Message From An Upset God

Sermon by Rev. Julius A. Harper, Senior Pastor Santa Clarita Christian Fellowship

Messages From Malachi

“Doubting God”Malachi 1:1-5 (NKJV)
¹  The burden of the word of the LORDto Israel by Malachi.
²  “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Wasnot Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved;
³  But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.”
⁴  Even though Edom has said, “We have been impoverished, But we will return and build the desolate places,” Thus says the LORDof hosts: “They may build, but I will throw down; They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, And the people against whom the LORDwill have indignation forever.
⁵  Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, ‘The LORDis magnified beyond the border of Israel.’

May the Lord add a  blessing to the reading and the hearing of HIS holy and mighty word.

We are beginning a series of teachings taken from the Old Testament book of Malachi.

You may or may not be familiar with this book but for many who have been in and around the church for some time, you’ve often heard it referred to mostly as part of a sermon or talk on issues related to finance and giving.

Last year as I was scrolling through some of the TV programs that we had recorded on our DVR and I came across a teaching on the book Malachi and it was a fascinating teaching because it opened my eyes to fact that the book was actually about much more than issues related to giving.

The book of Malachi is a message from God to the people of Israel, concerning several matters of “upsetness” or complaint that God had against his people.

Malachi the writer of the book, which also has a double meaning by the way, because the word Malachi means messenger from the Lord, was writing to the people on God’s behalf to rebuke them and to call them to accountabilityregarding some areas of unfaithfulness, disrespect AND wrong minded thinking.

These words were written, to the people of God, because they were a back- sliden people, who had become cold, cynical, disobedient and dishonoring of God.

Here the writer addresses these concerns, because God wants his people to repent and to return to him.

Now this is important for us today, not because I am here to say that all of the issues that God was upset about, as noted in this book are applicable to us, but rather as the scriptures says in 1^stCorinthians 10:11, “that these things are written for our admonishment”

In other words, as we examine the contents of this book and the words of complaint BY God against the nation of Israel, we are to examine ourselves and we are to let the word of God challenge and yes even convictus of any areas where we need to adjust, in order to be in line with his purpose, plan and will for our lives.

Now today we are going to be addressing Complaint Number ONE and that is God’s Complaint that HIS people doubted HIM.

Doubting God’s is a very dangerous thing of course, because when God’s love and character and word is doubted in the mind of the believer, great problems flow out of that.

• If you doubt that God loves YOU, your faith in him will be greatly diminished.
• If you doubt that God cares about you, you’ll stop caring about him.
• If youdoubt God you will become angry and distant and before you know it, the entire relationship will unravel.

God was upset with his people but he wanted to deal with that and addressit, with an eye towards calling them back into a relationship of closeness with him

So, if you are ready to learn about that Say AMEN.

God was upset with the nation of Israel because they were…..

1. Doubting His word.

Malachi 1:1-2a (NKJV)
¹  The burden of the word of the LORDto Israel by Malachi.
^2a  “I have loved you,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah 31:3 (NKJV)
³  The LORDhas appeared of old to me, saying:“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving-kindness I have drawn you.

Deuteronomy  7:7-8a-c (NKJV)
⁷  The LORDdid not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples;
^8a-c  but because the LORDloves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers,

Deuteronomy 10:15 (NKJV)
¹⁵  The LORDdelighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, asit isthis day.

Numbers 23:19 (NLT)
¹⁹  God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?

Here in the first point, we begin our examination, by looking at the statement of God as he declares and reminds HIS people of his heart towards them.

God said I’ve loved you……………..PERIOD.

I LOVE you in the same way that I loved your forefathers.

I’ve always been committed because I am Godand as God I cannot lieand I’ll never go back on my word.

God was upset and rightfully so, because the people did not believe God’s wordwhen he declared that HE loved them.

Thought:

Now we are going to learn more about this as we go further into this teaching but first we want to understand the context of the writing.

You see the words that God actually speaks here are words of rebuke.

It was a tongue lashing, it was a scolding and he was telling them off.

These words were written to the children of Israel who had come out of the Babylonian exile.

These where the people whom God had preservedas part of the remnant of Israel who had been given the charge and responsibility of rebuilding the nation after the time of the exile.

God was looking at the way they treated him and how they were living their lives and he was saying that something doesn’t add up, because if you believed my word and you believed that I loved you, you would not be living and conducting yourself and disrespecting me in the way you do.

God had kept his word having brought them out of captivity and back to the land of their forefathers.

God had demonstrated HIS love with actions.

God was looking at their lives and listening to their hearts and seeing that the people did not believe God’s word.

They doubted him and the evidence of that was to be seen in how they lived their lives.

Thought:

This for me is a very thought provoking and challenging point of consideration, in terms of how and why God might have a bone to pick with us in the church today.

Some of the things we indulge in, some of the practices we permit in our lives, if we truly believed God’s word itwould change many things about how we live our lives.

We must ask ourselves the question “do we truly believe God’s word”

De we believe it is simply because God said it.

Or is there a disconnect of between how we are living and organizing our lives, which actually speaks to the reality, that we are doubters of God’s word.

God was upset with the nation of Israel 2ndly because they were…..

2. Doubting and Questioning His love

Malachi 1: 2a-b (NKJV)
²  “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’

Malachi 1:2a (MSG)
²  GODsaid, “I love you.” You replied, “Really? How have you loved us?”

Deuteronomy 4:37 (NKJV)
³⁷  And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power,

Deuteronomy 28:13 (NLT)
¹³  If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.

Deuteronomy 28:15 (NKJV)
¹⁵  “But it shall come to pass, ifyou do not obey the voice of the LORDyour God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

In point number one we looked at God’s upset-ness with the people concerning their lack of belief in his WORD; here we see the people’s surprising and insulting response in the doubting of HIS love.

GODsaid, “I love you” and the people responded with attitude.

“Really? How have you loved us?”

Here the messenger is writing for God who expresses the hidden and unspoken thoughts of the people.

In other words, God expresses his level of upset-ness and concerns and he also uncovers and exposes the hidden thoughts of the people’s hearts.

Thought:

Apparently, there was a sense of distrust in the hearts of the people, who more than likely were living lives, that were characterized by hardship and trial.

Remember now it had been many years since the Israelites had returned from their Babylonian captivity.

During that time the people had faced economic hardships.

They were not living victorious lives, they did not have the blessings and material prosperity that they had read or heard about in the ancient writings and because of this, many of them had turned their back on the Godof their fathers, assuming that because they didn’t see any material blessings that God no longer cared nor was he concerned about them.

So, in response to God’s declaration they asked“how have you loved us, in other words they were asking “what have you done for us lately”

They questioned God, they challenged God, because he didn’t demonstrate his love in the way they expected by GIVING THEM SOMETHING, yet they failed and ignored the reality of what God had done for them by keeping his word and restoring them to the land.

• God had kept his word when he brought them out of Egypt with his mighty hand of power.
• God has kept his word when he brought them into a land that was flowing with milk and honey.
• God had kept his WORD, when he declared that the time of chastisement would be for 70 years of exile and then he would bring them out.

He demonstrated his love by doing exactly what he said; he blessed them tremendously, but they failed to accept the reality that the blessings of God would only continue to manifest and flow,if they continued to live for and honor and obey and respect God…

Note the word and the conditions of God’s blessingas recorded in Deuteronomy 28:13

¹³  If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.

“But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

They were disregarding the reality of their own disobedience and the punishment that came upon them as a result of their own behaviors.

Thought:

Again, I’m drawn to how we sometimes similarly respond to God’s demonstrated love for us.

We measure God on the basis of how many blessings we have or the lack thereof, as demonstrated in the level of prosperity we experience.

When tough times come, we question God’s love.

We don’t say it out loud but the truth is that many times we are harboring a hidden level of resentment and even though we may not speak it out of our mouths, God knows our hearts and our thoughts.

• Israel suffered because they failed to live obediently.
• Israel failed to remember that God’s blessings where dependent upon obedience to his word.

Look and learn from the lesson of Israel and embrace if you please the practical application to us.

We must never relate to God and HIS love for us, on the basis of what he has or has not done, in terms of something as passing and fickle as our level of comfort, ease or material blessings, but rather we must be confident in his love for us based entirely upon his word…..PERIOD

God was upset with the nation of Israel because they were…..

3. Doubting, ignoring & dishonoring the blessings of His grace

Malachi 1:2c-3a (NKJV)
^{2 c} “Wasnot Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved;
^{3 a} But Esau I have hated, 

Genesis 25:29-33 (MSG)
²⁹  One day Jacob was cooking a stew. Esau came in from the field, starved.
³⁰  Esau said to Jacob, “Give me some of that red stew—I’m starved!” That’s how he came to be called Edom (Red).
³¹  Jacob said, “Make me a trade: my stew for your rights as the firstborn.”
³²  Esau said, “I’m starving! What good is a birthright if I’m dead?”
³³  Jacob said, “First, swear to me.” And he did it. On oath Esau traded away his rights as the firstborn.

Ephesians 2:8 (NLT)
⁸  God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 

Romans 5:8 (NKJV)
⁸  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God was upset with the nation of Israel because they doubting his WORD, they doubted HIS Love and they were disrespectful of his grace.

We read just a short snippet of the details of the story of what occurred between Jacob and his brother Esau.

There is another part to this story of course and most of you know it well.

It’s the story of Jacob and the trick he played in deceiving his Father into believing that he was his older brother Esau.

Jacob’s name has several meanings, but the one that we should consider in regards to this sermon, is the name Jakob, meaning seizing by the heel or supplanter.

Jacob was a trickster, he pulled that trick on his brother where he got his brother to sell him his birthright for a bowl of soup.

Later one day, Jacob pulled a trick on HIS father Isaac. He and his mother got together to trick his father into giving him the family blessing, by putting on a disguise and pretending to be Esau.

He lied to his Daddy. He deceived the Father who he should have respected. He took advantage of the weakness of his older brother and he played Mamma’s boy around the house.

Esau was a sinner and demonstrated his sinfulness by trading away his birth right for a bowl of soup.

But Jacob was a sinner too, because he lied and cheated and stole.

These were twins. Both born from the same Parents. Both Grandson’s of Abraham; yet God bestowed his unmerited favor on one child and he rejected the other.

“Was not Esau Jacobs brother….yet I loved Jacob….I chose Jacob and showered my grace on him and I rejected HIS brother Esau.

Both sinners but one got the grace.

God was upset because the people of Israel ignored the evidence of his overflowing LOVE and grace.

Nothing necessitated that God should choose Jacob over Esau. In fact, it was the custom that Esau would be the favored one because he was the older of the two. 

God chose to make Jacob the heir and the chosen one through whom the nations of the earth would be blessed.

God selected them to be the beneficiaries of his unmerited FAVOR, but all they could think about was HEY, WHERE’S my stuff….what have YOU done for me lately.

Thoughts:

It is sad but true to say, that God’s grace and mercy is not fully appreciated in the world today.

You see to those of us who have the blessing of being in God’s family, we are reminded that we didn’t deserve to be here.

You and I were no better than anyone else.

Think about the folks that you grew up with.

Think about some of the other people who are members of your own unsaved family.

Think about how God met you at an unexpected time of your life and he chose to reveal his Son Jesus Christ to you.

Think about how GOD demonstrated his love for us, by generating faith in your heart and by choosing you to……WHILE you were yet a sinner.

To fail to embrace and appreciate the blessings of his grace, is an unmitigated insult and a slap in the face of God.

To measure God’s love on the basis of what he gives or does for you, in the face of the incredibleness of choosing YOU is surely equally displeasing and hurtful to the heart of God.

Child of God if you hear anything in this point and anything in this message, hear this warning as a personal word of caution; don’t ever dishonor and or discount the blessing of God’s grace and HIS unmerited favor towards you.

God was upset with the nation of Israel 4^thand finally because they were…..

4. Failing to acknowledge God’s love as evidenced in his protective actions.

Malachi 1:4c (NKJV)
^4c  They may build, but I will throw down; They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, And the people against whom the LORDwill have indignation forever. ⁵  Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, ‘The LORD is magnified beyond the border of Israel.’

Numbers 20:20-21 (NKJV)
²⁰  Then he said, “You shall not pass through.” So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand.
²¹  Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory; so Israel turned away from him. 

Obadiah 1:10 (NLT)
¹⁰  “Because of the violence you did to your close relatives in Israel, you will be filled with shame and destroyed forever.

Obadiah 1:15 (NKJV)
¹⁵  “For the day of the LORDupon all the nations isnear; As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.

I chose several scriptures from the book of Obadiah and the words recorded therein for the purpose of sharing some historical perspective.

Earlier we spoke a bit about Jacob and Esau.

Jacob would become the father of the Patriarchs who formed the tribes of the nation of Israel.

Esau his brother would also become the father of the great nation known as the EDOMITES.

The Edomites  were the close relatives of the nation of Israel. They were physical cousins, but they were political adversaries.

When the children of Israel were traveling from Egypt to the promised land, they wanted to pass through the territory of the EDOMITES and the KING of Edom said no.

Ever since the split that occurred between Jacob and Esau, EDOM had made a point of being an enemy of Israel.

They sided with those who troubled the Israelites; they cheered and rejoiced when Israel was taken captive by the Babylonians.

And because of how they treated Israel, God said I’m going to wipe them out.

Obadiah 1:10 (NLT)
¹⁰  “Because of the violence you did to your close relatives in Israel, you will be filled with shame and destroyed forever.

Obadiah 1:15 (NKJV)
¹⁵  “For the day of the LORDupon all the nations isnear; As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.

God was upset with the nation of Israel because God’s love and grace and favor on the nation had been demonstrated time and time again.

He delivered them from the armies of Pharaoh.

He gave them victory over the armies of many nations that were stronger and more numerous than they were.

Yes, they had been chastised as a result of their sins, but God allowed them to return to their land, whereas Edom was deleted from the face of the earth.

God was upset with Israel because they discounted and disrespected his grace and favor by focusing solely on the fact that life wasn’t as easy and prosperous as they wanted.

They doubted him and wondered in their hearts if God was even there.

Close:

That is what happens when you begin relating to God on the basis of what you see and perceive in the here and now of your day-to-day reality.

That is what happens when you loose perspective and you become BLIND to your own actions.

That is what happens when you begin to DOUBT GOD and his word.

The entire relationship begins to unravel.

 Israel could not even see or understand God’s love as evidenced in his protective actions on their behalf.

The word of God is written to US as a word caution to learn from the nation of Israel.

We must check our attitude. We must be on guard against doubt. Be careful not to measure God’s love on the basis of what you get from him and never, ever, ever discount and disrespect his grace.

AMEN.

Today you may be among those who are here today, who are not part of the family of Born-again believers in Jesus Christ.

Earlier in the sermon, we talked about the wonder of God’s grace.

If you’ll be so kind as to give me just a few more minutes, I’d like to take you back the thoughts that I shared about Jacob and Esau, because there is a message in that story for you.

Remember there were two boys, twins each born of the same parents, each sinful in their own way and each unworthy before a HOLY God.

God chose Jacob.

God chose the person sitting right next to you and he chose each person who is a member of his family today, not because anyone deserved to be chosen, but rather God chose them as an act of love and grace, in response to their FAITH in HIS son JESUS Christ as LORD.

God is still in the choosing businessand he chooses people not because they have done anything to deserve it, or because they managed to work their way into his favor, but rather he chooses people on the basis of FAITH.

John 3:16 declared that God so loved the word, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who ever believes on him, shall not perish, but have ever lasting life.

He chose a sinner like me who was mired in filth and he applied the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ to my life, because of the faith that God himself, generated in my heart, by the prompting of the Holy Sprit.

That is how it happened for everyone here today….

And he is ready to choose you, if you’ll put your faith in him and accept his invitation.

While all eyes are closed and heads are bowed…

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