Malachi: God Revealing Hearts

Scripture's Post Cards  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  44:46
0 ratings
· 99 views
Files
Notes
Transcript
We come to our final book in our look at these shorter books of scripture’s postcards...
Malachi is one of those books that causes one to examine their heart… The tone is heavy, we see just as we did last week in Nahum this is another oracle not to Nineveh but rather this time to Israel, God’s chosen people. Malachi 1:1
Malachi 1:1 NASB95
The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.
Malachi’s name means “My Messenger”… the priest were the one’s who were intended to be the messengers of God’s Word yet even they have failed and now God was sending HIS MESSENGER with HIS MESSAGE to His people...
There is a rebuke coming, the tone is heavy, YET as one reads this book of prophecy there is a feel of a conversation… God knows their hearts, God knows their thoughts, and so He addresses both! we read this in Hebrews 4:12-13a concerning His Word…
Hebrews 4:12–13 NASB95
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
The Psalmist makes this observation of God in Psalm 44:21
Psalm 44:21b NASB95
Would not God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.

Where this fits in Scripture...

Genesis 1:1in the beginning GOD...
God created all we know and see (including you and me)
Man sinned Genesis 3
God offers HOPE… the promise of salvation through “the Seed of the Woman
Didn't take long and man sin was to the point “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continuallyGenesis 6:5
God wiped out everything and everyone, yet offered a way of salvation (THE ARK) Noah and his family are saved. Scripture follows the line of Shem
Man sins once again and God scatters them at Babel… creation of nations and nationalities
From Shem’s line comes Abraham… Genesis 12
God promises through his Seed to bless ALL nations of the world (1876 BC)
He has a son of God’s promise/Covenant Issac
Issac has two sons Esau and Jacob… Jacob is later named ISRAEL (One who wrestles/struggles with God)
Jacobs 12 sons and all their families move to Egypt… 400 years later they are slaves
God brings out His People (1446 BC)
God gives His people His Holy Law
Yet time and time again they struggle to obey and SIN
Maybe replacing God as our king and having a man be our king...
Didn’t go so well
Saul was the people’s choice… DAVID was God’s choice
God promises King David… his seed/heir will always sit on the throne ETERNALLY
The Promised Messiah would be a descendant of King David! (1000 BC)
The people did not follow God
Kings were evil
Prophets preached but their ears were deaf
In 606 BC shortly after Nineveh is destroyed by Babylon…
Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon takes the Israelites captive for 70 years
In 536 BC they return and soon rebuild the temple and walls
100 years after their return from captivity (436 BC) God send Malachi...
They have all that is written in these pages of the Old Testament… Over 1500 years as a nation…

God Speaks to Their Hearts

We see a repeated cycle in this “conversational” book of prophecy:
God makes a Claim concerning their hearts
The people respond by Disputing His claim
God Responds and gets the final word

Claim: I Love You

As God sends this Oracle He begins to remind them of His love...
HOW!!! Malachi 1:2-3
Malachi 1:2–3 NASB95
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.”
Esau and Jacob… they are a chosen people

Claim: You Dishonor Me

Malachi 1:6-7 we see this conversation again...
Malachi 1:6–7 NASB95
“ ‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’ In that you say, ‘The table of the Lord is to be despised.’
They were going through the motions of worship… yet not honoring or respecting God at all
Sick and worthless offerings
The priest were okay with this too!

Claim: Unfaithful to Covenant

Malachi 2:10-16 mocks the covenant God established all the way back with Abraham and when He gave them the Law!!!
Married pagan women and worshiped their gods
They were hypocritical in their repentance
They knew the words and actions but God saw their hearts
Divorce was running rampant
Marriage was a picture of God’s Covenant relationship
They served a covenant keeping God yet broke theirs continually

Claim: Questioning God’s Justice

Malachi 2:17
Malachi 2:17 NASB95
You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”
Where is justice? you don’t judge evil… WHAT A JOKE!!!
God not only declares His justice He will bring, He shares a Hope and Promise!
Through this messenger Malachi
God declares his first messenger JOHN THE BAPTIST
God then declares His second messenger THE PROMISED MESSIAH

Claim: You Are Robbing Me

HOW!!?? Malachi 3:8-12 shows they were ROBBING: God, Themselves, & others...
Malachi 3:8–12 NASB95
“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. “You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. “Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts. “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.

Claim: You Despise Serving Me

They did not like the consequences for their actions, their poor worship, their SIN… and so they blame God!
God’s response points out that there are those who are complainers, those who do evil and that there are those...
A remnant who believe, who obey Malachi 3:17-18
Malachi 3:17–18 NASB95
“They will be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.
These will also face “The Day of the Lord” with joy and anticipation as God deals our His wrath on sin!
Malachi 4:4-6 are set apart to themselves here… they wrap up not only this oracle to the people they wrap up the entire TORAH & PROPHETS of the Old Testament
Malachi 4:4–6 NASB95
“Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”
SLIDE OF MALACHI TO CROSS
Malachi closes looking ahead… to the Promised Messiah
Over 400 years would pass with no prophets, no messages from God
They would hold on to this promise… AND HE CAME!
33 AD March 29 Jesus came triumphantly riding a donkey entered the temple declaring to be the Messiah
He was rejected… his body was beaten and broken
BREAD… we remember this as we obey His directive to eat this bread in remembrance of this
JUICE… we remember His blood shed as we look back at the cross where He shed His blood for the covering of our SIN once and for ALL
Jesus also promised He would return!… when we partake of the bread and the cup we are to remember this promise and anticipate it!
In the meantime… we have not only the Old Testament, we also have the New Testament…
Do we claim it as truth in our life… has it pierced your soul and spirit, is it impacting your heart… If not then we are just going through the external motions for those around us. GOD IS NOT FOOLED... HE IS NOT TO BE MOCKED! What claim would He make of your heart before Him today?
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more