So shall we turn to the prophet Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament. Short prophecy, four chapters. Malachi, chapter two. And now, O ye priest, this commandment is for you. If he will not hear, if he will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, says the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn peace, and one shall take you away with it. And ye shall know, that I have sent this commandment unto you. That my covenant might be with Levi, said the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, and she turned many away from iniquity. For the priest lips shall keep knowledge, and they should seek the Lord his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But ye are departed out of the way. Ye cause many to stumble at the law. Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, that the Lord of hosts, therefore have I also made you contentful. And faith before all the people, according as ye have not kept my way, but have been partial in the law. Verse ten, Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination committed in Israel and introduced them, for Judah has profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved. and has married the daughter of a strange God. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar out of the tabernacles of Jesus, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts. And this shall be done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, with crying, with crying out, in so much that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good willeth your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore, because the Lord hath been witnessed between thee and the wife of thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant, and did not he make one? Yea, had he the residue of the Spirit? And wherefore one, that he might seek a godly seed, he might seek a godly seed, Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, says that he hated putting away, that's divorce, he hated it. And one covers violence with his garments, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit that he deal not treachery. He is weary of the Lord with your words, yet he say, Where did it be weary, he? when ye say every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and ye delighteth in them? Or, where is the God of judgment? See God bless the reading of his own word. We shall pray. Blessed God, our Father, we thank thee for the fact that every scripture, every word of scripture, all scripture is given by inspiration of God in this prophecy. And we confess to thee there are portions of thy word which we neglect. And the one we're reading tonight is one of those portions in the minor prophets which we have not read as much, as often, and studied as much as we should. And yet, Lord, thou hast tremendous lessons for us in all these little books. We pray, Lord, thou take these words tonight, thy words, from the book of the prophet Malachi, and apply them to our lives in this age in which we live. We pray, Lord, that thy word might live in our midst tonight. And speak to our hearts, we ask thee, in our saviour's precious name. Amen. Well, some I spoke here in the evening. I said that we would transcend a little while in the mind of prophets, and we started the book of Malachi. We talked about the first chapter. Malachi is a short book, four chapters, the last book in the Old Testament. We don't know much about Malachi. We don't know his genealogy. We don't know his father's name, his mother's name. He just appears on the scene, Malachi. His name means my messenger or Jehovah's messenger. Indeed, some people think that probably Malachi was not his real name. That the Malachi really in the Hebrew, I suppose, means Jehovah's messenger. Anyhow, he was a messenger from God in a critical time. We pointed out last time that Malachi lived after the restoration. That is to say, after the remnant of Judah had spent seventy years in the Babylonist captivity, after they came back from Babylon, were restored back into their own land, and the wall of the city was built, and the temple was rebuilt, and they set up the religion, their Jewish religion again, in Jerusalem. That's when Malachi lived. Malachi is the last of the Old Testament. Then there's a period of four hundred years before John the Baptist was found down in the wilderness, trying to repent, prepare the way of the Lord. And he's spoken of here in this third chapter, Behold, I will send my messenger. He should prepare the way before me. The Lord whom he seeks shall suddenly come in his temple. That's referring to the Lord coming, but it was four hundred years, he said. There were four hundred silent years. Four hundred years when the voice of God was not heard. Four hundred years with no prophetic, with no prophecy, with the Bible, their Bible, the Old Testament scriptures, close. Four hundred long years. Now, of course, there's history. The Maccabees and the secular books tell us of one of the things that took place during those years. The history of Jerusalem under... Under the great rulers, the world empires, the Babylonian Empire and Nebuchadnezzar took them away into captivity. Under Cyrus, the Medial Persian Empire, they came back. And then the history went on under Medial Persian. And then Alexander the Great, the Great, Grecian General came up and conquered the whole world. Daniel tells us all about this thing. And as the battle surged to and fro in the Middle East, and oh how they suffered. And then by the Roman Empire, the feet of iron and clay of Daniel's image, chapter two of Daniel, the Roman Empire came. And it's at that period that the Lord Jesus appeared as the Son of God born at Bethlehem under the Roman Empire. All those years passed. You have to read secular history to get the story of what happened. So this is the last of the inspired books of the Old Testament. And in this book, God is operating his people. God is accusing his people. After all he's done for them, and all he's done in bringing them back out of their captivity, they went into captivity because of their sin, because they rejected God, because they worshipped idols. That was their great sin. They worshipped idols instead of the true God. And now, in love and kindness, he brought them back. but how truly and critically they sit. And I remember last time we said that we live in a similar period. We mentioned, and I don't want to repeat too much, but we mentioned that in chapters two and three of Revelation we get a prophetic history of the church, and that we believe that we are today down in the seventh letter, the letters of the church of Leia and Seas. But the previous letter, the letter to Philadelphia, was a time of great revival. We believe, and many Bible students believe, that the Philadelphia period portrayed in Revelation three is that period during the latter part of the last century and the first part of this century when the Gospel was sent out. A great revival period. God is best. And there was great restoration and a great return to fundamental Bible teaching. All down through the Middle Ages. The Christian church so-called was under the power of Rome. All down through the Middle Ages, they lived in darkness. And they were ruled by great world rulers. And those who ruled empty world rulers were poached of Rome. They got into politics. You know, the Lord Jesus came here to win a bride. To win a bride in Utah. And a bride is to be chaste. A bride is to be pure. A bride is to keep herself for that one man is going to be her husband. And that's what his church, that's what he intended his church to do. But during those Middle Ages, the church got married. Got married to the world. And the church became the greatest worldly thing. All the politics and the intrigue. And all that went with it. Read church history. I mentioned that last time. Read church history to find out what happened during those days. But hundred years, hundred and fifty, two hundred years ago, there was revival. God raised up men who got back to the book and preached. And previous to that, of course, the Great Reformation. When Luther and others arose and saw that salvation is by faith and not by work. and defeated the teaching of Rome all down through the years that the Reformation came in. Ah, but they didn't go far enough. And they didn't separate themselves sufficiently from the world. And then, a hundred, two hundred, about years ago, God raised up the great missionary society. God raised up people who went back to the virgin original teaching of the Bible. The coming of the Lord came into prominence. They forgot all about the coming of the Lord down to the Middle Ages. But all this was revised. And then what happened? You and I have lived to see what happened. I sometimes sit down and I'm astonished, as I think, of the thoughts I had as a boy, the thoughts as I had as a teenager, as I used to listen to men preaching the Word of God, and as I learned the pure teaching of the Word of God. And to see what's happening is unbelievable. To see how idolatry has come in. To see how modernism, modernistic teaching is. To see how men have denied the word of God and the divinity of the Lord Jesus and the virgin birth. And cut out this and cut out that and split this book all up and left with nothing. That's where we live today. And our message tonight is to the priests. That's, if you like to use the language today, to the clergy. Those who set themselves up as leaders and have been appointed as leaders to lead the church and to lead God's people. And he's talking to them. Now we noted last time that the Prophet Malachi, and it's easy to remember, to remember this verse. In the Prophet Malachi, there were eight controversies which God has with his people. And every time he tells them, and he accuses them of wanting from you, they immediately start to argue with you. They don't bow before him and say, yes, Lord, I'll do thy will, but they say, oh my, what are you telling me what to do? They're saying to God. What are you interfering with me? That's where we live today. We don't want God to tell us what to do. Let's look at them briefly. We did last time. Look at chapter one, verse two, verse two. I have loved you, says the Lord. This is the Lord's first statement through Malachi. I have loved you, says the Lord. Listen to their answers. Ye say, Where in this thou loved us? You see, God is declaring his love today. People say, when did God love me? Did he double my salary? Did he give me a better home? If you give me a better car and another boat, then I think God's loved me. When did God love me? I tell you, when God loved me, we back at the base called, How will the Lord Jesus shed his precious blood, and God so loved the world? Then he gave his own begotten son. And he takes them right back to the beginning of his. And he says, Jacob, if I love, he saw by his. And they said, when did you love us? That's when I loved you right back in the beginning. Go down to chapter one, verse six. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I then be a father, where is mine honor? If I be a master, where is my fear? Says the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? She, you're going to argue this up. Eight times, is it? Wherein have we despised thy name? God said, you despise my name. If I were your father, you'd honor me. If I were your master, you'd obey me and fear me. And they said, well, when would they say, didn't we be afraid? When did we despise them? The truth, they wouldn't allow their fruit to be applied to their heart. They question and tell Jesus God. Verse seven, he offered polluted bread upon mine also. And he says, we're in a week full of disease. I've underlined even that. It's a third argument. We're in a week full of disease. God accuses them of what they've done. He says, don't tell us what we've done. Do what we'd like to do. Who's God to tell us? We're in a week full of disease. Go down to the chapter we read and read in... Verse thirteen of chapter two. This should be done again, covering the altar of the Lord, with tears and weeping, with praying out, insomuch that you regard as not the offering any more, or received it with good will it your hand, and ye say, Wherefore? Good God, I'm asking you why? Why should God tell you us? Wherefore? Go on down in the same chapter, verse seventeen. Give weary the Lord with your word. And ye say, Where in a bewilderment? Where in a bewilderment? See, they argue all down the line. As God applies the truth, they say, Then apply to me, Lord. Where in a bewilderment? Chapter three. In chapter three, when we get to it, it sounds a very serious chapter, a very practical chapter. Hard chapter to talk about, but... I'm praying that by God's grace you'll help me to talk about chapter three and apply it to our hearts here. Listen. Verse seven, even from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my ordinances. You have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, said the Lord of hosts. For each day, wherein shall we return? Why should we return? Why can't we go our own? Every time they argue, And then finally he said, oh, there's one more. Verse eight. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me, but ye say, We're in a great robber. We're in a great robber. And God's answer is, in tithes and offerings. That's where you rob me. Very touchy subject, but a very real subject in the Word of God. In tithes and offerings, he has robbed me. Verse thirteen, your words have been stout against me, says the Lord. Yet ye say, what have we spoken so much against ye? Eight times. Eight times they, when God applies the truth to their heart, they argue with God, he says. And affect me, I'm all. That's why in the last verse it says ye call that when ye say every one that doeth evil is good in his sight. God says it's evil. He says it's good. which is the argument in Malachi. Eight times over, as Malachi, through the Spirit of God, applies the word of God to the hearts of these returns, as children of Israel, of Judah, back in the land, and he applies the words, they argue with God, and says, Not for me, but Malachi. Now, you'll remember Malachi. I'll remember that one. It's underlying those eight things. In the second chapter we read tonight, he's dealing, first of all, with the priests. That's the first... nine verses and then from verse ten to seventeen and right on down through chapter part of chapter three chapter three he's dealing with the people first of all with the priest and then the people and now oh ye priest this commandment is unto you if they were not here and if they were not laid in the heart to give glory unto my name says the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you the priest They belong to the tribe of Levi. There were twelve tribes. And of course, Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. They were also tribes. That makes thirteen, isn't it? How do you work on that? Levi was not counted. Nevah was the fruitless tribe. When the children of Israel set up their tents around the tabernacle, starting on the east side those children, Dan and so on, his strategy was, and then on the west side there were three, on the south side three, on the north side three. And my own personal opinion, this is just as we've passed, I don't think, and I've never seen a picture yet of the tabernacle in the wilderness, but I think it's correct, this is my own opinion. You see, they show you the tabernacle in the middle. And then they show you a tribe here, a tribe there, a tribe there, a tribe here, a tribe here, a tribe there. But don't forget that on the eastern side here, the first tribe was Judah. If I remember rightly, there were seventy-six thousand fighting men in Judah. That's a whole city, isn't it? Seventy-six thousand, quite a big city. That's only a man without the women in the city. And they were living in tents. How many tents would it be? And the tabernacle was only a little place, not much bigger than this. I doubt there was any bigger than this. Not bigger than this. That was in the middle. And on the east side, there were three tribes. And they showed one here, one there, one there. I don't think they could get him in that way. And I don't think they could march off. If you read the book of Numbers, when they marched off, Judah marched off first. How they could form lines and march off with all the other sides around them, I don't know. My own personal opinion is that looking down, God looked down, and on each side was Judah there. And beyond that, outward. I forget the next side. And beyond that, the other side, three. And on this side, three. One, two, three. And on this side, one, two, three. And on this side, one, two, three. Not spread this way, but this way. Going out like spokes from the wheel. This is what I do. So that when God looked down from heaven, what did he see in the desert? What did he see in the desert? What did he see in the desert? All the white tents, they weren't white tents, of course. They were very intense, I suppose. And he saw all the tents of Israel. How good of her thy tent, O Israel? And what did he see? he saw one huge cross in the desert. Right in the middle was the tabernacle. And three tribes this way and three tribes that way and three tribes that way and three tribes that way. A huge cross laid out on the desert floor. It was the church for miles. When you think of the two million people, two million people, it's a big city that year, and they were spread out. And when they had to march off you, they marched off further. But if they spread the way, I'm telling you, they had a chance to get out, you know, in form line and mashah. But where was Levi? Levi was not there. Do you know where Levi was? Levi was his tent or pitched around the tabernacle. He didn't have a place there. He had no possessions there. Levi was supported by the tides which the children of Israel gave. He's what was called a full-time worker, trusting in the Lord, you know. getting his money from the Lord and from the tithes that the people gave. And from the offerings, the meat of the offerings, the Levites had to feed on that. And he had to take to all these tents around the tabernacle. So the tabernacle in the middle, and then you get the sons of Korah, sons of Merari, and so on. You get the places in numbers all around there. And right there, the evening, the East End, there were two tents or two settlements. One for Moses, one for Aaron. Moses' family and Aaron's family. They had the first place near the Eastern Gate. And then beyond that, of course, there's Judah and all of that. So there's quite a vast area in the middle. If you think of the tabernacle, if we take it to the side of the chapel, that small thing in the middle. And two million people, that was only a dot in the middle of the whole thing, were right in the middle of that tabernacle. Was a holy prince. And a holy tale. And inside that holy veil, a holy mercy. And once a year the blood was sprinkled on the mercy. And right in the middle of that huge cloud, God looked at it. We saw blood right in the middle of the cloud. What a picture. What a picture that God faced command of redemption. And I say the priest had no part. They didn't have faith. They went around the path. And God chose Levi. And he made a covenant with Levi. Let's go back to a verse in Exodus twenty-five. Exodus twenty-five. You remember Moses went up into the mount to receive the Ten Commandments. And the first commandment was, I the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God. Thou shalt not make unto me any grave an image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or earth beneath, that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them. For I, thy Lord, thy God, am a jealous God. This is in the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation of them that ate me, and showing mercy under the thousand of them that loved me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not make unto thee any grave an inch. Look at the twenty-fifth chapter and verse. Moses went up into the tavern and entered into the mountain to receive the instruction. I got the wrong chapter. It's thirty-two I'm looking for, I'm sure. It's thirty-two. Thirty-two. And when he's coming down from the mountain, he hears music and sound. And Joshua said verse seventeen to verse thirty-two, but when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said under Moses. There's a noise of war in the camp. He said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery. Neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome. But the noise I hear of them that sing, do I hear? As soon as he came now to the camp, they saw the golden calf. The very first commandment Thou shalt not make any grave enemies. And when Moses came back with Joshua, who came near the camp, there was the golden calf. He came to Pharaoh's when they came near to the camp, they saw the calf, and the dancing. And Moses' anger whacked heart, and he cast their twelve tables of stone and break them beneath the mouth, and took the calf which they'd made and burnt it, and ground it the powder, and strode it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink it. And Moses said to Aaron, What is this people unto thee that thou shalt so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the angle of my Lord White's heart. Thou knowest like the people that they are set on this day. For they sit under me, make us God, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what shall come of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let him break it off, So they gave it to me. Then I cast it. It's a nonsense that they haven't seen. So I cast it into the fire, and they came out this cast. Now there are some people here. I believe there are some people that have been pattern makers. I was apprenticed as a mechanical draftsman. I spent many, many days and many months in our pattern shop where they make patterns of all the cast work in... wookie, beautiful, accurate work. And I remember there are pattern makers who say to me, Robert my boy, pattern making. It's the cream of mechanics. It's the most fascinating and interesting of all the woodworking industry. He said that for many times. I got it in the head from a little boy when I went to work at fifteen. And I watched him making these lovely wooden patterns and the course to make the mold. And the time came when I used to design casting, cast iron, and I knew enough about pattern making to be able to design them so they could mold them and make them. But I never saw anything come out of the sand in a foundry. They never had a pattern there. You've got to put the pattern in and tamp it in and press in the sand, put in the cork box, and the proper feeding for the molten metal to be running. You've got to have a pattern. You can't get poor metal in the sand and get out anything. You put the pattern in and whatever you put in, if you've made a good pattern and you understand what they call the draw, you know, allowing the proper angle for the thing to draw out. And you've got to allow contraction, a pattern maker has a contraction rule. Cast iron contracted a different rate than brass and aluminum, and so they have different contraction rules. An inch, I'm making a guess, an inch in cast iron contraction rule might be an inch in the sixteenth or something like an inch in the thirty seconds because they allow for it to shrink. And all this has to be worked out, wonderfully worked out. And I'm talking about things that happened to me nearly sixty years ago when I went fifty years ago anyhow over that, fifty-five years ago when I learned these lessons. And Aaron said, I threw the gold into the fire and it came out of the car. He never did. He never did. Some clever mechanic sat down and molded, made out of wood, a pattern of a calf. And he put that calf in and it was molded. And so they got the calf. And when Moses saw, you see what he did, the first commandment was that says, thou shalt not make any craving. And if he had gone into the camp with that commandment in his hand, God's judgment would have fallen upon them, but they'd have all been destroyed. And Moses knew God. And Moses knew God. He'd been in the mountains. And he took the stones, and he smashed it to pieces, because he couldn't bring that calamity of God into that camp that it was sitting in. It would have been God's holy. He had to go back again and get another. And Moses said, he stood in the camp, the gate of the camp, verse thirty-six. I'm reading from Exodus thirty-two. And Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi, this is what I'm getting at. All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. So Levi consecrated himself that day to the Lord amid this sin of idolatry. And so God chose Levi to be his priest, to be the priestly tribe, to act between God and the priest, and to form the office of a priest. There were hundreds of them, thousands of them, doing God. And when you got back from the captivity, Then they set up the priesthood again, and they set up the sacrifices again, and Levi again was chosen, the same one, to be the priest, to be the priestly family. And so he says, O ye priest, this commandment for you, ye will not hear, and ye will not lay it to heart. Verse five, my covenant was with him with Levi. My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them to him, for the fear wherewith he filled me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth. Iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many from evil, from iniquity. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law in his mouth. For he is the messenger. Hear me back to the name of Malachi again. For he is the messenger of Jehovah of Hope. That's what the people are. The messenger of the Lord of Hope. And he says to the priest, I will curse you. Because you have not kept my cup. My covenants was that you should be the mouthpiece of Jehovah to these people. And you sinned yourselves and let them sin. And you made my offerings. He says, He offered polluted bread upon mine altar. And the priests say, When do you put polluted bread on your altar? They sit so far that he saw the rule and God's plan and God's standard that they just said. You're going to do what we like. You're not going to tell us what to do. Beloved, this is the day we live in. You know, I'm going to do my thing. That's the day we live in. I'm going to do my thing. And if you want to know I'm going to do my thing and I set my faith and I'm going to grow up here, right down here, so everybody can say I'm going to be separate. I'm going to do my thing. And tell the world that I'm just doing what I want to do. Nobody's going to tell me. That's the world we live in. And God never changed one thing. And God's done his faith. They're supposed to do that. All the denominations have their ministers and their leaders and their religious leaders. And what do they do? God says, I'm going to set my curse upon you. I'm going to throw dumb in your face. The judgment is coming, beloved. And we live in the last days, like Manifest, the last days, before the coming of the Lord, as he lives. the last days before the coming of the Lord. And God says to the priest, I'm against you because you've not done my work. Verse seven, verse eight, ye are departed out of the way. Ye have caused many to slumber at the law. You have corrupted the covenants of the Levites that the Lord opposed. Here's the law in this book. How many ministers and preachers of the gospel so-called ordained into their churches today? How many of them have corrupted this law? that we don't believe in Genesis one anymore. And we don't believe in salvation by blood, redemption by blood. And we don't believe in the virgin birth. And we don't believe in the coming of the Lord. We're going to do our thing. We're going to do it the way we think. Our education and our wisdom has taught us more than the old Bible knows. God says, I'm okay. God's speaking to the priest in your day and night. Let's hurry along. Verse nine, therefore, have I also made him contemptible and based before all the people. Accordingly, he has not kept my way, but have been partial in my law. This is how God speaks to the people. I tell you what, there's only one thing good I should do. I can't see anything else, but just to get out of it. How can we be connected with anything else? Let's be separated. That's what happens. hundred and twenty years ago when so many came out of the corrupted denominations they were in, particularly over then Great Britain, that Church of England, that Anglican Church that are, and how corrupt that is. And yet amongst them there's some wonderful, I know some wonderful people, wonderful people. And God is commanding them. Now he turns to the people. talks going so fast that I think we're going to get this chapter as we can. He turns to the people. Malachi says, have we not all one father? I take it, the father of Abraham. He was the father of the Jewish Red. Abraham. Have we not all one father? Has not one God created? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by proclaiming the covenant of our father? Now God laid down rules. We read some of them tonight, but he laid down rules not only for the priests, but for the people. And he told them they were a separated people. And above all things they mustn't mix in with the world. And above all things they must not marry into a foreign nation. The young men must not take girls, young women from a foreign nation, and the young ladies must not be married to men of a foreign nation. That was God's rule. Separate people. He wanted to keep a pure race. You see what he said? Who did I read that there? And he said in verse fifteen. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the Spirit? And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. God wanted a godly seed. He chose Abraham. He chose the children of Abraham, and he chose them as a separated nation, because out of them was to come his son. He wanted a garden. In your Bible, if you've got the Skopje Bible, There's a reference. No, I read that. No, I didn't. Numbers twenty-five. Let's read that a moment. Numbers twenty-five. And see what happened way, way back in those days. Numbers twenty-five. Copel gives verse ten. We can't pick up the connection. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Sinia, the son of Eliezer, the son of El and the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel. While he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consume not the children of Israel in my jealousy. You see, what had happened in this case, Belem, Berek had called Belem and said, You curse the children of Israel. Belem the prophet. I'll give you a great reward if you're going to curse me. And off goes Belem to curse me. Then he couldn't. And when he got that, Belem was mad at me. He said, Why didn't you curse me? He said, I can only do what God tells me. And I told you I'd only do what God says. Go again. Give him some more money. I'll be there. We looked down, he says, oh beautiful, I like ten-fell Israel. And he spoke beautiful things about the future of Israel. And Balaam was mad. Then he goes a third time. And the donkey in that narrow pass. Remember the angel came to the flaming sword and stopped the donkey to go on his way. And yet Balaam went on his way. But he couldn't curse Israel. You know what he did? He went back to Balaam. He said, I couldn't curse him. But I'll tell you what to do. I'll give you some counsel. You let the daughters of the children of Israel go and mingle with the daughters of David. And you let the sons of Israel mingle with their daughters and get some mixed marriages. You do that. They did it. And terrible things happened. And one man stood out sinuous, son of any Asian, and condemned him. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, and said, Verse seventeen, vex the Midianites and smite them, for they vex you with their mouths, wherewith they begot you with a matter of fiorce, and so on. And do you know what? Thousands and thousands of them. outside of it. After the... You look at the wall and build the temple. You read me and Maya. You read it. and married the ten of women and married the girls of the land and God's judgment came upon them. Let's read on. The Lord will cut off. Verse eleven. Judah, chapter two, verse eleven. Judah has done treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, Jerusalem for Judah has proclaimed the holiness of the Lord that she loved and has married the daughter of a strange God. The Lord will cut off the man that you assist. Read down. Verse fourteen. They say, wherefore? Who's going to tell me whom I'm going to marry? God's going to tell me who I'm going to marry? He better let me tell you. If he doesn't, it won't be right. He won't be wrong. If he tells you, it's bound to be right. If he doesn't, it won't be. That's if you're the child of God. Who's going to tell me wherefore is he? Because the Lord has been witnessed between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. Yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant? The Lord, verse sixteen, the Lord the God of Israel, says, He hates his putting away. He hates their Lord. And do you know what they had to do? They had to go right down to the ranks of Israel. And Nehemiah and Nehemiah and Ezra these priests in that day did a wonderful job. They separated the whole lot. And they made them put away all these. far and wide, because it wasn't God's plan. And yet God said, I hate you more. I hate you. One covers violence with his garments, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit, that he do not stretch his feet. You have wearyed the Lord with your word, and he said, Wherein have you wearyed him? I've had to hurry along. But God's speaking to the people. And then a great crime was that they married outside of Israel. I'm speaking to all the people now. For us, life journey is running out. But if this all was full of young people, how this could be applied, all that we could make the young people understand. That if we have accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we cannot, I say cannot, marry an unsaved person. We try and get away with it. Some have done it. God in His infinite mercy is overruled in many cases. But that's not God's plan. God did not intend us to belong to him. We are separated, called out of the world to be a chaste virgin for him. How can we go and marry somebody in the world and have her? They do it. They do it. They do it. I know marriage took place yesterday. A very beloved friend of ours, a girl who knows Christ is her favorite, and she's married one of those men. You know what I look for? Trouble, trouble. You'll come, all right. You can't, if by God you can say, where in every weary day, we can say to God, where, for why did you tell me what to do? Never mind, God says, I'm watching and I'm going to cut off the man with you. And there's sorrow and trouble and divorce and difficulty and broken homes and problems amongst the children of God today because they've done this very good. Better not be married at all. The Marriott of Christ, the world of Christians. This is what God intended in this day. And we're living in a day where people say, ha ha ha not. It's through our own faith. Never mind, God. The God Word hasn't changed. Now this is Malachi, taking the practical things of the day and applying them to you and me. And applying them to the church in this remnant age. As he did in his remnant age. May God help us. to bow to the dictates of his holy word. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank you for this wonderful book. We thank you for the solemn, solemn messages. And as we dig deeper in, Lord, when we ask ourselves, where in this thou robbed me, search our heart, Lord, search our heart. Help us, we pray, we could bow to thy word. Help us to realize that thou art a jealous thou. Help us to realize that thou art an unchanging God. And the one who said thou shalt not make any grave and images just to save the day. And the one who separated us from this world has never changed. Oh God, help us give us grace, give us courage to bow to thy precious word. And we earnestly pray for some of our young Christian friends. Not sufficiently interested in thy word to know what thy will teach you. going their way, doing what they want, the whims of a few moments, pleasure and a lifetime of grief and death. Because they don't listen to thy word. Help us to be faithful as we try to teach.