Malachi 1

CHAPTER 1THEME: The love of God for Israel; the priests reproved for profanityMalachi is going to deal with those same problems with which Nehemiah dealt, and this reveals that Malachi was speaking into that day. The first problem is the defilement of the priesthood. The second is their foreign marriages and the divorce of their Israelite wivesbelieve me, God is going to come down hard on this. Many folk ask me to deal with the subject of divorce. Well, I take whatever comes up in the Word of God, and God will talk about divorce in Malachi. Then the third problem is that the people of Israel were neglecting their giving of the tithe and the offering to God. You can be sure that you won’t like what God has to say about those who are kidding everybody about their giving to the Lord.

Malachi 1:1

Malachi means “my messenger.” He is the Western Union boy who brings the last message from God to the people of Israel. “The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel.” A “burden” is a judgment, a judgment from God, and it will be a very strong and rigorous rebuke that God will give to them. Something else that we should note is that Malachi is addressing Israel, that is, all of the twelve tribes. It is obvious that the tribes of Israel didn’t really get lost. Although they seem to be “lost” to some people today, they never were lost. This message is “to Israel,” to all twelve of the tribes. There had returned to the land just a remnant from each tribe, very few from each one. But God addressed them, and very frankly, I think that Malachi’s message went out from here to the others who had not returned.

The Book of Nehemiah reveals that there was communication back and forth. There were messengers, travelers, going back and forth between Israel and the place of captivity where they had been in slavery. We are going to see that, apparently, the message went out to all twelve of the tribes.

Malachi 1:2

Malachi’s message starts out in this very marvelous, wonderful way: “I have loved you, saith the LORD.” Isn’t that a wonderful way to begin! Now how do you think that these people are going to respond to that? Remember that they have returned to the land, and by the time of Nehemiah, although they are discouraged about the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, there is a show of prosperity, and they are going through the form of worship in the rebuilt temple. They are going through the ritual of it, and on the surface everything looks good. But, oh, are they a sarcastic, supercilious, sophisticated, blase group! God says to them, “I have loved you, saith the LORD,” and listen to them!“Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us?” Can you believe that these people would have the audacity to speak to God like that? I’m not sure but what there are a great many people today in the church who would raise that same question and say, “Look at the things that are happening to us today. How can you say that God loves us?” Well, God made it very clear to Israel from the very beginning that He loved them. It is interesting that you go a long way into the Bible before you find God telling anybody that He loved them. But when you get to Deuteronomy (by that time you’ve come to Moses), you’re out in the wilderness and you’ve been out there for forty years, and it is going to be pretty hard to make anybody believe that God loves him. But listen to what Moses says in Deu_10:15: “Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them….” God simply had not been saying that to anyone. You go through the time of the Flood and afterwards, and God never told anybody that. God didn’t tell Abraham that He loved him, but He did, of course. The point is that God was in no hurry to let mankind know that He loved them. But He says here, “Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.” Now God is prepared to prove what He has said, and His answer is this: “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” This is a tremendous statement that God makes to them. The people were questioning, they were doubting the love of God, and God reminds them of the origin of their nation. Jacob and Esau were twins. God made a difference between them at the very beginning (see Gen_25:22-23), but it was about fifteen hundred years before He stated as He does here that He loved Jacob. This presents a problem: Why should God say that He loved Jacob and hated Esau? A student came to the late Dr. Griffith Thomas with that question. “I have a problem,” he said. “Why does God say that he hated Esau?” “Well, I have a problem with that verse, too,” Dr. Thomas replied. “But my problem is why God said that He loved Jacob. That’s the real problem.” My friend, the real problem here is why God would say that He loved this people. But let’s understand one thing: God never said this until Jacob and Esau had become two great nations which had long histories. Therefore, God said that He loved Jacob because of the fact that He knew what was in Jacob’s heart. He knew that here was a man who had a desire for Him and that Esau did not have a desire for Him at all. But it had to be worked out in fifteen hundred years of history before God was prepared to make the kind of statement He makes here in Malachi. We need to understand that the difference here between loving and hating is simply that the life of the nation that came from Esau, which is Edom, and the life of the nation which came from Jacob, which is Israel, demonstrate that God was right when He said that He loved one and hated the other. All this reveals something that we need to face up to today. We have majored so much on the love of God. Do you know that if God loves, God also hatesbecause you cannot love without hating? As someone has said, love and hate are very close together. If God loves the good, He has to hate the evilit couldn’t be otherwiseand that is exactly what we find here. The histories of the nation of Israel and the nation of Edom are altogether different. God says that because of Esau’s life, because of the evil which was inherent in this man and which worked itself into the nation of Edom, He is justified in making this statement.

Malachi 1:4

What God is saying to them is this: “My action and conduct with these nations which came from Esau and Jacob reveal that I loved Jacob and that I hated Esau.” After God judged Edom, they never made a comeback. When was the last time you saw an Edomite? They are just not doing business today. They went out of style years ago. God judged Edom, and this action of His looks like loving and hating. And God says to Israel, “I demonstrated that I loved you.” At the beginning, He never made that statement because He had to wait until it worked itself out.

This reveals, therefore, that God’s choice is neither capricious nor arbitrary. God does not make choices like that. There has to be something to back it up. God had a real relationship with His people. He was the Father of the nation; He was their Lord, their God, and also their Judge. And he judged them most severely.

In fact, it would seem that later on He judged Israel more severely than He judged Edombut that was when Israel rejected the Messiah. There is a great deal said today about “God is love.” It is an abstract statement to say that God is love. He says, “I have loved you and I have demonstrated it.” God was a long time telling the human family that He loved them, but He demonstrated it long before He said it. He demonstrated it from the very beginningin the lives of Adam and Eve, from the time of the call of Abraham, and right down to the present.

Malachi 1:6

“A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honor?” Now God was never Father to an individual Israelite. Even of both Moses and David, the best that was said was that they were servants of Jehovaheach was a servant of Jehovah. But God called the whole nation His son. He reminds them that He has this relationship with the nation. “And if I be a master [that is, your Lord], where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?” They are greatly offended that God would say this about them. They say, “My, we’re such nice, wonderful little Sunday school boys and girls. We go to the temple, we go through the rituals, we are very faithful, and we are really the pillars of the whole nation of Israel. And then You dare ask us about despising Your name? How in the world are we despising Your name?” Of course, you’ve got to go way back into “uncivilized” times to find children honoring their parents. The modern way and the civilized way is not to honor your parents. But back in that day they did, and so God uses that as the illustration: “A son will honor his father, and a servant his master, but you don’t honor Me.” This is something that should have gotten to them, but it didn’t get to them because they had a hard shell about them. They were a very arrogant and haughty and self-sufficient people. You couldn’t tell them anything. I am of the opinion that that is a picture not only of youth today but of all people.

We accuse young people of not listening, but the older folk are not listening eitherthey certainly are not listening to God at all. God said to Israel, “You despise My name.” And they act hurt; they act as if they really don’t know what He is talking about. Very frankly, had you been in Jerusalem in that day, you would have seen the crowds flocking into the temple. They were bringing their sacrifices. They were going through the ritual. They gave an outward show of being very religious.

Their pious performance was very impressive. I am sure that most of us would have said, “This certainly is an alive group, and they’re certainly worshiping God.” To tell the truth, they were very far from God. Down underneath they actually despised His name.

Malachi 1:7

How can they despise His name when they were going to the temple so regularly? God begins to lay it out for them: “Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar.” I think we should make it very clear that the bread refers to the offering that was made on the altar. It would be what we would call a meat offering, that is, it would be an animal sacrifice. God will make it clear in verse Mal_1:8 that that is really what He is talking about. God says that their sacrifice was polluted, but they wouldn’t acknowledge that. They ask the question, “Wherein have we polluted thee?” My, are they offended that God would dare say this to them because they are such lovely people! To pollute God, by the way, was a serious charge if it were true, but the people dismiss the charge with an indifferent nod of the head and a pretended ignorance. They act as if God doesn’t know what He is talking about. Then God says to them, “In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.” They said that it was contemptible, and they despised it by the way they treated it and by the way they acted. God is speaking to these people, the Jewish remnant which has returned to the land and has settled upon their lees. They are very happily situated now. They have been back for over one hundred years. The Captivity is now in the background, and things are prosperous in the land. They’ve become just a little self-sufficient. They have a temple now, and they are going through the ritual of it, but they actually are far from God. They have become insolent as they talk back to God as He says things to them. Maybe you will want to tune me out because what the Lord says now is really going to hurt.

Malachi 1:8

“And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?” It is clear now that He is talking about animal sacrifices. God made it clear to Israel at the very beginning that nothing which was in any way maimed or defiled or any of that sort of thing was to be offered to Him. In other words, when you give secondhand clothing to the rescue mission, don’t put that down on your books, thinking you will get credit from God. Don’t misunderstand methe mission can use the secondhand clothes, but you’re not giving sacrificially to God when you give that sort of thing. Listen to the instructions God had given to them: “But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you. And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein.

Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto the LORD, nor make offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the LORD. Either a bullock or a lamb that hath any thing superfluous or lacking in his parts, that mayest thou offer for a freewill offering; but for a vow it shall not be accepted” (Lev_22:20-23). God was telling them that the offering they offered was really a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Any imperfect offering was an insult to the Lord Jesus Christ. In case they missed it in Leviticus, God interprets the law for them in Deu_15:21: “And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the LORD thy God.” Now what was happening in Malachi’s day was something like this: Imagine there is a man living up in the hill country of Ephraim who has prize cattle. He always gets the blue ribbon at the cattle show. But one day his prize bull becomes sick, and when he calls the veterinarian, the veterinarian says, “I don’t think he’s going to make it. I think he’ll die.” So the man says, “Well, let’s load him in the truck in a hurry and rush him down to the temple where I’ll offer him for a sacrifice.” When the man brings the bull to the temple, the priests can see that the old bull is sick, but they go through with it because this is a very prominent fellow who lives up in Ephraim, you see. But when the people see this prize blue-ribbon bull being offered, they say, “Mr. So-and-So sure is a generous fellow. Look at what he is offering to the Lord!” What do we do today that corresponds to that which was taking place in Israel in Malachi’s day? Remember that the apostle Paul described the men in the last days as “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof …” (2Ti_3:5). Men will be very pious. There is a great deal of pompous piousity that is demonstrated by many so-called Christians today. Paul describes them as “having a form of godliness.” You can pour oleomargarine into a butter mold, and it may look like butter, it may even smell like butter, but it is not butter. You probably have heard the story of the very stingy man who gave his wife a mink coatat least, it was supposed to be a mink coat.

No one could understand why this man would be so generous until one day when he and his wife went walking down the street. As they passed a rabbit hound, the coat jumped off his wife and started running! It just happened to be rabbit, you seenot mink. We should recognize God’s rebuke here as a danger signal and as a red light for us. This is a message for folk who go to churchthey listen, they are very orthodox, very fundamental, and they say amen. They know the language. They can quote any number of pious platitudes. They are satisfied with a tasteless morality. They go through a form of truth and all the shibboleths, and they are satisfied. But may I say to you, they actually despise God when they approach worship like that. It was Dr. G. Campbell Morgan who years ago made the statement, “I am more afraid of the profanity of the sanctuary than I am of the profanity of the street.” The profanity of the streets is bad enough, my friend. You may protest, “But I’ve never brought a sick cow to God and offered Him that!” Will you notice what God says here in our verse: “Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.” In other words, try paying your taxes with that old sick cow! This is a good question: Do you pay more in taxes than you give to the Lord? I want to say very candidly, shame on you if you are paying more taxes than you are giving to the Lord. I believe that when the offering is taken in the average church, there is actually lots more profanity taking place there than down in the slums of the city where the drunkards are. Why? Because there is a great deal of put-on, of hypocrisy, taking place in the sanctuary today. I know a very prominent businessman who lives in the east. He’s a man that I greatly respect, but I have suspected his generosity for many years. He likes to give, and he’ll give generously if you’ll put up a building with his name on it. When we obtained our new headquarters facilities some years ago, I had a suggestion or two from folk who would be glad to give if the building were named in their honor. We simply don’t do business that way at the “Thru the Bible” radio ministry. When you give to this ministry, you’re giving to get out the Word of God.

You’re not giving to get your name engraved on anything. I realize that our policy causes many prominent, wealthy people to turn from us, but that is perfectly all right. The Lord is speaking to a whole lot of other folk, and I rejoice in that. I happen to know that this particular businessman has buildings named for him on two college campuses. He’s a big shot. When he gives, you can be sure it will be with the blowing of the horn, the blare of the trumpet, and the beating of the drum.

The Lord Jesus told about the Pharisee who went down to the street corner to give to the poor, and he had somebody down there blowing a horn. Everybody said, “Oh, look at Pharisee So-and-So! Isn’t he generous? He’s down there on the corner, just giving money away to the poor!” One time this prominent businessman invited me out for an evening meal, and we had good fellowship. He’s a likable fellow. He has real charisma.

Afterwards, he came with me to the church where I was preaching that night. The pastor of the church invited him up to the platform to lead in prayer. He’s a wealthy man, let me tell you, and so he was invited up there to lead in prayer. I saw with my own eyes that this man who had given the waitress a two-dollar tip for our dinner put only a one-dollar bill in the offering plate. I thought, My, he didn’t even tip God generously tonight!When the One who was here nineteen hundred years ago sat by the treasury and watched how the people gave, I am sure that some of them thought, “What business has He to see how I give?” He happened to be the Lord Jesus Christ, and I’m not sure but that on Sunday morning He looks over your shoulder as you give. Are you giving what you give for a good meal when you eat out?

Are you giving as generously to the Lord’s work as you do to other things where it makes a show? My friend, the old sick cow is still being taken to church today. That is the method that Israel used; and, believe me, the Lord didn’t let it pass. This is burning sarcasmlisten to Him: “And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.” I will say again, and it is none of my business, but I’m just telling you what the Lord says. He is saying here in a very definite way that you cannot bring Him a sick cow. You don’t pay your taxes with a sick cow. Are you giving to the Lord as much or more than you are giving in taxes today? You may argue, “I have to pay my taxes.” Yes, you sure do, but what about your giving to the Lord? That is supposed to be on the basis of love.

The Lord Jesus said. “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (Joh_14:15). I do not think we are under the tithe today at all. It is interesting to note, however, that in the Mosaic Law there was more than one tithe; we know that there were two tithes, and many think that there were three tithes. That would mean that the people actually gave thirty percent of what they made to the Lord. When the Lord Jesus looked over the treasury, He saw how the rich gaveand they gave large sumsbut He didn’t commend them for it because they kept so much more for themselves. But He saw the poor widow and those few coppers which she dropped in therecompared to the wealth of the temple, very candidly, she gave nothing! But the Lord Jesus took those copper coins, He kissed them into the gold of heaven, and He said that she gave more than anybody else. I am amazed at how our Bible-teaching radio ministry is carried on. It is carried on by many widows who send a dollar bill, and they always say, “It isn’t anything.” Maybe in comparison to our costs, it isn’t much, but when a whole lot of widows get together it sure makes an impression. It is the people who regularly send in the five-dollar and ten-dollar gifts that sustain this radio ministry. The Israelites in Malachi’s day were being very clever. When an old cow got sick or a lamb broke his leg, they would patch it up and rush it off to the temple to offer it as a sacrifice to God. God says that He will not accept such a sacrifice. I wonder how many offerings are really made acceptable to God today? We are told that any offering we make to God is like the priest making an offering back in Old Testament times. Believers today are priests before God, and we are to give by grace, but grace does not mean that we give as little as we possibly can.

I am afraid that we are actually seeing a sacrilege committed in the church every Sunday. Someone will say, “But a sacrilege means that somebody steals something in the church.” Yes, that is the meaning. The Israelites were guilty of sacrilege because their offerings really cost them nothing. They were valueless, though they may have been large. And, my friend, it is sacrilege to enter the church and put something into the offering plate when there is no blood or sacrifice on the gift. Frankly, I think that it is sometimes wrong to give. Many people pay ten dollars to see a football or baseball game, and God says to them, “If you pay that kind of money for that and then come into My house and drop a one-dollar bill into the offering and think you have done something for Me, you are wrong. Why, you didn’t even give Me the kind of tip that you give to a waitress!” This is pretty strong language here, is it not?

Malachi 1:9

Is it possible that these people could continue giving an outward show but not realize that in their hearts they are not right with God? Their hearts are polluted, and their offering, therefore, is polluted.

Malachi 1:10

God says, “All this ritual that you are going through is meaningless. It is for nothing. It doesn’t profit.” But they continue on in it.

Malachi 1:11

Israel was bringing the name of God into disrepute by the way they were serving Him. They were not serving Him as they did in the days of Solomon, for instance, when the Queen of Sheba was greatly impressed with what she saw. At this time, the unsaved were not impressed because it was just a form and a ceremony. God says that there is a day coming when His name will be great among the Gentiles. If you think that this has been fulfilled today, you’re entirely wrong. It will be fulfilled in the Millennium but not today. God’s name is not great among the nations today. “And in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering.” “Incense” speaks of prayer. That “pure offering” is Christ. “For my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.” God’s purpose in choosing Israel was that they might witness to the nations of the world.

Malachi 1:12

The Gentiles profaned the name of God because of the lives and actions of God’s people whose hearts were polluted and whose ritual was contemptible.

Malachi 1:13

“Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts.” In effect they were saying, “It makes us tired to go to church, to go through all of these things. Oh, what a weariness!” My friend, when the heart is not in the thing, it becomes weariness. One morning my daughter and I were driving in the morning rush-hour traffic. At the time I was a pastor in downtown Los Angeles. I couldn’t wait to get to the church that morning. I had broadcast tapes to make, and I was looking forward to it. I said to her, “Look at the faces of all these people in this big traffic jam. They are bored to tears, dreading to go to work.

The worst thing in the world that I can think of is to be doing a job you hate to do. It makes the hours long, and there is no joy in it whatsoever. Going to church is just as boring to a great many people.” This is the reason we so often hear it asked, “What can we do to interest our people in the church?” Have you ever heard that discussed? Or, “What can we do to get people to come on Sunday nights?“Someone will suggest, “Let’s serve a dinner. Let’s have a banquet. Or let’s have a little different service.

Instead of all this boring Bible study, let’s have some special music, and let’s put on an entertaining program. We could have some sort of pageant.” What is wrong, my friend, when people are saying that God is becoming boring to them? Why do you think that men ever adopted a ritual to begin with? Why do they wear robes and chant and burn incense and march around? They are tired of spiritual worshipthat’s itand they need something to tickle the flesh. Somebody says, “But I love an orderly service.” I do too, but there is danger in loving order, and there is danger in loving a ritual. I recognize that ritual has its place and that there are many fine folk who were brought up that way. When I was a pastor in downtown Los Angeles, I knew a lovely couple who really loved the Word of God but who were members of a very formal, a very high church. He was actually enraged by the informality of the way in which I began the service. He and his wife would not come until we had completed the brief preliminaries of the service. He very frankly told me, “I just can’t stand that informality"but he loved the Word of God, and so I forgave him the other. Way back in the stern days of our fathers, the Puritans, they would sit on log benches and listen to a sermon for two hours. Today there are people who will sit on bleachers for three hours out in the hot sun to watch a baseball game. There are folk who will sit out in the cold to watch a football game. And there are those who will sit for three hours listening to an opera, or for two hours watching a movie, or for four hours to see Hamlet. I find it thrilling to sit and listen to a Shakespearean play. When my wife and I were at Stratford-on-Avon and saw Richard III, I didn’t sit on the edge of my seat, but I sat back, relaxed, and thoroughly enjoyed it for three hours.

My friend, why are you weary when your preacher speaks for one hour? I’m a long-winded preacher and always have been. I would speak for an hour, and do you know who complained about it? It wasn’t the average person; many people said they didn’t think it was too long. It was some of the leaders, the so-called spiritual leaders of the church, who complained. We love the ritual, and we love the form.

We go to church, we stand up and sit down, and we sing the doxology loudly, but really where are our hearts? Do we do it because of a love for Him? Do we desire to worship Him? We sing, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small.” Is that a gift far too small? It sure is. Then why did you put just a dollar in the offering plate?

If the whole realm of nature isn’t big enough for a gift to God, then what about the dollar bill which isn’t worth very much today? It is so easy to get tired and weary in church work. Dwight L. Moody came home one time, and although he was very weary, he was going to another meeting without taking time out to rest. His family begged him to cancel it because he was so weary, but he said this, “I get tired in the work, but I never get tired of the work.”

Malachi 1:14

“For I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful [to be reverenced] among the heathen.” His name is going to be reverenced someday, but it’s not reverenced even today. One of the things that has brought God’s name into disrepute has been the ministry and those who represent Him here, the believers. I don’t question their salvationand yet I’m afraid I do question the salvation of some. Have you ever noticed that God never called a real believer a hypocrite? But the Lord Jesus really laid it on the line when He was talking about the religious Pharisees of His day. Very frankly, He said terrible things about them. He called them “whited sepulchres.” Can you imagine that?

That was an awful thing to call these people, but that is what He called them. And He likened them to a dish that on the outside is beautiful, but on the inside it hasn’t even been washed. It didn’t get into the dishwasher, and it is filled with all kinds of garbage. The Lord Jesus said, “That’s the hypocrite” (see Mat_23:25-29). And that’s what these people were in Malachi’s daythey were merely going through a form of religion. Let’s put it on the line today: Do you have religion, or do you have Christ? Are you real, or are you just going through the form of it? Do you wear your Christianity like a garment that you can take off and put aside at any time, and do you generally put it aside when you are not in church? Perhaps you assume a certain pious attitude and can quote pious platitudes, but how real is Christ to you? The first thing that Israel did was to bring those old sick cows as sacrifices. Now they are saying, “Oh, this is boring! All these long services. Bible study certainly is boring.” I thank God that over a period of twenty-one years, we averaged fifteen hundred people for Bible study in our midweek service in downtown Los Angeles. I have always thanked God for that. But when someone would come and pat me on the back and tell me how wonderful it was, I would remind them of those great office buildings there in downtown Los Angeles.

Each afternoon well over two hundred thousand people would empty out of those buildings to go home. Out of that number only about fifteen hundred would return on Thursday nights for Bible study. Our batting average was not really very good, was it? Most of the people who worked in those buildings were church members, and probably they were all out to church on Easter Sunday. They could always make it to the ball game at Dodger Stadium on Sunday afternoon, but they would find it impossible to get to the Sunday evening service. Today there is a great deal of religion, but very little real Christianity.

A great many folk are just playing church. When I was a kid, we played store. I used to fill tin cans with dirt and sell them to the other kids in the neighborhood. My, I ran a store! Playing store never got anywhere, but it was a lot of fun. And there are a lot of adults having fun playing church today. At the time that I was ordained into the ministry, the man who gave me the charge of entering the ministry said that there are three great sins of the ministry that I should avoid. Maybe I haven’t followed through as I should, but I have always remembered those three sins. The number one sin of the ministry is laziness. Yes, that’s right. The reason we don’t have more expositors of the Word of God today is because it requires study to be an expositor. It is so easy for a pastor to get busy during the week. Shame on you, if you’re taking your preacher’s time during the week and not letting him study if he wants to study. Any church that has a man who is an expositor and wants to spend time in study should let him study. He needs that time, and he’ll have to have it if he’s going to be an expositor. He cannot be lazy and expect to be a real teacher of the Word of God. One young fellow who was a student of mine at Biola became a pastor in California’s San Joaquin Valley. After he had been up there about three years, he came down and said he wanted to talk to me. We went to lunch, and I asked him, “What’s your problem?” “I’m getting ready to get out of the ministry. I’ve run out of things to preach. I’m beginning simply to repeat myself, and people notice it.” So I said, “How long do you take to prepare a sermon?” “Well, I’ve preached all of yours that I have. And I’ve preached others. Generally, I prepare one in three hours.” I told him, “Although my sermons may not look like it, I spent over twenty-four hours just preparing each sermon. I have never preached a sermon until I was ready to preach.” Laziness is a great sin, and I don’t think that God excuses it. I dealt with a young fellow recently who wanted to go into the ministry, and at one time he had high hopes of going to seminary. Now he has the vain notion that he can become a preacher by just going out and letting the Holy Spirit teach him. My friend, the Holy Spirit has never yet taught a lazy preacher. He will only teach the one who is willing to go all the way in study. Spiritual worship became wearisome to the people of Israel because they didn’t love the Word of God. You have to love the Word of God. This is one way in which the Bible is different from any other book. Any other book you must read before you love it, and you must understand it before you can love it. But, my friend, you must love the Word of God before you can understand it. The Spirit of God is not teaching lazy folk. Then the second great sin of the ministry is an overwhelming ambition. This can manifest itself in several different ways. It’s a form of covetousness, of desiring fame, of wanting to be a big preacher, of wanting to preach to the crowd. This is a great sin in the ministry today: wanting to speak to crowds. I am convinced that the great preachers today are not in the big churches, and they are not always the ones getting the big crowds. I listened to a man some time ago preach a sermon, and I do not think there were a hundred people present.

But it was a great sermon, an expository sermon. It just thrilled my heart to hear that young man preach. I asked him, “How long did you spend preparing that sermon?” He told me that he had been working on it all week. I suppose that boy put in over twenty hours getting up that message, and he’s willing to be a pastor to a small group of people. However, too many are eager to become great and to minister to a large church. I heard the story of a preacher somewhere in Texas who came home and told his wife one day, “The next town over has a church which has asked me if I would consider a call to their church. It’s a larger town, a larger church, they pay a larger salary, and they are really lots better people over there. I’m going upstairs to pray about it and to see what the Lord wants me to do.” She said, “I’ll go up and pray with you.” “Oh, no,” he said, “you stay down here and start packing!” I am afraid that there are a great many in the ministry who are just like that. The third great sin of the ministry is to be dull and boring, to be tedious and wearisome. The reason this happens, of course, is that a man does not stay enough in the Book. A man doesn’t have to have charismamany do notbut there is no excuse for being apathetic, very prosaic, colorless, and lackluster. I mentioned earlier that my wife and I went to see Richard III. Shakespeare was a great writer. I don’t think he just dashed it off, all of a sudden. We are told that he spent hours writing his plays. I listened to the two young men, one of them playing the part of Richard III and the other playing the one who was supposed to have been his friend but who finally dethroned him and put him in the Tower of London. Of course Shakespeare was a genius, but the thing that impressed me about the play above everything else was the way these young men enunciated, how clearly they spoke, and how they had worked on their lines.

I watched purposefully because I had been in Shakespearean plays when I was very young. They didn’t miss a cue. There wasn’t one slip of the tongue. They went right through it. Do you know why? They had worked and worked and rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed.

If the actor in the world can spend all that time preparing for a performance, why can’t we spend time preparing to give out the Word of God? Any preacher who goes into the pulpit unprepared despises the name of the Lord, and he is causing people to say, “Boy, the Bible is boring! And going to church is tiresome. Next Sunday I’ll do something interesting.” Being a dull preacher is another great sin of the ministry. Verse Mal_1:14 says, “But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing.” Here is something else people do: making vows to God and then not following through on them. We find it taught both in Leviticus and Proverbs that God does not want us telling Him something unless we mean it. If you promise to do something for God, you had better go through with it because God means business. He doesn’t ask you to make the vowit is voluntarybut if you make that vow, be sure that you go through with it. There were people in Israel who were making great protestations, saying, “It looks like we’re going to have a bumper crop this year. I am going to give the Lord not only a tenth, but I’m going to give some freewill offerings to Him.” But then when the harvest came in abundance, they decided they would keep it for themselves. They decided they would not turn it over to the Lord after all. Instead, they offered to God the corrupt, the lame, and the sick.