Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil. That put darkness for light, light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. You know, this is what we're seeing on exponential levels today, where the world is calling good things evil and evil things good.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reflecting on the words of Isaiah, a warning echoed by the Prophet Malachi.

Brett Meador: So not only were they devaluing God's word, but distorting, just kind of tweaking it to fit their fancy, to mean things that it didn't.

Guest (Male): Malachi chapters 2 through 4 sadly depict the children of Israel not fully serving the Lord as they ought. However, there is hope for them and for us. Pastor Brett Meador assures as we cross the bridge from the curse of sin and the law to the beauty of God's forgiveness and grace through Jesus Christ. Let's join Pastor Brett as we humbly apply today's word.

Brett Meador: The Lord is calling out the people during Malachi's day, and they don't get it. Everything that he says, they've got some witty little comeback that's actually kind of pathetic.

And it's embarrassing how bad these people are out of sync with the Lord. We saw, first of all, in chapter 1, verses 2 through 5, we saw number one, the denying of God's love. Wherein did you love us? And they were acting like God didn't love them.

But also in verses 6 through 14, we saw number two, the defiling of God's table. They defiled the worship service in the temple. They were bringing defiled offerings, and it was abomination before the Lord. And the third part of this book divides into number three, the devaluing of God's word, and that's chapter 2.

Number four, Malachi now calls them out for the deserting of their wives. To keep my D's going here, the deserting of their wives. Check out Malachi chapter 2, verse 10. He says, "Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our father?" What covenant is he talking about?

Well, he goes on, verse 11, "Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god."

It's interesting because that same verse, verse 11 in the New King James version, it says, "Judah has dealt treacherously and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution, which he loves, and he has married the daughter of a foreign god."

And this is what you have to understand. And we know this from this passage, but there's also context of the actual children of Israel and what they were doing at this time. We know from other passages of the Bible. The men were going from the wife of their youth, and they saw these young girls that were from other nations, the Moabite women, the Midianite women. The Moabite and the Midianites, they were actually famous for being beautiful girls.

And they'd come down and these older Israeli guys were like, "Hey, these girls are hot." And they would dump their wives and they'd marry into these pagan foreign god cultures, and these women would bring their idols with them and put them on the mantel and these Jewish guys were basically marrying into paganism. This is what was going on there.

And that's why, you know, the Bible tells us about this, even in the New Testament. You and I should be careful about this. Marriage is a institution that God calls holy in this verse. Did you see that? You've profaned the Lord's holy institution. That institution is marriage, by the way.

The Jews were very much prohibited from intermarrying these pagan cultures that were around them because they would draw them down spiritually. Dumping their faithful loving wives of their youth. Verse 12, "The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this." This is an interesting because these aren't just general men, these are some of the scholars out of the tabernacles.

These are the guys that should be religiously sound, and they're the ones doing this horrible deed of midlife crisis and marrying these younger, prettier, you know, pagans. And the Lord says, "Well, you guys should be a little nervous about what he just said." He said, "The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this."

Now what does this mean cut off? Well, some scholars believe it means to be exiled from the people of Israel. Most scholars believe it means to be castrated. That would solve the problem. Castrated, that's what it probably means. The Lord says, "I'm going to cut you off." Read on with verse 13. It says, "And this have you done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering anymore or receiveth it with good will at your hand."

Yet, verse 14, you say, "Wherefore, or why does our weeping on the altar not count?" Well, he says, verse 14, "Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. Yet she is thy companion and the wife of thy covenant."

Interesting, the Lord says, "I'm not going to receive your offering or your prayer when you go to the altar at the temple because there's no repentance here." Unconfessed, undelt with, unresolved sin. You know, it's interesting that the Bible tells us so much about marriage, but this one kind of reminds me, and this is what these men of Israel should have been doing.

There in 1 Peter 3:7, Peter said, "Likewise, you husband, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the wife as unto the weaker vessel, as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered."

And I got to say this, if you're new to Christianity, some of you are already offended, the wife is the weaker vessel. The Bible just says that. I'm sorry. You got to go with the Bible. You say, "Well, Brett, that's not true." Well, it is. It is true.

But what's a vessel? Let's talk about vessels for a second. Let's take a root beer mug, is that a vessel? Yeah, root beer mug is a vessel. So you put the root beer mug on the table and then let's take a wine glass. Is that a vessel? Yep, wine glass, root beer mug. Are they two vessels? Are they different?

Which one's the weaker vessel? Which one's the superior vessel? Nobody wants to answer that. I'm not saying anything on that one. Yeah. No, the wine glass is the one you put out on display, because it's a pretty vessel. It's something you put out there's for all the world to see because it's a better vessel.

You can slam the root beer mug on the counter, slide it down and put it in the freezer and freeze it, all kinds of crazy stuff with the root beer mug. But, you know, the wine glass is the vessel of honor, and that's what it says. Husbands dwell with your wife. You're the clunky vessel that's tough and maybe a little thicker skinned in some ways, very logical but not so sensitive.

And you get to dwell with your wife who's more sensitive, definitely more beautiful. Trust me, brothers, on this one. As the wife is called this weaker vessel, but more than that, being heirs together, working together in the grace of life. And notice, husbands, it says that your prayers be not hindered. That's what was happening to the men of Micah's day.

They left their wives, treated them horribly. That's what our text tells us. And the Lord says, "And you think I'm going to hear your prayers at the altar?" It's the same thing for you and me in modern church age. If you think you're treating your wife badly, and you are, don't be shocked if God doesn't listen to your prayers. Your prayers will be hindered. Repentance, by the way, is what these people need. Repentance is what you and I need when we have marriages that are in trouble. Repent.

By the way, let me talk about this since God hates divorce. And man, you know, you got these guys. And this comes on pretty strong. And some of you are thinking, "Oh, Brett, I'm really feeling depressed now, because I'm a divorced person." Irredeemable, unreconcilable. And the Lord hates divorce. And there's even that scripture that talks about if a person's been divorced, they should not be remarried.

And some of you have kind of thought about that. And some of you have come to from churches that said, "Yep, that's how it is." If you've been divorced, you can never remarry someone. Can I just tell you? I don't agree with that view. "Well, Jesus said it." Yes, he did. But here's what Jesus also teaches.

Would you agree that Jesus teaches that our sins can be forgiven? And what does "forgiven" mean? He remembers our sins no more. He puts our sins as far as east is from the west. Here's the thing you have to understand. An unrepentant sinner who's divorced, they shouldn't get remarried.

I've seen that. I've actually had couples sitting in my office saying, "Brett, we want you to do our wedding." And I'll I'll tell me your story. "Well, we were divorced." Well, tell me about that from "Well, he was just a jerk, left his socks on the floor. I thought he was a total dweeb, so I dumped him. He deserves it, I hope he suffers in hell."

I'm just going to say it right now, I probably won't do that wedding. I'll probably say, "You know what?" And I'll show there in Matthew where Jesus talked about, "Man, if you've been divorced, you're not to be remarried." Why? Because she's still wrestling with the sin in her heart toward her ex-husband. There's no healing, there's no reconciliation. There's I can tell there's still issues going on there.

But if there's a couple that comes in and, you know, like here's a a great example. This is there's I could give you a hundred scenarios, but here's one. A couple gets married before they were ever saved. They were on LSD when they got married and, you know, suicidal and manic. And then they got divorced. And then years later, one of them accepts Jesus and becomes a Christian and realizes what a horrible place they were in their life. And they confess that sin and that marriage and that whole falling apart of their marriage and and just say, "Lord, we were sinful and we were wrong in that, and every part of that was wrong."

And when they confess that, I believe that person, old things are passed away, all things become new. In God's eyes, that person is brand new. So that person can get remarried if they've dealt with the sin that they were engaged in in their previous marriage. Does that make sense? Now, there's a million stories that have varying degrees, and it's not always an exact science.

But that's why I love what the psalmist said. You know, Psalm 32, it reminds me, you know, David, it says in Psalm 32, verse 1, who, you know, committed adultery and all that stuff. He said, "Blessed is he whose transgression or sin is forgiven, whose sin is covered." Blessed or happy is that word.

Happy is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, that's unrepentant. My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, for day and night thy hand, God's hand was heavy upon me. My moisture turned into the drought of summer. Selah. The word "Selah" means stop and think about that.

David's saying, "Man, when I was unrepentant and was hiding my sin, man, I was just in drought and dry times, and the heaviness of God was on my head." Then verse 5, "I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and thou forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah." Which means stop and think about that.

If you confess your sins, he will be faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. That was the problem with the people of Micah's day. They were blowing off their marriages, their covenant that God says is a holy institution. They were blowing that off. And so God says, "Yeah, good luck having your sacrifice at the altar mean anything."

You can cry your eyes out at the altar all day long, like it says there in verse 13, weeping, crying out. But the Lord's not going to regard your prayers or hear you because of unrepentant, unconfessed, undelt with sin. So, you know, back to point four here, that they were deserting their wives. And she was called thy companion, the wife, verse 14, of the covenant there, and that's important. The wife of thy covenant.

So verse 14, "Yet you say, 'Wherefore, why?' Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou dealt treacherously, yet she is thy companion and the wife of thy covenant." Verse 15, "And did not he make one?" That's another thing we know from marriage, "Two shall become one flesh," the Bible says. "This is a great mystery. But I speak concerning Jesus Christ and the church," Paul said in Ephesians 5.

When you get married, the Lord joins two people together spiritually, body, soul, and spirit. That's why divorce is such a rip. You know, people think, "Oh, divorce is a solution," but then they're shocked at how painful it is once they pull the trigger. And the reason, the Lord joins people. "What God has put together, what does it say? Matthew 19. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."

Including the married couple. They shouldn't put their marriage asunder because God has miraculously joined them together. Man, if you're thinking about divorce right now, can I just say, "Stop." Get some wise, godly biblical counsel. Don't listen to your neighbor or your friends at work because they'll all say, "Yeah, dump the jerk." That's the culture we live in.

But, you know, being one who sticks to a difficult marriage is what God actually, I think, always intended. "Well, Brett, what if I'm being physically abused?" Well, if you're being physically abused as a wife or as a husband, you need to get out of that house and get help. You're not supposed to stay in a house where you're being beat up. That's, of course, the truth.

Always been that way. But it doesn't necessarily mean divorce. "Brett, you're telling me I can't divorce an abusive husband?" I'm just saying you should probably get some wise counsel and you should definitely get yourself in a safe place. But then from there, man, there's some work that needs to be done. And before you go back into that house, it needs to be a safe situation. And that needs to be assured. And how do you do that? A lot of work.

And that man needs to repent. I know it's hard, and I know some of you are saying, "Because that's horrible, and the world doesn't agree with you on that." But again, I would refer to you God's holy word. And on this point, that's what Malachi is trying to tell us. They blew off the word, and especially this issue of marriage. And the Lord's calling them out right here. It's pretty heavy.

So, all that to say, you've got, you know, the deserting of their wives. And it says for verse 16, "For the Lord, the God of Israel, hath saith that he hateth putting away." That's where we have the quote, you know, Matthew 19:6, God hates divorce. He first said that in Malachi right here.

"The Lord hates putting away or divorce for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore, take heed to your spirit that you deal not treacherously." He's talking to the men, by the way, here. Men are the ones the Lord puts on the hook, and men should take responsibility in these things.

Well, that brings us to the fifth section of Malachi. We're going to see the distorting of God's word. So not only were they, you know, devaluing God's word, deserting their wives, but number five, distorting the word of God. Just kind of tweaking it to fit their fancy. Take a look here in verse 17. And it goes on, by the way, into chapter 3, all the way to verse 6. That's where we get the answer, the solution.

But verse 17 is the problem. It says, "You have wearied the Lord with your words." Yet you say, "Wherein have we wearied him?" "When you say, 'Everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he that delighteth in them.' Or 'Wherein the God of judgment?'" This is where there's that distortion of the word. It's like what Isaiah 5:20. This starts to make me think of Isaiah 5:20. "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light, light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."

You know, this is what we're seeing on exponential levels today, where the world is calling good things evil and evil things good. We could talk about, you know, same-sex marriage and LGBTQ issues. Those are all biblical issues of what the Bible talks about. So, all that to say, we have to be really careful about calling good evil and evil good.

But he goes on in chapter 3, verse 1. "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts."

When the world gets to that place where good is being called evil, and evil is being called good, the solution, well, there's two messengers that are mentioned here. Now this gets interesting. The distorting of God's word is sort of the last straw it seems before God says, "I'm going to intervene." I believe that's true both when Jesus came the first time, but it's going to be even more true when he comes in the second coming.

But what's interesting here is there's two messengers. Do you know who these messengers are? The first one, verse 1 of 3, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me." We probably know who this is, right? Who's the one that prepared the way for the Messiah? John the Baptist. We know that.

By the way, there's some really interesting stuff about John the Baptist that I think fits in with this Malachi passage. Matthew 11:9-10 says, "But what went ye out for to see?" When they went to go see John the Baptist, "A prophet? Yea, I send you more than a prophet, for this is he of whom is written, 'Behold, I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before me.'" Here, you know, Jesus is quoting from Malachi, referring to John the Baptist.

So we know this is really the messenger being talked about. Also, Luke chapter 1, verse 17, which says this, Luke 1:17, "And he shall go before him in spirit and power of Elijah." But here in Luke, it says, "He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah," that's what we're talking about, "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just and make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Again, that's this messenger talked about in chapter 3, verse 1. Now, all that to say, you know, with the people of Israel during Malachi's time, they got to that pinnacle of problems when they distorted God's word to mean things that it didn't. So the Lord says, "That's when I'm going to send my messenger." He's going to prepare the way for messenger number two.

At the end of verse 1, it says, "Prepared the way before me, the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant." Which messenger do you think that is? Jesus, right. So the first one is John the Baptist. The second one is Jesus, and he's bringing the new covenant, which is the New Testament, the dedication there in the temple.

By the way, if you remember Luke chapter 2, verses 25 through 40, there were two people that recognized Jesus as the Messiah there when he was dedicated in the temple, Simeon, the old guy, and Anna. Anna was also in her 80s, and they were waiting to see the Messiah. And those that seek him will find them, the Bible says. And these people saw this fulfillment here of chapter 3, verse 1, there when Jesus was brought to the temple.

By the way, I love that that's true, that when you seek the Lord, like Simeon and Anna. Jeremiah 29:13 says, "You shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart." Proverbs 8:17, "I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me." That's such an important thing.

But back to point number five here, the distorting of God's word. The answer is to have Christ come, the living word, and be the answer. And it goes on in verse 2, "But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appearth? For he is like a refiner's fire and like a fuller's soap." Now, this is where we have to discern, are we talking about Jesus's first coming?

Was there a gap between verse 1 and verse 2, when suddenly we're talking about this coming where no one's going to be able to stand when he appears? Most scholars believe now we're talking about his second coming. Remember, the Old Testament Jews, they didn't look at it as multiple comings. They thought it was just one coming of Jesus, but it was actually his first coming being prepared by John the Baptist, but his second coming is going to be very different than that, where people won't be able to stand. It'll be like a refiner's fire. That's the second coming.

Verse 3 goes on, "And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years."

"And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, or liars. Against those that oppress the hireling in of his wages, the widow and the fatherless, that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts."

This is all what Jesus is going to do in his refining fire, second coming. Things will be purified during the second coming of Christ. Notice this list here, there's quite a list. First of all, sorcery. Some of you are like, "Who does sorcery anymore?" Well, actually, it's on the rise if you didn't know that. And I'm not talking about Harry Potter.

Did you see this? This is the kind of stuff you see all over the country and all over the world. Why witchcraft is on the rise. Casting spells and assembling altars have become quite lucrative, according to the article. You can attend a fall equinox ritual organized by Airbnb, sign up for a subscription which boxes offering the equivalent of a blue apron for magic making, and buy aura cleanses on Etsy.

You say, "Brett, that's weird. That's just a fringe weird." Man, we got Satan worship in the US Navy now. You can have services you can go to. There's just all kinds of dark sorcery type stuff. And the reason this is important not to blow this off as sort of comical is it's on the rise, but we also know that this is what the antichrist is going to be a part of. The Bible talks about in Daniel and Revelation, Antichrist is going to be linked to black magic and sorcery, so it's going to only rise, I think, to the time where that antichrist comes.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador pausing in our verse-by-verse study of the book of Malachi with a glimpse of the return of the Lord, coming to rule and reign as prophesied for us once again here at the close of the Old Testament, as promised in today's word. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more about Pastor Brett and Athey Creek Church by going to todayswordradio.com. If you missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. All right, I have Pastor Brett with me now. Brett, we talk many times about your teaching style of preaching verse by verse through the Bible. What impact in people's lives have you seen by teaching straight through God's word?

Brett Meador: I have to admit, there's times when I reach a certain book of the Bible, I think, "Oh boy, you know, I wonder how the church is going to receive this book." But every single time, without fail, that passage ministers to our congregation. People come up to me after the service saying, "Pastor Brett, who told you what I was going through at this time?"

And it's because that scripture specifically spoke into their heart. And I just found that even in the minor prophets or wherever you might be in the Bible, I've had even people say, "Brett, you teach through Leviticus?" And I say, "Absolutely, yes." And our church, one of our biggest growth spurts in our church was when I was teaching through Leviticus.

And it's because the word of God is, in fact, living, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. And people are starving for the full counsel of God, not just our favorite passages, but the whole book. "Lo, I come in the volume of the book. It's written of me." That's speaking of Christ. So, that's why we love it. Every book of the Bible.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Brett, for explaining why going verse by verse like you do is never a bad idea. Well, friend, if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or Today's Word, you can just go to our website at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Well, next time, Pastor Brett will bring the Old Testament to a powerful conclusion, underscoring the justice of God.