chapter 2 tonight and I'd like
to read the first two verses of this chapter and spend a little
time on that second verse of this chapter and the Word of
God says, and now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
If ye will not hear and if ye will not lay 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 ye do not lay it to heart. In another translation it says,
if you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to
give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts. We have seen previously
in this book that the priests were offering very poor offerings
and in this the Lord could see that they did not intend to were
not going to give honor or glory to his name and To give glory
unto his name was to offer the very best that was possible.
And we're gonna find out even in that, it was a very shallow
statement about the glory of God. All the sacrifices that
were ever offered were just a shallow statement about the glory of
God. All the Passovers, all of the
feasts of tabernacles, everything that had gone on under the religion
of the Jews and God had instituted it for them, they paled to give
glory to God like it should be given. Keep your finger here,
but would you turn with me to the book of Luke? In the study
that Brother Mike has been having in the book of Luke, he brought
up a verse Well, it was just really good to be reminded of
it, and that's about Zacharias in chapter one of the book of
Luke. There's a very interesting statement
made about Zacharias and his wife. Luke chapter one, verse
five. There was in the days of Herod,
the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the
course of Abiah, His wife was the daughter of Aaron and her
name was Elizabeth now notice verse 6 and they were both righteous
before God Walking in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blameless Now Zacharias and Elizabeth both
would confess to us if they came in here and were put on the spot. Testifying about this, they would
say, it was not our righteousness. It was the Lord's righteousness,
and it was not our blamelessness. It was his blamelessness. He
kept the law perfectly, and he is able to give to us the credit,
or impute to us that righteousness that he did. Now, as a result
of this, when we find that Zacharias is gonna go into the temple,
let's drop down to verse nine, Zacharias, it came to pass that
while he executed the priest's office. Now I just see Zacharias
when he went in there to do what he was called on to do and that
was to offer this incense. He went in there with the best
frame of mind possible to honor God because he was honoring God,
recognizing that the Lord Jesus Christ was all his righteousness
and that his blood was all that was keeping him from heaven or
hell. It was the blood and righteousness
of Christ. So when he went in there, he's
doing a much better job offering this incense than these priests
over here in the day of Malachi that had no love for God, had
no righteousness, had no keeping of the commandments of the Lord
as it tells us about them. Now, Zacharias and Elizabeth
would both say, I don't know when I kept the commandments.
I know what I am. I'm weak and feeble. My frame
is of flesh. But the scripture tells us, and
they could go right along with it just as you and I do if we
know Christ, that He is the blameless one and He's kept all the commandments
for us and we have nothing to keep. We can't keep it. We have
nothing to make. We can't make it. So Zacharias
goes in there with the best intentions possible to give glory to the
Lord in the service that he was doing, and he was not doing it
to get credit. Credit had already been accounted
to him. The righteousness of Christ.
He didn't go in there to get better. He's already the best
in the eyes of God because of Christ. So he was righteous. He kept all the commandments
as is declared there in that verse, and then he goes in and
he serves. And even in what we might say the most insignificant
part of the service, He had a true love and respect for Almighty
God and he did what he could to the best of his ability as
unto the Lord and not to gain credit on his own part. So we
notice here that these priests in the days of Malachi, they
were just exactly the opposite. They were proud of what they
were doing. They had no love for God. They had no interest
in God. They had no interest in keeping
His commandments. And they would be the first to
say, I've done it all. I've done it all. In truth, all
the services, sacrifices, altars, days, moons, and drink offerings
that were ever offered were very inadequate to give glory to God. They could not really declare
the glory of God. There was no mercy in the law. but God has mercy for his people,
and that truly is glorious. The total reliance upon the Lord's
blood and righteousness could do what was required, and that
was to trust Christ. Now, the folks by nature cannot
give glory to his name. By nature, we can't give glory
to his name. And the pictures and the types
and the shadows could not tell them of the glory of his name. All the sacrifices that they
offered, and they would accept polluted sacrifices, they would
accept sacrifices that were defiled, they would accept sacrifices
that were broken and halt and maimed. All of those sacrifices
that they were offering, even at the best, could not declare
the glory of God. To the name of the glory of God
they were only types and shadows at best, but when they were offering
the worst What a polluted offering it had truly become and reflected
greatly about their heart and their condition before God they
couldn't they couldn't do that not alone offer incense like
Zacharias did and Zacharias is declared by the Holy Spirit in
the book of Luke righteous Blameless, keeping all the commandments
of God. What a statement made in that
verse about those two folks. And that's the statement made
about the church throughout all ages. Blameless. Righteous. Knowing the mercy of God. Turn
with me, if you would, to the book of John. Now the problem
is man's, it's not God's, it's man's problem is not with God,
but with the folks. And in the book of John chapter
12, John chapter 12, we find that the statement is
made here. It's a quotation from the old
Testament from the book of Isaiah. And like a number of verses of
scripture of recent, we've seen a number of folks go to this
passage of scripture because it has so influenced us. And here in the book of John,
chapter 12, verse 37, it says, But though he had done so many
miracles before them, John chapter 12 verse 37, but though he had
done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on
him. It wasn't the miracles. never
has been and never will be the miracles that convince anybody
of anything. Goes on to say that the saying
of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled. Who gave the word
to Isaiah? We could really say the word
of the Lord being fulfilled. Which he spake, Lord, who hath
believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been
revealed. Therefore, they could not believe. And if you cannot
believe, you cannot give glory to God or to his name. Unbelievers
can't do it. If we can't believe. Now, the
church is going to have to say, well, I can't do it. But the
word says, the Lord says, I've done it for you. It's the faith
of Christ. It's the faith given to the elect
of God. It goes on and tells us there,
In John chapter 12 verse 39, therefore they could not believe
because that Isaiah saith again, he hath blinded their eyes and
hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes
nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should
heal them. These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory
and spake of him. Isaiah chapter six. I saw the
Lord high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. I saw His glory, and He could
speak of that glory. Only those who are believers
can speak of the glory of God, and we don't talk about the rays
of light that come from Him. We don't talk about a position
that He has. We talk about what He has done
on our behalf. The glory of God is found in
the blood and righteousness of Christ. It's the fulfillment
of the eternal purpose of the covenant of grace. We glory in
Christ Jesus and what He's done on our behalf. He did what we
could not do. He did what we couldn't perform.
And we glory in that. And when we glory in the righteousness,
the blood and righteousness of Christ, we're honoring the Father
because He's the one that declared that He gave a gift to the Son.
The purpose was laid out in the covenant of grace. And we say
sometimes that it was the Father that thought it. Well, when we
give glory to the Son and His blood and righteousness, we're
giving honor and glory to the Father for His great task of
bringing this up in the covenant of grace. I'm not sure about
all that happened there. But I know this, that when we
honor the Lord Jesus Christ for his work of grace, for his work
of salvation, for his work of righteousness, we are honoring
the Godhead, we're honoring the Father, we're honoring the Son,
and we're honoring the Holy Spirit. And the Father and the Son seem
to step in the back just a little and say, you honor the Son, you're
honoring us. It flows on us. We catch that. because it is the work of Christ
that brought this salvation. The Father had worked it out
in the covenant of grace and the Holy Spirit said I'll bring
and make it effectual in the lives of the elect. And when
Christ is honored, they are honored. We just can glory in that. In the book of Acts chapter 13,
Acts chapter 13, we find the problem. That was the problem
with those priests in Malachi's day. Now it's gonna go on and
say God's already Going to bring dishonor upon them The responsibility is to give
honor to my name Only the church has ever been
given the privilege of doing that here in the book of Acts
chapter 13 We find it beginning with verse 39 Acts chapter 13
verse 39 and by him the Lord Jesus All that believed are justified
from the things from which ye could not be justified by the
law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that
come upon you which was spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye
despisers, and wander and perish, for I work a work in your days,
a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you. In those days, it was declared
unto them. We didn't believe it. They didn't believe it. It's
been declared today. It will be declared tomorrow.
And that's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And because
of unbelief, they have no hope in God, no hope in Christ. They have only hope in themselves.
And he says, as we read there, justified from all things, could
not be justified by the law of Moses. You know, if folks cannot
be justified by the law of Moses, and if there are no justified,
if they're not justified, they cannot glory his name. They attempted
to keep the law, they failed miserably, it's brought up here
that they couldn't keep the law, and you know what? If we can't
say, as Zacharias has written about him, that Christ kept the
commandments for us, We cannot glory in His name. We're still
trying to glory in ourselves. So to glory in His name. In the
book of Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. The requirement
is to glory in His name. And here in Romans chapter 8
verse 3. Romans chapter 8 and verse 3.
It says, for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through
the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. The law could
not do it, and if they were not obedient to the law, they could
not give glory to God. The law was harsh, hard, unmerciful. No righteousness in it. There
was no way to obey it. God never intended anybody to
obey it. He set the standard so high that
nobody could obey it. Moses couldn't obey it. Aaron
couldn't obey it. There's only one that has ever
walked the face of the earth that could obey it, and we know
him as the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we cannot keep the law,
we cannot glory in his name. If it cannot be said that someone
has imputed his righteousness to us because of his shed blood,
we cannot glory in his name. There's nothing we can do about
it. We can't glory in the righteousness of God if we don't know his righteousness.
We can't glory in his greatness if we don't know him as the great
God, the Savior. So this statement that he made
to those priests so long ago, I'm calling on you to your heart. Glory in my name. And they looked
at each other and said, I thought that's what we were doing. As
they offered polluted sacrifices. God is going to let them know
that's not where it is. That's not where it is. In the
book of Hebrews, chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews chapter
3. Beginning with verse 16. For some, Hebrews chapter 3 verse
16, for some, when they had heard. That's an interesting statement. For some, when they had heard.
Now, if it's like religion has it, We say, well, boy, we can
just talk them into it. God said, when they heard, the
next statement is made, when they heard, did provoke. Howbeit
not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he
grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had
sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? To whom swear
he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that
believed not? So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief. So we have to say they could
not enter in and if he cannot believe they cannot give glory
to God Unbelievers cannot give glory to God. They're glorying
in themselves. They're glorying in their works
They're glorying in their righteousness and that's exactly opposite of
what it is to glory in the name of the Lord To glory in the name
of the Lord is to give honor and due to a God who has found
out through the covenant of grace. And I use that word found out
probably inappropriately. He declared in the covenant of
grace, this is how God can be just and justifier. This is how God can require payment
and give forgiveness. This is how God can declare righteous
the unrighteous, to make innocent the guilty. He came up with this
very special purpose of grace, and if we cannot glory in that,
we're not glorying and honoring God in the least. Scriptures
have several things to say about what it is to glory God in God
in his name We'd like to look at a few of those verses of Scripture.
One of them was found in stop Psalm 96 Psalm 96 Psalm 96 verse
7 Psalm 96 and verse 7 says give
unto the Lord. Oh Ye kindreds of people give
unto the Lord glory and strength Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name Bring an offering and come into his courts The
only offering that we have that is viable at all is the offering
of Thanksgiving We can't offer anything else
And the Lord is the one that makes us thankful and enables
us to offer the offering of thanksgiving. But we have a requirement placed
upon us, and that is to give glory unto His name. And the only way we can do that
is to honor the purpose of grace, to honor the God of mercy, to
honor the God of forgiveness, To honor the God that has taken
care of it all. To honor the God that has worked
it all out. The one that has done all the
work is to honor Him. To honor His name. Restraining nothing. Holding
back nothing. We have nothing to give of our
own. In the book of Psalms 115. Psalm 115. Again, the subject
is brought up. Psalm 115 and verse one. Two things in here truly speak
about how we can give honor and glory to the name of God It says
they're not unto us. Oh Lord not unto us But unto
thy name give glory For thy mercy and for thy truth's sake For
thy mercy To cry out for mercy is admitting that we have a problem
and a problem so serious that we cannot take care of it ourselves.
The problem is imprisonment. The problem is we've been put
under the prison of sin. We fell in Adam. Adam's sin was
imputed to us. So when we cry out for mercy,
we can only do that after we're regenerated, but a person who
cries out for mercy is admitting a great deal about themselves.
I'm a sinner saved by grace. And then as truth's sake, God
is not honored if his truth is not honored. God's name is not
honored if his truth is not honored. God's purpose is not honored
if his word is not honored. It must be there. We must say,
I don't understand it all, but by the grace of God, I believe
it all. It is to believe God in every
capacity, in every word, and we can only do that as it's given
to us. But to give honor and glory to
his name is to completely say, I know you are the only one that
could give mercy, and you are the only one that has truth,
and keep me from going back to my own thoughts on this. By nature,
we have it all figured out. And we get involved in some kind
of religion to take care of it. But when God saves us, It's His
truth that is most important. It's not where we go, what branch,
what group, whatever. It is Christ and Christ alone. So to give honor to His name
is to trust His mercy and to believe His truth. In the book
of Isaiah chapter 48, Isaiah chapter 48, and some will say,
how can we do that? How can we do those two things?
by grace and grace alone. Isaiah chapter 48, verse 11. For mine own sake, even for my
own sake will I do it. For how should my name be polluted
and I will not give my glory unto another? They were, how
many times we find in the Old Testament that even the Jews
and then the Samaritans got involved in it too. We've got this object. The woman at the well, we've
got this object. The Jews, we've got a mercy seat. We've got an altar. We've got
a seven candlestick thing, lamp stand. We've got an altar of
incense. What are you telling me? They're
worthless. They're pictures, types and shadows alone. And
they point to one who you should be giving honor to, who you should
be bowing before. And God's going to require that.
Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to the glory
of God the Father. Confess the Lord Jesus to the
glory of God the Father. He will extract that. How pleasant
it is in this day, in gospel times, that God would move upon
a people and they would be glad to glory in the name of God and
honor him for the work of grace, and for the mercy of the gospel,
and for the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, and that all
has been taken care of in him, and it is upon us to just thank
God for it. Nothing else we can do but thank
God. Offer the offering of thanksgiving for all that he's done on our
behalf. In the book of Revelation, taking
the other side for just a moment, Revelation chapter 16. Revelation
chapter 16. I will say this again, the book
of Revelation is worth reading. It is the book of the Lamb. The
Lord Jesus is called the Lamb, the Lamb of God, more times in
the book of Revelation than all of the New Testament put together.
It talks about, shares with us, and declares a victorious lamb. The victorious lamb of God. He
will get his way. He will do all his work. He will redeem all his people. He will have them all sitting
before him throughout eternity. He will accomplish everything
that God intended to be done in the work of redemption. Here
in the book of Revelation, chapter 16, verse 8 and 9, notice these
words. And the fourth angel poured out
his vial upon the son, and the power was given unto him to scorch
men with fire. Now remember, this is figurative
language. Figurative language, but look at what is written here.
You'd think, if this could happen literally, it's not going to
happen literally, but if it happened literally, if it happened spiritually,
you would think that people would turn to God and give him glory. Look at the next verse. If God
does not have grace upon us, If God does not allow us to hear
the gospel, if God does not move in us for his own purpose of
grace, look, and the men were scorched with great heat, they
heard the gospel, it may have torn them from shiver to timber,
but Lotus, here, without grace, and blasphemed the name of the
Lord, which hath power over these plagues, and they repented not
to give him glory. Why weren't people saved under
the law? God never intended it. He brought plagues upon them. He brought the Babylonian captivity. Do you think that changed one
person's mind about God? Those who hated him still hated
him, and those who loved him said, this is because of God. Someone said, if God was a God
of love, that's not my God. All sorts of things. And here,
gospel goes out like a fire. And do you think people on their
own would repent? They blaspheme God and say, it
ain't fair. Well, would you turn with me
to the book of Luke 17? Luke chapter 17, there's a very
interesting passage of scripture here about ten lepers. And we see one of them gave honor
to his name. God blesses the just as well
as the unjust. He sends rain on the just as
well as the unjust. He sends the sun on the just
as well as the unjust. He blesses everybody on this
earth in so many ways, physically. I'll never forget going into
a classroom and I had that black coat I wore tonight and one of
the kids says, you must be rich. And I said, do you live in a
house? Yeah. Did you have breakfast? Uh-huh.
Are you going to have lunch? Yes. Will you have supper when
you get home? Uh-huh. Do you have clothes to
wear? Uh-huh. I says, with regard to 90% of
the world, you're rich. Physically. God has blessed so much. Not just here. but in some far
off countries too where they don't have much. He's still blessed.
God is just to snuff out every life on this earth. Here in the book of Luke chapter
17 beginning with verse 11, and it came to pass as he went to
Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
And you could just put right there on purpose. He never took a step except on
purpose. And as he entered into the certain
village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood
afar off. That was required by the law. And they lifted up their voices
and said, Jesus Master, have mercy on us. It reminds me, as
we go through here, how many will say in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not done so many mighty works in thine name? Here we
have one that meant what he said, Jesus Master, and we have nine
that said it, just to go along with the choir. And when he saw
them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priests.
That was required by the law. Only the priest. could declare
someone clean. And it came to pass that as they
went, they were cleansed. Ten lepers, cleansed of leprosy.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back
and with a loud voice glorified God. Fell down on his face at his
feet Giving him thanks and he was a Samaritan Fell down at
his feet glorified God and fell down at God's feet the Lord Jesus
Giving him thanks There's no greater way than to honor his
name Than to do what this man did
when God did what He did. When God heals us spiritually,
there's no greater place. In fact, we will be drawn as
a gnat to the flame. We'll be drawn to Christ. We'll
be dragged to Christ. When He does His work, there
will be no going on in another direction. You cannot continue
on. You must come to Christ. That's it. And Jesus answered
and said, Where there are not ten cleansed, but where are the
nine? There are not found that return
to give glory to God, save the stranger. A Samaritan, half Jew, outcast, halt, a maimed, a blind, a sinner
that had leprosy, which was a truly a symbol in that day and time,
as well as throughout the history of the disease as a picture of
sin. And he said unto him, Arise,
go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Now what did he do?
He gave glory to God. A Samaritan gave glory to God,
and that's exactly what God commanded in the book of Malachi chapter
2. And yet, those hearts could not turn. They had no ability
to turn. In fact, they got harder just
as we read over in the book of Revelation. When the heat came,
they blasphemed God and repented not. That's the natural thing
to do. What's the unnatural thing to
do? God work a work of grace. We're brought to our knees before
a thrice holy God and say, my Lord and my God. All of grace,
God's mercy extended to us. And we can then offer the sacrifices
of praise, the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and with no thought
at all, of gaining credit. Think about those words written
about Zacharias and Elizabeth. Perfect, righteous, keeping all
the commandments. And they're the first ones that
would say, wasn't me, but Christ in me.