If you turn in your Bibles to
the book of Malachi there are, just remarkable isn't it, in
that whole rebuilding of the temple we have some incredibly
significant people. Esther of course, Simon read
Esther some couple of weeks ago and Ezra and Nehemiah and then
the prophets were there at the building of the temple where
Haggai and Zechariah And then it seems as if Malachi follows
on some little time after Nehemiah and I just thought it would be
really good if we could read some of Malachi this evening
and just look at how the Old Testament finished. Malachi,
the Jewish people called him the last of them. He was the
last prophet and so in a sense this is the last word from God
for 400 years and so depending upon where
people place Malachi it's either just after the time of Nehemiah
or up to about 40 years after, 50 years after Nehemiah. One of the things that's fascinating
is when we finished Nehemiah we saw that he'd come back to
Jerusalem and come back to that place which had been a source
of worship and praise to God and a remarkable testament and
sign to the work of God in the hearts of kings, in the hearts
of his people. in the hearts to stir up these
people and we see it at the end of Nehemiah, we see that all
of that worship had been corrupted in the most appalling ways and
Tobiah, the enemy of God, the enemy of God's people had actually
been led by the high priest to take up residence in the house
of God and the things that were typical of the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus had been cast out of the temple to make room for
Tobiah. And the people had married the
women of strange gods, as Malachi calls them, and the Sabbath had been broken,
the priests were no longer at their work, and Nehemiah calls
them to repentance. And Malachi It means the messenger or angel
of God. It may be his name, it's most
likely his name, but also is a title. Malachi is a remarkable
book. In lots of ways it's remarkable.
Obviously it's the last of the prophets and for 400 years there
was not a word from God to his people. And so this was left,
these four short chapters, these 55 verses in a sense were left
as the culmination of all of that time under the old covenant. And remarkably, out of those
55 verses, 47 of them are directly the words of God. And the other
thing as we go on, as we read it, we'll see that it actually
is a dialogue where God asks questions. The questions go to
the heart of where these people are at. And so God exposes their
hearts and exposes His heart. And also we have in Malachi the
great, great promise of the Lord to come. There are great, great
descriptions of the Lord Jesus in Malachi. Let's just start
reading at chapter 1, verse 1. The burden of the word of the
Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, says the Lord. Yet you say wherein have you
loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
said the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob. And I hated Esau, and laid his
mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Whereas Edom says, We are impoverished, but we will return and build
the desolate places. Thus says the Lord of hosts,
They shall build, but I will throw down. They shall call them
the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord
has indignation forever. And your eyes shall see, and
ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of
Israel. A son honoureth his father, and
a servant his master. If then I be a father, where
is mine honour? And if I be a master, where is
my fear, saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests that despise
my name? And ye say, Wherein have we despised
thy name? You offer polluted bread upon
my 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 the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor. Will He be pleased with you or
accept thy person, saith the Lord of hosts? And now I pray
you, beseech God that He will be gracious unto us. This has
been done by your means. Will He regard your persons,
saith the Lord of hosts? Who is there even among you that
would shut the doors for naught? Neither do you kindle fire on
mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith
the Lord of Hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your
hand. For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down
of the sun, 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. 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 also say,
Behold, what a weariness it is, 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 she brought an offering.
Should I accept this of your hand, saith the Lord? But cursed
be the deceiver which has in his flock a male, and vows and
sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king,
says the Lord of Hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. And now, O ye priests, for this
commandment is for you. If you will not hear, if you
will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, says 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 on your faces, even the dung of your solemn
feasts, 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, says 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, but ye are departed
out of the way. You have caused many to stumble
at the law. You have corrupted the covenant
of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore have I also made you
contemptible and base before all the people, according as
ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.
Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously
every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of
our fathers? Judah has dealt treacherously,
and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for
Judah has profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and
has married the daughter of a strange God. The Lord will cut off the
man that does this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles
of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of
hosts. And this you have done, covering the altar of the Lord
with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch as
he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with
goodwill at your hand. Yet you say, Wherefore, because
the Lord has been the witness between thee and the wife of
thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet she
is thy companion and the wife of thy covenant, and did he not
make one? Yet he had the residue of the
Spirit, and wherefore one, that he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit,
and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
For the Lord, the God of Israel, says that he hates putting away,
for one covereth violence with his garments, says the Lord of
hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit,
that you deal not treacherously. You have wearied the Lord with
your words, yet you say, Wherein have we wearied him? When you
say, Everyone that does evil is good in the sight of the Lord,
and he delighteth in them. For where is the God of judgment? Malachi's message is a stark
message, isn't it? It's called in verse 1, the burden
of the word of the Lord. And he says twice in chapter
2, he says, take heed of your spirit. Take heed of your spirit. The burden of the word of the
Lord. It's a burden. It's a burden
because of its weightiness. A burden because of its seriousness. It's a burden because of its
truthfulness. It's a burden because it exposes
sin and it magnifies grace. It's a burden because it reveals
the very character of God, that He loves holiness. and he hates
iniquity and he must punish iniquity. It's the burden of the word of
the Lord. I quoted just a couple of weeks ago those words from
John chapter 12 verse 48. We're on that day, on that day
of judgment when we and all of humanity will meet God face to
face. The thing that will judge people
The thing that will judge them is his word. He said, He that believeth on
me believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that
seeth me seeth him that sent me. I came a light into the world,
and whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
And if any man hears my words and believes not, I judge him
not. For I came not to judge the world,
but to save the world. He that rejects me and receiveth
not my words has one that judges him. The one that judges him,
the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the
last day. Because for, verse 49, I have
not spoken of myself, but the Father which has sent me. He
gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak.
And I know that his commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever
I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak."
The Word of God will be the judge on that great day. The Word of
God that we hear. It's the burden because that
Word of God reveals to us both a God who is holy and reveals
to us the sinfulness of sin. And in Malachi, as in Nehemiah's
day, it reveals the contagion of sin. It's a spreading disease
and it's a burden carried from God to people. All the prophets
sent by God were pointed to and sustained by the Lord Jesus,
and they pointed to Him. And so these words that Malachi
speaks, the words that God's faithful Messengers today speak
are words that have a weight far beyond the weightiness of
the words of men. It's the burden of the Word of
God, and therefore there's an urgency, there's a weightiness
about it. there is in the Word of God some
things that cause the natural man to be horrified. And verse 2 is one of those,
isn't it? Firstly, the Lord expresses His
love. He says, I have loved you. So it's a word to Israel, the
Israel of God. I have loved you, says the Lord. And then he exposes the hearts
of these people. Let you say, where in have you
loved us? We actually turn around to God
and say, prove to me your love. isn't it remarkable what a history
these people had what a remarkable testimony they had of thousands
and thousands of years of the most remarkable faithfulness
God's faithfulness to his covenant. These are words that offend so
many people, aren't they? Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated
Esau. Someone came to Mr Spurgeon,
obviously many years ago, and said, I can't understand why
God hated Esau. Mr Spurgeon said, I don't have
any problem with God hating Esau. The bit of that verse that I
have a problem with is, how on earth did God love Jacob? His
name, his very name means deceiver, supplanter, shifty, crafty. Turn to Romans 9. It's a great
test, isn't it, of faithfulness of God's people, is can we actually
go to Romans 9 and just say, this is the Word of God. This is the Word of God. He's talking about God's covenant
faithfulness, God's covenant choosing. Neither, verse 7, neither because
they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. but in
Isaac shall thy seed be called." That is, they which are children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word
of promise, at this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.
Not only this, when Rebecca had also conceived by one, even by
our father Isaac, for the children not being not yet born, neither
having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. And then we have the questions.
Just like Malachi is full of questions, Romans 9 actually
has questions which are exposing the hearts of men. What then
shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with
God? That's the first objection, isn't
it? Is there unrighteousness? Not right for God. to love Jacob
and hate Esau. Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For He says to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the Scripture says under
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and on whom he will he hardneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, why
does he find fault? The first question is, God is
unrighteous. The second one is, how can he
find fault? For who has resisted his will?
Nay, but O man, who are you that replyest against God? It seems like a cop-out, doesn't
it? It seems like a cop-out answer,
but the more you ponder and meditate on God's answer, the more serious,
the more profound and the more true it is. You see, our problem is that
we don't have enough information. We don't have enough knowledge
to judge properly. And any time we actually use
our thoughts and our human hearts rather than the Word of God to
judge, we will be in grave error. What does the proverb say? Proverbs
28, verse 10 says, that he that follows his own heart is a fool. It's the Word of God. Why does
he find fault? For who has resisted you? Nay,
but O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the
thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made
me thus? Has not the potter power over
the clay? of the same line, to make one
vessel under honour and another under dishonour. What if God,
willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured
with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?
that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels
of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory. Even us then he has
called, not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles. As he says in Hosea, I will call
them my people which were not my people, and her beloved which
was not beloved. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, you are not my people,
there they shall be called the children of the living God. And we could read on. It's profound
and deep and significant chapter of God's word is Romans 9. And when man gets to it, having
succumbed to this idea that it's God's job to love everyone, because
that's what the natural man thinks, isn't it? If God's going to love
at all, he's got to love everyone. If God's going to love surely
he's going to love me. And the natural man thinks that
he must love me because I am really, at the heart of things,
lovable. I really am good. I'm not really
as bad as Hitler. I'm not really as bad as Pol
Pot. So on any scale you'd like to
have, it's God's job to love me." And then they say, Jesus
died for everyone. And the response of the natural
man is, well, that's exactly what he ought to do because I'm
worthy of having other people die for me. I am worthy of that. If it comes
to a choice between them dying for me or for me suffering in
any way at all, they ought to die for me. Jesus ought to die
for everyone. The natural man loves that theology. that has God as a beggar at the
hearts of people. A natural man loves the idea
that the Holy Spirit is trying to save absolutely everyone. It's his job to save everyone.
The scriptures speak so differently. The burden of the word of the
Lord is a burden that is a burdensome burden in a sense because we
actually bring a rock of offence. Alapai finishes the Old Testament,
as it were, with stern and serious words. Nehemiah plucked out the
hair of those who offended. Esau tore his garment and in
a sense went around in sackcloths and ashes because of the sins
of the people. Malachi just speaks these words of God to them. Jacob, I have loved. Isn't it
beautiful? He says he has loved him. When did he love Jacob? He loved
him before the foundation of the world. He loved him when
he was a wicked and devious man. He loved him when he converted
him and brought him back to Israel and changed his name from deceiver
to prince with God. He says, yet I loved Jacob. I loved Jacob. And I hated Esau, verse 3, and
laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the
wilderness. And what does Edom say? What
does Esau say? We are impoverished, but we will
return and build the desolate places. Thus says the Lord of
hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down. That's what all the enemies of
God throughout all time have done, isn't it? They say, I will
build, but God will throw them down, and they shall call the
board of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord
has indignation forever. and he goes back in verse 5 to
talk to his people again and he says, your eyes shall see
and you shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the border
of Israel. They say they'll build and God
will tear them down, but God's children, God's covenant people
will see. Your eyes, I love the shalls
of God, aren't they? Your eyes shall see and you shall
say, The Lord will be magnified from
the border of Israel. The word glory in Hebrew actually
means weightiness. It's remarkable, isn't it? The
glory of God in a sense has a power and a weightiness and a substance
to it. The Lord will be magnified. The
remarkable thing is, as you read the rest of Malachi, and we've
read little bits of it, We actually see that these people have had
a priesthood as Nehemiah, the priesthood in Nehemiah's day
was. It was a priesthood that was defiled and a priesthood
that was defiling of others around. It had a people who were idolatrous. They were in idolatrous relationships
with the enemies of God who lived around them. They had mixed marriages
and mixed language and they had a contemptuous disregard for
God's laws and disregard for His Word. And because the priesthood
was defiled, the maintenance of God's house was neglected
by the people. The house of God and the worship
of God had fallen, fallen badly, fallen horribly, and yet this
was a people, this was a people that God promises. He says, your
eyes shall see and you shall say, the Lord be magnified from
the border of Israel. Isn't it remarkable? Malachi,
like Nehemiah, they lived in times where the religion and
the worship of God was trodden down in the streets. It was treated
contemptuously. As we go through some of these
verses we'll see that it was just a contemptuous treatment
of God. He says in verse 6, where is
mine honour? He says, you do not treat me
as a servant treats his master in your very midst. Isaiah begins
in Isaiah saying that you actually treat God worse than the cattle
treat their masters. The chooks know who feeds them,
the dogs know who feeds them, the cattle know the one who feeds
them, and yet the people of God, the people who claim to be God's
people don't acknowledge the God who feeds them. Where is
my honour, he says. In verse 6 he goes on to say,
if I be a master, where is my fear, where is my respect, where
is that sense of worthiness that I am. And it says, the Lord of
hosts unto you, O priests that despise my name. See the remarkable thing about
Malachi is that he came back, or came to Jerusalem, was sent
there by God and raised up as God's last prophet before these
people. And yet there was people who
actually thought they were worshipping God, thought they were honouring
His name, they were bringing sacrifices to God, they were
bringing tears. It says in verse 13 of chapter
2, they'd come to the altar with weeping and with crying out. These were people who were involved
in religion. and yet God questions them. In fact He says of them, O priests
that despise my name, and yet they ask, Where have, wherein
have we despised thy name? And He says in verse 7, You offer
polluted bread on my altar Wherein have we polluted you, in that
you say, The table of the Lord is contemptible. What a shocking thing to be said
by God to people who are in His temple offering services as it
were to Him. Then in verse 8, And if you offer
the blind for sacrifices, is it not evil? Imagine! having
a flock of sheep and it's your time to go to God and present
a sacrifice and you find a blind one. One thing you can guarantee
about blind animals, they're almost always skinny and starving. They can't find and can't see
the food like the others. What a contemptible thing to
actually say to God, here I am worshipping you with this blind
and lame, they say, and sick. Is it not evil? And he says to
them, would you give this to your governor? Would he be pleased
with you and accept thy person, says the Lord of Hosts. And then
in verse 9, there's a great prayer, isn't it? A great request from
Malachi. And now I pray you, beseech God
that He will be gracious unto us. This has been your means. Will you regard your person,
says the Lord of hosts. You see, even the things that
are simple, isn't it? Like shutting the doors, maybe
shutting the gates or shutting the doors on the temple. Who
is there among you that would shut the doors for nothing? You
won't even do something as simple as that without being paid. Neither do you kindle a fire
on my altar for naught. I have no pleasure in you, says
the Lord of Hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your
hand. And then he makes his promise,
a bit like the promise that we saw in verse 5. From the rising
of the sun of Eden until the going down of the sun, my name
shall be great among the Gentiles in every place. incense shall
be offered unto my name, and a pure offering for my name shall
be great among the heathen, says the Lord of hosts." God makes
these amazing promises. My name shall be great. You have profaned it. What a word for our day. Malachi
wrote this 2,400 years ago. What a word for our day. Where
is my honor, says God? O priest that despise my name,
you have profaned my name. And you also say, verse 13, what
a weariness it is It's a burdensome thing. It wearies me to worship
God. It wearies me to serve Him. And they bring that which was
torn, the lame and the sick, the maimed and the wounded, and
sick animals, and you bring them as offering, and then you expect
God to accept them. This, of course, in Malachi's
day was accepted practice. And verse 14, he says, Cursed
be the deceiver, which has in his flock a mail and vows, and
sacrificed unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king,
and my name is dreadful among the heathen. And he speaks to
the priests, because the priests have let these people down so
badly. In Nehemiah's day they corrupted the temple and they've
left their posts and it wasn't much better in Malachi's day. He says, give glory unto my name,
says 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. I will corrupt your seed
and spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your solemn
feasts. So in the midst of all of this judgment, righteous judgment
of God, we have these magnificent promises into the future. These are beautiful words in
verse 4 down to verse 6. Just watch them closely with
me. And you shall know. You see the promises that are
in the midst of darkness. God makes these amazing promises. These are the last words they
had for 400 years. Not another word until Gabriel
came and spoke to Zechariah in the temple. and you shall know
that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might
be with Levi." Levi, of course, typifies the Lord Jesus as the
Lord of hosts. My covenant. The Lord Jesus is
the covenant. He made the covenant. The covenant
is about Him. The covenant is kept by Him. Listen to the nature of this
covenant in verse 5. My covenant was with Him of life
and peace. So it's a covenant made with
Him for life and peace with God in the midst of all of this that
was going on. And I gave them. It's a covenant
where this Levi, this great Levi is given. I gave them to him
for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name. He honoured his name." And then
listen to this word, this great description. It cannot be a description
of Levi in his flesh. It certainly wasn't a description
of the priesthood in Malachi's day. The law of truth was in
his mouth. The law of truth was in his mouth
and iniquity was not found in his lips. What a great description
of the person of the Lord Jesus. What a great description of his
words. He walked with me in peace and
equity. a great description of him. He
walked in peace. He walked with God in peace and
he was a successful priest and did turn many away from iniquity. For this great priest was the priest that should have
been honoured by these other priests. But as we see these
priests dealt treacherously for the lips, priest lips should
keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth for
he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But they have departed
out of the way and what happens when the priest departs out of
the way? You have caused many to stumble
at the law and you have corrupted the covenant of Levi. No wonder when God's messengers
speak, they feel a burden, don't they? As the Lord Jesus says,
the blind lead the blind, and they both fall into the ditch.
One of the prayers that I prayed in India so often with all these
kids in my care is that, Lord, please protect these ones that
I love from my sins. Please protect them. from my
sins. Please let me be honest, please
let me be straight, please let me speak truth to them, and please
protect them from the failings that are so evident in my life." These people deal treacherously. In Nehemiah and Malachi, were
straight men, weren't they? They call sin what sin is. They just make it so plain. They make it so clear. It's not something that's hidden. You don't have to dig deep in
Malachi to find. what sin is. It says that when
the priests are corruptible, they cause people to deal corruptly
with each other and they deal treacherously, every man against
his brother, by profaning the covenant of the fathers. And
all this time, we go down to verse 13. All this time they
had this sentimental religion, don't they? This sentimentality
that causes them to cover the altar of the Lord. They come
to the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with
crying. And the Lord bears witness. To the Lord is the witness between
you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is thy companion, the
wife of thy covenant. Did not he make one? Yet he had
the residue of the Spirit. The covenant of marriage is a
covenant that was designed by God to reflect that covenant
between the Lord Jesus and His Bride. And as much as it's a
tragedy, the commonality of it in our day and the lightness
of it is a tragedy. But it is a harmful and hurtful
thing. God made them one. And wherefore one, he says in
verse 15, that he might seek a godly seed, therefore take
heed to your spirit. had required of Israel that they
remain pure within themselves. He says that when they marry
outside of Israel, when they marry the daughters of Edom,
when they marry the daughters of Esau and they have alliances
with the likes of Tobiah and Sambalat and give their children
in marriage, they are actually marrying, according to Levin,
marrying the daughter of a strange god. the daughter of a strange
God. They're marrying children who
will have their hearts set on these gods that they've been
read with. And in Nehemiah's day, they ended
up worshipping those gods, speaking the language of those nations. Divorce is horrible, but it gives
God an opportunity to say something which is beautiful in verse 16.
For the Lord, the God of Israel, says that He hates putting away. He hates divorce. What a beautiful
thing it is to know that God who is married to his people
in eternity. The Lord Jesus is married to
his bride and he hates putting away. He'll never put them away.
He can't put them away. He loves them with an everlasting
love and he draws them after himself. And no matter what the
circumstances God's people find themselves in, Malachi, in Malachi's
day the number of people of God in the professing kingdom of
God were very, very few indeed. In the days of the Lord Jesus, when God came and spoke to the
people of Israel again, how many in that nation, which was millions
of people, millions of people who went to the temple like these
priests went to the temple, In the Lord Jesus' day, divorce
was as easy as anything. It was so simple. If the wife
burnt the toast, there was sufficient reason for divorce. All the husband
had to do was be offended with his wife in any way possible,
and he could just put her away. In fact Muslims can do it these
days, you can do it by text. I think they just have to say,
I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you three times in
a text message and the wife is divorced. It had become so common. Priests
were corrupted and yet these people come to the altar with
tears, with weeping. Our God is a serious God about
holiness. We are thankful that our God,
in His people, covers all their sins, even the sins of divorce
amongst His people. As much as it's horrible in the
world, it's remarkable that it's forgiven by our God, but that
doesn't mean that the people of God treat it any lightly,
any lightless. These people come and they speak
to God and they say, we have wearied the Lord with your words.
You say, where have we wearied Him? When you say that everyone
that does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and He delighteth
in them. Or, where is the God of judgment? These people are speaking, aren't
they? They're saying that they have
God's words. They come to God's altar. They
have a priesthood. They have all of these things
and yet they say, where is the God of judgment? The God of judgment. was right there judging them
for the wickedness of their sins. Because the greatest gift that
God can give to His people is what this priest did in verse
6 of chapter 2, to turn many away from iniquity. God judges
people by leaving them in iniquity. The most shocking words in the
Bible almost are those ones in Romans 1 where three times he
says, and God gave them over. God gave them over. God gave them over. They think they have freedom. They can say, where is the God
of judgment? And yet God has judged them and
is judging them. those that aren't his, is judging
them by allowing them to do their own thing, and in the case of
these people, to do their own thing in the name of religion,
at the temple of God, with a priesthood leading them and guiding them.
Before we finish, It's just beautiful to think, isn't it, how God causes
His people to wait. How long did they have to wait? He says at the beginning of verse
3, He says, Behold, I will send my messenger. And they waited. And they waited and they waited. How long have you waited? How
long have we waited for God to be faithful to His promises?
These people waited 400 years. I will send my messenger. He
will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek shall
suddenly come to his temple. What did the Lord Jesus say when
he came to his temple? He said, my father's house. And
the Jews understood him to be saying that when he said this
is my father's house, he says this is my house. I rule this
house. I have the right to say what
happens in this house. What had that priesthood done?
They turned his house into a den of thieves and robbers. And God
in sovereign judgment, just 30 years, 35 years after the Lord
Jesus came to his house, he gathered in judgment, he gathered all
the priests of Israel and the people of Israel into Jerusalem. And then he sent Titus, the Roman
emperor and that huge Roman army, and the people of Israel thought
that the safest place in all of the world was in Jerusalem,
as close to the temple as you could get. And God destroyed
them. A million of them died. A million died in Jerusalem. You can read the accounts of
it in Josephus. It is horrifying what happened.
And Titus destroyed Jerusalem. They left the foundations where
they go and do their wailing and say their prayers and stick
their little notes on the wall. They left those huge foundations
so that the people who came to Jerusalem afterwards could say
what a magnificent city was built on top of this. The top of it
was left like a ploughed field. It was unrecognisable as a city. God will come. says the Lord of Hosts. And who
may abide the day of his coming? Who shall stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire and a full of soap. And he shall
sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. And he shall purify
the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver. What did
Job say? He says, One God has tested me. When God has tried me, I'll come
forth as gold. God's children love the refiner,
love the purifier. He will purify the sons of Levi
and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the
Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah
and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old,
as in the former years. We might close there, but before
we close I'd just like to turn to Luke. It's beautiful, the
consistency and the harmony of the scriptures. Because what
was the first word? The first words after all those
years of waiting. You can read about it in Luke
1 and Zechariah's Holy Spirit inspired response. See Zechariah was found righteous. And Elizabeth, verse 6 of chapter
1 of Luke, they were both righteous before God. How were they righteous
before God? They were righteous with the
righteousness of God that He covered them with because of
the work of His dear Son. walking in all the commandments
and ordinance of the Lord blameless. 400 years, Nehemiah had seen
almost nothing but corruption. God's amazing hand of providence
and grace and mercy, man's activities of corruption and less restrained
by the grace of God. But after all these years, God
still had his people, still had his witnesses. righteous, walking
in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless." What
a great word, blameless before God. And there appeared unto
him an angel of the Lord, a Malachi. Malachi means angel, messenger
of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. corrupted and polluted by wicked
people, but yet still God's place. And Zechariah saw him, he was
troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto
him, Fear not, Zechariah, for thy prayer is heard. And thy
wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and you shall call his
name John. And you shall have joy and gladness,
and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great
in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor
strong drink. He shall be filled with the Holy
Ghost, even from his mother's womb. and many of the children
of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall
go before him in the spirit and in the power of Elijah to turn
the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient
to the wisdom of justice and to make a people prepared for
the Lord. to make a people prepared for
the Lord. They waited 400 years, just half
a day, less than half a day in God's time. We've waited how
long? Two days. Just two days, brothers and sisters. God's timing is perfect. His message is consistent. His
word is faithful and true. And in the midst of the darkness,
in the midst of the depravity, God has His people. God has His
covenant. God must fulfill His word and
His covenant and His promises. And what does it say? What does
Malachi say? The name of the Lord will be magnified. It's
a promise. It's a nice promise to rest in
tonight. Let's pray.