Chapter one. Tonight, we're going to see a picture of spiritual laxity, spiritual mediocrity. And spiritual decline. Malachi chapter one. I'll begin reading in verse six. The Lord is speaking through his prophet Malachi, giving him the oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel. Malachi, chapter one and verse six. 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's my respect, says the Lord of hosts to you? Oh, priests who despise my name. But you say, how have we despised your name? 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? 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. But now, will you not entreat God's favor that he may be gracious to us with such an offering on your part? Well, he received any of you kindly, says the Lord of hosts. 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. 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 nation, says the Lord of hosts. 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. 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. 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 nation. Heavenly Father, this is an indictment. Coming from your mouth to their ears. And at the same time, it is an indictment that comes from your mouth to our ears. And as it was targeted to their spiritual laxity, and failure to conform to your word. So these same words target our own spiritual laxity and failure to conform to your word. Though the stipulations and the commandments and the specifics may differ. The spirit behind it and the conviction. Behind it are the same. Pray, Lord, you would convict our hearts where necessary. That we would change our approach to you if it has been lackadaisical and. Kicked back and. Informal. Recognizing that you are the lord of hosts. That you have a great name and that you are a great king and that all the nations fear you. What a tragedy it would be if the nations feared you, but your own people did not. Teach us from your word this evening, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. The Lord dealt with the children of Israel. In the first five verses of Malachi, And he dealt with them. The very first issue out of the blocks was the issue of their doubting his enduring love for them. You recall, Malachi is written to these people who were formerly exiled in foreign countries, carried off, lost a lot of their property, lost a lot of their family wealth, things like that. It was a horrible time for them. Now they've returned, now they've begun to rebuild the temple, rebuild the walls, reinstitute worship practices, et cetera, and they're beginning to reform as a people. But in doing so, we find that it's the same old Israel. They're still struggling with the same old issues. They show themselves slightly differently. But essentially, it's the same issues. They are not fearing the Lord as they ought. They do not have a true fear of God. Despite the lessons of history, despite their own experiences, despite the Lord's chastening, they are failing to fear the Lord. And so the Lord corrected them and says, I have loved you. And he goes back and gives them a history lesson of how he chose Jacob over Esau. And it's chosen to bless this nation above all the others, not because they were so big or so mighty or so great, but just simply because he chose to set his love upon them. Now we move from that first issue of the love of God for his people. To this area of Worship. And in particular, offerings made unto the Lord. In verse six, the Lord starts off this line of thinking by stating an axiom. A general truism, something that can generally speaking be banked on, this is the way things generally happen in the world, and the Lord says a son honors his father. Sons generally honor their father. A servant honors his master. So the Lord asked the question, if I'm a father, where's my honor? The Lord indeed was the father of Israel in the song of Moses. When they'd been delivered out of the hands of the Egyptians, Moses refers to the Lord in just those terms. The Lord was a father to Israel and they were his children. That's why we call them God's children, God's people, God's nation. He birthed them. He's also their master. He says, if I'm a master, where's my respect? The Lord is not being honored and the Lord and the master is not being respected. By the children of Israel. Notice this term, the Lord of hosts, Repeated over and over again in this passage, as you heard me read it. The Lord is the master, he is the Lord over all the hosts. The great hosts of angelic beings, he is Lord over them all, and yet he is not receiving respect from lesser creatures. Human beings. He's not getting the respect he deserves. Now, we notice who he's directing these words to specifically there at the end of verse six, he says, Oh, priests who despise my name. This is not a word directed to the general rabble. This is a word directed to those who are in leadership. These were the God ordained leaders of the nation's religious system. The priests, they were the top. They were the ones who were to be the most spiritually minded, the ones who were to be the most apt to obey, to follow the Lord, both externally, but also internally from the heart. And yet the Lord is needing to give them a severe rebuke. They are despising his name, the very one they purport to serve. They are despising his name. This brings a bit of a defensive question on behalf of the priests. But you say, how have we despised your name? What are you talking about, Lord? How are we not honoring you? How are we not giving you the respect you deserve? How is it you accuse us of despising your name? Look at us. We are serving you. How are we despising your name? The Lord answers by saying, you're presenting defiled food upon my altar. Leviticus, chapter 21 and verse six. The altar. And the sacrifice put upon it, that sacrifice is referred to as food, the food of God, let me read that for you. They present the offerings by fire to the Lord, the food of their God, so they shall be holy. So sometimes whatever is placed on the altar, the sacrifice is referred to as God's food, though God certainly didn't eat it. He certainly didn't need it to sustain him. It was a picture, a metaphor, if you will, of the Lord consuming and accepting and receiving the sacrifices that was given. Go over these priests doing they were presenting defiled food on the altar. But again, this elicits another defensive question on behalf of the priests, you say, how have we defiled you? You see, to present someone defiled food, if they were to eat defiled food, they themselves would be defiled. The priests understood that and they took it to the next step. They stopped talking about the defiled food and said, how have we defiled you? In what specific ways, Lord, have we defiled the food on your altar and then defiled you in the process? The Lord answers and he says in that you say the table of the Lord is to be despised. It's not that they were actually verbalizing this as such. It's not that they were saying we despise the table of the Lord and you should despise it, too, and thus leading the people in this commonwealth of despising the Lord's table. They weren't doing that verbally, but by their actions that it was having the same effect and they were showing that that, in fact, internally they were despising God's altar. The sacrificial system. Which God had ordained and given very specific instructions concerning. They were despising the Lord's altar and their flippant attitudes toward it. Now, the specifics of how they were defiling the Lord's altar and therefore despising the Lord's altar are given in verse eight. But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? They were presenting the rejects of their flocks. for. The sacrifice. Say, well, it's a living being, what's wrong with that, this is this is a life and isn't that part of what the sacrifice was supposed to do, you know, death, sin brought death, and therefore it was a an incredible picture of death, there was blood everywhere. So what's wrong with, you know, bringing some of these, you know, limping animals in and having them sacrificed? What a noble use for an ignoble animal. Well, it would have been all right had the Lord not specifically said, don't do that. And there were very specific reasons for that. Leviticus 22, turn there with me, if you will, let's go back and look at what the law said concerning the sacrifices that were to be brought. Leviticus 22. Leviticus 22 and verse 17. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel and say to them who was Aaron. Yes, and the leader of. The priesthood, right. Founding father, so to speak, of the priesthood, speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel and say to them, Any man of the house of Israel or of the aliens in Israel who presents his offering, whether it is any of their votive or any of the free will offerings which they present to the Lord or for a burnt offering for you to be accepted. It must be a male without defect from the cattle, the sheep or the goats. Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it will not be accepted for you. When a man offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill a special vow or a free will offering of the herd of the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no defect in it. Those that are blind or fractured or maimed or having a running score or eczema or scabs. You shall not offer to the Lord nor make of them an offering by fire on the altar to the Lord. The Lord said, I don't want your reject animals, I don't want your castaways, your throwaways. I want the best. I want a perfect animal to be used for sacrifice. I want your prize winning animal. The best of the herd, the best of the flock. Now, why does the Lord make this stipulation? Well, because sacrifice looked forward to that ultimate perfect sacrifice, that sacrifice that was given once for all Jesus Christ himself. Who was himself sinless and without fault or imperfection? So it had to be a perfect sacrifice. And what were these priests doing under their watch? They were presenting the lame and the sick for sacrifice. They were presenting the blind. And the Lord said, is this not evil? The evil was they were disobeying God's directive, his orders. His manual of worship was not being followed accurately. And who bore the primary, the blunt of the responsibility for that? The priest did. Of course they did. They were treating the Lord with contempt. The Lord then poses a question there in verse eight, he says, why not offer it to your governor? I got an idea. Why don't you take this. Mangy lot of animals and march them down and try to offer them to your governor as taxes. As payment, to put it in our own terms, we have to pay the IRS every year. And they want their money and deserve their money since we're citizens of this country and enjoy the benefits. Why not say, you know what, Mr. Taxman, I tell you what, I'm a little strapped for cash right now. I tell you what, though, I'm going to open up my garage and there are all kinds of treasures in there. I mean, there's broken lawn chairs and two legged stools. And, you know, there's a lot of a lot of a lot of tools in there that don't really work very well. But, you know, you're welcome to any of them. And let's just I tell you what, you go in there and you take out, say, five and we'll just call it even. Try to give that to your governor, will he be pleased? I don't think so. But you're trying to pawn off the very same thing to the Lord himself. When he received you kindly, says the Lord of hosts, verse nine, he says, But now will you not entreat God's favor that you may be gracious to us? She's saying there. The Lord is saying, are you going to offer me this junk? And then ask me to be gracious to you, you're going to treat me with contempt, you're going to defile my altar, you're going to do what's evil in my sight, and then you're going to ask me to turn around and be gracious to you. Do you think your governor would be gracious to you? Do you think his response would be magnanimous and gracious? They were treating the Lord with contempt. See, the bottom line is they feared and respected their governor far more than they feared the Lord. They never would even think about marching these animals down, trying to give them to the governor. But they had no qualms in offering them to the Lord. It was said of John Knox that he feared the face of God more than he feared the face of any man. And this is one of the great reasons for the Scottish Reformation. But not these priests. They were people pleasers and not God fearers. They wanted to please The governor, more than they wanted to please the Lord, and they wanted to please the people they were serving. You see, it's not necessarily that the priests were going out and saying, OK, we're going to change the rules, you can bring your discarded animals now for sacrifice. The people are culpable here as well, they were. saying, you know what? Boy, that is a nice looking sheep right there. And I don't think I want to part with it. But, you know, this one over here, it's got a funny limp and it's got the, you know, eczema or whatever. It's a reject sheep. I'll take that one. You know, I'm probably going to go out and beat it over the head anyway, so it doesn't infect the rest of the flock. I might as well use it for some good purpose. So I'll offer that. The problem was the priests weren't saying, no, stop that. You cannot do that. It is forbidden. So while there was a responsibility on the part of the people in that they were trying to get themselves ahead. By cutting corners, the real responsibility lie at the foot of the priests. Because they didn't put a stop to it. They accepted these sacrifices that were unacceptable. And here we see the responsibility of leadership. See, the priest couldn't simply say, well, it's not our fault, it's these people's fault, they're the ones offering it, they're cheap. They don't want to offer their best. And the fact is. They have the responsibility to enforce God's commands and refuse unacceptable sacrifices. That's part and parcel to the responsibility and the burden of leadership. People often want to do things that you shouldn't do, that aren't allowed or that aren't wise, and they need to be stopped. And when they're not, The responsibility lies at the feet of the leadership. Even as elders, we have this responsibility to lead and shepherd the flock of God, the Church of God, and we will be accountable for it one day. There's a stricter judgment on leaders and upon teachers, as James 3.1 clearly sets out. Verse 10 is shocking. Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the gates. That you might not uselessly kindle fire on my altar. This is the Lord speaking here. He's the one that came up with the whole temple system. Sacrificial system. He says shut the gates. Close it down. Lock the doors. It's useless. You're simply heaping up judgment upon your own heads. Someone put a stop to it. If only there were one person to walk up and shut the gates. Wonder if the Lord ever says that about his church. Oh, that someone would go and shut the doors. And not uselessly kindle fire on my altar. You're wasting your time. You're not following my word. My word is not central to what you're doing. My interests are not foremost. Your own interests are foremost. Oh, that someone would shut the gates. And what an indictment here. I can't think of a worse thing for the Lord to say to us, I am not pleased with you. Says the Lord of hosts. And I will not accept an offering from you. What kind of an impact that had in their hearts and minds to hear the Lord say, I am not pleased with you. As I said, they were people pleasers, governor pleasers, they weren't necessarily God pleasers. As we look at the history of Israel, it doesn't appear this had a major impact upon them. Amazingly. We know what pleases the Lord. We know what brings him joy. Would it crush you to hear him say, I am not pleased with your life. I am not pleased with your practices. Verse 11 gives the reason. 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, that's the root of the problem. They didn't perceive the greatness of the Lord, they were supposedly serving. They had forgotten the profound greatness of his name and they'd become lackadaisical in their. Sacrificing in their offerings, in their service to the Lord, It had become ho-hum and humdrum. And they were not treating it with the respect, with the reverence, with the honor that it deserved. Why did it deserve it? Because God was the one behind it. And He was the Father. He is the Master. He deserves honor. He deserves respect. The core of the problem was they did not have a fear of the Lord. They were failing to give God the glory to his name. Far from giving God the glory to his name, they were profaning his great name. That's what he says in verse 12. Verse 11, the end of it says, my name will be great among the nations, verse 12, but you are profaning it. You're profaning my name. You're taking my name in vain, as it were, by the way you're treating. Me, in the worship of me and in the service of me. The way they were approaching the sacrifices. You're profaning it and that you say the table of the Lord is defiled and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised. Again, they were not necessarily actually saying these things, but their actions were communicating louder than their words. Verse 13 indicates that they also considered the whole process a great drudgery. You also say, my, oh, how tiresome it is, and you disdainfully sniff at it. The sniffing there is like kind of snubbing your nose and, you know, not giving something the significance it deserves. Sometimes church services can be a little on the slow side. Sometimes I've heard of sermons that can be a little dull or dry. I've heard people preach those sermons sometimes. But we must never forget. That no matter who is doing it and no matter how they're doing it, it is still the word of the Lord. And whether that person is doing it with excellence to the best of their abilities or whether they're doing it in a way that is consistent with these priests treating it disdainfully. Whatever the communicator, the message is the same and the message deserves the same respect, and we ought not say, my, how tiresome it is. Church is boring. Sunday school is boring. Youth group is boring. We ought to be careful with our words, lest the Lord say, I am not pleased with you. If you'd worship as a drudgery. And then he says, goes on in verse 13, this is 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? Should I receive your stolen sheep as an offering? I'm supposed to be OK with this. That is how low it had sunk. I'm going to steal. I'm not going to take one of my best sheep, I'll steal my neighbor's best sheep and I'll offer it. They had completely underestimated The holiness of God. And they failed to have a proper reverence and fear of his name. They were offering those animals which were only a liability. So they could offer the sick ones and lose nothing. David, a man after God's own heart, you may recall a situation where He was given an offering, but he didn't want to take it without giving money for it. Because he says, 2 Samuel 24, 24, I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord, my God, which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. He paid for it, even though it was offered as a gift to him so that he could turn around and offer it to the Lord. He said, No, I'm not going to do that. There needs to be personal expense involved, personal commitment on my part. These folks weren't doing that. Further, they were vowing one thing and then doing another. Verse 14, cursed be the swindler. who has a male in his flock and he vows it. The sacrifice is a blemished animal to the Lord. Again, this was pervasive, it was systemic. And endemic. And the Lord was not pleased. And the bottom line came in verse 14. The end of it. The whole reason For the curse of verse 14, cursed when the Lord says cursed, you're cursed. All reason for it, he says, for I am a great king. Says the Lord of hosts, and my name is feared among the nations, and if it's feared among the nations, then why isn't it feared among the chosen nation? Therefore, you are cursed. They didn't fear the great king. There was no genuine internal reverence and honor for God, and because there was no. Genuine internal fear and reverence and honor for God, there was no genuine external fear and reverence and honor for God in the way that they followed his commands. All they wanted to do was do the minimum, do what they had to do to remain a respectable person in society. Without it costing them much at all. They did not have hearts for God, they had hearts for self. They did not have a vision of a great king. Had a vision only of themselves. As for us, we know what the Lord wants from us in terms of sacrifice. They should have known it as well, the Psalms made it clear, Psalm 51. Oh, Lord, open my lips that my mouth may declare your praise for you do not delight in sacrifice. You see that the sacrifice was was sort of the the external. What do you call it, a condition that was indicative of a deeper problem. Open my lips at my mouth, may declare your praise for you do not delight in sacrifice. Otherwise I would give it. You're not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are what broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. Oh, God, you will not despise. For Samuel 15, 22, Samuel said, As the Lord is much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord, behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. That's what they were missing. They were merely focusing on the external systematic part of it and not the internal heart part of it. And because of that, even the external systematic part wasn't right. Of course, we go to the New Testament, we see what sacrifice the Lord wants from us. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. See, God wants us on the altar. And he wants our best. He wants every day to be lived to our best, to his glory. Not giving him what's left over, what we can afford, what we can spare. What we can drum up, he wants our best. The Lord God is not interested in half hearted worship, half hearted efforts, half hearted service. He doesn't want our leftovers and he doesn't want our hand me down. He wants excellence. Colossians 323 says, whatever you do, whatever you do. Do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Paul gives that little reminder there at the end because that serves the real motivation. The Israelites forgot that they were serving a great king. We forget sometimes that in everything that we do, it is the Lord Christ whom we serve. He deserves our best. God wants excellence from us because he is a God of excellence, and that's why our final core commitment as a church says We're going to seek as a church to ensure excellence in all things. We seek to do things excellently. And I'll be the first to admit it doesn't always happen. But that's got to be what we're continually driving one another for. Why? So we have a polished look and a nice looking sign and, you know, nice carpet. No. Why, so that we can be externally proud in what we have here? No. So that we are reflecting the great king whom we serve. That's why we pursue and ensure excellence in everything. God certainly. When he gave a gift, he gave it excellently, didn't he? He gave his very best. His own son. Prized and dearly loved. Heard a fantastic exposition on Romans 832 this week from Eric Alexander. Romans 832, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things he's already given us his best? How will he not also give us everything else? Let us in return. Out of thankfulness to our great king, our great God, the Lord of hosts, the Lord Christ, whom we serve, let us give our very best as well. Whether it's in worship, whether it's in listening to preaching, whether it's at work, whether it's in serving, whether it's in the nursery, whether it's in a whanau, whether it's in the sound booth, give your best. God deserves it. So that he may say. I am pleased with you. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for. Your grace. That covers a multitude of sins. And a multitude of sloppiness. Forgive us, Lord, for times of where we didn't give our best We gave something half-hearted. No doubt, we're all guilty of that from time to time. But Lord, tonight, may you steal our resolve to give you our best in all things, to serve with fervency. Applying ourselves diligently to all the endeavors you've given us, to all the responsibilities you've given us, Whether at home or work or church, in the neighborhood, community. Family relationships, work relationships. Lord, help us serve with excellence. We can't do it within our own power. Or the flesh wants to do as little as possible. Just to get by. We need your power working within us in the inner man, strengthening us so that Christ may dwell. Through faith. We ask it now in Christ's name, Amen. Let's stand and sing a cappella.