Velocity Requires Our Faithfulness

Michael Vallandingham

Velocity DNBC • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

Malachi 2:10–16

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Velocity Requires Our Faithfulness

Malachi 2:10-16

Velocity vs Speed

Teamwork-- relationships help your ability to have Velocity.

Cannonball run- he sent out many people ahead of him to spot law enforcement.

We cannot have velocity in our Christian life unless we are being faithful in our relationships.

We are going to cover a difficult passage. I am going to present to you the Word of God. Don't get mad at the messenger.

Also understand, the only unforgivable sin is to reject the Holy Spirit.

Recognize the sin and realize it's forgiven. Don't repeat it.

Mary had to face people thinking she was not faithful to God and Joseph.

Mary was a virgin. This was completely necessary.

Curse of sin came through the seed of Adam (man).

Jesus did not have a sinful nature.

Jesus was the Son of God. Did not have an earthly father.

Joseph had the right to stop the marriage with Mary.

This was a big deal. If Mary had a relationship with another man she would have brought a covenant relationship with another man into their marriage. This would have brought shame to their family.

Despite the perception of man, Mary remained faithful to God and Joseph.

Malachi 2:10–16 ESV

10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts! 13 And this 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. 14 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. 15 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. 16 “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.”

2 Covenant Relationships Requiring Faithfulness

1. Faithfulness in Community (10-12)

Malachi 2:10 ESV

10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Covenant with Abraham

Unity among the tribes of Israel

Reference to Judah and Israel-- the split of the 12 tribes.

Failure to remain unified increased the threat of assimilation.

assimilation= having same culture and religion of those around them.

Covenant with the Church

The Church is not the new Israel.

We have a separate covenant. Covenant by the blood of Jesus. (Lord's Supper)

However, we are called to a similar type of unity.

O.T. God the Father was a term used among the people of Israel.

Physically born into the covenant. Sign was circumcision.

N.T. God the Father was term by the Church.

Spiritually born into the covenant. Sign is baptism.

John 1:12–13 ESV

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Unity among the church- One Body

1 Corinthians 12:12–15 ESV

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

We need unity to keep the church from assimilation.

We must be in the world but not of the world.

We have to look different.

4 Areas affected by broken relationships

A. Holiness(11)

Malachi 2:11 ESV

11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

Profaning (10b)= To abuse the sacred

abomination (11a)= detestable--To hate-- To make that which God made clean to be unclean.

B. Worship (11)

Malachi 2:11 ESV

"profaned the sanctuary of the Lord"= Made worship a disgrace. To make God of no importance.

Matthew 5:23–24 ESV

23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

C. Priority (11)

Malachi 2:11 ESV

Idolatry (11)- made something more important than God. Your pride. -

You decided your hate for your brother was more important than your worship.

Put aside foreign gods. - Those things that take priority over God.

Finances, Cars, Homes, etc.

D. Blessing (12)

Malachi 2:12 ESV

12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!

Banishment - Cuts off you and your descendants from the blessing.

God doesn't accept worship that is separated by sin.

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2. Faithfulness in Marriage

One of the Earliest of Covenants (right after covenant of tree) --

Genesis 2:20–25 ESV

20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

When does this covenant take place?

1 Corinthians 6:14–20 ESV

14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Adultery- not activity having relations with more than one person, but at any time in life.

5 Truths We Learn about Marriage

A. God expects us to marry believers. (11b)

Malachi 2:11 ESV

2 Corinthians 6:14–16 ESV

14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

B. God expects marriage to last a lifetime. (14)

Malachi 2:14 ESV

14 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.

Matthew 5:31–32 ESV

31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

There are permissions in Scripture for divorce. Only because of how sin distorts the covenant.

Ezra called for divorce of foreign wives. (They were trying to restore worship in Jerusalem.)

Moses gave certificate of divorce in order to protect the wife.

Jesus gave exception of sexual immorality-- because of the bringing of another flesh into the relationship.

Contract (social)/ Covenant (spiritual)

C. God is part of the marriage . (15)

Malachi 2:15 ESV

"portion of the Spirit in their union"

Marriage is spiritual, not legal. Get the state out of marriage!

D. God expects Godly offspring. (15)

Malachi 2:15 ESV

This is not to say anything negative about those who cannot have children.

For those who can, they need to have Godly offspring.

Your own comfort and personal happiness is not more important than the command to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."

Overpopulation of the earth is a myth.

People only starve in countries with corrupt governments that make the transportation of foreign aid impossible.

Only a small fraction of the earth is being farmed.

Raise your children in church.

Teach them Truth.

The discipleship of your children is your primary responsibility.

If you are not faithful to your wife it affects your ability to raise Godly offspring.

E. Unfaithfulness begins in the spirit. (15b, 16b)

Malachi 2:15–16 ESV

15 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. 16 “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.”

"guard"= same word used when telling the priests to "preserve" the Word of God.

"Watch yourself carefully"-- don't let it get to this point.

Jesus, Matthew 5:27-28

Matthew 5:27–28 ESV

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

vs 16a-- guard so you do not lead to hate.

Holding grudges.

Not working out conflict.

1 Cor 13 , "love keeps no record of wrongs"

F. Unfaithfulness brings guilt. (16)

Malachi 2:16 ESV

16 “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.”

"covers his garment with violence" (violence or injustice)

All sin brings guilt.

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But the gift of God...

CONCLUSION

We are all sinners in need of forgiveness.

Marriage unfaithfulness is a serious sin, a sin against the body. But it is not unforgivable.

Christ died once for all.

But we also must not continue in sin. "Be holy as God is holy."

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