Friends, today we begin our commitment, our annual commitment series since 2009.
We have set aside time to reflect on our individual and corporate commitment to our purpose here at St. Paul's.
Our corporate purpose is there in our mission statement to know Jesus, treasure Jesus, and represent Jesus for God's glory and the joy of all people.
At the heart of that purpose is to make Jesus look great in our world.
And we do that when Jesus is our greatest treasure.
He is our joy, our love, our satisfaction, our hope, our life.
And what Malachi will do for us in the next five weeks, it will push us to treasure Jesus in every area of our life.
And so let me pray that that might indeed be our end as we look through this book.
Our Father God, we commit this commitment series to you and ask that by your spirit you would speak through your words so clearly and powerfully to us.
Father, we pray that you would take us from a shallow level of understanding your love of who you are and take us to higher heights of adoration of you.
That we might adore you for who you truly are and treasure you as you have called us to be your treasured possession.
And so Father, we'll do that work in us individually and corporately we pray in the next number of weeks.
We ask it for your sake. Amen.
God's relationship with his people Israel began when God set his affection on them.
Here is how Deuteronomy 7 describes it.
It says,
And so there in Deuteronomy 7, we are told that Israel is God's treasured possession.
But history tells us that Israel did not make God or relationship with God their treasured possession.
Israel was God's treasured possession.
He loved them and yet they did not love him back.
How did you answer that question just a moment ago?
Speak about a time when you were loved or felt loved.
I felt loved yesterday.
Natalie sent me this just wonderful text message just affirming me who I was and beautiful, beautiful text message.
It was fantastic.
And I read it and I just jumped with joy.
And then last night as we went to bed, she said,
Did you get my text message?
Oh, yes.
It was wonderful.
Sorry.
I forgot to say thanks.
And so she didn't feel so loved.
The people of Israel disobeyed God.
They ignored God.
They did not love him back.
They eventually ended up in exile in a foreign land as God had warned them.
But God did not forget his covenant of love with them.
He restored his people to their place after 70 years in Babylon.
And Malachi wrote in the 5th century BC to the Jewish people who had been restored to their land after exile in Babylon.
And on one level, you could say the exiled people are back in their land.
The temple's being rebuilt and everything's looking good.
Malachi, however, speaks to an inglorious Israel.
They are a long way from their former glory.
And being an outsider looking in on the returned people of God,
you could easily conclude that the God of Israel was not so impressive.
It appears that the lessons of the exile had not been learned.
The people of God had grown sceptical of God's love for them in chapter 1 verse 2.
They had become careless in worship in verse 7 of chapter 1.
Indifferent to the truth in chapter 2 verses 6 and 7.
Disobedient to the covenant in chapter 2 verse 10.
Faithless in their marriages in chapter 2 verse 15 through to 3 verse 5.
And stingy in their offerings in chapter 3 verse 8.
And so Malachi is a passionate prophecy where God confronts his people for their half-hearted devotion and love of him.
God desires for his treasured possessions to treasure him.
And so right at the beginning of Malachi, God takes his people right back to the very foundation of their relationship.
And in doing this, he reminds them of his character.
And there are two things here in these first five verses that God says about himself.
The first is a tender reminder that they are God's people because of God's attitude towards them.
I have loved you, says the Lord in verse 2.
And the second is a reminder that this is not just some kind of weak, soft love.
It's a reminder in verse 5 of his universal greatness.
Great is the Lord, even beyond the borders of Israel.
At the very start, we are taken back to two very essential truths.
God is a God of mercy and love and grace.
And he is a God of absolute universal control.
And both of those things need to be held together in balance.
The very foundation of their relationship with God is that statement,
I have loved you.
Those four beautiful words.
And this statement actually means that he has loved them in the past with clear action
and that he is still loving them now with clear action.
God's blessing and faithfulness to his people were not the result of their faithfulness to him.
They are the product of his love.
It was his initiative to love.
We heard it a moment ago in Deuteronomy 7.
The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples of the face of the earth to be his people,
his treasured possession.
The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were numerous than other peoples.
For you were the fewest of all.
But it was because the Lord loved you.
You weren't chosen because you were the most impressive of all the nations.
And God went, well, if I've got to pick someone, I'll go for the good guys.
But the skeptical response of these people reveals a lot about their condition, does it not, in verse 2?
But you ask, well, how have you loved us?
We don't feel loved by you.
How would you answer that question?
Is your life in such a shambles right now that you feel skeptical about God's love as Israel did here?
No doubt I would say that there is a little bit of that in all of us.
And so it would do us really good to listen to God's answer to their question.
It's not the sort of answer I think that we'd give.
Verse 2 again.
Was not Esau Jacob's brother?
The Lord says.
Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.
We need to unpack that because in that short answer we get to the very essence of God's love.
Malachi is written to Israel, the descendants of Jacob,
and their next door neighbours Edom are the descendants of Esau.
And Edom have been fairly nasty to Israel.
In the exile, Edom joined brothers instead of with their half-brothers.
They joined forces with the enemies of Israel to cut down anyone who was escaping from the invaders.
They plotted against their brothers.
And so the question is, was not Esau Jacob's brother?
And the answer is yes.
Of course he was his brother.
In fact, let me say, he wasn't just his brother.
He was his twin brother.
And not only were they twins, but Esau was the older brother.
And by customary rights and privileges, Esau would be the main heir of the father's blessing.
That is, Edom ought to be the ones with the promised land and all the blessings.
Not Israel.
And so why mention this here?
The point is, that based on what Jacob and Esau were in themselves,
God could have just as easily have chosen Esau.
Aren't you brothers?
Weren't you twins?
Weren't you both formed in your mother's womb at the same time?
Isn't Esau, in fact, your older brother?
But I passed him by and I chose to set my love and affection on you.
And so when these loved people skeptically say, well, how have you loved us?
The answer is, I have loved you with free, sovereign, unconditional, electing love.
That is how I've loved you.
Straight up, God sets the very foundation, the basis of his relationship with these people.
He says, my love for you is electing love because I chose you for myself above your older brother Esau.
My love for you is unconditional because I chose you before you had done anything good or evil,
before you had met any conditions,
or had any applause for doing anything impressive and good.
In fact, I chose you before you were even born.
My love for you is a sovereign love because I was under no constraint whatsoever to love you.
I wasn't forced to love you.
I was not tricked into loving you.
I wasn't manipulated to love you.
I was totally in charge, totally clear-headed, and I chose to love you.
And my love for you is free because it is the abundant overflow of my immeasurable grace
that can never be bought, it can never be repaid, it can never be earned in any way.
Is that not the glorious center of the Christian faith?
No other religion in this world dares to speak of God's relationship with his people in that way.
Free, unconditional, sovereign, electing love.
It is the grace of God which sets it apart.
Is that not the glorious center of the Christian faith?
Romans 3,
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 5, 6,
At just the right time, when we were still powerless,
Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5, 8,
God demonstrates his own love for us in this.
That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 1,
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.
In accordance with his pleasure and will,
to the praise of his glorious grace,
which he has freely given us in the one he loves.
2 Timothy 1,
God who has saved us and called us to a holy life,
not because of anything that we have done,
but because of his own purpose and grace.
And this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.
We don't earn acceptance with God.
We don't make ourselves lovable to God.
He loves the unlovable.
It is his free choice.
A moment ago,
we were asked the question,
when have you ever felt loved?
Let me tell you
that when I understood that
for the very first time
was the first time when I felt loved.
As a man 23 years of age,
questionable you man,
I felt loved.
And for weeks I cried like a baby.
I still remember it.
The electing, unconditional, sovereign, free love of God
just come, bam, into my heart
and turned my life upside down and inside out.
I remember trembling with fearful joy
that of all the people
that on the face of this earth
I was not passed by.
That the sovereign creator God
would set his affection
on a young punk like me.
before the beginning of time.
For the first time in my life,
I saw clearly what it was
to be totally loved,
completely, unconditionally loved.
God in Jesus
embraced me forever
and I have never,
ever felt so secure.
Ever felt so secure
in any relationship.
God in Jesus
and no new piece of information
somehow making its way to God
through the great accuser
is going to ever overturn
his love for me.
No one loves like that.
No one.
Everywhere you turn in this world,
love is conditional.
I will love you
if you change,
if you do better,
if you put more effort in.
Expectations wherever you turn.
Do you know what it is
to be loved like this
unconditionally
in spite of your failings
with all the imperfection,
the sin?
Do you know what it is
to still feel secure
in a relationship?
It would be great
if I could end it just there.
Of course,
the brilliance and beauty
of God's love
in these verses
becomes so clear
because it's set
against the darkness
of Esau.
What about Esau?
Verse 3,
God says,
Esau,
I have hated.
It would have been
so much nicer
if that wasn't included.
What does it mean?
I think it's actually
spelled out for us
in the rest of verses 3 and 4.
Follow it with me.
I have turned his mountains
into a wasteland
and left his inheritance
to the desert jackals.
Edom,
remember they're
the descendants of Esau.
Edom may say,
though we have been crushed,
we will rebuild the ruins.
But this is what
the Lord Almighty says,
they may rebuild,
but I will demolish.
They will be called
the wicked land
of people
under the wrath
of the Lord.
Notice in those
four very quick words,
Esau I have hated,
there are four aspects
in those next few verses,
aspects of God's
rejection of Esau.
Firstly,
God opposes
their prosperity
and brings their land
under his judgment.
Secondly,
it means that God
will continue
to oppose them
when he resists
their judgment
of his judgment
of them.
He will continue
to demolish.
Third,
they will by and large
be given over
to wickedness.
And this is possibly
the most devastating
of the judgments
and the one
that makes
all the other judgments
just.
You see,
they are not
an innocent people.
God is just
in all his dealings
with people.
And when God decides
to pass by Esau
and choose Jacob,
there is no decree
here anywhere,
anywhere in the Bible
to say that Esau
was innocent
and would be judged
harshly as an innocent man.
That is,
neither Jacob
nor Esau
actually deserve love.
Neither of them
deserve love.
Neither of them
deserve grace.
Now, of course,
there's a great mystery
here and I don't claim
to solve
all the problems
that we have
in our finite minds
in a text like this,
but this is sure
from this text.
God passes by
the descendants
of Esau
and withheld
his electing love
and as a result,
Esau gave way
to wickedness
and deserved
the indignation
of God.
And that takes me
to the fourth point
from the end
of verse four
is that God
is angry
with them
forever.
In verse two,
God declares
his love
and the people
of God
are skeptical.
And having heard
God describe
his love
in such a stark
way here,
we might be
tempted
to be skeptical
too.
We might be tempted
just to cut
the second four
verses off
and just keep
the first four.
And what you do
at that point
is you diminish
and demolish
the love of God.
You have a simple
view of the love
of God.
You see,
to our minds,
we look at
these verses
and we go,
it seems
insufficient,
it seems
unjust,
it seems
callous.
Our problem
is most likely
that, well,
if one gets
love,
then why not
both?
I suppose,
but if two
criminals were
before a judge
guilty of
exactly the
same crime
and the judge
chooses to
let one off
and punish
the other
one justly
according to
their crimes,
I don't think
either criminal
can say to
the judge,
that's unfair.
Neither
deserves mercy
and I think
that's one
of the points
that Paul
makes in
Romans 9.
Who are we
to question
the infinitely
wise God
with our
small minds?
there is a
mystery here.
There is a
mystery.
But at the
very least,
let me
hammer this
home.
It is
meant to
cause those
in Christ
to reach
to higher
levels of
gratitude
and affection
for God
that he
should set
his affection
on anyone.
It ought to
take our
love of
God beyond
a shallow
confidence
to a
deep
joyful
trembling.
And I
want to
include the
word
trembling.
I think
that's why
Malachi
begins his
message in
this way
to these
apathetic
Israelites.
I think
that these
words are
meant to
humble them,
to take
away their
presumption,
to remove
every ground
of their
boasting,
to cut
the nerve
of pride
that possibly
rejoiced in
the downfall
of Edom,
as if their
salvation,
Israel's salvation,
were owing to
something that
they had done.
To grind
away their
cavalier sense
of self-reliance
that made them
think that they
were equal
partners with
their God
within this
relationship.
To make
their tremble
with tears
of joy that
they belong
to God.
and they
don't
deserve it.
And I
want to keep
throwing the
word tremble
in there.
Because as we
see, this
God is not
simply to be
admired with
joyful songs
of praise.
He is to
be feared.
God's love
is not soft
and it's not
simple.
So the
second purpose
of revealing
his electing
love of Jacob
and his
judgment of
Esau helps
us to see
that he's
to be
feared.
Verse 5,
you will
see it
with your
own eyes
and say
great is
the Lord
even beyond
the borders
of Israel.
You see,
part of what
it means to
be loved
by God
is to know
that this
God
sovereignly
reigns.
That he
is awesome
and mighty
over everything
above the
earth,
on the
earth,
and below
the earth.
And Malachi
here is not
speaking of
some kind
of village
God or
tribal spirit.
this is the
universal
sovereign
Lord over
all that
is.
He is
mighty in
Israel.
He is
mighty in
Edom,
next door.
He is
mighty in
Sudan and
the US
and in
Chatswood.
He
great is
the Lord
even beyond
the walls
of this
church.
And so
friends,
right at the
very beginning,
Malachi
is calling
the people
of God
back into
covenant
relationship
and devotion
with their
God who
has loved
them,
who has
said his
affection
towards
them.
And the
way he
does that
is by
reminding
them of
this great
God.
And what
we discover
in the first
few verses
are deep
things that
are very
hard to
get our
minds
and our
hearts
around.
But they
are beautiful
truths that
ought to cause
us to
tremble.
tears of
joy.
Let me
say that
normally
these things
that I've
only touched
them very
lightly,
they are so
much deeper
than what I
can give
them justice
to here.
We normally
only touch
these sort
of deep
truths,
sort of
think,
well these
are for
the mature
Christians,
for Bible
study classes,
for the keen
ones to dig
a little bit
deeper and
understand some
big concepts.
But that's
not Malachi's
purpose here.
Malachi is
not speaking
to a bunch
of mature
Christians locked
up in some
theological
college, he
is speaking
to a
bunch, a
worldly
bunch of
half-hearted
followers of
their God.
They are
sceptical, they
are careless,
they are
indifferent, they
are disobedient,
they are
adulterous, they
are stingy.
And these
deep and
difficult truths
are here
designed to
shock the
presumption and
the flippancy of
the careless
children of
God.
You could say
these words are
good for
Christians whose
grasp of the
love of God is
so shallow that
it never makes
them tremble but
instead it makes
them careless and
casual and
presumptuous in
their relationship
with God where
they take him for
granted.
Where these
truths of the
sovereign, electing,
unconditional
purposes of God,
love of God,
where it should
take us is
commitment and
zeal and
earnestness for the
things of God
whereas often we
take the grace of
God and
interpret it as
I've got a
license.
I'm not under
law anymore, I'm
free in grace, I
can do what I
like.
Hoop-dee-doo-dah.
And the
apostle Paul says
in chapter 9 of
Romans, how dare
you take the love
of God that way?
Do you think
God's an idiot?
That's kind of how
I interpret Romans
9.
Unfortunately, when
we reduce the love
and grace of God
down so that it
sits so easy with
our finite minds,
then we, as a
result, become
careless, apathetic,
flippant, followers
of the Lord Jesus
and God's grace in
the Bible never,
ever excuses
disobedience and
apathy and
carelessness.
It motivates
obedience and
zeal.
And that's what
we're going to
see as we go
through Malachi.
We'll see that as
we go through
Malachi, that the
love of God is the
very foundation of
calling his people
back to faithfulness
in their marriage,
faithfulness in
their worship,
faithfulness in
their giving,
and faithfulness in
their treatment of
one another.
And so as we
commence our
commitment series,
I want to call you
to make a
commitment to go
deeper in knowing
this God.
We cannot worship
and treasure and
adore what we do
not understand.
Don't be consent
with just a simple
view of God.
God.
I recall a true story of
a minister sitting
on a plane.
Many, many years
ago, he was
working on his
sermon for the
next Sunday when
the person sitting
beside him was
quite interested in
what he was doing.
And so he says to
him, you know,
what are you doing?
And the answer he
gets was, I'm
working on my
sermon.
And the guy said
to the minister,
oh, religion.
He said, I don't
get caught up in
all the ins and
outs, the
complexities of
religion.
He said, I like to
keep it real simple.
Do unto others as
you would have
them do unto you.
That's my golden
rule and that's my
religion.
And the minister
working on his
sermon said, I
see, what do you
do?
And he says, I'm
an astronomer.
I teach at
university.
And the minister
replied, oh,
astronomy.
I don't like to
get caught up in
all the ins and
outs and
complexities of
astronomy.
Twinkle, twinkle,
little star.
That's my
astronomy.
My friends, go
deeper.
Go deeper.
The opening
verses of
Malachi reveal to
us a God much
bigger than we can
fully grasp.
And the burden of
this text is that
the glorious truth
about this God
will for some be
dark and foreboding
and unapproachable.
And so this God
will be ignored and
he'll be ridiculed and
he will be scorned.
But for others
here, the mere
glimpse that we've
received this morning
of an awesome God
will bring a real
sense of joyful
trembling and
security in this
relationship.
And so may God
give us the grace to
see the glory and
move us to greater
levels in adoration and
love and awe and
joyfully trembling as
we seek to commit to
this great God.
Amen.