That’s what happens when you have a non-musician try to pick a tempo. Anyway.
Let’s turn again this morning to 2 Corinthians 11, looking at verses 2 and 3.
As Paul writes to these dear ones in Corinth, with whom he had a long relationship, you see his love, concern, and care coming forth in these verses.
For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy: for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.
But I am afraid, lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.—2 Corinthians 11:2-3
Let’s pray.
Lord, we are so grateful that You have made Yourself known to us. Lord, we are thankful that, as we partook of Your table, just as those disciples on the way to Emmaus, You broke the bread and they saw You; You made Yourself known to them.
Lord, in a similar dependent spirit, we come to You as we open Your Word, that as we open the Word, as we break the bread of life, You would make Yourself known to us in a very fresh way this morning.
We do offer ourselves to You. Lord, we stand by faith into all that You have. We are also so grateful for Your victory, because we know how much the enemy hates Your Word. We can say no to all of his tactics and all of his distractions, and yes to the full provision that we have in Christ. In Jesus’ name, amen.
We’ve looked a couple of times in the past at these verses in 2 Corinthians 11, at how Paul had this relationship with these dear ones in Corinth. He had spent eighteen months with them, and he had developed this intimate relationship with them.
As his parting words to them, he writes that he has a great concern. This concern is expressed in a godly jealousy. Paul is so jealous that these ones who have tasted the goodness of the Lord, who have seen and experienced the goodness of the Lord, would not in the days ahead be led astray from the simplicity and purity of their devotion to Christ.
Brothers and sisters, I think we can all relate in many ways to the great battle that we are in over maintaining our simplicity and purity of devotion to Him. Many things, not only in the world but even within Christendom, within the church, try to pull us away from a simple faith in Christ.
That is one of the reasons I really appreciate gathering each Lord’s Day at this table: a simple reminder of the simple truth of what He has done for us and who He is.
It is sad today that even when we say “a simple reminder” and “a simple truth,” it can almost sound derogatory to modern man. In modern man’s mind, we do not like simplicity. We think that the more complicated something is, the more, in our great astuteness, we can understand things far greater. We need something more.
This has really been one of the great tragedies of Christians throughout the ages: always seeking for something more, other than being satisfied with all that we have in Christ.
There is a simplicity and purity that we have in His life, that Paul is so jealous for, and that we as the people of God get discontented with so easily. We enter into some simple reality that we have in Him, and then immediately we go on wanting something else. We want to add to that.
Would the Lord, in this day we are living in, particularly as we look so earnestly for His soon return, return us to this simplicity and purity: Christ being our all in all, Christ being our all-sufficiency, and within our hearts a simple, very pure devotion to Him.
We know that, as Paul wrote to these dear ones, he had this burden: “I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.” We too, brothers and sisters, have been brought into being betrothed to Christ. We have been brought into being those pure virgins.
Now, in a corporate sense, we are the bride, but individually we are those pure virgins. This is what He desires us to maintain: that we not be led away from that purity. In this day, where there is so much pollution and so many things competing for our time, our lives, and our efforts, we can allow the impurities of this world to come in and lead us astray.
When we think about purity and simplicity, if you think about the opposite, we get into mixture, compromise, complications, and confusion.
Even something that used to be simple, we can make very complicated. If you talk to Roger, many years ago, when you went to pick out a paint color, there were just a few paint colors. You wanted a room white, you painted it white. You wanted it red, you painted it red. You wanted it green, it was green.
But now, in our advancement, we have a multitude—an infinity—of colors out there that make something so simple so complicated. I hate picking paint colors now. It is one of the worst experiences you ever have, because it has gotten so complicated.
How we take something simple and think we are better off by making it complicated.
Would the Lord, as we see the call that He has upon us within this Christian life, allow us to return to that simplicity that we have in Him—that simple knowing Him every day, those words that simply come forth from His mouth every day: “Follow Me.”
Is “Follow Me” enough for us every day? Is “Follow Me” too simple?
Oh, brothers and sisters, our Lord’s call, if we look upon our Lord’s words as He was upon this earth, was simplicity. And it was a beauty that came forth. Would we be brought back to that?
As we have been considering this matter of the Lord’s call for us to return to our simplicity and purity of devotion to Him, we have a beautiful picture—an object lesson—of this in the Old Testament.
We know, as we look at the history of Israel, how they were led astray from the simplicity and purity of that devotion to the Lord. They were led literally into confusion. They were taken away captive into Babylon—Babel, confusion.
That is where they were living in a physical sense. But the Lord, in His great mercy, because He is a God of purpose and He will accomplish that which He has begun, called His people out. He opened the door for ones to return out of confusion, out of Babylon, back to Jerusalem.
They were called to live in the simplicity and purity of the call He had upon their lives. They had a call to build His house. They had a call to be the people of God, to be that testimony of His very self upon this earth.
As we look through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, we can see the history. As we have already looked before, there are lessons that we can learn.
We are not looking simply to learn and become educated with history, even though that is important. These books are given for our instruction. They are given for our admonition, that we who are living in these last days would really know how to conduct ourselves within the house of God. May the Lord help us.
Today we would like to look at Malachi—or, as you hear people say in Italian, for Lenny’s sake, the Italian prophet, “Malachi.” Oh, it is the book of Malachi. Let’s turn back there. It is the last one in the Old Testament.
As we come to this book, let’s begin in Malachi 1 and read the first couple of verses.
The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Yet ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us?—Malachi 1:1-2
The burden of the Word of the Lord to His people through Malachi: “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How hast Thou loved us?”
Now, in Malachi 3:1:
Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming, saith the Lord of hosts.
—Malachi 3:1
Later in that chapter, in verses 16 through 18:
Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name.
They will be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, on the day that I prepare My own possession, My special treasure; and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.—Malachi 3:16-18
As we come to this book of Malachi, just to put it in a timetable, we know the history of the ones returning out of Babylon is recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah. Really, from the beginning of Ezra to the end of Nehemiah, that whole span is about one hundred years.
We know there was the first return under Zerubbabel to rebuild the house. They rebuilt the altar, they started building the house, and then they stopped. The Lord, in His great mercy and loving-kindness, raised up Haggai and Zechariah to encourage them to continue building. Praise God, the people responded, and the temple was completed.
Then we know the second return, about sixty years later, came under Ezra. Ezra had a specific burden: to beautify the house.
Brothers and sisters, how is the house of God beautified? It is when He is seen in it. It is when it is known by His name. When Christ—when the Lord—is seen in His house, that is the beautification of the house. That was Ezra’s burden.
Then, about twelve or thirteen years after Ezra, Nehemiah returns. Nehemiah returns with the burden of rebuilding the wall.
We are thankful that Nehemiah had this burden: that the wall would be rebuilt, this testimony, this enclosing of Jerusalem—a city set apart for the Lord, a real expression of our corporate life together. This was Nehemiah’s overall burden.
Just as the Lord used Haggai and Zechariah with Zerubbabel during the time recorded in Ezra, in a similar way the Lord used Malachi with Nehemiah. They go together in bringing about that full restoration of God’s people.
Now, who was Malachi? We ask that question, but really, we do not know. There is nothing else recorded in Scripture about him. His name means “My messenger.”
I love it again, even in this thought of keeping simple in our pure devotion to Him. You see how complicated man can always get. The book says, “This is the burden of Malachi.” That is what the Word says, so that is simple enough.
But man, in his mind, gets wandering around: Who is Malachi? There are all these theories. Malachi is a fictitious name for somebody else. Maybe “my messenger” means Malachi is just an angel. You can see immediately how complicated we can make it.
Really, we can just keep it simple and say Malachi was the one who wrote it. We are thankful that, as he wrote it, he was the one the Lord used.
One of the beautiful things in Malachi is that, as you see this book, the one thing you do not see is Malachi. Often, if you think of Isaiah the prophet, we see Isaiah. We see Jeremiah. We see Ezra, Haggai, and Zechariah. But as you come to the book of Malachi, it is like he is removed.
He really wants us to fully see the Lord, His heart, and His great burden. In a way, it is similar to the writer of Hebrews. We do not know who wrote Hebrews, but it is hidden because the writer wanted to capture the very heart and essence of God.
As we come to the book of Malachi, we can ask, “What is the burden of it? What is the real heart of this book?” I believe the book is summarized in that very first or second verse: “I have loved you.”
The book of Malachi is a book of love. It is a cry of love to His people.
It is a cry in which the Lord is calling out to His people in this hour—His people who really do not see their true condition. He calls out to them: “I have loved you.”
It is interesting, as we reflect back on Haggai and Zechariah, that we see the love of Christ—the love of God—being expressed. This book of Malachi, in one way, can be summarized simply as a call to return to first love.
These ones had left their first love. He was calling them back to this matter of first love, which was really the call of Haggai: “Consider Me. Consider My ways. Set your heart upon Me. Return to first love.”
The call of Zechariah was, “Return to Me. Return to this place of first love. Return to Me, and I will return to you.”
Whenever we see a people of God who have gone away from that simplicity and purity of devotion to the Lord, because this is a love relationship, the very first thing that occurs is this leaving of first love. There is this falling away, this falling out of first love with Him.
When we use the words “first love,” what are we talking about? We are talking about a quality of love, not merely a point in time. We are talking about a quality of love that controls our life.
This was Paul’s testimony in 2 Corinthians: “The love of Christ controls me. The love of Christ constrains me.” When we think of first love, we are speaking of the quality of a love that governs our life.
The thing about first love is that it is not expressed so much with our mouths, even though we do express it at times of worship and praise unto our Lord. The matter of first love is expressed most through our lives and through our hearts. It is expressed through our actions as we go through this life.
We can see and know what is governing one another’s lives by the choices we make, by the priorities we set, and by the decisions we make. What is governing our life? Is that first love—the love of Christ—controlling us, or is it our own selfish desire?
This was Paul’s great burden for these dear ones in Corinth, and it is Malachi’s burden: that these ones would be brought back to the recognition that the relationship we have with the Lord is a relationship of love.
He has espoused us as a chaste virgin, and we would be governed just as one who has been espoused is governed by the one they love—desiring to please their heart, desiring only what brings glory to them, not seeking our own ways, not seeking our own things, and not becoming discontented.
One of the great tragedies we see in this letter to Malachi is that every time the Lord calls out to them—He calls out about seven times, though there are different schools of thought on how many callings there are—the people are in such a place of unreality and delusion that they say, “How?”
Just like we read: “I have loved you,” and the people say, “How hast Thou loved us?” When we come to this place of falling out of first love, we are not even aware of our condition. We are so deluded. There is a blindness that we have because we can end up holding to a form of godliness, doing all the right outward things, but denying the very power of it.
That reminds us of the letter to the church in Laodicea, the spirit of Laodicea that says, “We have need of nothing.” They were blind to their condition.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord calls out to us today. One of the greatest prayers I have had upon my own heart recently is that I would know the reality of my condition in Christ, that I would not be blind to His calling.
Really, when He touches us, it comes out of that love relationship—that we would return to Him and really know the beauty and glory of all that we have in Christ.
Malachi prophesied during the time of Nehemiah. Who were these people? I think, for us really to capture the spirit and essence of what the Lord is trying to say through Malachi, we need to take a few minutes and look back at the book of Nehemiah to see who these people were.
Sometimes we say we are going to take a bird’s-eye view. Well, this look at Nehemiah is not even going to be a bird’s-eye view. This is going to be from an airplane. We are really going to be flying over Nehemiah.
In Nehemiah 1, we see how the book opens up. Nehemiah himself is in Babylon, and he hears a report about the condition of the ones in Jerusalem. The wall is broken down.
Nehemiah is so grieved and burdened that he falls before the Lord in prayer and fasting, seeking God’s heart for His interest in Jerusalem. Praise God, in chapter 2, God in a marvelous way answers Nehemiah’s prayer.
Nehemiah was cupbearer to the king, and the king granted Nehemiah favor in his sight and opened the door for Nehemiah and others to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. We see God’s sovereign hand in allowing Nehemiah to go back to Jerusalem.
As we come to Nehemiah 3, Nehemiah has returned to Jerusalem and is seeking God’s interest there. This is a beautiful chapter of how ones are working together to rebuild the wall.
These are the ones in Jerusalem who responded to Nehemiah’s call and exhortation to rebuild the wall. They rise up and start working together. There is one group that does not, but the rest rise up. Throughout the chapter it says over and over, “Next to him, this one worked,” and, “Next to him, this one worked.”
There was a relationship of working together for God’s heart and purpose. Not only did they finish their work, but they would look around and do some more. There was a zealousness in their hearts to repair the wall.
As we come to Nehemiah 4, while the wall is being built, we see the great battle going on. Whenever anybody starts showing an interest in the things of the Lord, the enemy takes notice.
The enemy tries many tactics. He tries to ridicule, oppress, and frighten them. But praise God, the people had a heart to work. They were captured by what God’s heart and purpose was. They worked and battled together.
It says they had a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. They were working and battling together. The individuals and the families were coming together. Families were there serving the purpose of God; they were not serving their own interests. They were seeing God’s hand protect them.
These people had some experience in spiritual warfare.
Then, as you come into Nehemiah 5, there is a whole change in the tone because the enemy is not mentioned there. What goes on is that these ones had been abusing one another. Ones in financial straits were being loaned money at high interest.
What we see within this chapter is a cleansing, a real sanctifying work amongst the people of God—getting their own personal relationships and their own hearts restored. This is a work within.
We saw the battle from without, and then in chapter 5 we see the working and sanctifying of the Holy Spirit within. These ones had this experience.
In chapter 6, we see how the battle continues. Praise God, as the battle continues, the wall is complete. The great testimony goes up that the wall was completed by the hand of God. It was not completed by the hand of man. They saw it and acknowledged it, and even the enemies acknowledged what God had done.
Then we come to chapter 7, and they put the gates on the wall. It is interesting because they also reflect back on those who were there on that first return. They reflect back on those who came with Zerubbabel.
These ones knew that they had a great heritage. They would not be there unless ones had gone before them and made the way. They were simply entering in.
Brothers and sisters, what a great heritage we have. We are here today because ones have gone before. Do we ever stop and thank the Lord for that? These ones stopped and saw the greatness of their heritage.
Then Ezra himself stands up. All the people are gathered together in chapter 8, and Ezra reads from the Word of God. As Ezra reads from the Word of God, there is a great response from the people of God.
There is a great recommitting of themselves. There is a restoring. They break forth in worship. They keep the Feast of Booths; the celebration and the festivals are restored. The people are taking their place, and they are giving God His rightful place.
In chapter 9, the Word of God brings about repentance within these people. They confess their sins. They see how they have been unfaithful. They allow God to search them, and they bring forth this great confession and rededication of themselves to the Lord.
This rededication continues in chapter 10. There is a great testimony at the end of chapter 10:
We will not neglect the house of our God.
—Nehemiah 10:39
These dear ones are offering themselves, going even beyond what God had ever asked of them. They are bringing such freewill offerings in for God’s heart and purpose.
Then, in chapters 11 and 12, it is recorded who is living in the various cities. In chapter 12 we see the dedication of the wall—that precious testimony of the Lord being their wall, surrounding them. They are a people set apart. The city is a testimony unto Him.
If Nehemiah ended at chapter 12, it would be a glorious story. But there is one more chapter: Nehemiah 13.
If you can see the spirit of chapters 1 through 12, it brings a great grieving to our hearts when we look at chapter 13. Nehemiah himself goes back to Jerusalem, and during this time there is a great deterioration that occurs all of a sudden.
There is religious deterioration. They start falling away. The temple becomes polluted. There is moral deterioration, with various things spoken of in Malachi. There is social deterioration: families are falling apart. There is material deterioration: they are not handling the tithes rightly.
This is the time when Malachi prophesies.
There are different schools of thought concerning exactly when Malachi spoke. Some think Malachi spoke when Nehemiah went back to Jerusalem. Some think it was during chapter 13. Some think it was just after. But they are all in agreement that it was right around this time.
This is when we see Malachi and Nehemiah working together for the restoration of the people in Jerusalem.
It is important for us to see who Malachi is speaking to, because these are not just nobodies. These are ones who had a spiritual history, a spiritual walk with the Lord. These are ones who had much experience with the Lord.
They had experience not only with the Lord, but in working together. They had experience of corporate life and relating to one another. They had much experience in spiritual warfare. They had fought together for God’s heart and God’s interest.
These were ones who had allowed the Holy Spirit to do a cleansing work within them. They had a history with the Lord. There was great experience. These were ones who had recommitted themselves to the Lord.
They had given themselves in a very fresh way, in a spirit of revival and restoration, to all that God wanted to do with them. They said, “Take my life and let it be.” They were given to the Lord.
These are the ones Malachi is speaking to. These were not ones who had rejected God outwardly and gone their own way. Those people were still back in Babylon.
These were ones who made a choice to stay there in Jerusalem and rebuild the wall. These were ones who made a choice to stand there and fight for God’s interest. These were ones who had made choices to really be about the things that are upon the Lord’s heart.
The reason we are trying to get this picture is because we can see how quickly falling away from first love and this deterioration can occur. Sometimes we think it takes a long time—another generation. These were the same ones. These were the ones who had been through this.
These were the ones who had left their first love. They were going through the outward ceremonies. They had all the offerings. We can see in Malachi that they were offering lambs and various sacrifices, even though they were broken and not the best.
They were offering tithes. They were not bringing the whole tithes, but they were doing something. They were going through some outward actions and outward ceremonies, but there was not any inward reality within them. The heart of the people was gone.
The Lord, in His mercy, raised up Malachi.
Brothers and sisters, as we apply this to us today, who is this word to? It was written to the remnant. It was written to those who had returned to Jerusalem to be about their Father’s business.
In many ways, we can say this word was not written to what we would call worldly or nominal Christians. This is written to ones who have given themselves to the Lord.
That is why this book, this prophecy, is for our instruction and our admonition. This is one for which we need to have the ears of our hearts open, that we might really know what the Spirit is saying in this hour.
As we have said, Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. If we stop for a moment and compare Malachi, the last speaking in the Old Testament for about four hundred years, to the book of Revelation, we see many similarities.
Malachi and Revelation are the last recorded words. Again, we see that call of love going forth. We see the Lord saying in Malachi, “I, the Lord, do not change.”
We see His call during Malachi, and we see His call during the book of Revelation. In Malachi there are seven dialogues, seven conversations, seven debates between the people of God and the Lord. In Revelation 2 and 3 there are seven letters.
There are many similarities between the seven letters in Revelation 2 and 3 and the way the people in Malachi are addressed. But in both Malachi and Revelation, the Lord is looking for the same thing: the expression of His life among the people of God.
He is looking to see Himself—not merely that they would know about Him. Praise God, they can know Him and have knowledge of Him. But what He is looking for is His life being lived out amongst His people upon this earth, whom He has placed there as a testimony unto Him.
He had those ones in Jerusalem for a purpose, and He was looking for His life to be expressed through them, that many would be drawn unto the Lord. He looks at Revelation 2 and 3, at those seven churches, seeking the expression of His life.
What is He always looking for today as He looks upon us? He is looking for the expression of His life—that life being lived out, that life working in such a way that people are being conformed to the image of His beloved Son.
He wants the image of His Son, the very character, nature, and life of His Son, expressed among His people in this day. This is what He is looking for in both Malachi and Revelation.
Both Malachi and Revelation speak of His coming—of different comings, but they speak of His coming. He says, “I am coming. Be ready.”
In Malachi He speaks of the coming of the Sun of righteousness—S-U-N, which can also be S-O-N. The Sun of righteousness is the Son of righteousness. In Revelation, we see the Morning Star. There is that One who is coming.
How the Lord wants us to have the eyes of our hearts open.
In both Malachi and Revelation, the people are totally unaware of the reality of their condition. In Malachi they say, “How have we done this?” In Revelation 2 and 3, the people are likewise unaware.
Ephesus was unaware that they had left their first love. They were going through and doing everything right. They were discerning right and wrong and many things, but they had left that first love.
Those in Laodicea said, “We are rich. We have need of nothing.” They were blind to their condition. Oh, to know the reality of our condition in Him.
As you look at these two books, Malachi and Revelation, we see that the answer in both to the condition of the people of God is the same answer: repent.
The call to repentance is in both of them. The call to repentance is upon all of our lives in this hour. It is that step of turning, of returning to Him and not being led away.
One of the precious testimonies in both Malachi and Revelation is that within each there is a small, faithful group who were faithful to the Lord amongst an unfaithful people.
Even though so many in Malachi had left their first love, there were a few faithful ones who stayed in that place of first love. They did not allow others’ unfaithfulness to affect their faithfulness.
They were those who gathered together—those who feared the Lord, those who esteemed His name. How precious they were.
In Revelation these ones are referred to as the overcomers. What is the testimony of the overcomers? They were simply ones who overcame by the blood of the Lamb, recognizing their sinful condition and responding in repentance.
They had a precious word of testimony: “Jesus is Lord.” They loved not their lives unto death. They were not living for themselves but living for Him.
Both in Malachi and Revelation, the core issue is this call to first love. Once first love is left, once the Lord no longer has preeminence within our lives, many other symptoms and consequences come about.
There are many repercussions, but it all gets traced back to this matter of maintaining this love relationship with Him.
What holds us, brothers and sisters, is not our love for Him. Praise God, we have a love for Him, but what holds us is His love for us.
His love for us will never let us go. His love for us is what controls us. It is His love for us, as we remember Him at this table, that enables us to go through the difficulties, the trials, and the things we do not understand.
It is a love that will not let us go. We yield our weary souls to Him. Praise God for His love.
Both in Malachi and Revelation, in His great love, it is His great kindness that speaks to us in our condition.
The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.
—Romans 2:4
How kind it is of a loving God to speak to ones who had forsaken Him and were doing their own thing. He did not write them off. In His kindness, He raised up a Malachi. In His kindness, He sent letters to those seven churches.
It is the kindness of God, brothers and sisters, that leads us to repentance. When do we really sense kindness? When everything is going great and we are not having trouble, someone can be kind to us and we do not really notice it.
But when the going gets tough, and maybe we have really messed up or we just do not understand things, then the love of Christ is manifested through someone and the kindness of the Lord comes in. It touches us and brings us unto Himself.
We see the kindness of God expressed toward His people in this letter—this prophecy. Do we ever stop and just really see and allow that love of Christ, that kindness, to come in?
When we see God speaking in Malachi, I do not know how many of you had a chance to read it before today, but what was your impression of God? Did you think God was mad? Was God angry? “Oh, you all are so terrible. You do not love Me anymore, and here are all your faults.”
Well, that is not our Lord. It is broken-hearted. One calls it “the wail of a wounded lover,” crying out to His beloved—the wail of wounded love. In His kindness, He calls out to us.
We see His loving heart all throughout this letter.
As we read in Malachi chapter 1, He says, “I have loved you.” To me, this is such a humbling thing. Do we ever stop and think about how kind it is for Him to come and say, “I have loved you”?
These ones are totally unconscious. We have probably all been in relationships—anybody who has children, anybody who has been married, anybody who has close friends, anybody who is in a family. That includes most of us.
At some point in time, there is this phrase: “How have you loved me?”
I think most of us would testify that we know far more of our parents’ love at the age of sixty-two than we did at the age of twelve. I know of my parents’ love now in ways that I did not know it then. But I can look back and see it.
I can look back and see ones in life who showed love that I did not recognize at the time. I did not even think it was love at the time. “If they really loved me, they would not point out all my faults. If they loved me, they would let me do this. If they really loved me, they would let me go out and do this.”
But no—these mean people. Then we see it was the mercy of God. We see His great kindness and love.
It is really amazing, when we stop and think about the end of the Old Testament, that the love of God would be questioned. You look back and reflect upon the way the people had been unfaithful and how God, over and over again, raised up ones.
We are here today because of God’s unchanging, untiring love.
If you look in Malachi 3:6, we see His love:
For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
—Malachi 3:6
That is the love of Christ. That is the love of God, brothers and sisters. He does not change. In spite of us, His love is eternal. That is who He is.
God is love—not the love of this world. God is love. He does not change.
I love how the Lord is such a precise chooser of words. Who does He say here? “I, the Lord, do not change; therefore ye are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.”
We know Jacob was changed into Israel. When I think of how Jacob was changed into Israel, you can see, as it talks about in Ephesians, the heights of God’s love—what He brings us into, what He brings us up to. He takes us and makes us an Israel. He brings us into that glorious place.
But when we think of Jacob, we see the depths of God’s love: the depths that God, in His kindness and mercy, goes to bring us up. “O sons of Jacob”—the depths that He has gone to in order to lift us up.
Oh, the heights and the depths of so great a love. And how we question.
We see in this letter that, because He does not change, there are many promises of His great blessing. We can look at one of them in Malachi 3:10.
He talked about how they had robbed Him in the tithes and offerings, and they said, “How have we robbed You?” Of course, this is the verse everybody always uses to get money, but we are not using it that way today. No tithing here. No tithing message.
But if we look at verse 10, this is God’s promise despite the way they had acted:
Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightful land, saith the Lord of hosts.—Malachi 3:10-12
What a promise. The Lord has this heart for us to come through and be that delightful land. As we yield to Him, He brings us into that, that we can experience all of His goodness.
Oh, we see Malachi: it is a love letter, just like Revelation is a love letter. We see the love of God coming forth in this call.
We have said that in Malachi there are seven calls, just as there are seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. We are not going to look at them in detail today, but I want to introduce them.
We have already read the first one in Malachi 1:2:
I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Yet ye say, Wherein hast Thou loved us?—Malachi 1:2
The Lord says, “I have loved you,” but the people respond, “How hast Thou loved us?” Because they have fallen out of this place of first love, we start to see many other consequences and symptoms of their condition.
In Malachi 1:6, the Lord says:
A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is Mine honour? and if I be a master, where is My fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise My name.
And ye say, Wherein have we despised Thy name?—Malachi 1:6
Unconscious. Unconscious.
Verse 7 is the third one:
Ye offer polluted bread upon Mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted Thee?
—Malachi 1:7
“How have we defiled Thee?”
Then we can go over to Malachi 2:17, the fourth dialogue:
Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied Him?
—Malachi 2:17
The Lord responds that they say, “Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them,” and, “Where is the God of justice?”
“You have wearied the Lord with your words”—all of your outward actions. But they ask, “Where? What do You mean, Lord? Look at all the prayers we offered. Look at all this we did. What do You mean, we have wearied You?”
Then the fifth dialogue is in Malachi 3:7:
Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return?
—Malachi 3:7
“We have not left You.” Totally stunned. “How shall we return?” You cannot return unless you have left. Oh, how He calls upon them to return to Him.
In Malachi 3:8, the sixth one says:
Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee?
—Malachi 3:8
“How have we robbed You?”
Finally, the seventh call, debate, and challenge is in verse 13:
Your words have been stout against Me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against Thee?
—Malachi 3:13
Again they say, “What? How have we spoken against Thee? What do You mean?”
The ones in this condition in Nehemiah were so blinded to their condition. They did not see. They could not know what was really going on.
One of the things, as you look through the book of Malachi, is that I am sure these words were not uttered with their mouths. They knew enough not to say these things with their mouths. But their hearts, their lives, and their actions were saying them.
Within them, these things were being said and expressed.
Perhaps today we have simply used this time as an introduction to Malachi. Jerry is sharing next week, and maybe, Lord willing, I could continue the week after that. We can look at these seven specific calls that the Lord has to the people.
I would just like to encourage you, if you have opportunity during this time, to go back and reread Malachi. Become familiar with it, and allow the Holy Spirit to really search us.
I think, as we do this, the Lord would bring us back to the simple phrase with which we started in Malachi: “I have loved you.”
Would the love of God be made very fresh to each one of us. Where we have allowed it to grow cold, where we have allowed other things to have priority in our lives, may the Lord use His Word to speak into our hearts and enable us to return to that simplicity and purity of devotion to Him.
Because that is the place. It is in that place of simplicity and purity of devotion to Him that His return is hastened. That is where the bride is making herself ready.
Not in the complicated things of this world, or even the complicated things of Christians, but as we return to the simplicity of Christ—Christ being all in all—His return is hastened, and the bride is made ready.
May the Lord work within all of us.
Lord, we are thankful that You, in Your kindness and in Your mercy, have this prophet set before us for our admonition and for our instruction.
Lord, as we look at who these ones were written to, we see that these were ones who had a walk with You. These were ones who had great experience with You, and yet had so soon left their first love.
Lord, would Your Holy Spirit be able to work within us?
Lord, where we have a desire, or even though it is a flickering desire, fan those embers into flame. Bring the embers into a flame.
That we could be those returning to that place of first love in You, Lord—knowing Thy all-sufficiency, and knowing the great loving-kindness of the Lord that endureth forever.
In Thy name we pray. Amen.