Malachi 2:10-16, What Does It Mean to Be the People of God?

Malachi chapter 2 turning verse 10 here the word of the Lord Have we not all one father has not one

God created us Why then are we faithless to one another profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Judah has been faithless and Abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the

Lord Which he loves and has married the daughter of a foreign God May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this who brings an offering to the

Lord of hosts and The second thing you do you cover the Lord's altar with tears with weeping and groaning because because he no longer

Regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand, but you say why does he not?

Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth to whom you have been faithless

Though she is your companion and your wife by covenant Did he not make them one with a portion of the

Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? godly offspring

So guard yourselves in your spirit and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth

For the man who does not love his wife, but divorces her says the Lord the

God of Israel Covers his garment with violence says the Lord of hosts So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word What's it mean to be

God's people Nations teach you what it means to be of their nation this last week

American celebrated Thanksgiving because Part of what it means to be an American Although we may not understand why but part of what it means to be an

American is to celebrate Thanksgiving When I lived in Singapore and no one else around me was celebrating Thanksgiving.

I still felt like I had to I'm an American I'm gonna celebrate it. So I went to Denny's in order to turkey sandwich.

That's the best I could do Singaporeans learn what it means to be Singaporean Indonesians learn what it means to be

Indonesian and Chinese learn what it means to be Chinese and what's it mean though to be one of God's people in 1779 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts Mrs.

Dean a widow was proposed to by Captain John Fisk and she accepted the proposal

There was just one problem Mrs. Dean was a church member a Christian but Captain Fisk exhibited no where they said signs of grace

He was not a church member, although he may have attended church. And so he was not considered by the church to be a

Christian So mrs. Dean's pastor Stephen West Objected to the proposed marriage now

It wasn't that the pastor just refused to perform the ceremony at weddings were not performed by pastors in Puritan, New England They were performed by judges or by magistrates what it meant to be a

Christian for the Puritans Was not where the wedding was performed or by who?

But how you lived you're including your whole married life, especially of course who you married

What it meant to be one of God's people is that God's people were not supposed to marry non

God's people But mrs. Dean was undeterred and so married Captain Fisk anyway, and she was promptly excommunicated

By 1779 though things were different Even in New England the

American Revolution was in full gear and the times they were a change -in Rather than repent the new mrs

Fisk appealed to an ecclesiastical council a committee of other pastors called from the area to decide her case

Possibly to override her pastor and her church mrs Fisk believed that the realm of marriage was independent of the church her argument was that quote marriage is a transaction of a

Was purely a transaction of a civil kind Separation of church and marriage

I guess it was therefore outside The interest of the church being one of God's people she thought had no bearing on Your marriage on who you married.

Well, she lost the case in 1779 Mrs. Fisk attitude though that she could be a faithful Christian on Sunday morning

All right with God in this one area of her life her life kind of broken down into Separate walled -off compartments with her faith here and her marriage over there each

Disconnected that you could be one of God's people in your heart and that not affect your marriage

I Guess maybe not your money or your work or your politics or your words

What you watch? Go on and on that it's just a it's just a personal relationship

That may not affect anything else that attitude That she had of mrs.

Fisk showed that mrs. Fisk Was a woman Far ahead of her time.

She wasn't in a way a pioneer a modern American culture and at the same time

That she was not all that different from the Israelites Who lived about 2 ,000 years before her in Malachi his time

What's it mean to be one of God's people We see that here in the third

Disputation of Malachi his third dispute between the Lord and his people to be one of God's people is to avoid two things first the trap of compromised covenants and second the tragedy of Cancelled covenants.

What what's it mean to be one of God's people? Well first in verses 10 to 12, we see that God's people are in covenant

Hence the name of the church. That's what we're named after. We are in covenant. Of course first with God That's what most people think about and that is that he has committed himself to us

Jesus sacrificed himself for us. And so he has made a new covenant we celebrate that in the

Lord's Supper and so we respond as we saw last week in the Acceptable act of worship of giving our lives as a living sacrifice

Now even here in Malachi's time before the new covenant God has covenanted Himself with his people to be their

God and he expects them to respond by being his people But what's it mean to be the people of God?

It means that they are in covenant Not only with God Notice how he starts here surprising to us notice verse 10.

Have we not all one father? Who's the we? It's not all humanity.

That's why many modern people may read this all humanity has God as their father No, the Bible doesn't teach that have we we not all one father

Has not God created us and he means this nation. We are faithless and he goes on verse 10

This is the way Judah Israel if we could say for ourselves Since the church

Israel is the church that he's talking about us Verse 10. Why then have we been faithless to each other to each other?

Do you notice that the covenant he's talking about first is to each other God accuses them of being faithless of breaking his covenant with each other.

They've returned from Babylon They've rebuilt the temple they reinstituted worship they have priests they have sacrifices remember they have reformed

They've had they put a lot of attention to their religion They can even get very emotional about the religion in verse 13 notice.

They cover the altar with tears He says other go into the temple there. They're crying. They're weeping they groan

During their worship. So this wasn't just some dead religion. We're talking about and we're just going through the motions

With their mind off somewhere else now they were exuberant they were passionate they were even heartfelt

It was just restricted to one part of their heart they would go to the temple and weep and moan and let themselves out in The good times they might who knows they might be jumping around dancing like David danced getting happy in the

Lord Some would say and then they would go out and Date -and -marry we call date.

It's modern thing. But you know what? I mean, whatever their equivalent was and married just like anyone else Maybe handle their money just like anyone else or vote like anyone else or talk like anyone else

Being one of God's people they thought had no impact on those other areas of life

Now they're shocked here that the Lord won't accept their sacrifice in verse 14. Why does he not why does he not accept our sacrifice?

We're doing it with such emotion with such passion They're trying to get that Religious part of their life just right.

Why should God care about this other part, you know the marriage compartment For for us today

Maybe it's the money compartment or the politics compartment or the talking compartment the eating and drinking if we're emotional about God Does he really care?

About all that stuff. Does he care about our love life? Does he care about our money? Oh Yes, he does.

He cares a lot here in verses 10 and 11. We see that he equates marrying unbelievers to be a breaking of our covenant and first oddly enough

It's breaking of our covenant with each other Which modern Christians are hardly aware that they're supposed to have a covenant with each other

But here they have like your broken covenant with each other. It is faithlessness It's a betrayal of God's community of the church.

Notice those strong words. It is faithlessness. It's a abomination It's profanity. Well, what is an abomination?

What is so profane? We would only think something some heinous sin Something disgusting and something perverted are they sacrificing their children in a fire to bail?

Now we see at the end of verse 11. It's all because that many have Quote marry the daughter of a foreign

God They're marrying people who don't believe in the Lord That's what's an abomination

That's what's faithless. That's what's profaning This was the compromised Covenant by marrying those who don't believe in the

Lord. They have they have formed a covenant That's what a marriage is a covenant a binding agreement is not based on mutual interest like a contract but a mutual obligation

They have formed such a binding agreements based on mutual obligation with people who are not bound to the

Lord And now there's no hint yet that that's led to idolatry It's not as though you marry these people and they're leading you to be worshipers of Baal or whoever

That's the reason is what wrong? No, he's not suggesting that yet Let's be clear God considers the intentional entering into a committed relationship a marriage with a non -believer to be a lack of loyalty a lack of love first To each other to the church and we think like mrs.

Fisk What does the church have to do with our marriage it's a transaction purely of a civil kind God says

Who you marry? impacts the church Because you bring them with you even if they're unbelievers and they never physically come with you

Notice how he describes this sin first starting in verse 10 first He reminds us that we as God's people have one father.

That's the we there Is he not our one father? He's our father of believers one creator

The fact that we have one father means that we are related then to each other bound to each other in a way that is

Not true of those who are outside Those who are not believers They don't have

God for their father Okay, just be clear But just as you are related and close to someone who has the same parents as you do

You have a bond with them that makes them closer normally to you that someone who hasn't shared those parents

We have the same father the same creator. So to call yourself one of God's people and then live just like the world

Even to the point of first seriously dating and marrying someone like you're connected to them in the same way

You're connected to each other but dating marrying someone who you know Not to be one of God's people

That God says is faithless. It is disloyal to that community to the church is to commit treason

Now the second way God describes this kind of relationships is that they are faith less to him

It is our breaking faith with God That is the one who makes a marriage covenant with a non -believer is unfaithful to the

Lord To be unfaithful to is to be faithless. That is to have no faith Not enough faith to believe that being loyal to the

Lord is sufficient. Even if it means passing up some relationship That he is enough that he will supply you with a relationship that he doesn't regard as an abomination that is it compromised or compromising or That he will be enough for you so you don't need a compromised relationship

We are faithless to him because by entering into such relationships. We show that our relationship with Jesus is such a low priority

In our lives, it's just such it's such such a minor Consideration of our lives that we can because submitted to someone who doesn't share it

This is it's not a deal -breaker That's the way you believe or think commits marries someone.

It's not a Christian. It's as if we're saying, okay, we're evaluating this person Okay, she likes Chinese food.

I like Chinese food. She likes golf. I like golf She hates

Jesus. I love Jesus. Well two out of three is not bad It's like we put them on that level

If we can be so close to someone who has no faith Then we've shown that we've broken faith

Such relationships are entered into without faith and Paul says in Romans that everything done without faith is sin

Because it is faithless the third way the Lord describes this compromise covenant that is choosing to covenant with someone who won't covenant to the

Lord is as an abomination It's one of those old testament words and that means it is the testable something's an abomination is something that's it's disgusting

It's repugnant It's something that you want out of your sight right away. You don't want to see it

You don't want to consider it something that makes you cringe You hate to see and God says in the second half of verse 11 it is a profaning of Of the sanctuary of the

Lord which he loves he loves the sanctuary that's where he's worshipped He loves it and yet they are profaning it.

They're making it profane and making it common profaning means making something common That is special that is set aside for the

Lord Now to profane the sanctuary is to treat it like any other place It is the place or the people which he loves in the new covenant his sanctuary is the church

It's a people and not a building He has set aside to his people for worship and he loves the church not the building but the people of God on earth

And it means something special to him to be one of God's people and expects his people to be worshipping

And yet these people bring something that's disgusting something's filthy and stinking into it.

They bring themselves After they've entered into compromised and compromising covenants, they make it like any other place or people

Now some of you may think right now that what this is much more complicated You know, you just you're making it sound so cut and dry.

There's much more complicated issue There are exceptions after all there's just times when a believing spouse leads an unbeliever to believe and it's true

There are exceptions there are exceptions that prove the rule First let's be clear about what we're we're not talking about.

We're not talking about a marriage in which one spouse has been converted After they were married and then the other one still not converted

Right, the Apostle Paul specifically addresses that in in 1st Corinthians 7 and there's no fault in a situation like that Nothing wrong nothing to criticize about that.

The believer is supposed to stay faithfully married, even if the other spouse remains Unconverted there

Paul says, you know, who knows he doesn't give a guarantee But he says who knows God may use the witness of the believing spouse to save the other

We also are not talking about situations in which one partner Appeared maybe professed to be a

Christian Especially in a culture like this where so many people press to be Christians many are not what which one partner professes to be a

Christian before the marriage and Then after the marriage maybe after a time eventually shows that he or she was probably never really converted in the first place

That that too. I don't think there's any fault or Sin or anything to criticize about the believer who finds himself in that situation maybe maybe the

The one who appeared to be a Christian before marriage and now is not obviously not one Maybe it was just going to church for the girls that happens

Or maybe she was just never really owned the faith that her parents raised her in She just she thought was a Christian because he was told she was as a as a girl and now she's when she's racing

That I believe believer now in that case there was no intentional Covenant with someone known not to be in a covenant with the

Lord So we are not then free to think well, then the marriage is an abomination and I should divorce No, then you also stay and try to win your spouse who you now know is

Not a believer Try to win them to the Lord now some protests are still too cut and dry still too simplistic

I know relationships in which the non -believer seems to be so right for the believer. They're so happy together

How could that possibly be what God calls it here faithless? abominable profane

But look at the long term Sure at first they may appear to be good for each other, but follow the relationship for long enough

Often the relationship is slowly eroding the believers Commitment to the Lord after a while the believer gets more and more

Detached from the church the covenant community and he or she becomes more and more like Not God's people like the unbelieving spouse some eventually fall away

Especially if they become involved with members of heretical groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons Many eventually become converted to those groups and they are lost and not only are they lost

But their children end up as in verse 12 cut off From the people of God and so lost to The wife of the well -known author

Mark Twain Was supposedly a Christian when she married him, but he was not he was a skeptic and and she knew it

But she married him anyway Thinking she could convert him Now at first he played along with his wife's religion even leading the family

Bible reading and prayer times But really just to make her happy and then he eventually dropped out of that admitting that he just didn't believe it

Eventually his lack of faith was contagious and she too became a non -believer. It's some time of grieving and loss

Mark Twain encouraged his wife to seek comfort in her faith to which she responded.

I Can't because I don't have any Now I'm sure that relationship

Started out with someone saying oh Okay He's not a believer, but aren't they just so good for each other in early stages

Probably people said look she's leading him to the Lord Now I know relationships are complicated and there are all kinds of complicated situations.

I know of people who thought they were Christians until They became involved in a non -christian and then they had to face the reality of of why?

Why have I got into this relationship with a non -christian? They do examine themselves Why am

I no different? Than not God's people That I'm attracted to not God's people dating and marriage is a test an

Examination a test of your faith if you are full of faith That's fullness of faith will make you faithful and who you marry or who you stay married to some people are tested and They see that they fail the test

They see they lack some faith And then they know they need to be filled with real faith.

So God uses the test sometimes relationships To bring them to bring people to himself

Now, yes Christians can unintentionally get involved with someone who's not a believer, but to do it intentionally

That is like two eyes with eyes wide open Walk into a relationship with someone who who you know is not one of God's people

It's an act of faithlessness it's breaking our covenant commitment with his people and with him and God sees that as abominable and profane

So single people and youth should determine now Not to play with fire

Don't start a relationship with someone, you know to be a non -believer I think it's the logical implication of this passage pastor.

John Piper said that as a young man He made a simple commitment to the Lord quote. I will never fall in love with a person who does not love

Jesus he said if I say I Love God with all my heart and soul and and mind

He is my treasure and my all -in -all and yet then cultivate a romantic relationship with a woman

I know that does not care for God does not obey him Then I'm being profane like Not God's people.

I'm betraying the God I claim to love From a female point of view

Nancy Lee DeMoss in a book called lies young women believe Challenges her readers to take what she calls the the truth seekers relationship pledge

Which says quote I purpose never to become involved in a relationship with a guy who is not a true believer of Jesus Christ And whose character and lifestyle are not consistent with the kind of man.

I believe God wants me to marry someday What's it mean to be one of God's people

It means to be like God a Covenant keeper to be a covenant keeper guard yourself against the tragedy of cancelled covenants

Now like the nations around them the Israelites were divorcing. So now they marrying people who didn't believe in the

Lord They're also divorcing each other just like everyone else now here they come to their altar

Covering it with tears. They're passionate. They're seemingly seeking an answer from God. Why is he not hearing our prayers?

After all they're thinking he's the covenant -keeping God You know, they're saying he he told us in Deuteronomy that we make these sacrifices if we do the religion, right?

Then he will bless us with life. He made a promise. He made a covenant Where is he?

Now they're surprised that God isn't isn't keeping what they think it's his end of the covenant

But then they're going out in and breaking their own covenants. They break their marriage covenant.

And so God sees that The Lord is a witness He says in verse 14 notice that verse 14.

He's a witness to their and to our marriage commitments notice verse 14 the

Lord's and the Lord's not entering their prayers because The Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth.

He was there Wife of youth, that's that's the woman you married when you were young That's why in the traditional wedding ceremony.

We say we are gathered here together in the sight of God And this passage shows us that God takes our marriage commitments very seriously a

Lot of times today people take those Oh those vows like they're like they're ornaments They're just meaningless kind of words that just sound nice and poetic

But God's there and he's saying I expect you to keep all that He's there at weddings witnessing the vows and holding us to them to have and to hold

From this day forward for better for worse for richer for poor and sickness and in health to love and to cherish

Till death do us part lovely Artful words and God expects us to keep them

Now in marriage, he makes one of what us one with our spouse. He says in verse 15. Did he not make them one?

He calls it a union He says his spirit was involved in that union and he is seeking not only our happiness though He doesn't want to bless us and make us happy.

But also he says in the middle of verse 15 He is seeking godly offspring that his children who have seen an example of Covenant love and loyalty in the love and loyalty a married couple show to each other keeping not canceling

Their marriage covenant now in that covenant a couple is to raise godly offspring that is teach their children

How to be God's people teach them the gospel teach them their need for salvation

Bring them to church The man who divorces just out of so -called irreconcilable differences no -fault divorce

Going out of my way here in our culture in the past like 10 20 years talked a lot about You know gay marriage.

So we're just offended by that Marriage in this country was really undone by the what would legally was called no -fault divorce is though there could be such a thing

Once you did that then everything else is kind of follows So the man the person who divorces out of so -called irreconcilable differences because he's lost that loving feeling

Song goes that way right or because someone younger has caught his eye having a midlife crisis and wants to imagine that he's young again

He's in his 20s. So goes after a girl who's in her 20s to help him feel young again He he abandons the wife whom he married when he was really in his 20s, you know the wife of his youth

Who stayed with him when he wasn't well off? When he hadn't finished his education or and didn't yet own a home or have anything maybe even followed him to some far -off

Forsaken place like Danville, Virginia. Can you believe it a man who divorces like that has he says here has first committed adultery and then done violence

Divorce is not a victimless crime unfaithfulness to a marriage commitment is an act of Violence he has cut into One flesh that God created

God made them one. He says you've now cut it in two. It's violent

He split with a sword of his adultery the Union God made he's acted like the covenant breakers of the world

Not like God Not like God's people and so if he goes into the temple or to the church

He profanes it Some translations like the NIV or even the the

Greek translation of the Old Testament which would be what the the Apostles mostly use translates verse 16 is saying

I Hate divorce says the Lord God of Israel now sometimes now understand

I hate dealing with the issue of divorce because it's extremely complicated and there's all kinds of things going on Understand now in our culture both parties and their day only man could divorce his wife wife really couldn't do divorce back in our culture

Of course both parties can apply for divorce and for no reason no fault divorce or in some situations where divorce is really just An actual already a fact that is once about maybe is as left and is living already living with someone else

It's a fact in actual practice where people have divorced just by the way they live So and so legal divorce then becomes just unavoidable

But if we're faithful to our covenant with the Lord, we should do everything that we can on our end in our power

To keep the covenant Avoid the curse of canceled covenants

The solution God says the verse 16 is to guard yourselves in your spirit

Guard yourself as be diligent Like a guard on duty at a wall

You're like a Sentinel looking out expecting to be attacked by some vicious enemy at any time

You're on the edge what you're guarding yourself and here guard what comes into your heart

And could attack you or your marriage for ingratitude for what you have for bitterness for unforgiveness

Maybe for too high Expectations for temptations to be drawn to someone else or for communication with members of the opposite sex

It's just too personal watch out for the way you relate to people of the opposite sex now Of course online and so that they don't become in your heart

Inappropriate For example, I'll go off the top of my head. For example, I Online like a

Facebook. I try never to comment on a woman's appearance Even if they look great because it seems flirtatious just like a week or so ago my own niece

Okay, put up a picture of herself. She looks nice and I made an exception to that but I even showed

Mary I wrote it out. I showed it. Is this acceptable? Okay, even my own niece Just you got to guard yourself be on guard

It's anything that could make a relationship inappropriate even heading in that direction be on guard against pornography any of it

If you have a weakness for porn Then have someone else help guard you

Have covenant eyes and then be on guard for if you have that weakness Even the nudity in some r -rated movies be on the lookout for anything that can make you a covenant breaker

Guard yourself from the attitude that this relationship and this is our attitude today

This relationship is just there to make me happy and if it's not doing that right now

Then I'll just throw it away like a used styrofoam cup guard yourself against that attitude

Guard yourself to stay faithful even when it's not fun anymore be diligent to watch your fantasies

Even your yearnings to be young again like a good guard Keep the wrong thoughts out and the right ones in Don't be faithless unfaithful grow to become like God himself the ultimate covenant keeper

What's it mean? To be one of God's people Well, it means that every part of your life is lived for the

Lord God is here angry at their Compartmentalized religion the religion says that I can love

God in my heart I could weep and wail at church or laugh and shout but my love life, you know, that's separate my money

That's another compartment my politics or my job or my words my commitments my giving my spending my consumption

That's untouched by my faith. It has nothing to do with the Lord like mrs. Fisk religion It's a it's a religion kept safely in its own little box and outside the box we think we can date and marry or divorce like anyone else or handle our money like anyone else or eat and drink like anyone else or our vote like anyone else, but God sees that and says

Faithless that kind of compartmentalized Disintegrated religion creates self -indulgent

Covenant breakers and it's the opposite of who the Lord is. He is the one

God He is integrated the one the same father one creator who demands to be the

Lord of all our lives even over our dating and sex and marrying over our money our giving and our spending our words over what we watch on TV or The internet over what we eat or we drink or we say over our time our work our politics

To be one of God's people means everything about all your life so the first need of those with a compartmentalized religion like mrs.

Fisk Like a covenant breaker who claims to love the Lord in the box of his heart

But then lives like anyone else in the rest of his life the first need even if they have an emotional faith

But they've kept that separate from how they live their first need It's not to be told to stop doing that start doing this stop dating her

Stop texting him Don't look at that website Know their first need

It's to see whether they are really in the faith at all as Paul says in 2nd

Corinthians chapter 13 5 examine yourselves To see whether you are in the faith

Don't you know? Christ is in you Unless you fail the test if he is in you

He will not be confined to your religion to Sunday morning. He won't be put in a box

He will be the Lord of all your life. He's made a covenant with you and he will certainly keep it

He will be faithful and if you're in the faith So will you?

full of faith in every part of your life But if your faith can be so easily confined boxed in if it doesn't fill your

Dating or courting whatever you want to call it or your married life your your money your work your family all your life