Romans 12.2, we read these words as the Lord continues to direct us this morning in our worship service. He says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Brothers and sisters, we're called now to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And we know the only way that that happens is by the Spirit of God. We're combined with his word. So it's a call for us to come now to his word to fellowship with him. Towards that end, let me invite you to turn with me to the book of Malachi chapter two, and we will wrap up the text we began last week. Malachi chapter two, one through nine, and your bulletin is an outline. Use that to take notes and follow along. The goal is for you and me to understand this text, and so let us indeed strive together, sitting on the edge of our seats as you will, as we study together God's Word. As this is God's Word, let me encourage you out of reverence and respect for the honor of King Jesus to stand at the reading of His Word. Please stand together with me. In the words of our King, And now this commandment is for you, O priests. If you do not listen and if you do 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. And indeed, I have cursed them already because you are not taking it to heart. Behold, I'm going to rebuke your offspring and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts, and you will be taken away with it. Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may continue with Levi, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence So he revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and a righteousness was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But as for you, you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by the instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. So I also have made you despised and abased before all other people, just as you are not keeping my ways, but are showing partiality in the instruction." That's Father reading of God's word. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that we now have this privilege each week, but now this moment, to have this holy time where we fellowship around a portion of your word, a portion which from eternity past you ordained each and every one of us this place, in this place, to fellowship with you thereby. So Lord, we know you want us to hear this word. You want us to fellowship around this passage, this moment. Lord, we pray, open our eyes. Enable us to behold your word, and God, feast us, fill us, feed us, and grow us. Give me grace to preach, therefore, with fidelity, and may our faith, therefore, be not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of you, almighty God. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. As a reference, last week 2 Timothy 2 makes this incredible call for us that we handle accurately a word of truth. And brothers and sisters, that word of truth is in our hands. And it's our privilege this morning to come and to participate in learning how to handle that word accurately. Malachi is one passage that gives us understanding on how that's done. And we began looking at this last week. And as I fellowshiped around this past week, the incident came to my mind of Abraham and the call that God placed on his life to take his son and sacrifice him on Mount Moriah, which you know is the temple area where Jesus Christ himself was crucified. So 1900 years after Abraham was to sacrifice his son, God sacrificed his son. But the difference is, God didn't let Abraham go through with it. You know the story, Genesis 22. He told Abraham to stop, there's a ram, take the ram and sacrifice him in your son's place. What's amazing about this account is the faith that God had given this man. It was a faith that we know from scripture he would have gone through with it. had God not stayed his hand. Why? Was it because he's such a wonderful man? No, it's because of what God in his grace through revelation, this is before scripture was written, but through revelation, God had given Abraham, we met with him 10, 15, 20 times throughout the course of 30 years. And in that process, God revealed to this man facets of his character. And one such facet we read about in Hebrews chapter 11, where we read that Abraham did what he did because he considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead. Brothers and sisters, Handling God's word accurately involves responding to what God teaches us about himself. That's the first point we saw last week as I summarize what we saw last week. We saw first and foremost, brothers and sisters, handling God's word accurately means that as God reveals Himself to us in Scripture, we come to understand God, or better yet, we go to God's Word to understand who our God is. Malachi 1, 1-2, would you notice the text? And now this commandment is for you, O priest, if you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to my name, the word name means character, if you don't give substance, honor, respect to my character, The whole point of God's word, brothers and sisters, is not for you and I to have words to encourage us to live this difficult life. This is not promises to get us through another day. Brothers and sisters, God gave us this revelation to reveal truths about himself to us. If eternal life is knowing God, John 17, 3, this is eternal life, that they may know Thee. If that's eternal life, then it seems obvious that the reason God gave us His word is so that we too might know God. When we come to a greater understanding of this being who has condescended to have a relationship with us. So being a wise steward or handling God's word accurately begins by you and I recognizing the reason God gave us this word was not to give us encouragement or a pick-me-up or to feel good or to learn our theology. Ultimately, so that you and I, I come to a greater understanding of who this being is. Coordinate with that we saw last week. a caution that God gave to the priests of Malachi's day. And that caution is found in 2B. He says, if you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of Horses, then I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. And at the very end, he says, I will curse them. I've already cursed them already. We saw this already. The word curse there, outside of the context of the kingdom of God, invokes or evokes the idea of wrath and condemnation. The curse of God results in hell for the non-believer. But in the context of the kingdom of God, that word was used to refer to that which would be our worst, the worst thing that could happen to us as God's people. If the joy of the Lord is our strength, what's the worst thing that could happen to us? Not having the joy of the Lord. So the curse in the context of the kingdom is not God's wrath. It's not God being angry with his people, condemnation. Rather, this is God withholding the sense of his presence. This is God, Psalm 106, giving man, his people, leanness of soul. It's a dryness in our walks. So secondly, brothers and sisters, The stewardship of God's word brings with it this incredible responsibility, that if you and I come to God's word and abuse it, and use it as our little springboard into happiness, brothers and sisters, you will dry up, your walk with God will dry up. you'll feel distant from God. When you feel that distance, brothers and sisters, that's not the time for you to conclude, boy, God's Word's just not doing it. It's time for you to go back to going to God's Word, to gaze upon the glory and the greatness and the majesty of your God, as opposed to going to it for that pick-me-up that so often occurs in Christians' lives. It also comes, brothers and sisters, with this incredible consequence, this other looming consequent found in verse 3, and that is, behold I'm going to rebuke your offspring. Now, this could refer to C, literally his crops, or could refer to his children. And most commentators take this in light of his children, as we saw last time. And the implication is this, not that God's going to pay our children for our sins, that doesn't happen anymore. But this is Exodus 34, cause and effect. The sins of a father go to the third and fourth generation. I've known of families who have had alcoholism that span generations. That's Exodus 34. Okay, and the same thing here. Brothers and sisters, if you and I misuse God's word, mishandle it, in our walk with God, and the consequences, this dryness in our lives, brothers and sisters, not surprisingly, that's gonna spread. What's your greatest prayer for the next generation? Is it not that they love Christ more than life? I've sat many times at the door of my children's room praying, God, grant them that their love for you would far surpass mine. Grant them that their devotion for you would be far greater than mine. Grant them, O Lord, to love you, to serve you, to be much greater servants of you than mine." That's my prayer. What a horrible thing it would be to think that because of what my failure could result in a dryness in my life that could spread to other people in my life in terms of of ministry. That's what Baxter's getting at in the quote there. I'm not going to read it, but you've got it there in your notes once again. Man, when I'm cold, people are cold. When I'm cold, the people I'm called to minister to soon become cold, and I don't want that. I want you all. I want my children. I want the congregation. I want anyone and everyone that I can minister to to love Christ And therefore, oh boy, behooves me to recognize that the ministry of God's word brings with it a responsibility, and that responsibility is rather serious. My call is to submit to the word of God. That is our second point. So the first one is, God's word is given that we might come to understand who God is. The second point is, God's word is given that we ourselves might submit to it, that we might find ourselves bound by God's word. And just one more note on that. When it comes to submission to God's Word, the ultimate here is not submitting to a commandment. Now that's not bad, but that's not the telos. The telos of submitting is submitting to a person. Do you understand that? God in His Word is going to teach us things about Him. the first point, so that we might honor his character, and we want to submit to that. It's the source of movies. The king acts like a commoner, and he becomes friends with people, but the moment they discover a facet of his character, what happens? He's king. They immediately fall down and say, oh, king. Brothers and sisters, as you and I come and learn about God, we should immediately fall down in reverence and praise and thank and honor, name it. That's the idea. So we're called to submit to God's word. Notice that then brings us thirdly to now new territory. Verse four and following. The calling involved when it comes to the ministry of God's word. What's the formal calling? We begin with verse four, then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you that my covenant may continue with Levi, says the Lord of hosts. I'm going to skip verse four at this point. I'm going to come back to verse four at the very end. But I will say this, that behind the ministry of God's word is a divinely ordained end, which ought to govern our understanding of the word of God as we handle it. That being said, notice with me verse five, he transitioned, where he transitions to this section five, six, and seven, where God tells us how to handle his word. This is how the formal ministry of God's Word is being handled. Would you notice, one, it begins with the horizontal telos. Now this isn't sequential, like verse five is more important than verse six. This is just a splattering, but verse five begins with the horizontal telos, the horizontal end of God's Word, and that is the growth of God's people in grace. Notice with me verse five. My covenant was one of life. Now this covenant is the covenant of teaching with Levi. My covenant was one of life and peace. The idea behind that is that the purpose that God gave the teaching ministry to the priests was that God's people, in response, would enjoy life and peace. That's the point of God's word. Paul says it in 1 Timothy 1.5, the goal of our instruction is love. Love from pure heart, sincere conscience, et cetera. But brothers and sisters, our goal, the goal of all teaching, the goal of all Bible study is so that the body of Jesus Christ, your brothers and sisters around you might love God more and be at peace according to this text. Brothers and sisters, you need to hear this. This passage is not just telling us what's behind this pulpit, what the goal of this pulpit is, that you would love Christ, that this would direct you to trust and love and seek Christ more. This is the movement, the direction of your personal devotional life before God. Colossians 3.16 says this. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. It's written to the entire body. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. You know what we conclude from Colossians 3, verse 16? That everyone in the body of Jesus Christ has been given the ministry of God's word as a teacher. Everyone. teaching and admonishing one another with love, et cetera, et cetera. Brothers and sisters, the ministry of God's Word, what we're talking about today, yes, formally addresses this pulpit or any pulpit ministry, but brothers and sisters, it also addresses your personal ministry as you spend time in God's Word. Do you know why you go to God's Word? To come to know God. to submit to it, and secondly or thirdly, so that you might be used by God to encourage the body of Jesus Christ to love and know Christ. So brothers and sisters, in the 80s, there was this big movement, 70s, 80s, for me and my Bible, me all by myself, my personal quiet time, my personal alone time, it's just me and my God. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with that, But unless that is all that it is, it can't end there, brothers and sisters. The reason God gave His Word, the ministry of God's Word, is a ministry of using it to encourage the body of Jesus Christ to love the Lord and to know the peace of Christ which surpasses all comprehension. So as we've said so many times, when you read and study God's Word, read it for other people. Now, you have to apply it to yourself, second point, clearly. But brothers and sisters, read it and study it, that you might be a blessing to other people in the body of Jesus Christ. And that is why I encourage every one of you here, have those people who you can, on a weekly basis, call on the phone and say, what is God teaching you in your quiet times? What is God teaching you in your devotional life? It's not just for the high school students are doing that. They've got prayer partners. Every week they call each other on the phone and talk about what God's teaching them in the word. Brothers and sisters, that should be every one of us. What is God teaching you? Teach it to other people. Secondly, would you notice under this point, the vertical to tell us that we come to a fuller understanding of the greatness of God. Now this is similar to what we just saw in verses two. In verse 2, where he gave them God's word that they might honor his name. But there's a little bit of a twist here. Notice with me verse 5b. My covenant with him, the covenant of God's word, was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence. So he revered me and stood in awe of my name. Brothers and sisters, the first point is that we read the word of God to come to know this person, this living person, this being called God. But this one adds to it. It brings us to the end. Reverence. Worship. Awe. It's Job struggling, grappling with his God. You know, God, why? And all these different struggles throughout the book of Job, and then Job 42, 5 through 6, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee. Therefore I retract and I repent with dust and ashes. Did you see the movement in his life? Grappling with God. We do it now through his word. Grappling with God. God, what does this mean? I don't understand what this text, what you're teaching me about you, Christ, his kingdom, from this text. As you grapple, brothers and sisters, the movement is to bring you to the point where you behold God in a way you hadn't seen him before. That's the first point. And that leads then to, secondly, or thirdly, or fourthly, or whatever, that leads us then to reverence. standing before God and going, wow, I placed my hand over my mouth. You are awesome. Isn't that the movement in Isaiah's life? Isaiah 6 begins with the king's dead. Our Lord, they used to call Uzziah Lord, that's the name you give to a king. Our Lord, in the year of King Uzziah's death, in the year that our Lord, Adonai, died, I saw Yahweh, also translated Lord, I saw the Lord, high and lifted up, right on and on and on. What happened when he saw that? He responded with these words, woe is me, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the glory and the greatness of my God. Brothers and sisters, that's what we're after, reverence. We're after coming to know who God is, and then that results in us fulfilling our chief end, glorifying God, adoring Him, praising Him in the valley, praising Him in the difficulties of life, because we see, brothers and sisters, God is bigger than cancer, and He's bigger than tragedy. He is the Lord God Almighty who reigns. And so we bow before him. That's a movement. So secondly, the vertical tell us that we come to a fuller understanding of the greatness of God. That then leads to the third element in verses five, six, and seven. Notice with me verse six. The ministry of God's word is to be faithfully proclaimed. We're to faithfully, or we're to be faithful in our study of it. Notice with me verse six. True instruction was in his mouth. and unrighteousness was not found on his lips. The only way a pulpit, ministry, can turn people back to God is if it first and foremost is proclaiming the truth of God's word. You know what that means, brothers and sisters, from the perspective of the pulpit? The pulpit is not the place for politics, psychology, social commentaries, personal agendas, counseling, and the many other things that are going on today in broad evangelicalism. The purpose of this desk, this holy office, is to proclaim the truth of God's word to nothing more and nothing less. That's it. It's not to inspire. It's not to grow. That's what God does. The purpose of this pulpit is to faithfully proclaim the truth of God's word. You see there, true instruction was in his mouth. Unrighteousness was not found on his lips. Notice verse seven. For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth. The whole point of this, of God's Word, as you think of ministering to other people, whether it's a pulpit or your own life, is that you and I come to understand the truth of God's Word. We need to hear this. You all know the difference. You've heard the language eisegesis versus exegesis. Those are two Latin words, I believe. Eis means in, ex means out, gesis means to read. So eisegesis is to read into a text, Exegesis is to read out of the text. So often in our walks today, it is so easy to isogee God's Word. How do we do that? Let's put it down to where we live. I've got an agenda. My agenda is I want justification for this. So I go to God's Word to find justification. Brother, every heretic has his verse, right? That's eisegesis. That is not the ministry of God's Word. The ministry of God's Word is you and I come to God's Word without an agenda. Now, honestly, that's impossible. We're sinners. But therefore, we need to be aware. All of us have an agenda. Every one of us have those high places, those idols that we want, and we want God's word to support. So we go to God's word and go, aha, see? There you go. That's why you should dress that way. There you go. That's why you shouldn't drink. That's why you should drink. That's why you shouldn't do that. We all do that. Let us be mindful, as men and women of integrity before God, we bring our agendas to Scripture. And therefore, let us begin by saying, Lord, I've got agendas I don't know. And therefore, with integrity, may God give us the grace to come to God's Word and simply say, Lord, what does this text say? regardless of what it means, regardless of how many people I got to say sorry to. What does this text really mean? That's what we're after, true instruction. Think of it in this way. The breath of God in scripture is used to refer to the almighty power of God, right? It's by his breath he made the world. He spoke his breath. It's by His breath He parted the Red Sea. It's by His breath He saves people. The Spirit of God is described as breath. When? We don't know where He goes in 2 and 4. It's by His breath. So the breath of God in Scripture is the nothing less or short of the almighty power of God. Well, did you know that as the ministry of God's Word, you are holding in your hands the breath of God? Listen to 2 Timothy 3. It says that all Scripture is inspired by God. The Greek word is theopneustos and it literally means is the breath of God. B.B. Warfield made the comment, the reason why Paul is utilizing this language is not to tell us how God's word came about, but to tell us that the word of God is on the same level as that which created the world. That which resurrects, in other words, it's the almighty power of God. It's the word of God, not my stories, not my counseling, not my humor, not the many things that people flock to hear on Sunday morning. That which changes people is the breath of God. All scripture is inspired by God. And what does it do? It's proper for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness that the man of God may be mature, adequate, equipped for every good work. What's the purpose of God's word? Brothers and sisters, God's word. It does those things. So therefore, if you and I are going to be students of God's Word, we are after the truth of God's Word, regardless of what it costs, regardless of the implications of what it means in my life. regardless of if that means I'm wrong and I gotta go say sorry, regardless. We're after the truth of God's word. A third element of the ministry of God's word is the faithful proclamation, the faithful study of it and the faithful proclamation. Notice with me lastly under this point, fourth point, and the final element is the call to personal submission. Once again, notice with me 6B. Notice he says, true instruction was in his mouth, I'm picking it back up, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness and turned many back from iniquity. This was the second point review that I shared with you. And we're going to say it again. Brothers and sisters, this word is designed for you and I to submit to it. But ultimately we must realize we're not submitting to the word, we're submitting to God, a person. Now you say, isn't that the same? It is. But if we just say it's submitted to this, it's so easy in our idolatry to make this the end. I gotta master this book. No, no, brothers and sisters, the end is when this book masters you. That's what we're after. We don't wanna stop short of, well, I've got my theology down, I've got my doctrine. Brothers and sisters, the deepest pit in hell is reserved for the theologian. It's not the doctrine that necessarily we're after, although we want good doctrine, of course. That's theology, of course. So our goal is not theology per se in and of itself. Our goal is that we might come to see who God is, revere him, and then submit to him as reveals himself through his word. That's what we're after. Now, brothers and sisters, let me share with you, therefore, in this context, the ground that we stand on when we read God's word. For that, I want you to think in Isaiah 55. You know the verse, maybe it's a scripture memory for you as it is mine. So shall my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to be empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding the manner for which I sent it. We love that verse. God's word does, it works. But do you see that little phrase, so shall my word be? The context in Isaiah 55 is this. As the rain and the snow comes down from the heavens and does not return there without watering the earth and making a barren sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be. My word is water. My word is rain. Now, in the world, in the world in which we live, if you've got a field filled with weeds and you water it, what's going to happen next year or at the end of the year or in the end of that week? What's going to happen? You're going to get more weeds. Can I share with you the glory and the majesty of the ministry of God's word in your life? Isaiah 55, 13. Carrying on with what God's word does. After filling us with joy, being led forth with peace, right? Now he closes with this. Instead of the thorn bush, God's word waters the soul of man. And instead of the thorn bush, which is a prickly, undesirable weed in Palestine, the cypress will come up and evergreen. And instead of the nettle, another type of thorn bush, in fact, the word for nettle in the root is the word to wail. Instead of this plant that makes you wail, the myrtle, another evergreen, will come up. And it will be a memorial to the Lord for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off. This is the miracle of God's word. In our world, you put water on a weed, it makes it a stronger weed. In the kingdom of God, you put water on a heart filled with weeds, and He makes it evergreen. How does He do it? He does it by and with the Spirit of God working by and with His Word. So you and I want to grow. We want to know God. We want to become the people God wants us to be. It comes as you and I submit ourselves to the Word. So we're not after just simply clicking off, I read God's Word today. We're after being people who genuinely seek to come to a greater understanding of who our God is, that we might reverence Him, that we might be used by God to take what we've learned, to share it, that other people might know life and peace. But before we do that, Ezra 710, Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach it. We first endeavor to practice it. We submit our hearts to it. As Paul told Timothy, pay close attention to yourself and then to your teaching. Persevere. Brothers and sisters, we've already looked at this point, so it's a review, but a crucial part in our understanding of the ministry of God's word, a crucial part that the priests of God's day missed. That brings us then to verse eight. The priest missed it. That's the ministry. That's the covenant God gave with Levi about teaching. It included those four points. Notice what happened in verse 8. But as for you, you have turned aside from the way, and you have caused many to stumble by the instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. Brothers and sisters, this is shocking. One of the primary functions of the priest was instruction. Look back at verse six in your text. True instruction was in his mouth and righteousness was not found in his lips. That's what the calling was. And yet these priests in Malachi's day, because of what Christianity, their relationship with God had become, do you remember? Mechanistic. Now what do we mean by that? Mindless. Just going through the motions. What are you doing? I'm reading the word of God. Why? Because that's what I do. Checkmark. What are you doing? I'm eating breakfast. Why? Because that's what I do. Checkmark. I'm going to work. Why? Because that's what I do. Checkmark. We just go through the motions. Christianity, or better yet, the religion of God for the last 140 years was about the same as it was. for the last, in Malachi's day, 140 years. By this time, many generations have risen up and everything they were doing, they were doing just mindlessly. Why are we doing it? I know this. I'm not expecting God to do anything big. The Shekinah glory didn't come back into the temple. The city walls are built, but we're now a vessel nation. I mean, God's done nothing. God's abandoned us. God's forsaken us. So what did they do? They fell into mindless Christianity. And when you do mindless Christianity, what happens after time? Mindless Christianity, we can't live there because we're image bearers. Therefore, we attribute value to the things we're doing mindlessly. And that's what the priests did with regards to the worship of God, the teaching of God's word. They changed it. And now God's people, these men, because of that, what did they do, brothers and sisters? They turned aside from their calling. The way is verses five through seven. They turned that aside. They stopped doing that. Why? Brothers and sisters, I've seen many times. Mindless Christianity comes into a person's life and so they, you know, they used to read God's Word because they were reading for discovery, I want to learn new things about God, but they've read the Word of God now multiple times and so they're a little bored with God, they're a little bored with His Word, but they still need to read because they know that's what good Christians do, so they do it, and they read it mindlessly, and they're fine with that, they're fine being And then trial comes in their lives, or difficulties, and then they lift up their eyes, as again, Lewis says, when trials come, it's the shout of God saying, lift your eyes up unto me. And it lifts our eyes up unto God, and we go, what's the point? I've been in the word of God for years, it's done nothing for me. What a waste, what a joke. You know what, I'm not gonna do this anymore. I'm done reading. I'm gonna do it this way. I have found the most inspirational thing is when I do it this way, or when I do it that way, or better yet, I find that the simple teaching of God's Word's boring. I want that preacher and that teacher because he tickles my ears. Man, with those great stories, he's so practical. He gives me five ways I can have a great marriage. Brothers and sisters, that's not why God's Word was written. It wasn't written that you might have five ways to be a better businessman. It was written that you might know and behold Almighty God, right? That's what we do, that's what mechanistic Christianity does, and that's where God's people were. Now they therefore fell, these priests fell into two errors. Number one, verse 8b, these ministers of the word of God turned aside from the way. Notice with me the verse again, but as for you have turned aside from the way, how? You've caused many to stumble by the instruction. Look at that phrase, the instruction. He doesn't say your instruction. You know what that would mean? If it said, your instructions, that would mean that the priest had stopped teaching God's word and were teaching their own word. And churches have done that. No, they were in God's word every week. They were teaching God's word every day. They were teaching God's word. But in their teaching, would you notice, first and foremost, they turned aside from the way. Their goal was not that God's people would come to know God. to come to a greater apprehension of their glorious God. Their goal was not that God's people would submit to God's Word. Their goal was not the peace of Christ. On and on and on, life, peace. It wasn't that. Something changed. They still utilized God's Word, but they utilized it for another purpose. And that brings us to the second one, and that's verse 9b, which loan us at the very end the ministers of God's Word that were using the Bible, therefore, to advance their own or another's agenda. Verse nine, so also I've made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping my ways, but are showing partiality in the instruction. You know what that means? They were teaching God's word to tickle the ears of man. They measured a successful teaching based upon the response of God's people to it. And most importantly, and most likely here, the wealthy. They were reading God's word, they were teaching God's word so that the wealthy and powerful would give them that nod and thus give them money and help them and do whatever they wanted. They were no longer teaching God's word. They were teaching the word of a wealthy man using God's word. Do you understand that? They had corrupted the most fundamental responsibility you and I have when it comes to God's word. And that is, allow it to speak for itself. Allow it to speak. In other words, exegesis. Derive from it what it is saying. They changed it and began deriving from it what they wanted it to say. Brothers, again, we do this. Boy, do we do this, don't we? Watch over your heart with all diligence. This is something we do as God's people. We have an agenda and we go there. Brothers and sisters, not only do it personally, but we do it in the context of the pulpit. This was going on Malachi's day. Let me read you Jeremiah 5. An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. So this predates Malachi's day, what? Jeremiah 7, 27. So how far back do we go? I'm sorry, 6, 27, about 200 years maybe. An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule on their own authority and my people love it so. They did in Malachi's day, they did in Jeremiah's day. Brothers and sisters, what do you suppose will be the bent of your heart and my heart when it comes to God's word? And the pulpit. We're going to want the pulpit to say the things that we wanna hear. Isn't that what we read in 2 Timothy 4? The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, speaking of the last days, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from truth and will turn aside to myths. Brothers and sisters, in your heart is a desire to have the pulpit, to have the word, whatever it might be, the context, your own personal walk with God or the formal preaching ministry of the church. You have desire for God's word to say, to affirm you. I have that desire. I want God's word to affirm what I said. I just had a conflict with this person, so what do I do? I gotta go home and justify, I was right, because God's word says. And yeah, that, I was right, I'm the right one here. They're the wrong one. So reading a book this past week on pastoral ministry, and it begins with this premise. As a preacher, as a pastor, you are broken. You are in trouble. And you will use ministry as a vehicle by which to puff yourself up. You are a broken person. You are in trouble. You are on the verge. What came to mind as I read this was if you and I were farmers and we went out to our field, it was filled with ripe, growing plants, what we planted, really healthy plants. But as we walked the field, we looked down and we saw the ground was covered with a kind of a weed that would choke it out. You would come home and say, we are in trouble. And everyone would look at your field and say, what do you mean? Look at those green beans. They're huge. Man, you're gonna produce some incredible fruit. We are in trouble. Why are we in trouble? Look closer. Brothers and sisters, we gotta realize as Christians, we are in trouble because the seeds that will choke, the seeds of sin that will choke us out are just a step away. Do you remember what God told Esau? Right? Sin is crouching at the door and it desires for you. Brothers and sisters, we need to come to God's word and realize that God's word is that which feeds us, grows us, matures us, 2 Timothy 3, and enables us to come and know who God is. And therefore, brothers and sisters, our call when it comes to God's word is to submit to it and not look for it to submit to us. And that brings us then, second to last, the consequence. When the ministry of God's word is compromised, notice with me, 9a, so I also have made you despised and abased before all the people. You know what happens when a pulpit gives up the ministry of God's word for something else? The priests become despised, which means they're taken lightly, and abased means ridiculed. You know, there was a time in redemptive history when the office of priest had some gravitas to it. Do you remember Samuel? He wasn't born in the tribal of Levi, but he was basically a priest. He was a priest. He did the priestly function in 1 Samuel. He was a priest. Brothers and sisters, that was an era where priest meant something. This man was a man of God and a man of his word. And if God's people weren't gonna obey, he would, as an old man hacking up Agag, right? I mean, that was a man. Brothers and sisters, at Malachi's day, the priests were laughed at. They not only were laughed at, they were ridiculed. Why? Because they took the ministry of God's word lightly. My phrase to you is this, a society that takes lightly the minister of God's word I'll say it again, a society that takes lightly the minister of God's word will first have ministers who take lightly the ministry of God's word. Hand in hand. We lament our Hollywood. We lament how they make fun of Christianity and make fun of pastors and preachers and name it. We lament that. You know where it began? It began when this pulpit stopped proclaiming truth. We have no one to blame but ourselves. Brothers and sisters, incredible consequence that occurred Malachi's day that is occurring in our own. And that is therefore the ministry, the minister will be viewed as light. Which tells us this, it's not just the priest of Christ's day, it's this minister. It's these ministers. Do you understand brothers and sisters? I'm gonna close with this, this last point. Do you understand we're gonna fail? I'm going to fail the calling. Who can do what I've just described here? I'm going to endeavor to do it, and you're going to endeavor to do it, but we're going to fail. And inevitably, we're all going to fall down. And when you fail, what are you going to do? First and foremost, you need to realize, brothers and sisters, verse 4. Let's go back there. The verse I skipped. Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may continue with Levi." God has a covenant with Levi. What was that covenant? It involved three things, to offer sacrifice, to pray, and to teach. Now, we know that the Old Testament priest was a shadow of Jesus Christ, correct? Christ is the fulfillment. They're the type. Christ is the anti-type. They're the shadow. Christ is the substance. So Christ is the one who prays, Romans chapter 8. Christ is the one. He's the true priest who worships, who represents us, who sacrifices, I'm sorry, who sacrifices himself on our behalf. And then thirdly, Christ is the true and only true teacher. You know what that means corporately in terms of the context of ministry? Brothers and sisters, we love our superstars. We do. Our culture, the church, I'm getting this from a letter I wrote from a man who'd been in ministry for 30 years to his father who'd been in ministry for 55. It was a letter to his dad when he retired from ministry. And he said, dad, in this he says, our Christian culture loves its superstars. We do. And we look, we put so much in them. That superstar, that man, I'm going to hear his words. He can give me comfort. He can give me peace. I got to talk with him. Brothers and sisters, this text more than anything else tells you the superstar is Christ. Christ is the fulfillment. Every pastor, every priest, Old Testament, every pastor knew, every preacher knew, will let you down. You can't go to the Word, I'm sorry, you can't go to a pulpit thinking that that's gonna be your sustenance. Brothers and sisters, this pulpit will always let you down. It will always fail and fall short of God's call to what this pulpit must be. But get this, and understand this, get this in your minds, the purpose of this pulpit is to lead you to God, to the true preacher, to the true priest, where we will sit down and sup and feast with him. So lastly, the perfect execution of the ministry of God's word comes as you and I recognize that the purpose of this pulpit, I'll always fail, brothers and sisters, I know I will. but I praise God that Christ will never fail. So seek your Lord, your priest, your preacher. Go to him as you go to God's word and seek to fellowship with him, because that is a message. This is the message of ministry that will not let you down. That's what we mean by the doctrine of infallible. It will not lead you astray. It'll never let you down. May God give us the grace so to do. Father, let's pray. Father, we thank you for the privilege that you've given us to come this day and gaze more upon this passage written at a time where your people had grown bored with you, bored with Christianity, bored with worship. And so Lord, we're changing it, transforming it. But Lord, you didn't come in condemnation, you came to rebuke, and to encourage, and to build up, and to restore your people to where they ought to be. And Lord, that is us, every one of us here. We live in the same era as did, or at least our era is very similar to the era in which Malachi lived. That era between two climactic times of redemptive movings. Lord, that's where we are, waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ, looking back at the first coming of Jesus Christ. Easily growing bored, easily saying, where is the promise of his coming? Lord, that comes with, we know, predictable difficulties, predictable sins. One of which is to take your worship lightly. We praise you for the exhortation you gave in Malachi 1. And now, Lord, the taking of your word lightly. God, may we not grow weary in doing well. Grant your people the grace to respond to what we've fellowship this morning around with a passionate God for you, to cling to you, to love you, to seek you, to sit at your feet via your word, studying it, reading from it, not imposing our views, but Lord, responding, allowing your word to transform us, to crush our wayward will. and transform us into the image of Jesus Christ more and more. Lord, we pray, grant us, your people, that we would be a people who would be that, that our children would rise up and be men and women of integrity when it comes to your word, driven by it, standing for it, dying for it, if need be. May we be that and nothing less, we pray. Thank you, Lord, that the object of your word is one and the same as the object of this table we're about ready to enjoy, and that is Jesus Christ. Father, direct our gaze as we come to this meal, that we might feast upon Jesus, that you might be our all in all, that we would leave here having been refreshed and built up, not by hearing the words of an idiot called Craig Thurston, but the words of Almighty God, and thus, O Lord, having fellowship, Lord, not with necessarily brothers and sisters, but ultimately with Jesus Christ himself in this table. God bless this time we pray in Jesus name.