God's enduring love for Israel, despite their questioning and spiritual apathy, is the central theme in the passage on Malachi 1. The message highlights how the priests offered polluted sacrifices and despised God's name, prompting God to question their honor and fear. The sermon contrasts God's faithfulness with Israel's unfaithfulness, emphasizing that God's love is not based on Israel's merit but on His sovereign choice, as seen in the distinction between Jacob and Esau. It concludes by urging listeners to offer God their best, not corrupted or second-rate offerings, and to recognize His greatness among all nations, particularly the Gentiles, who are embracing His name.
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We're going to read from the book of Malachi. That's very easy to find. That's the last book in the Old Testament, the book of Malachi. I have a friend in Birmingham, Alabama, and I always think of him when I read Malachi. God saved him out of a rough drinking life. And he had a great desire to serve the Lord. He didn't know anything about the Bible. And somehow he got attached to some church and they gave him a job of leading a Bible class. And he thought he'd take for his study the book of Malachi. But he'd never heard anybody say Malachi. So he called it Malachi. And so Sunday after Sunday he said, we're going to read from Malachi chapter one, Malachi chapter two.
And about the third week one of the fellows in the class said, you know, he said, you don't pronounce that right. It's Malachi, not Malachi. Well, you didn't know he'd never heard. And I never forget it. Malachi is. He's a wonderful man. And he worked in the downtown mission. He's the superintendent of the Jimmy Hill downtown mission at Birmingham and Devon. He really gives his life to the Lord. And he did, he made a wonderful experiment. He went off on a vacation. He took a busman's holiday, you know. went up in the north and wherever he went he called at the downtown mission to see how they run them.
And he called around by one downtown. He was dressed rather roughly, you know, so nobody would know it. And he was down in the center of one city up in the north and he saw kind of a bummed looking felon. He said, say, John, could you tell me where we can get a bite to eat? Well, he said, yeah. You want to go down the mission? But he said you better get there pretty early because the attorney out of it if you don't get there early. He said, be careful. So he went down there and he got in the line, you know.
And the superintendent of the mission said, Jim, who are you? What do you want here? And you know he wouldn't let him in. And Leo learned a great lesson. He couldn't let him in. What do you want here? And then he said he went to another town. He went to the mission, all dressed in a ragged way. And the director of the mission came out, put his arms around him, pulled him in, gave him a good dinner, took him up to bed. And he said at midnight, he came around and tucked all the men in bed. and saw they were comfortable for the night.
Leo said, I learned lots of lessons about running a downtown mission in my busman's holiday. Just going around to the mission and seeing how they'd do it, you know. A wonderful man, Leo Shapuri, an Italian, and God saved, and he's done a great job with him. Malachi chapter one, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, says the Lord. Yet ye say, Whereliness thou lovedest. Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Whereas Edom says, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places. Thus, says the Lord of hosts, they shall build. that I will throw them down. And they shall call them the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord has indignation forever. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the borders of Israel. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear?Seth the Lord a host unto you.
O priest that despise my name, and ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say the temple of the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and the 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 hosts? And now I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us. This hath been by your means. Would he regard your person, saith the Lord of hosts?
Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught? Neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for naught. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts. Neither will I accept your offering at your hand. For from the rising of the sun, even to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye have profaned it, that he say the temple of the Lord is polluted. The table of the Lord is polluted. And the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
He said also, Behold, what a weariness it is. And he hath snuffed at it, said the Lord, a host. And he brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick. Thus she brought an offering. Should I accept this at your hand, said the Lord. But curse be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male, and boweth and sacrificed unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. May God bless the reading of his word. Shall we shake his face? Blessed Lord, we ask thee now that as we open this little book, so little known by us, so obscure, we ask thee, Lord, that the Holy Spirit might take these words and apply them to us in this our day and use this evening's message for thy glory.
We seek thy blessing in our Savior's precious name. Amen. Now I've been considering for some time something we could have for a series on Sunday nights. We've been talking for a long time about the great things which happened when God saved us. And I think we spoke maybe fourteen times on things that happened the moment I was saved. And there are many more we could talk about. But I thought probably it's wise to change over And some have asked me if we couldn't do some studies in the minor prophets, saying the minor prophets are neglected. We don't know much about them. We don't read them. We don't study them. And we don't. And they're a little obscure.
I suppose there are very few of us that could quote the minor prophets, starting with Daniel and going right through to Malachi without making a mistake. We can quote the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, and so on. But the Old Testament, this part of it is kind of neglected. And yet there were wonderful truths. I remember, I think it was four years ago about, we did take some studies here at Sunday nights in the book, The Prophecy of Ozare. And we went right through Ozare, taking a chapter a night here on the Sunday night. Maybe five years ago, I forget. I know I have all the talks, which I think we all enjoyed at the time.
And I did and learned many lessons myself. But I thought it might be wise for, as the Lord gives us opportunity, to look at this little book, Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament. Now we have to portray, we have to take our minds and portray them right back through the years. Four hundred or more years, four hundred years before Christ. So we're going back something like two thousand five hundred, four thousand four hundred years. back in the days when the great temples in Greece were not yet built. The Acropolis and the Pathanon and the Temple of Jupiter and all those wonderful things that we look at as monuments today.
They were built about three hundred and fifty, three hundred, three hundred and fifty years before Christ. But this goes back before that. Israel had been in captivity. Israel, because of her sin, has been taken away into Babylon. And when I say Israel, I mean Judah, because Israel, the ten tribes were taken away previous to that. Taken away north, up through Syria, away up there, and they're gone. The day will come when God will restore them. God knows where they are. We don't. But God is going to bring them all together again for his millennial kingdom. But they were taken away by the king of Assyria. because of their sin.
And then years after, Judah, the southern kingdom, was taken away captive into Babylon. And they were there seventy years. It's very significant. Let's look at the very last chapter of Chronicles, Second Chronicles chapter thirty-six, just for one little thought there. Second Chronicles chapter thirty-six. She says in verse... Fifteen.
The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up at times and sending, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling faith. But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees. who flew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age, he gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all the palaces thereof with fire and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried him away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia. Now look at verse twenty-one. This is what I wanted to read. To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land of had enjoyed her Sabbath. For as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill three score and ten years. God had given a rule to his people Israel that they could plow their land six years.
But the seventh year was the Sabbath. Just as they had to keep the Sabbath day, they also had to keep a Sabbath for their land. And they could plow the land and sow their seed and use the land six years, and then they had to leave it idle for one year. The land had to have a Sabbath in red. But in their greed to make money, in their greed to have more crops and to produce more, they didn't observe God's rule for a period of something like four hundred and ninety years. They didn't keep the Sabbath. And God put them into captivity seventy years. That was one year for every one, one year for every seven of the four hundred and ninety years they didn't keep God's law.
And so it says, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbath. For as long as she laid it at it, she kept Sabbath to fulfill three scores and ten years. And when that period was up, you know the story. God brought some of them back, not all of them. Some were mingled among the Chaldeans and the Babylonian people. But a remnant came back. A remnant came back. and they built the wall around Jerusalem, and they built the temple, and they set up the temple worship. Now, just about this time, Malachi comes on the scene.
We know nothing at all about Malachi. Most of the prophets, you look at Hosea, and I'll just give you how he introduces himself, Hosea. He says, the word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beirut, In the days of Uzziah, Job from Heaz and Ezekiah, kings of Judah, in the days of Jehovah, the son of Joash, king of Israel. What an introduction to a prophet. Gives his genealogy, gives the kings that were reigning when he lived, but for Malachi not one word. Not one word. In fact, there's some Bible students who think that Malachi only means a message. His name means Jehovah's Messenger.
And some think it's just a message and not a prophet. I personally think there was a prophet called Malachi who lived at this time. We don't know anything about his father or his parents or his genealogy, but he was a messenger of God. He was really a type of John the Baptist. Look at chapter three. Chapter three of Malachi says, Behold, I will send my messenger. and he should prepare the way before me and the Lord whom I seek shall suddenly come to his temple. John the Baptist was the one referred to in chapter three and Malachi was something like him. He was Jehovah's Messenger. That was the meaning of his name, my Messenger. And he comes with a great message from God.
He came with in a time when there was some restoration. Of course there had been a terrible time as I read. The temple was destroyed and the city destroyed and everybody taken into captivity. but now there was some measure of restoration. The wall was built, the temple was built, and those that came back were back in the land and back in the city of Jerusalem, and the form of worship was set up under the Mosaic rule, and they had the offerings going on and the sacrifices and so on in the temple, and there was a priesthood. I take it, still the sons of Aaron were doing their work as priests. Now, this setting kind of parallels our setting today if we go to what prophecy we've got in the Bible about our day and that's Revelation chapters two and three there we get the seven letters to the seven churches and we I think all agree that these seven letters are really a prophetic history church history and they tell us what was going to happen to the church down through the years and we get down to in
chapter three to the church of Philadelphia which was a very progressive church a time of revival to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write these things said he that is holy and he that hath the king of David he that openeth and no man shuteth and shuteth and no man openeth I know thy works behold I have set before thee an open door and no man shall shut it and it was back in that period in the last century when the door was opened to the gospel and the great big missionary societies came into being and missionaries went out to all the world. Behold, I've set before thee an open door. We think that's the period referred to in the letter to the church at Philadelphia.
And he says, because I have kept the word of my patience, I will keep thee from the hour of temptation. which have come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. We don't think that these who act like this in this Philadelphia church are going through the Great Tribulation. God's going to keep them from it. But it's near the end. There's one more church. There's one more letter, the seventh letter, to the angel of the church at Laodicea. And that was a lukewarm, cold church. And the Lord says of it, I would like to spew thee out of my mouth. You're neither hot nor cold. You're no good. You say you're rich and increased with goods and knoweth thou not thou poor and wretched and naked.
That was Laodicea. That's where we live today. That gray missionary age is passing away. The time when the missionaries went out, when you and I were children, and the message was going out, through it, going out to the world today. But the enthusiasm... and the fervor and the tremendous missionary effort. Generally, I don't mean by just a few evangelical churches, but I mean generally by the people of God. It's died, and today we live in a modernistic age. Today we're living in an age when they say God is dead. And we don't believe in the gospel, and we don't believe in the Bible, and we take the Bible out of the schools, and we live without God.
We're in the layer of the sin period. And this kind of parallels what we're talking about. in Malachi, they'd got back. The great revival had taken place. They'd come back, they'd built the temple, they'd set up the temple worship, but the priests weren't doing their job properly. And through Malachi, God speaks to the priests and he condemns them. And he tells these priests that they're only hypocrites and they're not doing the job he gave them to do. And you know they're quite arrogant about it. They didn't want to listen to the voice of Malachi. And eight times they argued with him. Let me read you. He says, verse two of chapter one, I have loved you, said the Lord.
Listen to their answer. Ye say, Whereinest thou lovedest? They are arguing about God's love. Look at chapter verse six. O priest that despised my name, and ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Verse seven, ye offer polluted bread upon my altar. And ye say, Wherein have we offered polluted bread? Look at chapter two and verse seventeen, verse fourteen, verse thirteen, and believe me, verse fourteen, ye say, Wherefore God is...
telling them of their shortcomings, and they say, Wherefore, they're arguing with God. Get over to verse seventeen of chapter two. You have wearied the Lord with your words, and ye say, Where did he wearied me? Look at chapter three and verse seven. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the Lord. And ye say, Wherein shall we return? And verse eight. Will a man rob God? Yet you've robbed me, but ye say, where in have we robbed God? Eight times they argue with God. The prophet Malachi is bringing home their shortcomings and their failings, and they flip-shod, wishy-washy way.
They're doing God's word, a work, the half-hearted way. They're doing the service of God, and they begin to argue and say, oh, you. Who says we've done all this? You know, when God speaks, we can't argue. We can't say to God, why hast thou done this? Can't be done. He's the maker, the creator. We have to bow to him. More than that, we will believe in him. He's our Lord and Master. We don't argue. There's one thing that struck me listening. Oh, I listened a little bit to that recent terrible thing that's been going on in that great inquiry, but There was one witness in the witness box and they asked him, you have been twenty-six years in the Navy, yes.
And he said, when you received a command in the Navy, did you obey it? He said, yes, sir. When the Admiral said, do this, we say, aye, aye, sir. Aye, sir. That means I'm going to do it. He said, that's the Navy. I go and do the job. And when God gives us an order, It's I, sir. We're going to do it. But these priests said, oh, no, we can do it our way. And that's not God's way. No, I feel there are lessons for you and me. There are lessons for part of the problems. If we're going to make success of this for God, we've got to take God's word and learn God's lessons. Verse two, I have loved you, says the Lord. But ye say wherein has thou loved us?
I don't know. I don't think there's anyone here tonight. It would kind of break my heart if I thought there was anyone here tonight that could look up to God and say, Wherein is thou lovedest? After the hour we spent around the Lord's table this morning, and we went back to those scenes of Calvary and saw our Lord and Master the Lord Jesus hanging on that cross with a love which can't be measured. You asked me the question, Wherein is thou lovedest? I know, Lord, where you loved me. And that place called Calvary outside the city wall. That's where you loved me. And that's where you shed your precious blood and died for me.
Whereinest thou loved us? The Lord loved us when he gave his life a ransom for us. And what can we say? We don't say whereinest thou loved us. We bow adoringly at his blessed feet and say, Lord, like Paul did, what would thou have me to do? That's the answer. What would thou have me to do? But the prophet is coming to them and he's saying, He's loved you with an everlasting love. And you were saying, When did he love us? Now, of course, Calvary hadn't yet taken place. Hadn't yet taken place. But he loved them when he brought them out of Egypt. He said, Boy, I found you in a waste and howling wilderness. I didn't set my love upon you because you were the greatest of all nations.
You were the fewest of all nations. But I chose you, says God, because I love you. What's that? Deuteronomy seven, I think. I chose you because I loved you. And that's why he chose you and me. Now we can't argue with God. We can't say to God, why did you choose me? The purposes of election, the plans and purposes of God. We can't argue about them. We have to bow our heads in adoration and worship at all God's plans. Let's read it. Was not Esau Jacob's brother, said the Lord, yet I loved Jacob.
Now there are many sitting here tonight, and you've got brothers and sisters, not saints. And they're your brothers. And you can say, was that my brother? Yes, Lord, he was my brother. But somehow... In thine infinite wondrous plans and arrangements, you love me. You love me and gave yourself for me. And you saved me. God in his infinite grace came and met us where we were and saved us. Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, yet I loved Jacob. God set his love on Jacob. And tell you what, if I'd been choosing, I wouldn't have chosen Jacob. God knew more about Jacob than I did, because I wouldn't have chosen him.
Of all the twisters and supplanters and fixtures in all the Bible, I think Jacob beats them all. He teaches his father, he teaches his father-in-law, he teaches everybody. And God said, I set my love on him. And you and I can't say one word because we're all sinners. Born in sin and shape and iniquity, and he said his love on us. Esau, Jacob, if I love, Esau, I hate it. I can't argue with God. I can't say when is thou love me and not love my brother. I can't do it because he's God. But the prophet is getting home to them and saying, God loves you. Jacob, he loves you. Then he takes up the question of Esau. Esau, of course, went his way and Esau built that grave.
They became the Edomites, you know. The Edomites built that grave, fortress there, and in the rock. But God destroys them. I laid his mountain and his heritage waste. for the dragons of the wilderness. That's what God did with Esau and did with Edom. Whereas Edom says we are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places. God says, no, you won't. You think you're going to build it up your way? It'll never be done again. He says, thus says the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw it down. They shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord hath in remission forever.
Edom tried to build without God. And God says, you build, but I'll break it down. This is where we live today. All around us, there's this kind of Edom thing. We're building up our own religions. We're building up our own organizations. And we're building it our way. God says, you build it, I'll tear it down. Don't worry. There's only one way. My way. And my way is the way of love. My way is the way of Calvary. My way is the way of the class. My way is not by men's wisdom. I have no confidence in the wisdom of men at all. Man by wisdom knew not God.
But after that in the wisdom of God, men by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And this is where we are cast back upon the love of God. And Malachi comes and says, Jehovah loves you. They said, when did he love us? What an awful thing for a priest to say. Some are passing through tribulation. Darkness, sorrow, pain. Some, as you look back at the paths of life and you wonder, how did I get where I am?
And you say to yourself, did God do this? Did God love me? Well, beloved, don't let us ever say this. You can ask yourself this question. Was I in a will? Was I in God's plan and God's will for me? We can plan our own ways and plan our own life and go our own way and then we find ourselves into trouble. But don't turn around and say to God, why did you do this? We did it ourselves. Well, how many disasters we've seen, because people will not obey the word of God. When the sick young people, and God says, thou shalt not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, and a young man, a Christian, marries a girl that's not saved.
Or some Protestant boy goes and marries a Roman Catholic girl. I tell you, you can't get blessing that way. That's not God's way. God's way is the way of obedience. And when they get in an awful muddle and can't get out and they want to do and talk about divorce and all this, they say, has God done this for me? No, God didn't do it. You did it yourself. If you'd gone his way, it never would have turned out this way. If you'd commit to his will and his plan and be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, it'll all work out all right. But if you go your way, it's going to go wrong. And so they say, when did God love us? And there's some people.
who've known the love of God and they've gone their own road and they say, I don't know much about the love of God in my life. I'd like to get back to where we were this morning as we stood here this morning. I tell you where you can learn the love of God. If you come together on the first day of the week and spend an hour in remembrance of his beloved son, he hung upon Calvary's cross and worship him in loving remembrance, that brings you back to the love of God. And that's why he gave us that institution week by week to bring us back to that eternal love of his at the place called Calvary. The burden of the Word of the Lord.
Oh, look at this first verse. The burden of the Word of the Lord. God has a burden. God has his people down here on earth. And he's burdened with them because they're not going his way. The burden of the Word of the Lord by Malachi, the prophet. The Lord, to Israel by Malachi, I have loved you, says the Lord. And that's what he's saying to you and me tonight. I have loved you. I've come my way. And all will be well. Verse five. And your eyes should see. And ye shall say. The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel. Jacob, if I love. Esau, if I hate it.
And Esau, the enemies were pulled right down. But not so, Israel. He said his love on Israel. He said, God's going to be magnified in the borders of Israel. Oh, I think I can see a little bit of prophecy here. And I think the prophet can look ahead here. And he says, your eyes should see. And he's looking ahead, I think, to that wonderful day when Israel shall fill the world. And when the Lord is going to reign at Jerusalem. And there will be peace throughout all Israel. And peace throughout all the world. And its people be in their right place. You know, when Israel is in the right place in the world, all is well with the world. It's when Israel has got away from God that things go wrong with the world. Thank God they're getting back.
They're not going back the right way. They're going back without God. They're going back in unbelief. But that's what the Scripture said would happen until the Lord Jesus reveals himself. And then, of course, they'll say, as they look upon him, what are these marks in thy hands? And he'll say, well, those are the marks I received at the house of my friends. And suddenly, like when Joseph was revealed to his brethren who hated him and sold him to the Ishmaelites, suddenly they'll realize what they've done. And they'll bow at his feet in sorrow and humiliation. And Israel will confess that they've rejected and crucified the Messiah. And then he has set up his kingdom and reign over them, just like Joseph did and protected his people in Israel so long ago.
Your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the borders of Israel. What a wonderful day is coming from Israel. When God is going to be magnified through the borders of Israel. Verse six, a son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is mine honored? God is saying to them, Now the scripture says, Honor thy father and mother. And there's more depth in that word honor than just being respectful to the men. The word honor in the Bible, if you follow it through, the honor means support them, give to them. When it says that a servant is worthy of double honor, it means he should have a double reward.
I mean a financial reward. And honor thy father and mother means that you should support. How different things are today. I was reading the article in the paper the other morning of a girl and their parents, a girl I think of sixteen, their parents gave her seven hundred dollars. Said this is for a year. And she came back in three months and said, it's all gone. I gave this hippie something, and I gave this fellow something, and I bought all these clothes and a car, and I got nothing left. That's not how the Bible puts it. The Bible puts it that the parent, the children, you know, should honor their parents. I remember when I first went to work, many years ago, I got my first week's salary. Over in England, it was four shillings.
And in American currency at that time, that was eighty cents. That was my first week's pay, eighty cents. And I took it on. What do you think I did with it? I gave my mother seventy cents and kept it ten myself. So I learned that from the Bible. Honor thy father and mother. I didn't expect them, when I got old enough to look out to myself. I expected my job was to help support them. And God says to them, A son honors his father. Now if I, and a servant is master. If I be your father, where is my honor? God saves them. What are you giving to me? You're saying, Where in his God loved us, but what are you doing?
Where is my honor? If I'm the father, what are you giving to me? What honor are you giving to me? If I'm a master, where is my fear? A master has to be obeyed and feared. I don't mean to be afraid of, but in reverence and fear, you serve a master and do what he tells you to do. And God says, if I'm your master, where's your reverence to me? Where's your fear to me? I'm the master. You're doing just what you want to do. I tell you, the Lord Jesus Christ is our master. We can't do what we want to do. It can't be. We've got to do what he wants to do. And God said, if I be your master...
And if I'm your father, where's the honor? Where's the fear? Old priest, he says, you despise my name. And then they turn around in arrogance and they say, wherein have we despised thy name? You see, they're questioning God all the time. They want to do it their way and they're saying, not your way, God. Where are we dishonor things? Where have we not feared thee? Where have we despised thy name? And God says, this is a burden on me. I'm a people of my own down there, and I set my love, my eternal love upon them, and they're not going my way, and I'm burdened.
Don't you think that God looks down upon this Laodicean church today, he hasn't got a burden? I do. And as everybody's going their own way, and this man gets up and they say, go this way, and that way, and we make a new denomination here, and a new denomination there, Oh, dear dear, he must be burdened. And he got an argument for everything. Ye have offered polluted bread upon mine altar, and he said, Where in have we polluted thee? God wanted the best. Shall I ask a question? Let me ask my heart a question. Am I giving God my best? He wants the best. Nothing polluted. He said, you've offered polluted bread on my altar.
I don't want polluted bread. I want the pure, holy, right thing. Let's search our hearts tonight. Don't let's go and say, well, we polluted things. Why isn't God pleased with what I'm doing? We cannot question God. We have to listen to his word and do what he tells us. They say the table of the Lord is contemptible. The table of the Lord is contemptible. And he offered the blind for a sacrifice. Is it not evil? What they were doing, instead of taking the very best, the sacrifice in Israel had to be the very best, the lamb without blemish and without spot. And they were offering blind animals and lame animals, sick animals.
He said, suppose you offer that to the governor, verse eight, offer it now to thy governor. See if he's going to be pleased with it. A governor that's set up over you. What will he do if you give him something polluted? He won't accept it. God says, why give it to me then? Who let's search our hearts? What are we doing at Park of the Palms? Are we giving him the very best we can? All the moments of all our days, everything for him. He said, I don't want things polluted. I want the pure thing. I want your love. I want your affection. I want your labor. I want your work for me. Now I beseech you.
I pray you beseech God and he will be gracious unto us. This has been your means. Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught? Look at the position they come into. The temple doors had to be closed and they said, I'm not going to close any doors if I don't get paid for it. Who's going to close the doors for naught? Who is there to kindle the fire on my altar for nothing? They wanted to be paid to do God's service. Do you ever hear of such a thing? Oh, yes, I hear about it. All around today. A lot of people get paid to do God's service. Oh, God wants it free of charge.
God wants our service from a loving heart and a life dedicated holy to him. They said, we're not going to close the doors unless you pay us. We're not going to light the altar fire unless we get paid to do it. Oh, what religion has done in the world today, eh? How many paid servants are doing the Lord's service for pay? I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts. Neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, my name should be great among the Gentiles.
Now God's saying, All right, you Jews, I chose Jacob. I love Jacob. I set my love on him. And Jacob's rejected me. And I put you through that awful fire of persecution, seventy long years in Babylon, and now brought you back to your own land. And still you're not serving me wholeheartedly. says God, listen, Israel, you're going to be rejected, and there's a day coming when the Gentiles are coming in. We talked about it this morning. We talked about it a few weeks ago. Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. Look at it. How wonderful. From the rising of the sun, verse eleven, until the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles.
We live in an age when the gospel is preached among the Gentiles. The Jews have rejected him, and God is saving and winning a people to himself, building his church from men and women out from along the Gentiles, and his name has become gray among the Gentiles. You'll think of the letters we read the other day from T. Ernest Wilson in Angola, where he went to meet the Christians, and four hundred and fifty sitting around the Lord's table. We had seventy-two here this morning. That's the lowest number we've had this year, by the way, at the Lord's table, and that's wonderful this time of the year. But they had four hundred and fifty out in the jungle of the desert out there. God's name being praised among the Gentiles.
God says, You Jews reject me, all right. I've got others. Other sheep I have that are not of these fold. Them also I must bring. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles. And in every place incense shall be offered to my name. And a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathens. That's the Lord of hosts. And this day, from the rising of the sun, the earliest morning hours, God's people were meeting around the Lord's table, and an incense was going up, and an offering was going up. And as the sun moved on, and the hour moved later and later, an hour later, an hour later, a new group met, and a new group met.
We met here at nine o'clock, about nine this morning. Out in California, there were three hours later. and from the rising of the sun this morning until the going down of the same tonight. Twenty-four long hours, a stream of praise has gone up to God from the Gentile nations who gathered in his name to remember the Lord Jesus and to adore and worship him. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and every place incense shall be offered in my name, and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathens, says the Lord. But ye have profaned it And he say, The table of the Lord is polluted. And the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible.
He say, Behold, what a weariness it is. What a state to get in when the service of the Lord is a weariness. Isn't it awful? To be at the Lord's table. He's talking about his table here. And his holy temple. And his sacrifices. And he say, Behold, what a weariness it is. You snuffed at it, says the Lord of hosts. You brought that which was torn, the lame, the sick. You brought an offering. That's what you brought. Should I accept this of your hands, says the Lord? No, says God. I want the best, not the second best, not the lame and the poor and the blind. Verse fourteen, cursed be the deceiver, the priest who was deceiving God.
Thought he was, he couldn't deceive God. He might have deceived people. A hypocrite. He brought what did he bring? He didn't bring a mail of the first year to the Lord. That's what he should have brought. Cursed be the deceiver which has in his flock a mail. He's got the mail. And he vows and sacrifices unto me a corrupt thing. He kept the mail for himself. He kept that good animal for himself. And he offered to God a corrupt thing. For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts. And my name is dreadful among the heathens. Poor Malachi, what a message he had to bring to these priests. What a fearless man to come with a message like this from God, to search and try their hearts.
And this whole book written two thousand four hundred years ago for the prophet Malachi speaks to your heart and mind afresh in this lay of the sea and age of the church's history that we don't bring the poor stuff to God, but we bring the best. May God help us at Park of the Farmers. They've gave him all we've got. We haven't got much long to go, some of us, you know. And someone was beginning to feel that and know it that we can't go on forever. Let's give him what we got, what we can, please. Soon it'll be too late. Shall we pray? Blessed God our Father. We thank you for searching our hearts tonight. Help us in thy service to give thee our best. Help us not to give thee second place. Help us to spend more time over thy word, more time in thy presence, more time in seeking to help thy people and serve thee, Lord.
Oh, the need is so great. We commit it to thee. We pray thy blessing here on the part of the palm that this might be an ideal church where that which is offered to thee is pure and holy. And first last, oh, search our hearts, Lord. And as we further sometimes go into this wonderful study, we pray thou speak to our hearts from this great book. We ask it in the precious name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.