Book of Malachi - Ch. 3, Vs. 1 (04/30/2023)

All righty guys those of you online you might let dad know if you can hear Yeah, we have some people on okay.

It's Katie and Emily Katie and Emily out there If y 'all can let dad know

Okay Man, this mic stand is funny. It's like way up here That's okay

No, it's not in the way. Oh Yeah, this is fine no,

I'm good She's asleep in this little bitty classroom behind me.

Well, this is my kind of crowd right here. I Got Emily and Katie online and Ashton in the pews.

I love it We may have a few others online And dad is over here pop pop will be in here in a second

Pop pop is taking care of my kids. I can't give him a hard time. Oh It's fine

I am perfect perfectly good I'm gonna do the brother

Otis and just silently watch them. Yeah walk in and walk down the aisle

All right, well ash we're gonna go to Malachi and we're starting a new chapter today

But we're only gonna read the first verse Because there's a couple of places. I want to go today that I'm excited about because this first verse in Malachi chapter 3 talks about a pretty special person and In kind of what his role was

Let's see here You can go to Malachi 3, but you might also go over to Matthew chapter 11 2 because we're actually gonna be there for a good portion

All right, so basically we just finished up chapter 2 so chapter 2 is over excuse me, but section 2

Isn't quite over You know most most books are divided up into kind of these natural sections of certain things that are being covered

For a certain number of verses my school field Bible Lays those out nice and clear which is

Which is nice for kind of keeping track again of the major theme that's being talked about in However, no number of verses.

Hey there Noah And so technically You know, we were going verse by verse chapter for chapter

But there are sections that are hit up in in the number of verses and sometimes those spill over into other chapters

So in chapter 1 we began section 2 which was all about the sins of the the people

I'm sorry in chapter. It was in chapter 2 that we shifted to this section of the sins of the people and Malachi's rebuke of those people was that section 2 or was it technically section 3?

Not that that matters But what we're doing is again Oh is actually section 3 that we've been on for a little while which is the sins of the people that's we went we went on you know

Talking about the rampant divorce that was happening at that time and a number of the things they were doing to be interviewed for so That's been happening in chapter 2

We get to chapter 3 that section isn't over just yet Malachi is still going to I say

Malachi It's the Lord through Malachi. Of course is still going to be pointing out a number of issues

With the people at this time. However In chapter 3 there's going to be a brief parenthetical

Where Malachi shifts the focus away from the people and actually now talks about something that is going to happen in the future

And so for the first maybe about six verses of chapter 3 Malachi goes away from Talking about again the sins of people and is going to be talking about Two people specifically and we're going to talk about the first person that he mentions for a little bit first this morning.

So again After a series of rebukes Malachi Toward the faithless

Israelites at this time He moves his focus briefly away from their sins and points them toward the future and he first points them to the next prophet

That comes that will come after Malachi himself So if you guys want to turn to Malachi 3 verse 1

It says behold. I will send my messenger and He shall prepare the way before me in The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in Behold, he shall come saith the

Lord of hosts Now this is really interesting I meant to do this a second ago, but You know considering the the flow of Malachi as dad mentions often in the original letters

Prophets Ever in the original texts that were written there weren't chapters there weren't verses and so if you finish chapter 2

Where it says ye have wearied the Lord with your words yet Ye say wherein have we wearied him?

when ye say everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or Where's the

God of judgment it ends with that question behold the next chapter starts Behold I Will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me so think about that in the context of what we've been talking about in Malachi up to this point and It makes it clear.

I'm gonna I'm gonna I don't want to jump the gun no, I'll get to that in a little bit, but The context of of this prophecy taking place here is interesting

So who is he talking about who is this messenger that he will send to prepare the way before him?

Who do you guys think that's referencing? John the

Baptist So again, we consider the historical context of Malachi the last book of the

Old Testament what takes place between Malachi and John the

Baptist coming on the scene roughly 400 years of darkness On the part of the

Jews and in their religiosity if you want caught that the Pharisees, you know come into play during that time

There were no prophets between the two. So Malachi here is talking about the next prophet that will come

However, it's going to be quite some time a number of centuries before he does come but he's referencing the great prophet

John the Baptist who of course is the forerunner of The Lord and as it says in verse 3 the messenger of the

Covenant It talks about two messengers in the first verse of chapter 3 We'll get to the second messenger in a little bit but says

I will send my messenger to prepare the way before me and The Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the

Covenant We'll get to that in a little bit, but that's a reference to Jesus. And so this prophet

John the Baptist is the forerunner of That messenger of the Covenant that Israel has been waiting for Which is an unbelievable thought so now go to Matthew chapter 11 and let's talk about Let's take a look at what

Jesus had to say about this prophecy right here in our in our chapter in verse of Malachi Let's hear what he has to say about that prophecy and it being fulfilled so Matthew chapter 11 will start in verse 7

It Says and as they departed Jesus began to say unto the multitude concerning John What went ye out into the wilderness to see a reed shaken with the wind?

But what went ye out for to see a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold they that wear soft clothing are in Kings houses

But what ye went out, but what went ye out to see a prophet? Yea, I say unto you and more than a prophet

For this is he of whom it is written and here Jesus quotes the very Passage in chapter verse we're in behold.

I send my messenger before thy face Which shall prepare thy way before thee verily

I say unto you among them that are born of women There hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist notwithstanding.

He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he and Jesus is is

You know questioning their reasoning for going out to see this man And he is telling them this prophecy has been fulfilled

He is there and this is what his what he is doing. He is preparing the way for Your king

Let's see here Okay The fact that this messenger of course will prepare his way

This goes great with another chapter that's often quoted Another chapter verse in Isaiah.

Let me go over there. Actually. I don't have it in my notes, but I do want to read it Isaiah chapter 40 if you guys want to go there you can

Might read a little bit of it here Let's see here chapter 40 it says in verse 3

Of Isaiah chapter 40 the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the

Lord Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. This is another prophecy of this same man

Now listen, this is really interesting. I'm gonna read just a little bit further into it But let's just read this together

I want I want to see if y 'all notice something interesting I'll start at verse 3 one more time the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness

Prepare ye the way of the Lord make straight in the desert a highway for our God. He's talking about John the

Baptist Preparing the way for Jesus at his first advent But let's continue verse 4 every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low in the crooked shall be made

Straight in the rough places plain in the glory of the Lord shall be revealed in all flesh

Shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it the voice said cry

And he said what shall I cry all flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is the flower of the field the grass withering

The flower fadeth because of the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it Surely the people is grass the grass withereth the flower fadeth, but the word of our

God shall stand forever Oh Zion that bringest good tidings get thee up into the high mountain

Oh Jerusalem that bringeth good tidings lift up thy voice with strength lift it up Be not afraid saying to the cities of Judah behold your

God Behold the Lord God will come with a strong hand in his arm shall rule for him

Behold his reward is with him in his work before him He shall he shall feed his flock like a shepherd you shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry

And carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young Hey, I should think

I hear Ada. Sorry She's sleeping in the room right behind me or she was sleeping

I'll end it there. You can keep reading. It's a really amazing chapter goes on It's about 30 verses, but it starts with talking about John the

Baptist preparing the way the one who Christ in the wilderness But what did the rest of it sound like? to you guys

Now some of it perhaps perhaps verse 5 Or verse 4 and 5 you could say you could say is referencing

Jesus's first coming here on earth But a lot of the rest of it sounded like his second coming

He come with a strong hand. I Forgot the way it phrased that one verse in particular behold

The Lord will come with a strong hand in his arm shall rule for him behold His reward is with him in his work before him

Now and if you keep reading it it's talking about, you know Judah You know, let's see here speak at hidings go to the high mountain

Jerusalem that brings good tidings lift up with thy strength It sounds to me like this could be referencing

His second coming as well, which would be pretty typical for the Old Testament prophets because very often they will

You will hear them describing what is clearly again the first advent of Jesus But it will flow just seamlessly into what is obviously talking about his second coming in glory and in power destroying his enemies and so oftentimes these

Old Testament prophets would Combine the two events and you have to ask the question or it's not even a question.

It's just a reality That's not a coincidence even though we here in the church age are fully aware that Jesus came and then he died rose again and went back to heaven

For a time and will come back These prophets combine the two events as if it was just one thing

Well from the human perspective, you know, we look at it as again two advents two specific things happening in history

From God's perspective though. It's very much the same event John the Baptist is referenced here in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3 because he in from the human viewpoint was the beginning of Jesus's reign which started at his first advent

We're gonna get into this more in just a minute But again, the fact that this messenger will prepare his way as it says in Malachi It goes well with that particular chapter in Isaiah the coming of this messenger again being

John the Baptist is the beginning of the end in many ways the two advents of Jesus which both are part of the same grand event of the ushering in of his kingdom begin with this messenger quote preparing the way and As it says in Isaiah a highway for our

God So he he started the chain of events if you will John the

Baptist was the beginning of the domino effect of What all these prophets have been talking about for hundreds of years thousands of years even let's go to another passage

Luke chapter 1 and Read a little bit more about this messenger that being

John the Baptist the first messenger that's referenced in Malachi An unbelievable guy who had an unbelievable job and as Jesus said was more than a prophet greater than a prophet

In fact the greatest that had ever been born of woman Let's learn a little bit more about him here

Luke chapter 1 and I'm going to start in verse 5 I'll let you guys know when I do it, but I'm gonna read a few verses skip a little bit further down the chapter

I'm gonna do that a couple of times because there's obviously great story here. It's all about His parent

John the Baptist parents Zacharias, of course Elizabeth. It talks about the whole Angel visiting

Elizabeth an angel visiting Zacharias him going Becoming mute because he questioned the angel of the

Lord Gabriel himself So all that is in this chapter, but I want to focus specifically on John the

Baptist as a person Luke chapter 1 verse 5 it says There was in the days of Herod the king of Judea a certain priest named

Zacharias now That's something that I've I've missed in the past It's interesting to note that that the parents of John the

Baptist were of the Levites were were descendants of Aaron Zacharias himself was a priest and it says here his wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was

Elizabeth. So That's kind of interesting Verse 6 and they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinance of the

Lord blameless These were some spectacular people These were

John the Baptist's parents, so it's really neat to see just the ordination of the Lord here and You know, what was

John the Baptist role? He was the very forerunner of the Messiah himself so it's neat to see just the

Again from our viewpoint the preparation that the Lord had put into John the Baptist, but also his family his parents were unbelievable people

Walking they were righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless These are the parents of the man.

We're about to learn more about so now skip down to verse 15 same chapter talking about John the

Baptist for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink and he shall be filled with the

Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb in many of The children of Israel shall he turn to their

God to the Lord their God? It's interesting of the emphasis of the word many there because we see that that even though it's talking about Israel The very

Israelites that have gone so far astray in our passage in Malachi in the book Malachi that we're learning about 400 years, we're about to begin after Malachi concludes of Them going astray of the priests

Deliberately in irreverently disobeying God in Conducting temple worship in a way that was not ordained by him and it would again cultivate

We've talked about this before as we've gone through the study, but cultivate what was needed for the Pharisees to come to power

So all of that has taken place and yet within the Israelites as a collective people

It says here that John the Baptist Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord of God?

It's not going to be all of them It's not going to be the whole of the people It's going to be a specific remnant that Jesus is going to use

John the Baptist to to prepare for him to come and Pull that remnant out of what these priests and of these people here in Malachi have corrupted.

Does that make sense? Okay verse 17 and he shall go before him in the spirit in power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the

Children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people

Prepared for the Lord. He's talking specifically about that remnant that will be pulled out of God's people now skip that skip down to verse 39 same chapter

We're we're hitting just all of the places where we're learning a little something about how special and unbelievable

This man John the Baptist how great this prophet John the Baptist Is it would be

In in the coming, you know context of Luke here Verse 39 says in Mary arose in those days.

So all the verses we just read is is basically Elizabeth and Zacharias learning about who their child would be and Mary arose in verse 39 in those days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah and Entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted

Elizabeth and it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary the babe leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the

Holy Ghost and she spake out with a loud voice and said blessed art thou among women talking to Mary in Blessed is the fruit of thy womb

She knew right then and there of the conception that Mary Was now going to The conception that took place in the fruit that Mary was now going to carry in her womb and and bear forth later and of course, this is an exact this is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Gabriel that said in the same chapter that he would be filled with the

Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb in verse 15 Okay now skip down to verse 76 same chapter

Talking about this this John the Baptist and thou child shall be called the prophet of the highest talk about an epic title an epic job description

John the Baptist again was prepared even before the his before he was conceived through the his parents who were again a blameless people righteous before God Now he's you know going to soon be made aware of his role in his earthly life

Thou shalt be called the prophet of the highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways again speaking directly

About the passage of Malachi We just finished reading to give knowledge of salvation and to his people by the remission of their sins

Through the tender mercy of our God whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us.

It's a beautiful phrase Referencing Jesus through the tender mercy of our God whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us

To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death the filament of what

David was talking about to guide our feet into the way of peace and the child grew talking about John the

Baptist and Waxed strong in spirit and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto

Israel so this is the Person that we're learning about that is prophesied of here in Malachi chapter 3 verse 1 behold

I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me Um when he did come on the scene

When this prophecy was fulfilled, uh through Again, the offspring of elizabeth and zacharias um and his his role as the prophet of the highest was was

Well manifested but also described to us in even more detail in those passages. We just read we realize

How unbelievable this person was and how important of a purpose he served now. Let me ask you guys.

What is the purpose exactly? of a forerunner Why did

Jesus need or ordain he he needed it because he ordained it

Uh, but why did he ordained? Why did he ordain this person that being john the baptist to come and prepare this way

Why did Jesus need a forerunner in order to come into the world and then to ultimately begin his ministry?

What do you guys think? Obviously he's very important. He's prophesied of at least twice in the old testament the isaiah passage.

We just read malachi as well I believe in one other place at least and then The descriptions we just read from jesus himself and matthew and then just the story of john the baptist in luke chapter one

Obviously it's amazing. But why was it needed? I don't think god ever has

I'm, not so sure that there was just one purpose Man was giving was given a warning so there's accountability

Okay, I that's an interesting thought and the first thing you said a second ago about You know there being multiple purposes

I agree with that right off the bat There was one thing that came to mind when I thought about this You added something different and that was he was he was preaching

And preparing this remnant we referenced just a minute ago But not only for the remnant but so that the rest of the people hearing him

Could be held accountable by the words that john the baptist was preaching as he was ministering and baptizing

Um, so yes, it was a two -edged sword in that in that degree He was there to prepare to he was there to to preach these things and Warn everyone of who was about to come so that they could be held accountable on either side of that.

Yeah pop up Of course

Yeah I I would 100 agree with that the fulfillment of the prophecy is so specifically laid out in malachi as in isaiah um

That was a huge a huge part of it as well So then I might ask and just as kind of an addition to my first question

So what was the purpose of those prophecies being made that ultimately? Were fulfilled dad you have your hand up back there

Okay Yes For sure so he's there there was roughly 400 years

Between malachi and now john the baptist who's on the scene We just read about his grand introduction into this world both in conception in the womb and as a child

And he's there to point people to the messiah Because of those years centuries of darkness and I would agree with that Wholeheartedly as well.

Does anyone have any other thoughts they want to throw out? Well, oh go ahead dad

Sure interesting in the manner of elias, yeah

Yeah in that passage we read just a minute ago and what dad was saying if for those who might not have been able to hear is that the fulfillment of those prophecies were for The people were for the israelites to see

And know that the time has come they were waiting for a light elijah and dad mentioned that every time they did the passover feast

During that the week of passover, they would make an extra plate to to I suppose be a foreshadowing of elijah returning

From their perspective and jesus in that matthew passage We read just a minute ago specifically mentioned how this this great prophet greater than a prophet has come in the manner

Of elias, which was the reference to that. So oh, yes, I would agree that that's another tremendous purpose.

Go ahead Yes Three witnesses that he's in society.

Wow That's amazing. So dad was saying that Uh, you you said it requires at least two witnesses, right?

to to make something official and that john the baptist played a big role in the

Could we call it the ordination of jesus's ministry maybe like when he was baptized because that's when his ministry started

Yeah and so john, the baptist not only baptized jesus, but he was there as a witness as well of the official start of jesus's ministry on earth

In addition to the holy spirit who appeared as a dove and the father himself who were another two witnesses that were validating

Jesus is not only his ministry, but him as a messiah as well So all that's amazing.

I would agree 100 with everything that was pointed out there the first thing that came to my mind Because i'm thinking malik i'm thinking in the context of malachi context of malachi

What is the purpose of a forerunner? And i'll go back to what the first thing mimi said obviously there were multiple purposes that were fulfilled um

And multiple purposes that god ordained for john the baptist to fulfill in having a forerunner come before him but think about another purpose being

The way the jews were messing everything up at this time the israelites were messing everything up They had done so pretty thoroughly throughout the old testament.

But again, we're in malachi. Here they are. It's the end of the old testament and It's just sin run rampant total irreverent worship

Everything is messed up defiled sacrifices divorce for pagan women fornication idolatry

A number of these things are happening And not only are those happening, but you also have the priests again deliberately messing stuff up and as we know because When the when the pharisees show up, we know that how much did they add to god's word

In order to be quote unquote saved. How much did they add? and require of the people

To be righteous in their eyes not in god's but in the pharisees eyes for 400 years they are setting up these obstacles these hindrances for the people

And try and of course we know We battle not against flesh and blood but against principalities powers in high places and That is that has been a truth since the beginning not just Because paul said it not just in paul's time and moving forward that has been true

Just as god is immutable in all of his perfect infallible attributes. The devil is also immutable in his wickedness and um, he was there using

The israelites and the priests and eventually the pharisees to try to mess everything up as much as possible and throw as many

Obstacles and hindrances in the way. Go ahead dad Yes Sure.

Yeah, troy. That's a great thought as well. Think about the remnant during the 400 years of darkness That were still anxiously waiting for these prophecies to be fulfilled um

And so knowing that john the baptist was there and doing what he was doing was also

Reviving them. So another purpose. I think what you're getting at there. Troy is uh, john, the baptist was there to revive and to um

Oh, what's the what's the word i'm looking for? Yeah, just to revive the hearts of the remnant that was there waiting

For these prophecies to be fulfilled so I would 100 agree with that as well and great point there troy um but again going back to kind of the first thing that that went into my mind because of the

Context of malachi was these obstacles these hindrances that the devil was using these people and ultimately the pharisees for To put all these out there themselves and to just mess up as much as they could in the many centuries leading up to christ coming so God ordained that he would he would um

Institute a forerunner to come in and start straightening the path start cleaning up the path of the way

And preparing the way for the king And think about it in terms of just an earthly king

Arriving on the scene There are there's a lot of preparation that takes place prior to the king.

Just you know Coming in on on his horse or whatever into into Maybe a village or whatever it may be to perhaps clean things up or to liberate

A people that are being persecuted or whatever. It may be preparation takes place right hindrances and obstacles are removed even an example of an earthly king who has his

Servants doing their work so that he can come in and fix things that was john's purpose and another one of john's purposes many purposes was cleaning it up and Again, preparing preparing the way is that is the word the phrase that's used multiple times

In the old and new testament in the prophecies of him and as he Came on the scene for the first time

He was cleaning up the mess Of the israelites for 400 years and really more than that But just if we use malachi as our starting point into those 400 years of darkness he was there to clean it up straighten the path and Prepare for the king to show up on the scene to do the actual work of liberating the people under being persecuted so That's john the baptist and we get a really cool

Prophecy of him here in our passage in our in our book of malachi In the first half of that verse, but then the second half

Talks about a totally different person after the preparation by god's messenger john the lord then

Himself appears in his temple go back to malachi 3 And let's read just the second half of that first verse one more time.

We're almost done here Um Again malachi 3 1 but specifically the last the second half of that verse

After it talks about and prophesies about john the baptist. It says in the lord whom ye seek

So we're talking about the messiah himself He shall suddenly come to his temple

Even the messenger of the covenant Whom ye the light in Behold, he shall come in the lord.

I'm sorry. He shall come saith the lord of hosts now Malachi is going to be talking about jesus's second coming pretty soon

We'll get to that next week However, I believe this first verse is specifically talking about what we know as kind of the history of number one

The preparation done by john the baptist we covered that but also number two jesus's first advent here on earth

I believe that that the second part of verse one there Is specifically talking about jesus's first coming.

He will suddenly come to his temple The messenger of the covenant that you delight in he shall come now malachi's two preceding kind of um,

Uh Well the two preceding sections before this where he's rebuking first the priests

Then the people calling out all their sins calling out what they're doing wrong Um when they question it god elaborates even more

That's what was happening in the two previous sections where Malachi is is identifying these problems in in the problems in the practice remember when he was talking about the priest

Specifically their problems in temple worship So now it's saying that he shall come to his temple suddenly

So malachi has already pointed out a series of problems in the practice of their temple worship So now the coming of the lord to his temple would certainly answer the questions about his justice that they asked about In that previous chapter in the in the very previous verse before the one we just read

These wicked people in chapter 2 verse 17 They asked again

Uh, wherein have we wearied him Well, you can't tell me that's not going to be addressed when he shows up suddenly in his temple, which he did in his first coming preached to them and even specifically

Told them about these prophecies being fulfilled that day now it wasn't in totality because we know he closed the book prior to the day of vengeance, but He arrived at their temple

He told them who was there and Any question of Uh, you know, how have we wearied you?

That certainly that certainly was addressed in part during his first coming and we know that There was at least one time where he acted in righteous anger toward the defilement of the temple uh, the the very

What what i'm getting at here is the very uh defilement of the sacrifices the very irreverence of the temple worship that was happening in malachi

It was still happening by the time jesus came the first time And it says here malachi warns them.

He says he shall suddenly come to his temple The very messenger of your covenant that ye delight in he will come

And jesus did come he ended up preaching in their temples. He ended up Rebuking them for the

Worldliness they were bringing into the temple You know y 'all remember of course all they were the commerce that was taking place in god's house

But also rebuking the pharisees in their biblical extra biblical teachings And all this stuff jesus fulfilled this in in a large part during his first coming here um, and so certainly

You know that took place but also think about again think about the context we're in in malachi

In this prophecy that is now taking place where it says he will arrive suddenly in his temple think about how ominous and how

Possibly scary that must have been certainly should have been for these priests at this time

They're being called out On everything they're doing wrong in the temple and now they are being told suddenly

The lord whom ye delight in The very message of your covenant is going to arrive and appear in the temple in these very temples that you are defiling

So think about the ominous tone behind that prophecy of malachi right there In warning them of what was to come and not only was it a warning

But again from the human viewpoint they had plenty of time to clean all this junk up didn't they centuries before this actually happened and It's kind of crazy.

It's a great example of how god's timetable To from our perspective can sometimes seem like he's just taken way too long and just like 400 years

But it was still suddenly when it actually ended up happening, right? Totally absolutely threw them for a loop.

Go ahead. Mimi For the word that's used there for suddenly I can't remember what it is, but it also means surprisingly, right?

And sometimes that's certainly the connotation It's not because we weren't warned it's not because we didn't see something

It's because we didn't pay attention and that we didn't prepare but not paying attention is the beginning of that and then

Suddenly surprisingly the time has come and i'm not ready, right? And they certainly weren't

So yeah, they were surprised they were very surprised and It they they were rebuked

And the the rebuke of what we're getting here in malachi Continued centuries later.

It was a continuation of that rebuke And ultimately which we'll get to next week um

It begins to shift to talking about the next time jesus comes and We'll see that there's even still a continuation of his cleansing if you want to put it in in those terms

Of this mess that they have created here in malachi um

So i'll end it with verse one for today I mean I I wanted to take the time to talk about john the baptist and his role and And some of the things that were said about him at the beginning of his ministry

Which was there to prepare for jesus's ministry um, but we're about to to see some really interesting stuff because this little parenthetical like I mentioned the beginning that we're getting here in malachi

I believe it's the first six verses of this chapter before it resumes Talking about the sins of the people there's a lot covered

About jesus's first coming that we talked about today, but also his second we'll get to that next week I'll end with this note.

It's really interesting um that it's interesting to note that the phrase the messenger of the covenant when it says

In in in verse one there even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in It's the only time in the whole bible that particular phrase is used um and It's a neat phrase because it reminds us that jesus was not only the originator of the covenant but Also the messenger of the covenant the one delivering the good news

Of the covenant that he made with his people now. I know that in this context of malachi. It was a different covenant um

It was the mosaic covenant um but when you think about When you think about the way that jesus that the lord has

Acted throughout the dispensations. Obviously. He has made more than one covenant. Um, but the the pinnacle

Was ultimately the the abrahamic covenant because that's the one that was extended throughout the ages

It includes us at this time That he's not only the originator of these covenants

But he's the messenger of these covenants as well If that's true for the covenant referenced here in malachi

It's certainly true for every other covenant that he has made with his people Um, he himself he takes it upon himself to be the very messenger of the very covenants that he made with his people so I thought that was kind of neat and uh

Again, it's the only phrase in the whole bible where that is used but it is certainly true Do y 'all have any other thoughts or comments before we close it out today?

Well, it could be now the only reason I say, uh, because I mean it's it's just It's just thrown in there

The lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple and in malachi is just referencing the person. He's not really talking about a

He didn't elaborate on which covenant he's talking about He's just talking about a person and he uses this phrase almost as a title

He says even the messenger of the covenant this person whom ye delight in he shall come

It could very well be talking about the abrahamic covenant Yes, so it's most likely what he was talking about No that that's a good point and and honestly

I didn't even I didn't even I mean just for sure Well, and in the abrahamic covenant was still in play here.

I mean, oh, yeah it's always been in play and so Uh, yeah,

I mean dad That's a good point because I wasn't even thinking about which covenant he may have been referencing other than it's

I just thought it was a cool thought that he is the maker but also the messenger of his own covenants but Yeah, what covenant is he talking about?

uh The abrahamic covenant was made with jesus present between jesus and the father jesus

Is the one that covered? abraham for falling short On his part of the deal.

Remember he was put to sleep and jesus said as brother myron puts it I will

Look like this animal the the slaughtered animal that they circled. I will I will do that if he messes up and uh and so This could not only be referencing the abrahamic covenant as it was at this time in history in malachi

But also a prophecy as dad put it of the new covenant Where the when the sacrifice has been made where we can be brought in under that exact same covenant

The two are Meaning meaning the abrahamic covenant and the new covenant It's the and it's this is are they linked are they the same thing?

Right so dad dad said they're linked and then they are in stark contrast with the law of moses which jesus himself points out

Very cool stuff You y 'all have any other thoughts? We have about three minutes

Yeah Well I mean and it's really it's relatively brief and we've read luke one a million times but You know, there's always stuff that you you see and it just really popped this time.

I'm like wow, you know These were some really awesome people. Um, not only were from the line of aaron and Zacharias himself was a priest but in god's eyes, they were righteous blameless and Kept all of his commandments and ordinances

Really really cool stuff. John the baptist is One of my favorite people, uh, you know to learn about and so it's neat that his parents were such special people as well

Uh, yeah guys, we'll end it at verse one today again next week starting in verse two

It gets really interesting because malachi takes the the prophecy of jesus's coming and just like isaiah did combines the two comings the first and the second seamlessly

Because in god's eyes it truly is and and as he as he spoke through the mouths of these prophets one grand event

And uh and malachi fleshes it out in in some really neat, uh Really neat detail and again, it's in the context of the sins of his people.

Yeah, dad Oh sure, I was uh dad wanted me to mention that we are going to uh be a

Little bit more precise in terms of our schedule of services We're going to be you know work really hard to get sunday school started right at 10 on the dot which we did today um

And finish about 10 till which we are creeping up on um to give us time in between services so we can begin the main service right at 11 on the dot so um

From starting today and moving forward. We're going to be doing that and There you go.

Matt. Can you dismiss us in prayer real quick? Lord jesus. Thank you for bringing speak to each of us individually

Through your word and the messages today lord. We have to stand in your name protect Us coming into church and going home.