Malachi: Remember to Revere the Lord. Part 2

In this episode, we explore Malachi 2:1–9 and God’s call for His people to revere Him in worship, work, and His Word. Speaking to Israel after the Babylonian exile, the prophet Malachi confronts corrupt priests who dishonored God through careless worship and unfaithful teaching.

The message highlights the priestly responsibility to guard truth, promote pure worship, and faithfully teach Scripture—principles that still apply to pastors and believers today. Listeners are challenged to stand firm in God’s Word, resist compromising with culture, and faithfully live out and defend the Christian faith.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Garible Grace Chapel Podcast, where we value the expository preaching and teaching of the Word of God for the purpose of life transformation. The rest, I would encourage you to get your Bible and to open it to the book of Malachi. We are still in Malachi. So again, just to make sure everyone has their bearing straight of what's happening in the God's history of redemption. Malachi was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah. He prophesied to those who were returning for the Babylonian exile. In fact, he prophesied to those who returned about a hundred years after their return. So they've been back in the land for roughly a hundred years. The temple has been rebuilt. The worship of Yahweh or the Lord has been reinstituted. Yet things are not going as planned. The people have not been faithful to the Lord. Corruption is widespread. And so consequently, the people are going through difficult times, hardships, tribulations, and they are doubting God's love for them. They're doubting God's plan and purpose for them. And so the Lord sends a prophet Malachi to address some of the issues. The book of Malachi is straightforward. It is a series of six disputes between God and his people. So the Lord would charge the people with particular sins. The people would dispute the charges, and then God would prove his case. It is a short book. It is only four chapters, but it is a powerful book. It deals with sins that I'm sure will offend a modern audience. But the book ends with a very positive message designed to encourage God's people. Now, last week, if you were here, uh or if you were not able to be here, maybe you were not able to listen online. We started what's called the second dispute. As we already pointed out, the book is a series of six disputes between God and his people. And so last week I started the second dispute, but that second dispute is really long. It goes from Malachi chapter 1 and verse 6 to Malachi chapter 2 and verse 9. So it's kind of a long, a long dispute. And so I broke that up into two sermons. Last week we talked about how God's people did not revere his name. And uh we are encouraged to revere the Lord in our worship, and we are encouraged to revere the Lord in our work. And today we will pick up the rest of the second dispute. So if you have your Bible, we're in Malachi chapter 2. We're going to read verses 1 through 9 from the English Standard Version. And it reads, And now, O priest, this command is for you. If you would not listen, if you would not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I've already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace. I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. And so I make you despised and abased before all the people, insomuch as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction. That is a reading of God's word. And so that applies to us today, quite simply. God's people must remember to revere the Lord. Well, how must God's people remember to revere the Lord? There are three categories where God's people must remember to revere the Lord. We've already discussed the first two, so today, the third category where God's people must remember to revere the Lord is in his word. Now the first thing to notice about this second dispute is the fact that God must be revered. We read that in Malachi chapter 1 and verse 6. It reads, His son honors his father and his servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you. O priest who despise my name, but you say, How have we despised your name? And so God charged the people to remember to revere him. That word revere means to honor, respect, obey, fear, adore. And God charged his people to revere him. And that is why he gave the illustrations that he did. He said, A son honors his father and a servant, his master. The Lord went on to say, If I then am a father, where's my honor? And if I am a master, where's my fear? You see, something that we must wrestle with or come to terms with is that God must be revered, he must be honored, obeyed, and feared before he is loved. And I know that sounds strange to us, particularly in the Western world, because we put so much emphasis on love. And God is love, and there's nothing, there's nothing wrong with that, but when you over-emphasize love, you have a skewed perspective of God and how he operates in your life and in the world. You see, the first responsibility of a child to his father is to honor him, to fear him, to obey him. He learns to love him. And so it is with a servant and a master. The first responsibility of a servant toward his master is to honor him, to obey him and to fear him. He will learn to love him. And so it is with God's people. As I pointed out last week, I do so again. The scripture does not read that love is the beginning of.

unknown 8:08

No?

SPEAKER_00 8:09

What's the scripture read? In Proverbs. Fear. Fear. See, Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 13 reads, the end of the matter. When it's all been heard, fear God and keep his commandments. That's what it comes down to. Fear God and keep his commandments. This is why Jesus could say in John 14 and verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. The two go together. If you fear God, you obey God, you will keep his commandments, and that shows that you love him. And if you truly love God, you fear him and obey him. And so we see that God must be revered. And he confronted the people in their sin of despising his name. And the people disputed that. They said, How have we despised your name? And the Lord spoke to the prophet and he said, Because you didn't revere me in worship, you polluted my table. And they disputed that. They said, How have we polluted your table? And he said, the Lord said to the prophet, because you have offered sacrifices that were lame, that were blind, that were sick. Is that not evil? says the Lord. And he also confronted them of their sin of not honoring him in their work. The priest went on to say, all of this is weariness to us. And they snorted at it, the scripture reads. This is cumbersome. It's wearisome. And the Lord confronted them because they did not revere the Lord in their worship and in their work. And because of that, he spoke directly to the priest and he gave them consequences for their sin if they do not repent. Listen to what he said in Malachi chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. And now, O priest, this command is for you. If you would not listen, if you would not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I've already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. Now, the text reveals three uh severe consequences for not revering the Lord. First is that the people would be cursed instead of blessed. The second, their offspring would be rebuked. And then the third, uh, you know, he said he would smear dung all over their faces and send them away. Now that sounds strange to us, but please understand, the prophets of the Old Testament operated primarily on the book of Deuteronomy. And what they were doing in their prophecies to the people of God was to call them back to covenant faithfulness. The Lord had revealed in his word what was required of the people. And the people would go into sin and rebellion, and then God would send a prophet, and a prophet would confront the people's sin. And he was calling them back to covenant faithfulness. So what you read in Malachi chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, it's basically a synopsis of Deuteronomy chapter 28. Basically says, if you're faithful, you will be blessed, if not, you will be cursed. And this is exactly what the priest said to the people. If you continue to rebel, if you continue, priest, not to revere my name, then you're going to be cursed. Indeed, it's already happened. It's already happening because you won't lay it to heart, you won't repent. Your offspring will be rebuked. And then he makes that strange statement about smearing them with dog. Now, I'm gonna be as nice as I can about this, but it is exactly as it reads. And that says the Lord said, if you continue to treat me like a piece of feces, then I'm gonna smear fickle matter all over your face. Whoa. God talks like he was in the locker room. Man, that doesn't sound like our loving. That's not loving. Again, if you have a skewed perspective of the love of God, you have a hard time wrapping your head around how God deals with his people. See, he said, if you you continue to bring me, I don't even know how to say it without, I don't know, offending some people. But if you continue to bring me stuff that should fill up a toilet, what that says, that's what you think of me, says the Lord. And through the prophet Malachi. And if that's the way you feel, let me show you something. If that's the way you feel about me, watch this. And it's as if God would dip his hand in that toilet swearing all over your face. Get out of here. I know it's very harsh language. Very vivid language. And that's the point. That's the way the prophets spoke. When they painted an image in your mind, they used bold colors. They did not paint incissified pastels. It was bold. The way you treated me is like feces. It was the Lord's message through the prophet. And that's the way he viewed the priest and the people. Because they did not revere him in their worship and in their work. Then the Lord called the people to remember to revere him in his word. Now listen to this Malachi chapter 2, verses 4 through 8. So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace. And I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and of rightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. Now notice that the prophet, you know, speaking by the authority of the Lord, addresses the priest and he says, You are to be faithful in the word of God. You are to remember to revere the word the Lord in his word. And he did this by challenging them to remain faithful to the covenant of Levi. Now, the covenant of Levi does not get very much treatment in our Christian preaching. It's not really a covenant that we talk about that much. But we know that it's in the scripture. We know that there was some type of covenant between the Lord and Levi and the Levitical priest. There were many parts to this covenant of Levi. Number one, the covenant of Levi was one of life and peace.

unknown 17:03

Right?

SPEAKER_00 17:03

That's what the scripture just wrote. It was one of life and peace for the priest who were faithful to teach the word of God. Not only did they would they receive life and peace for being faithful to preaching and teaching the people the word of God, but those who received it would also receive life and peace through the word of the Lord. Something else, according to the scripture, the covenant of Levi involved guarding the things of God, the people of God, and the priesthood in general. Okay? So the covenant of Levi involved guarding the things of God, the people of God, and the priesthood in general. The text is found in Numbers chapter 3, verses 5 through 10. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Bring the tribe of Levi near and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him. They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting as they minister at the tabernacle. They shall guard all the furnishings of the tent of the meeting, and keep guard over the people of Israel as they minister at the tabernacle. And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons. They are wholly given to him from among the people of Israel. And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons as they shall guard their priesthood. But if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death. Did you notice that? It's it's it's guard the furnishings of the temple. Little side note here. Back in the book of Genesis, when Adam was created and he was placed in the Garden of Eden, he was told to tend the Garden of Eden, it's the same word in Hebrew, it's the same idea of guard this garden. This is why it was so egregious. This is why when the serpent came in and convinced uh, you know, deceived Eden into sin, and then of course Adam willfully did so, and the human race was plunged into sin. They failed to guard the Garden of Eden, which functioned as a tabernacle. It's a place where they met with God. And so as you go through the biblical narrative, as you go through God's history of redemption, you see that the priests are given the responsibility to guard the furnishings, to guard the tabernacle. You don't let sin and wickedness into the temple, into the tabernacle. This was a major function of the priest. They were to guard over the people of Israel. How'd they do that? By teaching the word of God, instructing them how to live righteousness and holiness before God. Confronting sin when necessary, confronting evil in the culture. And then you protect the priesthood in general. That's why it read at the very end guard their priesthood. And if a foreigner comes in, he shall be put to death. Someone who was not qualified to be a priest could not serve and function in that area. It should still be that way today. Not that we should necessarily put people to death, but at the same time, we need to guard the preaching ministry and the Christian church and the new covenant era. We have too many people standing behind the pulpits of America that don't even know God. They're not saved. And we wonder why the church is as weak as it is. The reason why our culture is as wicked as it is is because we're not guarding the things of God. And the priests today are not preaching the word of God. They're not guarding the people. Instead, they're loosening them so that they can go in sin and live in rebellion against God. The covenant of Levi. Not only involved guarding the things of God, the people of God, and the priesthood in general. The covenant of Levi also involved promoting pure worship. Look in Numbers chapter 25, verses 10 through 13. And the Lord said to Moses, Phineas, the son of Elieziar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel. And that he was jealous with my jealousy of. Among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel of my jealousy. Therefore say, Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace. And it shall be to him and to his descendants after them, after him, the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel. Now, what makes that passage so powerful is the verses before it. In Numbers 25, the people of Israel are still wandering in the wilderness and they camped close to the Medianite people or the people of Moab and the Midianites. And they, meaning the foreigners, came in to the people of Israel and invited them to their idolatrous worship. And so they went over there to their tents and worshiped their false gods and bowed down to them, the scripture says. They even brought some of the Midianite women into the camp of Israel. And an egregious sin against God, they're engaging in idolatrous worship to other gods that involved sexual immorality. And when this was discovered, the Lord told Moses to kill all the princes or the chiefs or the leaders, depending on what translation or version you are reading. In other words, you kill the leaders that are responsible for this and you do it publicly so everybody can see it. And then the Lord sent a plague in the camp. Numbers 25 says that 24,000 people died. When the apostle Paul addressed this in 1 Corinthians, he said 23,000. Probably the difference in the numbers, one had to do with the plague, how many people died of the plague, and the other one had to do with the plague plus the leaders that were killed publicly. So keep that in mind. They're two different things. And so listen to this. Think about this for a minute. This sin, this idolatrous sin of bowing down to other gods, which involved sexual immorality. In other words, they would worship these gods, and then as part of that, they would engage in sexual intercourse. With false belief people that weren't even their spouses, their wives. I mean, think about that for a minute. And they were they were yoked together at Bel Peor, Baal Peor, is how the scripture reads. And so the Lord said, Moses, you better get rid of this, and this is how you do it. And the people are weeping. Moses has ordered the leaders to be killed. The plague is unleashed among the congregation. People are literally dying. And the scripture tells us in Numbers 25 that their people are weeping and they're crying. And in the midst of this, some punk in the camp brings in a Midianite woman. The scripture says, in the sight of Moses, and takes her into his tent. I'm from the south. We would say, the Gaul. And there was a priest there whose name was Phineas. Aaron's grandson, by the way. When he saw that, he was like, oh no, he did. And he went and got a spear. And he walked into that tent. And he rammed the spear through the man and the woman. The scripture said it went through both of them. Now I just told you what part of the worship was, so you can use your imagination of how he spirit too at one time. And God didn't get angry, God blessed him. And the plague stopped. Now, again, in 2026, in the Western world, we're shocked. Well, if you keep reading numbers 25, the scripture indicates that that woman that was brought into the tent and who was killed was a princess. So this was an act of war. This was intentional. She came in to seduce the people on purpose to join them to their false gods and have them reject Yahweh and serve them. And this, by the way, was at the instruction of the false prophet. Remember that? Just back up and read Numbers 23 and 24. You'll find out what I'm talking about. And so that's why that took place. For our purposes, it's simple. The priests are given the responsibility to promote pure worship. You cannot involve worship God, Yahweh, the Lord, Jesus Christ, with false gods. You cannot combine them. They are incompatible. And then lastly, of course, the covenant of Levi involves faithfully teaching the word of God. The scripture tells us in Deuteronomy chapter 33, verses 10 through 11. And many other places we could turn to, but we'll look here. Deuteronomy 33, verses 10 through 11, it reads. Bless, O Lord, his substance, and accept the work of his hands, crush the royans of his adversaries of those who hate him, that they rise not again. They shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law. One of the primary functions of a priest was to teach people the word of the Lord. We don't think about that because in our Christian churches we major on, well, the priests, you know, they conducted all the sacrifices, and certainly that was part of it. We talked about that last week. But they were also given the responsibility to teach the people the word of God. And so the priests were to remember to revere the Lord and his word and be faithful to the covenant that he made with Levi. But the priests failed to revere his word in Malachi. They were not guarding the things of God, they were not guarding the people of God. They were promoting polluted worship. Rather than faithfully teaching the word of God and instructing people what they were to bring to the sacrifice, instead, they were letting people bring whatever. And they were not faithfully teaching the word because, as we read in Malachi chapter 2, it said they were teaching with partiality. And that could mean a couple of different things. It could mean that they weren't teaching the full counsel of God's word, they were teaching the easy parts, which is what you hear predominantly in America. Preach the easy parts that you know that make you feel good. And, you know, you did God a favor by coming to church today. That kind of thing. Or admit they were teaching with partiality, meaning they were being selective in who they were preaching and teaching to. This is a strange concept, but the Puritan preachers in early American history, the Puritan preachers, they had a saying. They called it we should preach promiscuously. And in our culture, in our day and age, we think promiscuous, we think bad, evil, you know, uh sleeping around and that kind of thing. But the Puritans, when they said we should preach promiscuously, it meant widely to everybody, not just one person. Like we preach to everybody. We want everybody to hear the word of the Lord and come to faith in Jesus Christ. To learn to live a holy life, the culture to be ordered according to the things of God. And so that's what it means. We should be preaching the same way today. We preach to everyone, but we preach the full counsel of God's word. We don't preach the easy parts just so a lot of people will come to church. That's ineffective. That's ineffective. Look at our culture. We have to preach the full counsel. And if the priest continued to refuse to honor God, to revere God, to fear God, then there would be consequences. We already read some, right? They would be cursed, their offspring would be rebuked, they would be covered in feces. And now the Lord says this in Malachi chapter 2, verses 8 through 9. But you have turned aside from the way, you have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, insomuch as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction. In other words, I mean, they were gonna continue in their sin and their rebellion, they were gonna be abased, they were gonna come to nothing, they would be spewed out of the land, it's the priests are gonna be hated and so on. The people would be cursed instead of blessed. Now, the third category where God's people must remember to revere the Lord is in his word. So, how does that apply to us today? How does this apply to us today? There are many ways, but I'm gonna major on two. Okay? Some I've already hit on, so I won't I won't belabor the point. Maybe, maybe not. First, elders, pastors must guard the things of God. They must promote pure worship, and they must faithfully teach the word of God. Listen to a few of these scriptures. It's quite a bit. I'll be quick. In 1 Timothy chapter 3, verses 14 through 15. Remember, Paul is writing his young protege, Timothy, that's giving him instructions on pastoring. Listen to what he writes in 1 Timothy 3, verses 14 through 15. I hope to come see you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. So Paul wrote Timothy and he gave him instructions in case it took him some time to come see him face to face and to possibly minister to the church. And so he gave Timothy instruction. He said, This is so you would know how people should behave in the household of God. By implication, and I could prove this through going through the rest of the letter in 1 Timothy, it was Timothy's responsibility to teach that to the people. In other words, we would say it this way in light of what we're studying today out of the book of Malachi. Timothy, it is your responsibility to guard the things of God. You are to guard the house of the Lord. You are to guard what happens in that church so that people know how to live pleasingly unto the Lord. The church is a pillar and a buttress of truth. And so therefore guard it, Timothy. Later on, he said in 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 20 through 21. Oh Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. For by professing it, some have swerved from the faith. Guard the deposit. Entrusted to you. What was he saying? The gospel, the doctrines. Guard it. It's been entrusted to you, Timothy. The elders have laid their hands on you. They have prayed. You have been ordained to the gospel ministry, and you have to guard that. There will be many temptations to water down the message. There will be many temptations to tickle people's ears. But you have to guard what's been entrusted to you. For anyone who's ever been called to the gospel ministry, you feel the weight and the burden of this particular text. To stand behind the pulpit and to say, Thus saith the Lord. And the only reason you can make that statement is because you're preaching the word of God. The authority is in the word of God. And sometimes that means you get to preach messages that everybody likes, and sometimes that means you get to preach messages that nobody likes, but it doesn't matter because it's been entrusted to you, and you have to guard that, and you can't water it down, and you can't change it, and you can't tickle people's ears just for the sake of making friends and putting people in the church pew. You have been given a responsibility and you must preach the word of God. It is a weight, it is a burden, and it keeps me up at night. First Timothy 4, verse 13. The apostle Paul writes, Until I come, remember who's wanted to come visit him? Until I come. Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching. That's the primary responsibility. Teach. Teach and exhort. Reading the scripture. Again, the authority and the power is based in the word of God. The reason you can feel the weight of this message right now is not because of the messenger, it's because I'm simply exposing to the text. You're feeling the weight of the word of God. The scripture reads, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience. And teaching. Again, the primary calling and function of an elder or a preacher is to preach the word of God. And notice he's to preach the word. Not his opinions. And not the latest fad coming through the so-called Christian world in America. So preach the word of God. Those fads will come and go. Churches will pop up and close down when it's based on fads and personalities. But when the word is the primary focus and is the center of a church, that church will endure to the end. Just a side note here, when it says preach the word and be ready in season and out of season, well, that doesn't, you know, that doesn't mean well when I feel like it, when I don't feel like it. It means when it is acceptable and when it is not acceptable. In other words, when the government is kind of like, uh, whatever, and when the government is ramping up persecution, when the people are accepting it, and when the people are persecuting it. That's what it means. To preach the word in sees and analyses. My last scripture on this point, because I'm I'm driving home. What the text says about the calling of an elder or preacher, pastor. Obviously, there's some administration, obviously, there's some ruling capacities, of course. But the primary focus is preaching and teaching the word of God. Listen to this in Titus chapter 1, verses 7 through 9. For an overseer. Okay, so in the New Testament, you have several words here. You have overseer, you know, presbyter, bishop, elder, pastor. They're interchangeable. It says, for an overseer as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. Isn't that interesting? When you read Titus chapter 1 and you read 1 Timothy chapter 3, and it gets qualifications for an elder, for a bishop, for a pastor, and so on. It does not major on his skill set or abilities. Or how successful he is. What it majors on is his character preaching the word of God. So what if you go somewhere where the pastor is, you know, charismatic in the sense of, you know, his personality is out there, you know what I mean? Just everybody loves him. He's drawn like a magnet. Church is filled and they're building buildings. But behind closed doors, he's a scoundrel. And he can't preach the word of God. He may preach from the Bible, but that's a big difference. Preaching from the Bible and preaching the Bible are two different things. And it's just interesting that Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, when he dealt with elders and bishops and pastors of a church, the focus was on character, preaching the word of God. Is he faithful to preach the word of God? That's what matters. Paul said here in Titus chapter 1, he said, this overseer, this pastor, must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine. In other words, I kind of mentioned this Wednesday night. If you're studying the Bible and you come up with a novel Christian doctrine that no one else has come up with in 2,000 years of church history, guess who's wrong? Right? I mean, there are so many faithful men and women throughout the history of the church that it's highly doubtful that the Lord would bypass all of the great men and women throughout church history and give you something that nobody else ever saw. Does that make sense? And I can say that about me. Like, like if I if I'm studying the word of God and I come up with this doctrine that nobody's preached in 2,000 years of Christian history preaching, uh I probably just need to crumble up those notes and throw them in a trash can. Because that's a bunch of garbage. Right? It's okay to say amen. It's fine. And so we're to be faithful to teach what we've been taught. Now, here's why this is freeing. And I realize, I realize not everybody in here is called to preach. I mean, I get that. So maybe somebody online will come across this. But let me give you some insight here why this is so important for a pastor, for a preacher. It's free. It's free. I don't feel the pressure to come to the pulpit to give you something new that you've never heard of before. Woo! Some people run and shout. There's no pressure for me to do that. In fact, in fact, it would be outside of what I'm called to do. Now, sure, I can work hard to maybe put it in a way you haven't thought of it before or something like that. But I'm not preaching anything new. I'm preaching the word of God. All right, I'll move on. Let me make this applicable to you. I've talked about how it's applicable to me and some others that are called in ministry here. But let's talk about just the church in general. All believers, this is the second way that this applies to us today. All believers function as priest, and you should guard the things of God. You should promote pure worship. And you should teach the word too. 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 9 through 10. That is the text that teaches us that we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. Really, all of 1 Peter chapter 2, so you go back and read that. I'm not going to go into great detail. I did that last week. But all believers function as priests unto the Lord. And listen to me. As priests unto the Lord, you have a responsibility to teach the word of God. And it starts in your home. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 9. Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way. And when you lie down and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. Here's the New Testament command for this. It's Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 4. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Now, let me say something here. Just as in the Christian context of the New Covenant, all believers function as priests unto the Lord. But there is a separate role for the pastor, has a defined role that we have as priests unto the Lord. So it is in your home. Every believer functions as a priest unto the Lord, but there is a defined function for the Father to be the priest of that home. Amen? You are given a responsibility to teach your children and your grandchildren. And then you teach the word in general. Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20. You know it's a great commission. Make disciples, you know, by teaching them to observe everything that the Lord has commanded us. That requires you to teach people the word of God. And that's your calling. As a Christian believer in the new covenant. And lastly, we are to guard the things of God. And that's all of us. In Jude chapter 1 and verse 3. Jude writes, Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. You are to contend. Contend to strive with every fiber of your being, you strive to contend for the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ that has been once for all delivered to the saints. This is a closed canon. This is a closed book. There is no new scripture. There's nothing else being taught that has not been taught in 2,000 years of church history. And our job is to defend this. It doesn't matter what the culture says. It doesn't matter if they say, well, it's 2026. You know, we need to soften God a little bit. We need to soften the message so that other people, you know, will feel comfortable coming to the house of God. No, no, no. No. We don't soften anything down. We just teach the scripture as it is. Sometimes it's hard and sometimes it's not. We are responsible to teach the full counsel of the word of the Lord. And the Lord is dealing with that individual. They have a heart that is inclined to God, they will receive the word of God. You don't have to water it down. And you certainly don't have to be ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we certainly must not involve the worship of Yahweh, the true God, the Lord Jesus Christ, with the worship of false gods and false deities. We're living in a world where people want to blend together Christianity and Buddhism and Christianity and Islam and all. We're trying to make everybody feel comfortable and get along. You can't. It's impossible. And we will be punished by God for trying to do so. Instead, we are to guard the things of God. And when we take seriously that call, that command to guard the things of God, he'll put his blessings upon us. We will accomplish much more with people who actually embrace their roles and their callings and guard the things of God, even though that number might be smaller than we would if we had a house full of people who were quasi-Christians. Because all they do is bring in pollution with them. Now, am I saying that you know we want to close church like we don't want sinners to come in? No, no, no, no, no, that's not what I'm saying at all. What I am saying is we don't cater to them. That's what I'm saying. We don't cater worship to them, I don't cater my preaching to them. That's not my responsibility. I'm to teach the full counsel of God's word. You are to protect the pure worship of God. And the Lord will take care of drawing people unto himself. Amen. And if not, then it's tantamount to us treating our Lord like a piece of feces. Our worship smells like it too. And I know the majority of you do not have ill intent in your worship toward God. Nor do you want to involve paganism with Christianity. You have a heart that wants to serve God. So this message is not a rebuke, it's just a reminder to say, hey, we have to be diligent in this matter. Because it's easy to bow, to help your to the outside influences. We got to be diligent. Guard the things of God. Be passionate about it. Teach people the word. God's blessings will be upon you. Amen. Will you stand your feet with me this morning? God's people must remember to revere the Lord. There are three categories where God's people must remember to fear the Lord. Last week we looked at two of those. The first category where God's people must remember to revere the Lord is in their worship. The second category where God's people must remember to revere the Lord is in their work. And today, the third category where people must remember to revere the Lord is in his word. In his word. If you're not a Christian, I challenge you now to repent of your sin and come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way to heaven. You might be a sincere believer in another religion. But all that means is you are sincerely wrong. There's only one way. And that is through the Lord Jesus Christ. You are commanded, authority of God's word, to repent of your sin and come to faith in Christ. If you are a Christian and you're listening to me, I pray and I hope you heard my heart come through this message. It's not one of rebuke. It's meant to inspire you, to equip you, to warn you. To ever main diligent in guarding the things of God. Because if not, what you're saying is the Lord's just a piece of in the toilet. And I doubt very seriously any of you really feel that way. If you've been guilty of watering things down, if you've been guilty of backing off of saying things, when the door has opened, now look, I'm not, I'm not, it's probably, it's probably counterproductive just to run up to people and beat them over the head with the Bible. But in everyday conversations, when those doors open, don't ever be afraid to walk through it. That's the Holy Spirit opening a door. Say something. Don't water it down. Don't worry about tickling their ears. Don't even worry about losing a friendship. So what if they get mad at you and don't talk for a while, and then they turn around and repent, and now you have them for a brother forever. Just keep the right perspective. So if you've been guilty of these matters, let's repent. Let's repent. And ask the Lord to empower us by his spirit to guard the things of God. Because they matter. They're important. Amen. Thank you for listening to the Cairoville Grace Chapel podcast. Make sure that you like, share, follow us on socials. I'm Dr. Jason Murphy, proclaiming grace, transforming culture.