Malachi 1

And if you can find Malachi again in your Bibles, that would be really helpful.

There's a bit of a tendency today, I think, for people like us to prefer lighter things rather than heavier things.

We like light stuff, don't we? We like light, entertaining, funny stuff. We like triviality.

But God knows that what we often need is something much more substantial to live.

We need something weightier to take into our minds and hearts.

Heavier words that might be harder to hear, but actually in the long run are much better for us to swallow.

They go deeper down into us.

And the whole book of Malachi gives us a good dose of deep, heavy spiritual medicine.

If you look at verse 1 of Malachi, chapter 1 in your Bibles, you'll see that the book itself has great weight.

Malachi 1 · chapter mention

Malachi is given an oracle from God to speak to Israel.

That word oracle, it can translate as burden.

Malachi is burdened by a message that God gives him to speak to the people.

The message is heavy.

Heavy not in the sense of it being boring or stuffy or too much information, God.

But God speaks seriously and deeply.

So can you imagine this morning what might be the heaviest, weightiest, most sobering words that you can imagine hearing in the presence of God?

Angry words?

Words of rejection, perhaps?

I never knew you.

How does God open this heavy message in verse 2?

What kinds of words does he use?

Just look there.

I have loved you.

Those four words are the message that he gives, aren't they?

And unlike what we might think of those four words,

we hear them, don't we, in the movies, they're not light words.

These words, rather than turning you all gooey

and making Christianity a fluffy thing,

they're not an invitation for us to relax spiritually.

They are words that are very troubling.

They're spoken to weigh on you heavily this morning.

Israel, my people, you church people,

hear and feel the weight of these words.

I have loved you,

says the Lord.

So why does God choose to begin this heavy message of Malachi with these words?

Seems unexpected, doesn't it?

Well, first of all, God's love

is convicting.

God's love is convicting.

I don't blame you if it took a little bit longer

to thumb through your Bibles and find the book of Malachi.

It's just over two pages long, isn't it?

It's not easy to find.

A Scottish friend of mine used to say

that Malachi, it's wee,

but it's weighty.

One commentator calls it

a devastating little book.

We're going to work through it

over a few Sunday mornings.

Even though it's small,

it's heavy

and it's weighty.

And you might miss that

in the opening few verses

that we're going to look at this morning.

You could read the opening verses of Malachi

and think that he is the softies prophet.

What a great collection of calendar verses they are,

aren't they,

in verse 1 to 5.

God says,

I love you.

Sounds lovely, doesn't it?

But you might have sensed

that as we read on in the chapter earlier on,

things are not well

between God and his people.

This is not God

putting his arm around his people

and whispering sweet nothings in her ear.

No, the whole book of Malachi

is actually more like a row

between God and his people.

It's full of accusations,

accusations and excuses from the people.

And the loving, faithful God

confronts his unfaithful people.

Because the relationship at this point

has gone sour.

God wants them to come back to him.

Just a bit of context,

it's about 450 years

before Jesus Christ

appears on the scene.

And Malachi is speaking here

to a group of people

who are left behind,

the remnants of God's people

who've returned from captivity in Babylon.

Babylon, they were sent into exile.

And then Babylon is invaded by Persia

and the Persian emperor Cyrus

sends them back

to the land of Judah.

It's just after the time of Ezra

and Nehemiah

when they rebuild the walls.

It's after the rebuilding project

led by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah.

Zechariah.

And the people there

back in the little land of Judah,

the temple's rebuilt.

It's not as it was

in the days of Solomon,

but there is a temple there.

And there's a period of relative peace.

But spiritually,

things are dry.

Worship, we will see

as we go through the book,

is there,

but it's formulaic

and it's hypocritical.

And so as Malachi

speaks those words from God,

he isn't relaxed.

He isn't preaching about God's love

with a smile on his face.

These words come not immediately

as a comfort,

but as a convicting message.

And they lie heavily on his heart.

It is not a mushy love.

It is a covenant commitment

that God has placed on his people

like a marriage

or between two allied kings.

So just imagine the scenario.

In a room,

in a house,

maybe in the kitchen,

there is a husband

whose wife was out last night

and she didn't come home.

And it turns out

she's been unfaithful.

And the two of them

meet for a kind of face-off.

And you can cut the tension

with a knife

and she stares at the floor

and he looks at her

and he has every right

to lay into her

about what happened.

But the conversation begins

with him saying,

I have loved you.

And those words

bring a moment

of introspection,

don't they?

They gently

shame her.

Later on in the book,

God is going to rebuke

his people quite harshly.

But his most

shaming indictment

actually

on their cold hearts

is his

warm love

for them.

God's love,

we love hearing about it,

don't we?

It cheers us

and it encourages us

and it should

as we know

that his steadfast love

endures forever

for his people

but his love

is troubling.

It is very serious.

It is a love

that cuts

into our hearts

as we come to terms

with our feelings

for God.

that we have not

loved the God

who has loved us

so.

When we turn from him

in different ways

and we do that,

don't we?

If we love something else

or if we spend a moment

maybe backsliding even

and living in a different way

than what we should,

we pretend

to do,

we pretend we can do that

because we think

God does not love us.

We pretend

that he's an abusive,

nasty,

hateful God

and so it's okay

to turn from him.

But we've hated him

in his love.

To be baptised,

to be a member

of this church

or any church,

Christian church,

to be a Christian

is to be wonderfully

marked

by God's love.

But that is a serious

and weighty thing.

The water

that was used

to baptise Zayn,

that is very heavy

water.

It marks Zayn out

as being loved

by God.

It is heavy

and serious.

To have his covenant

love set on you,

it is a heavy thing.

And if that has happened

to you,

you cannot ignore that,

you cannot pretend

that that's not the case.

Who is the man

who is offended

when a woman

sleeps with another man?

Well,

all of us should be,

shouldn't we?

All of us should be

offended by that.

But of course,

it's the husband,

isn't it?

He is the one

who is offended most.

The one who has set

his love on her

is most grieved

by any unfaithfulness

and any unfaithfulness

towards God

from his people

is never just

a casual goodbye.

His true people

cannot simply

walk away from him.

For God,

it instigates

a passion

and holy

jealousy

for his people.

A husband would say,

wouldn't he,

well,

that kind of thing

happens all the time.

It is an awful thing

and it's a regrettable

thing in society

but if my love

did that,

that's a different

thing altogether.

And God's love,

you see,

convicts us

when we

or if we

turn from him.

That is serious

because he has

loved us

and so he cares

what we do

especially.

He cares how we feel

or how we don't feel.

Convicted by his love.

But there is a problem

with that,

isn't there?

Because his love

can only convict us

this morning

if we actually

believe it's true.

His love convicts us

but secondly,

God's love is doubted.

I have loved you,

God says to his people.

But do you believe that?

God loves you.

We teach our children

that, don't we,

in Sunday school.

It's kind of bread and butter

of our faith

that God loves his people.

But do we believe it?

Do we really?

In this row

between God

and the people,

the book of Malachi,

it's marked out

as we'll see

by a series of arguments.

And the first argument

that is between God

and his people

is there in verse 2.

If you look there.

I have loved you,

says the Lord,

but you say,

how have you loved us?

The thing is,

in all of these arguments

in the book of Malachi,

you'll notice that

even though the people

speak back to God,

it's actually God

who says their words,

isn't it?

And he uses the words,

but you say.

That phrase is repeated

throughout the book.

But you say,

but you say.

So God makes a statement

of truth

and he fills in the lines

of the people's response.

They don't have to say

a word actually

because it's obvious

from the way

that they live.

He's giving the response

that maybe the people

won't articulate

themselves out loud.

God says,

I love you,

but I know

what you're thinking.

You don't have to say it.

I will verbalise

your thoughts for you.

Your inner thoughts.

Let's get all of the cards

on the table

about how things

really are in your heart.

Because even though

I love you,

I know,

I know that you

often don't believe that.

He shows us that

behind maybe

the language

that we sometimes use,

especially in church circles,

there can be a deeper

hidden subtext

of what's going on

really in our hearts.

We're not going around

necessarily lying

to each other

consciously,

are we?

But God knows

our true intentions

and the thoughts

of our hearts

at any time.

So it's like

one of those moments

when everyone

is biting their tongues.

Nobody says

what everybody

actually might be thinking

and then somebody

goes and says it.

And God does that.

He says to us,

I want to get real

with you

and I want you

to be real with me.

It's time for some

candid self-examination

because the underlying

issue is that you

doubt so often

what I'm saying here

when I say,

I love you.

I know what you're thinking

because you say

in your heart

how?

How have you loved us,

God?

What have you ever

done for me, God?

you wouldn't dare

say it plainly.

You wouldn't say it

out loud.

So let me say

what you're so often

thinking.

Let me say

how you might be

feeling.

You're thinking

how have you loved

us, God?

And he's right,

isn't he,

so often.

That's why it

takes me ages

to warm up

just to saying

a prayer.

Why reading

the Bible

it seems like

a chore.

How can it

seem like a chore?

When other things

take my affection

away from the Lord,

when I don't feel

warm towards him,

it's because I don't

think that God

loves me.

The fruit of that

forbidden tree,

it's the age-old

problem is that,

isn't it,

that it just seems

so much better

than what God

is and what he

says and that he's

a killjoy.

For the people

of Malachi's day,

they had a

particular set

of issues,

they had their

own reasons

for thinking

that.

If you were

around about

this time last

year, we looked

through the book

of Haggai,

you can remember,

and in that

prophecy, it's

just around about

the same time

in the life

of the people

of Israel,

there was this

grand vision,

wasn't there,

at the end

of Haggai,

of the rebuilt

temple.

The latter glory

of that house

would outweigh

the former glory.

God would shake

the heavens

and the earth

and all the

nations would

bring their

treasures in

and there will

be this cosmic

shift and this

king Zerubbabel

was the king

named to lead

the revolution

for God's

people.

But that was

about 60 years

ago now.

Zerubbabel is

dead, Judah is

now surrounded

by enemies,

and they're only

there under

permission by the

Persian emperor

Cyrus.

The temple is

there, but it's

just okay.

It's been a

while since the

return from

exile.

A lot has

happened, but

there's still

obviously a lot

more still to

come, isn't

there?

And the

assured realities

of Haggai's

day, of

restoration,

are not the

present realities

yet.

And they

struggle with

the now and

the not yet

of waiting

for God's

promises to

be fully

fulfilled.

And the

question in

their hearts

isn't just

then, how

has God

loved us, or

what has God

ever done for

us, but

rather, how

has God

loved us, what

has he done

for us lately?

How have you

loved me right

now, God?

Because the

assured realities

that you've

promised are

not the present

realities of my

life right now.

the king who

was promised, who

was going to

restore the

glory of the

temple, was

Jesus Christ.

And he came,

didn't he?

And much was

fulfilled, and

we see much of

it fulfilled in

the life of the

church today.

But not

everything is

here yet, is

it?

Not everything

is fulfilled.

Victory over

sin and death,

it is complete

on the cross,

nothing more

needs to be

done by

Jesus.

But we

still sin,

don't we?

And we

still die.

If God

loves us, we

might ask, why

am I still

ill?

Why are the

Christian

funerals?

If God

loves me, why

aren't I

immune from

pain and

from illness

and frustration

in this world?

the cross

and the

resurrection, they

were great

then, but we

might think, well

Lord, what have

you done for me

lately?

Those words at

the end of 1

Corinthians, that

death will lose

its sting, those

words are an

assured reality,

aren't they?

But are they a

present reality?

We still die.

We've been

raised with

Christ.

And when a

person becomes a

Christian, a

new creation,

Paul says, our

life is hidden

with Christ.

Nothing more

needs to be done

to forgive you

or give you new

life in Christ.

But the

outworkings of

all that are

still not fully

known.

We are in the

now and in the

not yet too,

aren't we?

And so his

love convicts,

but we so

often doubt his

love, looking at

our circumstances.

So God says,

let me show

you.

Let me

persuade you

that I do,

that I have

loved you.

And the rest

of our short

section this

morning is that

proof from

verse 3 to

5.

Look at verse

3 with me.

How is it

true that I've

loved you?

And here is

the killer

blow.

Is not

Esau

Jacob's

brother.

And we're

thinking, how

is that

supposed to

help?

How does

that convince

us that

you love

us, God?

That God's

love is true,

it's real.

How does that

help?

Well, his love

convicts us and

it is real

because it is

terrifyingly,

wonderfully,

soberingly

exclusive to

us.

It is

exclusive to

us.

That is our

third thing.

Theologians

call Malachi a

post-exilic

minor prophet.

That's just a

posh way of

saying that he's

one of the

smaller prophets

that was written

after the return

from exile.

Now, if you

think about it,

that should be

enough in and

of itself,

shouldn't it,

to convince the

people of his

love.

In case you

forgot, God

says, I

promised that

if you left

me, this would

happen, that

you'd be invaded

by foreign

powers, that

you'd be taken

off to a

foreign land.

I promised

that as early

as Deuteronomy

in the time of

Moses, and I

warned you again

and again that

it would happen.

And it did

happen, and the

very fact that

you're back in

your homeland

should say a

lot, that I

haven't left

you, and I'm

still committed

to you.

He could go

down that route,

couldn't he?

to convince

them that he

loved them.

But what God

does is more

challenging here.

He actually

addresses the

modern preacher's

least favourite

subject, it's

election.

It's God's

choice of a

particular people

for salvation,

and his

rejection of

everybody else.

love.

It's the very

unpopular

teaching that

God's love

is exclusive

to a certain

people.

And God

uses that

as his big

argument here.

He preaches

election to

his people.

Do you

remember, he

says, how all

of this started?

There was this

man called

Jacob, do you

remember?

You know the

story in

Genesis.

Jacob was

given the

name Israel.

He became

the father of

my chosen

people.

He was the

man that I

chose.

And you're

related to

him.

You're here

because of

him.

But don't you

remember that he

also had a

brother, Esau.

And not only

were they

brothers, they

were twins.

There was

nothing to

separate them.

If you read

the stories of

Jacob and

Esau, you can

see that they

were both

rotten scoundrels.

Jacob was that

scheming,

conniving con

man who

posed as the

heir, that

conniving

tow rag.

And Esau

was just as

bad.

He gave up

his birthright

for a bowl

of stew.

They were

both as bad

as each

other.

But God

says, I

chose one of

them.

I chose

Jacob.

I decided

that my

love was

going to be

exclusive to

one of them

and not to

the other.

I loved

Jacob and

I hated

Esau.

And the

story of

Esau and

Jacob perfectly

shows us that

it wasn't that

one of them

was better

than the

other, that

they both

had equally

little claim

on God's

love.

his point

is that

the love

I've shown

to you,

I've shown

to you

exclusively,

my people,

and others

who were

just as

good as

you,

I've

passed by.

Others

equally

deserving

as you

to be in

this church

now,

I've

rejected.

love.

That is

heavy.

That is

heavy love.

That is

serious.

It's

deep and

sobering love,

isn't it,

when you think

about it.

When we see

that there are

people in this

world, there are

people on your

street, there are

people that you

live next door to,

your next door

neighbours even,

in this town that

are just as nice as

you are,

and as I am,

nicer than you.

And God has

chosen not to love

them in this way,

when he's loved

you.

I realise that

talking about

this, talking

about election,

God's choice,

might be the

first time that

you've heard about

this, and that

might raise lots of

questions for you,

and I'd really

genuinely be

delighted in

chatting about

that with you

afterwards.

I can give some

time to that if

you want to ask

some more

questions.

I think it's

quite interesting

how Jesus

himself, the

master preacher,

uses the subject

of God's

choice in

evangelism.

If you read

Matthew chapter

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

11, it's not

off the table for

preaching, far

from it.

But for the

moment it's

important that

we say that

Esau and those

chosen by God

are never

rejected against

their own

will.

As people

live wanting

no part of

God as Esau

did, and

nothing to do

with him, God

merely gives

them what they

asked for.

Esau happily

gave up his

right to the

inheritance for

a bowl of

stew.

And there is

no one who

is outside of

God's love at

present who

wishes otherwise.

The mercy of

God comes to

people of his

choice and it

gives them

something that

they did not

ask for or

want.

God's choice

and the

stories of

Jacob and

Esau serve

as the

first of the

dominoes of

God's choice

throughout history.

Bible history

shows us that

Esau's descendants

grew and

developed and

they took

ownership of

the land of

Eden.

And so the

choice and the

gifts and the

calling of God

are irreversible.

Because we see

here, don't we,

in Malachi,

centuries later,

Eden remains

rejected by

God.

Ezekiel foretold

their destruction

and it's

happened.

They've suffered

under military

invasion just

like Judah has,

just as Israel

has, but notice

the difference

with Edom here.

Verse 4, if

Edom says we

are shattered

but we will

rebuild the

ruins, the

Lord of hosts

says they may

rebuild but I'll

tear down and

they'll be called

the wicked

country and the

people with whom

the Lord is

angry forever.

They think we'll

bounce back,

the Lord has

rejected us but

we'll be okay.

Notice the

contrast there,

the Edomites are

self-appointed

saviours, they

think that they

can rescue

themselves, that

they can build

themselves up.

Ironically they

do what the

Israelites were

reluctant to do,

build up.

Both Esau and

Israel have

endured God's

judgement in

history but the

end goal is

totally different.

For Esau and

Jacob in the

end.

For the

loved Jacob

judgment will

end up in

restoration and

return.

And for the

rejected Edomites

it will end in

absolute destruction.

So do you get it

this morning?

Do you get what

we're saying?

If you're a

Christian, if you're

baptised, if you're

here even this

morning and you're

not a Christian,

you're very

privileged, can I

put it as bluntly

as possible?

God is saying

here that receiving

my love is not

because you are any

different in

yourself to people

who are heading

for hell.

The only thing

that makes you

different is that

I've chosen you.

love is exclusive

to you.

And as you see

the final destruction

of Edom, you

will see how

differently I have

treated you in

comparison.

I have loved you

in a way that I

have not loved

others.

Paul says to the

Ephesians, he

chose us in

him, that's in

Christ, before the

foundation of the

world, that we

should be holy and

blameless before

him.

In love he

predestined us

for adoption to

himself as sons

through Jesus

Christ.

Now notice how

Paul does not

say there, he

chose us because we

were holy and

blameless.

No, he chose us

that we should be

holy and blameless.

We were no

different.

C.S. Lewis writes

in his book The

Four Loves,

depth beneath

depth and

subtlety within

subtlety, there

remains some

lingering idea of

our own, our

very own

attractiveness.

It is easy to

acknowledge, but

almost impossible to

realize for

long.

That we are

mirrors whose

brightness, if we

are bright, is

wholly derived

from the sun that

shines upon us.

Another

commentator

writes, he

loves us not

because of what

we are, but

because of what

he is.

The light may

shine from you

this morning, if

you are amongst

God's people, but

it is only a

reflection of the

light that has

shone on you

from God.

Simply the fact

of being here

and of being a

Christian, of being

baptised, is a

weighty thing.

That you, my

people, have

received my love

in Christ, and

that I have chosen

you, and it is a

privilege, it is a

serious thing.

Convicts us,

doesn't it?

I have loved you

exclusively.

If you have been

raised in a

Christian home, if

you have got any

interest in God, it

is not because you

are nicer, or

better, or more

moral.

So this love is

quite devastating,

isn't it?

It is weighty.

This week, if

your love is

cold towards God,

perhaps if you're

beginning to move

away from God in

your communion with

him, please

remember these

words.

If you're coming

to terms with

any lack of

faith, or any

lack of love, or

zeal, remember

these words.

any impatience

that you might

have with the

assured realities

not being the

present realities

in your life,

remember these

words.

I have loved

you.

I have loved

you.

It's only the

start of the

conversation, isn't

it, in the

kitchen, in

Malachi, but that

is how God

begins, with

those convicting

and heavy

words.

I have loved

you.

Let's pray.