Good morning to you all. Please turn to the last book in the Old Testament, the book of Malachi, and turn to chapter 2. I'll begin reading in verse 7. I'll go through verse 16. Our consideration will be verses 10 through 16 this morning. This is the Word of God. For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 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. Therefore, I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept my ways, but have shown partiality in the law. Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers? 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. May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, being awake and aware, yet who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts. And this is the second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying, so He does not regard the offering any more, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say, for what reason? Because you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously, yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. For the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce, for it covers one's garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore, take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously. Amen. And we trust that God will add his blessing to this very sobering part of God's word. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we take comfort to know that you love your people and that you love to give unto your people your word. And this is this special time where you speak to your people and to all through your word proclaimed. And so our prayer, Father, is that you would bless both preacher and hearer this day with your truth and with your spirit. We pray that we would be a holy people. Our desire is to see others come to this saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. So please be gracious to us as we do pray in the name that you've commanded us to pray in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, I've taken you and plopped you right down the middle of an Old Testament book at the end of the Old Testament. And this book is written by the prophet Malachi. His name literally means my angel or my messenger. Some other translations may say by the hand of his messenger. So we know that Malachi wrote this book in the very fact that verse one says that the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. So he has a burden. He has a message to give to the people of Israel. And I want you to know that he is the last prophet. to preach, he's the last prophet to have revelation directly from God in that unique way where God spoke to man and they recorded it and they preached it. And this is the last prophet until John the Baptist comes, and of course John the Baptist is the one that comes to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, in Malachi chapter 3 verse 1, you see the description of John the Baptist saying, Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. When you go to the end of the book of Malachi in chapter four, there's a remember it's a command to the people. Remember the law. Remember the law until the coming of Elijah, which is John the Baptist and the entrance of Jesus Christ into this world. And then God goes silent for over 400 years, 400 years, there is no revelation. the way that we had revelation from Genesis to Malachi. For 400 years, God goes silent. And we might have some thoughts into reason why God went silent for 400 years. He hasn't said why he went silent for 400 years, but I think we can use some sanctified reasoning to understand, or at least to draw some conclusions, why God went silent for 400 years after this book. It could have been his displeasure. to the people. He gave repeated warnings from Genesis all the way through Malachi. The people seem to continue to keep going back to their disobedience, going back to false gods and rejecting the God of the scripture could have been that reason. Secondly, it could have been a judgment upon the people because of the fact that they have forsaken God's commandments, forsaken his way, forsaken the Lord completely and started going after other gods and other practices. And it could have been a judgment upon the nation. And this very well could have been because when you go to the book of the New Testament, you go to Matthew or Mark or Luke or John, you start reading, you see how the Jewish religion had denigrated to such a degree that there is very little seeking after a Messiah. There is very little remnant of God at all. When you take a look at the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes and the priests, they were basically a bunch of rebels. And that's what happens when God went silent and he judged them, and you can see how the religion of the Jewish people come to nothing. When John the Baptist comes upon the scene and when our Lord Jesus comes upon the scene, They're, by and large, ungodly leaders that should have been looking for Christ. And of course, I think one of the reasons why God went silent for 400 years was to heighten the people's anticipation for the Messiah. There's been no revelation for 400 years. Can this be the year that our Lord Jesus Christ comes or the Messiah comes and this is Jesus, who is the Christ? Could be that. But whether or not, you know, we're not sure why God went south for 400 years. That really doesn't matter. What does matter is this book right now, and the theme of this book is that after the Jews, if you have some knowledge with regards to the Old Testament, you know that God chose the Jews to be his people. He gave them their land. He put them in the land. They should have easily been following him. That would only be reasonable to save a people and to put them in their very own land that they would. remained faithful to this God, but they weren't. They were not faithful to this God. They started going after other gods with other vain and false practices, and God took them and put them into Babylon for 70 years of captivity. They did not enjoy their land anymore. So the Jews, after their captivity, are returned to their land. But sad to say, they also return to some very depraved practices. They were not mindful of God's goodness or God's favor to them. That's why the book begins with Jacob. I have loved Esau. I have hated. Look at how I've dealt with you. Look at how I've dealt with Esau. Edom is gone. I've dealt with them in judgment. You don't even know where an Edomite is. But look at how I've dealt with you. I have loved you. I brought you back to the land. You should be obedient to me. And he, in one sense, directs his epistle to the priests because the priests were not faithfully and properly teaching the people. The Jews, the priests here, gave themselves over to corruption. Vices abounded. Malachi sharply rebukes them. When you read this book, I recommend that you read it. Every Christian should read the book of every book in the Bible, especially Malachi. You see how sharp Malachi is with the people because they were evasive and they were self-righteous. Malachi addresses the priests because by their bad example, they had helped aid in the corruption and the morals of the community. That's what the priest had done instead of leading the people. They were directing the people by their practices. to a way that was corrupt and was contrary to God. But Malachi also shows that God will remain faithful to his covenant that he had made with their father so that the Redeemer would indeed come. Even though you're stiff-necked, even though you're going to be obstinate against my word, I am going to fulfill my promise. And he's going to do that. Now, this is if you want to have an idea of time, this is during the time of Nehemiah and Ezra. Nehemiah and Ezra wrote during the same time that Malachi did. Malachi is right here at the end. And we're going to take a look at verses 10 through 16. And we're going to look at how the men of Israel treated the women of Israel. And there were two sins that they were predominant in. The first one we're going to see in verse 10 through 12 is that they were marrying the daughters of strange gods instead of being content with the daughters of Israel. They were marrying daughters of a strange God, which is found in verse 11. Before we get to verse 11, take a look at verse 10. Malachi is going to reason with them by asking the people a series of questions. Because in one sense, he asked the question as if they were practical atheists. He has to ask them, do you not have one father? Do you not have one God? Why do you deal treacherously with one another, generally speaking, with brother to brother? So he begins, first of all, with God. He says in verse 10, have we not all one father? Think of the nations. Israel, all the nations do not have you as their father, but he chose one. nation, out of them all, that he would be a father to you. How would you answer that question, Israel? Malachi has asked him a question. They have to answer it one way or the other. They can't say no. They have to say yes. Look at how God has taken us out of out of Egypt, gave us our own land, taken us out of Babylon, brought us back to our own land. Have we not one father? The question has to be answered. And that answer has to be yes, we have one father. And that is Jehovah, the Lord, our God. And then he asked the second question, has not one God created us? Now, this should take them all the way back to the Garden of Eden. When you start talking creation, we should immediately go back to the Garden of Eden. We should go back to how God made Adam and Eve, how he made all things. God made all things out of his goodness for man's enjoyment. So the question is, is there not one creator? Yes, there is one creator. That's how else how else can the Jews answer that we have one father? We have one God and he is the one who has made all things. And if he has made all things and he is causes to be unique. Has he given us his daughters? To be married. That's the question, because they're dealing treacherously with one another. Israel is not a very safe place at this time, brother against brother, generally speaking, we're against each other. They were dishonest. They couldn't turn their back on one another without some crime being inflicted by them, by their brother. It'd be like, can you imagine that being here in this church and you're not sure you can trust anyone here in the church? You know, can you please stay at my house over the weekend and you're worried about them ransacking your house? You would not dare because of how treacherous that the Jews have become. You wouldn't dare ask them to stay over in your hut and watch your hut for you while you were gone over the weekend. You come back and everything would be gone. The conclusion is that God has been good to them by being their father, by being their God. He's not been deceitful to them. He's not dealt with them in a harsh way. He's dealt with them in a kind way. The third question has to be answered. Why do you deal treacherously with one another? This is not a yes or no answer now. Why do you do this? If God is your father. And God is your God. Why is it you deal so deceitfully with one another in generally and then you get specific. In the second part of verse 10, he says, by profaning the covenant of the fathers. Now, Malachi doesn't immediately tell them their fault. He reasons with them. He demands an answer for his question. He says, you've dealt deceitfully in general and you've also in a particular way profane the covenant now. Because of the state of the priests, they may have asked the question, what covenant is he talking about? It's followed up by Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. The Jews have got to ask what covenant are they speaking of? Well, generally speaking, the Jews, Judah and Israel were deceitful. They were polluted. They were profane. They were ugly in the sight of God. Judah had polluted that which God loves. And that pollution was marriage. It was marriage. God loves marriage. In verse 11, he has married the daughter of a foreign God. Here, God loves marriage. It's supposed to be the godly with the godly supposed to be Israel with Israel, and yet you have been married to another God, a false God. Now, the earlier question that Malachi asked is, do you have one creator that should take you back to the book of Genesis? And they had many examples in the Old Testament of how they should marry. If you go back to Genesis chapter six, you will see that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were lovely and they married him, they went into them. Remember, during this time, Seth was the only godly one he had raised up godly children, they began to populate the earth. And then something happened. These men were only interested in how the women look. And instead of marrying the godly women, they saw the daughters of men and they began to marry them. And then listen to what God has to say in the book of Genesis, chapter six. That every thought and intention of man was only evil continually. This was during the time of Noah, who was left that was godly. There was only eight people left that were godly. It was all Noah's family. All the others had denigrated themselves, had joined themselves to other gods. They had forsaken marriage with the godly and began to just marry just because some girl looked hot. And that was it. If I could use today's terminology, that's the only reason. And God saw that. And here's a horrible thing that is said. God says that he was sorry that he made man. And he said, I'm going to wipe them all out, but Noah found favor with God. That's one example. That would have been enough, you would think. But no, there's another example in the Book of Numbers, chapter 25, the Moabites could not overthrow, could not strong arm the Israelites. So they said, this is what we're going to do. This is based on the Council of Balaam. We'll get them to marry our women. And godly Phineas had to go in and put a spear between an Israelite and a Moabite to stop the plague of God. Because they were marrying strange gods. They were marrying the daughter of a strange god. Those two examples should have been enough. But go to the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy is the last book of the Pentateuch since we're dealing with last books today. Deuteronomy chapter seven. You can turn there or just listen. Here's a command that God gives to his chosen people. Because they're going to go into the promised land and they're going to overthrow a large group of heathen. And he says in verse 1, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Gergesites, the Amorites, so on and so forth, verse 2, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. Why is that, Moses? Why are you so restrictive? Where's all this freedom we're supposed to have? You're restricting us. Here's the reason why. For they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. God takes this pretty serious, doesn't he? We've seen it In Genesis, we've seen it in numbers. We've seen it right here in the book of Deuteronomy. God bound them to this covenant that he would do them good so long as they did not mingle with the ungodly. Now, Malachi, going back to verse 11, uses the term fathers. To show the. That this is not some new command. This is something of antiquity, something that's gone back to the fathers of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It shows the authority of God in this command. There's got to be some questions they've got to ask themselves when they're considering all that's going on, and that is. Has God created us to be his people, to be a unique people? The answer has to be yes. Did he put life within us? Yes, he did. It's not reasonable for us, therefore, to obey our God. Yes, it is reasonable. Now, what about the nations that have been trained in worshiping false gods? Now you wish to be joined to them. Now you wish to be joined to the daughter of a foreign god. How would you answer that, Jews? And if they married these foreign daughters, the question to them is, where did you get these women? You got them from a foreign God. You got them from Satan. Either you can grab your daughters from the daughters of God or get them from the daughters of men. So you see that there is a very serious thing that's going on here. This is not something that's preventative. This is something that's going on right now in the book of Malachi that's gone on for years to where the godly were marrying the ungodly and was perverting their religion. What commandments are broken if that Jewish man were to marry the daughter of a heathen god? There's two commandments being broken. The first one, they're having other gods before their eyes. And whenever the first commandment is broken, mark it down, the 10th commandment is broken, covetousness, not being content with what God has given. God had given them daughters. These are the ones that you are to marry. And they said, no, I'm going to join myself to bail. Go join myself to a foreign God and verse 12 brings out the judgment of God, may the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob, the man who does this being awake and aware. Yet who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts? These men were marrying false gods, and yet they were coming into the temple and offering up worship to God as if God was going to do anything. What's involved in here, you have the civil magistrates and you have the priests. And they came in and made these offerings as if God was going to say, that's OK, I'm a forgiving God, it's OK. It's OK for you to marry these ungodly, heathen, strange women. God doesn't say that there is a certain cutting, cutting this to Malachi. So now that the people are devastated, it would appear he's not done with them. He says in verse 13, we're going to see the second thing, and that is how they dealt with their women, the women that they were married to. Bad enough that they married the false God daughters. But now the women that you're married to is even a bigger problem. He says this is the second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with crying. So he does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive with goodwill from your hands. Instead of the altar of God being a place of praise, which it should be, they were required to bring the offer of praises to God. It was a place where people were weeping. Now, one of two things could have happened here. One, it could have been the women that were doing the weeping because of the fact that they were not being loved by their husbands. They would come in. could very well be that they were divorced and these priests had multiple wives and their wives, the Israelite wives, were grieving because of the fact that they were they were divorced. They were not being loved. Could have been that or it could have been the priests coming into the altar with a faked grief with a faked repentance. Oh, they really make a good show with a lot of tears when they come before God. And God says, I do not regard your offering. I will not accept this worship. Had to be devastating to them because the Jews prided them. The Jews prided themselves in their worship. Hey, we have the true God. We've got the living God. We have the only God. And we're going to go into a special presence, into a special temple. And what is going on in there? There is no praises. There is no cheerfulness. There is no thankfulness. There is no presence of God. He is gone from them. They normally knew when the presence of God was there, but he was gone. They were weeping and crying on the altar. Either the women were doing it or the priests were doing it in a fake way. And so the priests are shocked in verse 14. Yet you say, for what reason? We're Levi priests. Why is God forsaking us? We're even coming in his altar and we've got tears. We're weeping. We're offering up the bulls and the lambs are doing everything that we're supposed to do. And you're not going to accept our worship. I demand to know why. They wouldn't dare say that, of course, Malachi. Malachi is a lot tougher, a lot tougher than me to stand before people and say this. What reason? God sees all and he sees how you treat your wife, your companion, a wife of God's covenant. That's what he says. Verse 14, because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth with whom you have dealt treacherously. You've dealt treacherously, you dealt deceitfully with your wife and look at she is your companion. She is your wife, your possession by covenant. You made a commitment before God, didn't you, when you got married? Talking to the Jews. God was present at your solemn contract, God was present at your solemn vow that you made. And he saw the obligations of both of you are under. He saw that God was there. You called him to be a witness. God was a witness at this holy, solemn occasion. And now your God has called upon you. As you called upon him to be a witness at his ceremony, so God is there, he says, I'm coming back. Have you forgotten your word that you gave to me? Jehovah says that. Did you forget that covenant that you made? God is also a witness about how agreeably the Israelite wives treated their husbands. Some of these men would divorce their wives because they just didn't please them anymore, or they didn't cook their food properly, or their eye was wandering and found someone else that they desired, and they divorced their wives because of that. And yet the Israelite wives behave themselves much better than the men did. The men did not continue to love their wives, but they hated them and they divorced them. And God says you broke your covenant of marriage, you forsook your wife when your wife should have been lavished with your love and your tender and your care. That's what should happen instead of you divorcing your wives. Verse 15, Malachi is going to teach them some things. It's going to say, what was God's intent when marriage was first brought about? He says that in verse 15. But did he not make them one? Who's the them? Adam and Eve. Didn't he make them one? Did God make one woman for Adam, or did he make multiple women for Adam? made one woman for Adam. Did God have the ability by the remnant of his spirit to create many spirits and many wives for Adam? He could have done that, couldn't he? He could have taken 50 wives and given it to Adam if he thought that was best for him. That's what Malachi is saying here, didn't God have the ability. To give many, instead, he gave Adam one wife. One wife, Adam and Eve. Did not God join them together? What was God intent? One pair. The two become one and you have one pair, if you will. The two have become one. The question may come, why one wife? Why one wife? God says it. He wants godly offspring. Now, it's not the idea that the husband and wife marry, they have children and automatically their children are, quote, saved. Their children still need to be trained up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. The Book of Proverbs is filled with that. Book of Deuteronomy brings that out. So just by having the kids isn't enough. You do have to train them up. But can you imagine training them up by word and not deed? Children, we need to follow God. And yet the husband divorces his wife. What kind of example is that to the children? What's that going to do for the kids? They're confused already, as it is. They need some stabilization. They need a foundation of a home where mom and dad are happy. And their idea of God comes from how mom and dad are. And you want to take that and tear that apart. God's reason for you two coming together, Malachi tells the people, is that you might have godly offspring because you consider the the other thing. It's treasonous. These two sins are treasonous. If you go after a foreign god, eventually what happens? God's government, God's order is gone, isn't it? Because if you mix the holy with the unholy, you get unholy. This is treasonous, what you're doing. You are going against the very government and order of God when you marry the daughter of a foreign god and when you divorce. You're overthrowing God's government in order. At least you're seeking to do that. And therefore, he says, take control of yourself. Do not deceive your wife. You made a covenant with your wife that you would love her. That you would be with them with her till death do you part. Control your affections, control your heart. And this is a good way of teaching the Malachi does he does exhortation. He doesn't say, I just want to pose something to you. I hope I don't, I'm not too offensive to you. Malachi doesn't care. He's going to hit him right in the face because they're men. He's dealing with the men. And when you deal with men, you have to deal with them like men. It's been said, please don't be offended by this. It's okay for women and children to make mistakes, but men cannot afford to make mistakes. I've heard that before. I don't know how true that is, but I can tell you one thing. If the men are making mistakes, the women and the children will eventually make more mistakes. They need to be led. They need to be properly led, lovingly led, not supposed to be filling their garments with violence. That's what divorce is. It's it's it's violence. And God himself puts his name on this. Notice this in verse 16, for the Lord God of Israel says. that he hates divorce for it covers one's garments with violence. With violence. Now, the priest regarded marriage and divorce pretty lightly here. They really did. They thought Hollywood was fascist in back then. They were just divorcing their wives left and right like that or being married to these daughters of men. And though you may cover your sin up like a garment, Malachi says, It's not hid from God. In fact, God hates divorce and he hates the cover up job that you're doing right now. It is a violent action. You know why it's violent. God brings them together. The two become one and then you rip them apart. There could be anger involved, the husband getting mad at the wife, and so he sends her away out of anger. And that's why Malachi says, therefore, in verse 16, take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously. As I mentioned earlier, these two sins were treasonous sins. The act of treason is going against your own government. It would be like us. It would be like me calling up Al Qaeda, saying, I want to join your ranks to do everything I can to destroy the United States of America. That's why Malachi says, therefore, take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously. Well, that's the exposition. What are some conclusions and applications that we can make today? Is it possible? By some stretch of our imagination that we might have application to this today, I think we do. First of all, I think it's a horrible thing to be involved in seeking to overthrow the order and government of God. And this is done, this treason is done when Christians begin to court, date or marry a son or a daughter of a pagan God. The question you may ask, is it sin? Yes, it is. It is sin. In fact, it's a serious sin. We may not see it as a serious offense against God, and that's just because we may have become numb by our society. Old Testament teaches us that this marrying ungodly will bring about apostasy. Now, you may say, wait a minute, we live in New Testament days. Excuse me, but our nature hasn't changed, has it? Our sins have not really changed that much. And I find it very interesting that apostasy is prophesied in Second Thessalonians, Chapter two, there's a great falling away. I also find it interesting about our Lord in Matthew 24. He talks about when he comes back, it's going to be like the days of Noah. Remember the days? No, we just talked about it. What was going on during the days of Noah? Our Lord said that they were eating and drinking. Nothing wrong with that. Right. Marrying and giving in marriage. As far as we can tell, nothing wrong with that. That's all our nation is about eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. They don't even think about God. Now, maybe I'm jumping to the conclusion that maybe there is a great apostasy that will happen Before our Lord comes back, I think it's obvious he said when he comes back, really, really find faith on the earth. Can it be that one of those acts of apostasy is when the godly married the ungodly? I mean, how does the apostasy come about the great falling away when all of a sudden our church becomes nothing more than a social club, what happens? Bad doctrine. Bad practices. Bad doctrine always brings about bad practices. If we have bad doctrine in this area, we will be giving our sons and our daughters who profess faith in Jesus Christ to the ungodly, or it's okay for you to go ahead and date them. When we begin to do that, we're acting as treacherous violators of God's covenant, and we're committing the sin of treason. We're seeking to overthrow the order of God. God's order has never been for the saved to marry the unsaved. Never. All you have to do is just see the regression of the holy marrying the unholy. And sad to say there's even churches this day that hold that it's OK for a believer to date an unbeliever. What's the end of dating? Well, for the Christian, we don't date recreationally, do we? No. We date with the idea or court, whatever word you want to use, purity is the main thing. The idea of the reason why we date or court is the idea of marriage. However, we use words like. Well, they're only an unbeliever, OK, only an unbeliever, or they just don't know the Lord. Turn to Second Corinthians chapter six, let's see how Paul names it. Second Corinthians chapter six. Because you're going to find, as I read this, certain terms that he will use, such as lawlessness, darkness, Belial, which is the name of a false god, false god, temple of idols. Paul doesn't tone it down at all, beginning. In verse 14, he says, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? There's no there's no fellowship, what communion has light with darkness. All you do is shut the lights off in this place, close up all the windows, it's dark. I just open up one shade. You got light. The darkness leaves. Darkness and light can't coexist. Paul's using that very simple creation analogy. And what accord has Christ with Belial? Belial is a false god. Who's the father of all false gods? Satan himself. What is Christ and the devil in some type of a nice relationship? No, they're battling. There's this battle going on. Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? Hell? Is that the part that a believer has with an unbeliever? No. And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them, walk among them. I will be their God. They shall be my people. Therefore, go ahead and date them. It's OK. Then say this has come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. How can you get dating an unbeliever in that verse is beyond me. Marrying an unbeliever. Is beyond me. And yet we tone it down, we just don't know the Lord. We're going to win them. We're going to win them by marrying them. That's being presumptuous and God's never, ever sanctioned that or ordained it or approved it. He never has. Remember, there's two types of people in the world. You're either a son or a daughter of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ, or you are a son and daughter of Satan. You may be upset about what I just said. That's what Christ said. Christ said that. You're of the father, the devil, and he was talking to the religious leaders when he said that. That's what you have. I mean, the question sometimes is asked by those who profess faith in Christ, is it OK for me to date an unbeliever? My question to you is, what do you have in common with an unbeliever? What is important to you? What is important to the child of a false god? What's the foundation of your relationship? If it's not spiritual, there's something seriously wrong. What fellowship does light have with darkness? And now you want to consider joining the other army. And thus overthrow the government of God. Are you being a traitor? Treasonous. Again, you may be saying, Rick, this is way too harsh. You just have to deal with God's word and apply it. And ask yourself, what's the best situation, a believer with a believer or a believer with an unbeliever? The natural question is, what about my friends? You know, those of you that are single, my my class here in front of me, what about my friends? You know, our memory verse of last year, don't you? Proverbs 12, 26. The righteous should choose their friends carefully. For the way of the wicked will, not may, will lead them astray. Choose your friends carefully, keeping evil company in hopes of converting them. You cannot save them. It's God who saves them. In fact, the proverb says, make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man, do not go. Why? Lest you learn his ways and you set a snare before your soul. If you hang out with the ungodly, If they become your closest friends, you will become like them and you will fall into various temptations. Now, let me balance you here. Because we could go to the extreme of the Pharisees and say, I'm not going to have anything to do with the ungodly. I'm not going to eat with them. I'm not going to associate with my family. I'm just going to go to work and leave. In fact, when I come in the house, I'm going to wash and get all of that filth off of me. We can go to that extreme and be a Pharisee and we dare not do that. Right? But we dare not go to the other extreme and run with them in their sin. To be nondiscerning, always with the ungodly. Remember, Jesus ate with sinners. But he didn't run with them in their sin, did he? Never did. Peter says the same thing in 1 Peter chapter four. In fact, he says they find it strange that you don't run with them in the same flood of dissipation. You used to run with them. You no longer run with them. Many of you can testify when you became a Christian, your friends changed. Had to. Had to with me. Had to with many of you. I could not go in the same places that they went. I've been changed. God has changed me. And the question I have to ask, are you more comfortable with the ungodly than you are with the godly? If you're more comfortable with those who do not know Jesus Christ and are profane, You're not a Christian or you've sinned so grievously and have become so affected by this world that you need to shake yourself. You need to take a step back and say, where am I? I enjoy being with the ungodly. Got to be honest with yourself and honest with God. And if you say I'm more comfortable with the ungodly, I suggest after the service, go get right with God and say, Lord, change me. I need my heart changed. But many of us have change and our friends found it very strange, didn't it, when we didn't run with them anymore in that dissipation? Well, that's just in the area of. The unbeliever were to have compassion on them, were to love them, were to go the extra mile for them, but we dare not run with them, eat with them, enjoy them, pray for their salvation, but we dare not run with them in their sin and we dare not join them in their marriages. We dare not do that. But here's something else for us to consider. In light of the last part of this. Of this passage here, Malachi, make sure you keep your covenants before God. God is very strict with his covenants, especially in the area of your marriage, if you're married, don't seek to be divorced, find contentment with your spouse. Guys, I got to blame all the problems of this world on us on this one. You know, the women's lib and all this other stuff. And the big problem here is that many men have abused their wives. Many men have divorced their wives. Many men were just looking for any particular reason to divorce their wives. And now we're in the mess that we're in. We're marriage. Over 50 percent of marriages result in divorce. Did you know that? And you know what? When they when they pull people that are church, that that figure doesn't change. It doesn't change. Remember this, my brethren, God has given your spouse to you as a gift. Husbands take care of that possession. You may say, well, I don't have a perfect marriage. None do. None do. But you love your spouse. You're committed to her. And remember your covenant that you made with God, because God is a witness. We're going to have a wedding here next week. Vows are going to be exchanged. Many of you will probably be in the audience hearing those vows exchanged and it will probably take you back to when you got married. It will for me. And then I've got to go back and say, now, is God only interested in my outward or is he also interested in my inward? When I committed to marry Karen, did I commit for my heart not to wander after other women? Yes. Have I kept that law perfectly? Have I kept my covenant? Because God's more, not more, he's interested in the outward as well as the inward. We made make sure that we keep our covenants, those words that come out of our mouth. We need to be very careful that we fulfill those laws. Fulfill that vow that we have made, because remember, God loves marriage. He loves it. He loves it. I have to ask about church membership, not trying to get you to become church members of those of us that are members. We have all made a covenant, right? We've made a covenant with God that we would support this church and worship and work to the best of our ability. We made that covenant. Guess who was there when we made that covenant? God was there. Do you give? Do you give? Our church is doing great financially. I'm not I'm not interested in what you give. God says you made a covenant that you support this church. My question to you, do you give? If not, God will stand against you as a witness. He will say, wait a minute, you said that you were going to support this church and you haven't. I was going to support this church in worship, I was going to be here at the services, and yet I missed services. Is God going to hold you accountable for your covenant that you made beforehand? Will God hold you? It doesn't matter about me. I don't put any fear in anyone. I shouldn't. It's God. We walk in obedience to God. When we joined, it was because of God. We're making our covenant with God and with one another. Am I a man of my word? Have I kept my word? If I haven't kept my word, what am I going to do about it? Now we make light of breaking our word, but God doesn't. Look at how he speaks here in this verse. The reason that he hates divorce, one of the reasons is because people gave their word and he went back on it. They broke their word. Ecclesiastes 5. Mark it, go down and read it after the service if you'd like. Ecclesiastes 5 says you've made a vow, make sure you pay it before God. Why should God be angry at your excuse? Do not say it was an error. Make sure you fulfill your vows. Keep your vows. And I like what Jesus Christ said. Well, I didn't like it, to be honest with you, but he says this. For every idle word that men may speak, they will have to give an account of it on the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Book of Matthew. You mean to say that every idle word I speak, I'll have to give an account to God on that day of judgment? Christ said yes. If you've given your word, keep it. You don't want God to be a witness against you. Keep that word. What if I've broken my word? Ask God to forgive you. A new principle of obedience, I want to be a man or a woman of my word, I want to keep my word because God takes very serious my covenant. He takes very serious my words. Now, some of you may be sitting there and saying, you know, I've made a complete mess of my life, I've had multiple marriages. I'm currently married, God's word says, stay married. Uh, you should repent of, of, of how you may have divorced your, your, your past spouses. If you have done that repenting, meaning asking God for forgiveness. And there's a new principle of obedience. You're now going to not even think divorce is not an option. You're going to love your spouse. And by the grace of God, you're going to cling to that. Remember we've been changed. We've been changed. It's not the unforgivable sin. And so there's a new principle of obedience. And I would say to the singles, seek a godly spouse, but you make sure you're godly. I do like to ask young men sometimes, so you want to get married? Oh, yeah, I'm praying that God will give me a godly woman. And I'm thinking, you know, that's OK, but I think you've got it all wrong. Ask God to make you be a godly man or a godly woman, whatever it may be. That's the issue. Remember, is God going to give his daughter to you? I hope so. I'd much rather have a daughter of God. Be prepared for that. Prepare yourself for that, for a godly wife. Godly husband. You know, this world doesn't take marriage and divorce, it takes our covenants and our words very lightly. It has affected us. The world is indeed fouled up. I blame the men for that. I know I'm going to have a bunch of men upset with me today, but I really don't care because I'm a man and I contributed to that. But. We need loving leaders, low view of marriage. Not so with our Lord. In fact, our Lord said in the Matthews account and in Mark, Chapter 10, that he says, except for immorality, you should stay married, marry. In fact, it was so shocking to the disciples, he says, if a man marries and divorces and marries again, he commits adultery. And the apostles were so stunned by that they said it's best not to marry this high view that Christ has of marriage. I've got to be very careful then with who I marry. That's right. God takes it serious. But, you know, we're in the 21st century and it's amazing how these people marry and they get divorced, marry and get divorced. And it just goes on and on and on. You see that with the movie stars and the ballplayers and all this. You can't help but be affected by the people at your work. Maybe it's affected you. But a low view of marriage is not a good view, a high view of marriage. Well, here's I have a final couple of questions here. In light of all that I've said, will our church still be here? Will our children marry in the Lord if our children profess faith in Jesus Christ and they marry? Will we still have a church here or will it be nothing more than a social club? Because, you know, just a few short days, this is all going to be over with. Either Christ comes back or we die. A few short days, that's all we have left. A very few short days, that's all we have left. We are in a large conflict. We have remaining sin, we have the world and we have the devil. But we have Christ, we must cling to Christ and his word, and we may need Christ and we plead with him to give us wisdom and understanding on how we should live in this perverse and wicked generation. If you got a great marriage. Thank the Lord for that. Be humble because he's been gracious to you. If his grace wasn't upon, you probably could have been in your fifth or sixth marriage. You could have been in the world on your way in breakneck speed on your way to hell. But God had mercy on you. A good marriage doesn't mean you're going to heaven, but if you're a Christian and you've been blessed with a blessed spouse, that is God's favor and his kindness and his grace upon you. Never forget that and train your children in that way as well. Trust that these words of Malachi would not be looked upon as something that's old fashioned, but we would see it as relevant for this day. Because, you know, when God put this together, he had this in mind. He had our age in mind. That's the great God that we serve. Let's close in prayer. Father, we pray for mercy. We do pray that you would take these words and seal them to our hearts. Our prayer, O Father, is that we would not be influenced by this world and captivated by it, but that we would be taken up with your glory, with your holy word and those things that are best for us. You've given us that which is good for our souls. We thank you for your kindness to us. And we do pray for those here that still may be strangers of grace, still may be sons or daughters of a foreign God. We pray. that you would work in them, that they would throw down their arms of rebellion against you and embrace your blessed son by faith and repentance unto life. Be gracious to us this day. We look unto you that you would continue to bless in the service, especially in the evening as our brother Drew Hall comes to preach. Be gracious to us as a people. We do pray for our fellowship afterwards. It would be honoring to you. For we do pray in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.