Thank you very much indeed for your welcome and the opportunity of being with you. I'm using this microphone if you can't hear or want to hear, wave of Paul because I can easily speak up.
! I feel I've had lots of links with you here, not the least friendship with Paul, but recently I've been in Singapore and Andrew Leung was there, greatly enjoyed his time with you.
And last night I was staying in a student house up in York and one of the students there goes to St Nicholas Seveneights where Paul often does a youth camp with them.
And this student imitated Paul perfectly. Wonderful Welsh accent, so I felt I was prepared and ready to be with you.
I hope this is going to be encouraging. You probably know the story of the elderly couple, the alarm went off and the wife got up to make the tea and as she passed the mirror, she looked in the mirror and said,
Oh dear, I'm so grey, I've got lots of lines, I've got bags under my eyes, I've got several chins.
And she turned to her husband and said, Can't you say something encouraging?
Nothing wrong with your eyesight, he said.
I hope you've got Malachi open. I've been walking out with Malachi for a few months, we're not yet an item but we're getting to know one another.
And greatly helped by a very new commentary in the Bible Speaks Today series, which I want to warmly commend.
The background is the year 460 BC, Malachi is the last of the prophets and is a natural bridge into the New Testament.
He wasn't the last book in the Hebrew Bible, that was Chronicles.
But in our Christian Bibles he's the last one.
And the situation is that people are fairly jaded, as you'll see.
And there are a whole series of disputations.
So look with me, chapter 1, verse 1,
I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say, how have you loved us?
And chapter 1, verse 6,
Where is my fear, says the Lord of hosts, O priest who despised my name?
But you say, how have we despised your name?
Chapter 2, verse 17, the same sort of thing happens.
You have wearied the Lord with your words, but you say, how have we wearied him?
By saying, everyone who does evil is good, in the sight of God, and so on.
Go into chapter 3, verse 7 and 8.
So all these disputations.
Now I know that we are in Ealing, and not in Jerusalem.
And I know that most of us probably are Gentiles, not Jews.
So there's not an exactly comparable priesthood,
as we're speaking about Levi.
And yet one of the things we discovered at the Reformation,
was the priesthood of all believers.
So I think we can learn much from this.
And there's a certain amount that is negative here.
A very strong language used in chapter 2, verse 3.
There was a very rude, outspoken, but wonderful evangelist called Donald Barnhouse.
And he was doing a mission in Cambridge in 1947, I think it was.
And he was due to speak at the girls' college, Girton.
And he was asked what his text was going to be.
And it was going to be Malachi chapter 2, verse 3.
I will spread dung on your faces.
Which was slightly alarming for the young ladies there.
But anyway, that's the way he approached things.
So there's a lot here that is quite strong.
And in a sense, negative.
But I want to major on the positives,
with contrast with the negatives.
And here's the first thing.
The Christian believer,
the Christian believer,
and I've got lots of x-ray eyes,
so there may be some here who are still exploring and investigating.
But the Christian believer must listen to the voice of God.
Chapter 2, verse 2.
If you will not listen,
you will not take it to heart.
You will not listen.
We can't speak for the Lord Jesus
unless we first listen and heard.
Do you remember the miracle of the healing of the man
who was deaf and dumb?
Some people who've got a serious hearing impediment
don't speak clearly.
Because they've never heard people speak clearly.
And we won't speak clearly
unless we've heard clearly.
And the trouble with these people
is that they were not listening to God's word.
And the result of that
was they caused many people to stumble.
Look on to verse 8.
You have turned aside from the way.
You've caused many to stumble by your instruction.
Because you've got to listen first.
And you know that there's one thing worse than being a sinner.
It's being a stumbling block.
So Jesus said that if anybody causes little ones to stumble,
it would be better for a millstone to be turned round to their neck
and were thrown into the sea.
And this is what was happening with some of them.
They were not listening.
And therefore they caused people to stumble.
And probably they showed partiality.
Look at verse 9.
That is, they cherished bits
that they liked and disregarded other things.
And when Paul says goodbye to the Ephesian elders,
he said, I preach the whole counsel of God.
There was a distinguished theologian,
Reinhold Niebuhr,
who characterized liberal teaching in this way.
He said, the liberals talk about a God without wrath,
bringing man without sin
into a kingdom without judgment
through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.
Very shrewd.
And that is people showing partiality.
They're not talking about the fact that God is a God of holy wrath.
They play down the fact that we are sinners,
and depraved, and guilty.
They say that there's going to be no judgment.
We're all going to be alright in the end.
And therefore the death of the Lord Jesus is irrelevant.
Those are the people all around us, I'm afraid.
Especially in the Church of England.
For showing partiality.
There was a good American bishop.
One, literally.
And he wrote a book with this brilliant title,
The Cruelty of Heresy.
You see, the truth of the Gospel is to liberate,
to set free, it's wonderful.
And to deviate from that is very, very cruel indeed.
So, what the Christian believers do,
is first of all to listen to God's word.
Make sure that what they're going to say
is in accord with God's word.
Now, I don't know what some of you senior people feel,
as I do.
There's been a decline, I think, recently,
in the habit of daily quiet times.
I think 30, 40 years ago,
it was axiomatic for all key Christians
to be having a good half hour or more than that
before they went off to work.
Obviously, mothers looking after young children
couldn't face that,
and they mustn't be put under a feeling of guilt.
But I get the impression that that's declined.
And there's a wonderful senior Christian statesman,
Alec Mateer,
who quoted to himself,
Isaiah 50, verse 4.
He's in his 90s now.
But this is the verse that hit him.
The Lord has given me the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with the word
him who is weary.
Morning by morning,
he awakens me.
He awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.
And what Malachi is saying,
look,
some of you folk are not listening to God.
They're not listening to his word.
Whereas Isaiah says,
look, if you're going to pass on anything true,
you must listen to his word.
And of course,
the glorious truth is,
that we'll never be closer to the Lord Jesus,
than when we're reading the Bible.
Never closer to the Lord Jesus,
than when we've got our Bibles open,
and we're hearing his word to us.
So that's the first positive.
The Christian believer must listen to the voice of God.
Some of them weren't doing that.
Secondly,
the Christian believer must honour,
glorify God's name.
And what we discover is that
some of these people were despising his name.
Chapter 1, verse 6.
A son honours his father,
and a servant his master.
If I then am a father,
where is my honour?
I am a master.
Where is my fear?
Says the Lord of hosts.
To you, O priests,
who despise my name.
And again,
in chapter 2, verse 2.
If you will not listen,
if you will not take it out,
to give honour to my name.
And the lack of reverence for his name,
was shown in sort of shoddy public worship.
They were offering knackered animals in the temple.
They were giving their loose change to God.
And he says,
well you wouldn't do that for your boss.
Look at chapter 1, verse 8.
Present that to your governor.
Some churches suffer from
what we call the
tyranny of the volunteer.
That is,
when it comes to their paid employment,
they arrive on time,
absolutely regular and so on and so forth.
But when it comes to things
they volunteer to do for their church,
the honour rata,
well,
they feel they could arrive late
and not sort of do it particularly efficiently.
And that is what's happening here.
They were shoddy in their public worship.
Whereas Levi, by contrast,
was completely different.
Chapter 2, verse 5.
My covenant with him was one of life and peace.
I gave him to him.
It was a covenant of fear.
And he feared me.
The Lord Jesus once said,
his people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
And I think that describes some of the people
in Malachi's day.
Now, I don't know what your reaction has been
over the last ten days
with what happened in Paris.
I mean,
that form of violence
is absolutely horrendous.
And we distance ourselves from it in every way.
But,
it's just striking that they
don't like their prophet
being insulted.
Now, the way they reacted to that,
I think, is horrendous.
But have we got the same concern
for his name,
his honour?
I wonder whether we feel
as offended as we should
when his name is just used
to blasphemy
and trips off people's tongues
like that.
This concern for the honour of God
comes throughout the Bible.
Back in Ezekiel 36,
turn to it.
Ezekiel has,
well, God speaks to Ezekiel
and says,
look,
the way you've behaved
has meant that you've gone into exile
and people are saying,
what sort of God have you got?
If he can't keep you safely
in your own land
and you've gone off into exile,
he must be a rather feeble God.
And so,
God's name was being dishonoured
in that way.
The same thing may be happening here.
I personally think
the nation
is under judgment
and the Church of England
is under judgment
because his name is not honoured
and glorified.
Do you remember Psalm 23?
He leads me
in paths of righteousness.
Why?
For his name's sake.
So that his name
is not dishonoured
in any way.
Hallowed be thy name.
And intriguingly,
the first reason
why the Lord Jesus
had to die
was to vindicate
God's honour.
This is Romans 3, 25 and 26.
See,
the spectacle
that confronted
the whole of the moral
universe
was a scandal.
God had said
that he hated sin
and would punish it.
And yet,
Abraham,
a liar,
Moses who lost his temper,
David who was an adulterer,
Jacob who was a cheat,
they all get accepted
by God.
And what did God
mean then?
He said that he hated sin
and would punish it.
And therefore his name
and his honour
had to be vindicated.
And it was vindicated
by the Lord Jesus
dying
and the punishment
due to Abraham,
Moses,
Jacob and the others,
was paid for
by the Lord Jesus.
And so his honour
was vindicated.
So the debt
of the Lord Jesus
works backwards
and forwards for us.
And God can only
accept us honourably
because the Lord Jesus
died for us.
That is a wonderful
truth, isn't it?
Just to think
that if you had been
the only sinner
in the world,
the Lord Jesus
would have died for you
for his name's sake.
So he's very concerned
that people should
honour his name.
And many of you
like me will
revere
the memory
of John Stott.
John Stott said
that verse 2
of chapter 2
was a defining moment
for his ministry
when he set his heart
to honour
God's name.
Take it to heart,
not to let honour
come to his own
funny little name,
but to give honour
to God's name.
A crucial clarification
of the goal
and objective
of his life.
To bring honour
to God's name.
Now, I don't know
whether you noticed it.
Did you notice
how God is called
in our passage?
It's there in
chapter 1
verse 7,
it's there in
chapter 1
verse 8,
verse 10,
verse 11,
and on and on and on.
It's the Lord of hosts.
Have you pondered
on that?
What was the state
of Judah
at the time?
They were a subject
nation,
they were still part
of the Persian
empire.
The Persians
had failed
to get into Europe.
They had
attacked Greece.
Athens
was evacuated
twice.
If Athens
had been captured
by the Persians,
the whole of
Western civilisation
would have been
completely different.
but they were beaten.
But they still
occupied the
eastern Mediterranean.
And Judah
was a subject
nation
and it had
no army.
But their God
was the Lord
of hosts.
What a terrific
thought for them
when they felt,
you know,
we are a despised
subject nation.
Ah, but our God
is the Lord of hosts.
Do you remember
how Elijah had
to say to the
young man
who was all
frightened
because the
opposition seemed
so great?
Open the young
man's eyes
that he might
see.
Saw the mountains
filled with
the hosts
of the Lord
God.
And this is
the reminder
of who their
God is,
the Lord
of hosts.
And therefore
honour him.
Honour him.
Henry Martin,
that great
missionary.
There was an
occasion when
he was in a
Persian court
or something
and there
was a picture
of the
Lord Jesus
kneeling
before
Mohammed.
And
Henry Martin
said he was
so grieved
and outraged
at this,
felt he couldn't
live for another
moment without
wanting Jesus'
name to be
honoured.
And this is
the second mark.
A Christian
believer must
honour and
glorify God's
name.
And we
read in Acts
again and again
that as people
became Christians,
they gave honour
to his name
and lived in fear.
So as we're
taking notes,
you might like
to jot down
Acts chapter
9 verse
31 where
we read
So the
church throughout
all Judea and
Galilee and
Samaria had
peace and was
being built up
and walking
in the fear
of the Lord
and in the
comfort of
the Holy
Spirit.
Multiply.
The fear of
the Lord.
Practically I
think that means
daily repentance,
just acknowledging
that I'm a
sinner and
keeping short
accounts and
being full of
praise and
thanksgiving and
honouring him.
You know the
story of praying
Hyde,
missionary in
India.
Obviously it's
fairly quaint,
but he felt the
Lord was laying
on him the
idea of leading
one person to
Christ every
day.
And he began
doing that.
And day by
day somebody
was converted.
And at the
end of the
year there
were 365
people converted.
And next
year he
felt he
to lead
two people
to Christ
every day.
And that
began to
happen.
And then
there were
some days
where he
didn't get
his quota.
And he'd
flop on his
knees and
he'd ask what
sin he'd been
committing that
had stopped
him being used.
And again
and again it
was the sin
of not praising
and thanking
God.
And one of
the secrets of
humility is to
be constantly
thanking God
and therefore
honouring him.
For all that
he's done.
All the
promises that
he's kept
for us.
So the
Christian
believer must
listen to
God's word.
Must honour
and glorify
God's name.
And then
very obviously
the Christian
believer must
be marked
by holy
living.
And with
the folk at
Malachi's day
initially it
doesn't seem
to be so much
gross immorality.
There's a touch
of that in
chapter 3.
but this
lukewarmness
this
stinginess
this infidelity
it comes to
and probably
sins of
omission
not doing
as much
as they
should.
And you
remember the
old saying
it's not
great gifts
that God
uses
but great
likeness
to Jesus.
And therefore
we've got this
wonderful example
of Levi
in verse 6.
True instruction
was in his
mouth
no wrong
was found
on it.
He walked
with me
in peace
and uprightness.
He turned
many from
iniquity.
You're probably
well aware
that in
the pastoral
epistles
when Paul
is giving
instructions
to Timothy
the one
non-moral
characteristic
that Timothy
had to have
was being
apt to teach.
But all the
other qualities
were just
basic Christian
qualities.
Put negatively
he had to
have money
sex
temper
alcohol
under control.
And that's
the things
for us as
well.
I suspect
that few
generations
future generations
will look back
at us and
just see how
very very
wealthy we
are.
And there
will just be
friends who
come from
India.
spent time
here just
slightly amazed
at how
comfortably
off we
are.
And once
there's
nothing wrong
with it.
God's
made all
things
richly
to enjoy.
But are
we as
generous
as we
should be?
I know
that
Philip
Jensen
back in
Australia
feels that
money,
materialism
is probably
the biggest
problem for
young pastors
there.
So that would
be an area
to get under
control.
Sex
obviously.
I've just
been on a
student
conference
and there
was one
very helpful
talk on
digital stuff.
Now this
bypasses me
because I
haven't got
it, I
haven't even
got a
mobile
phone.
But in
the little
group that
I was
with it
was very
interesting
how honest
some of the
students were
about the
problems with
the internet
and so on.
That's an
area.
And what
price purity
said one of
them.
If it
costs a bit
to be on
covenant eyes,
well it's
worth it.
If it's
going to
help me
to be
pure.
Temper.
We read
of some
of our
politicians
being in
a rage
about things
and that
we can't
do that.
And simply
alcohol.
Till 1967
in evangelical
circles we
were pretty
well all
teetotal.
And then
almost overnight
people stopped
being teetotal.
And I
don't think
the Bible
enjoins that
but there's
no doubt
that some
people, I
remember a
very distinguished
senior
evangelical
leader
staying with
me.
He'd been
at dinner
and I
had to
help him
up the
stairs because
he'd just
drunk a bit
too much.
And another
missionary friend
of mine
told me that
on the
mission field
one night
he'd drunk
and he wasn't
quite sure
what he'd
done, had
he slept
with a
girl or
not.
So there
is that
danger.
And what
Malachi is
saying is
that the
Christian
leader,
teacher,
but every
Christian
must be
marked by
holy living.
And this
is a lovely
example that we
read often
of Levi.
He walked
with me in
peace and
uprightness.
I think a
particular problem
for men,
where we
tend to be
slow to
admit it,
is,
according to
scripture,
quarrelsomeness.
And the
mark of Levi
was he walked
with in
peace and
uprightness.
Uprightness.
A dear
friend of
mine, now
in glory,
he was a
very distinguished
scholar,
got a first
in classics
at Cambridge.
He was a
great athlete.
I think he
has a record
that's filled
in wisdom
at the fastest
opening century
in minor
counter cricket.
He was
headmaster of
two different
schools.
When he
retired, he
did a second
degree in
maths at
the open
university.
He had a
lovely family,
a great
Christian man.
And it was
said of him,
his life could
bear inspection
at every point,
on the
capes field,
at work,
in the
family.
And that was
the sort of
life that
Levi lived.
And that the
Christian is
to aspire to
a consistency
of life and
living.
So, there is
quite a lot
in Malachi to
challenge us
and to
rebuke us.
But I'm
really anxious
that we should
look at the
positives.
The Christian
believer,
must listen
to the
voice of
God.
If you
will not
listen, he
says, chapter
two, verse
two.
And here
he's spoken,
God has
spoken, we've
got it in
front of us.
God has
said all he
needs to
say in
this book.
Let's
renew our
determination to
come and hear
him through
his word.
The Christian
believer must
be concerned
for his
honour and
glory.
And
therefore,
feeling very
grieved at
what is
happening in
our country
today.
The standards
that are
plummeting,
the way the
name of the
Lord Jesus
is tossed
out so
irreverently.
Whereas we
want his
name to be
honoured, to
be glorified
in our
lives.
Paul was
able to say
they glorified
God in
me, in
our church,
in our
land.
And the
Christian
believer must
live a life
consistent with
the standards
of God.
Take away
the love
of sin.
Remind me
of your
standards,
Lord.
Help me to
live accordingly
so that I
reflect the
Lord Jesus
and become
more like
him day
by day.
Let's pray
together.