DONE 210905 Malachi: Our Great King is Coming Again

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|INTRODUCTION

By way of an introduction I would like to draw our attention to a familiar parable. This parable was spoken by the Lord right before His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In Luke 19:11, and you may turn there if you like, the text tells us that the Lord told the people a particular parable because they “Supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.”

To describe what was actually happening Jesus told this parable, starting in verse 12.

Luke 19:12–27 | 12 So He said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return. 13 “And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Do business with this until I come back.’

This nobleman, delegated time and resources to his servants and left them to do his business until he came back. But verse 14 tells us that some of

14 “...his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’

Some of this nobleman’s servants hated him and rejected his authority over them but during this time others of his servants faithfully went about doing what their master wanted them to do. Verse 15.

15 “When he, THE NOBLEMAN returned, after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves, to whom he had given the money, be called to him so that he might know what business they had done. 16 “The first appeared, saying, ‘Master, your mina has made ten minas more.’ 17 “And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.’

The small amount of money, something in the neighborhood of $500.00 worth of silver has had a great return - 5,000.00 . The nobleman, who is now a king calls this servant ‘faithful’ and gives him great authority over 10 of the cities. He was faithful in a little thing and the new king can expect that he will be faithful in big things too.

Well, the second came and had a similar report and was given authority over 5 cities. But in verse 20 the last servant came and effectively told this new king, “I did nothing with what you gave me, because you require what is unfair, you take what isn’t yours and you harvest what you didn’t plant… Yikes, this servant strikes me as one of the ones that initiated the delegation that told the nobleman, “we don’t want you to rule over us.”

Verse 22 tells us

22. He said to him, ‘By your own words I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow? 23 ‘Then why did you not put my money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest?’

You could have entrusted the resources that I gave you to the bank, or those that knew what to do with it and yet you did nothing, you hindered what could have been accomplished and have not dealt in good faith so verse 24 tells us

24 “...he said to the bystanders, ‘Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’ 25 “And they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas already.’ 26 “I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 27 “But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.”

Those that did what their king desired were rewarded for their faithfulness while those that hindered, hated and refused his governance were destroyed.

Jesus told that story, because the people supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately, but that is not what happened. 2000 years into the future we are still waiting. This story was intended to communicate that there would be a period of time when faithfulness could be displayed. Time, treasure and talent could be used effectively to further the Lord’s interests. To show faithfulness. Some people would make the most out of the time that has been given and some have squandered it. Some will be rewarded for faithfulness and others that rejected the Lord will be destroyed. |MAIN POINT

The main point that I want us to get out of this message is that Our Great King has come, like the nobleman in the story, and He and will come again, to rule over all the earth with true justice. Some will be rewarded for their faithfulness and others will be destroyed. Now is the period of testing, to prove whether we will do well with small things or whether we will squander what has been given to us.

Let us go to prayer. |SLIDE

PRAYER

Lord God, what an amazing plan You have put into motion. You are a Great King. Deserving of all our praise and adoration. We honor You because of Your great salvation. We glorify You for allowing us the privilege of serving You.

Today, Lord, I pray that we would understand this text out of Malachi. It is a unique text, Lord, not something that is encountered often. We see people belligerently arguing with You. Seeking to establish their own righteousness but failing to give You the respect You are due.

May that never be said of us, Lord. May we be people that love You enough to honor You with more than lip service but through deeds and words that are sourced from a heart fully dedicated to You. We love You, please meet us here as we worship You today, amen.

SERMON

Please open your Bibles to the last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi. Chronologically it takes place during the lifetime of Nehemiah in a post-exilic Judea.

Last week in Nehemiah we left off in chapter 9:31. If you will remember the people confessed their sins and their unfaithfulness and glorified the Lord for keeping His promises even though they had been so unfaithful. Well, in Nehemiah 9:38, after this great repentance the covenant people of the Lord entered into another covenant with YHWH. |VERSE SLIDE

Nehemiah 9:38 | 38 “Now because of all this We are making an agreement in writing; And on the sealed document are the names of our leaders, our Levites and our priests.”

The document they signed included stipulations that they would keep God’s Law, wouldn’t marry foreigners, |CONTEXT SLIDE wouldn’t break sabbath, would maintain the Temple and faithfully bring their tithes and offerings.

They agreed to do what they were already required to do, but they are doing it from a spirit of willingness and not out of a legalistic sense. They wanted to honor the Lord who had redeemed them. These faithful and repentant people turned from their sins but then Nehemiah left. This man who had called the people back to faithfulness with the Lord went back to serve the king of Persia. You see Nehemiah had only committed to be gone for so long and had gone back to Babylon to serve the king. It was after he left that some of the people fell again into apostacy. In a leadership vacuum the people had fallen into faithlessness. But the Lord called them through Malachi, back to covenant faithful to Him.

He did this because He loves them.

Malachi, chapter 1, verse 1 |SLIDE

I. God’s love for his people (1:1–5)

1 The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. 2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob; 3 but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.” 4 Though Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins”; thus says the Lord of hosts, “They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the Lord is indignant forever.” 5 Your eyes will see this and you will say, “The Lord be magnified beyond the border of Israel!”

The basis of the Lord’s requirement to honor and obey Him is His love for the people of Israel. The people of Israel are His chosen people and He loves them dearly… That is why He is calling them to obey Him. That is why He is calling them to honor Him, because He loves them.

Please write in your margin for your future follow up this cross reference - Romans 9. This passage cites verses 2 and 3 and explains a key doctrine that you really need to know. How the Lord can be perfectly just while still having mercy on undeserving people - you can find the answer there in Romans 9.

The Lord loves Israel, but you can tell from their response that the feeling is not exactly mutual - throughout Malachi they are going to continue to argue with the Lord, showing disdain and dishonor to the One that loves them… verse 6 |SLIDE

II. Israel disrespects the Lord (1:6–14)

6 “ ‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’

7 “You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’ In that you say, ‘The table of the Lord is to be despised.’ 8 “But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?” says the Lord of hosts.

Would your governor accept the worthless things as you are offering Me, |Application Point

Its at this time I think it is important to do some self-analysis as we come to our first application point.

The Lord sets up a great argument against those that disrespect Him. They had disrespected Him by offering sacrifices that were sickly and blind. He says, “why not give that as a gift to the governor or president, would he be happy with you?

Here’s the application point,

We can tell how much we honor the Lord by comparing how we act, how we dress, how we speak with Him and about Him by how we would honor the most important person we know.

If we knew that our favorite celebrity or sports star or politician would be here today would we wear our very best? Would we make sure that our clothes were pressed and that we were as presentable as possible or would we show up like we appear at the breakfast table, disheveled, in our sweats dragging our feet.

The Lord is the most important person we know and we meet Him corporately every week to worship Him. We ought to give Him our very best - not second best. Verse 9.

9 “But now will you not entreat God’s favor, that He may be gracious to us? With such an offering on your part, will He receive any of you kindly?” says the Lord of hosts. 10 “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of hosts, “nor will I accept an offering from you.

|SLIDE

The Lord is not pleased with second best, He doesn’t want our leftovers. He is not content to play second fiddle to anything else.

He is a great King! He is an awesome Savior! He loved the world so much that He sent Himself, His Son, to become Man and live in extreme humiliation for 33 years on this planet, that He created, perfectly abiding by every stipulation of God’s covenant and then die on the Cross for every sin ever committed, past present and future. His love for humanity is so great, but in large measure people drag their feet along and prove that we do not know Him by dishonoring Him. He is not please with our leftovers. He demands primacy as is His due. Verse 11

11 “For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of hosts. 12 “But you are profaning it, in that you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised.’ 13 “You also say, ‘My, how tiresome it is!’ And you disdainfully sniff at it,” says the Lord of hosts, “and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your hand?” says the Lord. 14 “But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King,” says the Lord of hosts, “and My name is feared among the nations.”

What the priests had been doing here is unconscionable. They were bringing lame and sick animals to the altar. Furthermore they had been rejected their own portion of the sacrifice that was their right because the animals were so foul.

Can you imagine bringing something to the Lord that is so poor that you don’t even want it? 123 The Lord is a great King and because He is compassionate and longsuffering, not willing that any should perish He warns these blasphemers to correct or they will face His curse - a last warning for the priests chapter 2 |SLIDE

A last warning for the priests (2:1–9)

1 “And now this commandment is for you, O priests. 2 “If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,” says the Lord of hosts, “then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart. 3 “Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

If you don’t take My warning to heart, you will bear the brunt of the curse. You will be dishonored, you will be humiliated to an extreme measure. |SLIDE The word “refuse” here , PERESH, is the waste that is in the digestive track. It is the half processed food. The portion of the sacrifice that was carried outside the camp or city and burned with fire. It is the part that is excluded, unwanted. The foul part. It is this waste that will be spread over their faces and they and their waste will be hauled away, excluded, unwanted, removed from the presence of the Lord. Verse 4 |SLIDE

4 “Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi,” says the Lord of hosts. 5 “My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence; so he revered Me and stood in awe of My name. 6 “True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity. 7 “For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8 “But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of hosts. 9 “So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction.

The “priesthood” and you will know why I put “priesthood” in quotes in a moment. This “priesthood” had failed in its duties, and the main reason is because this priesthood is not the same one that was on the platform leading Israel in repentance in Nehemiah 9 like we saw last week.

This new priesthood was illegitimate. |VERSE SLIDE A group of men had returned from exile and claimed to be Levites but could not prove their ancestry from Levi. Apparently, after Nehemiah left to go back to serve the king of Persia, these false Levites had crept back into temple service. But it wasn’t because they knew or understood or could effect the law. It wasn’t because they were righteous or faithful, but because they were self serving. They were wolves

Nehemiah 13 tells us that, when Nehemiah came back from serving the Persian king on his second trip to Jerusalem, Nehemiah found that a large room adjacent to the temple had been vacated and all the supplies for the temple removed...

These supplies included the grain offerings, frankincense for incense, wine and oil. These were all removed from this large room and one of the enemies of Judah was allowed to live there, because he was related to one of these illegitimate priests. This man, who was allowed to live in a room next to the most sacred place in the world, was actually an Ammonite and had hindered the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem (Neh 2:10). He was an enemy of the Jews and had decided to live in the room right next to the Temple.

And while these illegitimate priests may have claimed lineage from one father, Levi, their actions showed that they were uninterested in keeping covenant with the Lord and the Lord will not allow this unfaithfulness for long… Verse 10

|SLIDE

God cannot bear unfaithfulness (2:10–17)

10 “Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers? 11 “Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god. 12 “As for the man who does this, may the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or who presents an offering to the Lord of hosts.

Like all false shepherds, these illegitimate priests that have seized the Temple, they claim to be the real thing but their actions give them away. |VERSE SLIDE

That is pretty standard for wolves by the way. Wolves come amidst the flock, they conceal themselves but the way they speak and act gives them away. The Lord tells us that we will know these wolves by what they produce.

Wolves look good, they talk good but they cannot help but produce trouble. I was reading today how a former professor at Western Seminary, Art Azurdia, who abused at least two women, has now become involved with Grace City Church in Wenatchee, WA. He fled the city of Portland after he was caught. He had made the briefest statement of repentance and has been quickly restored to ministry in a different context.

Wolves have always been around. They were around before Jesus’ day - we see that in our text before us, Wolves were there when Jesus ministered, I mean even one of the twelve disciples, Judas, was a wolf. Wolves will always be around and they come with the territory, |APPLICATION SLIDE they are to be expected but godly leadership, good shepherds help keep the wolves at bay and do not restore wolves to the body after they have been caught after they have injured and harmed others.

Please be praying for your board. We are on watch over this body. The elders are charged with protecting this group of believers and caring for them, feeding them. We are to be sober and alert because our adversary, the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. We are to watch out for those that would harm this body. They are know by what they produce... Let’s return to the text, the Lord is going to reject their hypocrisy… verse 13 |SLIDE

13 “This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 “Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 “But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. 16 “For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the Lord of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.” 17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”

As these false priests whine that their sacrifices are unacceptable the Lord tells them why they are not acceptable. These false priests are idolators, they are self serving, they are abusers. They use up people for themselves. They take wives and when they are done with them they abandon them. These false priests are hypocrites and He has no use for their tears or their words. He has no use for them because they do not understand righteousness, they call good evil and evil good.

For all these things there will be judgment. Chapter 3 |SLIDE

V. The judgment on the wicked (3:1–5)

1 “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts. 2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 “He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. 4 “Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. 5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me,” says the Lord of hosts.

This prophecy has already been partially fulfilled. 400 years after Malachi spoke these words the Lord sent His messenger, John the Baptizer before His Christ to prepare the way for Him.

In John chapter 1, the Lord’s messenger cried out, “make straight the way of the Lord,” prepare for Him, repent, today turn from evil and when the Lord’s messenger saw Jesus Himself he cried out, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

In chapter 2 Jesus is recorded as coming to the temple and clearing it out of those who were using religion for profit. Jesus appeared suddenly, humbly, serving Israel for three years, doing miracles, proving He was the coming One but after He died and rose again He left, He ascended into Heaven. Like the nobleman in our introduction He left servants to conduct his business with what He has entrusted to them. He left for a time to take possession of a kingdom and He is coming again He is going to come again to effect justice on the earth |VERSE SLIDE

When the Lord returns again to finally fully fulfill Malachi’s prophecy, none of the hypocrites and abusers will be able to stand. None can endure the day of His coming. He will purify for Himself a chosen race comprised of Jews and Gentiles who will be a royal priesthood. If you are a believer, this priesthood includes you.

So that, purpose statement, we can do what should have been done from the beginning. Proclaim the excellencies of our Great King and tell of what He has done for us.

|CONCLUSION

Believer, you have been granted a great gift of time and resources, a sphere of influence to spread the Gospel. Some of us will diligently be going about our Lord’s business and others will not. Some will be faithful while others will not.

Those that are faithless, rejecting the Lord as ruler over them, will be punished.

Today is the day to decide whom you will serve