What God Expects Of You - Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. As a pastor dealing with marriage counseling, I've seen couples, young couples, both love the Lord. And they're going to end up in divorce, a divorce, and there's no biblical grounds at all.

There's nothing even close. Except that one of them makes the other one very unhappy, and that person makes the other one very unhappy, and I'm very unhappy and I want a divorce. See, we live in a culture that's much, much different.

So we fight this all the time. And that's all I'm saying is God says, don't dishonor marriage. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. And then he says something that's shocking, at least to me. Verse 16, for I hate divorce.

What? I hate divorce. By the way, God doesn't say that a lot. There are a lot of sins, by the way, you and I hate. You probably talk to your spouse or a friend about them. Many of those sins, especially sexual sins, are becoming more prevalent in our culture.

You see them all around, and you say, oh my goodness, look at this, oh my goodness, look at that. God doesn't talk about those. He said he hates divorce.

Like, what? How do you hate, why does he hate divorce? There's another thing about marriage. It's an institution that was established by God a long, long time ago. It's supposed to be the perfect earthly illustration of how God relates to us. And the two shall become one flesh. That's what it's supposed to be, the two become one in their flesh. It's established by God. You see, the whole idea behind it is we establish it as a one flesh relationship.

God's part is I'll never leave you nor forsake you. When you get to the book of Revelation, like Revelation 19, the church is going to get married. Everyone who's part of the church is going to marry. It's called the wedding feast of the lamb, Jesus Christ. And you see, who are we going to marry?

Jesus Christ. And the two shall become one forever. You see, it illustrates how God relates to people. It's a very important institution to God.

But it wasn't. They grew up in Babylon. They're a Babylonian captive generation. They had low regard for marriage, if any.

So, he says to them, look, that's not going to be the case at all. I hate divorce, says the Lord God of Israel, and him who covers his garment with wrong. Now, I love that. You say, what does it mean, cover your garment with wrong? When you and I get married, we exchange these, right?

A ring. That's not what Jewish men did. When a Jewish man married a Jewish woman, when they were standing beside each other, he would take his garment, his outer garment, and take half of it off and put it around her shoulder. And that meant we're one now, and we're one forever.

That's our relationship. And that's why he uses that term with them that he says, him who covers his garment with wrong, says the Lord of hosts. So, take heed to your spirit. Do not deal treacherously. Don't doubt God's love. Don't offer worthless worship. Don't ignore God's word. Don't dishonor marriage. See, that's a difficult thing in our culture. And one of the most painful things that I've been involved in is that there's clear in the Bible, by the way, is there any grounds, Christian grounds, for divorce? Well, one's real clear, and the other's not as clear. The clear ground is if you're married to an unbeliever and they want to leave you, you're free of them.

They can leave you. The other one, Jesus dealt with. And that was the idea that he said in Matthew 19 that the only exception, remember, he tried to tell them they believed you could divorce your wife for any reason.

The Pharisees did. And Jesus said, there's no reason. That's not God's intent. God never intended that.

And he said, I'm telling you this. If you, except for the reason of poronia, and a person goes on and marries another person, that person would commit adultery. Poronia is an interesting word. Can it mean multiple adulteries? Yeah, we get the word fornication from it. Can it also mean having sex in the betrothal period before the wedding? Yes, it can mean that.

Remember, Joseph was going to put Mary away privately. And so consequently, those are the reasons. But that's not the reasons we do it. We have all kinds of reasons. One of the saddest things for me as a pastor dealing with marriage counseling, I've seen couples, young couples, both love the Lord, and they're going to end up in divorce, a divorce, and there's no biblical grounds at all.

There's nothing even close. Except that one of them makes the other one very unhappy, and that person makes the other one very unhappy, and I'm very unhappy, and I want a divorce. See, we live in a culture that's much, much different.

So we fight this all the time. All I'm saying is God says don't dishonor marriage. Now, let's move on to the next one then.

After he does that, he goes on and he says this. Don't question God's justice. He says in verse 17, You have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say, How have we wearied him? In that you say, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.

Or, Where is the God of justice? Now, be honest, you've done this. I have. What does he mean by that? Have you ever noticed that a lot of times God's people will try to be faithful to God and stay to God? Their lives are kind of tough. And then you find out, reading about some celebrity, some hedonistic celebrity, and you find out that they live a life of total debauchery, their net worth a couple hundred million dollars, they have homes all over the world, and you think, What? That's not fair. Does that seem fair to you? How can an unbeliever live in such, it seems like God's given them blessings, and look at us.

We're going through a really hard time here. That's what they did. Psalm 73 is written by Asoph, and that's what the whole point of the Psalm is. He said, When I looked at the prosperity of the wicked, I thought, What's the use? You see, what's the use? That's what they did.

That's the way they saw it. He said, Behold, I'm going to send my messenger. He will clear the way before me, and the Lord, whom you will seek, will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he's coming, says the Lord of hosts.

It's interesting then. He says, But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and a fuller soap. What's he mean? God says, I got justice.

It's all going to be just in the end, in my timing. Who's the messenger he's sending? John the Baptist.

His job? To turn the people back to God. And then who's coming after John? The Son of God.

The Messiah of Israel. He said, He'll make it all right. Now part of that prophecy is the second coming. You want to see justice? There's going to be justice. You mean real justice?

I mean real justice. And remember, at the end of the tribulation, the second coming occurs, Jesus sets up the messianic millennial kingdom. He will rule the earth, remember, with a rod of iron.

Perfect justice for everyone. The only people entering the millennium are believers. No one believer will enter the millennium, just believers.

It's a time of perfect environment, everything is applied, and perfect justice. That sounds great, right? And people will live five, six, seven, eight hundred years in the millennium.

Wow! That's going to be great. At the end of the millennium, according to the book of Revelation, Satan is loosed. He decides to try to lead a rebellion against God. And guess what? How many people join him?

John says, you can't number them, they're like the sands of the seashore. Almost everyone born in the millennium joined Satan, and then is judged. You know why? You and I don't like perfect justice.

At all. You see, this is perfect justice. Because we're sinners, I don't want to be treated justly. I want mercy and grace. As a sinner, you see, people got tired of it.

These guys are like, I can't stand this, you can't get away with anything. You see, it's a rod of iron for Jesus. And he says, that's right, there's going to be future judgment.

Then I'll drop down to verse seven. Don't question God's justice. Don't steal from God with your giving.

That's an interesting statement. Don't steal from God with your giving. He said, from the days of your fathers, he says, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. Look, even though I'm giving all these rebukes, just come back to me. Just repent and come back. They say to him, how can we return?

They have no clue. God says this, will a man rob God? He says, yet you are robbing me. And they say, how have we robbed you? Why are you saying we robbed you?

Hmm. He said, in your tithes and offerings, you robbed me. He said, you are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the whole tithe into the storaz so that there may be food in my house.

Test me now in this. They had no understanding of giving at all, just like many of us don't. You see, they were struggling. Their country wasn't wealthy.

And he said, you're trying to shortchange me, and a lot more than you may think. Notice the terms that are used are tithes and offerings. Now, there's been a lot of movement in America saying how biblical the tithe is and that the church is God's storehouse. The church has nothing to do with the storaz. The storaz has to do with the nation Israel. The storaz is in the temple. Now, when you say you want to tithe, I want to be biblical and tithe.

If you do, remember this first. Any offering is above your tithe. Tithes and offerings.

Offerings have to go beyond the tithe. Secondly, every year in Israel, you had to pay two tithes, two times 10%. You had to pay a tithe to run the nation, and you had to pay a tithe for the Levites. So, it was like an income tax for the nation, 10%, and then it was a tithe for feeding all the Levites, because they had a full-time job.

They took care of the temple. Oh, and by the way, every third year, you had to pay a third tithe. Every third year, you had not another tithe, and that was for the poor. You brought another tithe in for the poor.

So, on an average, you must pay 23.3% of your income. That's a tithe. Now, your offerings go beyond your tithe. You say, well, why do they keep saying a tithe is everything? You've got a tithe.

Well, it's simple math. What I hear a lot of guys doing is that they realize that the average giving in an evangelical church is about 3%. So, if I can convince you that the Bible, God is commanding you to give 10% to Him, we're going to make more money.

We can build that building. You see, there's some things we can do, and it's like, wait a minute, that's why? Yeah, pragmatism, because they don't talk about the other tithes.

They don't talk about 23.3%. They say the tithe is biblical, Old Testament, but that's not what it says. Now, what does the New Testament say? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16, we should all give proportionally.

That's interesting. If you have a lot, you give a lot. If you have a little, you give a little bit.

You all give proportionally, okay? What did he tell the wealthy people in 2 Timothy, or in 1 Timothy 6? He said this, if you're really wealthy, I'm going to tell you how to give. If you're really wealthy, here's the first thing you should do. Enjoy it.

Hey, hey, hey, now he's talking our talk, huh? You should enjoy it. He said, yes, you should.

I blessed you with that. But don't you get your security or your significance from being wealthy. And by the way, that's a temptation for anyone who is wealthy.

You see, isn't there a thought in all of our heads? If I'm really wealthy, isn't there an inference I'm better than you? Don't let that happen. You see, I can live where you don't live, I drive what you don't drive, and I can eat in restaurants where you don't eat. Be careful with that. He said, you don't get it from that. Then secondly, he said, you need to be ready to share from your wealth whenever there's a need.

When you hear about someone who has a need, you share. That's what he said to the wealthy. Paul took it in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 and said this. Here's the attitude you should have when you give. God expects you to be, in the Greek words, hilarion. You need to be a hilarious giver. Hilarious.

What's that mean? Joyful. You want to give. You see, you want to. I want to give. I'm glad to give. I'm happy to give. He said, you don't give grudgingly nor of necessity.

Well, the tie's a necessity. There's no necessity in your giving. You see, how much should you give? Whatever you want.

That's up to you. You stand before the Lord with it, not me. You see, you stand before the Lord.

That's the background, by the way, when people often will say to me, and it's a backhanded way of a comment, but not really, but I've had people say, well, I've been visiting this church, and you know what I like most about it? You don't ask for money. I don't not ask for money because I want you to be happy that I'm not asking for money. I don't ask for money because that's between you and the Lord.

Completely. You see, that's you and the Lord. That's what you decide in your walk with Him, and it should be hilarious.

It should be something you love to do. And by the way, we had a test of this just not long ago. We went through COVID, and no one was meeting, and I just kept reading things, pastors panicking, cutting down staffs, how are we going to meet the mortgage and all that. And do you know how much I talked about money during COVID? None. Do you know what you did? You supported us completely.

You don't have to talk about it. It's between you and the Lord. You see, it's between you and the Lord, and what they were doing is they were robbing God.

That's what they thought they could get away with, that we could actually rob them. And then something goes on, and he says, notice, you test me. But if you cheat God in the way you give, guess what happens?

You rob yourself. Watch what he says next. He said, go ahead, test me in these things, says the Lord. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you the blessing until it overflows, then I will rebuke the deviral for you so that it may not destroy the fruits of the ground, nor will your vine and field cast its grapes, says the Lord, and the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land. Remember what this land was called?

The land flowing with what? Milk and honey. God says, see, what God is saying there, go ahead and test me. You cannot give me.

You can't. Whatever you give me, I'll give you back. How'd Jesus say it? When you give stuff to God, he said, he'll take what you gave, he'll shake it, and then press it down and give you more. Now, if you think, wait a minute, I've just got a thought, then I'll give a lot to God so I can get more from me.

That won't work. That's your motive. That's back to you again.

But anyone who's really a generous giver with the Lord always is blessed by the Lord. That's a principle. God says, I do that. He said, you want to know why your crops aren't working?

I'll tell you why. You're robbing me. You're not even giving me at all what I deserve. You see, God doesn't need the money. He needs your heart. He owns all the cattle and all the hills. So to think, oh, God needs money. He doesn't need money.

He just needs your heart. So whatever you do, don't steal from God. And then he moves on and says this. Don't despise God's service. He said, your words have been arrogant against me, says the Lord, yet you say, what have we spoken against you? He said, you have said it is vain to serve God, and what profit is it if we have kept his charge and that we have walked, he said, in mourning before the Lord of hosts?

So now we call the arrogant blessed not only are the doers of wickedness built up, but they also test God and escape. Their point is this. What's the point in serving God?

Look how bad our life is. What's the point? Why would you want to serve God when you don't get anything out of this? They despise God's service.

I said this earlier because I remembered it. When I was a student at the seminary, there was a lot of really brilliant guys there, tons of them, and a lot of them had interesting backgrounds, but I remember a guy from the northeast, and I can't remember. He was educated in the Ivy League somewhere. He's a lawyer and a really smart guy. I mean really, really smart. And he was at Dallas because he wanted to be a pastor in pastor church.

His father, who was a believer, gave him these words before he left. How stupid can you be? That's just stupid. Here you are, an Ivy League educated lawyer.

Do you realize how much you can make in this life? What a statement. What a statement.

This is just stupid. Why would you serve the Lord? See, that's that same mindset.

That's what they did. They despise it. It doesn't pay to serve the Lord. I can't imagine any more of a privilege than serving the Lord in any capacity, but that's not what they said. He says then in verse 16, Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem his name. They will be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I appear my own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son and serves him. So, he said, will again distinguish between the rightness and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him. Translated very easy. You've heard this many times.

I might not be able to make as much as I could in the real world, but my retirement benefits are much better. God says, I'll honor this forever. Well done, good and faithful servant.

I don't know about you, but those are words I think everyone would want to hear. I've served you. He said, for behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff, and the day that is coming will set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

Everything you make in this world is temporal. You don't take any of it with you. But for you who fear my name, the center of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go forth and skip about like calves from a stall. I always tell that picture. That's what heaven will be like. You see all the joy of a calf coming out of a barn. It's just no more sorrow, no more tears, infinite joy. He said, you will tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet. He said, on the day which I am preparing, says the Lord of hosts, remember the law of Moses my servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb and all Israel. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.

He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with the curse. Notice who's introduced in the last prophecy, Elijah. Remember the transfiguration with Jesus, Matthew 17? Who stood there with Jesus? Moses and Elijah. Revelation 11, verse 3, we're at the end times, and there'll be two witnesses. And these two witnesses will be the servants of the Lord in the end times.

Who are they? Moses and Elijah. He said, that's the prophecy.

In other words, how's it going to all turn out? Exactly the way God said. You see, I did read the end of the book, and we do win. You see, that's the whole point. That's what God is. You see, so when God withholds his judgment, he only withholds it to the time he's prescribed. So, his warning to us, one, don't doubt God's love. Two, he says don't offer him worthless service. Three, I mean worship. Three, don't ignore God's word. Four, don't dishonor marriage. Five, don't question God's justice. Six, don't steal from God with your giving. And seven, don't despise God's service. When we do that, what happens? We dishonor God. And we bring judgment on ourselves.

What a book. God's expectation of people. I want you to ask yourself this question.

Do you meet those expectations? Now, likely, if you don't, you know what you're going to say to yourself? Yeah, I got it.

That's what they said the whole way through. Yeah, I got it. God says I have this against you.

Nah, it's okay, I got it. So, think a little bit more about it than just a moment and see if you do meet those expectations. Because God has expectations for all of us, and it's our job to meet them.

Let's pray. Father, what an interesting book. What a different kind of book. The whole book is God's judgment on a people that were lethargic and apathetic toward him. They were disappointed in him. They didn't believe that he even loved them. They didn't like this idea that the wicked prospered. They thought that God should be satisfied with whatever leftovers they give him in their lives.

And they never walked close to him. May they be a warning to us, now and forever, that you do have expectations of your children. You provide us the power and the insight to meet those expectations.

We can't do it on our own, but we can do it with you. I pray, Father, that the expectations put upon the people of Malachi's time resonate in our hearts, for your glory and for our good. In Jesus' name, amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. And you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .