June 23, 2024; Sunday Morning Worship

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 107
• Hymn — Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Belgic Confession
• Scripture Reading — Colossians 2:6–15
• Hymn — The Power of the Cross
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Preparation
• Sermon
• Closing Prayer
• Hymn — Great King of Nations, Hear Our Prayer
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Electing Love for the Unlovable

Scripture: Malachi 1:1–5

I. Electing Love Is for the Unlovable

A. God's opening declaration: "I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated" (Malachi 1:2–3)

1. Israel's complaint — "How have you loved us?" — reflects spiritual dryness despite the temple's restoration and Jerusalem's rebuilt walls
2. Jacob and Esau were twin brothers; Esau was the firstborn who legally held the right to the covenant inheritance

B. Election is the ground of God's covenantal love

1. Paul quotes Malachi 1:2–3 in Romans 9:10–13: before either son was born or had done anything, God's electing purpose determined "the older shall serve the younger"
2. "Hate" is not personal aversion but the language of election — God chose Jacob, not Esau

C. Jacob's name means "heel-grabber" or deceiver, echoing the serpent imagery of Genesis 3

1. Jacob had no legal or moral claim to the covenant blessing — yet God set his love on him
2. Deuteronomy 7:7–8: God chose Israel not because of their size or merit but because of his sovereign love and oath

D. Application: In dry seasons, daily confession of sin anchors hope in electing love

1. Confession reminds the believer of the God who set his love on the unlovable
2. A "God owes me" attitude breeds doubt; honest acknowledgment of sin deepens assurance of grace

II. Electing Love Brings Victory over the Enemy

A. Edom (descendants of Esau) was a constant adversary of Israel

1. Denied Israel passage during the Exodus (Numbers 20–21)
2. Aided Babylon in the sack of Jerusalem and looted the city (Psalm 137:7); the prophet Obadiah prophesied Edom's destruction for this

B. At the time of Malachi's writing, Edom lay in ruins — destroyed by the Nabataeans under the Babylonian king Nabonidus

1. Jerusalem is rebuilt; Edom is desolate — this is God's answer to "How have you loved us?"
2. Malachi 1:5: "Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel" — Israel must look beyond its own circumstances to see God's electing love at work in history

C. The word "remember" and its variants appear over 500 times in Scripture — the faith of the Bible is a historical faith rooted in recalling redemptive history

D. The New Covenant counterpart: look to the cross, not the ruins of Edom

1. Colossians 2:13–15: God canceled the record of debt, nailed it to the cross, and disarmed rulers and authorities, triumphing over them in Christ
2. The serpent grasped the heel of Christ at Calvary, but in doing so placed his head under the Messiah's foot — fulfilling Genesis 3:15
3. 1 John 5:4–5: everyone born of God overcomes the world through faith in Jesus the Son of God
4. With eyes of faith, look to the cross and see sin, Satan, and death crushed — the great "ash heap" for the new covenant people

III. Electing Love Brings the Promised Inheritance through the Son of Promise

A. Malachi 1:4: Edom vows to rebuild, but God declares he will tear it down; they shall be called "the wicked country"

1. Contrast with Zechariah 2:12, where Israel is called "the Holy Land" — language of covenant inheritance and disinheritance

B. Throughout history Esau/Edom repeatedly sought to reclaim the inheritance sold for a bowl of soup

1. Jacob's exile of 20 years under threat from Esau; Jacob returns and Esau is displaced to Mount Seir
2. Under David, Edom was subdued; after Solomon, Edom broke free and repeatedly attacked Israel
3. In 587 BC, Edom aided Babylon's sack of Jerusalem and migrated into the Negev — it seemed Esau had returned to grasp the birthright

C. The pattern culminates in two representative men: Jesus and Herod

1. King Herod was an Edomite (from Idumea); he sought to destroy the son of Promise by ordering the massacre of male infants
2. The son of Promise was driven into exile in Egypt — echoing Jacob's exile and Israel's sojourn
3. When Herod died, Jesus returned; at the cross Jesus died as the exile, cut off outside the city walls (Hebrews 13:12–13)
4. On the third day Jesus returned from exile, rose, and was seated at the Father's right hand, receiving all authority over heaven and earth
5. Herod Antipas died in exile in Gaul; the Edomites were assimilated and disappeared from history

D. Conclusion: The elect Son of Promise — the embodiment of Israel — now reigns over heaven and earth

1. If you are in Christ by faith, you are the recipient of God's electing love and an heir of all things through the Son of Promise
2. The fullness of the inheritance will be revealed when the reigning King returns to consummate what he accomplished at Calvary
3. Stay the course through dry seasons, knowing the electing, gracious love of God in Jesus Christ