A Comfortable Faith is Not a Safe Faith

I don't know if you have noticed this phenomenon, but it is a particularly male phenomenon. Something that many of us might recognise. It frustrates wives, it humiliates kids, but receives a simple nod of approval from other men, because we understand. It's a phenomenon of the comfortable pair of dad shorts. Every bloke has a pair.

Even I have a pair and I'm not a dad. It's a pair of shorts that lies somewhere near the top of the drawer in your shorts drawer. And it can quickly be whipped out, placed on when you come home from church or on a Saturday after you've mowed the lawn. In some places, maybe in some colder places, it can be replaced with tracky dacks. But it is a worldwide phenomenon.

It crosses borders, crosses nationalities, and every man understands it. It has no favourites in the cultures of men, and I'm sure that there may even be such a thing as a comfortable kilt or sarong somewhere in the world. But there is something about a very comfortable pair of shorts, with just the right material, with just the right amount of stretchability, just the right amount of breathability that fits perfectly the male species. We probably recognise that. But what happens if our faith becomes a comfortable pair of shorts?

When we go through the motions of easily whipping it on, maybe even whipping it off, what if, like a pair of dad shorts, we view our relationship with the Holy, majestic God of all creation as we sung this morning? What if we view our relationship with that God as something comfortable, well worn, and safe? The prophet Malachi asked the question, this sort of question of the people of God. Malachi lived roughly a hundred years after the Babylonian exile. In his time, or rather before his time, the powerful king Cyrus of the Persians had conquered the Babylonian Empire, who had initially taken Israel into captivity.

The Persian king Cyrus had now allowed the Jews to return back to their homeland to rebuild the things that had been broken, to rebuild the destroyed temple. Judah has now become the centre of the Israelite people. Judah or Judea now is a fragment of the glory that Israel once had. The prophet Malachi lives in this time. Now, if you know your Bible, and if you were Judean, a Jew at this time, you would know that the exile had originally been caused by God's people turning from God towards other gods.

Idolatry. God said over and over again through the prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah. Idolatry was the main cause of the exile. But now, over a hundred years have passed, and a generation has started living in the promised land again. That issue of rank idolatry that had caused Israel to walk away from God in the first place wasn't an issue anymore, not so much. The people seemingly had learned their lesson.

But a new problem had started to arise, and that was the problem of a dead faith. A dead faith. There was a problem of a dead orthodoxy in God's people. And so God raised a man by the name of Malachi, who speaks into this situation, and he calls for the renewal of a faith that had become comfortable and safe, like a pair of dad shorts. But there is nothing safe about a comfortable faith.

I want us to read a snapshot of this prophecy of Malachi in Malachi chapter two this morning. Malachi is different to the prophet Micah that we already read this morning. It is right towards the end of the Old Testament, the very last book of the Old Testament. Malachi chapter two. We're going to read from verse one through to verse nine.

God says through the prophet Malachi, and now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honour to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi might stand, says the Lord of hosts.

My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness and he turned many from iniquity.

For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you, you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. And so I make you despised and abased before all the people, in as much as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction.

So far, our reading. In our passage this morning, the prophet Malachi takes on the people of God, specifically the priesthood in the people of God, and their dissatisfaction or their malaise of their worship of Him. Where is my honour? God says. Initially, in chapter one, if you've read the book of Malachi, where is my honour?

He says, you give wonderful sacrifices to your human leaders. To these Persian leaders, you offer amazing gifts, but to me, you offer the scraps. If you have your Bibles, have a look at verse 14 of chapter one. God says this through Malachi, cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male sacrifice in his flock, and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is to be feared among the nations.

So the Israelites, the Jews, would take great gifts and give it to these Persian governors, these rulers that they had, and then what was left over, they would bring as a sacrifice to God. Verse six of the same chapter, chapter one, God says, a son honours his father and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me? I am a great king, says God, and feared among the nations, yet in your heart, you give me the leftovers.

But then worst of all, after moving on from chapter one, we get to chapter two, and we see that it's actually the spiritual leaders of these people that are doing the exact same things. The priests, the Levites couldn't care less. Malachi therefore shifts his focus on them. Why? And why is that laser-like focus on them?

Because it is their responsibility to guard the worship of God from defilement. It's their responsibility to inspect these sacrifices which God says are blind, lame, blemished. The priest's job is to say this is not a worthy sacrifice, go back and come back with something else. And the priests, however, take that. Now apparently, these men who act as mediators between God and man, remember, they have deluded themselves into thinking that when it came to the worship of God, offering something is better than nothing.

But God emphatically rejects that idea here in Malachi. Something is not always better than nothing when it comes to worship. And we come to know this throughout Scripture, don't we? God would rather not have lukewarm Christians. He would rather not have irreverent, hypocritical worship.

Stop pretending, God says, over and over again. But here, since the priests have failed to guard the purity of worship, the Lord threatens to punish them in a similar manner to the way that they have insulted him. Because they have shown contempt for the Lord's name, verse two, they would also be despised and humiliated before all God's people. Verse nine. Because they have defiled God, he will figuratively defile them by, he says, spreading dung on their faces. I mean, how humiliating is that?

But that is how humiliated God feels with these sacrifices. Literally, God is going to rub their faces in their lackluster attempts at worship. Not only that, but verse three says that these priests would be taken away with this dung. In other words, because these priests have so dishonoured God, by accepting heartless, thoughtless, irreverent worship of him, they are going to be thrown on the dung heap. According to Leviticus 4:11-12, the waste, there was actually a law, there was actually a prescription for this, the waste from the sacrifices, the awful, the dung, everything, when it came to the sacrifices, would be removed from God's sanctuary and would be burnt.

And God says, in the same way, the priests will be carried off and destroyed. Those are harsh words. Why? Well, because these supposed leaders presumed to bless the people of God as if their sacrifices were acceptable. Meanwhile, the sacrifices were half-hearted, half-hearted delusions of worship.

The people of God stood at risk, therefore, of not having their sins forgiven, of standing guilty before a holy and righteous God, and yet believing that they had been forgiven. Can you see the horror of this situation? Thinking that you are safe by your comfortable worship, and being very far from it. Nothing profanes the name of God more than the misconduct of those whose business it is to honour it. As we listen to the sad state of affairs, the spiritual dryness of that time in Israel's history, we might sense the heat of resentment within us.

As we think about people, who through wilful negligence, through undisturbed consciences, led the people of God into a perilous condition before Him. If there is something in this world that we don't despise enough, it feels like at least, something in the world that we truly hate, it's hypocrites. Isn't it? We absolutely hate hypocrites. Aussies more than most people.

Because they should know better. They profess to know better. There is not much love lost for paedophile priests. Why? Because we know that they should have been protectors and guardians.

We hate corrupt politicians because they are the ones who create laws which govern the rest of us. And if they don't follow it, why should we? Show me a hypocrite, and I'll show my disdain for them. We despise hypocrisy until it shows up in our own hearts. Somehow then, we become far more forgiving.

When we find ourselves caught in that no man's land between good intentions of serving God, of worshipping Him, and the reality of limp-wristed attempts that don't come close to the mark. Somewhere in this no man's land, we find the audacity to excuse our hypocrisy. In our passage this morning, there is a great wait for the leaders of God's church. As a pastor, as elders, as deacons, Malachi chapter two is aimed at us. But if you've read chapter one, you realise that the responsibility has never been taken away from the everyday Jew either.

It is not taken away from the everyday Christian that our worship, that our sacrifices can be meaningless. Every person who puts themselves forward, therefore, as an ambassador of the gospel is in view here. Every single Christian who portrays themselves as being examples, as being witnesses of God's power to those around them, we are being told, take stock of your worship. Take stock of the life you offer and sacrifice to God. And so as people who take leadership at any level, whether that is as a workplace witness, whether that is when you teach Sunday school starting next week, whether you lead in the music team, or whether you preach from the pulpit.

Today's question to us is this: do you honour the name and the place of God in your life? Do you truly honour the name of the God you serve? Now perhaps, we take stock of these things, and perhaps you this morning sense that while there's always a little bit more to do, while there's always a little bit of fine-tuning to be done, I am serving and I am worshipping God sincerely. Whether that is in my church commitment to my fellow believers, whether that is in my family, whether that is through my career, I am serving the Lord, truly. You may be an elder who works a full day's work, and then attends church council meetings late into the evening.

An elder who sacrificially visits their congregation members, who intentionally encourages the flock on Sundays after church. Likewise, you may be a parent busting down the doors of your pastor's office to get their kids into catechism classes, because you prioritise the spiritual health of your children above a jet ski morning on a Sunday. You may be a young person bringing their school friends to church, running a Bible study for young people in your home. And you may say, well, there is stuff to do. There's always things to tweak.

But overall, I mean what I say when I say I serve the Lord. So you may have weighed up your service and your worship to God, and importantly, the motivations behind these things, and feel that there is maybe things to work on, things to tidy up, but you are giving God your best. And for those, I will say, be encouraged. Keep doing that. Jesus says that you are blessed.

Luke 11:28, blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it. Blessed, honoured. Blessed means fortunate. Blessed means happy are those who hear the word of God and do it. And any Christian who honours God, whether that is at any level of service and leadership, I think receives a blessing.

Those blessings can be incredibly diverse, but let me tell you, your life is better off as a result of faithful service, a life of worship to God, than it would be without that service. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it. We reflected on that last week in James, be doers of the word, and the same is being said here. But perhaps this morning, you are being challenged by the feeling that you may be pretending to offer God your best, but really, you are giving him empty praise. Your sacrifices are blind, lame, mangled leftovers that don't really count as much of a sacrifice.

Whether it be your finances, or your energy, or even your heart's affection, you find that you are promising all the right things, but in reality giving cursory contributions. A nice handshake on a Sunday, a friendly wave in the car park is one thing. But ask yourself, do you even know that person who you profess to be a brother in Christ? An easy smile, but do you even know the person who you call your sister? Have you thought about their burdens?

Have you made yourself available to them? Like I said, we looked last week at the apostle James' letter to the Christians, and he writes this piercing reflection. Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, go, I wish you well. Keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is that?

James says, a faith that courteously says, God bless, without genuine consistency, a gospel-shaped life is a dead faith, or at least a very unhealthy one. So for some of us, we might hear the pinch of God's frown on a shallow faith this morning. And we know that this can be in all areas of faith in God. It can be in how we discipline our prayer life. It can be how we show hospitality.

It can be how we share with the things that matter the most to us, which might be our finances. It can be in the consistency or the lack thereof of promising to your children that you will raise them and teach them to know the Lord Jesus. And then in your daily rhythms in life, parenting in a way completely inconsistent to that. Perhaps we need to be honest and realise the need to be shaken loose from an inactive, easy, balanced lifestyle sort of worship. When Malachi addresses a cold, dead orthodoxy, a faith that was simply going through the motions, he challenges believers to return to the deeper things in life.

And we also know that four hundred years after Malachi shares these words, after a long silence from God, four hundred years of no more prophets, no word from God. While God's people are still wrestling to apply these words from Malachi, out of the blue, God gives them a visible persona of His love in Jesus Christ. And these people wrestling to find consistent, heartfelt love for God quickly realise that the perfect priest, with consistent love, has arrived. He is the perfect mediator who never skimped on his sacrifice. He is the priest who made perfect intercession with eyes full of tears for his people.

The perfect priest who cleansed the temple from the mockery of worship. Here is the priest who would finally show us how to truly honour God. Hebrews 9:11-14 says this, when Christ came, when he came, he came as high priest of the good things that already are. And he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most holy place once for all by His own blood, attaining eternal redemption.

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are unclean, sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more then, with the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, how much more will He cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death. So that what? So that we might serve the living God. And so, this morning, we may realise that our worship of God, while we offer him lame, sick, blind sacrifices, but even as we realise that, we also realise that our hope, your hope, my hope this morning, is that Christ offered an unblemished sacrifice on our behalf. His perfect life, as we read in one Peter this morning, offered for us that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

Unlike the sacrifices of the years that came before Jesus, that cleansed the people for just a time, Jesus' sacrifice cleanses the conscience from acts that lead to death. And notice the order here, this has been done so that now, now we may serve the living God. So friends, in response, give God your first and your best sacrifices. He's already received the greatest. Bring him your time.

Bring him your effort. Bring him your talents, your affection. Our utmost for His highest. And so as spiritual heads, dads, the ones who wear those comfortable shorts, as spiritual heads, sacrifice, lead, as shepherds of God's flock, elders, deacons, ministry leaders, and all of us as representatives of Christ, be worshippers of God, both in word and in deed. Let's pray.

Lord, we come before you to take stock of professions, of allegiance, of decisions that have been made in the past, of banners and standards that we wave in front of onlookers, posts that we put on Facebook, comments that we leave on blogs, or that we belong to you, that we love and we honour you. Professions that we say, Lord, that you are the most glorious thing in all the earth. And yet, Lord, when push comes to shove, when action meets word, we fall short. Forgive us, cleanse us, restore to us that heart of joy in your salvation. Help us to see that the perfect sacrifice has indeed come on our behalf.

Lord, in our own state of sinfulness, we could never have offered anything close. We would always have offered you blind, lame sacrifices. And Jesus, you came on our behalf to be our sacrifice. So our God has been satisfied. And yet now, the great joy and the great privilege is that we may serve the living God.

Help us Lord to do this with consistency. Help us to do this with ongoing renewing vigour, with self-discipline and self-control. And Lord, help us to reap the benefits. Help us to reap the blessings of hearing and doing your word. We ask this because you are good.

You want what is good for us. And Lord, we love to give it. We love to give you our praise. We love to give you our worship. Through the work of Jesus Christ. Amen.