Malachi in chapter 1 opens with
these words. The burden of the word of the
Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's
brother, saith the Lord? Yet I love Jacob. And I hated
Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished,
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 have indignation forever. And
your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, the Lord will be magnified
from the border of Israel. I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's
brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob. I have loved you. Now this book
of Malachi represents the closing of the prophets, the closing
of the Old Testament scriptures, before the coming of Christ over
400 years later. It's God's last speech to his
people upon this earth, last speech to mankind, before he
then sends a messenger, John the Baptist, to prepare the way
for the coming of his son. the long prophesied, the long
sought for Messiah, the Saviour whom God has promised to send
to this world to die in the place of sinners, to deliver sinners
from the wrath to come. And this closing prophecy clearly
demonstrates unto us the state of man before the coming of Christ. The state of mankind in this
world, and the state of religious man. For in the accounts we have
in this book, and in what God has to say to Jacob, to Israel,
to the people of Israel, the professing people of God at the
time, and their contentions against what he has to say to them, they
question his judgments of them. What we have here is an example
of how apostate this people have become and how corrupt man can
be before a holy God whilst professing his name and pretending to worship
him. Hear this people who had the
oracles of God, who had the scriptures, who had the knowledge of God
and how he would be worshipped. Here this people, though they
claimed to worship him, though they claimed to love him, though
they claimed to be his people, here this people had hearts which
were far from him. All their claims were of nothing
worth. They loved this world. They loved
their own glory. They loved their own pleasures.
They did not give the best in the service of God. They walked
according to the letter of scripture. They thought they served Him.
They thought they did what was required. Whilst all along their
hearts loved this world, their hearts loved themselves. And
their religion was an abomination before God. They were utterly
apostate. They were in darkness. And here,
400 years before the coming of Christ, after thousands of years
of the revelation of God through the prophets and the law of Moses,
after years of God speaking unto man and having dealings with
man and telling man of the coming of his son, here there is hardly
a man upon earth who truly worshipped. Here even those who profess God's
name were full of sin and corruption. And yet despite all that they
are, despite all their hypocrisy, despite all their falsehood,
despite the corruptions of their hearts, despite their unfaithfulness
to their God, God had this to say of them, I have loved you,
saith the Lord. I have loved you. Despite all
that you are, Jacob, a supplanter, a deceiver, despite all that
Jacob the man was and all that that people who bore his name
were, Despite their deceit, despite their pretending to love God
and worship Him whilst loving this world, despite their deceit,
God said of them, I have loved you. I have loved you. They ask, wherein hast thou loved
us? And he answers, was not Esau
Jacob's brother? yet I loved Jacob. You are wicked
as others are wicked, no better, yet I've loved you. You've been
unfaithful, yet I've loved you. You've polluted my sacrifices,
yet I've loved you. You've despised my name, yet
I've loved you. You've wearied me with your false
words and pretense of worship, yet I've loved you. You've wandered
afar off from me, and yet I've loved you. You've robbed me of
what is mine, and yet I've loved you. You've spoken against me,
and yet I've loved you. You've been unfaithful to me,
and yet I have loved you. Oh what a God, what a grace,
what mercy that he can say to such, I have loved you. What grace, what mercy, what
hope and salvation if He says to us unworthy, ungrateful, unfaithful,
sinners through and through, if He can say to us, I have loved
you, you are mine, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. without beginning and without
end. And no matter what you've done,
and no matter what you do, and no matter what you will do, I
will love you to the end because you are mine. I have chosen you. As he said that to you. Here
at the close of the Old Testament, the people having heard and wandered
off The people worshipping outwardly but not inwardly. The people
having apostatised and corrupted the worship of God, here in the
darkness. When God's speech is about to
close before a gap of over 400 years until the Messiah finally
comes, the light entering the darkness, here at the close of
this Old Testament. God reminds this people and us
what salvation is all about. They are not saved. They are
not blessed because of what they have done. They are not his people because
they are better than others. They have not earned his favour. They have not merited His grace
but He loved them whilst yet in their sins. And He loves them
whilst they yet remain unthankful and ungrateful. He has chosen
them freely by grace. Here we're reminded of the electing
love of God, the discriminatory love of God. Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated as Romans 9 quotes. God chose a people
from this world and he said this people I will bless, this people
I will set my love upon, this people I will have mercy unto
and none other. So it was in the types and the
figures of the Old Testament. So it was with the physical nation
of Israel chosen from out of all the other tribes and kindreds
in the world. And so it is with that spiritual
people of which Israel and Jacob were but a figure. So it is with
all God's elected chosen people throughout all of time. All those
in the Old Testament who were truly gods, truly men and women
of faith, and all those under the New Testament and in our
present day whom God saves, are chosen by Him. We are all children
of Roth. We're all born of Adam. We've
all gone astray. We've all been born speaking
lies. We've all shaken our fist in
God's face. We've all despised his word and
his gospel. We're all sinners and we're all
in deserve, we all deserve his judgment and his wrath. You and
I included. And yet God has said of a people,
I have loved you. I have loved Jacob and hated
Esau. Though Jacob was a sinner like
Esau, though Jacob was a schemer and a supplanter, though you
are a schemer and a supplanter, though you are deceitful, though
you despise my name. Yet I have loved Jacob and hated
Esau. And those whom God has loved,
those whom God sets his love upon, though they deserve it
not, though they're full of sin from head to toe, he has saved. All whom He has loved will be
saved in the end. All whom He has loved will be
forgiven of all their iniquity. All for whom God sent His Son,
all those whom He loved with His electing, discriminating
grace, were washed in the blood of His own Son. where Christ
was nailed to a tree and gave up the ghost, having suffered
under the outpouring of God's wrath against their sins. Either you are loved of God or
you are hated of God. Either you are washed in the
blood of Christ or you will be damned in eternity to come. Either you are saved or you are
lost. And what will determine it is
whether God can say of you, I have loved you. I have loved you. That's the context of this book. And that is the closing words
of the Old Testament in essence, that God reminds this people
and reminds the world that He has a people He has loved and He is sending His Son to
redeem them. Over 400 years later, because
of that love for Jacob, because of that love for His people,
God's own son was born in Bethlehem. God taking upon his divine person,
human nature, born a man, living amongst men, dwelling
amongst men, entering this world made a little lower than the
angels, even for the suffering of death. God came into this
world in the person of his son and he came for that people he
loved though they hated him. That people who are described
in this prophecy as having despised his name, as having polluted
him, as having wearied Him, as having gone astray from Him,
as having robbed Him and as having spoken against Him. What a description! How undeserving! And yet God
sent His Son to die for those who were dead. to die for those who were dead
in trespasses and sins to suffer for those who made him suffer to wash those who were filthy
to bring life unto those who were in the grave to set at liberty the captives God sent his Son to save sinners
such as you and such as I. As he said of you, I have loved
you. And what have you said of him?
Because if you look in this book at this people, as I've said,
we see a people who despise him. Jacob, a schemer, a deceitful
man, and a people like him, a people who approach with the lips when
their hearts are far from him. What of you? Do you profess his
name? Do you say God loves me? Do you
say Jesus loves me? Do you say you're the Lord's?
Do you go to worship? Do you read the Bible? and is
it all a weariness unto you? Is it all an outward show before
others of how zealous and how religious and how righteous you
are? When really you know your heart
inside and you know there's no life there and you know there's
no righteousness there and you know you're guilty and you put
on this show because your pride won't let you turn and your pride
won't let you fall down upon your knees before God to say,
Lord have mercy upon me a sinner. You've made a show in religion,
you've made a profession, you've said you believe, you've been
baptised and you can't turn back from it though you know it's
all a sham. Do you have a form of godliness? but deny the power thereof. Do
you approach unto God with the lips when your heart is far from
Him? Well, this people did. They'd replaced a true walk with
God, a living walk with God, a communion with God, a walk
of faith before God, with just the form of religion. Grace was
supplanted by works. faith by law, they had everything
outward, they looked like they were gods, but there was no vital
union, they didn't know him, they didn't love him, they didn't
see him, they didn't speak with him, there was no interaction,
Which is why when God rebukes this people at the end of the
Old Testament here, God speaks directly to them. Directly. You'll notice the wording in
this prophecy is unlike so many of the others. So often the prophets
speak and the prophets bring the word that the Lord spake
to the prophet to the people. But here everything is recorded
as God's speech directly. God says I have loved you. God says yet ye offered polluted
bread upon mine altar. God says ye said also behold
what a weariness is it. God says. He comes unto this
people and rebukes them directly. And that's what they needed and
that's what you need. You need to hear His voice. You need to hear the voice of
the Son of God in the Gospel. Because it's one thing to read
the record of His words in the Scriptures. And it's one thing
to hear men speak of God and to make a profession that you
love that God of whom they speak, but it's another thing to hear
the voice of that God speaking unto your soul. It's another
thing to hear the voice of the Son of God Himself speaking unto
you in person. And yet you'll never know Him
and His salvation until He speaks. until he says unto you in person,
I have loved you. But should he, and should you
know that he's come to you in the gospel and spoken by grace
to you, then you'll know what a wondrous savior he is. Yes,
in this book we see God speaking to this people. To this people
that profess his name. And he says several things unto
them and they respond with questions. They argue with seven questions
which they ask in response to what God has to say of them.
How indignant they are at God's rebuke. How annoyed they are
that God sends Malachi unto them, and speaks to them. Because they
thought that they were gods, and they thought that they loved
his name, and they thought that their sacrifices were acceptable
unto him. They thought their worship was
right. They thought they walked before
him. They thought they gave him his
dues. they thought they were the people
of God and yet he looked beyond the
form and the outward appearance and the veneer that they walked
in and exposed them and looked within the heart and said not
so so they contend like you contend and like I contend because we're
contentious spirits we're like that by nature we argue when
our parents tell us off for something we argue it wasn't me not me
I didn't how argumentative we are and how proud of ourselves
we are how self-righteous we are How annoyed we are at any
that find a fault. When God sends a preacher or
a prophet unto us, how annoyed we are if that preacher rebukes
us. How annoyed we are if there's
a cutting edge to the word. Not me, that's for someone else. So they argue, and there's this
dialogue between God and this people, in which they say, wherein
hast thou loved us? I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Where? How? In that I chose you and
not Esau. Wherein have we despised thy
name, they say? He says, you offer polluted bread
upon mine altar. Wherein have we polluted thee,
they say? Their hearts say, behold what
a weariness the worship of God is. When God says that they say
that, they answer and say, where in have we wearied him? He answers, when ye say, every
one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he
delighteth in them. Or where is the God of judgment?
When you bring his truth to mean nothing, Wherein have we wearied him?
Wherein shall we return unto him? How can we return when we
haven't wandered off? Yet you have wandered off. Oh
you're in the meeting. Oh you're there with others.
Oh you're reading your bible. But your heart's not there. You're
afar off. Wherein have we robbed him? Will
a man rob God? Yet you've robbed me, God says. Where have we robbed thee? In
tithes and offerings. You've not given me all of your
time. You've not given me all of your
heart. You want my salvation and you want all the world's
riches and pleasures and you want your own self-glory too. You want that corruption of Christianity
that says you can have everything now and everything to come. You're
not prepared to give anything up for God. Your love for him
is worthless. You've robbed him. And yet you say, where have we
robbed him? You've spoken against him. Your
words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet you say,
what have we spoken so much against thee? You've said it's vain to
serve God. And what profit is it that we've
kept his ordinance, that we have walked mournfully before the
Lord of hosts? You see the wicked elsewhere
seeming to be prosperous. You see those who know not God
seeming to get on and you know trouble. And in your heart you
fight against it and the trouble that comes your way, you kick
against it and say, well, what's the point? I've tried to serve
God, I've tried to worship, I've tried to do this and look where
I am. I'm full of trouble, full of
trial. When there's these people in
the world that don't know anything and they just seem to prosper.
It's a weariness. And in thinking and doing like
this, you've spoken against God. Well these words find us all
out, don't they? We know that that's how our hearts
work. Whatever our profession, we know
the flesh speaks in this way. Whatever our experience of the
grace of God, even if we know Christ, even if we believed on
Christ, even if we know his gospel, we know our flesh kicks against
him. And we know it argues in this
way. We know we haven't given to Him
all of our time and all of our hearts. We know that our service
is worthless. And yet we hate to be exposed.
How we argue, how we contend. How unfaithful and ungrateful
we are. And yet this God says of such
a people, I have loved you. I have loved you and I will love
you to the end no matter what. Weariness. Is the worship of
God a weariness to you? Is the gospel of God a weariness
to you? Are the things of Jesus Christ
a weariness to you? Wherein have we wearied him? Would you rejoice in these things?
Do you rejoice in a God that says of you who are so weary,
I have loved you? Has he said that of you? Or are
you Esau, of whom he says, I hated Esau? and laid his mountains
and his heritage waste for the dragons in the wilderness. Are
you of Esau's seed, to be cast out into outer darkness forevermore? O ye priests, God says in chapter
2, This commandment is for you, if ye will not hear, if ye will
not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord
of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your
blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already,
because ye do not lay it to heart. It's not just believers, professing
believers, it's not just those that take God's name who have
wearied Him. but it's those who stand up and
preach to them, it's those who take positions of power and authority
in the professing Church of God. There are many preachers today
claiming to serve God, claiming to speak in His name, of whom
God says, I will curse you, you do not speak for me. and your
worship is abomination, you too have wearied the Lord. Because you've turned from Him. You've turned from His electing
love and mercy. You've turned from the fact that
He loves Jacob and hates Esau. You've turned from this discriminating
love made known in the Gospel. to a gospel that would present
God as loving all men, to a gospel that put salvation in their hands
not his. And you've turned from that love
that saved sinners despite their being worthless and nothing and
made salvation conditional upon what they do. You've taught the
people that they, despite what they are, can live in a manner
that God will accept. And if they just do this and
that, then they will attain unto righteousness and salvation.
You've turned from His grace and His gospel to the law and
to works. You've turned from that reality
of inward union with God of a walk of faith to a religion which
is outward and in the letter and in the form. You've turned. You've turned. You've turned
from God. You've turned from Christ and
his gospel and his grace back to man and his works and his
merit. You veneer it with references
to Jesus. You veneer it with references
to the cross and to the blood. But all the decision, all the
decisive factor of whether a soul is saved under your gospel comes
down to the will and to the works of man. You've turned, and you
turn the people who hear you. You're unfaithful. Turning back
from Christ the husband of the bride, back to your former husband
the law. You've put away Christ by your
corruption of his gospel and supplanted him with Moses. You've put him away. And yet
the Lord hates putting away. He hates putting away. which is why in this book he
stresses this fact not to teach us about marriage
so much and not to teach us about adultery so much But to emphasise
that this people, in pretending to be gods and these priests
in pretending to preach his gospel, by turning from Christ to man
and his works, has turned away from Christ, their husband. They've put away, they've divorced,
they've been unfaithful. That form of religion that puts
works in the place of grace is unfaithful. It's to break the
very law it pretends to keep. The very law. It's to deal with God treacherously. Chapter 2, 14. Because the Lord
hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth against
whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion and
the wife of thy covenant, and did he not make one? Yet had
he the residue of the Spirit, and wherefore one, that he might
seek a godly seed? Therefore take heed to your spirit,
and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
away. For one covereth violence with
his garments, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed
to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. If your Christ's
Walk in Christ, walk with Christ and turn not away from His grace
to your works. Turn not back to your former
husband, the law. You who are married to Christ,
don't be unfaithful. These people found the worship
of God a weariness because there was no love in it. because there
was no love for their saviour. They just did what they thought
they should do but the love was gone. Like a marriage where the
duties perform but there's no love, it's a weariness. Yet God would not put them away. Yet God would not divorce them,
though they were unfaithful with Him. Yet God would not turn aside
from them, though they turned aside from Him. though they were
unfaithful, though they went back to the law, though they
turned from him, though they dealt with him treacherously,
though you may deal with him treacherously, believer, though
you may bring in your works and your will alongside Christ's
sacrifice, believer, though you may be tempted to follow the
teaching of the Judaizers at Galatia and mix law and grace,
Though you may turn to your own strength in the things of God
and turn aside from Christ and grow cold under Him, though you
may cease to pray, though you may walk in your own strength
and ability, though you may turn your back upon your Saviour,
if you're His, He won't turn His back upon you. He will say
of you, I have loved you. I have loved you. Despite their unfaithfulness,
despite our unfaithfulness, God never forsook them and he will
never forsake us because he chose them. He's chosen Jacob. He's chosen the people, not because
of what they've done, but because of his good pleasure to love
them and to save them. Before ever Jacob or Esau were
born, before ever either did good or evil, God chose Jacob. And if you are Christ, if you're
one of those for whom Christ died, if you're one of those
for whom one of those whom God will save, then it's because
He chose you before you were ever born, before you ever did
good or evil. Not because of any good you've
done, not because of any right decision you've made. Because
you've done as much evil and made as many bad decisions as
anyone else in this world. You're as corrupt as Esau is. But if God has loved you, he's
loved you because of his good pleasure and his determination
to save you. And no matter how unfaithful
and how weary you may be with his worship, he will love you. to the end which is why he says
to this people so thankless so unworthy behold I will send my
messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord
whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger
of his covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. I am going to send my Son to
save you. that Saviour of whom I have spoken
before, that Deliverer of your souls, that One for whom you
look, though you are weary, though you are unfaithful, though you're
undeserving, I'm still going to send Him, because I've loved
you and I will save you. He will come. And over 400 years
later that messenger was sent to prepare his way. John the
Baptist came. And Jesus was born and came into
this world, the Son of God. God sent his messenger to his
people. And John said of him, Behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of this world. He came. He came. God was true to his promise because
God does not change. When God says I love you, when
God says I will save you, when God says I will send a Saviour,
a Redeemer for you, He does it. As it says in chapter 3 verse
6, For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob,
are not consumed though you've changed though you've blown hot
and cold though you've professed to love me and then wandered
off from me though you've changed I change not and my love for
you changes not I said I will save you and I will save you
I will send my son and he sent his son he sent his son And here
we are, thousands of years later, 2,000 years beyond the coming
of Christ into this world, looking back upon these promises, looking
back upon these events, and we can say with a truth and a certainty
that what God said that should come about here, came about. And what God said of himself,
that I am the Lord I change not is true because Christ did come
and Christ did save his people and Christ did lay down his head
in death for that people and Christ did bear their sins in
his own body on the tree and Christ did put away sin And Christ
did take that bride, that unfaithful bride and wash her in his own
blood. Christ did take away her every
spot and blemish. Christ did love her. Christ loved
her and gave himself for her. Christ loved Jacob and made Jacob
anew. Christ delivered Jacob as he
said he would. Christ came. Christ came. Chapters 3 and 4 speak of the
coming of Christ and the wondrous salvation which he would bring.
And the effects of this salvation has upon that people. For in
verse 16, God says of that people, then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord and that fought
upon his name. And he says of them, and they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I
make up my jewels. and I will spare them as a man,
spare if his own son that serveth him. Oh what a people these are
in Christ. In themselves, in the flesh,
they're disgusting, an abomination, rebels before God, like you and
I, worthless nothings. But God loved them and he sent
his son to save them. and he says of them that in that
day I'll make up my jewels, you're my jewel and I will spare you
from the wrath which your sins have earned because I'll pour
that wrath out on my son. Has he done it for you? Has He loved you? Are you one
of His jewels for whom Christ suffered? If you are, if you
fear the Lord, if you love His name, then you like these will
speak often one to another. And what will you speak of? You will speak of Christ and
his salvation. You'll speak of that blood he
shed for you. You'll speak of that everlasting
love he had for you, that even though you hated him, yet he
loved you. Even though you wandered off,
yet he came and sought you. Even though you despised his
name, yet he loved you yet. even though you polluted his
worship yet he forgave you. Oh you'll speak of his long-suffering
and grace that even though your works were worthless in his eyes
he cast them aside and wrapped you up in his arms of grace and
picked you up and pulled you out of the ditch, and delivered
you from the jailhouse, delivered you from the captivity in which
you were bound, and set you free. And as a sheep led by a shepherd,
he led you in the right path. Oh, you'll speak of Christ and
his electing grace and love. You'll speak of his long-suffering
mercy. You'll speak of his glory. You'll
speak of the hope of salvation. You'll speak of how this God
changes not. You'll speak of the promises
he keeps. You'll speak of His glory. You'll
speak of that light that shone in the darkness, that shone in
the darkness of your heart and your soul, that found you, sat
in the darkness without hope. that found you, you'll speak
of that God that sought you out and brought you under him, that
sought you out and brought you to the foot of the cross, that
sought you out and opened your eyes to behold the Saviour suffering
for you. Oh you'll speak of Him. You'll
speak of Him to others and you'll speak of Him to Him. You'll pray,
you'll call out to God, you'll walk with God, you'll speak often
unto your God. Because if you know this salvation,
if you know this God, if you know this sacrifice, if you know
the application of Christ's blood upon your soul, you'll know what
it is to have His life within. And you'll know what it is to
walk before Him as one who truly fears His name, as one who knows
Him, not just of Him but Him. You'll know Him. Do you? Can you rejoice with these that
rejoiced in him? Can you say this? God has said
of me, I love you. And you are one of my jewels. One of my jewels. Can he say
that of you? If he can, then you will know
what it is. As those that fear His name.
to be able to say, but unto you that fear my name shall the son
of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. You'll know what
it is to see him arising for you with healing in his wings. And ye shall go forth and grow
up as calves of the stall, and ye shall tread down the wicked. For they shall be ashes under
the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith
the Lord of hosts. O have you seen this Son of Righteousness,
the Son of God, the One of whom the sun is a picture, the One
from whom the light of God shines? Has He risen for you, rising
up from the grave, having taken your sins away in judgment, having
brought forth the righteousness of God in judgment upon your
sins? Has He having taken those sins
away? laid your sin and your iniquity
in the grave? And has he risen up from the
grave in newness of life for you, risen up with you? Have you risen with him, healed
by his wings, rising up as that one that flies up from the grave? Is he your son of righteousness?
Is he your saviour? Has He appeared for you? Has
He appeared for you? Did He go into the furnace of
death for you? Did He suffer under the torment
of God's anger and wrath against your sin? Did He burn for you? Did He burn for you? Did He rise for you with healing
in His wings? Malachi said this will come about. Hundreds of years later it came
about. The words of the prophet fell
silent for 400 years but in the fullness of time Christ came. But the people waited, waited,
looking for that son of righteousness. Is all silent for you? Is all
darkness for you? Are you waiting? Do you know
your sin and corruption? Do you wonder whether you're
born of Jacob or born of Esau? Do you wait? Do you call upon
the Lord? Well if you're His, that waiting,
that waiting and that calling and that crying will come to
an end. He will hear and there comes
a day when He for you will arise with healing in His wings. He
will come. Look, look unto Him all ye ends
of the earth and live. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. Do you fear his name? Unto you that fear my name shall
the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings, because
he said of you, I have loved you. I have loved you, saith
the Lord. Amen.