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Bro. Ben Mitchell
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 gonna 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 or 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 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
stop 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 in 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.
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 they're 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 bringing all the ties in the storehouse.
There may be meat in my house.
And prove me that are here with so again God is here giving specific instructions to them and again
what 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 it 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 Lack of desire to return to the ordinances
here the obeying his voice.
And 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 all 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 were about to be
told what those words were in 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 then 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 and 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 does 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.
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 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?
Does it 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 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?
Well, 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 profit 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 is 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 once more in verse 14 now ironically and this is where 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.
You know, 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 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 say 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 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're
being punished for it.
Yes, sir.
So 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 and 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 make it 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
in 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 any parallel 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 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.
Um, 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.
Um 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 going to 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.
Um, and and we're awesome, you know life is great life is grand.
Um, We can do it.
However, we want to do it and Because we say we're christian We're going to get blessed
for it god, you know god's going to bless us and and however Many ways he's going
to and I don't know.
Uh, there's certainly a parallel here to how modern day christianity Conducts itself whether
it's the legalism side or the total opposite end of the spectrum and that is just do whatever you want um.
As long as you invoke god's name In your life, whether you are living a
testimony that actually represents him or not uh.
You assume you're going to be blessed for it.
You at the very least assume that you're going to have some societal gain especially if you're in the bible belt
and uh, we'll get to be a part of a group of loving people and and you know Uh 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.
Um, you now have a a spiritual.
Um, uh.
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.
Um, so I'm going to rehash a little bit of what I just mentioned
here.
Uh, 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.
Uh that they had been doing so naturally this has led to the multiple lines of questioning.
They have put toward god up to this point um.
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
um 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 do how do they word it they say?
In that first phrase or in that second phrase what prophet is it that we have kept?
His ordinances in their minds.
They had been keeping his ordinances.
And so um 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, uh lack of of
Um situational awareness or something that they had they were manifesting here.
Um.
They uh, they also presumed so they had presumed that they had been living.
But they also presumed that they had been adequately repenting.
And I kind of alluded to this a minute ago of their wicked deeds and 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.
Um again, perhaps that is a reference to some form of pseudo repentance or something,
um, 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 um.
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 Uh in chapter 3 verse 7 return to me and I will return to you.
He was waiting for them.
They were just goofing around.
This is totally absurd because malachi has already made it abundantly clear in all of our previous verses And 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
um.
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 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 uh, set the tone there.
But number two and this kind of goes on to to what I was.
Um, 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 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 given up to that point.
And we'll pick this back up uh at some point, maybe we'll take it a step further, but
Again, I believe that what's happening here is this could be Uh the
starting point for for what would kind of birth the pharisees if you will, uh in a sense so
Um, 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 What they're doing is
they're focusing on one of the promises the promises they want.
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 um.
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 our 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 um
and um you know totally totally, uh 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 all of god's attributes are 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 um
Point like pinpoint his love, uh, there's a Better way to articulate that uh to
focus His 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 Um, 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 may be starting at this point in history.
Uh, all righty, matt, will you dismiss us, please?
Learn everything that you promised that you are perfect.
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 name.
We love you lord.
Thank you.
We praise you.
Amen, we covered six verses today.
We're moving right along.