Malachi 2:1-9

Malachi chapter 2 and verses 1 through 9 and now ye priest 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 said the Lord of host 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 at the heart. Behold, I will corrupt your seed, 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, said the Lord of host. My covenant was with him of life and peace. And I gave them to him for the fear which 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, did not turn many, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge. 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, set 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 and have been partial, in my law, and the law. And God bless to us, His sacred and holy word this evening. In one of their books on the Watergate scandal, entitled Final Days, Robert Woodward, and Carl Bernstein wrote these words, and defending himself, the president had planted time bombs, Nixon had concealed, he had hedged, he had lied. Some of the bombs had already gone off, and the rest lay ticking. As we know, in due time, the rest went off, and eventually he had to resign from the presidency. It was a time of disgrace and dishonor for President Nixon. When sins are unconfessed, and when they are covered up, they’re like ticking time bombs. They cannot remain hidden forever. and God causes them sometimes to explode in your face. Malachi has been called in our texts to expose the sins of the spiritual leaders of the nation. The time bombs of their sins have been ticking away. And God says, repent or change your ways, or else I’m going to bring you to account. I’m going to come to account. curse you. Well, this is not an irrelevant passage of scripture when we think about today because God calls ministers to repent of the very same things that he mentions here in this protect your text of scripture. Remember when Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the events of the Old Testament, he said, these things are written for our admonition. These things are written for our warning and our benefit and that we should take them to heart. We see here God’s warning on faithful spiritual leaders. This admonition is directed specifically to the spiritual leaders, and now, ye priest, this commandment is for you. What was said in chapter one was directed primarily to the priest, as we saw from verse six, but certainly it included the priest. as well as verse 14 of chapter one indicated the crimes charged against the priest in chapter one had to do with the sacrifices they brought before God and it was the people who were bringing the sick and the lame and the blind animals to the priest to sacrifice so the minister could have some cover or an excuse he could pass the buck so to speak on to the people and say, well, that’s what they brought. Remember Aaron in the golden calf when he was rebuked by Moses, well, the people made me do it. Or you recall King Ahab when he was rebuked by Samuel for not annihilating all that the Amalekites had, not only the people, but the cattle and the sheep and everything. He said, well, I was afraid of the people. That’s why I didn’t do it. Now, we get the idea of God is pointing his finger directly at the priest here and say, I’m talking to you, specifically. This is not something you can pass off. This warning and admonition is for you. Now, every part of this passage is capable of being applied directly to the Christian ministry today. Obviously, God, in dealing with pastors and elders, those who are over the oversight of his church, would say the same kind of things in dealing with them. They’re supposed to be proclaiming the truth of God’s word, the law of truth, as verse 6 calls it. That’s what they’re supposed to be doing. Those people who are supposed to be perfected, the saints, edifying the body of Christ, or the ones he’s addressed. When a minister of God’s word causes people to stumble or fails to warn them of their sin, a special judgment falls upon that minister. James tells us, my brethren, be not many masters, teachers, spiritual, rulers knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. You have more to give account for. The minister is sort of like the quarterback on a football team. He is the key offensive player on which the whole game may hinge. And if the quarterback has a bad day calling plays or throwing the ball, it’s going to reflect on the team. And when the team isn’t playing well, the quarterback, obviously has to take a majority of the blame. He’s a pivotal part. His failures undermine success. So any team that loses its star quarterback, they’re in deep trouble because of that. A minister is the spiritual leader of the people of God. He’s the shepherd of the sheep. And if he falters, if he fails, it’s going to have a drastic effect upon the church. And thus the people of God, if they’re living in sin unrebuked, and the word of God is not faithfully taught, there’s going to be a demand made. An account must be given by the minister, by the shepherd. What do you do with the sheep? The chief shepherd’s going to say, what’s going on? And that’s what we have here. So the admonition is directed specifically this spiritual, leaders. Now you’ll notice here that spiritual leaders are held responsible for promoting God’s glory. Verse two in the first part of it. If you will not hear, if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, said the Lord of Host, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart. When we talk about God’s name here, we’re talking about the summation, really, of all that God is. We’re talking about his person, his attributes, his character, his reputation, if you would. God’s name has been despised by the shabbiness, the heartlessness of the service performed here by the priest. Now, the chief purpose of the priest in Malachi’s day were, was to, as it is with a Christian ministry today is to glorify God, to lead the people to glorify God also. Ministers are to lead the people in the worship of the Lord God. To exalt God’s name, above everything else, God is to be highly esteemed for who he is and what he has done. When a minister fails to measure up to this aim, then his ministry becomes empty and shallow. becomes merely a form of godliness, a mere professing to know God, but in works denying him. If the ministers are unfaithful, the people will not be edified, and their lives will not exhibit the excellencies of God’s character. Now, what he is upset about here is if they’re not going to hear him, and notice he says, not just let it go in one ear and out the other, but take it to heart when I’m saying. You’re not going to take seriously what I’m saying. I’m going to say, you’re going to pay for it. And we’ll touch on that in a moment. So here’s the problem. The ministers are supposed to present God in such a way, talk about Him in such a way, and reveal what this, well, speak on what the scriptures reveal about the true God in such a way that God is glorified. I’m reminded of this story of Job, and at the end when we get to the last chapter. and God’s wrath is kindled against the three friends of Job. Why is God angry? What does he condemn them for doing? He says, You have not spoken of me the thing that is right. That’s a serious thing in God’s sight. And so when we’re not speaking about what’s right concerning God, portraying him as the scriptures portray him, we’re in trouble. sadly most people know very little about the great God of the Bible. You might say, well, how is that possible? Because they don’t read their Bibles. And if you just listen to some of the preaching that you would hear, you’re not going to get the true God’s, the picture of the true God. You’re just not. Much rests on the shoulder of the minister. He lies about the Lord at times. False ministers are not telling the truth. Our society is not unlike one, the one at Athens, where Paul has to say, I’m going to have to declare unto you the unknown God. You’ve got an altar here to the unknown God. I’m going to have to tell you who he is. Well, there’s a sense in which today we need someone to tell us about the unknown God who is found in the Bible who no one seems to know about. Same idea. The truth of God is suppressed. Ministers invent a God to their own liking, one that will be palable to the people. This is the kind of God they’re going to like, and that’s the kind of God I’m going to tell you about. That is not the God of Scripture. The true God is often portrayed as impotent, infeminate, helpless deity, who merely observes from afar, whatever happens on this earth, who doesn’t even know the future. doesn’t have anything determined. Can’t be sure what’s going to happen. This is the kind of God that’s being portrayed and many pulpits across the land. If he observes man’s miserable plight, well, he’s sad. He’s sad that man has to go through all these problems. Oh, how he wishes these things wouldn’t happen, we’re told. We’re told that God’s will can be openly rejected. He can be thwarted. The man is the controller of his own destiny. That man is the chief component in salvation. God does his part. Satan’s fighting against him and you’re going to have to make the final decision. You get the final vote. How degrading that this is to the Lord. How degrading that they would take the glorious God of Scripture who reveals himself in so many wonderful ways in Scripture and degrade him and make him this small. I remember when I was an Armenian, I had a very low view of God. And when I came to read and understand what the scripture said, I had a very high view of God. It changed my God was a lot different than I thought he was. Why don’t we proclaim what the Psalmist says in Psalm 115, verse 3, our God is in the heavens He hath done done whatsoever he hath played. We don’t hear that, according to Scripture, has a right to dispose of his creatures and do with them as he wills. Even their eternal destiny is in his hands. Where is God’s power spoken about? Where is God’s wisdom proclaimed? Where is God’s holiness and justice promoted? Where are these attributes? Why are they hidden from the people? What is this strange mixture of evolution and creation being spewed from the pulpit today? That we would detract from God as the true creator of all things. God’s holiness and justice demand satisfaction for all the sins in a person’s life, but we won’t tell people that. Firing hell is a necessity for a holy and just God, but we won’t tell people that. If we put an enthroned God, God is not the, that’s not what, that’s not what people want to hear. Man wants to be on the throne. God is sort of, sort of like the cosmic genium. When we rub the magic lamp of prayer, we get whatever we want. God’s name is dishonored by this foolishness. It’s evil in his eyes. You have not glorified my name. Spiritual leaders are held accountable and responsible for promoting the glory of God. Spiritual leaders are held responsible. for promoting God’s word. it. You have not taught the truth. You didn’t retain on your lips true knowledge. That’s not what you were speaking. People should seek knowledge of the law from your mouth, but they’re not getting it. You know, the priest were supposed to carefully study the word of God and help the people live righteously. Teach them the truth. But by their poor instruction, by their corrupt example, they actually caused people to stumble and fall. We misled them. The blind leading the blind. What a terrible thing. That those who would be charged with faithfully proclaiming God’s holy work were actually corrupting it and leading people contrary to. Nor is this anything new. Nor is it just ancient material for the past. Countless ministers have often watered down the message of scripture. Given a man-made message instead of the true message of God’s word. It’s because they have a low view of scripture. Just like these priests, they had a low view of scripture because if they really believed it was God’s word, they would be more diligent and more careful about what they said. But they weren’t. God says, and on Jeremiah 23, 28, he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat, said the Lord? God’s word is the wheat. Everything else that man puts against it is the chaff. Around it is the chaff. It’s nothing. It’s worthless compared to what God has said. Where are the great themes of Scripture? We talked about the attributes of God. Why don’t people preach on the attributes of God? Where are the doctrines of grace, the heart and soul, the gospel? Why aren’t they being preached on? And the pulpit. have you looked at the majority of sermon topics? If you go past the marquies of the various churches, what they’re going to be preaching on Sunday. The sermon topic may have some local political situations being spoken about, nature or psychology or something of that nature. When I was in seminary, I went to church one Wednesday night. I had to work with slow, and I managed to get off and race. I worked more toward Dallas, but I raced a little. way to Fort Worth to get to the church I was attending at the time. I get in there and I sit down and I thought, well, at least I’m going to hear the word of God tonight. And he had his turn to the book of Nehemiah. And he read something about the Watergate. Watergate. And then he decided, and this was a seminary professor, by the way. He decided he was going to preach on Watergate. You talk about, you know, stretching the scripture to make it whatever you want it to be. He’s talking. talking about political situation and he’s talking it’s really the water gate by which they bring the water into the city of Jerusalem and and that’s that’s that was the text and I thought to myself I wasted my time coming I wasted my time I I shortly left the church after that I would I was just I had had it with this kind of stuff where is the effort that’s necessary to make a sermon say something worthwhile that people would travel to hear it or even walk across the street to hear it. I had a neighbor early on in my ministry who wondered why I was spending so much time in my study preparing messages. It puzzled her. She told my wife that she used to babysit for a minister. Who would write out Sunday’s message on Saturday night? With a few hours of preparation, he would write it out and that’s it out. And that’s it. Evidently, they never grasped the concept of study that show thyself approved unto God. Well, no minister’s perfect, and every minister needs to grow in knowledge. I’m not trying to condemn someone, but the idea is that we should be dedicated to studying the truth so that we present it properly. Some of you remember Alan Dutt Brooks, who passed away that used to be members here. Well, at one point, they were in their church search. They didn’t know anything about the reformed faith at the time, and they went to a Pentecostal church. They sit down in the church in a… A reason why I remember the pastor’s name is the name was Ronald McDonald. And, you know, you think of Mickey D’s, and it just rang a bell with me. So they got in, they sat down. They went through the, you know, the song service or whatever it was. The minister gets up to preach, and he looks out to the audience, and he says, God didn’t give me anything this week, and he dismissed them and sent them home. You know, God gave them 66 books. I think he had plenty to preach on, you know. But God, you know, I guess. I guess he just, if he don’t get a direct message, I guess he can’t give anything. Can you believe this? This is the kind of stuff that, sadly, happens. When a minister goes off doctrine and he goes out of the way, he ends up steering the church down the wrong path. The minister is like a locomotive, and behind it are the cars, the church members. If the locomotive jumps the track, guess what happens? He can pull all the cars off as well. The blind, leading the blind, they both. both end up in the ditch. So when you go to churches and you hear the health and wealth gospel, or you can go to churches and what I call the grow rich gospel, or how you can be rich and prosperous in this world, or you can get your ego stroked by the ego-boosting gospel that’s preached by some. or you can have the political activist gospel will tell you to march against this or that of the other, as the case may be. But my Bible says, if any man preach any other gospel, than that which is revealed to us in the scripture and what Paul preached, let him be a cursed. Isn’t that what we find in this text? Cursed? So God’s warning to the spiritual leaders, promote his glory, reveal his word, preach his word to the people. Now, secondly, we see God’s judgment upon unfaithful spiritual leaders. He’s going to curse them, he says, here. The latter part of verse two, I will even send a curse upon you and will curse your blessings. Yeah, I have cursed them already because you not lay at the 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. You will curse them. The penalty for you. for spiritual leaders, failure to hear, and the respond is very stern here. Three times, God says something about a curse. So God’s name is very serious business, isn’t it? And he doesn’t take it lightly when he is blind or lied about. If we don’t listen and be taught by precept, well, penalty will follow. And that’s what we have here. God says he will curse your blessings. What in the world is he talking? talking about. Look with me at Deuteronomy 28 a moment. Maybe we can see what he’s, what he’s, what he means by this. 28 verses 1 to 8. Scripture says here, and it shall come to pass, if thou shalt harken diligently under the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments, why I have commanded thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken under the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shall thou be in the city. And blessed shall thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body. And blessed the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattle and the increase of thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in and blessed shall thou be when thou goest out. And the Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee one way and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses and in all that thou setest thy hand unto, and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord, God, giveeth thee. Now here are the blessings, he says. We talk about, you know, your goods and your family and your productivity of your land and so forth. What happens if they don’t obey to the law? God says, I’ll curse you. I’ll curse you in all these things that I said I would bless you in. And so when he says, I will curse your blessing, I think he’s referring to this passage of scripture in this concept. Those things that should be a blessing to you, if you don’t obey my law, I will cause a curse. And one of the things he mentions in Deuteronomy 28 here in Melachi, one thing that singles out in verse 3 is the fruit of thy body will be cursed. God may make their wives barren. He may make their children sick or weakly or even bring them to death. Reduce the numbers of the priesthood tribe, that it would dwindle. Today’s God’s curse might include, you know, the withdrawing of his spirit, and thus leaving the minister without the spiritual guidance that he needs. The shriveling up of his gifts and abilities. His usefulness is reduced. The removing of his financial support. The reducing of his wealth and possessions. The taking away of his children in some manner by disease or accident or something. This is not to say this is always the case when something like this happens. I don’t want to present the wrong idea here. But the minister should take inventory. You might ask, would God really do such a thing to a minister? Ask Eli how it worked out for his sons. Ask him if God didn’t take his sons from him. You will curse them. Verse 3 says he will shame them. Now the dung here appears to be. the contents of the stomach and intestines, the bowel content, if you would, of the animals that remained after the sacrifices were performed. In other words, the bowel content would be smeared in their faces. It’s a pretty graphic statement, isn’t it? Hippro-critical ministers will be shamed before the people. We talk about having egg on your face. That’s bad enough, But to have the, you know, the bowel of the animal smeared on you would be even worse. What does this mean? It means you will be demeaned, belittled by the people, looked down upon by the people. The priesthood in general would take a blow here, in a sense, scorn and mocking. The people would have little faith in their priests. Because of the recent rash of sin, and corruption in the ministry, people will not respect ministers like they used to. We see it in our own day. Priests are being tried for child molesters. Ministers have been exposed for sexual sins. There are time bombs that are going off. I read a front page article years ago about a bishop that was found of Rome, Bishop of Rome. He was found dead of a heart attack in a prostitute’s house in Rome. She didn’t want to do. up calling the police. When I was in seminary, there was a young girl in the dorm who had sexual relations with her minister. She broke down and confessed, and it left the church at disgrace. The shame and humiliation is all part of God’s judgment on those who claim to be as ministers but live sinfully, and thus the office of the pastor will be despise. and ridiculed by the world. He will shame them. He will reprove them. He says also in verse 3 here as well. And here we have the idea of them, one shall take you away with it. Wouldn’t it be enough shame and humiliation to be the dung of the animal, so to speak, smeared on your face, that would make you unfit. It’s unclean material. In those days, they had to take that material and take it outside the camp and burn it. We’re buried. Symbolically, you know, dung on the face would certainly show you to be unclean and unfit for God’s service. But we also get the idea here of God’s shovel and taking the ministers and dumping them outside the camp. You’re no longer going to serve. I will lift you up like manure in a shovel and place you on the dunghill. There are many ministers who end up on the dunghill. God removes them from office, takes them out of the ministry altogether. God sometimes even takes their life, Nadab and a by-who or two of Aaron’s sons who God struck dead. So God’s judgment upon unfaithful spiritual leaders here. Let me say this. God holds you responsible for. your lack of reverence and lack of true worship. That’s what we see in this text tonight. Some people, it’s almost as if they want to blame God if they’re not prepared to worship. I’d love to worship God, but I don’t feel moved to do so. if only my emotions were right, if only God’s spirit would give me a tremendous thrill and excitement towards God, then I’d worship. while it’s true that we need a Holy Spirit to worship God right. There’s no question about that. It’s wrong to blame God for your own shallowness and your own irreverence when it comes to worship. God says you are to blame. You have not set your heart to honor me in worship as you should have. Do you feel any coldness? Do you feel any inadequacy when it comes to the worship of God? Well, then you can see what you can do what you can. We talked about in Song of Solomon, draw me. Whereas the psalmist talks about, turn me, and I shall be turned. Turn me. You know, it’s easy to praise God when you’re feeling on top of the world spiritually, but it is the mark of the deepest devotion and love when in spite of your motions crying out against you, when it seems like everything would be opposed to you worshiping the true and the living God that you still set your heart on giving the glory to God that he deserves. You recall that Jill. in that very dark period of time in his life when he lost his family, he lost his flocks, he lost his hearts, he lost several of his servants. It was a time of real grief and agony. In spite of the sorrow, in spite of the loss, and what an emotional state he must have been in, what does he do? He sets his heart to glorify God’s name. Then Joboer wrote, rent his man. He’s sorrowful. He’s mourning. Shaved his head, and he fell down upon the ground and worshipped. That’s what the scripture says. Naked, came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He was not a guide and said, well, I need to be emotionally moved before I can worship. He knew God deserve the worship. And if he wasn’t emotionally, properly ready, he’s going to do it anyhow because that’s what God deserves. So when you feel cold and awkwardness about, coldness and awkwardness about worshiping God, you can still set your heart on the worship of God. You can pray about what’s lacking, but you still do what’s right. Do you employ, do you beg, do you beg God to create within you a right spirit? A right heart. So don’t be like these priests who worshiped of God was a disgrace. And they’re really totally insensitive to it all. So God holds you personally responsible for lack of reverence and worship. God will judge you for the influence you exercise upon other people. You cause many to stumble, verse 8. counterfeit Christians, poor spiritual leaders can confirm the world’s prejudice against God’s people, that church is just full of a bunch of hypocrites. That’s what people say. People have been turned off by some of these tremendous sins that they find among those who are supposed to be servants of God. And others have been entrapped by the same sins that the minister is engaged in. God gives us a matter of causing others to to stumble. A very serious warning about this matter. He says that whosoever shall offend one of these little ones, one of my newborn ones, one of my young Christians that believe in me, it’s better for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck and he were cast into the sea. You don’t want to be sinning and then dragging somebody down with you. Because God’s got to hold you a for that. I’m going to read a portion of a letter that was written years ago to an internationally known and famous Baptist minister. The First Baptist Church of Hammon in Indiana, his name was Dr. Jack Howells. It was written by the Christian daughter of Jack Howe’s secretary and also mistress. And I want you to think about if you had, if you were the minister, you received this letter, how would you respond to to this. She writes here, as I am sure you are well aware, my husband and I are moving to the Los Angeles area this month. The culmination of many events in our lives have brought us to the decision that we have made to move. By this letter, I wish to express my thoughts on the role you have played in these events over the past 15 years. I remember hearing once that it’s not wise to put anything in writing that one would not want the entire world to see. You know well the horrifying effects doing so can cause, don’t you? That thought prompted me to write you on my leaving, for it would be the pleasure of my life to have the entire world see and print my feelings on you, your establishment, and your gross perversion of the sacred role of pastor. For over 15 years, I have watched and learned much from the circus that you have performed with the lives of those I love most in the world. With your own insecurities and personal failures as your driving force, you have quite simply played havoc with an entire church. Some of my dearest friends and worst of all my family. The saddest realization is that it has all been under the guise of Christianity. Now I remember. from such a pit of secret sin, manipulation, and hypocrisy, with how I emerged from this pit of secret sin, manipulation, hypocrisy, with the slightest interest in my professed religion at all I do not know. Actually, I’ve become quite a person with these many lessons of life under my belt and must admit you were quite a teacher. You exemplify everything in this life that I do not one for myself, my marriage, or my children. I thank God for giving me the sense to decide not to become one of the neurotic puppets you employ. That decision and my close friendship with your ex-daughter-in-law, you remember her, don’t you, help salvage what was left to my self-respect. In an incredible short amount of time, I have healed much and think I would surprise even you with the strength I have gained. Incidentally, Paul and I have. I have volumes of stories to swap, and it’s interesting to see just how similar they are. What was it you once used to say? Little leopards have spots because big leopards have spots? How true it is. Sadly, in your very heart of hearts, you must be the most miserable, lonely person alive. You are a self-proclaimed giant, sensationalist, exhibitionist, and big-time spender grasping for every expression. of love, admiration, and loyalty you can get your filthy little hands on. You have failed with the most precious gifts God could have ever given you, your wife, your children, and now your ministry. I pity you, for you will be experiencing the consequences of your actions for a very long time. You may have convinced your following in the past 20 years that it didn’t happen if they didn’t see it. But God has seen every moment of those years. and my faith will not let me believe that he will let you go unpunished. With these thoughts expressed, I bathe myself of you, and any influence you may have had on me in the past. With God’s help, I will make my life in California everything that he would have it be, and unlike you, will not fall. Sincerely, I won’t give the name. If you imagine receiving a letter like that, thousands of people have been in churches where there have been ministers, have been manipulative, have taken advantage of them, have led them astray, and they’ve been harmed by these ministers. God says he’s not going to let this happen forever. The time bomb’s going to go off eventually, and God’s judgment is going to fall. Let us close with word of prayer.