Be the Wheat, not the Chaff

Malachi 3v1-4

21^st May 2021

Malachi 3v1-4
"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the Lord Almighty. "But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. 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."

In Chapter 2, Verse 17, God's people were demanding, "Where is the God of justice?" Be careful what you wish for! In this passage, God tells them that the God of justice is coming, and they might not like it when He gets here. That's the trouble with demanding justice. We're sinners, too. Are we sure we want justice? I don't want to pay for my sins. How about you?

God says that before Jesus comes, "I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me." That messenger was the man we call John the Baptist. Jesus confirms this in:

Matthew 11:7-10
As John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings' palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: "'I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way before you.'"

John's ministry was to prepare God's Old Testament people to receive Jesus the Messiah. We who look back on Jesus's coming with 2,000 years of hindsight, and with eternal gratitude in our hearts, can forget that John's ministry was an urgent call to repentance, and John's baptism was a sign of that repentance:

Matthew 3:1-6
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'"
John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

John brought the wonderful news that the Messiah was coming, but he also brought a warning of judgement.

Matthew 3:7-12
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, the God of justice, began His earthly ministry in the year 26 AD, nearly 500 years after Malachi prophesied it. The months leading up to that moment was time to get ready. Jesus would separate the wheat from the chaff. And the best advice John could give is: don't be the chaff. And that's still the best advice anybody can give. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

John told them that their heritage as descendants of Abraham would do them no good. He told them that God would raise up children to Abraham who were not his descendants according to the flesh. That's us! - Gentile Christians. He told them that "The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire". The God of justice was coming, but was this what the Jews had been hoping and waiting for? And God would demand righteousness. John said, "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

And when the time was right, Jesus came. As Malachi put it, "suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple". Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, come in the flesh by virgin birth, came to Jerusalem and entered the temple that had been built in His honour. Malachi had called Jesus "the Lord you are seeking". Now he calls Him "the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire". Jesus would inaugurate the New Covenant in which we stand. The temple, which had been the scene of countless animal sacrifices to pay for the sins of God's holy but sinful people, would soon see an end to these sacrifices, because Jesus would sacrifice Himself, once for all.

Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, and the people cheered. The Lord had come. But Malachi asks: "But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver."

Jesus came to His temple as the God of justice. What could be better? What could be more exciting? But the first thing he did there was make a whip and drive out the moneychangers. He told them, "It is written, 'my house will be called a house of prayer', but you are making it 'a den of robbers'" (Matthew 21v13).

He spent the next few days teaching the people. He also pronounced judgement on them. In Matthew 12:39 and 16:4 He called them a "wicked and adulterous generation". In Matthew 12:45 He calls them a "wicked generation". In Matthew 21:43 he told them "the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people bearing its fruit". Then in Matthew 23:33-37 He called them "a brood of vipers", echoing John's words, and told them:

Matthew 23v33b-38
"How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berakiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate."

Then, in Matthew 24:2, Jesus prophesied that His temple would be utterly destroyed, and in verse 34 of that chapter He prophesied that some of the people who were listening to Him at that moment, would still be alive when it happened. His words came true, the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and the Jews went into exile for 1900 years.

God's Old testament people, who had cried out "Where is the God of justice", were visited by the God of justice. They were weighed in the balance and found wanting. They were judged. As Malachi and John the Baptist had warned them, when the God of justice is coming, you'd better be ready. Most of them weren't.

So when we cry out for justice, when we demand that God punish sinners, are we quite sure that we will stand in the day of judgement? Or, like the ancient Jews, who trusted in their ancestry and were left desolate, are we trusting in our faith, only to be left desolate? Faith is not enough! If faith is not accompanied by repentance, then it's dead (James 2v20). Remember Peter's words on the day of Pentecost.

Acts 2:37-28
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

How can we trust in Christ's blood, if we will not turn away from the sins that He died to forgive?

Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Just as the ancient Jews trusted in their status as children of Abraham, we can trust in our status as members of the church but, without true repentance, our heritage, our status, is worthless.

How can we claim to belong to Christ if we ignore His commands? How can we rejoice in the forgiveness of our sins if we prove by our lives that we're quite happy to go on sinning? How can we look for eternal life when we despise God and His ways?

The God of justice spoke through Malachi, saying that when Jesus had come, "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."

For 2000 years, Jesus has been fulfilling his prophecy in Matthew 21:43, "the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people bearing its fruit". God judged the ancient Jews, and He is building His church, a people who will bear the fruit of the kingdom of God. But are you and I people who bring our offerings in righteousness?

Be the wheat and not the chaff.