Malachi 3v13-4v6
Is it futile to serve God?
A few days ago I took my two children to the beach for a swim. And they very quickly got stuck into building a sand castle. And I’m sure you know the little pool in front of something good. And when the tides quite low, there’s just a little stream that trickles to the side. And they decided to build this sand castle right in that stream.
And because they were building it in water, they managed to get it to a certain height, but from then on it would just keep sinking down into the water. Each time they put a new handful of sand on. and it would just stay at the same height.
And so it was actually really funny. And they kept singing this song: Make it high. Make it high. In the sky. In the sky. Meanwhile the castle’s just staying exactly the height. And they kept building for about half an hour. Without realising the futility of their work.
Well that might be fun for kids. But when it comes to real work: there few things as frustrating as working on something that feels futile.
I’m sure if you did a survey of people in the workplace. What is it that makes you unmotivated at work. Surely this would be near the top of the list: if you doing something that feels futile.
Well in our passage today Israel have decided that it’s futile to serve God.
And you can kinda understand why they say this:
God’s brought them back to Israel, the promised-land. But it’s now 80 years later and the city’s still in ruins. They still suffering. Their enemies are prospering. And so they come to this conclusion: its futile to serve God.
Look at verse 14.
“You have said: “it’s futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out His requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.”
And we might feel the same way today.
We also see righteous people - unrewarded.
We see wicked people prospering.
And so we might agree with Israel: it doesn’t pay to serve God. Its futile.
But if that’s the conclusion we make, then we need to realize how God thinks about it. He considers it to be harsh. Look at verse 13
“you have said harsh things against me,” says the LORD.
And so this morning I wanna discourage us from saying these words: whether we say it with our mouth or in our hearts.
I want you to see how crazy these words are. There three things about God we need to see. These are things that Israel have forgotten.
But if we see them, we won’t even think about saying these words.
So three things about God:
Firstly, He’s our Father. We serve Him as a son serves his father
Secondly, He’s our audience. He notices everything we do.
Thirdly, He’s just. He will come to judge the world.
So firstly, He’s our Father.
We should serve God as a son serves his father.
If you jump down to verse 17, I want you to notice the type of person whom God will spare on the day of judgement. End of Verse 17.
“I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares the son who serves him.”
Now there’s a difference between the way a son serves his father and the way Israel are serving God.
Just look at verse 14 again. Notice the selfishness of their words. Verse 14. “You have said, “It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out His requirements.”
You see their self-focus.
Can you imagine a son speaking like this to his father?
He calls: My Son, come help me mow the law.
And the son replies: Dad, there’s no point for me to come and help you mow the lawn. What reward is there in that for me? What do I gain by doing that?
Isn’t that a harsh way for a son to talk to his father? It shows there’s no relationship.
If you only wanna be with someone if you can get something from them, then uv got no appreciation for the relationship.
Its like a girl who marries a man for his wealth. And as soon as that wealth is lost she wants a divorce. What do you say about such a girl? You say she’s using him. She’s not after the relationship. Shes after the wealth.
Well in the same way Israel are more concerned about getting things from God than about having God Himself
And so this is a warning for us: There’s a type of service to God that’ll be spared on the day of judgment. And there’s a type of service that’s in vain.
Listen to John Piper:
Whats the difference between these two services? It’s the difference between the service of a son and the service of a slave. It’s the difference between the works of law and the obedience of faith. It’s the difference between the younger brother in the parable of the prodigal son and the older brother.
You remember the parable. The younger brother comes home broken. He’s contrite. He’s devastated. He comes home to his father and all he wants to do is just to be able to serve in the house. That’s a privilege for him. Just to be in the house where his needs are met. And to be able to serve his father.
And that son gets spared.
But contrast that with the older brother.
He refuses to go in. He stands outside. His father goes and pleads with him. But he replies. Luke 15 verse 29.
“Look, all these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.
He’s saying: If anyone here has worked and worked and worked and worked and worked and worked to earn a party, I have. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.”
You see the similarity with the words of Israel: “what did we gain by carrying out His requirements?
That’s the voice of a slave.
And its all in vain. That’s the warning here: There’s a service of God that’s in vain.
If you truly know God as your Father, You won’t consider it to be in vain. You’ll simply wanna serve Him for who He is.
But then secondly (1) You need to see God as Your Father.
But then you also need to see Him as your audience.
You see this is the big temptation: when you see evil people prospering and righteous people suffering. You tempted to forget that God’s watching. As if He isn’t noticing what’s being done.
And you can see Israel have forgotten this if you look at verse 13 again.
They surprized when God accuses them .
“you have said harsh things against me.” Says the LORD: They surprized. “What have we said against you?”
You see in their minds they haven’t been talking to God. They’v been talking privately to one another.
In verse 14 they havent addressed these words to God. They don’t say: “It is futile to serve you God. What did we gain by carrying out Your requirements.
No, they talking about him to one another.
“It is futile to serve Him. What did we gain by carrying out His requirements?
And so they surprized: they’ve forgotten that God hears.
And so that’s the lesson for us. God hears. He’s listening in on every conversation. Whether its in the streets. In the homes. In the bedroom. There’s no private conversation when it comes to God.
As John Piper says:
“All of your life is a stage and this world is a theatre and whether it’s the kitchen or the car or the bedroom or the street or the bar God sits in the front seat of the front row and that place is a stage. And He doesn’t miss a line. Not one line does God miss in the drama of your life.”
God heard them. They weren’t talking to Him. But He heard them.
Matthew 12 verse 36 says: “men will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.”
And so this might be bad news for you if you ignoring God. But its wonderful news for those who fear Him.
Look at verse 16.
“Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and He heard.
Again it doesn’t say: They talked to God. They talking with each other. But God listens and He hears.
And not only does Hehear. He also records. Verse 16 again
“A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honoured His Name. And this is what He says about them: “They will be mine,” says the LORD Almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession.”
And so what an encouragement for you if you fear God. When you speak or act out of a fear of God. If you demonstrate a commitment to honour His Name. Even the smallest thing you do. It won’t go unnoticed. God’ll write down your name. And He’ll say this person is mine. My treasured possession
Now your treasured possession is something very precious to you. Its the thing you grab if your house is burning down. To spare it from the flames.
Well that’s how God views you if you fear Him. His treasured possession. He will spare you from the flames.
“They will be mine,” says the LORD Almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares the son who serves Him.”
And that word, “spare” is a very important word. It shows you that even those who fear God also need to be spared. In other words they not perfect. They haven’t earned their way into heaven through their own righteousness. They don’t waltz into heaven as if they deserve it. They enter heaven as those who’ve been spared by the compassion of God.
And so that’s also an encouragement to us. You don’t need to be perfect to be spared. You simply need to be son of the father who fears Him and honours His Name.
And so just examine your day to day conversations.. What do your words imply about God? Would God look at them and say: this is a person who fears me. This person is committed to honouring my Name.
God is your constant audience.
But then thirdly, probably the main reason why people think its futile to serve God is because they forget that He is just. They forget that He will judge the world.
You see if there’s no final day of judgment, then there’s a pretty good argument to just live for yourself. Live for the moment. Enjoy yourself. Satisfy your sinful desires.
But God says: there will be a final day of judgment. And on that day justice will be done. And everyone will see that its been done. Look at chapter 3 verse 18.
“And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
So the righteous and the wicked will be distinguished. And then they gona experience two very different destinies. And that’s what I wanna focus for the rest of our time. The two destinies for the righteous and the wicked
You can see them in verses 1-3.
firstly the destiny for the wicked.
Verse 1.
“Surely the day is coming; it’ll burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty.
A couple of weeks ago I ordered a bakkie load of wood for our fireplace. And I helped the guy who delivered it stack all that wood up against the wall. And that’s a picture of what’s happening to the wicked.
You see they might feel like they getting away with it. Nothing happens to me. I’m ignoring God and I’m escaping. But they not getting away with it. They getting stacked up. God takes note of their wickedness. And they getting stacked up for the day of fire.
And the other day something horrible happened when I took a piece of wood to throw it in my fire. Without me noticing it there was a gecko on that piece of wood. And before I realized I had thrown the gecko into the fire. And I tried quickly to get it out. But by the time I got it out it was too late.
But that image stuck with me. The gecko running around trying to get out.
And it shook me. Seeing a living thing trapped in fire.
And so I’m sorry to put that image in your mind if ur a gecko lover.
But maybe you need that image. A real life image. Just like that gecko was stuck in the fire, that’s what you’ll be for eternity if you don’t know God.
And just notice the difference between this fire and the fire we looked at a couple of weeks ago. In chapter 3 verse 2 God’s described as a refiners fire. He burns off the impurities and the dross so that only the gold remains. That’s what God does for His people now. He brings trials and sufferings into our lives to refine our faith.
But this final fire wont be for refining. It’ll be for consuming. Look at the end of verse 1.
“all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them.”
They’ll be completely consumed.
And so I know this isn’t a popular message today. Many people today don’t even believe in hell.
If you go to funerals today. It doesn’t matter who’s funeral you go to. Almost every funeral, someone will say: at least they in a better place.
You see they believe in heaven. Its strange: Many people believe don’t believe in hell. But they believe in heaven
And there’s this idea that everyone’s going to heaven.
As if the only requirement for going to heaven is to die.
Well the Bible says no. Heaven is real. And Hell is real.
And it takes more than your death to go to heaven. It takes the death of someone in your place.
And so if you not trusting in Jesus this morning, please listen: if you don’t hear anything else you need to hear this.
Don’t think that you will escape God’s judgment. A day of fire is coming. Hell is real. And real people will go there. And so I don’t say this lightly: If you look around you. I presume that in a room this size: There people in this church who unless they repent. They will spend eternity in this fire. Can you imagine that? Real people stubble for the fire.
And so I hope you can see who the cruel preachers are. Its not those who warn you of hell. Its those who leave out this warning simply because its not popular. How cruel it is to see this warning and to see people headed for this place without passing on the warning.
And the good news is uv heard the warning. And if your heart still beats this morning then you too can be spared. If you wanna find out more about how you can receive Jesus and be spared by God, please come and speak to me or one of the other leaders after the service.
And so that leads us to the second destiny in verse 2.
Just as the church often fails to paint the horrors of hell. In the same way we often fail to advertise the glories of heaven.
For many people Heaven is just floating around in the clouds with wings. Wearing nappies. Playing harps. Who would want to go to such a place?
Well the Bible gives us a much more realistic picture of heaven.
The Bible describes heaven as a real world. Its this world. But its been redeemed.
And so in the words of Tim Keller:
“If you can't dance now and you long to dance, in the resurrection you'll dance perfectly. If you're lonely now, in the resurrection you'll have perfect love. If ur empty now, in the resurrection you'll be fully satisfied. Ordinary life is what's going to be redeemed. There's nothing better than ordinary life, except that its always going away andalways falling apart. Ordinary life is food and work and chairs by the fire and hugs and dancing and mountains - its this world.
And if you know that this is not the only world, the only body, the only life you are ever going to have - that you will someday have a perfect life, a real, concrete life - who cares what people do to you? You're free from ultimate anxieties in this life, so you can be brave and take risks. You can face the worst things with joy and hope. The resurrecrtion means we can look forward with hope to the day our suffering will be gone. "
And there two images here of the destiny for those who fear God. The first is an image of healing. Verse 2.
“But for you who revere my Name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.”
I dunno about you, but I struggle with winter. And if there’s been a long cold front. A long period of being locked away inside. Feeling the cold. I just love that first warm day when the sun is shining. And I love the feeling of just standing in the sun. And you can feel the rays of sun entering your body. You can feel its healing power.