Malachi 2:10-16 - Chosen to be the Bride of Christ

So we're increasing 2 babies in two weeks.

Well, God's adding to our numbers every day.

Blessed be his name, mate. We are going to continue in

Malachi and we're going to, I'm doing Malachi 210 to 16.

I find with Malachi, or what we're hearing in Malachi is, is

pretty tough. They've really gone quite

astray. We've heard from Ben when they

said at the beginning how the priests were actually just given

substantial sacrifices. They weren't given their all.

And that is a challenge that we all, can we give our all, you

know, do we try to skimp? Do we try to evade?

And Malachi 2/10/16 is no different.

And Malachi, three and four are no different as well.

I think we're in for a real sort of like heart, sort of searching

time in how we come to the Lord. Are we putting him first?

So I will pray and then with no further ado, I will go on.

Lord, your word is food to our souls.

It is it is the thing that can thirst that I can quench our

thirst, Lord, It's the thing that can keep us online.

It's the thing that connects us with you.

It's in there we find your word, the revelation of your heart and

for your your your plan for humankind.

And Lord, today is no different. So will you be upon this word?

Will you be upon our hearts as we seek to know where we should

go with this and what we should do with it and ask is in Jesus

name, Amen. So let's get straight on Malachi

2/10/16. Do we not all have fathers?

Did not one God create us? Why do we profound the the the

covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?

Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been

committed in Israel and in Jerusalem.

Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by

marrying women who worship foreign gods as them.

As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord

remove him from the tents of Jacob, even though he brings an

offering to the Lord Almighty. Another thing you do you flood

the Lord's altar with tears, you weep and you well, because He no

longer looks with favour on your offering, or accepts them with

pleasure from your hands. You ask why.

It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife

of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her

through though she is your partner.

The wife of your marriage covenant has not the one God

made you. You belong to Him in body, in

spirit. And what does the one God seek?

Godly offspring. So be on your guard.

Do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

The man who hates and divorces his wife says the Lord, the God

of Israel does violence to the one sorry, there's violence to

the one he should protect, says the Lord Almighty.

So be on your guard and do not be unfaithful.

Unfaithful was mentioned five times there.

We need to understand that although we're talking more

about these men who are actually like doing their own thing,

unfaithfulness comes from a lot of areas.

We can be unfaithful to God in many ways.

See, God is the God of the covenant.

We are God's chosen covenantal people.

And a covenant is solemn vow initiated by God to guide

humanity to a righteous way of life, to rescue, to restore, to

redeem a people to Himself as a family.

It is built on a very intimate relationship of trust, of love,

of forgiveness, of sacrifice and promises.

Just name a few. With a determination that the

agreement, the relationship comes before 1's own personal

self. Both parties commit to staying

faithful to each other for a lifetime.

God is faithful to all His promises in which we proclaim

and are fulfilled in the yes and Amen in Jesus.

Agree. Yeah.

God made marriage a beautiful covenant between one man and one

woman that God initiated, blessed and witnessed.

You know the first thing, if you go back to Genesis 2, that's

when we see the first marriage. God creates the man he sees it

is not good for him to be alone. So then he creates and of his

rib. He creates woman Eve and then he

takes Eve and he picks her up as the father and also has as the

the husband and he takes her or the you know, he takes her to

Adam. What a beautiful sight that is

here. But what what's a bit weird.

I don't think Mellie, you would go to this sort of wedding, but

what God has got in his hands is 2 naked people and he's got to

say you're going to get you. 2 are together forever as 2 become

one. But the lovely thing about this

nakedness is the purity. They've got nothing to hide.

They've got no shame on them. This is before the fall.

This is before the fall. And there's a glorious day for

us coming in this world his way. Well, we the church are going to

be the bride, the bride of Christ, and we are going to be

stood before the Father spotless in white, in our white robes of

righteousness. We are no our shame has gone,

our sin has been washed away through his blood.

So we got 2 glorious wedding pictures here, one at the

beginning that God set out in motion.

And the whole theme of marriage and being a husband goes all the

way through the Bible until the day in Revelation when we will

meet him again and we become his story's bride.

So heaven, God, in God's eyes, marriage is a sacred and holy

value. Marriage is is is a design to

reflect God's faithful love as a father and a husband to his

people. It is a stable, loving place for

children to thrive, grow and know who God is through their

parents. It's the picture of Christ's

intimate relationship with His church, His faithful,

unconditional and forgiving love for those who call on His name.

It is a holy covenant meant meaning a God has has ordained

it to be set apart. Is a great example to all

mankind of how a relationship established in love, grace and

devotion, united and fulfilled in Christ can overcome the

toughest challenges. And marriage is not a simple

route. It is ups and downs.

But as Christians, remember what God is talking, who's talking to

here are A, to the men. So I'm talking to men more

today. And B, he's talking to those who

have actually signed a covenant or agreed to the covenant like

we are. Our covenant is through Jesus

Christ. Theirs is through the the law of

Moses, which say said as one people, we agree we will do what

the Lord asks us to do. So there's no like, oh, hiding

away. It's not a there were people

outside this room today who do not know God.

This will not apply to them because God's speaking directly

at his people here. Marriage, stable marriages are

good for establishing, I believe stable communities.

If you can actually, if you get a load of Christians in one

particular spot and they can interact with their with their

their neighbours, I am positive there will be a change.

There will be a great change. So marriage as say God is using

it as a picture, as an example and also bring glory to his name

because that's the ultimate race here. 1979 we got married and I

suppose you could say then we've got, I've got a little bit of

knowledge about marriage. And the bit of wisdom I can give

you in one sense is you don't know much as a husband because

you have to know what your your wife is thinking.

You have to know what her needs are.

You have to know when to shut up, when to when to.

You have to know that that shelf needed to be put up.

You have to know these things. But I can tell you that from

that day, we had a big wedding cake, didn't we?

I did not know that's a big wedding.

Kate. June.

Yeah. Anyway, from that day until this

day, I have not loved Julie more than I can and ever would.

She has stayed the focus of my attention.

I'm speaking love. You're supposed to be listening

to me as well. I'm giving some good compliments

here and a good marriage. The first thing we we learnt in

marriage was the oneship. And I think mine is not mine

anymore. Mine is ours.

What we do is ours. And if you start off on that

thought, yeah, I, I shouldn't be looking at my wife.

Now that's finances, our time and our friends.

Believe it or not, if if you've got sadly, when you come

together, you may not enjoy certain friends that your

partner hangs back with. Well, the thing about it is

those friends are not helping your marriage if there's a wedge

there. So sometimes you have to give up

friends which are not beneficial to you.

Sometimes you have to give up time.

Now, one thing that I've learned, I try to be considerate

most of the times, but you know, I play a little bit of golf when

I can. Now I'm retired, I can play a

bit of golf. It seems to be the, the thing to

do so, but every time I know golf, it's going to take about

5:00 to 4:00 to five hours. Well, I go to Julian and I make

sure that she's OK with it because if I if, if she, if she

says, actually, I, I thought we were going to go to AB or CI

rather give up that because she is my devotion in the sense she

is the one I want to serve properly.

So I will give that up. But it's normally she'll say,

no, I'm OK. And now I go so I can play

around the golf thinking I have not been unfaithful to my wife.

I am OK if I went down the golf line even more and said I

started to buy my golf clubs and I started to go to the, the,

the, the clubhouse and I started to just spend money and I did

not consult my wife again. I am being a bit unfaithful to

her because it's not my money, it's our money.

And we have to decide. We just moved, as you know, in

1920, some of you don't know it, but in 2020 we moved up here and

we, we, we moved into an old house that needed renovating.

And that means a lot of decisions had to be made on, you

know, what furniture we were going to do, what colour the

walls were going to be, how we furnished the house.

Julie, I always have this thing. We we get something in our

heads. She says, I like this, I say, I

like this. And, and we come to a degree.

If I said, well, I'm not sure about that.

That'll go on the the side burner.

If I say I don't like it gets down the drain.

If she says the same, stand until we come to a point where

we totally say, yeah, that's it. So none of us, we cannot hit one

another in the future and say, hey, we've got this because you

wanted it. No, we got it because we wanted

it. And we need to understand that

marriage is like that. And that's the same sometimes

our industry with God, we tend to not sort of like communicate

the way we should. Do you see, marriage is

sacrificial as well. That means you have to give up

something as Jesus gave up his life for us.

We should never take one another for granted because marriages

that do not last quite often, it doesn't happen overnight.

It's a slow fade. Suddenly you realise that you've

not, you're not talk to one another, you've not asked one

another how you are, you've not felt, you've not been intimate

with one another. It can all just simply fade

gradually until you get to a point where you say there's I've

got nothing to say. A lot of people put their if

they do not make the wife or the husband your priority, and I

mean behind Jesus Christ up here and your your your wife or your

husband, your children come here.

If you have children and your parents come down below them.

That's the healthy order of things.

You are to leave your mother and father.

They are not to have an input. You honour them and you stay

close to them, but they should not be dominating your marriage

life. Your marriage life has to be

worked out between the man and the woman, not anything else.

Your children come along, they're a blessing, but as soon

as you can get them out the door, please do.

Out they go, all right, but then they start their life.

You can support them, but they are you're then you're left on

your home own again. This is why I'm trying to get to

the point is you get back to the point there.

Now it's just you and your wife. You've had your children, you've

you've moved away from your parents, you've had your

children, they've grown up. If you do not keep your

relationship alive through those years, you will end up with what

they call empty nest syndrome. And you don't want an empty nest

syndrome. So Julie and I, we talk, we

laugh together. We have to say sorry to one

another more often than I would like.

It is lovely to say to tell her I love her without any.

I want something right. It's just nice to say it.

Men, say this to your wife. You love them.

Do little things that they don't ask you to do.

You don't put your dish as I would probably do.

You don't put your dish in the sink.

You can put it in the dishwasher if it's by the sink, it's a, you

just go open and put it in. So there's little things, but

little things you say. It's those little things that

creep in to any relationship. And there's those little things

that creep into our relationship with Jesus.

The same things we let things slip, we ignore him, we don't

talk to him. And suddenly we realise I'm,

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, where's God in my life anymore?

So just one more little picture, I thought.

Now if you can read it, Falling in love.

Falling in love is easy, but staying in love is something

very special. And love does.

No, I can't remember that. Love does not count.

Consist of gazing you got back at each other, but in looking

towards outwards together in the same direction.

Yeah, I just thought. But anyway, move on, move on

waffling bit yes. So in this passage is no wonder

God is not happy. They have desecrated the

sanctuary the Lord loves and that is marriage.

Their actions show contempt towards the name of the Lord, a

willful disobedience and open disrespect to the covenant made

between God and Israel. A holy covenant of marriage was

being abused and dishonoured. God's families were being

weakened, destroyed and torn apart by divorce actions taken

by many unfaithful husbands in Jerusalem and Judea.

And God sees these actions and He calls it out as it is.

You notice in the middle bit of what I was reading, they came to

God in tears and weeped. They were weeping.

They weren't repenting, they weren't giving up these wives

that God says do not take. No, they were weeping that God

was not answering their prayers. So there's consequences

sometimes when we do something that is not in line with what

God wants us to do. So we can't cry to God.

We have to sort that out. We have to sort it out.

And then we have to come to God and say, Lord, I am sorry.

And we have such a graceful God that there is nothing that he

cannot do or will not forgive if we just bring it to him.

What a glorious God. So God sees, So what?

What were they doing? They were marrying women who

worship the foreign God. They were divorcing wives of

their youth and they were denying what God is seeking from

the marriage godly offspring. It's quite interesting if most

there's a lot of people here with children grown up, there

are a lot of them right there and the world's going to be a

battle for anybody with youngsters now because if

there's a passage that says do not marry a non believer, if

there's a passage that says do not in Two Corinthians 614, it

says do not be unequally, unequally yoked with an

unbeliever. It is this particular passage

because when we go back to Deuteronomy, we read God's in

his laws of what he told them to do and not do.

One of the rules was they were not to because they were going

into the promised land. They were going to meet a lot of

different tribes and different countries.

But God said do not intermarry with them.

Do not give your daughters their to their sons or take their

daughters for your sons for they will turn your children away

from follow me to serve other gods.

There is a it's it it it will happen.

And I know that there are many people who I've seen who have

married a non believer, their heart, and it's a good heart is

to say, yeah, but maybe I can bring them and they will, you

know, they'll get saved through me bringing them along for me

doing this. But sadly or not, the norm is

it's the other way round. The non believer will take you

away from your faith. It will weaken your faith.

So it's a tough call in a world where you may find somebody

really love you really think they're special.

I tell you, if they if they are somebody who really loves you

back and they're really special, they will think of what you like

and what you do and they will surrender to God before they ask

you to marry them. That's what I would say.

They won't hold you and what your desires are.

So you see that it causes a problem.

I say God was trying to say I want godly offspring.

Well, again, you come down to a situation where who will teach

the children in God's ways when one on a Sunday says I'm going

to church and the other one says I'm going to golf or I'm doing

something or I want to give my money to to the church and the

other person says, but it's our money.

So I don't want you to do that. You see that at the beginning it

may all be quite nice, but eventually a crack will appear

and eventually a chasm will appear.

So God's trying to warn us. This is how great God's word is

to all of us. It's not to say I want to take

away your joy. It's not to say I, you must do

exactly what I say. God is give us the freedom, but

he knows that certain choices that we make will end up with us

taking that real rugged Rd rather than the, the, the, the

slightly smoother Rd in the, in what he caused us to do.

I, I, I think the divorcing the wife of the youth.

That's interesting. I could go back to Julie and I

now some of you may remember you come from a family.

You just go to the larder. This is what your parents house

is. You go to the larder.

You just take through what you like.

You eat, use their electricity, you use their water or their hot

water normally. And you, you just walk away and

your money's yours to spend. You in the court in days are

just simply you and her and you go out and you just enjoy and

you spend your money and then you wait for your next wage

packet. But now you've just been

married. You've just been married.

Now the struggles come in because now you got to pay the

bills, you got to pay the electricity.

It is your food. You got to go to the shop, not

to your mother's or father's kitchen.

So getting married is tough at the early stage.

I believe what God's saying here, divorcing the wife of

youth. These men, these men had young

wives when they got married. They went through all the

struggles of getting themselves together, maybe getting to an

affluent situation. Now maybe Middle Ages come

along, maybe the children has left.

And the man in this situation is not content.

He looks around, he sees what else he can get.

And sometimes in this day and age, we were talking about

dowries. So to marry a woman you could

get money. So maybe some of them did it for

money, some of them may have done it for a younger model, who

knows what they did it for, but it was not good reasons.

There are reasons in the Bible that God says are reasons that

you can divorce, but there are many reasons that are not

applicable and we must be careful.

And in any reason, as an elder of this church, if there was a a

issue within a marriage, our first thing is to try to bring

reconciliation. But if that does not work, then

we would try to counsel in a way that they they feel that they've

not let God down. It's a tricky situation because

divorce really is messy. In fact, that's what God says.

I believe it does violence to the one he should protect.

This woman is left unprotected now and she thought she had a

covenant with a man for life and he's just give it away and the

passage ends with so be on your guard and do not be unfaithful.

We are called men. Lead the way.

Do not be unfaithful. Show grace, show mercy, but

Jesus is our faithful Lord and husband.

So let us be encouraged with some promises of our faithful

God has declared over us. And that's what I'm going to do

now. I'd really have to lift us up

and say there is a husband out there for all of us.

We are all married to the one Jesus Christ who is ever

faithful. So that we're going to Chuck

away. We're going to fight against

that, but we are going to live in the promises.

So I've just put up. I'm, I'm just put up.

Here's some promises. We're talking about them in

worship. For I am convinced that neither

death nor life, near angels or demons, neither the present nor

the future, nor any powers near height nor depth, or anything

else in all creation will be able to separate us from the

love of God, That in that is, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Do you hear that Church? Nothing can separate us from the

love of God. If you feel that you're not

loved, stop it. Know that you are loved.

The Word of God tells us we're loved.

John. John 11213 says Yet to all who

did receive him, through those who believed in his name, he

gave the right to become children of God.

Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision

or a husband's will, but born of God.

We have been born again Church. We are children of God.

We are heirs to the King. We have a future and a hope.

It's not a hopelessness, it is a hope, a secure hope, not a fairy

hope. We are children of God.

I hope you feel loved in that way that you are protected.

Deuteronomy 31, eight says the Lord himself goes before you and

will be with you. He will never leave you nor

forsake you. Do not be afraid.

Do not be discouraged. Stick your chest.

Thanks. Stick your chin out.

Do not be discouraged whatever you're facing.

We are supposed to be joyful because we have a joyful God.

We have the joy of the Lord in our hearts.

He is our strength. When John 189 says if we claim

to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not

in US, but if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just,

then we'll forgive us our sins and purify us from all

unrighteousness. This is what I mean about God.

He's not your two strikes and you're out.

We can turn around and come back to Him every day.

His mercy's on you every morning.

He is a God of forgiveness and we are unfaithful people.

We are sinful people, even though we have the blood of the

lion, we still live in this world and the world contaminates

us. And how hard we try, how hard I

try to be the best husband for Julie.

I let her down day and day. Our God doesn't let Julie down

in one way. And when I muck up, I say sorry

to God, say say Gary sorry to Julie, but I need to say sorry

to God as well because I have hurt a child of his.

When I when we hurt one another, we are hurting God.

We are all in the same family as one part of the body hurts, then

the rest of the body hurts. So never forget that that don't

just keep us. Oh well, I said sorry to them.

No. Have you said sorry to God?

Have you said sorry to God? No.

Therefore, that the Lord your God is God.

He is faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to 1000

generations of those who have loved him and keep His

commandments. We are here today on that

promise. Thousands of generations have

gone before us, declaring the word of the Lord, taking the

gospel out, what we receive, what we heard, and what we now

speak out for the next generation.

So we need to be faithful to God in speaking out His message of

love. And Romans 5758 says, But God

demonstrates his own love for us in this why We were still

sinners. Christ died for us.

Wow, that's a tough call, isn't it?

How do you how, how do you love somebody that just doesn't want

to have anything to do with you? How do you reach out to somebody

that that's ignoring, you know, really hurt you?

He's tough, but Jesus did the people on that cross that put

him on that cross, he still looked down and said, God

forgive them. They know not what they do.

Every human being is an image bearer of God.

That means God loves them all and it's God's desire that

everyone and and nobody should perish.

And that's why we have a faithful God, because we are the

product of His faithfulness to His word that says all who

believe in Jesus Christ and puts our faith in Him.

By His grace we are saved. He is the faithful husband that

we will meet and be married to in heaven.

He is the faithful one that we follow, not the world.

The world will say it's yours. The world will say, get a new

model. The world will say, you know,

it's boring, it's dull. You say, I have a glorious God

that seized all my needs. So really in conclusion, let's

take heed of God's warning to be on your guard and do not be

unfaithful. Remember Christ and what Christ

has done maybe challenge all of us needs to challenge our

commitment and effort to become to to stay faithful to Jesus and

that means putting him first, being content in Jesus.

He's all we need. Stop chasing what the world says

or tempts us to believe you need.

He is all we need. Remember his words and promises

are trustworthy and true. Hebrews 13 five says never will

I leave you or forsake you. So even when you feel it, God's

promises are still there with you.

It's not what we feel, it's what we know.

It's what He declared over us as his children and his bride.

He is not unfaithful. And I'm just going to end here

in Revelations 19 Six. I said about it.

Now I'll read it. Then I heard what sounded like a

great multitude, like the roar of a rushing waters, and like a

loud pearls of Thunder, shouting Hallelujah, Hallelujah for our

Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and

give Him glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has

come, and His bride has made. He made herself ready.

Fine linen, bright and clean, was given to her to wear.

Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God's holy

people. We Everything we do from that

small word of kindness or the word of encouragement is an act

of righteousness which would clothe us in the royal robes of

Jesus Christ as the groom, as the bride.

It is fantastic news from the beginnings of these men who are

seeking their own way, seeking what they wanted out in life,

forgetting who God was today. My message really in this word

is do not forget who God is. Remember His faithfulness goes

through generations and generations.

Commit yourself, challenge yourself.

How can I be faithful this week to God?

How can I stay true? What can I do as an act of

righteousness in His name? You are great, yo, Lord, you are

great. You are fantastic.

We surrender to you, Lord. It's hard, but Lord, you uphold

us when it gets hard. So I, I believe you there.

I believe you, Lord, when you say that the plans that you have

for me are good plans, even though sometimes I think why my,

why do I feel rotten? Why is this happening to me

today? Lord, I have to look about, look

above it. I look to you, the King of King,

the King of glory. So Lord, will you bless us all

this week to just grab hold of who you are to to invite and sit

down with you to confess what needs to be confessed to move

forward in, in determination and commitment to making you first

and first only in the in our lives.

Lord, Lord, will you help us? Will you send your Holy Spirit

today throughout the week? Will you continue to fill us in?

You? Lord, I submit this message to

you. Work on us, work on our hearts,

work on our lives, in Jesus name, Amen.