The REMNANT | Malachi 3:13-18

The Apologetic Dog

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As I was saying absolute blessing to gather together with my church family to be able to sing the truths of God's Word together.

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So this morning we're gonna continue our series through the book of Malachi. So if you would please join me and turn in your copy of God's Word to Malachi chapter 3 starting in verse 13.

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As we've went through Malachi, we've seen many similarities with this ethnic nation of Israel with the church today.

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And perhaps one of the greatest similarities that we're seeing and experiencing is spiritual apathy.

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Now spiritual apathy just means you're going through the motions and almost coldness.

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There's no heart engagement. That is something that is true today that exists within the church.

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And we're seeing so many examples of that in the time of Malachi with Israel.

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And so throughout Malachi, we've seen a pattern of disputes. Israel arrogantly questions the truthfulness of God's Word and yet God is faithful and he meets

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Israel where they are at. And so through it all God is faithful and we see the faithlessness of the people of Israel.

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But we learn this amazing truth. God is unchanging in all of his ways and all of his goodness.

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That means that you can trust in the promises of God because they cannot possibly fail to come about.

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And so God has promised to save a covenant people, a remnant that will be blessed and they will persevere to the end because of God's grace.

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And so that brings us to verse 13 and this is the sixth and final dispute between God and Israel.

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So verse 13 says, your words have been hard against me says the Lord but you say how have we spoken against you?

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You have said it is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping of his charge and of walking as in mourning before the

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Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evil doers not only prosper, but they put

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God to the test and escape. Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another.

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The Lord paid attention and heard them and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the

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Lord and esteemed his name. And then God says they shall be mine says the

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Lord of hosts in the day when I make up my treasured possession I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

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Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked between the one who serves

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God and the one who does not serve him. Let's pray this morning. Heavenly Father God, thank you for all of your goodness, your provision in our lives and sending your one and only son to be our

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Savior. God, I pray that this morning as we work through the text God we would see a massive distinction between the righteous, those who have been transformed by the gospel of grace with the wicked.

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God, the wicked a lot of times manifest themselves in religiosity and gathering together with the true remnant of your people.

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God, please bless us this morning. Please help us not to look to ourselves as an imperfect mediator but looking to you

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Jesus, the perfect high priest of a new and better covenant. Lord, we love you and we praise things in your name.

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Amen. So our passage this morning I want us to kind of bring out four major points that will help us navigate through this text.

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And so number one, we're gonna see God's indictment towards Israel. Number two, we'll see

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Israel's retort back to God. Number three, God will give evidence of Israel's rebellious speech.

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And lastly, number four, we will see God's blessed, faithful remnant that he calls his treasured possession.

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So major point number one, God's indictment towards Israel. Verse 13 says, Your words,

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Israel, have been hard against me. Now Israel has been demonstrating their faithlessness by profaning the covenant, inviting pagan worship into their midst, and they have been presenting sacrifices that are absolute abominations before the

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Lord. And so in verse 13, God is charging Israel with sin, not just because of the things that they've done, but from their blasphemous speech against God Almighty.

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Once again, God says, Your words, Israel, have been hard against me.

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Now I want to take a moment and think about words have meaning when they are spoken.

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In fact, words are a representation of what's truly on the inside. Jesus said in the gospel accounts,

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For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so if you really want to get to know a person, if you really want to know what's on the inside, watch the pattern of their life and watch the things that they say on an ongoing basis.

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That'll tell you who they really are. Have you ever heard someone say, well, all words are just made up.

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And I guess that is true to an extent. But usually what's followed up next is that is meant to justify saying something vile and disgusting.

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Well, all words are just made up so I can say basically whatever I want. Well, scripture reminds us that there is power in the words that we say.

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Proverbs 15, 28 says, The heart of the righteous ponders or studies deeply how we ought to give an answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.

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And so as we're going to see this morning, there is a contrast between the righteous, those that serve

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God from a heart of love and faith, and the wicked that are suppressing the truth of God and their love for sin.

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The righteous ponders how we ought to encourage one another as the saints as we gather together in the body.

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The the righteous care deeply about the words that come out of our mouth that we may honor

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God with our speech. And when we interact with a lost and dying world, we think deeply about how we can articulate truths, the truths of the gospel, and compel them to look to Jesus Christ in faith.

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But the wicked, every bit of their speech is in opposition to God. In fact,

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Jesus continued to say, I tell you on the day of judgment people will give an account for every careless word they speak.

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For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. What an interesting statement, because aren't we justified by faith alone?

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Well, that's absolutely true. But remember the words that you say represent what's on the inside.

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So if your speech is a sweet -smelling aroma desiring to give God glory, well, that speech, you'll be justified by your speech because it represents a heart of faith, right?

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And for every careless word that the wicked just flippantly say day in and day out, they will be held accountable before God Almighty on that final day.

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Here in our text, we read that Israel's not only being careless with their words, but they are explicitly blaspheming the one who knows all things.

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God says your words, Israel, have been hard against me.

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Other good translations of this verse says, you have criticized me sharply. You have spoken arrogantly against me, says the

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Lord. I want us to be almost shocked that Israel would dare speak this way to God Almighty.

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You have mortal man speaking to the creator of the universe and questioning the truthfulness of his word.

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What arrogance, what pride. This is the height of all foolishness.

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And so how does Israel respond? Well, this brings us to our second major point this morning. Israel arrogantly responds to God with a retort.

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So they're not being serious with this question and they say, how have we spoken against you?

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So this is the pattern that we've seen throughout Malachi. God declares his covenantal faithfulness with Israel and then they every single time question what the

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Lord has said and what he has done in their midst. And so when Israel says, how have we spoken against you?

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This is doubling down in their arrogant speech towards God. And once again, this is utter foolishness.

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Because last week we looked at verse 6, this beautiful truth about the immutability of God, right?

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Look with me at verse 6. For I the Lord do not change. We can deduce so many wonderful principles from this verse.

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God is perfect. He's perfect in his character. He's perfect in all of his ways. That is why

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God cannot change. And since God cannot change, that means his knowledge is perfect.

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That means when he says anything, it is fact. It is truth. Numbers 23 19 says,

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God is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should change his mind.

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It is impossible for God to change his mind because God is the God of truth and his promises can be trusted.

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Understand this. When he gives a promise, it cannot fail to come to pass. And so Israel arrogantly is questioning and criticizing the unchanging

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God who knows all things. How could they ever do that? How could anyone question the things of God?

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I do that. You all do. What does Pastor Nathan say? Don't give me that holy look out there.

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We all question the things of God every single time something doesn't go our way and we get mad.

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We grumble and complain. We are actually questioning God's perfect providence for our life.

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And we are saying, well, actually I know what needs to happen in my life. I know better than God. With that being said,

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I want to put a passage on the screen this morning from Philippians chapter 2. The Apostle Paul wants to exhort

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Christians to work out their salvation in fear and trembling, trusting that God has ordained every moment of your life for a sanctifying purpose.

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That passage says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

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And listen to this next verse. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless, innocent children of God.

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Now, this passage has been mangled by so many cult groups and things like that to say, see, you have to work really, really hard to gain salvation or to keep your salvation.

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And context is king. You hear that a lot here at 12 Five Church because Paul has been telling the the members at the

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Church of Philippi, it was actually God that began that good work in you and he is faithful.

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He is faithful to bring that good work that he started to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

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Right? He's the one that regenerates hearts. We experience that. We experience a deep conviction over sin and our need for the perfect Savior.

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And so here we understand that believers are to work out what God first has worked inward.

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He did that heart surgery, that heart change. And so we are to work out our salvation in terms of our sanctification.

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Sanctification is that beautiful doctrine of where we're being conformed more into the image of Christ and less and less like the world.

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And we are compelled to obey all of what Christ has commanded us by the personal indwelling work of the

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Holy Spirit in our life. And so this means every circumstance in the saint's life is for divine sanctifying purpose.

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I really want to impress that because how often do we grumble and dispute about the things that we go through every day?

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Come on, got those holy looks a little bit out there. I'm right there with you. And so Paul is not giving us a law here.

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He's saying think about all the things that Christ has been doing in your life. What do we have to grumble and complain about?

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Right? It goes on in verse 14. It's a negative command. Do all things, saint, without grumbling or disputing.

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When we start having this mindset that God is truly sovereign over all things, well, then verses that say, for all those that love

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Jesus, that love God, all things are working together for our good and for God's glory.

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And so here, do all things without grumbling or disputing. Two key words here. I want to just break down briefly.

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Number one, grumbling. Grumbling in the Greek is gungus mos.

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This is an automotopoeic word, meaning it sounds like what it means. So it should be gungus mos.

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Right? It's kind of raspy. It's kind of a grumbly word, but it's an emotional word.

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It is a sin. It's the sin of an emotional rejection of God's provision for your life.

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Grumbling is a sin. Okay? And it's an emotional sin and it's totally focused on yourself. And so grumbling is a sin.

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And number two, disputing. This word carries the idea of reasoning in your mind, thinking,

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God, I don't really deserve this circumstance that I'm going through. I don't really deserve this trial in my life.

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And so these are dangerous sins together. Grumbling is emotional and disputing is intellectual.

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And when these sins come together, you will have discontentment in the circumstances in your life and you will begin to doubt

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God's sovereignty over all things. You'll begin to reason in your mind that you deserve better and this will lead you to question

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God's providence in your life. I'm not here to give you law this morning because you may be saying, preacher man,

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I get it. I cannot do all things without grumbling and complaining.

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We will fail. We will fail. We will do this often. We will actually utter careless words throughout our life.

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But God, we serve a high priest of a better covenant that cannot fail.

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And praise be to God that Jesus Christ is that perfect high priest of a better covenant.

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When we talk about the new covenant, we're talking about an agreement that Christ has determined to save perfectly every one of those that he intends to save.

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In fact, he cut his blood to guarantee that promise. I want to remind us of another beautiful passage of the perfect high priestly work of Jesus for all of those that are being sanctified.

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Hebrews chapter 10 says this, and every high priest stands daily at his service.

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So let's just pause for a moment. Think about in the times of Malachi, right? We got these sinful high priests that are worried about themselves and the things that they can get if they are obedient to God.

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Sinful high priests that are representing the people of Israel. Their service has to be done on a continual basis.

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Why? Because the old covenant could never save. It gave us law.

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It showed us that we fall short of the glory of God. It is a ministry of death. Therefore those high priests, therefore this priestly hood, they are a representation of fallen man.

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Every high priest under the old covenant, their service is daily, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

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But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool under his feet.

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Verse 14 beautifully says, For by a single offering, he, Jesus, the perfect high priest, has perfected for all time for those who are being sanctified.

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Are y 'all starting to see a contrast with the time of Malachi versus the saints that we are in the new and better covenant?

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We have a perfect high priest. And yes, we are going to fail. But for those of us that are trusting in Christ alone by faith alone, we can now flee to the

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Savior when we sin, when we utter careless words, when we do the things, when we grumble and dispute against God and his sovereignty in our lives.

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We can run to that perfect mediator. And oh yeah, he can empathize with us. He took on flesh.

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He dwelt among us. He knows what we're going through. And he says, covered, paid for in full.

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That should cause the saint to rest eternally secure in the perfect high priest who will never leave us or forsake us.

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Amen? That was a good amen right there. Thank you. So, I want us to have the contrast in mind now as we're going back to Malachi.

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Think about the priests under this old covenant, this older covenant that could actually not save.

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Now it did contain promises of the high priest to come of a better covenant. But these high priests in the time of Malachi, they despised the name of the

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Lord. They offered up sacrifices that were really an abomination to God. And they turned aside and they caused many people in Israel to stumble.

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And no doubt, they are the ones leading the retort, arrogantly saying to God, how have we spoken against you?

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Well, this brings us to our third major point where God gives evidence.

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Not that he had to, because he already said, you are arrogantly questioning me. But God gives evidence of Israel's rebellious speech.

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Look with me at verse 14. God says, And so,

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I just want to once again point out that this is not, they are not sincerely listening to God.

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They are arrogantly thinking that they know better than God. And they are questioning God and his very word.

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God, your word is not good enough, even though you said it. You must prove to us how we have wronged you.

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And so the first thing that the Lord points out is, they have said, it is vain to serve

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God. They are implying that we have kept all the requirements, God, that you have told us to do.

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And that is false. Back in chapter one, they offered up diseased animals as sacrifices.

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What a slap in the face to God. This totally broke the requirements given back in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, when they were supposed to give the first fruits, right?

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A land that had no impurities, no blemishes. And they offered diseased animals to God.

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How dare they? They are the ones saying, it is vain to worship God as though we've done everything you've required of us.

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Then they said this, what is the profit of us obeying your word?

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Another translation says, what do we gain by carrying out his requirements?

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So this highlights their heart problem. They only cared about the benefits that they could gain by complying to God's rules.

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And they didn't even do a good job at that, right? They are delusional. And so that word profit, what is the profit?

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Or what do we gain by carrying out his requirements? That word profit carries the idea of unjust gain or greediness.

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One good example of this in the Old Testament, when Joseph's brothers threw Joseph into the pit, they said, what profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?

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Or Proverbs 15, 27 says, whoever is greedy for unjust gain, troubles his own household.

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So what is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the

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Lord of hosts? They are doubling down once again and saying, God, we've even grieved over our sin and exercised repentance.

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And it was of no benefit to us at all. I just wanna tell you, this is spiritual apathy at its finest.

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They are going through the motions of seeming religious, seeming like they're walking with God, but their hearts are far from him, right?

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They are putting an outward show and display for everyone else to see, but God knows the heart.

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In fact, look with me at Malachi 2, verse 13. This might've been the time that they had in mind and said,

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God, we have wept, we have been grieved, we have showed repentance and it's all been for nothing.

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Malachi 2, 13 says, and this 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.

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This is not genuine repentance. This is an outward display of emotion from the priest because they are barred from having access with God.

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What I'm trying to drive home here is they were grieved about the consequences of their sin, but they were not grieved against the one whom they've sinned against.

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The New Testament warns us of what false repentance looks like. In fact,

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I believe we have the scripture on the screen. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, 10, for the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation.

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So many scriptures, I believe in the Beatitudes, it says, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.

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There is a godly sorrow. When you're broken over your sin because you've offended the

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God of the universe who is holy, holy, holy. That should break our hearts.

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And it should break our hearts having a contrite broken spirit and then it forces us to look to Jesus Christ, the only

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Savior. There is a kind of brokenness over your sin that leads to salvation.

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Jesus said, repent and believe the gospel for the kingdom of God. Salvation is at hand.

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That repentance looks inward and realizes broken, fallen short of the glory of God.

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And it turns, a heart change happens and looks to the Savior in saving faith.

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But there's also a warning here in this verse, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

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And human to human, that's hard to discern because we can't see the heart. And in Israel's case, they are weeping, they are mourning, they're tearing their clothes,

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I'm sure they're really upset. But what we're learning is they're upset about the consequences. They're not upset that they've offended

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God. How do we know that? They are arrogantly questioning God. Real repentance seeks to obey

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God from a heart of love and humility and forsakes that sin. But when we do stumble, when we do utter careless words, when we do grumble and complain against our circumstances, we flee to the

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Savior and confess our sin to Him. Verse 15, Israel continues doubling down on their complaining with God.

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And they say, And now we call the arrogant, blessed evildoers not only prosper, but they put

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God to the test and escape. Do y 'all see the irony going on here? Israel is saying all these pagan nations, well, they're the arrogant ones, they're the evildoers.

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But what is God charging them with? He is saying y 'all are the ones with arrogant speech.

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In fact, y 'all's heart intent is evil. Y 'all are committing abominations in my sight and despising my holy name.

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Israel, they're pointing the finger to everybody else. And yet, what? Is there at least three fingers pointing back at them?

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Hypocrisy. And to make matters worse, Israel is trying to use God's own words against Him.

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Back in verse 10, we see that God actually says, Put me to the test. This is very unique in the

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Old Testament because we see many times saying it is sinful to put God to the test. And so here back in verse 10, the

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Lord is serious that He will bless those that revere His holy name and seek to honor and serve

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Him from a heart of worship. And so before we look at verse 10, Israel says evildoers not only prosper, but they put

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God to the test. They're trying to use God's own words, His own words against Him.

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Verse 10 says, Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.

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And thereby, the Lord says, put me to the test. If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

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You know the only thing that they heard there? Well, they heard put Him to the test. They're like, okay, we'll do the right stuff. And blessing.

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Give us all the stuff. They're looking at God like an ATM machine. If I can just put in the work, then

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He can give me the stuff that I want. And so no wonder Israel, when they look at all the temporarily prospering wicked, they are becoming jealous because they are not worshiping

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God from a heart of love and humility. Why do the wicked prosper? I believe all of us struggle with this question to some degree.

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I know I do. I will drive down, you know, Jonesboro. A lot of times I will see churches with huge buildings, no doubt a huge budget and all these resources.

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And I know that they openly celebrate sin. God, why do the wicked prosper?

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Maybe at work, you've been working really, really hard and you're barely paying your bills trying to provide for your family and you're giving

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God all the worship and honor. And yet your coworker who hates God gets all the promotions.

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God, why do the wicked prosper? I think we struggle with this kind of question.

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We see it all throughout the Old Testament. And perhaps a better question is, why are we tempted to be jealous of the wicked?

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Do they have something we don't? We lose perspective. Don't we? Right? We have an eternal reward.

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We have a relationship with the God who is sovereign over all things.

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So our end is to be with him in glory. In fact, to die is Christ. That means to die is

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Christ, but to live is Christ. There we go. To live is Christ, but to die is gain.

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That doesn't mean to live as Christ is doom and gloom. To live as Christ is joy.

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It only gets better. Okay? So we lose that perspective sometimes. And we also lose the perspective that the ultimate fate of the wicked is eternal justice.

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And so I have another passage I want to put on the screen where King David wrestled with this same question and in fact turned it around to encourage the saints.

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He says, fret not yourselves because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers.

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Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. I love that. Be still,

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Jeremiah. Take a deep breath. It's going to be okay. Be still before the

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Lord and wait on his perfect timing. Fret not yourselves over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices.

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Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not. Don't worry because it only tends to evil.

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Can you identify with that? The more you worry, the more you get upset, doesn't that hurt your heart and you start losing that perspective?

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He goes on to say, turn away from evil and do good. So shall you dwell forever for the Lord loves justice.

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He will not forsake the saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.

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The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. Why did the wicked prosper?

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A lot of times we forget our perspective. God sees everything and he is not forgetting about his children.

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Why did the wicked prosper? Let me tell you this. It's to challenge us to know if we are walking by faith or we are walking by sight.

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Asaph said in the 73rd Psalm, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

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But when I thought about how to understand this, Asaph says, it seemed like a wearisome task.

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He's probably dwelling on it a little bit too long, getting discouraged. Then he says this, but then I went into the sanctuary of God and I discerned the end of the wicked.

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The Christian, the saint, we are to have our hearts and mind renewed of an eternal reward in Christ.

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What hope does the wicked have? None because they will face God on judgment day.

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God without question is sovereign and has a purpose for the wicked temporarily prospering, but that does not mean that he does not see what's going on in our life.

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In fact, how does God primarily sanctify his people? It's by giving us trials.

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It's by giving us hardship so our faith may be strengthened to rely on Christ. In times of suffering, we oftentimes learn that God's grace is sufficient for us.

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In our times of weaknesses, that is the time where Christ is most magnified. I do think it's natural to wonder about the question, why do the wicked prosper?

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Well, we forget that these stubborn, hardhearted people do not deserve

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God's grace and mercy, but that used to be us. Right? So when the wicked are prospering, what should you do?

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Pray for them. God, give me an opportunity to share Christ to them. I know that you are working all things together after the counsel of your will.

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We forget that we once were stubborn and hardhearted too, but God. In fact,

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I have a couple of verses that are beautiful reminders for us of what God saved us out of.

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Paul said, And such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified.

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You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. We were once wandering around in this broken and fallen world in the darkness.

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Right? You were dead in the trespasses and sins, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love in which he loved us, he miraculously made us alive.

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He performed that heart surgery. He transformed that heart of stone, that stubborn heart that spit at God.

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Just uttering every careless word and not thinking once about the kingdom. God does something miraculous.

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He saves us by his grace. Understand, spiritual apathy is spinning your wheels, seeing what you can do and just giving a show.

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And understand, the saints can fall into those seasons, but we can rest assured that Christ will never leave us or forsake us.

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That's why when we preach these truths, it wakes up the remnant. It wakes up the remnant saying, oh yeah, we need to trust in God and having that eternal perspective.

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And so this brings us to our fourth point. God has a blessed, faithful remnant.

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Verse 16, Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention to them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the

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Lord and esteemed his name. Now, oftentimes throughout scripture, we come across the word remnant.

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What that simply means is it's a small portion of the whole. And so the blessed remnant of God is the true church, the body of Christ, those who have been chosen out of the billions and billions of people that have ever existed.

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And verse 16 identifies God's remnant as those who feared the Lord. Again, we ask the question, why does

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God allow the wicked to prosper? We see that it causes the real people of God, the remnant to greater faithfulness.

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This will purify the church. As we're looking at the world around us and we get upset, there's a little bit of righteous indignation.

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Well, it causes the saints to rally together to one another and pray that God would protect us.

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And as we look at church history, this is what we see time and time again, when heretics would rise up and start to cast doubt and distort the doctrine of the

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Trinity or the nature of Jesus Christ. Almost every single creed from the church was a result of the faithful rising up to unify and to contend for the truth.

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That's what we're seeing here in the time of Malachi. The wicked are prospering, and the majority of the nation of Israel are arrogantly questioning

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God. And then those who feared the Lord, those who revere God from the heart and worship, they begin to rally together and speak with one another.

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The text goes on to say, the Lord paid attention to them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the

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Lord and esteemed his name. So this book of remembrance. In ancient times, kings would keep a book of remembrance for those that did mighty deeds.

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And the king wanted to remember to reward them one day. And so this is beautiful imagery because God has perfect knowledge.

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He doesn't need to keep a book to remember who has done what, but God meets us where we're at.

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He speaks to us in metaphors and parables in ways that we can truly understand God. And so when

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Malachi was giving the oracle from the Lord and they heard this book of remembrance, they knew exactly what this represented.

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This book of remembrance was God's way of telling the remnant, everything that you're doing is not being overlooked.

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I will reward you one day on that great and final day. This was meant to bless the remnant of God.

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This was a promise that when his judgment comes on the wicked, they will be protected by his love.

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Verse 17. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when

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I make up my treasured possession, I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

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This is the blessed remnant of God. They are God's treasured possession.

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Here's the point. I'm really wanting us to sit on this for a moment. The greatest blessing for the remnant of God is not the possessions that we receive from God, but it is to be possessed by God.

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Our greatest treasure is to be treasured by God almighty. Our greatest treasure is to know

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Christ, the chosen one, to live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

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The text says in that day, that great and final day, we will be raised to glory with Jesus Christ for all eternity.

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Amen. That gets me fired up back there. We continue to read.

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I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Do you see this familial language?

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A father loving his son. God loves his children. He loves the saints.

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He loves his treasured possession. And so our life of serving him ought to be a labor of love.

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And on that great and final day, it is his love that will protect us. Verse 18.

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Then once more, you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, the one who serves

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God and the one who does not serve him. For I, the

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Lord, do not change. God's justice and his mercy will be perfectly executed on that day.

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And he will separate the sheep from the goats. I'm reminded back in Malachi 2 verse 17,

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Israel asked this blasphemous question. They said, where is the God of justice? Well, he is in your midst.

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He is the one that you are arrogantly questioning every step of the way. He is the true

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God who knows all things. And oh yeah, he has a book of remembrance and he will perfectly reward the righteous and he will perfectly judge the wicked.

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As we begin to close, I actually want to invite you to turn with me in your copy of God's word to Matthew chapter 25.

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I want us to look at the great words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 25, starting in verse 31, where he gives us imagery of what this great and final day, what it will look like.

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And he speaks about the distinction between the righteous, those that lovingly serve

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God from a heart of faith. And he talks about the wicked, those that professed in spiritual apathy to serve

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God, but they never truly knew him. Matthew 25, starting in verse 31,

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Jesus says, when the son of man comes in glory, in his glory and all angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

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Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

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And he will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the

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King, I love that, the King, King Jesus will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared before you before the foundation of the world.

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This is that moment where we will hear those sweet words, well done, good faithful servant.

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I'm looking forward to that day, amen. Verse 35, for I was hungry,

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Jesus said, and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

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I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.

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Then the righteous will answer Jesus saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you and thirsty and give you drink?

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And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you naked and clothed you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

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And the King will answer them. Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

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Beautiful service, right? A heart of love, revering the Lord on high, loving the saints, loving people, sharing the truth of God's word.

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Verse 41, then the King, he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

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For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.

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I was naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. And then the wicked, they're gonna answer to Jesus and say,

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Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?

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Well, the King, he will answer them saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to the one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

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No service, no love for God, only self -righteousness and living your life for yourself.

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Oh, these people, verse 46, and these wicked will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

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My question is, do you serve God? Do you serve

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God? If the answer is no, and rarely would people actually say those words, but you know.

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If the answer is no, I don't serve God and I know it and God knows it. Jesus makes it very clear that on that final day, perfect justice for those who have rebelled against the

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King and sinned against almighty God. Now there is good news.

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It's the gospel, right? You can look to Jesus by faith alone, trusting in him and not trusting in your accomplishments, not trusting in your outward service of doing things, right?

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But putting your faith alone in Christ alone. There's good news. Do you serve

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God? Well, yes, Jeremiah, I serve God. I go to church, I give, I help the poor and needy.

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I do all the stuff that God requires of me. Well, that sounds like Israel.

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Israel did many outward things that God required of them and it was all spiritual apathy, going through the motions.

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And you know what they concluded? It was all worthless because they were not getting the things that they wanted.

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They cared more about the gifts rather than the gift giver. Do you serve

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God? And if you are a part of the remnant, that blessed, faithful covenant of God, then we can sing praise to God.

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We have tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. Our greatest treasure is to be treasured by him on that great and final day.

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Dear Saint, there is a chapter about your life in the book of Remembrance.

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What's it gonna say? How long is it going to be? Will it abound with speaking about the

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Lord? Will it abound with works done to the glory of God? Will you speak often to the

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Lord and it's recorded? Or are you wanting to serve God by loving others well?

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What is that chapter going to say about your life? Be encouraged,

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Saint. The closing words of 1 Corinthians 15 says, therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

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Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is never in vain. Amen.