Studies in the Book of Malachi #1

Transcription of the first episode of the series Studies in the Book of Malachi brought to you by Pastor Rusty Tardo.

You can listen to it here.

"I'm going to title this series of messages, however long it takes us, four, five, six weeks, the modern message of Malachi. The modern message of Malachi, because we think of these Old Testament prophets as people who lived so far back in the past that their message can't possibly be relevant.

But just the opposite is true.

In fact, they prophesied in an age and a time that is not at all unlike our own, especially Malachi and some of the prophets, the post-exilic prophets, who ministered in a day when things were relatively calm politically. But there was just a spiritual dirth in the land. Things were just dry and dead, and religion had become passionless.

And pretty much everything had settled into a dull routine.

And that's sort of the type of background that was existing in the day of Malachi, when he came on the scene. The last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, mostly when we think of the book, we think of two things. That it's the last book of the Old Testament, and the section on tithing, because everybody is familiar with that.

But not all of us realize just how relevant Malachi's message is, and how many things he addresses in his message. Everything from the home, the family, divorce, the attitude towards heathenism, paganism. He deals with things going on in the priesthood, the dullness, the deadness, the backsliding, the reprobation.

He deals with things going on within the congregation of the people, their attitude towards God, how complacent they had become.

So, it's a relevant message.

And then he winds it all up with a prophecy of the soon coming of the Lord.

So, you know, he's got a powerful message here that I believe will be a blessing to all of us.

He was the last of the writing prophets.

He has that distinction of being the last, the last of the writing prophets.

After him, there were no books written, no biblical books written for a period of some 400 years, until, you know, the coming of the Messiah and so forth. So, you know, there were books written during that period between Malachi and Matthew, but they weren't inspired scripture.

The apocryphal books were written during that period of time.

The Hebrew Bible only divides it into three chapters. It's only 54 verses, all total.

And I believe even though he's called the minor prophet, and it's a small book, his message is certainly not a minor message. It's a powerful message.

He deals with the heart and core of true religion.

That's what Malachi is all about.

The inner life, not just the externals, not just the routine of religion.

It's real easy to follow the message of Malachi as he deals with things like, you know, his people who are going through the religious routine. They went to the temple, they offered their sacrifices.

They made their days of obligation.

They offered their prayers, but their hearts were not in their worship.

And their hearts were not in their offerings or their sacrifices. In fact, that's the message of Malachi.

He deals with the fact that the externals aren't that important. What matters is the internal spiritual life.

If that's right, then the outside will get right too.

If you'll deal with the inside, God will deal with the outside.

So, his message is one of the inner life, that it's not just outward form and outward ritual that's important. He lifted up a prophetic voice and called for true worship from the heart. He called for repentance from the people of God in a time of religious compromise, religious apathy, ritualism, and in a time when people were drifting from Biblical morals, Biblical ethics, Biblical principles.

In fact, the days of Malachi were not at all unlike our own. Like I said, we're going to call it the modern message of Malachi, because the days of Malachi were not at all unlike our own times.

We're going to see a lot of similarities.

People were adopting many of the customs from the heathen nations surrounding them during the days of Malachi.

The Word of God was no longer considered the sole standard.

People were assimilating pagan customs, pagan rituals, marrying pagan women. They had laid aside God's standard of not being unequally oak.

They were marrying pagans.

They were divorcing their wives, wives of long standing. He's got a real good section in Malachi when he speaks about the wife of your covenant, the wife of your youth. I'll tell you, Malachi brings some things out that you don't see in other passages.

He calls the wedding relationship, the marriage relationship, a covenant.

And he talks about the wife of your covenant, you know, how you've broken these vows, and he talks about the companion of your youth.

So he talks about marriage companionship, that marriage isn't just two people living under the same roof, but it's to be a companionship, a camaraderie, a fellowship of two like hearts, two like minds plowing through the trials and troubles and joys of life together. He says a lot of things in Malachi that I think are so relevant for us today. I believe we'll find his message very contemporary.

I believe we'll find it very applicable.

He speaks to a generation much like our own, very much like our own. You know, Malachi, we talked this morning about Jesus cleansing the temple. Malachi was upset over the people's lack of reverence towards God.

They had become very careless, very apathetic in their religious duties.

They were bringing sacrifices that were unacceptable, that were blemished.

They were offering God the least instead of the best, as God had directed.

So he addresses all of this and more.

He says a lot in 54 verses.

He really does.

We'll cover a lot of ground in this short book. Now, most of the Old Testament prophets lived and prophesied during days of difficulty. Political difficulty, religious difficulty, a lot of upheaval, political upheaval, dramatic change, social change, and so on.

But with Malachi, that wasn't really the case. He wasn't prophesying during the days when the Babylonians were invading, or the Assyrians were out at the gates. That's not like it was in Malachi's day.

This was pretty much a spiritually dry period during the days of Malachi.

For one thing, the miracle working prophets were gone off the scene. You know, the miracles of Elijah, the miracles of Elisha, and so on.

That wasn't going on.

Spiritually, things had really kind of settled down.

Not a whole lot was happening here.

The restoration that Israel had been looking for for so long, remember, they had gone off into Babylonian captivity. Seventy years, they were captive there.

They were prophets of the captivity.

They were pre-exilic prophets, prophets who prophesied before the exile, who warned about the coming invasion, and so on and so forth. Well, now, all of the excitement and so forth that had taken place when they went to rebuild the temple and all that, the days of the exile was over. Israel had been released from their Babylonian captivity.

People ran home with a great deal of excitement.

I mean, some of the prophets had prophesied about rebuilding the temple and putting back the walls.

I tell you, there was a lot of excitement about the building and getting this thing up and getting on with the program.

The excitement was high, but you know, that kind of excitement doesn't last.

It's good to have it, but you can't live by religious feelings and religious emotions, because those things quickly pass.

It's really important that people get established real quick in the Word of God, and they learn to live by faith and walk by faith, and not by emotions, not by feelings, not live by emotional peaks and valleys, you know, up and down and back and forth, but that they get real established and real stable in the Word of God.

Because what happens?

You're in the middle of this building program, the temple's going up, the people are excited, they get the temple finished, they bring the sacrifices, they offer them.

I mean, excitement is at an all-time high.

But then, you know, a lot of the promises about the restoration of the kingdom and dominion and being free from the yoke of the Persians, because now they were free from the Babylonians, but guess what? The Persians ruled with an iron hand.

Taxation was very oppressive.

A lot of people were going hungry in the land.

They were still surrounded by enemies.

In fact, some of the prophets speak about how there was not a wage for man, nor a wage for beast.

Unemployment was really high.

Things, you know, economically, things were tough.

The prophecies of the Messiah coming and establishing his kingdom, that didn't come to pass.

And after a few years of the temple being built, the excitement, the enthusiasm, the feelings, the emotions, you know, those things, Wayne, they don't last forever.

And then, a couple of years passed, then a couple of decades passed, then a hundred years passed, and all that excitement, enthusiasm, fervor, intensity, zeal, was at an all time low.

Religion had gone from, you know, revival to routine. And from a routine, it became just rote, just rote.

It went from rote to a rut, from rut to rot.

And that's where it was when Malachi came on the scene.

Religion was at an all time low.

You can't live on emotional peaks and valleys.

I think we all know that, because those things just don't last.

It's really a blessing to have the emotional peaks, the joyous peaks, to be in the midst of great revival intensity.

But, you know, those things don't last.

That's why it's really important that when the excitement subsides, and the week-to-week routine begins, that you're very careful, because that's when the danger begins also, the danger that you can fall real easily into a spiritual rut.

We've been in some situations, crusades and so on, like when we would go to Russia.

And I'll tell you, you'd be hard pressed to find more excitement than some of those gospel crusades that took place in Russia.

But you have to understand that before we would go to have a crusade in a city, and to establish a church, we'd be praying for about a year before we went.

Everybody's saving, expectation is high.

You go there into a brand new city that's never really had a gospel crusade, never heard the gospel. Many of these cities, never seen Americans. Then you come sweeping in, not like a plague of locusts, but you come sweeping in.

I mean, the intensity, the excitement, the enthusiasm, there's electricity in the place.

The spiritual fervor, the prayer that has gone forward.

And when you come into these cities, and you pass out these flyers, and they announce it on the radio, they announce it on the TV, you have the crusades.

Let me tell you, the spiritual intensity is so electric that, I mean, just every place you go, the anointing is just all over you.

And you stay in that situation for a week or so of preaching and teaching and people saved and delivered and healed and miracles happening and drunk set free and families restored.

It's just incredible.

But I want you to know that when we sweep out of there a week later, with all of that excitement, enthusiasm, and so on, guess what?

The missionaries then have their job to do.

And they get into the day-to-day routine, you see. That, all of that electricity begins to subside.

And before long, you're in the day-to-day routine of preaching, and teaching, and establishing, and outreach.

And it's not the same as it was during the Crusade.

And that's one of the first things the missionaries would tell you.

They'd say, look, when you guys were here, it was electric.

And now, that we're here, it's not that the Lord's not here.

I mean, the Lord is still here, and He's still blessing, but it's not the same.

That fervor, that intensity is not here.

Now, it's day-to-day.

Preach it, teach it, walk it, live it, but it's a different story altogether.

And you have to watch, that you don't live by emotions and feelings and so on.

Because you can get to the place where you just start going through your religious duties, but you do it without enthusiasm.

You do it without fervor.

You do it without intensity.

And that's the danger we live in today. You see, as far as the days of great miracles and so on, we're not seeing that right now.

We're not seeing it in America.

It's happening, I believe, in other parts of the world, but it's not happening right here.

What we have to watch is that we don't allow our religion to become a routine.

That it has to stay electric, and the only way it will stay electric is if we stay, if we keep it personal, between us and the Lord.

And, beloved, that's going to mean prayer every day.

That's going to mean you being in your Word every day.

It's going to mean a conscious submission of your life to the Lord every day, doing His will, communing with Him, fellowship with Him.

You know, it doesn't happen by itself. I'm convinced that we can each have personal revival in our lives if we will keep our relationship with Christ intimate.

But it's our responsibility to do that.

You can't wait for some great emotional awakening to take place. It's our responsibility to keep our relationship with Christ personal and intimate so that it doesn't slip into the routine.

So that we go through the religious ritual.

But look, let me tell you, here's what happens in America.

People come to church on Sunday, sing the songs, pray the prayer, yes, Lord, do it, I'm convicted, touch my life, change me, and so on.

And they leave the doors, and they don't give the Lord a thought for the rest of the week.

It's not that He never enters into their mind, it's just that they're busy, their lives are cluttered, they've got a lot to do, they've got business, they've got jobs, they've got families, they've got things to maintain, they've got a car that needs to be fixed, they've got, you know what I'm saying?

And so you get into the place where you do not pray during the week, no time of prayer, no time of communion with God, no time of fellowship with the Lord, no intimacy with the Lord.

We don't get into the Word.

And then we're back in church the following Sunday, we've gone a whole week without really communing with the Lord, no spiritual fervor, fire, and intensity.

We're back in church the following week, and we go through the Sunday ritual again, but you know what, nothing's alive, nothing is really sticking to our hearts, because when we leave the doors, we're not personally intimate with the Lord, we're not personally fervent.

Our religion becomes a routine.

From routine, it becomes a rut.

We're just in a spiritual rut.

We're not growing, we're not going, we're not changing. The Lord's not doing things in our lives.

Whose fault is it? If we're not growing, whose fault is that?

It's our own fault.

That's right.

It's nobody's fault but our own.

Well, it's real easy to go from the rut. Somebody once said, a rut is just a grave.

It's just a shallow grave. And it's real easy to let a rut be just that.

But what we want to remember is that Malachi's time is a lot like our own.

We can address the ill that are in our own lives by repentance and by doing what we ought to be doing, keeping the Lord first and foremost in our hearts.

The priest, even the priest in Malachi's day, the religious leaders, the teachers, instructors, they had gotten into this rut, this spiritual rut, so that they were polluting God's altars and offering up unworthy sacrifices. And they were so concerned about keeping the ritual fires lit and doing all the religious routines. And the Lord said, He's not interested in all that.

What He's interested in is the inner life, the heart of the man, the heart of the woman, that our worship be real, and our reverence be real. Let me tell you, things had gotten so bad in Malachi's day that people became totally disgusted with the whole thing.

Religious ritual, the religious routine.

They saw what was going on in their churches, I mean, in the temple with the sacrifices and all that.

Some of them just got so disgusted that they quit going to the temple.

They quit offering their tithes.

Now, this was a holy obligation upon all of God's people.

But they quit going, they quit offering their tithes, they quit giving to the Lord.

They just were turned off.

They were just disgusted.

I mean, you talk about a rut, their rut turned to rot.

Well, I think we see the same thing today.

A lot of people just disillusioned, disgruntled, turned off, disgusted, losing their faith, dropping out, no fervor, no fire, no intensity.

I think this will be a profitable study for us.

I believe we'll see some things here that can shake us up.

Well, let's give you a little background on Malachi. Look with me in verse 1.

It's a short book, but it jumps on us.

Oh, Malachi. Malachi 1 and verse 1.

The burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

The burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel.

I was speaking of, just looking at this burden of the Word of the Lord.

You know, the prophets of God always had a burden.

They carried a burden.

They carried God's burden.

A burden for His people, a burden for His righteousness, for His holiness, for His truth. They just were burdened by the sins of their people, burdened by their own passion for the Lord and for righteousness.

I've been doing some little reading in a book about John Wesley's life the last few days.

I'll tell you, the man burned with a holy zeal, and one of the things that he prayed was, Lord, burden me with the things of God. I want to be burdened with the things of God.

I want to be burdened with your burden.

And I thought, you know, that's a prayer that not only should every preacher pray, but every one of us ought to pray.

Burden me with the things of God.

Burden me with the things that are important to you.

What's important to God?

People, that's what's important.

It's certainly not anything else that we get burdened with.

We're burdened with our own cares, our own troubles, our own little trivialities, things that don't matter in the light of eternity. But the things that do matter, we're often not burdened with those things at all.

He's burdened, Malachi's burden was the word of the Lord.

Malachi, actually very little is known about this prophet, very little.

He's one of the mysterious prophets that not much at all is known of him or about him.

His name doesn't even appear in the Bible outside of this book.

It's not even mentioned outside of his own book.

Some critics, I guess we should call them scholars.

They believe that Malachi was not even the name, anybody's name.

There was no prophet named Malachi. They believe that Malachi, the Hebrew word means my messenger, or some say God's messenger, or it could even be translated my angel. And so they believe that this is not the writer's name at all, but in fact, Malachi is just an anonymous work of some unknown prophet, some unknown author.

Nobody really knows who wrote it.

It's just a title.

In other words, it's not a name.

To support this view, let me give you a couple of the things that they mentioned. Let me give you a little background material for the book tonight, and then we're going to jump in with both feet.

But to support this view, that Malachi was not really the prophet's name, they say, first of all, the name Malachi does not appear elsewhere in the Bible, nor the book. 

Secondly, no mention of Malachi's father's name.

His name is not mentioned in the book.

When you read of the prophets, usually it will say, so-and-so, son of so-and-so.

They will give you the father's name.

So, that's like a note of authenticity and so on. Also, the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament Scripture, and the Targum, which is the Aramaic translation of the Old Testament Scriptures, both took Malachi to be a title rather than a proper name.

In fact, I think it's the Targum, or one of those old translations.

Now, these are translations now, not manuscripts, but translations that say, I believe the Targum ascribed Malachi to Ezra, Ezra the scribe. But the basic view is that, you know, of some scholars is that it's an anonymous book of some unknown prophet.

They has, there have been many suggestions.

Some people say, well, maybe Mordecai wrote it, or Haggai, or Zerubbabel, or Nehemiah, or some other anonymous prophet. I believe Malachi is the literal name of a man, a prophet, who wrote this book.

Let me tell you why.

I don't believe Malachi is a title. I believe it's the name of this particular prophet.

The fact that we don't know his father's name is really not a problem, because the same thing is true of several other of the minor prophets, like Obadiah, Haggai, Habakkuk.

We don't know their father's name either.

So to say, you say he's not a real prophet because we don't know his father's name.

Well, the same thing is true of these other prophets that I just mentioned. And yet, they were real prophets. Also, the argument that his name is not mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament, outside of his own book, well, neither is Jonah, neither is Habakkuk.

They're not mentioned in the Old Testament outside of their own book.

If Malachi is not the prophet's name, also, thirdly, if Malachi is not his name, then this book would be the only exception in all of the books of the prophets.

Because of 16 books of the prophets in the Old Testament, every one of them is named after the author.

Every single one of them is named by the author's name.

They all have the author's name in them.

Malachi, if this is not his name, then this would be the only exception.

So, I look at it as his literal name.

Besides that, Malachi is probably a contracted form of the Hebrew word Malik Yah, which means messenger of Yahweh.

And I want to look at it. I do look at it.

I consider it the work of a literal prophet by the name of Malachi.

So, I only mention that to you because that's the kind of stuff you wade through whenever you have to study a book of the Bible in a Bible college or whatever.

I read today that the Gospel of Matthew, some scholars believe that it was written by Mark.

Well, you're going to read all kinds of stuff as to what some scholars believe and teach.

Half the scholars don't believe any of the Bible.

They don't take it literally.

They don't believe it was written by...

They certainly don't believe it was inspired. Extremely liberal.

In fact, these people who say these things, they're not saved people. They're religious people, but they are not saved people.

That's why they have some of the views that they have.

Also, here's something else we need to consider when it comes to the authenticity of a man named Malachi. To the Old Testament believer, the validity of a prophecy or the value of a prophecy, it was only considered authoritative if the name of the prophet was mentioned, because if you don't know who it is, it could be any flake, any weirdo.

A book like this would never have wound up in the sacred scriptures as a book of the Bible if they didn't know who wrote it.

If they didn't know this man was a prophet, whose message is authentic, who had an authentic ministry. So, the very fact that the Jews include his message in the Bible, they had to know who Malachi was.

They had to know that this man was a prophet.

He had a valid ministry, and therefore, I believe we have absolute and correct authority to consider him a literal man, a literal prophet. All right, let's look at the date of Malachi, when this book was written. The exact date is unknown.

But all scholars are agreed to the fact that the book is post-exilic.

That is, that it was written after the Babylonian captivity, after Israel's return to their land.

He mentions things in the book. Even though the book's not dated, there are things you can see in the book that let you know, you can give it a pretty accurate date.

Like in chapter 1 and verse 8, he makes mention of the governor.

This would have been the Persian governor who was ruling over the land at the time.

He, his book, this book is placed, for the most part, by virtually all conservative scholars, somewhere in the last half of the 5th century BC.

That would date it somewhere between 450 and about 430 BC.

Somewhere between 450 and 430.

That's generally where people date this book.

Malachi was a contemporary with Nehemiah. He prophesied at the same time.

Nehemiah and Malachi lived at the same time, prophesied at the same time.

They wrote about the very same conditions.

In fact, we'll see a lot of correlation between the two books, Malachi and Nehemiah.

There was somebody else who was living at this time, and became very famous, not biblically, but the Greek philosopher Socrates lived at this very same period of time. In fact, some people actually call Malachi the Hebrew Socrates, because his writing was along the same...

It took the same form.

Malachi's writing is basically a conversation. It's a dialogue, whereas other books of the prophets were not like that. You know, it was, thus says the Lord, and then they give the message.

But when you read Malachi, Malachi is different, because what he does is, he makes his book in the form of a conversation.

Have y'all read the book recently?

Just giving it a once-over?

He'll say, here's what the Lord says, here's what people... Here's what they...

You say, the Lord doesn't love us anymore, and here's what the Lord says.

It's a dialogue, back and forth.

So it's the form of writing that Socrates used also.

Now, at the time of Malachi, the previous years had been very difficult for Israel. You want to remember that these were dry and difficult times.

Israel had gone home from Babylonian captivity, but Persia still ruled over them with an iron hand. Taxation was very, very oppressive. Their economic conditions were bad and growing worse.

Some desperate Jewish fathers were actually forced to sell their children into slavery to their richer neighbors.

In fact, Nehemiah, I'm going to read something from Nehemiah. Nehemiah, like I said, is a contemporary of Malachi.

He addressed this very issue in chapter 5.

Let me read something to you from Malachi 5. Malachi 5, beginning in verse, I mean Nehemiah 5, verse 1. He says this, Now there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren, the Jews.

So he had got Jews crying against their own people.

Jew crying against Jew.

For their word that said, We are sons and our daughters are many, therefore, we take up corn for them, that we may eat and live.

Some also there were that said, we have mortgaged our lands, our vineyards, our houses, that we may buy corn because of the dearth.

Times were tough.

They had mortgaged everything.

Verse 4, There were also that said, we've borrowed money for the king's tribute. They had to borrow money to pay their Persian taxes. I mean, things were tough.

The Persians put heavy taxes on them, and when they didn't have the money to pay it, they would have to borrow from their Jewish neighbors who had a little more money. They'd borrow from them so they could pay their taxes.

Listen, things were tough.

Look at what they said, verse 5.

Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children, and lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants.

And some of our daughters are brought into bondage already.

Neither is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and our vineyards.

Look, things were tough.

When they're selling their children as slaves to try and pay debts and to try and pay their taxes and so on, boy, we're talking about a serious, a very serious condition. And this is the same conditions that are going on in the times of Malachi. Nehemiah addresses these things, and he rebukes the Jews for what they're doing.

But Malachi, he lives at the same time, the same conditions, and he addresses the same, very same issues. The temple revenues were so poor, the offerings that came in for the priests and the Levites were so poor, that the Levites and the temple singers and so forth were forced to forsake the house of God, and they were working in the fields to try and get enough food to eat because of the conditions of the offerings that just weren't coming in at all. So, the people were living in poverty, they were still surrounded by hostile nations, the Samaritans, the Ammonites, Arabians, Moabites, Philistines, Edomites, and so on.

And these people continued to make life miserable for the Jews.

Years of hardship, years of suffering, years of deprivation, years of poverty, years of oppression had produced a very dangerous reaction among the people in Israel. Their faith, the intensity, the fervor that they once had, was really waning. And look at the things that they were beginning to say.

Like in Malachi 1 and verse 2.

Look at this.

The people began to question whether God actually loved them or not. Malachi 1 and verse 2, I have loved you, saith the LORD. I have loved you.

Yet you say, wherein hast thou loved us? Lord, is this how you love us?

Look at how we're living. Look at what's going on in our lives.

Look at the situation. Look at our circumstances.

Look at our problems. Look at what's going on.

Wherein hast thou loved us?

And you're going to see this word wherein appearing over and over and over again in the book of Malachi, because this is the kind of conversation that Malachi writes in.

He says, I have loved you, says the LORD.

Yet you say, wherein have you loved us?

Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the LORD.

Yet I've loved Jacob, and I hate Esau. I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons and the wilderness.

The idea there is that God chose Jacob.

He chose him to bring forth the nation of Israel, the people of Israel, to be a particular people, a blessed people, a chosen people.

That's the idea that he's bringing out right there.

But you know, these people were so beaten down, they were so heavy, they were so oppressed, that they even accused God of showing preference to evil people. In chapter 2, look over here, they were saying, God, you're not even a God of justice. In chapter 2 of Malachi in verse 17, look at this.

Malachi 2, 17, You have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say, you know, here's the conversation, yet you see, wherein, wherein have we wearied Him?

When you say, everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them.

Or where is the God of judgment?

You follow that conversation? They're saying, Lord, you actually bless the evil people.

They're doing better than we are.

We're serving you, and look what's going on in our lives.

We're supposed to be your people, your chosen, and so on.

The wicked people are doing better than we are.

And where is justice in the land that just doesn't seem to exist?

In chapter 3, he says, verse 14, look with me down here.

And what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

And now we call the proud happy.

Yea, they that work wickedness are set up.

Yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. God blesses the wicked.

This is what they're saying.

The worse people are, the better off they seem to be.

Verse 14, it is vain to serve God.

What are we serving the Lord for?

We're supposed to be His people, yet look what happens when we serve God.

I'll tell you what. Even today, I hear people who have this same kind of attitude towards God.

I mean, Malachi's message is relevant.

It applies today.

It's a modern message.

Because you'll hear people, I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, I serve the Lord, I go to church, I pay my tithes, I do this, I do that, and yet look at what's going on in my house. My husband is backslidden, my kid's on drugs, my marriage is in trouble, I can't pay my bills, my job is in jeopardy, this is going on, that's going on.

You know, I thought the Lord was supposed to love me, and I thought that if you serve the Lord, good things would happen.

On the other hand, my wicked next door neighbor is a liar, and a thief, and a tax evader, and a crook, and everything goes right for him.

I mean, he's healthy, look at me.

I'm sick.

This is going on a lot.

His marriage seems to be happy. Everything he touches turns to money.

I don't understand it.

Why does God bless the wicked, and we're His servants, and everything goes wrong for us?

Well, I'm telling you, the message of Malachi is relevant, because a lot of times folks have the same ideas today.

It seems like they're saying there's no profit in serving God.

No profit in serving God.

He says, it's vain to serving.

What profit is it to obey the Lord?

To be careful, to not want to grieve the Lord, and do all the things that He calls for us to do, and so forth, because it seems like the more I try and obey Him, the worse things get in my life. Well, this is the kind of attitude that was going on in the days of Malachi.

These are the things that He addresses in this book.

So, here's what the results were.

You've got all these years, decades of oppression, of hardship, of disillusionment.

Here's the result.

A threefold result.

Number one, the temple was abandoned.

I mean, its services were neglected. The tithes and offerings were withheld by the people. Lame and diseased animals were brought up to be offered on the Lord's altar.

We're going to look at all these verses in the next couple of weeks.

All the vows that people made, things that they once promised God, vowed to God, all the things that were supposed to be so solemnly made and so sacred, they had quickly forgot all those vows. Reverence for God, it just was virtually non-existent. These were difficult times as far as spiritually goes.

That's one of the results.

People were just abandoning their religious heritage, their faith.

Secondly, the Jews became less concerned about maintaining themselves as a distinct people.

You know, maintaining a distinct identity as Jews, as God's covenant people.

And they began to intermarry with the heathen nations around them.

You know, they weren't considering anymore the issue of religion.

This is a sure sign of spiritual trouble when people no longer consider the issue of religion when they marry.

You know, that, you know, well, this guy is, you know, he's not saved, or this woman is not saved.

They're not Christians.

But they're good people, they're nice people, they're kind to animals, they, you know, they give to charity, they, you know, they're just nice people.

Well, that doesn't make any difference.

If they're not saved, the Bible says we're not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

So, Jewish men, it got even worse.

It got to the point where Jewish men, you know, these guys, they had a little different attitude in those days, or maybe, maybe their attitude wasn't so different at all from today, but what happened is, when their wives, you know, their wives started getting old, they noticed that these young gals, you know, from these heathen nations, were mighty attracted.

And so, what they did was, they started divorcing their wives, and marrying these young gals.

Now, maybe that's not too different from today, because we see the same thing, only today you see it work in both ways, you know.

But this is what was happening.

These Jewish men were divorcing the wives, what Malachi said, the wife of your youth, and the wife of your covenant, divorcing them and going for the young gals.

Heathen gals, of course, but these were really critical times, because actually, this very survival of Israel as a distinct nation, as a distinct people of God, their very survival was at stake, because this was becoming a wholesale, widespread practice among the Jews.

Just, well, man, did you see ol Abinadab over there? Man, he got him a young one. I think I'm gonna do that.

And, you know, that's what was going on with these guys.

This was a critical time.

They were abandoning their religion.

They were in grave danger of being absorbed by the paganism and the Heathen nations that surrounded them.

They were adopting the customs of the Heathen.

You know, you marry a Heathen woman.

Heathenism comes into your home.

Her idolatry comes into your home.

Her ethics, her morals, all that comes into your home.

People begin to adopt those things.

Nobody influences you more than your husband or your wife.

Nobody has a greater influence on you than them.

And that's why it's important that when you marry, that you don't marry an unbeliever or, you know, these Jews were being profoundly influenced by their mates.

Also, the third thing that was happening is the nation's moral and ethical standards had declined to the point where these unscrupulous money lenders were seizing the children of people who defaulted on their loans.

I mean, if they couldn't pay their bills, and look, these people were financially in big trouble.

Economically, the nation was in a severe depression. Like we read in Nehemiah, they had to borrow even to pay their tribute to the Persian governors and so on. And we'll read elsewhere in this little book how Malachi charges them with sins like adultery and perjury and sorcery, oppressing the poor, oppressing the defenseless, the widow, the orphan, the hirelings.

Look at some of the things he says in chapter 3.

Verse 5, look at this.

Malachi says, And I will come near to you to judgment, and will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, says the Lord of Wolves.

See, they were doing all kinds of things.

They would hire people and not pay them.

Or pay them a wage that wasn't fit for the job that they did.

They were oppressing at every opportunity they had.

Oppressing the widow, the fatherless, the orphan.

Well, this was a treacherous time.

He goes on, look in chapter 2, verse 10.

He says, have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?

He's talking here, you know, as Jews, we're all of one nation, we're all from Abraham. He says this in verse 10, Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

In other words, the Jews were cheating the Jews.

I mean, these people were supposed to be brothers.

They're dealing treacherously with one another.

These were sad times for them as a nation, as a people.

But even in those dark days, even during the times of Malachi, they had a faithful remnant, a nucleus, a small nucleus of people, God-fearing people who met together, who encouraged one another in the Lord.

In chapter 3, look at this.

I believe in the doctrine of a remnant, that God's always got a remnant.

No matter what's going on, no matter how bad things are, God has a remnant people.

I believe in the doctrine of a remnant.

In verse 16, Malachi 3.16, Then they that feared the Lord.

So there was some who feared the Lord, who reverenced the Lord.

Them that feared the Lord spake often one to another.

And the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him.

For them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name.

So he had got people meeting together, encouraging one another.

They spoke often one to another.

Faithful people, people who feared the Lord.

God has always had a remnant.

They may be small.

They may be few.

But he's always had a remnant, and he still does.

And we want to be God's remnant people.

That is His faithful people.

People who are fervent, people who are going to stay with God, stay with the Word no matter what the multitude does, no matter what's popular, no matter what everybody else does.

If we'll stay with the Lord, we'll be safe.

There have always been some who would not bow the knee to Baal.

Remember what God told Elijah?

I've still got my faithful few who haven't bowed the knee to Baal.

He always had a few who would refuse to be swallowed by paganism, by idolatry, by heathenism, by the culture of the pagans, and so forth, the customs and culture of the pagans.

God's always had a faithful few.

So Malachi was a prophet to a generation that's a lot like our own generation.

Very few of the prophets had ever faced a more difficult situation than Malachi's age.

These were tough times, a different and difficult age. Difficult because in many ways it was an uneventful time, a waiting time.

That's one of the hardest things to do, you know, is just to wait. Just to wait and to trust the Lord, and to plug away, and to be faithful and fervent even when nothing seems to be happening. It's a difficult time, a waiting time.

Just waiting for a mighty move of God or a mighty deliverance of God.

But that's the time when it's really important that we stay with the Lord, stay faithful, stay true, and wait.

And just wait for God to do what he promised he would do.

Because the temptation is to fall either into unbelief or to just become like everybody else, and just kind of go with the flow, and begin to absorb the customs and the culture all around you. That's the temptation, just get swallowed up with the pagan culture.

That's a powerful, powerful temptation during difficult days, the waiting days.

But Malachi, his message is a message to the heart, because he reminds him of the fact that the problem is, the real problem is not that God is not faithful, but the problem is you have lost touch with God.

You have lost touch of the living God.

You have allowed your religion to become a routine.

It went from rote to rut, and now it's a rot.

You have strayed.

That's the problem.

And his message is a message of repentance and returning to the Lord. I believe what's even more important is that Malachi actually not only told him those things, but he showed him the way back.

The way back to a genuine faith and an enduring faith. He says, for one thing, you know, you need to have faith in the God who does not change.

Malachi 3:6 is one of the great verses of the Bible that teaches the doctrine of immutability.

And we'll study that when we do study the attributes of God. Immutability, what does that mean?

God never changes.

Malachi 3:6, for I am the Lord.

I change not. One of the great doctrines of the Bible.

I, M, M, U, T, A, B, I, L, I, T, Y, immutability. God is immutable.

He never changes.

He is eternally the same.

In him, there is no change, no shadow of turning.

Hebrews 13:8, another passage that teaches immutability.

Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and forever.

He doesn't change.

God is immutable. And that's what Malachi wanted to tell him.

Look, your God does not change.

If there's a problem here, the problem is in you.

It's in your heart.

You have strayed from God.

You have not kept the inner, the inner commandments.

I mean, all they did was went through the ritual, but their hearts were far away from the Lord.

So he calls them in the very next verse to repent and return to the Lord.

Malachi 3.7.

Even from the days of your fathers, you are gone away from my ordinances.

You have not kept them.

Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the Lord of Hosts.

That's his call, return.

Well, how are we going to return you?

He has this dialogue.

He keeps this dialogue going on and on through the whole book.

And look, he calls him to return to God, and then he gives him this promise in verse 16. 

He will never forget those who respond.

Because look, they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another.

They met together, fellowshiped together, communicated together, encouraged one another.

And look at what the Bible says.

The Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name.

A book of remembrance. In other words, God promises, I'll never forget you.

You're my faithful people, my fervent servant, my loyal ones, my remnant people.

God says, he would never forget them.

Those who respond. This book of remembrance was written.

Well let me give you a brief outline, and then we're going to close for the night.

We'll begin with, this was just basic, some introductory material tonight.

Let me give you a brief outline of the book.

It's only four chapters.

Here's a real brief and basic outlines.

I like them short and simple.

Number one, God's love for Israel.

That's chapter one, verses one through five.

God's love for Israel.

Number two, a rebuke of the priests.

That's from one-sixth to two-nineth.

One-sixth to two-nineth, a rebuke of the priests.

Thirdly, a rebuke of the people.

That's two-ten to four-three.

Rebuke of the people, two-ten to four-three. And then, fourthly, lastly, an admonition to keep the law and to watch for Messiah's coming.

And that's four verses four to six. Chapter four verses four to six.

So there we have the background information for the Book of Malachi.

We have learned what was going on at the time, the background material.

We know the spiritual problems, moral problems, ethical problems, all the things that were taking place at the time of Malachi. So when we begin our study, next Sunday night, and actually get into the verse by verse message of Malachi, we will know where Malachi is coming from. We will have that background so that we understand where he is coming from, what he is addressing, what the problems were, what the problems have been.

And when we are done, we will see that Malachi's message is a very modern message. Hallelujah.

Well, amen.

Father, bless the Word to our hearts tonight, I pray. I pray also, Father, that what we learn in these studies will not be things merely to fill notebooks, but that, Father, there will be things to fill our hearts so that we might address the ill of our own society and be equipped to live victoriously in a time that is very similar to that of Malachi's.

Father, I pray that we would take encouragement from these messages, and that, Father, we would see circumstances not unlike our own, and be encouraged to stand fast, and to stand firm, and to trust You in the waiting days. Lord, we know that You do not change, that Your promises are true and sure, and that You will faithfully do that which You promised. So, Father, I pray tonight, that You would encourage each and every one of us through just what we've heard already, that we'd be encouraged to stand in dark and difficult days, in days of doubt and unbelief, in days of apostasy and backsliding, and compromise and worldliness, that Father, that we would seek to be a remnant people who will not bow the knee to Baal.

Or not allow the customs, the ethics, and the morals of a heathen world to creep into our own lives and lives. Keep us right and keep us pure. Father, this is our prayer tonight, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Amen.”