Welcome to Through the Bible. In this special season, we celebrate Jesus’ arrival on earth as a baby, as our Savior. Our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, is our guide through the book of Malachi. Before we dive into today’s lesson, though, about marriage and divorce, here’s an introduction that Dr. McGee made for this study.
SPEAKER 01 :
I want to share with you today a couple of letters that are, I think, very appropriate for concluding this section on marriage and divorce. We are in this section in Malachi where he deals with this question of divorce in a more lengthy way than it’s found anywhere else. In the Old Testament, and it’s necessary to bring together at this point all the scriptures that we have on this particular subject, and we have attempted to do that. Now, I want to share these two letters, and I’d like to read them at this time. That is excerpts from them. And the first letter I’d like to share with you, this part, it says, Thanks to you and the Lord, I have stopped being a slothful wife. I was one of those soap opera addicts, and my house showed it. My husband would come home and try to look happy while he looked for a place to sit down. Well, since I started listening to you, I no longer watch those stupid programs, and my husband likes to come home because he knows his dinner will be ready, the house will be clean. Through your teaching, I’ve come to realize that Jesus Christ is a permanent resident in our home, and it’s my responsibility to keep it clean and happy. Praise the Lord, I found out at 22 instead of 82. My husband says, thank you. Between you and the Lord, he has a new wife. Well, I want to say that I appreciate deeply a letter like that. And then here is one that comes from Los Angeles. And since this could apply to a great many, I’ve been in this area a long time and I think I know it. But here’s just one sentence. Well, I’ll make it two. And if I might use the common colloquialism of the street, this is one that’ll curl your hair. I’m an official in the church, but haven’t overcome the awful sin of adultery. Please pray for me. This letter needs no comment from me whatsoever. There is one thing that I believe that we should add relative to what we have said on the subject of marriage and divorce as it has been given to us by Malachi. And it is simply this, that unfaithfulness So the marriage vow breaks the contract, of course. It breaks the contract actually legally, because in a court of law, when one party, whether it be the party of the first part or the party of the second part, does not fulfill its obligation, then that breaks the marriage contract. But the relationship of a man and wife, is before God, and certainly spiritually, it’s different. When unfaithfulness takes place, it means that there is not that high regard and love and respect for the other party. And that in and of itself, of course, just simply breaks the entire marriage arrangement. And therefore, all that you can possibly do from there on is to mend fences. If there is repentance and sorrow and deep regret on the part of the sinning party, then there is a good chance of mending the marriage, welding it back together again. And someone has said, but that type of thing will never stand. Well, may I say to you, I happen to know it does stand. And it does work out because there are many that testify to the fact that after the sinning and forgiveness was given, that it was brought back together again. And the old bromide that the bird with a broken wing will never fly as high again is entirely wrong. I think, frankly, the bird with a broken wing can fly higher than he ever did before.
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Let’s pray. Father, thank you for this straight talk from your word. Open our eyes as we study and give us ears to hear your truth. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. Here’s Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Malachi 2 on Through the Bible.
SPEAKER 01 :
Friends, verse 17 in chapter 2 is actually where we left off last time. And the first few verses in chapter 3 give the answer to it. That is God’s answer to it. And we’ve come here in chapter 3. For the first six verses is a sort of a parenthesis. It’s very much like Haggai and Zechariah. In the middle of both of those books, there was a parenthetical section, a historic interlude, as we have called it in the book of Zechariah. Well, here it’s the prediction of two messengers. And we find that that’ll be God’s answer to these people here. And in verse 17, God says to them, having concluded this section on the social sins which relate to the family and divorce being the cancer that was gnawing at the vitals of this nation, and it’ll destroy any nation, and we could not be an exception, I’m sure. Verse 17, God says, ye have wearied the Lord with your words, yet ye say, in what way have we wearied him? Again, may I say, this is this feigned, injured innocence of these people. They pretended ignorance offense. They’re offended that God would dare say this of them because they’re so entirely ignorant of their sin. And so the thing is this, they say, in what way have we wearied him? Well, God has an answer. He has an answer to all of our problems. You’ll note here that this is the fifth sarcastic question of the people to God’s charge of their phony and pseudo-worship. If they were bored with religion, so is God. His reaction is, you make me tired. Yet ye say wherein have we worried him? Contemptuously and impudently. They contradict God. God lays it on the line and he tells it as it is. Will you notice what he says here? He says, when ye say, everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them, or where is the God of judgment or the God of justice? Now, they were the ones that introduced a new morality in their days. You see, there was a new morality in Noah’s day, and it’s been introduced from time to time. We have a new morality in our day, and it’s very similar to that of the past. In fact, it’s so much like it that this thing is becoming monotonous in the history of man. Every now and then, he comes up with the idea that he’s come up with something new, and that is that each person is to do his thing his own way, No one’s to interfere with him. He’s to have his liberty and he’s to follow Freudian psychology and using, again, the common colloquialism of the street is to do your thing. That’s the important thing. So what they’re saying here is this. Where is the God of judgment or the God of justice? And they say that everyone doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord. Believe me how they’re maligning the character of God. But this is something that arises, frankly, rather frequently in the history of mankind. That man says, I see this man over here. He’s a big sinner. He’s prosperous. He doesn’t seem to have any problems or trouble as I have, and I’m trying to serve the Lord. How is that? Why does God permit that sort of thing? He says, I just don’t understand it at all. And this is the thing that the psalmist bumped into. David saw that sort of thing. Those about him, well, they were getting by with evil. Those that were not serving God, They were the ones that seemed to prosper the most. And he just doesn’t quite understand it, why they are getting by with it and the righteous are the ones that were suffering. And it disturbed him. And naturally, it would that this should happen. You find David in Psalm 73. I probably ought to turn back and lift out a statement or two. David says in Psalm 73, verse 2, and you’ll find that he repeats this in many Psalms. He says, “…but as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had almost slipped, for I was envious of the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” David says, “…I looked around me,” and he says, “…the rascals were the ones getting rich.” And the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And the poor saints of God are the ones that are not prospering at all. May I say to you, that is exactly what these people were saying in the day of Malachi. You see, that produces very quickly a new morality. And I simply mean this, that when they do this sort of thing, everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord. In other words, it’s as Isaiah said, the day had come when they would call evil good and good evil. And they do that because they look about them and they say, God’s doing nothing about this today. Wasn’t that the problem of Habakkuk when we studied that little book? He looked about him and saw that they were living in sin and God was doing nothing about it. Therefore, it’ll pay you to do evil. Crime does pay and that sort of thing. Well, how about today? Look at these big corporations. Look at what is happening to the poor man, the average man. I don’t know about you, but I’ve actually come to the place when I see the way that government spends money today. and the lackadaisical attitude of Washington toward the real problems of the world and of our problems, and the one thing that seems to be important to all, this has no respect to party, that each one is trying to curry favor with the rich and please the powerful today, and the little man has stepped on. Why doesn’t God do something about it? It’s caused a great many people to Follow the same procedure. And so this is the problem that is presented here. And I would say it’s rather a real problem. David got an answer to his problem because he went to God. He says in verse 17 of Psalm 73, “…until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I therein.” You see, you’re looking at the immediate present. How about the far-off future? Because that’s more important because the far off future then is right now the immediate present. And what class is the immediate present today is not important because it’s going to be yesterday and not tomorrow. It’s going to be the past tense. and not present tense and future tense. Time is slipping through the shuttle, let me tell you, and slipping fast. And so what about the rich today? Well, you can build a new morality, get as much as you can, get it while you can. But you see, you’re going to have to answer to God. Now, God gives them the answer. They ask the question, where’s the God adjusted? Well, he has a plan and program. After all, I think that we ought to be very careful about sitting in judgment, as these people did on the situation today. I remember several years ago, I was with a seminary student, and I was a seminary student. We picked up a hitchhiker. That was in the days when you can’t believe me. He smelled like a spill. It had just come out of Kentucky. You never smelled such a breath of alcohol. And he apologized for it and said he knew that he shouldn’t drink and all that. We attempted to witness to him. And my friend that was there said a very startling thing to me then, but I totally concur with it today. And this is the thing that he said to him. He said, we’re not condemning you for getting drunk. That’s all right. You’re a lost man on the way to hell. So you better squeeze the orange of this life all you can and get all the juice out of it while you’re here, brother, because you won’t be squeezing an orange. You won’t have this liquor when you get over there. So go ahead and live it up. But you’re moving into eternity. Did you ever stop to think about that? Well, that’s the same thing that you have here. God says, you think I’m not doing anything about it? Where’s the God of justice? Like that man that was not even deceived. by his pastor when the pastor told him that he was going to heaven because he was a good man. Well, that man’s a good man. And this daughter of his is kind enough to compare me to him. And I don’t think that I’d compare to him at all in any way whatsoever. But if he was like I am, then I can say this. He knows in his heart he was a sinner. And when he came to Christ, he knew that he needed the Savior. And that is the thing that is important. Where is the God adjusted? That’s a question that any unsaved person better ask himself. I’ll be very frank with you. He’s not going to move. When I was a kid in southern Oklahoma, we used to swipe watermelon. And I’ll be honest with you, every time I went in a watermelon patch to swipe a watermelon, I thought that there’d be lightning out of heaven that would strike me dead. But I was going to steal those watermelons regardless, because that’s the willfulness of the human heart, even of a little boy. But I thought God had judged me. May I say to you, I don’t think that the Lord moves quite like that, although we see instances of it when judgment against an evil work is not executed speedily. And because of that, the writer of the Proverbs says, the hearts, of man just continue to go on in wickedness. They say, I got by with it. I’ll keep on getting by with it. Now, will you listen to God’s answer? Chapter 3, verse 1. Behold, I will send my messenger. He shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, here in one verse, we have the two messengers. The first one is John the Baptist. The second is the messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the messenger, the first one, that is to go before and prepare the way is John the Baptist, and it’s quoted in all four of the Gospels as applying to John the Baptist. So there’s no guesswork here. But the messenger of the covenant is never quoted anywhere in the Gospel. You know why? Because this messenger of the covenant here is the Lord Jesus. But it doesn’t have anything to do with his first coming. He didn’t come the first time to judge. Remember, he even said to this man, who made me a judge over you? And he hasn’t come yet to judge. He came to say. He came to bring grace, not government. He came as the one that is the savior, not the sovereign. And so it’s not quoted. I say that is one of the remarkable things about this. I’d just like to turn to these passages that refer to John the Baptist. And I’m going through them rather hurriedly. The first one is in Matthew, the 11th chapter, verse 10. Let me read this. The Lord Jesus, you remember, said concerning him, verse 9, But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say, and unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it’s written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before thee. Now that’s in Matthew. Now you go over to Mark, the first chapter, even verse 2, and it reads, As it is written in the prophets. Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare the way before thee. And then go on over to the gospel of Luke, the seventh chapter and the 27th verse. And let me read this. I’d like to read more, but just this verse. This is he of whom it’s written. Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Luke quotes it. And then over in the gospel of John. And in John 1, verse 23, he said, I’m the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. And Malachi had that to say also. And here again is the answer. God will send him first as a savior because he’s gracious and he wants to say. But that doesn’t end it all. He’s coming again as the messenger of the covenant. That is to execute justice and judgment on this earth. May I say to you very candidly, if you could convince me today that God does not intend to judge sin and that he intends to let the injustice that’s being done, to let men get by with that, then I say very frankly, I’d turn my back on him if he intends to do that. But he’s made it very clear. He doesn’t intend to turn his back on it. God intends to judge mankind. My friend, if you won’t have him as your Savior, you’re going to have him as your judge, whether you like it or not. He said that the Father committed all judgment under the Son, and in the book of Revelation, which we’ll come to next, you’re going to see a great white throne, and he’s on it. And those that are the lost, both rich and poor, high and low, great and small, they’re going to stand before that. You don’t get by with it, my friend. I don’t care who you are. You’re not going to get by with it. And he says, the Lord whom ye seek, and this will be the Lord. He’s God, if you please manifest in the flesh. He shall suddenly come to his temple. Now, that doesn’t mean he’ll soon come to his temple. Didn’t mean that. But when he comes, it’ll be sudden. A man says, you know, you talk about the rapture that the Lord will take the church out of the world. Well, he says, when that takes place and he removes the church and I see him leaving, I’m going to accept Christ then. And I said, you know, it’s interesting. That’ll be too late because the reason he’s taking the church out is because it’s completed. So you wouldn’t be able to then, you could accept Christ and go through the great tribulation. Well, I think you’re a fool to wait till then. Well, will you notice? He shall suddenly come to his temple. And the interesting thing is he’s called the Lord and this is his temple. And he’s the messenger of the covenant. So this is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that we know in the New Testament is the Lord Jesus Christ, is the angel of the covenant in the Old Testament. Now, will you notice, we know he refers to the second coming. Why? Because it’s judgment here. Will you listen? But who may abide the day of his coming? That’s the second coming of Christ. Who shall stand when he appeareth? For he’s like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap. He intends to purify and he intends to clean. Purify and clean. You know, there’s not going to be any pollution when he establishes the millennium on this earth. And he shall sit like a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purify the sons of Levi. He’s going to cleanse, you see, those that enter the millennium. And purge them like gold and silver. And the two processes, cleansing and purifying. Cleansing is the use of soap as it’s used here. And also the fire is used for testing. That’s another way God has purifying us, testing us. That he may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. That we might indeed be able to seek Christ. as our Savior, and that those in that day. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old and as in the former years. Now God says in that day, you will accept your sacrifice. But he says today, when your hearts are far from him and you are actually in rebellion against God, disobeying him and engaging in violence and dishonesty and sin, God says, I wouldn’t accept your religion at all. Oh, how tremendous this is. And may I say to you that we are hoping to finish this book, and then some are asking the question, where are you going to? There’s only one place to go now. We have only one book left, and that is the book of Revelation. And we’ll be going there. And we’re going to see that all of the trains or planes that originated out in the rest of the Bible, they come into the book of Revelation by coming into a union station or an airport. They’ll all come in there. That’s the reason that you need to study 65 books before you get to the 66th book. And we’ll see that, of course, when we get to it. Now, I’ll leave off there today. But until next time, may God richly bless you. My beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
If we can help you find a Bible study resource by Dr. McGee, call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE or visit ttb.org. May God bless you as you celebrate the life of our Lord Jesus Christ today and his great gift of eternal life.
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Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
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Through the Bible is a five-year study of God’s entire word, and together we discover God’s purposes in history and our lives, found only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Do you know him yet?
