Book of Malachi - Ch. 1, Vs. 11-14 (02/12/2023)

All righty, I guess we'll go ahead and get started here. Looking forward to seeing

Matt hobble in here in a second, assuming he's nice and sore from all of the festivities of the past few days.

First he was going on and on about all the yard work he did, and then it was the getting ready for the party, and of course they did a ton for that, so props there.

And then he decided to play some basketball. Blames all the yard work on his basketball performance.

Here they come now. How sore are you, Noah? Everybody's sore.

I didn't feel it until this morning. I didn't either, at least to, well, what

I felt yesterday went away, but new soreness this morning. How you feeling, Matt? Feeling good.

I'm very sore. He's like, I've taken 4 -Advil, and back to my normal self.

It's mainly in my lower back and my hips, you know. Wow. Welcome to old wellness.

Noah's not sore at all. That's what I realized. I'm out of shape. Wow. Noah's fine.

Got a special birthday boy in the house today. He's getting big.

He's getting big. He's getting big.

All righty. Well, good morning, everybody. We will jump right in this morning. We've spent the last, today will be the third week we've been parked on verse 11 of Malachi chapter 1.

And hopefully we'll get it done today. I'd like to get chapter 1 done today. We'll see what happens, though.

No promises. But we've been on verse 11.

And we ended last week. I'll go ahead and read verse 11 real quick. And then we'll just briefly review what we talked about last week so we can segue into where we're heading to start today off.

Verse 11 says, again, this is Malachi chapter 1. For from the rising of the sun even into 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. And so we've talked about, of course, at this point, the fact that this is an interesting verse, given where we find it here, because it's right on either side of the

Lord thoroughly rebuking the priests of this time who were, you know, that they were going about their priestly duties in the most, in the worst way possible, the most profane way possible.

We've already read up to this point, the defiled sacrifices they have been offering, their attitudes toward the

Lord, their questioning of his love for them, all of these things. And then you get to verse 11 and the

Lord sticks in this reality that the Gentiles are going to be worshiping me.

My name will be great among them. And we've we start the first thing we covered when we got to this verse was whether he was talking about the

Gentiles at that time in history or if this was a prophecy of, you know, when

Jesus came, his ministry began. He preached, of course, Pentecost takes place.

And then Paul and the apostles start preaching to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. And that extends all the way to the

Millennial Kingdom. And we concluded that it was, in fact, a prophecy. This was the

Lord talking about a time that was to come. He wasn't talking about right at that moment, but a time when the

Gentiles would be ushered in. And then the next thing we started talking about was we asked the question,

OK, that's true. Is this verse then, you know, just this great victorious verse for us

Gentiles? Because, you know, it's the it's a it's a prophecy of it's a prophecy of us getting to be a part of the

Lord's family. Or could we perhaps, given the context we find this in it, take it as a warning to ourselves as well?

In other words, the rebuke that the priests are currently currently experiencing themselves.

Does it does this imply that, you know, where we replace the priests that have failed and then, you know, life is is just perfect from that point forward?

Well, we started with looking at a couple of passages that actually, no, we went to it was a couple of passages.

They were both in Romans, though we first we looked at Romans 15, 16, where it talks about our offerings and our offerings as Gentiles at this very moment.

Of course, at the time, Paul was preaching and talking about the fact that the offering up of the

Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Of course, that happens to be the verse that we've been studying for quite a bit of time in our main sermons and the main sermon series that we've been on.

But then we looked at Romans 11 and we read how

Paul is talking about the reality that because of what the priests are doing in Malachi.

And of course, the people of Israel have had the people of Israel have done for centuries over a millennium leading up to this point led to the fact that they were actually broken off as branches from the main root.

Of course, the root being Jesus. So he's using this analogy. Paul is using this analogy where he talks about the fact that the natural branches were broken off in these wild olive branches were grafted in.

And he's talking about the Gentiles and all that's great. All that's cool. Much like verse 11, the reality of this prophecy that the

Gentiles will offer a pure offering in the name of the Lord. But as we again, this is a review of last week.

Paul then goes in to say, let's see which verse was it here.

Yeah. Okay. So in verse 18, he said, boast not against the branches, but if thou boast thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

That will say then the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. He's talking about from the

Gentiles perspective now. And then Paul says, well, because of unbelief, they were broken off.

Talking about the Israelites, about the natural branches. And now stand is by faith, be not high minded, but fear.

And so Paul is essentially giving the Gentiles here a warning that what happened to the natural branches could happen to you as well.

And from the human viewpoint, that's obviously true. We talked about this last week. If you are going to take on if you are going to profess the name of the

Lord, the Lord knows the hearts of every human. He knows who his kids are and who who aren't his kids.

But from our perspective, if you are professing the name of the Lord, you are held equally responsible as anybody else to keeping a testimony, a testimony that is appropriate for taking on his name.

I mean, if you're going to again, if you're going to call yourself a Christian, you need to live the way that he and the apostles command us to live throughout the

New Testament. All of the standards they give us, the imperatives they give us. Of course, if you are a part of a local church body, you need to represent that as well, because that local church body is representative of Christ's bride and of course, his children.

And so this is a warning that if you are not going to live, if you're going to take on the name of the

Lord, but not live right, look what happened to the natural branches.

And so that's where we left off last week was in that passage. Now, in terms of the branches being broke off, and again, you could read go read all of Romans chapter 11, which is where that whole passage is found.

And it's really, really fascinating stuff. Of course, the warning that Paul was given giving the

Gentiles there, you can kind of consider that a broad warning against the the collective

Gentiles that are in some form taking part in the worship of the Lord. Again, professing

Christians. Right. We know there are a lot of people that will profess to to be a follower of Jesus, but they're not really bearing the fruit right now.

Again, we don't know hearts. Jesus does, though. But he does tell us that you will know them by their fruit.

I don't think he would have told us that if we if some discernment, you know, wouldn't be appropriate.

And so what we can see all around us, there are professing Christians that are not living up to that.

They are not providing a testimony, the testimony that they should.

They're not living up to the standards that the apostles set before us. They commanded us to live by, again, the imperatives that we were given that we just recently finished studying in Romans 15.

And so, again, that passage in Romans 11 could kind of be a be looked at as a broad warning against any

Gentile, any group of Gentiles that's taken on the name of the Lord, but not not doing so in the appropriate way.

Much like the priests were. They still had the title. They were still they had they still had the job description. These priests in Malachi, they were still in charge of proper temple worship, leading all of the people in the way of the law, which, of course, is the dispensation they were living under at this time and in charge of the sacrifices and all these things.

They weren't doing any of it in what they were doing. They were doing far from the right way. In fact, in some cases, the exact opposite of the way they should have been, as they were told in Leviticus, which is all stuff we looked at a couple of weeks ago.

Now, what about a more specific warning, though? So you could take chapter 11 of Romans, think of that more broadly.

But what about specifically like to local churches? If you want to get even more micro with the fact that.

Just because we were graft in, just because in Malachi 111, it says that the

Gentiles will call upon the name of the Lord or I'm sorry, it says my name shall be great among the

Gentiles just because that is reality. It doesn't mean that we are within we are we are safe from this similar rebuke and trouble that the priests found themselves in from God.

In other words, we know that God treats his people differently throughout time. I mean, again, the priests here were under the

Mosaic law totally, whereas now we are under this age of grace.

We're on this side of the cross, so he treats his people differently. He obviously treated his people differently post

Garden of Eden than he did while they were in the Garden of Eden. He treats his people differently throughout time, but he never changes.

And so you've got to ask yourself the question, if the things the priests were doing here, going against his word, deliberately disobeying him, if that made him really upset, then you got to know that our deliberate disobedience of him now will yield a very similar, if not the exact same result.

So go to Romans chapter I'm sorry, Revelation chapter three for a second. Let's look at a very specific example of a local church that was thoroughly rebuked and was in big trouble for somewhat similar reasons that our priests in Malachi here are.

Again, they were priests, they had they had priestly duties. We are now in the New Testament, but the fundamentals of it are the same.

It's disobedience. It is not following what the Lord has put in place for us in the time we live in.

Revelation chapter three, starting verse 15. And unto the angel of the church of the

Laodiceans write, these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

I know thy works. So this is Jesus talking. He says, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.

I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm and because neither cold nor hot,

I will spew thee out of my mouth. Now, let me explain to you guys really quick kind of what

I think this, not what this passage means, but rather the type of people I believe this passage is describing.

I mean, it's pretty clear what it means. But what about the people here that's being described? And again, we're getting kind of this analogy of being lukewarm, neither hot nor cold.

Well, in my mind, right off the bat, we're given a spectrum, right? I know that I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.

So we're given two opposite ends of a spectrum, right? The cold, and I'll explain why, where I'm getting some of this stuff in a second.

The cold represents the side of the spectrum that I would say the atheist or the agnostic or just the unbeliever in general, someone who's not professing the name of the

Lord. In fact, getting as far from the name of the Lord as possible. The cold is the side of the spectrum that those people, in my opinion, occupy.

We can talk about this in a second. The hot would represent the most passionate, devoted follower of Jesus, is zealous in the best way possible a person could get in terms of being a follower of Jesus, in all circumstances, in my opinion.

So the question is, are those opposite ends of the spectrum? Could we say that that would be true?

At least those opposite ends? Well, the first part, let's look at the word cold for a second.

I don't know if I'll be able to pronounce these words at all. But the Greek word for cold in this chapter, I mean, in this verse, is sucrose,

I believe. And it's given two definitions. The first definition is the literal, which obviously it's exactly what it means in English, but it comes with a metaphorical definition as well.

And metaphorically, it means in mind of one totally destitute of warm Christian faith and the desire for holiness.

Someone that has absolutely no yearning for faith or holiness.

They're secular. They're totally secular. And again, this is why I believe that that end of the spectrum is where you could say maybe the atheists, the just unbelievers in general really occupy it.

They don't even care. Now, let me ask you this. Why on earth would God say, I would rather you be cold than lukewarm?

What makes perfect sense, if you think about it in these terms, because, of course, he would rather a person be be on that on that end of the spectrum.

Atheists never talk about him. Then they have a person that does profess his name but lives as badly as they do, because at least those people are not harming the testimony of the churches around them or the church.

They may be a part of or his name in general. OK, now, hot is the

Greek word zestos, I believe. And metaphorically, that means a fervor of mind and zeal.

But again, it's not zeal without knowledge. It's the good kind of it's it's the proper zeal, because,

I mean, just last week we're talking about Paul rebuking the Israelites at his time who were very zealous.

But it was zealous without knowledge. This is talking about I would I would say it implies zealous or zeal with knowledge.

So that's that's what hot means. But what about the center of that spectrum? There's the

Greek word for lukewarm, which is clear us, I believe, which metaphorically means of the condition of the soul wretchedly fluctuating between a torpor and a fervor of love.

In other words, a state of inactiveness in and let's say the worship of God in this context and in a state of having this fervor.

As one example that I believe we can draw from, we have these priests in Malachi that are reluctantly and flippantly, quote unquote, going through the motions of worship.

But even worse, they're doing so in a blatantly sinful way. In other words, or for example, they've been despising the

Lord's name. They've been offering polluted bread, offering defiled sacrifices. But they're still doing it all the same.

They're still going through some motions, perhaps for a love or a fervor of societal status rather than for the

Lord himself. I don't know the Greek word here. It says that being lukewarm is fluctuating between that wretched.

I'm sorry, wretchedly fluctuating between a torpor, which means that you're just in this state of inactive, let's say, worship in this context and a fervor of love.

But what is that love toward? Is it toward God or is it toward the love of the activity of the worship itself?

Because, I mean, we know being in the Bible belt, there's plenty of societal gain for being a professed follower of the

Lord, for being a churchgoer and all these things. I would assume that it was probably true here for the

Israelites, for these priests. They had a very important title, a very important status that they were operating within.

So perhaps they were fluctuating between that state of inactive worship and just what the motions they were going through, the parts of temple worship they were doing, even though it was, again, totally blasphemous.

Perhaps it was only for the love of that societal status. But another reason why

I believe that you could apply this lukewarmness, this idea, this Greek concept of lukewarmness to the priests in the

Malachi passage we're reading is because of the attention that God is giving them. Remember, the cold side of the spectrum is where the people that God is not giving much, if any, attention to are living.

The other side of the spectrum, of course, the hot, the most zealous, the most passionate people for God, that's like David.

That's like the prophet Malachi that's talking here. Those are the people that are constantly yearning for that relationship with the

Lord. But he, of course, is going to be giving his attention to that center of the spectrum as well. Why?

Because they are taking on the responsibility, the title, the duties that come with, in this case, being priests.

Or even if you want to look at it more broadly than that, because we're eventually going to get to just the Israelites in general, they are his people.

They would claim to be. He's giving them attention here. And it's because of the fact they are not hot.

They're not living up to his standards. And so that's where the rebuke is coming from. He's giving them attention.

After all, they are still his people. If they were cold, perhaps they'd be like the rest of the heathen at this point in history and get very little attention from God, if any at all.

The majority of the attention he was giving the heathen at this time is whether or not he's going to use them as a weapon to wipe out his kids when they were disobeying.

And then to use someone else to wipe them out for wiping his kids out. And so he wasn't going to be giving the heathen at this time much attention at all, or, if you want to put it in these terms, the cold end of the spectrum.

But he's given a lot of attention to his lukewarm people at this point in history. And on the contrary, in terms of the fact that he was not ignoring them at this time, as he was the heathen, perhaps, on the contrary, he's given them a very similar message that he gave the

Laodicean church. Because like the Laodiceans, they weren't ignorant of his statutes.

This is a legitimate church we're talking about here. They're very aware of the way they should have been living.

And yet they weren't intentionally. They were very, the priests were very aware.

They were not ignorant of his statutes, like the heathen were. Okay, so think about the cold end of the spectrum again for a second.

The heathen were ignorant of his statutes and therefore they were destitute of faith and having a desire for holiness, which was the

Greek word for cold. That's the heathen. That was not the priests at this time.

They were very aware of these statutes, these laws that they needed to be living up to. But neither were they zealous toward him as they should have been.

So the priests this time were not hot either. And what does that lead to? Well, it leads to them, as we will read in just a minute.

Actually, did we already read it? Yeah, in verse 16 of that revelation passage we were saying.

So because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.

That's what lukewarmness leads to. You literally make him sick. You make the

Lord want to vomit because of the state of living that you are currently in.

That's where the priests were heading here. And of course, the Lord is making that abundantly clear to them. Now, of course, the message to Laodicea, that is directly applicable to us as Gentiles in this age because he was talking to a lukewarm

Christian local church. The main reason we're here is because we're reading

Malachi. But the question is, could this be applied to us? And I believe it could, even as Gentiles.

Even though verse 11 of Malachi 1 is awesome, and it's because of that that we even get to be coming to church right now, it doesn't mean that we get to live our lives with impunity.

We could very easily get the same rebuke. And the Laodicean church is giving us an example of what could happen to us from the human viewpoint if we start living our lives like this.

Let's continue in that revelation passage for a second. Pick it up in verse 17. Because thou sayest,

I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

This was a legitimate Christian, sorry, church age

Christian church. And this is how the Lord is describing him. I mean, this is Jesus talking here.

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.

And anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love,

I rebuke and chasten. And that's a very important thing there. It might make us not feel great, just like little kids getting in trouble with their parents.

But what is the purpose of the discipline? It's so they aren't on the path of destruction later in life.

And so Jesus is saying, I do the same thing with as many as I love. I will rebuke and chasten if you start veering off of the path of righteousness.

He says, be zealous, therefore, and repent. And remember, the Greek word for hot metaphorically means to be as zealous in the right kind of way as possible.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Go figure that this passage is found in this context.

If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me.

Dad has been talking about this verse quite a bit lately as well. It's found smack dab in the middle of the context talking about Christian churches, churchgoers, those professing the name of the

Lord. If you do start veering off the path of righteousness as one of my own, I'm going to be sitting there knocking on the door constantly.

We talked about this not that long ago in the topical relationship with our

Lord. The ball is constantly in our court in terms of our relationship with the Lord. He's right there.

We were created to have a relationship with him. He's right there ready to have it at any given point. But we're constantly getting distracted and filling our time and our minds with every other thing imaginable aside from him.

And in those moments, we are not in relationship with him. We are not having a very good relationship with him.

However, that doesn't mean he's not there. He's right there waiting for us to turn back to him at any given second, and that's what he's talking about in verse 20.

I'm literally at the door knocking. All you got to do is open it, and our relationship is now restored, and you are back on the path of righteousness once again.

Verse 21 says, To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my

Father in his throne. So he's laying out the magnificent position we get to be in when we turn back to him.

He that hath an ear, let him hear, with the Spirit safe into the churches. So while God gives the priests a prophecy of the

Gentiles offering a pure offering unto him, that doesn't mean that we, as the

Gentiles that he's speaking of, per Romans 15 -16 that we read earlier, are safe, so to speak, from the same fate as the priests from the human viewpoint.

So that's obviously an important thing to throw in at the end there because, again, I believe that Paul was talking from the human viewpoint as well when he was talking about the branches being broke off and the

Gentiles being grafted in, and then you better be careful or he'll break you off and graft the natural branches back in.

I believe he's talking about our responsibility as human beings. Of course, it is totally surrounded by the sovereignty of God on either side of that whole chapter, but our responsibility is still right there in parallel, and he's saying if you're not living right and if you are not going to be living up to the testimony that you are saying you want to represent and the imperatives that have been laid before you, you'll be broken off just like the natural branches were broken off, and I'll graft the natural branches right back in.

It's not talking about losing our salvation. Again, this is from the human viewpoint. These are people that are saying that they are a follower of Jesus and then totally defiling the testimony along the way.

That is not a good place to be in. That's what the priests were doing. The Gentiles are not safe from the very similar rebuke themselves.

Did you have a question, Matt? Yeah, if it's okay. Yeah, go ahead. I know you always will ask. Go ahead.

I find verse 17 really interesting because it's kind of further explaining why

God spews them out. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched.

That reminds me of what Dale talks about in, I think, what is it? Is it John 1, 9? 1

John? Yeah, 1 John 1, 9. That's the one where if you agree, basically, if you agree that you have sin or that you need the

Lord, he is just and right to forgive us. It's like there's a key difference in a group of people who maybe do a bunch of religious stuff, but they think that they're in a way self -righteous.

They don't need to constantly be working to be better. They think that they're wretched and that they need to walk in the

Spirit versus people who acknowledge that. I just thought that was cool how that verse right there is like because they know it's not that they're wretched.

It is weird. Again, for me, and the reason why I think it's important to distinguish that this is talking about the responsibility of these people that profess to be believers, whether they are a true child of the

Lord that have let their flesh overcome them and they are living as described in verse 17, you are miserable, wretched, poor, blind.

This is how you're acting spiritually. You've got to get your act together. Or even if it's talking about, let's just say, a goat, they're held equally responsible because they are under the authority of that local church, which, of course, is under the authority of the

Lord, which is why the Lord is rebuking them so soundly at this time because they were totally failing themselves as a church.

And I believe, I mean, it implies it was the whole church. So there are sheep in here and goats, but all of them are being rebuked.

But to your point, yes, Matt. I mean, like Dad says, confess means to just simply agree that what you just did is wrong.

He's saying, you know, do that and we'll move on. You guys have any other thoughts regarding all of the stuff that we just covered?

Well, let's go ahead and keep moving forward here. Let's go back to Malachi. We'll just pick it up in the second half of verse 11 one more time and then move from there.

My name shall be great among the Gentiles. It's true. It's an awesome reality.

And in every place incense shall be offered into my name in a pure offering. The first part of that verse,

I believe, could be applied to the first Advent, extended all the way through. When it says incense shall be offered into my name in a pure offering, we've literally been talking about how the incense is a picture of the spiritual offerings that we as believer priests can offer.

So, again, I believe this can apply to us at this very second, as well as extended out into the millennial kingdom in a pure offering.

For my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. Pretty awesome. Verse 12, but ye have profaned it.

Right back to the priests. But ye have profaned it, in that ye say the table of the

Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.

So he's kind of rehashing a little bit of what has already been talked about, I believe, somewhere between verses 6 and 8, where the priests were saying that the table of the

Lord, and that's talking about the altar of sacrifices, was contemptible to them.

So, after speaking of the pure offerings in the future by the Gentiles, Malachi refers once more to the immediate condition, coming right back to the kind of in real time historical context of when

Malachi was being written. He prophesies of the Gentiles, but now he's right back talking about the immediate condition of the priests at this time, and he tells them again that they are profaning

God's very name. Go figure that they're being rebuked so soundly at this time.

Verse 13 says, Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it? And ye have snuffed at it, saith the

Lord of hosts. I mean, talk about an attitude problem. They're sitting here, literally, woe is me, because of just how tough the job is here.

His priest, his table is contemptible, these sacrifices, they snuff at it, saith the

Lord of hosts. And ye brought that which was torn in the lame and the sick. So again, if he talks about something once, you know,

I mean, you know it's important, but if he brings it up again, God brings back the reality that they were offering these defiled sacrifices.

This is something important that they were missing big time. And the results of doing this as laid out in Leviticus, we looked at like three or four weeks ago at this point, was very severe, but they were totally ignoring it anyway.

So he brings it all up totally again. That which was torn, that which was lame and the sick.

Thus ye brought an offering. Should I accept of this? Should I accept this of your hand?

Saith the Lord. So he's rehashing quite a bit. He's asking them a second time. This is what you've given me.

Why on earth do you think I would accept this? And then, of course, if you backtrack a few verses, Malachi asks them, he says, would your governors accept this?

And of course, the answer is an easy no. So why would your heavenly father, why would your heavenly master accept this?

And so the Lord is saying, should I accept this of your name? Again, in verses eight, I'm sorry, in verses seven and eight, the actions of the priests were condemned.

But here, the tone kind of shifts from what they were doing to their attitudes as well.

Now their attitudes are being condemned, which really does take it a step further. Because now, let's say, hypothetically, which, of course, this wasn't true, but let's say, hypothetically, they were offering appropriate sacrifices.

And they were, you know, again, going through the motions, but at least by the, you know, framework laid out in the

Mosaic Law. Let's say at least they were doing that. Internally, though, in their hearts, it now shifts to their attitudes.

And what were their attitudes? What a weariness is this? And you snuff at it, sayeth the

Lord. So they had an attitude problem as well, which, of course, makes sense. I mean, if you have the actions, you had the bad actions, you got to know the first domino to fall was their attitudes.

If you guys remember in Obadiah, it was talking about the Edomites. It actually started with their attitudes first and then started talking about their evil actions against the people of the

Lord. So it was a very similar thing to kind of contrast it with that. The order was slightly different because God did hone in on their evil attitudes first, and that eventually led to the actions of the

Edomites basically killing God's people, taking the captives, giving them to the foreign nations that were coming in and attacking them and all that kind of stuff.

But the attitudes are just as important as the actions. It's where it starts. And so now it's shifted to their attitudes.

The priests' attitudes was one of contempt. They snuffed at the very practices that they should have upheld in its correct form in the first place.

Now, apparently, what's interesting is the priests apparently recognized that these practices were irregular, the way that they were conducting their practices, that is, because they themselves said that the

Lord's table is defiled and that its food, which is what bread means, is contemptible.

In verse 12, they are now pointing these things out. Malachi pointed them out earlier in verses 7 and 8.

Now the priests themselves are saying the table is contemptible and the food is defiled.

But they didn't care that this was a reality. They didn't care that they—so now we realize that they were aware of what they were doing not being correct.

They were just as aware of the law as they should have been, but they still didn't care. And that's where this attitude problem comes into verse 13, why it's so potent, because they had such an attitude problem that despite the fact that they knew the results of these actions and even these attitudes, they were doing it anyway.

They didn't care to go to the trouble to put everything back in order the way—the order that it should have been.

They—you know, being involved in the offering of the sacrifices at this point to them was just a burden.

And that's why they say, what a weariness is this? It was just—all of it was just a burden to them, and they just didn't care anymore.

Now if you guys remember in our introduction to this book—of course you don't remember, because it's like nine weeks ago at this point. But one of the things we talked about in the intro was the fact that the people collectively at this time, the

Israelites, but certainly the priests, they kind of had lost faith in all of it.

Everything that all of the prophets had said before leading up to this point in history, it's like they were just losing faith because it hadn't happened yet.

And so perhaps they just didn't care anymore because they literally thought none of it matters.

Like, we were promised all these things. We were promised a kingdom. We were promised a Messiah. Sure, we are now out of the hands of the

Babylonians, but now we're just under the hand of the Persians, and nothing is as it should have been.

From the human viewpoint, maybe they were rationalizing a little bit and using all of that as justification for not caring.

Of course, the question there is, does it matter? Like, is that justification? No. That's why it's called rationalizing.

I mean, they're taking something and trying to find the logical train of events to get to where, okay, well, actually we don't need to care about any of this anymore because all of those promises we were given, all of those prophecies we were given, they were all fake anyway.

Who knows what they were thinking? But it doesn't matter because in Deuteronomy, and we'll get back to Deuteronomy 28 eventually,

Deuteronomy lays out everything in such simple terms, the results of obeying the

Lord and the results of disobeying Him. As simple as that. And everything they are experiencing right now as a people is exactly what

God said way back when Moses was still alive would happen if they disobeyed

Him. So, again, they were rationalizing, but they didn't have an excuse. They had this bad attitude.

They knew what they should have been doing, but they didn't do it anyway. Turn to James 4 for a second. This is kind of an interesting thing.

I want to ask you guys, do you think, even though we're given this bit of information in the New Testament, do you think that this could be applied across all time?

I mean, we're given this clearly in James, but it's also kind of common sense as well.

And given the fact that every human is born with that conscience, and that the people, of course, have the statutes of the

Lord given to them by Moses all the way up to this point, could this not apply to them as well?

James 4, verse 16 says, But now ye rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil.

And this is the key here, verse 17. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Now, we're told that in James. Obviously, we are now responsible to live by that. If we know, we can't say good is evil and evil is good like the rest of the world says constantly.

The moment we do, we are sinning. And the further down that path we go, we may end up like these priests.

Or like the Laodicean church. But the question is, could not this be applied to people even prior to when this was given?

I don't know. I mean, what do you think about that, Dad? To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is a sin.

The priests knew what they were supposed to do, and they weren't doing it anyway. So, you know, there you go.

And again, they are the ones asking all these questions like, eventually we're going to get to more of God's kind of disciplinary action toward their attitudes and their actions at this time.

And they're going to be bewildered by it. But they shouldn't have been. Because they knew what to do.

They weren't doing it anyway. Therefore, they were sinning. The fact that the priests brought unacceptable animals was repeated in verse 13.

And God's refusal to accept them was repeated again. So, go figure. They're offering these defiled sacrifices.

The Lord isn't going to accept them at all. And then the last verse of chapter 1.

But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and this is a key that we're going to look at here to close off today's lesson, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the

Lord a corrupt thing. He's calling these guys deceivers now. It's really crazy stuff.

For I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.

He qualifies all of his rebuke by reminding them, that's not even the right term, not that he needs to qualify anything, he ends the chapter by reminding them just how big of a bad spot they're in.

Because my name is dreadful among the heathen. I am a great king, and this is how you're treating me.

And chapter 2 is going to begin and continue for several verses on how he is about to punish these guys.

It's super serious. But first of all, in verse 14, we're given the first glimpse of the reality that these priests and, of course, the rest of the people by extension, as we'll see more later, are cursed by God himself.

So one of the reasons why they were in this dreadful state themselves is they were going through a lot of turmoil at this time.

I mean, they had some economic problems. They were struggling to make ends meet, to put food on the table.

Of course, they're still under the rule of the Persians, and you have these Persian governors that are kind of bossing them around. All this kind of stuff, and they complain, and they whine, and they ask why all of this is the case.

Well, we're told later even more explicitly, although it's pretty explicit here, that God has already put a curse on them himself.

It's directly from his hand because of the disobedience they have been exhibiting. And this is the first taste of that we get.

It says, but cursed be the deceiver. So this is the first look that we get at this curse coming straight from God to these people.

But also we're seeing a really interesting concept that Malachi is bringing into the picture here because we've already seen how the sacrifices in general and how just the general worship as well was polluted by the priests, but now he is starting to speak of the reality that these priests are even making vows to the

Lord. He says, cursed be the deceiver that has a male in his flock and voweth and sacrifices unto the

Lord, but does so in a corrupt way. What are the results of a person that makes, and we'll end with this, we're almost done.

What are the results of a person that makes a vow, has the audacity to make a vow with the

Lord and then not keep it? Go ahead and turn to Deuteronomy 23, and we're going to end with this.

This will be the last place that you have to turn. But go to Deuteronomy 23, verse 21.

And again, what's going on here? Why are vows brought into it all of a sudden?

This is a new concept for at least the context we're reading in. Deuteronomy 23, 21.

When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it, for the

Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it would be a sin in thee.

But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin to thee. This is the weirdest part to me, because they weren't even required to make vows.

Yes, these priests were, they had responsibilities as priests. They were required to do the sacrifices to conduct proper temple worship.

There was nothing mandating a vow or any vows from them to the Lord. And it says, if you forbear to vow, it won't be a sin to thee.

But if you do make a vow, you better not slack to repay it. It's a severe sin.

So they're making vows, even though they weren't even mandated to do so, and still weren't keeping the vows.

Verse 23, that which is gone out of thy lips, thou shalt keep and perform even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the

Lord thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth. So making a vow, it's not mandatory per se, like the sacrifices were.

But if a vow was made, it had to be kept. And apparently the priests at this time were even making vows to the

Lord that they presumably never intended to keep. What is that all about? How bad of a state did these guys have to be in, where they were just like willy -nilly everything?

I mean, they weren't taking anything seriously. They're making promises that they weren't keeping, and again, presumably maybe didn't even intend to keep ever.

So where do we find ourselves here at the end of chapter 1? They dishonored their father and their master in verse 6 of chapter 1, their heavenly father and master,

I should specify, because they were honoring their earthly father and master. Malachi gave them that contrast and used, of course, that as an analogy.

You're doing it right over here, and you know that you should. So how much more should you be doing it right over here?

They were not honoring their heavenly father or their heavenly master in verse 6. They offered polluted bread upon the

Lord's table, which they found contemptible in verse 7. They offered defiled sacrifices in verse 8.

They were too burdened by their priestly duties to actually do them with care in verse 13. And now they broke any vow they actually made with the

Lord in verse 14. But even still, even with all of that, the end of chapter 1 brings the

Lord's greatness back into picture here, brings it to our attention one more time, before laying out, as we'll see in chapter 2, his disciplinary action toward these profane priests, again, at the beginning of chapter 2 and on for several verses before he moves on to the rest of the

Israelites. And so the priests, they really messed up.

I mean, in more ways than one, but in each way that they did, carried very severe punishment, as was laid out all throughout the books of Moses.

And so we're about to see what they are about to reap. You reap what you sow. And so we're going to take a look at how that plays out beginning in chapter 2, maybe a few weeks from now, because I would like for Dave to actually get back up here for once.

I didn't intend. At this point, I'm averaging eight weeks a chapter, which means we're going to be in Malachi for another 25 weeks if we're still on the same, if we keep to the same pace.

And so that wasn't intended necessarily. But Dave's going to get back to some Psalms for a few weeks.

But eventually we'll get to chapter 2 and take our sweet time going through that as well. Do you guys have any other thoughts or anything you'd like to share before we dismiss?

It's pretty crazy stuff. It's going to be pretty epic to see what the Lord does in the next chapter.

Kind of gives you chills when you think about the trouble that these guys are in.

But they find themselves in that based on their own choices, based on their own lack of care, their own irreverence.

And so, again, they're going to reap what they sowed. We'll take a look at that in a few weeks. I'll go ahead and pray and we'll be dismissed.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for this wonderful day. Thank you for bringing us all together once again and just allowing us to have this wonderful fellowship as a church family together to get to talk and learn more about you.

We ask you to continue to be with us throughout this day. Be with our main service here in just a bit and to just fill our hearts and minds with you, with your spirit, and that we have your mind throughout the day.

We edify each other and just are, again, refreshed and edified as we begin a new week.

we thank you. We love you. We ask all these things in your name. Amen. Amen.