PITP #03

But know this, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy... lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

God's last word before 400 years of silence still calls His drifting people back to fear, follow, and invest in Him.

Prophecy That Predicts and Prophecy That Reveals

At the beginning of December we started a new Wednesday series called "Profiting in the Prophets." When we talk about the prophetic Scriptures, our minds usually go to predictive prophecy—the things to come. The predictive nature of prophecy is one of the divine thumbprints on Scripture. God shows us, by speaking things before they come to pass, that He is real, that He is there, and that He sees the end from the beginning. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the one who was and is and is to come.

But prophecy is not only predictive. At Bible college they distinguish predictive prophecy, which so many of us love to study, from didactic prophecy—which reveals something of the nature and character of God that could not be known except by revelation. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, God reveals Himself. In Genesis we learn He is a Creator God: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." That is not predictive; it tells us who God is and what He has done. And He has created us with a purpose, opening it clearly to us in the pages of Scripture.

Perilous Times and the Charge to Preach

The Bible is our user's manual for life. Peter says God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness—everything we need to live in the right, godly way He intended. God also reveals that in the last days perilous, difficult times will come, and He lists their characteristics here in 2 Timothy 3: men lovers of themselves, covetous, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, without natural affection, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Read that list and ask whether you see these things in our world.

In chapter 4, Paul gives the charge:

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ... Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears... (2 Timothy 4:1-3)

This charge is not only to Timothy, the son in the faith Paul discipled and left to pastor in Ephesus. It is to you and me, living in these days. We are to be ready in season and out of season to preach, convince, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine—because many have turned away from the truth and no longer study the word as it once was studied.

We Are Living in the Last Days

I believe we are living in the last days. You could say that from the moment Jesus ascended. The author of Hebrews says, "God, who at sundry times... spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." But we are even closer than the early church was 2,000 years ago—our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

As we sit at the edge of a new year, 2009, looking ahead at all that may happen, I think about how the Lord could come at any time, and I look forward to His soon return. Like many of you, I look back on the year that's closing. In 2008 we saw the highest-ever recorded price for a barrel of oil, the largest-ever single-day stock market drop on October 1st, and the largest-ever economic bailout—$700 billion. We witnessed the most expensive election season ever and a historic election, the first African-American president. We cheered Michael Phelps's eight gold medals and Usain Bolt breaking world records. We added new buzzwords—superdelegates, subprime, bailout, TARP—and "change" was one of the most searched words of the year.

We saw a major earthquake in China, a devastating cyclone in Burma, and terror in Mumbai—things people wrote novels about twenty years ago that are now happening before us. For me personally, 2008 was a transformative year: becoming senior pastor here, having our first child, buying our first house and our first mortgage. And just these last few days, things in Israel are tense once again. They are always tense, but more so now—and they will grow more tense until the coming of the Lord, because Scripture says Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling in the last days.

Turning to Malachi

All of that surrounds predictive prophecy. Tonight I want to consider the other aspect—didactic prophecy, where God speaks to us about how to live. As we step into a new year, when many people set resolutions, remember that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, and the prophets have much to say about how He desires us to live.

So let's look at the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi. It was written after the children of Israel returned from exile in Babylon. During the time of the kings, Israel drifted from God and did everything that, according to Deuteronomy 27, would bring cursing rather than blessing. You didn't need to be a spectacular prophet—you only had to compare what God said with how the nation lived. The kingdom split; the northern kingdom was destroyed by Assyria in Isaiah's day, and Judah in the south was later destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

Daniel knew from Jeremiah's prophecy that the captivity would last seventy years. At the end of those years, Cyrus of the Medo-Persian Empire allowed the people to return—about 50,000 of them went back to rebuild. You would think these returning exiles, having learned that captivity came because of their sin, would be the strong, righteous ones. They did become very religious—from this group came the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees. But by the time of Malachi, about 430 years before Jesus, the people were again drifting from God in their hearts. Malachi means "my messenger," and God sends one last message before 400 years of silence.

Why study this? Because as we look at our own nation, similar things are happening. Man has largely turned from God, and even in the church many are drifting. Scripture says that in the last days there will be a great apostasy—but there is always a remnant. God promised through Isaiah that a remnant would return, and I believe God has a remnant in the body of Christ today. I hope we are part of it.

"Wherein Have You Loved Us?"—Denying God's Love

Malachi opens, "The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi." Israel means "governed by God," so this is also a word to us, His people. In verse 2 God says, "I have loved you... yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us?" Throughout these four chapters the people pose seven questions to God—really accusations. The first denies God's love.

I remember after 9/11, going to New York with Eric, Rick Kierstedt, and Mark Cato. Near Times Square we handed out slips offering prayer. Rick gave one to a well-dressed woman, and a few feet away she turned, tears streaming, and said, "God has forsaken us, He doesn't love us." She was a Jewish woman, and considering all that had befallen her people over 2,000 years, she had concluded God had abandoned them. All I could think of was Jeremiah's word, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love," and here in Malachi, "I have loved you"—not "I did" or "I will," but "I have."

God answers, "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?... yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau." Many struggle with God hating Esau, but Hebrews 12 shows Esau as a wicked, profane man who refused to repent. I struggle more with "I loved Jacob"—read Genesis: Jacob was a scoundrel and a deceiver who stole his brother's birthright. But ultimately Jacob repented, while Esau would not. God laid Edom's heritage waste; you will not find an Edomite in the world today, because God judged them completely. Yet Israel, though destroyed by Babylon and later by Rome in A.D. 70, sees its land rebuilt again—and therein is God's love.

I'll be honest: I don't fully comprehend it, because the nation of Israel is not righteous in what it does today. They've largely rejected God, though there are Messianic Jews who follow Him. One day they will rebuild a temple, but it will not be God's temple—Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that you and I are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. Still, God's everlasting love for Israel remains apart from their goodness, and I'm thankful, because I'm not perfect either, and neither are you. They denied His love—revealed supremely at the cross—and so they remain under judgment for it. "And your eyes shall see... The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel." That is a day I look forward to, coming when the Lord returns to establish His kingdom.

Despising God's Name and Defiling His Table

In verse 6 God says, "A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour?... O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?" That is the second question—they despise His name, His character, who He is. And the answer reveals the third sin: they defile His table. "Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar... ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible."

How? "If ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?" The people went out among their flocks, found the lame, blind, or sick animal—the one bumping into rocks, the one they wanted to be rid of—and gave that to God, keeping their best for themselves. They were to bring their first fruits. God says, "Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased?" Bring that tax collector your blind animal and see if he applauds. Yet that is what they did with God, showing how little they valued His character.

So God exhorts them in verse 10: if you're going to worship like this, I would rather you shut the temple doors. "I have no pleasure in you... neither will I accept an offering at your hand." This is exactly what He said in Isaiah 1—I don't want your offerings, your incense is an abomination, your hands are defiled with blood. Their worship had become wickedness; they had a form of godliness but denied its power. And remember, these were the "good ones," the people from whom the Pharisees came.

Then comes a glorious gospel prophecy: "From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name." That is the gospel coming to you and me—most of us are Gentiles. We don't burn incense here, but Revelation tells us our prayers rise to God as incense. Through the rest of chapter 1 and into chapter 2, God warns the priests: "If ye will not hear... I will even send a curse upon you." Even the Levites—the tribe that revered God in Exodus when the rest worshiped the golden calf—had departed and caused many to stumble at the law, keeping it only partially, liking one command and ignoring another.

Distorting God's Word

"Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?" In chapter 2 we see the fourth sin: they distorted God's word. The Levites had divorced their wives. "The LORD God of Israel saith that he hateth putting away." Why did God join man and woman as one? Verse 15: "that he might seek a godly seed." Marriage exists to bring forth a godly heritage—yet the priests, who should have led, were chief in abandoning their wives.

And they justified it by twisting Scripture: "Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD... Where is the God of judgment?" They called evil good and good evil, putting darkness for light and light for darkness—just what Isaiah 5 warns brings judgment. They said it was fine to divorce, fine to take bribes, fine to bring lame offerings.

Departing From God's Law and Depriving His House

Chapter 3 reveals the fifth sin: they departed from God's law. "Behold, I will send my messenger... The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant." The first messenger who prepares the way is John the Baptist; the messenger of the covenant is Jesus—remember the cup at the Last Supper, "the blood of the new covenant." But notice how He comes—in verse 2, "like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap... he shall purify the sons of Levi," so that they may offer a righteous offering instead of a wicked one.

Then verse 6: "For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Highlight that. I love that God speaks it just before 400 years of silence. Many in the American church think the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New—as if the Old Testament God is angry and full of wrath, throwing road tar from heaven, and the New Testament God is a sweet, easygoing figure you'd love to hang out with. But God says, "I am the LORD, I change not." Jesus echoes it in Revelation 1: "I am the Alpha and the Omega... which is, and which was, and which is to come." Because God doesn't change, His people are not consumed. He made a covenant and stands by it even when they break it. Thank God—how many of you sinned this last week? Aren't you glad He doesn't forgive seven times and then say, "You had your chance"? He delights in those who turn to Him.

"Return unto me, and I will return unto you." People say there's no grace in the Old Testament, but that's only if you never read it. From Genesis to Revelation, God is gracious and merciful, not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance. James says the same: "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." But the people ask the fifth question: "Wherein shall we return?" They had departed from His law without even recognizing it.

So God shows them the sixth sin: they deprived His house. "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings." This isn't something we talk about often at Calvary Chapel, but Scripture talks about it a great deal—2,100 verses on giving, one in ten verses of the New Testament dealing with it, sixteen of Jesus' thirty-eight kingdom parables touching money. Yet note this: giving is not God's way of raising money; it is God's way of raising children. God is not poor. He is the supreme Giver—"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." Years ago a televangelist claimed God's ministry would fail without your money. That's a lie. God's work goes forward.

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. (Malachi 3:10)

Is the Tithe for Today?

Many tell me tithing is Old Testament law, not for the New Testament church. We give free-will and love offerings, yes—but the tithe? Step back. The law was given to Moses in Exodus 20. The tithe was given by Abraham to Melchizedek in Genesis 14, more than 400 years before Moses. So the tithe predates the law. And under the law it was actually more than ten percent—ten percent to the Levites, ten percent for the temple, and every three years a tenth for the poor and widows—roughly 23 percent dedicated to God each year.

But did Jesus speak of it? Yes. In Matthew 23:23 He tells the same scribes and Pharisees God addressed in Malachi: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith." They tithed on their spices—nine grains of salt for me, one for the Lord. Jesus rebukes their hypocrisy, but notice the end: "these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." Don't undo the tithe. Paul speaks of giving too in 1 Corinthians 16 and 2 Corinthians 8-9, out of love for the Lord, because "the earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof." Everything you have is God's—not just money, but every talent, gift, and ability.

Energy, Assets, and Time

The tithe involves our finances, but it also involves our time. If you want to grow in Christ, you must be willing to give of your energy, assets, and time—E.A.T. If you want to grow physically, you have to eat. This night is significant for me: ten years ago tonight, January 1, 1999, I was at a camp in Big Bear, having just dropped out of Bible college, preparing to come on staff here as an intern. Ten years later I can see how much God has grown and changed me—and a big part of that came through energy, assets, and time given to serving the Lord.

The interest is in the investment. This year, $750 million was given into one political campaign because people wanted change—but true, lasting change comes only through the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you're invested in the stock market, you watch the Dow every day. If you're invested in the lottery, you watch the numbers. And if you're invested in the kingdom of God, your interest will be in the things of God.

God promises to "rebuke the devourer for your sakes." The people in that day went out, planted fields and vineyards, and reaped almost nothing—as if they put their wages in a bag with holes. Have you ever felt that way? People tell me, "If I give, I can't pay the bills." Malachi suggests the reason: the focus is wrong, and the devourer is taking it away. But God says, "I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes... All nations shall call you blessed."

Defaming God's Character and the Book of Remembrance

The final sin, beginning in verse 13: they defamed God's character. "Your words have been stout against me... Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance?... And now we call the proud happy." They served God only for what they could get—and that, as I said Sunday, is just greed. When the proud seemed to prosper, they concluded serving God was futile. The psalmist felt this in Psalm 73; his feet nearly slipped watching the wicked prosper—until he went into the house of the Lord and saw their end.

Then comes verse 16: "Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name." God takes notice. How many of your mothers kept a baby book—the first smile, the first step, the first lost tooth—proud of every little thing? So does our Father in heaven. He keeps a book of remembrance, a scrapbook of those who fear Him, follow Him, and speak of His name.

"They shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels." A day is coming that "shall burn as an oven"; the proud and wicked shall be stubble, left neither root nor branch. Remember, the people thought it vain to serve God and better to be proud—but the proud will be burned up. "Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings." The book closes with the promise to send Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, to turn the hearts of fathers and children.

A Year-End Call

These are not easy words to wrestle with, but I'm glad God speaks so openly and frankly. It is His desire that we live eternally with Him and walk with Him today. The people in Malachi's day were on a road to ruin, and God, not willing that any should perish, spoke difficult words so they could be right with Him.

My intent in teaching this is not to get you to give more or to shame you. My desire is that as we step into 2009 in just a few hours, you and I would be those the Lord keeps a record of—that when we stand before Him, there is a great book before us because we feared and followed Him. May we grow closer to the Lord this year than ever before, and may our church be a testimony of those who serve, follow, and fear God in a time when many are departing—confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank You for this passage of Scripture, and I pray that by Your Spirit You would apply it to our hearts. Lord, I thank You that You are a loving Father who speaks stern words of correction when we're not going the right way, but who is also a gentle Father who tends to us—the great Shepherd who seeks us when we're lost, binds up our wounds, and holds us close. Lord, I look forward to the great things You are going to do with each of my brothers and sisters here as we step into a new year. Enable us by Your Spirit to stand strong and be bright shining lights in this community, in our homes, in our workplaces—wherever we are—that You would be exalted in all we say and do. We ask it in the mighty and precious name of Jesus. Amen.