A Beat Dog

The Lord is faithful and just and He calls us to be faithful and just.

In fact, according to Malachi, you can tell how deeply we believe that by how we treat each other.

Have you ever been around a dog that has been beaten?

It’s easy to see if a dog has been mistreated.

When I was a little boy, dad was looking for me a dog and a guy at work was giving one away.

As I remember it, it was collie looking animal - nobody we knew ever had a pure bred dog.

But it was mean.

Dad had it on a rope leash when he showed him to me.

I wanted to love that dog but that dog wanted to bite me.

If dad hadn’t had him on a leash, I’d have been hurt.

The dog never calmed down.

Dad said he could tell that dog had been beaten and the way it handled it was to make sure it was never beaten again.

Dad ended up putting the dog down because it was so vicious.

But I’ve not seen a lot of dogs that handled beatings that way.

Most become humble to the extreme.

The ASPCA does a great job of picking out the most severely mistreated dogs for their commercials.

While Sarah McLachlen sings, the dogs tremble when a human comes close.

They lower their heads, they cower.

They don’t want you to touch them, but they really do.

Because they don’t run away, they just back away and dodge your hand.

But they really want someone to love and care for them - to need them really.

You’ve seen that in people, haven’t you?

I’m reading a book about Steve McQueen written by the pastor, evangelist and author Greg Laurie.

Both men were raised in seriously abusive environments.

Both men reacted differently.

Steve McQueen grew up to be the mysterious bad boy actor women adored and men wanted to emulate.

He was emotionally distant with everyone - he never wanted to be hurt like that again.

Laurie grew up to be a pastor - a job where you see hurt all of the time.

It amazes me how people treat each other.

How can a daddy do some of the things I hear and then go to church on Sunday and praise God?

How can husbands and wives do the things they do, and then grin and smile and giggle and laugh in church.

How do we do that, and then tell Jesus we love Him?

I guess that’s one of the reasons I feel a little off balance in our world - people really do treat each other oddly.

In one case, you’ll see someone go out of their way to help a complete stranger.

In another case, you’ll see people do their best to destroy someone because they don’t agree with them.

And every bit of how we treat other people, is a direct reflection of how deeply we hold to this truth: The Lord is faithful and just and He calls us to be faithful and just.

In our text this morning, Malachi 2:10-16, through the prophet, the Lord really blasts the faithlessness and the unjustness of his people.

And he’s not dealing with it on a macro scale.

He’s not throwing around words like we do today.

You won’t hear racial justice, or gender justice, or income justice.

You can’t fix those until you fix the basic problem.

In fact, if you fix the basic problem, the other problems will disappear.

In Malachi, the Lord calls out His people for three things.

They are are faithless and unjust to each other.

They are faithless and unjust to Him.

And they are faithless and unjust to their spouses.

The underlying truth of their failures is this: If God is faithful and just and we are His children, we are going to look like our Father.

When people see us, they are going to see us treat them with the same faithfulness and justice that God has.

They don’t.

We know it.

But there is help for us.

Malachi 2:10–16 ESV

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? 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. 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! 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. 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.”

Faithfulness and justice are church words - we use them all the time, but I’m not sure we really know what they mean.

What does it mean that God is faithful?

Now listen, I know some of you are zoning out already because you’ve heard all of this before - but let me tell you - you need to pay attention.

Most of us understand intellectually what this means - but it’s not imbedded in our hearts.

If it was - Malachi’s words would be wasted on us and they aren’t.

One of the reasons - maybe one of the primary reasons people are so unhappy and people make each other so miserable is because they have never imbedded the truth of the Lord’s faithfulness and justice in their hearts.

But let’s answer the question,

What does it mean that the Lord is faithful?

It means that Lord always keeps His promises and therefore can always be trusted.

A big hint of His faithfulness is His name, YWHW, which means I AM except it’s bigger than that.

It means I Was Who I Was, I Am Who I Am, and I Will Be Who I Will Be.

Not that I was something different then than I am now and will be in the future, but that I am the same, as Hebrews says of Jesus, “yesterday, today and forever.”

Listen, because of His faithfulness, it is impossible for God to lie. (Heb. 6:19)

If we could comprehend this one fact, it could revolutionize some lives.

If the Lord says He will never leave you nor forsake you, then what does that mean?

I’ve heard people say in the depths of their despair that it just doesn’t seem like the Lord even hears them.

But wait a minute, if the Lord is faithful, if He cannot lie, then when you feel despair, the Lord is with you, right?

He hears you, right?

He hurts for you, right?

He has a way out for you, right?

Listen to this, 1 Peter 4:19

1 Peter 4:19 ESV

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

Let those who suffer according to God’s will...

Will you agree with me that all suffering in our lives either comes by direct action of God or by the permissive action of God?

That nothing that happens to us escapes His notice - do you agree with that? I do.

So, when I suffer, if we truly have the Lord’s faithfulness embedded in our hearts - we will entrust our very souls to our faithful Creator who is working in us for our good.

That’s hard because we want our best life now and by our definition our best life does not include suffering.

But life includes suffering.

And the best way to survive suffering is to realize that the Lord is faithful.

You can trust that whatever the outcome is, it will be for your good and for His glory - always.

The Lord is faithful - He always keeps His promises so He can always be trusted.

But we said He is faithful and just.

What does just mean?

This is important because one of the things the godless in this country is doing is they are actively redefining words.

And one of those words they are trying to redefine is justice.

The new definition of justice means you have something someone else doesn’t therefore it should be taken from you and given to them.

What the have’s have must be given to the have nots so the have nots become the haves and the haves become the have nots.

That is godless justice.

I suspect someone will argue that this definition is incorrect, but if you watch their actions and sift through their doublespeak, this is where you will end up.

This is not the Lord’s justice.

The Lord’s justice promotes equality - not equity.

Equality - those who make it we celebrate, those who are having trouble making it, we give a hand up - we advocate for them.

Equity means equal outcome - that everyone one is guaranteed the same outcome - equal outcome is not justice.

God has given each one skills and abilities as He’s seen fit - there will always be differences in outcome.

Equality means everyone has a chance and everyone helps everyone have a chance.

Because we are all created in the image of God.

Because the Lord is just.

The Lord’s justice lifts up the righteous and the oppressed and humbles the unrighteous and the oppressors.

In fact, the Lord’s justice is what ushers in peace.

Wrongs are made right and the “impoverished [are] restored to prosperity.”

This is the way the Lord expects His children to live - this is the way the Lord designed His children to live.

But how do we?

Verse 11 says we invite sin into our lives.

“…and he has married the daughter of a foreign god.”

Our guiding principle is not, “what do I need to do to draw closer to the Lord.”

Our guiding principle is what was on the Troll Doll I was given years ago, “How much can I get away with and still get to heaven?”

We are drawn to the anti-hero, Loki, Batman, Robin Hood, Hell-boy.

The box stars with the biggest draws aren’t the steady Eddies who can be counted on to be faithful and just.

Those guys are character actors.

We want the one we aren’t quite sure we can trust.

There is an element of darkness in them.

The Bible warns us 2 Cor 6:14 “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers...”

In dating, in marriage, in business - you’re coming from two different places - you are going to end up in two different places.

Verse 13 says, once we’ve invited sin into our lives, it never turns out like we expect it to.

“You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning,” because God didn’t give you want you wanted.

How many times have we cried into our pillows, “Why did my life turn out this way, God?”

And we complete neglect our culpability.

We invited this in - knowing chances were good it wasn’t going to work out right - and now we are asking the Lord to fix it.

And then, verse 14, you go around telling folks you prayed and prayed and the Lord just isn’t doing anything.

Malachi 2:14 ESV

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.

Because we were faithless in the first place.

And we still aren’t looking for what the Lord wants - we want Him to bless what we want.

And he’s not going to do that.

Malachi 2:16 ““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.””

The man who is faithless - who doesn’t keep this vow.

Whose word is not his bond - this person treats people unjustly.

They want what they want without a care to what the other person deserves.

We are as far from God as night is from day.

The Lord is faithful and just and we are to be a people who are faithful and just.

We all know ourselves, don’t we?

We believe the doctrine of total depravity.

Not that we are the worst person that ever lived, but that there is no part of our flesh that is not tainted by sin.

So knowing that we really are at war with ourselves, that we want to do right and wrong at the same time, how do we avoid making a mess out of things?

Malachi 2:16 “So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

You know who you are, you know what you do.

You know who the Lord is and you know what He does.

Guard yourself.

Listen, this is a killer for us because we want it to be all magical.

“If I belong to Jesus, I’ll just know what is the right thing to do.”

Well, yes and know.

We’ll know - but will we pay attention?

We aren’t robots.

God created us in His image, with the ability to make moral decisions.

And He gave us the information we need to make the correct moral decisions.

And when we are faithful and just as He is faithful and just, our chances of doing the right things increases exponentially.

So what do we do when we don’t listen and the inevitable happens?

We repent.

I can hear someone say, “I repented and God still didn’t fix it.”

And I have to ask, did you really repent?

Or did you cry your eyes out to the Lord and asked him to fix it like you want it to be fixed?

Repenting means we turn to the Lord and say, “I don’t care how you make this turn out.

“I trust you to do the right thing.

“That’s what you promise.

“That’s who you are.

“And I’m going to trust you no matter where this thing goes - because you are God.

“Because you are faithful and just.

That’s a scary prayer.

It could cost you your job, your success, your career.

It could cost you the very thing you are hanging on to the tightest.

But we have to know that, at whatever cost that comes, what that price will buy is the peace and contentment the Lord has meant for you to have all along.

His goal has never been your misery.

I am very aware that this scripture dealt very directly with relationships with the Lord, with relationships between one another and marriage.

And we could have talked about it that way and caused all kinds of feelings all over the place.

But none of that changes the underlying message.

The Lord is faithful and just.

We can’t get around it and when we hold on to that, well, it truly can change our lives.

It will make us have better marriages.

It will draw us closer to the Lord and,

It will make us better brothers and sisters in Christ.

Because the Lord is faithful and just so He expects us to be faithful and just - and we will be people that people can count on.

One last thought - 1 John 1:9

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Faithful and just to forgive.

Yep, we needed to know that.

Let us pray.