How God’s People Turned From Him

Introduction

If you will open your Bibles with me to the book of Malachi, the book of Malachi. I want to thank Cody, who has almost always requested songs to go along with the lesson to help us have our minds readied in that way that we praise God with our lips from. And also thank Cody for his willingness to ask for a time at which to get up, including even going to the song books to be able to praise God. Certainly we’re thankful to have those still. If you think about Malachi, though, I I can’t help but first think of the book of Judges in chapter two and verse ten. And the sad words that were stated there, that there arose a generation that did not know God.

If you think about the Israelites’ history, it was one that was marked by what we would say is not knowing God, certainly not one of marked belief in God, marked obedience and submission to God. And that’s despite the fact that God took them out of slavery in Egypt, that he let them cross the Red Sea. That’s despite the fact he gave them the Ten Commandments, He gave them the Ark of the Covenant, He gave them the entire system of law, in which that they could be governed by. That’s despite the fact that He made this strong covenant with them. If they would be His people, He would bless them. But if they would not, that He would curse them. And of course, it is our great God that is true to His Word, who when the people of Israel finally, after centuries of turning their back on God, punctuated with Israel around 722 BC and Judah around 606 or so BC, they were taken into captivity for their various sins, including idolatry and all sorts of injustices, and turning their back on God.

And just like the people of Judah went into captivity in about three ways, into Babylonian captivity, the good news was that God was faithful to his word, and that God brought them back. And that’s amazing. You think about a people who should have known better before the captivity. Yes, God had promised them, if you be my people, I will bless you. If you are not, I will curse you. But if you’re Judah, think about it in a particular way. What should they have known about God and sending his people into captivity? They should have known, as Jeremiah writes, that God would do that, because he had done that with their sister Israel to the north at the time of the divided kingdom. And yet Judah fell into captivity just like Israel.

And yet, coming out of this, you think, now certainly they recognize who God is, because around 605, 606 BC, when the Babylonians came in and take some of the best of the people of Israel away, we think of Daniel in particular, in this instance, you think, well, he’s certainly going to learn. And then in 597 they came, and of course, punctuated in 586 with the destruction of Jerusalem. You think now the people’s eyes will be opened and their ears will be ready to hear the will of God. And yet, even Jeremiah, who’s living this time and even sees the destruction of Jerusalem as having to actively combat this false doctrine from everything from as long as the temple standing were fine to the point that, well, if we go away, it will only be for a short time.

And yet God had promised it would be about 70 years, and that it nearly was. And you consider how that was, that the people would come back from captivity because they had disobeyed God, and they were able to be returned from captivity because of God. Do you see how God played a central part in the people’s life? Where they were, how prosperous they were. And yet, in those three returns, led first by Zerebbal, about 70 years, excuse me, after the first Babylonian captivity strike. And then Ezra led the people around 458 and Nehemiah around 444 B.C. We see that the people did come back to Jerusalem. God kept his word, and yet, as you can see, of course, as what we’re going to talk about this morning, is how did God’s people turn from him?

This wasn’t just any people of his. This wasn’t just Israel again being Israel, Judah being Judah. This is the people who were ancestors of those who had been in captivity. These are people who should have known better. When you think about Malachi, he prophesied likely around the time of Nehemiah with that third wave. Probably around that 444 B.C. And even stretching until about 430, 432 B.C. And when you think about that time gap, you think that Malachi is prophesying at a time that the people had returned. And what’s interesting about that is they had not just returned, they had returned for about a hundred years. And generations had come and gone. And yet, we’re going to see when we read the book of Malachi an interesting problem of God’s people.

1. They Doubted the Love of God

The people who should know best. Note how they had reacted to God, being second, third, fourth generations. In Malachi chapter 1 and verse 1. The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say, How have you loved us? Is not Esau Jacob’s brother, declares the Lord. You know, I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert. If Edom says, we are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says, they may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called the wicked country, and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever. Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.

But I can’t help but look at verse 2 and say, how many did God’s people turn from him? What was Malachi’s audience comprised of? Comprised of people who doubted God. In fact, you could be more specific, they didn’t just doubt God. Look in verse 2. What is it that they doubted? And this is so strange, so odd. They doubted the love of God. Now, how could that be? This is the God who provided everything for them. If you think about earlier in the return, you have the book of Haggai. And what is Haggai prophesying to the people? Well, you kept trying to build up your own house. You’re lying in paneled houses, and yet the Lord’s house lies in ruins. And so, because of that, Haggai’s message to the people was, you can reap, but you are not, you can sow, but you’re not going to reap.

Because they weren’t honoring the Lord first. Well, these people doubted God. And when you think about questioning God’s love, you think, well, how could they possibly do that? And yet the people had been shipped away in their faith, and we’re going to see. It even ends with them saying that to glorify God in chapter 3 is to serve in vain. It’s interesting to see just how far people God’s people have fallen in just a short time. I can’t help but think when I think about questioning God’s love about Romans chapter 5 and verse 8, when it says that God demonstrates his own love towards us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We need to always know that God loves us. Amen.

How do we know that? What do we look to? Paul reasons in Romans chapter 5, we look to the cross. We look to the fact that Jesus died for us, not just because we needed forgiveness of sins, which we did, but he died for us while we were in that sin, which holds us as enemies to God. That is a great love. You think about loving your enemies. Sometimes that’s hard. We think, do we really have to love our enemies? Yes, because God has said so. Think about physical things and how they might actually find us, lead us, excuse me, to doubting God. Have you ever been like the man in Matthew chapter 6 that Jesus is addressing? Look at me in Matthew chapter 6. I can’t help but think about verse 25 when it says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, know about your body, what you will put on.

Is not life more than food and life more than clothing? And of course the answer to that is yes, life is much more than that. But what does Jesus say? Do not be anxious about your life. Do you see that in verse 25? That’s hard. How did the people start doubting God? Maybe they started doubting God the way I sometimes start doubting God. When things don’t roll in my favor, when the physical aspects of life catch up to me. I’m stressed. Money’s tight. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know where my next move is because I like to be in control. I like to know where my life’s going. I can say I trust God, but when it comes to the crux of the matter, and my trust in God doesn’t mean coasting, it means trusting in God.

It’s a lot harder, isn’t it? What a crime it would be if we missed heaven or we let our love of God, our knowledge of the love of God that fuels our desire to serve him, be eroded away by physical things. See, we need to remember that how does God show his love for us? Sending Jesus to the cross. Yes, that’s a physical action of great spiritual magnitude. We serve a great God. And he’s great in, yes, Matthew chapter 6 itself, even reasons in verse 33. If we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added to you. But the focus is always on the kingdom of heaven. The focus is on the kingdom. Wasn’t that Jesus’ message over and again?

Would we ever act the way that these Jews did, questioning if God will forgive or if he even cares for me? There’s all kinds of life situations that can paint this picture where I think I got an unfair hand. But when life is hard, when times are dark, I need to remember what God has shown me in the light. I need to remember that time when if I am a Christian, that Jesus’ blood washed away my sins. That God loves me just as much today as yesterday, if I serve him, if I submit to him. But I think if you move forward in Malachi, you see that the problem is far more than just some sort of vague doubt. It even becomes more specific as to what does it mean?

2. They Did Not Honor God

In Malachi chapter 1 and verse 6, a son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priest who despise my name. But you say, How have we despised your name? By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, How have we polluted you? By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised. When you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. And now entreat the favor of God that he may be gracious to us with such a gift from your hand.

Will he show favor to any of you, says the Lord of hosts? Oh, that there were a one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name in the pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. Now note verse 12 through 14 in particular, as if it wasn’t potent enough of a message. Note how it once again takes a turn for the worse.

And verse 12, but you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit that is its food may be despised. But you say, What a weariness this is. And you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering? Shall I accept that from your hand, says the Lord? Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations. You see that Malachi’s audience didn’t just doubt God’s love. They did not honor God.

That’s a real problem. And we’ll talk about the implications even in the New Testament of that in a moment. But you think about going back to verse six, what is the parallel that the Lord is arguing and reasoning through? First of all, he says, a son honors his master, his father, and yet you’re not even honoring me like a father. I am the great God of hosts. I am the father of the people of Israel. You wouldn’t honor your father in the way that you’re serving me. But what about the second part? Do you see that in the middle of verse six? And if I am a master, where is my fear? See, the people of Israel did get the picture. The Jews knew what God, how God should be treated.

They knew because they showed it in their own relationships. Do you see that? In verse 6, a son honors his father. A master or servant should honor his master, should fear his master. And yet they weren’t showing that same honor and fear for the great God, our eternal father, our great king, as God identifies himself as at the end of this chapter. You think about not honoring God, why would that be? Well, unfortunately, the people make it worse by in verse the end of verse six and even into verse seven, continually questioning, do you see that? Look at the last part of verse six. How have we despised your name? The middle of verse seven. How have we polluted you? The Lord has an answer for that.

How had they despised his name? By offering polluted food upon his altar. How did they, how did they pollute him? By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised. How did they despise the Lord’s table? How did they mistreat it aside from their general attitude towards it? Verse 8, is this not a real problem for us? And don’t go thinking we are offering these animal sacrifices. But look at verse 8. When you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favor? Again, a life principle that they knew. You don’t offer second best to the best. If they’re not going to give that to their governor, why would they give that to our God?

And then I have to get off my high horse for a moment and think, can I be like that? Do I always honor God as the king of kings? Do I trust Jesus as that standard? Do I love God and exalt his name as the one true and living God? Do I spend more time with others fixated on earthly concerns? Because that would be a way that God is slowly chipped away at from being number one in my life. I wonder about what was said in the middle of the text in verse 10. Do you note this? Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. This is this is scary, really.

But imagine if there was an angel fixated at the front door and we only had the one door. Yes, I know. We have multiple entrances here. Yes, I thought that through. But if there was the one door, and there was an angel in front of it, and your entrance depended not on your life, because God will forgive sinners, not on the way that you love God in the past, because absolutely that should be part of our life, but on the amount and the correct attitude of worship that you are walking in with. Would the angel let you through this morning? Where your mind was? Was it focused on worshiping God when you walk through the doors? What sacrifice were you bringing spiritually to your great God today?

Because sometimes I walk through the doors and I’m focused on something that is not God. I might be focused on a task, I might be focused on a previous conversation. That has nothing to do with serving God today. We are here to worship our great God, brothers and sisters. Amen? We have a great God to serve, so he deserves our entire focus. That starts. Even Saturday night. We run ragged and we use our day off and we run ourselves into the ground, and then what do we have left to offer God? Do we not sometimes offer God the sick and blind of our time, the sick and blind of our money, even? Certainly the idea of robbing God is present in Malachi chapter 3 and verse 8, and we’ll address that as we keep moving forward.

But if that angel was standing at the door, would I be able to be through? Would that angel allow my focus, my level of sacrifice to God through the doors? If not, what would I do to change it? I need to honor God first. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 15. The idea is that we need to always be praising God and giving things to Him. That should be on our lips, in fact. But note Romans chapter 1. Turn there with me. In Romans chapter 1, you note this problem of the Gentiles. They should have known God and yet they didn’t. But what was what was the beginning of their great fall? In Romans chapter 1 and verse 21, for although they knew God, do you see this in verse 21?

Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile and their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. That’s a scary place to be, because when you read the rest of the chapter, you see time and again, God gave them up, and they fell away from God and covered themselves in sin in iniquity and unrighteousness. And you can pinpoint it, yes, back to the fact they didn’t know God when he showed himself in creation. But in verse 21 really stands as a pivotal moment in that history, saying they knew God yet did not honor him as God. I would suggest, brothers and sisters, we all know God. The question is, do I honor him as God?

If I honor him as God, he gets my best, not my leftover. If I honor him as God, he is my purpose in living. And that’s where it gets difficult, isn’t it? Why do you live to please God? We know that. We know Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 13, 14. This is the whole duty of man to fear God and keep his commandments. But is that really how my calendar reflects it? Do I honor God with my speech, with my time, with my attitude? Because if I truly believe that God deserves to be honored, my concerns get quickly relegated to well beneath serving God. And eventually those will even be vanquished. Because God deserves to be honored and praised as the God that he is. I think as you move forward into Malachi chapter 2, though, you see that the sins of the time of the Malachi continue to grow.

3. They Profaned God’s Covenant

In chapter 2 and verse 1, and now, O priest, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave it them to him.

It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. Note verse 6 through the end of verse 9 here. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, and so I make you despise and abase before all the people, as much as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality and your instruction.

And now you see Malachi, the Lord, through his prophet Malachi, has turned his sights on the lack of instruction, the lack of strong instruction given by the priest. What had the people done in verse eight? They turned aside from the way. Well, what way was that? The very way that Levi had in covenant with his God. How was Levi’s covenant marked with his life in the end of verse 4? What did he do? He made it with the Lord of hosts in verse 5. He feared him. He stood in awe in his name. Do we not see that if we first fear God and truly view his name in awe, truly recognize God for who he is, that what we find in verse 6 will follow.

Levi feared God. He stood in awe of his name in verse 6. True instruction was in his mouth, no wrong was found on his lips. He walked in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. Isn’t that what follows with someone who truly loves the Lord? It’s just like Ezra. Ezra set his heart to know God. Then what did he do? Well, he studied, he applied, he taught. If we think about profaning God’s covenant, we think about what has God offered us? He has offered us eternal life. He has offered us the ability to be with him forever, to be born again, not in bondage to sin, but rather slaves of righteousness. And if that is who we wish to serve, if that God that we claim to be Almighty is whom we’re going to dedicate our lives to, we are going to be found like those in verse 6 and 7.

Focused on pleasing God. You see, the lips of a priest in verse 7 were to do what? They should have been to guard knowledge. People should have been seeking instruction from their mouth, but rather that was not how the system had eroded. The people had turned from the ways of God. Certainly there’s a lot of application there for us, but as we move forward, you’ll note a strong application for us in verse 13 of this chapter. In verse 13, and the second thing you do, you cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning, because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, Why does he not? Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

Did he not make them one with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless. This stems back to the verses we skipped over, but verse 11 will make the point strong enough. Judah has been faithless, an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and is married the daughter of a foreign God.

The people rejected God in the way of marriage and divorce for no other reason than because they wanted to.

And they divorced them and married, what is that idea of the daughters of a foreign God? They dated, they married foreign women. They weren’t willing to stay married to who they had a covenant with, to whom they had children with, to whom the Lord expected his generations to continue through by his law. They didn’t care because they had turned aside. They profaned the covenant God had made with them. Don’t we kind of do the same thing? Aren’t there many places in the world today that just say, just get a divorce if it’s not working? Don’t worry about it. Just start anew. Or even some sort of nuanced doctrine on this issue. We come up with all sorts of ways that you can be divorced and remarried, and yet Jesus says there is but one.

4. You Have Wearied the Lord With Your Words

And of course, I think that issue in some aspects, at least based on what Jesus says in Matthew 19, is clear, albeit sometimes hard to apply. But what about other issues that aren’t quite so crystal clear? Am I going to profane God’s covenant? Because when it comes down to it, I do that because I want to, not because God needs it or expects it that way. The people of Malachi’s day not only doubted God, they didn’t just honor him as the God they should have been, they profane his covenant. And as you move forward, it is found, and this is shocking in verse 17. Do you see this? You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, How have we wearied him? Can you imagine the Lord’s aspect on this?

I can’t help but think of a child questioning a father in this way. I can say that because I probably was the child questioning the father in this way. But you think about the way Israel is responding to the Lord’s accusations. He says, You have wearied the Lord with your words, Malachi reports, but you say, How have we wearied him? Well, as if the first two chapters essentially aren’t chalk full of ways that they have wearied the Lord, the answer is given. Do you see the end of the verse? By saying, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them. Or by asking, where is the God of justice? Now that reminds us of 2 Peter chapter 3.

What are those scoffers saying in the last days the scoffers are going to be saying, Where is God? You said he was going to come. Jesus was going to come again. Where is your God? Now think about that idea of evil and good. Have we not just fallen essentially to the depths in our society of calling evil good and good evil? It’s quite a shame when there’s a whole discussion about what bathroom someone should use. Frankly, I think the whole issue is silly, the fact that we even have to discuss this. I mean, we have politicians, people who have been trained academically, discussing what bathroom to enter into. The bottom line is, whether we like it or not, fact is not subjective. It is objective. It is objective only because it comes from God.

What God has said goes, amen. When God has said He created male and female, that is the way that He created them. This isn’t about any politics or any side. It is about we will weary God if we turn from His commandments, if we make them subjective when they are always intended to be clear and to be respected and submitted to. It doesn’t just apply to ideas like things that cause a political firestorm. It applies to basic aspects of Christianity. Don’t we sometimes choose sin over holiness? That’s wearying God. When we try to come up with excuses and reasons why, aren’t we just like the Israelites who say, How have we wearied God? We’ve just been offering our sacrifices. Well, had they been offering sacrifices? Yes.

What kind of sacrifices have they been offering in chapter one? The sick and the blind, the kind that they wouldn’t even offer their governor. Don’t we sit here and we say, I’m always at church, or at least mostly. But what are you offering God? What are you living like outside of the worship with your brethren? What am I doing with my time that God expects of me? Because God has clear expectations for me to be redeeming the time. And in Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 14, not only should some of the people have moved from milk, but to be teachers of the word, they should have their senses of discernment trained to do what? To distinguish good from evil. That’s the message of Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 14, the mature Christian.

5. Will Man Rob God?

Is that not what the Israelites lacked? At the end of verse 17 again? Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them. That’s what they say. That’s not right at all. They can say that. We can act on it, but that does not make it so. What God has said will always stand true. And that is the way of the Lord. You think about as Malachi has to continue with these people as we move forward, even into verse 5 beginning. Let’s read Malachi chapter 3 and verse 5. After speaking about the messenger that he would send, who is John the Baptist to prepare the way for the messenger, which is Christ, in verse 5, then I will draw near to you for judgment.

I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker and his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. For I, the Lord do not change. Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return? Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, How have we robbed you? And your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.

Verse 8, you are robbing me. How are we robbing you? Time and again, the people had deserted God’s ordinances. They had failed to give God both the respect and the sacrifices that he demanded of them. And that he deserved as their end of the covenant maker and the one true and living God that he is. I think I tend to sometimes not give God what belongs to him. God desires that I come to worship to be with him. God desires that I study my Bible, and when I choose not to do that, aren’t I not robbing God of what is His? In my financial giving, do I rob God of what is His? In my time, as Paul warns that we need to redeem the time because the days are evil.

Am I not when I exchange redeeming the time for God and allow the days to be evil to overcome me? Am I not robbing God of what is his? If my life is the Lord’s, if I have committed myself as a slave to righteousness, will I not be changed as a Christian? Motivated not just to hear about the word at the church building, but to go out into the world and to teach the word, to study the word, to live as Christ lived, to be a light in this world of darkness, and to teach others to glorify God and to fear him and recognize him as the great God that I know that he is. That’s our mission. That’s our charge. To obey God and teach as many as possible to know him, just like we do.

6. You Have Said It Is Vain to Serve God

And of course, this is punctuated in Malachi chapter 3 and verse 13. By the whole the whole conclusion of their matter, as Solomon concluded, after all his entire extravagant experiment, he concluded, fear God and keep his commandments. Where were the people of Malachi’s day? Malachi chapter 3 and verse 13. This is shocking, unless you’ve read the previous three chapters. Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, How have we spoken against you? You have said it is vain to serve God. What is the prophet of our keeping his charger of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape. Can you imagine?

Can you imagine talking to anyone or even thinking yourself? His serving God in vain, and yet I think maybe sometimes I do think that. I know I act that way, because serving God is in vain, and I act that way, whether I would say that or not, or mentally accept that or not, when I choose sin over God. I’m not recognizing God as who he is. I’m not putting him first. But you see, the key is in the middle of verse 14. What is the profit of keeping his charge? Some of us aren’t numbers people, some of us are. But everyone, whether they know it or not, do a cost-benefit analysis on just cost benefit analysis on just about every decision they make in life. This is worth my time or this isn’t.

It might be as simple as I want to do it, so I will. What is the profit of keeping his charge? We know scholastically, the answer to that is a great deal. To be with God forever. But sometimes, isn’t it difficult to be a child of God when everyone else wants to push those values down in a way? When someone mistreats me, I want to strike back rather than turning the other cheek. When someone profanes the name of God, I want to think evil of them, or perhaps even join them in their wickedness, because after all, in verse 15, evildoers not only prosper, but they put God to the test and they escape. Look at one final passage quickly with me in Psalm chapter 73. This is what Asaph was thinking.

The way of the wicked is just so great. It’s just so grand. In Psalm 73, note both his charge and his answer. In Psalm chapter 73, note verses 1 through 3. Truly is God, God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Don’t we look that way? Don’t we see how successful they’re being, verse 4? They have no pang until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. Don’t we look around and say, that is so great. Everything is wonderful for the evildoers. While I’m toiling away trying to be a Christian of God, how does that work, God?

How does that make sense? The notice conclusion in verse 27. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works. Brothers and sisters, this is where we need to stand in verse 28. But for me, it is good to be near to God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all his works. That is what it’s like to serve God. The people had chipped away at it because they looked around and they said, Where is God? Because they sacrificed to God, but they didn’t give the best.

Conclusion

And they said, We’re doing what he wants. God doesn’t want our pity, he wants our life. He doesn’t want just some rote actions. He wants our heart, and he deserves it. And if we are going to be found pleasing to God, we must give that to him. Will you go to God in prayer with me? Our dear God and most wonderful, gracious Heavenly Father, we pray that we will always show grace and mercy towards others as you have shown to us, realizing that we do not deserve the death of Jesus, your son, who died on the cross for our sins. The fact that you offer us grace and mercy. Thank you, O Lord, for that. We pray that you forgive us of all of our sins and cleanse us from our unrighteousness.

Help us to be found good stewards of what is yours, to be good stewards of the life that you’ve blessed us with, and all that that extends to. Thank you for allowing us to be with fellow Christians. We pray that we strengthen one another, and that as we are here together, that we will worship you in spirit and truth as you have decreed, that we will study your words, the book of life, and that in all things we will be found pleasing in your sight. Thank you for being not just our God, but the loving God that you are and always have been and always will be. Help us to serve you. It’s in your Son’s name we do pray. Amen. We are now dismissed to our Bible classes.