Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] You know, I've come to learn over a few years of life, not many, but some, that there's some settings in this life where you can question.
[00:00:19] And there are some, many. Where you better not question for some. Some examples to help you understand what I'm saying. If you're a judge, one day, maybe someone will be a judge. I don't know if anyone wants to be one, but I think it'd be a cool job. If you're a judge, one day an attorney just says the defense is guilty and then he sits down. Well, if you're the judge, you should question that. You should question how so prove his guilt.
[00:00:49] Maybe this other thing will help you understand.
[00:00:52] So if my daughter Annie brings me from another room some food to eat in her hands, I better question the origin of that.
[00:01:03] I don't know where this has been. She could have dug it out of anywhere.
[00:01:08] Maybe you're in seventh grade. Some of you guys are in seventh grade and you're playing a sport and the other team has a player with a beard.
[00:01:16] You better question that.
[00:01:19] Definitely question that. It's possible, but question it now. If, you know, Katie says to me, or maybe your parents say to you, I love you, you should not question that.
[00:01:33] If I were to question, like Kate, do you really love me? Do you think that's a good conversation to have?
[00:01:40] No.
[00:01:41] And it's a ridiculous question. Do not question that.
[00:01:45] That spells bad news to question something that is so obviously certain, so obviously known.
[00:01:52] In fact, it's insulting to question in many scenarios like that.
[00:01:58] Even more than that, in our passage in Malachi, where we are today, Israel is found questioning God. Throughout the book, if you read through it, which if you haven't, even afterward, I encourage you to read through the book a couple of times this week.
[00:02:14] You'll see Israel questioning God.
[00:02:17] You'll notice a lot of questions directed at him.
[00:02:21] Now, this book follows. Well, just to kind of update us on what is Malachi?
[00:02:26] We haven't studied it yet. We were just now starting it. But it follows well from Haggai Zechariah, you know, those prophets kind of prophesying at the same time, like a tag team to the remnant of Israel to rebuild the temple. Well, Malachi comes, you know, roughly about a hundred years later.
[00:02:44] So that's an interesting perspective because we get a glimpse of how are they doing?
[00:02:49] What are they doing now? They're awaiting this Messiah. We've talked about this priest king. God's going to become the shepherd of Israel and all of these wonderful things. How are they they doing waiting for these things to become a reality, waiting for this latter temple, which is going to have more glory than their temple. And of the former temple, how are they doing with all of this?
[00:03:09] Now, fundamentally, we find that they have a heart problem.
[00:03:14] Their hearts are full of sin. They have a heart problem which leads to worship problems and relational problems. So they have a lot of problems.
[00:03:23] So in these first couple of chapters and even throughout the book, I'll say we see how the Lord has unconditionally loved Israel, how the priests have despised the worship of the Lord, and how the people have despised the Lord's covenant with them. Things are not going well now, as is typical Malachi as a prophet, like the other prophetic books, he'll kind of go back and forth between recording the Lord's speech and interjecting his own commentary into the book. But the main idea, you know, we're going to read some, not the whole book right away, where we're going to kind of read bits and pieces as we go. But the main idea of Malachi is this. God loves us and cares how we worship.
[00:04:10] God loves us and cares how we worship.
[00:04:13] So we must align our hearts and practices with His Word. So because God loves us and cares how we worship, we must align our hearts and practices with His Word.
[00:04:24] We're going to read from right in the middle. So go to Malachi 2, verse 10.
[00:04:30] We're going to read a chunk right here in the middle.
[00:04:34] Have we not all one Father?
[00:04:37] Has not one God created us?
[00:04:39] Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
[00:04:44] 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.
[00:04:58] May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendants of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts.
[00:05:06] And this second thing you do, you cover the Lord's altars with tears, with weeping and groaning, because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, why does he not?
[00:05:20] 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 seeking godly offspring?
[00:05:39] 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.
[00:05:54] So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.
[00:05:59] You have wearied the Lord with your words, but you say, how have we wearied him?
[00:06:04] 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?
[00:06:13] Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will 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 this 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.
[00:06:46] Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years.
[00:06:54] 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, for I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
[00:07:17] We'll stop there. We're going to discuss three points that flow from this main idea.
[00:07:24] We'll begin with kind of the middle of the book where we just read and we're going to work our way out.
[00:07:30] So again, the main idea. God loves us and cares how we worship, so we must align our hearts and practices with his word. And and because God loves us, we should respond in at least three ways. Number one is point. Number one, be not faithless, Be not faithless, or do not be faithless.
[00:07:52] So again, just about a hundred years after Haggai and Zechariah, the remnant of Israel is being faithless.
[00:08:00] Chapter 2, verse 10. We see they were faithless to one another, and they were profaning the covenants of their fathers.
[00:08:07] In other words, they are violating and defiling the honor of the promise that God had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with Israel, through Moses and with David. This covenant that was revealed at these different times through all those men and through the nation they're defiling it, they're violating it, they don't care about it.
[00:08:29] Chapter two, verse 11, we see they specifically profaned or dishonored the sanctuary.
[00:08:35] We think of this as the holy place of the Lord, the place of worship where they come to revere and honor and worship the Lord. They've profaned that, they have defiled it.
[00:08:46] And we saw and just read in chapter 2, verses 13 through 16 of the People of Israel being faithless to the wives of their youth is the language. Now, I'm sure this was actually happening in some cases. But I think the important part for Malachi is to point out that the nation is married to the Lord.
[00:09:05] This marriage, we learn in the Bible, is a picture of the gospel. How Christ loves his church, God loves his people. And I think that is the primary marriage that they are violating the covenant. The marriage covenant between God and His people is being violated by these adultering, AKA idolatrous people.
[00:09:27] So that's what was happening. They're committing adultery by worshiping idols. They're being faithless to their God. They were cheating on God, you could say, by idolatry.
[00:09:40] And so it's put in this way, with this kind of metaphor, this language, this vivid example of faithlessness. It's hard for us to even imagine a more hurtful thing that one spouse could do to the other.
[00:09:55] What's more hurtful than adultery?
[00:09:58] But they are doing this to the Lord God. That's what they're doing. They are being absolutely faithless.
[00:10:05] That's where they are.
[00:10:06] And so they need to avoid faithlessness. And I think it's pretty clear what takeaway we could make from this. We should avoid faithlessness because when we are faithless, that, as an analogy, applies to you. You are being faithless to the wife of your youth. You are being an adulterer, an idolater. So we want to avoid faithlessness.
[00:10:29] Now, in order to do this, first and foremost, foremost you need to avoid faithlessness by believing in Christ. You need to have faith. In the first place, you need to believe that God did become man and endured the pain and affliction and humanity and even suffered God's wrath through. Through death on the cross. You need to believe that he was buried, he did rise again, he did ascend into heaven, and he does sit on the throne in heaven today.
[00:10:59] By faith. You need to believe in him, that his righteousness will be credited to you so that you may dwell with God in heaven with Christ. You must believe in Him.
[00:11:12] You must.
[00:11:13] Now we can also behave faithlessly in a second way.
[00:11:17] But second, we want to avoid faithlessness by being practicing Christians. That's number two here. Avoid faithlessness by being practicing Christians.
[00:11:31] Now, a lot of you, probably most, would be what we might call a professing Christian. This means you say aloud, even publicly, I'm a Christian. But true believers are professing and practicing Christians. You know, they don't just talk it, but they do it. It is reflected in their lives. We see fruit of the Spirit in what they do and how they live.
[00:11:54] Your life and habits need to reflect what you say you believe.
[00:12:00] So you need to evaluate. This is something you need to do internally. Look at yourself. You need to evaluate how you spend your time.
[00:12:08] You know, your mornings, your days.
[00:12:12] How much daily time would you say God gets if you cut up your day like a pie chart? How much time is he getting out of your day?
[00:12:22] You need to evaluate the words you say or even the words you don't say.
[00:12:27] Are you building others up? Are you tearing them down with your words? And, yeah, you can build up and tear down even when you're not saying something to someone's face. You know, how are your words honoring the Lord?
[00:12:40] Do you have time for Christian fellowship? Do you have time for prayer? Do you have time for reading the Word? Do you have time for evangelism? Are these things that you seek to do in your life?
[00:12:51] Are you being faithful by being a professing and practicing Christian?
[00:12:57] So first was, you know, basically, have faith in Christ. Second, be a practicing Christian. But third, we can avoid faithlessness by being professing Christians. So again, this kind of connects back to the first. If what I just said was that your actions need to match your beliefs, then what I'm saying now is that your beliefs must be in order.
[00:13:17] Sometimes our beliefs don't match our actions kind of in the inverse.
[00:13:22] Just to explain, that might be a little confusing. What I mean is this. When you grow up, and I know this is the case with many of you, when you grow up, going to church all the time like I did, it can be easy to get into a rhythm where you do all the right things, you do a lot of good things, but your heart and your mind are detached from them.
[00:13:43] You're not doing them for any authentic reason. You just do them because you've been trained and disciplined really well.
[00:13:51] You know, if you feel yourself going through the motions of bearing good deeds and doing great things, you might need to correct your beliefs. You might. It's something to consider.
[00:14:04] You know, if you're acting Christianly, but you don't really love Christ.
[00:14:10] Then look to him and love him.
[00:14:12] We need to start with our hearts, profess what we believe, and our actions must flow from that. We cannot reverse engineer and do good works and work ourselves into faith.
[00:14:24] Be not faithless. If you have faith in Christ, then you are part of his new covenant of eternal life and peace with God. We see that language in chapter two, verse five.
[00:14:37] Now, point number two.
[00:14:39] Point number two is worship God rightly. Worship God rightly.
[00:14:47] So in much of the book of Malachi, the priests are being rebuked for not worshiping God appropriately.
[00:14:57] So in, let's see, chapter one, verses seven and eight, 13 even, we see they offered up polluted food, they offered up blind, lame, sick and blemished animals to God.
[00:15:15] But that is not the type of sacrifice that God has demanded, right? Well, God demands spotless blemish, free sacrifices, not these blemished, lame, blind sacrifices. Verse 8 even points out that they would not give such a gift to their governor. If they would not give it to the governor, why would they offer it to God? Yet that's what they're doing. They're taking the worst of the leftover sheep and goats and whatever else that they don't really care about, and they're just offering that to God. They're giving him their leftovers.
[00:15:51] So why would they offer that to God? But even more fundamentally, to change how God wants to be worshiped is to obscure salvation. So if God has a way to be worshipped and we are attempting to change it, we're obscuring all of salvation. Let me explain. God the Son became flesh to become the perfect, all sufficient sacrifice for sins. Amen. Right. He was spotless and perfect without any blemish. He was totally righteous, completely without sin.
[00:16:24] He. He is what those Old Testament sacrifices are pointing to.
[00:16:29] They're designed to point to the Christ. So to offer God a profane sacrifice, a blemished, lame, blind sacrifice, is to profane the coming sacrifice.
[00:16:44] They're saying, this is good enough.
[00:16:46] Well, if this leftover trash sacrifice is good enough, then maybe they're not worthy of the perfect One to come.
[00:16:54] That's what is happening to them. That's what they are doing. And so God indicts them for verse six, despising his name.
[00:17:04] They need to worship rightly.
[00:17:07] That might make us ask, especially given the very different context. We're in a very different context than they were.
[00:17:14] What is acceptable worship?
[00:17:18] What is acceptable worship?
[00:17:20] Well, first, acceptable worship is worship that's commanded in the Bible.
[00:17:25] It's worship that's commanded in the Bible.
[00:17:29] The Lord very clearly gave Israel rules to worship him.
[00:17:34] See Leviticus, if you need examples. But he didn't do that just to remove every rule for the new covenant. So when Christ came, it doesn't mean, okay, no more rules. You now get to do whatever you want to worship Him. We don't get any sense of that in the New Testament.
[00:17:50] All Christians agree, even that we can't worship God in ways that's forbidden, right? If the Bible says, don't do this, we can't do that, right? To worship God. We all agree on that. But I find it even much wiser and even more biblical to only worship in ways that God tells us to. And he does tell us how to worship. In the New Testament. He tells us to preach the word. 2nd Timothy 4. 2 says that preach the word.
[00:18:18] Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 tell us to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So we preach. We sing.
[00:18:29] Matthew 28:19 and Luke 22:19 and other places tell us to baptize and share the Lord's Supper together. So we do that to worship God.
[00:18:39] Acts 2:42 is one of many places that tells us to pray. So we pray when we worship.
[00:18:44] And first Timothy 4:15 tells us to publicly read the Bible so that we also do. There's maybe a couple of other things we can find throughout the New Testament, but if you go to a church that's doing things that aren't in this list, then you should be weary, you should be cautious about them. Because we want to offer up acceptable worship. And the Bible, God's authoritative word, tells us how we can worship. And so that should be our rule book, our guidebook so we can worship him and honor him.
[00:19:14] Because worship is not something selfish that's supposed to gratify us. It's supposed to glorify God.
[00:19:20] I think the people here were missing that. They are gratifying themselves by getting rid of their leftovers instead of giving God their best.
[00:19:30] Number two. What is acceptable worship? Well, acceptable worship does not rob God, but gives to him.
[00:19:37] So if you look at Malachi 3, especially verses 6 through 15, you see maybe even the subheading robbing God. But in chapter three, verses eight through ten, the people were robbing God by not bringing their full tithe, amount, their giving their tithe. They were not bringing the full amount, and so they are robbing God.
[00:20:01] Now, I don't intend to say that there is some specific percentage that Christians must give to the church.
[00:20:08] However, if you're not giving cheerfully and sacrificially, then you're robbing God. If you're a believer and a member of the church and you are not giving sacrificially and cheerfully, you are, in a way, robbing God. It appears your money, those students you probably don't have a lot, is actually His.
[00:20:32] The funds that we all have belong to the Lord. He is.
[00:20:36] Let us borrow them.
[00:20:38] He has let us borrow our wealth so that we can use it for his glory.
[00:20:43] So greedily keeping more than we ought to, is robbing Him.
[00:20:48] So acceptable worship gives cheerfully and sacrificially to God. It gives to Him. It does not rob Him. Now, how that exactly looks in your life, it's hard to say. It's something that you need to work through and wrestle yourself and follow your conscience, follow the Spirit's guidance. But we want to make sure we are giving to God, not robbing Him.
[00:21:11] What is acceptable worship? Well, number three, acceptable worship is being a living sacrifice to God.
[00:21:19] Being a living sacrifice to God. Romans 12:1 2 famously used those words. It says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
[00:21:40] Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
[00:21:51] From these verses, we learn that acceptable worship is spiritual. It is spiritual worship. It is something we do and accomplish in the Spirit.
[00:22:03] Thus, first you must have the Spirit, which means you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ already.
[00:22:10] It also means that you pursue holiness through the power of the Spirit. Following his guidance, listening to his leading, he helps us avoid sin. He helps us to obey Christ. He helps us to understand the Word so we can obey it.
[00:22:25] So we need to offer spiritual worship, follow the Spirit.
[00:22:31] And it is more than just metaphysical. To worship spiritually is to worship with your whole selves, not just something spiritually we cannot see. Your whole self should worship God. That's why this passage, Romans 12:1 2, says, to present your bodies, it's your whole bodies. It means that we want to love and obey Christ with all that we have, with all that we do, our entire selves.
[00:22:59] Acceptable worship is living a life that pursues holiness out of love and affection for Christ.
[00:23:06] That is acceptable worship.
[00:23:12] So moving on then, from. From that list. In talking of the curse in Malachi, God, he's talking about a curse that he's rolling out for their corruption. He refers back to his covenant of old that involves the priests. So chapter two, verse seven says, for the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
[00:23:39] So that was the job of the priests, to guard knowledge, to instruct from their mouths. In other words, they were to teach, to guard the knowledge, to know the word of the Lord.
[00:23:52] Here he's being called the messenger of the Lord.
[00:23:56] That's what the priests were. And they were failing miserably.
[00:24:00] So there's. They're profaning worship, they're not worshiping rightly, and they are not teaching the word like they ought to be.
[00:24:07] But the good news is when we read this in Malachi, we've just read Haggai and Zechariah, especially Zechariah, so we know that there is a priest, he's also a king, and he guarded knowledge perfectly and he taught powerfully. We must seek instruction from the mouth of Christ.
[00:24:28] The failure of the priest is pointing us to the perfect fulfillment of the priest king. And in an ultimate way, he is the messenger of the Lord. No one speaks more authoritatively the words of God than God, the Son Himself.
[00:24:44] And so trust in Christ's perfect sacrifice and listen to his teachings.
[00:24:51] Because Christ ultimately succeeds where these priests fail.
[00:24:58] But you know who else is called a priest in the Bible?
[00:25:02] Well, 1st Peter 2. 5 says, talking to churches, Christians says, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
[00:25:18] So Christians are a kingdom, a nation of priests.
[00:25:23] So fear the Lord.
[00:25:25] Don't cause others to stumble. Instead, recognize that to know Christ is something that you, you get to do and something that you must pass on. You must teach, you must, you must instruct others. You also must offer acceptable worship like we just went through. We, through Christ, can fulfill. Even where these priests failed, these professionals failed. But through Christ, with his spirit, we can succeed, but only through him.
[00:25:56] So let what comes from your mouth be beneficial.
[00:26:00] Walk in peace. Walk in uprightness. Try not to let any action you do contradict the gospel in which you believe.
[00:26:07] That's our goal.
[00:26:09] These priests and even the people of Israel are constantly contradicting what they're supposed to believe with their actions. Our goal is to not do that, because in doing this, we can better lead others to truly and purely worship the Lord rightly.
[00:26:26] That then brings us to our third point.
[00:26:33] Take comfort in God's election.
[00:26:36] Take comfort in God's election. So if we look, we're going to go to the beginning of the book.
[00:26:42] And I think the beginning of the book kind of mirrors the end of the book a little bit. We're going to start up here. We're going to read verses 2 through 5.
[00:26:52] I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say, how have you loved us?
[00:27:00] Is not Esau Jacob's brother? Declares the Lord, Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.
[00:27:12] If Edom says, we are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says, they may rebuild, 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.
[00:27:27] Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.
[00:27:37] So thankfully, a good number of you have been hearing sermons on Genesis on Sundays. So we should be, at least a lot of us should be somewhat familiar with this Esau and this Jacob.
[00:27:50] We should know who they are. Well, they just in case you don't, they were brothers born to Isaac, who is the son of Abraham.
[00:27:58] They were also rivals.
[00:28:00] Esau, the firstborn, was poised in tradition to take his birthright and the blessing, the covenant blessings. But Jacob ended up with both of them.
[00:28:11] He became the heir of their father's estates and the heir of the promises of God. He would be the father of the people of God.
[00:28:20] He'd be the father of all Israel. That's why Jacob's name is eventually renamed to Israel. He produces the people of God.
[00:28:28] Whereas Esau was rejected.
[00:28:32] And that's what we're seeing here. You also see the name Edom. In verse four, you see the name Edom.
[00:28:38] That is the nation that came from Esau. So this is talking about the same individual, the same nation.
[00:28:45] And here, interestingly, God is said to have loved Jacob but hated Esau.
[00:28:51] Now, this has caused a lot of debates over many centuries.
[00:28:57] So I think we should consider the subject by asking three questions.
[00:29:01] One, is God unfair?
[00:29:05] Two, why does God choose some but not others? And three, how is this comforting?
[00:29:10] So first, is God unfair?
[00:29:12] You see, this language of God hating Esau is difficult to understand, right?
[00:29:18] It might be surprising, shocking, might be something we want to avoid and not talk about. But it's here, so we're going to talk about it. But I think it's only difficult to understand if we assume that God has to love everyone equally and in the same way in order for him to be fair.
[00:29:34] Consider that fairness is never even said to be God's ultimate attribute.
[00:29:40] Perhaps everything isn't fair.
[00:29:43] Maybe that's something we can consider. Consider also that we don't expect anyone to love like that.
[00:29:50] For example, should I love all the wives of the world equally?
[00:29:56] No, I should love my wife more than all the wives of the world.
[00:30:04] Should your parents love all the children of the world equally?
[00:30:08] Well, no. They really wouldn't have time for any of them.
[00:30:11] They would treat kids across the world the same way they treat you. They wouldn't have any time. Now, in fairness, God is infinite. He is different than us. He doesn't have the lack that we do. But the key here, I believe, is that fairness is a concept we are trying to force God into.
[00:30:29] I don't think we can take things that we like and think are right and say, God must be like that, because I like that.
[00:30:37] We don't get to shape God into our image. We have to take him as he reveals Himself in the Word.
[00:30:45] Now, these verses are helpfully quoted by Paul in the New Testament when he receives basically the same question about is God fair?
[00:30:56] So In Romans, chapter 9, we read in verses 8 through 16, this is what he says.
[00:31:02] This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
[00:31:11] For this is what the promise said about this time next year I shall return, and Sarah, that's Abraham's wife, shall have a son.
[00:31:18] And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 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, the older shall serve the younger.
[00:31:38] As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. 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 have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
[00:31:55] So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but. But on God who has mercy.
[00:32:02] So we see here, and this is other imagery that Paul uses in the context is that the Lord is like a potter, we are like clay, and he does with us as he pleases.
[00:32:13] And so I think we should praise him for what he does here, how he works, salvation, how he has created his covenant. And he loved Jacob, that people from all nations can be saved, that Is God's sovereignty in election at work?
[00:32:29] Now, second, why did God choose Jacob and not Esau? Why does God choose some but not others? That's the second question. And it's a related question. Right. But I wanted to focus on it specifically because I think it's a good question that you might be asking.
[00:32:45] I believe God's election here of Jacob, his choice to love Jacob and Hadesa, is unconditional.
[00:32:54] It is without condition. Now, people do disagree on this, but I believe it's unconditional. As we read in Romans 9, we see Paul say it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God.
[00:33:07] And contextually, that's kind of the whole point of these verses in Malachi, I think, right? So Israel, right. In Malachi, they're impatient. They're waiting on this future temple, waiting on this guy that they've heard from Haggai and Zechariah. They're impatient, waiting on the Lord. And chapter one, verse two, they had the audacity to ask, how have you loved us?
[00:33:32] How have you loved us, God? Where's the evidence of your love if you love us so much? Well, there's an obvious answer, and God gives it to them. God chose them out of all the peoples on the face of the world.
[00:33:48] Not based on anything good they had done, not based on any quality that he liked about them, not based on whether they would choose him in the future. They certainly hadn't. And they still haven't chosen him. They can. They continue to reject him over and over.
[00:34:04] And we read it's before either Jacob or Esau did anything good or bad in the womb, he made this decision.
[00:34:12] No, he loved them because he loved them.
[00:34:15] And he loved them because he loved them, because he loved them.
[00:34:21] With God, it's love all the way down. I've heard it said, it's love all the way down. So third, our third question, how is this comforting?
[00:34:32] Well, that's the answer. It's love all the way down completely.
[00:34:38] That is the foundation that God is love.
[00:34:42] If this were based on human will or exertion, or another word for exertion is effort, I don't think you would stand a chance.
[00:34:52] You would never make it to this land. You would never earn the love that God gave to Jacob.
[00:34:58] Now we also see in verse five that the Lord is great beyond the border of Israel.
[00:35:04] Beyond the border. So we've heard over and over and over and over that the Lord is saving people from all nations, bringing them all to himself. We hear this kind of brought up here and there, occasionally.
[00:35:16] So you should rejoice and be comforted in this reality that through this one man, through this promise, through who God has chosen, people from all over are able to be saved. Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved because of what God has done. That's his sovereignty in election. He provides a way for salvation for all people.
[00:35:41] A guy named Ian Dugood says, though you may feel like an outsider to God's people.
[00:35:46] So if you feel like an outsider, this is for you. Though you may feel like an outsider to God's people, through his electing mercy and grace, the Father draws people like us to Himself to be part of his people, part of the new Israel that He is calling to Himself through His Son Jesus.
[00:36:03] Come and acknowledge the greatness of the Lord's mercy today, a mercy that extends far beyond the borders of His Old Testament people, to touch our hearts and lives.
[00:36:16] Students, this is why I believe you can take comfort in God's election.
[00:36:23] But before we close this book, I want you all to know exactly why we can take comfort in God's election. Now look to the back of Malachi.
[00:36:35] I think we see some parallel, some kind of mirroring happening. Go to Malachi, chapter four. We're going to read the first three verses.
[00:36:44] For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogance and all evil doers will be stubble.
[00:36:53] The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of Hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
[00:37:02] But for you who fear my name, the Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.
[00:37:12] 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. And on the day when I act, says the Lord of Hosts.
[00:37:26] So there's this hymn that you guys might know.
[00:37:32] Maybe you've heard of it. It's called Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.
[00:37:37] You know one of the verses of that wonderful Christmas hymn? I love Christmas songs so much.
[00:37:44] I sing Christmas hymns all year long.
[00:37:47] One of the verses draws and quotes Malachi 4 2.
[00:37:52] We read in that verse, hail the Heaven born, Prince of Peace. Hail the Son of Righteousness.
[00:37:59] Light and life to all he brings, Risen with healing in his wings.
[00:38:04] When we think of the sun of righteousness, I want you to see it's s u n, not to be confused with S o n. This Son of Righteousness rising.
[00:38:14] What this made me think of. And so you can think of this. I don't know I was debating on what I should draw from, you know, the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. I didn't know should I draw from the book or the movie? You know, whatever you prefer. Just think of. Think of it. Think of this part, you know, when the witch begins to get stuck in the mud with her sleigh, you know, because the sun is breaking through the clouds, it warms the earth, the flowers begin to bloom, it's heating. Spring is coming. The long winter without Christmas is over.
[00:38:47] And it was Aslan's presence that did that.
[00:38:51] When the sun of righteousness rises, the same effect happens. This warmth and life emits to the earth. This healing in its wings is there.
[00:39:05] He brought new life with him now, this healing in his wings. The word wings is kind of an interesting Hebrew word. It's translated into wings here, and that is a legitimate translation, but it's often understood as kind of like the hem or the edge of a garment.
[00:39:23] That's typically how it's understood now whenever it's paired with a sun. That's why they kind of changed the word to wings to fit the context a little better.
[00:39:32] But I think for there to be healing in its wings the edges of the garment, we can even think of Christ himself, who does heal by mere touching of the edge of his garment. There is healing coming for God's people.
[00:39:50] Christ came to give new life to dying and weary people. He came to end the long winter with no Christmas by incarnating and coming to earth and bringing healing for them.
[00:40:04] Now that hymn continues to say, Mild he lays his glory by born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth. Born to give them second birth, a new birth. Though you and I, we all deserve the fate of Esau.
[00:40:21] That's true. We deserve the fate of Esau because we are evil doers.
[00:40:26] We deserve to be in the nation of Edom.
[00:40:29] But though we deserve that, you can be counted among his people.
[00:40:34] You can be healed by Christ, the Son of righteousness.
[00:40:38] Why?
[00:40:39] Because he loves you. Because he loves you. Because he loves you.
[00:40:44] It is because he loves first his electing love chooses and loves unconditionally. So fear which is revere and worship his name. Turn from your sins and put your trust in the Son of righteousness. Cling to his wings and be healed. Be faithful, not faithless, and worship him humbly and rightly.
[00:41:06] God loves us and cares how we worship.
[00:41:10] So we must align our hearts and practices with His Word.
[00:41:14] Let's pray.
[00:41:18] Father, thank you for your Word and for your Son, who comes to heal weak and weary people.
[00:41:24] We pray that the sun's rays would penetrate the hearts of those who have previously been hardened to him. Lord, may you soften their hearts and call them to yourself that they would repent and have faith. They would be given new birth, a new life in Christ.
[00:41:41] Lord, help us to love you and be faithful and worship rightly that we may glorify you and walk closely behind you. We pray this in your Son's name, Amen.
