Book of Malachi - Ch. 3, Vs. 9-14 (06/11/2023)

All right, good morning everybody Yes, sir Can't say it enough.

It is a good morning. Y 'all can turn to Malachi chapter 3 We got the whole gang with us today

It's great to have Everyone back from traveling You know sometimes

As we know the Lord's ways are not our ways and Every now and then he works

In ways that you know might not be to our liking because of our lack of understanding lack of knowledge, which of course he has

Perfect in both cases But every now and then he reminds us he gives us a great reminder of Just how protected we are and And You know how?

He gives us little reminders he tells us that he restrains the the evil Minds of men and every now and then he'll give us

You know a little bit of what it looks like when that restraint is removed and Of course we have examples of in the

Bible to notably Romans 1 is a great example and When we see that You know, we're we're either reminded or made aware of Literally without him holding everything together and without having his hand not only of Protection over his kids, but also of restraint over You know the wicked ones around us the heathen

It would be total chaos and so Again, every now and then we're reminded of how protected we are and we had one of those

Yesterday and so today we get to rejoice and celebrate because we

Had a very potent example of how much he's watching over us and protecting us and it's a great reminder when we go through, you know tough things where He's giving us an example and he is teaching us something through the ways in which he works to just constantly

Immerse all of our loved ones all of our family all of our church family in prayer constantly continually

Because he doesn't want us to forget this isn't our home and we are just sojourners.

We are we are ambassadors And so we need to constantly be asking him to protect us while we're in this strange land and of course to be good stewards and to Accomplish what he wants us to accomplish and to ask for his protection while we do it

And again, he's right there to protect us and so That is always important to remember but Anyway, very glad to have everyone back with us today

We're gonna pick up in verse 8. So last week we ended We were in Malachi Chapter 3 we did verses 7 and 8

I'm gonna go ahead and pick it back up at 8 again, though Because we'll need that for a little bit of context going into the following verses, which will be new material for today.

So in verse 7 We are

Malachi the Prophet returns his focus back to the sins of the people of God at that time the

Israelites and He reminds them that we have gone that they have gone far away from his ordinances

That's going to be a key here in a few verses when we get a few interesting statements from the

Israelites themselves He says you have gone far away from our ordinances And then he of course tells them to return it to me and I'll return it to you and they ask

God The question that statement they ask him how should we return to you and he doesn't answer that question, which is really interesting

We covered that in detail last week and then you get to verse 8 And it says will a will a man rob

God this is God talking there was prophet will a man rob God yet He have robbed me, but ye say wherein have we robbed thee?

How have we robbed you and then he gives them a very plain answer in tithes and offerings

And we talked a little bit about last week about those tithes what they represented what they went toward when they were paid

And all that kind of stuff So we'll segue right into verse 9 now ye are cursed with the curse

This is right on on the backside of him letting them know you have been robbing me of my tithes and offerings as A result you are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation

Now of course since the temple By which these tithes and offerings were made

Put into into practical application because that temple is God's house, which he tells us here in the next verse

If these priests And if the P I'm sorry if the people who are supposed to be supporting the priests and supporting the temple worship through their tithes and offerings if they

Stopped doing that Then the temple worship is going to stop as well

If they stop supporting the ministry And supporting the priests supporting the

Levites the then it's considered equal with robbing God himself Now again in here in a couple of verses

We're going to be made a little bit more aware of the the curse that they are currently under for the offenses for this particular offense by not tithing and offering

And by not tithing and giving offerings they are literally robbing God last week

We talked about the the fact that thievery is is no small matter there's a commandment and the

Ten Commandments for stealing and The Israelites knew this this was like a part of their

Their very identity were of course the laws of Moses, but the Ten Commandments particularly they had this divine moral code that they were able to set all of their standards on upon and So they had that and they knew that stealing was again.

No small matter It was it was a wicked egregious sin to commit that even against a fellow citizen a fellow man and Yet here they are

Talk about the peak of their foolishness doing that very thing to the

Lord there's a little bit of a parallel if you go back in the earlier chapters of Malachi where They are offering polluted and defiled sacrifices upon the

Lord's table his altar and God is like look or is that how you would act to your earthly masters?

Would you you know you were under the rule that they were under the rule of the Persians at the time? And he even used that as an example.

He said would you place? something so defiled a lame animal that you have been killed upon the table of your governor, and that's a

Hebrew word referring to a Persian ruler and So he gives them that contrast you would not do this to your earthly masters.

Why are you doing it to me? Well here we are yet again. They know that They can't they can't rob like stealing from their their fellow citizen that they know that that is a very

High offense and yet here they are doing it to God himself again by withholding tithes and offerings and so again, we're gonna this is this is no small matter and Here in the next few verses is gonna flesh out a little bit of how seriously

God is taking this says in verse 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse

That there may be meat in mine house Improve me now herewith say at the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing

That there shall be room enough to receive it so here when he says that very first The very first phrase there

Bringing all the tithes in the storehouse. There's the hint that we have to understand that That they were not giving all that they should have been they were withholding.

I Don't think it's somewhere in my notes. Maybe we'll get to in a second but essentially we know that the people were dealing with a with a big problem in Their lack of faith at this point in their history.

They had kind of given up to some degree they Are now 70 years post -exile from Babylon Temple worship was restored and yet where's their

Messiah? Where's their king that they were promised from all of these prophets before them? Where's the kingdom?

We're still being bossed around by the this heathen nation and Yeah, we got our temple back.

But look how good you know, look what good this is doing. I mean, we're still You know again, where's our kingdom?

Where's our king? They had a tremendous lack of faith in all of the prophets that they had been given up to this point and all of the prophecies that have been given to them up at this point and so You have a lack of faith and you can imagine with that lack of faith

They would probably wonder why are we even giving our money our heart our hard -earned money? to These priests, you know, what good is that gonna do so they were withholding at least a portion of them

We don't know how much exactly could have been a large amount could have been the majority of what they were supposed to be given They were withholding

What they should have been given and so verse 10 makes that clear bring ye all the tithes in the storehouse There may be meat in mine house

And prove me that are herewith. So again God is here giving specific instructions to them

And again, we talked about this at length last week, but it's as if they even needed it They had all the instruction you could ever need to live a righteous life

To walk according to the ordinances of God they had all of it I mean Malachi is the final prophecy written in the entire

Old Testament canon. So there's no telling how much they had possibly all of Leading all the way up to Malachi The oracles of God all of the prophet all of the minor and major prophets

They certainly had the five books of Moses. They certainly had the histories they had all of that So as if they needed to be reminded here, they are

God gives them more instructions Or I should say not more instructions, but a reminder of the instructions they already had

On how to fix their problems that they're dealing with here So all of the wonderful blessings that are laid out in Deuteronomy chapter 28

I think we read this either last week or maybe even before that Deuteronomy 28 1 through 14 it lays out a

Marriott of wonderful blessings that they have access to they can you know, reach out and grab whatever they want

If they obey the Lord, I mean it's very simple terms if they obey his voice then they will be blessed so those for first 14 verses of Deuteronomy chapter 8, they're essentially reaffirmed here and Again, kind of quote -unquote ready for the taking on the side of Israel.

He tells them Prove me here now herewith say the Lord of hosts If I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to Receive it if you will just tithe all that you're supposed to I will open the windows of heaven

Bring rain and you will have such a bountiful harvest that there's not even gonna be enough room to restore it in So he all he's doing is he's reaffirming

One of many of the blessings that are laid out all the way back in the times of Moses It's not new information, but he is so gracious and he is so patient that he's given them a reminder of it here

God is setting the conditions for the return of these blessings by telling them to bring their tithes to the

Storehouses as it puts it in verse 10 And you know that I'm sure that it's referring to maybe rooms in the temple for the tithed grain that they would be

Tithing again toward the Levites and then a portion of that to the priests and So on and so forth verse 11 says and I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes

And he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground. He's going to One of the curses they were on it was it was

One of the curses they were under was very much an economic curse. They were were not reaping very bountiful harvests

Here the devourer perhaps referring to the locusts the grasshoppers, whatever may be that has been destroying their crops

He's saying I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes. Isn't it interesting. This is just a quick aside

You know, we remember Jesus rebuking the sea in the boat when his disciples were all scared and stuff like that It's interesting thinking about God rebuking his creation

Every time I see a passage where he makes it abundantly clear that he we know he has the power to do so But when he gives us an explicit example of him doing it rebuking the locusts

It's pretty crazy. It's I love that kind of stuff Just a great reminder of his sovereignty, of course,

I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes He shall not destroy the few or the fruits of your ground. So your harvests will be

Bountiful once again, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field sayeth the

Lord of hosts verse 12 and all nations shall call you blessed Again let's get let's put ourselves in the historical context of Malachi Last book of the

Old Testament canon right before we enter roughly 400 years of silence no prophets

While there was certainly still a remnant an elect remnant throughout that part of Israel's history no prophets no men of God there to provide new revelation to the people 400 years of darkness in the sense of God actually talking and communing with his people

That is right on the other side of this book Before that happens though. He is telling them if you will

Return to my ordinances obey me Tithe all that you're supposed to tithe. I will bless you to such a degree.

You'll have no room for all of your fruits and Your harvest that you will reap and he's saying and he tells them yet again all the nations will call you blessed

That does not sound like what takes place in the following 400 years does it so what does that tell you guys?

They did not heed these warnings very well, did they? If at all now, it's interesting because in some of the following verses of this chapter starting around verse 16

We do hear from the remnant that existed at this time. But as far as the collective nation their lack of faithfulness their their

You know total A lack of desire to return to the ordinances here the obeying his voice

Hence the result of 400 years of darkness But he's telling them all you have to do is return to me

Obey, my voice all nations shall call you blessed for ye shall be a delightsome land Save the

Lord of hosts there. They are literally just a few actions away from there

You know the from their promised land in all practical terms

Even here at this point at the end of the Old Testament when we know that what takes place after but They had just as much of an ability to return to the

Lord as they had in all previous centuries so if they did these things

God would pour out blessing upon them again and Additionally these blessings would reverse the economic turmoil that they were experiencing at that time

And we covered that a lot in our introduction to the book many months ago at this point But in the first chapter as well these blessings though were conditional upon their obedience

So we've covered that pretty well I mean he it has been made abundantly clear to them time and time again throughout just this book and they were constantly pointed back

To the priests were pointed back to Leviticus In the first couple chapters of Malachi the people are being pointed back to Deuteronomy These words of Moses where he is telling them exactly what needs to happen in order to get all these blessings

And it's it all stems from obedience. I mean, yes, there's the tithing there's proper sacrifices

There's proper temple worship that needs to be done All of these various things but it all stems from one simple thing and that is obedience to the

Word of God Which they weren't doing Verse 13 says your words have been stout against me sayeth the

Lord and here they are once again questioning God's statement here Yet ye say what have we spoken so much against thee?

Now this is interesting here Because we have another somewhat stark contrast

With the blessings that the Lord has has been extending to Israel again You look in verse 12 you look at verse 10 11 and 12

He is reaffirming these blessings right and then it kind of culminates into verse 12 and all nations shall call you blessed

Here in in in the statement that they are now making or I should say the statement that God makes and then they're questioning

Beyond that is again in contrast with the blessings that the Lord was just talking about in the previous verses

The reason we have a contrast here is because the harsh words That they were speaking which we're about to be told what those words were in a broad sense

But we're about to be told what those words were The harsh words they were speaking were contradicting the very promises that the

Lord Himself was just reaffirming and again the previous verses verses 10 through 12 that we just read they were

It's like they were totally It's like they were little kids covering up their ears so they didn't have to hear what

God was telling them because they didn't want to feel like they were in trouble and they Uncovered their ears and he says your words have been stout against me and they ask how

God's about to tell them how and again it stands in stark contrast with the very blessings that he was just reaffirming in those previous verses as They questioned the

Lord's statement here. We have yet another example of The ignorance that these people were at least trying to portray this goes back to a question that Matt asked last week in that we've

Really kind of visited past few lessons and that is Was their ignorance of their sin?

legitimate ignorance in other words without knowledge or information Or was it kind of a willful ignorance where they had the information they knew it

But they were just trying to play this Play this game of like whiny little kids like I didn't know you told me that kind of thing

We're not told but as we covered last week it doesn't really matter either way whether it was true legitimate ignorance or willful ignorance because They had all of the words of God all they had all the scriptures

Either way that they had all the answers to these problems into these questions. They're asking again

God we get a great example of God's patience Toward his people in this book throughout the whole book of Malachi because they asked these ridiculously dumb questions and Only once did he not answer it all the answers were provided throughout the

Old Testament to them already, which they had access to they had all these oracles and Yet when they ask these dumb questions, and they are

Fundamentally dumb he answers them anyway and He extends that patience even more and so Again, they're portraying this kind of they're trying to portray this ignorance of their own

Sin, they're trying to portray an ignorance in regard specific regard to the sins against God that they've been making because God Again through Malachi time after time has been making these statements

You have been offering defiled sacrifices You have profaned my name you have questioned my love for you

Here he says you have made you have Been stout words you have made stout words against me

He's making all these statements they question every single one of them And so they are acting like they have no idea

That they are actually acting in in sin in a multiple variety of sins

Continually as it makes pretty clear throughout the book as well These guys they don't see anything wrong with the way they've been living apparently based on their questioning

And again questions God's charge against them think about again, the they were deliberately divorcing their

Hebrew wives the wives of their youth just so that they could go off and marry the pagan women which of course was

They had been told on numerous occasions to never do They were doing that Again, they were profaning the name of the

Lord. They were defiling his sacrifices. They were questioning his love for them They were they were stout. They were they were

They're stout in their words against God and in they are acting like they have no idea

Why they'd be be rebuked right now. We've revisited this theme several times in all three chapters up to this point

It's because it keeps coming back. They continue to question and they continue to Act ignorant of their sins and just totally you know, whatever again

Are they just playing a game here? Is it legitimate doesn't matter because they had God's Word to learn all these things from verse 14 is fascinating and Let's yeah, let's just read it really quick and then we'll pull some stuff out of it

It is really interesting verse 14 says ye have said and pay really close attention to this

Now first of all, we're about to be told what these stout words were like like kind of what was the root?

What what's a broad way of God to describe their stout words against him that he Claimed in verse 13.

We're about to be told that in verse 14 yet. He have said in Answer to their question.

He's given them an answer yet again. It is vain to serve God. I Would say that's a pretty stout statement to make toward him.

Wouldn't you say it is vain to serve God? I mean that's a

You know I in in reading through Malachi a couple of times just to kind of stay on top of like what's to come and Things it'll be covered.

I read over verse 14 a few times and it wasn't until You know getting ready for the lesson that involved it where I was that I kind of honed in on that Statement there and Again, the audacity of the people is just unparalleled

It is vain to serve God this is a statement that they were making themselves and God tells them clearly this is this is what

I'm talking about. You've been stout You have made stout words against me. You have told me that it is vain to serve me and he gives him a follow -up

Statement that they have been making themselves just as a reminder and you have said What prophet is it that we have kept his ordinances?

And that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts so they make a couple of claims there

They claim and this is the important part. We're gonna be fleshing out for quite a bit here

They make a couple of claims one and it's really interesting They claim that they have been keeping his ordinances pretty interesting claim and two

They've been claiming that they have been walking mournfully before the Lord of hosts as if to say, you know

When we do bad we feel bad about it and we we mourn About it and you know, perhaps it's reference to the repentance of sins or something of that sort

We have been walking mournfully before the Lord of hosts. But what benefit has that had is essentially what they're getting at here

Really brash statements that they're making so we've got a lot going on in this particular verse

Number one, we've seen over and over again and I said this a second ago the audacity behind the attitudes of the people

And more importantly, although I mean it goes pretty hand -in -hand with the audacity

Of their attitudes, but their lack of fear so they can make these statements

Because they have zero fear for the Lord at this at this time in history It is vain to serve

God, I mean how how much more Unfearful could you be in Your very creator to make a statement like that and so here we are the audacity their audacious

Statements as well as their lack of fear. It's on full display of once more in verse 14 now Ironically in this door,

I kind of want to park for a minute It's weird there there's a couple of things here number one the people seem to be kind of in a sense

Yeah, so think with me for a second about the rebuke that they've been getting for you know verse after verse throughout

Malachi They've been getting rebuked for all these things they have been indicted for a number of Sins against God there have been these charges made against them in a sense.

It feels like they are kind of indicting themselves Here in verse 14 because what they were doing is they were indicating that in you, you know

Pay close attention to the language here that their own worship and that their own services of the

Lord Was empty What did they say it is vain to serve God That's implying that their service of him doesn't bring any benefits

So they are implying that their very worship that they had been doing was empty

It wasn't it wasn't bringing blessing like they were told it would And They say what prophet is it that we have kept his ordinances

We have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts So now I ask

They are they are now claiming that their own worship that their own service of the

Lord Was empty again. It was not bearing fruit Was not this the exact same charge the exact same point rather That God was making himself to them

Earlier in the book now, we have to go back a little bit. But look at chapter 1 verse 13 of Malachi it says this is the

Lord talking to them and this is right on the other side of the defiled sacrifices polluted bread

Profaning his name. He says he said also behold what a weariness is it and We have snuffed at it saying the

Lord of hosts here. Let me go up one more verse actually This will help a little bit

But ye have profaned it and he's talking about his name. You have profaned my name in verse 12 of chapter 1 in that ye say the table of the

Lord is Polluted in the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible Ye said also behold what a weariness is it and ye have snuffed at it

Sayeth the Lord of hosts and ye brought that which was torn in the lame and the sick these this is reference to those defiled

Sacrifices just like whatever they could get the roadkill and throw that on the altar and they'd be good to go for The day or whatever like they were they were approaching it.

So irreverently that God here's just again letting him have it Thus ye brought an offering and here's the question

Should I accept this offering out of your hand sayeth the Lord in other words all of that stuff you were doing

Supposedly going through the motions at least in your mind I'm not even going to accept it because it's totally empty because you are not following the order of Worship the ordained order of worship that I have given you so these offerings mean nothing now here

They are fast forward back to chapter 3 verse 14. They say it is vain to serve

God What profit is it that we have kept his ordinances? They are seeing the reality that these

These offerings have been empty that blessings have not flowed from that. There hasn't been any fruit to bear from the little that they have been doing and Of course we know why and God has even told them why in prior chapters

It's because you're not doing it right and not only that your hearts aren't in it either So I'm not going to accept these things.

In fact, not only am I not going to accept them He tells us earlier in verse And we just read it a minute ago and chat and he tells us in chapter 2

But here again in chapter 3 verse 9 that we just read you are cursed with the curse So not only is he not accepting of what they are providing

But he's cursing them and again, all of this comes from Deuteronomy chapter 28. It's all laid out there.

It's nothing new It's just it's he said this is what's gonna happen. These are the results of What you are putting forth here.

So This is the exact same point God was making in chapter 1 now, they are in a way making it themselves which seems a little odd but You know, they weren't wrong

They any Now, okay. Let me rephrase that They were wrong because they were they were questioning

God here and putting all of the blame on him So in that sense, obviously they were wrong to say something like, you know

It's vain to to make offerings to the Lord to serve God Knowing where that statement stems from we like that is again a very brash statement

And it's a little scary to consider the lack of fear behind it now where they're not wrong is

Yeah, all they were doing had been you know made empty like in other words, it wasn't amounting to anything well, the reason is because Forgot where I was going with that.

I mean obviously the reason is because they weren't conducting it the proper way But Again, I guess they were just act they obviously were acting totally ignorant of the words that they had

To explain to them how they should be going about their worship and all that kind of stuff So that it would amount to something so that they would bear fruit from the work.

They were putting into it so that's really interesting and Here we have the people

Again, whining that their services had been made empty useless. It was without result again.

We know why And You know go figure that that their their works were without result here because again their curses

That they were under the fact that they they their Economic situation was bad the fact that they weren't receiving the blessings that they thought they were entitled to We'll get back to that later perhaps

None of this was happening and it's because of the curse they were under and that curse falls perfectly within the

Mosaic Covenant again We can reference Deuteronomy 28 once again, but it's reaffirmed even in Deuteronomy 30

I believe and then in Leviticus as well in specific regard of the priests These curses are happening as a result of the

The lack of obedience So it falls perfectly within that They themselves have broken the

Mosaic Covenant at this time and they were being punished for it. Yes, sir All reason that Right Well, it's interesting that you say that and you actually touched on a couple of things there that are very helpful but also ties into kind of where we're gonna go with this here and in a

Little bit but you said first of all Isn't it sad that they believe they're doing this stuff so that they can get stuff in return like it's all about the stuff

It's all about the physical blessings the material blessings and wealth That that was at the forefront of their mind

So whatever ordinances they think they're keeping which we know aren't the legitimate ones But whatever ordinances they think they're keeping in whatever way they think they're serving

God it is amounting to nothing as we've said previously, so Parallel that with a couple of things.

Well, first of all, I'll start with this and this is essentially where we're gonna be going in Just a second, but dad mentioned it.

So I'll go ahead and throw it out there Does what they are doing in verse 14?

It's vain to serve God. What prophet is it that we have kept his ordinances that we are walking mournfully before God They're obviously doing something right?

Now in all of the previous chapters leading up to this we know they were kind of doing some stuff, especially the priests

They were offering them. They were the ones offering the defiled sacrifices. So we knew the priests were doing some stuff Although it was basically they might may as well not have been doing anything

In fact, God tells them you may as well shut the door in the temple. He tells them that in I think

I think in chapter 1 You might as well just close the temple down because what y 'all are doing is nothing.

You might as well be doing nothing. So They were doing something but it wasn't the right thing in verse now we get to verse 14

We're talking about the whole collective nation of Israel all of the people all the Israelites in there obviously doing something, right?

What does that sound like? They're doing stuff they're working and with the end goal of perhaps either to attain the blessings that dad was just referring to or to perhaps be

Special or Better than maybe those around them. It sounds a little bit like legalism, doesn't it now?

The reason why and I'm jumping the gun here on bringing this up because it's where I'm going but The reason why

I think this might be a reference to Legalism perhaps even though it's not explicitly said right there we can kind of making we can kind of infer here

Knowing what's about to follow the book of Malachi, which is what the birth of the

Pharisees? the legalizers of all legalizers the like the perfect model for legalism over God's Word and and Doing stuff to to get stuff and to look good to those around you rather than simply obeying

God and in Obeying him and worshiping him as he ordained you to worship so Knowing that we are about again that the

Pharisees the Sadducees They did not exist at the time of Malachi yet the next book in the Bible, which of course is 400 years later

But it's the Gospels At least what transpires is 400 years later laid out in the Gospels the

Pharisees are there They have all this power already all this religious power and they are operating In a very robust manner, so they had been around for a while at that point

They were doing stuff in Malachi, but it was meaningless stuff. It was works perhaps they that perhaps they thought it was a

You know what we might call a works -based salvation You know that again I think

I like dad's point is that their main focus was most likely on the stuff that the material blessings above others

When the Pharisees come along we know that that may be a part of why they do what they do But it's also just because it gives them power and because they look more holy than those around them.

So there was a status thing Embedded in that as well in their legalism

But it's really it's really interesting now the other thing I wanted to touch on that dad mentioned that I hadn't thought about is

So they are doing the stuff in order to get The blessings and he paralleled that with us today

Absolutely, whether you are talking about legalizers today that are That have all of the the rules the ridiculous rules that are unbiblical they make up so that they can say they are holier than everyone else and so they have a

Fake standard to hold everyone else accountable and say you got to go get a haircut You got to go take you know, switch the pants out for some culottes

You got to go Who knows? I don't even know The list goes on and on what all it would be, you know

The music you can and can't listen to if any music at all, maybe it's no music at all certainly

You know no form of entertainment sports Anything like that.

I mean some of them go pretty far and We know what all that's about it's a it's a works -based

Salvation but perhaps also a way that they believe will bring more material wealth later.

I would say the leaders of those Types of groups are probably reaping quite a bit

Because All they have to do is tell their people they need to tithe more in order to be more holy right or something of that Sort and then that goes to them.

So Whether you're talking about legalism to dad's point in paralleling that to today or if you're even talking about the like Hyper grace movement where it's like we can do whatever we want because we're under grace now

Which of course is direct opposition to Paul's statement. Are we gonna send that grace may abound God forbid?

They don't care about that. We can do whatever we want. We can call ourselves Christian We can go to a cool big church and have a great time

And we're awesome, you know life is great life is grand we can do it, however, we want to do it and Because we say we're

Christian we're gonna get blessed for it. God, you know, God's gonna bless us and however

Many ways he's going to and I don't know There's certainly a parallel here to how modern -day

Christianity conducts itself whether it's the legalism side or the total opposite in the spectrum and that is just do whatever you want

As long as you invoke God's name in your life whether you are living a testimony that actually represents him or not

You assume you're gonna be blessed for it you at the very least assume that you're gonna have some societal gain especially if you're in the

Bible Belt and Will get to be a part of a group of loving people and you know

Can justify can rationalize your sin nature if you're going to a church where they say what you're doing and your lifestyle is

Okay, you now have spiritual you now have a spiritual Thing to base your rationalization off of so -called it's not real but you

I think you get where I'm going with that So I'm gonna rehash a little bit of what

I just mentioned here. But of course at this time in their history you have the

Israelites moping around feeling like they haven't gained any benefit for any of the forms of quote -unquote worship or service

That they've been doing so naturally this has led to the multiple lines of questioning.

They have put toward God up to this point They're not receiving any benefits for any of the things they are doing so they're questioning

God in every statement that he makes In verse 14 here That we've read a couple of times at this point.

They have presumed That they had actually been living faithfully toward God carrying out his commands again

They how did how do they word it they say? In that first phrase or in that second phrase what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances in their minds they had been keeping his ordinances and so They thought he was they were carrying out their commands now.

This is a Wonderful example, and this is something we've talked about a couple of times throughout Malachi, but this is a great example of how

Non self -aware they are at this point in history Maybe there's a better way of saying that but how non self -aware the

Israelites are at this time To say that we have been keeping his ordinances. I mean total you know lack of Situational awareness or something that they had they were manifesting here

They they also presumed so they had presumed that they had been living But they also presumed that they had been adequately repenting

I kind of alluded to this a minute ago of their wicked deeds in times past and we get that from that interesting phrase

We have walked mournfully before the Lord Now what I believe is going on here is

I think they're insinuating that You know, we have walked mournfully before you we have brought our weariness to you again, perhaps that is a reference to some form of pseudo repentance or something but Regardless what they're doing is they're insinuating that they had done their part so to speak and We're now waiting for God to do his part

Totally turning the actual situation they were under on its head totally totally reversing it

They were subtly suggesting that God was not keeping his promises and that they were waiting on him

When reality was totally vice versa. He told them In chapter 3 verse 7 return to me and I will return to you he was waiting for them

They were just goofing around Of course this is totally absurd because Malachi has already made it abundantly clear in all of our previous verses in Chapters that God was operating fully within the covenant

He had between himself and his people at that time That means as we said before the curses were there and they were there for good reason

It wasn't just some, you know arbitrary situation or from from the Israelites perspective

It's just God's not there at all. Probably like worshiping him is vain none of the promises he's ever made us have come to pass like they were just totally making all this stuff up in their heads and And The you know the curse

They may as well just be in a tough time in life But in reality they were under a direct curse from God himself now in our previous passages

The prophet Malachi has already number one Made it very clear that their hearts were not right with God I mean that of course is going to be the foundation behind the kind of turmoil that any given people will

Be experiencing their hearts were not right with God Malachi made that clear over and over again and very early on in the book to set the set the tone there but number two in this kind of goes on to what

I was Picking up where I left off a minute ago on the legalism idea This is a very interesting point

And I and I think it ties a lot of Israel's history together from this point forward knowing what is to come many of the ones complaining in verse 14 were seemingly guilty of At least a form of what we might call legalism

If you look again verse 14 what prophet is it that we have kept his ordinances

They were doing something and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts. They were doing stuff

But it was absolutely it was in vain because they weren't doing it, right? It was all about these these works and not only works but works based on how they thought they should be conducted

They were the originator of these works not God. Sure. God laid out a number of things for them to do again

It all stemmed from obedience. So it was the cause of Obedience and the effect of that cause would have been things that he laid out crystal clearly

In the books of Moses they were now originating their own works and saying well,

I guess it's just vain to serve God because We're not getting blessed. So it is totally backwards totally again, non self -aware totally ignorant of all of the words of God that they had been get been given up to that point and We'll pick this back up At some point maybe we'll take it a step further but again,

I believe that what's happening here is this could be The starting point for for what would kind of birth the

Pharisees if you will in a sense so We have like two minutes left. Y 'all have any thoughts

Or anything you'd like to share because I've been yapping for a long time at this point And That's a great point

Dave said he's been keeping his promises this whole time It happens to be the negative side of the promise from our viewpoint

It happens to be the curse not the blessing but to Dave's point. It's all within ancient

Centuries old promises that he made well over a thousand years at this point in their history and They are complaining because they are focused on the the promises they want to focus on That's the good stuff the material blessings the material wealth and not realizing that actually he's keeping his promises here, too

He's doing his part in the relationship Yeah, that's an interesting parallel as far as are the focus we put on his attributes let's focus on the love part not the holiness part

You want to say that God loves everybody? Therefore we need to be inclusive of everything that's going on around us right now

Let's take part in What we could call debauchery month and You know totally totally

You know reverse course of what the church has Represented in times past because God is love.

But what about the holiness part? Because remember got all of God's attributes are infinite

Point for point within himself. And so as much Infinite love as much as you want to focus on the infinite love you can't it doesn't negate the infinite holiness which has to be a hundred percent separated from Sin we'll just leave it at that.

Obviously, there's a lot of explicit examples of sins going on right now, but of sin so therefore the only way that he could actually like Point like pinpoint his love there's a better way to articulate that to focus his infinite love on a sinful creature is

If those sins are covered up So the infinite love only works through the doctrine of election

Because there's no possible way he could just just willy -nilly, you know

Shed his love over every human on the planet because that would negate

Logically his attribute of holiness, which has to be totally separate from those things

Lest the entire universe be destroyed So the only way he we even get to experience his infinite love which he had before creation

Among the Trinity within the Trinity is If he were to elect a particular group of people that he could have died for To cover those sins so that the love could be shed as well.

And so Yes, the what they're doing here focusing on one covenant one part of the covenant over the other

We do constantly in this age in focusing on one attribute over pretty much all the rest of them

So anyway, and then when they do focus on his attribute of grace, it's normally a totally made -up man version of it

He's gracious. Therefore I can live however I want. That's not how it works. Does anyone have any other thoughts?

I Think we're a minute over now There we go

There's where it started Well, it didn't start there. But at least I think you know the the version of it that the

Pharisees brought I think maybe starting at this point in history Uh, all righty, Matt, will you dismiss this, please?

Courtney just thank you for bringing us all together today to learn your word to learn

Everything that you promised that you are perfect Keep those promises perfect And they are so gracious that they even exist that we can

Live for you to be blessed by you being affected by you And it's all by your word that you exalt above your own

We love you lord. Thank you. Praise you. Be at safety. Amen We covered six verses today