Well, as is our custom, why don't we rise for the reading of your word. If you'd open up your Bible to the book of Malachi, I'm actually only going to read one verse, and it's very providential. Of course, the way the Lord works things together, I was going to choose another portion of the scripture to read, but after hearing from Acts, I wanted to read this verse, because I'm actually not going to touch on it too much, specifically as I open up this message. So what I'm looking at is the book of Malachi, chapter 1, verse 11. For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, my name shall be great among the Gentiles. In every place incense shall be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. Let's pray. O gracious Lord, we do thank you so much for this, your word. And as we now begin to open it up to look at the book of Malachi, we thank you for that particular verse, Lord, for we who are sitting here right now, opening up your word are the beneficiaries of this because you promised that your word would go out to the nations and here we as Gentiles are gathering around your word this day worshiping the true and living son. So be with us now. Give us ears to hear. And again, as Pastor Riddle has already prayed, Lord, we have had a wonderful meal, but do allow us, Lord, to be attentive so that we may gain from your word. And if any here do not know Christ as their Lord and Savior, I pray that as we look at this prophecy, as we look at these great and wonderful words, that this might be the day of their salvation. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, this afternoon we close our series on the Book of the Twelve, and we're coming to that final book in the Minor Prophets. It's the final canonical, so as we look at the order of all the books in the Old Testament, it's the final in the canonical. And then it's also the final chronological book in the Old Testament. So here we have the last book of the Old Testament, the last one, because as you know, as we look at the Book of the Twelve, not every one of them in the canonical order necessarily follows a chronological order. But in this case, we're actually coming to the last book of the Old Testament. And now, many of you may not believe this, and I was talking with Pastor Riddle earlier this week when we were trying to come up with our one-word theme for each of these books. What was going to be my word? And of course, as a good Calvinist, I was coming up with a good Calvinistic predestination, election. Election was already taken. I was going to stick with predestination. But the more I really meditated on this book, the more I realized what we have before us is a love story. And it truly is a love story. It's a story about unrequited love. And children, what that means, it's a love that's not returned. And although we're not going to read the totality of it, it's about four chapters, if you've not read it, I do encourage you to go back and read this. This is a wonderful book. It's the last book, and it is truly a love story. It's a love story about God. But first, so who's this person that's given us this love story that we're going to focus on? So as with all 11 books that we've looked at up to this point of the prophets, Malachi is named for the prophet who wrote the book. And of course, as with all the rest of these, or most of them, there has to be some sort of issue associated with who wrote it. But first of all, the book opens with a statement, and I'm reading from the New King James, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. So the name Malachi in Hebrew can mean messenger or angel, that's another, and angels as we know are messengers, so the Hebrew word there means messenger or angel. But because of this, many have actually thought that Malachi was not the author's name but possibly a pseudonym or was used by somebody who wanted to write anonymously. And as you think about that, as you think about, as we read this in English and as they heard it, what you're probably thinking about in your mind are verses like Hebrews 2.2 But if the word spoken through angels proves steadfast, there's lots of verses like that or Acts 7.53 referring to the people of Israel who received the law by direction of angels. for Galatians 3.19, and it, that is the law, was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. All of these are allusions back to Deuteronomy 33.2, and there we read that the host of the holy ones, and we just cursory do a reading of that, we'll just say holy ones, holy ones of saints, but clearly as we look at the New Testament, We're seeing that the interpretation of that and it is a proper interpretation of the host of holy ones are the angels. They accompanied God as he gave the law to the people. So as we look at that, keep that in mind. And what you'll also notice as well as we go through this, I'm going to do some allusions. We'll look at the passages in Malachi. We're going to look back to the law and we'll also look forward to the New Testament because we're looking at one of the greatest prophecies that lays out before us what we are recipients of today, and that is God's love as well. So of course there has to be controversy as I pointed out. There's a lack of a mention of his father. You'll notice that there's no mention of a father. There's no mention of a birthplace. So all we have is that opening verse that tells us that it's the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. So of course that's another reason that there's a suggestion of an anonymous writer. There's also a few historical reasons, I'm only going to touch on one, and it has to do with the association of ancient translations, one of them is in the Septuagint. And that's one of the reasons it's critical that we actually look at the original languages when we look at these things. Because when it was translated, some of them suggested, because of the translation in the Septuagint, that it was not the actual author Malachi. They wanted to make it out to be something like a messenger or an angel, and making it a pseudonym. But these and others, none of these actually come out and give us sufficient compelling evidence to reject them as the author. It just makes sense. If we look at the other 11 books that we've already read, every single one of them, and frankly all of the prophetic books have an author, and it's the person who wrote it that it's ascribed to, and so we're going to do the same. We accept this as the church has for the entirety of its history by and large, and today we accept that Malachi is the author of this book. Now the last two weeks, Pastor Riddle has preached on the books of Haggai and Zechariah. And so, one of the things that we've noticed with the other books is that the books give us an indication of when things are written. So all we have is his name, but we do have an indication of when this book was written. So Pastor Riddle, what he was preaching was on Haggai and Zechariah. And this was set during the period of the 6th century BC. So that's when the people of Israel were returning from captivity and they rebuilt the Temple of Jerusalem, and that was in 516 BC. Malachi is prophesying approximately 75 years later and that's important as we can look at the book itself to place that time. And what you'll notice is 75 years later, and I encourage you to go back and look at this, this is the time of the prophets Ezra and Nehemiah. And so some have actually suggested there's a period when you look in the book of Nehemiah, where Nehemiah is there in Israel, and then he actually goes back, so there's a period where he goes back to Babylon, and it's suggested it doesn't really make any difference for how we look at the book, but there's a suggestion that this period when he's gone is when the book is written, because a lot of the themes that we find in the book of Malachi are also addressed by both Ezra and Nehemiah. We know then that the book was written by Malachi around the time 430 BC, and what we see in the book is that the priesthood is fully functioning. So they came back, they rebuilt the temple 75 years or so previously, around 516, and the sacrificial system is fully restored. And it's important to remember that, and you'll remember as we've looked at all these previous books too, how important the sacrificial system is and the worship of God. But we're now several generations removed. Again, that's important. 75 years later, 20 years or so is the general number we give for a generation. So we are quite a number of generations removed. And so what you generally have at this point is a lack of excitement. People return from exile multiple generations later, and the people have amnesia. Pastor Riddle talked about it this morning. We see it in that continuous cycle. It's up. The people are happy with all things that are going with God. I mean, look at just when they crossed out of Egypt. I mean, they were barely out of Egypt, as he pointed out, and they're already screaming to go back. So you can imagine what it's probably like 75 years after the restoration of the temple, and we already have the restoration of the sacrifices. Now adding to this complacency that appears to have set in, we can definitely see the impact, and again Pastor Riddle also talked about this, so you can see us tying in all of these scriptures, the influence of the non-Israelite people in the land. Remember when they were removed, sent into exile, they came back, the land was populated. And as we've seen throughout the entire history of the people of Israel, when they're in the in the land, they never fully eradicated the non-Israelites. And that has always been a problem with them. And we'll see that it's a problem now. So again, as we look at some of these things and you look back, if you're familiar with Ezra and Nehemiah, you'll see some of those parallels and the circumstances. And so, of course, God's prophets have to deal with the sin that they see. So despite the Lord keeping his promise to return the people to Israel as their land, it seems in a sense that they've also become discouraged. And there is a bit of discouragement. What do we do when we're discouraged? We grumble. We tend to grumble and we get a lot of sense of that grumbling as we look at the scriptures in the book of Malachi. The return of the people to the land and the restoration of the temple sacrifices don't appear to be enough for them. Think about that in the context of our modern church. It's not enough that the way we worship according to the regulative principle, only according to God's word. It's not enough. Things aren't enough. Perhaps they had also what is called in theological terms an over-realized eschatological view. And think about this. They've had all these prophets telling them that God is going to do these great and wonderful things and in one sense their expectations in their mind weren't met. You know, we have all these prophets, we have all these minor prophets that we've gone through and all have been saying, this is coming, this is coming, this is coming. And so the temple's restored, we're 75 years later and where are these great things that God has promised? And you can also see then the influence of the non-Israelite people with their horrific idolatrous worship. It's probably the syncretism that's worked its way in and just the general malaise of the people because they think God should be doing things for them when it's the other way around in a sense. Just a little vignette to associate that. There's a tendency in the church, and think about this, when we consider the expectation we have for what God's going to do. Casey and I actually have a friend whose parents, and this is sort of a parallel, but it has to do with how we take God's promises and we kind of twist them. These are folks that were dispensationalists super staunch premillennial and their view of God's return was so intense and so great in the churches that they were in that they literally chose not to do any savings they didn't put anything away for their kids college funds and I'm not saying you have to do these things but their choices were made based on a false presumption We all should have the expectation that Christ should come at any time. The scriptures make that very clear. But it's just very interesting that what they were being taught, and in a sense it's probably the same feeling these folks were having, that there's an expectation that God's going to do something right now. And it impacts what they did. And so, praise God, in the case of our friends, it did not impact their salvation. The children came to faith in Christ. are members of the church, but we see here where that's not the case, where this over-realized eschatological perspective of what's God going to do in the future had a significant impact on what they end up doing 75 years after the restoration of the worship of the people. So let's look now back then at our love story. And this is again, it's a love story that most people don't want to hear. Because it's a love story about a God who does indeed love. Think about it. When we think love and we think about God, the mantra of the modern evangelical church and most modern liberals is God is love. And we affirm that. Absolutely. The scriptures are writ large. God is love. But it's not the love that the world would expect. But what we have revealed to us in the book of Malachi, in very explicit terms, is a sovereign love. It's a God-given, God-initiated, God-upheld, God-ordained love. A love that we can't even begin to understand fully, and particularly apart from Christ. But what we have revealed to us then in this book of Malachi, again, is this sovereign love. And it's a particular love for a particular people. And keep that in mind. This is still the Old Testament that we're talking about. We are the people of God now. But we're talking about the covenant people of Israel, as Pastor Riddle was preaching this morning in the book of Samuel. It's this particular people that God has set aside to be His people at this particular time in redemptive history. But we also, as he pointed out when he went to Ezekiel 18, that not all of Israel are Israel. We have to keep that in mind too when we look at this. And that's one of the problems when we look at the scriptures. We're not keeping in mind God's view. We want to see our view in it. And so when God is expressing his love in the scriptures, it is an absolute love. And in a sense, there is a general love to all men. We receive all of these benefits, but what we're going to look at is a particular love. And they're missing that. And they're missing the particularity of God's love. And then we'll look at it as we go closer into this. And most importantly, we see that God is a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God. How many of us have made promises and broken them? Think about it. A covenant is a promise and despite the idea that the covenant making that God makes is with us as people, the reality is it's a unilateral covenant. God makes it and he keeps it because there's nothing we can do at all. We're going to break it and we do every day. So let's take a look at this promise. He's a God who makes promises sovereignly decrees it, and most importantly, he providentially brings it about. And that's important too, to consider how God brings things about. It is providential. He does uphold it. It's not that he says it and just lets it go. And in a sense, I think that's what the people were expecting, what they're feeling, is God has made these promises that these great things are going to happen, the restoration, and all is going to be glorious, and Israel is going to put everybody under its heel. And they don't sense that. So then who are these people to whom God says, I have loved you? In verse 2, take a look, look at verse 2, this is a beautiful verse. So the very beginning, God tells us who it is, the burden of the word of Lord to Israel by Malachi. And in verse 2, we have the covenant making, covenant keeping God of the universe who says, I have loved you, says the Lord. And as we talked this morning, as Pastor Riddle preached through it, he says, we're talking about, he's speaking to a stiff necked and rebellious people. Here are his people that he has set aside for himself, a stick-necked and rebellious people. His covenant people who are clearly breaking the covenant. So what I want to look at now is there are six types of people that are in here and we're not going to be able to work through the actual verses and again please go back and reread this but there are six types of people that are addressed in this book. And the other interesting thing as you read it, is unlike many of the other prophecies, what you have is the people make a complaint, and through Malachi, God actually responds to them. So it's a back and forth. So these six types of people, God responds to. And can you imagine? I mean, here's the people that's saying, who is this God? Why is this God not doing something? And here we have the God who begins by saying, I love you, you're a stiff-necked and rebellious people. And then he responds to every one of their complaints. response to them. I mean, how much more gracious can you be? So let's take a look at these six types of people. Now kids, I'm going to use a couple big words, but I'm going to kind of explain them for a couple of categories. So there are six types of categories, but also listen for some major sins. There are three major sins. Obviously six categories, there's at least six types of sins, but I'm going to also focus in on three of the specific sins. So the six types of categories of people are the first and foremost are the ungrateful people. And frankly, as the three types of questions that Pastor Riddle gave us this morning as his application from Samuel chapter 8, same thing. So the first group of people, and we unfortunately can often be put in this category, they're the ungrateful. And so we'll see that. The profane priests, second group. So, ungrateful, profane priests, adulterous individuals. And we'll see that in God's view, adultery is two-fold for the people of Israel. then there are those who doubt what's called God's punitive righteousness. And what that's referring to is the God who displays His holiness invisibly punishing the wicked. And at lunch we were talking about, we were in a church actually where we didn't actually sing the imprecatory psalms. Our pastor was so opposed to the idea that this would still apply that he didn't want to do it. But yet we still have the people of Israel at this time upset because they didn't see it. We read it this morning when I read Psalm 10 as our opening psalm. We're talking about the wicked and the psalmist really lays it out that all we see are the wicked prospering. So that's that other category. So we have the wicked not being punished. The next category are those who steal from God. Those who steal. Rob God is actually what's used. And then there are those who doubt what's called God's remunerative righteousness. And that means that there are a bunch of people who are expecting God to pay them back for them doing what they're supposed to do. And that's pretty horrible. So those are the six categories, and we're going to take a brief look at each one. So if you have your scriptures open, we're going to start out in chapter one. So the entirety of the book, as I said, but particularly chapter one, reveals an ungrateful people. So listen to this really pretty snotty retort. Here you have the God of the universe who opens up by saying, I have loved you. And what's their response in verse two? In what way have you loved us? Kids, I don't recommend you say that to your parents. It's not the right thing to say. And yet here we have the people of Israel, not saying it to their mom and dad, but saying it to God, their Heavenly Father. And He doesn't strike them dead. That's amazing. So now take a look at verse 6. So let's take that image that I just gave you. Look at what God says. He says, A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my reverence? Again, he didn't strike them dead. Here he's appealing to them. They say, who is this? In what way have you loved us? And here's God appealing to them, trying to remind them of who he is. Alright, so that's the first category, ungrateful. And again, there's lots of verses through this that you can see it. Let's look at chapter 2. In chapter 2, verses 1 through 9, that general section there, what we see are clearly a priesthood that is not doing what they're supposed to do. And there's a bit of it in the first part or the end of chapter 1. But look at verse 7. It tells us what they should be doing. This is what they should be doing. For the lips of priests should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. That's the expectation. The temple's restored. Worship is being done, supposedly, according to the word of God. But verse 8 tells us what they're actually doing. But you have departed from the way. You have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. That's what we've got. We have a corrupt priesthood. And if you look at the end of chapter 1, this is what they're doing. What does the sacrificial system require? Unblemished sacrifices. And even if you can't afford the bulls and goats, there's a way that you can still bring sacrifices even for those who are poor. What they were doing was bringing meat that they weren't even able to give to the governor. Again, think back to Samuel 8. They were told, you want a king? You got a king. And so here, there's a clear requirement, what they're showing is that there was a requirement that the governor in Israel was requiring them to give food. And God's saying, you wouldn't even give your governor the meat that you are bringing to the temple to put on my altar. That's what the priests were doing. That's how horrific it was. So that's our second category of folks. Now let's take a look at the third one. Look in chapter 2, verses 10 through 8, and specifically let's look at verse 11 to start with. These are the adulterous folks. Judah has dealt treacherously. An abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution, which he loves. He has married the daughter of a foreign god. Remember, the people of Israel were not to marry foreign gods. They were not to. And children, the same applies to us. We are not to marry outside of the Lord. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you come to saving knowledge and saving faith, and you come of age to marry, you are to marry in the Lord. So the same still applies today. So there's the first part of that adultery. Now let's look at verse 14. Start in the middle of the verse. Where he says, the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth. Remember, it's a covenant vow. When your mom and dad, when we, husband and wives, were up at the altar and we were before even a civil magistrate, we were making a covenant at that point. The Lord was that witness between us. and he says, with whom you have dealt treacherously and look down at verse 16 for the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce for it covers one's garments with violence not only were they intermarrying with people they weren't supposed to marry they were putting away the Israelite women more than likely what was happening was it wasn't just divorce and even remarriage within the covenant community they were putting away the Israelite women and taking on women of the local tribes. They weren't even taking an Israelite woman. Not that it would have justified their actions, but again, so it's a two-fold problem. They were violating God's law by taking on a woman locally, and then they were also putting away them as well as those that were Israelite women in divorce. Alright, so that's another category. Now let's look at the next category, and it's those who deny God punishes the wicked. So here, this isn't even a case of where they're looking at it like we looked at the psalmist in Psalm 10, as I said, where the psalmist is lamenting that he's not seeing it. What the people do in Malachi is they actually say, God's not doing it. It's not enough that we're not seeing it, but yet at the same time we acknowledge that the justice will come to the wicked. They're actually saying to God, you're not even doing your job. So let's take a look at that. So at the end of 2.17, we read what the people were saying. Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord. So it's not even that they're saying you're not punishing the evil. They're telling God that He is making their wickedness into goodness. And he delights in them. For where is the God of justice? I mean, how horrible can this be? And again, so here we are, we're in the next category, and every one of these God is responding to. Every one of these accusations, God responds to. And then again, as we look at chapter 3, we also see a short list of some of the wickedness that people were likely seeing. And we see these things today. Sorcery, adultery, perjury. Perjury, kids, is another word for lying. Perjury. And then some interesting ones. Exploitation of workers. Exploitation of widows and orphans. So here we see, again, not just God being accused of, well, Lord, we're not seeing it and we really want to see it. They're telling God, you're not only not doing it, but you're saying all the things you told us were wicked are good. And that's a horrible place to be. Now let's take a look at the robbery, the next category, where the people were robbing God. This is that group of folks. In chapter 3 verses 7-12 we kind of get this section of that. But let's take a look at verses 8-9. So look at chapter 3 verse 8. Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, in what way have we robbed you? Again, the idea that the people would turn around and talk back to God is just absolutely amazing. So here they talk back, and here's God's response. In tithes and offerings, you are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this nation. Even this nation. Think about it. When we deprive God of his tithes and offerings, notice the last part of that, and it applies to us today as the church. We're not just saying, God, I'm not going to give back to you. What does God use the tithes and offerings for? It's for the extension of His kingdom as I pray each Lord's Day. It's for us, the nation of Israel today, the church. So we don't just deprive God of what's due to Him, we're depriving one another of what is due to God that He uses for the extension of His kingdom and for the building up of His kingdom of which we belong. Because we who are in Christ are that building block that He uses to build His kingdom. And then finally we see that last category in chapter 3, 13 through 4, verse 3. And let's take a look at chapter 3, verse 14. You have said it is useless to serve God. What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts? So what we have here is where again, the people of God are basically saying, well, you told us to do these things and we're doing it and what's in it for me? Why am I not seeing what I'm supposed to get? And again, God is responding to this, is allowing this to stand. So those are the six categories that we talked about. We have those six categories. But of those six, there are three particular sins that I think we can look at very closely and really see played out in the church today. So think about that, kids. There are three sins, three major sins. I gave you six categories. Let's think about three sins. And I think the first one is very obvious. And it's in every one of the prophets that we've read. The first one is what the priests were doing. It's that false and erroneous worship. I think that is rampant throughout the visible church today. False and erroneous worship. We're not willing, as I said, to just take what the scripture says. We want more. So I think that's a definite sin that we're seeing throughout the church today. And unfortunately, it could happen to us. If God so wills it, and He allows us to have the desires of our hearts, it could happen here. But praise God, we are seeking to obey Him in our worship. The second one is divorce. Many of you know the statistics. The Evangelical Church's statistics are no different than the world outside of the church. It's unfortunate. It's about 50%. This is a case of those who were divorced even before becoming Christians. We're talking the church itself, the visible church. The same statistics apply and there's no way to get around it. So that's the second category. And then the third one, again, I talked about it, it's the withholding of God's tithes and offerings. And it's not just a withholding in the sense of, hey, you're not giving up money. Part of it, I think, is that when we look at the wider church, falls under what I consider an antinomian view. It's this idea that, well, we're free in the gospel, so we're not bound any longer by this requirement to give the tithe. And so much of the church is that way. And I think that while they think that they're freeing their people from some horrific chain of having to give God 10% and give beyond that, the reality is they're shackling the people by not allowing them to give to God the worship that is due to Him. And that's why we do worship with our tithes and offerings, because it is an act of worship. So again, I think those are three things that as we look at these six categories of people, we can very clearly see those three major sins if we just look at the church of today. And that's a sad state of affairs when we consider it. But praise God that he is still yet sovereign. Alright, so with this cheering descriptions and applications, you're probably wondering where's the love in my love story, right? So we're going to get to that love part now. Let's look back again at chapter 1 verse 2. And I was mentioning Pastor Riddle this morning, I mean it's just amazing, the whole of this book, and if you read his vision from last week, as he got done doing Zachariah, you could preach on the word, a single word in these books, it's just amazing. This first verse alone, you could run an entire series on, where God says in chapter 1, verse 2, I have loved you, says the Lord. So when we listen to that and we hear it, the cynic and frankly the people of Malachi's day would say in response, and they did, so what? How do we know? How do we know that God loves us? Just as they did when they so arrogantly replied in response, in what way have you loved us? The people of Israel should have known better, and I hope we know better. Think about this. Their response should have been that of Balaam in Numbers 23.19. So I'm not even coming forward to where we are this side of the cross with the totality of God's word and all the promises fulfilled. Let's look back to what they had. Numbers 23.19. God is not a man that he should lie. God doesn't lie. Or that of David in 2 Samuel 7.28. O Lord God, you are a God and your words are true. It's not enough that God says it. We have all of the canon of scripture before this point for them. They have the word of God. They should know better. God does not lie. His promises are yes and amen. But we can legitimately say, OK, well, what then is the foundation of this love? If he says it, well, in one sense we do want to know, what is the foundation of this love? And again, it's God's sovereignty. In this case, it's his sovereign election, his choice, the predestination of a people for himself. And again, this goes back to why I was originally going to choose that word. But in reality, let's look at the word love. We're Calvinists. We're the frozen chosen. We would stick with that word election. But I'm going to use the Armenian word love. And we're going to talk about it. Because it is. It's our word too. It's God's word. It's the way he describes it. So listen again to God's declaration. I have loved you. In the original Hebrew, the word order is, you have I loved. You have I loved. But either way, whether we take it in the English form that we have now, or we look at the original Hebrew in the word order, the word order is the same. And Pastor Earl is going to laugh at this, having worked with me a little bit with the Greek, and knowing that I am not a grammarian in any way, shape, or form. But I want to look at the grammar of this, because it's really important. And it's also important to understand that the words have meaning. That's another thing that Pastor Will and I have talked about this week. When we look at the text of scripture, in the modern church, the tendency is to just look at the scriptures and what messages can we get from it? The totality of just what's there. But God gave us specific words, and I'm going to show you just how important those specific words are. Listen to this. used in this case is what's called the present perfect tense. This tense is used to talk about an action that began in the past, continues up to the present, and from a grammatical perspective, implied as it will probably continue into the future. Began in the past, continues in the present, and goes to the future. What we don't have here is we don't have God saying, well I elected you all the way in the beginning, I love you now and I'm going to love you in the future. He doesn't have to say that. That's how important the words are. The very words are, I have loved you. So where then does this love begin? Again, it begins in eternity past. His declaration makes it clear that His love for His particular people continued obviously at the time of the writing. So we had it set in eternity past. It's continuing now because He declares it right now. But we know, and the people of God should know, that it continues all the way into the future. And we have a beautiful picture of this. So we are New Testament folks. I want to give you a beautiful picture of this. If you want to, turn to Titus chapter 1. Quickly thumb over there. Titus chapter 1 in the very opening of Titus chapter 1. So if you want to understand an application of the present perfect tense with regards to God saying, I love you, let's take a look right here. We're going to just read verses 1 and 2. Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, Listen to these words, according to the faith of God's elect, so there we have it set in eternity past, and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. We have it all right there. As he lays out his apostolic admonition, his greeting right there to Titus, we have exactly what he told the people in that opening verse. We have election, and look again, what does Paul say? God, who cannot lie. It goes all the way back to the very beginning. Verse 3, or the second part of verse 2, where the people's retort is, what do you mean you loved us? The reality is, he told them, I love you. It began in eternity past, it is now, and it continues into the future. But that declaration isn't sufficient for them. So what does he do? Again, I told you, he responds to each one of these things. Look at how he declares this love. Go back to chapter 1 of Malachi, and starting in verse 2, he gives us an illustration for his people of his covenant choice of Jacob over Esau. And that's important. Again, we're good Calvinists. We understand Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. But it's important that God doesn't just say that from the perspective of election. He's using it to illustrate his very words that say, I love you. And here's how he loves them. The other thing to keep in mind is that Esau is the father of the Edomites. And there are many who would say that this particular portion of scripture means, and in one sense it does, because in certain places in the Old Testament it means loved less. If you just stop there with Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated, we might do that. But think about the Edomites. Pastor Riddle preached back on Obadiah, and if you go back to Obadiah chapter 1, read the totality of Obadiah chapter 1 verses 1 through 21. This is not a love based on feelings. God shows his love for particular people by pointing out that not only did I choose you in the line of Jacob, but Esau And through Esau, his line of the Edomites are gone. That's how much of a difference there is between those whom I love that are in Jacob and those who are in Esau, the Edomites. That's the stark contrast. So if it's not clear enough that God says, I love you, he illustrates in the most stark possible way the difference between his love for a particular people. I loved you so much that I chose you when all of you deserved exactly what the Edomites got. And again, the Apostle Paul masterfully unpacks this truth in Romans 9, and we're going to get that in a couple of weeks when Pastor Riddle gets to it. So now you can think back, and I encourage you, before we get to chapter 9, go back and read Malachi, because again, Malachi is the last prophet before the Old Testament, pointing forward, and then when we get to Romans 9, we're going to see how Paul applies that, again, the necessity of the repetition over and over again, the reminder of who God is, and what He does, and most importantly, His love. And so this redemption also again, as I said, it points back. Think back to where it points back. The very first promise in scripture, in scripture is Genesis 3, 15. Listen. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And this is reaffirmed by God in Malachi chapter 4, 2, when he says, but you who fear my name, The Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. And we know, and the elect of God's people in Malachi's day know, that this is pointing forward. The Son of Righteousness is none other than the Savior. And we know who that Savior is. That's Jesus Christ. So again, the promise all the way back after the fall in Genesis 3.15. Here we have the very last book of the Old Testament. The promise is being made again and again. And again, because we're a stiff-necked, rebellious people, hard of hearing, and we can't hear it, we don't want to hear it. But with redemption, do remember, with redemption comes judgment. So he chose Jacob and did not choose Esau. But he does remind the people here in chapter 4, verse 1. For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will stumble. will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch." With redemption, though, does come the reminder that there is judgment. And we know that. We know that judgment comes. Children, judgment comes for those who are not in Christ. But what does God do? They're not without warning. And Pastor Riddle again, see how this ties together. There's no part of scripture you cannot look at the mercy of God. God extends mercy even now in the midst of this. Look in chapter 3 verse 7. He calls them to repentance. Calls them to repentance. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. And God also promises the people in chapter 3 and 4 that he'll send a messenger. So again, they have this over-realized eschatological perspective on, well, God's not here now, why isn't he doing what he's supposed to be doing? So what does God do? He does the same thing. I'm going to send you a messenger. Listen, I've made these promises. Listen, there's going to be a messenger. And he says, behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And in the final two verses of the book, in verses four, five through six, God says, And listen, you've probably heard some of this before. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. And we know that 400 years later, 400 years later. Think about it, the totality of the period that we have from the first temples around is in 900s, temple restored in 500, but 400 years later. So again, on the one hand the people are complaining, God's not doing this, but it's over a pretty long period of time. 400 years later, we get it. So listen to this kids, you've heard this, because we know none other than references we find when as the forerunner of Jesus Christ and that forerunner is John the Baptist and so we look at Luke chapter 1 verse 17 the angel Gabriel declares that John the Baptist will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedience to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord the very last verse of the very last book of the Old Testament is pointing forward to that promise that Messiah But think about this again. While the people continued in their sin and unbelief, God is vindicated 400 years later. John the Baptist comes. But unfortunately, most, I would argue most, many, but if not most, of the people of Malachi's day were likely found themselves in the end, exactly like these folks. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 7, 21-27 when he says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Do you hear the echo of the people, that one category of folks that were expecting to be paid back by God for doing exactly what they're told to do? And here we have Jesus reminding the people of his day, when he was walking on the earth, then and even now, there are going to be many people who say, Lord, Lord, look what I have done. And they are not going to enter the kingdom of heaven. So that's a warning. It's a warning to those who are not in Christ. So as we come to a close, I want to focus just for a few more minutes on the verse just before that, Malachi 4.4. Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and the judgments. O'Connor Robertson in his book, Christ of the Prophets, highlights the final admonition, and I think you've heard it, it's an important word. Remember. Remember. And he writes, quote, this charge does not simply mean that the people should recall these things to their mind. It's not enough just to remember it in your head. In preparation for this great coming day of judgment that I just read about, they must put into practice all that has been revealed to them throughout all redemptive history. The people of Israel are called to be a particular people. Again, go back to Pastor Riddle's admonition to us this morning in the application. Be a particular people. And so Dr. Robertson tells us in this passage that it alludes to various segments of the revelation of the people of Israel. There are three things. So when he talks about in this book the Law of Moses, he's referring to the first five books. The second part, when he talks about the great and terrible day of the Lord, he quotes Joel chapter 2 verse 11. And that represents then the minor prophets. And then finally, and then the other one is a reference to Elijah, that's an allusion to the former prophets. So here, what do we have? We have that closing part referring to the totality of the word of God in the Old Testament. The people therefore must be careful to observe all those statutes from Genesis to Malachi. He's telling them, basically, that all of scripture is to be reminded to follow these commandments. However, in keeping with this theme of his covenantal love, I want to take one small point out of that, and not disagree with him, but I want to amplify it so that you can see again the importance of words and the Word of God. So listen to this. I think God is also calling them to remember a specific event in redemptive history. And that's the covenant renewal ceremony that occurred just before the people went into the promised land in Moab. So in Deuteronomy 27 to Deuteronomy 30, you have a covenant renewal ceremony. And that's where the people of God, basically Moses had the people divide up into half the tribes on one mountain, half on the other, and in blessing and cursing before they entered into the promised land. But I want to draw your attention to one particular verse. Remember this is a particular love for a particular people. Listen to what God says in Deuteronomy 36. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. In the midst of all of the blessings and cursings the reminders of do this, do this, do this to be a particular people. God tells them that you can't do it. I'm going to do it for you. I am going to circumcise your hearts. Think of that. What beautiful bookends the Lord has given us in this book of Malachi. He opens it with a statement of His love, illustrates it with the clearest example of sovereign election, and then He closes it by reminding us of His sovereign regeneration of His election and points forward that ultimate expression of His love, His incarnate Son. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever. Amen. Let's pray. O gracious Lord, we do indeed thank You for the promises that You have given us in Your Word. You have given us Your Son, Jesus Christ, And we who are hidden in Him, Lord, we cannot thank You enough for what You have done for us. And we pray, Lord, for those, particularly our children, who do not know You this day. We pray, Father, that You would indeed circumcise their hearts as You have circumcised ours, that You would draw them to Yourself, give them repentance, give them everlasting life, Lord, for it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.