(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

with a brand new book tonight and we are in the book of Malachi chapter number one and let me make some introductory statements before we get into the actual chapter itself the text. Chronologically of course this is the last book of the old testament and it's actually written approximately 400 years prior to the birth of Christ and Malachi is actually considered one of the post uh exilic prophets and what that simply means is this is that his ministry basically took place after the children of Israel left Babylon and came back to their homeland and so you have a lot of prophets that were prophesying before the Babylonian captivity such as Isaiah, Jeremiah but then you have these prophets who came after that when they returned when the temple was built after the seven years and thereafter and they're preaching to Israel because obviously there's still issues that need to be addressed there's hard issues there's sin that's taking place and so he's one of those and you know you think of for example Ezra, Nehemiah you think of Haggai the prophet Joel and of course Malachi these are those prophets that came afterwards where God is still addressing Israel for other particular problems that they had and it's possibly about a hundred years after the return from Babylon to the homeland because if you remember prior to Babylon the children of Israel were involved in idolatry they're involved in and covetousness and they have all types of wickedness taking place so God basically punishes them by allowing a foreign nation to come Nebuchadnezzar and bring them into captivity for 70 years and he tells them in the book of Jeremiah he says I know the thoughts that I think of you thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end and he wasn't necessarily referring to though that literal generation he's actually referring to the generation that was going to rise up after them he obviously in his foreknowledge knew that the generation that would rise up after the rebellious nation would eventually seek after the Lord and they did of course they rebuilt the temple they were able to come back because of their belief in the Lord but then other issues started coming to surface that God wanted to address and this is what we see here in the book of Malachi now what's interesting is that prior to the captivity the reason God punished them or the sin that was very prevalent during that time was idolatry right I mean idolatry we see fornication we see adultery we see covetousness excuse me we see covetousness we see sins that the spiritual leaders are committing okay whereas the sin problem that they're facing after the captivity or when they come back to their homeland it's not necessarily idolatry it's actually apathy okay so they're not serving false gods they're not necessarily doing these abominable acts really what it is is that they're not really serving God the way he wants them to serve God you understand they're kind of being apathetic they're offering these sacrifices with blemishes and although they have the God of the Bible as their God they're not really serving him and worshiping him as he would want them to do so you say well what's the big deal they're still worshiping him well here's the point of this particular chapter is that we need to worship God the way God wants us to worship him okay not necessarily the way we think we should worship him with what music we think we should worship him with with what practices we think we should do it with you know we need to go to the word of God and see what his standard is what his commandments are and go according to that now obviously there's a lot of leeway that God gives us you know to choose but there are certain principles and guidelines that he gives us that we need to worship him with and we need to abide by those rules so that's what he's primarily addressing there is the indifference that Israel has towards God okay and again it goes to show us that God is not only interested with us getting the sin out of our lives he wants us to know how to worship him as well okay it's important to repent of our sin it's important to clean up our lives it's important to get sin out of our lives and make sure that we live a holy life that's pleasing unto the Lord but it's equally as important to know how to actually serve God you understand you know we need to have both you understand so we need to you know draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh to us but the Bible also says cleanse your hearts he sinners and purify or cleanse your hands he sinners and purifier your hearts ye double-minded so God is also concerned with what's taking place in the heart he's concerned with if we love the Lord our God with all our heart soul mind and strength etc okay the Bible tells us you're in Malachi I'm going to read you from Hebrews 12 28 wherefore we receive we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear so there's a type of service that we have towards God that is acceptable with God okay and by the way so prior to the captivity whose fault was it that they were involved in idolatry the leaders the pastors the priests they're the ones serving false gods they're the ones the Bible says that everyone was given over to covetousness from the least even unto the greatest in the book of Jeremiah why because everything rises and falls upon leadership right whose fault is it after the captivity when they come back to their homeland the spiritual leaders because he's addressing the priest in chapter number one and he's talking about how it's their fault they're the ones who are offering these blemished sacrifices and lambs and this polluted and corrupt bread he's saying it's your fault now obviously you know he also holds the nation as a whole responsible for this type of apathy and his haphazard worship but at the end of the day who does he address the leaders okay and we'll get into that just a bit look at verse number one it says here the burden of the Lord to Israel by Malachi okay now let me just say this is that most liberal churches probably are not going to preach from the book of Malachi unless it has to do with tithing and most of them are not going to address verse number one why because it's just such a cold way to start a sermon to start a book the burden of the word of the Lord you know to Israel by Malachi I see a lot of people have this view of the word of God which is a half correct way of the word of God and that is oh we go to the word of God to be encouraged you know we want to be blessed we want to be encouraged we want you know God to just tell us what we want to hear to make it through the day and yeah that's important the exhortation is definitely important and it's definitely in the bible but folks Malachi is also the word of God and here we see that he calls his word a burden now when you think of a burden something that's heavy upon you it's something that's just kind of grievous something that is heavy something that is hard and what I believe God is telling Malachi what Malachi is pinning down here is that what he's about to tell Israel is going to be a burden to Israel it's not going to be an encouragement this is not a motivational speech that he's going to give to Israel you understand he's not going to tell them how great they are and how they love the Lord no he's going to tell them the truth and this is a good lesson for us that sometimes when we come to church we need to hear the hard preaching right we need to hear the burden of the word of the Lord you know it's good to hear the light things of God's word the things that you know we are already obeying the things that we already believe the things that you know we're already in concordance with in accordance with excuse me but it's another thing to hear something that's burdensome to you you know to hit on something that you're actually guilty of or to talk about your particular sin or your particular flaw or habit or you know just kind of stepping on people's toes well this is what Malachi is doing he's not coming with some motivational speech he's saying the burden of the word of the Lord this is going to be heavy on you this is going to be a burden you're not you're probably not going to like what I'm about to say okay and so it's burdensome it's hard preaching but it's necessary and we need both folks you know we need to be encouraged and I preach encouraging sermon sometimes you know because it's needed it's needed to help you to get through the week it's needed to encourage you in case you're disillusioned you're discouraged you're depressed you understand these these sermons are definitely important but it's also equally important important to talk about the hard things the things that are not very popular the things that kind of make you uncomfortable okay so he starts off by saying the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi verse 2 I have loved you sayeth the Lord so that's a good that's a good statement right there right that's very encouraging God is so Malachi is coming to the people and he's saying hey God says that he's loved you okay he said why does he need to start off with that why is he saying reaffirming this fact that God loves them well look what goes on and say yeah you say wherein has thou loved us that's pretty rude so God comes and he says I love you and Israel says where like we don't see your love here you know so what do we see here automatically we already see an ungrateful people okay we see a people that are not grateful they're not thankful and they're not thinking upon the love of God okay and you say well why do you why do you say that well because of the fact that these are the people that are basically they're enjoying the fruits of obedience of the previous generation who came out of Babylon because remember the people who came from Babylon are those who obey the Lord they're the ones who basically decided to get right with God they came back they built a temple they're trying to serve God you understand and so this generation came after them and you know that generation that came out they're thankful that God rescued them from Babylon brought them back to the homeland they're serving God now they don't have oppressors you know they're back to where God promised them that they should come that they can come to whereas these people they're like well I don't know I don't think God loves me it's like what do you mean what do you look what you have you're in Israel you're not taken into captivity you're not in bondage you're not in slavery you're being fed you have the temple of God I mean you have God as your God and yet you're saying wherein has thou loved us now this is actually an attitude that even Christians today can struggle with where they doubt the love of God okay you know I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands but I'm sure there's been times in your life I know there's been times in my life where we have questioned does the Lord love me you know I'm going through some things here I'm going through a trial a tribulation things just don't seem to be going right for me you know I feel like I'm just kind of struggling in life right now and I doubt if God loves me you kind of doubt those things and it can come for various reasons maybe it's a financial world you experience maybe it's a it's a you know maybe it's the food that you eat that's making you feel depressed like that and question the love of God I'm serious it happens hey maybe it's a hormonal imbalance with ladies called postpartum depression and you know that's a real thing that happens where women you know after they have a baby they kind of go through this time and it varies with every lady where they go through postpartum depression and they begin to doubt the love of God and it's not because they're not right with God it's just a hormonal imbalance so that that thought can creep into any one of our minds and into our hearts and we question why is it you know does God even love me you know nothing's going right for me but here's the thing you know at a real basic general level one of the reasons why we doubt the love of God is because we're not really thinking upon that which we already have because if we're to really reflect on everything that we have reflect on everything that God has done for us reflect on how he has provided for us reflect on where we're at right now you have a family you have a church you have the bible you have salvation you know there's so much that you have if you're to think upon where you're at where you're at positionally in the Christian life you would recognize you know what God does love me you understand so this is obviously a people who are they're not thinking upon those things they're not counting their blessings you understand and look folks you know it might get pretty bad for you today but your worst day here is still some unsaved person's best day you understand and so you know if you're going through a time when you're kind of doubting whether God loves you or not just remember this is that nothing can separate us from the love of God so the bible says in Romans chapter number eight it talks about neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nothing shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ nothing can we're accepted in the beloved don't judge whether God loves you based upon your current circumstances you know because you know what Job had some pretty crazy circumstances happen to him where he lost all his children he lost the support of his wife he lost all his riches he lost all his honor and in all this Job did not charge God foolishly the bible says you know and he went through a time of doubt whether you know God was with him but I'm sure he didn't doubt his love because he knew that he would come forth as gold and so just remember this is that your circumstances doesn't change whether God loves you or not God loves you okay if you're saved God loves you well my circumstances don't really say it well you know what sometimes you know you don't need circumstances to change to prove that God loves you sometimes it requires for you or you know your circumstances are bad so you can in faith believe that God loves you it's easy to believe that God loves us when everything's going good bills are being paid our our our stomachs are full you know everything's going hunky doors like yeah of course God loves me I mean look at me doing great it's another thing when actually things are going bad where you begin to question well does God really love me you understand and that's when you need to step out in faith and say you know what in spite of what's going on in my life right now I know that God loves me because his love is not determined by my circumstances and look folks even if you let's say for example you are living in disobedience to God and his word we obviously understand that you'll probably get chastised for that and if things are going bad in your life it's good to kind of analyze your life and say well do I have sin in my life because if I have sin in my life that's probably the reason why God is chastising me right now right he's punishing me he's he's chastising me but hold on a second Hebrew chapter 12 says whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth so even God's chastening of you is proof that he loves you so if you're going through a hard time like you know you're crying you're just having a tough day you're like yeah at least God loves me you know you're getting whooped and you know God's destroying your finances like well at least at least I know that I'm loved of God because I'm being chastised right now okay and so don't determine whether God loves you or not based upon your circumstances and again it's going to creep into everyone's mind at one time or another it's going to happen you're going to be brought to the brink of doubt where you wonder man like what's going on Lord you know I'm trying to serve you I'm trying to do my best here you know do you love me you know and we all struggle with that from time to time when things aren't going the way we planned or whatever it may be but in faith we have to believe that God still loves us okay and so he says here I've loved you saith the Lord yet ye say wherein hast thou loved us so this nation is like well how I haven't seen your love you know wherein hast thou loved us and look what his response is here's that burden here's that hard saying right here was not Esau Jacob's brother saith the Lord yet I love Jacob what is he saying why did he even say that why didn't he say well because I provided for you why didn't he say well because of everything that you have he just said this well you're not Esau you're not Edom didn't I say I have loved Jacob and Esau have I hated so it's like if you're not Edom if you're not Esau which I had previously said that I hate Esau and I hate Edom you know if you're Jacob which represents Israel as a nation then that should be enough for you to know that I love you understand and look what he goes on to say here in verse number three I and I hated Esau there goes that dirty word hate by the way who's saying this oh God is that's right he says and I hated Esau now folks let me ask you this I'm not gonna ask you this is God saying this you know why do people have a hard time believing it that God does hate when he specifically said I hated Esau now I don't know how the modern versions portray this word or how they translated this verse or whatever you know I did not like Esau or something or I think he's a poopy face or something I don't know how they translated it but it says here I hated Esau and this is by the way well that's Old Testament well you know this is later reiterated in Romans chapter 9 which is in the New Testament where God through the or the Apostle Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit quotes Malachi about hating Esau now let me make something very clear I do not believe that God hated the specific person Esau because when you study the life of Esau you know at the end of the day even though he struggled a lot and he made some bad decisions I think he was a believer you know I think he was just unfortunately used as a bad example in the Bible because he made a lot of bad decisions but we obviously understand that Esau became the nation Edom and Edom became a nation that God abhorred or as the Bible also puts it hated and it's the proof of that is what we're going to see in the next couple verses the fact that he basically destroyed that nation to a certain extent so he says in verse 3 and I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness so what do we see God's hatred for this nation it wasn't just words without action the Bible says that he hated them and what happened he laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness he basically said I just destroyed them so that animals can inhabit that land and they wouldn't because when it says dragons of the wilderness inhabiting the land it's referring to the fact that when a nation becomes desolate when all the people are just removed and they're destroyed they're taken into captivity animals come into that city and begin to set up camp basically so he's saying I destroyed them you know I laid his mountains waste and the dragons you know the lizards and you know all these animals came in and basically took over because I hated Esau okay that's strong language it's the Bible though and so this shows us that you know God can hate specific nations and we'll see later on that he can even hate people okay and in fact in Hosea 9 15 if that if that's not good enough for you go to Hosea in chapter 9 if you would hold your place there in Malachi now before you get offended at what I'm saying right now just remember that the the chapter started with this the burden of the word of the Lord so you know this might be a little heavy for you and this is one of the reasons why a lot of churches don't even preach on this chapter because it's too offensive to tell anybody about it but you know what God wants us to preach the entire council of God he wants us to talk about these verses and not just say oh that means something else in Hebrew let's move on here or something he wants us to explain what these things mean because people in the congregation are gonna be like why does it say I hated Esau does God hate people for a while like what's up with that look at Hosea 9 15 says all their wickedness is in Gilgal for there I hated them such strong language for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house now just in case you fail to understand what it means to when he says I hated them he kind of really reiterates it in a different way to help you to understand look what it says I will love them no more all their princes are revolters so he says for there I hated them and then later on he says I will love them no more you say this is a hard saying who can hear it well he that hath in ears let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches amen this is God's word there's nothing dirty about this there's nothing profane about it there's nothing unholy about this you know we need to bring our minds into alignment with what God's word actually says folks and and if you're like if you balk at this you're like I don't like what it's saying here then let that be an indication to you that your mind has been brainwashed by this world and by this fake Christianity out there that refuses to talk about what the Bible actually says here okay where are you taking them out of context well the context is just he hated that nation well that's just how he feels about them well no because his hatred moved him to destroy that nation so I mean I don't know what else do you got okay and look folks you know God hates certain nations he will destroy certain why because God does not respect their people God is not Santa Claus God is not this Republican God up in heaven who's just trying to make everyone happy he's just you know he's not this hallmark God who just always has nice things to say you know the words of the Lord are gracious they're wonderful they're lovely absolutely but you know there's times that they're harsh there's times when when they're offensive and the Bible tells us not to stumble at the stumbling block which is the rock the word of God okay and you know there's times when he not only hates nations but he hates individuals as well Psalm 5 5 for example tells us the foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou referring to God hate is all workers of iniquity thou shall destroy them that speak leasing in other words lying the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man now let me make something very clear because you don't want to take this too far either and just think well you know just God hates a bunch of people no he loves more the percentage of the people that God loves is far greater than the percentage of people that he hates here on this earth you understand because yes God so loved the world he loves first and foremost obviously his people he loves unsafe people out there in fact let me just break it to you this way he loves unsafe people more than you and I do you know we can seek to love the unsaved and have a burden and and try to reach them as much as possible and and have that compassion the bowels of mercies in our and uh within us for the unsaved but let's just be honest God loves the unsaved far more than we do and in fact he probably thinks about them far more than we do he loves the unsaved this is why he's commissioned his people to go out and preach the gospel to them so they can get saved they can go to heaven they could have eternal life they can be blessed of the Lord that's what he wants but the Bible here is teaching that he hates the workers of iniquity this is not your regular sinner out there who's a cigarette smoker drinks alcohol or whatever fornicates that's not what that's referring to a worker of iniquity throughout the Bible is themed as being an individual who's just a very evil person extremely evil and in fact he says that the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man what is the bloody and deceitful man that's the violent person I mean have you heard of violent people within the last couple of years people who just take innocent people's lives away you know murderers psychopaths reprobates people who molest children people who murder children these are the bloody and deceitful men and God says I abhor them and shouldn't we expect the God the God of the Bible who does righteousness and loves justice and and and you know loves the innocent to do so of course because he's righteous he's just just means you know the fact that he has equity and justice means that he loves that which is pure and he hates that which is evil and wicked and vile this is why hell exists hell is a terrible place hell is the epitome of anyone it goes deeper than anyone's nightmare could ever experience it's the most painful place you will ever experience if you're not saved you know it's it's it's terrifying it's scary the depictions that we have in the Bible let us know that it's a place of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and let me just say this it's eternal that means it never stops and God created that place and there's people there today because of the fact that they rejected Jesus Christ well that's yeah and by the way I mean don't people say I don't see how a loving God can send people to hell isn't that what they say yeah well because they're missing the fact that he's also a hateful God right but here's the thing is that how do we know that God is a loving God because we're saved because he sent this God commended his love toward us and that while we're yet sinners Christ died for us that's how we know it you understand and so his love is offered unto all his love is offered for the whole world but folks if there's people out there who hate God if they not only reject God but they mock him they despise him they hate him they blaspheme him you know God's not gonna say well I'm just gonna continue to love you no God is a gentleman and God will not force himself upon anybody the God of the Calvinists will force himself upon people the God of the Bible does not force himself upon anybody and the Bible says that there's people out there who do not want to retain God in their knowledge therefore God gives them over to a reprobate mind basically he's like well I'll just help you not to love me that much the more if you don't love me that's fine and look did God really do anything to to merit that type of hatred from the world no God is love that's what the Bible says he's given us life look folks even prior to salvation obviously the Bible says that we are his offspring he blessed us he sent the rain upon the evil as well as the just I mean there's people out there who are not Christians they don't believe in the Bible but I guarantee you they have food on the table clothes on their back a roof over their heads they're able to breathe they can walk they have a job they can provide for their family that's God allowing that in their lives to move them to seek the Lord that's what the Bible teaches why because every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from above from the father of lights every gift that a person receives every good thing that you have is because God allowed you to have it no it's my hard work yeah but you know that God in any moment could just take your legs you know he can give you some debilitating disease where you're just incapacitated where you can no longer work you can no longer provide for your family he can he can stop your heart like that if you wanted to he can make you brain dead like that if you wanted to he can give you a disease that will make you miserable for the rest of your life you're like well that's not happened to me well I guess that's the love of God right yeah I mean doesn't the Bible say that the goodness and forbearance of God leadeth you to repentance and recognition of these things God expects for people to know that he loves us even prior to salvation I guarantee you we can we can go across this room and people can share times in their life where even before they were saved where they felt like that was the presence of God that was the Lord protecting me from this that was the Lord who delivered me from this even before you're a Christian I know I've had times like that and it was like God trying to get my attention for the purpose of me getting saved you know and in recognition of that we understand the love of God but hold on a second folks is that there's love there's also hate and you know a lot of Christians out there they're full of baloney okay you know they over there over here you know talking about well I don't hate anybody you hate someone don't give me that there's someone out there that you would hate absolutely and look folks you know men remain in the image of God so we carry these emotions with us and it's because God also has those emotions and we see it right here I mean for you to deny it would mean that you would have to come up here and explain what these verses mean are you saying that these verses shouldn't be in here well I just think you're taking them out of context well the context is there I mean I don't know how else you can what else you can pull from this when he says that he hates all workers of iniquity okay and so you know it's important to note that because you know some Christians they they they think that you know it's it's like sinful to say that when God said it himself and so and here's the thing folks you know people often say that and this is this is their favorite quote hey love the sinner hate the sin though love the sinner hate the sin not he doesn't hate the worker you know what I mean he hates the work of iniquity that they're doing he doesn't abhor the man he just abhors the bloodiness that he does or something like that like they try to like finagle their way through this translation and trying to like you know fit their the image of their God into the bible okay and they'll tell us this no we shouldn't hate anybody we shouldn't hate the pedophile even though the pedophile has zero mercy towards children even though the pedophile will will come you know even Richard Ramirez just killed a bunch of people but I'm supposed to think that oh I still have to love Richard Ramirez I still have to love Ted Bundy I have to love Jeffrey Dahmer who ate people this is madness folks they're like you're crazy no you're crazy if you think I should love a person like that right well hate what they did Pastor Mejia don't hate them but hold on a second that wouldn't work for the counterpart you know when the bible talks about love we don't say for the hike I love everything that you do I just don't love you I love the righteous works that you do though I love I love your soul winning I love you know the good works that you do I just don't really like you it's like you know because that's just how it works you love the righteous or you you love what they do but you don't love the righteous or something like that that wouldn't work would it no we obviously understand that yeah we can love what they do but we also love them we love them as a person right well the counterpart of love is hate and yeah obviously we hate the deeds of a pedophile but guess who's doing the deeds the pedophile and therefore we hate them too and I say that unashamedly I despise all pedophiles that's why we don't we don't permit pedophiles in our church amen what if they're trying to reform their lives they can't do it here because according to the bible pedophile cannot be reformed even from a secular perspective they cannot be reformed you understand so don't think we're just oh you guys are just a bunch of hate mongers or something like that there's no hate mongering in here during service after service there's a lot of love going on here but obviously you know you're bringing up to me a subject about some wicked person who's like some serial killer or something like that some some sodomite or some pedophile okay yeah then you know you switch to hate that's what the bible says in fact doesn't ecclesiastes say something like that there's a time to love and a time to hate these are the verses that a lot of christians just stay away from completely you know because they don't want to offend anybody well you know if they if they get offended at the rock if they stumble at the stone that's not the stone's fault you ever seen people who like they're walking down the street and they just like trip they fall and they get up and they just look at the ground like it's the ground's fault it's like dude the ground is just there you stumbled you know they're like walking across the street and you know they get onto the sidewalk and they just fall and they just eat it really bad and they get them they're just all it's like that ground has always been there it's not the ground's fault you stumbled okay go back to malachi and look it's possible for a christian to be obviously to be saved and not really comprehend the love of god because it requires for you to really get grounded in god's word to understand these things because the bible says that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth length depth and width and to know the love of christ that passeth all knowledge so obviously in order for us to understand the depths of his love the height of his love the length of his love you have to be rooted and grounded in god's word you have to read the bible you understand you know loving god or knowing the love of god is not just some emotional assent that you give some mental assent that you give of saying well yeah i just i just love the lord no it comes by you reading god's word you understand and so you know he's telling the children of israel he's telling israel hey why are you asking if i don't if if if i love you are you isaw you're not isaw you're jacob you're israel and i've already told you that okay verse four says whereas edom referring to isaw edom saith we are impoverished but we will return and build the desolate places thus saith the lord of hosts they shall build but i will throw down and they shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the lord hath indignation forever and your eyes shall see and he shall say the lord will be magnified from the border of israel so he's saying isaw have i hated and here's the proof i destroy what they got going on and they're going to be like well we're going to come back and rebuild it and god says all right i'll destroy that too i'll destroy everything that you're doing because he hates that nation okay and i'll be honest with you i don't really know of a nation today in 2021 that god is pleased with i think god hates all nations that are on the earth right now like even the united even especially the united states you say why because of all the abortion the murder and violence all the wickedness all the evil that's being propagated you think god's just going to turn a blind eye to that you think he's just going to be like well it's america though they have so many songs about me up there down there god bless america i mean they have me on the dollar bill saying you know and god we still trust and everything like that and you know they have the republican party has all these conservative values no you know how about let's talk about all the human sex trafficking that takes place in america you think god is pleased with that you think god is pleased with all the abortion you think god is pleased with all the sodomy that's being promoted all the filth and nonsense that takes place in hollywood god's not pleased well i don't really want to talk about that though like that's that's you know that's that's america's dirty little secret well yeah god knows the secrets of the heart and he knows the depths of the wickedness that takes place in the united states of america i think the only nation in fact i know the only nation that god is pleased with is the spiritual nation which is god's people that's the only nation he's pleased with that's why he calls christians his people his holy nation his peculiar treasure his peculiar people his holy his royal priesthood because that's the only one he wants to be affiliated with god's not affiliated with america folks sorry to break it to you you know it doesn't matter how if the president invokes his name you know the bible says we're two or three guys together my name there i am in the midst you know what the exception is when the president and everyone else prays he is not in the midst of that guaranteed and i know that offends a lot of people but you know this isn't this isn't uh the mayor's office this isn't the governor's office this is church this is the pillar and ground of truth and you know what i'm here to give you the burden of the word of the lord and the burden is this is that god is not pleased with all nations you know and obviously we could look at america and in comparison to other nations america is far better off you understand because there's a lot of christians here a lot of soul winning here you know the bible still being preached here you know if you compare it to a country like southeast asia obviously america comes out winning southeast asia is filled with idolatry and and a lot of wickedness is taking place over there other portions of the world as well so he confirms the fact that he hates edom by describing what he's done to edom look at verse number six a son honoreth his father and a servant his master if then i be a father where's mine honor and if i be a master where's my fear saith the lord of hosts unto you a priest that despise my name and ye say wherein have we despised thy name ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar and you say wherein have we polluted thee and that you say the table of the lord is contemptible contemptible means despicable i don't know what's up with these priests they're they they're not really esteeming the house of god very good in fact they're like this is so gross you know we have to do this we have to offer this bread just offer whatever we have they're just kind of not taking it serious you understand he says and if you offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil so they're bringing a bullock a sacrifice and they're like all right it's time to do a sacrifice what should we do like well get that blind one right there i've been trying to get rid of that thing forever i think it's like all disease it got a couple boils on it just get rid of that one so they're giving god the worst think about that he says you offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil and if you offer the lame and sick is it not evil so they're offering handicapped offerings the animals can't even walk to where they're going to be slaughtered and he's like take the worst one take the sick one the one that has mad cow disease or something like that you know just like get that one so this is why he says you're saying that my table's contempt was despicable because you wanted to offer despicable offerings upon there and look what he says offer it now unto thy governor will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person say the lord of hosts he's like why don't you give that to your mayor and see what he thinks about that you know what he's saying he goes you wouldn't do this to the magistrates of land right you know you wouldn't do and you know what you know what this reminds me of it reminds me of old ifb churches they have american hero sunday okay where they try to get like some governor or not a governor like a mayor you know some corrupt politician they try to get them into the into church and they'll honor them it's like do you do this for the lord like would you ever honor you don't ever honor god in this manner you don't have like a special service for god but you have a special service for some wicked politician you know so these people think well you know it's god we can just give him whatever he'll be pleased with whatever no you're supposed to give god your best give god your best he says in verse number nine and now i pray you and i excuse me and now i pray you beseech god that he will be gracious unto us this has been by your means will he regard your person say the lord of hosts so the principle that we can learn here is this is that we as god's people need to give god the best we have okay um we need to make sure that whatsoever we do we do heartily as unto the lord god deserves our best folks because he's the god of the bible he's the god of the universe the bible says to love the lord thy god with all thy heart soul mind and strength he didn't say with 10 of each he says i want all of it so yeah you know he wants all of our mind but he also wants all of our heart what is that our emotions you understand i mean what do you cry what do you cry more for uh some some chick flick or the book of psalms i'm asking you i'm just kidding you know what moves you right we got to give god our heart to everything that we do and obviously we're imperfect we're fallible people we're not always gonna meet up to this standard but this should be something that we strive for to to be all in you understand and and to seek to give god everything that we have take up our cross and follow him you understand the bible tells us in first corinthians chapter 10 verse 31 whether therefore you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of god the problem with these people is that they were honoring god with their lips but their heart was far from him understand and so what we can learn from this is that we never want to take church or the service of god lightly understand it's like well it's just another day at church you know just come to church and just kind of tune in tune out zone in zone out let me get on my phone real quick let me check bitcoin real quick let me check the news real quick let me check this and that real quick hey take the take this serious amen let me just take a quick nap real quick let me just fall asleep real quick let me just rest my eyes for a little bit hey is the table of the lord contemptible unto you is the house of god contemptible unto you you know like oh you know i'm just i'm just i'm just gonna rest my eyes real quick pastor is not gonna care i'll call you out but even more so than that god will call you out i mean try to do that at your job will thy governor be pleased with that try to offer that to your boss how about that you know uh you know yeah but this is like all volunteer stuff like i don't have to be here folks this is the house of god and we want to take the house of god serious amen i don't really feel like singing i just you know uh why did you expend all your singing in the car on the way over here singing some worldly song or something like that what's up we ought to give god our best so what i'm saying is this don't don't treat the house of god as a contemptible thing don't think well you know it's just church this is god's house obviously not the physical building okay this this is a just a building okay we're the church but when we assemble together god considers it to be a church okay and we ought not to treat it as a despicable thing you understand that's why you know i'm for coming on a sunday comfortably in your comfortable clothes but don't come in your pajamas or something try to do that to your governor to your boss or whatever right yeah but my boss pays me well so does god well now you know god pays you he rewards you we all should we ought to take these things serious and look you wear your sunday's best whatever that is to you but i guarantee your sunday's best is not slippers with socks on sunday's best is not a blanket sunday's best is not a blanket sunday's best is not a pillow okay well it gets cold in here you know well you know i don't know what to tell you about that because i kind of like the cold just do a put do some push-ups or something you know we shouldn't treat the things of god as a despicable thing you understand and this is the problem that the priests were having is that they were just kind of undermining the importance of the temple of the lord the table of the lord they weren't really taking it serious verse number 10 who is there even among you that that would shut the doors for not neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for not i have no pleasure in you sayeth the lord of hosts neither will i accept an offering at your hand so they're offering things but they're not doing it right and god's saying i don't accept that so do you know what this tells me is that there's certain types of worship out there that god just doesn't accept even if they talk about god they talk about jesus you know they say it seven times in a song sometimes god's like i don't accept that so we should find what is acceptable unto the lord you understand verse verse 11 says for from the rising of the sun even to the going down to the same my name shall be great among the gentiles and every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heat and saith the lord of hosts this is replacement theology so he's trying to provoke them into jealousy at this point because they're not doing it right they're not serving god correctly so you know what god says well you know what i'm going to be magnified in the eyes of the gentiles i'm going to be sought after the heathen he's saying you know if you guys don't want if you guys aren't happy with how you know i'm your god and and you're not happy with honoring me or doing it right okay then i'll find the heathen to do it because they will be pleased to honor me the correct way this is replacement theology he said i don't know about that well jesus came into his own his own received them not he came to the lost sheep of the house of israel they rejected him and they crucified him on a cross the people who mostly accepted him from a broader perspective were gentiles you know and thank god for the jews that did preach the gospel to the gentiles because folks that's why we're here let me just let you let you in on a little secret we're gentiles according to biblical standards because we're all the other nations and the only reason we're even saved today the only reason we even know the gospel we know the word of god is because there are some jews back in these days who went out into other nations preaching the gospel getting gentile nations saved but he's telling them i'm telling you you know and every place in sin shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen you know what god's name is great at first works baptist church it's great here we want to magnify god and magnify his word and not be ashamed of what he says in the bible and when people confront us and they're like why do you say these things you know oh that's shameful i can't believe you said that we stand by god's word and we say we're not ashamed of god's word it's beautiful it's perfect i love it every single page i love it i love what everything that it says why because we want god to be great among us amen verse 12 but ye have profaned it and that you say the table of the lord is polluted and the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible they're not even happy with the offerings that they're doing because keep in mind when they would offer a bullock they were supposed to eat of it right so they're like oh this is gross well yeah because you offered some sick animal that's your fault it's like you don't like the fruit that you're getting but you're the one who offered it it's like pastors they complain about their congregation when they're the ones who produced it right they're all mad about how their congregation does this and all this it's just like well everything rises and falls on leadership it's your fault then you know and they're saying oh this is gross this is detestable ye say also behold what a weariness it is and you have snuffed that it saith the lord of hosts and he brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick thus he brought an offering should i accept this of your hand saith the lord this is sad so they're about to offer something you know some some lamb over there got run over by some carriage or something like that it's all it's all bleeding it's about to die and like oh just just offer that one real quick because it's torn or got attacked by some lion it's still living it has about like 20 more minutes to live or something and they just bring that instead it's terrible but i want you to notice what he says verse 13 ye said also behold what a weariness it is they're just like this is so tiring this is so boring oh soul winning oh reading the bible going to church such a weariness you know the bible actually says in the new testament that for this is the love of god that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not what grievous hey are the commandments of god grievous to you do they bother you when we talk about the role of a wife or the role of a husband does that bother is that grievous to you if that's the case then you're probably one of these people are just like this is weary for me this is a weariness the commandments of god are not weary to us because we delight in the law of god after the inward man and if the commandments of god are causing us to be weary or grievous it's just an indication that we're probably not right with god you understand and by the way you know when you do the service of god you're going to grow tired sometimes this is what the bible says be not weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not so we'll go through seasons when we're worried about it but at the end of the day you know as a whole we should never view the work of god or coming to church as a weariness like oh here we go yeah here's another sermon oh there we go again with that same subject oh there's that same song oh this is so boring that's the attitude these people had and god was not pleased with that look folks you know um i don't think we have a boring church i try to do my best to keep it exciting around here okay you know i think it's it's an exciting church i think it's a very high energy church you know there's always something great happening i think we try to keep the preaching fiery the fellowship's great but it's not always going to be that way you know there's some weeks that it's just kind of i'm going to preach a boring sermon it's going to be boring and you're going to be thinking man i wish i should have brought that pillow and that blanket you know he's going to call me out you know there's going to be time you're just going to be like oh man here you go again but you know what sometimes we need that which is boring to be reiterated to us and at the end of the day if you really you know get involved in what the text is saying and you ask god for to help you to understand you know even the boring things can have a little bit of excitement to them okay and so you know let us not be like these religious priests you're saying oh this is so weird soul winning is just so boring we're not getting anybody saved and thursday service is so boring and all these things are so boring you know you just gotta you got a heart attitude okay sorry that we don't have purple lights and smoke screens and elephants and clowns that's not our kind of church verse 14 but cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrifices unto the lord of corrupting for i am a great king sayeth the lord of hosts and my name is dreadful among the heathen man he's like i'm the king and all the nations consider me to be dreadful what does that mean he's saying you know it's acceptable for them out there to consider god to be dreadful we're just like they dread him we shouldn't dread coming to church obviously we should fear the lord but doing the commandments of god should not be a drudgery or a dreadful thing he's like but i'm dreadful among the among the nations so what do we see here with the book of malachi what we see here is god god is reprimanding the spiritual leaders of that day okay and he's saying this is your fault you know i'm concerned with you getting sin out of your life but i'm also concerned with you serving me acceptably okay so let us be reminded tonight that we every whatsoever we do we should do it heartily as unto the lord not into men and never consider the work of god to be a despicable thing okay never consider so wanting to be a despicable thing there's churches out there who consider it to be a despicable thing who used to do so winning but no longer do so winning because they consider it to be a despicable thing you know oh don't let's let's not consider the bible reading the bible cover to cover to be a despicable thing there's churches out there like that so what do they do they offer a devotional book instead because to them is despicable you understand let's be happy hey there's people who consider the hymns to be a despicable thing oh those are so old-fashioned and they're boring and all these things so what do they do they create these new contemporary songs where with drums and all these things that people like or whatever feeds the flesh we shouldn't consider it like that understand and so if we view these things through the spirit and we do things heartily as unto the lord we will continue to enjoy the christian life amen let's pray father we thank you thank you so much for your word lord thank you for the book of malachite i pray god that you'd help us lord to do all things heartily as unto you and uh to not grow weary of the mundane it's the mundane things of life that make up life the exciting times are are few uh and far in between lord but i pray god that you'd help us lord to enjoy them and enjoy even just the regular things of life and uh of the christian life and may your commandments may never be grievous to us may we never be weary and well doing and i pray god that you bless us as we go on our way in jesus name amen