As I alluded to in my prayer, I got a call late last night from Pastor Joe who was not doing well. He's noticing as he continues to rehab through this issue that he has good days and then he'll also have bad days and he was having a pretty bad day at least yesterday and last night. He did not think he could be here. He asked me to share the word with you this afternoon. I'd like to share a word that I actually shared a couple of years ago with the Tracy Bible Study from the book of Malachi and it deals with a theme that is seen throughout the book. We took a survey or an overview of the book of Malachi with a few of the themes before we got into the book because these themes were carried throughout the whole book, a very small book as you know, but important issues and so I'd like to share that with you today. So if you turn to Malachi, that last book of the Old Testament, and while you're turning there I'll just give you a brief background and I will repeat the background as we go through the different the different sections. I did not have time to get that to Peter who always prints faithfully the outline. But in the book of Malachi, we'll give a brief background and setting of this book. And then we're going to come across one of the questions that the Lord asks his people and the people's response to this question. And then we're going to give six reasons or six responses that God gives in response or to reply to God's people's response and then we'll have some applications. Now, most of what I'm going to share with you this afternoon is it's more application rather than interpretation. So, I just wanted to mention that. But let's then in Malachi, let's read the first four verses of chapter 1. The Burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet you say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, we are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down and they shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord has indignation forever. And your eyes shall see and ye shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel." The question that we're going to look at is the question of God's love for his people and it's pretty amazing, it's pretty astonishing, it's pretty startling that God tells them, I have loved you, and their immediate response is, wherein hast thou loved us? And in this chapter, and then we'll look at a few again by way of overview, a few of the reasons that God tangibly, dramatically shows his people that in fact he does love them. But let's begin first of all with a little bit of a background and a little bit of a setting. Similar to Revelations chapter 2 and 3, God by his prophet brings this message to a people that had become somewhat lukewarm, somewhat ritualistic, somewhat forgetful, saints who were not living up to the caliber that they should have been. At this time, approximately 50,000 exiles had returned from Judah, to Judah from Babylon. The temple had already been rebuilt by Zerubbabel and later Ezra and Nehemiah had come to help finish that building. and helping to re-inaugurate the preaching of God's word and some religious semblance to that culture. But after the people had been back in the land, I think for about a hundred years, there was quite frankly a widespread departure. from God's word, God's ways by the people. And Malachi, the prophet of God, was called upon to rebuke sharply. the people, to admonish them, to condemn their practices and to restore them back to God. God's love for his people is one of the major themes that does pervade this book. And even though God's people at this juncture thought their love relationship could be maintained with ritual, with form, with resting on past experiences, yet Malachi brings this clear message that God wanted not just outward compliance to the law as they perceive the law, but he wanted an inward acceptance of the person of God. He was interested in a vital relationship with himself. You recall the Lord mentions the same thing to the Pharisees when he says, you've tithed these spices, cumin, anise, and you've tithed, you've done these outward things, but you've neglected the weightier matters of the law. It wasn't in their heart. It wasn't outliving itself through the people. The amazing thing, if you're familiar with the book of Malachi, the setting of Malachi, depending on how you count, there is at least seven and perhaps nine questions that God brings to his people through these books. And immediately after the question, God's people have a response back to God as though God is not speaking truth. An immediate response back to God as though they can reply against God and prove to God that God is wrong. It's a very startling thing to see these seven or perhaps nine questions God brings to his people and the people having this adamantly hard heart that in fact replies against God. You would think that if God came with these truths that they would at least stop to think. What is God saying? What does God mean? Can I trace God's thoughts through our history or through my own heart? God through this book is a very outgoing, a very patient God trying to bring his people back. even though they are very stiff-necked and hard-hearted, asking God, what do you mean? Prove what you are saying. We're reminded of that thought in Romans 9. Nay, O man, who are thou that thou replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Again, the worship had become very lukewarm, very terrible. The people were not in open rebellion to God. They were back in the land after the captivity. Perhaps some of them had even worked on the temple or the walls. Perhaps they had offered sacrifices. Outwardly, they were following the law of Moses as it was if you'll pardon the expression, redefined in that day. And if you had asked them how they were doing spiritually, they might have said, okay. But it was not God's evaluation. God immediately gets to the heart of the issue. God puts his finger on the minds and the consciences of the people. And God confronts the apathy. He confronts the lukewarmness with these people. Not unlike a people today who can go through the motions, who can think that because they have done things in the past that all is well, again, God is going to take the initiative to try to bring his people back using his love as one of the motivations for his people. So that's a little bit of the background. Now I would like to look at the question and the response. First of all, God says in verse two, I have loved you, saith the Lord. And then, what is this question that these people give back? They answer, wherein hast thou loved us? They doubted God's love. As we mentioned, one of the grand themes of this book is God's desire that his people who had seriously backslidden, had grown religious, ritualistic, apathetic, would return to him. So he reminds them, first and foremost of his love, as though that should have been enough to provoke some kind of response in them. And again, they give this alarming response, wherein hast thou loved us? Maybe they did not verbalize it, but they at least thought it. Perhaps they talked among themselves. Do you see God working in the camp? Do you see God in the sanctuary? Why are the wicked prospering and we are not? Again, there can be no felt love of God if we are ritualistic, if we have divided affections, if we have terrible worship. if we are skimming along the surface. And it's clearly a sign that these people had spiritual declension when they could not even perceive his goodness. They were apathetic. They were forgetful, unmoved, counting his goodness as a light thing, as the manna from above. Again, it's a very alarming response. I know most of you pretty well, and if God's word came to you, I have loved you. I would be shocked if any one of you said, wherein hast thou loved us? I don't believe you love us. But again, these people, that was their response. So what does God say? What does God do in response to this? Well, God is going to give throughout this book many proofs of his love. I'd like to just briefly touch on six of them. Six very tangible things that should have told his people then that should tell us now that in fact his love is as strong as death as the scripture says. Number one, the number one proof of God's love from our passage is that God expresses this love using the word burden. In verse one, it's his burden to tell his people that he loves them. It's not, oh, by the way, I love my people. It's not an afterthought. It's not like our love to God sometimes, it is a burden. Now, the word burden here is not used to mean a grievous weight. It's not a grievous weight, hard to be born, but this word is used to signify that it's a heavily pressing weight. It's a message that has to be delivered. Primarily in the Old Testament, Jeremiah and Zechariah used this word often, this burden of the Lord that God places on them that they have to share with the people. They were not triflers. These prophets did not run to and fro entertaining the people. They had to share this message. And so it is now. God's word as it's delivered by his messengers, his preachers, his teachers, most of the time we can say it should be a burden. And when you trace the stream back to the source, you can understand why the word that is taught or preached is serious, it's important, It has to keep all of its integrity. It cannot be changed to make it palatable. That's why typically you will not hear jokes or entertainment or wordsmithing to change the message. It's okay to be winsome, to have an engaging personality as you share that word. It's okay to decorate the Word of God, if you will, with illustrations. Jesus used illustrations, but the core issue is it's the burden of the word of the Lord. God had this burden that he wanted to tell the people. I have loved you. That was his burden. It was not a light thing. It was not an afterthought. This burden is divinely inspired. As we said, it's weighty. The scripture says, thou hast magnified thy word even above thy name in the book of Psalms. It has weighty consequences. That word that was shared, if it's believed on or if it's disannulled or disbelieved, those consequences in those hearers' life is very marked. Malachi, I'm sure, understood what Paul would later say, that he would be a saver of life unto life and death unto death. To the one, life, a saver of life. To the other, a saver of death. But he knew he had to, because he believed, he had to speak. It was in the sight of God that he spoke God's Word. This was a burden. This is the first proof that God actually loved his people. God was saying it was a burden. If one of your closest brothers or sisters in the Lord came and grabbed you by the shoulders and said, I just have this burden I have to tell you. Whatever they told you, would you dismiss it? Would you think, oh, that's not that important? It was a burden. The second proof God uses is the case history of Jacob. In verse 2, he says, I have loved you, yet you say, wherein hast thou loved us? And God says, was not Jacob excuse me, was not Esau Jacob's brother? If you were Jewish, then this response by God would be very piercing. What God does is essentially take them back to the very beginning of his interaction with them. and he reminds them of a distinguishing act of grace. You recall that Jacob and Esau were twins, both in the covenant line of Abraham, both born to the patriarchs, Isaac and Rebecca. And what does the scripture say about Esau and about Jacob? It says, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, so that the purposes of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then, is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid, for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." The people in Malachi's day say, wherein hast thou loved us? And God says, remember Jacob and Esau. Remember distinguishing grace. Remember a special love that was set upon Jacob. Esau was the firstborn. He should have had the privileges but God says the elder will serve the younger. Now I'm sure many of you have read Spurgeon's sermon on Jacob and Esau and he makes the point that It's easy to understand how God could hate Esau. After all, Esau was a bad person in the sense that he did not follow the Lord. Esau was not interested in spiritual things. What's difficult to understand when it says God loved Jacob because Jacob as well was a deceiver. Jacob stole the birthright and Jacob stole the blessing. Esau got angry over that but he later got over it and he actually forgave Jacob. But both men were sinners and yet God chose Jacob and he rejected Esau. For the Israelites in Malachi's day, What God was reminding them of was that they were a highly favored people. He was reminding them of distinguishing grace. He was reminding them that they were a chosen people. This doctrine should have affected how they thought about God, how they thought about man, how they thought about sin and salvation. God, in essence, was reminding them of something that he said in Deuteronomy when he gave the reason of why he loved them. He says, I did not set my love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers, Has the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen? He was saying, I loved you because I loved you. God was reminding them, the sons of Jacob, that God loved Jacob and that subsequent race, those that would trust and believe in him. So it is for the Christian if you ever doubt God's love. Remember that the same response in essence is the response that God could give you if you doubt his love. God says of all of his own I have loved you with an everlasting love. I love you in a way that is commensurate with my person my divinity. He does not love as a man loves. He loves as an infinite God loves. And he asks you to believe him. The problem with the Israelites then is they were looking on the outward. They were looking at those things which are temporal, those things which are seen, and judging by their circumstances, judging by their situation, they concluded, God must not love us. In fact, most of the things that came upon them, they brought upon themselves because they were not wholly following the Lord. The evidence of God's grace is not always seen with the eye of the flesh. This is a monumental saying to God. It's his first, his second response to a people that would question his love. He says, was not Esau Jacob's brother? Yet I have set my love upon you. The Lord appeared unto me of old, Jeremiah says. Yes, I have loved thee with an everlasting love and with loving kindness have drawn you. Thirdly, he proves his love to his people. As we read after that question and that response by his people, when he says, I hated Esau, I laid his mountains and his heritage waste and leaving them for the dragons of the wilderness to be wasted. His third proof of his love is the withholding of some judgments is a sign of his love. He withheld some judgments from his people. But as we read in verse 3, verse 4, Esau or Edom understood God's judgment upon even their temporal situation. They ended up living in a very impoverished, is the King James word, way. It seems as though everything they touched, would not come to fruition. What about the sons of Jacob? What about God's covenant people? As soon as they are marked out, as soon as they become God's people, everything changes. Once a child of darkness, now a child of light. Once at enmity with God, now a friend of God. Once man at his best state altogether vanity now purpose. Now satisfaction now reasons once under the wrath of God. Now he has not dealt with us according to our sins. Once an individual becomes a believer everything changes and anything short of total destruction is love in action. Esau, Edom, usually taken for the land, sees the opposite. There's often issues of destruction, often issues of banishment from the presence of the Lord. They were left with a rebellious heart. You know, God's people had hard times, but they never had hard times like that. Christians today go through difficult situations, but you do not go through what the unbeliever goes through. You still know where to find your God. You still know that you have access into his temple. You still know that God has an end in view. Again, the people in Malachi's day, always we're looking on the outward. Oh, that church over there, that's a bigger church. They have more things happening. Maybe they're more useful in the kingdom. Why isn't God fulfilling his promises to me, to my church? Why do I, why do we struggle financially? Why do I have this issue in my life or that issue in my life? Again, we sometimes look at the outward and we think that is giving us the final message. This is what the people did in Malachi's day. They took God to task, if you can believe it, they took God to task these seven or nine times, basically telling God, look at our situation that is proof that you don't care, that you don't love us. Remember that when you were without Christ, you were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But once you are in Christ Jesus, those who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Withholding of some of the judgments of God was a sign of his love. And parenthetically, we could say the reciprocal is true as well. God chastens those he loves. God disciplines those he loves. The fourth item that God brings up to remind him that in fact he does love them is that he has sent them four messengers to tell them the very same message. He sends them Malachi. In chapter 2, verse 4 and following, he sends them Levi, that is the priests who have the word of God. Thirdly, in chapter 3, he is going to send John the Baptist And lastly, he is going to send the messenger of the covenant, even Jesus Christ. God, you don't love us. How do you love us? And God says, in essence, I have sent, I am in the process of sending you four pivotal messengers to tell you that I love you. We think in the mouth of two or three witnesses let everything be confirmed and God sends four messengers. He did not leave them in their own ceremonialism, their ritualistic living. He did not leave them where they were in darkness without the truth. He did not leave them trying to figure out their own miserable righteousness. He sends those who have the truth so that the truth would break open upon their hearts and their lives. God sends us many messengers, does he not? He sends spouses, children. He sends parents. Your parents are messengers of the covenant in that sense to bring God's Word to you. He sends friends. He sends many messengers repeating gospel truth. Malachi, Levi, he says he's going to send a messenger before that premier messenger Jesus Christ, God who at one time spoke through the prophets, spoke in various ways, has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things and by whom also he made the worlds. God would send his son God incarnate to bring that final word to bring the definitive word to be the living word of the great love with which he loves his people. Fifthly God says something else. about his love. In chapter 3, in verse 6, he says, proof of my love, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. God's nature is such that he cannot change. He cannot change. He cannot change his love. The Israelites said, wherein hast thou loved us? It's as though God is saying, let me tell you something about my nature, my character. I change not. So if I set my love upon you at one time, even eternity past, my love will continue to keep you until that day when we sit down together. at the marriage supper of the land. You, if you belong to him, at this very moment, you are on the mind of God himself. He is thinking about you. He is loving you. He is planning expressions of love that he will send you tomorrow and next month and next year. This is what he says, I do not change. God's people changed all the time. They were constantly changing. Backsliding, lukewarm, coming back to God, falling away, coming back, tripping up, stumbling, coming back. I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob. or not consumed. I, for one, am thrilled that God changes not, because I change, as do you. And we stumble and we trip and we fall. Our love, sometimes it's on fire, it's strong, it's great. Other times it waxes and wanes. God changes not." Notice he says, you sons of Jacob, getting back to the Jacob I have loved. I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob, remember I've already said, Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. Therefore, you are not consumed. Everything else changes, our culture, our society, economic, political, The universe, creation is constantly changing. He does not change. He is the father of lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. His will is the eternal purpose which he has purposed in himself. He neither faints nor is he weary. He can abide in a bush that is not consumed, though that bush be on fire. He says, I will not alter the thing that has gone out from my lips. God says by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we have strong consolation. God says the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. God is immutable. God is telling these people if they would listen, I, the Lord, change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. God's sixth response to their questioning of his love, he says in chapter 3 and verse 16, And verse 17, then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. The sixth proof of God's love is that God promises a full distinction and manifestation of his love will be made. Someday, some point in the future, God promises a full distinction and manifestation of his love will be made. And once again, he asks his people to trust him. to have faith, to persevere, to stay the course. So these six things God responds and there are more in this book of Malachi. But his proof of his love is that number one, it's a burden. Number two, he reminds them of the covenant he made with Jacob saying specifically Jacob and his progeny, Jacob, I have love. Thirdly, he reminds them that he has actually withhelden some of the judgments. That's a sign of his love. But as well, we know divine chastening and discipline is also a sign of his love. He says, fourthly, I have sent you four messengers with the same message. Fifthly, he reminds them that God does not change. And sixthly, he says that there will one day be made a full distinction and a manifestation of his love and there will not be a single person that will doubt on that day whether or not he in fact loves you. Let me close briefly then with three applications. I hinted at that there can be times in the believer's life when we too can question God's love, doubt his workings. We're all prone I think occasionally to indifference to God's love. And I think our text gives three reasons why we become indifferent and these three by way of application we need to understand. First of all, we grow indifferent to God's love because we actually forget the urgency of the message. It's so commonplace today to talk about the love of God, the love of Christ. Yet God as he sends his messenger to these people, as his book reminds us, this is a burden. This is a weighty issue. It's not something that you can ignore. It's weighty. It's a burden today. Tomorrow it will also be a burden and weighty. God's people grew accustomed to their, what they perceived as their relationship with God. And I think therein lies the danger. The Israelites were born into the covenant community. Their whole lives from infancy were centered on their religion. They were raised in the church. It's easy to forget the urgency of this message. Again, how many messages have you heard on John 316? How many messages have you heard on John 13 verse 1? How many messages have you heard on the love of God? Multiple messengers, messages trying to drive home this very key element. So we have to be on guard that this does not become so common that it loses its edge. Secondly, we grow indifferent to God's love when we focus on our circumstances rather than God's purpose. The people in Malachi's day lost God's overall purpose, God's end game. They focused on the here and now. They looked at those things which were temporal, those things which they could touch. The prophets had predicted a golden era for Israel, for God's people. And God's people were anxious to see that fulfilled. They wanted it fulfilled now. And it was not happening. And the prophets were continually being sent to God's people. It was not happening. And then along comes Malachi and says, oh, God loves you deeply. God loves you. And they, rather than looking up, they look around and they deduce, no, God doesn't love us. Maybe God's forgotten us. Maybe God has sent us over in the parking lot to forget about us for a while. We too can grow indifferent to God's great love if we focus on our difficult circumstances rather than God's purpose for all of history. Thirdly, we can grow indifferent to God's love when we drift into a routine religious experience. This happened to God's people over and over and over again. Routine is very accommodating to our Adamic nature. Routine where we are not exercised or challenged. Routine can be bad if it causes us to be indifferent. to God's passionate, burning, demonstrated love for his people. He wants that vital personal relationship with himself. That's what I want to share with you this afternoon. This theme of love goes through the book of Malachi. What a contradiction in terms. unbelief and God's love. God's people not believing, God loves them. And God gives these six. He gives more throughout the book. But this undercurrent through the entire book of Malachi reinforces this truth. God, in fact, does vehemently and passionately love his people. Well, friends, let's be on guard that we do not fall prey to some of the circumstances that God's people did and actually question God's love. Rather, might we be proactive and diligent as we are spiritually exercised to know and to experience his love for us? Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the essence and truth as it relays to us the reality of your thoughts and your intents that are upon your heart. Father, we confess that we can think of your love in a very commonplace way. Oh, we pray by thy spirit and through thy word as that great instrument that, Father, we might know in a more deeper and richer and fuller way Your great love. Father, write Thy Word upon our heart. Write Thy Word upon our mind. Might it conform us to the image of Your dear Son. Might we truly go from strength to strength and glory to glory. We ask this in Jesus.