Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Wow, Clay said Clay. I don't know if he asked me or texted me. I honestly can't remember. He said, you think we can do the Lord's Prayer? I said, yeah, put it on the screen because you never know whether he's going to say debts or trespasses. And we started and I closed my eyes and y' all said, debts. And I said trespasses.
[00:00:25] Lord, forgive me of both.
[00:00:27] Amen.
[00:00:29] And you know, last week, somebody might not remember I said this, but I had said I needed y' all to sing behind me, to worship behind me. And man, I'm here to tell you, Jayla and Emily and Ari Ruth, they came through for me this week. I literally at one point, you know, as a compliment to the Lord, working through them, I stopped listening to y' all and I was just like, you know, and I was letting them lead me. Problem. I sing by ear. I can't sing like a young girl. I just learned without almost passing out. That was a problem.
[00:01:04] Excellent job, girls. Way to be involved in the worship of the Lord with all your hearts. If you have your Bibles tonight, you're going to love this. I am going to flat slay the preachers.
[00:01:17] You're living the dream. All of your, your complaints about pastors will be justified tonight.
[00:01:25] Granted, the passage is pointed at the Levitical priesthood, but there's some application and illustration for the modern day leaders in the Christian church. In last week's passage, Malachi addressed the priests concerning their acceptance of unsuitable offerings.
[00:01:44] But now it's their instruction and interpretation of God's law that is under condemnation. And I will say from my perspective, I don't know, I don't know that there is a stronger condemnation.
[00:02:02] I don't know why that's so small.
[00:02:05] Okay, praise the Lord.
[00:02:07] I'm going to have to read this one right here.
[00:02:11] This is a super strong condemnation.
[00:02:15] It is coming in hard, it is coming in hot, and it's coming in heavy. If I were this week going to preach at a preacher's conference, this would be the passage I'd use and I would leave us all considering. Are we actually serving the Lord? Are we handling the Word correctly? Are we taking care of the people in the way God has commanded us to do? Truth be told, it is the priest's job, the Levitical priest job, to apply the Lord's commandment to his people. And first he has to apply it to himself.
[00:02:52] And the expectation is that the Levitical priests would do the teaching and live the life and lead the people to do the Same out in the community.
[00:03:04] So priests needed to be faithful in the community of faith, and the community of faith needed. Needed to be faithful out in the world.
[00:03:11] And the condemnation is they hadn't been taking care of business.
[00:03:15] They're going through the motions, if you'll let me use modern parlance. They're having church, you know, they're printing the bulletins, they're singing the songs. They're serving the Lord's supper, but it's fruitless, it's empty. And it made me think of Haggai 1 6, which says this. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.
[00:03:46] And he who earns wages does. So to put them in a bag full of holes, that was a condemnation on the religious life that God sent through the prophet Haggai. And if you want me to put that in country boy terms, you do, don't you? Say amen. Let me tell you what Haggai just said. You doing a lot, but it ain't amounting to much.
[00:04:12] You doing a lot, but it ain't amounting to much.
[00:04:16] So tonight we're going to see a scathing condemnation on the priest.
[00:04:22] And I don't think anyone's off the hook.
[00:04:26] We'll see that by the time I'm done. But especially those in ministry leadership at any level ought to really be paying attention because the application is heavy upon us.
[00:04:38] Malachi, chapter two, beginning at verse number one. And now, O priest, this command is for you.
[00:04:44] 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 have already cursed them because you do not lay it to heart. Can we pause a sub sermon real quick? Do you guys remember what I told you?
[00:05:04] Every confrontation is what? Every confrontation from God is what? It's an invitation. And you see this just as plain as day. He's like, yo, I got something to say to you.
[00:05:16] If you don't respond, you're in trouble.
[00:05:19] I'm confronting you, but I'm confronting you because I'm really inviting you.
[00:05:24] And I just think that sub sermon needs to be preached over and over again. Because a lot of times we live in a society, a culture, and a season where everybody tells you bad feelings aren't legit, guilt isn't legit, or everything's someone else's fault, or a lot of therapy is Trying to make you feel good about doing bad.
[00:05:44] The Lord in his kindness and graciousness, will confront us, but it's really to invite us.
[00:05:50] Steve, read in our responsive reading. He read one of my all time favorite verses. Lamentations 3:40. Come, let us examine our ways and turn again to the Lord.
[00:06:01] Let's take a look at ourselves and go back to the Lord. So this is tough, but don't miss this beginning part. He's like, hey, you know, I've got an admonition for you. A command for you, a decree for you. I got something I want to say to you, but really this is couching my invitation to you.
[00:06:18] Verse 3.
[00:06:20] Behold, I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on your faces. You read that, right?
[00:06:30] I don't know why no one's ever set this song, this verse to music.
[00:06:36] I will spread dung upon your faces. Okay?
[00:06:41] The dung of your offerings.
[00:06:44] And you shall be taken. Away with it. Wow. 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. 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. 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 people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts.
[00:07:31] 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.
[00:07:40] 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. Would you pray with me? Father, we have opened your word and we humbly ask that you open it to us. In Jesus I pray. Amen. And Amen.
[00:07:58] You guys see that the funeral pyre lays before us. So without further ado, let me share a few thoughts with you. Number one, I use the word a lot.
[00:08:10] Orey you have this morning's PowerPoint. That's the problem.
[00:08:14] That's from this morning. That's not me.
[00:08:17] That's okay. It's probably Brett's fault.
[00:08:22] I don't know how it would be, but let's call it that. It's okay. So you guys just listen carefully.
[00:08:28] Number one. God has a command.
[00:08:31] God has a warning.
[00:08:33] God has a decree. God has an admonition for his priest. Now, I gotta tell y', all, I had to use all these words because no matter which translation you look in, this word is so rich. Oh, look how big I did mine, y'. All.
[00:08:49] I have the older congregation. I'm thoughtful.
[00:08:56] I wanted to use all these words because the. The Hebrew word here is so rich.
[00:09:03] You know, he's got something to say to them, right? And it's. And it's not just like a sign. It's not just like, don't cross this line is, yes, a command, but it's also a legal statement.
[00:09:20] You know, it's. It's. It's a warning.
[00:09:23] Like, not just don't cross the line. It's don't cross the line or else something is going to happen. And it's a bold. It's a direct confrontation.
[00:09:37] He says, this is for you, O priest.
[00:09:41] I can't remember which puritan leader said it, or it might even have been Spurgeon. It was somebody of that ilk says, when he goes to preach, does the devil make him tremble? No, but the fear of the Lord does, you know, and what he's accusing them of is they ain't trembling at all.
[00:10:00] They ain't worried about the devil, who is only able to kill the body. Let the church say amen. And they're not worried about the Lord, who is able to kill the body and to what, cast a soul into hell. They're not trembling.
[00:10:13] And he's like, you know, I got something to say to you.
[00:10:17] And in multiple translations, you can tell that if you go look at a lot of different Bible translations and paraphrases, you can always tell when they're really wrestling with a word, because you can find it expressed in a lot of different English words. For example, the ESV says command. The NIV says warning. The CSV says decree.
[00:10:37] The message that paraphrase says indictment. That sounds wild.
[00:10:44] It doesn't land on many of you, but if you've been in trouble with the law, like me, that's a big word that means there is a collection of witnesses that agree that something needs to be done with you.
[00:10:57] And I like that because I think that is the one that sort of portrays the Godhead.
[00:11:03] And then in Young's literal translation, it's a charge. Now, that's one that sounds legal, too, doesn't it? Got some charges pending.
[00:11:12] And so he's telling these guys, he's like, you know, right now, I don't know if you know it, but I'm warning you, to listen to me, because you're on trial now. What will come of this?
[00:11:25] I like the word admonition myself, because admonition means a rebuke and a warning and instruction. Admonition carries all of these meanings, and that's what this is. First off, he's getting on the britches, and then he's saying, I'm kind of telling you to, you know, to back up, to change. There's the warning, and I'm telling you what to do to change. There's the instruction.
[00:11:49] Secondly, God will remove his blessing and add his curse to ministers who refuse to give glory to his name.
[00:11:58] Y', all, it's some strong language here. Did y' all notice that? I mean, this whole dung thing, that was wild.
[00:12:06] I mean, that's why there's, you know, there's. There. That's gross.
[00:12:11] That's gross. And in my prayers, you know, I don't. I left my phone because I want to give you guys an illustration. I have no idea how these things work, but I know they're listening. Jesus is lord, reduce my taxes.
[00:12:27] I have been praying a lot and reading this passage out loud a lot. And. And this morning.
[00:12:33] No, this afternoon, I was sitting beside Care watching those little videos on Instagram, and one came up. It was an instructional video of how to play the front door prank where you put some waste in a paper bag and set it on fire. And it went so far as how to tell you how to trick somebody to track it back through their house.
[00:12:54] And I said, I think I read this passage out loud too much this week.
[00:13:00] There's been too many mentions of dung in my prayer life this week.
[00:13:05] I did try to set it to music because I think all scripture's worth singing. I think I sang about this too much.
[00:13:13] Could the language be any stronger? Could God be any clearer?
[00:13:17] But it's not the language that frightens me. Church say amen. It's not the language.
[00:13:22] Somebody say amen.
[00:13:23] I need y' all to know this has worried me as a member of the priestly order. This has bothered me.
[00:13:31] It's that I know these things. I want to throw several verses up there at once. James 4, 6 said, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. First Peter 5, 5 says the same thing.
[00:13:45] Proverbs, chapter 3, verse 34, toward the scorners. He's scornful. Or one translation is, toward the mockers of he mocks. In other words, God will nana boo boo you, and you don't want God nana boo booing you. You know, but to the humble, he gives favor. Luke, chapter 1, verse 52. He is brought.
[00:14:06] Actually, I think that's. I was supposed to be Isaiah. I think I misquoted maybe. No, it's, it's 152. I took the Isaiah one out. That's right. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of a humble estate. That's in the middle of Mary's song. And she's praising the Lord for using her humble life rather than some exalted figure. Right.
[00:14:26] This is what bothers me about God saying, I'm going to remove your blessing and I'm going to add to your life cursing.
[00:14:34] I spent 25 and a half years of my life in open disobedience and rebellion to God. And the thing, the nail in my old life's coffin was on the night that I came to the Lord that this is what I felt like God was saying, I am going to go quiet on you. And that scared me worse than God convicted me every single day, all day long.
[00:14:56] It scared me worse that God would say, okay, I'm just going to not speak to you anymore. I'm not going to deal with you anymore. And it scared me all the way down through my heels. I'd rather be under conviction and know it's the Lord doing it than to not have conviction because the Lord is nowhere around.
[00:15:14] And so to see God confronting these priests and to sort of be in the church version of that order, you've got my attention. Lord, I don't want to oppose you. I want to have your favor. And so look very quickly at what he tells me. He says, listen, the privileges and power of the priestly position would be taken from you. That's what verse two is really about. He said, listen, if you will not listen. Everybody say if.
[00:15:41] So first there's the function of hearing. But does it stop there? If you will not listen, does anybody notice what it says next? If you won't take it to heart.
[00:15:50] Ooh.
[00:15:51] So it's not a memory verse situation.
[00:15:54] Can you repeat back to me what I said?
[00:15:57] Is there a reception and an application?
[00:16:04] Is there an affectation in your hearing and an affection in your doing?
[00:16:10] The priests no doubt thought they were giving God glory because they were going through the motions. And God is saying, I do not take this empty false worship and leadership.
[00:16:23] You remember what he said last week? You know, hey, you know, you congregation, don't bring that messed up offering. Hey, you priests, stop accepting. Afternoon. I wish one man somewhere would hear me and Go shut and lock the doors to stop this flow from happening.
[00:16:40] I think God's habit is to look across a land, a community, a congregation, even a family and say, can I find one person that will listen to me, please, Please.
[00:16:54] So this if is a big deal. If you'll listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, then, then he's saying, I'm already giving you a taste of that. He says that a little bit later on, I've already turned some of your blessings into curses. And so he tells them, I don't know of a nicer way to say this. He says, you know, your removal from sanctuary service would be dirty and disgraceful.
[00:17:19] Like, I, I, I, it's going to be like poo in your face.
[00:17:25] I'm not even trying to be funny. It is kind of funny, especially us guys, we're all middle schoolers.
[00:17:29] But God says, I am going to put this on your clothes and not let you get home to change before somebody sees you.
[00:17:41] Right?
[00:17:43] I started dating Care and Cares had gone back to college and she, she's going to be a first grade teacher. And I discovered that Care doesn't like, if you like blow your nose around her and all. And I'm like, you're going to teach what grade? And she's like, kindergarten, first grade. I said, you're not going to make it.
[00:18:02] You're really not going to make it. You know. And then, you know, one day I tested her. She had a 1984 Oldsmobile. It was about 40ft long.
[00:18:14] And I didn't know she was so sensitive. So I made her notice that I was messing with my nose and I licked this finger.
[00:18:21] She was wearing shorts and I reached over and touched her leg. We almost run off the road into Hico River.
[00:18:27] Note to self, don't pull that joke anymore.
[00:18:31] Then we started having kids and she became pregnant with Katie. And I was like, you know, this child's gonna throw up on you.
[00:18:39] But you know what was funny is the first graders always grossed her out, but she, she always just took care of her kids, right? So can you handle some waste on you?
[00:18:50] It depends on the application, right? And who's applying it. Do we want God to throw these things in our face and then to put us on public display?
[00:19:03] I don't.
[00:19:05] And he even says, like, the stuff you're bringing to me, like, think about it, the animals, I'm going to take the waste from those animals and smeared on you.
[00:19:15] Do y' all know how mind boggling this would be? To a Jewish priest to hear this.
[00:19:20] This would mortify them.
[00:19:24] Now, maybe we might say it like this. Today, I'm going to take all your secret thoughts.
[00:19:31] I'm going to take all your private Internet views and I'm going to post them, like tattoos on your skin and make you go out in public.
[00:19:47] Now you say, oh, God wouldn't do that. Well, in the end of times, he says he's going to bring every secret out just like it's sitting on a rooftop.
[00:19:58] Y' all know which theologian you need to quote right now, right?
[00:20:01] Old Scooby Doo. What would he say?
[00:20:03] Uh, oh, or maybe you could quote the theologian, Homie the Clown.
[00:20:11] He would say, homie, don't play that.
[00:20:14] Except God isn't joking.
[00:20:18] He's basically saying, I will throw it in your face and it'll hit you so hard that you'll be carried off with it.
[00:20:31] Wow.
[00:20:33] As a pastor, I want to say, Malachi, you have my attention.
[00:20:40] God deals with the problem parts without parting with the whole priesthood. Did y' all notice that in verse four, he clearly says. He says, listen, so you shall know, I've sent this command to you. My covenant with Levi may stand. In other words, he's not saying, I'm going to throw away everything I've decreed, but I am going to deal with those who are disobedient. This is big.
[00:21:02] Now, this fits the whole theology of the Bible. God is always going to rescue a remnant. Amen. Always in Israel, in the church, God's always going to rescue a remnant. I see time flying. Thirdly, we have to do a very quick history lesson. And I know anybody that knows me is entirely worried at this moment, and it's justified.
[00:21:23] If you don't know me, you have no idea what you're getting. Ready to escape, God established a preacher to teach and live truth. Now, I wanted to go back.
[00:21:34] Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. I wanted to walk through the whole thing and show the establishment of the priesthood.
[00:21:46] I wanted to do all that.
[00:21:49] Thank goodness a bit of Clarity prevailed around 1:30 this afternoon, and I took out about 50 slides.
[00:22:02] Someone should say thank you.
[00:22:04] I feel like this was my pastor's appreciation gift to y', all.
[00:22:10] And I decided to give us this little sampling. The ironic blessing from Numbers. Chapter six reads like this. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
[00:22:28] The Levitical, the priestly order is meant to be an agent of peace and pleading peace down from God to the people through the ordinances and the instruction and begging, benediction and pleading and benediction down and pleading up to God. God, please, please help us.
[00:22:52] And what he's saying is, y' all have emptied your ministry of meaning and power.
[00:22:59] Isaiah, one of my favorite verses, Isaiah 26:3 says this. You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. The order of the priesthood is meant to keep Jesus before the people.
[00:23:15] Now you say, wait a minute, they didn't have Jesus, the coming Messiah, in their case, the hope of Israel, the consolation of Israel.
[00:23:24] Now we have the came and coming again Messiah. Amen. It is. It is. I'll go ahead and give some mid, mid sermon application. It is the calling of gospel preachers, preachers to commend the people unto the Lord in Christ Jesus and to commend the Lord to the people. Because of Christ Jesus.
[00:23:48] One of the greatest compliments of any Bible figure is the apostle James was known to have camel knees, to be such a man of prayer that he had callouses on his knees.
[00:24:01] They would probably call me like camel behind, and that's convicting.
[00:24:10] God established his priesthood to teach and live truths. The essence of their covenant calling is a ministry of life and peace. That's what God has given them to do. To preach life, to preach peace, to exemplify it, to. To exalt God, to cause people to examine themselves against the law.
[00:24:32] What are they doing? They're bringing nasty offerings.
[00:24:36] They're bringing empty religion. These leaders are not leading, you might say they were bored with worship because they were disconnected from God.
[00:24:50] Did anybody hear a.
[00:24:52] A bit of quiet application there?
[00:24:58] If you're bored with worship, it's likely you're disconnected from God.
[00:25:03] If you're connected to God, you can't help but worship.
[00:25:09] Last night at the My Life Matters banquet, we sang that song that asked the question over and over and over. What? The questions but the one that keeps coming back is, is he worthy? Is he worthy? Is he worthy? There's no problem to say he is if you've been anywhere in view of him.
[00:25:30] He is the exercise of their. These priests. Covenant communication is the Word. He's. He's telling them point blank in verses 6 and 7. True instruction was his, was Levi's mouth, and no wrong was found on his lip. He was faithful in the ministry of the Word.
[00:25:50] There's a question for us today.
[00:25:53] I can look at those who I know have been given a calling to elderhood and pastoring and teaching at many levels.
[00:26:02] And he would say to men like Steve Riley, he would say to Dr. Jason Evans, he would say to us, I want you to have a communication of God's word that is faithful. And I want his word to be found on your lips. I want it to be found in your heart. I want it to be seen in your life.
[00:26:22] He's getting on these guys because those things were missing.
[00:26:27] They weren't being faithful in the Word, in their lives and in their teaching.
[00:26:37] I love a sermon like this because I get to quote so many of my favorite verses. Naturally, one of my heroes in the faith is a man named Titus. I'm not going to quote Titus, but I'm going to talk about him. If you really study the New Testament, Titus is always found in these trouble spots.
[00:26:52] You know, Titus is New Testament special forces got to respect a man like that.
[00:26:59] It's very obvious from the.
[00:27:02] The labor of Titus life. He was a man of God, man serious about the work of God. I picture another guy like that. Sort of my Old Testament equivalent would be Nehemiah. Nehemiah is troubled about the things that are going on. And Nehemiah responds.
[00:27:16] And then his priestly partner, you might say Ezra.
[00:27:19] One of my favorite summative quotes says this about ezra in Ezra 7:10. But Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and what church do it and what else you see, his affections affected him and he's like, man, other people need to know this. They need this thing needs to get a hold of them.
[00:27:44] Cannot tell you how many times. This verse is just in my prayers. Lord, give me a heart to study your word. Give me a heart to do it. God, give me a heart to teach your word.
[00:27:57] I pray you can tell in some small measure how much this passage has made me personally tremble this week.
[00:28:07] These priests were meant to teach the law.
[00:28:10] I'll tell you a great summation of priestly duties. I struggled to find one verse because, you know, the Old Testament tends to speak in long, long passages.
[00:28:20] But I found 1. Deuteronomy 33:10 says, they shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law. They shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. Isn't that a cool verse? Let that one hang there for a minute. Do you see the threefold ministry of the Levites right there? Teaching.
[00:28:39] Amen. Teaching. They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law. This is the revelation of the heart of God and the person and character of God.
[00:28:49] And it's Also teaching about the safety or lack thereof of not abiding in God's ways.
[00:28:56] Teach folks how to know God and live right. Country boy version but also to put incense before you. Anybody want to take a guess what that might mean?
[00:29:07] Now, I grew up with three older brothers who are all turning into teenagers. In the 70s and 80s, if I smelled incense, it meant somebody was covering up marijuana smoking.
[00:29:20] These days, the teenagers don't even try. Don't even try to cover it up. Real talk.
[00:29:24] Ask Mikayla. We smell it every Thursday. Every Thursday, they don't even try.
[00:29:30] So I grew up. If you mentioned incense to me, it meant one of two things. You're around some weirdo hippies or somebody smoking weed.
[00:29:38] Incense in the Bible is always indicative of worship and particularly of prayers. As a matter of fact, in the book of the Revelation, it says that the prayers of the saints, like if you've never had a good reason to have a prayer life, here it is. The prayers of the saints are like, are used to as incense in the nostrils of God in the throne room of heaven.
[00:30:02] Like when we were corporately praying together, we were adding worship, smoke, heaven. Mind blowing to me.
[00:30:09] So think about this. The Levites are to teach and they're also to have the office of creating worship and especially prayer. And then burnt offerings on your altar. What's that all about? That's for atonement. That's to help people make the sacrifices according to the law that they can be confident that God accepts their repentance and forgives.
[00:30:35] And this condemnation from Malachi is like, boys, you're off task. Not only are you not doing what you ought to be doing, you're doing it with such empty hearts that I'm going to take the stuff you're using and I'm going to take the waste from it and I'm going to spread it in your face and I'm going to hit you with it so hard it's going to knock you right out of the game.
[00:30:57] A few years ago they had some this funny series of commercials. It was back when I had cable. And I don't remember who the quarterback was, but he had a really strong arm. And the thing was regular people catching his passes was a commercial. And he would hit them with a ball and it would knock them off their feet. My favorite one, this guy gets knocked into a bus. And I just laughed every time I saw it. I was just like, that's so cool. I wish I could throw a ball that hard.
[00:31:25] That that's the image I kept Getting this week, he's like, you're going to be carried away. I'm going to throw this in your face so hard. It's going to be a public display and it's going to knock you out of the game.
[00:31:36] Next Sunday night, I'll be at a pastor's conference in Greensboro. We're not letting Steve go. He has to stay here and preach.
[00:31:43] Nanny boo boo.
[00:31:47] And I'm here to tell you, I don't think this passage in my. Just as a personal testimony could have come at a better time to prepare me to go and try to receive something.
[00:31:59] This has shook me. Am I walking out my ministry?
[00:32:03] Cause God is saying to these guys, you ain't, and I'm getting ready to deal with you.
[00:32:10] And you know, what he says here is so plain. If you don't turn, you are a Levite by heritage, by genealogy, by God. You know, it's like saying, you Boses, all you Boses are going to be preachers. David, you're up next week.
[00:32:29] But he's saying, no matter that God promised this to your tribe, I'm going to. I'm going to remove this privilege from you.
[00:32:39] It's almost like saying, I'm going to make you an orphan of your divine position.
[00:32:50] Lastly, quickly, God says, listen. He has contempt for those who don't carry out acceptable spiritual service.
[00:33:01] I love. Well, I love it in the sense of its clarity. I don't know that I love it in the sense of its fearfulness.
[00:33:09] He said, listen, I make you despised and abased before all the people. Whoa. Despised and abased.
[00:33:17] That's contempt.
[00:33:19] Brothers and sisters, the Lord's supper lays before us. There's so much to be said about all of this. I pray you'll go and wrestle through some of it in life together. This week I have tipped the iceberg because I want to make some quick application and move us toward observing the feast.
[00:33:39] What the priests were to be to the people, the people were to be to the world.
[00:33:48] I don't feel like that landed like as good as I thought it would.
[00:33:52] He is saying, our whole missional witness system to the nation is knocked off base when our leadership serving properly. That's fretful to me. They're to be carrying the people up to God and bringing God down to the people, so to speak, in the terms of how they ministered. And if you're. If you priests aren't doing this, then they're not getting what I got for them and they're not giving what I'm sending them. With. And if they're not giving what I'm sending them with, they're giving what they got on their own and what they got on their own and worth sending.
[00:34:29] Did I put that in country aboard enough terms for y'? All.
[00:34:32] You know, you wonder why preachers get so fired up about, you know, false preachers.
[00:34:39] Because we know how much is at stake.
[00:34:42] To hold back the gospel is to hold back comfort and assurance is to hold back a genuine sense and knowledge of justification before the Lord. It is to hold unsettle the sheep of God. It is to be an agent of fright to the people of God.
[00:35:00] But not only that, is to take the people of God off the mission that God has given the people of God.
[00:35:10] It bothers me.
[00:35:15] So you say, if this is preachers for preachers, why are you preaching it to us? Cause I want to.
[00:35:21] Because y' all know how it is. We start at verse one, chapter one, verse one, and we go until it's done.
[00:35:27] But I have this huge application.
[00:35:30] Whether you're an east rocker or you're a visitor, you must hold your pastors to God's standards.
[00:35:40] You do us no favor to excuse poor leadership.
[00:35:45] You do us no favors to not pray for us. You do us no favors to not hold our feet to the beautiful refining fire of Christ Jesus.
[00:36:00] Secondly, your ministry depends on this.
[00:36:07] Am I saying solely no? No.
[00:36:11] As a matter of fact, the. The Pope announced this week that if a believer can't get to a priest, they could just go to God themselves.
[00:36:21] Newsflash, homie. We Protestants know that.
[00:36:29] The Word is so clear, our society is so literate, God is so plain. Don't blame no preacher if you ain't getting fed.
[00:36:37] It probably means you didn't come with a fork and spoon because there's food of plenty in the word of God.
[00:36:44] At the same time, God has set a system for his church. God has set a system for his church.
[00:36:52] And he means for solid leaders to stand with him and to lead and guide and equip the saints for every good work. Amen.
[00:37:05] In Jesus's day, he said this. In Matthew 23, the scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses seat.
[00:37:12] So do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works. They do. For they preach, but they do not practice.
[00:37:18] Can I tell you guys a really quick story? And I'm not going to name names. And if you were there, Clay, don't say anything. I remember you were there.
[00:37:25] A group of us went one time to a church and it was a high liturgy church we're not non liturgical. You want proof of it, look in the bulletin. There's an order of service. And that's what liturgy means.
[00:37:38] We're not high liturgy. We're not fixed liturgy. You can't look up the third, two or the third Sunday after Whitsunday and say, I know exactly what's going to happen today.
[00:37:48] So we're not high liturgy, but we're not non liturgy.
[00:37:53] But we went to this church and it wasn't. We went to learn about this denomination and their worship. You remember, don't you?
[00:38:03] Clay made facial expressions. I knew he was alarmed.
[00:38:07] He actually moved.
[00:38:13] Clay. Clay has had. I hope you don't mind me telling you, you had some experience in high liturgy in Anglican Church, right?
[00:38:19] And so he. He was kind of at, you know, as far as experiential home. Nothing there was surprising him. Them jokers read Old Testament, New Testament, psalms. They read so much scripture. And this person, I hesitate to call him a pastor.
[00:38:41] This person remarks, I can tell Shannon's face. He's remembering, too.
[00:38:45] Steve almost died that day. Literally, as a matter of fact, I brought it up and he left. He couldn't remember it again.
[00:38:54] And they're standing there with their, you know, man, so much scripture. They read more scripture that day, a little bit to our shame, than we might read in five services.
[00:39:04] That was the thing that I walked away convicted. And not long after that, we started having scriptural openings because I was like, gee willikers, that's. I'm embarrassed.
[00:39:13] Holding their order of service, their worship book.
[00:39:19] The person made this comment. They said this. They paused to give commentary to their Baptist guests. They said, as you can clearly see, we read a lot of scripture, but we don't take much of it very seriously.
[00:39:34] You might say we don't believe much of it. That's when Steve, he started twitching.
[00:39:42] They, for some reason, decided to give us some snacks and host a Q and A.
[00:39:47] And you saw gentle, kind. Steve was like, I've got a question.
[00:39:56] Clay did this number. Y' all know how cool and laid back Clay is. He knew where I was sitting. And he does this.
[00:40:06] I don't know whether you were alarmed or you were scared. I wanted to get up and cut them. Maybe both, I don't know. But, you know, I started sinking. I mean, like, literally, I was like, Was their scripture reading. Did their scripture reading with their false practice? Did their scripture reading make the scripture bad?
[00:40:31] That's what Jesus is saying. They sit in Moses seat. They're saying stuff. You better pay attention to Moses. Word. You better pay attention to the Bible, to the law of God, but you better not pay attention to the way they living.
[00:40:45] I can't tell you how many church services happen in America today where folks read scripture. That I wouldn't give you a box of wet snuff for the whole thing.
[00:40:59] But I wouldn't throw that verse away. I wouldn't throw that passage away. That'd be dangerous. Amen.
[00:41:05] So I'll just stop right there. It was more. But gee whiz, Tim, give me 30 more years and I'll get better at this.
[00:41:14] Brothers and sisters, Malachi is sent by God to drop the veritable hammer on the priest.
[00:41:25] Well, I know from our. Our elders meeting earlier, both the elders from both gatherings were together. And Cayce took seven hours to walk us through Jeremiah 1.
[00:41:38] It's good, wasn't it, Steve? But that was a hard word, too. You know, we are thoroughly cautioned.
[00:41:45] It will be somewhat up to y' all to make sure we stay thoroughly straight.
[00:41:51] Our ministry as a local church depends on a great deal, a greater deal on the faithfulness of God to us.
[00:42:01] But I haven't found God to be unfaithful.
[00:42:04] And in a smaller degree, it depends on our faithfulness to him.
[00:42:12] And by God's design, he's placed a lot on we leaders. And it's not, as I often joke, to simply rule with an iron fist.
[00:42:22] It's to rule with an open word, giving people God's word.
[00:42:29] You make sure we do that.
[00:42:33] Let me do it real quick. Do you do. Do you know what it means to be surrendered and submitted and connected to the living God? This is what happened. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Amen. It's just true, you might say you're not as bad as someone else. But no one is as good as God. So we've all fallen short of the glory of God.
[00:42:50] I ain't no murderer.
[00:42:53] You probably are.
[00:42:58] Might not be a murderer, but we all are sinners.
[00:43:02] And the Bible says that makes us spiritually dead. Well, no dead man calls an ambulance.
[00:43:09] Somebody has to look upon the dead man's condition and say he's unable to help himself. And I will help him. What did God do? God came and took on flesh and lived righteously, died sacrificially, was buried actually and rose bodily.
[00:43:28] Why? Because he died for sin, but not for his sin. He wasn't guilty, so death had no ultimate claim on him.
[00:43:37] We can look to his blood for forgiveness and we can see his sacrifice. Pleases the Father.
[00:43:44] And we can look to the power of his resurrection and know that life of his can be ours. He has that power so that the righteousness God requires is in Christ. And he is willing to share that. How do you partake? By faith?
[00:44:00] You believe on Jesus.
[00:44:02] You don't trust your works, your mind, your goodness, your religious habits. You by faith trust Jesus. And God says, I will impute, impart, grant what is Jesus's to you, and I will hide you in him. And when I go looking for you on Judgment Day, all I see is my Son.
[00:44:23] You won't be approved because you stand there. You'll be approved because he stands there and you're in him.
[00:44:31] Isn't that cool?
[00:44:34] I don't know if y' all know it, but a good preacher's job no ever need to be any more fancy than that.
[00:44:41] Putting the goodness of God through Christ Jesus before the people. Constantly, in every way.
[00:44:48] That's what I'm doing tonight. Do you believe? Have you followed through into baptism?
[00:44:54] There's lots of reasons to be baptized. The chief one is because Jesus said so. If He's Lord, then listen to him. Amen.
[00:45:00] Be buried with him and raised with him.
[00:45:03] I don't know if you guys notice, this stuff is in line. That's the way Baptists like to build our church that preaches the gospel. The gospel is supposed to be preached here, and this preaches the gospel. We're to be living in constant proclamation to each other.
[00:45:18] So tonight you get to preach too, at the Lord's Supper. More on that in a moment.
[00:45:23] But do you know him today? If you're visiting from another local church or maybe another denomination, we're not going to stop what we're doing. And check your salvation card. If you tell me you're a disciple of Jesus, I believe you.
[00:45:35] We do ask that you be a baptized believer. But if you're a baptized believer, this table is for you. Say Amen and we want you to come and sup.
[00:45:45] Come and eat and remember his body was broken for you. Come and drink and remember his blood was poured out for you.
[00:45:57] The table is for the body.
[00:46:00] The body should come to the table. Let's pray.
[00:46:03] Father, we thank you for this moment in the Word.
[00:46:07] Lord, I do pray for the elders and the teachers here, those who lead informal ways that hold titles, and those who lead their homes.
[00:46:21] The word should go to all of us.
[00:46:24] We are responsible to stand in our station and to lead well, to love well, to be a good example, to teach rightly.
[00:46:35] Truth be told, we need a lot of help.
[00:46:37] I need ultimate, constant help.
[00:46:41] Our congregation longs to walk with you and represent you. Empower us. Help us.
[00:46:47] Lead us into paths of righteousness for your name's sake. Make repentance our lifestyle and make worship our response.
[00:46:57] Lead us now as we sing to ready our hearts for the table. In Jesus I pray, let the people of God say amen.
