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, but here they come now.

How sore are you, Noah?

Pretty sore.

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 are you feeling, Matt?

Feeling good.

I'm very sore.

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

Wow.

Noah's not sore at all, that's what I realized.

Wow.

Noah's fine.

Got a special birthday boy in the house today.

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 I'll 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

going about their priestly duties in the

worst way possible, the most profane way possible.

We've already read up to this point the defiled sacrifices they've 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 worshipping Him.

My name will be great among them.

And 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, okay, if that's true, is

this verse then, you know, just this great, victorious verse for us

Gentiles, because, you know, 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, take it as a warning to ourselves as well?

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

themselves, does this imply that, you know, we

replace the priests that have failed, and then, you know, life is just

perfect from that point forward?

Well, we started with looking at a couple of passages that

actually, no, we went to, you know, it was a couple passages.

They were both in Romans, though.

First, we looked at Romans 15, 16, where it talks about 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, 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 done for

centuries over a millennium leading up to this point, led to the fact that

they were actually broken off as the 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, and 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 were, 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, talking about the natural branches.

And thou standest 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 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 in.

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 have 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 graphed 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 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 is 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 to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, right?

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 weren't 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 is 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.

It 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 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.

This Greek word in metaphorically, it means in mind of one totally

destitute of warm Christian faith in 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?

Well, it makes perfect sense if you think about it in these terms, because, of course, he would rather a person

be on that end of the spectrum.

Atheists never talk about him than to 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?

OK, there's the Greek word for lukewarm, which is

klearos, 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.

OK, is 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.

I mean, 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 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 priest 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 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 in 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've 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 unto 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 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 David talks about in, I think, what is it?

Is it John 1 .9?

1 John?

Yeah, 1 John 1 .9, right?

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.

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.

And it is weird, like, 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 are just, have let their flesh overcome them,

and they are living as described in verse 17, wretched, or yeah, 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, you know, as 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 and 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 in my name and 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 to the millennial kingdom and

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, in verses

somewhere between verses six and eight, where the priests were saying that the table of the Lord and that's talking about the

offering.

I'm sorry, 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 talks, 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, you know, 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, he in Malachi asked 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 chapter 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 chapter 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, because it's also, 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 chapter 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 chapter 23, and we're going to end with this.

This will be the last place that you have to turn.

But go to Deuteronomy chapter 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, 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 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.

And we thank you.

We love you.

We ask all these things in your name.

Amen.