The worship of God | Eric Mtimkulu

With me to the book of Malachi and Malachi chapter 1, and we'll

Malachi 1 · chapter mention

begin reading from verse 6. Malachi chapter 1 and we begin

Malachi 1 · chapter mention

reading from verse 6. As the Son honors his Father and

a servant his master. If then I am Father, where is my

honour? And if I am a master, where is

my fear? Says the Lord of hosts to you,

oh, priests who despise my name. But but you say, How have we

despised your name? By offering polluted food upon

my altar? But you say, How have we

polluted you by saying that the Lord's table may be despised?

When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil?

And when you offer those who are lame or sick, is that not evil?

Present that to your governor, will he accept you or show you

favour, says the Lord of Hosts. And now, and plead the favour of

God, that he may be gracious to you.

With such a gift from your hand, will he show favour to any of

you, says the Lord of Hosts? Oh, that there were one among

you who would shut the door, that you that you might not

Kindle Fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you, says

the Lord of Hosts. I will not accept an offering

from your hand, for from the rising of the sun to its setting

my name will be great among the nations.

And in every place insects will be offered to my name.

And a pure offering for my name will be great among the nations,

says the Lord of Hosts. But you profane it when you say

that the Lord's table is polluted, and its fruits, that

is, its food, may be despised. But you say, What willingness is

this? And just not at it, says the

Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by

violence, or is lame, or is sick, and this you bring as your

offering. Shall I accept that from your

hand, says the Lord. Curse B the cheat who has a male

in his flock and vows it, and yet sacrifices the Lord.

Do what is blemished for. I am a great king, says the Lord

of hosts, and my name would be feared among the nations.

Oh our gracious Lord, we we feel the weight of these words,

because indeed, oh God, they are weighty.

I pray that common ground Weinberg would also feel the

weight of these words so that we may be a church that honours

you. And so we ask, Lordy, that you

will bless your word this morning.

Speak to us, we ask. Amen.

For those of you who were here last week, you would have heard

the excellent introduction from Hillary with regards to the

context of this book and the messages that we ought to learn

from this book and the charges that the Lord brings before His

people. But as we read from verse 6, it

becomes very difficult and perhaps sobering for us to

consider that the Lord is not pleased with His own people.

God is not pleased with the people of Israel, and we would

see what are the reasons why God is not pleased.

But I want to say as I begin this message that what we do in

worship and how we do it matters to God.

What we do in worship and how we worship matters to God.

As we were going to see from verse 6 to verse 14.

One of the commandments that the Lord had given was love the Lord

your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all

your mind. The life that we live as those

who are made in the image of God, created by God.

We live lives that are to give honour and glory to God alone.

The life of a believer is a life that ascribes glory to God and

to no one else. I want you to think of the day

in which you came to faith, but the day you got saved.

Think of the next day. Think perhaps a couple of weeks

after you got saved. You think about the joy that

filled your soul and filled your life.

Think about how many times you were reading the Bible when you

first became a Christian. Think about how many times you

prayed a day when you became a Christian.

There was a sense of joy, that sense of peace that I want to

know the Lord. But perhaps as time went by, you

are no longer praying once a day.

You are praying once a week from once to a week.

Perhaps it moved to once a month.

You loved the preaching, then perhaps you loved the sermons.

But as time went by, you often think, when will the preacher

finish? And I just go home.

There is danger in familiarity because often it breathes.

It breathes contempt, as we're going to see here in the people

of God. That's so as we read this and as

we think about these priests, I don't want us to think about

this priest and say, oh, it was just them.

This happened to them, but it also happens to us now.

The people of God at this point in time, as Hillary has

explained last week, they are waiting for the promises of God

because God has promised His people something and, and now

they are of course have been set free from the period of exile in

Babylon. They are waiting for God to

fulfill his promises to them. They are waiting for a good day.

And so when Haggai prophesized and says, I will shake all

nations, and what is desired by the nations will come, I will

fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty.

The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory

of the former house, says the Lord Almighty, and this place

will grant peace, declares the Lord.

Zechariah also prophesying this during the the building of the

temple, writes the following. This is what the Lord Almighty

says. I will save my people from the

countries of the East and the West.

I will bring them back and leave in Jerusalem.

They will be my people and I will be faithful and righteous

to them as they are God, the people of Israel.

They understood that God had promise them that something will

come, the justice of God will be fulfilled, the king is coming

and yet they are facing poverty, they are facing injustice.

At this moment, no no longer in exile and thinking shortly,

things should be going well for us now because the temple has

been rebuilt, the temple has been restored, the priests are

serving at the altar. They are there offering

sacrifices to the Lord. All of this has been

reinstituted by the Lord. They then begin to wonder, when

will the Lord fulfil His promises among us, if the glory

of this new house will be mightier than the former?

And well will the Lord do that. Something has said happens among

the priest during this time. As you can see from the weighty

of the words from verse 6, they continue to offer sacrifices

daily to the Lord. But as they offered those

sacrifices, the ministry of sacrificing to the Lord became

boring. The ministry of offering

sacrifices was cold and was lifeless.

They were taking the Lord's name in vain.

The temple service became dull and Malachi is rebuking the

people of God. They come in day in and day out

to offer, and yet their hearts are far away from God.

And God says to them, I am not pleased with you.

He says in chapter 2, verse 9, So I have caused you to be

despised and humiliated before all people because you have not

followed my ways, but you have shown partiality in all matters

of the law. God again, is continually

reminding his people that your behaviour is not according to my

standard, nor is your behaviour according to my law.

The manner in which you worship is not the way I've called you

to worship me. The imagery of sacrifices.

The apostle Paul borders that from the Old Testament to use it

in the New Testament as well. In Roman 12 verse one says

Therefore, I urge you as brothers and sisters, in the

view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living

sacrifice is holy and pleasing to God.

This is true and proper worship, the Apostle Paul borrowing this

language to show a priestly service that believers are to

the Lord. But the difference is believers

are not a dead sacrifice, rather they are a living sacrifice,

similar thing to the right of Hebrews chapter 1315 and 16

through Jesus Christ. Therefore, let us continually to

offer to God a sacrifice of praise the the fruit of his

lives that openly profess His name, and do not forget to do

good and to share with others. For such sacrifices God is

pleased. This language borrowed from the

Old Testament. Paul uses it in the New

Testament to remind believers as well that our praise to God, our

Thanksgiving to God, our generosity to others is

described in the text as all sacrifices.

The Christian life is priestly and and often we may wonder why

we don't indulge in things that we think rather the world is

indulging in why we don't, why we don't get drunk while we

avoid the sexual last and all of these things.

The reason is because we have surrendered ourselves to the

Lord as a living sacrifice. The life we live in this world,

we live before the presence of God.

We live it before Koramdeo, we live it before God every day,

offering sacrifices to him. With that in mind, let's look at

point #1 God's complaint against the priest for defiled offering.

God is has given charge to the priest to lead the sanctuary, to

lead the worship. They were the agents of

sacrifices. They were the ones who were to

do the atonement. God had given them something

very special. Not only that, they were also

responsible to instruct the Israelites on the law of God and

how to worship as a community. The priests were commanded and

called by God to defend the very holiness of God, and yet it is

the priest here who defile God. They were to speak the blessing

of God over His people. As we can see from #624 to 26.

They were the ones who spoke a blessing.

But instead of respecting God, instead of honouring God like a

Father, they show him no reverence.

And God is not pleased, for he says to them, But you ask, how

have we defined you? And the Lord says, by offering

defied food on my altar. God responds to them.

In other words, as the priest you, you knew what you had to

do. God told the priest what they

had to do when they go to the Lord's altar, when they go to

the Lord's table, because the altar belong to God, at the

table also belong to God. He told them what they ought not

to do, and yet the priest did the opposite of that.

They were going in every single day to the altar.

They were worshipping and offering sacrifices, and yet

inwardly it meant nothing. It was simply a performance that

was visible outwardly. They failed to honour him.

They failed to fear him. And I think this effect should

it should inform our thoughts about worshipping God.

Church, we do not design how God ought to be worshipped.

Church, we don't have to sort of write about how we ought to be

worshipping God. God told his people how he wants

to be worshipped. We don't try to invent a new way

of worshipping God. We simply have to follow what

God has already written to us and for our good we don't add in

worshipping God. And so when they come before

God, they are bringing these sacrifices before God.

And God does not like what they are bringing.

Notice the list of things that they are bringing before God.

They are bringing weakest animals with broken legs.

And as you know from Leviticus chapter 22 verse 20, it says do

Leviticus 22:20

not bring anything with defect because it will not be accepted

on your behalf. Do not offer to the Lord a

blind, the injured or the running source.

Do not place any of these on the altar.

Earth, food offering presented to the Lord.

What do the priests do? They do the opposite of this.

They bring the deceased animals and those with broken legs.

And yet God have told them you don't bring blemished animals to

the altar. Only that which is perfect can

be acceptable. Ediomi puts it this way in his

commentary. He says these priests offer to

the Lord animals that it would have been an insult to give to

any human ruler their actions, so that they neither fear God

nor Revere God. Instead of giving God the best,

they gave God the worst. And these are priests who know

how God ought to be worshipped, who know much about sacrifice,

and yet they give God. They are worse.

And God says what you are giving to me, you cannot even give to

your human ruler what you are giving to me.

You cannot give to a patient official what you are giving to

me. You cannot give to any leader.

And yet you give me this that you cannot give to a president.

It shows the state of Israel, but also the hearts of Israel.

And therefore the question is it, doesn't he deserve more?

Surely the priest knew that, that this is the King of kings

and the Lord of Lords and the Creator of the universe.

Surely he should be given more. And yet in their worship they

give him leftovers. God does not accept false

worship. No matter how beautiful or

attractive it may look, if it dishonours God, it will never be

accepted. They did not stop offering.

They continue to offer even in their disobedience.

And God says I don't want this. You are not giving me your best,

for I will not accept false worship.

Now, now, this is important. The reason the Old Testament

system is so important for us to understand because it is a

picture, it is a shadow of Christ.

In other words, God saying, give me the best, bring the best to

the outer. Why?

Because I am going to give you the best, and the best is my

son, who will be the ultimate sacrifice for your salvation and

deliverance. That's the picture, that what

I'm going to give you is going to be perfect without blemish,

without sin. It will be Picard.

Use that phrase. It will be glorious, what I'm

going to give you. But then why do you give me

animals like this? The apostle Peter in fact

highlights this wonderfully. He says, knowing that you were

ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,

not with perishable things such as silver, gold, listen to verse

19, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb,

without blemish or spot. What a glorious picture and the

and the priest, they've missed it completely.

Now you would think this priest would come before God in

repentance. You would think that would come

before God and says God, we know that you are right and we are

wrong. What do they do when God brings

a charge against them? They respond.

They do not respond with humility.

They do not respond with self examination, not at all.

In fact, they are shocked that God is not pleased with their

worship. It's that God is unfair.

Surely God, you are unfair. How can you not be pleased with

our worship? And God would remind them,

because what you are giving me is not what I have required.

We must be careful to think worship is about us.

Worship is not about my preferences, my feelings, my

comfort. Worship ultimately is about God

because he is a jealous God. Worship me alone and no other

gods. And often this is what we are

all guilty of. At times we can worship God

wrongly instead of doing that which of the Lord has prescribed

for us to do. We must worship God, God's way,

not our own design, rather what He ascribes for us to do.

And often when we think about worship, we think about just the

people sitting here and we playing the drums and guitar.

Now when we talk about worship, I'm talking to all of us, For

all of us, our worshippers before God.

There is danger in this kind of worship.

Even for us there is danger because the way in which we

worship and the means of grace God has provided for us to

worship Him. At times.

They can take a back seat, the prayer can take a back seat at

times, the time for devotion can take a back seat at times.

And we can have more time for entertainment or social media.

A bit more time. Maybe today I'll skip church to

watch rugby, whatever the case may be.

So we are too in danger and behave like these priests.

Lord, I won't give you my best. I'll give you crumbs in my

worship. Now notice with me the kind of

offering they're giving to the Lord.

Notice 1. He gives the blind sacrifice.

These are the blind animals, as you had read from Leviticus that

they were not to offer any blind animals because they were with

defect, so they were not supposed to.

And the blind animals can be a representation to us that at

times we can worship God in ignorance.

Church, we are to bring and to be guarded by Scripture in our

worship. We don't innovate, we don't

entertain. We worship God's way #2 they not

only bring the blind, they bring the sick animals.

Is that at times our worship can be lifeless and it can be

joyless. Matthew 1589 says these people

honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from

me. They worship me in vain.

Their teachings are mainly human rules.

We can worship God and yet our hearts and minds being

completely disengaged. It can be a ritual without

affection. We too are in danger.

They are not only blind and sick, but also, it says, the

lame animals, that at times we can allow our minds to be

distracted, our minds to wonder, that when we come to the House

of God we can think about our schedule and think about Monday

and Tuesday and think about many other things.

Instead of our hearts being inflamed by the truth of God as

a sacrifice of praise to our King, we too can be guilty.

They offer to the Lord the blind.

They offer to the Lord the sick. They offer to the Lord the lame.

Now it is important to note, whatever we offer to God, we

don't offer it to merit anything.

We don't offer to God to gain something, we offer to God

because he has been merciful and gracious to us.

Therefore, that kind of a king deserves the best offering, the

one who would come down from heaven to put on flesh as the

Father would offer him. This is my Son whom I am well

pleased, the Father who would say for God so loved the world

that he gave, that God gives his best.

He says, if I've given you that my begotten Son, to die in your

pray for your sin and for your redemption, that's what I'm

giving to you. So you're not offering because

you are meditating something, but you are offering because you

can recognize something. There's a difference.

We recognize what God has offered on our behalf #2 what is

God's response to them? Not as God says to them all that

one of you should would shut the temple door so that you would

not like useless fires on my altar.

I am not pleased with you, says the Lord Almighty.

I will not accept offering from your hand.

I mean, imagine God saying this is OK.

Listen guys. Listen priest, I am tired of

your offerings. This is what I'd like to do.

Let's close the temple. I didn't want anything from the

altar. Let's just shut the temple

because what you are doing is dishonouring to my name.

I rather not have this kind of worship.

There is nothing worse like blasphemous worship.

He says I don't want this kind of worship.

Let's close the doors. Shut it because he says I will

not accept offering from your hand.

Isaiah had a similar thing in Isaiah 1 verse 11 says the

Isaiah 1:11

multitude of your sacrifice is it says to Israel, What are they

to me, says the Lord. I have more than enough of burnt

offerings of Rams and the fat of fattened animals.

I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goes, Oh,

what a statement God is saying. I will not tolerate corrupt

worship or useless worship. It is possible for us to to come

before the a great God, to come before one who is superior, who

is sovereign, who is majestic. It is possible to come before

him and our hearts are far away from him.

It's possible. It is not just this priest that

are not engage asked to we can despise the Lord's name that the

Lord would say let's shut the doors because my name is not

being honoured. One author says the following.

He says I am not pleased with you is the opposite of well

done, a good and faithful servant.

Instead of God saying these words, he's saying to them, I am

not pleased with you. We ought to ask the Lord to be

our delight. We also ask the Lord to search

our hearts. Church, we must be filled with

the wonder of who he is to ascribe worthy and glory to him

alone, for there is no one else who deserves it.

And then he says, it's like God is saying, OK, you're not doing

it. OK, let me just drop this right

in the middle. Let me just say this to you.

From the rising of the sun to its setting.

My name will be great among the nations, and every place

instance will be offered to my name, and a pure offering for my

name will be great among the nations, says the Lord.

God is saying, OK, you may not be doing it the way that you

ought to be doing it, and he says it twice.

There's a repeat in this verse, great among the nations.

Don't miss that, that my name will be great.

And he is saying this thing. There is coming a day where

where worship is not limited to Jerusalem, is not limited to

Israel, but there will come a people who will offer a pure

sacrifice to me from the east and from the where they will

come and offer a sacrifice to me that their prayers will be a, a,

a wonderful aroma to me. They will offer this to me.

They will worship me. They will hallow my name.

God is saying that time will come where my name will be great

among the nations. And can I say common ground,

Weinberg is included on these particular nations, That we will

be a people and a nation that will offer pure sacrifice to

God, that we will be a church that worships and praises God.

I want people to accuse us. I want people to accuse us and

say we just want to accuse them for being more joyful.

We want to accuse them for worship.

That's all because these people know God, love God, and they are

sold out to God. So his name will be great among

the nation from the rising sun to its setting, because Jesus

will die and he will rise again. That from every tribe, from

every nation, from every language, they will come

together and we will all join in that that song in Revelation 5

and Revelation 7 and join in and say he's worthy.

That the church will join and sang.

Lord says my name will be great even when you offer this kind of

useless offerings. But nations will come and they

will worship my name. Oh St.

I pray that Wine Beck will be a worshiping church, not a

worshipping church simply on a Sunday, but the wine beg church

would be a living sacrifice to God.

It will be a worshipping church on the Monday.

You know, in in the marketplace that work at school, at varsity

that we will be living sacrifices wherever we are.

That's my prayer for us because the Lord is great and God says

to them, but you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is

polluted and it's fruit that is food may be despised.

The word glory carries the sense of the heaviness of the weight

of something and in this case God himself.

It is quite sad as you read verse 13 and 14 that the priest,

there's a sense in which the Lord in his rebuke, as you can

see the verse 13 and 12 and 13, there's a sense in which they

are burdensome or they are burdened rather by offering

sacrifices to God. They are wearisome to offer

sacrifices to God. They are tired and to them this

has become distasteful. In fact, 11 version uses quite a

strong word. They translate the word that it

was nuisance. So the worship of God was not

only burdensome, but it was a nuisance to them and having

bringing also bringing wrong sacrifices.

Now investigating not something else.

It did not end there. He says you bring what has been

taken by violence and the word that actually means that they

were offering stolen animals to the Lord.

This is horrible worship and gods like guys who who do you

think I am therefore, and in doing so, they're not repenting

before the Lord. The whole point of offering

something that was good, that was perfect, that was without

blames. The reason for that is because

it has to cost you something as you offer it to the Lord.

They decided to cut corners. Let me take one with one leg,

put it there. The Lord will accept that.

And the Lord says no, I will not accept that.

There is a call to us. I'm nearly there.

There is a call to us to put away unworthy worship.

What's the cause, though, of unworthy worship?

What's the source of a failure to worship the way in which God

ought to be worshipped? I think at times we lose sight

of who God is. I really think so.

He he is the one in Isaiah 6 when the Angel would see and

they say holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

The holy earth is filled with his glory.

The angels don't say holy once multiple times.

We must never lose sight of who God is, and I think sometimes we

do lose sight of who God is. That's the source.

God alone esteems his glory and his name.

Therefore we ought to worship him with a sense of purity.

That Lord, we want to give you what you deserve.

We want to honour you because of who you are.

I want to say when? Often when we have limited view

of who God is from His word, often we will struggle to

worship God the way we ought to. A low view of worship will never

lead to a high view of worship, but a high view of His Word

leads to a high view of worship because you cannot worship 1 You

do not know, but when you know Him through His Word, the way in

which you worship Him completely changes.

Therefore, it is important for us to get a high view of who God

is, His character, His nature, His being.

Now you may feel like maybe Eric is calling us to some willpower.

No, I'm not calling you to some willpower religion.

I'm not saying try harder. That's not the point of this

message to say try, try, try, try.

No, no, no, no. I'm saying to you, get the

vision of the glory of God in the person of Christ.

See His glory, treasure His glory, see Him as exalted, see

Him for who He is. Oh church, let us see Him.

Let us keep in wonder in our worship.

Psalm 29 verse one and two says ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly

beings, ascribe to the Lord of glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name.

Worship the Lord in His spender and holiness.

I want that kind of worship. Finally, verse 14 cursed be the

cheat, who as a male in his floor can evounce it and yet

sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished for?

I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts in my name will be

feared among the nations. In fact, the ESV sort of uses

the word cast be the cheat. The King James is like the

stronger, says the deceiver. The point is simple there God is

saying, if we use the language of our day, you had money to buy

the best sheep or the best goat, whatever it was.

And the Lord says, do you know what you have done?

Instead of choosing the best goat, you went to choose the

old, the one that's flourished. And then you took that one and

you offered it to me. And so you're saying you possess

that which is good, but you decide to offer that which is

inferior. They vowed to give God what is

best, and they did not. The way you feel about worship

is the way you feel about God. The way you treat the worship of

God is the way you feel about God.

This reveals the state of their heart.

Instead of giving God true worship, they gave him the worst

that they were commanded to give.

And can I say to us in closing, the Lord is worthy of our best,

not just our leftovers. We should give Him everything

and nothing less. If we give him anything less, we

are too accused of despising the name of the Lord.

And we can learn from our great King and our great God Jesus

Christ Himself, who is the perfect worshipper, that through

Lamb of God, who offered Himself and poured His blood, raised to

life by the Father and by the Spirit, and that His sacrifice

would satisfy the wrath of God. And so this morning, if you feel

imperfect as you come before Him, don't come in your own

perfection. Come based on His righteousness,

for He alone is the perfect worshiper, and His righteousness

is therefore been accredited to us.

The true worship is that which of the Father seeks, that we

should worship in spirit and in truth.

Which is the reason Jesus came in the 1st place.

Father, we ask that you would help us to heed the warnings of

this text, that we may not despise, dishonour your name,

that we may not offer that which we are called not to offer, But

oh God, we may offer pure and perfect sacrifice before You.

We ask the Lord God that you would help us to do this, that

our lives we would, we would live in your presence before

You, and that in doing so, oh God, we would be living

sacrifices everywhere. We are shining light on the

glory and in the power of Jesus Christ.