God's Wake Up Call

Alrighty. Thank you, Al. I get the privilege of teaming up with Al couple times a year. We're gonna be in the last book of the Bible, Old Testament. That's Malachi.

Give you a moment to turn there. Last book of the Old Testament. I've given a message in chapter one, maybe two messages a while back, and I kinda wanted to continue in Malachi for this message today. It's the same theme in chapter two. It's speaking of declension morally, socially, and spiritually of God's people.

It really is a contemporary message for today. Lots lots in the Old Testament that are similar to our situation that we are in today. This chapter that I'm gonna read here, it has a lot to say about leadership and the fact that everything rises or falls on leadership. I mean, that's true in homes, that's true in churches, true in nations. And then we're going to look at, in the text today, we'll read and learn about not only the difference but the resulting fruit of good and poor leadership.

And the truth applies to every believer because to someone we are a leader. Could be children, it could be observers that are unknown and it's an awesome thought that our behavior can tip a person one way or the other toward God or away from him. It's actually a little bit little bit of a scary thought. In fact, it's an awesome responsibility. Let's open our bible to Malachi chapter two and I'll read nine verses.

I won't be able to read all the verses in my message today, but I do have an outline in the bulletin there. I've listed some of them if you wanna get look at them later. Malachi chapter two verse one through nine. It says, and now, oh, ye priests, this commandment is for you. 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 blessings.

Yea, I have cursed them already because ye 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 the one shall take away until 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 and was afraid before my name. The 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 turn many away from iniquity. For 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. But you are departed out of the way. You have caused many to stumble 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. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this day and thank you for your word, the word in the Old Testament pages that we're looking at today. Help us, Lord, to see how some of these truths might apply to our own lives personally. I thank you, Lord, that you will help us if we need help, If we cry out to you for salvation with belief in our heart, you'll save us.

If we cry out to you for help in our struggles, you'll hear us and you'll respond. And Lord, I pray as we, hear your word that the Holy Spirit would have his way. There'd be one in our midst that has never trusted you initially to be their personal savior. I pray this would be the day they would make that decision. And, Lord, I do pray, including myself, that if there are decisions that need to be made, changes that need to be made in our lives, I pray we would leave this place determined to get things right with you.

And Lord, as always, we thank you for the visitors in our midst. I pray they might feel loved and welcomed today. And Lord, I pray now that all that I say and do and all that we do in this service would be done for your honor, your glory. I pray you'll be exalted today in our midst. In Jesus' name, I pray.

Amen. Malachi, chapter two, it speaks of corruption. You know, the Old Testament priesthood was a very important office office that served the spiritual needs of the people. The priest would offer up prayers and thanksgivings and sacrifices, and he represented the people in the things pertaining to God. But he also was a representative of God to man.

He would find out the message, and he would deliver it to the people. That's what Malachi is doing. It's still true preaching today and teaching. It would a preacher gives you a message. It's something that God has put on his heart.

And as, imperfect as the preacher might be be, it's a message God wants us to hear. And, at the priest though, in Numbers chapter 16, I won't turn there, but three elements of a priest who had are mentioned there, they had to be chosen or set apart by God. They had to be holy, Number two, and they represented the people and they would bring God's message to the people. And not only was this an awesome responsibility, but it was a great honor and a great privilege to handle God's word and his ministry and to be chosen. And one of the things that had to be true is the person had to be very close to God.

And we're gonna see in our message today that that was a problem here. Now when I speak of priesthood, we don't have a priesthood today like the Old Testament. You know, some people call themselves priests today and they have a certain order of people. That's not a biblical position. That's a man made system.

Look in, I just wanna show you this quickly because some people don't know this. First Peter chapter two, and this is a glorious truth for the New Testament. First Peter chapter two, I'm going to read just a couple of verses. Verse five, and Peter is writing to believers like you and me if we put our trust in Jesus. He's not writing to just a little group of people.

It's to all believers. He says, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And then look in, verse nine. It says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So the priesthood today are believers.

You are a priest in the sight of God, and so and that's an important truth in, the New Testament days. So when I see a group of men that call themselves priests, they're not a priest to me unless they're saved. They're just same as me. They're not on a special order of some sort. That's not in the New Testament.

In the Old Testament, where we're reading today, there was a priesthood. And that's what we're going to look at here today in the rest of the message. Well, in the past, the tribe of Levi or Levi himself at first was picked to be the priestly tribe. Now if we were to pick, if we were to pick someone, we probably wouldn't have picked Levi. The Bible doesn't have good things to say about him.

In fact, in Genesis, I think it was in Genesis, 34, he's picked, but in, I think it's Genesis 49. Just let me make sure. Genesis chapter 49. Oh, yeah. That's I wanna read a couple of verses there in a minute, but when, Levi was picked, and like I said, I probably we probably wouldn't have picked him in Genesis 34.

There's a story there about Dinah and a man named Shechem, is the son of Hamor, came and he wanted Dinah. He he, he had a relationship with her He wanted her to be his wife, so he goes and asks Jacob about it and and then Levi and Simeon come back from the field and they hear about it and so they come up with this plan. They tell the the men that if they're willing to get circumcised, that they'll give them dinah and they'll swap wives and and merge with them. So this group, that Shechem and Hamor were from, they were very happy to do that. They agreed to it.

All the men were circumcised. Well, Levi and Simeon were up to no good. They waited the third day when the men were very sore and and, disabled pretty much, and they go into the city and they kill every male. They just kill him. And then in Genesis chapter 49, Jacob addresses this problem in Genesis 49 verses, five through seven.

He said, Simeon and Levi are brethren. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret, into their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united. For in their anger, they slew a man, and in their self will, they dig down a wall. So Jacob's pretty upset by their deception and their murder, and so we really don't have much to commend Levi to God.

And God does scatter them eventually by not giving them any territory, and they were scattered out among the tribes to eventually become the priesthood. So Levi himself was not such a great character as his own father testifies, but centuries later, things improve in the tribe of Levi. In fact, after the golden calf incident, Moses gives the tribe of Levi his blessing. And although Levi was a brutal murderer, the tribe that came from him observed the word of God and kept the covenant. They were appointed by God to teach the people the laws of God and to offer prayers and sacrifices before the Lord God.

And Malachi commands the priest of old. They feared the Lord and they were conscientious in their service to the Lord and to the people. They sought knowledge and spoke the truth to the people. The people could count on them for leadership. They helped the people to recognize and acknowledge and forsake their sin.

In other words, they were steady, they were stable, and they were true at one point. I couldn't help but think about today. You know, I'm thankful that that's a description of our pastor here, pastor Polar. He's a steady, stable, true leader. And the same is true with his wife and we I really appreciate them and I appreciate what they stand for and they've been here, what, eighteen years or something like that?

And they stuck right in there and we can trust their leadership, not that they're perfect, but, that's the way the priests of old were and they're commended in scripture. But in Malachi's day when he's writing this, the present time then, a big problem had developed. The priest developed two basic problems that led them to a point where God has to say enough is enough. One thing is they they had departed from walking with God. Yeah.

That was one of the requirements of a priest. And the other thing was they had a desire to curry favor with man. In other words, they tickled ears. They, you know, they wanted to please people. They accepted offerings that had blemishes which was, you know, not to be done.

They had heartless service. Look in verse two again. It says, if ye will not hear and if ye 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 blessings. Yea, I've cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart. Heartless service.

Going through the motions without emotion. You're not taking their office seriously. It's just a job. Just go through the motions and get paid for it. You know, there's there's a lot of that today in Christianity, in different churches.

There are people that have taken positions because of the salary. I remember, my wife and I served in a ministry in Saint Petersburg who helped it get back on its feet. We were members here, and then we left for about four four years. I remember some of the they were looking for someone, and they had one pastor wrote a letter. He said, you gotta have at least 200 people, and my salary has to be this much if you want me to come.

Of course, his application. And another person wanted to know how dangerous it was in Saint Petersburg. He didn't wanna bring his family here if it was a dangerous place. Well, of course, you know, that application. Then we we eventually took the took the job and was able to leave the church and get it back on its feet.

But these priests, heartless service. It made it easy for the people to be hypocritical, and they failed the people to find the Lord and to grow in the Lord. You know, one of the good things about stable leadership is we as a people under a good leader will continually grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. It's like second Peter three eighteen tells us to do. And then there was headless service.

Look in verse seven. Speaking of the brain, for 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. See, they were serving without knowledge and what I see in that verse is they are serving without study and prayer and personal application. So I say, you know, these priests, they were heart they had heartless service. They had headless service.

You know, they weren't seeking God's message. They weren't seeking him in prayer so that the message they got actually came from God. And when the leadership in this day or even in a church today is corrupt and there's no heart, there's no effort to study the truth, there's just a ripple effect. What happens is, instead of spiritual growth, there's confusion and there certainly will not be much spiritual growth taking place. You have the blind leading the blind.

And what I want us to notice here is, these priests here, they were misrepresented. They were, God was being misrepresented by them. First by their unworthy lives, then by their erroneous teaching, ear tickling stuff, and this mad misled others to miss out on the idea of committed service to the Lord, and this type of behavior is abhorred by the Lord. I won't turn there, but you are are familiar in Revelation chapter three fourteen and through 16, the church at Laodicea is mentioned, and God eventually has to say, you're lukewarm. And then he says, I'm gonna throw you up.

I'm gonna vomit you. You know, that's pretty strong, you know, language coming from God as he observes a people and this is the way these priests were. And they caused a lot of confusion. No guidance. They could not rely on the priest to teach them God's word.

And, again, this this it's a priest in view here, but it's it's talking about pastors. It's talking about parents. It's talking about teachers. It's talking about Christians because we all are a leader of someone. People observe us and sometimes we don't even know it.

And that's why it's so important that we we learn this lesson here. The life and message of God's leader should be such that it should point people to God and should people to look for understanding of God's plan for their lives. They should be able to have confidence in their leaders. I remember we had a ministry up in Prince Edward Island, Canada and we were a small group. We'd started it from scratch.

But occasionally, I would get a call from another church person, another member. A call from a church that was not a very good church, lukewarm type of a ministry. And I had several times. I got a call and they asked me a question or two and and their their their final thing was, I knew that I would get a bible answer. That's why I called you.

And one time, I had a person studying for the the priesthood today that's existed is not biblical And he he, I'd sent a gospel letter out to all the neighborhood mailboxes, had the gospel in there. He was offended by it. And he called me to refute the message and he said, we're already all say we're already saved in this the whole town saved. There's no need for you to be here. So he would say something and I'd give him a bible answer.

And then we went on for about forty minutes. He he said that, I was not fit to be a pastor because I hadn't studied Plato and all these other, you know, writers. And in the end, he says, is that all you can say the Bible says? I said, yep. The Bible says.

That's all I need to say. I'll I don't need to study all those people in the past. I just need to study Jesus Christ. He's the greatest teacher. He's the master of them all.

But people should have a confidence in their leaders and they should be able to think, I know they're going to give me a bible answer. Their leaders should be able to have, they should be able to have confidence in their leaders. Their leaders' counsel should help them turn from iniquity as we've read about the priest here. Their leaders' counsel should lead to peace and equity and righteousness. The leaders should have taught them by life and message that total commitment to God's way leads to fullness of life.

And there are a lot of places in the Old Testament also taught in the New Testament that if you live for God, there'll be peace, there'll be life. If you don't live for God and you reject what he says, there'll be curses. It uses that very word. Let me just read one verse in Proverbs, and Proverbs is really full of a lot of good verses for us. Proverbs chapter three verse verses one and two.

My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Life and peace follow the person that has an obedient heart. Malachi knew that by his own experience, He was fully aware of God's blessing when one is obedient. He was obedient.

He can speak, from experience and he has a powerful message in his day, which was a day of spiritual declension. It was a day and we brought I brought this out in chapter one when I had a message before. It was a day when the people were bored and belligerent in serving God. They were bored with worship. They were bringing their seconds to offer as sacrifices.

That's that's the condition that they were in. It all goes back to the priest. They gotten away from God's message. They didn't want God's message And that's why the most important thing that goes on in any church is the preaching, teaching of God's word. We do a lot of other things, a lot of good music and and plays and things like that, but the most important thing here, any church, is the preaching of God's word.

That's true of youth meetings too. You know what the average youth meeting does this day and age? They eat a lot and they play a lot. And there's not a lot of preaching in some of the, you know, the big mega churches. They eat a lot and pray and and play a lot, not pray.

And they do whatever they can to build a crowd. And then when those kids get done get tired of what you're doing there, they'll hop to some other groups that's crazier. But we we can't forget, and this is biblical for second Timothy chapter four verses one through four. Paul tells Timothy, preach the word. That's the most important thing you're going to do, Timothy.

Preach the word. It's your main duty, Timothy, as a pastor, is to handle the word of God proclaiming it and living out the message. Acts six two. Then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God to serve tables. But these priests in Malachi that he's addressing, they offered no wise real wise guidance.

They themselves offered that which cost them nothing and we I brought that out in chapter one. They were bored with worship. They were heartless in their service. They were arrogant, argumentative with God. Look in chapter one verse six, give you an idea.

A son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is my honor? This is God speaking to them. And if I be a master, where is my fear? Say it the Lord of hosts unto you.

O priests that despise my name, and you say, wherein have we despised thy name? They're arguing of God. They're they're basically saying, God, you don't know what you're talking about. That's dangerous. Very dangerous that that, that kind of behavior.

And the people were getting shirt changed. No proclamation of the truth from the priest. Malachi is proclaiming it. The priest of old proclaimed it, but not here. It resulted in no understanding of truth, which means no application.

It resulted in no change or turning from evil, no repentance, and the result is stumbling through life, sheep without a shepherd, downward slide, and that's the way it goes. If we turned the lights off and made this pitch black in here and threw a whole bunch of stuff out on the floor and told you to walk through it. You'd stumble, you'd fall, you'd break something probably, but if you had a light, you could walk carefully through it. And that's what God's word does for us in life. It gives us a light.

It helps us to see what to avoid. It helps us to see what we're we should be doing. Hosea says this and it fits, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge. I will also reject thee that thou shall be no priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. So Malachi here, he's warning these priests.

They're the leaders. And again, remember, we're all leaders in some way. We're all going to either encourage people to follow God or discourage them. It all comes down to the heart. It all comes down to the mind and what we put into our mind to pass on to people.

And then then he goes on here, There's correction done. Malachi makes it clear to us that God always has the final word on any matter. And God says here he's gonna withhold blessing. There is a mention of cursing their blessings. You know, when God withholds his blessings, then before long, area of our lives are gonna be touched.

Look in verse three. 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. Now they did, you know, they sacrificed animals, And there was quite a mess that those animals made, and they would scoop it up and take it to the dump. And God says here that he's going to put it on them. And not only is the dung going to be taken to the dump, they're gonna be taken with it.

That's a pretty graphic picture here in, rather than cleansing the dung, they would be defiled by it and removed with it. Then it says their seed would be corrupt. Material prosperity would eventually cease. Crops would be withheld. You know, God still has the, power to stop the flow of blessings to us.

I mean, he's merciful and gracious. He still can stop the blessings. He still can stop the funds. He's able to do that because he always has the final word. Loss of reward, he says.

Then he says here, loss of reputation. The cursing would involve being disgraced and removed. The people would be turned away from them. The priest would be humiliated before the people. The Lord would and will be exalted and the people would know that God is on the throne.

That's what he's gonna do, he says, with these priests. He always comes out on top. God does. We must never forget that truth that God always comes out on top. Eventually, if we do not do business with God, get our sin forgiven, you know, and we can do that in a moment of time initially when we ask Jesus to be our savior, but we fail God daily as believers.

There's plenty of opportunity and plenty of, reason to seek God's forgiveness every day. If we do that, we'll be in good standing. But if we do our own thing, we go our own way, eventually, we're gonna reap what we've sown whether it be good or bad. See, God's never gonna cease being God. He will never relinquish his power.

He will never allow man to set the rules. These people in Malachi's day were setting their own rules thinking they would get by and that's what Malachi's message is about. Man thinks he can he can he can set his own rules, but he cannot. He just cannot do it. God's never going to relinquish his power.

He's always going to come out on top. So the lesson I wanna finish with here is very simple. If we give God our best, you know where you're at spiritually today. You know if you're giving God your best. If we give God our best, we will experience life and peace.

That's a message throughout scripture. We will be a help to others. We will be a help to help others find their way to God. We'll be used by God in a mighty way. We'll be fruitful believers.

We'll be like the early Levites, not the ones in Malachi's day, but the priest of old that Malachi mentions. But if we give God second rate service, we give him the leftovers, that's lukewarmness. What's God gonna do if we're lukewarm eventually? Spit us out of his mouth. He says in Revelation chapter three, I remember one time a man came to me.

He was a new believer. He was learning and I I mean, he was sincerely wanting to know and learn and grow. And he says to me, and I'm kinda surprised he said this to me. He said, if I gather up my old clothes and replace them, and I take my old clothes and I give them to The Salvation Army, can I count that as a tithe? I don't think so.

I think that's kind of a almost an insult to God. Like I said, the man was he wanted to know and so I shared with him the truth. He appreciated it and he learned and he grew into a pretty good servant of the Lord before he left. He was an RCMP officer. He rode with the musical ride at some point in, that's when the the ride horses, the Mountie policeman.

But if we give God second rate service, again, that's lukewarmness. We're not gonna have the life and peace and blessing ultimately. And again, God has the power and the authority to cut off our blessings. I'm not saying he will. Sometimes he just continues to operate with mercy and grace.

He seemed to operate, it was more black and white back in the priesthood here when he's operating. If we serve him half hearted, serve him second rate, we indeed will cause others to stumble. And we're not gonna be a great spiritual help to people. We're gonna be fruitless in our service and that's reason enough to consider the message that Malachi has for us here. Let me just close with this question.

I want you to take it with you. Think about it. Are you like the Levites of old who feared the Lord and served him from the heart with knowledge? They gave their best And Malachi commends them. Moses commended them back in the Old Testament.

They served and feared the Lord. They served them from the heart with knowledge. That means they continually were getting truth taught from the Bible even in their own Bible reading. Or are you more like the Levites in Malachi's day who did not serve the Lord by giving him their best. Heartless, headless service, bored, and belligerent before the Lord.

Let me just say this, beware of heartless, headless service. It'll eventually sink you as a believer. In fact, as I looked over this message and I did this study, you know what this is to me and I hope to you? It's God's wake up call from scripture. It's God's call for us to examine our own hearts and see where we stand.

And only you and God knows. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for your word, the Old Testament, great, teaching here on leadership serving you. And, again, Lord, we we are a leader no matter who we are. You are people that observe us and look up to us sometimes.

Sometimes children, grandchildren. Lord, we have an awesome responsibility to make sure that we serve you from the heart, that we're not just going through the motions, that we're not just doing something because we get paid for it, that we're really serving you because we love you. We know it's the right thing to do, and we know about warnings in the scripture about services not from the heart. And help us, Lord, to be mindful of how important it is to have your knowledge, that have how important it is for us to be growing in the knowledge and in the grace of the Lord Jesus so that as we learn, we can teach others and pass on truth and help others up. Help others with their problems.

Help others to come to know you as their personal savior. Just help us, Lord, to just realize today what an awesome responsibility we have if we name you as our savior. Help us to leave this place today thinking about that. And if there are decisions that need to be made, I pray we'd make those commitments and decisions before we leave this place. In fact, Lord, I pray we would all be able to leave this place today rejoicing in you.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.