Keith Battle - Rock Solid - Part 4

I’m in a series called «Rock Solid: Building and Remodeling Our Homes God’s Way.» This is part four today. If this is your first time, don’t worry about it; there are no cliffhangers here. You won’t be lost because you missed the first three parts. You will easily follow this content, whether it’s your first time or your second time. If you ever want to go back and listen to the material, you can do that on our website. I want to revisit a passage that I briefly looked at last week in Malachi chapter 2, and I want to take a closer look at it today. I will focus on verses 10 to 16. Now, I’m going to ask you to do one more thing: if you are physically able, please stand with me as I read from God’s Word. Why do we do this? It’s an act of reverence for the counsel and voice of God; His voice means that much. I don’t like being in courtrooms; I just feel uncomfortable. Even when I was on a jury, I always felt scared, even though I wasn’t in trouble. When the judge comes in, everybody stands. I’m saying the King of Kings is about to speak to us, and I think His voice is worth our standing.

Verse 10 says, «If you have your Bible and want to follow along, it says in the New Living Translation: Are we not all children of the same Father? Are we not all created by the same God? Then why do we betray each other, violating the covenant of our ancestors? Judah has been unfaithful, and a detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. The men of Judah have defiled the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols. May the Lord cut off from the nation of Israel every last man who has done this and yet brings an offering to the Lord of Heaven’s armies.»

In verse 13, «Here’s another thing you do: You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, weeping and groaning because He pays no attention to your offerings and doesn’t accept them with pleasure. So you cry out, ‘Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship? ’ I’ll tell you why: Because the Lord witnesses the vows you and your wife made when you were young, but you have been unfaithful to her, though she has remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows. Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit, you are His. And what does He want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart. Guard your heart. Guard your heart. Remain loyal to the wife of your youth, for I hate divorce, ” says the Lord, the God of Israel. „To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty, ” says the Lord of Heaven’s armies. „So guard your heart and do not be unfaithful to your wife.“ Amen. You may be seated.

Everyone take a deep breath on that one! The Book of Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. Malachi’s purpose in writing, his mission, is connected to his audience, and he is writing and prophesying to a people who have drifted from God. The interesting thing about their drift from God, Pastor Page, is that they never missed church. They were still going through all the motions, but their hearts were far from God. Malachi challenges them about everything from how the priests were conducting themselves to how they were supposed to bring pure sacrifices—animals that were pure, firstborn, unblemished, etc. Instead, they brought animals with three legs, or with a missing leg, or animals that were blind, and sacrificed them to the Lord. Malachi confronted them about this, stating that the priests were not teaching the truth. The people were robbing God with their tithes and offerings. Then he gets to chapter 2 and says that the men of Judah are not only marrying women who don’t even follow God, but they’re leaving their wives to do it. Malachi wasn’t playing any games; he spends most of this book rebuking people, correcting them, and warning them of impending judgment because of their disobedience. He says, „You’re disrespectful to the house of God. You don’t honor His truth. You’re robbing God, divorcing your wife, and hooking up with idolaters.“ That’s serious!

Now, what I want to do is focus on the part where he talks about marriage. If I were to subtitle this message, I would call it „How to Build or Rebuild a Rock-Solid Marriage.“ Now, let me put a disclaimer on this message before I share: First of all, you probably don’t need me to tell you this, but I am an imperfect man, and I have an imperfect marriage. I also want you to know that I am assigned by God and called by God to teach His Word. It is my professional responsibility to teach and preach God’s truth, even when it’s difficult. The fourth thing I want to tell you is that none of your wives or ex-wives have called me to tell me to preach this. This is not a setup. If anybody contacted me, it wasn’t to say I need to let Herman know what’s going on; that did not happen.