Take your Bibles and open to Malachi chapter 2 and verse number 3, Malachi chapter 2 and
verse number 3.
Notice how it says that, Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces.
The title for the sermon this morning is, Dung Upon Your Faces, Dung Upon Your Faces.
What a title to give the sermon, but I think it's a good one and it really illustrates
how angry God is with these priests at this point in time.
Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament.
It gives us a picture of what Israel was like or Judah was like before Jesus Christ came
on the scene.
Remember this is some maybe 300 or 400 years before Jesus Christ comes on the scene and
you can see that the nation is in a very dark place spiritually.
So let's start off there in verse number 1, Malachi chapter 2 and verse number 1.
It says, And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you, if ye will not hear, and if ye
will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even
send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings, yea, I have cursed them already,
because ye do not lay it to heart.
And so what I want you to see there, if you remember chapter 1, we saw just how angry
God was at the priests, how angry he was that they weren't taking the service seriously,
they weren't offering their sacrifices, they weren't giving the best of their sacrifices.
I mean God is so upset and you can understand why God may just turn around and destroy them.
But it's amazing because even though they are so far from God, even though God is so
angry, in verse number 2 he says, Look, get right with me, right, get right with God.
He says there, If ye will not hear, I will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my
name.
So all God wants them to do is turn things around and give glory to God, start taking
it seriously, start doing things right.
You know, our Lord God is so long suffering, He's so patient.
In Psalm 86 verse 15 it says, But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious,
long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
And so our Lord God is full of compassion, gracious, long suffering.
And you can see how God just wants to give them a commandment, Hey look, get things right,
give me the glory, do things the right way, so I don't have to go and curse you.
And look, He says, Yea, I have cursed them already, hey look, I'm going to curse you,
but I've already cursed you, hey get things right, let's do the temple sacrifices properly,
do your service properly.
And so the Lord can once again be content and satisfied with the work and the service
that they are doing for the Lord.
And look at verse number 3, God says, this is a warning, He says, If they don't get things
right, verse number 3, He says, Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon
your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts, and one shall take you away with it.
So first of all, He says, Behold, I will corrupt your seed.
Now when we look at this chapter, I think it's quite clear what the seed represents
here.
This is the descendants, these are the children of the priest.
He's saying, look, get things right, or I'm going to corrupt your seed.
It's not going to end well with your descendants, it's not going to end well with your children.
Why is this so important?
Because you may remember that the priests that would serve in the temple had to be from
the tribe of Levi, and they had to be descendants of obviously Aaron, Moses' brother Aaron,
and this was a family thing.
So you could only serve as a priest if you were in that family line.
And so it's very important for the Lord to point out the seed of the priest here, and
what He's basically saying is, if you don't get things right, there are going to be lasting
consequences on your children.
So again, this just shows us how very dark of a place Israel was.
And I'm telling you, they didn't get things right.
Ultimately, they didn't get things right, and this is why we see generation after generation
after generation that leads up to the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem.
And again, God has to send John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord, because Israel
had lost their way.
So we're very dark spiritually, and so we could see this lasting effects on the children
of these priests that are being corrected by God.
And look, why does it say here that your seed will be corrupted, your children will be facing
the consequences?
Because even though our God is a God who is long suffering, I'll just read to you from
Numbers 14 verse 18.
This is a very important principle, especially as parents, that we need to understand.
It says the Lord is long suffering and of great mercy.
So we've seen that before.
But then it says forgiven iniquity and transgression.
So he wants to forgive us, all right?
But then it says, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
What this passage is telling us is God wants to forgive us.
Parents, God wants to have sweet fellowship with you.
God wants to make sure that you live in an upright, holy life.
But if you don't, if you are guilty, like these priests were, of not serving God properly,
not working for the Lord, that your disobedience, your sinful ways, your iniquities will have
lasting effects, lasting consequences on your descendants, up to the third and fourth generation.
And so this is a truth that we see the consequences of the parents' sins, you know, ends up being
bad for their children.
You know, and of course the reverse is true.
If somebody seeking the Lord is trying to live uprightly, trying to live righteously,
then their children are going to benefit from that, right?
Because they're going to see the faith of their parents.
They're going to see their love and service for the Lord.
And they'll want to also emulate, they'll see a good example.
And it'd be much easier for the children who saw a great example in their parents to
also love and serve the Lord, okay?
So this is of course a lesson for the parents.
Let's learn from these corrupt priests, how their sin was having these lasting consequences
on their children.
Now once again, the Lord says here, and spread the dung upon your faces, okay?
So he's taking excrement.
You know, think of the picture here.
You know, is this what you think about God in the Bible?
And yet this is the God of the Bible, where he's so angry that he'll take the dung, the
excrement of these animals, and desire to just shove that in the face of a priest.
Rub that into the nose of the priest.
Boy, you know, we've got this clogged toilet at home.
And that takes a lot of work.
It's pretty filthy, right?
Imagine just taking animal dung and just shoving it in someone's face.
I mean that would be very aff...
How would you feel if someone did that to you?
Wouldn't you be offended?
Wouldn't you be disgusted?
You probably start gagging, just at the smell, and just wanting to get that filth off you.
And yet, you know, this is how God feels about how they've been treating these sacrifices,
where they get the dung from.
It says, even the dung of your solemn feasts, and one shall take you away with it.
So you know, they're gonna, you know, if they don't get right with God, God's just going
to make them look filthy, okay?
It's going to be embarrassing for them.
Why is this so important?
Just keep your finger there, and go to Exodus 29.
Go to Exodus 29, okay?
So what do we see?
We see that these priests, they are offering the sacrifices, right?
They are taking these animals, but the Lord is not happy at all with what they're doing.
Exodus 29 in verse number 10, let's understand the concept of the dung here, and why is it
so important that the Lord brings this up, and is so angered at them?
Exodus 29 in verse number 10, we learn here about the process of the sin offering, and
it says in verse number 10, and thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle
of the congregation, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the
bullock, and thou shalt kill the bullock before the Lord by the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation, and thou shalt take the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the
horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood besides the bottom of the altar,
and thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the coal that is above the
liver and the two kidneys, so this is all the guts, right, and the fat that is upon
them, and burn them upon the altar, but notice verse number 14, it says, but the flesh of
the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, there it is, there's the dung, shalt thou burn with
fire without the camp, it is a sin offering, and so this animal is being taken as a sacrifice,
but then its flesh, its skin, its dung, okay, was taken outside of the camp, without the
camp, it was taken outside of the camp, and there it was burnt to a crisp, this is the
picture of the, well this is the sin offering that the Old Testament saints had to do, now
what I want you to think about though, is who was the ultimate sin offering? Jesus Christ,
of course, right, Jesus Christ, so when we look at this example, we see that the bullock is brought
before the congregation, the priest, Aaron and his sons put their hands on the head of the bullock,
so this creature, this animal, gets presented before the congregation, before the priests,
and this of course is the picture of Jesus Christ, who would be arrested and brought before the chief
priests, brought before the rulers, and you know, false accusations were made against the Lord,
and then what happened, as they shed the blood of the animal here, well before Christ was crucified,
his blood was being shed, right, he was being whipped, he had the crown of thorns put upon
his head, I mean Jesus Christ was bleeding before he was even taken up to the cross of Calvary,
and then after this animal is sacrificed, its flesh, skin and dung is burnt with fire without
the camp, outside the camp, it is a sin offering, okay, now please go now to Hebrews 13, go to
Hebrews 13 verse 11, okay, Hebrews 13 verse 11, so remember the process, the animal gets brought,
it gets cured, the blood is shed within the camp, but then the leftovers are taken outside of the
camp and it's burnt to a crisp, okay, now go to Hebrews chapter 13 and verse number 11, because
I want to show you the parallel here, of course this is a picture of Jesus Christ, this is a type
of Christ, in verse number 11, Hebrews chapter 13 and verse number 11, it says, for the bodies of
those beasts, those are the beasts that were sacrificed, whose blood is brought into the
sanctuary, so the blood is brought into the sanctuary, right, by the high priest for sin,
are burned without the camp, so outside of the camp, right, the flesh, the skin, the dung,
that's all burnt outside of the camp, now why is that important, because in verse number 12 it says,
wherefore Jesus also, so you see this sacrifice was a picture of Jesus Christ, Jesus also did
this, okay, wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered
without the gates, or outside of the gates, okay, and of course when Jesus Christ was crucified on
the cross, he was taken outside of the gates of Jerusalem, he was taken to Calvary and he was
crucified on the cross, so let's understand that, you know, once again the priests, the bullock
would be brought, you know, the priests would lay their hands on them, on the creature, just like
Jesus Christ, you know, the hands were laid on Jesus, he was arrested, he was brought into
Jerusalem, okay, presented before the chief priests, then his blood was shed, right,
when he was whipped, the crown of thorns, all those kinds of things, but was that the end of
his sacrifice, no, because then just as like the creature was taken without the camp to be burnt,
so was Jesus Christ taken without the gates or outside of the gates of the city to be crucified
on the cross, so they understand now why God is so angry, why is God so angry? Because these
sacrifices pictures the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and God is a God of order, God is offering this
sacrifice of love, and these priests are defiling the picture of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
and so God is like, you know what, that dung that is normally taken outside of the camp,
that dung, that waste is taken outside, instead of taking it outside, I'm going to take that dung,
I'm going to shove it in your face, I'm going to rub it in your face,
God cares that things are done properly, and when it comes to this church, we need to do
things properly, you know, we need to take church seriously, things need to be done decently,
and in order, church is not games, you know, we're not playing a game, I'm not mucking around here,
when I prepare a sermon, I do my study, when I think about the brethren in this church,
and I think I want to edify, I want to give you knowledge, I want to be a help,
I want to make sure that you have faith in your pastor, I want to make sure that this church is
serving the Lord and doing the works and the worship and the honor that God deserves from
this church, we don't want to muck around, we don't want to be serving God and offering our
sacrifices, and then God saying, look, just, I'd rather just take dung and shove it in your face,
we don't want God to say that about New Life Baptist Church or Pastor Kevin Sepulveda,
no, we want our service to be true, we want to have a love for the Lord, we want to have an
honor for the Lord, we want to take our church seriously, and so that's the, obviously that's
a lesson that we can take out of this and just understand the anger of God when church is not
done properly, okay, and again, what's a parallel? The house of God was the Old Testament temple,
the house of the Lord is the New Testament church, you know, New Testament times,
and so let's go back to Malachi chapter 2 and verse number 4,
Malachi chapter 2 and verse number 4, let's continue,
it says, and ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you that my covenant might be
with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts, my covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them
to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name, and so the Lord is
pointing back to when he first brought the Levites or made the Levites into these priests, and of
course that plays into Aaron and his sons that were the first priests, and so the Lord is saying,
look, I made this covenant with Levi, he's comparing the old priesthood which were faithful
to the Lord which did things properly to the new priest here in the days of Malachi, okay,
and like there's a huge difference, right, the others, it says in verse number 5, my covenant
was with him, those are the original priests of life and peace, I mean that sounds awesome,
a covenant of life and peace, hey, there's a great blessing there for the Levites should they
do things properly, but not only that, it says, and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he
feared me, so the first priest that had a fear of God, they had a healthy fear of God, right,
and so God was able to bless them, and this is, and was afraid before my name, you know,
they were serving God out of fear, you know, they made sure they were doing things right because
they didn't want to be angered, they didn't want to anger the Lord, they didn't want to be cursed
by the Lord, they had a love for the Lord, they had an appreciation for the Lord, so they did
things right, but these guys, these priests in the book of Malachi, they've got no fear of God,
they're losers, all right, and you know what, there's plenty of pastors today of churches that
are just losers, losers, all right, and they deserve dung to literally be thrown in their face,
rubbed into their face, because church is a serious thing, our worship is serious,
our service to God is a serious thing, and I really encourage the children in our church,
you know, make church a priority in your life, when you come to church, pay attention to the
preaching, pay attention to the songs that you sing, have a love for the Lord, all right, and
then you go and enjoy your life, go and go and have fun, go and play, but while church service
is on, take it seriously, because I don't want a crop seed, I don't want dung, God to take dung
and shove it in your face, all right, we want obviously to create or to bring in a godly,
we'll look at this later, a godly seed, a godly generation in our local church, look at verse
number six, now talking about the original priest, right, verse number six, the law of truth was in
his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips, so this is a really good example of, you know,
what ordained leaders of a church should be like, all right, so truth in his mouth, no iniquity
found in his lips, because what you'll notice here as we keep reading is that the priest,
you know, it wasn't just their job to look after the temple, it wasn't just the sacrifices,
but the priests were also given instruction to teach the people of Israel, you know,
they were to preach the bible, they were to teach as well, and so obviously they had to know the
word of God, they had to know the law of Moses, they had to be able to preach the truth, let's
keep going there, it says he walked with me in peace and equity and did turn many away from
iniquity, so that's the goal of the preacher, brethren, that's the goal, to turn many from
iniquity, now you don't need to turn from iniquity to be saved, right, you know, you don't have to
repent of your sins to be saved, in fact if you believe you have to repent of your sins to be
saved, you're not even saved, because you're trying to keep the law of God, and salvation
is not by keeping the law, salvation is by your faith on the finished work of Jesus Christ,
his sacrifice, okay, but now that you are saved, now that you are in New Life Baptist Church,
it is my job as the pastor, it is the job of other preachers that come behind this pulpit
to help you turn from iniquity, you know, to preach against sin, to preach against the things
you struggle with, you know, to encourage you in the Lord, so you can live a more righteous life,
that's the purpose, that's what we desire, we desire that as we leave church when we've heard
good preaching that we're a little bit more righteous, that we have a little more knowledge,
that we have a little more fear of the Lord than what we had before, that's the goal of church,
and what you'll notice is if you miss church week after week after week, you'll start to lose a lot
of your knowledge, you'll start to lose the fear of God, you know, you won't be taking church
seriously, and so it is the job of the preacher to make sure that they help people turn from
iniquity. I'll just read to you from Psalm 119 and verse number 142, Psalm 119 and verse 142,
it reads, thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and thy law is the truth, okay,
so what did it say about the priest, it says the law of truth was in his mouth, okay, so what is
he preaching, is he preaching his own wisdom, is he preaching, you know, man's philosophies,
no he's preaching the truth of the law of God, all right, so that is the goal of the preacher,
to preach the whole truth that we can find in the word of God, all right, and let's keep going there
in verse number seven, Malachi chapter two in verse number seven, what else should the preacher
be like, the priest in this day and age, it says, for the priest's lips should keep knowledge and
they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts, so when you
come to church and you're excited to listen to some preaching, what is it that you should be
seeking for, the law at his mouth, okay, for this pastor I should be preaching you the law of God,
right, we don't, once again, we don't come here just to have our ears tickled, we don't come here
for some comedy show, we don't come here just to be entertained, we don't come here just to check
a box and say I went to church this week, we ought to be coming to the house of God to seek the law
at the mouth of the preacher, okay, what does God want us to do, now if you can please keep your
finger then go to Leviticus chapter 10 and verse number 8, Leviticus chapter 10 and verse number 8,
because as I said the priests were not just men that conducted temple worship,
but they were also preachers, okay, Leviticus chapter 10 and verse number 8,
let's just go back to the days of Aaron just so we can see this, Leviticus chapter 10 and verse
number 8 reads, and the Lord spake unto Aaron saying, so Aaron of course the high priest,
do not drink wine nor strong drink, hey what's one of the qualifications of a pastor,
not to be given to wine, right, why is that important, because it says here nor thy sons
with thee, so neither your son should drink strong drink, because the sons were obviously became
priests as well, it says when you go into the tabernacle of the congregation lest ye die,
it shall be a statutes forever throughout your generations, why is that so important,
he says look if you drink, if you're under the influence of alcohol you may very well die,
says God, why is it so important, because look at verse number 10, that ye may put difference
between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean, so the job of the preacher or the priest
here was to differentiate between holy, unholy, clean and unclean, and when I preach the Bible
brethren, my job is to show you what is right, what is wrong, you know, how to walk in the ways
of the Lord and not to sin, all right, to be able to differentiate these two, here's the thing if
you're under the influence of alcohol, it blurs the lines, you won't be able to tell the difference
between right and wrong, okay, and you know a drunk is going to tell you to do things that are
wrong, they're going to tell you to do things that are sinful, they're going to be messed up in the
mind, you know, that's what alcohol does, look at verse number 11, and that ye may teach the children
of Israel all the statutes which the Lord have spoken unto them by the hand of Moses, so should
a preacher preach all the Bible? Absolutely, you know, it is not, it's not my desire to skip the
Bible, it's not my desire to skip chapters in different portions, this is why we tend to preach
chapter by chapter, because we don't want to miss anything, I don't want to miss anything,
I'm not trying to avoid certain topics, and you say well you haven't preached on my favorite
pet doctrine for a while, well it's possibly because we've not come across that in the Bible,
right, one of the advantages of going chapter by chapter is that we cover topics as often as God
wants them covered, okay, so some of those pet doctrines that aren't mentioned all that often
in the Bible, well they're not going to be all that often preached, I'm not going to avoid them
and I'm going to preach them when we get to that topic, when we go through that, you know, passage
in the Bible, you know, there's no desire on my part to bypass certain passages, my goal, my desire
is to preach it all, no matter how unpopular it might be in this world, you know, as a pastor,
that is my desire to preach all of the word of God. Back in Malachi chapter 2 verse 8,
so we saw how what God wants from good priests, how the first priests were faithful toward God
and toward the law of Moses, look at verse number 8, now he's talking about the modern priests,
right, in the book of Malachi, it says, but ye are departed out of the way, ye have caused many
to stumble at the law, ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts,
now please go to, again keep your finger there, go to Romans chapter 9,
go to Romans chapter 9, I couldn't help but see this parallel here,
because these modern priests are causing people, first of all it says, departing out of the way,
so they're not walking righteously and we know who the way is, Jesus Christ is the way, right,
but then it says here, ye have caused many to stumble at the law, why are people stumbling
at the law? Well we know they're not carrying things out properly and we know a lot of what
they're doing are pictures of Jesus Christ, right, and this immediately, you know, my attention was
drawn immediately to Romans chapter 9 when I read that verse, look at verse number 31,
Romans chapter 9 and verse number 31, it says, but Israel, which followed after the law of
righteousness, hath not obtained to the law of righteousness, okay, so Israel, you know,
that's sort of the unsaved Israelites, okay, were trying to follow the righteousness of the
law, they were trying to be saved by their good works, right, by turning from their sins,
things like that, verse number 32, wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it
were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at the stumbling stone, okay, so what we saw with
what was mentioned in the book of Malachi, it said that they had stumbled at the law and what
we see in Romans chapter 9 is that they stumbled at the stumbling stone, okay, so they're stumbling,
they're stumbling under the Old Testament, boy they're stumbling under the New Testament as well,
right, verse number 33, it says, and as it is written, behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone
and rock of offense and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed, so who is the rock of
offense here to the Jews, if it's someone that you've got to believe in to be saved,
it's Jesus Christ, right, and so these Jews of old were stumbling at the law, you know,
they were so far from knowledge, they were so far from understanding, well, you know, if they don't
have a fear of God, hey, what's the beginning of knowledge, what's the beginning of wisdom,
it's a fear of God, and these guys have no fear, they can't understand the law, they're causing
people to stumble and what we see play out, they also stumbled at Jesus Christ, they couldn't
understand that salvation was by believing on Christ and why I know that is because the way
they offered sacrifices, they had corrupted it all and they weren't taking the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ seriously by picture form, so if they're not taking the picture seriously, how are they
even placing their faith on the true thing, Jesus Christ, they were really messing things up,
they were messing up the faith of the Israelites, again, you know, this shows you why when Christ
came on the scene, Israel was in such a dark spiritual place. Look at verse number nine,
back to Malachi chapter two, verse number nine, the Bible reads, therefore have I also made you
contemptible and base, so that's basic law, before all the people, so the people of Israel didn't
even like the priests, it says, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial
in the law, partial, so some of the things they did, but other things they weren't doing,
okay, they were being partial about it and this reminds me of the Pharisees in Jesus' day,
in Matthew chapter 23 verse 23, Jesus says to the Pharisees, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for ye pay tithe of mint and anus and common and have omitted the weightier matters
of the law, judgment, mercy and faith, these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other
undone, so the Pharisees and the scribes, they were so focused on just such small matters,
but they had forgotten about the law and judgment and mercy and faith, they had neglected these
important areas, you know, these weightier matters for the Lord, you know, so they were
in the same way, these Pharisees and scribes, they were being partial to the law, they were doing
some things and neglecting other things, all right, so again, you can see the consequences,
these priests really messed things up and then we get to the state of Christ and Christ is on
the scene, just how messed up those religious leaders were, the scribes, the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, even many of the priests, right, really messed up on the Bible, messed up on,
you know, understanding who Christ was, you know, all those sacrifices, all those religious
practices that was to help them understand Christ, they had corrupted it so much that
when Christ himself was on the scene, they didn't recognize him, they didn't know who he was,
such a shame, look at verse number 10, Malachi 2 10, it says here, have we not all one father,
now it's quite interesting here because, you know, the Trinity is not a doctrine that's
clearly taught in the Old Testament, I'm not saying the Trinity is not in the Old Testament,
I'm just saying that the Trinity, the doctrine of the Trinity is actually a New Testament teaching
from Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is the one that taught it heavily when he came on the scene,
during his free ministry, okay, and so you don't often see God referred to as a father,
okay, now you might make the conclusion here that maybe the father here, the one father,
maybe that represents Abraham or Isaac or Jacob, right, but I'll show you why I believe this is a
reference to God, because I mean, immediately, look, let's have a read, have we not all one
father, question mark, have not one God created us, so we know that second question is about God
who created them, so I believe these two questions are basically asking the same thing,
okay, I believe these things are saying exactly the same thing, have we not all one father,
that's the God who created us, but notice the next question, it says here, why do we deal
treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers, now it says
here our fathers, the covenant of our fathers, that definitely, Father's plural there, is their
spiritual forefathers, right, that's definitely the, you know, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
and all their ancestors that have gone before them, right, that's definitely reference to them,
so when we look at verse number 10, you've got one father at the beginning, verse number 10,
and then at the end of verse number 10, it's got our fathers, one father and our fathers,
so you can see the difference there, you know, the fact that one father has been referred to,
I believe that's a reference to God the father, and then we have our fathers as though spiritual
lineage, you know, all the ancestors that have gone before, and so I'm going to read to you now
just quickly from Isaiah 63 verse 16, you don't need to turn there, Isaiah 63 verse 16, it says,
Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledges us not,
thou O Lord art our father, our redeemer, thy name is from everlasting, and so it's interesting here
because in Isaiah 63 verse 16, you see a reference to the father, you know, the Lord our father,
and then we see again here in Malachi chapter 2 verse 10, the reference of the one father,
and so, you know, just a reminder there that, you know, the Trinity is definitely in the
Old Testament, it's just if you were to read the Old Testament alone, that wouldn't be very
clear until you get to the New Testament, you understand the Trinity as Jesus Christ taught it,
then you go back to the Old Testament, you can clearly see the Trinity in view there,
but let's go to verse number 11, okay, verse number 11, it says, Judah have dealt treacherously
and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, so what is this treacherous behavior
that they've done, it says, for Judah have profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved
and have married the daughter of a strange God, so what's another big mistake now that the nation of
Judah have done, they had taken wives, right, they've taken daughters of a strange God,
they married women who were not saved, they married women that worshipped false gods,
and we see, you know, this is obviously a problem that we see over and over and over again in the
Bible, but, you know, Israel was not permitted to marry unsaved heathen, you know, they had to marry
a sister in the Lord and that's, you know, the same for us today, brethren, if you're a believer,
hey, you know, young people, if when the day you get married, you better make sure the person you
choose is saved, is a believer, is someone that you can connect with on a spiritual level as well,
all right, and if you marry a non-believer, I'm telling you now, you're going to have problems
in your marriage, you're going to have problems, you won't be able to serve the Lord like you wish
and your children are going to suffer the consequences of your terrible mistakes, but
why this is such a huge shame is because, you know, if you have, you know, if you can go to
Ezra, it's just a couple of books back, actually no, Ezra, go to Ezra, sorry, Ezra chapter 10,
Ezra chapter 10, my apologies, got confused there, go to Ezra chapter 10 and verse number 10,
go to Ezra chapter 10 and verse number 10 and you may know the story of Ezra, so he was,
you know, responsible for getting the temple rebuilt, the second temple rebuilt,
Ezra and, you know, after the temple was rebuilt, there was a major issue in the land of Israel
because all these Jews had married unsaved heathen, okay, had married unsaved women with
strange gods and so in Ezra chapter 10 and verse number 10, notice what happens,
Ezra chapter 10 and verse number 10, it says that Ezra the priest stood up and said unto them,
ye have transgressed and have taken strange wives to increase the trespass of Israel,
now therefore make confession before the Lord God of your fathers and do his pleasure and separate
yourselves from the people of the land and from the strange wives, then all the congregation
answered and said with a loud voice, as thou has said, so must we do, so what we notice here that
after the temple was rebuilt, Ezra looks at the people, you know, he's very upset because they've
taken so many unsaved ungodly wives and he basically requests they have a mass divorce,
there's a mass divorce that takes place, you know, all these people start divorcing
their unsaved wives, they say well is that what God wants, you know, is that God's plan,
should they have done that and the answer is very simple, no, God hates divorce and look,
if you're married to an unsaved person, well now you've got to make the most out of it,
you know, you've got to just try to be a blessing, try to get that spouse saved,
all right, try to get the children serving and loving the Lord but what we notice in
Ezra chapter 10 verse 10, it's just something that they did, this is just history, this is what they
did, this is not saying this is the right thing to do but rather this is what Ezra decided to do
because of the situation that they had married all these heathen women, all right, these unsaved
women, these strange women and this is a shame because Malachi is just, you know, a few years,
a few generations after what happened in Ezra, you know, there was this mass divorce of all
these strange women and what do we notice the next generation is doing, they once again married women
who had a strange God, once they just went back to their old sins, went back to the old ways,
okay, so you can see a real spiritual decline in the people of Israel,
I mean, these guys didn't do right getting divorced but at least their hearts were kind
of right, they were trying to make things right with God, they went about it the wrong way but
they were trying to do things right, you know, whereas now they're just freely marrying women,
they have no fear of God, you know, marrying sort of strange wives and what's worse about this is
they actually had good wives to begin with, they had wives that were Jews, they had saved wives
before, you'll notice this as we go back to Malachi 2 verse 12, have a look at this,
Malachi chapter 2 and verse number 12, it says here, the Lord will cut off the man that doeth
this, the master and the scholar and, sorry, out of the tabernacles of Jacob and him that offerth
an offering unto the Lord of hosts and this have you done covering the altar of the Lord with tears,
with weeping and with crying out in so much here that regardeth not the offering anymore
or receiveth with good will at your hand, so he's saying look to the Jews,
God doesn't receive your offering, God doesn't receive your sacrifice and what we notice in
verse number 13, there was a lot of tears, a lot of weeping, people were bringing their sacrifices
and they had the tears, they had this show, you know, I'm so sincere in my offering,
you know, I'm weeping about my sins, you know, I need to get right with God, they've come to
the altar and God says I don't receive it, they're putting on this emotional show, God says I don't
receive it, okay, you know, these false tears are being rebuked by God and I often think, you know,
and look at this passage, think how God rejects this emotional showing which is empty because
they're often like corrupt and sacrifices, you know, it makes me think of a lot of these churches
that show a lot of emotion and a lot of these Pentecostal churches, they're weeping and they
believe they're glorifying God, though they're teaching a false gospel, though they're leading
thousands upon thousands of people to hell and they think they're putting on like show
or this emotion going on, you know, what God says, he doesn't receive it, I don't receive that,
you know, even the Roman Catholics, how much do Roman Catholics weep, praying the rosary,
oh crying tears for the Virgin Mary or something, I mean so much so that a lot of these Catholics
have these statues that apparently weep oil out of it out of her eyes, you know, the Roman Catholic
Mary, you know, it's all about the emotional show but it's empty, it's vain, it's ungodly,
it's a strange God, okay, it's a corrupted sacrifice, God does not receive that,
maybe a little bit closer to home, I see this sometimes in the Baptist churches, right,
come before the altar, you know, you work people up with emotions, you play some hymn,
get people really fired up emotionally, you know, come before the altar and confess those sins,
come get right with God right here, people come before the altar weeping, oh Lord,
yes I'm going to serve you, I'm going to do what's right, I come to the altar, it's all a show.
Many times, listen, I won't say it's all a show, many times people are sincere
but there are many, many that do it for the show,
many think that by coming to the altar and weeping tears that now you're right with God,
listen, if you're bringing corrupted sacrifices, you know, if you're not being sincere,
if you're doing it for the show, you're just going through the motions, the Lord doesn't receive it,
let's keep going, verse number 14,
So these Jews, and we know that polygamy was a major problem,
they had treated the wife of the youth treacherously
and they've gone and married these strange women with a false god,
okay, so these men weren't even good husbands, they were a failure,
they were a failure in their service for God, they were a failure in home,
they had treated their wives of their youth treacherously,
what did God want from them, look at verse 15, what did God want for the people of Israel,
verse 15, he says and did not he make one, yet had he the residue of the spirits,
and wherefore one, why does God make one, why does God allow marriage,
why is that so important, that he might seek a godly seed,
brethren you know what I want for my children, I want my children to grow up to be a godly seed,
I want the children of this church, the next generation to be a godly seed,
that's what we want, when we compare the seed that was brought in our attention
earlier in the chapter, look at verse number 14,
sorry verse number 3, you know the children of a corrupt seed,
remember that mention of the corrupt seed, do we want our children to be corrupted,
do we want a corrupt seed or do we want a godly seed,
I know parents, I know what I want, I know what you want,
I know you want your children to grow up and be godly, be righteous, to love the Lord,
well then you need to take your service for God seriously,
you need to take New Life Baptist Church seriously,
when you come and offer your sacrifices of praises before the Lord,
otherwise our ungodly living, our sins, you know our vain worship of God,
will have lasting consequences on our children,
just like it had lasting consequences on the people of Israel here,
and so yeah you know it's such a shameful thing,
that they had these wives of their youth and they had treated them treacherously,
treacherously means like betrayed, they had betrayed them,
taking these other women who weren't even saved,
they had false gods, man these guys were really messed up,
really messed up, verse number 7, let it be a warning for us,
okay, let it be a warning for us, verse number 17,
you have wearied the Lord with your words, yet you say wherein have we wearied him,
boy we can weary God, you know where God is just fed up,
you know God was just fed up with these people,
he was weary, they had sapped God of his patience,
no wonder God wants to bring his wrath upon these people,
no wonder God wants to curse these people, they had wearied him,
yet you say wherein have we wearied him, how did they weary God,
this is how they wearied God, there's two things here,
when you say everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord,
and he delighteth in them, you know how we weary God,
when we look at people and they're doing evil,
they're committing iniquities and sin and we say,
oh look how good they are, they're serving the Lord,
Lord must delight in that person and yet they're full of iniquities,
full of sin, that's going to weary God,
the Bible tells us in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 3,
knowing this first that they shall come in the last days scoffers,
walking after their own lusts and saying,
where is the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,
actually I read that a little bit too early,
let's look at point number two, the second reason why God is wearied,
look at that, or where is the God of judgment,
where is God, where is his judgment,
and what are people doing in the last days,
scoffing, walking after their own lusts and saying,
where is the promise of his coming,
doing the same thing in the last days that the Jews were doing here,
you know where is God, where is the God of judgment,
you know if God exists, where is he,
why isn't he doing anything, why isn't he stepping in,
hey why isn't he stopping the riots in the United States,
why isn't he stopping that policeman that killed that black man,
why didn't God put a stop to it,
hey it's kind of stupid thinking,
just where is God, where is God,
as well as saying something that is evil and calling it good,
all right, so this is why our judgment has to be correct in line with the word of God,
because it shows us what is wrong, it shows us what is right,
it shows us what is good, it shows us what is evil,
if we start celebrating that which is evil,
hey right now in the United States, it's pride month,
pride, you know God hates pride,
and by pride I mean homosexuals, homosexuals parading around the place,
and you know what millions of Americans are saying right now,
oh that is so good, look how good that is,
hey that where is God, that saps God of his patience,
and I can understand why in the last days,
God just pulls out his wrath in such a heavy way,
because this entire world is making God weary,
this entire world is scoffing God,
hey where is God, all right full of this atheism,
full of homosexuality, man we live in a terrible day,
and yet even in the past they live in some terrible days,
and you know what as the people of God,
we just need to soldier on as the people of God,
we just need to make sure that we stand firm on what is true and what is right,
hey that we desire to raise a godly seed and not a corrupt seed,
okay let's pray.