Now let's turn to Malachi, the final word
of God in the Old Testament period, God's
final message before the coming of Jesus Christ.
Who Malachi was, where he came from, we
know nothing.
Some believe that the name of Malachi is
just an assumed name, not the true name
of the writer.
But there is no real evidence to back
up that belief.
But the name Malachi, remember this morning I
told you there were meanings in the names,
that they just didn't name a child any
name out of the dictionary.
But they looked for the meaning of a
name and they named the child for the
meaning of the name.
Malachi means my messenger.
And so Malachi was God's messenger, the last
messenger of the Old Testament period.
And he doesn't give any background concerning himself
as some of the other minor prophets do,
telling you where they came from and who
their fathers were.
It just is the burden of the word
of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
So that's your introduction to the book, declaring
the author and to whom the book is
sent.
Malachi, but the author really is the word
of the Lord, the messenger Malachi, and the
people addressed Israel.
What is God's first word of the final
word?
I have loved you.
What a glorious thing for God to say
to a person, I have loved you.
Now that isn't a past tense, that is
past and present.
I continue to love you.
I have loved you.
God's love never ceases.
I have loved you, saith the Lord.
But Israel in their cold spiritual condition responds,
wherein have you loved us?
Rather than responding in warmth to God, there
is the challenge of that love.
Now many people today still are guilty of
challenging God's love.
And so many times a statement is begun
with the words, if God loves me, then
why?
And oftentimes the circumstances of my life, which
seem to be very difficult or adverse, cause
me at times to challenge God's love.
Now you find that today in Israel, there
is a tremendous challenge to this statement by
the people.
If you would go over there today and
proclaim to the people in Israel, God loves
the people of Israel.
90% of them would say, if God
loves the Jew, then how come 6 million
of them were killed by Hitler?
And I've had them say to me, we
don't need that kind of love.
But God declares, I have loved you, saith
the Lord.
We think of love as some weak kind
of thing that just is totally indulgent.
But the Bible tells us that if you
as a parent totally indulge your child, if
you do not correct your child, you really
aren't demonstrating love for that child, but you
hate your child.
And the failure for you as a parent
to discipline your child is not a sign
of love, but of disregard, of hatred.
God, because he loves us, disciplines us.
Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.
But we're so used to thinking of love
in the sickly, sweet Hollywood sentimentality of the
full moon and the beach in Hawaii and
the guitars in the background and the waves
gently coming up on the sand, you know,
and this whole kind of scene that we
don't understand the nature of true love and
of real love.
That's Hollywood.
True love is strong, strong enough to rebuke
when rebuke is necessary, strong enough to chasten
when chastening is for the best good.
And oftentimes chastening is necessary for our best
good.
A child left to himself will bring reproach
to his parents, according to the scriptures, because
we love our children, we chasten them, because
we're concerned in their well-being and in
their safety.
We just, when they run out in the
street, we just don't, you know, take a
very haphazard attitude towards it.
Say, look, he's playing in the street.
Isn't that cute?
But we discipline the child.
We tell them the dangers of playing in
the street.
We run out and we grab hold of
them and we get them out of the
street and we warn them of the dangers.
And if they continue and persist to go
in the street, then we spank them to
keep them out of the street because we
know the danger that exists if they walk
off the curb and into the street.
And because we love them and are concerned
in their well-being, we take that necessary
step and the strength of discipline, we stop
them.
And so God, in His love for us,
has that strength of love that brings discipline
when we are doing those self-destructive acts.
Now, oftentimes it is during the discipline that
we challenge the love of God.
If God loves me, then why is this
happening to me?
It's happening to you because He does love
you and He's averting some tragedy down the
road and you should be thankful.
Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.
So there was the challenge.
Where in does God love us?
And God answers that challenge by pointing out
the fact that He chose Jacob over Esau.
Now, they were twin brothers and Esau was
the elder.
And according to tradition, the blessings should have
gone to Esau.
The birthright should have gone to Esau, although
they were twins because he was born first.
The right of the birthright was his and
the blessing was his.
But God reversed things and God gave to
Jacob the birthright and the blessing and the
promise.
And being descendants of Jacob rather than Esau
was the proof of God's love for Israel.
Now, both the descendants of Esau and Jacob
were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and carried away as
captives to Babylon.
However, the prophecy here is that Esau will,
though they are endeavoring, will not be rebuilt
or Edom will not be rebuilt.
The descendants of Esau, though they're trying, their
area is going to be wasted and desolate
and they're not going to make it.
They're not going to recover, whereas God is
going to recover Jacob and Israel in the
land.
Were they not brothers, the Lord said, and
yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau.
Now, a lot of times people get hung
up on this idea of God saying He
hated somebody.
Actually, it is a term that means love
in a lesser degree.
I loved Jacob, but I loved Esau in
a lesser degree.
The word hated Esau is a rather difficult
translation, but I laid his mountains and his
heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness,
whereas Edom saith, we are impoverished, but we
will return and build the desolate places.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall
build, but I will throw down and they
shall call them the border of wickedness and
the people against whom the Lord hath indignation
forever.
And so the Edomites were to be destroyed.
God was going to cast them down, though
they tried to repatriate and recover.
They were unable to do so.
And the Edomites were lost from history.
Herod was the last of the Edomites, the
King Herod's.
And from there, their ethnic identity is lost
in history.
And the Lord said, your eyes shall see,
and you shall see the Lord will be
magnified from the border of Israel and the
border of Edom, the border of wickedness.
It'll be desolation, but God will be magnified
from the border of Israel.
Now, the Lord brings out here an interesting
thing.
He said a son honors his father and
a servant, his master.
If then I am your father, where is
my honor?
And if I be a master, where is
my reverence?
Saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O
priest that despised my name.
And you say, wherein have we despised his
name?
So God says, look, a father receives honor
from his son.
In fact, under the law, it says, honor
your father and your mother and the master
receives reverence and respect from his slave.
God is saying, look, if I'm your father,
then where is the honor that you should
be giving me?
If I'm your master, then why aren't you
respecting or reverencing me?
And then the Lord speaks out about the
priesthood.
And he said, O priest that despised my
name.
And they say, where have we despised your
name?
And God said, in that you have offered
polluted bread upon my altar.
And you say, where have we polluted thee?
And God said, in that you say the
table of the Lord is contemptible and you
offer the blind for sacrifice.
Is it not evil?
And if you offer the lame and the
sick, is it not evil?
Offer it to your governor and see how
he thinks about it.
God said, you wouldn't offer that kind of
lame, sick stuff to your governor.
And yet you offer it to me.
It's amazing how many times God gets the
castoffs.
You know, I don't know what to do
with it.
I don't want to send it to the
dump.
Well, let's give it to the church.
The castoffs.
We had the ugliest rocking chair in our
church parsonage in Tucson.
It was double ugly.
And so we were talking with some of
the members of the church about how we
plan to get some new furniture in the
parsonage.
And we were going to get rid of
the rocking chair.
Oh no, no.
You can't get rid of the rocking chair.
We said, why not?
He said, well, that's our rocking chair.
We gave it to the church.
And we said, but we won't have room
for it.
When our new furniture arrives, we'll bring it
back to your house.
Oh no, no, we don't want it.
But you know, it had some sentimental value
to them, but they really didn't want it
themselves.
So the church becomes a storage place.
And we've got to have that dumb, ugly
rocking chair in our living room because they
don't know what to do with it.
Giving God the castoffs and God, God speaks
of his disdain for it.
Offering me polluted offerings, offering me the lambs
that are sick, the lambs that are lame,
the lambs that are blind, maimed, can't do
anything else with them.
Give them to God, use them for sacrifice.
When God in the law said that they
were to offer the first fruits, when they
offered a lamb, it was to be without
spot or blemish.
They were to offer really unto God the
sacrifices that were the best that they had.
I read of a man who had an
old upright piano in his home and he
loved playing the piano.
And so he went out and bought himself
a beautiful Steinway, baby grand.
And he didn't know what to do with
the old upright piano and so he decided,
well, I'll give it to the church.
And so he called the pastor and he
said, I have a piano I want to
donate to the church.
And the pastor said, fine, you know.
And the Lord began to speak to him
and said, you're going to give that old
rickety, worn out, upright to me and you're
keeping for yourself that Steinway.
And God really began to nail this guy.
So when the van came to pick up
the piano, guess which one went on the
van?
The Steinway.
And he kept his old upright.
He just couldn't give to God the cast
off.
And yet how many times we pollute our
gifts by giving to God the cast offs
when God requires the first and the best
of our lives.
God said, will the governor be pleased?
Will he accept the person for that sick
lame sacrifice he's trying to offer?
Of course not.
Now, I pray you beseech God that he
will be gracious unto us.
This has been by your means.
Will he regard your person, saith the Lord
of hosts?
If the governor won't regard you for that
sacrifice, do you think that I should regard
you and be pleased?
Then the Lord said, who is there among
you that would shut the doors for nothing
for not?
Neither do you kindle a fire on my
altar for not.
Now, there are some who have interpreted this
as a professional priesthood.
In other words, they don't just give their
service to God, but they want a for
their service to God.
However, that is not evidently what the Hebrew
implies.
God is saying, actually, I would just as
soon that someone would close the doors of
the temple so that you wouldn't offer me
any more of these sacrifices that are nothing.
Don't bother coming.
If that's all you have to offer, forget
it.
I just wish that someone would close the
doors of the temple so they wouldn't be
offering me any more of this junk.
I can do without it.
This is the idea behind the Hebrew text.
I have no pleasure, God says, in you.
These things don't please me.
I don't have any pleasure in your junk.
Neither will I accept the offering from you.
Now, it should be of great concern to
each of us when we consider the benefits
of being a child of God.
When we consider all that God has done
for us, it should be a primary concern
to us, even as it was to the
psalmist in Psalm 116, when he said, What
shall I render unto the Lord for all
of his benefits unto me?
When I think of all of the blessings
and the benefits that God has bestowed upon
my life, the question, what can I give
to God?
Well, what can I give to God that
he needs?
He doesn't need anything that I have.
You know what the psalmist finally came up
with?
He said, I will just take his cup
of salvation and call upon his name.
I don't know what to give to God.
I'll just receive that which he wants to
give to me.
I'll take the cup of salvation and I'll
just call upon his name.
Because you see, I really don't have anything
of value that I can give to God
that he really needs.
I read of a mission out in New
Mexico where they were ministering to the Indians
out there on the reservation.
And this one old Indian came into the
meeting and he was really touched.
His heart was touched by God.
And so when they passed the offering plate,
when they came to him, he told the
usher, put it down lower.
And the usher put it down with a
quizzical look.
And he says, lower yet.
And he put it down lower yet.
And he says, lower yet.
And finally he put the offering plate on
the floor and the old Indian stepped in
it.
He said, this is all I have.
Giving himself.
But you know, as far as God is
concerned, that's all he wants.
What better gift can you give to God
than just giving yourself to him?
Giving God your life.
Take the cup of salvation.
Call upon the name of the Lord.
Now the Lord speaks concerning the Gentiles.
The priesthood has been more or less corrupted.
For from the rising of the sun, even
to the going down of the same, my
name shall be great among the Gentiles.
And in every place incense shall be offered
unto my name and a pure offering for
my name shall be great among the heathen,
saith the Lord of hosts.
So that promise, which is yet future in
the kingdom age, when Jesus shall reign where
air, the sun doth their successive journeys run.
When every knee shall bow and every tongue
shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord
to the glory of God, the father.
When Psalm two is fulfilled and the father
has said to his son, ask of me
and I will give you the heathen for
thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy dwelling place.
And when that glorious day is come from
the rising of the sun, even to the
going down thereof, the name of the Lord
shall be great among the Gentiles.
And in every place incense shall be offered
unto my name, a pure offering.
Now we are told in the book of
revelation, chapter five, that when Jesus takes the
scroll out of the right hand of him
who is sitting upon the throne, that the
24 elders come forth with little golden bowls
filled with incense that they offer before the
throne of God.
And the Bible tells us that the incense
is the prayer of the saints.
Now the offering of incense is a symbolic
act.
The sweet savor, the sweet savory smoke going
up is a symbolic act.
And we were talking Thursday night of the
danger of taking the symbol and replacing the
symbol or using the symbol to replace the
reality and how this is so commonly done
in religious realms where you take a ritual
that began as a symbol and soon you
place a greater emphasis upon the ritual than
you do the reality and you forget the
reality and it's all your trust is just
in the ritual itself.
The offering of some incense was a ritual
symbolic act for the prayers were to represent
or the the incense was to represent the
prayers of God's people that ascends up to
God as a sweet smelling savor before the
Lord.
How God enjoys the prayers of his people.
So in the book of Revelation the incense,
these little golden vials full of incense odors
which are the prayers it says of the
saints.
So that offering of incense, the pure offering
is actually the prayers that are offered up
to God from around the world from the
hearts of his people in every language.
Now God says concerning the Gentiles they will
be offering up these sacrifices.
My name shall be great.
But he said you have profaned it.
That is you profane the name of God,
the name of the Lord.
In that you say the table of the
Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof even
as meat is contemptible.
Now they had begun to take a very
bad attitude towards their service to God and
their worship of God.
It had become a labor.
It had become a burden to them.
It is tragic when people are serving God
out of a sense of obligation or pressure
or giving to God out of the sense
of pressure.
It to me is tragic that churches use
pressure tactics to get people to make their
pledges for the year.
They use that old psychology of sending two
or three important people from the church to
your home to sit down and to discuss
with you what will be your pledge for
the church for this next year.
And of course you don't want to look
like a skin flint and these people are
important people and you want to look good
to them.
And so while they're there you are more
or less coerced into making a pledge that
is really more than you intended to give.
But you just want to look good in
the eyes of the people.
But then each month as you get your
little done from the church saying your pledge
is due, you get angry and you write
out that check and your name has a
little cross on the T you know that
indicates that I don't like this you know.
But I made the promise and you know
and and you're actually resenting what you give
to God and that's terrible.
You'd be better off by far not to
give to God at all than to actually
resent what God doesn't want you to resent
anything.
That's why Paul the Apostle in the New
Testament said let every man as he is
purposed in his own heart set aside that
portion that he wants to give to God
for your giving should never be out of
constraint.
It should never be through pressure for God
loves a cheerful and the word in the
Greek is hilarious giver.
Now whatever you can give to God hilariously
give and what you can't give to God
hilariously keep.
Don't pollute and God says you've polluted the
whole thing.
Why?
Because of the attitude of your heart when
you're giving to God.
Your attitude is that it's contemptible.
Oh I gotta do that again.
None of my giving to God should ever
create within me a contempt.
If I if it is then I shouldn't
be doing it.
God loves a cheerful hilarious giver.
You've said oh what a weariness it is.
Oh do we have to go to church
again tonight?
Oh a neat program coming on tv and
I gotta go.
You know if I'm not there then they're
gonna be calling me.
I don't want them calling me.
I can't stand it.
See him again.
Weariness to me.
Oh what a sad sad state of spiritual
affairs when the things of God become worrisome.
Tragic.
My wife always gets after me because even
on vacation I can't stop ministering.
Going to Hawaii next month for a vacation.
But we'll be ministering in Honolulu for Bill
Stonebreaker while we're there.
But I love it.
You know it's not worrisome to me.
Now she would like to be with me
more.
In fact she told me tonight to pray
about spending more time with her.
I'm praying about it.
You know they're the minister's wives are many
times some of the unspoken heroes of this
whole warfare.
We talk about the sacrifices a minister has
to make but the wife also makes many
sacrifices.
And I thank God for the sacrifices that
Kay has made and the reflection of those
sacrifices in the lives of our children.
Because I was gone so much a great
part of the burden of giving to the
children that security and word and love and
all within the home fell upon her.
She made it a point to never allow
the children to come home to an empty
house.
Always to be there whenever they came home
from school.
And we thank God for the blessed fruit
that we have now from those sacrifices that
she made while we were engaged in the
work of the Lord.
But if serving God ever becomes weariness to
you then it's time to get out.
Time to do something else.
Surely you should not be inflicting yourself upon
others.
If you yourself have become wearied doing the
work of the Lord.
You say oh what weariness it is and
you've snuffed at it.
And you brought that which was torn.
That which was lame.
That which was sick.
And thus you brought an offering.
And should I accept it?
Saith the Lord.
But cursed be the deceiver which hath in
his flock a male and vows and sacrifices
unto the Lord a corrupt thing.
God pronounces a curse upon that man that
would make a promise to God.
And then substitute on it.
Give God sacrifice something that was corrupted.
For I am a great king saith the
Lord of hosts and my name is awesome
among the heathen.
Now he addresses himself to the priest.
And now oh ye priest.
This commandment is for you.
And if you will not hear.
And if you will not lay it to
heart.
To give glory unto my name saith the
Lord of hosts.
I will even send a curse upon you.
And I will curse your blessings.
Yea I have cursed them already because you
do not lay it to heart.
Now in order to get a real background
to Malachi.
You need to read again the books of
Ezra and Nehemiah.
Because Malachi was prophesying during the time of
Ezra and Nehemiah.
This was the time when the children of
Israel had returned from their Babylonian captivity.
And were starting to rebuild the nation.
And we remember how they read to the
people the law of the Lord.
And how that the people have begun to
put away their wives and began to marry
the wives from the cities of Ashdod and
Ammon and the Moabites.
And Malachi will come down on this pretty
soon.
But you get a historic background to Malachi
in Nehemiah and Ezra which you should reread
just to put the whole prophecy in perspective.
Behold I will corrupt your seed and spread
dung upon your faces.
Even the dung of your solemn feast and
one shall take you away with it.
God isn't really very gentle is he.
And ye shall know that I have sent
this commandment unto you.
That my covenant might be with Levi saith
the Lord of hosts.
My covenant was with him of life and
peace.
And I gave them to him for the
fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid
before my name.
Now God established the covenant the priesthood with
the tribe of Levi because of the fear
of the Lord.
The reverence that he had towards God.
The covenant was of life and of peace.
God's covenant with man is that of life
and peace.
God has promised to you eternal life and
the peace of God which passes human understanding.
These are the benefits of our covenant with
God.
This is the covenant that he had made
with Levi because of Levi's reverence for him.
The law of truth was in his mouth.
Iniquity was not found in his lips.
He walked with me in peace and in
fairness and did turn many away from iniquity.
And of course that was the duty of
the priest to walk before the Lord honestly,
in righteousness, in peace.
For the priest lips should keep knowledge and
they should seek the law at his mouth.
For he is the messenger of the Lord
of hosts.
Now that really is the ministry of bringing
the people the knowledge of God.
For we are the messengers of the Lord.
And that's what we stand here to do
to proclaim to you a message from God.
And that should always be what is upon
our hearts.
Whenever we step into the pulpit, I have
a message from the Lord for you.
As Paul the apostle said, that which I
have received from the Lord, I also delivered
unto you.
And that should always be the means of
communication to the church.
God through his servant, proclaiming his word, his
truth to his people, but you are departed
out of the way that is the priest.
You have caused many to stumble at the
law.
You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, sayeth
the Lord of hosts.
And this can be said of so much
of the apostate ministry today.
I have no respect for those ministers who
deny the word of God, who denied the
authority of the word of God, who denied
the authenticity of the word of God.
I don't know why they're in the ministry.
They've corrupted their positions.
They have turned people away from the Lord.
And there are many people today who are
turned away from the Lord because the churches
and the ministers totally failed to proclaim to
them the truth of the Lord.
And the church became a social center and
the ministers became the head of social organizations
and their emphasis became the social program.
And their messages were sweet little nothings about
birds and flowers and butterflies and the reviews
of the latest books.
But they had no message from God for
the people.
And the people were turned away from God
because of the failure of the priest or
of the ministers.
You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, God
said.
Therefore, have I also made you contemptible and
base before all the people.
Now, what happened is the people turned against
the priesthood and they began to treat the
priest contemptibly and rightfully so.
It is interesting in Brazil how that the
people have turned against the ministers, treating
them with contempt.
And it, you can't blame the people, you
have to blame the ministers who were derelict
in their duty of bringing the people the
truth of God's word and of God's law.
And foisting upon them some social action program.
There is a place for social action, but
not the church.
Our place is to proclaim God's truth to
the people.
And it is the changed people who change
the society.
There are, because of that, I've made you
contemptible and base according as you have not
kept my ways, but have been partial in
your administering of the law.
Have we not all one father?
Is there not just one God who has
created us?
Then why are we dealing so treacherously against
our brothers?
Would to God that the churches could realize
that we have only one father.
We're serving only one God.
Why should we have all of the divisions
within the church?
Why should we have, you know, this church
downing that church and, and, you know, all
of this competition, fighting, jealousy, strides going on
within the body of Christ.
We should realize that there's only one God.
We all serve the same Lord.
God help us.
If we are Baptist or Lutherans or Presbyterians
or Catholics or Nazarenes or whatever, God help
us to just simply be Christians, one God,
one father.
We're all brothers.
God said, how come they don't realize that?
Why is it that there's all this treachery
going on between them?
All the rivalry Judah hath dealt treacherously and
an abomination is committed in Israel and in
Jerusalem for Judah hath profaned the holiness of
the Lord, which he loved and has married
the daughter of a strange God.
So the Lord is here speaking about this
treacherous thing that was going on in that
the men of Judah who had returned to
rebuild the nation had begun to divorce their
own wives of their youth.
And they began to marry these girls from
Ashdod, that is the Philistines, from Amman, that
is the area of Moab, Jordan today, leaving
their wives and marrying these young gals from
these foreign nations who were strangers to
God and to the covenants of God.
And so he speaks about the treacherous dealing,
these husbands.
Actually in the book of Nehemiah, when Nehemiah
saw what was going on, he called all
the people together and he really laid a
trip on these guys who had left the
wives of their youth and had married these
young gals and had children by them.
And he said, all right, this is what
you've got to do.
Put away every strange wife, every man of
you, you've got to put away your strange
wife and the children that were born by
them.
And he went among them and started pulling
their beards and knocking their heads and just
really treating them rough.
And he was setting things in order.
The last chapter of Nehemiah, interesting picture of
how Nehemiah was dealing very forcibly with this
thing, which was such an abomination unto God
that a man would deal so treacherously with
the wife of his youth when he became
older.
The Lord will cut off the man that
does this, the master and the scholar out
of the tabernacles or the tents of Jacob
and him that offereth an offering unto the
Lord of hosts.
And this have you done again, covering the
altar of the Lord with tears and weeping
and crying out in as much as he
regards, not the offering anymore, nor receives it
with good will at your hand.
All of your tears and crying and everything
else in the altar of God doesn't alter
what you have done.
It does not allow God to condone what
you have done.
You say, well, why?
Because the Lord is the witness between you
and your wife, the wife of your youth
against whom you have dealt treacherously.
Yet she is your companion and the wife
of your covenant.
You made a vow, you covenanted till death
do us part, the wife of your covenant.
And did he not make the two of
you one?
Yet had he the residue of the spirit
and wherefore and why one that he might
seek a godly seed.
God was seeking to preserve a godly seed
for the nation Israel in order that they
might bring forth his son into the world.
That's why he commanded them not to marry
outside of the race.
Therefore, he said, take heed to your spirit.
Let none deal treacherously against the wife of
his youth.
There are people who imagine that the Bible
teaches against interracial marriages, but it really does
not except for the Jews.
And that was to preserve the godly seed
that he might bring forth the Messiah from
this nation.
But there is really no prohibition in the
scripture as such against interracial marriages.
Again, we all have one father and we
all serve one God.
Culturally, there may be difficulties, but scripturally, I
see none.
For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith
that he hates divorcing.
For one covers violence with his garments, saith
the Lord of hosts.
Therefore, take heed to your spirit that you
deal not treacherously.
So God sets himself against divorcing.
He said, I hate it.
And the Lord said there was only one
cause for divorce, and that was adultery, fornication.
Then the Lord said, you have wearied the
Lord with your words, yet you say, where
did we weary him?
He said, when you say that everyone is
good in the eyes of the Lord.
Doesn't matter, you know, everyone is good.
There's a spark of good in everybody.
I said, you wearied me with your words.
The innate goodness of man.
Everyone is good before the Lord.
There are still those today saying that.
And God delights in all men.
Where then is the God of judgment?
God will judge the wicked.
And God is wearied by this false philosophy.
Oh, everyone is good.
God delights in all men.
The universal fatherhood of God and the universal
brotherhood of man.
No matter who you are, what you've done,
we're all the sons of God and everyone
is good in the eyes of God.
Then wherein is the God of judgment?
Why does God speak so much about the
judgment that is going to fall upon the
wicked?
Now the promise of the coming of John
the Baptist as the forerunner to Jesus Christ.
Behold, I will send my messenger and he
shall prepare the way before me.
And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly
come to his temple, even the messenger of
the covenant whom ye delight in.
Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of
hosts.
But who may abide the day of his
coming?
And who shall stand when he appears?
For he is like a refiner's fire and
like the fuller's soap.
And he shall sit as a refiner and
a purifier of silver.
And he will purify the sons of Levi
and purge them as gold and silver that
they may offer unto the Lord an offering
in righteousness.
Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem
be pleasant unto the Lord as in the
days of old and in the former years.
Now, here we have a commingling of both
the second, the first and the second comings
of Jesus Christ.
John the Baptist did come as the forerunner.
Proclaim the coming of the Lord after him.
There is one coming after me mightier than
I, the lachet of whose shoes I'm not
worthy to unloose.
And when he saw Jesus, he said to
his disciples, behold, the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world.
He bore testimony of Jesus Christ.
But Jesus was rejected.
He did come to the temple.
He did cleanse it.
He drove out the money changers and those
that were selling the doves.
But he was rejected.
But he is coming again.
And before he comes again, Elijah shall come,
precede him and prepare the hearts of the
people for the coming of the Lord.
So part of this was fulfilled in his
first coming.
Much of it remains to be fulfilled in
his second coming.
But with Malachi and so many of the
others, they did not see the two aspects
of the coming of the Messiah.
And so as they wrote, Peter said they
wrote of things that they really didn't understand,
earnestly desiring to look into these things and
to understand them.
But they really didn't.
And they didn't understand really the seeming ambiguity
and contradictions of the prophecies that they were
making.
For they were prophesying that he would reign
as king and Lord forever upon the throne
of David and establish the kingdom forever.
And yet they were saying, and he is
despised or rejected of men, a man of
sorrow, acquainted with grief, cut off from the
land of the living.
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for
himself or without receiving the kingdom.
And so they were giving these prophecies that
they could not themselves understand because there was
this seeming paradox, the differences.
But yet they wrote of them honestly obeying
the voice of the spirit that was speaking
to their heart, though they themselves did not
understand the things of which they wrote.
The Lord said, and I will come near
to you to judgment.
Now this is referring, of course, to the
second coming of Christ.
He's coming to judge the world and the
first duty and the first activity of Christ
when he returns to the earth is that
of judgment, gathering the nations together for judgment.
And I will be swift witness against the
sorcerers and against the adulterers.
Now the sorcerers are those, the word in
the Greek is pharmakia from which we get
pharmacology, which is the use of drugs.
Those that are using the drugs for hallucinogenic
purposes against the adulterers, against those who are
liars, false swears, those who swear falsely against
those who are oppressing their employers or the
employees in his wages withholding.
Actually in James it says, go to now
ye rich, weep and howl for the woes
that have come upon you.
For you have defrauded the labor.
You've been holding back his wages or that
you might live sumptuously.
And now, you know, the Lord speaks of
their being cut off.
So those that are oppressing the hirelings, holding
back the wages, oppressing the widow and the
fatherless and that turn aside the stranger and
fear, not me sayeth the Lord of hosts.
For I am the Lord.
I change not.
Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
God's promises to Jacob are sure.
Otherwise he would have consumed them.
He would have consumed the people, but his
promises he keeps.
And he promised that to Jacob there would
arise the star, the morning star.
So God keeps his word, but God is
here declaring that if it were not for
his word, they would be consumed.
But I am the Lord.
I change not.
This is what is called from a doctoral
standpoint, the immutability of God.
That is God does not change in the
New Testament.
We read concerning Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today and forever.
He does not change God's immutability.
One of the divine attributes of God, even
from the days of your fathers, you are
gone away from my ordinances and you've not
kept them return unto me and I will
return unto you sayeth the Lord of hosts.
But you said, why should we return?
So God is even now giving them the
chance to turn to me, turn to me,
return to me.
God said, I'll return to you.
They said, why should we?
They were surely impotent people.
And then the question, will a man rob
God?
Yet the Lord said, you have robbed me.
But you say, where have you robbed me?
Where have we robbed you?
And God said in the tithes and in
the offerings, the word tithe means a tenth.
And God claims that a tenth of the
increase belonged to him.
And for them to withhold it from God
was robbing God.
And God looked upon it as actually robbing
from him.
This is under the Old Testament law.
And God said, you are cursed with a
curse for you have robbed me, even this
whole nation.
Now, when Nehemiah came back the second time,
the worship in the temple had been forsaken
because the people were not bringing tithes and
offerings into the temple.
And thus the priest had left the ministry
in the temple and they had gone out
into the fields and they were cultivating fields
and they were working in order to provide
for their own necessities, for their own survival.
And thus the temple worship was neglected when
Nehemiah returned.
And so he called the people together and
he rebuked the people for the fact that
the priest had to leave the ministry of
the temple and go out into the fields
to work to support themselves.
And Nehemiah set this thing straight.
So again, the book of Nehemiah helps give
you a background for what Malachi is saying.
God talking about the people robbing him and
then God commands them, bring ye all the
tithes into the storehouse that there may be
meat in my house.
And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord
of hosts, if I will not open you
the windows of heaven and pour out unto
you a blessing that you'll not have room
enough to receive it.
Now, it is interesting to me that as
far as I know, this is the only
place in the scripture where God has actually
challenged a person to prove him.
Where God says, prove me and see if
I will not pour out upon you a
blessing so great that you won't be able
to contain it.
Now, we often hear the objection, well, there
is no mention of tithing in the New
Testament.
It is a part of the Old Testament
law.
It is not something that is applicable to
the church age.
And this for the most part is true.
There is only one mention of tithing as
such that I can think of.
And that is when Jesus was speaking about
the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and how they
had twisted so many things.
Straining at a gnat, swallowing a camel kind
of thing.
He said, you pay tithe of your anise,
your mint and your cumin.
Now, these are spices, they're little spice gardens
that they would grow.
And they would take these little anise seeds
and count out nine for me, one for
God.
Nine for me, one for God.
And they're little tiny seeds.
And they were very careful that God got
his tenth part of this spice from their
herb gardens.
He said, you pay tithes of these things.
But he said, you totally overlook the more
important things of fairness and honesty.
You know, you're crooked in your dealings yet
you're so careful that God gets his tenth
part even of your spices.
Now, God said, this you, Jesus said, this
you ought to have done in the reference
to their tithing.
You ought to do that.
But he said, you shouldn't leave the other
undone.
Now, I do not, and you know that
I don't preach tithing as a requirement or
as a law.
You know that oftentimes I have spoken to
you of the grace of God and that
God will never be a debtor to any
man.
And how that our blessings from God are
not predicated in this covenant of grace upon
our obedience to the law or faithfulness in
devotions or faithfulness in tithes or whatever.
Where the people at one time related to
God through the law, God has chosen that
we should relate to him in love.
And God has chosen to bestow upon us
his blessings on the basis not of our
obedience or faithfulness to the law, but upon
the basis of his grace towards us.
So that all of God's blessings are bestowed
upon my life, not because I merit them,
not because I deserve them, but because God
just loves me.
And I just can't help that.
I'm so thankful for it.
That God just loves me so much he
wants to give to me.
Now, wouldn't it be rather stupid for me
to say, oh God, don't do that, you
don't do that.
You're too good, Lord.
I often say you're too good, but I
don't say stop.
I appreciate the goodness of God.
I thank God for his grace.
And I thank God that I can relate
to him in love, not the law.
I feel sorry for people who have a
legal relationship with God.
Oh, how I thank God for this love
relationship that I have.
I love him.
He loves me.
And it's just a neat deal because he
loves me more than I love him.
And he is always showing to me how
much he loves me.
And quite often he is showing me how
much he loves me right after I have
failed so miserably, just so I won't get
discouraged.
By his grace, he just sort of says,
hey, I know your frame.
I know you're but dust, but I still
love you anyhow.
And, you know, I want to show it
to you.
And God just is constantly overwhelming me with
his love.
However, there is a divine law involved
in giving.
And I would be derelict as a minister
if I did not point out to you
a divine spiritual law that God has enacted
in this universe.
And the law is basically expressed in the
New Testament in these words, give and it
shall be given unto you.
Measure it out, press down and running over
shall men give into your bosom.
Now, that's a spiritual law of God.
The more you give, the more you will
receive.
Paul, the apostle, expressed it by saying he
who gives sparingly will receive sparingly, but he
who gives bountifully will receive bountifully.
It's a divine spiritual law.
Now, we are quite conscious of the natural
laws that govern our universe, though we don't
really fully understand them.
We are aware of them and we live
in accordance to them and we take advantage
of them.
Now, I'm certain that none of us really
understand how gravity works.
We just know it does work.
We know that an apple falls down, not
up.
And just how the principle of gravity may
work, how mass attracts, we don't really know,
but we know that there is an attraction
by mass.
And so we learn to respect the law
of gravity and abide by the law of
gravity.
Now, we have learned through our scientific developments
and technology to learn that there are other
laws of aerodynamics by which we can compensate
against the law of gravity and we can
put airplanes into flight by laws of aerodynamics,
which we understand, the thrust of air and
so forth, going over and under the airlines
and so forth, the lifting power and thrust.
And we've learned through the laws of aerodynamics
to compensate against the laws of gravity.
But basically, we, all of us respect the
laws of gravity.
We don't just jump off of a 10
-story building saying, well, I don't care for
the law of gravity.
I don't understand how it works and I
just don't believe in it.
You know, we're not that stupid that we
would defy the law of gravity in such
a way.
Now, there is the law of electricity, how
that the positive particles repel and the negative
particles attract.
And we know the, you know, the opposite
poles, the attraction of opposite poles and so
forth.
But yet, to understand electricity, we really don't,
but we sure learn how to use the
electricity and make it our servant.
Now, just as there are laws of gravity,
laws of electricity, laws of aerodynamics, and these
basic laws of nature that we've learned to
live with and to use, so there are
spiritual laws in the universe that God has
inaugurated that you can use for your benefit.
God has established these laws and they are
just as powerful in their cause and effect
as is the law of gravity or any
of the other laws of nature which we
have learned to live with.
And one of the laws, the spiritual laws,
involves the giving to God and that is
give and it shall be given unto you,
measured out, pressed down, running over.
And the more you give to the Lord,
the more you will receive from Him.
That's just a basic spiritual law.
You say, well, how does it work?
I don't know.
All I know is that it does work
and God only in this area challenges people
to prove Him.
Just prove me.
God says, see, if I will not pour
out unto you blessings that you won't be
able, you won't have room enough to contain.
Now, you want to take God's dare, God's
challenge to you?
Try it.
Prove the Lord.
See if He will not pour out unto
you blessings that you cannot contain.
There will not be room enough to receive
it.
For the Lord said, I will rebuke the
devourer for your sake.
He shall not destroy the fruit of your
ground.
Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before
the time in the field, saith the Lord
of hosts.
And all nations shall call you blessed, for
ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the
Lord of hosts.
And your words have been stout against me,
saith the Lord.
Yet you say, what have we spoken so
much against you?
Every time God tells them something is wrong,
they challenge, where, why, when, how?
You said that it was vain to serve
God.
It doesn't pay to serve the Lord.
That's what you're saying.
The Lord said, you're saying that it's vain
to serve God.
It doesn't pay to serve God.
It doesn't pay to try and be good.
What profit is it that we have kept
His ordinance, that we have walked mournfully before
Him?
God doesn't, it doesn't pay.
God has not responded to us.
There's nothing, you know, the Lord hasn't done
anything.
It doesn't pay to serve the Lord.
How many times Satan tries to throw that
little trip on us?
It doesn't really pay.
What profit is it that I've tried to
be good, that I tried to be, look,
they took advantage of me.
Well, it doesn't pay to serve God, you
know.
And now we call the proud happy.
Yes, they that work wickedness are, they are
voted into office many times.
Thank God we've got some good Christians in
some of the areas of government.
I think that it is the duty of
every Christian to really know the position of
a candidate on spiritual things.
I really feel that that's our obligation, that
we really can't complain about bad government if
we are not exercising our privilege of voting
and if we are not using diligence in
determining those that we vote for.
And when Dr. Peterson runs for the school
superintendent of Orange County, you should know that
he is a beautiful born-again brother in
Jesus Christ.
And you should think about that when you
vote.
It's illegal for me to try to persuade
you to vote for a particular candidate.
And I wouldn't think of doing that.
But don't forget the name Dr. Peterson.
He happens to be the incumbent.
But find out about the candidates.
Find out about their position.
God help us.
It would be glorious if we had all
spiritual men serving in the cabinet of the
president, serving in the legislatures, the offices of
legislature.
Of course, then we probably wouldn't be so
anxious for the Lord to come.
Then they that feared the Lord spake often
one to another.
The Bible says the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom.
The Bible says that to fear the Lord
is to hate iniquity or is to depart
from iniquity.
The fear of the Lord is not a
phobia type of fear that debilitates a person.
The fear of the Lord isn't even a
healthy, cautionary type of fear that is so
important for our survival.
But the fear of the Lord is a
reverential awe as we stand in the presence
of his greatness, of his glory, of his
majesty and of his power.
And we think of the greatness of the
God who created this vast universe.
We think of the wisdom of God who
created all of the life forms and we
just sort of stand in awe of that
greatness and power and wisdom.
That's what the fear of the Lord is.
And they that feared the Lord spake often
one to another about the Lord.
Always talking about the Lord.
Isn't it glorious to be around people who
want to talk about the Lord all the
time?
You know, whenever you get around them, the
conversation of the Lord comes up and they
say, oh, you know, the Lord is so
good.
Oh, let me tell you what the Lord
has done.
Let me tell you what the Lord did
for me today.
You know, I'm just so full of the
Lord.
They speak often one to another about him.
And as they speak about the Lord, the
Lord hearkens unto them and hears it.
The Lord eavesdrops on every conversation concerning him.
Isn't that neat?
God just loves you to talk about him.
We used to sing a chorus.
Let's talk about Jesus.
The king of kings is he.
The great I am the way, the truth,
the life, the Lord.
And it's just a what better conversational piece
can you have than the Lord?
Isn't it interesting how the world says, well,
you know, you want to open a conversation,
just start talking about the weather.
Well, it's sort of a, you know, well,
the sun did come out today, didn't it?
I wondered if it was going to come
out.
Typical May weather, you know, and, you know,
talk about the weather.
Well, the weather is such a changeable thing,
you know, and yet, isn't it sad that
people have nothing better to talk about some
of them than the weather.
Now, there are people who all have their
favorite subjects and they can be a total
dud until you get on their subject.
And then they come alive.
They become animated.
Now you're in their field.
Oh, now they'll really expound.
But you bring up the subject of the
Lord and things go strangely quiet.
What happened?
You know, but they that fear the Lord
speak often concerning him one to another.
The Lord hearkens, he hears, and he's keeping
a book of remembrance for them who feared
the Lord and thought upon his name.
Names in the Hebrew culture were all meaningful.
They didn't just choose the name out of
the dictionary for their children, but they chose
a name that meant something.
Now, our name still means something.
You can look up in a dictionary and
find out what your name means.
But your parents, as a general rule, weren't
thinking of the meaning of the name when
they named you that.
But when they were in school, they had
a friend by that name and they liked
that friend very well.
And so that name always has been a
good name to them.
And there are some names, you know, you
knew some dummy in first grade who couldn't
read and his name was this.
And so it sort of stained you on
that name.
You just never did like that name, you
know, because it always reminded you.
And so it's interesting how we don't think
of names as far as significant in their
meanings, or else we would probably be naming
our children different names than what we do.
You know, recalling our children Beautiful Sunshine or
something, you know, or things that mean something
to us.
But a little kid go to school in
first grade and teaches and what's your name?
Beautiful Sunshine Smith.
And so it just isn't appropriate in our
culture.
But in those days, names were significant and
the name of the Lord is extremely significant.
And so much in the Psalms and in
the Proverbs, you find the references to the
name of the Lord.
The name of the Lord is great and
so much concerning the name of the Lord
and the awe and the reverence that a
person should have concerning the name of the
Lord.
And the name of the Lord is actually
a Hebrew active verb.
The name Yahweh means the becoming one.
And so God has expressed his nature in
his name.
And God is expressed in his name, his
desire for it is his desire to become
to you whatever your need may be.
So the name of Yahweh was often compounded
with other Hebrew words.
And so you have the Yahweh Rafa, the
Lord has become our healer.
Yahweh Shalom, the Lord has become our peace.
Yahweh Yaira, the Lord will provide.
Yahweh Tesigkenu, the name of Jesus in the
Kingdom Age.
It won't be Yeshua, then it will be
more difficult for you.
Yahtesigkenu, which means the Lord has become our
righteousness.
And he is, he is our righteousness for
us who trust in him.
But the name was significant.
The name of the Lord or the name
Yahweh is a strong tower, the Book of
Proverbs says.
The righteous runneth into it and is safe.
Have you ever run into the name of
the Lord, just sort of closed yourself around
with it, oh Jesus, Lord Jesus, you know,
and you just sort of have fled to
the refuge of the name.
In danger, in peril, you've fled into the
name of Jesus, oh Jesus, and you feel
that warmth and that protection and that comfort
and that assurance of the name of Jesus.
The name Yahweh, Yeshua, is a strong tower,
the righteous runneth into it and is safe.
And so they who thought upon his name,
they who reverence the Lord and thought upon
his name, God keeps this book of remembrance.
Their names are written in the book of
life, in his book of remembrances.
And the Lord said, they shall be mine.
I get so excited when I think of
God speaking about me in the personal possessive
pronoun.
When God speaks of me as my son,
my child, my servant, oh how I love
God to speak about me with the personal
possessive pronoun, I belong to him, I'm his.
They shall be mine, the Lord says.
And in that day when I make up
my jewels, you are his treasure.
Peter said, for we are his peculiar treasure.
The Lord speaks of you as a treasure
that was hid in the field, that he
bought the whole field, that he might take
the treasure out of it.
Paul in writing to the Ephesians prayed that
God might open up their understanding, that they
might know what is the exceeding riches of
his inheritance in the saints.
Now in another place he says, oh I
wish you knew what God has in store
for you, the riches and the glory of
God's kingdom.
But then he is praying, oh God help
them to understand the riches of his inheritance.
In other words, God help you to understand
how much God values you.
We're so often putting ourselves down.
Oh I'm not worthy, oh I'm nothing, oh
I get so miserable.
And we're often times putting ourselves down and
God looks upon you as a valuable gem,
as a treasure.
And in those days when I make up
my jewels, the Lord said, and he treasures
you and he values you so highly that
he was willing to send his only begotten
son to take your sin and to die
in your place that he might redeem this
world in order that he might claim you
as my child.
All possible because Jesus paid the price of
the redemption for the world that you might
be saved.
They shall be mine, saith the Lord the
host in that day when I make up
my jewels.
And I will spare them as a man
spares his own son that serves him.
So the Lord has promised to spare us
from what and when?
The Lord will spare us when his day
of judgment comes.
Chapter 4 verse 1, for behold the day
comes that shall burn as an oven and
all of the proud, yes and all that
do wickedly shall be the stubble.
And the day that shall come shall burn
them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that
it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
The great day of God's judgment that is
coming.
But those who fear the Lord, those who
think upon his name, those who talk of
the Lord, they will be his, his jewels
written in his book of remembrance spared from
the day of judgment that is coming to
destroy the wicked.
Now wickedness is contrasted with the lack of
the fear of the Lord or is associated
with a lack of the fear of the
Lord and is contrasted with those that fear
the Lord.
So in verse 2, but unto you that
fear my name or reverence my name, shall
the Son of righteousness arise with healing in
his wings and you shall go forth and
grow up as calves of the stall.
So the glorious promise of the coming of
Jesus Christ, the Son of righteousness with healing
in his wings to establish God's glorious kingdom
upon the earth.
And you will tread down the wicked for
they shall be ashes under the soles of
your feet in the day that I shall
do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant,
which I commanded unto him in Horeb for
all of Israel with the statutes and judgments.
Behold, I will send Elijah the prophet before
the coming of the great and awesome day
of the Lord, and he shall turn the
heart of the fathers to the children and
the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with
a curse.
So the promise of the coming again of
Elijah before the great and notable day of
the Lord that causes me to be convinced
that in Revelation chapter 11, as God sends
his two witnesses to witness for a period
of time here upon the earth, while the
antichrist is in power, that one of the
two witnesses will indeed be Elijah.
Behold, I will send Elijah.
Now John the Baptist was not Elijah.
They came out and said, are you Elijah?
Nope.
Who are you?
I'm the voice of one in the wilderness
crying, make straight the way of the Lord,
you know, but Jesus said of John the
Baptist.
Of all of the women born of men,
there has not been a greater prophet arise
than John.
And yet he was least in the kingdom
of heaven is greater than he.
And this, if you're able to take it
is Elijah of whom the scripture spake a
partial fulfillment.
When Zachariah, his father was accosted by Gabriel,
the angel and told that his wife, Elizabeth
in her old age was to have a
son.
He said, and he shall go forth in
the spirit and in the power of Elijah
to turn the hearts of the children under
their fathers coming in the spirit and the
power of Elijah, a type of the actual
coming of Elijah before the second coming of
the Lord.
Now it is my own personal deep conviction
that somewhere on the earth today, Elijah is
alive.
I think we're that close to the coming
of the Lord.
And of course, who and where he might
be, I don't know, but I do.
I am personally convinced that he's alive somewhere
in the world today.
And, uh, I've had some people come and
tell me that they were Elijah and I
directed them back to Metro, but I do
believe that he is alive somewhere today.
Along with the other witness.
And, uh, I think that God is winding
things up.
And I think that we're just on the
border of, of seeing the culmination of things.
Things are happening in Israel.
Uh, Israel is still prepared to invade Lebanon.
They are waiting patiently for a provocation from
the PLO that they can use it as
an excuse.
They are presently have mobilized 40,000 troops
on the Lebanese border.
The army reserve is on an alert standby
basis right now.
And they're just waiting for the provocation of
the PLO to move on into Lebanon.
The Syrians have dug in, in Lebanon expecting
their attack.
And it no doubt will be a very
fierce battle.
And I believe that it will bring Russia's
involvement into the Middle East.
And, uh, of course that could surely bring
to pass, uh, the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38,
39.
So we're living in exciting days.
A lot of attention is on the Falklands,
but that's not where it's going to happen.
Uh, the real excitement will take place over
in the area of Israel.
And, uh, that's where you need to keep
watching.
Shall we stand?
May the Lord bless and keep you in
the love of Jesus Christ.
May you feed this week upon the word.
May the Lord just open up your hearts
to the understanding of his truth and cause
you to grow in grace and in knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
May he give you just a beautiful blessed
week walking in fellowship with him in Jesus
name.