MALACHI
A DIALOGUE WITH GOD
Malachi’s third dispute: BREAKING FAITH part 2
Marriage is the greatest test in the world… It is the operation by which a woman’s vanity and a man’s egotism are extracted without anesthetic. It is said a wife is a gift. She is the best gift; she is a full-length mirror. If there had been a card attached, it would have said, “Here’s to help you discover what you’re really like!”
Dealing with the marriages of foreign women. It follows that if you don’t have good soil in the covenant community, if the body life of the church is drab (2:10), your marriages will suffer too (2:11-12). Notice (v.11) it says they were profaning God’s holiness, literally breaking apart the “separateness” of God’s relationship with his people, which He loves. This is why he says so strongly in (v.16) “I hate divorce” .
THE PRIMARY ISSUE: "Judah has married the daughter of a foreign God." – (i.e. Ezra 9:1-2)- The women that the men of Judah were marrying did not love, trust or follow Yahweh, the true God of Israel. They were not daughters of the true God; they were daughters of a foreign god. They didn’t want God’s will for their lives.
The church today suffers a similar plight- We have an epidemic in the pews of our churches. Immorality is nothing short of rampant.
· Today we have foreign women streaming live 24 hours a day on millions of men’s computers and smut phones. America is the greatest user of sex trafficked women- We are a nation given over- We are experiencing the judgment of God.
· IT’S NOT JUST PORN-- The church has been inundated with sexual perversions of all kinds. From homosexuality to adultery. Always pushing, leaning in. “I haven’t come to that position yet”.
DO YOU WANT TO PUT A FENCE AT THE TOP OF THE CLIFF, OR AN AMBULANCE AT THE BOTTOM?
Here are a few things we must understand and embrace.
1. ISOLATION IS DEATH -Sin always isolates. Men or women who struggle with sexual sin will not want to be around other Christians. If you’re an isolated Christian, we can be pretty sure what you are up to (James 5:16; Proverbs 28:13; Psalms 32:1-5)
2. THE STUMBLING BLOCKS OF LUST MUST BE ANNIHILATED -Listen carefully to our LORD, Matthew 5:29, Jesus draws a line of a no-compromise approach in the war against lust: "If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”
3. WHO HAVE YOU BEEN LOOKING FOR ANYWAY? Sex addiction is the search for God’s love and acceptance in lust. There is a “lovingkindness that’s better than life” (Psalms 63:3; Psalms 42:1)
4. GET SCHOOLED NOT SCOLDED. The devil hates you and will beat you into the ground for your worthless life. But Jesus will school you in grace for your precious life. Learn to live in grace, as Jesus told us in John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 1 John 2:15-
THE BIG TAKEAWAY FROM THIS PARTICULAR TEXT-- Don’t date who you couldn’t marry. Singles need to seek God before they seek a girlfriend or boyfriend. What is not IN CHRIST is foreign. If you’re girl crazy or boy crazy, you are making it very clear you are not God crazy. Be God crazy first- He is a jealous God- YBF Psalm 127:1-2- Put God first in your life- Matthew 6:33 and everything else will work out. Proverbs 7 is a reminder that you can be convinced to sell God out for a little self-gratification. We are capable of being practical atheists. In 1 Thess. 4:1-8, as in Malachi, we should be reminded that we will not get away with our sexual perversions in the church. If you don’t repent of these things, God is an avenger on all who prey on others.