Introduction and God's Love for His People (Mal 1:1-5)

Announcements

This evening at 6:30pm, we do have baptisms scheduled at Neil and Alice’s house—Now there’s a possibility that the baptism scheduled might not actually happen, however, we’re hoping and praying that it still does. In the case that it doesn’t, we’ll still have a bonfire and snacks to enjoy—it’ll be a great time of fellowship regardless. Directions are on the insert in the worship guide, we’d love to have you join us.

Next week, on July 24th after AM Worship, we do have a special business meeting planned—it’ll be quick, just a few minutes right at the end of the service.

We could use some help this Saturday during the Houtzdale Days Parade, I believe we’ll be meeting at the grocery store in Houtzdale at 5:30pm, but check with Natalie to be sure.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving. To help you give, we have three ways to do so, (1) cash and checks can be given at the offering box. Checks should be written to Grace & Peace; debit, credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church. Of course, everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 55:16-23)

Our Call to Worship is Psalm 55:16-23, which is the last part of Psalm 55. In it, we see David cast all His burden onto the LORD. Despite being betrayed by a friend, despite experiencing great hardship, he decides to trust in the Lord. Please stand and read with me Psalm 55:16-23—I’ll read the even-numbered verses, please join me in reading the odd-numbered verses:

Psalm 55:16–23 ESV

16 But I call to God, and the Lord will save me. 17 Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. 18 He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me. 19 God will give ear and humble them, he who is enthroned from of old, Selah because they do not change and do not fear God. 20 My companion stretched out his hand against his friends; he violated his covenant. 21 His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. 22 Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. 23 But you, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction; men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.

Congregational Singing

Great is Thy Faithfulness (86)

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us (80)

Before the Throne of God Above (187)

Scripture Reading (Deut 4:32-40)

Our Scripture Reading this morning is Deuteronomy 4:32-40. I’m not going to give much information for you beyond simply explaining that this is a passage in which Moses asked the people whether any other nation (beside Israel) had received any clear and direct evidence of God’s existence and survived. He reminds them of some of the great things that God has done for them. Natalie, can you read Deuteronomy 4:32-40 for us?

Deuteronomy 4:32–40 NASB 2020

32 “Indeed, ask now about the earlier days that were before your time, since the day that God created mankind on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? 33 Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? 34 Or has a god ventured to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, just as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him. 36 Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. 37 Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them. And He personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, 38 driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today. 39 Therefore know today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 40 So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am giving you today, so that it may go well for you and for your children after you, and that you may live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Sermon

Introduction

If you have your Bible with you, please turn it to Malachi 1:1-5.

If you’re a little unfamiliar with the minor prophets, I might be able to help you with locating the book—if you open to roughly the halfway mark of your Bible, you’ll find yourself in the book of Psalms; you’ll want to keep turning towards the end of the Bible until you reach the New Testament. Once you reach the New Testament, preferable the Gospel according to Matthew, turn back a few pages and you’ll be in the book of Malachi.

We’ll be in Malachi for probably a month and a half and for many of you, it may be the first time you’ve ever taken the time to study through Malachi in-depth. It is a shorter book—that’s why Malachi is called a minor prophet (not because he’s less important than the major prophets, it’s only because his book is shorter). It is a book that is sharp and poignant and it is a book that is highly applicable to our modern-day world.

I’m excited for it and hopefully, you are too, let’s read Malachi 1:1-5 together.

Malachi 1:1–5 ESV

1 The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. 2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” 4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’ ” 5 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”

As we study this passage, we’re going to break the text into two parts, which I know sounds ambitious, but I think it’ll make sense when you hear the divisions: (1) The Introduction (1) and (2) God’s Love for His People (2-5). In the first section, we’re really just looking at v. 1, but we’re going to tie that with an introduction to the whole book of Malachi—it’ll provide us a general idea of what all we’ll cover in the next month and a half; and in the second section, we’re going to look specifically at God’s statement concerning His love for His people and how He acts and responds in His love for His people. This morning’s sermon will help us to reflect on God’s love for us, what it means, and how it affects us today.

Prayer for Illumination

The Introduction (1)

The first verse of Malachi starts by giving us some historical data—it informs us of who the author is and who the first intended audience was, Malachi starts with “The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.”

We learn three key details from this one sentence:

First, we learn that this is word of the Lord, meaning Malachi didn’t make it up—he didn’t stumble upon it one day, it didn’t come to him while he was taking a bath or anything like that, God gave Him these words to be spoken.

Second, we learn that these words were spoken through Malachi to Israel. The original intended audience of Malachi is the nation of Israel itself and let me be abundantly clear, the bulk of God’s message to Israel through Malachi is a condemnation of Israel by God—God is calling them out for their sins.

Third, we learn that this word of the LORD is an oracle, which is a bit unfamiliar of a term for us today. If you’re familiar with Greek mythology, the term oracle reminds you of the people who proclaimed the future and people would travel from all over the world to see these oracles. The biblical use of the word oracle doesn’t necessarily require the telling of the future, but it does require a proclamation—because that’s literally what it is.

It is a proclamation given from God through Malachi to the nation of Israel and in it, God confronts very specific sins that are occuring in the nation of Israel. And He doesn’t beat around the bush, He doesn’t hold any punches, He confronts their sin openly and quickly starting even within the first chapter. Let me give you an idea of what’s coming in the next month and a half:

In Malachi 1:6-14—God confronts the Israelites’ improper worship—He accuses them of not worshiping Him properly because they worship out of duty or ritualistically but not out of love for Him. In doing so, he calls out both the priests for leading the people into improper worship and the people for following the priests into improper worship.

In Malachi 2:10-17—God accuses the Israelites of profaning the Covenant that they were supposed to keep with Him. Or in other words, he accuses them of breaking their promises to Him.

In Malachi 3:1-6, he briefly interjects a statement about a coming messenger who will prepare the way for the Lord, who will judge them. I think it’s fairly clear that God is referring to both John the Baptist and Jesus who will come and judge them, but we’ll speak more about that in a few weeks when we get there.

God accuses them of robbing Him by neglecting their tithes and offerings in Malachi 3:7-12, He again, confronts their lackadaisical attitude towards worshiping Him, before ending the book by speaking of the coming Great Day of Yahweh.

I think you can plainly see how we’re going to be able to apply the book to our own lives just with a cursory look over the book—are we guilty of improper worship? Are we guilty of breaking our covenant to the Lord? Are we guilty of robbing God? It ought to be a very convicting book for most of us.

Now, because this book is written specifically to the Israelites, we really have to ask ourselves, what is happening in the history of Israel at this very moment? What’s going on in Old Testament history at this very moment?

Malachi is the very end of the Old Testament and it is chronologically the last book of the Old Testament.

This means that the book of Malachi comes just before the four-hundred year intertestimental period between the Old and New Testament. And in these four-hundred years between the Old and New Testaments, we know that the people of Israel didn’t really hear from God in a revelatory sense, there was new added special revelation to the Scriptures during that time.

Knowing that Malachi occured just before the intertestimental period puts the dating of Malachi to about 400-450BC, which means that we’re at the end of the divided kingdom of Israel, this is after the Babylonian exile and the people have finally returned to their homeland; and despite the Israelite’s warm response to Zechariah’s call to them to repent and follow God, it’s apparent by this time, the Israelite’s had fallen back into their sin.

Malachi was written right about the same time that Ezra, Joel, and Obadiah were written.

This simply informs us that at this time in Israelite history, the people were so far gone, that there were multiple prophets sent by God to make proclamations against them in a hope that the people would repent and follow God again.

As for Malachi himself, we don’t really know too much about him.

In fact, everything we know about Malachi is found in the book of Malachi and as we study through the text of Malachi, you’ll notice that the only time that we see anything about Malachi himself is found in the following verse:

Malachi 1:1, “1 The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.” — This is the only verse that mentions Malachi by name and it is the only verse that tells us anything about Malachi whatsoever.

So, all we know about Malachi is (1) that his name is Malachi, (2) he is a prophet that was used by God to proclaim a message, and (3) his name means my messenger.

You might be surprised that we don’t have much information about Malachi, but I believe that it’s intentional.

The message isn’t about Malachi—the prophecies in here have nothing to do with him, the indictment is not his indictment against Israel, it’s God’s indictment against Israel.

While Malachi clearly agrees with God, the point isn’t that Malachi agrees, the point is that Malachi is proclaiming a message on behalf of God—and only God and God’s message matters.

Why don’t we know much about Malachi himself? Because the message at hand doesn’t require us to know much about the person.

This brings us to Malachi’s first proclamation against the people of Israel. You’ll notice that Malachi utilizes a sort-of rhetorical Q&A format throughout the book. As he relates God’s message to Israel, he states that Yahweh has asked a question, but the people contradict the question. And then he tells us God’s response to their contradiction. Keep this in mind as we start our study through the book of Malachi. Let’s re-read vv. 2-5.

God’s Love for His People (2-5)

Malachi 1:2–5 ESV

2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” 4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’ ” 5 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”

Malachi starts this passage of Scripture by recounting a statement by God and a question from the Israelites—and remember, that Malachi is just the messenger throughout the whole text, so this is really God speaking through Malachi. God says, “I have loved you, . . .But [the Israelites] say, ‘How have you loved us?’”

The premise of this passage and the next few verses is God’s love for His people.

We can really make an argument that God’s love for His people is really an overarching theme of the whole book—it is God’s love that has called Israel as His people, it is God’s love for His people in which He confronts them for their sin. It’s God’s love for His people that the prophecy concerning Jesus’ coming to earth is all about.

And really, we could argue that love in general is a key concept for the book. God is doing all these things because He loves His people; and really, the fact that the Israelites are in sin—they’re offering polluted offerings, they’re neglecting to give, and they live lives of unrepentant sin shows us that they don’t love God though they still claim to.

Which, as a side-note, it really should open our eyes a bit because we tend to claim to love God and then neglect giving, live lives of unrepentant sin, and offer improper worship as well.

God states that He loves His people, but the Israelites respond with “How have you loved us?” This question from the Israelites might seem a little unusual to you, but let me remind you of the historical context.

This is roughly 450BC, which places us in a time of history in which the nation of Israel had fallen apart and was taken into exile in Babylon.

They returned to the Promised Land in approximately 530BC, which remember that when you’re in the BCs, the years get larger the longer ago it was. And they set to the task of rebuilding, particularly in Jerusalem and particularly because Nehemiah got on them for only caring for themselves and not caring for God and God’s temple.

And sometime along all the rebuilding, they developed this false idea that if they just did all the rituals—they offered the sacrifices, they kept the feasts, and they did the various things that the Law commanded them to do, that God would just bless them. Even if they did these things only because they knew they had to, not because they genuinely loved God.

Which is why they’re questioning God’s love for them, “How have you loved us?”—they’re questioning God’s love because they haven’t received the rewards that they thought they should have.

In their minds, they’re doing everything they’re supposed to, but God still isn’t blessing them the way that they thought they should be blessed, so they accuse God of not loving them.

If you’re thinking cyclically, you’ll pick up on the fact that the exile in Babylon led them to repentance, they realized their sins and they repented. They returned home and they sought to do right, but relatively quick, they fell back into their sin.

So, God reminds them of history in vv. 2b-4 by contrasting the way that He has shown His love to them to how God responded to people that aren’t His, “‘Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ declares the Lord. ‘Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.’ If Edom says, ‘We are shattered by we will rebuild the ruins,’ the Lord of hosts says, ‘ They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’

God’s question and answer, “is not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ . . . ‘yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated,’” reminds us of the covenant that God made to Israel all the way back in Genesis, in particular, we’re reminded of God’s promise to bless Jacob in Genesis 35.

We see God blessing Jacob and changing his name to Israel. He tells him of a nation that he’s going to be the father of and he calls Jacob-now-Israel to worship Him.

Then we see in Genesis 36, the genealogy of Esau, who is also known as Edom and we essentially see that even though God did bless the Edomites on occasion, His focus throughout the Old Testament was on Israel, Jacob’s offspring.

Now why did God choose Jacob and not Esau? We aren’t entirely certain, we could postulate that it had something to do with Esau not taking his birthright or his blessing seriously, but that’s just an educated guess.

Nowhere in Scripture are we ever really told why God choose Jacob and not Esau, but it is clear that when Israel as a nation was attacked by the Babylonians, the Edomites were the Babylonian’s informants who looted and cut off the escape routes.

And the Edomites, when Israel was taken captive, wasted no time in moving into the Promised Land.

Basically, what God is pointing at is that He chose Jacob and He then chose Israel and His choosing of Jacob and thus Israel was an act of His love.

Now, don’t get tripped up on His statement that “Esau I have hated.” Don’t misunderstand this as God having an animosity or resentment against Esau.

This of this in light of how much He loves Israel. In comparison, it’s as if He hates Esau, that’s simply how much He loves Israel.

Consider Jesus’ statement that Luke 14:26 “26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.” Does Jesus literally want you to hate you father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters? No, it’s really just a statement that your love for Him ought to be so much that in comparison it seems as if you hate your family.

In comparison to God’s love for Jacob it looks as if God hates Esau. Joyce Baldwin, “The verb ‘hate’ is to be understood in the light of God’s electing love. The very fact that Jacob was chosen, ‘loved’, meant that Esau was rejected, ‘hated’, rejection being implicit in the exercise of choice. Personal animosity towards Esau is not implied.” (TNTC, 240)

However, note that the fact that God chose Jacob and not Esau, Israel and not the Edomites, caused Esau and his descendents to nurture resentment and hostility towards Jacob and Israel. And by being hostile towards Jacob and Israel, Esau and the Edomites incurred God’s judgment upon themselves.

And because of that deep-seeded resentment, God describes the judgment that had been laid against Edom, “I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”

And the judgment that Edom had incurred upon itself is ongoing. We see this in v. 4, “If Edom says, ‘We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,’ the Lord of hosts says, ‘They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’”

You might wonder why God speaks of this judgment being ongoing, but remember, while Israel was in exile, the Edomites helped Babylon and they stole Israel’s land while the Israelite’s were slaves. Even when Israel returned, there was no repentance on behalf of the Edomites, they did these things purely out of spite towards Israel.

Edom, because they never bothered to repent, continued in the sins that they had indulged in. Thus, the judgment will be continuous—they will keep trying to rebuild, but God will keep judging them.

This will be such a cycle that people will speak of Edom as “the wicked country” whom God is angry with forever.

Note that this is what people will say about Edom, not what God will say about Edom. In fact, much like every other situation of judgment throughout Scripture, if the people would simply repent, God would forgive them, but the Edomites never bother to ever repent.

Thus, they will be judged and they will continue to experience judgment as punishment for their sin.

Now, I will say, that it is easy to read this and get so distracted by Edom’s punishment for their sins that you miss the point of the passage.

Yes, Edom is to experience judgment for their sins, but remember v. 2, “‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have you loved us?’ ‘Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ declares the Lord. ‘Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.’”

God’s whole point here is His love for His own people and despite the fact that the Israelites are accusing Him of not actually loving them, He’s using the example of Jacob and Esau and Israel and the Edomites as proof for His love for them.

He’s highlighting the fact that they didn’t choose Him, He chose them and in His choice, He determined to love them.

He’s highlighting the fact that even though they’ve experienced destruction at the hands of Edom because God loves them, Edom will be judged and Israel will be fine.

He’s highlighting the fact that even though Israel’s past hasn’t always been ideal (according to them), he has led them, He protected them, and He cared for them throughout it all.

Or in other words, what God is doing in the beginning of Malachi is He’s pointing out just how much He actually does love Israel even if Israel doesn’t think that He does. God loves them and it is evident in how He chose them, how He led them, how He protected them, and how He continued seeking them even when they didn’t seek Him.

This section of the text then closes with God making their statement that what happens to Edom will be evident to them and they’ll realize that God is great because of what will happen to the Edomites, V. 5, “Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, ‘Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!’”

What God closes this section with is a simple statement concerning how Israel is going to respond in light of the judgment of the Edomites. Their response will be to see the greatness of the Lord.

And the fact that they’re seeing these things and making this proclamation shows us that someday, they’ll repent and praise and worship the Lord again.

Someday, Israel will see God’s judgment on all His enemies and they will praise God for His greatness and His faithfulness even beyond the border of Israel, which simply reminds us that God’s greatness and His sovereignty extends beyond the boundaries of any one nation or any people group.

God is sovereign and He is in control, whether that’s directly in Israel or it’s in Edom, or if it’s in Babylon, or even today and in our context—God is in complete control and He is great in all things.

In this context, in Malachi 1:1-5 this last statement reflects how the truth that God genuinely does love His people, even when they’ve experienced exile or as they currently are as a weak nation.

The fact that God is still willing to judge His enemies and really the enemies of Israel show us that even if justice doesn’t occur immediately, God is still just.

And even if for Israel, they felt as if God didn’t care for them or love them, it’s clear that God still does.

And even though they can’t see how exactly God cares for them, how He loves them, or how He protects them, it’s clear that one day, after it’s all said and done, they will see His love for them, they will see how He protects them, and they will see how they cared for them; and they will cry out in praise”Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel.”

Which brings us to our application for this morning. As of yet, in the context of Malachi 1:1-5, we haven’t actually seen an indictment against Israel. What we have seen, is that God absolutely loves them—this truth is seen in what He says, how He has led them historically, how He cares for them and protects Him, and how He will act in justice on their behalf. While our present situation might not be identical to theirs, I think we can easily grab application from this text in such a way that we’re reminded of God’s love, care, protection, and justice on our behalf. In this case, I think it would be best for us to take all of vv. 1-5 in one unit for our application.

Application

Malachi opens this book by recording a statement from God in which God makes it abundantly clear that He has loved Israel, but Israel doesn’t seem to think so. Israel responds to God’s rhetorical question with “How have you loved us?” And God’s response is to remind them of their history, to remind them that He still cares for them, and to remind them that God will bring justice against those who harm Israel and sin against Almighty God. Because God has cared for them and has loved them; and because God will continue to care for, protect, and love them, He states that in the end, they will say praise to His name.

Now clearly, in our modern-day world, the situation is a bit different. We aren’t in Israel nor are we Israelites. Most of us have never experienced anything quite like the historical events that the Israelites faced—like exile, war, and the destruction of our homeland. We aren’t in a situation in which we are surrounded by other countries that absolutely hate us and seek to do us significant harm because of our ethnicities.

However, we can take a moment to consider what we know of how the Israelites felt, what they went through, and what they were going through and reflect on times in our own lives when we have felt the same way.

Remember that the Israelites had experienced significant harm and loss when their ancestors were taken into exile to Babylon. While in Babylon, their ancestors were enslaved until eventually, they were released to return to their homeland.

When they did return to their homeland, they found their homes already occupied by the Edomites—a nation that notoriously hated the Israelites, that sought the downfall of Israel, and clearly had plains to continue acting wickedly against Israel and against God Himself.

Now, of course, when the Israelites were able to start rebuilding, it’s clear through some of the other prophets, that they almost immediately fell back into their old ways. They were initially thankful and worshiped God well, but the further from the exile they got, the further from God they were; to the point that they had to be reprimanded for caring so much about their own homes, but not caring about God’s temple whatsoever.

And the cycle repeated itself—they were back in their sin—though they were continuously doing the rituals that Yahweh commanded that they do, their hearts weren’t really in them.

Yes, they offered the sacrifices; yes, they kept the feasts; yes, they followed the Law, but they didn’t do it because they loved God, they did it because they knew they were supposed to; and they did because they assumed that if they did, God would bless them.

But because they weren’t worshiping God properly, they weren’t blessed, and they felt as if God no longer cared for them, that He didn’t protect them anymore, and that He didn’t love them.

Maybe, you feel exactly how the Israelites did. You feel as if you did everything right—you faithfully attend church, you serve others, you do your best to serve God, and you even sing as loud as possible even when you don’t really know the song.

Maybe, it’s gotten to the point in your life, when you feel as if you did everything right, but God doesn’t seem to care about you.

It seems as if He’s distant, that He’s not working within your life, or that He doesn’t love you how you think He ought to love you.

And when you hear someone say that Jesus loves you; all you think is “really? how does Jesus love me?”

Our application for this morning stems from this idea. There will be times in your life in which you feel as if Jesus doesn’t love you, just like the Israelites accused God of not loving them. What ought you do in a situation like this? I have three pieces of application for you when you feel as if God doesn’t love you; I’ll list them and then I’ll break them down: (1) Remind yourself of the truth, (2) reflect on how God has shown you His love before, and (3) meditate on what God will do for you because of His love:

Remind yourself of the truth (2a)—this is perhaps the hardest thing to do when you face situations in life in which you feel as if God doesn’t care for you or love you. The reason for the difficulty is simple, when you feel as if God doesn’t love you, you aren’t thinking rationally, you’re thinking emotionally.

The issue is, that in this instance (as is often the case when you’re thinking purely on emotion), your emotions are wrong and to succumb to your emotional feeling that God doesn’t love you neglects much of what God has already told us to be truth. We know this from even a brief survey over the Bible:

God’s love for mankind is seen in the way that He created mankind—whereas all the other creatures were created by God’s Word, God uses His hands to form man.

God’s love for mankind is seen throughout the Old Testament as He leads His people, condemns unrighteousness and injustice, and seeks to convince not just the Israelites to believe in Him, but all nations to believe in Him.

His love is ultimately seen in Jesus’ sacrificial atonement for us on the cross, for He died as an innocent person for the unrighteous that they would be made clean.

God’s love is seen how He gives salvation to all who would simply repent and believe, through no work that a person could do—if He required us to work for salvation, none of us would be saved, we’re simply not good enough.

And even in the midst of all these different truths throughout Scripture, there were plenty of people within Scripture who felt as if God didn’t love them, when they were completely wrong.

Even after Cain murdered Abel, the response of God is that of love—God tells Cain that if he had only done what God had told him to do, he would have been accepted; and when Cain expresses concern that someone would enact justice against him, God grants him mercy through the Mark of Cain because of His love.

I’m sure that as Noah and his family built the ark and all the people surrounding them expressed their doubts and thought of Noah as a fool, that they had felt at some point that God had them doing a fool’s errand. And yet, when they got into the ark and God closed up the door to the ark, I assure you they understood that God still loved them, as the flood waters rained down and the fountains of the deep opened up.

Even David, throughout multiple psalms expresses times in which he didn’t feel loved by God and yet, we all know that God loved David throughout his life.

Emotions are good, God created them, but your emotions aren’t always correct.

Your emotions always need to be felt in light of the truth and in this case, it’s the truth that God does love you, even when it doesn’t necessarily feel like it.

When it feels as if God doesn’t love you, remind yourself of the truth according to God’s Word—remind yourself that He does love you.

Reflect on how God has shown you His love before (2b-3)—this parts a little bit easier to do, because it’s such a personal thing to do, but take some time to think on how He has shown His love to you. And actually, you can start in a very personal way:

Reflect on your testimony—what did God do in your life to lead you to Him? Often, when you reflect on this, you’ll recognize God’s providence and sovereignty through leading you to genuine belief in Jesus.

You’ll remember the people that God used to talk with you, you’ll remember the people that God used to serve you, and you’ll remember the people that God used to lead you.

You’ll also remember the fundamental change of mind that occurred to convince you that Jesus was and is the only way and that it’s something that you didn’t come to realize on your own; God helped you to understand the truth.

Reflect on how God continues to work in your life—how His Holy Spirit sanctifies you and teaches you and trains you unto all righteousness.

Think about the very truth that Jesus sustains all things (Colossians 1) and recognize that because God sustains all things, that obviously means that you would not exist if God didn’t love you.

You wouldn’t have air to breathe, food to eat, or water to drink.

God sustains you simply because He loves you; and quite frankly, many of us take for granted the fact that God sustains us.

The more that you do this, the more that you’ll recognize that God does far more than what you think He does for you, and He provides more than what you realize that He provides, and He leads, directs, protects, and helps far more than what you think He does.

He does genuinely love you, it’s seen it what He does.

So, when it feels as if God doesn’t love you, reflect on how He has already shown you His love.

And lastly meditate on what God will do for you because of His love (4-5)—this might be the part that’s furthest from your mind when you feel as if God doesn’t love you, but it does help to meditate on it when you do go through times in which you feel God doesn’t love you.

One of the benefits of having God’s Word in front you, is that you can regularly remind yourself of the things that God has promised to do. Here are just a few examples from the New Testament:

God promises salvation to all who believe in jesus. (Rom 1:16-17)

God promises that all things will work out for good for His children (Rom 8:28) and be clear that what God considers good is conformity to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29).

God promises comfort in our trials (2 Cor 1:3-4), new life in Jesus (2 Cor 5:17), every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3).

God promises to finish the work He started within us (Phil 1:6), peace when we pray (Phil 4:6-7) and He promises to meet our needs (Matt 6:33; Phil 4:19).

Those are just promises from God, but Jesus also makes additional promises:

Jesus promises rest (Matt 11:28-30), abundant life (John 10:10), eternal life (John 4:14) eternal security (John 10:28).

He promises to return for us (John 14:2-3).

And there are many, many, many more promises reflected throughout Scripture that we don’t have the time to discuss this morning, but what may help is for us to read one last passage in Revelation 19.

Revelation 19 is close to the end of all time—it is just before the creation of the new heaven and the new earth, right before the defeat of Satan, and right before the Great White Throne of judgment and what John writes about sounds very similar to the praise that God says the Israelites will say when they realize that God definitely loves them and that God definitely protects and cares for them. We’re just going to read a few parts of Revelation 19:

Revelation 19:1-3 “1 After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, 2 Because His Judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great prostitute who was corrupting the earth with her sexual immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.” 3 And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises forever and ever.””

Rev 19:6-8 “6 Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. 7 Let’s rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

It’s definitely sounds an awful lot like Israel being told that they will see what God will do and they will say, “Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel.”

When it feels as if God doesn’t love you, meditate on what He will do that will show you His love for you.

Put simply, there will be times in life when we feel as if God doesn’t love us—we just need to (1) remind ourselves of the truth—that He genuinely does even when it doesn’t feel like it; (2) reflect on how He has already shown us His love for us; and (3) meditate on how God will continue to show us His love.

We have a good and great God that genuinely cares for, protects, and loves us—even when it doesn’t feel as if He does. Sing praise and give thanks for His love.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

Wonderful, Merciful Savior (162)