Malachi 1, we're going to pick up at verse 6. Malachi 1, beginning at verse 6. We're going to go all the way through chapter 2, verse 9, and I think you'll see why. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? Says the Lord of hosts to you, O priest, who despise my name. But you say, how have we despised your name? by offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, how have we polluted you? By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favor, says the Lord of hosts? And now entreat the favor of God, that He may be gracious to you. With such a gift from your hand, will He show favor to any of you, says the Lord of hosts? Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations, And in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. But you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food, may be despised. But you say, What a weariness this is! And you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering. Shall I accept that from your hand, says the Lord? Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock and vows it and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations. And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will 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. Indeed, I have already cursed them because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. And so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instructions. The Word of the Lord. Let's pray. O great King, may your name be great among the nations. Steer us through this stern and stiff passage. Where your words make us squirm, help us to change. And where we sense our own inadequacy, strengthen us by your Holy Spirit. and bring us to know better than ever that you say these things because you love us deeply and thus you love us decidedly. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. I have watched it happen way too often. Many of my fellow seminarians, those fellows that I went to school with, who were all hot for the church and warm for Jesus, have either crashed and burned or just simply walked away. Thank God that many have held the line and sailed straight, but enough folks who have gone through seminary with me imploded, so much so that it's troubling. And the same thing has happened in our own denomination and here in our own Presbytery, in North Texas Presbytery. And there are all kinds of reasons for this. But I think in the end, I honestly think that in the end, some of what is addressed here in Malachi chapter 1, 6 through 2, 9 probably lies at the root. Coming to deal lightly with the outsides of holy things. That seems to be the issue. My friends, when grace becomes uninspiring, It is likely because we have forgotten what we have been saved from and how great grace really is. I find that is probably the issue with folks who have grown up in the church, maybe they were children in the church, and raised in the church, and they've gotten older and older, and after a while, they forget, they don't understand, what is all this grace stuff? And I find adults who maybe were converted early in life, that 30, 40 years down the road, they just seem to forget, and life kind of flatlines for them. I've quoted this to you before, and I will quote it again, probably to the day I die. Cornelius Plantinga's book, Beyond Doubt. He makes this observation. When the Christian life goes flat, look for some loss of sensitivity to sin or grace. Now, I would change it one way. I'd put it this way. When the Christian life goes flat, look for some loss of sensitivity to sin and grace. You hear this thing, this kind of thing going on in the two simpering questions in this passage. Well, how have we said twice in verse 6 and verse 7? And then the whining statement in verse 13. What a weariness this is. They're singing, though they didn't know this. They're singing right along with Alanis Morissette. But you, you're not allowed, you're uninvited, an unfortunate slight. Well, let's look then into this passage where we will see God's honor being contrasted by the priest's profanity. By the way, profanity does not mean cussing. It means taking something holy and making it trashy, making it cheap, making it inconsequential. So, God's honor contrasted with priest's profanity. We're going to start in actually verse 2 and 3. We've got to go back to the heart. And it's not really the priest's heart that we're looking at. We're looking at God's heart in verse 2 and 3. Why is God speaking this way to His priest? This grim and gruff way. First off, it's because, as we heard several weeks ago on Sunday morning as we were looking at Matthew, because the greater the opportunity, the greater the obligation. Or if you don't like obligation words, then how about this? The greater the goodness, the greater the gratitude. Or the greater the closeness, the greater the commitment. The priests dealt with holy things all the time. They dealt with communion with God day in and day out. They dealt with the words of God all the time. You would think, of all people, that they would be the closest to God because of the opportunity given to them, the goodness showed to them, because of the closeness given to them. But the other reason why God speaks this way in such grim and gruff ways to His priests is found right there in verse 2 and 3. But I have loved you. Jacob, I loved. Esau, I hated. I have loved you. He loves them deeply and thus He loves them decidedly. They have thrown out their hand and said, but you, you're not allowed. You're uninvited and unfortunate, slight. And so for love to come and break through that kind of barricade, for love to penetrate that kind of barrier, God has to tell them bluntly that their emperor has no clothes, so to speak. He has to jump into the mud with them and grab them by the horns and wrestle them down. Where's Scott? I think he'd probably like the steer wrestling analogy. And so that's why he's speaking in such gruff and grim words. Because he loves them deeply and he's going to break through this barrier they've set up. So let's look then at the priest's profanity. We're going to start there. The priest's profanity. And notice that they have profaned God by disrespecting His sacraments, His sanctuary, and His standing. They have profaned God by disrespecting His sacraments, His sanctuary, and the standing He has given them as priests. First off, they have profaned God by disrespecting His sacraments. It's in all that language back up in verse 7-9. You have despised my name. How have we despised your name? Because you've polluted food. You've offered polluted food on my altar. How have we polluted you? Because you've said the Lord's table is to be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, etc. When you offer the lame and the sick, etc. If you want to do that, go take them to your governor. Will he accept you? Go see what happens there. What we don't recognize, because we don't offer blood sacrifices anymore. Thank you, Jesus, for taking care of that. What we don't realize is that almost all of the blood sacrifices were eaten. There was only one or two that were consumed completely on the altar. The rest were eaten. Almost every sacrifice was a communion meal. If you go back to Exodus and you remember when Moses and the 70 elders go up to Mount Sinai, they go up and there's the Lord in front of them and they eat in front of the Lord. They actually eat a meal with the Lord. And so the sacrifices were that kind of a thing. They were a sacramental meal of communion, of fellowship, of being drawn close to God. Think about it. That which is sacrificed is eaten. Does that sound oddly familiar? We don't offer Jesus as a sacrifice at communion, but we do, by faith, receive the sacrificed one as we eat. And so they profaned the Lord by disrespecting His sacraments. They also profaned the Lord by disrespecting His sanctuary. Look at verse 10. I have to be careful. When I preached on this passage years ago in another church, somebody got mad at me and asked if I was talking about shutting our church's doors. No, no, I'm not talking about that. I'm just telling you what's here, all right? So in verse 10, notice that he is fed up with their phony and shallow leadership and worship. And so he says in verse 10, Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you would no longer kindle a fire on my altar in vain. I don't take any pleasure in you and this worship that you're leading and a part of. I will not accept the offering from your hands. It would be almost as if God had said something like this, I'm so fed up with this church. I just wish that the deacons would come and lock the doors and take yellow tape and wrap it around the building and paint condemned on the side of the building and let it be torn down. I'm fed up. It's that kind of a shocker that God is saying here. Why? Because they have profaned By disrespecting, they profane God by disrespecting His sacraments and His sanctuary. And so he says down in verse 12 and 13, you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is polluted and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. And you say, oh, what a weariness this is, and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. They disrespect and they profane the Lord by disrespecting His sacraments and His sanctuary. And thirdly, their profanity was clear in that they disrespected God's standing, the standing He gave them as priests. It's over in chapter 2, verses 1-3. He says, And now, O priests, this command is for you, if you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart. Twice He says this, if you will not take it to heart. If you will 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. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart." Lay what to heart? The fact that God has put them in a very privileged position. He has made them His priests. They didn't deserve it. It was an act of God's grace. And because they didn't take it to heart, they were profaning God by disrespecting the standing He gave to them. To the point, He even says, I have cursed your blessings. Remember in Numbers 6 that when the high priest is supposed to give a blessing at the end of whatever worship service that's going on, he's supposed to give that Aaronic blessing, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. And God says, I've taken those words of blessing and turned them into curses. And so look at verse 8 and then we'll look at verse 9. There's a threefold censure here. And in this censure you will hear how they have profaned the Lord by disrespecting their standing, the sacred standing He gave them. First off, but you have turned aside from the way. Here are the guys who are with the Word. They hear the Word. They're probably the most literate group in all of Israel. So they're readers, and they get to hear Scripture. They get to hear who God is. They're close to God, or at least supposed to be. They're involved in God's worship day after day. They're involved in all of this, but they have turned aside from the Way. They're walking away from it. Secondly, you have caused many to stumble by your instructions. They're supposed to help others know how to approach God, but instead what they're doing is they're messing with things so that others are falling away because they're giving false instruction. In the third censure, you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. They are disrespecting the standing that God has given them in their actions at the cheapness with which they lead worship. And so in verse 9, he gives the two aspects of their fault. He says, "...and so I make you despised and abased before all the people... ...inasmuch as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction." Basically, he just said that in verse 8. He's saying it again in verse 9. When God says something more than once, it's pretty huge. They have profaned God by disrespecting His sacraments, His sanctuary, and the standing He gave them. The barrenness of their bargain-basement beliefs parades around a watery, thin theological triviality and saintly superficiality. These are those who deal with the holy on a regular and a daily basis. And so, if the religious leaders are this way, The ones who are supposed to know God and know how God deserves to be worshipped. If the religious leaders are this way, what might this do to the religiously led? And that's the segue to next week's sermon. I think Robert Alden in his commentary brings this out for us when he states, and if the leadership failed, what could the people be expected to do? But spiritual leaders, both ancient and modern alike, have often run the risk of treating sacred things as ordinary. Intimate familiarity with holy matters conduces to treating them with indifference." End of quotation. The priests were dealing lightly with the outsides of holy things. And it's a common temptation. In the ministry, we're dealing with Scripture day after day. I read the Bible. You don't know how many times I have to read the Bible throughout the week. Portions of it. Thinking about it for Sunday. Talking to some of you on the phone or in person. Always dealing with Scripture. Always leading in prayer. Always doing those things. And it is easy to slide into the familiarity that leads to this triviality and this shallowness. It's always dangerous. I'll tell a story of myself. That's where you'll think really poorly of me, okay? One time, years ago, and I don't know why I did this, I was working on my doctorate, and so I had to go to Ambridge, Pennsylvania to go to class. It was in the summer. I remember it was in the summer. And for some silly reason, I decided to leave on a Sunday. I think it was this pride thing, trying to be omnicompetent. Instead of calling someone in to fill in the pulpit and let me leave on a Saturday so I could take off easily and not be in a rush, I thought, oh, I can hang with this. And so I booked the flight, and the only flight I could book meant I had to leave church and race to the airport 20 minutes away and get through TSA by the skin of my teeth to get on the plane. And so that Sunday morning, knowing that I had that ticket and knowing that that was on my mind and I just was excited about going to class, I turned an hour and 15 minute worship service into a 50 minute worship service. It was like listening to Alvin and the Chipmunks. Anybody remember Alvin and the Chipmunks, right? I mean, it was just... And my mind was nowhere on anything that we were doing. My mind was already on the plane, already going to Ambridge, Pennsylvania. After the service was over with, I was walking out to go take my robe off and hurry and get in the car, and one of the ladies stopped me and she said, well, that was... It's obvious you're in a hurry. This didn't do a thing for me today. So all the whole flight to Ambridge, Pennsylvania, I was the worst, most miserable offender there ever could be, just grieving over what I had done. I had cheapened God's worship, being in such a hurry. It's easy to slide into that trap. But not just for ministers. Maybe for any one of us. As God probes and prods our hearts here in this passage, What's bubbling up to the top of your heart? Are you bored with church? Do you approach it with a glib tastelessness? Do you find that your heart becomes frivolous, or negligent, or worship is artificial? Let me go back to that Cornelius Plantinga quotation, and I'm going to change it again one more time. When the Christian life, and let's just add Christian worship, when the Christian life and Christian worship goes flat, look for some loss of sensitivity to sin and grace. Well, there's the priest's profanity, but now we're going to look at God's honor. This is what they should have given God all along. They should have brought veneration, they should have given Him the valuable, and they should have vindicated Him. Let me show you what I mean. Notice how verse 6 begins in chapter 1. God says, A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Notice that God is just going to normal human relationships. You do this in your human relationships. Why wouldn't you do this in your relationship with me? A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I'm a master, where is my fear? Says the Lord of hosts to you, O priest who despise my name. This is how they should have approached. They should have come with this honor on their hearts. Notice down in v. 11, he says twice in v. 11, which we'll look at more fully in a minute. He says twice, for my name will be great. For my name will be great. And then at the end of v. 14, for I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts. And my name will be feared among the nations. Surely, they should have come with veneration. Giving him the honor that is his due. But also the valuable. The valuable. By offering the cheap and the shoddy. That's what they were doing. Notice in verse 8. Look at verse 8. This should really knock your socks off. He says to them in verse 8. Let me read it here. Just the first part. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Notice what God says. We often, as good Americans, we often think that worship, how we worship God, is all optional. It's whatever we feel. That it really doesn't matter. But notice that God takes the liturgical out of the pragmatic category, and he puts it in a moral category. The way we approach God, really matters. It's a moral issue. If we come offering cheap and shoddy and valueless worship, is that not evil? God says it twice. God goes on in verse 13 to 14. He says, but you say, what a weariness this is, and you snort at it. You bring what has been taken by violence. That's interesting. So you would think, knowing the Word of God, would understand that violence where you rob someone is all inappropriate, and yet the sacrifices they're offering, some of them have been taken by violence. Notice how this liturgical aspect filters out into the social. They've taken some of these by violence, like Hophni and Phinehas, if you go back to 1 Samuel. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering. Shall I accept that from your hands, says the Lord? Cursed be the cheat. They should have come and brought the valuable, what really meant something. Because why? Because God is meaningful himself. As he says at the end of verse 14, I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations. so they should have honored God with veneration, bringing Him the valuable. And the third thing is vindicating God, His call, His standing that He had given them. That's why when you get down to chapter 2, verses 4-7, He makes quite a big deal out of this standing. "'So shall you know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant with Levi may stand. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear or reverence, and he feared or reverenced me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." The priest's actions should have vindicated God's whole gracious calling upon them, saying, this is serious business, and this God is really worth worshiping in this way. It should have vindicated God's call upon them. Instead of the good-enough-for-government-work kind of mindset, yes, I have said that more than once, Instead of the good-enough-for-government-work kind of mindset it should be, we're here before the great kings. Now listen, understand that in giving our best to God, giving Him the honor He is due, and venerating Him, and giving Him the valuable, and vindicating Him, that as we give our best to God in worship, we are not earning anything. It's not about earning anything. We are simply giving God our highest joy. We are giving God simply our deepest gratitude, our richest honor. Why? Because He is the great King who loves us. deeply and thus loves us decidedly. The great King, who could have just said, y'all just deal with it, you messed it up, just go deal with the consequences, I'm done with you. And instead, He comes into our situation, He becomes fully human. And His Son, Jesus Christ, and He comes and He liberates us from our enslavement and He makes us sons and daughters. Think of it. And then on top of all of that, the great King says to each and every one of you, come, eat with me. Feast with me. Come and tell me your concerns for the future. Come, draw near. You have my ear. Let me hear about your concerns for your future, your family's future, your world's future. Amazing. Grace, how sweet the sound, saved a wretch like me. When the Christian life and Christian worship goes flat, look for some loss of sensitivity to sin and grace. Maybe it would be good for us to ask God to help us to salvage our sense and sensibility, to come and reignite our reverence and respect. Maybe on our part, there's some confessing to God that we need to do, some imploring the great King to raise up in our hearts and minds once again His amazing love. But then comes the plan, and here's where I want to end. It started back in verse 5. We dealt with this last week at verse 5. And then it picks up and kind of explodes in verse 11 and verse 14. Strangely enough, in the midst of the muddle, surfaces God's plan. And it shoots off in a most surprising direction. In verse 5, He said, Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall know, Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel. And we dealt with that last week, what that referred to specifically at that point, but now God takes it up in verse 11. And He goes further with it in verse 11 and at the end of verse 14. For from the rising of the sun to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to My name in a pure offering. For My name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts. and my name will be feared among the nations." Notice the plan. The plan. Worldwide worship of God. A pure global offering from one end of the horizon to the next. From that horizon to that horizon. From all over the world. flowing in saying, yes, you are the great King and you are worthy of our veneration of all that is valuable and our vindication. You are worth it from all tribes and tongues and nations and peoples and lands. I think it's what Paul is referring to in our call to worship from Romans 15. Listen to the priestly language he uses here. Because the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit." I think Paul's referring to Malachi 1.11 personally, that he's showing that this has now begun to happen. This was the plan all along, and it has begun. It's what Bill was reading in Ephesians chapter 3, that mystery that was there that people didn't understand, but now it is clear because Jesus, through His apostles, makes the mystery revealed, lays it out. And what is it? That Gentiles are brought into the commonwealth of Israel and are now the people of God through Jesus Christ. Wow! Think of it. Let me put it in a different way. Malachi 1, verse 11 and verse 14 are about you, right now, sitting here in this place, doing what we've been doing this day, worshiping God. The plan all along, and it's becoming clear when you get into the New Testament, the plan all along is for God's worldwide rescue operation to come and be wrapped up in and rise up in the worship of God. I think John Piper, I know that Dan Iverson mentioned John Piper last week, I've got to do it too. In his book, Let the Nations Be Glad, his book on missions, I think he is spot on. What is the main reason for evangelism and missions? It's not saving people from hell. That's a blessed benefit. The primary goal is to make worshipers of God from all over the world, all the nations and the tribes and the lands, to come and worship this God, the great King. Truly, my friends, great is the Lord beyond the borders of Israel. Let's pray. We are grateful, O Lord, our God, of the great opportunity, the rich goodness, the kindness that you have bestowed upon us. We know that it's supposed to respond from our hearts with a sense of obligation, a joyful obligation, a richer gratitude, a more full commitment. Lord, to be honest with you, we at times do slip into some of the things we see here in Malachi. The triviality and the superficiality. We pray, Lord, forgive us. And we pray, Lord, that you would raise up again in us an increased sensitivity of sin and grace. May we rejoice in the goodness you've bestowed upon us. And Lord, we pray for your worldwide rescue operation to continue to flourish and thrive. We do long to see your churches full. We long to see people of different ethnicities and different languages and different regions, different economic statuses and so forth, all come flowing in to your church. That the nations may come to Jerusalem, as it were, set as a city on a hill, to hear the word of the Lord, and then they may flow forth, beating their spears into pruning hooks, their swords into plowshares, like lions lying down with lambs. And so, Lord, we pray, help us to be a joyful part of that. In Jesus' name, amen.