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Worshipping God Rightly
— Or Else
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
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
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:
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:
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:
The issue was their hearts, not divorce.
And this is exactly what the Lord stated in Malachi.
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.
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
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.
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