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Malachi-Msg-40-40 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Sandwich between the thirty nine books of the Old Testament
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Speaker 1: and the twenty seven books of the New Testament is
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Speaker 1: an almost eerie period of silence. It's like a thick
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Speaker 1: veil that's drawn between the testaments. This is a period
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Speaker 1: of time that lasted about four hundred years, and it's
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Speaker 1: a time in which God is completely silent as far
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Speaker 1: as his writing prophets are concerned. It doesn't mean that
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Speaker 1: nothing happened, of course, It simply means that God did
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Speaker 1: not during those four centuries lead any man to pick
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Speaker 1: up a pen and to write material that would later
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Speaker 1: be compiled and put into the canon that later came
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Speaker 1: to be known as the Bible. Now, things were going
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Speaker 1: on during these four hundred years that would later proved
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Speaker 1: to be ethical in significance. For example, it is in
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Speaker 1: this intertestamental period that the nation Israel gained its independence
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Speaker 1: for a brief period of time. It is a time
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Speaker 1: in which there is great zeal for the nation that
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Speaker 1: has been rare in the days of the Old Testament
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Speaker 1: and is never seen in the days of the New Testament.
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Speaker 1: And so Israel comes to the fore, earns its independence,
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Speaker 1: has its own flag, and is a respected nation for
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Speaker 1: a period of time. There are books that are written
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Speaker 1: during this intertestamental period that we know today as the Apocrypha.
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Speaker 1: The Roman Catholic Church, for the most part, still adopts
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Speaker 1: these books as inspired scripture. These books were written during
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Speaker 1: these four hundred years of scriptural silence. As far as
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Speaker 1: the evangelical faith is concerned, we have never embraced the
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Speaker 1: books as canonical. But in these books we read interesting
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Speaker 1: things about what happened as it relates to the nation Israel.
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Speaker 1: We learn of a family called the Maccabees, and we
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Speaker 1: learn of their great zeal for the country and their
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Speaker 1: martyrdom right down to the last wire to see the
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Speaker 1: nation gain its independence. It's also during this intertestamental period
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Speaker 1: that the sect that later came to be known as
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Speaker 1: the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and for the most part,
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Speaker 1: the Scribes find their roots. That all began during this
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Speaker 1: eerie period of silence. The nations shifted in power from
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Speaker 1: the Persian rule to the Grecian rule, and finally to
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Speaker 1: the Roman rule, which was then in operation by the
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Speaker 1: time of the New Testament, when it gets underway and
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Speaker 1: the birth of our Lord. As all of you know
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Speaker 1: took place under Roman rule. That's significant. It all began
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Speaker 1: during the Intertestamental period. During this Intertestamental time of scriptural silence,
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Speaker 1: Alexander the Great came on the scene, and God worked
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Speaker 1: through his genius to cultivate a language in which the
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Speaker 1: New Testament would later be written, coin a koine coin
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Speaker 1: a Greek meaning common Greek. That became the vernacular of
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Speaker 1: the day. So that led to the importance of the
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Speaker 1: translation of the Bible, which was compiled during this Intertestamental period.
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Speaker 1: Now get this carefully. During that four hundred year period
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Speaker 1: of silence, God worked through some very special agents, some
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Speaker 1: men whom he personally chose and put into that place
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Speaker 1: of leadership in the history of his people, to compile
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Speaker 1: and to put in orderly arrangement the Old Testament books,
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Speaker 1: and then guided the scholars of that era to translate
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Speaker 1: from the Hebrew into the vernacular of the day into Greek,
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Speaker 1: the most significant translation in the history of time, save
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Speaker 1: perhaps the translation of the Bible into English. When the
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Speaker 1: Hebrew was translated into Greek, the people had a Bible
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Speaker 1: that they could use and they could understand. Think of
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Speaker 1: the tragedy we would face today as English speaking people
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Speaker 1: having only Hebrew and Greek Bibles, meaning only a few
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Speaker 1: of the select scholars of the world could even grasp
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Speaker 1: what God has written. In those days, when the Bible
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Speaker 1: was put into Greek, it became an open book to
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Speaker 1: the to the people who were into that language. Now,
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Speaker 1: all of that transpired during the four hundred year period
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Speaker 1: of silence. God chose a man to be his last spokesman.
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Speaker 1: Before the lights went out in the stadium the bottom
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Speaker 1: of the ninth God brought up one man to serve
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Speaker 1: as his spokesman, who would be the caboose on the
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Speaker 1: end of those thirty nine cars that would later come
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Speaker 1: to be known as the Scripture of the Old Testament.
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Speaker 1: His name was Malachi. Some people believe he's so significant
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Speaker 1: that that really wasn't his name, But his name in
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Speaker 1: Hebrew means my angel, my messenger, and might very well
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Speaker 1: be a spokesman that chose not to use his name
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Speaker 1: but used a pseudonym to hide his identity because of
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Speaker 1: that select role as the last man before the curtain
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Speaker 1: fell for silence. Across the scriptural scene, Malachi terribly significant man.
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Speaker 1: But to understand Malachi's burden and message, you have to
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Speaker 1: go back to Neomiah. So turn with me in your
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Speaker 1: Bible over in the Old Testament to Neomiah the tenth chapter.
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Speaker 1: And while you do that, I need to clarify something
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Speaker 1: that is commonly misunderstood by Bible students. Even today, our
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Speaker 1: Bible in English is not arranged in chronological order. For example,
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Speaker 1: the events of the Book of Job do not come
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Speaker 1: just before the Book of Psalms, even though in our
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Speaker 1: English Bible we have Job followed by Psalms. The prophet
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Speaker 1: Isaiah is not immediately followed in time by the prophet Jeremiah,
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Speaker 1: even though the books have been compiled Isaiah, then Jeremiah
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Speaker 1: and his little epilogue Lamentations before Ezekiel comes on the scene.
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Speaker 1: Now this confuses some when they turn to Nehemiah and
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Speaker 1: have to do about face in their mind to realize
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Speaker 1: we're really coming to the end of the Old Testament era,
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Speaker 1: even though we're turning into the middle of our Old Testaments.
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Speaker 1: In fact, the contemporary of Malachi, the last Prophet, is Neemiah.
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Speaker 1: Neemiah Chapter ten and later chapter thirteen are events that
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Speaker 1: happen just before Malachi comes on the scene in the
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Speaker 1: days of the Jews. Now the Jews many of them
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Speaker 1: have returned from captivity to Zion. Great and exciting days
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Speaker 1: of revival surround chapter ten of Nehemiah. Great times, and
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Speaker 1: I'm sure that they sang the songs of Zion, and
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Speaker 1: it must have lifted the roof of that temple. They
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Speaker 1: conducted their worship, they offered their offerings, and they altar
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Speaker 1: again began to run with blood. The priests were bloody
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Speaker 1: once again as they were engaged in the religion of
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Speaker 1: the Jews. And it must have been terribly exciting for
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Speaker 1: those prophets to see once again the movement of God
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Speaker 1: in Judaism. Nehemiah comes on the scene chapter ten, in
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Speaker 1: that season of revival, and he hears the people make
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Speaker 1: great promises about their plans. Remember, they've gotten out of captivity.
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Speaker 1: They've been released from Persian rule, their forefathers from Babylonian rule,
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Speaker 1: where they weren't free to worship as they could in Zion.
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Speaker 1: And so verse twenty eight. The rest of the people,
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Speaker 1: the priests, the levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants,
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Speaker 1: and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples
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Speaker 1: of the land, to the law, to the law of God,
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Speaker 1: their wives, their sons, and their daughters. All those who
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Speaker 1: had knowledge and understanding are joining with their kinsmen, their nobles,
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Speaker 1: and are taking on them ourselves a curse and an
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Speaker 1: oath to walk in God's law which was given through Moses,
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Speaker 1: God's servant, to keep and to observe all the commandments
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Speaker 1: of God, our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes.
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Speaker 1: They have their hand over their heart, as it were.
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Speaker 1: They say, we promise, We pledge our allegiance to our God.
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Speaker 1: We've been in captivity. We are weary of those days.
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Speaker 1: We never want that to happen again. We pledge ourselves
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Speaker 1: to Almighty God. Verse thirty We will not give our
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Speaker 1: daughters to the people of the land, or take their daughters,
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Speaker 1: as for our sons, as for the peoples of the
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Speaker 1: land who bring wares or grain on the Sabbath to sell.
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Speaker 1: No way are we going to buy and desecrate the Sabbath.
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Speaker 1: We pledge ourselves not to enter Mary, not to break
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Speaker 1: the Sabbath. We're up to here with that disobedience. We're
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Speaker 1: starting off right. So there's a sense of excitement and
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Speaker 1: revival anticipation in the land of Israel. Once again. Verse
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Speaker 1: thirty two. We also placed ourselves under obligation to contribute
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Speaker 1: yearly one third of a shekel for the service of
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Speaker 1: the House of our God. We plan to tithe. We
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Speaker 1: fail to tithe in those days past, and the black,
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Speaker 1: dark curtain of captivity fell upon us. We'll resurrect that
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Speaker 1: tithe for the show bread, for the grain offering, the
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Speaker 1: continual burnt offering, the Sabbath of the noon, the new moon,
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Speaker 1: for the appointed times, for the holy things, the sin offerings,
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Speaker 1: to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of
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Speaker 1: the House of our God. We will not forget it.
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Speaker 1: We stand before you, Oh God, and we pledge ourselves
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Speaker 1: to it. Now I think you get the picture. They
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Speaker 1: are standing tall in their faith. That's what follows captivity.
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Speaker 1: It's a heartache when you turn to Chapter thirteen, only
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Speaker 1: a few years later, after they have said we will
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Speaker 1: not compromise, we will not break God's word again to
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Speaker 1: find that they have begun to break their promise. It
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Speaker 1: reminds us all of the old New Year's resolution. We
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Speaker 1: make those great, vast promises, only to break them by
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Speaker 1: the end of January, if that long away. How often
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Speaker 1: we have said this year, I'm going to read through
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Speaker 1: the Bible, and you get to kings and chronicles and Isra.
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Speaker 1: It gets hard and you think, well, I'll change. I'll
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Speaker 1: go to Matthew and you get into the genealogies and
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Speaker 1: this person begat that person, and you see more of
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Speaker 1: it in Luke and by John. You're thinking, that's got
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Speaker 1: to be a bit better way to start a new year.
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Speaker 1: Next year, I'll and you plan another arrangement. That's the
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Speaker 1: way the people were. Chapter thirteen, Nehemiah comes back on
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Speaker 1: the scene verse six. During all this time, I was
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Speaker 1: not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty second year of art, Exerxes,
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Speaker 1: king of Babylon, I had gone to the king. After
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Speaker 1: some time, however, I asked leave of the king. He
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Speaker 1: wanted to go back to see how they were doing
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Speaker 1: in the homeland. I came to Jerusalem, and I learned
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Speaker 1: about the evil that eliahship had done for Tobiah by
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Speaker 1: preparing a room for him in the court of the
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Speaker 1: House of God. Through a political maneuver, and unbeliever got
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Speaker 1: into the court of the House of God got his
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Speaker 1: own room. Neemiah says, this is displeasing to me, So
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Speaker 1: I threw all of Tobia's household goods out of the room.
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Speaker 1: Read on. I gave an order, and they cleansed the rooms.
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Speaker 1: I've returned there the utensils of the House of God,
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Speaker 1: with the great offerings of the frankinsins. Then I discovered
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Speaker 1: that the portions of the Evites had not been given
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Speaker 1: to them. They had not kept the tithe Verse eleven.
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Speaker 1: I reprimanded. I reprimanded the officials and said, why is
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Speaker 1: the House of God forsaken? I gathered them together and
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Speaker 1: restored them to their posts. Verse fifteen. In those days
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Speaker 1: I saw in Judu some who were treading wine presses
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Speaker 1: on the Sabbath. They're breaking the sabbath and bringing in
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Speaker 1: sacks of grain and loading them on donkeys as well
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Speaker 1: as wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads. And
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Speaker 1: they brought them to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, and
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Speaker 1: I admonish them on the day that they sold food.
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Speaker 1: What is this? You said a few years ago you
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Speaker 1: wouldn't break the Sabbath, and here you are trading, carrying
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Speaker 1: on a regular trading. You don't even know it's Saturday.
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Speaker 1: It's the day of worship in our faith, It's the
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Speaker 1: day of rest, says ney Amayah. And you have broken
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Speaker 1: your promise Verse twenty one. I warned them, I said,
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Speaker 1: why do you spend the night in front of the wall.
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Speaker 1: These are merchants that have I'm ready to bring their
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Speaker 1: goods in the next day and to sell them there
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Speaker 1: in Jerusalem. He says, if you do so again, I'll
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Speaker 1: use force against you from that time on. They didn't
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Speaker 1: come on the Sabbath. I like Neemiah's style. Trust in God,
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Speaker 1: but keep your powder dry. You come again, I'll break
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Speaker 1: your face. Don't come. Don't do your business here. If
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Speaker 1: you do, I'll make it hard on you. You think
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Speaker 1: that's bad Verse twenty five one of my favorite sections
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Speaker 1: in Neemiah. I contended with them and cursed them, and
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Speaker 1: struck some of them, and pulled out their hair and
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Speaker 1: made them swear by God. You know you'll swear a
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Speaker 1: lot of things that people are pulling your hair out.
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Speaker 1: You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor
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Speaker 1: take up their daughters for your sons. Didn't Solomon, King
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Speaker 1: of Israel sin regarding these things. He's got these guides
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Speaker 1: that have stood back like dummies and let their daughters
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Speaker 1: marry foreigners, and let their sons mary foreign wives. And
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Speaker 1: all this inner marriage was happening. Neomiah says, I can't
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Speaker 1: stand it. He plucks out their beard and pulls on
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Speaker 1: their hair and slapped them in line. And these guys
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Speaker 1: got their houses back in order. That's what you call
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Speaker 1: direct confrontation verse twenty eight. Even the sons of Joeyata,
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Speaker 1: the son of Eliashiv, the high priest, was son in
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Speaker 1: law of san Ballet the hornit. I drove him away
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Speaker 1: from me. Neemiah took a stand. He took him by
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Speaker 1: the throat, and he said stop it. You see, the
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Speaker 1: fires of revival had already gone out. But Neemiah could
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Speaker 1: only do so much. Verse thirty says I purified them
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Speaker 1: from everything foreign, and appointed duties for the priests and
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Speaker 1: the levites. And there was divorce. There was the break
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Speaker 1: with those enter marriages. There was the cleaning up of
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Speaker 1: the homes. Neemiah left the scene. Malachi was the last
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Speaker 1: to appear. Now that's the background for Malachi. And you
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Speaker 1: know what, soon as the cat was away, the mice
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Speaker 1: began to play again. In only a matter of time,
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Speaker 1: if my figuring is correct, In less than a decade.
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Speaker 1: When Malachi comes on the scene, it's back to business
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Speaker 1: as usual. There's an indifference. There's a cynicism. There's intermarriage,
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Speaker 1: there is compromise, there is weak homes. There is divorce,
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Speaker 1: there is the break with the tithe. There is an
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Speaker 1: unconcerned kind of spirit that has pervaded the nation. Kyle
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Speaker 1: Yates writes good words. The people were in the midst
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Speaker 1: of a serious economic depression. Crops were poor, Parasites ruined
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Speaker 1: the plants, the fruit was disappointing. The priests were so
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Speaker 1: corrupt and immoral that a spirit of skepticism pervaded the
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Speaker 1: entire population. The people complained against God, bemoaned their sad plight,
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Speaker 1: refused to pay their tithes and offerings, were guilty of
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Speaker 1: social injustice, and had mixed themselves with the heathen people
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Speaker 1: of the land. Now that's Malachi's congregation. Divorce was common
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Speaker 1: yaws covenant had been forgotten, and a low type of
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Speaker 1: behavior was the common order of the day. Now it
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Speaker 1: was bad enough because they were Jews. It was worse
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Speaker 1: because there had been a sweeping awakening following that captivity,
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Speaker 1: and they had slumped Again. Reminds me of the letter
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Speaker 1: I received from a friend who's just gotten back from Europe.
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Speaker 1: He went through several countries. He also was on the
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Speaker 1: continent and also got into some sections of Russia. He says,
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Speaker 1: we had a fabulous time, Chuck, I was impressed, and
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Speaker 1: I was depressed with some of the things I saw
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Speaker 1: in Europe. Then he added C. S. Lewis's comment to
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Speaker 1: a friend summarizes my overall feeling. He was approached by
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Speaker 1: one of his friends and exclaimed how sad he was
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Speaker 1: that London was so pagan. Lewis pondered the idea and
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Speaker 1: responded by saying, would to God that London were pagan.
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Speaker 1: What we see in London is post Christianity, not paganism.
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Speaker 1: What we see in Zion is post revival, not paganism.
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Speaker 1: Would to God it were just raw Paganism is all
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Speaker 1: together different. But these people have seen the light. They
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Speaker 1: have said, we swear before God, we will walk with him.
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Speaker 1: They pledged their allegiance under Neemiah's direction, only to drift
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Speaker 1: and wander once time had run its course. It easy
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Speaker 1: to do that before we cluck our tongues at the
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Speaker 1: people of Neema of Malachi's day and swiftly move through
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Speaker 1: this and kind of shake our head. What a shame
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Speaker 1: to be a people like that? You just look at
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Speaker 1: our times, not the paganism, the post Christianity of America.
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Speaker 1: Look at the church. All hope is not gone, but
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Speaker 1: it's a different scene. And it's not just keeping up
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Speaker 1: with the times that concerns me. It's not just shifting gears.
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Speaker 1: There is an indifference. There is a skepticism that is
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Speaker 1: swept over Christianity. There is a sophistication that marks even
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Speaker 1: many of the leaders of the church today. There is
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Speaker 1: very little warm hearted devotional spirit that pervades now. It's
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Speaker 1: earning a hearing I noticed frankly last summer in my
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Speaker 1: conference ministry, and I'm holding that to a minimum, doing
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Speaker 1: less and less of it. I guess that's why it
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Speaker 1: impacts me when I see so much. There's now a
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Speaker 1: questioning spirit among confyreas, rather than a teachable spirit. There
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Speaker 1: is a hey, you better prove that, rather than thus
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Speaker 1: says the word of God. There is a hey, I'll
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Speaker 1: talk to you later about that. I don't think you
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Speaker 1: And when we talk later they say oh oh, And
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Speaker 1: often they will say I see it now. But there
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Speaker 1: is a shield now, and there is a disgusting cynicism
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Speaker 1: that marks many in the family of God. Malachi lived
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Speaker 1: with that great guy. He reminds me of the huss
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Speaker 1: and the Luther and the Calvin and the Zwingli and
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Speaker 1: the Savanna Rola of the Reformation era sixteenth seventeenth century reformers,
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Speaker 1: men who stood alone, the John Knock of Scotland. Malachi
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Speaker 1: Is keeps brandishing the torch and keeps flaming it, keeps
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Speaker 1: pushing it into the face of the people, saying, remember
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Speaker 1: the way we once were. And they kind of yawned
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Speaker 1: their way through this fanatic until he kind of gets
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Speaker 1: out of their hair. And so he starts with a
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Speaker 1: love message. He starts with what they needed to hear.
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Speaker 1: I'm sure many skeptical that they were were saying, if
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Speaker 1: he loves us, how could our crops fail? How could
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Speaker 1: we be in such a terrible, deplored, deploring situation? And
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Speaker 1: so he begins with verse two. I have loved you,
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Speaker 1: says the Lord. But you you say, how hast thou
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Speaker 1: loved us? There are eight sarcastic questions in Malachi. I
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Speaker 1: give you that as in the assignment, you find them
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Speaker 1: and you circle him, not right now, but little later
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Speaker 1: on your own you'll find the people kind of with
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Speaker 1: a curl lip saying, oh yeah, how about then they'll
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Speaker 1: ask that question, Oh yeah, how does God love us?
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Speaker 1: And Malachi is answering. It's a dialogue book, as he
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Speaker 1: asks the questions that they're asking, and he writes them
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Speaker 1: in the book describes the love of God down through
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Speaker 1: verse five, and then there is a message of rebuke
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Speaker 1: in chapter one, verse six through chapter three. The rebuke
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Speaker 1: is first leveled at the priests. He says in verse six,
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Speaker 1: a son honors his father, and a servant his master.
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Speaker 1: Then if I am a father, oh where is my honor?
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Speaker 1: This is God's question? If I am a master, where
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Speaker 1: is my respect? Says the Lord of Hosts to you,
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Speaker 1: a priest who despised my name? See the next question,
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Speaker 1: the sarcastic question, how have we despised your name? It's
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Speaker 1: that tone. Well, he describes how they have despised his name.
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Speaker 1: There has been an irreverence. Verse six, he says, you
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Speaker 1: have no respect for me anymore, a lack of respect.
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Speaker 1: There has been disobedience. Look at verse seven, you are
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Speaker 1: presenting defiled food on my altar? How have we defiled thee?
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Speaker 1: See the sarcasm it drips out of verse seven, and
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Speaker 1: that you say the table of the Lord is to
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Speaker 1: be despised. But when you present the blind for sacrifice,
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Speaker 1: is it not evil? When you present the lame and
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Speaker 1: the sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it
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Speaker 1: to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? You?
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Speaker 1: Or would he receive you kindly? Says the Lord? What
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Speaker 1: does all that mean? Hey, I tell you what it means.
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Speaker 1: It means they were offering blemish sacrifices. Who cares well?
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Speaker 1: God cares? God says in Leviticus twenty two. There's not
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Speaker 1: to be a mark on them. They're not to be
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Speaker 1: blind animals. They're not to be crippled. There's not to
24:18
Speaker 1: be a mark on their skin. What you offer to
24:21
Speaker 1: me is to be pure. It is to be unblemished.
24:24
Speaker 1: And when you bring it to the altar and it's blemished,
24:27
Speaker 1: it's as if saying, who really cares about all those details?
24:32
Speaker 1: Malachi says, speaking for God, you don't revere what I
24:37
Speaker 1: have said. You hedge on the details. When I say black,
24:43
Speaker 1: I mean black. When I say white, I mean white.
24:46
Speaker 1: When I give you room, I'll tell you when you
24:48
Speaker 1: have room. And that's the way I expect it. And
24:51
Speaker 1: you have rewritten the plan so that it's a lot
24:53
Speaker 1: more convenient to grab the sorry animals from the field
24:57
Speaker 1: and keep the good ones for your own cun consuming.
25:03
Speaker 1: And God says, I hate that. Look at the cynicism
25:08
Speaker 1: in verse eleven. From the rising of the sun even
25:12
Speaker 1: to its setting. My name will be great among the nations,
25:15
Speaker 1: And in every place incense is going to be offered
25:17
Speaker 1: to my name, and a great offering that is pure
25:19
Speaker 1: for my name will be great among the nations verse twelve.
25:23
Speaker 1: But you're profaning it and that you say, the table
25:27
Speaker 1: of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit,
25:30
Speaker 1: its food is to be despised.
25:32
Speaker 2: You also say, how tiresome it is, how man you
25:40
Speaker 2: disdainfully sniff at it, says the Lord of host.
25:43
Speaker 1: You bring what was taken by robbery? What is lame
25:47
Speaker 1: or sick? You bring the offering? Should I receive that
25:52
Speaker 1: from your hand? These priests were involved in a tiring task. Admittedly,
26:00
Speaker 1: if you study the priesthood and you get serious about
26:06
Speaker 1: the whole ritual of the animal sacrifices, Why there were
26:11
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of gallons of blood that poured over
26:15
Speaker 1: that altar, and you offer that year after year after
26:18
Speaker 1: year after year after year, and it gets tiring, just
26:23
Speaker 1: as pastors today, here heard after, heard after, heard after,
26:28
Speaker 1: heard after, heard after, heard you're up to here. Hearing hurts,
26:32
Speaker 1: and if your heart is called, you begin to say,
26:36
Speaker 1: oh man, how tiring that kind of stuff, and you
26:40
Speaker 1: sniff at it. See the spirit of verse eleven twelve thirteen.
26:47
Speaker 1: That's what he's describing. And then he even goes further.
26:50
Speaker 1: He says, cursed be the swindler who has a male
26:53
Speaker 1: in his flock and vows it. But sacrifice is a
26:56
Speaker 1: blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great
27:00
Speaker 1: and my name is to be feared among the nations.
27:04
Speaker 1: Oh pastors, it is really easy for us to get
27:08
Speaker 1: cynical about our work. Gets tiring, gets long, gets tedious,
27:15
Speaker 1: people problems continue, easy to begin to have a perfunctory
27:22
Speaker 1: spirit about it. I readily admit that. And now this
27:28
Speaker 1: commandment is for you, o priests, verse two. If you
27:35
Speaker 1: do not listen, if you do not take it to
27:38
Speaker 1: heart to give honor to my name, then I will
27:42
Speaker 1: send the curse upon you. I will curse your blessings.
27:45
Speaker 1: And indeed I have cursed them already, because in fact,
27:50
Speaker 1: you're not taking it to heart. See there's a hypocrisy.
27:56
Speaker 1: There you're going through empty motions. Priests, I'm going to
28:02
Speaker 1: rebuke your offspring. I will spread refuse on your faces,
28:06
Speaker 1: but a statement, the refuse of your feasts, and you
28:11
Speaker 1: will be taken away with it. I will make it nauseous.
28:16
Speaker 1: You will know I have sent this commandment to you.
28:21
Speaker 1: My covenant with him was one of life and peace,
28:23
Speaker 1: and I gave them to him as an object of reverence.
28:26
Speaker 1: That's to Levi, that ancient priest, and he revered me.
28:31
Speaker 1: He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was
28:35
Speaker 1: in Levi's mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips.
28:40
Speaker 1: He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he
28:44
Speaker 1: turned many back from iniquity. Look at verse seven. Think
28:50
Speaker 1: of the pastors. For the lips of a pastor, of
28:55
Speaker 1: a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek and
29:00
Speaker 1: instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of
29:05
Speaker 1: the Lord of Hosts. That is a god given calling.
29:15
Speaker 1: That is something to be guarded, and it is an
29:19
Speaker 1: offense when wrong is carried out by the one who
29:24
Speaker 1: is to preserve knowledge. But as for you, you've turned aside
29:28
Speaker 1: from the way. You've caused many to stumble by your instruction.
29:32
Speaker 1: You've corrupted the covenant of LEVI. So I have made
29:37
Speaker 1: you despised in a base before all the people, just
29:40
Speaker 1: as you're not keeping my ways, but you're showing partiality
29:44
Speaker 1: in the instruction. I have been singularly rebuked by the
29:53
Speaker 1: reading of Malachi. I share with you the reproof of it,
29:59
Speaker 1: especially fellow pastors. We have a tough task, awesome task.
30:07
Speaker 1: Our task is demanding, it is tiring. It isn't easy
30:12
Speaker 1: to be a model. But when we fail to model,
30:16
Speaker 1: the people fail to follow God. We may not like that,
30:21
Speaker 1: but that is the way God has made us. That
30:24
Speaker 1: is what makes our calling so high. That is why
30:28
Speaker 1: no man just volunteers for the job if he's indeed
30:33
Speaker 1: called of God. Show me a ministry that is marked
30:41
Speaker 1: by cynicism and laziness and lack of zeal and hypocrisy.
30:45
Speaker 1: I will show you a congregation marked by cynicism, laziness,
30:48
Speaker 1: lack of zeal and hypocrisy. Show me indifference among those
30:52
Speaker 1: who counsel, and I will show you in difference among
30:54
Speaker 1: those who live out that council. Now, the answer is
30:59
Speaker 1: not a harsh legal ministry, but it is a pure one,
31:08
Speaker 1: and these priests had failed terribly, and we're not surprised
31:12
Speaker 1: that the follow up on the reproof to the priest
31:14
Speaker 1: is the reproof to the people their rebuke by Malachi
31:19
Speaker 1: that begins at verse ten. Do we not all have
31:23
Speaker 1: one father? Has not God? One God created us? Like priest?
31:29
Speaker 1: Like people? Why do we deal treacherously against each against
31:33
Speaker 1: his brothers so as to profane the covenant of our
31:35
Speaker 1: fathers to our fathers. By the way, I find it
31:38
Speaker 1: interesting that this verse is quoted by the religious liberals
31:42
Speaker 1: who attempt to prove the universal fatherhood of God and
31:45
Speaker 1: the universal brotherhood of man. Verse ten, we all have
31:50
Speaker 1: one father and has not one God created us? That
31:54
Speaker 1: versus used, and there's always an ellipsus three little dots
31:58
Speaker 1: that follow the word us doesn't finish. The sentence reminds
32:03
Speaker 1: me of liberal church that I attended a number of
32:05
Speaker 1: years ago in Berkeley, And in the narthex of the
32:08
Speaker 1: church was a row of pictures of great men. There
32:12
Speaker 1: was Mahatma Gandhi, There was Abraham Lincoln, there was a
32:18
Speaker 1: president or two there, as I recall, there was a
32:22
Speaker 1: Kennedy hanging there. There was yet another well known figure,
32:28
Speaker 1: and above it in bronze were the words you are
32:31
Speaker 1: all sons of God. You are all sons of God ellipsis,
32:40
Speaker 1: And it didn't show the verse its in Galatians. And
32:43
Speaker 1: the verse continues by faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
32:47
Speaker 1: That's the end of the sentence. But if you put
32:50
Speaker 1: it up like that and stop, it looks like it's
32:52
Speaker 1: saying everybody in this row is a son of God.
32:58
Speaker 1: And that is the used here. Do we not all
33:01
Speaker 1: have one father? Has not one God created us? But
33:04
Speaker 1: if you carry that all the way contextually, it doesn't
33:07
Speaker 1: hold water. He's getting ready to deal with their intermarriage
33:12
Speaker 1: with foreigners, and Malachi is attacking the sin of the people.
33:21
Speaker 1: And if they were all one, and if God had
33:23
Speaker 1: created all of them, why does he say what he
33:26
Speaker 1: does In verse eleven, Judah has dealt treacherously, and an
33:31
Speaker 1: abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For
33:34
Speaker 1: Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord which he loves,
33:39
Speaker 1: and has married the daughter of a foreign god. He's
33:42
Speaker 1: not the God of that foreigner. He's not the father
33:46
Speaker 1: of that foreign woman. He isn't the spiritual father of
33:52
Speaker 1: everybody on earth. And if you finish the context, you see,
33:56
Speaker 1: that's what he's saying. In fact, the whole purpose of
33:58
Speaker 1: the reproof was that they were saying, what does it
34:01
Speaker 1: really matter? You fall in love. She's attracted girl, She'll
34:04
Speaker 1: make a good wife, she'll certainly take care of you,
34:06
Speaker 1: have a nice family. Blessings on you. And Malachi says,
34:10
Speaker 1: that is not the way God has arranged it. You
34:13
Speaker 1: can't just marry because it feels good, or because she's pretty,
34:17
Speaker 1: or because he is attractive and winsome. As for the
34:23
Speaker 1: man who does this, may the Lord cut off from
34:27
Speaker 1: the tents of Jacob, everyone who awakes and answers, and
34:31
Speaker 1: who presents an offering to the Lord of hosts. And
34:35
Speaker 1: that's another thing you do. You cover the altar of
34:37
Speaker 1: the Lord with tears, with weeping and groaning, because he
34:41
Speaker 1: no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor
34:43
Speaker 1: from your hand. You come and you offer this these
34:45
Speaker 1: blemish sacrifices, and you plead and beg and ask for
34:48
Speaker 1: good crops, and crops don't come. And you pour out
34:51
Speaker 1: your soulies and it's an all, an empty thing. You've
34:55
Speaker 1: rewritten the law and you've come and you've brought all
34:57
Speaker 1: of this stuff before me. It's not any good. He's saying,
35:05
Speaker 1: you can't rewrite the message and then deliver it and
35:08
Speaker 1: expect his blessing. That's what Malachi's message is. Are part
35:14
Speaker 1: of it, and they twisted the truth of God's word
35:18
Speaker 1: Verse seventeen. You've wearied the Lord with your words, yet
35:22
Speaker 1: you say, how have we wearied him? There's another sarcastic question,
35:26
Speaker 1: curl lip in that you say, everyone who does evil
35:29
Speaker 1: is good in the sight of the Lord, and he
35:34
Speaker 1: delights in them? Or where is the God of justice?
35:40
Speaker 1: Isn't interesting? As the people follow the priests, they begin
35:45
Speaker 1: to mouth the same tone as well as words. They
35:52
Speaker 1: twisted the truth. Malachi shifts gears, speaks of judgment in
35:57
Speaker 1: the first six verses of chapter three, and then wraps
36:01
Speaker 1: it up with some promises. Eight to twelve, he talks
36:07
Speaker 1: about the break with the tithe will a man rob God?
36:11
Speaker 1: Verse eight? You're robbing me? But you have said how
36:16
Speaker 1: have we robbed you? Here you go again, coming down
36:20
Speaker 1: on us, bringing guilt. Well, he answers in tithes and contributions.
36:26
Speaker 1: You are cursed with a curse. You're robbing me, the
36:28
Speaker 1: whole nation of you bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.
36:33
Speaker 1: Now it isn't the church. You're well taught. You know
36:37
Speaker 1: that most if not all, of you realize this is
36:40
Speaker 1: not a message to the Church of Jesus Christ did.
36:42
Speaker 1: It's a message to Jews who had committed themselves to
36:45
Speaker 1: a tithe. And the storehouse was a granary that was
36:49
Speaker 1: to be continually replenished to take care of the needs
36:54
Speaker 1: of the priests, and the whole levitical system was in operation,
36:58
Speaker 1: and a real tithe was not a chanted was a
37:00
Speaker 1: fifth of their income. And you've cut back and cut
37:05
Speaker 1: back until you're not at all replenishing the storehouse. He says.
37:10
Speaker 1: It's another illustration of how you haven't kept my word.
37:14
Speaker 1: I will not open for you the windows of heaven
37:17
Speaker 1: and pour out for you a blessing, he says in
37:20
Speaker 1: verse ten. If you tithe, you will discover that I
37:23
Speaker 1: will do that. Otherwise I will not. In fact as
37:26
Speaker 1: you do, so there will be such a blessing. There
37:28
Speaker 1: will be such a blessing until there's no more need.
37:34
Speaker 1: Verse thirteen, he says, you've had an arrogant spirit before me,
37:37
Speaker 1: And they said, sarcastically, what have we spoken against you?
37:41
Speaker 1: And he describes it for the last chapter is a
37:44
Speaker 1: great prophecy on the coming of the Savior and his
37:48
Speaker 1: final final love message of deliverance. Let's go back, just
37:53
Speaker 1: for a moment. Let me show you something. Go back
37:56
Speaker 1: to verse verse thirteen. I want you to see it.
38:02
Speaker 1: So I want you to see their skepticism. Thirteen. Your
38:06
Speaker 1: words have been arrogant against me, says the Lord. Yet
38:08
Speaker 1: you say, what have we spoken against thee? You have
38:10
Speaker 1: said it's vain to serve God? What profit is it
38:14
Speaker 1: that we have kept his charge? And that we have
38:16
Speaker 1: walked in mourning before the Lord of hosts. So now
38:19
Speaker 1: we call the arrogant blessed. Not only are the doers
38:22
Speaker 1: of wickedness built up, but they also test God and escape.
38:27
Speaker 1: They're saying, we've we've served him, We've served him, We've
38:30
Speaker 1: done his thing, and turn around with crops have failed.
38:34
Speaker 1: We have unhappiness in our homes that we haven't the
38:38
Speaker 1: fellowship we once had as families, and on and on,
38:41
Speaker 1: and they have an arrogance about them. Got a very
38:45
Speaker 1: very strong letter that was unsigned, but it was worth reading,
38:48
Speaker 1: and it is worth repeating. Part of it. I'll change
38:51
Speaker 1: one word to an illegitimate so you'll understand the tone
38:54
Speaker 1: of the letter. Dear mister Swindall mentions reading a particular
39:00
Speaker 1: book and says, it makes me wonder why we are
39:03
Speaker 1: continually treated by God as illegitimates instead of his children.
39:09
Speaker 1: Let me state first, we fully admit we were never
39:13
Speaker 1: and are not now perfect. We just tried to abide
39:16
Speaker 1: by God's principles, seeking forgiveness for our mistakes. This was
39:21
Speaker 1: especially so for over ten years, beginning with our being
39:25
Speaker 1: born again in nineteen sixty eight. We wish we'd been
39:28
Speaker 1: left alone. Instead, we heard sermons, went to seminars, read books,
39:34
Speaker 1: studied scripture, prayed ours and believed that even though there
39:38
Speaker 1: were troubles and problems, God would support God and be
39:41
Speaker 1: our strength. No way this reads, Oh it was. It
39:47
Speaker 1: was okay when we found ourselves friendless. After all, God's
39:50
Speaker 1: still there, or so we thought. Alas to our despair,
39:54
Speaker 1: we have found that the corporation controls, not God. Took
39:58
Speaker 1: a long time and a lot of being harassed out
40:01
Speaker 1: of his job. Referring to her husband, I guess after
40:04
Speaker 1: being there eighteen years, black ball from getting any other employment,
40:08
Speaker 1: denied unemployment compensation, persons trying to kill us, not having
40:12
Speaker 1: the words, We read the psalms and spoke no. We
40:15
Speaker 1: cried out to God. We let him work, and there
40:18
Speaker 1: was only one door open to us. So we packed up,
40:20
Speaker 1: sold our home, et cetera, et cetera, and it blew
40:23
Speaker 1: up on him. You know, the whole thing failed within
40:25
Speaker 1: ten months. There was no job, loss of home, no employment,
40:30
Speaker 1: and now in a totally strange area. We asked ourselves
40:33
Speaker 1: did God want other Christians to practice what they preached?
40:36
Speaker 1: So we tried burden bearers, basic Youth, our church, other Christians,
40:41
Speaker 1: Salvation Army, Praise the Lord club, you name it. We
40:44
Speaker 1: tried it. We ended up wishing we'd never talked or
40:46
Speaker 1: wrote to any of them, and above all, wishing we
40:49
Speaker 1: had the money back we had given to them over
40:51
Speaker 1: the years. We are God's illegitimates. He only made our
40:58
Speaker 1: position in life anually worse. We spent over a decade
41:03
Speaker 1: trying to live by God's principles yet not being righteously
41:07
Speaker 1: obnoxious to others. God said, try me. He failed. A
41:12
Speaker 1: former believer, bitter letter hard to take it. The only
41:26
Speaker 1: reason I have kept it and read it to you
41:28
Speaker 1: now is to let you know that Malachi's message is
41:31
Speaker 1: just as relevant as that letter that was received in October.
41:37
Speaker 1: That's the way some feel. There's a sense of bitterness
41:42
Speaker 1: marked by arrogance in it. We tried and he failed.
41:45
Speaker 1: Tone It is clearly stated Malachi stands against that kind
41:52
Speaker 1: of thing, and he says, God is God. God is God.
41:56
Speaker 1: He will do as he sovereignly chooses. He knows what
42:00
Speaker 1: he is about. Trust him even when surrounded by those
42:05
Speaker 1: and you no doubt work with some who have that
42:07
Speaker 1: message as their life message. There is no such thing,
42:12
Speaker 1: by the way, as a former believer. But that's another subject. Tough.
42:22
Speaker 1: These minor prophets are tough. When the Savior returns, he
42:26
Speaker 1: will bring healing in his wings. He will bring power,
42:29
Speaker 1: he will bring restoration to Holmes. That's what chapter four
42:32
Speaker 1: is all about. Have saved two or three lessons for last,
42:44
Speaker 1: the things that I think we learned from Malachi. I
42:48
Speaker 1: hope we are hearing them now. The first one is
42:53
Speaker 1: a promise is cool off when we begin to rationalize
42:59
Speaker 1: these men women made vast promises, and I'm sure made
43:02
Speaker 1: them in sincerity. I wouldn't question their motive when they
43:05
Speaker 1: stood before Neamiah and pledge their promise to their covenant God.
43:09
Speaker 1: I'm confident that they met it. But they began to rationalize.
43:13
Speaker 1: The priests began to walk another way, and they began
43:16
Speaker 1: to approve wrong and promises cool off when we begin
43:21
Speaker 1: to rationalize. There is nothing that replaces obedience. Nothing forgive
43:29
Speaker 1: me if this hurts too much, if you are really
43:31
Speaker 1: hurting right now, But even blind obedience at times, that's
43:37
Speaker 1: the only way you can handle it. Trusting Him when
43:41
Speaker 1: you cannot see the tomorrow, and when everything you have
43:46
Speaker 1: attempted to do has blown up in your face. Trust him. Second,
43:57
Speaker 1: those who are involved in vocational Christian service must be
44:00
Speaker 1: alert to three special temptations, carelessness, cynicism, and corruption. By
44:16
Speaker 1: the way, I didn't take the time to describe it,
44:18
Speaker 1: I should have. The reason God stood so against inner marriage,
44:22
Speaker 1: he describes over in the law. He says, because your
44:25
Speaker 1: foreign wife will turn you against your God says it
44:28
Speaker 1: over and over and over. You've got to marry a
44:32
Speaker 1: woman who believes in what you're doing if you're going
44:35
Speaker 1: to enter this kind of ministry, because a woman who
44:38
Speaker 1: doesn't believe in it will take care of toll on you.
44:42
Speaker 1: Men of God. Wish I had the time to tell
44:47
Speaker 1: you the story of one of the closest friends i'vever had,
44:49
Speaker 1: whose whole life blew up on him as he married
44:52
Speaker 1: a woman outside the faith, and she brought her gods
44:55
Speaker 1: with them to their marriage, and it was only a
44:58
Speaker 1: matter of time. I don't know where he is today,
45:02
Speaker 1: asked to leave a seminary. Third, when the minister lowers
45:09
Speaker 1: his standard, the people suffer. You have to uphold a standard,
45:15
Speaker 1: even when you wouldn't be that strict in your business.
45:19
Speaker 1: You got to be strict in ministry. When the minister
45:23
Speaker 1: does not uphold a standard, the people suffer. They do
45:28
Speaker 1: not get a pure message. Forth. God never deals lightly
45:33
Speaker 1: with selfishness, which is the story of the end of
45:37
Speaker 1: the book. I've walked in the door this evening and
45:48
Speaker 1: one of the fellows who saw me and has been
45:50
Speaker 1: here through our study, said, well, we've come to the end.
45:55
Speaker 1: I thought maybe the end of time was around the corner,
45:57
Speaker 1: and I was waiting for some kind of trumpet to sound.
45:59
Speaker 1: I said, you mean what he said, well, the end
46:01
Speaker 1: of the prophets, and I kind of I'm so glad.
46:07
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm grateful, but I am glad. There's no
46:12
Speaker 1: way to jas them up. There's no way to doll
46:13
Speaker 1: them up. There's no way to make them funny, there's
46:15
Speaker 1: no way to make them cute, there's no way to
46:18
Speaker 1: make them happy, because they're not happy men. They're harsh men.
46:21
Speaker 1: They're strong men, they're doomsday men. They're frowning men. They're hard,
46:26
Speaker 1: hard men. You had to be hard to exist. I
46:34
Speaker 1: don't think John Knox carried around a joke book. I
46:39
Speaker 1: think it is a remarkable that they had the humor
46:41
Speaker 1: that they had, but their world was a severe world,
46:45
Speaker 1: hard to deal with. So it is with the prophets,
46:49
Speaker 1: and you just can't laugh off compromise and wrong. Maybe
46:57
Speaker 1: because we have created a strange creature in this generation
47:03
Speaker 1: of Christians. The old pioneer spirit that slugs it out
47:10
Speaker 1: when the going gets tough is a rare find, rare,
47:16
Speaker 1: not gone, but rare. And I'm thankful to God for
47:22
Speaker 1: his help in getting us through these and getting some
47:26
Speaker 1: of the message of them through us. Very very I'm
47:30
Speaker 1: grateful for that. Let's pause for just a time of prayer. Please,
47:38
Speaker 1: not in my timing has Malachi come. I would have
47:42
Speaker 1: chosen something much lighter, much more appropriate for the Thanksgiving season.
47:46
Speaker 1: But maybe the time off from work is a good
47:50
Speaker 1: time for you to think about where you're going. I
47:53
Speaker 1: want to challenge you, ladies and gentlemen, while you're not
47:58
Speaker 1: looking at me, and I'm looking at you, I'm going
48:03
Speaker 1: to challenge you on your cynicism, on your sarcasm, on
48:09
Speaker 1: your skeptical outlook toward things that are sacred. I've been
48:17
Speaker 1: reproved by That doesn't mean we no longer think, but
48:20
Speaker 1: it does mean when God speaks, we really take it seriously.
48:25
Speaker 1: We don't make light of it, We don't play with it.
48:30
Speaker 1: When he says, don't we believe him. When he smiles
48:34
Speaker 1: with favor, we obey him. When he nods in the
48:40
Speaker 1: direction and directs us with his eye on us, we
48:42
Speaker 1: follow him because we take him seriously. Lord, I pause
48:53
Speaker 1: right now to thank you for eating these men of God,
49:02
Speaker 1: all these minor prophets, in the way that you have
49:06
Speaker 1: led them to come down strong, never unfair, but always
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Speaker 1: direct and at times even even harsh, firm, and ensure.
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Speaker 1: I pray that you'd make us right without making us hard,
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Speaker 1: That you had use us as messengers in a day
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Speaker 1: that has twisted the truth, in a day of paraphrase
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Speaker 1: and amplifying and restating and rethinking, bring us back to
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Speaker 1: the so truth, help us know what it is and
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Speaker 1: then to walk in it. I'm led to pray for
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Speaker 1: wives this moment who find themselves in need of being
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Speaker 1: encouragements to their mates and Father. I pray that you'd
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Speaker 1: help them to do that and to carry out that
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Speaker 1: role women of men of God who are to be
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Speaker 1: used by you as people of support. I pray as
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Speaker 1: well for those whose homes are divided and under construction now,
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Speaker 1: and I pray that as they are caught in them
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Speaker 1: in the morass of all the currents, that you would
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Speaker 1: come out first and you would assist them as they
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Speaker 1: put together the disjointed lives that they find themselves living with.
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Speaker 1: Help them to be strong and to have that spirit
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Speaker 1: of determination. By your power, in the name of Jesus Christ,
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Speaker 1: our Lord, we pray Amen.
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Speaker 3: The preceding message Malachi Last called Before Silence, was copyrighted
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Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty and the sound recording was copyrighted in
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Speaker 3: twenty eleven by Charles R. Swindall, Inc. All rights are
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Speaker 3: reserved worldwide.