Eight Questions — Charles E. Fuller

Christian Heritage Ministry, in cooperation with Fuller Seminary, proudly presents the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, a broadcast of the Gospel with Dr. Charles E. Fuller. Open your Bibles to the Book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament of the Bible, while we join the Old Fashioned Revival Hour just getting underway.

Everyone, as we sing through the first time, all right, television, so that the audience.

Can see all the smiling faces and the happy time of fellowship we're really having. But sing it once more and really lift it up now, all together.

He comes to reward his servants for the soul's pride, waiting, waiting, when the Lord shall come. In His glory they shall share. He shall come at the dawn or midnight. Will He find us watching there? And we say we are ready, brother, ready for the soul's pride, oh.

He's still watching, waiting, waiting, when the Lord shall come.

That when playing the little Old Fashioned organ that we had a lot of what-nots on it, but it isn't decorated up today. How many of you have ever had that type of organ in your home years ago? Let's see.

Well, that's a mighty fine representation. I remember so well Mother used to love to sing and every Sunday morning she would sing and play at the little old A .B. Chase organ. And one of her favorite numbers was, Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.

I think that we will stand at this time and have a congregational number, 127. Sing one verse and chorus of standing on the promises of Christ my King and remain standing for prayer. Remain standing for a few moments, please.

And now our son Dan will lead us to the throne of grace.

Our Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee for the privilege that we have of following Christ the Lord. We thank Thee that He who was rich for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich.

We thank Thee, O Father, that He who shared Thy glory in heaven above was willing to come down to this earth to become a servant in Thy, that we might reign with Him and share His glory. And we pray that as He is preached today all over the world, that there may be a great ingathering of souls.

We pray that as He is proclaimed from pulpits and from the radios and from the television sets today that many will come to know Christ. Father, we also would pray for the missionaries who are preaching Him under terrific hardships in the foreign fields today.

Give them special courage and special blessing. And Father, we pray that many all over the world will gather together to lift their voices on high to Thee and that there may be a great blessing that will result.

For we ask it in His name. Amen.

Christian soldiers marching as to war.

Gratitude for God’s Benefits and Sharing the Gospel

The psalmist of old asked this question, What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me? Perhaps you're asking this same question as you recall God's multiplied blessings to you over this past year.

Personally, I can think of no better way to show your appreciation for the blessings which you have enjoyed through these broadcasts than to write us this week and in taking a definite part in sending out the gospel of salvation to those who have not yet come to know the joy of redemption through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

May we hear from you this week, this broadcast, week after week, and Lord willing, the second Sunday in January of 1951, if he tarry and I'm still in the flesh, I'll be celebrating my 26th anniversary of gospel preaching over the air.

The Lord's been awfully good to me personally. I thank Him for keeping me in health and in strength. Well, your letter will help us so much. Of course, now don't tell anybody, but personally, I believe we have the best religious music on the air with Rudy at the piano, George Broadbent at the organ, Leland Green on the chorus and in the quartet with Bill McDougall and Jack Coleman and Ken Brown and Art Jasey.

If you agree with me, would you just give them a good hand? Well, that's all right. Fine. I just want to be sure we're in agreement. Honey, are you ready with the letters? Go right ahead, Mrs. Fuller.

Testimonies of Listeners Transformed by the Broadcast

We've had some wonderful letters this week. I won't be able to read all of them to you from Africa, from India and from South America and Brazil and a very good one from Gibraltar. We have many, many listeners on Gibraltar.

They say it just thrills our souls as we hear the old fashioned gospel and the beautiful old hymns. And some of us might think that our music would be a little too different in tempo and lilt for those used to the Church of England music.

But the letters ask for the words in music and they say they like it. Some of them say the songs we've never heard like them very much and they love to hear us sing Heavenly Sunshine. A man from the north of Scotland writes, if possible, let me have copies of your hymns complete with music.

I do love the new tunes that you have. We have never heard them before. Another says we are struck by your sincerity, Mr. Fuller, and the warmth and friendliness of your cheering program so spiritual and true to God's word and to think that spiritual warmth can be transmitted so far to stir our hearts and bring tears to our eyes as we so far away long with you for the Lord's return.

Isn't that sweet? And then a man wrote from Yorkshire in England. I can't read you all of his letters. Said, dear sir, thank you for your message broadcast last night from Radio Luxembourg. Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.

As you read these words, I followed them in my Bible and a sudden realization came to me that I was not all I should be. I was born into a Christian home and on several occasions I have knelt before the Almighty and asked forgiveness for my sins.

But always there seems to have been something missing. But thanks to God that through the medium of your broadcast coming so far, I knew what was wrong in my life and I knelt, gave Jesus Christ my all and he has come in in his fullness.

That's good, isn't it? I shall have to hurry on. From Rome, Georgia, a letter from a large hospital there. I'm a patient in the Battery State Hospital for Tuberculosis. Would like to say that God has been so wonderful to me since I've been here.

You have lots of listeners here at Battery and it's always such a blessing to our hearts to listen to you. Keep the music cheery, they say. And then from New York, I am a shut-in and have not been out of the house in nearly four years and am now confined to my room.

However, in listening to your messages over the radio I have accepted Jesus as my personal Savior and have found a peace which nothing on this earth can surpass. This last very brief letter is from a young sergeant in Korea.

Dear Reverend Fuller, I received some of your literature from my mother today and was greatly blessed by reading the wonderful poems and scripture verses. He speaks of the heart-to-heart talks. I've been here since the first American troops were engaged in battle serving with the 24th Infantry Division.

Many a time in those days back in July when the outlook was so dark I would take out my little testament and look to God for help. And He never failed me. He has seen me through thanks to the prayers of you kind people back home.

I wonder how many of us are praying faithfully every day for our men in the service. It is a great privilege and it is our responsibility. And that is all for today.

Thank you for the Gospel Broadcasting Association.

From the Municipal Auditorium at Long Beach, California. Charles E. Fuller speaking.

You're listening to the Old-Fashioned Revival Hour with Dr. Charles E. Fuller.

His message today is titled Eight Questions. I'll provide information after Dr. Fuller's message on how you can contact us for a copy of today's message or request a catalog of the Gospel music heard on the broadcast.

Now is the time to open your Bible to the Book of Malachi as we rejoin the broadcast.

Malachi and the Eight Questions of a Backslidden People

May we take our Bibles and open to Malachi. And with your Bibles open to the first chapter of Malachi it's mostly a message to believers today to feed you, to reprove you, to correct you and to instruct you in righteousness.

Well, there comes a time when we must not only do some planting but to do some watering. And for weeks we have been planting and now today I feel we should do some watering. The prophecy of Malachi sets forth the low spiritual level of God's people, covenant people, Israel.

And the religious revival under Ezra, Nehemiah and Haggai had lost its momentum and God's people in Malachi's day were in a sad backslidden condition. The inroad of a hypercritical spirit was abroad in the land.

They were tearing one another to pieces. Unjust criticism of the brethren. A worldly spirit was predominant. Impurity was evident on all sides. Sinful marriages were the order of the day that is free and easy and frequent divorces were entered into, were popular.

And alliances with the heathen women were noted. And in reference to tithes and offerings a selfish, close-fisted spirit pervaded. And lastly, a lack of reverence for sacred things abounded. And with these low spiritual conditions prevailing, God's people began to question everything and anything.

The spirit of murmuring and complaining was very evident. And Malachi, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sets forth eight questions. These eight questions revealing the low spiritual level prevalent in his day.

And each of these eight questions are introduced by these words, Ye say, ye say. For example, notice the second verse of chapter one. I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved it?

And then notice verse six, especially the latter part of it. A son honors his father and his servant his master. If then I be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is my reverence or fear, saith the Lord, of hosts unto you?

O priest that despised my name, and ye say, wherein have we despised thy name? Chapter two, verse fourteen. Notice these words. Yet ye say, wherefore? Because the Lord has been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth on the divorce problem.

And then in the seventeenth verse of chapter two, just giving you a few of these. Ye have wearied the Lord with your word, yet ye say. Just giving you a little key that unlocks this marvelous minor prophet Malachi.

Eight times these two words occur. And in each occurrence, introducing a question. And each question setting forth the low spiritual condition which needed to be reproved and corrected. Now time will not permit me today to review all of the eight of these questions.

And so we'll begin with the second and proceed as far as the balance of the hour will permit. Chapter one, verse six. The second question. Will you notice it please? Ye say, wherein have we despised thy name?

Honoring God’s Name and Heeding His Rebuke

The word despised means to disdain, to hold in scorn or ridicule. And here in chapter one, verse six to chapter 217, we find a strong message of rebuke and exhortation and a great call to repentance. And the sum and substance of this rebuke is that the priests, the spiritual leaders of that day, and the people, the covenant people of Malachi's day, despised God's name by agreeing that anything except the best was good enough for God.

And I trust that these words, if you are living on a low level spiritually and are saying anything but the best for God, may correct you, reprove you, and bring you back to a place of close fellowship with God.

Bear in mind the lesson for us in these days in which we are now living is as follows. Remember, Peter speaks of it or in the New Testament that every believer is a king and a priest. That is, each member, each born-again child of God is a priest in God's sight, thus a spiritual leader.

And the rebuke set forth here under this second question should be heeded by all who profess the name of Christ, not just to the spiritual leaders, the priests of Malachi's day. 1 Peter 4, 17 says as follows,.

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if a revival is to sweep the land of America, judgment must begin at the house of God. And so here in Malachi 1, 6 to 2, 17, the Lord charges the people with a lack of reverence and honor.

That is, they fail to give God preeminence in all their ways. For note verse 6,. A son honors his father in the natural, and in the natural a servant his master. Notice the condition. If then I be a father, the Lord says, where is mine honor?

And if I be a master, where is my reverence of fear? O priests that despise my name! And ye say, wherein have we despised thy name? Oh, listen! In Luke 6, verse 46,. Why call ye me Lord, saith Christ, and do not the things which I say?

For not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven, many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out demons, in thy name done wonderful works?

Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Despising God's name, not from a true heart of obedience is what he is driving at. And the people of Malachi, they did not hold the name of the Lord above every name.

They had a form and outward show of godliness, but no power. They had a name to be alive, but they were dead as far as works of righteousness were concerned. And then notice verse 7. The priest, that is, the spiritual leader, and remember, we are priests, offered polluted, desecrated bread upon God's altar.

The Tabernacle Pattern: Atonement, Cleansing, and Fellowship

Now this is where we need to have a little teaching. And the question comes back, wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, the table of the Lord is contemptible. Again in verse 12. But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, the table of the Lord is polluted.

As a fruit thereof, even his meat is contemptible. Let me give you a little teaching as I go along. Here is a background. The priests of Old Testament days went daily into the tabernacle or into the temple, as the case might be.

First they came to the brazen altar, upon which a spotless lamb without blemish had been sacrificed and was burning, a continual offering upon the brazen altar, teaching us that first we must be reconciled to God through the death of His Son.

That Christ died for our sin. And there is no approach under the heavenly Father, the Holy Sinless One, except through the sinless substitute who died in your place and stayed. Then they went to the laver, where they washed their hands and their feet with the pure water.

For bear in mind, the psalmist asked this question, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hand and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul under vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

And before the priest went into the holy place of the temple, he cleansed his hands and his feet at the laver. And the laver, in God's Word, is a type of the Word of God. For ye are clean through the Word if you are obedient to the Word.

The washing of the Word. And in the holy place now, when the priest went behind the veil, he found the table of showbread, the seven-stemmed candlestick, and the altar of incense. And so the priest, after passing the brazen alt in the laver, went into the holy place daily, not only to trim the wicks in the candlestick, not only to offer up prayers at the altar of incense, but to place twelve loaves of unleavened bread upon the table of showbread.

The Showbread as a Picture of Christ’s Pierced Body

Now here is how they have polluted the table and hold it in contempt and in disdain. God gave very explicit instructions to Moses in the making of the twelve loaves of unleavened bread. For Moses had been commanded to set upon the table that is showbread, literally bread of faces, denoting the divine presence in which the bread stood, he was commanded that this bread was to be free from any leaven, praise the Lord.

And it was placed upon the table, and then the priest would take a sharp instrument and pierce the top of each of the twelve loaves, setting forth this fact in type that Christ, the bread of life, when He hung upon Calvary's cross, His hands and His feet and His side were pierced, dying in the sinner's place and stead pierced for you and me.

But now in Malachi's day, the priest polluted the table of showbread. They were not careful to make the bread first leaven-free. And perhaps, although I have no record of it, perhaps they were negligent in piercing the bread.

Does not Peter say that in the last days false teachers shall come forth, scoffers, and they will deny the Lord that bought them? They will leave out the piercing of the bread of life, leave out the means, the basic means of reconciliation, which is the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the priests of old in Malachi's day were negligent, holding the table of showbread in contempt because they allowed leaven to creep in. And not only that, but if my mind is trying to be in tune with that of the Holy Spirit, I believe they forgot to pierce the twelve loaves on the table of showbread.

The Lord’s Supper and Preparation Through Confession

And the application for our day is as follows. In the New Testament we have the Lord's table or the Lord's supper. And we have the elements, the cup, the emblem of Christ's shed blood. And as we drink or partake, listen, we do show forth or proclaim the Lord's death calvary till He comes, the second coming of Christ.

And you and I, may I put it this way, are in between the two ends of the cross arm of the cross, the death of Christ and His second coming. And if I read my Bible all right, I believe we are almost at the point of the end of the arm, the second coming of Christ.

Then there is the bread which we are commanded to take and eat. And that bread sets forth in figure Christ's body, which is broken for us. But wait, before we come to the Lord's supper and to the Lord's table, we are commanded.

Now notice, you must come by the way of the brazen altar of the cross and confess your sin. You must come by the way of the labor and have your hands and feet, spiritually speaking, cleansed as you walk this wilderness journey.

And as you come to the table, you are to purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that we may be a new lump, unleavened. And so we are to keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

That is, as we come to the table, we come with true confession of sin, clean hands and a pure heart, putting away all known leaven and sin and unrighteousness, not polluting the table or the name of the Lord.

And God's provision in closing is this. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. For if we walk in the light, the light of the candlestick, the only light in the holy place, typical of God's Word, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.

And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. We are to come to the table with a forgiving spirit, forgiving one another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. To be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forbearing one another, not critical as they were in the days of Malachi.

And if any man have a quarrel against any, forgive even as Christ forgave you, not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrarywise, blessing, knowing that ye are there unto call. For take heed to yourselves, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him.

And if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in one day, and seven times in a day he turn again to thee, say, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. I wonder how obedient we are to those words.

Forgiveness, Hypocrisy, and True Spiritual Cleansing

I wish I had more time. Some time ago I visited a home. The lady of the house said, I just wonder why my prayers aren't answered. After talking a little while, she said, oh, that neighbor of mine, how I hate her.

If I could just get ahold of her, I'd give her a piece of my mind. I said, sister, listen here, that's the reason why your prayers aren't answered. You do not have a forgiving spirit. And in Malachi's day, they were given to a hypercritical state, criticizing continually instead of forgiving.

And some of the sharpest, cruelest criticism comes from God's people and how we need to be kind and tenderhearted in forgiving one another. Furthermore, we are to purge out the leaven of the Pharisees, away with hypocrisy, formalism, ritualism, back to the brazen altar, the cross of Christ and to the labor and to the word and coming to the Lord's table, not polluting the table.

For if we drink of the cup and eat of the bread unworthily, that is not in truth, not in sincerity, we eat and drink condemnation or judgment to ourselves. May the word of God wash you, reprove you, correct you, instruct you, and may you come back to a place of confession of sin and walk in the light as he is in the light.

Have fellowship and know that the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses from all sin. Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Only a minute.

Invitation to Receive Christ and Continue in Prayer

Out in Radioland, I'm beseeching those outside of Christ to give your heart to him today, will you? God bless you wherever you are. And in this fine public audience here today in Long Beach, how many will quickly put their hand up and say, pray for me.

God bless you, sailor boy. God bless you over there. God bless you. Anyone else, God bless you. Say, I want to accept Christ as my personal Savior and be remembered in a prayer. I'll have to close. But anyone else, put up his or her hand just before we close.

Up in the balconies, wherever you may be. Yes, God bless you. Up in the balconies to my right. Anyone up there? I'll have to close. This is Charles E. Fuller bidding you goodbye and God's richest blessing upon you.

Continue in prayer.