Would you please take your Bible and turn to Malachi chapter one? We're going to look at the first five verses tonight, and I'm thankful that I have been given this passage. It's an easy passage to understand. It's not so easy to live. I'd like to read the verses and then we will dive into it tonight. The Bible says in verse number one, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel By Malachi, I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye 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 says the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down and they shall call them or others shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord have indignation forever. And your eyes shall see and ye shall say the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel. As you can see from the handout that you have been given, the title of our study tonight is A People Loved by God. Warren Wiersbe has said that when an unbeliever sins, he has broken the law of God. Then he went on to say, but when a believer sins, he also breaks the heart of God. And as Malachi begins his message, the burden of the word of the Lord, Israel was breaking the heart of their God. They were breaking God's heart with their sin of complacent, apathetic, half-hearted worship. They were breaking God's heart with conscious, willful and intentional disobedience to the law of God. Malachi is going to address the sin of thievery. He's going to address the sin of disloyalty. He's going to address the sin of just overall cold heartedness towards the Lord. And yet the children of Israel are remaining staunchly religious. They are doing the temple sacrifices. They are not about to miss the religious things that they are supposed to do. Oh, but it was the mere trappings of religion. The vibrancy was gone. The heart was gone. And it's my belief, and I believe this is what Malachi is presenting, that they were breaking the heart of God because they had lost their heart for God. And I like it because God Almighty, through Malachi, hits God's people straight between the eyes as it very first begins with this thought. I have loved you. Where is your love for me? And if you could boil down this first five verses into one statement, I think that's it. God says, I have loved you. You are a people that is loved by God. So where is your love for me? Could it be tonight that your God is asking the same question of you? We're good, faithful folks. At the Wednesday night service, I'm thankful that you're here. I'm thankful that you brought your Bible, that you want to hear from God. But could it be that God could ask you this question as he looks at your heart? I have loved you, but I don't see much love for me from you. You see, when God sees your heart. There is no mask that you can hide behind, we can put up the facade, we can put up the little parameters around us that we hope people will think of us a certain way when we're here at church. But before God, you can't hide behind that. As God looks at your heart, does he see you striving to love him in the way in which he has loved you? Have you slipped into some complacency of late? Have you slipped into some disobedience of late? Have you slipped into some apathy? Are you keeping up the routine of church, but have lost the vibrancy in it? Well then, the first five verses of Malachi are for us. And what I'd like to do is take what Malachi presented here. I believe that Malachi is presenting four statements regarding God's love. Four statements regarding God's love. And I'd like to walk through that. apply as we go along. The first statement regarding God's love that Malachi brings out is found in the first part of verse number two, and it's this. God's love is declared for His people. Right off the bat, the very first thing out of the mouth of Malachi from the heart of God is, I have loved you, saith the Lord. Now, when you think of the minor prophets, you don't think very Very much, it's a positive message, but what a positive way to start the prophecy. What an uplifting, affirming, assuring word of hope. I have loved you. Now, as you read it in our English language, if you're not careful, you can assume that you can read it as a past tense. I have loved you. This is not a once upon a time I loved you. In other words, think of it this way. God is saying I am in the process of loving you. I have loved you in the past. I am in the process of loving you now and I will be loving you down the road. I have always loved you, my people. Not a once upon a time love, but I'm in the process of loving you. Now, this is not syrupy, sentimental words that have no action backing it, not at all. What God is saying is this. I have repeatedly loved you. I have persistently demonstrated my love for you. I have graced you. I have lavished my favor upon you. I haven't given you just enough love. I have given you more than enough love. You are my people. I have graced you. I have loved you. I have poured out my favor on you more than you'll ever need. Now, you would think by reading this statement and such a display of the love of God for his people, you would think that this love would be would be displayed and demonstrated to an object that was worthy of that type of love. Such is not the case, because who is the you? It is Israel. The sons of Jacob. Sam Horn said this. I have it on there for you. When one considers even the briefest period of Israel's history, they appear as the most ungrateful and unworthy recipients of such divine favor. Yet love them, God did consistently, faithfully, deeply in the midst of their deepest rebellion and most heinous wickedness. God amazingly loved them. For 38 books, There has been repeated failure, 38 books of repeated hypocrisy, 38 books of repeated sin, repeated wickedness, 38 books of repeated idolatry. And Book 39 opens. I have loved you. Oh, the jaw dropping love of God. I am 29 years old. Not for much longer, but I'm 29 years old. And I have had 29 years of repeated failure. I have had 29 years of disobedience. I have had 29 years of idolatry and apathy, impurity and hypocrisy. And yet it is of the Lord's mercy that I am not consumed because his compassion Fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness. Folks, no eye has ever seen a God like our God. No ear has ever heard of a God like this God. You are accepted. You are welcomed on the knee of God. No matter how unworthy you are, because you are in God's family. He has accepted you. You are welcomed. You are a part. You belong. You're unique. I have loved you. As Jeremiah 31 3 says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. No matter the hypocrisy of your life. You are still loved. Even chastening by God is but love for the erring child. Everything God has done in the life of Israel and everything God has done in the life of you has been motivated from love. You are the object of His love, even though you're unworthy of it, repeatedly unworthy. Malachi starts off with, This statement, God's love is declared for His people. But I see a second statement. God's love is doubted by His people. Verse 2, I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? It's as though they said, time out, Malachi. What did you just say? What did God just say? He loves us? Wherein hast thou loved us? In what ways have you loved us? Can you give me some proof of this so-called love? Now, my question is, why did they question God's love? Why did they challenge God's love? Well, it's pretty simple to figure out. Life wasn't working real well for them. Life wasn't turning out like they thought it would turn out. Life wasn't working according to their carefully laid plans. Life wasn't working according to their hope. I mean, think about it. Their God had not protected them from the invaders of Babylon. Their cities and their land had been looted while it lay unprotected. The promised one, the Messiah, was promised to come. He still hadn't come. The bad guys had not been put down by him. There was a great promise that Israel would be an exalted nation, but that was far from reality. They still lived in the shattered remembrances of what they used to have. Oh, even the temple had been rebuilt, but it was a far cry from what Solomon's temple had been. Everything they thought was going to come to pass had not come to pass. Every day was the same. God didn't seem so faithful. God didn't seem so loving. And so, they did the temple thing every day out of an exhausted habit. I could be speaking to someone here this evening. For you, it hasn't appeared of late that God's been real faithful to you. That God's been real loving to you. And let's be honest, life is hard, especially on Wednesday. Life is hard. God, my marriage shouldn't be this hard. The problems in my family shouldn't be this hard. The financial strain shouldn't be this hard. My career path shouldn't have gone this way. And you had some dreams at one point, but they faded into oblivion. You had great plans, but they've disappeared. They've crumbled. You had great goals, but they're not going to be realized. And you keep doing the church thing. And you keep coming. And you keep coming. But in your heart of hearts, you sit back and you say, OK, I don't know why God is making my life so hard. And it could be, truth be told, that someone may be a little angry with God tonight. And you're not really convinced that God's love is as wonderful as everyone says it is. Because that just hasn't been my experience. Because of that, you've lost your vibrant, consuming love for the Lord Jesus. Maybe it used to be there, that excitement, that consuming zeal used to be there, but you've lost it because life's tough. And it hasn't worked out like you thought it was going to. And you find yourself in a rut. You find yourself in just the routine of Christianity. And the problem with Israel in this day was that they were evaluating God by how they were feeling and by the outside circumstances that were being pressed upon them. And, folks, you cannot evaluate God based on your feelings. Feelings come, feelings go. God remains constant. And you've got to find out what is God like as he reveals himself in this book, not on how you feel on any given day. But see, Israel had gotten to the point, God's people had gotten to the point where they were so insensitive and so hard-hearted and so much in the routine that they said, I'm not really sure, God, that you do love us. I mean, forget the fact that they had their land restored to them and that they got to be with their families and they had restored temple and restored worship. And forget their long history of how God had worked all the way through them, how God had given them covenant promise after covenant promise. Man, forget all that. Life is hard today. What have you done for me recently? You can't base God on that. You can't base His love on that. You'll lose your heart if you do that. That's what happened here. God's love is doubted by His people. Oh, but God is very patient with His people. Aren't you glad He's patient with us? In the last part of verse 2 through verse 4, I see a third statement Malachi gives. Not only is God's love declared to His people and God's love is doubted by His people, but now God's love is displayed to His people. God didn't have to answer them. God didn't have to provide proof and further evidence of His love, but He chose to. Let's read it. Wherein hast thou loved us? And this is God's answer. 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." What in the world are we talking about? Look at that first phrase back in verse 2. Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Do you remember Jacob and Esau? Jacob and Esau, twin brothers. Both coming from Isaac and Rebekah. Isaac, the second patriarch. the second in line of the covenant promise of God, they have two children, Esau, Jacob, the twins. Esau is a little bit older. And what God does here in these next few verses to Israel is He puts up Esau and his descendants, which, by the way, is the nation, was the nation of Edom. And then He presents Jacob and his descendants, which is to this day the nation of Israel. And he puts them up both saying, you both came from Isaac and Rebekah. And he's going to contrast his actions with the two brothers and their descendants. And he says this was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau. What in the world does this mean? Well, it means this, though Esau was the older one, though Esau was first in line, if you will, for the blessing and to carry on the covenant promise and the spiritual leadership of the family passed down through Isaac. Though Esau was older, God chose to love Jacob over Esau. And he says, I love Jacob, but I hated Esau. A lot of people have a problem with that. The idea of hatred, well, this is and people are all over the map on what they think it means, and this is what I've come to believe what it means. When he says that God hated Esau and loved Jacob, I think he was meaning this, that God's loving actions or the actions of love that he gave towards Israel were so much more astounding than the actions of love that he demonstrated toward Edom, that it seemed like God hated Edom in comparison with his astounding, lavish love on Jacob and his descendants. You can think of it as a comparative love, but that seems to be kind of a weak way of looking at it. But the truth is, he said, I looked at both of you and I said, I am going to I'm going to pass on the covenant promise through Jacob. In reality, what happened was that God rejected Esau and his descendants Edom as his covenant people. just like he rejected Moab, just like he rejected Egypt, just like he rejected Ammon and all the other nations out there. He just chose one nation. And it was Jacob's descendants. You may say, well, why did he say that God hated Esau? I think we're missing the point. Why did God choose Jacob? That's the point that God is giving a cross. I mean, think about it, folks. Why did He choose Israel for His special spiritual purposes? Why? Why did God choose that Jacob would be the one through whose line Jesus Christ would come? Why? I don't know all the answers. But I do know a couple of things. I do know that everything God does is right. The Bible says, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And if God did something that made it right. So there was nothing wrong in his choosing Jacob and Israel as his covenant people, just as there was nothing wrong with his choosing not Esau and his descendants and in rejecting him. I also know this. That based on God's super knowledge, His all-knowing capability, His omniscience, that God saw, could see the character of the two boys when they were still in the womb. The Bible says in Genesis 25-23, the Lord said unto her, that is Rebecca, watch it, two nations are in thy womb and two manner of people. That tells me two different types of people. shall be separated from my bowels and the one people shall be stronger than the other people. And the elder Esau shall serve the younger Hebrews chapter 12, verses 16 and 17 gives us a picture, a New Testament clarification of the character of Esau that you may not get when you read the Old Testament. The writer of Hebrews says this, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. Why? For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it, though he sought the blessing, though he sought the birthright. carefully with tears. Do not sit here tonight and think that poor Esau was one country bumpkin simpleton who was out in the field all day and he comes in and crafty brother Jacob steals his birthright. He just didn't know what hit him. That wasn't the case at all. Oh, there was a lot of craft and deception in Jacob. Don't make no mistake about that. But what we see here in Hebrews is that Esau was not prepared to carry on the spiritual leadership of the family. Esau had little interest in spiritual things. You know, he married two women. They were both pagan foreign women. One was a Hivite and one was a Hittite. But you contrast Esau and the projection of his life and the character of his heart. Compare that with, though he was no angel, you compare it with Jacob and you see completely contrasting hearts. Jacob wanted God. Jacob pursued God. I know that God could have looked in the womb and already have seen the projection of where their lives would go and the heart behind it. But all I know is Jacob chose the God of his father and the God of his father chose Jacob. He had great interest in the things of God. I don't know why he chose Jacob. But the fact remains, he did. And God's point through Malachi is this. Here is the proof. Here is the evidence, Israel, that I do love you. I've told you I love you. You're my people. And I'll show you why I love you. Because I chose you. Folks, do you realize who you are tonight? As we are here in the church age, in the New Testament age, a part of the body of Christ, Out of six plus billion souls on the planet tonight that God could have brought into his family, he chose you. Now, unfortunately, as soon as I say that, there are some of us in here that our minds run to the sticky question. Well, then. What you're saying is because God chose some for salvation, therefore he chose some For damnation and hell. Now, folks, I personally do not believe the Bible teaches that. And that's a completely different topic for a completely different day. But can we just put our mind to rest for a minute and say, and don't go all those controversial things right off the bat and just stop and meditate on the fact that God wanted you. God chose you. He didn't have to. But He did. You are a part of the family of God. So hold your head up high. You are unique. You are chosen. God wanted you and He didn't have to. He could have chosen Esau, but He chose Jacob. And we leave that with God. I've often told the teenagers this. I may have mentioned it to you as well. But when you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior, the best part of salvation was not that you escaped hell. The greatest part of your salvation is that you got God. You have entered into a relationship with the Creator Eternal One. You are His and He is yours. You are a people. loved by God. Don't you doubt when things go wrong in your marriage and in your life and in your family that God's love isn't as wonderful as what other people say it is. You don't understand. God wanted you. And he still does. Well, can I give you a brief summary of verses of the rest of verse three and four? just to give you an understanding of what he's saying. He said, basically, that I chose you. And then he's going to say in the rest part of verses 3 and 4 is this, that I blessed you and I brought judgment on Edom, the descendants of Esau. Let's look at it. In the end of verse number 3, he says he laid Esau's mountains, that's his land, and his heritage, waste for the dragons of the wilderness. This is like the desert jackals, or in other words, the scavenger beasts of the desert. What does this mean? Like Israel, when Babylon came a-knocking, Edom went down, just like Israel. And God allowed Edom and that nation, just like His own people Israel, allowed them to be devastated. Okay? Look at verse 4. Whereas Edom saith, now that it's all said and done, we are impoverished. Oh, but we will return and build the desolate places. We'll go back home. We'll be better than we were before. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down. Verse three, like Israel, Edom was devastated by Babylon. First part of verse four, unlike Israel, they're not getting their land back. And his point is to Israel, listen, I do love you. I'm giving you your land back. I'm blessing you. I'm restoring you to your land. I'm giving you. I'm remaining true to my covenant promise to Abraham that your descendants, that this land will be theirs forever. I am remaining faithful to you. I am blessing you. I'm not blessing your cousins or brothers, however you want to look at it. That's his point. But look at the last part of verse four. And others shall call Edom the border of wickedness, the land, the wicked land and the people against whom the Lord have indignation forever. Here's the idea. Malachi says, here's a contrast. You will know God's love. Here it is. God's love on Israel versus God's anger on Edom. Now, there may be someone in here and in your heart of hearts, your heart bleeds for those who seem to be unjustly dealt with. There may be an inkling that you say, it doesn't seem really fair by God, a God who is love, who would have love on Israel and anger and continual anger and judgment on Edom. That doesn't seem fair. You need to read Obadiah sometime and you'll find out. God had been more than fair. God had been patient. You see, Obadiah was a prophet to Edom and his message to Edom was this. You have brought great violence to Israel, your brothers. Therefore, God's judgment will be upon you and you read about it. in Obadiah, that when Babylon came to take away Judah, which was the last remaining remnant of Israel, came to take away that southern kingdom, that Judah went and appealed to Edom, who was right across the border, please come help us. And they had been rejected by Edom. There was no assistance given by Edom. When Babylon came, guess what the Edomites did? They joined up with the Babylonians. And eventually it ruined them, too, but they joined up with the with the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, and then they fought against Israel. Many people in Israel and Judah tried to flee to the mountains and flee through the desert and flee all the way with them and their families, seeking a place of shelter. And you read Obadiah, the Edomites set up roadblocks, kept them in the place where Babylon could go after them. After Judah was captured by Babylon, there was great rejoicing in Edom that Israel had been captured. And now with Jerusalem kind of laying waste, guess who showed up at Jerusalem to loot the city? But Edomites. You see, this judgment of God on the enemies of God's people was warranted. By the way, that will be true as well. Those who attack God's people do not get right with God, do not bow their heart in submission and salvation to God, will suffer the wrath of the Lamb. God displays His love for Israel. I chose you. I blessed you. I didn't choose them. I judged them. Okay, so what? At the end of the day, on Wednesday night. So what? Edom doesn't survive. Israel still is. Yay, I'm glad God loved Israel. Remember, you are God's people. As we get to verse number five, we're going to look at the fourth and final statement, and it is this. God's love is demanding of His people. In other words, God's great love for His people demands that His people magnify Him. Can I put it another way? Because God loves you, you should make much of God in your life and in your lips. In what you say and how you live, when you understand and you meditate and you think upon the fact that I am dearly loved by God, it must translate into your making much of your God. Look at verse 5. And your eyes, Israel shall see, shall see what? Shall see the blessing and the choosing for you and the judgment and the rejecting of them. Your eyes shall see and you shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel. Israel must see that God blessed them and judged Edom. Therefore, with their lips and with their life, they must say the Lord be magnified. And as they lift up the name of God and as they magnify Him and make much of Him, there will be people from other nations who will look and say, I want that God. That's what verse five is talking about. God's love demands something back from you. Oh, you are divinely loved. You are dearly loved. It has been demonstrated time and time again. But God's love for you demands something back from you. You know what it demands? Your full heart of devotion to Him. It demands a heart that makes much of Him. Folks, listen, God's not interested in pieces of your heart. He's not even interested in large portions of your heart and of your mind. He wants the entirety of you. And we can compartmentalize and say God can have this and this and this and this and this, but chances are the Holy Spirit perhaps has already pointed something in your life, brought something to your mind right now that you say, you know what? I'm not allowing Jesus in there. God wants that right now. And if you do not give that over to Him, it will cause you to lose your heart for Him. God wants the entirety of you. God wants the entirety of your mind. He wants the entirety of your body. He wants the entirety of your affections. He wants you and all of you or he wants none of you. Charles Wesley wrote a song. That we sing periodically, it's entitled Love Divine, All Loves Excelling. When I was a little boy, I'd see that title and I'd think, oh, my soul, what in the world are we singing about? Love divine, all loves excelling. Let me put it to you in another way. Nobody can love you like God loves you. That's what it means. There's no greater love than the love of God. Love divine, all loves excelling. In the final stanza, Wesley talks about what it's going to be like in heaven. He says this, speaking to God. Finish then Thy new creation. Pure and spotless let us be. Let us see Thy great salvation perfectly restored in Thee. Changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place, till we cast our crowns before Thee, lost in wonder, love and praise. Question, when was the last time you were lost in wonder, love and praise on Sunday morning? I'm talking about that when you step into this building on a Sunday, you are so full of God already, you can hardly stand it. And as the songs are sung and as the choir sings, you are just all praise God. And as Pastor Greg says, turn in your hymnal or look up there or wherever, open your songbook and let's sing love divine, all loves excelling. Let's sing all hail the power of Jesus name. You actually get excited. Or maybe a tear escapes your eye every now and then. But you don't care what others think about you. You're just going to sing and you're going to worship God. You're lost in the wonder of who God is. You're actually excited about an old Bible study. And you've actually read the passage in Matthew before you came. And you've already kind of thought, maybe you can go in this direction. When was the last time you were lost in the wonder of your salvation? I'll admit to you and must confess to you that every week, I don't know if you realize this, but as a preacher, I'm very aware of this. Sunday comes every week and with the same crowd every week, you've got to be ready with a message. And so I get lost sometimes in the study. I get lost in the text. And boy, I start studying it and I start thinking, how am I going to outline this thing? What's what's it being what's being said? How is it going to apply? How will I you know, how will I keep the teenagers attention with this? I'm not even sure what it says, you know, and I really get lost in it. And I'm afraid more often than I care to realize. I have completely lost track of God. Fanny Crosby, in her song, Blessed Assurance, ends one of the stanzas with, lost in His love. Does that characterize you? Are you a routine worshiper? Sunday comes every week. Wednesday comes every week. Blessed God, I'm going to be there. My mind may not. My body's going to be there. We've all been there before. It should be the exception and not the rule. Lost in the wonder of the Word of God and the God of the Word as you come to Him every day. I'm afraid for most of us, though we are good, faithful attenders, we're more lost in the wonder of a pet project or a hobby than we are lost in the love of Jesus. We're lost in the wonder of a worthy cause. We're lost in the wonder of what money could purchase. We're lost in the wonder of clothes and fashion. We're lost in the wonder of gadgets and computers. I mean, that gets us wound up. We're lost in the wonder of sporting events. We're lost in the wonder of grandchildren. We're lost in the wonder of video games and entertainment and personal time, me time. I've got to have me time. We're lost in the wonder of a teenage crush. Would you consider yourself lost in Jesus? Remember, we can look one way while we're here, but God goes right behind that mask and He sees your heart. You're going to break the heart of God when you lose your heart for God. And that's what they had done. And the rest of the sins of Malachi are going to point back to these five verses. You have committed this atrocity and this wickedness and this thievery and this sin against me because you don't love me. Folks, hear the words of the Lord tonight. I have loved you. Where is your love for me? Something to consider. You're a people loved by God. Is He a God loved by you? Heavenly Father, thank you very much for the message of Malachi. And Lord, I pray as we come on Wednesday nights, we would not come with a thought of, oh great, another Malachi message. May we come with a heart that wants to be lost in the wonder of who you are. I pray that You would stir within us a heart that wants You above anything else, and that as You put and if You put Your finger on a compartment in our life that we have not let Jesus in and control of, that You would break us of that stubbornness, that You would help us to get rid of it and turn that over and allow You to have full control, the entirety, of our being. In Jesus' name, Amen.