The Sun of Righteousness

We apologize that there is no audio for this sermon.

As we reach the last chapter of Malachi, we are given the assurance of God’s Judgment.  Just as chapter 3 guarantees that the promised Messiah would come, so chapter 4 unequivocally states that the promised “Day of the Lord” would come.  In similar ways we were told that the Messiah’s coming would be a “cleaning” time and the Day of the Lord would be a time when the wicked are removed.

So let’s look at this prophecy of the Day of the Lord.

God Has An End For The Proud

Vs. 1 refers to “The Day.”  Throughout the prophet you find the long form of this phrase, “The Day of the Lord.”  It refers to a time when God rises up and judges the world.  It is sometimes shortened to just “The Day,” but the context always makes clear that the same issue is at hand- Judgment Day.  Just as we would use D-Day in our society and it is clearly understood, even when used metaphorically, The Day of the Lord was understood to be a day of raising up the righteous and putting down the wicked.  Though it may seem like it, God’s judgment never tarries forever.  He has a particular end planned for those who refuse to turn from their wicked ways.  It would be well for our generation to recognize this timeless truth that God’s judgment always comes.  Thus what goes around comes around.

Now verse one particularly refers to the proud.  This term refers to their puffed up nature.  They are filled with the air of their own ideas or the ideas of other men.  This causes them to stick out among other people.  However, when judgment comes they will wish that they didn’t stick out so much.  When God’s judgment comes, the wicked are not as substantial and big as they seem.  Like a balloon filled with hot air, so they are quickly deflated and destroyed.  They are removed quickly and swiftly in whatever means God sends.  A great picture of this for our era is a man like Hitler.  He makes a big substantial impact upon this world but, when judgment comes, he and all his plans are gone in a day.

The imagery of an oven is used.  God’s judgment is like an oven that burns up the wicked.  No matter how great the tree in this world, it is nothing when the judgment of fire begins to reduce it to ash in a great conflagration.  In fact the burning is so great that no branch or root is left for them.  They are completely removed from the equation with nothing to remain.  Now compare this to the words of Jesus, “I am the vine and you are the branches.  He who abides in me and I in him, bears much fruit.”  “If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”  Thus Jesus employs this metaphor as well for his followers.

Now we can see how pride is connected.  It was pride that kept many in Israel, and especially the religious leaders, from even connecting to Christ, much less remaining in Him.  Those who reject God’s offer of salvation are left to go into Judgment Day swelled up with their own pride.  It will not go good for them.  You can save yourself such a demise by putting your faith in Jesus and what He did at the cross, rather than the empty ideas that you or other “great men” have come up with.

Now some will point out that these words were written to Israel and were fulfilled in  70 AD when Jerusalem was sacked by Rome.  Was it fulfilled?  If you go through the passages regarding “The Day of the Lord,” you will notice that even though much of the passage is to Israel, often it scopes out to the surrounding nations, and ultimately to even the whole world.  To help us understand this I would ask you to picture the type of telescopes that can collapse to a small length.  Usually they are made up of 3-5 pieces that look alike, but differ in their size.  The smallest piece fits into the next larger piece, which fits into the next larger piece, etc…  The warning of judgment is not just a single prophecy whether for Israel in AD 70 or for the whole world in AD 2013.  Rather it is a reminder of a principle that applies to every scope of our existence: God will come and judge.  I need to take this truth to heart as an individual.  However, we need to take this to heart as a community, and as a nation, and as a world.  Thus the Day of the Lord did come for Israel.  In that Day the righteous went out and were blessed while the wicked were cast down and all their great pomp turned to ash.  This does not mean there is no more day of the Lord.  In fact the Apostles not only warned of the Day of the Lord before AD 70, but through the Apostle John we are warned after it, that the Day of the Lord for the whole earth is still coming.  God will come and He will execute judgment on those whose pride cause them to cast His ways aside and plunge into wickedness.  God warned that this present time of the Gentiles will end with a Day of Judgment.

A New Beginning For Those Who Fear God

In verses 2-3, God turns to those who followed Him.  Though they lived in a time when wicked men walked in pride and held the reins of power, and though they lived in a time when righteousness made you a target while wickedness helped you get ahead, this appearance would not last.  God would eventually intervene.  This “Day of Truth” would reveal the reality of the power of the wicked and the “good” they had obtained.  When the wicked were being destroyed under judgment, God would bring the righteous through it and give them a new beginning.  In fact, beyond this life, we need to understand that the “bad” we have endured in this life is not the totality of our experience.  God has great good for those who trust Him and fear Him.  There is a new beginning.

Malachi uses the imagery of a dawning day.  A new sun will rise on that morning and it will be a sun that shines its light on all the wickedness.  It will be a day when the righteous are exalted and the wicked are removed.  There will be no big struggle.  Darkness will be gone as quickly as you turn the light on in a room.

Notice that this sun of righteousness is personified when it states it will rise with healing in HIS wings.  Thus the light is connected to the coming Messiah.  His coming will be like the rising of a righteous sun that brings healing to those who have trusted God, the land, even the whole earth.  This healing includes physical but is intended to speak to those deeper wounds of our heart and soul.  In fact, the physical healings that Jesus did were to be a sign that He in fact could heal the wounds of their soul, especially the deep, festering wound of sin.  Don't get too hung up on the word "wings."  If the context was talking about a bird or building then it might be a good interpretation.  However the word points to the extremities of something.  Thus in context the messiah would have healing in his "hands" or the "hem of his garment."  This again points to Jesus and his ability to heal.

Now many conspiracy theories would jump on a verse like this and say that Judaism and Christianity just borrowed their theology from the ancient sun religions and this is proof.  However, the truth is that the ancient religions were the twisting and “progressive” ideas of men in collusion with fallen angels.  What were they twisting?  The original truth that God gave Adam, Eve, and Satan in Genesis 3:15.  The day will come when the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that Satan would have a vested interest in co-opting this idea and trying to twist it to his purposes.  And, it doesn’t stretch the imagination to see that men who quickly grew tired of waiting on God, had itching ears for “better interpretations.”  The ancient sun religions were cheap copies of the prophecy God gave at the fall and from demonic sources.

Lastly it will be a day of release.  The image is that of a young calf who has been cooped up in a pen.  When they are released they go jumping forth, kicking, and mooing their delight.  When it speaks of trampling the wicked, the image is that the wicked have become so insubstantial that they are like ash on the ground, or salt in the street.  In the present day, no one would dare tread on the wicked.  But in the Day of Judgment their great pomp, power, and presence will be reduced to ash as the righteous go forth simply kicking it up like a child.  The beauty of this is in its equity and simplicity.  The wicked are like the chaff that will be blown away and not remembered, but the righteous shall join in a new day and be given new strength and joy.  This is our heritage and our inheritance.  Let’s walk in faith!

Sunday August 25, 2013

We apologize for not having the audio to this sermon available.

Our Youth Pastor Nick Hauestein was preaching.  We will try to get a synopsis of that sermon and post it here. 

Complaining Vs. Encouraging

Today we will look at Malachi 3:13-18 and in this section we see two very different kinds of people.  We could call the first group complainers and the second group encouragers, but it goes deeper than that. 

Have you ever recognized how God doesn’t work on our time schedule?  It is easy for us to become discouraged by what we see or don’t see happening around us.  When you add to that a sense that God should be doing something on your behalf, well, it is exponentially worse.  So what do we do with these discouragements?  First we should recognize that these times are testing us to reveal what really is in our hearts and what we will do with it.  Will I allow God to reveal the junk in my heart and then will I ask Him to scrape off the scum that rises to the surface in these “melting pot” times?  That is the question.

Complaining Harshly Against God

Complaining and murmuring were common descriptions of Israel when they were in the desert.  Perhaps you may think that this is a good thing that helps make things better.  But, God said that it is destructive and its source is unbelief, or lack of trust.  Of course, most of the Israelites perished in the desert because of their unbelief.  It is interesting that the very thing they were complaining about happened because of their complaints and those who didn’t complain made it through the desert.  All of Israel went through the same difficult circumstances, but most let unbelief rule in their hearts and complained harshly or strongly against God.  In these moments it is made clear that no amount of evidence to the contrary would make these people trust.  They had a trust issue and instead of seeing that and letting themselves be taught to trust by a loving God, they chose to fight against Him and brought upon themselves the very thing they accused Moses and God of doing: killing them in the desert.

Malachi first points out that they had come to believe that serving God was useless.  It is not clear how public these complaints were voiced.  Perhaps they were mostly thought within the heart, and perhaps voiced in small rooms with few people.  However, this belief was infecting their service to God.  Now we can see how they would continue to obey the command to offer a sacrifice for sin, but then ignore the command that it be without blemish.  They felt it was useless anyways.  However, they continued the “religious sham” because of what it would gain them in the eyes of others.  In their minds, there was no hope in continued service to God.  They no longer looked to God and His Way as an answer, but rather to their own devices and schemes.  Then it gets more specific in the passage.  They believed there was no profit in serving God.  They were not as materially prosperous as they wanted to be.  Meanwhile they could see others who were not obeying God’s command seemingly prospering.  They also believed that it was useless to serve God despite their “mourning before the Lord.”  Apparently they were impressed with their own cries for God to prosper them.  They felt that their fasting and weeping before God to give them material prosperity should have been acceptable to God.  But this wasn’t fixing their “situation” either.  They had made the mistake of thinking that God would accept mere, external duty without inner faith.  They also had made the mistake of thinking God should always materially prosper those who serve Him.  This childish mentality fails to see how times of weakness physically or financially can actually help our character to become more like God and develop spiritual understanding.  It can only see that God is not giving them what they want or think they deserve.

When we let a complaining spirit become the dominant character of our inner life it will blind us to all the blessings we already have and it will spoil any blessings that God desires to give to us.  In verse 15 God reveals some wrong-headed conclusions that they were making.  They are wrong-headed because even though they appeared to be true in the short term, God had clearly stated in His word they were not true.  Unbelief always leads us to live by conclusions that are contradictions to what God has said.  But if we fear God we will not give into such conclusions that are made by our flesh in times of trial.  Instead we will recognize the trap of these “feelings” and cast ourselves on God.  They had come to believe that the proud are blessed.  From God’s Word it is clear that the proud are actually on God’s “Take Down” list.  Pride here is that sense of arrogance and inflated ego.  They saw that the arrogant, inflated people were “getting all the pie.”  They confused this with God’s blessing.  Listen, I see the Christian church in all of this.  Many teachers have risen in the land that promote a gospel that says when God blesses you, you will have money, wealth, and fame.  This is a terrible understanding of God’s blessing.  It is terrible because it messes with the minds and faith of those who are going through difficult times.  It helps them to embrace ideas that are contradictory of God’s Word.  The proud are not blessed.  God will put them down and He will raise the humble.  So where might you want to be?  Next, they believed that the wicked are raised up.  Raised up is the picture of promotion to positions of stature.  Those who sin were being promoted to positions of power politically, economically, and eventually religiously.  But those who try to serve God were being “passed over” and weren’t getting ahead.  Now, again it is all about time.  We want it yesterday and if it isn’t here we are on the phone, sending emails to the complaint department, trying to force our way.  Listen, God can handle your questions, but He won’t put up with unbelief and a heart that embraces contradictions to His Word.  If God has raised up the wicked it is so that they will stick out for judgment.  It is the tall grass that get cut in the day of mowing.  Now what do you want to be?  When a society is under the judgment of God it is practically a curse to be raised up.  Although in the example of Daniel we are shown that God is able, for His purposes, to raise up a righteous man and protect him through times of judgment.  In the end we become envious of the wicked over things that leverage our trust away from God.  Next, their conclusion was that those who tempt God, do so with no consequences.  This phrase “tempt God” refers to intentional blatant disregard for God’s Law.  It tempts God to do something about it.  But when it looks like nothing has happened others looking on quickly think, “why am I still obeying the law?  I’m falling farther behind and they are getting ahead without consequences.”  The next step is to join them in their wickedness, casting off restraint.  These people have come to believe that nothing bad will happen by breaking God’s Word, and quite the contrary, now believe that something good will come from breaking God’s Word.

In all of this we see our own country.  In America many will give lip service to God in politics, economics, and religion.  But, where the rubber meets the road, God is not an answer.  And the person who tries to point to God will be laughed out of the room and have no votes on Election Day.  Wake-up!  We are killing ourselves by giving into such wrong-headed conclusions.  Such conclusions are destroying our country and bringing the judgment of God upon us.

Those Who Fear The Lord

Now verse 16-18 transitions to a different type of person.  The descriptor of this group is “the fear of the Lord.”  They feel the same tensions and difficulties.  They too wonder why the wicked get ahead and the righteous are ran over.  But they have a bedrock belief in God that won’t budge.  With Job they say, “though God slay me, yet will I trust Him.”  Even if God let’s me die, I will still trust Him.  They are afraid of the idea of following anything but God.  Like the disciples of Jesus they feel the tug to walk away, but then where else would they go and who would they turn to?  “No one else has the words of life.”  This fear of the Lord enables a person to remain restrained when all the world around them plunges into the insanity of conclusions that are contradictions to the Maker of our Reality.  Like Israel in the desert, these know that God is bringing them to good, and that even the desert is a place of intimacy.  It is the place where God supplies in ways we could not see nor imagined.  They are the times that deepen our soul and strengthen godly character within us.  It is the refiner’s fire that gives opportunity to say to the Lord, “please scrape off this scum that keeps rising to the surface of my heart.”

Notice that those who fear the Lord talked with each other.  Though it isn’t explicitly stated it is hard to imagine they are doing much other than encouraging each other to keep the faith; encouraging each other to keep walking the Way of the Lord.  We have to find times to encourage each other in God’s Ways and in His Promises.  Our times of Church gatherings should be exactly this.  However, they can be taken over by the unbelieving and spoiled by arrogant and inflated egos.  From such a place run.  Those who fear the Lord will encourage each other.

However, God see this and listens in on these conversations.  It impresses Him to have a Book of Remembrance written to record and give evidence to such conversations of encouragement.  Now, nobody ever feels like God is paying such close attention to their difficulties that He is writing a book about them.  This happens silently in heaven, unnoticed by us on earth.  He is listening and He is intimately concerned with our “working it out.”  Our actions of faith are not always Red-Sea-Parting moments.  Sometimes they are the simple, normal, talking with a friend hashing out why we feel things in our heart and yet why we can’t walk away from the Lord.  Strengthen the hands that hang down!

God says that these people are jewels to Him, and that they are like a son who serves his father.  When the Day of Judgment comes, He will not only just spare these.  But He will take them up as His possession, while the rest are taken away in destruction.  He will spare them the judgment that the wicked are plunging towards.  Now, at the cross and resurrection, Jesus took up those jewels out of the land of Israel.  He called that believing remnant to follow Him into the wilderness as God poured out His judgments on the Egypt that the nation had become.  Later in 70 AD when the nation of Israel was being destroyed, God’s remnant had been pulled to himself and entered into His blessing.  Lest we become arrogant and inflated ourselves, let us recognize that we are in a similar situation today.  Beware lest your life “rhyme” with the life of the wicked 2,000 years ago.  There is a Day of Judgment coming for America and a day of judgment coming for this whole world.  They question is, will God see me as a jewel in that day or is His wrath coming for me?  Do not surrender to unbelief.  Rather, flee into the Word of God and trust His Ways completely, because God will eventually make it clear who are the righteous and who are the wicked.

Scoffers have increased outside the Church and within.  Those who do not fear God within are manipulating the Scriptures to their own desires.  But we must fear God, encourage each other, and warn the perishing.  However, let me warn you.  Warning the perishing will only become more dangerous in this country.  It will take a higher and higher personal cost to warn those who have cast off restraint.  It will seem like it is useless to do so and that those who do are ran over.  However, it is what God has told us to do.  I know this post is long and hopefully you have made it to this point.  If you have then let me plead with you to guard your heart against the unbelief that this society causes to come to the surface.  You don’t know how precious you really are to God.  I don’t say that to inflate your ego.  But to build up your faith in Jesus.  Let’s go forward for Jesus and lay our lives down that other might live.

Complaining vs encouraging audio

Can a Man Rob God?`

Today we will be in Malachi 3:7-12.  Here the Lord begins to deal with Israel in the area of finances.  There sin of disregarding God’s Word wasn’t just in sickly sacrifices, but also in their giving to the Lord.  Even though we are not under the Law of Moses, I think we will see some of ourselves in their heart attitudes.

Blinded By False Religion

In verse 7 God basically calls them to repentance, but notice that the end of that verse shows that they are somewhat clueless as to how they should repent.  Clearly a blindness had settled upon the people to the point that even as God begins to point out their sin, they still don’t see it or recognize what they need to do.

Now false religion doesn’t start out as stories about pagan deities and their exploits.  Rather it begins when we twist or reject parts of God’s Word.  When we treat the parts of God’s Word that we don’t like as if they don’t exist or don’t apply to us, then we have begun to go down the road of false religion.  Why doesn’t a person just admit that they don’t believe or trust God and walk away?  Whatever the individual reason, their religion ends up becoming a half-hearted cultural thing.

They are reminded that this is no new problem.  Their fathers had done the same thing.  Now it is true that some generations turn to God more so than others.  However, let us not think that it was because they weren’t as sinful or that doing good was natural for them.  No.  Each generation may have different technologies and different dress or music, but the hearts of people are generally the same.  Those generations that chose to repent did so over the top of hearts that were sinful and a past that was littered with sinful actions.  All generations have a tendency to be blind to their sins.  So we need to be careful of making previous generations more righteous than they really were.

Sin causes separation.  God cannot bless us on the path of sin and thus a separation occurs.  We must turn back to him in repentance so that he can turn back to us in blessing.  This will make sense later because God will point out how they were under a curse.  So this brings up the question: How do I repent?  Let me answer this for all of us in general.  Then we will go on to look at Israel’s particular sin and needed act of repentance.  Ultimately we repent by letting God’s Word show us where in our lives we have chosen other paths than His.  And then, we choose to change by turning whole heartedly to God’s Way.  This will be in very specific things for each one of us.  One of those areas is our finances.

How Can A Man Rob God?

Now I know that verse 8 actually asks “will a man rob God.”  But I will come back to that in a moment.  First lets settle what “robbing God” is in the first place.  We essentially “rob” God when we don’t give Him what belongs to Him or is His due.  Now Israel had agreed to give God a tenth of their increase and to offer sacrifices of the perfect animals in their flock.  These sacrifices also had a financial impact.  They were supposed to give a clear and specific amount of money and wealth in their life.  However, they had begun to give weak and sickly (i.e. not costly) animals for their sacrifices and were not giving a full 10% of their increase.  They were welching on their agreement with God and not giving what they had agreed to give.

Now such daring action really shows that unbelief had entered their hearts.  Robbing God is a daring thing that speaks of great audacity.  What kind of man would dare rob God?  The only answer is one who doesn’t think there are any real negative consequences.  Ultimately they have ceased to believe God is real.  In fact they believe that they will be better off by not giving anything to God.  Instead of “wasting it” they could keep it and spend it for themselves.

God is holding Israel accountable in this passage to the Law of Moses.  But we should ask ourselves why He commanded them to give a certain amount.  It’s intention was to force their flesh to recognize just how hostile it really was to the desires of God.  We are not under the Law of Moses.  But the same things God was trying to teach them, He is trying to teach us.  We are not under the Law of Moses, but we are not called to be lawless.  Rather the Word says that we are under the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.

This Holy Spirit is trying to teach us what it means to be like our Father in Heaven when it comes to our finances and material possessions.  In 2 Corinthians 9:7-8 Paul challenged the believers to become givers like God. “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.  And, God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”  We will come back to this in a bit, but recognize that He does not want us to give because we are forced or manipulated, nor out of a grudging heart.

The Righteous Demonstrate It In Their Finances

Now in verses 9-12 God finishes calling them to the carpet on this matter.  There is no way around the truth that our finances demonstrate where our hearts really are. Billy Graham once said, “give me 5 minutes with a person’s checkbook and I will tell you where there heart is.”  Now God doesn’t need to look at our checkbook to know where our heart is, but it is the irrefutable proof one way or another.  Have you looked at your spending register lately?  How does God’s things fare on that list versus your own comfort and luxury?

God tells Israel that they were under a curse because of willful disobedience in their finances.  This problem was wide spread throughout the land.  They were purposefully only giving a part of their tithe and probably only giving that just to keep up appearances.  This sin would definitely impact the livelihood of the priests and the poor who were helped by these gifts.

Now God actually challenges them to “test” Him in this matter.  Basically He is saying if you will start giving me all the tithe, I will lift the curse from you and pour blessings out upon you.  Now the blessing isn’t primarily financial, but it would affect their finances.  Here is what God would do.  He would rebuke the devourerer, bless their agriculture, and make His blessing obvious to others.  The devourer is more than just a metaphorical term for the things that caused their finances to go bad.  It really is a deeper reference to the devil and his desire to kill, steal, and destroy God’s good in our life.  Because of unbelief and rebellion this devourer is released in our life and will consume even our very soul if we don’t repent and turn back to God.  Only God can rebuke the devourer in our life and free us from his tyranny.

Now what about Christians who are under the Law of the Spirit?  There is no command for us to give 10% of our income in the gospel.  But to say that means we don’t have to give at all is disingenuous.  Clearly if we give nothing at all and consume everything in our life, God will not just be displeased.  In fact a story much like this is used of a man who had bumper crops and built bigger barns to hold it all.  The Bible says, that night his soul was required of him.  God brought judgment upon the one who held all for himself.  This is wickedness in its basic form-selfishness.

It demonstrates a lack of truly believing God and loving Him.  When we truly love God we will want to be like Him.  Good news, that is what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life.  He is working in you to perfect God’s image.  When we give nothing or stingily or grudgingly we are anything but reflecting God’s image.

Now in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 Paul instructed the Christians on how they should give.  When we combine it with the 2 Corinthians 9:7-8 passage we are given these main points.

The believer will be led by the Spirit to give regularly.  God increases us regularly and models regular giving to us.  Thus when we are cooperating with the Spirit we become regular givers.  Our giving will be planned.  They were instructed to not only think about ways in which they could help, but then to do what it took to actually follow through and make the plan happen.  He tells them to set aside the money at the first part of the week and then later it will be ready for those it was supposed to help.  Sometimes we use the concept of “Spirit-led” giving as a cop out.  The real question is not did the Spirit tell you to help a particular need, but has God blessed you and do you trust Him to take care of you enough to help someone else?  Our giving should also be generous.  Too often those who ask if they have to give 10% are only wanting to give less.  Do you recognize that the testimony of the early Christians was that they actually gave more?  Now I don’t say this to put us under a new law of giving more than 10%.  But it does show where their hearts were and where ours often are.  In fact notice that this is the area that got Ananias and Saphira in trouble.  They were not in trouble because they didn’t give enough, but because they lied about what they gave.  Our giving should also be made as a private and free matter.  There should be no force or spiritual manipulation put upon people by spiritual leaders or other believers.  Lastly, God wants us to enjoy giving.  When you give, it makes money your servant.  When you mostly consume it all, you become a slave to it.  Let me ask, are you a slave to your money?  Are you consuming it all and complaining to God that you don’t have enough?  Or, are you living on less than you bring in and honoring God with the firstfruits of your increase by giving to His work and blessing those who are hurting?  And are you doing it with the joy of the Lord, filled with thanks?  Powerful questions, and may we be tough enough to wrestle with them.

Can Man Rob God Audio