be fun today. I had started studying, but I
didn't commit to doing today until Wednesday night. My sister
and I had something planned yesterday, so no, I'm not going to lie to
you. I wasn't able to put the work in I like to do before I
make an attempt to do this. All right, we're going to begin
reading at verse 1. The Burden of the Word of the
Lord to Israel by Malachi. I want to read quite a few verses
this morning, so I'm going to limit my comments, but I've got
to start right here. And that's with this word we
have translated, burden. It gives you the impression that
this message that the Lord gave to the prophet, it just weighed
on his shoulders like a whole load he had to carry all upon
himself. But as studying, I studied mainly,
well I did some reading this time, but mainly Dr. Gill, and
he brought out, in a lot of things where he had trouble with passages,
older translations. And this is one of the things,
and the best version that I found was the old Greek translation
of the Old Testament, which is quite a bit older than the King
James translation. And in there, It's not translated
burden, it says the revelation of the word of the Lord. And
I believe that gives us a truer sense to what we found here in
these four chapters in this book of scripture. The revelation
of the word of the Lord. Verse two, I have loved you,
saith the Lord, yet you say, wherein hast thou loved us? It's
as if it's contrary to all evidence of the past of the goodness of
God that he's given to this hard-headed people. They're always wanting
new evidence of his love. Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I love Jacob, and I hated
Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, we are impoverished,
but we will return and build the desolate places, thus saith
the Lord of hosts. They shall build, but I will
throw down, and they shall calm them, the border of wickedness,
and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. Now here may be a picture of
the everlasting punishment of God and how it is to be feared. And what I mean by that is you
go to any map that you can lay your hands on and you see if
you can find the land of the Edomites. It's not there. Unless you run across a map that
was written before the time that this prophet wrote these words,
you're not going to find their nation. It no longer exists. God was true to His word when
Malachi wrote these words, and it's still true today. The Lord
hath indignation forever. Verse 5, And your eyes shall
see, and you shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border
of Israel. A son honoreth his father, and
a servant his master. If then I be a father, where
is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is
my fear? Sayeth the Lord of hosts unto
you, O priest that despise my name, and you say, wherein have
we despised thy name? And this is how. You offer polluted
bread upon mine altar, and you say, wherein have we polluted
thee? In that you say, the table of the Lord is contemptible.
And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and
sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor,
will he be pleased with thee? Or accept thy person, saith the
Lord of hosts. And now, though these words of
the prophet are directed more to the priest here beginning
in verse six, and it's mainly about laying out his charges
against these unacceptable sacrifices they're offering unto him, don't
forget, That it's the people who are bringing these unacceptable
offerings to the priest. All are guilty. Priest and parishioners,
I guess, is the word for it. Verse 9, and now I pray you,
beseech God that He will be gracious. that he will be gracious unto
us. This hath been by your means. Will he regard your person, saith
the Lord of Hosts? Who is there even among you that
would shut the doors for nothing? Neither do you kindle fire on
mine altar for nothing. I have no pleasure in you, saith
the Lord of Hosts. Neither will I accept an offering
at your hand. And now we have a verse of prophecy
that is good news to a Gentile whose heart's weighed down by
sin. The prophet writes, For from the rising of the sun, even
unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among
the Gentiles. And in every place incense shall
be offered unto my name, and a pure offering. For my name
shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. Have
you ever been glad to be called a heathen? You are if you're
God's heathen. But you have profaned it, in
that you say, the table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit
thereof, even his meat, is contemptible. You said also, behold, what a
weariness is it? And you have snuffed at it, saith
the Lord of hosts. And you have brought that which
was torn, and the lame, and the sick. Thus you brought an offering. Should I accept this of your
hand, saith the Lord?" Excuse me, I'm thirsty. But curse be
the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and
sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king,
saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the
heathen. And now, O you priest, this commandment
is for you. If you will not hear, and if
you will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, saith
the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I
will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already,
because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will corrupt
your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of
your solemn feast, and one shall take you away with it. And you shall know that I have
sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with
Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life
and peace, and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he
feared me and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was
in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked
with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priest's lips should
keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth, for
he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." Now, I was speaking to Craig
about a week ago, and I told him I thought I was going to
work in Malachi for a while, and when I had the thoughts and
I had all intentions of really going at this thing verse by
verse. A true almost Sunday school lesson. I was just going to make it my
goal for the next few times I had to be up here, but this is turning
out to be not the case. And I guess the main reason is
because I just can't stand up here before you and make a pretense
of being an expert about all the things we just read, especially
about the sacrificial law. That law was practiced in the
Old Testament times that we're learning here. And with some
of the reading I was able to do this week, even the real experts,
they don't promote themselves as being all-knowing on this
subject. The writings, and it was so long
ago, we just don't know everything that would go in. At least I
don't feel sufficient to pretend I do anyway. But we do know what
it points to and what they all pictured. But that's not the goal we need
when we pick up this scripture. It's not to become proficient
in the knowledge of the day-to-day operations of the temple. Our first goal that I want to
get at this morning is to see how maybe this passage in just
a quick few minutes, how it applies to our age and the condition
that we are so unfortunately now in. My second goal I want
to get to, it's going to be readily apparent to you and you'll understand
that once we get to verse 4 of chapter 2. So just a few thoughts
that I had on this passage that we just read and how it applies
to us in our day. Return to verse 2 of chapter
1. I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet you say wherein hast
thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord, yet I loved Jacob,
and I hated Esau. Now, we know that all men are
sinners. But really, as we view one another,
and as it's revealed in scripture, Esau was a better man than Jacob.
But God chose his people through the scoundrel Jacob. That never ceases to amaze me. And as I was contemplating this
week, one verse just kept coming to my mind. And it's such a wonderful
verse for a sinner. Christ said to the Pharisees
and the scribes that were derailing Him and trying to trick Him and
catch Him in error. They that are whole need not
a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. Jesus came to save Jacobs. And if you're going to have salvation,
you're going to have to be a Jacob too. A low-down, conniving, dirty,
cheating scoundrel. Sinner through and through. That's
who He came to save. All of His people came through
the loins of Jacob. They are scoundrels just like
He is. In verse 2, God said that the
people are saying to Him, wherein hast thou loved us? To me, that
just speaks to how willfully blind and ignorant we are. God
manifests His goodness to us every day, yet we just don't
recognize it, and more importantly, we don't praise Him for it. We're
just ungrateful. Just the next breath is a gift
if he's pleased to give it to you. Most especially your next
morsel, your next drink of water. He could stop the rains and it'd
be gone in just a short while. Think about how we cry just after
two weeks of no rain. Could you imagine two years,
three years? It's been done before, he can
do it again. Thank Him for it when you get it. Just something
so simple as that. But what's spoken of most in
this passage is sacrifices. Sacrifices. And I've already
told you I'm no expert on it. But they were most definitely
arranged and ordered by God. You were to do it His way or
no way. Just for an example. The sacrificial
lambs, they had to be without spot and without blemish. I can't say his name. I don't
even know if I could rewrite it now that I'm trying to think
about it in my mind and spell it correctly. But he was an old
Jewish theologian. And he came up with, I believe
they said it was a list of 50 different things, 50 different
flaws or blemishes. If a lamb had any of these, It
was not acceptable. And you start overlooking any
animal for one of 50 flaws, there's not going to be many that don't,
that do qualify. These sacrifices had to be perfect
for a particular reason. They pictured the one who is
perfect. But we're so poor. We're such sinful creatures,
as evidenced here in Malachi, we can't even bring him a simple
lamb that's acceptable unto him. It was for this that Christ had
to hang from the tree. He had to provide his own lamb
to satisfy himself. That's good enough for God. But
to relate this passage here of Malachi to us, that's not good
enough for us. Christ is acceptable to God,
yes. Acceptable to man, no. Why do I say that? We have to
go around adding to his work all the time, don't we? If it's
something just as simple as getting up and walking down this aisle.
I guess it was in the days of Mr. Hulsey. Man, that carpet,
we'd had to replace it every once in a while with people running
up and down all the time. There was one little girl, we'd
just sit in the back and laugh at her. She was up there every
two weeks at least. We used to get so ill with her
because we were ready to go home. And she'd be up here just carrying
on. Just a picture, just a show.
That's a work. Repeating the sinner's prayer.
Some people believe you've got to do that. That's just words
written by another sinner just like you are. It ain't gonna
do you no good. We gotta add our good works to
it. And they come in all sizes. I ran across one this morning,
and I absolutely couldn't believe it. I've told you all before,
the way I look at Bible verses, you know, I can't remember. I
can remember where it is on the page, but I can't quote you verse
and scripture on many scriptures. It's just the way my brain does
not work. But I can remember the passage, so I'll type it
in, and it'll pop up. Oh, I need to go to whatever
I'm using. I'm using one in Numbers today.
I had no idea exactly where it was at. I just knew it was in
the Old Testament. So that really narrows it down, don't it? But
I hit one verse I was looking for this morning, and it took
me to a Trinitarian website. So I click on that thing. All
I wanted to know was the book and the chapter and the verse
number it come from, where I could go to it in my own Bible and
look at it. And I don't know much about Trinitarians.
I'm sure Rupert can explain it to us more. They shut down their
website on Sundays. I guess the only thing I figure
is they figured it was a work. That if you're going to go here
and you're going to click on this keyboard and you're going to
sit there and try to study the Word of God, that's a work. They
shut it down. You don't think they're going
to bring that to God? You don't think He's going to
laugh in their face? We've all got to add something, it seems
like. Even accepting Jesus into our hearts. Your heart's filthy. If He wanted
it, He'd take it. He don't want it. That's why
He gives you a new one. That's why He gives you a new
one. Anything added to Christ pollutes the sacrifice He made. Put it in a layman's term, you
add something God's sacrifice, His perfect lamb, the one set
up from the foundation of the world, you're spitting in God's
face. Adding something to Christ's
sacrifice may very well be the most damning sin in the world
today. Now, the prophet does not excuse
the worshipper, but he definitely heaps the blame, and rightfully
so, on the priest. And though the people brought
unacceptable sacrifices, the priest didn't have to use it. They could have rejected it.
They were taking it for many reasons, one of which Mr. Henry called, no, it might have
been, I don't know if it was Henry or Hawker, I read it, Filthy
Luker. Filthy Luker. The error in our
day is the same as the error in Malachi's day. It's begun
in the pulpits. And in the never-ending desire
to get people saved, And really, that ain't nothing but code for
getting more people to come to church. And that's probably nothing
but code to get more in the collection plate. The messages from the pulpits,
they've just been continually watered down and softened, just
like in Malachi's day. It's like they didn't want to
hurt anybody's feeling that brought about an unacceptable sacrifice. Today's preachers, they don't
want to offend anyone. They want to please everyone,
so they'll say anything to keep everybody happy and keep them
coming back. But when it's all said and done,
they've really said nothing, not when it comes to the truth
of this book. In the era of Malachi's day,
it included all the priests. Look at verse 10 in chapter 1.
Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nothing?
Neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for nothing. I have
no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts. Neither will I
accept an offering at your hand." Every day there were 24 priests
who stood at the doors of the temple. And they would look at
these sacrifices coming in. They were supposed to turn them
away if they weren't acceptable, but they were letting them through
in droves. And then there were also 24 priests
at night who just kept the doors shut. They stood there all night long.
And then there were also a set of priests, every day they started
the fires that those filthy sacrifices would be put on. And they were
all doing it for something. Money, fame, glory. It ain't no different than preachers
today. They're all in it for something.
A lot of those things I just mentioned. And it doesn't matter
what the preacher is. It doesn't matter if he's got
the ear of the president. You listen to those so-called
preachers and mainly what they're just preaching is a lot of times
just morality. But our politicians, with the
debate we've been having going on here in the state of North
Carolina for the last couple weeks, they ain't listening to
it too much already. And then there's the other so-called preachers,
they're just using it for their social, whatever they want to
happen, they're just using it for a tax dodge. That's our so-called
preachers nowadays. But just like it was with the
high priest in Malachi's day, all the way to these priests
whose only job was just to stand beside a door. It goes from the White House
to a little church that's only got three or four people in it
this morning on the countryside. They're all preaching lies. They're
preaching unacceptable sacrifices. They're not telling you the truth
about this Christ and this Bible. And for that, I fear that God's
leaving this nation. The gospel has left so many nations
across this globe, and you look at the state they're in now.
I'm afraid this one isn't joining them in a hurry. And I'm not
saying that politically. I'm saying it because I got two
kids coming, coming up in this world, and they're going to have
to be here a long time, I hope. And I fear for them. I really
do. But now one verse caught my attention
when I began to look at this passage, and that is verse four
of chapter two. So that's where I want to spend
the rest of my time is verses four through seven. Verse four
says, and you shall know that I have sent this commandment
unto you that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord
of hosts. When I run across this, It just
hit me as I read it all in context and quickly and it was almost
as if God was saying He was going to turn the clock back and start
over with the priesthood from the beginning. And of course
God could do anything, but that's not what He's saying here. This
is actually a look forward. This is a prophecy. Now let the
writer of Hebrews tell us who Malachi is writing of. seeing
then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God. That's why you can keep referring
to this book as a prophecy. It's what it is. This, and especially
these four verses we're going to look at, or three, five, six,
and seven, they are Christ through and through. And it's not strange that Scripture
is written this way. I just mentioned this to you,
and I probably should just throw it out, but notice that in the
Scriptures, especially in the Old Testament, well, and the
New Testament too, even though Christ wasn't even
here yet, it's like as if the work was already done. It's as
good as done. That's how certain this is. There's
no chance. There's no happenstance. Isaiah
53, 3, He is despised and rejected of men. Isaiah wrote in the past
tense. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not. That was Christ's life. That's
how He was treated when He came and lived as a man. Isaiah wrote
it hundreds of years before he ever walked the earth. Revelation
13, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose
names are not written in the book of the life of the lamb,
this lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.
Before Adam was created, this lamb was slain. As good as done. But it goes to say about this
priest There's what I'm calling the new Levi, which is the real
Levi. It says, My covenant was with
him of life and peace, and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith
he feared me and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was
in his mouth. and iniquity was not found in
his lips. He walked with me in peace and
equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priest's
lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law with
his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." So for
the next few minutes, what few we have remaining, I just want
to walk through these verses and say a little bit about, just
about it, just here and there. But it starts in verse 5, my
covenant was with him of life and peace. I'm just amazed at
how many times in my studies and in my readings, how often
this covenant comes up between God the Father and God the Son.
I got to thinking about it, I think I mention it to y'all almost
every time I stand up here, but I run into it over and over again. And in this case right here,
it's called a covenant of life and peace. It's a covenant of
life. Why? The only life a sinner has
is in Christ. All others are nothing more than
just dead men walking. This God who took it upon Himself
to be manifest in the flesh and subsequently lay down His life
is that perfect and acceptable sacrifice I've been trying to
speak about this morning, this only sacrifice that is acceptable
to God, He did that in order that the people that were given
to Him in this covenant might have eternal life. John 1, verse 1 through 3, That
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled, and listen to what he's called here, of
the word of life. That is Jesus Christ. For the
life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and
show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and
was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with
us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ. To have eternal life, you must
have Christ. This is also a covenant of peace.
In John Gill's commentary, and I liberally borrowed this outline
from him, he calls Jesus the peacemaker. I got the thing in my, that's
just a lovely name, the Peacemaker. I readily admit that this is
not a good way to say it, but it's almost as if the precious
blood of Christ, the blood he shed on the cross, it serves
as a soothing salve on God's judgment and wrath. God and man have been in opposition
since Adam committed that first sin in the garden, way back when. I've already mentioned it. It's just a wonder. Before that sin was ever committed,
this covenant was in place. It was in place so that completely
undeserving people might be saved through this acceptable sacrifice. That's why Christ died on the
cross. That's why Isaiah called Him
the Prince of Peace. I told you I had a passage in
numbers, so I better use it. And the Lord spoken to Moses
saying, speaking to Aaron and to his son saying, and when this
mention of Aaron once again, just like here in Malachi, we
have the priesthood in our forefront. It says, on this wise, you shall
bless the children of Israel saying unto them, the Lord bless
thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon
the children of Israel, and I will bless them. May the Lord give
thee peace. I found a comment by a fellow
that Rupert has mentioned to us before, the author C.S. Lewis. He said, God cannot give us a
happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. And that's
so very true, but I want to amend Mr. Lewis' statement in this
way. God cannot give us peace unless He gives us Christ, for
Christ is our peace. It's the only peace we'll have
with Him. To continue in verse 5, And I gave them to Him, for
the fear wherewith He feared me, and was afraid before my
name. Now this is a reference to Jesus'
humanity. Now fear, not only like the fear
of the judgment I spoke to you a little bit earlier, but fear here I believe is speaking
about in reverence and respect. And Jesus as a man had reverence and respect for
God the Father. for all of His precepts and all
of His laws. And Malachi and our own selves,
we prove daily we cannot even worship the God in heaven, this
great King, as it said in verse 14 of chapter 1. We can't even
do that properly. We had to have Jesus come and
do it on our behalf. even to praise our most wonderful
Father for us. Verse six, the law of truth was
in his mouth. Now if the priest had done a
better job of teaching the people, maybe they wouldn't have begun
to bring such contemptible sacrifices. But it's not so with our priest
Jesus Christ. Only truth came from his lips.
How often, and we won't spend much time on this because we
see it so often when you open up the four Gospels, continually
tried to catch him in error. I mean, they would ask him questions
that that was the only purpose, just to catch him saying something
wrong. Never once. He was always bold in teaching
all the counsel of God. He taught the truth of God. And
verse 6 says, and iniquity was not found in his lips. I'll just
let scripture do it here. Out of 1 Peter 4, even here unto
were you called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving
us an example that you should follow his steps. Who did no
sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who, when he was
reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
Who, his own self, bear our sins, and his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness,
by whose stripes you were healed. Even when hanging on the cross,
a pain that no other man will ever know. No guile was found
in his mouth. No threatenings made toward God. Only Jesus could do that, or
in this case, not do that. And it's said that he walked
with God in peace and equity. Now man's in opposition to God
because of sin, but not this man, Jesus. He walked with God. He kept his law, both the moral
law and all of the ceremonial law that we're speaking about
today. And he was at peace with God.
He kept and did it all without a syllable uttered in opposition.
He did all that was required of him. Think about that prayer he made
in the garden the night before his death. removed this cup from
him, but God was not pleased to do that. So what did he do
the next day? He walked silently to the cross
and suffered and died and bled for his people. He kept God's
will even at that final hour. And what did it result in? The
end of verse six, and did turn many away from iniquity. Now
there's so many numerous examples in the scriptures on this. But this happened before, even
before he was born. What did he say about Abraham?
He said, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he
saw it and was glad. Old Testament saints, were saved
just like the New Testament saints through the Lord Jesus Christ.
No exceptions. But the good news for us is He's
still saving today. Still saving today. He did turn
many away from iniquity. I spoke to you earlier about
how sometimes scriptures written as though it's almost already
happened. Same too for each and every one
of His sheep. that have come and will come
unto him. It's as good as done. No exceptions. And here finally in verse 7,
we've got to wrap it up. It says, For the priest's lips
should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth,
for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Now this should
may better be translated shall It was, and like I say in other
earlier translations into other languages, it says, the priest's
lips shall keep his knowledge and they shall seek the law at
his mouth. And this law that we should seek
and this knowledge that we want today, and though Christ, He
contains all knowledge, but it's not this Old Testament laws and
things that we should seek after today, but it's the doctrines
of grace. That's what he came preaching.
He came bringing the good news of this covenant that we're reading
about this morning, that he's in party with, with God the Father.
And it's the good news about how sinners are saved. About
how there is an acceptable sacrifice. And that he is a successful Savior. And that each and every one of
them will come to him. And Jesus said of himself, he
said, I am the way. the truth and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. I am the way, the truth,
and the life." I was contemplating on this passage this morning
and trying to think about how I might could wrap it all up
and those words come to my mind. Almost, you know, you have to
wonder, was Jesus referring back to this passage in some small
way when He said those words? Because He is our eternal life.
He is our only way to the Father. He is truth. The complete truth
of God is seen in His face. This truth that He spoke, this
knowledge, He taught us so many things about Himself. He's the
friend of sinners. He's the light of the world. I'm having to just throw this
up. Time's gone. He's the Son of God, but He's
also God, the I Am God. But verily, verily, I say unto
you, before Abraham was, I am. Christ said that of Himself. He's the bread of life. No one
can live without eating. No sinner can live without eating
on Him. He is our very sustenance. He's the bridegroom of the church
of God. He's the door of the sheepfold.
Once again, He's the way. To put it all in just one word,
I believe, He is the very wisdom of God. You think about these
matters. How can a sinful man be reconciled
with the Holy God? We have it revealed in the Scriptures.
There's no more wisdom in the world than that. Now Malachi may not have been the last book
written in the Old Testament. No one knows. If they say they
do, they're mistaken. But when the Scripture was put
in order, God had those men put it last.
And I think there's a very good reason for that. As we read here,
it starts out as a book of admonition. I mean, he's getting on the people
of Israel. He's getting on these priests,
putting the sin that is so damning to them right before them and
said, this is what you're doing to me. And you know these words are
how men say it. It's not true. But it's almost
as if God just can't help Himself. He has to give His people some
hope. We read of some of that hope
here in verse 4 through 7 of chapter 2. Our great high priest
pictured right there. And Malachi continues, and I'll
probably continue in it. And it's Christ through and through.
If you want some hope, look to Malachi. Christ was revealed
in its pages. It's the only hope a sinner can
have, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you.