SPEAKER_02: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: Happy Father's Day again, Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: It worked out just right.
SPEAKER_00: That is Jason finished the book of Jonah and provided an opportunity for me to preach a text concerning fatherhood.
SPEAKER_00: Before we dive into that, before we pick that up, there's a biblical reality that I think should ground us before we start.
SPEAKER_00: It's this reality that fatherhood begins not in us, not in humanity, not because of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: But fatherhood begins in who God is.
SPEAKER_00: And human fatherhood was created to reflect his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can only say things about God's fatherhood, but he says about himself in his word.
SPEAKER_00: Because God Almighty is the true Father that all earthly fathers are meant to display.
SPEAKER_00: There's lots of applications for that truth.
SPEAKER_00: Stephen read several for us this morning in Hebrews 12.
SPEAKER_00: God treats us like his own children.
SPEAKER_00: So we ought to respect him, kind of like earthly sons ought to respect their fathers.
SPEAKER_00: That's the picture.
SPEAKER_00: But notice we have to be careful.
SPEAKER_00: The logic can only go from humanity up to God because it has first gone from God down to humanity.
SPEAKER_00: That's important.
SPEAKER_00: It's hugely important.
SPEAKER_00: Because, like Chad prayed, we've all had, we've all had sinful fathers.
SPEAKER_00: Even more, those of us who are fathers know our fatherhood falls short pretty often, right?
SPEAKER_00: But heaven forbid that we say things that are false, that would come if we made God in the image of our own sense of what fatherhood means.
SPEAKER_00: We should never say or think things like, well, God is a dad, and so that means he's never around.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We have to go from God first.
SPEAKER_00: Fatherhood begins in who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but dads, I think you feel it already.
SPEAKER_00: You should tremble with me at the fact that your children will spend the rest of their lives letting Scripture and the Holy Spirit correct the portrait of God that your fatherhood paints on their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: So take your Bibles with me.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let Scripture do just that.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to the book of Malachi.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, right before the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: And Malachi preaches to Jewish people living after the Babylonian exile.
SPEAKER_00: They have been restored with Ezra and Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: And so now remember that it was Israel's idolatry and Israel's faithlessness that led to the destruction of Jerusalem, led to the deaths of thousands.
SPEAKER_00: But here they are now restored to their homes and trying to put their lives back together in the rebuilt Jerusalem before a rebuilt temple.
SPEAKER_00: If then I am a father, where is my honor?
SPEAKER_00: And if I am a master, where is my fear?
SPEAKER_00: Says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name.
SPEAKER_00: But you say, How have we despised your name?
SPEAKER_00: Just that right there, that much sets up our whole conversation for this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The whole idea is right there.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that God is the one speaking.
SPEAKER_00: It says, says the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: That's Lord Sabawath is his name, right?
SPEAKER_00: And he's speaking to the priest who despise his very name because in God's eyes, despising his name is the same thing as not honoring him as their father.
SPEAKER_00: See how those things are parallel?
SPEAKER_00: And so the text of Malachi takes for granted, though, that sons ought to honor their fathers.
SPEAKER_00: It's a basic teaching for Malachi, because that is the consistent teaching of Scripture for Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And God's Ten Commandments to Israel at Mount Sinai, that fifth commandment is honor your father and your mother.
SPEAKER_00: And so this word, this word for honor, it means respect, and weight, and even glory.
SPEAKER_00: And it has to do with acknowledging the appropriate value due to something.
SPEAKER_00: So imagine if somebody did an enormous favor for you, the sort of thing that would cost them an immense amount of money, not because they had to, but just because they loved you.
SPEAKER_00: And then you handed them a$20 bill kind of flippantly, like that would cover it.
SPEAKER_00: In reality, what they really deserve is your heartfelt thanks and gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: And a cheap tip can feel offensive.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lack of honor.
SPEAKER_00: It should match with the honor due.
SPEAKER_00: So think then on all that a father is supposed to do for his kids.
SPEAKER_00: And what sort of respect, honor, and value their children ought to return back to them.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not really something you can measure, right?
SPEAKER_00: You can't put a price on it.
SPEAKER_00: And every father and son dynamic is going to be different.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for you, the best way you can honor your dad is by simply living the honest and upright life he wants you to have and then sharing in its joys with him.
SPEAKER_00: Like Solomon says in Proverbs 15, a wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother.
SPEAKER_00: But what Malachi is talking about here is more than that.
SPEAKER_00: It's more than just that.
SPEAKER_00: Look at these passages about God's father and son relationship with Israel with me.
SPEAKER_00: In Exodus 4, God calls Israel his firstborn son.
SPEAKER_00: As he warns Pharaoh of the final plague of Egypt, saying, Let my son go, that he may serve me.
SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: What sort of honor does a son owe to his father who wages war on the king of Egypt to rescue him?
SPEAKER_00: That's heavy, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or this one.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did God rescue his son from Egypt, but Moses says in Deuteronomy chapter 1 that God carried Israel through the wilderness as a man carries his son.
SPEAKER_00: And here I am expecting a gold medal for carrying my kids around a zoo.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: What sort of honor does a father deserve who gathers up his slavery-ruined children in his arms and carries them home to safety and to peace?
SPEAKER_00: So, my brothers and sisters, think now of your rescue from sin and death and the crucified arms of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father's divine character and power and love demand from us our utmost devotion.
SPEAKER_00: Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the main point of this text in Malachi chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: We'll unpack it together today.
SPEAKER_00: But God is a father who deserves the highest honor of our glad-hearted obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi lays this out for us negatively.
SPEAKER_00: He shows us what not honoring God as your father is like.
SPEAKER_00: In the picture of the disobedience of Israel's priests.
SPEAKER_00: The priests dishonored Israel's father, verse 6 says, They despised his name with polluted offerings in chapter 1, and then polluted instruction in chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll look at these two things, and then we'll come back at the end to consider God's response to all of this.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll see just what sort of a father the God of the Bible really is.
SPEAKER_00: So, first, the polluted offerings.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 6, the priests are shocked to hear that they've despised God's name.
SPEAKER_00: They say, How have we despised your name?
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: And so the family imagery continues, right?
SPEAKER_00: Dishonoring one's father is a lot like despising the family name.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 7 in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: They've dishonored God's name by offering polluted food upon my altar.
SPEAKER_00: But you say, How have we polluted you?
SPEAKER_00: By saying that the Lord's table may be despised.
SPEAKER_00: When you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil?
SPEAKER_00: And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil?
SPEAKER_00: Present that to your governor.
SPEAKER_00: Will he accept you or show you favor?
SPEAKER_00: says Yahweh of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: And we can see there are three things wrong with their offerings, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're offering blind, lame, and sick sacrifices on God's altar.
SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, the problem with that's pretty plain, right?
SPEAKER_00: They have better animals to offer.
SPEAKER_00: Israel's not so destitute that there's all of their sheep, bulls, and goats were blind or sick or lame.
SPEAKER_00: And so, unlike Abel, who returned to God the choicest fruits of his labors, these priests led Israel to be more like Cain, who seemed to hold something back.
SPEAKER_00: Worse yet, they offered noticeably defective offerings.
SPEAKER_00: Cain just didn't give the best.
SPEAKER_00: But it goes deeper than just not doing your best, though.
SPEAKER_00: It goes even deeper than that.
SPEAKER_00: That's one thing.
SPEAKER_00: But like Mufasa said when Simba went to the elephant graveyard, these priests deliberately disobeyed.
SPEAKER_00: You guys remember that line?
SPEAKER_00: Deliberately disobeyed me.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: These priests deliberately disobeyed the command of their father.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 15 says, if it has any blemish, if it is lame, sound familiar, or blind, or has any serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_00: It's the exact list that we have in Malachi chapter 1, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Except Malachi adds the word sick, which I think means that Malachi is asserting to these priests that sick animals count.
SPEAKER_00: Sickness counts as a blemish.
SPEAKER_00: So think also then on how the sacrifices for sin.
SPEAKER_00: So that's really what we're talking about a lot of ways here.
SPEAKER_00: The sacrifices for sin in particular were meant to be an expression of repentance, of awareness of the severity of sin and sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And so when these priests offer lame and blind sacrifices, they make a mockery of God's holiness and of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: It's like they're saying that their sins aren't really that serious, or they're not serious enough to require a good sheep or a good bull.
SPEAKER_00: And so notice how God makes it so clear to them.
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead, he says.
SPEAKER_00: Present that to your governor.
SPEAKER_00: Will he accept you or show you favor?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love reasoning like that.
SPEAKER_00: We can check our devotion to the Lord in so many ways with a move like that.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself, how often do you turn to the Lord in prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Spend that much time a day with your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: Will that go well for you?
SPEAKER_00: You see?
SPEAKER_00: Or how often, or maybe you we beam with gladness and pride when our kids succeed in their activities or sports as we should.
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: But then you come on Sunday and the saving work of Christ barely draws a thank you from our cold hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I could go on and on and on.
SPEAKER_00: But the point remains that God is a father who deserves the highest honor of our glad-hearted obedience.
SPEAKER_00: But the priests' half-hearted offerings of blemished animals betrayed, maybe even revealed, their contempt for God's honor, for God's word, for God's holiness, and God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't just the priests.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi summarizes the whole lack of honor for their God in verses 12 to 14.
SPEAKER_00: Look down at verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But you profane it when you say that Yahweh's table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food, may be despised.
SPEAKER_00: But you say, verse 13, What a weariness this is, and you snort at it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, do we have to go to church today?
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You just you say, What a weariness this is, and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts, and you bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering.
SPEAKER_00: Shall I accept that from your hand?
SPEAKER_00: says the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But now look at how verse 14 extends their sin beyond the priesthood and to the entire nation.
SPEAKER_00: Cursed be the cheat.
SPEAKER_00: Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.
SPEAKER_00: So what good thing?
SPEAKER_00: What good thing are you holding back from entrusting to God's care?
SPEAKER_00: That's the question.
SPEAKER_00: Israel was trusting in their own hands to provide rather than in God's provision, as they kept the good male of the flock, even after promising it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not that different, guys, from coming to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith and then rejecting his instructions about how we ought to live.
SPEAKER_00: But that's the idea.
SPEAKER_00: James says, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is a father who deserves the highest honor of our glad-hearted obedience.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna skip over several verses for now, but we'll come back to how God responds in chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: Because not only were the offerings of the priests polluted, but their instructions were too.
SPEAKER_00: We saw how the sin of the priests spread to the people by the end of chapter one, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's because the priests didn't refuse lame or blind or sick sacrifices, so they taught the people of Israel to share their contempt for God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the heart of God's second rebuke.
SPEAKER_00: Their lack of honor for God is evident, and their polluted instruction, too.
SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 2, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi says, the lips of a real Yahweh says, rather, the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: But you have turned aside from the way.
SPEAKER_00: You have caused many to stumble by your instruction.
SPEAKER_00: You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says Yahweh of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: And so the problem here is simple enough, right?
SPEAKER_00: The priests were supposed to teach the people what God expected of them.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't like today.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like today where you have access to dozens of Bibles and tools to understand its meaning at your fingertips, just 24-7 in your pocket.
SPEAKER_00: No, the average Israelite didn't have personal access to the copy of the law, and so the people of Israel were far more dependent upon the priests in a way that you haven't known dependence since you learned how to read.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a little Father's Day application for you, dads, out there.
SPEAKER_00: As members of the new covenant kingdom of Christ, Peter says that we're all a nation of priests under the high priesthood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So when you're parenting, make sure your lips guard knowledge for your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Help your children know that they can seek good biblical instruction from you.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe today's as good a day as any to ask yourself that hard question.
SPEAKER_00: Have your habits, your excuses, or your neglect caused your children to stumble rather than embrace the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: But it goes far beyond fathers, right?
SPEAKER_00: Far beyond fathers, friends.
SPEAKER_00: We should make sure that our witness to all the little ones among us is faithful, and that our instruction to those who have not known the Lord for long is clear and helpful to them.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi reminds us why it's so important.
SPEAKER_00: It's so important that we strive to be faithful as teachers of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Because in Christ, God is our Father, and He deserves that respect from us, right?
SPEAKER_00: But this condemnation of the priest is set up in this chapter as the opposite of what a true priest is supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 5 and 6.
SPEAKER_00: A true priest of Yahweh walks in a covenant of life and peace and fear and awe of God's name.
SPEAKER_00: A true Levite walks in uprightness and turns many from iniquity.
SPEAKER_00: I think Malachi, when he writes this, has Phineas in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Phineas?
SPEAKER_00: Phineas was the grandson of Aaron and was filled with zeal for the Lord after 24,000 people died for their idolatry in the wilderness and were struck down.
SPEAKER_00: And then Phineas rose and struck down a man who flaunted God's judgment by bringing a Midianite woman into the camp while Israel mourned.
SPEAKER_00: Their idolatry led to the death of thousands.
SPEAKER_00: Because they went after the daughters of Baal.
SPEAKER_00: And then this guy just does it again right in front of everybody.
SPEAKER_00: And so Phineas rose up and struck him with a spear.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what God said of Moses, here's what God said to Moses concerning Phineas.
SPEAKER_00: He says, The Lord said to Moses, Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore say, Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace.
SPEAKER_00: And it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Compare that passage on the screen with the text of Malachi, chapter 2, verse 5 and 6 in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi is calling again for this covenant of peace that turns back the wrath of God and makes atonement for the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: That's the sort of priestly zeal Malachi says is so lacking when they allowed for these polluted offerings, because Malachi chapter 2, verse 9 says that these priests did not keep God's ways.
SPEAKER_00: And they showed partiality in their instruction.
SPEAKER_00: The point is that the priests didn't listen to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And they twisted its teaching to suit themselves by dishonoring God with their polluted instructions.
SPEAKER_00: Such that what they really did was lie about God to the people.
SPEAKER_00: And they despised his name and they corrupted his covenant relationship with the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the result of all this polluted instruction and polluted offerings, really.
SPEAKER_00: The real the real center of the issue, the real heart of this thing is back in chapter one, at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: They have despised.
SPEAKER_00: They have despised the name of their father.
SPEAKER_00: We could make much of the significance of God's name in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time for that.
SPEAKER_00: But suffice it to say that God takes his name far more seriously than normal men consider their own reputations.
SPEAKER_00: It's that word despise, though, that we should focus on.
SPEAKER_00: It shows up all throughout these two passages in both chapters.
SPEAKER_00: And the word despise is a great translation.
SPEAKER_00: It means that, to look upon something with scorn or disdainfully, or regard something with contempt, like the way an older child may look upon the embarrassing behavior of a younger child.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: But I'm convinced by the first six verses of chapter one that Malachi expects his readers, that means us, to remember a crucial moment in the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 25, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of lentil stew.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses records for us that it was in that way that Esau despised.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same word.
SPEAKER_00: Esau despised his birthright.
SPEAKER_00: And you know the rest of the story, I hope.
SPEAKER_00: It was in that way that Jacob would later receive Isaac's blessing rather than Esau, even though Esau was the firstborn.
SPEAKER_00: And so Esau, as he despised his birthright, he showed contempt for his father's house, saying it was worth less to him than a bowl of stew when he was hungry.
SPEAKER_00: And so Malachi's argument here suddenly just gets incredibly sophisticated.
SPEAKER_00: Incredibly sophisticated.
SPEAKER_00: In the first part of chapter one, Malachi accuses the people of Israel of doubting God's love for them in verses two to five, reminding them that no, God chose Jacob and loved him.
SPEAKER_00: But then in verse six, Malachi What he's saying in our text is Jacob, you're acting like your brother, Esau.
SPEAKER_00: Though I love you, you are despising my name and trading your birthright.
SPEAKER_00: For what?
SPEAKER_00: Keeping the best sheep to themselves?
SPEAKER_00: Not much better than a bowl of soup.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're despising their birthright just because they're lazy.
SPEAKER_00: They're avoiding the hard work of keeping the law.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what motivates them.
SPEAKER_00: But the point is right there.
SPEAKER_00: They despise God's name just as Esau despised his birthright.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see that the highest honor God's children can pay to their Heavenly Father is the devotion to stay true to our birthright as his kids.
SPEAKER_00: One way we do that, like Malachi talks about here, is simply by caring enough to listen to his word, to trust him, and to obey.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's a father who deserves the highest honor, the highest honor of our glad-hearted obedience.
SPEAKER_00: But now the hard question really is how does an honorable father, one so honorable as the God of Israel, how does he respond?
SPEAKER_00: How does he respond to his children's contempt of his own name?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he he sure doesn't shrug it off, right?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't pretend it's not happening.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't hope it just goes away.
SPEAKER_00: He's been patient, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't beg them to change their ways, he doesn't get embarrassed by them and try to cover it up, he doesn't flip out and destroy them.
SPEAKER_00: What we see is that the father's honorable response is that he exercises discipline and he practices steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi gets incredibly sharp with the priests in verse 9 of chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Right after challenging them that their governor wouldn't accept their offerings, he comes for the priests again and he asks them, go ahead and entreat God's favor.
SPEAKER_00: It's somewhat sarcastic.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying that God will certainly not be gracious to the people because of the intercession of these priests.
SPEAKER_00: And if you look at verse 10, it gets pretty scary.
SPEAKER_00: God says, in effect, oh just let it rest.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you?
SPEAKER_00: Just give it up.
SPEAKER_00: I wish that one of you would just shut the doors of the temple so that you stopped offering me these offensive sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: Just knock it off, would you?
SPEAKER_00: I have no pleasure in you, says verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: And I will not accept an offering from your hand.
SPEAKER_00: He says, stop it.
SPEAKER_00: You're making it worse.
SPEAKER_00: As they are.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what an honorable father does when his children are dishonoring him by ruining their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Stop making it worse.
SPEAKER_00: But notice though, how how throughout verses 11 to 14, God insists that he still has his honor.
SPEAKER_00: His name is great.
SPEAKER_00: Despite all the sins of his people, his glory extends from east to west, from rising sun to setting sun.
SPEAKER_00: Scholars debate the exact meaning of verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: It might mean a future Gentile inclusion of the worship, or future Gentile inclusion, maybe in the New Covenant, or it can mean the worship of all the scattered Jews outside Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter how we read that, future tense or not, Malachi is making the point that God is not insecure.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He's not insecure in his fatherhood or in his lordship.
SPEAKER_00: So let that sink in.
SPEAKER_00: God does not need your obedience to feel honored.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Our father knows who he is.
SPEAKER_00: He knows who he is.
SPEAKER_00: He is the great King.
SPEAKER_00: Whether his children acknowledge his name or not.
SPEAKER_00: And so God's discipline isn't out of control.
SPEAKER_00: He tells them that their behavior brings him no pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: He refuses to accept their offerings.
SPEAKER_00: He makes the consequences for future disobedience pretty clear.
SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Now, O priest, this command is for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you won't listen, if you won't take it to heart and give honor to my name, says Yahweh of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, I have already cursed them because you do not lay it to heart.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I've already disciplined you.
SPEAKER_00: But if you don't take my warnings to heart, it's just gonna get worse.
SPEAKER_00: When are you gonna let up?
SPEAKER_00: And look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, he says, I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on their faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.
SPEAKER_00: What's that?
SPEAKER_00: The dung and the waste of the sin offering was carried away to a heap outside the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus 29, 14 says, the flesh and the skin and the dung of the sin offering were unclean, and they had to be burned outside of the camp.
SPEAKER_00: And so God's discipline fits the sin.
SPEAKER_00: The priest who offered blemished animals and treated God's holiness as unclean.
SPEAKER_00: And so God responds to them the same way.
SPEAKER_00: He's making a point.
SPEAKER_00: And they're carried out with the trash.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: A day is coming when these priests won't get to be priests anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And God exercises this discipline upon Israel, his firstborn son, for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing it for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's exercise of discipline is not opposed to his display of steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: God disciplines because he loves.
SPEAKER_00: Stephen read that for you, right?
SPEAKER_00: He disciplines because he loves.
SPEAKER_00: And God's discipline is designed to bring healing.
SPEAKER_00: So why?
SPEAKER_00: If you look at your Bibles, why, what reason does God give?
SPEAKER_00: Why does he say he will remove these priests from their position?
SPEAKER_00: What's the reason for this admittedly kind of stern but fair discipline?
SPEAKER_00: Why is he doing it?
SPEAKER_00: It's in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says Yahweh of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: So that my covenant with Levi may stand.
SPEAKER_00: God disciplines to preserve.
SPEAKER_00: And an honorable father corrects his children to keep them.
SPEAKER_00: He's angry.
SPEAKER_00: There's no denying this God is angry.
SPEAKER_00: He's angry, but it's not petty, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not irrational, it's not unstable.
SPEAKER_00: And no, God's anger is a holy, careful, precise anger of a perfect father who refuses to let his children destroy themselves by rejecting his instruction.
SPEAKER_00: So if you consider yourself a child of God, redeemed by the blood of his son and adopted by his spirit, then remember when God tests you, when God convicts you, when God corrects you, when God sends hardship to refine you, remember that God disciplines you to keep you close to him.
SPEAKER_00: So don't run away.
SPEAKER_00: Don't run away.
SPEAKER_00: But lay it to heart and draw near.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how our Heavenly Father prioritizes understanding in his discipline.
SPEAKER_00: He wants Israel to know something.
SPEAKER_00: And so when God disciplines us, we must listen.
SPEAKER_00: We must take it to heart.
SPEAKER_00: Just like he tells the priest too in verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Even then they have time, right?
SPEAKER_00: What grace?
SPEAKER_00: What great-hearted graciousness that even despite our sins, God gives us time to learn and time to grow so that we can stay near Him.
SPEAKER_00: God's exercise of discipline.
SPEAKER_00: God's exercise of discipline is itself a display of his steadfast love and an expression of it.
SPEAKER_00: They work together.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever think these things are opposed.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: God preserves the Levitical priesthood, despite these wicked priests, as a way to preserve Israel before him until the time of Christ's coming redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Because the truth is, not even the finest offerings from Levitical priests could bring atonement for sin.
SPEAKER_00: Even if they did their best, it wouldn't be enough, right?
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews tells us that every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
SPEAKER_00: But no, when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so the priests, like here in Malachi, stand constantly at work because they're never doing it well enough and they gotta keep going.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus sits down because his work is finished.
SPEAKER_00: God preserved the priesthood until such a time as the new priest of a better covenant could come and offer the perfect sacrifice for sin.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, the life and death of Jesus carried more honor for God the Father than the offering of a thousand spotless firstborn lambs.
SPEAKER_00: His single sacrifice for sins upon the cross could bear the entire wrath of God and make for an everlasting atonement.
SPEAKER_00: So if we come to Jesus as our priest, the result is that he secures for you an everlasting covenant of an eternal life and peace with God by the strength and power of his holy, indestructible, perfectly obedient, glorious life.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 5 says it better than I've been trying to for the last 20 minutes or so.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably been 50 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Who am I kidding?
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 5.
SPEAKER_00: In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save from death.
SPEAKER_00: And he was heard because of his reverence.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear Malachi all through here?
SPEAKER_00: Because of his reverence.
SPEAKER_00: Although Jesus was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of an eternal salvation to all who obey him.
SPEAKER_00: Being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
SPEAKER_00: So turn to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's the priest who makes true atonement.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other priest who makes such atonement.
SPEAKER_00: He's the true priest who guards true instruction, who leads away from iniquity, who will never cause you to stumble.
SPEAKER_00: We have to bow before Jesus and cling to Jesus by faith.
SPEAKER_00: We have to obey his commandments to repent and to believe in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We have to obey his commandments to love one another as God in Christ has loved you and cry out for his mercy and forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy and forgiveness come no other way than but through the blood of the Lamb poured out on the cross of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the only begotten Son of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And by becoming obedient to faith in his name, that's the only way.
SPEAKER_00: The only way we can give God the glory or the honor he deserves as our Heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't caught it yet, this word for honor in this text is the same Hebrew word your Bible so often translates as glory.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same word.
SPEAKER_00: To God be the glory.
SPEAKER_00: Great things he hath done.
SPEAKER_00: So loved he the world that he gave us his son, who yielded his life and atonement for sin and opened the life gate that all may go in.
SPEAKER_00: So praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let the people rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Oh come.
SPEAKER_00: You just sang it, do you remember it?
SPEAKER_00: Oh come to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Through Jesus, the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And give him the glory.
SPEAKER_00: The great things he hath done.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Oh our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, may your name be honored and lifted up and exalted and glorified above all things.
SPEAKER_00: May your kingdom come and may your will be done on earth and even in our very hearts, just like your will is done in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, we thank you for providing for us, for giving us this day our daily bread, and for forgiving us our multitude of sins.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for forgiving us.
SPEAKER_00: Please keep forgiving us.
SPEAKER_00: Even as we forgive those Father who sin against us, help us to let it go and lead us not into temptation.
SPEAKER_00: But by your son's power and grace, please deliver us from evil into glad-hearted obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, we want to obey you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to walk with you.
SPEAKER_00: And you deserve so much more glory from our hearts than you get.
SPEAKER_00: For thine is the kingdom and the power, the honor, and the glory forever and ever.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_02: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.