Renewing Justice

6 · Exposes Israel's false accusation against God while affirming that their underlying impulse—that justice matters and must be pursued—is correct and righteous

I want to just say 3 things about that as we work our way through the text. To accomplish that goal— shining a light on the LORD of justice and being a people of justice— I think first, We have to pursue justice. That seems obvious, but it's not explicit in the text. Now, as we've walked through this series of Malachi, you remember Malachi is essentially serving as a prosecuting attorney. He's bringing charges on God's behalf in front of the people. He's leveling charges against Israel. And so here he brings more charges. And not for the first time, Malachi's audience is receiving charges because they failed to see things accurately. Their perception of reality is off. In our text this morning, they've accused God of being unconcerned with justice. In fact, they say He's allowing the wicked to prosper. They take it even a step further than that. Not just that He's unconcerned with justice or allowing evil people to get ahead in life, They actually say that God delights in seeing that happen. It's not just that He doesn't care about justice, He's actually taking pleasure in promoting injustice. Now, we'll come back to how inaccurate they are about God's character in a moment. But at this point, implicit in the text is the fact that the people of Israel are on to something. Implicit in the complaint, even though the complaint is off-base against God, Implicit in the complaint is the realization that justice does matter. We don't want to live in a world where powerful people can control things and take advantage of the weak and disadvantaged. Where some people get ahead by treading on the rights of others. Like the 250,000 people gathered on the Mall to march with Dr. King, the impulse to pursue justice is correct. It is righteous, you could say.

7 · Establishes through scripture that passive non-participation in evil is insufficient; God requires active pursuit of justice through opposing evil and righting wrongs

It's not good enough to say, 'I'm not unjust. I'm not supporting the evil ones.' No, God wants His people to actively oppose the evil, to pursue justice. Listen to two passages. Micah 6:8, that famous verse, 'He has told you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?' If that's not clear enough, you look at Isaiah. Isaiah 1:17, the prophet says, Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the widow's cause. It is not enough to say, 'I didn't do it.' God demands that His people pursue the righting of wrongs.

8 · Diagnoses the false dichotomy between doctrine and justice in the modern church, illustrating how some drift toward a social gospel while others abandon justice talk altogether, when both doctrine and justice flow from God's character

So, for example, it isn't just the abortionist who's complicit in the holocaust of the unborn. It's the silent majority that fails to speak out, that fails to fight against a system of legalized murder. One of the saddest developments in the modern church is the way people have found a way to polarize over issues of justice and doctrine, to polarize over issues of creed and deed, some people being militant in their defense of good theology and other people being militant in their defense of good works. And somehow they found a way to end up on opposite sides of the divide fighting against each other. You have on the one hand churches and organizations who in their zeal for justice have completely lost sight of the Gospel itself. They gut the Bible of any doctrine and any truth and they end up promoting a social gospel. That the extent of the good news is that suffering would be alleviated in the world now. That's the extent of the good that God comes to do. On the other hand, you have people so concerned with protecting doctrine, so aware of the drift that others have made as they've neutered doctrine, that they stop talking about issues of justice altogether. Afraid that to even speak of them somehow signals a drift of their own. It's a tragic bifurcation of God's character. He is holy. He is the one who promotes the creeds. He is the one who promotes right doctrine, who calls for his people to be a people of the book, a people of the word, who calls for his leaders to teach people according to his word. And at the same time, he is a God who is a pursuer of justice. God wants His people to be zealous defenders of justification while at the same time passionate pursuers of justice. Does that make sense? We can't lose sight of the Gospel in our pursuit of justice. We can't allow social causes to be the greatest thing that we're about to the extent that we stop actually proclaiming that Christ has come to seek and save the lost, that we need saving in the first place. But we have to realize that the pursuit of justice is also a legitimate implication of the gospel, that as we seek to pursue justice, we're doing it because we know it's a foretaste. It's a foretaste of the kingdom to come when there will be no more injustice.

9 · Expounds Malachi 3:5 to show that the list of injustices includes both expected categories (oppressing workers, widows, orphans) and unexpected ones (sorcery, adultery, false witness), revealing that justice extends as far as sin extends, including church discipline as a justice issue

In verse 5, Malachi gives us a list of the injustices he wants Israel to fight against. It's actually a fascinating list. If you were going to come up with a list of what are the social evils he's going to put down, a few of them might make the list. There's a couple on here that you're probably going to have to do a double take on. He lists sorcerers as being those who are unjust. And he says those sorcerers are unjust along with the adulterers and the liars. We don't normally think of people who bear false witness as being unjust. Especially in our day and age. Do we think of the adulterers as unjust people? No, we're probably more quick to go to those that Malachi lists like the oppressors of widows and orphans and those who fail in hospitality, who fail to love outsiders. You see what he's doing here? He's showing us that our notions of justice spread as far as we see the plague of sin going. Have you ever thought of church discipline as a form of pursuing justice? Probably not. Church discipline, walking out Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5:6-7, expelling someone who's caught in unrepentant sin from the church. It seems so harsh. Why would you do that? For the cause of justice, Malachi says. For the cause of justice. Because in doing that, you are pursuing justice for the woman whose husband has betrayed her. To fail to do it is to be unjust in your treatment of that woman.

10 · Addresses the practical question of how to pursue justice by citing Matt Chandler's counsel to pursue missional opportunities wherever God has placed you, arguing that gospel opportunities naturally include justice opportunities

So how and where should we be pursuing justice? Well, to the how, I love the way Matt Chandler at his church, The Village, in Dallas, Texas, answers that question. He charges his church, pursue missional opportunities, pursue missional opportunities wherever God has placed you. Sometimes we get so complex in thinking about how do I seek to walk out the gospel and be faithful to the Great Commission and to pursue the cause of justice. And Chandler argues, I think sometimes we just make it overly complex. If you're committed to looking for gospel opportunities, there will be ample opportunities for social justice wherever it is that God has planted you. Be mindful of them. Be aware of them. Be prayerfully asking that God would bring them to your attention. In an unjust world, there's no shortage of opportunities.

11 · Calls the church to pursue justice for the unborn by speaking against abortion and working against it with the same endurance that Christians showed in fighting slavery, arguing that abortion is murder of the most vulnerable

As for where to concentrate, there are a litany of things that could be mentioned here. For the sake of time, I want to highlight at least a few, a few things that I would love to have define us as a church. I already mentioned it briefly. I would love for us to be a church that is pursuing justice for the unborn. The murder of 50 million unborn American children is nothing short of a holocaust. That's an appropriate word to use for abortion. I was thinking about it this week. You know, it's become in vogue for athletes recently to wear shirts with political slogans, justice slogans. 'I can't breathe,' right? Talking about the man who was choked to death by a police officer in New York, and then the officer wasn't indicted. LeBron and all these NBA stars are wearing these shirts as a statement of protest, and the NBA has said, 'We're not going to go there. We're not going to tell them no.' And I thought, I wonder if LeBron was to wear a shirt that said, 'Abortion is murder.' Would they remain silent? Because abortion is murder. The most vulnerable people in our society have no protections under the law. We can't lose heart in speaking against it and working against it, because if people, if Christian people, if evangelical believers had lost heart in speaking against slavery, there would still be slavery. There would still be slaves traded across the Atlantic. There would still be slavery reigning with the Dutch East India Company and in Great Britain, and there would still be slavery in the land of America. But they didn't lose heart. For decades and centuries, they fought against the evil and they spoke against the evil. And in similar ways, as a people, as a church, I want us to have that sort of endurance in pursuing justice for the unborn.

12 · Provides concrete action steps for pursuing justice for the unborn: support crisis pregnancy centers financially, volunteer time, and consider taking in single mothers to help them keep their babies

So go find a crisis pregnancy center. Support them with your money. Even better, Support them with your time. Volunteer there. Take it a step further. In keeping with Malachi, in love for the widow, for the orphan, for the stranger and the sojourner in your midst, what if you took in a single mother? Not just calling her to save the baby, but saying, 'I will offer you to stay at my home so you can get on your feet.'

13 · Calls Providence to pursue justice for victims of sexual abuse and sex trafficking by being vocal in support of victims, implementing protective policies, and refusing to remain silent when abuse occurs

I would love for Providence to be a place where we pursue justice for the victims of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. You want to talk about a voiceless people. The shame of being abused. The fact that sex trafficking flourishes flourishes in the United States and throughout the world because powerful people take advantage of women and children who have no voice and no protection and no recourse. There are few things as evil as sexual abuse and the exploitation of children and women in that way. So let's be a place where we give voice. Let's be a place, first of all, where we say it is totally out of bounds. We will not be a church where if that happens, we would stand idly by. If we were to ever hear that something like that happened in our midst, we would be loud and vocal in our support for the victim, and we would be loud and vocal in our support for justice here in our midst. We're going to do everything we can as a church to protect our children. There's going to be policies that we have in place and some that become more robust that you think, aren't they kind of just being hard? Isn't it difficult to get your kids into children's ministry and how they're thinking about childcare in the church? We want to be hard because we want to fight against the injustice of people who prey on children.

14 · Provides a personal mission trip experience witnessing a ministry to women in prostitution in Bolivia to illustrate how sex trafficking is driven by male demand, not just female vulnerability

I think of the trip we took to Bolivia last spring with Caleb. He's back there now at Casa de Esperanza, right in Carnavi. We spent our last weekend in La Paz, in the capital, and we went and visited this ministry to women who were being pulled out of prostitution. And you just see the horrors of how they have to live just to make ends meet, to provide for their family. They don't want to be prostitutes. They have multiple children that they have to feed. And I'll never forget Andy, the guy who runs the ministry, He said, 'You know, there are things we have to do proactively to help the women and to get them off the streets, but there wouldn't be an issue if you didn't have the men seeking this out.'

15 · Applies the sex trafficking issue directly to men in the congregation, arguing that fighting pornography is a practical way to combat sex trafficking because male demand drives the industry

You want to know a really practical way, guys, that we can fight against sex trafficking? We can deal with the issues of our own heart and we can fight against the temptations of pornography. Because that's where it begins.

16 · Calls Providence to pursue racial justice by rooting out even subtle forms of racism, using a personal anecdote about a 'respectable' person's racist comment to show how prejudice can hide behind respectability

I want Providence to be a place that pursues justice for people of every ethnic persuasion. I want it to be a place where there is not a sniff of racism and racial prejudice. And you can think that, 'We're We're not racist. We don't have racists here. We had a conversation a while back, a good family friend of my wife's, the daughter who is her age, they were discussing something with the family and it came up that a young white woman was dating a black man. And these are very respectable people. They would never say racist things, you would think. They would never be tabbed as racist, and the thought that came out from the father was, 'I wouldn't want my daughter to do that.' Is it as overt as some of the horrible things we've seen in the history of our country in regards to race relations? No. Is it racism? Yes. Let us not have a sniff of that at Providence. But let us pursue that there wouldn't be a sniff of it in our neighborhoods, right?

17 · Shows how abortion and racism intersect by exposing Planned Parenthood's eugenic history and disproportionate targeting of African American neighborhoods, then calls for transracial adoption as a way to both combat abortion and racism while personally investing in the fight against racial injustice

Here's a great way to combine the first one and the third one, abortion and racism. Do you know that there's a strategic move by Planned Parenthood to have Planned Parenthood clinics specifically in impoverished neighborhoods, specifically in neighborhoods where there is a disproportionate number of African Americans, that from the very beginning of that organization, Margaret Sanger, a eugenicist, a friend of Nazi sympathizers, one who wanted to really clean the human race and make it more white, intentionally, strategically targeted minority neighborhoods, that even to this day there is a massively disproportionate number of the babies who are aborted in that 50 million who who are African American. So what if we had families at Providence who aren't just supporting single mothers and volunteering at crisis pregnancy centers but saying, 'I'm going to adopt a little African American baby because I want to do everything I can to be a voice to this, to not just speak against injustice but to act against it, and because I know if I adopt this little baby, when I see racism, my heart is going to be more intertwined with stopping it. Because now it's my child.

18 · Addresses poverty as a justice issue and provides a simple, concrete illustration of how one person helps the poor by keeping food in the car to give to those who are panhandling

Poverty. Poverty. People being denied fair wages for their work, unable to get work, mothers and families who can't put food on the table. I had a buddy, he's a teacher in LA, he drives around with a little Ziploc bag full of non-perishable items, and he just says, you know, when I see a poor person that's panhandling, I just roll down my window and I pass it to them. And you said, 'It's a little thing I can do. It adds a little bit to the grocery bill each month. I don't have to worry about how long it's in my car, but it's a little thing I can do to help somebody in that way.'

19 · Calls the congregation to support Caleb's ministry at Casa de Esperanza in Bolivia, which serves widows and orphans who are literally the poorest of the poor, asking for prayer and strategic support

You can help by supporting Caleb down in Costa de Esperanza. You want to talk about the poorest of the poor? These are, by definition, widows and orphans at the House of Hope in Carnaby. They have no families. There's a reason why Most of them take up the last name Esperanza. They don't have a last name, and so their last name becomes hope. Pray for Caleb. Pray for those children. Join us as a church in thinking strategically how we can support that ministry.

20 · Calls the congregation to fight religious persecution by joining a mission trip to Voice of the Martyrs in Oklahoma, asking them to pray for, care about, and support believers facing death for their faith worldwide

And finally, continue to fight against religious persecution. Religious persecution is happening everywhere in the world today. There's growing evidence of it here at home, but especially abroad. People being put to death for their faith. The idea of religious freedom being trampled underfoot. People being executed if they won't convert to to another faith. Support the fight against religious persecution. Come with us this summer when we go down to Bartlesville, Oklahoma to Voice of the Martyrs. Come with us. It's going to be in June. We can get you the date. You can put it on your calendar. Come with us. Spend a week there volunteering and see if there's not a seed planted in your heart to pray for the persecuted church, to care more about the persecuted church, to support our brothers and sisters who are facing affliction, the loss of their homes, and even death for the name of Jesus.

21 · Signals the structural shift from the first main point (pursue justice) to the second main point (be patient for justice)

Pursue justice. But also, second point, be patient for justice. Be patient for justice.

22 · Establishes that while Israel's desire for justice is commendable, their impatience led them to false conclusions about God's character—that He is either disengaged or unjust—which we must navigate carefully while being sensitive to suffering

One thing we learn in Malachi is that it isn't enough just to pursue it. It seems strange to be saying, 'Be patient for justice,' right? Israel's desire to see justice is commendable, but the conclusion they come to is because they lack patience. The conclusion they come to is that we want to see justice, justice exists, so God is disengaged. God doesn't care, or God himself is actually unjust. Now, I want to be sensitive to people who are suffering injustice or have in the past. I can understand how you can end up with those questions. So how do we navigate them? Israel essentially is looking at the suffering around them And they've come to the conclusion that God doesn't care and that God is complicit.

23 · Expounds Malachi 2:17 to show that Israel's false accusations wearied God's heart, then establishes the theological principle that all earthly justice is only partial and proximate, never complete

Malachi tells them at the beginning of our passage, what does he say? 'You've wearied the Lord.' You could translate it, 'You've saddened Him.' 'You've made His heart heavy.' If one danger of pursuing justice is that it can begin to overshadow the Gospel. So all we're about is feeding the hungry and never proclaiming Christ and Him crucified to them. If that's one danger, another is that in our pursuit of justice in this life, we lose sight of the fact that even if we achieve justice in this life, it's only going to be a partial justice. Even the most just outcomes that happen in this age, in this world, are only proximate. They're only partial.

24 · Illustrates the limits of earthly justice through a tragic personal story from the pastor's hometown: a daycare worker killed a 3-year-old girl, but even maximum punishment could never restore what was lost, demonstrating that true justice would require resurrection

This came to the doorstep of my hometown. I was reminded of it this weekend when we went back there for my grandma's funeral. They recently had the conviction. I think I told the story a few months ago. There was a family, trusted family friend was the daycare provider. They sent their little 3-year-old girl to her home because they trusted the woman. They got a call at work one day, she's fallen down the stairs, you got to come quickly. They came, they took her, they rushed her to the hospital. They airlifted her to Sioux Falls. In Sioux Falls, they realized these injuries aren't consistent with a child falling down the stairs. They went back to talk to the daycare worker, and she admitted, in anger, because the little 3-year-old girl wouldn't take off her coat, she had thrown her to the floor. And the little girl died. They just concluded the trial. What does justice look like in that situation? The woman actually got a plea bargain, so her sentence was decreased. She was able to plead out. But even if she'd been convicted and found guilty, does the family walk out of the court feeling clean? Feeling satisfied? Well, because she will spend the rest of her life in prison, we're okay with the fact that our little 3-year-old girl is gone. No. Justice would be, I'm a daddy to that little girl again. In this life, we only know proximate partial justice.

25 · Establishes that proximate justice is the best possible in this age and should be pursued, but expecting it to fully satisfy will lead to disappointment and questions about God's character

Proximate justice is limited justice essentially because it says something is better than nothing. And this partial justice is the best we can hope for in this age. It doesn't mean you still don't pursue justice. But if you pursue justice in this age thinking that it is going to satisfy all evil, You're going to be left disappointed and you're going to be left with questions concerning God's character.

26 · Shows how Israel forgot their redemption history—both from Babylonian exile and from Egyptian slavery—where God brought justice after long waiting periods, demonstrating that God always had a plan to redeem even when His timing was mysterious

Israel had lost sight of this in their distress and they turned their anger to the Lord. Israel, in a large part, had forgotten their own history, right? The people in Malachi's time, where are they at? They're returned from exile. They deserved to be taken off into exile for the way they rebelled against God. And God, in His gracious kindness, in His faithfulness to His word, in His faithfulness to the covenant, has returned them to the land. And they've lost sight of that. Is God just? He's put you and His faithfulness back in the land you don't deserve to be in. Even more than that, they've forgotten that their history involves 400 years of slavery, a period that included racism and genocide and countless countless horrors against the Hebrew people. And they had cried out to God to intervene, and for generations they had wondered whether God heard their cry for justice. And then God moved in the most glorious way imaginable and took them out of the land. He was listening. He provided miracles before the face of Pharaoh to show who the true and living God was, and He walked them out of Egypt. The Lord of hosts brought judgment and death on the firstborn of the Egyptians. In the midst of their suffering, God had a plan to redeem. And even as Israel struggled to understand God's timing and God's method of bringing justice, in hindsight, we can see what God was doing, can't we?

27 · Reveals the typological connection between the Passover deliverance and Christ's sacrifice, showing that God's justice in the Exodus was a preview of the ultimate justice accomplished through Jesus, making Israel's accusations against God's character all the more wearying

In hindsight, we know that He's setting up the stage. He's giving us a preview. He's giving us a foretaste of the deliverance that would come in His Son. I'm going to protect my people through the sacrifice of a Passover lamb, and judgment is going to come and it's going to rain across Egypt, but my people under the blood of a sacrificial lamb will be saved and preserved. God is acting justly on Israel's behalf, and He's giving them a foretaste of the greater justice that will come. So now we can imagine how wearying it is for God to hear us impugn His character and question His goodness. Am I just? Have I not given you My Son?

28 · Establishes that praying 'Your kingdom come' is fundamentally a cry for justice, connecting patient waiting for perfect justice with faith in God's promise to eradicate all evil and resurrection, making both the pursuit of and patience for justice evidences of living faith

God is not in favor of suffering. He's not the author of sin. He's ordained a plan to undo all the brokenness, all the brokenness that our foreparents created. This is the definition of what it means to pray Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You know what that is? That's a cry for justice. Your kingdom come, Lord, because with the coming of your kingdom, every scale is set right. Anyone who knows dissatisfaction with proximate partial justice should feel that burning desire in their hearts, a desire to pray that God would bring about the fulfillment of everything He's promised. To eradicate evil in every form. Not just to punish perpetrators, but to turn back all the heartache. Until Christ's kingdom comes, we will only know partial justice, and so we must be patient even as we pursue partial justice. Still passionate to achieve just ends, but patient for the day when the lordship of Christ is finally and fully exercised. It's only here when the King returns in all his glory when the dead are brought back to life. It's only then that we'll know perfect justice that we long for. And so, just as the pursuit of justice is evidence of our faith at work, patience for justice is evidence of our faith at work.

29 · Signals the structural shift to the third and final main point, moving from pursuing and being patient for justice to preparing for the day of justice

And then finally, we pursue justice, we are patient for justice, we are called to prepare for justice. We're called to prepare for justice.

30 · This extended exposition unpacks Malachi 3:1-5 to reveal Christ's two comings: first as purifying Savior who cleanses His temple and bears judgment as our substitute, and second as avenging Judge who delivers perfect justice

Malachi is chock-full with good news and these calls for spiritual renewal and spiritual reformation. He's giving them glimpses and glimmers of hope. God expects us to be just. He wants us to hope for perfect justice. Why? Because God himself is just. That's Malachi's rebuttal to their grumbling. We hear the accusation, 'Where is the God of justice?' Hear Malachi's resounding answer, 'Behold, I will 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 whom you delight Behold, he is coming, says Yahweh, the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts is not sitting idly by. Where is the God of justice? He's preparing. He's preparing to come. And on the day of his coming, he will be just, and it will be an awesome day. But look closer at what Malachi is saying here. There's three characters. In this section. Did you see them? The Lord of Hosts says He's sending a messenger to prepare the way. Who's the messenger? It's John the Baptist, right? We learned that in the New Testament. John the Baptist is the messenger who's coming. And then Malachi says that the Lord who they seek, the Lord of Justice, will come to His temple. But notice what he says. He says the one who is coming is the messenger. So there's the messenger who's coming to announce the way. And then there's the Messenger of the Covenant in whom they delight. And this is what Malachi says, 'He, the Messenger of the Covenant, is coming, says the LORD of hosts.' The Messenger of the Covenant who's coming is not the LORD of hosts. It's not the Father. It's the Son. It drips with a preview of the Incarnation. 'He is coming, the Lord of Justice, and He's coming into His temple,' says the Lord of Hosts. What hope for the people in Malachi's day. Remember their crummy temple? The men weep when it's completed because it's just a shadow of the temple's glory in Solomon's day. They weep because this temple isn't filled with the Lord's presence. The way the old temple was. But there's coming a day when it will be filled with glory and when it will be filled with perfect covenant justice. Malachi is telling them, he's telling us, prepare for this arrival. In the same way that Israel waited 400 years to be released from bondage in Egypt, they're about to wait 400 years in prophetic silence. 400 years without a new word from the Lord. 400 years under Greek and Roman rule. Where is the God of justice? He's not even speaking to us anymore. But in 400 years, the glory of the Lord would return to the temple. A greater glory than when Moses built the tabernacle. A greater glory than what descended upon Solomon's temple. When the little infant Jesus is born, He's brought to the temple. Simeon, that righteous servant of the Lord, realizes with amazement and joy he's seen the Lord's anointed. That the Lord of glory has returned to the temple. When Jesus returns to His temple, we see that He brings purification and He brings judgment. That's what Malachi is showing us here as a way of preview. That's foretelling what's going to happen. When this Lord comes, when this Lord of Justice, this Messenger of the Covenant comes, there's going to be purification that happens and there's going to be judgment that happens. And there's a twofold unfolding of it. There's the first coming of that Lord and then there's the second coming. We'll look at both of them. When Jesus returns to His temple, purification and judgment happen. So what happens? What does Jesus do? What does Jesus do the first time He comes to the temple? He clears it, right? He cleans the temple out because the money changers are taking advantage of it. Wow. He clears the temple as an act of restoring justice in God's house. He purifies it. We have this idea of Jesus as a really nice, gentle guy holding children singing songs and walking with the crowds and hugging young ladies. He's like a not creepy politician. There's some truth to that, but part of the justice brings in is more than just God's mercy and compassion being brought near and personal. In the temple, we see a flash fore-shadowing. In the temple in Jerusalem, we see Jesus angry. If we're honest, we see Jesus wrathful. He purifies His Father's house because it's become a den for men who swear falsely and oppress the poor. Jesus shows us in His first coming a preview of what happens in His second coming. Malachi says that Jesus will be like a refiner's fire and a fuller's soap. A fuller's soap is like a powerful cleaning agent that you use with clothes, so it separates the dirt and it leaves them spotless and purified. The refiner's fire may be the one you're more familiar with. It's the white-hot blaze, right, that the smith uses to take the gold and the silver and to plunge them in there in their allied form, and in the white-hot blaze, they're purified and all the impurities and all the dross is separated and it's burned off. And when you pull it out, you no longer have an alloy, you have pure gold, you have pure silver. Malachi's point is when the messenger comes, When Jesus comes, His people need to be purified. We need to be made clean. We have to have the dross burned away. And his point that the New Testament fulfills is that Jesus is the provision of God to accomplish it. There are no alloys allowed in the new heavens and the new earth. You don't get into the new heavens and new earth if you're an alloy, if you've got some holiness mixed in with some dross, mixed in with impurity and sinfulness. No one stained by sin, only saints who've been fully cleansed. And Jesus, Malachi points to, the New Testament fulfills, is the one who comes to refine us, who comes to purify us. We need spiritual reformation. We need spiritual renewal. And the place that spiritual reformation and spiritual renewal happens is the person and work of Jesus Christ. Sanctification happens as Jesus makes His people holy. It's not a pleasant process. It's hot. It's difficult. There's trials. There's sufferings. But God is using those, James tells us, right? To refine us, to purify our joy, to make us more holy. But refining isn't all that Jesus will do. Israel cries out for justice. They demand that the Lord answer. And Malachi says justice will come. But then He gives a warning. 'Who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?' You see, in the final application of justice, when partial, proximate justice is finally put aside and when every scale is set right, some will be purified by Jesus as a refining fire and some will face Jesus in judgment. That's His point. Look at the very end of the passage. 'Then I will draw near to you,' the Lord says, 'in judgment. I will be a swift witness against all those who have been unjust in any form.' Those who swear falsely? Man, anyone who's ever told a lie. It's like Malachi is saying, 'Do you really know what you're asking for when you cry out for justice? When you demand ultimate justice? Do you realize that ultimate justice ensures that the party who has been done the ultimate wrong is appeased?' There's a day coming when Jesus will return. And Malachi's point and the New Testament's point is that when Jesus returns, when he comes for the second time, he comes as a judge. He's no longer the not-so-creepy politician. The first coming, he comes as a savior. There's judgment in the first coming, isn't there? There's refining. He purifies and cleanses the temple. And there's also judgment. In the first coming, judgment comes, but Jesus is the one who bears it. The judgment is placed on Jesus. He becomes our substitute, and so He bears our guilt away from us. Jesus is the one who's judged, and as He's raised from the dead, the Father approves of what He's done. In the second coming, Jesus returns as an avenger. The day of the Lord in the Old Testament is a frightful thing for those who have opposed God and who have thwarted his justice. It's a day when God metes out justice and punishes every evildoer. And on that day, the only ones who can stand will be those who have already been cleansed and purified by Jesus as the refiner. All the rest will face Him as the one Revelation describes like this. John says, 'I saw the heavens opened, and behold, a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and He makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems. And He has a name written that no one knows but Himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood.' And the name by which He is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven, the hosts of heaven, the Lord of hosts, the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on white horses. And from His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. And He will rule them with a rod of iron. In other words, He will rule them in absolute and perfect justice. He will tread the winepresses of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has a name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Lord of Hosts, Malachi's favorite title, appears drastically more often in Malachi than anywhere else in the Old Testament. The Lord of hosts, Malachi says, will come. Jesus will return as an avenger carrying a sword and delivering justice. And so I'm pleading with you this morning in the same way Malachi is pleading with Israel: prepare for the day of final justice. Don't be taken by surprise on the day of final judgment.

31 · Restates the sermon's three-part structure as a set of imperatives, driving home the practical obligations that flow from the exposition

Pursue justice. Be patient for justice. Prepare for justice.

32 · Shifts into direct pastoral address to those currently suffering injustice, validating their pain and affirming that crying out 'How long, O Lord?' is both understandable and biblically appropriate

I want to give a final word just to those who right now are suffering. Injustice. Maybe it's injustice at work. Maybe it's relational injustice of some sort. Maybe it's horrible, unspeakable injustice that would just break the categories of everyone in this room. It's agonizing to be beaten down by evil, especially when you don't see an end in sight. To endure racial prejudice or to be cheated of your wages or to simply feel like you're going through life powerless and at the mercy of wicked people. It's hard. It's understandable and it's right to cry out, 'How long, O Lord? How long until your Son returns and ends all of this?' Those are the inspired words of Scripture crying out to God on our behalf.

33 · Encourages suffering believers to cry out to God, promising that Christ will return to set all things right and that every sin will be punished either on the cross or in judgment, urging them to take refuge in the God of justice

I want to encourage you, if you're suffering, it's appropriate to cry out to God. He wants to hear that. He wanted to hear Israel in bondage crying out so that He could take pleasure in coming and redeeming them. He wants to hear you cry out so that He He can take pleasure in sending the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to come and mete out justice. Because there is a day coming when Jesus will set all things right. And so if you're suffering right now, take refuge in the God of justice. Find hope in the God of justice. Look to the Lord of hosts. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a day coming when every sin perpetrated against you, every evil deed and wrong that you've suffered will be met with justice. Every sin will be punished. Either it will have been borne on the back of Jesus, or it will be placed on the heads of evildoers.

34 · Connects Christ's return to Amos's prophetic promise that justice will roll down like waters, establishing eschatological hope for perfect justice

When Christ returns, the prophet Amos' words will be fulfilled. Justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

35 · Establishes that Paul's command to never take personal vengeance is grounded in God's promise to bring perfect justice, making patience for divine justice both theologically sound and practically possible

It's why Paul can write in Romans 12:19, 'Beloved, never avenge yourselves.' How can you say that in an unjust world, Paul? Never avenge yourself? 'Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine. I will repay,' says the Lord.' That's a promise that God will bring justice.

36 · Returns to the earlier daycare tragedy to illustrate radical forgiveness grounded in trust in God's justice, showing how the Elgersma family could forgive their daughter's killer because they believe in resurrection and divine justice at Christ's return

The family whose little 3-year-old girl was thrown to her death, they knew there was going to be a plea deal. They knew that the woman who had done this, the woman they had trusted with their child, was going to get off with a drastically shortened sentence. In the midst of the trial, she had to get up and essentially allocute to what she had done. Part of the plea deal was she didn't have to admit guilt in it, and so she sort of hedged her bets. She admitted that she had allowed the child to fall. The judge asked for correction. 'Did you forcibly throw the child down?' 'Yes, I did.' She never said she was sorry. The Elgersmas stood up and the wife looked across the courtroom and she said, 'We forgive you. We want you to repent. We want you to admit the wrong you've done.' Because we want to see you in heaven. How does a parent do that? How do you forgive and look at the person that killed your little girl and say, 'I don't want you to suffer for eternity for it.' They can say that because they entrusted themselves to the Lord of Justice, because they have taken refuge in Christ Jesus, and they know that in His righteousness every wrong will be righted. And that when the Lord of Hosts, the King of Kings, returns, the greatest injustice will be done, and the dead will be raised.

37 · Concludes with a doxological cry echoing Revelation's 'come, Lord Jesus,' uniting the congregation's voice with all who suffer injustice in longing for Christ's return, restating the sermon's three imperatives as petitions for divine help

How long, O Lord? How long do we have to wait We cry out with the widows and the orphans, the oppressed. We cry out with the sojourner. We cry out with the persecuted, those suffering from racial injustice. We cry out with everyone suffering under tyranny and evil and at the hands of sin. How long, O Lord? And we cry out, come, Lord Jesus, come as our avenger, come as the Lord of Justice, and set the scales right. And help us to pursue justice as we wait. Help us to be patient for your justice as we wait. And Lord, help us to prepare for the day of your justice and judgment.

38 · Closes the sermon with a brief prayer formula

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.