Malachi chapter one. We pointed out that Malachi possibly was a contemporary of Nehemiah. It is also possible that his ministry was going on after, shortly after Nehemiah had moved off the scene. At any rate, we use Nehemiah in this connection. It was after the building, the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, that the people of God pledged themselves to Jehovah, to obey him, to do all that he commanded. They dedicated themselves. And now a short, a relatively short period of time, here is Malachi, God's messenger, the last prophet of the Old Testament before four hundred silent years. That brings us to the start of the New Testament. Malachi is the last messenger, and in considering this background, we are surprised, and maybe we should not be as we think of ourselves, but we are surprised how quickly these people could go from that place and that position of dedication, when they had wholly given themselves to the Lord and pledged to be obedient in every way to his command, to come to this point now, where they are, that this messenger has to bring these charges against them. Malachi speaks to the priests as well as to the people, and we were pointing out last week that he brings a number of charges against them. And with each charge, the people have a countercharge, or at least they are questioning God. For example, we noted in Malachi chapter one verse two, God says, I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? And we go through reading that God has, either directly or indirectly through Malachi, God has these charges against the priests and against the people, and with each charge they come back to God, questioning him, and they are arrogant in doing so. They were doubting God's love. Satan wants us to doubt God's love. But we Christians are to realize that we are the objects of God's love, of his care and concern. We will not trace God's love in history. We will not trace God's love in nature. We will not trace God's love in providence. But when we go to Calvary, we realize that God commended, God proved his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God loves us. And the people of the Old Testament days were used as object lessons, particularly the priests. And what beautiful pictures we have in and through the priesthood alone about God's love of his care and concern. We think of the names of the tribes of Israel collected upon the priests' shoulders, Six names engraved in onyx stone on one shoulder, six names of the other tribes engraved in onyx stone on the other shoulder. And yet, when it came to his heart, there were twelve stones, three across and four down, with a name engraved in each stone. And the point is, they were collective upon his shoulders, but individual upon his heart. And Satan would get us to thinking that God doesn't really love us. How much more can he do, and what else can he do in proving that he loves us? Now, the priests were not only doubting God's love, but they were despising or disesteeming God's name. Look down at verse six. Malachi chapter one verse six. A son honoreth his father and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, 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? Dear friend, to what extent do we think on the name of the Lord? I speak to myself. The master thought of Malachi is that of fellowship with God. Malachi had to deal with a people whose glorious history was that of their fellowship with Jehovah, whose shameful history was that of their infidelity to that fellowship. Now, if that thought be recognized, then we shall find a, a threefold permanent value of this little book of Malachi. A revelation of the unfailing love of Jehovah, a revelation of human infidelity, and a revelation of the secrets of strength in an age of failure. What do we know about the name of the Lord? I trust you have a Bible with you tonight. I- I don't mean to shame you, but I trust you have a Bible. If not, I- I beg you to look on with someone. What do we know about the name of the Lord? A name stands for all that a person has revealed himself to be. Its use immediately brings the person to mind, and in scripture it frequently represents the person himself. We might not think much of names today. God thinks a great deal of names. We might choose names because they sound good. We might use names today because, uh, these are names that, uh, people have whom we greatly appreciate, and maybe we don't even know the meaning of the name. There was Rachel who died giving birth to her second child. Joseph was first, and he was given that name because his name means the Lord shall add and give to me yet another son. So when she had that second son, she had him with much sorrow. She died in giving birth to that second son. And she called his name Benonai, son of my sorrow. And Jacob said, no, he's going to be called Benjamin, the son of my right hand. Names are very important in scripture. Now, dear people, I am taking a little time to give to you what I consider to be very, very important when it comes to the name of the Lord. I'm taking the time, I trust I won't bog myself down in doing so, but I want to share with you something about the name of the Lord. Would you please keep this in mind, and I'm sorry I don't have a, an outline of some kind to put in front of you. Would you please keep in mind that there are three primary names for God in the Bible. Three primary names for God in the Bible. Would you put a marker here, please? And turn with me to the book of Joshua. I'm going to turn to Joshua, not for the purpose of the story involved or the background of this particular chapter, Joshua chapter seven. I am simply having you turn to Joshua chapter seven so that you can see several names clustered together. We find them throughout the Old Testament, but they're clustered together rather conveniently here in Joshua chapter seven. You have your Bible open to Joshua chapter seven? Now, forget the story. We are not concerned about the story that we're reading in these verses, but we are just concerned about the words. Joshua chapter seven, look at verse six. And Joshua rent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the Lord, before the ark of the Lord until the eventide. He and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Would do God we had been content and dwelt on the other side Jordan. Now, I want you to think about God's name now, as you look at these two verses. Now, what do you see in those two verses? What do you see? All right, let's look at verse six. How do you see the word Lord? Now, this is the King James Version. I don't know that this would be true of any other version that you might have. When the translators of the King James Bible translated this version that we have before us, these, uh, godly people put into this translation a certain code. Nothing mysterious, nothing deep and mysterious. It's right there on the surface. But the translators put in the King James Version a code that the students of scripture would readily see what word is being used for the name of God. Look at verse six. How do you see Lord? All capital letters, right? Look at verse seven. How do you see Lord? What do you say? It's a capital L, small ORD. All right, look at verse seven and look at the word God. What do you see? You say, well, I see all capital letters. All right, look on down further in verse seven, and there is the word God again. What do you see? Capital G, small OD. Now, dear friends, this is very important, and it is surprising. I do not say this to shame anyone. It is surprising how few Christians know that code. There are three primary names for God. Now you listen carefully, mark it down, get a copy of this tape and go over it. When you see that word in verse seven, God, capital G, small o d, anywhere in the Old Testament. Now, when you go to the New Testament, you're dealing with a different language. The translators of the King James Version knew that most people would not know the Hebrew language, so they, they used this code to indicate the different words in the Hebrew that they were using. Wherever you see that word capital G, small OD in the Old Testament, that word is Elohim. That is a plural for, it's a plural noun, but it's a plural form for God. Now, Hebrew differs with English in this regard. In English, as you know, one is singular. To make it plural, you must have two or more. That is not the case in the Hebrew. In Hebrew, one is singular, two is dual. And to make it plural, you must have three or more. And when it comes to this particular name for God, it is used something like twenty seven hundred times in the Old Testament, and about twenty five hundred of those times it's in the plural form. The singular would be Eloah, but Elohim is the plural form. How would the Jews account for that plurality? When they don't believe in a holy Trinity, of course. Well, they would say, well, that plural noun allows for the fullness of God. Well, that is true, no doubt. But we are fully persuaded it allows for the Holy Trinity. Wherever you see capital G, small o d in the Old Testament, it is Elohim. Say it with me. Elohim. Once again, Elohim. Wherever you see the word Lord, as you have it in verse seven, capital L, small ord, that word is Adonai. That too is a plural word. Adonai. The word Elohim is used, it's a generic word. It's used of false gods. The Egyptians had their Elohims. The Babylonians had their Elohims. The Assyrians had their Elohims. Uh, on we could go, the long list of nations back in Bible days. They all had their Elohims, their gods. And so that word Elohim is used of false gods as well as of God. The word Adonai, always capital L, small ord, Adonai, is used of men as well as of God. Uh, you would use the equivalent of it, perhaps in, uh, parliament here, or maybe in your court system, my Lord. It would, uh, speak of one who is looked upon and recognized as a superior, my Lord, a master, my Lord. It was used of man as well as God. So whenever you see capital L, small ord, it's Adonai. Say it with me. Adonai. Once again, Adonai. Now, dear friends, listen carefully. Wherever you see the word Lord with all capitals or the word God with all capitals, it is Jehovah. I say Jehovah, maybe I should put a question mark behind that because the best of Bible teachers have reservations about that name, Jehovah. Now let's take a little time and go to Exodus chapter three. Please follow along. Exodus chapter three. You remember, there was Moses on the backside of the desert, and God appeared to him. But now I want you to look at Exodus chapter three. Look at Exodus chapter three, And, uh, let's pick up at verse thirteen. And Moses said unto God. What is that word? Elohim. You've got it. Moses said unto Elohim, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, the Elohim, the God, the Elohim of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, what is his name? You see, when Upper Egypt united with Lower Egypt, there were something like thousand elohims, two thousand gods in the pantheon of deities. And And so so Mo- Moses says now, God, when I go to my people and tell them the Elohim of my fathers, your fathers hath sent me, they're going to say, well, what is his name? What am I supposed to say? What did God say? Now, look at this now, verse fourteen. And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. He is the self-existent one. He's the uncaused cause. Turn over to Exodus chapter six since you're here, and I want you to see something here in this chapter. Verse two, Exodus chapter six verse two: And God spake unto Moses and said unto him, I am the Lord. What does that word Lord there mean? What is that word Lord with all capitals mean? Jehovah. If it's Lord, all caps, God, all caps, it's Jehovah. And God spake unto Moses and said unto him, I am the Lord, and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of Elohim Almighty. But by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. Now I want you to look at that word Jehovah. Because the law said, because God had said, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, the Jews, either out of deep reverence or out of superstition, got to the point where they refused to speak it, as they do today. They refuse to speak it. Even when they write it, if they were to write GOD, they would write G-D. They will not even write it, let alone attempt to say it. Now, because the Jewish people did not attempt to speak that name, as I said, out of, out of fear, out, out of re- reverential fear or out of superstition, they knew if his name were taken in vain, their lives would be taken, so they did not speak it, and the name was lost. All that the Jews had eventually was what was known as a tetragrammaton. That's a, that's a big word, and it simply means four letters. And I want you to look at that word Jehovah in verse three. Look at it now. Jehovah. Now, of course, we're looking at our English translation. If the Jew were looking at it, he would see, leaving out the vowels, leave out the vowels, the Jew would see YHWH. Of course, in our translation, we have JHVH. Here is this tetragrammaton of four letters. And the Jews knew when they saw that four letters, all co- uh, consonants, no vowels, when they saw those four letters, they knew that was the name. That was the name. Much later, after the Babylonian captivity, some scribes known as the Masoretic scribes, their writing of the scriptures is referred to as the Masorah. The Masoretic scribes introduced the vowel points. Now they took those four letters without the vowels, and I'm going with the Hebrew now, the Y, the Jew would pronounce the J as, as a Y. We would say Jacob, the Jew would say Yaakov. All right, the Jew would look at that YHWH, and the Jew knew that was the name of Elohim, Adonai. That was the name. So the Masoretic scribes introduced the vowel points, and they took the vowels from the word Adonai, and they put in where we would see an A, and in, in the etymology of words, that is, over the years, in the changing of words, the letters will change. Sometimes an E will replace an I or vice versa. So the Masoretic scribes put in an A, YAHOW. H O W A H. And we would attempt to pronounce it as it was then, Yahovah. Well, you say, why would they use the vowel points from Adonai? So that any Jew seeing that word as we're looking at it right now would pronounce it not Jehovah, but Adonai. And that's the way they do it today. They will not attempt to pronounce that. Seeing those vowels, they would simply pronounce it Adonai. Many Bible scholars are persuaded that that O should not be there. And, uh, here again, going back to the, the Jewish way of looking at it, they are persuaded it should be Yahweh. Instead of Yahovah, it should be Yahweh. But that's the name. And that speaks of his holiness. That speaks of who he is. That speaks of his might. That speaks of his majesty. Not compared with some false god or thought of as a man. It speaks of His glory, of His majesty, of His might. Now, with that in mind, go back to Malachi chapter one, And I want you to do as I did rather briefly today, and I want you to look down, well, I went through the entire chapter, you just look down chapter one, Verse one. the burden of the word of the, what is that word? As we know it today. Jehovah. Verse two: I have loved you, saith. Also in verse 2, saith Jehovah. Look at the middle part of verse four. thus saith Jehovah. Well, you go on through and you'll see sixteen times in chapter one alone. You'll see at least forty seven times in four little chapters here. Come to chapter three. In every dispensation, regardless to what extent believers overall have gotten away from Lord, the Lord, there has always been that remnant of believers who've been faithful. And here they are in chapter three and verse sixteen. Then they that feared Jehovah spake often one to another, and Jehovah hearkened and heard it, and the book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah and that thought upon his name. But the accusation that God brings against the priests is that you have despised my name. Why would Abraham be willing to offer his son Isaac upon an altar? When you read that chapter, Genesis twenty two, you will find three words, and maybe I shared this with you some years ago, you'll find three words appearing for the first time. Some other words, to be sure, found for the first time, but three words are found for the first time. Oh, you said, well, didn't Abel offer? He offered the first thing of his flock. It was a lamb, but the word is not used in the singular until you come to Genesis twenty two. Love, lamb, and Abraham said to the servants, you remain here while I and the lad go yonder and... and what? And worship. Now that word worship comes from the word worthship. Why would he be willing to offer his only begotten son? Because he considered, and keep in mind, as we've read, he didn't know this name. In his day. This personal name, Jehovah. Although he saw Christ, who used that name. John chapter eight, you remember the Lord Jesus was talking to the Jewish rulers? And he talked about Abraham. And the Jewish ruler said, why, Abraham has been dead for many years. How can you speak of him that way? I'm paraphrasing. The Lord Jesus said, before Abraham was, what? I am. Is it any wonder they picked up stones to stone him? He's using this high and lofty name of God. Don't let these so-called Jehovah's Witnesses working here or anywhere else try to convince you that nowhere is the name Jehovah applied to Christ. He used it himself. And in Jeremiah chapter twenty three, the prophet spoke about the branch of David who would come. And here is his name, Jehovah, Sittenu, the Lord our righteousness. And Paul tells us in First Corinthians chapter 1 in verse thirty, is it? Christ is the righteousness of God. Why would Abraham be willing to offer Isaac? Because he considered God worthy to be obeyed and to have all that he commanded. God is worthy that to him the very best should be sacrificed. You see, because another charge brought against the priest is that they were not only despising his name, they were defiling God's altar. They were not offering the best. Well, if you don't have proper thoughts of God, you will not give him the best. This is the reason we are to have some understanding of this name, Jehovah. He's Almighty God, and he said, I am the Lord God, and my glory I will not share with another. And my, we can use the name so lightly, and and we can claim his name so lightly. We heard, uh, was it brother Frank, uh, one of the brothers who prayed, uh, Second Samuel seven fourteen. if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, and so on. Oh my, to name the name of God, to name the name of Christ, who is God in flesh. Is it any wonder the Psalmist said, the Lord Jehovah is my shepherd. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. My dear friends, I want you to search out these words, and you seek to have a better understanding of Jehovah God. Now, here again, it doesn't take much study to go to, say, Isaiah chapter forty and read about this one who is going to prepare the way of the Lord, this forerunner of the Lord, and then go to Matthew chapter three, and the word Lord there is Jehovah. And then go to Matthew chapter three and see that John the Baptist was that forerunner of Jesus. Because he is Emmanuel, God with us. Let's turn in our hymn books. I just hope I'm going to be able to catch up on these other lessons with the nights we have remaining. But enough has been said tonight that I trust will provoke you to further personal study on this name. Four hundred and sixty five, I believe, is what I want. Take the name of Jesus with you. As we go forth today and every day, let us realize that we're naming the name of Jesus Christ, Jehovah God, God in flesh. We're naming his name. We claim to be children of God. Let us live like it. Let us maintain a good testimony for his name's sake, for his honor and glory. Four hundred and sixty five. take the name of Jesus with you. Let's sing the first and fourth stanzas.