Welcome to the Beacon Broadcast from Beacon Baptist Church in Burlington, North Carolina, featuring expositional Bible teaching by Pastor Greg Barkman. If you'd like to correspond with The Beacon Broadcast, or if you wish to support this radio ministry, write to The Beacon Broadcast, Post Office Box 159, Alamance, NC 27201, or find us on the web at BeaconBaptist.com. BeaconBaptist.com. The Beacon Broadcast is supported in part by the gifts of faithful listeners. Now with today's message from God's Word, here is Greg Barkman. Well we are, as our regular Beacon Broadcast listeners know, studying in the book of Malachi. The last book in the Old Testament, Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet. This book historically takes place during the days of Nehemiah, the latter days of Nehemiah, about 100 years after the return from Babylonian exile, after God graciously restored the nation of Israel, the temple, the priesthood, their worship, and the city of Jerusalem. But the people had descended into corrupted worship, inwardly, not outwardly. Outwardly, they were doing the ceremonies, the sacrifices, the rituals that had been prescribed by Moses. But inwardly, they were far, far, far from God. Their heart was really not in it. That is in their worship of God. And God recognized that, of course, for God knows the heart, and God lays a charge against them along these lines. The book of Malachi is made up of a series of charges and denials, primarily found in the first two chapters, but this is the bulk of the book, where God, through his prophet Malachi, lays a charge against the people of Israel, which they generally deny, and then God comes back and gives the evidence that proves that the charge is, in fact, accurate. And so we will continue this study as we welcome you to the Wednesday, September 11 edition of the Beacon Broadcast, and thank you for your financial support that makes this ministry possible. The first charge, found in verses 2 through 5 of chapter 1, is the charge of denying God's love. failing to recognize and return God's love. I have loved you, says the Lord, yet you say, in what way have you loved us? And the evidence of his love was his dealings with Israel as compared to his dealings with Edom. God chose Jacob over Esau. God chose the nation of Israel over the nation of Edom. God preserved Israel but destroyed Edom. Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. And we learn that God's love is sovereign. It is His choice to extend or withhold it. That is His right, and He's completely righteous to do so. God's love is sovereign, but God's love is gracious. It's always undeserved. We have no claim upon it. We have no merit that we can earn it or can lay a claim upon it. There should be no expectation of God's love as a matter of right, only an appeal to God as a matter of mercy. Please have mercy upon me for Christ's sake. God's love is sovereign. God's love is gracious. God's love is active. It is manifested by His actions. It is His volitional, that is His willing or willful and active decisions and active actions that he directs toward those that he sets his love upon. His love is not first and foremost emotional, it is certainly not sentimental, it is active. How did I demonstrate my love to Jacob? By preserving him down through all of these years in spite of his sinfulness. and now at the last restoring him to the land of Israel after a period of deserved chastening? How did God demonstrate that he did not set the same love upon Edom? by bringing the deserved judgment upon Edom and not allowing Edom to be restored, to return to its land again. That's the way God demonstrates His love or His withholding of love. There it is. But the second charge has to do with defiling the worship of God. If the first charge is denying God's love, the second charge is defiling God's worship. And we read about it in verses 6, 7, 8, and 9. Here it is. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my reverence? Says the Lord of hosts. To you, priest rather, who despise my name, yet you say, in what way have we despised your name? Answer, I put that in, that's not in the text, you offer defiled food on my altar, but say, in what way have we defiled you? By saying, the table of the Lord is contemptible, and when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably, says the Lord of hosts? But now, entreat God's favor that he may be gracious to us. While this is being done by your hands, will he accept you favorably, says the Lord of hosts? The second charge is defiling the worship of God. Failure to honor God in their worship. And it begins with two uncontested statements. A son honors his father. A servant honors his master. two uncontested statements. Israel doesn't say, well that doesn't always happen, that isn't always true, though in fact we know that it is not always true, because there are sinful and rebellious sons who don't honor their fathers, and there are sinful and rebellious servants who don't honor their masters, but everybody understands that this is the way it ought to be. Nobody contests the validity of the statement that a son ought to honor his father and a servant ought to honor his master, and that's really what is being said here. A son honors his father. That was a well-understood truth in the day of Malachi, in Jewish society, in Jewish culture, but it is a statement that is generally accepted even today. A son ought to honor his father. Most people will accept that. Well, is God your father? When a son doesn't honor his father, what is the justification for not doing so? Well, the father has forfeited his honor in some way. The father doesn't deserve to be honored. The father has sinned away his right to be honored. I know people who have had fathers who failed them terribly in many ways, perhaps by abandoning them as children, by leaving their mother, by all kinds of sinful activities that were Harmful to the family and in that case. It's is very difficult to fight bitterness and To say I will not honor my father. He has not acted honorably Okay, I understand that I think everybody understands that but now here's the question You say God is your father Has God failed to be a good father In fact even more Clearly, more searchingly, can you say that God falls short of being a perfect father? Can you really say that now? God is your heavenly father if you are a child of God or claim to be. And God is the perfect father. He is a wonderful father. He is a gracious father. He is a loving father. He is a kind father. He is a helpful father. He is the best father that ever was. He is the model by which all earthly fathers should pattern themselves. You can't be a better father than God the Heavenly Father. If you would come even, what should I say, a tenth of the way to being as good a father as God is a Heavenly Father, then you will probably be a very good father upon the earth. So God is a good father. No question about that. A son honors his father. That's the first uncontested statement. The second one is, a servant honors his master. And that could be either servant in the sense of slave, or servant in the sense of an employee, a free man who has hired himself out to someone else. And a servant ought to honor his master, ought to give him the honor and respect that is due unto him. He is employing you. He is feeding you. He is benefiting you. Of course, you're benefiting him as well, but hey, he is giving you a job. If you're not satisfied, and this is more true in American culture than it would be in Jewish culture in Malachi's day, but the fact of the matter is, if you're not happy with your job, then you're free to leave and go attach yourself to another master. And of course we don't like to use terms like master in our day. That seems to be a little bit too much. So if you're not satisfied with your present employment arrangements, then go find another job, another employer, another boss who will give you work to do and pay you for doing the work. And we're free to do that in America. And there ought to be a simple understanding of thankfulness and gratitude and a certain level of honor that is given toward those who supply us with a job whereby we can earn our living. That's generally true, too. It's generally true that a son honors his father. He certainly ought to, particularly if it's a good father. In fact, there's no excuse not to if he's a good father. And a servant generally honors his master, again, generally true, even sometimes if the servant is only doing so out of self-serving motives, to honor his master in order to get the greatest benefit out of his master possible, knowing that if he openly defies him, openly dishonors him, that he's going to suffer consequences for that. So most people will honor their employer at least outwardly, whether they do inwardly or not, out of self-interest, if for no other reason, but of course we ought to do it for a higher reason. And again, we do that for earthly masters that admittedly are not perfect, are not perfect, never are. But how about God? Is he an imperfect master? Is there something chargeable? against God in regard to his dealings with you as your master, and it's interesting that we find both relationships referred to here. The believer relates to God as his father, but the believer also relates to God as his master. In other words, we are children of our heavenly father, that's one wonderful relationship, but we are servants of a heavenly master, and that's another relationship. But in both of those relationships, the watchword of the day is give your father, give your master the honor that is due unto him. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my reverence?" says the Lord of hosts. That's the indictment. We'll deal more with it on the broadcast tomorrow. Until then, Greg Barkman saying, good day. May God give you his eternal peace.