The Word Leads to Worship
Notes
Transcript
1 “And now, O priests, this command is for you.
2 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.
3 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.
4 So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts.
5 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.
6 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.
7 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.
8 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,
9 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.”
Like to go on tours when on vacation(Nashville, Southport); tour guide needs to know the area
Let’s play a scenario. You go on a tour while on vacation. You get to the tourbus. The guide is there and they are wearing their badge, hat, and official uniform. They come across the intercom with confidence. But, about 10 minutes into the tour, something seems off. You get to a stop sign, the guide sits there for what seems to be an eternity, they pull the map out and start checking it. You ask whats going on and they still answer with confidence, “I feel sure this is the way” as they make the turn. All while you end up in a dead end. After some time in frustration, people begin to exit the bus and just call for a cab back to where they came from.
All in jest, but the problem wasn’t that the people didn’t want to be taken somewhere, the issue was that the guide didn’t know where to take them.; we are seeing that play out in our text
In our previous passage, we took what was being said to the priest and saw how that applied to the people as well. This passage today deals even more with the priesthood. What I want us to understand from the get go is that the office of priest is no more. Because of Jesus establishing the church, we now have the office of elder/pastor. The only high priest we have is Jesus and he has said that we are the priesthood now.
When I say all of that, we may think that this has nothing to do with us then. But, I assure you that we can learn about God and learn about us as sinful humans through God’s word here.
God puts weight on the teaching and living out of word in life of priests
How do we view the preaching of God’s word?
And does the preaching of God’s word line up with how we live our lives?
The easy thing to do is to come here on Sundays and then go and live our lives however we want. Go and cuss up a storm with our friends at work or at school. Crack open the cold ones and have a few too many after work. Get online and degrade people. And then come back to church on Sunday and act like everything is right.
What is harder is to hear the word of God be preached, take God’s word and apply it to our lives. Hear the things that God hates and surgically remove them from our lives. Hear the things that God loves and stand up and pursue those things. The Christian life is not an easy one and if someone told you that it was, they are lying.
passage is a continuation of previous verses; previous deals with worship through offerings; now we deal with the priests directly in actions and teaching
When the word is neglected, the worship suffers
When the word is neglected, the worship suffers
the source of the teaching matters; scripture warns of listening to false teachers or shallow teachers; talk about the rise of false teachers; talk about the rise of false religions
I want Immanuel Baptist to be know for a place where God’s word is boldly proclaimed. But even more than that, I want people to be able to see that we believe what is being taught. That people know that this is a place to come and hear God’s word because of the people they know that come here.
priests had failed the people; God sees this, puts Malachi in place to bring this message to them
1 “And now, O priests, this command is for you.
2 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.
conditional statement; if - then; actually a double condition
write-ups at work; eventually they lead to termination
God has gotten to that point; they are past the point of not being obedient all the way to the place where they refuse to show respect
here comes the curse; how would we react if God cursed our blessings because we aren’t listening and giving honor to his name?; This is a harsh warning
but they have received the curse; subpar offerings lead to consuming subpar parts of the offering; explain that they were able to eat some of the offering that was brought; all of this fell back on priest for letting this happen; they have brought curse upon themselves
3 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.
Dung = undigested food inside the stomach of the offering; they would remove it and take it somewhere out of the city to dispose of
rebuking of offspring and spreading dung on faces; this is a public display of their disgrace of the sacrificial offerings; everyone would be able to see this, there is no hiding to this disgrace
we should be thankful that we don’t need to make offerings and take them to priests; Jesus is our great high priest; he made an offering once for all on our behalf
and we are now the priesthood of all believers
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
are we walking in the fact that we are all a priesthood?
the reality is this is about priesthood; what can we learn as every day believers that God was pointing out to the priest
4 So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts.
Levi was one of the twelve sons of Jacob and the ancestor of Israel’s priestly tribe.
After Israel’s exodus from Egypt, the tribe of Levi was set apart by God for sacred service, especially at the tabernacle and later the temple (Exod. 32:25–29; Num. 3–4). From Levi came Aaron and his sons, whom God appointed as priests, while the rest of the Levites assisted in worship and teaching.
This covenant with Levi was all about worship. The priests were to guard the law of the Lord. The priests were entrusted to teach God’s word rightly and faithfully. And they were to lead the people in right worship. Levi knew the severity of this covenant.
5 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.
Because he feared God and stood in awe of God’s name, he gave Levi life and peace. This exchange is what the priests were now missing.
I think we all know churches that seem to have certain leanings. You may go to a pentecostal church and their focus is on the music. Maybe you go to a Presbyterian church and their focus is on their historical liturgy. Maybe you go to a church that is focused on church growth and they seem to do everything in their power to get people in the door and keep them. But, God is clear in his scripture that the basis of worship should be the truth of God’s word.
6 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.
talk about the monks walk for peace this week; focus on there is only one truth; now, there are people who are in Christian churches who are saying that it is okay for them to believe whatever they believe because they are doing what they think is right; we have drifted far from true instruction
what does this have to do with us? if we are sitting in the pew, this sounds like a priest problem and not a people problem?; well that is partly true
it falls on the priest; duty to teach truth; duty to protect the truth; duty to guard worship
but it also falls on the people; make sure the worship we are presenting is true worship; make sure they are growing outside of gathering
today, what does that mean? we don’t have priests, we aren’t under old covenant, so what does that mean?
we must make sure we are in a truth proclaiming church. Unlike in the OT, there are an abundance of churches to go to. If the one closest to you doesn’t teach truth, then you can get in a car and drive a little further. But then, we have God’s truth right in our hands. We have more access today to the word of God than ever before. What are we doing with that?
So yes, in a sense, it is on pastors to proclaim truth, but it is also on the people to make sure they are in a truth proclaiming church. God tells the priests this through Malachi.
7 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.
8 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,
priest had a weight on them; they were set aside, yet they had forgotten what they were supposed to do; the levitical covenant was clear what they were required
it wasn’t just a minor shift; the whole priesthood had shifted; the people had no place to go for being able to hear the truth
praise God we are where we are today; the word of God is available and the people can hear a pastor say something and look down in their bible and check it; never take my word for it
weight of priesthood was great; and it was because of the priests that the people had strayed
9 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.”
they showed partiality in their teaching; we are warned of this; the NT instructs pastors to preach the truth or people will go and look for preachers to “tickle their ears”; that happens too often;
with this, there is a weight on the pastors and a weight on the people; the pastors pray and preach; the people pray and prepare
ways to prepare; 1. pray, 2. study, 3. be here
being involved in church is more than being able to add people to the role or count you as present; for the edification of others; for your learning of Christ and who he is; learning the truth; need all the preparation and protection we can get in our world today
because their is so much information out there, the percentage of truth is getting slimmer and slimmer; devote yourself to being gathered under the teaching of God’s word as often as possible
We gather here for 3 hours a week; that’s it; and churches are doing good to get someone there 1 week a month and even with that one week, they may not even come to all 3 hours
I figured it up. There are 8,760 hours in a year. The church is asking you to devote 156 out of those 8,760 to gathering under God’s word. Maybe our New years resolution shouldn’t be to go to the gym 3 times a week but to go to church for 3 hours a week.
God is clear that the focus on the teaching of the word and the importance of the word being lived out is what drives people to worship. I pray that this word resonates with you.
As we wrap up our time together today, we are going to sing together Great is thy Faithfulness. As we sing it, dwell on how God’s word and instruction is always faithful in our lives.
