Refiner's Fire
A Series in Malachi
Refiner's Fire: Week 4
November 22, 2020 • Shane Sikkema • Malachi 3:16—4:6
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome again to Mosaic. Good to see you this morning. My name is Shane. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And if you're new, welcome. We're so glad that you're here. We would love to connect with you. The way we do that is through our connection card. Hopefully, you were able to grab one of those on the way in, if not, we have that also available on our website. You can find a link to that on our homepage. But if you fill that out for us, we would love to just follow up with you this week, and also just send a small gift to you, to thank you for being with us today. And if you fill that out this morning, you just drop that in the little white box at the back of the room on your way out later on. Just one quick announcement before we get into the sermon today. Tonight at 5:00 PM, we are having a prayer gathering here at the temple in the sanctuary. You're all invited for that. It's going to be a really laid back time. We're just going to spend some time and worship together, spend some time in prayer together. And then we're also going to have a brief message from one of our members on one of the parables of Jesus, tonight. And so, I'm looking forward to that, and you're all welcome to come back and join us for that at 5:00 PM tonight. We'll also going to be doing that next Sunday night and the following Sunday night after that as well. Today we are wrapping up our sermon series going through the Book of Malachi. And this is going to be the final sermon before Advent. Advent is the time when we remember and when we celebrate Christ's first coming at the birth of Jesus on Christmas. And Advent, is also a time when we anticipate Christ's return, when he comes again to judge the world in righteousness and to make all things new. In this text today, this is not only the end of Malachi, it is also the conclusion to the entire Old Testament scriptures. And it really serves as God's final word to his covenant people before 400 years of silence. And so, after following this text, there's not going to be one single prophetic word given, spoken, written down for 400 years. And the people of God are not going to hear him speak to them again until the Advent, until the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist. And then with that, also along with it, of course, the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. So, if you've been with us through the Book of Malachi, you've probably noticed by now that it is a pretty depressing book. In a lot of ways, it's like the darkness before the dawn of Christ's arrival. And what we see is that God's people have returned from their time in exile physically, but their hearts have not returned to God spiritually. And so, the reality of their return is falling short of their expectations, falling far short of their expectations. And what has resulted is a disillusionment. The people are bitter, and the people are grumbling. And really the last three chapters of Malachi have read like one long argument between God, the Father, and a mouthy teenager. The people are just grumbling against the father. And you really just get the sense of everyone saying, "Dad, we're sick of you. We're sick of your rules. We want you off our back, let us do our thing. Let us go." And all this should sound very familiar. This is, you think about it, it's really the setup for one of the most famous stories ever told. This is Jesus' parable of the prodigal son in real life, "Dad, I'm sick of you and all your rules. Why don't you get off my back and let me go?" And we see this sentiment in Malachi three. We saw this last week in Malachi 3:15, where God says that, "Your words have been hard against me," says the Lord. But the people say, "How have we spoken against you?" And the Lord says, "You have said it as vain to serve God. What is the profit of keeping his charge, or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant, blessed. And evil doers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape." It's like, what's the point of serving you God? Did you ever run away from home when you were a kid? And you get so mad at your mom and dad, and was like, "That's it. I'm out of here. I'm leaving. I'm never coming back." And then like 20 minutes later, you're halfway down the block, hiding behind the neighbor's garage, seeing if anyone's coming to look for you. And it's like, "I'm getting hungry. I think I have to go to the bathroom. I didn't think this through. I was just angry and feeling impulsive." And you have the walk of shame back home. Sometimes God as a good father, he says, "Okay." Sometimes he disciplines us actively. Sometimes he disciplines us passively. This is the passive wrath of God. This is Romans chapter one, where God says he gives them up to their sinful desires and really lets them learn the hard way what life is like apart from him. Romans 1:21 says that, "Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but became futile in their thinking. And their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds, and animals, and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, dishonoring their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the country rather than the creator, who is blessed forever." This is Romans chapter one. This is the prodigal son. This is the people that we see in Malachi three. And this is not just them. This is us. And we're all runaways. We're all prodigals. And deep down we're longing to get back home, but we can't. There is sin and pride, and bitterness, and cynicism standing like this chasm between us and the Father. And so the question is, how do we get back? How do we cross that infinite divide that our sin has caused? How do we get home from here? The question is, how do we take our cold, hardened, prodigal hearts that have been running away from the Father for so long and replace them with tender hearts that are going to run back to him instead? That's what we're going to be talking about today, as we wrap up the book of Malachi. Three points that we're going to look at, we're going to talk about the father's kindness, the father's severity and the father's heart. So, we're going to be starting at Malachi chapter three, verse 16. If you have your Bibles, you can follow along. Otherwise, you can follow along up here on the screen as well. So, this is Malachi chapter three, beginning in verse 16. Is that right? There it is. Malachi 3:16, "Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord paid attention and heard them. And a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. "They shall be mine," says the Lord of hosts. And the day when I make up my treasured possession and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more, you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God in the one who does not serve him." Chapter four, "For behold, the day is coming burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evil doers will be stubble. The day that is coming, shall set them ablaze," says the Lord of hosts, "So that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. You shall tread down the wicked, for they will be as ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act," says the Lord of hosts." "Remember the law of my servant, Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers, to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction." Now, would you please join me in prayer. Father, we thank you for speaking to us today. And we thank you for your word. Your word is holy. It is inerrant. It is infallible. It is authoritative. It good for us. And we pray Holy Spirit, that you would impress these words upon our hearts, that we would know them. We would love them. We would obey them. We would walk in them. God, we pray today that you would give us clean hands, that you would give us pure, softened hearts. And we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. Amen. Point number one, we're going to talk about the father's kindness. Last week was Owen's birthday. Our oldest son turned nine years old, kind of a big deal, last year in single digits. And so, we wanted to do something special for him. And we got on eBay and we bought him an old school game boy with a couple of games. Not like the original game boy, the one that you could only see what you're doing if you hold it at the exact right angle. And it was like a brick. But the one that came after that, it had the nice flip up thing and the back lit screen. And he was pumped. But here's the thing about older video games. Today's children are cuddled by the video game market. Back in the day, video games were merciless. They were treacherous. They were unforgiving. And he never really had an experience of playing one of those before. And so, as excited as he was, I knew that this was going to be hard for him. I knew that he was going to get frustrated. And sure enough, within 20 minutes, he's on the verge of tears. He's completely disillusioned. He's fed up. He wants to quit because he's been playing the first level of his first game, Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past. Classic. And he's just dying over and over, and over, and over. And I think about the games back then, is when you died, you had to start over from the beginning. And so, he's just, he's losing it. He's ready to give up. He's begging me to let him quit. He's begging me to beat the game for him. And as a good father, I said, "No way. Owen Louis Sikkema, you are not going to stop playing this Game Boy until you beat that first level." And now, here's the thing. Sometimes I will take the controls and I will do something for him, because I know there's just no other way that he's going to be able to move forward. Most of the time however, I don't want to do it for him. I would much rather do it with him. And so, I laid down the law. I said, "I'm not going to let you quit. I'm not going to do it for you, but I will do it with you." And so, I sat down next to him, and for the next hour, I forced him to play his Game Boy. And I've never seen a kid so miserable to play with their birthday present before. But he'd go. He'd get to a certain point in the game, he'd die. Start over, get a little bit farther, die, over and over. Probably 30 times he died. And every time I would point out, "This is what you did wrong. This is what you need to do differently. This is how the mechanics work the controls. Here's some tips. Here's some strategy. And by the end of it, he hated me. He hated the game. He was probably about ready to smash the thing on the floor, but then finally it happened. He gets to the end. I don't know what that clicking is. I'm really sorry. He beats the boss. And all of a sudden, all of this anger, all this rage, immediately flips on its head. And he's literally jumping around the room for joy, screaming, "I did it, I did it. I did it." And as soon as his mom walks in the door, he just can't wait to tell her, "Mom, you're not going to believe it, Dad helped me beat the game." I went from being the worst dad in the world, to the world's greatest dad." Put it on my coffee mug, I deserve it. And he is so pumped up. For the rest of the day, he can't stop talking about it. It's a silly illustration because life is not a game, but life is a battle. And it's a battle that sometimes when we're honest with ourselves, we're just, "I don't want to do it anymore. I want to give up, I want to quit. God, you do it for me, but I can't do it." Sometimes God says, "Okay." Sometimes God steps in, and miraculously takes the controls, intervenes in our lives and changes our circumstances. More often than not, he doesn't do that. I think the reason that God doesn't do those things for us is because he wants to do something in us and through us, and with us. That God is a good father. And as a good father, he needs us to learn this lesson, that his power is made perfect in our, what? In our weakness. That when we are incapable, when we are humbled by the task that is before us, it forces us to rely on God and the way that we always should be all along. It forces us to stop taking the father's kindness and grace, and providence for granted, and acknowledge that apart from him, we can do nothing. Jesus told his disciples, "I am the vine. You are the branches." And many of the people that Malachi was writing to had forgotten that God was a good father, that he loved them. And that they looked at their circumstances and they couldn't see the good that God was trying to do with their eyes. And so, they started pushing him away in their hearts. It's easy to do. When life knocks us down, we can get mad. We can give up. We can run away. We can get bitter at life, bitter at God, bitter at people. And like the people, here our hearts can grow cold and hard. And all we need to do instead is what we see this other group of people that we meet in today's texts. Well, we need to fear the Lord. We need to humble ourselves and come to our father and humbly ask him to give us the help we need. And acknowledge we can't do it alone. We need to choose fear of the Lord over fear of our circumstances. We need to choose faith over cynicism. We need to choose to get better instead of getting bitter and to see that all of these obstacles before us, by the power of the Holy Spirit are actually opportunities for our spiritual growth. And so, what is the point? How does this relate to the problem of our hard hearts? This is the connection, that our proud, prodigal hearts are softened when we begin to understand that God doesn't discipline us, he doesn't allow us to go through trials and tribulations in order to harm us. He does so in order to help us. God wants to see his kids grow up. He wants to see his children grow up to be strong and courageous, and resilient. And then at the same time, kind and compassionate and humble. And sometimes what this means is that God is going to care more about pruning our characters than he does about pandering to our comforts. He disciplines us because he loves us. He longs to see us grow up into the image of his son, Jesus Christ. And so, maybe you felt like you've been going through a lot of pruning this year. And pruning is painful. But how many of you can look back even now, even in 2020, and say that, "This was the most painful, and gut wrenching, and heartbreaking, and yet valuable formative sanctifying year of my life. And I am thankful that God has led me through it." I know you can. I know some of you can say that. I know for many of you, 2020 is the year when you finally learned how to pray, because you had no other choice. This is the year that you re-examined your life, and you finally got your priorities straight. This is the year where you stop trying to live life in the flesh and learned what it means to live in the spirit. This is the year that you walked through the fire. And it was in those flames that you learned that God is with you and that he is holding you there, not to harm you, but to refine you like precious gold. This has been one of the most trying and painful year of my life. But I do believe that I'm thankful for it, that I've grown in my faith. I've grown in my humility. I am so humble, you don't even know. I'm growing in humility, I hope. Growing in compassion. So far yet to go, but I can see God working there in my heart. I'm growing in dependence on God's spirit to sustain me. And one of the greatest joys I've had this year is being able to see how the same is true for many of you. The psalmist in Psalm 119 said that, "It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees." Now, I'm going to pause here and just ask, honestly, how many of you are like, "Yeah, no, I'm not there. I'm not feeling that. I'm not feeling thankful for this. I am really angry at God right now." Maybe your heart feels cold and weary, like you want to give up. I said I felt that way plenty of times this year too, it's not like an all or nothing thing. It's a daily battle to put the flesh to death, and to walk in the spirit, and to believe the promises of God. But if you're not there yet, don't mask your pain, and don't be fake with yourself or fake with God. Be honest with God. Be honest with yourself. Perhaps the reason you're not there, is because you don't fear the Lord. Maybe you're not a Christian. Maybe for you, what you need to do right now is repent and put your faith in Jesus Christ for the first time before any of this is going to start to make sense. Perhaps you are a Christian, you do fear the Lord. And perhaps the problem is that you're discouraged. And when I say discouraged, I mean, literally you have been drained of your courage, your joy. You are gun shy and fearful of trusting God and trusting his promises because you have been wounded. You have been hurt. If that's where you are at, then this is what you need to know. This is what you need to hear. And this is what Malachi tells us. What's the first thing that God told the people at the beginning of the book? It says, "I have loved you." And in their cynical hearts, they say, "How have you loved us?" But here again, we see him repeat the same truth, that if this is you, if your heart is cold and weary, listen to these words that God loves you. He sees, he knows, he's not forgetting. Actually what it says is he values us like treasure. And he treasures us like children. This is straight from our text today in Malachi 3:16. It says, "That those who feared the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord paid attention and heard them. And a book of remembrance was written before him, of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. "They shall be mine," says the Lord of hosts, "In the day when I make up my treasured possession and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him." I don't know why God has allowed things to happen the way that they've happened this past year. I'm really sorry about that. I'm going to move this because I think I'm bumping the cord or something. I don't know why. I also don't know if things are going to get better or things are going to get worse. What I do know is that God is still God, Jesus is still Lord. And he still loves us. And he loves us with a selfless sacrificial, never ending, covenantal love. And I understand that sometimes that can be hard to believe. And if you're having trouble believing that today, then look to Jesus, look to the founder and perfecter of our faith, look to the cross and see the undeniable proof of God's love. And then look to the resurrection, see the undeniable proof that God is sovereign, that he is in control, and he can work even the darkest moments of history for our good. This is central to our identity as Christians. This is why the New Testament has so much to say to us as Christians about suffering and about suffering. Well, I wish we had time to just do a survey of the entire New Testament to see all that it has to say on this, this morning. But I'm just going to read one passage for us. And I read this to encourage us, literally to give us back the cruise that we need to be faithful, children of God, through life's trials. This is Hebrews 12. It says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great, a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners, such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted." "In your have in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 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. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastises every son whom he receives. 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. If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 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. They disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness." "For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but yet later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness, without which no one can see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. That no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. And by it many become defiled. That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal." If you're weary, if you're ready to give up, then remember, remember the father's kindness. Remember that he disciplines those that he loves. Don't harden your heart. Don't grow angry or bitter. It also says don't go seeking comfort through sinful pleasures. Instead, look to Jesus, look to the founder, the perfector of our faith, and know that his power is made perfect in your weakness. The father is forming you because he loves you. He wants you to grow up into the image of his son. And so, we remember the father's kindness. Point two, we remember the father's severity. This is chapter four, starting at verse one. It says, "For behold, the day is coming burning like an oven, when the arrogant and all evil doers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze," says the Lord of hosts, "So that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be as ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act," says the Lord of hosts." Malachi reminds the people of the father's love. He reminds them of the father's judgment. And one of the major complaints that the people had made against God was that he was being a bad judge, that he was turning a blind eye to evil. He was letting the wicked and the arrogant off the hook. And we saw this in Malachi 3:15. It says that, they call the arrogant, blessed. And evil doers, not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape. And God says, "Oh no, they don't. They're not off the hook. Don't worry about them. Their day will come. And I'm not letting anyone off the hook. Their destruction is going to be both terrifying and complete. Instead of worrying about them, you should worry about yourself. Because if I haven't destroyed them yet, it's because I'm being patient. I'm giving you time to repent." The father's severity should soften our hearts. And it should do for two reasons. First of all, it shows us that God will indeed give justice to the oppressed, that the wicked aren't getting away with anything. That God is a good and gracious judge. And he will one day deal with the problem of sin and evil once and for all. Acts 17:20 says that the times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now he has commanded all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, Jesus Christ, our Lord. God will do what is just. He is going to right every wrong. And even if the wicked seem to prosper in this life, they will not escape the judgment that is coming and eternity. And this is very good news for the future, that God is going to deal with this problem of evil. At the same time, it's very bad news for us because we're sinners. We're wicked. We're deserving of God's judgment ourselves. And so, the second way this softens our heart is by showing us that that God's desire is to be patient with us in order that we might find his mercy. And he calls all people everywhere to repent. As an omnipotent, wise and all-knowing king, God sees every sinful act, every sinful thought, every sinful desire and inclination of our hearts. And as a just, and righteous judge, God will call all things to account. Nothing's going to be swept under the rug. Every debt will be paid. Every sin will be punished including yours, including mine. Nothing will elude his justice. But as a kind and loving father, God desires to show us mercy. And he's made a way for that to be possible for us through the sun of righteousness that has risen. And so, here we see the severe justice and the severe mercy of God that softens our hearts. That on the one hand, God is a good judge, and his justice demands a penalty be paid for sin. And that his wrath towards sin should rightly be poured out on us for all of eternity in a place called hell. And yet, on the other hand, he desires to show us mercy. And so, for all who fear him, who repent and place their faith in the savior, Jesus Christ, the wrath that we deserved is instead poured out on him. And it was poured out on him on the cross. And this humbles us, because we see that we are so bad that we deserve hell. That we are so bad that Jesus had to die for us. There was no other way for us to be saved. And yet at the same time, we are so loved that God was willing to send his son to do that for us. That Christ was willing to come and to humble himself, and to lay down his rights, and to laid down his life, and to be a propitiation and for our sins, so that we could be reconciled to our father. This is the gospel. This is the good news that lies at the center of our faith. This is what fills us with love, hope, peace, and joy. As we enter into the Advent season, we remember that Christ has come, our Messiah has come, that he's accomplished redemption, that we have been saved from the penalty of our sins. This is also what we anticipate during Advent in the second coming of Christ, that he's not just going to remove the penalty for our sins, but by the power of his Holy Spirit, the risen Christ is saving us from the power that sin has over our life. And he's coming again to remove the very presence of sin all together and for all of eternity, when he comes to judge the world in righteous. And this just fill our hearts with hope and joy, and courage. And we see, we get a glimpse of this in chapter four, verse two. It says, "For you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. And you shall go out leaping like calves from in the stall." And we experience this right now in part through the gospel of having our sins forgiven. But a day is coming when we are going to experience that completely and in full. The sun of righteousness will rise. It's a picture of a life-giving light. It's a light that vanquishes the darkness and exposes truth. And it destroys lies. And it floods and it fuels creation with righteousness. It makes things right. There is healing in its wings. As it reveals the truth, it also rejuvenates the creation. It reverses the curse. It writes the wrongs. It fixes what is broken. There will be no more sickness or sorrow, or tears, or death, or sin, or decay. That day is coming. He says, "You shall go out leaping like calves from a stall." Have you ever seen that? Have you seen a calf, a baby goat, jumping for joy. Just YouTube, baby goat park. It'll change your life. It'll make your whole year so much better. Now, as you're watching that say, "Yes, that is me. That is my heart. That is what it feels like to know that my sins have been forgiven, and that the father loves me." It's a picture of freedom and joy that we have been set free from the stalls of sin and death, and Satan's tyranny. So, you see the father's kindness was softened by the father's severity. Finally, we talk about the father's heart. In light of all of this, Malachi concludes his book, and the Holy Spirit concludes the Old Testament scriptures with two final instructions. Verse four, "Remember the law of my servant, Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel." Verse five, "Behold, I will send you, Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction." It says, "I want you to remember, and I want you to behold. I want you to look back and I want you to look forward. I want you to hold onto my word and live your life as I've taught you to live. And I want you to look forward and hope to the sign of Elijah, who's going to come, and he's going to prepare the way for the Messiah. And I'm telling you this, because I want you to be ready when he arrives." Again, we see God's patience. That before Messiah would come, God would send this sign that Elijah would come and he would lead the people in repentance, so that they would be ready to receive the Messiah. Now, here's the problem. If you know your Bible history, Elijah lived 400 years before Malachi. And wasn't he long dead by now? Actually, no. One of the interesting things about Elijah, you might find this interesting. Is yeah, he did live 400 years before Malachi wrote these words, but Elijah actually never died. Elijah, is one of only two people in human history who never ever died. God took him up in to heaven before his death. It seems as if his ministry is not complete yet. And so, what is going on here? Some people speculate that Elijah is going to literally come back before Christ's return. Some people think that maybe he is one of the two prophets mentioned in the Book of Revelation. It's not entirely clear. But what the New Testament does tell us clearly is that this prophecy was in fact fulfilled, at least in part through the ministry of John the Baptist, which is interesting because the 400 years of silence that are about to follow are not going to be broken until the announcement of John the Baptist's birth. And so, in the opening scenes of the New Testament, we read that Zachariah was serving as priest before God in the temple. And a messenger from the Lord, an angel appears to him. And this is what he says in Luke chapter one, verse 13, he says, "Do not be afraid, Zachariah, for your prayer has been heard. And your wife, Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name, John. And you will have joy and gladness. And many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink. And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. To make ready for the Lord a people prepared." So, John was born. He fulfills this ancient prophecy. But what does this all mean? And what does this have to do with fathers and with children? It's a strange way to end the book, or at least it seems so. If you think back over Malachi, the people of God, had really two major problems. One, they had a major problem with their worship and their devotion to God. And they had a major problem with their families. They were unfaithful to God and they were unfaithful to their wives. And so, what we see is that there were some of the men were intermarrying with idol worshipers, and they were not teaching their children to grow up to love and serve the Lord. Others were breaking their marriage vows and they were divorcing their wives. And because of all of this, they were failing at their purpose. And what was the purpose? What was the thing that God said he was seeking from them? Well, he told them in chapter two, that what the Lord was seeking was godly offspring. He was seeking a godly legacy from these people, but they were failing. Malachi 2:14 says that, "The Lord was witnessed between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless. Though she is your companion and your wife by covenant, did he not them one with a portion of the spirit in their union. And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. And so, guard yourselves and your spirit and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth." Instead of leaving legacies of faith, they were leaving a legacy of faithlessness. Instead of leaving a legacy of godliness, they were leaving a legacy of godlessness in this. And what was becoming, was they were becoming a generation of prodigals who had run far from home. And now they were raising a generation of children who didn't even know where home was. They were so far from God. And Malachi concludes with these words of hope and says, it's not always going to be so. The day is coming, when fathers will turn to their children and children will turn to the fathers, and they will together, turn their hearts toward God, the heavenly father. And that John was going to come to prepare them for the Messiah. And that the Messiah was going to come to bring them back home. And thinking about this through the lens of prodigal and specifically, the story of the prodigal son, the Messiah is really coming as the true big brother that the prodigal son never had. If you remember the parable, it ends in a party, right? The father throws the celebration. And everybody is inside. They're having a good time. They're celebrating that the prodigal son had come home, except for, of course, the older brother. He's outside by himself, grumbling in the darkness against the father. And the father goes out to reason with him. In Luke 15:25, it says, "Now, the older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and he asked what these things meant. And he said to him, "Your brother has come back and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound." But he was angry and he refused to go in. His father came out and he entreated him, but he answered his father, "Look, these many years, I have served you, and I've never disobeyed your command. Yet, you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him." And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me. And all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead, and he's alive. He was lost and is found." We can see the father's heart in this. But had the older brother had that same heart, had the older brother had the father's heart, the story would have ended much differently. Because what the older brother should have done, what a good older brother should have done, is gone to the father and said, "Father, let me go after him. I'm willing to leave behind everything that I have here with you. And I will go to the ends of the earth, if that that means I can bring my little brother back home." He didn't do that, but Jesus did that. And that's what I mean when we say that Jesus is the better big brother. That John prepares the way, and then Jesus comes to seek us, to save us, to find the prodigals, to bring them back home. And he softens our hearts so that we can cross that chasm, that infinite divide of our sin that has separated us from the father. And we can be reconciled to him. Once again, this is the love that can change the world, because this is the love that changes human hearts. And I think Malachi singles out the fathers and the children here, because I think he's getting that this was what God's vision was from the very beginning. This was going all the way back to the garden, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue. It wasn't just a command to make lots of babies. It was a command to make image bearers of God, who fill the earth, who raised children, who love the Lord, their God with all of their heart, and with all of their soul, and with all of their might, and with all of their strength. It's a picture of healthy people, producing healthy marriages, producing healthy families, healthy communities, healthy societies, in which people love and serve the Lord with all of their heart, because his love has transformed them from the inside out. That's God's vision. That's Jesus' vision. And that's why he came as our older brother to break that cycle of cynicism and sin, to tear down the walls of hostility between fathers and children, between families and peoples. And he does so by tearing down the wall of hostility between us and God. To turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children, and the fathers and children together, back to their God. To take our proud prodigal hearts that have been running from God for so long, and turn them back into the father's embrace. And so, whoever you are, wherever you've gone, whatever you've done, this is the call to repent, to turn, to come back and to see that the father is waiting, standing at the door. And he's standing there not waiting to strike you, but to embrace you, not because of anything that you've done, but because of what his son, Jesus Christ has done for you. He's waiting to welcome you in to celebrate and to say the words that he said in Luke 15:23, "Come on, let us eat and celebrate, for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found." Let's pray. Father, we praise you as a powerful and mighty king. And we honor you as a just and righteous judge. And we love you as a kind and tender father. And we thank you for sending your son, our big brother, Jesus Christ, to seek us, to save us from ourselves, to take our hearts of stone and replace them hearts of flesh. Hearts that can beat and rhythm with yours, with your truth, and with your love. God, I pray today that you would heal the broken hearted, that you would lift the needy from the ashes, and that you would strengthen our hands and feet, and give us the courage we need to be your children, to be your ambassadors, your representatives. God, I pray that your power would be made perfect and put on display through our weakness. That the light of your salvation would shine through us as a beacon of hope to this cold, dark and hard hearted world. We pray this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Refiner's Fire: Week 3
November 15, 2020 • Malachi 2:17—3:15
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. We're in the book of Malachi. Malachi is sent by God as a prophet to reawaken his people who are in spiritual stupor. They have grown numb to God. They are indifferent to the cause of God, the word of God, to the mission of God. They're indifferent to the work of the temple. The reason why they're indifferent is because their heart has been divided, they are in the middle. They're on the one hand loving the world, on the other hand, asking for God to bless them. And they're starting to ask questions like, is this worth it? Is it worth following God? Is it worth doing his work? Is it worth trying to live a godly life? As they're looking around and seeing that the people who are pagans, people who are living any way that they want seems like they're happier, seems like they're living better lives. And the reminder from Malachi here today is that God is a God of eternity, that God is a God of justice, that God has already sent his son Jesus Christ to bear the wrath of God for our sins. Jesus came the first time as a savior of his people, meek and mild, offering salvation, offering forgiveness, but he will come back and he will come back as a king and as a judge. And none of Christianity makes sense if we lose sight of the fact that eternity is real. The very moment you die you stand in the presence of God and you either spend eternity with God or apart from God in a place of eternal, conscious suffering called hell. And when Christians lose sight of that reality, that this is real, we lose sight of the most important thing in our lives, which is the mission of God. We have been saved to now carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who are not yet saved. So Malachi is sent by God to awaken his people with a fire from heaven, and I pray that he sends the same fire today. Today we're in Malachi 2:17 through 3:15. I'll begin by reading Malachi 2:17, 3 through 5. You have wearied the Lord with your words, but 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's the God of justice. 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 and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears? He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. 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. They will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old, as in former years. Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who press the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless against those who thrust aside the sojourner and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Two main points from the text, don't weary God, and second, don't rob God. First, don't weary God. Malachi 2:17, you have wearied the Lord with your words. They have wearied the Lord. How do you make sense of this? If God is omnipotent, if he's impassable, on the one hand he's transcendent. So he's above suffering or feeling pain. On the other hand, he is being wearied by these people. Isaiah 40:28 says, have you not known, have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth? He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable. On one hand, he can not grow weary, on the other hand, we can try God's patience to the point where he is weary of us, of our reactions. Isaiah 7:13 he said, hear then O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men that you weary God also? You're testing the patience of God. With their disobedience, they are wearing God, they're grumbling. Very few of us repent of the sin of grumbling, of complaining against God. God, you are not doing what you're supposed to be doing. You're not doing your job as you're supposed to be. You are not the God that you're supposed to be. We are wearing God with those complaints. What does it mean that God can be wearied when he is transcended above everything? Well, because in his love, in his kindness, he opens up his heart to us. He chooses to love us and he chooses to feel true love. Therefore, God does feel emotions. Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that God does love in a true love, like a feeling love because he chose to love. And God like a good father, at some point as we see in the old testament, he does get tired of the complaining and he does discipline that. Any parent understands this. Every once in a while you get to the point where you've just had it with your kids complaining. Dad what's for breakfast? Eggs again? No, I want ice cream. No, we're not doing that. What's for dinner? Soup, mom made soup. No, I want something interesting. That's what they do. This morning my daughter woke up... We've been living in the city for 11 years, this morning she woke up, my oldest daughter. She said, "I'm sick and tired of not having my own room, no backyard. I'm sick and tired of being a pastor's kid." That's what she said. I'm sick and tired of being a pastor's kid. And at that moment, I felt just a little bit of what God feels where it's like, "I'm getting tired of this getting. I'm getting tired of your complaints." Is there a sense in which God can experience emotional frustration, disappointment? Yes, because he truly loves. That's why he's wearied because he truly loves. Genesis 6 tells us that the Lord does experience emotions. Genesis 6, before the Lord sends the flood, it said that he regretted that he had made man. He got to the point where he was so fed up with the evil of humanity that he sends the flood. Judges 10:16 says that God couldn't bear Israel's misery any longer. Isaiah 63:9 through 10, in all their distress, he too was distressed. Psalm 2:4, the one enthroned in heaven laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Luke 15:20 talking about the parable of the prodigal son. The father sees the son repenting, returning and the father, scripture says, was filled with compassion, ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The reason why the Lord does feel true emotion is because he opens up his heart to love us and hear his people, they just complain. Malachi 2:17, but 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? How are they wearing him? They're saying, God, are you even just? God, are you even good? Why? Because we see evil all around us. We see the evil people prospering, God, why aren't you bringing down your condemnation upon them? Are you delighting in that evil? Therefore, they're questioning his character, impugning his character. In Malachi 3:13 through 15, the other side of questioning God is now they don't see the point in serving God. Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord, but you say, how have we spoken against you? You have said it is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed, evildoers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape him. God, we see these evil people who are living any way they want and you're not bringing judgment and condemnation upon them. We're serving you, what's the point of serving you? What profit is there? The arrogant are blessed, evildoers prosper. What about us? And this is the age old question of why do the wicked prosper? Why do the righteous suffer? You do the right things, you can't get ahead. They scoff at God and they're doing great. The Jewish people really felt this. They felt true suffering as a people in Malachi's day. They were under the thumb of the Medo-Persian empire who were godless and yet they were prosperous. They're people who've got a back in the land of Jerusalem, but their temple is but a shell of its former glory. And the Jews have become disappointed with God. God, you didn't give us the life that you promised to give us. We expected blessing and yet all we have is suffering. God are you just? It's a synagogue agnosticism, doubting God's existence, his goodness. God are you delighting in evil? Are you good? Are you just? And what they're doing here is they're questioning God's job. God, do you know what you're doing? I could do your job so much better than you. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around how hard it is being God. I get a little understanding of how God gets wearied with us sometimes with our complaining, with our groaning, our griping with my kids. I have four kids, I have four daughters, kids complain. Daughters are just more articulate at it. They're just better at words, better... and they know where... like fast at speaking and they come out. And especially if you have smart kids, that's even harder. The smarter the kids, the more words. And I get to the point where I'm frustrated. There's a frustration because I love you so much, I want the best thing for you. Something interesting. What's something interesting to you? It's always carbs, it's always sugar. No, I don't want to give you carbs and sugar for breakfast because I don't want you to get diabetes by the time you're 40. You're going to thank me later. So I'm at the point where it's like, "Yeah." I've been a pastor for 11 years and I know how... I think this is the hardest time in the history of the world to be a pastor. I think every pastor probably feels that, whatever I'm alive today so I get to say it. Pastor's back a hundred years ago, literally you saw people once a week. Maybe they have appointments with you, tremendous office hours. Today pastors have never been more accessible, email, Facebook Messenger, IG messenger, Twitter, phone, they know where you live. And in Boston, Massachusetts, everyone's got an opinion. Everybody has opinion. That's why you live here, you're very opinionated and you're good at expressing your opinions. And in this pandemic, this has been the hardest time of ministry in my whole life. And I get your emails, I get your messages, I get your texts, I get your phone calls, I get all of it. And your voice is heard. And we truly are a mosaic where whatever your opinion is, on whatever the matter, there's 10 people diametrically opposed to you. And Pastor Shane, Pastor Andy somehow we need to keep everything going. And at the same time, I'm grieving for the state of the church. I'm grieving over it because I love the church. I've given 35% of my life to the church. I see what the enemy is doing through all of this. Yes, you read the studies. Yes, the stats. Yes, the news. But on top of all of that is a demonic war and I see what the enemy is doing in all... By the way, the whole pandemic started when we started a sermon series called Stratagem: How to Discern the Strategies of the Evil One. And literally in the middle of that series we're like, "Pandemic." I've been discerning the work of the enemy through this. I see how the church is being weakened through it. There's an indifference to the church. There's an indifference to the gathering of believers. You know what the word church means? Literally, ekklesia means the gathering of believers physically. We need that. Humans need that. And more than anything the church of Jesus Christ whom he loves, the body of Christ, which is physically together, the Holy Spirit moves when we are together. This is our witness. Our worship is warfare. I say all that to say, we just need to love God, we need to love Jesus. And the mission is more important than anything. Whatever your preference, the mission's more important. People literally die and go to hell every single second to spend eternity apart from God. All I want to say is whatever your preface, whatever everything, there's nothing more important than that. The glory of God and the church of Jesus Christ and stop telling God how to do his job. That's the point of this text. And when we do question God, when we do weary God, what's the response? The response is repent. Repent. Who are you to question God? Job suffers for 38 chapters in the book of Job, he loses his kids and he loses his wealth, he loses his health. He loses everything. He's griping against God for 38 chapters, God shows up and he just says, who are you? Who are you to question me? He's God, he gets to do whatever he wants to do. Our job is to repent of sin and follow him. And then the presupposition that he's dealing with here is, Malachi is dealing here is, you want justice? You're telling God that he's not just, you want justice? How many of us would be alive if God flips the switch and destroys all of the evil in the world? How many of us will be alive in a second? That's what he says in Malachi 3:2, who can endure the day of his coming, who can stand when he appears? He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. So when we say, wouldn't it be great if Jesus came back? Yes, it would be great. But how many of us are ready? How many of us are ready for the justice of God to come? Malachi 3:1, behold, I send my messenger. Before he sends Christ in the first coming and before he sends Christ in the second coming, there's a messenger. He will prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to the temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. Prophecy as usual in scripture has double meaning, sometimes more. The first meaning of this prophecies, John the Baptist is going to come to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. Isaiah 43, a voice cries out in the wilderness, prepare the way the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Zechariah's prophecy when he prophesies over his son who was in the womb, when he prophesied, he says, you will go and prepare the way of the Lord. Jesus applied that prophecy to John the Baptist in Matthew 11. Malachi 4:5 says, behold, I will send Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. Elijah the prophet, his spirit descends upon John the Baptist. That's how the prophecy comes together. And then we see in Malachi 3:1 that he, John the Baptist, is preparing the way for the Lord. So in the sense, this human Messiah that comes is also going to be the Lord. And we see that from Malachi 3:1, behold I, God, send my messenger, John the Baptist in the spirit of Elijah. And he will prepare the way before me, God, me, the Lord, that's Adonai in the Hebrew, whom you seek will suddenly come into his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. And here in the Hebrew, it's Yahweh. There's two Lords. Here what's going on, Yahweh here represents God, the father, Adonai is Jesus Christ. How do we know that? Because we see that difference often in scripture. Psalm 110:1, the Lord, Yahweh, says to the Lord, Adonai, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. So the Messiah is clearly David's son yet David calls him Lord. And there's two Lords, Yahweh and Adonai. What's this talking about? In the old testament, this is prophecy of the Trinity. That there's three persons in the Trinity, God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit. God the father sends God the son by the power of the Holy Spirit. One God, three persons, one essence. And we have this in Malachi3:1, John the Baptist comes as a messenger telling people to repent. What was John the Baptist's message? Jesus Christ, who is God in human flesh, he's here. Therefore, repent of your sins, bear fruit with that repentance. Repentance isn't just saying, God, I'm sorry, all I want is your pardon so I can continue sinning. Repentance is God, I changed my way. I changed my life. God, I want to be used by you because I am yours. That's what repentance is. John the Baptist preached that, prepare the way for Jesus Christ. And the second meaning of the prophecy is before Jesus' second coming, Revelation 11 talks about this, there will be two witnesses who will powerfully bear witness before the coming of Christ, and the second coming, one of those witnesses will be Elijah himself. The preparing the way of the Lord, this imagery, is clearing roads, preparing towns for the visit of the king. It's a messenger sent to the towns who tell people, "Hey, clear the road of rock, of debris. Fill in the ruts and the potholes." God in his grace sends a messenger before his coming. He did that through John the Baptist about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ lives the perfect life, dies on the cross bearing God's fire of judgment and condemnation for our sin, our rebellion, our wickedness, dies, is buried, on the third day he's risen. And the scripture says by our faith in him, his grace is applied to us. His judgment, his substitutionary atonement, his death, that is counted to our account the very moment that we repent. That's the only way that the fire of God, when it comes, it will be a fire that cleanses, that refines instead of incinerating. God in his grace sent John the Baptist, God in his grace sends the church, sends us, we are priesthood of all believers and God in his kindness before the second coming of Christ will send another witness. Our job now, here, is to see where in our life do we need more of the refiners fire. Malachi 3:2, who can endure the day of his coming, who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. God wants to pour out his fire upon the church, upon each one of us. Wherever there's an indifference to sin, an indifference to God, a lack of love, a lack luster relationship with him we're to ask, God please send this refiners fire. Please wash us with the fullers' soap, the soap that cleanses. In Malachi 3:4, he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. To the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old, as in the former years. Here the imagery is God sends his fire to purify. This is the process of making silver. The oriental silver smith would heat it and the impurities, the dross, the slag, they bubble to the surface. He would skim the surface to the point where he could see his reflection in the silver. So this is what God is telling his people. You want justice, justice begins with you. You want God to punish evil, to cleanse the world of evil, it begins with you. It begins with you repenting of your sin and pursuing righteousness on a daily basis. And he is sending the struggles, he's sending the difficulties in order to purify us. All whom he loves, he purifies. It's painful, but it's not as painful as the judgment in the second coming. In the second coming, this is Malachi 3:2, then I will draw near to you for judgment. 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, the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the soldier and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. These people wanted God to judge their enemies, but they didn't judge themselves. They didn't fear God. God says, first judgment needs to come into your own life reawakening cleansing of sin. This is the process of sanctification and that's how we prepare ourselves for the second coming. In the second God will bring judgment. He will bring all of these people a swift witness against them, it's talking about the ultimate judgment. The sorcerers here, anyone who practices the occult, adulterers, anyone who is sexually unfaithful in particular in their marriage vows. Those who swear falsely, those who bend the truth, this is perjury under oath in court or in anything else, those who oppress the wage earner, anyone who is dishonest in their financial dealings. So what's the difference between the two fires? One is a fire that refines, the other fire is the one that incinerates. What's the difference? The difference is the covenantal love of Jesus Christ. Have you accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on your behalf? Have you repented of sin? Have you turned to Jesus Christ? Have you trusted that his death on the cross when the fire of God's wrath came down on him, do you trust that this is Jesus dying on the cross for your sins? Do you see how Holy God is? How sinful we are? How loving God is? How just God is and how much we need his grace. Do you see that? That's the only hope. There's nothing more important than that. There's nothing. There's absolutely nothing more essential than you trusting in Jesus Christ, you repenting of your sin, you following him. There's nothing more essential than that. There's nothing more essential than you worshiping the God of the universe. And then the temptation is, as we see the evil around us, as we are... the more you grow in holiness, the more you walk with the Lord, the more it breaks your heart that there's sin in your own life and that there's just outright evil and injustice around us. And the more godless a city, the more pagan a city, the more it grieves you and it wearies you. It's exhausting spiritually. And there's a temptation to hate the evil person. And here, as we pray for the justice, God come, God, we pray for the second coming, God, swift fire from heaven, please. We'll never lose sight of the fact that these people are eternal souls. And if Jesus Christ comes back right now, they will spend eternity in hell. So as we pray for justice, we are to care with a compassionate heart for those who don't yet know the Lord. We are to develop a compassion for those who are unbelievers. Second Peter 3:8 through 13, do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. And then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed since all these things are thus to be dissolved. What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Don't weary God, if we do, if there's a grumbling spirit of complaining toward God, we are to repent of that. And then the second point is don't rob God. Malachi 3:6, for I the Lord do not change. Therefore, you O children of God are not consumed. He's setting this up, he's about to tell him that you've been robbing me. On the other hand, he said, my fire of judgment hasn't come down on you yet because I've chosen to pour my love out on you. I don't change. God is the only one who can say I am that I am. He's the only one who can say that. Every single one of us, we have to say, I am not yet the person that I'm supposed to be. I'm growing in the grace of God. God's the only one who can say I am that I am. A.W. Pink says he can not change for the better for he is already perfect and being perfect, he cannot change for the worse. And God is telling Israel, look, I should have destroyed you, I have not yet. And the reason is because I made a covenant with you. God chooses to love, and God is a God of his word. When God says, I love you, he will love you to the end. He will not let you go. And I'm setting that up all to say these people have been complaining to God, "God, what's the point of serving you when you are not blessing us? We're doing so much for you and you're not giving us what we want." And God here actually says, no, you're not doing everything you ought to be doing. Malachi 3:7 through 8, from the days of the fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we return? Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me, but you say, how have we robbed you in your tithes and contributions. We're saying, "God, we're doing so much." And he's saying, "No, no, no. You're not doing everything I've called you to do. You're comparing your obedience to that of the pagans, you're not comparing your obedience to that of God's law. And really here the main issue is they're in this lackadaisical, middle ground of miserable, pitiful, half-hearted Christianity. This is lukewarm Christianity. In Revelation God says, "You're neither hot nor cold, you're warm. You're lukewarm. I'm going to spit you out." It's like coffee, there's only two kinds that are allowed, hot and iced. That's it. Warm coffee is disgusting. You want to spit that out. That's what God is saying. He's saying to his people, "You Christians are miserable." The reason why you're miserable is because you're lukewarm, you're half-hearted. It's the most pitiful condition to be because you can't enjoy sin like you used to because God, the Holy Spirit, rebukes you every time and he disciplines you. And because you want sin more than God, you're not getting the fullness and benefit and satisfaction and joy of God. And in order to diagnose their lukewarmness, he points to their bank account. Well, what's the connection here? The connection is what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart is. Wherever your money naturally flows, that's usually what you love most. And scripture often talks about money as the litmus test, generosity as the litmus test of our relationship with God. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, pagan, was stealing, robbing the people of Israel and he repents. And Jesus says this in Luke 19:8 through 9. Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore fourfold." And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to him to this house since he's also a son of Abraham. He's not saying he's saved because he gives, but he's saying, because he's saved, he gives. He has this natural generosity. Because he loves God and the things of God, he wants to be generous to the causes of God. And that stands a stark contrast to the tragic accountant of the rich, young ruler who comes to Jesus, falls on his knees, says, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus says, "You know the commandments." He said, "I fulfilled all of them." Jesus says, "You're lacking one thing." Mark 10:21, and Jesus looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You lack one thing. Sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, come and follow me." Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. And again, this isn't saying that if you sell everything you have, you get salvation. But Jesus was saying, "What do you love most?" How do you inherit turn life? You love God more than anything. You repent of your sin, you love God more than anything. Jesus saw that there was an idol in the way, and that idol was money. This guy worshiped money. Luke 16:10 to 11, and one who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you true riches? Unrighteous wealth, that's money and true riches here, that's the stewardship of souls. That's the souls of people. God says there's nothing more important than caring for people's souls. And if we have been unfaithful in finances, God will not entrust to us greater responsibility, which is that of caring for souls. So here the question is, are you greedy or generous? And that's always a degree. We always have to check our hearts and see how much greed has taken over. Do we have integrity when it comes to money? Are our priorities or motives for earning, spending, saving, investing, giving, are they in line with God's word? And how much should we give? That's the important question. In the old testament the number 10% comes up often. Abraham once gave Melchizedek 10% of the spoils from a single battle. Jacob promises to give God 10%. The law of Moses, however, prescribes several tithes. And if you combine all of them together it's probably 20 to 25%, some say even a third. In Israel, the tithe function more like an involuntary tax. Here Malachi 3:10 says, bring the full tithe into the storehouse. The 10% is a great place to start, but the idea is we are to give proportionately with what God has given us. So for some of us, 10% is a great place to give, some of us, it's going to be a sacrifice. So in the new testament, first Corinthians talks about giving sacrificially, joyfully and not under compulsion. Give to whom? We give to God. And what's important in Malachi 3:19 through 10 is that God says, give to my house. This is Malachi 3:9 through 12. You are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. He's talking about the temple. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and to pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord. So you're robbing God by not giving to his house, you're withholding the tithes and offerings. Therefore, you're neglecting the ministry in the temple. So the temple is gone now, we don't have the temple. We have the church. The church is the body of believers. So they gave so that the work of the ministry would continue in the temple. We today give to the work of the church. Why? Because Christ loved the church, gave himself up for her, he, though being rich, gave himself for the church so that we could be rich in him. Jesus said, I will build the church. And really the issue is we give to things that God loves. Does God need our money? No, God commands us to give because we need to give, we need to sacrifice. It's more blessed to give than to receive. And God wants us to give to the work of the church because the church is the vehicle through which God's glory is displayed and the gospel is proclaimed in the world. So it really comes down to giving to the things that God loves, the things that God prioritizes, things that God cares for, which is the work of the gospel and salvation of the souls. And here God says, put me to the test, which is fascinating. In the very beginning he's saying, you're testing my patience. Here he says, test me. What's the difference? There they were testing him with their disobedience, here he says, test me with your obedience. There they with testing his patience, here he says, test my promises, test my promises. See if I don't open up the windows of heaven. Malachi 3:10, see if I will not open up the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there's no more need, until there's no more needed. And he's not promising wealth, he's promising enough, satisfaction. Second Corinthians 9:8, and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. Now this is risky. With finances, it's risky. The reason why it's risky here and the reason why he says test is obedience comes first, blessing comes after. He says, you first give and see if I don't bless. Sometimes we want, "God bless me, if you bless me to a certain point, then I'll give." It's risky, it's faith. But he says, "Test me, let's make a deal." That's what he's saying. And I found this to be true in my own life. And I found when Christians do this, there is really this pattern of God does bless faithfulness. The text began with them questioning God and then he says, you're robbing me, but in the middle he says return to me. And really this is the main issue, the heart of the matter is the heart. Malachi 3:7, from the days of your fathers you've turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts, but you say, how shall we return? It all starts with the heart. It all starts with us realizing how good and gracious God is. That though we were in our sins, though we defied him, rebelled against him, cared nothing for him, despised him. And you say, how have I despised him? By being indifferent to him. Indifference is the worst form of hate. And Jesus Christ comes and he dies for us, wicked sinners, on the cross, the God of the universe bearing the wrath of God. God came to save us from God's wrath and condemnation. He who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. Christ loses everything on the cross, pours out his blood for us and by grace through faith we're saved when we realize that generosity of God, the largest of his heart, that now duty becomes delight. It all starts with a relationship to return to him, to love him. However, relationship with God does not mean you don't have to obey. This is the problem with much of American Christianity. Oh, it's not religion, it's relationship. I know what you mean. It is relationship with God, with the God of the universe. And if you have a relationship with the God of the universe, of course it means obedience. Repentance is not, God, I'm sorry for my sin so now I can continue living in sin. Repentance is, God, forgive me, a wicked sinner who deserves hell for all of eternity. God, forgive me for loving things more than you, for loving pleasure more than you, for loving idols more than you. God, forgive me. And God does and now you become a child of God and a servant of God. John 15:10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. There's a connection. You want to experience God's love, you got to keep his commandments. John 15:14, you are my friends if you do what I command you. You can't say, "I love Jesus, my sins are forgiven. I'm under grace. I can live any way that I want." It doesn't work that way. God is a jealous God. He's a zealous God. When he makes you his own, when he makes you his own, he's never letting you go. And if you experience dissatisfaction, indifference in your heart, if you experience this questioning, grumbling spirit in your heart, God, you're not giving me the life that I want to live and then you start to pursue sin, that is the most miserable place to be because he will discipline you. Goes to Hebrews 12, he's a good father and he will discipline you. And sometimes that does mean physical suffering and sometimes even to the point of death, first Corinthians 11 talks about that. There's a sin onto death. So the word here from Malachi for us today is return to the Lord, return to him, be satisfied in him, rejoice in him. There's nothing better. Is it worth following him? Of course. What's the point? The point is we are to glorify him, enjoy him forever. Mark 10:28 through 30, I'll close with this. And Peter began to say to him, "See, we have left everything and followed you." And Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or a mother or a father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundred fold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life." Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the Holy Spirit. And I pray, Holy Spirit, continue to refine each one of us. Lord, those of us who are Christians continue to refine our souls with your fire, refiner's fire and continue to cleanse us and our souls as with soap so that we long for holiness, that we fight sin, that we take up a cross and follow you on a daily basis because we understand that there is a spiritual war to wage and we are to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are pursue you with everything that we do. And Lord, for anyone who is not yet a Christian, I pray today, convert them, regenerate them, draw them to yourself, show them that they right now are on the path of eternal separation from you. I pray, draw them to yourself, convert them, give them the gift of repentance. And I pray that they accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And I pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.
Refiner's Fire: Week 2
November 8, 2020 • Malachi 2:1–16
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood, churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And if you're new or if you're visiting welcome, we're so glad you're here and we'd love to connect either through the connection card and the worship guide or in the connection card in the app or online. If you filled out allegedly, we will get in touch with you over the course of the week. That said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's word? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege it is to come into your presence because of the sacrifice of your son, Jesus Christ on the cross, by the power of your Holy Spirit. Lord, you command us that we are not to have any gods before you. You summarized Jesus, the law of the Lord by saying, love God with all your heart, soul strength, and mind, love your neighbor as yourself. I pray today. Lord, you show us that love without obedience toward you is not love. When you call us to love you. You call us to honor you and revere you and fear you. And make us the people who care about honoring your name. People who care about holiness and righteousness, people who allow you to be Lord and King over every aspect of our lives. No matter how intimate to us. I pray. Lord, open up your Holy scriptures to us and give us hearts to hear and to receive and to love these truths. We'll pray, Holy Spirit, fill us, rebuke us, where we need to be rebuked, and comfort us where we need to be comforted. We pray all this in Christ's Holy Name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the book of Malachi this week, two more weeks, I was just covering chapter by chapter. And then that will lead us into advent and where we'll just look at Matthew:1-2, so the very next pages in the Holy scriptures. Malachi and the title of the sermon series is a refiner's fire. Malachi is a prophet of God. His name means my message, your God has sent this prophet to speak a work of fire to the people of God, to burn off the dross that has encapsulated their hearts. Their hearts are numb toward God, desensitized toward God, and they need a fire to burn that dross off. And really that the heart of this book, it is the question, do you love God with all your heart, soul strength, and mind? Does God have a central place in your life? Meaning does faith in God permeate all of your life? Does God get to be God over every aspect of your life? Or does he just get a little time slot on your Google calendar of Sundays for an hour, hour and a half, a few minutes at the beginning of each day, perhaps? Is God the absolute most important person in your life? Do you do everything that you do for the glory of God? Through the prism of worshiping God, boil a question down is, God central or is He supplemental? And many of us struggle with the centrality of God because a lot of us have learned to compartmentalize God. There's my school box. There's my career box. There's my relationship with box. There's my money box. There's my sex box, whatever it is. And then there's my God box. And this is that part of life where I honor God, I sing songs to Him, I pray some prayers and I do some scripture. And when God gets compartmentalized in our lives, He just becomes an afterthought and we run to Him when we need something. When we need a blessing, when we need forgiveness, when we need spiritual cleansing, when we need him to remove shame or guilt, when we need rescue, we run to Him when we sin. God forgives, Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I've sinned. I see the calamity of my sin. I don't want to deal with the consequences of my sin. Jesus forgive me. And as soon as I'm forgiven, I run back to my sin. And we see the cycle over and over in the Holy Scriptures. He gets our sin, we get forgiveness and we go back to our sin and God gets our leftovers. We actually only go to God, to say, "God, forgive me, deal with the excrement in the filth of my soul in my life." And then we go right back to it. So how does God feel about that cycle? About that tepidness? About that lukewarmness? How does God feel about us bringing our leftovers to him? Well, today we will find out what God says, actually your worship to me, what you're giving me, it's actually feces, is the word dung. And he says, "I'm going to take the dung that you're bringing me. I'm going to rub your face in it. So you realize that this isn't going to work." So that's the text that we're in today, Malachi 2:1-9 to begin with, and then we'll deal with verses 10 through 16, after that. Malachi 2:1-9. “And now, O priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not listen if you will not take it to heart, to give honor to My name,” says the LORD of hosts, “Then I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not take it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings; and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I've sent this command to you? That my covenant with Levi may stand," says the LORD of hosts. "My covenant with him was one of life and peace. And I gave them to him, it was a covenant fear and he feared me. He stood in owe of my Name. True instruction was in my mouth and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge. And the people should seek instruction from his mouth for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way, you've caused many to humble by your instruction, you have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says the LORD of hosts. "So I make you despised and abased before all the people inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.” This is the radium God's Holy inerrant, infallible authoritative word, He writes these eternal truths upon our hearts, three points to frame-Up our time. Verses 1-9. Stop giving God your Paresh, we'll talk about what that means. Two is don't marry pagans, that's verses 10-12. And three, fight for marital faithfulness verses 13-16. Point one; stop giving God your Paresh. He writes and speaks these words to priests, that's verse one. "And now, O priests, this commandment is for you." In context, talking directly to spiritual leaders in the Old Testament, these were the Levites. In the new Testament, spiritual leaders of the pastors or the elders. And so in context, He's talking about those who are entrusted to teach the people of God, the truths of God, and to not just teach them the instruction, but also show them, model how it's to be done. "Imitate me as I imitate Christ," the Saint Paul says. Life and doctrine go together. 1 Timothy 4:16, "Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching, Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers." So if you are to teach the word of God to others, if you're going to instruct people from the word of God, you first have to pay attention to yourself, make sure you're living it yourself, and pay attention to your teaching. That's in line with the teachings of scriptures. In James 3:1, says, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers for you know, that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." God sets a higher standard for those who preach his word, who teach his word. The job of spiritual leaders wasn't just to do the work of the ministry. It was to teach God's word. It was to ordain the worship service, that's the word of God. "We commit ourselves to the word of God and to prayer," as the book of Acts says. And then also it's to keep people accountable to that teaching and equip the saints for the work of the ministry. How does this apply to us? This text primarily applies to spiritual leaders. So Pastor Jan, you're preaching to yourself, Pastor Jane, Pastor Andy, the spiritual leaders. Also, applies to community group leaders. If you're leading a community group in the church, you need to know that this text's for you. But it also applies to any Christian because any Christian is called to make disciples of other people. Jesus gave us the command in the great commission, "Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit." On top of that, every Christian is called a priest. 1 Timothy 2:9 "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light." So in the church age, Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Levitical code and superseded it. He's our great high priest and we are priests under him. So there's levels of authority given Jesus at the very top, then the spiritual leaders in the church. And it just descends, but every single one of us in some capacity, are called to teach the word of God to those in our community. And as we do, we need to know that there are standards that God sets for priests. Malachi 2:2 "If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name," says the LORD of hosts, "then and I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I've already cursed them because you do not lay it to heart." The first thing that a minister of the gospel, the first thing that any priest, any Christian needs to do is to learn to listen, not just with our ears. Jesus used this phrase often. He says, "Do you have ears to hear, take care of how you listen." And twice in this verse, he emphasizes, "take it to heart." So he's saying not just listen with your ears, but listen with your heart. Not listen to your heart, listen with your heart. And what's the connection between the heart and listening heart and learning truths? The connection's the same as the connection between faith and love. You can't believe in God or believe in doctrines about God without loving God because faith isn't just a matter of the mind. It's a matter of the heart, even more so. And we have a propensity to listen, in particular, things that we love, things that we want to hear. So he says, "First of all, when you're listening to God's word, you got to make sure your heart is calibrated to hear, to listen, particular, his warnings." Do you heed God's warnings? Do you heed his rebukes in the scripture? When the word is preached, as you read it, do you take the rebukes from the word of God? Do you take them to heart? And if not, then maybe the real issue is that you do not fear God, you do not honor God. And that's the connection. "If you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name." The scripture talks often about loving God and we in the American Church, we've done a great job talking about a God who is love and a God who calls us to love him because He first loved us. I think we've done that at the expense of talking about God, who is to be feared, who is an awesome God, a God who is to be revered and honored. He is to be so honored. So feared that we even revere his name, that we speak his name with honor with reverence. That's what he's saying here, "Will you give honor to my name?" This is such a big of a deal. This was one of the 10 commandments, "Thou shall not take the Lord's name in vain." Yes, don't just say, "OMG," don't you just throw out God's name when you're not talking about God or thinking about God, but that's only a surface-level understanding of what that commandment means. What that commandment means is that God has made us his own. We are the children of God. Christ said, "You are mine. I've given you my name, you're Christians live with Christ. So don't take my name in vain, where you take my name, but you dishonor me with your lifestyle." That's what he's really getting at, is that these priests were not honoring God with their lives. And that's really where everything fell apart. They were teaching people about God and then people were looking at their teaching, then comparing it to their lifestyle. And they had nothing to do with God. And thus, they led the people of God astray. So God says, "You're saying, God bless you. God bless you. God bless. But I'm actually going to turn these blessings into curses." And that's the second part of verse 2, "I'm going to curse your blessings. Indeed, I've already done that." And then in the text, he talks about cursing. The blessings cursing, the Levi's offspring where there'll be cut off from the ministry, and then their ministry will be cursed. What he's saying is you talk about God. You want God to bless your life, but your life has nothing to do with the doctrines of God, the order of God, the tenants, and the laws of God, and God cannot bless what he already promised to curse. Then Malachi 2:3 Behold, words of God. "I will rebuke your offspring, the offspring of the priests, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings and you shall be taken away with it." And this is the Hebrew word Paresh. And what he's getting at, is what this Paresh means. Excrement, it's bodily waste from these animals that they were supposed to bring as a sacrifice, as an offering, a sin offering to the Lord at the festivals. In Exodus 29:14, it's outlined there where it says, "But the flesh of the bull and its skin and it's dung, you shall burn with fire outside the camp." It is a sin offering. So the job of the priest was to take the animal to the people, brought to the priest, and say, "This is our offering to the Lord, our sin offering." And there was a take the choice parts of the animal and sacrifice to the Lord as a sin offering, a sacrifice for their sin, atonement for a little time. But the inner parts, the intestines, including the excrement, they were supposed to take outside of the temple, outside of the camp. And there's two indictments here. The first indictment is the priests, were allowing the dung to stay at the temple. And they were bringing that as a sacrifice to the Lord. And the second indictment is, and we read this in chapter one, that they were allowing the people to bring their leftover animals to God, their lame animals, the blemished animals, the blind animals. When God said, "If you're going to bring a sacrifice, it's got to be the best that you have." And what God is saying. He's saying, "Your worship to me is dung, it's excrement, it's feces, that you're presenting your worst to me. I'm going to take this and I'm going to take these feces and smear them in your face because you are making a mockery of the worship. You keep shoving, literally bull Paresh, BS, in my face and asking me to bless it? And I'm about to return the favor." What's he getting at? He's saying you've learned that there is a way for your sins to be forgiven through the sacrificial system. And you come and you go through the motions of the sacrificial system and the whole sacrificial system was giving as a way of repentance. It was the method of repentance. This is how we're repenting of our sins. You're doing this, you're going through the motions. And then you're going back to your sins. Meaning you love something more than God. You want God just to forgive you so they can keep on doing the sin. And this cycle of sin, ask for forgiveness, sin, ask for forgiveness. And what happens ... on the outside, you're presenting this religion to me on the inside there's nothing but death and corruption and Paresh. And this is the thing that Jesus Christ stood against more than anything else, warned against more than anything else. He has all of his woes in the gospel in Matthew. Woe against the hypocrites. Why did he talk about that so often? He says, be careful in presenting this front of facade of religiosity and cleanliness and purity and caring, nothing about purity on the inside." And that's why he gives us this very vivid imagery expressing the revulsion that the Lord felt when he saw that these priests were presenting an image of cleanliness, but there was nothing like that on the inside. That's what Jesus talking to the hypocrites. Those who claimed to know God and love God. He said, "You're whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and uncleanliness. You clean the outside of the cup and the place, but inside are full of greed and self-indulgence." He says, "Be careful of a worship that has nothing to do with your heart." Be careful of coming to God and singing songs about loving God and giving him lip service. And then when no one's looking, your life looks nothing like what you were singing about. Be careful of the inner corruption. Now, Malachi 2:4-6 "So shall you know that I've sent this command to you that might covenant with Levi may stand." Levi was the first priest of the Levitical code, says the LORD of hosts. "My covenant with him was one of life and peace. And I gave them to him. It was a covenant fear and he feared me. He stood in owe of my name, true instruction was in his name and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. And he turned many from iniquity." Why was Levi's ministry as a priest so successful? Because he feared God, he honored God. He stood in awe of God. He lived according to God's principles. And when no one was watching, and because there was a love for God, a true love for God from the inside. When he taught people, it blessed people and moved people away from iniquity. He turned many away from iniquity. And the emphasis here is on, "He walked with me." He walks with me is a Hebrew, halacha. Enoch walked with God and he was no more. Noah walked with God. Abraham was told by God, "Walk with me." Jesus Christ, when he comes, the first thing he says to his disciples is, "Follow me, walk with me." This is what it means to be a follower of the Lord. You walk in his ways, you know his ways, you follow him in his ways. That's the only way you can show others how to walk in his ways. He's talking about a lifestyle, a lifestyle of reverence, and obedience and love. And also a lifestyle of hating sin. To fear God means that you hate sin, that you rebuke yourself of your own sin. Proverbs 8:13 "The fear of the Lord is that hatred of evil." To love God is to fear God. And to fear God is to hate evil. The question that's before every single one of us as believers of the Lord is, do you truly hate evil? Not just the consequences of evil. Do you truly hate evil because you love God because you fear God? And you can't honor and fear God without hating your own sin, rebuking your own sin. You can't be a priest of the Lord without rebuking yourself for your own sin and doing the same to your own brothers and sisters with whom you have covenant community. And this was one of the rebukes of God against Eli. Eli was a great priest in the old Testament. But at the end of his life, God comes and he rebukes him and he says, "You've dishonored me. Why Eli? Because Eli taught people the way of God. And he tried to do the same, but he did not rebuke the closest people to him of their sin. Primarily his sons. He didn't confront their evil. 1 Samuel 2:30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel declares: "I promise that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever." But now the Lord declares, "Far be it from me! For those who honor me, I will honor, and those who despise me will be lightly esteemed." He's saying, "Eli, you claim to honor me, but you allowed evil to reside in your own home without doing anything about it." You need to confront evil. You need to speak truth in love and that's exactly what Malachi is doing. Malachi 2:7 "For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge. And the people should seek instruction from his mouth for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts." So every priest, every pastor needs to understand that they are nothing but messengers. They're not editors. They're messengers. They get a message from the Lord, from the Holy scriptures, thus saith the Lord. Malachi was messenger, the priest is supposed to be a messenger. We're supposed to be messengers and we have to guard and preserve and store up what this message is, even if people don't want to hear it. And why does Malachi begin with verses 1-9 talking about, do you love God? Do you fear him? Do you honor him? Do you revere his word? Are you a messenger? Because in a little while in the very next text, he gets to the very intimate parts of life where he begins to meddle in people's intimate lives with the word of God and apply it. And at that point, people have a decision. Are we going to repent of our sin? Or are we going to try to kill the messenger? Martin Luther said this. He said, "Always preach in such a way that if people listening do not come to hate their sin, they will instead hate you." One of my favorite examples of this is Karl Barth, who was a theologian in Germany prior to World War II. When Hitler was fanning the flames of antisemitism, and some of that was going on in Karl Barth's church. And Barth came out and he preached a sermon on John 3:16. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." And what he said was, "Jesus Christ was a Jew and Jesus Christ died for the whole world and Jews a part of the world. So we need to stand against any hatred of Jews. We need to love Jews and actually love our neighbor." Many in the congregation got up and discussed. So the Jews killed Jesus and the whole antisemitic ideology. And they wrote him scathing letters. And one of the biggest donors in the church wrote him a letter, the scathing letter, denouncing the sermon. Barth responded with a single sentence. And he said, "It was in the text." I'm just delivering the mail. This is the Bible. And this is how we as Christians need to judge any church, any sermon. And then this is how we also need to judge our own teaching about God. Are we speaking truth about God? Is it from the text? This is how we evaluate. Because the whole ministry of God, the whole ministry of the church is founded on this. Act 6:4 "The apostle said we are going to devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word." We're going to devote ourselves to prayer. That's the worship service. That's the ordinance of worship. The worship guide for the anchoring church is called the book of common prayer. It's not just praying to God. It's the whole worship experience of the congregation. And then the word of God, which is the ministry of preaching the word and teaching the word of God. That's what the church depends on. That is our life source, it nourishes and it strengthens. And we need to unabashedly speak the word of God because that's where life is even if our audience doesn't like it. Do we fear God more than men, than people? And actually, this is what Malachi says in verse eight and nine. This was the problem with the priest. They feared people more than they feared God, "But you have turned aside from the way, you have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says the LORD of hosts. "And so I make you despised and abased before all the people inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction." What's the issue here? The issue is that for a price, the priest told the people whatever they wanted to hear, the ministry of the word was being bought. In this case, the priests were overlooking clear disobedience in the community and the people are offering substandard sacrifice and the priest said, "Oh, that's fine." Micah spoke against this in chapter three, verse 11, of Micah. Its heads give judgment for a bribe. Its priests teach for a price. Its prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean on the Lord and say, "Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us." Priests are teaching for a price. I'll teach what you want to hear as long as you keep paying my salary, that's what was going on. And the priests are, "If we demand from people exactly what God demands from the people, the people are going to get offended, they're going to leave. Then we need to make the message a little more palatable. So people show up so that people give so that we have a livelihood." This has always been a temptation in the church. Samuel Butler in the 17th century wrote a little poem about it. And he says, "What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About 200 pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? 200 more. You want to know the truth? Pay me 200 pounds a year. You don't like it. Pay me another 200 pounds a year. That's what was going on. Does any of that go on today? Yeah. Look at the religious landscape of Boston. 99% of churches that have buildings today, that's what they do. They don't preach the gospel, but they have an endowment that allows them to just not preach the gospel. And I knew early on in the ministry, I knew this was the thing. And practically I made a decision, I don't know who gives what to the church. The only person I know that gives any money, how much? Is my wife and I. We know exactly how much we give. And I will preach whatever the truth of the gospel is, no matter what. And this gig doesn't work out. It's okay. I've got crazy painting skills. I'll go paint houses with my dad, no, no big deal. And you're like, "Okay, that's the pastor's house, how does it apply to us?" Are you willing to stand up for your faith publicly? Are you willing to tell people in your life; colleagues, students, neighbors, roommates, that you love Jesus Christ, that you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. Specific sins, particular sins, sexual sins, lust, pride, whatever, specific sins. Do you believe that God ordained before the foundation of the world people to salvation that God has an order of this is gender? This is marriage. This is what it means to raise a family? Are you willing to stand up and say, "Yes, I am a Christian." Do you fear God more than you fear people? What they said about Jesus, Luke 20:21. So they asked him, "Teacher we know that you speak and teach regularly and show no partiality but truly teach the way of God." We Mosaic we want to do God's work God's way which is all in line with God's word, whatever that word is. Now, Malachi gets really specific. He set that foundation. "Do we honor God, revere God, do we honor his word? And are we willing to teach it and live it both at the same time?" And he has two prime examples that get really intimate, and where he goes is marriage, marriage, and sexuality. So is point two, don't marry pagans. So he set that foundation in the verses 10 through 12, he says this, "Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah has been faithless; and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god." May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob, any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts. So one of the issues that he gets really particular with, but specifically, the priest started allowing marriage to pagans. And they started even doing it themselves. Why? Because people came to them and said, "How dare you priests tell us whom to marry?" There's my God box. And then there's my marriage box. It's this hermetically sealed compartmentalization that happens when there's a cognitive dissonance where people want the sin and don't want God to intrude. So Malachi comes in and says, "Actually it is God's business whom you marry." If you're a child of God, that's why he starts with, "Have we not one father?" Pure child of God, then God expects obedience and as a father, a loving father, yes, God gets to have a say in whom you marry, the father gets a say in the child's choice of a marriage partner, because God loves you. And what does God say here? "Whom does God want these people to marry? There's basically one condition, it's that they love God, that they're Christians, that they're saved, that the regenerated, that they do not worship as verse 11 says, "A foreign God." And so the issue here is not racial intermarriage and it's not ethnic intermarriage. And we see a lot of examples of people from other races who came to the people of Israel, Rahab, Ruth, Abigail, but they were converted, they repent of their sins, became believers in the Lord. So the question is spiritual intermarriage, and he uses the word abomination here. This isn't just a little mistake. This isn't just a matter of options. An abomination, a word that's used for idolatry, witchcraft, and sacrificing children. This is a big deal. And we see that this is a problem all throughout the Old Testament, also in the New Testament. And why was this an issue in during this time of the people of God when Malachi came to speak? Well, because it's been centuries from the time where Moses said, "Do not intermarry with people of other faiths." Centuries have passed. And now at the time of Malachi that people say, that's antiquated. That's regressive. Why does God care whom I marry? No, no, no, my God doesn't do that. It's too restrictive. We shouldn't take it seriously. We shouldn't take it literally. It's inapplicable in the modern-day. The objection is, well, God doesn't care about whom I marry, he just cares about my heart. Because God cares about your heart. He cares about whom you marry. God demands that we love him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. And how can we give our heart that's committed to God fully to a person that doesn't love God fully? If we have a covenant with God, how can we make a covenant with a person that doesn't love God the same? This is a problem all throughout the Old Testament, all throughout the New Testament. It begins with Genesis 6 where Satan's ploy to take down humanity is spiritual intermarriage, and that actually leads to the flood. In Genesis 24, Abraham makes his servant swear, "Please don't let Isaac, my son marry a Canaanite who worships a foreign God." So Isaac marries Rebecca and then they have two kids, Jacob and Esau. Esau marries two unbelieving wives that brought grief to both Isaac and Rebecca. Jacob marries a believer, but his daughter, Dina is involved with Canaanite men. Those men then invite Jacob's other children to intermarry with them. Jacob's son, Judah marries a Canaanite woman, begins to live like them, and to protect Abraham's descendants so that Jesus could come from this line because God promised to Abraham, God sovereignly takes Joseph out of that land so that he doesn't marry a Canaanite. And that leads to 400 years in Egypt. God then leads them out. In Deuteronomy 7:3-4, God speaks through Moses to the people of God and says, "You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to your sons or taking your daughters for your sons for they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you. And he would destroy you quickly." Why is this such a big deal? Because Satan knows the way that your faith flourishes if you love God. So if he can pull your heart away from God, when you love a person who competes with your affection for the Lord, and that person then pulls you away. And this was really the strategy of Balaam. If you study the false prophet, Balaam is hired by King Balak who was the King of Moab. Balak says, please curse the people of God. There's so many, they're going to take over. Please curse them. He tries multiple occasions, the curse but he can't because God already blessed them. So then Balaam comes up with a plan. He said, "I can't curse them, but get them to intermarry with Moabite women. And that will destroy their faith. And they will destroy their reverence and honor to the Lord." And we see this ploy by Satan continued. Samson, the strongest man gets taken out through the same tactics. Solomon, his heart gets pulled away from God because of all his wives who worshiped other gods. Ahab with Jezebel, and after captivity, Ezra comes in back to the land with Nehemiah and they see the same thing going on. In the new Testament. Saint Paul says, "Marriage in the Lord. That's the only requirement, that you love the Lord." And 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial, it's a false idol? And what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols for? For we are the temple of the living God. In 1 Corinthians 7:12-16, Saint Paul tells people who are married to unbelievers, how to continue the relationship. When he says, "Just love them in the Lord. If you're married to an unbeliever, love them in the Lord. Witness to them, reflect Christ to them." But he's not endorsing entering such a marriage, he's giving to those who become believers after. Why? Why is this important? Because this is what we talked about in the very beginning. Does God get to be God over every aspect of your life? From the smallest to the greatest to the most impactful, is God the most important person in your life? If so, how can you entertain the thought of committing to make a person the most important person in your life who doesn't view God as the most important? Doesn't love the Lord, doesn't reference his word, and plan according to his will. But we love each other. That's the objection we hear. But we love each other. How can I say no to my feelings? Does God get to be God over your feelings? Yeah, he does. And when God speaks and says, "No, that feeling is wrong." You need to change that feeling, by the power of the spirit of that can happen. It's a question of obedience or disobedience. I've heard, but I've prayed and I feel like this is God's will, "No it's not God's will because God will never contradict what he's already said. It's not God's will." So if you, Christian are dating right now an unbeliever, you need to break up with them. Completely break up with them. "We're no longer dating." "Why?" "Because God said this is wrong." If you really love him, this is what you do. If you really love God, that's what... But I'm witnessing to them? You can witness to them without having to date them. Bring them to church and you're sitting six-feet-apart, praise God. It's not on you to save them. Tell them about Jesus. God's sovereign. If he saves them, tremendous. Then you can get married. Praise God. So are you willing to honor God there? And this is very important decision that you can make even prior to, so if you're dating. And then if you are hoping to get married, pursuing marriage, praying about marriage, your options are believers. And I understand that as Boston is limited. I understand all that, but we believe in a God of miracles. So just keep praying. And by the way, I'll just say, it's not that big of a deal. Marriage isn't that big of a deal. My wife's not here at the service, so I can say that. It's not that big of a deal. Saint Paul says in 1 Corinthians, he says, "If you're married, okay, great. If you're doing business, okay, great. What really matters ultimately is that you love God that you're satisfied in him. That's the most important relationship. So that's number one. Number two if you do get married still, you get to a place where you together are worshiping the Lord. So you can worship the Lord when you're married. That's the point there. Point three is fight for marital faithfulness. If you do get married, you fight for marital faithfulness as decreed by God. And this is Malachi 2:13-16. So one of the issues that the priests were allowing and actually participating themselves, they were marrying unbelievers. And then the second issue was once they got married, even to believers after a while, they're like, "Ah, we're not in love anymore." And they would pursue divorce. So Malachi speaks in verse 13. And this second thing you do, you cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping, with groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, why does he not? So the people were like "We're worshiping God, we're asking for his blessings. He's not blessing us." There's a lot of emotion here. And God doesn't seem to be hearing their emotion. Well, because God doesn't bless a lifestyle that he has already rebuked in his law. But you say, why does he not? Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless. Though she is your companion and your wife by covenant, did he not make them one with a portion of the spirit in their union? And what was the one God's seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth, "for the man who does not love his wife but divorces her," says the Lord, "the God of Israel covers his garments with violence," the LORD of hosts. "So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless." So verse 13, the second thing you do that God sees and God does not honor is displeased with, you cover the Lord's altar with tears. That you are showing a lot of emotion. God's not blessing. That's verse 14 because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, same word that was used talking about intermarriage. Again, faithless talking about a lack of fidelity to God, which leads to a lack of fidelity in the marriage. And what's being forbidden here is not divorce in general. It's aversion divorce, divorce because of dislike. In the old Testament divorces permitted for a sexual infidelity, in the New Testament scripture also adds the desertion when an unbeliever desserts a believer, divorce is allowed. But the divorce that he's talking about here is neither of those. He's talking about divorce because they just fell out of love. And he emphasizes here, "No, no, you've made a covenant with the wife of your youth. She is your companion, your best friend." That's what marriage is at the heart of it. It's a friendship, husband and wife companions, best friends. And there's a covenant. That's the word that's used. A covenant is not a contract. A contract is if I fulfill my end of a bargain and you fulfill your end of the bargain and we keep the contract. If not, the contract is broken, a covenant is a lifelong commitment from the perspective of scripture. The Hebrew word for companion, since the covenant is being knit or joined together, pointing to the closest to the relationship. Verse 15, did he not make them one, husband, wife? And we see this from Genesis 2, Adam wakes up and he says, "You're bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, you're blood of my blood, we're the same blood, we're family." Marriage makes family and family is from God's perspective, family's to be permanent. So as asinine, as crazy, as ludicrous as it is to say to my kids, "I am going to abandon you, I am going to divorce you." From God's perspective, that's the same level. Marriage is permanent. And Jesus in Matthew 19, points to Genesis 2 and says, "Yes, that was intended from the very beginning. And Malachi looks at divorce from the perspective of Genesis 2, but then also from the perspective of children. "With a portion of the spirit and the unions of God makes them one with the Holy Spirit." And what was the one God seeking? So God has a purpose in our marriage and a purpose that transcends our feelings or fulfillment or satisfaction. And the purpose is godly offspring. He attacks the sin from the perspective of children because this decision of marriage is where children are influenced to understand God, who God is. And they understand what family is. And our marriage are to be gospel presentations to our children and to the world. And our families are to be gospel presentations that God does not abandon his children. Jesus Christ loves his bride and doesn't divorce her. So from God's perspective, he says, "It's not just about your feelings, not about your desires. It's not about your satisfaction." How does this impact your children from a generational perspective? So this is why you don't marry an unbeliever because God's desire is Godly offspring. And this is why you work at staying married. He says, "Guard yourselves in the spirit, protect yourselves, because God cares not just about this relationship, but generationally speaking. My wife and I were talking about this. And she's like, "What are you preaching on?" I was like, "The fact that God tells me to love you." And she's like, "Why does God have to tell you to love me?" She doesn't come to the service. I can be a little more honest. It's kind of a catch 22. So my answer was, "You know exactly why? Because God tells you the same thing." There are times where you're married even if you don't like each other, just like there are times when you are still caring for your kids. There are times where I don't like my kids, there are. And you do it because God tells you, that's the reason why God's telling you because he has to tell you because there's flesh and sinful desire and all of this. So when we view marriage as just something romantic and then when the romance is gone and then we ... No, it's, it's a matter of obedience. Love is a choice. Love is a commitment. And by the way, there's also times when I don't like myself and you don't like yourself, and it's not like you get divorced from yourself. You still like, "We're in this together, me and myself." Where you just keep going. C. S. Lewis has this great definition of love in Mere Christianity. He says, "Love as distinct from being in love is not merely a feeling. It's a deep unity maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit, reinforce in Christian marriages, the grace, which both partners ask and receive from God. They can have this love for each other, even at those moments when they do not like each other, as you love yourself when you do not like yourself." So from God's perspective, we need to understand that marriage isn't about us. Marriage is so much more. It's to be a picture, a sign of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And God has plans for our marriage, for our families that are so much more than just ourselves. In Malachi 2:16 "For the man who does not love his wife but divorces," says the Lord, "the God of Israel covers his garment with violence," says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless. Twice he says, this isn't for me. This is from the Lord. Why does he do that? Because people don't like to be told what to do. In particular, in the most intimate parts of life. Did God really say? That's the first temptation in the garden? Yes, he did. And here he talks about the man that does see divorce. He covers his garment with violence. What's he talking about? It's referring to the Hebrew custom of a man when he proposed, he would cover the woman with his garment, draping and over her as a picture of protective care and provision. I'm devoting myself to care for you. And he says, "When you divorce, it's like yanking off that protective covering." And the idea here is that the husband is the head of the wife called to tenderly, nourish, cherish, and protect her as his own body. The Bible doesn't command men to be the head of the wife. It's an inescapable fact. The question is, what kind of head of the household are we husbands? Are we faithful and diligent and effective, or we passive inattentive and ineffective? And it's not that we Lord over. And we don't King over our wives. We shepherd. We are under-shepherds under Jesus Christ. We follow Jesus Christ. So we, as the shepherds, we know where we're going because we're following Christ, we're leading by example. And we're involved, responsible, protecting, providing, instructing, and correcting. And so here, this is a word of the Lord for spouses, for our marriages. What's the marriage secret technique that God gives us here? Is guard your spirits. Guard your spirit do not be faithless. Guard your spirit don't be faithless, the word guard here means to fight, fight the good fight of faith that has to do with loving God, our relationship with God. And also, our relationship with our spouse with our family, it is a fight. We have an enemy in Satan, we have an enemy in our flesh. We have an enemy in the world. It is a fight. So we fight indifference, halfheartedness, passivity, and we fight it by looking to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ does not compartmentalize his faith. Everything he did was for the glory of God, everything. He loves people. He loved God. He loved his bride, which is the church. And he gave himself for her. Jesus Christ, the good shepherd laid his life down for the sheep. But he's also the lamb of God who went to the cross as a sacrifice for our sin. A lamb that was led to the slaughter. He was faithful even when we were faithless. And on the cross, Jesus gave his best. God gave his best to us. And God's best on the cross, God's son. This lamb of God that took away the sins of the world. He became sin. He became that offering, the part of that offering the dung, that was supposed to be brought outside the city. Jesus was brought outside the city in a sense, he became our sin so that we might receive the righteousness of God. That's how we see how much Jesus loves, how much God loves us. And when we see that it fills our heart with love. He fought for us, we are to do the same. He sacrificed for us, we are to do the same for him, for our spouses, for our children, for our church. Why? Because Jesus Christ paid it all, and all to Him I owe. So if you're not a believer, we welcome you to become a believer today in God. We welcome you to repent of sin and turn to Jesus Christ and give your life over to him. And if you are a believer and you're seeing yourself indifference, lackadaisical of spirit and following the Lord, come repent, receive grace. Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for this time. The Holy Scriptures, what an incredible book, the book of Malachi is. And we thank you, Lord, that you are faithful even when we are faithless. And we do repent that often we remove you from the centrality in our lives. And we put ourselves on the throne of our lives. We repent of that. And we ask that you come, you cleanse us. And that you also feel the Holy Spirit to empower us to live lives of righteousness, lives that honor you, lives that revere you, not just the name. And we pray this in Christ's Name. Amen.
Refiner's Fire: Week 1
November 1, 2020 • Malachi 1
Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com. We'd love to connect with you. We do that through the connection card, either the physical connection card or the one that you can get online or in the app. With that said, would you pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy word? Lord, we come to you with humble and grateful hearts for the fact that you, the God of the universe did not reject us when we rebelled against you. Instead, you chose to pour out your love upon us. You chose to extend mercy to us and grace. Lord, we take a moment now to repent of the fact that we take your love for granted, we take your acceptance for granted, we take a relationship with you for granted. Lord, we repent of the fact that often we are bored in our relationship with you. We are apathetic toward you. I pray today, Lord, send a fire of affection, a fire of zeal into our hearts today. With that fire, burn off the draws of indifference and apathy and stir our hearts to love you like never before. Deepen our relationship with you. Deepen our understanding of what it means to be a child of God adopted into your family through the sacrifice of our older brother, Jesus Christ. Who came and did absolutely everything that was required by your law, and then died on a cross bearing the weight of our sin, bearing the wrath that we deserve for our law breaking. Holy spirit, come now into this place, come now and fill our hearts. Continue to lead us, continue to guide us, continue to fill us. We thank you for the Holy scriptures. I pray that you take these words that you have given us, help us understand them, and I pray that they go deeper than the mind and into the heart and transform the will. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. We're starting a new sermon series today through the book of Malachi which is at the very center of scripture, so to speak. In that, this book is at the end of the Old Testament, and it's right before the New Testament. We are going to spend four weeks in the book of Malachi covering the four chapters. That's going to lead us immediately into the beginning of Matthew. We'll cover Malachi chapters, one, two, three, and four. Then that leads us into advent with Matthew chapter one and two. The title of the sermon today is eternal love. I'm praying the Lord helps us understand his love for us. If you haven't heard, this is a big week in the United States. If you haven't heard, the election is this week. This election has been called the most important, the most monumental, the most consequential election of our lifetime, maybe. Today I want to talk about election, but a more important, more consequential, more monumental election. Today I want to talk about God's sovereign election of people, of us, of believers before the foundation of the world. I want to talk about his love that's a divine love, a sovereign love, an eternal love, a particular love and an electing love. The word Malachi, Malachi of the prophet, Malachi just means my messenger. God has a message for his people. It's the final message given to the people of God, the people of Israel before 400 years of silence before John the Baptizer comes as the prophet preceding, preparing the way for Christ. It's the final instructions. The context is that Israel has been brought back from Babylon. They've been in the promised land for about 100, 120 years. They've rebuilt the temple during the years of Ezra. Nehemiah has come in and rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. As they're rebuilding, they're getting back to worshiping God, to the religious rituals. They're getting back to what it meant to have a relationship with God. On the outside, everything looks great. But on the inside, there's corruption and God sends Malachi to the people of God with the question, how are you doing spiritually? How are you doing deep inside? How's your relationship with the Lord? Their very first answer is, we're fine. We're doing well. Then Malachi in a very systematic way unfolds where they have fallen short of worshiping God, giving Him the worship that He deserves. Malachi is bringing to them a message that's hard. It's hard to hear. God, through Malachi, is confronting their apathy, their indifference to God. They're going through the motions, but their heart is far from God. God speaks through Malachi. 47 to 55 verses are God speaking directly to the people of God. God's goal is to wake them up from this indifference, apathy, numbness, desensitization that they're feeling toward God and get them to a place where they reposition their lives to live lives that God delights to bless. What's fascinating about the book of Malachi is it ends with a warning. The last word of the book is destruction or curse. It's the only of the prophetic books that ends in such a manner. It ends this way because before us is a choice, is a decision. Do we want a blessing or do we want a curse? The instructions are given here to live lives that God loves to bless, lives honorable to God. Today we're in Malachi Chapter 1. We'll cover the whole chapter. Would you look at the text with me, Malachi Chapter 1? The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. "I have loved you." Says the Lord. But you say, "How have you loved us? Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" Declares the Lord, "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I've hated. I've laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." If Edom says, "We are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins." The Lord of hosts says, "They may build, but I will tear down and they will be called the wicked country and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever. Your own eyes shall see this and you shall say, great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel. A son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my fear?" Says the Lord of hosts to you, priests who despise my name. But you say, "How have we despised your name?" By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, "How have we polluted you?" By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. "When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? When you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor, will he accept you or show you favor?" Says the Lord of hosts. "Now entreat the favor of God that He may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will He show favor to any of you?" Says the Lord of hosts. "That there were one among you who would shut the doors that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you." Says the Lord of hosts "and I will not accept an offering from your hand. For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations and in every place, incense will be offered to my name and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations." Says the Lord of hosts. But you profane it. When you say that the Lord's table is polluted and it's fruit, that is, it's food may be despised. But you say, "What a weariness this is?" You snort at it, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts. "You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering? Shall I accept that from your hand?" Says the Lord. "Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock and vows it and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King ..." says the Lord of hosts, "and my name will be feared among the nations." This the reading of God's Holy inherent and infallible, authoritative word. May you write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Two points to frame our time together. First, we'll talk about the spiritual diagnosis as given by Malachi, which is apathy. Then the spiritual medicine, which is election. First, the spiritual diagnosis, apathy. Malachi 1:1 says, the oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. The word oracle here means burden. It means something that God has given to him, it's heavy on his shoulders. He's bringing it and not because he wants to, but because he has to. Jeremiah talks about a word that God puts into his bones that's like a fire in his bones, not to be trifled with, not to be changed, not to be disregarded or played with. Half the verses and the texts have something to say along the lines of, thus says the Lord or says the Lord or says the Lord almighty. It's not just the word about God, it's the word from God. A word to instill in us trepidation before the holiness of God, the judgment of God, the eternal condemnation of God. It's a burden to be delivered to whom? This is fascinating. It's not just the pagans, it's not to people who don't know anything about God or the word of God or things of God. It's people who love God. It's people who are raised in the faith. People who knew about the faith, the Old Testament covenant. They knew this from infancy. Because they've known it from infancy, they have grown indifferent to it. When God started a relationship with the people of Israel, it's a relationship that he compared to marriage. It's a covenant relationship. He chose to pour out his love on Israel. Now it's grown tepid. It's grown lukewarm. There's a passion leak that happened along the way. It's become a functional relationship. Almost like a functional marriage where you stay together just because of the kids or you stay together because you've been together for so long. It's a functional relationship with the Lord. God comes to them, and the very first thing that He says is, "I love you." Their response is a lukewarm, "Well, how do we know that he loves us?" The reason why he starts there is because they've lost the fire of love toward God. They've grown apathetic toward God. Spiritual apathy is something that every single believer, every single Christian needs to watch out for. But it's so sinister because it's hard to watch out for it. It doesn't come out of nowhere. It creeps in and we grow apathetic by degree. It's like the parable about the frog. How do you boil a frog alive? You throw it into cool water and then just warm up the water, warm up the water until it boils. That's how apathy works in our heart. No one starts off in a relationship with apathy. No one starts out with a relationship with God apathetically. It sneaks in. Sneaks in perhaps because we had expectations that were not met by God. "God, why did you allow this to happen?" That's what happened in Israel. They came back. The temple was rebuilt, but it was just a shadow of itself. Only 100,000 Jewish believers returned when they were a nation of millions. They come back and they said, "Does God really love us? It seems like the nations around us are prospering more than we do." It's hard to spot spiritual apathy in us, but the telltale sign of spiritual apathy is self-justification. I feel this. This is my reality. This is my experience, and I am right to feel this. If my relationship with God is not more passionate, then it's not on me. It's actually on Him. If God wants me to feel different about Him, He should've given me a lot in life, given me a different hand to play. God should have given me the things that I thought He would give me. Then I'd feel better about Him. That's what we see in this text. God comes to them. God wants to show them how apathetic they are to Him, and their reaction was self-justification. Meaning, we have a reason to feel this. Nine times in the scriptures, God is attempting to have a conversation with them. We see the phrase, but you say. Malachi 1:2, "I have loved you ..." says the Lord, "but you say ..." But the people of Israel, this is their response. "How have you loved us." Assumption, you haven't loved us. You haven't showing your love to us. Malachi 1:6B, priests who despise my name. But you say, "How have we despised your name?" God's saying, "You're hating." "How have we hated you?" Malachi 1:7, "By offering polluted food upon my altar." But you say, "How have we polluted you?" Malachi 1:13, but you say, "What a weariness this is? You snort at it." Says the Lord of hosts. God says, "I want a relationship with you. I want to bless you." They said, "But it's so boring to follow you. What a weariness it is." Malachi 2:13-14, He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, "Why does He not?" They're blame shifting. God is saying, "You're bringing offerings that's your leftovers, your second best to the Lord." They said, "But that's on God. That's God's fault that He isn't accepting what we're bringing Him." The same thing that Cain did. Malachi 2:17, You have wearied the Lord with your words, but you say, "How have we wearied him?" Malachi 3:7, "Return to me and I will return to you." Says the Lord of hosts. But you say, "How shall we return?" Malachi 3:8, will man rob God? You are robbing me. But you say, "How have we robbed you?" Malachi 3:13, "Your words have been hard against me." Says the Lord. But you say, "How have we spoken against you?" God is saying, "You've offended me." "How have we offended you Lord?" It's a hard-hearted reaction to God. Instead of repenting, they are self-justifying. The worst part, isn't just the indifference, it's the response to the person. How great is the person's God and God's love in which is an incredible love. Malachi 1:2, God comes. The very first words on the lips of God in this book are, "I have loved you." In Hebrew, it's not just, "I have loved you in the past." But, "I have loved you with such a great love and I continue to love you despite everything." Their response to that is shocking. But you say, "How have you loved us?" The response is, "We don't feel loved God. It's your fault that we don't feel loved." "I love you." But we don't feel loved. You're not doing enough to show us that you love us. What would warrant such a response? Part of it is, they're so focused on their situation. There is financial, political, relationship turmoil in their lives. God comes to them and says, "I love you." They say, "That's nice, but what have you done for me lately? What about my bills? What about my relationships? What about our health? What about my housing? My prospects, my past, present and future." You can tell from their responses, they're dead inside. They're callous. They're numb toward God. The word apathetic comes from the Greek apatheia, which means no feeling. They don't feel anything toward God. There's a dryness. There's a stupor. There's a senselessness. There's a boredom. That's what Malachi 1:13, their response is, "What a weariness this is? God, we're bored with religion. We're bored of the things of God. We're bored with the word of God. We're bored with God." If you're a parent and if you have kids, you've had this and it happens all the time. My kids come to me and are like, "Dad, I'm bored. I am so ..." Especially over quarantine it's like, "I am so bored. There's nothing to do. There's nothing to wear. There's no place to go. There's nothing to eat." Nothing to eat, always that comes after mom makes soup. They look at it and they say, "There's nothing to eat." Which is the biggest slap in the face to a parent. It's like ... My response is, "You should be lucky you're here. You're welcome. I have gifted you with existence. You're bored and partially because you're not doing anything. Go wash the dishes. Vacuum the car. Go do something." That's part of it. But the other, then you start to analyze what's going on in their heart. What's going on in their heart is, they think that you exist for them, that you, parent, exist to entertain them. They're at the center of the universe. "Mom, dad do everything that I demand. I am bored." That's what Israel is doing. I'm bored with you, God. You're not doing enough to meet our needs, to meet our demands. Now you see that really the core issue of this boredom, of this apathy, of this indifference is pride. That God, you exist for us and you're not doing enough for us. Why do they say that? Because they're focused on their circumstances. So focused on their situation, their financial situation, their health situation, their relational situation. Whenever we get too focused on our situation, too focused on ourselves, no matter how wonderful you are, no matter how wonderful your situation is, no matter how much you accomplish, no matter how prosperous your life, you will always get to a point where you get bored with you. If you're focused on you, you will always get bored with you because you are not enough to satisfy you. We have infinite souls, we have eternal souls and we need something greater than ourselves to live for. We need a greater purpose than ourselves to live for. When we're stuck on focusing on the day-to-day, the situation, and we lose sight of God's purpose for our life, God's plans for our life, we can't be bored. If God had so loved Israel, they're asking, "Why aren't we the blessed nation that we were supposed to be, that we were? We have no army to protect ourselves. We're still under the Persian King. Why is life so difficult?" Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. This indifference then leads to very raw, very dead, very dry religion. A religion that has no heart in it. They bring God their leftovers. They're hedging their bets when it comes to God. That's Malachi 1:6 and 7. God says, "A son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I'm a father, where's my honor? If I'm a master, where is my fear?" Says the Lord of hosts. "Priests who despise my name." But you say, "How have we despised your name?" By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, "How have we polluted you?" By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. It starts with, God speaks to the people of God, "You're indifferent to me. How have we loved you?" Then God turns His attention to speaking to the clergy, to the priest, to the pastors. He's saying, "You have not taught the people well. You haven't taught about fearing God and honoring God and worshiping God because He's worthy of worship." They step back and they say, "How have we hated you? We haven't hated you. We haven't despised you." Then Malachi explains, this is how. Verses eight and nine, when you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil? When you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? "Present that to your governor, will he accept you or show you favor?" Says the Lord of hosts. "Now entreat the favor of God that He may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will He show favor to any of you?" Says the Lord of hosts. He said, "This is how you have hated me. This is how you've despised me, how you've defamed my name. You've given me leftovers. Try bringing the offerings that you bring me to your governor, to the politicians who are in charge of you. Let's see if they accept that offer." What he's talking about is the sacrificial system that God had instated in Israel. This is how you worship God, by bringing Him your best. God said, through the law, that the people, if they wanted to worship God, they had to bring their first fruits. They had to bring their firstborn of the flock and the most excellent of one's property. God wanted to show that true love always had to do a sacrifice and obedience. This is a real test of faith. They brought animals from their flock, the best animals. The best animals were the best breeding stock. By bringing God your best on an annual basis, you know that you are diminishing your breeding stock. The animals that are coming now from your secondary best are not going to be as good as the animals that came from your first best. It was really a test of faith. I'm going to bring God my best, the best stock, knowing that my obedience of God is going to put me in a place of blessing and prosperity that is diametrically opposed to the world's path to prosperity. Now, God is speaking to priests here because priests got to a point where they said, "We see lethargy in the people. We see indifference in the people. We can't demand absolute obedience from the people because the people will stop showing up. If we demand the absolute best from the people, the people will stop offering anything. We're going to lower the barrier of obedience and tell people, you know what, it's all going to go up in smoke anyway. Let's just be good stewards. You don't have to bring your best, bring your secondary best. Bring the blind animals or the maimed animals or the blemished animals. The ones that you can't sell at the market. At least bring something." They realized that the spiritual temperature of the people was so low that if they demand the best, then they get nothing. They're more worried about themselves and they're more worried about offending people and losing potential income from the church than anything else. God goes to them and says, "You're so worried about offending people that you forgot that you are offending me. I demand the best." That's what God is saying. Mediocrity, I reject that. Half-hearted worship, I reject that. Begrudging worship, I reject that. How does this apply to us today? I have pastor friends in the city, whenever we meet with one another for mutual edification. One of the things that we always talk about, and especially now during the pandemic, is how's attendance at church? How are the numbers at church, et cetera, et cetera? As a minister of the gospel, I've been in the ministry for 11 plus years now. I've read all the church growth books and I know what we can do to grow the church. I know it. There's things that you can do, levers that you can pull to get people in the door. There's things that if numbers were all that mattered, if getting people in the door is all that mattered, there's things that I would do and there's things that I would not do. One of the first things that I would not do, first of all, I would stop preaching about spiritual indifference and apathy. I wouldn't talk about that. I wouldn't talk about sin. I wouldn't talk about obedience. I wouldn't talk about giving God your absolute best. I wouldn't talk about the holiness of God, the judgment of God, the condemnation of God. I wouldn't talk about eternal hell. I wouldn't talk about God's damnation, God's wrath. I wouldn't talk about any of that. I would just talk about God who exists to love you and bless you and protect you. God who is like an enhancement. God who like fairy dust God or Santa Claus God. He just wants to make your life better. Come to Him. He loves you. He loves you the way you are. You can keep living the way you are. Just show up on Sundays. Give God your lip service. Give God a tip and just go and enjoy life the way you want to live it. By the way, a lot of churches do this. What they say is, "Well, we don't want to offend anybody. We want to make a relationship with God more palatable. We want to lower the entry, the on-ramp. We want just to make people's lives better. That's why we preach keys and techniques, and this is five, six, seven steps, 11 steps of how you can live a blessed life. God says, "I'd rather you just ... Instead of making it less off-putting, instead of making it more palatable, instead of making the faith accessible, instead of accommodating people, I'd rather you just close up shop. I'd rather no worship than mediocre worship." That's what he says in verse 10. "That there were one among you who would shut the doors. I'd rather someone show up and just close up the church, close up the temple that you might not kindle fire in my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you." Says the Lord of hosts, "and I will not accept an offering from your hand." He said, "Priests, you've made the faith about the people. You've removed God. By doing so, you've dishonored God." This is why God writes this word to them. He says, "Look, unless you change, there will be an absence of the presence of God." Lukewarm is not better than nothing. Mediocre worship is not better than nothing. God doesn't want that. What does God say? How do we rekindle our hearts, rekindle our affections for God? This is point two, the spiritual medicine to our apathy is God's sovereign election. The solution to our spiritual apathy is deepening our understanding of God's love for us. That God is sovereign in choosing people to salvation before the foundation of the world, just because He chooses so. He chooses people not based on anything they had done, not based on anything that they will do, but just because that's His sovereign choice. One thing I will mention here in the very beginning, is we're not reading Calvin. A lot of people say, "This is Calvinism. That's one person's interpretation" We're not reading Calvin here. We're reading the scriptures. We're going to read some scriptures from St. Paul. We're going to read scriptures from Jesus Christ. It's in the scripture. It's everywhere in the scripture that God's sovereign election of salvation is taught throughout the scripture. That's number one. Number two, I grew up in a church that did not teach election. It did not teach predestination when it comes to salvation. I only heard about this for the first ... I actually heard about this for the first time in my early 20s, as I started studying scripture, as I started studying theology. I went back to my dad, who was an elder at the church I grew up in, and I asked him like, "Hey, why wasn't this ever taught?" He said, "We didn't really want to offend people. We didn't think it was that useful." It's like theology for people who want to deepen their knowledge of the scripture. But there's a reason why God talks about it. He talks about it often. He talks about not just for people who want to study this with their brains, but He talks about this in a way that's very helpful to our daily walk with the Lord. Then I realized that the people who did teach, the churches that did teach election predestination are churches that preached scripture. By scripture, I mean not just topical sermons where we're going to preach whatever we want on any given day. It's churches that preached books of the Bible. Verse by verse, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter so that you can't skip the things that are not as palatable to people. That's it. Then I started studying the church history. In church history, I realized that the world's greatest minds, the world's greatest Christian minds all believe this. They didn't believe, they loved the doctrines of election predestination. Augusta and Aquinas, the magisterial reformers, Luther. How was your Reformation Day yesterday? We celebrated Reformation Day or Reformation Day anyone? You dressed up your kids as Luther, as Calvin, as Zwingli and got them some candy. Yesterday was Reformation Day. 1517, October 31st Martin Luther goes and he takes 95 Theses and nails it to the door of the church in Wittenberg to reform the Catholic Church. You've got Luther, you've got Calvin, you've got Knox, you've got Zwingli, you've got Bucer, you've got Bullinger. Those who later then sought to bring the reformation to the Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest minds in the history of the world. Then the Puritans, John Owen, John Bunyan. The great awakening was led by Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, John Newton, Richard Cecil Augustus Toplady. The greatest missionaries Livingstone, Carey, Martyn, Morrison, Patton, William Burns. The greatest preachers Spurgeon and Martin Lloyd Jones. They loved the doctrines of grace, of sovereign grace. Because to understand sovereign grace is to begin to understand the depth of God's love for us. That's why when God talks about, "I've loved you." They say, "How have you loved us?" This is Malachi 1:2-3, He then brings in the doctrine of election. "I've loved you." Says the Lord. But you say, "How have you loved us? Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" Declares the Lord. "Yet I've loved Jacob, but Esau I hated." "I love you." "How have you loved us?" "Let me tell you about Jacob and Esau. One guy, I love. The other guy, I hated." What's going on here? Then he goes into the two nations that descended from these two brothers. Now, Jacob and Esau, they weren't just brothers, they were twin brothers. It wasn't like Isaac and Ishmael where God chose Isaac and not Ishmael. They're brothers from different mothers. Here, it's two brothers, they're twins, same mother. Malachi 1:3-4, I've laid waste to his hill country and left his heritage to jackals or the desert. If Edom says, "We are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins." The Lord of hosts says, "They may build, but I will tear down and they will be called the wicked country and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever." Edom started with Esau and was an enemy of Israel always. They were never an ally of Israel. At no point in Israel's history were they friendly? As Israel was weakened in 7th century BC, Edom encroached and the people of God were asking, "Why are the Edomites taking over?" Et cetera, et cetera. There were enemies. As God is answering, "Why do I love you? Let me show you how much I loved you. I chose you." He's not just talking about nations. He's talking about Edomites as well. One of the things to know about the love, hate language here. God, isn't using this language in terms of human psychology. There's not a vindictive spirit. There's not a personal animosity. It's language in terms of the covenant. The covenant is, like a marriage covenant, there's a choice. In Deuteronomy actually 23:7, God told Israel, "You shall not abhor an Edomite for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian because you were a sojourner in his land." The language of love and hate is a language of choosing. Love is a choice. Within this general election of nations is a specific relationship that begins with individuals. God chose Abraham. "I'm going to bless you." Then from Abraham's children, Isaac and Ishmael, God chose Isaac over Ishmael. Then Isaac's sons, Jacob and Esau, God chose the younger, Jacob. God determined that the people of Israel would descend from Jacob, not from Esau. He loved them in a special way, in a particular way. A love that did not extend to Esau and to the Edomites. Why? Because there was something good in Jacob. There was something good in Israel. God actually emphasized. No, He chose Israel because they were the least ... Deuteronomy 7:6-8, for you are a people Holy to the Lord your God, the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It's not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord has set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of the people. But it is because the Lord loves you. He's keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of Israel, from the hand of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. "Why did I choose you?" God is saying. "Because I love you." That's it. This is kind of ... It's hard for us to understand because when someone loves me or loves you, you're usually like, "Yeah, because there's ... Good choice. You have great taste. I'm glad you love me." It's because there's something loving in us, of course. God is saying, "No, there was nothing lovely in you. The only reason why I chose you is because I chose you. The only reason why I chose you is because I love you." God did not base his choice in anything He foresaw in either Jacob or Esau. Rather God did it because God did it. In Romans 9:11-13, St. Paul expositive this text from Malachi. He says this, "Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue. Not because of works, but because of Him who calls." She was told, their mother, "The older shall serve the younger as it is written Jacob, I loved, but Esau I hated." Some people try to dodge the implications of this doctrine by saying, "Well, God chose Israel to serve him, not to save them." But Romans 9 clearly isn't just talking about nations. It's talking about individuals and salvation, personal salvation. Now why does Malachi begin with the doctrine of election? He begins with the doctrine of election to deepen our understanding of the vastness of the love of God for us. He says, "Your hearts are indifferent. The reason why they're indifferent is because do you do not understand God's love for you." God loves you so much that before the foundation of the world, before you were born, before you had done anything, your name was already written on His heart, graven on His hands. He, before anything was created, had chosen to love you, to pour out His mercy on you. The reason why it's given us to us here is to get us to this place of utter humility. Why am I a Christian? Because I believed, because I repented, because I studied, because I was faithful, because I read the apologizes, because I read the scripture? No. The reason why you're a believer and the only difference between you and an unbeliever is the sovereign choice. The sovereign grace of God. He chose to love you. That right there, I remember the first time I understood this in my early 20s, I realized I did not know God. I didn't know the love of God. I didn't know the greatness of God. The vastness of God. This is what it means that Jesus loves me? Yes. This is what it means that God poured out his grace on you? Yes. Not just that He forgives you of your sin, but because from the foundation of the world, He chose to save you. You have been saved, you are saved, you always will be saved. It has nothing to do with us, it has nothing to do with earning with good works. Actually Esau was probably the better guy. If you look at just their morality, Esau wasn't a deceiver like Jacob. Esau did get angry that Jacob stole his blessing, but then he got over it. He forgave. Both men were sinners, but God chose Jacob instead of Esau. At this point, the objection is, but that's not fair. The first thing that St. Paul deals with in Romans 9 is, well, what's your definition of fairness? Who decides what fairness is? Then in Romans 9:14-18, he deals a little more with that. Shall we say then is there injustice on God's part? Is it unfair? Is God not fair? By no means, for He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy on. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. Then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I've raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Then He has mercy on whomever He wills and He hardens whomever He wills. It's not fair. Then St. Paul says, "Well, what's not fair? Is it your mercy?" No. Whose mercy is it? It's God's mercy. Who gets to do ... Does God get to do with His mercy whatever God chooses? Yes, of course. Does God get to be God? Yes, of course. Was God unjust when He condemned Satan and all of the demons when they rebelled against Him? Was God unjust? No, of course not. He was absolutely just in condemning them. Was God not just when He did not provide a way for them to be reconciled with Him? No. They rebelled. They got judgment. God is glorified in judging as much as He is in giving mercy. The question isn't, why doesn't God save everybody? The question is, why does God save anybody at all? Why does anybody get any mercy whatsoever? God would have been perfectly just in condemning the entire human race. He doesn't owe anybody mercy. This is what God is telling the people of Israel, as He's telling us, we should be absolutely shocked, minds blown by the fact that God chooses to extend mercy to us. In Romans 9:19-24, St. Paul continues with the argument and he says, "You will say to me then, why does He still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and the other for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show His wrath and make known His power has endured with such patience vessels of wrath, prepared for destruction? In order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory. Even us whom He has called not from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. How can God hold anybody accountable if He chooses some and He doesn't choose others? That's really the question that he's asking. A very logical question. St. Paul's answers, God gets to be God. God is God. He is who He is. He decides what He wants to do with His mercy. It's not just a matter of standing. It's a matter of submitting. Here's how this applies to our ... If we're indifferent toward God's love, if we're numb inside, if there's a coldness toward God, we as believers need to ask the question, where would we be if it were not for the grace of God? Where would we be without the mercy of God if He didn't pour out His love on us? God is sovereign. He gets glory for judging people as much as He gets glory for saving people. That's why Malachi 1:5 after he says this, goes through the doctrine of election. He says, "Your own eyes shall see this and you shall say, great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel." The reason why he starts off with this in a context of their coldness in terms of worship, as he says, "Now is your worship commensurate? Is your response to God's love commensurate to the greatness and vastness of His love? How can we bring our second best to God, our leftovers to God?" How can we give Him the leftovers of our time, of our resource, of our money, of our energy? How can we be disobedient to God like this? He loved us with such a great love. Why isn't our response commensurate? That's why 1st Peter 2:9 and 10 says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for His own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of the darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. He says, "God's called you up. He's given you a purpose. He's given you a job to proclaim His glory and to extend His mercy to others." That's why it makes absolutely zero sense to be bored with God because He's such an amazing God. What a glorious God. He's called the God of hosts eight times, the Lord of armies. He commands all the armies, all the galaxies of the universe and this God chose us. Number one, what this should do to our hearts as Christians, it should melt our hearts with humility what a great God this is. Number two, it should comfort us. That no matter what happens in our lives, we are safe. We are saved. We are with Him. Then it should take our gaze off of our circumstances. When we see God's plan of salvation, it puts everything else into perspective. Then we should ask, okay, the people of God in the Old Testament, how does the Old Testament end? It ends with their sacrifices not being enough. It leads us to ask the question, Lord, well, what is enough? What can we offer you that is enough to reconcile us with you? The answer is, there's nothing. There's nothing that we can do. There's nothing that we can offer to finally be reconciled with God. It leads us to this place of hopelessness unless we see the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, Jesus Christ is shown up in the offering system that the people of God would bring offerings to God for a temporary absolution of their sins. Which is a sign of a need for a greater sacrifice, which is Christ. In the book of Malachi, the people would bring their secondary best. Jesus Christ comes and He gives Himself. His very best, God the father gives His son to die on the cross for our sins. In Malachi, God says, "Jacob, I loved. Esau, I hated." On the cross, Jesus Christ takes our curse upon Himself. In a sense, God the father says, "Yon, I loved. Jesus, I hated." Jesus Christ took our curse upon Himself. Why? Because that's how much He loved us. That was planned before the foundation of the world. That's how great God's love is for us. How much greater should our response be to His sacrifice? God, didn't give His leftovers. He gave His absolute best. If this God, this great, gracious God is for us, then who can be against us? Salvation is a free gift. We can't earn it. We can't do anything to pay for it. We can only accept it freely. But once you accept this gift, God demands everything that we have in response. Finally, before we turn to communion, what if I'm not elect? If you're not a Christian, you got to be asking that question. What if I'm not elect? I would tell you exactly what Jesus Christ says. Jesus Christ is talking about God's election, God choosing some and God not choosing others. In that same breath, He gives an invitation, come on to me. This is Matthew 11:25-30. At that time, Jesus declared, I thank you, father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows the son except the Father. And no one knows the Father except the son, and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal Him. God, thank you that you opened the eyes of some and you closed the eyes of others. In that same breath, what does He say? He issues one of the greatest invitations in all of human history and says, come on to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart. You will find a rest through your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Come onto Jesus. Come repent of your sins. Believe in Him. As you do, accept the mercy and grace that He's willing to extend to everybody. That said, we're going to transition to Holy communion. Holy communion is given to us as a sign of remembrance to remember Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross. For whom is Holy communion? It's for anyone who's repentant of their sins. It's for those who repent of their sins. If you are not a Christian, then we ask that you refrain from this part of the service. Or if you are a Christian living in unrepentant sin, we ask that you refrain. Unless you repent, and if you repent right now before Christ asking for forgiveness, asking for mercy and grace, you're welcome to partake. I'm going to pray over the bread and the cup. The way we celebrate communion at Mosaic, is we take the cup, we take the little plastic off. You take the bread in one hand, you take the other little plastic off. You take the cup. As you do that, I'll pray for our time. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the grace that you extend to us. A grace that began before the foundation of the world, before you created anything. You knew that we would rebel and you knew that you loved us so much that you would provide a way for our salvation through the sacrifice of your son, Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank you that you, the perfect lamb of God, the unblemished lamb of God, were sacrificed. We thank you that you bore the wrath of God that we deserve for our law breaking. That you absorbed that curse in order to extend to us a blessing. Lord, we pray that you bless our time in communion now. We repent of our sin, of our apathy, of our indifference. I pray that you continue to deepen our understanding of your love. As we do, to respond with a commensurate love. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.