Sunday Evening, March 3, 1974
Richmond, Virginia
Ministry through Brother Stephen Kong
Will you please turn to the last book in the Old Testament, the book of Malachi?
The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
I have loved you, saith the Lord.
But ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us?
Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob;
but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.
Whereas Edom saith, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places; thus saith the Lord of hosts: They shall build, but I will throw down; and men shall call them the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever.
And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Lord be magnified beyond the border of Israel.
Recently, we have been fellowshipping together mainly on the history of the recovery of the children of Israel. In connection with that history, we have the prophecies of Haggai, Zechariah, and now Malachi. I hope that we will still remember that this is the general setting of our fellowship.
During the time of the recovery, you remember how God raised up leaders such as Zerubbabel and Joshua. Zerubbabel was of the descendants of King David, of the royal family; and Joshua was of the descendants of Aaron, of the priestly family.
Under the joint leadership of these two men, a remnant of the Jewish people in captivity responded to God’s call. They left Babylon and returned with one purpose, and one purpose only: they returned for the sole reason of rebuilding the temple of God.
In other words, their return was for the recovery of the testimony of God on earth.
After the return, the next year they started to lay the foundation of the temple. But soon they met opposition and difficulties. Their hands were weakened, and they left off the work for about fourteen years.
At that time, God raised up two prophets in the persons of Zechariah and Haggai. Through the prophecies of these two men, the spirit of Zerubbabel, the spirit of Joshua, and the spirit of the remnant were once again stirred. They began to rebuild the temple until it was completed.
So here you find, in the recovery of the temple, two prophets raised up by God to help and strengthen the work of recovery.
Tonight we come to the prophecies of Malachi. The Bible says that a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Here you find that the Lord raised up not only two prophets, but three. Of course, Malachi prophesied much later than the days of Haggai and Zechariah.
Most likely, Malachi prophesied during the time of Nehemiah. In the case of Zerubbabel and Joshua, you have the two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, helping them. In the case of Nehemiah, you have the prophet Malachi helping him.
From the return of the first group of the Jewish remnant from Babylon to Jerusalem to the time Malachi began to prophesy was almost one hundred years.
If you read the book of Nehemiah, you will probably come to understand that Malachi most likely prophesied either during the time of Nehemiah’s absence from Jerusalem, or after Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem for a second visit.
You remember how Nehemiah went to Jerusalem, and his whole burden was to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. He was in Jerusalem for some years as governor there. During his time, not only was the wall of Jerusalem rebuilt, but many other things were done.
They made a covenant with God to keep His commandments. Some of the people moved into Jerusalem to strengthen the city. They even offered themselves willingly, every person a third of a shekel each year, for the sanctuary of God. They offered wood offerings, not because these were commanded, but out of their free will, to show their love for God.
They began to bring in tithes and firstfruits so that the Levites and the priests might serve faithfully in the house of God. All these things happened during the time of Nehemiah. It was quite a reformation, quite a strengthening among the remnant.
Then Nehemiah, being the cupbearer of the Persian king, had to return to the Persian court. We do not know how long he stayed there, because the Bible is silent at that point. But we know that, after a period of time, he returned to Jerusalem for a second visit.
In Nehemiah 13, beginning with verse 6, we find the connection.
But all this time I was not at Jerusalem: for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went unto the king, and after some time I asked leave of the king,
and I came to Jerusalem.
— Nehemiah 13:6-7
He had a second leave of absence, and he returned to Jerusalem. Do you know what happened? After his short absence, it seems as if all the reform he had done in Jerusalem was collapsing.
When Nehemiah came back, he saw four things.
First, he observed the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. This grieved Nehemiah greatly.
Eliashib was the high priest at that time, and he prepared a place for Tobiah in the courts of the house of God. Do you know who Tobiah was? Tobiah was a renegade. He was a Jew, but he was so morally and spiritually degraded that he had associated himself with the Ammonites. So the Bible calls him Tobiah the Ammonite.
He was actually a Jew, because Tobiah is a Jewish name; but he became an Ammonite, and he was an enemy of the people of God. He tried every way to weaken the hands of Nehemiah when Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall.
Yet because he had marriage relationships with the priestly family, Eliashib prepared a chamber for him in the courts of the house of God while Nehemiah was away.
That room was supposed to be a chamber for the oblations and the incense. People offered their offerings to God, and these things were to be placed in those chambers. Instead of putting incense and oblations there, they made a place for Tobiah, the enemy of God. Think of that.
When Nehemiah saw it, he was greatly grieved. He cast all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber, commanded that the chambers be purified, and brought in again the vessels of the house of God, the oblations, and the incense.
The second thing Nehemiah observed was that the portions of the Levites had not been given. The Levites and singers who did the work had fled, every one to his field.
The Levites were supposed to serve in the house of God, and they were to be sustained by the tithes and firstfruits which the children of Israel brought into the house. Yet during Nehemiah’s absence, the children of Israel failed to bring in the tithe and the firstfruits.
So the Levites fled to their own fields. They cultivated their own land in order to support themselves, and the house of God was left unmanaged, or insufficiently managed. This was the second evil.
The third thing is found in Nehemiah 13:15.
In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses therewith; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals.
There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, who brought in fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.
— Nehemiah 13:15-16
The Sabbath was violated. The Sabbath was the sign of God’s covenant with the children of Israel, and yet they did not heed the Sabbath. On the Sabbath they trod the winepresses. On the Sabbath they loaded the asses. On the Sabbath they allowed men of Tyre to sell fish and all other wares in Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah.
Then the fourth thing is found in Nehemiah 13:23.
In those days also saw I the Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
and their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.
— Nehemiah 13:23-24
Even in the time of Ezra, those who had married foreign wives had repented and dealt with the situation. Yet after a certain period of time, the same old things returned again. They married women of Ashdod and other foreign wives, and their children could not even speak the Jewish language.
So when Nehemiah came back for the second visit, he saw all these evils spreading among the remnant, the children of Israel.
If you read the book of Malachi, you will find that the prophecies of Malachi were actually directed against the Jewish remnant during that period. The problems mentioned in his book were the very evils Nehemiah found when he returned to Jerusalem for the second visit.
That is why we believe that Malachi most probably prophesied either during Nehemiah’s absence, as a preparation for Nehemiah’s return, or as Nehemiah returned. In other words, he cooperated with Nehemiah, strengthening his hands in the matter of bringing the remnant back to God.
That is the background, the setting. I think we need to know this in order to appreciate the book of Malachi.
Now remember one thing: a period of about one hundred years was covered from the return of the first group of Jewish remnant to Jerusalem to the time of the prophecies of Malachi.
When the first group came back, they were a people who responded to God with all their hearts. Most of the Jews had settled down comfortably in foreign soil. They did not even bother to return. They did not care for the testimony of God; they were interested in building their own lives.
But here you find a remnant willing to leave everything behind, willing to face every danger, willing to come back to Jerusalem for the testimony of God. What kind of people they must have been!
We would expect such a people to maintain a spiritual height. Certainly, we would not expect them to fall so low. Yet if you read the one hundred years of history, you find all the ups and downs.
They seemed full of enthusiasm and full of first love. Immediately after they came back, they began to lay the foundation of the temple. They meant business with the Lord. Yet opposition came, and they stopped for fourteen years.
What did they do during those fourteen years? They were building their own houses. They said it was not time to build the house of God. So God said, “Is it time for you to build your houses and leave the house of God in ruins?”
There was a controversy between God and the Jews. Then, through the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, they were aroused and awakened again, and they finished building the house of God. They were up again.
Yet after seventy years of their return, Ezra came back. He came to beautify the house of God and to re-establish the law of God among His people. What did he find? The people and their leaders had married foreign wives. They were not separated.
Again, in Ezra’s time, they repented and dealt with the situation. Everything went up again. Then Nehemiah came back thirty years later and began to rebuild the wall. Everything was on a spiritual height again. Yet after his absence for a short period, down they fell.
Just think about that. This was the history of people who were not only saved by grace, to use New Testament terms, but who had really committed themselves to the Lord.
Yet in the history of such a people, you find such a thing. How weak human nature is!
Oh, brothers and sisters, when you read about such things, you cannot help but humble yourselves before God. Do not think that because you are saved by grace, you are safe. Thank God that we are saved by grace; but many who are saved by grace do not care about the interests of God. They are still interested in themselves.
Do not think that because you are saved by grace, and by His grace you have been quickened to commit yourself to the Lord, to His purpose, to His work, and to His glory, you are better than other Christians. Not at all.
It is only because of the mercy of God that you may at one time seem to be at the top. But you never know the next moment. How we need to look to the Lord for His keeping power.
There is no guarantee in us. There is no guarantee in the flesh. One day, by the grace of God, you may reach the height; but the next day, if you do not look to the Lord, you may fall into the deepest valley.
Oh, how we need to rely on the Lord moment by moment. How we need Him! Thank God, Paul said:
I know Him whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
— 2 Timothy 1:12
We have One at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us, and He is able to save us to the uttermost. Oh, how we need to trust ourselves to Him and not in any way become self-confident.
I think there is a lesson for us here.
Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. His voice was the last voice of the old dispensation. After that voice, God was silent for four hundred years, until the time when Christ came.
Then God sent another voice before Christ: the voice of John the Baptist, a voice in the wilderness. So in the book of Malachi you find the last voice of God to His people.
Four hundred years later, when you hear the first voice in the new dispensation, you find that it speaks of the same thing. There is a link between the old dispensation and the new dispensation: the same burden, the same voice of God.
Who was Malachi? We know absolutely nothing of him. He did not tell us anything about his history. He did not tell us who his parents were, where he was born, or what kind of background he had. Nothing.
He was like John the Baptist, just a voice in the wilderness. He had no intention for people to notice him, because he was just a voice. The voice would pass, but those who heard the voice might see the Lord.
The name Malachi means “Messenger of the Lord.” Whether that was his real name or a title he took because he was a messenger of the Lord, we do not know. But there is no reason why Malachi should not have been his real name, because the children of Israel often took names like that.
Malachi was but a messenger. He was one sent by the Lord to bring a message to His people.
Brothers and sisters, if you read the book of Malachi, you can read it easily in one sitting because it is very short—four short chapters. Yet, unlike other books in the Bible, you cannot easily divide the book of Malachi.
The division into chapters is only a convenience; it was not in the original. As a matter of fact, the whole book of Malachi was one message, delivered by this messenger to God’s people.
Therefore, in the first verse of the first chapter, he says:
The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
— Malachi 1:1
All that follows is in that one burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. Just one word.
There is a connection between burden and word. The word of the Lord constitutes a burden, and a burden creates the word. Here you find not just words, but behind the word and within the word there is a burden.
Brothers and sisters, when you try to separate a burden from the word, the word becomes letter—letter that kills. But when behind the word there is a burden, then the Spirit quickens.
You may say the same thing, but if there is a burden there, it quickens. If there is no burden there, they are merely words, and it is better that you do not speak them.
The prophet Malachi not only received the word from the Lord; when the word came to him, he received a burden. In other words, under the anointing Spirit there was a burden. When the burden pressed hard upon him, when he was burdened before the Lord, then the word began to flow.
So here you find the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel. There was one burden, though there were many words. No matter how many words might come forth, the burden was just one.
The burden of the word of the Lord was Malachi’s burden because it was the burden of the Lord Himself.
Dear brothers and sisters, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi is very relevant to us today. Why? Because Malachi lived at the closing of the old dispensation, the last voice before the coming of the Messiah.
Are we not living at the closing of this dispensation? Malachi lived at the closing of the dispensation of the law, and we are living at the end of the dispensation of grace.
When this dispensation of grace ends, God will usher in the kingdom. The kingdom of God shall be upon this earth. It will be the dispensation of righteousness, because according to the book of Isaiah, righteousness shall rule during the kingdom period.
At the close of the dispensation of the law came the coming of the Messiah. At the close of the dispensation of grace comes the second coming of our Christ.
At the closing of the old dispensation, as a preparation for the coming of the Messiah, you find a voice, a message, and a burden. It was a burden not directed to the world, but to the Jewish remnant.
God was not speaking to the world through the prophet Malachi. God was speaking to Israel, but Israel was represented by the Jewish remnant in Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, not by those scattered throughout the world.
They were Israelites, but they could not represent Israel. Israel before God was represented by this Jewish remnant because they were the people who responded to God, the vessel for the testimony of God on earth.
The burden of the word was directed to them. Brothers and sisters, is there any word God wants to speak to His people today before the return of our Lord Jesus?
A lot of people today are interested in prophecy, and thank God for that. We opened a bookstore in Washington, and when I was there, people came in asking for books on prophecy because they were interested. Thank God for that.
But we are interested in what will happen to this world. Does God have any word about this world, the future of this world, and the events that will happen in this world? That is really people’s interest.
But do we ever ask the Lord, as we are approaching the end of the dispensation of grace and as the return of our Lord draws near, “Do You have a word for us?” Not for the world—for us.
Are you the Lord’s people? Are you committed to the Lord? If you are, does the Lord have a word for you? What is His burden for you today? Is He trying to say something to you? Is there a message for you, brothers and sisters?
This is what we should be before the Lord for.
I believe that in the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi at that time, God definitely has a message for us today.
I do not know how you feel, brothers and sisters, but when I read the book of Malachi, my feeling is that I am almost hearing the Lord speaking to the church in these days. Almost you can hear the same voice.
I think this is where we have to be before the Lord.
To begin with, how should we enter into this burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi? As I mentioned before, it is just one burden. You cannot divide it into different burdens. There are many words, but one word.
The way we can enter into more of the details is by going through the questions and answers. The whole book of Malachi was written, or the message was given, in a dialogical way.
God was proclaiming something, making a statement, and the remnant asked a question. Then God answered their question. Or God asked a question, and the remnant answered, and the Lord again answered their answer.
The whole book of Malachi was in the form of a dialogue. God was talking to His people, and His people were talking back to God. Back and forth they spoke.
Just as Isaiah said:
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.
— Isaiah 1:18
The Lord, as it were, was reasoning with His people. Oh, how He condescended Himself to reason with His people! God does not need to reason with us. There is no reason for Him to do so.
But when we are not in our right mind, when we are not in our right attitude, when we are not in our right spirit, and when we are not in our right position, God, because of His love, condescends Himself and is willing to reason things out with us.
He allows us to argue with Him, and He argues with us. He tries to bring out truths to prove His point. Thank God for the mercy of God.
He could just leave us alone and say, “If you do not understand, that is your fault.” But He wants to recover us. He will not let us go. He is willing to come down to our level and even reason with such unreasonable people. That is the love of God.
The whole book, the whole message, was conveyed in that way. Probably, by going through these points one after another, we may learn from them.
Now, to begin with, we will raise the first point: Malachi 1:2-5.
I have loved you, saith the Lord.
But ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us?
— Malachi 1:2
The first point, the first issue, the first controversy between God and His remnant comes down to just one thing: this matter of love.
Brothers and sisters, is it true that our whole relationship with the Lord, and His relationship with us, when brought down to the very foundation, can be nothing but a matter of love?
It is not the things that appear on the surface. It is love that is at the bottom of everything. So here you find God’s message to His people: “I have loved you, saith the Lord.”
God said, “I have loved you.” If the people were sensitive, did they need to be told that the Lord loved them? When you need to be told, something must be wrong. You should be sensitive to it.
Because the people of God at that time were not sensitive, God had to remonstrate with them and say, “Do you know that I have loved you?”
They answered, “Wherein hast Thou loved us? We do not know if You love us. How do we know You really love us? Where is all the evidence?”
Who were these people? They were not Gentiles, people who did not know God. They were not even merely Israelites in a general sense. They were the people who had come back to Jerusalem for the testimony of God.
In other words, the testimony of God was entrusted to these people. Yet these people could even say, “Lord, wherein do You love us? We do not know.”
The problem was in this matter of love.
Oh, may God raise this issue with us today. What issue would He raise with you? There may be many things, there may be a lot of things, but these are only branches.
When God deals with us, He always goes to the root of all these things. He raises one question: “I have loved you. Do you know it? What is your response to My love? Do you love Me?”
In the case of Peter, Peter confessed before the Lord and before his fellow disciples, “Lord, I will follow You even to death. If all the rest fall, I certainly will not, because I am willing to die for You.” A good heart—you may mean it.
But then he denied the Lord three times. You remember that the Lord appeared to the disciples after His resurrection, and before the disciples He asked Peter one question:
Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than these?
— John 21:15
Do you really love Me? Do you love Me? In other words, the whole question is this matter of love.
The Lord’s controversy with the seven churches in Asia, especially with the church in Ephesus, was the same. The Lord said, “I know your works. I know your patience. I know your endurance. I know your knowledge. I know that you cannot permit false apostles. I know that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, as I do.”
“I know all that you have done, but I have something against you. In spite of all the good things you have, I am against you, because you have left your first love.”
Oh, brothers and sisters, as we are approaching the end, as the time becomes more and more difficult, it is a great testing of our love.
How we need to be assured by the Lord. The Lord says, “I have loved you.” We love because He first loved us. If you appreciate His love, if you know His love, if you are constrained by His love, then you will love Him.
The reason we have left the first love is because we have become insensitive to His love. That is the reason the Lord says, “I have loved you.”
He must have tried every way to show His love, and yet they could still say, “Wherein do You love us? We do not know.”
That may be a very poor illustration, but let me use one from my own life. I was brought up in a family in which our parents loved us children very much. We had seven brothers and sisters.
All my life before I graduated from college, I lived at home. Only for a few months did I live in a dormitory at school. Then my father took me back and said, “No, stay home.”
When we got sick, our parents did not send us to the hospital. They nursed us themselves. So I grew up in that kind of atmosphere, but I never appreciated my parents’ love.
I often complained because I was unfortunately in the middle of the seven. You know, in the middle of seven you have disadvantages. I thought, perhaps my mother loved my oldest brother and my father loved my youngest sister. All kinds of thoughts.
You may be in an atmosphere of love and simply take everything for granted. You do not realize it. You do not appreciate it.
After I graduated from college, I left home. That was the first time I had left home for so long. After perhaps six months, I do not remember exactly, one day it dawned upon me—the love of my parents.
It may not sound very special to you, but to me it suddenly dawned on me. I was overwhelmed when I thought of how my parents loved me.
Even when I was in college, sometimes at night I would be preparing my lessons and become so tired that I fell asleep with the light on and the book falling on the bed. At midnight, my mother would come in, turn off the light, and put a blanket on me. I never appreciated it. I took it so much for granted.
But then everything came back and struck me with such force. I did not know what to do. So I wrote a letter to them and told them how I appreciated their love.
That is only a poor illustration, but the Lord loves us so much. Oh, we are wrapped up in His love. He must have tried a thousand ways to show His love to us, and yet we can take everything for granted.
His grace is not just great; it is too much. Because it is too much, you do not feel it. You have too much sunshine, and you do not feel it. You have too much air, and you do not feel it until you lose it. It is just too much, and you do not feel it.
You can even answer back and say, “Wherein hast Thou loved me?” Is that not true spiritually? We become so insensitive. Brothers and sisters, we do not appreciate as we should.
The reason we need to come to the Lord, to remember Him, to break the bread, and to drink the cup—do you know why? Why did the Lord say, “Do this in remembrance of Me”?
He knows how forgetful we are. He knows how insensitive we are. He knows how we take everything for granted. We are not thankful. We are not grateful. We do not appreciate.
So the Lord says, “You need to have an appreciative spirit. That is good for you. So remember.”
When you come to remember the Lord, you can remember and appreciate Him. When you begin to realize how much He loves you, you will begin to love Him. That is how your first love is restored.
First love is not in you. Love comes from God. It is only when you begin to appreciate His love for you that love begins to come forth from you. That is how we need to be maintained in first love. That is how we need to be restored in first love.
How could a people who came back for the testimony of God fail in first love? If they failed in first love, they fell at every point.
Where is the testimony of God if it is borne by a people who do not even know what love is? Everything becomes formality—orthodoxy, formality—but nothing there, nothing there.
God said, “I have loved you.” “I am not just beginning to love you now. I have loved you. I have been loving you all the time. I have never changed.”
Yet they said, “Wherein have You loved us? We do not even know that You love us.”
The Lord said, “All right, I will prove it to you.”
Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob;
but Esau I hated.
— Malachi 1:2-3
Esau and Jacob were brothers. When they were in their mother’s womb, you remember how they struggled. Esau came out first, but Jacob held Esau’s heel.
Everyone who reads the Old Testament account of Esau and Jacob may sympathize with Esau. Esau was rough, yes, but at least he was open. He was the kind of person with whom you could get along very well.
He was forgetful, and that can be good. He did not remember everything in his heart. So far as human nature is concerned, Esau had a much better nature and a much better temperament than Jacob.
Jacob was tricky and deceitful, using his mind too much. You are afraid of that kind of person. So when you read the Scripture, you may say, “Well, I would rather have Esau than Jacob.”
But that is where God is different. God said, “I loved Jacob; but Esau I hated.”
Of course, later on we know why. If you read Hebrews 12, you know why.
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his own birthright.
For ye know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for a change of mind, though he sought it diligently with tears.
— Hebrews 12:16-17
What a worldly person! He lived just for the present. He sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. He lost the blessing of the firstborn. He even sought it with tears, but there was no recovery.
In other words, he was a worldly man. He had no spiritual desire. He lived for the temporal. He saw nothing special in spiritual things. That was Esau: a profane person.
Of course, Jacob at least saw the value of the birthright. He was spiritual in his own way, and for that he was disciplined. Still, you find that finally he became Israel.
But here God says, “I loved Jacob; I hated Esau.” You say, “Wherein have You loved us?” Look at Jacob, your father. Take a man such as Jacob, and you know him; yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.
Turn to Romans 9, and there you find the election of God.
And not only so; but Rebecca also having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac—
for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth—
it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
— Romans 9:10-13
Even before they were born, to show that His election was not by works, it was God’s call. He loved Jacob, and He hated Esau.
Do not ask me to explain divine election. I cannot. But do you know one thing? You can read the Scripture in the right way, and you can read the Scripture in the wrong way.
When you read that Scripture and ask, “Why should God love Jacob and hate Esau? That is not fair,” that is the wrong way to read Scripture. The Scripture is not there for you to ask that question. Divine election is God’s prerogative.
What is the right way? The right way is to say, “Lord, I am a Jacob, and yet You love me. Why? I cannot help but love You too.”
That is the right way to read that Scripture. Do not try to defend Esau; let him alone. But since we are all Jacob, let us see how the Lord has loved us—we who are so unlovable, we whom everybody might reject.
God said, “I have loved you,” and they said, “Wherein have You loved me?” God said, “Do you know that I loved Jacob and hated Esau? Is that not proof?”
Every time you begin to think how God chose you in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, before you were born, before you had done anything good or bad, that should prove to you His everlasting love.
How about the present and the future? God says in Malachi:
And I hated Esau, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.
— Malachi 1:3
When King Nebuchadnezzar swept over the world at that time, he destroyed not only Jerusalem; he also destroyed Edom.
But God allowed Israel, Jacob, to return. God never allowed Edom to return. With Jacob, God disciplined them in order to recover them. With Edom, God punished them, and that was the end. Do you see the difference?
Whom God loves, He chastens. At the time of chastening, it is hard, but afterward it produces the peaceful fruit of righteousness, that we may be made partakers of His holiness. That is the way God deals with Jacob and the children of Jacob. That is love.
But look at Esau. That was the end of it. No recovery, no recovery. That shows God’s special love for us.
Oh, brothers and sisters, God will not let you go. God deals with you, yes. At the time of His dealing, you may feel that it is hard. But do not misunderstand.
He is saying to you, “I love you. I want you perfected. I want to recover you. I want to bring you into My full purpose.”
Look at the world. Look at those whom, in this special sense, God does not love. In the general sense, of course, God loves the world. But in this particular sense, God lets them go. He lets them go.
Do you want God to let you go and finish with you? He will not, because He loves you.
With all these arguments marshaled before them, what could they say? God said, “I have loved you.” How true that is.
Dear brothers and sisters, that is the burden of the word of the Lord to us today. Above all things, one thing we need to be very careful about before the Lord is our love toward Him.
Do we appreciate His love, or do we return nothing to Him? If anything is wrong with our love, everything is wrong.
God cannot say these things to the world, because the world does not know. God cannot even say these things to believers who love the world and do not love Him, who are not committed to Him.
But to those who have committed themselves to Him, there is the danger of becoming insensitive to His love, the danger of losing the first love.
How we need to repent! The message of the Lord to His people is, “Repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.”
This is the word of God to the church in Ephesus. This is the word of God to the remnant through Malachi. I believe this is God’s word for us today.
Lord, do not allow us to be insensitive to Thy love. Do not allow us to go on outwardly as if nothing has happened.
Lord, search our hearts. Stir us to see whether we have lost our first love. Lord, teach us how to repent. Teach us how to turn to Thee. Teach us how to remember Thy love toward us, that our love may be renewed and restored.
O Lord, we want to be a real people to Thee. We want to be a people who really love Thee because Thou hast loved us so much. O Lord, maintain us in this state of love.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.