These three lessons were presented by Travis W. Lewis in 2012 regarding the subtle, yet costly, attitude of apathy among the people of God. Focus of these presentations is intended to alert saved souls of the danger of exerting effort toward religion while our eyes have long since been turned from God.

APATHY – IT’S OUR CHOICE

Lesson 3 of 3

JUNE 24, 2012

[CLASS TURN TO MALACHI 3.]

1) INTRODUCTION

a) Our lesson today concludes the series that has led us to consider….

i) If, in our service and worship of God, we are just going through the motions; and, if we are wearied of God’s service are we just giving Him the leftovers.

ii) We have examined our actual sincerity in honoring our commitments to God and to others.

b) Our thoughts on Malachi’s pleas to the backslidden Israelites conclude with the question, “What is your decision?”.

c) And, it squarely confronts us with the personal questions…

i) “Have I actually become apathetic toward God?”

ii) And, if so, “Am I willing to repent of that apathy?”

iii) And, “Am I ready to commit to genuinely serve and honor Him and align my daily life according to His Word?”

d) We all know that it’s one thing to identify a problem; yet it’s quite another to find the solution.

e) In the first two lessons in this series, we looked at some problems in the hearts of God’s children; today, we look at the solution that Malachi suggested to the Israelites, and it’s the same as the answer we’ll certainly find for our hearts today.

f) So, the concluding questions with which this lesson confronts us are…

i) What is your decision about serving God more diligently in the future than what you’re presently doing?

ii) What is your decision about honoring God more highly and openly in the future than in the past?

iii) And, what is your decision about living more closely according to God’s instruction in the future – about making God’s Word a true lamp and light along our pathway of life?

g) So, let’s get started by reading Malachi’ message to God’s people in 3: 13-15.

[CLASS READ MALACHI 3: 13-15.]

¹³Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? ¹⁴Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? ¹⁵And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. [1]

2) GOD DESERVES OUR SERVICE

a) The following paraphrases Malachi’s message in the verse we just read.

b) Malachi: Israel, the message that God has received from you is that you are against God, the One you claim to serve.

c) Israelites: Why, what and how in the world have we spoken against you, God?

d) Malachi: By your apathy, by your neglect of placing God first in your life, you fail to give to Him your best, and, by this, you simply say, “It is useless to serve and to honor and to obey God.”.

e) QUESTION: Is that the way you hear this discourse going between the prophet Malachi and Israel?

f) I read somewhere that the farthest opposite of Christ-likeness is not sinfulness like we might expect, but apathy.

g) If that be true, then the idea that follows is that even the worst sinner who cries out to God may actually be closer to the heart of Christ than the one who stands by — apathetically.

h) If Scriptures teach us anything about our service to God, it’s that He doesn’t look favorably when we fall into apathy, just not caring anymore.

i) But, Israel seems to have been surprised when they were informed that they had spoken against God….

i) “What does God mean, Malachi, by saying that our words have been harsh against Him?”

ii) “We have never spoken words like that against God.”

j) Well, maybe neither Israel, nor you nor I, have done that orally; but, our choices in life more accurately reflect what we really believe than do our words.

k) And, by their obvious choices, by their observable priorities, what statements had they made? [Read verse 14 again.] ¹⁴Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?

l) QUESTION: Or, by our obvious choices, do we not actually make statements about how we feel about service to God? By our apparent choices, do we make statements like…

i) It’s useless to study God’s Word.

ii) I really gain nothing by paying attention to natural laws that apply to what I allow to go into my mind.

iii) Those that never acknowledge God in any way and fill their lives with immorality or amorality fare as well or better than I by doing all these “God-ordered” things.

iv) We still sacrifice; we still do public prayer; we still fast because, who knows, hard times may come when we need God again.

m) But God let Malachi know, and Malachi was telling Israel – and us — that their hearts were not right with God, and without repentance, all these religious “things” they were doing were actual insults to God.

n) QUESTION: Could the alarm of Malachi to Israel apply equally to us?

o) Malachi was right in his message – that the way they were just apathetically going through the motions was actually rendering their attempts at worship worthless.

p) Now, few of us would say in word that serving God is useless, yet, is that not often the statement we make by our actions:

i) Bible study is just not worth the time and effort.

ii) I have too many other things to do rather than attend church or to study God’s Word.

iii) I’ll go to “church”, but I won’t get much involved in participation.

q) Satan and the world teaches us that there is no gain in godliness, but the writer of Ecclesiastes 8:12-13 teaches…. ¹²Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God,:… ¹³But it shall not be well with the wicked[2]

r) QUESTION: Since the wicked often prosper and appear to escape punishment, why is it better – even in this life alone – to serve God faithfully?

s) We used to sing a hymn that said,

“My Lord keeps a record

Of the moments I’m living down here;

He knows all about me,

All my troubles, my heartaches, my fears.” [3]

t) Admittedly, the gain in godliness is often God’s provision for, and presence with, His obedient people.

u) But, most often, it’s the peace and joy brought by just knowing that I’ve pleased God and, whatever it’s worth to Him, He’s keeping the record and at some time and point in the future, the true account will be given.

v) Well, not all of God’s people in Israel felt it was useless to serve Him.

w) And, even in times when spiritual apathy was rampant, God appeared to have a faithful remnant who continued to faithfully honor His name.

x) Let’s continue to read through the last three verses of chapter 3 and follow up with the first three verses of chapter 4.

[CLASS READ MALACHI 3: 16 — 18.]

¹⁶Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. ¹⁷And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. ¹⁸Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

3) GOD IS WORTHY OF OUR HONOR

a) Verse 16 reveals some traits of the remnant of folks who wouldn’t assume the apathetic attitude that most of Israel had assumed…

i) They feared the Lord.

ii) They spoke often to one another.

iii) They thought on, or had high regard for, His name.

b) QUESTION: And, what did that cause God to do?

i) God took notice.

ii) He caused a record to be kept, a “book of remembrance” of those who feared Him.

c) QUESTION: What would be the ultimate reward for those who truly feared Him and truly served Him in a genuine way?

i) “There will come a day when there will be no mistaking those who I remember.”

ii) “They will be Mine on that special day to which all will be a witness.”

iii) KJV describes it more vividly as a “day when I make up My jewels..”..

iv) Paraphrase: As a man or woman would hurriedly gather up their jewels and most prized possessions as their home was burning down around them, so will I gather those who have not given up on honoring my name, especially when it wasn’t the popular thing to do.

d) Consider these questions before we proceed to chapter 4…

i) Can you recall a time when you stood up and honored God, then were sorry for having done so?

ii) Can you recall a time when you made the choice not to stand and honor God, maybe it was apathy or maybe intimidation, then were ashamed of that choice?

iii) Which would you recommend to your own child?

e) That’s why we want to conclude with the final words that God would have for Israel before His almost 500-year silence, during which He would send no prophet, no judges, no leaders, for they would remain under the domination of strange and often suppressant kings.

[CLASS READ MALACHI 4: 4-6.]

⁴Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. ⁵Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: ⁶And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. [4]

4) GOD’S INSTRUCTIONS ARE WORTHY TO LIVE BY

a) God’s departing words to His people were to remember the age-old commandments given to Moses at Mt. Sinai.

b) They will do for today and tomorrow and forever hereafter.

c) But, there will come a day just before the greatest change the world has ever known, when I will send Elijah the prophet to warn you again.

d) QUESTION: To what was he referring, since Elijah had been dead for over 200 years? He was making reference to the appearance of John the Baptist, more than 400 years into the future, when he would introduce the Messiah.

e) But, until then, remember the law – remember those ten basic commandments, the first four focusing on how we should honor God, and the last six focusing on how we can get along best with others.

CONCLUSION

a) So, my challenge to us is to confess, and to repent, and to commit to serve Him and to honor Him and to live by God’s instruction along whatever part of life’s path is left for us, however uncertain that might be.

b) Someone once told me that the opposite of Christ-likeness is not sinfulness
like we might expect, but apathy.

c) The idea that follows is that even the worst sinner who cries out to God may actually be closer to reaching the heart of Christ than the “Christian” who stands apathetically by.

d) Following is the opening stanza of Choruses from “The Rock”

The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.
O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;

Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.

All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.

Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.

e) Let’s vow to not allow that to become the testimony of our life. Ω

(1)The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

[2]The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

[3] Stanza from “My Lord Keeps A Record”, by Hubert H. Smith, 1945

[4]The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

[5] The Rock; 1934, T. S. Eliot, (1888-1965)