The following is the manuscript of a sermon that Pastor Josh Moore originally preached at Red Door Church on December 7th, 2025. You can also watch the sermon here on Red Door Church’s YouTube Channel.
Introduction
I’m sure you’ve received a scam phone call before. I was talking to someone just this week who said they received a call from someone pretending to work for QuickBooks—the accounting software. They said that they had not received payment for their renewal. They nearly gave them their information before they realized that something just wasn’t quite right. Thankfully, they didn’t because it turned out to be a scam.
Well, there are lots of scammers out there today, selling all kinds of things, even salvation. People claiming that they’ve found the answer to your problems and in reality it’s just a scam.
When God made his plan of salvation, he knew that there would be counterfiets—he knew there would be scammers, so what did he do? He told us in advance, what this salvation was going to look like. He told us in advance what the great gift that he was going to give the world would be like, long before it arrived. Over and over again God tells us how this salvation was going to be accomplished and what it was going to look like.
The problem is that we are so easily deceived; we are so easily scammed.
During Advent we take time to prepare for the return of Christ again. He came once, he will come again. Don’t be fooled; don’t be deceived. Be ready.
The Old Testament prophets had some interesting ways of describing this gift to us. They used different metaphors to describe what the great rescuer would be like.
Last week we heard from Jeremiah that he would be a branch. Remember that? Today, the prophet Malachi is going to give us a different image for the coming rescuer: he said that he was going to be like a fuller’s soap.
What does this mean? That’s what we are going to look at this morning together. But before we do, let’s take a moment to get some bearings on what is going on here in this book of Malachi.
Background
Last week we looked at Jeremiah and I told you about the divided kingdom of Israel, 10 tribes in the north and 2 tribes in the south. They were once a united family—a united nation—but they were divided because they allowed sin to creep in. The northern tribes had been under occupation and many of them had been exiled for quite a long time and Jeremiah comes along and warns the people that the south is going to face the same fate if they do not turn from their sins and follow God with their whole heart again.
They didn’t listen and God sent in the Babylonians to judge and discipline his people, under King Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and many of the people were exiled.
If you remember when we went through the book of Ezekiel a few years ago. Ezekiel was among the number that was exiled by Babylon and he served God as a prophet while in exile in Babylon.
Jeremiah told the people that the exile would last for 70 years.
Some 50 years or so after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, Babylon is conquered by the Persian Empire, which would eventually lead to the release of the exiles, the rebuilding of the temple, and the walls of Jerusalem.
By the time Malachi comes on the scene, all of that has been done and the people of Judah have been dwelling back in the land of Judah for at least several decades. Many of the northern 10 tribes by this point are considered “lost tribes,” that have been assimilated into the places where they were dispersed.
Most scholars date Malachi to the middle of the 5th century BC, so around the year 450 or so. The temple is functioning, the priesthood is functioning but serious problems have begun to emerge again. Not only is their rampant immorality but there is serious disillusionment that has set in.
If you know the story, you will remember what happened when the first temple was built and dedicated back in Solomon’s day, 500 years prior to this moment. When the temple was built way back then, God himself came down and inhabited the temple and it was filled with his visible glory (similar to what we saw in Leviticus when we studied that not too long ago).
Leading up to the rebuilding of the temple, the prophet Haggai had declared that the glory of this temple would be even greater than the previous one. Zechariah had promised them that the Lord would bless his people with even greater prosperity and power and peace.
But now in Malachi’s day several decades following these promises, the people were still under foreign control and they had not seen God come down and fill the temple in the way that he had before.
To the people in Malachi’s day it appeared as though God had not been faithful to his promises… so they had grown cynical, complacent, and even disillusioned with the whole thing.
The priests, the gatekeepers of the worship, had grown corrupt once again and all kinds of wrong ideas and practices had crept into the worship. On the one side you have sorcery and all sorts of immorality going on. On the other hand, scholars say, in this time period we begin to see the rise of traditionalism and what would eventually become Pharasaism and Sadduceeism.
Sounds like what we are seeing in our day, doesn’t it?
In short, people are re-creating God’s program for worship. They have grown discontent or cynical so they begin experimenting and changing God’s program for worship.
So God raises up a prophet to speak to his people. The prophet Malachi. And basically Malachi is going to say to them, “God will be faithful! God is going to come to you. Trust Him!” This is what we see in verse 1. Take a look with me:
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. [This part of the passage is actually speaking of John the Baptist… this messenger.]
And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple [this part is speaking of the coming deliverer, Jesus]; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”
The Lord is going to come into his temple. He will be faithful to do what he said he’s going to do.
However, Malachi, says, his coming is not what you expect. It’s not just going to be glory and peace and prosperity and power for His people. He is not just going to be a righteous branch, like we saw last week. Not just a king from the kingly tree of David, he is also going to be soap. The Lord is coming and it is going to be like soap.
So we are going to spend a few minutes thinking about how his coming is going to be like soap. And this leads us right up to our first point this morning: soap cleanses.
Soap Cleanses
I remember one Christmas I received the gift of beard trimmers. I don’t exactly remember who gave them to me… but this was one of those gifts that came with a message of sorts. What might they have been saying? Have you ever received a gift like that? A gift that says “maybe you should…” sort of gift?
Now, if you received the gift of soap for Christmas, what might that suggest?
[Pause]
It could suggest many things but when God says it here in Malachi 3 he doesn’t want us guessing. He tells us:
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 fullers’ soap. 3 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, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.
These words make it clear that this is about cleansing or purification. The use of “fire” here is a dead giveaway.
Fire doesn’t just destroy—it certainly can do that—but it is also used in refining. One author writes:
“A refiner’s fire is where a material, such as silver, is placed in a fire to cleanse and burn away any impurities so that it becomes pure silver without blemish. Yahweh is the refiner who will put Israel into the fire to cleanse it of impurities and injustices.”[1]
Silver is often found in combination with other metals like copper or lead, so refining is a process that separates these metals so that you are left with a purer silver. A refiner would heat the metal to its molten state and then skim the unwanted parts—the dross—off.
I think most of us today probably get the refiner’s fire image but maybe the fuller’s soap is a bit foreign to us.
Well these metaphors are not all that different, actually. These images are used together because they are getting at something similar, the idea of cleansing or purification.
The type of soap mentioned here would have been a “natural lye,” scholars say. It would have been a strong alkaline substance that was derived from plant ashes or salts. It was used to whiten and purify cloth, especially wool. Fullers were workers who cleaned and thickened wool by soaking it in this substance. [2]
Before a garment was made, the raw materials were sent to the fuller, who would purify it through a certain process that would free it from oils and other residues that often stuck to the raw fibers.
This process of freeing the fibers from these oils and other impurities was not pretty. It involved treading or beating out the material with sticks. Actually the root of the Hebrew word here that we translate into English as “Fuller” actually means “to tread.” [3]
So both of these processes of purification, whether by fire or by the reading of the fuller, are intense processes. These are harsh images, yet these are the images that Malachis gives to us of the coming rescuer. He is going to be a refining fire or like the treading fuller, purifying.
This leads us to our second point.
Soap Stings
Now if you’ve ever had a cut of some kind and then rubbed soap in it, you know that sting. It’s not a pleasant feeling. Soap stings.
Even though that’s not the way the soaps were used when Malachi was writing this down, the point is that cleansing and purification is painful.
The Bible often connects being purified with trials and with pain. 1 Peter 4:12-13:
12Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed at the revelation of His glory.
Peter uses that word fiery just like Malachi does. Trials are like refining fire. Very uncomfortable and unwanted most of the time but necessary for all of us. Hebrews 12 may be the clearest example of this. Speaking of Jesus, the writer of Hebrews says:
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
To clean an open wound is often a painful thing, the soap must go in and cleanse. Though it stings, it is good for us.
Malachi says that the coming of the Rescuer, the Promised Deliverer, will be something like that. Malachi was sent to the people of Judah because they had a wrong idea about all of this. Notice in verse 1:
“And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
Malachi says that this coming Rescuer who is going to bring word of a new covenant is someone they delight in. They had an idea about the coming day of Redemption when he would arrive that was not right. They were assuming that it was all going to be fullness of joy and blessing. However, Malachi reminds us that it wasn’t going to all be good and pleasant. Look at verse 2:
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 fullers’ soap.
Because when he comes, it’s not just going to be affirmation, and glory and celebration, there will be purification. Like fire and like the treading of the fuller, the dross and the impurities will be removed, and it will not always be pleasant.
Because the benefits of walking this road with God are not necessarily earthly benefits. The things that you get from walking with Jesus are spiritual benefits. Things that the world is seeking and striving for but never attaining. We talked about one of those last week: hope. This week we look at another: peace.
Saint Augustine, the great 4th century bishop in North Africa, wrote in his autobiography, The Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
These things cannot be found here in the world. They come from following God, doing his will, walking in his ways, which Malachi describes here as like walking through a furnace or being tread out wool under the fuller’s feet.
But the gifts that come are treasures that cannot be found here in anything this world has to offer.
God alone can satisfy your deepest longings and give you this peace. Where does peace come from? At its root it comes from having peace with God. And peace with God is something given by this coming deliverer that Malachi talks about here. This leads us now to our third point:
Soap Prepares
When you are going to a special event, you may take a shower to get ready. Having a shower makes you feel fresh and clean. It has a way of helping to prepare you for the big moment.
You and I all have a big moment coming. Every single one of us is going to stand before a holy and just God, who knows everything about us. If there ever was an event to be clean for, it was this one. Thankfully the coming Rescuer, Jesus, is going to make us ready. Look with me at verses 3 and 4 now:
3 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, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
At this time when Malachi was prophesying, the priesthood had failed. They had allowed all kinds of corruption and evil into the worship. These priests represented the people before God. They brought sacrifices to atone for sin (you remember from our study through Leviticus). They were to be holy because God was holy.
Yet, they were not and so their offerings were not pleasing to God.
[Pause]
When Jesus came, who was most of his conflict with? The religious leaders. The priests, the scribes, the leaders. Jesus was doing this hard work that is described here. He was the coming Rescuer. He was the one like the refiner’s fire and the fuller’s soap.
But the way he was going to cleanse the people and prepare them for God was not only by teaching and rebuking and modeling—he certainly did all of those things—but it was by becoming the offering of Judah.
Verse 4 says that the people would be purified and then their offering would be pleasing.
The only way this was going to happen was by the Lord Jesus himself becoming our priest, becoming our sacrifice, becoming our temple, becoming all of the things mentioned here, for you and me.
This Advent we can have peace because that is exactly what he did. He became the one who represents us before God. He became our sacrifice and He is the temple, the place where we now together meet with God.
Jesus washed us with the soap of his blood. He cleansed us perfectly that you and I would be prepared to stand before God one day.
Peace comes from knowing these things and walking in these things. We don’t need to innovate here. We don’t need to add to what God has done. Our daily life is a celebration and rejoicing in the complete sufficiency of Jesus for everyone of us who puts our trust in Him.
Jesus is coming again and just like Malachi said here, it won’t all be pretty. Who can stand when he appears? Only those who believe. Only those who have put their complete and full trust in what Christ has done for them. They will be prepared because they’ve been washed in the soap of his blood.
Are you ready? Have you put your trust completely in Jesus?
[1] See https://www.stbca.org/the-refiners-fire/
[2] See https://fishersofmen1.substack.com/p/fullers-soap-a-forgotten-phrase-that
[3] See The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible: Volume 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1975), 613.
