00:00 Introduction and Banter

00:43 Encouragement and Gratitude

01:37 Prayer and Tools for Prayer

02:54 Discussion on Malachi

06:29 Malachi's Indictments and Teachings

10:01 God's Judgment and Promises

16:20 Conclusion and Prayer

17:12 Outro and Podcast Information

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Welcome back to another edition

of the Daily Bible Podcast.

2

You sound exasperated.

3

Do you wanna try that one again?

4

No, I'm good.

5

Let's go.

6

Alright.

7

I'm right.

8

I'm ready.

9

Alright we're ready.

10

Let's do it.

11

We're talking.

12

Malachi.

13

How could I be exasperated when

we're talking about Malachi?

14

You just, you long

exhaled before we started.

15

Yeah.

16

Is it something I said?

17

No, it's when I said you're unfit to be

a pastor, did that bother you at all?

18

Man, we are throwing that out there.

19

Okay.

20

I'm just kidding.

21

Alright.

22

I did not say that for the record.

23

Alright, keep that in the record.

24

Do not strike that from the record.

25

Look no.

26

There's just times in life that

life is just, it calls for the

27

exhale, it calls for the sigh

and it's a, it's an okay thing.,

28

Yeah, that's true.

29

So it happens, it does happen.

30

But and that's why Hebrews 13 is

so encouraging and we love that

31

so many of you in our church

help us make our job a joy.

32

And you really do.

33

And we're grateful for that.

34

And it's a, it is a pleasure to be

able to shepherd the, this flock.

35

We, we love you guys and

are grateful for our church.

36

Indeed we are.

37

Yeah.

38

Among the people that we're grateful

for is Kelly Smith, who today is

39

having some work done on our shoulder.

40

So if you think about her, we'd love

for you to pray for her so that it

41

happens quickly and speedily and she's

able to recover quickly so she can Yes.

42

Continue doing what she does so well.

43

We make her lift a lot of

heavy things in the office.

44

That's my first plan to do.

45

Yeah.

46

I was thinking about having her

do some shoulder overhead presses

47

with 50 pounds each on either side.

48

I haven't rearranged my office in a while.

49

I'm just gonna have her come

in here and rearrange my

50

office for you, Kelly overhead.

51

Press my desk, put it over there.

52

Yeah, no, that's a good call to, to to

remind us to, to be praying for that.

53

So yeah, please pray for

your community group.

54

I don't know, you probably

don't need the reminder.

55

Whoever your small group

home fellowship group is.

56

There are so many great

tools available now.

57

It's really hard to even have

the good excuse of, I don't know

58

how to keep up with my prayers

and all these other things.

59

And really, there's never an excuse.

60

Let's just put that aside.

61

But there are so many great helps for

you to stay on top of your prayer list.

62

Go find one.

63

Find one that you like,

and use it and pray for.

64

Pray for the people that

God has put in your life.

65

They need that.

66

Yeah, for sure they do.

67

Yeah.

68

Prayer's huge.

69

PrayerMate is the app that

you use, that's my favorite.

70

Yep.

71

I love it.

72

And they've recently, they're

gonna update to the general

73

public, I think later this month.

74

No, 'cause it's still September.

75

As we record in October, they're

gonna release an update where their

76

sync engine is vastly improved.

77

And man, it is a hundred percent better.

78

I love it.

79

I've been using it a lot

more because of that.

80

And if you have a Mac, you

can pull up the iPhone.

81

Or I don't know if it's the iPhone

or iPad version on your computer.

82

And so now you have a full keyboard

to type out all the prayers and

83

make sure it stays up to date and

spiffy and all the cool things.

84

There you go.

85

I love it.

86

So your prayers don't have typos.

87

Not anymore.

88

Yeah.

89

And if markdown, it accepts

markdown language, so you can make

90

it look all nice and pretty too.

91

It's got all the good things.

92

There you go.

93

There you go.

94

I don't know, markdown.

95

It's really easy.

96

I know what it is.

97

I just, I don't know it.

98

Yeah, it's easy.

99

Yeah.

100

Super easy.

101

Hey, we've got Malachi today.

102

This is the it, this is it.

103

This is the end of the Old Testament.

104

All right.

105

And then we jump in

New Testament tomorrow.

106

Yeah.

107

Give yourselves a pat on the

back, maybe maybe do a high five,

108

maybe have some cake or steak.

109

I probably had some yesterday.

110

Yep.

111

Have them both at the same time.

112

Yep.

113

That's worth, you got

through the Old Testament.

114

Most Christians give up around Leviticus.

115

You did not, you carried yourself

all the way to the beginning of the

116

fourth quarter, which is Oh yeah.

117

It is October, isn't it?

118

No.

119

When's October?

120

When do we start the New Testaments?

121

Oh God.

122

What day is today?

123

Today is September 30th.

124

The 30th.

125

So tomorrow is October.

126

It's tomorrow.

127

Oh, it's not the New Testament yet.

128

Today's the last day, right?

129

So you're there though.

130

So don't give up today.

131

Don't give up today.

132

If you're gonna give up December 31st

and then start again on, on January one.

133

Yeah, great job is what

I was trying to say.

134

That was a very long way to say good job.

135

I just wanted to point out how

important it was, how significant

136

a milestone, because most have

you read, of course you did.

137

You saw the email.

138

It's going all over the interwebs.

139

Ligonier annual, I think it's an annual

study they do now where they do this.

140

Data of the Bible, how are

people engaging with the Bible?

141

Whether or not they're engaging what

Christians believe, and some of the

142

stats are quite shocking, quite.

143

So we want to be a church that knows the

Bible well enough to have some pretty

144

good theology, and that usually is.

145

It's the meat and potatoes

of the whole thing.

146

If you get the Bible right,

a lot of other things come

147

downstream that are beneficial.

148

But if you don't, if that's not the

cornerstone of your walk with God,

149

it'll make sense then that you have

a lot of erroneous thoughts about

150

God, about life and everything else.

151

So with that said, we want you to be in

your Bible and fact, go look up Ligonier.

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Org.

153

Yeah.

154

Look up the state of the Bible.

155

Is that what it's called?

156

I think so, yeah.

157

Can you just put a Ligonier, I'm almost

positive that's what it's called.

158

Dot org here.

159

I'm sure it's on their front page.

160

I got it via email.

161

And I got it from Jeff

Mooch, so I got it two ways.

162

Yes.

163

I am still loading and I'm not there yet.

164

Do you happen to have it?

165

I don't have it.

166

Okay, that's fine.

167

We're gonna start in our Bible.

168

Is Malachi mul?

169

It's mul.

170

You couldn't do it.

171

The Italian prophet, he couldn't do it.

172

The Italian prophet is returned.

173

Yeah.

174

No one mentioned it when you preached

it and I thought that was good.

175

Yeah.

176

No one did that, but I'm

glad to bring it back up.

177

Yeah, he is.

178

Malachi's the last voice before

the 400 years of silence.

179

And the 400 years of silence are

the time all often referred to

180

as the intertestamental period.

181

It's the time in between

Malachi and John the Baptist.

182

'cause John the Baptist is the

next voice that we hear from

183

as far as direct word from God.

184

And so Malachi to John the Baptist,

there's this 400 years of silence.

185

It doesn't mean that God was had

abandoned his people during that time.

186

It doesn't mean that he wasn't interested

in what was going on or sovereign over

187

the events that were taking place there.

188

In fact, it's a fascinating.

189

A fascinating event that, or a

fascinating time period, I should say.

190

These four centuries that take

place here you've got the Maccabean

191

Revolt, you've got a lot going on.

192

This is when Daniel's talking about a lot

that's gonna happen with tikis epiphanies

193

and the abomination of desolation.

194

You've got Hanukkah and.

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Represents Hanukkah, all the events

behind Hanukkah ca taking place

196

during this intertestamental period.

197

So there's a lot going on here but Malachi

is the last voice that we have as far

198

as the authoritative inspired canon.

199

Before we have John the Baptist voice

again, that picks up in the New Testament.

200

But Malachi again is

going to be a post exilic.

201

The date is a little bit fuzzy, but

he may have been prophesying during

202

the same time as Nehemiah that we just

read about sometime around fourth.

203

34.

204

34.

205

Many of the sins that Malachi confronts

here are similar to those that

206

Nehemiah confronted with the returning

exiles back in, in Nehemiah chapter

207

13, which you just read yesterday.

208

And so as we get into the opening of

the book, one of the main indictments

209

that ne, that Malachi is gonna bring

against the people is they're despising

210

or dishonoring of God, that they had

fallen prey to approaching God flippantly

211

or casually that they had not been,

responding to him the way that, that

212

God wanted them to respond to him.

213

And that had bled over even into the way

that the priests were worshiping him.

214

They were offering imperfect animals.

215

They were offering animals with blemishes.

216

They were not offering animals

fit for the sacrifices, and they

217

didn't think that was a big deal.

218

They thought that God should just be

happy with them going through the motions.

219

And Malachi confronts them and even

says, on behalf of God in verse two,

220

I have loved you, and they respond.

221

How have you loved us?

222

There are these questions that the

people are going to ask in response

223

to Malachi or in response to the Lord.

224

And there's multiple questions

throughout the book where Malachi's

225

gonna make a statement saying,

this is what God has said.

226

And the people are saying responsible.

227

How has he done that?

228

And so this is a stubborn people

that are gonna challenge so much

229

about God but God is gonna rebuke

them for really their neglect.

230

Of him and in this

opening chapter they're.

231

It's hard to put it in either way.

232

They're pathetic offerings.

233

They're offerings that they wouldn't

even bring to dinner at their local

234

governing officials home, let alone would

it be fit to offer the God of creation.

235

And so God is calling them out.

236

And also in chapter two, calling out the

priests for not doing their job either.

237

One of the most egregious charges against

God is that being a Yahweh follower

238

is a, they use the word weariness.

239

What a weariness this is in verse 13.

240

And you snort at it,

says the Lord of hosts.

241

You bring what has been taken.

242

By violence or LaMer sick and you bring

this as your offering and he says,

243

shall I accept that from your hand?

244

God essentially is putting his finger

on something that I think a lot of

245

Christians can also think, even if

they're not in the same situation as

246

malachi's audience, which is that being a

Christian is too hard and is not worth it.

247

This it takes too much effort.

248

The reward is not high enough.

249

This is just too demanding.

250

And of course, this flies in

the face of what Jesus says.

251

My yoke is easy, my burden is light.

252

And being a Christian should not.

253

Feel like the continual beating

down of some, I don't know, some.

254

Pushing someone down to the dirt.

255

Being a Christian is liberating.

256

Being a follower of Christ is something

that gives freedom and not takes it away.

257

Now, I guess you could say there is a

sense in which God limits our freedom,

258

but that limitation is from things

that actually hinder and hurt us,

259

not things that help us and make us.

260

Truly thrive and become happy.

261

So one of the things that Malachi

attacks is this heart of bitterness

262

toward God that says, you're too strict.

263

You ask too much of me.

264

This is too hard.

265

I don't want anything to do with you.

266

Yeah.

267

The other thing that he's going

to go after, not only their.

268

Failure to worship in a

way that got it prescribed.

269

But also, and we talked about this

when we preached through this in

270

the minor prophet series, that

they're their neglective marriage.

271

This goes back to some of

what Nehemiah was confronting

272

again in Nehemiah chapter 13.

273

And again, what Ezra was confronting and

there's really two issues at stake here.

274

Number one is just divorce in general.

275

And Malachi is gonna say, Hey.

276

God hates divorce.

277

And number two is, and a lot of

people think that these two issues

278

were interrelated the marrying

of foreign women, that he puts it

279

as the daughters of foreign gods.

280

And so this inner marriage that, again,

we read about Nehemiah, we read about

281

in Ezra, a lot of people think that

the reason that this is paired with the

282

divorcing of the wives of their youth.

283

Is that there were Israelites

who were leaving their wives to

284

go after these foreign women.

285

And that was a double a double

wound a double despising of

286

God's design for marriage.

287

Not only were they divorcing their wives,

but then they were going and yoking

288

themselves to women that were lovers of

foreign gods, and that was compromising

289

the integrity of God's people.

290

And so God is gonna confront

them for that here in in Malachi

291

chapter two, towards the end.

292

As we get into then chapter three in

response to all of this, God is gonna warn

293

them that the Messiah is going to come.

294

And when he does come, he's gonna

judge and purify the people from

295

their evil and their wickedness.

296

That's in verses one through four.

297

And the question at the end

of chapter two, you're asking,

298

where's the God of justice?

299

He responds in chapter

three saying, God's coming.

300

And in verse five, God is gonna

sit in judgment over their sinful,

301

lack of concern for justice

their pursuit of sin, thinking to

302

themselves God's not gonna show up.

303

God's not gonna pay attention.

304

God must not care.

305

'cause where is he?

306

God's gonna deal with that.

307

And in verses six through 15, he confronts

the people for their disobedience,

308

specifically here in, in giving.

309

And compares it to robbing him so much

like they were bringing lame animals.

310

They also weren't giving to the

Lord the way that they should

311

have been giving to the Lord.

312

And so he's calling them out on

that, confronting them on that, and

313

saying to them, Hey, why don't you

put me to the test, give the way

314

that I've called you to give and

watch what I'm gonna do in response.

315

Watch how I can bless you in response.

316

And in verses 16 through 18, you have

some that do respond favorably and God

317

is gonna take them and record their

names like we talked about in Nehemiah.

318

These names are gonna be honored.

319

They're gonna be written down

in a book of remembrance.

320

I've heard people use Malachi chapter

three and people preach sermons

321

from Malachi chapter three, where.

322

God says, put me to the test, of course,

connected to the Christians', giving

323

to the church and to things like that.

324

Is that a right use of Malachi three?

325

If not, how should we understand this

in light of our present dispensation?

326

I would say first, no, not a

right use of Malachi three, but

327

I would say that there's some.

328

Principles there that the church

could hold onto and learn from?

329

I think no, because this was

connected to God's promises.

330

Even going back to, to, to Deuteronomy

and the blessings for obedience and

331

the cursings for disobedience, that

part of the blessings for obedience

332

were the blessings of them being

faithful to give the way that he had

333

commanded them to give according to

the law that he would provide for them.

334

And we see that sometimes in the book of

Proverbs too, in the book of Proverbs.

335

There's a lot that talks

about how God will.

336

We'll fill the vats in the

barns with those that give.

337

And in similar language to what we

read here in Malachi chapter three.

338

What I think the problem is sometimes

as a church we throw out any thought

339

of that at all because we're afraid

of being those that are the health,

340

wealth, and prosperity gospel preachers.

341

Yeah.

342

So we don't want to give the

any impression that if you are

343

generous to the Lord, that the

Lord's gonna fill up your barns.

344

That the Lord's gonna

bless you financially.

345

And we can't guarantee that's true.

346

And we have to be careful

not to guarantee that.

347

And if any pastor stands up and says,

if you give to this building fund,

348

God's gonna bless you 10 times over.

349

He has no authority to stand up

and say that with any credibility

350

because we can't guarantee that.

351

But could he?

352

Sure.

353

Do you put yourself in the way of his

blessing anytime you're obedient to him?

354

A hundred percent.

355

Absolutely.

356

You do.

357

Is it a call on the Christian's

life to give to the Lord?

358

Yes, it is.

359

And so is it a way for us to

put ourselves in the way of his

360

blessing to obey by giving to the

Lord and giving to the church?

361

Yes, it is.

362

Are we risking putting ourselves

in the, in, in his disfavor by

363

disobeying him in that regard?

364

Yeah, we are because of

disobedience versus obedience.

365

So the principle of

blessing for obedience and.

366

Judgment or punishment

discipline for disobedience.

367

That's a New Testament concept

as well that we can hold onto.

368

We just can't say thus says the

Lord, you're gonna get a tenfold

369

return on what you give to us today.

370

Yeah.

371

So if someone were to say, for

instance, look you can't out

372

give God, God is really generous.

373

That's true.

374

We would agree with that.

375

When we say that we don't necessarily and

always mean material goods, that if you

376

were really generous to the church, you

gave a hundred thousand dollars gift to

377

the church for this thing or that thing.

378

We don't expect you to get a

million dollar payout at the end

379

of the year because of some other

thing that's coming through.

380

What are some of the blessings

then that God may give somebody

381

after their generosity's expressed?

382

If it's not funds?

383

If it's not you give me a thousand

dollars, I'm gonna give you 10,000.

384

How does God?

385

How does God out give us when we,

'cause we say things like that, right?

386

You cannot give God, he,

he is very generous, right?

387

God's not stingy.

388

What should we expect?

389

I think continued provision

for what you have right now.

390

I think some of the things that may

hold us back from giving more generously

391

is we think to ourselves will.

392

What if this happens?

393

Or what if this happens?

394

What if I lose my job?

395

What if, I get sick?

396

What if something like that happens?

397

And so we have this contingency, the

rainy day and we're like, I don't wanna

398

give too much because I'm worried that

I'm, I might need that in the future.

399

Yeah.

400

And so I think some of the blessings

may be he continues to provide for you.

401

Have the job that you've had, not

that you're necessarily gonna get

402

the promotion, but that you're gonna

continue to get the paycheck for

403

doing the work that you're doing.

404

I think that's part of it.

405

Sustaining your health to be able to work.

406

There's a lot of different ways that God

can bless us, even just with contentment.

407

Maybe you go through a season of con of.

408

Discontent.

409

You're looking at your house, you're

looking at your car, you're looking

410

at things like that saying, I wish

I had different things than I have.

411

Yeah.

412

And maybe part of that is that you're

not being generous the way that

413

God's calling you to be generous.

414

And when we do and when we are generous

that way, sometimes God allows us to

415

look at what we have and say, God,

I'm so thankful for what I have.

416

It may not be what this person

over here has, but it's what you've

417

given me and I'm grateful for that.

418

And so thank you for that.

419

So some of the blessings can

come in just being content.

420

Rather than sitting there and

thinking to myself and loving

421

money so much to say, I wish I had

more than what I have right now.

422

Yeah, that's helpful.

423

Chapter four is gonna continue

the theme of God's judgment, but

424

it's gonna look forward this time.

425

Not in a looking forward to

as an eagerness, at least not

426

for the unbeliever, but for

the future day of the Lord.

427

The day of the Lord.

428

That's gonna come, that's gonna

bring the judgment with it.

429

And before that day though, is going

to come Elijah the prophet before the

430

great and awesome day of the Lord.

431

Now put a pin in that for tomorrow.

432

Because tomorrow, October 1st, you

are going to read in the New Testament

433

about the coming of this one.

434

That is Elijah, and that is gonna be in

the announcement of John the Baptist.

435

And so it's awesome the way that

God has designed a scripture.

436

The way that we have it is we

finish the Old Testament with this

437

prophecy about the coming of Elijah

to prepare the way of the Lord.

438

And then we open up in the New

Testament with the voice of Elijah

439

preparing the way of the Lord.

440

And it was a literal prophecy

that was literally fulfilled.

441

Isn't that interesting?

442

Yeah.

443

It seems to me that God is

interested in literally fulfilling

444

the prophecies that he makes.

445

You're doing that?

446

Not metaphorically.

447

I don't think it's a metaphor.

448

I think there are spiritual fulfillments

as we talked about at one of our recent

449

leader meetings, but I see evidence even

with internally from the scriptures,

450

that God is interested in having his

prophecies fulfilled in a literal way,

451

even if there's multiple fulfillments.

452

And we do see that.

453

They're still literal even.

454

Yeah.

455

We'll save it for talking

about John the Baptist.

456

Let's pray.

457

God, we are thankful for that

reality the literal fulfillment

458

of your word, that we can read it,

that we can see its continuity, we

459

can see its unity, cohesiveness.

460

And I just pray that even as we

turn the page tomorrow into the

461

New Testament, you would help us to

understand the New Testament even

462

better because of what we've read.

463

So far this year through our time

in the Old Testament, help us to

464

see the layers, help us to see these

things that are contained in the

465

pages here, that can cause us to

say, wow I wouldn't have understood

466

that as well as I do now if I hadn't

spent that time in the Old Testament.

467

So thank you for the fullness of your

word and the continuity that the singular

468

thread that runs through it all being the.

469

Hope that we have in Christ.

470

And even though the Old Testament

people, they didn't understand that

471

this was Jesus, they didn't understand

that this was gonna involve the cross.

472

They did trust you and they did

have their faith in the same God

473

that we have our faith in today.

474

And so we pray that as we read the New

Testament, we'd appreciate that even more.

475

We pray this in Jesus' name.

476

Amen.

477

Amen.

478

Keep bring your Bibles.

479

Tune in again tomorrow for another

edition in the Daily Bible Podcast.

480

See you folks.

481

Bye.

482

Bernard: Well, thank you for

listening to another episode of

483

the Daily Bible Podcast, folks!

484

We're honored to have you join us.

485

This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

486

You can find out more information

about our Church at compassntx.org.

487

We would love for you to leave a

review, to rate, or to share this

488

podcast on whatever platform you're

listening on, and we hope to see

489

you again tomorrow for another

episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

490

Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

491

PJ: Yeah.

492

I would agree with

everything that you said