I love that song.
Do you guys like that last song?
Yeah.
Good.
'cause I, I like it.
So we're gonna keep singing it probably.
Um, man, it sets up this message so well, if you're looking at your
bullet and you're seeing this sermon is called How to Make God mad, and
maybe you had second thoughts about whether you wanna be here this morning
or not after a sermon title like that.
Um.
But I hope you'll see that, uh, that this is all about responding
to what we just sang about.
This is all about God's immense amazing, um, love for us that
he's shown for us in Christ.
The hope that we have, because Jesus Christ died on the cross for
our sins and rose against so that we can live with him forever, is.
Overwhelming, and if we rightly understand it, we'll wanna live a life that pleases
the Lord, not so that he loves us more.
He can't love us more than he already has loved us by sending Christ for us.
Not so that we change anything about him because he's the immutable and
unchanging God, but simply because we love him for how much he's loved us.
That's what the Bible says, right?
We love because he first loved us.
The book of Malachi is an interesting one because it does talk about an angry God.
But even that is unique, right?
Because the Bible also teaches us, and in fact, God even says in this book that I am
unchanging and if God is immutable, which is what we call that, the doctrine of
his unchangeability, if God is immutable, that that means that he can't ever become
more of anything that he possesses.
'cause that would be the change.
So to break that down, that means that God can't become more angry or more
joyful, or more sorrowful, or more loving.
It's what we refer to as the doctrine of God's impassability.
Impassability meaning that God is without passion.
I didn't say without emotion or affections, but without passions.
Let's put it this way, if you were waiting in line, let's say that you were at
Disneyland, which some people think is the happiest place on earth, the one speaking
to you exempted from that list largely because of what I'm about to talk about.
The massive lines.
Say you're at Disneyland, you're waiting in a massive line.
That lied to you at the front, said it was gonna be 15 minutes, and you're
45 minutes into this line, and you've been waiting there and you're finally
about to get on the ride and, and then all of a sudden, you know the
person, there's no social awareness.
They've never been let outside their home ever before.
They don't know anything about proper decorum.
They waltz right up to the front of the line and just cut in front
and they've got the boldness and the audacity not to care about it.
And the Disney people don't want to offend anybody, so they're not
gonna do anything about it, and they cut in line without waiting.
The 50 minutes that you've been waiting and they get on the ride,
how's that gonna make you feel?
You're gonna be what?
Angry.
Angry?
Yeah.
That's gonna draw your ire.
You're gonna get upset about that one, aren't you?
And maybe before you weren't.
Maybe before you were fine.
You were having a great day at Disneyland.
You got your doll whip, you got all that other stuff.
You got to ride pirates.
The best ride at Disneyland.
You're just having a great time.
But then that happens and all of a sudden something in you changes.
Why?
Because as human beings, we are not like God.
We change and we respond to our circumstances.
And so we are a passionate people in that sense.
When somebody cuts us off on the road, we get angry at that.
When you get a raise at work, you get happy about that.
We change, we respond.
We react to our circumstances.
God is a God who is unchanging.
He is immutable.
So God, we could put it this way.
God is angry.
God is loving.
God is joyful.
God is sorrowful.
God is patient.
God is wrathful.
He's all of those things in a steady state because that's what it is to be God.
He's unchanging.
What we'd experience that looks like a change is simply a different facet of
his character, of his person based on what is happening here in our own lives.
He's not responding or reacting.
It's simply we are experiencing a different part of his character based on
how we conduct ourselves here and now.
This morning in the book of Malachi, we're gonna see that there are ways that we can
actually make God mad, and I hope that causes a little bit of discomfort in you.
Now as, as a Christian, he's never gonna cast you away from his presence.
That's a promise.
John chapter six tells us that John chapter 10 tells us that
Ephesians one tells us we've been sealed with the promise.
Holy Spirit one Peter chapter one says, we are being guarded by God's
power through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Listen, God's never gonna get angry with you and say, I, I'm done with you.
Go away from me.
But still, just like you love someone in your life, whether it's your mom or your
dad, or your spouse or your kids because you love them, you don't wanna anger them.
I hope as we look at this book together this morning, we can look
at it from the perspective of saying, man, I, I don't want to anger God.
Malachi is gonna help us understand, as I'm gonna take it three ways that
we can anger him because we're gonna look at what the Israelites were doing.
But hopefully you'll get the point that we wanna do the
opposite of these three things.
As we get into the text, this is our final minor prophet.
Now I need to give a, a, a caveat in, in somewhat of an apology to you
that our OCD and you like fullness.
Because I'm only preaching 10 outta the 12 minor prophets.
I have nothing against Zechariah and Diah.
They just didn't make the cut this time around.
So, um, we're shifting gears from this and contrary, I'll, I'll let you
know, pastor Rod was on your side.
He was laboring for me to preach all 12 minor prophets in, in my office this week.
And he still is.
He's in the back, still going.
Hey, you can still change it.
Uh, this is not, your word is not near infallible, pastor pj.
You can still preach it.
This is our last one we're finishing with Malachi.
He's the last you'll see on the timeline of the minor prophets.
In fact, he's on the doorstep of the 400 years of silence.
Uh, but as we get into the book a little bit more, the, the author of the
book is the, the namesake of the book.
It's Malachi, this prophet.
And he's the one that is gonna be sent by the Lord to post exilic Israel.
So again, we're dealing with Israel after the exile.
That's why the date range here, four 80 to four 70 bc.
So Assyria has already come and taken out the northern kingdom.
Babylon has already taken Israel into the, the, the captivity and you had the
fiery furnace and rack shack and Benny and all that, that took place there.
And Daniel, and the statue and all that is already done.
And then Cyrus, the Persian came along that we're talking about in
our daily Bible reading right now.
He conquered Babylon and sent the exiles back to Jerusalem, and now we find the
exiles back here in Jerusalem, similar to where we were last week as we were
studying the book of Haggai together.
But they're back here.
It's around that time post Exilic Israel.
And the theme of this book is going to be the word honor.
The word honor, because this is what Israel was really failing to do with God.
They were failing to honor him the way that he should be honored.
They were failing to render him what he was due, and that, like I said
earlier, was going to draw the ire of God and it all is rooted and begins
with what we read about in Malachi chapter one verses two through five.
Read it with me or follow along with me in the ESV.
It says this, I have loved you, says the Lord.
But you say, how have you loved us is not Esau.
Jacob's brother declares the Lord.
Yet I loved Jacob, but Esau, I've hated.
Paul picks this up in Romans chapter nine, to talk about God's electing love.
He's selecting his, choosing love.
And so that's what God is reminding Israel about.
As the book opens, he's saying to Israel through ha, through, not Haggin,
Malachi, he's saying to Israel through Malachi, I have loved you and I've
loved you with this electing love.
In other words, I chose you to be my people.
And he goes on, he talks about Issa.
He says, look, if, if Edem says we're shattered, but we will rebuild the
ruins, the Lord of hosts says, well, they may rebuild, but I will tear down.
They will be called the wicked country.
The people with whom the Lord is angry forever.
God is contrasting that with his affections for Israel.
He's saying of Israel, I've got a different plan for you,
a different future for you.
I have loved you.
We just sang about that great love.
The reality is this morning, if you're in Christ, you've experienced
God's electing love in your life.
He shows you from before the foundations of the Earth.
As Paul talks about in Romans chapter eight, he called you, he justified
you, he glorified you, or he sanctified you rather, and he glorified you.
And that's in past tense because it's as, as good as done.
See, God's electing love in your life has put you where you are,
has brought you into his family.
And the problem with Israel is the problem that we wanna avoid.
The, the problem with Israel was they were not living well in light
of God's electing love for them.
In fact, the recipients of this message, you can see some of the
descriptions up here on the screen.
Uh, they were stubborn people seven times in this book.
They're gonna challenge God's Indic indictments of them.
God's gonna say, like he says at the very beginning in verse two, I have loved you.
And they're gonna say, how have you loved us Lord?
Seven times.
God is gonna say, I've done this, or you've done this.
And they're gonna say, how have we done that?
Show us prove it God.
They're stubborn people, but they're not only stubborn, they're
they're blasphemers as well.
This is the main problem in chapters one and chapter two to blaspheme
means to take something that is high and exalted and to treat it as
commonplace to bring it down low.
And so that's what they were doing to God.
They were not rendering him the worship that he was due, and so
they were blaspheming the Lord.
There were also faithless.
Not only faithless to their wives, but in being faithless to their wives.
Chapter two, verses 13 through 16, uh, they were being faithless to
God because God had designed the covenant of marriage for them.
They were also idolaters in being faithless to their wives.
Many of them were instead marrying the women, uh, that were the the
sons or the, the sons, excuse me, backup daughters of foreign gods.
In other words, women that worshiped foreign gods, just like their
forefathers had done to anger the Lord.
They were idolaters.
And then finally they were grumbler.
Well look at that in the very last section here, where they are gonna
challenge not just their circumstances, but the very character of God.
This is the, the people to whom God says, I've loved you.
And we look at this and we say, man, that that doesn't look like
they are responding to God's love.
Maybe they don't understand God's love.
And I think that's why he opens the way that he does, saying I've loved you.
And so he's saying that to us this morning too.
Christian.
As I preach through this message that's so important for us to remember
that the foundation of this message is understanding that God has loved
me, he's loved me, such that my hope in Jesus Christ is gonna mean that I
don't have to fear death here anymore.
In fact, as Dr.
MacArthur passed away, his last words came out this past week.
He said, there's no sting.
There's no fear.
I want that, and you can have that because of Christ.
And this great love then informs me how we wanna live our lives for him.
Between now and the time that he calls us home.
So let's begin.
Look at verses chapter one.
We'll start with verse six all the way through chapter two, verse nine.
I'm not gonna read the whole thing for you, but lemme start with verse six.
He says this, the Lord does.
The Son honors his father and a servant, his master.
If I then am a father, where is my honor?
And if I'm a master, where is my fear?
Says the Lord of host to you.
Oh, priests who despise my name.
Here's another one of those challenges.
They say, how have we despised your name?
He goes on by offering polluted food upon my altar.
How have we polluted you?
By saying what the Lord's table may be despised.
And he goes on.
He says, you offer blind animals in sacrifice.
Is that not evil?
And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil?
Present that to your governor.
Will he accept you or show you favor, says the Lord of hosts.
And now you entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us
with such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you?
And so what's happening here in these opening sections, in these opening
parts here is God is indicting them for bringing unfit sacrifices before him.
This goes back to the Old Testament.
You don't have to turn there, but Leviticus chapter 22 verses 20 through 25.
In this section there, God is going to, uh, tell the people what he wants
as far as the, the type of animal that was fit for an offering, and he's gonna
describe it as animals without blemish.
He even is gonna call them perfect.
And this is a foreshadowing of the ultimate perfect sacrifice.
Who's Jesus Christ, the ultimate spotless lamb that was gonna die
as the sacrifice on the cross.
And, and the sacrificial system was meant to point to that
ultimate final sacrifice of Christ.
Of Christ.
But, but here, what the people were doing is they were going, oh, well,
it doesn't really matter what kind of animals we bring, God, he should just be
happy that we're bringing him anything.
So we're gonna bring the lame, we're gonna bring the sick,
we're gonna bring the blind.
We're gonna bring the animals that we wouldn't even throw on the barbecue
for our neighbor if we invited them over for dinner, because you know what?
It's convenient for us.
It's not gonna cost us anything, man.
It's take an unblemished animal.
That's pretty costly.
God's probably gonna be fine if we just bring him the, the, the lame with the
broken leg or the blind goat over there.
We don't, who cares what we bring?
See, God had said, this is how I want you to worship me.
And to honor God is to worship him the way that he's called us, to worship
him, to revere him, to reverence him.
And the priests were involved in the guilt with this because they were
taking these, these lame animals.
Rather than telling the people, this isn't right, go back and
bring the proper sacrifice.
They were taking these animals and they were offering them.
And then to make matters worse, if you look over at chapter two, verse
seven, the priests were not doing what the priests were called to do
when they were teaching as well.
Verse seven describes how a priest should have been teaching the people.
It says for the lips of a priest should guard knowledge and people should
seek construction from his mouth.
For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
But, and here's the contrast.
But you have turned aside from the way you have caused many to stumble by your
instruction, you have corrupted the covenant of Levi says the Lord of Host.
And so I make you despised and ab based before all the people in as
much as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction.
In all of this.
That's the key there.
The people were, the word is despising, God's name.
The concept behind that word in the Hebrew is to think lightly of something,
to treat, something flippantly, to think, man, that that's no big deal.
It's the way that you, the difference between walking into the White House
and walking into the barbershop.
One is going to demand a, a, a different degree of decorum than the other one.
And they were despising God, they were treating him lightly.
They were thinking little.
They were treating him with contempt by contrast twice in verse 11, God says that
my name will be great among the nations.
Again, God is calling the people out saying, you have
not done what I want you to do.
You've not worshiped me the way that I've prescribed for
you to worship me and priest.
You are perverting the messaging that I've called you to preach.
You are, are, are, are teaching for your own gain, your own
benefit to line your own pockets.
And God is saying, you are despising my name when my name is gonna be
great among the nations church.
We have to take note here because if we're not careful, we can treat God the same
way that the Israelites were treating God.
We can despise him in the way that we approach him, just like
they were despising him in the way that they approached him.
Point number one this morning, you put it this way, we make God mad
when we approach your wok flippantly.
Approach your wok, flippantly, flippantly, casually without much thought, lightly.
Again.
Malachi one, six.
A son honors his father and a servant, his master.
If then I am a father, where is my honor?
God is asking.
He's appealing to earthly relationships that people would've understood,
yeah, you should honor your parents.
He's saying, but, but what about me?
He's saying, where is my honor?
Where is my reverence?
And if I'm a master, where is my fear, says the Lord of hosts to you.
O Priest who despise my name, who treat it lightly, who think little of it.
Giving the lame animals abandoning the role that the priest was to have
in instructing the people having no regard for the grandeur and the majesty
and the weightiness of their God.
Reference the White House a moment ago last year, last summer,
my family and I got to go to Washington DC together on vacation.
And while we were there, we went into the White House and we went into, uh,
the, the Library of Congress and we went into the, the Capitol building.
And in all three of those, there's a sense of grandeur.
When you walk into those buildings, there's a weightiness that you
feel when you walk in there.
E even my twins, as much as they probably wanted to go play tag in
the White House and run around, they knew that, that that wasn't okay.
Uh, that it's a different space.
That there's a, a properness, there's a weightiness to it.
Versus when we let them outta the car at, at Bucky's and they walk into Bucky's.
There's not that same decorum at Bucky's is there?
Yo, when we come to church, we're, we're not coming to Bucky's.
When, when you pick up your Bible, you're not picking up your
Bible at Bucky's, you're coming before the God of the universe.
You're coming before the creator.
God, the word glory in the Hebrew cavo means wait, wait to feel that weightiness.
Let's be honest.
We have to work at that here.
'cause if you didn't know we're in a cafeteria, it used to be, uh,
of in days of old, these churches were built as these massive
cathedrals in part because of this.
So that when you walked in, you felt a sense of reverence, but lest we
fall prey into thinking that it's simply about the building, it's
more about your heart posture before the Lord than it is where you are
honoring him, not treating him overly, casually, not treating him flippantly.
They had lost the Israelites, had this sense of reverence
and decorum in their worship.
They were simply looking for convenience in, in what cost them as little as
possible in their relationship with God.
Just hoping that God would just be happy with something they were guilty
of, what we might be guilty of.
And that is domesticating God, forgetting that though he's yes a God of
imminence, of, of closeness, of intimacy.
He's also the transcendent God of the universe.
And so we get to draw near to him, as Paul says in Romans, and call him Abba father.
But what's so amazing about that is the fact that he is the God of the universe.
Remember the beginning of the book, I Have Loved You.
When we consider that the God of the universe has loved us this way, then
it should cause us to be thoughtful, careful, intentional, reverent,
honorable about how we approach him.
Are you honoring God this morning?
Whether it's convenient for you or not?
Here's some diagnostic questions for us.
When life gets busy, does your relationship with God suffer first?
If it does, then you might be treating your relationship with
God a little bit too casually, too flippantly, not thinking enough of it.
When you go on vacation, do you take a vacation from God?
If so, maybe you're treating God a little bit too casually, too flippantly,
not thinking highly enough of him.
Do you pray as much after you get what you're praying for, as you did
before you got what you pray for?
If so, you might be guilty of not thinking highly enough of
your relationship with God.
When you show up at church, do you eliminate distractions or on your, or are
you on your your phone checking scores, checking Twitter, checking news updates?
When we sing a song that maybe you don't know or isn't your favorite, are you
grumbling in your heart and critiquing it?
Or are you sitting out there thinking about the truths of that song and
looking for something to hold onto and to praise God for as we sing together?
We talked about this last week, but are you giving from the top or are
you, are you giving from the leftovers?
Are you concerned for the loss that God has placed around you?
One of our distinctives here, it comes to Bible Church is this, we
seek to maintain a high view of God.
We seek to maintain a high view of God.
There's some threats to that threat.
Number one is putting your walk on autopilot.
You're not gonna have a high view of God if you're going through,
through your your daily time with the Lord on cruise control.
I mean, maybe you've got your time cut out in the morning and, and you're spending
10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes.
Maybe some of you, you're spending more than that.
You're, you're going an hour with the Lord in the morning 'cause you're a,
an uber Christian, and, and yet you're really just, you're just doing it because
you feel like this is, well, this is what a Christian's supposed to do.
It's not about a relationship with him.
It's not deepening your relationship, your connection with him.
You're, you're just going through and, and really that hour is the blind animal
that you're presenting to God going, can you just be happy that I'm doing this?
Putting your walk on autopilot is a way that you might be dishonoring the Lord.
Second, uh, the other threat to maintaining a high view of God
is this failing to build around your relationship with the Lord.
And we, we gotta be careful about this.
Here we are in a culture, in a society that has so many different
ways for us to fill our calendars.
And if we're not careful, what we can do is we can take our relationship with
Christ and slot it into our calendar.
Rather than making it the hub around which our life revolves, sometimes
we'll take our relationship with God and we'll slot it in next to our political
affiliation and our, our general concern for morals and ethics as something else
that revolves around us at the middle of things when reality is, if we're gonna
seek to maintain a high view of God, your relationship with God has to be
the most important thing in your life and everything else fits around that.
You plan your life, your calendar, your family's calendar, your kid's
calendar around Jesus Christ.
The third threat to maintaining a high view of God is simply missing
the significance of what takes place when you pick up your Bibles,
when you come to worship the Lord.
In other words, this is a dynamic relationship that you are coming
into the presence of the the Lord of the universe when you do this.
God's anger burns against those who do not honor him the way that he's due.
Isaiah says something similar in Isaiah chapter one.
He says, the ox knows its owner of the donkey.
Its master's crib, but Israel does not know me.
First way to make God mad is to feel, to honor him or to treat him flippantly.
And again, this is all about responding to his love.
If you have not experienced the love of God, if you have not experienced
the love of Jesus Christ that saves you, then this message is a legalistic
message for you about how you can be acceptable to God and that's impossible.
What keeps this message from being that is if you've got a relationship
with God first that's founded on Christ work and Christ work alone, and this
is simply about responding to him because of how much he's loved you.
I have loved you, says the Lord.
Let's keep going.
Look at verses 10 through 16 with me.
Two more problems arise here.
So not just the the irreverence, not just despising the Lord in
the way that they were worshiping him, but next in the way that they
were approaching their marriages.
The first problem that he identifies is that they were marrying foreign women.
Verses 11 through 12, Judah has been faithless and abomination has been
committed in Israel and in Jerusalem for Judah has profaned the sanctuary,
the Lord, which he loves and has married the daughter of a foreign God, meaning
married women from other nations that worship other gods other than Yahweh.
This was prohibited back before the Israelites entered into the promised land.
Guess what happened?
The Israelites ignored the prohibition and did it anyways.
So what did God do?
He sent them into exile.
Now they're back from exile and what's happening?
The same thing.
They're going after these foreign gods again.
And that these, these, these relationships with these foreign women are the,
the, the, the foothold, the snare that's leading them into the idolatry.
But it's worse than that because look at this, in verse 12, he says, may the
Lord cut off from the tens of Jacob, any descendant of the man who does this, who
brings an offering to the Lord of hosts.
In other words, they were going after these foreign women and their gods, and
then they were still coming into the temple thinking that God was gonna accept
them when they came to worship him.
And God said, what are you doing?
This is an abomination as he describes it, detestable, and
so that's the first problem that he addresses regarding marriage.
But the second problem, and they may have been related to each other, comes
in verses 14 through 16, and this has to do with the fact that they were divorcing
their Israelite wives and despising God's design for the marriage covenant.
Look with me at verse 14.
You say, why does he not?
Why does he not regard our offerings with favor?
Is the question there?
God answers Because the Lord was witnessed between you and the wife of your youth
to whom you've been faithless, though she's your companion and your wife, by
covenant did not God 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 faith
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.
So God is, is dealing here in the second part with divorce that's taking place.
And, and some people think they're related because some commentators say that
the Israelites were actually divorcing their Israelite wives and going to marry
these foreign wives of, of these foreign gods, regardless, one way or the other.
God is identifying these two problems here.
Uh, marrying outside of the faith, number one and number two,
divorce being faithless to the covenant that God had created.
In fact, he says here, uh, that, that God had brought them together.
Did he not make them one with a portion of the Spirit in their union?
That phrase is one of the most obscure Hebrew.
Text in the entirety of, of the book, the, the portion of his spirit.
I think the best read on it is this is, in other words, God's doing,
that he is behind this union.
That this is not just a, a union that is, is built around common interest, but
this is a different kind of relationship that God is even giving a portion of his
spirit to the blessing of this union.
Similarly, in the New Testament, what we say, what God has brought
together, uh, let no one separate.
And so this was the problem and, and you might be thinking, okay.
Mean, if I was gonna pick out all the things that makes God mad, I don't
know that these would've made the list.
Hopefully they would've made the list at some point.
'cause we would've thought that, but maybe we would've put other things before them.
But again, that's why expository preaching is what it is.
We don't start by saying, well, what makes God mad?
Lemme go find the passages that, that tell me what makes God mad.
We go to the Bible and we say, what does the, the Bible have to say on this?
And Malachi is saying, God cares about marriage and God cares
about marriages, and it's an expression of our love for him.
And, and, and the reason being is because God designed marriage and
instituted it to be such an enormously crucial part of his plan for mankind.
And so that's why it shows up in this book alongside the, the call to honor
him and as we're gonna see in point through the call to be faithful to him.
See, God still loves marriage today.
And so point number two, if you wanna make God mad, despise God's
gift of marriage, despise, think lightly of God's gift of marriage.
To, to frame this, we have to remember just why marriage
is such a big deal for God.
Shortly after creating Adam and Eve, he brings them together and the
two become one flesh and, and God announces them to be husband and wife,
and then he gives them this mandate.
He says in Genesis 1 28, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.
That's what we know to be the creation mandate.
That God designed a husband and wife to come together and to be
fruitful and to multiply and to fill the earth for what purpose?
As his image bearers.
That, that they were to fill the earth on mission, to image God, to, to glorify God,
to fill the earth with the glory of God.
Okay?
That's Genesis one.
Fast forward to Genesis chapter 11.
You've got mankind already rebelling there against God's plan, because what
do they do with the Tower of Babel?
They're like, well, we're not gonna fill the earth.
Instead, let's all get together and build this super cool tower.
And it's gonna go way up high.
And, and we're gonna make a name for ourselves.
Instead of what?
A name for God, God's mission was, Hey, families spread out.
Have kids fill the earth with my glory.
Man said, no, we're gonna hang out here and build a cool tower and make
a name for ourselves, not for you.
What did God do?
God knock their tower over.
And then by the way, that's biblical.
If your kids like to knock over each other's towers, they're
just, they're imaging God in that.
So.
Don't punish them.
It's, it's a good trait.
Anyways, God spreads them anyways.
He's like, fine, you're not gonna do it.
I'm gonna do it for you.
Here's French and German and Spanish and Eng.
Probably not English at that point, but all these other languages.
Yeah, go try to figure out how to do life now.
And so they do.
Well the next chapter, what does God do?
God goes and finds a man named Abraham.
And God says to Abraham, Hey Abraham, I've got a plan for you.
And not just a plan for you Abraham, but through one of your offspring,
I'm going to bless all the families of the earth offspring come from what
according to God's design, marriage.
So the one of the greatest covenants we know that's still in operation today,
the Abrahamic Covenant is contingent upon God's design for marriage.
That Abraham would have children and those children would be the children of the
promise, and one day they would ultimately result in Mary giving birth to one named
Jesus who would be the one to bring blessing to all the families of the Earth.
So God cares for marriage.
Fast forward through Egypt and as they're on the doorstep of the Promised Land now.
God is telling the people, guard, marriage, don't intermarry, stay marrying
within the covenant family of Israel.
Why?
Because that's my plan to spread my glory through the entire earth.
You see, the family and marriage has always been a core part of God's plan
to spread its glory through the whole earth, and that's why when the Israelites
were perverting it and abusing it and abandoning it, God was so upset with this.
That's why it drew God's anger, the facet of God's character, of his anger.
Malachi records for us that God has incensed, that it's an abomination,
this intermarriage with foreign women, this intermarriage with people outside
the covenant community of faith, this divorce of people within the covenant
relationship of marriage inside of Israel.
And you say, okay, well that's all the Old Testament.
Uh, how about the New Testament and the New Testament?
It only intensifies from here because not only is the plan still the same,
be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, but now God adds to this and
says, oh, and by the way, the way that you interact with each other husbands
and wives is a mirror now of the gospel.
It's a mirror of Jesus in the church, the bridegroom and the bride, and,
and so now marriage takes on a totally new meaning for us and a totally new
weight for us that God cares about because a biblical, godly marriage
between two Christians is meant to showcase the gospel to a watching world.
And so in the New Testament that the stakes are only raised
on God's concern for marriage.
So this is why God here, I think, calls out marriage as one of the ways that
the Israelites were making him mad.
And it's why we have to be careful to make much of marriage today ourselves.
How do we do that?
Well by holding fast to God's design for marriage.
So let's talk about that.
God's design for marriage.
What is it?
Well, first, who are the participants in marriage?
According to scripture, one man, one woman, period.
End of story.
There are no exceptions to that clause and there never will be.
One man created by God, male from birth, male from the womb.
One female created by God, female from birth, female from the womb.
They are the only people, biblically, that are qualified to
be joined together in marriage.
What about other qualifications?
Well, as we're thinking about it here within the confines of the
church, two believers, two believers.
Listen, as a pastor, I'm free to marry two unbelievers.
I'm free to marry two believers.
What I cannot do is marry a believer to an unbeliever.
That's not God's design.
Let the two not be unequally yoked.
And you may say, well, that was applying to a business relationship.
I'll grant you that.
But if that applies to business between believers, in other words,
don't have an unbelieving business partner, how much more should we say
that applies to the bedroom folks?
Yeah.
Don't be unequally yoked.
And so the, the design, its qualifications, both believers
within the confines of what God's design is to be fruitful, multiply,
and fill the earth with his glory.
What's about its, its purpose, what I just said, be fruitful,
multiply, fill the earth.
Why?
Because we are still his image bearers again.
The New Testament has ratcheted this up because now we do so on
mission, the great commission to go and, and make disciples of Jesus.
And then let's talk about its commitment.
His commitment is till what?
Death do us part.
Not until irreconcilable differences do us part
until death do us part.
I wanna unpack those last two points for just a moment.
God spoke through Malachi saying, what was God seeking?
Did you notice that?
He says, and what was God seeking in this union?
What's the answer He was seeking?
Godly offspring.
A key component to God's design for marriage is to produce children who will
be raised in a godly home and have the best shot at becoming Christians early on.
As parents, can we save our children?
No.
If we could, there would be not a single unbelieving child in any home, anywhere
in the life of, of christened them.
We can't save our children.
However, it is undoubtedly true that the best shot that any child has at following
Jesus early on is to be born into and raised in, in a Christian home with two
godly parents who both love Jesus and teach that child about Jesus and bring
that child to church and put that child in the way of the gospel every way they can
and point them continually to Jesus that gives them the best chance at following,
at following Christ, and God knows that.
And so he's called on Christian families to come together and
have children together because he desires godly offspring.
There's an article in The Atlantic from 2024 that reported that the
percentage of American adults under 50 who say they will never have children
rose 10% between 2018 and 2023.
That number of adults, 50 and under who say we will never have children
now sits at 47% of those polled.
47% of adults under 50 say we will never have kids.
Listen, this isn't a problem.
Just from a biblical perspective, in a biblical worldview, this is a
problem that the world is waking up to child's one, China's one child
policy that's not going well for them, and they're reversing course on that.
Trump is even saying, Hey, let's give a thousand dollars to every kid that's born.
I'm like, can you, can we do this retroactively too?
Is that, is that possible?
Some of us were on board with populating the earth.
You know, we were there.
I don't think that's happening.
So the world even recognizes this is a problem and the, the
author of this article said this.
He identified this as the point.
I think it's insightful.
He says, many in the current generation of young adults don't seem totally convinced
of their own notice of the language here, purpose or the purpose of humanity
at large, let alone that of a child.
It may be that for many people, absent a clear sense of meaning.
The perceived challenges of having children outweigh any
subsidy the government may offer.
I think that's really insightful and I think the Bible has an answer for this.
The purpose for you, the purpose for your marriage, the purpose for your family
is to raise children to follow Jesus.
It's to mirror the gospel and is to create a home in which kids
are raised to fear the Lord.
It's, uh, to raise kids in a home in which they learn about.
That's why being involved in venture club and things like
that in our kids' ministry, student ministry is so important.
It is not glorified babysitting.
We're, we're trying to come alongside you and co champion you as the
church to help you in this pursuit.
Because why?
Because God desires godly offspring.
Now, I, I, I understand not every godly marriage will produce children.
I understand.
I readily understand that, but I will say, I think the normative principle
for marriage between two believers is to have children that God might one day
have the godly offspring that he desires.
If you're married and you've been putting off kids because you just want
to enjoy life a little while, travel the world, have some fun, uh, can I
just be honest with you, you're gonna have a hard time justifying that.
Biblically a really hard time justifying that biblically.
And I think sometimes we, we throw out, well, what about, isn't there
wisdom in, in, in planning wisely?
Sure.
There may be some circumstances financially or health related that
lead you to say, it may not be the best time for us to have a kid.
I, I, I will admit that as well.
But don't confuse being wise with being self-centered.
God's design for your marriage is not about you,
it's about him.
It's about being fruitful.
It's about multiplying.
It's about filling the earth with the glory of God, and it's
about your relationship with your spouse mirroring the gospel.
And that's the second thing that I wanna emphasize here.
The Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth to whom you
have been faithless, though she's your companion and your wife by covenant.
That final part, that commitment till death to us part, it's a cliche phrase
within the church to say, well, in our family marriage is, is, is, is
chief and divorce is not an option.
Uh, that's easy to say.
Live it out, forgive and be forgiven.
Refuse to walk away and throw in the towel.
Don't look over your neighbor's fence to see if there's greener pastures.
Fend off those temptations.
Understand that marriage surrenders your body to your spouse.
Do the hard work to resolve conflict biblically.
Don't keep receipts
and stay committed to each other.
God desires that you should do that.
It's requiring attentional effort on our behalf, which is why Malachi wrote.
So guard yourselves in your spirit and let none of you be faithless
to the wife of your youth.
And again, this goes back to the very beginning of the book.
God has loved you.
One way that you respond to that love is by fulfilling his design
for your life and for your marriage.
The Israelites weren't doing that, and that was drawing the ire of God.
Marriage is far more than God giving you somebody to watch
Netflix with in the evenings.
Far more significant than that.
If you wanna find the ire of God, ignore his plan for marriage,
downplay it, upend it, pervert his design for the marriage covenant.
But finally, let's look at chapters three and four.
Begin with me in verse 17, it says, you've weed the Lord.
Chapter two, verse 17.
You've weed the Lord with your words, but you say, how have we weed him?
By saying, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he
delights the Lord, delights in them, or by asking where is the God of justice?
Flip over in chapter three, verses 14 through 15 says this.
It says, you have said we have.
It is vain to serve God.
What is the prophet of our keeping?
His charge of walking is in mourning before the Lord of hosts.
And now we call the arrogant, blessed evil doers.
Not only prosper, but they put God to the test and escape.
And, and so here what we have is a problem.
Israel's looking around saying, God, it seems pointless to worship you.
Based on our circumstances.
We're looking at people doing evil, doing wickedness and, and committing sin.
And it, they're just getting away with it.
Okay?
This is not unique to Malachi.
This is seen in the, the, the psalmist's heart before God as well.
This concept of God.
How long?
Oh Lord, right?
Or even habak.
Why do you make me see evil?
The difference here is that they cross the line.
That needs to carefully be avoided by us when we find ourselves tempted
the same way when we find ourselves looking around going, man, I don't
understand God, what you are doing, and the evil are getting away with it.
We have to be careful not to impugn the character of God.
It's one thing to be honest with him.
But we have to be careful not in being honest, not to sin in our honesty.
And they cross that line when they say of God that he delights in
evil doers when he says, when they say where is the God of justice?
Implying God, you are an unjust God.
I If our honesty before the Lord impugns or challenges his character, then we
are in the wrong in that situation.
And so our third and final way to make God mad, and if you can advance the
slide for me, I lost my connection up here, is this, we need to make sure
that we're not making God mad, mad, mad by challenging his character.
You wanna make God mad, challenge his character again.
That's what they're doing here and that's why we have God's response in
chapter three verses one through five.
He says, behold, I send my messenger.
He will prepare the way before me.
The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.
So here we have John the Baptist, by the way, he's gonna
be the next voice from God.
Which is, is really cool to see this at the end of, uh, the, the, the word
here in, in Malachi, and then there's gonna be 400 years, and then this
messenger is the next voice that the people are gonna hear from the Lord.
This messenger is gonna come and prepare the way before me and
the Lord whom you seek the one that you're going, where are you?
Where's your justice?
Oh, he's coming.
He's coming and he's gonna come into the temple, and what's he gonna do?
He's gonna bring his justice with them.
He is like a refiner's fire.
In a Fuller's soap.
He's gonna sit as the refiner and the purifier of sil silver.
He's gonna purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold.
Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the
days of old, as in the former years.
He goes on and he says, and and, and What have you been doing now?
You've been robbing God.
And they say, how have we been robbing him?
By not honoring him the way that he's.
He's due to be honored.
He even challenges them.
Why don't you, why don't you put me to the test?
Why don't you worship me the way I'm calling you to worship me?
Why don't you give the way I'm calling you to give and see how I respond to you?
Even so, God is, is taking Israel and, and really putting them back in their place
here because they've bowed up a little bit too much such that they've crossed
the line by challenging his character.
You've weed the Lord with your words.
Everyone who does evil is good in the side of the Lord and he delights in them.
Listen, church, it's, it's good and right and okay for us to join with
the psalmist in expressing questions, frustrations even, and God is omniscient
and knows how you feel, so it does no good for you to, to put on a fake smile
and just pretend that everything's okay.
It's okay for us to go before the Lord and, and to, to be honest in our prayers.
We just have to be careful in that, in doing that, that
we don't challenge or impune.
Defame his character.
So for example, there's a difference in praying.
God, I'm frustrated that you're not choosing right now to heal my
mom of the cancer that she has, even though we've been praying and
pleading for you to act for so long.
That's honest with the Lord, it recognizes God, you are sovereign and you're
right now not choosing to do this.
And it, it frustrates me.
That's different from the prayer that says, God, I'm angry that
you don't care about my mom.
I am angry.
You don't care about my family or my heartache that I'm going through.
While she wastes away from this disease that you brought
on her, why don't you care?
Why are you ignoring us?
Do you see the difference in those two prayers?
See, in being honest with the Lord, we have to be careful that our
honesty doesn't lead us to sin.
And and so how do we do that?
How do we guard against that?
Well, that's where possessing a robust theology is gonna come in and
strengthen your faith in times like this.
If you wanna be able to weather the storm to be able to be honest with
God and yet not impune his character, not challenge his goodness, then
it's so important for us to know God.
A w Tozer said, what comes into our minds when we think about God is
the most important thing about us.
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the
most important thing about us
in, in many ways we are still children of the enlightenment.
In, in that we still live in a world by and large, although so many people are
doing their best to undermine this, that that still lives under the, the principles
of rationality and empirical evidence, and yet we have to acknowledge that we serve
a God who transcends both of those things.
There are gonna be times where you are gonna face situations
in life, and you're gonna have to remember God is supernatural.
The natural world may be governed by that, which is rational and empirical, but God
being supernatural transcends these things so that you might find yourself in a
situation where your rationality fails and where empirical evidence doesn't add up.
And that's the time that you have to choose to say, God, you are, God.
Your ways are not my ways.
Your thoughts are not my ways, my thoughts and, and I would do things differently.
But I trust you because I know who you are.
This is about a pursuit of a deep theology.
You know, that's one reason why we're doing Adventure Club, systematic
theology for kids ages four, all the way through fifth grade.
They're never too young to have the foundations put in place,
pursue knowledge about God, a theology, an understanding of who he is.
But it's more than just the intellectual understanding.
In fact, Joel Bke puts it this way that I find helpful.
Joel Bke says this, the work of learning true theology is more
than an intellectual enterprise.
It requires, and this is the key faith in Christ, submission to God's
will and pursuit of God's glory, faith in Christ, submission to God's
will in pursuit of God's glory.
That's what Israel didn't have here, and so they were impugning God's character.
They were saying, God is vain for us to worship you.
What's the point in worshiping you?
You delight in evil doers.
You're not stopping the wicked.
Where's you're not even a God of justice.
Why should we even care?
By the way, chapter four is all about the day of the Lord.
So God says you, you wanna know what justice is gonna be and
when it's coming here it is.
The justice would indeed come.
But church for us, we have to, to make sure that that, that our theology is
deep and robust and strong, so that the trial that will come, 'cause there will
be trials, doesn't shake your confidence in the character of God so that you can
express that faith and that submission to his will in pursuit of his glory.
How do you develop that?
Well, read your Bibles regularly, regularly.
It's not less than that.
That is for sure.
If you're neglecting time in God's word, you can't expect to know God.
There's a measure of God that we can know by spending time
outside and looking at creation.
It's general revelation,
but as Christians, you've been given the Bible and the Spirit
to understand God's word.
You've been given direct or special revelation, and we have
to know him through his word.
Spend time in the word.
It's not less than that.
But I think it can be more than that too in this area.
Maybe you wanna pick up a systematic theology?
MacArthur's got one out there.
Wayne Gru has one out there.
Joel B's got a four volume out there.
Come talk to us if you want some recommendations on that.
We'd love to, to point you in the direction and, and again, this is not
about just becoming a church full of Bible nerds, it's about being able to
weather the storms because you know, God,
maybe you wanna pick up a book like JI Packer's knowing God.
Maybe you wanna pick out one attribute of God.
I wanna, I wanna learn more about what it means that God is
omniscient, that God knows all things.
I wanna know what it means, that he's all powerful.
See, it says you deepen your understanding and your knowledge of God, that then
we can look to something like the parable of the sower and see how you
can avoid being in the rocky soil.
Remember the seed scattered in the rocky soil?
As soon as the, the obstacles, as soon as the, the, the sun came up,
persecution came, it fell away.
It's our knowledge about God that's gonna make sure that our roots are
deep in the rich and good soil.
The more you know of him, the more likely you will be to trust him
in the valley and the less prone you'll be to challenge his character
or to ask, do you really love me?
'cause remember, that's how he started it.
I've loved you.
Do you really
despising your walk?
Despising your marriage and desing God's character are three
ways that you can make God mad.
Or at least draw his anger.
Like we said at the beginning, God is unchanging.
These are three ways that we can draw his anger.
There's others, but this is what Malachi tells us and as we wrap up this
series on the minor prophets, it's, it's really a fitting way to do so.
Because again, maybe if I had sat back in my, my office at the beginning of
the week and thought, man, I wanna do a sermon about what makes God mad.
So let me think about what makes God mad.
I probably would've land landed in different areas.
But that's not how we do it.
We don't bring our thoughts to the Bible.
We bring the Bible into our thoughts.
We bring the Bible into the pulpit.
And so this whole series on the minor prophets has been with the, the goal
towards helping us to see that these probably more obscure books for a lot
of us still speaking to our lives today.
Like Paul told Timothy, God's word is useful.
For reproof and for teaching, correcting, training, and righteousness that we
may be equipped for every good work and including these minor prophets.
And so this one has been about how not to make God or how to make God mad,
but I trust if you're in Christ this morning, you don't wanna make God mad.
You wanna live that life in response to his love that is gonna please him.
And so we could reverse these points just as easily saying, if you don't wanna
make God mad, honor him with your walk.
Honor him with your marriage and faithfully trust his perfect character.
But I just wanna end with one final reminder.
If you don't first know how the book opened, I have loved you.
If you haven't first experienced the love of God and you go out and you try
to apply everything that I've preached about this morning, then you're just
cleaning the outside of the tomb.
In the end, it's not gonna do you any good.
This is simply about responding to the love that we know.
If you are in Christ, if you've been saved, this is about responding
to what God has done for you and saying that, God, I wanna live a
life that honors you because of how much you loved me through Christ.
And so church, God has loved you.
What difference has that made in your life?
We stand with me as we pray.