The Danger Of Selective Hearing Series

They still knew the order of how things were to go even without the temple.

They had not lost the skill.

But now they've got the temple and they are not utilising the skills.

So it is not a skill issue. It is a heart issue.

They're not seeking to follow the way of the Lord because they're not listening. Actually they are listening … but they only listen to part of the sentence. “God is the God of grace.”

That is the true sentence. But God is not the God of cheap grace. And there's a big difference.

Grace is the gospel. Grace is the message that says that God loves us so much that he sent his son to die for us because he wants us to be in his family. The Gospel is this message which recognises that we are condemned sinners. We know we fall short of the Glory of God.

Then God comes and says, “But I love you so much. And I want to sort this separation out. So I'm going to send my Son. My Son will take your place and he will live on this Earth as a faithful man. He will follow all the rules and all the law and he will be 100% obedient. And after he has given this sacrifice of obedience he will give a sacrifice of his life. But because of his obedience he will conquer death. And all who call upon the Name of the risen Saviour will be saved.

That the Gospel.

It means that wherever you are in your life, whatever you're going through, whatever the struggles. Whatever the difficulties, whatever the hurt the pain. Whatever. There is always a way to move forward in God’s economy. To stand before God saying “God has called me his own.”

That’s grace.

Cheap Grace is when you say, “God has done all of that for me and because he's done all that for me I'm just going to live however I like. Because God has to forgive sin I'll just sin as much as I want – then at the end of the day I'll ask for forgiveness.

Cheap Grace takes this gift that God has given to us and turns that gift into a desire to have it both ways. To say, “I still like sinning.”

So because I like sinning I'll just say to God afterward, “Hey we're still mates God.”

That is what is happening in Malachi.

There is just a cheapening of the grace of God.

God has done so much for them.

He brought them back from the exile. He re-established them in the land. He has re-established the temple. He is giving them favour in the face of all the nations. But then as the years are wearing on - we're probably now 180 years down the track – as the years wear on the people are starting to become complacent.

So God responds.

He responds to the cheapening of His grace.

The first response of God to the cheapening of his grace is that there is no more access to the means of the atonement.

Atonement is a big word that we use which describes how God brings us back into fellowship with himself. If you want to keep remembering the word pronounce it as at-one-ment. I am at one with God. That is atonement. In the Old Testament the way of atonement and the process of atonement was through the temple the sacrificial system. But in Malachi 1:10 God says, ““Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.”