22. God's Method | Part 1

Sunday Morning Sermon
December 06, 2020
“God’s Method, Part 1”
Malachi 2:17 – 3:5
Pastor Rick Fernandez

17 You have wearied the Lord with your words; yet you say, “In what way have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?
1“Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.
2 “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 like launderers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.
4 “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years. 5 And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien— because they do not fear Me,” says the Lord of hosts.

“He has always been faithful.” We sung that song this morning and in God’s providence we’re going to be thinking about God’s faithfulness, and particularly what happens to a people when that truth becomes a sentiment merely. You know a feeling, an opinion among a people. And then when that feeling and opinion is completely forgotten, that is what Malachi is addressing. I’m going to preach from this text this morning and this evening. I’m not going to finish preaching these verses. So, I’m going to give you what is in this text. And it’s very simple. The way that God restores His people is through the preaching of His Word because the Word is the chariot upon which Christ rides to make war with the idols that overtake our heart. And in doing so Christ liberates us as He rides in on that chariot, He liberates us to worship. That’s flowerful, so, let me not make it flowerful.
The Lord sanctifies, He perfects His people, He makes them ready to worship Him. That’s in verses 2 and following. He does this by sending the Christ. That’s in verse 1b. And the Christ comes in the preaching of the Word. The preaching of the Word prepares a people for receiving Christ. And Christ prepares a people to worship God. That’s the meaning of these verses. So, if we don’t finish the sermon, you have it. We’ll finish the sermon eventually, but I will probably not work through all of the verses. I’m used to doing the entire order of service. It takes us two hours. So, I’ve got a bit of a battery (laughing).
Now, let me set the context for the book of Malachi. God had brought the people out of the land of Egypt from slavery and bondage to sin. And God had done this not because that nation was greater than any other nation. They weren’t more righteous. It was because God had promised a man named Abraham that He would redeem His people and bless His people. And God was faithful. He was faithful to Abraham. And when the people cried out when they were in bondage as God said, “Four hundred and eighty years, I’m coming.”
And He comes and sends a messenger before His face. Moses. And Moses preaches the Word. Then, in powerful acts of judgment God delivers this little, insignificant nation from the greatest power on earth. He delivers them and He brings them to Himself, and He cares for them in the wilderness. He gives them the land and He establishes them. And then they turned their back on God. The faithfulness of God became just a sentiment and then it was forgotten. And the Assyrians came a deported the 10 northern tribes. Then Babylon came and deported Jerusalem and nearly depopulated it. They left only the poor and Judah was taken.
Then Cyrus decrees that Ezra can go back and begin to restore worship. Ezra and Nehemiah, they do that faithfully. They restore worship. The temple is rebuilt. They lay the foundation of the temple, they build the temple, and they build the wall. And now, the people are back in the land as God had promised. He told them through Jeremiah that you’ll be in captivity for 70 years and I will be faithful and I will bring you back to your land. He was faithful and He did it.
And now they’re back in the land, at this period of time when Malachi is preaching. They’ve probably been there a generation. They’re back in the land. And the spiritual revival that was sparked by Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, and Nehemiah is now on the decline again. It’s on the decline again. And the people are turning again away from God.
The book of Malachi is so rich. If you think about the themes that are discussed in the book of Malachi – this is what I’m going to call an “exercization” (laughing) – the themes in the book of Malachi… you think about the big picture of the book of Malachi, what does he address? He addresses worship, marriage, and work. Those themes are creation themes. Right? Marriage, worship, and work. It all started back in the garden. And God brought the nation of Israel together to get those things right. And still at this point in history they still don’t have it right. So, He has to rebuke them.
He offers correction to the priests throughout the book, the people because of their false worship. He rebukes them specifically for miscarriages in their wedding vows. And then because of the way that they are worshiping Him with regards to their labor. Those are some of the Biblical theological themes. The historical context – that’s what I talked about first – that’s where they are in history. They had been brought back to the land because of the faithfulness of God. And now that faithfulness is just becoming a sentiment. It’s almost lost.
Bigger themes that are addressed in the book are those Biblical, theological themes that really, you could read through the whole Bible. And now, how is that book laid out? Here’s the structure of the book? It’s really a dialogue almost. God will bring up some issue, the people will ask questions, and then God goes in.
Malachi chapter 1, verse 2 through 5 – God addresses their disregard for His love.
In 1:6 through chapter 2:9 – a disregard for His honor among the people.
In 2:10 through 16 – their disregard to God’s faithfulness.
In 2:17 through 3:5 – there is a disregard – and this is where I’m going to be preaching from – there is a disregard for God’s righteousness, for His justice.
In 3:6 through 12 – a disregard for worship, and
In 3:13 through 15 – a disregard for His grace.
But here in particular now, he’s going to address their disregard for His righteousness and His justice. Listen to what the people say…or the Lord says first. He says:
You have wearied the Lord with your words; yet you say, “In what way have we wearied Him?” (Here’s the Lord’s answer.) In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?
This people had so set their hearts against God that they could accuse Him of being not only unfaithful but disinterested in what was going on. It’s the same accusation but they say it in two ways. First, “God delights in the wicked” – that’s what they say – “and He’s not here.” “He doesn’t care and He is not there.” And, in these accusations, they had wearied God. Of course, Malachi is using human interaction, human feeling to describe how the Israelites had strained their relationship with God. These are false accusations of course. They’re looking out, and not very far because they are being ruled by a foreign governor. They are not an autonomous nation anymore. They’re seeing the prosperity of foreign nations and they’re seeing the wicked prosper. The wicked are doing great. The wicked just won an election. And God’s people are weary! (laughing)
So, what do they do? They don’t look to the faithfulness of God, they complain. That’s what they do. They just start complaining. “It’s not fair! It’s not right. How could He do this to us? We’re His people.” They accuse Him of being unrighteous. “He must not care about sin.” That’s it. “He doesn’t care about the way that we live, so let’s worship Him however we want. Look we would never give our governors – this is from chapter 1 – we would never give our governors what we’re offering to God in worship, but we’ll give it to God. He can get it. He’d be fine with it. We can worship Him however we want. We could marry whoever we want. We could do whatever we want because God doesn’t care.”
They believed that God had wronged them, as all religious hypocrites do. That’s the issue. The issue is religious hypocrisy. Religious hypocrites are a people who feel entitled. “God owes it to me. He owes it to me. I should be healthy and wealthy.” If God was kind I would have a full head of hair (laughing). You know, a little levity there, but the reality is that we complain about God every time we complain.
That’s really the big picture. That’s the step back. The step back is that not only does God govern and regulate the status and position of His people in the world as He did with the nation of Israel, but He determines in His absolute sovereignty all of the gifts and grace you lack or possess. And every time we choose to complain about any of them, we’re complaining about God. “He’s not really faithful.” It’s a sentiment. We sing the songs. We’ve memorized the hymns. But we don’t really believe that because I’m not getting what I want. That is troublesome to God.
Do you remember when in Numbers chapter 16, God sends the serpents to sting the people? Chapter 14:2 and they complain. This is all related, right? They’re complaining about their leadership really. “We don’t want to go into the land. Why did you bring us out here?” So, God judges them. He says to Moses, “Move over. I’m going to kill all of them and I’m going to make your descendants the heirs of the promise.”
God is wearied. When those complaints rise to heaven. We have to make a distinction here. So, if we take it to the opposite extreme – maybe you don’t call it an extreme but if you take it to the opposite, right? And so, you have complaining over here, this wretched complaining about God’s faithfulness and take it all the way to the other side – you have the martyrs in heaven and they are like, “How long O Lord before you exercise judgment on the wicked?” And He says to them, “Wait a little bit more. A few more have to die but I’m coming in righteousness.”
So, for God’s people to lift up their voice when they see wickedness going on in the world, that is right and good and we ought to be doing that. God is not discouraging that. But here is the complaint. The complaint is centered upon them. Why are we not where the nations are? Why don’t I have those things?” Why is it that I have to struggle and be in great difficulty? God must not care so then, I’m going to live however I want.” “Look, if I can’t find a wife in the church or at a conference or on Christian Mingle, I’m just going to go figure it out myself. I’m just going to go get me one...or a couple.” But that’s the attitude. Right? “God is not being fair to me, so He must not care. And if He doesn’t care I’m going to live however I want.” We do this repeatedly and God gets wearied.
It’s not proper for us to reason up to God from the way that we feel – to reason up to how God feels. But, you know, Malachi does it here. He uses the word “wearied” for God and we read in Isaiah that God doesn’t sleep or slumber, He’s never wearied. But he’s speaking about the relationship. You know, think about it, if you’ve ever been in a relationship, either friends or maybe a spouse or maybe your children, where as best as you can you’re trying to do good for them and all they do is tell you, “You don’t love me. You don’t care for me. You’re not really interested in what is best for me.” That’s exhausting. It wearies you.
So, this is the way that God feels. Now, when we feel like that, if your child is talking to you that way and they’re of legal age, you just kick them out of the house (laughing). Or if you’re a pastor you preach in such a way where you preach those people out of the church. That’s not a good thing to do. It depends how you’re preaching (laughing).
But, what does God do in that instance where His people…? – this is abominable what they are saying about God. You understand, this is the worst possible thing you can say about God. “Where is the God of justice?” Justice flows from the holiness of God. Justice is one of the attributes of God that is exercised in this world in the context of the Fall and sin. Justice has to do with God exercising vengeance upon wickedness and correcting injustice. And they are saying God doesn’t have it. He doesn’t do it. He’s not just.
This is a really big issue. This is a big deal to God. They are accusing Him of being the devil. “That’s what He is, right?” You hear echoes of this even in the Exodus. “He brought us out here to kill us and our children. That’s what He did. That’s why we’re in the wilderness right now. He doesn’t love us. He brought us out here to kill us. He doesn’t care.”
And then, when the devil said to Eve, “You will be like God.” We don’t know what was going on in her head but she probably thought, and Adam probably thought, “God’s not very good to us because He’s keeping this from us. So, I’m going to take it.” The devil still works this way. But what does God do? What does God do? Well, if we take a step back we have to remember that they have forgotten how God revealed Himself to them. He revealed Himself as a God who’s: merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, – ‘He keeps mercy to thousands. He forgives iniquity and transgression and sin.’ He does all those things. That is still who He is.
They were allowing their experience and their understanding of that experience – they were allowing their interpretation, not God’s, not Scripture’s interpretation, but they were allowing their interpretation of their experience to interpret who God is. They put on the glasses of their circumstances and said, “Well, therefore, He is not like that. He’s not merciful. He’s not gracious. He’s not kind. He is not any of those things to me.” That was their complaint. Yet, He had declared to them – and not only declared, not only in word but in deed, He had shown them – His faithfulness, repeatedly.
So, they asked the question, at the end of verse 17, they said, “Where is the God of justice?” – “Where is the God of justice?” “Where is He? If I could find Him I would put my hands on Him and plead with Him. Look, show me little bit of graciousness. Be just!” And what does He say? What does He say to them? You don’t deserve a God of justice.
You have to remember the context here. These are His people. That’s the context. This is a covenantal context. God is not speaking to the nations. He is speaking to His own people. In the first chapter of this book He says to them, “I have loved you...” So, what does He say? He says to them, “I’m right here. He actually says, “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. Ezra, and Nehemiah, and Haggai, and Zechariah, and now Malachi himself; they were there. That was the God of justice calling them away from their sin and back to Himself. He was already in their midst. But God knew that this wayward people needed a particular kind of messenger.
You see, for God to be just is for God to act as God is. He is already just. And everything that they were receiving was according to that justice. And then what He would give them in this messenger is justice. So, He’s going to send this messenger. And the way He speaks – the language He uses here is so that you could note the time. So, what’s the time? He says, “Behold, I send – I am sending. This is eminent, any moment he can show up and start preaching.
Now, you know, we’re standing on this side of the cross – New Testament believers looking back and we can say, “Boy! It would be four or five hundred years before this messenger would come. And that’s how God works. God is not on our schedule. He has His own timetable. The way He chooses to work in and among His people is completely in His own hands. We don’t have any way to force and cajole God and make God do what we want Him to. He had a particular plan and purpose. Now, what this would have done for those who were righteous among the people – they would have basically become the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
But, those who trusted God, who had believed His promises of old, they would have just embraced this promise. And maybe they would have sung “He’s always been faithful to me.” “So, if He says, “A messenger coming.” he’s coming.” When? “Soon. And I’ll wait.” His people will wait.
Now, this is where Malachi is so theologically rich because, you know, who is this messenger? Who is he? Well, look at chapter 4 of Malachi, in verses 5 and 6: “…Behold, I will send you Elisha the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
When His people were wayward and speaking blasphemous words about Him, God knew that what they needed was a particular man to preach a particular message. What they needed to hear – they needed to hear John the Baptist. And they needed to hear the message of the Baptist. That’s what this people needed. So, that is who God sends. God sends John the Baptist.
So, now we’re going to go into the New Testament and we’re going to take a look at the kind of preaching that this wayward and hardhearted people needed. That’s what we’re going to do because, He says, ‘I’m going to send a messenger to prepare My way before Me.’
For the saints who received this book of Malachi, that was intended to create hope. And it should do that for us, right? We are, in a sense, in the same context as they are, redemptive historically because we are waiting for the arrival of our King. That’s what we’re waiting for. So, when we cry out for justice in a good, godly, and reverent way when we see injustice in the world, it’s coming when Christ comes. So, there’s this similar, redemptive, historical connection. But the advantage that we have, because of where we are in history, is we see how God fulfills this promise. We can understand it better than they did at least.
So, we’re just going to look at a bunch of stuff about John the Baptist and we’re going to talk about thee greatest Old Testament preacher who is John. So, look at John chapter 1. The gospel of John chapter 1, verse 6. Listen to how he’s described: There was a man sent from God, (Skipping explanation and jumping right to application, that is what ever congregation needs. Congregations need a man sent from God. That’s what they need. They don’t need CEOs, executives, marketing strategists, therapists. They need a man who God sends.) whose name was John. (And what does he come for? He comes as a witness) to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.
John had the greatest job in the world; the greatest responsibility too. Because John, if you remember, is the last of the Old Testament prophets. And what John is warning the people about theologically – if you just take a look at his whole ministry – he is basically saying to the people that God is going to do away with the Old Covenant. He is done with that covenant. It had its space in the history of the world, in the history of the redemption of God’s people. But now that covenant, it’s coming to an end. And if you want to be a part of God’s people you must repent of your sins and turn to His Son. That is the message that he preaches. He is: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’
We all know that language, right? That’s from Isaiah. When you’re at good churches you know all this kind of stuff. So, that’s what people would do when a king was coming. They’d fix the roads, right? No more pot holes. That’s one of the things that I noticed. We’ve lived in New York for over a year. Driving here, the roads are so nice and wide. But, what they would do so that when a visiting king or some government official would have a smooth ride into the city. And the greater care they took to prepare the way for the coming of this great person would show what they thought about him. And what John was doing – John wasn’t saying, “Get the road crews out here.” What John was saying was, “Prepare your hearts.” That’s what his ministry was. His ministry was one of preparation. He came to prepare the hearts of the people.
So, he comes preaching in the wilderness of Judea. What’s amazing about John that many people don’t know is that John was just a wild man. He’s dressed really crazy. He eats really weird food. And all he does is come out of the wilderness a little bit and preaches and then goes back into the woods. If somebody did that now it would be very strange. But he preaches this: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It’s almost here! And then the comment that tons of people make is that nowhere in the gospels do any of the gospel writers labor to explain what the kingdom of God is. They don’t labor to explain what that is because that is what the people of old were expecting. You want to know what the kingdom of God is, look at the promises in the Old Testament. And what John is saying is, “Look, they’re at hand. They’re right at the door. And of course, his description – his physical description of course matches that of Elisha.
So, in 2 Kings 1:8 this is the way that Elisha is described: He is a hairy man wearing a leather belt. It would have been great to know Elisha. Remember this, Elisha ascended into heaven. He never died. He didn’t physically die. He was taken up into heaven in a chariot. So, he’s up there, this hairy man with a leather belt in his physical body. I don’t know what that’s like but it’s got to be a lot of fun. And John comes that way. In Malachi 4 we read that God is going to send Elisha. And John came in the spirit and power of Elisha. This is how he preached.
What did Ahab call Elisha? The “troubler of Israel.” “This guy is always sticking his nose in my business. Every time I do something he’s got a sermon. He doesn’t leave me alone.” He came preaching in a time of decadence and declension. John would not stop preaching against the injustice that was happening. I’m not talking about social injustice nonsense. I’m not talking about that. The unrighteousness of the then king, he would preach against it. And the unrighteousness of the people, he would preach against those things. And he answers, he says, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have… forsaken the commandments of the Lord (God).” You haven’t followed Him, so, I’m going to keep preaching. I will continue to preach until you do.” And that is why God sends men to His people, to trouble you (laughing). Our business is to bust your spiritual chops until you stop living unrighteously. If you want to come to church for a warm blanket you’re not thinking right about church.
We’re hopefully going to get to the second part of verse 1 where what John is doing is – we’re going to talk a little more about John – He’s preparing the way for Christ. But if you know yourself, there is a lot of hard work that the preacher has to do to bust open your hard heart. We live like the children of Israel in Ahab’s day. We are a people who are given over to decadence. We eat the most exotic food, wear the most exotic clothes, watch the most television, listen to the most music. We are just engulfed in the everything that the world has to offer. So that, when we come to church on a Sunday and we have to listen to a two-hour sermon, it’s unbearable. Like, “Can this guy give me a commercial. You know, I just need a joke or something.” But when you preach against those things you know what happens? People say, “That’s legalistic.” When you say to men, “You ought not to have that woman” as John did in his day, what do they do? “You should mind your business.” They stop coming to church. They don’t want to hear that. I like that. You should keep doing it.
Well, this is how Elisha preached and this is how John preached. John was the fulfillment of the coming of Elisha. He was. Jesus says it in John chapter 3. We should just spend a lot of time thinking about John the Baptist. Listen to what Jesus says: “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John...” The Old Testament Scriptures were like, “They’re alive. They’re prophesying. The Law and the prophets are prophesying. They’re alive and bubbling and declaring and proclaiming things until the coming of John.” Like all of this Old Testament history is funneled into this crazy man. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elisha who is to come. That’s who he was. He was the last Old Testament prophet warning the people, “The kingdom you anticipated in the Old Testament, the Person of that kingdom, He’s here somewhere. He’s among us. And you must be ready to receive Him, to receive Him as your King.”
And then Jesus gives this description of John. He says in Matthew 11: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? (What did you go there to see? Did you go to see) A reed shaken by the wind? Just a really nice tropical wind blowing through a palm tree. Just that (blowing sound) No. You went to the wilderness to watch gale force winds blowing buildings off of the shore. That’s what John was. That’s what he was doing. You went to the wilderness to watch the Weather Channel, “10 Worst Hurricanes.” Because that’s what John was. He was not a soft, gentle preacher because he cared for his people. When you care for people – particularly, when you care for people who are encrusted in religious legalism and worldliness, you can’t preach to them softly.
But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? No. You didn’t go to listen to some idiot Pharisee rattling off a list of commentaries and books that he read. Because that’s the way that the Pharisees preached. Father Ben So-and-So, and Abraham Benjamin This-and-That said this about the... “I don’t know! We didn’t go to fall asleep. We came for this man to press the Word of God upon our minds and our hearts in such a way that would cause us to cry out, ‘Where is the Christ?’” That’s what John the Baptist’s preaching does.
Some people mistake the preaching of John for preaching repentance solely. And it’s a misunderstanding of what repentance is because repentance is a gift. It’s a grace given by God. John preached in such a way that caused people to yearn and burn for the gift. So that they could receive the Christ. “I’m not repentant but where can I go?! Where is God working so that I might hear the kind of preaching that would cause me to turn from my sins?!” “In the wilderness there is a hurricane of a man preaching the gospel in ways that you can’t even imagine.” “Well, let’s go. That’s what we need.”
John. That’s one of the people that we should all want to meet when we get to heaven. Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet…Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You. Assuredly I say to you, among those born of women, there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist. Wow! Right? “Thee greatest prophet was preaching to you,” is what Jesus was saying. “His message, what he had to say, that you should have heard.” All of the Law and the prophets prophesied until John. That’s what they were doing.
So, when Jerusalem and Judea come out to hear John, what is it that they hear? Because that’s what we want to know. We’re getting this description of the man and what he’s doing. And I tell you, pastors are not John the Baptist. That’s not what we do because Christ has already come. We’re not preparing the way for Him as John did in the history of redemption. But we prepare the way for Jesus. That’s what we do. In our preaching, that is what we should be thinking about. How in the world am I going to get these people to understand that they must love and obey Christ more than any other person? How am I going to do that? Because Jesus says, if you love anybody...father, mother, anybody more than Me you can’t be My disciple. And my job description on LinkedIn is Matthew chapter 28, verse 18 and following. Go into all the world and make disciples.
So, I want to see how John was preaching. How was he preaching? He says to the religious leaders of his day, he says this to them: “You brood of vipers! Exclamation point. He wasn’t soft. He called those, who were supposed to be examples to the people, what they were. “You sons of the devil! You wicked, hell-bound teachers of garbage!” Right? He didn’t hold back.
Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? What you ought to do is bear fruit in keeping with repentance. That’s what you should do. You should stop being a pastor. You should stop being a woman pastor because there are no such things. Right? It’s like a unicorn (laughing). So, you need to stop being women pastors. You need to stop preaching a false, impotent, weak gospel. You must preach repentance from sin. And repentance is not just feeling bad. Repentance is to confess your sins. This is a vital part of repentance. You confess your sins. You forsake your sins. You are broken over your sin. You hate your sin. And you turn from your sin to God, to find your joy and delight in Him.
And he’s saying, bear fruits in keeping with that. There must be evidence. There must be evidence in our lives that we have turned, that we have been – as Paul says in Colossians – that we have been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son. There has to be evidence of that. And evidence of that is not being religious.
“…do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ (Do not think to say to yourself, “We’re Reformed Baptist. We hold to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.” I teach my kids the Keach’s Catechism. That is not what it means to be repentant. Your religious pedigree means nothing to God. Don’t say that.) For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And that’s kind of what God does. He takes hearts of stone and He changes them. But God is able to do that.
And now listen to what he says: Even now, the ax is laid to the root of the trees. He’s saying to them, “Hell is ready to receive you. It’s wide open. It’s just a… I like to watch Ninja Turtles with my kids. It’s like our favorite cartoon. Anybody here watch Ninja Turtles when they were growing up? Yes. Okay. You saw Usagi Yojimbo. It says in one scene, “The little branch is thirsty, and it thirst for your blood.” That’s a great samurai saying if you’re a samurai. What he means, “Hell is thirsty.” Hell is thirsty. It’s just ready to receive all those who are unwilling to receive the grace of God.
– the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit – Are you bearing good fruit? Is there evidence in your life? I’m not talking about a religious activity. But I’m talking about love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, self-control. Are these fruits evident in your life? Is there a disposition and devotion to the Lord Jesus? Not perfect. We’re not talking about perfection in life. Not at all, but those fruits and motives. This is how John preached. This is how John preached to the crowds as they came to listen to him. He was this voice.
The people in Malachi’s day asked, “Where is the God of justice?” God’s answer was, “I’m coming, but you are not ready. You must be prepared. And the kind of preparation you need is preaching.” You know, some of you who are sitting here – the reason why you are a slave to sin, have problems with assurance, haven’t grown a centimeter in your Christian life, is because you do not value the preaching of the Word of God. The preaching of the Word of God has been throughout history. Thee primary means God uses for conversion of sinners. That’s not hype. And that is not knocking the Word. But here, let me be blunt. You reading the Bible is not more powerful than God’s man preaching the Bible. God does more work in preaching than you can do in reading. Why? Because that’s how God does it. I don’t make the rules.
So, you’ve got to come under the preaching. Don’t be half asleep. Don’t stay up and watch the fight Saturday night and then come into church and think that you’re going to be able to pay attention. Don’t do that. Go to sleep early. You know, get your coffee in. Do what you’ve got to do. Kombucha. Whatever. Whatever you like to drink in the morning that gets you awake. Do it. Come. Sit under the preaching of the Word and pray. Pray for the preacher. We need it! We need you to pray for us that we would preach with power. And then pray for the people who are around you. Pray that there would be no distractions. And pray for yourself. You pray for your family. Be fully engaged in preaching. That is the way that God reforms a congregation, a community, and nations. It’s through the preaching of the Word.
So then, what should we be praying for? “God, help this man preach like John the Baptist. We need to hear it. We need to hear it week in and week out. Bless him with strength. Give him insight.” Buy him books (laughing). I’m just saying. I’m not asking for any books right now. I have too many. But, you help him. And if they’re young guys who are teaching and they’re not doing a good job but they want to learn, you encourage them and you buy them good Christian books. You recommend good sermons. And you fan that flame, because that’s what we need. We need Biblical preaching.
The people needed spiritual preparation and God knew it. Their waywardness was tied to their need for redemptive historically* to this kind of preaching. God knew. God knew that this is what they needed. They needed the voice of one crying in the wilderness. This is the kind of preaching that bears witness to the Light. That’s what John did. John bore witness to the Light. But the people, for the most part, they loved darkness. They didn’t want to hear it. That is why hard, good, Biblical preaching seems combative. “This dude comes into the pulpit to fight with me every Sunday. I don’t understand why he’s doing that to me. You know, he comes in here and as always he’s wrangling with me.” Well, why? Because there is this: we’re fighting with principalities and powers.
Similar to Malachi’s day, the people in John’s day, and the people in our day, we live in a time of spiritual immoral decadence and declension. That’s where we live. So, what do we need? We need Biblical preaching. We need Elisha the prophet, John the Baptist kind of preaching that calls men, women, and children to turn from their sins and idols. And to turn to what? To turn to Whom? To turn to the Lord Jesus.
I love this. John is preaching. And in the Gospel of John – I haven’t given you guys any Scripture references but it’s all in the Bible (laughing). And I always feel vindicated when I do that because the author of the book of Hebrews says, “God said somewhere.” He does. He said that. – So, in John chapter 1, verse 35, look beginning at verse 29. Listen to what he says. John writes: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (This was an important part of John’s preaching. People who only go to the synoptics and they hear that drumbeat which, it’s there, ‘Repentance. Repentance. Repentance.’ If they don’t couple that with – “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! – you don’t understand John’s preaching, because he was pointing men to the Savior. That’s why He came. He came so that men might receive… And think about it, he’s preaching to the Pharisees, these religious hypocrites who were hardened in their sin. And what does he say to them? He says, “Turn from that. Turn.” All you have to do is leave your religious hypocrisy and God will receive you. There is a Savior here ready to forgive all your sins. He will wash away all of your sins. You will have a right standing with God. There’s nothing but your own hard heart keeping you from Christ.
Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! – And then, when he sees that He’s there with two of His disciples, he sees Jesus, what does he say? Behold! The Lamb of God – That is who he was pointing to. So, John’s preaching is a preaching of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what the people in the Old Testament – Malachi’s audience – that’s what they needed. That’s what we need. We need the kind of preaching that prepares the way for receiving Christ. And I don’t mind using that word “receiving Christ.” You know, I’m not talking about accepting Jesus in your heart. That’s Biblical language. You receive Him.
The reason why the New Testament authors use that language is we don’t alter who He is. The way that He is presented in the Scripture is the way that we must take Him, and not any other way. Lord and Savior. Lord and Savior. So, this was the preaching of John.
How long have I been preaching? We don’t know? You know, I could keep going here, but I have an evening service too. When should I stop? Right now? Stop now? Okay (laughing). That’s the perfect place to stop.
That was John. That was his message. That is why he was sent. That is why Malachi promised Him to these people who were living in decadence who were hardhearted; these people who had said, in essence, “Where is the God of justice? Where is He?” And God says, “You are not ready for that God to come. Your hearts are not prepared. You need the preaching of John the Baptist. Somebody has to come to preach to you that you must turn from your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
So, with that, please come back this evening. I’ve got maybe another hour and a half (laughing). And I traveled 20 hours, all the way from New York, and you don’t want me to preach to an empty room. Let’s pray.