Please turn in your Bibles to the book of Malachi, which is the last book in the Old Testament. If you find Matthew and then go back a few pages, you’ll be in Malachi. After God reveals His Word through the prophet Malachi, He is then silent for roughly 400 years until the events described in the Gospels begin to unfold.
Let's read Malachi 1:6-14...
I. BICKERING
Malachi reveals a conflict marked by the bickering voices of God’s chosen people on one side, and the stern warnings of a holy and righteous God on the other. Have you ever complained or bickered with your parents? Of course, as children, we’re always right and our parents are always wrong! As a parent on the receiving end, it can be a frustrating experience. In Malachi, we see the people bickering and arguing with Almighty God! Look again at verses 6, 7, and 13...
1:6 Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’
1:7 You offer defiled food on My altar, but say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’
1:13 You also say, ‘Oh, what a weariness!’ and you sneer at it.
I can just imagine the rolling of the eyes on that one, can’t you? The people had developed their own faulty attitudes and opinions of WHO GOD IS, and on the PURPOSE OF WORSHIP. Let’s look at the last part of verse 14…
14b “For I am a great King,” says the Lord of hosts, “And My name is to be feared among the nations.”
God is holy and righteous, a mighty King, whose name is to be feared! The people had somehow, in the comfort of the familiar, lost their focus on who God is. They got caught up in themselves and the *rituals* of worship, and lost sight on the *purpose* of their worship. Their attitudes toward God and toward worship had strayed far, I mean really far, from the commandment in Deuteronomy 6:5…
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
They began to bicker or argue with God. They adopted an attitude that they were somehow more righteous and more holy than God himself, and God had it all wrong! When confronted with their offensive attitudes and actions, they were in essence saying to God, “Are you talking to me? Surely, you’re not talking about me! I’m doing just fine!” They refused to hear from God. They refused to believe they could be wrong. They refused to swallow their pride and turn back to God in repentance.
It’s easy to point fingers at these hypocritical religious people and say, “Wow…They just didn’t get it, did they?” But what about us? What is *our* attitude toward God and toward worship? Are we holding on to our arrogance and pride instead of listening to the Holy Spirit?
Anyone who claims to be a Christian is being watched with great scrutiny. Our attitude toward God and toward worship has an impact on others. Our attitude will either cause others to stumble or will draw them closer to God. Keep in mind that according to 1 Peter 2:9, we as believers in Jesus Christ are now the royal priesthood…
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Did you catch that last part? Instead of an attitude of bickering, God will be honored and revered when we proclaim His praises! Let's go back and take another look at Malachi 1:11…
11 “For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the nations,” says the Lord of hosts.
Bickering voices “ain’t gonna cut it” in the life of a believer! Our purpose is to proclaim God’s praises, because His name shall be great among the nations!
II. BURDENSOME
Let’s now take a look at a second characteristic of their worship. As we see in the text from chapter 1, the worship of the one true God had become burdensome…
13a “You also say, ‘Oh, what a weariness!’ and you sneer at it,” says the Lord of hosts.
Their worship had become an empty ritual that they engaged in more to maintain tradition than to please a holy and righteous God. It was being done out of *obligation* instead of being done out of *love*. Have you ever asked your children to do the dishes, and you get a little “attitude” in return? Oh, the dishes eventually get done, but they did the absolute minimum to meet their obligation. What? They didn’t do it with a cheerful attitude full of love and gratefulness to you as their parent? Does this sound familiar to anyone? Keep that kind of attitude in mind, but now scale it up into the priests’ attitude toward their worship of God. It was bad enough that the people of God had lost their first love. What made it worse was that they actually thought their religious performance was acceptable to Him!
God desires for us to worship Him and serve Him with pleasure, with joy, with cheerfulness. Do you find real joy in worship, or is it just ritual to you? Do you “do” certain things, like go to church for example, because it’s something you’re just supposed to do or is expected of you? Do you find yourself wanting to do less and less for God? Don’t get me wrong, it is very easy to become burned out spiritually, physically and emotionally from serving. If you only use 20% of your body, you will burn out those over-used parts while the unused parts of your body atrophy. This is not the way God intended for a healthy body to function. Similarly, if a church body continues to use the same 20% of its members, they will burn out while the rest of the body atrophies. God has a function and purpose for each of us to fulfill in the body of Christ! We can choose to tackle our purpose grudgingly (or not at all), or we can choose to pursue it with pleasure! God knows that we can fall into the trap of becoming tired and discouraged, yet He wants us to push on with joy as we can see in Hebrews 12…
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
III. BLEMISHED
Finally, let’s examine what they were offering to the Lord. They offered God their crumbs, their leftovers, their hand-me-downs and expected God to bless them for it. The priests were offering blemished sacrifices that were offensive to God…
8a “And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?”
Not only were those blemished sacrifices offensive to God, He called them “evil”! Let’s also look at the last half of verse 13 and the first half of verse 14…
13b “And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?” says the Lord. 14a But cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male, and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished…
The word “deceiver” is the Hebrew word “nakal” which translates as deceiver, swindler, or a cheat. God calls such a person a cheat who can give better sacrifices but chooses not to. Instead of honoring God with their best, they kept the best for themselves and gave God the worst of what they had. What a slap in the face! God’s love for us is so extravagant, that He chose to sacrifice the most precious thing He had in order to redeem us, His Son Jesus Christ. And the love we show in return for His grace and mercy amounts to some paltry crumbs sprinkled upon the altar in worshipful sacrifice to Almighty God! “Look God, here’s my crumbs! Aren’t You pleased with me?” May God have mercy upon us for how we have shown our disdain toward Him through our sacrifices!
These ritualistic, blemished sacrifices are so offensive to God, that He prefers no sacrifice at all…
10 “Who is there even among you who would shut the doors, so that you would not kindle fire on My altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you,” says the Lord of hosts, “Nor will I accept an offering from your hands.”
Just close up shop! Shut it down! Better no worship at all than empty ritual and offerings that fall well short of our best. God requires our pure, unblemished sacrifice to please Him. Don’t confuse this with any form of works-based salvation. We cannot earn our salvation. The only pure and unblemished sacrifice that can atone for our sins and reconcile us with God is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the spotless Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Are sacrifices no longer needed? Romans 12:1 says,
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
The answer is “YES”, God continues to expect sacrifices from His people. He won’t accept just any sacrifice…it must be the best we have.
King David knew about acceptable sacrifice... [2 Samuel 24:24-25]
“…No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.”
Abel understood what kind of sacrifice was acceptable to God... [Genesis 4:3-5]
“And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.”
In the New Testament Gospels, a woman poured costly fragrant oil to anoint Jesus’ head to express her love, her devotion, her worship. [Mark 14:3-9]
The widow came to the temple and gave of her poverty all that she had as an offering to God to express her love, her devotion, her worship. [Luke 21:1-4]
They got it. They understood in their hearts what sacrifice really meant to a holy and righteous God. Their love for God prompted them to cheerfully give of their best... without hesitation! Let’s look together at a beautiful picture of acceptable sacrifice found in Luke chapter 7 [36-38,44-47]…
“And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, […] brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His [Jesus’] feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.”
“Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
Her love compelled her to offer up a pure sacrifice that was pleasing to God. She didn’t hold anything back. She even was willing to sacrifice her dignity and pride. We seem to have a hard time coming forward to pray at the end of our worship service. Is it because we’re afraid of what others will think or say about us? This woman wept on and kissed the feet of Jesus in a room full of people who knew her and were already judgmental toward her. She cast her pride aside and lay broken at Jesus’ feet, not caring who was there to witness it.
CONCLUSION
There are so many lessons and warnings in the message of Malachi. Among them, God sent Malachi to rouse the people from their spiritual stupor, and to exhort them to return to the living God. We too, need to be roused from our spiritual stupor and to return to the living God.
Instead of approaching God with voices and attitudes full of bickering, we are to proclaim His praises.
Instead of treating our service to God as burdensome, we are to serve Him with hearts filled with pleasure.
Instead of offering to God sacrifices that are blemished, we are to present to Him offerings that are pure.
But no matter what we do or sacrifice, it will never be acceptable to God without love. It’s that extravagant love for God that overflows into our praises, and compels us to offer our best and purest sacrifices with pleasure in our hearts.
If that doesn’t describe you, you should first examine and see if you are truly a life that has been changed by faith in Jesus Christ. If you have any doubts about where you will spend eternity if you were to die this very day, I invite you to come forward during this next song so that I or one of our deacons can give you some Biblical counsel. Do not be deceived! God is not mocked! He sees you for who you really are. You may think you can hide behind a mask and fool everyone into thinking you’re a Christian, but God knows the truth of what’s in your heart. He doesn’t care what might be on your “religious résumé”. He wants to remove your sinful, dead heart, and create in you a new heart full of life and love and purpose.
Maybe you are absolutely sure of your eternal destination. You know for sure that you are already a child of God. Let me ask you…How authentic is your relationship with God? How much of what you do for God has become empty ritual versus sincere, heartfelt worship? Are you truly giving God the absolute best that you have to offer? Have you truly sacrificed the totality of your own life on God’s altar, committing to Him everything you have and everything you are, or are you giving Him your crumbs, your leftovers, hoping that it pleases Him? Are you experiencing joy in devoted service to God, or are you finding it to be wearisome, a burden?
Let’s pray…
