Okay folks, keep that passage in Malachi chapter 2 open in front of you.
So this is the proverbial cod liver oil tablet passage.
Really hard to swallow, but really good for our bodies.
Really good for us to take in the message, the central message of this passage today.
So my laptop's in for repair, so there's no PowerPoint today.
So you're going to have to concentrate extra hard.
But this is really good for us to take in this passage.
So, you up for some song lyrics as we begin?
You're getting song lyrics as we begin.
I'm free to do what I want any old time.
And I'm free to be who I choose any old time.
If you're a culture vulture, which many of you are,
you will recognise those as the lyrics that the Soup Dragons sang back in 1990.
That was the anthem of my childhood growing up.
I'm free to do what I want any old time.
If you're a culture dweller though, and that's all of us by definition,
you will recognise those lyrics as the drumbeat of our day.
It's the drumbeat of the Western world where we celebrate individual expression
and we elevate our own personal happiness as being the ultimate goal of our lives.
That you and I need to be our true selves,
regardless of the people who like skittles in a bowling alley we happen to knock down
in the process of trying to get there.
This is the mindset of our world.
I'm free to do what I want any old time.
I'm free to choose to be who I want any old time.
And the thing is, if you search your hearts this morning,
and I really searched mine in preparation for this this week.
The truth of it is, like flavouring in your morning coffee,
sometimes you can drink this every day
and not even realise that it's in your system.
This mindset.
Do you see it in your own heart?
I'm free to do what I want any old time.
You see, that's the mindset that as we look at this generation of God's people,
who we'll see in a minute have bought it hook, line and sinker.
That's the mindset that God is going to challenge in each of our hearts this morning.
Particularly in terms of how we understand this whole area of sex and marriage.
That's the presenting issue here in this day.
Now your reaction to me saying that is likely to be one of two things.
Number one is that you'll switch on.
Number two is that you'll switch off.
Right?
Maybe wondering, why on earth would I care that God has something to say about that?
Why is he meddling in this field?
I met a guy in America whose surname was Meddler.
I thought it was quite funny.
Why is God meddling in this field?
Why should I care what he thinks?
You maybe see God like C.S. Lewis did before he became a Christian.
He outlines it in his book.
Remember reading it as a young Christian, surprised by joy.
Right?
And it's a tale of how he came to faith as a kind of atheist, agnostic.
How he came to believe in the God of the Bible.
Before he believed, he called God, in his own words, the grand interferer.
Right?
Maybe that's how you understand God today.
Well, it's been my prayer for you this week that you might detect the scent of the sweet answer that the Bible has for you on that.
Right?
As we contemplate how and why Jesus calls his followers to adopt a different mindset from that of the world.
Now, we've seen over the last number of weeks, God's stinging words of rebuke to the priests.
Do you remember that?
That was kind of chapter two.
Well, now God turns to address the people.
The people.
Now, let me just say two really quick things to try and create a canvas for this sermon so that we can see clearly the picture where we're going to end with this that's right at the center of it.
Right?
I want us to see the word of the text.
Now, if you've got it there, just have a look.
Glance over it.
Remember what John was reading.
The word of the text is the word faithless.
Now, if you scan your eye over the passage, you'll clock that it comes up five times in this passage.
So this is Malachi addressing the people.
God's speaking through Malachi, addressing the people.
And it's almost as if God is saying that that's the word that I'd use to sum up what I see when I look at you, this generation of my people.
Faithless.
And from the word of the text, I want us to be honest about the pain of the topic.
Because the issue here, on the surface, is that easy to force has become a thing amongst God's people.
And I recognize that for many of us, even just the mention of that word might be touching some really sensitive and painful nerves right now.
Whether you know that word personally, you know the pain of it, or maybe that you've seen it from a distance, how it's affected your closest friends and family.
In ways that words can't even begin to put that, you can't even begin to put that into words.
Isn't it true that Hollywood almost presents it to us as a harmless and almost natural conclusion to a marriage relationship?
Remember a number of years ago, what was that phrase that was made popular by Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow?
To describe their divorce back in 2014.
They called it a conscious uncoupling.
Do you remember that?
You might get away with that if you've got tons of money in the bank.
But I've got friends who work in different areas of this city.
And let me say, when it happens, it causes utter chaos.
Utter chaos.
Utter pain.
Now it's worth saying that even though God hates divorce, we see it clearly in this passage.
The Bible has so much more to say on that, that we're going to have time to cover today.
Regarding the times when it is sadly and regrettably permissible.
But if you have questions on this, and I take it many of us will, a lot of us will,
then please come and speak to one of the elders.
We're here this morning to answer your questions about this topic.
And just to chat and to pray and to listen.
Because we want to strive to be that kind of church community where we have that spirit of honesty and love for one another.
And we can walk with one another compassionately through the things that really hurt in life.
That's the community we want to be, is it not?
That's the community we want to be.
And if nothing else, I want us to be greatly heartened this morning by the fact that the God of the Bible would speak into the most painful and deepest wounds and sorest of wounds with his words.
This is why he speaks here.
To offer words of challenge and to pour gallons of grace on the people who are behind this text.
He loves us.
The God of the Bible is committed to his glory.
And he's committed, determined to bring the people, the world over to see his goodness, love and grace.
And he is a good father.
Maybe for some of us here this morning, and again, this has been my prayer,
that this might even be by God's sheer goodness and grace, the start of that long road that is the healing process.
And so let's get into the meat of this.
And again, here is the structure for today.
It's really simple because there's no PowerPoint.
Here it is, 3, 2, 1.
Okay?
Here's the three.
Notice the three names of God that Malachi uses right up top.
Give us an indication into who he is and why he's speaking here.
Here's the first one.
He's our father.
Verse 10.
Do you see it?
He's our father.
God speaking through Malachi reminds them that as a nation, they are his special possession.
Right?
He is the father of the like, and they are all his children.
So this is him saying, it's not like we happen to have all pitched up and live in the same street.
No, God has brought us together.
He saved us as a people.
He's bound us and bonded us together.
He's our father.
So it's a family metaphor that Malachi is using here.
He's our father.
We're his children.
And do you see he say, has not one God created us?
Now, the Hebrew word there is the Genesis 1 word for God.
This God, says Malachi, remember, he's our creator.
Look at your hands.
Take a breath.
Sing a song.
It's him that's given us all the abilities that we have.
He's our creator.
He is the one.
He is the three in one God who's made us in his image.
And because the three in one God has made us in his image, we are deeply relational beings.
That is not an accident.
And friends, that is why many of us, all of us really struggled with COVID being inside, not together.
Because we're wired.
We're wired like this.
We are deeply relational beings.
In other words, the grand watchmaker knows how we tick.
He's made us in his image.
He's the relational God, father, son, spirit, loving each other perfectly.
Since before eternity began.
Therefore, particularly when it comes to human relationships, and I take it this is Malachi's point, and sexuality.
And how they will flourish best.
It seems that there is great wisdom in acknowledging that perhaps the God who framed us and knows us and who loves us.
Might have something to say for our good into that.
Now, it's Glenn Harrison, Christian doctor and psychologist who's working down in Bristol.
In his wonderful little book, A Better Story.
God, Sex, and Human Flourishing.
And this is one of the best books I've read on this that somebody has produced really recently.
He says this.
He says,
The gospel calls us to learn to be God's creatures all over again.
Because this is his reality, not ours.
And we will flourish when we work in harmony with our creator's reality.
And I think that's so helpful.
This gospel calls us to learn to be God's creatures all over again.
If you want to check this out, just come and grab it.
It will be on the stage afterwards.
But it's a really good book worth checking out.
This is what Malachi is saying.
He is our God.
He's the God.
He's the God who made us.
He designed it all.
And lastly, thirdly, he is, verse 12, the Lord of hosts.
Do you see that?
He is the God of angel armies.
So this is a serious thing.
Not only when we lean into our own wisdom and neglect deliberately his,
but it's a serious thing when we inflict pain, not just on any human being,
but particularly when we inflict it in this context on God's children.
And we've got to answer to him at the end of the day for how we've treated others.
So do you see the three aspects to God there?
He's our father.
He loves us.
He knows us.
He saved us.
He's our God.
He's the one who framed us.
He knows us.
And he's the Lord of angel armies.
He's the one who we'll have to give account to.
They just frame this whole discussion that this is who God is.
And really quickly, from the three names of God,
see the two problems with this generation.
And the first one is most clearly seen at the end of verse 15,
where Malachi says, guard yourselves in your spirit, right?
Heart, your inner self.
Guard yourselves in your spirit and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.
So there's an easy divorce culture developing in Israel.
And there's two angles on this as to why God takes it so seriously.
Firstly, there's a horizontal angle.
Simply, the detrimental impact that the unfaithfulness has on other people.
As men in this generation, I take it,
normalize and legitimize ditching their wives
and going after the woman of the nations round about them,
thinking to themselves,
simply, I take it, I want a bit of that.
They are flourishing.
They are pretty.
Life might go better for me over there.
And so they go.
Which in this culture,
to do that, you are consigning the wife of your youth.
And just notice the details who God witnessed you to get married.
Verse 14,
he witnessed you pledge yourself to her.
What you're doing is causing her to move back in with her parents.
And you're inflicting a shed load of shame and pain
on her, her family and their community.
And the thing is, where did that all start?
It started in their spirits.
That's why Malachi says, guard your spirits, guard your hearts.
It all started in there.
All started, in other words, from the vertical angle.
Right?
Horizontal, vertical angle.
These men being unfaithful to their wives and to their community,
why did they do it?
Because, first of all,
their hearts had given up on being faithful to the Lord.
Being satisfied with who he is.
In love with who he is.
Desiring to be obedient to what he said.
Because God's instruction to his people throughout the Old Testament is explicit.
Don't marry foreign wives.
Now, you've got to be really clear here, right?
That this instruction is not an ethnic thing.
Hear me loud and clear on that.
Neither is it a racial thing.
Again, hear me loud and clear on that.
But hear me loud and clear on this.
What is it?
It's a worship thing.
Because why did God give them that law?
Because he knew the hearts of his people,
that if they did,
they would wander right into idolatry.
They would take up the customs of the nations round about,
of the small g gods,
and they would run
into the direction of rebellion against Yahweh.
This is a worship thing.
And the second problem,
verse 13,
is that these same men
waltz into God's temple,
throw crocodile tears of contrition before him,
weeping and groaning,
and they're puzzled when God doesn't seem to answer their prayers.
They even have the brass neck to ask in their hearts,
verse 14,
why does he not?
And the answer,
I take it,
is that God will not be played for a fool.
And so it's little wonder that Malachi says to this generation,
guard your spirits,
guard your hearts,
because this is a worship thing.
So true in our lives,
isn't it,
friends?
This is,
everything else flows downstream from here.
downstream from here.
This is a worship thing.
And when you frame it like that,
that is why,
even though we are not Old Testament Israel,
it is not unsurprising that a command
to only marry a believer
is repeated in the New Testament.
Now again,
I recognize that that is going to be painful
for many of us.
And again,
we'd love to chat and pray with you
if you want to after this.
But I remember this,
growing up.
If you're single here today,
I get that this is tough.
It is so good to have non-Christian friends.
So good.
But let us not go fishing there for romance.
It's just not good for us to do it.
And you ask in your hearts,
I remember this,
thinking,
oh,
but people are so much fun.
It's,
I can maybe attract them to Christian friends.
It rarely goes well.
And God has said,
don't do it.
This is a worship thing.
He knows our hearts.
And so here is the question
that's right at the heart of this.
Do we love the Lord?
Do you love him?
Do we trust what he says?
Do we trust his blueprint
for human relationships
and particularly for sex
in the context for that
where it's going to go the best
the way that he's designed it to
is a marriage between one man
and one woman?
Are you convinced
that that is the best?
Do we trust Jesus
with our relationship status?
the fact that we worship
a single man
who lived the most full
and most satisfied human life
that ever existed.
I take it that
whoever we are today
and whatever angle
we're coming at this passage from,
I take it
that should be a great source
of comfort to us.
Do you see how Jesus Christ
is the stone in the shoe
of the sexual revolution
that the world
is trying to tell us?
that you cannot be satisfied
unless you give
some kind of outlet,
you find some kind of partner
where you can be sexually fulfilled
and Jesus Christ would say
that's not true.
He's the stone in the shoe
to the sexual revolution
as the world
is trying to sell it to us.
Friends,
do you trust God's blueprint
for your body?
You know,
we had that discussion recently
around the dinner table
with our kids
about special parts
of the body.
He said,
isn't that not just
a revealing thing
about our society,
our culture today
that we're having
to have that conversation
with six and seven year olds?
I don't think I was 14
until we got that at school.
But it's true, isn't it?
But what did we say to them?
You don't let just anyone go there.
Okay?
That's why I take it
when sex goes wrong,
the pain of it
is not like you've just
fallen off your bike
and skinned your knee
in the playground, is it?
The pain of it,
it feels like
sacred space
has been intruded upon.
Now, why do we feel like that?
I take it because
God has designed this
purposefully.
That there is great sanctity
in sex,
that God designed it
for more than just
mere pleasure.
God designed it
in order to help us
grasp something
profoundly bigger
and more real
and satisfying
about who he is
and about his love
for us.
Because that's true,
the question is,
is Jesus worth
more to us
than the fleeting
pleasures and lusts
of this world?
Will we trust him
when he says,
whoever wants to come
after me must deny himself,
take up his cross,
and follow me?
That whoever would
lose his life
for my sake
in the gospel
will gain his life.
And part of that denial,
I take it,
of self
is saying no
to anything
that would cause us
to go against
King Jesus.
And that takes us
to the one,
right,
no great surprise here,
he is the one.
Right,
three names of God,
two problems
with this generation,
and the one person
that we need to run to here.
It's fascinating
if you look at it
and glance at it
if you want
in Mark chapter 10.
This topic of divorce
is put to Jesus.
Right,
the Pharisees,
the religious lawyers
of the day,
they quiz him on it,
they want to know
what he thinks about it.
And notice the clues
as to the state
of their hearts
and how this conversation
goes down.
And I take it
that's always a good thing
that is worth doing
when there's a question
asked of Jesus
and Jesus asks
a question the other way.
Put yourself in the shoes
of the one
who's asking the question.
Because it's so often
when Jesus answers
a question with a question
that the question
reveals the heart
of the questioner.
Right?
That makes sense.
Reveals the heart
of the questioner.
And otherwise,
Jesus asks questions
to bring out
what's really going on
in the heart.
That's what happens here,
Mark chapter 10.
They ask Jesus,
Jesus,
is it lawful
for a man
to divorce his wife?
Now notice
that they don't ask
is it right
for a man
to divorce his wife?
They don't ask
is it wise for,
they ask
is it lawful
for a man
to divorce his wife?
And again,
that's just the first clue
as to the state
of their hearts
and what they're
really worried about.
And Jesus,
in classic Jesus style,
answers their question
with a question.
He says,
what did Moses say?
Which is a good question.
And they reply,
he permitted us
to write a certificate
of divorce
and to send her away.
And again,
that's the second clue
as to the coldness
of the question.
What's going on
in their hearts?
To send her away?
How chilling is that
as a response?
Again,
the conversation
could have ended there
because the question
technically has been answered.
But Jesus wants them
to see when it comes
to this whole area
of sex and marriage
that they've
totally missed
the wood from the trees
in the most chilling
and in the most heartless
of ways.
He says,
this is true
because of the hardness
of your hearts.
In other words,
the problem isn't marriage.
No,
the problem
is the sinful human heart.
He reaffirms
that God made them
in the beginning
male and female.
And he designed marriage
so that the two
would become one flesh.
In other words,
there's a design purpose
to the way God
has put this together.
You need to see it
and you ain't seeing it,
says Jesus to the Pharisees.
Now,
a good question
to ask at this point
is why is Jesus
so strong in this?
It seems to be a good question.
Let me put it another way.
Have you ever asked yourself
why God gave us sexuality?
Now,
that's a conversation starter
when you meet your friends
after this.
But it's a question
I want to know
that if you're a Christian
here today,
the Bible has a wonderfully
profound answer to you
for that question.
Why has God designed sexuality?
I'll get the how,
but why has he designed it?
If you're here today
and you don't believe
any of the stuff
that I've said,
there's a question
for you to chew on.
Why is it even...
God could easily have made us
without that being necessary,
right?
Why did God design sexuality?
Well,
I take it
it's a question
that one that Jesus
in the context of Mark
is about to show us
the answer to
because he's about to fulfill.
Remember this,
where this comes,
Mark chapter 10,
Mark chapter 8.
If you want to read it through
in your own time after this,
that's where the penny drops
as to who Jesus is.
Chapters 1 to 8,
almost who he is,
what the kids are doing upstairs.
Chapters 8 to 16,
this is why he came.
Where does this come?
Chapter 10,
it's the beginning of
why he came.
He is everything
that marriage is pointing to.
He is the divine bridegroom
who's come on a rescue mission
to woo
and to win his people
as his bride to himself.
And he does it
because he's going to the cross
to win his people
for himself,
going to the cross
to pay for their sin.
And whoever we are here today,
we've all made mistakes
in this field.
All of us have made mistakes
in this field,
regardless of what your relationship status
is here today.
And this is why he's the one person
that we need to get to.
And he's the one person
that we need to see.
No, our identity is in him
and who he is
and what he's done for us.
That's where we need to get to
because he on the cross
took all of our shame
and our sin,
all of our past regrets,
all of our secret
and hidden mistakes,
all the pain that's wrapped up,
not just in this area,
but every area.
He goes to the cross
to make our problems
and our shame
and our sin
his own.
And whoever you are here today,
that's where we need to get to
because there is forgiveness
and there is gallants of grace
to be found
in Jesus.
Because where you and I
are faithless,
he is faithful.
Human marriage is a pale
and imperfect reflection of
and one that points to
the relationship
that Jesus Christ has
with his church.
For those who are married
here today,
is this not a wonderful reminder,
one that we will never
be able to measure up to
and yet wonderfully
is our call
to make our marriages
about the bigger
and ultimate purpose
of Jesus
and his church.
It's why,
husbands,
if we're here today,
the call to sacrificially
serve
and give yourself
for
and have eyes
only for
our wives
is the call
on us
and it's why
wives,
God calls you
to choose
to follow
the servant-hearted,
loving lead
of your husband
and to submit
to him
as the church
does to Jesus
because we recognize
that there's a bigger
game in which
we're playing.
Right?
And I watched it
over Christmas time,
my aunt,
she cried over
my uncle
when he died
but at the end
of the pain
of half an hour
she walked out
of the room
and they pulled
down the blinds
and do you know
what she said?
I'll see him
in glory
because there's
a bigger game
that we're playing
in,
there's a bigger
marriage that
we're involved
in and whoever
you are here
today,
that wedding
photo at the
end of time,
you will be in it
by your faith
in Christ
when the wedding
photo of Jesus
and his church
happens
and the thing
is you won't
just be a face
in the crowd,
your face
will be caught
up in the face
of the bride
and that's where
this is pointed
to this whole
thing,
your face
will be in that
wedding photo.
Friends,
just as we close,
do you see
how Jesus
calls us
to dance
to a new
tune?
The world
says I'm free
to do what I
want any old
time and I'm
free to be who
I choose any
old time.
Do you want to
know the other
song that's been
in my head all
week from a
generation even
before this?
It's a song by
T-Rex and a
handful of you
will know what
that song is.
They sang the
song, do you
remember it,
Children of the
Revolution?
Remember that song
Children of the
Revolution?
Some of you are
nodding, some of
you don't have a
clue.
But this is
what you are if
you're a Christian
here today and
you adopt this.
You're a child
of the
revolution.
The eternal
sexual revolution
that Jesus
Christ unveiled
2,000 years
ago in a
Greco-Roman world
that prized
power and
dominance and
saw women and
children as
inferior,
encouraged men
not to hold
back on
unleashing their
sexual desires.
You can imagine
the revolution that
kicked off in
this time.
And it might
just be that the
scales are on the
other side in our
culture today.
But make no
mistake, it is
still as
revolutionary then
as it is today.
So the question
is, friends, do we
love him?
Do we love Jesus?
Will we take him
up at his words
that what he says
his way is the
best?
Will we allow him
to pour gallons
of grace into our
wounds in this
whole area?
And will we take
up our cross,
deny self,
and follow him?
Let me just give
you a real concrete
example as we
finish as to how
I saw this play
out in my time
at Brunsfield.
I remember a
girl here years
ago.
She was engaged
to her soon-to-be
husband.
And as is the
nature of renting
in this city,
he needed to be
out of his flat
before they got
married.
And you can
imagine the
issues that that
caused.
Anyone looking on
would see that the
easy thing for them
to do was just to
move in together.
It would save on
money, tons of
money for two or
three months before
they got married.
All the hassle of
trying to find
somewhere to put
your stuff.
Not to mention the
inconvenience of
rocking up at
someone's house and
saying, can I just
stay over for a
little bit of time?
Why bother?
Well, they made the
call that to do so,
to move in together,
would not only be
potentially damaging
to their witness in
front of the watching
world, they would
make their own
conclusions as to what
they were doing, but
it would just
unnecessarily put them
in temptation's way.
And so they made
the call, no, we're
going to live in
separate places until
we get married.
And it cost them, it
cost them money, it
cost them the
inconvenience of
having to do it, but
they wanted to do it
to show the world,
actually our lives are
caught up in the
truer marriage.
And we want to
honour him right at
the beginning of our
married life.
But what a powerful
statement to the
watching world.
not just that we
honour Jesus, but
that we understand
the bigger story
which God has
called us to in
him.
The one of which
the Apostle Paul,
another single man,
could see is a
profound mystery.
And it's a mystery
because it points to
the profound
marriage between
Jesus Christ and
his church.
Now we're going to
move into a time of
communion in just a
minute, we'll sing
one song and then
do it.
But I hope this
just lends itself
so naturally to
that being a
fitting climax to
our time together
this morning.
Because that is
exactly what we're
celebrating, isn't
it?
As we take the
bread and the
wine, we're
celebrating the
union that we
have with our
divine husband, with
Jesus.
Friends, I recognise
that this would have
been a painful topic
for many of us
today and that it
really is a genuine
offer if you want to
chat or to pray.
And again, just
maybe to anyone
sitting around
about you to do
that.
Again, we just want
to foster that
culture where we're
just praying together
is just a natural
thing that we do.
But I'm going to
pray just now.
I'm just going to
pray particularly that
God would be with
us as we journey on
this morning.
So let us pray.
Amen.
And so Father, I
just pray, Lord, that
by your Holy Spirit,
Lord, that you would
be bringing words
right now, I take
it, of challenge
and perhaps of
painful prodding in
areas where we need
to change.
Oh, but Father, would
he also be bringing
words of comfort,
and words of
grace.
Father, as you, as
we've looked at this
morning, speak those
words into some of
the most painful and
sensitive of places.
So Lord, I pray that
wherever we are today,
Lord, that we
wouldn't leave this
place with a spirit of
judgment or condemnation
upon us.
But Lord, we would
leave this morning
having met with the
gracious King, Jesus
Christ.
gracious Father, we
just commit ourselves
into your hands, the
hands that hold us, the
hands and heart that
love us.
We just pray these
things to you, our
good Father, in Jesus
name.
Amen.