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Who've gone astray, far from the shepherds, fall away. Bring them in, bring them in, bring them in from the fields of sin. Bring them in, bring them in, fling the one who is Jesus. Who of hell the shepherds guide, help him the one bring once to find. Who bring the lost ones to the fold, where they'll be sheltered from the fold. Bring them in, bring them in, bring them in from the fields of sin. Bring them in, bring them in, bring the one who is Jesus. Out in the desert hear their cry. Out from the mountains wild and high, heart is the master's peace to thee. Go find a sheep where e'er they be. Bring them in, bring them in, bring them in from the fields of sin. Bring them in, bring them in, bring the one who is Jesus. Amen. All right. Great singing this afternoon. At this time, we're going to go through our announcements once again. If you do not have a bulletin, go ahead and raise up your hand. We'll get one out to you. And if you open up to the first page, you'll see our service times there. As always, Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. and Wednesday night 7 is our Bible study. We're going to be in Isaiah chapter 10 this week. We've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvation and baptisms for the month of May as well as for 2021. Let's go ahead and count up any salvations from today. You went out soul winning today and any salvations, reports, set up your hand real quick. We have one over here. Five over there. One here. One, yep. And one for Chloe and one for Micah. All right. Anybody else have anything to report? Okay. Now, how about for anything other than today? Anyone do any soul winning outside of yesterday and earlier the week? If I say outside yesterday, I mean the marathon we did yesterday. All right. Hey, very good. Good job out preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and leading people to call on the name of the Lord. Very, very important. Looks like an awesome day today. Very receptive. So praise God for that. We've got the offering totals there listed on the bottom of the page for the month of May. I just want to remind you on the prayer request that we pray for Mrs. Mosteller's father that he's having surgery on Friday. And is that about noon? Was that noon or no? Was it Friday at noon? So say an extra prayer for him. And I haven't seen or heard from Brian at all. Saba wasn't feeling well earlier this morning. So please continue to pray for her. I just brought that up today so she's not in church. She was here this morning and got really ill. So just pray that she'll do better and get well quickly. And sorry I don't have the prayer request sheet. We had a mishap with the printing this morning. I left them at home. So if you have last week's prayer request, it's essentially the same with those additions that I just mentioned. Today is probably the last day we'll be able to baptize anyone just because it's a church day and the end of the month is tomorrow. So we've had a couple of baptisms this month which is great. And continue to ask people when we go out, soul winning, you know, they need to get baptized, come on down. We do baptisms. We're still ready to do any baptisms today. If there's anyone here that's saved and has not been baptized after they've been saved, we will be able to baptize you. So that is not a problem at all. We've got a change of clothing. We've got towels. We've got a tub. We've got water. Everything you could possibly need to get baptized. We've got you set up. And starting in the month of June because we like to do challenges, almost every month of the year we do different challenges. We try to get you focused on different parts of your spiritual life. So June we're going to be attempting to give the gospel to at least one person every single day of the month. It's a harder challenge, but you've got to be thinking about that. You've got to be conscious. It's easy in your day to day sometimes to forget about it and not really be thinking about it. So the challenge is to try to force yourself to be thinking about it, be conscious of it, and make the attempt. It doesn't mean you have to go through all of the plan. It doesn't even mean you have to necessarily quote a verse. It just depends on the willingness of people who you go and talk to. If people are willing to listen, then awesome. That's great. Praise God. If they're not, you've still got to try to see if they'd be willing to hear about salvation. So that's the June challenge. We've got the Solowing Marathon yesterday in Greenville, and that was a huge success. We had about roughly 43 people in attendance, and 33 people. I think 33 was wrong. I think it's 35. I think I wrote that down wrong for some reason. We had... No, 33 is right. We had 16 in the morning and 17 in the afternoon. It was 33 salvations. It was an awesome day. Beautiful day. Lots of people out, lots of people talking, and couldn't have asked for anything better. So it was a lot of fun. Looking forward to doing another event like that in the future. We had the Bible memory passage. Now we're memorizing John 8, the end of John 8, verses 44 through 59. If you're able to quote this passage backward perfect without making any mistakes to someone else that can check your work, then you'll earn a prize for being able to do that. And then after this is complete, we'll be giving prizes for the entire chapter, because we've been working in chunks on John 8. So hopefully you've been keeping along with that. On the back, we've got the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries for the month of June. And that is about it for our announcement, so I'm going to turn the service back over to Brother James in our next song. All right. You can open up your hymnals to song number 110. Song 110, All the Way My Savior Leads Me. Song 110. On the verse. All the way my Savior leads me. What am I to rest beside? Can I tell this and your mercy? Who through mine has been my guide? Heavenly peace divine is confirmed. Hear my faith in Him to dwell. For I know what e'er befall me. Jesus with all things well. All the way my Savior leads me. Cheers each one and he hath my tread. Gives me praise for every trial. Leads me with a living bread. Though my weary steps may falter. And my soul on thirst may be. Though my weary steps may falter. And my soul on thirst may be. Cushing from the rock before me. Oh what spring of joy I see. Cushing from the rock before me. Oh what spring of joy I see. All the way my Savior leads me. Oh the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised. In my Father's house above. When my spirit fully mortal. Weeds it fly into realms of day. This my song through endless ages. Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless ages. Jesus led me all the way. Chapter two. That's Malachi chapter two. And as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church we're going to read the entire chapter. And I'm going to ask brother Devin if you could please do that for us. That was Malachi chapter two. And now O ye priests this commandment is for you. If you will not hear and if you 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 you do not lay it to heart. 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. You 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 where we are. He feared me and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 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. Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people. According as ye have not kept my ways but have been partial in the law. Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously ever man as we are? Why do we deal treacherously ever man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah hath dealt treacherously and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved and hath married the daughter of a strange God. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this. The master and the scholar out of the tabernacles of Jacob and him that offerth an offering unto the Lord of hosts. And this have ye done again covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more or receiveth it with good will at your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth. Against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one, yet had he the residue of the spirit? And wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed? Therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. For one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously. Ye have wearied the Lord with your words, yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them. Or where is the God of judgment? Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this opportunity to be here this evening. Pray that you would bless our service and bless your word as it's brought forth. Pray that you would fill us all with your spirit as we're here to learn. And bless Phil Pastor versions with your spirit also. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright, so my sermon this evening is going to be a little bit more like a Bible study, similar to what we do on Wednesday night. Going through the book of Malachi. We started here in Malachi chapter 2. And if you know anything about the book of Malachi, if you've read it, if you've studied it all, you realize there's a lot of things going wrong with the children of Israel. And this chapter 2 is a pretty scathing review by God Almighty. God Almighty on the priests. In chapter 2, if you look at verse number 1, the Bible says, And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. So, He's specifically just calling out the priests of the time. And as He continues through chapter 2, don't forget this is the word of the Lord. This is, And we're going to read through this a little bit. And we're going to see how God is feeling about the priests that are supposed to be priests of the Lord. They're supposed to be the ones that are bringing the spiritual light to the people. They're supposed to be the ones leading the way of truth and wisdom and knowledge. And they're severely lacking. And they've gone astray. And things have gotten way out of whack. And I think, you know, it's interesting to me how much we're going through the book of Isaiah. You could read through the Bible. And it's amazing to me, it's like, this is the Old Testament. This was written a really long time ago. And how applicable all of these chapters, all of these verses are today. Like, in the day that we live in, it's kind of like, we could be preaching this, and this could be happening right now. Based on the culture and on everything that's going on, we can easily apply this. You know, people are always thinking, oh, I want the Bible applied. Look, just read the Bible. It's applicable today. It's not very far off from, you know, yeah, it might be thousands of years. And the truth is still holding true even today. And the problems that existed back then are still problems that exist today. And one of the biggest problems that we have in our society and our culture, and ultimately in Christianity as a whole, is we may not have priests anymore, but we have pastors, we have teachers, we have people leading congregations, and they're supposed to be men of God, and they've completely lost their way. And as we go through this and we see God's rebuke on these people, we're going to be able to apply this very easily to people, to pastors and preachers today, for not doing the very thing that God has called them to do. And this is a fundamental problem in churches today. And it's fundamental because it goes down to the root. It goes down to the basics of what is church even supposed to be all about and what is the pastor supposed to be teaching on and preaching on. And this is why you're in a fundamental Baptist church because we believe in these fundamentals of the faith and the fundamentals of what the Bible teaches and trying to get back to the old way, to the old paths that God has laid out for us and not interested in all the new ways and modern things and, you know, you've got to do these rock concerts and rock shows and try to get people entertained and interested and all this other stuff. No, we don't. No, that's not the job of the pastor. That's not the job of the priest. We're supposed to do what the Lord said to do. Preach the word of the Lord. I'm not up here today. My job is not to just preach to you out of my own heart and tell you how I feel and tell you what I think would be great. That's not my job. My job is to study the word of the Lord, bring the word of the Lord, preach the word of the Lord, and say, look, here's what the Bible says. Here's what God said. It's up to you to do with it what you want, but that's my job. Now, I don't know how many churches are out there preaching on Malachi chapter 2, but part of the problem is that one of the reasons why people don't even want to touch this chapter is because verse 3, which is where the title of my sermon is coming from, people say, oh, we don't really want to read that because that's kind of gross, so that doesn't sound really appropriate for church. Well, the words of the Lord are pure words, the Bible says, so if it's in the Bible, there's nothing to be looked over. We can't talk about this. This isn't appropriate. You can't hear about this in church, but God gets extremely descriptive in his word, and when it gets to the point that we have here, we better pay serious attention because this is extremely descriptive language that ought to make us wake up to how big of a deal this is. Let's keep reading verse number 2. He says, if ye will not hear, because remember, he's talking to the priest. He's addressing the priest. If ye will not hear, 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. Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces. That's a description that's not a pleasant description to think about, but you know what? This is what the Bible's saying, and it's filthy to even think about someone having dung spread on their faces. This is how God is treating these priests. He's saying, I'm going to spread dung on your faces. If you're not going to listen to me, if you're not going to harken, here's what I'm going to do to you. I'm going to take this dung, and I'm going to rub it all over your face. This is the God who is the God. He's the true God. He's the God of the Bible. This is who God is. This is part of who God is. We need to understand that about God, that this is how seriously He treats and feels about these false prophets and priests that are not going to listen to and not adhere and not preach His Word. We need to give the glory to God. We need to give the authority to God. We need to preach what His Word says, and not just the thoughts and imaginations of our own heart, not just what's going to tickle people's ears and make people just feel good about themselves. You start reading the Bible, you're going to be confronted with a lot more negative things than positive things. They're both in there, negative and positive, and we need them both, very much so. We definitely need the positive and definitely need the negative, but as you read through the Bible, you're going to find more negative preaching than positive preaching. How about the three books that are known as the major prophets? You've got Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah. Read through those books. Obviously, you have lamentations, but read through those major, big books of the Bible and tell me how much of that is positive preaching. Now, Isaiah's got some positive preaching, but by and large, are you going to say it's a positive book or negative? Ezekiel, Jeremiah. They're being sent with messages that's bad news for the people because they've been wicked, because they need to repent, because they need to change their ways. Jonah, Amos. Read these books. Read all the prophets. We need to take heed, because God doesn't just bat His eyes at this and just pretend like it doesn't exist. He's saying, you know, it makes me want to spread dung on your faces. And he describes it a little bit further, saying even the dung of your solemn feasts. So he's referring to their service, their worship, their solemn feasts. They're organizing these events. We're going to have this great feast, and it's a solemn event, and everybody's going to be respectful, and it's very somber, and, you know, show our respect unto God. And God sees that as dung, because they're not right with Him, because they're not preaching right with Him. And let that sink in, because imagine going to an event where everybody's going to recognize this as showing respect, being somber. Let's have a moment of silence, right? We're going to honor the Lord. But when you're not right with God, you're not doing what's right with God, even in those moments, he's looking at that and saying, that's like dung. It means nothing to me. And these people, as we see, and as you read through the book of Malachi, these priests, they're very spiritual. Oh yeah, I mean, they're going to church, they're doing their thing, and they've got all kinds of events going on. They're very spiritual. But they have no idea that they're just so far removed, even from what God wants them doing. And as you go through Malachi, you're going to see God's telling them how horribly off base they are, and they're like, what do you mean that we're robbing you, God? What do you mean? And they just have no idea that they're just so far off the mark. They're doing all these spiritual things, and to God, He's like, this is like dung. And I want to just rub this dung all over your face so that you get a clue of how far off you are and how bad this is to me. He says, Well, I'm going to crop your seed, I'm going to spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feast, and one shall take you away with it. And you 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. Now, I want you to keep your place here in Malachi 2 because we're coming back and turn back to Numbers 25. So he's addressing the priests, and then he mentions that my covenant might be with Levi. The priests of the Old Testament were of the tribe of Levi. So you had that the priests were specifically, more specifically, of the children of Aaron. God gave the priesthood unto Aaron and to his seed, his children, okay? But Aaron was a Levite. Now, the rest of the Levites, outside of the lineage of Aaron, also did service to the Lord, but the priests directly came from the line of Aaron, okay? What God is bringing up here, though, about the covenant with Levi, He's talking about Levi the person, like specifically with Levi or his house here, one of his direct descendants, with why he even gave the tribe of Levi this charge. Why did he make this covenant with them? He says, I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name. So in Malachi, he's saying, he feared me, and he acted on that fear accordingly. We're going to see the story that cements this covenant that God makes with the house of Levi to have this position that God has given them, and it comes from Numbers chapter 25, verse number 6, is where we're going to start reading. The Bible says, And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. So in context, just prior to this, the children of Israel were committing fornication with these heathen women of the land, these Midianitish women, that it was forbidden for them to go in unto. They're marrying them. They're committing fornication. They're doing all this stuff with these heathen women of the land, and God's angry about it. And then you have one of the children of Israel just right in the sight of Moses. He's got his girlfriend just right out there proclaiming his shame, proclaiming his sin. Basically, like, what are you going to do about it? Moses just got done, you know, telling them that God's angry with them, and these people are weeping before the door of the tabernacle, and this guy comes out with his girlfriend. And look what happens in verse 7. And when Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her belly, so the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. See, God was plaguing them because of their fornication, and just before that, Moses had commanded, that God had commanded that they needed to, you know, slay every man as brother because of the sin, and that was the judgment of God, and this guy's just coming right out, doesn't care, probably like, yeah, what are you going to do? Well, Phinehas rose up, and he took that javelin, and he pierced them both through that they died, and it says because of that, that plague was stayed, so God stopped the plague because of what Phinehas did because he actually had regard to the word of the Lord and understood that what was happening was extremely wicked and sinful and that God had made this proclamation and he was going to follow it and do it, and he was going to stand up for the Lord and had respect under the word of the Lord, and as a result, the plague stopped, so he had to do something very unpleasant, but it ended up saving a lot of people because the plague was stayed as a result of that, and it says, And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned by wrath away from the children of Israel. So it sounds like he did the right thing. I mean, the odds not saying, What are you doing killing those people? He's saying, Good job, you turned away my wrath from all the children of Israel, because the person who is the most, you know, out there in public with this and basically is being real stubborn and rebellious, he's taken care of. He says, While he was zealous for my sake among them that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy, wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace. And look, God doesn't want a bunch of people dying. He'd rather just have people obeying him, listening to his commands, and doing what's right. But the problem is that when people reject the word of the Lord, and people don't want to listen to God, and people want to do their own thing and get off into sin, well, there's repercussions for that. And you're not going to be blessed. You're going to be cursed. And God may have to send a plague. God may have to end up destroying a bunch of people because of being stiff-necked and rebellious and going off and doing those things that she commanded him not to do. Phineas sees this, and he says, No, this is right. This is what needs to be done. And he has regard to the word of the Lord more than regard for man. And when you read this story, too, we're not going to get into it any further, but this woman that was killed with the man of Israel was like a princess, essentially. She was a daughter of someone who had a lot of political authority in the land. So this was someone who was, you know, someone who had clout, I guess, with these other people, with the Midianites. So, of course, then they end up getting this war with the Midianites, and God sanctions that as well. But I want to bring up, the whole reason for coming here is because in Malachi, God brings up the fact that, hey, the reason why I made this covenant with you, tribe of Levi, so long ago was because Phinehas, hey, he feared me, and I gave him the covenant of peace, which is exactly what's being referenced here in Numbers 25, 12. Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for the children of Israel. And there's a lot of other symbolic meaning there, too, but let's go back to Malachi chapter 2. But having that respect for exactly what God said and for what God commanded and being willing to take that on himself and say, you know what? I'm going to do what God said to do. That's why, and even though it was an unpleasant thing, God said, you have respect unto my word. I'm going to give you this covenant of peace. And they've been responsible for that, but what's happened now is that they don't have respect unto the word of the Lord anymore. They've let everything go by the wayside, all of God's commandments. They're supposed to be teaching and preaching and showing the people, you know, the right way to live and going through God's commandments and explaining that, and they're not doing that anymore. And that's evident as we keep reading in Malachi chapter 2. Look at verse number 6. The Bible says the law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity and did turn many away from iniquity. So he's still referring to back then, hey, they're doing what's right. And how are they preaching? How are they doing what's right by turning people away from iniquity? The preacher that doesn't want dung on his face ought to be turning people away from iniquity. It's a big deal. But how is someone going to turn people away from iniquity if you're not ever bringing up iniquity? If you never bring up sin, if you never bring up fornication, if you're never bringing up drunkenness, if you're never bringing up God's law and His commandments, how are you ever going to turn people away from that? The whole purpose of the priest in the Old Testament, the whole purpose of the man of God is supposed to show people their sins. That's why Isaiah 58 verse 1, famous passage, the Bible says, Spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, which is why I'm getting a little animated tonight and trying to lift up my voice so you can understand and pay attention and listen up because God says, hey, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression in the house of Jacob their sins. It needs to be called out. People need to understand that these sins, these transgressions, it's not just some little matter. It's a big deal. God gets angry. God gets very angry. But the reason why we're in this society or the culture we have is because the men of God have been asleep at the wheel. Why is it that today it's culturally acceptable for men and women to shack up together and have apartments and have children and be unmarried? Why is that okay? It hasn't always been that way. In fact, there hasn't been that way in a very short period of time where this has even been deemed acceptable. It used to be a shame. Not that long ago, even in my own lifetime when I was a child, it was a shame for a man and woman to be living together in some apartment somewhere and having kids or not having kids or whatever, just be living together. That was a shame. That was something that no one would want to admit. No mother, no father would want to say that their son or their daughter was doing that. They wouldn't want to talk about that. They wouldn't want to cover it up. They wouldn't want to hide that because it's a shame. These days, everyone's okay with it. Oh, great. We're going to open the mold and we're going to your house. Cool. Great. Have your boyfriend cook up some... People have no problem with it. They don't bat an eye. It's wicked. It's extremely sinful. It's so sinful fornication. God is sending plagues over and over again on His people when they get involved in His fornication. I mean, people die. By the tens of thousands, people are losing their lives due to fornication. What's the big deal? Why don't you ask God what the big deal is? Why don't you care enough to read your Bible and see what the big deal is? It is a big deal. And when the preachers aren't preaching about it, shame on them and it makes God shove dung in their face. Because that's your job. We're supposed to be saying, hey, this is wicked and wrong. Stay away from this. Because we're supposed to be speaking and teaching on the Word of God since He's not audibly doing it Himself. He gave us His Word. But look, someone needs to be responsible for reading all of it. And unfortunately, too many people, they aren't doing it on their own. Hopefully, you're not being spoon fed every time you go to church because you don't read the Bible yourself at home. But you know what? Even if you're not doing it, you're going to hear it here. And you ought to be hearing it in every house of God. And anyone that's going to claim the name of Jesus Christ, you ought to be hearing this in every church that you go to. But it's not happening. Verse 7 in Malachi chapter 2, the Bible says, For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth. See, that's what they're supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be We're supposed to be seeking the law of God at his mouth, looking to his word, studying his law, being like, we've got knowledge, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. That's the job. My job today is a messenger. I didn't come up with this. I didn't write these books. I didn't write any of these verses in the Bible. I'm just here supposed to tell you that it's here. Hey, look at this. Look how angry God got here and pointing that out to you. Unfortunately, too many people today. Those people today, I've gotten, I don't know how many comments when we started the church. You know, we have our church verse right here. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and you know it them that trusted him, right, because we're a stronghold Baptist church. That's a reference from Nahum. I don't know how many people were saying, Nahum, that's not a book of the Bible. What are you talking about? Where are you getting this from? You guys are crazy. You don't even know the books of the Bible. Like, yes, it is a book of the Bible. Open it up. It's not hard to even fact check that. Open up a Bible. You'll see it. People are too ignorant, let alone reading passage, actually reading it. You don't even know the books of the Bible, let alone you're reading it, to see how does God feel. I mean, this ought to make you take pause when you see God talking about spreading dung on people's faces. Like, that's in the Bible? Yeah. Yes. But if you ask your average Christian on the street, hey, do you know where in the Bible where God is talking about spreading dung on people's faces, they'd be like, that's not in the Bible. What are you smoking? You're crazy. But it is. It's here. Okay, and I'm not, you know, don't ever take this type of preaching to lift yourself up, oh, I know so much more than everybody else, because that's not why it's there. It's to shame people into reading their Bible because you ought to know what the Bible says. Hey, are you claiming Jesus Christ, are you claiming the Lord to be your God? You better know what his book says. You better be listening to him. You better be reading his word on your own. Don't just rely on a person to spoon feed it to you. Read it for yourself. You ought to know that that's in the Bible because you're taking the time to dedicate unto your Heavenly Father to read what he has for you to learn. Take that as a burden on yourself. Because if you're relying on other people to do it for you, you don't ever want to be in a position where you're relying on man. Man's going to fail you. And I'm going to try my best to preach through all the word of God, but you might miss something. Don't rely on me. You got to have your own relationship with the Lord. Anyways, you got to be listening to him. And how do we listen to him? Right here through his word. It's not some extra sensory thing. We don't listen to God waiting to hear a voice. We don't get directions from God where he's saying, oh, you don't do this. It's right here. Here's his instructions. He tells us what to do. He'll lead you and guide you in all truth. If you've got the Holy Spirit residing inside of you because you're saved. Keep your place in Malachi chapter 2, but you could even turn to Ezekiel chapter 2. Because the priest, the pastor, the preacher, he's supposed to be a messenger for the Lord of hosts. He doesn't come up with this on his own. He's supposed to be keeping knowledge and seeking the law at his mouth. Isaiah, of course, I already read the verse, but he's telling you, hey, you need to cry aloud. You need to show people their transgressions, their sins. You need to call this stuff out. You need to be preaching on this. You need to be bringing this up. Because here's the thing. A lot of people don't even realize half the time that what they're doing is sinful. Because so many people don't really read the Bible. They don't know what the Bible says. And they're just ignorant, which is why it's all the more reason and why it's all the more important that pastors need to take this job on themselves and say, hey, we're going to preach this and don't assume that people already know this. You can't assume that. I learned that really early on when my wife and I were dating and getting married because she was a newer believer and I had made some assumptions on what I thought that she knew about the Bible, but since she was a newer believer, younger believer, she didn't know a lot of things. And when I was a newer believer, I didn't know a lot of things, either. Just like you, just like everybody else, there's a lot of things you don't even realize. I mean, for example, she didn't even realize that drinking or getting drunk was a sin. That's not how she was raised. She didn't know anything about it and she didn't know about the Bible, but you know what? It's a sin. And you need to be aware of that because it's going to make God angry. If we want to please the Lord, we don't want to make Him angry with us. Just like children ought to want to please their parents, not make them angry with them. I don't want to be disciplined by God. Who wants to go through that? This is the job of the preacher. This is the job of the pastor. Look at Ezekiel chapter 2, verse number 3. And again, this is applicable today just as much as any other time through history. And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even unto this very day. God's already recognizing, look, the people I'm sending you to preach to, they're rebellious. They're stubborn. They're rebelling against me. Well, isn't that amazing? Because we live in a society today where people are rebelling against the Lord. They're fornicating. They're being drunkards. They're doing all kinds of wickedness that the Bible teaches against. Unfortunately, what is the way that many preachers are taking the path of, oh, I can't say anything about this because I might offend somebody. Well, if I talk about that, I mean, you know, that might be talking about someone's son or someone's daughter, and they might not want to hear that. They might not come back. Is that what God's telling Ezekiel to do? He says, look, I know they're a rebellious nation. Let's keep reading, verse 4. For they are impudent children and stiff-hearted. I do send thee unto them, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. What is he saying? Thus saith Ezekiel. No, he says, Thus saith the Lord God. Because he's just a messenger. He's saying, Ezekiel, this people are stubborn. This people, you know, they're rebellious. But here's what you need to do. Say, Thus saith the Lord. It's God. God's word. And they, verse 5, whether they were here or whether they were forbear, for they are a rebellious house. You tell them again, they are rebellious. I understand that. Yet shall know that there have been a prophet among them. So what is that saying? Hey, whether they listen to you or not, Ezekiel, your job doesn't change. Hey, whether they just get up and walk out that door, you still keep preaching. Hey, thus saith the Lord. You can take it and leave it. But this is what God said. That's your job. And that ought to be the job of everyone that's going to stand behind the pope in America today and claim the name of Christ. Say, hey, thus saith the Lord. Verse 6. Further instruction unto Ezekiel. Because it's not always easy to preach the truth, to preach God's word, unto a people that don't want to hear it. To a rebellious house that want to just rebel against the Lord, he says. And now, son of man, be not afraid of them. Don't be afraid. And now, more than ever, hey, don't be afraid of the cancel culture. If you're a believer, if you're a Bible believer, you believe the Bible is God's word, you believe this is truth, don't be afraid of it. Don't back down. Don't be afraid of people who are going to try to call you out and get you fired and get everybody against you and slander your name and post it out on social media and do all this other stuff. Don't be afraid of their faces. I do believe the Bible. I do believe the word of God. And I believe every single verse in this book. Whether it makes you uncomfortable or not, I believe it all, yes. Sign me up as a Bible believer 100%. But did you know the Bible says this? Yes. Oh, how could you believe that? Are you homophobic? Hey, I believe every word of the Bible. Every word. And it's all from God. And I'm not going to apologize for it. It says what it says. If you have a problem with it, then that's your problem. I'm just going to be a messenger. Because that's what I'm supposed to do. Verse 6. And now, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words. Though briers and thorns be with thee and thou dost dwell among scorpions, be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. And thou shalt speak my words unto them. What's the job of a preacher? Speak my words unto them. Be a messenger. Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, for they are most rebellious. Well, that doesn't sound like a good way to really fill up a church and get a lot of people to your church. He didn't tell people to get a lot of people to sit down in his church. He said, you preach the truth. We could build a big building, and we could get a lot of people to show up, and it could be a lot of fun, and we could have a lot of entertainment, and we could have dancing, and we could have music, and we have all this stuff going on, and we get tons of people in here. Well, wouldn't that be fun? Yeah, except you're not doing what God said to do. He didn't tell you to do all that stuff. He said, be my messenger. Say, thus saith the Lord. That's all we got to worry about. It's actually really simple. We don't need to worry about building all these extra ministries and programs and all the others. Look, preach his word. How is your church going to grow? I don't know. God's going to grow it. Not my job. The Lord's going to build his church. He's the one who places members as he sees fit into his body with Christ being the head. Good. Just preach the word. It's actually an easy job because it's not complicated. And it's really easy if you're not afraid of man. If you could take God's wisdom here and say, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, it's pretty easy. Great, I'm just going to preach the word. It's already written. What are you going to preach on? I don't know, whatever God said. I don't have to come up with something. So anyone in the preaching classes and things like that, if you're ever worried about what you're going to preach on, just find something in the Bible. That's it. You don't have to worry about coming up with something fancy and slick and oh man, no one's ever... Look, you don't need to preach something no one's ever heard before. In fact, if you do, if no one's ever heard before, it's probably not true. Right? Everybody's read this book. It's been read by many, many people. So preach what this book says. Just doing that alone is going to put you in a different class of people because, and I don't mean like a higher class. You'll be set apart because most people aren't doing that. Just by preaching the Bible. And when I say preaching the Bible, it doesn't mean taking one verse and then talking about something else for an hour. That's not the job that God has called you to do. You go through his words and expound and say, look, this is what God said. This is serious. And yeah, we're taking some extra time and spending it so we go through this and we can hammer it home and understand. Look, God gets really angry about things. And he wants his people to obey him. Way more than he wants you to sacrifice your Sunday and Memorial Day weekend. He wants you to obey him. Verse 8 says, But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee. Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house. Open thy mouth and eat that I give thee. So you're saying, all you got to do, don't be like them. They're rebellious. I already know they're rebellious and they're not going to want to hear what you have to say. But now don't you go and be like them and not preach and not be my messenger and not do what I'm telling you to do. That's the warning for the messenger. You just do what I'm telling you to do. Don't be like them. Don't worry about whether they receive it or not. Jonah didn't want to preach because he was already thinking about whether they're going to receive his word. God said, look, you don't worry about that. You just go and preach. And it wasn't very pleasant for Jonah when he decided not to go and preach. His ego said, okay, I'll do it. Jonah said, I'm not going to do that. He got swallowed by that whale and was in the whale's belly for three days and three nights. That was symbolic of hell. It couldn't have been that pleasant. And he still had to go preach. He said, I'll go do it. When he bothered him, he's like, okay, now go preach. The commandment hasn't changed. You've got to still do the same thing. Might as well do it willingly. Just like the gospel. Hey, ministry's been committed unto you. If I do this thing willingly, then I've got a reward. But if unwillingly, hey, dispensation of the gospel is still committed unto me. I mean, it's still my job. I still got to do it. God still commanded me to do this. And if you do it willingly, great, God will reward you for that. He'll hook you up. He'll bless you. Let's go back to Malachi chapter 2. See, the priest is supposed to keep knowledge. They're supposed to seek the law of his mouth. They're supposed to be a messenger of the Lord. But in verse 8, he's going to tell us in Malachi 2, 8 what they're really doing. Because they're not preaching his commandments. They're not giving wisdom. They're not saying, thus saith the Lord. In fact, verse 8 says, but ye are departed out of the way. You're not on the right path. You're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. Ye have caused many to stumble at the law. You're not making it clear. You're not pointing out. You're saying you're causing people to sin. Because you're calling them to stumble at the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore, have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people? According as ye have not kept my ways that have been partial in the law. Being partial in the law is another thing that God hates when it comes to his messengers. Partial means there's preaching part of it and not all of it. And here's the justification. The preacher that doesn't want to preach all of God's law, you say, well, I'm still preaching the Bible. Right? Well, I'm still preaching some things. Look, you don't get to pick and choose which parts of the Bible you preach. You're a messenger to preach all of it. Don't for a second think that God's going to bless you and say, well, I'm still preaching the Bible. And you've got like this section here or this section here. And you know what? It used to drive me nuts when I would go to churches before I got into a really good church where you'd be reading, like you'd be listening to some of the preaching and they'd read some verses and then they'd kind of like skip over the next part and it's like, that's the part everyone needs to hear. The pastor preaches on Romans 1 but it's like Romans 1, 1. Like, look, we need to hear a lot more into that book, into that chapter. People need to hear that stuff. Okay? Yes, let's preach a positive stuff. Let's preach the things that are good. Let's be edified, right? But what makes God angry is when His whole counsel isn't taught and it's not being preached and you're causing people to stumble at the law because you're not preaching the law, because you're not given wisdom. You're not seeking the law at His mouth. And you're being partial. When you're being partial with God's law, you're becoming the judge of God's Word instead of letting God be the judge of His Word. We don't pick and choose, well, this doesn't sound that great. I don't think this is going to be really well received. I don't think people are ready to hear this. Don't be partial. See, this is what God said. It's up to you to decide. Turn to Matthew 5. You're saying, but Pastor Moses, why are we looking at the Old Testament so much? Don't you know that we are in the New Testament? I do. Thank you. I love comments like that, too, when people on social media and stuff are like, hey, haven't you ever read? Yeah, I have. I've read that. Don't you know there's a New Testament? I do. I do, thanks. Yes, we've been in the New Testament for quite a while now. I'm aware of that. So why do we go? Well, why? Because it's in the Bible. Because it's still the Word of God. Because God never said, well, when Jesus Christ comes, two-thirds of the Bible? You could just throw that in the trash. It doesn't really matter. That's why. Because it's still the Word of God. Because all Scripture, all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God. All Scripture. And that was written in the New Testament before even the whole New Testament was written in Scripture. And you know what? All Scripture is profitable for doctrine. All Scripture is profitable for instruction and righteousness. All Scripture. So yeah, we're going to use the whole Bible. I mean, didn't Jesus use the Old Testament when he was preaching to people? I think so. I think he quoted Psalms and Isaiah. He quoted Moses. Yeah. So it's OK for Jesus to bring up the Old Testament but not for a New Testament preacher? Did that cease to be important after the resurrection of Christ? That's funny because the apostles were still bringing up the Old Testament too when they were preaching. The Apostle Paul, who got saved after the resurrection of Christ, was still quoting Old Testament. Don't you know you're not supposed to do that, Paul? Don't you know we're in the dispensation of grace? Paul, you of all people should know that. What do you do in quoting the Old Testament? It's ridiculous. We're not dispensationalists by the way. If you don't know what that is, don't worry about it. We believe in the Bible. It's God's Word. And there's a division between the Old Testament and the New Testament. It's still all God's Word and still all profitable. Matthew 5 is where I had you turn. Why do we turn to the Old Testament? Why do we read the Old Testament? Look at what Jesus said. Jesus Christ Himself in Matthew 5, 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. So did Jesus come to get rid of the law and the prophets? Yeah, we still should. He just said, don't think that. Don't think that Jesus came to take away the law and the prophets. He didn't come to destroy it. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. There's a lot of prophecies of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. They all speak of Him and talk about Jesus because it's all about Jesus. The whole Bible is about Jesus. Verse 18. He confirms this even further. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, and I've mentioned this in previous sermons in the past, have that been in the past yet? Because He says here, till heaven and earth pass. So as long as we can all agree that heaven and earth hasn't passed yet, then we could believe what He says here. One job or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Well, I guess it hasn't passed from the law then yet. I guess maybe we should still be looking at God's commandments. Otherwise, how do you even know what sin is? For sin is the transgression of the law, which by the way, that verse is in the New Testament. Sin is the transgression of the law. Well, maybe we should look at God's law. Now, I'll just say this too. We're not trusting in the law to be saved and go to heaven. Okay, so don't conflate the two issues. Don't mix them up. Don't think that like, oh, why are you preaching the law so much? You think that the law is going to save you? No! Jesus saves. And the Bible says, but where sin did abound, grace did much more abound in Romans 5. So we know that being saved by grace, no matter how much we sin, we're still covered by God's grace. But should we continue to sin? What shall we say then? Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Romans 6. God forbid. God forbid that we should continue to sin. Well, how are we going to know if we're sinning if we don't look at God's commandments? So elementary. It's so basic. Yet so many people want to just write it off. And not just people, preachers. They don't go over this stuff, you know. Find someone who will. Verse number 19. Still Jesus speaking in Matthew 5, Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. So Jesus saying, you know what, whatever the least of the commandments is, if you find someone that's breaking that and then teaching men, yeah, you don't have to follow that. That's not a big deal. Don't worry about keeping the law there. It doesn't make them unsaved, but he says they're going to be least in the kingdom of heaven. Because they're not giving God the proper respect and authority that we need to be following his commandments. He's still going to heaven, even though he's teaching people not to obey the commandments, because he's saved by grace, but when he gets there, he's going to be called least. I don't want to be least in the kingdom of heaven. So we're going to teach all of God's commandments. We're going to say, thus saith the Lord, these are God's commandments. We need to be following these because Jesus also said, but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So yeah, all those little things, Pastor Evans, when I impeach on these things, it's not even really that important anyways. Well, if it's in God's word, it's important. And if God says not to do something, even if it's not the most important thing, it's still important, we should still follow it because I want to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, not least. I want God to welcome me and say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And the only way I can do that is by listening and preaching his word. Not what I think people want to hear, not my ideas, not my thoughts, his word and all of his word. It's not complicated. Turning to Isaiah 5, I'm going to read for you from Malachi 2. We read the whole chapter. Malachi 2 is a lot more, we're not going completely verse by verse through Malachi 2, by the way. But another problem with Malachi chapter 2 or with the priests, with the preachers in Malachi chapter 2 is what's found in verse 17. The Bible says, you have wearied the Lord with your words. And this goes to what I was talking about where they have this back and forth where God's saying like, look, you've wearied the Lord. It says, yet you say, wearied everywhere. What do you mean we've wearied the Lord? What are we doing that's so wrong? They have no clue. They're just blind because they're not in the word of God to even knowing how far removed they are from the word of God. And he's saying, look, you're wearing the Lord with your words and they say, wearied every word of Him when ye say, everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them. The priests at this time were saying when people are doing evil, when they're doing wicked, they're saying, actually, they're good. Oh yeah, they're good. God's happy with you. Just brushing off wickedness, sin, and iniquity, and just saying, oh yeah, God's happy. So the preachers are going to stand up here and just pat you on the back and say, yeah, everything's great. You're doing fine. You're all good and you're living in fornication. You're committing adultery. You're a drunkard. You're a drug addict. Oh God, it's good. God's great. It's great. Everything's good. You're fine. Everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them. No, God's not happy when you do those things. They say, oh, where is the God of judgment? And we live again in a day where people want to call good evil and evil good. Isaiah 5 verse 20. By the way, it's one of them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Instead of being exalted as someone who says, hey, look, this guy's preaching the word of the Lord. This guy's actually saying what the Bible says and teaching people what the Bible says, just reading and saying, hey, woe unto them that call evil good. You know what that means? Woe. Bad things for the person who's going to call evil good. Is this some crazy interpretation of scripture? No. But when a man of God will stand up and say things and especially in today's culture, oh, you're hateful. Why do you hate so much? Why can't you be more loving? You're wicked. You're bad because you're so hateful. That's what people say about people who preach the Bible today. It's the climate we're in. And the Bible says, woe unto them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe unto you if you're going to say those things, if you're going to be in that camp saying, yeah, you're so hateful and you're so mean and you're so, you know, if what you're doing is just preaching God's word, hey, this is what God said. I'm not going to condemn the person for preaching what God said. Verse 21 says, woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prune in their own sight. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink. And when it says mighty to drink wine, they don't care. It doesn't bother them at all that they're going to drink booze. It doesn't matter. Just flippant about God's commandment not to look on the wine when it's red, when it giveth its color and a cup when it moveth itself aright. And not care about all the warnings that God gives of drinking strong drink. They're mighty to do it. Hey, yeah, give me some more. I got a great tolerance. Doesn't affect me. Woe unto them to justify the wicked for reward. There's a lot of people doing that today. You go on social media. All the popular movie stars and music, you know, oh, these people are so great and they're propping up the LGBTQ and all these other wicked people. Why? Because they want some money. And, you know, woe unto the corporations that are doing the same thing. They're trying to pump out all these wicked TV ads and commercials and, you know, trying to just garner a little bit of extra money because it's a popular thing now to just promote perversion and wickedness that God says is an abomination and cater to wickedness and call them good. People of the likes that God brained fire and brimstone down to destroy. He didn't save them. He destroyed them with fire and brimstone. No, but we're supposed to be, oh, this is all good. You know what? Woe, the people that justify the wicked for reward. Oh, I think it's going to make us an extra few bucks, so let's put a rainbow flag and rainbow stuff all over the place so we can say that we're sympathetic to the cause of perverts. Justify the wicked for the reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. How do they take away the righteousness of the righteous from him? Saying, you're evil. How dare you say that they're perverts? How dare you say that that's wrong? You know? You ought to be ashamed of yourself. That's what they'll say to someone preaching the Word of God. Woe unto them. Verse 24 says, Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. And this is what this sermon's all about. We need preachers. We need pastors that are not going to cast away the law of the Lord. They're not going to cast away the word of the Lord. They're not just going to cater to what popular culture has determined is right and wrong, but is going to go to the Bible and go to the word of the Lord to determine what's right and wrong and open up their mouth boldly and preach what God said. That's it. But when there's nobody doing it, people being led astray. There are sheep having no shepherd. It is what it is. Turn, if you would, to Amos chapter 5. Yes, there's a book of the Bible called Amos. Maybe we didn't know that either. A bunch of little books right before the New Testament. Amos chapter 5. We're going to start reading verse number 6 because these preachers, they cover a lot of the same topics. God's message doesn't change. That's why when you read Malachi, and you read Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Hosea and Amos and all these various books, Micah, you read these books of the Bible, the theme is pretty much the same. God's not changing His message. And if we as a nation don't want to be destroyed and wiped out by God and have His judgment come upon us, then the nation as a whole needs to repent. Just like Nineveh needed to repent. But you know what? Nineveh received the word of God and humbled themselves in sackcloth and ashes and repented of their evil deeds. Would to God that America could do the same thing. Amos chapter 5, verse number 6, the Bible reads, Seek the Lord and you shall live, lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Sounds to me like God could get really angry and destroy if you're not going to seek the Lord. So it sounds like to me, I don't know, I mean, I may not be an expert. I don't have my master's degree in theology, but it sounds pretty simple to me, pretty straightforward. You don't seek the Lord, He's going to destroy. Verse 7, Ye who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off righteousness in the earth. Now, turning judgment to wormwood, wormwood is something that's just bitter and refuse and is going to be like poison, right? They're turning judgment to something good into something that's not good. And leaving off righteousness in the earth. Jump down to verse number 10, They hate Him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor Him that speaketh uprightly. He's talking about the people, they don't like being told they're wrong. They don't like the preacher that's going to say, hey, this is what God said. You guys are wrong. You need to be rebuked. You're living wickedly. They don't like that. They abhor Him that speaketh uprightly. Jump down to verse number 14, Bible says, Seek good and not evil that ye may live. And so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you as ye have spoken. Hate the evil and love the good and establish judgment in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious under the remnant of judgment. Under the remnant of Joseph. And here's how you get right with God. Here's how you could maybe seek God's grace and seek God's mercy. Hate the evil. Hate the evil. Don't embrace the evil and be tolerant of the evil. Hate the evil. And love the good. Don't call the good evil on the evil good. Hate the evil, love the good. Why is this so complicated? It's not complicated, but people don't want to do it. And people don't want to do it a lot of times because people are afraid to do it. Afraid. Don't be fearful. Don't be afraid. And you know what? We're jumping around here in Amos chapter 5. Go home and read the rest of this chapter in context and get the whole thing. It's a great, great chapter. Read all the book of Amos. In fact, get the whole context. Do it for a little homework. We don't have enough time to go through every single verse of every single book of the Bible tonight. Let's jump down to verse 21 because we're going to see here how much God hates the quote-unquote spirituality of people who deny His Word. Because that's the same thing that was going on in Malachi chapter 2. They had their solemn feasts. They had these big days, these events. They were saying that they worshiped the Lord. Oh, man, we're going to make this big meal. We're going to have and we're going to honor the Lord and we're going to serve Him. And God hated it because their heart wasn't right with Him. They weren't actually caring about what God said. It was all just a show. It was all with their lips. It wasn't in their heart. And it's the same message here in Amos chapter 5. They go through the motions of being a believer. They go through the motions of worshiping the Lord, but they've made up their own God. Verse number 21, the Bible says, I hate, I despise your feast days and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. God said, I hate that. Now, in the Old Testament, they were commanded to keep certain feast days and certain, you know, there's the various feasts and they were doing these things, but it wasn't about, like, God didn't care as much about, like, that they held a feast. As much as them, like, just being obedient to His word and, like, His commandments and especially the ones that, you know, keeping a feast, yeah, that's a hard commandment. That's actually a hard commandment to break. Like, oh, have a big feast and bring in these animals and, you know, enjoy it and cook them up and have some barbecue, you know, and eat this food. Who doesn't want to do that? Seriously, like, why do you not want to have a feast of tabernacles? Why do you not want to have these feasts at the end of harvest? And it's great. It's like a party. So, of course, they're going to keep the feasts, but they're not keeping anything else. They've been partial in the law. They're like, oh, sure, yeah, we'll do these sacrifices. We get to eat this meat and have this fun, you know, but it's like, no, how about you obey the word of the Lord and keep His commandments and stop getting into wickedness and sin? Because that's what He really cares about because that has much more an impact on you than a feast does. The feast all has meaning. They still should be keeping it, but when they're keeping that and not keeping the words of His word, He hates it. He said, I despise that. And that's what all of their spirituality is wrapped up in. It's just wrapped up in this show. It's wrapped up in this feast. He hates that. It means nothing to Him. And, in fact, not only does it mean nothing to Him, it just makes Him angry. Verse 22, Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Well, what good is that? People think that they're, oh, I'm making this sacrifice to God so God can accept me and God can forgive me. He said, I'm not going to accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy vials, but let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Let that sink in. Does God care about the feast? Does God care about this stuff? No. What he's saying is, let judgment run down as waters. Oh, don't judge! Judge not! Is that what God wants? No, he wants judgment to run down as waters. He wants a lot of judgment. Now, here's the thing, though. God wants righteous judgment. So when he says judgment, it's implied that it's righteous judgment from God, not hypocritical judgment. Because Matthew 7, when people say, you know, Matthew 7, it says, Judge not, that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. The whole point of the judge not teaching in the Bible is so that you don't judge hypocritically, and so that you understand, hey, if you're going to teach and preach this judgment of God, it's going to apply to you equally as it does everybody else. So don't go around proclaiming the judgment of God when you're just guilty of the same exact things. You're a big hypocrite. That's what it means, but it doesn't mean there should be no judgment. No one should ever judge anything, because that's not very loving. God's angry when the judgment is not running down his waters, and righteousness is a mighty stream. He wants people living righteously, and he wants judgment, proper righteous judgment, running down like waters. What a sight to behold, a nation that can have righteousness and judgment as being a hallmark of the society. We have good judgment. That's great. And in fact, turn over to Malachi chapter 7. I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 7. I'm going to read from Malachi chapter 3. We were in chapter 2. I'm going to read from chapter 3. You're turning to Matthew chapter 7. We're almost done. I'm finishing up right now. Malachi 3.13 says, Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord, yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? And again, if you read through the whole book of Matthew, you're going to see this back and forth of God making these statements against them. They're going, What do you mean, God? Your words have been stout against me, you saith the Lord, yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God. And what profit is it that we should have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? They're teaching it to be meaningless to keep God's ordinances. Aren't there a lot of preachers saying the same thing today? Oh, well, under grace, it doesn't matter. You don't have to worry about keeping God's law. You don't have to worry about keeping his commandments. And look, let me just clarify, in case you haven't been coming here very long or whatever, when we're talking about keeping the commandments of the Lord, we're not talking about offering up the sacrifices, the parts that have been fulfilled in Christ, like Jesus Christ said, to all be fulfilled. The animal sacrifices have been fulfilled with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. When he came the first time, that's been fulfilled. So those diverse washings and meets and carnal ordinances that were imposed on them until a time of reformation, yes, those aspects of the law have changed, but that's not the whole law. That's just the part under the Levitical priesthood, because the priesthood has changed to be the priesthood of Melchizedek. That's a whole other sermon. It's a whole other topic. But just for sake of clarity, that's what we're talking about. But we're not just throwing away. So I don't believe in this, you know, well, we need to be offering up lambs, just Passover lambs and stuff like that. We're not doing that because that part has changed, but the law has not been abolished. So they're saying, hey, it's vain to serve God. What profit is there in keeping his ordinances? Too many people are saying the same thing today. And then verse 15 says, and now we call the proud happy. Tell me that's not more timely. What's another word for happy? Did anyone have another word for happy? Did anyone know another word that could be used for happy that are proud? Gay. The word gay means happy. But now people are calling proud people, because by the way, pride is a sin. Pride is one of the major sins of Satan, of the devil. He's lifted up with pride. Pride is also what people who have rejected God are filled with. They get lifted up in pride and become God haters. They worship and serve the creature more than the creator is blessed forever. Amen. And you know what? They become vain in their own imaginations and their foolish heart is darkened, and they're lifted up in their own pride. And now we live in a society where people call the proud happy. They call the proud gay. That's why they have gay pride. And that's backwards. That's wicked. These things ought not so to be. We ought not to be calling the proud happy. We ought to be calling the proud wicked. And now we call the proud happy. Yay, they that work wickedness are set up. Yay, they that tempt God are even delivered. It's completely backwards, and this is why God wants to spread dung in the face of the priests because they're not preaching on this stuff. They're not proclaiming the truth, thus saith the Lord. And they have their form of godliness and their form of spirituality and their form of serving God, and they have their churches and they have their feasts and they have this stuff, but they completely ignore the commandments of the Lord. And you can go up and down the streets all over Georgia, and you're going to find churches all over the place. Everywhere. And they're going to be having ceremonies and they're going to be having worship and they're going to have all kinds of stuff, but I guarantee you you're going to find very little of people standing behind the pulpit and saying, thus saith the Lord and going through the commandment of God and expounding the commandments of God unto the congregation. Very few. And it makes God angry. And these are the types of people that the Bible's talking about in Matthew 7. I turn to Matthew 7. Because remember, I already quoted Matthew 7, 1. It's talking about judge not, they be not judged. But later on near the end of the passage, verse 21, the Bible says, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter in the kingdom of heaven. There's a lot of people that are claiming to be believers in God, claiming to be worshiping God, claiming to be Christians. Not everyone that says, Lord, Lord's going to enter in the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Look at verse 22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? I mean, haven't we preached in your name? And in thy name have cast out devils? I mean, we're doing a lot of stuff, God. Haven't we done all this stuff? And in thy name done many wonderful works? I mean, what are you doing casting me out? I've been doing all these wonderful works and saying praise Jesus in the name of Jesus. Why are you casting me out? And then will I profess unto them I never knew you. Depart from me that work iniquity. People can have this appearance of being really religious and spiritual and actually going out and doing things and doing works, but they're not going to heaven. Why? Why are they not going to heaven for the very reason why? And I explain this to the people at the door. I try to give people this understanding. I try to teach people what does it mean to believe? Because you talk to people. If you just went up to someone random on the street today in the United States of America and said, do you believe in Jesus? I would guess maybe eight out of ten people. I don't know. I don't know what the percentage might be, but a lot of people would say yes. Now, what does the Bible say we have to do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Right? That's easy. Right? But just because someone says, well, yeah, I believe in Jesus, that doesn't mean they're going to heaven. And I explain this to people like this, and I've been doing this the past couple days a lot because we've been doing a lot of soul winning. I say this. Well, what does it mean to believe? Okay, well, if I were to die right now, just drop dead, and I'm face to face with God, and God says, why should I let you into heaven? It's a good question. Whatever I answer, whatever my response is to God, that's what I'm believing in. To get in heaven, to be saved. This is what I'm trusting in. So if I say, God, I mean, I, pastor of church, I preached your word unto the people. I mean, I did all these works. I went out in the streets. I talked to people. I helped people out when they needed a hand. I did all this work, and when people needed money, I was there for them, and I helped out people like they were my brothers and sisters. Lord, I did all these things for you. If that's my answer to God, you know what He's going to say to me? Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you because that answer is demonstrating that my faith is on myself. The faith is on my own works, on how good I am and what I did for you. And there's lots of people out there today who are trusting in why go to church and I help you and I do all this other stuff, and they have no idea, just like the priests in Malachi had no idea how far removed from the truth and God's actually angry with them and have no clue. What it means to believe is that if I were to have that question asked to me, if I drop dead right now and God asks me that question, I'd say, because Jesus, because Jesus, Jesus paid for my sins. Jesus paid for all my sins when He died on the cross and rose again and I put my faith in Him. I'm trusting Jesus to save me. That's it. Not, I'm trusting Jesus and I mean I did this and this and this. No. Jesus, He's the Savior. You have no part in saving yourself. This is what Matthew 7 is talking about. People are so wrapped up in how good they are and their own works and it's all about that. You've completely missed the boat. It's funny. This sermon could have been part of last week's sermon. I've read the sermon last week on why you should attend Stronghold Baptist Church and it wasn't meant to just be like, oh, you could only come to our church. The point was, here are some qualities that our church has that I believe are really important qualities in our church, but, I mean, find them in any church. Go to a church, though, that's going to preach the Word of God. Don't go to some church that's just going to tickle your ears and just have some feel-good, you know, 15 minutes of a public speaker that knows how to really get to your emotions and can maybe draw a tear and make you laugh and then you walk out of there and someone asks you the next day, hey, what was the sermon? I don't know. Well, what passage, what Bible verse today? I don't know. It was good, though. What does that do for you? We need to know what God says. Go to a church where you've got someone who's willing to preach thus saith the Lord because I don't know about you. I want to be right with God. I don't want to be the red-headed stepchild that gets beat by God over and over again because I'm not listening, because I'm being stubborn, because I'm being rebellious, I'm being stiff-necked and especially because I don't even know it. No, I want to know. I want to get right. I want to make God happy. I don't want to be called least in the kingdom of heaven. As far as I've ordered prayer, dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for your Word. God, I pray that you would just spark a fire among believers, among your children, dear Lord, to want to serve you better and, Lord, the men that you've placed behind pulpits across America and across the world that you've placed, Lord, the children of God that you've given that office to, Lord, I pray that you please stir up their spirits and help them to, help me and them all to not stray from your Word, to not stray from teaching, the whole counsel of God, all of your words and to be able to do so without fear. And God, we need your Word now more than ever. I pray that you please help us to be a light in these dark times and that the preaching that goes on here would be received as it's intended just to provide some truth and wisdom and instruction, Lord, on how we ought to be living and, God, just help me to be able to do so properly, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed this evening. Brother Peter, please lead us. Yes, sir. Church, if you can open up your hymnals, song number 396. Song 396, So Little Time. This is a new hymn. It's a new soul-winning hymn, so I'm excited about this one. Song 396, So Little Time. On the first so little time the harvest will be over our weeping time we reap our sacred home reap for our work to Jesus, Lord of Forest and who can smile and that He'll stay the time today we bring warmness our golden harvest today is giving us lost souls to fear of and to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some series how many times I should have strongly pleaded out of the day I feel distinctly worn the spirit move all that I've left for Jesus the greatest fall and lost what's come before today we reap warmness our golden harvest today is giving us lost souls to fear of and to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some spirit this time the heat that seals the storm and not shed the broken heart for those we cannot win misunderstood because we're offered junior still only friends will learn what for our sake today we reap warmness our golden harvest today is giving us lost souls to fear of and to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some spirit a day of pleasure or a feast of friendship a house or farm or garden fair or faint will all be trashed when souls are brought together and then I'll stand to face the spiders playing today we reap warmness our golden harvest today is giving us lost souls to fear of and to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some spirit the heart is wide when we pursue his wasting and many souls will die and never know the love of Christ the joy of sins forgiven oh let us weep and love and pray and go today we reap warmness our golden harvest today is giving us lost souls to fear of and to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some spirit Amen, great singing, thank you so much for coming you guys you