God's Faithfulness

That's not fair. Every parent has heard it, every child has said it. That's not fair, I deserve that. Or it's through your cousin. That's not fair, I wanted that. That's not fair, he got more than I did. That's not fair, I should get to do what all the other kids my age get to do. Although human parents aren't perfect, they often hear this complaint when they're acting in the child's best interest or when the child doesn't understand the important principles at play. God is often accused of being unfair. Why are some saved and some not saved? That's not fair. Why do the wicked prosper when the righteous suffer? That's not fair. Why must God's children follow all these rules? That's not fair. If God is sovereign, why are humans responsible and indeed punished for their sinful actions? That's not fair. I'm not going to be able to explain the answers to all these questions today. In part, that's because the human mind is unable to comprehend God's ways. As Romans 11.33 puts it, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. But in the main, I can't answer these questions because the premise of each question is faulty. God is not fair. God is not fair. If God were fair, every child ever conceived would deserve eternal death. God is not fair. Instead, he is faithful. He has called out for himself a people whom he faithfully loves and faithfully saves, not because they are deserving or lovely or faithful themselves, but despite their endless faithlessness, because he chooses to bestow upon them his sovereign grace. God is not fair. Hallelujah, for otherwise we would all perish. This morning we were looking at Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. Although the Old Testament as a whole is not organized chronologically, Malachi is chronologically the last of the prophetic books, occurring just before or during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, about 450 or 500 years after Solomon's reign ended, and about 450 or 500 years before the birth of Christ. The people of Judah had returned from the exile. They had rebuilt the temple as urged by Haggai and Zechariah, but instead of the blessing and peace and prosperity the prophets had promised, Judah was small and poor, subject to Gentile rulers and facing economic hardship. Many lost faith in God's promises or even wondered whether he cared at all about people and what they did and what their lives were like. Through Malachi, God brings both encouragement and chastisement to the people. In this book, we will see God's faithfulness to his unfaithful people, called out from all the nations, most clearly in his fulfilled promise to Sinema forerunner, John the Baptist, and a savior king, Jesus, who will grant them immeasurable joy. We will also see that those who are not God's people face terrible, eternal punishment. Malachi is the last prophetic message of the Old Testament, followed by 450 years of prophetic silence, which ended with the coming of John the Baptist, which Malachi foretold, and the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, to whom John pointed. So please turn with me to the book of Malachi in your Bibles. If you're using a Pew Bible, that's page 801. Or if you're using your own Bible, find Matthew and go back a few pages. If you do not have a Bible, please take the one in the pew in front of you as our gift, as we believe it is able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, as Paul wrote to his coworker Timothy. Compared to most of the prophetic books, which can sometimes be hard to understand, the structure of Malachi is actually pretty clear. Once you look at the handout that was included with your bulletin. Malachi is divided into six disputations or lawsuits. Basically God charges his people with wrongdoing and they try to defend themselves. These disputations are organized so that a set of topics is covered, and then the same set of topics is covered a second time in the reverse order. So you'll see it starts with the first disputation, difference between the righteous and the wicked, and you'll see that it ends with the sixth disputation, difference between the righteous and the wicked. In between, we have holding back the best through imperfect offerings. unfaithfulness in marriage, unfaithfulness in manifold sin, and holding back the best through insufficient offerings. You can see how these patterns repeat themselves and God is able to emphasize the point that he's trying to make through his prophet. In each of these disputations, God makes a statement or a charge. This usually begins, such and such says the Lord. The people respond by questioning what God has said. This usually begins with God saying, but you say. God then rebuts the people's questions and God explains the implications of the situation. Not to give away the ending, but I wouldn't bet against God. You will notice as we go through these that there are a lot of references to the curses and blessings taught to the people of Israel in Deuteronomy, which Keith preached through earlier this year. The people in Malachi's time have failed to obey God's commands and are suffering the promised curses. However, through Malachi, God promises again that obedience will lead to great blessing when God's eternal kingdom is restored. Let's read from the word of God. Malachi 1 verse 1, the oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. It says to Israel, but Israel doesn't exist anymore. This is the nation of Judah. They've come back from exile. The northern kingdom was destroyed over 100 years before. But God is calling them Israel. because they are the remnant of Israel. They are the people to whom the promises in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible that are given to Israel, they are the people to whom these promises remain. Centuries later, Paul will refer to the true Israel of God's people, even though the nation state of Israel had not existed for hundreds and hundreds of years. This word is coming by Malachi. The word Malachi means my messenger, and that's all we know about Malachi. It doesn't tell us where he's from, who his father was, or it doesn't tell us anything about his life. Some versions of the Bible, including the Greek Old Testament, see it as an anonymous book written by my messenger, and Malachi not as a name. That's how little we know about him. But the focus here is not on the bringer of the message, but on the message itself. The emphasis in this book is on what God says, not who the messenger is or what he does. The Lord is almost always the person speaking, and there are constant reminders of this. We'll hear over and over again, says the Lord, declares the Lord, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi is more concerned about the messengers to come, John and Jesus, than in himself. And as this is only the second time that I have been privileged to preach, I pray that you will focus on the proclaimed word and not the fallible messenger. Let's look at the first of these disputations, the difference between the righteous and the wicked, verses two through five of chapter one. God begins, I have loved you, says the Lord. the people respond. But you say, how have you loved us? God rebuts. It is not Esau, Jacob's brother, declares the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste to his hill country and left his heritage to the jackals of the desert. God explains. 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 eye shall see this, and you shall say, great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel. God's statement to Israel is one of the most amazing statements imaginable. that the almighty creator of the universe should choose to love them, a people who we will find out in the rest of the book is corrupt and evil in its ways. And what is Israel's impertinent response? How have you loved us? As I said before, they'd suffered exile in poor circumstances, but of course we know, as should any of them who have read the prophets, that they had brought these things upon themselves in violating God's covenant. But rather than smiting them on the spot, God graciously answers them, and his answer is grace. God chose to love Jacob as his people and not Esau. His love is in choosing Israel over Edom. Did God make this choice out of foreknowledge of Israel's merit? If so, then his foreknowledge was horrible, because we know from the entire testimony of the Old Testament, in general, and the rest of Malachi in particular, that Israel's history was one of faithlessness, and its works were repellent to the holy God, not meritorious. God makes it clear in Deuteronomy 7, verses six through eight, why he called them. 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 was not because you were more in number than any other people that his Lord, it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you. It is because the Lord loves you. and is 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 slavery, from the land of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He loves them because he does, and because he promised, and he's faithful to all of his promises. It's no accident that Paul references verses 2 and 3 when in Romans 9 he argues that God has the right to create vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath. He quotes from the book of Malachi and the statement of, I loved Jacob and I hated Esau. He continues on. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? by no means, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So 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 have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills, 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 sit to the 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 another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with most 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 only, but also from the Gentiles. As indeed, he says in Hosea, those who are not my people, I will call my people. And her who was not beloved, I will call beloved. And in every place where I said it to them, you are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. Now I'm going to cop out a little bit. I'm not going to try to explain to you that difficult passage. Our next sermon series will be going through the book of Romans and Keith and Sam will be happy to explain that for you. I am here to declare it. I am here to declare it as the word of God. Neither Jacob nor Esau deserves God's love. Both deserve destruction. But because He chose to love them. Israel will be restored after her punishment. Edom won't. Israel benefits from God's utterly undeserved mercy. If Israel thinks it has had a tough time and that God isn't showing it enough love, it doesn't understand the extent of God's wrath. God's promises to Israel of greatness through a coming king remain, but Edom has no hope. Edom thinks it's coming back, but it isn't. God chastises those he loves but he preserves them from his full wrath through his covenant which he has kept even though the Israelites have not. We see here that God is the ruler of the nations and will do with them as he pleases to his glory. We'll see that the nations appear quite a bit in this book and God's reaching out to them and seeking worship from them as well. So how does God's election of a chosen people affect us? How does it affect your daily life? Well, the doctrine of election can lead to at least two problems for believers, and Israel suffered from both. First, we tend to think, we are the elect. Why isn't life better? Where's our best life now? But God's elect do suffer. The perfect, sinless Savior, Jesus Christ, suffered. And the New Testament promises us that believers will too. Second, we think, so God's people are elect, we're the chosen. They can do whatever they want and it doesn't matter, right? No. God has high expectations for faithfulness and obedience for his called out people. And those who do not exhibit faithfulness and obedience must be very, very careful in thinking of themselves as elect. God knows who his people are, we do not. And we will see in the coming disputations how clear it is that God has a high calling for obedience and has punishment planned for those who fail to obey. The second disputation, holding back the best through imperfect offerings, begins in verse six of chapter one. God begins by saying, in verse six, a son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? Says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise my name. The people respond. But you say, how have we despised your name? God rebuts, by offering polluted food upon my altar. The people respond a second time. But you say, how have we polluted you? God rebuts again by saying that the Lord's table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And 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? God goes on to explain, and 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. Oh, 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 its fruit, that is, its food, may be despised. But you say, what a weariness this is, and you snort at it, says 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. And now, O priests, this command 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 the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offering 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 have 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 of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his 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 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 the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction. The priests of God, the ones who should be most faithful, have been utterly unfaithful. God tells us in verses six through eight that an earthly father would expect to receive obedience and respect, that a foreign governor over the Jews would expect and demand and enforce honor and obedience. The priests would, of course, have obeyed their earthly authorities, but they failed to obey their heavenly authority, their very creator and owner. They despise God's name. When scripture talks of God's name, it talks about the fullness of who God is. Despising his name means they defiled his authority. They disobeyed his will. They rejected him. They meekly respond, how have we despised your name? Somehow I picture a child, hand in the cookie jar, saying, cookie? What cookie? They know what they've been doing. They've been actively sinning against God. They were disobeying the fundamental Mosaic law that God gets the best as his possession. From the Old Testament perspective, everything belongs to God and God gets the first pickings of it. The first fruit of one's labor, the firstborn of one flock, and the best quality of one's possessions are God's property. Yet God details how they have completely violated the letter and spirit of the sacrificial system, offering defiled food, blind animals, lame and sick animals. God was explicit in Leviticus 22 that animals that were sacrificed were to be unblemished. They were to be the best, the first. But instead they're treating God with contempt and dishonor by giving him their leftovers. That which they wanted to get rid of because it wasn't useful. Both those offering up the sacrifices, the people who are coming with the animals, as well as those officiating over the sacrifices, the priest, were unfaithful to their duties. And the priest failed to teach people to do the right thing and allowed them to do it and participated in it. They were sacrificing for themselves. One of the great benefits of sacrificing these animals to the Lord was, in most cases, there was a proportion that came back to the sacrificer, to the priest and to the person coming to make the sacrifice. But as Zechariah 7, 6 tells us, they would often do this for themselves, not for God. And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? They're not sacrificing for God, giving him the best. They're looking to see what they can eat. Verse nine is important because we hear the first cry for forgiveness. And now entreat the favor of God that he may be gracious to us. God even now in the midst of laying out these sins is offering a way out. Turn to me, ask for forgiveness. Things can be different. But in the meantime, he says, stop it. I would rather that the doors of the temple were shut and the sacrifices were stopped than you continue to give them in this incorrect way. Not only that, but God promises them that he is the God of everywhere, from east to west, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, and that one day all nations will bow down to him, yet his chosen people can't be bothered to honor him in this way. He tells us he is a great king. That doesn't just mean he's a good king or a powerful king. It means he is a king over kings. He is the king of king and the Lord of lords. He is the king of the world. Yet they try to cheat him. In chapter two, verses one and two, we see the repetition over and over again of the curse. 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 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 priest was supposed to bless the person coming to give a sacrifice. Instead, God has cursed their blessings so that even when they do a sacrifice and say the blessing at the end, it doesn't have the intended effect. It's a curse among the people who come with the faulty sacrifices. It's hard to describe exactly how horrible verse three is. The priests are set aside. They're to be holy and clean. They undergo ritual washings. They're not allowed to do things that certain other people are allowed to do because it will defile them. But God says that when they do the sacrifice and they kill the animal and they take out the innards, the innards are not supposed to be sacrificed to God. Those are supposed to be taken outside the camp, away from the temple and burned because they're dirty and filthy. God says he's gonna wipe their face with that. He's gonna humiliate them. He's gonna abase them. He's gonna take these men who have been set aside to be the holiest of holy and render them filthy and unclean. They have violated the covenant of Levi. The whole arrangement that made them priests, they have violated it. God is gonna punish, but he doesn't punish merely for retribution. He punishes to purify and preserve, to let them know what they have done and call them to change their ways so that a remnant will remain, a remnant will be pure, and a remnant will be preserved. The priests were supposed to fear God. but they have no fear anymore. They do whatever they want. They were supposed to teach truth and obey and preserve the holiness of the people, but they have failed in all of these things. They went from turning people toward God to turning people away from God. They have failed in everything that they do. I'm gonna cover application on this point in the similarly themed disputation five on the giving of insufficient offerings. But in the meantime, be thinking. Do you give God your best? Your very best. That which is most valuable to you in finances, in time, in energy, obedience. Or do you give God your leftovers? Third disputation, chapter two, verses 10 through 16, unfaithfulness in marriage. God began speaking through Malachi in verse 10. Have we not all one father? Has not 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 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. And the second thing you do, you cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping, and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. The people respond, but you say, why does he not? God rebuts them. 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. God goes on to explain beginning in verse 15. Did he not make them one with a portion of the spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? spoke 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 garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourself in your spirit and do not be faithless. The word used here for unfaithful covers the marital covenant, covenant with God and pretty much any relationship one may have with God. We've already seen how his people have been unfaithful to the covenant that he laid out for him, and here we have another example of unfaithfulness in the marriage covenant. There are two kinds of problems with marriage that are attacked here. First of these is interfaith marriage. He tells him that they have been marrying themselves off to the daughter of a foreign god. This was, of course, forbidden in scripture, and it's clear why, because it leads to pagan-style worship. It leads to new gods being brought into the house and worshipped. Even Solomon, the wisest man on earth, was corrupted by marrying foreign women and taking on their gods. It also seems to be the case that in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah that men were divorcing the Jewish wives of their youth in marrying these foreign women in the new land to which they had returned. Perhaps it was an economic reason. Times were poor and marrying into the local families would be of an economic benefit. Perhaps it was for more lustful reasons. The pagan practices involving sex are quite something. The prophets are full of criticism of those who go up into the high places to cavort. And those of you who are old enough can fill that in as well as you might, as part of the worship that's involved with worshiping these pagan gods. But God tells them, going all the way back to the creation count, before sin, that marriage is a two-way covenant with a companion. This biblical view of a man and a woman who are bonded together in a covenant relationship and they're companions with each other. Not a superior and an inferior, but heartfelt companions. He also says that he is the witness to this. He is the third party to the covenant. He is the witness and the enforcer. Sometimes we think that women were treated poorly in the Old Testament. But even in the Old Testament world of polygamy, there were provisions that were meant to protect the first wife. She was not just to be discarded. She was to be taken care of, and her inheritance was to remain. But they've given up even those kinds of protection for these women. Verses 15 and 16 are very difficult in the original Hebrew, I am told by those who know that kind of thing. And you can see it in the English because there are varying translations of these verses that look very different from translation to translation. And even if you agree on the translation of the words, interpreters disagree violently on what the words mean. But let me focus on what is clear in these texts. Let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. The man who does not love his wife but divorces her, literally hates and divorces, he is performing violence. He is breaking a covenant. There are some translations that translate this as God hates divorce, and that's certainly true as well, although we do have to be careful because even Jesus does not forbid all divorce. But what is clear here is that the marriage covenant is as critical to God as the covenant between his people and himself. Our unfaithfulness in this covenant is equivalent to our unfaithfulness in our covenant to him. How do these foolish practices from so long ago apply to us? First, the prohibition against marrying unbelievers continues in the New Testament. First Corinthians 739, a wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. So even if she had originally been married to a non-Christian and had been converted, she was to stay with that husband if he died, If she were to marry again, it had to be in the Lord. Second Corinthians 614, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness. Also, the New Testament continues to forbid divorce. The New Testament continues to forbid divorce for just any reason. Matthew 19, the Pharisees came to test Jesus and said, is it lawful divorce one's wife for any cause? He answered, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And said, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, so that they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. Again, goes back to the creation to describe where marriage comes from. They said to him, why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? He said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. So these criticism of our unfaithfulness in our marital covenants continues into the new covenant. Fourth Disputation, Unfaithfulness in Manifold Sin, verses 217 to 315. What he had used as a specific example in our unfaithfulness in marriage, God now expands to a long list of sins. God begins in Malachi 217, you have worried the Lord with your words. The people respond, But you say, how have we wearied him? God rebuts, by saying, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them. Or by asking, where is the God of justice? God explains. 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? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's 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, and they will bring offerings and righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah in Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and 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 oppress the hired worker and his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner. And do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. So even though these people who have been unfaithful have been called out as evildoers, they don't like the way that God fails to punish those they perceive as evildoers or provide them justice. They're worried about what other people are doing rather than what they are doing. Although Malachi's hearers may not have understood who the two messengers mentioned were, the New Testament is clear that they are John the Baptist and Jesus. God is sending the messenger of the covenant, who is in fact God himself, coming to his temple. Jesus is God, God is sending himself to be among his people. He's also sending someone to prepare the way, to clear out the mess. which was standard activity before the arrival of a visiting king. Just like today, before a big political figure comes into town, somebody comes in to make sure the stage is ready. So that when the political figure arrives, everything is perfect to focus on the celebrity, on the person who's being honored. That's what John the Baptist did for Jesus. In verse one, it says that these people want him to come. It says that you're seeking him, that you delight in him. They think that the coming of the Lord will be great for them and horrible for their enemies. But God says, who can endure? Who can stand? And he makes it clear that the only ones who can do that are those who are in covenant relationship with him. And that those who are not, those who are unfaithful, will not be able to stand. In our world, we don't necessarily understand right away the image of a refiner's fire or a fuller soap. But in both cases, something impure is exposed to harshness. A refiner's fire is used to take a metal and heat it up as hot as it can go. And that which is impure is burned off and thrown away. And that which is pure is left remaining. Likewise, with clothing. fuller soap, or more literally, lye. It doesn't have moisturizer in it. It's not a body wash. This is a harsh chemical that's gonna rip away the dirt to leave the clean fabric behind. And that's what God's doing here. Those who are His, they're gonna come out of the judgment pure. Those who are not His are gonna be judged with a full force of His holy judgment. In verse 3 it tells us that the priests and the whole nation will be purified, that offerings will be brought in righteousness, and they will be pleasing. It's not the size that matters, it's the attitude. So why is it that after the coming of the messenger of the covenant, that they're able to have a pleasing sacrifice. Who was it that made the perfect offering in perfect righteousness? The messenger of the covenant, Jesus Christ himself, who died on the cross as the once for all perfect sacrifice that is ever perfectly pleasing to the Lord God Almighty. He then goes down to list examples of unfaithfulness and evil doing. Sorcery, which involves pagan practices and being unfaithful to God. Adultery, again a way of being unfaithful to their covenant spouses. Swearing dishonestly, of course they'd be swearing by God's name and in doing it falsely would despise him. Oppress the weak, the worker, the widow, the orphan, the sojourner. All of these people are protected by God. They're called out throughout the Old Testament saying God is going to protect them and you should be good to them. But the problem is summed up in the final statement that they do not fear God. They violate his covenant because they don't really believe it. They believed his covenant if they were faithful, that would be represented by their fear, their obedience, and their faithfulness. Do you really believe God is God? Do you fear him? That is, do you really recognize him as your Lord and your maker? Do you act like it? Do you pray like it? Do you evangelize like it? Or do you weary the Lord with your sin? God here, through Malachi, places a high call to holiness, a call to daily sanctification, As Paul later writes in 1 Corinthians 15, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. We have to do the work, even if it is God's grace that's going to bring us over the finish line. Our work is only acceptable if we have God's grace, but the work is still there. Do you act in a way that 1 Peter 2 would apply to you? But you are a chosen race, 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 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. Are you part of a holy nation? Are you part of a royal, faithful priesthood? Fifth disputation, holding back the best through insufficient offerings, chapter three, verses six through 12. God begins in verse six, for I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your 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. The people respond. But you say, how shall we return? God rebuts. Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, how have we robbed you? In your tithes and contributions. God explains. 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, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and 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 of hosts. The bad news is that the word rob is repeated four times in this section. The gracious good news is that the word return appears three times, offering up a chance for repentance. We need to turn and change, but thank God that he does not. It is because he does not change that they have not been destroyed already, because he is faithful to his word, and he told them that they were his people. Because he has every reason to go ahead and destroy them, and it is only because he is unwilling and unable in his nature to change that he does not. God is faithful in the face of his people's unfaithfulness. As we heard a few weeks ago in Jonah 2, the Lord is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster. Echoing many passages, including the original in Exodus 34 6, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. In his patience and grace, God calls out, return to me and I'll return to you. But as of now, for the people in Malachi's day, he's removed his protection and cursed them, and they have suffered. In their unfaithfulness, they may have thought that God was weak or ineffective or distracted, but they need to realize that they need to return to him. They need to have repentance. The sins described in Disputations 2, 3, and 4 must be abandoned. So how are they to return? They have to follow his commands, and he uses as an example of this, the paying of the tithe. Psalm 24, one says, the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. Exodus 34, 19, all that opens the womb or mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. Leviticus 2730. Every tithe of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the trees, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. This section refers to both tithes and offerings. It seems to be a way of saying everything that you're responsible to be giving to God. So is he really saying that tithing was a key part of repentance? Yep. That's what it says. It was something involuntary for the nation of Israel. It was required in the law. They were told to do it. It was necessary for the keeping alive of the Levites and the priesthood and the maintenance of the temple, because that was where they got their income. So what about Christians? Must Christians tithe or be told that they're robbing God? In 2 Corinthians 9, 6-7, Paul writes, Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia had been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated, to say nothing of you, for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction." So we're called to give, yes, although there is no explicit call to tithe. Note that we see in earlier places, though, in earlier in 2 Corinthians 8, 1 through 7, that Paul, just like Malachi, makes a connection between generosity and reward. In 2 Corinthians 8, 1 through 7, he writes, we want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this, as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urge Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also, this act of giving. This suggests that love should move us to a greater generosity than the law ever could, and that the old covenant tithe is really just the minimum that people should give to God's work. Notice that it is not just the priest and the temple that are being robbed, but God says that we are robbing him. Notice when God says that they need to participate in tithing, that he says that he will give them what they need, not luxury. He doesn't say, Give me your tithe and you'll be rich. He says, give me your tithe and I'll keep you fed. I'll give you the rain from heaven and the seeds that grow. Also notice that this is language that is often used by the other prophets to refer to the end times, how things are going to be when Jesus returns the second time, when they talk of sitting under your vine and having this luxurious agricultural growth. In many ways, he's talking about being faithful to the covenant so that when the time comes to raise up those who are in the covenant and those who are not in the covenant, you will be among those who are raised up to glory instead of being raised up to perdition. I've already partially done some application here. Paul tells us that we are to give and we are to give generously. As I asked you earlier, are you giving God your leftovers? You should be giving him your best. Not only you're giving him your best, but generously giving him your best. Your best in finances, time, energy, obedience. This is part of what Paul calls us to in the new covenant of being generous with all that we have for the good of God's work. Final, sixth dispensation, difference between the righteous and the wicked. This is where, like Keith every week, I'm going to drop a couple of pages. the difference between the righteous and the wicked. We've already heard that the difference between the righteous and the wicked is God has called one and not called another. Here we're going to see a difference in how they respond. God begins in Malachi 3, 13. Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. The people respond. But you say, how have we spoken against you? God rebuts them in verse 14. You have said, it is vain to serve God. What is the profit of your keeping this charge 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. God explains, then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. 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. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all the evildoers 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 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 fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. The fifth disputation ended with the statement that it was going to be a delightful land. The sixth disputation ends with a land of utter destruction. Which one it's going to be depends on your response to God's call for repentance and faith. They've told God they think that it's worthless to serve him. They can't see that there's any benefit to doing it. And in fact, the evil seem to be getting away with all the evil that they're doing, and they don't seem to be any consequences for it. They don't see any evidence of God's intervention in the world. But there is a remnant. In verse 16, we see that a group of them recognize what God has done, and God recognizes them for their faith. Just as, for example, in the book of Esther, The king wrote up a list of those who had done well by him and included in that Mordecai. God writes up a book of remembrance concerning these faithful believers. We also see references to things like this throughout scripture in terms of a book of life or a list of a book that God is keeping that has those who are his on it. We see that in Exodus 32, 32, 33, Daniel 7, 10, Revelation 10, excuse me, Revelation 20, 12, and other places. Indicates that God will never forget and will rightly judge both the good deeds of the righteous and the evil deeds of the wicked. There will be a clear distinction between the righteous and the wicked on the day of the Lord through the coming of divine judgment. God tells us here that the righteous are those who serve God and the wicked are those who don't. In this sense, serving is to worship God and live obediently under his authority and lordship. That's what they were called to in the book of Deuteronomy. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples as you are to this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and no longer be stubborn. You shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. God knows his own. The righteous will be his, his special possession, and they will be spared as his beloved children. The wicked face a different response on that day, total judgment by fire, which purifies the good and destroys the bad. As we see in Revelation 20, but as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. But for those who fear his name, they don't just get spared from judgment, they have brightness and sunshine and healing and joy. The sun of righteousness comes up above them. They have health that comes upon them. They have joy like a calf that goes skipping through the meadow, which I've always thought is just this amazingly beautiful picture of pure joy. The righteous are victorious, the wicked are defeated. There is a final call to covenant faithfulness. He says he's going to send a prophet. As we heard read earlier by Chris, he sent John the Baptist and he came to sound the warning to give them a chance to repent before it was too late. Sadly, even then, even in the presence of Jesus himself, people did not repent. How much More incredible is the faith of a believer who has not seen Jesus. But that's what we're called to do. It says at the end of this section that, I will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. Talking about fathers and son this way is a way of encompassing everybody. Just as in Jeremiah 13, 14, it says, and I will dash them one against another. Fathers and sons together declares the Lord. It's a way of just saying everybody's involved. Parents and children, which encompasses everybody, will be involved. And John the Baptist is being sent to make the way straight for God's greatest work of redemption, Jesus coming. and the hearts of the Lord's rebellious children being turned back to their Heavenly Father. That's what we're being called to today, to turn back to our Heavenly Father through the mediation of Jesus Christ. Christians, why do you continue in sin and unfaithfulness, worried about why you don't have more when God has given you everything in Christ? Non-Christians, Jesus has come. Are you gonna continue to mourn and cry rather than embracing the joy that's available only through him? God knows the elect, but we don't, and you don't. We know that he promises in John that his people will hear his voice. Do you hear his voice? Do you hear God's word and the spirit calling you to repentance and faith? Do you hear God's word and spirit calling you to a life of faithfulness and service and obedience and worship to God under the authority and lordship of Jesus Christ? Is your heart stirred by the good news that God sent his son to die for you, a helpless sinner, so that you might live a life abundant here on earth and eternal in his presence? If so, I pray that you would talk to me or another one of the elders or anybody here at Jefferson Park so that you can learn more about the saving grace available through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Most gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we praise you that you are not fair. We praise you that you, against all reason, have chosen to love a people and place your name upon them and call them yours. Father, we are so grateful that you called us to be among that number. Father, we thank you for the worldwide church of people called out from sunrise to sunset from all nations bowing down before you and praising your name. Father, we pray that your word will continue to save many. Father, we know that you have had patience with us and you have delayed in coming so that many more would be saved. Father, we pray that we'd be a small part of that effort, that our words here at Jefferson Park would call people to repentance and faith, that those that we send out as missionaries would call people to repentance and faith. Father, we pray that we would have the joy of a skipping calf to know that we are yours. that we are your children, and that through no merit of our own, through no action of our own, you have turned our hearts to you to save us. We pray this in the gracious, loving name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.