John Stott described preaching as bridging the chasm between God’s unchanging WORD and our ever-changing WORLD.
I do not believe that we should live our lives always chasing the news…it is a vain pursuit…it refuses to be caught.
We should try to understand current events as best we can, from various vantage points…not just the religious or political right or left but from a historical one and from the perspective of a follower of Christ.
We have god-like access to the news…We don’t have god-like capacity to handle it.
We are not equipped for this much information and exposure.
It is very easy to get a toxic dose
Military members get regular training in operating in toxic environments, it goes by the acronym CBRNE (see burn) (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosive.)
Service members can’t quit the battle just because the environment becomes toxic and dangerous…so they have to learn to how to survive and operate in these environments.
In a radiological environment there are three protective factors:
-Time, distance, and shielding.
Time: Try to reduce the time spent near the toxic source.
Distance: Try to create distance between the source and yourself.
Shielding: Use appropriate materials to protect you…lead, concrete, whatever us available.
We cannot quit the battle as Christians because the environment is toxic…but we must not foolishly expose ourselves to uneccesary toxicity.
We can’t hide in our bunkers; the fight of the faith is out there.
I am using fight like Paul did, we are to fight the good fight of our faith…I’m not referring to actually being combative and belligerent.
As we fight this good fight we must not be foolish in ways that make us less resilient in our faith…less effective in the fight.
I’m not going to tell you how to pull this off in specifics, you are an adult, most of you at least.
You can decide what to watch, read, hear…and how much exposure is helpful.
For me, as an example, I don’t watch real people die online.
It doesn’t make me naive, I am aware that people die, I have seen it happen in person a number of times.
The hard things we are exposed to in real life battles is God’s providence in our lives…he will give grace for that.
But choosing exposure to unnecessary toxicity doesn’t make you better equipped to be faithful.
My calling to our church is to preach God’s word as a shielding against the toxicity we operate in out there.
To proclaim the truth of God for the real life battles we all experience, and we will experience until this life is over.
From Paul to Timothy and from God’s word to me…
I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. 2 Tim. 4:2
I believe this is a solemn charge to me… that I will be judged on whether I am faithful to this or not.
James confirms this fact in his letter…he said to those who teach God’s word…be careful… because you will experience a harsher judgement.
We sit together under the Word on Sundays; we engage the word in our day to day lives and we talk about the word in our small groups.
Because we need to know God’s word to know how to live…to be protected and healthy and effective in life and ministry in a toxic battle environment.
We CAN live well without a constant news feed…we cannot live well without a continual intake of God’s word.
On issues that are clear in Scripture…we are to obey…without compromise or question.
On issues that are not clear in Scripture…we must form our own convictions…and live faithfully in them.
How you educate your children…the Bible doesn’t say…you decide.
How you discipline your children…the bible doesn’t say…you decide.
But you must educate and discipline them…this is non-negotiable…there are biblical principles, but putting them into practice takes prayer, and thought, and community.
What you watch, how you vote, what you wear, how you spend your time and money…there are clear Biblical principles and some commands related to these kinds of issues…but you have to decide the specifics of living biblically in these areas.
And when others try to tell you that Scripture is clear on things that it is not clear on…when they try to compel you to get in line with their own personal convictions…it is important that you understand that don’t answer to them, you answer to God.
Listen to them if you can and if they should have voice in your life…but if they are wrong, even if they are passionately wrong…disregard them…obey God.
Don’t become unteachable…but by all means do not live as a people pleaser.
Don’t be a hard head, Do be a person of settled conviction.
Galatians 1:10…we cannot live trying to please both people and Christ…so we must please Christ.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer, before we do, please plan to be here on October 8, from 6:30-7:30 for a church-wide time of prayer (No one under youth group age will be allowed in here but there will be childcare.)
This meeting was planned many months ago, but the timing, I think, is providential.
-Our focus will be on three things:
- Personal Repentance: We want to be faithful in turning away from sin back to obedience to stay ready for all God has for us to do and be in the world.
- Revival: This means seeking the Lord on behalf of his church (ours and around the world) that we would be fully faithful as his people in the world.
“vive” means be alive, re-vive means to become fully alive again.
-When the church is revived…it is living fully in the life and power of Christ.
- Awakening: Seeking the Lord for him to move among non-believers drawing them to Christ.
God is always at work doing this, and I as I mentioned last week, it seems like he is drawing people to Christ in our culture, now, in ways he has been doing in other cultures the past few years.
We want to pray that God would awaken the hearts of those far from him…and that we would see where he is moving and join him.
PRAYER: I will lead us briefly in those three areas now.
Now, let’s go to Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament.
We see in this little book that the news always changes, but the story always remains the same.
The exile has come and gone. The people, what is left of them, have returned to a much-diminished land and Temple.
After all of that what has changed in their hearts?
Apparently Nothing.
Clearly some have changed…but many have not.
Malachi’s six back and forth prophetic disputes or conversations between God and the people sound exactly like the pre-exilic prophets.
The people, as a whole, are doing what they want, and God’s clear commands are ignored.
So, in this last prophetic book do we learn that essentially the Old Testament was a waste of time?
That God’s long patience with Israel had accomplished nothing? Of course not.
God has demonstrated his great patience, his righteous judgement, and his covenant commitment through it all.
I have you have seen this as we have read through the OT this year.
God has no plan B, he only, always has a plan A.
Plan B is for those who lack to the ability to accomplish their first choice.
God lacks nothing in his power or wisdom, God only needs a plan A.
Plan A for God was always the Lord Jesus; his coming was foreknown before the foundation of the world.
“For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you.”1 Peter 1:20-21
Four hundred years after Malachi, John the Baptist will break the prophetic silence.
John the Baptist will fulfill Malachi’s final prophecy and announce that the day of the Lord has come in the person of the Lord Jesus.
He was the voice calling in the wilderness to prepare the way for the Lord.
John in his humility would deny that he is a new Elijah, but Jesus would identify John as just that kind of prophet.
In Jesus, all the law and the prophets were fully and finally fulfilled.
As I said, Malachi is made of 6 back and forth conversations with God and his people.
Most of the communication is from God to the people.
We will look at each of them, then, look at the important final three verses that give closure to the Old Testament and provide the link to the New Testament.
I will title the six conversations using summary comments from God to the people, these are my own paraphrases.
- First conversation: “I still love you” (1:2-5)
I have loved you,” says the Lord. Yet you ask, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” This is the Lord’s declaration. “Even so, I loved Jacob, 3 but I hated Esau. I turned his mountains into a wasteland and gave his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
God, being the ultimate pastor (shepherd) begins by affirming his love for his people.
Where you look determines what you see…so God begins with his love for them.
The starting point for a good understanding of our lives is the Love of God for us, not our current life circumstances.
But even still the people respond with, “Is that so, how have you loved us?”
“What have you done for us lately.”
God points out how he selected them from among all the nations.
Esau and Jacob were brothers from whom two nations emerged…Israel and Edom.
On a personal level some Israelites were not believers and some Edomites were…his point is not individual selection…but national selection.
This is about God showing love by choosing a people through whom the world would be blessed…ultimately because from that people would come the Messiah.
He loved them but choosing them to make his love known…this was their great gift.
This is ours now. We get to represent him and share his love.
The fact that God initiates love to us should be a great comfort for us.
Romans 5:8 “God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
Why is that a comfort?
Because if God’s love depended on us being perfect and sinless…if we were loved by God only because or when we were so lovable…we would never experience his love.
Imagine the insecurity of the child who is only loved when the child does everything right.
Perhaps you had or have earthly parents like that, but that is not who your heavenly Father is.
Now, as good Father’s do…love has been communicated, it is time to address the problems
- Second conversation, “Guys, your worship stinks!” (1:6-2:9)
A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of me? …Yet you ask, “How have we despised your name?” “By presenting defiled food on my altar.” “How have we defiled you?” you ask. When you say, “The Lord’s table is contemptible”
They understand the need to honor a parent or a boss…but they don’t give God himself true respect.
This shows up by them giving God the scraps of their lives rather than making him priority in their worship.
When you present a blind animal for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present a lame or sick animal, is it not wrong? Bring it to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor? Malachi 1:8
When my girls were little we would occasionally have to get rid of some of their toys.
Their grandparents and cousins and friends wanted to give them gifts on Christmas and Birthdays…I wasn’t going to say “no, they have enough.”…so they stockpiled them.
Maybe once a year after we reached the point of toy saturation, I would say “Okay, let’s collect a few and give them away.”
For the girls it was seen as a sort of toy “culling”…to cull means to select the least desirable.
But I wanted them to see it as not just removing clutter, not just getting rid of their junk… but learning to be generous…to others, as unto the Lord.
I would say, “pick one thing you still like, not just the stuff you don’t want.
Dolls with missing parts, half of a puzzle.
Israel was going before the Lord of the Cosmos, who had given them everything…and offering him their culled livestock…their defective scraps.
“I don’t want this junk, here God, I guess you can have it.”
Then to make matters worse, the one’s whose job it was to lead the people in proper worship, sacrificial worship, were leading the people to be sloppy and haphazard in their worship.
“For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should desire instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Armies.” Malachi 2:7
The priests were to speak the truth of God to the people but they failed…instead they were complicit in offering the Lord leftovers and teaching the people to do the same.
I take this passage seriously; I am not a priest but in principle…it goes hand in hand with James’ warning that I mentioned earlier.
Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. James 3:1
- Third conversation, “Whatever you think you are doing, its not faithfulness.” (2:10–16)
Their unfaithfulness shows up first in marrying who they shouldn’t marry.
Then it shows up in divorce for any and every reason when they grew tired of their marriage.
Marriage in Scripture is a covenant…unbreakable promise.
In fact, is it a picture of the New Covenant, the gospel of Jesus.
They were taking God lightly in who they married.
*This is a consequence of them believing that God is worthy of the scraps…their faulty worship revealed itself in their life choices.
Then were taking God lightly in divorcing those they had married.
*Again, if life is about me, then my happiness is what matters the most.
There is no important decision you will make apart from becoming a Christian than who you will choose to marry.
Being single is a great choice for those who given that grace.
But if you marry, who you marry will hugely determine the course of your life on earth.
After you have married you must never ask, “Did I marry the right person?”
If someone says to me, “I think I married the wrong person”
I ask them…”Are you married?
“Well, Yes of course.”
“Then you married the right person.”
“Go honor God in your marriage”
Throughout scripture what we think about God shows up in how we treat people…this no more true than in our relationships with our spouses.
- Fourth conversation, “Do you hear yourselves, you are talking nonsense”: (2:17–3:5)
You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you ask, “How have we wearied him?”
When you say, “Everyone who does what is evil is good in the Lord’s sight, and he is delighted with them, or else where is the God of justice?” (2:17)
Jesus said that what is in our hearts comes out in our words. (Luke 6:45).
The people had not made God priority and now they presumed to question his character because it seemed he was not fair in his judgment.
Their lack of trust in God showed up in their questioning of God.
It is nonsense for a human to presume to judge God, to question his character because he doesn’t do things in the way or in timing that we prefer.
We can bring our questions to God, he welcomes them.
We do not bring our accusations against God…this is pure nonsense.
He is the Lord of the cosmos…he choose to love us, but we are out of depth when we think we can question his character.
- Fifth conversation, “I would love to bless you, but you have to return to me first.” (3:6-12)
Since the days of your ancestors, you have turned from my statutes; you have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Armies. Yet you ask, “How can we return?” “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!” “How do we rob you?” you ask. “By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions. You are suffering under a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing me. Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way,” says the Lord of Armies. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure. I will rebuke the devourer, for you, so that it will not ruin the produce of your land and your vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the Lord of Armies. “Then all the nations will consider you fortunate, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of Armies.
The law required a 10% (tithe) of agricultural products to support the ministry of the Priesthood and to care for the vulnerable.
It was practical but it also had a teaching function.
It was to remind the people that the Lord is their provider.
There is no requirement to give 10% in the NT but the principle behind the law remains in effect.
Paul wrote that Christians should give generously and cheerfully in 2 Cor. 9:7.
The Greek word he used that is translated as cheerful (hilaros) is where we get the word “hilarious” from.
God loves the one who gives with great joy because of the gospel.
Christy and I have given 10% or more since were married…often more, never less.
We have given when we couldn’t afford it…yet we have always been provided for over the years.
Jesus said that were your treasure is, there your heart will be…we have wanted to have a heart for God above all else…and we know that our hearts follow our investments.
So, we have tried to make investments in a way that will shape our hearts towards God being our priority.
The prosperity gospel teaches that if you give and claim it by faith…God is obligated to make you prosper financially (and physically).
This simply isn’t true…and it has tragically taken some people away from sincere faith in a sovereign God whose glory is our highest good…to a sort of cosmic genie who exists for our sakes.
When I was a young Christian I was taught a sort of Baptist version of the prosperity gospel.
“You give to get to give.”
That is a direct quote from a giving campaign when I was a young man.
The truth is you give in order to be found faithful.
You give because you are grateful.
You give because Jesus is Lord.
Once a month, at our staff meeting, I hand out the envelopes that have the direct deposit salary slips in them.
We pause and give thanks to God for providing for you, we give thanks to God for your generosity in giving to the work of the Lord, and we give thanks to God for providing for us and our families.
I realized several years ago that the money just went from one account to another then to another and we were missing the opportunity to stop and be intentionally mindful and grateful…to give thanks.
There is a balance in Scripture that needs to be understood:
We give our time, talents, treasure, because God is worthy…not in order to become rich or healthy…not to earn points with God.
Our faith is not “Quid pro quo” “God I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.”
We have nothing he needs; he has everything that we need.
However, it is clear in Scripture that real blessing follows obedience.
In our desire to not become imbalanced one way, we mustn’t fall off the wall the other way.
We do not demand that God bless us in material ways
AND
God does bless his people when they live godly, generous lives.
The blessing is tangible…meaning real, in this life, not just in the life to come.
There are some practical factors in play: godly living often leads to…
-Wise choices…wise choices lead to life thriving.
-Staying married (I had a friend who said he could have retired early instead of working, literally until he died if he had just stayed married to the same woman all those years ago…he blew through a few marriages before he came to Christ.)
-Staying married, not getting divorced is a known factor in financial and other forms of thriving.
-Working hard as unto the Lord (increases earning potential)
-Not falling prey to harmful addictions (gambling, drugs, etc.)
These things all have direct bearing on financial and physical and relationships thriving…they are outcomes of living a godly life.
We are living in the world as God has designed it…that is always a good idea…and brings good results.
There is also in Scripture, the simple fact of the blessing of God in the lives of people who honor him…this works out in countless providential ways.
We don’t make idols of the gifts; we worship the giver…but we must be mindful and grateful of the gifts…and the blessings that follow obedience.
We must be careful…that we don’t learn to take the blessings for granted
We have to train ourselves for gratitude…hunt the good stuff
Give your best, not your scraps to God…because he is worthy.
And…by the way, he stands ready to bless that kind of life.
- 6th conversation, “Seriously, you believe that serving me is a waste of time?” (3:13–4:3)
Your words against me are harsh,” says the Lord. Yet you ask, “What have we spoken against you?” You have said, “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping his requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Armies? So now we consider the arrogant to be fortunate. Not only do those who commit wickedness prosper, they even test God and escape.”
“We’ve served you and little good it has done us.”
“What have we gotten for all our troubles?”
“Exiled, now we have this joke of a temple, and we are not even a powerful nation…we are nobodies…you promised better than this!”
“These other nations don’t serve you and they are in charge!”
This really shows us the condition of their hearts…. blaming, demanding, complaining…not a pretty picture.
First of all,…you didn’t faithfully serve me, that’s why the exile, you still don’t.
Second…My full righteous judgement is coming…and by the way, you may not like it when it comes.
Third…the full promise, is coming as well…it will be in about 400 years.
At that time those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. The Lord took notice and listened. So, a book of remembrance was written before him for those who feared the Lord and had high regard for his name. “They will be mine,” says the Lord of Armies, “my own possession on the day I am preparing. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. So, you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
Malachi 3:16-18
Some presumed to judge God and shook their fists in his face…they spoke against God.
Others feared (trusted) the Lord and spoke about God’s faithfulness to one another in order to spur them towards faith.
We are to seek to provoke trust by the way we encourage one another in the faith.
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:23-25
This is the opposite of speaking against the Lord…it is speaking of the Lord to one another in order to spur one another to faith-filled faithfulness.
So, the news has changed…new countries in charge, new kings, new temples, lots of breaking news.
But nothing, has changed…not really.
Finally, the last 3 verses of the OT are the connection point to the NT (4:4–6)
Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”
“Remember the law of Moses”…is summary statement representing the entire Old Covenant.
Look back at all I have shown you and told you.
Now, look forward…an Elijah-like prophet will come again.
His role will not be primarily to restore intact families but rather to restore intact faith.
Father’s who repent and whose hearts are turned to God, and children’s whose hearts follow the God of their fathers.
Now jump 400 years into the future.
Luke 1
In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years. 8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. 16 Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:5-17
So, the OT ends leaving us looking expectantly to the future.
The New Testament begins connecting all that has gone before with what is about to transpire in the life of Jesus, the Savior of the world.
Next week, we will begin in the gospels.
This week…we will live in a world where the God of the Scriptures Old and New Testament is at work…will you see him there?
Will you join in what he is doing?