A Message From God, Part 2

Good afternoon, everyone. Good to see all of you here today. It's a beautiful day here in Orlando, and good to be with you. We ran into a few traffic problems and a late start out of Jacksonville this morning, so I appreciate you getting started without us.

I know Mr. Johnston did announcements, and I just had one announcement I wanted to add to it, but I want to make the announcement from the Bible. So if you'll turn with me over to Deuteronomy 17. I think I mentioned a few weeks ago, and I mentioned in the letter yesterday that as we try to do things maybe on a year basis and we do some special projects—last year we had the Bible reading program that we did that took about a year—and this year we were going to do some group study projects, things that we could work on at home.

In addition to the Sabbath services that we have here, I think for some of our young people and teens, this will be a good project because you'll be able to work on these things on Friday nights if you're looking for something to do or Sabbath mornings before you come to church. But I wanted to introduce it with a verse from the Bible. Here in Deuteronomy 17, God is talking to the future kings of Israel. And we're all here. He's training us all to be future kings and priests.

And so the words he writes here, we should take note as well. And in chapter 17, he gives a number of admonitions to the kings. But in verse 18, he says this. He says, "'It shall be, when the king sits on the throne of his kingdom, he will write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the priests, the Levites.'" And so what he wanted to do—and you know how long the book of the law is. If you flip through Genesis through Deuteronomy, that's a lot of verses and a lot of writing to do.

And God wanted his kings to do that. He wanted them to take the time to write it out. Because we do absorb a lot by reading. We absorb more when we read and write. And many of you who have been in the church for a while, if you remember the correspondence course, it used to be that you would be asked a question, and then it would give you the answer in Scriptures, and you were asked to write those verses out.

So the reason that God did this—he goes on and says, it says, "'It shall be with him. He shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the eternal as God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandments of the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in the kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.'" Well, all those things that are written there, we should want as well, when we look at the kingdom and to prolong our days with God and to walk with him.

So over the next year, maybe 15 months, we're going to do maybe one a month, maybe in a few months, more than one a month, of some studies that are going to ask them questions and they're going to ask you to write out the Scriptures. And since we're here in them, just four weeks away from Passover, the first one is going to be on Passover.

And we talk about it in sermons, and we may talk it a little bit more later on today. But I think if you go through a study—and I've got a 12-page study here that goes through Passover when you're done with it, especially people who are newer to the church—you're going to understand Passover and why we keep it like you never did before.

And for the rest of us, it's a very good exercise in doing that. In a few weeks, we may do one on Unleavened Bread as well. So I hope that everyone will do this. I think it will be very good for all of us to work on something together. Maybe some of our sermonettes will be able to touch on some of the things that we learn and that we write in these lessons, and I'll be doing it right along with you.

The way I'm going to do this is, tomorrow morning, I'm going to email this in a PDF file to each of you that I have an email address for.

If I don't have an email address, if you're not getting weekly letters or prayer requests through email, you might let my wife or me know, and we can get your email address, and you'll have that so you can download. If you don't have internet, if you don't have a printer, let us know. I made some hard copies. I just didn't take the time. I want to make a copy for every single person in all three churches because all three churches, plus the van, and when we go up there, are going to be doing the same thing.

So if you need one, see Debbie after services, and she's got some hard copies. I did want to reserve a copy of some for the teens. I want to pass those out to them later on at the Bible study as well. So we'll do this, and then through the course of the year, we'll do some of the Holy Day ones. We're also going to do some of the fundamental beliefs this way and make up some things that you can read at home and answer from the Bible, exactly what the questions are and why we believe the way we do. So we'll begin that this week, and you will have that tomorrow morning or after services. I don't have my ledge up here anymore to hide things in.

Okay, last week. Last week, if you remember, we began talking from the book of Malachi. And if you remember, I started with the question if we were able to have a sit-down meeting with God, or maybe how nice it would be to have a sit-down meeting with God and have him look at us, talk to us one-on-one, eye-to-eye, and let us know how we stand in his eyes. What are we doing right? What do we need to improve on? What false weaknesses or sins are still there that he wants us to be working on to use his Holy Spirit to overcome? And we went through a few of the chapters in Malachi, and I hope we began to see that we need to start looking at ourselves and the choices and the actions that we make through God's eyes.

And as we begin here this morning, I want to go back to Malachi and just rehearse for a few minutes some of the things we talked about last week as the setting into the setting into the rest of the book this week as we talk about it. So if you will turn back to Malachi 1. You'll remember as you're turning there that Israel, who Malachi addressed the book to, and Judah in that day, they believed that they were the people who this was being said to believe that they were doing things the way God wanted them to.

They believed that they were okay with God. They were keeping the Sabbath day. They were keeping the Holy Spirit. They thought they were doing what God wanted them to do. But as we go through the book, as He sits with them one on one and He sits with us one on one, we see that we fall short of just what we may think of ourselves and we have to look at the things the way that God does.

In the very first verse there, something we always remember, or verse two actually, you know, God says, I have loved you. God always loves us. He always is there. He will never stop loving us. It's us who stop loving God by the way we do things and by the choices we make and how we may leave Him behind.

And He gives us this book and He gives us these instructions because He loves us and He wants us to be where He wants us to be in His kingdom, because He wants us to become what He wants us to become, kings and priests, learning His way of life now so that we can teach it later. And as we progress through the book, we saw that, you know, the people at that time just weren't honoring the God, honoring God the way that they should.

Down in verse 6, you know, He says, the Son honors His Father and the servant is Master. And we may honor our fathers in one way. I hope we do. The fifth commandment is honor your father and mother, and we should hold them in highest team if they don't believe the same things that we do or if they don't live out of God. Doesn't mean we obey them, but we still honor them. They gave us life.

They provided for us as we grew up, and we should honor and respect them. And certainly our bosses, if we like our job at all, or if we want a job at all, we do respect them and we hold them in high regard. And for them, when they ask us to do something, it's a priority in our lives. If our boss asks us to be someplace, if we want that job, we're going to be there.

If he tells us to do something and lays out a set of plans, if we like what we do, we're going to do it exactly the way that he said. If we don't like it, if we don't pay him to respect, it will eventually be that he detects that and we will no longer have that job. So God says, well, you treat these people this way. You treat your father that way. You treat your employers that way. But where's my respect? And He calls on us to remember what He's given us.

He's given us everything. Without Him, there's absolutely nothing in life worth living for. There's nothing that we are going to be. We are going nowhere. We have no future. Nothing is what we have. Absolutely nothing without God. And so He calls on Israel. He calls on His people. He calls on you and me today. Where is my respect? Am I number one in your life? Are you giving me the respect, God says, that I deserve? Do you give me the best of your time?

Do you show up where I ask you to show up? Or do you give me the second, third, or even worst place in your life? We talked about how God asks us to be places. Some of the things that God asks us to do, He gives us this Holy Spirit. Some are difficult. We never said this was an easy way of life. We're constantly challenging ourselves. God's Spirit gives us the strength. But one of the things that is... I hate to use the word, but I have no other word for it.

Easier to do is to be at Sabbath services when He says this is a commanded assembly. And you'll remember, and one thing we should ask ourselves not just about Sabbath services, but many other things that God asks us to do. If we can't even do that, then why on earth would God think we're capable of being a king or a priest or being in His kingdom? It's as simple as that. It's not my words. It's His words. He gives the commands He expects us to be yielding to Him and giving Him the same respect and honor that we would to bosses or anyone else.

And yet, Israel at this time, as He goes through chapter 1, they just weren't doing that. They would offer to Him at that time the things that the animals didn't want. Not the perfect unblemished lamb, but the one that was lame, the one that would not be worth a whole lot, that they thought, ah, not a problem, give it to God, and hey, we've fulfilled the command to offer something to Him.

Well, God looks, He sees, He knows what we're doing, He knows what's in our heart. He expects to be number one. He expects us to give Him the best. The old song we talked about, give of the best, or give of your best, to the Master. And through chapter 1, He says that, you don't do the things. You act like everything I ask you to do, you don't even like doing because you kind of just go through the motions, but your heart isn't really in it. And down in verse 8, He says something that is, you know, we might smile at, but it sure tells us like it is.

In verse 8, He says, when you offer the blind is a sacrifice. Isn't it evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn't it evil? And then He says, well, if it's not, then offer it to your governor. If it's so good, would you just offer it to him? If the governor or the President of the United States or your boss was coming over, would you just give him the second-rate thing in your house?

Would you not pay any attention to it? And ten minutes before he got there, opened the refrigerator door and thought, oh, here's the leftovers from yesterday. Throw them in the microwave, and that's good enough for him. Would you do that? And yet God says, you're doing it to me all the time by the attitudes that you take to the things that I say.

You're simply not giving me the best. God is looking at our hearts. He's looking at our minds. He's looking at our attitudes. What do we tell Him by the choices we make, the things we do, and the way we live our daily lives? And if He was sitting and looking at me one-on-one, He'd probably have a lot of things to say, and He'd probably have some things to say to you, too, about how we treat God and how in His eyes He sees that we respect Him. So He goes on, and He says this, in chapter 2, then, we got into chapter 2, and He talked about our covenant with Him.

And when we were baptized, in order for talking about baptism, as we repent and we intend to be baptized, we make a commitment to God, an eternal commitment, the most important commitment that we will ever make in our lives.

And when we were baptized, we committed to God. And when I counsel people, and when you were counseled, I'm sure you were told, don't take this lightly. Count the costs. Know what you're getting into. Understand what God is asking of you. Are you willing to call Him Lord and Master? Are you willing to do what He asked? Are you willing to put your will aside and follow Him because you believe everything He has to say?

And we committed to Him. And the Jews back then committed to Him, but they weren't handling the commitment well. They kind of said it, but then things would get in the way. They began teaching the truth, it says here in chapter 2, but then later on they began corrupting that teaching. They began compromising. They began doing things that seemed okay and didn't seem so far off of what God said, but we have to remember God wants us to do things exactly the way that He said them to do. And you remember as it talked about teachers here in priests that should keep knowledge that we're all teachers.

We teach each other by the way we talk with each other, by the examples that we set with each other. The older members in the congregation set an example for the younger members in the congregation. The ones who have been here a while set the examples. And if they see us doing something, then they can be led to believe it's okay to do that too. That is just okay with God if we do it part of the way or most of the time when God says do it all the time. So we have to watch who we are in that regard as well and realize we are teachers. Teachers to our children, teachers to each other, teachers to new people who come into the congregation, those who would look and see what we do and think well if He can do it then it must be okay for me too. And we came up to chapter or verse 12 here last time. Let's pick up in Malachi 2 verse 10 here this afternoon. It says, "'Have we not all one Father? Hasn't one God created us? If so, and if we believe that then, why do we deal treacherously with one another? Why do we treat each other the way we do? Why aren't we brotherly? Why are we talking about each other, accusing each other, doing the things which would be apart from the covenants that we made with God?' Judah has dealt treacherously, it says in 11, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution which he loves." He's married the daughter of a foreign God. He broke the covenant. He married someone who didn't believe the same thing he did.

"'May the eternal cut off from the tense of Jacob the man who does this, being awake and aware, yet who brings an offering to the eternal host.'" Someone who deliberately goes against what God has asked him to do and then brings an offering and thinks, well, it's okay. I brought the offering and so God just forgets all the rest of it.

No, God's interested in what we bring to him, but he's really interested in the obedience. He's really interested in the submission. He's really interested in the yieldedness of our mind, our heart, and our soul. And then God goes on in verse 13, and he says, and this is the second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying. You come here and you make a great show about what you're bringing to him so he doesn't even regard the offering anymore. Nor will he receive it with goodwill from your hands.

Even with all the display, with all the things we do, with all the trumpet blast that comes ahead of us, God's disregarding that offering. And yet you're going to ask, well, what reason, God? Why would you say that? Because the eternal has been witnessed between you and the life of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously.

Now, in the verses leading up to this, God was talking about His covenant with manor, our covenant with God, the covenant we made with Him, to follow Him, to obey Him. It's an eternal commitment, the most important commitment we will ever make. The second most important commitment we will ever make is marriage. When we stand before God and we tell God we will love this person until the time of our death. We'll stand by them in good times and in bad times, in sickness and health, in financially strong times and in financially perilous times. No matter what comes, I will stick with this person the rest of my life. We tell God that when we come before Him and we're married. That's the second most important commitment we make that lasts the rest of our natural lives. And God looks at that and in that physical covenant that we're making with each other, God is looking and watching how we handle that covenant. Because the way our marriages are can be a good indication to Him of how we're going to handle our covenant with Him. If we promised eternity to Him, to follow Him, obey Him, be at one with Him, repent, ask for forgiveness, repent, when He shows us mistakes, then He expects us to do the same things in our marriage. Because it's a picture of our relationship. It tells us in Ephesians 5, a picture of our relationship with Christ. And He goes and He says here, look, you've dealt treacherously with the wife of your youth, yet she's your companion and your wife by covenant. But He's looking around at Israel, He's looking around at Judah, He's looking around at us and saying, well, how have you dealt with your wife?

How have you dealt with her? Have you loved her the way you said you would? Have you grown with her the way you said you would? Are you doing the things that make for a good marriage the way you said you would? Or as time goes on, have you become a little lax in that? And the little things that irritate you become big things that irritate you. So maybe it affects your communication, maybe it affects some other things in your marriage as well.

If we look at the elements of a good marriage, and you've read marriage books, you've heard sermons on marriage later on this summer, we'll have a marriage seminar here when Mrs. Brandy and Craig Shriver are here at the end of June. And you know, if you were going to list the elements of a good marriage, you could list many of them for me. One would be love, correct?

We love each other, and there's an attraction between us that brings us together, man and wife.

And that love should grow over time. And when we get married, we are not looking, I hope, to have everything be our way, but we're willing. We want to make the other person happy. The love is outgoing. It's concerned. It wants to have both parties be happy. Both parties grow. And in a good marriage, both parties become stronger over time. They develop. They become very sound and important members of the community, outside the church and inside the church, just like God covenants with us. He covenants with us, and He expects us to grow and develop and become more and more happy.

And more like Him over time. So love would be one. And if we look at the relationship between us, and God, love is very important. God is love. He's the perfect example of love. It's us who need to learn how to love, but God is very patient with us. Another element of marriage.

Because not all of us have the same traits and the same strengths and the same weaknesses. And sometimes the weaknesses of our spouse can irritate us. And we can become impatient. But, you know, just like we are to treat each other, we're patient. We talk. We figure things out.

But don't we all wish we could just snap our fingers? And this weakness and this trait would just be just disappear overnight. It doesn't happen. Forgiveness is an important part of marriage.

God forgives us. He gave us the best. He gave us His Son, that He would suffer, suffer greatly and die, that we might have our sins forgiven. And then when He was resurrected, we have the promise of eternal life. And in physical marriage, forgiveness is part of it.

We all make mistakes, but we have to be willing to forgive. God says He won't forgive us if we're not willing to forgive others. And so marriage is a good place to practice that, as well as our other relationships and our relationships in the church and the community as well.

So forgiveness would be something we would learn in marriage. Communication. If we stop talking to each other, the relationship is over. If we let things get us to the point where your husband's on one side and wife's on the other side and neither the twain shall meet, it's very difficult to have any kind of reconciliation if the parties aren't talking. And if we stop talking to God, then we know the relationship is eventually going to end as well. So we see a similarity there, too.

Another big element of a good marriage and the commitment that we make when we're married is to be faithful to each other. Faithful and loyal, but sexually faithful as well.

If we look at the world around us, that element of marriage is often up for grabs. It's like people...

I don't even know where the morality of this world is going or has gone. But it's an element of our marriage. We must be that way. You know, Jesus Christ, when he was in Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount, he said that we commit adultery even if we look at a woman and lust after her in our hearts. It's not enough. I mean, it's certainly wrong to do the physical act. But even if we look after another woman and lust after her, we've committed it. Because God is looking that when we marry, we have eyes only for each other. And that can be difficult for some people. It can take time to stop looking in that direction. And every time you see a very attractive woman to turn your head around and crack your neck, and your wife sees it or your husband sees it, God said, don't do it. Have eyes only for that woman, sexually faithful to her. And God chose the counterpart to that because when he talks about Judah, when he talks about Israel, what does he say they did? They entered into a commitment with him. They said, we will follow you, we will love you, we will obey you, we will only have eyes for you, you will be our God.

But the minute they got around another nation, what did they do?

They said, ooh, she's pretty attractive. I think we'll just adopt that way of worshiping God into our lives. Oh, then we move over to this nation and we say, oh, that looks pretty good too. I'll just sample that and see how it goes. God called them harlots. They weren't loyal to God. They didn't follow exactly what he said. They kept looking for something better, something different.

They weren't satisfied with the God that they had entered into a covenant with.

And God expects that we are going to have eyes only for one another.

Now, in marriage, that can be true. We can also commit spiritual adultery.

If we keep looking, when God leads us to the truth and we see the truth, He expects us to keep by it. He doesn't expect us to be flitting from here and flitting from there and thinking, oh, is that flavor a little better? Or is that flavor a little better? If it's the truth, what does He say back in Thessalonians? Prove all things and hold fast to that which is true. Stick with your covenant with God.

And the Jews and the Israelites at this time hadn't been doing that. They had been doing something far different. Let's turn back to Proverbs 5.

Proverbs 5, I mentioned letters and messages from God and sitting down with them. And Proverbs is one of those books, too, that is full of instruction. The first eight or nine chapters of Proverbs here begins with, my son, listen to what I have to say. Pay attention to what I'm telling you. And here in chapter 5, it starts off the same way in the chapter. But later on in verse 18, as Solomon is talking to his son, as God is talking to us, and in these books and in these letters, he tells us the things that we need to do if we want to be happy. He says, bind them on your hearts, live by them, and your way is always going to be well. In verse 18 of chapter 5, it says, let your fountain be blessed and rejoice, rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving dear and a graceful doe, let her satisfy you at all times. Let her commit to it. Make the choice, make the choice that you will be committed. Always be enraptured with her love.

For why would you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman and be embraced in the arms of a doctor? Why would you do it if you knew what the end result was? Well, you wouldn't. But sometimes we have to stop and look at what we're doing and see the end result of what we do or see it through the eyes of God. Because in verse 21, he does watch the decisions we make. For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the eternal. He's watching what we do, and he ponders. He ponders all his paths. What was the decision he made this time, God might say? What was he doing when he made that decision to do that? What does that tell me about his character? What does that tell me about how serious he is about the calling to become a king and priest? God ponders our paths, looking to see what's in our hearts, where our attitudes are, are we loyal to him, and are we committed to the way of life he called us to? Now, we give him answers to that and all the things we do, and one of the ways he tells us here is through the way we handle our marriages.

You know, we all know. I'm not going to turn to Ephesians 5. You know the verse is there.

The marriage relationship is akin to the relationship that you and I have with Jesus Christ. I want to read you just a little story here. I was preparing something for pre-marriage counseling, and I was looking for some examples, and I came across one that I thought was very good. I'll tell you what book it came from. I haven't read the book. I don't own the book. I have no idea what the rest of the book says. I saw this excerpt on an internet page and thought, ah, this fits so well. And this man, who isn't in the church—I have no idea what his beliefs are, except that he believes in Jesus Christ in his own way—it tells us that he gets it at some level. The man who wrote this, his name is Robertson McQuilkin, is from the book called A Promise Kept. And here he's giving one incident where he and his wife are older, and he says, once our flight was delayed in Atlanta and we had to wait a couple of hours. We've all been there, right? You've got all this time to kill in an airport. Now, that's a challenge. Every few minutes, we—he's speaking of his wife—would take a fast-paced walk down the terminal in earnest. And he goes, in earnest search of what? They were just walking. Muriel had always been a speedwalker. I had the jog to keep up with her. So he can kind of get the picture. They're waiting here, and when she gets up to walk, he's following her. An attractive woman, executive type, sat across from us, working diligently on her computer. Once, when we returned from an excursion, she said something without looking up from her papers. Since no one else was nearby, I assumed she had spoken to me, or at least mumbled in protest for our constant activity. Apparently, they were up and down a lot as they were waiting. Pardon? I asked. Oh, she said. I was just asking myself, will I ever find a man to love me like that? She'd been watching the example. She knew he didn't want to get up and walk up and down that terminal, but he watched him follow her and do it because she liked doing it.

Hi, this is McQuilkin talking. Turn to the woman who said, oh yes, you can find a man like that. You can find a man like that because I found a man like that.

The only reason I love my wife the way you see me loving her is because the man Jesus Christ first loved me. The only resources I have to draw upon to love my wife the way I do are the resources he gives me. Mirrored in my relationship here with my wife, you can see the faithful love of God for me. Isn't that a nice story? Wouldn't we all like to say that? Wouldn't we like to be giving that example to people that they would notice the love and the commitment between each other and know that that's the reason we do it? It's because God loved us and because his Holy Spirit is in us. And if his Holy Spirit is in us, if we are really letting God's Spirit lead us, then you won't know what? There is nothing. There's nothing in our marriages short of the extremes that I don't have to recount here that if we want to make up or if we want to reconcile, we can.

Now, I remember well, and this would have been 30 years ago, in a church service, the minister was talking about marriage. And he said something that stuck with me that day and will stick with me the rest of my life. He was talking about people who would have constant problems and who wouldn't talk to each other. And it's just like over and over again. And he sat and he looked at the audience and he said, I'm telling you right here and now, I've counseled a lot of people. And if two people are in the church, if both of them have the Spirit of God, if they've been baptized, if there are persistent marriage problems, then one or both of those parties isn't letting God's Holy Spirit lead them. And anytime we've had a conflict, I always remember that. Oh, we will overcome this. Oh, yes, we will fix it. Because God's Spirit doesn't divide, it doesn't separate, it unifies, it reconciles. And all those principles we talked about, about patience and forgiveness and love and coming together. If we let God lead us, He'll heal us. He'll bind us together.

We need to ask God, you know, let us, let us be led by your Holy Spirit in all areas of our life.

Let's go back to Malachi. Malachi, we were in verse 15. Malachi chapter 2. But didn't He, God, make them one in marriage, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. He wants people who believe Him, who are led by His Holy Spirit, to have children who will train them, rear them in His ways. And we all want for our children that they're going to grow up stronger than us, more dedicated to God than us, more aware of God's teaching and not compounding the mistakes or repeating the mistakes we made, but being able to be led by God's Spirit. Therefore, take heed to your Spirit, and He says, and let none deal trustlessly with the wife of His youth. For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce. He hates it. He's not for separation. He's not for division. He's not for people running off and doing their own things. He's for people staying together.

In marriage and in His body. You know Jesus Christ, when He was talking about divorce, do you remember why He said that Moses would give a certificate of divorce?

Because of the hardness of their hearts. Because of the hardness of your hearts, He said, you divorce. Where you just stop talking about it. You just won't get off the dime. You just won't let it go. You just won't move past it. We don't ever want to have hardness of heart. Hardness of heart leads to leads down a road. None of us want to go down. The Lord God of Israel says He hates divorce, for it covers one's garment with violence. And isn't that the truth? You look around and you see periodic TV news elements where wife kills husband, husband kills wife, all the garbage that goes on. I saw a news clip yesterday morning, and I guess there was a program on it somewhere along the line where they followed people who were talking with hit men on a routine basis because they wanted to do away with spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever it was. It's a strange world. When in marriage this bitterness develops, it's not of God. Bitterness is not of God. He says, don't be bitter against one another. And divorce and these persistent problems leads to that.

Remember, God ponders our paths. He ponders our path. Therefore, take heed to your spirit that you don't deal treacherously. Let's go down to chapter 3.

Chapter 3, Behold, I stand my messenger, and he'll prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. Even the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? We might say we can't wait for the return of Jesus Christ. You know they were saying that back in Amos as well. Let's go back to Amos 5, a few books back here. And as you read through Amos, you know that the people in Israel at that time, they may have had a semblance of what they thought was religion, but they weren't really obeying God.

Here in chapter 5 of Amos, verse 18, it says, Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you?

It'll be darkness and not light. It'll be as though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

Isn't the day of the Lord darkness and not light? Is it not very dark? With no brightness in it.

It's right to pray for God's kingdom to come. It's right to want that kingdom to come to earth because we know all the good that it's going to bring and all the turmoil and stress and pain and suffering that this world will pass away from this world when it comes.

But if we're not ready for that day, if we're just sort of going through the motions, patting ourselves on the back and saying, Everything is okay, we do this, we do that, and we're not really paying attention to the calling that God has given us, when that day comes, it's not going to be pleasant. For those who God calls, who really take seriously His calling, who really are putting their hearts and minds into it, who really are being led by God's Holy Spirit, when that day comes, it'll be terrifying enough. But with God's Holy Spirit, we won't flee, we'll be trusting in Him. The fear will be replaced by the love of Him and knowing what good will come from it and knowing that He will see us through it. But if we're just biding our time, if we're just going through the motions, if we're like the people here in Judah and Israel, the people back in Amos, that are just going through the motions and saying, Hey, you know what, we show up for Sabbath services every once in a while, we're okay. Hey, we don't work on the Sabbath, that's okay, isn't that enough? And if we're not putting our hearts and souls into it, so when the day of the Lord comes, when the time comes and it's upon us, it's not going to be a pleasant time. I go back to the verse where Christ says, There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. When people realized I had the truth, I knew the truth, God led me to the truth, but I never put Him first. All those times when He said, Come before me, I command you to come before me, and I was just too tired. I had this appointment that I had to make, and it was only that day I could do it. All those times we'll think back on and say, If we had just learned to put God first in our lives, to do His will first and our will somewhere down the line, if we had just learned that, well, if we had just learned that, that will be a glorious day. But if we haven't, it'll be like it says here in Malachi, it won't be a pleasant day. Who can stand and endure that day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? None of us will be able to, unless we have His Holy Spirit. None of us will be able to, unless we've learned over the course of our lives and allowed God to develop us and strengthen us through all that time. For He is like Him back in Malachi 3 and I'm in verse 2. For He is like a refiner's fire and like launderers' soap. He'll sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. He'll purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer to the Lord and offering in righteousness.

That's what we've been called to now, right? Everyone who loves God purifies himself.

It says in 1 John, it's not us who purifies ourselves, it's us who yield to God and He purifies us by letting us know those false weaknesses, sins that we still have. And if we really are serious about it, we don't shut Him out. We just don't say, that's not important. We listen. We listen when God shows us something. We pay attention. We weed it out. We become more and more like Him every day. And if we don't, then we're telling God what you have to offer just isn't important. We're more important. What we want is more important than what you want, because He ponders our paths, He watches our decisions, He sees where our heart is.

And if we don't let God purify us now, then many, it says in Revelation, we'll have the robes washed white and the tribulation. A very harrowing time.

Verse 4, When your heart, God says, I'm adding here, when your heart and attitude are pure, verse 4, then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to Him. Then He'll look at our offers and say, yeah, this is what I want. A heart that's pure, that's what I was looking for. Now what you bring to me, now what you do, I'm going to honor, I'm going to address.

Then the offering will be pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years. And I'll come near you for judgment. I'll be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien. And they did that because they didn't fear me. They did that because what they wanted was more important, God says, than what He wanted. And then verse 6, a key verse in this book, a key verse in the whole Bible. For I am the Lord, I do not change.

New Testament, Hebrews 13, 8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

I am the Lord your God, I do not change.

What I said before and the way of life I said before is the way of life I expect you to live now.

Therefore, you're not consumed, O son of Jacob.

God loved them.

He still loves them. And He says He will bring them back to the land He promised to them.

Yet from the days of your fathers, you've gone away from my ordinances, and you haven't kept them.

Return to Me, and I'll return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

Come back to Me. Remember, He said that in Jeremiah when He was talking about divorce to the children of Judah, about what had happened to Israel. Come back to Me.

James 4.8 says, Draw near to God, and He'll draw near to you. The same sentiments, same concepts in Old and New Testament return to Me, and I'll return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, Well, in what way will we return?

Throw that question out to God, and His answer is, in verse 8, Will a man rob God?

Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me.

But then you say, Well, in what way have we robbed you, God?

God responds, in tithes and offerings. That's how you've robbed Me.

Now, I'm not going to go into a whole piece here on tithes and offerings. You know what they are.

You know that in just a few verses before this, God said, I am the Lord your God, I change not.

One of the important areas of our lives is money.

We have to all face it. Money is important. If we don't have enough of it, life can be tough. On the other hand, if we have too much of it, life can be tough in a different way as well. It's an important thing. We all need money. We all need to be able to buy and sell and provide for our families. We all work. It's the right thing to do. God blesses us. He gives us jobs. But you know what God is doing when He gives us that money or lack of money? He's looking to see what we do with it. He's looking to see what we do in our everyday marriages because as He ponders our past, He sees where our heart is.

And you know He looks and sees and watches what we do with our money as well, because it's an important part of our life.

Some people can be very, very miserly with their money. They're not going to let go of it or give it to anyone or anything. Others are so free with it that they never have anything around for a rainy day because whatever they see, they want. And that's the problem. Neither of them are the way of God.

Remember what this chapter is about? Give me your best, God says. Put me, God says, in first place.

And what the people of Judah, what the people of Israel did here, they weren't putting God in first place. He watched what they did with their money and maybe He was in second place. Maybe He was not even on the list because house payment was more important, medicine was more important, cable TV was more important, or whatever was more important.

God looks and sees what we do. Am I first or what's first?

Let's go back to 1 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles, chapter 29.

David displays an attitude that we would all be well to emulate.

In this chapter, before this, he's been told he's not going to build the house that he wanted to build for God. Rather, his son was going to build it. And David could have gone off and, you know, been mad about it. He could have talked for a while. He could have said, well, you know what? If you're not going to let me build the house, I could just have a really bad attitude about that. David didn't let that attitude envelop him. He went out and he started gathering things for the building of the temple. If he wasn't going to be able to build it, at least he would be able to bring the things to God so his son would have a storehouse to do that. Let's pick it up in verse 14 here of 1 Chronicles 29. Breaking into his prayer, he reminds us where everything we have comes from. Literally everything. None of it is by our own hand. None of it is by our own might. David says, who am I? And who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, God, and of your own we've given you.

You gave it to us, and all we're doing, God, is giving it back to you for your purpose. For we are aliens and pilgrims before you, as were all our fathers. Our days on earth are as the shadow, and without hope. And without God, there is no hope. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name is from your hand, and it's all your own.

You gave it all to us. All we're doing is giving some of it back to you. I know also, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure and uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart, I have willingly offered all these things. And now, with joy, I've seen your people who are present here to offer willingly to you. I've seen the attitude. I've seen the happiness. I've seen the elation.

And what it was was they were gathered before their bringing the things to God.

Verse 18, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of your people and fix their heart toward you.

Let them always look to you first. Let them always keep you in first place.

Over in Matthew 6, you don't need to turn there. I think it's verse 24.

God shows just how important money is. He says you can't worship God or you can't serve God and mammon. Remember that verse? You can't serve God and wealth. You can't serve God and money.

You can't have it. One's going to win out. Either it's going to be God first or money first.

They can't both be in first place. It's the test of the heart. The young man in Matthew 19 showed us that. When he came before God and said, show me what I need to do. He wanted that same face-to-face meeting we would like to have. Show me what to do to have eternal life. Christ said, keep these commandments. He said, I've done them. I've been keeping them all my life. And then he said, go give away everything that you've got.

That was the kicker. I can't do that. You're really important, God. But that bank account is a little more important still in my mind, in the young man's mind.

God's not asking us to give away everything. It's right to save. It's right to have the blessings from God. And nothing I or anyone would say should ever counter that. It's our attitude, that God's looking at. Who is in first place? Who's in first place?

Let's go back to Haggai. Haggai is just a couple books before Malachi.

We don't turn there that often. But there's a set of verses in Haggai that again point out to us what God is looking for us or how he's looking for us to be, the type of attention that we need to have. Haggai chapter 1 and verse 3. It says, the word of the eternal came by Haggai the prophet, saying to the people of his time, the Jews, I believe this was addressed to, is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and the temple to lie in ruins?

He's looking around and saying, here's the house of God. You know what? It looks in not a good state of repair out there, but I'm looking at your houses and they all look pretty good. Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and the temple to lie in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways.

Think about what you're doing. What are you telling God? He was telling the people. His house is in ruins. Your houses look pretty good. It's easy to see where your priorities lie. You've done much and bring in little. You eat, he says, but you don't have enough.

You drink, but you're not filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.

And he who earns wages, earns wages to put it into a bag with holes.

Inflation. You never have enough. No matter how much I give, it's not enough.

It's like the money just never is enough to get you satisfied with what it is.

And we all know people like that, right? We have kids like that. Some, no matter how much money you give them, it's just never enough. They're always going to spend it. And others have a different approach to it. But God looks at his people and he says, you know, if you're wondering, look at all you do and it's coming to nothing, you're never satisfied. It's like you've never got enough.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, and he says it again, consider your ways.

Look honestly at what you're doing. Look at the way God looks at it.

If you've committed to him, if you've entered into a covenant with him, who's in first place? Where is the priority? His way or your way? Serving God or serving money?

Consider your ways. Go up to the mountains and bring wood. He says and build the temple that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified. Remind you of Malachi chapter 1. Where's my reverence? Where's my honor? When are you going to do the things that I want you to do?

You looked for a notch, he said, but indeed it came to little.

And when you brought it home, I blew it away. You just never were able to get ahead. Why? he asks. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because my house is in ruins.

Well, every one of you runs to his own house. God wants to know where our heart is. Is it with him or is it with ourselves?

Are we willing to do the things he says?

Not just in tithes and offerings. We read the verses before that about when people have need, being willing to provide for them. Matthew 25 is a textbook case in that.

If you see someone in need, help them. Keep an eye out for your brethren.

Let's go back to Malachi.

So again, he's telling the people, in your marriages, in your finances, remember God, put him first. Remember he's watching and he's working with you to see what our attitude is. As I speak, I'm speaking to myself here. Verse 9, You're cursed with a curse, for you've robbed me, God says, even this whole nation.

And then he issues a challenge in verse 10. You know, I know it's not easy.

In the world today. I know gas prices are high. I know food prices are high. I know the indexes that we get from the government are manipulated, so everything looks like it's in good shape. I know you can go into the store and everything is a lot higher than it was. And I know that when money is tight, it's a tough thing. It's a tough thing to look at what you've got and say, how am I going to do everything I need to do with it? And I know that sometimes we, you know, it can be a real test to tithe or to do what God says. I know it. And I know that in the natural heart, giving money to God is not the thing that we want to do. We want to keep it all for ourselves. Back before I was baptized, I graduated from college and had a job, and I was doing okay. And I wasn't disobeying God in another way, but I wasn't disobeying Him in any great way, either in my mind. But you know, one of the things, I'll be honest with you, that I had an issue with was tithing. I didn't want to give 10% of my money to God. I wanted to keep it all for myself. I wanted this car. I wanted this. I wanted to buy this for Debbie. It was like, I don't want to do it. And I would read the things that says tithing is done away in the New Testament. I don't have to do it. And I thought, yes, that's what I want to hear.

So I'm going to run with it. But, you know, I think I've told you this before, and it was one day when we were sitting at the Feast of Tabernacles. And when the sermon was being given, I wasn't that the words were something I'd never heard before, but I heard them in a way I'd never heard them before. And I went out of that service, and I knew that what I heard was truth. And I knew that what I had been brought up with, what I had seen in the Bible, was absolutely, absolutely true. And I went back, and I started reading the Bible, and I read the booklets that we have and the study aids, and I proved it to myself. And it became my responsibility to God at that point to follow His truth. And I committed that I would. I still had the trouble with tithing, though. And I thought, I don't want to do it. But I read, I came to Malachi, and I came to a verse we're going to read here, and I read in the New Testament, and I couldn't deny that Jesus Christ Himself, who says, you know, or who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, you know, told the Pharisees, these you ought to have done. You ought to have tithed. You ought to have to have done all these things, and not left all these other things done. And as I read the Bible with open eyes, I thought, you know what? I have to do it. It was there. And I read verse 10 here, because God gives us a challenge here in verse 10, and I made that challenge to Him. Verse 10, He says, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this, God says, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I read that verse, and I told God, okay, you know I don't want to do this, but I believe you. And I'm going to take you up on this.

I'm going to pay the tithes, and I'm going to do exactly what you say. I knew it was right by that time. I just didn't want to do it. But I challenged Him. And you know, from that time forward, I mean, I had a wonderful career. I enjoyed everything I did. I was able to do things I never even dreamed I would be able to do in college. I could never look at God and say, you didn't bless me. And I can look at anyone straight in the eye and say, you do what God says, and He is going to bless you.

It doesn't mean you're never going to have a financial problem. It doesn't mean you're not going to ever have a trial. You will. But God will bless you. And if you're having trouble with this, then you get on your knees and you tell Him you're going to obey Him. And when you see Him bless you, you keep doing that thing the rest of your life. And you never stray from it, and you never just obey Him or ever put anything ahead of Him ever again in your life.

Commit to Him. Commit to Him and put Him in first place. He promises He will do it. And here He gives the challenge that He will do it. Verse 11, I'll rebuke the devourer for your sakes.

Your cars aren't going to break down as often. Your furnaces aren't going to break down every other day. You're going to have a place that God will watch over that isn't going to eat up your money. He won't destroy the fruit of your ground, nor will the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of Hosts. And all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of Hosts. Hey, I said, consider your ways. God says, where's my honor? Put me first. Look at yourself. Examine yourself, and who is in first place?

You? Money? Something else? God should be in first place. Verse 13, your words have been harsh against me, says the Lord, yet you say, well, what have we spoken against you? Well, use that. It's useless to serve God. What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance and that we have walked His mourners before the Lord of Hosts? What good did any of us do us? Well, again, you got to look at your attitude. So now we call the proud blessed. For those who do wickedness are raised up. They even tempt God and go free. And it's easy to look around the world and say, you know what? None of these people are doing these things. Look at that person. They're doing very well. They don't keep the Sabbath day. They're not doing any of the things that I do. Where's the blessing that God has for me? But you know what you have is something that none of them have. You've got hope. You've got a future. What God has planned for you is far greater than any position that's in this world.

There is no amount of money. There is no position. There is no company that can offer you what God has to offer you. It will all pass away. You see the writing on the wall, even as you look, if you have your eyes open in the world around us. Put Him in first place. Do what He says to do, not what Mom and Dad say to do first, not what Husband says to do first, if it counters what God has to say, not what brother and sister or friend or any other person says you obey God first, and you follow Him first. Then those, after God talks to them, after He gives them these examples that He's given them, as He's looked them face to face and said, look at this. You're not keeping your covenant with Me. You're not keeping your covenant even in your marriages. You're not paying attention even in how you handle your money in the right way. And there were some who listened. Then those who feared the Lord, those who were serious about their calling, those who really believed that God has called us to a purpose greater than what we do right here in this day and age, then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. They talked with one another.

They were in a group.

They shared their ideas. Hebrews 10.25 says, Exhort one another. Encourage one another. We all have weaknesses. We all have good days. We all have bad days. All of us have strengths. All of us have weaknesses. My weaknesses are your strengths. Maybe your weaknesses are my strengths. It doesn't mean any of us are better than one another. We're all working toward the same goal. We all need encouragement. We all need each other. We don't get it from the world. We can get it from each other. God says, Do that. Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. He watched what they were doing. He watched as they heard the words that he said, as the ears opened up, and it's like, Ah, look what we've done to God. Look at the messages that we've been giving him.

So a book of Remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on his name. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I make them my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked. You're going to know right from wrong when you pay attention to God. You'll be able to discern between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly, will be shoveled. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear my name, to you who take it seriously, to you who know that you've been called and really believe that God is working with us, perfecting us and getting us ready for what he wants us to do, but to you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings, and you will go out and grow fat, like salt-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, so you will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this. God says, on the same God who says, I am the Lord your God, I change not, says, Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I'll send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And indeed, John the Baptist was sent.

But he says he'll send Elijah too, or Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he'll turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest they come and strike the earth with a curse.

He'll restore the principles. Let's close back in Luke 1, where it speaks of these same verses here, the last verses of Malachi that we just read.

Luke 1 and verse 14. Here we have the story of before John the Baptist was born when he was when Zacharias was being told that God would give them a child. Verse 14, Luke 1. Well, let's pick it up in verse 13. Just get the whole context here. Verse 13. But the angel said to him, Don't be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. God is looking for people who will turn their hearts back to him, back to him, away from the ways of the world, away from the foolishness that the world has to offer, and back to the wisdom of God. That will turn back to the principles, the relationships, and the important things that God says are important as he taught us in Malachi, as he teaches us in other places of the Bible. Turn our hearts back to him. Put him in first place.

The disobedience of the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. To make ready a people prepared for the Lord. That's what God is doing today.

That's what he's doing with you and me. He's getting us ready.

If we yield, if we by our choices and decisions let him do that through life, and as we progress through toward Passover, follow Haggai's words. Consider your ways and consider what God says in Malachi and let's all make sure God is first place in our hearts.