Indifference Toward Sin
Malachi 2:10-17
November 20, 2022
As you are now aware we are walking through this book of Malachi
Where we are addressing the issue of INDIFFERENCE.
We have here a people who are
Eagerly anticipating the arrival of their Messiah
And yet the message of Malachi is that
YOU ARE NOT READY to stand before Him.
And it is because they had grown indifferent to the things of God.
We have seen that indifference in their worship
• As they brought the blind and the lame for sacrifice.
We have seen that indifference in their neglect of God’s word.
• As they failed to know, apply, or enforce God’s word.
THIS MORNING we examine another area of their indifference
And at its core it has to do with their INDIFFERENCE TOWARD SIN.
• There is sin that is occurring in the congregation.
• And instead of grieving or mourning or repenting
• The people are continuing to participate in it,
• And even to declare that God is pleased.
They love and participate in that which God hates
And instead of repenting they declare that God delights in us anyway.
• They have lost all sense of their moral barometer.
• Their understanding of sanctification has been totally obliterated.
• God is terribly offended and no one seems to care.
THIS IS AGAIN INDIFFERENCE.
The BUZZ WORD you’re going to encounter in this text is the word “treacherously”. (used 5 times)
It is the Hebrew word BAW-GAD
It means “to act deceitfully” or “betrayal”
God views His people as liars and betrayers.
Let’s look at our text and we’ll see why.
Let’s start with the opening questions of verse 10.
“Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us?”
The first word you need to settle on there is the word “one”
• We are many people but we have “one father”.
• We are many people but we have “one God”
The most obvious issue at hand then is the issue of IDOLATRY.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
This of course is the famous SHEMA.
It is what Jesus quoted as the greatest commandment.
You notice that it began with the understanding that “the LORD is one!”
That is to say that we do not have many gods, we have one God.
And this understanding of one God
Is also the basis for our unity and our identity as a people.
John 17:20-21 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
That wasn’t just a passage hoping everyone would get along.
Jesus was speaking of our bond of unity which is that we share in common life.
We may be a very diverse people.
• We may look different, sound different, speak different languages,
• And have totally different tastes and preferences in life.
But we don’t gather here because we all like the same kind of food.
We gather here because we all share a common Father.
We gather here because we all worship the same God.
Many of you will gather this week with family at Thanksgiving.
And there are some who will openly say they don’t enjoy the event
Because we’ve all got that crazy uncle or that opinionated cousin.
We will gather around tables with people who have different religious beliefs, different political beliefs, different economic status, etc.
But we don’t gather with them because we agree on everything.
WE GATHER BECAUSE THEY ARE FAMILY.
We gather because we are all grandchildren of the same grandpa.
THAT IS TRUE IN THE CHURCH.
What we hold in common bond is that
We all “have one father” and “one God created us”.
Ephesians 4:4-6 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”
Since this is the basis for our fellowship
You understand that to gather and worship different gods
Would be to totally miss the point of why we are here.
It should be understood by all when we walk through those doors,
That regardless of our differences
We hold in common this truth that we are all here to worship our God.
AND CERTAINLY ISRAEL SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT TOO.
HOWEVER, that is not what was happening.
Instead of acting faithfully, they were acting “treacherously”
• “treacherously each against his brother”
• “treacherously” against God
• “treacherously against the wife of your youth.”
That is to say that Israel has been UNFAITHFUL.
Israel has betrayed their brother, their wife, and God.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?
Well, in short:
• Men are divorcing their Hebrew wives; the wife of your youth.
• They are then marrying pagan foreign wives.
• They are bringing these pagan wives into the congregation.
• And they are seeking to go on about things as usual as though God is pleased.
It is sinful in more ways than one
And yet the people are totally indifferent.
They simply don’t care
• About their sin
• Or who it effects,
• Or what God thinks about it.
And God will once again have strong remarks
For those who demonstrate such indifference.
So let’s work on the text this morning.
#1 BETRAYAL OF YOUR BROTHER
Malachi 2:10-12
The point is obviously made in verse 10 that the burden of God here
Is that there is treachery against their brother.
“Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?”
We recently studied 1 John and you are aware that
A man who does not love his brother is not a genuine believer.
Well here they are accused of dealing treacherously
And according to God this is “to profane the covenant of our fathers”
The accusation here is a serious one.
They are sinning against their brother to such a serious degree
That God considers it a breach of their covenant with Him.
WELL, WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
(11) “Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god.”
Now at first glance, that might not have been what you expected to hear.
When we think of betraying a brother our first thoughts would likely go toward some direct way in which you harm your brother.
• Cheat him financially
• Slander or gossip about him
• Maybe have an affair with his wife
Something that seems to be a direct afront to your brother.
But what Malachi lists here
Doesn’t immediately seem to have anything to do with a brother.
They have “married the daughter of a foreign god.”
Very few people today would consider that a sin against your brother.
They would say, “I’m not hurting anyone, mind your own business. What I do in my private life is my own business. It doesn’t affect you.” Etc.
That’s how people would answer.
And yet God is adamant that by marrying a pagan idol worshiper
(that’s what “daughter of a foreign god” means).
By marrying this idol worshiper you are sinning against your brother.
HOW?
It’s a simple as this.
“a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough”
You remember that sinning brother at Corinth who was sleeping with his father’s wife.
1 Corinthians 5:6 “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?”
Your sin will affect your brother.
It will spread. It will influence.
Your sin is NEVER a personal or a private issue.
The consequences of your sin are felt by everyone.
If we learn anything from Adam it should be that one man’s sin can affect us all.
Or how about the man named Achan.
• He is called “the troubler of Israel”
• After defeating Jericho God specifically put everything in Jericho “under the ban”. Nothing was to kept by any individuals.
• But Achan kept some plunder and hid it in his tent.
• His sin offended God and when Israel next went to battle against Ai, God abandoned them to defeat and 36 of Israel’s soldiers were killed.
God revealed it was because of Achan’s sin.
Sin splatters.
It affects all.
And THIS SPECIFIC SIN of MARRYING A PAGAN WOMAN
Already had a track record of bringing judgment into Israel.
First of all, it was expressly forbidden in the Law.
Exodus 34:11-16 “Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. “Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. “But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim —for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God— otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods.”
Deuteronomy 7:1-4 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. “Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. “For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.”
So at the very least to dabble in it
Is to invite God’s displeasure into the congregation.
But Israel already ignored the command once
The consequences were more severe than they could have imagined.
1 Kings 11:1-6 “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done.”
Solomon would introduce idolatry into Israel through his pagan wives
And that idolatry would never depart until God eventually destroyed Israel
And sent them into exile for 70 years.
Or we could talk about how the children of Israel married the Moabite women while wandering in the wilderness; causing God to send a plague that killed 24,000 people.
That is why you have Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi
SO UPSET about this sin which has begun to reemerge.
By marrying these women they were sinning against their brother.
It was a betrayal to all Israel to bring that idolatry back into the city.
AND WE MUST LEARN FROM THIS.
• Do you see your sin as a betrayal against your brother?
• Do you see your sin as a betrayal against the church?
• Do you realize that your decisions are affecting other believers?
IF YOU DON’T, THAT’S INDIFFERENCE.
Think about Paul’s analogy of the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:26 “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”
This is to betray the very issue of brotherly love.
Beyond that, it is an INSULT TO GOD.
Malachi says that “an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD when He loves…”
Not only were they marrying these pagan women,
But they were BRINGING THEM TO THE SANCTUARY
As though there was nothing wrong with what they did.
And look at GOD’S RESPONSE to such treachery.
(12) “As for the man who does this, may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or who presents and offering to the LORD of hosts.”
That verse is the focus of a lot of debate because
It contains a figure of speech that is not easily grasped by us today.
Malachi refers to “the man who does this”;
That is the man who marries the pagan woman.
And then he says, “may the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or who presents an offering to the LORD of hosts.”
“awakes and answers” is a apparently a figure of speech
That would have had more clarity in Malachi’s day than it does in ours.
It seems to have to do with a man who is awakened
By the warning of the watchman
But instead of acting on what he is warned about, argues with him.
It seems to be referring to the man
Who would hear the warning about marrying these pagan women,
But instead of submission would “talk back” and argue.
Remember when James told us to humbly receive God’s word by being “quick to listen and slow to speak”. Don’t argue with God’s word.
THAT IS THE SAME HERE.
Malachi also mentioned the man “who presents an offering to the LORD of hosts.”
This refers to a man who would
Commit such adamant sin, without repentance
And who would still feel at liberty to approach the alter in worship.
YOU MAY REMEMBER our Lord’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:23-24 “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”
WE REMEMBER when Saul disobeyed God and kept some of the livestock from his capture of Agag and said it was because he wanted to sacrifice them to God.
1 Samuel 15:22 “Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.”
It is hypocrisy and audacity of the highest order
To live in flagrant sin and yet to still march into the house of God
For worship as though nothing is wrong.
And so THE VERDICT which is passed on this willful sinner is this.
“May the LORD cut off” this person.
You can see that again God is not messing around.
This is serious.
It is a man who is INDIFFERENT toward the commands of God,
Toward brotherly love, and even toward the sanctity of pure worship.
He is betraying his brother
• By parading his sin
• By threatening to influence the congregation with sin,
• By inviting the very judgment of God back into their midst.
Malachi’s response was that such a man must be “cut off”.
And if you’ll think about it, this is not so different from Jesus’ teaching on church discipline when you have a brother who will not stop sinning even though he has been warned.
But you see treachery here against a brother.
#2 BETRAYAL OF YOUR WIFE AND KIDS
Malachi 2:13-16
Here is the other side of that same story.
What you see at church is a man who
Parades his new pagan wife right into the worship service.
Now we see what happened at home.
FIRST WE NOTE again how displeased God is with the entire scene.
(13) “This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.”
Don’t misunderstand the scene.
• They are very religious.
• They are very committed to their liturgical duties.
• And here they are grieved because it doesn’t seem to be working.
God doesn’t seem to be honoring their sacrifices.
(14) “Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’”
They can’t figure out why God won’t accept their offerings.
And here is that second picture of treachery.
“Because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.”
Do you see why God isn’t accepting their offerings?
Because THEY ARE BETRAYING THEIR WIFE.
HOW?
Well if you look down to verse 16 it becomes clear.
(16) “For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel…”
SO WHAT IS HAPPENING?
• Well apparently these men in Israel are becoming enamored with the pagan women of their land
• And in order to marry them they are first divorcing their Hebrew wives that they married in their youth.
“I’ve found a wife that is more pleasing in my sight,
So I’m going to get rid of the first one and marry the new one.”
God calls it treachery.
God calls it betrayal.
And God says, “I hate it!”
STOP AND LET THAT SINK IN.
We live in a culture where divorce has just become second nature.
It has become such a pandemic in our culture
That it’s rarely even discussed from pulpits anymore
Because it is likely to offend to such a large percentage of any given congregation.
But you cannot omit something that God is so passionate about.
I am well-aware
• That Jesus gives the condition that divorce can occur because of sexual immorality
• And that Paul says a divorce can occur if you’re married to a non-believer and the non-believer leaves.
Both of those are given as permissible reasons for divorce.
The tragedy is that divorce occurs for far more reasons than that.
AND THE BIBLE SAYS THAT GOD HATES IT.
He is a God who knows nothing of treachery.
• God never breaks His word.
• God never breaks His promise.
• He always keeps His covenant.
• He created male and female.
• He designed marriage to be between one woman and one man.
• He said what He joins no man should separate.
HE HATES DIVORCE.
But here you have men divorcing their wives
Just so they can go and marry this new pagan fling.
GOD HATES IT!
And God hates it so much that He quit accepting their offerings.
And then look at verse 15.
(15a) “But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit.”
What does that mean?
• It means that people with God’s Spirit don’t do that sort of thing.
• Saved people don’t divorce their spouse to replace them with someone more
desirable.
(15b) “And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring?”
Any man who is truly concerned about the godliness of his children
Doesn’t divorce his wife and marry a pagan woman.
No man ever committed adultery to produce more godly children.
IN SHORT:
• True believers who love God and keep covenant…
• True believers who care about the spiritual condition of their children…
DON’T DIVORCE THEIR SPOUSE
TO MARRY SOMEONE THEY LIKE BETTER.
That is a sin against your brother.
That is a sin against your wife.
That is a sin against your children.
TRUE BELIEVERS DON’T DO THAT.
So Malachi says: “Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth.”
You better check your salvation.
You better check your spiritual barometer.
And STOP betraying your wife.
(16) “For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the LORD of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.”
You are treading on dangerous ground.
This gets even more intense when you consider what Ezra and Nehemiah were saying around that same time period.
Ezra 10:10-11 “Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives adding to the guilt of Israel. “Now therefore, make confession to the LORD God of your fathers and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.”
Nehemiah 13:23-29 “In those days I also saw that the Jews had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them was able to speak the language of Judah, but the language of his own people. So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin. “Do we then hear about you that you have committed all this great evil by acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?” Even one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite, so I drove him away from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.”
Ezra and Nehemiah were adamant.
You’ve got to send those pagan women away!
Now, I do think it’s important
To ADDRESS A PERCEIVED CONTRADICTION here in Scripture.
Clearly Ezra and Nehemiah told these Israelites to send away their foreign wives and all their pagan idolatry; even their children.
And then we get to the New Testament and listen to Paul:
1 Corinthians 7:12-14 “But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.”
And many have seen a contradiction here.
Ezra and Nehemiah told you to send them away, Paul told you not to.
Did God change His mind?
• And indeed many try to explain it like that saying simply, “Well, it was a different time then.”
In the days of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi
• We have here pagan women.
• They are actually referred to as “the daughter of a foreign god”
• Nehemiah says that their influence was so great that the children being raised didn’t even speak the language of Judah.
These men were married to pagan women
Who were insistent upon keeping their idolatrous worship,
And even raising their kids to worship those idols.
How is that different from Paul’s day?
Paul said to the Corinthians that if you are married to a non-believer but they “consent” to live with you, don’t send them away.
THERE IS A COMMON THREAD HERE: IDOLATRY
• The pagan marriages of Malachi’s day were producing adultery and idolatry. They had to stop.
• In Paul’s day, if the pagan was willing to consent, they could stay.
• But also in Paul’s day you were to follow Christ in such a way that they would either consent or get fed up and leave, in which case you had to let them go.
THE ISSUE IS IDOLATRY AND THE INFLUENCE OF IT.
You could not bring sin into the congregation
And act like it was no big deal.
These people who were divorcing their Jewish wives
In favor of these pagan women
Were sinning against their brothers, their wives, and their kids.
But that certainly wasn’t all.
#3 BETRAYAL OF GOD
Malachi 2:17
We’ve actually already seen their betrayal of God a couple of times in the text.
• Up in verse 11 they were bringing these pagan women into the sanctuary and profaning it.
• In verse 13 they were making a mockery of worship by living in sin and yet bringing their offerings anyway.
But perhaps the biggest betrayal came in regard to
The effect their sin was having on
The perspective of the congregation as a whole.
IT HAD CHANGED THE PEOPLE’S VIEW OF GOD.
(17) “You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”
DO YOU SEE WHAT IS OCCURRING HERE?
These people, in their sin, have begun to SUCCEED
In getting the rest of the congregation to CONDONE their sin.
Is that not what happens so often?
• A person enters the congregation in blatant sin
• And instead of standing against such sin,
• The congregation will just change the definition of what sin is
• And declare that person ok.
DOES THAT NOT HAPPEN?
We’ve already seen it with divorce in the church.
• It’s not even really frowned upon anymore.
• Now people can divorce for any reason and most will tell them it’s ok.
Look at the rise of acceptance of sins like abortion or homosexuality.
A few years ago I saw on social media a man who used to pastor in Spur
Standing at gay pride parade in Houston
Holding a rainbow banner that read, “I’m Sorry” and giving out free hugs.
IT HAPPENS.
When God’s people become indifferent to sin.
They start saying things like “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in them.”
Or how do we put it?
• “God loves you just the way you are!”
• “God loves you unconditionally”
That is what is happening in Israel.
• Men are divorcing their wives to marry these pagan women.
• They are bringing these pagan women into the sanctuary.
• And people are telling them that God is pleased.
And ON THE SLIGHT CHANCE that someone should confront their sin
And tell them that “God hates divorce”,
There is someone there to assure them that God is not angry.
They say, “Where is the God of justice?”
They might as well say, “My God is a God of love”
Do you see how easily it happens?
Do you see what indifference to sin looks like?
And I know here the main issue is divorce,
But church it can be any issue of sin.
• Any sin which is willfully practiced is a betrayal of your brother in Christ.
• Any sin which is willfully practiced is a betrayal of your spouse and your kids.
• Any sin which is willfully practiced is a betrayal of God.
And if you want to live in your sin
And then come parade it into the church like nothing is wrong,
You have greatly mistaken who our God is.
And if you desire to just condone and pat men on the back for their sin
Then you also have become INDIFFERENT to sin.
• Ezra wanted those idolators sent away.
• Nehemiah wanted those idolators sent away.
• Malachi wanted them cut off from the tents of Jacob.
• Paul said to cast out that immoral brother.
• Jesus said to warn a brother and seek to turn him from sin, but if he won’t let him be to you like a Gentile or a Tax Collector.
You will never find the Lord indifferent to sin.
And it is an afront to God when we become like that.
Jeremiah 5:30-31 “An appalling and horrible thing Has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?”
That’s a good question.
Listen to Paul in the New Testament:
Romans 1:28-32 “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”
Do you see what God consider to be depravity?
• It’s not just committing sinful deeds,
• But also giving hearty approval to those who do.
You cannot practice or condone what God hates.
Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Romans 12:9 “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”
1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”
So do you see why Malachi is writing to these people
That they are NOT READY for the Messiah to come?
• Do you see why before Messiah comes the forerunner has to come first?
• Do you see why John the Baptist comes preaching repentance?
And church indifference will never be cured without this repentance.
We cannot be indifferent toward sin
And at the same time think ourselves ready
For the appearing of the King.
