At the end of this age Christ is coming back and at that point his bride will have every last vestige of defilement wiped away.

The church will be totally pure when Jesus comes.

But this act of purification has begun with the coming of Jesus.

What is Christ's work of purification?

That's the question John Piper answers from the Book of Malachai in this episode of Light and Truth.

This was originally preached as a Christmas sermon at Bethlehem Baptist Church on December 19th, 1982.

Malachai's message to us today leap for the glory of the name of the Lord. Now say it again so that you can see it as we

unfold it. The purpose of Christmas is to purify a priestly

people who live and leap for the glory of the name of the Lord. Now there are four questions

I want to ask to unpack that. One, does Malachi

this 450 BC prophet really have Christmas in view? Two, is the meaning of Christmas to purify a priestly people? Three, what does he

want to purify us of? for what's the essence of Christmas purity.

Okay? Number one, is Christmas really in view in this ancient prophet? The answer is yes and no. No in the sense

that Malachai was not given the details to understand that with the coming of this messenger that he foresaw

Messiah there would be a split so that in the first coming he would give ransom for our sins in all loneliness.

And in the second coming he would come in mighty power to judge Malachai did not see that

gap. He predicts it all as one great day of the Lord. Peter explained it like

this. He said in his first letter chapter one that the prophets of old saw the sufferings of Christ

and subsequent glories but when they inquired into the times it was made known to them they were serving another

generation not their own and they had to be content simply to paint with very broad strokes and leave it to history to fill in the details.

But the broad strokes are true and the broad strokes in Malachai include Christmas.

Let's look at chapter 2, verse 17.

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