Ron Dunn Podcast - Seven Sins Of Malachi Part 3

Episode Date: June 1, 2022

Part 3 of Seven Sins Of Malachi by Ron Dunn

So if you will open your Bibles to the first chapter of Malachi, the last book in the Old Chapter 1, and we're going to read a long passage through 14. Chapter 1, verse 6, through the end of the chapter, verse 14. A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is my honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear, saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest that despise my name? And you say, wherein have we despised thy name? You offer polluted bread upon my altar, and you say, wherein have we polluted thee in that you say the table of the lord is contemptible and if you offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil and if you offer the lame and sick is it not evil offer it now unto thy governor will he be pleased with you or accept your person

said the lord of hosts and now i pray you beseech God that he will be gracious unto us. This hath been by your means, will he regard your person, saith the Lord of hosts. Oh, that there was one among you who would shut the doors, so that you would not kindle a fire on my altar. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord Lord of hosts neither will I accept an offering at your hand for from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name

and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen saith the Lord of hosts but you have profaned it in that you say the table of the Lord is polluted But you have profaned it, in that you say, The table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible. You also say, Behold, what a weariness it is. And you have sniffed at it, saying, saith the Lord of hosts. And you have brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick. Thus you brought an offering. Should I accept this of your hand, saith the Lord.

But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. I think verse 13 sums up what this passage is about. You also say, behold what a weariness it is, and you have turned your nose up at it. What a weariness, how boring all of this is. Back in May, my wife and I were in Poto, Oklahoma. I was in a meeting there at the First Baptist Church. Poto, Oklahoma is where I was born, back in 1900 and none of your business. And I had once been a member, or at least the Sunday school, I was too young to be a member, but of the First Baptist Church there,

and 40 years ago or so, a bit more, and I lived on the same street where the church was. And so it was a little bit interesting to go back to where I had been born and where I had seen my brother baptized. That was one of the few memories I had of it. It's a little bit interesting to go back. I still have a lot of relatives around there, and I'm glad they all came to the meeting

or else we'd have had nobody else there. But I have three memories. There are three images that I remember in my days there in that church. I was so young, but I remember three things. Number one, I didn't understand any one of these three, but I remember sitting in church on Sunday evening and hearing women talk with one another about how happy they were that they had received news that their son had been captured by the Germans and was a POW.

I couldn't understand why they were so glad to hear that. And I assume now it's because they thought that being a prisoner of war took you out of the fighting and you had a less chance of being killed. But I remember them saying that, and I didn't understand it. The second thing I didn't understand is why my Sunday school teacher always took my genealtry cap gun away from me in church. I couldn't understand that. I had a genealtry cap gun with red, like, ivory-like candles on it.

And I had a little suit coat that my folks made me wear on Sunday, and it had a little inside pocket, and that little gun would fit real nice right there in the little pocket. And every time I would come in, the teacher would see that ball's there and she'd say, give it to me. I never understood why they wouldn't let me have it. There's one other thing I couldn't understand in that church. I remember seeing on the Sunday school wall a placard with these words. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. I can remember every Sunday morning sitting there in that boring, hot, sleepy Sunday school room, listening to somebody drone on and on about something I couldn't care less about, trying to figure out what I was

going to do this afternoon to have fun, and I was just itching and scratching. And I'd look up and I'd see that sign. I was glad unto me. I was glad when they said, let us go into the house of the Lord. And I remember thinking, what a weird fellow David must have been. I could not imagine anybody saying, I was glad when they said, let's go to church. And I remember every Sunday night trying to somehow talk my parents into not going to church, you know, like sudden attack of homework and things like this. I guess I have to confess it.

I still feel that way once in a while, I guess. What a weariness it is. What a weariness it is. What a weariness it is. People in the world are always mystified when they find out that you enjoy going to church. They just can't understand it. Of course, there are a lot of Christians who don't enjoy going to church, And to them, it is a weariness. And this is exactly what Malachi was talking about. We're dealing with these, what could be called the seven sins of Malachi. And all of them, you remember, have this format.

The Lord makes a statement and the people deny it. And then the Lord comes back and proves that it's true. And the statements in these verses are these. If I am a father, where is my honor? And you have despised my name. And they come back and say, We haven't despised your name. When have we despised your name?

And God said, Because you have polluted my altar. And they say, Well, how have we polluted thy altar? Wherein have we polluted thee? Notice they didn't say, have we polluted thine altar? They said, have we polluted thee? They understood that whatever they did to the altar, they were doing to God. And they said, wherein have we polluted thee? And he says, in that you have brought unworthy sacrifices to my table. And you have said what a willingness it is. Going through the motions,

I need to be there. Everybody expects me to be there. I was talked into being an elder. I have to go. I have to keep up appearances. It's so boring and it's such a wearisome task. And what God has to say to these people concerning their attitude towards worship, their bearing attitude towards worship, I think is very interesting for us today.

I want to just give you three statements, three things that I think the Lord is telling us here that can change our attitude of worship from being boring to exciting. Three ways in which we can correct our sin in our attitude towards the worship of the Lord. The first thing I want to say is this. It takes a mighty good sacrifice to beat none at all. It takes a good offering to beat none at all. There is an interesting statement in verse 10 when God says, King James reads, who is there even among you that would, but actually what God is saying, oh, that there was one among you who would shut the doors

so that you couldn't build a fire and have a sacrifice. Now, the doors that he was talking about were probably not the temple doors, but the doors between the room of the priests and the great hall. And if those doors were shut, then nobody could offer an offering. And that is more or less what God is saying. Oh, that someone among you would shut the doors. Why? So that you couldn't go in and worship me. He said, I would rather you not worship me than worship me like you're doing. I would rather you not worship me than worship me like you're doing. I would rather you not give me an offering than give me the kind of offering you're giving. I'd rather there be no sacrifice on the altar rather than have the sacrifice that you leave to me.

I would not be as insulted as much if you didn't come at all as I am when you come and grumble about it. I'll have a once in a while when we're out eating, we'll get bad service, you know, from a waiter or a waitress. And tip is supposed to mean, if I understand it right, to ensure promptness. And it was something you gave to a waiter or a waitress because they were prompt

and good in their waiting. And every once in a while, we have such a bad waiter or waitress that I don't want to leave them much of a tip. And so my wife said one day, don't leave them anything. I said, no, I'm going to leave a penny. If I don't leave them anything, they may think I just forgot about it. But if I leave them a penny, they'll know I didn't forget about it and I didn't think much of the service. It'll be an insult.

I've never done that. I just talk big. But the idea is that it is a greater insult. It is a greater insult to bring to the Lord a polluted and unworthy and blemished sacrifice than not bring one at all. It is a greater insult to be given on your birthday or Christmas, some inferior, broken, dirty kind of material. It would be better not to receive a gift at all. And God is saying, I wish somebody among you would shut the doors so that nobody could worship. I think what God is saying is it takes a good offering to beat none at all. And then he says something else about this.

In verse 11, he says, Far from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered unto my name, and an offering for my name is great among the heathens, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, that is a very amazing statement to be made by a prophet of Israel, because the Hebrews did not believe that God was ever pleased with the sacrifice of a pagan. By the way, this is the verse that Catholics use as their principal proof text for justifying the mass,

when they use the phrase there, a pure offering among the heathen. And it is remarkable that a prophet like Malachi would even suggest, even hint that God was pleased with the sacrifice of a heathen. And yet, that is basically what he's saying. You come up to the last of verse 14, and he says, My name is dreadful, feared, honored among the heathen, among the Gentiles, among the pagans. And he says in this 11th verse again, he said,

My name is great among the heathen, and Gentiles in every place are offering incense unto my name. Does that mean that God really is pleased with the offering of a pagan? No. God, I think, is being sarcastic. I think here God is exaggerating in order to make a point. I think he's saying an honest crook is better than a dishonest priest.

I think he's saying I'm more pleased with the worship of a pagan than I am the worship of a crooked priest. I'd rather have the worship of a pagan than have your worship. You know better. You know better. The heathen don't know any better.

You know better. And you come and you know all the time what you're doing. You say it is all right to pollute the table of the Lord. I mean, it's perfectly all right. That's what you priests say. I don't have to bring the best. As I was thinking about this last night, I suddenly began to see how all sorts of applications are made to this, that God is often more pleased with the idolatrous worship of a heathen

than he is with my worship as a minister. I don't understand how these priests could be so calloused and so brazen in their wickedness as to come and offer on the holy altar of God a sacrifice that was blemished, something they didn't want anyway, something they wouldn't have anyway. They just give God the leftovers. I mean, after all, if it's for God, you can do it cheaper than that. And these priests would be so bold and so arrogant as to actually

bring a lamb that had been attacked by a wolf, and that's what he means when he says one that is torn. And they would bring that, you know, that's a good lamb to bring to sacrifice because the wolf has killed it anyway, and so we'll bring it and put it on the altar. And God says, I appreciate the incense of a heathen more than that. I believe God is more pleased with the worship this morning of a Hindu or a Buddhist

than he is if I come to this place to preach with an unworthy preparation and an unworthy heart. I believe that when a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ feels that he can be mediocre in his praying and in his studying, and he doesn't give the time that he knows he ought to give to deepen his own spiritual life and to dig into the Word and to wait upon the Lord, he can get by with anything. He'll get a snappy sermon starter book,

and on Saturday night he'll find a sermon outline, and he'll go through it, get rid of that, and then he can do the rest of the week the things that he wants to do. I think God is more pleased with the worship of a pagan than he is with the preaching of that kind of man. I think God is more pleased with the worship of a pagan than he is with some of the sacrifices you and I bring to the Lord. We come half-hearted. Our attendance is half-hearted. Our praying is half-hearted. Our giving is half-hearted. We meticulously figure out exactly how much is 10% if we're tithing at all, and we want to make certain we do not give a dime more.

And we sit in the service and we say to ourselves, Oh, what a weariness it is, but I'm going through the motions. I'm doing what's expected of me. God says that is an unworthy sacrifice. That is an unworthy sacrifice. That is an unworthy sacrifice. I have an idea. I really believe this. And I think I have a right set because I am one. But I believe that there are some ministers and some church staff members who, if they were working in the world, would be fired if they do no better than they do in the church. I remember Dr. Curtis Vaughn telling Carson Seminary years ago,

if you want to be lazy, the best place to do it is in church. He said, if you have an inclination to be lazy and slothful, he said, the pastorate is the place for you. The point he was making is that in the pastorate, in the ministry of the Lord, you have to worry, you have to watch yourself, because you do not punch a clock. You can lay down on the couch in your study and sleep all afternoon and tell the people you're praying. You can go out on the bus course and spend all day and tell people you're out on the field, and nobody questions you, nobody questions it.

I think sometimes we ministers and we staff members are so half-hearted and so mediocre and so slothful in our work, so lazy in our work, that we'd be fired if we had a secular job. God says it takes a good offering to beat none at all. A cross hung around the neck is no substitute for one in the heart. So the first thing is this. It takes a good offering to beat none at all. The second statement is this. The acceptability of a gift is determined by the acceptability of the giver. The acceptability of a gift or of worship is determined not by the form of worship,

but by the acceptability of the one who is worshiping. In verses 9 and 10, I think you'll see this, and now I pray you beseech God. Literally what he's saying there is stroke the face of God. And again, he's being sarcastic. He's saying to these priests who are polluted and are polluting the Lord, he says to them, now you had better stroke the face of God, try to curry a favor with him, try to get on his good side

so he'll be gracious unto you, but he's not going to do it. And he said, that's what you do. You go along and live an unworthy life and offer unworthy circumstances, and then every once in a while, when you feel a need for God, you start stroking his face and trying to make up. And he said, it won't work.

And he says, this has been by your means. Will he regard your person? That's what he says. And in verse 10, at the latter part, he says, I have no pleasure in you. He not only has no pleasure in the offering, he has no pleasure in you. Neither will I accept an offering at your hand. You see, while we pollute the table of the Lord with half-hearted and unworthy worship,

first of all, it is polluted because we ourselves are half-hearted and unworthy. The acceptability of any gift is determined by the acceptability of the giver. Over in Matthew chapter 5, you remember when Jesus says, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother has taught against thee, leave thy gift at the altar, go thy way,

and be reconciled unto thy brother, and then come and offer your gift to the Lord. What Jesus is saying, I think, is this. If you come to the time where you preach, or you come to the time where you worship, or you come to the time when you drop your offering envelope into the offering plate, and suddenly you remember that your brother has ought against you he says leave the pulpit walk out of church go somewhere find that brother who is uh angry with you make it right get reconcile him and then you come and offer your worship your gift i always go into a church I'm always interested to see their order of worship.

And I think we have there the order of worship that Jesus has outlined. First is not the prelude or prayer. First of all is get right with your brother. If you're in the very process, is what Jesus is saying, if in the very process of making an offering, preaching a sermon sermon singing a song teaching a class suddenly you remember that your brother has ought against you leave your gift right there I don't want it go your way you get right with your brother then come back I got to thinking about this last night if we did that if every choir member when they walked into the choir loft, if they said, I'm not going into that choir and I'm not going to sing until I am right with everybody,

if the ushers said, I'm not going to usher anybody today until I am right with everybody, if the pastor said, I'm not going to preach today until I am right with everybody, if the Sunday school teachers would say, I'm not going to teach the Bible today until I know I'm right with everybody, I'm convinced that church would not meet for half a year. It would take us that long. If everybody who ought to do that would do that, if we followed the order of worship that Jesus has given to us. The acceptability of any gift is determined by the acceptability of the giver. I pulled out one of the offering envelopes back there a moment ago, budget offering, First Southern Baptist Church. It's interesting about our affection for offering envelopes.

I know in our churches, the first thing we give them is not a handshake. We give them a box of envelopes. And that's all right. We're supposed to put our tithe in there. We're supposed to put our offering in there. The only problem is we, like the people in Malachi's day, thought that all that was necessary was just to put some money into this envelope and seal it and drop it in, and our obligation to the Lord had been fulfilled. Then we walked away with a satisfied heart because we had worshipped God. But you can put money into that envelope, but there's a lot you can't put in there.

Try putting your children in that envelope. Try putting your wife or husband in that envelope. Put your car in that envelope. Put your house in that envelope. Try putting your wife or husband in that envelope. Put your car in that envelope. Put your house in that envelope. Put your savings in that envelope. Put yourself in that envelope. You see, there's just so much you can put in an envelope. You can't put everything that needs to be put on the altar in an offering envelope.

It has to be you, the person. And when God listens to me preach, I don't think he's looking to see if I'm homiletical, first of all, or theologically correct, first of all. I think he's looking into my heart to see if I'm acceptable. And I know this, that if God looks into my heart and sees that I personally, in my heart,

is not acceptable, it doesn't matter how eloquent or how profound I might be, God says, that's a lousy sermon. You may as well not have ever preached it. Then better had you not sung. God searches my heart. And you can't buy off God. The third statement and final one is this. Our sacrifice

is our estimate of God. I tried to figure a better way to say that, but I couldn't. Whatever we bring to God is a reflection of what we think of God. A little years ago when my brother first went to Baylor University, my parents and I went down there to visit him, and we went through the Robert Browning Museum or Library there on the campus at Baylor University. And in part of that building, they had some souvenirs or antiques or some things that had belonged to Robert Browning. And I noticed in a glass case there was something strange laying there, and I couldn't see what it was.

And I got up real close, and then I read the card underneath it. It was a lock of Robert Browning's hair, white, and had a band around it. And I thought, that's interesting. They have preserved, and they've got guards around here guarding a lock of Robert Browning's hair. How to go and buy an automobile with that? Try to put that in a bank. I mean, it's not worth anything, is it, a lock of hair? They didn't want a lock of my hair. If I sent them a lock of my hair and say I'm going to make this contribution to posterity and I want you to build a building put a lock of hair

and also I sent a piece of fingernail also just to get the upper hand on Robert Browning I don't think they'd accept it. What was so important what was so valuable about that lock of hair? It wasn't the lock of hair, it was who it belonged to. It was Robert Broning's lock of hair. The person who owns it, the person who possesses it,

he is the one who gives value to any possession. A possession only reflects the value of the possessor. That's why some people drive Rolls Royces and some people drive Volkswagens. What you drive or what kind of house you live in oftentimes may reflect how well off you are financially. And what God is saying in these words is that your offering is an estimate of what you think of me. That's why he said in that ninth verse, I believe it was, go and offer that to your governor. The same offering that you bring to me, try that on your governor. Would you give that to your governor? Of course not. Would you offer that to a friend? Of course not. Do

you think they would accept you and be pleased if you offered that kind? Whatever you bring to the altar in service and prayer and giving is a reflection of how valuable I think God is. When he says, where is my honor, he uses the same word that is translated glory and I remember some time ago when I tried to trace back that word and find out exactly what that meant I discovered that originally the word meant weight or something that was heavy and this word honor it's the word for glory, translated glory in other places, and the root meaning of that word is weight or the heaviness of something. So the honor of God, the glory of God, is really the weight of God. In other words, God's glory is how much he weighs. The glory of God is in how much he weighs.

And I had a hard time understanding that because nowadays our glory is in how much we don't weigh. But God's glory is in how much he weighs. I couldn't understand that. And then I thought of something. My wife gave me this beautiful gold bracelet some time ago. It's insured because it's worth something. And I've got a gold ring with some diamonds that she gave me also. And I've got a gold watch. I don't know where she also. And I've got a gold watch. I don't know where she's getting all the money to buy these things. But it's a gold watch. I have the ring insured.

I have the watch insured. Now, why do I do that? Well, the glory of gold isn't how much it weighs. 24 carats is a lot more glorious than 14 carats. The glory of a diamond is in how much it weighs. A one carat diamond is worth more than a half carat diamond in how much it weighs. Now, see, you and I, we highly value gold. We pay astronomical sums for it, and we have it polished and cared for and we insure it and we lock it up in safety deposit boxes when we're not using it.

The amazing thing is that up in heaven they use gold for asphalt. That's right. They paved the streets of glory with gold. If I were to show up at the gates of heaven and say, Oh, listen, by the way, I brought my bracelet and my watch and my ring, I am sure that St. Peter would say, Good, we've got a few potholes we need to fill up. What we wear here on earth, they walk on in heaven. So the way I live, the way I preach, the way I deal with other people, the way I treat my wife, the way I treat others, is all determined by how valuable I think God is. And the more precious and the more valuable God is to me, the more God-like I am in my living.

How do you cure sleepiness and drowsiness in church? How do you make living for Christ, serving him? And it does get monotonous sometimes. But how do you keep excited about it? I'll tell you how to do it. Do you want to suddenly be excited about coming to church? Do you want to suddenly be excited and anticipating the service beginning? I'll tell you how.

You give a worthy offering, and then you will be excited. What I'm trying to say is I guarantee you that Abraham was not bored on Mount Moriah. As he laid Isaac on the altar and raised the dagger to kill him, I guarantee you Abraham was not bored or sleepy. He was excited.

He was anxious. He was alive. Why? He had excited. He was anxious. He was alive. Why? He had something worthy on the altar. Why is it that we don't get more excited about church? I'll tell you what, if you put more money into it and more time into it,

you'll be excited about it. This is the fifth year that Jamelle has had this Bible conference. I was here the first year. I guess it would be exaggerating to say we might have had at least a hundred there, probably. I met in that old auditorium downtown. Yeah, about thirty. We had more speakers than we had listeners. It was embarrassing. I was. I was hoping nobody would see me here. But it was a great meeting. I mean, the Spirit and the way the Lord blessed

it was great. I really thought Jamal would give it up. He'd been talking about doing that for years. I've known him for years. He'd been talking about doing something like this. And he finally did it, and it was such a flop. It seemed, because of the attendance and such as that, I thought he'd give it up. I mentioned to Kay the other day, I said, I'm surprised. You know, I never thought Jim and I would go past that person. But every year he just kept on stubborn, stubborn, stubborn. And I want to tell you something. He is like an old maid about this conference. I mean, listen, you can insult his mother or his brother, but you don't say anything negative about this conference.

And we may get tired of being here and wonder why in the world is he up there saying, listen, we're not in a hurry. We're going to take all the time we want to. We're not in a hurry. We're going to take all the time we want to. We're not in a hurry. And we're back there anxious to get out of here, get something to eat, get some rest. Why in the world is he so bulldog stubborn about this thing? I'll tell you why. Because he hawks his life and everything he has every time he finances this company. Exactly what he does. I'll tell you something, when you mortgage

your car and mortgage your home and mortgage your mother and everything else in order to have a conference, you're going to be excited about what's happening. You put something worthy into it, and it'll be worth having. So I think it would be safe to say that my attitude towards the ministry, my attitude towards worship, my attitude towards the Word of God says something. It says how much I think God is worthy. And it's a reflection of the offering and the sacrifice that I have laid on His altar. You make a worthy sacrifice, and it will cure you of evil. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification,

not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. Thank you.