in the last book of the Old Testament,
the book of Malachi. Malachi chapter one, and we'd
like to read verses three, four, and five, and make some comments. I mentioned earlier that it is
such a blessing to get together with Jacobs. We deal with Esau's
every day. We deal with Edomites every day. They're the folks that sell us
the gas, they're the folks that provide the milk and the bread.
By and large, not to say that there aren't some Jacobs that
do that, but by and large, we deal with Esau's. And in this
passage of scripture, we find the blessing was given to Jacobs,
and it's good to be around Jacobs. I shared with the church down
in California, when I go to church, I get to visit with living folks. When I'm out in the world, I'm
dealing with a lot of dead folks, dead in trespasses and sin. But
I get to go to church, I get to be with living folks, folks
that love the Lord God Almighty, those who have been changed by
the grace of God, those who love the truth of the gospel. So here
in the book of Malachi, we've looked at verse 2, the latter
part, yet I have loved Jacob. Malachi chapter 1, the last phrase
of verse 2, and this is verse 3, and I hated Esau, and laid
his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the
wilderness. Or in other words, we might say
for the coyotes to run across. Now, the Lord dealt with Esau
as he deals with lost people. This is a picture, this is a
type, this is a shadow. Now he truly did deal with the
Edomites, with the Esauites severely because they supported the downfall
of Judah and Benjamin. They supported them being taken
up into captivity and God truly Oppress them for that in fact
it says here in verse 4 whereas Edom saith we are impoverished
they were truly brought low and Yet we find in the middle of
this but we will return and build the desolate places That to me
is interesting language from these Edomites, from these Esauites,
as they have been so impoverished, so put upon, and yet they are
going to be determined to build something. And we run into that
in our own life before the Lord saved us. We're going to build
our righteousness. We're going to build our works. And that's where we're kind of
headed tonight. But let's finish that verse.
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 call them the
border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord
hath indignation forever. And your eyes shall see and ye
shall see the Lord will be magnified from border of Israel. In everything God shall be magnified. He will be glorified in everything
he does because he does everything well. We as human beings often
look, and particularly in our religion, we often look at God
as being the ornery guy. And yet we find out in salvation
he has never done anything wrong. I've had relatives, and I've
probably said it too in religion, well if there is a God that loves
people, why does that happen? Well, we never ever in that condition
go back to the source of the problem, and that's the fall. And God is merciful to deliver
some out of the mess. He doesn't leave them all in
the mess. Well, he makes a division between
Jacob and Esau here. They were twins. They had the
same parents, the same grandparents, and yet God said, this one, before
the world ever began, before they had done any good or evil,
before they'd made any decision, before they'd heard anything,
I love Jacob. And before the other one had
done any good or evil, before he had ever said a word, I hated
Esau. The commentators will drop right
in there and you can tell the ones that don't believe in God,
a sovereign God, and they'll say, well, that really means
he didn't care for him as much or he didn't love him as much.
That's not the meaning of the word. God is not to be tried to be understood. So let's
leave it at that. All right. The condition of Edom
spiritually. is reflected in these verses.
He is void of grace. There is no grace. Now there
is providential grace in the sense that he reigned on Edom
as well as on Jacob. He sent his sunshine on Edom
as well as on Jacob. But when it comes to spiritual
grace, there is none there. He never makes an Edomite into
a Jacob. He never takes a goat and makes
them into sheep. He never takes the those who
were not written down in the Lamb's Book of Life and because
they groveled enough, he's gonna move a name over and squeeze
them in. That is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible does things
as he sees fit. The seed of the woman and the
seed of the serpent are in their nature so directly opposed to
each other that they cannot possibly have an agreement. Let me say
that again. The seed of the serpent and the
seed of the woman are so directly opposed to themselves that they
have no place for agreement. I don't know how many times in
30 years this church was invited to join a group of preachers
here in town. We just couldn't do it because
there was no agreement. I told a preacher one time, the
only thing we can agree on is bologna sandwiches and I don't
like today's bologna. That's the only agreement we'd
have. We couldn't agree on anything in the word. So there's no need
to go into that. So the seed of the woman and
the seed of the serpent, they are this way. They never can
be. Would you turn with me over to
the book of 2 Corinthians? 2 Corinthians chapter 6. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6, we
have these words left to us by the apostle Paul As he writes
the glories of Christ, he shares these words with us, 2 Corinthians
6, and there in verse 14. 2 Corinthians 6, and verse 14,
the scripture says, but ye, be ye not unequally yoked together. Now, so often that is just don't
marry a lost woman, don't marry a lost man. Well, that's good
advice. I can tell you from experience
that's good advice. But that's not the only thing
that's being brought up in this verse of scripture. Be not unequally
yoked together. You cannot put an ox and a donkey
in the same harness. You cannot put a sheep and a
goat in the same harness. There is no agreement when it
comes to spiritual things. Now we work with people that
we work with and most of them are lost people and we work together. We work together on a physical
sense, but when it comes to spiritual things, we have no agreement
with someone that teaches that we're saved by works. There is
absolutely nothing to agree on. So he says, be not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers, What fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? How can we get along? When it
comes to spiritual things, how can we get along in church? Now
most, well let me see, all people that have ever been saved kind
of fit in that category and we invite them to church. I would
invite anybody to this church. It's the only place that I know
of where they're going to hear the truth of the gospel. But
they're not going to be in the pulpit. They're not going to
be teaching a class. You will not believe the number
of people that have offered to fill positions in this church. One man, after he visited one
time, said, I'd like to have coffee. And then he tells me,
you just don't know what a blessing I would be to your group. We're
already starting on the wrong foot. The Lord produces humility. weightability. That's what the
Lord produces. So, what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with
darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? So there's just, when it comes
to spiritual things, we are diametrically opposed. Someone comes along
and says, you have to keep Saturday. Someone comes along and says,
you have to have the mass. Someone comes along and says,
well, we're saved by just making a decision for Jesus. Last night
I listened to an old message by Roth Barnard. And I looked
up Roth Barnard on the internet, and you can do the same thing.
And it brought up this article that this guy wrote about Roth
Barnard being a heretic. Because Rolf Barnard believed
when someone's saved, Christ becomes their Lord. And this
goes on and says in this article, that you can be saved and have
a Savior, but you don't necessarily have to have Him as Lord, because
that's when you become a disciple. My friend, if we don't become
saved and a disciple at the same time, you can't have the first
without the second. That's just the way it is. Rothbarder
was telling it right. Everybody comes along and says,
he's wrong, he's wrong, he's wrong. Why? Because they don't have
the light. That's all there is to it. They
just don't have the light. So he tells us that. Now, there's
an interesting passage in the book of Ezra. We're going to
run into it in our studies on Sunday morning, eventually. But
would you turn back there to the book of Ezra chapter four?
We're dealing with Jacob's and Esau's So often Esau is called
Edom or Edomites and in the book of Ezra chapter 4 Ezra chapter
4 verse 1 Ezra chapter 4 and verse 1 we have this statement
made here Now when the adversaries that's how this chapter begins
when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children
of the captivity builded the temple of the Lord God of Israel. Then they came to Zerubbabel
and to the chief of the fathers and said unto them, let us build
with you. Now it's interesting that the
very first verse of this chapter says when the adversaries of
Judah and Benjamin, and now they come in and see some activity
going on, It just reminded me of Brother Lance sharing with
us that his dad and mother had some property for a church building
over there where they were, and Lance and Robin go over there
to visit, and there's a group of people that have taken it
over and says, we'll take this property. Religious people sent
from America and stealing the property. Adversaries of the
Lord. adversaries of Benjamin and Judah,
adversaries of the gospel. Notice here, we want to join
with you. We want to be part of you. They came to Zerubbabel
and to the chief of the fathers, verse two, chapter four, verse
two, and said unto them, let us build with you, for we seek
your God as you do, and we do sacrifice unto him since the
days of Ezra Haddon, king of Asshur, which brought us up hither. But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and
the rest of the chief of the fathers said unto them, now this
just reminds me of that passage that we heard Sunday over there
in Philippians, beware of dogs. Beware of dogs who bring in concision
and don't talk about salvation. They bring in mutilation instead
of salvation. He says, ye have nothing to do
with us to build a house unto our God. Can you imagine the
modern day preacher saying to 200 people that want to join
with them, we want to come and help you, what would happen?
Welcome. as long as you tithe. And here, these folks say, you
don't have any part of this. You have nothing to do with us
to build a house unto our God, but we ourselves together will
build unto the Lord God of Israel as King Cyrus, the King of Persia,
hath commanded us. We'll do it. and we don't need
your help because you are an adversary. You don't agree with
our God, you don't agree with the project, you don't agree
with us, and you've shown that off. Then the people of the land
weakened the hands of the people of Judah. We can't work with,
you're not gonna allow us to work? We'll make sure that we
interfere then. troubled them in building and
hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all
the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius,
king of Persia." Well, they were adversaries. They want to get
involved so they can leave the mortar out of the building. They
cannot make it so it falls down sooner and all the other things
that go along when you mix law and grace. In the book of Galatians,
would you turn way over to the New Testament with me again?
The book of Galatians chapter four. The book of Galatians chapter
four. There in verses 22 through 31,
Galatians chapter four, verses 22. It's a historic fact that Abraham
had two sons. One by Hagar and one by his wife. After she died, he married again
and had some more, but they are paid off and they're never mentioned
again. But these two sons are brought
up a number of times in the New Testament, as it is written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid and the other by
a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh. but he that was the free woman
was by promise. Now there's a lot of significance
in that verse of scripture, because God brings that out over there
in the book of Malachi chapter one, when he talks about Jacob's
and Esau's. One is born by a free woman,
free in Christ. The other is born in bondage. And what it's going to build,
even though God has said you are dead in trespasses and sin,
These folks will all say, well, we can build our own righteousness. And God said, eventually, I'll
tear that down too. For these are the two covenants,
the one of Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is
Agar, verse 25. For this Agar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, and entereth to Jerusalem, which now is, as it is, bondage
with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written,
Rejoice thou barren that bearest not, break forth and cry thou
that travailest not, for the desolate hath many more children
than she that hath a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. But as then, he that is born
after the flesh persecuteth him that is born after the Spirit,
even so it is now." It was in the days of Ezra. It was in the
days of Moses. The family caused him lots of
problems. They were Esauites right in the
middle of some Jacobs. You take too much on yourself.
We're here to help. I like what brother David Pledger
said when a man came to his church and says, I'm here to help you.
And David just said, I don't, I I'm here to help you out. And
David said, I don't want out. I don't want out. How often that
is, that people have the idea that we're gonna give them a
position. Nevertheless, what saith the
scripture, verse 30, cast out the bondwoman and her son, for
the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir of the son of the
free woman. So then, brethren, we are not
children of the bondwoman, but of free. It tells us there in
verse 29, but as then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted
him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now." The mountains
were laid low over there in the book of Malachi chapter 1, and
then Edom says, we are impoverished, but we will build again. God
said, they may rebuild, but I'm going to demolish that too. building their own righteousness,
building their own merit, and building their own self-love. The Word of God is an absolute
truth when it mentions in Psalm 127 and verse 1, except the Lord
build the house. They labor in vain that build
it. except the Lord build a house.
Back there in the days of Ezra, those folks wanted to come in,
they were Samaritans. Now it doesn't mean all Samaritans
are lost because we have a woman who was a Samaritan, says she's
the child of Abraham. But they came in with the idea
that they're going to help with the thought that they will be
take over eventually. Except the Lord build a house,
they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the
city, the watchman watches in vain. So here's what God had
to say about it. I will let them build, but I
will tear it down. Edom has had only a mechanical
obedience. And when I heard that phrase,
I said, that is what I had. It was mechanical obedience. It wasn't anything from the heart.
It was only trying to be, what we're going to find out, a fair
show of the flesh. Mechanical. And obedience, when
we are born again, is spiritual. I want to serve the Lord. I want
him as my king. I want to be a good servant of
the king, not for reward and not for payment, but because
I love him. He has loved me with an eternal
love and I love him because he first loved me, but I don't intend
any pay for this because there's nothing I can do that marriage
pay or reward. It's just out of service and
and love for God. God's word declares that he does
not approve of building materials that Esau was willing to use. Self, we will build. I appreciate what I heard. This is not our work. This is God's work. The moment we make it our work,
we've got interfered. It's God's work. He's the one
that makes it work. He will not accept them. He will
knock down their buildings and the buildings of Esau because
they have no interest in God. Esau had no interest in God.
He sold his birthright. He sold his blessing. He could
have cared less. The only thing that bothered
him was he wasn't going to get all the money he thought he was
going to get. He could have cared less about spiritual blessings.
I'm just not going to inherit like I thought I would. Well,
turn with me, if you would, to the book of Matthew chapter 23.
Matthew chapter 23. In Matthew chapter 23, The Lord mentions seven woes
against Pharisees and scribes and blind people, Matthew chapter
23. Matthew chapter 23, and in this
we find that the ultimate thing that God held against them was
that they undermine the necessity of Jesus Christ as Savior. We have a lot of more important
things than that. When we get the idea that, oh,
we're saved, now we're going to go on to the deeper things.
There's nothing deeper than Christ. He is the issue. These labored
to undermine the necessity of salvation by Christ. They undermine
the teaching of a righteousness of Christ and one of their own,
denying the fall of man. They denied the total sinfulness
of man, the necessity of grace and recovery from the fall, and
fought against the kingdom of grace. These here in Matthew
chapter 23. Now the Lord is teaching a whole
group, but in the middle of that, he's teaching his disciples.
That's what's important. Matthew chapter 23, then speak
Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples. And he is going
to pronounce some woes here, and he's going to share some
things about those dogs that are brought out in Philippians
chapter 3. Beware of dogs. Mike has mentioned
a number of times in the Book of Romans. It's brought up, beware
of these folks. Keep an eye out for these folks.
These are the folks that are going to try to come in and try
to help, but in so doing, they're going to try to destroy. saying,
the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. What's that mean?
They're in his seat of authority. We're speaking for Moses. You
know what? It says, by faith Moses, but
these folks don't have that written about them. All therefore, whosoever
they bid you You observe, that observe and do, but do not yet
after their works, for they say and do not. These folks that
are mentioned in here, as the Lord would put his church on
guard against these false teachers, they have the idea that they
are in authority, and that they are the most important, and you
bow. In the church, Jesus said, there
are no big I's and little u's. The ground is flat at the cross.
And he's going to go on in here and share it. If people demand
that they be called doctor or rabbi or father, there's a mark
against them right there. Let's go. Verse four, for they
bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on men's
shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of
their fingers. We're going to make sure that
you are bound to us. But all their works they do for
to be seen of men. Another thought the Lord brings
up about Edomites, Esauites. They're going to be noted because
they want their works to be shown often. They want to be seen of
men. For all their works they do to be seen of men, they make
broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their
garments. This is what Edom said, though we have been oppressed,
we're gonna come back and build. And this is the brick and mortar
we're gonna use. You're gonna be imposed upon,
we're gonna be important, and we like to be seen, and we like
to pray out loud in public, And we like to have our phylacteries,
we like to have our signs, we like to have the Ten Commandments
out in the yard, we like you to know that we are religious.
For all their works they do to seed of men, they make broad
their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments.
Now phylacteries were little boxes and they hung on the front
and they had little verses of scripture in them so that you
could be sure that they were really holy men. and love the
uppermost rooms at the feast, and the chief seats in the synagogues. They want the most important
spot, and greetings in the markets to be called them in, oh, rabbi,
rabbi. I've been standing in line at
the grocery store and hear someone call father. It's not a little child calling
someone. He goes on to say, but be not
called rabbi. Don't be called reverend. Don't
be called rabbi. Don't be called father. Don't
be called these titles. The church has no room for titles
except for one, Lord Jesus Christ. Call no man your father upon
earth for one is your father which is in heaven Now that doesn't
mean that we can't call our physical dad father That means you never
look at a man as the person who saved you Neither be called masters for
one is your master even Christ But he that is greatest among
you shall be servant, and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be
abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Now
verse 13, as the Lord Jesus deals with the building material of
the Edomites, we're gonna build. Oh, the Lord said, unless the
Lord builds a house, you're laboring in vain. It won't work. It will
not stand. They that built upon the sand,
when the wind came and the storm came, it fell, and great was
the fall thereof, because it is not held together by the mortar
of God. But woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of God. You
As far as they could, they shut up the kingdom. Now, you can't
shut anybody that God intends to put in and out. But none of
these folks ever encourage anybody to enter the kingdom of God.
Now, enter religion, yes. But enter the kingdom of God.
And what does that mean? To be born again. The average
person, when you ask them what it is to be born again, you know
what they're going to tell you? When I trusted Jesus, I was born
again. No, it's the other way around.
When you are born again, then you can trust Jesus. Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses
and for a pretense make long prayer. They steal people blind. Most religion is economics. Steal people blind and then act
holy. Woe to the scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you can pass the sea and land to make one
proselyte. That's one thing God's people
have never wanted to do, is make a proselyte. We don't want to
make Baptists. We don't want to make Baptists.
We want God to make Christians. That's the goal. God, make them
like you. We're not in it to make, we're
not trying to get church members. We want God to save people. These
folks, one proselyte, and they're, what's it say, twofold more child
of hell than themselves. Because boy, now they're important
and they really have the message. We can go out and make another
one, and there it goes around the world. Well, these labored
to undermine the necessity of salvation by God. Edomites. will never adhere to salvation
by grace. Edomites will never adhere that
God is the sovereign king of the universe. Edomites will build
their own house out of wood, hay, and stubble. God spoke not
against their immorality. God never brought up their immorality
here. Oh, you're living like the devil. No, they were very
Outside, we're very clean. In fact, he says, you know, the
outside is pretty white, but the inside's full of dead man's
bones. The outside's pretty clean, but the inside is full of corruption. We don't eat off the back of
the plate. We eat off of the top of the plate, and that's
full of corruption. And as much pain as you put on
a grave, it's still got a dead man in it. And he goes through
all of that. They didn't believe they were
dead. They didn't believe in, they
were totally depraved. They didn't believe they were
dead in trespasses and sin. God spoke not against their immorality,
and he did not against their lack of public or private worship.
My goodness, they were down in the synagogue or the temple all
the time, and they had their own private times. Didn't find any fault with that. Not against their common vices.
Boy, we all have vices. Never brought out a word about
that. What do you speak out against? Their openness of their undermining
the necessity of salvation by Christ. If that is taken care
of by God, then the rest of it falls in place. They're teaching
a righteousness of their own and not the righteousness of
Christ, and denying the absolute sinfulness of mankind. They denied
it. in every act that they performed. And when they made a proselyte,
the proselyte was caused to believe exactly the same thing. So, Edom
said, I know we're desolate, but we're going to build again.
And what we build will be ours. And God said, in time, I'll take
care of that. At the judgment, I'll take care
of that. The only building that will ever be recognized by God
is the building that Christ is building, and that is Jesus Christ's
body. So those so long ago were worn
just like we are. In closing, would you turn with
me to the book of Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter
3. Philippians chapter 3 verse 1.
Finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord. To write the same thing
to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware
of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For
we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and rejoice
in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh. Those are Jacob's. They have no confidence in the
flesh. How come Jacob was told he was
loved? He knew there was nothing in
Him that would warrant that love. He had to be able to say, He
just loved me because of grace. He just loved me because of an
everlasting love He had towards His people. And the Edomites
says, well, He loves me because I worked so hard for Him. I'm
building this building for Him. We are the circumcision which
worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh.