Several years ago, my wife and I went to a farm to table restaurant here in town, if you don't know what those are. Those are the type of restaurant that the owner had said everything we serve here is locally sourced, is fresh, never frozen, never processed. And so it's come locally, comes into the restaurant, and whatever's available at the time is what they were saying. It was amazing. It was wonderful. Now imagine, though, at this restaurant, the owner had set it up, had these high standards for farm to table, fresh, never frozen, nothing processed. And then he went away. And the managers that he had put in place and the chef he had put in place began to realize, you know, we can make a little more profit if we just bought some frozen food. If we weren't worried so much about farm to table, if we could be a little more connected with kind of things that are far away. product that's not as good, not as local. And over time, the menu shifted from farm to table, fresh, never frozen, to everything that's being processed and brought in. And the staff was trained on that. And then one day the owner shows back up, to see how things are going, to see if his standards had been kept, and he finds out that everything he had set up was being corrupted. had been abandoned by the people he had put in place to take care of, to make sure that what was going out to the customers was what he had intended. Do you think he would be happy at all in that situation? And the answer would be no. And this is exactly what we see happen in the book of Malachi. God had set up some 1500 years before Malachi with Moses, this idea of the way he wanted worship to take place. The way the Levites, the priests were to honor him, the types of sacrifices they were to accept, and that they would offer. And this had been corrupted. In the time of Malachi. And God sends Malachi his messenger to tell the people that he's done with that. He'll have no more of it, to offer them a chance to repent. We find ourselves often in the same boat. We've cut corners with God. We've not given him our best. We have brought worship that wasn't acceptable to him. And we find ourselves maybe in the same background, in the same setting as the priests in Malachi's day. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to chapter 2 as we continue our series called Faithful to the Faithless, about Malachi's message from God, to the people of Israel in his day. Last week, Matt, unpacked for us, part of chapter one, what's dealt with the types of sacrifices they were bringing. So in the Old Testament sacrificial system, they were to bring very specific types of animals, animals without defects, animals that weren't blind, that weren't lame, and what would happen in the time of Malachi is there were people bringing animals that were defective. They weren't bringing the ones God had prescribed, and the priests were accepting those sacrifices, and God through Malachi is calling them out. The message today is connected to last week. So 6 cycles of God having issues with the people of Malachi's day. We've looked at two. This will be the 2nd one that we finish up today as we unpack what God is saying to the priests of Israel. He had talked to the people bringing sacrifice last week and the priest, but this week he focuses in on the priest, the ones who were to regulate the sacrificial system, to accept the offerings that the people were making, and who were accepting offerings that weren't acceptable. They knew the rules, and they weren't following them, much like the manager and the chef at this farm to table restaurant. That was no longer following his mission. Look with me in verses one to 4 of Malachi chapter 2, where we see God warns the priests. He says this, and now, O priests. This command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will 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 have 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 should 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. And now, O priests, again, the priests in Israel were the ones who were to regulate the sacrificial system when God called his people out of Egypt with Moses, there were 12 tribes that made up the nation of Israel. Levi was one of those tribes. And when God gave Moses the regulations of how the people were to worship him, he said, the tribe of Levi, it's going to be the tribe that regulates the temple, the tabernacle where God said my presence would dwell, this is where you're going to bring sacrifices, and the sons of Aaron, Moses' brother, became the priests who would work in the temple. And all the other Levites were going to help with that. So the Levitical tribe were the ones that regulated the sacrifices, they were the priests who mediated access between God and the people. Their job was to stand between God and the people and accept the people's sacrifices to God, and then to keep the tabernacle holy and pure so that God's holiness wouldn't break out among the people. That God is a God who abhors sin. He's trying to teach his people that we can't just walk casually into his presence. And so in Malachi's day, the priests had corrupted the way of the temple. It says this. And now, O priest, this command is for you. And what is the command? The command is we're going to see is the Old Testament sacrificial system, but it goes back to chapter one to honor and fear God. So this is the command that I'm giving you. And he says this, if you will not listen, that if is so important. Because God's not saying, you've done wrong, I'm done with you. He's saying, if you will repent, then these things won't happen. But if you don't repent, then certain things are going to happen to you, he's giving them this warning. If you will not listen, he tells them, if you will not take it to heart, to give honor to my name. Says the Lord of hosts. The idea of taking something to heart is not just an emotional response. And in our language, the heart tends to be where our emotions reside. That's the metaphor we use, and the Hebraic way of thinking, the way the Israelites would have thought, the heart was the emotional center, but also the intellectual center, what we would call the brain. We talk about, you know, well, you need to have your brain involved and your heart involved. They would have just said the heart. And it's where we processed our thoughts and our resolutions. And when it says, take this to heart, he's saying, if you're not going to listen to me. If you're not going to take to heart, if you're not going to resolve to do, if you're not going to set your heart upon this thing, to honor my name, then I will send the curse upon you. And I will curse your blessings. What does he mean by I will send the curse upon you? If you have your Bibles, Flip back to the book of Leviticus. Genesis, Exodus Leviticus, 3rd book of the Bible. Chapter 26. I won't read the whole chapter, but mark it and go home and read it. So in the days of Moses, when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and said, you're now my people, he gave his law. And he said, this is the law that my people are going to live under. And he went into a covenant with them. A promise he made with them. And it was this, if you obey me, I will bless you. But if you disobey me, I will curse you, and you can read both of these in Leviticus 26. The 1st part, you can read all the blessings. If you go down to verse 14 though. This was 100s and 100s and 100s of years before Malachi. that God said this. He says this, but if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you. I will visit you with panic with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache, and you shall sow your seed in vein, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. And on and on and on. God says, this is what will happen if you don't honor me. If you don't fear me. If you don't carry out my statutes. He says, if you don't listen, then I will send the curse upon you. That's the Leviticus 26 curse. And I will curse your blessings. This idea of cursing your blessings is interesting. I think there's 2 things going on here. One is just the good things God had said I will do for you if you're obedient to me. He had brought them back from the land of Babylon recently. They had rebuilt the temple that had been destroyed because they had been unfaithful. And now they're still unfaithful. So there had been blessings that God had given them. He says, I'm going to curse your blessings. The things I was going to do good for you. I'm going to withdraw from you. But there's also another thing with the priest. The priests were tasked unto Moses' law with blessing the people. You've probably heard this verse, if you've been in church a while, from Numbers chapter 6 verses 22 to 27. This is what Moses says the Levites were to do. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to Aaron and his sons. That's the priest. saying, thus you shall bless the people of Israel. You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you. 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. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them. That the priests were to give a blessing to the people. And I think God through Malachi is telling the priest, look, if you won't listen to me, I'm going to take away my blessings and give you the curses of Leviticus 26, but also the blessings you are going to give aren't going to bless the people at all. If these unfaithful priests are trying to bless the people while they're being unfaithful, he says, your blessings will turn into curses. upon the very people that you were tasked with, blessing. And then he goes on to say, I indeed, I've already cursed them. He was already starting this process that people were already seeing that God was withdrawing blessing from them because of their disobedience and bringing the curses upon them, which were always meant to turn them. from the disobedience. It wasn't just, I'm going to punish you. I done with you. Go to the beginning of chapter one. And it says, I've loved you. He says, how have you loved us? He says, well, Jacob, I love, but Esau, I hated. You can go back and listen to that whole sermon from 2 weeks ago. The point was this. I haven't completely destroyed you. I've punished you, but I haven't evicted you from the house because I've chosen you for a purpose, but he's telling them, punishment is coming. He says, I have already cursed him because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring. And in the ESV, it says offspring, in the original language, it was the word seed, and it probably meant 2 things. I'm going to rebuke your children, your seed, and your crops. If you go back to the Leviticus curse. One of the punishments was, you're going to plant and someone else is going to eat it. And the Israelites were already feeling the pressure of foreign powers controlling them and taking their produce away. But God's also telling them, I'm going to rebuke your offsprings, telling the priests, You need to be aware, your behavior doesn't just affect you. We live in a country where we think, what I do only affects me. No one else is impacted by it. And that's just a lie. What we do as a people impact those who come after us, our actions, my actions, impact the children that come after us. And he says, look, I'm going to rebuke you and your offspring. And then he has this crazy statement. And spread dung on your faces. Now, if you don't know what dung is, it's a polite word for waste. It's what happens when you go to the bathroom. He says the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it. What is Malachi talking about? What is God saying to them? So here's what's going on. If you lived in that time and you understood the sacrificial system, with Moses, there were all these sacrifices that would happen. Sometimes you were being a grain offering. And you'd be like, God, I'm so thankful for you. Here's some grain. Now, that's how they live. That was their kind of currency at the time. And so, hey, here's some grain. Thank you so much for all you do for me, God. They had other offerings where you would sacrifice an animal because you were thankful. There was some sacrifices, though, that dealt with sin when we've offended God. And in those sacrifices they treated them differently. Normally they would cook almost the whole animal. But with the sin offering, the head, the legs, and all the entrails, including the waist, was taken outside the camp and burned out there. It wasn't burned in the temple. And so all that was taken outside. And burned. The imagery that God was trying to show them was that what's outside the camp of Israel is unclean. And you would take these things outside the camp and burn them outside the camp. And so when God says, I'm going to spread the dung of your offerings on your face. It would be like this. Imagine in our farm to table restaurant, you were sitting there one day and eating your food, thinking it's farm to table, but it's all processed stuff, and the owner's sitting there. And he eats and he realizes this is not. This is not what I said my people should be doing here. This is not the type of food. He calls a chef out. And the chef comes out thinking he's going to be congratulated for his amazing meal. And the owner says that you cook this, and he says, yes, and he takes all the food, and he dumps it on his head. And he says, get out of here. I'm done with you. The thing, the shameful thing that the chef served is the way he was shamed. And so God's saying to the priest, I'm going to take the thing that you're taking outside the camp to burn because it's unclean, and I'm going to smear it all over you. I'm going to cover your face with it, and then you're going to be outside the camp as an unclean thing. You're going to be removed. That's what he says. He says, you will be taken away with this unclean offering. You'll be kind of lumped in with the sin. of this unclean offering because of your behavior. And he does this. Look in verse four. So you shall so shall you know that I have sent this command to you. How will they know that God said he was going to do this when he does it? And he does this for this reason, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts. His punishment isn't arbitrary. What God is doing to the Levites and the priests here is saying, I am going to punish you. I'm going to remove you because I made a covenant with Levi. And that covenant will stand. God says my purposes will be accomplished. Now, some of you priests are going to get taken outside the camp because you will not honor me. You will not fear me, but my plan will continue. My plan will continue. What is that plan, though? Look in verses 5 to 7. We see the faithful priest. This is this covenant with Levi. He says this, my covenant with him with Levi. 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. So this covenant that God is giving to the tribe of Levi is to be his priests. And he said it was a covenant of life and peace. He says, I gave these rules to Levi so that they could have life, not just breathe in and breathe out, but life. Fullness and wholeness and peace, not just the absence of wars, but this deep abiding sense of goodness. He says, this is what my covenant was for. This is why I gave it. He said, I gave it to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. This isn't kind of trembling fear in the sense that I'm just, I'm afraid you're going to abuse me, like a dog who's been beaten, and when someone goes to pet him, he cowers away. It's the type of fear that recognizes God's power. We in our day, I know for myself, I can't speak for any of you, we can take God very casually. When I read in scripture, though, people encountering God, they never were like, oh, there's God. I think I'll go high- 5 God. There was a deep sense of like, I do not want to be in your presence. When Isaiah meets God, he says, woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips, get away from me. Because he recognized God's majesty and power, and he feared him. And he says, Levi, this is the covenant that I had with you. He stood in awe of my name. And then he says, Levi, true instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He taught the people correctly. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. He taught correctly. He was living correctly, and he turned many from iniquity. So Levi was living the way God wanted to. He was teaching the way God wanted to, and that turned many people away from doing the wrong thing. So this is what the covenant was that he had established. It says for the lips of a priest should guard knowledge. So the priest's role was to protect the knowledge that God had given about himself to the people. Said it should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Said the priest's job was to teach the people the ways of God. Said, Levi did this, and he turned many people from iniquity. He turned them away from worshiping false gods. He turned them away from bringing sacrifices that were unacceptable. He turned them away from sin and evil. Not so, as we see in verses 8, 9, the faithless priest in Malachi's day. Look what he says. But you. But you have turned aside from the way. He says to them, you haven't done what Levi did. You haven't been faithful to the covenant. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. The things the priests were teaching. Cause the people to stumble. In this farm to table restaurant, the managers begin to say, hey, we don't need to use all the farm to table stuff, local, fresh, never frozen. too expensive. Let's cut corners. It'll be easier, it's simpler, and they do that, and they begin to teach, hey, the chefs how to do that. The chefs, the staff, how to do that. And many, all of them turn now to the wrong way. The priests are being charged with the same thing. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi. This word corrupted means to be made useless to no longer be in effect. It was the language used for the animals that were being brought. You've brought corrupted animals, ones that aren't useful for the purpose. And we're going to see in chapter 3, It's talking about crops that have been made useless, or corrupted as a punishment. Here he's saying, you've corrupted the very covenant that was meant to give you life and peace. And so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction. God calls out the priests of his day through Malachi and says, you're not living faithfully. And judgment is coming your way if you don't change. Now, that was some 2500 years ago from our day. None of you are Levitical priests here. of us are in the boat that they were in in the same way. And so we have to ask God, we want to know what you were saying to them in their context in their time, but how do we apply that to our time? How can we make sense of this in our day? Here's 3 things that I think we can take away from this part of Malachi's message. One, honor God in your heart and actions. This is where it starts. The whole point of the covenant with Levi was one of fear and of honor. He said, I want you to honor me as the great king that all of our worship starts in the heart. It starts with a disposition towards God. Our outward actions flow from that. You can conform your outward actions for a season, I believe, to look like you're doing the thing God wants you to do. that would appear to be lined up with God, what God wants you to do. But over time, you can't maintain that. Jesus says, we know a tree by its fruit. And over time, your heart's connection will get revealed in your actions. That also means that as followers of Christ, when our heart is right, that may be times. When we behave in ways that don't line up with him. God says we have an advocate who forgives us, that we can go to him for that forgiveness, we can confess our sins to each other as a whole set of things we do, and we mess up, even though our heart's right. But if our heart's not right, there's never going to be actions that line up. Because God recognizes, if your heart isn't in the right place, that you're a hypocrite, that you're not really being faithful to him. Jesus said it this way in Matthew chapter 15, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you. When he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, in vain do they worship me. They were still going through the motions. And maybe you're here today. He said, I'm just going through the motions. I come to Sunday because that's what I do. That's what I've done growing up. That's my routine. It makes my brain feel nice. We like doing the same thing on the same schedule. And you just show up here. But worship isn't on your mind. Worship isn't in your heart. God sees what's on the inside. Honor him with our heart. and our actions. The priests had to have a right disposition towards God, and then they could deal with the sacrifices that were being brought. The people had to have a right disposition towards God in their heart, and then they would line up their sacrifices accordingly. It was obvious if you brought a defective animal to the temple for sacrifice, your heart wasn't right. Because your actions were obviously showing that. But you could bring the right animal and your heart still be wrong. God wants us to honor him from our hearts and in our actions. Second thing we see from this is applicable to the church as a whole in one way and to its leaders in a different. And it's this, hold leaders accountable to the biblical standard. You should hold leaders in the church to the biblical standard. James 3, verse one says this. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers. For you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. And so I want to talk a little bit about what you should expect from your leaders here at Northland, from your pastors, your deacons, your life group leaders. But at the top of that chain, from your pastors, what you should expect from us, you should expect your pastors to take God's word to heart, that we should be reading this book. We have 7 pastors here at Northland Church, myself, Matt Mars, Andy Sander, Willie Hunter, Blake Hearson, and then Tyler Rosis, and Dalton Leslie, who are down at our riverside campus. We have 7 pastors. All of us should be taking God's word to heart. That it's not just outward, but it's inward in our own lives. Second, we are to live a life that is honoring to God that is reflective of him, that shows us who he is. If you have your Bibles, turn to 1st Timothy chapter 3. Paul wrote a letter to Timothy, who was his protégé. He had left him in Ephesus to put things in order in the church in Ephesus, which had a lot of disorder going on. And in the midst of that, he said, hey, I need you to appoint pastors. In this context, they're called overseas, those who are overseeing the life of the church. And he gave a description of what they should be like. He said this, the saying is trustworthy. This is 1st Timothy 3. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, that's pastor, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife. So reminded self-control, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. Your pastors are to reflect that. If we don't, if we cease to, we should not be a pastor here. Now, we have 7 pastors. We meet regularly, and we hold each other accountable. But if at some point, if I quit living by one Timothy 3, and I became quarrelsome all the time. Or a lover of money. are violent. If I became a drunkard, I should be removed from the office of pastor. Doesn't matter how much you like me. Doesn't matter how much you care about me. I should be removed from the office of pastor. When the priest became corrupted, the nation became corrupted, because they were the ones teaching. It says by your instruction, you have led many astray. By their behavior, they were leading people astray. And so you should always look to your pastors to live up to the biblical example. Does that mean your pastors never sin? Nope. Everybody messes up. We mess up. There are steps when someone does wrong, how do I remedy that? How do I fix that? That at some point, one of the pastors in this church is going to offend you probably. It's probably going to do something. You say, oh, he didn't do the thing he should. How we respond to that matters. But you need to hold your leaders to the biblical standard, in our own heart, towards God, in our own lifestyle, our actions. And finally, in our teaching also. Paul wrote this to 1st Timothy in chapter 4, verse 16. Keep a close watch on yourself. And on the teaching, persist in this, for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers. This is why at Northland. Every Sunday, we open the Bible. And we try to teach out of it. We believe what we're saying is the correct interpretation of scripture. Like, this is what I think this means. But we're going to open it up and read it, and we're going to work through verse by verse to say, here's what this verse means. Here's what it meant in its context. Here's how we can apply it today. If any of the pastors gets up on a Sunday, it never touches the Bible, then you as member should go, mm, mm, I'm not sure about this. Something's gone wrong. something's not the way it should be. Our job is to teach God's word. Now, when we do that, we just work through books. We kind of go we're going through Malachi. Something in Malachi may offend you. We're going to be offended. There are things in the Bible that offend me, right? You going to get your toes stepped on. Yep, I'm gonna get my toe stepped on. Matt's going to say something that's going to offend me. I'm going to say something that's going to offend Matt and the other pastors because we're struggling in that area. I'm going to say something that offends myself and go, oh, God, you're calling me to be more like you. But we're just going to work through a book and whatever comes up in that book. That's what God's word for us is, and we're going to explain it, as best we can, and how do we apply it? Hold your leaders to the biblical standard. And then third, and this is for everybody, God offers repentance to the faithless. that God is a God of mercy and of grace. And if you're here and you're going, man, I have strayed from God, and we all have, if you've never accepted Christ as your savior, you've strayed from God. You're not worshiping him the way he wants. If you're here and you've accepted Christ and you said, he's my savior, maybe you're here going, but I have strayed. I've just been showing up to worship, and I sit in the seat, and I'm not committed to God in that way. I'm doing things I shouldn't do. He offers repentance. If you will. Listen and take to heart, is what Malachi said to the priests. It's what God says to us. And he said, if you don't do this, you're going to find yourself outside the camp to the priests. The rite of Hebrews has what seems to be this really confusing statement, but if you know the Old Testament in its story, it makes a little more sense. In Hebrews chapter 13, verses 11 to 16. It says this, for the bodies, of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest, as a sacrifice for sin, are burned outside the camp. Because what Malachi was talking about, I'm going to smear you with the waste of these animals that, that part's going to be burned outside the camp, away from God as unclean, as disconnected from him. And so the rite of Hebrews just mentions that. And he says this. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Jesus went outside the camp when he was crucified. where the parts of the animal are going to be burned as a sin offering were burned. It says, therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured, for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him, then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Said, we can go outside the camp. Jesus, God's son died on the cross outside of Jerusalem. And the Israelites would have recognized, oh, he's where the waste is destroyed. The very thing that was going to be the shame for the people, the priests of Israel. Jesus, I'm already out there bearing that shame for you. Jesus has taken your sin, your shame on himself. And put it on himself on the cross so that we can be forgiven. God is faithful to the faithless. He says, all I ask is to repent and trust in my son. You can't work your way to heaven. You're not good enough. Jesus is good enough You're not sinless, Jesus is sinless. Jesus dies for us so that we can be with him. All we are asked to do is say, trust him. Trust him. And then he regenerates us, he makes us born anew, and then we follow him in obedience to what he's called us to do, but we never save ourselves. We go to Christ outside the camp, where he was crucified, where he bore God's shame for our sins, and then he brings us into God's presence. God offers repentance to the faithless. As our worship team comes up to lead us in a final song, if you're here, and you've never given your life to Christ, and you want to talk more about what that means. We have some of our deacons in the back in the corner back here, and they would love to pray for you. If you're hearing you're a believer and you've just been struggling with worship and fearing God and honoring his name. We would love to pray with you and help you put a flag in the ground today that says, God, I know you are faithful to the faithless, help me to honor and fear you more. Will you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for today, for the chance to gather here and open your word and learn from you. Father, pray that you would convict us where we need conviction, that you would strengthen us where we need strengthening Father, that you would draw us to you, that we would be in awe of you and who you are. Father, we pray that you would be glorified in our lives. Father, that you would be the center of all that we do. that we would represent you well and faithfully in our lives. Through the power of your spirit. We ask this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.