Justice is not cancelled, but God in his love and mercy wants
his people to be prepared for it.
So God sends a messenger. God himself comes in flesh, and
He delivers the message of mercy even with death and death on the
cross. But then the tone in Malachi
changes very quickly in verse 2, and we have these two very
searching questions. Who can endure the day of His
coming? Who can stand when He appears?
Brothers and sisters, there is coming a day when God is going
to act against every injustice. God is going to act against
every operation. God is going to act against
every sin that is not repented of.
There is coming a day when those who have not received mercy,
those who have not accepted mercy.
That day is not going to be a good day.
That will be a day of running. It will be a day of hiding.
In fact, John sees a vision of that day and he rides in
Revelation 6, verse 16. And this is what John writes.
It is chilling. He writes this and he describes
what will happen for those who reject mercy.
That is an offer. And he says this.
They will call to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us, and
hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, from the
wrath of the Lamb, beloved of God.
That is what happens when justice comes and mercy is not
received. Have you received mercy?
Have you receive mercy? That is an offer.
But heres the good, heres the good news.
That is not the only outcome that will happen on that day.
Its kind of like Cape Town weather in summer.
In one part of Cape Town, it could be so windy, windy and
unpleasant and everybody is locked indoors.
Kind of sounds like another usual summer day in Bloberg
where we come from and you drop 10 minutes inland and it's sunny
and clear and pleasant and everybody is going about their
day. And you kind of wonder to
yourself, is this the same day? Same day, different experience.
Depending on where you stand, such would be that day.
For those who receive mercy that day will be totally different to
the kind of day that and experience that John writes in
Revelation 6 verse 16. In fact, John writes in one John
417 a different experience and he says this.
This is how love is made complete among us, so that we
will have confidence on the day of judgment.
Confidence not running, not hiding, not asking for rocks to
fall on you, not wondering, have I done enough?
Because on that day, if you have received mercy, you will not be
standing on your own record, but you'll be standing on the record
of the messenger of the covenant.
But let's be clear about one thing.
Confidence does not come from God ignoring sin, as John
reminds us. Confidence comes from love being
made complete or love being perfected.
And how does that happen? In a sense it happens through
refining. As Malachi reminds us, the
messenger of the covenant will be like a refiners fire.
So God's love does not leave us where he founds us, but it
shapes us, it changes us, it refines us as it burns away all
the impurities until our lives are a reflection of the one who
loves us. I love the way Malachi uses this
illustration of a silversmith. You know how a silversmith are
those people that take silver and refine it and become so
beautiful and precious, like some of the silverware that we
have, you know, at our home, or this beautiful silver watch that
belongs to my wife. I must tell you this, that this
used to be a rough piece of rock full of impurities.
So what does the silversmith do? The silversmith takes this rock.
Full of impurities and he purifies it.
He does not do that by taking it and putting it under his fluffy
pillow. He does that by putting it in
the furnace, in the furnace of fire.
And deliberately and intentionally, he turns up the
heat, the heat in the furnace, not wanting to destroy the
silver, but to purify it. And as he turns up the heat, not
a single moment does he let this silver out of his eyesight.
And he turns up the heat and the furnace.
As the furnace heats up, the silver is purified.
The impurities rise to the surface.
And carefully he scoops the impurities off until the surface
of the silver begins to reflect his image.
How beautiful that is. That is our portion when we
accept mercy. For some of us here this
morning, you're feeling the fire of the furnace.
It feels hot, it feels discomfortable, it feels hard.
Perhaps saying to yourself, God, why have you forsaken me?
I want to encourage you. God is not out to destroy you.
I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord Almighty plans not
to harm you, but to give you a hope and a future.
I want to encourage you. Trust Him, trust the refiners.
Love. Trust the work of God in your
life. He's not out to destroy you.
He will not let you go until He is done with you, until your
life completely and perfectly reflects His beautiful image.
In fact, John writes and he encourages us and he says,
continue in him in one John 228, so that when he appears we may
be confident and unashamed. Amen.
Man cannot ask us to stand. Perhaps could I invite the band
to to come? And as the band comes, can I ask
that we close our eyes? Mercy is an offer.
Perhaps you are here this morning and you've never said
yes to the mercy of God, The Lord of God.
Do not leave this place without accepting mercy.
Mercy is an offer for you this morning.
Perhaps that's you. I'll createspace for you to
respond to the mercy of God. Don't worry about the person
standing next to you as we close our eyes.
If that's you, perhaps as a sign of accepting mercy, you're going
to raise your hand wherever you are.
Do not leave this place without receiving, without saying yes to
the mercy of God. If you're not comfortable with
raising your hand, what's more important is what happens in
your heart, even under your breath.
I want to encourage you is to pray a simple prayer.
Jesus, I receive your mercy. Jesus, I accept you as my Lord
and Savior. I want to pray this morning for
some were here this morning and feel discouraged.
Perhaps the sense of God. This is hard.
It's hot in the in the fury furnace of fire.
Father, I pray by your spirit would you bring strength and
encouragement this morning I ask, Holy Spirit of God, would
you be poured out in this place? Holy Spirit of God, I pray be
poured out. Pour your life in this place.
I pray for strength. I pray for encouragement that
only you can give. O Holy Spirit of God, I pray for
the comforts of Jesus in this place.
God, I pray for renewed strength.
Thank you, God, that only you can give us the strength that we
need, that there is no other source.
There is no other place that we can receive strength.
I pray for renewed strength this morning.
And we know that those who receive the message of the
messenger become messengers themselves.
And they do not only receive the message for themselves, but they
receive the hearts of the messenger to be messengers
themselves. So, God, I pray and I lift your
precious church to you and I pray, Lord God, that you'd
strengthen these messengers that you have appointed.
I pray, God, that you would give a burden.
You'd stir up a burden for this community.
You'd stir up a burden for this city.
Lord God, strengthen the hands and the feet of this faithful
messengers. Lord God, I pray and God, how
can we not pray for this community?
How can we not pray for this city, for this nation?
God, we lift this city, we lift this nation, we lift this
community. To you, God, we pray for those
who have not yet received the message of the messenger.
And we pray, Lord God, once you turn hearts of men and women to
you, that on that day, Lord God, they will not run to the hills
and say, hide me, fall on me, but they would run to their
beloved and run to the embrace of a loving God.
Have mercy, God, have mercy on this nation.
Have mercy on this city. God, we pray.
Amen.