2.05.17 ~ “The Only Acceptable Sacrifice to God,” Malachi 1:6-2:2.

Preacher: Pastor Mike | Series: Malachi

Last week we read how God declared His love for Israel (v.2), and through them to all people (v. 5); even though Israel was living in a manner that showed contempt for God’s love and disdain for God’s mercy.
Read Malachi 1:6-8… God’s condemnation of Israel begins with an indictment against the priests (v. 6). A son should honor his father and a servant his master, but the priests have shown no reverence toward God, Who is both, their Father and Master.
God said they had despised His sovereign name! And yet, the priests ask (v. 6), “How have we shown contempt for your name?” God answers them (vv. 7-8), accusing them of offering defiled food on the altar (also known as the table of the LORD).
The priests were offering blind, lame and sick animal sacrifices — this was forbidden by the law, unacceptable to God; yet the priests dared to do this evil thing (see Leviticus 22:20-22; Deuteronomy 15:19, 21).
How dare them bring offerings before God that are clearly unacceptable to God! God further indicts the priests by stating that the sacrifices they offer to Him, wouldn’t be acceptable to their earthly masters (governor, as a form of taxation). “Do the priests fear their earthly masters more than the God who created the earth?” It would seem so by their actions!
Read Malachi 1:9-10… Malachi urges them to call upon the Lord and to repent (v. 9), that God might forgive them and return His blessings to them. If not, (v. 10) God would rather the doors to the temple be shut so that these useless and evil sacrifices will stop before they offend God any further, even to the point of His wrath!!
Read Malachi 1:11-12… Malachi looks forward to the millennial period (v. 11) when Israel will again offer pure sacrifices to God, throughout the world, sacrifices acceptable to Him; but that is in the distant future.
The reality is (v. 12, at the time this Book was written), Israel’s sacrifices/ offerings were detestable to God.
Read Malachi 1:13-14… The priests (v. 13) declare their weariness in trying to hold to God’s requirements for their sacrifices, as if that were some kind of excuse. By doing so, they proclaim the rebellion in their own hearts, for it is clear that they continue to offer to God lame and sick animals, knowing that God requires the very best unblemished animals to be offered to Him.
Only unblemished male animals from the flock could be offered (v. 14); anything less cheated God, and was unacceptable to God. Unblemished males from the flock were offered to God with a vow; then, an unacceptable animal was substituted in place of the more valuable unblemished male.
You might be saying to yourself, what does the condemnation brought against Israels’ priests have to do with us and our present day relationship with God?
Let’s consider what God’s Word says to us, priests of God’s kingdom, who are to offer daily sacrifices to Him.
Through His death and resurrection, Jesus defeated sin, death and judgment, forever. Jesus freed us from our sins by His own shed blood (cf. Revelation 1:5-6), by which we are forgiven our sins and eternally saved; but we are also set apart as a “kingdom and priests,” for the purpose of serving God the Father (see 1Peter 2:9-12).
Listen! If you are a Christian, you are a priest in God’s kingdom, and as a priest you are responsible to bring acceptable sacrifices and offerings to God.
But we aren’t to bring the shed blood of animal sacrifices before God, as though we were under Old Testament Law and the first covenant. Christians are under New Testament Grace, a new covenant validated by Jesus Christ’s sovereign ‘once and for all sacrifice’ for the sins of the whole world.
Read Hebrews 9:14-15, 22, 27-28… Jesus Christ is the only unblemished sacrifice acceptable to God, it is only through His blood that we have eternal life, through a new covenant, that we may serve the living God.
Israel’s priests were offering unacceptable sacrifices: cheating God, dishonoring the priesthood, showing contempt for God’s name; they were clearly disobeying God’s law concerning animal sacrifices — what they were offering was unacceptable to the Holy God of Creation, and so they would suffer for their impertinent, impudent, insolent, irreverence.
Read Hebrews 10:1-7, 16-18… God doesn’t require that we perform rituals or offer dead animals to Him as if we were under Old Testament LAW (Law Advocates [supports and validates] Wrath). Christians are under New Testament GRACE (God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense).
We are forgiven sin, all our past, present and future sins, through Christ’s sacrifice, once for all.
Read Romans 12:1-2… God requires you to hear and obey His Word, living as a sacrifice, holy and pleasing to Him; everything you do, think, and say — your attitude and your actions, everything in your life — is to conform to that which pleases God and brings honor to Him; God doesn’t want dead sacrifices, He wants living servants.
Are you living each day (in every aspect of your life) in a manner that God would say is acceptable to Him? Let me answer that for all of us: most likely not! Read Malachi 2:1-2… The priests of Israel were human, just like you and I; they failed God, just like you and I. God called them to hear and to obey what He said, just like you and I — they were to do that which brings honor to God’s name — if not, they would indeed suffer the consequences, just like you and I will!
God gives us the same option today, so, let us hear and obey that we may be transformed to know and to do God’s good, pleasing and perfect will — for this brings honor and glory to His name, and blessings to His people.
Pastor Mike –