This book written by Malachi the prophet, again, is the last book of prophecy of the Old Testament between three and four hundred years before Christ. Malachi wrote his immediate audience was the children of Israel, particularly of Judah who had come back under Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel, and Joshua and resettled the land of Judah, rebuilt the city of Jerusalem as Jeremiah had foretold. But now just a few generations removed from that group that came back, they've began to stumble again. They're not so much in physical idolatry as they had before, but they began to take their God for granted. They began to go through the motions and their their love for the Lord began to grow cold.

And it was evident in their lifestyle. I'm afraid a lot of that is also true of Christianity today. Many of us had a great foundation, biblically speaking, and in the Lord. But generation after generation, we've seen that complacency to begin with and then just outright coldness to the Lord grow in our society even in Christianity as we've taken him for granted. And it goes from taking him for granted to blaming him for our troubles and see a lot of that today too.

Well, if there's a God, why does he let this happen? Why does he let that happen? People don't realize because they bought the lie of Satan that the problems in this world weren't caused by God, were they? The problems in this world are caused by Satan. The problems in this world are caused by sin.

The problems in this world originated in humanity with Adam and Eve. Praise the Lord, he has stepped in. Praise the Lord, he is a God of what? A God of mercy. And he stepped into time in the life of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to raise up for himself a name, a people.

He stepped in again and again in Israel's behalf, but mainly he stepped in in the person of his son, Jesus Christ, who came to die for our sins, to make a way, to redeem us from that hole that we had dug ourselves into. There are too many today that look like God more as a genie than as the Lord. Somebody that's just supposed to do be there to do what they want when they want him to and not a Lord to be served. And I'm afraid this is sort of the attitude that we read about in Judah in the book of Malachi. It begins in chapter one in verse two where the Lord says, I have loved you, yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us?

Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, yet I love Jacob. Israel said God said, I loved you and Judah's response was, how? What do you mean you love me? You love us. And God had to explain.

And this back and forth between God and Judah continues all the way through the book of Malachi. In chapter three, God says to Israel, he says, return to me. Verse seven, we read this last week. He says halfway through the verse, God says, return unto me and I will return unto you. You you sense that I am far away.

God says, you're sort of right. But the problem is not with who? Problem is not with God. God says, problem is not with me. The problem is with you.

He says, return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we return? They said, what have we done wrong? Well, God had already dealt with several things earlier in the book. And last week, he dealt with their lack of of giving and trust in the Lord to provide for their needs by giving the Lord what he was due in their tithes and offerings.

Under the Old Testament law that Israel was under, there were very specific offerings and tithes they were supposed to give. They were to give those for two reasons, for the good of the priests and the Levites so that they didn't have to spend all their time farming, but they could spend their time focusing on the service of the the Lord. And secondly, to give as a manner of worship to show the Lord that they acknowledged that everything they had came from who? It came from him. And he was deserving of a portion of what he had given to them back.

But they had robbed the Lord, he said, in tithes and offerings, and that's what we looked at last week. This week, we begin in verse 13, and there the Lord says, your words have been stout against me or in opposition to me. Yet you say, what have we spoken so much against thee? God says, you have said it is in vain to serve God. And what profit is it that we kept his ordinance or his commandments and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

And now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up. Yea, that tempt God are even delivered. This is what God was hearing from the children of Israel, from the residents of Jerusalem and Judea. He said, you have spoken against me and they said, what do you mean?

We've said, we've spoken against you. We've spoken harshly against you. In other words, you see that little word there in yellow in the parentheses? Complaints. Is this the first time God had had problems with issue with Israel murmuring and complaining?

No. It was a problem. It was a problem right after they left where? Egypt. God provided for them again and again and again and the moment things started to go badly or be difficult, they immediately started to gripe and murmur and complain against the Lord.

They did it in the wilderness, They did it when they got in the land. God provided over He reminded them of what he had done and yet, they still griped and they complained when anything got to be the least bit difficult. The reality is we deserve the difficult. It's God's mercy that brings the refreshment in the midst of the difficulty. Life is difficult because of what?

Because of sin. But God being the loving merciful God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust. God being the the merciful God that he is provides a way for us to be redeemed and saved. God in his mercy and grace has provide given us his spirit, his word, and he brings gives us the invitation to come boldly before the throne of grace. It is sin that brings the difficulty.

It is God that brings the mercy and refreshment. And so how quick we are to forget what God has done and they certainly didn't take long to forget that. Here in Philippians two fourteen and fifteen, Paul wrote, do all things without, what? Murmurings and disputings. That you may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

God says, don't gripe, don't murmur, and complain, and whine. Instead, God wants us and we should be what? What's the opposite of whining and complaining? Being thankful. We have every reason to be thankful in Jesus Christ for what he has done for us that we could not do for ourselves.

For his promise, not that everything is going to be fine and dandy and roses and but that he's never gonna what? Leave us nor forsake us. And there is a better place where we're going and a place where all of this trouble will be in the past and no more. So God says, though things are difficult at times, yes. Though sometimes it's uphill, though sometimes the path is rough, Trust in the Lord, be thankful rather than murmuring and complaining.

First Corinthians ten ten and eleven says this, neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now, this is a reference to Israel in the wilderness and they're griping and complaining. Now, all these things happened unto them for in samples or examples and they are written for our admonition upon the whom the ends of the world are come. And Paul wrote and said, why why did God choose to record and and preserve for us all this whining and complaining that we read about in Exodus and Numbers. The reason God preserved it for us is so that we we might learn from their what?

From their mistake. The murmuring and complaining doesn't fix anything and it isn't justified, especially when God has done so much for us. Look what God had done for Israel. He chose them, he delivered them out of where? Out of Egypt.

He he parted the Red Seas. He fed them with meat in in the wilderness. He he gave them water from the rock. He he did all these things. And yet, our memory is short.

And when things get rough, we begin to complain. That's what was happening here in Malachi three. The people were complaining to the Lord. What was what was their their what were they saying? What was it that that angered the Lord?

They said, what benefit is it? What what benefit is there in keeping God's commandments? In verse 14, he said, ye said it is vain to serve God and what profit is it to have kept his ordinance or to have kept his commandment? What benefit is it? It's vain to serve the Lord.

It's in other words, they were saying it is profitless to serve God. Number one, in keeping his commandments. It's sort of a rhetorical statement here as God is kind of talking, speaking for them. As Malachi says, it is vain, you say it is vain and what prophet is it that we kept his ordinance? That's a question with a rhetorical answer.

The rhetorical answer from Israel was there is no prophet. That's their complaint. There's no prophet in keeping your commandments, Israel was saying. Of course, nothing is further from the what? From the truth.

As God had pointed out, first of all, had they really kept his commandments? The answer is no. They hadn't really kept his commandments. He had been talking about that from the beginning of the book of Malachi. They were bringing sacrifices sometimes, but were they bringing the best?

Were they bringing the spotless lamb? No. They were bringing the sick and they were bringing the maimed. They were bringing the leftovers to God. That wasn't keeping his commandments.

They had treated their wives almost as commodities. They got tired of a wife and they just divorced her and got another one. Was that what God expected of them? Were they keeping his commandments? No, they weren't.

God had just just been talking about tithing. He said, you've robbed me in in tithes and in offerings. Maybe they gave a little here and there, but were they really keeping his commandments? The answer to that was no. At best, their effort was half hearted and insincere.

Their sacrifices were contemptible because they were bringing God leftovers. Their deeds therefore were hypocritical and they did not impress God and they certainly did not curry His favor or His blessing. In Luke chapter 17, I think I have it up here. There it is. Luke seventeen nine and ten, it says, doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him, I trial not.

So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded, you say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do. Jesus is saying, if you do only that which is required of you, you are not worthy of a parade because you've done that what is, what's expected. Are we expected to obey the Lord who made us? The savior who saved us? Of course, we are.

But yet, sometimes it seems like when we do something right, though we've been doing other things wrong, that we we expect God to send a parade. But yet, says here we're we're just merely an unprofitable servant if we only do the things which are required of us. In Matthew in Matthew six one through four, Jesus says, take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise, you have no reward of your father which is in heaven. Therefore, when I do as thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues in the streets that they may have glory of men.

Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth that thine alms may be in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. There's the issue of only having done things halfway, which isn't enough. But there's also the issue of why they did it. Why were they doing it?

Well, why were the Pharisees doing it that Jesus was talking about in Matthew six? Why were there why why did they walk in to the temple grounds and they take their change and they throw it into the receptacle which was made out of metal so that everybody could heard the clink clink clink clink clink clink clink clink as it went down in the offering plate? Why did they do it that way? Because they wanted the praise of who? Of men.

God said, if that's what you want, then that's what you get. Don't expect anything else from from me. And the problem that was true of the Pharisees in Jesus' day was originating originating here four hundred years ago, four hundred years prior with the Israelites who had come back from captivity now in the book of Malachi. And it only be it only continues to kind of spiral down till four hundred years later when Jesus comes on the scene and the religious leaders in Israel are cold hearted, proud, self righteous people. No wonder they weren't seeing the blessings of God.

But there is great profit. There is profit in serving the Lord. There is profit here in serving the Lord as he walks with us, as we do his will in our lives, we see blessings come our way. But those blessings that are ours are still of the mercies of God because not one of them do we deserve. But there are also great there's great profit not only here, but even more so in the life hereafter.

And we'll come back to that in a few minutes. So he said in keeping commandments they said in keeping commandments, there's no prophet there. God, of course, didn't agree with that statement. And they also said here at the end of verse 14, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts. So they said, what benefit is it in keeping your commandments and what benefit is it to report to repent or mourn before the Lord?

Once again, their answer to this question would have been none. There is doesn't seem to be any profit in repenting before the Lord. But yet but again, their reasoning was flawed as was their worship. If their repentance had been genuine, their attitude and actions would have what? What's one of the greatest blessings of repentance is when you come to the Lord with a repentant heart, your attitudes and your actions, they what?

They change. And the change in your attitudes and actions results in blessings. The Pharisees, they fasted twice a week, we're told in Matthew six. They walked around with their head held low and looking like, poor me, I haven't eaten all day long. Again, they were doing it for the praise of who?

Praise of men. Were they being genuine in their repentance? And the answer to that would seem to be in most cases, they were not. Repentance is more than appearing to be mournful. Repentance is a genuine humbling of the what?

Of the heart before God. A broken and a contrite heart, oh Lord, thou wilt not despise. The purpose of fasting, real fasting, not just not eating for a day, but fasting in the Old Testament. The reason for it was to express a mournful repentance and a heartfelt cry out to the Lord. Simply doing it twice a week out of routine is not really fasting and it is certainly not repenting.

But God said in second Chronicles seven fourteen, he said, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Would God bless them if they truly repented as a people? Yes. What's the problem? The problem wasn't that they were keeping God's commandments and there was no no blessings.

The problem wasn't that they were repenting of their sin and God wasn't blessing. The problem was their repentance was just on the what? On the surface. And it wasn't genuine. Thus, John the Baptist said to the Pharisees when they came to his baptism, he said, what are you doing here, Basically, if you are truly repentant, then bring forth works meet for repentance.

John said, if you're truly repentant in your heart, it will reveal itself in your what? In your attitudes and in your actions. The fact that Israel was blaming God and complaining, what does that indicate? That they weren't truly repentant in their heart. Their attitudes hadn't changed.

That's what that reveals. The problem wasn't with God. And off most of the time now there's we're gonna get to Job here in a little bit. And yes, there are times when bad things happen to good people. That is certainly the case.

But the problem here is not that that they were so good that they were going through a test like Job because Satan challenged the Lord over him. The problem was not with God, the problem was with them. And I've talked to a lot of people like that. Sometimes they wander in here in the middle of the week. They don't have much of anything.

We try to help them, at least give them the gospel. But they're full of, a lot of times, not all of them, but many of them are full of complaints. This happened, that happened, poor me. I don't know what, you know, God why does God treat me this way? But the problem isn't with God, the problem is with them.

And there are times, many times, the problem has not been with God, the problem's been with me. The fact is God does not owe us anything. We owe him what? Everything. Back to the morning message, Romans twelve one.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. God gave me a son. He offered me eternal life and forgiveness. His love and his mercy. It's of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.

Jeremiah says in Lamentations, he wrote that as he mourned over the rubble that just days earlier was the city of Jerusalem after Babylon ransacked and burned it. That's when Joshua Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations, it's of the Lord's mercies were not consumed. Why? Because though Israel was in shambles and many of the people killed and taken captive, many of the people were left. Many of the people would return.

It wasn't over. And it's not over because of the mercy of God. He has given us so much. Is our worship and service for God sincere? Are we doing it because we love him or are we doing it because others might pat us on the back?

Is it complete or do we only do those things we like or find easy or rewarding? It's easy to do the thing you like. The question is, do you do the thing you don't like? Or do you do the thing that's not convenient? Or do you do the thing that scares you?

That that tells us a lot more about our dedication to God than doing the thing that is convenient. Is the only reason we do is to receive a reward? If that's the case, we're missing out because you know something, God already gave me the reward more than I deserve. I don't deserve anything else. I didn't deserve this.

But I have forgiveness and I have Christ and I have eternal life. I've already got so much reward. But Malachi continues. One more verse here, verse 15. So their first complaint is this, what benefit is it in doing right?

Well, you know, we keep the commandments and nothing happens. We we walk around fasting and mournful, nothing happens. It seems like God doesn't care about us. What profit is it in doing the right thing? Then on the other side, they looked at the people doing the wrong thing and this is what they said in verse 15.

And now we call the proud, the arrogant, happy. Yea, they work Yea, they that work wickedness are set up or exalted. Yea, they that tempt or test God are even delivered. What is their complaint? Well, look, we we try to do what's right and, you know, you don't there's no profit in it.

And look, these people over here, they don't even try and everything's going what? Everything's going great for them. That was their complaint. Blessed are those, they said, happy are those that are presumptuous and arrogant. Those who do wickedness are raised up.

The word there is passive. What they're saying is, God, you are exalting those that are doing wickedness. Now, isn't that a terrible thing to say to God? What are they they're saying to God, you're not you're not rewarding us for doing right and you're rewarding them for doing wrong. Who's being presumptuous?

Not God, they are. Not just the wicked, they are. In other words, they reason in their hearts that God was to be blamed for the prosperity of the morally wicked. They had a double standard for Israel in particular. Israel particularly had this concept that wasn't a biblical one.

And the concept was this, if good things are happening to you, then you must be doing the right thing and so great things are happening to you. You have money, you have a solid family, and everything's going smoothly. That must indicate that you are right with the Lord. And on the other side, if things are going poorly with you, that must mean you're doing what? You're doing wrong.

You're wicked. You're terrible. So we get to the book of Job and all of a sudden Job loses what? Everything. He God was blessing him beyond imagination and he had all these things, all this livestock, all this this real estate, all of this houses, this beautiful family and and and it all came crashing down on him.

And then he lost his health. And then come along his what? His friends. And what do his friends say to him? His friends say to him, Job, you must have done something what?

Terrible. You must have done something terrible. Why? Because look at all this bad stuff that happened to you. So repent of your sin, Job.

You might you've got to repent of that. Whatever you did, you better confess it to God because look what happened to you. Now, we know from Job one and two and from Job 40 that that wasn't the case. Job didn't lose everything because he was being wicked. Job lost everything because he was being righteous.

But see, their minds it was simple. Righteous, obedient, the sky opens up and just fills you with money. Things go you do unrighteous and wicked, everything goes what? Badly. But what does God say?

What does Jesus say? He causes it to rain on the just and on the unjust. And the equation just isn't that simple in this life. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. The fact is none of us deserve the blessings of God that we get when we get them.

It's not is it really so bad that God allows some good things to happen to the lost? Do we really want them to be living in pain and squander? Because you know something, Before I got saved, that's who I was. And I even still struggle. It's only because of the Lord's what?

Mercy. Because I don't deserve it any more than they do. It's only that by God's grace and his mercy, have become a child of the what? A child of the king. They may appear to have it all, but they're missing the one thing that makes life most worthwhile.

And that is Jesus. And that is hope of a home in heaven. That is being part of the beloved and his family. That is the Holy Spirit who lives inside my heart and doesn't live inside theirs. I am blessed and you are too in ways that we certainly do not deserve and that are far better than a nice house or even good health.

Because one day I'm getting a new body and it's not gonna have the problems the old body has And I'm sure of that. Back in Psalm 37, David said this. He said, fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. So God says, David says here, don't fret, don't worry, don't look at the evildoers and become envious of them because, hey, they seem to be making it great.

Give it time. The Bible says this life is but a what? A vapor, it's here for a moment then it's gone, and then comes eternity. And how long does eternity last? It lasts for eternity.

This life is short. When we get to eternity, we'll look back and it will seem but a fleeting fleeting moment. And we'll have in Christ all the blessings of heaven. And they won't. The little bit of joy and good and stuff they experienced here will be gone.

But we who trust in the Lord, we not only have his comfort and his presence here, but his eternal promises to follow. The children of Israel were confused because they were only looking at the here and the now. Their complaint revealed their lack of trust in the Lord and their shortsighted perspective. Look if you would in Galatians six. Galatians six.

Galatians six verse seven. God says, be not deceived. God is mocked. In other words, who's watching? God's watching.

He knows. He will not be mocked. It it it it we'll we'll see. Look at the rest of the verse here. Be not deceived.

God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing.

Why would we get weary? Because sometimes well doing isn't easy. Sometimes life is hard and difficult and sometimes things don't go our way. And sometimes, it's our fault. And sometimes, it's somebody else's fault.

But the bad things that happen in the end, they're sin's fault. But don't give up. Let us not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Don't give up. Don't gripe and complain.

Don't take your eyes off the Lord. Remember what he did for you. Remember what he's doing for you. Even the things you can't see and the things you can't touch. In the hardship, remember, you you you any of you know that poem footprints?

I I can't remember the poem to quote it, but but what is the gist of the poem is this, a man had a dream and and in his dream, he saw two sets of footprints. And he interpret that to mean that one set was his and one set was the Lord's. And he got to the difficult times in his life and all of a sudden there was only what? Only one set of footprints. The other set was missing.

And he and he thought thought to the Lord, asked the Lord, he said, why was it in the hardest times in my life that you left me? And God says, no. You don't understand. Those were my prints for those were the times that I what? That I carried you, you see.

How true that is. But a lot of times, we like the man who had the vision, the dream and wrote the poem, we think to ourselves, well, it's going through hardship. I must be alone. But we don't see what's going on behind the scenes, and we don't recognize and realize that God is carrying us. Their repent their complaint revealed their lack of trust in the Lord.

And when we complain, what does it reveal? A lack of trust in the Lord. Their complaint revealed their misplaced values and lack of understanding. In Matthew six again, Jesus said, lay not up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures where? In heaven, where neither moss and wrath doth corrupt and where thieves do not make through nor steal.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. What did their complaints reveal? Misplaced values. They were valuing the things of earth. They were overvaluing the things that were passing away.

The temporal things over the eternal things. And so many times, it's in the hardship of life that we gain eternal insight and eternal values and character. That's why in first Peter, Peter said, when count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Why? Because they bring teach you patience and they teach you to trust and you grow through the hardship And the things you learn are more valuable than the gold you lose.

The things you learn and the closeness you can have with your Lord is of greater value than the health that you lack. Their complaint revealed their arrogance as they were quick to pass judgment on who? Others, but not on who? Themselves. They said, Lord, we've kept the commandments and we walk along walk around with our head down mournfully and you don't seem to help us out.

And these wicked people over here, these terrible, nasty, wicked, terrible people, they seem to be doing okay. It just doesn't seem right to us Lord, their complaint. And God's what was their problem among others? Their problem was these people were all what? Terrible and wicked and deserved punishment.

And they, in their mind, they were what? They were wonderful and good. And they deserved what? And they deserved blessing. Quick to judge others, but blind to their own what?

Blind to their own faults. Now, is that human? Yeah, it is. But we have a different spirit living inside of our heart and we can overcome that human flaw as we draw closer to the Lord and allow God to show us where we have failed. We can stop taking can stop focusing on the faults of others and examine our own heart.

And well, God will show us where we need to change. One of the most quoted and misused scripture passages in scripture is found in the next chapter of Matthew, Matthew seven, where Jesus says, judge not that you be not what? Judged. In context, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees again and the self righteous crowd who walked around with their nose in the air and thought they were better than everybody else. And he said to them, you're like whited sepulchers.

You're nice and pretty and clean on the outside, but inside, you're full of decay and rot. That's what John the Baptist recognized when the Pharisees Pharisees came to his baptism. Why are you here? Are you willing truly to repent or is this just what? Is this just for show?

Who knows? God knows. That brings me to verse, let's see, back in Malachi to verse 16, which we will continue from next week, and this is what verse 16 says. Then they or but, in other words, in contrast to the complainers and the gripers in verse 16, we have their were everybody murmurs and gripers and complainers? The answer was no.

No. But or then, they that feared the Lord spake 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. Those that are truly repentant and humble of heart, who fear and trust in the Lord, does God remember? Does God know? Is he going to take care of them?

The answer is yes. He made a book of remembrance. The book of remembrance was a common common practice in ancient times. The ancient kings would have a scribe of sorts or historian whose job it was to keep a record of the good that people did for the king and the kingdom. And so when somebody did something good, it would be recorded in the book of remembrance.

So that if the king forgot maybe as he read, he would be reminded, oh, so and so did this and I will reward them. The Bible talks of another book and it's called the lamb's book of what? The lamb's book of life. And in it is not recorded all of our good deeds because our righteousness are as what? Filthy rags.

But what is recorded in that book is our name. And our name is written there because of the good deeds of who? The good deeds of Jesus Christ who gave himself for us on the cross, who has shown us his mercy, who has invited us to become part of his beloved. And our names are written there in his book of what? Remembrance.

And he does not forget. And he does not forget. Those that fear the Lord will be and are already rewarded in Jesus Christ. So let us not be like the people Malachi is writing to. Let us remember.

Let us keep our own book of what? Remembrance. Let us count our blessings and thank the Lord for what he has done and for what he will do. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for all that you have done for us in Jesus Christ, for the blessings that are ours.

And forgive us when we murmur and complain, and should we ever do so so against you, Lord. Please forgive us of our shortsightedness, of our lack of faith and trust in you, of our of our arrogance, of our misplaced values. Lord, remind us of all the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus, who will supply all our needs according to his riches and glory. Who will add unto us all things that we need if we'll seek first the kingdom of God, who went home to provide and to prepare a place for us that is beyond our wildest imagination, that will be ours one day because of all the Lord Jesus has done for us. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to serve you.

Forgive us for our complacency. And Lord, draw us closer to you. In Jesus' name, we do pray. Amen.