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Good morning everyone. Just by way of introduction, the words that were read out for us this morning,

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as you may have gathered, are hard words, but the gospel is good news. But in saying

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that, if you would like, if you hear anything this morning that you would like to speak

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more about, then please come and grab one of your elders being Eric, myself, Tom or

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Tony. We would love to pray with you and speak to you about anything you might want to speak

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about out of this passage. But before we look at God's word, would you please pray with

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me this morning? Father God Almighty, we come to you humbly as your people in the Lord Jesus

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Christ. And we ask this morning that by your Holy Spirit you would work in our midst, that

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you would hold Christ high up among us and that you would lead all manner of people to

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yourself. That we would glorify you this morning and leave this place refreshed in the gospel

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for your honour, for your glory. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Growing up, the fridge at our place was a complete rust bucket. You see, Mum, she got

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fed up one day with having a filthy fridge and so she took to it with a bottle of bleach.

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It seemed fine at first, even like the problem of a dirty fridge had been solved, but over

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time small sections of rust and erosion started to show up and it became apparent that that

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which Mum thought was okay to do in the moment actually caused incredible erosion and corruption

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on the family fridge, to the point that it got so bad it had to be thrown out.

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Now I mention this because that's the picture that Malachi has been painting for us in this

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prophecy to Israel. You might remember it, last week we looked at chapter 2 verses 1

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through to 9 and we learnt that the Word of God had neither been faithfully preached by

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the priests nor faithfully embraced by the people. And so as a consequence, their worship

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had grown cold, it had grown corrupt. They were a nation that knew their status and history,

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but had grown out of love with God, out of love with the one who had made covenant with

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them, and they were making decisions in the moment that were to have disastrous consequences.

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Sure they had the land, the temple, the priesthood, but as we'll see this morning the people's

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decisions were starting to now show up, eroding and corrupting things, not just in church

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life but in their personal relationships. And it was tearing at the very fabric of the

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life of the community. In particular with the wonderful expression of covenant faithfulness

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being marriage. And so instead of leaving his people in this state, instead of leaving

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his people wondering what was going so wrong, our faithful and gracious and loving God,

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he sent his prophet Malachi with these words. Hard words but true words nonetheless, so

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that his people might stop making decisions in the moment which would result in a community

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so corrupted and eroded that they would be good for nothing and like a rusty old fridge

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have to be tossed out. And our prophet, he takes aim in two areas. In particular where

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the people of God had defected from the plan of God for marriage. And we're going to see

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in each case that Malachi deals with it in light of how we as the people of God ought

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to relate to God within the bonds of the covenant of his love for us. Or to say that another

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way, our prophet offers us gospel solutions for how the people of God are to view our

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marriages. So if you have your Bibles with you this morning, please look with me at the

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first half of verse 10. We read, don't we all have one father? Did not one God create

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us? Now you'll notice that our prophet does something quite interesting here and that

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he's holding up the status of God's children to them as the first thing that he has to

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say on this incredibly important subject. But this shouldn't surprise us because this

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is something that we've seen Malachi do before. I mean the whole book started by God reminding

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his people that he loved them. We see that in verse 1 of chapter 1 and then in verse

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6 of that same chapter that he's their father. And so in like manner Malachi again reminds

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God's people of their status. They all have one father. He created them. What are we meant

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to take by that? Well you might remember in the first chapter of this book, in the first

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sermon of this series, we saw that God had told Israel that he had chosen them in Jacob

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and that they were his special people. And the people knew this to be the case because

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God, he'd made a covenant with them, a promise if you will, that he would have a nation and

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that they would be his special people. And that was certainly something that God kept

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to. I mean if you read through the Old Testament, no matter what Israel had done, God stayed

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true to his promises that he had made with their fathers. Think about it. Despite Israel's

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failings, God gave them the land that he had promised to them. He gave them a place to

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worship and he even set aside a tribe of people who were to teach and lead them in the worship

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of the true God. To put it plainly, God had created this nation. He was their father.

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And that's what Malachi wants to remind them of here. And I think our prophet does this

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because he wants to remind the people why God had done all of this. It was because they

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were to reflect God's character in this world. They were to be a light on the hill that people

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could look to. They were to be a people that could be looked to and seen what it was like

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to be in relationship with the living God and with one another. That's what God does

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with his people. He chooses them, he rescues them, he makes covenant with them and then

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out of the glorious riches and grace bestowed on us, we reflect what God has done out into

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this world. Brothers and sisters, the church under age, Israel was called to this very

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thing. They were unique from all the people in the world. God's special and loved people

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are people who were to display what it could look like to be loved and saved by grace through

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faith. Now you'd expect awe and worship with that kind of grace. But Malachi yet again

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challenges the people of God. We see it there in the back half of verse 10. Why do we profane

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the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another? Now church, I want you to

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notice the language there. The covenant that was given to their fathers, it's still very

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much in play. Notice that. So that's the good news. But the bad news is that they were again

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profaning what God had graciously given them. And the result was that the people weren't

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reflecting oneness, just the opposite. They were being unfaithful to one another. But

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how? How were they doing this? Well, Malachi goes into the details here with his first

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charge. And it has to do with their marriages being unequally yoked. Look with me at verses

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11 and 12. Malachi says, Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel

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and in Jerusalem. Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women

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who worship a foreign God. As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the

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Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob, even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.

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Okay, so the first charge that's brought against God's people here is that the covenant was

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being profaned and people were being unfaithful to one another because the place of worship,

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the sanctuary or the temple was being desecrated because the men had been marrying women who

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were unbelievers and worshipers of foreign gods. Why is that such an issue? Let me explain.

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You see, marriage was given to all humanity as a common grace. We see the first marriage

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between a man and a woman in the Garden of Eden between our first parents, Adam and Eve.

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And later the apostle Paul will say that marriage, it's a mystery in that it's a living picture

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of what God has with his people. What Christ has with the church, we see that in Ephesians

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5. And I want to bring your attention to a wonderful picture of this truth that we see

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in the Bible. And we see it in the story of the Exodus. You see that whole event is like

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a knight in shining armour rescuing his bride from a treacherous villain who was keeping

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his love captive. And that's after rescuing them, she could come freely to Yahweh at Sinai

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so that he could make a covenant with her and they could exchange vows. It's a beautiful

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picture of God bringing his bride to himself. Now we notice in that exchange of vows, in

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that covenant that people were forbidden to marry those who weren't loyal to the God of

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Israel. We see that in Deuteronomy 7. Because remember it, out of all the people of the

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world, God chose Israel. They were a people set apart and they were to maintain and reflect

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covenantal faithfulness with God and each other in which they promised to live to a

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particular pattern of the law. And so the warning was that if they were to mix that

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up and marry outside the covenant community and worship and practice that of the pagan

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nations, it would dilute what God had given to his people. So already we see that what

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God's people do in our personal lives and what we do with our time and with our efforts

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and even with who we marry, it's important both for the health of the community and our

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witness to this world. Personal obedience, it does matter. So God warns his people, you're

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not to marry people of pagan nations because they will bring in their false idol worship

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and you'll be carried astray and worse. That practice in the home, it will end up in the

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community, even in the place of worship. And that erosion and corruption will have devastating

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consequences. We actually have a real historical example of this. You might remember it. You

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see, God chose and loved a king called Solomon and Solomon started his royal duties very

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much in love and obedience to God. But if you know the story, Solomon over time started

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to ignore God in his personal life and choices. And he just, he didn't marry just a couple

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of wives. You might know he married many wives, many wives who didn't abandon ungodly practices

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or worship of false idols like we saw with Ruth or Rahab, which as you might recall,

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didn't just lead Solomon astray, but the whole nation that he was leading. It ended up being

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split and torn apart. Well, this issue seems to have been repeating itself in the context

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in which we find ourselves this morning in the ministry Malachi was doing. In fact, Ezra

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and Nehemiah, who provide much of the backdrop for much of Malachi's ministry, both addressed

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this vital problem that was happening in their day and age. Not with a single king, mind

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you, not with a group of farmers or something like that, no, the problem of disregarding

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God's law in his design for marriage had found its way all the way to the spiritual leadership

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of Israel, to the Levites and to the priests. In other words, it was a huge problem that

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infected the whole nation from the leaders all the way to the common man. Had they learnt

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nothing from Solomon? Had they not seen where it all leads? Believers who weren't on a guard

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in this area, it has consequences. But let's think about this through what Malachi is saying

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to these people. He applies the gospel to this situation. We actually see it there in

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verse 10. We, like Israel, have been adopted by grace into fellowship with God. He has

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established his covenant with us by the blood of the perfect covenant keeper, Jesus Christ.

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And we are united to him by faith, meaning we as the people of God, we have one father

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and in Christ we are his people. And so the word of God, like it did with Israel, calls

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us to live out the reality that God has given to us in Jesus. But with that said, I just

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want to say a couple of things by way of application for us on this side of the cross. First, because

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of the work of Jesus Christ, the division of Jew and Gentile has been torn down. Paul

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says it clearly in Colossians 3.11, in this new life, it doesn't matter if you're Jew

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or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised. Christ is all that matters. He is the one

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who lives in us all. Christian, this means that because of the work of Jesus, the perfect

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covenant keeper on behalf of his people, we don't have to first become a Jew before we

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can marry that special someone. No, we're free to marry one another from anywhere in

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the world. We're free to do that. However, second, though we're free to marry from anywhere,

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we must marry those in the Lord. Paul made this plain when speaking to the church in

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Corinth in which he commands in the sixth chapter of his second letter that believers

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aren't to be united or uses this word yoked with unbelievers because we are now the temple

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of the living God. And we might see that there is incredible practical wisdom in this. I

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don't know if you've ever gone to a silent disco, but it's an absolute chaotic scene.

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Let me describe it for you. Each individual, they get a set of headphones and they can

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choose whatever DJ they want to listen to and then go onto the dance floor and then

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dance to. So you can imagine the scene with everyone doing this right. There's all these

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people on the dance floor grooving away to the music going on in their heads. And to

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them, to what they're listening to, they're completely in sync with what they're hearing.

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But this is the thing, because everybody has different things going on. No one, but no

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one is in step with one another. And very much in the same way, God's children by the

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work of God's grace in our hearts and in our minds, we've been switched on to a different

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frequency. We see the world a different way. We're dancing to a different tune to the world,

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you might say. And so to marry someone who's dancing to another rhythm, well, it's like

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two dancers not being able to keep in step with one another. And the result won't be

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a beautiful harmonious dance for the world to see, but a mishmash of different steps

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back and forth. Point being the people of God, we must be wise when approaching marriage,

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when entering into a covenant with someone, because marriage isn't just a feel good romantic

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promise. It's a lifelong commitment, a covenant that reflects what Christ has with the church.

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So God's calling his people not to be unequally yoked, not because he wants to ruin our lives,

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but because he wants to spare us from the devastating effects that it will have in our

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lives, both personally and with those around us. Many in Israel, as we've seen this morning,

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had abandoned this. They disregarded the gracious law that God had given them and they didn't

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care about the ramifications. That's why there is such a severe warning on their own lives here.

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And so that's first Malachi, he applies the gospel to the problem of believers marrying

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unbelievers. Second, he takes up the question of professing believers, divorcing their spouses

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unlawfully in order to marry these other women. Look with me at verse 13. We read,

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another thing you do, you flood the Lord's altar with tears, you weep and wail because he no longer

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looks with favour on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. Let's think

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about this again. There was a pandemic in Israel. People were divorcing their believing spouses

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and taking ungodly ones. But then as we see here, they were continuing in the course of their lives

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like nothing was the matter. And it seemed as they approached the temple, as they went to church,

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they somehow realised that there was a great chasm that was starting to form between them and God

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and it grieved them. So much so that they asked why? Why is this happening? Malachi replies,

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it's because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You've been unfaithful

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to her, though she's your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Verse 14. To put it plainly,

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there's obvious sin among the people, obvious sin in that they had abandoned their wives for these

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other women. And God was putting his finger on it and the people were feeling alienated.

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And dare I say, can't that be the case with us some of the time? I mean, because of Jesus,

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we know that we can go to God about every and everything, every and anything. But like we see

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here this morning, perhaps you've wept and prayed and come to church and you still feel that sense

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of alienation because of obvious sin that's sitting right there in your life. Something that

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every time you go to pray, you know, sits right there in the front of your mind and you don't

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want to take it to your heavenly father. Well, in this context, this was happening. The people had

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committed blatant sin and though they were coming and acting like all was okay, going through the

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motions, going through church life, God, he sees through it. And so again, he addresses his people

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about the sin that was hindering them from experiencing his presence. And it had to do

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with the men's unlawful divorce. You see church, Israel had developed a shallow view of marriage,

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in which they saw it as something that they could lightly end with no thought of what God had designed

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and given it for. We heard it earlier, marriage was meant to be, is meant to be an expression

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of what God has with his people. That's made clear. But it's also equally as clear. And the

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Bible clarifies what we might call legitimate divorce. Back in Deuteronomy 24, Moses said that

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divorce could happen when there was indecency in marriage, which Jesus, he picks up in Matthew 5,

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clarifying that divorce was permissible, not commanded, but permissible when adultery had

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been committed. In like manner, the apostle Paul clarified that if one person was abandoned by

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another, then they were free to remarry. Though in saying that in 1st Corinthians 7,

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Paul insists if a fellow believer has a wife who's not a believer and she's willing to continue living

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with him, he mustn't leave her. Here Paul's talking about when two people are unbelievers,

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and then one of them after they've been married, one becomes a Christian. The question is what

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happens then? Paul says don't divorce. But as we know, that's not the situation that Malachi was

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addressing here. No, just the opposite. The men of the covenant were abandoning their believing wives

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so as to marry those who hadn't embraced the God of Israel. God saw it and called it for what it was.

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It was unlawful divorce and this adultery was spreading among his people and corruption and

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erosion was the result. No, says Malachi, God wants his people to stick to it. It might seem

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hard at times, impossible even. Thus again, Malachi applies the sweet balm of the gospel

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to his people. He takes us back to understanding and reminding us who we are and what we are

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in light of the gospel. Notice it in verse 15. Has not one God made you? You belong to him in

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body and spirit. What does he seek? Godly offspring. Brothers and sisters, our marriage can be hard.

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Our marriages can be very hard, very difficult and things can get trying.

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But we have to remember that we're not working out our marriages all on our lonesome.

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That's what Malachi reminds us of here. We must remember the one who made us, who saved us,

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that we belong to him in all that we are and do. Malachi is again reminding us that God is not

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aloof or indifferent in regards to our lives, but personally and passionately involved.

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He made us and we belong to him and so we mustn't ever think that he leaves us without assistance,

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without help as we struggle through the challenges that every single marriage will encounter.

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We must take heart. The God who made us, the God who desires our marriages to reflect what God,

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Christ has with his church, is passionately involved in our union. As we increase our

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passionately involved in our union, as we increasingly seek to mirror the picture that

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he has with us so that our marriages might reflect the unbreakable bond of his redemptive covenant

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that he has made with his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he does all of this so that all who

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see our marriages, including our children, if he so wishes to give them to us, might glorify God,

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glorify him for the wonder of his grace in the way that two very different, two very sinful people

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might live and love and serve one another, even in their differences.

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So as we come to this, to the end of this very sobering part of Scripture,

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I just want to point out to you Malachi's last few words there that we find in verses 15 and 16.

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He warns in light of all that God is and all what we are in Christ, what we are in Christ,

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be on guard. Don't be unfaithful to the wife of your youth. The man who hates and divorces his wife,

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says the Lord, the God of Israel, does violence to the one he should protect.

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Be on guard. Don't be unfaithful.

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Dear church, like Malachi's original audience, we mustn't abandon but fight for our marriages.

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But as we've been reminded of here, we must fight for them in the confidence that God

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has put you and your significant other together and he has made you one and he cares for you

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and will strengthen you even in the most hardest and difficult challenges.

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We must all, all of us be reminded of the gospel in our marriages and remember the promises that

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are held out to us in the Lord Jesus Christ because we won't get this right much of the time.

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We will make mistakes in our marriages. We won't do perfect things but you know what?

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Jesus is faithful. He is faithful when we're not. He protects his bride and he never abandons her.

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We often are guilty of breaking the covenant with him time and time and time again but he remains

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faithful to us. Never breaking covenant with us in his great love because we belong to him.

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We are one with him. So I just want to point out two things as we end.

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First, if you're looking to get married, marry in the Lord and we're to be faithful to our spouses

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and fight for our marriages. Let us cling to the perfect covenant keeper. Let us by his most

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holy spirit be strengthened and humble as we seek to serve our spouse in the most hardest

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of seasons. Second, I want to address people who may have made the mistakes that Malachi

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is trying to protect us from. Perhaps you have married an unbeliever and now you live in the

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painful reality and that you find it hard to share the most glorious deepest parts of yourself with

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the person who's most dearest to you in this world. Perhaps you're here and you would say that you

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have gone through an unlawful divorce and entered into a new marriage and now live in the complicated

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messy fallout of those decisions. Well I want to let you know this morning that the gospel applies

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to your situation as well. There is good news in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you confess your sin and

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seek the mercy of Christ, there's no sin, no act of faithfulness so as to render God's abundant

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mercy and forgiveness and grace in Jesus' mute. You might still need to live in the same situation

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as you did in the past, but you must not need to live in the guilt of past sin. There is always

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a way back into fellowship with God by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. On the one

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hand, don't make the mistake like Malachi's audience here of the gospel, that you have to

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live in the same situation as you did in the past. The cross invites any and everyone to come

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in humility. It invites you to come with a broken and contrite heart and receive forgiveness that

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our God offers us. It invites you to come with a broken and contrite heart and receive forgiveness

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that our God offers by grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. So that dear one, you might live with

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the experience of Christ's covenant faithfulness that he has achieved on behalf of his people,

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even in the midst of our most complex situations.

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So church, let us all look to our perfect covenant keeper and let us be obedient in our

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relationships. Let's fight for our marriages. Let's have mercy on each other when we make

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mistakes, not if, but when we make mistakes, so that our Lord might build us into a firm

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fellowship of people whose home life and marriages display the awesome and wonderful grace that we

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have all received, so that a watching world at a time when marriages and families are under attack

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might see the grace on God's people, all for his glory.

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Let's pray. Father God, we are so thankful for the gospel. We are so thankful that we can look to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and know and seek and know that we are saved. We ask, Father, that we look to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and know and seek and know that we are saved. We ask, Father God, that in the light

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and the glory of the gospel that we might work out not just our marriages, but all our relationships,

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knowing that you are seeking to save the lost, knowing that you are seeking to bring people to

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yourself in the gospel. We ask, as it's been prayed for this morning already, that you would use us

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for your glory, that you would use us for your kingdom, and that we would be a people that would

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walk in obedience in all areas of our lives. And we ask for this in the name of Jesus. Amen.