When Mary and I were considering names for our children, there were a number of names that were immediately eliminated because of certain students that Mary had in her classes over the years that she just didn’t want to be reminded of. And even today, several decades later, there are certain names that bring to mind, even for me, and certainly even more for Mary, some of the most – shall we say – challenging students that she has had to deal with over the years.
But at the same time, I don’t know if I can remember the names of any of her students who just came to class regularly, who chose to do their work and who weren’t a distraction to other students. That’s because it seems that in most areas of life, whether it be in our families, our jobs, or anywhere else, those who do right often seem to go unnoticed.
So when someone who is attempting to live a righteous life does get noticed, it is often something of an anomaly. I can remember such an instance several years ago when I was officiating a high school volleyball match. At a crucial point in the match, there was a question as to whether one of the players had touched the ball before it landed out of bounds. This was a crucial determination, because if he had touched the ball the other team would get the point. If he hadn’t touched it, his team would get the point.
None of the 4 members of the officiating team had seen the touch, so I was just about to award the point when the player indicated to me that he had touched the ball. Because this was at a crucial point in the match, that admission made it much more likely that his team would lose the match. I’m sure that player didn’t really expect that anyone was going to notice this act of good sportsmanship and integrity.
But since this kind of sportsmanship is so rare, I wanted to make sure that this student athlete knew that his actions were noticed and that he was properly recognized. So I sent an email to the coach, athletic director, and principal commending this student for his actions.
A couple of weeks later, I happened to be back at that same school and we had another similar situation during that match. And this time, another player from that same team followed the example of his teammate and also admitted he had touched the ball even though none of the officials had seen it. After the match, his coach told me that he wanted to know if he could also expect an email.
Our relationship with God can be a lot like that, too. Living a life of obedience to Jesus is not always easy and sometimes I think we’re tempted to look around and see all the people who aren’t even making an effort to do that who seem to be prospering much more than us and to wonder whether God even notices our lives and question whether living for Jesus is really worth it. That’s the issue that Malachi addresses as we near the end of his prophecy.
In our English Bible, there are four chapters in Malachi, but in the Hebrew Bible there is no chapter break between chapter 3 and chapter 4. So, as we’ll see this morning, the first part of chapter 4 actually fits together with the end of chapter 3. So this morning we’ll begin in chapter 3, verse 13 and continue through verse 3 in chapter 4:
“Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”
Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.
(Malachi 3:13-4:3 ESV)
I’m sure you know what we’re going to do before we go any further. I’m going to ask you help us review the main theme of the entire book by filling in the blanks:
God desires for me to pursue Him
in the same way He has pursued me
Let’s make sure we keep that in mind as week look at this morning’s passage. Malachi returns here to an issue he has already addressed. Apparently this mindset was so prevalent among the people and it was so damaging that God leads Malachi to address it once again. The complaint of the people in verses 14 and 15 sound a lot like their complaint at the end of chapter 2.
They begin to look around and the see all the people who are not even attempting to live in obedience to God and who seem to be prospering and they compare that to their own circumstances and they openly question whether it’s really worth serving God.
And God’s response in the first verse of chapter 4 is very consistent with what we saw in the first part of chapter 3 – even though the people may not see evidence of it now, God is going to come as a God of justice to mete out swift justice to those who have lived a lifestyle of rebellion against Him.
So because we’ve already focused on those ideas in some detail a couple of weeks ago, and because I’d like to take a more positive approach that I think is probably much more beneficial for those of us who are attempting to live a life of obedience to Jesus, I want to focus our attention this morning on verses 16-18 in chapter 3 and verses 2 and 3 in chapter 4. In those verses, we find an encouraging message to those who are remaining faithful to God in the midst of a culture that makes it really hard to do that. We can summarize that message like this:
God takes notice of
those who
take notice of Him
This truth is demonstrated by…
Five reasons we can be encouraged:
1. God has preserved a faithful remnant
Even in the midst of a nation that was largely unfaithful to Him, God had preserved a remnant who remained faithful to Him. This is certainly consistent with what we see throughout Scripture -beginning with the remnant of eight faithful people who were preserved when God flooded the earth in the days of Noah all the way to the Book of Revelation where we see a faithful remnant who is willing to die rather than reject their faith.
Compared to the nation as a whole, the numbers weren’t all that large, but there were a significant number of people who still honored and worshipped God and sought to do His will.
This ought to be an encouragement to us today. There is certainly some overwhelming evidence that there are fewer and fewer people who remain faithful to Jesus in the face of increasing pressure from the world to turn away from Him. But we can be encouraged by the fact that God has a history of preserving His faithful remnant.
2. God pays attention to and hears them
Even though this group of people was not very large, God was still paying attention to them and listening to them. In the midst of everything that was going on in the world, it was as if God just tuned everything else out so that He could focus His attention on those who were faithful to Him. And He was so pleased with what He observed that…
3. God creates a record of what He observes
Obviously, God doesn’t need to create a book of remembrance so that He can remember how His people have been faithful to Him. But from the evidence we find in the text, I think it is safe to assume that one day God is going to use that record to vindicate His faithful remnant in the eyes of those who had concluded that there was no profit in serving God. I think He is going to confront those people with this book to prove that there is indeed profit in serving God and that there are some who have chosen to do just that.
This ought to be such an encouragement to us when we face ridicule and maybe even persecution for our faith. Once day God is going to open that book and proclaim to all that we were faithful to Him.
4. God makes His remnant to be a treasured possession
The Hebrew word that is translated “treasured possession” describes the part of one’s possessions that he treasures most - a treasure that is personally acquired and carefully preserved.
This idea that Israel is God’s treasured possession is certainly not new as we see from this passage in Exodus:
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…
(Exodus 19:5-6 ESV)
You’ll notice that God’s promise to make Israel His treasured possession was conditional on them obeying His voice and keeping His covenant. And we see the result of that conditional promise here in Malachi. Only those Israelites who have remained faithful and are therefore part of the faithful remnant will become that treasured possession.
5. God will preserve and vindicate His faithful remnant
Not only will God spare His faithful remnant when He returns as judge, He is also going to vindicate them before the rest of the world. We already saw that in discussing the book of remembrance.
But as we see in Malachi 4:3, God is also going to allow that remnant to participate in His judgment on the ungodly – a concept that we saw frequently during our study of Revelation and the Old Testament prophecies regarding the Day of the Lord.
So no matter how much we may be beaten down by the world around us today, one day God is going to ensure that our faithfulness to Him is going to be vindicated in the eyes of the entire world.
As encouraging as these facts are, it is still not easy to live as God’s remnant in the midst of an ungodly world. Fortunately for us, we find some very clear guidance in this passage that will help us to do just that.
HOW TO LIVE AS GOD’S REMNANT IN AN UNGODLY WORLD:
• Live in community…
The first thing that we notice in verses 16 and 17 is that those who make up the faithful remnant didn’t try to stay faithful to God on their own. We certainly see that in all the pronouns in those two verses which are all plural – those, them, and they. And in verse 16, we also see that those who make up the remnant speak with one another. I’ll address that particular characteristic some more in a moment.
The overall picture here is that these people needed each other in order to stay faithful to God in the midst of a nation that had largely turned from God.
We certainly see this same idea expressed throughout the New Testament as well, particularly in this passage from Hebrews 10. Most of us are familiar with verses 24 and 25, but I want to look at a little larger chunk of Scripture here so that we can see those verses in their larger context:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you [plural] see the Day drawing near.
(Hebrews 10:19-25 ESV)
The writer of Hebrews is encouraging these primarily Jewish believers to live their lives in community with other believers. Once again all the pronouns are plural – we, us, our and you (plural = y’all). And there are also the commands to meet together and to stir up one another to good deeds and to encourage one another. And that is going to become even more important as the Day of the Lord approaches.
As we’ve said frequently before, there is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian. I recently heard someone insightfully note that even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.
God desires that first of all His children rely upon Him. That’s one reason we spent nine weeks studying how the Holy Spirit works in our lives, because as we rely upon Him, He guides us and empowers us to live a life of obedience.
But God also understands that we need something more tangible, something with flesh and blood. So He places every single Christ follower into the body of Christ, where we have other people who can come alongside of us and help us to live lives that demonstrate our faithfulness to God.
But just as a relatively small percentage of the Israelites in Malachi’s day were actually part of the faithful remnant, it is also true that among those who call themselves Christians, there are relatively few who belong to that remnant. So it’s not enough to just live in community with those who call themselves Christians. We need to make sure that we’re spending the majority of our time with those who exhibit three important characteristics that we find here in Malachi.
• Live in community with people who:
o Fear God
In verse 16 of chapter 3, the faithful remnant is first identified as “those who feared the Lord.” And then again in chapter 4, verse 2, it is those who “fear God’s name” who will be spared by God on the Day of the Lord and who will be vindicated before the rest of the world.
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about what it means to fear God recently so I’m not going to dwell here. But certainly those who fear God have an understanding of His greatness that results in awe and reverence. It means that they don’t treat God or His purposes, plans and ways casually.
We need to surround ourselves with people who have that kind of reverent fear and awe of God because they will help us to develop that kind of mindset, too.
o Talk about God
When the faithful remnant gathered together, the main topic of conversation was not the weather or their favorite sports team or politics. They certainly didn’t spend their time gossiping, or criticizing. They talked about God – who He is and what He was doing in their lives.
We tend to talk about that which we love the most and what is most important to us. And we tend to gravitate to others who share that passion so that we can have a conversation about whatever that is.
For the faithful remnant, they talked to each other about God because He was the most important thing in their lives. They certainly understood what Jesus meant when He uttered these familiar words during his earthly ministry.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
(Matthew 6:33 ESV)
They just trusted that if they kept their focus on God and made his Kingdom and His righteousness their top priority, God would take care of everything else. We need that kind of people in our lives because they encourage us to make God our first love.
o Honor God with their lifestyle
In verse 16, we see that this faithful remnant “esteemed God’s name.” This is certainly in stark contrast to what we’ve seen earlier in the book of Malachi – priests who “despised” and “profaned” God’s name by making polluted sacrifices and failing to obey God when it came to the ceremonial washing that God had commanded for them.
God’s name is more than just a title by which we can identify Him – it is the essence of who He is. It expresses His character. How we live our daily lives either esteems God’s name by being consistent with that character or it despises or profanes His name by not being consistent with God’s character.
Maybe this morning, you’re a lot like the people of Malachi’s day and you’re questioning whether it’s really worth it to serve God and to live for Him. Perhaps you don’t see a lot of evidence around you that attempting to live a life of obedience makes any difference at all – in fact, it actually makes life harder at times.
If you’re asking that question this morning, I can assure you, based on the Word of God, that just like I took notice of that volleyball player who did the right thing even when he thought nobody saw it, that…
God takes notice of
those who
take notice of Him
It is absolutely worth it to live for God, even if we couldn’t see any evidence of that right here and now. This passage show us clearly that God does take notice when we remain faithful to Him and that one day He’s going to let the whole world know of our faithfulness.
But it’s not easy to remain faithful to God in the midst of a culture that constantly ridicules us for doing that. That’s why we need to live in community with others who fear God, talk about Him and who honor his name with their lifestyle.
