Malachi chapter 1. Just hold your hands here at
Malachi chapter 1. There are just two groups of
people in this world, just two. They are called the elect and
the reprobate. Vessels of mercy and vessels
of wrath. Those appointed to salvation
and those appointed to condemnation, Jew says. The woman's seed and
the serpent's seed. There are those who are included
under the names of Shem and Japheth. God's elect among the Jews and
the Gentiles and those of the cursed seed of Ham, whose curse
is that they should be continually servant of servants to Shem and
Japheth. The only reason Ham's seed exists
is to serve Shem and Japheth. The only reason they're here.
The only reason they're here. They're called sheep. and goats. They're referred to as Jerusalem
and Babylon, as Israel and Edom, as Jacob and Esau. And between these two groups
there is a great gulf fixed and there's no crossing over from
one to the other. There's no crossing over from
one to the other. Turn to Malachi chapter 1, and
I want to preach to you tonight about God's last word. God's last word. This is God's last word by his
prophets closing out the Old Testament dispensation. The burden
of the word of the Lord unto Israel by Malachi. Here it is. I have loved you,
saith the Lord. Yet you say, wherein hast thou
loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau. and laid his mountains and his
heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom,
Esau 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 hath indignation forever and your eyes shall see and ye
shall say the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel because
I Jacob, and I hated Esau." Like the children of Israel, we often
fall into ill humor and appear to be beaten down, depressed,
full of sullen unbelief. What a wretched state of affairs.
What a dishonor We cast upon our God when we walk around like
a whip-pup would play between our legs and just mope and carry
on as if God had abandoned his throne and abandoned us with
it. It ought never to be. In ourselves,
we're ignorant, ungrateful, and for the most part, we appear
to be oblivious. and insensible to the distinguishing
mercies of our God. My God, how ashamed I am for
my unbelief. It is this evil of unbelief that
I want to combat in my heart and yours tonight. May God the
Spirit use his word by Malachi to teach you and me to trust
him. May he graciously make us aware
of his unalterable, free, sovereign, distinguishing mercy, love and
grace that is unbounded upon us in Christ Jesus. Let me show
you five things and it won't take me long I promise. Every word in this paragraph
we read is worthy, deserves the closest attention. Here's the
first thing. The Lord God begins his final
message to his chosen people with an unqualified, unconditional
declaration of his love for us. I have loved you, saith Jehovah. Have loved you. I find it interesting
that God doesn't refer to his love for his people in the present
tense. I have loved you. Loved you from
eternity. And there is no alteration in
that love in time. And nothing shall happen in time
to make anything of that love less, or of a lesser degree,
or less intense. I have loved you, saith the Lord. The love of God, the hymn writer
said, is greater far than Turner Penn can ever tell. It goes beyond
the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty
pair bowed down with care. God gave his son to win. His
earned child he reconciled and pardoned all his sin. When years of time shall pass
away and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall, when men who here
refuse to pray on rocks and hills and mountains call, God's love
so sure shall still endure. all measureless and strong, redeeming
love and saving grace the saints and angels saw. Could we with
ink the ocean still, and where the skies of parchment made were,
every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade,
to write the love of God above, would drain the oceans dry, Now
could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from
sky to sky? This love, the love of God, is
the singular source, the fountain, and the cause of all our mercies. It's the subject that begins
in eternity, and reaches through all the ages of time and all
the events of history and reaches to eternity and the endless ages
of eternity to come. God himself calls it an everlasting
love. Let me show you, Jeremiah chapter
31. At the same time, saith the Lord,
I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they
shall be my people. Obviously, he's not talking about
the physical nation. They were considered his people
when this was written. He's talking about those whom
that physical nation represented, the Israel of God, Shem and Japheth. They shall be my people. Thus
saith the Lord, the people which were left of the sword found
grace in the wilderness. Even Israel, when I went to cause
him to rest, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, therefore, because
I loved you with an everlasting love. With loving kindness have
I drawn thee, again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built,
O virgin of Israel. Oh, did God say that to me? O virgin of Israel, thou shalt
again be adorned with thy habits adorned with joy. and shall go
forth in the dances of them that make merry. I have loved you,
saith the Lord. God's free, distinguishing grace
is declared throughout the scriptures to every believer. It is this
special, distinct, distinguishing, free, sovereign love that's referred
to here in Malachi chapter 1. I repeat, This is special, distinct,
distinguishing love. What do you mean by that? It's
the love that makes you different from other folks. It's the love
that makes a difference in your life. It's the love that makes
a difference in who you are and who you are in Christ. The love that makes a difference
whether you go to heaven or go to hell. The difference is not
in you. The difference is I have loved
thee. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. What does this mean? We hear
folks talk about there's a sense in which God loves everybody
and God's benevolent to everybody. Let me tell you what universal
love is. Universal love is meaningless
nonsense. If there's a sense in which God
loves somebody who goes to hell anyway, what's the point? No. Ham exists because God loves
Shem and Japheth. There's no other reason. There's
no other reason. What does it mean? I have loved
you, saith the Lord. Well, read the next words and
you'll find that's exactly what it means. Was not Esau Jacob's
brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau. That's precisely the way the
Apostle Paul in Romans 9.13 quotes this very passage. Now look what
he says about it as he refers to this passage speaking of God's
salvation in Romans 9.13. And Paul is writing by divine
inspiration just as Malachi wrote by divine inspiration. Romans
9 beginning at verse 11. The children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil. Well brother of God,
if they hadn't been born they couldn't have done any good or
evil. That's the reason it's written that way. That the purpose of
God according to election might stand. Not of works, either good
or bad, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I loved a little less than I did Jacob.
Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? I tell you what, you dare take that up with God. God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. to show his power,
to declare his name, because he loved Jacob and hated Esau.
Hath he mercy, on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will
he hearteneth. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Multitudes tell us that he loves
us as long as we are obedient and willing and we're good Christians. I'm so sick and tired of hearing
preachers get in the pulpit and tell us what Christians ought
to be and ought to do. I'm sick of it. If you know God,
this is what you are. This is what you ought to be.
If you know God, this is how you live. It ain't how you ought
to live. If you know God, grace makes a difference. I was watching
a friend of mine, Brother Ernie Lucas, one time we were preaching
together and he was standing at Riverbank and he just stood
there like this. He stood there for a little while
and I walked up next to him and said, Ernie, what you doing? He passed over to Appomattox,
Virginia. Brother Milton knows him well.
He said, I'm just standing here watching this river move. I said,
is there a reason? He said, it just does me good
to see something actually move that I don't have to prime, pump,
push or pull. Sadly, preachers by and large Spend their business priming,
pumping, pushing and pulling. And they all spend their time
preaching. Preaching the gospel of God's
grace. He loves us as long as we're good. Now the scriptures
do say, Thou lovest them that love Thee, and showest mercy
to thousands of them that love Thee, and keep Thy commandments.
Though we might say as Jeremiah did, Thou hast utterly rejected
us, Thou art very wrath against us. That's what it said in Lamentations
chapter 5. Though we might say that, the
Lord God says no. I do love you. I am Jehovah. I change not. Does he not declare,
I will rest in my love. I will joy over thee with singing. For Israel hath not been forsaken,
nor Judah of his God. of the Lord, of hosts, though
their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. So filled with iniquity, not
forsaken, yet loved of God. Brother Don, you can't tell people
that. It will lead to licentiousness. You go ahead to hell believing
that if you want to. The Lord had been displeased
with their fathers, we're told in Zechariah. And they were no
better than their fathers. The prophet tells us the same
words. Yet the Lord God gives this sweet
promise to his chosen. You can read it at your leisure
in the first chapter of Zechariah. after telling them I'm displeased
with your fathers and you're just like your fathers cry yet
saying thus saith the Lord of hosts my cities through prosperity
shall yet be spread abroad and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion
and shall yet choose Jerusalem you're not going to get God to
change his mind By anything. Not by anything. In that passage
in Zechariah 1.17, the Lord inspired the prophet to use that little
word, yet, four times in one verse. Four times he says, yet,
yet, yet, yet, to show that the fullness of sin in us does not
abate even slightly the fullness of the love of God for us. Not even slightly. It was about
this same time in Nehemiah chapter 9 that the Levites held a solemn
fast in which they made a catalog of the great many tokens of God's
love for them, the expressions of his mercy to his people. Besides
the countless extraordinary favors, he gave them good laws to direct
them. He gave them good Sabbaths in
which to rest, and he gave them his good spirit to instruct them.
He forsook them, and when they proudly against him, walked contrary
to him. He crowned them with comfort. He afflicted them, yes. He chastened them sore, yes.
When they provoked him, he corrected them, because he hateth putting
away. Because he says, you shall not
be forgotten of me. He sent them saviors as often
as they cried to him. Though often they revolted, he
was often entreated. Though often they revolted and
judgment and wrath was threatened, his judgments were turned away
and he destroyed them not. Children of God, ponder these
things well. Oh, what a wonder is the distinguishing
love and mercy of our God to us. He says, was not Esau Jacob's
brother? His elder brother, the firstborn. By right of God's own law, by
right of God's own law, Esau properly claimed right to the
birthright. But before Esau was born, before
the law was given, God set Esau aside and said, Jacob have I
loved. The birthright's with him. It's his. Mark oh my soul, mark the love
tokens of God to his people. He chose us in Christ before
the world began. Our Lord Jesus stood forth in
all eternity as our covenant surety and he undertook for us,
he took up our cause before we had any being in ourselves. He
accomplished redemption for us. Our Lord Jesus Christ sends his
spirit in regeneration, giving life eternal, making us partakers
of the divine nature. He pardoned all our sins in free
justification. He's adopted us into the family
of God. He sanctified us by his grace
and preserves us to this hour. Brother Donnie mentioned it a
moment ago. I've seen a lot of Judas's stand
in the place of the Lord's enemies and I'd be standing there too if he had preserved me by his
grace I forgot who it was, somebody
mentioned in one of the messages this morning or last night Peter
did exactly the same thing Judas did exactly the same thing only
aggravated it. He said, I don't know that man
and began to cuss. I don't know him. I want you
to know I don't know that man. And Peter sitting in glory and
Judas is in hell for one reason. I loved Jacob. That's all. Do you remember times of love
when personally he sealed that love to your heart in the sweet revelation of his
grace restoring you from the evil wrought by your own hands
preserving you in the midst of horrible difficulties and trials do you not hear him say I have
loved you By so many tokens of special
love and distinguishing grace personally bestowed upon us,
God's Jacob's have all blessings sure to them. The blessings God
gave to Jacob in Genesis 28 clearly are not just for the physical
seeing of physical blessings. Because Jacob soon went fleeing
for his life. He told Pharaoh that the days
of his pilgrimage had been few and evil. And he told the truth. He told the truth. They knew
his life. Would you choose it, Jesse? No. Well, now that I've read the
end of it, I would. Few and evil. And yet this man who said the
days of my pilgrimage had been few and evil knew full well that
he was distinctly blessed of God in Christ. Read how he blessed
his sons. He was chosen of Christ, redeemed
by Christ, accepted in Christ, with Christ, and blessed in Christ
and with Christ. What a sad, sad thought it is. That God's love for our souls
is here set forth as that which we question. God forgive us. I have loved
you, saith the Lord. Now here's the second thing.
How often we question that love. We undergo some kind of affliction. and we begin to cry Lord will
you forsake me forever is your mercy clean gone forever and I promise you you will never
know the meaning of David's words until you experience it. And there's no excuse for it. We see the wicked, folks who hate God, prosper.
And like David, we say, I've washed my hands in innocence.
It's a vain thing to serve God. Profited me nothing. I didn't get any advantage from
it. Look at my sons and my daughters and my wives. Look at him. His
eyes bug out with fatness. And then I went to the house
of God and understood his end. I said, oh God, forgive me. In times of grievous doubt, I
know I hear folks say, well, I don't ever have any doubts.
Well, bless your heart, I'm thankful for you don't. I struggle with
a bunch. We have doubts regarding our
personal relationship with God, our personal salvation under
heavy temptations of Satan when he raises Moses up and we agree
with the accusations thrown at us. Some doubt arises and we question
his love. If my wife questioned my love
for her as I question God's love for me at times, I don't think
I could live with her. But His love is abounding still. That's the third thing. His love
is abounding still. Turn to Romans chapter 5. Let
me just read you a little bit about it. Verse 6. When we were yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly. At last there's something
I qualify for. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet for a good man some would even dare to die.
But God commendeth his love toward us. He holds out his love on
this beautiful display of it, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. His love is abounding still.
Paul said in Ephesians 3, For this cause I bow my knees unto
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named. That he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by
his Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. That you be rooted and grounded
in love. Not your love for Jesus. No. But his love for you. That you
may be able to comprehend. Get around this. Get hold of
this. With all saints, what is the
breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love
of Christ which passeth knowledge. And then you'll be filled with
all the fullness of God. I read a story years ago. These
fellows back in our part of the country Go to Cherokee, North
Carolina and you'll hear about or see a play or film about the
Trail of Tears. Andrew Jackson took the Indians
and marched them across the country to Oklahoma. Thousands died. Thousands died. And he went out
in Oklahoma. God had saved and he kept trying
to minister to the folks that was around him. And he tried
to tell them about the Lord Jesus and his great salvation. He was
talking one night and somebody asked him, he said, well, why
do you love this Jesus so? And he drew a circle and put
some leaves in that little circle and he scratched in the wet earth
and pulled out a night crawler and dropped it right in the middle
of those leaves and set the leaves on fire. And that word just moved
from here to there, trying to get away from the heat, and finally
just curled up in the middle ready to dry up and die, and
he reached in there and pulled that worm out of that fire and
put it back down in the cool wet earth. And he says, that's
what Christ did for me. That's what he did for me. Upon what grounds dare we call
into question the mercy, love, and grace of our God? Now I'm
talking to Don Fortner, you can listen in. I have absolutely no reason ever
to entertain the slightest shade of doubt that he loves me. Did he not promise? Will he not
perform it? He said, God is not a man that
he should lie. If God be for us, Who can be
against us? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who is He that condemneth? Who
shall separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus
our Lord? God give me grace never to doubt
His love for me because of something I've thought or said or felt
or done. One of my favorite texts, I've
told you many times, Mark chapter 16, verse 7, when the fish go
away from the tube, and the angel said, go tell his disciples,
he'll meet them by Galilee, as he said he would. And they started
to walk off, and he said, wait! Be sure you tell Peter. Be sure you tell Peter. Peter
thinks it's all over. Peter thinks it's all gone. Peter
thinks he's reprobate. Peter thinks he's one of Esau's
sons. Peter thinks I've forsaken him. But I've prayed for him
that his faith fail not. And I'm going to show him. God give me grace never to question
his grace because of my sin. I hear preachers. I don't hear
them anymore. Don't talk to me like this. They
talk to other folks. I hear from them. Well, I can't
have any assurance because I've done this, I've experienced that. Oh, you've got some sin, you've
got unconfessed sin in your life. Well, you fool, who doesn't? Who doesn't? Which of you has
no unconfessed sin? Come on, raise your hand. Stand
up, and I'll sit down. Ain't no such thing. No such
thing. How could you be confident of
God's love in the teeth of your sin? He loves sinners. He loves sinners. He came to
turn away ungodliness from Jacob. I'm not going to be suspicious
of his mercy if you'll grant me mercy. Because I don't deserve
his mercy. Mercy is for the undeserving. I know you are thinking to yourself
or you have what does this mean Esau have I hated? What does
this mean? Esau have I hated? Even God's hatred of Esau Even
God's hatred of Esau was intended to display his love for Jacob. Even God's treatment of that
reprobate man displays his love for his elect. Let's see if that's
not what he says. Look at verse 4. Esau, have I
heard you? What do you mean by that? Whereas
Edom, Esau saith, we are impoverished, but we can fix that. We will return and build the
desolate places, thus saith the Lord of Hosts. Yeah, they shall. They shall build. But I'm going
to tear down everything they build. They should build, but
I will throw down. And they, that is everybody in
the universe is going to see them, and they shall call them
Esau, the border of wickedness, the people against whom the Lord
hath indignation forever. Esau was a fornicator and a profane
person, left to a reprobate mind. being rejected, as Malachi puts
it in this portion of scripture, hated of God. So also was all
his race, the Edomites. When it is said that his mountains
and his heritage were laid waste, it's obvious that the meaning
is altogether spiritual. The mount of the Lord's house
is a term used in scripture to speak of God's elect. So the
mount of Edom Now Esau represents the reprobate. Esau and his seed
are born of grace in this world and they shall have no part in
the glory of Christ in the world to come. Look at verse 5. And your eyes shall see, your
eyes, you whom I have loved. Before I get done with this thing
called creation and time and providence and history, before
I get done, before I've wrapped this thing up and set the world
on fire and made all things new, your eyes shall see sons of Jacob,
and you shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the border
of Israel. whom God loved and made his prince
in that day, in the ages to come. He will show forth the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. He will present you thoughtless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Now, one
last thing. God give us grace. to adore this
love. Look at verses 2 and 3 again.
I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet you say wherein hast thou
loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau. I hated Esau and laid his mountains
and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Before you go to bed tonight,
children of God, meditate for a little while on some of the
particulars and characteristics of God's grace and love that
you've known and experienced in the freeness and fullness
and greatness and sovereignty and distinctiveness of it. He
sins for his children. a pillar of fire to guide them
by the night and a pillar of cloud to guide them by the day
and for Edom he makes the pillar of cloud confusion and darkness. Is that right? That's what he
said. If possible, more astonishing
still than what we've seen displayed here are the operations of God's
distinguishing grace on us. Nothing more tends to humble
a man in the dust than to walk before God confident
of his love knowing he deserves none. Nothing more tends to compel
hearts to devotion than to bow before God in his majesty, in
his great love for us, knowing we fully deserve his wrath. Not deserved it, Jim. Jim Nunes, you deserve it as
much today in yourself as ever you did. It's exactly right. It's exactly right. And the one
talking to you too. Things aren't getting better.
We're not getting better. This old man in me. But bless
God, we're no longer in ourselves and no longer in the flesh, but
in the Spirit and in Christ Jesus. And in Christ Jesus, we who fully
deserve the torments of the damned, Stand before God, virgin daughters
of Israel, worthy of God's approval in Jesus Christ the Lord. Oh,
my soul. The demand of God. This question
is decided. I have loved you, saith the Lord. But you say, wherein hast thou
loved us? It might be read, wherefore hast
thou loved us? When we were utterly undeserving
of your love, how is it, Lord, that your grace was so personal
and distinct? And to that the Lord replies,
Was not Esau Jacob's brother? Yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau. How do you explain that? Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Where were you when the Lord
passed by you and made hold on you and made you live? How were you engaged when he
first made your eyes overflow and taught your lips to pray.
What were you when He passed by and caused you to live
before Him, spreading over you the skirt of His righteousness? Now turn to Revelation chapter
19. I said this is God's last word. When God
finished up all the revelation he would give and all the Old
Testament prophets, he finished it up by saying, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated. He said in verse 5 of Malachi
1, and your eyes shall see, and you shall say the Lord will be
magnified from the border of Israel. Revelation chapter 19. Let's see. Oh yes, I see it. Right here it is, God's last
word. After these things I heard a
great voice of much people in heaven saying hallelujah, salvation
and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God. for true
and righteous are his judgments for he hath judged Esau he hath
judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her
fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at
her hand and again they said hallelujah and her smoke rose
up forever and ever Jacob have I loved, and Esau
have I hated. And the four and twenty elders,
and the four beasts fell down, and worshipped God that sat on
the throne, saying, Amen, Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne,
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a multitude, a great multitude, as the voice of many
waters, and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia,
for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Now, one more text. Malachi chapter 1. Malachi chapter 1, verse 11. For from the rising of the sun,
even to the going down of the same, that is, everywhere in
the habitable part of God's earth, my name shall be great among
the Gentiles. And in every place, in every
corner, in every nook, in every cranny of God's creation, incense
shall be offered, prayer offered unto my name, and a pure offering
Christ himself, and my name shall be great among you heathen, saith
the Lord of hosts. Amen.