SERMON: MALACHI 4:4, GOD'S LOVE FOR OBEDIENCE - PART 4 - COVENANT FAITHFULNESS

 

SERMON: God's Love For Obedience - Part 4 - Covenant Faithfulness

SERMONAUDIO: Audio

YOUTUBE: Video

TEXT: Malachi 4:4

SERIES: Malachi

THE WICKEDNESS OF FALSE IMAGES

Jeremiah 10:14 Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, for his images are false, and there is no breath in them.

God was throughly angry with Judah for their spiritual whoredom. The Lord was going to use the Babylonians to plunder, decimate and carry the Jews off into captivity.  Surely, Judah had earned the consequences of violating the Mosaic Covenant by worshiping false images. But what is so bad about false images of God? Why can’t we all fashion an image of God based on our own subjective understanding?

Here’s why! God already made a image of himself that was very good (see Genesis 1).  Sin marred that image in a way that is unfathomable for us. Sin ruined the image of God so bad that it warranted death and destruction. God promised One who’d come and bring resolution to this problem by bringing judgment to some sinful images of God and by bringing restoration to other sinful images of God.

As the account of human and Israelite history continues we, both Gentile and Israelite, commit idolatry which is the attempt of the sinful image of God trying to make and image of God.  In other word humans, who are made in the image of God, attempt to do what God did which was make a likeness of Himself. When mankind attempts to make images of God we are trying to take the place of God as both creator and image maker. While we are called to display God’s likeness, that mandate only goes so far. We can never replace or supplant God on these levels.  

So when God looks at these forbidden images, he scoffs and hates them. Firstly, it is a contradiction to take a piece of wood, carve it into cute little figurine, slap some gold on it and say, “that made me!”  No, you made it! 

Secondly, God hates idols because he already created images on this planet which is where God dwelt with humanity in an unseparated condition. Sin wrecked the image and our relationship with God. Therefore, the Jewish Temple, where God dwelt was to have no images. The temple serves as a reminder that the true images of God, humanity, cannot dwell with God on earth in an unseparated condition because of sin. The temple priesthood and sacrificial system showed how sinful images of God can approach God through sacrifice. 

In God’s unfathomable wisdom, He sent His Son to earth, made in the likeness of mankind (Philippians 2:7) , in order to be the perfect image of God on earth (Colossians 1:15). God sent Jesus to do what we failed to do which is to be perfect images of God. In Jesus’ death and resurrection He provides the only means of removing sin from us so that we may be gradually and finally restored to perfect images of God. And in the new creation we see no temple. God is the temple. And who is dwelling the midst of God? All the redeemed images, or people, from all nations.  (Revelation 21:22-27). Thus, we see God’s original intent for humanity and how Jesus restores that to His elect.  

So if you want to know why false images of God are so wicked, that’s why. We are images of God, broken and doomed, unable to be or create perfect images of God. Jesus came as that perfect image and likeness to do a saving work that would restore us to the glory that God once gave to us…for His own glory.

If you are a saved image of God, then go and represent your Creator accurately until Christ comes again to glorify you. 

ORDO SALUTIS - FOREKNOWLEDGE

If you’ve been coming to our church for a while then you may have heard words like election, regeneration, glorification, justification or sanctification. These are all words used to describe the different events and parts of the salvation we have experienced or will experience from God. Some salvation is past tense. Some is happening now. Some awaits us in the future. We’ll discuss each of these parts of salvation in this series and we’re going to put them in the logical order that they happen. This is called the Order of Salvation or Ordo Salutis in Latin. Now keep in mind that this logical order is not necessarily the same thing as putting them in the chronological order that we experience them in time. Because the reality is that some of these things happen at the same time. Nevertheless, there is a sort of logical order that some of these things happen before the other. That’ll become more apparent as we begin to discuss some of these things. 

Also keep in mind that some people include less items in the Ordo Salutis. Some branches of theology have them in a different order depending on their understanding of God and their understanding of the human will and ability. For our purposes, we will be sticking with a reformed or Calvinistic view with the most inclusions. 

Now in the order of salvation we have: 

FOREKNOWLEDGE

ELECTION (a subset of PREDESTINATION)

ATONEMENT

CALLING
REGENERATION

CONVERSION

JUSTIFICATION

ADOPTION

SANCTIFICATION 

PERSEVERANCE/PRESERVATION

GLORIFICATION. 

Today we will take a look at FOREKNOWLEDGE and how it relates to the gospel of Christ. 

Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 

In this verse we see several parts of the order of salvation: foreknowledge, predestination, glorification (conformity to the image of His Son) and even a glimpse at adoption. And it’s pretty obvious that there’s an order to these events. He predestined those whom were foreknown. In order to predestine the foreknown people in this passage, they have to be foreknown first. So foreknowledge happens first, then predestination to the conformity of His Son’s image so that Christ would be the highest ranking son among God’s children. We are adopted. Christ is the eternally begotten Son of God. So it’s pretty obvious there’s an order in which these salvation events take place and we can see that they are all connected to Jesus Christ. 

Now let me explain what foreknowledge isn’t and what it is. First of all, foreknowledge is not the same thing as predicting the future or knowing future events. And while it can refer knowing events beforehand, when Scripture speaks of God’s people being foreknown, it’s not making a reference to events or decisions being known beforehand, but rather to people being known beforehand. Notice that this is a truth derived from the text. It says “those whom He foreknew”…not “that which He foreknew.” It’s people that are foreknown, not their actions, not events, not their decisions or faith but they are the foreknown--or even more appropriately, loved. God loved them beforehand, fore-loved, if you will. Simply put God chose to set His affection and attention on some people before time and before they were created. 

In Galatians 4:9 Scripture says that there was a time that these Galatians did not know God. They had no intimate knowledge of God. But now they had come to know God…then Scripture says that they have been known by God. This was something that happened prior to the Galatians knowing God. God knew them beforehand. This knowledge in Galatians is more than just knowing information about God or God knowing information about them. It’s a reference to an intimate knowing or a loving knowledge. Just like when I say, “I know my wife”, I’m not referring to pieces of information only—I’m saying that I have a close knowledge of her and an intimacy with her. I'm very acquainted with her, more so than anyone else. You see, these Galatians had already been known by God—they were foreknown. It was in eternity, before time, that God foreknew these believers, that He fore-loved them just as He does all believers as Romans 8:29 teaches us. And that’s the first part of the order of salvation that sets the rest of the salvation ball rolling. It’s this foreknowing or fore-loving of certain individuals that leads God to perform the next part of our salvation which is predestination. We’ll look at next time. 

For now, let’s connect foreknowledge to the gospel of Christ. The reason that you are saved is because God loved you and set His affection on you prior to time and creation. Because of His foreknowledge of us He has determined to pull us out of the sin so that we would leave not be left under His judgment. Because of His foreknowledge of us, He would ensure that Christ would come and die on the cross and rise again to redeem and rescue those whom He loved beforehand so that we could be with Him forever in the new heaven on earth. And so Christian, since you are saved by Christ, you have to understand that it’s because God set His affection on you a very, very, very, very long time ago—before you existed, in eternity past. That’s what God has done for those whom He foreknew.

For the video series of the Ordo Salutis, please video my new YouTube page The Crux or my new Instagram account TheCrux.IG. 

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