All right, the book of Malachi. Last Old Testament book. Y'all been reading? Anybody get to read chapter one today? Any questions on chapter one? You got a question? What you got, Carolyn? What's that? You studying in Malachi right now? Amen. All right, let's talk about it for a minute tonight. Now, something that is not often picked up on when it comes to the book of Malachi. Malachi is the follow up of God to the days of Ezra. Malachi logically and what we would call Historically, in time frame, is the follow-up answer to a problem that originated long before that was actually misled and misguided by the people in Ezra's day, including Ezra. And God has given a, His answer to their actions in the book of Malachi. So when you read Malachi, it automatically opens up with this debatable question. that we find people were questioning in their day God's love. How in the world could God love us if we're in this condition? Why are these things happening? And God told them that He did love them. And how did He prove that He loved them? Is that He chose them and He chose to work in them and work through them. That He chose not Esau and Edom, which is the same people that He's referring to. He says Esau, he had a perpetual hatred toward. The people of Edom, which represents the natural man, which is the picture of the difference between Jacob and Esau. What is Jacob? Jacob is a picture of the promises of God, His grace. Esau is a picture of natural man all by himself who doesn't have the promises of God. and the product of their life is something that is always hated by God because it's a product of natural fallen man and God hates the flesh. There's not one thing in the flesh that any of us will ever do that makes happy God. It's not going to please Him. Flesh can't please Him. You can't work your way into favor with God. You simply have to trust His trustworthiness and trust His promises. That's how we are in favor with the Lord, by faith. And that comes through the grace of God, graciously promising us. He tells us, let's look at Malachi chapter one. This is a burden, a burden that Malachi had to bear. And it was a burden that God placed upon him in a word. And this is what he says, verse number two. I have loved you, says the Lord. That's kind of a strange introduction, isn't it? A quote, I have loved you. Obviously, the people had been coming and asking and debating whether or not they were truly loved by God because they didn't sense that God loved them. They didn't feel that God loved them. Why? Because God is dealing with them right now. He's actually showing them His chastening love, but they don't recognize it as love. They're wondering, why did we have to go through the captivity? Why did we have to come back to a barren land? Why did we have to rebuild this temple? Why do we have to offer these sacrifices? Why do we have to serve the Lord the way that He's asking us to serve Him? All these questions. Remember, they were looking at the sacrifices as something to be despised. They were mistreating it. That's why they were taking anything off the streets anybody gave them. They would bring lame sacrifices. They'd take it and offer it. They would bring in crippled ones and sick ones and bad ones. And God said, wait a minute, would you ever give your politician something like that? Would you give the governor something that was sickly and lame and terrible? Why are you giving that to me if you wouldn't give that to them? The reason you're not giving it to me is because you don't honor me. You're not respecting me. There's a disconnect here. And you're misplacing my chastening love upon you and your actions and you're feeling unloved but let me explain something to you. He says, I have loved you says the Lord, the people say yet. In what way have you loved us? Prove it to us. You've never shown us any kind of love. And he says, was not Esau Jacob's brother? Says the Lord. Yet Jacob I have loved. That goes with him choosing Jacob. That goes with him blessing Jacob. That goes with him favoring Jacob. That goes with him starting the nation out of Jacob. What is the nation that he started out of Jacob? Israel. Israel was made up of 12 tribes. Those tribes are the sons of... Jacob and out of those 12 tribes, there is a holy seed that is coming in the tribe of Judah in which Jesus is in that seed and he's bringing redemption to this world through that seed. Everything God's done is to prove his steadfast and unfailing love. Verse 3, he says, but Esau I have hated. That is, I just left alone. I laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness. Even though Edom, which is the descendants of Esau, said, we have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places. And thus says the Lord of hosts, that may be, they may build, but I'm gonna throw it down. They will be called a territory of wickedness. And the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever, a perpetual hatred toward. Because Esau is everything that the flesh is, what he represents, the flesh. God hates the flesh. God hates your flesh. He hates my flesh. There's nothing in our flesh that is pleasing unto the Lord. The things that men elevate about the flesh is the things that God despises about the flesh. And the scriptures is very clear on that. We live in a society that commends and pampers and nurtures and blesses the flesh, but God hates the flesh. The flesh is that way about us that is empty and void of God, that has fallen and its natural state that produces everything wrong about humanity is found where? Our flesh is sinful. It doesn't submit to God. It is rebellious toward Him. The flesh is at enmity to God and it is a product of a fall. That's where Cain would come in. Cain is that product of the flesh for which the scripture says Cain was a...his father was who? Yeah, but who was his? The devil. He was a son of wickedness. Matter of fact, turn to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. Let's see, I'm pretty sure it's chapter 3. He says, Let's start in verse number four. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. Lawlessness is that practice of sin that has no restraint to it. Nothing restrains it. It does what it wants. That's lawlessness. And you know that He, Jesus, was manifested to take away our sins. And in Him, there is no sin. Whoever abides in Jesus does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous. just as Jesus is righteous. He who sins, that is, who lives in lawlessness, who lives with no restraint according to the flesh, 1 John 3, verse 8, he who sins is of who? For the devil has sinned from what? For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. For whoever is born of God does not sin. That is the idea. He does not practice lawlessness. stay in iniquity and rebellion continuously. His whole life is not missing the mark with God. He submits to the Lord. He follows the Lord. He trusts the Lord. He doesn't do it flawlessly, but his trust is in the Lord, and because the Lord is his righteousness, that God says he does not sin. For his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. And all God's people said? Praise God, it ain't up to you, amen? And it ain't up to me. But this is the work of divine grace. This is what God does. Verse 10 says, in this revelation, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifested. Whoever does not practice as a way of life righteousness is not of God. Nor is he who does not love his brother, because that's gonna be the manifestation of being born of God. If you don't love your brother, if you don't love the brother, there's no way you could have been born to God, and it's impossible to walk in righteousness if you're not been born again, amen? Verse 11, for this is the message that you heard from the beginning. What message? That we should love one another. And he uses Cain as an example. not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, and murdered his brother." And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's works were what? Righteous man, we looked at this black the Wednesday before we left for this revival in Genesis 4 3 through 5 God told Cain and Abel He said he he respected Abel therefore he respected what Abel offered him But he didn't respect Cain and no matter what Cain did was not acceptable to him Why because Cain did it his way and he chose not to do life God's way as a result He was operating like who? The devil, Satan, because Satan does it his way, and he won't submit to the things of God outside of God's sovereign power over him and limit it to him what he can do, because Satan is still a created being, and all God's people say it. And as a created being, he is ultimately subject unto God. But what we find here is that the flesh, which is a picture of what Cain does. Matter of fact, turn to Jude. Look in Jude real quick. Let's see. Last book before the book of Revelation it says, He says, verse number 10, but these speak evil of whatever they do not know and whatever they know naturally, like brute beast and these things they corrupt themselves. And corruption only comes through the lust of the flesh. And the lust of the flesh is just a natural work of the flesh that is cultivated and nurtured and fed, that's why it's called lust and that's how corruption enters the world. Verse 11 says, woe to them for they have gone in the way of who? The way of Cain, they have run greedily in the era of Balaam for profit and have perished in the rebellion of Korah. Cain was a lifestyle of works. It was the lust of the flesh. Cain said, I've done something, God. Look at what I've done. Look at me. Notice me. I want you to see me. Look what I've done and the way I've done it. Look at the works I've produced and like me for who I am. And God didn't like him for who he was because he didn't respect God and he wanted God's attention to be focused in on him. rather than him answering God's call and obedience and faith. That's what the way of Cain is. It's the lust of the flesh. It's the product of works. It says, look at me. And that's what Esau was. Esau and his descendants Edom was a product of the flesh and that does not fly with God. God has an everlasting perpetual hatred toward rebellion. the flesh we must be born again and that only happens through the grace of God which is by a promise from God which is believed in faith by the individual who's been graced by God when that happens it's not a matter of works it's a matter of grace and that's the only way to be right with God is through his grace amen what God's done for us not what we've done for ourselves Edom Esau worked for himself like Cain did. And he brought an offering, Cain did. But because God did not accept Cain in his position, he would not accept his offering. That's basically saying Cain said he had a better way of doing things than what God had. And that's what the flesh says. God, my way's better than your way. and that never flies well in the sight of God, amen? Why? Because God says that he will not share his glory with anyone. He gets the glory for whatever is done in our life, amen? And that happens through his grace. Malachi talks about it. Go back to Malachi, let me show you. Look, if you would, in Malachi 1, in verse number 10. Well, let me, yeah, verse number 10, let's look at it. It got to the point, and we'll point this out in a minute, why God poses this question, Brother Shannon, why has not there been someone who would stand up and shut the doors to the temple so that you would quit bringing an offering that was unacceptable to me? He said, I've been waiting for somebody to shut the house of God up so you couldn't do this because you're only setting yourself up for more trouble by doing something defiled. And he asked this very question. I know this goes against the grain of most thought, but God says, verse 10, who is there even among you who will stand in the gap, who would shut the doors so that you will not kindle fire on my altar in vain? He says, I have no pleasure in who? Wait a minute, I have no what? I have no pleasure in you. And remember, when God has no pleasure in us or in them, it didn't matter what they offered him, it is not acceptable. And that's what he says, for I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering from your hands. We must be acceptable. for our gifts and our service and our work and our offerings to be acceptable to God. And the only way to be acceptable by God is by simply being of a contrite spirit and a broken heart before his mercy and what he's done for us and we in faith and trust in ourselves to him, then God makes us right. And then the next step we take is obedience and then God accepts our obedience to him because it's the product of trusting him, faith. But God said, I have no pleasure in you, no different than Cain. He had no pleasure in Cain. Therefore he didn't accept Cain's offering. But why were they in this position? What was going on? Why did this happen that they were in this problem? so hard on these priests in that day, because that's what we're saying. Y'all notice in the first chapter, he was bothered by these priests. Look in verse number six. He says, a son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, which God is, where is my honor? And if I'm a master, a Lord, where is my reverence, says the Lord of hosts? To you priests who do what? What does it mean to despise? In some cases, that's right, it means to hate, and that's gonna be a byproduct of something. The word despise simply means to take lightly. who take lightly my name, who do not make my name, who does not make me, my name is a reflection of my character. And when you take my character and who I am lightly, that's gonna reflect in how you treat me, that's gonna reflect in how you work for me, that's gonna reflect in everything else in your life. When you take me and my name and my work lightly, you are not gonna make me the priority of your life. Very similar to how when in the book of Genesis, in Genesis 12, three, God says these words to Abraham, those that honor you, Abraham, I will what? I will honor. But those who take you lightly, who despise you, I will bind them under a curse." Because taking Abraham lightly was taking God lightly. Because Abraham was God's friend. And Abraham was the proponent from which God was gonna manifest his glory through the world. Abraham was a select vessel that God chose to put his blessings upon and to start a nation with and to do a work through. And if anybody took him lightly in his call and his life, that put them in a compromised position that they bound themselves. Go to Genesis 12, let's just look at it. This was a covenant that God made with him. Genesis 12, three, to take Abraham lightly was to take God lightly. When God's for you and people stand against you, then people are standing against the wrong one, aren't they? That's what God teaches us. He says, I will, this is Genesis 12, three. Well, 12, two, he says, I'll make you a great nation. I will bless you and I'll make your name great and you shall be a blessing. Verse three, I will bless those who, what? Bless you. The idea of blessing him was honoring him who was there to support him, to help him in what he was doing. And I will curse him. I will bind under a curse him who curses you. The word curse is the word despise. Simply means to take lightly. Because in you, Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed. You know what was in Abraham's loins? You know what was in his seed? The King of kings and Lord of lords was in Abraham's loins. He was the vessel for whom God was working through to bring about the Messiah upon the earth. And then every line of that seed, he said, from here out, you and your descendants after you, whoever treats you right and honors you, God says, I'll honor those people. But if they take you lightly and what I've set you apart for, they will bind themselves under a curse. upon the earth. Very similar to Matthew 18. How does Matthew 18 teach us about dealing with people when they have problems with one another? What do you do? Say a man has a problem with another man and that man feels like that man's offended him in one way or another. How do they handle that? That man needs to go to the other man and let him know and them two work it out, right? That's God's design. Now say that man doesn't want to work it out, what is the next step? Bring a witness with you. Say that man doesn't want to hear that man nor the witness, what is the next step? Bring it before the church where that man says, I'm not gonna listen to that man, I'm not gonna listen to that witness, and I will not listen to the testimony of the church. What does he say do next? Put him out. What has been bound in heaven has been what? Bound on the earth. What has been loosened in heaven has been loosened on the earth, vice versa. A man binds himself under a curse when he chooses not to hear the witnesses and the testimony of the Word of God. He's bound. Why? Because God is working through this community, this body. He's doing a work in them and when they're right with Him, and they bind something on earth, it's bound in heaven. Why? Because that man that would not listen to this witness, would not listen to the testimony of another brother, nor the community of the believer standing on the authority of the Word of God, showing him compassion and mercy to reconcile him, not to kick him out, not to push him away, but to what? Reconcile. He says I don't want to reconcile. I don't want to be right with him nor with you or anybody else. God says you've taken me and my ways lightly and as a result now you've bound yourself under a curse. simply because you took me lightly. You see, the priest in that day, in Malachi's day, not only took God lightly, but they took his ways lightly. And because they were not acceptable, they have bound themselves now, nothing that they did was gonna be right with God. And God said, I've been waiting for somebody just to step in and say, look, this is messed up. We got to get this right. We got to get it right. We only killing ourselves. We don't have the favor of God upon us. We're not fulfilling what God has called us to. But why did all this happen? How did it start? Well, we got to go back and look at Ezra to see where it began and why God come in Malachi to give the answer. A lot of people miss this because where is Ezra found in our scriptures? It's found on the other side of Psalms. It's over there just following up Chronicles. Go look in Ezra real quick. Most of the time, from a historical reference, people miss the fact that Ezra and Nehemiah and Esther are all books that were post-exile of the Babylonian captivity and they fall in there after Haggai and after Zechariah. And Malachi is a follow-up to what took place in Ezra. We got to ask the question, what took place in Ezra that God deals with in the book of Malachi? Well, Ezra, it's obvious, was a man who set out to do what was right. If you look in chapter 7, look with Ezra's heart. tells us about this man. Great, great beginnings. He had a heart to get back and help God's people. He knew what was going on over there while he was in Babylon in the captivity. He knew that they had come back. He knew what they were doing. And it was in his heart to go back to Jerusalem and to help the people. So he does. For the scripture says in verse number 10 of Ezra 7, For Ezra had prepared his heart to do several things. Number one, to seek the law of God. and to do the law and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. That's noble, that's good. That's a good thing. That is simply said, he gave his life to know the Lord and to make his ways known. He gave his life to obey what he knew and he gave his life to teach others what he knew and experienced in the word of God. That is what we've all been set apart to do. That is a noble thing. Malachi even talks about it. That's the purpose of why we do what we do. But Ezra got caught in a bad spot and he caved in to the people of his day. Look in chapter number 9. Let me just start reading there and we'll get a picture of this, seeing what was happening. It says, When these things were done, the elders, this is chapter 9 of Ezra, The elders came to me, Ezra, why? Because he gave his life to know the ways of God and to teach them. The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with the respect to the abomination of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Egyptians, and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the people of those lands. Indeed, the hands of the leaders and rulers have been foremost in this trespass. The leaders and rulers have done this and have done an abominable thing. God told them not to do this thing. Y'all recall. That was a forbidden thing. What he told Solomon, Solomon, if you take women of foreign lands, they're only gonna hurt you, and as a result, I'm gonna strip the kingdom away from you. And sure enough, Solomon didn't heed that warning, didn't operate in that wisdom. He took foreign wives, and as a result, soon as Solomon died, what did God do? He broke the land up with the northern 10 tribes and the southern two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. They were divided. Then they went to war against one another from their own out. Eventually Israel got so bad that God pulled them away and took them away with the Assyrians. Judah, the southern two tribes eventually got caught up and their trespasses and Babylonians came in and took them away. Now they're back. And while they were away and all that they did, they married foreign women and began having children with them. And the people are looking at the problems of the land as if that was the single most problem that they were having. That's why God wasn't blessing them. That's why God was not doing a work in them, but they were missing the whole point. It wasn't that it was their disobedience and simple everyday life. The reason why God was not showing them favor. Remember we was reading in Zachariah. God said, look, if you would have simply obeyed me, you would have never had to go into captivity. If you would have simply done what I told you to do, if you would have ate your food and drank your drink for my glory, simply obeying me, if you would have executed true justice, if you would have shown compassion and mercy, if you would have had no ill will towards your brother, if you would have took care of the orphan and the fatherless, and the widows, and had no plans of evil toward your brethren. You would have never went into captivity, but you simply shrugged your shoulders at me, closed up your ears, and wouldn't listen to what I had to say. You not only hardened your heart toward my ways, but then you had, you positioned yourself where you made your prayers unhearable, and then you made the land desolate. It always goes back to just simply obeying God. but they saw it as if these foreign women were their biggest problem, and of course, that could have been a crippling factor, but it began somewhere else. It began with just simple obedience. That's what got them in this trouble. Were they trying to fix things? And they're looking back to the law and realize that, hey, all these foreign women, they should have never taken, so what are we gonna do about this? So they grieved over it. Notice how this happens. Verse three, so when I heard this thing, Ezra said, I tore my garments, I tore my robe, and I plucked out some of the hair on my head and beard. Man, that was hurt, what you think? grabbing his hair of his head and pulling hair out being so grieved and grabbing his beard and pulling hair out of his beard because it grieved his heart that they had done this and that the leaders was misleading the people, verse four. Then everyone who trembled at the words of God of Israel assembled to me because of the transgression of those who had been carried away captive and sat astonished until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice, I arose from my fasting, and having torn my garments and my robe, I fell on my knees and I spread out my hands to the Lord my God. And I said, oh my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to you, my God, for our iniquities. have risen higher than our heads and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been very guilty and for our iniquities we our kings and our priests have been delivered into the hand of kings and lands to the sword and captivity, to plunder and humiliation as it is this day. He just said we've had a long history of disobedience and God has dealt with that and many different types of conflicts and troubles and being carried away. He's looking at a whole history of things. Verse nine, and now for a little while, right now he's saying grace has been shown from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a peg in his holy place that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. Now think about this for a moment. Did God not know that these men had taken foreign wives when they were in the captivity and brought them back? Did God not know this while they were doing Zechariah's day when He told them to rebuild the temple? Did He not know this in Nehemiah's day when He told them to rebuild the wall and establish that? Was all that going on? Did God know what they had already done but God was reviving them and doing a work in them already? Didn't he? Yeah, he knew. There's no doubt he knew. This was not hidden from him. You see, they're using something good, the ways of God, and they're fixing to misuse it to their own advantage. But in the meanwhile, they're gonna do a terrible thing. And when they do this, it's gonna set them up for what Malachi is God's rebuke on. Let's read a little bit further. Verse nine. For we were slaves, yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage, but he extended mercy to us in the sight of kings of Persia. He revived us to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give a wall in Judah in Jerusalem. He revived the work. Even while they had these foreign wives and these foreign kids. God did all this during the midst of that. Verse 10, and now, our God what shall we say after this for we have forsaken your commandments which you commanded by your servants the prophets saying the land which you are entering to possess which he's going back to what remember when Israel was led by Joshua to go in and take the promised land he's just quoting what God said then in the process of an unclean land, to possess an unclean land with the uncleanness of the peoples of the land, with their abominations which have filled it from one end to another with their impurity. Verse 12, now therefore do not give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever. That was some several hundred thousand, that was a thousand years ago when God gave them that word. They've done messed that up, but had not God been faithful to bring them back, give them this land again and restore them and do a work. Verse 13. And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, since you, our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve. And all God's people said, aren't you glad for that? Oh man. Boy, if he did me what I've already done, I wouldn't be here today. and has given us such deliverance as this. Should we again, should we again break your commandments and join in marriage with the people committing these abominations? And the answer is no, we shouldn't do it again. But what was already done couldn't be redone. They've already done it. Yes, that was God's ways. They should not take these foreign women as their wives. That was what God said not to do. From here on out, that's what we do. But those men had already done this. What do you do? That was the big question of the day. What do we do with these women? We've already have taken them as our wives. We have children with them. What do we do? Where do we go from here? How do we handle this? Well, they took God's word, a great word from God, and misapplied it. And they began to divorce and send away all the women and the children with them. That was a grave mistake they made. That's not what you do. They've already made the mistake. Matter of fact, you know who should have been dealt with? the men who took the wives, not mistreating their wives and their children. Malachi says you should have dealt with the man who done this, and I'll show you in a moment what he means by it. Verse 14, the middle part of the verse, would you not be angry with us until you had consumed us so that there would not be a remnant or survivor? O Lord God of Israel, you are righteous, for we are left as a remnant as it is of this day. Here we are before you, and our guilt, though no one can stand before you because of this. That was not their chief problem. God had already blessed them and was showing them great favor and reviving them in the midst of it. You know what their problem was? Their problem went back to just simply taking God at His word, doing what He told them to do in everyday life. They were looking for solutions of why things were not going the way they should be going, and they said, well, this must be the blame, these women. They must be the blame, these kids and what we've done. Not that we're just not right with God right now, because I want to tell you, there's not a thing in this world God can't forgive you of, amen? When our heart submits unto Him, there's not one thing in this world that can't be forgiven and restored. Think about the other foreign women that God used to bring about the Messiah. I think Rahab was one of them. Ruth is another one. God is able to do. He's able to use our mess-ups and turn it into something that He gets glory for. Amen? But you don't want to add a mess-up to a mess-up. And this is what they were doing. You don't want your mess-ups to mess you up. They let their mess-ups mess them up. and they just used it as an excuse. Let's go a little bit further. Chapter 10, verse 1. Now while Ezra was praying and while he was confessing, weeping, and bowing down before the house of God, a very large assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him from Israel. For the people wept very bitterly. Keep that in mind. They wept very bitterly. They cried before the Lord. All seems like they're legit, right? They broken, it appears. Verse two, I don't know this guy's name, we're gonna call him Bubba. Let's look on down. They spoke to Ezra, we have trespassed against our God and we have taken pagan wives from the peoples of the land, yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this. I mean, they can say in spite of this, there's hope. Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and those who have been born to them, not our children, but who have been what? Whose children were they? They were their children, but they was wanting to separate themselves from that responsibility. According to the advice of my master and those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law. Now watch what they do to Ezra. Arise, Ezra, for this matter is your responsibility. We also are with you. You be of good courage and you tell us what to do. We're gonna put it in your hands. You just give us the word. Now here's a whole nation, they're crying, they're weeping, saying, we wanna get right with God on this, but we're gonna put it in your hands, you tell us what to do. Ezra, just like any other natural man, is put under pressure on to make a decision on what they should do, and he caved in to the people. He caved in to the people. Verse five, then Ezra arose and made the leaders of the priest, The Levites and all Israel swear an oath that they would do according to this word. So they swore an oath. Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehoanan, the son of Elishabib. And when he came there, he ate no bread and drank no water, for he mourned because of the guilt of those from the captivity. And it goes on through and you can keep reading. They tell them what they're gonna do. They do all this stuff. And he says over in verse number 13, nor this or the work of two days for it's gonna take a while for us to process this. We're gonna have to do a vetting process. We're gonna have to send everybody at one time. One by one, and we'll work this out. It ain't gonna happen overnight. Verse 14, please let the leaders of the entire assembly stand and let all those in our cities who have taken pagan wives come to an appointed time to gather with the elders and judges of their cities until the fierce wrath of our God is turned away from us in this matter. And he says, if you don't come, what's gonna happen? We will confiscate everything you have. If you don't bring these wives out and all their children and present them before the judges so that we can deal with this and get them away, everything you own is going to be taken away from you. Now they are pressing the people because I'm willing to say there was people that were not going to want to do it. But when you put men in that position to say, The sin is upon us because you've taken these foreign wives, you've got foreign children, and if you don't bring them to the house of God and we go through this and you send them away back and they can go back to their lands on their own, we're gonna confiscate everything you have. We're gonna take everything you own. You will not be a resident of our land. That is an oppressive spirit. Now notice, out of all the people, only four people resisted and said that they wouldn't do it. Out of all those people said, I'm not gonna do it. They look like they're the ones in the wrong, but actually they were in the right. Watch. And they gave their promise that they would put away their wives and being guilty, they presented a ram of the flock as their trespass offering. They knew what they were doing was not right, so they was gonna cover it with an offering. That's that saying, well, I'm gonna do it, I'll just ask for forgiveness later. God says that's never what he intended the offering to be about. Not that you can go live like you won't do your way and then bring me an offering to cover it. No. He said the offerings were for accidental things that you did that you didn't know you were going to do that just happened. Divorce them. send them off on their own. They was gonna put them in a caravan to go back to the land they were from. They will send their wives and the children they have and tell them to go back to Babylon, go back to wherever they were at. And they sent them off on their own. That's what it means to put away, to divorce. Verse 15 says, Jonathan the son of Asiel and Jehaziah the son of Tikva opposed this and Meshulam and however you say his name, the Levite, gave them support, stood with them. Out of all the people, four people, wouldn't support it. Now go to Malachi. Because if you notice, Ezra doesn't end with any word from God on what they just did. Ezra just ends with a list of names and people who did it, the leaders who were involved. Well, when you look back at Malachi, look in chapter number two. Chapter number two, verse one says, and now, O priest, this commandment is for you. Because remember, the priest, the one who stood with this, supported it, they were involved in it. He says, if you will not hear and if you will not take heed, and take heart to give glory to what? My name, says the Lord of hosts. I will send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Matter of fact, yes, I have cursed them already because you do not take it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your descendants and spread refuse dung on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feast, and one will take you away with it. Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you. that my covenant with Levi may continue says the Lord. What was his covenant with Levi? My covenant was with him one of life and peace and I gave them to him so that he might fear me. So he did fear me and was reverent before my name and the law of truth was where? In his and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, and he turned many away from iniquity. See, Ezra and the rest of those men should have turned these men away from their iniquity, but they didn't. For the lips of the priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have departed from the way. You have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore, I have also answered and made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept my ways, but you have shown partiality the law you pick one area out that you focused on and then you misapplied it notice what verse number 10 says Have we not all one Father? Has not the one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers? Judah has dealt treacherously. An abomination has been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution which he loves. He has married the daughter of a foreign God, and may the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, being awake and aware, yet who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts. Who should have been dealt with for doing this? The men should have been dealt with. Not divorce their wives and their children and send them off on their own. They're the ones who did it, so the men should have been dealt with. But you know what the men did? They dealt with the women. and let them have to suffer. And that angered God. Verse 13, and this is the second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with what? Verse 13, you cover the altar. Remember how the people were crying and weeping because of what they'd done? He says, you cover the altar with tears, with weeping and crying, so he does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say, for what reason? Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth. with whom you have dealt treacherously, yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But you didn't make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit, and why one? He who seeks godly offspring, therefore take heed to your spirit and let no one deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. They've been married these women for years and had kids with them and they dealt treacherously with them and put them at fault and punish them while the men walked away free. All they did was offer a ram on the offering as if everything was good with God. They shed a few tears. because of their transgression, and God says, none of that matters a lick of beans with me. You can cry all day long, pull hair out your head, pull it out your beard, do all your, I can care less what you do other than obey me. That's the only thing I'm looking for, for you to trust me and obey me. And you gave these men permission to deal treacherously with their wives, and you broke my holy covenant. You should have never done it to begin with, but once you do it, now you gotta hold up to that accountability and responsibility. Verse 16, for the Lord God of Israel says that he hates what? Putting away. Divorce. Why? Because divorce covers one's garment with violence. What is violence? What is the product of violence? When people are violent, what do they do? They damage, they destroy, they hurt other people. You know what, now you got a whole migrant group of children and wives all by themselves walking through a wilderness to go find some kind of help and covering. You know what that does inside the heart? You know the damage that it causes those little ones? Micah talked about it in a way that says when you deal treacherously with your wife, He says, you distort my glory before the eyes of their children. That is, not that you can change the glory of God, but you can surely change how people see the glory of God. And instead of glorifying Him, they ravished the women, mistreated them and the kids, and now the kids' view of who God is is out of whack. It's messed up. What they needed to see was a forgiving God, a God of redeeming God, a God who reaches down and redeems our transgressions and our faults, but instead now they see a father who abandoned them and sent them away. Why do you think Malachi closes with that God was gonna come and turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the children's heart back to God? This was all about what took place in Ezra's day. and that they, by the word of God, told them what to do, which was a wrong application of the word, now Malachi's the answer to this problem that they created in that day and how God was disgusted with the leaders and the priests and how they were operating and what they were doing in that day. Verse 16 again, for the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce or putting away, for it covers one's garment with violence, with damage and destruction, therefore take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously. You have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say, in what way have we wearied him? And that you say, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delights in them. Oh, where's the God of justice? See, they told everybody that they would be right with God in doing this evil, that God would appreciate them doing this. That was the farthest thing from the truth. And I can't believe even to this day that Ezra fell for it. A man who gave himself to know the Lord and to make the Lord known. but because of the pressure of a nation and its leaders he bent. Now we all do. We talked about Elisha not long ago. Remember how Elisha got to the place where he felt like he was all by himself and there was nobody else in the world that trusted God like him and God had to deal with that? and said, Elisha, I'm going to prove to you you're not by yourself out there. I've always got a remnant of people. Now I'm going to let Jezebel get to you, and you're going to be fearful of her, and I'm going to speak to you out of the still, small voice. That's what God was doing. Even great men like Elisha, even great men like Abraham, who asked Sarah to act like his sister because he was afraid of losing his life, like Isaac did with his wife. Great men, David, all have done horrible, terrible, made many mistakes. We're all going to do that. But adding mistake upon mistake is not the answer. It's coming before the whole of God and asking Him not to allow us to continue to add causality upon causality, but just breaking our hearts before Him and getting right before Him and asking Him to help us take upon the responsibility of what we've done so that we can do what is right, and that is glorify Him in His redemption and forgiveness. Amen. They didn't do that. And therefore they distorted the glory of God before these people and before these kids. We don't want to do that. These priests has distorted the glory of God. In God's answer in verse chapter number three, He says that, Behold, I send my messenger and he will pay my wear. Who is that messenger? That's John the Baptist. God says, you men are just messed up. You women, all y'all are just messed up, and the only answer's gonna be I'm gonna have to come take care of it myself. And I'm gonna send a messenger of mine to prepare the way. And I'm gonna take upon flesh, and I'm coming to dwell among you, and I'm gonna come and give a solution for your biggest problem, and your biggest problem is you. And I'm gonna deal with you, amen? And that's what Calvary does. Calvary deals with us. He deals with us. So they can deal with our treachery and our iniquity and can deal with our sin and the consequences of our sin. But he starts with us. When God doesn't accept us, he doesn't accept anything we'll ever do. Amen? And that's pretty clear throughout the whole scriptures. Does he like what we do in the flesh? Not at all. The only thing that is acceptable to the Lord or pleasing to Him is what we do by faith. And what we do by faith is a product of His grace. Because in His grace we heard news from Him, we trusted the news we heard from Him, and we clung to it and walked in it in obedience. And when we do that, the scripture says we give glory to God. Can God pick us up from our mess-ups? Oh yeah, we don't need our mess-ups to keep These men made a mess up. They did. They shouldn't have done what they did, but they did it. But God is able to fix their mess ups. He's able to cover that. And now they need to do the right thing. Aren't you glad God come down instead of just leaving salvation strictly unto the Jews? Aren't you glad He extended it to heathens like us, the Gentiles? Amen. And brought us in, granted us in, made us part of the flock of His. He didn't have to do that but he chose to do that because of his great love for us. So if he would do that for us and if he'll use people like Rahab and if he'll use people like Ruth or Moabite, an old wash pot of God. to bring about His redemptive story. He'll sure enough do something with our mess ups when we put them in His hand, amen? So we don't need our guilt to go ungraced, we need Him to grace it so that we can walk away. They were guilty and shamed and reproached and they took the law and misapplied it and therefore all it did was cripple them and take them further and further in treachery and sin. And now God through the prophet Malachi comes with a burden. the women as being the problem, while they wasn't having what they were having. But Malachi comes in and says, look, it had nothing to do with them. It had everything to do with you and how you were living before me. And now you question if I love you or not? because you're not getting what you think you deserve or what you think you ought to get, it goes back to, I'm not pleased with you. If you'll get right as my child, I will do great and glorious things in and through your life. And I still say it applies to you and me today, amen. Simply just taking God at his word. So when you read Malachi, now you know that it is a follow-up to a problem that started in the days of Ezra. And I pray it makes more sense to you now as you look at it, that God's dealing with a group of people that misled his people for their own advantage and not for his glory. Father, we thank you tonight. We bless you and thank you for your help. We pray that you continue to teach us, help us approach you in an acceptable way, holy and acceptable, through your mercy, that this old world around us will not shape us in its mold, but you'll transform us by the renewing of our mind, that we can be those vessels of your mercy, trophies of your grace, more than conquerors, overcomers, walking by faith, who are not gonna let our guilt nor our mess-ups keep crippling us, but we're gonna give them over to you and ask you to raise us up to go make you known. Help us in these days. Be with our church family and continue to bless them richly with your favor and that you will keep us holy and acceptable in your sight. We love you and pray that you be with Hunter tonight as you plan to deliver her in the next hours. We just thank you for your kindness in Jesus' name.