Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20090222.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Malachi: Replacing Spiritual Callousness With Insightful Sensitivity
Par VI: Exchanging External Obedience For True Inner Obedience To The Lord
(Malachi 3:13-4:6)
  1. Introduction
    1. One of the most debilitating but difficult evils for a believer to discern in himself is a false, external religiosity that stands in contrast to true inner obedience to the Lord.
    2. This false, external kind of obedience plagued many in Israel in Malachi's era, a problem that led to the legalistic Pharisaism of Jesus' era (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 1586), so God's address on this subject in Malachi 3:13-4:6 is an invaluable message for us in our era today (as follows):
  2. Exchanging External Obedience For True Inner Obedience To The Lord, Malachi 3:13-4:6.
    1. Malachi 3:13a NIV charged the people in Israel with speaking harsh words against the Lord.
    2. Typical of the style of the book of Malachi, the prophet voiced Israel's response to this charge, saying, "How have we spoken against you?" (Malachi 3:13b ESV) to indicate ignorance of this sin.
    3. God noted these harsh words were statements that challenged His righteousness and faithfulness, 3:14-15:
      1. First, God replied the people complained He was unfaithful to His promise to bless the upright, for they had vainly struggled (mournfully) to obey His commands and were still not yet blessed, Malachi 3:14.
      2. Second, they complained the arrogant who flagrantly disobeyed God were materially blessed though they put God to the test by their disobedience only to be delivered from trouble, Malachi 3:15.
    4. In response, God spoke of His promise of great blessing for people who truly obeyed Him from the heart in an evident exposure of the false, external obedience of such critics, Malachi 3:16-18:
      1. Opposite those who did not revere the Lord and who spoke such harsh words against His being a righteous and faithful God, those who revered the Lord spoke encouragingly to one another of God's goodness, a tremendous contrast to the ungodly in Malachi 3:15, cf. Malachi 3:16.
      2. God heeded the words of these truly righteous folk unlike His refusal to heed the Malachi 3:14-15 complainers, and He wrote of the truly upright and their words in a book of remembrance, Mal. 3:16.
      3. Of such people with a true, inner obedience that contrasted with the false, external obedience of many, God said they would be His treasured possession, that He would spare them as beloved sons, 3:17.
      4. At that time, those who had complained about God would see the difference between the truly righteous and the truly wicked, between those who obeyed God from the heart versus God's critics who had practiced the externals of God's commands to get Him to bless them without respecting Him, 3:18.
    5. Then, the Lord promised to judge those in Israel who had a false, external kind of obedience in contrast to the great blessing that would be upon those who exhibited a true inner obedience to the Lord, Mal. 4:1-3:
      1. God promised that judgment was coming when the overtly rebellious, the arrogant, as well as the evildoers with false external obedience would alike be totally consumed like stubble in a fire, Mal. 4:1.
      2. However, for those who revered the Name of the Lord and obeyed His Word from the heart, the Sun of Righteousness would rise with healing in His wings, producing joy and victory over evil foes, 4:2-3. [Note how this promise answers the frustration of those with a false obedience who languished due to the abuses of the overtly arrogant in Malachi 3:15 -- only the truly upright would defeat their evil foes!]
    6. God then called the people of Israel to recall the Law of His servant, Moses, and in this context, it called the people to a true, inner obedience opposite their false, legalistic, external obedience, Malachi 4:4.
    7. The Lord finally promised to send Elijah, that is, John the Baptizer, before the day of judgment to turn the hearts of the fathers and their children to one another in love versus their present false competitiveness for God's blessings lest He strike the earth with a curse, Malachi 4:5-6 with Matthew 3:2, 7-12 and 17:10-13.
Lesson: God called those with a false, external kind of obedience that obeyed Him disrespectfully only to get Him to bless them in self-centered lovelessness toward God and man to repent; they were to heed His Word out of respect for Him from the heart and out of true respect and love for other believers.

Application: May we also repent of such false, pharisaical, externalistic "righteousness" to obey the Lord out of true reverence for Him and a genuine love for fellow believers!