My name is Gordon. I'm one of the pastors here.
It's great to have all of you here.
It's great to see familiar faces as always.
We also at Vita, we just love, we can say every single week
there's people visiting, looking for a home church or just trying
to figure out who is Jesus. How do I follow him?
So if you're new here, it's very, very.
It's great that you're here. Why don't you open up to the
book of Malachi? Malachi.
We're in a different book for a few weeks while you flip there.
One clarifier, if you're coming to intro to Veto, I want to make
sure you know where to go. It's in our kids building in the
elementary room. So around 12/12/15, go across
the way to our kids building and you'll find find the class
getting set up in there. OK, Malachi, how many of you
have read Malachi before? OK, All right.
That's more than I thought. You know, one of our one of our
other pastors, Josh, who was just up here, he keeps calling
it Malachi. And I think that's that says a
lot. They're like, I've never read
this before. How do you even pronounce it?
Who's this Malachi guy? And then the follow up question
might be, why in the world are we going through Malachi in our
Sunday services? We wanted to take a break from
John just for a few weeks. There was a natural break in the
book. We'll get back to the book of
John after this. But here's why Malachi.
Of all the books, here's why Malachi.
I need some participation here, so raise your hand if you've
ever felt apathetic as a Christian.
You ever felt apathy dry? Have you ever felt indifferent?
I have you ever had thoughts like I know I should be XYZ but
I don't? OK.
Have you ever thought what's the point?
What's the point of what's the point of going to church again?
What's the point of reading my Bible?
What's the point of these things?
I know I should be doing that. I'm not.
Have you ever thought he deserves it?
I get it. He deserves it.
Yeah. I wish that.
I wish that I could find it in my heart to do these things.
But OK. That's why we're in the book of
Malachi, you and I. We're not that different from
the God's chosen people from 450 BC.
OK. Long, long time ago. 11 Little
note, if you're new here, maybe newer to the faith, maybe you
wouldn't call yourself a Christian.
You come in and all these people look really put together, don't
they? But did you see how many hands
were raised? We are not put together, OK?
We're the, the truth of the matter is any Christian you see
is just trying to figure out how to live faithful to God.
We're just trying to figure out how to honor him.
And we do not have it all put together.
And that's why we need Malachi. The aim of Malachi is simple.
It's calling God's people to honor him through faithful
living. Calling God's people to honor
him through faithful living. So Malachi, maybe you found it
page numbers on the screen. If you want to use one of our
Bibles, it's OK Anyone got it? What was 8 O 18 O1?
There you go. Thanks.
All right, so before we read Malachi, just the first 5
verses, one thing we find very helpful to do before is get a
give ourselves a chance to prepare our hearts to get right
with God. We come in with all kinds of
stuff. And so this is a chance we're
just going to before I read the verses, just have a time of
quiet. And I would encourage you during
that time, just pray. God help me if you have sin, God
forgive me if you find yourself distracted, God help focus me.
And for all of us, pray that God would prepare our hearts to hear
from Him today. Malachi chapter one verse one,
the Oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi 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 have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.
I have laid waste his Hill Country and left his heritage to
jackals of the desert. If Edom says we are shattered,
but we will rebuild the ruins. The Lord of hosts says they may
build, but I will tear down and they will be called the wicked
country and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever your
own eyes shall see this and you shall say great is the Lord
beyond the border of Israel. Father, we asked you today, and
I pray on behalf of all of us, we ask you today, Lord, that You
would help us to honor you as you deserve.
All of us that would call ourselves Christians, we got a
long way to go. You are faithful.
You've loved us from the beginning.
You'll get us where we need to go.
But for where we're at right now and for all the things that we
find ourselves struggling with, Father, we ask that You would be
faithful to us. I ask, Lord, that for each
person that came today, You would send them away with like
rations for the next leg of the journey.
And we know that you're a God who can do far more abundantly
than we can ask or think or imagine.
And so even those things that we're not aware of or we don't
think to ask, I pray, Father, help us.
We pray all these things in your name, Jesus, Amen.
OK, So some of you, as we were reading through the verses,
you're like, oh boy, what's Gordon going to say about this
one? I've been asking the same thing
all week. What am I going to say about
this one? You know, one thing that I love
about preaching through books of the Bible is you can't wiggle
out of the hard verses. And one thing I love about the
Bible is that it's not just what we think we need.
It's the things we need that we don't know we need, right?
There's the whole, all of Scripture.
First Timothy says all of Scripture is breathed out by God
profitable and it goes on to say so that the man of God may be
complete and equipped for every good work.
And so we need Malachi, the 1st 5 verses to be complete and
equipped. It's God breathed and it's
profitable and I have to I get to teach it today.
Now I honestly, I'm really excited for the verses.
I think it's very a very, very good setup for the rest of the
book. So could we first, though, I
need to give some context. This is an Old Testament book,
OK. And we're going to go through
Malachi for a few weeks. And just like when you go
through a new course, those of you who are students, you go
through a new course. It's unfamiliar territory.
They have a syllabus. Before we do anything in the
course, I just need to walk you through the syllabus.
And so the first few minutes is just going to be that.
So hang with me and then we'll get into the verses.
There's three things I want to say about the book of Malachi.
First that you need to know. 1 is that it's prophetic
literature. And so from Isaiah is a prophet
or a messenger of God. They speak on God's behalf to
God's people from Isaiah to Malachi.
Malachi is the last one that is prophetic literature and Malachi
is the second thing you should know a minor prophet, but it
doesn't mean it's not important. It just means it's a shorter
book. And so Isaiah, if you read it
like major prophet, a lot of chapters, there's four for the
minor prophet Malachi. The other thing you need to know
about Malachi is it's structured in the form of 6 disputes.
OK? So we'll go through each dispute
that God is is having with his people, OK?
It's this back and forth where he is.
The people aren't necessarily even voicing these disputes.
God is just an omniscient God, meaning he's all knowing.
He knows what's in their hearts and he calls out the secret
thoughts and then he pushes back on them.
And so there's six disputes through the book and that's kind
of the structure. Now there's three terms that you
need to know before we go through the book of Malachi.
These might you might call them themes or just helpful terms.
The 1st is Israel. OK, we we hear Israel and
sometimes we don't always distinguish like Israel was a
person. OK, we'll see.
Jacob mentioned in the text. Jacob was renamed Israel.
The 12 tribes came from Israel, OK, but then you've got the land
of Israel, and there is still a nation of Israel, but the land
of Israel is kind of representative of a dwelling
place with God. And so that's just packed.
But Israel, we need to know it's a person in the land.
Another term we need to know in jumping into Malachi is
covenant. OK?
How often do you just toss around the word covenant today?
The closest thing we might have is the covenant of marriage.
But a covenant is different than a promise, maybe even different
than a vow. OK, promises today, you know how
those are like pinky promise, very different from a covenant.
A covenant is relational in nature.
It's between two parties. So a covenant between God and
man, for example. A covenant has terms and
agreements. OK, there are stipulations here.
It's like in a marriage ceremony, there's vows, like
here are the stipulations, Here's what I promised to do.
But a covenant also has consequences agreed upon.
If you do not carry out the covenant as agreed upon, this
will happen. If you do, this will happen.
There's blessing, there's cursing.
And before making the covenant, we have all the data and we say,
yes, I want to enter into that covenant.
And so there's a covenant in the background of Malachi that the
people have broken. That's important to know.
The reason why the aim of Malachi is calling people to
honor God through faithful living is because they've been
unfaithful. And you say unfaithful to what?
The covenant, the terms, OK, it's not God doesn't have like a
moving target and every day there's a new rule that we
didn't know about God reveals to us here's the target, here's
what it looks like to live faithful.
Here's what we've agreed upon and when we've broken those
agreed upon terms, we have been unfaithful to the covenant.
So let me give you an example. Joshua 24, you don't have to go
there, but just listen, I'm going to kind of bullet point
skim and Joshua 24, Joshua comes along to God's people and he's
calling them to renew their covenant that they've already
been unfaithful to. There will be lots of renewals
even before Malachi comes along. So it shows.
But here's what Joshua 24 walks through.
Joshua says, I gave you a land on which you had not labored in
cities that you hadn't built. I calls them now.
Therefore fear the Lord and serve him in in sincerity and
faithfulness. And then he's laying out terms
for them. Joshua says, but As for me in my
house, we will serve the Lord and then the people say we will
not forsake God. We agree to these terms, we'll
follow him according to the covenant.
Then verse 19, Joshua said to the people, you are not able to
serve the Lord, for he is a holy God.
He is a jealous God. And the people said to Joshua,
no, but we will serve the Lord. And then Joshua said to the
people, all right, you are witnesses against yourselves.
You've chosen to serve the Lord. And they said, yes, we are
witnesses. And Joshua goes back through the
terms again. And then Joshua made a covenant
with the people that day and put in place statutes and rules for
them at Shechem. And then the last verse in the
section, it says Joshua sent the people away, every man to his
inheritance and hold on to that verse and that word inheritance,
because that's going to be the third term we need.
But Joshua was right, they have been unfaithful to this
covenant. And he's saying you can't serve
the Lord, you can't be faithful. And history would prove that to
be true. Now, inheritance, he sent them
away to his inheritance. And there's the third big theme
that we'll see through the book of Malachi this term that we
need. We're almost done with the
syllabus. OK, OK.
When you see inheritance, what do you think of?
OK, money, possessions, a will. OK.
For them, they would have thought land, OK, when I'm left
an inheritance, I'm left land which is materials possessions.
It's prosperity, it's refuge, it's safety.
OK, there's these, all these material possessions that come
with an inheritance, but it's so much more than that, OK?
When you see the verses in Malachi, it's going to use words
like country, borders, heritage. And when you see those words,
it's not just material inheritance or possession, it's
spiritual inheritance, spiritual possession.
The best thing in the Garden of Eden was not the abundance, was
not the materials, was not the prosperity, was not the safety.
The best thing in the original Garden of Eden, the land was
that God was there. They dwelled with God.
And so when God's giving them a promised land and inheritance,
he's saying, OK, it's material inheritance, it's material
blessing, but it's much, much more than that.
You have me. I shall be your God.
You shall be my people, OK. And that's huge when we look at
the verses here today, is that it's much, much more than just
land and heritages. It's dwelling with God.
OK? I think that's all the terms.
Now we can go into Malachi, the main point for today.
God begins by saying I have always and I will always love
you. That's the main point.
So look at verse 2. God says I have loved you, says
the Lord, but you say, how have you loved us?
And so there's a question again, buried in their hearts.
They're not necessarily like waving their fists in the air
saying God, how have you loved us?
Maybe they are, but for the most part it seems like a voiceless
doubt, a suspicion. God, how have you loved us?
God sees that wondering in their heart, How have you loved us
now? There's many reasons.
There's many reasons why people might find themselves doubting
God's love. How have you loved us?
There's many reasons why someone might forget or wonder.
God, do you? Do you still love me?
But here's if you were to trace them down, here's often where
they start. Often.
God, my situation is not as you promised.
It's not as I expected. It's God.
Look at my situation. I'm hurting, I'm weary, I'm
struggling. How have you loved me?
It's not as promised. God, you promised abundance and
prosperity and material blessing.
This doesn't doesn't seem like or is it because you've broken
the covenant, but it doesn't seem like it.
OK, Israel would find themselves exiled from their land, their
inheritance. They came into the promised
land. The 12 tribes spread all over
the place. They were one great nation as
promised. And then God the the what he
warned them about. If you break the covenant,
you're going to be scattered. Other nations will come and
dispossess you, and that's what's happened.
Israel has been marched out of their land by Babylon.
They have been scattered and divided.
They're no longer a great nation.
There's a small few that by this point has been able to return,
but under Persian sponsorship. So they're under their thumb.
They don't have their own king. They're not mighty.
They're not greater than the other nations.
They aren't what they used to be.
This is not as promised. Lord, look at my situation.
How have you loved me? Or as expected?
OK, even if even if this is technically as promised, this
was in the terms, it's not as expected.
God, we returned. We've been faithful to you
again. We're with you again.
We realize that we sinned. We know why you exiled us.
But we've returned, haven't we? This isn't.
We should be farther along. You were supposed to bless me
sooner. I don't like waiting.
God, look at my situation. There's many reasons we could
doubt God. Often it's because we look at
our situation and it's not as promised or expected.
Would you agree? Have you felt that before?
God, look at my situation. This isn't what I thought, you
know. How have you loved me lately?
I can barely pay rent. How have you loved me lately?
God, this isn't as promised. You told me I'd have everything
I needed. I still have pain.
I've been praying. Why am I not healed yet?
Why did that tragedy happen? Lord, that wasn't supposed to
happen. How have you loved me lately?
My kids, they're walking away from the faith.
God, this isn't as promise. This isn't as I expected.
How have you loved me? God?
I returned. Why am I not flourishing as a
church? We might say we're 20,000 behind
budget. Lord, why haven't you loved me?
This isn't as promised or expected.
God, look at, look at all the others, other churches that are
teaching a false doctrine, prosperity gospel.
They're attracting way more people than us.
Look at them. Look at their situation compared
to us. How have you loved me?
It doesn't seem like it. OK, And I'm I'm dipping into a
second one. You might doubt because you look
at your situation. You might doubt because you look
at their situation. You look at another person, you
look at the wicked and you say, Lord, they're prospering.
How come? How have you loved me?
I thought I was in your family right with you.
I've done all these good things. I look around at my world and
look at them. They're prospering.
They're provided for. They can pay rent.
They seem happy. God, this isn't fair.
How have you loved me lately? OK, Edom is mentioned in these
verses, right? The heritage left to Edom.
OK, this was an enemy nation of Israel and Edom had not been
dispossessed. They were still for the most
part in their land. And so Israel might be looking
in on that. Say, God, look at our situation
and look at their situation. This is not fair.
Why do the wicked prosper? OK, I love Psalm.
Let's see, where is it? Psalm 37?
Go read the whole chapter. But here's the line that you see
throughout. Why do the wicked prosper in
their way? Why do the wicked prosper?
This is not fair, OK? It's a lament that every
Christian probably finds themselves in, not just once or
twice. This isn't fair, God.
Why is the wicked prospering? OK, Edom, an enemy nation.
Edom was the one that Psalm 137, eight through 9.
It says they were the ones on the day of Jerusalem that said,
Lay it bare, Lay it bare down to its foundation, O daughter of
Babylon, doomed to be destroyed. Blessed shall he be who repays
you with what you have done to us.
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them
against the rocks. OK, this is a horrid graphic
scene. When Babylon took Israel away,
Babylon was brutal. Babylon was an enemy.
And you know who participated? Who said, Yup, lay it bare, Lay
it bare the Edomites, and they're the ones prospering.
Some of you would look at their situation and it's much more
severe. OK, there are there are men and
women who lack integrity, who cheat and steal and lie and they
get the promotion and I don't. OK, we look around and we see
all kinds of wicked that doesn't seem to go addressed.
God, where are you? How have you loved me?
Don't you see the evil in our world?
OK, do you see the evil in our world, folks?
OK, where's God? How has he loved us?
This is not as promised and it's not as expected.
That's the spot that the people of Malachi find themselves in.
And here's what I want all of us to know.
Doubt is often the poison that leads to unfaithfulness.
OK clarifier. Doubt is OK.
Every Christian has probably had doubt once or twice in their
life. OK, But doubt unchecked and left
there is a poison that leads to unfaithfulness.
OK, so we would we would learn from the book of Malachi that
you have this verse. How have you loved me?
And then by chapter 314, you have the people that say it is
vain to serve the Lord. And so basically what you see
through the progression of Malachi is God.
I can't think of anything you've done lately to love me.
I'm doubting, I'm wondering, I'm forgetting.
And it leads to the unfaithfulness that God is
having to correct. OK doubt is often the poison
that leads to unfaithfulness. Malachi is going to address half
hearted worship, holding back from God.
Malachi is going to address giving him the leftovers, the
scraps. Malachi is going to address
leaders not doing their jobs, they're corrupted.
Malachi is going to address not holding each other accountable.
Malachi is going to address marrying outside the faith.
Malachi is going to address divorcing the wife of your
youth, breaking that covenant. Malachi is going to address all
kinds of things that are dishonouring God and unfaithful
according to the covenant. But all of that, I think, often
can be tied back to God. How have you been faithful to
me? How have you loved me?
You seem distant. I've forgotten.
Often when doubtless is unchecked, it's a poison that
leads to unfaithfulness. You could look at a
unfaithfulness in a marital covenant and what is it often
traced back to? They lost love.
Or you could say they forgot love.
How have you loved me lately? And then unchecked that will
lead to unfaithfulness often. So here's a take away.
As doubt is often the poison that leads to unfaithfulness,
remembering God's love is the antidote, OK if doubt often
doubt in his love often leads to unfaithfulness.
Here's what we need. We need to be reminded that God
loves us. That's the antidote.
OK Often what what a a marriage that's struggling and there's
unfaithfulness what what they're need is to be secure in each
other's love. OK.
When my wife starts to doubt if I love her, if she was to ever
say, how have you loved me, Gordon?
One, I've failed if she has to ask me that question.
But two, I would say, oh, I just, I need to build her up
with my words. I need to show her affection.
I need to make her secure in my love.
And then naturally it's like you want to reciprocate.
There's faithfulness again, often what we need as the
antidote is security in God's love.
And that's why in God's wisdom, before he gives any of the other
rebukes in Malachi, he begins by securing them in his love.
They're asking, how have you loved me?
God? And he knows that's the, that's
the root of it. You need to know I love you.
And So what we're going to see today is a primary, We're going
to see lots of ways that God loves, but there's a primary
proof that God gives to that question or doubt.
How have you loved us? So let's go to the next part of
verse 2. God says is not Esau, Jacob's
brother declares the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob Esau.
I've hated, I've laid waste his Hill Country and left his
heritage, important word, heritage to jackals of the
desert. OK, let me knock one thing out
of the way real quick. If you were here a few weeks ago
in the book of John, we actually saw this loved, hated contrast,
right? It's hyperbole.
OK, Kurt was explaining then, and it's the case here.
Hated and loved hyperbole. Hyperbole is an intentional
exaggeration to make a point. And so I could say we were
playing that game and I crushed you in that game.
I did not literally crush you. I'm exaggerating and I'm making
a point. Hated refers to rejection.
Loved refers to choosing. God is saying Jacob and Esau,
they were brothers and I've loved Jacob and I have, I have
chosen Jacob. I have rejected Esau.
And so it's about God's choosing love.
He's talking to the Israelites who are descendants of Jacob.
You remember the syllabus? Jacob was renamed Israel.
OK, The Israelites. He's reminding them, I chose
your lineage. So God's aim here for the people
of Malachi is to secure them in his love, to reassure them, to
comfort them. And he doesn't say notice as a
Heavenly Father, he doesn't say, how dare you question me.
And he's not the dad that says I've simply loved you by
providing for you. Don't you know you have food on
the table? I brought you back to Jerusalem
again. He, he reminds them, He secures
them. He reassures them, I chose you.
I chose you. OK, again, back to maybe a
hypothetical example between Anna and I, my wife, if she was
to ask how have you loved me, Gordon?
I could say lots of things to answer that, but one of the best
things I could say is, hey, I chose you.
Of all the girls out there, I rejected them and I chose you.
I have a seriously, I look, Anna, I have a specific love for
you that is unlike any other love that I have for any other
human, OK? I don't love any of you the way
that I love Anna. And I would hope that in
remembering that for her, she would be secured in her love, in
my love for her. She would be comforted.
She'd be reminded. I chose you again, before God
gives any rebukes, He just reassures her.
And there's a lesson in there somewhere for dads, for
husbands, for leaders. You begin with reassuring of
love. You make sure they know that
that's often where the unfaithfulness comes from.
So Christians, when you doubt God's love, I got a catechism
for you. You know what a catechism is?
Catechism is a doctrine or a truth from Scripture that often
comes in the form of question and response.
And we see it right here in Malachi is a good one where I
would say, Christian, how has God loved you?
And you would say he chose me. OK, let's try it.
Christian, how has God loved you?
He chose me. And you can recite that, recite
that catechism, that truth to yourself over and over and over.
When you feel unsecure, insecure, when you feel doubt,
when you feel wondering, God, you feel distant, you feel far
away. I'm struggling, Lord, I'm weary.
Look at my situation. Look at their situation.
Christian, how has God loved you?
He chose me. Deuteronomy 76 through 8 will be
up on the screen. It says for you are a people
holy to your God. The Lord your God has chosen you
to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the
peoples who are on the face of the earth.
It is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath or
covenant that He swore to your Father's.
Hey, what's neat there is we've talked a lot about heritages and
inheritances, right? It's a material and a spiritual
possession. The best part is that you have
God. But you know what that verse is
saying? God has you.
He chose you. You're His treasured
inheritance, possession. That's why there's a line
throughout the whole Bible. It goes like this.
You shall be my people and I shall be your God.
That's what it's all about in the Garden of Eden.
You shall be my people and I shall be your God to revelation
in the end, when we're with them again, I shall be your God and
you shall be my people. He is our possession.
We are His possession. When we remember those things
that he chose us, we are secure in his love.
Now the this that that is the that is the reason why this
verse is in here. I've chosen you.
I've hated you, OK, but this is a classic text on the doctrine
of election. OK?
And so I want to say a few things about it.
Election is the doctrine that says God elects to or chooses to
save some, not others. And it's a hard one.
I'll just be honest, OK, but this is it's in the text.
Got to say something about it. This is such a classic example
of election that it's what Paul uses.
The Apostle Paul in Romans 9 when teaching it, he references
this. So listen to Romans 910 through
12. And not only so, but also when
Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather
Isaac, though they were not yet born and hadn't done nothing
either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election
might continue, not because of works, but because of Him who
calls she. The mother was told The older
will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I have
loved, Esau I have hated. And so it's referencing a true
story where Jacob and Esau's mom was promised before they were
born. The older will serve the younger
and this it's saying Paul is explaining this was not because
of anything good or bad that Jacob or Esau would do.
It was simply because of him who calls who chose God pre decided
that he would set his love on Abraham.
OK Abraham, the father of God's people.
He would make a covenant with Abraham.
He would carry it out through Isaac and then there would be
Jacob and Esau. But I'm going to favor Jacob,
and this is an example of it's salvation based on God, not
based on man. And then I'm going to try my
best to just say a few more things about it because we got a
lot of different people in the room.
Some of you, you don't flinch, You're like, Yep, I get it.
Others of you, it's a hard doctrine.
Some of you, you're hearing it for the first time.
OK. And so Malachi didn't go into
much depth because he's just talking to the Jacob people.
They get it, but I want to say just a few more things, but
realize people have written books trying to explain this
theology and I've got a few minutes and so I'm going to make
a little plug now. Download Church Center app,
register for our membership series class.
We'll go through our statement of faith and we'll say much more
about this doctrine. But let me say a few things I
said. One election is salvation from
God, not based on us. It is not based on merit, it's
not based on our goodness, it's not based on morality.
It's purely God's choosing. And then there's an objection in
Romans to this, right? So the objection in Romans is
some of your objection. You would say, well, if God's
sovereign to save, it's all about what he wills, who can
resist his will? That's the very question in
Romans that Paul is tackling. Who can resist his will?
Do we have any choice? OK, that's a valid objection to
which Paul would respond in Romans 9.
Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?
Will what is molded say to its molder?
Why have you made me like this? Has the Potter no right over the
clay to make out of the same lump 1 vessel for honorable use
and another for dishonorable use?
OK, that's one answer. That is one response we should
know. There is a heavenly vantage
point with God's sovereign will, and there's an earthly vantage
point with our free will. We do have free will, right?
And both exist in tandem together, OK.
As his sovereign will plays out from a heavenly perspective, so
does our will play out from an earthly perspective, and they
somehow go together. Here's two more things about
election. The first was God salvation is
from God. The second is God will not force
his spiritual heritage on anyone who chooses to reject it.
Sorry if this might be a mouthful.
God will not force on anyone his spiritual heritage who chooses
to reject it. So let's look at Esau from an
earthly vantage point, right? So you've got a guy like Esau.
OK, Jacob and Esau are born. Esau is older.
Esau would get to the point where he is the father's
favorite. He is the man's man.
He goes out and hunts and fishes.
And then you've got Jacob. He's the mama's boy that
literally says that he likes gardening.
OK, His father likes Esau. Esau's the son of promise.
He's the older. He's do the birthright, which
again, Heritage's inheritances, birthright for the older son
meant double inheritance. OK, and what does Esau do?
He chooses to reject it. Jacob, I'm not commending this.
But Jacob comes along and tricks his brother into trading the
birthright for a meal. He finds Esau in a moment of
weakness when he's famished from being out hunting.
And he says, hey, I have a pot of Stew.
I'll trade you your birthright for it.
And Esau takes them up on the deal.
Esau, remember birthright heritage.
Esau is promised the heritage of the nation of Abraham Isaac.
It could have been the nation of Esau, and I'm just playing
around here, but it could have been OK.
But he took all of that material possession, inheritance with
God, dwelling with God. He gave it all up for a single
meal that he would eat within a matter of minutes, digest within
a matter of hours, and excrete the next day.
Think about it. He gave all that up for a meal,
and that's why Moses says thus Esau despised his birthright.
OK, Esau chose to reject a heritage with God, and God will
not force it on Esau if Esau chose to reject it.
So you see a sovereign heavenly will and you see an earthly free
will working together. Jacob, on the other hand, if we
looked at him from an earthly vantage point, Jacob, I'm not
commending it, but he tricked his brother into getting the
birthright. He tricked his father into
giving him the blessing at the end of his life.
OK, he was a deceiver. It's what Jacob means, the name
deceiver. OK, Jacob wanted the heritage
and it all, maybe not for the purest motives, we don't know.
But it all culminated with there's a story in Genesis 32
where he wrestles with a mysterious man who happens to be
God. And when Jacob wrestles with
that man, he strives with him all night and demands the
blessing. And when asked his name, Jacob
acknowledges my name is Jacob Deceiver.
He acknowledges his, you could say sin.
And then he demands to get the blessing and he wrestles with
God until God gives him the blessing.
And that is the moment when Jacob would be renamed Israel.
OK. And so the the third thing you
need to know about election, God will not withhold his spiritual
heritage from anyone who chooses to seek it.
OK, He will not force it on you, but he will not withhold either.
OK, here again you see God's sovereign will and our free will
working together. And so you have to know with a
tricky doctrine, a hard to understand one like election,
you have to know if you want a heritage with God, he will not
withhold. If you want it, it's because
he's been choosing and drawing you.
And you have to know if you live a life stiff arming God,
rejecting the heritage, maybe you want the material blessing
like Esau the meal, but you don't want the heritage, the
birthright, the part that has makes you have to dwell with
God. If you reject God, God will not
force you into heaven. OK, I want to put a graphic up
on the screen just to map all this out.
OK, so here you see everything we've been talking about.
God has a path for his inheritance.
He has chosen Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and this is who he's
carrying his covenant through. Through that covenant, the
recipients will dwell in the land of Israel, which represents
dwelling with God. And if you're like Esau and you
choose to sidestep God's blessing, you reject it.
He's not going to force you to live in the land of Israel.
You have chosen a life living apart from God.
Now let me let me show you one more verse it's in and you can
leave that up on the screen. Actually, David, I'll just read
Hebrews 12. It says that no one be like
unholy Esau. And so the writer of Hebrews in
the New Testament is looking back on this and giving us a a
wider interpretation. Esau was unholy who sold his
birthright for a single meal. Hebrews says, For you know that
afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was
rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it
with tears. He did not have repentant tears.
He was unholy and rejected God in need of repentance.
He had sidestepped God's blessing, and God was not going
to force him to live in a land that he did not want to live in.
Esau's descendants would go on to be the people of Edom.
Remember the ones that cursed Israel said lay it bare, lay it
bare, that was Esau. So all the descendants of Esau
too, The land of Edom has rejected God, and God will not
force them to live in a land they don't want.
And then you've got Israel's descendants who would be the
twelve sons, the tribes of Israel.
There is a nation that still exists today that bears the name
Israel. Talk about a heritage.
OK, all of this can be traced back to Israel, Jacob choosing
God. Here's a take away for us.
Any situation with God is better than any situation without God.
OK. If you looked at Israel versus
Esau? And they're over here looking at
look at my situation. Look at their situation, Edom.
They're my enemies. God is reminding, hey, I've
rejected them and they've rejected me, and I've chosen you
and you have chosen me. We are in covenant together.
And despite what it looks like, they seem to be flourishing
because they're still in their land.
You've been exiled. You're under a Persian thumb.
Despite what it may look like, any situation with me is better
than any situation without me. And that's something you can
hold on to. Christian, you look around, I
don't understand God. But remember, don't look at
material possession, don't look at material situation.
Look at spiritual possession, spiritual situation.
And any situation with God is better than any situation
without God. Give me just a SEC.
Let me talk to the ones of you that are here and you're not a
Christian and you hear all that and you realize there is a God
in heaven that has a sovereign will.
And you might find yourself asking the question whether the
God of heaven has chosen you. And I want to tell you that's
not the question you should be asking today, OK?
There's a heavenly vantage point.
There's an earthly vantage point.
The question is not whether the God of heaven from up there has
chosen you. The question is whether you from
down here will choose him. That's our concern.
Will you choose God? Will you choose the Stew, the
earthly pleasure you eat within a matter of minutes, digest
within a matter of hours it's gone the next day?
Fleeting pleasures. Will you really give up a life
and eternity with God for that? Will you opt for the material
possessions or will you opt for the spiritual one?
And remember, God will not withhold this heritage from any
who truly wants Him. To those that reject God.
God says in the verses we have today, I have laid waste his
Hill Country and left His heritage to the jackals
representing a barren reality. A life without God is a barren
reality. Will you trade that?
Will you take that trading it for a reality of blessing,
prosperity, a future Kingdom, heaven dwelling with Him
forever? And more importantly than
anything, you possess God Himself.
Like Unholy Esau. Will you miss your chance to
repent, or will you find your chance to repent?
The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ came to bring a new
covenant, that it has nothing to do with what land you're from,
your ancestry. Through faith in Jesus Christ,
anybody can seek this heritage from God and find it.
All it takes is you repenting of your sin.
You realize I have broken the covenant more times than I care
to admit. I have lived unfaithful.
I need a faithful one to stand in my place and live it for me.
That's the only way the covenant can go unbroken.
Jesus Christ, sinless God, came from heaven to earth to live a
faithful life and honor the Father in a way that you and I
never could. If you repent of your sin and
place your trust in Jesus, He brings you into a new covenant,
a covenant of grace, and He will remain faithful to you until you
walk with me into the land of Israel, dwelling with God
forever. I would invite any of you here
today. If you've not placed your trust
in Jesus but you want to tell him you're sorry, ask for
forgiveness. Commit to I'm not going to live
this way anymore and choose Him and he will not withhold.
We have a time of prayer at the end of our service.
And one of the things we hope and pray for every Sunday is the
men and women like you would come up and we would have the
privilege of being able to help welcome you into the land of
Israel. All right, let's move on to the
next few verses, verse four and five.
If Edom says we are shattered, but we will rebuild.
The Lord of hosts says they may build, but I will tear down.
They will be called the wicked country and the people with whom
the Lord is angry forever. And so God's judgment is fixed.
If you spend the life rejecting Him, you can build all you want.
His judgment is fixed. Notice the posture in their
hearts. We will rebuild and God says I'm
sovereign. I will.
I will just tear you down again. There's a promise here.
OK? God has already answered.
How have you loved us? He's already answered.
I chose you. But he's saying another thing to
them I will do. I will judge justly your
enemies. My justice will go out to your
enemies, OK, The enemies of God and the enemies of his people.
My judgment is fixed. It's another way that you shall
see how I have loved you. There's a thing that often
happens in the prophetic literature called a double layer
of fulfillment or layers of fulfillment.
This would be fulfilled in one layer within the the days of
Malachi. They would see Edom get marched
out of their land and this promise will come true.
And then, ah God, you are watching out for us.
You have loved us. And then there's another layer
of fulfillment. One day all of those who have
trusted in Jesus will stand at the gates of judgment, will see
Jesus face to face, and he will March the wicked who have
rejected him out of his land forever, and he'll call others
into his land forever. And here's here's maybe the best
part of all these verses Whose eyes shall see it and say that
he's great, your eyes. OK.
It's not that when God judges the wicked.
It's not that they will finally say, oh, my gods are wrong.
You're whoa, The God of Israel, He's great.
It's not. That will happen.
You'll see that through the rest of Malachi, the nation shall
know that I'm the great king. OK?
Every knee will bow and tongue confess that I'm the Lord.
Hey, that will happen. But what God's saying here is,
hey, my people, who I've chosen, when you see this, you shall
know. You shall say the Lord is great
beyond the border of Israel. He's addressing doubt of love
and he's addressing doubt of his greatness.
God will finally say, God, you really did have a perfect plan.
You really were in control. You really have loved me.
It wasn't just within like our small little remnant of a
nation, you woe. You are great throughout all the
earth beyond the borders of Israel and here.
Here's what's really going to get us again, this is for us.
Here's what's really going to get us.
Christians, you and I will be at Judgement Day.
God will have the wicked, the enemies of God and the enemies
of us. He will have them marched away.
But you know what he'll do then He'll smile at you and me, and
he'll say, come in, enter my rest, dwell in my land.
You have me forever. And here's what's really going
to get us. We will look at them going and
we'll look at us coming in and we'll be bewildered.
You're like, are you kidding me, God?
But I'm wicked. If only we'll see God, and we'll
see our God. That should be me.
I should be marched out. I should be in exile forever.
I do not deserve God. If you know how unlovable I am,
you know how unfaithful I've been.
You know how many times I've broken the covenant?
Think about it, Christians. Do you deserve to be in the
Kingdom of Israel, of heaven with God forever?
Do you deserve to be in relationship with the holy God?
No. We'll see that happen and we'll
say great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.
If Jacob had been saved based on his own merit, his own goodness,
his own morality, the verse would end with great is Jacob
right? Doesn't end that way.
Salvation belongs to God. God chose you, and so great is
the Lord beyond the border of Israel.
That's the culmination of these verses.
We rest secure that God loves us, and one day we will know for
certain that God is great. There's no one like him and
we'll we'll get to be with him forever and have our heritage.
You ready for the final catechism?
Not the final, the same catechism, but we're going to
end with that. Christian, how has God loved
you? Two takeaways to take home with
you today. Remember, His love is often the
antidote of doubt and unfaithfulness.
We'll see that through the rest of Malachi.
And 2nd, any situation with God is better than any situation
without God. Let's be a church that honors
God through faithful living because He is great and He
deserves it.