Now our reading this evening
has been from this first chapter of Malachi, specifically verses
6 to 14 are before our eyes this evening, and particularly within
that passage I want to draw your attention to verse 11. For from
the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my
name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place
incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering. For my name shall be great among
the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. The title of the sermon
this evening is A Pure Offering. Our loving Saviour would have
his people reminded of their calling and their privilege of bringing sincere and earnest
worship and thanksgiving into his presence. We are the richest most blessed
people on the face of this earth. We are the most blessed because
of the grace of God to us. And yet, what have we that we
have not been given? What do we possess that hasn't
been given graciously and mercifully to us? Every blessing is of grace
and even our trials are blessings in disguise. the very trials that afflict
us, the very doubts that concern us, those things which are brought
to us that generate such anxiety in our hearts and our minds,
they are blessings to us. I think it was just Conrad at
the weekend was saying to me about our light affliction, was
it not Conrad? Which is but for a moment, and
it worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. These are just little things
that beset us and let us endeavour to remember that in the midst
of the darkest times and the trials and the difficulties that
we face. Sincere worship and earnest thanksgiving. It's our duty. It's our calling. It's our privilege. What are we doing here otherwise? What are we doing here tonight
otherwise? Dare we come before Almighty
God with insincerity in our hearts? What value is empty gratitude? Who wants it? When people come with their worship
before God, when people come with their hymns and their prayers
before God, as they do in a hundred places in this one town every
week, who are they kidding if they are not bringing sincere
worship before God? Who am I kidding? We are with them that call on the Lord
out of a pure heart. Calling upon the Lord out of
a pure heart is that which we are called to. That is the only
worship that our God is going to accept. In John chapter 4
verse 23, the Lord Jesus Christ says to his disciples, The occasion
was the Lord's time that he spent with the woman at the well. And she was all concerned about
where true worship had to be made and what the form and what
the formality and what the approach ought to be. And the Lord had
to disabuse her of her misunderstandings. You say that we need to worship
like this, but we say we need to worship like this. What's
right, who can know? What we require is a pure offering. What we require is an awareness
of who Christ is. The hour cometh and now is when
the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. We've been telling the youngsters,
the children, on Sunday morning a little bit about the nature
of God. And we were saying, I hope you've
been listening too, Hope so. We've been saying that the Lord
is a spirit. God is a spirit. God is a spirit. Eternal, invisible, all-powerful,
all-knowing. God is a spirit. And they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The Father seeketh such. Seeketh what? Those who will
worship him spiritually. Now understand this, that's not
got to do with any physical or tangible manifestation of our
way of approach. Let's not get hung up. on the
hymns that we sing or the prayers that we make or the words that
we use. Let's not be so concerned about
the customs that we have and the traditions that we carry
with us. Let us make sure that every element
and aspect of our approach to God is based simply on an earnestness
of heart, a sincerity of approach, and an understanding that it
is only spiritual worship that is acceptable to a spiritual
God. The Father seeketh such, he seeks
them out, he calls them out, he equips his people to worship
him so that even our worship has been given to us. We've nothing
to offer God, not even genuine worship. It has to be given to
us that we might in turn offer it back to him. We love God because
he first loved us. And we seek God because he first
sought us. He sought us out in the morass
of this world, in the filthiness of this sinful, degraded, degenerate
world. He came to us and he used our
name and he called us personally to himself. This is a solemn
passage that we have read tonight together from Malachi chapter
one. It is a solemn and it is a probing
passage. Perhaps as solemn and probing
as we will find in the word of God. And whenever and wherever
we hear the Lord rebuking a people, we ought to say to ourselves
with the disciples, Lord, is it I? Is it me? Is this message for me? Are these words for me? Is this a lesson for me? Recently, we made the point in
One of the things that we were saying that it matters what you
believe, and it does matter what you believe. And here the messenger
prophet Malachi is telling us that God says, it matters how
you worship me. It matters how you worship me.
This is the Lord of hosts who is speaking. If you want a little job sometime,
count the number of times that the Lord of Hosts is mentioned
in this book of Malachi. It's easy if you've got one of
these concordances on your iPad. The Lord of Hosts is speaking
here. The Lord of Hosts, the Lord who
created everything. The Lord who created all things,
for the glory of his name is the one who is constantly addressing
himself to the people in this book. In Isaiah 45 verse 12 we
read, I have made the earth, I created man upon it, I, even
my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host
have I commanded. Why do the stars stay in place? Why do the planets orbit and
rotate? Why is it that men do what they
do? What is the arrangement that
so ordains the activities of this world? The rise and the
fall of the nations, the comings and goings of men. It is God
who has commanded these things. God who calls himself the creator
of the hosts of heaven. God who says, I am the Lord of
hosts, the governor. of all things. All men, all angels,
all creatures have a duty to honour and obey God. And Malachi carried his message
to the Jews. It was to Israel that this message
came in verse 1. And the Jews had more of an obligation
and a duty to honour God because of the benefits and the revelations
that had been granted to them peculiarly of all the nations
in the world. Think of them. Think of the nations
of the world. Think of the darkness that benighted
those nations for the centuries and for the millennia. while
God dealt with the Jews, a little people in a little land on the
face of this globe, and hardly an occasion, you could number
them in the fingers of one hand, hardly an occasion when the gospel
in the Old Testament went beyond the borders of Israel. All the nations and all the continents
of the earth for all of that time living in complete darkness
to these truths of Scripture. The Jews were blessed above men
and women in this world in a tremendous way. They should have known better
and their sinfulness in not knowing aggravated their wickedness because
God had given them so much. They had been blessed above all
nations on this earth and yet they despised the Lord of hosts. It's incredible. And we noticed
as we were reading that the priests were mentioned in verse six,
particularly the priests are mentioned. And they are mentioned
and specified undoubtedly because above the ordinary Jew, they
should have known better. While the Jews amongst all the
earth had received these oracles of God, the priests of all people
who worked with the bloody animals, who carried those offerings into
the temple, who laboured and exercised their ministry before
the altar, they should have understood. And yet what does it say of these
men? They offered polluted bread on
the altar. Their worship was poor quality. It was carelessly enacted. They considered the table of
the Lord contemptible, meaningless. They offered blind, lame, sick
offerings that they could neither eat nor sell. So they offered it to God. Friends, The children of faith and adoption
are called the priests of God. That's our name, priests. We are kings and priests by grace,
made so in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter tells us
in 1 Peter 2, verse 9, you're a chosen generation. a royal
priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth
the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvellous light. And just as the priests of the
Old Testament were bound to honour God, so are the priests of the
New Covenant, the Gospel Age. And if anything, our obligations
are greater for our blessings are greater and our worship ought
to be purer. It is spiritual, not material,
not physical, not temporal. It ought to make us tremble to
consider such weighty obligations that we have. and it gets worse. Look at verse
10. These priests were mercenaries. You know what a mercenary is?
Mercenary is a man or a woman that fights for money. They take
up their responsibilities only when they get paid for it. These
men weren't serving the Lord for the love of their country.
They weren't serving the Lord for the love of their people.
They weren't serving the Lord certainly for the love of the
Lord. Who is there even among you that
would shut the doors for naught? They wouldn't even close the
doors of the sanctuary on a night unless they were paid. Neither
do ye kindle fire on mine altar for naught. The guys that made
sure the fire kept going, they made sure that they got their
salary at the end of the week. The Lord says, I have no pleasure
in you. Neither will I accept an offering
at your hand. How our God knows the hearts
of men and women. How he sees not only the act
but the intent, not only the action but the motivation. He sees and he knows all things. These priests were trading God. They were trading godliness. They served him for what they
could gain, for what they could get, for what they could gather. Their sacred service was their
business. You know, it hasn't changed much.
It really hasn't. I noticed in the newspaper today
that some evangelist, I don't remember his name, was appealing
to his followers for his fourth jet because he needs it to get
about and do his evangelistic work. But do you see what this
is saying? Even acceptable service is rendered
corrupt when it is offered for the wrong reasons. Think about that for a moment.
Even the things that appear to be good and honourable and upright,
they're corrupt when they come for the wrong reasons. When it
becomes just a formality. that we bow our heads in prayer,
or we close our mouths when we come to consider the word of
God. Hear me, saith God. I have no
pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept
an offering at your hand. We read, didn't we, the occasion
of the widow's mite, how that the Lord saw these men with their
big wads coinage in their pockets, casting into the treasury of
their plenty. But what he took cognisance of
was the widow with her two coins, who gave all she had. And that was much more important
to the Lord. If we come with corrupt offerings,
will God accept it? If we come with acceptable offering,
to trade and to barter with him. Will he accept that? No. Twice no. I have no pleasure in you. I will not accept an offering. Who was it? Cain, I think. who brought the finest offerings
that his hands could produce. He brought the best vegetables. He brought the finest of grain. He would give to the Lord out
of those things that he had produced in themselves. Useful, needful. and yet the Lord would not accept
it because he didn't come the right way. How now, priests of God? How now? I see what you give as offering. I see how you give your offering. I see why you give your offering,
and I have no pleasure in you. Neither will I accept an offering
at your hand. It's not pure enough. It's not
sincere enough. It's not selfless enough. I tell you, if we trembled at
the Lord's first allegations against these Old Testament priests. We ought to be quaking in our
boots now. But wait a moment, I've got something
better to say to you than that. What more does God say? Here in this promise, here in
this prophecy, there is gospel to be discovered. Amidst the
condemnations that God is giving, the declamations against these
people, the Lord says in verse 11, for from the rising of the
sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be
great among the Gentiles. And in every place incense shall
be offered unto my name and a pure offering. For my name shall be
great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. This is a
tremendous verse. This is a verse to lay hold on
in this dark passage. From the east to the west. That
is, as the sun moves, or as the earth moves around the sun, perceptionally
as the sun moves across the heavens. Wherever people live, wherever
they are to be found, the Lord will have his honour. All around the globe, all over
the world, the Lord has his people. Now we need to remember that
the Lord has his people all over the world. all over the world. And note with me, please, the
threefold reference to God's name in this verse 11. He says,
my name shall be great among the Gentiles. He says, my name
shall be great among the heathen. The heathen. incense shall be offered unto
my name. Who is this but the Lord Jesus
Christ, whose name is above every name? Philippians 2 verse 9 says,
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name
which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. In every place
incense shall be offered. True worship shall be offered. Worship not based on what we
bring. Worship not founded on what our
attitudes are. But worship founded on a better
sacrifice. A holy sacrifice. a pure offering,
a perfect offering, spotless, undefiled, unblemished, not sick,
not lame, not blind like the lambs that were brought by the
old dispensation priests and offered on the altar to God.
but an unblemished holy offering, which is only Christ himself. There's nothing that you can
offer God out of your fleshy heart. There is nothing that
comes from you out of your fleshy mind, but that which has been
placed in us, which is holy and spotless and pure. which is Christ himself. It is
Christ that we look to every time we come together and it
is only in the fact that Christ is lifted up amongst us that
there is any true worship to God at all. Remember what he
said? It is spiritual worshipers that
he is seeking. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
offering. Every time we approach God in
worship, we bring Christ. We look to Him, we speak of Him,
we sing of Him. Our songs are frail and feeble
and flawed because when we are singing the words, our minds
are on what's cooking for dinner. When we're making our prayers,
we've got one mind on what we're saying and another mind on the
children who have been misbehaving. And even the very best worship
that we can offer God, the most sincere, the most genuine, is
always going to be flawed because it comes from a fleshy heart
and only the worship of the new man. the new creation, that in
which Christ dwells, that which is called forth by the power
of the Holy Spirit, that uttering, that speaking to God with words
that cannot be spoken, that is the only true worship that we
have. It is Christ himself. Not that he is sacrificed over
and over again, but his one sacrifice has secured our everlasting acceptance
with the Father. The gospel is simply this, that
every demand has been satisfied, every requirement has been fulfilled. God seeks those who will worship
him in spirit and in truth, then he calls them out and he gives
them that worship which is acceptable to him. He gives them Christ
and Christ is their worship to God. The Lord says, now, I see what
you give as an offering. Christ offered himself. I see how you give your offering. Who? The church? No, Christ. He who offered himself, offered
himself willingly, offered himself freely, offered himself out of
a sense of love and obligation to his Father's command. There
is perfect purity. It is a pure offering that is
given by Christ. Payment made for every sin committed
by His church and people, by those for whom He died. Every
transgression, every evil motive and action that has ever been
done or ever will be done by his church, by his bride, paid
for fully, every requirement satisfied completely by that
one offering of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9 verse 14 says, How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God? What is our service? It's that blood of Christ being
set forth before us as the only way of approach. And for this
cause, he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means
of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. What a contrast is here presented
to us. Malachi 1 verse 12 says, Remember
we spoke last week about what profane meant? It meant outside
the temple. It was that activity which was
performed outside the proper way of worship, outside the proper
way of approach. What is this? It is the worship
of man's own self-righteousness. It is the worship that is brought
constantly by the religious people of this world. And it doesn't
matter what you're called. It doesn't matter what your religious
denomination is or your religious traditions or where it is that
you come from in the face of this world. Anything that is
improper religion is a profanity, a profanity. It is offered outside
of Christ. Ye have profaned it, says the
Lord to these priests. Who has profaned it? Everyone
that is outside of the temple. All who are outside of Christ. They cannot bring pure incense. They cannot bring a proper offering. What is it that they have profaned?
They have profaned the table of the Lord. They have profaned
the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have trodden the
blood of Christ underfoot by saying that it's unnecessary,
by saying that there's another way, by saying that they have
something to offer God of themselves that will please Him, that will
make them acceptable. And God says, will I accept an
offering at your hand? When you bring it with these
motives, when you bring your lame and your halt and your sick
and your worthless offerings to me, the fruit of the Lord's table that
these people despise is salvation by grace without works. His meat, we're still reading
in verse 12, his meat, is the very death of Christ. That's the savoury meat for the
Lord's people as we feed upon him. His death, his sacrifice,
his obedience before the holiness of God, the bearing of his back
to the lashes and the sword of God's justice. His meat, the
very death of Christ upon the cross, is regarded as contemptible
by those who do not come by the proper way and means. Isaiah 4 verse 2 says, In that
day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and
the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them
that are escaped of Israel. The fruit of the earth shall
be excellent. That's a picture of Christ. He
is that one who is the true, the highest fruit of this earth. And he will honour God. in his death and the blessedness
of that sacrifice becomes our portion. John 4 verse 34 says,
Jesus saith unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that
sent me and to finish his work. Look at Malachi chapter 1 verse
13. Ye said also, speaking of these
priests, Behold, what a weariness is it! And ye have snuffed at
it, saith the Lord of hosts. And ye have brought that which
was torn, and the lame, and the sick. Thus ye brought an offering. Should I accept this at your
hands, saith the Lord? The reality is this evening,
friends, that free grace Divine mercy is a weariness to the natural
self-righteous man. It wearies him to hear the message
of free grace because his whole ethos, his whole belief system
is based on what he offers to God and how God will find that
acceptable. Whether it's his morality, whether
it's his money, whether it's his best efforts, it's whatever
it is that he is bringing to God. It's canes, fruit and vegetables. And it's a weariness to keep
hearing the fact that it's useless and it's unacceptable to God. And so what do they do? They
snuff at it. They snuff at it. They turn up
their noses. They snort and they sneer and
they say, we're not going to listen to this stuff. In John chapter 19 verse 21,
Pilate had written something on a piece of wood and put it
above the cross, Jesus' head on the cross. Then said the chief
priests of the Jews to Pilate, write not the king of the Jews,
but that he said, I am king of the Jews. That's snuffing right there. That's snuffing. Don't write that he's the King
of the Jews, just write that he said he was. Because his opinion's
that and our opinion's this and our opinion's as good as his.
and we'll come to God our way. We'll do it the way that we think's
right. We'll take our traditions and
our customs and our religion and we'll bring our offerings
to God. And free grace, well, we'll snuff
at that. And they bring their own offering,
their good works and their law keeping, the torn and the lame
and the sick. their history, their traditions,
their feelings, their opinions, and they lay them before God.
And God says, verse 14, cursed, cursed, cursed be the deceiver,
who when Christ, who when Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, remember
what we said about the name, my name, shall be blessed, shall
be great among the Gentiles. My name shall be great among
the heathen. Incense shall be offered to my
name. So when Christ, the Lord, Jesus
Christ, that name, Lord, means King. The Almighty, Jesus means
saviour, deliverer. Christ means anointed, the appointed
one. The Lord Jesus Christ, when his
name is set before them, they pretend that they don't need
his sacrifice. They will profane it, they will
do it themselves. And they imagine that they can
approach the great God in their own strength and by their own
merits. But what does the Lord say? And it's a promise in verse
11. He says, my name shall be great amongst the heathen and
the Gentiles and incense shall be offered, a pure offering. This is the work of God. and it is glorious in our sight. This is the work which God is
working in our day. He is gathering his people. What
did the Lord say to the lady at the well? He said, the Lord
seeks those that will worship him in spirit and in truth. And
if you're one of the Lord's elect, he's coming to get you. And he'll
send his gospel and it'll track you down. and it will get you,
because the Lord will not be disappointed. He seeks those
that will worship him in spirit and in truth. My name is dreadful
amongst the heathen. Our great King, our glorious
King, Our omnipotent King has a dreadful name amongst the heathen
and the gospel accomplishments testify to the power of Christ
as he enters the strongman's house and he takes captive whomsoever
he will. He gathers them by the preaching
of the gospel. He converts them by the foolishness
of preaching. and he brings them to himself. Sinners redeemed by the blood
of Christ, converted by the power of God the Holy Spirit, grafted
into Christ the true, thy made perfect in the beloved Son of
God. What a disgusting, offensive
spectacle man's self-righteousness is. God says, I'll spew it out
of my mouth. It's disgusting to me. But the
testimony of the priests of Malachi chapter one, these priests of
Israel, tells us the gospel. It tells us that there is salvation
by Christ alone, through faith alone, and every requirement
and demand is satisfied. Even our worship is a pure offering
when it is offered in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.