Let me ask you to turn this evening to the final book of the Old Testament Scriptures, the prophecy of Malachi. Malachi 3. We've been sporadically, I suppose, over the last several months doing a survey of the minor prophets The last several weeks have been in these final three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, that are the exilic prophets. The prophets that came before, the longer prophets and the minor prophets. really were prophesying the chastening of the captivities that were going to come. The prophets in some ways were, well, I shouldn't say it in that way, they were bearers of great news, prophecies of Christ. some of our Messianic prophecies still to be fulfilled. Some of the most famous Christmas passages in all the Bible certainly are found in the prophets. So they brought good news, but it was good news of God fulfilling His promise after also fulfilling the promises of threatening. across state Israel. The three prophets that we have looked at over the last several weeks, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, in some ways have the benefit of those very tangibly fulfilled prophecies before them. The told of the captivity. Those fulfillments right before the eyes And yet we find in these prophets as well that it's not just evidence that people need. It's not just fulfillment of God's Word that is needed. It's changed hearts. It's believing hearts. And even in these post-exilic prophecies, we find the struggle among God's people with unbelief. And then the sin that follows on from that initial God. I want tonight to come to this final prophecy. I had thought perhaps of enlarging our time in this book as we've done in a couple of the others. Some of the things that Malachi pointed to and things that follow Malachi, if you will, are I think particularly relevant in my own thoughts in recent years. where Israel went, as it were, in those periods that we call the intertestinal period. The four centuries between the Old Testament and the New. How you get from Malachi to where we find Israel in the days of Jesus. the changes that had come in so subtly, sometimes changes that were born of motives. A desire to be God's people and not be like the world. And yet without gospel anticipation, without a gospel understanding, those supposedly good motives were corrupt and we find unbelief in Israel that won't even see the fulfillment of God's promise. Unbelief redefines promises. tries to make it fit somehow with current circumstances. And Malachi is a great warning to God's people in that regard. I want to read tonight before we begin from the third chapter. These will be perhaps some of Malachi's words, particularly to those of you that are Handel fans. You'll see as we address. But Malachi 3, beginning in verse 1. my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller soap. and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, and against false swears, against those that oppress the hireling and his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. For I am the Lord. I change not. My sons are not consumed. Well, we'll end our reading in verse 6, and we trust again the Lord to add His own blessing to the public reading of His inspired Word. Let's bow our heads and our hearts together. Our Heavenly Father, as we again read Your living Word and pause and bow in Your presence, we ask for grace that as we read something of Your words through the prophet to the people, We would not be so detached from them as we're tempted to be. Separated by centuries. Separated by different circumstances. And yet, many things very much the same. And so we ask that You will give us hearts and ears that are ready to hear. We pray it in Jesus' precious name. Amen. When we come to Malachi, the last of these post-exilic prophets, to set the stage and come to understand that Malachi doesn't follow just immediately on the heels of Haggai and Zechariah. It's probably a period of about 80 years that have transpired between Haggai and Zechariah's ministries. You recall early in their ministries, early in the remnant that has returned, the people are discouraged. Haggai has challenged people and called them back to the rebuilding of the temple. They had ceased that building and began pouring their energies into their own homes. That's much of the burden of Haggai. Promises with regard to their future indeed. But again, challenging and yet encouraging people not to despise the way of small things. To trust in God's faithfulness that He will fulfill the promises that He's brought to them, His people. But when we come to Malachi, temple worship has been restored. The people are going through those religious activities and motions. They've heard the promises of Zechariah. but they haven't seen the promises fulfilled. And so Malachi brings us a message to a people that are really in the midst of waiting. They're waiting for God's promises to come. They've seen and heard all God has said He will do for them as people. There are even promises of the Messiah that will come that they wait for. And yet, He hasn't come. Where does it leave them? What do they do? What condition are they found in as we come to turn the page of Malachi? As I said, I had thought of coming from different directions in a more extended way, but I really want just to give a survey of the book this evening. If you look at the book and understand how it's put before us, there's really presented in this book a dialogue between God and His people. There's a pattern. And if you turn back to the opening chapter, and we're going to turn up some of these incidents of this pattern in the book, there's a statement of God's Word that is given and set before the people. And that's a challenge. There's a response to God's Word that challenges His faithfulness, that challenges what He said. And God really puts the unbelief of the people on display as He highlights what they have said in contrast to what He has said. And so as I said, I want to just survey these responses of the people to God's Word as our summary of Malachi this evening. So if you go back to chapter 1, the opening of the book itself, the burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi, I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us?" Now just take a step back and ponder that for a moment. Can you imagine the Lord through an inspired prophet giving an echo of God's promise and God's statement to us? I have loved you, saith the Lord. And then the response of us as a people would be, we're in. Have you loved us? Prove it. Show us your love. The very thought. is really a blasphemous thought. Just to ask the question shows how far they've gone wrong in their thinking. They have seen chastening. They're enduring small, difficult days. Remnants return to be sure. The temple worship is going on to be sure. But they're small. They're impoverished in comparison to their, say, Roman neighbors to come. The Gentiles are building empires. The Gentiles are flourishing. The promises to Israel are nowhere in sight. Lord, what are You doing? Don't You love us? God says, I love you. And they reply, have you loved us? You see, in their season of waiting, in their expectations earthly kingdom, and there's no blessing attached to that. I deny any of those elements in the promises of God. We're attending circumstances of blessing. And Israel here is saying, Lord, we don't see evidence of Your love. to bring up the very subject that follows. We're in, hast thou loved us? Verse 2. Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob. I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. To bring up even the very question, the very names of Jacob and Esau, shown here They're not understanding that they are the recipients of the grace. It doesn't matter what prosperity other nations come to. God's promise in God's hand is upon this people. God is going to through this people in the promised Savior that will bless all the nations of the earth. They have received promises of the Gospel. Not understanding and anticipating that Savior. Only seeing and anticipating their earthly prosperity. They accuse God of being insincere. And they say, wherein have you loved us? Turn it, as we'll see going forward, into a system of merit. Quite subtly, to be sure, but they are willing to challenge God and say, wherein have you loved us? But come down following, if you will. Now down to verse 6 in chapter 1. A son honoreth his father and his master. If then I be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear? Saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest that buys my name. And ye say, wherein have we despised thy name? I put bread upon my altar, and ye say, wherein have we polluted thee? A two-fold reference of this dialogue between Christ and His people. Reply and say, wherein have we despised your name? Wherein have we polluted your altar? In this chapter, these words are coming primarily to the priests. And yet as we understand their response, and the Lord speaks and gives description following on from verse 7 in that you say the table of the Lord is contemptible. If He offered the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? If He offered the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor with thee or accept thy person, saith the Lord of hosts. What has transpired? Priests have corrupted the worship of God. They're offering inappropriate sacrifices. They're not giving honor and deference to God's own descriptions of how the sacrifices are to be brought. Of course, that in itself is a corruption of the truth of the Gospel. Corrupt the types. Corrupt the pictures. Bringing a lame or a blind or an unfit animal. supposedly representing the spotless man of God. They're insensitive to grace. We're in, have you loved us? They're offering worship that is corrupted and inappropriate. They think since God has what and how they think He should answer, they can rewrite His ordinances with regard to approaching Him. And certainly, we live in an age in which worship, professing belief, in a variety of ways. If you follow on that, we come down to v. 17. We read, "...the Lord of hosts, yet He is the Lord of hosts." We read, "...the one that doth evil is good." Then, where is the God? to put the theological term there. A description of God using human finite example description. God is unable to be weary. He's omnipotent. He's infinite in His strength. The Prophet, the Lord, through the inspired Prophet, speaks to them as having wearied Him. They plead innocent. They come to this amazing statement. They accuse God of judging righteously. They've come to the point where they stoop to considering themselves worthy to judge. better to understand what God should have been doing and should currently be doing in this situation than what He is doing. And that's the point where God's people are not a temptation for us in days where God's love allows the ungodly to perish and the church to be impoverished. Seasons in which He raises the Pharaoh instead of putting him down. Seasons in which He lets the Babylonians overtake nations, including His own, instead of keeping it from happening. Seasons in which He lets unbelieving people, a people satisfied with themselves and dissatisfied with their God, I mean, do you see how far the thinking goes? How warped the thinking can become? It's almost the antithesis of gospel. They judge themselves worthy and God worthy. If you turn the page to chapter 3, Luke 7, just our opening reading. Even from the days of your fathers, you've gone away from My name. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, Seth. But ye, how shall we return? Wherein shall we return? God through His prophet tells the people, He gives them a common theme that's found within all the prophets. Return to Me, says the Lord. It's a call to repentance. It's a call to understanding. And they listen to that. And instead of listening to repentance, they respond by saying, where in shall we return? We don't need to repent. We're here, Lord. It's You... The boldness of their claim. The boldness of their heart. By refusing this command, Israel is implying that they don't need to return. doing their part. They've already checked boxes they're supposed to check. You're supposed to intervene, God, and come and rescue us and give us the keys of the world. "...to the condition of their hearts." If you read in this section, the words surrounding it, evidence here of unrighteousness that has permeated their lives. of the lives of their youth and the taking in even of wives from the nations surrounding. The destruction of the family. A pattern. Corrupted worship. Destroyed homes. And yet, they're ready to blame God for their troubles. They've got everything under control. The poor and oppressed. Wherein shall we return? I wonder at times, Our godliness is being paraded. It's being promoted and put on display. Doubtless in Malachi's day, the surrounding Gentile and ungodly nations were engaged in immoralities and perversions that were not happening in Israel. Israel was being put on some things to be sure And yet, when God calls upon them to repent of their own sins, to return to Him, they reply by saying, wherein shall we return? I wonder how many professing believers today, if God were to visit and say, return to Me, would look at the stuff that's going on? And you're talking about our lives? We're way ahead of the Gentiles. Bless us! That's a self-righteous heart. That's a heart that wants to dictate to God. It's not the heart of the Puritan. We've quoted often, though it's been a while. It says, I've taken my good works and my bad works and I'm going to gather good from them both under the cross of Christ. How possibly could we say we're in? Shall we return? Yet here is Israel. He carries on and speaks about their robbing God. Malachi is a great book of pictures, really toward the end of the year. Well, I'll not conclude to appeal with regard to the tithe. But the interesting point is this, much like Haggai had to deal with the previous generation with regard to building up their own generation of worship, the focus on their own security, their own earthly goals and achievements. Pulling back from the things of God to attain those things is just another step in the warped thinking of these that think God of them. Wherein have we robbed thee? But then you come to chapter 3 and verse 13. Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet, ye say, what have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, it is vain to serve God. And what profit is it in that we have kept the commandments? We've walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts. And now we call the proud happy, yea, they that work wickedness are set up. Yea, they that tempt God are even. The blindness of the people here. What have we spoken so much against thee? Their blindness is on display. They come to the conclusion it's vain to serve God. We've kept Your promises. We've done all this for You. What good have we done? They think of the spirit of Asaph in Psalm 73. They look at the ungodly. They're prospering. Look at all the stuff they've got. Look at all the parties they throw. Look at how happy they are. And we're miserable. ...mindset. Somehow think Christianity will bring up the willpower to not do all the stuff you'd really like to be doing that you watch the world doing and think that's great. But we're going to be rewarded We're not letting ourselves do that. Read a little further in Psalm 73. Go rightly to the house of God. Understand their end. The stuff they're pursuing, the stuff you're in a blind spot wishing that you could have and you want me to give to you instead of giving to them, that's what you want? instead of having reconciliation with the God of heaven. Understanding and anticipating really is. I hear these cry out against God and say, you've been stout against Him. We've done this. I say it's staggering just to of God's Word that are in the hearts and in the minds of the Lord's people. How quickly this remnant that had come out of Babylon falls into backsliding. How quickly the stage is set for those categories of unbelieving and unbelieving leaders that will not see Fulfilled promise when He comes. You see, in seasons of waiting, in seasons of not seeing what we think God is supposed to do, we have to redefine the promise. The mission is to work the means whereby we'll obtain this redefined. Sadducees and the Pharisees and the zealots. I say, what has pressured my thinking so much in recent years? These that we see so ready to take the very life of Christ. How did they get there? They're among the people that are saying, Lord, we're doing all this stuff, and You're not blessing us. They can't see the very blessings they already have. They can't anticipate the Christ that is the sum and substance of their promises. And they begin to focus on their promises. And so the Sadducees say, you know, we're going to survive. The church is going to continue. If we're ever going to grow and get any influence and power in this world, We've got to work with these people. And the Sadducees begin a downward trend. It's doctrine. Denying of cardinal doctrines of the faith. The Sadducees, that's not the answer. We've got to be different. We've got to be more different than we've already been. They start down a path of separatism. That ought to make us think a little bit. We're in a section of church history where separatism has become a thing. We're not going to be able to learn from error, false teaching from true teaching. But yet the Pharisees let their separatism, the boxes they were checking, lead them into a self-righteous expectation of the blessing and the help of God. Some Sadducees said the kingdom is dependent upon the help of others. And the Pharisees said, no, the kingdom's dependent upon us, upon our faithfulness. Organize and check the boxes. It followed Malachi's prophecy like Simeon and Anna. and they were unlike the Pharisees. I said, no, the Kingdom isn't dependent upon us. What measure of worthiness, what measure of faithfulness, what measure of separation can work up in us a merit that can bring forth the Kingdom of God? No, Simeon and Anna were waiting for promise itself. You know, we see the little pockets of that faithful remnant when organized religion, as it were, was totally gone. Didn't see the promise as it literally walked in their midst. So Malachi, and we've really only read, as it were, the hard parts of Malachi. record of the dialogue between God and His people. But He gives promise to them in this book. This book is a book that gives the promise of preparation. The ministry of John the Baptist is foreshadowed in this book. The messenger that will go before His face and prepare the way. The promise with regard to Christ Himself is on display. You see this one that shall suddenly come to His temple. And of course, Malachi is among those that gives a vision of the second advent almost in one heap of glory. The end of judgment and purgation of the people. And His promise that we've read in that giant text in verse 6 that we will close with this evening. For I am the Lord. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob, are not going to die. There may be, as Zachariah phrased it, the day of small things. Don't despise that. It's on the throne. There may be a season in which it appears that the ungodly prosper in this world. Don't despise that. It's just a vain show. Gain understanding. Gain a gospel heart. Look at eternity. And the promise that He will come. God's promise isn't dependent upon the strength or the weakness of His people. But us, as people in Malachi's day lose sight of that, somehow think we need to change the Gospel and the process and miss Christ. There are a lot of things that are further translated, as it were, from their corruptions in between their day of waiting and the first Advent. and potential corruptions in the church that surrounds us waiting for the second advent. That's why we need God by the circumstances we see and how we think in those circumstances. And recognize His Kingdom isn't dependent upon others It's not even dependent upon us. It's only dependent upon Him. And He is faithful. Let's bow our heads together. Heavenly Father, we ask tonight for wisdom. Lord, we've hastened through a series of dialogues between You and Your people We see remarkable responses when confronted with your word, when confronted with their need, when confronted with their sin, how blind and self-absorbed and self-righteous they had become. Lord, preserve us from such thinking. Give us ever more gospel believing hearts. Whatever perplexities might be surrounding us in our day, perhaps even greater perplexities in days to come, Lord, fill us with thoughts of Christ, assurances that Your Word and Your promise is true. So make and keep us a faithful people in such days, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.