7-6-22 - Unfaithful Leadership

We're going to look over to the book of Malachi. So if you have your Bibles, you're welcome to turn there. If you're not familiar with where Malachi is, it's the last book of the Old Testament. So when you find Matthew, just flip backwards and you will run into it.

Put it in reverse, but don't run into anybody. All right. Malachi chapter one. And then we'll go to chapter number two. We're going to read verse one down to verse number nine and chapter number two.

Malachi chapter two. Verse one through nine. And you're welcome to stand in honor of God's word tonight as we read.

Because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feast. And one shall take you away with it. And you shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace. And I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me.

He was afraid before my name. Law of truth was in his mouth. And iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity and did not turn many and did turn many away from iniquity. But the priest's lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

Ye are departed out of the way. Ye have caused many to stumble by at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts.

Therefore, have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law. Father, we thank you for your word tonight. It is our joy. We come tonight because you are worthy. Lord, I thank you for the work you're doing in the lives and hearts of your people. And God, I thank you that even the many folks I talked to throughout the week and the days that are going through challenges, just the trust, the faith, and the hope they have in you. And I thank you for the encouragement from those dear folks and Lord, be with those that are sick and not able to be with us tonight. Bless all that are here.

Be with the men's and the ladies class, the teens, the kids department. Thank you for the great turnout throughout the summer that you give the church and pray that you would bless as we study your word. May we apply what we read and follow you faithfully. Be obedient in Christ's name. We pray in God's people said, Amen.

You may be seated this evening. Tonight, I want to talk about unfaithful leadership, and that's really what we find here in Malachi chapter number two. You know, leadership is a big deal. All of us, I think, have been affected in many ways by people who've been leaders in our life. If you think about for a moment who has been the most effective leader in your life, just consider who has been the most effective. Person who's been a leader in your life and what were the qualities that made them so impactful? Why were they effective in influencing you the way they did? Usually it's because that they they they had integrity. They showed you the truth, but they didn't just simply verbalize the truth. They lived the truth out.

There was physical follow up with what they said. And and who has God allowed to you to lead? There's I think everybody here today is affecting someone in some way. There is people underneath us, whether workers, teammates, children, grandchildren. There's people in our lives that God has put underneath our influence wing, if you would, our shadow of influence. And and so it's important tonight, no matter what your position is, you're going to be influencing someone and really many people.

They say the most introverted person in the world will affect at least 10000 people in their lifetime. We touch a lot of folks. And so I think it's important to understand our leading of other people will be in direct. Alignment with what is leading us, if our lives are being not being led the right way, how can I ever lead anyone else?

Right. So I've got to be led to lead. I got to be someone who is drawn to the Lord tonight. I know over in Joshua in the class tonight with the men's class, they're doing a devotion on Joshua one eight. And God told Joshua, he says, Let not this word depart from your mouth. But thou shalt meditate on it day and night that you may observe the things that are written therein. Then shalt thou have good success. Then shalt thou make thy way prosperous. And so God says you have to meditate on the word of God to find your life, to be successful, to be lined up with what God would have you to do.

Now, in this section of Malachi, he focuses on the failure of the spiritual leaders of the nation of Israel, the priests. And Jesus, according to the Bible, has become our high priest. You say, Why don't we have priests today? Should we call you a priest?

And the answer is no. You can call me a pastor. The word pastor just means a shepherd.

And I'm really an under shepherd. The Bible calls Jesus the chief shepherd. But we are a shepherd is just a caretaker, someone who oversees a group there.

And so you as a parent would shepherd your family. And so the Bible calls God a priest, though. And Jesus has taken that priestly position. So there is no high priest anymore in a physical sense, like Aaron was in the Old Testament. We have Jesus as our high priest.

But the Bible tells us that we are all priests of God. And there's two main spiritual roles in the Old Testament. You had a prophet and you had a priest. A prophet would speak the word of God to the people on behalf of God, where the priest would go to God on behalf of the people. And the priests were the ones who would read the word of God, study it, and they would also be teachers of the law to the people. They were the great influences spiritually of the people. They were the Levites. The tribe of Levi was one of the 12 tribes of Israel. And you had what was known as the Levitical priesthood.

The book of Levi, or Leviticus, I should say, was written with the focus of God's systematic way of living out the holiness of the law that was given in the book of Exodus, chapter number 20, and in the sacrifices, and really focuses on to how important it is to be holy. But we are all priests. 1 Peter 2, 9 says this, You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. He's talking to the believer in 1 Peter 2, 9. He says a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show for the praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So just understand tonight, you are in many ways in this position. There are spiritual leaders in our lives, pastors, teachers, spiritual leaders in the church, but also at home. If you're a parent, grandparent, and if you're a Christian at any level, you're going to influence other people.

So this message will line up with everyone here tonight. But God's message is in chapter 2. He makes a statement in chapter 2, verse 1. He says, And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. This is God speaking directly to a group of people that are inside of the nation of Israel. This is like Revelation 2 and 3, very, very comparable, where God comes and says, Here's a letter to the church at Ephesus. I'm writing unto you, church. So could you imagine if Jesus had a specific letter written to the Lighthouse Baptist Church of Xenia? You think you would show up that Sunday when that was read? God's saying this letter specifically for you and the things that he would commend for and things he would say, these things are things that would rebuke for and these are areas that need to be changed and repented of and so forth. That would be a heavy and wonderful, but yet challenging day to examine our lives.

And that would be so, so purging. And you see that this is what's happening in the Book of Malachi. So he's he's writing this letter to them. Just as a reminder, in Chapter 1, God's message was again directed at the priests. It is critical to understand that God is not honored and you see this in Chapter 1 simply by Christians going through some external motion. You can come to church and honor God and you can come to church and dishonor God. You can read your Bible and honor God and you can read your Bible and dishonor God.

Right? So you have to know that you have to realize that just doing the work or the action or some external thing in no way in and of itself is honoring to God. The priests were called here and rebuked because they were going through the motions of sacrificing for God and doing what God asked them to do. But they were also violating the Word of God in doing it. God had called them to really be the standard for the people to he said, when you guys bring an offering to me, it can't have illness and sickness.

You can't have they called it blemishes and like ailments in the animal defect defects. And so what would happen is in those days you would bring, say, a lamb or a goat for an offering. The priest would examine that in and all of those offerings in the Old Testament foreshadowed Christ who would come and be our ultimate sacrifice. The Lamb of God to take our sins away. But the priest would evaluate that and if it had, you know, if you got gangrene, if it's got if it's got some some illness, if it's not healthy, if it's not good, the priest would say, listen, this is an unacceptable sacrifice.

You need to go back and get a better sacrifice. And you know what we would people be like in our day, how dare you not accept, you know, but they wouldn't care. They would say this is for God.

You need to bring your best. And so they would rebuke that and they would have to go back because there was no other church. There was no, well, I got offended, so I'm leaving. Well, that's a terrible reason to leave a church.

Amen. If that's the case, you should leave a church. You wouldn't stay married.

You wouldn't stay in your family either. Right. All of us has been offended before from everything in the world.

So you ever heard somebody say, I got offended at that Walmart. I'll never go back. Yeah, right.

I'll be there in the next week. Amen. And so he's telling them here to uphold the purity of the commands that he gave them. But instead of telling people, hey, you need to bring a right offering, they themselves were offering poor sacrifices, animals that were sickly, the ones they didn't want themselves, the left. So they were basically honoring, giving God the leftovers and they were dishonoring God and worship. You need to hear what God says to the nation of Israel in Isaiah chapter one. This is very reflective of of Isaiah chapter one.

Listen to what God says to Isaiah, the nation of Israel, on Isaiah chapter one, verse 11. God says to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord. I am full of burnt offerings of rams, the fat of fed beasts. I have I had I he says, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks and of lambs and of goats. And when you come to appear before me, who had to require this of your hand to tread on my courts?

Look what he says. Bring no more vain. That word just means empty, useless oblations, incenses and abomination. And to me, the new moon Sabbath, the calling of assemblies. I cannot away it with it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. God is calling the solemn Sabbath when they gather together. He said it is like sin when you come together.

Verse 14, your new moons, your appointed feast. My soul hateth. God is hating the religious setting of what they're doing, the system.

It's making him sick. He said they are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you.

Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you.

You say, Well, what should they do? He says, Wash you. Make you clean. Put away the evil of your doing from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless.

Plead for the widow. And listen to the heart of God. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and notice, obedient ye shall eat of the good of the land. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. God is extremely clear, friends, that when we come to worship God, we need to do it with sincerity. We need to do it in truth. We need to not come and say, Well, I'm going to give external obedience to God, but internally I'm disobedient. God examines our hearts and our lives. We can't think that we honor God one hour a week, and 167 hours a week we dishonor him, right?

That's the idea. We need to be a people of integrity and faithfulness. So in Chapter 1, God rebukes them for complaining about their worship. They're saying, also in Chapter 1, they're saying, like, what a weariness it is. They were worn out serving God. It was just, Chapter 1, verse 13, he also said, Behold what a weariness it is.

You snuffed that it saith the Lord. Instead of coming to the house of the Lord, Psalms 100 says, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, serve the Lord with gladness, come to his presence with singing. That's why when we come to church, we come singing, we come worshipping because that's what we're supposed to do. We're to come with a joyful heart. The Bible says in Psalms 100, verse 4, Enter into his gates with thanksgiving into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name for the Lord is good.

His mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations. That's the spirit that we are to come and we have to make sure that we prepare our hearts. I fear sometimes as Christians, we show up out of breath. What happens if I show up to church out of breath? Better to show up out of breath than not to show up, I would say.

But to show up and say, you know what, I'm so exhausted from the world. I give God my leftover of my mind, my thinking, my energy, my time, my resources. I just give him all the leftovers.

And I can tell you what that does is it reflects on how we truly see God. If we don't value him, we won't give him what's valuable. If I if I if I don't value God, I'll give him what I can afford. I'll give him my leftovers.

I'll give him what's comfortable and easy for me. And I'm so thankful that Jesus didn't do that for us. Amen. And so this day, when you get to Chapter two, this is a day of reckoning for the priests. The Lord had known they had no love for God. The reason they didn't love God was they love themselves. They were giving God their leftovers because they gave themselves their best. They had no desire to worship God. They had no love and value for God. That's why when Christians come and hear the word of God, but then they go out and they don't live the word. They don't read it for themselves.

They don't pray. I can tell you that's just saying, God, the level of value that I'm placing on you is not where it needs to be. If I value this book, guess what I'm going to do with it?

I'm going to read it. And if I value what I read, I'm going to obey it. And if I value souls, I'm going to share Christ. And if I value God, I'll spend time in prayer.

And all of those things are true. I mean, just think about a husband and wife's relationship. If you never spend time with each other, what's it saying? Probably I'm valuing something else more importantly to you.

Right. Never spend time together. Never talk.

Never hang out. I can tell you where your value is. It's not in each other. And so this is essential. This is important.

Now, let me give you just three points tonight. First of all, we see God's warning. Look at verse two. He said, if you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessing. Yea, I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart. God highlights two faults in their worship.

Notice the two faults if you can see them in verse number two. First of all, He says, if you will not what? You don't hear. They were not listening. Anybody ever had a child who didn't listen? Anybody ever been a child that didn't listen? Some of us, all of us, right?

We've been given two ears and one mouth, but we use our mouth twice as much than our ears, unfortunately. I had a teenager ask me last week. He said, what does the Bible mean when it says don't be stiff-necked? I thought, what a great question.

A 13-year-old kid asked me that. He asked me about a dozen different questions, like in the Bible, and I thought, that's just so good. You know what that tells me? He studies. He studies. Only people that study ask questions. People that don't study don't ask questions. That's one essential thing you can tell. You know if you study the Bible or not because you come and wait, you ask questions.

And I thought, that's a great question. I told him, you know, it means don't be obstinate. Don't be hard-hearted.

Don't have a bad attitude. Listen to rebuke. I'm sure all of us know what it's like to try to talk to somebody who's not willing to listen. And Jesus made it clear in Matthew 13. He said this over and over again. In Matthew 13 verse 9, who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

If you have ears, he's saying, you need to use them. And the disciples came in verse 10 of that chapter and said unto him, Why do you speak to them in parables? You know Jesus spoke to the people in parables for two reasons. One, he spoke to them in parables to blind their eyes from the truth. And then he spoke to the disciples in parables to reveal truth to them. And so he answered and said, because it's given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them it's not given. You know, Jesus would preach at times to keep the message from people.

Is that shocking? Look what he says. He says, verse 12, for whosoever hath, to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance, but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. God will be the taker if you don't want it. Verse 13, Therefore I speak to them in parables, because they seeing see not and hearing hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, saying, By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed gross, their ears are dull of hearing, their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, hear what there is, should understand what their heart should be converted, and I should heal them. And he closes by saying, But blessed are your eyes, for they see and your ears for they hear. You get it.

You get it. You remember the day when you got it? Remember the day when you're like, Man, it's just like the Word of God just turned on. You've probably said something like this. I've read the Bible before, but now I finally like understand it.

It's like I'm alive now. I like get what the Bible says, and you're always going to have questions, but it's like it starts coming clear to you. And that's the work of the Holy Spirit. God enables the mind to understand it. When somebody says, Well, I can never understand the Bible, one of two problems. One, either you are not saved, or two, you've not put the effort in. Somebody sits down for five minutes, tries to read the Bible. Well, it's just hard to understand, and then they go off. Then they get a new phone, and they study everything in the world for hours to figure out how to use it.

Value has just been shown, right? So listen to what God said to the churches in Revelation. Ephesians 2 7, He that hath an ear let him hear with the Spirit saved into the churches. He said that to the church at Ephesus. Revelation 2 11 the church at Smyrna. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear with the spirit saved through the churches. Revelation 2 17, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear with the Spirit saved through the churches.

He said this seven times to each one of the seven churches. If you have ears, listen to what God has to say, and in a church there will always be people who hear it, who hear it and they'll always be people who don't hear it. They'll always be people who are like, I get what you're saying, there will be other people whose minds you're wondering, who are not, they're so consumed with other things. Not only does the world have their heart through the week, but it has it even in church, they can't get off their phones, they can't get off their, you're like, no preacher, I'm actually reading my Bible right now, so don't get on me, you know, so. But friend, do you have ears to hear? Would God conclude that you have ears to hear? Would he say, you know what, if I said, God, this person in our church, do they have ears to really receive the word of God? What would God say about you specifically?

Consider that. I can tell you three ways that evidence that you have ears to hear, ready? Number one, you make a priority out of God's word, you pursue it.

Just being here tonight is an evidence of that unless you are forced to come. Secondly, you ask questions to yourself or a teacher and you seek the answers. I can tell you, friends, I don't know if that's convicting or not, but it's just the truth, only people who study ask questions.

Only people who study. You don't study the Bible, you'll ask silly questions that don't make sense, like that shows you don't study. But if you really study the Bible, you'll come up with questions like, what does it mean to be stiff necked? I was reading it, what does that word mean? What does that mean?

And you'll just go through all kinds of stuff. And then thirdly, you're obedient to what God says. If you have ears to hear, you will not only pursue it, you'll study it, and then you'll obey what it says. Now, a second fault in their worship was not only they didn't have ears to hear, but notice the second fault in verse number two. He says, if you will not hear, you will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts.

The second fault was they were robbing God of glory. The word glory comes from the Greek word doxa, we get the word doxology, and it means the splendor, majesty, and excellency that belongs to God. That God is, God simply doesn't do glorious things. God is what glory is. Glory is excellence, majesty, splendor. And God alone is worthy of glory. Psalms 29 verse two says, give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.

Worship the Lord or Yahweh in the beauty of holiness. Like we owe God worship. When you see creation, it resounds to the glory of God. You see a baby, you say, God is glorious.

He creates life. And 1 Corinthians 1 31 says, he that glories let him glory in the Lord. And I've mentioned this before through the years, but we have been engineered by God to be worshipers.

We're the only things on earth, we're the only creations on earth that worship, nothing else worships. We, what that means is we celebrate greatness. We respond to greatness. We get excited about the greatest things. That's why we wear sports jerseys with people that we really admire.

We like to keep stats. We do all this and we're the only things that do that. And so we are created that we're engineered by this. And the problem is man creates idols, both in their heart and in the world that replace God. So instead of worshiping God, man begins to worship the creation instead of the creator.

We begin to sell it because God created and creation should reflect the glory of God. But a lot of times that reflection becomes the object of worship. It's like worshiping the moon. Hey guys, the moon didn't generate its own light.

It's the sun, right? And we're trying to direct the world to the glory of the sun, Jesus Christ, and away from the smaller lights. But every problem that comes into the world is always a problem of misplaced glory.

You need to know that. Every problem in your life and mine is a problem of misplaced glory. Romans chapter one tells us this. It says, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful but became empty or vain in their imagination. Their foolish heart was darkened and they professing themselves wise, they became fools. But at the beginning of verse number 21, it says that they knew it was God, but they glorified him not. By the time you get down to verse number 23, it says they changed the glory.

That word just means they exchanged it. Instead of worshiping God, they exchanged God's glory for the glory of an image made like an incorruptible man and the birds and the four foot of bees and creeping. Because I mean, when you look at other false religions, when you look at Native Americans and their faith, all of that stuff was worship of creation, wasn't it?

Just read and study Hinduism a little bit. I mean, Buddhism, it's a worship of creation. And so pure worship stems out of a heart and life that seeks to glorify God. And so ask yourself, do you seek to glorify God? First Corinthians 10 31 says, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Let me give you just a couple of things that can glorify God. The Bible tells us that confessing our sins glorifies God. Remember when Achan sinned in Joshua chapter number seven, the Bible says, when Joshua came to him, he said in Joshua 7 19, my son, give I pray the glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him and tell me now what thou has done, hide it not from me. When we confess our sins, and you know, sometimes we were like, well, you know, I just feel so distant from God and I'm embarrassed to come to God because I know I got sin in my heart. God says that will glorify him when you come and confess your sins.

Because you're recognizing God is holy and you're not. So confession glorifies God. Also repentance glorifies God. Revelation 16 nine says, during the tribulation, men were scorched with great heat, blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues. And they repented not to give him glory. People in the book of Revelation, no matter how severe the tribulation comes, many of them will never, never repent to give glory to God. And so repentance glorifies God and a lack of repentance robs God of glory. Also, do you remember when Jesus healed the 10 lepers?

How many returned to come give him praise? Okay, you guys are holding up one finger. I'm glad it's the right finger. So I told you the story a couple of weeks ago. I think it was I got the single digit going down the road and it's amazing how the flesh comes out when those things happen, isn't it? And then you got to reel it back and say, you know what? That's so silly if I get irritated for even a moment over that. So it's nice that you have a more spiritual wife than yourself.

Anybody got one of those two? Okay, she always keeps you in check. She expects you to live everything that you ever preached. And so you got a line right up there, so that's good.

You keep you accountable. But Luke 17, verse 18, it says, there was not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And what happened was he came back and he thanked God, thanked Christ. He fell down in worship of him and said, thank you. And he was thanking Christ. And Jesus says that that act of thankfulness was giving glory to God.

You know, the night when you were declaring thankfulness, that was giving glory to God. You're glorifying God. Also, having faith glorifies God.

Romans 4 to 20, talking of Abraham, when he believed that God would give him a child at his old age, it says he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Just understand, when you have strong faith that glorifies God, I think many times people say, why am I going through this hardship at this point in my life? You know, my life's winding down. Well, everybody that dies typically dies of an illness at some level. Nobody just really gets, like, old enough and then they just stop living. That can happen sometimes, but it's rare. Usually it's something else.

There's a comorbidity, there's something. But a lot of times you need to understand that God will allow us to face difficulties to give him glory even in the trials. Because he went through that. He let, why did, do you remember when Lazarus got sick? Remember what Jesus said in John 11? He said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God. He was glorified in Lazarus dying and being raised from the dead. And you say, he would let Lazarus die and raise for his own glory? Yes, because two weeks later he would do it himself. Lazarus was a picture of what Christ would do himself.

And so two weeks after he raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus Christ died on the cross and raised his own body out of the grave, right? So number two, let's look at God's judgment. We see God's judgment in verse two through four. The second part, verse number two, it says, I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings.

That's like a paradox. You know, your blessings are cursed. Yeah, I have cursed them already because you did not lay it to heart. You'll see that name used over and over. The Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts. It's used like 250 times in the Old Testament and 24 times here in, I think 249 times exactly in the Old Testament and 24 times here in the book of Malachi. 10% of its uses in the Old Testament are found here in the book of Malachi. God desires blessings upon his people. He wants to bless his people, but when they sin willfully, God must dry up those blessings. And that's an act of love because Proverbs 3, 12 says, for whom the Lord loves, he corrects, he disciplines. Proverbs 13, 24 says, he that spares his rod and hates his son. And so discipline is an act of love. Never forget, we had a parent in our church in Chillicothe and she had a child that was so rebellious that he would not even sit in a room with the other kids and she had a lot of secular degrees and psychology and those kinds of things. And she said, I totally disagree with like disciplining my child. She never told him no, ever. Never obviously thanked him or anything like that. He was so out of control that he could not sit in a room.

I mean, just, she had to be with him all the time because it was just, he was out of control. And we are, telling a child no doesn't hurt their self-esteem. You actually need to crucify their self-esteem on the cross of Christ and give them humility, amen.

Self-esteem is another word for pride. We don't wanna build little prideful kids. Never buy your kid a shirt that says, I am awesome. I never forget these two 10 year olds and look like they were eight or 10. And I know I'm awesome was what their shirt said.

And I thought, that may be cute as a parent when your kid's eight, I don't even think it's cute then. But who wants the 18 year old kid that says, I know I'm awesome. Anybody wanna raise that kid? Anybody wanna marry the guy who thinks he's awesome?

I know I'm awesome. Who wants to work for that guy or hire the guy who thinks he's awesome? What's funny to me is all these guys in like this last 20 years wanna be entrepreneurs. Anybody study that stuff out where like, some of the highest numbers of entrepreneurship came out in the last 20 years. It's because they all thought they could run their own business. It's like, you might wanna start with like, paying your car insurance, cleaning your room, managing your house like area. It's only a 10 by 12 area. If you can't manage that, you probably can't run a business, right? If you can't keep more than $6 in your account, you're probably not gonna be able to run a business. It just some absolute blindness when it comes to that.

Now, some guys do well and can pull that off, but they probably for sure had a parent who told them no at some point. Now listen to God's clear warning to the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 30. He says, see, I've set before thee this day, life and good and death and evil in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandment, his statutes and his judgment that thou mayest live and multiply and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whithersoever thou goest to possess it. He says, but if thine heart turn away so that thou will not hear but shall be drawn away and worship other gods, see, they're not listening now, they're not glorifying God. Verse 18, I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish and you shall not prolong your days in the land whither you pass over Jordan to go and possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you and I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, look what he says, choose life, why? That both thou and thy seed may live.

God presents before us blessing and cursing. He's like, choose life, do right. And so he over and over called the nation to this and that's what he did in Malachi. If you remember back to Malachi chapter one, verse two, he starts out by saying, I have loved you, saith the Lord. And they're like, when did you love us?

And just questioning him. Look at verse three of chapter two. He goes on and says, behold, I will corrupt your seed.

That phrase, behold, like what W.A. Criswell says, this verse begins with the first of five behold clauses in the book, announcing something which will occur in the future. He's saying, behold, I will corrupt your seed. Talking about, I'm going to bring judgment not only upon you, but on your descendants. The curse will come upon you and your descendants.

And this is a pretty strong statement in verse three. And spread dung upon your faces. Even the dung of your solemn feast and one shall take you away with it. The dung of an animal in those days when they were wrought for sacrifice, I mean, you couldn't stop the animal, like, hey, you shouldn't do that in here.

They would take that out of the city and burn it. The feces, the dung of the animal. Here God says, I'm going to take that dung and I'm going to rub it in your face.

Can you imagine being these priests? You're going to rub it in my face? And what he's saying is you're defiled and I'm going to defile you. You're corrupt and I'm going to show you how corrupt you are. You're like a pile of manure. I mean, that's how God is rebuking them. John MacArthur said, this is very graphic language that shows how God viewed unfaithful priest as unworthy and of the most unthinkable disgrace.

I mean, this is severe rebuke. And it was intended to get their attention, like, wake up, get it. I look across our nation and I don't think this nation can wake up for anything. I saw just in one month, we have over 230,000 immigrants cross over our border in one month, illegal immigrants. A quarter million friends in one month. My heart looks at all that. I'm like, man, those guys need the gospel.

And I'm like, man, I'd like to go down there and share the gospel with these people. But I see beyond the physical realm of that and the way I see that, but as a nation, as a sovereign nation, that is the craziest thing. I mean, you've lost your mind as a nation.

Who does that? We're worried about Ukraine's border. And yet we don't even care about our own. Like what nation does that? And now both Republican and Democrat counties are calling a national, like they're calling it an invasion so that they can take some sovereign right of their own. They don't need federal permission to begin to start deporting people out of there.

Like who does that? It's just interesting to see a nation that has abandoned law in so many different ways. We're focused on the slaughter of the unborn and let's just forget everything else. And I think God just, I read stuff like this and I'm like, did that wake them up? There's like, there's really, I don't know what'll wake America up, what it would take.

And I don't know, it's like a nation falls asleep, morally, spiritually, nothing shocks us anymore. I just heard a two-year-old in Europe, they were trying to do sex change to a two-year-old now who's changing genders. That is child abuse, that is child abuse. This is how insane the world is.

And yet people just sit back like, well, it's their choice, their body. I mean, the level of insanity, it's wickedness. It's wickedness. I will say that till the day I die and I don't care if they throw me in jail, I will still say it. Now God's purpose for this judgment, he says in verse number four, look what he says. He says, and you shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you.

He's telling them the painful experience of this judgment that you're gonna face, nation of Israel, you will know that God was the one who sent it. It will be that painful, that clear, that direct, that precise, they would not listen to truth, and now pain would be their instructor. I mean, it's always either I listen to the word of God, I listen to God's truth, or I will listen to pain. It's your choice.

And you say, well, that's not fair. Why would God send pain? Because if you don't walk in the truth, you're gonna walk in air. And if I walk in the darkness and not in the light, and I can have a smooth life, then God would want me to live in delusion. So if you're walking down the wrong path, the blessing is if you bump into some stuff that you say, hey, I don't wanna keep going down this path because it is destructive. So God will allow the pain of that path to remove you from the air of that path and bring you back into repentance and a right relationship with God. And he goes on to say in verse number four that my covenant might be with Levi, say the Lord of hosts.

And here he's telling them that's the purpose. To show them he wants to restore faithful Levi, the priestly tribe. I want to discipline you not simply to punish you, but I want my covenant to be with Levi.

I want it to be with who it was supposed to be with a faithful people. Friend, you will never face discipline from God that is wasted discipline. Any discipline from our loving heavenly father is done for both God's glory and the greatest benefit you and I can get out of it.

Hebrews 12, 11 says, no chastening for the present seem with joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterward it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness under them that are exercised thereby. Anybody ever enjoy the discipline you got from your mom and dad? No, no. Oh man, I say, mom, don't tell him until he's eating dinner, you know, just.

My wife, she must be good and forth. I don't remember a day that I've really come home and my wife's ever had to do that to me. It's not because my kids are so perfect all the time.

They were a lot better than I was. But, but I was always like feed the beast until you tell him the sins, you know, call, pacify him, you know. But discipline is not fun to endure. And I know that all of us have faced discipline from God over different things.

But I think if you went around this room tonight and said, why are you here tonight? Tell me your story. Tell me your story. I think in our stories would come out, you know, I knew these things when I was 10 years old, knew these things when I was 16.

I knew these things when I was 20. Got on a different road, got on the wrong path. I began to go down this way and I began to, I knew God didn't want me to do it, but I did it anyway. I've gotten my own, got my own will, got my own life.

I began to get in these relationships, get gotten into these other things, this and that financially. We just began to tell the story about how we became the Lord of our life. And then it usually comes to, then I began to face some severity, some pain, some loss of relationships, distance from God, this situation, that situation. And then there's enough pain to waken a person to where they say, man, what have I been doing?

And so just know that God's grace has allowed those pains in our life. I have a guy at our church in Chillicothe. He, his parents were a part of our church from the very beginning, probably the first couple of months at the church, the parents came, dear friends of ours to this day.

And they have a son probably about my age and he a little bit younger, get how old I am sometimes. And mid thirties and just really went down the wrong road. Just, you know, nice guy, but he just no spiritual desire.

No, no, not saved, not living for God. And man, he got cancer in his head and they had to move a spot and thought they got it all. He really woke him up, really shook him up and he ends up getting saved.

He had a little baby girl. He's like nine months old now, but that cancer literally has spread through his entire body. He's got tumors bulging off of him, like hundreds of them. It's like the worst thing.

My brother said it's about as worst as you could even imagine. It's just unbelievable. He can't, he's used to be real strong, real strong guy. He can't really stand up anymore.

He's gotta be carried. And you know, I don't know. I don't know what all the reasons for those things are, but I do know that through this, he gave his life to Christ. His daughter got dedicated.

He brought 40 people to his daughter's baby dedication because he wanted them to hear the gospel. You know, I don't want pain to have to awaken us to that degree, but you know what? Better that I suffer physically and get saved spiritually than have a great physical life and go to hell. That's why Jesus said better that you didn't have an eye, right? So tonight, listen and learn, instead of living and learning.

Let me give you a final thought and we'll be done. God's standard is in verse five, down to verse number nine. Verse five, he says, my covenant was with him of life and peace. He begins to talk about the standard that he would call the tribe of Levi to, what he was calling these priests to, their priestly tribe. He says in verse five, I have given them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name. So we see that Levi, at the beginning, that priestly tribe had a godly fear. The Bible tells us where to serve God acceptably with fear and godly reverence and fear, the Bible says in Hebrews 12, 28. And what is sad is the priesthood started so strong with a godly fear and reverence to God, but they drifted so far.

And it's the same thing that can happen to us. We can have a reverence for God, but we begin to drift. And that drift can happen like it did to the church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter two. And so look at verse six, he says, and the law of truth was in his mouth. You see that the priests had to speak correctly. Their truth had to be found in their mouth. They had to be people who said what they meant and meant what they said.

They lived it out. They preached truth. But notice what else he did in verse six. They walked the truth. It says he walked with me in peace or in shalom and in equity. Only a couple of people in the Bible are said to have walked with God. Remember Enoch, it said he walked with God and was not because God had took him, Genesis 5, 24.

And then it says in Genesis 6, nine, these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generation and Noah walked with God. And so they walked with God and it says they had equity.

The word equity means like a level place, which means it's the idea of justice and uprightness. And notice the effect of the faithful priest. He spoke right, he walked right. And then notice what he does in verse number six and it says and he turned many away from iniquity. So it was his faithful teaching and preaching both with his lips in his life that caused people to turn away from their sin. Walter Kayser says the goal of all faithful proclamation of the word is to lead sinners to repentance, to turn many away from iniquity. Faithful proclamation of God's word will turn many to righteousness.

I think it's so essential to know this. The direction of your life will cause other people to go in that direction. You turn away from God's word, you're gonna cause other people to drift. You turn to God's word, you're gonna cause other people to go towards God's word.

Just know you're bringing the flow somewhere. He says in verse seven, for the priest's lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth for he's the messenger of the Lord. In that day, you didn't have a lot of copies of the Bible. You imagine today if there was only two copies of the Bible that we had for Lighthouse Baptist Church. In all of our country, there was only two chapters, two Bibles. And if you were given the book of Malachi, guess what you would do? You would go home and read it like crazy this week because you're like, it's so valuable. But because we have so many copies, the average of three and four in our homes, we don't read it. And I believe Satan said, well, if keeping the Bible from people causes them to crave it more, maybe I'll just overflow them with the Bible so they get worn out with it.

What a weariness it is. Now, the priest, he says, are the people that his nation should turn to. They should come to them and have answers. It says, verse seven, the priest's lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

He's the one they turn to. You priests, he's saying, should be the one that people come to for the truth and you're leading them in the wrong direction. And so I say, dad, mom, if you don't know the Bible, how on earth are you gonna be able to direct your family? Dads, if you don't know the word, how are you gonna be able to point your wife in the right direction or your kids? Moms, how are you gonna point your husband and your children in the right direction?

How are you gonna point anybody in the right direction? Listen, does anybody expect me to faithfully preach the word of God when you come to church? Would anybody be bothered if it's like, you know what, he really didn't study any of that out. He just, he didn't read anything. He just showed up one day, didn't have any notes he studied, didn't labor over the word for hours. He just kind of read a couple verses, said a couple thoughts, and then just began to talk on his own opinions for everything. You would say, man, he doesn't even know what he's talking about. If you expect me to know the Bible for your sake, how much more shouldn't our families feel the same way about us?

Shouldn't our kids say, I expect my mom and dad to know the words that they can share with me. We need to be ready to give an answer. And you're not gonna know everything like you should know at all the time. The more you read the Bible, the more you realize you don't know, but you should be a student. You should be reading every single day, every day. If you read three to four chapters a day, three to four chapters a day, you could read in about 15, 20 minutes. 30 minutes if you're not a very fast reader. You'll read through the entire Bible every year if you do that. And how many, you could watch a silly video for 30 minutes.

You could watch a TV show. You could just turn that off and just spend time in the word of God. Instead of waking up in the morning and opening your phone, get into the word of God and don't read the Bible on your phone.

It's not the best option because you'll get buzzed. You'll get a, somebody will text you or something. You'll be like, and then you'll totally forget and then you won't have ears to hear.

You gotta silence the world. Now, some of you are gonna be like, but that's my Bible study. Well, if you can figure it out and turn off all notifications, that's okay.

But just keep the notifications off is my point. Now look at verse eight and nine as we wrap this up. Notice the contrast God's standard and the failing of the priest in Malachi's day in verse eight and nine. He says, but you're departed out of the way. You have caused many to stumble that the law, you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, say the Lord. The word, but there is a strong contrast. He's saying, stop and ponder what I'm telling you.

You may look good in your own eyes, but you're off. He's telling them they departed from God's truth. They fell away from it. Notice God's punishment in verse nine. Therefore, I have also made you contemptible. That's the idea of little value, little worth before the people. God calls them to be seen as those who have little value. And notice the sin that they were involved in in verse nine. According as you have not kept my ways, you're not living according to God's truth.

You're the priest, you're the ones who should be laying it out. He says, but you've been partial in the law. And what they were doing is they were showing favoritism to people based on their social status, based on their economic position.

They were playing favorites. And he says, you're being partial. You've not kept my law. And they were picking and choosing what they wanted to preach, what they wanted to hold to, what they wanted to highlight. And God says, judgment's going to fall.

And I read this and I just think, God, this is the case of America. This is the churches of our country. People who get up and I can tell you right now, friends, there are pastors that would read certain places in this Bible and they would say, yeah, I'm not gonna preach on that. Yeah, I'm not gonna preach. You know why they don't go verse by verse through a book? Because they're not gonna preach on that. Matthew 5 44, if your right hand offend you, cut it off and better to be in having one hand and then to have two healthy hands and be cast in the hell fire, not gonna preach that.

No, you know, I mean, it's just one after another. And so when you preach verse by verse, you're forced to the text. The text determines God's message because it is God's message. And so I conclude by saying leadership is a huge deal. All of us are leading somebody. All of us are influencing somebody. And for us to lead right, we have to be led right.

External leading starts with internal leading. When this truth is implanted in the heart of a person, they can begin to live that out. Joshua 1 8, God says, Joshua, Moses, my servant is dead. I want you to take this law. I want you to meditate on it day and night that you may observe the things that are written therein. Then shall you make your way prosperous, then shall you have good success. Have not I commanded you? Be strong and of courage. Be not afraid for the Lord is with you always.

Don't let this depart from your mouth. And so tonight, God spoke in your heart. Maybe you just need to make a commitment to really dive into the word of God, being faithful to it. Maybe there's influence in your life.

You say, man, I need to do a better job of leading somebody else in your life. Just know this, the greater influence you have from the word of God, the greater impact you will have on other people. Let's all stand tonight.

Heads bowed, knives closed. God spoke in your heart tonight. You're welcome to come. If you don't know the Lord, Jesus Christ is your savior. We got men and women down front that could share with you from the word of God how you can know when your life's over, you'll be in heaven. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your mercy, for your grace, for salvation. God, I pray tonight that if anyone in this room doesn't know Christ as their savior, they might come tonight and be saved. Bless now as we reflect upon your word, as we honor you with our singing. God, I pray that our hearts would be clean before you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.