Spiritual disintegration. It doesn't happen overnight.
It's a steady slide over time. The decay of Israel's priesthood went back centuries. By four hundred years before Jesus, the spiritual rot was deep and widespread. So now God sent the prophet Malachi to give them one final warning with language designed to call them back from the edge of disaster. Today we'll see how that warning has implications for our day. From Chicago, welcome to The Moody Church Hour with Pastor Philip Miller. In a moment, a time of worship and teaching as we continue a series on tough love and tender mercies taken from the book of Malachi.
Today's focus, misleading ministers. Here now is Pastor Philip along with worship leader Tim Stafford. Alright, good morning Moody Church.
It's good to see you on this bright and sunny day and wherever you came from, whether you drove in from the suburbs or out of state or whether you're right here local or whether you're joining us by radio or streaming online, we're so glad you're here. We want to give this service to the Lord God. He's blessed us in so many ways and he desires and deserves and demands our first and best. Amen. And so we come to give him the praise and glory and honor that is rightfully due his name.
So would you bow your heads? Let's pray as we begin this morning. Father, you are holy. You are almighty. You are worthy of all of our praise. You have created us in your image.
You have woken us up this morning. You give us life and breath and everything else and you are worthy of all of our praise. You have saved us by the blood of Jesus Christ who died in our place and for our sake is our substitute. And so we are your redeemed people called by your name, adopted into your family and we come to proclaim the glories and excellencies of your name. And so Father, as we lift our voices to you, may you be pleased with this sacrifice of praise that we bring to you this morning.
We pray this all in Jesus name and all God's people said, amen. Amen. The gospel has transformed us. Amen. And we're here with and worshiping the one who gave his all, his first and best. God gave us his only son, Jesus, that we could be here today as a church family, praising the Lord with a clear conscience.
Amen. Let's turn now to the scriptures. Let's speak to these things from Hebrews 10 that tells us what we have in Christ and why we can gather here today to worship him.
This is God's holy word. For since the law has but a shadow of good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near. And every priest stands daily at this service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time, those who are being sanctified. Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that is open for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Jesus, the name above every other name. Jesus, the only one who could ever save.
Worthy of every breath he could ever breathe. Be there for you. Oh, be there for you. Holy, there is no one like you.
There is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder. Show me who you are. Open up my eyes in wonder. Open up my eyes in wonder. And I will not be shaken. Open up my eyes in wonder. Show me who you are. And I will not be shaken.
Holy, there is no one like you. There is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder. Show me who you are.
And I will not be shaken. Open up my eyes in wonder. There is none beside you. There is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder. There is none beside you.
Open up my eyes in wonder. Thank you, Lord, for our foundation. You are our cornerstone.
We have no reason to be afraid. This cornerstone, your foundation. You are faithful to the end. We are waiting on you, Jesus. We believe your rose. Precious cornerstone, your foundation. You are faithful to the end. We are waiting on you, Jesus.
We believe your rose. Holy Son of God, stand from heaven. Hope and mercy at the cross. You are heavenly. You're the promised angel.
You are onto us. Let the glory of your grace be the passion of your church. Let the righteous place survive. He alone will claim the world.
Let his saving love arise. Be the measure of our lives. We believe your rose.
When this passing world is over, we will see you face to face. And forever we will worship Jesus, you are onto us. Jesus, you are onto us. You're onto us. You're onto us. You're onto us.
Yes, you are onto us. Let the glory of your grace be the passion of your church. Let the righteous place survive. He alone will claim the world. Let his saving love arise. Be the measure of our lives.
We believe you're onto us. Oh, bread of life, come, sleep in it, you who pass. Leave my church with life and love. Oh, bread of life, come, cleanse, remove us. And with our church we'll bring this love. Oh, wind of God, come, lend us, break us. Till the day we confess our peace. Let in thy tenderness reclaim us.
We've had this love for years to be. Oh, bread of love, come, reclaim us. We'll move in God and live in God. Come, love of Christ, the bread you give us. Revive thy church in every part. Revive us, for we see the making.
Our promise is our lasting light. Be by the Son, the Word is waiting. Leave with thy church to spare us all.
Lord, let no evil thing stand here. Cleanse us today. Right now we confess our sins. And we breathe your name. We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen. Have you ever wondered how the priests and teachers of the law in Jesus' day got so far off spiritually that when the Messiah, the Son of God, stood right in front of them, they missed him. Missed him entirely. Not only did they miss him, they crucified him.
The very religious leaders who were supposed to point people to God killed him. How on earth did that happen? How did they go so far wrong?
How did they get so far off? Well, it didn't happen overnight. The slide into spiritual disintegration never does.
It's a long slide. It's a slow fade. It's a steady decay. Ask anyone who's ever blown up their marriage. Ask anyone whose ministry has ever been rocked by scandal.
Ask anyone who ever throws in the towel on their faith. It doesn't happen in an instant. It happens over years, months and years. The decay goes back deep. And the spiritual decay of the priesthood goes back a long way, at least centuries. As far back as the book of Malachi, which was written 450 years before Jesus, the spiritual rot was already deep in the bones.
The decay was already widespread. God had sent prophet after prophet to try to get his people to come back to repentance, to get his priests to shape up and get their act together and come back and worship him in holiness. And time and time again, they had ignored the word of the Lord. And so now in a final warning, God sends Malachi with language that is designed to shock and startle and wake them up and call them back from the edge of spiritual decay and disaster.
It's a call to repent and to return to the Lord. And with this tough love, the Lord is going to call them back to his tender mercies. So grab your Bibles.
Let's open up to Malachi chapter two. We're going to look at the first nine verses today. Again, Malachi chapter two, if you'll listen as I read verses one down to nine. This is the word of the Lord. And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings.
Indeed, I've already cursed them because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me.
He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and the people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you, you have turned aside from the way.
You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction. Thanks be to the Lord for the reading of his word. You'll recall that Malachi is roughly divided into six disputes, six arguments between the people and God as they go back and forth, and we are in the second half of the second dispute.
We looked at the first half last time. It began back in chapter 1, verse 6, and it runs all the way through our text today to the end of chapter 2, verse 9. And in the first half that we looked at last time, God called out the people for sacrificing their lame and sick and maimed and deformed animals as sacrifices in the temple, instead of giving God their first and best, which was what was required. He says, you've dishonored my name with your corrupt offerings. But not only did he call out the people for their offerings, he called out the priests, because the priests were the ones who were saying, yeah, that animal's OK.
It's good enough for God. And they were the ones allowing these sacrifices that were clearly, obviously deficient, falling short of the standards of the first and best that was required of God's people. They were skimping on their offerings, and the priests were saying, oh, it's fine.
Let it slide. And so God called out the priests and said, you, you are dishonoring my name. You are the ones who find your temple service so tediously burdensome.
And so I'm going to call you out as well. And now in the second half of this second dispute, God is going to press in to the priests. He's going to focus on them and their failure in the priesthood. This passage divides rather neatly into three buckets here. We've got the curse, the covenant, and the charge. OK, the curse, the covenant, and the charge.
There's your outline for this morning. Would you bow your heads, let's pray, and then we'll dive in. Father, everything rises and falls on leadership. And we know that's true in the spiritual dimension as well. Godly leaders lead people to you. And ungodly leaders can ruin the faith of many. And so Father, would you help me to be faithful? Help us to keep our eyes on you. Help us to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth as we turn to your word.
We give you ourselves, we hold nothing back. In Christ's name we pray, amen, amen. So first of all, the curse, the curse. Verse 1, and now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give me honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I've already cursed them because you do not lay it to heart. This is about as direct as it gets, right? Priests, I'm talking to you, to you.
This command is for you. And if you won't listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, which is my rightful due and your rightful duty, then I will send a curse upon you and your blessings. Now the idea that they would be under a curse, that's pretty clear what that means. Instead of living under the good and gracious blessings of God, they will find themselves instead under his righteous judgment and his holy wrath. But what is this about cursing their blessings?
What on earth does that mean? Well, as best as I can tell from the scholars that I trust, this seems to be a reference to the blessing of their priestly office. It's a blessing of their priestly office. You'll recall that God chose the tribe of Levi, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, the tribe of Levi that came from Levi himself. He chose them in particular to serve as priests in the temple for the worship of God. They were set aside from all the other tribes of Israel for a blessed assignment. They were to be priests. And as priests, they were in charge of bringing blessings to the Lord on behalf of the people, and they were in charge of mediating the blessings from the Lord to the people. And so the priestly role was a role of blessing.
It was to minister at the very heart of the blessings that flowed from the people to God and from God back to the people. God is saying, look, if you won't listen to me, priests, if you won't take it to heart to honor my name, then a curse is coming upon you and it's coming upon the blessing you have of serving as my priests. In fact, the curse is even already upon you, because even now, as I speak, you are not heeding my commands.
You are not taking them to heart. In other words, he's saying, you're in danger of losing your ministry. You're in danger of losing your ministry. And it's not just you, but your children as well. Verse 3, but behold, I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.
You know that I have sent this command to you. The priesthood, of course, ran in the families of the Levites within the tribe of Levi. And so in this case, the sins of the father will have consequences upon their children. Your curse will be your children's rebuke. Can't you sense God's earnest plea here? He's saying, look, if you won't heed my word for your own sake, heed it for the sake of your children. Because if I take the priesthood from you, it means your children won't get it either, and your children will lose out. Think of them. Think of the consequences of your failure to honor me as I deserve to be honored. And then we come to the most graphic and repulsive part of this text.
It's crazy, isn't it? This is the word of the Lord, the Lord. I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.
And the word dung here is a technical term. It is one that the priests would have been all too familiar with. It is the word for the unclean entrails and bowels of the sacrificial animals that they offered in the temple. So before the offering took place, they gutted the animals. They kind of field dressed it, if you will, and took everything out, the entire GI tract from start to finish. And they removed all of that.
It was called the awful. And they removed it, and they took it outside the city. It was unclean, and they burned it, destroyed it. And the priests were super careful in handling all of this. They wrapped it, and they did all kinds of things to avoid touching it because they couldn't become unclean. They didn't want to get gross and dirty and unclean, so they couldn't serve in the temple. And so they were really careful as they took it and removed it and burned it outside the city.
They did all of that. They didn't want to touch it. And God says, all that stuff that's so dirty and unclean, it's going to be all over your faces. I'm going to wipe it on your face because that's what you're doing to me. With all your corrupt, spoiled, and putrid offerings, it's coming up before my face. And so let's see what you think. Turnaround's fair play.
How do you like it? It's graphic, isn't it? Now, of course, God isn't literally going to wipe that stuff on their face. But you see what he's doing here with his language. He's using imagery they'll be sure to understand. Writing categories they deal with on a daily basis, and it's so graphic, they can't ignore it. It's meant to shock them. It's meant to grab their attention.
It's meant to be unforgettably penetrating. He's saying, listen to me. You're about to lose everything. Your office, your ministry, all that I've given you as a blessing. You serve me on behalf of the people. It's all about to go away.
And I don't want you to go through that. Please, turn, turn while you still can. You see, the priests were in danger of losing their ministry. The priests are in danger of losing their ministry. If they don't course correct, all the blessings they enjoy in this ministry they have will be taken away. Just like the awful was taken away outside the city and burned in the curse of a fire because there was nothing in it that was pleasing to the Lord. So their office is about to be taken away and destroyed.
There's nothing in it that gives me pleasure, the Father says. It's a curse. Sobering, isn't it?
Sobering. So from the curse now to the covenant, verse 4. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts.
I don't want to void this covenant that I have with Levi, with the priesthood. I want it to stand. I want it to endure. My intent is not to destroy you. I'm trying to save you.
I'm trying to help you. That's why I'm sending you this command as a warning. Please heed it. Verse 5, my covenant with him was one of life and peace and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear and he feared me.
He stood in awe of my name. Now the covenant with Levi is most likely a reference to Deuteronomy 33, verses 9 and 10. Deuteronomy 33, 9 and 10, where Moses gives a blessing to each of the tribes of Israel.
This one is particularly for the Levites. This is what Moses says. For they observed your word, the Lord's word, and kept your covenant. They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law. They shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. So here we get a basic job description, the essential calling of the priesthood.
There's four things. They were to walk with God. They were to observe his word and keep his covenant personally. They were to teach the word.
They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law. They were to intercede in prayer. The incense that they offered in the temple was accompanied by daily prayers that were offered on behalf of the people. So this is a ministry of prayer, this ministry of incense. So they were to intercede in prayer and then finally they were to offer sacrifices. There were daily sacrifices, there were periodic sacrifices throughout the year, and then of course the high water moment was the day of atonement when they made sacrifices on behalf of the people so that they might be right with God. And when the sons of Levi fulfilled this calling, this fourfold calling to walk with God, teach the word, intercede in prayer, and offer sacrifices, the results, he says, were a covenant of life and peace.
Instead of death, which is what all of our sins deserve, now the priestly ministry brings people into life, life before God, and peace, peace, shalom, well-being, peace with God, atoned and made right with him, peace with one another, reconciled brother and sister to brother and sister, peace within ourselves, forgiveness, spiritually cleansing us from sin. And it was because it was a covenant of fear, and not one of cowering, but one of reverential awe before the mightiness of God. He stood, Levi stood in awe of my name, God says. He gave me the honor that is rightly due, my name. And that's why life and peace flowed through his ministry.
He treated me as I deserve to be treated. That's why he was effective as a shepherd, as a minister, as a priest over the people. Blessings flowed through his ministry.
Verse 6, true instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. He turned many from iniquity, for the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts. What a great endorsement these few sentences are, isn't it? He spoke my truth.
He walked with me. He turned many from iniquity, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. He's an envoy of the commander of the armies of heaven. And alas, that the sons of Levi should have fallen so very far from this standard. For these priests of Malachi's day are not like their ancient father.
In fact, they're quite the opposite, aren't they? The priests have corrupted the essence of their calling. The priests have corrupted the essence of their calling. They've neglected their walk with God. They've distorted the teaching of his word. They've become calloused in their prayers of intercession, and they have corrupted their sacrificial offerings. The very heart of their priestly ministry has been compromised.
You see that? It's nothing like when God set things up with Levi. It has drifted so very far. And so now, like a prosecuting attorney, God is going to bring the charge, the charge.
We've seen the curse, the covenant, and now the charge. Verse 8. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased before all the people inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction. So the Lord charges them with three counts, okay?
Three counts, three offenses. The first charge is that you're meandering. You're meandering. You've turned aside from the way. You're no longer following me. You're off doing your own thing.
Whatever it is you want, that's what you're all about. Second charge, misleading. You're misleading. You've caused many to stumble by your instruction. You've led people astray. You've led them wrong. You've led them into harm's way.
Third charge, mangling, mangling. You've corrupted the covenant of Levi. You've twisted your calling.
You've cursed your blessings. And what is at the root of all of this meandering and misleading and mangling? Where did it all arise from?
Well, it's right there at the end of verse 9. You do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction. Partiality. You tell one person one thing, tell another person another thing. You're highly selective in what you choose to communicate. Instead of speaking my word with unflinching clarity, you've decided to accommodate to your audience. You've decided you're going to tell people what they want to hear. That's what you're doing. And the priests, you see, have led the people astray with platitudes.
They just tell people what they want to hear. Just these little, you know, just offer whatever you want. God's good with just whatever you bring. He's just happy you're here.
Forget that first and best stuff. God wants you to be happy and prosperous and He doesn't mean for you to sacrifice in such a way that it would dent your personal agenda and finances. Just follow your heart. What does your heart tell you? You know that God of holiness that calls out sin?
That's so old school. I'm OK, you're OK. God's OK with whatever life choices you want to make. You just do you. And God says, look, you're tickling people's ears. You're just telling people what they want to hear. You're creating a friction-free religion that has no ability to correct or pull people into holiness and righteousness before me. And you might get a pat on the back from them, but you're not getting one from me. Because you fear people more than you fear God.
That's what's going on. You fear people more than you fear God. And so God says, I will make you despised and abased before all the people.
The very people you want so very much to be liked by, those are the people that are going to see right through and are going to see who you are, who you really are, and they're going to despise and abase you. You have dishonored my name before the people and so now I will dishonor your name before the people. You see, the priests, I'm sure the priests thought they were being loving by sparing people's feelings with their sugar-coated half-truths. But it only led away from life and peace with God. You see that?
There's nothing loving in that. Friends, the takeaway for all of us, we need the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help us God. Amen? We don't need platitudes. We don't need half-truths. We need the whole truth.
We need an unadulterated truth, unvarnished truth, undiluted truth, unwavering truth. And the truth of the matter is that we owe God everything, that He made us, He gave us life and breath and everything else, and we owe every minute of every day to Him. He's our Creator. And the truth is that you and I, all of us, we have failed to worship Him as He is rightfully due. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We have all of us failed to love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
We have all failed to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are sinners by birth, by choice, and by habit. And the wages of our sin is death. And we stand apart from grace under the righteous judgment of a holy God. But God in His great mercy sent His Son Jesus Christ to live the perfect life we could never live, to die the sinful, cursed death we deserved, and to rise again to give us a life we could never merit on our own. So that when, yeah, amen. So that when we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and King, our sins can be forgiven. We can be adopted into the family of God forever. The Holy Spirit can indwell us and make us righteous in our daily lives, and we are eternally secure in His love now and forevermore. And don't you see, friends, the truth has both good and bad in it, doesn't it? There's bad news. The bad news of our sin makes way for the good news of our salvation.
Tough love gives us the bad news we'd prefer to ignore, and tender mercies gives us the good news we find it hard to believe. And friends, that's ultimately where the priests got it wrong. That's where they went wrong. They stopped telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. They feared people more than they feared God, and they became misleading ministers, didn't they? And the book of Malachi, this is amazing, friends, the book of Malachi is like a warning shot that is fired across the bow of the priesthood.
He said, if you don't straighten out, if you don't get back on track, I'm going to take away your ministry. And then he gives 400 years of mercy. 400 years for them to get this right. Maybe your kids will get it right.
Maybe your grandkids will get it right. And each successive generation doubles down on their disobedience to the point where in Jesus' day it had devolved into a bought and paid for political appointment, this priesthood, with no spiritual vitality whatsoever. And then in walks the true and greater priest who cleanses the temple, who feared God and stood in awe of his name, who had true instruction in his mouth and no wrong found on his lips, who walked with God the Father in peace and uprightness and turned many from iniquity. On his lips, he guarded knowledge and the people sought instruction from his mouth and he was the true messenger of the Lord of hosts. He observed God's word perfectly. He kept God's covenant completely. He taught us the law of God with truth and clarity. He prayed with intercession on behalf of the people and he made a once and for all perfect sacrifice for sins in his own flesh. Hebrews 9 verses 11 and 12 say this.
When Christ appeared as a high priest, he entered once and for all into the holy place, taking not the blood of goats and calves, but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. In Hebrews 7, 23 and 24 it says, he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
His priesthood, Hebrews 7, 16, is established by the power of an indestructible life. That's why Hebrews 4 verses 14 to 16 says, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, the son of God, let us hold fast to our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are and yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Do you see friends, friends, Jesus is the priest who should have been. Jesus is the priest who should have been. His coming is both an indictment of judgment against the failures of the priesthood and it is also an inspiring hope for every failed priest.
Do you see that? It's an indictment of the priesthood, but it is hope for the priest, the failed priest, because think about it, Jesus is the perfect priest. He should have received the blessing and favor and reward and honor that is rightly associated with the priesthood and the ministry, but instead what did Jesus receive? He was the one who bore the curse in his death. The filth of our shame was smeared upon his face. He was carried outside the city where the burning curse of God's wrath fell upon him in destruction. He was treated as if there was nothing in him that was pleasing to the Lord. He was despised.
He was abased before the people. Everything that was threatened here, everything the failed priest deserved to receive because of their sins fell in fullness upon Jesus. Why?
Why? Because Jesus came as our substitute. He came not just as the true and better priest, he came as the true and final sacrifice. The faultless priest came to lay down his life for all the failed priests who ever were. The righteous died for the unrighteous to bring us to God. You see friends, Jesus came not just to set the priesthood right, but to set every sinner right because none of us have lived up to the breath of our spiritual responsibilities before God.
The failure is not confined to the priesthood. The failure lies within every single one of us. Our only hope, the only hope for helplessly failed sinners like me, like you and me, is Jesus. He's our only hope.
Romans 3, 23 to 25 says this, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. Our only hope lies in the hands of our great high priest and his once and for all sacrifice for you and for me. Amen? Amen.
Let's pray. Father, it's easy to read texts like this and see the failure of others. Father, help us to see our own sin, our own falling short. And having seen just how sinful we are, help us to see how loved we are in Jesus Christ. For He has come to rescue us, to make all things right, to be righteous where others have failed, to be holy where everyone else has botched it, and to lay down His life as our substitute so that we can come home by grace through faith in Him. So, Father, we cling to the mercies of Christ, His tender mercies. Father, thank you for your tough love which drives us into the arms of your tender mercies. We thank you. In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen. Our benediction today is from Hebrews. We've been in Hebrews a lot, haven't we? But let's read verses 19 down to 23 again. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Amen? Friends, remember you are loved in Jesus Christ more than you could ever know. So now let's go and be the church.
Have a great Sunday. On today's Moody Church Hour, we heard Pastor Philip Miller telling us about misleading ministers, taken from Malachi chapter 2. This has been the third in a four-part series on tough love and tender mercies. The greatest commandment Jesus spoke of was this, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Because if we love God rightly, we will love our neighbor, and a failure to love our neighbor is a failure to love God. Next time on The Moody Church Hour, we focus on abandoning covenants, how the men of Israel failed to be faithful to their wives.
In this way, they were faithless toward God. Plan to listen next week. The Moody Church Hour is a listeners supported ministry. We count on the ongoing financial support of listeners like you. Together, we share solid biblical teaching that transforms lives across America and around the world. You can call us at 1-800-215-5001.
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