Well, as our study was the last
in the book of Mark, so was this the last of our series on the
Minor Prophets. And if you will, turn with me
to the last of the Minor Prophets. Go to Matthew, turn back one
book to the book of Malachi. The book of Malachi is the last
words God will speak to Israel until the appearing of John the
Baptist some 400 years after these words were delivered to
Israel. And as the forerunner of Christ,
this one that he speaks of shall prepare the people to receive
him by making the way of Christ as clear as he can make it. Religion is a funny thing. I used to play a guitar and sing
and I'd go from church to church and interdenominational thing
around and I'd listen to these people talk and listen, watch
how they worship God and the different things that they did
and some of the preachers wore robes and some of them just plain
clothes and some of them dressed up and some of them didn't and
they were all different. Some of them believed in instruments,
some of them believed in no instruments whatsoever. And the songs that
they sang and things that they did were just so variable. They were totally different.
But somehow with people, they think going to church and listening
to somebody talk for a little bit and singing a few songs,
that's your duty to God. And so they do that, and they
look for ways that that would be refreshing to them, that it
would be a positive thing. One guy preached on sin one morning,
and maybe I did go a little overboard with it, I don't know, but I
preached on sin. for a long time before I finally
got to Christ. And he said, you know something,
Preacher? He said, I'm kind of depressed.
He said, I think if you go to church, you ought to come home
feeling better than when you went. Not necessarily. No, not necessarily. But this
is how people think. This is how people think. And
the Jews had got to that place. And these Gentiles around them,
these Syrians, were telling them, said, listen, just go up on the
mountain. We'll find us a grove up there
and we'll clean it out and we'll put some rocks up and we'll get
a, there's a spring up there and we'll get a little waterfall
going and we'll do this, do that, we'll go up there, you know,
and we'll worship God up on these mountains. That's exactly what
that Samaritan woman told Christ. You worship God in Jerusalem,
we worship Him in these mountains. That's what she's talking about.
They go up on these mountains to these groves and worship God.
He said, you worship you know not what. And that's where these Jews,
that's why they were taken into captivity. They'd fallen into
this worldly worship of God that has no bearing on God whatsoever,
had no bearing on His glory or Christ or why Christ had to come
and all of these things. To them, Christ was just another
man like David. And when he comes, he's gonna
be a special man. He's gonna rise up, just like
David did, rise up out of this, out of the tribe of Judah. And
he's gonna rise up and then all the country's gonna follow him.
God's gonna work in the hearts of people and they're all gonna
follow him. And David's gonna go out and crush their enemies.
And Israel's gonna be restored again, and the temple restored,
and they're gonna all enjoy that former glory that Israel did
under Solomon. That's what they thought. John
the Baptist, his mission was to make plain the way of Christ. That's what it was all about.
And this is what Malachi is about to tell us. Now his name, Malachi,
it means my angel or my messenger. Actually, the word for messenger
in the original is malach. So now you understand. This is
Malachi. This is God's angel, my angel. So what we have here is God's
messenger, foretelling the coming of God's messenger, who is the
forerunner of God's messenger, the messenger of the covenant,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Malachi is full of practical
lessons, good and valuable lessons for believers as to how to conduct
themselves in this world and in their lives and in the house
of God. It's full of good information. So much so that he opens a dialogue. Now, you can't find that in any
of the other prophets, only in Malachi. But in Malachi, his
prophecy, he opens a dialogue, which consisted of questions
and answers. And he was talking about what
the people were doing and doing in ignorance and rebellion against
God. And a dialogue simply means a
conversation. And in these things, he sums
up the corruption of Israel, who are now living in a restored
state. And he does so with three charges. He begins with this. He said,
you have corrupted the priesthood. This was his first charge. You
have corrupted The priesthood. Israel was bringing in to the
priest their sick and their lame animals. They knew they had to
bring forth a sacrifice, but it was supposed to be of the
first year and without blemish. Well, they took the ones they
didn't think were gonna live anyway, and they brought them
in to sacrifice. God said, go offer that thing
to your governor. See how he feels about it. I
love you and I want you to have this. This is how much I appreciate
you and you give him your sick cow. See what he has to say. They're lame animals for sacrifice
and they're leftovers for the service of God. Well, if I have
any time, I'll try to get down there. And then secondly, Israel had
found an idolatrous alliance with the surrounding nations
which resulted in the mixed marriages of Jews and Gentiles. God had
warned them over and over and over not to do this. And the
reason for it was because of how they would be affected by
their idolatry. And exactly what the Lord told
them is what happened. And so Malachi charges them with
that. When God caused the tribes to
be established, he separated one tribe the Levites to attend
the service of God. And they weren't to do anything
else. They're just to give themselves to the work and the service of
the tabernacle or the temple. This was their sole duty. This
was everybody that was born a Levite, he was a priest. Out of the Levites
came the high priests, but even the common priests. And for this
reason, all the other tribes were commanded to give a tenth
of their income for both the care of the temple and the support
of them that did the work. In verse Corinthians chapter
nine and verse 13, talking about the churches and their same duties
to these places of worship and those who ministered there, he
wrote this. Do you not know that they which
ministered about holy things live of the things of the temple. And they which wait at the altar
are partakers with the altar to serve the needs of it. He uses that word wait, it's
like a waiter at a restaurant. And even so hath the Lord ordained
that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. And as support of the ministry
of the Old Testament priesthood was commanded of the people,
even so it's commanded in the New Testament, in the New Covenant,
concerning our places of worship and those who minister there.
But we have better motives than them, and we're not commanded
to tithe. If you tithe, you're just following
the old law. I appreciate your tithes. And
there were some people without understanding that tithe in the
day of Paul, and he told them on the first day of the week,
set aside your tithes and offerings. Some of them still tithe. They
believed that was so, and as long as they believed it in their
heart, Paul wasn't willing to make an example of them, they
continued to tithe. We have people here that tithe.
But tithing is under the law. We're not under the law. We're
under grace. And we have much better motives
than threats and punishment. We have love and gratitude so
that our contributions ought to exceed the tithe. The tithe was the minimum. That's
the bottom. And it's a lack of understanding
of these things. That's why I wanted to bring
you these messages out of the Old Testament. We're not commanded
to tithe, but to give generously, and not in fear or threat, but
in love and gratitude. And ours ought to superabound
theirs. But though these things are taught by the prophet, I
don't see these things as the gist of why he's sent. Malachi has a threefold message,
and it is God's final words to the coming of his son. Over 100
years, God never said another word. He didn't raise up another
prophet. He didn't speak to the people.
Malachi's word put a period on the old covenant. When he was
done, God was done until Christ came. And in summation of everything
God had said to Israel through his prophets, Malachi has this
to say. First of all, over here in Malachi
chapter one and verse two. I have loved you. This is what God's saying. Now
he's speaking to Israel here. You read verse one, these words
are to Israel. His people, his children, his
elect. And he said, I've loved you. When? When did he start loving
them? Before the foundation of the
world. I have loved you. From Adam to
Malachi, in their bondage and out of it. In their glory and
in their defeat. In their prosperity and in their
poverty. In their freedom and in their
bondage. I have loved thee. But you say, now hear what God
says. God says, I loved you. But you
say to me, wherein hast thou loved us? Now watch this. He's gonna tell him that his
love is particular. They said, you don't love us. You don't love us. Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I love Jacob. Now, it's important
for you to understand something. God changed Jacob's name to Israel. And this is who he's talking
to, Israel. Israel. He said, was not Esau
Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, yet I love Jacob. Look at verse
three. And I hated Esau. And I laid his mountains and
his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Turn with me to Romans chapter
nine. I'm gonna show you something
here. This is important to understand if you're gonna understand anything
at all about God's love. You're gonna have to understand
who he's talking to. I wanna show you how the Holy
Ghost sets these two sons before us, Jacob and Esau. Romans chapter
9, beginning with verse 1. I say the truth in Christ, I
lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according
to the flesh, who are Israelites. to whom pertaineth the adoption,
and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and
the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, on and on. And of whom, as concerning
the flesh, Christ came, who is over all God, blessed forever,
when God appeared in human flesh in this
world, he did so as a Jew. He was an Israelite, Paul said. These are the Jews that Paul's
describing here, that I've just read to you, that are now living
in the nation of Israel. And they're blood kin to Abraham.
They can go back and show you and prove through their genealogy
that they're blood kin to Abraham. And because of that, they believe
that they are the elect of God. And this country that I live
in believes that too. That's why we handle them with
kid gloves. And they're scattered all over
the world. And Paul's praying for their salvation. Well, I
thought they were the people of God. Verse six. Not as though the
word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel,
the nation, that are of Israel, the person. Now remember, he said, I've loved
Israel. I loved Israel. But Israel, the nation, didn't
receive Christ. And in fact, they were major
players in the false trial and the crucifixion of Christ. And
that's why Paul said, not as though the word of God had taken
on effect. For they're not all Israel who
are of Israel. Verse seven. Neither because
they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. That blood
kinship don't mean anything either. Because God said, in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. Now you're all aware of who Isaac
and Ishmael was. God promised Abraham a son. But nothing happened. He said,
I'll come. And then the day I come, She's
going to have a son. Well, he's got to be an old man.
And she's got to be an old woman. Nothing happened. And they said, the Savior said,
well, here's what we need to do. I got a handmaid. You go in there and sleep with
the handmaid. Maybe that's what God was talking about. Human
reasoning about this thing. And behold, Ishmael was born.
God said, that's not the heir. And when they were both past
having any children, that's when they had children. And they had
Isaac. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. And he said, not only this. But
when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac,
now we're down to Isaac. Isaac and Rebecca. When Rebecca also had conceived
by one, even by her father Isaac, for the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, these were twin
boys, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto
her, because of God's election, because his love is particular,
because he set his eye on Isaac and Jacob, it was said unto her,
the elder is going to serve the younger. Well, that's backwards. That's not the way things supposed
to go at all. But God said that's the way things
gonna be. As it is written, Malachi 1.3, Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated. Now Paul said, what we gonna
say then? What we gonna say to this? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. For he saith unto
Moses, I have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, here's the conclusion.
It's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Jacob and Esau were chosen of
God to represent every son of Adam, the entire population of
the earth from beginning to end is represented in these two men,
Jacob and Esau. Jacob have I loved, all of mine
elect, all those given to me as a father before the world
was. Jacob have I loved. Esau have
I hated. Nothing was done for Esau. Nothing was provided for Esau. No eternal provision made. Esau represents all those who
in time sold their birthright for a bowl of porridge. And this is why he calls this
the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel, by Malachi, and
he said, I have loved you. Listen to how he says this in
the book of Jeremiah. He said, the Lord hath appeared
of old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. God's love is everlasting, it's
eternal, it's unchangeable, and it's without limit. And therefore
it becomes the wellspring from which all blessings flow. The love of God. He loved us
and gave himself for us. You see that? He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before him being loved. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. He said, love covereth all sins. of that little body cast out
in the desert in the book of Ezekiel over in Ezekiel 16. I
preached on that a while back. When the Lord passed by, and
here it is, its navel hadn't been cut, afterbirth hadn't been
cleaned off of it, it was just cast out right after birth. It
was just cast out into the sand. Cast out there to die. Let the
vultures have it. The Lord said, when I passed
by, it was a time of love. Huh? Look, I have loved thee. Renwick, I don't know what you
were doing, some of you, before I came here. But you look what God has done
for you. Look what God has taught you.
Look where you were and look where you are. Look to what you
were hearing then and what you're hearing now. That's what he's telling these
people. I loved you. Who do you think brought you
out of Egypt? Who do you think sustained you
in the wilderness? Who do you think went into Canaan
and fought for you? Who do you think went out and
killed that Assyrian king's army that night, 185,000 of them? You didn't pick up a sword in
your hand. I loved you. He loved us and gave himself
for us. Christ died for us while we were
yet sinners. You hear what he's saying? I
have loved you. I've loved you. Oh, my soul. Nothing happens
apart from that love. It's the wellspring. The love
of Christ, Paul said, constraineth us. And then John said, behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. He said herein is love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. And then I read to you over in
1 Corinthians 13, now abideth faith, hope, and charity, but
the greatest of these is charity, active love. You reckon God could
say his love was active? Oh, my soul. And we were by nature children
of wrath, even as others, but God, who is rich in mercy. Now listen, and for that great
love wherewith he loved us. Even when we were dead in trespasses
and sins hath quickened us together with Christ, raised us up from
the dead, seated us together with him in the heavens. So here's
the first thing. He sums up the message of all
the prophets, summed up everything God had to say to them concerning
this coming Redeemer, and he said, I have loved thee. You
understand that. My love's particular. Particular. But those I love, I love. And
it never changes. The second thing he tells his
people through this prophet is of the coming of the forerunner
of Christ. In Malachi 3.1, he said, behold,
I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before
me. And the Lord whom you seek shall
suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant
whom he delighteth in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. And then again in Malachi 4,
5, he said, behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall
turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart
of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth
with a curse. Now over in Matthew chapter 11,
Matthew chapter 11, And verse 13, our Lord said, for all the
prophets and the law of Moses, that is the first five books
of Moses, prophesied until John, that is John the Baptist. And if you will receive it, this
is Christ talking now about John. If you will receive it, this
is Elijah, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. The Lord himself takes these
verses from Malachi and directly points to John, points to John. John the Baptist was a special
man. He was a man with a special message.
He is the forerunner of Christ. And his ministry was to make
the coming of the Messiah understood, who he is, why he's coming, what
he's going to do when he gets here. And for this ministry,
God covered this man with the Holy Ghost while he was still
in his mother's womb. and allowed him to hear the good
news that Mary brought to his mother Elizabeth. Mary started
talking to Elizabeth. She was pregnant with John. Mary
was pregnant with Jesus. And she's telling Elizabeth,
her cousin, what the Lord and these angels had told her about
this child that's in her. And John the Baptist heard it
and leaped for joy, the scripture said, in his mother's womb. My
soul. That wasn't no accident. Huh? No, that wasn't no accident.
John's ministry, he was a special man, covered with the Holy Ghost
in his mother's womb. And his ministry was to make
straight the way of the Lord. Christ said, I am the way. We
need to make that straight, don't we? It's not Christ and, it's
Christ. He's the way. His person and
work were absolutely necessary to reveal the uncompromised glory
of God in the salvation of sinners, enabling God to be just and justifier
of all who believe in Jesus. And to do all this with the Old
Testament scriptures alone, and so in the spirit and attitude
of Elijah, he ministered to an ignorant and rebellious generation
to prepare them for the coming of the Lord. Now everybody that's
read the scriptures out there in religion, they all think John
the Baptist was a separationist and that all he did was go out
there and preach abstinence because he didn't drink strong liquor,
he didn't do any of those things. He was, in a certain respect,
a separationist, but he did so because he was a minister of
Christ. He lived on wild locusts and
honey, dressed in fur. He wasn't clothed in soft raiment. And when they went out there
and got busted between the eyes with his message of Christ, without
any consideration for their office or anything, they come back complaining
and the Lord said, what did you go out there to see? A reed bending
in the wind? Is that why you went out there?
Did you go out there to see somebody dressed in soft clothing? He
said, they live in king's houses. This is my messenger. Out of
all the people born a woman, none greater than John the Baptist. All right, thirdly, Malachi spoke
of the certainty of the coming of the Lord. In Malachi 3.1, the second half
of that verse, says, and the Lord whom you seek, shall suddenly
come to his temple. This is why that temple had to
be rebuilt. He's gonna come to his temple,
even the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold,
he shall come, saith the Lord. He's not coming if, he's coming. He's not coming with your cooperation,
he's coming. He's not coming if you let Him.
He's coming. He's coming. He's talking to
a people to whom the Levites, being sin of Ezra, Ezra had told
the Levites to read the book of the law and to make them understand
the sense of it. That these sacrifices pictured
the coming Redeemer, pictured His sacrifices. You have no sense
of the law unless you have that sense of it because that's what
it was. It was a shadow of things to come. And these things all gave witness
to the coming Redeemer and his work of reconciliation. Now the
prophet of God declares the time is at hand. That both he and
his forerunner should come. And having done that, the prophet
of God says this, Malachi 3, 2. But who may abide the day of
his coming? Who's gonna survive that? Who's gonna abide? Who's gonna
hear him? Who's gonna bow to him? Who may abide the day of his
coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? Who gonna stand with him? And who's gonna run over to the
camp of the enemy? For he's like a refiner's fire
and like a fuller's 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 the former year. Now in 1 Peter 2.5, I want you
to see this. How did he purify these Levites? He said, ye also as lively stones
are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood. That's you
and I. We're a holy priesthood. We're
a spiritual house. To offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Did you know under the law there
was an offering for holy things? There was a sacrifice to purge
the holy things, the things that these priests would do to make
them acceptable, called for a sacrifice. And that's what Peter's telling
us here. This spiritual priesthood, this house of God, this spiritual
house. He's raised us up to offer spiritual
sacrifices. Praise, prayer, singing of the
hymns. These things that we do, the
offerings that we give. These things are all made acceptable. They have to be made acceptable. If I put $50 or $100 in the offering
plate, he has to make it acceptable. Because it's not acceptable just
for me. I'm still filthy in my nature. He told one of them, he said,
don't touch me. He said, I haven't gone to the father yet. Your
touch would ruin the whole thing. Just don't touch me. Everything
we do has to be made acceptable. Have you ever done anything since
you've come to the knowledge of the truth? Have you ever done
anything that you felt like was acceptable to God? No. I get done preaching, I don't
want to go home and crawl in a corner. I could have done so
much better than that. No, in reality I couldn't. I'm
doing the best I can do. And it still has to be made acceptable. by Jesus Christ. We're spiritual
Levites. And we offer up spiritual sacrifices,
the blood and righteousness of Christ. And we offer to him of
the things that he's freely given to us. And even our love and
praise and worship are made acceptable by Jesus Christ. And he purifies
us through the refiner's fire of trials. Trials. And he purifies us through the truth. Truth purges
ignorance, don't it? But when you know something,
when the Lord actually reveals the truth to you, them lies just
start popping, them little bubbles just start popping. And then let me close with this
in Malachi 3.6. He said, for I am the Lord. Now
watch this. I change not. What's that mean? Therefore,
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. We always want to change God
anyway. Change his mind, change this,
change that. His unchangeableness is the reason
we're not consumed. He said his eye on us from all
eternity, his love on us from all eternity, made provision
for us from all eternity, appointed his son to special offices for
us from all eternity. What if he had changed? We'd
be like those rebels back in the wilderness. Our carcasses
would have stayed in the wilderness in the sand. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
in all their backsliding and in all their rebellion and ignorance
and wandering, God never changed. He didn't change his purpose.
He didn't change his calling. He didn't change his ways. He
didn't change his character. He didn't change his glory. And
his love didn't diminish one iota. Outside of Christ, God
is a consuming fire, but in Christ, he's God our Savior. And Jacob
and all his children, every believer, shall be saved because our God
changes.