Into the book of Malachi. Please turn with me to the book of Malachi, the very last book of sacred of the Old Testament scripture. Last prophet of the twelve minor prophets. And we will be considering Malachi chapter 2 verses 1 through 9. And I warn you if you have not read this already. This is a very difficult passage in some sense to read. It's a word of judgment and condemnation upon the priests for their failure to do their duty. And the words that the Lord uses to rebuke the people are very, very strong, maybe some of the most strong language that we find in Scripture. Malachi chapter two, verses one through nine. Here with me the word of God. 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 and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them 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 feast 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 might 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 unrighteousness 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 the 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. Thus far is the reading of sacred scripture. Now this evening we continue our study in the book of the prophet Malachi and so far we've considered the first disputation between the Lord and his people in chapter 1 verses 2 through 5. And there the subject matter was with respect to the love of God. You see the Lord began speaking through Malachi with a declaration of his love. and of his care for his people in spite of their rebellion. Yet we find that the people were quick to challenge the Lord with respect to his love and request evidence of his love. They had questioned the very heart of God whether his love was at all real or true for them. And so the Lord uses the history of the nation as the objective basis to demonstrate that his declaration was true that he truly loved his people even in spite of their rebellion. Then we began to consider the second disputation or argument that we find in the book and that focus is not upon the love of God but it now focuses on the worship of God. And this stretches from chapter 1 verse 6 to chapter 2 verse 9. Here the Lord registers his anger with the people delivering to them a stern rebuke and a strong warning because they have so grievously violated their duty to give glory to God in his worship. They have corrupted and polluted his worship both inwardly in a cold disposition to God but also outwardly in bringing to the Lord their second best. and their leftovers as gifts to offer to Almighty God. There was a great breach of true and proper worship and so the Lord rebuked the nation as a whole for their covenant breaking. Yet in this second half of the disputation which is what we're focusing on now in Chapter 2 verses 1 through 9 the focus shifts not from the nation as a whole but now more focus upon the priests in particular. You see the priests were liable in a double way. They were liable of a double guilt since the leader. They were the leaders of Israel and the priests who had the duty and calling to guard the worship of Almighty God. And they were to guard this worship by faithfully teaching the word of God to the people. They had the responsibility of properly instructing the people in what was acceptable to God and what was not acceptable to God and their failure to teach the word and to correct the people allowed the sin of the people to perpetuate and continue. And so here Malachi comes to the priest with a special word of warning and correction. And yet it is still applicable for us all today. as Christians living thousands of years later, for here we're reminded once again of the importance of the Word of God, for the true and proper worship of God. And yet we're living in a time where entertainment-driven ministry is what is dominant, when the focus is not on what I hear, but upon what I see and upon what I experience. Because many Christian ministers are asking the wrong question, namely, what will please the people instead of what will please Almighty God? For if it is our aim to worship and please God, then we have to have worship that is centered upon and regulated by his word. If it is the aim to please God, then the ministry of the church must be a word centered ministry for it's through the faithful preaching and teaching of the word that the mind is informed and instructed and the heart is properly moved rightly moved by the truth of God to worship him a right and spirit and truth. And so we're going to look at these verses under two headings the failed priests and the faithful priests. The failed priest and the faithful priest. First, the failed priest. And we're not necessarily moving in order here in these verses, but somewhat thematically. First, the failed priest. We see this in verse one, how he now focuses attention on the priest. He says, Oh, priest, this commandment is for you. See that it's no longer this general word to the people of priests and people. But now it's a direct word to the priest. They have a commandment that is they had a duty to perform, but they have failed. And so the Lord comes now in theory and anger to speak to these priests and to warn them. Frightful scene. And in verse two is this captured when he says, I will send a curse upon you. This curse is a reference to the legal penalty and punishment of breaking the terms of the covenant. Now we don't necessarily think in terms of covenants today and most of our daily activity but there's still a sense in which this idea continues with legal contracts that men might have in business or in commerce. It's very similar in a sense to the ancient Near Eastern treaties of the old covenant era where you have two parties and each person in each party agrees to perform certain duties. And if you fail to perform your end of the contract there's legal punishments that come upon you for not keeping your end of the covenant. And this is what a curse is. It's a legal penalty or punishment. because the people of God have failed to keep their end of the covenant. This covenant curse is spelled out if you want to read it later in Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses upon verses that spell out all the curses of the covenant that come upon the people for disobedience. However it's important for us as New Covenant Christians when we are reading our Bible or or reading of these kinds of passages that we're reminded by the fact that we do not participate in a covenant in which there are covenant curses that might fall upon us. We have warnings of fatherly discipline but the new covenant we don't live in such a covenant where there are covenant curses that might fall upon us for disobedience but rather the Lord Jesus has taken upon himself all the curses of the covenant that we deserve. And so they don't fall upon us. Although we do experience fatherly discipline in this covenant but it is specifically because these kind of covenants the mosaic covenant and the new covenant are of a very different nature. The mosaic covenant was a covenant of obedience a covenant of works in a sense not for eternal life but for life in the land. The blessings under the mosaic covenant were contingent upon obedience and the curses were experienced if they disobeyed the Lord. And since the priests were unfaithful the Lord threatened his curse and he says I will curse your blessings. Now there's a twofold meaning when he says I will curse your blessings. First he's saying I'm going to take away all the good things all the material benefits and goods that you would receive from doing your duty as a priest for instance When the priests offered a burnt sacrifice they were given part of that meat to eat as their own. Also the people tied grain wine and oil and it was to the benefit in some sense of the priests. But all these goods will be removed if they will not obey the Lord if they won't be faithful in executing their duties. But secondly the priests also had a privilege of pronouncing the benediction of God upon Israel. This is recorded in Numbers chapter six where the Lord says, or the priest would say, and it's God speaking through him, 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. But see, the Lord says, I'm going to curse the blessings that you pronounce because you do not minister to me with a heart of reverence and love for me. But you minister out of a desire for your own gain and you let the people determine the kind of worship that they'll bring. And so I will reverse it. It won't be a curse, a blessing that you pronounce, but it will be a curse upon the people. I'll turn your word upside down. I'll bring the opposite to pass. The Lord will frustrate the ministry of the priests if they will minister in an unfaithful way. And so the Lord says he has already cursed them. They've already been under the wrath of God, he says, because you do not take it to heart. They should have known. They should have been sensible, they should have been awake and alert. And if they would have been watchful, they would have seen that the experiences of the hardships they were experiencing as priests were because of their disobedience unto the Lord. But they were, as Calvin put it, they were as stone and as wood. They weren't sensible to the curses that God had put upon them, the threatenings of the punishment. They were completely untouched by it. And there is a lesson here for us as the people of God. Even though we don't live in a time or in a covenant where there are covenant curses yet we do still experience fatherly displeasure and fatherly discipline and we can't be such that we do not see and sense the Lord's fatherly displeasure or discipline in our lives because we're blinded by sin and dull to our senses. So when we hear a word of caution or reproof from the word of God that we don't stiffen our necks or plug our ears. But we have to be people who are able to be instructed and corrected by the Lord unlike these priests. And so the priests have been warned. But if they will not be roused from their slumber by this final warning there is greater judgment that is in store. The Lord says, if you will not hear, and if you will not take it to heart to give glory to my name, then behold, I will rebuke your descendants and spread dung on your faces, the refuse of your solemn feasts. This is a very intense and vivid picture of God's judgment. If the priests will not turn back He will cut off their descendants. That is to say that the priesthood will be entirely eradicated. If they will not minister as faithful priests, then they won't minister as priests at all. This same idea is then communicated in this strong language of the Lord spreading refuse on the faces of the priests. The refuse refers to the entrail of these animals, the ones that would be burnt sacrifices but have their entrails removed they'd be taken outside of the camp and the entrails with all the dung inside them would be burned outside the city. Yet the Lord says the dung of these animals will be smeared on the priest's faces if they continue in the rebellion which has a twofold meaning. First it's an act of humiliation. I think all of us got that. To have dung spread on your face is a very humiliating kind of act. And so the priests have allowed the worship of God to be so polluted that in a sense they have humiliated the name of God before the nations. And so he says you're going to humiliate me in your sham of a worship service. And so now I will humiliate you. I'll put you to open shame because of your wickedness. This act would Secondly make the priest ceremonially unclean you see and so they wouldn't be able to minister in the temple before the Lord and so the Lord is saying in a different way that he will put an end to their ministry if they will not show him the proper reverence that he deserves. He says and one will take you away with it. What is it. It's referring to the dung. You're going to be scooped up like the dung and brought out to the dung heap and laid there. He says this to the priests because the priest so despised serving the Lord. You remember in the last chapter they said, oh, what a weariness it is to serve God. They had this privilege of being the servants of the Lord. And yet they found being in God's presence a weariness. And so he says, if you find being in my presence a weariness, then I'll remove you out from my presence and put you where you belong. I'll put you on the heap of dung far away from the gracious presence of Almighty God. The Lord says, then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you that my covenant with Levi may continue or so that my covenant with Levi might stand, says the Lord of Hosts. If the priests won't be faithful priests and repent and turn to God, then God will be faithful. God will be faithful to punish them with all the force of the covenant curses. And so here we're reminded that God is not faithful to just some of his word. And this is really important for those here who have not called upon the name of Christ, who don't believe in the Lord Jesus, who have not entrusted their soul to him as the high priest of heaven. Because God is not faithful to some of his word. He's faithful to all of his word. And God is faithful to receive and to grant forgiveness to those who repent. But you see God is also faithful to judge and condemn the one who will not repent the one who stiffens their neck and will not come to Christ to receive forgiveness. But what exactly had the priest done that received this frightful and dreadful warning. Well Malachi records that for us in verses eight and nine. Just read it again. 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 have made you contemptible and base before the people because you have not kept my ways but showed partiality in the law. The main accusation is that they have corrupted the covenant of Levi. Now, this most likely refers to the episode in Exodus 32. Children, many of you remember that in Exodus 32, the people started worshiping a golden calf. We all remember that episode, right? Well, it was then that the Levites chose to serve the Lord rather than the golden calf, and the Lord then employed them to execute judgment on all the idolaters, right? So the Levites picked up their swords and put all those who committed idolatry to death. And from that day, the Lord set them apart, the priests and the Levites. They were appointed by God to guard the worship of God. And you know, one of their chief duties and tasks within Israel, oftentimes we don't think of the chief duty and task of the priest as a teacher, but it was. He was a teacher of the law of God. And this is seen in Moses's words to Levi. When Moses is going to depart and he pronounces a blessing on each one of the tribes, he says to Levi, you shall teach Jacob your judgments and Israel your law. This was how the worship of God would be faithfully preserved and practiced as the priest taught the people of God concerning who God is but also concerning what he expected from them in worship. But you see, the priests themselves had departed from the way of truth. They'd begun to walk according to their own wisdom. They had begun to do what worked in worship rather than what was right in worship. They had become partial with the law, teaching the people only what they would bear to hear. The priests knew better. Yet they discarded the word of the Lord concerning his holy service. And so the worship within Israel was no longer carried out with the purpose and design to please God, but rather it was made to please man. The priests were no longer doing what the word of God said, but doing what the people wanted them to do, what the people expected them to do. And the priest allowed this to go on because they did not fear God but they feared man. They did not pay attention to go to glorify God's name properly but through the fear of man and remember the fear of their own personal loss. Imagine being one of these priests and you know that if you tell the people No, God won't accept any of those sacrifices that you just are going to bring whatever you want. God has asked for very specific kinds of sacrifices. What's going to happen? Maybe the people won't bring anything. And then what will happen? Then the priests will miss out. The priests will be at a loss. And so out of a fear of man and out of fear of their own personal loss, they accepted whatever the people offered. And so you see. Pragmatic man centered worship is not a new phenomena. It's not something new but it's a very very old problem a problem that is directly linked to turning away from the word of God as the source of instruction for our worship. And as new covenant Christians in particular the word of God is to take preeminence in our worship service. That is to say that Christian worship is not only to be regulated and ordered by the word of God but it's to be centered on the very preaching of the word of God. But in many places this is no longer the case. And I'm sure so many of you can lament this state of the church in various places as well. That's not to say that there aren't other gospel preaching churches still today. There are and thank God for them. But there are many places where this is no longer the case, where whole arenas are packed with people that do not come to hear a sermon. But they come to hear a motivational speech. They come to hear a talk. They don't come to hear an exposition of a portion of sacred scripture. And it's even crept into the popular vernacular and vocabulary of many Christians many who probably even know better and yet when they speak of worship what they mean is the music and the choruses not the preaching of the word when the preaching of the word ought to be the central focus of our worship. I remember when Dale and I went to an event for a group of Christian college students where Dale was asked to teach and this young man got up who was going to be the leader of this group and he said to us all we are going to begin to worship. We're going to worship and then Pastor Dale is going to come up and give us a lesson from the Bible. We're going to worship and then we'll get a lesson from the Bible. as if the man who got up to play the guitar in a performance was the one who was leading us in worship, while the Bible lesson was separate to worship, an appendage to worship. But this was all wrong. The preaching and teaching of the Word of God is at the very heart and center of our time of worship, because it's when God speaks to us. And do you have that sense of conviction? that this is the very center and core of our worship. When God himself speaks to us, it's born out of a conviction that the word is the primary means of grace for the people of God of God. Because it's by the word that God does his work of transforming our minds and renewing our thoughts as we're taught by Christ through the word, our hearts are warmed and moved. to issue forth and praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. So the priests had utterly failed to teach the word of God to the people and because they had failed to properly instruct them the worship of God was polluted and reoriented around the desires of the people. But in contrast to these failed priests the Lord set before them and sets before us a picture of an ideal priest. A faithful priest, and this leads us to our second point, the faithful priest. We see this recorded in verse five, he says. My covenant was with him, this is referring to Levi, my covenant was with Levi and it was a covenant of life and peace. That is to say that this was the great purpose of the priests. They were to point people to the way of life and peace. They were meant to point men to the way of life and peace. This is what they were to teach them in the law. And this is what they were to conduct in their worship. Think about the sacrificial system. That it was in the sacrificial system that the people had a constant reminder of their sins. and their need for forgiveness but not just their need for forgiveness in some general sense but the need for a substitutionary sacrifice that is to say someone that would take their place and take the punishment that they deserve that they might be forgiven. And so a faithful priest would not be indifferent to the sin of the people like these priests were. but would be a person who instructed the people in their need for Christ for the forgiveness of sins. He would be a priest who would lead the people to Christ and set Christ before them in the picture of the sacrifice that through his once for all sacrifice they might be given true gospel evangelical life and peace. The ideal priest is one who carried out his task before the Lord, not in a half-hearted way, not in a cold way, but in a way that had true heartfelt reverence before God. You see this when the Lord says, and I gave them to him that he might fear me. That is, I gave him this commandment, this duty, that he might fear me. That is, that he might do it. And he feared me and was reverent before my name. You see, the faithful priest was one who carried out his duty before God with the highest estimation of the Lord in his heart, in a determination to do all the will of God, no matter what the response of the people would be. And the ideal priest is characterized by a number of things. And the analogy that I want us to see is closely linked to the minister. This priest is, in some ways, an analogy of a gospel minister today. But that's not to say that it doesn't have application for us all, because it does. In each one of these things, we can see an application to every individual who is a believer. And yet, I want to focus our attention on just a few things that characterize this faithful priest. First, he's a man who knows God. In verse 6, it says, He walked with me in peace and equity. The language of walking with God is expressive of this close relationship to him, this nearness to God. Think about the way a woman might walk with her husband. She walks near to him. She walks close to him. And this is, in a sense, a picture of those who love the Lord, who are walking near to their bridegroom, who walk near to Christ, who walk with him. This is similar language is found in in Genesis Chapter five Enoch walked with God. He was a man who had a dear intimacy with the Lord. Unlike these faithful pre these unfaithful priests who who despise the Lord in their heart and in their actions the faithful and ideal priest he knows God he loves God and he daily walks with God. Secondly, he's a man who knows the word and verse six. It says the law of truth was in his mouth for the lips of a priest should keep knowledge and the people should seek the law from his mouth. For he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts. The man of God, the ideal priest is a man who is a student of the word. He studies it day and night. He reflects upon it. It is the food that his soul so longs for and desires that he might be nourished. You think of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ when he says man will not live but by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And so the servant of the Lord is one who takes his soul's food from the truth of God and his mind and his heart is instructed by the word of God. Third, he's a man who lives by the word. He doesn't just know the word. But he's a man who does the word, who lives by the word, a man who's been affected by the word. So that it's internally impacted his life. This is captured in the language that he was a reverend before my name and injustice or unrighteousness was not found upon his lips. The ideal priest doesn't merely know the truth, but he's shaped by the truth and what he says and what he does and what he thinks. His aim is then total and complete submission to the word and will of God, not giving weight to some things and ignoring other things, but living in is an example to the people of God. And so Paul said to Timothy, be an example to the believers in word and conduct and love and spirit and faith and purity. That's true of the minister especially, but it should be true of all of us. It should be what we're striving toward. be an example unto one another in obedience to the Lord. Fourthly, he is a man who teaches people the way of God. He doesn't just know the Word of God and live the Word of God, but he so desires to see others respond to the Word of God. He desires to see others in submission to the will of God. And he carries out this duty to do so. You see this in verse 6 and 7. He turned many away from iniquity for the lips of a priest should keep knowledge. I want to turn just for a moment to read a few verses from the book of Nehemiah because you see this exemplified in the priest Ezra in the book of Nehemiah this man of God. I wonder if Malachi had Ezra in his mind when he was thinking of the ideal priest. in the history of Israel who walked before him and who did what was right in the eyes of God. As the people of Israel had returned back into the land and they were ignorant of the word of God, Ezra brought them the word. In Ezra chapter 8, I'll read you a few verses, it says, Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in the front of the water gate. And they told Ezra the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. Then he read from it in the open square that was in the front of the water gate from morning until midday before the men and women and those who could understand and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And then we read, and Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people. And when he opened it, all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, that all the people answered, Amen, Amen, while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. And so they read distinctly from the book in the law of God, and they gave the sense That is, they read it and then interpret it. They preached and they helped them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra, the priest and the scribe, the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep, for all the people wept when they heard the word of the law of the Lord. This is a picture of this faithful priest. who preached and taught the word of God and the response of the people was genuine true repentance and worship and adoration of Almighty God. Calvin said the lips of a minister are the storehouse from which the church receives her food. What a scary thought. What a scary thought. And yet what a comforting thought at the very same time. What a scary thought and yet what a comforting thought when you consider that the minister is not called to preach his own ideas but merely to open up the word and to explain it to the people of God. Because the power of God is revealed in the preaching of the word of God. God reveals his power in the midst of the saints through the preaching of the word. It's through the foolishness of preaching that God has chosen to so bless his people. And this is what the Church of Jesus Christ today so desperately needs more of today. A conviction that the word of God is true, a conviction that the word of God is living, and a conviction that the word of God is powerful. As the psalmist said, the voice of God is powerful and full of majesty. We must maintain this conviction if the preaching of the word of God will remain in its rightful place at the center of our worship for the word of God is the means ordained by God as the Baptist catechism puts it for the convincing and converting of centers and for the building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. Do we prize. The preaching of the word of God in this way. Is it our souls delight. It is. Is it the center and focus of our worship in our own daily and personal lives or when we gather here together when we get this opportunity this evening to pray. I would encourage us that we ought to pray that our hearts would not grow cold to the Lord or to the word of the Lord. as the priest did in this time, but that we would hear the voice of God, that we would take it to heart, and so our worship would be pleasing to Almighty God. We began by considering the failure of the priests to perform their task as the teachers of the will and law of God, which led to a degradation and corruption of the worship of God. And so the Lord gave to the priests In particular, a clear and firm rebuke and warning. But we also saw that in the kindness of the Lord, he reminded the priests of what it was their calling to do and what it was their calling to be so that in returning to the Lord and returning to his word, they might be used to turn others back to the true worship of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do ask that you would bless your word to us. Help us not to lose heart, O Lord, but help us to take courage that we have a great and faithful high priest who always lives to intercede for the saints. Help us, O Lord God, that we would hear your voice in the preaching of the word and that we would not grow dull. We ask, O Lord, that you would make us responsive to your word in faith and in trust, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ As the author and finisher of our faith, we do pray, O Lord, that you would bless us, for we do seek your blessing in the name of Christ. Amen.