INTRODUCTION OF MALACHI

of acceptance here above.

We'll sing to the love of this journey.

Voice with the happy and weep with those who mourn.

His peace, his command to prefer one.

Forgive as he forgives when we live as one.

We all share in his love. Has come and goes in the front.

What a great reminder this morning as we come together as his people, right? God doesn't dwell in a temple any longer.

God doesn't dwell on a mountain any longer. God dwells in his people. The people of God being built up each individual saint as the dwelling of the

Holy Spirit. And we're all parts of the building being built. This grand temple, the body of Christ, amen?

Well, go ahead, you can be seated. We just wanna say welcome. Thank you for being here.

You know, 12 .5 Church, I don't always bring it up, but I wanna remind you, well, where's the name come from?

12 .5 comes from Romans 12 .5. So we, us, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members, one of another.

And that's what we just sang about, preferring one another and living out the one another's, living out life together.

And it is great to come and be in the house of the Lord today. We're grateful that you're here.

If you're a guest, thank you for joining us this morning. We pray that you and covenant members alike would grow in the fear and knowledge of the

Lord this morning. I just have one announcement today. One announcement is that we have our new member class coming up.

It's actually starting this Wednesday. If you wanna know what it means to be a part of a covenant body of believers, a place here at 12 .5

Church with this people, this is a good chance for you to get to know what it is that we believe, what do we do?

What does it mean to be a part of this covenant body? And we're changing up the game a little bit. Most of you know that it's typically four weeks and we've been announcing it as four weeks.

But the thing that we found is we need a little bit more time with everybody. So we, as the elders, decided that we're going to extend it to six weeks now.

And so as you can see, I'm going to be leading in an introduction this Wednesday. If you wanna come be a part of this, come hear about what it means, where we've come from, where we're going, it's kind of a screenshot of right now at the church.

And then Pastor Jeremiah will walk you the next week through our statement of faith, answering any questions theologically, maybe some of the distinctions that make us stand out theologically, biblically.

And then the next two weeks, the 23rd and 30th, Pastor Keith will walk through the church structure and the bylaws with you.

And then finally, for two more weeks, you get me again. And there on November 6th and 13th, we will be going through the membership covenants together.

If you've ever, for those of you that are members that have been through it, some of you remember a long time ago and we did all of that in one day.

And it was like a three hour drink from a fire hose. And then we extended it to four weeks. And then

I would have to go through the membership covenants, all of them word for word in one hour. It still felt like a lot.

So now we get to spread that out a little bit. So hopefully that'll resonate with people, but we would love for you to come.

Members, if you've got somebody that's like, hey, what is 12 .5 church about? This would be a great opportunity.

Wednesday, starting this Wednesday at 6 .30, we will be meeting here at the building. So that's all

I have as far as announcements this morning. So before we start our worship, before we go to a call to worship and begin, we always pray for another local church, right?

Well, this morning, Oak Grove Baptist. It is a small reformed

Baptist church that we only know about because of Pastor Keith. They go on this trip there to this,

I think it's in Oak Grove, Arkansas, and they do this whole event on the weekends and he got to meet this pastor. Well, it turns out

Pastor Keith gets to preach there this morning. So we wanna pray for that congregation, pray for Pastor Keith as he's there, as he gets to teach them the truth.

I think he's preaching from Psalm 2 this morning with them. So let's bow, let's pray for Oak Grove Baptist and Pastor Keith there this morning.

Well, dear Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for bringing us together this morning and allowing us to worship you.

But before we come into your throne room, as your people, we just want to bow before you and ask that you would be with the saints at Oak Grove Baptist.

Lord, we pray that you'd be with their pastor, that you would continue to give him grace and wisdom.

And Lord, we pray that you'd raise up more leaders there, elders that can be co -laborers with him.

Lord, that you would incite in the hearts of the saints there an overwhelming sense of your glory.

Father, that you would bring about great revival in their hearts and in that community there. Lord, we specifically pray for Pastor Keith this morning as he gets to be there and bless them by proclaiming, thus saith the

Lord. And we pray that you would give him boldness, clarity of thought, and that he could edify and encourage those saints there.

Help them to know the love that we have for them. Father, we lift them up to you and we are grateful for them in Christ's name.

And all God's people said, amen. Well, saints, you ready to worship?

Oh man, you're really excited for it this morning, aren't you? Guys, hold on, just say,

I know it's hard on Sunday mornings. You know, we get up, we have our coffee, we maybe get a pastry, have a donut or something.

We kinda come in and it's gonna take about 20, 30 minutes to really wake up and get into the spirit of the day.

But guys, this is the greatest day of the week. This is the day that I look forward to all week long.

This is the Lord's day. It's the first day of the week and we get to come into the presence of our

Father together. That is something to be excited about, saints. And if you are excited, what's in here is gonna come out here.

So make no mistake, if you're dull this morning, if you're feeling emotionally detached from all of this, then something's going on here,

I promise you. You can't just make the excuse that you're tired. So before we go to a call to worship,

I want us to stop for a moment. We don't always do this. I want you to bow your heads. I want, I'm gonna give a moment of silence and I want each saint in this room to go before the

Lord right now and ask that he move in their heart and their mind, that we would be a people that would come in excitement into the glorious throne room of our

Father. Father, may our enthusiasm match the magnificence of your name in our hearts.

God, guard us from meaningless emotion. Father, we ask that the truth, the goodness, the grace, the mercy that has been bestowed upon us would resonate in our hearts and our minds this morning, that we would boldly stand and declare your truth through song, through reading, through preaching.

Father, that we would see it for what it is, that is the people of God getting to come into the throne room of the creator of all things because of the great sacrifice of our

Savior, Jesus Christ. Father, do not let us become cold and dead. Do not let this become ritual.

Father, work in us as we pray in Christ's name. Let us stand for a call to worship this morning, which comes from Psalm 91, the first 10 verses, where he says, my refuge and my fortress.

He who dwells in the shelter of the most high, I will say to the

Lord, my refuge and my fortress, for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler.

He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings, you will find refuge.

You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness.

A thousand may fall at your side, 10 ,000 at your right hand. You will only look with your eyes because you have made the

Lord your dwelling place. No evil shall be allowed to befall you.

And all God's people said, amen. No plague come near our tent, where we walk in the shadow of darkness, right?

We walk in the shadow of death, but we fear no evil because he is our refuge, he is our fortress.

We can stand firmly this morning, boldly, and we can worship him today. Do you feel the weight of sin in your own heart and in life this week?

Do you feel the residue of this present darkness affecting you as you come in this morning? Don't look holy, you know you do.

I do, I feel it. Oh, but then I get to boldly come in with you and watch all of you declare,

I am in Christ, he is my fortress, he is my strength, and I can come boldly.

Let's go to him once again in prayer and a prayer of adoration today. Father, thank you.

Thank you for who you are. Thank you that your character is one that is perfect, that is holy, that is just, that is merciful, and that is kind.

Lord, that you are love, and we experience your tremendous love through the fact that you sent your son to pay for us and that you seal us with the promised

Holy Spirit. May we not lose sight of this, Father. May your name be made great in our hearts today.

May the singing of the saints burst out of these walls and penetrate into a lost and dying world, and the light of Christ be declared first to us and then to those around us.

May you be honored in our worship today. We thank you in Christ's name. All right, church, let's sing out, let's sing these truths this morning, okay?

Let's lift our voices. All my ways are known to you. ♪ Peace and days of rest in times of loss ♪ ♪

And it's true that beyond this dark outside my view ♪ ♪

Still all my ways are known to you ♪ ♪

So I may see that you have made these ways for me ♪ ♪

Open up my eyes so I may see that you, my

God, will walk with me ♪ ♪ Open up my eyes so I may see that you have made these ways for me ♪ ♪

Open up my eyes so I may see that you, my

God, will walk with me ♪ ♪ My fears grow faint within when the darkness overwhelms ♪ ♪

And my fears are pressing in, I will trust in you, oh

Lord ♪ ♪ In the silence I will wait,

I will stand up on my feet ♪ ♪

My steadfast hope that won't be shaken, my soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪

My stronghold and my shield in the midst of every threat ♪ ♪

Though the wicked never vanish like a breath, amen ♪ ♪

Yes, I know the outcome's sure, Satan's evil plans will fail ♪ ♪

In your power I'm secure, sing it out, you're my corsake and my refuge and my sure foundation ♪ ♪

My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you, oh

Lord ♪ ♪ This is mercy unreserved through your sacrifice so great ♪ ♪

I have peace that's undeserved, it has been won ♪ ♪

And I fear no shame or loss, yes, now the sting of death is gone ♪ ♪

My salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken, my soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪

I set my hope on Jesus, my rock, my only trust ♪ ♪

Who set his heart upon me first, I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

I'll test my faith, I set my hope on Jesus, when the questions come and doubts remain,

I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

For the deepest wounds that time won't heal, there's a joy that rises from the grave ♪ ♪

And I'm still deeper, there's a truth that's more than all

I fear, I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

I set my hope on Jesus, my rock, my only trust ♪ ♪

Who set his heart upon me first,

I set my hope on Jesus, when the questions come and doubts remain, I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪ When I fell,

I fight and sink within, I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

Though the shame would drown me in its sea, and I dread the waves of justice ♪ ♪

His heart taught me to leave my

Lord, I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪ Though it offered all its vain rewards,

I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

Though this heart of mine is prone to strain, give me grace enough to finish, till I worship on that final day ♪ ♪

I set my hope on Jesus, he set his heart upon me first,

I set my hope on Jesus, when the questions come and doubts remain, I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪ When I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made,

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunders display,

I set my hope on Jesus, when the questions come and doubts remain, I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪ Then sings my soul, my

Savior God, to thee, yes, then sings my soul, my

Savior God to thee, oh how and when his

Son, I scarce can't take it in,

I set my hope on Jesus ooh...how,

I set my hope on Jesus ♪ Then sings my Savior God, I say,

Thou who I shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.

Then I shall bow and be shunned.

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, Then sings my soul, my

Savior God, How great Thou art, how great

Thou art, how great

Thou art. I really want to sing that chorus one more time.

I want to sing it just the vocals, OK? No instruments. Let's come in. Let's sing it loud.

Let's proclaim this truth this morning, OK? As one body of believers, let's sing it out.

Then sings my soul, how great

Thou art. Then sings, then sings my soul, my

Savior God, to Thee. Amen.

He's great this morning. Amen. Fathers, we continue this time of worship

God and offering and giving. Father, may your truths continue to be proclaimed in this service through the word, through the preaching, through the fellowship,

God. Father, we thank you for bringing us here to worship and honor your holy might. Just thank you,

God. Thank you for the truth here. Thank you that your word is true, Lord God, and we've seen it active in our lives.

Our ears to hear what the Spirit has for the church is one to you.

Be all glory and honor and praise in Christ's name. As the guys continue to take up the offering plate,

I just want to say these past few weeks have really been restoratively restful for me.

I can't tell you how good it has been for my soul to spend the last seven weeks being shepherded by Pastor Keith each and every

Lord's Day as I've been able to sit down here with the body and open up God's word and hear thus saith the

Lord and be encouraged and challenged. I know you have too. I thank the

Lord for that time for myself, and I'm thankful. I'm thankful that we are in a church that values

God's word being declared boldly and rightly and is in no way dependent on any one man.

These past few weeks have really resonated with me and humbling and molding and reminding me that this is

Christ's church. I'm reminded that if the Lord were to take me today, 12 -5 church doesn't miss a beat.

Kingdom mission continues on as planned. Matter of fact, if I fall over dead halfway through this sermon,

I need a few of you men to come up and roll me off the edge so Pastor Jeremiah can come up and pick up the last of the sermon and deal with the important matters.

You can bury the dead later. We got to hear the word of God this morning on the Lord's Day. Amen? Amen. All right.

Well, that being said, we're going to be starting a new series today. We're going to be looking at the

Old Testament book, the last book of the Old Testament, one of the minor prophets,

Malachi. Some of you may know it as Malachi, right? The book of Malachi.

It's only four short chapters, and so we're going to spend the next eight weeks in this book, and some of you are going,

Pastor, we know you better than that. Four chapters should take you at least a year, but we are determined.

We are going to get through these. We've chosen this particular study for two specific reasons, actually.

The first one is that in this Old Testament book and this minor prophet of Malachi, there is a striking similarity between Israel in that day and the church today, specifically in regards to spiritual apathy, spiritual coldness, spiritual indifference.

And the second reason that we want to do this with this study is these next eight weeks, they lead us into the

Advent season. If you've been with us during the Christmas time, we usually try and do an

Advent season, preparing our hearts with the universal church of leading up to the reminder of the first coming of the

Messiah. As you will see over the next few weeks in this book, God's faithfulness, it shines through in His promise that He would bring about the salvation of His people through that coming

Messiah. And so as we lead up to the Advent season, we thought how appropriate to wrap up the

Old Testament in preparation to get to the birth of our Savior.

You see, for nearly 500 years after this time of Malachi, God had gone silent.

You didn't know that, did you? Some of you knew that, but some of you did not. God went silent. He no longer dwelled in the temple there with Israel.

And He no longer spoke through His prophets. But His promise was still sure, as we will see.

And He made good on that promise, didn't He? He definitely made good on that promise. There was a faithful remnant here at the end of this book that we will see later on in this series that held to that promise with a hopeful surety.

Not a hopefulness, but with a sure hope. And so we would like to spend some time just putting ourselves into that moment to be further reminded of God's unwavering faithfulness.

The people of God had to rest in that faithfulness, then looking forward to a

Messiah, and now we rest in that faithfulness knowing that that was certain.

The Messiah did come, as promised. And we do so, we put ourselves in this position as a reminder, as we walk through this book in hopes that it will break many of us possibly out of a season of spiritual apathy.

We all go through it. It's a guarantee in the Christian life.

If you've been a Christian for more than a week, then you know that there come seasons when you're in the valley that you do not feel the way that you once felt towards spiritual truths.

And we all go through this. The people of God during that day were no different.

Today is merely an introduction, though. You know me, I don't like introductions. You give me a text and let me just exegete the text, but now

I have to give you an overview. But we have to lay some groundwork. Very few people know much about this book, so I'd like to spend some time giving us some historical context and showing you the structure of this book.

Malachi chapter 1, verse 1. As a matter of fact, you can open there. We'll kind of be walking through the book as we go through and pinpointing a few of the highlights.

But verse 1 in chapter 1 is really what we're going to be looking at today. This is an introduction.

It's the oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

This is God's word. Let's pray that the Holy Spirit would illuminate our hearts and minds for this truth before we go on.

Oh, dear Heavenly Father, we humbly come before you now and we acknowledge our frailty.

We know that we oftentimes distort and misunderstand your truth.

And we ask now that through the power of the Holy Spirit, these truths would be revealed to us with clarity.

I pray that diligent study over the past few weeks will prove fruitful.

We ask that you would open our eyes and our ears and our minds to this truth, that we may be a people that are changed by it, that are sanctified through it, have our minds renewed by this wonderful, glorious, magnificent truth that is your word.

We thank you for it in Christ's name. Amen. Now there's some discussion as to whether Malachi is actually the name of this prophet or if it's simply a title of an unnamed individual, maybe one of the previous prophets that we know of in the

Old Testament. And the reason they do this is after all Malachi, the word, the name, just simply means my messenger, leading some to believe that it's essentially saying the oracle of the word of the

Lord to Israel by my messenger and that we are dealing with an unnamed prophet.

However, most scholars do affirm that this most certainly was the name of a prophet, the prophet that this letter is speaking of or this book is speaking of.

After all, what an appropriate name for a prophet, right? If you name your kid Malachi, then it's inevitable, my messenger, right?

For those of you who aren't familiar with the idea of the Old Testament prophets, you get the idea with my messenger.

These are men that God would use in that time that would speak his word to the people.

This is before they had Scripture in full, right? They had little bits of writings that were

God's word, but they didn't have Scripture in full like we do. And so God spoke through his prophets, spoke through men, essentially using these men as a mouthpiece to declare what he once said.

Much of the Old Testament is actually made up of these very prophets. As a matter of fact, you've probably heard of major and minor prophets.

We have four major prophets, right? I think I have them actually up on the screen here. We have four major prophets.

Those are ones that many of us have studied and delve into, and then we have 12 minor prophets in the

Old Testament. Malachi is actually one of those. He's the last one listed there. But major and minor, this isn't referring to levels of importance, mind you.

Sometimes we think, well, the major ones, Jeremiah, he's kind of like a top -tier prophet.

That's why we call him a major. And these other guys, these are kind of second -in -command. But that's not how it is.

Scripture doesn't refer to them as major and minor prophets. We refer to them as major and minor prophets based upon the volume of the writing and the prophecy that is given, okay?

So even though Jeremiah that you see there on the list, even though he has about, I think it's 52 chapters, and then

Obadiah has one chapter worth of prophecy, it does not mean that Jeremiah is any more inspired or more important than Obadiah, okay?

I bring up this point to point to the fact that neglecting the study of the minor prophets, which

I believe many in the church do today. I've been guilty of that at times. I believe to avoid them or to neglect the study of these is a grave mistake because this is the very words of God.

These were men that were used to speak what God had told them to speak, and those words are for us.

They were for specifically the people of Israel for today, but now they're written and given and passed down to us, so they're for us also, right?

We just have to understand them properly. And they can be hard to understand. I think that's why we avoid minor prophets.

It's like, oh, man, this is confusing. I don't have any context. That's why it's helpful for us to get into the historical context, okay?

This is helpful for us to understand where Israel's at in this time and how they would have perceived what is being said.

So we're going to do a bit of a history lesson. Y 'all like history? Oh, man. Got some real history buffs in here, right?

Okay. We're going to do a little bit of history. I actually have a graph up on the screen, and we're going to walk through this.

I wanted to give a visual because I want to lay some groundwork here. Right around 600 years before the death of Christ, you will see up here

God used the Babylonian kingdom. It really is a judgment upon Israel, right?

The people of Israel, if you notice, time and time again, they grow cold and indifferent to God.

God calls them to repentance. They either repent, and they benefit, or they just continue on with sin, and then

God's like, okay, I got to put you in your place, and then he uses a neighboring group of people to take them over, enslave them, or to bring about judgment.

And here we see 600 years before the death of Christ. Now notice the timeline. It's confusing when it goes backwards.

So 400 and all the way over to 600 this way, it's because we record time in a backwards way before Christ's death.

So that's how important the death of Christ was, that we actually judge all of our time based upon it.

Everything from there is how many years has it been since the death of Christ, and then it was how many years it was at the other direction since Christ.

And so we have the Babylonian kingdom, about 600 years before this, as judgment upon the people of Israel.

If you remember, King Nebuchadnezzar, you all know the name, it's a funny name, he successfully attacks

Jerusalem. Right about 605. And the first time is where we see

Daniel taken captive. You all remember the story of Daniel. Daniel in the lion's den, remember?

He's dealing with King Nebuchadnezzar, but this first time that Babylon takes siege of Jerusalem, they take captives.

But he attacks again a few years later, as a matter of fact. Just a handful of years later, and that's where we see the prophet

Ezekiel is taken. And so this is a process.

Babylon is slowly but surely conquering Israel. God's using him in this time.

And then roughly nine years later, he attacks a third time. And this third time, all of Judea is taken captive, and they become exiles.

Exiles from Jerusalem, from the promised land, for about 48 years.

Again, you see the pattern with Israel. They are taken captive, they are taken into exile, and this is one of those exiles.

But even in this, you see, God continued to show his faithfulness. By the grace of God, we see that Babylon is overtaken by the

Persians. You see that up there, at this point in time, Persia comes in and they take over Babylon.

You remember the Persian king Cyrus? Remember the story about Cyrus? He allows many of them to return from captivity and to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed.

You all remember Haggai and Zechariah, right? Two of the minor prophets.

You all know those names. These prophets were used by God to, they were encouraging the rebuilding of the temple.

They were calling the people of Israel, we must rebuild, we need to rebuild. And they're doing so with this promise of God's blessing to rebuild.

They speak in terms of prosperity, expansion, and peace, in the midst of encouraging them and prophesying, we must do this.

Things that the people have been longing for, for so much time.

You can imagine being in captivity, losing everything. The presence of God has been in the temple. That's where we meet with the creator, our

God, is when we come and we make sacrifices. And that's where he's dwelling, is there in the temple.

Now we don't have a temple. There's a hopelessness in the midst of that, right? But then you hear these prophets, and they're telling you, oh man, there's going to be a promised return.

There is a return into the temple, the glory of the Lord. And most importantly, they talked about the return of the glorious presence of God there.

And here, the people of Israel freed to go back to Jerusalem and begin to rebuild.

It's finally happening. It's finally coming to fruition. And then roughly 60 years later, we see the story of Esther.

Y 'all remember Esther? We should see the story of Esther there on the timeline there.

What happens with Esther? Well, she finds favor with the Persian king, doesn't she? She becomes queen.

And God used that to further save the people of Israel from complete destruction. The faithfulness of God is interwoven in the midst of all of this, in all of the despair, in all of the difficulty.

God's faithfulness, He just continues to put the pieces in place to continually drive the people of God back into the promised land to fulfill what

He was setting out to fulfill with that. Shortly after this, we see the second return to Jerusalem.

See, this is happening in increments. Only little bits of them are being able to return. When you're taken into exile, everybody doesn't just pack up and then go right back into the promised land at one time.

We see it in sections. And we see this second return under Ezra. If you remember the prophet

Ezra. And then approximately eight years later, the third return under Nehemiah.

A lot of these names you're probably familiar with. They're sticking out like, oh, I remember Ezra. I remember Nehemiah. Remember, Nehemiah is actually the one that's used to lead the people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

It was believed that soon after all of this is where we are introduced to the prophet

Malachi. So that's why I wanted to go through this historical context so that you can understand where the people of Israel have been up to this point.

This must have been a time of great fatigue, great discouragement, and great disillusion.

And you say, well, wait a second, Pastor. No, you said they were rebuilding. They rebuilt the wall. They rebuilt the temple.

Why would that be discouraging? Wouldn't they be excited?

They're taken out of exile. They had seen the providence of God deliver their people from exile once again.

They remember the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah who encouraged them to rebuild the temple, right, with a promise of God's blessing, a prosperity, expansion, and peace.

This was kind of their idea of what was actually to come. Yet here they are with a rebuilt temple, however, possessing only part of the promised land.

Judah itself isn't even a nation any longer. They no longer are ruled by a

Davidic king. They still are under the thumb of foreign lands. They just get to go back to the promised land and rebuild, essentially lacking the covenant blessings that Israel underwent when they were obedient to the things of God.

Yeah, they had a temple, but God wasn't dwelling there. Here they are.

They've been told, if we rebuild the temple, the blessings come. The presence of God comes back in to the temple, and then we reap the benefits of being the people of God in the presence of God, and there's prosperity, and there's goodness, and there's justice, and all of this stuff.

But as you will see in this book of Malachi, you'll begin to see there is no justice going on.

There is no peace happening. There is no presence of God. As a matter of fact, look at chapter 3.

How do we know the presence of God isn't there? In chapter 3 of Malachi, in the very first verse, he says,

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Now, we'll talk about that in great detail when we get to it in a few weeks.

But I want you to fixate on this part of the verse. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.

And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

It means he's not there. He's not in the temple. Notice God is not going to make good,

God is going to make good on his promise. He will return to the temple. But he is not dwelling there in the moment.

And in the meantime, he is continuing to show his faithfulness, but his covenant blessing of his presence is still withheld.

They're disillusioned, indifferent, discouraged. Circumstances have taken the people of Israel into a place where they think they should, they've done all the things that should be happening, everything should be happening, but it's not.

We're just going through the motions. We're not actually carrying out what we're called to live as.

We're just going through these rituals. And there's no blessing in the midst of it.

Why is that? Why is the presence of God no longer in the temple? Why?

They rebuilt. They're Israel after all, right? They should be there.

It's because as we will see, their hearts are not with him. They're going through the motions all right.

They're doing all the external things, but as we will see through those external things, their heart is not with them.

They want the blessing that his presence brings, but do not want the blessing of his presence.

There's a big distinction there. They want the gift. They're not all that interested in the gift giver.

And we see this pointed out to them by his messenger Malachi. What an appropriate time.

The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel. This word oracle, in Hebrew it's masaw.

It's sometimes translated as burden. As a matter of fact, I think the King James Bible translates it as the burden of the word of the

Lord. And typically, whenever you see this word in conjunction to the pronouncement of an

Old Testament prophet, it's connected to a prophecy of judgment. As a matter of fact, this is the only time that you see both the word oracle and the word listed in the announcement of a prophet's declaration.

You see the word of the Lord in many of them, and you see the oracle of the

Lord in some of them. And when you see the oracle of the Lord, it is in reference to judgment coming upon Israel.

But here is the only place where you see both. It's interesting. The oracle concerning the valley of vision,

Isaiah 22 .1. And we know what that is in reference to, right? Ezekiel 12 .10,

Habakkuk 1 .1. All of these texts, it's using this word, masaw. And it's in judgment.

And when we begin to look at the structure and the message of this particular prophecy, it will begin to help us understand why the word is used here,

I believe. Malachi's prophecy is broken down into six disputes. I'm going to point out the breakdown of the text, so if you want to jot these down in your notes so that you're studying in preparation for how we're going to be doing this, we're going to be looking at each one of these six disputes over the next six weeks as we break every one of them down.

But I want to do a brief flyover so we can get a better understanding here. The first three disputes that we see here in this prophecy are exposing

Israel's corruption. In chapter 1 and verses 2 through 5,

God speaks of His love for them. That's how the prophet Malachi comes in. He basically speaks to the

Lord, and God says, I have loved you.

And how do the people of Israel respond? How have you loved us? You can imagine, with the historical context of what we're talking about, they're like, we rebuilt the temple like you told us to.

We did the things that you told us to. We came out of exile like you told us to.

And here we are. You don't even give us your presence. How have you loved us?

And God responds. God points to the overwhelming evidence.

He says, is not Esau Jacob's brother? Yet I have loved

Jacob. I have loved you. I've shown my love for you.

I chose you. I loved Jacob, and I have hated

Esau. And then he goes on and talks about the destruction that will undergo the children of Esau, essentially.

The second dispute is in verse 6 of chapter 1 all the way into chapter 2, verse 9.

We've got these broken down up on the screen, each one of these. So that's the first one. The second one is verse 6 through 2, 9.

And God speaks of their despising and defiling his name. And they respond in the last part of verse 6,

How have we despised your name? You see a pattern here, right? And, of course, Malachi, he's the one that is speaking for the people of Israel in the midst of this dispute because he knows the hearts of the people of Israel.

God is speaking, and he's telling them, and he knows what they're going to respond as. How? How have we despised your name?

And then verse 7, what does he say? He starts with, by offering polluted food upon my altar. What does this mean?

We'll deal with it in greater detail when we get to that in about three weeks. But what he's pointing out is the fact that the temple is there and they're actually going through the motions to bring sacrifice.

They're actually doing the things, but the heart is not there.

And God is saying, you've despised me. You're defiling my name. You're defiling my temple.

Dispute number 3, chapter 2, verse 10 on through 16.

God tells them that they've turned away from him. Not only have they turned away from him, they've also turned away from their covenant with their wives.

It's selfish, sinful living. You've turned away from the covenant with me.

You think that I've abandoned the covenant. You're the one that's abandoned the covenant. I've been here.

I'm here. My presence, my goodness, and my mercy and grace will shine through.

You're the one that is not here. And it shows. Divorcing your wives.

Breaking the covenant that you have that God put together. Those are the first three.

The last three disputes we see are confronting Israel's corruption. The fourth dispute is in chapter 2.

Verse 17 on through the fifth verse of chapter 3. If you look at verse 17 there in chapter 2, you have wearied the

Lord with your words. Oh, but you say, here it is.

Here's the rebuttal back to God every time, right? How have we wearied him?

He says by saying, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord. And he delights in them.

Or by asking, where is the God of justice? Justice is not being held by God.

God is not just. You are wearying the Lord your God with your words. Down in chapter 3 in verse 1 he says,

Behold, I send my messenger. That's the passage we read a moment ago. He will prepare the way before me.

And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight.

Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. He will most certainly bring justice, is the point. God's saying, your timing and my timing are different.

What you are perceiving and bringing upon me with your words and your declarations that I am not just, my justice will stand.

I am perfectly just. And my justice will be enacted in its time. Dispute number 5.

Chapter 3 verse 6 on through verse 12. Look at the last part of verse 6.

He says, return to me. And I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. What goodness, right?

He's already given them these disputes. I mean, their guilty is charged already. He's already pointed out all the way through here.

And now he says, return to me. Return to me and I will return to you. My presence will return. And they say, how shall we return?

Down in verse 8, he responds. He says, stop robbing me.

How have we robbed you, God? Through the tithe. You're to give what's already mine back to me anyways.

Through the tithe. And you're not even doing that. Return to me. And the sixth and final dispute that we will see.

Chapter 3 verses 13 through 18. Your words have been hard against me, says the

Lord. But you say, how have we spoken against you? You have said, it is vain to serve

God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the

Lord of hosts? Basically saying, it's pointless to serve God.

The wicked are prospering and God does nothing. We suffer and he doesn't care.

But look down at verse 16. Then those who feared the

Lord spoke with one another. Remember I said a moment ago, there's a faithful remnant near the beginning.

There's always a faithful remnant in the midst of it. The Lord paid attention and heard them.

And a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.

They looked back, didn't they? They looked back at what God has done over the centuries building up to this.

Of how God's great faithfulness time and time again going, wait a second, he's never let us down.

He's always been there. He's always accomplished his purposes. He has always been faithful.

We just lost sight of it. Verse 17, they shall be mine, says the

Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

Then once more you shall see the distinction. Now here's the key. Here's what I'm really wanting to fixate on.

See the distinction between the righteous and the wicked. Then you'll see it.

You'll see who the faithful remnant are and you'll see who the unfaithful are. You'll see the distinction between one who serves

God and the one who does not serve him. And then by the time God gets into the final chapter of this book of Malachi in verse 1, you see the great day of the

Lord. We're going to have to deal with that in great detail when we get there, guys. But let me read it so that you kind of get the idea.

This is what he goes into. He says, for behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.

The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

You see, this is why, and I know we've covered a lot of ground since then, but if you remember, I said, why did he use the word

Messah, oracle? This is why I believe Malachi uses this word.

Remember? Because when it's used in conjunction to the declaration of a prophet, it's usually upon the judgment on Israel.

God is most certainly declaring judgment here. He is going to judge all evildoers, including those of Israel.

Just because they're Israel doesn't mean they're safe. He's going to judge all evildoers, those who are not children of Abraham.

You and I, even though we're not children of Abraham by blood, we're children of Abraham by faith if we believe in Christ, right?

Just like the people of Israel, it doesn't matter if they're children of Abraham by birth.

They must be children of Abraham by faith, just like us. There is nothing special about Israel.

Nothing. There is judgment coming upon all the evildoer.

And Malachi is declaring that. He's pointing out the distinction here of the unfaithfulness, even within the covenant that God had made with the people of Israel.

Why did God make this covenant with the people of Israel? To bring about His Messiah from a people.

To carry out His law and then to show that that law can't save. That law does nothing.

It has no power. The only power is the one that will come and fulfill that law perfectly and accomplish it.

Because no Israelite could do it. Not David, not

Abraham, not a single one even came close to fulfilling

God's righteous demands. Not one. There is not a single soul from Israel in the

Old Testament in heaven today that made it there because they obeyed the Mosaic law.

They couldn't. That's the point. No one could.

When you look at Hebrews 11, what do you see in the Hall of Faith? The list of the

Old Testament saints, you see that they were all, every last one of them as you go through the line, saved by faith in the coming

Messiah. They were children of Abraham. That's beautiful, right?

There is great judgment that's coming upon all evildoers. And in chapter 4, verse 2, he says,

Oh, but for you who fear my name. Who fears his name? The children of Abraham by faith.

The son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. Most of you all probably heard that passage.

What a glorious truth. He's not only, notice that I said, he said the oracle of the word of God, the burden of the

Lord, the Messiah of the Lord, and the word of the Lord together. I think we see the beauty of the judgment of God, but the goodness of God, all intermixed in this wonderful book.

The word of the Lord is declared in truth. And shown in his judgment also.

Spiritual apathy had permeated the people of Israel during that time. Their circumstances and a lack of seeing the mighty, powerful working of God had left even the righteous among them with spiritual coldness.

Notice that the remnant, the faithful remnant that sat down, they had to hear from God. They had to go through five whole disputes.

Well, six disputes by that point. They had to go through all of these disputes from the prophet written or given to them from the words of God in order to be awakened to the truth to show that,

Oh my, I've lost sight. I'm cold. God's faithfulness to confront his people led that faithful remnant to remember his mighty deeds.

Oh, that's goodness. God's faithfulness outweighs our spiritual apathy when we are his.

Even though it would still be nearly 500 years before the Messiah would arrive, that faithful remnant held to that promise.

There was a small few left by the time Jesus showed up, wasn't there? By the time we get to the

New Testament, we see the Pharisees and the Sadducees arguing over the Mosaic law, trying to earn their righteousness.

They had lost sight completely of what this whole thing was about. But there was a faithful remnant.

You see, over the next few weeks, as we spend some time looking in greater detail at these six disputes, my prayer is that God's word will incite a fire in the hearts of the faithful remnant here.

As I've sat and gotten to study this book over the past few weeks, it has been used to light a fire in my heart, a desire for the things of the

Lord because God's words, it's like the saints of that time who were eagerly awaiting the coming of the

Messiah, who had the eager expectation that we are in a very unique situation, that we like them would no longer be distracted by the circumstances of this life, the warring flesh within us, the fact that the wicked seem to flourish.

And that's what the people of Israel were concerned with, right? God's not doing anything. God's not working.

God must not be here. God must not care because He's not smiting the wicked right now.

And they flourish. And we look around and we feel the same, right? We see the world railing against God and it becomes discouraging, but I pray that we, just like those faithful remnant, we would eagerly await with great expectation.

Now, we don't await as they awaited. They awaited the arrival, but we await the return.

Now, we have a better vantage point, thank the Lord. We have His word. We have

His church. We have His people. We have the guarantee of the fact that He did come the first time.

It is undisputable evidence of that fact. And so it's easier for us, but yet we still lose sight, don't we?

We live our lives as if He's not returning. And we think of the here and now.

We're so consumed with November. Why? Whoever ends up in an office in this world is a puppet of God to do whatever

He desires to do and He ordains it. And we just have to sit here and faithfully await

His return when the wicked are out there railing and our own flesh wars against us in this present darkness and we don't live as we ought to.

We sang a number of those songs of His faithfulness and our propensity, right? We have that propensity.

We struggle with it and we just await. Oh, but we await with an eager expectation. He is returning and He will make all things new.

And the wicked who seem to be flourishing in the moment, His righteous recompense will pour upon them the wrath of God that is due that unrighteousness.

He will not be mocked, but we, like the children of Israel, look around and we go, they're prospering.

This isn't happening. I don't feel it. I'm struggling.

If I'm a child of God, why am I having trouble financially?

He owns everything. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Why can't I not pay my bills? And we lose sight of His faithful goodness and the bigger picture.

This is but a blip on the radar. It's a moment. Serve Him faithfully.

Set and write. Write down a book of His faithfulness as a reminder.

Well, actually, you don't even have to. It's already there. Open up your Bible. You can open up the book of faithfulness and you can see it.

And then we're reminded of this return, looking forward. Our prayer is that God would use this truth over the next few weeks to bring about revival within our hearts.

I don't know if you know this, but many saints before that have experienced great revival. As a matter of fact, the first great awakening.

Many people believe the first great awakening here in North America. They say, well, that just kind of came out of nowhere.

No, it didn't. It didn't come out of nowhere. If you read the history, you see men like Jonathan Edwards that were pleading with the saints to pray for it.

There were men of God and people all over that were diligently on their knees for decades praying,

God, bring about a great move of your people being brought to faith and hungering you.

I think that's what God's laying on our hearts. I'm not going to speak for God. I don't know what

God's going to do. He may bring about a revival next week. He may bring about a revival in this area in 100 years.

That's His prerogative. But we as His children, we can ask. We can plead.

And those are the means that God uses. And I desire for us to be a people that God would light a fire in our hearts.

There's so much spiritual apathy in us, so much indifference, coldness.

We pray that a fire would be lit in our hearts, that great awakening would penetrate into each one of us, into our families, into this community, that the lost would come to know

Christ out there that are in darkness and know nothing of the goodness of Christ at the moment, that it would change this community, that it would change this state, this country, this world.

That's what we desire, isn't it? And we pray that God would work in us first.

So join us over the next eight weeks as a church of prayer and fasting.

Please don't fast for eight weeks straight. You will die. I'm calling on the church.

Go to our Father and plead. Move. We desire to see a great movement of Your Holy Spirit power and work in me, in this world, and in this church.

What do you think? Are you on board? I'm eagerly awaiting to see how

God uses this. And as I said, over the next few weeks, we will dive more and more into each of the details of this so we see this in greater light.

But before we go to the Lord in prayer right now for the

Lord's Supper, I just want to remind you today is the first week of the month. And so we partake together every first Sunday of the month.

So as you come and get the elements today, as you come by, I would ask that you would just go back to your seats through the middle and keep the elements with you.

And I'm going to read a portion from Luke 22 of the Last Supper and this wonderful ordinance being administered for the first time and then set into motion for the church.

Let's pray that God would be honored in our time. Father, we come to You now and we thank

You for this great sanctifying ordinance of the table.

We thank You that we get a tangible, visible representation of the unity that we now have with the

Son, that we now have with the triune

God through the Son, His blood that was spilled for us,

His body that was given for us, that perfect one that underwent the penalty of sin, which was death, for us to defeat death and deliver us, tie us back and present us to the

Father without blemish. We pray that this would be a worshipful moment.

We thank You for it in Christ's name. Amen. You may make your way, if we could just split this section and this section to go this direction.