The Unchangeable Unshakeable Love of God

Alrighty. Good to be here. Thank you, brother Al. I'm glad you were able to use your bad hand to lead the singing. That was a bad hand.

Yeah. If anyone wants to see his the skeleton of his hand, he'll show you. It's on his phone. I'll show it whether you want to see it or not. We're going be in the book of Malachi, last book of the Old Testament today.

And I it's not quite, it's not really a Thanksgiving message but pastor Polar has a very good message in the devotional for Wednesday night and there's still some of them on the speaker over there. If you haven't picked one of those up, it's a great message and then Mr. Poe will be speaking next week and he may have a Thanksgiving message but I kind of didn't do that this year. Last year Pastor Poehler gave a message before he left so I wasn't sure but anyway it's all working out good. We're going to be in the Book of Malachi.

We'll be in Chapter one. And I'll read the scriptures in just a moment. You know, in all the centuries since creation, the human heart has not changed. It always questions what God affirms. God affirms that his love for us will always be constant and forever and the believer will always be secure in his love and God will not change.

He is a he is stable and he will be our anchor. And that's the truth but we sometimes question what God has affirmed. But if we accept and rest in this truth, we'll be a stable, steady Christian But the people in the book of Malachi that who Malachi speaks to here have began to question God's love. In fact, they question about a lot of things about what God was trying to do in their lives. Let me just give you the background here.

The nation had been in captivity but during Nehemiah and Ezra's day they had returned to Jerusalem. They had rebuilt and refurbished the temple and everything was going according to plan. Things had gotten smoother and easier. There's still some struggle but it was not as bad. And that's the problem.

The people were becoming bored and belligerent and they began to question God, even question his love for them and they become disgruntled and skeptical in their attitude which is often typical of people who have it made or have it pretty good, like us. The smoother things are in general, the more likely the more likely it is that we can become bored and belligerent. It just seems, I know I know it's true in my own life and I've observed a lot of believers through the years. I think it's true in most people. We are most spiritual when we're under burdens.

You know, that's the time we're on our knees. When things are going smooth, we seem to forget. We're not as sharp spiritually. We're not as in tune with the Lord and that's what we're seeing here in this last book of the Old Testament. God communicates through Malachi then he's silent for four hundred years.

And then the New Testament begins. That's a long period of time by the way. You could fit the whole United States history in that period of time. And then have some time left. So it's a long time and when somebody, the last thing that someone says is usually pretty significant.

You know, the last thing a person says on their dying bed, usually pretty significant. And so all scripture is significant but this is especially significant. I want to read the first five verses in Malachi chapter one. It says, The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you saith the Lord that you say wherein hast thou loved us?

Was not Esau Jacob's brother saith the Lord? Yet I love Jacob and I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Eden 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. They shall call them the border of wickedness wickedness and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever and your eyes shall see and he shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel.

Let's pray. Father we do thank you for your word. Thank you for this message that we have in Malachi that's was given by Malachi to your people back then but it's given to us too. The Bible is a fresh book that everything in it is applies to us and therefore, there are some lessons that we can get here today and just help our hearts to be open. If there be one here that's never trusted you as their savior, the Bible way, I pray this would be the day they would make that most important decision that they'll ever make.

To trust you as their personal savior and be able to leave this place as your child today. And Lord, if there be other needs that that need to be met today, spiritual needs, I pray that those would be met too. And that each and everyone of us might be able to leave this place today. Rejoicing in you. In Jesus name, I pray.

Amen. I did put an outline in the bulletin. I like to do that when I give a message so you can see where I'm coming and going and the first point there, it talks about the messenger and that's Malachi. He's very bold. You'll notice that about him.

Would have to be to pro to proclaim a message that he was given here by the Lord. Probably a very vigorous and strong personality would have been necessary to do this kind of preaching and I think Malachi probably fits that bill. He was a very spiritually mature person with a great awareness and a sensitivity to sin. And he has to confront the people because of their laxness. In fact, were if you read through Malachi, you're going to see seven or eight things that he talks to them about and that's why this is such a great book in the Bible because we often have the same struggles spiritually today.

He had to confront the people because of their indifference to the love of God. We're going to look at that the most today. Their neglect of temple service, a corrupt priesthood. He talks about mixed marriages and with the lost and rampant divorces. He talks about a decline in religious fervor followed by moral decline.

He talks about sorcery and adultery and false witnessing and those were common things in that day. He talks about the laborer and the fatherless and the widow being oppressed. He talks about them withholding the tithe which belong to God right up front And these are things, you know, if you think about them, are things that we still struggle with today and that's why this message applies to us today. So he had to confront the people but he also had to confront the religious leadership. And as soon as he started doing that, the slander and the rumor mills would start.

Because his message is a message of rebuke and condemnation. And you know, the same spirit that were that were was exhibited in these people developed later in the sex called the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the New Testament which wasn't a very good spirit. They were actually the enemies of Jesus and so we note here the moral and spiritual conditions of Israel in Malachi's day are very similar to ours. And that's why it's important to have some bold preaching in our day. We need to be challenged to live for God.

We need to be warned about sin and its consequences. You know that's one of the reasons a number of years ago we started coming here, my wife and I, as pastor Polar preaches God's word. He challenges us from God's word and and that's important in our day. And that's how we as believers can grow spiritually over a period of time. I know I'm stronger spiritually.

And I know more. Now than I did eight years ago when I came. You know, some religious groups eight years ago, you're about the same today because you're not getting God's word like we need to be getting it and Malachi here, he's bold and he has a burden and he got his burden from the Lord's word, the Bible says here. The message weighs heavily on his heart. You know, a person who is sensitive to sin and who understands that God says what he means and means what he says is troubled when they are faced with the delivering of correction and warning.

A lot of other messages are easier. To give and then, you know, as a pastor myself and preaching through the years, there's some messages that are difficult to give. There's some messages that you don't necessarily like to give. And then there are other messages, you know, they're easy to deliver and it's a joy to deliver and you know, whether or not on the on a topic like this where you have to confront with the word. This is what Malachi is doing here and delivering this message.

He's burdened when he hears of the struggles and the problems that the people are having especially when he knows that they're having those problems because rejection of doing things God's way. Nehemiah writes pretty much the same thing. In Nehemiah one four it says, and it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat I sat down and wept and mourn certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. And why do you say that? Well, the condition of God's people and the consideration of why they are in such a mess.

See, God revealed to Malachi the true condition of the people and it's not a pretty picture and his heart is very heavy. The Bible says, these are his people. These are God's people and he must warn them and Malachi is the one that God chooses to do that. And hopefully, the people get the burden as they hear the word of God. See, Malachi gets the burden from the word of God.

Malachi passes that on to the people and the hope is that they get the the burden. Transfer the burden from God to Malachi to the people and that's what he's trying to do. He's trying to stir them up. Here's the question we should ask ourselves here, are we burdened by the word of the Lord? Because that's what did it for Malachi.

It was the word of the Lord. Are we burdened for the word of the Lord? From are we burdened by the word of the Lord? Does it stir us? Well, how does that apply today?

Well, are we burdened for the lost? Are we burdened for the backslider that we know of? Are we burdened for our society? I hope so. Are we praying for our leaders?

I hope we're doing that on a regular basis. They sure need it. Are our hearts heavy at times when loved ones and friends are so far from God? I see it in our prayer time especially because we some of you, you're burdened for your loved ones and you bring up prayer requests and sometimes with tears. And that's it, man.

That's that's the way it's supposed to be with us. We're to be burdened for people. Whether it be friends, family, or even our enemies. We're to have a burden for them. Our hearts should should be burdened enough to exhort them and exhort one another to follow the Lord and here's the key, if we want to have burdens for the right thing we must allow the scripture to saturate our hearts and minds because the burden Malachi says the burden of the word of the Lord.

So that's the first thing I want you to see here is a messenger here. He's bold and he's burdened. And we continue here. Look in verse two through four here. I'll read them again.

Says, I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet she say wherein hast thou loved us, was not Esau, Jacob's brother? Saith the Lord, yet I love Jacob and I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage to 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 hath indignation forever. So, he speaks here of two groups of people. He speaks of both saved people or God's people and unsaved people and you know, both groups misunderstand God many times.

It speaks of Jacob's misconception here and when I we say Jacob, it's talking about Israel and this is the main point of the message. They they doubted God's love. God affirms his love for them but they question it in verse two. He's made it very clear that his love is for his people and it is a constant thing that's never going to change. He's made it clear that he is unchangeable in his love for us.

He loves us this way. Even your sin can't change his love for you. He loves you just as much. Even when you sin, he doesn't like your sin and he wants us to repent and and get things right with him but even when we sin, his love doesn't change. He wants his people then and now to know that.

And you know what? You know, sometimes we do doubt his love and as believers, it's almost blasphemous and and certainly is disrespectful to question the love of God for us especially in light of the what? The cross. Especially in light of the cross. And to think that God doesn't love us or God doesn't care about us.

When he does and he makes it very clear in the scripture that's never ever going to change and he made it clear in Malachi's day and yet they doubted him. There's a great song. If I if pastor Polar was here, he could sing this for you and I'm just going to read the words. I'm going to read a couple a couple of the stanzas and probably some of you have heard this song but I just love it. I like holy, holy, holy too.

We sang that last week to begin our service. You know, I could sing holy, holy, holy every every to begin every service. It just gets you in the right mindset. You know, to worship God and to, you know, focus on the things of God and this is another song. I'm going to read these verses to you and you'll get the idea and by the way, this was written by a person on the wall of a insane asylum.

They don't even know who it was. And a guy by the name of F. H. Lehman found it. He wrote it down and wrote a song.

Listen to this. Could we with ink the ocean fill and where the skies of parchment made, where every stock on earth a quill, and every man ascribed by trade. To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the hole that was stretched from sky to sky. Hey, you get the idea? How how how magnificent and immense the love of God is.

And when we think about Jesus Christ, how he chose us in grace, he died in our place, he drew us to himself, and he promises to keep us safe and secure for every evermore. And he wants us to believe him in times of hardship. He wants us to believe that in times of pressure and even in good times. And that's where we have trouble sometimes. That's where Malachi's people had trouble even in good times.

He wants us to remember his love for us. Israel had forgotten all that God had done for them. He had chosen them to be the medium for his special blessing. He has stood firm with them through a sometimes stormy history. Sometimes, he demonstrated a tough love as he warned them and chastened them.

Sometimes he demonstrates a tender love when they express joyful obedience. Israel as a nation has been preserved and protected throughout history. No nation has gone through the hardships that the Jew has experienced and survived. Syrians and Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans have come and gone And then you think of the Holocaust and and that was has happened to the Jew. And yet today, they still have their language.

They still have their culture preserved. They have not been absorbed into other nations and have disappeared like many nations have in history. You know the same is true of the church today. Look in Matthew chapter 16. The church in Israel are two different things but they are they are similar things about them.

Matthew chapter 16 verse 18. He says, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. When it comes to a struggle concerning God's love, don't look at circumstances, look at the unchangeable character of God. That's what Malachi is trying to get across to these people. His love is unchangeable period.

And when we doubt or question God's love then we don't return love back to him like he wants in faithful obedience. Then we become disgruntled and skeptical and belligerent and even bored. And that's what's happening here in Malachi chapter one. Malachi is delivering this message to to Jacob or Israel but it's also to us. So, the misconception by Israel, Jacob's people is that God didn't love them anymore.

They couldn't see God's love at work in their lives but it mentions Edom here and they have a misconception too as I've read there in verses two through four. They didn't doubt God's love, they doubted God's sovereignty. They thought they could undo God's judgment. Look in verse four again, guess. I better read that.

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 border against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. They thought they could undo God's judgment. They thought they could set their own rules. They thought they could rebuild what God had determined to destroy.

You know, that's there's a lot of places in the scripture we see that happening. Puny little man shaking shaking his fist in God's face and God just blows them away like dust and even today, man still doesn't grasp the fact that God is sovereign. Our society is exactly like I've described here. You know, all over the world. Man, just doing their own thing.

Building their own powers and thinking that God has nothing to do with life and God will never call them call them to account and they don't even believe there's a God and that's great misconception. Not grasping the fact that God is sovereign today. You know, he's not willing that he should perish, the Bible says. Look in I'll read verse two of chapter second Peter chapter three verse nine. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises.

Some men count slackness but his long suffering to us were not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He wants all mankind to come to repentance and be saved. He gives all mankind that choice. And yet many many people will choose to reject him because they think they're in control of their own lives. They think they can build their own lives.

But man cannot undo God's decisions and his plans, his sovereign plans. They can't set their own rules for life like some seem to think they can and just in just as in Malachi's day, we have a society that is turned away from God but rest assured that just as in Malachi's day, God will reveal himself. In his love, in in his mercy, in his sovereignty, in his justice, in his wrath, and it will be in his good time. You know, sometimes God displays a tough love. And sometimes he displays tender love but he displays it and he's sovereign and things will happen according to his plan.

He makes the statement that he loves Jacob and that he hates his Esau. Look in verse three there. Says, and I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage to waste for the dragons of the wilderness and then he says he loves Jacob. You know that word hate there? We have to understand this because a lot of people will take this scripture and say that in eternity past, God made the decision for people.

Like there's no free will today for us to make the decision and God's already made that decision and it doesn't matter who you are or what you do, you're either going to be saved or unsaved based on God picking you and others not being picked. And that's just a man made teaching. Let me just explain a little something here for you. Hate here in this verb, in this word, in the Hebrew thinking, is not a word of emotion. It's a word of choice.

By God's sovereign will. If a man had two sons and he made one the heir and he's is said to love the one that he had made the heir and then he said he he's to hate the one that he did not not make it heir. So, what it's talking about there is choice. He made a choice. It has nothing to do with emotion.

He doesn't hate people before they're even born. God, he loves all people. I already read the verse that he's not willing that any should perish and if God's sovereign and he's not willing that any should perish and he made the choice for you, everybody be saved. He is sovereign and he's sovereign enough to make a plan of salvation where he's given us a free will to choose him or to reject him and some of us some of us has have chosen him. Probably most or all of us here today have made our choice to accept Jesus as our personal savior and yet there could be one, maybe, I don't know but there are a lot of people outside of these walls.

They've made the decision to reject him. They're not going to accept him as their personal savior. They had the same opportunity as the person that did accept him and so it's not a word of emotion here like we it would be in our day. When I use the word hate, it's kind of a word of emotion but in the Hebrew thinking, it was a word of choice. Just a choice.

The Lord's people here will witness the futile attempts by Edom to make its own restoration. They'll see God's sovereignty. They'll see God's justice at work And the reason that he didn't work with Edom and he was planning on destroying Edom and what they built was because they had chosen to reject God. Not because God chose them to do it and without their choice, it was their, it was Edom's choice to reject God and to actually oppose God's people. But God's people are going to see it.

They're going to acknowledge it and they're going to acknowledge that God is great in the land. His acts of power will get their their attention and he'll be magnified and honored. The Lord will in their sight. They'll become aware of his unchangeable love for them. See, God has set him apart for his special attention and blessing.

And Malachi is trying to show them this. They'd forgotten it. They had become bored with the things of God and they had become belligerent because things had smoothed out a little bit. After the rebuilding of the temple and then the lost people here and again, they're lost by choice. They're called the border of wickedness.

Israel is called the holy land. It says in those verses I've read here that they will make attempts to resist and undo God's judgment but do you think they'll succeed? They're not going to succeed. They're going to fail. It's going to it it's a serious and futile exercise to oppose God.

You know, we have the same thing today. The very same picture today. There are some people that are saved. There's some people that are lost. God wants to reach us all and he'll do all kinds of things to get our attention but they're still going to be actually the the biggest majority of people.

The Bible says are going to reject what God has for them. He they're going to reject salvation. Some of them will be very good people and they might even be religious people. They might even go through works of religion and so forth that have nothing to do with the gospel. Thinking that's how to appease and please God and yet the Bible says the only way to please God is to receive Jesus as your personal savior.

It's not about a religion, it's about a relationship. There's a big difference. And so we have the same picture today. He's still not willing that he should perish but some by choice will die without Christ and perish. God will exercise his sovereign judgment and man will be shown that he doesn't really set the rules and that's how it's all going to play out.

And to his own, believers, the Bible says, he will forever love them and bless them even with a peace that passeth all understanding. To his own, he will do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. According to the power that worketh in us, all because he loves us. Hey, it's possible today and that's why these Old Testament books are valuable. It's possible even in our group today, even with believers.

You may be struggling today. You may not feel loved. You may feel like God's off in a distance and he he doesn't really care. And we talked about widows in the in the Sunday school class how it's very easy for a widow in her bereavement to become bitter. Blame God.

But as I mentioned at Sunday school, God's not the reason for death. Man is. It's because of our sin people die. Sin entered the human race. She could have been bitter because of her frail condition.

She was an elderly person that couldn't do what she used to do. Well, had her attitude fixed on the Lord and even though she couldn't do what she used to do, found new things to do. She became a prayer warrior. She became a worshipper, a steady worshipper of God. And then she could become bitter in her finances because widows back in that day, they were in pretty big trouble.

Especially if they didn't have children, they had to find a way to fend for themselves and they usually had to work hard, maybe gleaning in a field. They made little money with hard work and that could have made her bitter but Anna didn't become bitter. She became better and she just kept her focus on the Lord looking for the Lord's return. And and that all because she understood that God loved her and hadn't forgotten her and so, you know, if you're in one of those situations today, let me assure you from God's word, he still loves you. He's not finished with you.

He's got lots to do in your life and if you doubt that, you're right in the same camp of these people in that Malachi's day that God gave Malachi a strong confronting message of warning for. See, God reminds his people through Malachi that he loves them. They had began to question that and as a result, they could not love God back. See, it throws a monkey wrench into everything. Your relationship with him.

If you doubt his love, you're not going to love him back in faithful obedience. They couldn't express their love in faithful obedience because they were so disgruntled and and belligerent and bored with spiritual things but God God affirms his love over and over and they question it and they were in a tailspin. They became disgruntled and skeptical and bored and belligerent. I'm going to close with this. Let's just look at it this way.

By the way, we're not going have a closing hymn because we don't have someone to play the piano, and I can't sing a solo. So I'm going to read a couple of verses in the hymn that I picked, and that's the most important part of the hymn anyway, the words but here's let's look at it this way. If you have invited Jesus to be your personal savior, then you are locked into the eternal purpose of God Almighty. When you exercised your free will and invited Jesus to be your savior, you became the beneficiary of God's love forever. His love will never change.

It will never stop. Sometimes he may have to exercise tough love toward us. And then other times, he will exercise tender love when we show him faithful obedience. And whenever you waiver, and think the and whenever you waiver, think of the unchangeable character of God. And let me close with this.

When you are tempted to question his love, you know what is a good idea? What do you think? What's a good thing to do when we question God's love? Look at the what? The cross.

Look at the cross. Think about the cross. Meditate. You know, on the cross. What he did for us?

On Calvary's Cross. Hey, if that doesn't convince us, how much God loves us, I don't know what it will take but it'll work if we allow God to work in our hearts. Think of the cross when we're when we question God's love and and anyone of us can struggle with that sometimes. I'm going to close with some words here. It's hymn number two forty three, I believe.

The cross. It's about the cross. Now, pastor Polar could sing this to us because he's a good singer. He doesn't need an instrument to sing by. See, I need an instrument to kind of hide my voice a little bit.

I like to sing, and I, you know, I sing from my heart. I like to sing and I like the song service but I'm not a great singer. Womb at the cross. The cross upon which Jesus died is a shelter in which we can hide. And his grace so free is sufficient for me and deep is the fountain as wide as the sea.

There's room at the cross for you. There's room at the cross for you. Though millions have come, there's still room for one. Yes, there's room at the cross for you. Though millions have found him a friend and have turned from the sins they have sinned.

The savior still waits to open the gates and welcome a sinner before it's too late. There's room at the cross for you. There's room at the cross for you though millions have come. There's still room for one. Yes, there's room at the cross for you and then the last verse, the hand of the savior is strong.

And the love of my savior is long. Through sunshine or rain, through loss or in gain, the blood flows from Calvary to cleanse every stain. There's room at the cross for you. There's room at the cross for you. Though millions have come, there's still room for one.

Yes, there's room at the cross for you. And when we talk about the cross, initially, we come for salvation. If you haven't done that, any at any point in your life, this is a good place to start. You come and you only have to do that one time. Once you're his child, you're his forever.

Doesn't mean you're not going to sin. Remember, I mentioned sometimes he uses tough love, sometimes tender love in our lives. And then after we're saved, the initial salvation, then, it's, you know, we come to the cross maybe many times. Not for salvation but restoration. You know, we get things right with the Lord.

We might be a child of God that's out of fellowship with him because of something in our life. Well, we can get that corrected in an instant because remember, even in our sin, he loves us and that's never ever going to change. So, that's the main part of the message today, the love of God Malachi's people rejected it. It caused them to be belligerent and bored, skeptical, bad attitude, and Malachi challenges them. Reminds them of all that God had done for his people.

All that God's going to do to the lost people that rejected God's people and and became their enemies. And that's the the message that Malachi had and again, it fits today. You know, a lot of the same problems, spiritual problems exist in the church today. You know, struggles. We all have them.

None of us have arrived and so I'm going to close on that note. I'm going to ask brother Al if you'll close us and dismiss us with a word of prayer please.