Pastor: Amen. If you would remain standing now and turn to into a copy of the scriptures, we're in Malachi chapter 3.
Pastor: We're going to be looking at verses 13 to 18. Malachi chapter 3, beginning in verse 13 to 18.
Pastor: If you didn't happen to bring your Bible today, there should be a Bible there in front of you, and it can be found on page 802 of the Church Bible. 802 of the Church Bible. Before we read it, let's go again to the Lord in prayer.
Pastor: Our heavenly Father, we thank you that you are not silent, but that you speak. The heavens are declaring your glory, but we come to your word, and it declares to us Jesus. It declares to us forgiveness of our sins in Christ. Lord, I pray that you will unstop our deaf ears, open up our blind eyes, and soften our hardened hearts, that we might receive and rest upon the Lord Jesus Christ as He is freely offered to us in the gospel. Lord, bless your people and comfort your people in Jesus' name, Amen.
Pastor: People of God, hear God's word for us this morning from Malachi chapter 3, beginning in verse 13.
Pastor: [13] “Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ [14] You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God.
Pastor: What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? [15] And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”[16] Then those who 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. [17]“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.
Pastor: [18] 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.
Pastor: He who has ears, let him hear the word of God. Please be seated.
Pastor: One of the greatest fears that people have is not only public speaking, but also reaching the end of their life and realizing most of it was wasted. That's why many people devote themselves to their careers, to families, investments, because we want our lives to be meaningful. We want them to count for something. We want to know that what we gave ourselves to, with our time and our efforts and our money, was worth it to some degree. John Piper famously wrote a book entitled"Don't Waste Your Life. His burden in that book was very
simple: don't spend your life on things that cannot and will not last. Don't exchange eternity for comfort. Don't trade Christ for the world, but Malachi three actually confronts us with a very different fear. These people aren't worried that they've wasted their lives on the world; they're beginning to wonder whether they've wasted their lives on God. It's vain to serve God, as we will see them say. In other words, what have we gotten out of this? We've worshiped you, we've obeyed you, we've sacrificed, and look at us-we're a puny little nation.
simple: Our economy isn't great. In fact, not only is us serving God, God hasn't blessed us. But if you look at the nations around us who have rejected God?
simple: They are the one who are prospering. Is following God actually worth it? Have you ever felt like that, Lord? I've tried to find a Christian spouse and be pure, and you haven't provided for me. While people I know who don't care about you at all or purity, they're married.
simple: They have kids now, and they're happily married. Lord, I've had integrity in my schoolwork, and I've tried to work hard, but my grades aren't the best. Where other students I know are cheating, using ChatGPT for all their assignments, and they're succeeding. They have good grades because of it, but I'm being obedient, and my grades aren't so good. Lord, I've tried to lead my family and raise my children. In the fear and admonition of the Lord, but we are struggling financially or with health issues.
simple: Where our neighbors across the street, who could care less about your name, they have their finances are abundant and they are healthy and joyful. And I hear their kids laughing where my kids are sick. Is it really worth loving God and doing what He commands. Remember too, this is not the world asking this question. This was the people of the church who were asking this question, and God responds to their question, and He responds to them not by giving them an easier life, he doesn't respond to them now with health and wealth, but he responds by lifting up their eyes from today to look to him and to look to eternity. There's going to be three things we're going to consider today. We're going to see a wrong conclusion. We're going to see right company, and then we're going to see the final confirmation or the final verdict. So first, let's look at the wrong conclusion that these people come to in verse 13. God brings another accusation against them. Says, "Your words have been hard against me, they are pressed against God. God addresses their words because out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, and their speech is certainly revealing their heart. But you say, "How have we spoken against you? This should sound like a broken record by now. If you have spent any time with us in Malachi. Every dispute that God has brought before the people, the people respond with how, and it's not a genuine question of please tell us, give us more information. It is the inner lawyer coming up to essentially say, no, we haven't. We how have we done that? Essentially, we haven't done that. They have become so spiritually blind and numb that they don't realize God has even left their worship.
simple: Although they are continuing to do the religious rituals, they aren't worshiping the true and living God any longer. That you can see that in the previous text. It says, "Return to me, and I will return to you. That is, God's no longer there. A building might have church on its sign, but that does not mean that God is there. And it was the case here with this group of people. Their how is a defense.
simple: So God tells them how by repeating to them what they have been saying to each other. In verse 14, it says, "You have said it is vain to serve God.
simple: Vain means empty. It means worthless. It means without profit. They are saying it is pointless to serve God. It doesn't pay. Their expectation is that obedience is transactional, like God is an employee. You know, God, we do what you want with the whole singing and sacrifices, but then we expect something from you, and what we expect from you is better crops, better lives, victory over our enemies. Just things should be easier, more comfortable. They look around and they say in verse 15, and now we call the arrogant blessed. Notice that they are not simply just saying it is vain to serve God; they are also saying it's profitable not to those who reject God are in fact blessed. Evil doers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape. And I think that's actually a mockery of last week's text as well.
simple: Remember, God says, "Put me to the test, and I will bless you.
simple: I will show you. And what they are putting back to God is saying that your enemies are testing you, and they're just getting away with it. You're not doing anything. They are envying those who are openly testing God. You know Asaph in Psalm 73, he wrestles with this too. He says, "I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. But if you look further into that psalm, Asaph doesn't just leave it there; he brings it to the Lord. But Malachi's generation is not doing that. What they are saying, they're not-they're not bringing their requests or laments even to God, they're just talking amongst each other rather than God. They are simply accusing God rather than seeking Him. They are grumbling rather than praying. Instead of strengthening one another's faith, they are strengthening one another's unbelief. They're.
simple: Sermons to each other. If God doesn't give us the life we thought obedience should purchase, God isn't worth serving.
simple: And the text says, you know, we're doing all these mourning.
simple: When God tells us to mourn, we mourn and we weep and we put the ashes and we sit and we look like we're sad and remorseful and we're doing all these things, but God doesn't then give to us the life that we're expecting. God isn't worth serving. One of the challenges I think for us is to consider our own speech. What kind of sermons are we preaching to each other in our conversations? Oh, do our conversations reveal that the only things that matter are the things that we see? What's really important in life is weather and sports, finances, and even family. Or do our conversations with one another help us to see Christ more clearly, to remember His promises to encourage him, to encourage one another, to trust him and to follow him. And what we see here, cynicism has spread through Israel like wildfire, and the entire and the entire church is asking, "What's the point? God has ceased to be their treasure. God has become the means of simply getting a treasure. This is very much like the parable of the prodigal son.
simple: Actually, the two sons, and remember, both of the sons did not want the father; they want the father's stuff. But one is simply going out and trying to get it in open rebellion, where the other one is trying to get it out of manipulation from the Father. I deserve this, rather than treasuring their Father, and that's what Israel is doing here. They are simply wanting God's stuff rather than God Himself. But not everyone. Verse
16: We have the right company.
16: Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. Not everyone had abandoned the Lord.
16: Not everyone had become cynical.
16: Not everyone had concluded that serving God was pointless.
16: Throughout the history of redemption, God has kept a remnant, a people for Himself,
and notice this: what the people did. They speak to one another about God and are strengthening each other's faith. That they are gathering together, they are reminding each other who God is, that God has not forgotten His covenant, that He is faithful. I think we are either helping one another interpret God through our circumstances, or helping one another interpret our circumstances through God. The Christian life, as we already talked in membership, was never meant to be left alone, to be alone. Hebrews three says, "But exhort one another every day, as long it is is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. When one believer grows discouraged or weary, we tell them,"Remember eternity. Remember your Father. Remember God's promises. Remember Christ, how He spilt His precious blood for you. This is what those who fear the Lord gather to do. To fear the Lord doesn't simply mean to be terrified. It it means all majesty to to be reminded of the love of God in Christ. Verse 16.
and notice this: Look what they are doing. They are esteeming the name of God.
and notice this: His name is high and lifted up.
and notice this: This is what we cherish. This is what we delight in. They are being captivated by God, not just the stuff He could give them. Real worship is coming, not trying to manipulate God, but coming and delighting in God because He is infinitely worthy.
and notice this: John Piper quotes, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him, and that's exactly the issue here in Malachi. The wicked found their satisfaction in prosperity, but the faithful here are finding their satisfaction in God, and the Lord paid attention and heard them. The text says God had heard the complaints of the wicked, but now He hears the quiet conversations of His people. Every late conversation you had with your teenager revolving around God, God heard it. Every prayer that you have uttered, every family devotion, every shed tear, God sees and notices. The world will not care, and neither will it celebrate any acts of your faithfulness. But here, this text reminds us that God sees and He does not forget. In fact, we are told a book of remembrance. Was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed His name.
and notice this: Back in the day, kings used to keep books of remembrance, writing down faithful acts of those who would serve the king or the kingdom. You see an example of this in Esther, where the king is restless at night and he wakes up and he opens up a book of remembrance and sees Mordecai's name. It's like we need to reward Mordecai for what he has done, and that's the picture that Malachi is using.
and notice this: That God has His own book, and that every act of faith and trust and obedience to Him, even in secret, is not lost. It is not forgotten. What you think no teacher or parent or boss saw, God did, and He remembers. The world will not notice your faithfulness. They will not celebrate it. Your children might never know how much you have prayed for them or cried for them. No one may know the cost that it has meant to your business to be truthful and honest. No med, nobody might applaud your quiet acts of obedience in your house, but God remembers His people, and He knows who are His. And this final confirmation, after listening to these two conversations, the complaints from the majority, but the praise here from the remnant, God now speaks again in verse 17. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make my treasured possession.
and notice this: The promise here again is not prosperity; it is possession.
and notice this: The greatest treasure God could ever give is not stuff that is fleeting and perishing and passing away, but the greatest treasure is Himself. Throughout Malachi, the people have really been asking, "What profit is there in all this? And God answers, "The prophet is, 'You are mine. You are my precious possession. The God who says the earth is mine and everything in it. Think about God who owns everything. Every star in the sky is His, and He created it.
and notice this: And out of all of creation, He says you are what is my precious possession? You are treasured.
and notice this: You are loved. You are adorned.
and notice this: He says, "I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. It's a very tender picture.
and notice this: Imagine a father looking upon his son. You love your children, don't you? Simply because they're your children. But now imagine, though, a son who loves his father, a son who always delights in his father, a son who always listens to his father, a son who always serves his family and his father.
and notice this: There's a special relationship, a special delight in that relationship. The father looks upon him with affection and says, "This is not simply my son, but this is my son in whom I am well pleased. God says that is how I will regard my people.
and notice this: I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.
and notice this: But that word "spare" there should cause us to stop. Spared from what? Because if they need to be spared, something is coming, and so what is this text reminding us of? The final day, a final judgment, a final verdict. And here's the problem that the text presents for us as well as the people of Israel: Why should God spare us? Because we haven't been obedient sons or daughters that are described here. We've complained against God, haven't we? We've questioned His goodness time and time again. We've envied the wicked. We have served Him halfheartedly. We've sometimes wondered whether obedience was worth it after all. We've treated God as He owes us stuff.
and notice this: So why should the Father spare us? Because there was another Son, Jesus Christ, and unlike us, He perfectly served His Father. He never once said it is vain to serve God, even when Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world, even when his own people rejected him, even when his disciples abandoned him, even in Gethsemane when obedience meant drinking the very cup of wrath.
and notice this: The perfect obedient son said,"Not my will, but yours be done.
and notice this: And he served his father all the way to the cross. The son who deserved to be spared was not spared. That's what Romans eight tells us. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. You see the connection here in this text.
and notice this: You and I might be spared sons and daughters of God, because the Son willingly laid down His life for us. The judgment that should have fallen upon us, the wages of sin is death, fell upon Him. The wrath that should have consumed us consumed him. The condemnation that belonged to rebels fell upon the obedient son. Christ was treated as the rebel, so rebels like us could be received as sons. And now everyone united to Christ by faith can hear the Father say,"Mine, my treasured possession, my son, my daughter. I will spare you. I will treasure you.
and notice this: You will be mine. Malachi isn't finished because there's still one question remaining. Israel's looked around at the world and said, "If all this is true, why can't we see it? Why do the wicked still prosper? Why do the righteous still suffer? Why does serving God sometimes appear to be in vain? And God answers,"You will see. You will one day see. Look beyond today and look a little bit further. Look at verse 18. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and the one who does not serve Him. Then you will see.
and notice this: Right now, you might not see, and that's the tension that's running through this entire passage. We look around, and the distinctions don't always appear to be very clear to us. The man who doesn't care about God gets the promotion. The person that that mocks Christ seems perfectly happy and healthy. The wicked prosper, but some the righteous suffer. Is there a profit in serving God? But here, verse 18 is reminding us there is a day coming, and it is a day when every grave will be opened.
and notice this: A day when every person who has ever lived will stand before the living and true God. They will stand before Christ. A day when all things that seem confused will now become perfectly clear.
and notice this: Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked. And on that day there will be no ambiguity. There will be no hiding, no pretending, no religious formalism. Christ will make the distinction. And notice what Malachi says the distinction ultimately reveals between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.
and notice this: There are ultimately two kinds of people in the world. It's not good people versus bad people.
and notice this: It's not religious people versus irreligious people. It's not respectable people versus scandalous people. It is those who belong to the Lord and those who do not. It is those who have taken refuge in Christ and those who remain under His judgment.
and notice this: And beloved, this day that Malachi is talked about is coming. Every hour, every moment brings us closer to the day when we will stand before Christ. One day you will take your last breath, and whether serving God was worth it will no longer be a theoretical question. You will see, and the world will see, those who traded Christ for a few decades of pleasure will see, and we will see. We will see the King. We will see Jesus.
and notice this: We will see Jesus whose name we esteem and worship. We will see the one whom we spoke about together. We will see His nail scarred hands and feet for us.
and notice this: We will see the Son who was not spared, so that you and I might be spared. And on that day, no one will say, no one will say, it was vain to serve God, but we will all be saying, I wish I had served him better. I wished I had served him harder and not wasted my life on frivolous things and fading things. This text this morning calls us anew to come to Christ, and everyone who does come to Him will never be cast out. When you are weary, when you feel like your obedience is very costly, and when the world seems to be winning, when you wonder whether your prayers or your worship and your your walk of holiness, your service, have accomplished anything, do not judge the value of serving Christ by what you can see today, because a day is coming when that faith will become sight, and then you will see, not one service for Christ was wasted, not one life given to Christ was ever wasted.
and notice this: Soon the King will come and gather up you his treasured possession. He will delight in you and treasure you now through eternity. One day we will see.
and notice this: So be encouraged. Your labor is not in vain. Press onward. Press heaven heavenward. Let's pray.
and notice this: Our heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us your word. And Lord, we are prone to grumble and complain, just like Israel, to doubt you, to doubt your promises, to just see the things that we can, and to value simply the things that we can tangibly touch or smell or taste, and not treasure you, who are the giver of all things good, Lord? We do confess we are just like the prodigal children who just often want the Lord's things and not the Father Himself. Lord, I pray that you will help us to be wise, to be sober-minded, to be warned, to find refuge in Christ. Lord, we thank you that He was not spared, that we might be spared. Lord, be merciful to your people. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.