Worshipping God Rightly
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Worshipping God Rightly
Worshipping God Rightly
— Or Else
Your own eyes will see this, and you yourselves will say, ‘The Lord is great, even beyond the borders of Israel.’
Malachi 1:
“George Buttrick . . . was [from 1927 to 1954] pastor of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. One week he had been off on a speaking engagement and was flying back to New York City. On the plane he had a pad and a pencil and he was making some notes for next Sunday’s sermon. The man seated next to him was eyeing him with curiosity. Finally, the curiosity got the best of him, and so he said to Buttrick, ‘I hate to disturb you—you’re obviously working hard on something—but what in the world are you working on?’ “‘ Oh, I’m a Presbyterian minister,’ said Buttrick. ‘I’m working on my sermon for Sunday.’ “‘ Oh, religion,’ said the man. ‘I don’t like to get all caught up in the in’s and out’s and complexities of religion. I like to keep it simple. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The Golden Rule, that’s my religion.’ “‘ I see,’ said Buttrick. ‘And what do you do?’ “‘ I’m an astronomer. I teach at the university.’ “‘ Oh, yes,’ said Buttrick. ‘Astronomy—I don’t like to get all caught up in the in’s and out’s and complexities of astronomy. Twinkle, twinkle little star, that’s my astronomy.’”
The Astronomer is sincere in his religious outlook, but if he took the same approach to the stars as he does God, his work would be reduced to a children’s poem. He is sincere, but wrong.
We may think that our own sincerity inoculates us from the reality of the Living God. Sincerity seems to have a plain, simple honesty about it — but it’s deadly if it is not founded in the truth.
If sincerity were as good as we think, then murders and thieves and liars would all be instantly vindicated. By itself, sincerity does not make us right. I can be sincere and wrong at the same time.
Malachi was written by — well Malachi, but that’s about all we know about him. However, his message was an important message for his day and just as important for ours. Malachi wrote to the Jewish remnant who had returned from the Babylonian exile in the late 5th century B.C.
The book centers around 6 Disputes God raises against His people and it’s these 6 disputes through which the message of Malachi comes. Let me give you these disputes and then we’ll group them together into 3 categories for the message today.
1:2-5
2-5
1:6-2:9
2:10-16
2:17-3:5
3:6-12
3:13-4:3
So, let’s group these in twos. The middle ones — 3 and 4 — focus on how they treated others; 2 and 5 — focus on what they did with themselves; and, 1 and 6 — focus on how they approached God.
3 and 4 — focus on how they treated others;
2 and 5 — focus on what they did with themselves; and,
1 and 6 — focus on how they approached God.
These 6 Disputes God raised teach us that Worshipping God rightly involves: How we treat others, What we do with ourselves, and How we approach God.
I. Worshipping God Rightly in how we treat others
I. Worshipping God Rightly in how we treat others
In the middle of Malachi we learn that worshipping God rightly involves how we treat others. We see this in the two middle disputes God brings on His people.
If you asked most people, they would regard religion as a deeply private matter, something that involves how they think or feel about spiritual matters. It’s what gives them peace — a quiet sense of joy — or composure in life. But that could not be further from the truth portrayed in Malachi. And nothing states this so poignantly as 2:10
Don’t all of us have one Father? Didn’t one God create us? Why then do we act treacherously against one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
If we truly are worshipping God rightly, then it would be demonstrated in how we treat others, because God is the Father of us all. This does not mean that all men have God as there Father and will be saved, but that God created all men. And because God created all men, we should treat all men as if God created them. If we did that, we would not lie to them, steal from them, take their wife, murder them, hate them, or covet what they have, which they have from God.
Unfaithfulness to others is Unfaithfulness to God
God classified how they treated others as unfaithfulness to Him.
Notice verse 11:
Judah has acted treacherously, and a detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord’s sanctuary, which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
They had broken their covenant with God by breaking their covenants of marriage, and they did this in two ways:
They married those who did not worship the Lord. “For Judah has profaned the Lord’s sanctuary, which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.” God was not against intermarriage of ethnic groups — but of those who did not worship Him, but worshipped false gods. It had nothing to do with remaining Ethnically Pure — but Spiritually Pure! The Lord knew that foreign wives and husbands would lead the hearts of His people astray to commit idolatry and worship false gods and demons.
They mistreated their families through hatred of their wives or husbands. Without getting into the issue of divorce too in-depth, I just want to point out that the great issue is not divorce. You’ve probably heard people quote — “God hates divorce.” The verse they are quoting is , but this is a translation of NKJV, RSV, NASB — these are the more literal translations. But this translation makes little sense in the context. The context is not about God hating divorce, but about the men of Israel hating and “putting away,” their wives. This issue is addressed in the New Testament when Christ is asked the question of divorce from the Pharisees in Matthew 19:
Some Pharisees approached Him to test Him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?”
Matthew 19:
And what is the Lord’s answer?
There should not be any divorce. There should not be a separation of husband and wife, because God created them male and female and intended them to be husband and wife. So, the Pharisees question Him: “Then why did Moses command us to give divorce papers and to send her away?” And notice our Lord’s answer:
He told them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts. But it was not like that from the beginning.
And I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
The issue was their hearts, not divorce. And this is exactly what the Lord stated in Malachi.
Yet you ask, “For what reason?” Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have acted treacherously against her, though she was your marriage partner and your wife by covenant. Didn’t the one God make us with a remnant of His life-breath? And what does the One seek? A godly offspring. So watch yourselves carefully, and do not act treacherously against the wife of your youth. “If he hates and divorces his wife, ” says the Lord God of Israel, “he covers his garment with injustice,” says the Lord of Hosts. Therefore, watch yourselves carefully, and do not act treacherously.
Malachi 2:14-16
The issue was their hatred of their wife! You see their unfaithfulness for God in their unfaithfulness to others. In choosing their spouses, they demonstrated what God they chose to worship. In remaining faithful to their spouses, they demonstrated faithfulness to God.
God’s Lordship extends to where you set your heart’s affections and nothing demonstrates this more clearly than who you marry and your faithfulness to your spouse. Christianity is invasive to every area of life. It speaks to your worship of God. If you think you worship God merely because you attend church, while your life is characterized by an unrepentant participation in unfaithfulness to others, Malachi says — You are fooling yourself.
If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.
Your horizontal relationship with one another testifies either for or against the reality of your vertical relationship with God. Worship of the true and living God is not merely ethereal or private.
Your faithfulness to others, especially your spouse, demonstrates your faithfulness to God — and with that your worship of God.
Your faithfulness to others, especially your spouse, demonstrates your faithfulness to God — and with that your worship of God.
II. Worshipping God Rightly in what we do with ourselves
II. Worshipping God Rightly in what we do with ourselves
Secondly — We learn that worshipping God rightly involves what we do with ourselves. We see this in the 2nd and 5th disputes God brings against Israel.
God cares not only about what we do, He cares about how we do it. Let me explain what I mean by looking at How Israel worshipped in Malachi’s time. It came out in what they brought to God. The people brought their sacrifices and tithes to the temple, but all was not right. God did not simply want whatever they could spare; He wanted the best. All the sacrifices offered were to be unblemished — All of them. Because they represented the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why it was a big deal to God.
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me? says Yahweh of Hosts to you priests, who despise My name.” Yet you ask: “How have we despised Your name?” “By presenting defiled food on My altar.” You ask: “How have we defiled You?” When you say: “The Lord’s table is contemptible.” “When you present a blind animal for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present a lame or sick animal, is it not wrong? Bring it to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the Lord of Hosts.
Malachi
The idea that some worship is true worship and some is false worship is a foreign concept to many people today. They fall to the tendency for sincerity. “As long as it’s sincere that’s all that matters,” they say. But you don’t want your banker to be sincerely wrong do you? Or your pilot? No! We are lead to believe that worship is subjective. But God is greatly concerned with How He is approached. So much so that He specifically set aside a whole tribe of people — the Levites — to teach the people of Israel how to offer correct, God-honoring, God-glorifying worship. The Levitical priests were to guard the sacrifices from unclean offerings.
You also say: “Look, what a nuisance!” “And you scorn it,” says the Lord of Hosts. “You bring stolen, lame, or sick animals. You bring this as an offering! Am I to accept that from your hands?” asks the Lord.
It is never our prerogative in how we are to worship God. We must worship God according to what He has said about how He is to be worshiped.
Truly worshiping God solely involves Jesus Christ as the only sacrifice for sin. It’s not that God wants our best — God wants His best — Jesus Christ. But He does want our all — our all as in total unconditional surrender of your entire life.
“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me!” You ask: “How do we rob You?” “By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions.
Malachi 3:
In this passage, the Lord specifically called His people to repent for their failure to “tithe AND the contributions.” There was more involved than just tithing in the Old Testament system. In the New Testament church we are no longer under that system — but we are called on to give and to be cheerful about it.
Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.
You see this whole thing of Christianity involves the entirety of the Christian’s life. It’s a total surrender — even your money. Giving is part of worship. This is why we have the offering in the worship service. And keep in mind what God told them in verse 6:
“Because I, Yahweh, have not changed, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.
God has not changed. And this is good because look at verse 10.
Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this way,” says the Lord of Hosts. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.
Another version says, “so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” The entire world belongs to God. We are to acknowledge His ownership by giving and trusting in His continual provision. God uses our giving in worship to teach us to worship Him with our whole selves.
The
Worship is more than singing and going to church and listening to preaching. It requires — Everything.
God doesn’t subcontract out worshipers. To hold back from God in giving because you’re trying to maintain autonomous control of your wealth reeks of mistrust, don’t you think? True worship is to cheerfully give to the Lord.
It’s my prayer that our church would grow in faithfulness if in no other way than Giving. Worshiping God Rightly involves what we do with ourselves as well as others. And Finally
III. Worshipping God Rightly in how we approach God
III. Worshipping God Rightly in how we approach God
Worship of God involves how we approach God.
Someone once wrote of President Eisenhower that like many Americans, he “is a very fervent believer in a very vague religion.” I don’t know how accurately that describes President Eisenhower, but it certainly describes many American. People have an eclectic mix of religion and philosophy according to their own preferences and perceived needs. Such vague notions of God and such low regard for Him prevents true worship. You cannot worship what you misunderstand, discount, and disregard. You must worship God by approaching Him as He has revealed Himself.
This is a point that Malachi makes at the very beginning of the book.
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you ask: “How have You loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” This is the Lord’s declaration. “Even so, I loved Jacob,
God revealed Himself as a God who is great and sovereign even beyond the borders of Israel — He is not tribal God. He is the Lord of All. By His own sovereign choice, He made Israel His own — AND — by His own sovereign choice, He rejected, even hated, Israel’s neighbor, Edom (descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother). Paul used this very passage in his famously controversial to argue for God’s sovereignty over all things and all people.
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac. That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring. For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son. And not only that, but also Rebekah received a promise when she became pregnant by one man, our ancestor Isaac. For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might stand— not from works but from the One who calls—she was told: The older will serve the younger. As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.
Romans 9:6-
Now you may not like God being sovereign, but He is. You may choose to ignore that, but one day you will be faced with this sovereign Lord when He calls in your last breath. Every man will one day recognize that God is just as Malachi declared Him.
Your own eyes will see this, and you yourselves will say, ‘The Lord is great, even beyond the borders of Israel.’
So, you cannot be indifferent to what God is really like, what He has revealed Himself to be in Scripture and at the same time truly worship Him. If you are indifferent to the God of the Bible, then you worship a self-constructed, homemade, do-it-yourself god that is not real. Please don’t foolishly declare when confronted with God as revealed in the Bible — “Well, that’s not the God I worship.”
Let me tell you why this is so important. Because if you do not worship God as He has revealed Himself — Sovereign, then you cannot know Him as the God who loves His people.
Not only are we to understand God, we are to fear Him.
“For indeed, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble. The coming day will consume them,” says the Lord of Hosts, “not leaving them root or branches. But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall. You will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the Lord of Hosts. “Remember the instruction of Moses My servant, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Look, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome Day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”
From Genesis to Revelation, we are instructed to fear the Lord. Fearing God means to have ultimate regard for Him as He is. It means to give Him our allegiance. The problem with men is we want to protest God so we — Take a knee in protest. But true reverence is an indispensable part of worship. And it shows in our lives. It shows in our repentance of sin. It also shows in eliminating all our past fears that ruled us such as fear of bad news, fear of pain, fear of what others think of us, even fear of death. When we fear God, nothing else can cause us any issues.
The book ends in an interesting way. The Lord instructs His people to both look back and look forward. Look back to the Law of Moses and look forward to the preparatory work of Elijah. Malachi was to remind God’s people of the Law and the Prophets as preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome Day of the Lord comes.
“Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”
Elijah did come. His name was John. He prepared the people for the coming of the Messiah. Jesus declared this prophecy fulfilled in John the Baptist. And so after 400 years of silence, the first spoken word of prophecy was John the Baptist call — “Repent!” There was a need to repent. The Old Testament ended with the word curse. Men are to repent of their indifference and disregard of God and put their hope in Him and His Word. This is the only way to worship God.
Did you notice the book ends with — “Otherwise?”
Or it may be rendered — “Or else.”
The Old Testament began with a deadly choice in the Garden and now ends with another choice. Adam’s fatal choice has been ratified literally ten thousand times ten thousand times in your own heart? And so the question specifically to you today is:
Will you turn to Jesus?
Let’s pray
Conclusion
Conclusion