All right, let's look back at
Malachi chapter one. And while you're turning there,
just to let you know that next weekend I will be preaching in
Ruston, Louisiana for Pastor Richard Wormack and the Congregation
of Grace Baptist Church. And I've been asked to remind
you that next weekend is when the time changes. We spring forward. And I told Don Olden this morning,
I said, well, I'll just put it in the bulletin Sunday. Everybody ought to be reminded. Remember, fall back, spring forward. So I guess everybody says we
lose now. We really don't, but that's the
way we look at it. But you pray for me as we travel
and as I preach in Ruston and for the men who preach here in
my absence. All right, let's look at Malachi
chapter one. I've entitled tonight's message,
Christ, the only perfect sacrifice. Christ, the only perfect sacrifice. Now, in this portion, beginning
at verse six, Malachi, the prophet, the prophet of God, my messenger,
God's messenger, brings the second indictment against the children
of Israel, the problem of sin and unbelief that they were going
through, in which he seeks to correct them by the encouragement
of the word of God. You remember the first indictment
that God brought by Malachi against the people was that they despised
his love and his favor for them as a nation under that old covenant. And of course, whenever we look
at things like that, we need to be reminded that that's all
of us by nature until the Holy Spirit, under the preaching of
the gospel of God's grace in Christ, brings us to see our
sin and our damnation without Christ, didn't it? And then reveals
God's sovereign love and mercy in Christ to us. I know when
we're brought to conviction, we're brought to see that God
loved loved us with an everlasting love, even while we hated him,
even while we were yet enemies. We read about that in Romans
chapter 5. And so, he brings us to see that
love by shedding it abroad in our hearts by the preaching of
Christ, writing the law of God in our hearts, the word of God
within our hearts. Now this next indictment, beginning
at verse 6, has to do with their worship, the corruption of their
worship. that they refuse to worship God acceptably they refuse
to worship God in a way the only way that would honor God and
magnify his name and of course the only way to do that is the
way that pictures and typifies properly the Lord Jesus Christ
so he starts off here several things will go down through these
verses number one he starts off showing And this is something
that this generation today needs to learn, is that the main purpose
of worship, the main purpose of gathering together like we're
doing tonight, or whatever time we come together, is to honor
and worship and magnify and glorify God. That's what it's all about. You see, We're not here to accommodate
man. Me, you, or anybody. We're not
here to lift up and brag about and memorialize men. We're not
here for the convenience of men. We're not even here to meet the
felt needs of men. Because our felt needs are really
not what we need. Only God the Holy Spirit can
show us what we need. We need salvation. We need redemption. We need mercy. We need God's
grace, but we live in a day of what one man called convenience
Christianity. It's really not Christianity,
but that's the label he gave it. And what it is is this, the
church, or what is known as the church in the world, is not a
place to come and worship and honor God and hear Christ lifted
up and to hear from his word. That's not what it's for. It's
a market. It's being marketed. like a restaurant
or a store in an attempt to attract more customers. That's right,
isn't it? Think about what I'm saying.
Pastors flock to seminars that share methods on how to attract
what they call now the unchurched. You know what the unchurched
are? That's the natural man. That's all it is. And they come
at it like this. It's kind of like they say, don't
preach against sin because that offends people and it really
threatens people. Don't preach against sin. You
know, people want to feel good about themselves. They want to
come somewhere on Sunday where they can feel good about themselves.
And they don't bring Bibles to church, so don't get into an
in-depth Bible study. That's just too deep. You know,
people can only retain so much. Give them something positive
and uplifting. And you know, we're so used to
watching TV, so use a lot of drama, use a lot of spectacle,
use a lot of visuals. Keep the sermon short, 15 to
20 minutes max. You know. Make it entertaining. Provide programs for the children
and keep them busy. I mean, this is the way it goes,
isn't it? Always have a building program for the future because
you know you want them to give. And pastors who use these techniques
testify how their churches are growing rapidly, thousands of
attenders, but the true gospel's not preached. Christ is not preached. He's not lifted up. He's not
exalted. The scriptures are not preached. Those things are thrown to the
curb. They're secondary. They're just something you have
to get through to get to the real good stuff. And everything
is gauged on how it makes you feel, not on how it glorifies
and honors God. Well, Malachi is going to show
his generation the real issue of worship. How do you approach
God? That's the real issue of this
passage, isn't it? How is a sinner to approach God,
to worship, to find acceptance, to commune with God, to be blessed? Well, the issue is God's honor. It's God's glory. And the only
way that God can be honored and glorified in worship, in salvation,
in communion, in prayer, in any way, in obedience, is by a sinner
seeking and finding mercy from God in Christ. That's the only
way. Philippians chapter 3 and verse
3 says, we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit. And how do we do that? We rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. He says here in
verse 6, a son honoreth his father. That's just the natural order
of things. A servant honors his master.
It's unheard of in that culture and it should be in our culture
today for a child not to honor its father, its mother, its parents,
or a servant not to honor his master. And God says, if then
I be a father, where's my honor? Where's my honor in all this?
All your religion, all your worship, all of your prayers, all of your
sacrifices. And if I be a master, where is
my fear? That's worship. That word fear
there is worship. And it's not a legal fear now,
it's the fear of faith. It's respect and reverence and
honor to God. saith the Lord of hosts unto
you. Oh priest, notice who he's talking
to here, the leaders, the spiritual leaders of the nation, the religious
leaders. Oh priest that despise my name. And you say wherein have we despised
thy name? They didn't realize they were
even doing it. There again it shows the state of their heart.
We'll talk more about that later. But this is what the Lord is
saying, if children should honor their fathers and servants their
masters, then how much more should we, as the chosen, redeemed,
regenerated of the Lord, honor him and thank him and serve him. When the Lord taught the disciples
to pray in Matthew chapter six, how did that prayer begin? Our
Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Holy is your name. None other name like his. In
Ephesians chapter one and verse three, when Paul opens up that
great epistle by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in proclaiming
the blessings of God, To his people, he makes this statement
in verse three, he says, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. How do we bless God? We honor
him, we worship him, we revere him, we respect him, we fear
him. The God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Peter wrote, sanctify
the Lord God in your hearts. Set him apart. He's special,
he's unique. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1
and verse 3, he said, blessed be God, even the father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and our God is the father of mercies, he
says, and the God of all comfort. But these priests here were not
honoring the Lord God. They were actually, and think
about it now, They were actually in their worship, in their attempts
to worship, in their attempts to be accepted, in their bringing
sacrifices, they were actually despising the name of God. You say, well, that's strong
language. That's the language of God. He says, you have despised
my name, despised it. That means hated it. That means
dishonored it, dirtied it. That's right. And their question
reveals their spiritual deadness and their ignorance. How have
we done that? They ought to have known. The priests ought to have
known. If anybody ought to have known what it is and what it
means to despise the name of God and to honor, as opposed
to that, honor the name of God, these priests should have known. They claim to be the spiritual
leaders of the nation. Remember they were going through
the motions of religion. They were bringing the sacrifices.
They were trying to keep the law of Moses, but in all they're
doing, they weren't honoring God. They weren't glorifying
God. They were despising his name. Well, here's the second
thing. Now, God's gonna reveal how they were doing it. Now,
listen to this. And here's what he says. Basically, this is what
the next two verses, verses seven and eight say. Basically, it
says this. Men without Christ cannot, cannot
honor, worship, and glorify God. Without Christ, you can't do
it. It's impossible. Look at it, he says in verse
seven, well, you've offered polluted bread upon mine altar. Now that
word bread there is a Hebrew word that it doesn't normally
refer to bread like a loaf of bread. Some writers say that
he's talking about the table of showbread here, but it's not
the word for showbread. It's a word that is commonly
used for the sacrifice. We won't turn to these verses,
but in Leviticus and in Exodus, you'll find this word used for
the sacrifices, the animal sacrifices. And he says, you've offered polluted
sacrifices upon mine altar. That's the altar of sacrifice.
And he says, and you say, wherein have we polluted thee? Well,
how have we offered that? He says, in that you say the
table of the Lord is contemptible. Now, they weren't coming before
the table there is the altar. And they weren't coming before
the altar and saying, well, this is contemptible to me, but by
their bringing polluted sacrifices, that is exactly what they were
saying. And it says in verse eight, look
here, it says, and if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it
not evil? Now, you know where this is going,
don't you? A blind, bring a blind lamb for the sacrifice. Is it not evil? And if you offer
the lame and sick, bring a lame bullock or a sick bullock. Is
it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor.
Now who's the governor? That's the nobleman. That's like
the king or the governor of the nation. And he's coming to visit
you and you're going to set up a meal for him. Give him a sick.
animal as an offering for the table. Would you do that? If
the President of the United States were coming to your house, or
one of the ambassadors, or somebody who's of great reputation, whom
everybody esteems an honor, were coming to your house, would you
offer him a sick animal as food? And that's what he's saying here,
you wouldn't even offer these things to your governors, to
your noblemen, to your princes, human beings, you wouldn't give
them the sick and the lame and the blind, you'd give them the
best, wouldn't you? You'd put on the best. And it
says, offer it now unto thy governor, will he be pleased with thee
or accept thy person, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, A lot of
sermons preached from this passage focus on this issue, is that
whatever we offer to God, we've got to do our best and bring
our best. And listen to me very carefully.
We, as the people of God, and there's no question, no argument,
no debate here. As the people of God, as the
redeemed of the Lord, who are the recipients of salvation and
blessings that we don't deserve and have not earned, who've been
given such an abundance, not only spiritually, but materially. Whatever we do for the Lord,
in obedience, in prayer, in worship, we ought to do and bring our
very best at all times. And it's sad when we don't. We
certainly should. And the Bible teaches that. The
Bible teaches that, that we as the people of God, we ought to
try to be the best, and we ought to try to do our best, and we
ought to bring our best. At all times. That's so. No argument, no debate. But that's
not what this is teaching. This is teaching something else.
This is talking about bringing an animal, an offering. to the
altar of sacrifice in the daily offerings. This is talking about how we
worship God, how we honor God, how we're accepted of God, how
we're received of the Lord, how we're blessed of God. And when
it comes to that, let me tell you, here's what the Bible teaches.
Our best is never good enough. The best works we can do will
not save us, will not wash us from our sins, will not make
us righteous. The best efforts, the best thoughts,
the best prayers, the best buildings, the best whatever will not make
us acceptable to God. But what will? Or better yet,
who will? What is our best? Well, the people
of God, sinners who need mercy, are taught by God in His Word
that the best we have is Christ Himself, Christ and Him crucified. He's the best. He's the only
best. He's the only perfect sacrifice. Christ said, I am the way, I
am the truth, I am the life, no man cometh unto the Father
but by me. He said in John 15 and verse
five, I am the vine, you are the branches, he that abideth
in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for
without me you can do nothing. Yes, there is room in the scripture
to preach the morality of offering our best to God, but that's not
the message of Malachi to these people. Here it has to do with
the holiness and the honor of God in salvation that's pictured
in the sacrifices and the altar. and the priesthood, how God can
be just and justify the ungodly, how God can accept and receive
a sinner. These are issues of faith. You know, to call upon the Lord
and worship Him must include the offering of sacrifices. That was established way back
in the book of Genesis. When Adam and Eve fell, they
tried to hide their nakedness and their shame by their own
works by sewing fig leaf aprons together, but that wouldn't do.
And God in Genesis chapter three and verse 21, it says how he
took an animal and slew that animal and made them coats of
skin. Now why is that? Because sin
deserves death. And God must justly punish sin. God's got to be just when he
justifies. God's got to be just when he
receives and accepts and blesses a sinner. That's the only way
his name can be magnified. He must be both a just God and
a savior. I preach this on TV all the time
because I want to tell you something. It's the missing note today in
what is called Christianity. That God, yes, he's a loving
God. He's a merciful God, he's a gracious
God, but he's also a righteous judge. He must be both a righteous
judge as well as a merciful father. He's got to be both. And however
I present him to you, however these priests back in Malachi
in his day were presenting God to the people, if it does not
identify and distinguish him as both a just God and a savior,
it does not honor him. It's a despising of His name.
If I stand up before you and preach God's love without His
justice, without His truth and righteousness, that's the same
as despising His name. If I preach His justice and righteousness
without preaching His love, that's the same as despising His name.
That's what's going on here. You see, the reason there must
be a proper sacrifice is because the people were sinners seeking
to approach a holy God. And sin deserves death. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness, no remission.
And God had ordained these sacrifices as the only way of approaching
him. And he gave specific instructions all through the Bible about these
sacrifices. But let me give you, let's turn
and just reread one that's very familiar to all of us, Exodus
chapter 12. Look at Exodus chapter 12. Now
you know what this teaches, this is about the Passover. In Exodus
chapter 12, when God gave Moses instructions for the children
of Israel about the Passover lamb, one of the sacrifices.
And this applied to all the sacrifices that were brought to the altar
to be presented unto the Lord as worship, seeking communion
and acceptance with God. And he says in verse 3 of Exodus
12, look at it. He says, Speak ye unto all the
congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month
they shall take to them every man a lamb, Passover lamb, according
to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. And if the
household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor
next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every
man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
Now look at verse 5. Your lamb shall be without blemish. Had to be a perfect lamb. It
had to be a male of the first year. And you shall take it out
from the sheep or from the goats and you shall keep it up until
the 14th day of the same month and the whole assembly of the
congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening and they
shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and
on the upper door post in the houses wherein they shall eat
it. And all of that, you see, a male of the first year without
blemish. Passover lamb. If they brought
a lamb in and there was a blemish, if there was blindness, if there
was lameness, if there was sickness, what was that lamb? That lamb's
cast out, you can't use it. without blemish. Now we could
go through many, many scriptures here. Sometimes, you've already
read it if you kept up with your daily readings, you've read it
in Leviticus chapter 22. All the sacrifices that are mentioned
in Leviticus chapter 22, you know what it says? Without blemish,
without blemish, without blemish. It had to be a perfect sacrifice,
a perfect lamb, a perfect goat, a perfect bullock. It had to
be. Go back to Malachi 1. To offer blemished sacrifices
was to deny the holiness of God. By saying, in effect, God is
not perfectly holy, he will accept less than perfection. We don't
need to offer a perfect substitute for our sins. And that's what
they were saying every time they'd bring a blind lamb or a lame
bullock or a sick lamb. And it also lifted up sinners
by saying, we're not all that bad. We might be slightly blemished,
or the sacrifice might be slightly blemished, but it's good enough
for us to come before God. God will accept the best that
we have, even if it's not perfect. After all, it's our sincerity
that really counts. Isn't that the reason of the
natural mind? Well, what is the problem? Well,
you know the problem is, these sacrifices were all to be types
and pictures of the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
the Lamb of God. He who is without sin. This is all a picture of Christ
crucified. To honor God, we must bring our
best, not our best efforts, But our best sacrifice, and my friend,
the best sacrifice, the only sacrifice, the only perfect sacrifice
is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who is without sin. He's the only perfect, unblemished
sacrifice. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21
says, for God made him sin. Christ was made sin by the imputation,
the accounting, the charging of the demerit of our sins to
his person. And he did it for us. Christ,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him, that we might be accounted perfectly righteous
in the sight of God in him. And by his death, he washed away
our sins. And I'll tell you, we are redeemed,
Peter said, with the precious, incorruptible blood of Christ,
the Lamb of God. And this is why the question
has to be raised in the context of the gospel. How can man be
just with God? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? What does it take for a sinner
to be accepted before God? It takes the death of a perfect,
unblemished sacrifice. That's what it takes. This is
why the core message of the church should proclaim is the gospel
wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. If you want
to see the righteousness of God, look to Christ on the cross.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only perfect sacrifice who's
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
You see, the gospel is about sinners who need a savior in
order to be reconciled to a holy God. and escape his wrath, his
judgment. And if we modify that message
and appeal to consumers, trying to get customers in, in effect
what we're doing is offering blemished sacrifices. You know,
this modern day gospel is often pitched as a way to personal
fulfillment and happiness. Jesus will help you succeed in
business and have a happy family and he'll even help you lose
weight. I even saw that the other day. Try him, you'll be a satisfied
customer. But what about sin? What about
repentance? What about God's glory and His
holiness and His justice? What about faith in a Savior
who's without sin and who offered Himself in the place of sinners
for our sin? And I'll tell you something.
This is why this issue that has cropped up here in the last few
years about Christ being made a sinner is so sickening to me. Right here. I thought about that
when I was reading through this. And they cover themselves by
saying, well, he himself had no sin, did no sin, and knew
no sin, but when he got on that cross, God made him to be a sinner. That's not what the scripture
teaches. He never became a sinner. He was always unblemished in
himself. And yet, he was made sin. The
scripture teaches that. How? By our sins being charged
to him. He was made a curse. He was actually
guilty. You know, he called my sins his
own. And yet, in himself, in his mind,
and in his heart, and in his affections, and in his will,
he remained unblemished, without spot, without fault. The sinless sacrifice. And I'll
tell you another thing that has amazed me is the people who sit
and listen to that junk. That has just about knocked me
over for a loop. That somebody hasn't stood up
and said, wait a minute! What are we doing? We're not
going to offer a blemish sacrifice to a holy God. We offer the lamb,
the lamb of God, without blemish. Not a sick lamb, not a lame lamb,
not a blind lamb. And you know, this is directly
related to the issue of faith. I read that in Hebrews 11. You
know, that's the reason I read that. You know where it says
in verse six there, without faith, it's impossible to please God.
But now listen to me. Faith is not just believing. Faith is not just believing.
You see, faith is believing what God says. Do you see the difference? A lot of people, they look at
faith today and it's almost like, well, you just gotta believe.
You just gotta believe. Well, you gotta believe what God says. See, faith is obeying God. And you remember there in Hebrews
11 in verse four? Mark that down. You remember
what it said about Abel? It says, by faith, Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Now, what did Cain
offer? blemished sacrifices, the works of his own hands, trying
to establish a righteousness of his own, blemished, sick,
lame, dead, dead works. What did Abel offer? He offered
a lamb, and I'll guarantee you that lamb was an unblemished,
perfect, male lamb. And it says, by that, Abel obtained
witness that he was righteous. Now, what is that witness? Well,
the witness there is like one in a court of law bringing up
evidence by legal witness that this person is either guilty
or righteous. And it's because of that perfect,
unblemished sacrifice that Abel brought that he obtained a legal
witness in the court of God's justice that he is a righteous
man. Now who is that Abel's lamb?
What did that lamb typify? The Lord Jesus Christ. And it says, God testifying of
his gifts, all the gifts of salvation and blessing that Abel had. The
testimony of that was not in how Abel felt. It was not in
how long Abel lived. He didn't live very long. It's
not in what happened to Abel. He was murdered by his own brother
in the flesh. And yet, this testimony through
the lamb that he brought, the more excellent sacrifice, was
a testimony from God of all the gifts of salvation, of righteousness,
of grace that God gave this man named Abel. That's all it took. Had nothing to do with how we,
by nature, judge those things. Because we, by nature, wouldn't
judge Abel to be very blessed. He got murdered as a young man. And it says, by it he being dead
yet speak. He's speaking to us today. He's
telling us, sinner, the only hope you've got is that lamb,
the lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Abel was a sinner, else
he would not even have needed a sacrifice. Abel sought righteousness
by Christ. Now go back to Malachi. Look
at verse nine. Here's the third thing. Here's
God's gracious call to repentance. He says in verse nine, He says,
and now I pray you, beseech God, beg God, that he will be gracious
unto us. Your only hope is to get on your
knees and beg God for mercy and grace. This hath been by your
means. These blemished sacrifices that
you're bringing are by your own hands. That's what he's saying.
You're the cause of this. This is your work. This corrupted,
worship that despises God, that's the works of your hands. That's
the works of your heart. And he says, will he regard your
persons? Will God regard your persons? Will God accept you as righteous
in his sight based on these blemish sacrifices? Absolutely not, saith
the Lord of hosts. There's no salvation for a sinner.
There's no forgiveness for a sinner. There's no righteousness for
a sinner in a blemished sacrifice. You bring the best that you've
got to offer, it won't work. God will not regard your persons. The only way that God is going
to regard my person, me, is through the one person whom he said,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him.
That's the only way God will regard, will accept, and bless,
and receive, and commune with a sinner through the Lord Jesus
Christ. So get on your knees and beg
God. That's what he's saying. Look
at verse 10. Now here's God's view. Here's
the fourth thing. Here's God's view of their worship. Here's
how God saw it. He says, who is there even among
you that would shut the doors, and it says for naught, for nothing
there, and that's added by the translators, but let me show
you something here in just a moment. He says, neither do you kindle
fire mine altar for naught, for nothing. I have no pleasure in
you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering
at your hand. Now what he's saying, and it's
a little difficult to understand it in the construction of the
translation there, but here's what he's saying, basically.
He's saying, you might as well shut the doors of the temple
rather than do what you're doing. You'd be just as well off to
stop, quit, just shut her up, lock it up, and go home rather
than do what you're doing. Then none of you can get in and
play at religion with this silly, empty-headed worship that you're
going through. And he says, I'm not pleased.
The Lord of hosts is not pleased. And in essence, he says, I don't
want any more of it. You know, you can kind of compare
this to Isaiah chapter one. You remember when Isaiah talked
about the people, how they lifted up their hands and they brought
their offerings, but it was all for nothing. And God said, I'm
tired of it. I want no more of it. It's a
stench in my nostrils. Close the temple. I don't want
to smell your sacrifices anymore. They stink. It's the dung of
self-righteous, works-oriented, false religion. That's what it
is. And he says, I don't need it.
You see, God who has all things needs nothing from us. He doesn't
need us, we need him. And that's his view of their
worship. He hates it. He said, I'm full of it. Look
at verse 11. Here's the fifth thing. God will
have a people to worship him. Now, this doesn't leave God empty-handed. The fact that men by nature won't
worship him, he says in verse 11, from the rising of the sun,
even into the going down of the same, my name shall be great
among the Gentiles. Now I wanna tell you something,
we don't stop and think, you know, we read stuff like that,
you don't stop and think how much trouble that got old Malachi
in. Now you think about that. He's standing before the Jews
in Jerusalem, And he's saying, you're despising the name of
the Lord of hosts. Your worship, you're bringing
blemish, sick, unacceptable sacrifices. Get on your knees and repent. And if you don't do that, you
might as well shut this place up, this temple up and go home.
God hates it. But God, from the rising of the
sun, even into the going down of the sun, his name shall be
great among the Gentiles. You know, this is the prophetic,
this is one of those prophetic words from God of his rejection
of the nation Israel and the gospel going out into the Gentiles,
his elect among the Gentiles because God has a people out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. The Lord told the
woman at the well, the Lord seeketh such to worship him, those who
worship him in spirit and in truth. And he says, my name shall
be great among the Gentiles. And he said, in every place,
incense shall be offered under my name in a pure offering. Incense
is symbolic of the intercessory work of Christ on behalf of his
people and also of their prayers to him. And how do we pray? Well,
we bring an offering. What offering do we bring? Well,
Lord, I've worked so hard this week. And so you ought to give
me what I'm asking for. That's a blemished offering,
isn't it? No, we pray to God, coming to a throne of grace,
pleading the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
our offering. He's our advocate. He's our surety. And that's what he's saying.
He said, for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith
the Lord of hosts. God's going to have a people
who will worship him with a perfect sacrifice. You know what that
means? They're going to worship him
through Christ, the only perfect sacrifice. Now these last three
verses here, And here's the sixth thing, these last three verses
show the true condition of their hearts. Now listen to what he
says, we'll just read through. He says, verse 12, but you have
profaned it, that is his name, in that you say the table of
the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof, even his meat,
that's the sacrifice, is contemptible. Now they weren't openly saying
these things, but what he's revealing here is by doing what you're
doing, this is what you are saying, this is the state of your heart.
You have no respect, no regard for the table of the Lord, for
the sacrifice, for the honor of God. And you're saying, in
essence, the table of the Lord, His altar is polluted. When you
bring anything less than the perfect sacrifice, the Lord Jesus
Christ, to God and expect Him to bless you and commune with
you All you're simply saying is his altar is polluted and
the fruit, even his meat, is contemptible. You're showing
contempt for the Lord. Here's the second thing, verse
13. He says, you said also, behold, what weariness is it? And you
snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts, and you brought that
which was torn and the lame and the sick, thus you brought an
offering. Should I accept this of your hand, saith the Lord?
This kind of shows you what was going on with him. Worship had
become a chore to them, a burden to them. You know, it's awful,
a lot of trouble for me to find a perfect lamb, a male, a year
old. Let's just get one of those,
just pick one out and let's go. You know, the Lord's not that
strict. He's not that holy. I mean, you know, he realizes
we're just human beings and he'll accept what we have to offer.
And it's so tiresome to go through this all the time. And so they compromised by their
ways and their thoughts. And the Lord said, should I accept
that of your hand? No, he's not going to do it.
And then look at verse 14. It says, but curse be the deceiver,
which hath in his flock a male as a male without blemish and
voweth and sacrifices under the Lord a corrupt thing. You see
what happened here? Worship had become an occasion
of deception and lies. lying to themselves with their
high-minded words. Oh, we just love the Lord. Oh,
we're just gonna worship God. And yet they had the proper animals
for sacrifice, but kept them to themselves and brought the
sick and the lame. You see that? It's a lie. And
here's what he said. That's not appropriate for the
worship of the true and living God. He said, for I'm a great
king, saith the Lord of hosts. You wouldn't offer that to an
earthly king. But I'm a great king, saith the Lord, and my
name is dreadful among the heathen. That means to be respected, to
be regarded. You see, the issue here is the
honor of God. And my friend, his honor, make
no mistake about it, God's honor is wrapped up and bound up in
the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. for the sins
of his people. Don't bring anything less than
Christ. All right.