If you would, turn in your copy of the scriptures to Malachi. This morning we will hear God's word from chapter 2. Malachi chapter 2, verses 1 through 17. Hear God's word. And now, O priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not hear, and if you will not take it to heart to give glory to my name, says the Lord of hosts, I will send a curse upon you. I will curse your blessings, Yes, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your descendants and spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts, and one will take you away with it. Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant with Levi may continue, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him, one of life and peace. And I gave them to him that he might fear me. So he feared me and was reverent before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have departed from the way. You have caused many to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore, I also have made you contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept my ways, but have shown partiality in the law. Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another? by profaning the covenant of the fathers. Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution, which he loves. He has married the daughter of a foreign god. May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob, the man who does this, being awake and aware, yet who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts. And this is the second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying, so he does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say, for what reason? Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did he not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. For the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce, for it covers one's garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously. You have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say, in what way have we wearied him? And that you say, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them. Or, where is the God of justice? Let's pray and ask God's blessing on the preaching of his word. Heavenly Father, we come before you again to again beseech your face that you would show favor to us, that you would be gracious to us and kind to us in this time of the preaching of your word. Father, as we engage in this worship of you, grant us grace that we might do so in spirit and in truth. Father, we are easily distracted. We are easily turned away by the understandings and the teachings and the influence of the world around us, by the work of Satan, the evil one, and by the sin that is in our own hearts. Deliver us, Father. Grant that Your Son, our King, would deliver us from our enemy in this hour. Grant that we would hear and know and understand Your Word, that we would be doers of Your Word also. We pray these things in His name, confident in the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen. Last week we heard of the ingratitude of the people of Israel. God had saved them. He had again rescued them, brought them back from the exile, returned them to the Promised Land, back to the worship of God, the worship of Himself in the temple in Jerusalem. And how have they repaid God? They have demeaned him and they have despised him. Instead of what God required in worship, what he demanded, what was his right, they bring sick lambs and goats, the lame they offer in sacrifice on the altar of God. This was their sin. This is why they receive a rebuke from God's prophet. This is why they are accused of breaking the covenant and why God sends the curse to cut them off again. The return did not turn out the way they expected. They've come back to a land ravaged, a land destroyed by war, a land suffering under neglect. Picture the end of World War II. We've seen a lot of movies about World War II. We've studied it. We've heard of it in class. The cities in Germany and Japan were destroyed by bombing. The populations were displaced by movements of armies or even completely wiped out. Now imagine if at the end of World War II, the United States had said, okay, you all have fun with that. Enjoy cleaning up. What would be the state of Germany and Japan today? What would it have been like to live in that kind of country, destroyed and devastated? They had to rebuild everything on their own in Israel. There was no Marshall Plan. There weren't millions of dollars flowing into your country like what we did for Germany and Japan. It was them. They were on their own. They had to figure it out. It was not what they expected. This is kind of what it was like for them. So in modern terms, they're living in an economic depression. Things are not going well. What would you do in a situation like that? What would we do? The temptation is to hold back the best. You have a flock, you have your sheep and your goats, you have your best, and God demands best in sacrifice. You want to establish economic ties with the powerful and the wealthy around you. Well, in this time and in this place, in this culture, how do you do that? You do it through marriage. This is the background for our passage and this is the background for the rebuke of God and the rebuke of his prophet. This is the context for their excuses and their sin. This is the context for their lack of faith. They were trusting in what they felt. They were trusting in what they could see rather than what God had promised and what God had commanded. This morning we'll see the sin of the priests, the sin of the people, and then what God is doing. What keeps us from faithlessness? What keeps us from falling away? What keeps us faithful? This is kind of a backwards way of looking at it. Normally we would say, what keeps us faithful? And we would look at the things that God gives us to make us faithful. But in our passage, what do we find? We find that the leaders are not keeping the people from falling away. They are not keeping the people faithful. And we see this in verses one through nine. We do not depend on spiritual leaders to keep us faithful. First of all, because they themselves are sinners. The curse that God pronounces upon the priests is bad. It's bad because it's already started. I have cursed them already, God says. You have allowed these sacrifices to be brought. You have allowed them to be sacrificed on my altar. The curse has already come. It will also be thorough. Notice what he says here about the curse that comes upon them. The curse will be upon their blessing. What does he mean by blessing? Well, the blessing here is a reference to what they would receive for their labor. They're priests, they're working in the temple, they're offering the sacrifices. They don't have their own lands. What did the priests get? How did they provide for their families? They get a portion of the sacrifice, and God will curse them because they have offered blemished sacrifices. Also, their seed. Look at verse 3. Here in the New King James Version, it's translated descendants. I think that's trying to take it as a metaphor, but we should understand it more literally, because the Hebrew here is seed. I think it's literally their seed will be cursed, as in God is going to send famine upon them. So their blessing, what they receive as priests, will be cursed. Their crops in the land of Israel will be cursed because of what the priests have done. So it's already started, it's thorough, and it will be final. He says this very graphic picture of what God's going to do. The refuse or some translations have done. What is he talking about? Well, when you take a goat or a sheep and you sacrifice it, there's a part in the regulations that God gave to Israel that you offer up on the altar. This is the part that's burned. There's a part that's given to God. There's a part that's taken and given to the priests. They take it and they use it to feed their families. And then all the guts out of the animal are taken outside the camp and burned. People don't want it. God doesn't need it. God doesn't want it in sacrifice. It doesn't portray worship to God. It's refuse. It's worth nothing. You take it outside the camp and you burn it. And what does God say? I'm going to dump it on your face. It's a graphic picture of the curse that is going to come upon these priests for what they have done in the worship of God. Just as they would take the guts of the animal outside the camp and burn them, God will take them outside the camp and destroy them. It will be final. They have insulted the Lord God of heaven and earth, the Lord of hosts, and so now they will be treated with contempt. So this curse is bad. This curse is also conditional. There's an element of if here. Did you catch that as I read, if you will not hear? It means if you will hear, the curse won't come upon you. Malachi offers them hope. So what must they do? These priests must take it to heart. They must think seriously about it, and they must change their ways. There must be a change in their thinking and in their doing. This must be a meaningful and sincere shift away from the way they've been thinking about the worship of God and what they've been doing about the worship of God. But the conditionality is stunning. It should shock us. It should shock them when they heard it. It should be shocking to us too. What do you mean God's going to take away the priests? Didn't God set up the worship of Israel? Isn't this what God had ordained? And now he says he's going to take it away? The priests of Levi could lose their place? but they've earned this curse. And we see this here in the passage as it ties back to chapter one in verse six. There God asked, where is my honor? Where is my reverence? They're not treating God with the glory that is his due. The sons of Levi had purged Israel after the incident with the golden calf. We're familiar with this story. Moses comes down from Mount Sinai. He has the Ten Commandments, the covenant that God has made with Israel, and they're worshiping a golden calf. They've fallen into idolatry already. Well, the sons of Levi went out and killed the Israelites. And so God blessed them with this special place. In Numbers chapter 25, one of the sons of Levi, Phineas, had stopped a plague that was running rampant through the people of Israel by killing one of the Israelites who is committing sexual immorality. And God blessed the sons of Levi. In Deuteronomy chapter 3, you can find Moses' blessing of the tribe of Levi. They were to be God's priests in Israel. God had given them this special place, this special obligation, and how do they treat God? With contempt. They thought that they stood above the people. They thought that they were in some ways untouchable. But they are not above the people. In Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse 20, God says this. This is Moses speaking. The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration, and all that you undertake to do until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. This curse was carried out upon Israel when they were kicked out of the promised land. And now Israel and their false worship, their improper worship, are in danger of being kicked out of Israel again. Their whole purpose was to oversee right worship of God and to teach the people how to worship God. So the failure of the people to offer right sacrifices is in fact the failure of the priests. But they're also not only sinful, they have failed in their teaching. And here Malachi shows us what was the ideal of the priesthood, and we see this in verses four through nine. They should have had reverence for God. They should have feared him. They had peace, the blessings of God gathered together. All that is necessary for good is what was given to them. They were to be teachers of the law. A storehouse of spiritual provision, a granary. where all the rich provision is gathered together from the harvest. All that you need to survive the winter is gathered in one place to give out throughout the winter, to keep the people alive. It's a picture of what they were to be. They were to be like storehouses of the law. They were to have the law, to know the law, to teach it to the people that they might have spiritual life, that they might be provided for in the midst of their spiritual winter. Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 33. We see this commandment laid upon them of what they are to be doing. This is part of Moses' final blessing here to the people of Israel. Part of Moses, before he died, of what he said to the tribes of Israel. And here we find in Deuteronomy chapter 33 and in verse 8 what he said to the tribe of Levi. They've already been given this obligation, this covenant as it were, for them to be the priests in Israel And here Moses says, let your Thummim and your Urim be with your Holy One, whom you tested at Massah, and with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah. Who says of his father and mother, I have not seen them? This is speaking of what Israel did. Nor did he acknowledge his brothers or know his own children. Back to Levi. for they have observed your word and kept your covenant." And this is what they're to be doing. What are the priests of Levi to be doing in Israel? They shall teach Jacob your judgments and Israel your law. This is what they were called to do. And a whole burnt sacrifice on your altar. Bless his substance, Lord, and accept the work of his hands. Strike the loins of those who rise against him, of those who hate him, that they rise not again. So Moses is asking that God would bless them. Bless them in their work. cut off, curse those who hinder them. And this is what's stunning now, is that this same curse is pronounced on the Levi, the tribe of Levi, the priests of Levi, because they have not done what they were commanded to do. They were to be teachers in Israel. This was their possession. They didn't get land. They didn't get land in Israel. Their possession was to have the law and to teach the law to the people. The law was the perfect summary of all that was needed for religious life, and they were to communicate that to God's people. And then in verse 8 of chapter 2 in Malachi, we find the sad reality. Their teaching has, in fact, caused others to sin. They have lived as if the demands of the law were not perfection. They are no longer faithful to the covenant. And so the curse comes upon them. They have failed to live up to their lofty position, and so God will cast them down from it in the sight of all the people. So what keeps us from faithlessness? It's not spiritual leaders. And secondly, we see in verses 10 through 16, we cannot keep ourselves from faithlessness. were not faithful to God. This is why we can't keep ourselves faithful. They were commanded to be distinct, Israel was. This phrase, the Lord's holy institution. They were to be kept separate from the nations of the earth. The problem is not a racial one. God's not saying that one race is better than another. It's not an ethnic issue. There's not something inherently wrong with someone from a different tribe. The problem is a spiritual one. The problem is that they were to be separate from the idolatry of the nations around them, the false gods of the nations around them. And intermarriage with outside of Israel is the way that idolatry was often introduced. The most famous example you might remember is King Solomon. Turn over to 1 Kings. First Kings in chapter 11, we find this explicitly recounted for us. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidion, and Hittite women. from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, this was God's command, you shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Israel was to be God's special people. Their worship was to be the worship of the one true God. But Solomon clung to these in love, and his heart was turned away. These people in Israel, here under God's rebuke, under the prosecution of the prophet Malachi, have broken God's covenant. They have done what their fathers did. This commandment was a separation of them from the peoples around them, but they ignored the spiritual realities to which it pointed. And so we find the fruit of ingratitude, sin among the people of Israel. Malachi uses this term, an abomination. You are no better than the Canaanites who are cast out before you. You were called to be a nation of priests and honored by God, and yet you respond in sin and faithlessness. We can't keep ourselves faithful, not only because we're not faithful to God, but because we're not faithful to each other. Here we see the true nature of sin. Their former wives are distraught. They cover the altar with their tears. They've been divorced. Divorce in this culture is a much worse thing than what we think of it in terms of what happens to a woman who's divorced. Her husband has sent her away. He's no longer married to her, and now she has to fend for herself. How will she survive? What will she eat? Where will she get food? This is why this is so despicable. What was their marriage to be in Israel? Notice how it's described by the prophet Malachi, the wife of your youth. your companion, your wife by covenant. This is what they were to have and they send them away. What is God's response? He hates their sin. He compares it to violence. This brings us to the true issue here. God has stood as a witness against them, a witness against them and their misuse of their marriage, of their rejection of lawful marriage. They ignore his law and they bring sin into the nation, a nation that should be holy, separate. And here they are introducing idolatry into Israel. So we've seen that our spiritual leaders do not keep us faithful. We cannot keep ourselves faithful. And finally, in verse 17, God is the one who keeps his people faithful. Now it may seem a little bit odd that I'm drawing that from verse 17, so bear with me as we work this out. What is going on here in verse 17? The people of Israel chafe under God's timing. They want justice now. They want the promises to be fulfilled now. They've come back from exile and it's not what they expected. They're bitter and they complain. Look at what they said. It's as if God's character has changed. That's the insult that they're making against God. Or as if he's not even there. Is God listening? That's what they're saying. They're bitter and they're complaining against God. So what does this all point us to? They need a different mediator. They need a different covenant because they have broken the one that God gave them. The priests can't intercede for the people because the priests are in sin. They need a pure priest. The priest can't intercede for them because they no longer walk with God. They're not loyal to the covenant. They need a priest who is loyal to the covenant, who does walk with God in faithfulness. And this is the fulfillment of the promises. This is what they were to be looking forward to. And instead, they're looking around them and they're walking by sight. They were to be a pure people who walked with God, and they can't do that. This is only provided in Christ Jesus. It is only Christ Jesus who is the perfect mediator. It is Jesus Christ who knew no sin. It is Jesus Christ who is the perfect teacher of righteousness and worship. The problem that they had is that their covenant was conditional. If they did not walk as they were to walk, they would be cursed. The covenant that Christ institutes is also conditional. But in this way, it is Christ who fulfills the conditions of the new covenant. It's his actions. not our actions. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 3. In Hebrews, the author is addressing, or I should say the preacher is addressing the problem that the Jews have who have become Christians. They feel like they've traded good barbecue on Saturday for a piece of bread and a bit of wine on Sunday. And that seems a little bit odd to them. And they're wondering, should we go back? And he's telling them, what's going on is you have actually traded the physical for the spiritual reality. You have traded a mere bull sacrificed on an altar for the reality of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The bull sacrificed on the altar can't save you from your sin. Only Jesus Christ can. So that's the larger context. And in the midst of this, he addresses Moses and Jesus. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful. who was faithful to him who appointed him. See, Moses was faithful. Moses was faithful in all his house, but the priests were not. The priests could not maintain the covenant. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, and as much as he who built the house is more honored than the house. For every house is built by someone, but he who has built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward. Moses and the priesthood were pointing forward to Jesus Christ. But Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Christ is the one who is faithful. Christ is the one who maintains his people in faithfulness. Turn over a little bit further to chapter 8. See, there's a new covenant that is given because the priests couldn't keep the covenant and the people couldn't keep the covenant. And we find this here in this re-quoting of Jeremiah, not according to the covenant. This new covenant will be not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them, says the Lord. They could not keep the covenant. The promise of God points us to one who can keep the covenant, and that is Jesus Christ. So now we wait. The Israelites were waiting for a time of fulfillment. And what was their response? They looked around them. They saw economic depression. They tried to fix it by sinning against God. We too wait. How should we wait? We should wait in faith. The cry of faith is, how long, O Lord, trusting in God that he will fulfill his promises when he sees fit. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. The one who gives the new covenant is faithful. The one who keeps and establishes the new covenant for you is faithful. And that is how you remain faithful to God. In conclusion then, it is because Jesus is faithful that we are faithful. It is the mediator of the new covenant who keeps his people. Our standing before God in the new covenant is based on Jesus' priesthood, his sacrifice, his pleading of his merits and his standing and his righteousness before the throne of God on our behalf. Our spiritual leaders will sin. We all will sin. Where is our hope grounded? Not in us, not in ourselves. It must be grounded in the perfect high priest, Jesus Christ. You need to ask yourself if you're reacting to your circumstances like the Israelites were. When you're tired, how do you react? Are you reacting in discontent and bitterness and complaining against God? Or are you trusting that his promises will be fulfilled in his time? When you're ticked, when you're mad, when something upsets you, how do you react? Like the Israelites? Or are you reacting in faith? When things don't go the way you expect, are you trusting in the promises of God? When life doesn't turn out the way it should, are you trusting in God's promises? How do you react? Do you run to God's promise? Do you run to His faithfulness, the faithfulness of Christ on your behalf? Or do you walk by sight, demanding what is owed to you? Believer, the Father loves the Son. Don't doubt that He hears Jesus' prayers for you. You may say, but I don't feel faithful. Of course you don't. Are you glorified? No, none of us are. We're awaiting glory. So rest by faith in the promises that will come. Don't be like the Israelites who didn't see God's faith promises fulfilled right away and jumped immediately to a failure on God's part. Is God faithful to you? you be faithful to him, to your wife, your spouse, your children, your coworkers, your neighbors. Be faithful to them, be loving to them. If you are not trusting in Christ this morning, you stand in rebellion against God. You may think that your sins are just the things that are normal that you enjoy in this life. You may think that there is no God who is watching out, who has a perfect law, but he cut off Israel for their sin, a people he loved. How great then is your danger? We serve a God who looks at our unfaithfulness. He doesn't sweep our sins under the rug. We serve a God who looks at our unfaithfulness and sends one who is faithful in our place. We serve a God who is faithful, who is never slack in the fulfillment of his promises. Christ, Jesus, is the guarantee. He is the promised one, he is the fulfillment of the promise, and he is the guarantee that we will find that promise revealed in heaven. Let's pray. Our gracious and heavenly Father, we bow before you now and again acknowledge that we are no better than Israel. They heard your law given, and we have heard your law given. They sinned against you in rebellion against your perfection and your beauty and your goodness and your truth and your wisdom and your sovereignty and your power. and we have done no better. Father, our hope is not in ourselves. Our hope is not in those who lead us and teach us and instruct us in your word. Father, our hope is in Jesus Christ, the head of the church, the lamb without spot or blemish, who offered himself as a sacrifice for sinners. Our hope is his faithfulness, his walking according to your law. Our hope is in this one, who is accepted by you. Give us grace, Father. Help us today. Help us in this coming week. Father, we will face again trials and adversity and difficulty. Father, in this life, we will face temptation and struggle. Father, we will face the normal difficulties of your providence that come upon us. Father, we may even at some point face persecution as Christians. Help us to rest in Christ alone. Give us hearts that are content with your promise, trusting you that you will bring us to glory in your time, that Christ will return when all the church is gathered together. Grant us an increase. Grant us strength in our faith, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.