Title slideWill you listen?

Malachi 2:1-9

1 “And now, you priests, this warning isfor you. 2 If you do not listen, and ifyou do not resolve to honor my name,”says the Lord Almighty, “I will send acurse on you, and I will curse yourblessings. Yes, I have already cursedthem, because you have not resolved tohonor me.

Malachi 2:1-9

3 “Because of you I will rebuke yourdescendants[a]; I will smear on yourfaces the dung from your festivalsacrifices, and you will be carried offwith it. 4 And you will know that I havesent you this warning so that mycovenant with Levi may continue,” saysthe Lord Almighty.

Malachi 2:1-9

5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant oflife and peace, and I gave them to him; thiscalled for reverence and he revered me andstood in awe of my name. 6 Trueinstruction was in his mouth and nothingfalse was found on his lips. He walked withme in peace and uprightness, and turnedmany from sin.

Malachi 2:1-9

7 “For the lips of a priest ought to preserveknowledge, because he is the messenger ofthe Lord Almighty and people seekinstruction from his mouth. 8 But you haveturned from the way and by your teachinghave caused many to stumble; you haveviolated the covenant with Levi,” says theLord Almighty.

Malachi 2:1-9

9 “So I have caused you to be despisedand humiliated before all the people,because you have not followed my waysbut have shown partiality in matters ofthe law.”

It’s amazing because teachers

positively and negatively impact us.

A good teacher can really change

your life; so can a bad teacher. A bad

teacher can teach you some things

that you’ve got to spend the rest of

your life unlearning.

In our day of technology, we have at

our disposal more teachers and

teaching than at any point in the

history of the world. So, this means

that students need to be discerning,

is this a good teacher or a bad

teacher, and that teachers need to be

working out of a love for God and a

love for people, and not just

themselves where they’re using the

people and using God, but they’re

loving God and loving people.

So our instruction today is going to

be a lot about teachers, and you’re

going to learn about good teachers

and bad teachers. Good teachers

uplift God and help people; bad

teachers upset God and harm

people.

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It’s important for us, as we come to

the Bible, to not just understand the

content of what is being said, but

understand the context in which it is

said, so that we have not just the

words, but the tone and the facial

expression.

And here’s what happens: topical

preachers tend to pick a tone that

they’re most comfortable with and

then teach sections of the Bible that

are in that emotional category.

Just because God has strong words

doesn’t mean he doesn’t love us;

they’re strong words from a loving

Father.

The God of the Bible tends not to

use this tone all the time or for

everyone, but he reserves it most of

the time for men, particularly men

who are leaders. So, God turns up

the volume for male leaders.

The Bible here is connecting our

heart and our ears, that listening

requires both, that the truth comes

in, and it needs to sink in.

Oftentimes, the resistance to the

truth is not that we don’t understand

it, but it’s that we don’t like it. And

he says there will be a consequence

for their family, that their children

will be cursed and rebuked. Cursed

and rebuked.

For many of you, there are areas of

your life God can’t speak into

because you don’t want to change?

You’re not listening.

What God wants to do with the

leaders is get them to change and

then be agents of change to go teach

others what it’s like to change. But

the leaders won’t change and they

don’t want to tell others to change, in

part because that leads to conflict.

They’re demonstrating this by having

conflict with God. God says, “I want

you to change and help these people

change.” That’s what leaders are

supposed to do.”

And they say, “God, we don’t want

to change and we have conflict with

you, and we’re not going to tell these

people to change because they’ll

have conflict with us.

If your life is committed to resisting

change and avoiding conflict, you’ll

end up where they are. And now it’s

infecting and affecting their children.

Their children now will be cursed

and rebuked.

Why is God so upset? Why is God

so angry? Why is God trying to get

their attention? Why is his volume

raised? Why is his tone intense?

Because he loves, because he’s

concerned, because it’s reached a

point of crisis.

As leaders, we live under this burden

of responsibility. All leaders should

live under that burden of

responsibility, and they are not, and

it’s harming their family.

He talks about a covenant. God says,

“I made a covenant with the Levites,

the priests, the leaders.” And a

covenant is this: God blesses us and

gives us burdens. The burdens are

obedience that is going to be

difficult. It’s going to

come with a price.

God blesses and gives us burdens.

The blessing here is, “I’m going to

bless you and your family,” but the

burden is, “You’re going to be my

messenger. You’re not allowed to say

what you want. You’re not allowed to

say what you think. You need to

echo me.”

All right, the prophets are exiled,

they’re outcasted, they’re hated,

they’re murdered. There’s a burden

with that. The blessing is, “I’ll take

care of you and your family.” The

burden is, “You need to be my

messenger.”

They wanted to renegotiate their

deal, and you can’t do that in a

covenant. It’s not a contract; it’s a

covenant. And their deal was this:

“All right, Lord, how about we say

whatever we want and you still bless

us? Deal?”

The answer is no.

You need to know that Christianity’s

a covenant, that God has a

relationship with his people on his

terms, and you don’t get to be an

exception to the rule,

, getting all the benefits and blessings

like eternal life, and none of the

burdens and obligations of walking

with him faithfully. It’s an all-or-

nothing deal.

They wanted to receive all from the

Lord and give nothing to the Lord.

God says, “No.” The consequence

for breaching the covenant was God

threatening to wipe feces on their

face.

”

”

God says, “I see your heart, and it’s

disgusting. You’re not loving me;

you’re using me. You’re not loving

people; you’re using people. And the

people are confused because they

can’t see your heart.

All they see is your face, so I’m going

to take the contents of your heart

and smear it on your face so that the

people see you as I see you.”

This is as bad as it gets. A priest was

to stay clean, pure, ritually-speaking,

so they could be in the presence of

God.

Malachi 2:1-98 But you have turned from the way andby your teaching have caused many tostumble; you have violated the covenantwith Levi,” says the Lord Almighty. 9

“So I have caused you to be despisedand humiliated before all the people,because you have not followed my waysbut have shown partiality in matters ofthe law.”

A teacher of God’s word is to be

imparting life and nourishment to

people. This is why Jesus looks at

Peter after his resurrection and says,

“Peter, feed my sheep.” Peter’s

feeding is teaching.

The teaching of God’s Word is to

be nourishment and sustenance that

people would grow in Christ’s

likeness. That’s why Paul tells a

young man to teach sound doctrine,

and the word there is literally

“healthy.”

The reason why God is so frustrated

is this: Imagine a mother who

changed her child’s diaper and then

fed it to the child. There’s no

nourishment in it.

The kid’s going to get sick and

eventually die. Some spiritual leaders

are like that. They feed people

nothing but waste, and it causes

people to get sick, spiritually

speaking, and to die.

It doesn’t matter necessarily who is

teaching; it matters what’s being

taught. As long as the Bible’s open

and it’s about Jesus, we want you to

eat well.

Malachi 2:5-7

5 “My covenant was with him, a covenant oflife and peace, and I gave them to him; thiscalled for reverence and he revered me andstood in awe of my name. 6 True instructionwas in his mouth and nothing false wasfound on his lips. He walked with me inpeace and uprightness, and turned manyfrom sin.

Malachi 2:5-7

7 “For the lips of a priest ought topreserve knowledge, because he is themessenger of the Lord Almighty andpeople seek instruction from hismouth.

“What does this say about the Lord?

How I live my life says something

about the Lord.” We’d say he lived

coram Deo, or “in the face of God.”

Malachi is a man of character as well.

He fears God, and he loves people.

They can’t look at him and say,

“You committed adultery. You ran

off on your wife. You’re no better

than us.” No, no, they can’t throw

any of that at Malachi because he

wasn’t a perfect man, but he was a

man of character.

Clarity, meaning you know what

they’re talking about.

It’s fine to be a good communicator,

but you need to have good content.

The bottom line is, you’ve got two

options:

You close your ears, you harden

your heart, you live in your sin, you

stand before him, and you spend

forever in the conscious, eternal

torments of hell.

Or you open your ears, you soften

your heart, you confess your sins,

you receive him as Lord and Savior,

you close your eyes in death, you

awaken to see him face-to-face and

to be with him forever in heaven.

The Bible teacher’s job is not always

to be liked, but to always be clear.

It says of Levi, quote, “He walked

with me in peace and righteousness.”

When the Bible uses the language of

“walk,” this is a lifestyle, walking with

God.

Eugene Peterson calls this “long

obedience in the same direction.”

All right, a true teacher of God’s

Word can’t have a reverse gear.

They’re like, “I love Jesus, and now I

don’t, and I’m walking with Jesus,

and now I’m not.” Like, you’ve got

to keep going forward.

Like Billy Graham, consistency.

What’s Billy Graham been talking

about his whole life? The cross of

Jesus Christ, Sin, Jesus, and

salvation.

Some of you get enamored by what

is new and you get bored with what is

eternal.

It says, “Levi turned many from

inequity.” This takes courage. What

this means is sin—and here in this,

most doctrinal problems are actually

sexual problems, historically, even in

our own day.

What it is people want to have some

sort of sex that God says no to, and

all of a sudden they will couch it as

theological problems.

Be courageous for the glory of God

and the good of others, not for your

own power base.

Every good Bible teacher points you

to Jesus Christ.

A good Bible teacher understands

that the Scripture is for us, but it’s

not about us—it’s about Jesus. Any

time that the Bible is open and Jesus

is not proclaimed, the Bible was not

rightly opened.

Malachi is all about Jesus. You’re

going to see it in the next few weeks

and you can read ahead. Malachi 3,

“The Lord you are seeking will

come to his temple.”

Then this is God’s final word for

about 400 years. What he’s saying is,

“Get ready for the coming of Jesus!”

And we’re in the same position.

They were awaiting Jesus’ first

coming; we’re awaiting his second

coming.

We’re waiting for Jesus Christ to

come again, to judge the living and

the dead. They were waiting for him

to come; we’re waiting for him to

come again.

And they kind of got bored, and

they kind of got tempted, and they

kind of got indifferent, and they kind

of got settled in, they kind of got

wearisome.

He’s trying to get them up from their

circumstance and get their eyes and

our eyes fixated on the horizon of

opportunity in our future. And then

Jesus Christ does come, and then we

realize why God was so frustrated

with the priests.

The priests were a temporary

placeholder until the coming of Jesus

Christ, our great High Priest, and he

comes to mediate between men and

God. That’s what priests do. And he

does it as God becoming a man.

So, the whole point of the

priesthood was foreshadowing the

forthcoming of Jesus as our

mediator, teacher, sacrifice.

As Hebrews says, our great High

Priest. And these priests are taking

advantage of this opportunity and

they’re corrupting this ministry that

ultimately belongs to Jesus.

The ministry belongs to Jesus. The

problem with the priests was they

thought it was their ministry. It’s

Jesus’ ministry. They couldn’t do

with it as they wanted. They needed

to do with it as he wanted.

Faithworks Christian Church is not

our ministry. It’s Jesus’ ministry. It’s

not your ministry; it’s not our

ministry. It’s his ministry. They lost

sight of that. They lost sight of that,

and as a result, they were not ready

to meet Jesus at his coming.