1 Sermon Series: Malachi: Debating With God Malachi 3:13-4:6 Debating God s Victory Pastor Sam Parsons : September 7th, 2014 Big Idea: Victory is found in Christ not in your circumstances Today we are bringing a close to our series Malachi: Debating with God. Over the course of these last 5 weeks we have gotten a front row seat to 5 debates between the nation of Israel and God. Right from the get go we learned that the nation of Israel was struggling. They have just been released from their exile in Babylon, they have rebuilt the temple and they were expecting the Messiah. They were expecting the one who will set them free and save them from their pain, suffering, persecution, but he never came. Not only was the nation of Israel expecting the Messiah but also they were expecting to be blessed and recognized by all other nations. However, instead of receiving blessings they struggled with poverty, apathy. Their expectations were not being met and this drove them into a series of debates with God. If you remember the purpose of this book isn t to debate just for the sake of debate. Malachi narrated these debates between the nation of Israel and God with the heart of encouragement. Lets look at that theme verse for this series: So guard yourself in your spirit and do not break the faith. Mal 2:16b God used Malachi and these debates as a platform to encourage the nation of Israel to stay strong in their faith and to not let their current circumstances and feelings dictate their faith. All of us at some point in time in our lives have been in circumstances were our expectations have not been met by God. A spouse has died sooner than we would have expected. We have been given the prognosis that our condition is terminal. Some of us thought that we would have been married by now. Others of us would have thought that we should have had the job that you ve been applying for. Or your Roth IRA is not at the number you thought it would be at. The reality is all of us at some point or time have not had our expectations met by God. We have all been a nation of Israel if you will and we have all debated with God. Transition: As a result of that truth, I thought it would be beneficial for us to take some time today before we dive into the 6th and final debate to reflect on how God has encouraged us in each debate so far. So starting with the first Debate:
Debating God s Love: My Love for you does not change. Through this debate we learned that the nation of Israel has always loved God. He loved them because he chose them. He loves them because they still even exist and he will continue to love them because of his covenant with them in bringing the messiah. So despite what the nation of Israel was experiencing during that time. Those experiences do not counter the fact that God loves them. The same is true for us Christians. God s love extends a lot farther than that of just the nation of Israel it extends to you and I. So when you feel like God is distant. You re your expectations are not being met by God know that he loves you. When you get the notice that you lost your job, spouse, are diagnosed, feeling persecuted dig into God s word. Read about his love for you Jn 3:16. Debating Theology: Your theology matters One of the main things that we learned in the second debate is that the way in which you view God your theology is important. Why? Because your life reflects your theology. The nation of Israel let their circumstances dictate their theology. What they were experiencing caused the nation of Israel to lower their view of God and this was reflected in the way they worshiped him. Friends my encouragement to you is: don t let your circumstances dictate the way in which you view God. Instead let your theology dictate your circumstances. So what does this look like practically? After receiving that diagnoses lean on the character of God. When you lose a loved one, rest on the character of God. In the midst of trials continue to worship God well. Debating Relationships: Your relationships matter Pastor Brian walked us through this debate and the big thing we learned from God is that our failure to love others well, reveals our failure to love God well. The nation of Israel failed in this area. They let their current circumstances of life dictate how they are going to relate to one another in marriage and in friendship. Friends, the only thing that should dictate how you should relate to one another is God through his word. Know that your relationships matter. So when you re on the peaks of life or when you re in the valleys make sure you continue to love God well by loving others well. When you get burned by your coworker, love them well by confronting them. Forgive your enemies. Work towards reconciliation with your spouse. Schedule those counseling sessions. Your relationships matter. Debating God s Justice: Rest in God s Justice The nation of Israel was experiencing those who are doing evil around them prevail and succeed. It was clear that the nation of Israel was experiencing a lot of injustice. Friends, when you are experiencing injustice today don t be discouraged. Instead rest in the knowledge that the righteous Judge is coming 2
to make it all right. When your reading the news about injustices around the world Pray with your family for God to intervene. Pray for protection. Pray for the strength to endure them. Pray Debating God s Provision: Rest in God s provision In this debate we saw God answer the question: how are we to return to God. What we learned in this debate is that returning to God requires resting in his provision. When you are feeling discouraged or distant from God the way in which you return is by resting by trusting in Him by resting in his provision. The way in which you do that is you trust that God is going to provide in all areas of our life. If we trust that God has provided for our eternal state through Jesus Christ then it s going to be pretty easy to trust God with our financial state. So tithe friends Returning to God requires resting in his provision. Transition: Today we get to the 6th and final debate of this series. This debate I believe gives us a summary and or a result of what will happen to the nation of Israel if they actually put to practice those things they learned from the previous 5 debates. When we are willing to recognize that God s love does not change when we recognize that our theology and our relationships matter when we rest in God s justice and provision we will experience His victory. The 6th debate is a debate over victory. I believe it s a debate as to whether or not God will have victory. Lets look at how God starts this final debate. Look at what they are saying to God. Lord it is futile to serve you. The Hebrew word for futile is saw and it means to be without substance or content which is in itself worthless. What the people are saying to God is hey its worthless to serve you. For two reason: First because the righteous don t get rewarded and secondly the wicked are not punished. It is here where we get some of the overarching mindset that has been driving all of the debates to begin with. The nation of Israel is feeling like they don t have victory over their enemies. Their enemies those who do evil are prospering they re succeeding while Israel is suffering. So as a result why should I care about my theology why should I care about the way in which I relate to others? I can t rest in your justice there is no justice. I can t rest in your provision there is no provision. What s the point serving you God your not winning Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt like the nation of Israel? As a Christian really why should I love God and love others. Why should I watch how I speak dress act your prayer life begins to feel stale, getting up and going to church can become more like a burden or you may feel like investing in a small group, or reading Gods word is burdensome. This can lead to us all thinking that the Christian lifestyle is just a list of rules. It s just made up of a 3
bunch of sinners and hypocrites. If there is one thing that I have learned from being a Christian is that life does not get easier when you begin to follow Christ. I remember an interaction I had with an individual (we will just call him Bob for now). Bob wanted to meet with me because he was growing frustrated with the type of lifestyle that his Non-Christian friend was having. While Bob was single and doing his best to stay pure and striving to live a life more like Christ, his Non-Christian buddy was constantly partying, drinking and sleeping around. Yet in the midst of this his friend was receiving promotion after promotion while Bob was not. Bob was growing frustrated because it seemed as if his non-christian friend was being blessed with success in the midst of his life of sin while Bob was failing. Transition: Bob was like Israel he was feeling as if it is worthless to serve God. So believer is it worthless? Believer who lives in a culture surrounded by sex money injustice relativism is it worthless to serve God? God answers the question by responding to Israel s accusation by describing what will happen to the righteous and the wicked. He starts out by describing the righteous in v. 16. (Read 16-18) The Righteous will be God s possession (v16-18) Look at what God says Those who fear the Lord the righteous they will be mine. The righteous will be God s treasured possession. God is encouraging the nation of Israel. Hey for those who fear me for those who serve me for those who are righteous, you will be my treasured possession so much so you will be a part of my family. Unfortunately, for those who are wicked. Transition: For those who are not like the righteous well the story ends a little differently for them. While the righteous will be in God s family, the wicked they will burn. The wicked will burn. (4:1) There is a day the day of the Lord that will burn like a fire. This day will be like a fiery furnace. In this oven: nobody and nothing connected with unrighteousness will be spared. All the people who wearied the Lord (2:17) with their harsh words (3:13-15), all the sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers, all those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, who thrust aside the sojourners (3:5), they will all be judged on that day. This time the judgment will not be to refine and to purify (3:2) but to consume. 4
There are a couple of truths we can take from this text. First is that, there are going to be some (the righteous) who will be in God s family (heaven). Second, there are going to be some (the unrighteous) who will be in Hell. Our culture doesn t like this. There are all sorts of philosophical, so called theological gymnastics that are made to get rid of hell but scripture is clear friends. Hell is not a philosophical idea or thought. Hell is an actual place and it is a place where all the unrighteous wicked will reside. It is a place where all those who wanted nothing to do with God in any way will finally get their wish. Transition: After establishing what is going to happen to the unrighteous. God transitions again back to the righteous. V.2 Righteous will be healed (v.2) There are a lot of ways in which commentators try and interpret the first part of v.2 but the reality is all of those interpretations drive home one solid point. The righteous will be healed. Friends as people who revere God your depression will be replaced with excitement. Your cancer will be gone. Your limp will cease. Your aches and pains will vanish. Everything on your body is going to operate the way in which it was intended. And you know how your going to act? Your going to act like this [see video sermon] Now I don t mean to say we are all going to be a bunch of cows. But you get the picture. Man we are going to feel GREAT The Righteous will be healed both spiritually, mentally and physically. Transition: God goes on further to describe what will happen to the righteous. The Righteous will stand in Christ s Victory (v. 3) Look at the imagery here friends. Malachi is not proclaiming the theology of revolution, the gospel of violence, but describes in terms of a metaphor what will happen when the God of Justice (2:17) performs the ultimate stroke of judgment on the day which he creates. At the end of the day the Righteous will be standing with Christ in his victory. So Israel what you are perceiving about the wicked is not the ultimate reality. The wicked will burn the righteous will prosper and I will have the ultimate victory. One of the hardest things that I have seen on the news the past couple of weeks are these ISIS leaders who have carried out the beheading of Christians of all ages. One of those more public beheadings and broadcasted beheadings was that of freelance Journalist James Wright Foley. This movement makes me sick. It is clearly filled with Injustice and rooted in pure evil. And you know what 5
6 friends when looking at this picture what we are seeing is a lie. What this picture portrays is an ISIS leader supposedly standing in victory but he isn t. You see our perception doesn t dictate the reality that this leader (if he doesn t repent and fall on his knees) will be burning in hell and James Foley will be standing in Christ s victory on his ashes. Vengeance will be the Lords and He will take it. You see friends there is a day when Christ will return. That same person that suffering servant, the one who bore our penalty for our sin the one who died our death He is coming back. And this is what it will look like. (Read Rev.19:11-16) In the end Christ wins and friends the righteous will be standing in His victory. Transition: God puts in end to the debate that the righteous will have victory and the unrighteous won t. So the obvious question is how do I make sure I m part of the righteous. Well Malachi answers that question in these last two verses. (Read Malachi 4:4-5) Malachi tells Israel remember the law the torah Why? The law that was given to Moses consisted of decrees and ordinances. These were the stipulations of the covenant and the content of God s law. These words and ordinances were written in the book of the covenant. In other words Malachi is telling Israel pre-messiah since the messiah is not here remember the covenant and all of its laws and ordinances and follow them. So how do we make sure we are part of the righteous we remember the covenant. But that covenant is old there is a new covenant. You see that new covenant is found in Luke 22:20 where Jesus is taking the wine on the night before he was crucified and he says: This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Take it and drink in remembrance of me. The new covenant is founded on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. The reality is Jesus did what we couldn t. Jesus made us righteous. The reality is that there is no one righteous. So how do we receive his righteousness. Well paul tells us. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Rom 3:20-22
7 So how do you become righteous? How do you become a part of Gods family? How do you become healed spiritually and physically how do you stand in victory with Christ. You repent and believe in the sacrifice that Jesus made on your behalf. If you have never claimed the victory that Jesus has given you through his death burial & resurrection and you would like to do that now would you raise your hand? Its important that you do this today because If there is anything that this text taught us today its that victory is found in Christ not in your circumstances. Lets pray Church of the Foothills 2014