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When Serving God Is Useless Malachi 3:13-18 July 13, 2003
Serving God can be useless. It can be to no effect in your life. It is possible for you to serve God your whole life and reap absolutely no benefit whatsoever. In fact, serving God can even be dangerous to your soul. There are those who will live their entire lives in devotion to what they feel God wants them to do, who will only end up eternally condemned. Speaking to His disciples in John 16:2, Jesus told them, An hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. A day is coming, Jesus said, when people will persecute Christians and say they are doing it as an act of service to God. People will torture and kill God’s chosen people, the Church, and they will do it thinking they are serving God. Serving God like this only ends in eternal destruction for the one who does it. To serve God in a way that is not profitable to you, however, can be done without murdering Christians. It is possible to serve God in vain and never persecute a Christian. In the Old Testament, Israel often gives us a picture of when serving God is useless. We find one such example in our text this morning, Malachi 3:13-18. In the days of David and Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was at its peak. It had reached its golden years. Royalty and dignitaries were coming from far and wide to see the splendor of Israel and to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Silver was a common element in those days, and the kingdom was growing and expanding at a rate that alarmed all the neighboring nations. Yet even at the height of Israel’s existence as a nation, even when the Temple was at its most magnificent level, sin crept into the nation. Soon, the kingdom split. Then the northern kingdom was carried off into exile. The southern kingdom of Judah lasted a little longer, but it wasn’t long before the Chaldeans came and carried Judah off to Babylon and into exile. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied that after being in exile for 70 years they would be released and return to their land and rebuild it. God fulfilled His promise, and seventy years after being brought into exile, certain Jews were sent home to reconstruct their temple and cities. The temple was being rebuilt, and the walls of Jerusalem were being reconstructed, and everything was looking brighter for Israel, but then Nehemiah left Jerusalem, and the temple worship fell apart. Sin once again was overtaking the people of God. The people were involved in three basic sins:
During this time, when the commandments of God were being ignored, the prophet Malachi came on the scene, bringing God’s Word to Israel. Malachi came during a time when life had returned to some degree of normality in Jerusalem. With this return to normality came a decline in spiritual fervor. The people of Judah were becoming lazy and failing to build their nation under God, and it is to this declining state of affairs that Malachi, the final Old Testament prophet, addressed himself. The book of Malachi is God’s final word to His people Israel before the coming of the Messiah. It is His final prophetic word. In this book God condescends to actually address questions the people were asking during this time. The book is set up as a dialogue, or a debate or discussion, between God and the sinful people of Israel. Israel has been charged by God with several offenses: doubt (1:2), defiled sacrifices (1:7), defiled priesthood (2:7), sinful marriages with pagans (2:11), divorce (2:16), wearying God (2:17), and robbing God (3:8). God lists the offenses of the nation, and the people give their rebuttal. God then responds and shows why the nation is not serving Him in obedience. As we come to chapter 3, we see that the people are promised a messenger who will purify them. Because this messenger is coming, God exhorts the people to return to Him. The people, as usual, question God and ask how they are to return. God promises that if they will return with their tithes and offerings He will abundantly bless them. It is with this promise of blessing, then that we come to verse 13 in chapter 3. God has told Israel that the messenger is coming who will purify them, and they must return to Him. He also has promised to rain down blessings upon them if they return. Here, then, we have the final dialogue between God and His people Israel in response to these promised blessings. And that is where our text comes in at verse 13. In this text Israel complains to God that He does not follow through with His promise to bless those who serve Him. They claim that returning to God is not profitable. They claim that it is useless to serve God. They were not receiving the blessings they had hoped to receive from serving God. They were discouraged and frustrated, and from this text we see why Israel’s service to God did not profit them and bring blessing. Why is it that Israel’s service was useless? From this text we see at least four reasons that Israel’s service was useless. In turn, there are four ways given in this text that you can serve God, and your service will be useless. It will not bring blessing or benefit to you. There are four ways that you can serve God and not receive His blessing. Lead-in #1 The first way to serve God uselessly, according to this text, is to do it with an arrogant heart. I. With an Arrogant Heart (vv. 13-15) A. Arrogant hearts speak arrogant words (v. 13) 1. Arrogant words are the equivalent of offensive language 2. They are words which are proud and cynical 3. There was a prevailing air of cynicism and disdain for the Lord which had begun some time ago and was present as Malachi penned this prophecy 4. The Lord was judging the people’s words in this case – it was what they were saying about Him that He now discusses B. Arrogant hearts question God’s Word (v. 13) 1. “spoken against” = to gossip with one another against the Lord; to speak to one another against God 2. It was as if the people of Israel were getting together and having a bitter gossip session against God Himself 3. The people questioned God’s claim, asking what they could possibly have said about Him that was offensive to Him C. Arrogant hearts reject God’s righteousness (vv. 14-15) 1. It is useless to serve God (v. 14) a. It is illogical! It brings the opposite of what is promised! b. They ask two questions: 1) What profit is there in keeping His ordinances? – the people no longer delight in the worship of God. The ordinances spoken of here particularly have to do with temple worship and sacrifice. The people wonder what good, or what benefit, it brings them to keep up the sacrifices 2) What profit is there in mourning? – What type of mourning were they doing? o Pertains to mourning customs and attire o They put on the external dress of mourners, but were not mournful in their hearts, where it truly mattered c. Israel’s mindset: 1) Material blessings come with obedience – TRUE! (3:10-12) Because of Israel’s covenant, God did promise to bless them when they were obedient 2) Obedience is something that is merely external – FALSE! Looking back on Israel’s sin and failure to obtain righteousness, Paul comments in Rom 9:30-33. o They did not seek righteousness by faith (internal) but by works of the law (external) o Israel was pursuing the law of righteousness, but not in faith, so their pursuit was vain! o All their rituals did not profit them because they practiced false religion. 2. Wickedness brings blessing (v. 15) a. Their false religious practice had brought them to the conclusion that there is more happiness in wickedness than in righteousness b. They saw: 1) The wicked built up, or established 2) The wicked test or tempt God and escape c. They didn’t realize that they were at an equal plane, just as wicked! The Israelites service to God was useless. It was not bringing the blessings they thought it would bring. Why? The first reason is because they were arrogant against God. They spoke arrogant words, they rejected His Word, and they replaced His righteousness. They denied everything God was saying, and thus they spoke arrogantly against Him. They were serving Him with arrogant hearts, rather than with humble, grateful hearts. Lead-in #2 So to serve God uselessly, serve Him with an arrogant heart. A second way to serve God in vain is to serve Him with an irreverent heart. II. With an irreverent heart (v. 16) – shown by contrast, here we see a separate group of people serving God the right way, and the opposite way that Israel as a whole was serving Him. A. A short narrative – God’s people respond (v. 16) 1. Another group speaking to each other, yet this group fears the Lord a. Contrasted with those who speak against the Lord b. They spoke to one another, only they spoke kind words about the Lord, trusting in His promises because they feared Him 2. God took note and heeded what this group spoke as well, and this comes out in the book of remembrance. a. In the ancient Near East it was a common custom for kings to have books to record the most important events at their court and in their kingdom b. This book served as a register in which the names of the righteous were written and recorded c. Ezk 13:9 – My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of my people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God. d. This book recorded the righteous deeds and was always before God, reminding Him of the righteous ones and what they have done. e. This book for people who: 1) Feared the Lord – reverenced Him, were humble before Him, recognizing His sovereignty, power, and ability to do as He pleases 2) Meditated on His Name – thought about and discussed and marveled at God and all that He is. o These are the ones who are in love with the Lord, who cannot stop thinking about Him and all that He is and does. o These are the ones whose hearts are drawn to God. o Their religion is heart religion and springs from faith in reverence toward God 3. It is this group of people who are serving God properly, and you notice that they feared the Lord. They reverenced Him. Their hearts were in awe of His wonder and majesty. They reverenced and feared God to such a degree that they spent time meditating on His Name. They feared Him, so rather than running from Him, they ran to Him. 4. If the proper heart in serving God is a reverent heart, what is the opposite? An irreverent heart. If you want to serve God uselessly, have an irreverent heart. Do the opposite of what this remnant was doing. Serve God with an irreverent heart if you want your service to be in vain. Lead-in #3 To serve God uselessly, then, serve Him with an arrogant heart, and serve Him with an irreverent heart. If you serve Him this way, you can be certain your service will be absolutely ineffective in pleasing Him. There’s a third way to serve God to no effect, and that is to serve Him with a worldly heart. III. With a worldly heart (v. 17) A. The reward for the remnant was to be God’s own people – it was a spiritual reward with spiritual blessings, something the worldly would not value. 1. God’s special possession a. This remnant who feared God would be His special possession, His prized people, a treasure to God. b. This was in line with God’s promise in Deut 26:18-19, that Israel would be to God a special people, holy and set apart for God, to keep His commandments c. This remnant was special to God and was set aside by Him to be a holy people for His own possession, a treasure to the heart of God 2. God’s spared people a. The Day of Judgment was coming, as foretold in 3:1 and completed in chapter 4. Yet when this day comes, God’s remnant would be spared b. God would spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him B. The people that were serving God properly, in contrast to these arrogant, irreverent Israelites, valued the promise that they would be a special treasure to God. Their focus was not on being the people of God and having this relationship with God; it was on being a great nation and looking majestic in front of the world. 1. The Israelites had wrong priorities – they wanted to look mighty to the world 2. They should have wanted to be God’s own special possession, but their hearts were greedy and worldly, and thus their service to God was useless since it was not a service seeking after God Himself. Lead-in #4 Fourth, and finally, then, to serve God uselessly, serve Him with a faithless heart. IV. With a faithless heart (v. 18) A. The attention returns to the religious phonies – pronoun “you” 1. Israel had seen God’s blessing on righteousness before, and on the Day of Judgment they would see it “again” – again does not refer to a previous understanding or acknowledgement by the people; rather, it means that God would manifest His righteous judgment before Israel again, as He did with Egypt and the Red Sea. 2. God had shown the people the difference between the righteous and the wicked, and they had refused to observe it 3. These faithless people would see firsthand God’s blessing on the righteous, and feel firsthand God’s destruction on the wicked, whom they were calling blessed 4. No one would escape, not even those who tested God. B. The reason, ultimately, that Israel did not serve God and receive His blessing is because they did not have faith that God would do what He said He would do – judge the wicked for their sin! 1. Israel failed to take an eternal perspective. a. They looked only at the temporary situation b. They focused on the external events they could see 2. Israel should have known that God would not leave wickedness unpunished a. They should have looked at the temporary situation with hope for future vindication of the righteousness of God b. They should have believed that God would vindicate His own name for those for who feared Him! C. The essence of Israel’s downfall is that their hearts did not have faith in God and His Name. They did not believe that God was a God of righteousness and holiness who judges sin. Because, in their view, the wicked were better off than the righteous, they felt that God was unrighteous, and they did not trust Him to make right the situation. They lacked faith that God would judge rightly and follow through on what He had promised. Conclusion There is an important distinction to make in this final verse. The righteous, notice, is the one who serves God. He is the one serving God whole-heartedly. The wicked, on the other hand, is the one who does not serve God. His religion is for some other god or for himself. Many falsely believe that by putting on a good show they can earn God’s favor or procure His blessing. That simply is not true. To obtain God’s blessing you must put your faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Only then will you experience the blessing of the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life. It is the internal state of the heart which brings divine pleasure. Israel was attempting to be justified by their works, by their external actions. In a sense, they were trying to serve two masters. They wanted to placate God with their rituals and half-hearted service and at the same time have their hearts drawn toward the things of the world, the nations around them, and even to the wicked! God will not tolerate such hypocrisy. Only a people who truly believes in the promises of God is acceptable to God. Only those who put their complete trust in Jesus Christ will receive the blessings of forgiveness and eternal life. Just like Israel, those of us in the church also need this warning. The writer of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews 3:12-13, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” The people who had this external, religion of rituals eventually became the Pharisees. This group was condemned as having their hearts far from Christ. Eventually, their rituals were led them to the point that they murdered the Messenger God had promised – their very own Messiah, and God’s very own Son. How is your heart this morning? Do you serve Him whole-heartedly with devotion from within, or are you hoping that your works will somehow be noticed and earn you some merit with God? Do you trust His promises even when times are tough and when the wicked seem to prosper? Is there perhaps in you an evil heart of unbelief, and a hardening to the promises of God? Examine yourselves. Take heed to yourselves. Make sure your heart is not arrogant, irreverent, worldly, and faithless. When you have done so, encourage others, that our religion might be pleasing in the sight of God, coming from hearts that are humble, reverent, spiritual, and filled with faith. [Home page] [ ]
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