Let us turn once again to the
Word of God and turning to the book of the Prophet Malachi,
the last book of the Old Testament Scriptures, the book of the Prophet
Malachi and reading in chapter 3. I'll read the first 7 verses
of the chapter Malachi 3. From verse 1, Behold, I will
send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. And
the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the
messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall
come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of
his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth?
for he is like a refiner's fire and like full of soap. And he
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And he shall 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 and as in former years. And I will come
near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against
the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false
swearers, and against those that oppress the highling in his wages,
the widow. and the fatherless, and the turn
aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord
of hosts. For I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days
of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have
not kept them. Return unto me and I will return
unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we
return? Well as we come to this particular
portion of God's Word, I really want to center what I say tonight
on that final verse that we've just read here in Malachi 3,
7. even from the days of your fathers
ye are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them return
unto me and i will return unto you saith the lord of hosts but
ye said wherein shall we return at the end there of course we
have the call to repentance but it's interesting to see the context
and that's why i read the previous portion because verses 1 to 6
really contains the promises of God and the promises of His
presence. As we see there in the middle
of the opening verse, the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come
to his temple. God promises His presence. He promises that He will not
only come but He will abide in the midst of His children. And what a presence is that presence
of God that He has spoken of. It's a searching presence. He
is the God of judgment. Verse 2, Who may abide the day
of His coming? Who shall stand when He appeareth?
For He is like a refiner's fire, and like full of soap, and he
shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify
the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they
may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. The image used
then is that of the refiner with his crucible, purifying. is silver, and it's an image
that is often made use of, certainly in the Old Testament scriptures.
We read in Isaiah 31.9 of the Lord whose fire is in Zion and
his furnace in Jerusalem, the place where his people are, is
the place where God will come and do this remarkable work of
refining. And it's taken up several times
by various prophets. For example, in Ezekiel 22 and
there at verse 17 and the following verses we have the word of the
Lord that came on to Ezekiel saying son of man the house of
Israel is to me become dross all they are brass and tin and
iron and lead in the midst of the furnace they are even the
dross of silver Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because they
are all become dross. Behold, therefore, I will gather
you into the midst of Jerusalem, as they gather silver and brass
and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to
blow the fire upon it, to melt it. So will I gather you in mine
anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there and melt you.
Yea, I will gather you and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath,
and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof, as silver is melted
in the midst of the furnace. So shall ye be melted in the
midst thereof, and ye shall know that I, the Lord, have poured
out my fury upon you." How God at times would deal with them,
it would seem, in an extreme manner. He would refine them. He says again in the prophecy
of Isaiah, Behold, I have refined them. but not with silver. I
have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. This is the way
in which God deals with his chosen ones. He has chosen them, he
says, in the furnace of affliction. And so whilst he is coming to
purge them and to cleanse them, yet in a sense he must have a
gracious end in view. It's interesting that verse in
Isaiah 48 and verse 10, Behold I have refined thee, but not
with silver. Dr. Gill comments that the with
should really be among, not among silver. Dr. Gill says that God's
purgings of his people are not on duly long, they're not severe.
God has a good end, a gracious end in due. His presence, though it be a
searching and a sifting presence, yet it is a saving presence,
it's a chastening presence really. And isn't that what we have here
in this particular portion here is the refiner and what does
the refiner do? He has the crucible before him
and as he's applying the heat he's seeking to separate the
dross from the pure metal and he looks into the crucible and
what does he look for? He looks for the reflection of
himself as all the impurities are being separated and tapped
away and taken off. God has a good hand in view,
and certainly the language that we have here in the opening part
of this chapter directs us, doesn't it, to the New Testament, to
the coming of Christ, the Gospel, and Him who is the great forerunner of Christ. Do we not see something of the
ministry of John the Baptist being spoken of? true that it's
the Lord himself who is introduced to us there in the opening verse.
Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way
before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his
temple even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight
in. Behold he shall come saith the
Lord of hosts. There are two persons here there's
that one who is spoken of as the messenger and there's the
other one who is spoken of also as the messenger but they're
two different ministries really that one spoken of at the end
of the verse the messenger of the covenant is a reference to
the Lord Jesus Christ himself who may abide the day of his
coming you shall stand when he appears But the one who is spoken
of at the beginning of the chapter, in the opening clause of that
first verse, the one who prepares the wife, he prepares the wife
for the coming of the Lord. It's that ministry of John the
Baptist. And what a ministry that was.
Remember the language that we have in that lovely passage in
the opening verses of Isaiah chapter 4 It's a word of comforts,
consolation, comforts you. Comforts you, my people, saith
your God. Behold, speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord hand double for all her sins, the voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Here is one who
comes to prepare the way for the coming and the coming of
Christ. He is that one who is the mediator
of the new covenant, the messenger of the covenant. Whom ye delight
in, behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. And he is that one who comes
even refining As I've said, it's a strange passage in many ways.
It's the Lord's chastening judgments that are being spoken of. And
yet, as He is refining, so His end is a good and a great and
a gracious end. He will purify His people. And He sits. He sits watching
over the crucible. He's there all the time. He makes
sure the heat is not too intense. His eye is ever upon his people. He watches over them and he assures
them of his presence. In all this strange ministry
that he's exercising, when thou walkest through the fire thou
shalt not be burned, he says. neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. He will preserve his people.
Verse 6, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob
are not conserved. And all of this is really building
up to the words that I really want to come to this evening
for our text, the language that we have here in verse 7, and
especially that call, that call to repentance. Even from the
days of your fathers ye have gone away from mine ordinances,
and have not kept them. This is why there must be the
refining. And then the call, Return unto me, and I will return
unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we
return? Well, let us come to consider
this particular verse for a while this evening, dealing with some
four headings. and first of all to say something
with regards to the antiquity of their sin the antiquity of
their sin even from the days of your fathers you are gone
away from mine ordinances now it's interesting that Bishop
Usher the great bible chronicler the man who works out the dates. You may have a Bible, an old
Bible, you don't find it in modern Bibles, but old Bibles often
give us dates at the head of the pages, and it's there in
Usher's chronology that we're told that the Earth was made,
what is it, 4004 before Christ. He sought to go through the scriptures
and to work out all these various dates. And the great man that
he was, Archbishop Asher, he says that this man Malachi, this
prophet, was one who was contemporary with Nehemiah. Hence we read
that chapter. Nehemiah 9, the great confession
that is made there as they enter into covenant with the Lord God.
They just returned, of course, from the exile, from the captivity,
and they're engaged in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. And
there's opposition all about them. And it's a remarkable chapter,
really. It was a solemn day. They had
the reading of the law of God. and having read the Lord of God
they make their confessions and we read something of that chapter
and how they recount the history of their fathers from the days
of Moses and the wilderness wanderings even into the days of the judges
when they would rebel against the Lord and yet the Lord would
raise up a saviour, a judge who would come and they'd be delivered
from their enemies But what a tale it is. And of course, these things
are not only recorded there in the Amirah, but also in other
parts of Holy Scripture. In Ezekiel 20, we could read
that, and that speaks of the rebellions of the children of
Israel. Even from the days of your fathers, you are gone away
from mine ordinances. How repeatedly they were guilty
of many sins, turning from the true God and wanting to do what
the nations about them were doing and erecting their own gods, making
idols, just like the vain nations round about them. And then God
would afflict them and send judgments upon them. He would come and
refine them and then there'd be that turning again to the
Lord and the confession of their sins. That was the tale. But
all the antiquity of their sin. When we think of the antiquity
of sin, of course, we have to remember that's true with regards
to every individual on the face of the earth. It's David who
confesses there in Psalm 51, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. But that is true of us all.
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one, we read
in Job 14. Sinful parents give birth to
sinful children. We have sinful natures. Our very
nature, this is the real problem for us, is it not? It's not just
a matter of actual sins. There are actual sins that we're
guilty of. But do we not have to acknowledge
and confess what we are in our very natures? The carnal mind,
enmity against God, not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can we. There's an awful antiquity with
regards to sin. It stretches back. It goes right
back to the beginning, there in the Garden of Eden, the record
that we have in the third chapter of the book of Genesis. The unbelief
of our first parents, the believing of the devil's lie, the rejection
of God's truth, the pride that comes into the hearts of men.
even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances
but not only the antiquity of sin what we see surely here is
also the arrogance the arrogance of their sin they've gone away ye are gone
away says God from mine ordinances and have not kept them How arrogant
they are, and the language that we have at the end of the verse,
wherein shall we return, they say. When God utters that gracious
call, the call to repentance, return unto me, says God, and
I will return unto you. But you said wherein shall we
return? All their sinning is so willful. They determine sinners. And remember
how we need to be kept from such presumptuous sinning as that. We're not to presume with God,
and this is what these people do time and again. The psalmist,
Psalm 19 verse 13, makes that prayer, that petition, keep back
thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Do we ever feel that we
need to pray such a prayer as that? Surely these people were
those who were arrogant in their sinning against the Lord God. utter those words at the end
of verse 7, wherein shall we return? I don't think that we're
to understand that as if they're inquiring of God as to just how
they should return to Him. They're not inquiring in a sincere
fashion. I don't believe that. They're
simply dismissive of Him, really. As we see from what follows in
verse 8, will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me, but ye
say wherein have we robbed thee? How they challenge God. There's willfulness here. There's
presumption. There's arrogance. And we see
that right through the book. This is the people that Malachi
is having to deal with. Look at the language that we
have in the opening chapter. In the second verse, the first
verse, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi,
I have loved thee, or I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet
ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? They challenge what God says. Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord, yet I love Jacob. But they're saying, you see,
all the time, questioning God. We're in as thou loved us. And we see it again at the end
of verse 6. We have the word of the Lord unto the priest that despised
his name. Ye say wherein have we despised
thy name? And then again there in the 7th
verse. Ye offer polluted bread upon
mine altar, and ye say wherein have we polluted it? It's there
at the beginning, it runs through into the 2nd chapter also. There
at verse 14. Yet ye say wherefore? Wherefore, again, how curt they
are with God. In verse 17, ye have wearied
the Lord with your words, but ye say wherein have we wearied
him? Always coming to God, always in their arrogance, daring to challenge the things that he
is commanding of them. In verse 13 of chapter 3, Your
words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say,
What have we spoken so against thee? Ye have said, It is vain
to serve God. And what profit is it that we
have kept his ordinance, that we have walked mournfully before
the Lord our God? O there is not only antiquity
to their sin, their fallen natures, but they are so arrogant in the
way in which they challenge the Word of God and reject the Word
of God. Oh God forbid that we should be guilty of such sins
as these. But then also we have actual
sins being spoken of. And two sins in particular that
are spoken of here They were robbing gods. They were robbing
gods. Will a man rob God is the question
in verse 8. Yet you have robbed me. But you
say wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and in offerings. They were to pay their tithes. Now this was the case clearly
in the days of Nehemiah the governor. If we go back to Nehemiah in
the 13th chapter we have specific mention of them being guilty
in this particular In Nehemiah 13 verse 10, I perceived
that the portions of the Levites had not been given them. For
the Levites and the singers that did the work were fled everyone
to his field. Then contended I with the rulers
and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered
them together and set them in their place. Then brought all
Judah the tithe of the corn, and the new wine and the oil
unto the treasuries. They were not paying those tithes
that were required. That was part of the law of Moses
clearly stated in Deuteronomy chapter 14 at verse 28. They were robbing God. They were
not giving God that portion that He had commanded when He entered
into covenant with them. They were guilty then of actual
sins, but not just robbing God by not paying their dues and
their tithes to the work of the Lord. They were also guilty of
terrible sins with regards to their sacrifices. And right at
the beginning the Prophet makes mention of it. Verse 7 of Chapter
1, He offered polluted bread. upon mine altar. And ye say wherein
have we polluted thee? In that ye say, the temple of
the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for
sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye 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? O how they were guilty here!
with regard to their very sacrifices. They were treating the ordinances
of God's house with complete and utter contempt. God had made it quite clear that
they were to offer all the best of their flocks in sacrifice
unto the Lord. Deuteronomy 17 and verse 1, Thou
shalt not sacrifice to the Lord thy God any bullock or sheep,
wherein is blemish or any ill-favoredness, for this is an abomination unto
the Lord thy God." How do we treat the ordinances of God's
house? We know that we don't have to present bloody sacrifices. Christ has come as the fulfillment
of all those wonderful types and figures that we have in the
Old Testament, but we are to present the sacrifice of praise,
the fruit of our lips, when we come before him with our prayers
and our praises. We're not to despise the house
of God, we're not to despise the ordinances of God's house.
When we think of the table of the Lord, does he not remind
us of what we do month by month when we come together to observe
that holy supper? Are we those who are concerned
that we come in a right spirit, that we prepare ourselves, that
we examine ourselves, that we prove ourselves? Let a man examine
himself, says the Apostle. So let him eat of that bread
and drink of that cup. Or they were guilty, these people,
of actual sins. Are we conscious of our sins,
our actual sins? Do we seek always to give of
our very best unto the Lord? and to His service. Is that our
chief concern that we might do that that is pleasing in His
sight? Here then we see how the Prophet comes and lays before
these people all their many sins, the antiquity of it all, the
fact that they have natures, that are for them because they
are the children of Adam and Eve and they are a people so
arrogant, so presumptuous even the way in which they challenge
the word of God but then we come you see to what we have here
at the end of the verse and this gracious call to repentance There's
not just the antiquity of sin, the arrogance of sin, the actuality
of sin, there's also repentance here. And how necessary is that
repentance? Return unto the Lord, or return unto me, the Lord speaking
through the prophet, return unto me and I will return unto you,
saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said wherein shall we
return? Are we those who are wanting
to hear such a call, such a word, such a commandment coming from
the Lord? He says in verse 9, Ye are cursed
with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. How is it that they were so cursed? Well, look at what we read previously
at the second verse in chapter 2. If ye will not hear, and if
ye will not lay to hearts 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 ye do not lay it to heart." And I would say that what we
have there in that verse is the best of all commentaries on what
we have here in the third chapter at verse 9. The whole nation
cursed with a curse. and why? because they were not
hearing ye will not hear and ye will not lay to hearts to
give glory to my name and so the curse comes upon those who
refuse to hear we see then something of the importance the importance
of hearing it is the mark of the sheep of
the Lord Jesus Christ is it not? my sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish faith cometh by hearing we're reminded of the little
girl who when her mother was giving her instruction and telling
her what she was to do and she didn't do what her mother commanded
and when she was challenged because the mother had spoken to her
and told her she said oh mummy I was I was listening but I didn't
hear are we those who simply listen but we don't really hear
are we those who desire to hear the word of God faith cometh
by heaving and repentance cometh by heaving it's that sense of
hearing that God himself has appointed, isn't it? whereby
he conveys his truth to us he has appointed the ministry
of the word, the preaching of the word he pleases God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe but both faith
and repentance of course stand together and when we think of
the context here and that ministry that's being spoken of in prophecy
the coming of John the Baptist first of all, behold I will send
my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me. What was the ministry of John? It was a ministry of repentance. It was a baptism of repentance. We're here at the end of the
Old Testament, we only have to turn over a few pages into the
first of the Gospels in Matthew And there at the third chapter,
in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of
Judea and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. How important is that repentance,
the call that we have here in the text, return unto me and
I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. What is repentance? It's a turning. It's a turning about. It's such a strong word that
we have when we read the word in the New Testament Scriptures.
I know when we look at the word and examine that word it literally
means of course a change of mind. It's a sense in which one is
going in one direction but there's a change of mind and you go the
completely opposite direction. But it's a strong word because
it indicates such a turning around and a turning upside down and
a turning inside out. It's a fundamental change that
is being commanded in that word repent. And it wasn't just the
ministry of John the Baptist. It was also the ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ. when Jesus began to preach again
there in Matthew 4 and verse 17 from that time Jesus began to
preach and to say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand
oh it's a word of command but you know the wonderful thing
of course is this that what the Lord commands the Lord gives
that's the gospel Lord, there are precepts in the Gospel, there
are commandments in the Gospel, but what the Lord commands, He
gives. The Lord Jesus Christ, there
entering into His own ministry, but what do we relate to concerning
Christ? Him hath got exalted with His
right hand to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness
of sins. He gives repentance. But the call comes in the Gospel,
and we're not to despise it. Again, the language of Romans,
Romans 2 verse 4, "...or despise also the riches of his goodness
and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance that's what we have here surely
as we said at the beginning in these opening verses we have
the goodness of God and it leads up to repentance I am the Lord
I change not therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed all
those searching, sifting, dealings of the Lord. But his people will
be brought to true evangelical repentance. So different to what
we read in the Hebrew epistle concerning the repentance of
Esau, the man who despised his birthright. You know, solemn
are the words that we have in that twelfth chapter of Hebrews. The Apostle speaks of looking
diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God. Lest any
root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many
be defiled. Lest there be any fornicator
or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright. For you know how that afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully
with tears." Oh, the wonder of God's wise ear in the book of
Malachi with these people so arrogant in their dealings with
God, so presumptuous. God is a long-suffering God,
a forbearing God, and that goodness should lead us to true repentance,
but we have the warning of a case like Esau. We need that godly sorrow, that
sorrow that works as repentance unto salvation, not to be repented
of. The sorrow of the world works
death. That's all that we see in Esau,
the sorrow of the world, self-centered, repentance not recognizing the
true repentance centers all together in the Lord Jesus Christ remember
the promise that we have in that 12th chapter of the prophecy
of Zachariah I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication and they will
look upon me whom they have pleased mourn for him as one mourner
for an only son, and be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness
for his firstborn. All that true repentance, it
centers in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the one that we're to
look to. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ that we see the bitter
thing that sin really is. I know I often quote those lines
from the hymn Lord and terrors do but heart and all the while
they work alone but a sense of blood-bored pardon soon dissolves
the heart of stone oh that's where we have to look we have
to seek the Lord we have to return to the Lord isn't that the great
cry that we have again back in the familiar language of Isaiah
in Isaiah 55 verse 6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found
call ye upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his
way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto
the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he
will abundantly pardon all there is forgiveness There is forgiveness
with the Lord that he may be feared. And here the cry, the
call is to return. Return unto me, and I will return
unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But he said, wherein shall we
return? Or that we might make that inquiry,
not in the spirit that we see here, that Malachi was having
to contend with in the days of Nehemiah with those who were
so arrogant in their sin rather be those who would inquire in
the spirits that comes only by the grace of God that we would
desire to know the way wherein we can return how can we repent? how can we believe? We can only
do such as we look to the Lord, as we turn to the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. He's exalted to give repentance. He's that one who is the author
and the finisher of our faith. And so we have to look, and we
have to look, and we have to look, and we have to keep on
looking and crying and calling. or the Lord granting that we
might know something of that blessed spirit, that spirit of
true evangelical repentance, that godly sorrow, that works
repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. Will the Lord be pleased to bless
his word to us? Amen.