Malachi 1:6-14

Melachi chapter 1, verses 6 through 14. A son on earth his father and a servant is master. If then I be a father, where is my honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear? Seth the Lord of host unto you, O priest, that despise my name. And you say, wherein have we despise thy name? You offer polluted bread upon my altar. Then ye say, wherein have we polluted thee? And that ye say the table of the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee? Or accept thy person, saith the Lord of host? And now I pray you beseech God that he will be gracious unto us. This hath been, by your means, will he regard your persons, said the Lord of hosts. Who is there, even among you, that would shut the doors for naught? Neither do ye kindle fire of mine altar for naught. I have no pleasure in you, Seth. the Lord of host. Neither will I accept an offering at your hand. Or from the rising of the sun, even under the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered under my name and a pure offering. For my name shall be great among the heathen, said the Lord of host. But ye have profaned it. And that ye say the table Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible. Ye said also, behold, what a weariness is it. And yet snuffed at it, said the Lord of hosts. And ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick. Thus he brought an offering. Should I accept this of your hand? Except the Lord. But cursed it be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and valleth and sacrificed unto the Lord a corruptible thing or a corrupt thing for I am a great king said the Lord of host and my name is dreadful among the heathen. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this evening. Walter Kaiser was once a Christian educator. he and his new bride had just moved into a college, Christian college community, into a large house there, because he was going to be the house parent for 13 young freshmen at this Christian college. And he was going to be also an instructor in the Bible. He said, one night, at two in the morning, he was awakened by a church. tremendous noise coming from upstairs. Startled out of his sleep, he said he sprang to his feet to see what was the matter. Miraculously, he somehow avoided getting hit by a water trap that was set up by the boys for him on the stairwell. He emerged into the upper hallway to see 13 surprised freshmen frozen in suspended motion. There were balloons, some collapsed, some still full, all over the hall. Water was running off the ceilings and the walls, as well as the drenched students who stood before him. He blurted out, gentlemen, who did this? And all the freshmen chimed in at once. Yes, who did this? Did you do it? Did you do it? Did you do it? Nobody would admit that they were doing it. And yet the evidence was very clear. They all got caught red-handed in the process of doing this. Basically, we get the same kind of response by Malachi’s audience. Who, us? we did this? We would never do that. God says, you’ve despised my name, you’ve polluted my altar. And Israel replies, we haven’t done that. Not us. How have we done that? It’s not us. Let me, as we look at this text tonight, begin by saying this. You must be careful not to have a lack of reverence for God. In verse 6, we see here God complaining, a son honoreth his father and a servant is master. If I then be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear, set the Lord of host. Unto you, O priest. that despise my name. And you say, wherein have we despise thy name? You are to honor and fear God. If he is your father, in your master, he deserves that. God had chosen Israel to be his son and his servant, according to scripture. Election is a wonderful privilege, but it sort of has a double edge to it. If you claim to be one of God’s people, then certainly the way you treat God. You ought to reverence him is important. Sons generally honor their father. And servants generally fear their master. That seems right and proper. But God is saying, if I’m your master, if I’m your lord, as you, loudly proclaim, where’s my fear? Don’t I deserve this common respect? And if I’m on your father, as you claim, then where’s my honor? Don’t I deserve what every son gives his own father? They were professing that Jehovah was their Lord, and yet he was getting no respect. All too common occurrence, not only in the days of Malachi, but in our own day. The word fear appears in the Bible over 100 times in connection with loving and serving God. For example, in Deuteronomy 10, 12, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord, thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. The soul. is not a cringing type of fear, but a true respect and reverence for the Lord God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, according to Scripture in Proverbs 1.7. Where this is missing, have not even begun to know God. If you are saved, God deserves your honor, and He deserves your fear. fear. You are to honor and fear God. You are not to despise God’s name. He says here, you despise my name. Now this may sound a bit odd. We have to remember in biblical times, names meant something. They carried weight. God’s name stands for his very being and person. We’re talking about his character. We’re talking about his attributes. His essence, his greatness, his majesty. So when we talk about Elohim, we’re talking about God as the creator, as he’s revealed in Genesis. When we talk about Jehovah, we’re thinking of God as the Redeemer, who is indeed has husbandly love for his bride, the people of God. El Shadai refers to God as the Almighty ruler of the whole earth and so forth. God is saying you’re belittling me. You are despising my person. Of course, their arrogant reply was, what do you mean? We’re not doing that. How have we done that? You can almost see them like those freshman students with the water dripping all over the place, with water balloons still in their hand and so forth, giving the same arrogant ply. What do you mean? Who’s doing this? Did you do it? Are you doing it? Now’s a Christian today. It would be a sad thing if we as professing Christians would be despising the name of the Lord God. But you can show a lack of reverence for your Heavenly Father and you’re redeemed with the Lord Jesus Christ, and you may be thinking, oh, how have I done that? Whatever your place in the Christian community, let us note that this warning applies to you. Now, Melachi, according to verse 6, is taking dead aim at the priest. Is he not? of his day. This is a stinging indictment of the careless haphazard service they were giving God, the living God. But before you think that this is only possible and relevant then for the ministers of today, consider the text carefully. If you look at verse 14, you’ll notice that it’s enlarged to be applied to all believers, whoever makes a vow, whoever brings the sacrifice. So this is a rebuke that is applied to any and all who indulge in these practices. And it’s perfectly proper to see that what is spoken of the priest is equally true of the people. And I will remind you, as a New Testament believer, you are a priest unto God. We believe in the priesthood of believers, that they are all priests and servants of God, according to the New Testament. 1. Peter 2.9, but you are a royal priesthood. Revelation 1.6, we read that Jesus Christ has made us kings and priests unto God. So yes, we can make direct application to all of us today. So don’t think this passage has nothing to say to you. It’s for all believers. You’re God’s priests today. So you must be careful not to have a lack of reverence for God. Now, you must avoid the symptoms here of spiritual irreverence. And the first thing he mentions here is what I will call second best worship. Second best worship. Notice verse 7 and the first part of verse 8. He offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And you say, where in have we polluted thee? In that you say the table of the Lord is contemptible. Contemptible. And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? On the Lord’s table, here was no doubt the table on which the priests would slay the sacrifices for the altar that they would put on the burnt offering altar in the temple. Now frequently, these sacrifices are called the bread of God. Now, our Lord judges the gift here by what it cost the offerer rather than just the intrinsic worth. of the sacrifice itself. Malachi here is charging the people with putting something on his altar that was basically worthless. It’s not that Israel failed to give anything to God. It wasn’t that they stopped bringing sacrifices. They gave all right, but they chose to give the leftovers. They chose to give what would be worthless to them. They were offering God things they didn’t want themselves. else. The blind, the diseased, the crippled animals, we’ll give that to God. So here are the animals that the owners pleased to get rid of is what they gave. Sort of reminds me of dropping things off at the goodwill box. Those things in your house that you no longer want, maybe old clothes, you know, out of date, old-fashioned. You don’t want them. So you give them away. Now, the law of God, absolutely. absolutely forbade. The giving of an animal as a sacrifice that wasn’t perfect. If it had any blemishes, it was forbidden to give that as a sacrifice. Why? Well, because these sacrifices portrayed our Lord Jesus Christ, who’s the perfect sacrifice, who is sinless. Therefore, they were, in a way, demeaning the Messiah. that was coming. They were undermining the truth concerning him by this poor, sacrificial animal that they were giving. Now, if you give something to God, which cost you little or nothing, that’s an indication of some type of phony religion. You dare not come to God thinking anything is good enough for God, why, you ought to be thankful if I give him anything at all. He should be satisfied with him. with whatever I give him. Is that the attitude we should come to the Lord with when we sacrifice to him or we bring our offering to him? David, you recall, in 2nd Samuel 2424, said, neither will I offer burnt offering under the Lord, my God, of that which doth cost me nothing. When he bought the threshing floor, and he might stop the plague upon the nation. The owner said, I’ll just give it to you. He said, no, no, no, no, I’ll pay the full price for it. He measures out to silver, I’m not going to give God something that doesn’t cost me something. They had the opposite viewpoint. The man after God’s own heart had the right viewpoint. These people did not. What you give God may not be much in and of itself. You recall the poor widow who brought her two bites and put him in the treasury. box at the temple. And you might say, well, that’s not much compared to the rich who would stay long at the box and put in their coins. If Jesus mentions to us that it cost her dearly because it was all she had. And that’s how God looked looked on that gift. It was precious what she gave. even though it wasn’t much. it was precious. She followed the principle of Siki first the kingdom of God. But here is the attitude that we find in this text of, well, my career comes first. My leisure time comes first. God can have what’s left over. Isn’t that what we’re saying? What we ever offer to God, not in a sacrificial manner, but whatever we would serve God regarding, we’ll give them the leftovers. Christianity has cost. Jesus said we had a count the cost of following him. Don’t imagine that Christ is going to be satisfied with some poor quality leftovers of your life. If your fellowship with Christ is right, then you’ll be setting inside prime time to commune with him. You will give him the first fruits of your labors. Your devotions to him will not be the last thing on your to-do list, and your tithe will be taken out first, not last, from your paycheck. Well, if I have anything left over, I’ll give it to the Lord. Second best worship is a symptom of spiritual irreverence. Notice something else. Thoughtless worship also is. He picks it up here in the second part of verse 8 and verse 9. He says, offer it now to thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person, set the Lord of hosts? and now I pray you beseech God that he will be gracious on us. This hath been by your means. Will he regard your person, saith the Lord of us? Now, on sacrificing diseased animals, the people God weren’t even using common sense is basically what he’s telling them here. It is thoughtless ritual that they were engaging. God makes them face up to it here. You can almost hear the biting irony in God’s message here when he suggests, why don’t you give that to your governor? Why don’t you give that to the Persian ruler who is over here? See how he likes it. See if he’s going to accept your gift and be happy about it. Chances are very few would have the nerve to do something like that. And yet he says, this is the way you treat me. Because he tells us in verse 14, I am the great king. you know, if you won’t do it to the governor, remember I’m the great king. I’m not just some local ruler. You wouldn’t do it to him. Well, I’m far superior to him as your king. You can picture maybe a luxurious dining hall on the Persian governor is preparing for dinner. He’s all dressed and ready to eat. And the butler comes. comes in in the stately, in the state dining room and he has a silver covered platter. Any others the words with the compliment of the chef and pulls the cover off the platter. And upon the silver platter, there’s a stinking, festering leg of lamb crawling with maggots. How do you think that governor is going to react to that? God is saying, you respect him more than you respect me. And I’m supposed to be your God. Imagine someone writing the local or national bureau of taxes in Malachi’s Day in this manner. Dear sir, please accept this sick cow in lieu of the taxes I owe you. I trust the old bag recovers and will prove more useful to you than she has been to me. Frankly, I can’t spare anything more than this at the present time. Oh, yes. Please look after those requests I made. I trust you’ll be able to improve our local roads and upgrade the quality of our education very soon, sincerely, Mr. Israelite. How do you think that would go over? They had the audacity to do this with regard to God. Not only to bring him a terrible sacrifice, but then think that God somehow or other, well, you’ll answer my prayers and bless us. They would request the priest to interseat for them. Can you imagine the king? King of Kings and the ruler of universe being treated like this. Now, if the local ruler was going to be insulted by this kind of behavior, you can imagine what the King of Kings is going to be thinking. Now, today’s parallels are obvious. Most of us would never dare to be late for work. All possible, we’d be there on time. And yet there are people that are totally unconcerned about being punctual for the meetings of the church. You may never dare fiddle with your income tax because you fear the IRS, and yet there are people who make all kinds of compromises with their conscience with regard to what they’re going to give the Lord. You daydream maybe through the worship services, mumble the Psalms, engage in mindless prayer, and a half-hearted listening to the message of God, and then you ask God, bless me. I went to church. You live your life totally oblivious to spiritual, matters and close out the end of the day with a one-minute ditty, God bless me. You find time for what’s important, at least to you, and yet you expect God’s blessing rather or not, you’ve given him your best. Regarding your time, regarding your offering, regarding your effort. So thoughtless worship is a symptom of spiritual reverence also. Weary worship fits in the category as well. Look at verses 12 and 13. here. But you have profaned it in that ye say that table the Lord is polluted and that the fruit thereof, even his meat is contemptible. He said also, behold, what a weariness is it? And you have snuffed at it, said the Lord of hosts. And he brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick. Thus, he brought an offering. Should I accept this of your hand? Said the Lord. The pollution of worship. came only secondary to the substandard quality of their hearts and the beast that they offered here. These sacrifices were polluted, first of all, by the attitude of those who offered. God looked on the heart here. He’s going to go beyond the sacrifice now to the actual heart of these people. He says, you have snuffed at it. This is a… An ancient expression, we might put it in this, maybe like, you’ve turned your nose up at it. Sort of like that. What a weariness it is. God not only got second best offering, but the attitude was poor and what they even gave. God inspects the offer first, and then he takes consideration of the offering itself. He looks at the heart, and then he looks at the worship. You remember the first act of worship that we have recorded for us in Genesis chapter 4 with Cain and Abel. Cain came to God with the first fruits of the ground, while Abel came with the first fruits of the flock. Surprisingly, if you read the text carefully, you’ll notice in Genesis 4 that God does not focus on the difference of the offerings. Keynes wasn’t improper. The men themselves are put in the forefront. The Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering. Notice the priority there. Abel first, and then when he gave. And with regard to Cain, but under Cain and to his offering, he had not respect. God inspected the heart before he considered what is actually offered. Now, when God inspected. their heart here, even though they’re giving something poor when he looks at their heart, that’s not even right. It’s evil. Polluted offerers can defile every single act of devotion, service, gifts, and praise that they offer. Do you offer weary worship? Do you say to yourself where religious services are a bore? Sundays are a drudgery to me? Do you find joy in reading the word of God? God and having devotions? Do you sing the songs of Zion with the heart that is of deepest devotion to the Lord? Is the Lord’s Day of the Light? Do you find it a privilege to assemble with God’s people and worship and fellowship with them on the Lord’s day? Or do you turn up your nose? Why is it that people have no problems with some type of social event? like a party being extended, or a sports event going into overtime, or a play that runs long, and yet they fidget and gripe when allotted time for worship seems to run over a few minutes. When I was first got into the ministry, I actually had a man, he had the audacity to come up to me after the service. He wore a hearing aid. He said to me, he said after 15 minutes, I just turned. you off. Really? I thought to myself, any preacher that preaches more to 15 minutes that you turn them off, that’s it? What kind of worship you offering the Lord? It’s unbelievable. I was actually, I actually didn’t even know what to say. I was flabbergasted at the time. God I can accept such boredom with worship? Doesn’t it make the whole thing as stention as an nostrils. It makes them sick. God says, not only do you offer me second-rate offerings, they even find it a painful duty to do that. It’s, you know, it’s difficult for you to do that. Weary worship is a symptom of spiritual reverence. Hypocrical worship is also the same. Verse 14, but cursed it be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and vows and sacrifice on the Lord a corrupt thing, for I am a great king, said the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the evil. Now, we find people often cry out to the Lord when they’re in some type of trouble. They even make vows before God. If you just get me out of this situation, I will do this or that of the other, maybe bring a particular sacrifice. So here they are in this distress. They are in this time of difficulty, and they need help. They want to plead with God for help. God, if you’ll just get me out of this fix, I’ll sacrifice you to the very best ram I have in my flock. And God helps them. God delivers them. The trouble passes. And then the man says, in essence, oh, well, I’m sure that it would have all worked out anyway. I don’t need to keep that promise I made to God under duress. I’ll just give him a token. my appreciation. I got this sick lamb in my flock. I’m sure that’ll be enough. God calls this type of person a deceiver. You lied to me. He has substituted a cheap, a cheap imitation for a wholesome offering. You have a good, you have a good sacrifice in your flock. You could have given, but no, you won’t do it. You swindled God. You cheated him. And he is calling this hypocritical. It’s totally inexcusable, he says here. Some professing Christians talk about how much they give God. They may make much of their sacrificing for the Lord. Sometimes it’s only a matter of showmanship on their part. Privately, when the time comes to own up, they are such a people that God gets cheated. I remind you of Anonaison, in the New Testament who promised, and they said publicly that they were going to give the price of the land. Whatever they sold the land for, they were going to give it to the church to help those people who were in need at the time from all the different areas of the world who had come the day of Pentecost had been converted. They want to stay there and hear more about the word of God and be taught before returning home. So this was a means by which they would be provided for. So publicly, they had now been. just one thing, but privately, they withheld some of the money. And what happened? God struck them dead. He wasn’t happy with that. They were deceivers. So if you worship God hypocritically, it can be hazardous to your health. If you make a vow and you don’t keep it, if you speak rashly and you don’t do that, as Solomon talks about, that’s not a very wise thing to do. God’s going to hold you accountable for that. God curses you. So you must avoid the symptoms of spiritual irreverence, whether it’s second best worship, thoughtless worship, weary worship, or hypocritical worship. Sort of all fit in the same category here. Thirdly, you must recognize the danger of your reverence. You have forgotten the greatness of your God. Notice verse 11. He says, from the rising of the sun, even under the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles. And in every place shall incense be offered under my name and a pure offering. None of this corrupt offering, a pure offering, for my name shall be great among the heath of the Lord of us. Twice he tells us, my name is going to be great. And then he tells us in verse 14, I am a great king. And my name is dreadful among the heaven. and so forth. The problem that people have is you can forget the greatness of your God. You might ask, well, how on earth could these people act in this manner? And the answer is, they forgot who God was. He’s the Lord of Host. He’s the great king. The loose sight of the majesty of God. To unconsciously just go through worship and not realize his greatness puts us in a position of spiritual indifference. You remember Moses had dealings with God and he desired to see God’s glory. I beseech thee showing me thy glory, Exodus 3318. And soon afterwards Moses was given an awe-inspiring experience of actually catching sight, the hinder part, if you would, of God’s glory. God sort of hit him and he got to see the hindermost part of God. He sort of got to see the hindermost part of God. glimpse of the God who declares that he’s merciful and gracious of long suffering and abundant in goodness and mercy and he bowed down to worship. That’s the God he served. It was an exhilarating experience. His face shone with shine, with brilliance and holiness in being in God’s presence. the problem with many professing Christians today is they don’t marvel at the greatness of God that they claim that you worship. We have so belittled God. We have so taken away from who he really is. They don’t really know nothing of being in his real presence and what it’s like. Is God precious to you? Do you see in the Lord of Scripture a glorious God? Do you stand in awe when you see what he has done for you in bringing salvation through Jesus’ God? Christ? You’ve forgotten the greatness of your God. That’s a mistake. A serious one. You’ve forgotten that God can turn to others. Now, if you read verses 10 and 11, he indicates to us that while the Israelites were not behaving properly, he says to them in verse 10, who is there even among you that would shut the doors for not? neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for not, I have no pleasure in you, set the Lord of the Holy, neither why, except an offering at your hand. God confronts the Israelites with the fact that he doesn’t need them. It is a privilege for a people to be called upon to engage in the worship of Jehovah God. But if they will not worship sincerely and in truth, then God’s message is, why don’t you just shut the doors? And, go home. Padlock the door. Stop the sacrifices. Sell the building. Rather than allow this hypocrisy to continue. And then he implies here that if the Israelites don’t change, he’s going to forsake them. And he’ll raise up other people who will offer it to him pure sacrifices. If you follow along this prophecy, you noticed in the New Testament, this is exactly what happened. That the Israelites who would not receive the Messiah, who rejected the truth of God’s word, who cast aside the teaching of the law and the prophets and so forth, end up being judged by God. Christ remember said that if you won’t follow the Lord, God, God will raise up a nation that will. He will take it away from you. And he does. And what does he do? He calls it. the Gentiles, and they become his people, they are grafted in and so forth. This is what he’s talking about here in this passage of scripture. Now, God can do the same with regard to churches. He can write Ichabod, the glory of the Lord has departed over the door of the church. And if that’s the case, you know, Miles will close the doors. All your worship is in vain. He can remove the candlestick. As he tells us in a book of Revelation, the light of his presence, the illumination of the Holy Spirit from churches. And God will raise up people in the place of his apostate church members who will not worship him or right. I will raise somebody else up. God is great, and therefore he’s not to be toyed with. There is a time limit on all empty worship. And eventually God will cut it off. he will be feared by the nations, is what he tells us here, without question. Now let me close with two brief thoughts here. You must have reverence for God. Reverence should be heartfelt. It should be sincere, practical recognition of the greatness of the Lord God that you worship. All spiritual activity will quickly fossilize if indeed we are cold and are lifeless and our worship if we don’t honor and fear the Lord God. When you come to church, it’s not a matter of whether the service was novel, whether it was exciting, whether it was entertaining, whether you got the laugh, whether you had fun. Ask yourself this. When I sat and I heard the word of God, did it give me a sense of the majesty and the greatness of the Lord God? Did it give you a determination to serve him with the whole heart. Reverence begins with a recognition that there is a distance between you and God. It begins when you realize that though you were a sinner, though you are deserving of God’s wrath, yet he still loves you, and he has saved you by his grace. What a great God that is. You know, the scripture gives us a strange mixture of emotions, or at least it talks about it. Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling because of the greatness of your God. Yes, we rejoice. Yes, we serve the Lord. But there’s a sense in which we reverence because he’s so great. New Testament, Hebrews 1228, serve God acceptably with reverence in godly fear. Same idea. Let us not look at worship as a matter of entertainment, as a matter of lifeless rituals that we go through, but a time to come before. the Lord God in a special way and worship the mighty God, the great king as Scripture reveals. Christ is our great king. And then secondly, is your heart spiritually healthy? We talked about this. Unlike these Israelites, you ought to desire to serve God first. That should be the priority. Your heart needs to be right in order for your worship to be acceptable. If your heart is right, then you’re saying, I don’t only give the best to the Lord. When you’re honest offer him what’s not diseased and crippled and second rate in your life. Then you’re looking at it in the right manner. You’re saying, I want to give him the cream of the crop. The cream of my life instead of the second-hand stuff. Are you guilty of doing what these Israelites did long ago? Then you have to go to God to admit it. You have to confess it. Make it right before him. He’s a great God and Savior. He deserves your best. That’s what this text tells us. Let us take that home with us tonight. Let’s close with the word of prayer.