Malachi chapter three, verse number 13. The Lord says, your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet you say, what have we spoken so much against thee? You have said, it is vain to serve God. You have said, what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up. Yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. Heavenly Father, we pray that we might understand what is being declared here and with a proper comparison, see who we are. We pray for a true deliverance. through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that our Savior might be glorified in this place this morning. We do ask these things in his name. Amen. You may be seated. Charles Spurgeon, in the 59th volume of his Metropolitan Tabernacle Messages, I think there are only 62 or something like that, toward the end of his life, Spurgeon said, I believe it is anti-Christian and unholy for any Christian to live with the object of accumulating wealth. You will say, are we not to strive all we can to get all the money we can? You may do so. I cannot doubt but what in doing so, you may do service to the cause of Christ. But what I said was that to live with the object of accumulating wealth is anti-Christian. Now I will agree with Spurgeon. But there are many well-known, well-quoted, almost worshipped preachers in this world that disagree 100% with Spurgeon. If Spurgeon were still alive today, he would condemn the heresies, which today are called positive confession theology. Word of faith theology. Depending on who you're listening to, pro or against, sometimes these things are called name it and claim it people. Or if you like even worse, the gab it and grab it theology. Depending on the particular band of the preacher that you're listening to, these ideas may also be called health and wealth gospel or simply the prosperity gospel. Proponents of this gospel include Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, T.J. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Hagen, but the current king of them all is Joel Olsteen. Very rarely do I mention names, but The situation forces me to do so in this particular case. These and many others are becoming very, very wealthy, drawing their income from many people who are very close to the poverty line. Most of them take money from people telling them that if they will just express a little bit of faith, sacrificing of themselves, God will bless them. They preach a gospel which not only is unscriptural, it is anti-biblical, as Spurgeon suggests here. And ultimately, it is soul damning because it carries with it a different Christ. It has a different kind of salvation. It preaches both hell and heaven on earth. Now, some of these preachers will deny these things, but that's what it ultimately boils down to. Let's say that some poor widow living on Social Security becomes convinced to give what very little she has left of her income to one of these preachers. She's told that if she just takes a positive attitude, if she just pictures what she wants, and she has faith enough to reach out for it, she will become physically blessed in whatever area she has need. but her poor health continues to deteriorate, her granddaughter commits suicide, and her son is arrested and thrown into jail. Let's say that she musters up a little bit more of that self-generated faith, and she sends her last few dollars to Osteen, thinking that by doing so, all her money and her family problems will miraculously disappear. But they don't. For some reason or other, they don't. Again, there's no positive change in her circumstances. The prosperity that the man gave to her doesn't materialize. God has failed. You suppose she might eventually say, it is vain to serve Jehovah. What profit is it that I have kept these ordinances which the TV preacher has laid before me? The prosperity gospel is a false gospel. It is being used by Satan to send people to hell because, as I say, it presents a false Christ, a false salvation, a false promise. It produces a false faith. And with these heresies of the prosperity gospel in mind, I'd like to return to what Malachi tells us here. Let's consider three headings. Verse number 13 reveals people who disrespect and deface the character of God. Verse 14, we see them defaming the service of God. And in verse 15, we hear them deny the justice of God. The Holy Spirit reminds us that some people are sinful enough to deride the very character of God. Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. We have all seen two children quarreling at some point in our lives, many times probably. Here are two children, one smaller and one larger. And the one who's smaller thinks that she is in the right. Of course, the other one does too. And that's why they're arguing. But the little one knows that if she rears back, makes a fist, and punches her opponent in the belly, she's going to lose this fight because she's littler. So she doesn't do that. Rather, she resorts to vocabulary. And ultimately, it boils down to name-calling. I will win this fight by calling you some name that you don't like. The same sort of thing is done by weak little human beings who go into an unwinnable fight with God. Lord, I'm mad at you. So we start calling God names. Anyone with a modicum of religion knows that no one is going to lay a hand upon Jehovah. There is no way that any sinner, not even Satan, can mount a successful frontal attack against the king of kings. So it's only behind his back that the devil comes along and whispers, hath God really said? Or the even weak human sinner turns to slander, attacking the character of God by way of words. The Lord is weak. He cannot fix my problem. He doesn't care. He loves wickedness. He loves sinful men. They are mean words as far as the Lord is concerned. They don't sound all that mean to us, but they are as far as the Lord concerns. They're stout. They're hard words. But of course, they are as nothing. They're like feathers floating over the head of God. Your stout words don't offend me. You're a wretched sinner. I know where they're from." The epistle of Jude reaches back into ancient history and pulls up the name Enoch. Let me read Jude for you. Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, seventh generation of human beings, prophesied of the things that Jude was discussing at that point. And he said, behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints. And why? to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and to judge them for their hard speeches, the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Enoch lived in a very early day. Three generations after Enoch came the flood, which wiped out humanity. If Enoch's preaching revealed the reason why the flood came, then it had two prongs to it. God destroyed those sinners, not only for doing wickedness, but for their hard speeches. Speaking wickedness against the Lord. Defaming the Lord. It does not take people long to learn to blaspheme. I remember when I was 17 years old, I spent a summer and then the following summer in Wyoming prospecting for uranium of all things, living in a bunkhouse with some wicked men who were always saying evil things, using bad words. And it is so easy for even the Christian to pick up those words. The heart is another matter. But if the heart is evil, if the heart has not been regenerated, then it's not only evil words, it is the thought behind the words that are being thrown into the face of God. Lord, I can't trust you. Lord, I don't like you. I wonder what those early fools saw in the Lord that caused them to speak these hard words against him. It reveals that the human heart has been at enmity with the Holy God since the very beginning, since the fall of Adam. We have that propensity toward wickedness. Going back to Malachi, one of my sources, very few sources. made two comments about these stout, harsh words. It said that the Hebrew language suggests a suity and habit. In other words, this was constant talk of evil against God. It was pointed. This blasphemy wasn't just when the man hit his thumb with a hammer and out came this naughty word. No, this is talk against God all the time. They just don't like the way God is governing things. So they're speaking evil of him. Then this commentator added that this talk is not thrown directly at God, but rather it is gossiped among others. They would never say such things to the Lord himself, but it was muttered over the fence and at the coffee shop when they were just fellowshipping together. And then they dishonestly said, what have we spoken so much against thee? I never said that. No. Mark it down. The omniscient God knows every conversation that you have ever had, that any evil man has ever had, that any of us have ever had. He knows our every idle word, our every overt threat, every sinful sentence. of mine and of yours. He has heard every word you have spoken, no matter where it was, out in the open field when you're just muttering to yourself or in the privacy of your bedroom with your closest friend. The Lord has heard every one of those statements. He has listened to your slander as you spoke to your closest neighbor about some third party or about himself. And furthermore, he is intimate with the deepest thoughts of your heart, which have never been vocalized. He knows all about you, and your words often express who you really are. He not only knows what you have said, but he knows the mean spirit with which you said it. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes and the ears of him with whom we have to do. God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. So, of course, he knows what you have spoken against him. Christ said to the Pharisees, O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? It's out of character, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Are you ready for the Lord to judge you based on what you have said recently? Your words express the true condition of your heart. They form the backdrop for your judgment. I'd recommend that you fall on your knees and crawl toward the cross, asking the Lord to forgive you for your vocabulary and those things that you've uttered throughout your life. Repent before God and turn to Him through the Savior before you are eternally judged for your idle words. In the second verse of our text, we see the service of God being defamed. You have said, it is vain to serve the Lord, serve God. What prophet is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? You have said, it is a useless waste of time to serve God. You have said, there's no profit in doing what the Lord requires. There's no profit in observing what he has said to us. You have said there's no reason to walk mournfully before Jehovah. My memory may be failing, but I couldn't think of any command for Israel to walk mournfully before God, at least not in this sense. It might be argued that to have a repentant and humble attitude is commanded and it is profitable, but that's not what this is referring to. This is the only place in the Bible where this particular Hebrew word is used, and my resources tell me that behind the word mournfully is the color black. In other words, to dress in mournful clothing. They have that black armband. The British might say they were wearing their widow's weeds. Were these people in Israel beginning to dress like the strictest Mennonites in order to buy something from God, to please God? How necessary is a strict dress code to some people's confused estimation about salvation? If you don't dress like the Amish, if you don't dress like the Hutterite, if you don't dress like me, then you can't be saved. Isaiah deals with some of these things in chapter 58. I'll ask you to turn to Isaiah 58. Backslidden Israel stoutly demands of the Lord in verse number three, Isaiah 58, three, wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou see us not? We've been fasting, Lord, didn't you see? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul and thou take us no knowledge of it? And God replies, behold, in the day of your fast, ye find pleasure in your fasting. Ye exact all your labors for this reason. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? Are you fasting the way I've taught you to fast? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, that's why you should fast. To undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, that ye break every yoke. Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? Now that you're not eating today, why don't you give that bread to somebody else? and that thou bring the poor that are cast out of thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?" What was God's purpose for commanding repentance and ordaining fasting? It wasn't so that the sinners could say, look at me, I'm fasting. It wasn't to provide people with an opportunity to make a show of their religiosity. It was to bring people to their knees and give them the opportunity to see their wickedness and to force them to recognize the needs of others. So says Isaiah. Job 21 sounds very much like an echo of our text from Malachi. Please turn to Job 21 and verse number 14. saying to God, depart from us, leave us God, depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the almighty that we should serve him? What profit should we have if we pray unto him? Job replies on behalf of the Lord, lo, their good is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me. You who say that God doesn't care whether or not we serve him, you people need to wake up because how oft is the candle of the wicked blown out? How oft cometh their destruction upon them. God distributes sorrows in his anger. Malachi reveals that the Jews were beginning to recognize that their mourning wasn't doing very much good. What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance? They had an early version of the false doctrine of prosperity gospel. We're trying to serve you God and you're not blessing us. They're being disappointed. Consider the word prophet, verse number 14. There isn't any prophet in keeping the Lord's rules and regulations. It's a Hebrew word, Betza. And it's used about two dozen times in the Old Testament. It speaks of profit, but a very special kind of profit. The three occasions this word is used in Proverbs, it's pretty typical of its use. Proverbs 119, my son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. They lay wait for their own blood. They lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone that is greedy for gain. That's what profit is. Greedy for gain, which take away the life of the owners thereof. Proverbs 15, 27. He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house. Proverbs 28, 16, the prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor, but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days. That word is more often translated covetousness than in any other way. God told Moses, moreover thou shalt provide out of the people able men such as fear God, men that hate covetousness, and thou shalt set them over them to be rulers of thousands and ten thousands and so on. Malachi was saying the only reason that people are giving the appearance of mourning is they want something from God. And when the Lord didn't open up the windows of heaven, pouring out blessings that there wouldn't be room enough to receive it all, then it wasn't profitable to serve Him. Notice the word ordinance. What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance? I probably don't have any real right to do this, but I think it's appropriate. In religion today, or at least among us, there are two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper. How many people under the umbrella of Christendom maintain those ordinances for their salvation. And they find out, hopefully before they die, but as they die, there is no profit in keeping these ordinances for salvation. None. Verse number 15, we see people who denied God's justice, They deny that God is equitable in his treatment of the righteous and the wicked. And now we call the proud, they're the happy ones. Yea, they that work wickedness are set up, propped up. Yea, they that tempt God are delivered. These short-sighted Biblically ignorant professing servants of God were saying that it wasn't the humble servant of the Lord who lives best in this world. It's the evil, the wicked, the proud, or the happiest people on earth. Those that work and produce evil are established in this world. And the people who tempt God with their defiance are the ones advancing and escaping most of the problems of life. The key words in those last three statements, I didn't emphasize them, are on earth, in the world, and in this life. And now we call the proud happy. Solomon once said, "'Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit.'" In other words, see that proud man over there? There is more hope of a fool than for him. And one such fool enjoying almost as much wealth as Joel Osteen was a fellow named Herod Agrippa. Agrippa was propped up in his office by the Romans with the help of the Sadducees in Judea. He tried to defy God by persecuting the Lord's church, killing James, the brother of John, and attempting to execute Peter. Acts 12, 20 says, and Herod was highly displeased with those people of Tyre and Sidon. But they came with one accord to him, and having blessed us, the kings, Chamberlain, and their friend desired peace with Agrippa, because their country was nourished by his country. It's all about money. Follow the money. And upon a set day Herod arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon a throne, and he made an oration unto them. And the people gave with a shout, saying, It is the voice of a God, it is the voice of a God, not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not glory to God. And he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. See that proud man over there, Solomon says? There's more hope of a fool than for him. But the word of God grew and multiplied, proving that God is not pleased with the arrogance of man. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. But the Lord is patient and merciful. And that fall may not occur when we think it ought. It may not occur for some time. It may not occur even in this lifetime. Don't you worry about that. That's God's business. Everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased. It is guaranteed. And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. That is guaranteed as well. The point is, God has declared pride to be one of man's worst sins, and it shall be judged. Guaranteed. Conversely, true humility is recognized and blessed by the Lord. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit." Those are the words of the Lord. Isaiah 57, verse number 15. And James 4.10 says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. If you will fall in repentance before the cross of Christ, trusting Jesus' sacrifice to reconcile you to the Father, you will spend eternity with him. But if you continue to live in your pride saying, I am good enough, I don't need God, I don't like his rules and regulations, you will die and spend eternity in the lake of fire. And now we call the proud happy. Yay, they that work wickedness are set up. Set up in the sense of a building being built. A few months ago, Judy and I had the privilege of visiting Washington, Kentucky. living some of the history that I love and that I've written about from time to time. I saw a house in Washington in which one of the friends of John Ganoe once lived, and I almost passed it by because it looked like it was 50 or 60 years old. It looked like an ordinary, pretty good-sized house until I stopped and read the sign in front of it. It was, in fact, 250 years old, and it had just been well-built, shall we say. Built on a good foundation. The wicked and the proud may look at their lives and see brick upon brick, stone upon stone, up into the third and fourth story, and they say, look at my life, how good it is. But the buildings of the wicked are described by the Lord in Matthew 7. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a friend of John Canoe, a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rains descended, and the tides came, the floods came, time took its toll, the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, because it was founded upon a rock. Everyone that heareth these words sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man that build his house on the sand. And the rains descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. They that work wickedness may believe themselves to be set up. but they have no foundation under them. The truth which blind men in Malachi's day were missing is the fact that a storm is coming. There's a day of judgment when all the inequities of the world will be completely and permanently corrected. Revelation 20, and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every man, according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. There is a storm coming. And now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work iniquity, excuse me, wickedness are set up. Yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. What does it mean they tempted God? God cannot be tempted to sin. It's not referring to that at all. It speaks of the way in which the wicked live. Despite knowing God's hatred for sin, they dare to live in a sinful condition. Paul refers to this attitude, this behavior, in Romans 1, which we read earlier. While understanding the nature of God, they deny him in their schools, in their megachurches, in their evolutionary philosophies, in their day-to-day lives. They change the truth of God into lies. They redefine salvation, making it something secular, something financial perhaps. They are without understanding, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, and so on. Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Living in defiance of the Lord, they tempt God to judge them. They defy the Lord. Judge me if you're there. And those professing saints who look for immediate blessings for simply doing what God tells them to do are themselves living a pipe dream and they deserve to be disappointed. In their confusion when they believe that the wicked prosper, they may think that the practice of evil is more profitable than righteousness. That is a horrible assumption. Jehovah is still God. He will judge sin and he will judge sinners. He is still holy, but he's also gracious and merciful and patient. Today, wickedness and greed may appear to be the best way to get by in this world, but the world passeth away in the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. And what is the will of God? It begins with our repentance before him and our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're just a few hours away from a new year. It just struck me the other day. You know, Malachi is just a few pages from the New Testament. We're just about there. And Malachi is basically saying, Repent before God, you wicked sinners. He's saying, look to the cross, which John will describe here in just a little while. Look to the Savior. May I say that there's no better time than right now at the end of 2021 to turn to Christ. Then we move on into the joys of the New Testament. There's no better time to repent of your sin and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ than right now. He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. Worship Him, love Him, serve Him, trust Him. Amen. Please stand.