Well, I'm going to ask you, if you will, to turn to the last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi. And over the next few weeks, we'll look at least into the beginning of this book, hopefully in our studies together. I'm going to read just the first few verses of chapter one this evening, the book of Malachi. The Burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, says the Lord, yet you say, in what way have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord, yet Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness. Even though Edom has said we have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places. Thus says the Lord of hosts, they may build, but I will throw down. They shall be called the territory of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, the Lord is magnified. beyond the borders of Israel. Well, we'll stop there just now and we'll think about these things this evening a little bit and consider some of the things that we learn here in these verses. The Book of Malachi, it's the last book of the Old Testament, it's the last of the prophetical books. We refer to these last books of the Old Testament as the minor prophets. That doesn't mean to say they're less important, it just means they're shorter in length. The major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, are longer books. Well, Daniel, yes, Daniel is still one of the longer books, and they are considered by most to be what are called the major prophets because of their lengths. The others are minor, not because they're less important, but because They're much shorter in books. I'm just a bit sorry that they're called minor prophets, because it gives the impression that they aren't, you know, somehow not quite as important. But that's not the sense or the meaning at all. Now this book finishes, of course, with the prophecy of the great day of the Lord. And from this time onward, there was 400 years of silence until the Lord Jesus Christ came to this world. No word from God for 400 years. That is a dreadful thing, isn't it? to think that there was no revelation, no further word from God. There was silence, as it were, from heaven in terms of God's revelation until the Lord Jesus Christ came. Now we've known periods of darkness, of course, spiritual darkness in this land as well, haven't we? A lot of the period of what's known as the Middle Ages. I'm never quite sure why it's called the Middle Ages, That was a dark period, wasn't it? You know, the longer we go on, it won't be the Middle Ages any longer, it'll be... Well, anyway, there we are, I won't go into that now. But what we traditionally call the Middle Ages were really very dark days, spiritually. and then towards the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century were very, very dark days spiritually for this land. And there are times when God seems to be silent and maybe we don't know why. Well, we can look back in history and we can see why, but perhaps those at the time were not always aware of why that was the case. Now we know very little about Malachi. We don't know who he is or where he came from. He was a voice, a voice crying to the people. urging them to hear the voice of God, telling them that God was their father and that they should listen to him. They were his sons and daughters and yet they were despising him and rejecting him. And some of the questions, as we shall see, that the people ask of God were not asked in arrogance, so it's sometimes perhaps in the English, we think perhaps they're being arrogant, but it very many times, as we shall see, the questions were almost questions of, almost of pain. You know, why, Lord, are you treating us this way? We'll see that illustrated in a moment or two and more so. God is our father, we are his sons and daughters, and yet you're telling us we're despising God? Well, that's not what we're intending to do. But that's actually what they were doing. They may change, and they did change, But the Lord Jesus Christ never changes. God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And even in this verse, well, even, I mean, right straight away, should I say, not even, but straight away in verse two, God is reminding them of that. I have loved you, says the Lord. Yet you say, in what way have you loved us? And God already or immediately begins to demonstrate that he is the God of love and of grace, the God of Covenant love, the God of covenant grace. Now who was Malachi? Well Malachi has been called the unknown prophet with the angelic name, because the word Malachi is the Hebrew word for angel or messenger. So it may not even be his real name, it may be just he was the messenger of God, the angel of God, the servant of God. So it may not actually have been his real name. It might be like, you know, sometimes you call me pastor. Well, you know, that's not my name. That's my function, as it were. Well, Malachi, that's Malachi. Was that his name? Or was it simply, this was, he was the angel of God, the messenger of God to these people. And that's all we know of him. And in chapter two, verse seven, this is described in this way. For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. The Malachi, the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Chapter three, verse one. Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. So it's possible that this was simply the title of the person who was speaking and we really know nothing about him. When was his book written? Again, we can't be sure exactly when it was written. We know it was written after the exile. We know that it was probably written in the time of Nehemiah or towards the end of the time of Nehemiah, but we're not, again, we can't be absolutely certain. We do have some hints. It clearly has been written after the return from exile. For example, in verse eight of chapter one, we have this reference in the middle of the verse, when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil, and so on. Offer it then to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably? Well, we know that the children of Israel, the people of God, had governors when they came back from exile. They didn't have kings in the same way. They had governors. They had those who were over them. And that is the word that is used. Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel were all described with this Hebrew word, governor here. Well, the word that is translated, governor here. We know that the temple has been rebuilt, chapter one verse seven, and chapter one verse 10 speaks about the altar and the table of the Lord, verse seven, and verse 10 speaks about the doors, the doors to come into the altar, which was in the temple. So we know that there's references to sacrifices to the altar and the temple. And many of the problems that Malachi deals with are some of the problems that Nehemiah faced. the problems of them bringing polluted sacrifices in chapter 1 verses 7 to 8. Nehemiah had to deal with that with the people after Jerusalem was rebuilt in the latter part of his book. Chapter 2 verse 11 speaks about the problem of mixed marriages. Judah has dealt treacherously and abomination has been committed in Israel and Jerusalem for Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution whom he loves. He has married the daughter of a foreign god." Again, Nehemiah had a lot to do with seeking to bring them back from mixed marriages. Chapter three, of course, probably the chapter that we may be more familiar with because people often refer to these words about bringing the tithes and the offerings into the storehouses, they neglected to tithe. Again, Nehemiah had to deal with that. So it's possibly, or may even be probable, that Malachi was written or Malachi was speaking, sharing his burden with the people around about the time when Nehemiah went back to Susa, to Babylon, and before he returned, and the events of Nehemiah 13 and context. So what's the historical, if that is the case, what is the historical background of the book if that is the case? Well, after the exile, or at least at the end of the exile, the cream of the nation stayed in captivity. Crazy. They'd settled down, they'd become quite happy, they'd forgotten God. The intelligentsia, you might say, the learned people, they stayed behind, they didn't want to go back to the land. Materialism had got in. They'd got so, you know, temples of retail therapy we talk about today, don't we? Well, you know, that's where they worshipped. They worshipped the things of this world and they were quite happy. They'd settled down and they'd lost their spiritual desire for God. The people who came back had a great zeal for God when they came back. And they worked hard to start with and then they got discouraged and Nehemiah comes along and others come and Ezra come and they encourage them to rebuild the temple and then Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of the city. But gradually again things they began to settle down because it was really very hard. It wasn't easy. The Christian life isn't easy. Life following the Lord is not always easy. And they began to settle down and well they didn't get settled down. They just found it hard work. Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab opposed them. There was droughts and the crops had failed and famine had come and they began to doubt God's love and justice. And they began to say, why has this happened to us? Now it's easy, as I say, to read Malachi and think that it's all a bit sarcastic or a bit, you know, but no, this was, it was just, it was disillusionment. You know, I think to be fair to the people, this wasn't the arrogant defiance that some of them had shown towards the prophets before the exile. It was much more a case of, you know, what's going on? But they didn't realize that it was because their hearts were not right with God as they ought to be. The New Bible commentary makes this comment, and I think it's worth just reading this. The Jews had returned from exile with high hopes. Inspired by Hagia and Zechariah, they had rebuilt the temple. This building didn't have the glory of the original one, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians, but it served its purpose. Ezra, of course, has something to say about that, and you know how some of the old men who remember the old temple wept. when the new temple was built because it was not a patch on the old one. As the years passed, the Jews became disillusioned. The promised prosperity did not return. Life was hard. They were surrounded by enemies who sought to thwart them at every opportunity. They suffered from drought and bad crops and famine. They began to doubt the love of God. They questioned the justice of his moral rule. The evildoer is good in the sight of the Lord, they said. They argued that there was no profit in obeying his commandments and walking penitently before him, for it was the evil and the self-reliant who prospered. They had the same problem that the psalmist had in Psalm 73, but until Malachi comes and speaks to them, they hadn't seen the answer, of course, which Psalm 73 gives. Now what does this do for Malachi? Well it gives him a burden, chapter 1 verse 1, the burden of the word of the Lord. That's unusual, not unique, but it's unusual. Malachi is burdened by this. Nahum and Habakkuk also describe their prophecies as a burden from the Lord. That's not true of any of the, not said of any of the other prophets, but These three particularly speak about God's word coming upon them as a burden. And it's particularly significant here in Malachi, it's significant in Haggai for a different reason, and it's significant in Habakkuk for a different, sorry, in Nahum and Habakkuk for different reasons. And if we were dealing with them, I'd go into that in more detail. But here is Malachi, and we're gonna think about Malachi's burden and why it was such a burden to him. Malachi reminds the people that they are the covenant people of God. Verse two, his covenant love. I have loved you with my covenant love. This oracle, this burden, this heavy weight, this word of prophecy coming by the hand of Malachi to the people. But God does love them and God does care for them even though they can't understand it or realize it. And God takes up Malachi and gives him this burden for the people. God is their father, they are his children. Only a living, personal, trusting relationship with God will bring them into blessing and peace. And so Malachi does seek to answer the questions and the doubts of the people. He comes to encourage them in days of doubt. In days when things don't seem to be happening, it seems to me that there are many, many parallels with the kinds of things that Malachi was saying in his day to our day today. We are not seeing revival. We are not seeing great blessing in the West. Some of us have the privilege of seeing that in other parts of the world, but we don't see that in the West. It's hard. Ernie and Bill will be out Saturday morning, I hope, if I'm able to be with them and maybe others will, I don't know. But it's hard. You speak in the open air and people go by and they don't stop and they don't listen. You know, we used to hold open airs in St Ives and you could get a crowd of 30, 40 people. We never got that in Leicester when I did open airs in Leicester. We haven't done it so far. Have you ever had that many? No? It doesn't tend to happen in this country. Why? You go back to the time of the 18th century awakening, and Wesley preaches to thousands, and Whitefield preaches to thousands. And people come and they listen. And the fact that it's cold and wet doesn't stop them. And now, you understand. I'm not saying we're in the same situation as Wesley and Whitefield. We don't have that now. I preach in the open air or I preach in the open in India and the whole village turns out. You know, what an amazing thing it would be if everyone in Droyleston came to the open air. That'd be fabulous, wouldn't it? But why not? If God comes down upon his people that much, but at the moment we're not living in that day, we're living in a discouraging day, and it's easy to feel down. I can remember, dear old, I was talking to the friends in St. Ives yesterday evening, one of them, we were on the phone, and I remember dear Eddie Mert, who was the church secretary, he was a very godly man, very godly man, he died while I was down there, he died quite young, well, relatively young in one sense. And we were shocked and saddened that the Lord took him home. But he was a very godly man. And he used to say, we've got plenty of room in the chapel, plenty of, lots of Mr. Wood, lots of Mr. Wood, he'd say, wooden pews, you see. Plenty of space. And people knew where he stood and they knew Eddie and he would walk down the high street and he'd talk to people and do their utmost to encourage them to come and to hear the gospel. But we live in difficult days and hard days. Has God forgotten us? No. But sometimes we go through hard days. Now let's not become like the people in Malachi's day who became cynical. Dear friends, I'm not accusing you of being cynical. But that's what was beginning to happen to them. Not cynical against God, but just sort of losing heart. And actually what led them to was actually to backslide. And the first sign of backsliding is criticism of those who are closer to God. And it A church that backslides becomes very critical of God and his word. Dear friends, I'm not suggesting that for one moment that that's the case here. But it can happen. And every statement that Malachi puts forward, as we shall see, is answered and questioned by the people. They had a questioning heart. And they begin to despise authority and deny authority. And they got to the point where they wanted to turn away from the word of God because they just couldn't understand what God was doing with them. And no wonder this message of God to Malachi has become a burden to him. Well, let me, in the next 20 minutes or so, speak about this message of God. Because the message of God is always a burden in one sense. The message that we have to bring to men and women is a burden. Well, why is it? Well, firstly, because of its value. because of its value. This message is so valuable. It is a weighty matter. This is not airy-fairy, this is not light, this is not just sort of froth, this is not just some sort of intellectual playing with words. This is a matter of glory and of quality and of weight and of value. It's heavy. It's a burden in one sense. We're not trifling with men and women when we preach. This is a burden that we carry. We carry it joyfully because we know that the glory of God is that which will do men good. And so it's not a burden where we are bowed down, not like Christian with his sins before he came to the cross, but there's a heaviness about, there's a quality and we know that we have a responsibility. We're not like Jonah running away from God and his word. We take this burden joyfully because we know of the value of it and the greatness of it. Now of course Paul takes this up in lots of ways in the New Testament, doesn't he? Let me just give you two references from two Corinthians which I'm sure will help you and I trust encourage you as we think of this glory of God. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7 where Paul says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. It's a treasure. It's valuable. It's not light. It's not airy-fairy. It's not froth and bubble. It's not soap suds. It's weighty. It's valuable. It's quality. It's precious. We have this treasure. And then in 2 Corinthians 4 and verses 16 to 18, I've referred to this, I'm sure, before, where Paul says, we do not lose heart. It's what the people in Malachi's day were doing. They were beginning to lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, you know, we feel the burden of the day. I feel that. I can't do what I used to do. I know that I can't. I haven't got the strength I had years ago. Our outward man is perishing, but the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, quality, quality of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. The things which are seen are temporary, they're passing, they're transitory, they're like a breath, a vapour. But the things which are not seen are eternal. There's a quality, there's a value to them. Well, it's a burden in that sense. So because of its value. Secondly, because of its effect upon the messenger. Now if we know anything about the work of God, if we know anything about the grace of God, if we know anything about God's dealings with us, we know that we cannot speak to men and women from an empty heart. We're speaking of something that has meant something to us. It's come to us. The gospel has come to us. The Lord Jesus Christ has done something to us. And it's wonderful. He's saved us from sin, he's rescued us, he's delivered us, he's done us good. Do you know, if we're gonna tell men and women about the fact that they need to be convicted of their sin in order that they can be delivered from their sin, we can't do it effectively if we haven't known what it is to be convicted of our sin ourselves. And to have known that when we were convicted of our sin, The Lord comes to forgive us and to set us free. The powerful preaching of repentance comes from those who have repented. The water of life springs up within our souls because he who is life itself has come to us. The Lord Jesus Christ, of course, spoke of that, didn't he, when he spoke of himself being the living water in John chapter 7 and verses 37 and 38. John chapter 7, 37 and 38. On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the spirit, whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glory. out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, Proverbs tells us. And you remember, of course, how God speaks to Ezekiel and he says to Ezekiel, here is this roll, you are to eat it. This roll which is written with words, not a bread roll, not a cheese roll, not a cheeseburger from McDonald's, but a roll with the words of God written on it and you are to eat it. and you're to chew it up and you're to digest it. And here is God saying to Ezekiel, you take this roll and you eat it and the words within it will become part of you so that you will speak from a heart that is filled with the words of God. It's a wonderful picture, isn't it? Now I'm not saying that we should literally tear the Bible up and eat it. But the picture, the illustration, so much of the symbolism of what Ezekiel did was related to the giving of God's Word, the burden of God's Word that rested upon him. The Word of God comes into Ezekiel's very being, so that it comes from him. And that's a burden, isn't it? As God puts his word upon us. Is your heart full of the word of God? What a blessing. What a burden to joyously wear because his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Because of its value, because of its effect upon the messenger. Thirdly, because of the work needed to declare it. Now I don't know about you, but it is not an easy thing to stand before people and tell them of their sins. It is not easy to stand up in the open air and to declare the Gospel. And if you feel, well, I could never do it, you know something of the difficulty of doing it because it's not easy, is it? It's not easy. to speak the Word of God to men and women, that there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun, to make sure that as we preach and as we speak over the years we are declaring the whole counsel of God, that we're not putting the Word of God over in a disjointed manner or in an out of kilter manner so that people get it out of balance and out of proportion. so that we're not distorting the truth and we're not diluting the truth. To speak so that the weak are strengthened while the strong man armed is overcome. To comfort the tender-hearted but to challenge the complacent. To sympathise with the sorrowing but to attack and challenge and strike down the arrogant and to get those balances right. A burden to be sure that the balance and the proportion of truth is kept at all times. So this message is a burden. Why? Because it rebukes sin and attacks human pride and opposes human wisdom and declares the result of rejecting God. But for those who observe it and receive it, they find, as I've just said, it's a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light. What are the messages there that will save our souls? What other message is there that will do us good? What other message will bring us to heaven? What other message brings us out of this world into the world to come? What other message has eternal and everlasting consequences? Wonderful. This is a gospel that works. This is a gospel that fills us with the weight of glory. Fourthly, why is it a burden? Because of the reaction of those who hear it. Now we'll see that illustrated as we go into this book a little bit. Malachi's hearers over and over again were full of objections. They would not accept the word of God. That is a burden to the preacher. When you preach, and you preach, and you preach again, and you speak, and you witness, and people will not receive it, and will not hear it. You know, some people seem to think, and please friends, I know you don't think this, I'm sure you don't think this, but some people seem to think, well, you know, the old old saying, you know, the ministry only works one day a week. You know, my children used to get so angry with folk in their school when they were school age, saying, oh, your dad only works one day a week. My daughter would lose her rag with them sometimes. My dad doesn't work only one day a week. You want to see what he does? She'd say, bless her. And people seem to think, well, you just, you open the Bible and you, some, sadly, some ministers give that impression I was telling Rob, I think, the other day, over the weekend, I don't know whether I was saying, whether some of you were there when I was saying this, of this friend I knew, who I grew up with, he was in the church, and he went into the ministry, and he got this library, ended up with this library, massive, massive library of books. I've got a library of about 10,000 books now, but he had, this was long before I had that kind of library, and he had this massive library, and I went to see him on one occasion. He'd joined the Charismatics, you know, after the Charismatic movement came, and he joined. And I went to see him on one occasion. I was passing through the area where he was ministering. I walked in and I said, oh, what a lovely library you've got. What a resource. He said, I never read any of them these days. I said, what? He said, oh, no, no. He said, you know, I live by the spirit now. God gives me the word to speak. Wish I found it that easy. I thought, what a waste! But friends, if we're going to deal with God's word, we've got to study it, we've got to work at it, we've got to, it takes time. And after the, sorry, I'm not trying to, forgive me, I'm not trying to boast in any way or, don't take this the wrong way, I'm sure you won't. But after all the sweat and toil and preparation and prayer, to find that our hearers reject our word, and turn their back upon it, and reject us, and sometimes spit in our faces, that's hard. That's a burden. And yet many today are like this, so they're not. when we go out and we seek to preach and we seek to take the word of gospel. And the problem these days is not just that people reject the gospel. You can talk to them and you have conversations with them and they turn around and they say things like this, well, yeah, that's all right for you, but not for me. And you say, but surely it, you know, surely, can't you see that, you know, you've got to die when, yeah, but it's not for me, it's not for me. So that they more than, it's not that they oppose it so much, they just dismiss it, they just dismiss it. And before the service is over, if they're there, their minds are full of other things and they treat the word of God with contempt by not taking it to heart. And others just forget the word. And when the sermon is preached, it goes in one ear and out the other. And the seed has fallen upon their hard hearts and it's been snatched away before they ever got out of the door. My good friend, long since gone to glory, the Reverend Charles Lawrence. Sidney Lawrence was my pastor. His elder brother, Charles, was also in the ministry. Charles was a great encouragement to me when I first started into, well Sidney was as well, I don't mean to, you know, they both were, they were both wonderfully helpful to me and spiritually a great blessing to me. But in one sort of way the relationship I had with Charles was a bit different from the relationship I had with Sidney. Sidney was always my pastor because I'd grown up under his ministry. Charles, although he was older than his brother, he was almost like a fellow colleague in the ministry. The relationship was a little bit different and we used to talk about things together and he would He would preach sometimes and I would be there sometimes. I led the service when he was preaching and other things like that. And we go to the door and then everybody... yucking in the church after the... I'm not saying we shouldn't talk after the service, I don't mean that. But, you know, talking about anything, anything! And he'd stand by the door and he said, look at the jacked doors, look at the jacked doors! What he meant was here were the birds of the air coming down and taking away the seed of the word. Look at the jackdaws, he'd say. Because people were just yakking about all kinds of things, nothing to do, you know, and the word of God had gone in one ear and out the other in some cases. Well, that wasn't true of everybody. But that happens, doesn't it, friends? And some others just ridicule the word. or they're full of excuses why it can't apply to them. I can remember in industry being, talking on one occasion to one of the friends, one of the folk I was working with, one of the engineers I was working with, and he was sitting at his desk, if you'll pardon me there, sitting at his desk like this, and he said, he asked, he said, do you mean to tell me that you believe the Bible? Yes, I said, you believe the Old Testament, you believe the early chapters? And he, you know, and he stuck his feet up on the desk like this and put his hands behind his head and laughed at the top of his voice. And everybody in the office turned around and looked at me because they heard him laughing. And I went, I could feel the blood coming up and going red with embarrassment. Utter contempt. Utter contempt for the word of God. But the problem with Malachi's heroes was they were not quite in that condition. They were not profaning God's name, or so they thought. And they were not rebuking God, and they weren't robbing God, at least that's what they thought. And they were orthodox, and they're saying to Malachi almost like this, well, yeah, we understand all of that, but hang on a minute, Malachi, we're not really quite like that. We'll see that later in chapter one, we'll see that particularly in chapter three and in other places. Malachi, you've got it wrong, we're okay. It's just that God doesn't understand us. But he does, says Malachi. And that's why this message is a burden to me. Because actually, although you think that you're receiving and hearing the word of God, you're not doing it. And you're not obeying it. And this burden which weighs so heavy upon my heart is the Word of God. It's a message of judgment upon sin, but it's a message of forgiveness to those who repent. It's a message of salvation for those who will hear and receive it and act upon it. It's a message to be a burden upon the hearts of men and women until they too escape from the judgment to come and find salvation in Christ. And so he goes on later on and he tells about the day in chapter four, about the day coming when there will be a great division that takes place. The day is coming which will surely burn them up. But to you that fear my name, the son of righteousness will arise with healing in his wings. Only those who fear God's name and trust in him will be saved on that day. The old Scottish hearer was listening to the sermon, and it was nearly finished. And he said, is the sermon done? And the pastor replied, the sermon is said. It is yet to be done. And in a sense, that was the burden that Malachi had as he spoke the word of God. And as he longed that people would do the word of God, and hear God's truth. Well friends, I hope that's helpful. I hope that will help us as we pray when God's Word is preached, when our brethren go out to preach, when we preach in the open air, when Ernie and Andrew go out and preach I believe Andrew's out this Sunday, are you out Ernie? Yeah, both out this Sunday. When they go out to preach, pray that God will give them strength, that when the burden of God's Word rests upon those of us who preach, and those of us who witness, and those of us who talk to our friends and neighbours, we have a burden that they will come to know the Lord, that they will come to trust him. Well may that burden be for us a joyful burden, but also a burden that by God's grace we will be able to share something of his glory, that weight of glory, and that God will be pleased to bless his word as it comes to men and women and boys and girls in these days.