Word of Salvation – Vol.53 No.6 – February 2007

 

The Day of Judgment

A Sermon by Rev Jack Kapinga

on Malachi 2:17-3:5

 

Scripture Reading:  Malachi 2:17-3:5

Suggested Singing:  BoW 383; 182; 517; 57a; Rej 41

 

Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ.

1. When will God’s justice be done?

As Christians we believe that we are God’s people. We believe that God has chosen us and saved us and made us his own. And so we believe that he loves us and cares for us and blesses us in every way. But congregation, if that is so, then why do the wicked seem to prosper? Why is it that people who are not God’s people, who do not love him or believe in him or serve him – why do they seem to be doing so well? Why is it that so often non-Christians seem to be more blessed than we are?

I mean, let’s think about it. We look at the world around us and the unbelievers seem to have it all going for them. They have all the power and all the money, they have all the friends and all the fun, they have the nice houses and the fast cars. They don’t care about the rules and as a result they always seem to be getting ahead in life. They always seem to be having the good times, they seem to get away with everything and they never have to face the consequences.

But when we look at the Christians in this world, they seem to always be struggling. Christians are so often the target of ridicule and discrimination. They suffer adversity and persecution and are even killed for their faith. And we know it, too. We try to do the right thing but in the end we seem to lose out, our expectations never seem to be met. For us life is so often a struggle, we seem to suffer more than our fair share of troubles and hardship and sickness and strife. We suffer stress and depression and frustration and difficulties of every kind.

And when we think about these things, then we can wonder why it is so! If we are God’s special people, if we have devoted ourselves to him, then why doesn’t he give us a better life? If God loves me, then why have these things happened to me? And if those other people hate him, then why doesn’t he make them suffer instead of us? You would almost think that God cares for them more than he does for us, that he is helping them and ignoring his own people. You would almost think that God is not fair. And so we ask, when will God’s justice be done?

But you know we would not be the first ones to think like this. This is an age old problem and God’s people have struggled with it since the beginning. And at the time of Malachi, they were struggling with it as well. In fact the people of Israel had become obsessed with this issue. They were obsessed with it to the point that God was totally sick of them. In Malachi 2:17 it says, “You have wearied the LORD with your words. ‘How have we wearied him?’ you ask.” God was sick and tired of them but they didn’t know what the problem was.

But Malachi was going to tell them. He explains how they have wearied the Lord: “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?'” The people of Israel looked at the prosperity of the nations around them and compared it to their own struggles. And as a result they concluded that it is the wicked that have gained God’s favour, it is the unbelievers that get his blessing. And as a result they thought that God had denied his own justice, that he wasn’t being fair to his own people.

Just as we sometimes do, the people of that day wondered why they had so many troubles while those who rejected the Lord seemed to be blessed. And they were so obsessed with this issue that they had become cynical, they had become impatient with the Lord. These people were asking, when will God’s justice be done?

2. Justice will be done on the day the Lord comes

But as we know from earlier passages in this book, when the people ask a question, God provides the answer. But it’s not always the answer they expect. The people had asked, “Where is the God of justice?” They had asked, “When will his justice be done?” And in chapter 3:1 the Lord tells them. He says, “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.” The Lord says that he is going to come to his people, but first he will send a messenger. But who is he talking about? Well various New Testament passages tell us that the messenger that the Lord is talking about in this verse is John the Baptist.

And then God goes on to say, “‘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.” This must have been a bit mysterious to the people of Malachi’s day. For in these words the Lord says that he will come to them, but yet he also speaks as though the one who will come is someone different. But we can now understand this for we know that the Lord is talking about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus to come into the world; he was the one they were seeking, the one they desired to bring justice.

But this raises an interesting question. It is quite true that John the Baptist prepared the way and that Jesus came. But when he came, did he come to bring justice? Well the answer to that is, no. When Jesus entered this world some 2000 years ago, he came to bring God’s grace, he came to bring salvation. But he did not yet bring justice. And that is why still today the wicked prosper and God’s people suffer.

But when Jesus came, congregation, he made it clear that this was only a preliminary visit. He made it clear that he was going to come again. And when he comes again it will be at that time that he will judge the living and the dead. As he says in Matthew 24, “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.” It is when Jesus comes again that God’s justice will be done.

And that is what the Lord is talking about in Malachi 3:1. He says that he will come suddenly, there will be no warning. He will come like a thief in the night. And he will come to his temple, he will again dwell among his people. The people of Israel had asked, “Where is the God of justice?” and the Lord told them that he is coming. They had asked, “When will God’s justice be done?” and he told them that justice will be done on the day when Jesus returns, that is when everything will be made right.

And that is the answer to our question as well. We look at the world around us and we wonder why the wicked seem to be doing so well while we seem to have nothing but struggles. But God reminds us that the day of justice is coming. The day is coming when Jesus will return and he will judge every person who ever lived. Everyone will have to give account for what they have done. And on that day everything will be made right.

3. When he comes there will be purification and condemnation

But you will notice that our text does not end there. The people had asked when justice would be done and the Lord told them it will happen when he comes. But then he goes on to ask them a question, a far more important question. In verse 2 the Lord asks, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?” The people were asking, will the day of God’s justice ever come? But what they should have been asking is, are we prepared for the day of God’s justice?

You see the people of Israel assumed that they were right with God, and that it was the other nations who needed to fear the day of judgment. And that is what we can think as well. But here God warns us that on that day every person will stand before his throne, every person will meet their Maker, and that is no small thing. And so God urges us to think if we will be able to endure his coming, will we be able to face him, will we be able to stand in his presence? And the reason we need to ask this question is because of our sin. For the Lord is holy, he is perfect and righteous and he cannot tolerate evil of any kind. And on that day he will deal with sin once and for all.

And he goes on to explain how this will take place. And he does so by using a vivid image, the image of a refiner’s fire. You see when metals are taken out of the ground, they do not come out pure. Rather when the ore is mined, it comes out mixed with other materials, useless materials called slag. And so to make the metal pure, it needs to be refined. And that is done by fire. The ore is heated to an extreme temperature until it becomes a liquid and then the pure metal is separated from the useless rubbish. And then those valuable metals are kept while the rubbish is thrown away.

But God tells us that this is like what will happen on the last day. He says, “For he will be like a refiner’s fire”. He will not be like a consuming fire that destroys absolutely everything. But he will be like a refiner’s fire that separates the good from the bad. Or he says that he will be like, “a launderer’s soap.” Soap separates the dirt from the clothes until they are clean. And the Lord will be like that on the day of judgment.

But what will that mean for us?

Well in verses 3 and 4 he says, “He will sit as a refiner and 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 the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.”

The thing that will be refined on that day is the human race, it will be us. We will be put through the refiner’s fire and we will come out pure. All our imperfections will be burned up, all our sins will be washed away and we will be made completely holy and righteous. Like pure silver we will then be able to perfectly reflect the image of our Creator once again. And so we will finally be fit for the presence of the Lord. God will take his people and he will purify us so that we will be acceptable, so we can dwell with him for eternity.

But my friends, the point God is making in this passage is that on that day, not everyone will be refined by the fire of God’s judgment. Some people will be destroyed. Some people will be like the slag that is rejected and thrown away. And that’s what God makes clear in the last verse of our text. He has said that when he comes, some will be refined and made acceptable to him. But in verse 5 he says, “So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud labourers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me, says the LORD Almighty.”

When Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead, not everyone will be allowed to enter God’s eternal glory, but some will be condemned. God will testify against them and because of their sin they will receive the punishment that they deserve. And that will be a terrible, terrible thing.

And so that brings us back to God’s question, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?” That is the most important question of all. The day is coming when Jesus will return to this earth and on that day every person who has lived will stand before his throne, no one can avoid it. And that day will be a day of fire. For some the fire will refine them and make them fit for the presence of the Lord. But for others that fire will destroy and they will be cast out of God’s presence forever. But what is the difference? Who will be purified, and who will be condemned?

Well the answer is in the last words of verse 5. You see all people are sinful, that’s why we need to be made pure. This list of sins in verse 5 is particular to what was going on in Israel at that time, but we all have fallen short of what God requires.

But this verse tells us that the sinners who are condemned are the ones who do not fear the Lord Almighty. In other words they are the ones who have no respect for the Lord, who do not honour him. They are those people who are happy in their rebellion, who do not care that they have grieved their God. They are the people who are not interested in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and the fact that he died on the cross to bear God’s punishment for sin. They are the ones who have no time for God or for his church or for his rules or for his love. They are the ones who will be condemned on the last day.

But that also tells us who the people are who will be saved. For they are the ones who do fear the Lord. They are those who recognise that he is our almighty and holy Creator and that we owe him honour and respect. They are the people who grieve over their sin and plead with God for his forgiveness. They are the ones who put all their trust in the redeeming work of Jesus.

Those who are saved are not without sin. But rather they recognise their sin, and they are sorry for their sin. And most importantly they fight against their sin and strive every day to live the way God desires. And when they fail, they come back to the cross and seek a new start, and they commit themselves again to serve God according to his will. And they are those who know that on the last day, all their remaining impurities will be taken away and they will at last be able to see God face to face.

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, sometimes we can wonder why the wicked seem to have things so good and we seem to have things so bad. Why does God allow people who reject him to prosper while we who love him so often suffer? Well in the verses we have looked at today, God tells us that the day is coming when he will set everything straight. On that day justice will be done, and that is a great comfort. But in these verses he also warns us to be ready for that day.

On the day of judgment some will be condemned. Every person who has rejected God, who has ignored the sacrifice of his Son on the cross, and who has lived their lives in rebellion, they will be punished for their sin. God will testify against all who did not fear him and they will be consumed by his anger.

But on that same day, others will be purified. Those who repented of their sin and believed in Jesus and who strived to follow God’s ways, they will be saved. They will be able to endure that day, they will be able to stand when he appears. God will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will take away all their remaining impurities and make them holy and perfect. And then they will know the ultimate joy of life with the Lord.

That day is coming, congregation, of that we can be sure. It will come suddenly, like a thief in the night. And for those who die in the meantime, that day comes early. We are now in the age of grace and today is the day of salvation. But don’t delay, the trumpet could sound at any time. And then Jesus will sit upon his throne and we will stand before him and justice will be done.

My friends, are you ready for the coming of the Lord? Have you turned to him with repentance and with faith? Are you living your life for him? If not, then it will be the worst day of your life.

But if you love the Lord, if you have put your trust in him, and if you serve him, then it will be a wonderful day. For then our faith shall be sight. And all our suffering and struggles will be finished. And we will live with our God in eternal glory.

Amen.