Introduction:
Letting God Deal with My Sin
- You can be Refined. (Mal 3:1-4)
- ...or you can be Judged. (Mal 3:5)
Review: 2 Corinthians 5:21 | Ephesians 4:30 | 1 Thessalonians 5:19
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:48-00:52
Big stuff this morning as we turn to God's Word.
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Open up with me to the book of Malachi, in chapter 2.
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While you're turning there, the Bible says to give honor to who honor is due.
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And when I came in here this morning, I saw that we have two special guests with us all the way from Kentucky.
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And these are two people that had a huge impact on my life and on my walk with the Lord.
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So Frank and Susanna, would you stand up, please?
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I didn't tell them ahead of time, but you guys, it is so good to see you.
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It is so good to see you guys, and thanks for being with us today, and thank you for everything that you've done.
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The Lord has used you guys so huge in my life, and I thank God for you.
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All right, Malachi chapter two, are you there?
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You're still turning there.
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the last book before the New Testament.
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You know, about a month ago, our family was going to Kohl's.
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Now, I don't know if you know this, but Kohl's does this thing where they give you Kohl's cash.
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How many people are aware of the Kohl's cash?
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Oh, okay, like most of you.
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I don't know how this program works, but they basically send you money and say, "Come and spend this at our store." And my wife's like, "It's gonna expire, "so we gotta go spend it." And I'm always like, why doesn't Taco Bell have a program like that for me?
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One can hope.
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Anyways, I dropped Aaron off at Kohl's and I took the kids to Five Below because we like to -- you know what Five Below is, the dollar store for rich people.
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So we ran around Five Below and we'd throw the footballs and play with all the stuff until we'd get thrown out.
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So then we went to pick up Aaron, and as I was walking in with our two boys -- and if you don't know, our boys are 12 and 11, and my younger son, K, as we're walking in, he just, we get into Cole's and he just takes off.
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And I thought to myself, here's a teachable moment.
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So I just ducked behind one of the clothes racks because I wanted him to get far enough ahead that he had one of those like holy cow moments where his dad, to teach him that he should stick a little closer to his father.
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And we had that moment, I was watching him, he's just running off by himself, and all of a sudden I could see him stop, and I saw this, he was like, "Dad? Dad?" And then the panic set in his face.
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And I let that rest for a little bit, okay?
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Like I let him panic, and then I stepped out, and I'm like, "Here I am." And he did not enjoy that at all, but he's like, "Why are you telling us this horrible parenting story.
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Because the truth is, a lot of us in our walk with the Lord, a lot of us are like Kate.
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We know that we're supposed to stick close to the Father, right?
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We know with the Father is the safe place and the place we need to be.
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But sometimes we just sort of aren't paying attention.
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Or we allow sin a place in our lives, or whatever the case.
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But we find ourselves drifting.
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And all of a sudden, we're like, wait a minute.
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I don't want to be here. I want to be close to my father.
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I need to get back on track, right?
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I need to... and see, like in that story, the father never took his eyes off of the son.
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I was with him the whole time.
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He was the one that was drifting.
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And I was the one that's like, "Hey, I'm right here. I'm right here." That's why the series we're going through in Malachi is called "Getting Back on Track." because we're studying a period in the history of Israel where the nation had gotten way off track again.
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And God sends Malachi to get them back on track.
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That's what the Bible calls repentance.
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Remember, we've been talking about that.
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Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change in conduct.
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We saw, first of all, Malachi, to get back on track, you need to get back to real worship.
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Remember what real worship is?
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It's you breathe in God's love, right?
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And you breathe out reverence for God.
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That's worship, living in his love and breathing out that reverence for him.
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Last week we saw getting back on track means married people, you need to get back to your marriage commitment because God made it crystal clear.
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If you're not being faithful in your marriage, you're not being faithful to him.
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We saw that very clearly in the text last week.
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Faithless in marriage is faithless to God.
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Look at verse 17 in chapter 2. Are you there?
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Verse 17 says, "You have wearied the Lord with your words." Let's just stop right there and try to wrap our brains around the magnitude of that statement.
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Do you know the Bible says that God is the only person that doesn't get tired?
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My son asked me, "Dad, why do we have to sleep?" I said because that's our daily reminder that we are not God Because the Bible says only God never gets tired but here in this passage God's like I'm you've worn me out and Literally what God is saying in this passages I am out of patience with you I am completely worn out with you parents any parents ever said that to your kids. I'm worn out with you. Oh Just me just me Just okay. Griah, okay You're like, "No, Pastor Jeff, we want to hear more stories about what a horrible parent you are." Sorry, well maybe you can use this information to share with other bad parents that you might know.
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But God says, "You have worn me out!" And you say, "How have we wearied him?" By saying, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them." Or by asking, "Where is the God of justice?" God says, "I'm tired of hearing these accusations." He says, "Your words have worn me out." What words?
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Well, you saw the questions here.
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Check out these questions because these sort of set the stage for everything that follows.
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God says, "I'm worn out with this constant accusation.
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who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delights in them." You realize what a horrific statement that is. Saying God loves sin. He must love it.
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God must love watching people sin. And then the question, "Where is the God of justice?" Understand this isn't honest seeking. Okay, God's all about honest seeking. If you're like, "God, I don't understand what you're doing and I want know you and I want to I want to understand this isn't honest seeking this is what we would call jerky questioning where's the God of justice Oh God's a God of justice okay where is he where is he God cares so much about justice doesn't he where is he I don't see it I'll be honest I don't see it I don't see it God loves sin here's the summary statement of what the accusation God must love sin because He's not doing anything about it.
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That's basically what they're saying.
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He must love it.
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God must delight in sin because He's not doing anything about it.
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Do you think that thought ever crosses the minds of people today?
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Every ISIS attack.
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We live in a day that you can watch them online.
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Why isn't God doing something about them?
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every abortion. Why isn't God doing something about that? He must not mind, he must not mind the murder of infants because he's not doing anything about it.
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Maybe he likes it. This debacle in Charlottesville last week, you've been following this in the news? The wickedness of racism, the hatred. God must enjoy watching black people and white people tear each other apart because he certainly didn't do anything about it. He must enjoy watching that because he's doing nothing. And when you start to doubt God's love, when you start to doubt God's love, it's easy to just fall into your own favorite sin because you rationalize it like this, "Well God's not doing anything about sin, so what the I'll just do what I want to do. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands like how many people have ever thought that because I guarantee you every one of us have been tempted in that way. Say, God must not care so I don't care either.
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You see God gave us his word. God gave us his word as the standard to distinguish reality from illusion.
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And I'm going to blow the cover on the biggest illusion that exists in the world today.
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And here's the biggest illusion. Are you ready?
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The biggest illusion is this, sin has no consequences.
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That's the biggest illusion.
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Sin has no consequences.
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Do you think Israel was under this illusion when Malachi was speaking these words?
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Absolutely, they are. You'd think the United States of America is under this illusion in our day.
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Sin has no consequences. Sin has no consequences in my personal conduct, my personal walk with the Lord, my personal holiness we're going to talk about today. Those things are all irrelevant.
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That's the illusion, because the truth is when it comes to your personal walk with the Lord, it matters greatly to God, and it should matter greatly to you.
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So on your outline, personal holiness, letting God deal with my sin, I'm going to give you the whole outline right now, okay?
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Because really, when it comes to God dealing with your sin, you have two choices. We're going to see it in the text. There's two choices, Because first of all, we have to establish all of us by nature are sinners.
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By nature.
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We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, the Bible says.
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And if you are wanting to dispute that, I don't think I can help you.
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It's clear that we all have a sin problem by nature.
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So here's your two choices, letting God deal with my sin.
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You can be refined or you can be judged. You have the choice.
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You can be refined or you can be judged.
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But first of all, number one, let's talk about this.
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You can be refined.
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Number one.
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Now we're going to do a little Bible study here.
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You ready?
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Now, sometimes, let's be honest, sometimes it's hard to understand some Old Testament prophecy.
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And I'm going to explain to you why.
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Because the Old Testament prophets, They saw the coming of the Messiah as one event.
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And because of where we live in history, looking back in history, and also looking ahead because of prophecy, we understand that the coming of the Messiah is actually two events.
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But understand in the Old Testament, they never saw that.
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Here's what they saw. The Messiah comes, the Messiah suffers, the Messiah reigns.
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Every prophecy in the Old Testament, the Messiah comes, the Messiah suffers, the Messiah reigns over all the earth.
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The Messiah comes, the Messiah suffers, the Messiah reigns.
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There's a couple thousand years between the coming and suffering of the Messiah and the reigning of the Messiah.
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But they didn't see that.
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There's not one verse in the Old Testament about the church. Not one.
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They had no idea about this church age that we live in. They didn't see it.
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And Jesus said in Matthew 13 that the church age is a mystery, meaning it was not revealed before, but Jesus said, "I'm revealing it to you now." In the parables of Matthew 13, Jesus talked about the church age.
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So, when we go through the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah, some are about his first coming, and some are about his second coming.
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Okay, does that make sense?
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They just saw it as one event, but we know it's two, for sure.
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You're like, "Well, how do I know the difference?" It's easy.
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When I read Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah, I just ask myself this question, did Jesus do that the first time he came?
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If the answer is yes, I'm like, okay, that prophecy is about his first coming.
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If I'm reading a prophecy and I say, did Jesus do that the first time he came?
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And the answer is no.
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Okay, well, then that applies to a second coming.
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Pretty easy, right?
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It gets tricky reading it though, because sometimes we'll see here, be like in the same verse covering both advents of the Messiah. Okay, chapter 3 look at the verse 1. Now understand this is God's response to the question. Now this chapter and verse breaks, you know, those aren't the inspired part. Those were added later for convenience so it's not like Israel asked this question, "Where's the God of justice?" And God's like, "Okay, chapter 3 on to the next thing." "We never We're answered our question. This is the answer to the question Check out God's answer God says behold I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me Now this messenger refers to John the Baptist Scripture makes that crystal clear Matthew 3 Matthew 11 Matthew 17 John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah We're going to see it again in Malachi 4-5 when we get there.
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Luke 1-17.
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God says, "I'm sending this messenger to prepare the way before me." Like, what's going on there?
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Well, understand, back in biblical times, when a king was traveling, he would send somebody ahead of him to clear the way, make sure there are no potholes or danger or trees down in the road.
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He would go ahead so that the king could just have a smooth path right along the way.
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He prepared the way for the King to come.
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John the Baptist fulfilled that, interestingly.
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How did John the Baptist prepare the way for Jesus Christ to come?
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See, God's like, "I'm going to show up on the earth personally in the form of a man, and somebody's going to go ahead of me." How did John the Baptist prepare the way?
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He prepared the way by preaching what?
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What was John the Baptist's sermon?
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Repentance, right?
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John the Baptist shows up, he goes, "Hey, the Messiah is coming. You better..." What's this sermon series? "Get back on track. Repent." Right?
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"You better get back on track. You better repent.
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You better change your mind about some things, because about 15 minutes behind me, the King is coming." Look on here with me. Chapter 3, verse 1.
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It says, "And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.
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And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming," It says, "The Lord of hosts." Okay, this is obviously from the context, he's talking about a different messenger.
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This messenger here is Jesus Christ himself, the messenger of the new covenants.
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Verse 2, "But who can endure the day of his coming?
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And who can stand when he appears?
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For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap.
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He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver.
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And they will bring offerings and righteousness to the Lord.
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Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years." Okay, so this purifying of the nation of Israel, and once again offering righteous sacrifices before the Lord, has that happened yet?
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No, so that's future, right?
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God promises there's going to be a nationwide restoration of the nation of Israel.
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So God's answer to their question, "Where is the God of justice?" He's on His way.
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He's on His way.
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And He might not be who you're expecting, because He is a refiner and He's a purifier.
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Now, this is a show of hands question.
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How many people here need refined?
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Who needs refined?
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I do. Both hands up. I do.
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I need refined, because we all have this sin problem.
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And the point of God's answer here is, He has a plan to purify His people, and the plan is a person.
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Jesus Christ.
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See, Jesus Christ, listen, if you're sitting here today, you don't know Him as your Lord and Savior.
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He wants you to come as you are.
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He will take you as you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way.
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And that's what the Lord is pointing out here, like, "Look, my people that I'm taking, I'm going to refine them.
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I'm going to purify them. I'm going to cleanse them." That's why we're talking about holiness today.
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Now, when we talk about holiness, I think some people think of stained glass and pipe organs.
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Holiness means morally blameless.
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It means totally separated from sin.
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God Himself is inherently holy, meaning that God always knows what is right, and God always does what is right, Because that is always consistent with his character But the tough pill for us to swallow As God commands us to be holy did you know that Old Testament and new Leviticus 1144 first Peter 116 God says you shall be holy For I am holy You say well that sounds pretty serious oh Oh, it gets more serious.
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Hebrews 12, 14 says, "Without holiness, no one will see the Lord." If you are not holy, if you are not holy, you will never see the Lord.
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So do you see the problem?
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The problem with holiness is God requires it.
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We don't have it, and we can't get it.
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So what shot do we have?
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God gives it to us.
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That's where it comes from.
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And you see, that's the definition of grace.
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What is grace?
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Grace is God giving to you what he requires from you.
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God says, "I require you to be holy and righteous." You're like, "Well, I sure don't have that." And God in His grace says, "Well, I'm going to give you holiness.
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I'm going to give you righteousness because I require it from you.
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That's grace.
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Like, wow, that's pretty amazing.
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How holy does God make me?
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Holy is my grandma because she was pretty holy.
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Holier than your grandma.
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You're like, well, do you mean like as holy as the preacher from my old church?
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Because that guy was no holier than that.
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How holy does God make us?
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in His gift. This is one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible, 2nd Corinthians 5 21.
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For our sake, He, that's God the Father, made Him, that's God the Son, sin will replace those pronouns, for our sake, God made Jesus to be sin.
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Who knew no sin? So that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.
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And understand, this is the only option you have of obtaining holiness.
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Jesus Christ says, "I will make you a trade." And this is the wildest trade in history.
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Jesus says, "Here's the trade. You give me all your sin, all your guilt, all your shame. I'll take that." That's why it says, "God made Jesus to be sin." Okay, so I want you to picture in your mind's eye Jesus Christ on the cross.
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When He was hanging there, God was punishing Him.
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God the Father was punishing Him for every sin you've ever committed, every sin I've ever committed, every thoughtless, irresponsible, wicked, rebellious thought, action, attitude.
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God was pouring out His wrath on Jesus Christ.
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That's what was agonizing Christ about going to the cross.
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wasn't the physical pain Jesus knew he was going to be bearing the wrath of God for my sin notice it says he made him to be sent who knew no sin it's important to understand Jesus never sinned because if Jesus sinned if Jesus sinned and he was on the cross you're like well he got what was coming to him he was sinless and that is what made him uniquely qualified to take our sin he was paying that he didn't know!
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Because we owed a penalty that we couldn't pay.
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On the cross, Jesus took my sin and your sin, He took that on Himself.
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And look at the trade here.
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So that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.
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So how righteous does God make you when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
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How righteous does He make you?
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The answer biblically is God sees you as righteous as Himself.
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And I've shared this with you before.
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This is the most mind-blowing concept in the entire Bible to me.
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That God would look at me and say, "You are completely righteous." I've never struggled with creation or the Trinity or any of those things.
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Like, "Okay, that's what the Bible says." But this thing here just blows my mind.
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that God would pronounce you as righteous as Himself, because of His gift of grace, His gift of holiness.
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We're going to pause right now, because I want the reality and the magnitude of this to set in.
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Darren, if you come up here, and if our ushers would come forward, we're going to receive the Lord's Supper.
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You're right in the middle of the message.
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And we're going to receive this.
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I want you to hold on to the elements as they're passed out.
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We're going to receive this together.
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But this is our opportunity.
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We're going to pause.
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You see, taking this doesn't make us holy.
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The reason we do this is this is a reminder.
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This is a reminder of who made us holy.
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And this is a reminder of how he made us holy.
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The freshers would pass out the elements, hold on.
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We'll receive the Lord's Supper together.
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This is a reminder that holiness, right standing before God, righteousness, forgiveness, we couldn't get that ourselves.
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But Jesus Christ said, "This is my body, which is given for you.
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Eat this in remembrance of me." And this messenger of the covenant we saw here in Malachi 3, Jesus said, "Here's the covenant. This is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin.
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Drink this in remembrance of me." Amen.
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Holiness, you can be refined.
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I mentioned this briefly last week, but holiness is a reality and a process.
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It's a reality and a process.
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Remember last week we talked about that.
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If I went and enlisted in the army today, soon as I signed my name on the documents, you could say, "Okay, you're a soldier now." Then why in the world am I going to bootcamp?
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Because we're going to make you a soldier.
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It's a reality and a process at the same time.
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So it is with marriage, right?
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God pronounces you one.
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You're no longer two, but one.
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And your married life together as husbands and wives is the two of you becoming one.
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It's a reality and it's a process.
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Holiness is the same way.
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It's a reality.
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When you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, God pronounces you holy.
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And the rest of your life on earth is becoming that which God has already pronounced you.
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You say, but if this is a work of God, what can I do about it?
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How can I have a part in this?
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Why am I listening to this message?
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Is this just FYI?
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Well, first of all, you have to be born again.
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Okay, if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you're not born again, any of these things that we talk about today are just going to be exercises in futility.
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You don't have the power, you don't have the resources, you're not going to be able to pull it off.
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It starts with saying, "God, I realize that I'm a sinner, and I can't save myself, and I am crying out to you for the mercy that you've shown us in Jesus Christ.
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I want to receive him, Father, as my Lord and Savior.
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When you do that, the Bible says, God's spirit lives within you.
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So your part of growing in holiness is learning to walk by the spirit.
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Like, well, how does that happen?
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It starts with knowing the word of God.
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That's how it starts. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.
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Your growth in the Lord starts with knowing the Word of God, and it's cooperating with the Holy Spirit within you.
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Somehow the Holy Spirit works with the Word to empower you to make choices of obedience to live out your identity in Jesus Christ.
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I'm going to say that again, because this is what it means to grow in holiness.
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The Holy Spirit works with the Word of God to empower you to make choices of obedience, to live out your identity in Christ.
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Like, well, how does that look day to day?
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Walking in the Spirit, a lot of times, is about saying yes and no.
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I'm going to give you two scriptures. I want you to write these down.
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I want you to meditate on these.
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Ephesians 4.30 says, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." Holy Spirit, He is God. He is God living inside you.
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And the Bible says that you can grieve Him.
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Like, well, how do you grieve him?
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You grieve the Holy Spirit when he tells you not to do something and you do it anyways.
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And the Holy Spirit says, "Don't, don't lose your temper.
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Don't lose your temper.
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Why don't you stop and pray? Don't lose your temper." And you're like, "Heck with it. I'm losing my temper.
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I'm blowing up at that person." You've just said no to the Holy Spirit. That grieves the Holy Spirit.
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That's why I understand this. That's why Christians feel guilty sometimes.
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You're not guilty in the sense of now you are condemned for your sin again.
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you feel guilty, that's the spirit within you grieving.
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Like I very clearly told you not to do that and you chose to do it anyways. You're grieving the spirit.
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When the Holy Spirit says you shouldn't be looking at that garbage on your computer, men, you say, "Well, one more time." Or, "Well, I'm not sure it's really, is this really necessarily sinful looking at this stuff?" And you try to justify it and question God's Word, which never got anywhere good. The Holy Spirit says don't do that. You do it anyways you are grieving the Holy Spirit. That's why you feel that, that's why you feel that sense of self-disgust as a Christian when you sin because you're grieving God's Holy Spirit within you. So when the Holy Spirit says don't and you do it anyways you're grieving the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5.19 says do not quench the Spirit. What does that mean? Well that's sort of the other side of the That's when the Holy Spirit is telling you to do something and you don't do it.
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Like when the Holy Spirit is saying, "You know, you need to get involved in ministry down at that church.
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You know, they've been talking about this outreach at Tomorrow's Home for Youth and you need to get involved in that." And you're like, "No, no, no.
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Excuse, excuse, excuse." You're quenching the Spirit.
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The Spirit's trying to fire you up and you're just taking a big bucket of water, dumping it on, dumping it on, when you say no to the Holy Spirit.
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the Holy Spirit says, "You know what? You need to reconcile with that person.
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You have an unforgiving spirit towards that person and you need to go to them and you need to reconcile." Say, "No, no, no. When they come to me first and I'm not ready for that, I'm going to..." You're quenching the Spirit.
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So as you learn to walk in the Spirit, you're going to see God refining you.
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Finally for today, Here's the other option.
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You can be refined, or you can be judged.
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And I think it's necessary to discuss this, because there might be somebody sitting here saying, "What if I'm not interested in being refined?
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What if I'm not interested in all this holiness stuff you're talking about?
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What if I don't want to be made holy? What if I...
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Hey, look, what if I want to live life by my own terms?
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What if I want to do what I want to do, instead of having God tell me what to do?" If that's your choice, I got good news and bad news for you.
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The good news is you can do that.
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You totally have that option.
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You can do that.
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The bad news is it's not going to end well for you.
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Look at verse five.
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The Lord says, "Then I will draw near to you for judgment." Again, this is talking about end times, restoration of Israel.
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God says, "I'm coming to refine, but I'm also coming to what?
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To judge.
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Then I will draw near to you for judgment.
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I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, meaning oppressing those people too, against those who thrust aside the Sojourner and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
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Quickly, we could do a sermon on each one of these going to, but he gives five representative sins. Sorcerers, first of all. Sorcerers.
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The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, translates this word pharmacos, which is where we get the word, any guesses? Pharmacy. And that was very common to use drugs for occultic purposes. Like, oh, Pastor Jeff, that's so first century. People don't do that anymore. You are dead wrong. I know somebody that came out of that. And she said, "Yeah, that's what we would do. The drugs would open our minds to the spirit realm." She said it was extremely occultic.
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Adulterers. Adulterers. Sexuality expressed however I feel like it.
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No rules, right? No rules.
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Boy, there's a word for our culture today.
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Those who swear falsely, you're a liar, you don't keep your word.
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God says, "Judgment's coming. I'm coming near to you, too." Next up, taking advantage, we'll just say taking advantage of the helpless.
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You know, you see this list of people that you should be helping.
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Instead, you use them for your own advantage.
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God notices that. Turn aside the sojourner. No compassion. There it is again, no compassion for those in need. Best of luck to you kid, you're on your own. No compassion. Then the last phrase really is the summary statement, right? Do not fear me. People that don't fear God, that just sums it up, doesn't it?
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It takes us back to reverence we talked about a couple of weeks ago. You see, just Just as the refiner's fire separates the metal from the impurities, and just as the soap separates the garment from the dirt, God is ultimately going to cleanse His people by separating them from sin/sinners.
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So your choice is this.
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You can know God as a refiner, or you can know God as a judge.
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Refining can be a painful process, but it has a great result.
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Judging is painful for eternity.
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As we wrap up here, you know, life, let's just be honest, life is hard.
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And sometimes, as I said at the beginning of this message, I've been tempted to ask the same questions that Israel was asking in verse 17.
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Why isn't God doing something?
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Have I tried to follow God for nothing?
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Does it even matter what I do?
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Because you know, honestly, wicked people seem better off than me.
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You ever thought that?
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My neighbor doesn't give a rip about God.
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It's just like that guy wins the lottery like three times a day.
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Does God even care?
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I'd like you to go back, look at verse 3.
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God's Word is so specific.
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Look at verse 3.
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It says, "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of..." what?
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Silver.
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So I did a little studying this week on how silver is refined and purified.
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I'm not going to give you the whole chemical process, okay?
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But I do want to give you the overview.
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The silver ore is placed in intense heat.
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And the intense heat burns off the dross.
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What is dross?
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Well, dross is basically the scum on molten metal.
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And as that refiner, as that purifier of the silver is sitting and burning the silver, The question is, how does he know when he's done?
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How does he know when that silver is purified?
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And the answer to that question completely blew my mind as it's going to blow yours.
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The refiner knows that he's done and the silver is purified when he can see his reflection in the silver.
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And I want to encourage you today, church, whatever hardships you're facing, And I know some of you are facing some very severe hardships right now.
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The hardships that you are facing are like fire.
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Because God is using them to refine you.
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And God sees the refining is working on you when He sees His reflection in you.
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God's goal for you is to make you more and more like Jesus Christ.
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every moment, every day, every step, more and more like his son.
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So with his hand on the thermostat, God is refining you one degree at a time, one hardship at a time, one day at a time, until he sees his reflection in you.
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So let God make you into what he's already pronounced you to be.
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And that's holy.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we thank you for the pronouncement of holiness.
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But honestly, God, sometimes it's hard to say thank you for the refining process because it hurts.
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It is painful and it always seems to last too long.
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But remind us today, God, that you are the one with your hand on the thermostat.
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You are the one looking at us, looking for your reflection in the silver, so to speak.
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But while the trials are unpleasant, might we find a renewed sense of joy in the purposes you are going to accomplish through them.
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God, I pray today that we would be a people who would embrace you as a refiner.
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I pray, Father, we would be horrified at the thought of having to face you as a judge.
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And if there's somebody here who doesn't know you, I pray that you wouldn't give them a minute's rest until they embrace the grace that you've poured out in Jesus Christ, so that they will never have to experience you as a judge.
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Father, we thank you for your faithfulness to us. We see it in Israel. We see it in our day.
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That's why we're going through this text. We are by nature, we are wayward people, yet you continue to pursue us. You continue to refine us. You are faithful. You are committed even when we are not. Turn our hearts to you, Father. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Malachi 2:17-3:5
In your own words, summarize the problems stated in Mal 2:17. How do you see these same problems in our culture?
How would you summarize God’s answer (Mal 3:1-5) to the questions in Mal 2:17?
What does it mean that God is a refiner (Mal 3:2-3)? How does God refine His people? How will God ultimately refine all His people (Mal 3:3-4)?
Breakout Questions:
What areas need "burned" off of you to make you more like Christ?
Go around, state the area needing refined, and pray over these things.
