Malachi AM

00:02 We greet each one this morning in the name of Jesus. Let the church say, Amen. 00:06 Amen. 00:06 Amen. It's good to be in the family of God, be in the house, House of the Lord this morning. Invite you to turn in your copies of the Scriptures to the book of Malachi. Someone under the age of 12, under the age of 15, if you were finding Malachi, where would you look? 00:26 Anybody under the age of 15 want to go for that? Would you look in the New Testament or the Old Testament? Oh, don't make me call on people. Well, for the record, it's in the Old Testament, barely. It is in the last verse, last chapter, last book of the Old Testament. 00:46 And so if you find Matthew and just go left a little bit, you'll find Malachi. It's a book that we don't often think that much about. It's one of the minor, what's called the minor prophets. Not minor because their message was less important than the major, but minor because of the size. They're simply smaller books, 01:05 not nearly as big or have nearly as much content in them as Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, which would be called the major prophets. But we want to look at the book of Malachi for the next several messages and use as an illustration before we look at an introduction to the book, an illustration that I ran across in the city of Pottsville, 01:27 Pennsylvania. This kind of makes us, kind of hits a little close to home here with all this power line work that's being done here. There was a broken end of a high voltage wire was laying on the pavement. And there was an engineer, probably from the project, who was walking unaware of the fact that he was about to be fried. 01:47 He didn't know that hot live wire was there on the ground. A worker that was working nearby saw him and saw the danger and yelled to warn him. But his voice was drowned out by all the noise of equipment and everything that was going on around him. So he picked up a stone, 02:06 threw it as hard as he could, and hit the engineer in the chest to get his attention. Well, that made him step back. And about as he was really ready to go and let the guy have it for throwing a rock at him, he realized the danger that he was in. And instead of letting the guy have it, he let him have his thanks. 02:24 And because it was a loving act of concern that motivated the worker to throw the stone at the engineer. Now, sometimes it feels like God is throwing stones at us. It feels like He's against us. Sometimes it feels like His word is heavy upon us. 02:43 Sometimes it feels like when you look around at the circumstances of life and you say, "How could a loving God allow that to happen to me?" Or, "Where is this loving God in relation to me and what I'm going through at this time?" And it feels like God's throwing stones. But sometimes it's because there's so much noise around us that we're not listening. 03:03 We can't hear His voice. And so He sends prophets sometimes to throw some stones at us. Sometimes He sends a brother or sister in the church. Sometimes it's a word of counsel or even criticism. Sometimes it hurts. 03:19 Sometimes it hits you right in the chest and feels like a burden until you look and you see the danger that you've been walking toward. And such it is with the book of Malachi. 03:29 Malachi, one of these prophets of God who is throwing a rock, as it were, throwing several rocks at the people of Israel to get their attention after God had brought them back into the land. 03:43 And so the first thing we want to look at about the book of Malachi is a little bit of the background of Malachi. The book of Malachi is addressed to the people of Israel after their return from Babylon. You recall in your Jewish history, understanding of Jewish history, 04:02 because of the sin and disobedience and rebellion of the tribe of Israel or Judah in the south of Israel, the northern tribes had already been gone into captivity in Assyria and been basically lost into the Assyrian culture. 04:21 And then Judah was taken away into Babylon and was there for 70 years. Now, this is key to understanding, especially the first five verses we're going to look at this morning. Key to understanding the first five verses is the realization that Judah was now back in the land. 04:40 Their captivity was over. And Zerubbabel was the first governor in around 515 BC. And he came back to govern the return. And about 150,000 people ended up being back in the land of Judah. 05:01 And then Ezra came on the scene. He came with another group of exiles in 458 and rebuilt the temple. And so we have the temple being rebuilt and temple sacrifices being reinstituted. And then Nehemiah came around about 450 to protect the city. 05:19 And you recall the book of Nehemiah tells the story how the walls had broken down. They were subject to attacks from the enemy. And Nehemiah was appealing, made an appeal to the king. And the king authorized him to go back and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and protect the city. So he was there in around 450 BC. 05:40 In 434, he returned to Persia for a while, for a period of time. And it was probably during this time that Malachi emerged as a prophet to speak God's word to the spiritual lives of the Israelites. So we're looking at a date for writing of the book of Malachi from about 450 to 430, 06:01 a possible period of about 20 years. And that 20-year span is likely when the book was written and Malachi's ministry took shape. It had been long enough that the temple had been functioning, that abuses had emerged, and there was a lethargy that had settled over the people, a laxity, a leniency had developed. 06:23 And they had grown what we might call lackadaisical. They had grown apathetic. They had grown lax. They had grown lenient and lethargic. And that is some of the things that Malachi is addressing. It seems that some of the issues that he addresses in the book of Malachi were also addressed in Nehemiah. 06:43 So that would give a hint that Nehemiah and Malachi were contemporaries dealing with some of the same issues, such as the corrupted priesthood. The priesthood had again become corrupted. They were failing to make a priority and to fund and prioritize the work of God. They were not tithing. 07:03 They were not giving. They were giving offerings and sacrifices that were substandard. They were not up to God's standard. They were the leftovers rather than the first fruits. And they had corrupted marriage. There was marriage to idolaters around them and divorce and remarriage. There were social injustices. 07:23 And all of these things stand between them and their covenant relationship with God so that Malachi reminds them of the displeasure that God has because of their sin. Then we look at the author. This is one of the most anonymous writers of Scripture, of all of the Scripture. 07:43 We know very little, if anything, about Malachi. In fact, even historians, the only thing they know about the prophet Malachi is what is in the book. A lot of other times, there are supporting Scriptures. There are supporting history, historical record that help people understand the writers of Scripture. 08:03 But not in the case of Malachi. He's basically anonymous, which have led some to believe that maybe Malachi was a name for Ezra, that Ezra was actually behind the book or maybe even Nehemiah. 08:16 Still, others would look at Mordecai, Esther's uncle, who was a contemporary around this time as a possible writer of the book. And this is all based upon the fact that the meaning of the word Malachi or the name Malachi means a messenger. He is a messenger. 08:36 And so some people would say this is not at all a name. It's actually more of a title. But be that as it may, that's just a little trivia because it doesn't change the message of Malachi 1 Iota. It doesn't change the message of the book at all. Neither does it make it less powerful. And it has never been, 08:56 to my knowledge, disputed as being authentically a part of the Old Testament Scriptures. The next thing that we notice here about the book is the audience. The audience, as we've mentioned, are the people of Israel. 09:09 In fact, when you look at the very first verse, "The burden of the Lord, of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi." So he's writing to the people of Israel who have returned from the exile. We mentioned that as they had gone into Babylon and had been there being disciplined and the land had sat, 09:29 the land of Jerusalem and Judah had sat for 70 years untilled, uncultivated to have its Sabbaths, God had said, and to judge the people of Israel. And they are now back, back in the land. And they are again called to repent. 09:45 Isn't it something that over time, even the greatest revivals tend to dissipate? They tend to dissipate. And we tend to go back to our lackadaisical, apathetic selves. And God needs to once again stir us back to reality and to repentance. He wants them to repent, to repent. 10:06 And basically, the audience needs to hear the mind of God expressed to the people of God. And I would suggest to you this morning that that's exactly what we need as well, is to hear the mind of God as the people of God. We hear the mind of a lot of people. We hear the mind of a lot of political parties. We hear the mind of fake news. 10:25 We hear the mind of the cults. We hear the mind of false teachers. We hear the mind of everybody's got an opinion about something. And we listen to each other. And we have massive, massive ways of communicating to large numbers of people. And about every week, we find that somebody's starting a new blog or a new vlog or a new this or a new that. 10:46 But what we really need to do is hear the mind of God. And that's what this is about, this word is about in the book of Malachi, the people of God hearing God's thoughts about them and about His glory. Then we see the purpose of the book. The purpose of the book is to address sin. 11:05 And he names some sins that he's going to be addressing. In chapter 3, verse 5, he says, "I will come near you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, 11:26 and against those who turn away an alien because they do not fear Me," says the Lord of Hosts. And so God is going to address such things as sorcery and adultery and perjury, lying, fraud, oppression, and injustice, a corrupt priesthood, and a corrupted worship. 11:47 All going to be things that God is going to address in the book of Malachi. Basically, you need to know that God was calling His people back to the covenant. He was calling His people back to a right relationship with Him, the covenant with God. 12:05 The priests had entered into a covenant with God that they were violating. Marriage had been entered into, covenant with man and woman, covenant with a husband and wife and God. And people were violating their marriage covenants. And the covenant of righteousness, God says, "I want you to be My holy people, 12:25 My special people, My righteous people." And they were falling again short of their covenant requirements. And God comes alongside of them to call them away from worldliness. 12:39 And we can define worldliness as the temptation or giving in to the temptation to live like the world around us. And that is widespread. That is all, I mean, that has many different tentacles into many subjects. But basically, God is still calling the church, called out group of people. 13:01 In fact, the word church means called out ones, a called out assembly. Called out to what? Called out to God, to covenant relationship with God so that we no longer live under the yielding to the temptation to live like the world around us. 13:21 And then interesting thing about the book is the use of the form of the book. Basically, God, it's a question and answer period, question and answer period where God asks a question or makes a statement. The people answer back in the question. And then God explains Himself. It's very interesting. 13:40 A rhetorical question is a question that is asked for the purpose of making a point. It has an obvious answer. And so God uses rhetorical questions. The people often answer back with a question. God makes a statement or an accusation like He will in verse 2 of our text this morning, 14:01 "I have loved you," says the Lord. There's a statement. But the statement question comes back. Yet you say, "In what way have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" says the Lord. And so there's these questions and answers going back. In fact, it is Malachi and his form that becomes the basis of much rabbinical teaching, 14:22 a form of rabbinical teaching as the rabbis ask questions and ask questions and ask questions. And the students ask questions. And out of those questions, then we expand the argument and expand the accusation and expand the understanding. 14:37 So God then justifies His own statement and expands the argument to make God's case against His people. Basically, the book of Malachi is the last call to a cynical people, last call to a cynical people. It's been almost 100 years since they heard from a prophet. 14:58 And the prophets were prophesying before they went into captivity or prophesying during the captivity. And then it had been almost 100 years until Malachi comes on the scene and drops a letter from God in their mailbox, as it were. And then it's over 400 years until the next prophet comes along. 15:19 Now think about 400 years when you've been used to hearing the word of the Lord over and over and over and over. And then suddenly, God goes silent. What would you think? What would you think? That's important helping us understand the message this morning from verses 1 through 5. Several verses, 15:38 I want you to turn to chapter 3, verse 1 and see one of the key verses of the book is, "Behold, I send My messenger. And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming," says the Lord of Hosts. 15:59 The messenger being the Lord Jesus Christ, messenger with a capital M, will suddenly come to His temple. I'm going to send Him. And even in the midst of rebuke and in the midst of a call to repentance and the midst of exposing their sin, there was the hope of the Messiah coming one day to fix us, 16:20 to fix our nation, to fix our sin, and to fix us as His people. And then if you look down at verse 6 and 7, also a key verse in the book and also to understanding the passage that we look at this morning from chapter 1, verse 1 to 5, He says, "For I am the Lord. I do not change. 16:42 Therefore, you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers, you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the Lord of Hosts. But you said, "In what way shall we return?" Again, there's that question being answered with a question, a statement being answered with a question. 17:04 And so when we look at this this morning, we realize that the ultimate love is coming, verse 1 of chapter 3. And again, God is reaching out to His people to return, return, return unto Me, your God. And you will be My people. And I will be your God. 17:21 Now we begin to look at the actual text this morning for the rest of our time together, looking at chapter 1, verse 1 through 5, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. "I have loved you," says the Lord. Yet you say, "In what way have you loved us? 17:41 Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" says the Lord. Yet Jacob, I have loved. But Esau, I have hated and laid waste his mountains and his heritage. 17:52 For the jackals of the wilderness, even though Edom has said, "We have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places," almost sounds like make America great again. We're going to make Edom great again. "Thus says the Lord of Hosts, they may build, but I will throw down. 18:12 They shall be called the territory of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. 18:19 Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, 'The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.'" Let's look at this passage a bit here before we ask and answer five questions this morning about the love of God. How do you know that God loves you? 18:41 Looking at this text, we see that it is a burden. It is the burden of the Lord, of the word of the Lord. It is a weighty matter. It is an oracle. It is a prophecy, a word of prophecy directly from God. It is the mind of God to the people of God, as we said a moment ago. And one of the first things that is on the mind of God is the fact that He loves these people. 19:03 But they don't seem to understand His love. They don't seem to grasp His love or comprehend His love or respond to His love. So He makes this compelling statement in very few words, "I have loved you," says the Lord. Now God wants to say that to us this morning, each one of us, "I have loved you. 19:24 I do love you. I want to be in relationship with you." And yet how many times do we actually question and doubt and not grasp the love that God has for us? Oh, we know it in our head that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. We know it in our head that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 19:45 But to get that into our heart. And so the people ask with cynicism, "How do you love us? Give us some evidence that you love us." They had come to doubt the love of God. They didn't see it. They didn't feel it. They didn't claim it. And they didn't believe it. And so cynically, 20:04 they spit back, "In what way have you loved us? Look at our history. Look at what you've done to us, God. Look at our..." I mean, we're a small nation now back in our land with about 150,000 people. The rest of our people are gone, our children, grandchildren, our neighbors to the north. They're gone. 20:24 Life is not at any way like it used to be. How can you say that you love us? And God goes on then to give Him His argument to prove His love to them. So God points, interestingly enough, to Edom to prove His love to Israel. So He goes to Edom or Esau. 20:46 Esau and Edom, same thing. Esau is the man. Edom is the nation, is the region where they live. And He talks about Edom or Esau, who was rejected by God. Now, I don't believe that Esau was rejected by God in relation to salvation. 21:05 But he was rejected by God in relation to the call of the blessing of the covenant. And so He says, "Esau and Jacob were brothers. And you all are descendants of Esau." But what about Jacob? And there's the descendants of Esau. "And Jacob, I loved. But Esau, I have hated." Now, what have we got going here? 21:25 Is God actually hating people? Is God really hate Esau? 21:30 Well, I think to understand that, we have to recognize that these are words of comparison, similar to what Jesus said that if a man loves God, he must hate his brother and sister and wife and parents and siblings and kinfolk. 21:49 Does that mean that God is telling us to hate people? No. God has told us to love people. 21:55 But it's a measurement of comparison that our love for God should be so far, so much deeper and higher and wider in our hearts that everything else by comparison looks like hatred. In other words, in relation to our priorities, 22:16 our priorities is God and His kingdom and His glory, not family relationships. Now, if we have to choose between one or the other, of course, we get that. But here He's saying, "Esau, I have hated. And Jacob, I have loved." This isn't in relation to salvation. 22:35 It's in relation to the covenant that God loved Jacob and chose him for whatever reason and did not choose Esau. And so it's in relation to moving the plan of God forward into the place of covenant blessing. So if you wanted to find the place of covenant blessing with God, 22:56 you had to look at the people of Jacob, not to the people of Esau. Now, they must have felt when they heard this that Malachi had missed something. "Malachi, do you not know what we've been through? Do you not know how we have suffered? Do you not know how we have been judged? 23:16 We have been judged. We have been sent into captivity. And we have returned with a small group of people. And Edom is still flourishing." Well, were they. 23:29 It was during this time that Edom was being removed out of its land, overtaken by a group of Nebetan Arabs between the years of 550 and 400 BC, causing Edom to resettle in further south in Idumia, 23:49 the Idumia region, which then made them Idumians instead of Edomites. The Edomites moving into Idumia, being displaced from their land, being a semi-nomadic people, the Nebetans allowed the cities of Edom to go into ruin while their herds overgrazed Edom's good land. 24:09 And so what was happening here, Israel had been put out of the land. Edom was being put out of their land. Israel, God loved, and brought them back into their land. Edom was rejected, never came back, never came back. 24:28 So that's what He's saying here. The indication, the evidence that God is giving that He loves the people of Israel is that He brought them back into their land. He did not cast them away forever. He renewed their covenant with them and brought them back into the land. 24:49 While Judah's judgment was temporary, Esau's judgment was permanent. That's the difference between judgment and discipline. Discipline is a temporary correction in the context of relationship. Judgment is a rejection of the relationship. 25:12 Judgment is permanent. Discipline is temporary. So Ezekiel 25, God had said, "I will also stretch out My hand against Edom. Cut off man and beast from it and make it desolate. 25:28 From Teman, Dedan shall fall by the sword." So He had judged Israel, or excuse me, Edom. Also in Joel chapter 3, 19 and 20, "Egypt shall be a desolation. 25:40 And Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children of Judah." There was a contention between Israel and Edom all the way back when Israel was released from Egypt and wanted to pass through the land of Edom. And they made request, "Would you allow us?" I mean, after all, we're your kinfolk. 26:01 "Would you allow us to pass through your land? We won't mess it up. We won't take your resources. Just walking on the king's highway to get from here to over there." And Edom said, "Absolutely not," and attacked them. God never forgot that. 26:18 So "Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children of Judah because they shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall dwell forever and Jerusalem from generation to generation." That is the evidence that God loved His people. 26:40 Not only that, but Israel would be a blessing and bless many beyond the borders of Israel. And so He says about the wasteland, verse 3, that "I have laid waste his mountain and his heritage. And the jackals take over the wilderness. And even if Edom were to say, 27:00 'We're going to make Edom great again,' I will overthrow them. I will keep that from happening. They may build, and I will tear down. 27:10 They shall be called the territory of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever." Wow, what great judgment God has for His enemies. What great love God had for Israel. "You shall see it. 27:30 You shall see. Your eyes shall see. And you shall say, 'The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.'" I want to give you, in the time that remains here this morning, five truths about the love of God from this passage of Scripture. 27:47 Number one, the love of God is not given to us because we are so great, but rather by His sovereign choice to love. Turn over to the book of Deuteronomy. I want to show you a Scripture you may be familiar with it, but Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 7. 28:06 You might say, "Why in the world did God love Jacob?" I mean, we can understand Him hating Esau. He wasn't a very nice man. 28:18 But I can't understand God loving Jacob. He wasn't a very nice man either. 28:24 So why? What does that teach us about the love of God? Is that the love of God is not merited by nice people. It is unmerited and is based upon His sovereign choice to love. In chapter 7 of Deuteronomy, 28:45 verse 7, "The Lord did not set His love on you." Now, this is Moses speaking to the Israelites. "The Lord did not set His love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people. For you were the least of all peoples." May we interject here that He didn't choose them because they were smart, good-looking, 29:06 talented, necessarily spiritually minded. He didn't choose them because they were some great and lofty and a pinnacle of the ancient world. He didn't choose them for any of those reasons. In fact, they were the least of all peoples. 29:23 In verse 8, "But because the Lord loves you and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out of with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 29:38 Therefore, know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments. And He repays those who hate Him to their face to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him. He will repay him to His face. 29:58 Therefore, you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today to observe them." God chose to love Israel. I like to say it like this. Why did God love Israel? He loved them just because, just because. Why did God choose Abraham? Just because. Why did God choose Isaac? 30:17 Just because. Why did God choose Jacob? Just because. Why did God choose Israel? Because, because that's what He wanted to do. That's what He chose to do. That's who He chose to establish His covenant with. And with that covenant blessing came covenant responsibilities. 30:36 And we can take comfort this morning in the fact that the love of God is not so is not because we are so great either. It is just because He made a covenant with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have come into covenant relationship with God. It's just because He loves the people of the world. 30:58 He loves all the people of the world. We'll handle that in just a moment. God's love is a universal love. But why did He put some people here like us where we can hear the Gospel and hear the Gospel and hear the Gospel and hear the Gospel and hear the Gospel? Just because, because it was in His sovereign choice to do so. 31:18 Now, I'm not saying in His sovereign choice that He chooses to save some and damn others. But I'm saying that God, in His sovereign choice, has put us in a position to receive His love. And I give Him thanks for that. I give Him thanks for that. 31:34 The love of God, secondly, is not based upon feelings or perception, but upon the covenant with Christ. I'm glad this morning that God's love is not dependent on how I feel. 31:51 God's love is not even dependent upon whether or not I perceive it. Brother and sister, this morning, if you're outside of Christ, you may not know that God loves you. You may not perceive that God loves you. But God loves you anyway. And thankfully, He gives us evidences of that love. 32:12 And He gives us a knowledge of that love from Scripture. And He gives us directly related to it is directly related to our covenant in Christ. So loved the world that He gave. Go to Stilibe. "For God so loved us, He sent the Savior. 32:34 For God so loved us and loves me too. Love so amazing. I'll sing His praises. God loves His children, loves even me." And so we see that God's love is not based upon feelings or even perception. Sometimes we don't feel love. Sometimes we don't feel lovely. Sometimes we don't even feel worthy to be loved. 32:54 Sometimes we have failed so, so critically in some critical areas of our lives where we say, "Certainly, God will not love me anymore." But I'm thankful this morning that God's love is a gift. And it is in relationship to the covenant of Jesus Christ. 33:15 That God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That Christ is the manifestation of His love. We read about it just a moment ago in chapter 3, verse 1. "In the midst of all of this unloveliness, in the midst of all of this rebuke, behold, 33:35 I send My messenger." And the rebuke, even the rebuke itself, is an evidence of God's love. 33:49 Number three, 33:52 God's love is not passive but requires a response. God's love is an active love that requires action to be entered into. You see, Esau did not respond to God. In fact, as we look at Scripture, there is absolutely no indication that I'm aware of. 34:12 Now, I would stand to be corrected if you can correct it from Scripture. But there's no indication that I'm aware of that Esau had any interest in the God of his father. There is no indication that I'm aware of that Esau had any interest in loving God. 34:30 There's no interest in there's no evidence that there was any place where Esau 34:37 bowed the knee in repentance. Yes, he sought his birthright, his blessing back with tears. There was a certain manner of repentant attitude. But it was in relation to the blessing, not in relation to the blesser. So he regretted that he didn't have his blessing anymore. 35:00 But he never came to the place where he repented and came into relationship with the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. 35:12 Esau did not respond to God's love. And we must respond to God's love ourselves. I want you to go over to the book of John chapter 14. I had a conversation with someone recently, not from here, but a conversation with someone about the love of God. And I'm not going to make a big deal about this passage. 35:34 But I would like you to think about it. John chapter 14, because we hear a lot today about the unconditional love of God. And God's love is unconditional. It is not based on our performance. It is based on His choice and mercy and character and disposition. 35:55 However, there is a level of love that we can only measure into and experience when we return that love. 36:09 And so in chapter 14, verse 21, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is He who loves Me. And He who loves Me will be loved by My Father. 36:28 And I will love Him and manifest Myself to Him." Verse 23, "Jesus answered and said to Him, 'If anyone loves Me, He will keep My word. And My Father will love him. And we will come to Him and make our home with Him.'" So is the love of God unconditional? 36:49 Yes. Is the love of God conditional? Yes. There is an unconditional love of God that calls us into relationship that sent His Son. 37:01 But then there is a broader, deeper, higher, wider, heavier experience of the love of God when we return His love back to Him, our love back to Him. And we enter into covenant relationship with Him. 37:23 It's the only way I know how to explain those verses. Number four, God's love is not always perceived immediately but is seen or proven over time. God's love is not always seen immediately. Sometimes we just simply don't feel God's love. 37:45 But that doesn't mean it's not there. That doesn't mean He stops loving. That doesn't mean He stops caring. 37:52 That doesn't mean that He stops being concerned with our eternal welfare. It may mean that God is disciplining us. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 5 through 8, "And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. 38:10 My son despised not the chastening of the Lord." There were times when I was disciplined by my father that I didn't feel very loved. I really didn't stop at the time and say, "Daddy, thank you for disciplining me. 38:22 I feel so loved right now." Didn't happen. 38:29 And neither do we often stop and say, "God, thank you for disciplining me. I feel really loved right now." No, we don't feel loved. We feel like somebody threw a rock at our chest. But He says, "Don't despise the chastening of the Lord nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. 38:51 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons." So thank God for the chastening hand of God. 39:12 God's love is seen and proven over time. 39:16 On the other side, when you've come under the discipline and the chastening, on the other side of that discipline and chastening, you look back and you say, "Oh, I know now how much God loves me and how much He loved me." Don't ever divorce the love of God from the chastening of God. 39:37 And think because He loves you, He won't chasten you. Or think because He is chastening you that He doesn't love you. You get that? 39:46 You may not always feel it or recognize it. But when you look back after the trial, you see His hand. You see that God wants to bless you and make you strong. But the way of blessing is the way of the cross, the way of suffering, the way of trials, the way of heartache and hardship. 40:08 And that's different than what we hear preached in the prosperity gospel. Prosperity gospel said God wants to bless you. And He's going to do it today if you give in the offering. 40:21 And especially if it's the pastor's offering. I'm being sarcastic now. Especially if it's the pastor's offering so that we can fly our jet around the world and tell other people to give in the offering so God can bless them. 40:39 No, they have missed the point of the Scripture that God wants to bless and show Himself strong on our behalf. But the way of blessing is the way of the cross, the way of suffering, the way of trials, of heartaches and hardship. It is the way of discipline. 40:56 It is the way of dying to the flesh so that we might live unto God. And that's the evidence of God's love, is how He takes us through the trials. And then number five, God's love is not territorial but is universal. 41:18 What do we mean by that? That God's love isn't just for me and my folk, my folks, my kin, my tribe. 41:27 It's not just for me and you and our little church here and maybe some other churches that we might like to be in relationship with. No, God's love is beyond that. God's love isn't just for Goshen, Indiana, Elkhart County. 41:46 God's love isn't just for Indiana, a conservative state with conservative values. God loves conservatives. 41:59 He does. But He loves liberals too. In fact, He loves all Americans. 42:06 In fact, He loves all Chinese. In fact, He loves all Mexicans. He loves all the people of the world: red, brown, yellow, black, white. Different shades, as we heard this year in summer Bible school, different hues. 42:29 Some of the lighter hue, some of the darker hue. He loves us all. Why? Because of His covenant with Jesus Christ. Because it's within His nature to love. And because He wants to be glorified not just here, but He wants to be glorified over there, 42:50 wherever over there is. So that there will be people from every tribe and nation and tongue and people and every people group. He doesn't just love certain people groups. He loves them all. Does He love them all the same? Well, He certainly interacted with them differently. 43:11 But it's the same in the sense that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life and enter into the fullness of God's love. So this morning, the first lesson from the book of Malachi is, whether you know it or not, whether you feel it or not, 43:33 whether you perceive it or not, 43:38 God loves you. 43:44 Father, thank You for loving us. We don't know why You did. We don't know why You do. Just because. But we find that love perfected as we come to a place of obedience and surrender and submission to our King Jesus, 44:05 our benevolent, loving monarch who is Lord of heaven and earth and Lord of all. And You've said as we do that and walk in obedience to that King, You will come into us and You will enter into us. And You will have fellowship with us. 44:23 And You will let us really know how much You do love us and care about us. Sometimes, Father, we find ourselves in the midst of discipline, in the middle of a disciplined situation where we just don't feel. Take us through those times, Lord. Remind us of the promises of God's love, 44:43 even when we don't perceive God's love. And so, Lord, teach us the mind of God to the people of God in Jesus' name. Amen.