Faithless to One Another

Malachi: The Messenger of God  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  50:06
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I think it’s important to preach expositionally because:
We don’t skip over issues
We learn scripture, not personal interpretation
We see God’s proactive plan at work, not my reactive opinion
Malachi 2:10–12 ESV
10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!
What covenant do we profane? Purity of marriage through intermarriage with non-believers.
What is the punishment for intentionally pursuing godlessness?
Hebrews 10:26–27 ESV
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Hebrews 10:29 ESV
29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
So there is a guarantee of judgment for those who deliberately disobey.
Malachi 2:13–16 ESV
13 And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. 16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
Not only is there intermarriage, but there is faithlessness to the marriage covenant.
The sin/consequence structure of the previous passage is flipped.
God was a witness to the marriage and the officiant of the marriage. v14,15
God’s purpose in marriage is a family that fears God. Husband, wife, and children. (Acts 16:31)
v16 is difficult to translate.
Traditional translation is a shift toward God’s hatred of divorce. (KJV For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. | NASB “For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel.)
More recent translations stay in the context of the previous verses. (NIV “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” | CSB “If he hates and divorces his wife,”.
If your marriage relationship is hindered, your relationship with God is hindered. 1 Pet 3:7, Matt 5:23-25.
The Church must oppose divorce
It has a family effect v15 (Godly children)
It has a community effect v13-15 (Collective, not individual [such as 1 Cor 5])
It has a faith effect v16
The Church must share experience
Everyone has walked their own journey
Situations are varied in solution (1 Cor 7)
What you have been through is meant to help what others are going through
Galatians 6:1–2 ESV
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
The Church must discipline the faithless
What is church discipline?
For the member: Matthew 18:15-20
For the leader: 1 Timothy 5:19-20
Is excommunication loving?
Quote by Penn Jillette
I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me along and keep your religion to yourself—how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?
“I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”
When we accept the sin, we damn the sinner.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.Hebrews 12:6
Because of the guaranteed judgement for those who knowingly defy God’s word, we enact church discipline.
Faithlessness infects
1 Cor 5-7
Call to Repentance
Call to Prayer
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